College Station ISD trustees on June 6 heard a detailed review of 2025–26 state funding changes and the district’s proposed budget adjustments, and discussed pay options for district employees.

Finance staff presented changes driven by the recently signed House Bill 2 and other legislation. “This allotment right here brings about 1,516,000 in that ballpark. It's based on enrolled student,” said a district finance presenter, describing a new $106-per-enrolled-student allotment the legislature added to fund transportation, insurance, retirement and similar costs. The presenter said the $106-per-student allotment will bring roughly $1.5 million to the district but that earlier insurance and other cost increases mean much of that money is already spoken for.

Why it matters: trustees were asked to adopt a 2025–26 budget in July while new law interpretations and program rules remain incomplete. The district faces tradeoffs between preserving campus services, adjusting staffing to reflect enrollment declines and funding raises for teachers and other employees.

Most important legislative changes and district impacts

- Basic allotment: HB2 raised the basic allotment by $55 per student; staff said that increase alone does not fully offset other funding shifts and cost increases. The presenter summarized the net effect: in their projections “if we had no raises, we would have a surplus of $4,500,000.”

- New allotments: an “ABC” allotment ($106 per enrolled student, estimated at about $1.516 million for College Station ISD) directed to transportation, employee health insurance, retirement and similar items; a teacher retention allotment that provides $2,500 for teachers with three to four years’ experience and $5,000 for teachers with five-plus years; and a $45-per-regular-program allotment intended for staff not covered by the teacher-retention formula (counselors, librarians, nurses, instructional aides, custodians, food service, bus drivers). The presenter said the $45 allotment translates to roughly $500,000 for the district.

- Special education and evaluations: the legislature set aside money to change how special education funding is calculated and created a $1,000 reimbursement per special education evaluation; staff said the $1,000 may apply even when the child is not enrolled in the district, depending on TEA implementation.

- Early education and pre-K: full-day pre-K and reallocation of early education funds means some early-ed money will be centrally redistributed by the state; staff projected College Station ISD would keep its current level and estimated about $221,000 remaining after reallocation under current runs, while noting other districts could lose early-ed funding.

- Safety and transportation: the campus safety allotment increased from $15,000 to $33,540 per campus; transportation reimbursement for special education rose from $1.08 to $13 in staff estimates (the presenter reported the change would add roughly $10,000).

- Local tax effects: the homestead exemption increase (from $100,000 to $140,000) and other changes will affect local property tax bases; staff said the state will “hold harmless” certain I&S (interest and sinking) revenue for a year but the exemption could reduce locally taxable values going forward and would affect the maintenance and operations (M&O) tax rate pressure.

District budget choices and staffing

Staff described a budgeting approach that reallocates funds back to campuses rather than holding earmarked central accounts. The presenter said campuses’ budgets were increased in aggregate even though district enrollment fell; the total campus increase figure was presented as the net of reallocations. Staff reported year-over-year savings and recoding adjustments: more than $1 million reduction in supplies after recoding certain software to contracted services, roughly $799,441 of savings from central departments, and a reported $890,000 of salary savings tied primarily to enrollment-driven reductions and staff reassignments.

On staffing, the district prioritized special education minutes. Staff said they reduced seven teacher positions and six instructional aides based on a 22:1 staffing ratio in some elementary grades, but that several special education positions were added or converted from temporary to full-time to meet ARD minutes and legal obligations. “Without these new positions, we could not serve the minutes as required by their ARD meeting,” staff said.

Compensation options and board direction

Staff presented multiple compensation scenarios and the board discussed whether to adopt a single districtwide approach or a two-tier plan that mirrors the state’s teacher-retention allotment. Under one illustrative scenario staff said a $5,000 retention payment for eligible teachers (and comparable increases for other staff) would create a projected deficit in the 2–3 million dollar range depending on percentage raises chosen and benefits costs; staff reported an estimated $2.6 million deficit for a 5% across-the-board scenario in their slides.

Board members voiced support for a unified approach to raises for employees classified on the district teacher pay scale even when the state program excludes some roles. “All of the folks on that teacher pay scale work with kids, all of them,” the superintendent said during the discussion. Several trustees said they favored using part of the district’s fund balance to cover a temporary deficit while pursuing further efficiencies: staff reported the district ended the year with roughly $43.9 million in total fund balance and about $38.0 million unassigned, and expected a one-time infusion of roughly $6.0 million tied to calendar/timing.

Next steps

District staff said they will run the chosen compensation numbers through the accounting system, revise budget runs and return with an updated budget for board consideration at the next public meeting; the district posted the required public notice for the budget hearing and expects to adopt the budget in July and set the tax rate in August after TEA certification of values.

Ending

Trustees did not take final action on compensation at the June 6 workshop; staff will return with updated runs reflecting board direction. The board moved from the workshop into executive session and later returned to open session for separate action.