Halfway through a meeting between the boards of Los Cariños Charter School and the Española School District, Adam Duran pumped his fist in the air and sent out a flurry of text messages bearing big news.
Duran is the father of a second grader at Los Cariños, and seconds earlier, the Española School Board had saved the school from homelessness by extending its lease at the former Española seventh grade school through the end of the school year.
The Nov. 18 meeting marked a change in direction for the Española School Board, which just a month ago was ambivalent in its commitment to rescuing the charter school.
“As far as I knew, they were wanting us out of there in December, so I was besides myself there,” Duran said. “That was a big concern for some of the parents.”
The Española School Board had already bailed out Los Cariños once, in August, just a week before the school year started, when it allowed the school to use the recently-vacated seventh-grade school on Hunter Street rent-free through December. The charter school was without a home because its lease to its old San Juan Parish campus had expired, and its new Santa Cruz campus was still months from being ready to occupy.
When the school announced early this fall it was $100,000 in debt, it became clear Los Cariños would not move before December into its new Santa Cruz campus at the intersection of State Road 76 and State Road 106. The school would need to complete a traffic study and finish refurbishing facilities before moving in, and also expand its septic system to remain there after the start of next school year.
But Española School Board members and District administrators skeptical at first of allowing Los Cariños to stay at the seventh-grade school past December, citing plans to move District administration offices to that facility.
All that changed by the time the school’s Governing Board met with the District’s Board. The charter school approached the School Board with a page-long wish list, and it left the meeting with most of its requests fulfilled — to an extent, at least.
“I was pleased, it’s the beginning of a dialogue with the (Board),” Jaramillo said, noting the school plans on asking the District for more help in the future. “I was satisfied the Board members said we had options. Then we can continue making requests until both of use are satisfied.”
The first sigh of relief at the meeting came for the charter school when it was allowed to stay through June at the former seventh-grade campus, rent-free, paying only utilities.
“I was pleased the (Board) allowed us to stay until the end of the year,” parent Nancy Suazo said. “It would not have made sense to move 109 students halfway through the school year.”
By the time the meeting was over, Los Cariños had scored some surplus fencing material from the District to be installed at the Santa Cruz campus by District maintenance staff, received a tentative offer to keep the current District central administration building as a permanent classroom facility and even opened the door to getting construction funds from the next District-wide bond measure.
Rejected were requests to move Los Cariños’ farm animals to the seventh-grade school and receive surplus playground equipment. The first request was denied because of liability issues and a potential conflict with city ordinances, Board members said. And the second was rejected because the District has no surplus playground equipment, District Facilities Manager Paul Salas sai.d
At a meeting of the charter school’s Parent Action Committee Nov. 20, parents and administrators speculated on the reason for the Board’s sudden support. One pointed out the District tried and failed to pass a bond last year. The School Board wants to try again in 2009, and a few more votes from Los Cariños parents are important.
“How many parents do we have? How many students do we have? How many relatives do they have? I call that a voting block,” Los Cariños founder Father Terry Brennan said.
Another parent mentioned the charter school recently hired as principal Jaramillo, a politically connected former superintendent.
It doesn’t hurt that Brennan, Los Cariños’ Board president, is the pastor at San Juan Catholic Church, School Board President Joe Romero said.
“For me, that has nothing to do with anything. Business is business. But the other Board members, they kneeled, they confessed, they did the sign of the cross,” Romero said.
Board member Leonard Valerio disagreed. He chalked up the Board’s change of heart to a recent tour of the charter school and to information provided by Jaramillo that showed the Board the school is making academic progress. That, and Los Cariños’ Board made a “good faith” effort to develop a relationship with the School Board.
“The (Española Military Academy) didn’t do that,” Valerio said. “They sent a letter. What good does that do?”
The District’s recent affection for Los Cariños stands in sharp contrast with the its rapport with the Española Military Academy, the District’s other charter school. Both charter schools operate semiautonomously under the umbrella of the District and have been requesting unsuccessfully that the District provide them with permanent campuses.
The Academy’s Governing Board explored the idea of moving into the seventh grade school in 2005. It abandoned the plan when Española School Board members said that wouldn’t happen because there were no plans in the foreseeable future to move seventh-graders elsewhere. District seventh grade students moved to Española middle school at the start of this school year.
The Academy’s Board voted earlier this school year to leave the District after School Board members and administrators turned down a written request from the Academy to use the seventh-grade school and suggested they might not renew the Academy’s charter.
Academy Governing Board President Patrick Trujillo said he is not holding any grudges.
“I don’t want to look back. It’s up to the (District) to decide how they’re going to use their facilities,” Trujillo said. “I’m pleased Los Carinos has a home.”
Parent Calvin Smith, who was recently appointed to the Academy’s Board, was willing to say what Trujillo wouldn’t.
“To me, it’s just one more thing about having to do business with the Española School District and Cockerham’s administration. He said, ‘We can’t treat Los Cariños any different than we treat (the Academy).’ That was about two weeks ago. He’s inconsistent in his policies,” Smith said. “For some reason, it’s like (the Academy) is rubbing them the wrong way,”
Whether with or without the District, the Academy still faces an uphill battle in securing a permanent facility.
The Academy signed Oct. 27 one last lease extension at the National Guard armory on Industrial Park Road, where the school pays $650 a month in rent and utilities. The lease extension expires June 30, 2009, and states there will be “no further option to renew” the lease both parties signed in 2004 when the Academy opened its doors. Academy Board member Col. Paul Peña said he plans to ask the Armory Board at its next meeting to extend the lease beyond June. He said the “no option to renew” statement was likely only included in the lease because the two parties had originally negotiated a five-year agreement, which would expire in 2009.
“I don’t think it will be a problem,” Peña said.
If the National Guard does require the Academy to leave the armory building next summer, Trujillo said he hopes the school can continue using the portable classroom buildings currently installed on a National Guard-owned property east of the armory and set up an additional cluster of portable buildings on a lot west of the armory.
As for the charter school’s longer-term plans, Trujillo said the Academy will ask lawmakers this coming legislative session to reauthorize a $380,000 appropriation it was awarded this year to design a new facility, plus another $700,000 to buy six to 10 acres to build that facility. He said the Academy is investigating companies that build facilities for charter schools and rent them out under lease-to-purchase agreements.