After a decrease in student enrollment (7,051 as of April 20 compared to 7,205 students in March of 2025), Summer Mathis, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Azle ISD, and Superintendent Todd Smith said that the district is facing a potential budget deficit of $1.3 million. Since they realized the potential budget deficit last fall, the district has issued several budget cuts to minimize or eliminate the budget deficit, like discontinuing AVID, cutting smaller classes, and introducing online class alternatives to lessen operational costs.
One of the major ways Texas decides funding for public schools is based on average student attendance (the number of students and how often they show up). Since the last legislative session, each student provides the district $6,215 in state funds, but every program they participate in—CTE, GT, Special Education, etc.—adds more on top of that. In reality, Mathis estimates each student brings Azle ISD around $10,000.
For the last few years, Smith said Azle ISD has been considered a fast-growth district, growing by tens or hundreds of students every year, and was projected to grow this year as well. This means that the school board budgeted for an increase in students, thus, an increase in revenue, so they increased the budget from the ‘24-‘25 to the ‘25-‘26 school year 1.02% (Proposed budget for 2026). However, due to the loss of 200 students, the district did not receive around $200,000 in revenue, plus the estimated amount for additional students coming into the district, which caused the potential $1.3 million deficit it is now facing.
“We do not plan on adopting a deficit budget for ‘25-‘26,” Mathis said. “We’re trying to work through staffing ratios, expenditures and things like that [so] we can balance [it] out. We’re in the very early stages.”
Specifically, Mathis said the district is reducing staff overhead, cutting non-essential programs and maximizing efficiency of bus routes. They are also asking personnel to do minimum overtime, defer buying new supplies or equipment to another year and reduce travel. The superintendent said that while he knows these cuts are painful, they are necessary.
“This is the first time where we’ve actually had to seriously look at making cuts,” Smith said. “So it’s really hard because anything that we cut, we know is very near and dear [to people]. We wouldn’t have had it if we didn’t think it was a good program. That makes it real hard because now it makes it look like we didn’t think it was a good program, and that’s not the case.”
Smith said that if student enrollment went back up, it is not likely the cut programs would be brought back as inflation increases costs while the state continues to not increase funding. Currently, Smith said that Azle ISD is trying new ways to encourage students to stay or move to the district instead of using the state’s new voucher program to pursue homeschool or private school. For example, Azle HS, starting next year, is offering hybrid online classes.
