The Socorro Independent School District is asking voters to allow it to raise its tax rate beyond what is allowed by the state to fund additional teachers, pay raises, upgrade technology, improve heating and cooling systems and begin rebuilding its savings.
The SISD Board of Trustees on Monday voted 6-0 to call for a voter-approval tax ratification election, or VATRE, in November that if approved would generate up to $49.2 million a year for the district. Trustee Alice Gardea was absent.
If approved, the proposal would raise SISD’s portion of the tax bill on the average $253,800 home in the district’s boundaries by about $160 a year – though nearly a fourth of SISD homeowners would not pay any school taxes because of exemptions for homestead and people older than 65.
SISD Superintendent James Vasquez said the district wants to use the proposal to hire more teachers to reduce class sizes and bring back its elementary school fine arts program, which was cut in 2024 as part of the district’s budget cuts.
“Although we’ve done very well academically, we’ve been increasing class sizes year after year and that’s not a sustainable model,” Vasquez told El Paso Matters ahead of the meeting.
Trustees voted 6-0 to approve a tax rate of $1.05 per $100 property valuation, which is higher than the voter-approval rate of 89 cents it could have adopted without going to voters, triggering the VATRE election. If voters reject the proposal, the board would need to adopt the lower rate.
The no-new-revenue rate, which would generate the same amount of revenue as the previous year on the same properties, is 92 cents per $100 valuation.
SISD voters rejected a similar tax ratification proposal last year, which asked voters to allow the district to increase the operations portion of their tax rates beyond the state’s limit, while reducing the debt payment tax by an equal amount. This move, known as a penny swap, would have allowed the district to generate new revenue, while maintaining a lower overall tax rate.
The Ysleta ISD school board called for a penny swap election last week that could generate up to $5.5 million if approved.
The tax ratification elections will be held Nov. 3, with early voting Oct. 19-30. The last day to register to vote in that election is Oct. 5.
Proposal breakdown
If the SISD tax ratification is approved, administrators plan to spend $15 million from the proposal directly on employees and staff. This includes $5 million toward offsetting increased health costs, $4 million to increase base salaries and $6 million to give employees pay raises. The raises would take effect for the 2027-28 school year.
Vasquez said under the proposal, the district would give employees a $1,000 retention stipend in February and a 1.5% raise, but did not specify when it would be implemented.
Under the proposal, SISD plans to spend $13 million on student programs. This includes $3 million to hire more teachers and reduce class sizes, $2 million to restart the elementary fine arts program, and $1 million each for student athletic extracurricular travel and career and technical education programs.
The district also plans to use $8 million to replace old and broken technology such as laptops for students, $5 million to make regular improvements to its heating and cooling systems, and $1.2 million to upgrade and purchase new buses.
Vasquez said the proposal wouldn’t address its roughly $90 million worth of needed air conditioner upgrades, but would help address some of its most immediate needs.
“This isn’t going to adequately repair every air conditioner in the district; however, it’ll get us a long way if we do this year after year to replace and address some of the HVAC needs that we’ve seen this summer,” Vasquez said during the meeting.
It will also use $7 million to make safety and security improvements required by the state, and to offer retention incentives to its school resource officers.
SISD Chief Financial Officer David Solis said the district also plans to use whatever is left from the new funding to rebuild its savings, which were nearly depleted after years of overspending.
“Once we work to address those prioritized initiatives, then anything that’s remaining, we would use to improve our reserves,” Solis said.
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