Nearly 20 teachers and administrators working in Rio Arriba County school districts are teaching subjects they are not licensed to teach or working without a license altogether, according to a state report.
The state Education Department verifies on the 40th and 120th days of each school year whether courses at each school are being taught by highly-qualified teachers — that is, teachers who are licensed and endorsed in the subjects they teach — and reports its findings in licensure discrepancy reports.
“(Without a license), they’re not qualified,” state Assistant Education Secretary Mary Rose C de Baca said. “If you have a teacher that’s teaching first grade, and she doesn’t have a license, she’s never had the training to teach the students, the students are going to lose out.”
The Department is currently working with superintendents to weed out names that were erroneously listed on the report, and will inform school districts their improperly-licensed teachers cannot continue teaching, C de Baca, who helps oversee teacher qualifications.
If Districts do not address the licensure problems, the matter could go to the state education secretary and the Department’s Ethics Bureau, and the unlicensed teachers and the administrators who hired them could face fines, C de Baca said.
The Department’s report for the 40th day of this school year listed more than 50 unqualified teachers in County schools. Though most of those instances were due to computer errors, a review of teacher personnel files shows 19 employees working without adequate licenses.
The Española and Dulce school districts topped the list with seven employees each.
Española School District
Seven Española School District employees appeared in the report, though most discrepancies came from one of the District’s two charter schools.
The report lists a nurse, a social worker, a speech pathologist and two instructional assistants — altogether more than a third of the school’s staff — working at Los Cariños Charter school without proper licenses.
Personnel documents show instructional assistants Jeanette Hoover, who has since left the school, and Elizabeth Lucero lack licenses. Lucero has applied for her license, and is working as an office aide until her license is approved, administrative assistant Marie Valencia said.
Social worker Zoe Migel is a licensed independent social worker, but her school social worker’s license expired in June, according to licensure documents. And nurse Stephanie Montoya is a registered nurse, but the school is still waiting to receive her school nurse’s license from the Department, Valencia said.
The school did not have licensure information on file for speech pathologist Deidre Mundoon, who is a contractor.
“This matter is being resolved as we speak,” Los Cariños Chancellor Vernon Jaramillo said.
Jaramillo said all the employees are waiting to receive current licenses, and he met with the Department Tuesday to check the status of their applications. He also pointed out three of the five employees in question had been hired by his predecessor, Victoria Garcia, who he replaced in August.
Parent Marcie Davis, who is also a teacher at Española Valley High School, said she would be more concerned if the school had unlicensed teachers.
“The nurse, she’s a licensed nurse. Would you trust a nurse at the hospital but not at the school?” Davis asked. “I understand that rules are rules, as far as (licenses) go, but I’m pleased with the school.”
At Española Military Academy, Headmaster Steve Baca appears on the report as teaching 16 separate subjects, only seven of which he is endorsed to teach. He could not explain why he appeared on the report.
“Haven’t seen the report. I couldn’t answer that,” Baca said. “When we submitted to the state, we didn’t have any exceptions, so everything should be fine.”
Baca later declined to say what classes he is teaching.
And Joseph Tony Gallegos, an Española middle school history teacher, is ineligible to teach for the next three years because he failed to obtain a professional teaching license when his provisional license ran out this summer.
Gallegos received a five-year provisional teaching license in July 2003. State licensure rules require provisional license-holders to reapply for a professional license after those five years by submitting a dossier of evidence showing they are competent teachers, such as evaluations, teaching plans or materials and student work samples and achievement data.
C de Baca said the first dossier Gallegos submitted, likely in mid-2008, was rejected by the Department.
“He had been given an opportunity to re-submit in November, but he didn’t,” C de Baca said.
The District informed Gallegos in December he cannot not continue teaching in January after the holiday break. The District has hired Ronald Gallegos, a former substitute who is licensed to teach history, to replace Tony Gallegos, District human resources officer Lucia Sedillo said.
State law requires a three-year waiting period before Tony Gallegos can reapply for a license. He may continue to work for the District as a substitute if he obtains that license, Sedillo said. Gallegos did not return calls for comment.
Dulce School District
The report lists five teachers, an athletic director and a School Board member who volunteers as a substitute teacher in the Dulce School District with irregularities in their licenses.
Athletic Director Isaac Royston has a coaching license, but lacks a required administrative license, C de Baca said. Superintendent Ralph Friedly said while Royston “does most of the legwork” associated with the athletic director’s job, Assistant Superintendent Ricardo Sanchez, who has an administrative license, is responsible for all official paperwork. Royston could not be reached for comment.
School Board member Clyde Vicenti works as a volunteer at Dulce Elementary, teaching Jicarilla and sometimes working as a substitute, Friedly said. He also lacks a license, according to the report.
Vicenti was issued a substitute teaching license in 2000, but it expired three years later and has not been renewed, according to Department licensure data. A note on his licensure file states he needs to apply for a Native American language and culture teaching endorsement.
Friedly said Vicenti is the only person the District has found to teach Jicarilla in the schools.
“We have to do our part to teach the language and the culture,” Friedly said. “And he teaches Jicarilla.”
Vicenti could not be reached for comment.
Sonnin Waters, who is listed as teaching English and Language Arts at Dulce Middle School and has a master’s degree in English, has authored several books and taught college-level English courses. But she doesn’t have a New Mexico teaching license.
District documents state Waters is required to take state teaching exams toward her license by Jan. 17
“You can ask my administrator, but my paperwork is in order. I am obtaining a license,” Waters said.
Three teachers were also cited for teaching outside their content areas. Carlos Manzanares is listed in the report as teaching drafting design and Spanish at Dulce High School, but he is endorsed to teach science and agriculture. Pamela Montoya and Lisa Bradley are listed as teaching bilingual education at Dulce Elementary, but are endorsed to teach reading and English as a second language. Friedly referred questions on those three teachers to Sanchez, who did not return several calls for comment.
Mesa Vista School District
Mesa Vista was cited for one unlicensed teacher, George Rowe, who teaches at Ojo Caliente Elementary.
C de Baca said new teachers have 90 days to apply for a license. Rowe was hired by the District early in the school year, which would mean his 90 days expired in late November or early December.
Rowe applied for a license Dec. 22, and the Department is waiting to receive a background check before issuing the license, C de Baca said.
Jemez Mountain School District
The Jemez Mountain School District got slapped on the wrist for two improperly-licensed special education teachers and one technology instructor.
Rihanna Harris is assigned to teach special education as a long-term substitute at Coronado High School but only has a substitute teacher’s license. At Gallina Elementary, Debra Cordova teaches special education, though her personnel file only includes a license to teach reading and bilingual education. Superintendent Adan Delgado said Cordova recently earned a master’s degree in special education, and applied for that license “about a month ago.”
Coronado teacher Alejandro Ortega was also cited for teaching technology education when he is licensed to teach math and science.
Chama School District
Chama School District business manager Danette Garcia continued working for the District after her one-year “school business official in-training” certificate expired this summer, records show.
Superintendent Manuel Valdez said Garcia had a provisional license when she was hired in June 2007, and her contract states her employment is contingent on her having a license. But Department reports and District correspondence show Garcia did not obtain her temporary license until 10 months after the District hired her last summer.
“Attached is the License Discrepancies Report and a copy of your licensure information from (the Department) indicating that no license was found for your position of Business Official,” Superintendent Manuel Valdez wrote Garcia in February. “You need to straighten out your licensure status before (March 13).”
A Department licensure report shows Garcia, who has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from University of New Mexico and makes a $51,000 annual salary, was issued a temporary license April 24.
C de Baca said Garcia has since been issued a permanent license.