One of the few districts that’s actually growing in enrollment, East Central ISD will ask voters to approve adding 3.72 cents to the maintenance and operations tax rate, which could unlock an extra $8.47 million a year.
ECISD’s board decreased its interest and sinking rate by 3.71 cents, so if voters approved the changes in November, their overall rates would go up by a fraction of a penny, resulting in a less than $1 increase a year for the district’s average homeowner.
This summer, the district projected a $7.5 million budget deficit for the current 2026-27 school year, which started last week. Last year, ECISD served around 11,500 students and estimated getting 600 more students for the current year.
What is ECISD’s Prop A?
District officials say the extra money would help the district keep up with inflation, maintain a performance-based compensation plan, hire armed security officers and maintain or even reduce class sizes by hiring more teachers.
If VATRE passes this year, ECISD’s total tax rate would go from $0.9319 to $0.9320 per $100 of taxable value, adding up to less than a dollar increase a year for the average homeowner.
Ballot language: This is a tax increase. Ratifying the ad valorem tax rate of $0.9320 per $100 valuation in the East Central Independent School District for the current year, a rate that will result in an increase of 8.98 percent in maintenance and operations tax revenue for the District for the current year as compared to the preceding year, which is an additional $8,470,660.
