Mission CISD approves budget, survives fiscal cliff

The Mission CISD Board of Trustees approved a $206.7 million budget for the 2024-25 school year. It’s the first year the district won’t have pandemic recovery funds to supplement the budget. But the finance team has been preparing for months or even years to ensure the students and employees don’t lose any resources when the grant money is fully depleted.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the federal government provided aid through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER). The grants came in three waves, with specific guidelines for how the districts could allocate the monies and deadlines for when it would no longer be available.

Mission CISD received $30.6 million in ESSER II funds and $68.8 million in ESSER III funds. The monies from ESSER II have long been exhausted, predominantly utilized for secondary teacher pay. However, the deadline to exhaust the grant money from ESSER III is Sept. 30. About $51.2 million went toward paying elementary teachers, and district administration allocated the rest per Texas Education Agency (TEA) guidelines.

For the past three years, school districts have built their budgets around the assistance from ESSER, as was recommended by TEA. However, that is no longer an option for the upcoming school year, resulting in several districts cutting staff to compensate for the lost funding. Arlington ISD said they would need to lay off 275 staffers. Fort Worth ISD also announced layoffs earlier this year, saving the district about $9.4 million.

And while many school districts have struggled with the ESSER fiscal cliff, Mission CISD remains in good standing for the foreseeable future, according to Deputy Superintendent for Business and Support Services Joel Garcia.

“ESSER enabled the district to save approximately $33.8 million over the last three years in its fund balance,” Garcia said. “These savings can be utilized to sustain the district until the next legislative session.”

At each legislative session, state leaders allocate funding for Texas public education, which has chiefly been a hot topic in recent years, with statewide education groups strongly advocating for an increase.

According to Garcia, Mission CISD leaves no stone unturned when it comes to finding additional funding for the district. The administration has implemented initiatives such as improving the Career and Technical Education program, which prepares students for life after high school but allows for more grant opportunities. Mission constituents also approved more state aid for Mission CISD during the Nov. 7, 2023 election, unlocking an extra $2.7 million in state funds at no cost to the taxpayers.

The deputy superintendent said MCISD is actively exploring partnerships with daycares to increase enrollment for the pre-K program. The district also continues to improve the Optional Flexible School Day Program, which allows students to make up missed lessons and generates additional funding. Additionally, Mission has put extensive effort into its Attendance Matters campaign to increase daily attendance numbers.

Daily attendance could actually be described as the root of the financial problems for many school districts in the state.

In Texas, state funding is linked to student attendance. The funding formula is complex, but one of the basic concepts is the student basic allotment — the amount of funding the state provides per student for every day they are present at school. Each time a student is absent, the district loses money, which is why school districts put so much emphasis on attendance numbers.

State leaders have not increased the basic allotment since 2019, remaining at $6,160 per average daily attendance (ADA).

“If we go back and look at different reports for inflation or the consumer price index, one of the things you’ll see is that over the last four-plus years, inflation has gone up about 20%,” Garcia said. “But that basic allotment has remained the same. So this is why you see some districts struggling trying to balance their budget because everything has gone up.”

The deputy superintendent continued.

“At this time, there’s been really no additional funding for schools to account for inflation. Had they adjusted just the basic allotments for inflation — the 20% — it would increase about $1,232 per ADA,” Garcia said. “And in the case of a district our size, that would have generated about an additional $15.7 million. And if that was the case, we wouldn’t have some of these talks about the ESSER fiscal cliff.”

Fortunately for Mission CISD, the district is not at risk of abruptly falling off the fiscal cliff. With the funding initiatives, conservative spending and a “graceful reduction through attrition” (no layoffs or reduction in force) the district has been able to save money to make up for the lack of ESSER funds in the 2024-25 budget. And the $33.8 million the district has saved over the last three years is enough to sustain them for “several years,” Garcia said.

$33.8 million has been sitting in the district’s unassigned savings fund, totaling more than $80 million. However, the district should only dip into unassigned savings in an emergency; it is not a long-term funding solution. The more permanent solution must come from the Texas government.

“We need to continue to rightsize the staffing, rightsize the budget and, more importantly, advocate at the state level for additional funding for the school districts,” he said. “Because we wouldn’t need to be talking about having to make up money if the state just adjusted the student basic allotment for inflation.”