Northwest ISD board members heard from Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Pastusek April 7 at their regular board meeting as he presented an update on the district’s efforts to reduce its $16 million deficit.

In addition to proposing the elimination of 75 teaching positions, Pastusek said more than $3 million in non-payroll reductions is being targeted.

The details

The district’s payroll, which accounts for 81% of its $337 million budget, is where most of the cuts will happen. Pastusek said 60 of the 75 positions on the chopping block are for secondary teachers. The remaining 15 positions are extracurricular positions.

While the district isn’t considering staffing reductions at the elementary level, Pastusek said there will be proposed changes to classroom ratios in elementary schools.

The current student to teacher ratios in NISD elementary classrooms are:

• Kindergarten-4th grade: 22 to 1
• 5th grade: 25 to 1

The proposed ratios for the 2025-26 school year include:

• K and 1st grade: 22 to 1
• 2nd-4th grade: 24 to 1
• 5th grade: 25 to 1

Pastusek said if the district were to continue the current ratios at the elementary level into the 2025-26 school year, it would cost the district just over $2 million.

The elimination of 60 positions at the secondary level will increase the student to teacher ratio from the current 165:1 to 180:1. Those ratios are based on how many students each teacher sees in a day. Pastusek said eliminating those 60 positions would save the district approximately $4.6 million.

The additional 15 extracurricular positions would happen in the form of cuts to athletics and fine arts staffing. Those cuts would add up to just over $1.1 million in savings, Pastusek said.

Zooming in

Pastusek said total payroll cuts in terms of teaching positions and staffing efficiencies would take the district’s current $16 million deficit down to $10.3 million. In order to trim the deficit even further, reductions to administrative and support would total approximately $6 million. Potential changes and cuts include:

• Ratio/matrix changes to administrative positions
• Model changes for intervention, English as a Second Language and Gifted and Talented specialists
• Elimination of AVID classes, reading recovery and explorations class

Pastusek said as of March 31, he and his staff have been able to whittle down the deficit to just under $1 million from the $16 million deficit at the start of the process. In addition to the $11.7 million in payroll deductions, there are $3.4 million in proposed cuts to nonpayroll costs, bringing the total amount of reductions to just over $15 million.

“We didn’t cut to the bone, but we’ve cut really deep,” Pastusek said.

Next steps

As the calendar changes over into May, Pastusek said he is hoping district officials will hear from the Texas Legislature in terms of how much they will receive in terms of funding for next year.

“That will be a huge factor in terms of not only gross revenue, [but also] what we can do for raises and what we can pay,” Pastusek said.

Pastusek said budget workshops are planned for May 5 and June 9. The budget adoption is scheduled for June 23.

The presentation was for informational purposes and no action was taken.