{"id":263519,"date":"2026-04-23T23:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/263519\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T23:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:36:07","slug":"austin-isd-considering-eliminating-jobs-and-reducing-salaries-due-to-budget-shortfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/263519\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin ISD considering eliminating jobs and reducing salaries due to budget shortfall"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The Austin Independent School District is taking another hard look at how to deal with a $181 million dollar budget deficit<\/a>. <\/p>\n

According to the district, 87% of the budget is comprised of staffing and eliminating some positions and reducing the salaries of others is considered likely. Significant cuts are on the table as Austin ISD figures out how to deal with a higher-than-expected budget deficit.<\/p>\n

“We’re dealing with some very big numbers,” said Ken Zarifis, Education Austin President.<\/p>\n

Zarifis says with a $181 million budget shortfall teaching assistants and librarians could be targeted.<\/p>\n

“We are looking at librarians and TA’s that are looking at changing their jobs or losing their jobs. So, we’ve got a number of people that are being considered for the loss that we must fight for,” said Zarifis.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Austin ISD faces $181M budget shortfall as enrollment, property values decline<\/a><\/p>\n

Other potential cuts in the 2026-2027 Preliminary <\/a>Budget <\/a>include reducing special education and bilingual stipends and decreasing teacher planning time.<\/p>\n

“You have got to have planning periods during the day or you are going home and you are planning at home. You are working at home even more than you need to be,” said Zarifis.<\/p>\n

AISD leadership is using social media to explain to staff and parents what is leading to the painful cuts.<\/p>\n

“Austin property values declined even more than expected and enrollment also dropped by more than 3,000 students. At the same time costs have continued to rise and some real estate revenue we expected this year has since been delayed,” said AISD Superintendent Matias Segura.<\/p>\n

While budget cuts are inevitable, the district is investigating new ways to bring in money.<\/p>\n

“We are also exploring new revenue opportunities including facility naming rights and growing philanthropic and corporate partnerships aligned to district priorities,” said AISD Chief Financial Officer Katrina Montgomery.<\/p>\n

The final budget<\/a> is scheduled for adoption on June 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The Austin Independent School District is taking another hard look at how to deal with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-263519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}