Please remember that if you are planning to apply for a reimbursement under the Coronavirus Relief Fund for school districts that the deadline to apply is coming soon--September 30. Earlier this week, the Commissioner of Education reported that only 94 school districts have completed the process so far. This program allows for reimbursements for up to 75% of the expenses incurred by districts due to the COVID-19 pandemic from March 1-May 20, 2020. Please ensure that you don't miss your chance to access this funding for your school district. You can access all the information you need through the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) website at: Coronavirus Relief Fund for LEAs.

Thank you to those who were able to attend our membership meeting this week. It was good to see so many of your faces!

Congratulations to our newly elected officers: President Kyle Lynch (Seminole ISD), Vice President Sara Bonser (Plano ISD), and Secretary/Treasurer Scott Marshall (Sundown ISD). We are grateful for their service in leading our organization.

If you are looking to catch up on what you missed (or if you would like a refresher), the presentation (with speaker's notes) can be downloaded here, or you can also just look at the PDF of the slides. As always, you are welcome to use any this information in your district and community. The presentation was also broken down into five sections if you would like to watch all or part of the video series:

Prioritize students in state budget (8:33)

Prevent increased recapture (4:56)

The other three videos can be accessed here:

Don't forget that we are taking a closer look at the cost of unfunded mandates as we contemplate the very real possibility of budget cuts in our future. Please take a look at the example from Plano ISD. Then you can use the links below to create a list detailing the cost of mandates for your district that we would love for you to share with us as well as your local legislators.

Please let us know if you have any questions or need help with this project.

Earlier this week, the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) released a Study on District Property Tax Compression.

This study, which was required by HB 3, provides:

Also, please mark your calendar for the next Texas School Coalition membership meeting on Wednesday, November 11 at 1:30 p.m. We will be providing post-election analysis as well as making some plans for 2021. You can click on the link below to register.