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Moriarty Weighs Closing a School; Budget Projections $300,000 Short

Posted on: Thursday, 30 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By BETH HAHN Mountain View Telegraph

Moriarty school board members face a tough decision in coming months.

To balance the budget, a school may have to be closed, Moriarty Municipal Schools Superintendent Karen Couch said Monday.

"We've been talking about school closure for a couple of years and I think we're at the point now where no one wanted to be," she said.

Current budget projections for 2006-07 show a $300,000 deficit. The shortfall, Couch said, is largely due to an increase in insurance premiums, a $147,000 jump in the cost of utilities and a continuing decline in student enrollment.

Since 1999, more than 1,000 students have left the Moriarty district to be home schooled, move to other districts or simply drop out.

Closing the gap

To make up the $300,000 shortfall, Couch said the district has three options -- close a school, cut student activities or increase student-teacher ratios. School board members have historically opposed the latter two options, she said.

The best option, said Couch, will probably be closing a school.

"I think that even if we cut all of the athletic programs -- which we will not, but if we did -- it would not make up for the deficit," she said. "The school board is very opposed to cutting back on student activities and programs.

"We do not want to take anything away from the students," she added.

Closing a school, however, would not mean a reduction in services or programs, said Couch. In fact, the opposite may be true.

"We feel that if we combined ... schools, we could offer the students in that school more programs," she said. "Small schools don't often have as many opportunities for programs and activities."

District staffers are "crunching numbers" to determine which school closure would save the most money, but Couch said Moriarty Elementary and Moriarty High School will not be considered.

Moriarty Elementary is the district's largest and has seen an increase in student enrollment even as other elementaries have declined, she said.

For 2006-07, the district expects more than 500 students at Moriarty Elementary -- almost twice the number in Mountainview and South Mountain elementary schools.

Moriarty High School cannot close because it is the district's only high school, Couch explained.

Tough choices

When district officials discussed closing a school about two years ago, Couch said, the front-runners for closure were Moriarty Middle School and South Mountain Elementary.

MMS is crowded into outdated facilities on the high school campus. Couch said some of the MMS classrooms were designed for elementary students and are not adequate for older children.

Couch said Edgewood Middle School has adequate space if the two middle schools were combined. Portables, or temporary classrooms, would be moved to the EMS site, she said.

South Mountain has one of the smallest student populations in the district. Closing it would shuffle students and teachers to the remaining four elementary schools, said Couch.

Schools with older buildings or outdated facilities will also receive more consideration for closure than the newer facilities, said Couch.

The majority of the savings by closing a school would come through reduction in support staff, Couch said, because the teachers would be needed at schools where the student population increases.

Support staff, who would not be rehired, include secretaries, custodians, library assistants and cafeteria workers. The district would also save money because principal and assistant principal positions would no longer be needed.

Alternative uses

If a school is closed, the building would not remain vacant, Couch said.

The district's strategic budget committee, which includes teachers, community members, parents and students as well as administrators, has recommended several programs ranging from technical-vocational classes to an alternative school for at-risk students, Couch said. In the past, the district did not have enough money to implement the programs, but with a school closure there would be extra money and a building for the programs.

"I have lots of ideas, but I'm not really at liberty to discuss them right now," said Couch.

Ultimately, Couch said, closing South Mountain, Moriarty Middle School or any other school is still up to the school board.

"I think everyone would agree that we have postponed making this decision for a number of years," she said. "Closing a school is a very emotional decision."

Couch said it is still unclear whether the district will have to lay off any teachers. Moriarty High is overstaffed, she said, but some teachers will retire, resign or move, and she would have to make a "huge guess" at the number of teaching positions that would be cut.

Budget crunch

District business manager Jose Cano told school board members March 21 that insurance premiums for property damage to the district's buildings skyrocketed more than 130 percent compared to last year.

Cano said the jump was due in large part to claims filed last year by several districts around the state after a powerful hailstorm drilled roofs and battered buildings throughout central New Mexico.

So many districts filed claims that the New Mexico Public School Insurance Authority had to increase premiums to be able to pay claims in case of another large storm,, Cano said.

Insurance premiums for employee health benefits and property damage will cost the district about $628,000 more than last year.

Couch also said Gov. Bill Richardson mandated a 5 percent pay raise for all school employees and a 9.5 percent raise for educational assistants.

The raises will increase the Moriarty district's payroll by about $1.2 million.

The district will receive about $1.7 million in additional funds from the state for 2006-07, Couch said, but it will not be enough to cover both the raises and the insurance premiums.

District officials asked the state Public Education Department if the salary increases could be cut to reduce the $300,000 shortfall, but Couch said state officials gave a stern reply.

"They told us no, we have to give the (whole) raise," she said. "We don't have any flexibility to say we're going to give a 1 or 2 percent raise instead of the 5 (percent) so we can meet our budget."

Edgewood factor

Couch also addressed recent speculation about Edgewood forming its own school district.

Although about half of Moriarty's students would be in Edgewood's district, Couch said a new district would neither help nor hurt Moriarty's current situation.

"With less students, the district gets less money," she said. "But we would have fewer costs. Moriarty really wouldn't save money either way."

Edgewood would also be required to build a high school, and either buy Edgewood Elementary, Edgewood Middle School and possibly South Mountain and Route 66 elementary schools from the Moriarty district or reimburse the costs associated with the construction of those buildings.

Couch said the subject of an Edgewood school district has come up in the past. But she noted that the cost of building a high school and buying or repaying for the other schools may prohibit the split for a few more years.

Source: Albuquerque Journal

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