District could lose $8M in next year’s budget
The chief financial officer for Santa Fe Public Schools warned school board members they could see a decrease of almost $8 million in the district’s operational budget for the 2021-22 school year.
During Thursday’s board meeting, German Martinez said a combination of declining enrollment this year, increases in insurance premiums, the withholding of CARES Act funding by the state Legislature over the summer and a decrease in small-school size adjustments could lead to a $7.685 million decrease in next year’s budget.
The decline in enrollment has been a common occurrence at school districts across the state, and administrators say it is a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
It was more fodder for district Superin
tendent Veronica García to advocate for so-called hold harmless language by state lawmakers in the upcoming legislative session and base public school funding on enrollment figures from 2019-20 to help lessen the financial impact.
García pointed out that the district already experienced an $8 million decrease in its budget this year because of adjustments in State Equalization Guarantee allocations from the state Public Education Department.
“We are going to need a year to stabilize and adjust and ease into this, in terms of our educational programming and services to our students,” García said. “We absorbed over 8 million dollars this year and to do another 7.2 million would just be very, very difficult.”
Martinez said the district’s preliminary 80-day enrollment of 11,682 students represents a 569-student decrease from the 2019-20 school year and could mean a $5 million loss to the district.
The district also expects to see a 9.3 percent increase in employee insurance premiums, which would total about $900,000, as well as an 8.28 percent rise in risk insurance premiums that would lead to a $375,000 increase. Add to that a credit of $1.2 million in CARES Act funding created when the Legislature had to use that money to help cover a $2 billion revenue shortfall in a June special session.
There is a possibility the district could see the CARES Act money next year, but García said that is not guaranteed.
Board President Kate Noble called the presentation “sobering.” She said a meeting with legislators last week was productive in providing them with information about how important hold harmless language is to the school district.
“My recollection is there was a decent show of ‘We’d like to hold you harmless,’ which was the big one for us,” Noble said.
Meanwhile, responding to a rise in failing grades amid the pandemic, the district is considering changes to how students are graded.
Associate Superintendents Vanessa Romero and Larry Chavez told school board members they are working with a group of teachers, principals and district personnel to explore creating a new grading policy in response to students’ struggles in remote learning. In November, the district revealed that 38.2 percent of students from third grade on up failed at least one class or subject during the first quarter of this school year.
Chavez said during a discussion about student engagement and grading practices that the group was formed in response to discussions with students, parents and staff members about the high number of failing grades. Neither Chavez nor Romero indicated any specific changes to the current grading system, but any potential adjustments would not happen until after the fall semester ends.
Romero said grades were just one element in examining how teachers and students engage in online learning.
“We’re also looking at best practices,” Romero said. “Are we ensuring that our lessons are succinct, that we’re providing likeminded practice for check-ins, that we’re offering small-group instruction and, of course, independent practice in our work?”