Next school year, the district will cut about $12.8 million in positions across its campuses and $3 million in administrative positions at its central office, which it hopes to lose through natural attrition, Superintendent Bruce Gearing said. Additionally, the district will discontinue its $2 million Empowerment Grant Fund, which the district started last school year to provide grants to staff members.
LISD announced the cuts to staff members in a letter from Gearing on Feb. 5. The district’s growing budgetary constraints come amid stagnant funding from the state and cuts to federal funding, Gearing said.
“We should not be in this position,” Gearing said at a press conference Feb. 5. “The state had $4.5 billion appropriated for public education last session, and they left it sitting on the table. ... We have to fund public schools."
With the 2025 state legislative session underway, the House and Senate have both drafted budgets that would increase funding for public education by about $4.9 billion. Gov. Greg Abbott announced providing teacher pay raises as his third emergency item at the State of the State address Feb. 2.
"Public education funding is at an all-time high,” Abbott said at the Feb. 2 event. “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."
The overview
LISD will cut over 200 positions from its budget next school year, including around 150 teachers, as it works to reduce a mounting budget shortfall. Amid the cuts, LISD is hoping to reassign affected staff members to open positions in the district that have been created through natural attrition, which is when employees choose to leave their role.
“There's going to have to be a lot of negotiating for us as we go forward about where people go and how we do that, but that's why we've given ourselves as much time as possible,” Gearing said.
Some of the positions slated to be cut include:
- 35 elementary school teachers
- 46.5 middle school teachers
- 71.5 high school teachers
“These reductions are going to be very painful, and we're going to have to work through a lot in the coming months,” Gearing said.
LISD will increase its ratio of students per teacher through the position cuts, which will impact class sizes, Gearing said. The district will work to mitigate this impact by providing stronger training for employees around master scheduling, he said.
How we got here
District officials have expressed frustration over a lack of state funding as LISD's financial concerns continue to amplify. Gearing highlighted how the state’s basic allotment of funding per student has not increased from $6,160 since 2019 despite an increase in inflation.
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 that would’ve allocated public dollars for private school tuition.
This fiscal year, LISD saw a decrease of $4.48 million in state revenue due to slowing enrollment growth. With 42,537 students enrolled in October, LISD had around 500 less students than it was projected to have this fall. The district is projecting reduced enrollment growth over the next decade.
To combat this, district officials have discussed opening enrollment to students living outside of LISD’s boundaries. The district estimates receiving a $400,000 net increase in revenue if an additional 100 students attended LISD, said Melody Maples, LISD executive director of the Office of Educational Access, at a Jan. 9 board of trustees meeting.
The district would receive $6,160 in state funding for each student who transferred in and would implement a fee to offset costs for processing their applications, Maples said.
LISD has also experienced cuts in federal funding. The district saw a $1.5 million reduction in Medicaid reimbursements for special education students amid cuts to the School Health and Related Services program. Going forward, the district will lose $1.5 million in Title I funds due to the poverty level in its census area dropping below 5%, Gearing said.
Next steps
The district has not yet identified which staff members’ positions will be cut at each campus, Gearing said. Over the next several weeks, LISD will work through staffing allocations at its campuses and begin identifying potential cuts at its central office, Gearing said.
As the district prepares to adopt its budget in June, LISD will continue to identify additional ways to reduce expenses beyond staffing, Gearing said in the letter to staff. The district may consider eliminating its QUEST program for gifted and talented elementary students, he said.
District officials will hold virtual listening sessions with staff Feb. 6 and Feb. 12.
Hannah Norton contributed to this article.
