The El Paso Independent School District is clawing its way back to financial stability after adopting a budget with a much lower deficit than previously estimated Tuesday – just weeks after declaring financial exigency.
The EPISD board voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a $534.8 million budget with a $4.3 million deficit for the 2026-27 school year, which will be paid by the district’s reserve fund. The budget, a 1% decrease over the previous year, doesn’t include pay raises for most employees and increases health insurance premiums for some employees.
The vote came a day after the board elected to lay off 55 employees as part of a cost-cutting plan that included the financial exigency declaration, which allowed the district to terminate employee contracts in the middle of their term to reduce payroll expenses by $40 million…