Superintendent explains nixing of calendar

June 02, 2009

The Los Lunas School interim superintendent has sent a letter to parents and teachers explaining why the district has decided to backtrack an earlier decision to have year-round schooling at Desert View Elementary School:

May 27, 2009

Desert View Elementary Parents and Teachers:

Due to unforeseen economic factors, the Desert View Elementary Balanced Calendar will be placed on hold until the following school year. The student start date for DVE will be August 12, 2009. The decision to put the DVE Balanced Calendar on hold for this year was not taken lightly. It was weighed out very thoroughly and with the utmost seriousness. Once the final budget was passed by the School Board on May 12th, only ten working days ago, it was made clear that enough funds were just not available.

In order to balance the LLS 2009-10 Budget over 30 teaching and support staff positions will not be filled for the 2009-10 school year, over $600,000.00 in Administrative positions were cut and 50% of educational materials and equipment were also cut. We are fortunate that we did not have to close a school as Santa Fe Public Schools was forced to do. Many other school districts in the state have had to cut programs and lay people off of jobs. After all the necessary budget cuts were made and all of the dust had settled, the only option left to recover funding for the DVE Balanced Calendar would have been to take LLS employees jobs away from them. When faced with a choice of taking employee’s jobs from them or changing the schedule of a school, the choice was clear. The final outcome of the 2009-10 school year, budget was shaped by the economy and LLS is not alone in this troubled economic time. The final figures of our budget are still not solid just as home prices are rising and falling on a daily basis, the dollars that make up our budget are also unstable in this fluctuating economic time. We are hearing even today that there may be more state funding cuts to come.

I regret that LLS was forced to move in this direction. All possibilities of alternative funding were researched prior to arriving at the decision to place the Balanced Calendar on hold.

Sincerely,

Bernard R. Saiz
Interim Superintendent
Los Lunas Schools

Posted in: Archive