Budget squeeze spares APS staff, kids

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - For now, at least, state budget cuts won't force any layoffs, furloughs or salary reductions in the Albuquerque Public Schools district, Superintendent Winston Brooks told KRQE News 13.

Stimulus money intended to help teach students of low-income families and special-education students will fill the hole created by state efforts to plug a $650 million shortfall in the current budget year, Brooks said Tuesday.

Everything that can be done is being done to keep the cuts from hurting the students, he added.

Brooks said he will find additional savings by cutting administrative costs and by consolidating some departments.

Positions might disappear, but those employees will be reassigned to other vacant jobs.

Still, with the state possibly facing a similar budget shortfall next year, Brooks said that without tax increases he doesn't think he'll be able to hold-harmless employees and students.

"We have a huge cliff that we're about to fall off of," Brooks said. "I do think if there are not revenue enhancements to the state's budget that we are going, as well as all the other school districts across the state, we are going to have to look at some kind of a reduction in force or furlough or some other kind of punitive action toward our employees."

For now though, APS is still waiting to see if the final cut from the state is $4.6 million or $11.6 million.

That depends on if the state follows through on a plan to pay for some property and liability insurance costs for school districts. There is some debate over whether that plan is legal.

Either way stimulus money will help APS absorb the blow.

APS currently has a cash reserve, also called a discretionary fund, of $8 million.

Brooks said APS needs that money in case of emergencies.