Facing budget shortfalls, districts up teacher pay From the cover
BY EDMOND ORTIZ
By the numbers
What it means
The takeaway
The overview
Enrollment over time
120K 100K
North East and Northside ISDs have seen gradual drops in their enrollments and average daily attendance.
NEISD and NISD leaders pledged to seek more efficient ways to spend the money they have. NEISD’s 2024-25 budget approved June 17 totals $772 million, lower than the $944 million budget adopted for 2023-2024. Barajas said NISD trustees will pass the 2024-25 budget on Aug. 27. There are no layoffs or other major cuts. Instead, districts are mainly not funding vacant positions.
NEISD and NISD officials said they hope when the 2025 Texas Legislative session begins in 2025, lawmakers will consider using $4 billion available for public schools, or they will be under pressure to consider more budget cuts. “I think [Texas lawmakers are] playing a very risky game with their school districts and their school districts’ future,” Maika said.
Leaders at NEISD and NISD said maintain- ing employee morale in fiscally challenging times is vital in efforts to address their budget shortfalls. “That’s the worst thing you can do for morale is for everybody to worry about, ‘Am I going to get the cut next year?’ That’s why we talk about reducing positions through attrition—when the position becomes vacant, we simply won’t fill it,” Barajas said. Teachers’ unions at both school districts urged district leaders to do better with worker compensation. NISD Superintendent John Craft acknowl- edged inflationary pressures weighing on employees, but he is hard-pressed to further increase pay. “We’d love to do more; we’re just not in that position right now,” he said.
80K 60K 40K 20K 0
NEISD and NISD officials said they partially blame budget struggles on lower average daily attendance, which factors into formulas used to calculate state and local funds received. Susie Lackorn, NEISD’s finance and accounting department director, said overall student enrollment differs from ADA, which is a snapshot of how many students attend an average school day. NISD saw its ADA drop 4% and NEISD’s 13% from 2017-2023. “If we have 57,000 enrolled, we staff and plan for 57,000 kids. But if only 54,000 show up any particular day, that’s what we get funded for,” Lackorn said. On top of that, some parents are pulling their children out of public schools altogether. Rene Barajas, NISD’s deputy superintendent for business and finance, said NISD is seeing trends of more parents homeschooling or opting for a growing number of charter or private schools.
NEISD enrollment NEISD avg. daily attendance NISD enrollment NISD avg. daily attendance
2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23
School year
Students transferring in and out of North East and Northside ISDs The number of students transferring out of NEISD and NEISD to attend other school districts and charter schools sharply increased post-pandemic years.
20K
Funding per Texas student
Avg. funding per U.S. student
15K
North East ISD
$10,406
$13M+ savings by not funding 156 unfilled full- time teaching & administrative positions 1% retention supplement for certain employees $40M budget shortfall
2019-20
10K
$13,501
5K
NEISD transfers in NEISD transfers out NISD transfers in NISD transfers out
$10,342
2020-21
$14,358
0
Northside ISD
2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23
$12,645
$6.8M savings by not funding 127 FT positions 2% pay hike for all employees $100M budget shortfall
School year
2021-22
$15,633
SOURCE: TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY/COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCES: NEISD, NISD/COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCE: TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY/COMMUNITY IMPACT
STONE OAK 23026 US Hwy 281 N (210) 497-1322 DE ZAVALA 5219 De Zavala Rd (210) 561-0900
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