Teachers who retire or quit from the Austin Independent School District (AISD) may not be replaced next year as the district grapples with a $62 million budget deficit and severe shortages of some other categories of staff.
Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said at a press conference Monday that the district has too many teachers: “We are still generally overstaffed by about 300 teachers districtwide.”
However, because the district also has about 150 teacher vacancies, and loses an estimated 500 to 600 teachers each year through resignations, it won’t have to lay off any teachers. Instead, the reductions will be achieved “through attrition.”
Elizalde hinted at reducing the number of elective teachers in particular: “We heard loud and clear from our community, they want to make sure our students have as many options and electives as available … (but) we will be needing to make some tough decisions.”
“We will still need to reduce some staff members and some of that will affect campuses. However, we’ll find those through attrition. There are enough positions that are vacant. We will need to be more effective with our master schedules at the secondary level so that we can have more balanced class periods. We know we have some classrooms that are maybe at 30, 32, or 34 (students), and we also have a lot of classes that are at 10, 12, or 14.”
Hiring Freeze at Central Office
The superintendent said she’s already started eliminating vacant positions at the district’s central administration. “When we talk about budget cuts we have to start at central office. So since August 2020 we have reduced approximately 60 positions, which saved us $4.8 million.”
“We’re going to more than double that at central office. We’ll be reducing some additional positions, that’ll need to add up to $11.8 million.”
Currently, when a vacancy arises at the central office, it’s often not filled, she said. “Right now you have to come and convince me why that position is mission critical. So essentially I have a hiring freeze at central office and we are evaluating each department.”
Actual layoffs could also be in the cards. “There could be 10-15 individuals in our Central Office that positions may be eliminated at the end of the year,” Elizalde said. “They would be notified in January that that would be taking place.”
Budget Deficit Grows
Schools in Texas are funded through a mix of local property tax revenue and state allotments. The state share is based largely on student attendance, which means a rise in student attendance will result in more state funding and a drop will result in less state funding.
AISD enrollment this year came in at 74,727, compared to 75,075 at the start of the 2020-2021 school year. Although that was a decline of only about 300, it was far short of the enrollment target that the district had based its budget on.
And it comes on top of a larger enrollment drop of more than 4,000 that took place in the first year of the pandemic. Moreover, average daily attendance – the metric that the state uses to calculate its per-pupil allotments – has dropped even more sharply, from 74,000 before the pandemic to about 69,000.
In the meantime, the district has increased rather than reduced its spending. Although Elizalde says she’s saved $4.8 million in central staffing costs this year, that’s only a fraction of the budget hike approved by the board over the summer.
In June, AISD trustees approved a budget of $1.77 billion for FY 2021-2022, an increase of about $100 million from the year before, in spite of projections for a sharp drop in enrollment. It was able to do this by using one-time federal funds, and by dipping into reserves.
But now the bill is coming due.
At the press conference Monday, Elizalde said the district can’t spend any more reserves. Small cuts here or there also won’t address the severity of the deficit, she said. “Based on the gravity of the deficit that we have right now it’s going to take multiple ways that we’re going to have to problem-solve.”
Salary Increases Outstripped by Inflation
In budget briefings last month, AISD staff said the district is facing a budget deficit of about $62 million. But that’s before taking into account pay raises that the district wants to implement next year to keep teacher pay competitive with nearby districts and to address a shortage of support staff.
“Not only are we trying to fill that $62 million in deficit, but we are committed to bringing the board raises for two groups of folks, our classified, and our teachers,” Elizalde said Monday.
“We will be utilizing the savings from the central office cuts to fund a 2% increase for teacher salaries. In addition to that, I’m also going to propose a $1,000 across-the-board increase in teacher salary schedule (the actual base pay) so that we can be more competitive with all of our surrounding districts.”
“For some teachers that might equate to 4% or even more depending on where their salary schedule is.”
However, even a 4% salary increase wouldn’t keep pace with the current rate of inflation. The most recent inflation reading published by the federal government last Friday was 6.8% for the United States, though a more Texas-specific gauge showed a 7.5% increase.
It’s possible that inflation will moderate in the coming months, but any increase from the current level, or a continuation of the current rate of inflation, would mean that Austin teachers would face a substantial pay cut next year under Elizalde’s budget proposal.
Shortages of Support Staff
Elizalde is also proposing to increase pay for all of AISD’s “classified employees,” which include custodians, library assistants, teacher assistances, clerical staff, police, and food services workers. In all, an estimated 2,000 workers will get hourly pay increases.
“We want to keep all of our staff members. So we’re going from $13.50 an hour to $16 an hour as a minimum for our classified staff, with the related changes in increases to individuals that are above the $13.50,” Elizalde said.
Like many local government entities, AISD faces a shortage of workers as the labor market has become more competitive. For example, CapMetro faces a shortage of bus drivers, the Appraisal District faces a shortage of clerical workers, and Williamson County faces a severe shortage of jailers.
According to AISD’s careers website, the district is currently hiring for 61 food service workers, 112 teacher assistants, 22 police and other security personnel, 47 custodians, 22 counselors and mental health specialists, and 60 administrative and clerical workers, among others.
The pay increases and staff cuts discussed Monday are only proposals. The board of trustees, which has control over the district budget, is expected to adopt a new budget in June. But the planning undertaken by executes now could form the basis for decisions that will be finalized at that time.
