An Austin school district advisory committee tasked with finding ways to cut millions of dollars in spending is recommending the district close up to 15 schools, redraw school boundaries and eliminate magnet programs.

The options are among 43 recommendations the Budget Stabilization Task Force will present to school board members Monday night, as the district faces a deficit for the third year in a row, is on track to deplete its reserves within three years and faces further enrollment declines, which translate into less state funding.

“Our recommendations are difficult and challenging and get to the heart of addressing the sacred cows,” Robert Thomas, a chairman of the task force, told the American-Statesman. “I have faith that the right thing will be done and we’ll see better academic outcomes for all our kids and not just for our kids who have parents who can drive them to magnet schools or have the economic means to put them in private schools.”

If all options are put in place, the district could save at least $60 million, with many of the savings continuing annually, based on a Statesman review of the potential cuts. The committee didn't include dollar figures for some items, but Thomas said the $60 million figure sounded accurate.

Among the recommendations in the 39-page report:

• Close up to 15 schools, among the district's 130 campuses.

• Redraw school attendance zone boundaries.

• Eliminate the district's three magnet programs in favor of magnetlike classes on all secondary campuses.

• Eliminate property tax exemptions for historic properties.

• Increase district rental fees for facilities used on weekends and evenings to market rates, providing a sliding fee scale for nonprofits with an education focus.

• Eliminate sixth-grade classrooms in elementary schools, moving those students to middle school.

• Reduce staff turnover by 25 percent, saving money on training.

• Change election requirements for victory from majority to plurality of votes, eliminating board runoff elections.

• Trim staff in the central office to conform to staff ratios of peer districts.

• Locate some central office departments in underused schools.

Unpopular ideas?

The advisory committee, made up of staff members, parents, a high school student and others, worked more than 30 hours over nine months to develop a menu of budget reductions, revenue options and funding priorities, some of which could be put in place in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 budgets.

Shuttering schools and eliminating popular magnet programs would draw opposition from parents and community members. When such options have been suggested in years past, parents rallied to save schools and students marched to school board meetings. When Austin school officials considered closing nine schools in 2011, more than 1,500 parents crowded into meetings in one week to protest. Trustees were quick to toss the plan. School closures have been raised several times since, and in 2017, administrators moved away from immediate plans to consolidate up to six schools.

The task force's report states that unsustainable amounts of money are tied up in fixing aging, underenrolled schools, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in bond money being spent over decades for Band-Aid fixes, instead of going toward learning. A district facilities plan estimates $4 billion in district facility improvements are needed.

Though it doesn't detail which schools should be closed, the task force report indicates the consolidations should increase the socioeconomic and cultural diversity at the schools. Closing 15 campuses, the number of elementary schools with fewer than 300 students, could save the district up to $18 million, plus millions in ongoing maintenance costs. While consolidating underenrolled campuses might be the easiest way to address declining enrollment, the task force recommended redrawing school boundaries to ensure that shuttered campuses are not solely on the east side of the district.

“There is a long list of things the district must consider so that historically disadvantaged communities are not disproportionately impacted by closures," Thomas said. "It has to be a districtwide holistic assessment."

Thomas said task force members thought about concerns those communities would have and built in such safeguards to minimize negative effects on the district. For example, if the district shutters magnet programs, it must reinvest the money currently spent on those programs across the district to provide strong and comparable academic opportunities at all middle and high schools.

Thomas said the recommendations also aim to provide a better education for all 80,000 students in the district, instead of a few.

“It’s about every single one of the kids," Thomas said. "Every single one has to have the realization of the promise of education.”

Administration proposal

The task force recommendations come one month after the district's administration laid out 51 cost-cutting ideas in a separate budget proposal last month. Several of the administration's options were pulled from ideas the task force was weighing. While some options, such as school closures, overlap, the administration's proposal lacked the task force's detail and rationale for cuts. The task force did not include some administration proposals, including increasing teacher-to-student staff ratios. Task force members said they didn’t want to cut any programs that directly affected classrooms.

The task force also is in favor of adding services, such as tuition-based child care and after-school programs, to more district campuses.

The task force also asked the district to review the effectiveness of programs, including interventions, specific steps to help boost a child’s academic performance and special education, to ensure consistency and equity in delivering the services.

"It's important we continue to keep all options on the table so we can ensure student outcomes," said board President Geronimo Rodriguez, who received the task force report Friday evening. "This year we have the opportunity to align our board priorities to the budget. Next year and the year after will be more challenging. We are going to make hard decisions."