001Recording in progress school district will meet in special session at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, August 27th, 2025 in the administration building boardroom. It's 13B Westella Street, Crystal City, Texas 78839. On a roll call >> here, [Applause] Bruce Ma Victor >> President, >> Mr. Gabriel Espinosa >> here. >> Mr. Vince Martinez >> here. >> Mrs. Tang >> here. Okay, we do have a quorum. Okay, three uh moment of reflection. >> Okay. Uh item number four, uh public hearing on tax rate and budget. Uh >> uh so at this point, Mr. Velasquez will uh present our uh proposed tax rate for the uh 2526 school year. Mr. Velasquez on your >> Yes. On page three of your packet districts generate from a few sources. One is a tax levy on on property within dual district boundary. This notice
002that was put out is set up with two different rates. The maintenance and operation rate and the interest in staking in comparison to last year the tax rate has >> Can you explain for the people? Well, I don't know who have public maintenance operations. Maintenance of operations is for the operation of the district maintaining the district and operating the general fund. Okay. School uh receives like I said funds from various sources but general fund taxes tax regular levy on the properties within the boundaries for maintenance and operation and the is for interest in syncing. interest in sinking is from school districts uh bought a bond for bond election and voters approve that volume of money for that bond there's a rate of tax collection that is allowed to be collected to meet the payment of
003those bonds most of the time they're 20 30 year notes on the average so as the values change that tax rate should adjust because the property values bring in according to that tax Last year for the maintenance and operation which is the basic the full picture of the general function school district was at 6 I'm sorry 61 the school board has the authority to go up 5 cents which allows them for a little bit more funding they which they did several years ago they elected to do so. So the tax rate last year was 669. Okay. On the maintenance and operation for the debt service last year their tax rate was 66. So this year ML tax rate for maintenance and operations is the same rate compressed rate that the state deemed the school district
004and all school district not just Bristol city. It is again 669 for the maintenance and operation. For the debt service, it's dropping about 3.8 cents. Running enough to 4 cents, but it's under 4 cents because the payments to those debts were refinanced last year, the year before, few years ago. So the tax collection for that payment have adjusted. So again the tax rate for the service has dropped the combination together has dropped about 4 cents right under 4. Any questions in respect to that? Okay that's the the issue on the explanation on the maintenance and operation and tax rate. The district will then vote on those rates via resolution and that's simply to function uh the maintenance and operation of the school district and to pay its debt. Okay. The next item is that I'll
005provide to that I'll provide you is something that the board will look at tonight. It's it's a summary. [Applause] And this document is a formal document. School districts adopt budget on a function basis. Okay. We shared this with the board in in a bit of a workshop uh on Monday. >> Yeah. You have one. So all this does is explain a little bit on where the revenues come from. The top section there you'll see 100 to 999 that's the general fund general operating funds that that's all state funds along with our local funds contributed that also includes uh gate receipts sale of anything that the district has a surplus of um gate receipts rental of property the district rents property that revenue does local revenue independent media sources Well, those are the dollars in this
006case in this particular projected to be 10,939,293. That's the 5700. The 15800 or state fun is of course our state. The function of a school district is instruction support instruction and support for these kids. The state based on the pens data that's collected in our school district and submitted to TA will identify the number of kids we got in different populations in special ed state comparing technology many areas including our basic a lotment basic instruction. They in turn look at our values that our appraisal district certifies and identifies how much tax collection we're going to generate, how much of a le we're going to have, and they identify their share of the contribution towards instruction. Looking at this, you'll see their contribution for all those programs, it's approximately 10,73,38. A lot of that is tied
007to the average daily attendance. As that fluctuates throughout the year in the district, the business side of the school district monitors that and tries through the superintendent's office and the program directors to modify and adjust expenditures as they anticipate revenues are coming in. That it's revenues versus expenditures and that should always be at a balance. Now fund balance. A fund balance is for a school district has reserves and has an anticipation that the coming year they want to complete some project, bring in a new project, buy equipment, do repairs. Sources such as the fund balance can be addressed or generated if the budget is not enough revenue. balance the budget with sources from their savings as much as you would from home. A paycheck brings in so much. I've got a little bit on savings.
008I want to buy a refrigerator. I can't pay it off my check. Go to your savings. That's what this is. the um 7900s is other sources and that happens between programs such as in this case we have what was called a time warrant existed back in 2016 16 achieving a time warrant for construction of a elementary school in addition to an elementary school it was approximately a million dollars well the rules at that time identified that the district did not tax in the community for the levy app levy on the district properties. So the district was allowed a sale of our notes which were a million dollars but payment could not be from debt service from taxing that be paid from within the budget as we save funds we allocated monies for that payment. So
009the general fund brings in that money, saves it, sets it aside. The time of payment is in on August 15th and in February 15. That's what this is. It's transferred over to the debt service and is still a debt on the district. That's why it's under that column, the 500 column. It says debt service. The district budgets it and then the time comes it transfer over to the debt service. that program in turn makes that payment not tied to additional um property taxes. All in all these funds brought together. Oh mind you one other thing our food service program food service programs are coded a little bit different the funding from this food service program in our case comes in from the department of agriculture USDA and it also generates money locally from sales from
010adults eating so that fund is normally put under the 240 fund for free and those paid for. The district several years back elected to apply for what's called was called at the time provision two which meant the school district would flip the tab or pay the portion the free kids had to cover and that word full had to cover the free ones no problem. So the district uh took on that obligation and the resource guide which is the accounting book for uh TA for school district codes it under fund 101. Okay. So we quoted under fund 101 most of the resources come in for that program from the department of agriculture which is a federal that's why um those monies are listed under 5900. Now, the grants that the district applies for and secures allow
011for what's called indirect cost. It's a bit of a service fee on the grant for processing things or services that are generated or uh provided through the school district. That's another small amount. It's about 100,000 that each of the grants contributes to not 100,000 per but as a whole federal grants. So, that goes in that 5,900 as well. If you scan down, you'll see the columns that says expenditures. This is what I was referring to when I said a functional budget by function. The codes over on the left under expenditures are listed there as instructional resources, which is usually by library. I get back a little bit. These are basically just state and local funds with the exception of the text agricultural food service. The grants are not listed on that is different and that's
012different because the program school district builds out an application completes an application and submits it before the end of the year last year. That is that is determined by the application that district puts together with program director and superintendent and staff just principal that identify what their needs are and those are usually supplemental to the programs. Okay, those are not listed here and that's not something that the board approves. Those are federal grants. These are state and local sources. Okay. So what you see there is every one of those functions curriculum the amount service right there and you go down the line you'll see community services and you see the debt service. The debt service if you walk it across you'll see the amount of 5.171300. That's the debt, the combination of the loan, the
013interest secured last full year and the bond payments and the payment for the uh time warrant. That's all in combination. Okay, that's what's budget in other words allocated to meet those obligations that across his I said uh debt service which is uh function 71 and 81 acquisition or facilities acquisition construction. That's also a payment for our synthetic turf that was done last year. We're going to have a this September coming September. So, it's March on there. Our fiscal agent is our special ed program. They have services that they contract with with other districts. So, they have to pay a portion of a share of the cost to operate that district. They provide the school district. school services as well and other interal charges. That's our friendly and very wellliked approal district. The school district along
014with the city, the county, college, any taxing entity in the county uh contributes because they share in their appraisal. Some districts such as Crystal City is also shared in their services of collection. doing the city and the priorities they do that they do their own. Crystal City has been doing that using them as well. So we contribute a share of our cost. So all these entities contribute for sure they have to contribute for the appraisal can only be one appraisal within the county one agency to appraise. Each of the taxing entities are not allowed. They have a central appraisal. They provide those values and they in turn report to schools and report to the controller state controller who in turn turns around and sends those values levies to TA the funding agency for schools. So
015we're all connected and all these checks and balances. Like I said earlier, if you look uh at the revenues right at the top, all estimated revenues, our revenues for this coming year are 26,537,293. The projected expenses are 26,5,442. We have an excess time that is not a budget of $31,851. During the workshop that we had on Monday, the sum of finance which identifies the number of kids we have and the services and the projected revenue for the school district was much less. They have not updated uh some of the data that the legislature has recently produced. So, we've changed that. We modified that because in the in the presentation that we used on Monday, we would have a shortfall. It was a projected shortfall of about $400,000 in the sum of finance that we used
016just yesterday and today. And we want to keep our eye on it because it's constantly changing. There's constant change that will reflect the additional funds for the teachers that came in and they're not done yet past September 1st. They'll continue to make some updates and we will be the beneficiaries of additional resources. And at this time we've got to the district has to adopt the budget before August 31st. The tax rate is not to be uh approved at this time. The latest date for the tax rate is September 30th. For the most part, this school district has always done it at the same time. Most school districts do, not all, but in this case, and that's the the plan. You'll notice it's just a graphic. This is a visual that I provided. But currently this
017document is function in the back comparison [Applause] to the text. We provide additional information besides the obligated functional budget budget. We'll identify the first part of this review that's in question right now that proposal. The dollars are the same except the distribution is identified under instruction. The 900 uh 9,291,885 is for payroll all the way across. You see that same number as the total on the front pay, but it breaks it down by payroll, contracted services, by materials, by other expenses such as travel and you'll see all the way down line to the final total. Again, that total is 26,55,442. [Music] That's again the total cost. Below that in the middle section is last year. That's the data in our system, the school system that identifies how it was distributed last year. the original the
018original to original apples to apples. Last year these are the numbers how they were distributed this year the projected or the proposed budget is a total of 26 million505. Last year at this time there was 26,590. Okay. And the breakdown is right there. mixing that right below that you'll see the same data that's proposed in comparison one year to the next year 2425 and 2526 which is proposed and you'll see the difference in instruction one year to the next. The difference is that $1,959 additional dollars will be spent or projected to be budgeted. That is about 37% of the budget in construction of facilities. There's a change, a drop. They're funding it from somewhere else, which means there's no dollars there, but doesn't mean the service isn't available, but there's a a savings there or
019less funding the same amount of 125. Overall at the bottom you'll notice the final total for the 2425 was 26,590,555. For the proposed budget this year it is 26,5542 [Music] less by $85,113. Overall, you'll see the breakdown of the percentages assigned in dollars for each of those functions. Right over hand side question. >> I have a question, Robert. Uh on the budget here, I mean uh what are we using for the uh what is the percent that we're using for the collection of taxes? >> Taxes. It's about we were very we did very well this last year. They appraisal distributed very well. I think they collected at about 98%. >> Uh Crystal CD 97 which was very close to $6 million. >> They did very well. So we as a matter of fact the trend
020last year was just a year before. So we're using that trend. So that's how we we anticipate expenses and revenues and expenses sometimes surprise us but revenues they've been very good. So we anticipate that the values dropped from last year to the preliminary values to the certified values. They dropped quite a bit. >> Was that by the state or? >> No, it's by the appraisal district. They have challenges. People challenge their values or they re-evaluate properties and that's something that's out of the entity's hands. Sometimes they can interject, but for the most part there's a board and they have an ARD uh that looks at the challenges that people challenge their value, claim that it's too high a value. >> That's all they do. they do values >> but throughout the year I mean uh
021uh some of those challenges that they have when they have the uh A or B or what's the committee uh they can the appraisal district can win a lawsuit. I think last year a company gave in and and I think uh every entity got some money. I think we got about 90. Yeah, that's and I'm glad you make that point because as I mentioned we we have a preliminary value, we got a certified value. Uh the thing is July 25th is submitted that and that's for a time that school district and Russian start putting numbers together but changes I mentioned earlier keep happening such as what Mr. something else I just mentioned. People challenge them and there's court hearings and so forth and by the time the deadline their deadline to submit to the controller
022is usually December 31st. They submit another report and those values will change for the school district. We we have we need that money significantly. So we're also monitoring that and we hope that this the approval of this figure is as accurate as possible because the district set on those perceptions and that assumption that certified value but that's not to say it's it's solid by December changes will occur by then TA says you're getting more revenue they adjust the share of the district contribution which is usually because we're bringing in more Several several years back I think it was pre 2009 school districts such as Crystal City and their economic position our values were lower funding from the state was approximately 85 15% that means the state funded 85% of the cost we have taxes because
023our values were not as high the district contributed about 15% towards instruction towards that budget. Currently it's about 64% the state maybe may be higher a little higher and the district pays the I'm sorry the the state pays the other amount the district's paying about 65% right now 64 to 65%. And that will change as the appraisal district changes updates or values values again in ADA and FTS or the program identification for the children in our schools for different services. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. >> Any other questions? >> Does the proposed tax rate for the maintenance and operation, does it already include the 5 cents? Yes. >> Yes, it has been for the last few years and until the board takes action to change that to reduce that. Uh, which is not something I
024anybody would advise because you give up that revenue plus an additional support from the state. The state says if you do an extra effort, they give a little more money as well. I have a question. So I mean Monday this is I'm looking at this and Monday's impact on fund balance is way different than >> so I mean what happened from Monday to today? I mean I don't can you you know elaborate a little bit more on that? >> Yes certainly show you why. On Monday, I showed you a summary of finance that we pulled off the um the TA website. It was dated August 7th. And we pulled this one up and this one we had the one that I showed you from TA on Monday. The enrollment of ADA was they had projected
025on the system their system was 1425. This one is set at 1367 1368. Those are the numbers that our school district is kind of generating right now in your percentage. We're more conservative than that. So this is what we use to produce. If you notice TA, Mrs. uh Miss Bones has mentioned this through a lot of different times that the legislature is going to submit additional funding or provide additional funding to the district. If you notice this highlight down here, I didn't put that highlight. It wasn't there before in the summary of finance and they will continue to update this person. They identified that as look at it. That's how they highlighted. They gave us more money or identified additional funds down in the yellow. So your question is is legit. That's where we got
026the money from. We got additional funds from TEA and our enrollment is more to what is accurate closer to our to our state. As a matter of fact, uh, at 10:00 this morning, we're checking it pretty often. Was it 14, was it 1419? >> 20 at the end of the day. >> 1420 at the end. >> 1420. I mean, that's important to the district and to the staff as you can hear them bouncing off because they're checking as well. So, we set it at 1368. That's conservative. conservative and scary and high to some degree because we want to keep it that way. We want to keep it at least that. So the funding that is identified in this table that was important on this agenda is based on that enrollment on that ATA. Okay. So
027yes, good point. We did get more money on the Hill things. I don't see anything for and I know it's in in one of the bills uh under Senate we're getting monies a lot of money for spent >> and we're hoping for. Yes. And those are the changes that I'm sure coming across. Yes, ma'am. >> Let me just uh to answer Mr. Espinosa. So, the summary of finance, which is where this document is coming from, is fixing to get another revision on the 31st of August. So, there are still some aotments that are miss that were approved by legislation and signed into law by Governor Abbott that are not in here. So, >> so I've been following it. Yeah, we'll see a revision of this document and these figures on August 31st. And then the
028expectation is that the state will publish the final revision by September the 4th, if not by the 6, so that all of the new monies that have been approved by legislation to become effective 2526 school year will be added to this document. >> Final the final thing coming. it should be the final uh September 4th around that around that time. Now the budget is what the what the budget is right now it's reflective of these numbers. So if there should be a change uh by September the 4th to our funding uh which it's the expectation and it only will add to our surplus the surplus that we're presenting to you tonight then uh we'll have to come to you for an amend for an amendment to the budget because it's it's we're going to have
029increased revenue uh coming into the district which is a good which is a good problem to have. Uh >> having said that besides monitoring the states we monitor like said the AA the program FTS in the fall there's another submission again uh that we have to keep our eyes on and we do it even before that submission we watch this the kids coming in the enrollment the average daily attendance staff is on it all the time. >> Robert uh do you guys have any questions? We have one minute to uh start the uh other meeting and we have to stay in schedule. I mean, uh, that's what >> that's all I've gotten. Thank you for the question, sir. >> I just have one question. Uh, >> yes, sir. >> Uh, the so the gap between
030what we submitted, uh, for our enrollment to the state, the 14 something, and what the state said was on Monday has narrowed. It's closer now. The number that was sent to the state was back September of 2004 and that was a >> 2004 >> I'm sorry 2004 >> that's the number that TA got and put in their template that's the estimate they received from this school district in 2004 and there's it's on the TA website as well and that's why they produced that template as we update and provide these, we can manipulate that data by adding or adjusting our our numbers trer to the school district's population. >> Okay, that's what I want to hear. >> And uh the meeting on Monday, you made a good point. You said tomorrow, we got to be careful
031with it. And that's exactly right. If the state's going to pay us at the 1425, we should be realistic. This is pretty much all we're going to earn, you know, based on this number at the time and this formula. So, we should be conservative with our budgeting because they're probably going to overpay the district and it's not always a bad thing. You just make sure you don't blow it. >> You save it. I mean, they take it from the following year. That's okay. It's an advanced payment. >> Okay. At this time, I'm going to go ahead and and it's passed our uh we can discuss it during uh our our budget and all that. Uh I ask for a motion to adjourn uh the public hearing. >> Uh Robert was asking uh >> I don't
032think anybody. So I have a I have a motion to adjourn this meeting. >> Motion motion by uh Mr. Houston. Second. >> Second by Mr. Ma. Questions, concerns? All in favor to adjourn the public. Okay. [Applause] Okay. Uh what's the time?