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Wednesday, November 18, 2009
APS Board Taking Comments on Bond Questions
By Hailey Heinz
Journal Staff Writer
Albuquerque Public Schools board members will decide this week whether to present one bond question to voters or whether to place charter school funding into a separate question.
They also will decide whether to ask voters for an independent study on the feasibility of splitting off the West Side and creating a new school district.
This bond cycle marks the first time the board has wrestled with questions of how public money should be allotted to charter schools. State law requires that all charter schools be in public buildings by 2015, and APS has begun the process of including charter schools in the district's five-year master plan.
The board is scheduled to vote on the bond question or questions Friday morning, but it also will have a meeting tonight to hear public comment.
Six charters already have been integrated into the district's five-year master plan for capital improvements. The master plan determines priorities for funding based on need, and charter schools are gradually being included as they make plans to get into public buildings and submit requests to the district.
Board President Martin Esquivel said some parts of the law are ambiguous, leading to confusion about how charters should be funded, particularly those authorized by the state instead of APS.
"The question of funding state charters with local taxpayer money is problematic," he said. "It creates a situation where the district has to fund state priorities, not local priorities, with local tax mill levies. That's a problem."
Lisa Grover, chief executive officer of the New Mexico Coalition for Charter Schools, said the coalition would be willing to work with the board to make state-authorized charters accountable to the district.
She suggested schools could be required, in the form of a memorandum of understanding, to report details of how they spend any capital money from APS.
Grover and the coalition have pushed for a single bond question that covers charter and traditional schools.
"We're advocating for one question, to include all public school students," Grover said. "The membership feels really strongly about that."
Superintendent Winston Brooks said the administration will recommend the board pass a single, comprehensive bond question. The final decision will be up to the board.
West Side board member Robert Lucero also plans to propose a question at tonight's meeting asking voters to approve a study of whether a West Side split would be feasible.
"Maybe it's time to let the voters go out and look at the issue and let us know what they think," Lucero said. "I just want this dialogue to continue."
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