Irion County ISD Board Meeting August 27 2025
- G. Noelke
- Aug 29
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 30
Agenda Analysis | Meeting Review | Meeting Documents | Commentary | Last Meeting
A. Agenda Analysis
Meeting start is at 6:00 for the tax rate hearing.
Budget, tax rate and budget amendments, items 3, 4 and 5: Read these three items together. They establish next year's budget based on whatever tax rate the Board approves. The budget amendments, item 5, are amendments to the current year, 24-25, which ends at the end of August. What are those amendments? Well, the public doesn't know until they are presented, "as presented". Again, I contend that the phrase "as presented" should never be used on an agenda because it does not give adequate notice.
SB 12, item 7: I haven't yet done a dive into SB 12. Here is the text of the new law. And here is a bill analysis. One of the provisions that jumps out to me is 7.0611, which on its face requires TEA to draft rules requiring school districts to disclose square footage and acreage of its campuses. Such statistics could be used to show the advantages “wealthy” districts like IC ISD have when using public bonds to retain local tax revenue. The law also has a number of provisions about eliminating DEI. As I've said elsewhere on these pages, these laws in my opinion are all about misogyny and racism. In time there will be a blow back from the insensitivity of these laws. Note: a few days after initially posting, litigation was filed challenging SB 12.
Executive session on personnel, items 9 and possibly 11: I'll cover these below.
B. Meeting Review
Open forum: no one spoke at the open forum for either the tax public hearing (agenda not posted) or the special meeting open forum.
Adoption of the 25-26 budget a. HB 1522, the new law that requires governmental bodies to post their proposed budget on the internet before the meeting is not yet in effect. This will make a huge difference, because, as I've expressed before, it is impossible to follow along during a budget adoption meeting like this one without access to the proposed budget during discussion. I was unable to understand key parts of the discussion, so my comments here will be limited; next year, hopefully, will be different.
b. Deficit budget: The District is running a $412,000 deficit budget, which equates to a $15,000 less than the deficit budget last year. This seems like a big deal, but in reality Supt. Moore is being more transparent than previous superintendents. The District has always, in the years I have been watching closely, been running a deficit. But the administration has not called it so. Kudos to Supt. Moore for calling a spade a spade. As dire as it all sounds, the District is still in the black with around $8 million in its fund balance. There's an audit next month, so more details to follow.
c. Increases in the budget are complicated. The line items seeing increases cannot be comprehensively evaluated without the proposed budget in hand. Of particular note: payroll is up $102,000 and insurance up $24,000. d. Calculating revenue is equally complicated: A witcher finding water with witchin' sticks will have an easier time explaining the science of their divining (which boils down to "I believe!") than a school administration can explain revenue from the State on Average Daily Attendance. Just say "I believe!" when the discussion in a meeting like this turns to ADA revenue, because it is mystical and magical for the CFO and Supt. as well. Taxpayers are being asked to "believe". (Side note: I inherited by Grandfather's witchin' rods, so I speak with personal knowledge of the mystery.) e. The constants should cause distress. The pots of revenue are constantly leaking. Income from home valuations are down, and will likely go down further still, because of legislative and voter mandate. Mineral development is down and moving west of the county. Income from investment interest off unspent bonds, the pot that pulled former Supt. DeSpain out of an $800,000+budget just a few years ago, is still a large factor in relief funding.
f. What has been offensive, remains offensive: Don't quote me, I don't have the budget, but $7+ million is going back to the State from the mineral revenue. And, the Moak Casey calculation revenue from the 313 agreements (wind farms) remains miserably low. The District got severely burned with budget over projections under the Supt. DeSpain/CFO Robert Helms years, so the budgets going forward are only $100,000 in revenue. In the current year, the budget was helped by income of $214,000. But, even that is miserably low. For a deeper dive, do a search for "313" for my coverage, and also go to the Comptroller's site. In a nutshell, the windfarms were given a sweetheart tax abatement package from the start, so that they pay minimal local taxes.
g. Things to watch: According to Joyce Gray, Tax Assessor, there's up to $8 million in value projected to be lost from oil companies glomming onto tax credits for the TCEQ pollution control program. I have my doubts that the planet is getting greener because of this incentive And, the Matterhorn Pipeline was valued at $204 million. The Saudi's are pumping a lot, so valuations are lower.
h. The future M&O: When the shine begins to dull on all that was built with the 2019 and 2024 bonds, I predict there will be a financial reckoning. It is going to be very hard to pay for all these capital improvements without an oil boom in the next 5 years. Oil booms happen when there’s expanding economic growth, and that doesn’t seem likely in the near future.
Tax rate adoption, item 4: M&O (maintenance and operations): .635 per $100 valuation I&S (interest and sinking): .23 per $100 value
Budget amendments, item 5: Let me explain more my frustration with the "as presented" language in the agenda that I discussed above at A2. That language is especially vague, and the meeting minutes are typically as vague. In other words, unless one is present at the meeting, it is impossible to follow the money. This could be easily remedied by an agenda item that simply read, "Discover/Approve 2024/25 budget amendments relating to maintenance, technology, instruction, library, professional development and health services." That said, beginning next month the law requires audio recording of meetings, and someone interested in following the money can eventually get the specifics. Even so, the "as presented" I will continue to maintain is dead air…and rewards imprecision.
Accountability, item 6: Initial presentation, no real discussion or presentation.
2024 overall B; Elementary B; High School A
2025 overall B; Elementary B; High School B But: HB 8 is about to change it all, again!
SB 12 and parent rights, item 7. This merits an open records request. There's a lot of meat on the SB 12 bone. Stay tuned.
Closed session, item 9: There wasn't one.
C. Commentary
If nothing is done about street flooding, then the streets and alleys will continue to be used as the aqueducts they were never intended to be by those individuals and institutions with the resources to redirect the flooding off of their property onto someone else.
Copyright 2025 G. Noelke
