Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD likely won't avert a budget deficit for the 2025-26 school year -- even with the Texas Legislature's proposed increases to public education funding.
Projections presented to trustees in late February show the district heading toward a $10 million deficit. For the third year in a row, the growing school district in northwest Fort Worth faces more cuts and further depleted reserves.
"There is no shortage of cash in Austin," Superintendent Jerry Hollingsworth said, referring to the state's $24 billion surplus. "We're talking about a third round of budget cuts in our school district. This is nothing but a manufactured crisis just for politics."
Chief Financial Officer Robb Welch is keeping tabs on legislators' plans for increasing the state's per-student funding. However, he is not incorporating any increase in state funding into the budget he is building.
Texas provides $6,160 per student to school districts. The House proposed bumping that amount up $220 to $6,380 per student. Increased funding likely comes with the introduction of a voucherlike program expanding private school choice through the use of taxpayer dollars.
To keep pace with inflation and enrollment growth, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD would need the state to increase per-student funding by $1,340, according to district estimates.
"We are a long cry from those funding levels in 2019," Welch said, referring to the last time the Legislature increased public education funding.
Expenditures are anticipated to rise for the new school year, Welch said. They include:
Welch also took into account nearly $14 million in cuts from the past two budgets. Previous cuts included reassigning central office administrators, increasing elementary class sizes, reducing the number of college and career readiness counselors and eliminating 59 lunch monitor positions.
The district plans to use its $70 million in reserves to cover the shortfall. That is expected to leave $60 million, or enough to cover about 88 days of operating costs.
"With that realization, we know that we may have another layer of trimming for our budget," Welch said.
A community-led committee will meet throughout the budget building process to review the budget and think of potential ways to cut the budget. The committee features teachers, coaches and other district staff as well as parents and community members.
Some of the committee's ideas are expected to be presented during a school board budget workshop March 11, Welch said.