Liberty Hill ISD Earns State’s Highest Fiscal Accountability Rating for Eighth Year

Liberty Hill Independent School District officials announced that the district received a rating of “A - Superior Achievement” for the 2023-24 School FIRST (Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas) for the eighth year at the Board meeting on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. The “Superior Achievement” rating is the state’s highest, demonstrating the quality of Liberty Hill ISD’s financial management and reporting system. 

School FIRST is a financial accountability system for Texas school districts developed by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The primary goal of School FIRST is to achieve quality performance in the management of school districts’ financial resources, a goal made more significant due to the complexity of accounting associated with Texas’ school finance system. 

“I’d like to highlight that we have had two back-to-back audits [September 2024 Efficiency Audit and the November 2024 School FIRST rating] that prove that we are not wasting money or mismanaging funds,” said Board Trustee Chris Neighbors. 

Board Vice President Kathy Major continued, “Our state leadership has said openly that schools are mismanaging funds; this is the state assessment, and according to this, we are superior in our efficiency and we are free of any material weaknesses. People also say we are top heavy in administration, yet we are below the state average, and these administrators are working as more than one person, without being compensated for it. Finally, we have been accused of not being transparent, but all of the monthly financial reports and efficiency audits are on our website for anyone to read. I am so proud of our financial department. I will not entertain any more insults that we are wasting or being frivolous with our funds.”

To view these audits, please visit our Financial Reports website. 

The TEA developed School FIRST in response to Senate Bill 875 of the 76th Texas Legislature in 1999 and amendments under House Bill 5, 83rd Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2013. TEA assigned one of four financial accountability ratings to Texas school districts, with the highest being “A” for “Superior Achievement,” followed by “B” for “Above-Standard Achievement,” “C” for “Standard Achievement” and “F” for “Substandard Achievement.”