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FINDING MILLIONS Clear Creek ISD is facing millions of dollars in shortfalls over the next two scal years if the voter-approval tax rate election this November fails. VATRE scenarios Revenue Shortfall
$381.5 million in expenses—creating the $17.4 million shortfall, according to district documents. The shortfall, o cials have said, is due to in ation; lack of action from the state; and declining enrollment, which could decrease for the second year in a row from a peak of 40,865 in 2021-22 to 40,450 this upcoming year. CCISD also added $5 million more in expenses after approving a new com- pensation plan in July. The board opted against tying raises to the VATRE, which was di erent from other dis- tricts, such as Pearland, Friendswood and Fort Bend ISDs. “I just never want to approach it with the mentality of, ‘If we get all this extra revenue we can start giving out more money,’” Trustee Scott Bowen said at a July 10 workshop. The district has already made about $4.5 million in cuts for the FY 2023-24 budget, CCISD Chief Communications O cer Elaina Polsen said. Those cuts include 70 sta positions not being rehired, reduced energy costs, cut- ting out-of-state travel for sta and reduced professional memberships. However, district o cials said they can dip into reserves to help cover this year’s shortfall if the VATRE doesn’t pass. “We’re getting more e cient with everything we do, but we’re kind of squeezed a bit right now,” Polsen said. Future budgets Looking ahead, revenues in FY 2024-25 are expected to decline while expenses are projected to climb, which could result in a $31.7 million shortfall, according to district documents. A gap that size would be something that would “most certainly” a ect student programs and class sizes, Polsen said. The majority of CCISD’s budget— about 90%—funds sta ng within the district, while the other 10% goes to programming, Engle said. While some items, such as transportation programming, can be reduced, that will go only so far. The resulting cuts could lead to less teaching positions being rehired, which would increase class sizes, Engle said. “Reducing $31.7 million out of our budget would have a signi cant impact,” Polsen said. “It’s not some- thing we could easily do.” If the district were to pass its VATRE, o cials expect the shortfall to be
about $14.3 million in the scal year 2024-25 budget, Engle said. Bridging that gap could be done through new enrollment methods, such as expanding open enrollment to grandparents who pay taxes into the district but have grandchildren in a neighboring district, Polsen said. Expanded tuition-based preschool is an option, too. All told, the district expects these methods to help increase enrollment by about 300 students, Engle said. “We still have work to do,” Engle said. “We would still need to do some creative things ourselves. But that VATRE is pretty critical.” Zooming out Multiple school districts across the state are either proposing or approv- ing budget shortfalls for the 2023-24 school year. This is due to a number of economic factors—such as in ation, which has driven up operating costs— as well as state and federal money tied to the COVID-19 pandemic drying up, Popinski said. Nearly all proposals aimed at increasing school funding in the legislative session ended up on the cutting-room oor, Popinski said. Among those proposals included an increase to teacher pay and the per-student allotment funding given to school districts. The per-student allotment sits at $6,160 and has not been increased since House Bill 3 passed in 2019, Pop- inski said. The state would need to add roughly $1,000 this year to the allot- ment to match in ation that’s hap- pened since the last increase. Due to high rates of in ation in recent years—totaling about 18.5% from April 2019 to April 2023, according to the Texas comptrol- ler’s o ce—school districts have had trouble keeping up with rising costs of their operations. Houston ISD, which is in the middle of a takeover from the state, approved a $2.2 billion budget June 22 with a $168.5 million shortfall. The story rings much the same at Cy-Fair ISD—the state’s third-largest school district—which passed in June a $1.21 billion budget with a roughly $138.6 million shortfall. CFISD Superintendent Mark Henry said his district’s newest budget was the most di cult to prepare in his 32-year career. “It’s irresponsible and insidious
FY 2023-24
$381.5 million
FY 2024-25
$371 million
$14.3 million
FY 2023-24
$364.1 million
$17.4 million
FY 2024-25
$353.6 million
$31.7 million
If the VATRE were to fail, CCISD would expect “signi cant” cuts to reduce next year’s projected shortfall of $31.7 million.
SHARING SAVINGS Due to property tax relief state legislators passed this year, homeowners in Clear Creek ISD will see tax savings next year regardless of whether a VATRE is passed. The below tax bills are for a $350,000 home.
$2,510 2023 tax bill if VATRE fails:
$3,260 Today’s tax bill:
$2,590 2023 tax bill if VATRE passes:
Interest and sinking tax rate
Maintenance and operations tax rate
$1.50
$1.31
$1.2659
$1.1797
$1.1146
$1.20 $0.90 $0.30 $0.60
$0.9746
$0
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023*
*IF VATRE IS PASSED
SOURCE: CLEAR CREEK ISD COMMUNITY IMPACT
home valued at $350,000 will see a savings of about $750 on their 2024 property tax bills, assuming a 10% increase in home value to $385,000, Engle said. If the VATRE were to pass, it would mean a balanced budget for CCISD but about $80 less in savings for residents, Engle said. CCISD is proposing a total tax rate of $0.9746 for every $100 valuation of a property, which is $0.03 higher than the $0.9446 maximum rate the state will allow, Engle said. Last year’s rate sat at $1.1146 and has declined each year since the 2019-20 school year, CCISD documents show. For the FY 2023-24 budget, the district expects about $364.1 million in revenue without the VATRE and
go ahead and take action to take care of our district.” Earlier this year, the state entered the 88th legislative session with nearly $33 billion in reserves and a list of funding plans for public schooling. However, beyond a few small examples, larger funding bills have yet to materialize, said Bob Popinski, senior director of policy for Raise Your Hand Texas, a nonpro t educa- tion advocacy group. “It was a session out of balance,” Popinski said. “It was absolutely sur- prising. ... All the recommendations ended up failing.” Local e ects With the recent passing of Senate Bill 2, homeowners in CCISD with a
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