Mineola school trustees arose early on a Saturday to complete work on the district’s finances for the just-ended and upcoming school years.

The board approved a balanced budget of $20,718,941, but not before a discussion about the need for state lawmakers to address statewide shortages for public school districts.

Board President Rodney Watkins said Mineola and Lindale school leaders met with State Rep. Cole Hefner, who said he had not heard from school districts about shortfalls.

At a recent hearing in Austin, Hefner said associations representing schools reported Texas is underfunding its public schools compared to the national average.

He told Watkins he was not aware of a provision in last year’s property tax relief bill that hurt school districts on the debt service side of the property tax ledger, because the hold-harmless clause built into the law only addressed the maintenance and operations part of the tax.

That particular item cost Mineola school district about $1 million, which had to be made up in budget cuts to get to a balanced budget.

Had the school funding measure passed that was tied to creating a school voucher system, Mineola would have received from $1,200 to $1,500 additional state funding per student, or about $2.3 million, enough to avoid the cuts and add in staff pay hikes.

Watkins reported that Hefner advised the legislature would take up state education funding as a special item as soon as the body meets in January to address the issue.

“That needs to happen,” Superintendent Cody Mize said.

Hefner also reached out to the chair of the House education committee and the leadership of the Texas Education Agency about the matter.

The board also approved a property tax rate of $.97528 per $100 valuation, which is down slightly from last year’s $.97758.

They also accepted final budget amendments to the just-completed 2023-24 budget and a list of fixed assets that have been donated to the district.

They also designated $5 million of the district’s fund balance for future building projects and $500,000 to address any potential funding shortfalls from the state education agency.

Those are the same levels as the past couple years.