Three sport utility vehicles purchased for school administrators from an out-of-state dealer. A $91,000 tow truck. Thousands of dollars for iPods for students. Paying athletes and cheerleaders to pull weeds. Lunches, including a $110 tab at the Rio Chama Steakhouse paid for by federal funds intended for low-income students.

These are just some of the questionable expenditures uncovered by audits of five medium-sized school districts that were discussed Thursday at a meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee. One LFC staffer said these audits "barely scratch the surface" of waste and abuse in some school districts.

The audit reports come at a time when the state faces a severe budget crunch. At last month's special session of the Legislature, public schools received budget cuts of only about 1 percent, while other state agencies were hit harder.

Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters after the hearing that the audits show there's room to cut administrative costs in education without affecting classrooms. In Bernalillo, one of the school districts audited, noninstructional spending accounted for more than 40 percent of the district's budget.

Smith called some of the expenses "appalling" and "totally unacceptable."

"It's very frustrating when we hear of these activities," he said. "The public will question whether we need additional taxes to pay for this."

Besides Bernalillo, the other districts audited included Las Vegas, West Las Vegas, Aztec and Bloomfield.

Among the key findings of the audits in the area of financial management: Oversight of school district credit-card use is lacking, resulting in questionable expenditures including "in-town" dining expenses for administrators; some teachers and other school employees are boosting their salaries by as much as of 8 percent with bonus pay, stipends and extra-duty pay; all the districts except Bloomfield have trouble submitting required audits to the state auditor on time.

State Public Education Secretary Veronica Garcia, who attended Thursday's meeting, later issued a statement saying she will support legislation requiring school districts to tighten financial procedures including establishing policies and procedures for using district credit cards.

Bernalillo, which seemed to be the most troubled of the school district examined, spent $91,000 on a tow truck, which it sold one year later to Los Alamos Public Schools for $75,000. The district also paid an out-of-state dealer $112,000 for three SUVs. The audit report said the price paid "appears to be higher than the state of New Mexico price list."

Bernalillo Superintendent Barbara Vigil-Lowder told the LFC that those purchases were made by the district's former transportation director, Rudy Romero, who in July was indicted on 12 felony counts including charges of embezzlement, paying or receiving public money for services not rendered, and making or permitting false public vouchers. The case — in which three other school district employees were indicted — is pending. Vigil-Lowder told reporters that those charges have nothing to do with the vehicle purchases in the audit.

Vigil-Lowder said the SUVs are not take-home vehicles. She said they are used by administrators and sometimes used to transport small groups of students.

Smith blasted the vehicle expenses, saying buying SUVs from out of state is a slap to state businesses whose taxes support the schools. He also questioned the wisdom of buying four-wheel-drive vehicles to travel mainly on paved roads.

In one of the most controversial uses of a credit card discussed Thursday, a Bernalillo administrator paid the Rio Chama Steakhouse in Santa Fe more than $110 for staff lunches. The money came from federal Title 1 funds, which are supposed to be spent to help low-income students.

There were other questionable expenses charged to Title 1 in Bernalillo, the audit said. These included $528 for staff T-shirts. "The Title 1 program also regularly paid for the director and what appears to be one or two others to have staff 'working' lunches in eateries around Bernalillo," the audit says.

Vigil-Lowder didn't dispute the findings. She told the LFC that credit-card procedures have since been implemented.

Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque, had sharp words for Bernalillo Public Schools' paying $3,000 to school athletes and cheerleaders to pull weeds on school grounds. Vigil-Lowder said the money didn't go to the students themselves but to an activity fund. But Keller said, "It sounds like a way to move money between accounts literally on the backs of students doing manual labor. This smells terrible."

Among the other questionable expenditures documented in the audits:

• Randy Allison, superintendent of Bloomfield, charged about $16,000 — including "many questionable expenditures" — to the school's credit card. He was put on leave during the course of the LFC audit and resigned last month.

• Bloomfield used more than $11,000 from a special legislative appropriation to buy iPods and accessories. It's not clear from the report who received these digital music players.

• Meals charged to a Bloomfield district credit card included tabs of more than $400 each at four separate eateries and $800 for lodging at the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe.

• West Las Vegas schools spent $240,000 on an energy management consultant for services that could have been performed free by the state.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.

1. QUESTIONABLE DISTRICT TRANSACTIONS
2. Bernalillo: Spent $91,000 on a tow truck, which it sold one year later to Los Alamos Public Schools for $75,000. The district also paid an out-of-state dealer $112,000 for three SUVs. A Bernalillo administrator paid the Rio Chama Steakhouse in Santa Fe more than $110 for staff lunches. That money came from federal Title 1 funds, which are supposed to be spent to help low-income students.
3. Bloomfield: Superintendent Randy Allison charged about $16,000 — including "many questionable expenditures" — to the school's credit card. He was put on leave during the course of the LFC audit and resigned last month. Bloomfield also used more than $11,000 from a special legislative appropriation to buy iPods and accessories. It's not clear from the report who received these digital music players. Meals charged to a Bloomfield district credit card included tabs of more than $400 each at four separate eateries and $800 for lodging at the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe.
4. West Las Vegas: District spent $240,000 on an energy management consultant for services that could have been performed free by the state.