money Faced with falling enrollment, Wichita Falls ISD looks at budget belt tightening across the district
Wichita Falls ISD administrators are grappling with declining enrollment and a budget expected to shrink because of it.
WFISD Superintendent Mike Kuhrt has already asked departments to come up with ways to save money in the face of a 6-percent decrease in enrollment since the pandemic hit.
Kuhrt said enrollment is expected to continue to decline, based on demographic information the district has received about births in Wichita Falls.
More: WFISD takes up tasks of redrawing boundary lines, determining facility usage
"If that's the case, then we need to right size our district," Kuhrt said earlier this month.
In other words, WFISD needs to make some cuts across the board to keep up with decreasing enrollment, he said.
The hit from the pandemic is a loss of 800 students since March 2020 when Gov. Greg Abbott ordered schools to close to in-person classes to slow the spread of the virus.
WFISD had about 14,100 students going into the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a previous Times Record News story.
The district lost 600 students that school year with the switch to remote learning.
The 2021-2022 academic year brought a further decline of 200 students. Most of the loss in students has been in elementary schools.
Kuhrt said the district is funded based on enrollment.
“When you have a decrease of 800 students in enrollment, which for our district is about a 6-percent decrease, then that means you have 6 percent less revenue coming in,” he said.
A multimillion-dollar infusion of COVID relief funds is temporarily keeping the loss in revenue at bay. But lower enrollment is expected eat into the district's funding eventually.
Last summer, the School Board approved an approximately $155-million budget and a tax rate effectively raising district taxes 22.9 percent.
Lower than expected, the tax hike stemmed from $290 million in voter-approved bond issues to build two new high schools, and their athletic and recreational facilities.
The total tax rate is $1.3651 or about $1.35 per $100 of property valuation.
More: Five things to know about your rising school taxes and the new WFISD budget
Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news, politics and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Her Twitter handle is @Trishapedia.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: WFISD sees declining enrollment, looking into cutting spending
