Albuquerque Public Schools will not receive any state school security funding
Albuquerque NM Aug 18 2019
Albuquerque Public Schools board member Peggy Muller-Aragón thought the award amount was a typo.
“We are pleased to inform you that the Public School Capital Outlay Council (PSCOC) has approved a total net state award in the amount of $0,” a letter on APS school security funding said.
But it wasn’t a typo.
The district won’t get any state money from the 2019-20 School Security Program after statutory deductions, according to council documents.
As a result, APS is planning to decline the PSCOC offer and work on security projects on its own.
The Legislature set aside $46 million over four years for school security money, and it’s the PSCOC’s job to award it to school districts.
Although APS applied for an estimated $17 million worth of safety projects this year, the district is scheduled to receive no money for that work. Rather, any award money would go toward an existing balance the district has to pay off after past legislative appropriations, called offsets.
More than $7 million would go toward APS’ offset balance, according to Kizito Wijenje, executive director of capital master planning.
Although the district won’t receive any state money for security work, Wijenje said, APS would still be committed to put in roughly $9.5 million of its own money because of a matching requirement.
Jonathan Chamblin, director of the administrative staff arm of the PSCOC, noted the match and the offset are required by state statute when such state funds are allocated.
“The Legislature enacted the offset, as one of a number of initiatives, to better equalize state funding of capital requests across all of New Mexico’s school districts,” he wrote in an email to the Journal.
Still, Wijenje says money that is meant to keep kids safe shouldn’t be subject to contingencies.
APS was going to use state money to help with fencing, secure entryways and card access for doors at schools across the city.
Wijenje said the district is planning to decline the $0 award because it would result in a multimillion-dollar obligation for the district without state money going toward security projects.
“I guess we could go ahead and prioritize with the funds we have. What should we put off? Should we put off lead in the pipes? Should we put off, I don’t know, pre-K? Should we put off fixing roofs so that we can do security? I don’t think it’s fair for school districts to be asked to make that decision when it comes to security. It’s one of those things when you’re talking about life and health,” he said.
APS isn’t alone. Other districts in the state have either decided not to apply for the legislative money or have rescinded awards because of the expensive requirements.
Chamblin said 211 schools in 29 districts were given awards in the 2019-20 School Security Program, which is in its second year. And a total of $8.47 million in state money is expected to be given out.
For its first two years, the state has funded a total of $24.47 million for school security projects, Chamblin said.
Last year, APS got about $4 million of that.
Wijenje said this year’s hurdles will result in a longer schedule for school security projects.
Although the district has been working on schools based on need, the PSCOC grant was going to address the remaining schools.
“If we got this grant, it would have taken two years to fully implement everything,” he said.
He estimates it could take until 2023 or later.
“Given six or seven years, we could probably get it done on our own. Schools can’t wait six or seven years. Every other day, it seems, an incident has happened,” he said.
Albuquerque Journal
