The board of trustees for the Northside Independent School District voted on Tuesday to approve a $93.8 million deficit budget.
District officials told trustees they expect revenue for the general fund to top out at just over $1 billion this school year, but they’re planning to spend about $94 million more than that.
Many districts across Texas and San Antonio passed deficit budgets this school year. Costs have increased significantly since 2019 due to inflation, but state funding has stayed flat.
North East ISD passed a budget with a $62.5 million deficit, and San Antonio ISD plans to spend $53.7 million more than expected revenue.
Northside is San Antonio’s largest school district, with around 100,000 students.
Trustee Carol Harle said the board made a tough budget year harder by asking to give staff a retention bonus and a 2% raise. “It angers me that we couldn't squeeze out anymore,” Harle said. “We care so much about our employees and our educators and just wish there was more in the way of financial compensation to give them.”
Harle said that frustration will fuel her efforts to convince state lawmakers to increase funding for public education when the legislative session starts in January.
Superintendent John Craft said state lawmakers made it hard for districts to pass balanced budgets because they failed to pass legislation to increase funding last session.
“It was probably one of the more challenging budgets to put together,” Craft said. “This upcoming one I would love to be able to say is going to be less challenging, but I'm not going to say that. I'm afraid that the really difficult one is knocking at the door right now.”
Rene Barajas, the district’s deputy superintendent of business and finance, compared creating the budget to running a marathon.
“We're at mile 26.1. We started in January, so we're tired. Toenails are bleeding, chafing in areas that decorum prevents me from mentioning. We want to put this one to bed. This is a tough one,” Barajas said.
Trustee Karen Freeman thanked district staff for including a graph in their presentation that showed the property tax rate for operating expenses has decreased 35% since 2015, largely due to changes in state law.
“It is always good for our community to know that that the M&O tax rate has gone down 35% in the last 10 years,” Freeman said. “That's an incredible amount regarding where our tax rate has gone.”
Freeman also told the superintendent that it’s not sustainable to keep passing deficit budgets.
“No, it's not,” Craft said, adding that Northside will have to start taking a hard look at its priorities and continue advocating for increased state funding.
When property values rise in Texas, schools don’t get more money. The amount of funding schools get is decided by the state, and when more of that funding is collected from local sources, the state reduces how much it contributes.
Northside trustees also approved the final budget amendment for the 2023-2024 school year Tuesday. The final amendment decreased the district's deficit for last year to $52.1 million.
School districts dip into their reserves to pay for deficits, most often from an account called a fund balance. The Texas Education Agency recommends districts keep three months of expenses in their fund balance at all times.
