Rio Rancho schools approve $257 million budget amid staffing cuts

Rio Rancho Public Schools approved a $257 million budget that district leaders cast as a test of whether they can hold classroom stability together while absorbing a widening financial squeeze. The Rio Rancho Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously, and the plan now goes to the New Mexico Public Education Department by May 29.

The money comes with a hard rebalancing of staff and services. Finance chief Mike Baker said declining enrollment and the growth of programs have created a gap that can no longer be patched with fund balances. At the RRPS Finance Committee meeting on April 27, Baker said the district had lost $15 million in State Equalization Guarantee revenue, even as teaching positions grew from more than 1,200 in 2021-22 to more than 1,240. District information also showed enrollment falling by more than 1,200 students from 2021-22 to the coming school year.

That tension is where the budget’s promise and its weakness both show up. Baker said the district is considering a roughly 3% workforce reduction, but not layoffs. Instead, RRPS plans to leave some vacancies open and shift employees between positions based on workload. For families, that is the difference between a school that keeps its doors open with fewer adults on hand and one that cuts entire classrooms, electives, support roles or campus services. For staff, it means more pressure on remaining teachers and support employees to absorb work that does not disappear just because enrollment dropped.

Superintendent Dr. Robert “Robby” Dodd’s 100-day entry plan fits the same pattern. It calls for a closer review of staffing and programs at each school, plus an inventory of major programs and recent spending trends. District leaders have said that realignment is meant to set up a future strategic plan, but the immediate question is how much tightening RRPS can do without shrinking academic support, behavioral intervention and the broader services that families expect.

The new budget also marks a sharper turn from last year’s $253.3 million operating plan. In May 2025, the board approved that budget with about $230 million in State Equalization Guarantee revenue, a beginning fund balance just under $16 million, about $4.4 million in other revenue and a $6 million board-policy reserve. It also carried a 4% salary increase for employees, higher medical and dental premiums, higher property and risk insurance costs, and about $1.5 million in first-year operating costs for the new Rheotech site.

RRPS, created in 1994, now serves 21 schools and nearly 17,000 students in Rio Rancho and nearby areas. The district has made enrollment-driven cutbacks before, closing SpaRRk Academy in 2023 after citing declining enrollment and an average per-student cost of $11,327. That history makes this year’s budget more than a bookkeeping exercise: it is the district’s latest effort to protect classrooms now while keeping long-term solvency intact.