What you need to know
The board set a schedule to receive budget updates from administration in December. Future updates will come to the board in January, February, April, June and November.
This comes as district administrators have determined that the realized budget deficit for the previous financial year was much higher than what was originally projected.
How we got here
A final budget update on the 2023-24 fiscal year from district administrators shows Round Rock ISD’s projected budget shortfall of $19 million nearly doubled to $37 million.
At a Nov. 21 meeting, Chief Financial Officer Dennis Covington said this was due to a variety of factors, including higher than anticipated expenses and reduced revenues.
Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez said administrators will provide more frequent budget updates in the future.
The details
Covington said the district's revenue for the 2023-24 budget year was $7.4 million lower than expected, with reductions spread over three areas:
- $600,000 reduction in current year property tax collections
- $300,000 reduction in prior year property tax collections
- $6.5 million in lost reimbursement from special education funding
- $2 million in underestimated salary increases required after passage of the 2023 voter-approved tax rate election
- $3.9 million in special education stipends, services and settlements as more teachers qualified for stipends
- $700,000 more in stipends for teachers completing the district's reading academy
- $500,000 more in stipends for math and bilingual educators
- $1.5 million more for guest educators, also known as substitute teachers, due to increased demand
- $500,000 to fund students in athletics, fine arts as well as career and technology education program who qualified for higher levels of competition
- $600,000 for higher than planned retiree payout
- $300,000 for higher insurance deductibles
