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The Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District is hopeful that an enrollment bump this year will help it avoid a budget deficit.
Prior to two board workshops this week, Board President Cynthia Gutierrez said Friday that the district was eying a $2 to $3 million budget deficit.
Last July, facing a 3,000-some student drop since the 2019-2020 school year tied to the pandemic, the district worried about finding itself up against a “financial cliff.”
New estimates, she said, place current enrollment at about 31,000.
That still falls short of the 32,412 students the district had in 2019-2020, but, with a post-pandemic enrollment course correction noted by some other Rio Grande Valley school districts, PSJA says it’s in a rosier position.
“I’m very happy that we avoided a deficit, for several reasons,” Gutierrez said. “We don’t have to even consider firing anybody or making any sort of negative changes, which is always a concern.”
Gutierrez noted that the district has avoided parting with employees hired through federal pandemic-related ESSER funding and will avoid dipping into its fund balance by avoiding a deficit.
“We don’t have to access the money that we have saved for a rainy day,” she said.
Gutierrez attributed the recovery as being a result of quality education at the district, the end of the pandemic and an aggressive marketing strategy.
I’m very happy that we avoided a deficit, for several reasons. We don’t have to even consider firing anybody or making any sort of negative changes, which is always a concern.
Claudia Lemus Campos, the district’s director of communications and marketing, described her department’s efforts to trustees earlier this week: a strategy that includes print, digital, TV and word of mouth advertisement.
“I think that we are visible. If you drive by the tri-city area, you see our ads. I think it’s played a role,” she told The Monitor Friday.
PSJA leadership has, for at least a few years, emphasized programs aimed at drawing students into the district.
Campos said the district continues to do so, and that it’s paid off. She’s — tentatively — optimistic over the enrollment outlook.
“It’s certainly looking better,” she said. “I don’t want to get too excited, but based on the two board workshops that were held this week, it’s certainly looking brighter.”
According to Gutierrez, the district still has room to improve. She said there’s a significant sum of truant children at PSJA ISD; she hopes to pursue their attendance more aggressively in the future, noting the state’s funding emphasis on average daily attendance rather than enrollment.
“It doesn’t help you to have enrollment if they don’t go to school, because you don’t get paid if they don’t go to school,” she said.
