Southside ISD finance chief warns budget shortfall as SHARS funding falls short

Southside ISD’s finance chief told the board Monday the district’s projected revenue will be difficult to reach this year after expected SHARS (State Health and Related Services) reimbursements did not materialize as budgeted, contributing to a shift to a deficit budget.

Carlos Corrales, the district’s finance director, reviewed March financial statements and said the district’s adopted annual revenue target of about $71,000,000 is unlikely to be met given the SHARS shortfall. “That’s gonna be a tough number to hit this year,” Corrales said.

Corrales said the board adopted a deficit budget increase of roughly $566,000 to cover one-time stipends and track repairs. He noted the district added about $3,200,000 to last year’s budgeted fund balance, which allowed some flexibility this year. Monthly expenditures have been declining by design — January spending was about $5,200,000; February about $5,900,000; and March about $5,100,000, he said.

On food service, Corrales reported about $5.6 million in actual revenue against a $5.3 million budgeted figure; he cautioned that food-service revenue typically falls in summer months while payroll remains annualized. For debt service, he said the district has recorded roughly $8.3 million in revenue so far against $6 million in bond payments; with an estimated $6 million in fund balance at year-end, the district could use available funds to defease or prepay about $8 million in bonds, subject to financial-adviser analysis and board approval.

Corrales reiterated the district’s conservative approach to spending: “Our goal is still to try to stay as conservative as we can possibly be and stay on whatever our revenue number comes in.” He said staff will work with the financial adviser and return to the board with detailed proposals before executing early-payoff steps.

Board members asked follow-up questions and took no separate action on the financial overview at the meeting.