Plano ISD officials project $44.8M budget shortfall for FY 2026-27

“Plano ISD’s budget challenges are not a result of fiscal mismanagement,” Chief Financial Officer Courtney Reeves said. “The challenges we face are from a funding system that has not kept pace with inflation, rising operating costs and increased state requirements.”

The district has been operating on a budget shortfall for years, per previous reporting. Reeves said the district has mitigated its shortfalls by optimizing and restructuring the district’s facilities for current enrollment trends, managing vacancies while minimizing impact to current employees, reducing discretionary spending and evaluating programs for the highest impact for students.

Dig deeper

Reeves said there are six state mandated programs that are not fully funded by the state:

• Special education
• Student transportation
• Safety and security
• Gifted and talented
• Pre-K
• Dyslexia

“These are, by law, things that we need to provide our students to be successful, and there just literally is not enough funding,” board Secretary Katherine Chan Goodwin said.

Reeves added that the district has seen significant growth in costs for employee compensation, utilities, contracted services, insurance premiums, software costs, instructional materials and fuel. She said employee compensation costs have increased by $76.3 million since 2019.

“This growing gap between revenue and expenditure growth places increasing pressure on our district’s finances,” Reeves said.

Looking ahead

The district is proposing a tax rate of $1.03275 per $100 valuation for FY 2027-28. The tax rate is made up of a maintenance and operations tax rate, which is used to fund school operations, of $0.7954 per $100 valuation and an interest and sinking rate, which helps repay debt, of $0.23735 per $100 valuation.

Reeves said the district will likely receive its certified property values at the end of July to calculate and finalize the tax rate for adoption in August.