Corpus Christi ISD will adopt a budget in June. Here's what it might look like.

Corpus Christi ISD leaders outlined potential budget challenges, pay raise plans and facility needs at a Board of Trustees workshop Wednesday morning.

The school board will hold a public hearing for the 2024-25 budget and proposed tax rate on June 17, when it is expected to approve the budget. The tax rate will be approved in July.

For the past several years, Corpus Christi ISD has adopted a deficit budget, spending more than it has been able to collect in local tax revenues and state and federal funds. In 2024-25, another deficit budget is likely.

The district is still considering employee raises. The board was presented with two potential pay increase options Wednesday. Both plans would cost the district about $4.2 million, but how the money is distributed would differ.

In option one, all employees would received a 2% increase. In option two, the percentage of the raise would increase based on experience — 1% for one to five years, 2% for six to 12 years and 3% for 13 or more years, based on the salary schedule for teachers and based on years with the district for all other employees.

For this second option, which district administration recommended at the meeting, raise amounts would vary based on pay grades. For teachers on a 187-day contract, the minimum raise amount would be $600, while the average raise amount would be $1,200. The minimum raise for an administrator would be $467, while the average raise would be $2,130.

For clerical staff, the minimum raise would be $262, while the average would be $880. For instructional support, the minimum would be $236, while the average would be $605. The minimum raise for auxiliary staff would be $84, while the average would be $780.

District staff presented the board with several budget figures for the district's general fund including a potential deficit of nearly $35 million. The 2024-25 proposed budget, which will be finalized and approved next month, currently takes into account option two, the plan where raises increase with years of experience.

Deputy superintendent of business and support services Karen Griffith told the board she does expect the deficit amount to be lower than projected.

Some of the estimates used to build this budget are likely to change. Last year, the district adopted a nearly $26 million deficit budget. Actual spending for 2023-24 is projected to come in just over $24 million over revenues.

Superintendent Roland Hernandez said that in recent years, the state has added unfunded, or insufficiently funded, mandates for schools and has not raised state funding for public schools.

"Every legislative session, they come through with new laws and then they pass that down to the districts, but they don't give us any additional funding for several of these unfunded mandates," Griffith added. "And then you've got to tack on inflation."

At the same time, Corpus Christi ISD has also faced low enrollments in recent years, which has implications for per-student funding, as well as property tax disputes.

The board also heard that a $500 back-to-school stipend, which in previous years was funded using pandemic relief funding that is no longer available, would cost about $1.9 million, while a mid-year stipend based on 1% of the mid-point salary would cost just over $2 million.

These stipends are not currently included in the draft budget plan.

As of mid-May, there were over 500 vacancies across the district, including 169 teachers, 119 paraprofessionals, 93 food service workers, 91 transportation staff, 11 maintenance staff, 50 custodial staff, 12 auxiliary staff and 27 administration positions.

This includes 100 elementary teacher vacancies, 30 middle school vacancies and 32 high school vacancies.

"There's a lack of qualified, certified people in particular fields," Hernandez said.

The district has also continued planning for facility needs. Voters last approved a bond election for Corpus Christi in 2022, supporting $220 million for a new Hamlin Middle School campus, a new middle school in southeast Corpus Christi and several other renovations and gym additions.

Previous bond projects over the past 15 years have replaced aging facilities and built new consolidated campuses, allowing the district to close campuses in neighborhoods where student populations are falling and meet growth in Corpus Christi's Southside neighborhoods.

Now, the district is eyeing two more consolidated elementary schools to take in students from Kostoryz, Yeager, Shanen Estates, Houston, Travis and Fannin elementary schools and an expansion at Galvan Elementary School to take in students from Sanders Elementary School, which could be split into Dawson Elementary School as well.

These proposed projects were included in preliminary discussions Wednesday, but no decisions have been made. The school board has not yet called for a new bond election.

Among the schools that might be consolidated are campuses with two-story buildings and designs that require at times walking through one classroom to reach another classroom.

Consolidation is a cost-saving measure, Hernandez said, because it eliminates the costs of maintaining and staffing multiple older campuses with declining student populations.

"They're some of our oldest elementary schools," Hernandez said. "They're very small. At one time, they may have been thriving, but these are now retirement communities with very few students."

Other needs the district has identified include additional classrooms at Veterans Memorial High School, upgrades at King High School, a new gym at Haas Middle School, the demolition of emptied campuses and district-wide fine arts upgrades.

If voters are asked to approve a bond for Corpus Christi ISD in the future, the actual list of projects might differ.

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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Corpus Christi ISD early budget talks include raises, potential deficit