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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

APS Freezes Accounts to Fight Deficit

By Zsombor Peter
Journal Staff Writer
    Effective today, Albuquerque's public schools cannot touch their supply and contingency accounts without an OK from the district's acting superintendent and its CFO.
    The board approved the freeze at a special Monday afternoon meeting after news that the district has been operating at a $20 million deficit, worth 2 percent of its total budget.
    That won't affect the district this year, said Robert Lucero, chairman of the board's Finance Committee. But it will mean a $20 million hit to next year's budget, he added.
    Lucero and board President Mary Lee Martin insisted the deficit won't mean any personnel or program cutbacks.
    "The things that we currently have in place we're going to keep," Lucero said.
    The district is still searching for ways to make up the deficit, however. It hopes to find some money in the supply and contingency accounts it just froze, and it will look for spare funds in its cash reserves.
    As a precaution, the board also approved a resolution Monday reiterating a standing policy that the district won't add any new positions, programs or initiatives without identifying the necessary funds.
    APS officials blame the deficit on exaggerated data the district sent the state about the special education services it was providing and about the experience and education of its teachers. That led the state to send APS more money than it should have.
    "We identified these problems. We're fixing the problems," Lucero said.