Socorro ISD trustees run budget workshop to close $8.4 million gap; public warns of layoffs

Socorro Independent School District trustees on Thursday conducted a hands-on workshop to test ways of closing an $8.4 million preliminary budget gap for fiscal 2025–26, while staff and board members discussed cuts, one‑time transfers into the health fund and the possibility of asking voters for additional local revenue.

The board workshop, introduced by David Solis, the district’s chief financial officer, used a scenario “budget activity game” that let trustees adjust revenue and expenditure assumptions. Solis said the group would work from a starting deficit of $8,400,000 and test options such as enrollment assumptions, pay‑scale changes, reductions to campus and department budgets, reduced work days and device‑replacement timing.

Why it matters: trustees must adopt the final budget in June and decisions this spring shape whether the district will reduce staff, shift benefits costs or seek new local revenues. The workshop highlighted trade‑offs for sustaining operations, restoring the health fund and avoiding repeated short‑term borrowing.

Solis told the board that one of the assumptions participants used was a projected enrollment decline of 772 students, which he said equated roughly to a $7,000,000 revenue drop; the workshop template used an attendance baseline of 94.5 percent. He also presented a device‑replacement option for about 45,000 student devices at approximately $800 each spread over five years, which the district modeled as…