The Grapevine-Colleyville ISD school board is gearing up for the upcoming 2019-20 school year by beginning to prepare for its budget. Board members approved parameters to guide the six-month budget-planning process during the Feb. 11 board meeting.

“One of the first things that we do is approve the rules, or the parameters, by which we will build the budget,” GCISD Superintendent Robin Ryan said. “This is a template for us to build the budget.”

These parameters guide budget development by making calculations that consider projected student enrollment, property tax values, historical data and cost-of-living adjustments for GCISD employees, according to an emailed statement from the school district. Projected enrollment and tax collections are also used to estimate state funding.

The preliminary budget is based on current state funding formula, GCISD Chief Financial Officer DaiAnn Mooney said. However, as the Legislature is currently in session, these parameters or assumptions may change as school funding bills pass.

The approved parameters include estimated data, including:

• enrollment of approximately 13,020 students, excluding GCISD’s online school iUniversity Prep;
• enrollment of approximately 895 at iUniversity Prep;
• state funding of $200 per capita;
• a 5 percent increase in local taxable value and 8.5 percent increase in property value growth;
• an allotment $1 million from federal flood-control revenue; and
• a 1 percent reduction in payroll budget.

GCISD will also base the upcoming budget on the current maintenance and operations tax rate of $1.04 per $100 taxable value and will consider potential cost-of-living adjustments for employees, according to meeting documents.

“Approving these [parameters] tonight does not mean they cannot change, so along the way as we get into the process, if we see that we need to make adjustments to these [parameters], they’ll be discussed in future budget workshops,” Mooney said.

The district will provide updated information in the next several months before it adopts the budget in June, according to GCISD’s budget-development process.