After an initial evidentiary hearing and a failed negotiation attempt in May, First Judicial District Court Judge Sarah Singleton made a ruling in the case of Cariños Charter School versus the Española School District after the second hearing June 13.
Although both parties are ordered to occupy the Charter School, Singleton allowed the District and the Charter School to decide on the details.
“The only feasible way to look at this, it seems to me, is finding a way to house both of these programs on the Cariños campus,” Singleton said. “And it seems to me, ways have been suggested where this can be done.”
Neither party disputed that an agreement was made, but the crux of the case rested on whether the District promised to rent to Cariños the facility it now occupies, or if it had the discretion to decide the location.
The contract did not specify an exact place, but Cariños insisted the school on Hunter Street was the spot both parties agreed to.
In the end, Singleton made clear what she thought of the agreement.
“Counsel, having heard the evidence today and before as I see it, the District’s problem is that it has a contractual commitment with the Cariños Charter School to provide it a building and I believe it’s to provide it with this (Cariños) building for two years.” Singleton said.
Throughout the case, both sides wanted to show the potential hardship each would experience if it could not occupy the Cariños Charter School location and were ordered to divide its students into different locations throughout the District.
Cariños representatives contended the District’s plan would place an undue burden on its staff, especially on Vernon Jaramillo, the principal of the school. Jaramillo said it would effectively make him a “traveling salesman.”
He also argued that dividing the students would essentially dissolve the school.
Cariños is a dual-language program, meaning the curriculum is taught in both English and Spanish, and Jaramillo claimed that splitting up the students would make that task nearly impossible. Moreover, many parents would be unwilling to drive their children to the locations the District suggested and would not enroll them. This would make it difficult for the Charter School to operate. Julè Skoglund attested to the logistical challenges she would face. Skoglund is the principal of the Los Niños Kindergarten Center. The District would like to move her students to the Cariños location.
“But if we were to bus students to all these different places, it would not only be very difficult for the District, it would be difficult for the parents and it would difficult for the therapists,” she said. “Because having all of our therapists in one building, we have speech therapists, we have our physical therapists, occupational therapists, so we have all of our high-level specialists in one place working with students in a continuous process, so if our students are all spread around the District, those therapists are going to have to go from one place to the next and they can’t collaborate and talk about and work together on the best practices for those individual students.”
District Facilities Director Adan Cordova also spoke. He provided testimony regarding the additional cost the District would bear if the students are split amongst different schools.
The additional cost could be anywhere from $25,000 to $30,000 and the renovation of the different schools to accommodate preschool and kindergarten children would not be completed in time for the start of fall classes.
The June 13 hearing was the second in the case. After the May hearing, Singleton ordered both parties to continue to negotiations, but talks failed and she was forced to render a verdict.
This controversy began with the 90-day eviction issued by the District to Cariños.
The Los Niños Kindergarten Center will be undergoing a renovation for the coming academic year and a temporary facility is needed to house the students until the construction can be completed. The District was hoping Cariños could be that facility.
If they could not reach an agreement, then Singleton would decide how the location would be partitioned for use by both groups.
The option of a mediator was discussed near the conclusion of the hearing and both sides are trying to come to some consensus regarding who that mediator should be.
Ron VanAmberg, the attorney representing Cariños, and Singleton, offered to provide names of potential mediators. Mediation will begin within the next few weeks once a person is agreed upon.