Apr. 10—As they enter the 2024-25 school year, Ector County ISD is facing a $24 million budget deficit.
In June 2023, the board approved $345,173,500 in expenditures with about $13,920,249 coming out of fund balance.
This is due to the state legislature not increasing the basic per student allotment of $6,160 since 2009, Superintendent Scott Muri said. When ECISD, and other districts, started the school year, they expected the legislature to take action on finances as the state has a $32.9 billion surplus.
"In fact, we gave our staff a raise that created the deficit fully expecting the state to fund that and it didn't happen. We can't make that kind of decision again and so we've got to figure out how we compensate for (that)," Muri said.
Administration presented a plan to the board of trustees. Muri said $12 million will come from fund balance, so at the end of next year, that should give the district a fund balance of around 85 to 90 days, or about three months.
"That's what we need to maintain ... We feel comfortable doing that piece. The other $12 (million) will come from a variety of cuts that we'll be making as an organization. (A) couple of them have already been made. We're transitioning Burleson Elementary into a pre-K that'll open up a year from now. That saves $670,000," Muri said.
Transitioning Travis Elementary to a yet-to-be-determined purpose saves about $560,000.
"Bringing Ector Middle School back into the district saves $2.5 million. Those decisions have already been made — Burleson, Travis and Ector — and so that takes that $12 million down to a little over $8 million. From there, it's a variety of things; central office efficiencies, reorganization, technology. We've eliminated, or are eliminating, a little over $1 million worth of software programs that we use; contracted services, we use those throughout the district when we either don't have enough employees or we're hiring professional developers. Those are called all contracted services; eliminating about $1.3 million worth of those," Muri said.
Also, raising class sizes at the elementary and secondary level, which comes close to $7 million, and eliminating some paraprofessional positions, which saves more than $1 million, he said.
"There's a host of other things in there, as well. But all totaled, that list of cuts adds up to about $16.7 million, which is more than the $12 million we need. The reason we have to go more than $12 (million) is because not every item in the budget is going to remain the same; like special ed costs are going to increase. That portion of the budget is going to be higher next year," Muri said.
"School safety is going to increase. We're going to have more officers and so that part of the budget has to increase. Our insurance is going to increase and so that part of the budget has to go up; fuel costs will probably increase. There are some things that are beyond our control that we will increase and so we have to build those costs in. But most everything else, our departments and divisions, right now we're doing zero-based budgeting processes. We're having budget hearings and our departments and divisions are coming with cuts — everything from cutting travel to cutting professional learning to reorganizing to (a) variety of different efficiencies that they're finding," Muri said.
He added that the district doesn't want to have to do any of this.
"But that's kind of where we are right now," Muri said.
He noted that none of these cuts put people on the street. "We have plenty of vacancies. Like right now, we have lots of paraprofessional vacancies. So if we do eliminate one para position, we can find another opportunity for an individual," Muri said.
From a teacher perspective, they are getting resignation and retirement letters pre-K through 12.
"We will have plenty of teacher vacancies to place any teacher ... Right now, the class size at the elementary level creates 19 vacancies. We will easily have 19 teachers that will retire, resign, get promoted somewhere at the elementary level. Nobody is going to lose an opportunity to work in ECISD. They might lose the position that they're currently in, but there are other positions that people can fill," Muri said.
On special education costs rising, Muri said the district does get more state and federal money for children in special education, but it isn't enough to cover the full cost for that student.
"The total amount of money that we receive ... and then how much we actually spend on special education — the two are very different ... It's been that way in Texas for many years," he said.
Muri said increasing class sizes may mean that more students have access to great teachers.
With 40 teacher vacancies today, those vacancies are filled by substitute teachers.
"Eliminating those 40 vacancies would put kids in classrooms that have teachers, and so a little bit of this will actually ensure that more kids have access to teachers next year. So yeah, it may actually be better for kids than what it is today," he added.
When he was in North Carolina in 2010, the nation was undergoing a financial crisis. They eliminated teachers on the basis of performance.
"The following year, yes, class sizes were larger, but kids had good teachers. ... While we don't have anything to that scale here, we will be eliminating some substitute teacher situations next year, so that kids have teachers," Muri said.
"It's a pretty small impact at the elementary level. It equates to 19 teaching positions ... We have more than 19 elementary schools, so not every elementary school is even going to notice a difference because it's such a small number. We already have full classes. We don't have half empty classes around the system because of the numbers of students that we have," he added.
If a teacher has a class size that reaches a certain point, they receive a financial incentive and that will continue next year as well.
"That incentive doesn't go away, so they're financially compensated," Muri said.
Teachers in the Opportunity Culture program have large numbers of students so they do have a paraprofessional.
Opportunity Culture uses "staffing models to bring about robust educator support, sustainable higher pay and strong student results," the website says.
Some schools won't notice any difference, Muri said.
At the elementary level, classes will go from 25 to 29 students and they will go from 24 to 29 at the secondary level.
Muri said they will continue having budget hearings at the central office level and there may be more savings to be found.
"But you're not going to see the big list of items that we have. There's no more shock and awe. ... We're not going to cut chorus ... There's nothing else that's going to be on the list," Muri said.
He added that there might be tweaks and adjustments.
"The board was clear: Try to keep it as far away from kids as you can. That's been the goal. Hence fund balance is about as far away from kids as you can get and then the other $12 (million). Again, three decisions were already you know with Ector, Burleson and Travis and then the others — central office cuts and where else can we add efficiencies but without harming kids," Muri said.
The district will still offer high-dose tutoring because it's been successful, but on a smaller scale.
They used around $12 million over three years to tutor 6,000 students.
"We'll continue to seek other ways to fund that work. We've found that investment makes sense. It produces results, so ... we have to afford it. We have to figure out ways to continue to make that happen," Muri said.
