The Courier of Montgomery County reports that Conroe ISD administrators said this week that CISD’s number of students in special education is growing fast enough that it’s making up for losses in state funding over general enrollment numbers.
During the board’s workshop last Tuesday, Chief Financial Officer for Conroe ISD, Karen Garza, gave a budget update and a look at next year.
State funding, according to Garza, is tied to average daily enrollment which generates $6,610 per student. Special education students, like other students who need more services, are weighted, which results in more funding.
The board adopted a $711.97 million budget back in August. However, they had an $11.9 million shortfall. For the preliminary budget for the 2025-26 school year, Garza said it would be about $723 million, and this includes a $3.81 million shortfall.
Garza said enrollment is based on 74,000 students. According to her, however, enrollment is down.
Garza also said they are seeing kids coming to the district that “are needing more specialized services.” However, she added that although actual enrollment growth has not grown as they expected, the kids who are enrolling “are generating weighted funding,” which will take care of any revenue loss as a result of being down 700 kids.
