BY CHLOE YOUNG
Spanish Immersion enrollment over time
The action taken
Going forward
In February, the board voted on new attendance zones, sending some Barton Creek Elementary students to Forest Trail Elementary. The district also plans to reassign out-of-district transfer students from Barton Creek Elementary to other campuses. EISD hopes to inform Valley View Elementary employees on their new position or staffing situation by mid-March, Arnett said. In the coming months, the district will consider calling a voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, and freezing staff salaries. EISD officials will advocate for a basic allotment increase that is adjusted to inflation in the 2025 legislative session, Arnett said. At the state level, the House and Senate have introduced budgets that would increase funding for public education by about $4.9 billion. Gov. Greg Abbott has announced providing teacher pay raises as one of his emergency items this session. “Public education funding is at an all-time high,” Abbott said at a Feb. 2 address. “Funding per student is at an all-time high. But improving education requires more than just spending more money. It requires high- level instruction and better curriculum.” In November, Abbott said he was committed to “fully funding” public schools and raising teacher salaries; however, efforts to do so failed following four special sessions in 2023. Additional school funding was tied to an unsuccessful attempt to pass a voucher- like program, known as education savings accounts, that would’ve allocated public dollars for private school tuition. The Texas Senate passed a $1 billion education savings account proposal in February that is headed to the Texas House. Brittany Anderson and Hannah Norton contributed to this reporting. Next steps • May Approve 2025-26 compensation plan and consider freezing staff salaries • June Consider calling a VATRE to raise the tax rate by $0.09 • July Receive certified values from the Travis Central Appraisal District • August Adopt 2025-26 tax rate • November Potential VATRE
Through cutting the SI program, EISD will save money previously spent on teacher stipends and curriculum, Scott said. Over the past few years, EISD has doubled its stipend from $3,500 to $7,000 for SI teachers to compete with other districts, said Molly May, EISD assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and assessment. EISD officials pointed out that the district is not required to provide a dual-language program due to the demographic makeup of its student popula- tion and receives no funding to do so. The program has required EISD to create more classes and hire additional teachers, May said. This school year, the district switched to a new model in which kindergarten students receive 90% of their instruction in Spanish and 10% of their instruction in English. While the change was intended to improve language proficiency for students, school board President James Spradley said the district did not have time to evaluate the model’s results amid its widening budget shortfall. “Unfortunately, Spanish Immersion was seen as an expense that was a luxury at this time in our budget and a luxury that we could no longer afford given the crunch by the state,” Spradley said. EISD is one of many districts statewide that have
720 900 540 360 180 0
School year
adopted deficit budgets this school year, said Bob Popinski, senior director of policy for educational advocacy group Raise Your Hand Texas. Over the past six years, the basic allotment of state funding per student has remained at $6,160 despite an over 20% increase in inflation, Popinski said. “We wouldn’t be in this position if it weren’t for our finances being so constrained by the lack of new funding from the state,” Arnett said. EISD makes some of the highest recapture payments in Texas, and expects to pay nearly $95 million in local property taxes back to the state this school year, according to board documents.
What they’re saying
“We know that some of these decisions are unpopular with the community, and we would not make them
Barton Creek Elementary parent Christine Curry said she has formed a community through the SI program and seen her twin daughters benefit from learning Spanish. Now, Curry said she is worried about how the budget cuts will affect teacher retention and students’ academic performance. “[Spanish Immersion has] been amazing, so now to see that taken away … that’s what brings diversity to the Eanes district, and it also brings in so many transfer students,” Curry said. At the Jan. 14 meeting, board member Ellen Balthazar made a substitute motion to wait on vot- ing to discontinue the SI program after 277 parents pledged nearly $915,000 in donations to support it. While Spradley is grateful for the parents’ pledges, the same budgetary concerns could reemerge if the district relies on short-term funding, he said. Parents, students and staff members asked the board to hold off on closing the school at the Jan. 14 meeting. Some board members said they believed closing the campus was their only choice and apologized to community members.
unless we were forced to make them by these budget challenges.” JAMES SPRADLEY, SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT
“Personally, I believe that SI has been scapegoated and blamed for issues that are common to all programs and systems, particularly in new ones
that are innovative and change agents.” ELLEN BALTHAZAR, EISD TRUSTEE
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LAKE TRAVIS - WESTLAKE EDITION
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