A provision in the state Open Meetings Act could save Española Military Academy officials from having to convince state Education Secretary Veronica Garcia that the state Public Education Commission was wrong when it decided to reject the school’s charter in December.
According to a notice of appeal filed by the school’s lawyer, a letter from Commission Chair Catherine Smith informing the Academy of her Commission’s decision was dated Dec. 10 — one day before the fateful Commission meeting took place.
According to the Act, the decision to close the Academy must be taken in an open public meeting. If the letter was drafted before the hearing, that would be a violation of the Act, and it would invalidate the Commission’s vote to close the school, according to a letter from Garcia.
“A preliminary matter that may have to be resolved just prior to presentation of the case is whether as alleged in (the Academy’s) Notice of Appeal, a violation of (the Act) occurred,” Garcia stated in a Jan. 23 letter. “This is a serious allegation which if substantiated may invalidate the decision of the (Commission).”
Patricia Matthews, the Academy’s lawyer, declined to comment. Department spokeswoman Beverly Friedman said the Department would also decline to comment until after the hearing.
In case that fails, Matthews prepared a 29-page rebuttal of the reasons given to the Commission by the state Education Department for why it shouldn’t renew the school’s charter.
Garcia is scheduled to hear the school’s argument, as well as counter-arguments presented by the Commission and the Department, on Feb. 16 and then decide by March 12 whether to overturn or uphold the Commission’s decision. The appeal also asks Garcia to remand the charter decision to the Española School Board if she does not overturn the Commission’s ruling.
In short, Matthews argues Deputy Education Secretary Don Duran did not provide evidence proving his Department’s claims that the Academy violated the law and its own charter or failed to make academic progress. And if the school did do any of those things, it was “not to such a degree that warrants (the) closing of this school,” Matthews wrote.
The appeal also accuses Duran and his Department of having “misrepresented information” and “inaccurately described facts.”
In his recommendation, Duran cited the Academy for “material violations” to its charter — allegedly making changes to its curriculum and deviating from its charter without the Española School Board’s permission. Though the Academy acknowledges in the appeal it did make such changes, it argues the Española School District was aware of those changes. And because the Board never objected to them, they do not count as “material violations,” the appeal states.
Duran’s department had also accused the Academy of failing to make progress reports to the District. The Academy argues the lack of communication was the District’s fault.
“The District never requested other forms of reports and often attempted to disavow itself of any responsibility for the school,” the appeal states.
In terms of academic progress, the Academy argues its reading scores for last school year met the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Even if its test scores are not impressive, they aren’t sufficient grounds to shut the school down, the appeal argues.
Finally, Duran’s department argued several Academy policies break state and federal laws. The Academy acknowledged its policies were unlawful, but those policies were never approved by its Board and never implemented, so the school never actually broke the law, according to the appeal.
The Academy also acknowledged five of its teachers lack licenses and its building lacks a certificate of occupancy, but said it is working on correcting both.
The Academy’s appeal hearing is scheduled for Feb. 16 at 9 a.m. at the Jerry Apodaca Education Building, 300 Don Gaspar, in Santa Fe.