With New Mexico legislators grappling with a $650 million budget gap and talking about cuts to state's the educational budget, there is some nail-biting going on in the Moriarty-Edgewood School District.

Money concerns colored most of the discussions at the Moriarty School Board meeting Tuesday night, but without any concrete information, no decisions were made.

District Superintendent Karen Couch said she had met with all the principals in the district and asked them to curb spending on supplies, which she said may ultimately save teachers from being furloughed or from taking pay cuts if the legislature does cut the district's budget.

Phil Anaya, who is the chair of the school board, said he'd attended a legislative meeting in Santa Fe, and he didn't mince words when expressing his opinion.

"They have no clue what the hell they're doing," he said. "They're going to spring something on us at the last minute … remember that we're all a team and we're all going to have to do this together."

At the time there were bills in the House and Senate, one of them introduced by Luciano "Lucky" Varela, D-Santa Fe. His bill would cut public education by an average of 2.8 percent and generate about $172 million in savings.

Couch also pointed out that the cuts would not just be for this school year, but that the Legislature is talking about managing shortfalls for the next few years.

Varela also introduced legislation that declare an emergency and suspend portions of the public school code for 2010 through 2012 to allow school districts more flexibility in class loads, length of school day and other requirements to help school districts cope with budget cuts.

School board member Audrey Jaramillo said she didn't want to see the district cut teachers, though.

"I don't want to see bigger classroom sizes," she said. "That affects our kids in our classrooms and that's not OK with me."

Phil Anaya requested a special meeting of the school board immediately after the Legislature passes its solvency package and encouraged any residents who are concerned about the issue to contact their legislators.

Meanwhile, the recession is affecting the school district in other ways. About $10 million in bond money in Wells Fargo Bank is generating very little interest and some of that money is being nibbled away by banking fees, according to Couch.

Board member Todd McCarty said he wasn't happy about the bank's performance and the school board decided to advertise for bids on banking services.

There was also discussion about whether or not to continue with an energy saving program with Honeywell. The program is saving the district about $150,000 in propane, natural gas and electrical energy costs, according to Honeywell's reports, and costs the district about $50,000 a year.

Jaramillo asked if the school would be able to continue saving money without renewing the contract.

Mountainview Elementary Principal Laura Moffitt admitted that she wouldn't make energy savings a priority without Honeywell's involvement. She added that she's a pretty competitive person and is motivated to beat the other schools in energy savings. Incidentally, her school is currently ranked last and has increased its gas use, which Moffitt said bothers her quite a bit.

McCarty agreed, saying that part of what the district was buying was actually behavior modification in the schools that results in energy savings.