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

The Austin Independent School District is working on ways to cut its $60 million budget deficit in half during the next school year, while trying to limit the impact it will have on classrooms. Austin ISD is one of the many Central Texas districts facing tough choices because the state’s spending on public education has not kept up with inflation. The Texas Legislature has not increased the minimum amount it spends per student, also known as the basic allotment, since 2019. And, while lawmakers last year did increase school safety funding, they also required school districts to put at least one armed officer at every school which costs significantly more than the $15,000 per campus the state allocated. view article

Georgetown ISD submitted an application in April for additional funding to pay incentives to teachers, which could see educators receive merit-based incentives by summer 2026. In an April board workshop, district administrators shared they were working to complete and submit their application to participate in the Teacher Incentive Allotment funding mechanism. Wes Vanicek, GISD's chief strategist for assessment and feedback, said the application for the program would be submitted April 15. view article

Budget cuts are coming to Austin’s public schools next year, but will they impact students? Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura said his team is working to keep that from happening. “There’s been a commitment from this administration from the very beginning to limit impacts to the classroom,” Segura said of the ongoing budget process. “We’ve said that, we’ll continue to say that, we’ll continue to be committed to that.” view article

Fort Worth ISD is still adding up numbers to determine whether it will have a balanced budget for the 2024-25 school year. The school board received its first public presentation of the next budget on April 23. Officials did not present how much they expect to spend for the next school year. view article

Set to adopt its budget in June, Plano ISD is projecting a $37 million deficit budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year. At an April 17 Plano ISD Board of Trustees meeting, Chief Financial Officer Courtney Reeves presented a budget update, including projected changes to the budget for the coming fiscal year. view article

Denton school board members voted unanimously Tuesday to apply for a federal program that will cover costs for breakfast and lunch for all students at 10 of its campuses for four years. Two of the schools are preschools. The remaining campuses are elementary schools. view article

No decisions were made during the meeting, but district leaders made it clear cuts will have to be made ahead of next school year.  CYPRESS, Texas — Cypress-Fairbanks ISD has a budget problem. District leaders held a special meeting Monday night to figure out how to close a $68 million budget shortfall.  No decisions were made during the meeting, but district leaders made it clear cuts will have to be made ahead of next school year.  They said several factors have contributed to this problem. District leaders said inflation has driven up costs, but the state has not increased funding for students in five years. view article

A big discussion Monday night at Cy-Fair ISD as the board is considering drastic measures to balance the budget. But where will the money come from? That question is leaving the Cy-Fair ISD staff and the community in limbo. There is a $38 million deficit. The district says they haven’t seen an increase in funding in five years. It means jobs may be on the chopping block, and staff raises may not be as high as they could’ve been. view article

School districts across the state are facing money troubles. That includes several independent districts across Central Texas that are heading into the next school year in a budget deficit. Round Rock Independent School District held a community meeting today to address a $31 million deficit that they say has been reduced. view article

This special meeting came after a nearly $70 million budget shortfall. view article

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 of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding created during the pandemic, an increase in the cost of living and the Texas Legislature not providing additional funding to public schools. While Bastrop ISD has seen an increase in enrollment — unlike many public school districts across the state — the district is still seeing a budget shortfall. Most of the district’s funding, like all public schools in the state, comes from student attendance, and the superintendent said attendance percentage was down compared to pre-pandemic numbers, causing revenue to be down. Edwards said before the pandemic average daily attendance was 94.6%, while this year it was 92.11%. view article

Both Round Rock ISD and Pflugerville ISD approved salary increases at their recent board meetings. At its meeting Thursday night, Round Rock ISD approved a 1% pay increase for most staff members. “Obviously I want to give more than 1%, and I know that’s just not in our future right now,” President Amber Landrum said. “ We’ve even gotten emails, or I have, that 1% is a slap in the face. But 1% is better than 0% in my opinion.” view article

McALLEN — The school board held its fourth budget workshop Monday with an update on a budget reduction plan to deal with the district’s ongoing deficit that has been reduced to $10.3 million from the initial $14 million. Districts across the state are currently dealing with budget issues since Gov. Greg Abbott is withholding $31 billion from public school funding until his school voucher plan proposal is approved. Giving an update on the projected 2024-2025 budget, board members heard about an update to the deficit along with a budget reduction plan. In the meeting the board looked over the updated revenues and expenditures for 2024-2025. The projected revenues for the district is about $243 million with expenditures being around $254 million with a deficit of a little over $10 million. view article

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — Board members from the Canutillo Independent School District continue to look for ways to lower the multimillion-dollar budget deficit they could face next school year. During the last budget discussions, the total amount for the deficit was $ 7.8 million, however during Tuesday's work session, administrators said the budget deficit is now $9.9 million. CISD has eliminated 21 job positions to help lower the district's expenses. 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