North East ISD is coping with a nearly $40 million budget shortfall, and Northside ISD faces a $100 million shortfall. Funding formulas based on average daily attendance and stagnant state dollars contributed to the situation, officials said.
Leaders of both districts said they are trying to tighten expenses and maintain competitive employee pay.
“This is probably the worst budget I’ve had to do as a superintendent because what I want to do and what we can do [for employees] are so vastly different,” NEISD Superintendent Sean Maika said.
The overview
NEISD and NISD officials said they partially blame budget struggles on lower average daily attendance, which factors into formulas used to calculate state and local funds received.
Susie Lackorn, NEISD’s finance and accounting department director, said overall student enrollment differs from ADA, which is a snapshot of how many students attend an average school day. NISD saw its ADA drop 4% and NEISD’s 13% from 2017-2023.
“If we have 57,000 enrolled, we staff and plan for 57,000 kids. But if only 54,000 show up any particular day, that’s what we get funded for,” Lackorn said.
On top of that, some parents are pulling their children out of public schools altogether. Rene Barajas, NISD’s deputy superintendent for business and finance, said NISD is seeing trends of more parents homeschooling or opting for a growing number of charter or private schools.
What it means
NEISD and NISD leaders pledged to seek more efficient ways to spend the money they have. NEISD’s 2024-25 budget approved June 17 totals $772 million, lower than the $944 million budget adopted for 2023-2024. Barajas said NISD trustees will pass the 2024-25 budget on Aug. 27.
There are no layoffs or other major cuts. Instead, districts are mainly not funding vacant positions.
North East ISD
- $13 million+ savings by not funding 156 unfilled full-time teaching & administrative positions
- 1% retention supplement for certain employees
- $40 million budget shortfall
- $6.8 million savings by not funding 127 FT positions
- 2% pay hike for all employees
- $100 million budget shortfall
Leaders at NEISD and NISD said maintaining employee morale in fiscally challenging times is vital in efforts to address their budget shortfalls.
“That’s the worst thing you can do for morale is for everybody to worry about, ‘Am I going to get the cut next year?’ That’s why we talk about reducing positions through attrition—when the position becomes vacant, we simply won’t fill it,” Barajas said.
Teachers’ unions at both school districts urged district leaders to do better with worker compensation.
NISD Superintendent John Craft acknowledged inflationary pressures weighing on employees, but he is hard-pressed to further increase pay.
“We’d love to do more; we’re just not in that position right now,” he said.
By the numbers
NEISD and NISD officials said they hope when the 2025 Texas Legislative session begins in 2025, lawmakers will consider using $4 billion available for public schools, or they will be under pressure to consider more budget cuts.
“I think [Texas lawmakers are] playing a very risky game with their school districts and their school districts’ future,” Maika said.
