Austin ISD lays out conservative FY26–27 budget planning, projects enrollment and $171M reduction target
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Summary
Austin ISD leaders told trustees they will plan conservatively for FY26–27, protecting teacher staffing while projecting lower adjusted enrollment and identifying candidate reductions and one-time monetizations to close a projected gap of roughly $171 million.
Austin Independent School District officials on Tuesday urged trustees to prepare for deeper budget reductions in fiscal 2026–27 while protecting classroom staffing and offering a timeline for detailed proposals.
CFO Katrina Montgomery told the board the presentation was a fiscal forecast — not a preliminary or recommended budget — and asked trustees to align on guardrails that include equity-driven cuts, considering long-term impacts and centering teacher and staff voices. "This is not preliminary budget. This is not the recommended budget," Montgomery said, adding the workshop aimed to "align the board on student-centered priorities and secure clear direction on budget strategies." (Katrina Montgomery.)
Montgomery said the administration will staff teachers using a higher projected enrollment (69,550) while planning other budget lines on a lower adjusted enrollment (66,768) to provide a cushion for volatility. She cited recent declines and volatility in enrollment and in property values as drivers of the growing deficit. "We are being ultra conservative now," Montgomery said when describing a decision to model a 5% property-value decline to avoid surprises.
Board members pressed for specifics on how the district chooses its KPIs and warned against measuring for the sake of measuring. Trustee Singh asked for clearer targets and asked the administration to show the calculations behind the enrollment projection and the district's fiscal math. Administration staff replied they will provide a set of recommended KPIs and datasets and invited trustees to redline binder materials and provide feedback through a timeline and board notifications.
Montgomery presented candidate reduction strategies the administration has discussed with an ad hoc board group: monetizing three properties (estimated about $56 million), department vacancy consolidations (about $20'$22 million), higher insurance deductibles (about $2 million), and a first-year campus reductions bucket Montgomery estimated at $17 million. Even after those steps, she said, the district still faces roughly $76 million of additional reductions to reach the $171 million target.
Trustees pressed for a public timeline and earlier opportunity for campuses to weigh in about reductions that would affect operations. Montgomery said the ad hoc committee would meet again and that a fuller information session would follow in April (she identified an April 6 ad hoc meeting) so administration could return with itemized reduction options.
On enrollment methodology, Executive Director Victoria O'Neil described how the administration projects continuing cohorts by rolling cohorts, uses a four-year average for entry grades, and adjusts projections with transition-registration confirmations; she said roughly 37,000 registrations were confirmed as of the latest snapshot. O'Neil emphasized that average daily attendance is increasing proportionately, which helps budgeting, but acknowledged the district's long-term enrollment trends (especially transitions such as fifth-to-sixth grade and eighth-to-ninth grade) will require focused strategies.
What's next: administration will continue work with the board ad hoc committee, refine KPIs and projection math, and return to trustees with detailed reduction options in April and at upcoming information meetings.
(Reporting based on remarks and slides presented by Katrina Montgomery and Victoria O'Neil during the Austin ISD board work session.)
