Lake Travis ISD finance and human resources staff presented a preliminary 2025'26 operating budget and staffing update at the board's regular meeting, saying the district will approve a final budget in August after state guidance is issued.

Pam, a district staff member presenting the budget overview, told trustees the presentation used "current law" because legislative funding changes from the session that concluded this week had not yet been approved by the governor. She said the district is assuming flat enrollment for 2025'26 and that a demographer's study scheduled for the fall will reset longer-term projections.

The presentation explained funding relies on several inputs: student counts and attendance (WADA), local taxable property values and state formulas that affect the maintenance and operations (M&O) tax rate and recapture. Pam said the district is projecting an applied weighted average daily attendance (WADA) of about 12,697 for 2025'26 and reported a current-year attendance rate of about 94.7%, which translates to an average daily attendance (ADA) of about 10,266 students.

Pam said preliminary appraisal information shows a projected 1.87% increase in taxable values for the 2025 tax year but that certified values and final TEA templates are expected in mid-July, and numbers will change when those are received. She explained recapture (the state's recapture mechanism) was about 36 cents on the dollar in the current year and could fall to roughly 33 cents under the preliminary assumptions.

On the expenditure side, the packet shows a projected overall revenue decrease of about $7.1 million and expenditure reductions of roughly $7.8 million that together leave a much smaller projected variance than earlier forecasts. Pam said the district's toolbox includes a one-time move of the fiscal year start date (from Sept. 1 to July 1) that would produce an estimated one-time fund-balance boost (Pam's slide estimated about $10 million) and that the district is watching minimum fund-balance benchmarks used by ratings agencies.

On staffing, Susan, a district HR lead, said the district will pursue reductions through attrition rather than layoffs where possible and that campus-based program budgets for student instruction would not be cut. As an example of a staffing change, the district proposed providing each campus one physical education (PE) aid and one fine-arts aid (the principal can determine how to allocate the fine-arts aid) rather than the two fine-arts aids provided last year; principals identified that change as an area they could manage through reallocation.

Susan said the district is preserving services tied to special education and has identified additional special education positions (resource teachers, SDC teachers and aides) for student needs. She also described efforts to limit travel, reduce nonpayroll budgets by 10% and use substitutes and a robust internal substitute pool rather than annual contracted substitutes where possible.

The HR presentation addressed teachers hired under the district's District of Innovation (DOI) flexibility. Susan said DOI hires have declined and that most DOI teachers are progressing toward full certification; she said fewer than 15 new hires for 2025'26 remain on a DOI plan as of the presentation. She noted principals and the certification specialist are tracking progress with alternative-certification candidates and that the district will tighten expectations if needed.

On compensation, staff said they are waiting for final legislative and governor guidance before presenting an amended compensation plan. The district expects to bring options to the board in July and an amended plan for approval in August; staff outlined a likely rollover of the current plan through July and targeted adjustments for a few hard-to-fill positions in the near term.

Board members asked for ongoing detail on staffing changes by campus and department, separation causes and the number of employees promoted into leadership, and they emphasized monitoring the effect of any aid reductions on elementary specials, fine-arts programming and safety. No formal budget vote occurred at this meeting; the board was briefed and staff were directed to return with amended compensation and staffing details once state templates and legislative guidance are final.

The meeting concluded with trustees noting the need for community advocacy on school finance and continued collaboration with principals to protect classroom instruction while achieving necessary efficiencies.