At a special board meeting held on Wednesday, September 4, 2024, the Grand Prairie Independent School District (GPISD) Board of Trustees made the decision to place Superintendent Jorge L. Arredondo on paid administrative leave in order to protect the District and Dr. Arredondo, effective immediately.

Deputy Superintendent of Business Operations, Tracy Ray, has been appointed as Acting Superintendent to ensure the continued smooth operation of the district.

“Because this is an ongoing investigation, there will be no additional comment from this Board,” said Board President Amber Moffitt. “We believe all parties will be treated fairly with a high level of professionalism by the outside third-party law firm that is conducting the investigation.”

The District remains committed to the success of our students, staff, and the Grand Prairie ISD community.

The GPISD Board of Trustees adopted the 2024-2025 Compensation Plan and Hiring Schedules as presented at the June 13, 2024 Board meeting. Highlights of the plan include:

• Beginning Teacher Pay - $63,000
• $1,300 pay increase for all returning teachers (average of 2%)
• Teacher Hiring Schedule Market adjustments at Steps 2-15 and Steps 19-22
• 2% of midpoint pay increase for Auxiliary, Professional/Technical, and Administrative pay groups; including recommended market adjustments resulting in no pay grade range below a minimum of $15 per hour.

Additional information can be found on the GPISD website at Employee Resources - Human Capital.

GPISD's Cell Phone Pilot Program

Visit this page for details about the 2024-2025 school consolidation plan.

At the November meeting of the Grand Prairie Independent School District Board of Trustees, GPISD officials formally announced that the District received a rating of “A” for “Superior Achievement” under Texas’ School FIRST financial accountability rating system. The “Superior Achievement” rating is the state’s highest, demonstrating the quality of GPISD’s financial management and reporting system.

“We are extremely proud of our School FIRST rating,” said Superintendent of Schools Linda Ellis. “It shows that our district continues to make financial decisions that are guided by our main goal which is student success. We are accountable not only for student learning, but also for being good stewards of our taxpayers’ dollars.”

About School FIRST:

The School FIRST (Financial Accountability Rating System of Texas), a financial accountability system for Texas school districts developed by the Texas Education Agency in response to Senate Bill 875 of the 76th Texas Legislature in 1999 and amendments under House Bill 5, 83rd Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2013. The primary goal of School FIRST is to achieve quality performance in the management of school districts’ financial resources, a goal made more significant due to the complexity of accounting associated with Texas’ school finance system.

The Texas Education Agency assigns one of four financial accountability ratings to Texas school districts, with the highest being “A” for “Superior Achievement,” followed by “B” for “Above-Standard Achievement,” “C” for “Standard Achievement” and “F” for At “Substandard Achievement.”

At a called meeting on August 24, 2023, the GPISD Board of Trustees voted to adopt the 2023-2024 budget. The Board also took action to set the tax rate for 2023-2024 at $1.09505 per $100 of valuation. This is a decrease of just over 21 cents from last year ($0.21195).

This overall tax rate is made up of two parts:

• $0.75750 for the purpose of maintenance and operations
• $0.33755 for the purpose of payment of principal and interest on debts

Including this year’s tax rate decrease, the GPISD Board of Trustees has lowered the tax rate almost 50 cents ($0.49995) over a five-year period.

“I’m extremely proud of the hard work put in by our Business Operations department,” said Board President Emily Liles. “Our staff has put us in a position to lower the tax rate each year for the past five years.”

For more information, please visit the District’s Financial Transparency page.

The Grand Prairie Independent School District received a Superior rating for 2021-2022 under Texas’ School FIRST financial accountability rating system. This rating system measures the quality of a school district’s financial management and reporting system.

“We are extremely proud to report this rating to our community,” said Superintendent of Schools Linda Ellis. “It demonstrates our commitment to fiscal responsibility and stability.”

The 2021-2022 School FIRST rating is based on financial data for the fiscal period that ended August 31, 2021.