School for arts seeks to change status

Charter would be state high school

Legislation is in the works to change New Mexico School for the Arts in Santa Fe from a state charter school to a “special statewide residential public high school.”

Sen. Bill O’Neill, D-Albuquerque, introduced the bill. He said it came at the request of NMSA, which has operated as a state charter school since it opened in 2010.

“They feel strongly that this direction would help them achieve their mission to provide arts education to students across New Mexico,” said O’Neill, who serves on the governing board of Albuquerque’s Mission Achievement and Success Charter School. “And as someone close to the charter school community, it just seems like a better fit.”

O’Neill is also a published poet, having last year released “The Freedom of the Ignored,” a collection of 46 poems.

“So I’m an artist myself, and their mission is dear to me,” he said, adding that he likes to attend the end-ofyear performance held at the Lensic Performing Acts Center in Santa Fe where NMSA students showcase their talents.

“It’s an amazing display of talent,” he said. “New Mexico has such an amazing cultural tradition, and I am really enthusiastic and impressed with the School for the Arts.”

Rep. Linda Trujillo, a former school board member with Santa Fe Public Schools, is a co-sponsor, though she did not introduce a duplicate bill in the House, saying she tries to avoid doing so because “it’s not a good use of Legislative time.”

Senate Bill 315, as it is called, has been assigned to the Senate Rules Committee and O’Neill said that he expects that committee to take it up later this week. It is also scheduled to be heard by the Senate Education and Finance committees.

‘A visible presence’

The legislation would make the school a special public high school and provide it with the same powers as a school district, minus taxing or bonding authority.

O’Neill said the new designation would put it on a par with other statewide public schools, like the New Mexico School for the Deaf and the New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

The school would have a superintendent, as opposed to a principal or head learner, and be subject to the Public Schools Code rather than the state Charter School Act. It would receive funding through the State Equalization Guarantee formula, like other public schools.

NMSA is already allocated funding through the SEG formula, but is required to give 2 percent back to the state, according to Paula Tackett, secretary of NMSA’s governing council.

“So we will be able to keep that, instead of having it taken away,” she said.

NMSA gets about $2 million from the state now, meaning it will save about $40,000 per year as a special public high school.

The other thing the bill would do is create a nine-member school board with the authority of a board of finance. As currently written, the bill states that all nine members of the NMSA school board would be appointed by the governor, but both O’Neill and Tackett said that will likely be modified to allow the governor to appoint five members to the board and for the Public Education Commission to pick four others.

Tackett said members of the governing council currently serve three-year terms. When there is a vacancy, members of the council choose a replacement.

She said the composition of the school board is one of the reasons for the proposed change. NMSA’s current governing council is made up of five people, all of whom are either from the Santa Fe or Albuquerque area, she said.

“Our feeling is that because of our statewide mandate, having board members from all over the state would help us to better reach our mission,” Tackett said. “Half the people out there think we’re a private school, so having a school board with representatives from across the state would help us with outreach by giving us a more visible presence throughout the state.”

The legislation that created NMSA called for “a statewide residential state-chartered high school that provides New Mexico students who have demonstrated artistic abilities and potential with the educational opportunity to pursue a career in the arts.” The act states that “to the greatest extent possible” an “equal number of students are to be admitted from each of the state’s three congressional districts. But the goal of geographical diversity for the school hasn’t been met to this point.

This year, just seven of the school’s 211 students hail from District 2, which covers the southern half of the state. Fifteen are from District 1, which includes Albuquerque and all of Torrance County. The vast majority — 189 students — are from District 3, the northern part of the state, and 149 of them reside in Santa Fe County.

Tackett said the lack of available housing is one big reason more students from outside Santa Fe County don’t attend the school. But the school has designs to build a dormitory that could accommodate as many as 100 students at a new location.

More space, more students

NMSA is planning to move from the former St. Francis Cathedral School in downtown Santa Fe where it has been since it opened in 2010 to a new location in the Railyard district not far away by August. That will allow for enrollment to increase to 300 students initially and eventually grow to 400.

As it is, there’s barely room for the more than 200 students, who often have to move their art projects or rehearse in school hallways and stairwells. The new location at the former Sanbusco shopping center will provide about 88,000 square feet of space, or about three times more than at the old St. Francis Cathedral School.

The school purchased the Sanbusco Center property in 2015 for $7.3 million and broke ground a year ago. School officials say the location near the Santa Fe Rail Runner Express commuter train stop will make the school more accessible to students living along the train route, which runs from Santa Fe to Belen.

When first created by an act of the Legislature in 2008, NMSA was given $525,000 by the state for startup costs with the understanding that it wouldn’t come back for more. The $30 million that was raised for the purchase and renovation of the Sanbusco Center came almost entirely from private capital, according to the school.

To gain admission to NMSA, students must audition or submit portfolios. Because of the small space, the school turns away about 100 applicants per year.

NMSA students are generally high-performing students. The school has received straight A’s from the state Public Education Department since the department starting assigning letter grades to schools statewide as a measure of performance seven years ago. Its graduation rate in 2017 was 96 percent, compared to the statewide average of 71 percent.

In 2016, NMSA was named a National Blue Ribbon School.

THEY FEEL STRONGLY THAT THIS DIRECTION WOULD HELP THEM ACHIEVE THEIR MISSION TO PROVIDE ARTS EDUCATION TO STUDENTS ACROSS NEW MEXICO. SEN. BILL O’NEILL, D-ALBUQUERQUE