School districts plan lawsuit against PED

School superintendents across New Mexico are considering a lawsuit against the state’s Public Education Department.

The mission is to prevent PED from implementing its 180-day rule set to go into effect with the 2024-2025 school year, Clovis Superintendent Renee Russ said last week.

Clovis’ school board on Tuesday night was expected to consider a resolution supporting Russ’ joining the New Mexico School Superintendents Association’s opposition to the 180-day rule.

The resolution calls for “a Legal Defense Fund … in their efforts to challenge the PED’s proposed changes to the school calendar and instructional hours along with other rules and regulations that may conflict with the best interests of our community and students, including school accreditation.”

Clovis is currently on a 170-day school calendar and, like most schools in the state, will be forced to add classroom time if the rule goes into effect.

Schools with four-day per week calendars will almost certainly be forced to return to a five-day per week schedule.

Russ has been openly critical of the PED’s plans since last year, claiming they threaten “the very essence of local control.”

Elida Superintendent Tandee Delk said she plans to present the resolution to the Elida school board on Monday night.

“I believe in local control and I believe our local school board has the rights to the calendar. And circumventing that local control is not what’s best for our community or our kids that come to Elida schools,” Delk said.

Elida runs a four-day per week calendar. Delk said the PED rule will only increase the days students and faculty will have to attend, but not change the number of hours.

Elida may have to add 36 Fridays into the calendar if the PED rule stands.

“We’re not increasing our students’ time in the classroom, we’re increasing their days if this rule passes,” Delk said.

Melrose approved the resolution at its last school board meeting.

“We’re definitely joining in the lawsuit. It’s (the 180-day rule) going to negatively impact our school district if it goes through,” Superintendent Brian Stacy said.

Stacy said the school district has been practicing a four-day school week for nearly 10 years and it has “benefited the community and the families in Melrose.”

“We have a school board that knows our community and makes decisions on the community’s needs. With the PED stepping in saying they know better than we do, it is just baffling. … The PED is going against their constituents,” Stacy said.

Stacy said he expects the lawsuit challenging the 180-day rule will be filed in the next couple of weeks.

Portales also will be part of the lawsuit, Superintendent Johnnie Cain said on Monday, with formal approval expected at the district’s next board meeting.

Elsewhere in the state, Santa Rosa Consolidated Schools on March 11 held a special meeting to formally oppose the PED plan.

SRCS Superintendent Martin Madrid, who is also the association’s president-elect, said at least 20 to 30 other school districts appeared supportive of the lawsuit at an association meeting early this month.

The lawsuit is expected to be filed in “the next week or two,” according to Madrid, and will hopefully result in an injunction that would hold up its implementation until after a judgment in the lawsuit. The PED’s rule is supposed to go into effect July 1, in time for the 2024-25 school year.

“This is overreach for the executive branch over the legislative branch,” Madrid said at the school board meeting. “We’re hoping the judicial branch will step in and check her authority.”

Tom McDonald of the Guadalupe County Communicator and The Staff of The News contributed to this report.