At its July meeting the Crowley School Board adopted a $91,581,918 operating budget for fiscal year 2025–26 and approved final revisions to the 2024–25 budget.

The action matters because district staff said the budget responds to a three‑year trend of declining general‑fund revenue and includes a projected deficit of $659,856 for the coming year, raising questions about near‑term spending and reserves.

Justin Carrier, a staff member who presented the budget, told the board the district is on a three‑year trend of declining general‑fund revenue and laid out recent and projected figures. “Your 23‑24 actual numbers for your revenue … was $92,732,913,” Carrier said. He said the district projected revenues of $91,404,396 for 2024–25 and is projecting $90,922,062 for 2025–26. “We're projecting expenditures of $91,581,918 for a deficit of $659,856,” Carrier said.

Carrier said the district closed 2023–24 with a modest surplus but that an unexpected invoice from the Crowley High HVAC project — a roughly $500,000 bill that arrived in June — pushed the most recent fiscal year toward deficit spending. Carrier also attributed part of the revenue decline to lower indirect‑cost recoveries from federal programs: “we went from taking in about 2,000,000 a year … and now we're only taking in around 750,000,” he said.

Carrier told the board the budget includes expenditure reductions and one‑time savings that helped limit the shortfall, including a roughly 20% reduction in property‑insurance costs (about $400,000) and a 5% reduction in health‑insurance costs (about $550,000). He said the district still carries about $1.3 million remaining in the construction account for the Crowley High HVAC project; that amount is included in the deficit estimate.

Board members opened a required public hearing on the 2025–26 budget; no members of the public offered comments. The board then adopted the operating‑budget resolution on a motion by Mr. Higginbotham, seconded by Mr. Jones; the motion carried.

Separately, the board adopted final revisions to the 2024–25 general‑fund budget. Carrier said the revisions reflect midyear adjustments the board had previously approved and that the district expects to finish the year close to a balanced position once final accounting is complete in September.

Discussion at the meeting also touched on the pending release of Title funding allocations. Carrier said state and federal guidance has been released in part and that the district expects more detail in an August 2 webinar. “They will release the funding. We just don't know what our actual funding is gonna be,” he said.

The board voted to adopt the 2025–26 operating budget and to approve the final 2024–25 revisions; those motions carried unanimously.

The district’s books will remain open until September, when staff expect to finalize the 2024–25 closeout and return with further detail if adjustments are needed.