Local school districts respond to court ruling on PED's 180-day school calendar
Nina Otero Community School Principal Valerie Apodaca works with middle school students. (Photo courtesy Santa Fe Public Schools)
As lawmakers work to pass a bill clarifying school districts' control over their academic calendars, scheduling for next year is underway.
House Bill 65 proposes making changes to the Public School Code to clarify that local school districts have the flexibility to create their school calendars, as long as they meet the state required minimum of 1,140 instructional hours per year.
The instructional hour minimum was raised to its current level in 2023 in response to the landmark Yazzie-Martinez education lawsuit, which found that at-risk students were not receiving equitable educational opportunities from the state. In March 2024, the Public Education Department, under former Secretary Arsenio Romero, created a rule requiring K-12 schools adopt a 180-day school calendar in an effort to meet the instructional hour requirement.
Opponents quickly sued PED over the rule due and said it conflicted with state law and also pointed to the added expenses Native and rural school districts would incur for adding instructional days such as transportation and meals.
Ninth Judicial District Court Judge Dustin K. Hunter initially issued an injunction against the rule and then in early February 2025 decreed that the education department lacks the authority to mandate a minimum number of instructional days.
Now, school districts are back to making their own decisions about their calendars, while a proposed law that would codify their right to do so makes its way through the legislative process.
'I don't believe that the number of school days determines success,' Peñasco Independent School District Superintendent Michelle Gonzales told Source NM. 'I think that what really makes a difference is having teachers that are dedicated and invested in the students and the community.'
Gonzales said in her district, which operates on a four-day week, making room in the budget for an extended calendar required cuts to security, cafeteria and maintenance personnel. And to meet the 180-day requirement for the current school year, class started earlier in the year and will end later. School officials also cut the lengths of the winter and Thanksgiving Day breaks.
She added that the school calendar committee is moving forward with next year's calendar now that a decision has been made regarding the 180-day rule. Gonzales said the calendar will likely be similar to this year's, but with a start date in August rather than in July.
Veronica Garcia, interim superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools and a former Public Education Department cabinet secretary, told Source that SFPS developed two calendars last year – one with 180 days and one with 175 days. She said because of the injunction granted by the court in the PED lawsuit, SFPS went with the 175-day calendar.
The district, which is on a five-day week schedule, conducted a poll of the community, Garcia said, and found that '[in] Santa Fe by and large, the community likes to have the calendar end before Memorial Day.' If the longer calendar year had been adopted, she said school would have likely started in late July. She said next school year's calendar will be made public in April and will also include 175 days.
Garcia added that because a large portion of the students in New Mexico attend schools in urban areas, policy is often dictated by these districts, overlooking rural schools.
'I think that the best approach would be to bring superintendents to the table representing large, medium-sized and smaller-sized school districts to work with the PED in collaboration, to work together,' she said. 'I think both sides want the best for the kids and I think it's a matter of understanding each other's perspective and understanding the nuances here, because I don't think it's really a black and white answer.'
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