GCISD CFO outlines 2025‑26 budget scenarios, warns of possible $1.5M shortfall under current law

David Johnson, the district chief financial officer, told the Grapevine‑Colleyville Independent School District Board of Trustees on April 14 that the district's budgeting process for fiscal 2025‑26 is operating under tight statewide pressures and that multiple revenue scenarios will materially affect next year’s bottom line.

Johnson said the district adopted a balanced budget for the year ended June 30, 2024, but subsequent changes in TEA templates reduced expected hold‑harmless funding tied to over‑65 homestead exemptions by about $2 million; flood‑control receipts the district received this year offset that change. He said 84% of district operating funding comes from the state’s formula and that the district currently budgets a little more than $140 million in total revenue for 2025‑26.

The CFO described a two‑day, line‑by‑line 0‑based budgeting review with the district’s executive team and said staffing accounts for about 87% of expenditures. Using conservative assumptions, Johnson projected the district would be near the adopted budget for the current year but estimated a potential…