Latest news with #PublicSchoolCode
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Alternative licenced teachers pose as a possible solution for NM teacher vacancies
New Mexico educators say alternative licensed teachers could fill the gaps in teacher vacancies throughout the state. (Photo courtesy Santa Fe Public Schools) As New Mexico schools continue to grapple with more than 700 teacher vacancies, according to the most recent data, some districts have begun to rely on teachers licensed through the state's alternative licensing programs, which provide licensure pathways for people with degrees in areas outside of education. For instance, Hatch Valley Public Schools Superintendent Michael Chavez told Source NM about one third of the teachers the district employs are non-traditional teachers and because of this, the district does not deal with teacher vacancies to the same extent as other districts. According to the 2024 New Mexico Educator Vacancy Report released in October, there were 737 teacher vacancies last year, 34% of which were special education teacher positions and 24% were elementary positions. The vacancy rate showed a slight improvement over 2023 by 14 positions. When asked for the total number of current teachers licensed through an alternative program, a Public Education Department spokesperson pointed to the same report, which noted that more than 1,100 students completed a teacher preparation program at a New Mexico school last year and more than half of those students were enrolled in an alternative program. These teachers are 'highly qualified' and bring years of professional experience in their field to the classroom, Chavez said. However, he noted, they are still learning how to be teachers. This is why professional work hours are so important, for teachers from all pathways and experience. 'One of the things that I've been really pushing on since we came out of COVID is we need to build the capacity of our teachers,' Chavez said. But finding the time with 180 days of instruction — a number set by the state Public Education Department in a March 2024 rule and currently in litigation — is challenging, he said. 'What we need is more time…for professional development with teachers so we can develop them and build their capacity in learning how to become an effective teacher.' New Mexico's current Public School Code allows middle and high school teachers to use 30 hours of instructional time for parent-teacher meetings, professional development and mentorship, while elementary teachers can use up to 60 hours. These standards were established in 2023 through House Bill 130, which also set a required 1,140 instructional hours per school year. The maximum professional work hours allowed previously were even fewer. When the Public Education Department subsequently created its rule requiring 180 instructional days per calendar year, it also included a stipulation that professional work hours be completed before school, after school or on a day outside of the required minimum, so as to not detract from students' instructional time. That component of the rule also faces opposition. Whitney Holland, president of American Federation of Teachers' New Mexico chapter, told Source NM that there are 'more than enough opportunities to accommodate' professional development during regular school time and that her organization is 'going to hold the line' against the PED's rule. Holland told Source that AFT-NM always advocates for more professional development time and an alignment between primary and secondary teachers' allowed hours. 'I think the most valuable time I had as professional development as a teacher was that time where I could collaborate with my peers and even go into their classrooms and see what they're doing,' Holland said. She said she has some concern over alternative licensed teachers filling so many teacher vacancies because teaching is often their second career and AFT wants to make sure 'we're investing in people who are going to stay in their communities and stay in their field,' but 'at the end of the day, I've worked with a ton of [alternative] licensed teachers who have been super capable. They bring a lot to the table.' Holland said she would rather have alternative licensed teachers fill vacancies than long-term substitutes, so long as there are 'some' individuals in classrooms with traditional licensure through the PED. House Bill 238, introduced during this year's legislative session, would have amended the Public School Code to allow all levels of teachers K-12 up to 60 hours of professional work hours. The House of Representatives unanimously passed the bill, but it eventually died in the Senate Finance Committee. Holland said she will continue advocating for teachers to have more professional work hours going forward because 'we are looking at a holistic model of what pieces of education need to change and I think looking at that traditional school year, school day is part of that,' she said. 'It's not going to be one fix. It's going to have to be a whole bunch of different things.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
PED's 180-day school calendar rule back in the courts
The New Mexico Public Education Department's rule requiring districts have 180 instructional days in the calendar per year is once again being debated in court. (Photo by Klaus Vedfelt / Getty Images) The State of New Mexico's inactive rule requiring school districts to have a minimum of 180 instructional days on their calendars per school year is back in the courts. The New Mexico Public Education Department in March appealed a February decision from Ninth Judicial District Court Judge Dustin K. Hunter, who ruled that the department's rule requiring a minimum number of instructional days in the calendar was unenforceable. Hunter wrote in his decision that the rule conflicted with a current Public School Code statute that requires instead a minimum number of instructional hours. Hunter's ruling came in response to an April 2024 lawsuit from the New Mexico School Superintendents Association and many school boards from across the state challenging PED's original calendar rule, announced in March 2024. The rule itself was a response to the signing of House Bill 130 during the 2023 session, which requires K-12 schools to have a minimum of 1,140 instructional hours each year. Hunter granted an injunction in that case in May 2024, so the rule has never been enforced. According to court documents, the state claims the judge erred in several ways in making his decision. First, the appeal contends Hunter was wrong to limit the scope of the department's rulemaking authority and erroneously used outside evidence to determine legislative intent. The state also asserts in its challenge that no conflict exists between the rule and current statute. Stan Rounds, executive director of the New Mexico School Superintendents Association, a plaintiff in the original case, told Source NM that their team chose legal counsel to represent them in these next court proceedings just last week and are prepared to respond to the state's claims over the next several months of the process. The Legislature attempted to codify the district court's February decision during the recent session through House Bill 65, which would have clarified that local districts have the authority to set the number of school days in their calendar, as long as it meets the instructional hours requirement. HB65 passed in both chambers, but Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham vetoed the bill. The House voted to overturn the veto, but the Senate did not reciprocate due to lack of time on the last day of the session, so the governor's veto still stands. Source reached out to the governor's office for comment on the court proceedings and a spokesperson referred us to the governor's veto message, which states that Lujan Grisham is concerned with some instances in which school districts have condensed school calendars. Lujan Grisham also mentions concern about 'shortchanging' New Mexico students, particularly in light of the landmark Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit, which found that the state was not providing equitable educational opportunities to at-risk students. 'We weren't surprised that she vetoed [HB65],' Rounds told Source. 'There may be other opportunities for [lawmakers] to consider the override at some point in the future.' Whitney Holland, president of the American Federation of Teachers' New Mexico chapter, told Source that the back-and-forth on the state education department's rule is 'frustrating' and disregards the intent of current laws. The teacher's union supported the plaintiffs in the original lawsuit through an amicus brief. She said it feels as though schools, students and teachers are getting caught in the crosshairs of a larger political battle. 'The legislative intent is to give our school districts and our places of learning that local control and that ability. So I think it's insulting to that,' Holland said. 'This kind of back and forth on will we, won't we…I think it's really destabilizing a little bit, and it's hard to do any longterm planning.' Michael Chavez, superintendent of Hatch Valley Public Schools, told Source that he does not believe more school days lead to better student outcomes but, rather, it's the quality of instruction that counts. He added that especially in smaller, more rural districts, everything from instructional days and class schedules to transportation is tied together. Opponents of longer school years have also raised concerns for rural and tribal schools and the costs associated with added instructional days. 'It really boils down to how effective is your instruction, what goes on in your classroom on a day-to-day basis,' Chavez said. DocumentFragment_62095807.tiff SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Proposed changes to NM reading instruction await governor's signature
In this photo, young students are shown completing their work in a classroom. (Photo by Klaus Vedfelt / Getty Images) While efforts to pass a proposed overhaul to how New Mexico educators teach reading fell short during the legislative session, several elements were added to other successful bills, which the sponsor described as a 'solid win.' President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque) sponsored Senate Bill 242, the Science of Reading Act, this session, which proposed amending the Public School Code to require new and established teachers be trained in what's called 'structured literacy,' and would have prohibited 'balanced literacy techniques.' Structured literacy, a science-backed method of teaching students the foundations of reading through phonics, vocabulary and comprehension, is particularly used to teach children with dyslexia. Balanced literacy, contrastingly, uses context and visual clues. 'Forty-two other states have either already put this in their statute or they are working towards doing it now,' Stewart told Source NM of the push to require structured literacy. She also pointed to Mexico and Finland as examples of countries where using structured literacy has been successful. New Mexico has provided a structured literacy course for elementary teachers called Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) since 2019. Stewart said 'we are now seeing the results of this work in pockets around the state,' including in Gadsden and Roswell, where English language learners and children living in poverty — categories identified in the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit as at-risk in the state — are showing improved reading proficiency. SB242 would have also required school districts to notify parents of their children's reading performance twice a year for K-3 students, and to notify parents if their first grade child showed reading difficulty following a dyslexia screening. The bill found support on the Senate side, but was held up in the House Education Committee due to concerns over biliteracy needs and what lawmakers saw as a lack of attention to English language learners. Stewart presented amendments to the bill, but the committee eventually voted to table it indefinitely. The Senate later added provisions of the original bill as amendments to several other bills. These included House Bill 167, which would require the Public Education Department to cover the cost of high school equivalency tests for some students, and House Bill 156, which would increase each of the three minimum teacher salary tiers by $5,000. Both bills included provisions to establish structured literacy as the primary approach to teaching the foundations of reading and require colleges of education in New Mexico to teach the approach. The bills were sent to the House floor for a concurrence vote, but representatives took issue with the amendments, particularly with HB167, saying the Senate was attempting to pass a bill despite it failing in committee. The House voted not to concur on SB167, sending it back to the Senate, whose members voted to rescind the amendments in the final hours of the session. HB167 as it originally stood awaits the signature of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. However, the House did vote to concur with the science of reading additions to HB156, which also now awaits the governor's signature. Stewart told Source NM that her original bill was 22 pages long, but she condensed it into three to four pages for the amendments, leaving out parental notification requirements, among other points. Nonetheless, she still said lawmakers made progress on this issue. 'Absolutely a first step, a good, solid win,' she said. Stewart, a retired educator, said she has been working to address New Mexico's approach to literacy education for 30 years, ever since the National Council on Teacher Quality gave all universities in the state a failing grade. This prompted her to introduce House Joint Memorial 16 in 2010, directing university deans and members of the Legislative Education Study Committee to study reading curriculum in teacher education programs. 'I will continue to work with the secretary of education and the governor,' Stewart said. 'As we move forward, I will continue to work with them on ensuring that our teachers are well trained.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
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.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill clarifying local control of school calendars moves forward in the Legislature
A bill that would allow local school districts to determine their own school calendars advanced unanimously through the House Education Committee Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (Photo by Klaus Vedfelt / Getty Images) Legislation that would allow local school districts to determine their own calendars for the school year — a proposal that aligns with a recent court decision — advanced unanimously through the House Education Committee Monday morning. House Bill 65, sponsored by Reps. Gail Armstrong (R-Magdalena) and Rebecca Dow (R-Truth or Consequences), clarifies the state requirements for school instructional time in the Public School Code. Since Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed House Bill 130 into law in 2023, public school students in K-12 have been required to receive a minimum of 1,140 instructional hours per year. Lawmakers increased instructional hours in response to the ruling in the landmark Yazzie-Martinez education lawsuit, which found the state was not providing equitable opportunities to at-risk students. The Public Education Department, under former Secretary Arsenio Romero, established a rule requiring schools adopt a 180-day school calendar in March 2024 as a way of providing additional instructional hours. The New Mexico School Superintendents Association sued the PED over the mandate in April 2024 because they claimed it conflicted with state law. Ninth Judicial District Court Judge Dustin K. Hunter agreed and recently ruled the PED lacks the authority to mandate a minimum number of instructional days. The PED still has time to appeal the court's decision. Janelle Garcia, communications director for the PED, told Source NM that the department is 'dissatisfied' with the decision. 'PED firmly believes that our students can achieve better educational outcomes when we maximize learning opportunities, as the rule intended. PED is currently in the process of reviewing the decision for the purposes of determining the appropriate next steps,' Garcia said in a statement. Stan Rounds, executive director of the New Mexico School Superintendents Association, joined Armstrong Monday to address the House Education Committee and said HB65 will erase any uncertainty surrounding instructional hours. 'This codifies, in my opinion, what the court ruled. Once you codify the statute and sign and put it into law, then it's not of any question,' Rounds said. He added that the bill includes an emergency clause, meaning the bill will go into effect immediately if signed by the governor, to stop any challenge to the rule if PED appeals the court's decision. Representatives from AFT (American Federation of Teachers) New Mexico, Public Charter Schools of New Mexico, New Mexico School Board Association, New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association and Grady Municipal Schools all spoke in favor of the bill, citing local control of the calendar as a benefit. Colt Grau, president of the school board for Grady Municipal Schools in Curry County, highlighted his school district's high performance under a four-day a week schedule. 'We should know [students'] circumstances and that of their families,' Grau said during the meeting. 'We do as a board and I do personally as a father of two elementary-aged children. Respectfully, agency officials in Santa Fe don't, nor can they be expected to. They need to understand that New Mexico school districts cannot function effectively with a one-size-fits all approach.' House Education Committee members voiced their agreement with local control and quickly passed HB65 through the committee unanimously. It now heads to the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
