District could lose millions in funds
Superintendent calls for state to take action to protect budget as enrollment down nearly 4%
Add Veronica García to the growing list of people urging state legislators to provide school districts with funding relief in anticipation of significant budget reductions for the 2021-22 school year.
García, superintendent of Santa Fe Public
Schools, said the local district had an overall enrollment decline of 496 students on the 26th day of the year, to 12,526, as it continues to operate on a distance-learning model amid the COVID19 pandemic.
That figure, which includes prekindergarten and charter school students, represents a 3.8 percent decline from the 40-day enrollment number in 2019-20. If enrollment doesn’t rise by the 40th day of this school year, the district could lose several million dollars from the state through a funding formula tied to student numbers.
Rather than a rise in numbers, however, García expects to see an even steeper enrollment decline by then, she said.
García is advocating for state lawmakers to adopt “hold harmless” language in legislation allowing them to fund districts based on 201920 enrollment numbers.
“When you factor all that in, here we go,” García said. “The impacts are significant.
“There is the possibility that they’ll hold schools harmless,” she added. “If that comes to pass, that will make a huge difference. But we don’t know that yet.”
The student decline at Santa Fe Public Schools mirrors a statewide trend. Albuquerque Public Schools projected a 4,000-student drop from last year, to about 76,000 — a decline of 5 percent — during a legislative committee hearing last week. Rio Rancho Public Schools had a slightly lower rate of decline — dropping by 789 students to 16,904. Las Cruces Public Schools reported 24,201 students registered on its rolls this year, a loss of about 2.4 percent from 24,806 in 2019-20.
New Mexico’s public schools already have seen spending cuts, largely due to the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the state’s budget.
The Public Education Department reduced per-student funding for schools by $159.3 million for the current year.
The decrease in funds for what is called the State Equalization Guarantee won’t affect all districts equally. The complex funding formula is based on enrollment numbers but heavily weighs factors affecting a school’s student population, such as special-education needs, poverty, the rate of minorities and the number of kids learning English.
For Santa Fe Public Schools, the cut meant a loss of $7.2 million this year. Last year, its allocation was $111 million.
García said New Mexico districts are encountering uncharted waters.
“None of us have ever experienced this before,” she said. “We don’t have an experiential base to be able to predict the most likely scenario.”
More than a third of the district’s enrollment decline is among some of its youngest students.
The district so far has recorded a drop of 190 kindergartners compared to last year.
García said part of that decline is due to the city’s plunging birth rate, which fell by 12 percent in 2014 and 2015. Still, the district forecast it would enroll 853 kindergartners this year; the number stands at only 734.
There was a 125-student dive in second grade classes, to 875 from 1,000, which Garcia said was perplexing.
“It might be related to COVID,” she said. “Parents might be concerned about sending their kids to school.”
Fifth grade figures dropped to 949 from 1,098, but the high school sophomore through senior classes each saw increases. Sophomores grew to 1,009 from 893, and seniors rose to 863 from 766.
German Martinez, the district’s chief financial officer, said details of the State Equalization Guarantee formula are complicating budget forecasts.
If, for instance, the district lost students who were in special-education programs, Martinez said, that would lead to a greater loss in funding.
He hesitated to estimate how much of a financial hit the district might take but said it would be substantial.
“If those 400 students materialize throughout the remainder of the school year, it would hopefully normalize” budget projections, Martinez said.
“Obviously, we want to hedge as much as we can on what those potential declines would be.”