Lubbock Independent School District named the new Monterey High School principal before addressing the upcoming budget and approving furniture relationships for the district.
When presenting the budget, CFO Dewayne Wilkins stated that House Bill 2, a significant state education funding bill, will impact the proposed plans; however, the fine details on how it will be implemented are still being worked out.
“So instead of speculating, we’re going to go off what we know and we’re going to at a budget based on old law,” Wilkins said. “When the new implementation gets rolled out, we will then come back and amend the budget to reflect that.”
With that in mind, here are three takeaways from the LISD Board of Trustees’ meeting.
LISD trustees approve a $7.6 million 2026 school budget deficit
Wilkins broke the budget down into three separate areas: general operating expenditures, food service and debt service.
General Operating Budget
Wilkins said HB 2 will relieve some general costs, but it is unknown how much of the deficit the school board will have to make up for until funding is received.
Currently, the school is predicted to generate $230,175,825 for fiscal year budget — a $4 million decrease from the 2025 budget due to tax values collections decreasing.
Wilkins also said these numbers are just an assumption as the district waits for the Lubbock Central Appraisal District to release the district’s certified tax values on July 25.
The district is also seeing a $5 million decrease in expenditures from 2025, totalling $237,794,666 in 2026.
Proposed LISD 2026 Tax Rate
For context, this is just a suggested tax rate. Trustees will host a public hearing for and vote to set the 2026 tax rate on Aug. 28.
“This is an assumption because we’re working on preliminary tax value and we don’t know what our certified (tax values) will look like,” Wilkins said.
Teacher pay
Teacher pay is part of general operations, and a pay schedule will not come out until the district knows how much it is receiving from HB 2, Wilkins said.
In the event the pay schedule is not finalized by Sept. 1, when new teacher salaries begin, teachers will receive back pay for any missed paychecks through a retroactive payment plan once it is clarified and approved for the school district.
Debt Service Budget/ Food Budget
Both were presented as balanced budgets.
Monterey High School welcomes familiar face as new principal is named
Justin Newman was named principal of Monterey High School during Thursday’s meeting.
A former assistant principal at Monterey, Newman said it was “truly a homecoming” to go back where he once worked, where his wife currently works and where his kids went to school.
This comes after the former principal — Jack Purkeypil — was promoted as an executive principal for the district earlier in the month.
Previously, Newman was the principal of Evans Middle School. He studied at Lubbock Christian University and Texas Tech.
LISD thanks bond PAC, authorizes parameters for bond sale
The LISD superintendent and trustees took a moment from the meeting to thank the Moving Ahead PAC that helped the district campaign for the recent $290 million bond backage back in May.
The bond package was approved by those living in the district by 66%.
“The PAC operated independently from the district and focused on educating voters, building community support and promoting the benefits of the proposed improvements to the Lubbock ISD facilities and programs,” LISD Superintendent Kathy Rollo said.
Following the recognition of the PAC and its leaders, the trustees heard from Jeff Roberts, the district financial advisor from Hilltop, who presented the board with parameters to sell the bonds from the 2025 election, which the board unanimously approved.
Marianna Souriall is a 2025 summer intern and Mateo Rosiles is the Government & Public Policy reporter for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Got a news tip for him? Email him: mrosiles@lubbockonline.com.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock ISD sees a $230 million 2026 budget with a $7.6 million deficit, new principal
Reporting by Marianna Souriall and Mateo Rosiles / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
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