NEISD must pay ‘Robin Hood’ and cut teaching positions amid shortfall

North East Independent School District President Shannon Grona, left, and Superintendent Brian Gottardy listen to speakers during a board meeting held June 22, 2017. The board approved the $555.9 million budget for the 2017-18 school year. But the fact is that the district is facing a shortfall in the future because of inadequate school funding. less North East Independent School District President Shannon Grona, left, and Superintendent Brian Gottardy listen to speakers during a board meeting held June 22, 2017. The board approved the $555.9 million budget ... more Photo: Edward A. Ornelas /San Antonio Express-News Photo: Edward A. Ornelas /San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 26 Caption Close NEISD must pay ‘Robin Hood’ and cut teaching positions amid shortfall 1 / 26 Back to Gallery

San Antonio’s second-largest school district is struggling with a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall that will force it to cut teaching positions even as it starts paying into the state’s “Robin Hood” fund that aids poorer districts.

Sharply falling enrollment is driving both developments at the North East Independent School District, whose board was briefed this week on plans to eliminate more than 100 teaching positions through attrition.

It’s part of $12 million in expected spending cuts next year prompted by an estimated two-year budget shortfall of $29 million.

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Yet the district’s property values continue to steadily rise, so the resulting wealth per student calculation soon will require it to pay part of its property tax revenue — an expected $7.7 million for the 2019-20 school year and more than $33 million the following year — into the state system that recaptures funds from property-wealthy districts and redistributes them to property-poor ones.

Officials placed the dismal projections, released in advance of the board’s May budget workshops, squarely in the shadow of last year’s legislative session where state lawmakers failed to fix the Texas school finance system, long criticized as antiquated and underfunded.

NEISD is hardly alone in grappling with budget shortfalls. San Antonio Independent School District this week said its largest-ever decline in enrollment is contributing to a two-year shortfall of $31 million. Its board is preparing to work out a budget that will include cutting teacher and staff positions.

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South San Antonio and Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISDs both are considering holding tax ratification elections, or TREs, this year to address the same problems.

The following two school years, NEISD is anticipating “really scary” single-school year shortfalls of $20 million and above, said Brian Moy, NEISD’s executive director of finance and accounting.

The district attributed much of its student losses to competition from charter schools.

With state aid making an ever-smaller percentage of the district’s funding, NEISD’s enrollment declines won’t have the same severe financial impact in future years if Texas doesn’t change things, Moy said.

“That’s because were going to get to a point soon where our revenue bucket for state aid is going to get to be so small that there’s not going to be anything left for the state to take away,” he said.

Read the whole story at ExpressNews.com or in Thursday’s Express-News.