Education
BY SHELBIE HAMILTON
Education Edition
2025
Readers, welcome to your annual CI Education Edition! This guide features the latest updates and news about your local public school district. All of the stories were written by our team of local journalists, and all of the advertisements are from nearby businesses who support our mission to provide free, useful news—please show your gratitude by supporting them. Inside this year’s Education Edition, our reporting covers the McKinney ISD fiscal year 2025-26 tax rate decrease as well as how projected population increases are prompting officials to evaluate district facilities. The guide also features details on McKinney ISD’s A-F accountability score for the 2024-25 school year. Our cover story focuses on growth in the district’s special education student population, and how district officials are adapting to the growth by focusing on recruiting and retaining special education teachers. We hope you find this content useful and relevant, and we welcome your feedback and suggestions on future coverage. Reach us at mcknews@communityimpact.com.
What's inside
Projected population growth cues attendance zone review— see the details (Page 18)
Shelbie Hamilton Editor shamilton@ communityimpact.com
Learn more about McKinney ISD’s 2024-25 accountability rating (Page 20)
Read about the rising special education student population in McKinney ISD (Page 22)
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MISD leaders lower FY 2025-26 tax rate
McKinney ISD's property tax rate history The McKinney ISD property tax rate for FY 2025-26 is lower than the previous fiscal year.
single-family home will total $4,839, which is just over $500 less than the property tax bill for the average single-family home the prior year, according to district documents. The district’s total certified property values increased 6.55% year over year, reaching nearly $30.2 billion, which includes about $1.67 billion in new construction, district documents state. The certified values issued in late July trended lower than the certified estimates issued by the Collin Central Appraisal District in April, MISD Chief Financial Officer Marlene Harbeson said. Looking ahead The district’s board of trustees approved the district’s FY 2025-26 budget in June with a $6.9 million potential shortfall, but a planned budget amendment will change the district’s financial outlook, Harbeson said. As it stands, the approved FY 2025-26 budget includes $265.8 million in general fund expenditures
The McKinney ISD property tax rate will be slightly lowered for fiscal year 2025-26. The total rate approved by the board is $1.1043 per $100 valuation, a $0.0209 decrease from FY 2024-25’s rate of $1.1252 per $100 valuation. The district’s board of trustees unanimously approved the new rate at an Aug. 18 board meeting. The overview The new tax rate is broken down into two pieces: • The maintenance and operations rate, which covers operational expenses such as payroll, is $0.7343 per $100 valuation. • The interest and sinking, or I&S, rate, which pays for the district’s principal and interest on its debts, is $0.37 per $100 valuation. The average single-family home in the district costs $578,218, which is a 0.54% increase from the prior year. With the new tax rate and increased homestead exemption, the tax bill for the average
Maintenance and operations rate Interest and sinking rate
0 $0.5 $1 $1.5 $2
$1.59
$1.1043
Fiscal year
SOURCE: MCKINNEY ISD/COMMUNITY IMPACT
and $258.9 million in general fund revenues. The amended budget will reflect increased local prop- erty tax revenue, as well as increases in state aid and recapture from House Bill 2, she said.
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MCKINNEY EDITION
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