Jose de Wit
SUN Staff Writer
Española Military Academy administrators, Governing Board members and parents have long blamed the Española School District for many of their school’s woes.
Starting July 2009, the Academy will sink or swim on its own.
The Academy planned to apply Wednesday (10/1) for a state charter that would allow the secondary school to break away from the District as of June 30, 2009. The Academy Board rescinded its Aug. 8 decision to renew its charter with the District another five years with a 5-0 vote Sept. 24. Board member Paul Peña was absent from the vote.
Board President Patrick Trujillo said the decision came down to money and facilities.
“If we are responsible for finding our own facilities, we should go out on our own,” he said.
The Academy’s relationship with the District has been marked with disagreements over facilities. The Academy is required to be in a state-approved facility by 2014 or else lose its charter. But the District has been reluctant to commit its own resources to get the Academy into such a building, and earlier this year, the Española School Board rejected a legislative appropriation the Academy received for facilities.
New Mexico charter schools must answer to one of two chartering authorities: a local school District or the state Public Education Commission. A charter school must have a charter from either agency to keep its doors open and must renew its charter every five years. The Academy opened in 2004 under a District charter and had to renew its charter with the District or state by Wednesday.
The Board gave little explanation for why the Academy should leave the District (see related story on page AXX). But in an earlier conversation, Principal Steve Baca said comments District officials made after the Academy decided in August to stay with District showed him and his Board members that the Academy is not wanted in the District. Referring to the Academy’s standardized test scores, Superintendent David Cockerham on two separate occasions called the Academy a “blight on the School District,” and Board member Leonard Valerio called it “a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
“Now the cards are on the table,” Baca said. “We know exactly where we stand.
According to state regulations, the Academy, under a state charter, would have until June 30, 2009, to come up with a plan for finding a new home that meets state requirements.
As a state-chartered school, the Academy would essentially be its own school district, state Education Department spokeswoman Beverly Friedman said. Instead of receiving its state funding through the District, the Academy would receive funding directly from the state. And like a school district, the Academy would answer directly to the state Education Department. The Academy will also be responsible for procuring cafeteria and school bus services, which it currently receives from the District.
That means greater responsibility — and greater scrutiny — for the Academy’s Board and administrators, said Lisa Grover, president of the New Mexico Coalition for Charter Schools, a non-profit organization that represents the state’s charter schools.
Greater responsibility, because the Academy will be entirely responsible for its finances, Grover said. That means the Board must become a certified board of finance by receiving training in fiscal practices and record-keeping and become bonded and insured against financial loss, according to state statutes.
Members of the Española School Board are elected, and are accountable to voters. Members of the Academy’s Board, however, are appointed by current Board members and accountable to the school’s chartering authority. But Cockerham and the Española School Board have all but washed their hands of responsibility for the Academy, which translated to little or no oversight of Baca and the Academy’s Board.
If the Academy receives a state charter, it would be accountable to the team of nearly 10 state Education Department staffers who currently oversee 10 state-chartered schools throughout the state, Grover said.
Baca said the Academy wants to make changes to its charter, and he believes the Commission is more likely to approve those changes than the Española School Board would.
For example, one possible change involves switching to a standards-based grading system, which more closely resembles how state standardized tests evaluate students. A standard is a specific skill students are expected to master at their particular grade level, such as multiplying two-digit numbers or adding fractions. Test scores indicate whether each student is proficient or not in each of several required skills. Instead of receiving letter grades on a report card, students would get a checklist showing to what extent they have mastered each standard, Baca said.
Baca said the state is more likely to approve such a change because large school districts such as Santa Fe and Albuquerque are moving in that direction and the Department is encouraging others to follow suit.
“There’s not a mandate, but there’s a movement. It’s a change in philosophy,” Baca said. “I believe the (District’s) educational philosophy is not in congruence with the direction the state wants us to go.”
The Academy might also pare down the enrollment goal of 350 to 400 students stated in the school’s charter to a more realistic 180 to 210 students, Baca said. The Academy’s enrollment was on its way toward the 350-student goal halfway through the 2006-07 school year, when enrollment reached a peak of 246 students, according to state Education Department statistics. Enrollment has declined since to its current number of roughly 120 students despite adding one grade each year since its inception in 2004. The Academy currently enrolls students in grades six through 12.
The Commission will decide in meetings Dec. 11 and Dec. 12 whether to renew or reject the Academy’s charter. A rejected charter would shut down the Academy at the end of this school year. The Commission has any concerns about the Academy’s application, it may also set conditions the Academy must meet in order to keep its charter.