Los Lunas Board of Education passes 2025-26 fiscal budget

LOS LUNAS — After a months-long process, several detailed presentations and two votes, the Los Lunas Board of Education approved the preliminary budget for the 2025-26 school year at a special meeting on April 29.

The balanced budget of just more than $141 million will now be presented to the New Mexico Public Education Department on or before May 12. NMPED must then approve the budget before July 1.

“I would first like to give a special thank you and appreciation to (LLS CFO Sandra) Traczyk and her staff because it was a quick turnaround time for the budget and approval process, said Acting Superintendent Susan Chavez after the meeting.

“So I am very happy that we have provided a balanced budget that does meet all the requirements for the upcoming fiscal year,” Chavez said.

As mandated by NMPED, all LLS employees will get at least a 4 percent raise in the 2025-26 school year. There will be a medical insurance increase of 9.95 percent for both employees and employers, at an estimated cost of $700,000.

It was the state-mandated insurance increase that was most discussed in the final stages of budget preparation and review by the board.

Four different insurance options were presented to the board over several meetings, detailing the most equitable for district employees, particularly employees making $60,000 or more. Another point of inquiry was the request to add six full-time employees — a buyer in finance, one additional warehouse worker, an IT person focused on security systems, such as fire alarms and access control, an elementary band instructor, and two athletic/activity sponsors for Los Lunas and Valencia high schools.

The board was presented with four insurance options — labeled A, B,C and D. The board would end up focusing on Option A, which provides for a split of 80 percent paid by the district and 20 percent plaid by the employee and 70/30 option. This option would cut into the LLS cash reserves by nearly $850,000. Option D expanded the brackets to $55,000 thousand and below, $55,000 to $66,000 and $65,000 and over and would make no cuts to LLS’ reserves.

With board member Sonya C’Moya absent, the board deadlocked at 2-2 on its first vote on the budget. On that vote, board secretary Justin Talley gave the motion to approve the budget as presented.

The motion included the addition of insurance option A and the approval to hire only five full-time employees, minus the safety and security IT person.

Talley and board vice president Bruce Bennett voted yes, while board member David Vickers and board president Michelle Osowski voted no, resulting in the motion failing.

Prior to the second vote, Osowski made a motion to approve the budget as proposed, including insurance Option D. She also proposed a change in the employee bracket $0-55,000 and under, $55,000 to 65,000 and $65,000 to 70,000 — all amounts that were already included in the budget.

She also kept the elimination of the safety IT position from the proposed hiring. In the discussion, Osowski explained her rationale for the differing motion and said Option D could be “a baby step into addressing some concerns that Mr. Talley has raised, which are fair considerations.

“Mr. Talley has raised in previous board meetings and board work sessions that our higher-paid employees pay more for the medical insurance, which in many ways feels like a penalty for making more money and choosing to work for the district,” she said. “And if we’re to get the district’s position of being premier, we should be moving toward equality of all employees. So this would be a baby step with talking about this next year, looking at ways we could find the $2 million (needed to cover the insurance).”

Osowski continued, saying the district would attempt to move to a preferred 80-20 split on payment of insurance, with employees paying the 20 percent. She also expressed concern about federal funding, with the U.S. government starting its fiscal year in October, versus the district’s start in July.

After Talley voiced concerns about not addressing the conundrum of higher-paid employees losing money due to the state-mandated insurance increases, the motion was brought to a vote. The budget was approved 3-1, with Talley voting no and Bennett saying he preferred the 80-20 split but compromised his position to get the process moving. The vote means the district will have to dip into its cash reserves in the next fiscal year.

Osowski echoed the praise of Traczyk and the finance department staff after the vote was completed..

“(This) was a comprehensive, transparent, presentation that I feel was a bigger improvement, a much bigger improvement from last year,” she said, “and I know I feel like I walk out as a much better and informed board member.”

“It’s a long process,” she continued. “It’s an arduous process, but I do believe that we have a better understanding of what goes into the budget and therefore, possibly, the public has a better understanding of what goes into the budget.”

Los Lunas Schools’ new budget shows a variance of just over $7 million, which came from NMPED changing its SEG (State Equalization Guarantee) tool for estimating revenue. This increased the budget from $134.1 million in 2024-2025 to $141.1 million in 2025-2026.

The district will also see a dental insurance increase of 4 percent, an estimated $15,000 expense, and a risk insurance increase of 16 percent (approximately $400,000), Traczyk reported. Nurse salary schedules will also be changed to a three-tier system similar to teachers.

The elimination of out-of-state travel remains, with a proviso that out-of-state trips are only used in special circumstances. The reduction of take-home vehicles also remains, as do cuts in some positions from the 2024-25 school year. The district’s finance department said the 2024-25 budget is not expected to cut into cash reserves.