AISD board floats idea of school consolidations to cut costs amid $100M+ budget deficit
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Amid a budget deficit that has ballooned to more than $100 million, the Austin Independent School District Board is floating the idea of school consolidations as a way to cut costs.
On Friday, AISD published a Board Bulletin update addressing budget recommendations and strategies that were presented to the board during its March Regular Voting Meeting.
According to the bulletin, Superintendent Matias Segura said the goal would be to identify campuses that would potentially be affected by consolidations by Fall 2025, then consolidations would happen for the 2026-27 school year.
The district is working to fill a budget deficit of $110 million. In February, AISD implemented a few new strategies to fill it, including a hiring and spending freeze and the sale of some real estate. The bulletin noted that since those strategies have been in place, the district is "seeing a significant drop in spending year-over-year." Those will remain in place until the end of this school year.
The bulletin posted on Friday said that the March meeting included two budget-focused presentations: The Gibson Cost Savings Audit and a general Budget Update, and school consolidations were a "major topic" during both conversations.
Consolidations were listed as the top cost-savings opportunity in the Gibson Audit, according to the bulletin. The bulletin said AISD currently has more than 95,000 seats for students, but nearly 25,500 of those are empty. Consolidating schools could potentially save tens of millions of dollars over time, per the audit.
The board noted in the bulletin that difficult decisions would have to be made to minimize cuts that will impact the student experience.
"As we face increasing costs and decreasing funds, budget conversations are increasingly focused on minimizing cuts that will impact the student experience (i.e. cutting programs, services, teacher planning time, etc.) and planning for difficult decisions about operating with fewer, more well-resourced schools to help protect our quality of education," the bulletin said.
It also noted that the AISD administration will move forward with "robust community engagement" that includes developing a process and tool to assess which campuses may be considered for consolidation and what will drive those decisions.
According to the bulletin, the Gibson Audit, which began in August 2024, identified up to $63.1 million in potential cost-saving opportunities. Other than consolidations, those include eliminating portables, optimizing master scheduling, and reducing senior management from Central Office. The board said it will take a deeper dive into the audit in the future.
The AISD board also got an update on the 2022 Bond, which includes 25 campus modernizations, security improvements, and athletics projects, according to the bulletin. Details about the bond projects can be found on the AISD website.
The board will next meet for its Board Information Session on April 10.