Staying THE Course As We Work Through Financial Issues

Our teachers, principals, and our instructional team remain focused on high achievement for all students. However, school finance and the district's financial status are major conversational topics among staff, parents, and even some community members.  The major funding shortfalls that occurred in the last Texas Legislature are having major effects on the district's financial structure and its future academic and operational structure.

Approved by the School Board in August, the 2011-2012 district budget, has a deficit of $9.7 million. However, the staff is already taking steps to reduce that deficit amount. For the first time, the district requested state waivers for kindergarten through fourth grade that exceed 22 students in a classroom because of financial circumstances. We currently have 63 classrooms in those grades with more than 22 students. By electing not to hire 63 additional elementary teachers, we saved about $3.4 million.  C-FB ISD is not alone in making this decision; neighboring North Texas districts also submitted the same type of state waiver to the Texas Education Agency due to financial constraints.

From 2008 to 2011, we reduced our staffing ranks by 239 through attrition and retirements. These positions included educational aides, teachers, administrators, and auxiliary staff. Since last school year until we started classes this August, another 120 jobs went away through attrition and retirements. Our goal has been to look everywhere and anywhere to reduce costs.

As we look to the 2012-13 school budget, we estimate a shortfall of $20 million based on the state financial data. As our governing organization, the School Board has developed three guiding objectives for us to use to prioritize our programs, operations and compensation.  These objectives will help us evaluate what will cause the least harm to our programs and operations.

Guiding Objectives

• Minimize the impact on student academic achievement
• Minimize the impact on non-academic special services and programs for all students, i.e., extra-curricular and co-curricular programming
• Minimize the impact on the ability to retain and attract quality staff

We will use these guiding objectives to determine how the programs and operations stack up based on their level of importance to the objectives.  This is a systems-based approach in analyzing the programs, operations, and services that C-FB ISD provides. Once we have this information, we will prioritize the proposed cost containments based on which have the least impact on the district's goal of high achievement.  This is no easy to task. 

When the School Board meets on February 16, 2012 in a work-study session on Resource Allocation, we will discuss if there are any cost containments that can be made to help with the pending shortfall. Not only do we to have to think about the impact of these decisions on the district today, but also what impact will these decisions have on the district in the future. 

Revenue Options
There are only two ways under current state law for a public school district to get additional revenue: 1) a tax ratification election and 2) more students. 

First, under current state law, a school district can hold an election to ask its voters to approve taxes for the maintenance and operation of the school district. 

Second, increased enrollment also means more dollars.  When a school district is growing, then that means more money.  Another way to get more students is to open your district to students who live out of your district through open enrollment.  At the November 17 work-study session, the School Board will hear a report on a limited open enrollment policy.  Several North Texas school districts currently have limited open enrollment policies, including Coppell ISD.

Understanding the revenue structure of school finance structure is complex.  This short video, "Texas School Finance Explained," which was produced during the last state legislature gives an excellent overview of how Texas school finance works. Video

We know that any changes that we make due to financial constraints can impact our students and staff. But, these reductions and others will be necessary to adjust to a reduced state funding level.  We believe that everyone who is associated with the Carrollton-Farmers Branch School District needs to be aware of the financial implications affecting our schools.  As we work through these serious financial issues, we will continue our commitment to high achievement for all students.