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Great things are happening in the area of 
teaching and learning...AND school finance. 
Stay tuned for more.

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Hello everyone. Bret Champion here with your 
weekly update.

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You might think it's an odd combination to 
talk about teaching and learning together 
with school finance.

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But when these two areas work well together, 
great things happen for students.

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The independent school rating system, Texas 
Smart Schools uses academic, financial and 
demographic data

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to identify school districts and campuses 
that produce high academic achievement in 
conjunction with cost-effective operations.

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I'm pleased to tell you that Klein ISD achieved 
5-stars, the highest rating.

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Which means, according to this independent 
source, we wisely use the funds you entrust 
to us AND our students are highly successful.

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And speaking of funds and teaching and learning. 
Last night, the board of trustees passed 
the yearly budget

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that represents our projected financial and 
operational plan for this school year.

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The General Fund tax rate remains the same. 
And the Debt Service rate will incease by 
2-cents.

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I want you to know the 2-cent increase is 
actually 5-cents less than what was projected 
during the 2015 bond planning.

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More good news for our community.

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We also were able to offer our employees 
a salary increase of 2%, which equates to 
$1,080 for teachers in this year's budget.

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Klein also offers one of the most competitive 
benefits packages of area school districts.

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And I'm excited to share the Transform Academy 
expansion is also in the budget.

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Participating principals and teachers will 
learn about the innovator's mindset, visit 
other schools to observe school transformation 
in action,

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and visit local architechts to explore future 
ready school design.

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You'll hear more about this and other exciting 
teaching and learning opportunities in the 
coming weeks.

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For now, I'm Bret Champion and that's Klein 
ISD in 90 seconds.

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