With more than $750,000 in cuts through attrition, Lampasas ISD hopes its new fiscal-year budget looks more balanced than the one school board members approved in August.
Last year, the Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees adopted its 2025-2026 FY budget with a $3 million deficit. Now, the deficit is expected to be a bit less than $1.1 million.
Superintendent Dr. Chane Rascoe told the Dispatch Record the school district is awaiting some numbers from the state to see what the final deficit might be.
“We still don’t have clear guidance from the template in relationship to the amount of revenue we are going to receive,” Rascoe said.
Even if the district finishes the 2025-26 FY with a deficit around $1 million in its maintenance and operations fund, it still has a relatively healthy $16.484 million balance standing in its cash reserves.
Last week, school board members held a workshop where they learned the latest on the district’s financial outlook. Although Trustee Randy Morris was glad to see the budget deficit situation improve, he believes there is more work to be done.
“On the one hand, it is a big relief that we are not over $3 million in the hole,” Morris said. “But on the other hand, we want to balance the budget. That is what our goal is.”
For the 2026-27 fiscal year, LISD anticipates approximately $45.020 million in revenue, with expenses adding up to $45.515 million. The district is planning for nearly $1.4 million less in expenses than in the current fiscal year.
Morris said typically, the school district budgets conservatively when it comes to revenue. He is optimistic revenue will offset the $495,235 deficit that is reflected currently in the 2026-2027 FY budget.
“We hope it is going to turn out that it is a $0 deficit, for sure,” Morris said. That is what I was used to during COVID. That is the way it always went – we budgeted a little bit of a loss, and year in and year out we were always in the black.”
To achieve cost savings, the Lampasas ISD is eliminating several positions across its five campuses and in district-wide departments via attrition.
In central departments, the district will eliminate an administrative assistant in special services ($28,516); a Disciplinary Alternative Education Placement position in curriculum ($81,267); part-time support in human resources ($36,800); two cook positions in Nutrition Services ($33,084); grounds and custodian positions in maintenance ($64,480); and merge two positions in technology ($60,000).
Campus-level reductions include two part-time intervention teachers at Kline Whitis Elementary ($52,568); three part-time intervention teachers at Hanna Springs Elementary ($84,066); two aides and one intervention teacher at Taylor Creek Elementary ($121,829); two aides at Lampasas Middle School ($44,181); two secretaries, a traffic monitor and a Career and Technical Education teacher at Lampasas High School ($124,552); various stipends in athletics ($15,000); and the automotive teacher position in CTE ($39,399).
After voters turned down Proposition C during May’s bond election, Rascoe said the district has included in the budget some Badger Field repairs and a track/field replacement at the high school.
Previously, the district received a quote of approximately $750,000 to replace stadium lighting at Badger Field. Rascoe said that project would be too costly to undertake. Instead, the district hopes to do enough to keep the lights on during Friday night games.
“That is not going to happen, there is no way,” the superintendent said of new lighting. “We will try to do some preventive-type things, but we won’t be able to replace them. We won’t be able to do the things we had planned. We are looking at doing some in-house, possible mini splits in the bathroom -- that shouldn’t be over $5,000.”
With those two maintenance projects in the budget, Rascoe believes it will be tough to provide pay raises to teachers and staff members.
“We are trying to work on getting a teacher and staff pay raise, but there is no way we are going to be able to,” he said. “We were hoping with the passing of Proposition B and C that we could defer those costs and free up M&O money to give a pay raise.”
Although the district may not provide acrossthe- board raises in the coming year, some eligible teachers could receive significant salary hikes through the state’s Teacher Incentive Allotment program. The soonest teachers could see additional income due to TIA would be next summer.
With last year’s passage of House Bill 2, teachers with three to five years of experience will see a $4,000 increase in pay, while those with five-plus years of experience will earn an $8,000 increase.
