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Trustees for the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) approved on Monday a $541 million operating budget for the 2025-2026 school year.
That would have put the district’s expenditures nearly $47 million over its expected revenue if the new school funding law House Bill 2 hadn’t passed.
District officials asked the board to approve next year’s budget under the old law in order to give them more time to assess how the new funding allotments will impact their bottom line.
Depending on which estimate they look at, SAISD officials expect HB 2 will shrink next year’s deficit down to somewhere between $33 million and $25 million.
But regardless of the deficit amount, the district will once again draw from a Strategic Initiatives Fund to make up the difference without dipping into the district’s main reserves, known as the fund balance.
“We are in better shape than many districts because of our strategic decision to save some of the [Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief] funds, because we knew, if not, we would [be having] a very different conversation right now,” Superintendent Jaime Aquino said.
Over the course of the three-year federal ESSER COVID recovery grant, SAISD added money to the Strategic Initiative Fund and the district’s Fund Balance. The district’s six-year plan calls for SAISD to slowly draw down those extra funds every year until 2028, giving district officials more time to make budget cuts.
SAISD CFO Dottie Carreon said the district’s fund balance has held steady at $158.9 million since last summer, and it won’t be touched next year either. That gives SAISD a healthy 3.5 months of operating expenses in the fund balance, well above the threshold of concern from the Texas Education Agency.
Trustees are slated to vote July 14 on an amendment to the budget that will include the additional revenue provided by HB 2 and the teacher pay raise required by the law.
“The new classroom teacher pay schedule will be brought to you in July. It will be, hopefully, approved and implemented before the teacher would be due to receive their first paycheck in August,” Carreon said.
SAISD already adopted a 3% minimum raise in April, so only teachers with at least three years of experience will get an extra pay bump in July.
