Attorney: Skandera attacks on SFPS’ Garcia unfair
Charges continue to fly in wake of half-day school closing for protest
SANTA FE —The attorney representing Santa Fe Public Schools and Superintendent Veronica Garcia, in a scathing letter to state Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera, accuses her of spreading false and reckless claims and threatening the superintendent with legal consequences.
“By continuing to threaten Dr. Garcia, publicly impugning her, singling her out for enforcement actions, and continuing to allege, without legal authority, a violation of law, you (Skandera) are far outside your limited authority,” said the letter from SFPS attorney Tony Ortiz.
The fight is over Garcia’s closing Santa Fe schools for a half day March 16 to allow school district personnel, students and their parents to attend what the school district described as a nonpartisan “Save Our Schools” rally at the Roundhouse to push for more education funding.
Lida Alikhani, a spokeswoman for the PED, provided a brief comment Thursday: “Ensuring that school districts are using taxpayer dollars appropriately — for educating our kids — is one of our top priorities. We’re continuing to investigate this,” she said.
The latest SFPS letter also says that Skandera herself participated in a charter schools rally at the Roundhouse in which charter school students and teachers were released for a full day. Skandera spoke at a Roundhouse rally in celebration of National School Choice Week in January.
Thursday’s letter was in response to a “letter of concern” sent by Skandera to Garcia on April 21. She said Garcia failed to adequately respond to allegations that tax dollars were used inappropriately to organize the “Save Our Schools” rally.
A week after the rally, Skandera had sent a letter to Garcia saying that the PED had received complaints about the “potential misuse” of public funds for the event and was launching an investigation. It also asked Garcia to conduct an internal investigation and report findings back to the PED within 30 days.
The school district’s attorney did provide a response within that time frame, but it didn’t satisfy Skandera, who responded that it was an attempt “to deflect attention from what appears to be a misuse of public funds, facilities, and assets, as well as teachers inappropriately influencing students in the classroom with their personal political opinions.” Skandera said the PED would determine whether there were violations of law, rules or standards.
Wednesday’s letter from SFPS attorney Ortiz accuses Skandera of overreach, saying the secretary “does not have the authority to demand an open and unlimited investigation.”
It says that Garcia is not a subordinate of the PED but instead answers to the local school board, which has jurisdiction to determine whether the superintendent is in compliance with the Public School Code.