Official: Enrollment declining

Officials at Portales Municipal Schools say a decline in enrollment is the reason for a dip in this year's budget.

The budget is down $885,000 from last year's budget of $22.4 million and Business Manager Sarah Marquez says that's an indication that the economy is causing families to relocate.

"We're down in our total budget and that's largely due to having a decrease in 100 kids from last year," said Marquez, who added she believes that number does not reflect children in military families stationed at Cannon Air Force Base.

"We think it has a lot to do with the drought. Several dairies closed."

Since a majority of the school district's budget comes from the state's public school fund, the schools receive more money per child, especially those who have specific needs.

The money distributed to all public schools is determined by a State Equalization Guarantee (SEG), a funding formula.

"The more kids you have, the more money you get for the services they require," Marquez said. "For example, if a child needs an interpreter, you get money for that interpreter."

But the money Portales schools received from the state wasn't the only place its budget took a hit; Marquez said federal funding has been cut as well due to sequestration.

Marquez said the result of sequestration has been to cut Title I funding by $242,000.

Title I is a federal program that provides financial assistance to elementary schools with children from low-income families. The money is allocated through formulas based primarily on the U.S. Census.

With decreases in the operational and federal budgets, Marquez said the only way to deal with the cuts and spare jobs is through attrition.

"When 90 percent of the budget goes to salary and benefits, there's not many places to cut," Marquez said.

Marquez said they will not fill retired positions, but they will move some positions around to make sure the needs of students are being fulfilled.

The district employs 373. Although employees will receive a 1 percent increase in take-home pay this coming school year, those who make more than $20,000 will see an increase in their retirement payments from 9.4 to 10.1 percent.

Here's a look at some numbers from this year's budget:

Budgets 2012-2013 2013-2014

Operational: $22.4 million $21.5 million

Instructional materials: $201,869 $154,899

Food service: $2.1 million $2 million

Title I: $1.4 million $901,060

Operational budget breakdown for 2013-2014

• Salaries and benefits: 90.39 percent
• Purchased property services: 3.29 percent
• Other purchased services: 2.27 percent
• Supplied materials: 2.07 percent
• Purchased professional and technical services: 1.72 percent
• Property and equipment: 0.2 percent
• Debt service: 0.06 percent