YISD approves budget with no teacher layoffs for 2026-27 school year

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The Ysleta Independent School District voted 5-1 to approve the budget for next school year. They also have a $12 million budget deficit for the year and hope to balance it by the end of the school year.

Superintendent Xavier De la Torre said that the main goal for the board was to save teacher jobs and didn't want to lay off anyone this close to the school year.

"It may be imminent. I may be back here in March telling people that we're going to have to reduce the force," said De la Torre. "But I would rather spend every dime in that fund and to make sure that everybody that's currently employed that left the school district believing that they were employed at the end of May to come back and start the school year."

The district will have an unassigned fund balance of around $4 million at the end of the year, and hopes for more funding from the state to help out next year, despite state funding being a large reason for their budget deficit. He said they could have handled the budget better throughout the years as well.

De la Torre said that compensation for employees and healthcare benefits has gone up by $72 million since 2014, but funding from enrollment has gone down by about $100 million in that same span.

"Could have handled that differently, could have tried to work a little harder to be a little bit more conservative relative to pay raises and health and welfare benefits," said De la Torre. "Everything else, the state owns."