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Bowmont ISD presents balanced 2026–27 budget plan, warns enrollment decline cuts revenue
Summary
Superintendent Massie and CFO Cheryl Hernandez presented Bowmont ISD’s proposed 2026–27 budget and tax‑rate process, saying the district reprioritized spending toward classroom instruction, cut some former ESSER‑funded roles, and warned that a projected 554‑student enrollment decline would reduce revenue by about $2 million.
Superintendent Massie and Chief Financial Officer Cheryl Hernandez presented the Bowmont Independent School District’s proposed 2026–27 budget at a public hearing, outlining spending priorities, staffing changes and the process for adopting a tax rate once certified property values are released.
Massie emphasized aligning resources to the district’s mission that “every student in BISD will be known, supported, challenged and prepared,” and said the administration has begun identifying mission‑critical, systemic and structural deficiencies that she said have contributed to academic drift and declining performance. She told the board the administration will move some work in‑house (facility trades, HVAC, plumbing and electrical) to save money and reduce reliance on external vendors.
Hernandez said the district’s budget calendar requires an adopted budget before the fiscal year begins, but the final tax rate cannot be adopted until certified values arrive from the Jefferson Central Appraisal District (expected July 25). She presented a revenue mix that the district calculates as about 57.86% local (primarily property tax), 27.98% state and 14% federal, and described separate accounting for federal grants such as IDEA Part B, ESSA/Title I–IV, Carl Perkins and Head Start.
CFO Hernandez said the district’s average daily attendance (ADA) was approximately 89.6% for 2025–26 (about 18 absences per student on a 175‑day calendar), and that small changes in enrollment scale materially: the administration said 10 fewer students equates to roughly $74,611 in lost funding, and projected 554 fewer students would reduce revenue by about $2 million. She cautioned that higher local property values do not automatically increase district revenue under Texas school finance; state formulas and recapture can offset local growth.
Hernandez outlined the tax‑rate process and the district’s 2024 voter approval tax rate election (VATR), which the district used to access additional so‑called 'golden pennies' that are less subject to recapture. She reminded the board it must adopt three budgets (general fund, debt service/INS fund, and nutrition services fund). The administration presented a balanced general fund budget that they described in the slide deck as “187.6” (figure reported in presentation; unit not specified in the transcript) and said roughly 80% of expenditures are payroll.
On debt, the CFO said the presentation listed outstanding bond principal as "just a little over 1,353 million" in the slide deck; the administration described a long‑running debt management effort that reduced principal by about $226 million through refundings and defeasance strategies.
Hernandez described the nutrition services fund’s intentional spenddown of excess reserves under the USDA Community Eligibility Program (CEP), citing planned equipment upgrades and potential generators to protect walk‑in freezers; the district will budget a deficit in that fund to comply with federal guidance about allowable uses of accumulated reserves.
No formal vote was taken at the hearing; the board was asked to adopt the budgets at the board’s June 25 meeting and will set the final tax rates after appraisal‑district certified values are available. The public hearing record was closed and the hearing adjourned at 6:03 p.m.
