Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Alamogordo Conservative Daily
A Charter School for Alamogordo Complete History of Effort Recapped 2024
26 days ago
User-posted content
A history of the charter application for SSESPhoto by2nd Life Media Alamogordo Town News
Public Comment for the publicly funded Charter School called the Sacramento School of Engineering and Science is due to the New Mexico Department of Education no later than July 16th at 5 p.m. to the following email address charter.schools@ped.nm.gov
Beginning in December of 2023 the 2nd Life Media AlamogordoTownNews.org organization has produced a series of articles as information about charter schools, the process for obtaining a license to operate and how a closed group of Alamogordo residents has operated in their quest to open “SSES” through the application process.
Our journey of reporting via this series has been in educating the public to the process and the powers behind the proposal as an effort to provide transparency to the public at large.
The lack of transparency, the submission of a pre-application to the state PED without a public announcement, a closed non- representative founding board that worked the Main Gate United Organization within the Chamber of Commerce, abused their role of transparency to the public at large
The founding group manipulated dialogue around local education to apply political pressure and that is what provoked our response with a series of ongoing articles and editorial commentary for the last 7 months via our series on Charter Schools.
The effort of the founding group of the local charter effort has been to to turn over the school board and influence the previous election via a disinformation campaign, using a fake news site called the Sentinel, of which does not report news.
If one scans the site 90% of the stories were crafted specifically to tear down APS leadership, administrators and raise doubt in public domain via social media manipulation, questioning the successes of efforts for improving Alamogordo Public Schools
Their efforts most specifically targeted long term educators, administrators and former board members such as Judy Rabon, Carol Teweleit and Amanda Jewel as well as administrators such as Pamela Renteria via a disinformation campaign to build a case for justification of a Charter School initiative. The co-conspirator in that effort was the manipulated leadership of Main Gate United.
The effort was to create doubt in APS successes and positive student performances; to tear down the reputations of these fine public servants, administrators and educators for personal gain.
That is why we began our series and have engaged the public in on going dialogue.
The public, and the once fine institution of the Chamber of Commerce and Main Gate United has been USED in a propaganda war to facilitate an agenda by a group of individuals who each have proven an axe to grind against the previous school board and certain administrators.
Each have and axe to grind either due to failure to garner school funding and contracts, religious bias and a hate for state mandates around Diversity and Inclusion Education mandates for staff and students, lawsuits against the district or ego stroking needed for their legacy as their influence wanes.
Then add the influence of the Mayor of Alamogordo. She also misused her position as mayor, claiming she was using it as “private citizen Susan” also due to a vendetta against certain prior school board members and administrators within the prior school administration. To only then conduct an interview with AlamogordoTownNews.org’s radio program host Anthony Lucero where she hedges her bet concerning the Charter Initiative in comments concerning the charter school initiative. During the interview acts as if she is a bystander in the process verses an enabler in the fight of disinformation and propaganda propagating the false narratives pushing a position on social media and also referring to the fake news site mentioned as fact. Her interview with our media entity can be found at:
She is no innocent bystander as there are coordinated emails from charter member Lorrie Black and others to the candidates for school board and Susan that discuss the past 2 superintendents, to include the payout agreement about Mr. Moore which was forwarded to her and the candidates as a signal of glee concerning their efforts to instill chaos into APS - “Blessings, Lorrie Black.”
Kenneth Moore Confidential PayoutPhoto by2nd Life Media
The mayor indignant with IPRA requests specific to her school system interference refused to turn of the confidential internal APS document that Lorrie Black forwarded concerning Dr. Moores payout however the APS School system complied with the legal obligation.
Why would Susan refuse release? Complicity and thus another reason for our continued coverage of this Charter Schools issue.
When there is transparency and sunlight then the public can feel confident in motives and a process. When leaders hide behind releasing documents, behind fake propaganda sites to champion their agendas, when they don’t host public meetings with diverse groups and invite them to the table when they will be impacted by decisions made then questions are raised, doubt in the motives and integrity concerns peak and a sense that the taxpayer is being hoodwinked yet again in Alamogordo is the feeling that takes hold.
That program was unique and something not offered by APS and we 100% endorsed that effort. Of course this trail balloon was floated to garner support for a charter school in Alamogordo but turned out to be a false narrative. The trail balloon was sent up by this founding group all the while they submitted a pre-application that was mirroring already existing programs and curriculum that already is in use at Alamogordo High School. Nothing creative other than positive support for this initiative by Main Gate United verses support for enhancing already established infrastructure and programs within APS.
In our story of January 24th we discussed the pre-application filing and linked it so the public could see what was actually being proposed - Notice of Intent to Create A Charter School Filed with PED
We then ran a series of stories explaining what it takes to open a charter school or the process to funding…
As we began running stories on the process the founding group via fake profiles and a fake news site then began attacking our coverage. Why? At that point we were just exploring the process and educating our audience as to what the process was. The founding group demonstrated they did not want a spotlight on the process by the broader community.
As we explored deeper we began seeing some troubling aspects to the application as presented. First we recognized a conflict of interest when a seated school board member was also a member of the founding board. As a result of our inquiries and public spotlight that school board member resigned from the board of the Charter School
We asked questions about why the broader public was not represented by the board and engaged and that raised questions by LULAC and other concerned members of the public about transparency, participation and rather the proposal was well through out, fiscally responsible and able to actually achieve the results promised…
We looked back at Alamogordo’s history of another charter school that existed and had its charter revoked due to financial difficulties as a warning that this project should be well funded and not only rely on public taxpayer money as that is lesson learned from a past failed charter school project in the past in Alamogordo…
AlamogordoTownNews.org and our sister broadcast station KALHRadio.org has provided a service to ensure citizen engagement into the process. Our aim is to educate on process, inform on the importance of public participation and inspire leaders and the public to engage in action and participate in the democratic process of governance
The decision on rather a charter is issued for the Sacramento School of Engineering and Science will now be in the hands of the New Mexico Department of Education to decide as of 5 pm this evening. The decision and further review will be ongoing this month with a decision announced at the August regular session of the NMPED board.
If the charter is granted we wish SSES luck in execution and do hope they indeed succeed as promised and that APS and AHS does not suffer as suggested. We will be reporting on the evolution as it happens.
If the charter is not granted, we hope that the lessons of transparency and broad public participation are considered and a plan of solid financial reform as a plan is implemented for a future application.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Local Alamogordo, NM
Most Popular
Comments / 0