Advocates push for Los Alamos charter school

Concerns raised about co-founder of institution having conflict of interest

LOS ALAMOS — Organizers of a proposed statechartered middle school in Los Alamos defended their vision Tuesday, despite the lack of a campus location and looming questions about a conflict of interest for one of the founders, who now serves on the Los Alamos school board.

During a public hearing at the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos before the state Public Education Committee, which approves and oversees state charter schools, supporters of Polaris Charter School touted its potential for social-emotional learning, a project-based curriculum and a disciplinary approach focused on restorative justice.

But one local school board member and the Public Education Commission raised concerns about leadership of the proposed school and an ongoing search for a space where it could open in fall 2020.

“It is becoming very difficult for us to do a commencement of operation if a school doesn’t have the occupancy when we are voting that ‘yes you can open,’ ” commission Chairwoman Patricia Gipson said. “The challenges that have come up when we’re looking at the safety of students, it’s becoming too difficult for us to do that.”

Much of the discussion centered on co-founder Bill Hargraves, a member of the Los Alamos Public Schools Board of Education.

Hargraves first drew criticism for his role in developing plans for Polaris in November 2017, when, according to the Los Alamos Monitor, he met privately with Superintendent Kurt Steinhaus and urged him to support the initiative.

Steinhaus voiced his support at Tuesday’s hearing for Polaris, which is seeking a state charter rather than oversight by the school district.

But Los Alamos school board member Jenny McCumber cautioned the commission he could not be trusted to offer unbiased input on the project.

“As a commission, you want to make the best decision based on what is in the best interest of Los Alamos, and you’re expecting the school district to give you objective feedback about that decision,” McCumber said. “When the superintendent of the school district is supervised by one of the applicants of the charter school, that presents a problem in giving objective feedback.

“I urge you to delay your decision and resolve this issue of conflict,” she added.

However, Gipson said that by state statute, the commission must make a decision on whether to

approve Polaris by Sept. 1.

Hargraves told that after discussing the matter with the school district’s legal counsel, he determined he can legally serve on the school board while founding a charter school, as long as he is clear about which role he is publicly representing at any given time.

He also said if Polaris’ charter is approved, he most likely will not run for reelection in November. “It is a conflict of interest; I just have to manage it,” Hargraves said. “And I have been managing it for two years.”

Polaris, which initially would serve up to 75 students in grades 6-8, and later expand to an enrollment of 225, has been searching for space through the Los Alamos County Commission and private real estate agents, Hargraves said, adding it would open in portable classrooms as a last resort.

While Los Alamos is 88 percent white, according to census data from 2018, fellow Polaris co-founder Elizabeth Martineau told The New Mexican the school hopes to build diversity by enrolling students who live in surrounding districts. “We have a plan to increase the diversity of our board and to reach out to students across Northern New Mexico,” Martineau said. “We are hoping we will have a greater diversity than our local school district.”

The Public Education Commission noted, however, there is no money for transportation in the school’s proposed budget.

After the hearing, Hargraves and Martineau said they felt confident a charter for Polaris will be approved. The founders said they are focused on filling a need in the community.

“We have really high reported levels of stress, anxiety, depression, self-harm behavior and a high suicide rate here,” Martineau said, referring to the the New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey, part of a nationwide risk assessment effort by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Prevention.

In 2017, survey data showed that 21.2 percent of Los Alamos High School students had seriously considered suicide compared to 18.3 percent across the state.

Though the county has one of the lowest suicide rates in the state and consistently ranks at the top when it comes to well-being and wealth of residents — including kids — the youth suicide ideation data is concerning. “Our real reason for opening this school is to try to provide socialemotional learning at a young age, safety net and skills they can employ when things get tough down the road,” Martineau said. “We think that the middle school age is the right time to do that.”