The Weslaco school district is seeking to address a $15 million budget shortfall for the current year that leadership attributes to its previous superintendent drastically overestimating enrollment figures.
Former superintendent Dino Coronado contends, however, that the board was well aware that the district was shooting for an ambitious enrollment goal and that federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief money, or ESSER funds, will address the shortfall that was built into the budget.
Current district leadership says the current average daily attendance, or ADA, from which districts draw much of their funding, stands at 13,972.
The district budgeted to have an enrollment of 15,700, leaving it with a shortfall of some $15.54 million.
Staff hired after the budget was approved in July, Interim Superintendent Richard Rivera told his board Tuesday, are not included in the budget. Those hires may equate to another unexpected million dollars in expenses.
Rivera says all that equates to the district facing “hardcore problems” with the budget, though federal ESSER monies allocated during the pandemic appear poised to solve many of those problems.
The district is also planning other cost-savings measures.
Rivera described the budget situation to The Monitor Thursday as a significant but surmountable problem.
“I’m working on trying to find ways to increase revenues and decrease the budget. But in the end, I think we’re gonna come out OK,” he said.
Some of those budget decreases include reducing expenses on travel, furniture, utilities and overtime, placing the hiring of 10 new staff and the purchase of $1 million in software on hold, and reductions in payroll expenses through attrition while replacing retiring staff with less costly hires.
Also, the district will close its Career and Technical Education Early College High School program, which Rivera describes as unsuccessful. Students and staff will be funneled to other campuses, and that closure is projected to save the district over a million dollars.
Rivera hopes to bump up revenue with an optional flexible school day program that should increase ADA and by increasing the collection rate on property taxes.
Federal ESSER funds, however, will likely wind up covering most of the shortfall.
None of that should have come as a surprise to trustees, Coronado, the former superintendent, told The Monitor Friday. He said the budget was built with the possibility of a shortfall in mind.
“We had an ambitious goal with enrollment, ADA and staff salary increases,” he wrote. “We had set aside the shortfall amount in ESSER as a fail-safe in the event we didn’t hit our ADA mark. All that was presented to the board during our budget workshops, which were all broadcasted live.”
Coronado stood by his financial planning for this year.
“We also knew going into the 2023-24 school year that we would have some staff turnover due to a higher rate of staff attrition. We also built and planned the budget with an emphasis on teaching and learning. It’s better to invest in people rather than a program,” he wrote.
Trustees were not pleased Tuesday to receive the financial news.
Marcos De Los Santos, who acknowledged Coronado describing the district’s enrollment goal as ambitious over the summer, suggested a review of the district’s intake procedures.
Board President Jacky Sustaita described the 15,700 ADA goal as “obviously” inflated and asked for more communication between administration and the board about enrollment numbers for the next budget.
Rivera said Thursday that he felt Coronado made a good faith error in that number, although he did so against the advice of his business department.
“I don’t think it was done maliciously,” Rivera said. “I just think he figured enrollment was going to grow. I think he was just trying to balance the budget, because the budget was not balanced.”
At least some on the board, however, obviously felt deceived.
“By the looks of this, people are playing with numbers. Presenting us with false information or what have you,” he said. “And, I mean, this could be very alarming. If we didn’t have the ESSER money, what would happen?”
Trevino said he felt blame couldn’t solely be aimed at Coronado. Others, he said, should be held accountable too.
Rivera contended that district personnel in the business office disagreed with the numbers being presented to the board and didn’t indicate anywhere else fault should be.
Trevino did not seem swayed.
“To me, that’s not justifiable,” he said. “We can’t sit here and say ‘Well, that guy did it, he’s gone, and he’s the one that’s gonna take the blame.’ To me, somebody else has to be accountable for this. We cannot continue to operate this district with that culture.”
