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Parents walk their kids on their first day of school Aug. 13, 2024, at M.H. Moore Elementary School. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report)
” data-medium-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/FirstdayofSchool_Aug13_CamiloDiaz4093-scaled.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/FirstdayofSchool_Aug13_CamiloDiaz4093-scaled.jpg?fit=780%2C520&ssl=1″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button”>Fort Worth ISD school board member Kevin Lynch laid out the hurdles for the district and its community. Enrollment is dropping. Student outcomes are stagnant. Residents face high property tax bills.Now, Fort Worth ISD and school districts across Tarrant County face a new appraisal plan that officials anticipate will worsen already tight financial situations. Administrators fear the plan will harm the education of students — and ultimately the county’s future, they said.Fort Worth ISD trustees approved an Aug. 20 resolution denouncing the reappraisal plan. Trustees also ratified their disapproval of the Tarrant Appraisal District’s 2025 budget, which must receive the thumbs up from a majority of taxing entities. Both votes were 7-2, with Lynch and trustee Michael Ryan dissenting.The budget process needs to change so the district builds a plan that boosts academic achievement rather than bank on financial assumptions that may or may not come, Lynch said.Ryan voted against both items because he wants to see where the appraisal changes and the district’s finances land, he said. Officials need to understand what’s going on first as well as not overburden taxpayers. The bigger issue for Ryan, a former educator? The Legislature not increasing public education funding when it met throughout 2023.“The state has dropped the ball on funding the schools,” Ryan said. “If they’d fund it the way they should, as far as our taxing structure, it wouldn’t be detrimental to people. But I’ve got too many people that I work with that they’re elderly and they’re going, ‘I can’t take another increase on my house.’”The Tarrant Appraisal District plans to freeze residential market values in 2025, reappraise residential properties every two years, and establish a 5% threshold to raise residential values in the future. The appraisal district’s board of directors expects the policies will reduce the growth of residential property values. Commercial properties are unaffected.Fort Worth ISD school board President Camille Rodriguez speaks during a first-day-of-school event on Aug. 13, 2024, at M.H. Moore Elementary School. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report)Fort Worth ISD school board President Camille Rodriguez expressed frustration with the appraisal changes.“If we have no new revenue for three years, how are we supposed to educate our kids and pay for inflation, supply costs, labor, the regular maintenance with no new money?” Rodriguez said.Rodriguez is not alone in that sentiment. Leon Fisher, Crowley ISD’s chief financial officer, previously told the Fort Worth Report that the appraisal plan could have unintended consequences.“Parents want the tax benefit from this proposal, as well, but they really need to know that it’s all about education. How will this impact your students’ education? It’s going to have an adverse impact,” Fisher said.In a two-page letter sent Aug. 15, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD Superintendent Jim Chadwell wrote to Tarrant Appraisal District board members that school districts wanted to work with them to find a solution and mitigate unintended consequences. However, educators’ concerns and partnership offers were dismissed, he said.“We told you what would happen in our school districts and how it will directly affect students throughout Tarrant County, only to learn that you simply don’t care,” Chadwell wrote. “We learned that either the board is arrogant and doesn’t think school finance law is complicated, or worse, does not care.”In an Aug. 13 statement, Northwest ISD told community members the reappraisal plan likely will lead to multiple districts losing up to $15 million annually in state funding. Northwest ISD expects to lose up to $10 million annually.“In light of the TAD board’s decision, we cannot help but feel immense sadness for the children of Tarrant County. The future of hundreds of thousands of school children will be negatively impacted by this decision that ignores the harm to our local communities just to keep a short-sighted and uninformed political promise,” Northwest ISD wrote.Proposals reducing the reappraisal plan’s impact on school districts failed when the Tarrant Appraisal District board of directors adopted the policy Aug. 9.Callie Rigney, Tarrant Appraisal District board member, listens to a resident’s remarks during a board of directors meeting held on July 22, 2024, at the Arlington ISD administration building. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report)“People are literally getting taxed out of their homes, and without taxpayers, you don’t have a school district,” Tarrant Appraisal District board member Callie Rigney said during the meeting. “So we have to look out for the taxpayers.”Chadwell and Northwest ISD do not expect taxpayers will save money because of the appraisal district’s new policies, both stated. “Tarrant County residential homeowners’ tax bills will likely be higher over a three-year period with this new reappraisal plan in place, while school district budgets stand to suffer the strain of reduced state funding,” Northwest ISD officials wrote in a statement. “As a result, districts will have to cut teachers or further reduce academic or extracurricular programs, decreasing opportunities for students.”The Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD superintendent pointed to the city of Fort Worth’s proposed property tax increase, its first in almost 30 years, as another example of taxpayers not receiving relief.The delayed reappraisal schedule also harms school districts’ ability to issue bonds that will fund the construction of campuses, an effect that particularly impacts high-growth districts like Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Northwest and Crowley ISDs, Chadwell wrote. “I hope that we are able to work together now to build a strong, sustainable future for Tarrant County citizens,” Chadwell said, “including the youngest citizens among us who require quality schools so that they may achieve at the highest levels and be prepared as tomorrow’s leaders.”Fort Worth ISD trustee Kevin Lynch listens to a presentation about the school district’s budget on June 11, 2024, at the Fort Worth ISD administration building. (Alberto Silva Fernandez | Fort Worth Report)During the Fort Worth ISD school board meeting, Lynch also emphasized the future and finding the right balance for funding. Superintendent Angélica Ramsey told Lynch their district likely needs $24,092 per student to adequately fund Fort Worth ISD’s roughly 70,000 students. The district spent $15,338 per student during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency.The disparity between Ramsey’s figure, which she cited from a Rice University study, and reality is large, Lynch said.“At what point do we make sense of that? Because this seems like, for lack of a better term, a freight train going in the wrong direction,” Lynch said. “Outcomes drive enrollment and then affordability allows people to live in Fort Worth.”Fort Worth Report reporters Matthew Sgroi and Emily Wolf contributed.Jacob Sanchez is a senior education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez. 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.