The overview
The board unanimously approved the budget during an Aug. 15 board meeting.
- Total revenue and expenditures for FY 2023-24 is $672.77 million.
- There is a $49.46 million projected expenditure increase that included personnel growth, portable buildings and inflation adjustment.
- The budget does not include a salary increase.
- The district approved using federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds to provide a one-time teacher stipend during an Aug. 1 meeting.
The Texas 88th Legislature has not yet provided funding for teacher pay raises. However, officials in some neighboring districts in Montgomery and Harris counties opted to provide raises and approve budgets with shortfalls in FY 2023-24 while others approved a balanced budget but left out teacher raises.
- Cy-Fair ISD approved a budget with a $138.6 million projected shortfall that included a 3% teacher raise.
- Montgomery ISD approved an $87.8 million balanced budget with a $1,300 raise for teachers.
- Magnolia ISD is projecting a $134.18 million balanced budget without teacher pay raises included.
- Spring ISD approved a budget with a $25.4 million shortfall that included a one-time $10.6 million teacher retention package.
"We've seen districts adopt [these deficits], so we might have people wondering why we don't support that," Trustee Stacey Chase said. "Adopting a deficit budget would significantly put our ability to remain solvent long term at risk and would not be a fiscally responsible thing to do."
Related highlights
The board of trustees also approved the tax rate for FY 2023-24 during the Aug. 15 meeting.
- The FY 2023-24 tax rate is $0.9621 per $100 valuation.
- That is a $0.1525 decrease from the last fiscal year.
- If the nearly $2 billion bond referendum is passed Nov. 7, the tax rate could be $0.02 higher.
