Fort Bend Independent School District’s $18 million deficit could be an opportunity to work with employees and strengthen the district while still achieving a balanced budget, one union official has suggested.
Anthony Lacsamana, a senior field organizer for the Fort Bend Employee Federation, said the district could “accomplish a lot more” by working with federation members to find money-saving solutions rather than leaving rank-and-file school employees out of the process.
The Fort Bend Employee Federation represents an estimated 1,900-2,000 FBISD employees.
Lacsamana said a recent e-mail from FBISD Superintendent Timothy Jenney outlined a problem that has been “hanging over people’s heads” for a long time.
In the e-mail, Jenney warns of budget challenges that are “much more serious than ever before” and said that although the district is not planning on job loss, he is “sure there will be reassignments which must take place as we shrink the depth and extensiveness of our operations. “
The e-mail said that employees would be told of the strategies near the end of February.
Lacsamana said he sees several areas where the district could save money, and says representatives of the federation have been working closely with administrators and Board of Trustee members on ways to resolve the situation.
Lacsamana cited several money saving options, such as eliminating the use of paid outside consultants and using experts already employed by the district to solve issues.
He also suggests reconsidering the proposed $24 million Global Science and Technology Center.
“How about investing that money into our existing schools and new schools we are building so they become green schools and we can recover money as we go along,” he said.
District representatives have not yet responded to questions from FortBendNow concerning the future of that project.
“This district doesn’t always act in the best interest of the employees they pay lip service to it,” said Lacsamana. “If the district were to give the employees representation or a seat at the table when they were working out some of these problems, we could accomplish a lot more by collaborating together.”
