GCISD Chief Financial Officer Derick Sibley presented his report on fiscal year 2024-25 preliminary revenue projections at the GCISD board's regular meeting Feb. 26. Sibley's report includes a revenue data timeline, student enrollment projections and historical property appraisal values that all affect future projections.
The details
Sibley said the district’s preliminary revenue projections are based on a timeline of specific events that begin this May and span out more than a year to September 2025:
- May 2024: Estimated property values are received from taxing district
- June 2024: Budget adoption
- July 2024: Certified property values are received and then sent to Texas Education Agency
- August 2024: Maintenance and operations tax rate is set by TEA
- September 2024: Staff salaries are finalized
- January 2025: State certified property values are received from the state comptroller’s office
- June 2025: Tier I student data is received from TEA
- August 2025: Total tax collections are finalized
- September 2025: Recapture amount is set by the state
In terms of historical property values, Sibley said he and his staff performed three different analyses:
- Three-year average
- Survival rate analysis
- Trend analysis
Zooming in
Sibley then gave his projections for the maintenance and operations funds—often referred to as M&O funds. He said the estimated FY 2024-25 M&O rate would be $0.7054, which is $0.0236 lower than the FY 2023-24 rate of $0.7290.
In terms of revenue, Sibley said even though the M&O portion of the tax rate is projected to decrease in FY 2024-25, that revenue is projected to increase $6.9 million to $149.8 million from $142.9.
“[This is] specifically due to the growth in the property values,” Sibley said.
What you need to know
Sibley said when state and federal funds are included, the total FY 2024-25 estimated revenue is $178.4 million. That number represents a $4.9 million increase from FY 2023-24's $173.5 million revenue amount.
He said state funding has not increased since 2019, which has been an issue in districts across the state, especially due to significant inflation in recent years.
Sibley stressed to the board that these projections are preliminary.
“There’s still a lot of moving pieces as far as the timeline goes,” Sibley said. “As we get closer to the adoption of the budget in June, we will continue to make adjustments to these projections.”
This item was for informational purposes only. No action was taken by the board.
