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Austin ISD trustees confront $181 million preliminary budget gap and weigh deep cuts, property sales and staffing changes
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…
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