Full-time employees with the Brownsville Independent School District can expect a two percent raise in the new school year.

On Thursday, Brownsville school board trustees approved a $561.5 million budget for the 2024-2025 school year, the district announced in a news release. It’s a decrease of nearly $18 million from the previous school year.

The budget comes after various cuts throughout the district. Earlier this year, the district announced they’d close three elementary campuses as part of a consolidation plan.

READ MORE: School consolidation plans underway at Brownsville ISD

Under the plan, students and staff at the affected campuses were moved to nearby elementary campuses.

“A raise is always welcomed, but we feel like it should be a little bit higher than that,” Castaneda Elementary School special education teacher Esmeralda Garcia Barajas said. “Teachers are working a whole lot more with a lot less staff, and as a special education teacher, we have a lot more duties — and not just special education teachers but all teachers."

The consolidation plan was enacted after the district previously said they were facing a $20 million budget deficit.

“We have made sure that we are not letting go of absolutely anybody, but we made a lot of changes that were necessary for us to operate,” Daniella Lopez Valdez, Brownsville ISD school board vice president, said.

The district also closed job positions and got rid of some software.

After all those cuts, the district used $23 million from their fund balance account — or their rain day money. Four million dollars from that account went toward closing the deficit. The rest was used to give employees that two percent raise. 

“Obviously we'd love to give employees a much larger raise, but this is fiscally responsible in order to make sure to not let anybody go," Valdez said.

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