Entire Los Lunas education board permanently suspended

PED decision comes even as two members deemed ‘bystanders’

LOS LUNAS — The fate is finally sealed for the suspended members of the Los Lunas Board of Education.

The New Mexico Public Education Department announced Tuesday that the suspension of the board is permanent, despite also concluding that members Frank Otero and David Vickers did not participate in any direct wrongdoing, with findings of fact stating “they appear to be innocent bystanders in the crossfire.”

Other members of the board are Eloy Giron, Steven Otero and Bryan Smith.

Public Education interim Secretary Kurt Steinhaus told the News-Bulletin on Tuesday that he spoke with attorneys about whether he could absolve some members of the board while permanently suspending others and came to the conclusion he could only permanently suspend the entirety of the board with no authority over suspension of individuals.

“It was a hard decision, but it was made after very careful review of page after page of testimony,” Steinhaus said. “And then, by the time that I got through (400) or 500 pages of testimony I started seeing a clear pattern and the pattern was right in front of me — the school board, as a group, was not functioning well and they were not supporting the educational process. They were interfering with the educational process.”

NMPED maintains since their swearingin in January 2020, board members’ actions have been “inconsistent with the Governmental Conduct Act, potentially portions of the Criminal Code, the Procurement Code, school district procurement policies and other board policies, and the Public School Code.”

The decision follows a two-day hearing for the suspended board at the request of members Giron and Smith. The first day took place on July 28 and the second on Aug. 24 — both overseen by independent hearing officer John Ziegler, an attorney with Woodcock & Ziegler.

Among the main violations were of the Governmental Conduct Act through acts of intimidation and retaliation by board members Steven Otero, Giron and Smith, however, the nine-page decision claimed Steven Otero to be the “main contributor to this environment.”