Cuero ISD receives A rating, board proposes tax rate

By Jacob Stock

The Cuero Record

Cuero ISD’s Board of Trustees gathered together last Thursday, Aug. 18, for their regular monthly meeting. The short and sweet meeting was called to order at precisely   6:00 p.m. and had adjourned by 6:20 p.m. The public meeting centered around discussing and proposing the budget and proposed tax rate. 

To begin the meeting, special recognition was awarded to two of the district employees for their 16 years of service. Yolanda Villarreal and Manuel Ramos were both awarded plaques in recognition of their dedicated service to Cuero ISD. Next, administrative communication reports were made from school principals with several communicating that the start of the new school year has been a great transition. 

Cuero ISD’s 2022 accountability ratings were presented displaying an A rating with an overall score of 90. In the student achievement section, STAAR performance exceeded the component score by more than 32 points. College, career, and military readiness came in it a scaled score of 98 compared to the component score of 92. Cuero ISD’s graduation rate was 100%.

School progress ratings were also at an A in the 93 percentile. Academic growth overall was a B coming in at 80, while relative performance came in at an A with a scaled score of 93. Cuero ISD was the largest district in the region to receive an A rating.

“This is 100% a team effort,” said Cuero ISD superintendent Dr. Micah Dyer on the district’s A rating. “If our people, and our kids, and our community did not buy in this would not have happened. We preach every day that these kids are our kids, so we want to teach them like our kids.”

The path to the district achieving an A rating has been a mission that started to form years ago. Maintaining upward momentum is a plan everyone is pursuing. 

“We found out that climbing the ladder was a lot easier than standing on top of it. Now we have to figure out how to stay on top of that ladder. We know we are here at these high expectations, how do we continue to keep those high expectations and continue to grow and evolve,” said Dyer on maintaining the momentum. 

The board then examined the proposed budget and proposed tax rate for the 2022-2023 school year with last year’s adopted rates. The proposed maintenance and operations came in at $0.85460, down from last year’s $0.96340. The proposed interest and sinking fund is proposed at $0.46375 compared to last year’s $0.67340. In total, this year’s proposed tax rate is $1.31835, which is down roughly $0.32, or a 19% decrease from last year’s tax rate of $1.63680. The board will vote on the tax rate at an Aug. 31 special called meeting that will take place at 12 p.m.

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