When former Special Education Director Pat Lopez handed the Española School District her resignation July 14, she never really left the District.
She has since received a $10,407 contract and a $219 membership to a professional organization from the District, though she has not been seen around District central administration building since September, according to Special Education Department staff.
The Española School Board approved a $10,407 contract with Lopez Oct. 29, but neither Board members nor administrators could explain why.
Lopez could not be reached for comment.
The contract describes Lopez’s scope of work as “to assist the District in responding to (federal Individuals with Disabilities Act) complaints and litigation… providing testimony, documentation, or information concerning delivery of services to the students in question.”
Superintendent David Cockerham said he remembers discussing with other administrators about paying Lopez as a contractor for work she did after the start of the fiscal year, which began July 1, but did not recall whether or how much Lopez was paid under such an arrangement.
Interim Special Education Director Alfred Garcia said he did not know what the contract was for, but thought it could be for Lopez to finish installing a set of mobile computer laboratories for special education students, a project she left unfinished when she left in July.
And though the contract was included in Board member’s binders for the Oct. 29 meeting, none remembered approving, or even reading the contract.
“Huh, no kidding, I totally missed that,” Board member Leonard Valerio said. “That’s embarrassing. I usually try to look over everything really carefully.”
Board Vice President Floyd Archuleta said he plans to look into the contract.
Payment vouchers show the District has not made any payments to Lopez under the contract, but in late October, the District spent $219 to renew her premium membership to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Premium membership benefits include subscriptions to four trade magazines, nine books, access to online resources and training courses and a $100 voucher for professional development training.
Lopez’s annual membership to that organization expired Sept. 30, nearly three months after she left the District, according to correspondence from the Association.
Cockerham said he was not familiar with the membership, but guessed it could be for the use of whoever is in charge of the Special Education Department, and that it just hadn’t been transferred from Lopez’s name to Garcia’s.
All that, plus a series of clerical errors, has caused confusion about Lopez’s relationship with the District after her resignation.
In a Nov. 12 Board meeting, Valerio pointed out Board agendas still listed Lopez as the District’s special education director before he grilled Cockerham about a line on the District’s October credit card bill charging the District for a plane ticket in Lopez’s name.
Lopez has since been replaced on Board documents by Garcia.
The interrogation led Cockerham to snap at Valerio, demanding the Board member give him the “courtesy” of asking those questions beforehand and in private rather than ambushing him in an open meeting — much to the amusement of Archuleta and member Andrew Chavez, who snickered quietly at the exchange.
Cockerham later said he “encouraged” Valerio’s questions.
“It’s totally appropriate,” Cockerham said. “I would have asked the same question, you know that.”
He also later provided documents showing the tickets had been purchased before Lopez’s departure and explained Lopez had not gone on the trip because she would have left the District shortly after her return. Southwest Airlines later credited the District for the $606 cost of the ticket, according to an e-mail confirmation.