Cariños de los Niños Charter School settled their lawsuit with the Española School District on March 3 and school officials are now preparing for the upcoming 2016-17 school year by making the final arrangements to move into the District’s central office building.
They are also arranging a meal plan for students, provided by District kitchen staff.
The District has been providing meals to the Cordova-based school at their site, which was home to the former Mountain View Elementary, but District officials said providing meals for the 2016-17 school year may pose a funding challenge for the District.
Cariños Chancellor Vernon Jaramillo went before the Española Board at a special meeting, May 16, at central office, located at 714 Calle Don Diego, future home of the Charter School. He requested the school be able to purchase food service from the District for the new year, including warm breakfast and lunches.
At a budget work session in the spring, the District’s financial staff indicated their anticipated increases for School Year 2016-17, which include an increase in medical premiums as high as 8.3 percent for all staff, insurance increases for buildings and general liability, as well as bumps in teachers’ salaries, from $40,000 to $42,000 and from $50,000 to $52,000 for Level II and III teachers, respectively.
“We are currently determining the cost impact of all these increases,” Interim finance director Myrna Garcia wrote in a report to the Board. “The bottom line is that the District will have less funding once all the mandatory items are covered.”
Jaramillo said the school was not requesting free meal services, as was discussed during mediation, instead it is requesting to pay kitchen services from a reimbursement claim through the school’s state food service program.
Public Education Department Student Nutrition Deputy Director Michael Chavez said some of the state’s community eligibility provisions to improve access to free school meals in high poverty areas have changed recently and the Charter School had yet to finalize a plan for the upcoming school year.
“I am not sure what their plan is,” Chavez said. “Hopefully, they will let us know what their plan is no later than June.”
Cariños had been searching for a location in Española since its enrollment dropped dramatically, as a result of moving to Cordova. As a condition of a provisional three-year charter with the state, the Charter school had to shore up its facilities situation and increase their enrollment.
According to information made available at their May 18 governance meeting, the Charter School projects 175 total students once they move back to Española next school year.
Since the school does not have kitchen facilities set up, they are requesting the same warm meals offered to the District’s other schools during the 2016-17 school year.
Jaramillo said this should result in a positive cash flow for the District and would also have a positive impact on the District.
Under the proposed plan presented by the Charter School, the District will report Cariños as a community eligibility provision school, while concurrently keeping it as a separate entity from the other District schools.
According to the plan, the District will do all the reporting to the state Public Education Department and will receive reimbursements for the meals at $3.15 a meal, and for services rendered.
“I hope that we can agree that we are all on a common mission,” Jaramillo said. “Fulfilling the needs of our community’s children is a common interest.”
District Nutrition Specialist Sennie Quintana said although Cariños is 100-percent a Community Eligible Provision (CEP), there is a fiscal problem with unclaimed meals.
“We have been providing Cariños meals for the last six or seven years,” she said “Right now, Cariños picks up their breakfast every day and we deliver lunches (to Cordova).”
Quintana said the school’s current enrollment is approximately 110 to 120 students, and thus, the District delivers 110 meals every day.
She said the school is being served out of the Española Middle School kitchen, so staff and the cooks are getting an additional salary of $25,000 all together for the year. There are six cooks currently on staff at the middle school.
“The problem we have is, if we send 110 meals, but only 90 students show up, we can only claim 90 meals. That means there is an additional 20 meals and we can’t get reimbursed for them. It is all depending on attendance.”
Quintana said she is planning to meet with Cariños staff next week after school lets out.
District acting superintendent Myra Martinez said the additional hours are tantamount to having two crews working at the middle school.
Board members said they would be willing to accommodate the situation, provided they didn’t lose anything as a result of the unclaimed meals.
Quintana said she hopes the District can work something out for the upcoming school year, which does not necessitate the District coming up with additional funding.
“These are your kids also,” Jaramillo said. “These students will be attending high school in Española.”
Martinez and District staff said they would meet with the Charter School officials to look at the options available to both. Cariños officials conducted a walk-through of the mostly-vacated central office facilities on May 18.
Robert Sanchez, vice president of Alcalde-based R and M Construction, the contractor working on the renovations, said they are being paid by the Charter School.
Some of the work includes configuring office spaces to classrooms, installing bathrooms for students and making the facility Americans with Disabilities Act compliant to meet state requirements.
Jaramillo said a total cost estimate on the project will not be completed until May 31.