Section 22-2C-7.1 - Failing school subject to reopening as state-chartered charter school; requirements. - New Mexico Statutes

22-2C-7.1. Failing school subject to reopening as state-chartered charter school; requirements. 

A.     If, pursuant to Subsections I and J of Section 22-2C-7 NMSA 1978, the school district in which a public school that has failed to make adequate yearly progress for five consecutive years recommends that the public school be reopened as a state-chartered charter school, the department, after holding a public hearing in the school district, may take steps to have the public school reopened as a state-chartered charter school.

B.     To reopen as a state-chartered charter school:

(1)     the school's current enrollment for all grades cannot exceed ten percent of the total MEM of the school district where it is located when the school district has a total enrollment of less than one thousand three hundred students;

(2)     the department, after obtaining information and community input during the public hearing, shall find at least five qualified persons willing to serve in an interim capacity as a governing body;

(3)     the governing body shall employ a qualified school administrator within thirty days of its appointment by the department;

(4)     the governing body shall qualify as a board of finance and satisfy any conditions imposed by the commission prior to commencing full operation;

(5)     the governing body shall develop a written plan and proposed charter that is satisfactory to the commission and that at a minimum addresses the following issues:

(a)     the employment, discharge, termination or displacement of current school employees, including the effect of employment decisions on current employment contracts and collective bargaining agreements;

(b)     fiscal and records management;

(c)     instructional and administrative facilities;

(d)     student transportation;

(e)     special education;

(f)     curriculum;

(g)     education-related and other services;

(h)     accreditation;

(i)     food service;

(j)     graduation requirements, if a waiver of state graduation requirements is sought;

(k)     governance turnover; and

(l)     student assessments and school accountability;

(6)     the governing body and the school shall comply with any other substantive or procedural requirements imposed on them by law or rule of the department; and

(7)     the department and the governing body shall have a plan to provide for an orderly transition.

C.     If, within ninety days of its determination that the school should be reopened as a state-chartered charter school, the department is unable to constitute a qualified governing body or the governing body does not have its charter approved by the commission and does not find a qualified school administrator able to commence operation of the proposed state-chartered charter school, the failing school shall not be reopened as a state-chartered charter school.  Failure to reopen the school as a state-chartered charter school does not affect other actions that may be taken to improve the school.

D.     The provisions of the Charter Schools Act [22-8B-1 NMSA 1978] shall apply to a public school that is reopened as a state-chartered charter school.