As EPISD students prepare for summer break, district leaders are preparing for something far less celebratory: deep budget cuts, possible layoffs and an historic financial reckoning.
Just months into his tenure as superintendent, Brian Lusk now finds himself leading the El Paso Independent School District through one of the gravest financial crises in its history – one that could lead the district to formally declare financial exigency.
The EPISD board on Tuesday morning will consider whether to take the extreme measure of essentially declaring bankruptcy, admitting it does not have the funds to support instruction or fully pay its staff.
If the district cannot rein in its spending, or if the board decides against financial exigency, EPISD is on track to have a $42 million budget shortfall for the upcoming 2026-27 school year. That’s on top of $52 million overspent on the 2025-26 budget, including $20 million in payroll overruns.
Financial exigency will allow EPISD to break contracts as it looks to cut hundreds of jobs, including campus-level positions. The declaration to the Texas Education Agency is used in major financial crises, such as at least a 10% decline in enrollment over five years, natural disasters and projected reductions of more than 20% to a district’s fund balance.
As students in EPISD prepare for the last day of school, and seniors get ready to graduate, many of their teachers have diminished job security, and campuses are left wondering what’s to come in the fall.
For Lusk, who sat down with El Paso Inc. on Thursday morning, EPISD needs to get its budget under control so it can set students up to be successful.
“I’m worried about balancing a budget so we can move forward and get past these difficult times and we can get back to focusing on making sure that everything we do for our students is effective and meaningful and puts them in a good position to be learners,” Lusk said.
EPISD hired Lusk in December of last year. He’s the third superintendent in the last six years at EPISD and succeeded Diana Sayavedra, who stepped down in June of 2025.
Lusk has spent 30-plus years in education, including as principal at all campus levels. EPISD is Lusk’s first superintendent job, and he was most recently a deputy superintendent at Dallas Independent School District, the second-largest school district in Texas.
In his first six months at EPISD, Lusk said he spent half that time learning more about needs and concerns and said he’s looking forward to the future instead of focusing on the long, complicated history of missteps at EPISD.
Ruben R.Ramirez
Q: How did the El Paso job get on your radar?
I knew a little bit about El Paso ISD from being part of the Texas Urban Council, which is a consortium of urban school districts. I did a little bit of homework and realized that the work that was happening here prior to my arrival aligned very well with the things I believed in and the work I’d been part of. It felt like a natural fit for what I wanted to do. And I had a great job. I wasn’t necessarily on the hunt. But this really aligned well with what I believe.
Q: Did you hear from any previous superintendent to get an understanding of what was in that role and what was waiting for you here in El Paso?
I was able to spend the first 90 days implementing a 90-day plan. I committed to the board that I would implement a 90-day plan, which essentially was look, listen and learn and understand how to build relationships. I did that with so many community members, internal stakeholders, teachers, principals, central office administrators and political figures across the city. Everybody’s just been great about giving me perspective.
I don’t like to look back a lot. When you ask about talking to other superintendents, it’s important for me to make my own judgments and understandings from the people who are here now. History matters, but I wanted to learn through the people who are here in the city right now.
Q: Do you talk to the business community and UTEP about what skills are needed for the job market in Paso?
I do. I like to use the term “pathways of prosperity.” It starts in 7th and 8th grade as far as the sort of visioning and forecasting and understanding what’s available. But if we get them on the path in 9th grade and keep them through, we’re gonna get them on a pathway of prosperity.
When they graduate, they have options. They can go to college and work because they have credentials, or they can go straight into the workforce because they’ve earned credentials that are meaningful and aligned to a living wage, and the local market.
Ruben R.Ramirez
Q: There’s a lot of technology in every classroom, in every district, including EPISD. In this new frontier of artificial intelligence, and AI cheating, how’s the technology push going?
There are varying opinions, and I think you’re right. We’re seeing the pendulum swing. We have school districts out west in California that are now putting time limits on the amount of technology. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing, to be honest with you. Things have to be done in moderation and for what makes sense.
Instruction is always going to be best delivered by people. Our teachers are key to the work that we do. And technology will enhance the work that they do, but it doesn’t drive the work that they do.
Technology will have its place in the classroom, but I do think you’re right. Post-COVID, it was still very pervasive, and understandably so, given the circumstances of COVID. We now understand that we’ve got to moderate the amount of technology used in the classroom because ultimately our teachers are our best resource.
Q: How does continually declining enrollment at EPISD, compounded by families moving out of the city and a rapidly dropping birth rate, affect what the district is trying to provide?
The enrollment matters, and we won’t compromise the quality of education. So when you think about enrollment, we are seeing declining enrollment year over year and we’re even projecting next year to see some declining enrollment. While we know that’s a problem, we are going to look for solutions.
The best solution we can do is provide great instruction to our kids because parents want to know the product that they get for their children is the best thing they can get.
We’re really trying to make sure we prioritize the things that matter most. If you think about enrollment and you think about what parents want, parents want a great product. And if parents know their children are going to graduate with credentials and readiness to go into college and or their career, they’re going to feel that El Paso ISD is a great place for their child.
Q: What was your reaction when you found out about the financial state of the district and the lead-up to last week’s meeting?
The first question that we all ask, including many of our families, is how did this happen? We wanted to understand what the problems were, what the challenges were, what controls were not in place, what systems were not in place. It was bothersome. Sleepless nights for many and deservedly so, right?
We’re working on the problem. As we move forward, we’re going to work towards balancing the budget. It’ll come with difficult decisions. We know that. But our job is to make sure that we’re stewards of our financial resources so that they’re best aimed at ensuring that our kids get what they need.
About 88% of our resources were tied up in personnel. On the upside, that’s good because we know that personnel are the key to making sure our students get a good education. But typically school districts have about 80% of their financial resources tied up in personnel. So we were way over position control.
Q: How do you address that?
Deputy Superintendent David Bates is leading that work to a great degree, but I’ve got my hands in it as well. I need to know exactly what’s going on, to have decision making around how we do business. Ultimately, there were some ineffective practices that were in place. And it’s not just this year. It’s been for multiple years.
One example is basically using a dollar amount; this year it was $20 million. We expected $20 million of lapsed salary to help us mitigate some of the expenditures that may cause us to go over budget. That’s been in place for 10 years. It’s not an effective strategy. It’s not an effective practice that school districts typically use. That alone was problematic.
Adding positions without going to the board, and then without also going to the board and bringing a budget payment to say we’re adding these positions. You should take a budget amendment to the board for board approval, per policy. So there were some ineffective practices, and I also think actually having a handle on position control and understanding the full-time equivalents that we have as a district, I don’t know that that was in place well.
Ruben R.Ramirez
Q: For that information that wasn’t provided, what does accountability look like?
You have to work at solving the problem and also hold people accountable. I believe in accountability, unequivocally. I don’t work towards trying to place blame. I want to really understand who is at fault and then hold them accountable. The CFO (Martha Aguirre) resigned, and I that’s a signal. You can make your own judgments there.
And I think there are people on the team who also knew and understood the state of where we are financially and should have been willing to come forward and say, look, we’ve got a financial challenge. There will be accountability for this budget challenge. We will hold people accountable. We are going to reorganize the entire finance and business department. We’ve got to do better.
Q: Are you considering more school closures?
We’re not talking about closing schools, so let me just say that up front. Declining enrollment is real. The birth rates are the lowest in El Paso than I think across the state. We know that’s a challenge, and we’re not talking about school closures.
Right now, what we have to focus on is right-sizing. We have 88% of our budget on personnel. Unfortunately, that’s going to be a hard shift for people because ultimately we have to make hard decisions.
We’ve worked really hard to eliminate vacant positions. We’ve eliminated almost 200 vacant positions since I’ve been here. It’s a lot of positions, and we still are well over budget as it relates to personnel.
Q: Is the budget finalization process more difficult since you don’t have a permanent CFO in place?
Well, he (David Bates) was working like 12-hour days. Now he’s working 16-hour days, so he’s working a lot of hours. He’s really smart. He’s innovative. He’s driven, and he’s committed to our district.
I can’t speak for him, I know it takes its toll, but he’s going to work on it until we get it right. And I know as a team member he is committed to doing that. I don’t ever worry about his level of commitment in terms of where we’ll land. We will land in a good place.
Q: What do you think would be the most dire consequence of not being able to rein in the budget and continuing on that path of a dwindling fund balance?
We will rein in this budget. We will bring forward a balanced budget.
Q: Given EPISD’s history with state takeover, that’s something that worries the community. Does that worry you?
We actually have a pretty healthy fund balance even after this year. The challenge we faced was not knowing and not understanding where we stood because of the information that was withheld from us. If you look at our fund balance, even the projected one for the end of this year, 39 days essentially, it’s actually a pretty good number.
So I am not worried about, I think you mentioned state takeover. I’m worried about balancing a budget so we can move forward and get past these difficult times, and we can get back to focusing on making sure that everything we do for our students is effective and meaningful and puts them in a good position to be learners.
Q: How’s it going for EPISD’s efforts to sell surplus property and old, shuttered schools?
As part of our long range facilities master plan that Mr. Bates has been leading as part of the possible bond conversation, that conversation has been had by our community members who are really leading the process. He’s just facilitating. We’ve sold some properties. We have three properties right now that are being looked at; people may purchase those. We have eight others that are available for consideration.
We’re also looking at a couple to repurpose. For example, to help really strengthen early childhood, we may look at one of our facilities for that. We’re working on a plan because we know we’ve heard from the community. We’ve heard from many that our vacant facilities are problematic, not just aesthetically but also just from the opportunity for people to get into them, et cetera. So we’re working strategically to solve it.
Obviously, the money we get from those will be helpful, but we’re not using those resources to balance the budget. Those resources would then probably go into a fund balance and help with our rainy day savings account again.
That’s not going to be the reason why we are able to financially continue. We’re going to continue because we need to balance a budget for the upcoming school year.
EPISD proposes deep cuts
The El Paso Independent School District is citing a 20% decline in its unassigned fund balance as the reason for seeking financial exigency. Here are the cost-cutting measures El Paso’s oldest school district is looking to make.
Layoffs
EPISD is looking to cut 250 campus-level positions to save $17 million and 160 central office positions to save $11 million. Positions that could be cut include:
Probationary contracts for year 1-3 employees in unassigned or temporary staff teacher positions, including in core subjects
Planetarium facilitator
Diagnosticians
School psychologists
High school graduation coaches
High school testing coordinators
Special education climate behavior specialists
Early childhood learning facilitators
Instructional coaches
Campuses affected
Potential cuts could affect teachers in year 1-3 probationary contracts at the following campuses:
Andress High School
Austin High School
Barron Elementary School
Bliss Elementary School
Bobby Joe Hill PK-8
Bowie High School
Brown Middle School
Burges High School
Canyon Hills Middle School
Chapin High School
Clendenin Elementary School
Coach Archie Duran Elementary
Coach Wally Hartley PK-8
Coldwell Elementary School
Coronado High School
Delta Academy
Don Haskins PK-8
Dr. Josefina V. Tinajero PK-8
El Paso High School
Franklin High School
Guerrero Elementary School
Hart Elementary School
Hawkins Elementary School
Herrera Elementary School
Hillside Elementary School
Hornedo Middle School
Irvin High School
Jefferson High School
Lamar Elementary School
Logan Elementary School
Magoffin Middle School
Milam Elementary School
Moreno Montessori
Moye Elementary School
Park Elementary School
Polk Elementary School
Telles Academy
Tippin Elementary School
Tom Lea Elementary School
Torres Elementary School
Whitaker Elementary School
Wiggs Middle School
Young Women’s Academy
Zach White Elementary School