{"id":396936,"date":"2026-08-04T01:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T01:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/396936\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T01:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T01:18:10","slug":"episd-says-budget-deficit-reduced-to-4-3-million-after-financial-cuts-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/396936\/","title":{"rendered":"EPISD says budget deficit reduced to $4.3 million after financial cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 The El Paso Independent School District says it has significantly reduced its budget deficit after months of financial cuts and restructuring.<\/p>\n

The district has faced years of financial challenges tied to declining enrollment and reduced state funding.<\/p>\n

On June 4, 2025, the EPISD Board of Trustees approved a separation agreement with former Superintendent Diana Sayavedra. The agreement included a $347,000 payout for Sayavedra to serve as an adviser through January 2026.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 9, 2025, the board hired Dr. Brian Lusk as superintendent following a monthslong search.<\/p>\n

On May 15, 2026, former Chief Financial Officer Martha Aguirre formally resigned days after notifying the district of an unexpected $52 million budget deficit.<\/p>\n

On June 16, 2026, the district’s chief financial officer assumed the role of interim superintendent while continuing to serve as CFO.<\/p>\n

During the past month, district leaders declared a financial exigency, allowing EPISD to make significant budget cuts to address the deficit.<\/p>\n

Lusk said the district reduced its budget deficit from $52 million to $37 million and now to $4.3 million.<\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED: EPISD forms communications advisory group to hear directly from parents and employees<\/a><\/p>\n

“We’ve made some difficult decisions over the last several months, and our financial position is very strong right now,” Lusk said.<\/p>\n

The district eliminated dozens of positions as part of its cost-cutting efforts.<\/p>\n

“It’s always difficult. There’s never an easy decision, and what you have to realize is that these are always people, these are all humans, and you’re affecting their lives and their livelihood,” Lusk said.<\/p>\n

District leaders said the staffing reductions were based on lowering payroll costs.<\/p>\n

Lusk said district leaders are also focused on improving transparency and accountability moving forward.<\/p>\n

“We as a district have had some challenges over the last 10 or 15 years. We understand that. We appreciate that, and we’re looking forward to it. We want to make sure that there’s transparency,” Lusk said.<\/p>\n

The district also launched a Financial Stability Plan website that allows the public to track EPISD’s financial actions and recovery efforts.<\/p>\n

Sign up<\/a> to receive the top interesting stories from in and around our community once daily in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 The El Paso Independent School District says it has significantly reduced its budget…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-396936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396936","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=396936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}