Additionally, the board voted to discontinue the district’s Spanish Immersion program to further reduce expenses. The program has allowed elementary students to receive instruction in both Spanish and English since 2016.
The decisions come as EISD is facing a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall that is projected to rise.
“The small tweaks we’ve been making that have been invisible for the last number of years are not going to do it anymore,” Chief Financial Officer Chris Scott said about EISD’s budget. “Unfortunately, these are going to be visible changes.”
Two-minute impact
The decisions were made in an effort to reduce a projected $6.3 million budget shortfall for fiscal year 2025-26. District officials said a lack of state funding and declining enrollment has put EISD in a difficult financial position.
The closure of Valley View Elementary comes as only 274 students attended the school this year, according to EISD data.
Moving forward, the district is making modifications to accommodate more students at Barton Creek Elementary, eliminating a planning period for teachers and considering additional steps to further minimize costs.
According to EISD information, budget reductions include:
Confirmed:
- $2M savings from blending Valley View and Barton Creek elementaries
- $2M savings from eliminating Professional Learning Community periods
- $600,000 savings from eliminating Spanish Immersion program
- $450,000 revenue increase from raising rental fees and student fees for extracurricular programs
- $4M savings from a voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE
- $1.4M savings from freezing salaries/reducing stipends
- Additional efficiencies to offset budget shortfall, if needed
Lower-than-projected enrollment and cuts to federal and state funding have caused EISD’s projected budget shortfall to grow from manageable to unmanageable over the past year, Scott said.
According to EISD data, the district has lost nearly 570 students since 2019, which has caused EISD to lose revenue, officials said.
Looking ahead, Scott said he is expecting taxable property values to decrease further, causing revenues to decline by over $2 million per year.
The plan
Enrollment at Valley View Elementary, which opened in 1981, has declined by 44% over the last decade, according to district data. In an effort to improve enrollment, the district began offering the SI program at Valley View Elementary last school year and has accepted more transfer students, Superintendent Jeff Arnett said.
After merging with Valley View Elementary, Barton Creek Elementary is projected to be the largest elementary campus in the district with around 665 students next school year.
The blended campus is expected to have 33 full-size classrooms, including two portable learning studios that are set to be delivered by June 1. The portables will have two full-size classrooms with restrooms inside and be located at the end of the 100 and 300 hallways, where staff restrooms are being added.
By June 1, the district also plans to receive additional portable learning studios with six classrooms and restrooms to relocate the Child Development Center. The portables will not take away Barton Creek playground space, and will feature nonscalable fencing, accessibility ramps and require badge access, said Miguel Garcia, executive director of facilities, planning and construction.
District officials are working with the EISD Police Department to install an overflow parking lot, a "school zone" sign on Patterson Road, and crosswalk signage on Emma Avenue between Barton Creek Elementary and West Ridge Middle School.
While the district will hire more teachers at Barton Creek Elementary this fall, merging the campuses will allow EISD to employ fewer teachers than before, Scott said. EISD officials feel confident that Valley View Elementary teachers who are not hired at Barton Creek Elementary may be reassigned to fill open positions in the district created through attrition, Arnett said.
EISD plans to modify Barton Creek Elementary to accommodate more students by:
- Opening four portable classrooms using bond funds
- Relocating its Child Development Center to portables outside of the campus
- Making improvements to the playground
- Making traffic safety improvements
- Adding another cafeteria line
- Hiring two assistant principals instead of one
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 population 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 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
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 voting 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.
Quotes of note
- “We know that some of these decisions are unpopular with the community, and we would not make them unless we were forced to make them by these budget challenges.”- James Spradley, EISD 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
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.
When it comes to staff, Valley View and Barton Creek teachers completed a survey on their preferred campus and grade level. EISD hopes to inform Valley View Elementary employees on whether their new position will be at Barton Creek Elementary or another campus by spring break, Arnett said.
The district will hold a Valley View legacy event April 27 from 1-4 p.m. to honor the campus before it closes at the end of the school year.
In the coming months, the district will also consider calling a voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, and freezing staff salaries.
Additionally, 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.
In late February, state senators unanimously passed Senate Bill 26 to raise teachers' salaries in their third and fifth years in the classroom.
“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.
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
