Our Blog

The 54th session of the New Mexico Legislature has now officially come to a close. Region 9 proudly collaborates as a member of the NMRECA. Through this group, we have done a tremendous amount of work to market and build unity as an organization. One of our focus efforts was to ask, for the first time since 2006, for an increase in base funding for the RECs in NM. We made a specific request for $3 million which divided equally by the ten RECs, would provide an equitable funding base for each REC to meet their statutory requirement of staffing, rent, and utilities. The legislature signed a budget that followed the Legislative Finance Committee’s (LFC) recommendation of $1.1 million for the ten RECs. This will result in a $6,000.00 increase for each REC. We will gladly accept the additional funds and put them to good use. Our failure to attain the $3 million we asked for leads us to continue the work we have done over the past year. We have an NMRECA meeting on March 11 and will be discussing our strategy starting in April to meet with LFC, LESC, and key legislators in preparation for the next legislative session.

The NMRECA has additionally done a substantial amount of work to build a good working relationship with the Public Education Department (PED). We are beginning to be seen as a partner in statewide initiatives and will work to continue building this relationship and hopefully provide opportunities for us to support the PED and our member districts with the implementation of new initiatives.