Floyd school hearing taken off schedule

SANTA FE — The Public Education Department and the Floyd School Board aren’t heading to a hearing this week after all.

Judy Robinson, a spokesperson for the PED, told The News a hearing scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday has been taken off the schedule. Instead, the sides are working to find some form of agreement with an Oct. 15 deadline.

Robinson said if the parties can’t come to a solution, an Oct. 18 scheduling hearing will provide the framework for a rescheduled public hearing.

The board has been suspended since Aug. 4.

It voted in a July 26 meeting to make PED-mandated COVID-19 mitigation practices, like facemasks and social distancing, optional at Floyd schools.

Then-Secretary of Education Ryan Stewart warned the board it would be suspended if it did not rescind that vote. The board chose not to do that in an Aug. 1 special meeting, instead putting Superintendent Damon Terry on administrative leave to shield him from fallout and sending a communication arguing the PED had no right to suspend board members.

Stewart suspended the board and reinstated Terry, and later appointed Stan Rounds to act on the school board’s behalf during the suspension.

A message left with counsel for the board Friday was not immediately returned.