Teachers union objects to proposed charter school

Supporters, opponents speak at S. Valley hearing

The Albuquerque Teachers Federation stood in opposition to a proposed charter school for the South Valley — a first, according to its president.

In a full room at the New Mexico Activities Association in Albuquerque on Thursday, ATF was on a list of speakers — both for and against — at Solare Collegiate Charter School’s community input hearing in front of the Public Education Commission.

Many spoke — for just over a minute each — on what they felt was best for the South Valley, where the school serving grades five through eight would operate.

ATF President Ellen Bernstein objected to the sources of support for Solare.

“Solare is funded by anti-public schools corporate reformers,” she told the Journal. “We don’t need privateers running schools in our state.”

Bernstein noted that Building Excellent Schools, which lists donors with corporate ties, such as the Walton Family Foundation, listed in its 2017 annual report, is affiliated with the school.

But Solare lead founder and former teacher Rachael Sewards said she feels that objection is a misconception, saying she has received funding for the school only from Excellent Schools New Mexico. She said the school would receive public school funds if authorized.

And, she said, the support from Building Excellent Schools was for professional development.

“BES’ support is not financial; it is leadership training,” she told the Journal.

Scott Hindman, executive director of Excellent Schools New Mexico, confirmed it is the only organization funding Solare and said its money comes from

the Daniels Fund and from individual New Mexicans.

“100 percent of the funding received by Solare is local, New Mexico funding,” he said in an email to the Journal.

But he also said Building Excellent Schools has provided professional development for Sewards to give her training to launch Solare.

“We provided a grant to Building Excellent Schools to fund that training. We’re a nonprofit; Building Excellent Schools is a nonprofit. Other than that, there’s no relationship between my organization and Building Excellent Schools,” Hindman wrote.

Some of the opposition was more broad and directed at the state of education in general.

Isaac de Luna, a father and communications director for New Mexico Dream Team, told the PEC that New Mexico’s education system should be evaluating and improving schools already up and running.

“We keep spending this money on new institutions instead of analyzing existing institutions,” he said.

But many spoke in favor of the school. Teresa Naranjo, a local parent, came to the hearing with her son Samuel because of the impact Sewards, his former teacher, had on the 14-year-old’s life. Naranjo said she strongly supports the school and saw how Sewards can help students.

“I believe Miss Sewards is very capable at getting kids to where they need to be,” she said.

And she said if Solare could open, she believed Sewards could benefit the South Valley community just like she benefited Samuel’s life.

Jerome Daye had a similar sentiment, saying he believes the board has a strong foundation with “a lot of people from a lot of different backgrounds.”

Overall, Sewards said she “can’t predict the future” but was cautiously optimistic about Thursday’s hearing.

During the hearing, PEC members also had the chance to ask questions and make comments. Several questioned the uniqueness of the school’s mission and highlighted the necessity of charters to create a niche mission.

“I am confident in the application we’ve written,” Sewards said.

If approved, the school would begin operation in the 2019-20 school year.

Solare is scheduled to hear from PEC next month.