School Budget Blues or Sustainability Challenge? You decide.

Christina Selby

The State Legislature has forced the SFPS to accommodate an approximate $6.9 million budget reduction for this upcoming budget cycle.

We at the Sustainable Education Task Force believe that student-led, district-wide sustainability initiatives have the potential to save the district more than double what they will gain from closing a school (one of the cost saving ideas on the table).

The District has taken some measures to realize energy savings and to green their buildings - I applaud them. Have they exhausted all possibilities? Definitely not.

Computers remain turned on at most schools 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Without power strips to turn off phantom power schools continue to suck energy when we are not looking - often estimated of up to 20-30% of utility bills. Schools are still paying SFWMA to pick up the organic matter in their trash rather than composting it on site - an estimate 1/3 of all school trash, and the trash bill, is organic matter. 10,000s of square feet of school buildings with 10,000s of square feet of water catchment potential sit on dozens of acres of unused, eroding landscapes. Santa Fe is rife with frustrated backyard gardeners and budding young farmers just itching for a few acres to grow food on. On-site organic farming could provide fresh, healthy produce to school lunch programs at a fraction of the cost of transporting pre-cooked, packaged foods from across the country. Most school hallways are lit to 30 foot candles, when they only require 10 - take out some of those light bulbs and realize more energy savings. Better yet, turn off the lights and use daylight where it is available.

These are all practical things that can be done immediately by students. And if they are done in every school in the district, the savings could be enormous. Imagine taking one week to engage students at every school in the district in energy, waste, water, transportation and food audits to get the data they need to implement these solutions. They'll learn science, math, social studies, even language arts at the same time so no worries about getting behind in the curriculum. In fact real-world teaching practices like these have been shown to increase student engagement which in turn leads to improved academic achievement. These are win-win ideas for everyone.

The district could also choose to use a professional energy audit company, like the City of SF just did and realized much cost savings to their budget. But, such top-down initiatives will only go so far without a comprehensive district-wide educational campaign directed at changing behaviors of the facility users - students, teachers, staff, and parents. I prefer top-championed initiatives led by youth for youth. Like the student-initiated and -led recycling competition going on for Earth Week in seven Santa Fe high Schools.

I don't believe SFPS should consider closing any schools and suffer the inevitable unintended social consequences and delay effects for years to come (increased drop out rates, loss of community, increase in crime - just a few of the social consequences mentioned at tonight's meeting) - until they exhaust ALL possible sustainability cost saving ideas.

Think about it - would you rather have kindergartners sweat a little bit in May because we left the air conditioners off and opened the windows to save on utility bills or have 22 of them struggling in a classroom with one teacher all year? I think this kind of slight physical discomfort is bearable given the massive social consequences we might face if other proposals go through.

I believe that if sustainable Santa Feans put their heads together and generate a list of all the cost saving sustainability measures out there, we'll surely be able to save multiple schools from closing, or at the very least plug some big holes in next year's budget. So put on your creative thinking caps and send us your mini-miracles! Your singular ideas may not seem like much to you, but put it in a spreadsheet with everyone else's and they add up fast!

The Sustainability Education Task Force will be posting successful sustainability ideas and examples from around the country on this blog and invite you to do the same. We are especially interested in student-centered initiatives. If we collect enough feasible ideas in time, we will present them to the Board of Education (giving you credit for your ideas of course) meeting on Earth Day, April 22nd.

Help us turn this budget crisis into an opportunity to forward sustainability in Santa Fe schools!

Post your ideas in the comment box with links to any online information or email them to us and we'll get them up.

LET’S TAKE THIS ON CREATIVE SUSTAINABLE SANTA FEANS!

A Report from the Thursday, April 15th, 2010 BOE Budget Meeting

Christina Selby & Lucy Foma

Over 140 people attended the Santa Fe Board of Education meeting on Thursday night to find out what the future holds for our schools. The State Legislature has forced the SFPS to accommodate an approximate $7.4 million budget reduction. This is no small sum, so the School Board has been looking to a Budget Advisory Committee and the public for ideas on ways to close this gap. Since our public schools already cut $5.4 million during the 2009-2010 year, and next year will likely bring more cuts, the solution to this problem will inevitably come from multiple actions and no singular change.

Superintendent Gutierrez started off the meeting with one piece of good news - NMPED gave its official nod to the District to allow for less State mandated student testing (yea!). I think lots of kids will breathe easier from that decision. Board and community members followed with heartfelt presentations expressing their feelings and opinions on the various proposed budget cuts.

The strain and sadness for what faces our schools and our most precious community resource - our children - was palpable in the room. In unfortunate displays of interpersonal conflict, Board members chided each other for passing off knee jerk reactions as solutions, lack of transparency, and political posturing, among other things and continued to lobby that at each other throughout the meeting. Times of stress make leaders do ugly things I guess. Let's hope they do it off the mic next time.

Some budget cutting options being considered include: 2% salary reductions for administrators, 1% for teachers and 0.5% for all other employees. Other budget reduction suggestions include: reduce substitute costs by having administrators substitute teach one day per week every two weeks, eliminate special education support specialists' positions, increase the length of the school day in order to go to a four day week to save in transportation costs, use emergency cash reserves to prevent cuts to Art and Music, early retirement for teachers if possible instead of layoffs or pay cuts, or use capitol funds (for buildings, etc.) to pay for teachers, programs, and textbooks. Art and music classes are also on the chopping block.

The most controversial proposals come from the "Facilities Realignment" plan involving closing or consolidating the District's small schools. The two largest expenses for the SFPS are Direct Instruction ($58,925,000) and Operation/Maintenance of Plant ($10,821,000). By consolidating Alvord, Larragoite and Kaune Elementary schools into the renovated building that was formerly Alameda Middle School, the School Board thinks it can save $771,542 (without including the cost of renovating Alameda). The Board is assuming that a large part of the budget could be made up from renting out the facilities that are currently used as Larragoite, Kaune and Alvord ($498,952 next year with higher expected revenue in year 2). Given, however, that SFPS can expect further cuts for 2011-2012 due to the state's economic strain, the last 48 hours have seen more proposals for schools closings. Acequia Madre seems to have risen to the top of that list with estimates of cost savings thrown out at the meeting ranging from $125,000 - $250,000. (FYI – Rio Rancho School District saved $160,000 last year from some cursory energy conservation measures by a handful of teachers and students – things list using power strips so you can turn off computers at the end of the day).

Board President, Richard Polese, wrapped up the meeting announcing they will make and present their "near final" decisions next Thursday, April 22nd (Earth Day) at a the public meeting. The meeting ended with BOE members voting with their dots on budget cuts posted around the room. Same location next week: BOE Board Room at 610 Alto Vista Street. It promises to be an even more interesting meeting than this week’s standing-room only one.

All Board members are recieving comments via phone and email. Angelica Ruiz is holding office hours at Mikolos Cafe on Jaguar Road every other Saturday. The next one is Saturday, April 17tb. Take them up on the opportunity to have your voices heard!