Austin ISD set to make more cuts with $59 million deficit

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- On Friday, the Austin Independent School District superintendent announced another round of anticipated budget cuts that will impact jobs at the district’s headquarters. 

Officials said potential reductions impacting class sizes and teacher planning periods are currently off the table but might have to be considered down the road.  

District officials credited the increased financial pressure with being a result of lawmakers' failure to increase state funding for schools, specifically the amount of funding districts get per student. 

Superintendent Matias Segura said the district is already instituting $30 million in cuts, including overtime controls and eliminating vacant and filled positions at the district’s headquarters. 

“The vast majority are central office cuts and don’t impact the school. As the cuts get larger and larger, you begin to encroach on our classrooms, and that’s difficult for us to talk about. It’s difficult for us to consider,” Segura said. 

In recent weeks, Segura said the district learned its deficit was over $30 million higher than projected.

District officials projected a $52 million deficit. However, after receiving new information from the Texas Education Agency and the appraisal district in late April, the district learned the deficit was actually $89 million without cuts. 

The district said the deficit will be $59 million with the ongoing and anticipated cuts.

On Friday, Segura said during a press conference the district normally receives templates from the TEA to help make budget projections in the Fall, but they received the latest templates on April 22. TEA officials told KXAN the agency does not produce a state aid template for school districts to use for budget planning.

KXAN reached back out to Austin ISD officials for clarification.

Segura said they also learned the district’s actual property growth was much lower than anticipated. The district estimated the property value would be 10 percent, but according to district officials, the Travis County Appraisal District determined it was 5 percent. 

The district cited other factors that led to increased spending this school year, including additional spending as the district navigates new requirements from the TEA to become compliant with federal and state special education laws. 

A recent federal decision over how Texas was interpreting what Medicaid services could be reimbursed to school districts also impacted school district funding across the state, including Austin ISD. 

Segura said the district has strategically avoided making cuts that impact schools, classrooms, and students. But he worries that those cuts will be inevitable without lawmakers' intervention or an increased property tax rate. 

‘My hope is that legislators are paying attention to the pain school districts are going through right now,’ Segura said. “There are very, very difficult decisions being made right now, and they are impacting the young people in this state [...] we need their support. So please, please fund public education.”