Friendswood ISD is lining up a balanced budget for fiscal year 2026–27, with district officials saying projected revenues and expenses are set to match after trustees signed off on employee raises, stipends and benefit boosts that ate into an earlier surplus. Under the current working plan, both revenues and expenditures are estimated at about $70.06 million. Trustees reviewed the updated numbers at Monday’s board meeting, and the district has penciled in a preliminary tax rate of $1.027 per $100 of valuation.
Budget at a glance
The working budget pegs FY 2026–27 revenues and expenditures at $70.06 million, which is roughly $2.6 million higher than the adopted FY 2025–26 totals, according to district figures posted in BoardBook. The July 13 presentation materials include the worksheets administrators used to justify staffing additions and stipend increases across the district.
Pay and benefits trimmed the surplus
Earlier this summer, trustees approved a package of compensation changes, ranging from athletics and instructional-coach stipends to nearly 15 new personnel slots, which pulled down what had been projected as a multimillion dollar surplus. Community Impact also noted that the board signed off on a $50-per-month increase to the district’s contribution toward employee health insurance at its June 8 meeting.
Tax rate and what it means for homeowners
The budget currently includes a preliminary tax rate of $1.027 per $100 of valuation, split into $0.7839 for maintenance and operations and $0.2431 for interest and sinking, based on the district’s worksheets. Using Friendswood ISD’s median homestead taxable value of $424,611, those worksheets translate the rate into an estimated annual school tax bill of about $4,400 for a typical homeowner in the district.
What’s next
District leaders cautioned that the rate is still preliminary because a bond sale set for July 28 to refinance part of the district’s 2016 debt could tweak the final number, Community Impact reports. Trustees plan to hold a public hearing on the proposed FY 2026–27 budget and tax rate at 6:45 p.m. Aug. 24 in the Friendswood ISD boardroom at 402 Laurel Drive.
