PED Apologizes to Cloudcroft Schools and School Board

After the Public Information Officer for PED stated that PED had made no mistakes with regards to Cloudcroft's budget, he has now issued an apology for his mistake.

Cloudcroft's Business Manager sent me the data after last week's Alamogordo Daily News article. I'm attaching those documents here, along with the apology issued by PED.

Margo,

This is a misunderstanding on my part and I owe you an apology. When you wrote about a “PED error” and when I gave you the quote I was referring to a widely reported, but inaccurate, story about an alleged PED error around state-wide unit numbers. In fact, the article I sent you as part of the response was printed on April 8^th, before Cloudcroft schools received their initial 910B5. The state-wide unit numbers was the error I was referring to when I made my comments. It’s now clear this was not the error you (or the school board member) were talking about. I was unaware of the situation around the incorrect 910B5.

I apologize to you for the mixed signals and I will e-mail an apology to Ms. Lund as well.

As for your question, it appears Cloudcroft Schools received the initial (incorrect) 910B5 on April 15^th, the correct form was sent exactly two weeks later.  So, it appears that the Cloudcroft School district had inaccurate information from PED for only 2 weeks.

Despite what may be voiced at school board meetings, PED is in constant contact with the Cloudcroft Superintendent in an effort to help with the budgetary process. All the while, PED has received at least 24 letters from residents raising serious concerns about administrative spending at Cloudcroft Schools.

We believe Cloudcroft Schools can and should deal with any budget cuts at the administrative level. The single biggest priority for every school should be the students. School districts across the state have made cuts without hurting the classroom, Cloudcroft Schools should do the same.

Larry

From: Margo Whitt [mailto:sendmargomail@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2011 8:19 PM
To: Behrens, Larry, PED
Subject: Response to error?

Hi Larry,

Please review the attached documents from the Cloudcroft Schools and let me know your response. The way I'm reading them, PED did make a mistake, did notify Cloudcroft Schools of this mistake at the end of April, and did make a mistake that caused the school to have to cut an additional $160,000 from their budget. It would appear that the Cloudcroft school board member who made that comment was correct.

Margo Whitt