Ysleta ISD Considers Loan to Cover Payroll Gap

The Ysleta Independent School District may need to borrow up to $25 million later this year to cover its payroll expenses in the event that it depletes its cash reserves as it attempts to operate under a budget deficit.

Superintendent Xavier De La Torre is considering taking out a “bridge loan” to pay district employees in August while it waits for the state’s scheduled payments.

“What happens is we receive money from the state of Texas, not necessarily for enrollment numbers, but for average daily attendance numbers. Those infusions do not happen every month,” De La Torre told El Paso Matters this week.

De La Torre said the state does not send payments to school districts in April and in August. Though the district will have enough in its reserves to pay employees in April, he said they may not have enough in August.

“In September, when the revenue comes in, we would pay back that debt and move forward,” he said.

This comes as school districts all over El Paso face financial hardships due to declining enrollment numbers and stagnant state education funding.

In June, the YISD board approved a $408.2 million budget with a $17.2 million deficit for the current school year.

In the past, the district had enough reserves to cover its expenses in the months the state didn’t send a payment but had depleted its reserves after operating under a deficit for a third consecutive year. 

De La Torre said this is partially because the state has not increased the basic allotment it gives school districts based on student attendance – $6,160 per student, which has not been changed since 2019.

Additionally, the district’s enrollment numbers have declined from over 41,500 students during the 2016-17 school year to 33,900 during the current school year. District staff expects enrollment to drop by another 1,000 students during the 2025-26 school year, according to a presentation given to the board Feb. 12.

“It had less to do with decisions made here, and more to do with the decline in enrollment, with the significant increase in inflation. Those two factors made it difficult to give the board a balanced budget,” De La Torre said.