North East ISD passes budget as voucher projections cloud financial outlook

North East Independent School District could lose up to $8 million if the nearly 2,000 students living in district boundaries who were awarded private school vouchers take part in the program this fall.

Last week, school board trustees learned more about the projected impact of vouchers on the district's financial outlook before passing a nearly $564 million budget for the upcoming academic year. District officials estimated NEISD will end the 2025-26 school year with a shortfall of just over $17 million.

Next year, the district's financial picture remains murky as the board awaits final enrollment numbers. Officials said that 1,744 students living in district boundaries - all of whom may not currently attend NEISD schools - were awarded vouchers for the upcoming year. If all students currently attend NEISD and choose to use their vouchers at non-district schools, the enrollment drop could raise the budget shortfall by $8 million.

Texas lawmakers passed Senate Bill 2 in 2025, launching the Texas Education Freedom Accounts, or TEFA, program. TEFA gives students up to $10,500 to put toward private school tuition, although students with disabilities can get up to $30,000. Critics of the program have argued that it will harm public schools, which are funded based on how many students show up for class each day.

NEISD CFO Susan Lackorn said it isn't completely clear where the nearly 2,000 students currently attend school. However, the district believes the number - which the district got from the comptroller's office, which runs the program - refers to students who previously attended North East ISD schools. Families have until July 15 to accept their vouchers.

District trustees approved the final budget Thursday in a 5-1 vote, with newly installed trustee Michael Wulczyn casting the lone dissenting vote. He said the proposed budget failed to address the fundamental issues contributing to the deficit.

Lackorn said last week that the district does not need to worry about the deficit yet, but administrators and trustees will need to make hard financial decisions for the 2027-28 budget to put North East ISD back on a better financial path. Earlier this year, district officials warned trustees they will likely have to consider further campus closures to deal with enrollment loss and tight budgetary circumstances.

With enrollment numbers still uncertain, NEISD's budget for next year did not include staff salary raises.

The cost of uncertainty

NEISD wanted to do more for staff, Superintendent Anthony Jarrett explained.

The budget instead offers employees a one-time 1% staff stipend in the fall. If enrollment exceeds projections by 750 or more students in the coming year, the supplement could be offered again in the spring of 2027.

"When you bring a new variable like vouchers in, and we're talking about over 1,700 kiddos, that is a lot of dollars that the district won't receive if all of them go somewhere," Jarrett said. "As we do our projections, we're doing these blindly. And we've got to get to a point where we're saying, 'Okay, this is the new normal, and this is how we consider our budget for the incoming years.'"

The district's enrollment could be as low as 51,000 students, Lackorn said. Trustees voted to open the district's boundaries to non-NEISD residents in the fall in the hopes of boosting the number of students on campuses.

Trustees voted on the budget days after formally hiring Jarrett as the district's next permanent leader. He has served as interim superintendent since earlier this year, when outgoing Superintendent Sean Maika departed.

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Jarrett's permanent contract commences July 1 and runs through June 30, 2029. His annual base salary is $330,000. As the interim superintendent, Jarrett made $149,350.34 for nearly six months of service.

With a roughly $20,000 annual salary boost over the yearly pay of his predecessor, Jarrett's contract pushes his salary into the top five highest among San Antonio's public districts.

The district has the second-highest enrollment in the area, after Northside ISD.

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