Three Cooke County Boards Take Up Tax Rates in August; Era Posts Financial Rating Report

By GvilleTX Newsroom

Three Cooke County school boards have August business tied to the property tax rate that helps pay for local classrooms, and a fourth has posted a report on its finances, according to agendas on the districts' BoardBook pages.

Gainesville and Valley View ISDs meet Aug. 17 for public hearings on their 2026-2027 budgets and proposed rates, with votes to follow. Muenster ISD was scheduled to hold a tax-rate hearing Aug. 12, weeks after settling the spending side; the district's budget page lists four June workshops, and BoardBook shows a June 24 hearing to adopt the 2026-2027 budget. Era ISD's Aug. 17 agenda lists no budget or tax-rate hearing.

For a property owner, the school line is the heaviest on the bill. Cooke County's 2025 tables show the district rate making up more than half the combined rate listed in each of the four districts.

Gainesville ISD, the largest of the four with about 3,000 students in the Texas Education Agency's 2025-2026 count, starts earliest at 5 p.m., with a hearing on the proposed budget and rate followed by action to adopt both. Speakers on those items get five minutes, the posted notice says. Trustees went through the numbers twice this summer, on June 15 and again Aug. 3, when the agenda listed a taxpayer impact statement and detailed operating, food service and debt service budgets.

The same agenda covers enrollment, the start of school, Senate Bill 12 compliance and Phase 1 of the bond program voters approved May 3, 2025. The district's election order sought about $58.8 million for school buildings and related projects. TEA told districts Aug. 6 that SB 12 certifications for 2026-2027 must be approved by a board at a public meeting that takes public testimony, then filed with the state by Sept. 30.

Valley View ISD meets at 6 p.m. Its budget-and-tax agenda lists Dr. C. James Womack as presenter and sets aside time for public comment. The regular meeting agenda carries action on an amended 2026-2027 budget, the proposed rate and an order calling a voter-approved tax-rate election, the step that would put a rate before district voters.

Era ISD also meets at 6 p.m., opening with recognition of its 2025-2026 Academic UIL state qualifiers. CFO Julie Maddux is listed to present the district's perfect financial integrity rating. TEA released preliminary 2025-2026 FIRST ratings Aug. 7, built on fiscal 2025 data. A preliminary rating becomes final Sept. 9 if a district files no appeal, and boards then have two months to hold a public meeting and hand out a report explaining it.

Muenster's 6:30 p.m. agenda paired the rate hearing with reports from the superintendent, principals, the counselor, the athletic director and the technology, transportation and business staff.

Texas Education Code Section 44.004 requires a board president to call a meeting to adopt the coming year's budget once it is prepared, and Section 44.0041 requires a district to post a summary of the proposed budget when the notice is published. County records show Gainesville ISD carried the highest school rate of the four in 2025 and Era the lowest, with Gainesville's up from the year before, Era's down and Valley View's unchanged.