School Finance Week 3 Part 4-M&O Funds

In CISD our maintenance and operations budget is almost equally funded by state and local money, with a very small amount from the federal funds.  Our district has a little over 15, 000 students between two high school feeder patterns.  Our economic disadvantage rate is just over 50% overall.  We are fortunate to have a Career and Technology Center among our facilities, which does bring in additional funding and has proven to be a major boost in attendance and academics at both high schools. 

When I reviewed the School District’s State Aide Report on the TEA website for last year I discovered that our district collected a little over $5 million dollars less than expected in the M&O Collections.  CISD owed the district back money in the end, and pulled in less local revenue than expected.  This was addressed by a second round of RIFs (reduction in force).  The current general operating budget reflects a target revenue of $97,566,539 and an expenditure of $101,348,877, which will hit the Fund Balance for over $3.7 million dollars.  Our fund balance continues to hover in the “OK” range with over $19 million, but cannot take many hits such as this.   Instruction accounts for 63% of our budget.