AUSTIN, Texas — A last-minute change to Austin ISD’s budget for the 2026-27 school year spared school librarians from proposed cuts, prompting celebrations from advocates.

The original budget proposal presented to trustees would have scaled back librarian staffing for schools with fewer than 400 students. Those campuses would begin sharing librarians, eliminating 11 positions and saving nearly $1 million.

Ahead of Thursday night’s vote to adopt roughly $200 million total in budget reductions, however, trustees approved a budget amendment that removed librarians from the list of cuts.

“We were so grateful and thankful to the board for standing up for libraries in Austin,” said Carolyn Foote, a retired librarian and founder of Friends of AISD Libraries. She spent the spring advocating for Austin ISD to keep its school libraries open full-time.

“There are 16 or more research studies that actually show that having a fully certified librarian impacts student achievement scores,” Foote said.

The proposal to keep full-time librarians in every school became a central point of debate ahead of Thursday’s vote.

“Losing a full-time librarian at an elementary campus fundamentally changes that campus,” Trustee Kathryn Whitley Chu told the board.

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Trustee Arati Singh raised concerns about the timing and transparency of reversing course late in the process.

“We’re being asked to vote on one thing when there might be several that are just as important,” Singh said.

She also expressed skepticism about the district’s budget and enrollment projections heading into the upcoming school year.

“I think our balanced budget is going to be balanced for one month, until school starts again, and we’re going to have a deficit budget,” she said.

The decision to amend the budget leaves AISD Superintendent Matias Segura with the responsibility of finding the nearly $1 million elsewhere. The approved version of the budget currently takes the money from the district’s general fund.

Segura is set to present an amendment to the board in August with details on where cuts can be made to offset the decision to keep the librarians on staff.

Foote said the board’s decision came as a surprise after weeks of appeals.

“It was a total shock,” she said. She emphasized the important role librarians play in literacy development. “Librarians are the reading cheerleaders, right? It’s really foundational. And getting excited about reading is what helps kids.”