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