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CHAIR:'Rules

MF-MBER,'JudiciarY

SENATOR UNDA M. LOPEZD-Bernalillo-11

9I32 Suncrest Rd. SW

Albr.querque, NM 87121

Phone' (505)8314148

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March 20.2013

Attorney General GarY King

Office of the AttorneY General

408 Galisteo Street

Santa Fe, NM 87501

Re: Confirmation flearing for PED Secretary-Designate Hanna Skandera

Dear AttorneY General King:

As you are aware, the senate Rules committee (SRC) began confinnation hearings related to the

appointment of Hanna skandera as secretary of the NM public Education Department (PED)

The first phase of the hearings was helcl over 3 days during the current Regular Legislative

Session and generated corsiderable public comment. Public comment was followed by

questions from sRc members, with responses from the Secretary-Desigrute, which have in

themselves generated questions that require your office's assistance in answering' Please

consider this corrcspondence a formal request for an Attorney General's opinion related to the

issues described below'

1) The charter School Act, sections 22-gB,-1, et s€Q., NMSA rg78 states that the governing

body of a charter schoor shall not contract with a for-profit entity for the miuugement of the

charter school (See Section 22-88'-4'R'' NMSA i978)'

Kr2,tnc. (Kl2) is a for-profit management company under contract to the New Mexico virtual

Academy tNlvlvA), a charte. s"hooigranted its charter by the Farminglon Municipal Schools'

The written agreement between Kl 2 andNMVA is provided with this correspondence' Under

thc terms of the Agreement with NI\^/A, Kr2 is paid an administrative service fbe' Further,

Kl2,s responsibilities cover a wide spectrurn" including Educational Products and Pupil

zlr4,'

Recruiting; Administrative Services, incruding personnel, finances, and the rnaintenance of

student records; and an array of technorogy services. Does this arrangement violate Section 22-

884.R. NMSA lgTig of the Charter School Act?

2) rs the Agreement between Kl2 and NMVA subject to the requirements of the Procurement

Code(Code;Sectionsl3-l-28thnough13-1-199'NMSA1978)?

As stated above, NlvfvA is a charter school subject to the charter school Act' As sucb" it is

responsible for ,icontracting for services' for "the use of a facility, it, operation and rnaintenance

and the provision of any service or activity that the charter school is required to perform in order

to carry out the educational prograrn described in its charter contract'" [See Sections 22-88-4'c'

(l) and 224F.4-D' NMSA 1978J'

section 13-l-99. L. NMSA lg7g of the code provides that "procurement by charter schools" is

excruded from the requirements of the procurement ttuough the State Purchasing Agent of the

NM Generar services Departrnent ,,but not from trrc requirements of the Procurement code" '

(Italics aclded)- rn right of these legal authoritieq did tk NMVA comply in a'ny marur€r with the

Code when it awarded a contract to Kl2?

3) The code arso prescr;,bqs maJximum durations of services and professional services contracts

entered into pursuant to the code (see Section r3-l-r50, NMSA 1978)' The Agreernent between

NMVA and K12, lnc is for an initial term of ten years (10), with renewals for a period of 7

years. Does the Term of Agreement (paragraphs 5.1 and 5.2 on page 8) violate the Procurer*nt

Code contract term rnaximum requirements?

4) New Mexico voters approved a Generat obligation (Go) Bond in 2010 authorizing the

spending of $2,000,000 to purchase books and materiars for the g30 New Mexico Public

schools. The legisration and the balot question contained no reference to using the funds to

reward..A-rated,, schools. Ms. skandera designated $1.7 miltionof the Go Bond funds to

provide financial rewards to a select group of schools, mostly clesignated as "A-rated"' and only

representing approxirnately l0% of the public sshools inNcw Mexico' Did the use of the funds

for the purpose of providing financial reward to approximatery 10% of the state's schools based

solely upon perforrnance evaluations violate state law and/or tbe intent ad purpose of the Go

Bond?

ln addition to the opinions requested above' I am writing to q'ery about the reported

investigation by your office into the issues surrounding secretary-Designate skandera's

authorization allowing pED emproyees and "q.ripm.oi

to deverop teacher e-mail lists for

Governor Martinez,s political consultant. It is my understanding fiom press accounts that the

focus oftlre investigation is to determire if a viohtion(s) ofthe Governmental conduct Act (Act'

Sections 10_1GI, et seq., NMSA 1g7g) has occ'rred. The Act, as you know, prohibits the use of

state employee time and other public assets for political purposes (see e'g' sections 10-16-3'A'

and 10_16_3.1.C. NMSA lg7g of the Act). In a retter dated March 10, 2013, Larry Behnens'

public Infonr'rion officer for pED, wrote that an investigator from your office told Ms-

skandera that the recomnrendation from the investigator would be to close th investigation' The

March 10, 2013 letter is attached with this .o.."*po"odence- Based on Mr' Behrens' assertion' I

am seeking an update on the investigation and whether any finar determination has been made'

Trank you in advance fbr your earhest response to this correspondence'

(W,

Senator Linda M'

Chair, Senate

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