As Levelland School District’s financial woes continue to grow, parents worry

By Yemi Akinyeye - oakinyey@ttu.edu, Cassandra Raucheisen - crauchei@ttu.edu

A recent financial audit shows that Levelland Independent School District is spending $5 million more than it’s taking in. 

That’s a lot for a district with 1,200 students and an annual budget of about $40 million. 

The school board blamed the deficit on declining enrollment, rising expenses, and the loss of federal aid.

“I know this is always doom and gloom and I hate it,” said Casey Gast, an audit partner at Bolinger, Seagars, Gilbert & Moss at the school board’s  January 15 board meeting. “I'm sorry. I wish I had better news and we could be a fast growth district. But we have to anticipate a decline.”

Levelland ISD’s budget has doubled every year for the past three years, and parents have become increasingly concerned – not only about educating their children – but also about the value of their homes.  If budget shortfalls keep growing, Levelland public schools will be less attractive to families looking to relocate to the area. That, in turn, will mean fewer enrolments, deeper economic woes and declining property values.

“It's really disheartening to me that we're constantly talking about enrollment being down and we're not having the birth rates and all of these things,” said Board Member Brooke Obenhaus, at the same January 15 board meeting. “We're talking about letting go of teachers and how we can expect people to want to come to our school district and want to have this premier thing here in level and when we're going to just let people go and I know we don't really have another choice.”

Back in 2022, the Levelland school district’s deficit was only $1 million. But it leaped to $2.5 million the following year and doubled in August 2024. 

Financial documents show that the growing imbalance has to do with several factors. State revenues are down $1.4 million from last year  –  in part – due to declining enrollment. There were 52 fewer students in the school this year. That means $320,000 less in state funding. 

Federal revenues also fell by $150,000. 

Meanwhile, expenses have risen nearly $3 million over the past two years. The two biggest increases were spending on instruction and district operations.  

Despite the school board's struggles, the school board said multiple potential cost-saving strategies are being implemented to help the district balance its books. These strategies include not filling non-essential positions when employees leave, deferring non-essential facility upgrades, and praying that the state legislature will pass bills to boost school spending.

“We're hoping for an approval for an increase in funding,” said Gast, the school’s auditor, “just basic allotment, or any type of funding at this point.”

Board members also hope natural attrition will allow the district to avoid forced layoffs​. So far, middle schools have been most affected by the attrition policy, with four positions remaining vacant.

After three years of rising deficits, however, parents are not confident that the district’s efforts will staunch the bleeding and many are venting their frustrations on social media. 

“Someone explain to me how Levelland ISD is cutting 50 teacher/staff positions and expects our students to succeed,” posted Veronica Muniz. “I’ve only seen reasons why it’s a bad idea.

“This is really scary,” Muniz added in a follow-up post. “Everyone thinks it won’t happen in your hometown until it does.”

“It’s unfortunate to see budgets being dwindled, programs being cut. Schools closing, and now cutting educators,” wrote Shelby Thorne. “It breaks my heart for these kids. They’re ultimately the ones who will suffer - they deserve so much more.”