The Aubrey ISD school board unanimously approved the 202627 school budget and tax rate at the Aug. 19 meeting.
The 2026-27 tax rate is 0.7011 for maintenance and operations and 0.50 for interest and sinking, for a total tax rate of 1.2011 per $100 property valuation, compared to the 2025-26 total tax rate of 1.2249.
“If the tax rate's going down and people see their tax bill go up, that is because the value of their property increases,” said Dr. Brian Walton, chief financial offi cer. “It's not because we raised the tax rate. They're paying more taxes because of the value, not because of a tax increase.”
Key components of the 202627 budget include first-year teachers starting at $56,000, providing more student resources for things like CTE programs and computers and adding 22 more staff positions to keep up with the district’s growth, along with a salary increase of at least $1,000 for all teachers and staff.
Director of CTE and Accountability Dr. Jonathan Lee broke down the 2026 A–F Accountability rating, in which the district’s overall rating dropped three points this year to a 77.
The board members expressed their disappointment with the scores and aims to find more solutions.
“Moving forward, we need to act fast and now, in order to figure out a way in a data-driven process to meet the needs and improve the school,” said Jody Gonzalez, school board vice president.
He suggested the district consider hiring a third-party consultant to evaluate the district and offer suggestions to manage growth.
Both graduation rates and College, Career and Military Readiness are above the state average.
Student performance in reading-language arts, science and social studies remained stable from last year, Lee shared.
McNabb Middle School was mentioned for having the most balanced growth in mathematics and reading language arts.
Brockett and Fuller elementaries were reported to have solid growth.
“The things that stood out on here as concerns for us are Aubrey High School mathematics took quite a dip when we looked at the growth measures,” Lee said. “And then Owens, Monaco and West are ones that we are looking at as well.”
The enrollment continuity analysis showed an academic achievement gap between continuously enrolled students— “students who have been enrolled in the district for over three years, except for third graders, where the threshold is two years,” according to the presentation—and noncontinuously enrolled students.
The continuously enrolled students performed about 7% to 13% higher on EOCS and STAAR tests between 2020 and 2026.
“That is something that we realize is a factor, and there might be a correlation to the dip that we saw last year, but we would not claim that it's causation for the dip,” Lee said.
After discussing the accountability score, Assistant Superintendent of Leadership Dr. Kendra Pittman followed with next steps.
“We want to own it, but we don't want to panic,” Pittman said. “Any time you have a drop in a rating, you can feel panic. And we should, because we want to own it. ... At the same time, we want to make certain that we're looking for solutions, and we're not looking for excuses.”
A few of the district’s priorities will be to use more resources to meet student needs and to focus more on mathematics district wide.
“The more that we can help from the HR standpoint, the more we can help from the leadership standpoint, from the student support standpoint, from the staffing, from the facility,” Pittman said. “... The more we can allow our leaders to focus on instruction, and so those are our priorities this year.”
At the start of the meeting, the AHS Fire Academy Level 2 class led the U.S. and Texas pledges.
Afterward, the students took turns introducing themselves and shared why they joined.
“I've been with Aubrey since fifth grade, and being a firefighter has been a dream since I was a little kid,” Ian Loyd said. “My brother is a firefighter. He went to Frisco, and I really look up to him. … I'm super grateful for this opportunity.”
Also at the meeting, Aubrey’s newest police officer, Dustin “Dusty” Arledge, was introduced by Chief Kayla Elizalde.
Arledge will be stationed at AHS.
