State regulators gave Española School District Superintendent Eric Martinez 30 days to issue a report detailing how he plans to address the alleged morale, security and staffing issues that has plagued the District since he came on board several months ago. He replied Monday.
The only problem is the report Martinez submitted by the Monday deadline doesn’t list any corrective actions or possible solutions for the issues New Mexico Public Education Department Deputy Secretary Hipolito Aguilar outlined in his Nov. 17 letter criticizing Martinez as the District’s top official.
Instead of solutions or corrective actions, Martinez put together a seven-page explanation that went over why he believed the correction weren’t necessary.
He contends most of the complaints Aguilar outlined were either flat-out lies, or inaccurate representations, based on incomplete Department investigations.
“The challenges, resulting from the coaching controversy, as well as the PED’s insistence upon drawing conclusions from one-sided investigations of operation problems has shifted focus away from the priority of educating children,” Eric Martinez wrote.
From the onset of correspondence, Martinez dismiss widely-reported problems as being non-existent. For example, the superintendent denies he had an unlicensed individual teaching Española’s Valley High School’s first period physical education class.
Instead, he asserts that he assigned a licensed teacher and coach to instruct the class at the start of the school year, well before the Oct. 5 Rio Grande SUN article surfaced reporting that Richard Martinez’s associates Ernest Salazar, Brian Martinez and Arnie Martinez were teaching the class.
While Eric Martinez acknowledges that Ernest Salazar and Arnie Martinez were helping out, he maintains they were licensed but, they weren’t teaching the class.
Brian Martinez, he claims, was “present on a couple of occasions to observe.”
Eric Martinez responded to the Department’s complaint that he “helped to create, or at the very least tolerated an atmosphere of intimidation and bullying” by rehiring basketball coach Richard Martinez, even though the coach was under intense scrutiny from state regulators, as evidenced in the Notice of Contemplative Action the Department served on him.
The contemplated action in this case, was the pending hearing to determine if Richard Martinez would be able to keep his teaching license.
For Eric Martinez, this is a non-issue because Richard Martinez was reinstated, as opposed to rehired, on July 22, well before the state issued the Aug. 8 Notice.
The District punished Richard Martinez for the events that facilitated his earlier termination by being suspended without pay, given a written reprimand and attending sensitivity training.
Aguilar said Eric Martinez showed poor judgment by allowing Richard Martinez’s brother, Eric Martinez, and Salazar, around the same group of students who spoke out against the basketball coach’s treatment of children under his care.
The Department also criticized Eric Martinez for failing to take action against the coach’s brother, once parents brought the perceived infraction to his attention.
One or both of the men, reportedly called the students “liars” and “cowards.”
However, the superintendent denied that any parent brought this issue to his attention, before dismissing the complaint as a miscommunicated life lesson.
“The allegations that parents reported these issue to me, the Superintendent, are false,” he wrote. “This type of issue would not be addressed by the superintendent.”
He said the District’s Athletic Director, Eric Vigil, handled the situation and determined that comments were a way of telling the “students that they should essentially fight their own battles since their parents would not always be there to do so.”
To ensure that this type of situation isn’t repeated, the coach was directed to watch any language that may be considered offensive.
Superintendent Eric Martinez said Aguilar’s notion that he didn’t take any action against the coaches was false, since Vigil addressed the issue.
Eric Martinez said it was unfair the Department was attempting to cast the District’s longterm substitute teacher problem as a District-created issue. He also denied that he didn’t do what was necessary to inform the parents that their children were being taught by longterm substitutes and not qualified teachers.
He said not only have principals been assigned to communicate the District’s shortcomings with parents, the Department is well aware of the teacher shortages throughout the state.
“As state Secretary of Education, you are well aware of the shortage of teachers and other instructional personnel in the state,” he wrote. “So the use of long-term substitutes, although not ideal, is a dilemma facing school administrators statewide at this time.”
He said Aguilar’s assertion that he was turning back time on the progress former superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez made is untrue, based on this year’s District report card. The District earned a D while under Gutierrez’s supervision, which is the same grade the District received under her predecessor Danny Trujillo.
Eric Martinez explained the principal shuffle, two months into the year, as both a way of coping with an insubordinate employee and addressing the needs of the District.
“The assignments of the four principals was initiated in the best interest of the children served,” he wrote. “Principals were assigned based on their ability to lead the schools and the school communities they serve. At least one of these re-assignments resulted from the refusal of the EVHS Principal to accept direction form the Superintendent, since he perceived that he was taking his direction on daily activities from PED staff.”
Aguilar said Superintendent Eric Martinez faced disciplinary action if he didn’t complete the corrective action plan
He said more information was needed to evaluate the complaint or complaints lodged against him and his administration.
Additionally, Superintendent Eric Martinez informed Skandera that if she plans to use those statements to take further action against him, the Department would need to send those complaints, as part of his due process protections, to the District.
“If any further action is contemplated as to the allegations presented in conclusory fashion in the Nov. 17 letter, it will be necessary that PED provide copies of the statement it has relied upon in drawing its conclusion so that their (sic) veracity be tested,” Martinez wrote.