Cobre Budget Adjustments at the November 12 Board Meeting

The budget adjustments the Cobre school board approved Monday night allowed funds to be moved into the account for teachers’ salaries, mainly in kindergarten through high school, but also created funding for diagnosticians and duty personnel, which had not been funded in the original budget.

The 2012-2013 budget started with $2,902,999 for teachers. The adjustments added another $243,702 to this figure, raising it to $3,146,701 for the year. Other areas receiving the adjusted funds included special education teachers, raising the figure of $644,352 to $673,237 with another $28,885 dollars, and their instructional assistants received $13,122 in the adjustments. The diagnosticians, who were not included earlier, were given $55,290. Duty personnel, also unbudgeted, now had $10,626.

Speech therapists were given a nearly $6000 adjustment, and a similar category, contracted speech therapists, received over $28,000. Library/media assistants had over $13,000 added to their account, maintenance received another $2300, and two categories listed as ‘additional compensation’ were given $2464 and $8974. Differences in accounting codes suggest that these are not for the same groups.

The total adjustments amounting to $425,931 were taken from a variety of accounts such as early childhood education teachers, $34,430 less, vocational and technical teachers, reduced from $264,812 to $134,200 for a transfer of $51,293, psychologists/counselors, $130,612 less, administrative associates, $93,860 less, and principals had $79,261 placed in the transfer. Secretary/clerical/technical assistants saw over $8000 of their budget given in adjustments. Instructional assistants, grades 1-12, had the total amount of their budgeted $26,000 placed in the adjustments.

Of the budgeted $5,744,181 for salaries, the $425,931 changes made represent a shifting of nearly seven and a half percent of those funds. Budget adjustments appear to be a common practice for school boards in the state of New Mexico. Grant County Beat reporter Margaret Hopper requested these figures from Cobre for general informing of the Cobre community.