The Española School Board accepted by unanimous vote a $364,000 legislative capital outlay appropriation that had been awarded to the Española Military Academy last year but the Board had previously rejected.
The Academy currently operates under a District-issued charter, which makes it a semi-autonomous secondary school that, for fiscal purposes, is still part of the District. As of last summer, when the Board rejected the appropriation, the Academy planned to renew its charter with the District.
Under that arrangement, the District would have received $138,000 less next time it applied for state construction funding if the Board had accepted the Academy’s appropriation. The Academy did not agree to reimburse the District for that penalty, and had failed to honor the District’s requests to do so in previous years, which led the Board to reject this year’s appropriation.
But because the Academy wound up applying to renew its charter directly with the state, the charter school will no longer be a part of the District after June 30 if state Education Secretary Veronica Garcia decides to renew its charter. That means the District would no longer be penalized for appropriations the Academy receives, according to an e-mail from Sharon Ball, an analyst with the state Legislative Council Service.
That made the decision easier for some Board members who would have otherwise rejected the appropriation again.
“It can’t hurt the District,” Board member Leonard Valerio said. “So if they win their appeal and they get their money, the whole amount goes to them, we clean our hands of it, and they can’t come back and accuse District of hurting them. I don’t want them to say I wasn’t a community player in their effort.”
A week ago, the Academy risked losing that appropriation plus several smaller awards from previous years — a total of $439,000 — in a legislative push to take back unspent pork.
At the time, state Sen. Richard Martinez (D-Española), vowed he would save the Academy’s money. He was apparently successful.
The Academy’s appropriations were removed from a bill passed Feb. 5 that took back $90 million in previous appropriations to agencies statewide as the bill made its way through the House Taxation and Revenue Committee.
Martinez said he spoke to Sen. Carlos Cisneros (D-Questa), House Speaker Ben Lujan (D-Nambé) and several other members of that committee during the Democrats’ caucus and asked them to consider saving the Academy’s money since there is a possibility the school may win its appeal and keep its charter.
“They endorsed the concept,” Martinez said.
Asked if he now owes any favors, Martinez said not that he knows of.
“What favors can I do out of (the Senate Conservation Committee)?,” Martinez asked, laughing.
If the Academy’s appeal is denied, Martinez would have an opportunity to give the money to another agency. If he does not, the money would return to the state coffers, Ball said.
“It stays with me,” Martinez said. “I’m probably gonna give it to the (Española Public) Library.”
Academy Board President Patrick Trujillo said the Academy will wait until after its appeal hearing to decide whether to lobby for additional funding in the legislature. The Academy is paying Nick Naranjo $33,000 to lobby this session.