50+ school districts sue PED over 180-day rule

More than 50 school districts, including all four in Quay County, joined a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the New Mexico Public Education Department’s 180-day instruction rule set for this fall.

The 90-page suit, filed in Curry County, seeks a temporary restraining order and injunctive relief to keep the rule from taking effect on July 1. The suit had been expected for weeks.

The PED’s rule, announced in March, essentially would force nearly all school districts with four-days-a-week schedules to move to five days.

Four-day districts can apply for a waiver, but that would require substantial improvements in students’ reading proficiency during the current school year to qualify. According to Tucumcari interim superintendent Dave Johnson, only three of New Mexico’s 89 school districts would meet those requirements.

The New Mexico School Superintendents Association filed the suit. Among the plaintiffs are Johnson, Logan superintendent Dennis Roch, San Jon superintendent Alan Umholtz, House superintendent Coby Norman and their respective school boards.

Though the vast majority of districts joining in the suit are on four-day schedules, it includes a few five-day districts — including Santa Fe and Clovis — and a number of charter schools.

“I believe the large number of districts is a clear indication of the seriousness of the impact the 180 Day Rule has across the full spectrum of districts in New Mexico,” Stan Rounds, executive director of the superintendents association, wrote in an email. “While this is certainly a rural New Mexico issue, it cuts even more deeply into the issues of local decision making and local design of education which meets community needs and individual student growth. One size doesn’t fit all.”

The lawsuit names the PED and Arsenio Romero, head of the agency, as the defendants.

The Santa Rosa school board last week voted 3-2 to not join the suit, citing the possible loss of $300,000 in additional funding with a five-week plan.

The filing states the 180-day instructional mandate “does not align with the Legislature’s clear intention to allow local flexibility while still requiring 1,140 instructional hours with no requirement for a specific number of days.”

The suit states the PED lacks the legal authority to implement a rule requiring a minimum number of instructional days.

It states any rule is invalid if it conflicts with state law. If a rule and a state law conflict, it would be resolved in favor of the law.

The lawsuit states that despite the rule not going into effect until July 1, the PED is requiring school districts to submit operating budgets and calendars complying with the 180-day requirement. The state’s 2024-2025 school calendar form also automatically populates to a five-school week.

The Logan and San Jon school districts have refused to submit a calendar reflecting a five-day week, instead providing the usual four-day schedule.

“They want two (calendars), but I’m not turning in two,” Umholtz said during a board meeting in April. “I’m sticking to my guns. We’re going to do what’s best for our kids. We’re not playing their game.”

Norman said House Municipal Schools still is planning for a four-day week when it submits its budget by May 15.

“Until it is finished, I won’t know if there is adequate funding to cover either one of the calendars,” Norman wrote in an email.

Tucumcari Public School has not submitted its calendar.

“We’ll send one when our budget requires it,” Johnson wrote in an email.

The lawsuit states: “Plaintiffs who have historically operated under a 4-day week calendar will have to completely restructure and reallocate their budgets, resources and schedules to accommodate the addition of more than 30 extra instructional school days, as well as the addition of approximately 10 extra professional work days for primary grades and 5 extra professional work days for secondary grants, all within unachievable deadlines.

“Not only will this cause Plaintiffs to incur millions of additional dollars in operational and pupil transportation costs which they cannot sustain, Plaintiffs will also lose teachers, students and staff as the result of the hardships” from the rule.

The lawsuit states if a district fails to submit an operating budget by the deadline, the PED would take over control and management of the district and suspend the superintendent and board.

Included in the lawsuit was a letter from the Legislative Education Study Committee, stating it “strongly” opposes the PED’s new rule.

“The Legislature was clear and intentional in the omission of school day requirements,” the letter stated. “Local decision-making should be maintained.”

A letter from the Legislature that included signatures from state Sen. Pat Woods and state Rep. Jack Chatfield was included in the filing.

“Commute time to and from school will increase significantly for many students (in some rural communities, students will spend up to 20 percent more time on a bus to and from school), taking critical family time, study time, extracurricular time and work time away from students,” the letter stated. “It may negatively impact student attendance, particularly for those students whose families use the free weekday to travel to urban communities for things like medical appointments.”

The lawsuit included email correspondence from PED officials to Umholtz and San Jon Municipal Schools business manager Stormi Sena regarding the submission of operating budgets.

The PED wanted budgets submitted — even without board approval — by April 15. The due date the previous year was June 6.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham criticized the suit against the PED, stating to the Albuquerque Journal: “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.”

Janelle Taylor Garcia, PED’s deputy director of communications, stated in an email to the Quay County Sun: “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. While we do not comment on pending litigation, we want to assure New Mexicans that their Public Education Department remains dedicated to promoting a robust learning environment and fostering excellence in education throughout New Mexico.”