LJISD business and administration chief looks to show transparency in district spending
Mirgitt Crespo, incoming La Joya ISD chief of business and administration services, is working to create a zero-based budget, educate the community on school finances, and create department transparency.
The role of Chief of Business and Administrative Services, which Crespo has held since April, oversees the business and financial operation of the school district while prioritizing student and staff needs.
“I’m responsible for supporting what the district is trying to achieve. I’m responsible for ensuring that all resources are used efficiently, effectively, and impactfully,” Crespo said.
Although having a degree in psychology, the Venezuelan native has never been far from education, with parents in the classroom.
“My dad [was] awarded for the Minister of Education in Venezuela, so it went as far as supervising regions of the schools over there. My mom was a principal. When she retired, she retired as a principal over there,” she said. “I understand what it is being a teacher at heart.”
Wanting to satiate her hunger for education, after immigrating to the United States in 2002, Crespo earned her Master of Arts in Education at the University of Texas in Austin.
“I started my work during my master’s in research because that’s what I was doing in Venezuela, working in the university, teaching and doing research,” she said, then deciding to move into the specialty of child development. “I wanted to do more of this side of research and continuous improvement and evaluation. That was my passion.”
The passion that fueled Crespo to pursue education as her parents did led her to Fort Worth ISD for over twenty years – and later to La Joya ISD, where she seeks to educate the public about district spending while being transparent with the La Joya ISD community.
“I want to listen, I want to understand and I want to respond to the needs,” she said.
Crespo is also aware of the importance of district transparency with finances following the TEA intervention last year. She says she hopes to give stakeholders information on where the district is and where it will head in terms of financial parameters.
“In the district, the school finances are not an easy deal. It has a lot of politics, the same politics and national politics behind every decision of every penny we receive. So understanding that is not easy,” Crespo said. “Communicating and educating the community and the stakeholders in the district is part of the transparency and integrity we want to do so far.”
An example Crespo gave for financial communication involves closing the current deficit, something she clarifies as ‘not being in the red zone’ for the budget.
The district had to make significant cuts earlier this year to address a $55 million budget deficit.
“We have reduced some of the spending because of the decisions that were made before we turned in,” she said, alluding to the 175-employee dismissal in June meant to cut spending. “So we are still evaluating what is the impact on the payroll side because we have some vacancies and some changes that have happened.”
Despite that belt tightening, the district still couldn’t address more than $10 million of that deficit. Crespo remains hopeful.
“While it’s early in the school year and we need to be cautious about potential unforeseen needs, the current percentage spent indicates a positive trend,” said Crespo in an email. “We can expect to end the year with a smaller deficit than we had originally projected.”
Crespo further explained that she would hope the community understands that the district financial reserves are strong, and that deficiency remains due to practicing efficiency.
Moving forward, she hopes to act as a financial steward to the LJISD community.
“I come with a lot of care and interest in being a good steward, a financial steward of the funding of La Joya ISD in order to impact the students, performance, the excellence of education that all deserve,” she said.
