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EPISD is facing a deficit of $33.8 million in FY 2026, including $3.2 million for reopening Lamar Elementary.
The Emperor of the Board, Leah Hanany, has absolutely no plan to avert a TEA takeover, bond-rating downgrade, or Chapter 9 bankruptcy so when Mark Ross invited her to debate Trustee Daniel Call and former Mayor Dee Margo on ABC-7 XTRA this past Friday, she sent Alex “Vader” Cuellar in her place.
You see, Cuellar is an attorney and a moderately capable speaker, so Hanany naturally expected him to handle himself well under intense questioning.
Instead, Cuellar made the epic mistake of announcing at the 44:02 mark that he and his Maoist Coalition on the Board are “not gonna raid the fund balance,” their only practical option for avoiding financial collapse.
The fund balance, also known as the rainy day fund, will stand at $105 million at the close of this fiscal year, enough to fund operations for 70 days.
Since Cuellar claims the Board will not deplete that reserve, it will be forced to increase the EPISD property tax to the highest rate not requiring voter approval. That would be about 3.78 cents, yielding an additional $11.4 million, which is $22.4 million short of closing the budget gap.
At that point, the only way to prevent bankruptcy would be to lay off teachers and staff.
Calculating that each teacher, on average, costs the district about $70,000 in compensation and benefits, the Board would have to lay off the equivalent of about 320 teachers to stay afloat.
At the May 27 Special Meeting, Cuellar suggested the district could sell real estate to solve the financial crisis but he has no idea what is saleable or how much time would be required to complete any sales. The Board certainly cannot gamble on this notion while setting the budget in the coming days.
Anyone who watched ABC-7 XTRA should not be surprised, as Cuellar demonstrated he cannot grasp the financial reality of the district he serves. Like Hanany and Loveridge, his concerns are entirely political and more focused on social engineering and virtue-signaling than on saving EPISD from oblivion.
This past Tuesday, 20 citizens appeared before the Board to speak against the proposal to fire Superintendent Diana Sayavedra, who is without a doubt the best financial manager of EPISD in a generation, with only a single speaker supporting her termination.
Yet Emperor Hanany will again try to fire Sayavedra at the June 3 meeting, only days before budget discussions and 28 days before the beginning of FY 2026.
Make no mistake about it. Hanany, Cuellar, and Loveridge are a menace to our community and if they convince the new trustees, Sutton and Osterland, to join their Maoist Coalition, teachers and staff will be laid off by the end of next fiscal year.
Please write to the Board of Trustees and tell them to stop the financial chaos and retain our wonderful Superintendent: lhanany@episd.org; jloverid@episd.org; acuellar1@episd.org; msutton@episd.org; rosterland@episd.org; vbeals@episd.org; decall@episd.org
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