School board bemoans 180-day rule as 'unfunded mandate'

Apr. 17—Santa Fe Public Schools can expect a challenging budget process as officials endeavor to comply with a new state rule requiring 180 instructional days without a major increase in funding.

In his seven years at the district level, Superintendent Hilario "Larry" Chavez said at a school board meeting Thursday, "This has been the most difficult year to figure out what your budget's going to look like, what the school calendar is going to look like and meet all the requirements. [It] almost feels like it's a moving target."

The district's budget discussions remain in the initial stages, Chavez said, as the state Public Education Department has yet to finalize official student counts for the 2023-24 school year, a figure that determines state funding.

The final balanced budget — which last year totaled nearly $315 million — is due to the Public Education Department by May 28.

Starting in 2024-25, most New Mexico schools will have to operate with 180 instructional days under a new — and controversial — rule imposed by the Public Education Department. For Santa Fe schools, the rule will require adding four days to the calendar — two of which can be used for parent-teacher conferences.

The trouble is, the state's complex per-pupil funding formula hasn't increased enough to pay for those additional days, district Chief Financial Officer Robert Martinez told the board.

The district can expect to see initial funding of about $6,442.55 per student for the 2024-25 school year, an increase of around 3% over this school year, Martinez said.

Board member Kate Noble called the increase "one of the smallest ... in recent memory."

The 3% growth will pay for another state mandate — a 3% salary increase for educators — but not additional instructional days, Chavez said.

"The 180-day rule is unfunded. It's an unfunded mandate," the superintendent said. "It doesn't matter if you have to add one day, five days, 15 days, 25 days; there is no funding attached to the increased amount of instructional days."

The new rule's cost implications, combined with the upcoming disappearance of federal COVID-19 relief funds in September 2024 and a rise in academic and behavioral support needs wrought by pandemic-era learning loss, has created "a kaleidoscope of complexity" this budget season, Noble said.

"This is a very difficult budget environment for this district and probably every other in the state," she said.

The 2024-25 school year also will come with cost increases for employee benefits, which was one of the primary contentions during budget discussions in 2023.

The district currently pays for 74% of health insurance premium costs for employees making more than $50,000 per year. As other districts pay less of the costs for employee benefits, Chavez framed the move as a major recruitment and retention tool; it's "probably one of the best benefits for working for Santa Fe Public Schools," he said.

"It's previously been a board priority that we cover the increase in that benefit cost so that we don't see a decrease in the pay of our employees," board President Sascha Anderson said.

The board's other priorities for the budget season include combating high rates of chronic absenteeism; supporting students' mental health services; improving special education; and recruiting and retaining high-quality staff.

All of that, Anderson argued, will contribute to improvements in Santa Fe Public Schools' still-too-low proficiency rates.

"We are all concerned about our proficiency scores; not a person in this room is not concerned about our proficiency scores," she said. "The way that we get those up is through quality instruction."