Last week, the Leander ISD board approved a contract of employment for the district’s new superintendent, Dan Troxell. “Congratulations Dr. Troxell,” LISD Board President Will Streit said at the meeting. “It’s no surprise to anyone who has heard us speak over the past few weeks how excited we are, how thrilled we ...

It is unfortunate that you feel the need to vilify our Texas public schools because your top campaign contributions come from folks who are determined to see vouchers finally pass. Condemning our public schools and casting harsh accusations of widespread failure is not only disrespectful and counterproductive, it is just flat inaccurate. Doing so for the benefit of a corrupted ...

School districts that have July 1 as their fiscal year are currently proposing tax rates and preparing notices for publication. By choice, most districts operate  with a September 1 fiscal year.I want to remind everyone of the exceptional guidance provided by TASB (Texas Association of School Boards - Legal Services) for school districts setting tax rates and posting the required ...

Repost! we are traveling today - js - With time comes changes in school district personnel, new people asking the same questions that their predecessors did. In 2010 about this time of year we were waiting on clarification from the Attorney General to clear the way for districts to make publications, set tax rates and have elections. I am hearing the ...

Yesterday, I focused on website requirements related to school budgets and taxes. Today, I want to direct you to the Eichelbaum, Wardell Preventive Law article that lays out, in detail, exactly what you must have on your school's web page in order to meet state requirements. You will even find examples to guide you. This is the legal version ...

Repost!  Most school districts have posted their “Notice of Public Meeting to Discuss Budget and Proposed Tax Rate” in order to adopt a tax rate by September 1. I want to remind administrators that certain procedural language must be followed by the board when adopting the budget and proposed tax rate. Some of this can be confusing. Use ...

Each year about this time I post budget templates provided by ESC 12 developed to help you meet the requirements for posting budget information on the web. Yesterday, I had questions from readers about this as well as inquiries regarding other required website postings. For the website postings I am going to direct you to TASBO; they have a list in ...

The Lubbock Independent School District Board of Trustees called for an election to access $5.5 million for the district’s budget, but with a catch. The catch is that the tax rate for the district won’t be raised to get the extra money, but transferring tax credits from debt service to the maintenance and operations budget.

The Lubbock Independent School District Board of Trustees called for an election to access $5.5 million for the district’s budget, but with a catch. The catch is that the tax rate for the district won’t be raised to get the extra money, but transferring tax credits from debt service to the maintenance and operations budget.

From TASB Governmental Relations - Dax Gonzalez -  The Senate Finance Committee met on Tuesday to consider various Article III (Education) budget items included in the Senate’s proposed budget bill, Senate Bill 1. The committee listened to invited testimony from the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) regarding the proposed education budget. After an overview, Sen. Royce West (...

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 – ...

The Bastrop school district has approved a $73.1 million budget for the 2014-2015 school year. The budget, which was approved by the school board on Tuesday, will include money to create an early college high school, a 3 percent raise for teachers, a 3 percent raise for support staff on median salaries and other raises for employees.

Repost! Q: I need the budget template in order to post the required proposed budget on our website. Where can I find it? A: ESC 12 website School Finance page Web Posting Requirement (HB1): "Proposed" Expenditure Budget on district's web page as required by HB1. A school district must post the budget summary on the school's Internet Web site ...

Q: I need the budget template in order to post the required proposed budget on our website. Where can I find it?  A: ESC 12 website School Finance page Web Posting Requirement (HB1): "Proposed" Expenditure Budget on district's web page as required by HB1. A school district must post the budget summary on the school's Internet Web site ...

Many of us have enjoyed Charles Dickens’s opening lines in “A Tale of Two Cities” which describe the political and human turmoil occurring at the time of the French Revolution.  We shuddered at the confluence of events in the movie “the Perfect Storm”, where a cold front, remnants of a hurricane and a ...

On Monday, the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD board of trustees approved the 2018-19 school year budget, which will include a 2.5 percent pay raise for all staff and raise the starting teacher salary. Trustees adopted the 2018-19 general operating budget in the amount of $187 million, which is a $15 million increase from last year’s budget. GCISD Chief Financial Officer DaiAnn ...

Legacy public school consulting firm Moak Casey welcomes associate commissioner and chief school finance officer for the Texas Education Agency (TEA) Leo Lopez. Lopez, who will take the role of chief financial officer in August 2022, is the latest to join the new powerhouse executive team at the firm, which serves school district leaders and policymakers in school finance and accountability. ...

On Monday night, Frisco ISD board of trustees approved the 2018-19 school year budget, which will include a 3 percent pay raise for all staff and raise the beginning teacher salary. FISD Chief Financial Officer Kimberly Smith said the district would finish the 2017-18 school year with a $41 million surplus. Thanks to the surplus, a portion of that will go toward ...

Amid a $30 million budget deficit next year, the AISD Budget Stabilization Task Force is in the process of sending recommendations to the school board and superintendent. On Wednesday, the task force had their final meeting, to come up with the recommendations they want to put in the draft of their report they will be sending to the school board. "It'...

The mention in HB3 of “Efficiency Audit” brings me back to when Carole Strayhorn was comptroller and regularly did “Performance Audits” on school districts.  These had a long list of recommendations. HB3 defines efficiency audit: “For purposes of this section, "efficiency audit" means an investigation of the operations of a school district to examine ...

Without an across-the-board pay raise mandate from the state of Texas, teachers and other school employees aren’t sure how they’re going to fare. When state lawmakers passed their landmark $11.6 billion school finance law in late May, school employees were eager to see how mandatory raises would affect their paychecks. A month later, they’re scratching ...

Board members with Spring Branch Independent School District have voted to close two schools and cancel a partnership with a Houston-area charter school. The board voted during a meeting on Monday evening. This comes as the district is facing a $35 million budget deficit in school funding. Board members have discussed the budget shortfall in a series of meetings.

The 84th Texas Legislature is officially in session and once again the mantra regarding “school choice” is chanted throughout the Capitol halls, “We have a moral responsibility to rescue students in low performing schools”.  The solution, as supported by several legislators and the Lt. Governor, is to provide vouchers or taxpayer savings grants, also referred ...

Republican state Senators say their budget plan passed last week increases funding for public education by $1.3 billion. But education groups say they’re underfunding public schools to expand taxpayer-paid private school vouchers to nearly every family that wants them. A report prepared for groups representing Ohio's public school boards and district business officials and administrators says the Senate ...

Denton ISD school board members have approved a proposed budget for the 2024-25 school year: $322.1 million to fund the rapidly growing district. The district adopted a $315.2 million budget for 2023-24. The 2024-25 budget is a deficit budget, with expenses projected to exceed revenue by $20 million. The budgeted tax rate is $1.1569 per $100 property valuation, which is slightly lower than the current ...

05.04.2015 — Today Austin ISD announced that it, along with many other school districts and business leaders, will hold a press conference Wednesday, May 6, to send a unified message about the need for adequate funding for Texas public schools. All Texas districts are invited to participate. A Call to Action: Funding for Public Education Press Conference 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, May 6 (...

Repost!  It is time for everyone to begin to unravel the school district budget and tax rate setting process for the school year 2020. The timelines for budget and tax rate adoption have become more complicated in recent years. TASB has done an excellent job of communicating these changes to school districts for publication and use prior to tax rate ...

Long-term funding for local school districts facing budget deficits this school year because of the coronavirus pandemic remains in question, despite the addition of federal relief money easing the process in the short term.  McLennan County’s two largest school districts plan to dip into their fund-balance reserves to fill expected budget deficits for the 2020-21 school year, ...

To be eligible for full funding, school districts must offer in-person instruction  to families that desire it.  Given the need to ensure school systems have flexibility and financial security to provide instruction while they adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Texas Education Agency announced today it will extend the current minimum funding guarantee established for the pandemic ...

AUSTIN, Texas — Public school districts across Texas are warning of budget deficits as they workshop their 2024-25 budgets. Bastrop Independent School District Superintendent Barry Edwards sent a letter to families and staff last week warning of a budget shortfall of nearly $8 million for the 2024-25 school year. Edwards said several factors are contributing to the deficit, including the end ...

The College Station school board met Tuesday to discuss the district's budget for the 2015-2016 school year, to plan a committee that will make a recommendation on a future bond election and to name the colors and mascot for the district's new alternative school. The board approved the colors baby blue, silver and black and the Timberwolves ...

From Equity Center:  We wanted to share the following Op-Ed that appeared in The Dallas Morning News yesterday. As the author states, "what you see isn't necessarily what you get" in terms of whether or not currently proposed legislative solutions will resolve the issues outlined in Judge John Dietz's August 28, 2014, district court ruling. Texas' ...

The templates for meeting Web Posting Requirements have been updated by ESC 12  and are ready.  One is for the proposed budget and one is for the adopted budget.- Joe NOTICE: Web Posting Requirements for Budgets Updated 5/26/2015 -  Web Posting Requirement (HB1): "Proposed" Expenditure Budget on district's web page as required by HB1. A school district ...

I am reposting the often requested templates for meeting Web Posting Requirements which have been updated by ESC 12.. Note: there are two requirements and two templates. One is for the proposed budget and one is for the adopted budget.- Joe NOTICE: Web Posting Requirements for Budgets Updated 5/26/2015 - Web Posting Requirement (HB1): "Proposed" Expenditure Budget on district's web ...

School Superintendent Manuel J. Rivera predicts a $3.3 million budget gap for the upcoming school year, according to preliminary figures. Rivera shared the prediction at a public forum Wednesday while highlighting a laundry list of improvements to the school district despite the City Council’s rejection of a budget increase for this school year. The district currently is operating ...

Woody Brewton (ESC 12) sent an email yesterday saying that he and his associates had updated the “Proposed” Budget Template and the “Adopted” Budget Templates. These templates are posted at the following link on the ESC 12 website. Remember, districts are required to make these postings on their district's websites. These templates make the process of posting ...

Funding for college work-study programs would be cut in half, public-service loan forgiveness would end and hundreds of millions of dollars that public schools could use for mental health, advanced coursework and other services would vanish under a Trump administration plan to cut $10.6 billion from federal education initiatives, according to budget documents obtained by The Washington Post.  The ...

 New Hampshire school district officials could lay off 50 employees because of budget issues. Timberlane Regional School District Superintendent Earl Metzler tells The Eagle-Tribune the $71.8 million default budget put in place by the school board last month neglected costs for transportation, special education and food services. The budget came after voters rejected a $72.8 million operating budget

It's an issue districts are dealing with around San Antonio after state education funding was severely cut. North East Independent School District is facing a $17 million budget shortfall for next year. They plan to reduce 97 positions in part to break even.

Monday was the start of the first full week of school for Wichita Falls Independent School District, and Monday's school board members discussed a variety of items to help with the new school year. Board members passed the new budget and tax rate unanimously for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. The budget is set at just over $129 million and the ...

Just ten days left in the legislative session and state lawmakers are stuck on school finance reform. The Texas Senate wants to make a major accounting change, but local school districts fear it'll come at too high a price. While parents and students focus on wrapping up this school year, school administrators are already planning next school year. But ...

The Lago Vista Independent School District adopted the 2019-2020 school year budget at a special meeting on Thursday. Lago Vista ISD also adopted the proposed tax rates for the 2019-2020 school year. Lago Vista ISD Director of Finance Jason Stoner went over the proposed budget for the 2019-2020 school year with the board. “I feel confident and solid about ...

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) -With the budget approved today for the new vet school, Amarillo will be making history.  The Dean of the Texas Tech University School of Veterinary Medicine describes the facility as a place that will be known around the world.  “The citizens of Amarillo can brag about being the only city in America with a ...

A first look at Plano ISD’s preliminary budget for the 2020-21 school year shows a roughly $1.6 million decrease in department budgets.  This follows a $10 million budget cut from the previous year, said Randy McDowell, chief financial officer for the district, who presented the budget update to the board of trustees April 21.  The budget currently ...

The Brenham School Board adopted the school district budget and tax rate and selected a firm to conduct the search for a new superintendent at a four-hour meeting on Monday. The total budget of $60,839,217 was passed on a 5-2 vote, with trustees Kyle Hafner and Archer Archer voting against. The tax rate of $0.7693 per $100 valuation was approved unanimously. The budget ...

Repost: I added "List of Data Needed for Setting Tax Rates" - js School districts across the state are beginning the process of adopting budgets and tax rates for the 2014/2015 school year. The volume of data as well as the notification processes are extensive. As a result, I believe the public schools of Texas are the most transparent form of ...

The Recovery School District’s budget is getting smaller as it gets out of the business of running schools in New Orleans. The state-run district is planning to spend much less next year than it did five years ago. Total costs have decreased by about 57 percent, from $493 million in the 2009-10 fiscal year. The state Board of Elementary ...

The Howe Independent School District Board of Trustees will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday to discuss and possibly approve the proposed budget for the 2015-16 school year and tax rate information. The Board will also discuss a policy update from the Texas Association of School Boards. Another item on the agenda is to review the investment policy and strategies of ...

The Austin school board late Monday night unanimously approved a $1.2 billion budget for the 2015-16 school year, which includes a 3 percent pay increase for all employees. The budget includes an estimated $272.8 million recapture payment, a 55 percent increase over last year, to the state to help subsidize property-poor districts under the state’s school finance system. Subtracting the budgets for ...

First, thank you for helping to make this a smooth first week of school! I hope you had a good week getting to know your students and laying the groundwork for the year ahead.  I visited several schools this week, including our brand-new PK-12 advanced learning academy, in partnership with Trinity University. It was great to see our ...

During Tuesday night’s meeting, the Plano ISD school board reluctantly approved the recommended $1.439 tax rate for the 2017-18 proposed budget. Chief Financial Officer Steve Fortenberry submitted the proposed $641.3 million budget, which has increased since 2016-17. Every PISD budget conversation eventually becomes a conversation on recapture, and Tuesday night’s meeting was no different. Recapture or Robin Hood ...

The Round Rock school district Tuesday night approved a $413 million budget that includes a $14.9 million deficit for the upcoming fiscal year. The $14.9 million shortfall is about 3.5 percent of the total budget, officials said. The school board passed a $388 million budget last year with a $8.5 million deficit. Officials estimate having about $399 million in revenue for the coming fiscal ...

The district approved the $165.8 million budget for the 2017-2018 school year with an anticipated 1.4 percent budget shortfall. With the 1.4 percent shortfall, the district would be required to take $1.6 million out of the district reserve fund, which is an accumulation of budget surplus from previous years. The reserve fund has between $42 and $45 million, according to Chief ...

On the day before the end of school, officials with the El Paso Independent School District announced that they are considering school closures in the face of a $7 million budget deficit. The possible closures are in addition to the school consolidations that were proposed when the district passed its $668.7 million bond. EPISD board President Trent Hatch made the ...

Killeen Independent School District officials will propose a $391 million general fund budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year, which includes a two percent pay raise for teachers and all other employees and lower health insurance premiums. The proposed general fund budget is an increase of $8.1 million over last year’s budget. The board is expected to call a public ...

Texas State Teachers Association President Ovidia Molina issued the following statement on Gov. Abbott’s State of the State address: If Gov. Abbott thinks that House Bill 3 solved the school finance and teacher pay problem in Texas, he is sadly mistaken. House Bill 3 was a good start, but the governor and the Legislature must do more. Despite the extra ...

Teachers in the Marble Falls Independent School District could get a 2 percent general pay raise in its 2021-22 budget, Executive Director of Finance Melissa Lafferty told board members at a meeting June 14. The board will adopt a budget for the upcoming school year on June 28. The board approved a proposed 2021-22 fiscal year budget at the June 14 meeting, which anticipates ...

After overcoming a series of challenges presented dur­ing the pandemic, the Princ­eton ISD’s proposed budget was up for discussion at the regular school board meeting Tuesday, June 15. With the 2021-22 school year on the horizon, Jona Boitmann, assistant super­intendent of finance and op­erations, presented the school board with the initial ...

JEFFERSON — Jefferson ISD trustees recently adopted a deficit budget and reduced tax rate for the 2021-22 fiscal school year budget. Jefferson ISD Business Manager Mike Wood said trustees recently adopted the district’s about $13.7 million budget and decreased tax rate for this school year. The adopted budget has a deficit of about $595,000, Wood said. This year’s ...

The Pampa Independent School District Board of Trustees met on Monday evening for a regularly-scheduled meeting where they adopted the budget for the upcoming 2022-23 school year. “We have the general fund, child nutrition and the debt services fund,” Piatt said. “With all of those together, our budget will be $35,247,631. That will be broken out into 20 different ...

Chief Financial Officer Ben Pape reviewed the proposed 2022-2023 budget with Needville School Board members at their June 22 meeting. Estimated revenues and expenditures for the balanced budget are $35,105,897, and a fund balance of about $10.6 million is projected. Pape said salaries comprise nearly 80 percent of the budget, and the final draft will be presented at the Aug. 24 board meeting. Trustees hired ...

The Killeen ISD school board proposes $460 million budget in Tuesday's school board meeting. The board voted to have the final voting on that budget on August 24 of this year. As of now, parents are hoping money will be dispersed in areas of the school system that need the most; in particular, the school safety and security section. “Security is gonna ...

At a Marfa Independent School District board meeting last week, trustees undertook a preliminary review of the 2023-2024 school year budget. The chief financial officer for the district, Rosela Rivera, had been actively meeting with district leaders to formulate the upcoming budget and imparted one common theme across departments to the gathered school board members: “These budget meetings — ...

The Killeen school board will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday for a workshop where it will discuss property values and tax rates in light of recent legislation which will affect fiscal year 2024 budget. According to Kallen Vaden, Killeen Independent School District’s chief financial officer, school officials begin budget planning in December each year, projecting the number of students ...

BRYAN, Texas — The Bryan ISD School Board unanimously approved a tax rate of $0.9492 per $100 valuation and a budget deficit of $4.63 million. The school district’s assistant superintendent of business services, Kevin Beesaw presented the tax rate and budget during last Monday’s school board meeting. “Relieved to have that process done, that's always a stressful ...

School districts face financial challenges adhering to state-mandated school safety requirements  BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - School districts across the state say they’re struggling to find room in their budgets for recent school safety requirements enacted by the Texas State Legislature.  Following the tragedy at Uvalde, the legislature sought to implement measures designed to make Texas schools ...

School districts face financial challenges adhering to state-mandated school safety requirements  BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - School districts across the state say they’re struggling to find room in their budgets for recent school safety requirements enacted by the Texas State Legislature.  Following the tragedy at Uvalde, the legislature sought to implement measures designed to make Texas schools ...

Board members say inflation and Texas’s school funding structure are making solvency difficult. On November 29, 2023, Keller ISD Interim Superintendent John Allison held a community budget education forum to discuss the funding challenges that the district was facing for the upcoming school year. This forum was followed up with another on January 4, 2024 to share additional information and ...

The Round Rock Independent School District Board of Trustees approved a balanced budget for the 2024-25 school year at their meeting on Tuesday. The $466 million general fund budget overcomes a previously projected deficit of over $30 million. The adopted budget includes a proposed property tax rate of $0.6969 per $100 valuation for the general fund, a decrease of 2.41 cents from the prior year. ...

State-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles recently listed his proposed priorities for the upcoming school year's budget, which includes investments in the district's health and safety programs and adding 800 Pre-K seats districtwide. The district's state-appointed board of managers has to approve the 2025-26 school year budget by June and had their second budget workshop Wednesday afternoon. Initial drafts show ...

Northside Independent School District is entering its new school year planning to spend roughly $1 billion, which would mean a $38 million budget deficit. The district’s board of trustees approved the 2025-26 budget on Tuesday, after months of budget talks and negotiations over how much funding could be expected under House Bill 2, the $8.5 billion public school funding bill passed by ...

The College Station school district is growing closer to finalizing the budget for the 2014-2015 school year and so far has shaved about $200,000 off of earlier estimates of a $3.5 million deficit. Superintendent Clark Ealy presented the working budget to the board of trustees during a two-hour workshop meeting Tuesday night. The district will continue to make adjustments to the ...

It’s been about a month since a state district judge ruled that the Texas school finance system is unconstitutional, saying it’s inadequate, inefficient and inequitable. The ruling came as no surprise to the millions of Texas parents concerned about the quality of their children’s education amid devastating budget cuts. The most significant budget cuts ...

Local superintendents are worried about their school districts after learning a charter school is trying to open.  Grayson, Cooke, and Fannin school districts are fighting to keep a charter school from being developed near the Sherman/Denison area. "Big objection is the financial objection. Taking money and resources from our schools that we badly need especially since we ...

For the ninth year in a row, Fredericksburg Independent School District residents will have no new taxes. Deborah Ottmers, FISD assistant superintendent of business and finance, presented the school’s financial numbers to the FISD trustees at a June 30 special meeting, which marked the end of fiscal year 2014-2015. Trustees also approved the final budget for 2014-2015 ...

The Elkhart Independent School District board met Monday for a public meeting to discuss the 2015-2016 tax rate and budget. After the brief meeting,the board opened the business portion of the meeting for the upcoming year. The tax rate for Elkhart school district has been set with $1.17 for maintenance and operation and $0.19 for interest and and sinking resulting ...

Port Neches Groves ISD projects a budget deficit for this school year, but says it has a plan to deal with the possible deficit.  "We passed a $1.5 million dollar deficit budget," says PN-G Business Manager Sheri Drawhorn.   Drawhorn says the district has a budget of $40 million. It also has $19 million in savings.  "Within that budget, the ...

Repost from yesterday! I read some articles this morning that would lead you to believe the current mega sized powerball lottery is a windfall to Texas public school districts. I don’t think so. However, many continue to believe it as this San Antonio reporter states, Texas School Fund is Guaranteed Winner in Tonight's Powerball Drawing: The vast ...

Repost!  With budget and tax rate adoption looming, a number of Texas School districts find themselves facing flat or declining revenues as well as possible loss of ASATR and have had their hopes for an improved funding structure from the courts dashed. Now many districts have been declared disaster areas in the aftermath of flooding and tornadoes, creating ...

 Amarillo ISD's budget for the 2016-2017 school year was unanimously approved by the school board Monday evening. The $280,677,044 budget is just over $3 million more than last year's budget, but several cuts were made in other areas to raise salaries for all faculty and staff. 

Amarillo ISD's budget for the 2016-2017 school year was unanimously approved by the school board Monday evening. The $280,677,044 budget is just over $3 million more than last year's budget, but several cuts were made in other areas to raise salaries for all faculty and staff.

Special Guest Speaker: Deputy Commissioner of Finance Kara Belew Two Weeks Away! Register Online Now! The Annual Seminar on School Finance and Legal Issues offers one-on-one sessions with the state's keenest school finance and legal minds around. You hear valuable updates from presenters who are in the trenches working for the children and taxpayers of Texas and leave with ...

The Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO) has awarded Magnolia Independent School District its Meritorious Budget Award (MBA) for excellence in budget presentation during the 2016–2017 budget year. The MBA promotes and recognizes excellence in school budget presentation and enhances school business officials' skills in developing, analyzing, and presenting a school system budget.

The Texas State Teachers Association today said Senate leaders should be ashamed of themselves for proposing a budget that continues to shortchange public school students and attempts to deceive local property taxpayers. “The budget is about more than numbers. It is about people's lives, and this budget would make it more difficult for Texas' 5.3 million public school children ...

As the 85th Texas Legislative session is under way, school districts across the state are wondering if equality in state funding will transpire from this session.   For over 30 years, state legislators have penalized school districts with less than 1,600 students and less then 300 square miles by arbitrarily funding the cost per student at a much lower rate then those ...

The Texas Senate unanimously approved a two-year budget on Tuesday that would shift nearly $2 billion in public education costs from the state to local taxpayers.  The Senate's $218 billion document now goes to budget writers in the House for debate.  “This is a lean budget, but it’s also a smart budget,” said ...

AUSTIN -- The Texas House on Thursday dealt a serious, perhaps lethal blow to state-funded "private school choice" programs this session.  By a better than 2-to-1 margin, House members voted to slap a provision on the two-year, $218.2 billion state budget that would ban use of money for school vouchers "or any similar program."  In other budget strictures, the ...

The Texas House on Thursday dealt a serious, perhaps lethal blow to state-funded "private school choice" programs this session. By a better than 2-to-1 margin, House members voted to slap a provision on the two-year, $218.2 billion state budget that would ban use of money for school vouchers "or any similar program." In other budget strictures, the chamber stripped all $43 million ...

With the school year drawing to a close, the Sherman Independent School District’s board of trustees took time Tuesday night to look at next year’s finances, reviewing a basic layout of the district’s 2017-2018 budget and discussing where some of those dollars might be best spent. Assistant Superintendent Tyson Bennett provided a little context ...

It won’t be the budget that sends the Texas Legislature into a special session, if there is one. This weekend the two chambers approved a $217 billion, two-year budget.  The budget is the one piece of legislation that lawmakers are required to pass before the close of each legislative session. “It grows overall spending by less ...

The Crosby Independent School District board of trustees approved the 2017-2018 budget and tax rate during the school board meeting on Monday, June 19. The 2017-2018 school year budget totals approximately $76 million, which is about $7 million more than last school year's budget. Carla Merka, CFO of Crosby ISD, pointed out the budget also includes child nutrition, general fund and ...

On the heels of the Legislature’s inability to enact changes to the Texas school finance system, North East Independent School District approved a $555.9 million budget Thursday that reflected the tough choices facing districts trying to do more with less. Without discussion, the board also approved allotments of $39.3 million for school nutrition services and $193.6 million for debt service. The ...

Both Hays and San Marcos CISDs saw increases in their budgets for fiscal year 2017-18, due in part to salary raises both school boards voted to approve. Although both school districts had budget deficits, healthy savings accounts are helping to cover expenditures. “We did cut the deficit [of the] budget down in half,” SMCISD Assistant Superintendent Karen Griffith ...

After beginning this school year with a $600,000 budget deficit, Smithville school board members have initiated negotiations for next year’s budget early to prevent a similar shortcoming – they’re demanding the budget be balanced and lowered by $1 million by cutting 14 jobs. “I can tell you right now I don’t have $1 million worth of ...

Repost!  The headline, Texas going in wrong direction of school funding, in the Dallas Morning News this morning suggests that things are worse than we thought and presents several points from a study by Center on Budget and Policy Priorities to support this position. This headline suggests that things are worse than we thought and presents several points from ...

The cost for the $18 million new elementary school will be over-budget by one million dollars, an architectural firm told the Van Vleck Independent School Board’s trustees on Monday. And the costs could go up further. The drawing and rendering of the new Van Vleck Elementary School were released at the VVISD monthly board meeting on Monday, as ...

Austin ISD rolled out a long list of proposed budget cuts to help save $55 million over the next several years. This year, AISD faces a $29 million budget shortfall and the district expects that number to grow unless cuts are made. One of the proposals includes gradually closing the doors on twelve Austin schools. Parents at Lee Lewis Campbell ...

You are going to need this soon!  (see addition at bottom)  I checked the ESC 12 website this morning to see if Woody, Gary, and Nick had updated their templates for the “Required Budget Posting” and whether it included the HB 1495 provision the “Statutorily Required Public Notice-Lobbying”.   ESC 12 has provided needed templates to ...

A Plano ISD budget update projects $1.6 million in department budget cuts for the 2020-21 school year. This year’s total budget for all departments is $74.9 million, with the current proposal for the 2020-21 school year being $73.3 million. That represents a decrease of $1.6 million, or 2.14 percent. The figures were part of a presentation to trustees during a recent work session ...

Frisco ISD will have a budget of over $781 million for the 2020-21 school year as a result of board approval.  The board approved the budget for next school year at a June 22 special meeting. Around $605 million in the budget will go toward the operating fund, nearly $25 million toward the child nutrition fund and around $151 million toward the debt ...