Submitted by Craig Springer, concerned citizen
One year ago the Estancia Valley Classical Academy’s unelected governing council (school board) fundamentally transformed the public charter school in Edgewood. In doing so they violated state law, the Open Meetings Act, the school’s own charter, and have blasphemed America’s founding principles they claim to take very seriously.
The governing council quietly abandoned the school’s decade-long Member Affiliation with Hillsdale College, leaving its principal, faculty, students, and the council itself, bereft of resources to fulfill the school’s original charge, an event that when discovered left parents and faculty stunned.
The governing council sought no input from parents and faculty before making the change, and after doing so had no intent on telling anyone. The council has yet to fully explain why—and they prefer it that way. They would like to blend in with the curtains and keep their poor choices beyond the ken of understanding of those they serve.
Last fall, a few phone calls and emails from parents to Hillsdale College staff revealed a years-long governance problem at EVCA. The council failed to abide by rules regulating Hillsdale Member Schools—among them, that EVCA’s founders must vacate the council, its members must be independent, serve limited terms, and not meddle in authority delegated to the principal.
When I attempted to speak out during the allotted time for public comment at a governing council meeting, I was prevented by the council from expressing my views. I am now suing four council members in U.S. District Court for violating my First Amendment right to free speech, among other counts.
In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in Tinker v. Des Moines that teachers and students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The council’s missteps afford robust opportunities to teach from the Pillars of Character posted at the gate, such virtues as citizenship, respect, honesty, integrity, and courage. “Truth and virtue support the Republic,” is the school motto after all. The school’s excellent teachers could turn the lesions into lessons without substantive disruption.
The unelected council members are set to invite new members to join what amounts to a private club. Who are they? What are their qualifications, and who are their friends on the current council? Potential new members have not been presented to faculty and parents, nor the media.
The governing council does not have the consent of the governed; it has little accountability; those asked to join the council serve indefinite terms; they cannot be recalled by popular choice; and they have no compunction about treating EVCA as their own private school with public money.
One giving public comment in a council meeting can expect to be ignored; unless the speaker is critical of the council, which may result in silencing.
The state PED and legislature must act to reform this corruption. The self-inflicted problems EVCA faces validate the guidance expected of all Hillsdale Member Schools. That is how Hozho Academy Charter School in Gallup thrives, and it is how EVCA can again.
Craig Springer is the father of two EVCA Member School alumni and a current student.