SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio ISD is now facing a sad reality, one its top leader called "dire."
"I just want to make sure that everybody, the public, understands that we are in a dire financial situation," said Superintendent Jaime Aquino. "We find ourselves (here) because of where Austin has put us."
On Monday night, the school board for San Antonio's third-biggest district approved the 2024-25 budget, which reflected a $53.7 million deficit.
"Today, we're not adopting a deficit budget," Aquino said. "We do reflect what the deficit is, which for this year was $53 million."
The district is in the middle of a six-year sustainability plan, which began in 2022 to address budget concerns and help save money. General budget cuts were made across multiple departments for next year's budget , though specifics were not outlined at Monday's meeting.
"We’ve trimmed all of the fat, or close to all of it, and it’s just knowing that this has been a tough year," said Sarah Sorensen, SAISD trustee for District 1.
The district addressed budget enhancements to add a stipend provided to Martin Luther King Academy, and to keep after-school programs as is. Next year, they also plan to add certain middle-school grades back to the after-school program.
SAISD also announced 2% raises for teachers and staff overall for the 2024-25 school year.
"I personally think, in a community like ours, every single of the 44,000 students should be attending after school," Aquino said. "That's not something we can afford. The basic service of not even offering our staff (a) decent salary or that we can not provide intervention teachers and support to two-thirds of our students who are not on grade level, it’s a crime and a sin."
Aquino explained to the board and meeting attendees Monday that the district is using federal grants to supplement what the state isn't.
"I hear from families and staff and from the board, 'Don’t cut programs and services,'" he said. "We have to cut programs and service. There’s no other way. Unless Austin does something differently, there’s going to be an impact. Part of my administration is trying to protect what we call the core. For us, the core is anything that happens within the school, the school day. That’s our first priority."
Alejandra Lopez and Adrian Reyna – president and executive vice president of the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers, which represents SAISD instructors – told KENS 5 in a statement that the situation was a complicated one.
“We know that this budget cycle was particularly difficult for district leadership as we are at the end of the COVID federal relief money and because our state legislature chose not to invest in public education during the last session," they said. "Despite the challenges, we are encouraged that the board has chosen to prioritize taking care of SAISD students and staff. We support the increased investment in student mental health supports because not only has this been a priority for our union, but we’ve also heard loud and clear from our students themselves that increased support is desperately needed.
"Of course, we appreciate the pay increase for staff, but we agree with district leadership that it is not enough. We look forward to the upcoming legislative session where we can all work together to push our state leadership to adequately fund Texas public schools.”
SAISD can amend the budget as the year goes on if they need to.
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