4-24-2024 9:44am

Alma d’Arte’s Charter School Las Cruces Sparks Concerns: Implications for New Mexico's Charter System

Chris Edwards Editor

The Alma d’Arte’s Charter School in Las Cruces is on notice, due to mismanagement and poor governance. It's not alone with several concerns across the state.

As previously reported a pre-application for the Sacramento School of Engineering and Science, has been filed with the New Mexico Public Education Department, notifying the department of a groups attempt to make a taxpayer funded charter school in Alamogordo a reality. A small cliquish group of individuals, is attempting to force a charter school into Alamogordo that could result in layoffs and program cuts for Alamogordo High School, as a result of a charter school implementation.

There are lessons for the Alamogordo community from a troubled Las Cruces chartered school, and a history of troubled charter schools within Las Cruces over the past decade.

The proposed charter for Alamogordo would be outside of APS oversight and public accountability, using millions of dollars of local taxpayer dollars that were planned for APS and Alamogordo High School in particular. A charter as proposed would pull up to 156 students our of Alamogordo High School and into the charter school.

The New Mexico Charter Schools Department of the NMPED has encouraged Alma d’Arte Charter High School to develop a grievance process in order to handle complaints that have been coming to the PEC from the school’s community. At the meeting, held in Santa Fe, staff also addressed a number of concerns with which they had.

According to reporting from the Las Cruces Bulletin, ”during spring break, Alma d’Arte Charter High School principal Adam Amador worked through the week assembling documents addressing a number of financial and academic concerns raised by the New Mexico Public Education Commission.

At its February 16 session, the 10-member elected body which authorizes and oversees state-chartered charter schools in New Mexico discussed concerns raised by parents and faculty of the arts-based public charter school founded in Las Cruces in 2004, as well as the school’s financial audit and annual report from the state’s Charter Schools Division.

During that same meeting there was also discussion concerning the closure of the La Tierra Montessori School for the Arts and Science Charter School.

The New Mexico Public Education Commission voted to revoke the charter of La Tierra Montessori School of the Arts and Sciences, citing violations ranging from student health and safety concerns to fiscal problems, deficient academic performance and lack of collaboration with Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, where the school is located.

Alma d’Arte Charter High School in Las Cruces has been a participant in a plethora of questionable practices, with significant concerns under the eye of the NMPED and has a problem with frustrated parents. The NMPED and the Charter School's Division is troubled by complaints of students being expelled from the school without process; that the school was placed on a corrective action plan by the Public Education Department’s Office of Special Education; and that its annual report identified gaps in performance in numerous areas.

The Charter School commissioners in February voted to notify the school it would be placed on the agenda of a future meeting to report on its academic performance, special education compliance, enrollment and disenrollment processes, as well as organizational matters such as reporting requirements, use of grant funds, grievance policies and how it will address audit findings. That future meeting happened on 4-18-24.

In 2021, Alma d’Arte’s charter was renewed through 2027 with conditions, as the agency worked with the school on a list of issues related to governance, finances, enrollment and services for students with special needs all issues not meeting state standards.

A challenge with the Charter Schools program in New Mexico is a lack of transparency and oversight unlike a traditional public school system. The state audit has asked the legislature to take up fiduciary transparency issues but since 2022 it has not addressed the state auditor’s concerns.

A prime example is outlined by the Albuquerque Journal, concerning the GREAT Academy Charter School, which used public funds to pay for additional contracts and bonuses that went to the school's husband-and-wife founders by channeling the dollars through its foundation, according to a special audit released earlier this month. The founders of the state charter school on San Mateo – Jasper and Keisha Matthews – were already on the school's payroll as top administrators. The foundation's use of funds, State Auditor Brian Colón says, exposes a loophole "akin to a shell company moving funds in a questionably legal manner" that can only be closed by state lawmakers. "When the public invests its money, it expects a certain amount of deliverables," Colón said in an interview. "In the case where funds are transferred to a foundation, the public can't count on those deliverables being met, because there's no oversight." The audit was launched after the chair of the Public Education Commission – the body that's responsible for overseeing state charter schools – sent a letter to the state auditor's office outlining concerns over potential misappropriation of public funds and conflicts of interest at the school and foundation.

Further troubling concerns for parents is the Charter Schools Division of PED in New Mexico is underfunded and understaffed to provide proper oversight per its own admission, thus issues like Alma d’Arte’s charter's and others discussed can carry over for a few years.

The net result is upset parents and children with substandard outcomes from their charter education and fiscal issues potentially costing taxpayers millions due to a lack of transparency.

A Charter Schools state auditors report found that in 2022/23 school year only 10 charter schools audited had a completely clean bill of fiscal health and were managed with transparency and no concerns, 21 charter schools had material weaknesses shown in the fiscal audits and 6 had significant issues of concern with 2 targeted for disciplinary action, one of which is on the closure list.

A state audit advisory suggests that there is a high potential for conflicts of interest regarding charter school operations provided through a charitable foundation’s programs—which may include providing suitable facilities and other organizational support. Another issue, charter school funding provided by the State of New Mexico can be disbursed to the charitable foundation and subsequently used to support the foundation’s expenditures with no accountability from internal controls or other oversight outlined in policies, procedures, laws, or regulations by the State of New Mexico. This may enable the mismanagement of those public funds.

And yet another example of this lack of oversight resulted and questioned the survival of the STEM focused, Southwest Aeronautics Mathematics and Science Academy (SAMS), one of a group of New Mexico charter schools that suffered the effects of massive fraud perpetrated by its founder/ administrator, David Scott Glasrud, over a 15-year period (2000-2014)

In his plea agreement, Glasrud admitted that SEC, his personally owned business, made more than $700,000 in profits as the result of this scheme.

A program report on charter schools oversight prepared for the legislature recommended a freeze on new charter schools, cleaning up regulations to ensure oversight and that the system is flawed and not delivering the best educational results for students in the charter systems in New Mexico. An attempt to freeze charter school development failed in 2023 but is a firm indictment of concerns about charter schools and the oversight around them.

The more recent issues at Las Cruces’s Alma d’Arte’s follow a tumultuous few years in which a former principal was indicted for embezzlement and the school came a procedural step away from possibly losing its charter under the PEC’s “intervention ladder,” when a notice of breach of its charter was issued in 2019. The notice addressed problems in the school’s special education services and services for English language learners among other items of concern.

Now just last week the state Public Education Commission voted unanimously on Friday that Alma d’Arte Charter High School was in breach of its charter, following a lengthy meeting addressing numerous concerns with respect to governance, financial oversight, academic performance (particularly in math and science), poor attendance and the school’s relations with students and their families.

All seven members present approved the resolution for a notice of breach of contract to Alma d’Arte, calling on its leadership “to re-establish a respectful, safe and effective learning environment at the school.”

The notice of breach is a formal step in an intervention process at a charter located just up the road from Alamogordo.

The ongoing saga dating as far back as 2019, continuing to 2021, and now in April 2024, of nearby Las Cruces based Alma d’Arte’s charter, combined with the list of issues that are detailed by the state auditors report and other examples above, is just a glimpse of potential future issues and concerns that Alamogordo taxpayers may encounter with a proposed Sacramento School of Engineering and Science charter school.

The public should think twice about the proposed charter for Alamogordo. Already the proposal has been questionable in the facts of support that it submitted to the state. Already a founding board member was forced to resign due to a conflict of interest. Already transparency issues have been raised and not addressed by the founding board. And looking at Las Cruces we can plainly see the potential to problems that could arise due to a lack of transparency, accountability and oversight.

Concerned citizens are encouraged to contact the APS School Board and to email the MainGate United Education Committee members and voice your concerns with the Charter School initiative and lack of transparency to hello@alamogordo.com

For more in depth dialogue concerning the lack of transparency to date, risks to taxpayers, the process and public concerns, supported with documentation, about the Sacramento School of Engineering and Science charter school initiative click below…

Alamogordo School Board Member Craig Danekas Resigns from Charter School Board

https://2ndlifemediaalamogordo.town.news/g/alamogordo-nm/n/249914/alamogordo-school-board-member-craig-danekas-resigns-charter-school-board

Creating a Charter School Where is the transparency?

https://2ndlifemediaalamogordo.town.news/g/alamogordo-nm/n/242275/chart…

The Lessons of Riverhead Central School District. Would an Alamogordo Charter School Result in AHS Layoffs?

https://2ndlifemediaalamogordo.town.news/g/alamogordo-nm/n/248738/lesso…

Understanding the Steps to Open a Charter School

https://2ndlifemediaalamogordo.town.news/g/alamogordo-nm/post/242613/un…

Notice of Intend to Open a Charter School Filed

https://2ndlifemediaalamogordo.town.news/g/alamogordo-nm/n/235685/notic…