Charged with assessing and prioritizing RISD’s current and long-term financial needs, the RISD Community Budget Steering Committee gathered Aug. 22 for its second meeting, continuing a process expected to result in recommendations to the RISD Board of Trustees in December.
After a brief recap of the previous meeting, committee members reviewed current 2023-24 operating budget expenditures by state-defined categories, including:
- Instruction: $243.6 million – 63.1%
- Instructional Support: $70.1 million – 18.2%
- Operations: $52.3 million – 13.5%
- General Administration $10.7 million – 2.8%
- Other (recapture, appraisal district fee) $9.4 million – 2.4%
Members also reviewed and discussed:
- The number of full-time positions allocated by state-defined job function in the current operating budget.
- Demographic enrollment projections for current and future years.
- RISD’s transition to a middle school model, which will move sixth graders out of elementary schools into middle schools as they are converted from junior high buildings.
- Current school building capacities and enrollments, and projected enrollments post middle school transition.
- Student transfer data into and out of RISD schools to/from other Texas public school districts and charter schools.
- Comparison elementary enrollment data with peer school districts.
Some key takeaways from the meeting included:
- After extensive study and community grade configuration committee recommendations, in 2020-21, the RISD board adopted a resolution beginning the district’s transition to a middle school model (moving sixth-graders out of elementary schools and into middle schools). The reasons were rooted in additional academic and extracurricular opportunities, and alignment with state curriculum, which is written based on sixth-graders as middle school students. At the time (pre-pandemic,) RISD’s enrollment was growing and projected to continue moderate growth. RISD enrollment declined during the pandemic, reflecting a state and national trend, and is projected to continue a moderate decline over the next five years.
- RISD is among the less than 5% of school districts in Texas that still use a K-6 elementary model.
- The transition to a middle school model will not significantly impact the operating budget. The majority of costs associated with the initiative are capital costs funded by voter-approved bond dollars to convert current junior highs into middle schools.
- RISD’s enrollment changes daily as students enroll and depart. The district historically has reached peak enrollment between weeks 6-11 of the school year. As of August 22, RISD’s 2023-24 enrollment is 36,429, while the demographer-projected enrollment for 2023-24 is 36,208. The “official” enrollment under state guidelines will be taken on October 27.
- Most RISD elementary schools were built in the 1950s-1970s, and RISD’s physical elementary school sizes are typically smaller than most peer/benchmark school districts. This results in RISD’s elementary model operating less efficiently (and therefore at higher costs) than peer/benchmark districts.
- RISD currently has more than 9,000 open elementary classroom seats, before the middle-school transition, which will begin in 2024-25 in the Lake Highlands learning community.
- As sixth graders transition out of elementary schools into middle schools, RISD will have the lowest average elementary school enrollment of all peer/benchmark districts.
- RISD does not benefit from property value growth to fund day to day operations. School funding increases or decreases when the number of students increases or decreases. The state of Texas financially benefits from higher appraisals due to property value growth, not school districts.
At the next meeting, committee members are expected to begin the process of forming subcommittees to study in-depth potential solutions to the district’s projected operating deficit.
Learn more about the Community Budget Steering Committee, and view presentations and data shared with the committee.
