Trustees Encouraged to Attend Pre-Conference Budget Workshop at Summer Leadership Institute

The pre-conference session at Summer Leadership Institute will offer a special budget workshop for trustees. Presented by the Texas Association of Business Officials, the session will cover everything from long-term planning and fund balance to the board’s role in the budget adoption process.  

This training opportunity comes as many school board members across the state are struggling with stagnant state funding and inflationary price increases that have created especially challenging budget discussions.  

Already, many school boards passed deficit budgets for the 2023-24 school year with the expectation that the 88^th Texas Legislature would provide additional funding to help address rising operational costs and salary increases to recruit and retain teachers.  

Yet the outcome of that session — and the four special sessions that followed — brought no relief. Ahead of the new school year, the difficult reality is that many of the 1,025 school boards in Texas expect to adopt a deficit budget, adding uncertainty and risk to their financial outlooks and requiring staff and program cuts. 

“We know school boards are having a lot of tough budget discussions right now, so we wanted to provide some timely training,” said Kathy Dundee, TASB’s director of Conference and Event Planning. “We’re very excited about having TASBO lead this pre-conference session because they are truly school budget experts and will have a lot of tips and strategies to share.” 

Among the topics to be covered will be:  

• Overview of state and local funding 
• Legal requirements and statutory timelines related to budget adoption 
• The board’s role in the budget adoption process 
• Statewide data to put current budget challenges in context 
• Pros and cons of different budget approaches (such as zero-based, line item, campus-based, etc.) 
• Deficit budgets with a discussion of transitory vs. continued budget deficits 
• Long-term planning and fund balance 

There’s no additional cost for trustees to attend the pre-conference session for those registered to participate in the Summer Leadership Institute. At both the San Antonio and Fort Worth locations, the pre-conference will take place on Wednesday evening from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. before the conference officially kicks off on Thursday.  

Dinner will be provided and trustees in attendance will have the opportunity to earn 2.5 hours in Continuing Education Credit. 

“For those boards facing a tough financial situation, it will be a great opportunity to learn about key budget topics firsthand,” Dundee said.