Lamar CISD officials are expecting to have a balanced budget for the 2026-27 school year, Chief Financial Officer Greg Buchanan said at an April 21 board of trustees meeting.
Current situation
Fiscal year 2025-26, which Buchanan said was only 10 months to account for the amount of expenditures and savings, will see a total of $534.6 million in revenue, which was $1.2 million less than what was calculated.
However, Buchanan said salaries, along with campus and department expenditures, all came in below budget, bringing $12 million in savings for the district.
When those savings are combined with the decreased revenue, Buchanan said $10.8 million will be added to LCISD’s updated $106 million fund balance.
Zooming in
For the 2026-27 budget outlook, the board finance committee decided to proceed with a 3% property growth and low enrollment projection option that accommodates 50,307 students with an expected $562.7 million in revenue.
The committee also proposed giving teachers a 3% raise—or $2,200—as well as increasing starting teachers' salaries to $68,900.
Buchanan said the 3% option will require $11.6 million in funding and is consistent with what has been given in the past.
What they’re sayingAs several neighboring districts, such as Fort Bend ISD and Cy-Fair ISD, face budget shortfalls, Buchanan said he determined that it comes down to personnel.
With 83% of LCISD’s budget going toward personnel, Buchanan said it’s important for staffing to correlate with enrollment growth.
“As enrollment growth goes up or goes down, staffing would change according to the number of students,” he said.
Next steps
Trustees will set the proposed 2026-27 tax rate as well as determine when the budget and tax rate public meeting will take place at an upcoming May 19 meeting, officials said. The budget is scheduled to be adopted in June, and the tax rate will be finalized in August.
