State Rejects Dulce Elementary Improvement Plan Again

This story was originally published in the Rio Grande SUN on May 10, 2018.

The Dulce Independent School District’s plan to improve student achievement and academics at Dulce Elementary School was rejected for the second time, April 27, by the New Mexico Public Education Department.

Dulce Elementary is one of four schools in the state identified for Most Rigorous Intervention, after it received an F grade from the Department for five consecutive years. The designation allows schools to apply for additional funds to implement an extensive intervention process to improve the school.

Dulce officials were given four possible intervention options, including closure; closing the school and restarting it under a charter school operator chosen through a comprehensive review process; champion and choice, which allows students and parents to choose an alternative schooling option, such as an online learning program or attending a private or magnet school; or creating a plan to significantly restructure and redesign the vision and systems at a school.

On Feb. 26, Dulce Superintendent Pam Montoya submitted an application for the “significantly restructure and redesign intervention” option. 

Public Education Secretary Christopher Ruszkowski rejected the application, March 21.

“Overall, the request for application for Dulce Elementary School lacks the requisite urgency, clarity, and cohesiveness to dramatically improve student achievement and outcomes,” he wrote. “It fails to fully embrace best practices from across New Mexico, undervalues the immediate importance of high-performing educators, fails to implement meaningful, regular measurement of student progress, and does not fully seize this unique opportunity to boldly and courageously redesign our students’ learning experience.”

District officials were given three additional weeks to improve the application and resubmit it for consideration.

The letter also lists seven areas of the application in need of revision, at minimum, for the Department to approve it.

These include having an entire staff of highly effective or exemplary performing teachers by the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year; increasing student instruction time in core subjects with the school’s best teachers; selecting a highly qualified principal with a record of improving student achievement; higher pay for teachers and the principal; an evidence-based curriculum; and decreasing the amount of money requested to implement the intervention plan.

The application also has to include the “expected outcomes of any tribal and community partnerships, external resources and national partnerships that the district and school plan to access and coordinate with, as well as a direct connection to the root cause(s) of school underperformance.”

Montoya resubmitted the application on April 16. It was rejected on April 27.

“It is discouraging that such a weak and tepid plan was delivered to NMPED (New Mexico Public Education Department) on April 16 — one that does not demonstrate a genuine attempt to advance student achievement in a bold and purposeful manner,” Ruszkowski wrote in the second rejection letter. “The resubmitted plan does not prioritize the needs of students and focuses instead on the needs of the adults ­— all this after an entire generation of students has been deprived of a high-quality education.”

He also wrote that the proposed plan relies on contingencies, excuses and workarounds, instead of addressing the needs of students.

For example, while the plan includes proposed school calender changes, a recruitment plan and timeline for hiring a school leader, a teacher benefits package and proposed incentives to attract and recruit teachers, none of these components have been approved by the District’s Board of Education.

District officials also decided to retain current principal Cindy Julian.

Montoya had until Monday to resubmit a plan that has full support and approval of the Board.

It is unknown if she submitted it. Montoya did not respond, by presstime, to an email requesting an interview.

“If the district fails to submit a plan in this matter, (New Mexico Public Education Department) will select another option for the school immediately and may take future action to address the systemic issues that have been uncovered through this process,” the second rejection letter states. “The financial, operational, and academic health of your district is being called into question, and our students deserve better than more of the same.”