State says Las Cruces charter school back on track academically

LAS CRUCES — Alma d’Arte Charter High School, an arts-based public charter school that came under scrutiny by state officials last year, earned praise from the New Mexico Public Education Commission for its turnaround efforts.

“You saved Alma,” Commission Chair Rebekka Burt told the school’s leadership at the PEC’s March 21 meeting in Santa Fe. The PEC then voted unanimously to close out an extensive corrective action plan while continuing to monitor the school’s academic performance and organizational concerns.

“The kids that stayed here, they saved Alma: The kids that were getting bullied, the kids that were getting harassed, they said, ‘You know what, we know we’re going to get a good education here,’” Alma d’Arte Principal Adam Amador said. “They saved Alma. And I think they saved me, too.”

The board also issued a formal notice of concern about repeat findings in the school’s annual financial audit, requiring the school to submit a corrective action plan to address them.

Amador said he expects the school’s finances to be in shape in the next three to five years, adding that he doesn’t like “being held accountable for what other people did.”

Nonetheless, the board — having issued a notice of breach of the school’s charter a year ago — offered praise for progress the school had demonstrated over the year in addressing sagging attendance, testing, governance, accounting and other issues.

Earlier in the meeting, Amador lit into the commission, saying the school had been treated unfairly, complaining that required documentation and instructions were unclear at times and some deadlines had been unreasonable.

Relations between the school’s leadership and some members of the community, including former teachers, students and parents, grew contentious after Amador’s arrival at the school in 2023. Some accused the school of arbitrarily firing teachers and expelling students. However, Amador maintained that the school had been overstaffed and that standards for attendance, behavior and academic performance within the school had collapsed.

“It was kind of run like a day care for high school kids, and there was no accountability whatsoever,” Richelle Peugh-Swafford, president of Alma d’Arte’s governing council, told the Journal on Tuesday.

But that changed when Amador took the helm, she said.

“It’s kind of amazing that a guy with his experience, his education — I mean, he has a Ph.D. He’s not your average middle school principal or high school principal that’s just trying to make more money,” Peugh-Swafford said. “He’s a highly educated, highly experienced, very well-connected educator and scholar.”

Amador also claimed that in addition to criticism of his approach, he was treated differently because he is Latino.

“He has a huge chip on his shoulder,” Janet van Coblijn, a parent of a student who no longer attends Alma d’Arte and a vocal critic of Amador, told the Journal. She denied complaints about Amador were motivated by race, saying, “It’s because he’s a bully.”

Van Coblijn claimed her son was forced out of the school for speaking out against Amador and administrative staff. She also cast doubt on the academic improvements the school presented to the PEC and pointed to a decrease in enrollment and teachers leaving or forced out upon Amador’s arrival.

“You break these cultural norms of what people think is OK. So do we want to have a safe space for kids? Absolutely. Do we want to provide a great education? Absolutely,” Amador said. “Our mission is to create artists and scholars who are going to graduate and prepare to succeed.”

The school was founded in 2004 and leases the historic Court Junior High School building from the Las Cruces Public Schools. For over two decades, the school has been lauded for its devotion to visual, culinary and performing arts as well as offering a haven for students who do not thrive in more conventional school environments. Yet in recent years, the school has also weathered rapid turnover in its leadership, a 2019 embezzlement scandal involving a past administration and interventions by the PEC.

“I think the actions that we took in terms of creating the corrective action plan and putting the school on the intervention ladder were absolutely warranted,” PEC Commissioner Patricia Gipson who represents the Las Cruces district, told the Journal.

“We’re quite pleased with the turnaround that appears to be happening. It’s a work in progress, without a doubt, but everyone was hoping this is where we would be,” she added. “It’s a long and windy road, but we got ourselves to a very good place.”