The students, parents, employees, and administrators of Cariños Charter School can breathe a little easier for the next few years.
The Española School Board approved at its Dec. 19 meeting, its disposal plan for the old Middle School East building, currently occupied by Cariños. The plan allows Cariños to stay in the building to the end of the lease, as long as the New Mexico Public School Insurance Authority continues to insure the facility.
After the lease expires, it will not be renewed, and the Española School District will either demolish or sell the building for a non-educational use.
Now that it’s approved, this plan will be sent to the Public School Facilities Authority for final approval.
Cariños Chancellor Vernon Jaramillo said teachers, parents, and students will be relieved to know Cariños will stay in the same building for the next few years.
“I’m thrilled,” he said. “This decision gives everybody peace of mind and gives stability to our program, and also gives the Carinos board time to plan for the future.”
Jaramillo said they were tired of being nomadic, and it is good to know where their home will be until the lease expires June 30, 2016.
Cariños Governance Board President Quentin Wilson said the news came as a huge relief.
“I think that’s wonderful,” Wilson said. “If we don’t get to stay in it in perpetuity, at least getting to go to the end of our lease gives us time to figure something out.”
The passage of the plan also pleased Española School Board President Floyd Archuleta, who said he respects the right of parents to have a choice.
“I like the fact that we’re able to give Cariños time to look at finding a more permanent situation for them,” he said.
However, if the Insurance Authority decides to stop insuring the building for any reason, Superintendent Art Blea said the District could not possibly allow students to stay in it. Though at this point, the building remained insured.
The school’s governance board will be aggressively hunting for a new location in the new year, Jaramillo said.
Wilson said he already has four properties in mind, including some existing buildings and some undeveloped property. However, he said he still holds out hope to be able to work something out with the current building or another property owned by the District.
“It’s always easier to start with an existing building, and it’s always easier to start with an existing building that’s a school,” he said.
The school community has endured a lot of uncertainty about the future of their location since June, when the Facilities Authority released an alarming assessment of the building in which they stated it was unfit for students and staff and recommended it be evacuated and demolished. The Authority released a second, final report days later which toned down the language, but the central message remained the same.
“Facility systems are beyond repair. There are numerous life, health, and safety risks throughout the facility,” the final report states.
The next challenge came after money allocated by the Public School Capital Outlay Council for Española Middle School’s athletic fields in 2009 was awarded again to the District at a July 26 meeting, but under the condition that the Board determine a plan to phase that building out as a school.
However, the District sent a letter to the Cariños administration on Oct. 29 informing them that, if the Facilities Authority approved, the District would be booting Cariños out of the building at the end of the year so Fairview Elementary could hold classes there instead of in the middle of a construction zone during the building of the new Fairview facility.
The Facilities Authority did not approve, Blea said.
“They didn’t want to allow it without us making more improvements than we would really want to make for a one-year use, and they felt the other school could be built while the students are there,” he said.
After the Board’s decision, the future is now a bit clearer for Cariños.
“It’s close enough to Christmas, we’ll call it a Christmas present,” Wilson said.