During a special board meeting on Thursday, the El Paso Independent School District voted during a special board meeting 5-1 to declare financial exigency.

This comes as district leaders have been working to balance the district’s budget by the end of June.

As it has been reported before, financial exigency could mean cuts to over 400 positions across the district — about 250 campus-based jobs and another 160 in central office administration.

RELATED: El Paso ISD board delays financial exigency vote, extends public input window

According to the district, EPISD is projecting a shortfall of roughly $52.8 million for the current 2025-2026 budget year.

Looking ahead, the district is also projecting a shortfall of roughly $42.1 million for the 2026-2027 budget year.

Leah Hanany, the district’s board president, previously said payroll makes up the majority of the district’s budget.

“This is the highest percentage of the budget that is allocated to payroll. We’re at about 89%, which means we only have 11% that is available for the rest of the operation of the school district. So we simply just don’t have enough cash reserves to continue on this course. There has to be a course correction,” Hanany said.

Speaking with KFOX14/CBS4 at the end of May, 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 the number of students that we have,” Bates said.

Furthermore, Bates believes that by declaring financial exigency, the district could recover faster than many expect — potentially as early as October 2026.

“Now I will say this and I’ll say it publicly, we will be better than that, we will right the ship, and in October I plan to come back to this board and ask for your termination of financial exigency. That’s how confident I am in this plan,” Bates said.

RELATED: El Paso ISD trustees to consider financial exigency, possible staff cuts Tuesday

Below is the agenda for the special board meeting:

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