The Austin Independent School District is projecting a $181 million deficit in its next budget. But authorities have not yet released proposals for what cuts will be made.
The district originally said it would release its next budget proposal by Thursday. Now, it won’t be released until June 4, adding to the uncertainty that teachers and parents have felt in recent weeks.
At Thursday’s board meeting, Superintendent Matias Segura said district officials had identified potential cuts of $130 million. He said he has pushed back the date to share his recommended budget while he works to find nearly $50 million in additional cuts.
“This is not an opportunity for me to cross things off the list,” Segura said. “There will be improvements and adjustments, but $180 million is not something we can go back and cover.”
School boards asked the superintendent to reconsider the cuts affecting teachers. Board member Kathryn Whitley Chew asked if the district had considered feedback from the board, questioned the current schedule and expressed concern about changes that could impact teachers.
“I feel like the community and the trustees were not included in the planning process,” Whitley-Chew said. “We are now in a situation where it appears the administration is moving forward with something that the community and the trustees are not comfortable with.”
District officials previously announced that more than 200 jobs could be affected by budget cuts. May 15 was the deadline for principals to meet with potentially affected staff, but some teachers didn’t know the latest information until this week. Some positions will be eliminated completely, while others will move from full-time to part-time.
Parents and teachers who spoke at the meeting said uncertainty was influencing decisions for next school year. Parents said they still do not know what programs will be offered at their children’s schools. Teachers said the proposed cuts are affecting their confidence in the district.
Christina Coro is an art teacher at Becker Elementary School, one of 10 schools scheduled to close next school year. She was scheduled to teach art at Casey Elementary School next year, but was told Wednesday that her position could be affected by layoffs.
“They say our work doesn’t go unnoticed, but the way they approach this really shows it’s being noticed,” said Kolo, who is a year away from retirement. “I feel like I’m just being dragged. It was really painful, disappointing and scary.”
District officials previously announced a two-year plan with an estimated $19.8 million in cost savings. This plan would increase the number of students per teacher in grades 2 through 5 and reduce planning time for middle school and high school teachers. These changes do not affect schools with turnaround plans or schools that received an unacceptable rating from the Texas Education Agency.
Teachers who were not affected by the potential layoffs also said they felt uncertain, as they may have to take on more responsibilities due to fewer staff or longer school days.
Mindy Le Jeune, an art teacher at Bowie High School, said, “I’m supposed to write a curriculum in June, but I don’t know what to write anymore.” “Because no one knows what we’re going to teach or who our teachers are going to be. So everyone just seems to be on their feet, even administrators, which is unfortunate.”
Information about how the budget will be balanced is slowly emerging as districts present information to the board. However, the exact numbers and reductions have not yet been announced.
The district also announced a new tiered system for bilingual education and special education scholarships, an estimated savings of $1.9 million. Segura has repeatedly said that scholarships for educators who work with students will not be affected.
Segura said at a work session last week that possible cuts include reducing the number of police officers, changing pay for substitute teachers and creating a “part-fare” transportation model paid by some families for district-wide magnet programs.
The proposed cuts proposed Thursday include increasing the number of school days, reducing “work days” and teacher pay up to a certain level, reducing non-teaching staff, changing transportation models for middle schools and high schools, and adding real estate to the list of real estate available for sale.
Other options to reduce the budget include reducing property and casualty insurance costs, cutting outside consultant and travel expenses, and eliminating cell phone subsidies altogether. The district is considering closing its in-house printing shop as its paper usage is decreasing. Segura also mentioned last week that there would be “structural changes to the organizational chart,” but provided no further details.
Over the past several years, AISD officials have faced difficult decisions to balance the budget, including the decision to close 10 campuses in 2025 and cut more than 20% of central office positions, impacting more than 170 employees. For the 2025-26 school year, the district approved a budget with a projected deficit of $19.7 million. Since then, the projected deficit has increased to $49 million.
The AISD 2026-27 budget proposal is scheduled to be released on June 4th. The board is expected to vote on the spending plan by mid-June. It will come into effect on July 1st.
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