Brittany Kelley
KYLE — Hays CISD hosted its second annual State of the District Oct. 16, with keynote speakers superintendent Dr. Eric Wright and chief financial officer (CFO) Deborah Ottmers.
Prior to the event, business and community leaders were able to enjoy a showcase of several career and technical education (CTE) and extracurricular booths from the high schools, including aviation, architecture, jazz band, culinary and more.
Ottmers, who joined the district in June, began by noting that running a district is amazing, as it is wonderful to see what the students create in CTE, but the truth is, she said, that it costs a lot of money to do so.
The district has more than 25,000 students, 28 campuses and 3,400 employees over 221 square miles, according to Ottmers, yet the allotted budget for each student has just now increased by less than 1% after nearly six years, despite inflation. It was steadily at $6,160 since 2019, until it was raised by the 89th Texas Legislature to $6,225.
“These are 25,000 kids that we have to educate, which is a lot … We are [also] a people business, [with] 89% [of our budget being] payroll … I don’t know about you, but when I go to the grocery store, things cost a lot more than they used to and everybody is feeling that for sure. So, the district has decided over the years that we definitely need to take care of our people,” Ottmers said. “So, we’ve been giving raises … The state has not provided that, but we have.”
Because of this and the growing district as a whole, as well as the lack of state funding, the CFO explained that the district is asking for a $0.12 tax increase for a total of $1.2746 per $100 valuation.
She clarified, though, that the tax rate would not have much of an impact if the homestead exemption increases by $40,000, from $100,000 to $140,000, a constitutional amendement that is also on the NOvember ballot.
“For the average $370,000 house, a person with a homestead exemption would have saved about $538 a year; however, we want to borrow some of that money. We would like to borrow some of your savings to help the school district,” Ottmers said. “In order to keep up with inflation, the state would have had to give us over $1,500 extra per student … This tax rate election would give us a little bit over $1,000 per student, [so] it would help … [and] you would still see a decrease in your taxes of $275.”
Wright said that this is the result of state funding striking out once in 2023, twice in 2024 and, now, minimally aiding in 2025. So, this increase would help the district continue to get to students to their "Super Bowl": “Our job is to make sure that these kids are getting their diplomas, that way they can get a job and that they can be productive citizens one day … [Graduation] is our Super Bowl every year.”
“It’s critical that our local community help us with the ideas that they need because, obviously, the state isn’t helping us and so, if we want to maintain these types of things, we’re going to have to do it,” said Wright.
He also stated that district growth is still continuing, but at a slightly slower pace than anticipated. According to Wright, the demographer has been “99.2% accurate until this year,” as it was predicted to be 25,832 at this point, but it is instead at 25,049. This could possibly be due to the fact that vouchers are about to be available and families may be considering other options, he said.
Nevertheless, the district is still moving forward with its plans that were recently approved in the May 2025 bonds, sharing that the design phase has begun for High School #5, which will be located off of Turnersville Road in Buda, and Middle School #7, as well as beginning the design and preparing for construction for Elementary School #18.
Additionally the following work is continuing:
• Completing the Performing Arts Center at Lehman High School
• Academic additions and expansions at LHS and Hays High School
• Multipurpose Activity Centers for fine arts and athletics at each high school, to open fall 2026
• Renovations at Tom Green and Kyle elementary
The new district standards, the superintendent said, are to have 2,800 students at the high schools, 1,200 at the middle schools and 900 at the elementary schools.
As the district and these schools continue to grow, Wright emphasized that the district is pushing 100% Hays, which is an initiative to get every child connected in “something bigger than themselves, so that they have a small group or family, no matter how large we get in Hays.”
These programs, such as CTE, fine arts and athletics, continue to grow at Hays CISD.
“I [was] sitting at a Kyle Economic Development Tourism meeting and we were talking to the head of the San Marcos Regional Airport and they’re like, ‘Hey, we have a pilot shortage.’ So, we start talking to Texas Workforce Commission and we’re like, ‘We can do something about that. Let’s start up an aviation program.’ Voila, we have an aviation program,” said Wright, who stated that this is how the Firefighter Academy began, as well.
Hays CISD has also seen an increase in its academics, which is always a goal, he said. According to Wright, since 2018, the number of students participating in college classes has increased nearly 33%, with 2,000 earning scores of a three or more on Advanced Placement exams, resulting in college credit.
The superintendent also shared several other achievements:
• Bands made it to the Universal Interscholastic League (UIL) State Marching Contest
• Mariachi Los Lobos received a superior rating and earned a gold medal at UIL
• Johnson High School water polo team went to regional finals
• A student received a full scholarship to Stanford University to play water polo
• Cheer squads participated in state contest
• A wrestler finished third in State UIL
• JHS football finished in the Elite 8
• JHS baseball finished in the Elite 8
• HHS swimmer finished third in the State swim meet
• 13 students qualified for state in visual arts
“Last year, for those of you who came, [we said that] we had an all girls air rifle team that was a national champion. We allowed one boy to make the squad this past year and he didn’t bring us down too bad because we won it again,” said Wright, laughing.
In 2025, Hays CISD had 16,147 students graduate from four high schools and, as this number grows, he stressed that the district is pushing skills that will be important to employers, such as: clear, effective communication; critical thinking and problem solving; teamwork and collaboration; and leadership and initiative. These skills are only further explored in CTE and extracurriculars, he said.
“I don’t mind sharing that I’m of Christian faith and I believe God created everybody and everybody has value. It’s our point, regardless of race, gender, whatever, we got to figure out what makes [these students] tick and what their special skill is and we’ve got to bring it to the surface. If we do that, you can’t stop us; our world will be incredible,” Wright concluded.
