Faced with a mammoth $55.3 million budget deficit, La Joya ISD dismissed 175 employees as part of an operational overhaul this semester aimed at righting the district’s incredibly poor financial position. 
Clues of significant human resources changes in the district have been evident for weeks, occasionally showing up in the form of angry public comments at board meetings or board votes for things like program changes.
Superintendent Marcey Sorensen, who the state appointed to lead the district in February, has said since virtually the beginning of her tenure that the district would be in for significant, uncomfortable changes in order to rectify its finances.
Just how significant and uncomfortable those changes would be remained unclear until a board meeting last Friday, when Sorensen’s administration laid everything out in a presentation.
The district reduced its deficit to $10.4 million.
In part, it did so by doing things like cutting stipends, reallocating federal ESSER money, changing its calendar and eliminating redundant purchased services.
Mostly, however, the district cut its deficit by cutting positions.
“The way you truly make a dent in your budget when almost 80% of your budget is human capital is by reducing human capital,” Sorensen said last Friday.
In her presentation Sorensen described a human resources operation at the district that was essentially broken — lacking efficiency, organization, clarity and accountability.
The district closed a total of 528 positions.
Lots of that process was relatively painless. The district closed most of those positions through steps like attrition or shutting unfilled vacancies, which meant for the majority of the closures didn’t result in someone losing a job.
Lots of people did lose jobs though, namely those 175 individuals Sorensen’s presentation described as “impacted.”
“That’s the number I think everybody has been waiting for,” she told the community. “The number of impacted employees is 175, and I don’t say that lightly. I say that sadly. I say that with a really heavy heart. But we knew for years and years and years and years that we were overstaffed.”
Sorensen described employees who fell into that unfortunate category as being employed in departments that included transportation, child nutrition and custodial services. They included administrators, some of whom were employed at central office where Sorensen “found significant numbers of inefficiencies or redundancies within departments.”
“There just wasn’t role clarity,” she said.
There were some marginal bright points.
The district managed to avoid losing the majority of its federally funded ESSER employees, for whom funding expires this year. That category of employees was particularly bloated compared to surrounding districts, and Sorensen expressed concern over those posts early in her tenure.
Sorensen also said other employees found new positions at a job fair the district hosted. She’s hopeful the district can, eventually, bring back other employees the district cut.
All of the budget work and all of the tough choices gave La Joya ISD what Sorensen called an “honest budget.”
“I am proud that we are at an honest place with our community in terms of our funding,” she said.
The staffing changes occasionally drew criticism. Changes to the district’s allocation of nurses sparked an online petition from the La Joya American Federation of Teachers chapter and several emotional public comments.
“We strongly oppose the idea that campuses must choose between having a nurse assistant and other necessary items for students,” the petition says. “We understand the financial difficulties faced by the district, but this is a time for solutions that do not impact the health and safety of our students.”
La Joya’s not alone in facing a budgetary challenge this year. Districts around the state are struggling, and others have implemented layoffs as well.
La Joya’s deficit, though, was abnormally large for a district of its size. It dwarfs deficits any other Rio Grande Valley school district is currently facing.
How did the budget get so backwards in La Joya?
Sorensen described a variety of fiscal challenges: the district’s been overstaffed since 2011, its enrollment is falling, it’s not receiving additional funding from the state, and it’s been inefficient in terms of staffing.
La Joya, Sorensen said, failed to address those issues — particularly staffing issues — for years.
She referenced an abortive staffing reduction plan from last year. The administration recommended a plan that included layoffs, the board approved it but, ultimately, the district didn’t go through with it.
Sorensen said those sorts of staffing decisions are hard to commit to.
“Everyone of these individuals has a family, has bills to pay, has a life that they’re attempting to support,” she said. “So it’s a really tough decision that superintendents and boards have to make. And I think, again, with the mismanagement of previous boards, it wasn’t something that they were willing to do.”
Sorensen’s said since March that she expects rectifying the district’s budget to take more than one year.
That hasn’t changed.
“I think we’re going to have to keep looking at the same things I keep talking about. Role clarity, inefficiencies, academic return on investment or just return on investment…” she said. “The other thing that we’re going to eventually have to have the conversation about is enrollment. And we’re gonna have to talk about if we have lost X number of kids in the last five years but have not adjusted our staffing formula at campuses in the way that we should be addressing it — we’re gonna have to have those conversations.”
