GMCS school board moves forward with Graduation Alliance
By Molly Ann Howell
Managing Editor
The Gallup-McKinley County Schools district terminated their contract with Stride/K12 in a special meeting held May 16. The termination will take effect June 30.
Now, they’re on the search for a new company that will help them provide an online learning program to serve students. And on May 27, the GMCS school board held a special meeting that brought them one step closer to working with a new company.
ROAD TO THE PARTNERSHIP
The district sent out a request for proposals, and a committee looked over those proposals to come up with a decision.
During the May 27 meeting, the district’s Lead Director of Procurement and Facilities Katherine Crisler, told the board that the district received five responsive offers to their RFP. The committee then scored the applicants based on a list of criteria, and the company that came out on top was Graduation Alliance, a company based out of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Crisler told the board that Graduation Alliance thoroughly answered all the committee’s questions, specifically ones concerning student data and following New Mexico’s state laws and standards.
“They really showcased a genuine concern for what the district wanted versus a sort of corporate response,” Crisler said. “Of all the firms, they were the only ones who directly addressed those burning questions that we had to ensure that we didn’t run into the any of the same problems we’ve had in the past.”
According to their website, Graduation Alliance has worked with more than 650 state agencies, school districts, community colleges, and workforce boards around the country to recruit, re-enroll, educate, and mentor students since their firm started in 2007. They currently have contracts with the Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences school districts in New Mexico. They also partner with the New Mexico Department of Education on a tutoring program.
Crisler said Graduation Alliance representatives told the committee that they’d be willing to tailor their program to GMCS’ needs.
SETTING THEIR OWN TERMS AND CONDITIONS
All the school board members who were present at the meeting voiced their concerns about starting a contract with a new company. They worried that the previous problems that arose with Stride could happen again.
“Since [Stride] was a for-profit entity, they didn’t have to abide by a lot of the guidelines or the stuff that we were asking for, even the State of New Mexico’s policies and regulations,” Board Member Priscilla Benally said.
Crisler assured the board that the district is now taking precautions to prevent something like what happened with Stride from happening again. All five of the companies who responded to the RFP signed an acknowledgement and acceptance form when they submitted their proposals.
Now, the school district is setting their own guidelines and conditions for whomever they enter into a contract with.
“I believe that a problem we ran into [with Stride] was that the contract that the district ultimately signed and executed had a lot of terms and conditions that the company provided, not the district,” Crisler said.
Benally asked if it would be easy for the district to pull out of the contract if any issues arose, such as the ones they saw with Stride. The district and Superintendent Mike Hyatt claim that Stride broke the New Mexico state law regarding student/teacher ratio.
Crisler reassured the board that any contract the district enters into will have a termination for convenience clause. The district will be able to cancel the contract at any time with a 30-day notice.
“If we’re not happy, we can go to the next highest ranked offer and open up discussions and negotiations with that offer,” Crisler explained.
If the district enters into a contract with Graduation Alliance, it would be for a maximum of 10 years, but it would be held on an annual renewal basis. The first contract is required to be a two-year contract “to give a new company assurance that [GMCS] is going to commit to also working with them to ensure that this program can be successful.”
Crisler said that ultimately, Graduation Alliance is willing to be flexible to the district’s needs.
“They will meet as often as the district would like,” she said. “With some school districts they meet weekly; they could meet monthly, they could meet quarterly, and they absolutely at minimum would present annually.”
MOVING FORWARD
The board ultimately decided to approve Graduation Alliance’s proposal.
In closing remarks, Benally actually thanked Stride for what GMCS experienced.
“I wanted to thank {Stride] because I think we learned a lot from their mistakes and what they’ve done to us,” she said. “… Our kids deserve to have a wonderful online experience and not be neglected.”
Hyatt wasn’t able to attend the meeting, but he did express hopefulness for the future in a statement to the Sun.
“Graduation Alliance is a forward-thinking organization [made up of people] who are educators first, and they understand the effort it takes to help New Mexico students thrive academically online,” he said… “[Our conservations with them] are a sharp contrast from our recent conversations with Stride Inc, whose focus was putting their financial profit before kids.…”
Now, GMCS will go into negotiations with Graduation Alliance. More information about those negotiations will be published when it becomes available.
