The El Paso Independent School District Board of Trustees continued to specify jobs for “rightsizing” in a special session vote.
The 5-0 vote held on Monday, June 15, at headquarters was the next step for the district to identify a bevy of one-year contract positions to be cut to address the spending of an estimated 89% of its budget on salaries since 2005, leading EPISD to admit it lacks sufficient cash reserves and prompting a “course correction.”
The 94 positions approved job cuts in the initial financial exigency vote in early June were reduced to only 55 in today’s session with the district’s budget set to be approved in a regular meeting of the board on Tuesday, June 16, at 5 p.m. at 1014 N. Stanton St.
“This board has been very committed to making sure that students are at the center of what we’re doing,” said EPISD Board of Trustees president Leah Hanany. “We’re advocating for all our students including our special education students. The vote today is a signal that the board is trying to mitigate the impact to our students in the classroom.”
Currently, the district also faces a $52.8 million shortfall in the EPISD budget from last year’s cycle, February through June 2025. The current drop-off for next year’s budget is $42 million.
Hanany noted the highest number of proposed positions cut by the board will be 55, but she specified “at will” positions can be cut without board approval.
What EPISD schools were included in the cuts?
The special meeting also was a chance for EPISD to take aim at one-year term positions in schools across district that included probationary contracts in schools such as Andress, Austin, Chapin, Bowie, Coronado, El Paso, Franklin, Jefferson and Irvin High schools.
A number of elementary and middle schools also saw positions cut, which came as no surprise given the recent letter from the district to the Texas Workforce Commission outlining the impacted departments.
“This conversation tonight was about contract employees and not about others we’ve talked about in the process. We’re going to continue to work with team members should and when positions come open through attrition,” said superintendent Brian Lusk.
Among the positions cut for the 2026-27 school year were teachers, facilitators for the district planetarium, school testing coordinators, physical education instructors and coaching positions.
The school psychologist positions in the district were not cut prompting an emotional response from the crowd.
“This vote shows they’re truly focused on students and especially those with special needs,” said Cammaron Trujillo, a school psychologist for the district whose job was spared from the cuts. “This is bittersweet because we lost very good friends and great educational diagnosticians that worked very hard and supported our kids. Seeing them needing to be relocated was heartbreaking.”
The mass layoff claim filed by EPISD to the Texas Workforce Commission was a total number of 250 jobs that has not been finalized.
Kristian Jaime is the Top Story Reporter for the El Paso Times and reachable at Kjaime@elpasotimes.com.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: EPISD votes to approve cuts to one-year term contracts amid exigency
Reporting by Kristian Jaime, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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By Kristian Jaime, El Paso Times | USA TODAY Network
