Plano ISD is anticipating a $44 million deficit budget for fiscal year 2026-27, Chief Financial Officer Courtney Reeves said during a May 6 board of trustees meeting.
The big picture
District staff is expecting around $561.9 million in expenditures and $517.1 million in net revenue. PISD’s expenditures are projected to decrease by $3.99 million from last fiscal year, but revenues are expected to decrease by more than $14.5 million.
Reeves attributed that decrease largely to declining enrollment and recapture, a program that reallocates tax revenue from property-rich districts to those the state deems property-poor.
PISD is expected to lose 2,008 students next school year, which will cut into state funding determined by enrollment. The district’s recapture bill is expected to be $132.54 million, a $14 million increase from FY 2025-26.
Diving deeper
PISD’s department budget is set to rise by 0.2% from 2025-26 to the next fiscal year. That’s the lowest year-over-year increase since FY 2021-22.
The largest areas of saving for the district will come from decreases of $535,663 and $508,975 in custodial costs and in-school support service costs, respectively, according to district documents. Reeves said counseling and guidance services previously provided by an outside firm will now be delivered directly by district staff.
Reeves also said the district will have savings from decreased employee travel and the use of alternative funding sources.
PISD is anticipating higher costs for summer school, as programs will now be offered at three high schools instead of just one to “improve accessibility,” Reeves said.
The district will also spend more on communications and marketing to increase efforts to recruit and retain students. Reeves said staff anticipates a return on investment for that spending.
Looking ahead
Deputy Superintendent Johnny Hill said that PISD has run a deficit balance “for years.”
“We’ve had a deficit for years, but I would not call that a structural deficit,” he said. “A structural deficit means we have to change the structure of our budget accordingly.”
He added that for the first time in the last five or six years, staff is needing to consider significant changes.
“We’re needing to look at the actual structural components of our budgets and make some significant changes going forward if we continue to lose students at the rate that we have,” Hill said. “To make significant inroads into the structural deficit, you eventually need to look at programs and staffing. ... Our percentage of decrease in students we’ve almost mirrored exactly in our decrease in teaching staff. It’s the support stuff that we would need to go back and look at.”
PISD’s board approved the district's new compensation plan in March and is expected to adopt the final 2026-27 budget in June.
