News & Events News 2023 07-July Board of Trustees Approve Historic $503 Million Operating Budget

Board of Trustees Approve Historic $503 Million Operating Budget

July 18, 2023

District Communications

Alamo Colleges District ACCESS Building Exterior

At a special meeting, the Alamo Colleges District Board of Trustees approved the Alamo Colleges District's 2023-2024 operating budget of $503 million.

This budget year is historic, as the State of Texas invested an additional $683 million into community colleges in Texas, and the Alamo Colleges received the largest increase of all 50 community colleges. 

In addition to the unprecedented investment as part of House Bill 8, the State Legislature overhauled the community college funding model to focus on four student-centered outcomes, rewarding colleges for:

  • The number of credentials of value awarded that position graduates for well-paying jobs.
  • Credentials of value awarded in high-demand fields.
  • Successful student transfers from community colleges to four-year universities.
  • Completion of a sequence of dual credit courses to set students on early pathways to success.

“This historic funding supports the students we serve at the Alamo Colleges District and provides an investment in creating the workforce of the future,” said Dr. Mike Flores, Alamo Colleges District Chancellor. “It will allow us to enhance our already robust systems and programs to aid our current students on their success journeys and to continue our moonshot of ending decades of generational poverty through education.”

Alamo Colleges District’s budget allocation included a new revenue increase of $65.1 million (including state and local funds).

The approved budget includes the below investments, many of which have an emphasis on two key focal points – student learners, by sustaining excellent instructional services and a full suite of wraparound support services and employees by maintaining competitive compensation and fringe benefits and other services aimed at retaining and supporting the Alamo Colleges District’s talented workforce.

 

Enhancements and Innovations - $31.9 M

 

Student Success - $13.2 M

An emphasis on support services for the most vulnerable students in the district include:

Adult Education and Literacy

  • High School Equivalency and Diploma Program Expansion - An investment to serve 16.8% of San Antonio residents age 25+ without a high school diploma by scaling our high school equivalency offerings, with a diploma option, across the district.

Academic Success Investments

  • Texas Success Initiative Assessment (TSI) Preparation and Corequisite Math Embedded Tutoring - Expand TSI preparation for high school students and adult learners who are not college ready with boot camps, refreshers, and other just-in-time programs. Increase the access and availability of tutoring services by expanding embedded tutoring in corequisite math.

Advocacy and Economic Mobility Investments

  • AlamoEXPERIENCE Career Services & Completion Outcomes – Deploy Institute/Industry Account Executives as a single point of contact liaison between industry partners and the colleges and strengthen Career Services to strategically lead career development efforts across the colleges to ensure experiential learning opportunities are available and accessible for students.

  • Advocacy Center Enhancements – Addition of two mental health counselors and 24/7 mental health counseling availability, in addition to and five case managers to meet the growing demand for services.

 

Talent – $18.6 M 

The Board approved an employee compensation program that is competitive among nationally recognized, high-performing community colleges. The Board’s commitment is clear in the following talent strategies that are scheduled to begin on September 1, 2023:

  • 6.5% Market Rate Adjustment for Faculty and Staff (with a minimum $2,000 market increase for every employee) or the hourly equivalent of $0.96/hour if employed part-time
  • High-Wage/High-Demand Stipend Market Adjustments for faculty fields such as Healthcare, Nursing, IT & Manufacturing
  • Completion of Staff Equity Pay Adjustments (College Services, Academic Support and remaining job families)
  • Faculty Lab Loading Rate Increase from 0.75 to 0.80
  • Update to Living Wage by providing a minimum rate for existing full-time and part-time staff of $18.05

 

Core Operations Additional $33.2M

In addition to the enhancements and innovations in student success and talent, the Board also invested $33 million in core services to support institutional reserves, employee fringe benefits and operational growth. The expansion of services is listed below: 

Record Number of full-time faculty hires

The budget supports 80 new full-time faculty members.

AlamoPROMISE Expansion

The Board is investing in the expansion of AlamoPROMISE to 50+ private, parochial and charter schools, as well as home schools in Bexar County targeting an additional 575 learners as PROMISE scholars.

AlamoBOOKS+ Expansion

Using new Financial Aid for SWIFT Transfer (FAST) state funds, the Alamo Colleges will expand AlamoBOOKS+ to all high school programs.
07-July