School district accuses distant learning company of violating student-teacher ratios

By T.J. Wilham, Jason McNabb

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    GALLUP, N.M. (KOAT) — A New Mexico school district is alleging a company that provides distance learning to its students is violating state law, claiming it put too many students in the virtual classroom.

Meanwhile, two other New Mexico school districts have now started using the same company.

That company, Stride, has been in a court battle with Gallup McKinley County Schools.

The district spends as much as $30 million of taxpayer money to provide education to students throughout the state who can’t physically make it to school.

Stride, however, tells Target 7 the school district’s claims are unfounded and says the superintendent is retaliating against them.

There are as many as 4,000 students in New Mexico who have taken advantage of the agreement between Stride and the school district, which has used Stride to provide options to students who live in remote areas and on reservations anywhere in New Mexico.

“It gives choice and opportunities for parents and students,” said Gallup McKinley County School Supt. Mike Hyatt. “So, they were somebody that worked with us that we procured to help us deliver instruction to students across New Mexico.”

The program also helped address the lack of teachers, however, “things went south with this particular company, and they breached the contract that we had with them, so the contract was canceled,” Hyatt said.

According to Hyatt, things went south when a data analyst noticed that graduation rates had dropped 27 percent and student turnover climbed to 30 percent.

“I was shocked,” Hyatt said. “I was also shocked with this company that was for profit margins was shoving students against the state law into classrooms.”

In response an attorney for Stride told Target 7 that the accusations from Hyatt are untrue and he is retaliating against them because they did not select him for a job.

“Like everything, there’s two sides to every story,” attorney Laura Sanchez said. “And, in this case, unfortunately, there is a narrative that the school district has put forward that is simply not true. The important thing is that these students were getting quality education. They had a teacher, they had education coaches. There was a lot of parent involvement.”

Hyatt said they discovered that hundreds of students were being placed into single classrooms.

He claims it is in violation of this state law that governs student-to-teacher ratios.

KOAT legal expert John Day said the law is unclear if it applies to virtual learning.

“If the allegations are that the distance learning company is violating state law by not maintaining a proper student-to-teacher ratio, well, that’s a serious allegation and it would have to be addressed in the court case ultimately,” Day said.

After the school district cancelled its contract with Stride, the two parties sued each other, claiming everything from breach of contract to violations of the state’s open meetings act.

The latter is the only item currently pending; however, the two sides are expected to go to arbitration. The New Mexico Foundation of Open Government joined Stride in suing the school district.

They claim the district was already looking for a replacement company before the board voted to terminate the contract a year early.

“We sought to find a vendor that we felt was honest, that cared about kids, that was not going to abuse our school district or our kids anymore,” Hyatt said.

Stride has alleged that Hyatt is bitter because he had applied for a position in the company in December and was informed he didn’t get selected in February just two months before the contract as cancelled.

Hyatt told Target 7 that the position was eliminated, and he was unaware of all of the issues until after he had applied.

“We believe, felt that he had been wronged by not being hired, that he turned around and terminated a contract mid-year,” Sanchez said.

Stride has filed a complaint against Hyatt with the state’s ethics commission and the school district says it is asking for the Attorney General, the State Auditor and the Public Education Department to investigate.

Meanwhile, two other school districts – Chama Valley and Santa Rosa – recently signed agreements with Stride, picking up where Gallup-McKinley County left off.

“I actually talked with one of the superintendents and told him this is what happened,” Hyatt said, “I was very honest with him, and they still went with Stride.

Sanchez says about 2,000 students who were in the program with Gallup McKinley County schools stayed with it under the new school districts.

“And, they are very much looking forward to continuing to have quality online education,” she said.

Target 7 received a complaint that was sent to the public education department from a Stride teacher alleging the company was more concerned about profit than education. Stride had not seen that complaint prior to receiving it from Target 7.

Target 7 reached out to PED and have yet to hear back.

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