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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
School Board OKs Budget Cuts
By Polly Summar
Journal Staff Writer
There was no fanfare — not a single person speaking during the public forum — when the Santa Fe school board approved some $1.5 million in budget cuts Tuesday night, a response to state-level cutbacks adopted recently.
The vote means at least a 10 percent reduction in the discretionary budgets of each school — essentially anything not related to salaries or benefits. For tiny Alvord Elementary, with some 120 students, that means $813. For Piñon Elementary, with some 700 students, it means $3,771.
Board president Angelica Ruiz praised Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez and her staff for the budget they created, saying it does not eliminate athletics, does not reduce the number of teachers, and does not increase class sizes.
Only one school board member, Frank Montaño, voted against the budget, because it eliminates the district's community relations director position. “We have enough cash reserves to pay for it,” said Montaño, contrasting the $1.5 million in cuts with the $50,000 it would cost the district to pay for Erica Landry's job from January through the end of the school year.
Most of the board members had assumed they also would be looking at further details regarding state emergency funds pledged for Alvord Elementary. At a Monday night meeting, both Gutierrez and Ruiz maintained that accepting the $100,000 pledged by Gov. Bill Richardson, when other school districts are in worse shape, presented moral and ethical problems.
A proposal to forgo the $100,000 in emergency funds was tabled Monday night, when the board members agreed they needed more information on how the district would replace those funds. Gutierrez told the board then that the money might be replaced through current resources, perhaps job vacancy savings or utility savings, among other things.
But after the motion from Monday night was re-opened Tuesday, Montaño said New Mexico state statutes requires the topic to be on the agenda, and it wasn't. He said it was a violation of the Open Meetings Act.
Gutierrez's report on the $100,000 will be moved to the next meeting of the board.
The superintendent was also directed to look into the feasibility of recovering past and present utility costs, which were paid for out of operational funds during the construction work on Carlos Gilbert Elementary, from the school's contingency funds.
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