EDUCATION Tomball ISD’s preliminary budget shows $3M de cit for upcoming FY 2023 24, pending state changes
PLANNING A BUDGET An initial draft of Tomball ISD’s budget for the upcoming 2023- 24 scal year was presented to trustees March 6, indicating a budget de cit as the district works to keep up with rising costs and enrollment while state funding per student remains unchanged.
BY ANNA LOTZ
“We sta up on enrollment, but we only get paid for the average daily attendance,” Ross said. “If we’ve got to sta on enrollment, how do we cover it?” Further, Ross said salary increases are a focus of the upcoming budget. He said salary increases were not yet able to be discussed publicly March 6, but he anticipates signif- icant raises for the upcoming year as the budget committee continues discussions. More than 86% of the draft budget goes to payroll, accord- ing to Ross’ presentation. Despite the budget challenges, Ross said he anticipates a property tax rate consistent with
“We’re all living on the basic allot- ment, which is a per-pupil allotment that was established and set in 2019. That’s before COVID[-19],” Ross said. “The last time we experienced this was in 2015-16, when we went six years without changing the basic allotment, and we ran a de cit that year. We’re at that point now because we’ve had way too much pressure as far as with expenses to be sitting on the same revenue per pupil provided revenue is projected to rise in TISD, Ross said the current state funding formula for public schools requires the district to compress its tax rate to ease the burden on taxpayers but does not bring any new money to the growing school district. A growing district by the state as back in 2019.” Although local property tax The district is projecting about 4% growth in enrollment for the upcoming 2023-24 school year and has new facilities under construction, such as the Early Excellence Acad- emy anticipated to open in August. As such, the budget includes $5.56 million to add 90 employees for growth, including 43 teaching posi- tions, 10 teaching positions reserved for enrollment growth throughout the year, and 37 paraprofessional and aide positions. Four professional support positions for special edu- cation and three ancillary positions necessary for the new Early Excel- lence Academy are also included in the budget, Ross said.
The rst draft of Tomball ISD’s budget for scal year 2023-24 esti- mates the district will see a $3 million shortfall unless the state Legislature takes action to increase public school funding, Chief Financial O cer Jim Ross said during a March 6 board of trustees workshop. “As far as cash ow, we have the cash ow funding to cover that de cit should that be what we end up with,” Ross said. The estimated $206 million budget accounts for a 7.01% increase in expenses over the prior scal year, which is driven by in ation, keeping salaries competitive and adding 90 employees to accommo- date growth, Ross said. Revenue is projected to total $203 million. “The in ation is now compound- ing; we have in ation on top of in ation,” board Secretary Justin Unser said during the workshop. Ross said the district is not alone in experiencing state funding challenges. “There’s a lot of discussion with every district out there that there’s not enough funding,” Ross said. “This is a public service; it has to be funded in some way.” Ross said the basic allotment for schools—the amount per student a district receives based on daily atten- dance—has not increased since 2019, despite rising expenses for school districts, such as combating learning loss from the COVID-19 pandemic and in ation.
Budget at a glance
Revenue
Expenses
FY 2021-22
$172M $172M
FY 2022-23
$192.5M $192.5M
FY 2023-24 (preliminary)
$203M $206M
or lower than the current $1.23 per $100 valuation. The tax rate will not be voted on until a Sept. 12 meeting, when
More than of the draft budget goes to payroll. 86%
Projected $3M de cit will be covered by cash reserves
further guidance from the state and property appraisal dis- tricts is available, he said. “I appreciate that our starting point is a tax rate that’s at,” Trustee Michael Pratt said during the workshop. “I really don’t like that it’s a de cit budget, but I also appreciate that we’re early in this, and we’ve got a lot of these factors to kind of work through.” Additional budget workshops are slated for April 10 and May 8 before a vote June 13, Ross said. TISD’s scal year begins July 1.
The FY 2023-24 draft budget allocates $5.56M to new sta ng costs. This includes 90 new positions to serve enrollment growth:
$3.31M
43 teachers
10 teaching positions for
$769,925
growth expected during school year
37 para- professionals
$1.48M
SOURCE: TOMBALL ISD COMMUNITY IMPACT
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TOMBALL MAGNOLIA EDITION • MARCH 2023
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