El Paso ISD trustees to consider financial emergency, possible staff cuts Tuesday

EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14/CBS4) — El Paso Independent School District employees could learn as soon as next week whether their jobs may be affected as the district confronts a major budget crisis and considers declaring a financial emergency.

Trustees are scheduled to meet Tuesday for a special board meeting to consider declaring financial exigency for this fiscal year and extending it into the next fiscal year.

The agenda also outlines possible reduction-in-force areas, including an estimated 250 campus-level position reductions and about 160 central office position reductions.

A separate agenda item lists employment areas that could be affected by a reduction in force, including some probationary contract employees, certain teaching positions, instructional coaches, diagnosticians, high school graduation coaches, testing coordinators, social workers and school psychologists.

You can read the board agenda items below:

Deputy Superintendent and Interim CFO David Bates said a financial exigency declaration would allow the district to proceed with a reduction in force tied to enrollment.

“It would allow us to do a reduction in force. Right. And that’s exactly what it allows us to do to look at, our staff, both centrally at the campus level, at every single employee and right size based on that number of students that we have,” Bates said.

During a board meeting last week, the district revealed it is facing a projected $52.8 million shortfall for the current budget year and is projecting another $42.1 million shortfall for next year.

TEA conservator Dr. Michael Hinojosa, who has been working with Socorro ISD, described financial exigency as a serious step that can allow a district to reset when it cannot carry its current costs forward.

“What that means is that you’re broke…. if you declare financial exigency that allows you to break contracts,” Hinojosa said. “Now your board has to declare financial exigency so that you can get rid of liabilities.”

According to Tuesday’s board agenda, EPISD qualifies to declare financial exigency because of a more than 20% drop, or projected drop, in unassigned general fund balance per student.

The agenda lists proposed cost-cutting measures that include:

– Campus-level staffing adjustments resulting in 250 position reductions, for about $17 million in savings.

– Central office staffing adjustments resulting in about 160 position reductions, for an estimated $11 million in savings.

Bates said the district plans to look at vacancies first, meaning not every position reduction would automatically result in a current employee losing a job.

“First thing is vacancies, right? You look at all the vacant positions because that doesn’t hurt people,” Bates said.

The agenda states the district’s approach is intended to minimize the impact to campuses, classrooms and student services, and Bates said the district is focusing much of the reduction at central office.

“Majority of the cut needs to happen at central. We start at that work back in March. We’re just going to continue that work,” Bates said.

Still, El Paso Teachers Association President Norma de la Rosa said the proposed 250 campus-level position reductions raise concerns about classroom impacts.

“It most certainly will have an effect on the classrooms because, you know, we are going to be looking at, you know, what will the student teacher ratio look like now? With those teachers that are left remaining on campus,” de la Rosa said.

If trustees approve the items Tuesday, Bates said the district would move into the next phase between June 2 and June 16, when employees would be notified and the district would finalize overall staffing numbers, including vacancies and reductions at central office and campuses.

“Between the second and the 16th, that’s when people will be notified. That’s when we’ll have the overall plan. This will also have overall numbers of how many vacancies, how many positions central, how many positions at the campus,” Bates said.

The agenda says if trustees do not approve the reduction-in-force item, the superintendent would not be able to implement the reduction in force.

The district’s final budget adoption is set for June 16.

Tags: