68-Page Report Details Need to Change Laws
GRANTS, N.M. – On March 27 Grants-Cibola County Schools announced the resignation of Superintendent Max Perez. The resignation was submitted to the board of education on March 21, weeks after a 68-page report from the New Mexico Legislative Education Committee was released that highlights detrimental inefficiencies in the schools. The report was so scathing that it calls on legislators to change two state laws that help boost GCCS and better inform the future of education. The Cibola Citizen spent weeks analyzing the data-filled report.
Right out of the gate, the legislative education committee reports that despite increased funding to Grants-Cibola County Schools, student proficiency and performance actually decreased. From fiscal year 2012 to discal year 2022, GCCS’ operational funding increased by 49 percent, while enrollment fell 13 percent. In GCCS, as of school year 2022, less than 30 percent of students are proficient in reading, a fall from school year 2015.
The report recommends not only a change in state law to address problems at GCCS, but it calls on the district to better manage money so high cash balances don’t linger and instead use the funds to repair or replace schools in the districts. Specifically, the report says that Bluewater Elementary is in serious disrepair, and the cost of demolishing and building a new Bluewater Elm. may be more cost-effective than trying to repair current issues at the facility. The remote location of the school presents a series of financial challenges, according to the report. Student Proficiencies
The large report from the LEC found that over the last 10 years, reading proficiencies fell in the Grants-Cibola County Schools.
From School Year 2015 to 2022, reading proficiency among students fell three percent. Where 30 percent of students were proficient in reading at GCCS schools in 2015, only 27 percent are currently proficient in reading.
From School Year 2015 to 2022, mathematics proficiency among students rose from 13 to 17 percent.
Generally, student proficiency rates have lagged behind the “already low statewide averages since [school year 2015],” the report states that the largest decreases in performance came from GCCS’ middle schools. The decreases were not equitable either, with Native American students and non-English speaking students suffering the greatest losses of learning proficiency.
The report states, “Low reading proficiencies in middle school contribute to lagging districtwide proficiency rates. Student proficiencies vary across grades. In [school year 2022], while Grants elementary students’ reading proficiencies neared or surpassed the state average, middle school proficiencies were markedly below the state average (17 percent and 38 percent, respectively). This proficiency drop in middle school is a pattern that goes back several years in Grants.”
Despite challenges, Cubero Elementary exceeded expectations. “In [school year 2022], the growth in the percentage of Native American students at Cubero Elementary in Grants that were proficient in reading and math grew at a steeper rate than statewide,” the report noted.
Despite the successes of Cubero Elm., GCCS elementary students continue to fall behind in terms of proficiency in literacy and mathematics skills.
Student Behavior
From school year 2018 to school year 2022, student behavioral problems doubled at GCCS.
From 63 behavioral infractions in 2018 to 121 in 2022, statewide, behavioral issues increased by 34 percent.
The report states, “In Grants, behavior incidents were due mostly to simple assault, followed by tobacco use. Of the 121 reported incidents in SY22, 87 occurred at Los Alamitos Middle School. District officials in Grants report changes to their discipline handbook and processes improved the accuracy of reporting, potentially contributing to some of the increase in incidents. Discipline issues typically rise in middle school and schools are often ill equipped to meet the social-emotional needs of young adolescents.”
To counter this rise in behavioral issues, GCCS has instituted a new program where grade levels are followed by a behavioral “student success advisor” for middle and high school students. The program is new and the effects of it are not yet measurable.
41 percent of students in GCCS are chronically absent, meaning that they miss at least 18.5 days of school. Using a complicated system, the LESC was able to determine that GCCS students who are chronically absent lose approximately 11 points on their standardized tests. This was determined by using a statewide analysis and an average of instructional hours at both GCCS and Central Consolidated school district. This loss of points is further compounded when issues like poverty, lack of internet access, and other factors which are common in rural areas are taken into account.
Recommending Changes to Law, Protecting Taxpayers GCCS has a number of issues that have constituted the LEC’s recommendation that state legislators change the law to streamline the work of GCCS’ board and improve the work of the board of education.
The report calls on GCCS’ board of education to streamline their meetings.
Rather than dealing with actual issues across the school district, GCCS’ board of education spends its time celebrating successes. “In Grants, less than half (16 of 36) of reviewed board meetings was time spent reviewing attendance, enrollment, or interim student assessment data. Executive session was held during nearly onethird of the meetings (11 of 36 meetings), limiting transparency during the meetings. While the district consistently devotes time to recognize student and school success (nearly every reviewed meeting), introducing more time to evaluate performance against goals could help contribute to more strategic decisionmaking.”
The report calls on GCCS to increase its training of board members. According to the report, GCCS’ board of education needs more training to better understand their scope of work. The report declares only five hours of annual training is required for school board members by law and there are no current guardrails which ensure board members attend these trainings.
To make sure that taxpayer dollars are not being wasted, and that the board of education is prepared to do their job of running a government, the report calls on legislators to change the law. Specifically, the LESC says legislators should increase the training time required and place guardrails to ensure board members actually attend the trainings.
Further, the state recommends changing a law to extend contract time for superintendents, saying the turnover rate for GCCS superintendents is higher than the state average. The report calls on the board of education to work with the superintendent more closely to addresses educational shortcomings.
Recommending Changes to Law, Protecting Students, the report states that GCCS needs to do a better job of vetting youth sports coaches and protecting children in the district.
Over three years of financial audits by the LEC found GCCS “did not keep valid FBI background checks on file. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the first line of defense against preventing adult sexual misconduct is in the screening and hiring of staff members. New Mexico has laws requiring background checks of public school employees and volunteers. While district audit findings have decreased in recent years, the 2019, 2020, and 2021 financial audits for the Grants school district found the district had not been following state guidelines regarding documentation of background checks.”
Specifically, the report points to a 2021 sample where seven of 25 reviewed files did not have valid FBI background checks; in 2020, 18 of 40 reviewed files were missing the background checks; in 2019, 22 of 40 reviewed files were missing this background check. “According to district officials and the financial audits, district human resources have corrected this issue by updating the background checks that were found to be deficient, and putting in place a new process with a mobile vendor to complete fingerprinting and no longer solely relying on the use of PED background checks,” the report states.
The report calls on better evaluation and record keeping for these background checks, they pointed to a 2020 incident, “A PED investigation found a Grants coach had improper relations with students, and staff did not report the incident as required; a court settlement was reached. In December 2020, a student at Grants High School filed a complaint against the Grants-Cibola County School District for failing to protect her from sexual assault by an assistant coach. The student alleged they informed district employees of alleged sexual assault by the assistant coach, the staff failed to report the information to the police, and continued to allow the coach access to students. Once the district learned of the incident, they took swift action, immediately reporting it to PED and law enforcement, as required by law, and terminated staff.” According to the report, this improper relationship extended to “as least two students” who were offered alcohol, “three school employees knew all of this information, failed to report the incident, and permitted the assistant coach continued access to students.”
The report calls on GCCS to “Strengthen district policies on adult sexual misconduct to include guidance on appropriate social media and electronic communication, impartial investigations, and false claims prohibitions,” as well as, “Require trainings for all district staff on adult sexual misconduct be in-person and include information on appropriate social media and electronic communication behavior and boundaries.”
GCCS Responds
In a three-page letter from Superintendent Max Perez, GCCS addressed issues brought up by the LEC report.
Beginning his address to the LEC, Perez wrote, “At the onset of the audit, we respectfully requested information about the selection of our district and about the selection criteria. Requesting such information is not uncommon. However, we are still not clear why the Grants Cibola County School District was chosen. Reviewing the given criteria at the bottom of page 5, we are a district of over 1000 students (Criterion 1) along with several others in the west side of the State. We are below state average proficiencies in reading and math (Criterion 2); however, there are also many other districts in the west with even lower proficiencies. The third criterion is a high number of audit findings (Criterion 3). Here, we have taken pride in, first intentionally finding the most stringent and thorough auditors and then bringing the number of our audit findings from 26 in SY18-19 down to the most recent 5 findings in SY2122 in a relatively short period of time. Grants Cibola County School District was informed that this audit would consist of data from the past three years. While we understand the importance of reviewing the trends for the past 10 years, significant events occurring within those 10 years included a global pandemic, changes in student assessments as well as participation in student assessments, and major changes in teacher evaluation. During these years, significant changes in funding also occurred when cash balances were reverted to the state, as well as increases in funding in response to the pandemic.”
Perez goes on to address concerns about the board of education, “The GCCS School Board is very involved in the development and the monitoring of the Strategic Plan. A systematic monitoring process is in place. Out of the 26 regular board meetings, 25 have included student performance data reports, school site success reports, or school site presentations. Over half of the meetings have included a finance report.
“While during the pandemic GCCS did experience a loss of student enrollment, (as all districts did), the decline was stemmed when the District employed outreach personnel whose primary focus was to increase student enrollment going into the 22-23 school year. This resulted in a re-enrollment of almost 300 students.
“Grants Cibola County Schools has implemented a Standards Based Learning System and is the best strategy to implement in this District in order to improve student performance. This approach focuses on developing a positive outcome for both instructors and students, without simply relying on a single-source curriculum. The purpose of SBL is to identify what a student knows or is able to do in connection to a standard. At the quarterly reporting period, students will be identified as beginning. developing, secure, and exceeding in relation to academic performance, and this identification will be based on multiple pieces of evidence. This is in direct alignment with the Accelerated Learning Principles and Framework. Both systems focus on grade level standards, then intervention to address gaps, supporting all stakeholders and their needs.
“Pre-Kindergarten is a full day program in GCCS. The district's Pre-K program works closely with Grants Head Start, partnering with Child Find and Special Education Services.”
Regarding student safety, Perez wrote, “Safety is of utmost importance in the district and all statutory requirements for safety and professional development are complied with. Although we understand the gravity of the concerns around Adult Sexual Misconduct, the district believes that a single occurrence of misconduct does not constitute a systemic issue or trend. The exigency of this statewide and societal issue should not be a focus of the report unless all districts are included fairly, as this portrays an unbalanced perspective of the problem.”
“The issue of adult sexual misconduct is always concerning. However, there is no explanation that the incident was a one-time event and was properly adjudicated according to State law. This single event does not make a trend, and the focus on this promotes the idea that there is a systemic problem when none exists.”
“All districts relied on the NMPED licensure background clearances. Moving forward the district has implemented a new background clearance process. In November of 2021 employees who were previously cleared through the NMPED licensure department were fingerprinted, background checked, and filed at the district.”
“The recommendation to use the NMSBA policies is without merit as the School District currently and has always been part of the NMSBA Policy Service any criticism of the adequacy of policy development should be addressed to the NMSBA”