The Public Education Department (PED) and the school districts suing it over an expanded school year will now try to find a resolution through mediation, rather than taking it immediately to the courtroom.
A judge agreed to allow them to continue mediation and a hearing set for Monday has been canceled. The purpose of that hearing was for District Court Judge Dustin Hunter to consider summary judgment motions — each side had asked the judge to rule quickly in its favor.
At issue is the department’s new rule for the 2024-2025 school year, mandating 180 days of instruction for all schools in the state. Schools with four-day weeks previously had about 155 instructional days.
In March, the New Mexico School Superintendents Association and dozens of rural school districts and charter schools sued the PED, claiming the agency’s action conflicted with state law.
Whatever resolution the case ultimately has is unlikely to affect the 2024-2025 academic calendars of the suing schools — some students have already returned to class.
However, in mid-May, Hunter issued an injunction preventing the department from enforcing the rule until the case is decided. The parties later filed a joint motion to be excused from court-ordered mediation, which Hunter denied.
Read more about the injunction here.
That mediation took place Tuesday in Albuquerque, after which PED Secretary Arsenio Romero asked the court to take Monday’s hearing off the calendar. The superintendents association and the schools — citing a “good faith conference” — did not object.
The parties latest request is that Hunter delay the hearing on those motions until at least Sept. 11, after a second mediation session.
Matt Chandler, one of the attorneys representing the superintendents association and the schools, declined to answer questions about the progression of the case, citing the confidential nature of mediation and negotiation conferences. Attorneys for the department did not respond to requests for comment.
Hunter previously approved a request by Roswell Republican state Reps. Candy Spence Ezzell, Jared Hembree and Sen. Greg Nibert to join the case as amici curiae, or friends of the court.
It’s unclear whether Hunter has made a decision on an amicus curiae brief filed by the New Mexico School Boards Association and American Federation of Teachers New Mexico and no updated information was shown in online court records.