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Fort Bend ISD’s yearly tax bill is projected to decrease by $84 for the 2026-27 school year, district officials confirmed.
The details
Chief Financial Officer Bryan Guinn told the board May 11 that the combined tax rate for the 2026-27 school year is predicted to go down $0.06 to almost $1 per $100 valuation.
By factoring in the tax rate decrease and the average Fort Bend ISD home value, expected to increase by $8,739, the yearly tax bill is expected to be $84 less than that in 2025-26.
Additionally, the tax rate is estimated to be lower than neighboring school districts, including Cy-Fair, Lamar Consolidated and Katy ISDs.
Also of note
Deputy Superintendent of Operations Kathleen Brown said that although first-year teachers’ base pay is less than what other nearby districts offer—by including both the lowest and highest cost health plans available and Teacher Retirement System fees—Fort Bend ISD teachers’ net pay from different years of teaching experience comes out to be more than two unnamed districts a majority of the time.
Diving deeper
Meanwhile, Guinn said the cost of the targeted compensation adjustments has increased to $6.5 million, compared to $6.1 million from the May 4 agenda review meeting, due to the district increasing compensation adjustments for counselors, nurses and athletics.
Guinn recommended proceeding with paying $1.7 million for increasing starting pay, monitor pay and sign-on bonuses for bus drivers and monitors, due to the district having problems filling those roles.
In a change from the most recent meeting, Guinn said he now favors a financial scenario that contains funding compensation commitments already budgeted, such as differentiated teacher step raises and Year 2 of the one-time appreciation supplement, as well as using $1.7 million from $7.2 million in land sale funds to pay for the bus drivers and monitor pay incentives. This scenario would meet the 90-day operating reserve benchmark.
The board can still amend the budget in the future to help cover the other targeted compensation adjustments when funds become available.
Next steps
The board is preparing to vote on the budget in June and the tax rate in September, officials said.
Also on the agenda
During the meeting, Beth Martinez, FBISD’s deputy superintendent chief of staff, also gave an update to the board on the district’s secondary school long-range boundary planning process.
Martinez said group meetings have already been held to gather information and share ideas to bring to the secondary boundary advisory committee, which now has a full roster after the board approved 11 new members to join.
Although FBISD’s primary school long-range boundary planning resulted in the closure of seven elementary schools, Martinez said the purpose of the secondary long-range boundary planning is to address overutilization at Stephen F. Austin, Lawrence E. Elkins, and William B. Travis high schools, along with reviewing feeder pattern reviews
Final recommendations for secondary school boundaries are scheduled to be given in September or October.
