Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
CFB ISD staff outline 2025–26 budget priorities, call for 10% reductions over two years
Summary
At a budget workshop, Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD staff told trustees the district faces a roughly $19 million shortfall and proposed cuts that fold payroll into campus reductions, preserve safety investments and delay teacher pay increases until legislative guidance is clear.
Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD staff told trustees at a budget workshop that the district faces an approximately $19,000,000 shortfall and are recommending a two-year plan that would require a total of 10% reductions in campus and department budgets — 5% this year and 5% next year — with payroll included in the reductions.
The recommendation matters because staff said state changes and an audit of School Health and Related Services (SHARS) reimbursements have compressed available revenue and removed ESSER federal funds as a fallback. ‘‘We asked them to cut 10 — 5% this year and 5% next year,’’ a finance staff member said during the workshop, explaining that payroll is now part of the budgeting envelope and vacancies will be examined closely.
Staff presented the board’s previously stated priorities as the lens for reductions: (1) salaries and compensation, (2) long-term financial stability and resource allocation, (3) safety and security, (4) technology (under review, plan through 2027), and (5) capital improvements and maintenance, including buses and district fleet. The presentation noted that recurring costs such as campus security and digital protections are treated as baseline needs rather than discretionary cuts.
Trustees and staff debated which items should be treated as recurring baseline costs and which should be budget-defining if additional funds are available. Several trustees argued safety, basic technology replacements and transportation are ongoing expectations; others said one-time bond-funded projects (fences, cameras, facility upgrades) should be disentangled from recurring security staffing and software costs. Trustee discussion also emphasized creating replacement cycles for facilities and equipment so major purchases do not cluster in a single year.
Staff detailed revenue pressures that informed the plan: TEA-required coding for SHARS was audited back to 2011 and the district — like many in Texas — was penalized for coding errors, resulting in reduced reimbursements and future cost-report changes. Staff also said teacher pay increases suggested in state budget predictions could be largely constrained by statutory allocations (e.g., required portions of an increase directed to particular employee groups), so the district plans to delay providing an unspecified teacher salary increase until legislative guidance is final.
Administrators said campuses should implement reductions primarily through attrition where possible, and that a district hiring freeze has been used to restrain spending. They also flagged that ESSER funds are no longer available. Staff said they will use conservative budget assumptions, hold off on committing to teacher salary increases until legislation is final, and present a first draft of the 2025–26 budget at the May budget work session driven by the priorities trustees set at the workshop.
Ending: Staff will return a draft budget to the board in May and continue work on staffing ratios, campus allocations and a replacement schedule for capital assets; trustees asked staff to present clearer replacement cycles and to separate bond-funded capital projects from recurring operating costs in future reports.
