Budget Cuts Affect Us All
School district may cut seven jobs at high school to balance budget
There was standing room only during Monday’s school board budget meeting at the Taos Middle School library. Photo by Megan Avina
Board says arts programs safe for now
By Chandra Johnson
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 8:56 PM MDT
It was a high-anxiety night at Taos Middle School Monday (May 12) night as the Taos Municipal Board of Education heard public outcry against the knowledge of possible position cuts at Taos High School next fall.
“I am not going to introduce myself right away. I want to ask first if any of you know my name,” student Victoria Cardenas asked the board Monday (May 12) night. “One out of seven of you knows who I am. If you don’t know me, how can you know what’s best for me?”
Cardenas was one of dozens of students, teachers and parents who turned out to protest the nine positions being cut at Taos High School in the coming school year in order to balance an $895,000 shortfall in the school district’s budget in addition to rumors that the budget would also shave arts programs from the high school like poetry, drama and speech and debate.
District finance director Liz Trujillo was on hand to take questions from the crowd of about 40 people who had their own questions about the budget and position cuts.
While the programs have not been cut yet, the stipends for teachers who teach some of the programs are being cut.
But nine positions does not mean nine layoffs.
At Taos High School, seven teaching positions are on the block: one position is being completely eliminated, two are not being replaced after the existing teachers retire, three are being transferred to Taos Middle School, and one will be transferred to the math department.
Another position with the high school’s vocational program that will not be filled when the current teacher retires will be helmed by a UNM-Taos instructor. Another position eliminated would be one of two assistant principal position.
The reason for the position cuts and the nearly $900,000 shortfall?
Shrinking enrollment at the high school has made the high school overstaffed, Trujillo said, when fewer students attend school, the state is inclined to send less money.
“Until recently I had not had the opportunity to put the calculator to the dollars associated with student loss,” Trujillo said. “The high school has lost 158 students from the first day of school to a few weeks ago. The middle school lost 54 students. If we had kept all those students, we wouldn’t have to balance our budget.”
According to Trujillo’s calculations, Taos Middle School’s loss of 54 students translated to a loss of $262,741. The high school’s loss of 158 students translated to $768,763 for a combined total budget loss of $1,031,504.
The problem, Trujillo said, was that as enrollment drops at a school, the amount of government money attached to each child also becomes less. Currently, the assigned amount the government allows a school per child is approximately $3,800 and will soon rise to about $4,000 per child. Combined with a hike in food costs and fuel prices, it may be more expensive to run business as usual in Taos schools, but with fewer students attending school, that doesn’t mean the state will send as much as is needed.
But with the potential staffing cuts, Trujillo said the 2008-2009 school budget is now balanced.
Although Trujillo confirmed some budget fears, the board denied that any arts program cuts were set in stone and blasted rumors that they had been cut from the budget.
“I’m shocked to hear this. There has been no discussion about this,” board president Patrick Romero said. “But we have lost 200 students in this district and we’re going to lose more. If we don’t have the numbers, we are forced to do things we don’t want to do.”
“I would like to say that everyone assumes that these changes have already taken place. They have not as far as I’m concerned,” board member Arsenio Córdova said. “No final decisions have been made by this board. I want to know the justification for cutting positions as well as for those we should keep.”
But board member Michael Torres said the programs were not yet out of the woods.
“It’s important to come to every meeting, not just when there’s a crisis, so that we can hear your opinions,” Torres said. “I’m going to say some things you won’t like to hear, but there are some tough decisions we have to make.”
Whatever those hard decisions wind up being, students like Cardenas are hoping her passions won’t be left behind in the wake of an enrollment free fall.
“Acting and music is the best I can do. I can’t think of anything else I want to do with my life,” Cardenas told the board. “If you’re going to take away the teachers we love and respect, and the classes we love, what reason do we have to come to school?”
