Austin ISD will not adopt its official fiscal year 2019-20 budget until June, but trustees had a discussion about the preliminary budget at a workshop April 8. About $29.4 million in cost cutting and savings outlined in the 2019-20 budget are to make up an anticipated budget shortfall of $65 million and to help support increased spending towards district priorities, according to AISD Chief of Business and Operations Nicole Conley Johnson. "We all know we've been experiencing declining enrollment, we've lost over 6,000 kids in the last five years; increasing recapture is putting enormous budgetary pressures on the district; and we were utilizing our reserves as a means to balance our budget,” she said. The district continues to plan its budget despite uncertain legislative actions that could impact it in the future. House Bill 3 was approved by the Texas House on April 3, and while it is likely to help district funding, is can undergo further changes as it is evaluated by the senate, Conley Johnson said. The district is creating the budget assuming no changes in funding, she said. “HB3 presents us with an opportunity to pick up a substantial amount of new revenue across the district,” she said. “We have hopes that it will reach the governor for signing but we don't know. There are still a lot of things that aren’t certain.”