Commission rejects online charter school’s renewal request

Citing poor performance, state board recommends against renewal for New Mexico Connections Academy

A state commission says the Santa Fe-based New Mexico Connections Academy, the state’s largest online charter school, should not have its charter renewed.

The state Public Education Commission, which oversees charter schools, recently voted 6-3 to reject a renewal application from the “virtual” school, which has more than 1,800 students enrolled in its computer-based program.

Patricia Gipson, who chairs the commission, said Monday that the school didn’t measure up in terms of academic performance. The state Department of Education, which recommended against renewing the charter, noted that students’ proficiency rates in math this year dropped to 11 percent.

“They have the right to appeal to the secretary,” Gipson said, referring to Public Education Secretary designate Chris Ruszkowski, who has the power to overturn the commission’s denial.

The chairman of New Mexico Connections Academy, Mark Boitano told The New Mexican on Monday that he expects the school to appeal. But he didn’t sound optimistic that Ruszkowski would overrule the commission.

“Our sense is this new secretary doesn’t like it,” he said, referring to the school.

Since the beginning, Connections has had a bumpy rela-

tionship with the Public Education Commission.

The commission denied the school’s application five years ago, but Hanna Skandera, then secretary designate of the Public Education Department, overturned that decision and gave the school permission to open. The commission then filed a court case, which ultimately failed, allowing Connections to receive its state charter.

Boitano, a former Republican state senator from Albuquerque who sponsored the 1999 Charter Schools Act, did not dispute that the school in recent years has received poor grades from the Public Education Department.

One reason for that, he said, is that the academy didn’t meet a state requirement to test 95 percent of its students.

“In terms of student performance, Connections has two straight years of F grades, but we’ve done much better in past years with fewer students,” Boitano told the commission on Friday. “In year one with 462 students we had a C grade, reduced to a D for our failure to meet the 95-percent test requirement. Then, in year two with 800-plus students, we had a B grade that was reduced to a C. In our first two years of testing, we missed the 95-percent requirement by a two-year year total of 12 students.”

Boitano said the letter grade shouldn’t be the sole measure of the school’s performance. He said the academy’s contract with the Public Education Department makes the school’s letter grade “just one part of an equally weighted, eight-part performance analysis.”

He said Connections has met 75 percent of the specific goals outlined in its charter contract.

A big part of the problem, Boitano said, is that the school grew too fast. In just five years he said enrollment grew from 462 students to 1,803 students.

“We’ve re-written our comprehensive improvement plan and realized we’ve grown too big too fast and must cap our enrollment at a lower number,” he told the commission.

Boitano hinted that the matter could end up in court. He said his board is meeting next week to discuss options.

The school also could reorganize under the authority of a local school district. But Gipson said if Connections Academy takes that route the school wouldn’t be able to re-open for another year.

The current charter expires at the end of the current school year.

Connections Academy is part of the Baltimore-based Connections Education LLC, which has schools in about 30 states.

Connections Education is part of the British-owned Pearson Education Corp., which sells textbooks and tests to the state.

There are two other online charter schools in New Mexico. The Pecos Connections Academy in the Carlsbad school district also is part of Connections Education LLC. The New Mexico Virtual Academy, chartered by the Farmington school district, contracts with the Virginia-based K-12 Online Learning.