Education
BY CATHERINE WHITE & HALEY VELASCO
With a projected budget shortfall of $27 million, Clear Creek ISD is weighing multiple solutions to close the gap ahead of fiscal year 2026-27. Among the solutions under consideration are a potential voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, school consolidation, staff reductions and boundary changes. At its Dec. 16 work session, trustees said no single approach would close the anticipated shortfall. “Nothing’s off the table, and nothing fixes the problem. There’s not one solution,” trustee Jamieson MacKay said at the work session. The shortfall reflects a combination of declining enrollment, stagnant state funding and rising operating costs, district officials said. “Our state funding is tied to our student attendance, which ... [leads] to really tough choices that school districts have to deal with locally, even with state surpluses,” CCISD’s Chief Financial Officer Alice Benzaia said. Since Texas law caps how much school districts can increase their maintenance and operations tax rate without voter approval, districts turn to voters to try to increase that tax rate, which increases local revenue. Even if CCISD does go for a VATRE in the future, it may not be the only solution for the district, officials said. CCISD weighs multiple solutions for funding gap
Zooming in
Clear Creek ISD’s anticipated and projected budgets
Declining enrollment has left some campuses underused, raising per-student costs and prompting consolidation and boundary discussions. By the 2029-30 school year, CCISD’s enrollment is projected to dip by over 16% compared to the 2019-20 school year, data from the Texas Education Agency shows.
Revenue
Expenses
2025-26
$417.3M
$429.3M
2026-27
$404.6M
Enrollment through 2030
$422.3M
30K 0 35K 40K 45K
42,388
35,298
2027-28
$399.3M
-16.7%
$420.2M
2021- 22
2023- 24
2025- 26
2027- 28
2029- 30
2019- 20
2028-29
$394.5M
NOTE: 2026-27 AND BEYOND ARE PROJECTED.
SOURCE: TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY/COMMUNITY IMPACT
$418.1M
2029-30
$388.6M
What to expect
$416M
NOTE: FY 2025-26 VALUES ARE ANTICIPATED. ALL OTHER FISCAL YEARS SHOWN ARE PROJECTED VALUES. SOURCE: CLEAR CREEK ISD/COMMUNITY IMPACT
CCISD will form a budget sprint team beginning in 2026. The team will work on an accelerated timeline, and will focus specifically on financial and operational recommendations through a review of demographic data, facility utilization and budget scenarios, Superintendent Karen Engle said at the work session. In the meantime, Engle said she will bring any potential recommendations to the district’s administration team to determine future options and next steps.
“If I add all the [funding] we can get from a [VATRE], plus all the staff cuts, plus all the schools we can consolidate, do we still get the $27 million? I don’t think we do. So that tells me nothing needs to stay off the table,” trustee Jeff Larson said at the work session.
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