Sunday, May 19, 2024
What a difference a year makes. After the Gatesville Independent School District faced a significant budget crunch in 2022 that resulted in nearly every department having to make sacrifices, the district is back on track with a much better situation in 2023.
Darrell Frazier, the district's chief financial officer, presented an update to the GISD Board of Trustees on June 19 and gave an overview of the budget situation for the upcoming school year. He said he had also been keeping a close watch on any actions the Texas Legislature might make that would impact GISD.
"It's been a topsy turvy legislature session and quite frankly we didn't know where it was going," Frazier said. "Now that it's over, we'll pick up the pieces and go on. We started working on the budget (for the 2023-24 fiscal year) in February and have worked on it for several months."
On the expense side, the district anticipates spending about $900,000 more in personnel costs, which includes raises for staff as well as automatic increases in going from one step (year of service) to the next.
Increased insurance costs both in property/casualty and for employee premiums will also impact the district's budget. The increase in cost for property/casualty insurance will be about $70,000.
Another expense the district is expected to incur is about $110,000 for the purchase of a new school bus.
"It's important to upgrade our aging fleet," Frazier said.
A bit of good news is that the district won't be dealing with the $1 million shortfall it experienced a year ago. That shortfall was caused when the district had to reimburse the state for overpayments it had received previously.
"That was a big hit for the current fiscal year," Frazier said. "It was very tough putting together a budget last year when we were having to pay back $1 million to the state."
The district will have to cover a $100,000 deficit for food services, but that will be offset by "a significant fund balance" for that department, Frazier said.
One of the biggest challenges for the district is regarding its enrollment, which has dropped steadily over the past several years. Maximizing attendance helps to offset some of those losses — an area in which the district made significant progress for 2022-23, Frazier said.
"The big thing is enrollment and attendance," he said. "This past school year attendance was in the 94% range, and it had been about 91% the year before. That makes a big difference in our funding.
"Enrollment at the end of the school year hit the lowest on record — we hope that will stop."
Enrollment for GISD topped out in 2010 and has gone down each year since.
Superintendent Barrett Pollard attributed that to multiple factors, including "low birth rates, we're not quite close enough to (Interstate) 35 and there is some loss to homeschooling."
"COVID also made a dent," Frazier added.
Despite all the challenges, Frazier said the budget picture looks good for the upcoming fiscal year, especially when compared to the difficulties faced a year ago.
"We're presenting a balanced budget to you, and with the surplus we'll have in the I&S (interest and sinking fund, which relates to debt), I recommend that we use that to pay down bond debt.
"It's a much better looking budget than a year ago, and we were sweating bullets looking at what the Legislature might do."
Despite the state having a healthy budget surplus and talk of giving extra funding to school districts, no additional funds were appropriated for schools, Pollard said.
"The state did absolutely nothing with the $33 billion surplus," he said. "There was a lot of talk about funds being provided for teacher raises, but nothing happened.
The GISD school board will finalize the amount of the 2023-24 fiscal year budget later this summer, when the district receives final property values from the Coryell County and Bell County Central Appraisal Districts.
At first glance, based on preliminary property values, the district expects about a 14% increase in taxable values for the upcoming fiscal year.
