HOUSTON – The Houston Independent School District is facing scrutiny after announcing budget adjustments tied to student enrollment numbers — moves that could mean significant cuts for several campuses.
Each year, HISD conducts what it calls a standard campus leveling process after the school year begins, comparing actual student enrollment to the projections used to build campus budgets. Campus funding is then adjusted based on actual enrollment and student needs, according to HISD.
“This annual process helps align campus budgets and staffing with the number of students schools are serving. Depending on enrollment, some campuses may see their allocations adjusted,” HISD told KPRC2 reporter Sandy Torres in a statement.
Jackie Anderson, president of the largest teachers union in the district, said cuts of hundreds of thousands of dollars can be expected at several schools — and the impact shouldn’t be underestimated. Anderson told KPRC the Lamar High School community is one of several that reached out concerned about budget cuts.
“We are very concerned because getting cuts that magnitude can lead to employee layoffs, overcrowded classrooms, lack of support and supplies and materials from HISD,” the Houston Federation of Teachers president said.
Houston Federation of Teachers said declining enrollment since COVID-19 is not a new development for the district — and questions why principals are only now being told their budgets are being reduced.
“But the district has been losing students, so it should not be that now after school has started, and budgets have been put in and principals have been notified as to what their budgets are that they are expected to continue to provide services with those large amounts of money being pulled out of their schools,” Anderson said.
Anderson is also raising broader questions about where district money is going — and says the scale of these cuts is unlike anything she has seen before.
“I think there needs to be an outside audit…where is the money? We can expect cuts from Austin, we have always dealt with that, but to go into individual schools now, and tell them they are going to be cuts is something I have never heard before of this magnitude,” Anderson said.
The Houston Federation of Teachers is calling for an independent audit of the district’s finances. When asked for specifics on which schools are affected and by how much, HISD said existing records related to campus budget adjustments may be requested through its public information request process.
KPRC submitted a public information request.
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