McAllen, McAllen ISD, Board of Trustees, Enrollment, Tax Rate, Student Outreach
Staff Report
McAllen TX - The McAllen Independent School District Board of Trustees received a detailed enrollment report showing more than 1,000 registered students failed to show up for the first day of school, and adopted the district’s 2026 property tax rate, unchanged from the prior year, during its Sept. 22 meeting.
Enrollment Report
Lisa Cavazos, director of strategic partnerships and student outreach, presented a comprehensive report on district enrollment, recruitment and recapture efforts.
Cavazos said McAllen ISD’s geographic boundary contains 23,006 school-age children, of whom about 70%, or 16,066 students, are enrolled in a McAllen ISD school. Of the remaining students not enrolled with the district, about 65% attend another public school, with IDEA Public Schools drawing the largest share at approximately 2,000 students, followed by South Texas ISD and Vanguard. The remaining roughly 35% are enrolled in homeschool, private school, online programs, or are not attending school at all, according to the report.
Cavazos said the district also draws approximately 2,858 transfer students from outside its boundaries, led by Edinburg CISD (about 1,200 students, or 42%), Sharyland ISD (about 700 students, or 25%), and PSJA.
Cavazos reported the district ended last school year with 19,196 students, graduating 15,139 seniors. Accounting for expected rollover students and new pre-K enrollment, the district anticipated approximately 17,657 returning students. However, Cavazos said 1,023 students who had completed registration, including receiving a Skyward student ID number, did not show up for the first day of school.
“Did not show up,” Cavazos confirmed in response to a trustee’s question. As of the meeting, the district had recaptured approximately 320 to 330 of those students, or about 32%. Cavazos said student outreach staff completed more than 1,015 phone calls, reaching 99% of the affected families. Reasons cited by families included relocation (12%), enrollment at another school (10%), and various barriers such as transportation issues (14%); about 10 families asked not to be contacted again.
Current enrollment as of the meeting stood at 18,971 students, according to Cavazos, with a district recapture and recruitment goal of 19,200 students by the state’s official snapshot date at the end of October. Cavazos said elementary grades, particularly pre-K through fourth grade, represent the only segment of the district experiencing enrollment losses overall, while middle and high school cohorts grew this year.
Trustee Sofia Peña asked why the district loses students at the pre-K to kindergarten transition specifically. Cavazos explained that federal Head Start pre-K programs serve some students who do not live within McAllen ISD boundaries and may leave the district once they age out of the program, and that the data is complicated by the district’s separate pre-K3 and pre-K4 programs.
Trustee Roberto A. Carreon asked about the financial impact of the enrollment shortfall. Deputy Superintendent for Business and Operations Lorena Garcia said the district is projecting approximately $1.8 million less in state funding as a result of the attendance decline, based on the district’s average daily attendance calculation. Garcia said the district budgeted for 92% average daily attendance relative to enrollment, but is currently tracking closer to 91%, consistent with the prior year’s final calculation from the Texas Education Agency. Garcia said the district’s new flexible school day program, approved by the state, will help recapture some lost attendance revenue by allowing the district to offset up to 10% of student absences per six-week period, an increase from the previous first-semester-only allowance.
Carreon also raised the possibility of the district accepting partial-day enrollment from students using state education savings accounts or the forthcoming federal educational tax credit scholarship program, suggesting the district could serve students for a portion of the school day, such as a single course, to help offset declining full-time enrollment. “It might be in our best interest, as we consider our world of declining enrollment, to consider ways in which we could shore up expenses by serving, if not a full ADA, then a portion of a student’s day,” Carreon said.
Trustee Aaron Rivera asked about the district’s dropout tracking. Cavazos and staff said only three students districtwide remain unaccounted for and could potentially be classified as dropouts under the state’s reporting code, with high schools and middle schools having already completed their state-required leaver reporting ahead of a Sept. 25 deadline.
Trustees Elizabeth Kittleman and Erica de la Garza-Lopez raised concerns about communication breakdowns between the student outreach department and individual campuses, citing instances where families believed their children were enrolled but were not assigned a classroom. Cavazos acknowledged the issue and said the department is working to strengthen coordination with campuses under an internal customer-service approach she described as “start with yes.” Board President Rogelio Regalado Rivera asked the department to bring more detailed goals and return-on-investment metrics for active recruitment spending in future reports.
Budget Amendment
The board approved the district’s August 2026 budget amendment for the current fiscal year, which includes a $269,000 revision to revenue and $1.2 million in expenditure adjustments, for a net change of $996,273. Garcia said the majority of the expenditure changes represent carry-forward purchase orders for projects begun in the prior fiscal year, including unfinished high school science labs, Nikki Rowe High School band uniforms, McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium upgrades, and districtwide silent panic alarm technology installation. The amendment also recognizes $200,000 in grant funding for the Dorothea Brown Middle School parking lot project and initial funding for construction related to new scratch-cooking equipment at the district’s central kitchen.
Investment Reports
Garcia presented the district’s quarterly investment report for April through June 2026, reporting $171,570 in interest earned at an average yield of 3.7%. Philip Jones, of Meeder Public Funds, presented the district’s annual investment report for the period of July 2025 through June 2026, reporting a portfolio valued at approximately $129 million as of June 30, and annual interest income of approximately $6.2 million. Jones said the average yield declined from 4.25% to 3.7% over the year, reflecting Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, though he noted the Fed’s most recent action was a rate increase aimed at addressing inflation concerns.
2026 Tax Rate
The board adopted the district’s 2026 property tax rate, keeping the total rate unchanged from the prior year at $0.9322 per $100 of taxable value, consisting of a maintenance and operations rate of $0.7954 and an interest and sinking rate of $0.1368.
Garcia explained that a new state law, Senate Bill 1453, required the district to calculate a minimum interest and sinking rate tied strictly to scheduled debt service, calculated at $0.1332, and to justify the proposed rate of $0.1368, which includes an additional buffer against potential collection shortfalls on the district’s 2026 bond issuance, according to the district’s financial advisor, Estrada Hinojosa. Because the proposed rate exceeded that minimum calculation, the adoption required two separate motions and record votes: one specifically addressing the debt service rate, and a second addressing the total tax rate. Both passed unanimously, 7-0.
Garcia said the district’s calculated no-new-revenue rate for 2026 was $0.9402, higher than the adopted rate, meaning the district will collect less revenue this year than the same tax rate would have generated last year. Garcia said McAllen ISD remains the second-lowest taxing school district among neighboring districts, and that the average household in the district will pay $243.38 less in school taxes in 2026 compared to 2025.