Update: The state Public Education Commission voted 4-3 on Thursday (12/11) to deny an extension of Española Military Academy’s charter. Academy Board of Governors President Patrick Trujillo said the Board will decide Dec. 17 whether to appeal the Commission’s decision to Education Secretary Veronica Garcia.
The Española Military Academy will have a tough sell to make Thursday (12/11) when it asks the state Public Education Commission to let the charter school keep its doors open beyond this school year.
Academy representatives will have 10 minutes to persuade the Commission it should overturn the state Education Department’s recommendation to reject the Academy’s charter renewal application.
If the Commission sides with the Academy, the school will receive a five-year charter directly from the state — and outside the purview of the Española School District. If not, the school will likely be out of a charter and forced to close after its District-issued charter expires in June.
Academy Board members acknowledged the school had its issues, but were optimistic on a positive outcome.
“It does (look hopeful). I think it’s going to be approved with some conditions,” Board member Col. Paul Peña said. “There’s some things we have to fix, some things we know about.”
Principal Steve Baca declined to discuss how the Academy will respond to the recommendation from the Department’s Charter School Division.
“Not only is the school not meeting the requirements as outlined in the reasons for non-renewal, other evidence indicates that the school is not a viable option for families in the Española community,” Assistant Education Secretary Don Duran, who heads the Charter School Division, stated in his recommendation.
Calvin Smith, one of two parents on the Academy’s Board, said he hadn’t heard about the recommendation. But he plans on being at the Thursday hearing to make a case for the school, where his son, Xavier, attends the seventh grade.
“Oh, I already talked to my boss, and I’ll be there — with bells on,” Smith said. “Basically, (I’d tell them) we have some strong, open-willed future leaders here, and we’re trying to point them in the right direction.”
Smith said the Board also invited members of the school’s parent support team to attend the hearing. If that fails, Smith is mulling some kind of “plan b” for his son — maybe home-schooling, or a charter school in Santa Fe, but nothing within District.
Topping the Department’s list of reasons to not renew the Academy’s charter are that the school deviated from its charter without permission from the Española School Board and that the school has not provided enough evidence that its students are making academic progress.
Because the Academy was chartered by the District’s Board, it should have asked for permission before switching to a computer-based academic curriculum and replacing its National Guard military program with Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and Civil Air Patrol programs, a recommendation analysis states.
The Academy’s standardized test scores show its students have made some progress in reading, but math scores have stayed at 6 percent or fewer students testing at grade level.
However, “the most distressing piece of evidence is the short cycle assessment data which indicates that 76% of the students were below projected proficiency in reading and that 96.3% of the students were below projected proficiency in math,” the recommendation analysis states.
The analysis also mentions the Academy’s enrollment has “dropped consistently.” The Academy enrolled 246 students two years ago. By the start of this school year, the school’s enrollment had shrunk to 121 — and its sixth-grade class to only three students — according to a District enrollment report. The Academy currently enrolls students in the sixth through 12th grades.
The recommendation analysis also found the Academy in violation of various federal and state laws and requirements.
The Academy’s maternal leave policy and admission requirements violate state and federal law, the recommendation states. Female employees and students are penalized for becoming pregnant by being forced to take maternity leave. As a public school, the Academy is not allowed to set requirements for admission. The Academy said in its renewal application it has no such requirements, but its handbook requires a review of new students’ behavioral and academic backgrounds, among other requirements.
One school policy allows the Board to unlawfully waive a required administrative license for its principal.
A state report states Baca is teaching 16 subjects this school year he is not licensed to teach. The same report states he lacks an administrative license, though his personnel file includes both teaching and administrative licenses. Baca’s sister, Estelle Ana Baca, and special education teacher Florence Atencio also appeared on the state report, though Atencio has a special education teaching license and Estelle Baca has a provisional teaching license.
The school replaced physical education with military science without obtaining a required waiver from the state, it lacks a certificate of occupancy at the National Guard armory and it failed to provide Board meeting minutes documenting whether Baca sought Board approval to hire his sister.
The Commission is scheduled to review five charter schools’ renewal applications Thursday, and though the Division found concerns about most, it nonetheless recommended that the Commission renew all charters except the Academy’s, Duran said.
The Academy’s Governing Board decided Sept. 24 to leave the District and try its luck with the state chartering process. That decision came after Superintendent David Cockerham and Española School Board members denied the Academy’s request to move into the former Española seventh-grade school and suggested the Board might not renew the school’s charter another five-year term.
The charter school opened its doors in 2004 under a District-issued charter, which allowed it to operate semi-autonomously under District supervision. That charter expires June 30, 2009. The school was founded by former Española mayor Richard Lucero. Lucero stepped down from the Academy’s board of governors earlier this year and could not be reached for comment for this story.
Changes to state law in 2006 allowed the Commission to authorize charter schools. It has since issued charters to eight new schools and renewed two schools’ charters, allowing them to come under state control after their district-issued charters expired, Department spokeswoman Beverly Friedman said.
If the Commission rejects the Academy’s charter, the school can file an appeal directly with state Education Secretary Veronica Garcia, whose decision would be final.
One charter school, Cottonwood Classical Preparatory, filed such an appeal last year after the Commission rejected its charter. Garcia overruled the decision and granted the school a charter, Friedman said. In that case, the Department had initially asked the Commission to grant the charter.
The hearing will take place Thursday at 8 a.m. in Mabry Hall at the Jerry Apodaca Education Building, 300 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe.