The parents of the Española Military Academy’s 119 students will have to decide next fall where else to send their children to school.
As of the end of this school year, their child’s school will no longer exist as a publicly chartered organization.
State Education Secretary Veronica Garcia upheld March 4 the state Public Education Commission’s decision to revoke the Academy’s charter. This marks the first time the state has denied any school’s charter renewal.
Garcia’s decision came with instructions for the Española School District to shut down the Academy and take over its finances and property at the end of the school year, or else re-open it as a District-run academy or alternative school.
Michelle Martinez’s son, eighth-grader Michael Angelo Chavez, has attended the school for three years. She said she’ll keep her son in the District only if the Española School Board decides to keep it open as a District-run academy. Otherwise, she’ll probably send her son to a high school in the Pojoaque or Santa Fe School Districts, she said.
“I pulled him out of the Española School District because it’s horrible, and I won’t sent him back,” Martinez said. “It’s a safety issue for me to send my child to Española.”
Brenda Lovato heads the Academy’s Parent Support Committee and would not say much about the decision, but plans to tell the Española School Board what she thinks at its March 18 meeting.
“We want to let them know that our parents are about the Academy,” Lovato said. “Our support is for the school and (we will) let them know that our kids are our number one priority.”
Former Academy Governing Board President and Española mayor Richard Lucero helped found the school in 2004 as an alternative to the violence-prone Española middle school. He said he hadn’t heard about the school’s pending closure when contacted Tuesday night.
“I don’t know anything about it,” Lucero said. “I haven’t read anything (Garcia) wrote. Let me talk to (current Board President Patrick Trujillo) and get back to you.”
Garcia’s decision cannot be further appealed through the state Education Department. However, her letter states the Academy can appeal the decision in state District Court.
Academy Board member and parent Saul Medina said he wants to proceed with the appeal.
“I wish that we could appeal it because I don’t want to give up on the community and the kids,” he said.
Medina said the Department never got the whole picture about the Academy.
“They didn’t really give us a chance to explain as far as near proficiency,” Medina said. “We got students that were at beginning levels of reading, math and such. We did get them at really low levels but they have stepped up five or six notches.”
In her decision, Garcia cited testimony from the Department that the Academy did not make even minimal progress for the past three years. He said that in two grades, not a single student tested at grade level. Garcia also pointed to testimony that students’ scores actually dropped the longer they attended the Academy.
“Moreover, there was substantial evidence introduced during the appeal hearing that would warrant a conclusion that EMA failed to meet or make substantial progress toward achievement of the department’s minimum education standards,” Garcia wrote in her letter
The District’s Plan
Garcia’s decision came with instructions that, starting June 30, the District should take over the Academy’s finances and property, reintegrating its former students into the District and consider hiring its staff, provided they are qualified and the District has vacancies.
Garcia also said the District may, but is not required to, reorganize the Academy as an alternative public school under direct District supervision.
The District is starting to investigate that second option. Superintendent David Cockerham said he instructed Academy Headmaster Steve Baca to hand the Board a proposal March 18 for a committee that would investigate what that alternative school would look like. Medina said Baca turned in his letter of resignation Monday to the Academy Board effective June 30. Baca declined to comment about his resignation.
“I’m making a presentation to the Española public school board at the next board meeting to discuss with them the Secretary’s decision and their direction as far as whether or not they keep the school as a magnet,” Baca said. “I’m there to give them the strengths and weaknesses of the school.”
Cockerham said he would expect the committee to develop a plan by late April.
“That’s one concern I have — we’re on a real tight time line,” Cockerham said.
The committee will consist mostly of Academy parents, plus some District staff and Board members, Cockerham said.
“The question we’re asking them is, ‘Now that you no longer exist, what would you like the (District) to help you accomplish?’” Board Vice President Joann Salazar said. “We’d like to see, if we go with an alternative school, how would it be reorganized? What would its mission be?”
Cockerham pointed out an alternative school would only be viable if it costs the District an amount equivalent to or less than the Academy’s current budget, and if it can stay at the Academy’s current site at the National Guard armory on Industrial Park Road.
“The District doesn’t need to put more money into this sort of thing,” Cockerham said. “We can’t afford it.”
Cockerham and Board members said the alternative school may keep the Academy’s military curriculum, but would undergo an academic overhaul, with new teachers and a new curriculum.
Board President Leonard Valerio said he is willing to hear proposals for an alternative school, but would rather close the Academy altogether. Board members Joann Salazar and Board member Floyd Archuleta said they favor looking into the alternative school option.
“I feel bad about the kids that had their heart and soul in the school and the parents,” Valerio said. “They believed in it and I feel bad for that. On the reality side, they have to realize that the reason the state made the decision they made was because of some of the findings they found and that were presented to them that weren’t adequately being fulfilled. If you’re going to educate a student, these students only have one shot at education. If an adult ruins it for them, you’ve just cheated that student out of a lifetime of learning. You can’t do that.”