DCS works to increase reserve balance in FY 2026

Published 4:05 pm Tuesday, September 23, 2025

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Dallas County Chief Schools Financial Officer Brent Mims discusses the decline in enrollment and its affect on funding for the district. (Brent Maze | The Selma Times-Journal)

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The Dallas County School System (DCS) unveiled its $40.3 million spending budget for fiscal year 2026 with a plan for nearly doubling its unrestricted fund balance.

Dallas County Chief Schools Financial Officer Brent Mims said during the first budget hearing on Friday, Sept. 19 the district projects to have about $500,000 in its unrestricted local reserves when they start the new fiscal year on Oct. 1. By Sept. 30, 2026, their new reserves balance will increase to $936,137 if they stay within the budget for the upcoming year.

Combined with restricted funds, the general fund will have $1.13 million by the end of the next fiscal year. The district is required to have a one-month reserve, which is equivalent to $3.22 million.

Chief Administrative Officer Dr. Daniel Boyd said they are putting a lot of expenses and pay increases on hold until they get that one-month reserve, and they are projecting that to happen in around 12 to 18 months. The last month’s financial statements only had 0.11 months of reserve.

Mims projects a large portion of the increase in this balance will come from not transferring money from the general fund to the child nutrition program. The district had to transfer $650,000 from the general fund to help CNP, but he projects that the number will decrease to $325,000 next year if the state department of education grants a waiver on having a one-month reserve in the CNP funds.

“We’ve requested a waiver from the state department this year because the rule is normally the Child Nutrition Program needs a, is required to have a one-month reserve,” Mims said. “Well, we’re requesting from the state that this year they exempt us from that so that we can help build our general fund back to a one-month reserve. So Child Nutrition Program, this is their projected revenues and expenditures for fiscal year ’26 and it shows a loss of $325,000.”

Mims said the goal is to get CNP back to a place where it is self-sufficient where it does not need a pass-through from the general fund to meet its one-month reserve requirement. Other measures to help the CNP program is the reduction of staff due to the closures of J.E. Terry Elementary School and Bruce K. Craig Elementary School.

He said they are also encouraging all students to participate in the child nutrition program every day. With a higher the participation rate, more funds will be reimbursed to the district.

“If more students are participating in the program, the better off we are,” Mims said. “One of the biggest concerns right now, the participation rate is not as high as it should be.”

Mims one of the biggest challenges the district has is declining enrollment. The district had an enrollment of 3,042 for fiscal year 2020, but the enrollment has declined to an enrollment of 2,236 for 2025. The trend is expected to continue into 2026 with a projected enrollment of 2,173.

“When enrollment drops, it impacts our teacher allocation from the state,” Mims said. “So that’s why our continuing slide, as we continue, you’ll see this is our staffing chart for fiscal year 26.”

The district earned 122.17 state teacher units. The district will also have 32.61 teacher units paid out of state categories, 16.22 paid using federal funds and only 1 teacher unit paid out of local funds.

They will also have 8 library units with 7.5 paid out of state foundation funds and a half out of federal funds. The 10 counselor units are also made up of all but a half of a unit out of foundation funds.

There are 40 units of administrators with 15.5 out of the state foundation, 7.38 out of other state sources, 14.55 out of federal funds and 2.57 out of local funds. There are no certified support staff while there are 186.25 units of non-certified support staff. 143.31 units come out of other state funds with an additional 30.62 out of federal funds and 12.62 out of local funds. The district has a total of 416.25 staffing units, but only 16.19 of them are paid out of local funds.

Mims said this is by design so that they can use those funding sources primarily for instruction while they can use local funding to pay for utilities, maintenance, upkeep and other expenditures.

The budget will be approved during the regular monthly board meeting for September on Monday, Sept. 29, at 6 p.m. at the Dallas County Learning Resource Center. The second budget hearing is also on Monday, Sept. 29, at the Dallas County Learning Resource Center at 5:30 p.m.

Those wishing to make a comment on the budget are asked to do it in writing to the school district.

Dr. Boyd had two special recognitions during the special called meeting and budget hearing.

Fifteen students at Dallas County High School have earned 35 or more credit hours at Wallace Community College Selma. All 15 of these students earned an Associate of Science degree and will be eligible for graduation from both WCCS and DCHS in December 2025.

The second was that two teachers recently won awards in The Selma Times-Journal Readers’ Choice Awards.

Mrs. Paige Draime, Kindergarten Teacher at Valley Grande Elementary School, won Best Elementary Teacher.

Mrs. Sara Day, Science Teacher at Dallas County High School, won Best High School Teacher.