School board approves nearly $430 million budget

May 21—The Santa Fe school board on Tuesday passed a $428.5 million budget for 2024-2025.

The budget, approved ahead of a May 28 deadline for submission to the state's Public Education Department, includes a state-mandated 3% raises for educators and maintains the current split between employee- and employer-paid insurance premiums, a major source of contention in last year's budget process.

Across the state, this year's school budgeting process has been shrouded by uncertainty surrounding the length of the school year. Last week, a judge halted a much-maligned state Public Education Department rule mandating 180 instructional days for next school year — a decision likely to remain in place through the end of school budgeting season in June.

In recent weeks, the district's Chief Financial Officer Robert Martinez told the school board on Tuesday, "We created several different scenarios based on whatever direction we were going to go because we weren't sure. We weren't sure, but we had to have plans all around to get this budget balanced."

There's still no final word on how many instructional days will be included in Santa Fe Public Schools' 2024-25 academic calendar, since collective bargaining with the district's two unions remains ongoing, Superintendent Hilario "Larry" Chavez said during the meeting.

However, he noted, the district is "still negotiating off the current contract," which has 175 to 176 instructional days for students and 182 work days for staff. The first day of school for the 2024-25 school year won't change: Students will return from summer break on Aug. 9.

The fiscal year 2025 budget is about $30 million less than this fiscal year's budget, which amounts to about $460 million. However, Martinez said, the two totals aren't comparable since the $460 million figure includes all of the grants the district has received in the past year while the nearly $430 million only includes the awards the district has already received. The difference between the figures is not expected to result in any major changes such as cutting positions, benefits or salaries.

About three-quarters of the district's budget has remained static for the past few weeks, Chavez said. Santa Fe Public Schools knew what to expect, for instance, in terms of funding for new construction and facilities upgrades.

The primary source of uncertainty lay in what the district calls its operational budget — a pot of money that stems from the state's per-pupil education spending.

So far, the state's per-pupil spending increase this year is relatively low, 3.22% higher than the 2023-24 school year. That increase, district officials have said, barely covers the cost of 3% raises for educators.

As a result, the district's expected operational fiscal year 2025 budget of $153 million is comparatively low, Chavez said.

"This budget is lean," the superintendent said. "There's no fluff to it."

Chavez is pushing for the Public Education Department to adjust districts' state funding — a common practice that typically occurs in February — as soon as possible to staff up during the summer.

Members of the school board joined in that advocacy during Tuesday's meeting.

"Having an austere budget in a record revenue year seems a little incongruous and disheartening," said board President Sascha Anderson.

Board member Kate Noble said overly cautious budgeting from the state impedes the flow of dollars to classrooms, straining public schools.

"When we have this level of complexity and, in essence, incredibly conservative budgeting ... it doesn't serve students well," Noble said.