By Jack Orloff

Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said Austin ISD is going to plan more conservatively and deliver a balanced budget this school year.

The remarks came during a public conversation with Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith on Monday.

Elizalde reiterated the necessary cuts will start at Central Office to help balance the 2022-23 budget.

“We have to model what we expect,” she said. “At the end of the day, we have to work on having as small a Central Office as possible. We can't say teachers are the heart of our district, and then our actions do not match that.”

For the current school year, Austin ISD is running a $62 million budget deficit and has dipped into its cash reserves for the past five years. The bond rating for the district may be at risk if it continues.

"We are 3,000 students short, so we are going to make a projection for next year that will be far more conservative, which means we will have reductions in teacher positions, but that will come from attrition,” she said. “No teachers will lose their jobs. We have to resize ourselves for the number of students we serve, and that will help us save." 

The conversation shifted to how Austin ISD became one of the districts with the fewest number of positive COVID cases in Texas.

"We followed the science," she said. "Science is what the science is, so when people want to talk about other studies that show x, y, z, didn't show results, what we have never seen is a study of the layering of our protocols put in place and how effective it is."

Smith asked how Elizalde felt about the state’s response, often punishing school districts for enforcing safety measures.

"There are some things I don't control, and I'm not going to worry about things I can't control,” Elizalde said. "I said I'm going to have masks in our schools, and we did. There is a reason why we are local school districts. I am going to respond to our local community, which doesn't mean it's going to be everything everyone wants."

Smith then asked about whether there are enough teachers of color at Austin ISD.

“There is plenty of research that says kids have to be able to see folks that look like them, particularly kids of color,” she said. “There is also sufficient research that shows that professional development and having the right teacher, regardless of what their background is, is also equally important. I think it's a both/and, not an either/or.”

The district aims to grow the cultural proficiency of all its teachers through training, she said. 

“We all have to recognize that we all have biases, and we have to be aware of them and learn them so we can adjust,” she said. “We need to be reminded of what it feels like to be a student.”

Elizalde then took questions from the audience on if the State of Texas is not willing to provide more funding, should school districts be going to the federal government instead.

Elizalde responded by saying yes.

“We need to figure out funding, it's a big issue,” she said. “The challenge is the courts have said that the system we have right now, while unfair, is legal.”