The board room at Española School District’s Central Office is preparing to get a facelift, but not all school board members feel the interior decoration is worth the $23,188.92 price tag.
During the Oct. 16 Española School Board special meeting, the item to approve spending $7,174.25 for drapery and $11,214.67 for furniture for the board room was on the agenda. Board Member Andrew Chavez not only pulled the item out for discussion, but requested the renovation of the board room be placed on the construction work session agenda.
“This is the first time this item has come before the Board,” Chavez said.
The out-of-the-way board room is located behind the old gym. The only way to get to the office is by walking through the gym. When central office was a school, the space was a library. It then changed to serve whatever purpose the District deemed necessary — from the bilingual education offices to the current use as conference and training center. However, the room has not been used for Board meetings or work sessions for close to a year. When the new Española Middle School was built in 2007, the regular Board meetings moved to the auditorium, but the occasional work sessions were still held in the board room.
“This is my initiative,” Superintendent Danny Trujillo said. “We get a lot of visitors to Central Office and it really is embarrassing — especially the board room,” Trujillo said.
“How much have we spent?” Chavez asked.
Trujillo said the District had spent approximately $4,800, which covered the cost of upgrading the heating unit, repairing the cooling unit, repairing plumbing in the restroom, replacing ceiling tiles, sanding the floor and purchasing paint for the walls. The $11,214.67 requested for furniture will buy 17 tables, 34 chairs, seven board chairs and a lighted lectern.
“My concern is the project didn’t go through this Board for funding,” Chavez said.
The reason the Board had not been informed of the matter before, Trujillo said, is because the amount was less than $5,000, the amount the superintendent is authorized to spend without Board approval. Also, he wanted the upgrade to be a surprise to the Board members.
Surprise ‘gift’
“It was part of my administrative design to surprise the Board, to have them walk in there and see a nice aesthetic,” Trujillo said.
Trujillo said the money for the project is coming out of the operational fund.
“I think we should have been made known about this prior to the project piling up,” Chavez said.
When the discussion took place during the special Board meeting, Chavez was not any more convinced of the necessity of the project.
“We have better things to spend that money on,” Chavez said. “We have textbooks still missing from schools.”
Chavez said the District has real needs where this money could be used and the central office board room is not one of those needs.
However, Board President Ralph Medina disagreed.
“I think it’s money well-spent,” Medina said.
He said due to the high amount of traffic central office receives, having an appealing meeting space is a smart strategic use of funds by the District.
However, Chavez said that while such blatant problems in education existed in the District such as missing textbooks, money used on updating a board room was unnecessary.
Board Secretary Annabelle Almager said trying to update the board room would be an asset to the District worth the reasonable price tag.
“I don’t see the price as being that high,” Almager said.
“It’s $20,000 and I’m sure it’ll grow,” Chavez said.
Board member Pablo Lujan agreed with Chavez. While Lujan said he understood the state allocates a certain dollar amount to each District to buy textbooks, the operational fund could be used as well, to buy additional books that the state’s funding does not cover.
Despite the disagreement, the majority of the Board was in favor of the renovations. Only Lujan and Chavez voted against the upgrade.
“I hope we’re not throwing money into a pocket with a hole in it,” Chavez said.