Article: Schools Facing Tight Budget-IDEA-NM is being discontinued

http://www.ratonrange.com/main.asp?SectionID=2 hit the 'Local News in Audio' near the top of the page and click on the article to hear it! Here it is in print, sent to me by a fellow homeschooler! Enjoy, Tabbi

Schools facing tight budget

By Bob Morris
Staff writer, The Raton Range


The Raton school district will be on a tight budget for the upcoming school year, a situation the current interim superintendent believes is a result of several factors from past fiscal years.

Raton Public Schools interim Superintendent Paul Malano told the board at its Monday meeting that the district has been required by the state Public Education Department to place $540,000 of its state funding into an emergency fund to "cover a deficit for the past year." He told the board the situation is not just resulting from anything that happened this past year, but there "had been different things that should have been done in years past."

Malano told The Range that "we (in the district) probably haven't had a working knowledge of our budget for a number of years, and because of that, we have found out at this point that we have...a shortfall of monies."

He told The Range part of the reason was "definitely expenditures last year" but added, even in years prior to that, "we didn't have a clear picture of funds we had."

During the board meeting, Malano noted the district in recent years has experienced declining enrollment, and enrollment determines state funding amounts. He also said something that probably should have been considered in past years was, when a teacher submitted his or her retirement or resignation notice, the district determi ning "if we need to retain that position." He told The Range the district should have examined whether any staff openings could be covered "with existing staff without any additional hires. It's something we will have to look at in the future."

The $540,000 that has been placed into the emergency fund is money that the state Public Education Department has asked the district to "do our very best not to touch, so it will cover our shortfall this year, and hopefully will give us a little cash reserve next year," Malano said. The district's current fiscal year began July 1.

Malano told the board that four teaching positions that became vacant in the district, because of retirement or resignations, will be filled by teachers who worked for the district last year and had been given notice in May that they may not be retained. This means, Malano said, that while all current staff will be retained, there will be "four positions we had last year that we won't have this year." Those positions that have been eliminated include one at each of the elementary schools and one at Raton High School.

"We were able to move people into (other) positions," Malano said.

Additionally, Malano said he has asked school principals, teachers and coaches "to spend carefully" when they need to make any purchases.

Related to financial issues, a program that will be eliminated for the upcoming 2007-2008 school year is the Individual Distance Education Academy (IDEA). The board voted unanimously to discontinue the program, given concerns that had been voiced by state officials and the expenditures involved in running the program.

The board had considered the future of IDEA at its June meeting, but a motion to discontinue the program failed with three of the five board members voting against it. The future of the program was debated because of state Public Education Department concerns that Senate Bill 9, or two-mill levy, funds should not be used for technological purposes "for kids outside of a classroom," that there needed to be "internal controls" regarding accounting of funds to run the program, and that there was not enough "checks and balances in terms of curriculum and attendance" for the distance-education component.

At the meeting Monday, Malano recommended the IDEA program be discontinued. "I don't think we have much choice," Malano said.

Board member Stephanie Jansen, who said she was a "major supporter" of IDEA, agreed with Malano that "we don't have a choice" other than to discontinue the program. Jansen said, while she supports ending the IDEA program, she would favor working with whoever will be the new superintendent on "something similar" that falls within state guidelines.

"It's important to understand that it also brought in money" to the district, in terms of a way to increase district enrollment, Jansen said.

Malano told The Range that when former superintendent Bill Walz pursued the IDEA program, "there were hopes to be allowed to have more students than the 100 the state allowed." But because the Public Education Department had concerns with how the program was run, "they told us they would not fund it as it was last year" for the coming school year, Malano said.

During Monday's meeting, Malano mentioned a property on the corner of Fourth Street and Legion Drive, near Kearny Elementary School, that the district had purchased recently, which the district might want to consider selling.

The property, which has two houses and a garage, had been purchased with the intent of using it for staff parking at Kearny, with the buildings either demolished or moved. But, Malano said, after discussions with Kearny Principal Randy Hestand and Ian Harmon, who has prepared the facility master plan for the district, it was "probably not a feasible idea at this point" to use the land as a parking lot, and the board may want to consider the sale of the property, with the money generated to be used to address budget issues.