The change is due to additional budget cuts identified since June, Chief Financial Officer Dennis Covington said, as well as clarity on how to implement additional funding provided through House Bill 2.
What you need to know
The RRISD board of trustees passed an amendment to the 2025-26 budget Aug. 21, which was originally adopted in June.
At the time, administrators said they were instructed by the Texas Education Agency to pass a budget without information about how HB2 would be implemented.
"TEA did not release all the budget codes as it relates to House Bill 2," Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez said in June. "So we have to adopt that second column with the idea that we're coming back, hopefully, with an amendment as early as August once the TEA releases all that information. At that time we're hoping to bring to you that balanced budget, maybe even a positive budget."
The details
The budget that administrators proposed in August includes about $18 million more in funding from the state, bringing total revenues to $482.18 million, and an additional $1.18 million in budget reductions, leaving total expenditures at $480.3 million.
Both are higher than the $461 million in revenue and $472.3 million in expenditures the board passed in June. Covington said this is due to the mandated pay increases and additional funding that came with the passage of HB2.
What's next?
The real impact of an increase to the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000 will have essentially a "null" effect on the district's budget, should voters pass the measure proposed under Senate Bill 4 in November, Covington said.
When home values are decreased, which would be the effective impact of a larger homestead exemption, he said, districts receive additional state funding to make up the difference.
