Capital Master Plan

The overall Capital Master Plan (CMP) is the strategic plan that guides the expenditure of APS Capital Resources in developing APS facilities districtwide. The Capital Master Plan Department is the school planning department for the entire district, and it develops and monitors the implementation of the APS Capital Master Plan.

Albuquerque Public Schools Capital Master Plan Department facilitates, projects, plans, and funds all educational and information technology facilities and equipment for Albuquerque Public Schools. Albuquerque Public Schools is the 34th largest school district in the nation, serving 71,000 students, with over 12,000 employees on 1,230 square miles.

APS has a total of 88 Elementary Schools, 27 Middle Schools, 13 comprehensive High Schools, 2 K-8 schools, 14 Schools of Choice and 32 APS Charter Schools. It encompasses over 16 million square feet of facilities in approximately 1,800 buildings, spanning 14 jurisdictions including the City of Albuquerque, all of Bernalillo County, southern Sandoval County, the villages of Tijeras, San Antonito and Edgewood, Sandia Pueblo, Laguna Pueblo, To’Hajilee and Isleta Pueblo.

Specific Responsibilities of the CMP Office

• Preparing enrollment projections for the District and each school
• Conducting utilization and capacity analysis
• Maintaining District school planning standards
• Overseeing and planning for each school’s Site Master Plan
• Evaluating the physical and functional performance of District facilities
• Identifying the need and placement of new schools
• Overseeing the process for making school district boundary adjustments
• Overseeing the process of developing the District capital strategy and preparing specific election packages
• Monitoring implementation of capital budgets
• Preparing special studies regarding topics affecting capital budgeting to meet District needs
• Cross-jurisdictional coordination and planning

District Summary Map

APS Capital Master Plan Department Annual Timeline

As the planning department for the APS School District, the Capital Master Plan Department has the following yearly tasks that are integral to staff allocations, school planning, program locations and school choice:

Enrollment Projections 

• CMP annually determines projections for the following school year.
• Purpose: Long-term projections are used during new land acquisition, future construction, boundary changes and new school planning. Short-term projections are used for Staffing, Student Transfers, Furniture Needs, Program Placement, Funding plan for Elementary Fine Arts Program, Extended Learning Supplies and Tool Box.
• The methodology used for Enrollment Projections is the Cohort Survival Method and it incorporates the following:
• 3-year average enrollment rates used to forecast the following year’s enrollment
• Birth rates
• Regional housing statistics
• Regional growth trends
• Qualitative data: staff changes, program changes, principal input

Capacity Analysis

• CMP updates school capacities annually, District-wide.
• Purpose: School capacity is used in the short term to help determine the number of new transfer students that each school can accept each year and, program locations/moves. In the long term, school capacity is used for providing input to the City of Albuquerque and other governing bodies’ development review process for new housing developments, and for future development of new schools and potential boundary changes.
• The capacity of a school is the number of students that can be housed and served within a school facility and is determined by the following factors:
• Curriculum/Program
• Student Demographics (Special Education, Early Childhood, English Language Learners, Socioeconomics)
• School Master Schedule
• Existing school design

Transfer Recommendations

• CMP is responsible for providing recommendations for Open Enrollment (New Transfers) to the APS Student Services Center.
• Purpose: the purpose of the transfer recommendations is to allow for school choice in APS while ensuring that schools will not become overcrowded.
• Transfer recommendations for a school are determined by the following
• Projected Enrollment
• Facility Capacity
• Facility amenities/design
• District-wide Educational initiatives (including District Special Education programs, Early Childhood Education programs and Elementary School Fine Arts programs).

Annual Planning/Coordination for District-Wide Programs by APS Capital Master Plan Department 

Every year between the months of August and November, CMP works with District stakeholders to determine District program changes in Summer School, Early Childhood, and Special Education, along with their corresponding facility needs.

These planning processes occur in tandem with the Annual Enrollment Projections/Capacity/Transfer process to culminate in a comprehensive report to the Superintendent and Leadership Cabinet in December of the year prior to implementation. This document gives an overview of the recommendations that resulted from this process.