Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the district announced plans to increase school lunch prices during the budget workshop. The final approval occurred May 18.
As Georgetown ISD officials explored budget scenarios and changes to compensation during a May 4 meeting, the district confirmed school meal prices are set to increase by 10 and 50 cents for breakfast and lunch, respectively.
The details
District officials said increasing the cost of meals would generate $250,000 in additional revenue to help cover food service costs, along with other expenses such as shared operating costs and utilities.
Currently, breakfast at GISD elementary schools costs $2.05 while lunch costs $2.30. The same meals are priced at $3.30 and $3.55 for secondary schools, respectively.
“The general fund is subsidizing food service this year about [$800,000],” GISD Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Adix said. “The intent is to, in the next couple of years, get us to where the food service pays its fair cost of the shared operating cost.”
Students receiving free or reduced-price meals will not be affected by the increases, according to Adix.
The set up
During the meeting, GISD considered various budget options for the upcoming fiscal year. The first three were all calculated without a voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, in mind.
In the first scenario, teachers and staff would not receive pay increases. Under this plan, the district would face a $1.1 million shortfall.
Scenario B would cost the district about $725,000 by including pay increases for a range of positions. Specifically, $90,000 would be allocated toward increases for employees who are being compensated at about 85% of market rates to bring their compensation up to the 90th percentile.
Part of the district’s planned spending would allocate $100,000 toward pay increases for bus drivers. Unlike neighboring districts, which guarantee drivers six to eight hours of work, GISD guarantees only five hours of drive time. According to district officials, this increase would help improve recruitment while clarifying the district's budget.
“We're not working that money into our budget because we're calculating our number of employees at five hours, but they're driving more than that,” Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Amanda Johnson said.
This scenario also proposed raising pay for substitute teachers, nurses and counselors to market rates.
As part of its proposed budget increase under Scenario B, the district would allocate $350,000 to teacher step increases. GISD expects some state-funded teacher pay increases through the Teacher Retention Allotment. However, district officials said those increases would only increase the compensation for specific levels, which would create similar levels of compensation at different steps. By allocating the $350,000, GISD could create a standard step increase for the district.
Overall, Scenario B would result in a $1.8 million shortfall.
Scenario C would incorporate all the elements of Scenario B, along with a 1% increase in the compensation of teachers and hourly employees. This scenario would amount to a $2.18 million shortfall.
Scenario D—the sole scenario to consider a VATRE—would raise teacher compensation by 3%, and all other staff would receive a 2% adjustment or to market rates. This scenario would cost over $4.7 million.
Under Scenario D, employees would receive retroactive compensation if voters approve a VATRE in November.
Next steps
According to district documents, GISD will approve compensation May 18, while the 2026-2027 budget will be adopted June 15.
All of the proposed budgets would take effect in July.
