Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The Mesalands Community College board of trustees on Wednesday night during a special meeting approved an $8.61 million preliminary budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year and several budget adjustments in the current year.
The financially stressed college faced a June 1 deadline to submit its budget to the state. The board had been scheduled to approve it during its regular meeting the previous week, but officials said they needed more time to complete financial data.
The budget adjustments and preliminary budget are subject to approval from the state.
Chief financial officer Blanca Pauliukevicius said about $1.25 million in state appropriation funding was used to cover a shortfall in the current fiscal year, plus another $750,000 in state funds would be carried over for the next fiscal year to cover overall expenses and contractural obligations.
The college also received about $763,000 in state emergency funds earlier in the year but returned about $191,000 of that.
Mesalands at one point early this year was in danger of not making payroll, primarily because of overspending on employees. The college’s now-former president, Gregory Busch, imposed pay increases in early 2022. Emergency state funding and progressive pay cuts to many employees earlier this year helped stabilize the college’s finances.
Pauliukevicius said the college’s financial records remain about two years behind due to poor recordkeeping and an understaffed business office.
She said it would be difficult for auditors to compare FY2022 data to the FY2021 audit report.
“It’s a challenge, and it’s the best estimate at this point,” she said, adding that firm financial numbers “will be a while from now.”
Mesalands interim president Allen Moss said Pauliukevicius and her staff “have done a tremendous amount of work” in trying to right the college’s books.
Pauliukevicius said Mesalands would impose no increases in tuition or fees for its students in the coming school year.
She said salaries and benefits account for about 80% of the college’s budgeted expenditures. She said because of incomplete financial data, more budget adjustments in the next fiscal year are inevitable.
Board Chairman Richard Primrose observed the pay cuts imposed earlier this year have saved Mesalands over $1 million.
“I trimmed the budget pretty much to bare bones,” Pauliukevicius said, but later added: “We’re making little steps forward.”
In addition to staffing issues in the business office, Pauliukevicius said reimplementing the Jenzabar platform also remains one of the main roadblocks to stabilizing the college’s financial reporting.
Chief of Staff Duane Brooks said in a previous meeting that training and implementation of Jenzabar probably will take 20 to 24 months.
The New Mexico Office of the State Auditor later this year will perform audits on the college’s 2022 and 2023 fiscal years, plus a special audit.
Budget adjustments passed by the board Wednesday partially reflected an endowment to the college’s fledgling nursing problem. That money was deposited into the state treasurer’s account.
In other business, Moss said “probably every building was damaged” from a severe hailstorm on May 25.
He said much of it was broken skylights, damaged roofs and damaged interiors due to water leaks. He said employees managed to shut down the main computers before they overheated, however.
Wednesday’s meeting in the board’s conference room was the first in over three years. When the board resumed in-person meetings in March after the COVID-19 pandemic, those were in the Great Room of Building A.
Board member Teresa Stephenson said it was “easier to understand” conversations and presentations in the conference room than during online videoconferences.