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Crowley High School, 1005 W Main St., Crowley. Crowley ISD recently announced plans to manage the district’s potential $16 million budget deficit. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report)
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Crowley ISD recently joined the growing list of Tarrant County school districts facing major budget deficits and eventual staffing cuts.

Superintendent Michael McFarland described the district’s situation to board trustees as one of “VUCA,” or, volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. 

He told trustees to keep this in mind during a March 7 board meeting in which McFarland and the board discussed budget challenges facing the district and possible remedies. McFarland told the board to expect changes throughout Crowley ISD.

Crowley ISD faces a deficit somewhere between $1 million and $16 million for the 2024-25 school year, McFarland said. In its most likely scenario, the district will see a $7.5 million deficit.

“We’re focused on protecting the classroom,” said McFarland. “We want to make sure we don’t cut things that we value. We want to prioritize those things.”

Classroom teachers are safe, McFarland said. For now, Crowley ISD will stop spending unless necessary for the classroom and will no longer hire for vacant positions. The district also plans to reduce stipend allocations and reorganize positions within its central office. 

It’s also a possibility the district transitions to a shared-campus model for instructional coaches, McFarland told the Fort Worth Report. District staffing guidelines currently indicate each campus is designated at least one instructional coach, or district employees who work with campus teachers to refine classroom skills and strategies.

The district will discuss any changes to staffing guidelines when administrators return from spring break on March 17.

With only the strategies outlined so far, Crowley ISD estimates $7.2 million of savings to the current budget, with $3.6 million saved toward future budgets.

How is Crowley ISD saving a total of $10.8 million?

Current budget:

Instituting a discretionary spending freeze: $4.1 million

Instituting a hiring freeze on all vacant positions: $1.1 million

Moving personnel salaries and expenditures from general fund to external grants: $2 million

Future budgets:

Reducing stipend allocations by 20%: $1.4 million

Central office reorganization: $1.5 million

Contract renegotiations: $350,000

Refinement of staffing guidelines: $320,000

McFarland blames the district’s deficit on the state Legislature. After lawmakers didn’t pass multiple education funding bills, the state is left with a $32.7 billion surplus.

“If you want to know what a state values, look at its budget. If you look at our state budget, you see no increase [to schools],” McFarland said.

Lawmakers didn’t spend a penny on public education, McFarland said; in contrast, the Crowley district’s growth of 1,001 students since 2019 has put it in a financial bind. 

Now, coupled with inflation costs and the rise in cost of education per student, the district’s hand is forced into making cuts.

In 2019, educating one student cost Crowley ISD nearly $9,000. In 2023, that rose to $10,625, and the district received $9,972 of revenue per student.

The state determines each district’s funding based on the percentage of students who attend classes. For each student, the state provides what is called a basic allotment of $6,160 annually.

“Whether they come or not, we have to have resources, facilities, staffing, everything for every student enrolled in our district, yet the state has only paid us for those students that come to school,” said trustee Daryl Davis. 

In 2023, district enrollment stood at 16,729, while average daily attendance was 14,817, or 88.6% of students.

McFarland said the state funding districts based on attendance, instead of enrollment, is a key reason why the district’s total expenditures have exceeded its revenue since 2021. 

“If the state would’ve just paid us based on enrollment, we would have between $11.7 million to $19 million added to our budget,” McFarland said.

Leon Fisher, the district’s chief financial officer, said McFarland calls the difference between expenditures and revenue the “alligator line.”

“If the red line is above that green line, and his mouth is open, you’re about to get eaten up,” McFarland said.

To make up for this difference the past few years, the district has dipped into its reserve fund.

In its 2023-24 adopted budget, Crowley ISD approved the designation of $8.2 million from its reserve fund to help balance the budget. 

Crowley ISD currently has $37 million left in reserves.

If nothing’s done, that fund will run out at some point, McFarland said. As the district is early along its budgeting process, now was the time to make critical, but tough, decisions.

“Regardless of what we do, if the structure doesn’t change and we don’t address the root of it, the deficit is going to be there,” he said.

If Crowley ISD doesn’t make any changes, 2024-25’s budget would see a deficit of $16 million. 

To balance that, the district would need to use 43.2% of its reserve fund. That isn’t feasible, McFarland said.

“These are challenges that were not necessarily created by us but are challenges that we’re willing to face,” McFarland said. “We’re not here to complain. We’re going to deal with it.”

Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @MatthewSgroi1 on X. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.