No more cuts!
A message from RR Board leader Don Schlichte
The Rio Rancho School Board is having an urgent meeting on Monday, Feb. 20, at 5:30 p.m. at the District Training Center, 500 Laser Rd. NE, Rio Rancho. Rio Rancho taxpayers and concerned citizens should try to attend.
The nature of the meeting is for the board to strategize and mobilize community support against another round of education budget cuts for school year 2017-18. The state Legislature is debating the issue right now.
A little history lesson is fitting here — because of an outdated and unfair funding formula, the Rio Rancho Public Schools District consistently ranks in the lowest 10 percent of perpupil funding among the 89 N.M. school districts. For instance, if Rio Rancho received the same amount of per-pupil fund- ing as the Albuquerque Public Schools, it would mean an additional $10 million per year for our students.
I’m not complaining about our sister district, as it’s a state funding issue, but the situation is inherently unfair and inequitable to Rio Rancho taxpayers and families, and this is the reason our board has chosen to join a lawsuit against the state to try and force it to change the funding formula. It’s a gamble, and we’ve made some enemies because of it, but we really had no other choice.
Here’s why I labeled our Monday meeting urgent. Because of our state’s current budget difficulties, over the last three months, the Rio Rancho Board of Education has been forced to cut $3.8 million from this current school year’s operating budget. All of the funds were already budgeted, and some of the funds “swept” by the state were already spent, as we were well into our fiscal year. The administration has been intensely scrambling to make spending-cut recommendations to the board. Basically we have depleted our reserves, cut department budgets to survival levels, and frozen spending overall.
We are operating our excellent schools on a bare-bones budget. I think the state and even our own community has been spoiled by our outstanding achievements. What I mean is, many folks don’t know or understand how inequitable and lean our financial situation has been compared to other districts, and how strained it has become.
This letter is an attempt to sound the alarm. With low reserves, our bond rating will certainly take a hit, costing us taxpayers more interest when we borrow to build buildings. Further educational cuts during this legislative session for the 2017-18 school year will put staff positions, effective programs and extracurricular activities on the chopping block for RRPS. Those will not be pleasant school board meetings.
The board wants you to be aware now. This summer will be too late. We need to mobilize and make our voices heard now. Join us this Monday. No more cuts!