According to state law, it is the Española School District’s responsibility to make sure only licensed instructors teach in the charter school’s that fall under the District’s umbrella.
But the District and its charter schools have had a difficult relationship since they were founded, and the District has kept its interaction with those schools to a bare minimum. The result is no one has held Los Cariños or the Academy responsible for hiring licensed teachers.
“(The District is) responsible,” said Department Deputy Secretary Don Duran, who oversees charter schools statewide. “Hopefully, they would provide them technical assistance and support, and say for example, ‘Hey, let’s review your personnel folders. If you’re not qualified, what can we do to help you?’ There should be a mutual, agreed-upon corrective action. But whether (the District) wants to accept it or not, they are the authorizing authority.”
Charter schools can be overseen by one of two chartering authorities — a school district or the state Public Education Commission. Although the Española Military Academy and Los Cariños Charter School both intend to apply for state charters, their current charters are with the District, so state law puts responsibility for those schools squarely on the District’s shoulders.
District Superintendent David Cockerham said, although he understands the District is responsible for charter school’s teacher’s licenses, the law does not give the District the means to enforce compliance, short of revoking the schools’ charters.
When the District finds discrepancies among its own teachers, it can threaten to fire them if they don’t obtain a valid license, Cockerham said. But each charter school is responsible for hiring and firing its own employees, so the District can only take action against the school as a whole.
“It’s unclear in the law how we, the District, as an agent, would be able to enforce that without the long-term consequence of revoking their charter,” Cockerham said. “And we don’t think that’s the right way to do it.”
Duran said he intends to send Cockerham a letter telling him the District does not have a choice — it must require its charter schools to comply with licensure laws. Cockerham said he plans to beat Duran to the punch, and will send each charter school letters telling them to fix their licensure issues.