Round Rock Independent School District trustee Mary Bone has released a video containing bribery allegations against Board President Amber Feller. view article

The newest report from Truth in Accounting graded all U.S. states’ financial positions, placing Texas at 26 out of 50 states and giving it a financial grade of “C.” view article

Keller ISD board members voted unanimously to authorize defeasance, or paying down the principal, of debt at their Sept. 26 meeting. The move should save the district an estimated $3.4 million. During his presentation to the board, Chief Operations Officer John Allison said the district worked with its financial advisor, Hilltop Securities, to identify opportunities for savings on interest and sinking debt based on current market conditions. view article

Bryan ISD school board members at its last meeting (September 23) approve this year’s health insurance plans and rates. The district’s share of the cost rose six percent, while premiums for BISD employees increased three percent. Before the board’s unanimous vote, was discussion about one unidentified free standing emergency room billing Bryan ISD almost $21 million dollars in the last three years. view article

Budget issues have prompted the Coppell Independent School District to close an elementary campus, despite dozens of parents trying to stop that from happening. view article

Coppell trustees narrowly voted to close its oldest elementary school Monday night, with district leaders lamenting the painful decision as necessary because of a financial squeeze triggered by declining enrollment and stagnant state funding. The trustees’ decision devastated Pinkerton Elementary families, who said the closure means children will attend campuses farther from their homes and away from their friends next year. view article

Argyle ISD will host several opportunities for families and the community to learn more about its School Funding Referendum that will be presented to voters in the November election. view article

McAllen ISD Deputy Superintendent for Business and Operations Lorena Garcia gave a preliminary fund balance report this week for the school year 2023-2024 which included an unprecedented surplus of around $32 million at the end of the year. “When we came in here we had, last year, a $6 million deficit and then a $14 million deficit this year which was a total of $20 million … but now we can safely say that with this savings we have wiped out the deficit,” MISD Superintendent René Gutiérrez said during the meeting. “This is not counting that we gave everyone a raise … not too many school districts can report these types of finances. We will continue to monitor (the finances) and we would like to give this money back to the kids and to the staff.” view article

Upgrades to the system Texas uses to collect student, staff and financial data from school districts are causing serious concerns among school administrators and data specialists across the state who say the changes have led to thousands of unresolved errors that could potentially cause them to lose out on state funding. Each of Texas’ more than 1,200 school districts is required to regularly submit data to the state, including information on attendance, enrollment, students who receive special education, children experiencing homelessness and the number of kids who have completed a college preparatory course. State officials use the information to determine whether schools are meeting performance standards and how much funding they receive each year. view article

Humble ISD officials began the 2024-25 school year on Aug. 7 with an emphasis on food services spending, which officials said helped lead to a $15 million shortfall in this year’s budget. HISD Chief Financial Officer Billy Beattie noted around $36.2 million of the district’s $651 million budget for fiscal year 2024-25 is allocated toward various food services projects. view article

On Sept. 5, Spring ISD’s board of trustees reviewed how the district’s finances and demographics compare to other districts as part of an audit for the voter-approval tax rate election that will be on ballots in November. On Aug. 13, SISD trustees called for a VATRE as the district faces an almost $12 million fiscal year 2024-25 budget shortfall, as previously reported by Community Impact. A VATRE would raise the district’s tax rate by $0.05 and bring in $20.1 million more in total funding annually, should it be approved by voters.   view article

Judson ISD and Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD are working to fund essential student and staff needs as they grapple with budget shortfalls. JISD’s original budget shortfall of nearly $36 million was offset by the use of disaster pennies, bringing the shortfall closer to $24 million. SCUCISD approved a budget with a nearly $11 million shortfall in the general fund and around $4 million shortfall in additional budgets. view article

The lottery allocates just over $2 billion annually to Texas schools, which covers about five days of a typical 180-day school year. This is a decrease from over 10 days' worth of funding more than 25 years ago, when the state lottery began operating at full capacity. view article

Another North Texas school district is considering closing campuses due to budget challenges and declining enrollment. Coppell ISD, located in the northwest corner of Dallas County, has several options on the table. view article

Kilgore ISD school board trustees voted at a recent meeting to approve a deficit budget and a lower tax rate for the upcoming school year. Chief Financial Officer Trish Hall told board members and faculty in attendance the district’s projected budget revenue for 2024-2025 was calculated at $38,390,571 and projected expenditures at $39,910,900. This leaves the upcoming year’s budget with a projected budget deficit of $1,520,329. The district’s budget is comprised of three components: the general fund budget, nutrition services budget and the debt service fund budget. view article

Faculty and staff in the Lubbock Independent School District, one of the city's largest employers, will be paying more for their health insurance next year after a Thursday school-board vote. The Lubbock ISD Board of Trustees voted to approve next year's employee premiums for the district's self-funded heath plans, all of which will increase in January. Under the initial proposal, premiums in some cases would be more than double the current cost, but the board opted to divide those increases over two years. view article

The lawmaker pointed to sharp increases in per-pupil spending and administrative staff positions in Texas schools over the last decade.   view article

The Arlington Independent School District says it must return about $6.5 million to the state after falling into recapture for the third straight year. It has to do with Texas' recapture law, which is intended to take extra revenue from "property-rich" districts and redistribute it to others who need the money. "The way we find ourselves in recapture is when our student enrollment goes down and our taxable values go up," explained Darla Moss, the district's chief financial officer. view article

The number of fines for breaking state campaign ethics laws has exploded in recent years as Ken Paxton’s office rarely pursues stricter enforcement.  n 1989, Bo Pilgrim, an East Texas chicken plant magnate, strolled the floor of the Texas Senate and dispensed $10,000 checks to nine members in an effort to stop a worker’s compensation bill from passing.  The scandal, dubbed “Chickengate,” was shocking but legal.  But the chicken man’s brazenness — what he called campaign contributions, many Texans saw as bribes — ruffled enough feathers to usher in a rare era of good government reforms.  Lawmakers would soon pass laws prohibiting themselves from accepting donations inside the Capitol and creating the Texas Ethics Commission, an independent body with investigative power, that would enforce the state’s campaign finance laws. view article

The Anthony Independent School District is looking to increase taxes for its residents. The school district is asking voters to consider raising their taxes in the November election. This comes after the Superintendent said the district experienced a budget shortfall due to continued inflation. view article

Lake Travis Independent School District approved its $37 million budget for the next fiscal year, Monday night. But, as the district faces a $4 million deficit-- cuts to spending had to be made. "Anytime that we have to cut or trim a budget, it's not a fun decision to make," said LTISD Superintendent, Paul Norton. view article

Spanish teacher Shaun Hopkins watched from his laptop as the Austin school board discussed hypothetical budget cuts that would impact his kids, his classroom, and his friends. In the July workshop, livestreamed on YouTube, Austin Independent School District leaders said the district would need voters to approve a tax increase and trim millions from its budget to close a $119 million deficit. view article

The Austin ISD school board is asking voters to approve a higher property tax rate in November that would increase the district’s revenue by tens of millions of dollars. That money would be used to give more than 60% of employees a raise and reduce the district’s budget deficit to $78 million. Austin ISD officials have said the main reason the district has a deficit is because state funding for public schools has not kept up with inflation. view article

A big vote on Monday could decide the future of schools within the Austin Independent School District. Members of the Austin ISD Board are set to meet and vote on approval of a Voter Tax Rate Election – or VATRE. If it passes a vote on Monday, it would then head to the ballot this November for Austin voters. view article

For the first time in years, the Austin Independent School District is nearly fully staffed for the school year. “I’m happy to report that we are 96 percent staffed. This is an incredible number,” said superintendent Matias Segura. “ We haven’t had this number since back to about 2015 at this point.” view article

The Austin school board has called a Nov. 5 election to ask voters to raise the property tax rate by 9.1 cents to fund a $17.3 million compensation package for staff members and offset the district’s staggering $99 million deficit. The district is asking voters to approve the increase to raise an additional $41 million for its $1.2 billion budget at a time when officials are contemplating $78 million in cuts over the next two years. Several other local districts, such as Manor, are calling for similar voter-authorized tax rate elections this year, as schools across the state grapple with budget woes and consider how to slash spending. view article

A big vote on Monday could decide the future of schools within the Austin Independent School District. Members of the Austin ISD Board are set to meet and vote on approval of a Voter Tax Rate Election – or VATRE. If it passes a vote on Monday, it would then head to the ballot this November for Austin voters. view article

Educators say they’ll struggle to keep the programs they created with those funds, highlighting their precarious situation without more state help.  The $43 million infusion the Port Arthur Independent School District received in federal COVID-19 pandemic relief funds accomplished more than Phyllis Geans could have ever imagined.  The money allowed the district to upgrade antiquated heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. Teachers earned retention stipends at a time when many were leaving the profession. Students received new band instruments. An ambitious summer program taught them about photography, robots and skydiving.“We were excited, really excited, because we started thinking about things that we knew were almost impossible,” said Geans, Port Arthur ISD’s assistant superintendent of operations. “It was unreal.” view article

The first day of school at Houston Independent School District, the largest school district in Texas, will begin with fewer teachers than last school year, according to state-appointed superintendent Mike Miles. In a weekly newsletter to parents and staff, Miles said in the 2023-2024 school year, the district started with 11,388 teachers. This year, the district will begin its school year with 10,640. That’s a difference of 748 teachers. view article

School is still supposed to be out for summer but Austin ISD’s budget problems are so bad that the board of trustees is already back to work. The board’s July 25 meeting was billed as another discussion of the VATRE – the Voter Approved Tax Rate Election the trustees will almost certainly approve next week. The VATRE will ask Austin voters to say yes to a property tax increase which could bring an additional $40 million into the district next year. But even if that extra money comes, the district will still be $78 million in the red – and everyone already knows this. view article

Lower attendance has become increasingly common in Texas schools over the past few years. Lufkin ISD is one district currently dealing with this issue. Tuesday, the Lufkin ISD school board approved low-attendance waivers for the upcoming school year. These waivers are requested when a school’s average attendance drops below 80%. view article

Cleveland ISD’s board of trustees narrowly avoided a vote to buy out Superintendent Stephen McCanless’ contract late Tuesday night, a move that could have cost the school district upwards of $1.6 million. Throughout two and a half hours of public comment, 18 community members passionately defended the superintendent and demanded the board reconsider his removal. view article

Spring Hill ISD could face a budget shortfall of roughly $420,000 in the next fiscal year primarily because of decreased student attendance and higher operational costs. Board members discussed the district’s financial future and accepted the resignation of Trustee David Duncan on Tuesday night. view article

As July comes to a close, many Texas families are preparing to send their children back to school. Meanwhile, public school district boards across Texas are adopting large budget shortfalls amid high operating costs and stagnant state funding. Last year, public education advocates urged lawmakers to increase the basic allotment, or the base amount of money schools receive per student. The basic allotment has not changed since 2019, when it was raised to $6,160. To break down the Lone Star State’s complex school finance system, Community Impact spoke with Bob Popinski, the senior policy director for Raise Your Hand Texas, an education policy nonprofit. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. view article

Katy ISD teachers will receive a one-time payment based on their years of service after board of trustees approved the measure in a special meeting July 16. The lump sum payment, which will be given to teachers in five-year intervals, is meant to encourage retention and attract tenured teachers. Teachers are eligible based on total years of service in and outside of KISD, according to a news release from KISD. view article