Alvord Elementary School received a stay of execution Tuesday thanks to Gov. Bill Richardson, as the school board voted to keep the school open with $200,000 Richardson said he would direct from statewide school emergency funds.

Leading up to Tuesday morning's special board meeting, four out of five board members had expressed a willingness to close the tiny Railyard-district school as part of a larger proposal to cut $4.5 million from the district budget.

District officials estimated closing the school could save about $98,000 annually.

But after Richardson visited district headquarters Tuesday to speak with board president Angelica Ruiz — he did not address the board or speak with Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez — things changed.

Ruiz said Richardson committed $200,000 over the next two school years to keep Alvord open. The money will come from the Public Education Department's emergency supplemental fund, said Alarie Ray-Garcia, spokeswoman for Richardson.

At the meeting, Ruiz moved to keep the school open for the next two years. All board members said they appreciated the governor's offer, but Frank Montaño and Mary Ellen Gonzales both wondered whether the appropriation would count against money the district receives from the state.

Montaño also said he wanted a guarantee in writing before voting on keeping the school open. A move to table the decision until today was voted down.

The meeting also provided board member Barbara Gudwin an opportunity to respond to some Alvord parents who had criticized her decision to support closing the school.

She said that while she supported an idea to create a magnet school at Alvord focused on sustainability, the application presented "was not a quality proposal" and lacked details about formal partnerships and additional funding.

Gudwin also urged Alvord parents to raise their expectations for the school, citing low test scores as one example of how "the children at Alvord are not getting the best education they can."

Only one in five Alvord students who took state tests last year were proficient in math and less than half were proficient in reading.

Gudwin joined Gonzales in pointing out that the district's smallest, downtown-area schools serve only a small portion of its students, while the majority are crowded into south-side schools. And, she said, "Not a single school in the downtown district is at capacity with children from its own zone."

The board eventually voted unanimously to keep the school open for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years contingent on receiving the funding.

Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia said the school district will have to go through the technicality of applying for the funds.

During the 2008-09 school year, she said, the PED gave out most of the $7 million available in emergency funds. This year, that amount was increased to $12 million because school districts, like most state agencies, received less money from legislators.

After those two years, Alvord will stay open only if the Legislature passes a new funding formula — which could result in an additional $11 million for the district — or if another stream of funding is found.

While the additional funds will offset the savings of closing the school, it's possible the school will find itself in the same position two years from now.

The new funding formula has faced steep challenges in the Legislature, first from lawmakers who were not sure where to find an additional $350 million for schools and then because of the ongoing economic crisis. Recent efforts to raise the money through a tax increase were shot down by senators.

Contact John Sena at 986-3079 or jsena@sfnewmexican.com.