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Bryan ISD trustees hear budget preview and impacts from recent state school finance changes
Summary
District leaders warned trustees that legislative changes and flat basic allotments mean limited funds for raises and rising costs; administration outlined a deficit budget posture and identified transportation and safety as underfunded mandates.
Bryan Independent School District trustees received a budget-development briefing Tuesday that framed the district’s 2025 budget work against evolving state legislation and persistent underfunding.
Kevin Besaw, the outgoing assistant superintendent for business services, summarized the district’s financial context and described how state funding formulas and property values interact. Besaw said the district has been operating with tight margins and recently adopted a deficit budget; he warned trustees that, without legislation that accounts for inflation, the district faces constrained choices for employee compensation. “This is not a Bryan ISD problem,” Besaw said, adding that many Texas districts face similar shortfalls.
Miss Bridal provided a legislative update focused on House Bill 2 and recent amendments. She said the May 3 approval of Governor Abbott’s voucher plan would allow eligible families to receive $10,000 per student, or $11,500 for students with disabilities, shifting some public dollars toward private-school vouchers. Bridal summarized projected district budget effects if the amended HB2 were adopted: the district would realize increases in specified allotments — such as a teacher retention allotment and a special education evaluation allotment — but overall revenue gains appeared insufficient to fully cover local cost pressures. “If the current version were to pass as amended, it would produce about $6,700,000 in additional funding,” Bridal said, but she cautioned that much of that increase is earmarked for specific line items and would leave limited discretionary dollars to address a previously adopted $6,000,000 deficit.
Administrators pointed to two consistently underfunded areas: transportation and campus safety. Besaw said the state transportation allotment was roughly $1.4 million while actual district transportation expense exceeds $6 million; a proposed increase in the safety allotment would raise that line from roughly $521,000 to $1.1 million but still fall short of the district’s safety staffing costs.
Trustees were told the district will continue to model budgets under multiple legislative scenarios and return with a more detailed budget update on June 2. No board action on the budget occurred Tuesday; decisions about compensation and retention stipends are pending more definitive legislative outcomes.
