Interim Superintendent Richard Grill told Crystal City ISD families at a town hall that the district’s bank account had dropped below $500 and the district is moving ahead with deep cuts, including terminating 72 employees and consolidating campuses. Grill outlined one-year cost-saving measures — from salary freezes to charging families for sports travel — and warned that academic troubles and a TEA D rating since 2023 could put the district on probation. The school board will meet June 1 at 6 p.m. at 613-B W. Zavala St.
Grill stunned the audience with a blunt inventory of the district’s finances. “On Thursday, to make payroll happen, we had less than $500 in our total bank account here,” Grill said. “That’s amazing. 500 bucks. Not even $500. So that’s how broke the school district is.”
The district confirmed a reduction in force that will affect 72 employees in total, with 68 at-will staffers and four certified teachers losing their jobs. The at-will positions are described as primarily instructional aides along with a few clerical, maintenance and food service roles, meaning the cuts will hit many lower-paid support workers who keep schools running day to day.
Grill insisted the cuts were not a simple exercise in trimming the highest salaries or rewarding tenure. “Out of 72 people, 68 of them were at-will employees and so a lot of those are people who make the least but some of them are some that made quite a bit, but that’s not why we let them go,” Grill said. “We didn’t base it on how much they made or didn’t make or how many years they had in or didn’t have. It was basically, do we need this many people? And obviously we don’t.”
To stabilize the budget quickly, the district is proposing several short-term moves that will reshape day-to-day life for students and families. Plans include consolidating three elementary campuses under one administrative leader while keeping buildings open for classrooms, a one-year salary freeze for staff, reductions in health benefits, and cutting coach stipends roughly in half to reduce recurring expenses.
Families will also be asked to shoulder new costs tied to extracurriculars, with Grill saying the goal is to charge only for travel and tournament expenses rather than equipment itself. He said he has met with a coach and plans to meet the school board on June 1 to set a fair price point, estimating roughly $100 per sport for high school athletes and about $80 per sport for middle school participants.
Grill framed the tough choices as a last line of defense against an even harsher outcome. “When you hear me talk about some of the things that we’re going to do, you’re going say, I don’t like that,” Grill said. “Well, what’s the alternative? The alternative is the school districts going to close and it’s going to consolidate.
The stakes extend beyond budgets. Crystal City ISD has carried a TEA academic rating of D since 2023, and Grill warned that the district faces a probated status next year if improvements don’t stick. “My objective is to help this district get out of the financial mess that it’s in and also out of the academic problems that we’re experiencing,” Grill said during the town hall. “Next year we’ll be in a probated status and if we don’t get it fixed next year the district will lose accreditation. So, the children who are sophomores today, if we won’t get this thing fixed their diplomas will mean nothing when they graduate.”
