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Las Cruces Public Schools pushes FY2027 budget survey at first town hall

Las Cruces Public Schools ยท November 6, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

District leaders described a year-round budgeting process, outlined an annual timeline and urged residents to complete a new budget survey that was shortened in some places and expanded in others to capture community priorities, including campus safety.

Las Cruces Public Schools officials urged residents to complete the district's FY2027 budget survey at the system's first of three budget town halls, describing how survey results will be used to set school- and district-level spending priorities.

The meeting opened with Cheng Yi Alex Liu, deputy superintendent overseeing finance and budgeting, who said the district's year-round process is unusual in New Mexico and that "your voice will drive next year's budget priorities." The session focused on how the district is promoting the survey, changes to the survey itself and the calendar for drafting, presenting and adopting the FY2027 budget.

Why it matters: District officials say community responses will inform personnel, operating and capital plans at 40 school sites and roughly 25 departments. The schedule officials described shows the legislative session and a Public Education Department "unit value" in April as key external factors that determine how much revenue the district will have to allocate.

Budget process and timeline: Matthew Saenz, LCPS budget director, said the district begins budget development early, collects site- and department-level proposals informed by stakeholder groups, presents recommendations to the finance subcommittee, and holds three town halls during the process. He outlined a schedule that places the survey release on Nov. 1, committee review and site submissions through February, a March 5 town hall to discuss survey results, a May proposed budget and May adoption, and submission to the New Mexico Public Education Department in June. The new fiscal year starts in July.

Survey changes and methodology: Dr. Jules Barbati, the survey facilitator, explained the difference between quantitative (ranked, numeric) and qualitative (open-text) questions and how the district will analyze each. She said the budget committee removed five questions and added 12 new items to encourage participation by parents and staff, and that some existing questions were split or expanded to capture more nuance. New items include questions about types of security presence on campuses and about the district's weapon detection system (referred to in the meeting as Evolve).

Barbati described analysis plans: quantitative responses will be visualized through the ThoughtExchange platform to show frequencies and comparisons; qualitative answers will be thematically coded by facilitators to identify topics that could inform future survey items.

Participation and outreach: Saenz displayed participation trends and said students accounted for a large share of responses in prior cycles. He reported under 2,000 participants in 2024, a dip in 2025 and more than 2,000 respondents last year. Officials said they hope to boost parent and staff participation this year through targeted outreach, videos featuring students and staff, QR codes, posters at school sites and promotion via ParentVUE, social media and community partners including the City of Las Cruces and the Dona Ana County Board of Commissioners.

Accessibility and user experience changes: The survey now allows respondents to skip short-answer prompts they deem irrelevant, and some response labels and directions were shortened for clarity. Barbati also said the survey will include a link to district data dashboards on lcpsfinance.net so respondents can see where revenue comes from and how funds have been allocated.

Next steps: Officials invited the public to a March 5 town hall to review survey results and reiterated that the survey runs Nov. 1 through Dec. 22. Saenz thanked communications and finance staff and partners for promoting the survey.

Quotes in context: Cheng Yi Alex Liu, deputy superintendent overseeing finance and budgeting, opened the meeting and said, "So, your voice will drive next year's budget priorities." Matthew Saenz, budget director, said the district's goal is "to provide maximum transparency, collaboration, and accountability towards student success." Dr. Jules Barbati, the survey facilitator, summarized survey methodology: "Quantitative questions help represent opinions and the perceived importance of different budget items with amounts, frequencies, values or intensity."

How to participate: District officials said the survey is available from Nov. 1 through Dec. 22 on lcpsfinance.net, via QR codes on distributed flyers, ParentVUE and the district's social channels. The district also made its budget book and interactive dashboards available on lcpsfinance.net.

Ending: Officials framed the survey as a key input to the FY2027 budget and encouraged parents, staff and community members to take five minutes to provide priorities that will inform personnel, operating and capital decisions at school sites and district departments.