BY ANGELA BONILLA & VANESSA HOLT CONTRIBUTIONS BY EMILY LINCKE
What they’re saying
Why it matters
202526 budget projections Revenue
Looking ahead to FY 2025-26, a plan for employee raises is not yet included in pro- jections, Garza said. The FY 2025-26 budget year has a projected $17.43 million shortfall, according to the funding formula. “As we begin planning ... for budget cuts for the 2025-26 year, ... we’ll bring you a menu of items in terms of what we want to cut because we want to have a plan in place in the event that the Legislature does not provide any additional funding for us,” Garza said. “Our fund balance will not support another decit budget.” Since almost all of the district’s maintenance and operations budget is in payroll, the district will have to consider its stang numbers if additional legislative aid does not come through, ocials said. However, Garza said the district will rely more
$711.94M
“Since 2019, there has been no increase in the basic allotment, despite inationary price increases we have seen.”
Expenditures
$729.37M
KAREN GARZA, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, CONROE ISD
Shortfall projected: $17.43M
31%
Personnel growth: $12M Other expenses: $5.4M
69%
SOURCE: CONROE ISDCOMMUNITY IMPACT
on strategies such as leaving positions unlled or increasing class sizes rather than layos. “Given our natural turnover in sta from year to year, we should be able to accomplish this through attrition in the event we have to eliminate positions,” Garza said.
“There has never been a session where public education funding has not gone up, and with the exception of this
past legislative session, it’s the only time it hasn’t kept pace with ination.” STEVE TOTH, TEXAS HOUSE DISTRICT 15 REPRESENTATIVE
What’s next?
that stage. “There is ... strong support to pass the school nance legislation I led last year, which would infuse our public schools with historic new funding and provide an increase to the basic allotment,” Creighton said in an email. “Anyone who asserts that we can’t deliver historic new funding for public schools while also providing school choice is ... grossly misinformed.”
Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, led Senate Bills 1 and 2 during the 88th Legislature in 2023 that would have provided funds for public education and teacher stipends, but also included funding for private school vouchers with up to $8,000 for each student through an education savings account. The bills were sent to the House of Representatives but did not advance beyond
“We should be able to come out, even in January, and tell our sta,
‘Everyone will have a job. You may not have the job you have today, but … you will have a job.’”
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