What to know
CISD Chief Financial Officer Karen Garza presented projections to the board and discussed the challenges of formulating the budget due to:
- The impact of possible legislation during the current legislative year
- The current budget deficit of $11.9 million
- Unknown impact of possible education savings accounts being discussed by the Texas Legislature
- The need to support the growing special education population
“Depending on what happens with the education savings accounts, we don’t know what kind of impact that it will have on our enrollment, so we’re kind of having to plan around that,” Garza said.
House Bill 3 would create state-run education savings accounts, which families could use to pay for private school tuition and other educational expenses, such as textbooks or transportation, Community Impact previously reported.
Garza said the estimated projected student enrollment for 2025-26 is 73,500 students with a daily attendance rate of 93%, as the district is being conservative with the enrollment projections.
As the property value rate has yet to be determined, Garza gave a projected tax rate of $0.9348 per $100 valuation, down slightly from the $0.9447 per $100 valuation projection she provided in December. The 2024-25 tax rate is $0.9496 per $100 valuation.
The breakdown
The current projected 2025-26 fiscal year budget includes:
- Estimated total revenue: $719.30 million
- Estimated total expenditures: $724.06 million
- Estimated budget shortfall: $4.76 million
The regular CISD meeting will be held April 15 at 6 p.m. at the Deane L. Sadler Administration Building at 3205 W. Davis St. in Conroe. The meeting will also be available for livestream.
