By Edmond Ortiz
The Judson Independent School District is proceeding with plans to eliminate positions toward achieving a balanced budget, as well as plans to redraw school boundaries to accommodate a long-term campus consolidation effort.
Staff position reductions
The Judson ISD school board voted 6-1 April 14 to approve a recommendation to jettison 7% of teaching, auxiliary, professional support, educational aides, campus administration, and central office administration positions districtwide.
Interim Superintendent Robert Jaklich said cutting more than 530 positions will save the school district $35.1 million and help JISD to return to a balanced budget in the 2026-2027 school district. He added that the 530-plus positions represent the cutting of vacant positions and the consolidation of others.
Judson ISD overall has nearly 3,400 positions, currently, covering the six aforementioned types of positions targeted for reductions.
According to Jaklich, it is important not only for JISD to get back to balancing its budget, but also ensuring an adequate fund balance, which will continue to spiral to $26 million in 26-27 and $17 million in 2027-2028 if no staff position reductions were to take place.
However, with the recommended elimination of positions, JISD’s fund balance – presently at $52 million – would rise to $59 million next school year and $62 million the year after, Jaklich said.
District administrators said reducing the number of positions is one of several steps that they plan to take toward addressing JISD’s current budget shortfall.
But along the way, Jaklich said he and his fellow district leaders aim to ensure schools are adequately staffed, classrooms have the right student to teacher ratios, and funding efficiencies are in place for academic programs.
“We are not going to cut teachers where they are going to not be able to provide services to our students,” Jaklich said. “Our number one commitment through this entire process is to make sure that we build strong schools out of this.”
Jaklich said following these steps will go a long way toward demonstrating to JISD residents that the district is capable of improving its finances. He added many residents have told him that JISD’s property tax hike proposal failed at the ballot box in 2025 because local voters generally believe taxpayers should not be burdened with addressing budget problems in a district that is already facing challenges with student enrollment and state school funding.
“The number one answer from all the responses was, it’s not our job to pay for your debt in the school district,” Jaklich explained. “If you show us you can get out of debt, then we would love to invest our monies into something that we feel that is important to get a return on students. teachers, the district, etc.”
Board members agreed it is difficult to get rid of any number of staffing positions, with many trustees stressing that it is already hard and costly to recruit and retain quality, capable people for various roles in a school district.
Trustee Jose Macias cast the lone dissenting vote, saying he would prefer to have more time to review more data, and discuss other avenues aside from eliminating a significant amount of positions.
“We’ll do whatever we’ve got to do to make sure that we accommodate the right student population per class, but if we’re staffing at that number, a majority of them were campus-based, which means campuses are going to be impacted across the board, and I’m concerned,” he added.
School boundaries
The board also voted 5-2 to back administrators’ plan for adjusted high school boundaries, an initiative consistent with a previously approved plan to close four campuses and relocate students to nearby existing schools.
According to the new feeder school pattern, which takes effect next school year, the student population from Elolf STEAM Academy will be split between Metzger Middle School and Woodlake Hills College Prep.
With Judson Middle School due for closure, Converse Elementary students will be sent to Woodlake Hills, and Copperfield and Miller’s Point elementary students shifted to Kitty Hawk Middle School. Other Copperfield students will also be moved to Woodlake Hills.
With Crestview Elementary School accepting students from the slated-for-closure Franz Elementary campus, Crestview’s student population will feed into Kitty Hawk and Cibolo Creek middle schools.
Kitty Hawk’s and Salinas Elementary students will now go to Veterans Memorial or Judson high school. The current feeder pattern has students going from Salinas to Kitty Hawk to Veterans Memorial.
Macias and trustee Laura Stanford voted “no” on the school boundary redraw, with both saying parents who will be affected by the changes should have been given more time to at least look at administrators’ plans and provide input. Macias pressed administrators for ideas to ensure affected students have reliable transit to and from school.
Stanford said she recently met with Salinas Elementary parents, many of whom are upset about the redraw that may send their child to Judson instead of Veterans Memorial, a destination that has long anchored their plans.
Stanford added that changing school boundaries is just another reason, aside from the district’s financial struggles, political turmoil and imminent school closures, that further frustrates JISD families and drives many to find educational alternatives outside of Judson.
Stanford suggested JISD officials form a transportation solution, such as something like a carpool, to support students affected by boundary changes and encourage those parents to stick with Judson. She also recommended giving families affected by school rezoning a preferred choice of campus.
“It’s easier to keep a customer that you currently have than it is to go and win a new customer,” she added.
