For the second consecutive year, the Española School District received an unfavorable letter grade from state regulators.
The New Mexico Public Education Department gave the Española School District a D, according to the report card released Nov. 29. Grades are based on an A to F scale.
The grade is based on a combination of measures, including an average of the letter grades the 14 District schools received in August. Regulators also took into account how well the District did in several areas such as accountability, achievement, School Board training, budget expenditures, teacher credentials and post-secondary achievement, as well as input from families via the quality of education survey.
The District earned the D even though seven of the 14 schools saw their grades improve during the 2015-2016 School Year, compared to the previous year. Two of the District’s schools saw three letter grade increases. San Juan Elementary went from an F to a B, and Los Niños went from a C to an A.
Those increases are contrasted with lower grades at Hernandez Elementary and Cariños Charter School, which both dropped from a C to an F, and Chimayó Elementary School, which saw its grade go from a C to a D. Four schools: Española Valley High School, Abiquiú Elementary School, Sombrillo Elementary School and Velarde Elementary School retained the same grades. Cariños is no longer a District charter, so next year, the school will get its own report card.
The high school maintained a D, Abiquiú an A, Sombrillo an F, and Velarde a D.
When calculating the report card’s accountability factor, the percentage of students who graduated after four years was examined. Española Valley High’s graduation rate for 2015 was 61.7 percent, which is a bit more than the 55.5 percent recorded in 2014.
The report card doesn’t explain the method used, or how much weight each component had, in determining the District’s grade.
Myra Martinez, the District’s superintendent for instruction, canceled an interview for this report, 30 minutes ahead of the scheduled time. She could have given parents and families insight into why the District earned the failing grade and what they are doing to correct the problem.
Students and teachers
District students, according to the report card, are losing ground when it comes to reading proficiency. Twenty-four percent of the District’s third through 11th graders are proficient in reading.
This figure represents a 6 percent decrease from the 32 percent logged the previous year. When it comes to math, the number of proficient students dropped to less than 2 percent, which is a point below last year’s 3 percent, and several points behind the state’s current year 10-percent measure.
The science proficiency scores for the District’s fourth, seventh and 11th graders remained unchanged from last year’s 15 percent. This number is far below the state’s 39 percent.
Regulators also audited the teaching credentials of the District’s 209 teachers. The findings show 61 percent of the District’s teachers have masters degrees, while the other 39 percent have bachelors degrees.
The District probably won’t see as many qualified teachers on next year’s report card. New Mexico State Public Education Department Deputy Secretary of Finance and Operations Hipolito Aguilar criticized Española Superintendent Eric Martinez, in a Nov. 17 letter, for failing to notify parents about the 17 substitutes working as full-time teachers throughout the District.
State law mandates parents be notified to help them determine if their children are getting an adequate education.
The correspondence notified Martinez that he has 30 days from the time of the letter, to draft an action plan to address the staffing, procurement and morale concerns that have persisted throughout the District, or face disciplinary action, including termination.
The District grade comes more than two months after the Department released, Sept. 16, the results of the 2016 teacher evaluations. Those evaluations showed the number of effective teachers dropped from 49 percent during the 2014-15 School Year, to 39 percent for the 2015-16 School Year.
Española School Board member Yolanda Salazar said she is not too happy about the grade, but knows it can be improved with a little work.
“I’m disappointed, but not discouraged,” she said. “We have bright students in our district and exceptional teachers. Unfortunately, we have a very dysfunctional administration and Board, both of which the staff rely on for support in their day-to-day operations.”
The first-term Board member said she believes the District will see improvements after the upcoming election because the new Board will be able to concentrate on what goes on in the classroom.
“The focus has been driven away from the classroom to unimportant issues,” Salazar said. “I hope that in the next few months, after elections, the new Board will return its focus back on the students, where it belongs. We’ll be able to focus on the weaknesses and bring up our District’s overall grade.”
Los Niños teacher Tamara Duran understands the frustration teachers throughout the District feel.
She said on top of her and her colleagues tag-teaming administrative duties, she is earning less money than she did more than a decade ago, in a much smaller school district.
“As a District, our condition has become our culture, and unfortunately, our dysfunction has become our normal,” she said. “Española is absolutely the worst school district I have ever worked for. I am making less money now than I did 13 years ago, teaching in Hatch, N.M.”
However, she said like most other teachers, she endures the dysfunction because she loves the work and considers it part of her mission.
Through the years, she has developed an excellent working relationship with state regulators and she supports the Public Education Department’s decision to step in when they did, but believes they didn’t go far enough.
“I would love to see a total state take over, to get everything back on track, while meeting the needs of the District at every level and in every area,” Duran said.
Parent surveys
The parents and families of the 3,885 students enrolled in the District during the sample period, had an opportunity to participate in a 10-question survey.
The survey was designed to gauge how respondents felt about various aspects of their child’s education.
It showed 92 percent of participants felt like the District did a good job keeping their children safe. Eighty-six percent said they felt like District employees encouraged them to take part in their child’s education.
Conversely, 72 percent thought the District did a good job of sponsoring extracurricular activities and 77 percent thought the District provided students with “adequate access” to up-to-date computers and technologies.
Española School Board President Pablo Lujan said the positive feedback from parents is a response to the commitment the Board has made in ensuring students are safe and have the resources they need for success.
However, he said the District’s report card is an obvious sign former superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez wasn’t the change agent state regulators and School Board members Ruben Archuleta and Salazar made her out to be.
Lujan is referring to the praise Aguilar bestowed on Gutierrez in the Nov. 17 letter, when he accused Martinez of erasing the gains she made during her short time on the job.
“In a district that demonstrated improved performance under the previous superintendent, it is concerning that student learning will be negatively impacted,” Aguilar wrote.
Instead, Lujan said the poor report card is a manifestation of political wrangling regarding Española Valley High School basketball coach Richard Martinez’s employment.
“Look at the District grade, Bobbie didn’t do anything — nothing has changed in the last two years,” Lujan said. “If Ruben (Archuleta) and Yolanda (Salazar) would stop worrying about firing Richard Martinez, we can start talking about providing a good quality education. But when we are dealing with all this stuff, it is hard to get to the root causes of the problems.”
Like Salazar, Archuleta said he is unhappy with the D grade, but doesn’t think anything will improve as long as the District continues to make short-sighted decisions like the one the superintendent made when he rehired Richard Martinez.
The District’s last passing grade was the C, which they earned on the 2013-2014 School Year report card.