Española schools hope to get ‘back on track’

Española Public Schools are undergoing something of a purge after the school board’s membership changed dramatically in the March elections.

In the past few weeks:

•  The school district superintendent, who was under attack by the state Public Education Department, has been let go.

• A controversial school district marketing contract with a member of the Rio Arriba County Commission, which was granted in 2014 shortly before a then-school board member was hired for a top county government position, was dropped.

• Española Valley High’s championship basketball coach, who was accused of bullying players and parents – by both PED and in a lawsuit filed by parents – is gone.

Now, school board president Ruben Archuleta believes the district can move on, be more transparent about how it does business and go back to focusing on education.

“We’re committed to getting our schools back on track and doing things the honorable way, the right way,” he said. “We have a commitment to educating our kids. Our energy should have been on educating our kids. These situations that were unnecessary affect our kids in the long run. Changes are coming, and we’re very excited.”

The departures have followed a political upheaval on the school board. Archuleta was formerly part of the minority in a 3-2 split on the board.

In March, Patrick Herrera and Gilbert Serrano were elected to replace Lucas Fresquez and Annabelle Alamager, who had been part of a voting bloc with then-board president Pablo Lujan. The two new board members, along with holdovers Archuleta and Yolanda Salazar, now are a 4-1 majority, with Lujan on the outs.

In a recent buyout, former Superintendent Eric Martinez, who was on the job for about a year, will be paid a lump sum of $130,000 as well as money from accrued leave time, according to his resignation settlement agreement with the district. Martinez was asked to remove his personal belongings from his office April 13 and stop all work with the district, and his resignation will officially take effect June 30. He had one more year on his contract.

Martinez was under fire by the PED for a lack of disciplinary action against two district employees who were said to have intimidated students and parents after they lodged complaints about bullying by basketball coach Richard Martinez – no relation to the former superintendent. Other allegations against Eric Martinez included leaving too many teacher positions vacant and poor financial controls. PED took over the finances of the district in November.

In a notice that same month, PED officials asked Martinez to submit a corrective action plan, but Martinez instead responded with a letter that contested each of PED’s claims. He finally submitted an action plan in March after PED told him that he faced suspension if he didn’t. But PED Secretary Hanna Skandera said Martinez’s plan still wasn’t enough, according to a letter she sent him April 26.

“You have provided plans for addressing various concerns raised by the Department; however, many of those plans lack sufficient detail and acceptable deadlines for completion,” Skandera wrote. “Further, it is disappointing that you have not taken personal responsibility for those areas of concern that fall squarely within the purview of the Superintendent.

“Upon review of your correspondence, you have not removed the causes for disapproval, nor provided a corrective action plan that is satisfactory and therefore have not met the requirements provided in the Notice.”

Skandera wrote that she will close out the notice if she and a judge approve of Eric Martinez’s buyout settlement with the school board. The agreement was approved by Santa Fe District Court Judge Francis Mathew and is now being reviewed by the state, PED spokeswoman Lida Alikhani said Thursday.

The district is now searching for its seventh superintendent in the last five years and hopes to have one in place by June 19, Archuleta said.

Archuleta said the key to selecting the right person and keeping someone in the position for a while is listening to a 20-member selection committee, which he said has a varied membership that includes people from the Sikh community, Santa Clara Pueblo and Ohkay Owingeh.

“I think it just starts with the recommendation of the committee,” he said. “This is a well-rounded committee. There’s some broad representation from the area.” The school board will have the final say on who’s hired.

Coach bounced

Basketball has been at the center of the school district’s controversies.

Former Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez fired coach Richard Martinez soon after he led the Sundevils to a state championship last year, the second under his leadership in the roundball-crazy town. In response, the school board forced Gutierrez to resign.

The personnel actions split the Española camps for and against the coach. Eric Martinez, a former Chama Valley School District administrator, was hired to replace Gutierrez.

In addition to bullying – including use of what was termed an “atomic punch” – Richard Martinez has faced questions and allegations about leading players in prayer, slapping a female student and missing money from a fundraiser. PED was scheduled to hold a hearing on his various educational licenses this month.

But earlier this week, the PED acknowledged that Richard Martinez had agreed to surrender his coaching license. He can reapply for one in 2019, according to a settlement between him and PED. His educational licenses will be suspended for one year, and he will be put on probation after that. He must also take a 16-hour educator ethics course. Failure to comply with these conditions could result in his being suspended for an extra two years, the agreement says.

He can also never work in the Española public schools again or with anyone that contracts with the district.

Martinez had also been a physical education teacher at the high school, but he was placed in an administrative position by Eric Martinez while the PED conducted its investigation. PED will “dismiss” its notice of contemplated action, but the allegations in it will be reconsidered if Martinez reapplies for a license.

“The disturbing allegations made in this case will be determining factors in the approval process for any future license application,” PED’s Alikhani said in a written statement. “The Department’s database will permanently reflect that Martinez has had a serious ethics issue.”

“With the NMPED decision, Española Public Schools and the community can begin to heal old wounds and return our focus to educating students,” school board president Archuleta said. “In sports or in the classroom, our students deserve a safe and positive learning environment.”

Neither Richard Martinez or Eric Martinez could be reached for this story. Sam Bregman, Richard Martinez’s lawyer, has said previously that the allegations against the coach were false.

“The fact is that Española is a small town,” Bregman said. “Some people up there don’t like Richard Martinez, and they will say and do anything to get rid of him.”

County ties

In another severance, acting Superintendent Denise Johnston wrote a professional services termination letter to County Commissioner Barney Trujillo on April 25, saying the district was terminating its $50,000-a-year contract with Trujillo’s company, Trujillo Media. Johnston wrote that the school board had asked her to review the contract and to make a recommendation on whether it was financially sound for the cash-strapped district to pay Trujillo Media $4,166 a month for “media, marketing campaigns and event planning.”

Johnston said she told the board that Trujillo’s services were “nonessential and the funds should be reverted to use for student programming.”

The Attorney General’s office raided Trujillo’s Chimayo home in January and the Española school district’s office, listing Trujillo as a target in the warrant. The AG had also made records requests to the school district for thousands of documents, including invoices, purchase orders, work logs and bank statements relating to Trujillo’s company. James Hallinan, spokesman for the attorney general, did not comment on the investigation Thursday.

Former Espa ñ ola school board member Annabelle Almager was hired as the county human resources director, with pay in the $50,000 range, in 2014 shortly after the school board voted to award Trujillo the marketing contract. Almager is still the human resources director. Neither Trujillo or Almager provided comment for a Journal story about the controversy that was published in February.

County Manager Tomas Campos said then that allegations by a lawyer for the demoted former HR director whom Almager replaced, including that there was a “quid pro quo” involving Trujillo’s school district contract and Almager’s subsequent hiring at the county, were false.

Holdover school board member Lujan told the Rio Grande Sun, an Española weekly, that Trujillo’s contract was cut in retaliation for Trujillo’s support for losing candidates in the school board election.

When asked what the district had to show for Trujillo’s contract, Archuleta couldn’t say.

“Good question,” he said. “There’s no itemized invoices. He just charged $4,166 every month. I asked him several times what the finished product was, and he could never provide that to me.”

Archuleta said the community has shown a greater interest in school operations now. He said about five people used to go to district budget meetings; now he said, about 40 to 50 people attend. He said it’s probably due to all the controversy surrounding the district recently.

“I think the community wanted their schools back,” he said.