SFPS budget shortfall could force closure of two schools
Facing a possible budget shortfall of up to $9.45 million, Santa Fe Public Schools is considering closing Nava and E.J. Martinez elementary schools as early as next fall, raising concerns and even some outrage among parents and teachers.
Darlene Roybal, whose two daughters attend E.J. Martinez Elementary, said her family is “heartbroken … in shock. … Should this happen, I’m considering moving out of Santa Fe,” she said. “And I was born and raised here. There’s not much keeping us here anymore.”
Superintendent Veronica García acknowledged in an interview Tuesday that the closures would take a toll on teachers, parents and students if the school board approves the move. “Closing a school is not a decision to be made lightly,” she said, “and it also has high emotional impact. … Many of these teachers have worked together for a long time. They’re like a family, and it’s very painful, and we need to
recognize all of that.”
García laid much of the blame for the district’s tight finances on the state’s fiscal problems. In the recent legislative session, lawmakers approved a budget that would sweep about $1.9 million from the Santa Fe district’s cash reserves and reduce the so-called unit value funding, or the amount it gives the district for each student, by a total of $1.5 million.
Gov. Susana Martinez approved the Legislature’s budget last week, but she vetoed all funding for the Legislature and higher education. Martinez also vetoed a bill that would have balanced the state budget with tax and fee increases. She is expected to call lawmakers back to the Capitol to draft a new budget.
García said she also expects an 8 percent to 10 percent decline in federal funding, based on forecasts from the U.S. Education Department.
If the board chooses to close the two schools, she said, the district would rezone surrounding schools. Students who are now in the E.J. Martinez district would be zoned to attend either Acequia Madre, Atalaya or Wood Gormley Elementary School. Those who now attend Nava would move to Kearny, Salazar or Chaparral Elementary, Aspen Community Magnet School or Gonzales Community School, which school officials said are all under capacity.
Principals at Nava and E.J. Martinez did not return calls to comment on the possible closures.
District leaders held a study session with school board members Monday evening to discuss the expected shortfall and their options to address it. Several members of the public attended the session, including E.J. Martinez Parent Teacher Association President Megan Perkins.
“I ran over there the second I found out about it,” Perkins said.
With students at the two schools undergoing the annual state-required PARCC reading and math exams this week, she said, “The timing of this couldn’t be worse.” As students were worrying about the standardized tests, she said, grief counselors were on hand at E.J. Martinez to address students’ anxiety about the possible closure of their school.
García confirmed that additional counselors were sent to both elementary schools to work with students.
In addition to closing the two elementary schools, the school board is considering consolidating three alternative high school programs into a repurposed Nava campus. The programs include the Academy at Larragoite, the Bridge in-house suspension program and Engage Santa Fe, which allows students who have dropped out of high school to finish earning a diploma.
Though estimates are preliminary, the plan would save a combined $1.7 million, according to district documents.
During the study session Monday, school board member Maureen Cashmon expressed concern about whether the alternative high school programs are cost-effective and should be continued. “I know I will take heat for this,” Cashmon said, “… but there is a financial cost when we have small populations of students. So, we need to look at: ‘Are those programs working effectively?’ ”
García said the district will continue to examine the success of those programs in relation to their costs.
The school board, which is expected to make a decision on the school closures within weeks, asked the administration Monday to conduct an in-depth financial and academic impact study and report back at the board’s next study session April 24. The board may take action on the proposal in early May, García said.
“I think that it is the intent of the board and the administration, if this is going to happen, that a decision is made fairly quickly so that teachers can then begin to put in for transfers to other schools. Parents can make choices,” she said.
Parents with children attending E.J. Martinez or Nava on an interzone transfer would have an option of enrolling those kids at their home district school or requesting a transfer to another school, García said. She sent letters home with students Tuesday to notify their parents about the proposal.
Heather Burke, president of the Nava Parent Teacher Association, said the “hard numbers” show that the district has to kick around different ideas to save money.
“But I feel very strongly that balancing the budget on the backs of the students all the time is not what we should be doing,” she said. “It’s very shortsighted to keep destroying the community and pushing families west in Santa Fe because between the house prices and the lack of schools, there’s no reason for people to move into certain neighborhoods anymore.”
Declining enrollment at Capshaw and De Vargas middle schools prompted the school board to decide last year to consolidate the schools’ populations at a new school on the De Vargas campus. Some 650 students are expected to attend classes at the new Milagro Middle School in 2018. The middle school merger, when first proposed in 2015, met stiff opposition from both the Capshaw and De Vargas communities.
The school district faced similar pushback in 2010, when it decided to close Alvord, Kaune and Larragoite elementary schools and consolidate their student populations at the former Alameda Middle School campus, now know as the Aspen Community Magnet School, a K-8 facililty.
The board faced even fiercer opposition that year to its proposal to close the east-side Acequia Madre Elementary and move those students to nearby Atalaya as the population of families with children in the city shifted south.
Although the board backed away from the plan, it was so unpopular that it prompted a heated school board election in February 2011 that resulted in a board shake-up. The newly elected board members, a group that included current board members Steven Carrillo and Linda Trujillo, voted a year later to oust the superintendent, Bobbie Gutierrez.
Gutierrez and the board then faced problems similar to those that García and the current board face now: aging facilities, a tight budget and declining enrollment in neighborhoods with changing demographics.
“The problem is that the student population isn’t there,” García said of Nava and E.J. Martinez. “Both of those schools rely heavily on interzone transfers.”
She said the cost to refurbish the schools and continue operating them also would be too high. “The cost would be so exorbitant that it really doesn’t make sense,” she said. “We’d probably be better off just building new schools.”
The district is trying to keep cuts away from the classroom “as much as possible,” she said. “… There’s not a whole lot of other places left to cut, so it’s just a very dire situation.
“I think that is the most important message that people can take away from this,” she said. “We are scraping the barrel now in terms of figuring out how we’re going to balance our budget.”
Cynthia Miller of The New Mexican contributed to this report.