Pflugerville ISD is slated to see an additional $2 million in administrative cuts, which will help lower the district's projected budget shortfalls and allow for a 1% staff raise to be considered.
PfISD's Chief of Schools Laila Olivarez provided the update to the board of trustees July 16.
Some context
Over the last several months, the board has considered a variety of optimization actions to take to address PfISD's projected multimillion-dollar budget shortfalls over the next several years. The recently adopted 2026-27 budget projects a $15.6 million shortfall.
Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Land said the district would need to identify $44 million in cuts prior to being able to give a 1% staff raise: $3 million-$5 million in 2026-27, or Year 0; $16 million-$18 million in 2027-28, or Year 1; and $1 million-$3 million in 2028-29, or Year 2.
According to Olivarez, $42 million in cumulative savings through Year 2 has already been identified, including about $9.8 million in Year 1 through the closure of Dessau, Parmer Lane, Pflugerville and Windermere elementary schools at the end of the 2026-27 school year.
At a June 9 community event, Olivarez said that if the district did not consolidate the campuses, PfISD would have likely reached near insolvency by 2029-30, having just $5.2 million in its fund balance, or enough for six days' worth of operating expenses, which would have likely resulted in state intervention.
The update
While other savings will come from various administrative cuts in Years 0, 1 and 2, two other potential pathways for the remaining $2 million have been identified:
- Path A, $3.7 million in savings: reduce up to 11 assistant principal and 11 counselor positions across middle school and high schools, reduce athletics district budget by 20%, reduce fine arts budget by 20%, reduce seven central office personnel positions
- Path B, $4.5 million in savings: close a middle school and an additional elementary school
According to Olivarez, administration reductions through Path A will proceed to close the $2 million gap. Olivarez said this option is an administrative function, and not something the board will vote on.
"Those illustrative Path A options that we brought to you before were hypothetical to show you the scale of what we need, not final decisions or recommendations," Olivarez said.
Plans are already in place to prepare the community for rezoning, staffing and family transitions for the four elementary schools that are set to close, Olivarez said.
"Right now, layering a second, simultaneous community engagement process—this time for a middle school—will create, in our opinion, real risk to both efforts," Olivarez said. "Our direction proposed is to protect the elementary implementation timeline. ... Let us complete that work that's already underway before we open any new community engagement in district optimization."
However, Olivarez acknowledged that future action toward closing additional campuses is not off the table.
The board reviewed data for PfISD's seven middle school campuses, pulling from the district's district optimization campus profiles that include enrollment trends, utilization rates, finances and the campus letter grade.
"The remaining middle school options carry real equity tradeoffs," Olivarez said. "Several of these campuses ... serve higher concentrations of economically disadvantaged students. Closure scenarios there deserve their own dedicated equity review, not one that's folded into this process already."
Next steps
- Fall 2026: boundary redesign begins
- Winter 2026-27: community engagement efforts begin for closing campuses and receiving schools
- Spring 2027: further community engagement is held for families to help co-create the vision for the receiving campuses
- Summer 2027: final readiness assessments and welcome events for the receiving campuses are held
- Fall 2027: consolidated campuses open for the 2027-28 school year
