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Charter School Law Presents Problem for SF

Posted on: Thursday, 8 September 2005, 09:00 CDT

By 2010 all charter schools in New Mexico will have to be housed in public buildings, according to a new state law that went into effect in April.

That presents a problem for Santa Fe, where three of the city's four charter schools have buildings that are going to be or have already been constructed with private -- not public -- funds. Also, districts must now include charter schools in their master plans for school improvement and construction, which go to the state when district projects are considered for funding. That could mean less money for traditional public schools because a charter school -- depending on its condition -- may receive a higher priority for construction and repairs, Bob Gorrell, the executive director of the state Public School Facilities Authority, told the Santa Fe school board Tuesday.

Some school board members expressed confusion over the new law because of the quasiindependent nature of charter schools. "The way they began makes it difficult," said board president Martin Lujan. "It's all going to be dependent on how we decipher the information. We need to be really cautious as we move forward."

Charter schools are considered independent from school districts in many ways, even though they are public schools. For example, districts have no say in a charter school's financial management, but the charter schools are included within a district's annual audit.

When the Santa Fe school board approved the creation of three of its charter schools -- including one that is not yet open -- some district officials presumed that the district was not responsible for construction or maintenance of the charter schools' buildings.

That presumption was incorrect, said Gorrell, because the district is ultimately responsible for all students' safety and well- being. The idea of the new law is to help insure that charter schools are housed in safe buildings.

"They (charter schools) are still one of your schools. The district has to make sure the kids are OK," Gorrell said.

When the school board approved charters for the charter schools, more than anything board members were agreeing to academic concepts, said Leslie Carpenter, the district's chief operations.

Now the new law is adding a financial responsibility for the district after the charters have been approved, Carpenter said.

"There is a natural tension that's been created. This changes things," she said.

Santa Fe, along with other districts, will have to revise their five-year plan for school renovations that was submitted to the state last year. Some of the charter schools have had private groups of supporters raising money for buildings or borrowed money for facilities, which is the case with Monte del Sol charter school. The district or the state could take over Monte del Sol's mortgage payments come 2010, said school principal Tony Gerlicz.

Taking over a charter schools' lease payments is also a possibility, as is having a charter school's foundation donate school buildings to the state or the district, Gorrell said.

Since its inception, the Academy for Technology and the Classics has been housed in a collection of portable buildings on Richards Road near the Genoveva Chavez Community Center. A group of private supporters is beginning to raise money for the construction of a permanent facility, which is expected to be completed in May 2007. "That's the only way we could get a building," said Ruth La Blanc, principal at the academy. Turquoise Trail Elementary School does not present a problem, since that school was built as a traditional school by the district and was later converted to a charter school.

Gorrell said the new law clarifies the relationship between districts and charter schools. It gets charter schools thinking about what their facility needs are, he said, and includes districts in the conversation. "They should all be making these decisions together as a community. Some say we should have done this a long time ago," Gorrell said.

Source: Albuquerque Journal

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