AMARILLO, TEXAS --
Amid one of the worst budget crisis in state history, the Amarillo ISD Board of Trustees finalized the district's budget Thursday evening for the upcoming school year.
AISD anticipates an $11.6 million dollar loss in revenue, which represents an 8.5 percent state funding cut. The reduction will be partially offset by about $5.2 million in Federal education jobs money and an additional $1.2 million in one-time revenue. It had to come up with $6.4 million in budget cuts.
"We knew from the start that we would all have to share some of the pain with the state shortfall, so we spent the last six months preparing for the cuts by developing a plan that would sustain the district for two more years while minimizing the harmful impact on the classroom," said Superintendent Rod Schroder. "When we started this process, if you remember, AISD was projected to lose $29 million. That was the worst case scenario, it was a big amount of money, so clearly coming back to a one time cut of 11.6 and the second year being able to recoup some of that loss, is for us, you know, better. It's a better scenario than we thought."
He also said no teachers will be cut, but some vacant administrative positions will not be filled.Two other important factors have positioned AISD to financially weather this storm: 1) leadership from a fiscally conservative school board that has balanced the needs of taxpayers with the needs of students, and 2) support from the community in 2008 when voters increased the district's revenue without raising the actual tax rate.
The finalized budget includes the following reductions for the 2011-2012 school year:
Decrease in employee health insurance contributions by the district- $2,800,000
Reductions in funds available for department/school budgets-
(over-time, travel, etc…) $1,375,000
Reductions in non-teaching staff through attrition-
(12 custodians, 2.5 administrators,
3.5 counselors/diagnosticians) $725,000
Reductions in contracted services-
(copiers, Medicaid billing, etc…) $300,000
Total Expenditure Reductions- $5,200,000
"We as a staff will face some daunting challenges ahead as resources shrink and academic standards rise, but I am confident our staff will meet the expectations," Schroder said. "We've received less money than most districts for about five years now, so we'll just continue to do our best to put our students' needs first using the resources we have."
AISD is a property-poor district and has been funded at lower levels of revenue per student since the Legislature changed the school funding formulas in 2006. Generally, 70% of the school districts in Texas receive more money per student than AISD. While the funding inequity has created great financial strain for AISD the last five years, lawmakers are taking into account the wide funding disparities when allocating cuts to districts.
