Austin ISD trustees confront $181 million preliminary budget gap and weigh deep cuts, property sales and staffing changes
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Summary
Trustees reviewed a draft FY2026–27 budget that starts from a $181 million gross shortfall and discussed guardrails, four scenarios of cuts and revenue strategies — including $50 million in property monetization and large personnel and program reductions — while administration pledged line-item detail before the May and June adoption steps.
Austin Independent School District trustees spent a work session on April 7 reviewing a draft preliminary FY2026–27 budget that the administration said begins with a $181,000,000 gross net-change and will require significant reductions or revenue actions to close the gap.
Superintendent Segura opened the session and framed the problem as driven primarily by declining enrollment and falling property values, saying the district has “arrived at a point … where we can no longer protect all things” and that hard decisions will be required to preserve core student services. Katrina Montgomery, the district’s chief financial officer, repeatedly emphasized that the $181 million is a draft, gross starting point that would be reduced by specific strategies, property monetization and vacancy savings.
Why it matters: trustees said the choices will affect classroom programs, extracurriculars and staff, and they pressed the administration for conservative enrollment assumptions and line-by-line detail. Trustee leaders said they want a clear board consensus on how low the unassigned fund balance can fall — they discussed returning to a 17% floor after temporarily lowering it in recent years — and insisted on naming proposed reductions rather than leaving them as high-level, unnamed strategies.
What the administration presented: Montgomery laid out four scenario mixes (A–D) that begin at the $181 million net-change and then incorporate combinations of campus vacancy savings (about $9–10 million in scenarios shown), departmental collapsed positions (included in the strategy buckets), and $50 million in property monetization from three properties. Depending on the scenario, the administration projected unassigned fund-balance outcomes generally ranging from about 15% to 17% and said some short-term borrowing may still be required because of cash-flow timing.
Numbers and mechanisms discussed: the CFO said department vacancy savings total roughly $16 million (campus and department combined) and that a portion of department vacancy savings would be converted into an estimated $23.1 million line inside the strategy bucket. Trustees discussed potential reductions including 15% cuts to non-staffing campus budgets, departmental non-staffing reductions, changes to secondary teacher allotments, stipend reductions, adjustments to nursing and student health services, reductions to campus safety monitors (not SROs), conversion of some librarian positions, scaling or pausing portions of instructional initiatives and targeted changes to technology spending (moving away from districtwide 1:1 device provisioning).
Trustee concerns and process requests: trustees urged the administration to define what “equity-driven” cuts mean in practice, to prioritize protecting programs that are hard to rebuild later, and to avoid overreliance on one-time real-estate proceeds as a long-term solution. Several trustees called for conservative enrollment and property-value assumptions so the district does not overproject and then face midyear staffing or service reductions. Trustees also asked for an earlier notification milestone (May 7) for staff who are likely to be impacted so the district can support transitions if an approach is settled.
Administration timeline: Montgomery said the preliminary budget will be formally presented on April 23, the recommended budget on May 21 and adoption on June 18, with the administration running biweekly budget work sessions, ad hoc committee meetings and community engagement sessions between now and adoption.
Representative quotes: “Katrina Montgomery, chief financial officer, said, “This is a draft preliminary budget,” and walked trustees through the $181,000,000 starting point and how vacancy savings and property monetization move that number. Superintendent Segura said the district has “arrived at a point … where we can no longer protect all things,” framing the need for difficult decisions.
What’s next: the board and administration will continue iterative refinements, present an itemized list of proposed reductions, and hold community outreach and ad hoc meetings in April and May ahead of final action in June. The board adjourned at 7:57 p.m.
