New Mexico Public Education Department criticized for proposed school calendar changes

New Mexico’s Public Education Department is receiving pushback for a proposal to amend the number of required instructional days for the upcoming school year.

The proposed amendments, which was introduced in December 2023, mandates two notable changes. It would require all public schools to schedule more than 50% of calendar weeks as 5-day weeks, and enforce enforce 180 calendar days of instructional time.

The changes come only months after the New Mexico Legislature passed House Bill 130 signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in March 2023. House Bill 130 extended instructional time to 1,140 hours per year to address truancy and academic shortfalls in reading and math proficiencies.

Legislators and school leaders say the proposed calendar change would most impact students, teachers and smaller districts if approved.

Here’s a breakdown of what they said and where PED Secretary Arsenio Romero stands on the issue. 

Why NM PED wants to require 5-day school weeks

In recent years, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, New Mexico students have struggled with truancy and reading and math proficiencies. According to the latest data from the PED’s school performance dashboard NM VISTAS, 25% of students are proficient in math and 34% in reading. The data shows 60% of students are regularly attending school.

PED Secretary Arsenio Romero wrote in an opinion piece for the Sun-News that the calendar changes were already an existing policy that hadn’t been enforced and didn’t apply to all schools.

He wrote that enforcement was an important factor in addressing proficiency concerns and to properly utilize education spending passed by the state legislature.

“The Governor and Legislature have invested record levels of funding for schools. It is now time to ensure that the Public Education Department sets high expectations for schools to see the results of those investments and that we are all accountable for those results,” Romero wrote.

Las Cruces school leaders concerned over PED’s calendar proposal

While the PED’s proposed changes wouldn’t impact Las Cruces Public Schools as severely as other New Mexico districts, local union leaders felt the amendment would still pose a threat to LCPS’ local authority.

Jim Maes, president of Las Cruces’ chapter of the National Education Association, spoke to the LCPS Board of Education on Dec. 13. He explained the issue isn’t about extending learning times but rather the flexibility of a school district to implement practices and programs that work for its students. He emphasized that a one-size-fits-all approach would end up “hurting most.”

“The part that does affect Las Cruces Public Schools is the autonomy. How much do we want the state to be running our local schools? Do we want them making those decisions? So many times, we have programs that are showing great success and it's decisions like this that wipe a lot of those things out here in Las Cruces Public Schools,” Maes said when referring to past trade schools and dual credit programs. “There are a lot of teachers that have concerns about local autonomy and being able to make those decisions as a community and what's best for us [is important].”

More: These are Las Cruces Public Schools priorities for the 2024 NM Legislative session

Irma Valdespino, president of the Classified School Employees Council of Las Cruces, also spoke at the Dec. 13 board meeting and echoed Maes’ comments about local autonomy.

“There is a great deal of concern among the schools, the small school districts whereby they have a four-day week and it's working for them. They have their special reasons why they are four days, if not, they hadn't gone to a four day. If this is taken away from them, then again who's who is going to be harmed if it's not the school itself,” Valdespino said.

‘Overreach.’ Republican lawmakers criticize NM PED over calendar change 

The proposed rule change has also drawn opposition from Republican lawmakers who called the proposal “untimely” due to the closeness of the 2024 legislative session, according to a Dec. 13, 2023 letter sent to Romero. They urged the secretary to reject the rule and allow the legislature to debate the issue.

State Sens. avid Gallegos, Gregory Baca, Craig Brandt and Pat Woods, and Reps. Brian Baca and Tanya Mirabal Moya, signed the letter. They said the change would take away flexibility from school districts and create an “undue burden."

“We all want improvement in our education system in New Mexico. Our declining scores and national rankings are of great concern to us, but we believe those best suited to solve this crisis are those closest to the challenge—our local school boards and administrators,” a portion of the letter read.

In the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers passed an hourly adjustment as part of HB 130 to the school day instead of adjusting the total number of required instructional days. The joint Republican letter states that an hourly adjustment over a day adjustment was preferred because many school districts have aligned schedules to four-day weeks. The fifth day is dedicated to career technical education or other extracurricular activities.

“This rule change is a direct challenge to local school districts and their ability to act in the best interest of their students. The Legislature was clear when we wrote the law and the hourly unit we chose to define instructional time was intentional,” said Sen. David Gallegos in a Dec. 13 news release.

“An executive agency like PED should not be able subvert the will of the Legislature and local school districts through rule changes that strip more local control. I urge PED to reject this rule, and if they do not, I call on the Legislature to immediately address this overreach when we convene in January,” Gallegos said.

Did NM PED’s proposed calendar changes take effect? What’s next?

The PED has not released an official decision on the proposed rule change as of publishing this story. However, the department gathered public input and held a public hearing in Santa Fe in December 2023.

If adopted, the policy change would take effect Jan. 16, according to the draft document, but implementation would happen in the 2024-2025 school year.

Republican Sens. Gregory Baca and Gail Armstrong challenged the amendment with pre-filed House Bill 74. If passed, the bill would allow local school boards and governing bodies of charter schools to determine the number of instructional days per year and per week.

Ernesto Cisneros is a reporting fellow with the UNM/NM Local News Fund program. He covers education for the Sun-News and can be reached at ECisneros@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter at @_ernestcisneros.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: New Mexico PED criticized for proposed school calendar changes