If your child attended the Española Military Academy this past school year, there was a one-in-five chance that at least one of his or her teachers was not properly licensed to teach.
A state Education Department license discrepancy reports states that, as of March 1, five teachers, or about 20 percent of Española Military Academy’s 23 instructors at the time, were either unlicensed or teaching subjects they are not qualified to teach. One of those improperly licensed instructors is Academy Principal Steve Baca.
At Los Cariños Charter School, the same data shows two unlicensed employees working as Title One instructional assistants and an unlicensed instructor teaching Spanish.
The Department issues discrepancy reports to school districts on the 40th and 120th day of the school year. The reports list “discrepancies,” or instances where an instructor is teaching a course he or she is not qualified to teach, either for lack of an endorsement in that particular subject or for lack of any license at all.
Baca said most of the discrepancies in his school are likely due to either glitches in the system or “inconsistent” hiring practices before he was hired at the start of this past school year.
“Last year we had major discrepancies,” Baca said. “The Board had hiring power before and hired all these people as cadre members. Those holes have been fixed.”
Department spokeswoman Beverly Friedman said a teacher who intentionally teaches without a license or an administrator who intentionally hires a non-licensed teacher could potentially be charged by the Department with an ethics violation.
“First we’d take every opportunity to double-check. I would like to think we do everything we can prior to proceeding with an ethics violation,” Friedman said. “But ultimately, we do have to ensure that students are receiving high-quality instruction.”
If a school district does not respond to informal reprimands from the Department, the teacher and hiring administrator could be assessed with an ethics violation, which consists of an investigation followed by a hearing, Friedman said. Consequences of a violation range from a letter of reprimand to the revocation of the administrator’s license and fines of up to $1,000.
All but two of the Academy employees listed in the discrepancy report have since resigned or been fired.
One of those employees is Leonard Martinez, a teacher fired last year after surveillance tapes allegedly showed he watched a student beat another student with a stick in his classroom, and who the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating for an alleged forgery of military documents.
The report lists Martinez as having taught math and science and overseeing a dropout prevention course. The Department threatened to revoke Martinez’s only license, one for substitute teaching, in April 2007 for failing to pay child support, according to a letter from the Department.
Among the employees cited in the discrepancy report who will continue teaching at the Academy next year is Leroy Lopez, whom the report lists as teaching physical education without a license. According to state licensure files, Lopez’s application for a one-year license was denied because he failed to disclose his arrest record prior to a mandatory background check.
Lopez’s name does not appear in a statewide database of court documents.
Baca said Lopez does not really need a license, because he is not teaching the regular physical education curriculum set by the state. Lopez is a cadre member, which means he teaches the Academy’s military science curriculum, including marching and military formations. Because that curriculum includes physical education sessions twice a week, the Española School District’s software records it as a regular physical education course Baca said. Lopez and other employees plan to apply for alternative licenses this year.
The other remaining employee is Baca himself. The report shows Baca taught English, world history and geography, visual arts and U.S. government, but his teaching license only allows him to teach special education, physical education and modern and classical languages.
Baca said though he has not reviewed the discrepancy report, most of the discrepancies, including his own, are likely due to technicalities. He pointed out that the Academy’s core courses are taught by computer programs — teachers are there mostly to supervise and answer questions. The school’s academic software lets students choose how they structure their schedules. For example, a student may choose to work on math courses the whole day, which means he or she would be learning math during other class periods. And if the student’s schedule says he or she is learning English during a period overseen by a math teacher, for example, that math teacher would be reported to the state as teaching an English class.
“Is he receiving instruction from a teacher? No. The teacher is a program in a box,” Baca said. “But in that student’s schedule, he is tied to that teacher.”
That might account for former Academy teacher Heima Gordon’s presence on the discrepancy report, for example. She is licensed to teach history and English, according to state licensure records, but the report also shows she taught science and math, two subjects for which she doesn’t hold a license. All of those courses are computer-taught.
But Baca’s explanation does not account for why the report shows he taught visual arts, one of only two courses taught by live teachers at the Academy, and which he is not qualified to teach. It does not explain either why the report lists former teacher Tammy Maes as teaching nearly every kind of academic course on the Academy’s curriculum, even though the Department has no record that she ever received a teaching license.
Baca said Maes is licensed as a substitute teacher. He refused to allow a SUN reporter to inspect her personnel file, which would include that license, until July 28, when he returns from vacation.
“I don’t find this acceptable. It concerns me that we would have someone teaching in an area they aren’t certified to teach, because that’s not appropriate,” Board member Pete Gomez said. “We have to ask why this is so. For some reason, we’ve never ask (when we are informed of new hires), we just assume that they’re certified.”
The Academy employed 23 teachers last year and plans to employ 13 this year. The cut in teachers is due to a nearly $500,000 budget shortfall.
Three at Los Cariños
The same report also shows three employees working at Los Cariños without a license.
One of those employees, Spanish teacher Adriano Delgado de Antonio, should not be on the report, Department spokeswoman Beverly Friedman said. Los Cariños hired Delgado through a Department-sponsored program that brings highly-qualified teachers from Spanish-speaking countries. Delgado earned a teaching degree in Spain. Delgado’s name mistakenly appeared on the report because the Department and the District each filed his record under a different last name, Delgado and de Antonio, Friedman said.
Los Cariños Board President Father Terry Brennan said Delgado’s situation is no longer an issue because he has left Los Cariños to take a job with the Las Cruces School District.
The other two employees are Elizabeth Lucero and Dolores Salazar, whom the report states work as instructional assistants without a license. Brennan said he did not know what type of license they hold.
“We certainly have to look deeper into those,” Brennan said.
Los Cariños Principal Victoria Garcia could not be reached for comment.