With the 89th Texas legislative session underway, administrators say a minimal increase to part of the public school funding formula proposed in the Texas House of Representatives will not be enough to close a $3.72 million funding gap.
What you need to know
Administrators say a reduction in teacher positions could be an option to remediate a $3.72 million shortfall, if a more significant increase to school funding is not passed by the Texas Legislature.
Reductions to staffing, including five assistant principals, central office staff, 21 middle school teachers and 23 high school teachers, as well as a 5% reduction to overall budgets, could help the district break even, GISD Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Hanna said in a March 3 board workshop.
Superintendent Devin Padavil said the district is considering these severe reductions now to avoid having to make harsher cuts in future budget years.
"The reality is that if we do not embrace these hard decisions now, the decisions that we're going to have to make next year ... will be worse," Padavil said.
The details
Based on current conditions, Hanna said the school district is projecting about $172.09 million in expenditures for the 2025-26 school year as it anticipates about $168.37 million in revenue, creating a $3.72 million shortfall.
Budgeted expenditures, Hanna said, are the same for the 2025-26 fiscal year as the previous school year, meaning no raises for employees are included in the proposal. To close the gap between projected revenues and expenditures, she said administrators would have to either dip into GISD's fund balance—where any surpluses from previous budget years are kept to help manage cash flow—or identify efficiencies.
If paid from the district's fund balance, the $3.72 million would remove about 21% of available funds, Hanna said. This would come as the district has been working to improve the health of its fund balance, while balancing the cost of growth.
Hanna presented the potential efficiencies, which include the staffing reductions and increasing class sizes to 29 students per teacher. Other measures could include a reduction in support positions, such as coaches and librarians, and instituting a hiring freeze for full-time positions.
What they're saying
Trustees were critical of the proposal to cut teacher positions, and asked administrators to explore options for reducing budgets for extracurriculars, such as athletics, to minimize the impact to GISD's academic program.
Place 6 Trustee Jen Mauldin suggested cutting athletics and extracurricular programs first, rather than focusing on classroom roles, could be a better option and could increase community engagement with the state regarding funding.
"Is [extracurricular and athletic programming] the priority over our academic program, where we're working so hard to get to an appropriate level that they're not in this group of what we're looking at?" Mauldin said. "Would there be more interest in the budgeting in our state if we started talking about cutting athletic programs and we started cutting extracurricular programs? I know that the parents would be at the state capitol in two shakes."
Padavil said administrators would prepare data for a scenario in which athletics were removed from the school day, while preserving the student experience in GISD.
Board president James Scherer suggested the district could cut athletic programs that have a high cost to student ratio to reduce the number of teaching positions considered in budget cuts.
"If we have 10 kids in this thing and it's costing us a million bucks ... you get rid of the 10 kids' program and apologize," Scherer said.
The big picture
The school district has called on legislators to increase the basic allotment, a piece of the funding formula that determines how much local and state funding a school district will receive, for the last several budget cycles.
With the proposal of House Bill 2 in February, an increase of $220 to the basic allotment could be on the table, Hanna said.
This increase would take the existing basic allotment, which provides $6,160 in funding per student, up to $6,380. Other factors, such as attendance, determine how much of this allotment a school district receives. Districts are also funded for certain populations and participation in programs like special education or career and technical education.
As reported by Community Impact, HB2 would also adjust funding for special education, expand the teacher incentive allotment, and pave the way for a free pre-kindergarten program for children with disabilities.
Simultaneously, the Senate passed a a bill proposing a permanent allotment for teacher retention Feb. 27. This fund would provide additional compensation for teachers based on the size of the district and teacher experience, Hanna said.
In total, state budget writers have set aside $4.9 billion for such school funding initiatives.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced providing teacher pay raises as his third emergency item at the State of the State address Feb. 2.
"Public education funding is at an all-time high,” Abbott said at the Feb. 2 event. “Funding per student is at an all-time high. But improving education requires more than just spending more money. It requires high-level instruction and better curriculum."
When it comes to campus closures and staffing cuts implemented by districts across the state to make up the difference in projected shortfalls, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath said in a Feb. 25 Texas House Public Education Committee hearing that it is more a consequence of planning for a level of enrollment growth that is no longer happening than a true need for additional funds.
"There is no magic number that makes [funding] enough," Morath said.
What's next?
Hanna said administrators will continue to provide updates to the board on development of the 2025-26 fiscal year's budget, which is set to be voted on for final approval in June. GISD's new fiscal year will begin July 1.
