Forney ISD to Return Millions in State Funds to Texas Education Agency

Things will be a little tighter around the Forney Independent School District for the next few years.

The district has been overpaid by the Texas Education Agency based on the number of students the state forecasted to have enrolled.  The districts are paid based on those projections.

Forney had some good growth in the last decade, leading analysts to predict more than 10,000 students to be enrolled in the district in 2010-11. But the trend didn't prove to be accurate when the district enrolled 7,784 students that year.

In 2009-10, the state expected 8,853 but Forney only enrolled 7,418. In 2008, the state forecast 7,819 students and only 7,099 were enrolled. In 2007, the estimates were a lot closer -- 6,665 enrolled compared to 6,922 forecasted.

The end result is that the district was overpaid by the state to the tune of $13.6 million.

District officials, who met with TEA officials Monday, said they will present a financial plan to the commissioner of education to repay the funds.

Forney superintendent Mike Holland is expected to propose a revised budget and financial plan to the district's Board of Trustees that will accurately reflect the financial condition of the district, the district said.

The overpayments likely to be adjusted on future payments from the TEA and designed to create "as little of a hardship as possible," the district said.