Another North Texas school district cuts staffing, increases class sizes amid budget shortfalls
Northwest ISD cuts staffing, increases class sizes
Northwest ISD says it hopes the decrease in staffing will come through resignations and retirements, but it can’t promise there won’t be any layoffs.
JUSTIN, Texas - Northwest ISD is the latest North Texas school district making plans to cut stuff to deal with budget shortfalls.
What we know:
Last month, the school district — which serves 14 cities in Tarrant, Denton and Wise counties — approved the recommended changes to decrease full-time faculty and staff and increase class sizes. It would save the district about $5.7 million.
The approved plan includes not hiring any new full-time staff at the elementary level and a decrease of about 60 full-time employees at the middle and high school levels.
The plan also includes a 15% decrease in staffing for athletics and fine arts, saving an additional $1.1 million.
The district hopes the decrease in staffing will come through resignations and retirements, but they can’t promise there won’t be any layoffs.
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The positions the district will reallocate and reassign include not just teachers, but also administration and support staff.
The school board also approved cutting several programs, including AVID, a college preparation program for students who would be first-generation college students.
The approved increase in class sizes includes grades 2-4 moving to 24 students per class. That’s up from 22 students per class.
The middle schools and high schools are increasing to 180 students a teacher sees per day. That’s up from 165 students per day.
During Monday’s board meeting, it was shared that 18 employees have submitted an early resignation; most of them were retirements.
Some other ideas up for discussion to reduce the budget deficit include cutting back on the number of middle school field trips, reducing outsourced programs like groundskeeping and custodial work and cutting campus budgets by 10%.
What they're saying:
As seen with budget-cut decisions in other school districts, it was emotional news for students in the program.
"Still kind of in shock, emotional," said parent Jill Brumley. "This little girl, my daughter, is an overcomer. No matter what is thrown her way, she just takes it one step at a time. And I tell her all the time, ‘You’re going to be a world-changer girl.’"
What's next:
The district hopes to have all reassignments and reallocations done by April 7.
The Source: Information in this article comes from Northwest ISD and Monday's school board meeting.