Fort Sam Houston ISD board adopts $30.28 million balanced budget; Impact Aid is a major revenue source

The Fort Sam Houston Independent School District Board of Trustees on July 30 unanimously adopted the 2024–25 Official School Budget totaling $30,276,278, district officials said. The board voted 4–0 (one member absent) to approve the plan after a public budget hearing earlier in the afternoon.

Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Julie Novak said the budget is driven by student enrollment and attendance and complies with state and federal accounting requirements. "The budget, which is divided into funds that represent a fiscal and accounting entity that has a self-balancing set of accounts, is driven by student enrollment counts and attendance rates," Novak said during the budget presentation. The adopted plan allocates funds across the General Fund (Fund 199), Child Nutrition (Fund 240) and the Special Education Cooperative (Fund 437).

The district’s revenue mix includes state funding (about 52.16%) and federal sources (about 44.81%), with local and other sources making up the remainder; Impact Aid provides a significant federal share for the district because its boundaries are entirely on federal property. Novak noted that Impact Aid requires an annual application and a student survey each fall to secure the maximum funding the district is entitled to, and that federal payment timing has produced variability in recent years.

Board members said they would continue oversight of enrollment and attendance figures that drive local revenue estimates and monitor federal appropriations that affect Impact Aid payments. The adoption carries the budget forward for implementation during the fiscal year that runs Sept. 1, 2024–Aug. 31, 2025.