Tanya Maestas, director of finance for Taos Municipal Schools, gave the board a high‑level walkthrough of how the state and district budget calendars intersect and which data points drive the district’s operating revenue.

Maestas said the district must manage many separate budgets — “I think I counted the other day. We're like up to 62 budgets in total that we have to manage” — and emphasized that student counts in the state reporting windows are the primary driver of the district’s State Equalization Guarantee (SEG) funding. She described the 40/80/120‑day reporting snapshots and the role of the teacher cost multiplier (TCI) in converting program units into dollar allocations, and she urged conservative projections to avoid being “right‑sized” downward later in the year.

Why it matters: SEG and the state General Appropriation Act (House Bill 2) determine most operational revenue for local schools. Timing and accuracy of enrollment reporting, certification counts and special program membership directly affect how much money Taos receives and when.

Key details:
- Maestas reviewed the state legislative timeline and the district’s internal calendar; she said PED (Public Education Department) typically issues final SEG estimates and the 9105 (SEG worksheet) that drive the operational budget in April/May and that Taos’ tentative PED deadline for submission this year is May 9.
- She described how the 40‑day (fall), 80‑day and 120‑day snapshots and the at‑risk index are used in SEG calculations, and noted the state is revisiting at‑risk weighting this session.
- Maestas demonstrated the SEG planning tool and example calculations from prior years: the district’s program unit calculations (with applied weights) convert into adjusted program units via the TCI; the sample document she showed included a program cost calculation used to project SEG funding.

Board next steps and timeline: Maestas presented a draft internal budget calendar with department review dates through April and a proposed public board review in early May so the district can meet the tentative May 9 PED submission date. She recommended additional budget committee sessions to finalize staffing and carryover questions before the board adopts the operational budget.

Maestas closed by asking trustees to hold technical questions until the end of the presentations so the finance team can get through the full packet and then return to any items the board wants discussed in more depth.