Valencia County meetings spotlight school budget, arroyo district agreement

$141 million in district-level spending was on the table as Los Lunas Schools held a 4 p.m. work session in the central office boardroom at 119 Luna Ave., SE, on April 7 to discuss the 2026–27 fiscal year budget that affects roughly 8,100–8,300 students. Superintendent Susan D. Chavez led the presentation materials and the board’s deliberations involved Board President Frank A. Otero, Vice President P. David Vickers, Secretary Sonya C’Moya and member Michelle I. Osowski, Ph.D., all of whom will influence any budget motions that follow.

Budget planners in Los Lunas reopened concrete tradeoffs discussed in prior briefings to the Legislative Education Study Committee, including options such as eliminating or restructuring director-level positions, shifting roughly 15 educational assistants across funding streams, not filling several vacant assistant-principal posts, and relying on remaining ESSER funds to smooth the transition. Those line-item possibilities make the work session more than ceremonial: they indicate where salaries and school programs could change for classrooms, special education services and after-school offerings in the coming school year.

At 6 p.m. on April 9 the Valencia County Arroyo Flood Control District convened at the Valencia County Administration Building, 444 Luna Ave., for an agenda item described as consideration of acceptance of a memorandum of agreement with the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District. The flood district’s board, sworn March 13, 2025, includes Chair Teresa Smith de Cherif, Wayne Gallegos, David Gardner, Danny Goodson and Michael Montoya; the district’s 0.50 mill levy, approved after formation by voters Nov. 5, 2024 (23,029 yes to 7,427 no), was projected to raise roughly $800,000 in its first year to hire staff, pay engineers and fund field work.

The MOA with MRGCD matters because MRGCD, with Valencia County representation such as director Brian Jiron and board leadership including Stephanie Russo Baca and John P. Kelly, operates the canals and drains that breached in major events in 2018 and July 2021. An MOA typically allocates maintenance responsibilities and cost-sharing, and precedent agreements between MRGCD and municipal governments have altered which agency responds to channel repairs and emergency breaches.

Top three items residents should watch in the wake of these meetings are clear: first, the Los Lunas Board’s next formal budget vote, where Otero, Vickers, C’Moya and Osowski will move from work-session discussion to potential resolutions that could change staffing and program lines within a district that previously operated on a preliminary $141 million budget; second, the Arroyo Flood Control District’s acceptance or modification of the MRGCD MOA, which would reallocate operational duties for canals and drainage and set costs tied to the district’s 0.50 mill levy; third, personnel and operational signals such as the placement of Peralta Elementary principal Pam Golliheair on paid administrative leave effective March 26, 2026, which could heighten short-term staffing pressures as the budget and mill-levy-funded hires are finalized.

Follow-up steps are already scheduled: MRGCD has a regular meeting listed for April 13, 2026, where related cooperative details may appear, and detailed budget and MOA packets are posted on Los Lunas Schools’ budget page, the Valencia County agenda center and MRGCD’s board materials. These documents contain the line-by-line proposals that will determine who pays for engineers, who schedules channel repairs and which programs endure for the district’s 8,000-plus students.