Education
BY CHLOE YOUNG
Austin ISD adopts $1.6B budget, makes $44M reductions
Austin ISD adopted a $1.58 billion operating budget with a $19.7 million shortfall for scal year 2025-26. The district reduced its initial shortfall projec- tion of $127 million after proposing $44 million in budget reduction strategies, including $9 million in additional state funding following the 2025 legislative session. Additionally, AISD is expecting to receive $45 million in revenue from two land sales, Chief Financial O cer Katrina Montgomery said. “This is not a stopgap,” Montgomery said about adopting the shortfall. “We’re going to continu- ously do work to reduce the de cit over the next scal year.” The AISD board of trustees voted to adopt a general fund budget with $1.58 billion in revenue and $992.1 million in expenditures at the June 26 meeting. The district is anticipated to pay $715.5 million in property taxes back to the state through a process known as recapture and save $15.3 million in vacant positions. “If we get additional state funding ... we can reduce another line item or we can just throw that back into our fund balance,” Montgomery said. “But, what we are committed to doing is making sure, whether these strategies all hold 100% or not, that we will reduce $44 million in FY 2025-26.” The impact A homeowner with an average taxable value of $576,644 is estimated to pay $4,040 in property taxes in FY 2025-26 based on a tax rate of $0.9253 per $100 valuation, according to district docu- ments. This would be a $317 reduction in property taxes from the previous scal year.
Budget Reductions AISD has proposed the following reductions totaling $44 million :
If approved by voters in November, the state’s homestead exemption would increase from $100,000 to $140,000. Also of note Under House Bill 2, AISD is anticipated to receive around $35.9 million in additional school funding, around $9 million of which may go toward o setting the district’s budget shortfall, Montgomery said. The $8.4 billion school funding legislation— signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 4—includes a $55 increase to the basic allotment of funding per student as well as funding increases for special education, early education, school safety and support sta . Around 600 AISD teachers with three to four years of experience will receive $2,500 raises and about 3,000 AISD teachers with ve or more years of experience will receive $5,000 raises, Montgomery said. Superintendent Matias Segura said that while AISD is grateful for HB 2 funding, the district’s • $10 million to restructure central of ice positions • $9 million in additional state funding • $7 million in cuts to contracted special education services • $4 million in holding staff bene its contributions • $3.75 million in unidenti ied cuts • $3 million to reduce department budgets by 5% • $3 million in property insurance savings
• $2 million in revisions to special education placements by centrally locating students at certain campuses • $800,000 to reduce campus budgets by 10%, excluding staff positions • $500,000 to consolidate or eliminate supplementary programs
SOURCE: AUSTIN ISD COMMUNITY IMPACT
“We cannot continue to run de cit budgets... We have to gure out where we’re not as e cient as we could be in our campuses, all while protecting the quality of education in Austin ISD.” MATIAS SEGURA, AUSTIN ISD SUPERINTENDENT
overall funding has not kept up with rising costs. The board is expected to vote on the district’s compensation plan Aug. 21. Sta members receiv- ing raises will be noti ed Sept. 15. In case you missed it Amid its budgetary concerns, AISD is planning to begin closing and consolidating campuses begin- ning in the 2026-27 school year.
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