{"id":323750,"date":"2026-06-05T07:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T07:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/323750\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T07:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T07:13:10","slug":"el-paso-isd-declares-financial-exigency-moves-forward-with-reduced-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/323750\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso ISD declares financial exigency, moves forward with reduced layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">EL PASO, Texas (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ktsm.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:KTSM;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;KTSM&quot;}\" class=\"link \">KTSM<\/a>) \u2013 The El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) Board of Trustees has approved a declaration of financial exigency, paving the way for mass layoffs to address a $52.8 million budget deficit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The approval was done during a special meeting on Thursday, June 4 at the EPISD Administration Building, 1014 N. Stanton St. This decision comes as the district is facing a $52.8 million deficit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/politics\/articles\/episd-weighs-financial-exigency-staffing-230753789.html\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:EPISD weighs financial exigency, staffing reductions as district faces budget challenges;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;EPISD weighs financial exigency, staffing reductions as district faces budget challenges&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> EPISD weighs financial exigency, staffing reductions as district faces budget challenges <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">After declaring financial exigency, the board moved to address the district\u2019s mounting fiscal crisis by weighing three distinct paths: maintaining current staffing levels while absorbing a $37 million deficit; proceeding with aggressive layoffs to reduce the shortfall to $1.5 million; or opting for a middle ground that cut 54 teaching positions\u2014down from the 92 originally proposed\u2014leaving a $4.3 million deficit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Ultimately, the board approved the third option in a five-to-one vote, effectively saving 38 teaching positions. Leading up to the meeting, the district had already secured 89 additional roles by reassigning staff to substitute positions; this approach preserved teacher salaries and benefits while saving $4 million from the district\u2019s substitute budget.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The total reduction in force will total 54 teachers, 40 contracted employees, 150 other employees that range from support staff to part time paid employees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Following the vote, Superintendent Dr. Brian Lusk expressed confidence that the district could exit financial exigency by this October.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktsm.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2013 The El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) Board of Trustees has approved a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[29062,434,138,140,30614,139,8695,113110,115780,93017],"class_list":["post-323750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-board-of-trustees","tag-budget-deficit","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-independent-school-district","tag-el-paso-news","tag-episd","tag-financial-exigency","tag-mass-layoffs","tag-teaching-positions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323750","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=323750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}