How did CCISD get here?

Declining enrollment, rising costs and local decisions preceded district’s budget crisis

For years, Calhoun County Independent School District has watched enrollment decline. For several of those years, however, staffing did not fall at the same pace. By 2022-23, expenditures were rising faster than operating revenue, and the district began what became three consecutive years of multimillion-dollar reductions in its general fund balance.

Now, CCISD is confronting a 2026-27 budget projecting a general fund deficit of nearly $4.69 million. Trustees closed Port O’Connor Elementary and moved Seadrift seventh- and eighth-grade students to Travis Middle School. District officials say they are reducing personnel costs and are asking voters to approve three additional pennies on the district’s maintenance and operations tax rate.

Those actions are now the subject of a lawsuit alleging violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act. District Judge Julie C. Bauknight issued a temporary restraining order, or TRO, Oct. 1 blocking implementation of the adopted budget and tax rate, the school consolidation plans and administration of the Nov. 3 voter-approval tax rate election. The 13th Court of Appeals stayed those restrictions Oct. 5 while it considers the district's petition for writ of mandamus. Neither order determines whether CCISD or its officials violated the law.

The litigation has added uncertainty to the district's immediate plans. It does not change the financial record that preceded it.

A Port Lavaca Wave review of more than a decade of Texas Education Agency data, CCISD financial audits, budgets, staffing records, school-finance documents, independent assessments and records supplied by the district shows the district's financial strain did not emerge suddenly in 2026.

Enrollment had been declining for years. Total staffing declined much more slowly. Operating expenditures accelerated in 2022-23 while operating revenue remained nearly flat. The district then drew down approximately $9.77 million from its general fund balance over three years before cost reductions began.

External pressures also played a role. Recapture increased sharply in 2022-23. Temporary federal pandemic funding ended. Insurance, utilities, maintenance, safety and facility costs increased. But district records also show local decisions affected the trajectory, including staffing levels, salary increases, continuation of some programs and personnel after temporary federal funding expired and the timing of spending reductions.

The records do not establish that any single decision caused CCISD's current deficit. They do show that warning signs accumulated over several years before the district moved to cost reductions.

CCISD enrolled 4,238 students in 2011-12. By 2025-26, enrollment had fallen to 3,388, a decline of 850 students, or about 20%.

Refined average daily attendance, or ADA, declined by roughly 21% over the same period. The downward trend continues in the district's financial planning: CCISD projects 2026-27 enrollment of 3,165 students and refined ADA of about 2,805.

Enrollment and attendance affect school funding, but the district's workforce did not shrink at the same rate as its student population.

TEA staffing records show total staff measured in full-time equivalents, or FTEs, declined from 562.62 in 2011-12 to 540.51 in 2025-26 — a reduction of about 3.9% while enrollment declined about 20%.

Over the same 2011-12 to 2025-26 period, teaching FTEs fell from 274.7 to 230.67, about 16%. TEA-classified administrative FTEs increased from 16.92 to 22.57, about 33%.

TEA's administrative classifications include campus leaders such as principals and assistant principals and central administrators such as superintendents and other district leadership personnel. The category is broader than central-office staff alone.

Chief Financial Officer Robin Martinez confirmed in a follow-up response to the Wave that TEA's administrative staff category should be treated separately from counselors, diagnosticians and security personnel, which are reported in other classifications.

"Yes, please continue to treat the TEA Administrative Staff category separately from counselors, diagnosticians, and security personnel," Martinez wrote. "The reference to staffing classifications was intended to distinguish the various employee groups reflected in the district's staffing reports."

Staffing classifications and district organization can change over a 14-year period, so the figures are most useful for examining trends rather than tracking individual jobs.

The trend was not uniform. From 2017-18 through 2023-24, enrollment declined about 9.6% while total staff FTE increased about 6.4%. More recently, total staffing has moved downward: from 2023-24 through 2025-26, enrollment declined about 4.1% and total staff FTE declined about 4.3%.

The mix of employees also changed. Over that more recent two-year period, teaching FTEs fell about 12%, from 262.5 to 230.67, while administrative FTEs increased about 16%, from 19.5 to 22.57.

A 2026 efficiency audit by MoakCasey provides another benchmark. It found CCISD had 6.3 students per total staff member, compared with 6.8 among peer districts and 6.5 statewide. The audit concluded that CCISD was staffed at higher levels relative to its peers and statewide averages.

The same audit showed 14.7 students per teaching FTE at CCISD, compared with 15.1 among peers and 13.6 statewide. Those figures measure students per teaching FTE; they are not classroom-size figures.

Superintendent Evan Cardwell said the timing of staffing decisions helps explain why staffing does not immediately follow enrollment changes.

"Contracts for the upcoming school year are issued beginning in March, but current enrollment numbers are not available at that time," Cardwell said. "As a result, staffing decisions and the budget are based on the most recent enrollment information available from the prior year."

That timing can explain a lag from one year to the next. The long-term record, however, shows enrollment fell much more sharply than total staffing over more than a decade.

CCISD entered the 2020s with substantial general fund reserves. The audited balance increased by about $1.28 million in 2020-21, ending at approximately $33.2 million, then increased again in 2021-22 to approximately $33.72 million.

The direction changed in 2022-23.

CCISD began that year with an adopted budget already projecting a $628,160 deficit. By year-end, the audited general fund balance had fallen approximately $3.49 million.

The financial data does not show a sudden collapse in overall operating revenue that year. General fund operating revenue declined from approximately $36.87 million in 2021-22 to $36.78 million in 2022-23 — less than $100,000, or about one-quarter of 1%.

Operating expenditures, meanwhile, increased from approximately $36.48 million to $39.63 million — about $3.15 million, or 8.6%. Payroll expenditures alone increased approximately $1.81 million, from $29.43 million to $31.23 million, or about 6.1%.

Refined ADA declined about 4% during the same period, from approximately 3,262 to 3,131. Total Foundation School Program and Available School Fund state aid increased by approximately $847,000, from $34.77 million to $35.62 million.

In other words, the district's first large general fund loss came in a year when operating revenue was nearly flat, state aid increased and expenditures rose substantially.

Cardwell said the increase reflected several pressures and decisions.

"The increase in expenditures beginning in the 2022-23 school year reflected several factors, including investments in our employees, continued support for students following the COVID-19 pandemic, increased recapture payments, and higher maintenance and operating costs," he said.

Cardwell said payroll increased primarily because of salary-scale increases and step raises approved by trustees in August 2022 and because the district continued additional personnel to address instructional and student-support needs following the pandemic.

During 2022-23, trustees also added approximately $4.31 million in spending authority through budget amendments. That figure is the amount added to the budget, not a statement that every dollar was ultimately spent.

The amendments were a mix of expenses rather than a single category. They included $400,000 for increased property insurance premiums, $140,000 for bus fuel, $99,225 for utilities and safety-related spending, but also facilities projects, equipment and initiatives such as stadium turf, a junior high gym roof, a high school bathroom project, cameras, a phone system, esports and other items.

The mix matters. Some costs reflected insurance, utilities, safety and maintenance pressures. Others reflected projects or initiatives approved locally. The record does not support characterizing the entire $4.31 million as either unavoidable expense or discretionary spending.

The 2022-23 loss was not an isolated year.

CCISD's audited general fund balance decreased approximately $3.49 million in 2022-23, another $3.36 million in 2023-24 and another $2.91 million in 2024-25. After the 2024-25 decline, the balance stood at approximately $23.95 million as of Aug. 31, 2025.

Over those three years, the district's total general fund balance declined approximately $9.77 million.

The unassigned portion fell from approximately $17.94 million at the end of 2021-22 to approximately $9.96 million at the end of 2024-25, after that year's loss — a decrease of nearly $8 million, or about 44%.

Unassigned fund balance is the portion of the general fund's accumulated balance that has not been restricted, committed or assigned to a specific purpose. It represents resources carried forward for general use, rather than simply a spending allowance set aside in the annual budget, and is not necessarily the same as cash available in the bank.

Martinez has noted that the unassigned balance is not the district's entire general fund balance. CCISD also maintains committed fund balance, which trustees can reclassify through board action. Trustees approved such a reclassification Sept. 10. Reclassifying fund balance changes how existing money is categorized; it does not create additional funds.

The district has calculated 90 days of operating expenditures at approximately $12.04 million. Martinez told the Wave that the board's financial policy, identified as CEA, does not establish a specific required, minimum or target general fund balance.

The state's Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas, or FIRST, evaluates financial measures that include fund balance and the number of days cash and current investments can cover expenditures. Fund balance and cash on hand are different measures. The district's 90-day calculation does not itself establish a legal requirement to maintain $12.04 million in its general fund.

Whatever reserve measure is used, the audited trend is clear: after adding to its general fund balance in 2020-21 and 2021-22, CCISD reduced it by nearly $9.8 million over the next three years.

By the end of 2022-23, the district had recorded the first of what would become three consecutive multimillion-dollar reductions. The pattern continued in 2023-24 and again in 2024-25. The more extensive recurring cost reductions now underway came later.

Recapture, the school-finance mechanism requiring some districts to share local tax revenue with the state, was one of the significant pressures in 2022-23. CCISD's audited Function 91 recapture expenditure increased from approximately $6.4 million in 2021-22 to $8.26 million in 2022-23, an increase of about $1.85 million, or 29%.

But recapture then fell sharply. In 2023-24, it dropped to approximately $1.6 million — about $6.65 million less than the year before. Despite that decline, CCISD's general fund balance still decreased approximately $3.36 million that year.

Recapture increased again to approximately $2.33 million in 2024-25, up about $727,000, or 45%, from the prior year.

"The increase in the recapture obligation is the result of multiple factors working together rather than a single component," Martinez wrote in response to a Wave follow-up question.

Martinez said local tax collections and state calculations involving enrollment, weighted average daily attendance and attendance all affect the obligation. The year-to-year figures show recapture can materially affect the budget, but they also show it cannot by itself explain the district's continuing general fund losses.

Temporary federal money ended; some costs continued

Federal pandemic relief added another layer to the district's finances. CCISD, like districts across Texas, received temporary Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, funding during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The district used those funds for academic interventions, student support, materials, programs and personnel. As the temporary money began to expire, CCISD had to decide whether to discontinue those supports or pay for some of them from recurring local funds.

"As ESSER funding began to wind down, CCISD faced an important decision about whether to discontinue those supports or continue providing them through the district's General Fund," Cardwell said.

CCISD chose to continue some programs and personnel, shifting those costs to the general fund. That does not mean ESSER's expiration caused the district's deficit. It does mean a temporary funding source supported costs that, in some cases, became continuing local obligations.

CCISD also spends more per student on operations than comparison districts, according to the MoakCasey efficiency audit.

For 2024-25, the audit reported operating expenditures of $13,973 per student at CCISD, compared with $13,049 among peer districts and $12,890 statewide. CCISD's revenue per student, at $12,866, was slightly above the peer and statewide figures cited in the audit.

Payroll represented 75.4% of CCISD's all-funds operating expenditures, compared with 77.7% among peers and 79.5% statewide. Plant maintenance and operations stood out in the other direction: $2,104 per student at CCISD, compared with $1,502 among peers and $1,276 statewide.

District officials point to circumstances specific to Calhoun County, including a large geographic service area, aging facilities, coastal property and flood insurance costs, electricity costs and a smaller pool of contractors.

Facilities records show those pressures are real, but they also raise a long-term planning question.

A December 2024 facility condition assessment by ALPHA Facilities Solutions estimated Calhoun High School's long-term capital renewal needs at approximately $2.5 million annually. The estimate is a long-term planning benchmark, not a statement that the district must spend $2.5 million every year on immediate repairs.

The assessment placed the high school at a facility condition index of 11 and projected an index of 20 in five years under its assumptions. The index compares the cost of identified repair and renewal needs with the cost of replacing the facility; a higher index indicates a greater burden of those needs relative to replacement cost.

The assessment recommended additional assessment of the district's remaining facilities, forecasting future needs, prioritizing projects, evaluating funding alternatives and updating the plan annually.

The district has previously invested heavily in the high school. A 2013 bond expenditure report, updated in 2021, shows approximately $8.64 million in expenditures associated with Calhoun High School across the $65 million bond program.

Those earlier expenditures do not establish that prior work failed or that the 2024 needs involve the same components. They do show that millions were invested at CHS and that substantial capital-renewal needs remained roughly a decade later.

MoakCasey's later audit reported that CCISD did not have an active facilities master plan, making long-term capital planning another part of the district's financial picture.

The financial record shows three consecutive years of multimillion-dollar general fund declines beginning in 2022-23. The more substantial structural changes now being pursued came after those losses had accumulated.

For 2026-27, district salary projections declined from approximately $37.97 million to $35.66 million, a reduction of about $2.31 million. After accounting for an approximately $324,000 increase in Teacher Incentive Allotment salaries, total projected salary costs declined by approximately $1.99 million.

District records attribute the reduction to eliminated or unfilled administrative, teaching, clerical, maintenance and transportation positions, attrition, employees moving into existing vacancies, changes in hiring and pay rates and positions that had previously been supported with federal funds.

Cardwell said 10 positions were left unfilled for 2026-27 because of declining enrollment. He also said the district established a 10% budget-reduction goal and reviewed staffing, recurring expenditures, campus utilization, contracts, purchasing, transportation and maintenance.

Those targets and reviews are not the same as completed savings. The adopted budget reflects some reductions already made; other reviews identify areas in which additional savings may be sought.

Trustees also approved closing Port O'Connor Elementary and moving Seadrift seventh- and eighth-grade students to Travis Middle School. CCISD formed a finance committee and brought in outside financial assistance as it worked on additional reductions.

Even after those actions, the adopted 2026-27 general fund budget projected approximately $41.83 million in revenue and approximately $46.52 million in expenditures, leaving a deficit of about $4.69 million.

That deficit is a budget projection, not an actual year-end loss. But if fully realized, it would represent another substantial draw on reserves following the approximately $9.77 million reduction over the three audited years from 2022-23 through 2024-25.

Trustees also called a Nov. 3 voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, asking voters to ratify a total tax rate of $0.7725 per $100 of property valuation.

The proposal would add three pennies to the district's compressed maintenance and operations rate, increasing it from $0.6754 to $0.7054 per $100 valuation. The ballot states "THIS IS A TAX INCREASE" and says the proposed rate would increase M&O tax revenue by $1,520,535 compared with the preceding year.

If voters approve the VATRE, the additional revenue would reduce the projected $4.69 million deficit to approximately $3.17 million, assuming expenditures and all other revenues remain unchanged, according to a Wave calculation. That is a conditional comparison, not a projection of the district's actual year-end result.

CCISD has said the VATRE revenue would be recurring and would remain with the district rather than being subject to recapture.

"Receiving the VATRE funding will help tremendously, but it is not our solution for long-term sustainability," Cardwell previously told the Wave. "We have to continue to find new sources of revenue while reducing expenditures."

The Oct. 1 temporary restraining order initially blocked CCISD from implementing or enforcing its adopted budget and tax rate, carrying out the school consolidation plans and administering the Nov. 3 VATRE, including placing the proposition on the ballot.

On Oct. 5, the 13th Court of Appeals granted the district's emergency motion and stayed paragraphs (a) through (d) of the TRO, including any attempted extensions, pending further order or resolution of the mandamus proceeding. The stay temporarily suspends those restrictions; it does not dismiss the underlying lawsuit.

An Oct. 8 letter from the appellate court clerk states that the court granted an opposed request for more time to respond to the district's amended mandamus petition. The response deadline is now Oct. 22. That extension does not decide the petition or change the Oct. 5 stay.

The lawsuit alleges violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act. Those allegations have not been proven in court. Neither the TRO nor the appellate stay is a final determination of whether the challenged board actions violated the law.

The Wave requested Cardwell's response to the lawsuit Oct. 4. He had not responded as of press time.

Cardwell and Martinez previously provided the Wave with extensive responses to questions about the district's finances, staffing, enrollment, recapture, federal pandemic funding and efforts to reduce expenditures. Their explanations are included throughout this report.

No single decision or outside factor explains CCISD's current financial position.

The district lost about one-fifth of its enrollment over 14 years. Recapture fluctuated sharply. Temporary federal funding ended. Insurance, utilities, safety and facility costs increased. 

The district's own records also show decisions made locally mattered. Total staffing did not decline at the same pace as enrollment over the long term. Payroll rose substantially in 2022-23 as ADA fell. Some programs and personnel supported by temporary federal funds were continued through the general fund. Trustees added millions of dollars in spending authority to the 2022-23 budget. And the district went on to record three consecutive multimillion-dollar reductions in general fund balance before undertaking the more extensive recurring reductions now underway.

By 2026-27, CCISD said it was reducing salary costs, leaving positions unfilled, consolidating campuses, reviewing departmental spending and seeking additional recurring revenue through the VATRE.

Those measures may change future expenditures and revenues. The challenged board actions remain the subject of litigation, with the TRO's restrictions stayed while the appellate proceeding continues.

What the financial record shows is that the conditions prompting those measures developed over years, not months.