Education

The Los Alamos Public Schools district released more information Friday afternoon in regard to a state audit.
Los Alamos was one of 34 school districts to receive an audit letter from the state.

In the letter addressed to Superintendent Gene Schmidt from PED Secretary Hanna Skandera, the state education department is questioning data that “showed significant and unusual increases in the areas of special education — both in the number of students identified and the services provided — and in expenses for teacher training and experience.

“These increases — inconsistent with recent trends — suggest abnormalities or potential errors in the data provided by school districts.”

For the past several months, the Los Alamos Public Schools have been talking about making cuts to their budget. Now it’s time to take action.

Faced with cutting approximately $1 million from the budget, the Long Range Financial Planning Committee and school administrators are mulling over the surveys that were recently sent to the community, in which values were placed on school programs.

LAPS Superintendent Gene Schmidt said the surveys will be used to guide the budget-cutting decisions. On April 21, a budget meeting will be held during which the committee’s discussions will be unveiled to the public.

Education leaders from around the state spent the latter part of the week at a conference in Albuquerque, hoping to gain an understanding of exactly how much they are expected to trim from their budgets.
During the legislative session, Gov. Susana Martinez said districts could expect to make a 1.5 percent reduction in their budgets, however, Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera recently announced that the unit value used in school funding is down by 3.4 percent, $126.20 per student, rather than the 1.5 percent Martinez talked about.
Districts already were anticipating cuts because of a halt in federal stimulus dollars and lower state funding. Now they are faced with having to make even deeper cuts.

With an already tight budget and $600,000 less coming from state funding, Los Alamos Public Schools is looking for ways to find money.

The district currently owns property at 288 DP Road, known as parcel A-15. On Jan. 11, 2006, the federal government transferred the land to the LAPS district and though the land has been vacant, there may be a possibility that the district could soon see rental dollars coming in for that property.

In December 2010, the school district submitted a rezoning application for the property, asking that it be changed from F-L (federal land) zoning to M-2 (Heavy Industrial) zoning. That request was granted and the land now has an M-2 zoning.