Student enrollment at the La Joya Independent School District is down.

“We have been losing enrollment since probably about the 2015-16 school year and every year we have lost a few more students,” said La Joya ISD Superintendent Dr. Gisela Saenz.

Last year, over 24,000 students were enrolled in the district. This year, district officials are hoping to maintain the same number of students -- but they won't know until the school year starts.

"It's just the availability of choice; now there's more choice and so, therefore, you have to create a great school so that people can want to come to that school," said La Joya ISD School Board President Alda Benavides.

Fewer students means a smaller budget. The state gives the district $6,000 per student, but school officials say they're making changes now to avoid future financial struggles.

"The financial exigency right now is in the back burner but yet people need to know that it does exist and we're going to do everything within our power to prevent to get to that point,” Benavides said.

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It starts with making sure staffing aligns with the number of students.

"We are needing to reduce staffing costs and of course that means evaluating every position that we have and determining which are critical to La Joya ISD,” Dr. Saenz said. 

Dr. Saenz says the district has adjusted student-to-teacher ratios over the years, but the same needs to be done for district employees overall.

"We would like to be somewhere in the range of 17 to 1 and it is lower than that right now," Dr. Saenz said. "What we have lagged behind is the overall employee-student-teacher ratio and so that's why it would not be our teachers that are affected. It would be other positions."

School leaders stress a new recruitment plan in an effort to retain students and increase enrollment.

"We really have to look within and reflect and see what we're doing to either encourage or discourage parents from keeping their kids at La Joya ISD," Benavides said. 

They also plan to be conservative with spending by reducing contracted services and limiting overtime.

"We're taking some steps to make sure that we're careful with our spending so that we continue to be a strong financial district and take care of our kids and our staff ," Dr. Saenz said. 

This year's budget has been set so the district isn't concerned, but if they don't make those adjustments before the 23-24 school year, then they might need to declare financial exigency.