Edna Butts & Katrina Montgomery: AISD & School Finance

Edna Butts and the CFO of Austin ISD, Katrina Montgomery, will explain the mechanics of school finance in Texas including how the Robin Hood Law, aka "recapture", affects Austin ISD.

About our Speaker:

Edna currently serves as Director of Intergovernmental Relations & Policy Oversight for the Austin Independent School District. Her responsibilities include monitoring legislation affecting education on the state, federal and local level, and fostering communications with federal, State of Texas, Travis County and City of Austin elected officials and their staffs. In addition, Edna is responsible for drafting school district policies and regulations and ensuring their final approval by the Board of Trustees and the Superintendent. She is also the Elections Administrator for the school district.

Prior to joining AISD, Edna served as General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor for Senator Kirk Watson. She also served as an Assistant Attorney General for several years where she served as Chief of the Financial Litigation Division and as Special Assistant Attorney General.

Edna has been very involved in the Austin community. Edna is a member of the Communities in Schools Leadership Circle and served on the Communities in Schools of Central Texas board of directors for seven years, where she served as board president. She also serves on The University of Texas System Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee. She has served on United Way’s Success by Six Leadership Council, and on the boards of directors of the Long Center for the Performing Arts, Any Baby Can, Girl Scouts Lone Star Council, Reading is Fundamental (RIF), and the YMCA.

In January 2024, Edna was named a Distinguished Lawyer by the Austin Bar Association and received the 2013 Corazon Community Award given by the non-profit Con Mi Madre.

Edna earned her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas and is a graduate of Leadership Austin.