Megan Navarro
DRIPPING SPRINGS — Following much anticipation throughout the community, the Dripping Springs ISD Board of Trustees approved navy and gold as the official colors for Driftwood Springs High School at its Monday, June 22, meeting.
At the beginning of the process of forming the district’s second high school’s identity, DSISD sent out a community survey that received nearly 4,000 responses. Out of those, the majority — with 28.4% strongly agreeing and 27.1% agreeing — found that both high schools should have one unifying color in common between them. However, a second question of if the two should have the same exact colors garnered more disagreement.
The community feedback was then provided to the Naming & Branding Committee, which recommended the following colorway packages that also aligned with school names:
– Driftwood High School: Navy blue, gold and white
– Driftwood Springs High School: Navy blue, gold and white
–Bear Creek High School: Maroon and sky blue
– Sycamore Springs High School: Maroon and metallic silver
– Cypress Springs High School: Forest green and gold
Ultimately, the committee recommended the official colors for Driftwood Springs High School be navy and gold.
“They liked the connection to Dark Sky. They thought it was a nice complement with gold. They also thought it was a nice complement with maroon, as well,” said chief communications officer Jennifer Edwards, who added that navy was a popular color suggestion from the beginning.
All of the elementary campuses within DSISD also have gold as the unifying color, so this would be a continuation of that strategy, Edwards said. Navy is considered to be a strong color, conveying authority, confidence, trust, intelligence and tradition: “I think it fits into our brand really nicely,” she said.
Trustee Dr. Stefani Reinold asked about the color white in the committee’s recommendation. While there will only be two colors that are officially named for the school, white can be included in the future brand package as a complementary or secondary color, Edwards clarified.
The board unanimously approved navy and gold as the official colors for Driftwood Springs High School, slated to open for the 2028-29 school year. The school’s mascot is expected to be approved this fall.
“I appreciate the community for giving us the extra time and I know that there are some members on this board that wishes we had an entire package, but this is still so exciting,” said trustee Tricia Quintero. “I know when I told my kiddos that will actually go to this new high school what the colors potentially could be, they were super excited about it. We've had a shirt actually at convocation with blue and gold and … it's one of my favorite shirts.”
Budget
The board also unanimously approved the 2026-27 budget, consisting of the general fund, debt service and child nutrition.
As presented by chief financial officer Randy Rau, the budget was based on several key assumptions, including a projected enrollment of 8,940 students, which is a large jump from the 6,008 in the 2016-17 school year, as well as the following:
– Average Daily Attendance: 95.25%
– Property tax collection rate: 99%
– 1% general pay increase, based on pay group midpoint
– District health contribution of $420 per employee per month — an increase from the previous $405
– Non-payroll inflation factor: 1%
The proposed general fund operating budget includes expenditures of $104,486,991, revenues of $102,327,356 and other uses/transfers of $176,000. This results in an overall deficit of $1,983,635 that complies with the board’s policy of a 2% budget parameter by $62,911.
“I want to point out our general fund expenditures by major object category. The biggest ticket item, for the most part, in our budget is payroll just at 80%, which is sitting good. Districts usually try to hit their payroll not more than 82-83% of [their] budget. The one thing we do have to take into consideration is our district is a recapture district and that's an [estimated] 4.55% of our total budget,” Rau said.
For debt service, revenues sit at $46,243,588 and expenditures at $42,832,288, resulting in an operating surplus of $3,411,300.
The final fund of the budget, child nutrition, reflects two separate operations, as suggested by the Texas Department of Agriculture, Rau explained.
The budget for the campuses — mainly the elementary schools — participating in the National School Lunch & Breakfast Program comprises $2,255,523 in revenue, $2,846,475 in expenditures and $590,952 in operating deficit. Secondly, the Self-Funded Meal Program at the secondary campuses has $2,508,179 in revenue, $2,538,640 in expenditures and $30,461 in operating deficit.
Trustee Kim Cousins shared that she is grateful to see that DSISD is not having to make some of the difficult decisions that other districts are.
“We just got back from state conference and we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of trustees and superintendents around the state; they are closing schools [and] they are canceling programs. Their fund balance is not very healthy,” she said. “It's really sad to see the things that are going on out there [but] we have not cut any programs; we are funding this district and our kids are having opportunities. Our enrollment is still growing. There's a lot of enrollment shrinkage throughout the state, which is affecting their budget.”
Currently, the district is looking at a proposed total $1.0610 tax rate, which consists of $0.7110 in maintenance and operations, as well as $0.3500 in interest and sinking.
Trustee Rob McClelland said that while the board is not adopting the tax rate until August or September, it does look like the proposed numbers show a decrease for the community.
To listen to the full meeting, and find the agenda with the full budget documents, visit www.dsisdtx.us/page/board-meeting-livestream.
