El Campo ISD board adopts 2025-26 budget, sets tax rate at $1.0527 and authorizes defeasance of bonds

The El Campo Independent School District Board of Trustees on Aug. 27 approved final amendments to the 2024-25 operating budget, adopted the 2025-26 general operating budget, set the district'025 tax rates and authorized the defeasance of outstanding bonds to free debt capacity for future projects.

Trustees voted unanimously to set the maintenance and operations (M&O) rate at $0.7487 and the interest and sinking (I&S) rate at $0.304 per $100 valuation, producing a combined rate of $1.0527 per $100. Administrators told the board the rate remains unchanged for the fourth consecutive year.

On the 2025-26 budget, staff presented a general operating budget totaling $39,274,584. The district said most of the year-over-year increase is accounted for by state teacher-retention allotments that flow to classroom salaries and by a modest projected increase in local spending. The district noted its average daily attendance is projected slightly lower than the prior year; the budget assumes a small decline in student counts and remains dependent on student attendance for state revenue.

Administrators outlined why 2024-25 fiscal results differed from earlier estimates. The district reported it collected $14,542,749 in certain property tax receipts, roughly $1 million more than budgeted, but said a later Central Appraisal District (CAD) revaluation prompted state recapture that reduced net state funding. The board was told those adjustments, together with declining average daily attendance, left the district with lower-than-projected revenue for 2024-25. Presented figures showed an approved revenue projection near $37.5 million for 2024-25 versus an actuals number the district described as about $36.0 million after adjustments.

Trustees were also shown major expense drivers: nearly $800,000 in retention bonuses the district paid or recorded, a $1,150,000 expenditure for new stadium turf, and audit-driven federal adjustments tied to ESSER funding that required roughly $300,000 to be returned. Combined, the superintendent said those and other factors contributed to about $1.8 million in higher spending for 2024-25. As a result, the general fund balance decreased from nearly $10 million at Aug. 31, 2024, to just under $7 million after the amendments presented to the board.

Separately, trustees authorized a resolution to defease up to $1,950,000 of outstanding bonds on the I&S side, a step administrators described as a way to manage debt service and create capacity for facilities planning that includes a potential future consolidation of campuses and an early-childhood facility.

The board approved the final 2024-25 amendments, the 2025 tax rates, the 2025-26 general operating budget and the defeasance resolution by voice/hand vote; roll-call tallies were not published in the transcript.