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Aledo ISD Legislative Update - Aledo ISD Budget Information and Call to Action for the March 5, 2024, Primary Election

Aledo ISD Legislative Update - Aledo ISD Budget Information and Call to Action for the March 5, 2024, Primary Election

February 20, 2024

Today, we have two critically important topics to discuss with you all that are related to our budget and budget cuts and voting in this very important primary election that will greatly affect Aledo schools. Please take the time to read this email in its entirety.

Aledo ISD Budget We are so disappointed to have to write you today regarding the Aledo ISD budget and planning for upcoming budget cuts. As you know, we wrote to you in 2023 about the state withholding adequate school funding and the implications for our district’s budget and the budgets of school districts across the state. The budget deficit that Aledo ISD faces now and into the future is a serious and dire situation. 

This situation has been caused by the historic inflation that all of us have been dealing with (estimated at 19% since 2019) partnered with the fact that our state leaders, with our governor leading the charge, prioritized taxpayer-funded private/home school vouchers over funding for your Aledo ISD schools. This happened even though enough legislators opposed vouchers to vote them down repeatedly for decades and again in 2023.

Important details about the AISD budget: 

  • Aledo ISD cut about $1.1 million from the current (2023-2024) year budget at this time last year by primarily reducing non-staff operating budgets 10% across the district.
  • The AISD budget has seen record inflation costs of non discretionary items since the 2019-2020 school year such as fuel (188.95% inflation), utilities (55.53%) and insurance (329.43%).
  • We are now looking to cut approximately $3.8 million from our budget for the 2024-2025 school year. 
  • Approximately 80 percent of our budget expenditures are personnel-related, so, while we are focusing on minimizing the impact on the classroom and student programs, it will be impossible to cut enough from non-staff operations alone to take care of the shortfall.
  • We have managed and used the district’s financial reserves when needed, but that fund is now very close to the minimum amount required by district policy.
  • Based on data available at this time, we expect no additional funding for the 2025-2026 school year, and we expect that budget will require further cuts. 

Below is a list of items we are discussing in relation to our budget. No decisions have been made at this time. What is under consideration includes:

  • Further cuts to department and campus operating budgets
  • Larger class sizes/increasing average class size
  • Reduce staffing positions through attrition
  • Reducing instructional support for classroom teachers
  • Reducing academic supports/interventions & extensions for students
  • Changes to transportation services
  • Reducing professional learning opportunities for staff 
  • Reducing staff travel for student programs and staff development
  • Freezing salaries
  • Reducing staff work calendars
  • Reducing contests, events and/or competitions and student travel
  • Freezing the addition of new academic and extracurricular programming for students 
  • Reducing academic and extracurricular program offerings

We are focusing on using our limited resources to support the greatest needs of our students, staff and schools. Simply put, our schools can no longer do more with less.

We will continue to communicate with you as we have more information to share regarding our budget.

Bearcats-Vote-Generic-WShadow

Bearcats VOTE! Your Aledo public schools are on the ballot starting TODAY! If you have been in our district for even a couple of years, you likely already know that we always remind you about voting! We find it crucially important that you vote in ANY election, so we want to remind you that Early Voting for the March 5, 2024, Primary Election started today! Early voting offers you 11-straight days (yes, including Saturday and Sunday!) to vote, and then Election Day is on Tuesday, March 5 (polls open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.). For many years, we have held early and election day voting at the AISD Administration Building, and there is rarely a wait to vote during early voting! 

Bearcats vote early voting card

We highly encourage you to make your plan now to VOTE EARLY! The decisions made by those on this Primary Election ballot affect you DAILY as evidenced by the budget shortfalls discussed at the top of this email. See the entire voting schedule below.

Thank you for the ways you are #AllinAledo in how you support our schools, staff and school children, provide important feedback, make a plan to vote, and so much more! Have a great week.

 

 

 

All In,

Forrest Collins, Board President - fcollins@aledoisd.org
Jessica Brown, Board Vice President - jbrown@aledoisd.org
David Lear, Board Secretary - dlear@aledoisd.org
Jennifer Loftin, Trustee - jloftin@aledoisd.org
Jennifer Taylor, Trustee - jtaylor@aledoisd.org
Zach Tarrant, Trustee - ztarrant@aledoisd.org
Hoyt Harris, Trustee - hharris@aledoisd.org
Dr. Susan Bohn, Superintendent - sbohn@aledoisd.org