EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14/CBS4) — Ysleta Independent School District officials said Wednesday the district needs $57 million in urgent maintenance work as it faces a $16 million budget shortfall.
During a budget workshop on Wednesday, YISD’s Chief Financial and Operations Officer, Lynly Cambern, told the school board that the $57 million figure reflects only the most urgent maintenance needs and does not include other maintenance needed across the district.
Cambern said the district’s list of deferred maintenance includes HVAC repairs across multiple schools.
YISD’S list of deferred maintenance, including HVAC (Credit: YISD)
Several other repairs include buses, as Cambern said the district has no working bus replacements to send if a bus were to break down.
“I don’t have a single working bus to deploy right now,” Cambern said.
Additionally, several track fields need to be repaired, along with Ysleta High School’s football field, which will no longer be used this fall.
YISD’S list of deferred maintenance, including buses and football field (Credit: YISD)
YISD’S list of deferred maintenance, including elevators and playground equipment (Credit: YISD)
The maintenance needs, which total to $57 million, come as the district projects a $16.7 million deficit by the end of the year, leading to criticism from some board members.
“This presentation was pretty infuriating, for lack of a better word….you said about multiple times you said you wouldn’t bring a balanced budget, you never mentioned financial exigency, you never mentioned rifts. I had to hear that from El Paso Matters because I wasn’t told that was even an option on the table,” Shane Haggerty, Board of Trustees District #3, said during Wednesday’s meeting.
He added, “You never mentioned the AC’s, you never mentioned buses, you never mentioned football fields, you never mentioned tracks, you never mentioned field houses, roofs, you never mentioned elevators, playground equipment. And we are getting it now that we are facing this very large deficit, and the only reason we know about it is that our auditor said you might want to look at this.”
YISD’S list of deferred maintenance total of $57 million
In a financial report ending in March, the district said it is anticipating a $16.7 million deficit. The report points to an $11 million loss in state revenue as part of the problem.
The report also said the district will need to secure a short-term loan this month.
According to El Paso Matters, the YISD board previously approved a $420.2 million budget with a $22.2 million deficit for the current school year, marking the fourth consecutive year the district’s projected expenses outweighed its revenue.
YISD said it will now have about a $16 million budget deficit as a result. The district is also anticipating losing 1,500 students, which officials said will require cutting 83 positions.
However, officials said all of the positions will be eliminated through attrition due to an incentive program the district passed.
Meanwhile, the district is expected to present a budget next month. The budget is expected to include solutions on how to address the financial strain.
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