After months of projecting a multimillion dollar budget shortfall in fiscal year 2026-27, Eanes ISD could actually see a $1.6 million budget surplus following the implementation of a plan that will yield central administration staff cuts.
Chief Financial Officer Chris Scott provided the board of trustees with an update on the upcoming fiscal year budget during the April 28 board meeting.
How we got here
The board most recently discussed its budget shortfall in March, where Scott said the district could see a $2 million budget shortfall next year.
Following initial projections of a $5 million-$6 million shortfall last fall, the board approved a series of revenue generation and cost-saving measures in February to garner about $3.9 million worth of savings. These include increasing local revenues through creating a virtual academy, increasing transfer students, and reducing 69 full-time equivalent, or FTE, staff positions through attrition.
What's changed
In an email to the community last week, Superintendent Kirk Koennecke said that a new $2.8 million "Right Size Plan" and other new revenue generation strategies will impact the budget forecast over the next three years.
District officials said the Right Size Plan will include central administration and administrative support services cuts, but were unable to share specifics. Koennecke said in the email that conversations with affected staff members had begun.
"The team has gone through every facet of this budget across all departments, at all levels, all classifications of employees," Koennecke said at the April 28 meeting. "While this is a people organization, the team has tried to find every other nonhuman item that it can. ... We are trying to protect classrooms, protect instruction, curriculum and programming, and that was at the heart of the rationale for rank ordering the action steps that we have implemented."
Under the new plan, Scott said EISD would see a projected budget surplus of $1.6 million with a 27.6% fund balance, above its 25% target.
What else?
Scott said there are still several factors that currently have an unknown impact on the budget, including impacts of the education savings account program on EISD's enrollment, and the Texas Education Agency special education funding formula, which Scott said will be applied retroactively in June 2027.
Scott also said the Travis County Appraisal District's preliminary estimates released this month suggest EISD will have no growth in its taxable assessed property values.
Officials have also budgeted for the attrition of 50 FTEs in FY 2026-27 and 19 additional FTEs in FY 2027-28, equating to the 69 FTEs previously discussed. Chief Human Resources Officer Laurie Lee clarified that staff will not be cut, but their positions will not be filled once leaving.
Looking ahead
The board will hold a budget and tax rate hearing in June before adopting the budget by June 30. The board will adopt the tax rate in August once the certified property values are received.
The board was initially slated to approve its compensation plan in May but following discussions April 28 could hold off on implementing staff raises until the fall to keep a cushion in the fund balance.
"I think we need to be a little more conservative financially with things," trustee John Troy said. "We can't wait on the state; we can't assume we're going to get more from the state. ... I would be very, very committed to these future raises, but I don't want to immediately have a little extra cash in our pockets so to speak and flip around and immediately spend it. I say that very aware of the impact."
In the meantime, Lee said there will be 74 teachers with three to five years of experience receiving a $2,500 allotment, and 406 teachers with five or more years of experience receiving a $5,000 allotment. These allotments were approved during the 2025 Texas Legislative session.
