School district faces job cuts, high school program consolidation

Board approves ‘broad brush budget’ to accommodate projected 2017-18 shortfall

The Santa Fe school district plans to eliminate about a dozen jobs, consolidate some high school programs and trim other spending during the 2017-18 school year under a budget that won school board approval late Tuesday on a 4-1 vote.

It is unclear exactly where the district plans to eliminate those jobs in order to come up with $600,000 of the $1.6 million in cuts that were required to balance the budget, a point that board member Kate Noble emphasized when she said the district is approving a “broad brush budget” without clear values.

The board’s decision came after an often contentious monthslong debate about how best to deal with a projected shortfall that was at one time estimated to total about $9 million. It also comes as school districts in the state face uncertainty about how much money they will have for the next school year. Gov. Susana Martinez and state lawmakers have yet to come to terms on a budget for state government, which provides operating funds for public schools.

After butting heads over revenue and spending issues during the New Mexico Legislature’s regular session earlier this year, Martinez has called a special session for May 24 in an effort to come to terms on a financial blueprint for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Santa Fe school board member Maureen Cashmon, who cast the lone dissenting vote Tuesday on the district’s $185.2 million operating budget, said she could not support the action because “It is a very risky strategy when we don’t know what the Legislature will do. … We can parse words and say, ‘We have a budget,’ but the state does not have a balanced budget.”

The school district must submit its budget to the state Public Education Department for approval by the end of May.

Superintendent Veronica García said it is possible the board will have to convene again to request a budget adjustment after the Legislature’s special session if the district finds it must make more cuts.

The district’s financial woes are exacerbated by a rise in the cost of health insurance and instructional materials, declining enrollment, and a slight decrease in the state’s per-pupil funding formula.

Of the $1.6 million in budget cuts approved Tuesday, the district plans to

save $500,000 by consolidating three alternative high school programs into the soon-tobe-vacant Alvord Elementary School building next to the Santa Fe Railyard.

Regarding the dozen job cuts, García and Chief Financial Officer Carl Gruenler said district leaders are still meeting with individual school principals to determine where to make those reductions. García said that could take about two weeks.

Grace Mayer, president of the local teachers union NEA-Santa Fe, told the board that strategy is not reassuring.

When school employees hear of such cuts without knowing specifics, she said, “They think, ‘Oh my God, that’s my job.’ ”

She said that even if those staff reductions are achieved through attrition without the need for layoffs, schools fear they could lose positions such as counselors, librarians and nurses.

The district has not provided much information on how changes in García’s central administration offices would save up to $200,000.

As for a planned $300,000 reduction in the special-education budget, García and Gruenler noted a projected decline in special-education student enrollment and said the spending cut will not impact student services.

At one time, the board considered trying to save $1.3 million by closing E.J. Martinez and Nava elementary schools. Advocates for those schools rallied to save those facilities, and the board in late April voted to remove school closures from its list of cost-savings options.

Board member Steven Carrillo said Tuesday that the struggle to attain sufficient funding from the state is far from over and that the district still faces serious financial trouble, albeit not in the $9 million range originally estimated.

“It doesn’t mean our house isn’t on fire,” he said. “Our house is on fire.”

Though board member Linda Trujillo did not attend Tuesday’s meeting, she took part in the budget discussion and cast her vote by phone.