Part of this realignment involves reassigning some staff and teachers. The spokesperson said less than 1% of 12,000 campus-based staff and 0.5% of all teachers in the district are being affected. “What we’re trying to do is relocate or try to find them a placement still within the district,” the spokesperson said. The teachers and staff were notified this week that their positions would be affected.
“We’re always trying to provide high-quality education,” the spokesperson said. “Difficult decisions are being made, but we do want to make sure that we keep our core subject teachers, that high-quality education, in the classroom.”
DISD is working with affected teachers to either place them somewhere else in the district or provide them with resources, like help obtaining certifications. “We're still providing that support,” the spokesperson said. “While this is difficult and we’re trying to be creative and sensitive, nobody wants to go through this. We are trying to provide as much support and also, if we can find them a placement within the district, that's what we're aiming for.”
Rena Honea, president of Dallas education employees union Alliance-AFT, said the district, like many others, is dealing with several factors that could be contributing to the teacher and staff reassignments. “Enrollment in the district has been going down for at least 10 years or more,” Honea said. “It’s way too expensive for people to live in Dallas because they don’t make enough with property taxes and all of that kind of stuff.” Declining enrollment in the district can also be attributed to lower birth rates over the last decade. Birth rates are expected to go back up in the next two or three years, Honea said, but it will take an additional few years for those children to end up in the public education system.
Honea said Gov. Greg Abbott is “being a bully” and choosing not to properly fund public education because he lost his school voucher fight. “Public school districts in Texas are operating in 2024 on the same amount of money they received in 2019,” Honea said. “They’ve not seen an increase at all.”“While this is difficult and we’re trying to be creative and sensitive, nobody wants to go through this." – DISD spokesperson
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So, cuts need to be made and rumors are swirling around where these will fall. “My hope is that the first place they would look at are the people that are at the administration building at 9400 North Central Expressway that make over $100,000,” Honea said. “If kids are the true purpose for our public schools, then they have to take care of those kids and put the resources where that is needed.”
Several other North Texas school districts are feeling the effects of low funding and enrollment.
Richardson Independent School District is having to consolidate and repurpose five elementary school campuses under a plan called Project Rightsize. For the 2024-2025 school year, the district has a $28 million budget deficit. The following school year will see a $50 million budget deficit. The district has lost about 2,500 students since 2019 and could lose another 3,500 students over the next five years.
Irving Independent School District announced it would be closing two campuses and the Fort Worth Independent School District said it would be cutting 133 positions to help deal with a $43.6 million budget shortfall.
The solution to all of this is simple, says Clay Robison, a spokesperson for the Texas State Teachers Association. “The best way to take care of the budget shortfalls in Texas right now, and the only way, is for the state of Texas to appropriate more funding for public education,” Robison said.
