A group of area residents, citing mismanagement and corruption, filed a petition with state regulators asking them to strip the Española School Board of its power to make financial and other decisions for the District.
Concerned Citizens for Better Education filed the petition, Sept. 2, after collecting approximately 1,000 signatures from District taxpayers.
The group wants the state’s Public Education Department to take control of the Board and the District’s finances, in hopes of putting an end to what they characterized as overt wrongdoing and poor decision-making.
“We the undersigned taxpayers of the Española School District, Dist. #55, request the New Mexico Public Education Department assume financial responsibility of the Española Public School District and its Board for egregious malfeasance and violation of state laws, rules and regulations,” the petition states.
The Citizens group is made up of a loose coalition of District residents, without any apparent leadership.
Specifically, the group is concerned with several of the Board’s business dealings, which included awarding Rio Arriba County Commissioner Barney Trujillo three consecutive contracts to market the District. They also awarded a contract to an unlicensed contractor to perform various infrastructure improvements.
The group expressed concern about some of the District’s personnel decisions, like keeping former basketball coach Richard Martinez on board, despite the conclusions of an Education Department investigation, that determined the coach engaged in alleged wrongdoing.
Those contracts, as well as several other business dealings, attracted the scrutiny of New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas’s Office, that opened a March investigation into the District’s procurement practices.
Public Education Department Public Information Officer Robert McEntyre said his office is reviewing the petition, but would not provide details as to what the review entailed.
School Board President Pablo Lujan said the petitioners’ conclusions regarding the District’s operations could not be further from the truth, because the Board conducts business in a public setting, in accordance with the state’s Open Meetings Act.
That fact, Lujan said, should serve as a sign to the petitioners that Board business is conducted within the parameters of the law.
“I would love for them to explain the malfeasance,” Lujan said when showed the petition for the first time. “Everything we voted on has been in public.”
The first-term president said like any other governmental body, the Board has had its problems, but putting personal gain ahead of District business isn’t one of them. Right or wrong, the Board’s decisions were meant to improve the District, as a whole.
“Our budget is perfect,” he said. “We have had clean audits with some mistakes that we are working to fix, but where we are breaking the law, I don’t see.”
State law mandates that the Education Department make sure New Mexico’s 89 school districts and their Boards carry out their statutorily-obligated responsibilities.
“The Public Education Department shall supervise all schools and school officials coming under its jurisdiction,” the law states, “Including taking over the control and management of a public school or school district that has failed to meet requirements of law or department rules or standards, and, until such time as requirements of law, standards or rules have been met and compliance is ensured the powers and duties of the local school board and local superintendent shall be suspended.”
District parent and petition signee Nicole Vigil said she signed the document because she would like to see the Board step up and do what it takes to ensure students get the education they deserve.
“I am tired of the District making promises they can’t fulfill,” Vigil said. “They are going to school without the tools they need to succeed.”
She said some of the Board’s decisions make it hard to continue to put your faith in the District, only to come up short time and time again.
“How can they expect us to trust them with our kids, when they continue to fail them?” Vigil said.
Española Valley High English Teacher John Sena, a vocal critic of the Board, said he isn’t surprised District parents took up the cause.
“I didn’t sign the petition,” he said. “But I feel that there are many people that feel like this was an appropriate action and something needs to happen. The Board doesn’t work in the students’ best interest.”
Board member Yolanda Salazar, who supports the group’s efforts, said it was long overdue, given the District’s recent history.
She points to Superintendent Eric Martinez’s decision to keep Richard Martinez in a coaching position, even after the Public Education Department’s investigation.
“The decisions that have been made, including keeping him (Richard Martinez) is what triggered the petition,” she said.
The Board’s poorly executed decisions have fostered a decline in almost every measure of student success such as graduation rates, test scores and school grades.
“I think the community has spoken,” she said. “They are tired of seeing their tax dollars spent on non-educational and unneeded items.”
While she acknowledges the important role sports can play in a student’s education, she points to the recent purchase of portable basketball goals, instead of authorizing much-needed plumbing and locker room repairs at Española Valley High School.
“If the Board is taken over by PED (Public Education Department),” Salazar said, “It would probably be a benefit to the kids of the District.”
Superintendent Eric Martinez didn’t respond to a request for an interview as of press time.