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6 things to know: What’s next in SISD’s plan to lay off 300 employees [1]
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Date: 2025-02-27
Whispers and murmurs filled the packed Socorro Independent School District board room last week as trustees voted to lay off 300 employees, eliminate elementary fine arts programs and increase class sizes in an effort to cut the district’s budget by $38 million.
“This is your history,” an audience member yelled at the board, breaking the near silence as attendees filed out of the room disappointedly.
A week later, many in the community are still reeling from the decision that will upend the lives of hundreds of educators working for El Paso’s second largest school district.
“The reaction has been very heartbreaking from our members,” said Rosie Perez, president of the West Texas Alliance. “I do have quite a bit of members who are single parents, so this has been a very stressful time for them, because they’re not sure if they will have a job for the new school year.”
Read More Socorro ISD board approves plan to lay off about 300 employees The vote came after a meeting filled with pleas from teachers, parents and students – and warnings of a looming fiscal disaster.
The West Texas Alliance is a local public education association serving employees in the Socorro, Clint and Ysleta school districts.
The proposed layoffs come as the once growing district faces a series of financial blunders that depleted its reserves and management issues that led the Texas Education Agency to appoint two conservators to oversee the district last year.
Here is what we know so far:
What SISD employees are being laid off?
Administrators said they will be reviewing the new staffing recommendations approved by the board and begin making adjustments.
The areas that will be affected by staffing changes include:
Central office
Career and technical education program
Elementary fine arts program
Pre-K and Kinder Collaborative programs, which allow a pre-k or kindergarten teacher to work together with a special education teacher in a single classroom.
“Fine arts will continue to be embedded into students’ days and delivered by their general education teacher as was done prior to the addition of elementary fine arts specialists,” SISD’s Chief Communications Officer Daniel Escobar told El Paso Matters via email Thursday.
He said the district’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math, or STEAM, and fine arts academies will still have designated music and art teachers.
Escobar said the district is reviewing its career and technical education program and noted that “in some instances, the setting may change.” He didn’t provide further details.
The district also plans to:
Restructure staffing for academic programs with low student participation.
Increase elementary school class sizes from 22 to 24 students per teacher.
Increase middle school class sizes from 24 to 26 students per teacher.
Change staffing formula for high school and middle school positions that were previously staffed above what was required.
TEA conservator Andrew Kim said during a news conference last week that the district will look at performance and enrollment when deciding what positions to cut.
“Enrollment is not all equitable at every grade level, approximately 3,000 students are graduating from the school district, but you have about 2,500 students coming in at the kindergarten level,” Kim said. “So, we’re gonna have to really look at where deficits are in terms of enrollment.”
The district will decide who will be laid off by March 7 and notify employees by April 1.
The last day of school for students is June 5. The district has teacher work days scheduled for June 6 and 7.
Hundreds of parents, teachers and graduates of Socorro Independent School District showed up to the Board of Trustees meeting to protest the recommendation to cut fine arts programs and lay off an estimated 300 teachers and staff, Feb. 19, 2025. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
Will laid off SISD employees receive assistance?
Vasquez said SISD already offers to pay for employees to get certifications needed to fill other positions in the district.
He said employees facing layoffs can take advantage of this to take a different position in the district or work as substitute teachers.
“We’ll pay it if you pass and could be an area of need for us so we can keep you. If, for whatever reason, they’re unable to find a position, we certainly will take them on as a substitute teacher next year,” Interim Superintendent James Vasquez said during the news conference.
Once employees earn their certification, the district will reimburse the employee for the cost of the exam, Escobar told El Paso Matters.
He said special education and bilingual certifications are in high demand.
Perez said the West Texas Alliance is compiling resources and information for its members on getting a new job and managing retirement funds.
“We are putting together a workshop for any of our members that have been affected that will cover resume writing, cover letter writing and information with regards to their retirement, 401k, that type of stuff, where they could get information as to what the options are that they would have.”
Veronica Hernandez, president of the Socorro American Federation of Teachers, said the union will also provide information on retirement, assistance on finding a new job and other resources as part of its regular member services.
Under Texas law, school employees who lose their jobs due to layoffs may qualify for unemployment insurance. Eligibility for benefits is determined on a case-by-case basis by the Texas Workforce Commission.
School employees who retire or resign may not qualify for unemployment insurance.
Teacher contracts usually run from the start of the fiscal year to the end. At SISD, that period extends from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025.
The district will send employees their last paycheck of the school year June 27.
Will teachers and staff laid off from SISD be able to get jobs in other districts?
Vasquez said he plans to work with superintendents from other nearby school districts to help find laid off employees new jobs.
“We want to work with them; see if they’ll partner with us. See if we can find some of these folks who may be losing their positions (and) find them a job elsewhere,” Vasquez said.
But Hernandez worries there may not be enough vacancies in nearby school districts to employ everyone who will be laid off.
“It’s gonna be really hard for anybody to really have any openings, because the financial situation is the same all across the state, not just here,” she said.” So unless you have a principal that needs you personally and has an opening, it’s going to be extremely hard to find a job here locally.”
El Paso ISD, the largest district in El Paso County, has close to 190 job openings listed on its website — over 160 of which are for teachers.
Ysleta ISD, the third largest district in El Paso, currently has 52 vacant positions — most of which are for certified teachers.
Teacher 12-month contracts for positions that begin in the next school year are typically approved in April or May, though vacancies can be filled most anytime during the year.
Many local districts, including El Paso, Ysleta and Canutillo ISD, are also reducing their workforces to address budget deficits by eliminating positions left vacant after employees resign or retire.
The Socorro ISD Board of Trustees meets to hear public comment and vote on a proposal to cut fine arts programs and lay off about 300 teachers and staff, Feb. 19, 2025. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
Why is SISD laying off an estimated 300 employees?
SISD has been operating under a budget deficit since 2016, meaning it has been spending more than it receives in revenue, and has had to dip into its reserves to cover its expenses.
The district experienced rapid growth for several years and expected that to continue, when trustees set the budget for the 2023-24 school year. Instead, enrollment declined and the district brought in less revenue from the state based on student attendance.
That year, the district also spent nearly $30 million from its reserves to cover the cost of developing specialized academies, replacing turf at athletic fields, building a parking lot at Montwood High School, and give employees pay raises and a one-time $1,000 retention stipend.
Between the 2022 and 2025 fiscal years, the district’s fund balance plummeted from $116.4 million to $26.1 million.
Now the district may not have enough funds to pay its employees and continue operating next school year if it doesn’t make drastic changes to its budget.
So far, SISD has saved $25 million by cutting its operating budgets and reducing its workforce through attrition on next year’s budget, but still needs to save another $38 million.
Even after laying off 300 employees and making the changes approved by the board, the district will still be left with an $8 million deficit.
What if the SISD board hadn’t approved the layoffs?
Without making any changes to its budget, SISD leaders said the district would likely have to declare financial exigency — the equivalent of bankruptcy for academic institutions.
Some trustees warned that if the district doesn’t take action, it may be taken over by the TEA who would have the power to appoint a new superintendent and school board.
The TEA took over El Paso ISD in 2012 after investigations found that poor governance by the administration and school board had allowed a cheating scandal involving the manipulation of standardized test scores.
The TEA also took over the Beaumont Independent School District in 2014 after it declared financial exigency.
In both cases, the TEA removed the elected school boards and replaced them with an appointed board of managers.
Michael Hinojosa, one of the conservators appointed by the Texas Education Agency to Socorro ISD, tells the Board of Trustees that hard decisions will be necessary to correct the district, May 15, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
TEA conservator Michael Hinojosa suggested that he would have overturned the board’s decision if they voted against the layoffs.
“I was willing to give them another meeting, but at some point, I was going to have to make a tough decision. Luckily, I didn’t have to do that but I was prepared to because there’s so much at stake,” Hinojosa said during a news conference following the vote. “I had gotten permission from the commissioner to do whatever I needed to do, but I decided to let them do it.”
Where does the SISD superintendent search stand?
District officials said a decision won’t be made until after the May 3 school board elections.
SISD has four school board races on the ballot. Only one trustee, Paul Guerra, filed for reelection.
“There’s going to be changes on the board, and we don’t want the old board hiring the new superintendent,” Hinojosa told El Paso Matters in January. “I know that the search firm will be ready to engage in the spring.”
Hinojosa said he expects the board to name a finalist by July.
The district is holding a series of community meetings to hear what parents, employees and students want out of SISD’s future leader.
Socorro Independent School District parents, students, faculty and staff meet at Americas High School to discuss their vision for the district and what they want in the next superintendent, Feb. 26, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
The district held its first two meetings at the District Service Center on Tuesday and at Americas High School on Wednesday.
Some of the attendees at Wednesday’s meeting said they wanted the district to focus on addressing student mental health, offering fine arts programs and extracurricular activities, and improving communications with the public.
Many also said they wanted a superintendent who understands El Paso’s culture.
“We want our next superintendent to also be involved in the community and also understand our El Paso culture. That way, if anything comes up, they can go ahead and take care of whatever needs to happen based on our community and how we need it to be solved,” SISD employee Kat Gutierez said during the meeting.
The remaining meetings will be held at 6 p.m. at the following locations:
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https://elpasomatters.org/2025/02/27/socorro-isd-layoffs-budget-shortfall-jobs-whats-next/
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