PHARR — Trustees at the Valley View Independent School District pulled the trigger on a three-pronged plan designed to reign in spending and bring the district back from a financial situation that leadership describes as unstable and untenable.
The steps, which include shuttering Valley View’s fifth grade campus, closing its in-house police department and offering early resignation incentives, are meant to address an excess in spending that has caused the district’s general fund balance to plummet by a little more than 84% over the past decade.
Interim Superintendent Silvia Ibarra said most expenditures from the general fund in recent years went toward paying for special projects, funding bond debt payments and making up for a loss in state revenue, and that the district failed to account for decreasing enrollment when budgeting.
Administrators and trustees hope the three-step solution approved Monday will stabilize Valley View’s financial situation within the next year or two and result in a minimal amount of disruption.
The district’s leadership is also pledging that the changes won’t result in any employees unwillingly losing their jobs.
RESIGNATION INCENTIVES
The administration hopes that implementing an early notification of a resignation incentive program will result in savings between $650,000 and $1.2 million.
“The potential of savings can be very large, as you can see,” Ibarra said.
Professional staff employees who submit a letter of resignation by April 21 will receive a $7,000 stipend while auxiliary staff who submit a letter by that deadline will receive $3,500.
In total, those incentives are expected to cost the district between $100,000 and $200,000, which will be paid for out of savings created by the pandemic.
It’s unclear how many people will opt into the program, although it’s limited to the first 25 full-time employees who apply.
CAMPUS CLOSURE
The district will also close its fifth grade campus at the end of the 2020-21 school year.
The campus, the administration says, is simply not cost effective and by closing it the district hopes to save about $650,000 in staffing costs.
“As we shared last time, the enrollment at the fifth grade campus continues to decrease,” Ibarra said. “We are currently about 260 students and we don’t see that trend moving up. If anything it’ll continue to decrease.”
Under the plan approved by the board, fifth graders will remain at their home campuses while teachers and auxiliary staff will be reassigned to comparable assignments at other facilities. Although trustees noted community members have expressed concern over those employees losing their jobs, Ibarra says their future with the district is secure.
“We need them,” she said.
According to Ibarra, the district will be able to close the campus, keep the people who work there and save money because of the resignation incentive program.
“It’s a domino effect,” she said. “When we pass the early incentive plan, we’re going to have staff leave because they’re going to take advantage of that. So that’s going to allow us to shift some of these individuals from the fifth grade campus into these existing vacancies. So that’s where we’re finding the savings, because we’re not having to replace everybody who’s leaving.”
Although she says there’s tradeoffs, Ibarra said the closure could be a logistical help to the community. Most districts transition students between campuses three times, she said, while Valley View transitions them five times. The closure would cut that down to four.
“That may be a convenience for parents because transitioning them so often also presents some challenges,” Ibarra said.
DEPARTMENT DISSOLUTION
By abolishing its three-officer police department the administration hopes Valley View ISD can save itself about $60,200 while maintaining or bolstering law enforcement coverage through municipal partnerships.
Under the plan the board approved, district officers are expected to be notified of their last day of service on May 7 and the department is expected to close on June 25.
Ibarra said in an email Tuesday that the department’s officers will be reassigned to other positions in the district unless they choose to pursue a law enforcement career elsewhere.
Municipal operations — either the Pharr or Hidalgo police departments — will begin sliding into that role soon after and will begin operations July 12.
Those municipal partnerships will provide the same level of service the district received from its in-house department, Ibarra said, and will likely solve some of the problems the district has experienced relying on such a small department.
“If one individual’s out, for instance, we’re already limited to some degree if there were an emergency,” she said. “So we still have to rely on the city, whether it be Pharr PD or Hidalgo PD. So the advantage — and what I want to tell the parents — is safety is our top priority and by partnering with the neighboring police departments we’re gaining the entire police department if we need them.”
The district may find further funds in liquidating the department’s assets. Valley View will likely consider auctioning off guns, cars and equipment, Ibarra said.
“Because we feel that that could bring in an additional savings to the district of $30,000, $40,000, so we’re going to be looking into that,” she said.
