The La Joya school district will lay off about 120 employees as part of an effort to address the district being overstaffed by as many as 300 employees compared to other districts at a cost of over $20 million annually.
La Joya trustees approved those position closures Wednesday as part of a staffing adjustment plan.
A source with knowledge of the matter speaking on background said the 120-employee estimate was probably on the low end of the spectrum for the number of possible layoffs.
Employees impacted by the closures will likely be notified in February.
“We’re going to begin speaking with our employees as soon as we can,” Superintendent Gisela Saenz said Thursday. “We want to make sure that we give our employees enough time, so we’re going to begin the communication process within the next couple of weeks.”
The plan, Saenz told trustees Wednesday, should save the district about $1.56 million by closing unfilled positions; $8.78 million by closing filled positions; and $13.96 million through “natural end of year educator turnover.”
Saenz declined to tell The Monitor whether she expects the financial situation to lead to campus closures.
According to Saenz, La Joya ISD has maintained roughly the same number of staff since 2007 despite decreases in enrollment. Lower enrollment, the pandemic and competition from charter schools all contributed to the decrease, she told trustees.
“This decline in enrollment now requires that La Joya ISD adjust staffing patterns to adequately sustain budgetary needs into the future in order to maintain current levels of service to students and employees,” she said.
Board discussion on the plan happened in executive session behind closed doors.
Trustees seemed reluctant to vote on the plan. Two of them — Anthony Uresti and Alda Benavides — ultimately abstained from doing so, though none voted against it.
“I think we are faced with a very, very tough decision, and we are needing to make that decision,” Trustee Esmeralda Solis said. “As far as I’m concerned, I think that we are on a time crunch as far as us getting this going. It’s not something that I personally want to do, but by listening to what Dr. Saenz just said and the effects that will happen if we do not move forward with this plan…”
Those effects, Saenz said, could be severe. She said not adopting the plan could lead to cuts in instruction and to student programs, no longer being able to pay raises, potentially requiring employees to contribute to their health plan, not investing in future technologies, being unable to maintain facilities, threats to the district’s credit rating and limited transportation.
Being overstaffed is not new information for trustees. This summer the board discussed a Texas Association of School Boards report that indicated the district was severely overstaffed.
At the time, the district hoped to address the issue through attrition. That strategy, Saenz said Wednesday, was too little too late.
“We have had a staffing allocation plan where we have been adjusting staffing through attrition or resignations or retirements,” she said. “However, even though we’ve been doing that, it has not really gotten us to the right number of staff. So we need a more proactive approach.”
Perhaps a touch euphemistically, Saenz described the plan as “right-sizing.”
“We feel confident that in adjusting the staffing patterns with the identified positions in this plan, we can achieve long term financial stability and ensure that there is no loss of learning or experiences to the students of La Joya ISD,” she told trustees.
Trustee has been beset by scandal in recent years, most notably the arrest of two board trustees and some administrators as part of a western Hidalgo County corruption investigation.
Faced with a Texas Education Agency investigation, the district voluntarily invited the state to intervene with a conservator or monitor in December.
Saenz said so far no conservator had been appointed as of Thursday.
