EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — With just under two weeks before classes resume, the Socorro Independent School District (SISD) looks to “continue great progress” heading into the 2025-2026 school year.
SISD listed several developments that they believe indicate the district is progressing.
That includes the district adopting a balanced budget for the upcoming school year, identifying James P. Vasquez as the district’s choice for permanent superintendent, preliminary results from the 2025 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) demonstrating that the district increased its number of A-rated schools while decreasing C-rated campuses, and more.
These results come on the heels of SISD being under the guidance of Texas Education Agency (TEA) conservators and leadership of an interim superintendent in Vasquez.
However, SISD officials said there are still lingering challenges and work to be addressed this school year.
“The district adopted a 2025–2026 operating budget on June 24 that includes a $7 million surplus in the debt service fund. The general and child nutrition funds were adopted as balanced budgets. While this is a positive step, the district still faces challenges related to fund balance, enrollment declines, and rising costs. We remain committed to financial stability, transparency, and thoughtful long-term financial planning,” SISD’s Chief Financial Officer David C. Solis said in a statement sent to KTSM.
Just last spring, the district projected to have a $42 million budget deficit for the 2024-2025 school year, and based on data presented at a board meeting in February of this year, the district had not adopted a balanced budget since 2017.
SISD was able to reduce the deficit by taking several cost-cutting measures. Including laying off teachers and staff, axing program offerings at elementary schools, cutting back on campus and district department budgets and more.
Rosie Perez, president of the West Texas Alliance (a union representing teachers and staff across SISD), said that because many teachers took SISD’s pay incentive to either voluntarily resign or retire, only about 30 teachers were actually laid off by the district.
Earlier this year, SISD’s Board of Trustees had approved a measure to lay off approximately 300 teachers and staff to address its multi-million dollar deficit.
Perez said that her members were pleased that SISD balanced its budget and that they have a projected surplus in its debt service fund. However, she added that they remain cautiously optimistic about the district’s direction because of existing challenges.
“I think for us and our members it’s cautious optimism,” Perez said. “There’s things that have been pressing that need to be addressed and need to be worked out before teachers start any type of really celebrating.”
Perez said that despite the raises teachers finally received with the influx of state funding, her members are still concerned that the cost of their health insurance has continued to increase and may end up pricing out some staff. She also said teachers are still concerned about whether they will be provided with the classroom supplies they need.
To add to that, Perez said there are still “sour” feelings among her members due to the cost-cutting measures SISD made over the past year.
“There’s still some feelings about some of the teachers retiring, even though they might not have been ready to do so, just because of the situation. There were increases in class sizes. There was the loss of fine arts teachers at the elementary level that will now have to be taught by either the regular classroom teacher or somebody else on campus,” Perez said.
All in all, Perez said her members feel optimistic about the district’s current leadership, which is succeeding several predecessors who were involved in scandals.
“They feel that Mr. Vasquez has done a great job in leading the district already,” Perez said. “They feel that he’s handled the budget crisis (well) and that he has been transparent, forthcoming and that he’s very approachable,” Perez said.
“I have also also heard from my members that they are very happy that these new school board members which were elected back in May, have come in ready to work, ready to make hard decisions, ready to listen, ready to be proactive in making sure that the district gets back onto the right course,” Perez said.
However, SISD is still in the process of finalizing its appointment of Vasquez as its superintendent. At a board meeting on Wednesday, July 24, the board voted to approve a motion for the district to submit an application to the TEA for a certification waiver that would allow them to officially appoint Vasquez.
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