Fort Worth ISD School Board member Kevin Lynch explained the hurdles facing the district and its community. Enrollment is declining. Student achievement is stagnating. Residents are paying high property taxes.

Now Fort Worth ISD and school districts across Tarrant County are facing a new assessment plan that officials fear will worsen already strained financial situations. Administrators fear the plan will harm students’ education — and ultimately the district’s future, they said.

Fort Worth ISD trustees passed a resolution on Aug. 20 condemning the revaluation plan. Trustees also reiterated their opposition to the Tarrant Appraisal District’s 2025 budget, which must be approved by a majority of taxing bodies. Both votes ended 7-2, with Lynch and Trustee Michael Ryan voting against.

The budget process needs to change so the district creates a plan that improves academic achievement rather than relying on financial assumptions that may or may not come true, Lynch said.

Ryan voted against both items because he wants to see how the assessment changes and how the county’s finances fare, he said. Officials need to first understand what’s going on and not overburden taxpayers.

The bigger problem for Ryan, a former educator? The legislature did not increase funding for public education in its 2023 session.

“The state has failed at funding schools,” Ryan said. “If they funded schools the way they should, it wouldn’t be harmful to people as far as our tax structure goes. But I work with too many older people who say, ‘I can’t take another increase on my house.'”

The Tarrant Appraisal District plans to freeze residential property market values ​​in 2025, reassess residential properties every two years, and set a 5% threshold to increase residential property values ​​in the future. The Appraisal District Board expects the measures to reduce the growth of residential property values. Commercial properties will not be affected.

Camille Rodriguez, chair of the Fort Worth ISD school board, expressed her frustration with the changes in assessments.

“If we don’t have any new revenue for three years, how are we going to educate our children and pay for inflation, material costs, labor and regular maintenance without new money?” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez is not alone in this opinion.

Leon Fisher, chief financial officer of Crowley ISD, previously told the Fort Worth Report that the assessment plan could have unintended consequences.

“Parents also want the tax benefits of this proposal, but they really need to understand that this is about education. How is this going to affect your students’ education? It’s going to have a negative impact,” Fisher said.

In a two-page letter dated Aug. 15, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD Superintendent Jim Chadwell wrote to Tarrant Appraisal District board members that the school districts wanted to work with them to find a solution and mitigate unintended consequences. But educators’ concerns and offers of partnership were rebuffed, he said.

“We told you what would happen in our school districts and how it would directly impact students across Tarrant County, only to be told you simply don’t care,” Chadwell wrote. “We learned that the board is either arrogant and doesn’t think the school funding law is complicated or, worse, doesn’t care.”

In an Aug. 13 statement, Northwest ISD told community members that the revaluation plan will likely result in several districts losing up to $15 million in state funding annually. Northwest ISD expects to lose up to $10 million annually.

“Given the TAD Board’s decision, we cannot help but feel great sadness for the children of Tarrant County. The futures of hundreds of thousands of school children will be negatively impacted by this decision, which ignores the harm to our local communities just to keep a shortsighted and uninformed political promise,” Northwest ISD wrote.

Proposals to reduce the impact of the reappraisal plan on school districts failed when the Tarrant Appraisal District board passed the policy on August 9.

“People are literally being taxed out of their homes, and without taxpayers, there is no 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 to save money as a result of the assessment district’s new policies, both said.

“Tarrant County homeowners’ tax bills will likely be higher over three years with this new revaluation plan, while school district budgets will suffer under the strain of reduced state funding,” Northwest ISD officials wrote in a statement. “As a result, districts will have to lay off teachers or further reduce academic or extracurricular programs, reducing student opportunities.”

The Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD superintendent pointed to the city of Fort Worth’s planned property tax increase – the first in nearly 30 years – as another example of taxpayers not getting relief.

The delayed revaluation plan also impacts school districts’ ability to issue bonds to finance school site construction, particularly affecting high-growth districts such as Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Northwest and Crowley ISDs, Chadwell wrote.

“I hope we can work together now to build a strong, sustainable future for the citizens of Tarrant County,” Chadwell said, “including the youngest citizens among us who need great schools so they can achieve at the highest levels and be prepared as leaders of tomorrow.”

During the Fort Worth ISD school board meeting, Lynch also placed a strong emphasis on the future and finding the right balance in funding.

Superintendent Angélica Ramsey told Lynch that her 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 in the 2023-24 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency.

The discrepancy between Ramsey’s number, which she cited from a Rice University study, and the reality is large, Lynch said.

“At what point can we understand this? Because it looks, for lack of a better term, like a freight train going in the wrong direction,” Lynch said. “Outcomes drive enrollment and then affordability enables people to live in Fort Worth.”

Fort Worth Report reporters Matthew Sgroi and Emily Wolf contributed.

Jacob Sanchez is senior education reporter at the Fort Worth Report. You can reach him at [email protected] 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.

This article first appeared in the Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.