A brief power outage on Thursday night didn’t hinder the Marfa ISD School Board from unanimously approving the 2026-2027 district budget at a special meeting, adopting a $493,485 estimated deficit.
The loss of power brought a little levity following district Chief Financial Officer Rosela Rivera’s sobering presentation of the numbers, with board members joking the “666” in the district’s approved tax rate was to blame for the electricity blip. Trustees Jay Foster, Paul Salgado, Jonathan Lockett, Ruben Martinez and Board President Teresa Nunez were present. Philip Boyd joined remotely.
To begin, the board approved a total tax rate of .82125 per $100 valuation, opting for a Maintenance and Operation (M&O) rate of .6666, and an Interest & Sinking (I&S) rate of .15465, which will allow the district to pay off some of its accumulated debts. M&O funds must be spent on everyday operations of the district — payroll, transportation costs, utilities, classroom supplies and other operational costs. I&S funds may only be spent on bond debt and capital improvements of the district — it can’t fund operational costs. School districts in Texas gain the bulk of their funding from property taxes, while the state and federal government contribute less revenue.
M&O funds are subject to recapture — also known as the “Robin Hood” plan — while I&S rates are not. Recapture is on the minds of district leaders because payments to the state have been substantial in the last few years ($1.6 million for 2024-25) due to high property values in the district –– despite being a Title I school, a federal program intended to support schools in areas of concentrated poverty. The intent of the law has been to make state funding for schools equitable by redistributing money from high-property-value districts taxed locally to those with less property value, but the result has been less than fair as districts like Marfa with low enrollment suffer from lack of state funding.
Additionally, the state-mandated increase in the homestead exemption – from $100,000 to $140,000 – resulted in a reduction in local taxable property values throughout the district. At the same time, state tax rate compression further diminished local tax collections and the district did not receive additional state funding to compensate for these state-imposed reductions, Rivera wrote in a follow-up statement to the Sentinel.
“While homeowners benefit from tax relief, the district experiences no net revenue gain, leaving our operating funding levels heavily constrained,” she said. “To stretch every taxpayer dollar as far as possible, Marfa ISD is actively exploring every available federal and state funding stream, grant, and resource for which the district is eligible to help offset these revenue limitations.”
As a work-around, district leaders continue to focus on early childhood partnerships, which increase enrollment for the district and bring down recapture payments. Rivera brought the number down from an estimated $1 million in last year’s adopted budget to $400,000 this year, but the partnerships also come at a cost — over $700,000 is estimated to go out to those schools this year, and the district is now paying an additional salary for former interim superintendent Arturo Alferez in a new role created this summer: director of specials programs, which involves recruiting and maintaining relationships with those schools, all located in El Paso. But enrollment on Marfa’s campus continues to dwindle — just 163 students began school this last week, and there are only 12 seniors in the Class of 2027.
“Will [recapture] keep going down with more partnerships?” Foster asked Rivera at the meeting Thursday.
“It should fluctuate with Average Daily Attendance, that’s what it did this past year,” she replied. “We were at $1.6 [million] in the beginning, went down to 1 [million] and then 1.4 [million] — it fluctuated the whole year, but ended up going back down to 500 [thousand].”
“We’re not spending a lot on stuff, just what we need,” Rivera said in conclusion of the hearing.
Superintendent Stephen McCanless thanked Rivera for her dedicated calculations and offered hope for the district: “I believe we will actualize less [spending] with the efficiency we’ll be operating with this year,” he said.
Across the state, public school administrators and educators have long raised the alarm about recapture and school funding –– including the 89th Legislature’s controversial implementation of school vouchers –– and the leadership of the Texas Education Agency. According to the Texas education watchdog Our Schools Our Democracy, more than 170 public and charter school campuses across Texas have closed or are being considered for closure due to declining enrollment and budget shortfalls since the 2023-24 school year. Neighboring district Fort Davis ISD recently consolidated its campuses into one building due to lack of enrollment and to save money.
Acknowledging this tightrope, Rivera said, “Marfa ISD remains deeply committed to being responsible, transparent stewards of taxpayer dollars while providing the best possible education for our students.”
A closer look at the numbers can be viewed on Big Bend Sentinel’s public notice page.
