AISD Approves Sweeping Districtwide Cuts, Keeps Librarians

Close to midnight on June 18, after almost seven hours of public hearing and debate, Austin ISD trustees voted to adopt the proposed $887 million budget for the 2026-2027 school year with one amendment: that every school in the district will now keep a full-time librarian.

AISD faced a $181 million budget deficit projection and the task to get that number to zero in next school year’s budget by the state’s end-of-month deadline. The consequence of not passing a balanced budget could be state takeover and loss of locally elected control.

The long list of painful cuts that followed include closing 11 schools, eliminating over 550 positions across the district, increasing some class sizes, halving some teachers’ planning time, cutting bilingual and special education stipends, defunding Communities in School at some campuses, and ending neighborhood bus transportation for middle and high schoolers in favor of centralized “hub” stops, reducing 46.5 bus driver positions.

“I think we should have put up a bigger fight,” Jessica Meza, math teacher at Northeast Early College High School, said of the campus-level cuts.

And despite an earlier commitment to not reduce librarians, AISD proposed that 23 smaller schools have only a half-time librarian on campus to save $977,500.

Minutes before the vote, Trustee David Kauffman raised a last-minute amendment, requiring Superintendent Matias Segura to temporarily cover the cost of keeping librarians using the district’s fund balance – savings reserved for emergency use – until Segura identifies the close to $1 million in replacement cuts by August.

Debate followed over the choice to prioritize librarians over any other cut, and whether it’s wise to draw from AISD’s already low fund balance – closing out the current school year at only 10% of the total budget – when the district may end up needing those funds next year. For instance, if more families leave the district than anticipated, that would result in decreased state funding. 

“I know our enrollment projections are too optimistic. Our budget is going to be balanced for one month until school starts,” Trustee Arati Singh said. “We need to have as much cushion as we can. I would not use the fund balance as the crutch.”

Trustee Candace Hunter agreed that fiscal responsibility, and alternative things they could save like school bus transportation, are also vital. At the same time, she and five other trustees voted to keep librarians.

“Out of this misery must come some joy,” Hunter said.

Thursday night, trustees also approved Segura’s contract as AISD superintendent through 2030. Segura opened the discussion noting that in a previous draft of the contract, he would have been granted an extra $1,500 bonus for each D and F-scored school that rises to a passing accountability rating. Those bonuses are now stricken from the contract. 

One speaker during public comment had called those superintendent bonuses “insensitive and inappropriate” at a moment when the district is firing employees and cutting salaries. “There are so many people in this district that deserve bonuses,” Trustee Kathryn Whitley Chu echoed.

Segura acknowledged how destabilizing school closures and the budget process have been, but emphasized that “getting through this budgeting process, as difficult as it is … requires stability.”

The trustees agreed, unanimously extending Segura’s superintendency. Hunter told her colleagues that in her experiences with different superintendents, “Every time another superintendent came in, it was very destabilizing.”

The board also approved the closing Becker, Dawson, Ridgetop, Sunset Valley, and Widén elementaries and the land around Bedichek Middle School as surplus properties. The district plans the sale and lease of four closing school properties for an estimated $15 million each, which must be successful next year to maintain the balanced budget.

Sunset Valley and potentially Dawson are being recommended as simple sales to contractors, Bedichek and potentially Dawson as long-term leases, and Becker, Ridgetop, and Widén to be leased while remaining under district ownership.

The 11 school closures, saving the district about $20 million toward reducing the $181 million budget deficit, are basically paying for the $17 million in new costs to implement the state-mandated turnaround plans, Singh pointed out. “It was almost a one to one,” Segura confirmed.

The extension of the superintendent’s contract and costly turnaround plans come when AISD is facing heightened risk of state takeover, which would likely result in the Texas Education Agency replacing Segura and the trustees with state appointments.

AISD is additionally at risk of takeover in the event that its 1882 partnership application for three middle schools is ultimately denied, and the campuses receive a fifth consecutive F score when letter grades are set to release in August.

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