ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — On Wednesday night, Ector County ISD looked to make tough decisions after Tuesday night's board meeting discussion on the school district's budget.
According to ECISD, the district faces a $24 million budget deficit for its 2024-25 school year.
This comes on the heels of the Texas Legislative session where lawmakers did not increase funds for public schools.
ECISD Superintendent Dr. Scott Muri told NewsWest 9 what plans the board has made to make ends meet.
"The recommendation to the board that was made last night was that we use fund balance to take care of about $12 million worth of that debt. That would put us in a bit of a compromising situation with our fund balance, but the other opportunity is to put our students at risk and that is something that we don't want to do," Dr. Muri said. "Our plan right now is to use $12 million in fund balance and then we will find $12 million worth of cuts that we will make as an organization in order to meet that $24 million budget deficit.''
Dr. Muri told NewsWest 9 that teachers salaries will not be affected.
However, the school board is looking at possibly cutting after school programs at three magnet schools.
As for the new program with the University of Texas Permian Basin and Midland ISD, Dr. Muri said that would not be touched since it's under the university.
Other discussions on the table for battling the budget deficit include increasing class sizes and cutting contracted services for technology.
The school board will make a final decision on next school year's budget by the end of June.