Steven Poole, executive director of the United Educators Association, compared Fort Worth ISD’s budget crunch to a traumatic medical situation.
Administrators need to triage the district, he said, before it loses too much of its lifeblood — students.
The school board and administrators took a first step toward that after a three-hour closed door discussion this week. Trustees unanimously approved a resolution supporting the elimination of district positions.
However, the resolution was not immediately available to the public and district officials did not share the number of affected positions nor a dollar amount for how much will be cut from the budget.
“We have uncontrolled bleeding in our student enrollment. What is the focus of our district to stop the bleed, stop the enrollment loss and actually turn it around?” Poole said.
The district faces an almost $44 million deficit for the 2024-25 school year.
Superintendent Angélica Ramsey emphasized the cuts will not affect teachers and that “a small number” of positions will be eliminated. The majority of the changes are a result of the expiration of the district’s $261.6 million in federal pandemic relief dollars, she said. The funds were the third round of relief dollars that the federal government issued over a three-year period.
The latest federal dollars funded 379 positions, among other initiatives. The funds expire Sept. 30.
During a Feb. 13 news conference, Ramsey declined to provide specifics on how many positions and dollars will be slashed. Additional figures will be released Friday after administrators inform affected employees, she said.
“Because we are talking about a smaller amount of employees, it is best we wait until tomorrow so that we can communicate with them individually,” Ramsey said.
Ramsey described this round of cuts as different from the district’s 2022 layoffs that saw $1.6 million in central office jobs eliminated.
The superintendent expects enrollment to continue to decline.
Since 2016, Fort Worth ISD has lost nearly 1 in 5 students. That loss translated into the district seeing its state funding drop by $123 million since 2019.
During fall 2023, 70,675 students were enrolled. The district had 71,978 students in fall 2022.
Since 2017, Fort Worth ISD has lost an average of 2,436 students per year.
School closures are on the way, but administrators have been quiet about that issue since the school board approved a resolution examining capacity in September.
A Fort Worth Report analysis found 48 schools are less than 70% full. A study examining campus capacity and an assessment of school conditions are expected to be released in the spring.
Poole of the United Educators Association, an organization of North Texas educational employees, said Fort Worth ISD needs to attract parents and students back to its schools. However, that work will not be easy.
“We need clear leadership, and we need a focus on our parents, our students and our staff to keep them in our Fort Worth schools,” Poole said.
School board President Camille Rodriguez and Ramsey blamed the Legislature for Fort Worth ISD’s financial issues after lawmakers did not increase public education funding in 2023.
“Honestly, we wouldn’t have the deficit in the same way if we did not have legislative inaction,” Ramsey said.
Teacher Amanda Iney wanted Fort Worth ISD trustees to think of students and their families as they made cuts.
The future of Fort Worth depends on the right decision, she said.
“We owe that to our children,” Iney said.
Jacob Sanchez is an enterprise journalist for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or via @_jacob_sanchez. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
