The Texas Legislature convened in Special Session yesterday. This week, they are focused on taking care of the priority item related to the sunset of the medical board and some other oversight agencies. Once that is complete, they will move on to other important measures.
Since last week, the Lt. Governor held a press conference and spoke directly to the need to provide some financial relief to the 175+ school districts slated to lose millions of dollars in state funding with the loss of Additional State Aid for Tax Reduction (ASATR) funding.
Lovejoy ISD is scheduled to lose ~$6 million in state funding from our 2017-2018 state funds. This loss is the reason our Board of Trustees passed a budget which included, for the first time, parent paid fees for extracurricular activities and bus service. We are hopeful the legislature will restore this funding, which could result in the reduction or elimination of fees depending on the amount of ASATR funding the district receives.
We are leading a statewide effort to travel to Austin to communicate the importance of ASATR funding to our district. The larger the group, the greater our potential impact. We are asking you to go to Austin on Monday, July 24th, to send a clear message regarding the importance of continuing ASATR funding as promised by the Legislature when it was put in place in 2006.
If you plan on driving to Austin, I would recommend an arrival time between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM. We will hold a briefing session at the La Quinta Inn Austin prior to the Capitol visits. The briefings will begin at 10:00 AM, and will be repeated every 30 minutes until 1:00 PM at this location:
La Quinta Inn Austin
300 E. 11th Street
Austin, TX 78701
512-476-1166
We also have a charter bus with available seats if you prefer to make the trip to Austin as a group. There is no charge to ride the charter. If you want a seat on the charter, please email stacey_dillon@lovejoyisd.net to reserve your seat, if you have not already done so. The bus will depart Lovejoy High School (front parking lot) at 6:00 AM, and should leave Austin for the return trip by 4:00 PM. The arrival time back to LHS will be dependent on the traffic situation on Interstate 35.
Thank you very much for your partnership to secure state funding for our school district. If you have questions, please let me know by email, call, or text; cell number is 972-415-8129.
