COLEMAN, Texas — Coleman ISD could lose up to $500,000 in state funding this year. The State Comptroller on all school district property values recently released its report for the Property Value Study conducted for Coleman ISD. The results from that study estimates the school district will lose $500,000 in lost revenue for 2024. State law requires values to be at least 95% of sales prices but the report shows values are much lower than that requirement. The Coleman County Central Appraiser, Eva Bush, said the state's appraisal of the district came in higher than her appraisal which resulted in the shortfall. view article

Dallas ISD is taking proactive measures in building its 2024-2025 budget allotment, prioritizing people and student support in decision-making despite no additional state funding. Currently, the district receives a basic allotment of $5,800 per student from the state. With inflation and no new money, this continues to stress the district’s budget. view article

Over the past few years, Texas Hill Country school districts have grown alongside the rising population. One district is now considering approving staffing needs for next school year. view article

School funding and teacher pay were big topics of discussion during last year’s legislative session. Some school districts were warning their budgets were already stretched thin and hoped that the Legislature would do more to step in and help them. Among the districts sounding the alarm was Austin ISD, which is now looking to cut at least $30 million from their budget next year. view article

Dallas ISD is taking proactive measures in building its 2024-2025 budget allotment, prioritizing people and student support in decision-making despite no additional state funding. Currently, the district receives a basic allotment of $5,800 per student from the state. With inflation and no new money, this continues to stress the district’s budget. view article

While Gov. Greg Abbott is sharing news that Texas will kick off the 89th Legislative Session in January 2025 with an estimated $20 billion budget surplus, school districts across the state are running out of funds and preparing to file deficit budgets for the 2024-2025 school year. Bob Popinski, Senior Director of Policy at Raise Your Hand Texas said districts are are strapped for funding for a number of reasons, including double-digit inflation since 2019, the COVID-19 funding cliff, enrollment decline in some school districts, an increase in unfunded mandates coming out of the Capitol and inaction by the 88th Legislature. “In a time of inflation, which every family is going through, our teachers in Texas are currently underpaid by about $7,500 compared to the national average,” Popinski said. “Texas will continue to fall behind that, so if you want to be competitive and try to attract and retain the best teachers in the state, school districts are losing that ability to do so.” view article

While Gov. Greg Abbott is sharing news that Texas will kick off the 89th Legislative Session in January 2025 with an estimated $20 billion budget surplus, school districts across the state are running out of funds and preparing to file deficit budgets for the 2024-2025 school year. Bob Popinski, Senior Director of Policy at Raise Your Hand Texas said districts are are strapped for funding for a number of reasons, including double-digit inflation since 2019, the COVID-19 funding cliff, enrollment decline in some school districts, an increase in unfunded mandates coming out of the Capitol and inaction by the 88th Legislature. view article

Students whose parents do not have Social Security numbers have been blocked from completing the federal financial aid form.  Texas Democrats in Congress are appealing to colleges to set aside financial aid funds for students who have not been able to complete the new FAFSA form because their parents do not have Social Security numbers.  Errors in the revamped Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which launched this year, have prevented parents without Social Security numbers from adding their financial information. The problem has disproportionately affected immigrant families.  A majority of Texas Democrats in the U.S. House signed an open letter Monday, calling on the state’s colleges to track how much money went last year to students whose parents do not have Social Security numbers, and to ensure a similar amount remains available until June 1 or until the federal government confirms it has forwarded to the colleges all the financial aid records they have from students affected by the error. view article

Facing a $60 million dollar deficit, Austin Independent School District administrators and trustees met Thursday night to discuss the preliminary budget for the 2024 to 2025 school year. AISD’s Chief Financial Officer Ed Ramos discussed cutting expenditures by $30 million. “Our goal is to achieve $30 million in budget cuts and that gets us to an estimated $30 million dollar proposed deficit budget,” Ramos said. “So even though as a district we are looking at making some difficult decisions and reducing our overall expenditures, cutting $30 million will not get us to a balanced budget, but it does get us to a manageable deficit budget for the next school year.” view article

Pay for all Plano ISD staffers is going up. view article

Plano ISD trustees unanimously approved a plan to give teachers raises starting next school year. The recommendation includes a 3 percent bump in salaries. It will also begin new teacher pay at $61,000 and compress the salary schedule, which dictates how much teachers make based on their experience. view article

ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — On Wednesday night, Ector County ISD looked to make tough decisions after Tuesday night's board meeting discussion on the school district's budget. According to ECISD, the district faces a $24 million budget deficit for its 2024-25 school year. This comes on the heels of the Texas Legislative session where lawmakers did not increase funds for public schools. ECISD Superintendent Dr. Scott Muri told NewsWest 9 what plans the board has made to make ends meet. "The recommendation to the board that was made last night was that we use fund balance to take care of about $12 million worth of that debt. That would put us in a bit of a compromising situation with our fund balance, but the other opportunity is to put our students at risk and that is something that we don't want to do," Dr. Muri said. "Our plan right now is to use $12 million in fund balance and then we will find $12 million worth of cuts that we will make as an view article

Even as the Brownsville Independent School District trumpets $10 million to be paid to teachers through the Texas Education Agency’s Teacher Incentive Allotment, some teachers are questioning TEA’s system for distributing the funds. In a March 11 news release, Brownsville ISD stated that TEA had awarded new Teacher Incentive Allotments to 778 BISD teachers, bringing the number covered by the excellence program from 32 to 810. view article

Denton ISD Superintendent Jamie Wilson talks about the issues the lack of state funding is causing his district. view article

School districts across the state are bracing for substantial budget cuts and layoffs as they plan for the upcoming school year. The cripplingly insufficient financial support and politicization of state government funds has led to a decline of education and the elimination of critical resources for students. There has been no increase in education funding from the state since 2019, leaving school districts forced to operate on a pre-pandemic established budget, according to Fox 4 News.“It’s a totally different world, but we’re still expected to operate on 2019 dollars,” Tracy Johnson, Keller ISD superintendent, told Fox 4 News. view article

Thursday, in a unanimous vote, the Lubbock ISD school board approved a resolution donating the Guadalupe Elementary School building to the Diocese of Lubbock and Jackson Elementary School building to Tomorrow’s Leaders. Guadalupe and Jackson were part of the consolidation of three schools into the new Anita Carmona-Harrison Elementary School, part of the 2018 bond initiative. view article

With the state taking no action on increasing student funding, Ector County ISD Superintendent Scott Muri and Chief Financial Officer Deborah Ottmers discussed potential budget cuts Tuesday with the board of trustees that could include raising the number of students in some classrooms. Last June, trustees adopted a $346 million budget with a $14 million deficit. view article

On Wednesday night, Ector County ISD looked to make tough decisions after Tuesday night's board meeting discussion on the school district's budget. According to ECISD, the district faces a $24 million budget deficit for its 2024-25 school year. This comes on the heels of the Texas Legislative session where lawmakers did not increase funds for public schools. view article

Katy Independent School District's Financial Services team has been recognized with the prestigious Award of Excellence in Financial Management, highlighting their commitment to fiscal responsibility and transparency in education. This accolade placed Katy ISD among 32 school districts across the state of Texas that received this recognition, said the district in a February 29th press release. The Award of Excellence in Financial Management, granted by the Texas Association of School Business Officials (TASBO), acknowledges exemplary financial practices and stewardship in managing public funds. Katy ISD's Financial Services team demonstrated exceptional proficiency in budgeting, accounting, financial reporting, and resource management, ensuring optimal allocation of resources to support the district's educational objectives. view article

Austin ISD is entering into the 2024-25 budget planning cycle facing a potential $60M deficit if the district maintains the same spending as last year. How we got here: Despite Texas’s $33B budget surplus, virtually no additional per-student funding was approved during the last 88th Legislative Session. The big picture: Inflationary costs such as energy, fuel, insurance and other cost of living expenses have increased by roughly 17% since the last time the state increased funding. Austin ISD’s recapture payment continues to be the highest of any district in the state at $908M last fiscal year. The Texas Legislature meets every two years, which means districts across Texas won’t see additional funds next year either. Flashback: Last June, we adopted a $52M deficit budget in anticipation that the legislature would increase the basic student allotment. However, due to ongoing reductions through the year, we anticipate finishing the 2023–24 fiscal year with a $31 million deficit. view article

Katy Independent School District’s Board of Trustees met Monday, March 18th in a work-study session at the board room at 6301 S. Stadium Lane, hearing updates on the current year’s budget as well as projections for the 2024-25 budget and projected staffing levels. Chief Financial Officer Chris Smith presented the March budget update to the board – one in a series of reports, this one on the general fund. Smith projected that the current 2023-2024 budget will end with a $8.1 million deficit. He then presented two projections for the 2024-2025 budget – first showing a $32.4 million deficit but showing a second projection that the administration had worked on, finding reductions and cost savings which would reduce the deficit to $13 million. The figures for the 2024-2025 budget do not include plans for salary increases, he said. Smith said that to make up the shortfall, the district was working on raising “average daily attendance” on which state funding is based. A one percent increase in ADA would result in about a $5.5 million increase in state funding, he said. The board is expected to adopt the final 2024-2025 budget in August. view article

The district’s sweeping reform program, known as the New Education System (NES), further complicates the financial landscape. According to The Houston Chronicle, Miles initiated discussions with principals at non-NES schools to allocate campus funding. The total budget for the 2024-25 school year is slated to be presented to the Board of Managers in May. Despite declining to provide an exact figure, Miles indicated a probable reduction from the previous year’s $2.2 billion budget to maintain a healthy fund balance. “Our task is not only to ensure a balanced budget, but also to prevent reaching a fiscal cliff,” Miles remarked, alluding to previous projections indicating the depletion of the rainy day fund by 2026. The state legislature’s failure to increase funding last year is putting HISD, like many other urban districts in a tougher predicament, since they are also facing the expiration of federal pandemic relief funds and diminishing student enrollment. Miles emphasized that the budget would prioritize key initiatives, including enhancing student achievement, addressing underperforming schools, and safeguarding magnet programs. view article

Beaumont — The Southeast Texas Family Resource Center is a home away from home for 85 Beaumont children who attend there every day. If the place did not exist, any of these boys and girls would arrive to empty apartments and houses, because their parents are still working when school lets out. Much of the progress these kids make in class is lost when they get home... view article

Katy ISD is gearing up to adopt a 2024-25 budget, but is facing financial strain without help from state legislation, Superintendent Ken Gregorski told parents this week. SIP N STROLL: Katy's biggest wine festival offers adults-only fun, with wine, beer and snacks included In an email to parents sent Tuesday, Gregorski blasted Texas legislators for failing to allocate funds to public schools, noting the district may be facing “a challenging budget situation” as a result. "Over the past few years, Katy ISD and public schools across Texas have faced significant budgetary difficulties due to insufficient state funding,” Gregorski said in the email. “Despite a Texas constitutional mandate for the ‘support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools,’ our legislature has continued to ignore its duty to increase public school districts’ primary source of funding per child — the basic allotment.” view article

Katy ISD Superintendent Ken Gregorski is sounding the alarm over a potential $13 million shortfall in the upcoming school year's budget, placing the blame squarely on Texas lawmakers for not stepping up on school funding. The district, known for its financial prudence, is now staring down the barrel of budget cuts and constrained resources. view article

As RISD faces a $28 million deficit, district leaders say Project Rightsize would reduce spending by nearly $10.8 million. During Thursday's School Board Meeting, the Richardson Independent School District voted unanimously on a proposal to close four elementary schools and a Pre-K campus to respond to a decline in enrollment and lack of state funding. view article

Richardson ISD board members voted to approve its plan to close four elementary school campuses and repurpose one pre-kindergarten campus on Thursday night District staff say they’re in a big budget deficit, that the district has lost more than 2,500 students since 2019 and hasn’t received more state funding per student since before COVID-19 despite inflation. view article

Katy ISD officials must make budget reductions as the district moves toward the 2024-25 school year, a move spurred by lack of state legislative action to increase public school funding, Katy ISD Superintendent Ken Gregorski said in a March 19 email to parents. In a nutshell During the board work study meeting March 18, district staff told KISD trustees the district could face a projected $13 million shortfall in the fiscal year 2024-25 budget. “Katy ISD is recognized as a state-acclaimed school district for fiscal integrity and responsibility,” Gregorski said in the email. “Though, like many other school districts, our district is approaching an increasingly difficult task of maintaining balanced budgets year after year. The state’s inaction on school funding has compelled districts throughout Texas to operate on deficit budgets.” This comes after trustees penned a resolution in December calling for state lawmakers to increase the basic allotment, which is the base amount of money schools receive per student. view article

The district says consolidating four schools and closing a fifth would allow it to save $10 million in operating costs. view article

It’s been four years since the shutdown of businesses and schools due to COVID-19. The effects of the pandemic are still being felt in public education, sometimes through declining enrollment numbers. Fewer students means less money to operate. Culwell Consulting CEO Curtis Culwell said, “COVID changed the dynamic of a lot of things that impact school enrollment and school attendance.” view article

Beaumont ISD has told parents it's considering closing one of its five middle schools for the next academic year. During its Thursday meeting, the Beaumont ISD Board of Trustees is set to vote on whether to close Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School for the 2024-25 school year, according to the agenda documents. Parents were informed of the possible changes in an email sent out on Tuesday evening. view article

Schools across the San Antonio area are searching for ways to slim down and cut costs as they prepare for one of the most challenging budget planning periods in recent history — marked by the loss of federal pandemic funding, declining enrollment and no new state funding. These decisions are pivotal, as district administrators and school boards weigh their budgetary requirements against the ongoing work to help students recover from the disruption caused by the pandemic. But the stakes are even higher at the two local districts under the direction of state-appointed conservators, who hold wide-ranging power to override or direct the actions of board members and district leaders. view article

COLDSPRING — The Coldspring-Oakhurst CISD will meet this week to discuss funding shortfalls created by a recent ruling by the State Comptroller’s Office. Superintendent Dr. Bryan Taulton said the district’s tax attorneys Perdue Brandon Fielder Collins & Mott will be fighting the decision regarding valuation, trying to get the district into an area that would not affect its income. Advertisement The State Comptroller’s Office performed a review in January of San Jacinto County Appraisal District’s property valuations, which led to a discrepancy that would mean school districts would receive less state aid. The more funding a district receives from property taxes, the less it receives in state aid; while the Appraisal District determined values of $564 million in the county, the Comptroller’s Office in its study determined values of $606 million. If the difference falls within 5 percent either way, there would be no change.   view article

Its recent move to let go of over 100 employees will save Fort Worth ISD more than $9.4 million, records show. At least 112 staff members with an average yearly salary of $84,571 have been cut from Fort Worth ISD as part of a layoff plan announced by district officials in February. Records obtained by the Fort Worth Report showed that the restructuring impacted technology positions the most, with IT specialists and data analysts among those laid off. view article

Coleman ISD could lose up to $500,000 in state funding this year. The State Comptroller on all school district property values recently released its report for the Property Value Study conducted for Coleman ISD. The results from that study estimates the school district will lose $500,000 in lost revenue for 2024. State law requires values to be at least 95% of sales prices but the report shows values are much lower than that requirement. view article