Current situation
According to district documents, the proposed 2025-26 budget is roughly $297.7 million, a $22.1 million reduction from the 2024-25 budget of $319.8 million.
During the presentation, district officials laid out the assumptions that underpin the proposed 2026-26 budget, including a 93.5% attendance rate, with a refined average daily attendance of 91,500 students.
District officials said the budget includes a 10% budget cut through a $10.2 million reduction to department budgets, with the staffing budget shaped around an estimated 94% fill rate.
“[District officials] used [staffing numbers from] April 30, 2025, and looked at the fill rates of all the different departments, and, on average, that fill rate was 94%, so that is the average we're using,” Megan Bradley, NISD deputy superintendent for business and finance, said. "We do not use 94% across the board ... so I want the board to understand that there is a slight risk in that if we have a fill rate that's higher than those percentages that we'll need to add money to the budget as expenditures."
District officials said the budget assumptions were built on a zero-based budgeting method after the 10% budget cuts. Zero-based budgeting requires departments to build their budgets from scratch and demonstrate the need for each budget item and expenditure.
Other notable assumptions include an estimated 3% property value increase and a 2% effective taxable value decrease. According to NISD documents, the district will not have excess local revenue and will not send money back to the state during the 2025-26 school year.
District officials also noted that key planning assumptions for the 2025-26 school year project are designed to reduce NISD’s deficit from $101 million to $91 million.
District officials said they cut 414 teaching positions and 85 non-teacher positions through attrition, and not layoffs.
“[NISD does] not expect to reduce teachers further than [the cuts already made],” a district official said.
District officials recommended implementing a hiring freeze and reviewing vacant positions. During the freeze, NISD officials could examine whether or not the position could be absorbed and if reorganization would make NISD more efficient. In light of the cuts already made, district officials suggested taking a “scalpel approach” rather than a “hatchet approach” for any future job cuts to ensure that the cuts do not cause major issues for students or staff members.
Looking ahead
NISD will hold a public hearing on the district’s adoption of the budget and tax rate Aug. 26.
