El Paso ISD board adopts 2026–27 budgets, approves $30.7M year‑end amendment and confirms major personnel reductions

The El Paso Independent School District board on June 16 approved year‑end budget changes and adopted the 2026–27 fiscal plan after presentations from district and outside finance staff.

Trustees voted unanimously, 5‑0, to approve a budget amendment adjusting projected fiscal‑year 2025–26 expenditures to reflect administration's updated estimates: a general‑operating fund increase of approximately $30,727,794 and a food‑and‑nutrition fund increase of $108,144. Trustee Sutton moved the amendment after Deputy Superintendent Bates and a Dallas ISD deputy chief financial officer explained the changes as necessary to make the district's financial statements match expected year‑end expenditures and to avoid audit findings or negative ratings.

The board then adopted the 2026–27 budgets by a separate 5‑0 vote. Trustee Sutton moved adoption of the proposed amounts presented in the meeting: $534,895,135 for the general operating fund, $5,357,230 for debt service, and $37,621,221 for food and nutrition. Deputy Superintendent Ramos told trustees the district had reduced expenditures by about $57 million in the prior weeks and that, with the proposed budgets, the district projects it will maintain roughly a 38‑day fund balance by the end of next fiscal year assuming no additional unplanned expenditures.

Personnel cuts were central to the plan. Administration told the board the bulk of the $57 million in reductions came from position reductions and vacancy eliminations. Deputy Superintendent Ramos and Chief Bates said the district's initial aggregate reductions totaled roughly 851 positions across campus and central office categories; administration described the campus impact as roughly an 8% reduction at the school level and a roughly 20% reduction at central office (figures include a mix of vacant positions, at‑will separations and other categories). “Eighty percent of everything you're going to adopt today is in people,” Ramos said in the meeting, explaining that payroll comprises the district's largest recurring expense.

Trustees repeatedly pressed for more granular, month‑to‑month transparency. Trustee Sutton asked for a dashboard that shows position counts, filled/vacant status and payroll month over month; administration committed to producing a template and a public facing dashboard beginning in August and to adding more detailed line‑item explanation where large function increases (for example, facilities, data processing, election costs) appeared.

Board president Hanani framed the budget votes as a choice between maintaining district operations and managing a difficult fiscal picture. Trustees asked administration to bring ongoing updates and to avoid adding unbudgeted expenditures that would increase the district's deficit or draw down fund balance without board review. Bates said any future budget amendment that added expenditures would reduce fund balance unless offset.

What happens next: administration said it will continue to close positions where feasible and present the monthly template and outward‑facing dashboard at the August meeting. The tax rate is projected to fall modestly next year due to statewide tax‑rate compression; the formal tax‑rate adoption will occur in August, administration said.

Votes and motions: The amendment and the budget adoption were each approved 5‑0. The board recorded motions on the public record and corrected a transposed number during the budget motion before approving the package.