MISD Superintendent: "Hundreds of Vacancies" 4/24/12

Shelley Childers
CBS 7 News
schilders@cbs7.com
April 24, 2012

MIDLAND, TX - The Midland ISD School Board met to discuss the 2012-2013 budget Tuesday night, but the meeting quickly became more about the state of the district as they struggle with growth.

"It looks a little bit better just because of student growth right now," said MISD Superintendent Dr. Ryder Warren.

Their number crunching workshop began on a high note.

Last year MISD lost $8.6 million to state budget cuts, but this year they have generated a new $5 million simply from new student enrollment and that cuts their losses for next year to just $3.6 million.

"Where we can gain resources is in the area of student attendance and we grew right at 700 kids this year and so we'll see additional revenue," said Chief Financial Officer David Garcia.

With that student growth, however comes more demand on the system.

Dr. Warren says almost every support staff department has vacancies.

"Food services crew, custodial crew, our maintenance crew, our bus drivers."

And it's not just one or two openings; they have 44 custodial vacancies, 74 food service vacancies and 107 transportation vacancies.

"We are hundreds of positions down right now," said Warren.

In addition to filling those spots, the board would also like to give a small raise to every MISD employee next year, hire four high school counselors, two testing coordinators, one crisis counselor and do all of this without raising the tax rate.

While they began their meeting on a high note, they ended it on a low; their preliminary budget is over by about $1.8 million.

The board will meet four more times throughout the summer to get updates as the final budget numbers become more real.

Superintendent Dr. Warren promises he will bring the board a balanced budget by August.