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By Friday, the trustees of the Judson Independent School District will have met for long hours four days in a row.
The unusually rapid pace of meetings began Tuesday evening with nearly six hours behind closed doors with the board’s new financial consultant.
When they returned to the dais late Tuesday night, trustees voted for a long string of changes to the budget without publicly stating the specifics or noting how much it would reduce Judson’s budget deficit.
Normally, when school boards discuss the budget, district officials go line-by-line through a public presentation.
Judson’s official public budget presentation is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, but it was unclear if Judson’s finance department will have time to incorporate the newly adopted changes into next year’s budget before trustees vote on it.
In addition to meeting for more than six hours on Tuesday night, trustees and district leaders reconvened for more than two hours on Wednesday to finish discussing Tuesday’s agenda, giving staff very little time to adjust their numbers.
Earlier this month, Judson trustees voted 4 to 3 to hire an outside financial consultant and give Board President Monica Ryan the authority to select who the consultant would be.
Despite that initial opposition, trustees voted unanimously for 17 budget cuts recommended as part of the consultant’s efficiency plan discussed in closed session. Those cuts, as presented in open session without further explanation late Tuesday night, include:
1. Eliminating the vacant position of wellness and leave specialist
2. Filling workers compensation specialist internally
3. Filling data-based administrator internally
4. Eliminating the vacant position of district social worker
5. Eliminating two positions from the communications department effective Dec. 31, 2025
6. Eliminating one athletic secretary position
7. Approving the counselor allocation as discussed
8. Reduce the work schedule of elementary principals, elementary PEIMS clerk, and elementary secretaries by 10 days effective in the 2026-2027 school year
9. Reduce the work schedule of middle school counselors by five days effective in the 2026-2027 school year
10. Eliminate the student athletics insurance
11. Eliminate the district provided letterman jackets
12. Reducing district cell phones
13. Eliminate the golf program
14. Eliminate the power lifting program
15. Eliminating a vacant truant officer if locally funded
16. Approving the assistant / associate principal allocation as amended in closed session
17. Eliminating any vacant positions that make come may come open for academic coaches and academic trainers
Trustees also voted separately 6 to 1 Tuesday night to eliminate the pre-K 3 program, with José Macias Jr. dissenting.
Macias is part of the board’s old guard, which became the board minority after the May election. When the board returned from closed session on Tuesday, Macias said he wanted the public to know the new consultant was not an accountant.
“When we asked for a financial advisor, that was the anticipation — that we would have somebody with expertise in finance. So, it is a little disappointing that that’s where we ended up,” Macias said.
“Some of these recommendations have already been discussed, so we essentially rehashed a lot of what we had already talked about,” Macias added. “I feel that this consultant was really just second-guessing our administration, and that’s really unfair to our cabinet and to our administrators, to our superintendent.”
“I’d actually love to give a huge shout-out to Dr. Ann Dixon, our consultant,” Board President Monica Ryan responded. “And I think we saw the majority of the board in there who was just overwhelmingly pleased, you know, with only having six business days available to work in the district. Someone with a reputation like hers having worked in so many school districts at the highest levels out there.”
Dixon was superintendent of Somerset ISD in the 1990s and has more recently served as interim superintendent for numerous Texas school districts. Dixon explained to TPR that she has served as superintendent of four districts that did not have CFO’s, requiring her to take on those tasks.
Laura Stanford, another member of the board’s old guard, said on Wednesday that she had received calls about the end of the pre-K 3 program and wanted to ask some questions about it.
Ryan interjected to say that the board had already voted to end the program and that Stanford would need to submit an agenda item for a future board meeting if she wanted to reconsider.
“We’ve brought it back before in the middle of an agenda,” Stanford said. “I want to clarify the savings that we’re looking at, and if we have any idea of how many students we might lose due to closing the program, because I know sometimes we lose siblings along with the kids.”
Superintendent Milton Fields said he didn’t mind answering her questions, and that last year 360 students were enrolled in pre-K 3. District officials said cutting the program would mean hiring 18 fewer teachers and 18 fewer paraprofessionals, saving about $2 million.
“I would tell you going forward, we were going to sit today and discuss as a cabinet on how we were going to communicate [the end of the pre-K 3 program] and get it out as quickly as possible,” Fields said. “As a parent, when my kids were little, where they were going to go was always a hot topic in the house, so I want to get that information out to those [parents] now.”
Assistant Superintendent Kristin Saunders also spoke up to say that plans for next school year were already underway.
“Other than notifying families, we also need to notify principals. We need to stop registration. Principals need to rebuild their master schedule. We need to let teachers know who left in May, thinking they’re teaching pre-K 3 that now you’ll be teaching [something else],” Saunders said. “So, there is a little sense of urgency there. It is a very fast turnaround.”
Trustees also voted Wednesday to delegate the board president to speak to the media on behalf of the board, and they moved regular board meetings to 5 p.m., starting with closed session. People who want to speak during public comments will need to sign up before the board returns to open session.
Judson trustees meet again Thursday at 6 p.m. to adopt next year’s budget.
They’re also scheduled to meet Friday in closed session to discuss “the employment, evaluation, or duties of the Central Office Administration, including the superintendent.”
Any action they discuss in closed session will be voted on in open session.
