The NBISD board of trustees passed a balanced general fund budget with total revenues and expenditures both at $110.2 million. An additional $3 million in expenditures was added to the budget as a result of House Bill 2 teacher allotment mandates, while another $783,850 was allocated toward additional salary increases.
HB 2, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 4, mandates a $2,500 raise for classroom teachers with three to four years of experience. The bill also requires a $5,000 raise for classroom teachers with five or more years of experience.
However, HB 2 only covers employees under the Texas Education Code definition of “classroom teacher,” which is an educator who “teaches in an academic instructional setting or a career and technology instructional setting” for at least four hours each day on average.
This definition excludes NBISD positions such as librarians and special education facilitators, according to a news release. To compensate, the district provided a 2% pay scale median increase of $1,261 for all teachers in the approved 2025-26 compensation plan.
“It’s an attempt to really provide some equity and include a group that wasn’t included in the original teacher retention allotment,” Chief Human Resources Officer Maximilian Flores said.
Under the compensation plan, eligible teachers in their third and fourth years will receive a $1,261 increase plus a $1,239 payment via the HB 2-mandated raise for a total increase of $2,500. Eligible teachers with five or more years of experience will receive an additional payment of $3,739 from the mandates, the release states.
Eligible auxiliary and paraprofessional staff will receive an additional 2% raise for a total of a 4% raise in 2025-26. According to the district website, paraprofessionals include positions like classroom aides and administrative support, while auxiliary staff handles district maintenance tasks like plumbing and electrical work.
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Nearly two-thirds of the district’s 2025-26 general fund revenues come from property taxes, with the remainder made up of state and federal aid and other local funding, according to agenda documents.
State aid is determined by average daily attendance in the district, not just enrollment. NBISD Director of Financial Services Jose Betancourt said the district’s attendance rate during the 2024-25 school year was 94.8%, up 0.6% from 2023-24.
“[The increase] was pretty good. We’re edging up closer to that 95% goal we’ve been setting the past two years, so we’re making some progress there,” Betancourt said.
According to agenda documents, general fund revenues pay for “daily operational costs to educate all children,” ranging from instructional resources and curriculum to health services and school transportation.
Aside from salary increases, another added expenditure to the budget was an increase in several items due to inflation, such as a $250,000 jump in Property and Casualty Insurance. According to Allstate, insurance protects the district against property loss like natural disasters and can provide the district liability coverage if found responsible for injury of others
“Inflation’s been a huge game-changer the past couple [of] years. [The 2025-26 school year] will not be any different,” Betancourt said.
Next steps
The board will adopt the tax rate on August 18, with the estimated proposed rate at 1.0789 as of the June 16 board meeting. Betancourt said the rate at the moment is an “educated guess.”
If approved, the 1.0789 tax rate would be an increase from the FY 2024-25 tax rate of 1.0377. The 1.0789 rate is the highest the district can adopt before requiring voter approval.
