Business officials at New Braunfels and Comal school districts are worried that within the next four years they could begin eating away at their reserves by several million dollars.
According to Randy Moczygemba, the Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations at New Braunfels ISD, this is the first year the district’s revenue might not equal expenditure.
The Assistant Superintendent for Business Services at Comal ISD, Debra Smith, said the worry comes from the revenue target designated by the state.
She said based on figures from the 2005 to 2006 school year, Texas gives each school district a set dollar amount for Average Daily Attendance of students in the districts, or ADA. Comal receives $5,460 per student and New Braunfels ISD gets $5,014.
Districts receive a special weighted ADA for students in programs that cost extra such as agriculture or computer science, which Moczygemba explained is how the state-funded portion of districts’ budgets are determined.
“New Braunfels ISD was expecting a 3 percent increase, or about 220 students coming in,” he said. “Historically, Texas schools experience a 1.4 percent decrease between October and the end of the school year.”
He said NBISD has had about a 3.5 percent increase so far this school year, but fears the anticipated 1.4 percent drop would reduce the district’s revenue below the amount projected in the budget, causing it to dip into the fund balance to cover expenditures.
“Currently, we have about $23 million in our fund balance — we’ve put about $2 million in every year,” he said. “If we keep spending like this, it could be depleted by 50 percent in the next four years, and if things don’t change, in eight years, we’ll be looking at $0.”
Smith said Comal ISD has about $52 million in its fund balance.
“We could potentially dip into this fund balance in the 2009 to 2010 school year. In four years, we could definitely start dipping heavily into it,” she said.
She said so far this school year, student numbers are higher than the projections by the district’s demographers.
“The state isn’t factoring in the raising of teachers salaries, which is required by law,” said Moczygemba, “not to mention the higher costs of utilities, the rising cost of operations and fluctuating prices of fuel. We just keep getting the same amount.”
He said aside from turning the air conditioning on an hour later, there aren’t many options the districts have to save money.
The school board was allowed to raise the tax rate by four cents per $1, he said. They have the option to raise the tax rate four more cents, but it has to be put to a vote. Out of 56 Texas school districts that attempted this, only about half were passed by voters.
Another option he discussed was allowing parents to vote from a menu with items the district could cut to save money.
“The best thing parents can do now is to contact their representatives,” said Smith. “People need to understand that even as taxes and appraisals increase, the district isn’t seeing any benefit — all the money is going to the state.”
This is not just a local problem. According to Moczygemba, several districts around Texas are experiencing budgetary problems.
He said Dallas already laid off several hundred employees and other districts are looking at potential bankruptcy in just the next two or three years.
School finance could be raised by the Texas legistlature when it reconvenes in January.
