EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The Board of Trustees for Canutillo Independent School District voted to make district-wide staff and program cuts during Tuesday night’s board meeting to address its multi-million-dollar budget deficit.
In a statement, CISD’s superintendent Dr. Pedro Galaviz said in part:
“Due to years of inadequate state funding, inflation and rising operational costs, Canutillo ISD is experiencing a budget deficit of $5.8 million. Over the past two years, we have implemented multiple cost-saving measures, including administrative reductions and operational cutbacks, in an effort to avoid directly impacting our schools. Unfortunately, we have reached a point where further reductions are necessary, and this includes a Reduction in Force (RIF) that will affect some of our dedicated employees.”
The District Administration was tasked with identifying cost-saving solutions and returned to trustees to present 11 areas to discuss and act on to soften CISD’s financial burden. Those include:
- Central Office Department restructuring
- Career and Technical Education Department restructuring
- Library program redesign
- Counseling program redesign
- Secondary program offerings redesign
- Campus reorganization and restructuring for elementary and secondary campuses
- Elementary music program redesign
- Nursing and health services district wide program chance
- Deanna Davenport Elementary campus closure and consolidation
- Pre-K program elimination
- Montessori program elimination
The board opted to preserve the counseling, pre-K, and Montessori programs along with Deanna Davenport Elementary.
“These campus-based decisions will create a surplus in staffing, which the district hopes to address through attrition,” Gustavo Reveles, CISD’s communication director, said.
District officials said the decision to make cuts was difficult, but necessary to address the current financial standing of CISD.
“The options presented for consideration were selected based on the level of impact they would have on instruction. While we did not want to present any of these options because they all represent a positive impact to our students and staff, we had to make a decision based on the financial burden the state has placed on us,” Reveles said.
Reveles said other factors impacting CISD’s financial situation include rising healthcare premium costs, a decrease in enrollment, and a shift in state funding formulas.
These program changes will go into effect next school year. The district is unable to say how many employees will be affected at this time, but estimates the number is a couple of dozen.
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