Schools take PED to court over 180-day rule

Public school officials representing more than 50 districts, including Clovis, Portales and most in eastern New Mexico, have filed a lawsuit against the state Public Education Department. They’re asking a court to halt the 180-instructional day mandate imposed in March.

The lawsuit, filed April 18 in Curry County by the New Mexico School Superintendents Association and individual superintendents, comes as schools across the state attempt to draft budgets and academic calendars for next year — a process complicated by the new requirements, particularly for rural districts operating on four-day weeks.

Plaintiffs attorney Matt Chandler, a Clovis native, said the lawsuit asks the court to postpone the PED’s new rule until the issue is resolved. He said he filed a motion Thursday asking for an immediate hearing.

All five of the 9th Judicial District’s judges in Clovis-Portales recused themselves because of “bias or personal knowledge” of the case, court documents show. Chandler said 5th District Court Judge Dustin K. Hunter of Roswell has been assigned the case by the New Mexico Supreme Court.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a brief statement her administration plans to fight the complaint.

“This is another pathetic attempt to avoid accountability for delivering a high-quality education to New Mexico students, and we’re going to fight it,” she said in a statement emailed to The Santa Fe New Mexican by spokeswoman Jodi McGinnis Porter.

Local superintendents, especially Clovis Municipal Schools Superintendent Renee Russ, have repeatedly and publicly criticized the PED’s ruling.

“(It) not only challenges the efficacy of our current school calendar but also threatens the very essence of local control,” Russ wrote in a guest column published last year by The Eastern New Mexico News. “Our community has thrived on the ability to tailor our school calendar to the unique needs and values of CMS.”

The Public Education Department declined to comment on the pending litigation, spokeswoman Janelle Taylor García wrote in an email to The New Mexican.

However, she added, “We are fully committed to upholding our responsibilities and ensuring the best interests of our students while doing everything in our power to improve educational outcomes, including the increase in classroom time.”

Public Education Secretary Arsenio Romero consistently has framed the 180-day requirement as the best option for the state’s struggling students. But Stan Rounds, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition of Educational Leaders, which includes the superintendents association, said the rule imposes unaccounted-for expenses for districts — from teacher time to meals to transportation — and jeopardizes school boards’ local decision-making power. All of that, he said, creates “peril for rural education.”

“Taking a one-size-fits-all policy — 180 days as the template and applying it across the state — that doesn’t work in New Mexico,” Rounds said.

The 180-day rule has been under fire since it was proposed in November. In December, educators, administrators and advocates provided hours of public testimony and thousands of pages of electronically submitted comments, the vast majority against the rule.

Lawmakers — including Republicans and Democrats — voiced their objections to the rule, too. Most recently, 40 Republican legislators earlier this month signed a letter imploring Romero to reconsider implementation of the 180-day rule.

One of the rule’s strongest opponents, Rep. Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena, invited Romero and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to ride the school bus with students from Quemado or Reserve — some two hours to school and two hours back.

The public outcry resulted in some changes. The final version of the rule, adopted in March, requires 180 instruction days but offers waivers for districts and schools excelling in reading and language arts. It also allows four-day school weeks, as long as schools meet the 180-day requirement.

Still, the superintendents’ lawsuit argues the rule is “overreaching” and contrary to state statute, namely a bill signed into law in 2023 implementing new minimum instructional hour requirements.

Representatives of school districts in Clovis, Dora, Elida, Floyd, Fort Sumner, Grady, House, Logan, Melrose, Portales, San Jon, Texico and Tucumcari are among plaintiffs in the lawsuit, court records show.

Margaret O’Hara of The Santa Fe New Mexican contributed to this report.