This week, SFR quizzed the three candidates for District 1 of Santa Fe Public Schools' Board of Education. After the jump, their answers on a few more topics--budgets, transparency and whether board members should be qualified to manage a Starbucks.
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Scroll all the way down for the answers.
Questions:
1. Name all the schools in your district.
2. What is the average percent of English Language Learnersand of economically disadvantaged students in your district?
3. What is the total operating budget of SFPS?
4. What is the State Equalization Guarantee, and how does itwork?
5. There have been some complaints that SFPS board membersdon't have the financial expertise to help manage a school district. This is atwo-part question: First, what qualifies you to do this? Second, do you thinkthere should be financial or other experience requirements for board members orsuperintendents?
Steven Carrillo
Age 50, "between careers" but working as a server at theCowgirl
1. I have Santa Fe High, Capshaw Middle School, and forelementary schools I have, uh, EJ Martinez, Piñon Elementary and then ChaparralElementary. And Kaune was one of my elementary schools; however, it was closed.
2. I know economically disadvantaged is close to 50 percent.I think it's just over or under 48. And then for English Language Learners--letme just think of the whole district--I imagine it's close to like 60.
3. I believe it's, ah, close to $90 million.
4. It's how much money all the districts get, and it worksby assigning a dollar amount per unit. So--they use the term 'unit' instead ofstudents, and I know some people find that disconcerning, but that's because ifa student is economic disadvantaged or in some way is disabled, the unit--thecost of providing education for that student goes up, so that's why they usethe term 'unit.' I believe I just said it stands for State EqualizationGuarantee--or maybe you said that--and what it is is how much money goes into thedistrict. And what's different about Santa Fe is that where most districts inthe country get their money from property taxes, all of our money goes into onebig pot, in the Public Education Department, and then it's divvied up to thedifferent districts. So we're not able to even really supplement the unit cost,if you will--the expenses that we need covered--with property taxes or somethingthat was locally based.
5. I’ll pick number twofirst, and no, there should not be, because you want to get a cross-section ofpeople from the community to be on the board. I don’t feel like it needs to bea requirement because I feel that’s why you have--you hire a very capable superintendentthat has that management and budget experience, and then she hires people thathave a great deal of experience with budgets to work for her. What makes meexperienced is that I have dealt with budgets and payrolls and all the humanresources issues related to budgets. And--yeah. I would say that that’s whatmakes me qualified. And a lot of that experience came from working for majorhotels.
Questions: Mary EllenGonzales
65, current board member
1. OK, schools in my district: Piñon, Chaparral, EJMartinez, Capshaw and Santa Fe High School.
2. In my district? You know, I worry so much more about our own dist--the whole district than I doabout my schools. Uh, let's see. I'm gonna say, English language learners in mydistrict--let's see; I've got Chaparral; I've got Piñon; um--I've got Santa FeHigh. So I probably have about 25 percent English language learners. And--freeand reduced lunch is going to be--oh, let's see. I don't have any Provision 2schools anymore since we closed Kaune. Uh--wow. Free and reduced lunch, probably30, 35 percent? That's a real serious guess.
3. The total operating budget--so you're not talking aboutthe total budget; just--and the operating budget would include the SEG, right? Yes. OK, so the SEG I believe was about$80 million and special stuff--that would be food services and all the grantsand blah-blah-blah, that would be $21 million, so that's about $100 to $101million.
4. The State Equalization Guarantee--because the state of NewMexico--we get basically the bulk of our operational funding through the state,the state equalization funding guarantee means that every single student in thestate of New Mexico, no matter where they live, has the same financialopportunity for, um, for a good education. And that's--and then the statefunding--the formula recognizes that in certain places, it's more difficult toprovide an education. For example, if you have a really tiny school, it'sreally hard to provide all the qualified teachers, and if you have a schooldistrict that's flung from here to hither, thither and yon, you need more moneyfor buses. So there's all kinds of additions and things that they make to thatfunding formula. So that's what it is. Oh, and how it works. How it works: it'son a unit basis, and every student generates more than one unit. There is not asingle student category that generates less than a unit. And then all theadditions--so, I think that I've--a first grader, for example, is 1.2 units. Afourth grader is probably 1.1 unit. A high school student is 1.25 units, sothey're all different units. And then you get different units based on yourteachers' training--how much exper--how much education they've had andexperience, how many years they've been in the job. You get extra units for ifyou've got small schools; you get extra units if you're really a far-flungdistrict; you get extra units for elementary art and music education; you get extraunits for at-risk factors; you get extra units for density; you get extra unitsfor all kinds of things. Does that answer the question?
5. OK, part A: What makes me qualified to do this? Um, Ihave made it a priority to study school board budgets and how they work--andthey are very complicated, and what I gave you just now is a really roughthing; I mean, it's like, that's $80 million. It's $79,500,000--that's beforethe state cut the 3.2 percent, and then the federal government added some back,and then we've had a $90,000--you know. So that was what--the $80 million waswhat was approved by the PED back in May, and it's really a moving target. SoI--but I have spent a lot of time studying that, and I used to complain that weneeded more financial instruction and more instruction on how to understandbudgets and all that sort of thing to the New Mexico School Boards Association,which is charged with giving us our training. And it finally dawned on me afterabout three years of bitching and moaning and complaining that if I reallywanted this kind of information, I was going to have to go find it myself. Ihave spent hours and hours and hours studying--Karen Snow was unbelievablyhelpful; John--no, no; let me see. It was Karen Snow and then it was MichaelIrwin and Dr. Mel Morgan, um, have really helped me, and so I have apresentation that I put together, uh, that I give at school board associationmeetings, and I have had superintendents attend those meetings and thank me andtell me they learned stuff, which kind of scares me. But anyway, that's why Ithink--and you see, we're not supposed to be experts. That's not what the lawsays. So we do need to have better than an average bear's understanding, and Ibelieve that I do because the New Mexico School Boards Association thinks I dobecause they're the--because I'm the one they look to; I'm the one they call.They say, 'Would you give your presentation?' and I say, 'Fine.' So that's whyI think I'm qualified to do this, and I have attended the budget technicalreviews, so you know--and I attended all the budget meetings last spring and thespring before and all of them that we had at the different schools. So I'vereally made an effort to really learn it. Now, the second part of the questionwas, should that kind of training be required. Is that correct?
Yes--no. I'm askingwhether board members should be required have some kind of experience beforebeing elected or hired.
Let's talk about board members and superintendentsseparately because I think they're very, very separate. Um, so should a personhave some kind of financial experience before they're even allowed to run forschool board? No. Should they be required to take a lot of training afterthey're elected? Absolutely. But not coming in--because now what are we talkingabout? Are we talking about general CPA accounting? Are we talking aboutgovernment accounting? What about somebody who's been responsible for ahospital budget? I mean, you know, there's all that kind of stuff. So for boardmembers, no. But training, once you have been elected, yes.
Superintendents--absolutely,you better believe it, oh my god yes! Um, and to be a superintendent one has tohave a level 3 administrator’s license. And part of that level 3administrator’s license is taking a--at least a--I think--I don’t know howextensive the course is, um, in finance. I know that Dr. Mel Morgan is whoteaches it for superintendents. So it is required, and it should be required.Continuing training should be required. Now, it is also--and I’m going to put athird caveat on there that you didn’t ask, but I’m going to tell you what Ithink. The Legislature dictates basically what we have to do as far as ourchart of accounts and how we have to report it. I say--and the Legislaturedecided what to do in order to make the state of New Mexico comply with therest of the United States, and so a bunch of accountants designed it. It’s notat all feasible and understandable for normal everyday human beings tounderstand it. I believe that absolutely we probably need to have this verycomplicated chart of accounts that doesn’t make any sense so that we arecomparison--comparable to the rest of the United States. However, I believe thatit should be a part of the law that every school district should--and you can’tdo this with what we’ve got now--should report: ‘This is how much we spend onteachers. This is how much we spend on EAs. This is how much we spend on--ongas. This is how much we spend on’--in other words, like a one-page summarythat’s understandable. Does that make sense? I would love--and I have talked tolegislators about this, and they look at me like I’ve got two heads. So I guessI’ve got two heads, I don’t know. That’s what I think, even if it gives me twoheads. Maybe the problem is I’ve only got half a head, but I do believe that itis very, very, very difficult for the general public and for board members tounderstand all this stuff. And it shouldn’t be.
Carl Luff
56, financial adviser and Certified Public Accountant
1. Capshaw, Piñon, EJ Martinez, Chaparral, Santa Fe Highand--just a little bit of Wood Gormley.
2. English Language Learners--I'd estimate 35 percent--and I'msorry; the second question? Economicallydisadvantaged students. Probably estimating, um, 65 percent.
3. It's approximately $80 million.
4. It's decided at the state level, and the Legislaturedetermines how much money will be available for public schools throughout NewMexico. The theory behind the equalization formula, that every student--theycall them 'units'--receives the same amount of compensation to that school. Sothe idea [is] that a student in Truth or Consequences is treated the same as astudent in Santa Fe.
5. First part: I am a CertifiedPublic Accountant; I have audit experience; and I’ve spent 30 years in theaccounting business, so I think I’m fairly familiar with books and records andhow school districts operate. I’ve also volunteered for 15 years; I’m currentlychair of the audit committee as well. And the second question is, no. I don’tbelieve there should be a requirement, um, to--of any sort to run for the schoolboard.
Answers:
1. Santa Fe High School, Capshaw Middle School, ChaparralElementary, E.J. Martinez Elementary, Piñon Elementary
2. In 2009, the average percent of English Language Learnersat District 1 schools was 18.64 percent, and the average percent ofeconomically disadvantaged students was 58.52 percent, according to the schoolreport cards available on SFPS' website.
3. While the original 2010-11 budget was projected to beapproximately $89 million, more recent estimates have been closer to $81million.
4. According to a 2009 report by the New Mexico PublicEducation Department, the State Equalization Guarantee (SEG) is "the amount ofmoney the State of New Mexico 'guarantees' to provide to the district to defraymost of the program cost," or the cost of providing educational services tostudents. SEG money is appropriated based on the number of "units," acalculation of the number of full-time students and their varying needs, in agiven district.
