Budget woes kill summer program at four schools
District plans to cut K-3 Plus from E.J. Martinez, Nava, Salazar, Tesuque Elementary
The state government’s fiscal challenges are taking a toll on a nearly decade-old summer school program that has offered 25 extra days of instruction to more than 15,000 of New Mexico’s poorest students in kindergarten through third grade, including about 1,000 children in Santa Fe.
Four elementary schools in the local district are among dozens across the state that won’t be able to provide K-3 Plus, a growing initiative that often has been touted by Gov. Susana Martinez and state Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera as helping to narrow an achievement gap for low-income children in a state that consistently ranks at the bottom for educational measures.
Among the K-3 Plus programs that Santa Fe school officials chose to cut are those at E.J. Martinez and Nava elementary schools, both of which faced the threat of a shutdown this spring as the district wrangled with a projected budget shortfall from reduced state operating funds. The school board decided Tuesday to abandon that plan for now.
The K-3 Plus programs at Salazar and Tesuque elementary schools also will be dropped unless the district can find another way to fund them. The cuts will affect about 100 kids in the city, school officials said.
“Let me tell you, we have whiplash at E.J.,” said Megan Perkins, president of E.J. Martinez Elementary School’s Parent Teacher Association. “It’s really challenging, when all we want to do is provide a safe, exciting, educational space for kids this summer.”
The state Public Education Department late last month sent a letter to school districts, informing them that “increased demand for the [K-3 Plus] program, alongside budget reductions
during tight fiscal times, have necessitated allocation adjustments.” The news was a further blow to districts. Public schools, as well as colleges and universities, already have seen funding cuts and are struggling to prepare budgets for the 2017-18 school year amid uncertainty about whether they will take another hit.
Gov. Martinez and the New Mexico Legislature have not agreed yet on a state spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1, largely because Martinez vetoed all funding for higher education. She has said she will restore that money through tax reforms and other measures during a special session that hasn’t yet been scheduled. Martinez and lawmakers have said they don’t plan further cuts to school districts, but there is no guarantee.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has proposed cuts to federal education funding.
Santa Fe Public Schools announced earlier this spring that it could face a shortfall of more than $9 million and was considering school closures to help fill the gap. The district’s outlook has improved in recent weeks, but it is still grappling with an expected deficit of $1.78 million.
According to a legislative report, state lawmakers cut about $1 million from K-3 Plus, a nearly $24 million statewide program. As a result, the Public Education Department said, districts must prepare for an average funding reduction of 15 percent per year over the next three years. For Santa Fe Public Schools, that means a $300,000 drop, from about $1.4 million last summer to $1.1 million this summer, officials said.
Superintendent Veronica García said the district is working to ensure that many of the students displaced from K-3 Plus will be able to enroll in other summer school programs.
“This will be tough on those communities that were counting on the K-3 Plus program,” García said. “It is problematic. … I am looking at how I might be able to patchwork one or two programs, but I don’t think I can restore all four.”
In an email sent through a spokeswoman, Skandera said, “When districts pick up the phone and work to find ways to collaborate, the PED is a partner in brainstorming solutions. Several other districts, for example, are working with us and are making sure students have access to k3Plus this summer.”
Skandera’s comments come amid a dispute between the agency and the district over a half-day “snow day for action” that García called in mid-March, canceling classes after lunch so that teachers, parents and students could participate in a pro-education funding rally at the Capitol. Skandera has accused district officials of wasting a quarter of a million dollars on its “snow day” and possibly violating state law.
García said the district chose to cut K-3 Plus at Nava, E.J. Martinez, Salazar and Tesuque elementary schools based on enrollment, teacher and food-service availability, and whether the principals are on extended summer contracts.
Perkins, the E.J. Martinez PTA president, said over 60 students were ready to take part in that school’s program, and now parents and teachers are scrambling to build an alternative program that would yield similar results.
By tracking the data at E.J. Martinez, Perkins said, she discovered that the test scores of children who participate in K-3 Plus are “dramatically higher than those who do not. It’s a really important program, and if anything, should be expanded, not cut.”
García and Trina Raper, the district’s assistant director of curriculum and professional development, also are among the proponents of K-3 Plus. “Twenty-five days with any teacher before school starts — we think you are going to be ahead of the game,” Raper said.
A five-year legislative study of the program released in December 2015 found mixed results, with students making significant short-term gains in reading, writing and math that tended to flatten out over time.
“It’s a shame that our state financial situation has put us in this place,” said Tesuque Elementary Principal Tina Morris. “Our kids would benefit from going to summer school programs.”
Kathleen Jimenez, a Tesuque mom whose four children have participated in K-3 Plus, said, “Of all the cuts we are having to take at our school, this is pretty painful. It’s huge.”
Her children were loath to attend the program, she said — until the end of the first day, when they fell in love with it. “They got to do a lot more science, math and other hands-on activities that kids love to do.”