Despite $1.6M deficit, SFPS board pushes bonuses
Members want to explore tapping $3M pool for stipends, student programs
Santa Fe Public Schools is once again facing some tough financial choices, trying to determine the best way to bridge a $1.6 million gap in its roughly $102 million operating budget for 2018-19.
Still, district employees could be in line for stipends or bonus pay if the board approves a plan to use $500,000 from a $3 million pool of funding mostly generated through the sale of the former Alvord and Kaune elementary schools’ buildings.
The district also is bound by state law to give raises to teachers and other employees at a cost of $2.7 million. Though the district received a slight increase in its state funding this year, that bump was offset by the mandated pay hikes.
Complicating matters, the shortfall may impede school board members’ plans to launch a number of new initiatives in an effort to better serve the nearly 13,000 students in the public schools as the district prepares to update its five-year educational improvement plan.
The four board members who met Tuesday for a special budgetfocused study session said they want to limit cuts — and ease the pain — by using the $3 million in nonrecurring funds.
Some of that money could be used for one-time bonuses, board members said. The district employs about 1,500 teachers and staff.
State law prohibits districts from using nonrecurring funds for employee compensation, Superintendent Veronica García told the board, but she said she believes the district could work with the local teachers unions to find a legal way to offer the bonuses.
Some board members asked how the district would dole out those funds. Would every employee get the same amount or would the payouts be based on an employee’s impact on students?
Grace Mayer, president of the National Education AssociationSanta Fe, at one point warned the board that it was publicly engaging in labor negotiations.
Board President Steven Carrillo shot back that if Mayer was unhappy, she could “run for the [school] board.”
None of the board members voted to approve a district recommendation to cut about $375,000 from professional development programs. Instead, they agreed the district can use some of the $3 million in nonrecurring funds
to cover those costs.
And when García suggested cutting back on some administrative positions to save $285,000, Carrillo said he had concerns that such cuts “are going to cause unwarranted strain on those remaining.
“We still have to function,” he said, “and I don’t want anybody working 60 hours a week.”
The board members appeared committed to finding funds to add social worker positions, pursue math and science initiatives and put support systems in place to ensure that first-graders are reading to grade level.
Budget cuts are nothing new for Santa Fe Public Schools, which for years has faced similar challenges in balancing revenues and expenses. In bleak economic years, the board has gone so far as to close, or threaten to close, schools to save money — always an unpopular move. This year, such extreme measures seem unnecessary.
Still, García told the board that when you have to cut $1.6 million, “You can’t nickeland-dime it.”
Board member Lorraine Price, who has been sick and has missed several recent meetings, was not present.
The board will continue to work on the details of the budget over a series of Tuesday night meetings through May.