Analee Maestas recall, Albuquerque Public Schools, New Mexico (2017)

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Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education recall
Officeholders
Analee Maestas
Recall status
Resigned
See also
Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2017 Recalls in New Mexico New Mexico recall laws School board recalls Recall reports

An effort to recall Analee Maestas from her position as the District 1 representative on the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education in New Mexico began in September 2017. Maestas resigned from the board on October 10, 2017, days before a judge was scheduled to rule on the language of the recall petition.

The New Mexico Education Improvement Project announced it would pursue a recall against Maestas after the state auditor released a report claiming that nearly $700,000 had been embezzled from La Promesa Early Learning Center, a charter school Maestas founded in 2008 and where she served as executive director until 2016. Maestas denied any knowledge of financial mismanagement, and her lawyer said that the report did not show evidence that Maestas had participated in the alleged embezzlement.

Maestas was one of seven members of the Albuquerque Board of Education. She was re-elected to a four-year term on the board on February 3, 2015. The board had 45 days to appoint a replacement for Maestas. They voted 4-2 on November 13, 2017, to appoint Yolanda Montoya-Cordova to the seat.

Recall supporters

The New Mexico Education Improvement Project was started by four former Albuquerque Board of Education candidates in May 2017, three months after they were defeated in their bids to join the board in the general election on February 7, 2017. The group advocated for educational authority to be returned to states, local leaders, and parents, according to its website. The members included:

• Ali Ennenga (who lost the District 3 race to incumbent Lorenzo Garcia)
• Kayla Marshall (who lost the District 5 race to newcomer Candelaria Patterson)
• C. Douglas Brown (who lost the District 6 race to newcomer Elizabeth Armijo)
• William Steinberg (who lost the District 7 race to incumbent David Peercy)

The group announced on September 22, 2017, that they would pursue a recall of Maestas. They called the recall effort Operation Three Strikes. They said the three strikes against Maestas included her vote to remove auditors in the school district, a report that alleged she misused funds from La Promesa Early Learning Center for her own use, and not noticing the money that had allegedly been embezzled while serving as La Promesa's executive director.

When she announced the recall effort, Ennenga, who serves as president of the New Mexico Education Improvement Project, called Maestas a “poster child of fiscal mismanagement.” She also said, “Fiscal irresponsibility hinders our teachers and robs our children of a quality education.” Brown, who serves as the secretary of the New Mexico Education Improvement Project, said that a competent school leader would have noticed that money was missing at the school.

Ennenga criticized the other members of the school board as well as the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, which endorsed Maestas in the 2015 election, for not speaking out against Maestas. Ellen Bernstein, president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, said she understood the concerns surrounding the allegations against Maestas, but she said the board member had not been convicted of a crime. “We don’t think somebody who has been found guilty of embezzling school funds should be in charge of school funds — I think that goes without saying,” said Bernstein. “We also believe it is up to the community that voted for Analee to voice their opinion, and if they want to launch a recall, I think the community she represents should be the ones to do that. First of all, she is their representative and second of all, those are the rules.”

Arguments for recall

On September 25, 2017, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas (D) sent the following letter to Maestas demanding her resignation. He also sent copies of the letter to the rest of the school board, the New Mexico Department of Education, the district attorney, and the Albuquerque Police. Maestas resigned on October 10, 2017.

“	Dear Board Member Maestas: All public officials in the State of New Mexico have the duty to treat their position as a public trust, to use their office to advance only the public benefit, and at all times act in a manner that justifies the public’s confidence in them. Because of this unwavering obligation, I am writing to demand your immediate resignation from the Albuquerque Public Schools’ Board of Education. In the wake of two years worth of highly concerning allegations regarding misuse of public funds and gross fiscal mismanagement at La Promesa Early Learning Center while you were Executive Director there, it is clear that you are no longer qualified to hold your position as a board member. On two occasions the State Auditor has conducted risk reviews of the school, concluding in the first instance that you personally benefitted from the use of public funds by inappropriately, and perhaps illegally, submitting a reimbursement request to the school for services that were performed at your private residence. The second, and more recent review concluded that under your management, a former employee, your daughter, appears to have embezzled nearly $700,000. Both of these reviews resulted in referrals to local law enforcement, and those matters are currently under investigation. Those investigations appear to implicate potential violations of numerous criminal and civil statutes. While those matters are pending, the New Mexico Constitution does not require that you be found guilty of any conduct related to them to be declared unfit to hold your office, and your oath to uphold the very same Constitution now demands your resignation. If you do not immediately resign, as required by that oath, my office will take all appropriate legal actions. Please promptly respond to this demand.	”
—Hector Balderas (September 25, 2017)

Recall opponents

Maestas did not comment on the announcement of the recall effort against her. On September 20, 2017, she said she had no knowledge of the alleged embezzlement, according to the Albuquerque Journal. She also denied any wrongdoing related to a February 2016 report from the state auditor that accused her of misusing over $300 of the school's funds.

In response to the letter from the attorney general, Marc M. Lowry, Maestas' attorney, said she did not plan to step down. “The Attorney General's letter is more concerned with capturing a headline than it is with the pursuit of the truth,” Lowry said in a statement. He went on to say:

“	Dr. Maestas has not engaged in any conduct that violated her oath of office with the APS Board, or any other law. Dr. Maestas has brought over 45 years of experience and commitment to childhood education to uphold her oath to APS and maintain the public's trust, and used her APS office only to advance the public benefit. The Attorney General is wrong to suggest otherwise.	”
—Marc M. Lowry (2017)

Lowry also said that “if the Attorney General had read the State Auditor's report, he would understand that Dr. Maestas is innocent, and that the State Auditor did not make a single finding suggesting that Dr. Maestas participated in that report's allegations of embezzlement or fraud.”

When Maestas resigned on October 10, 2017, she submitted the following letter to the board:

“	Board of Education, Effective immediately I am submitting my letter of resignation from the APS Board of Education. It has been an honor to serve on the Board with each of you.	”
—Analee Maestas (October 10, 2017)

Board members spoke in support of Maestas' time on the board at a meeting on October 10, 2017. Candelaria Patterson said, "You know, I think we will miss her on the board. She was a very dedicated board member." Peggy Muller-Aragon said, "She really cared about all the kids. She did it for over 40 years.”

Background

State auditor's report shows possible embezzlement

New Mexico State Auditor Tim Keller (D) released a report from an audit on the La Promesa Early Learning Center in September 2017 that said it appeared that nearly $500,000 had been embezzled from the school. The report accused Julieanne Maestas, daughter of Analee Maestas and an assistant business manager of the school at the time the report was released, of diverting the money from the school into her personal bank account between June 2010 and July 2016. The report also said that Julieanne Maestas deposited an additional $177,000 in her personal bank account from checks that were payable to her mother and her boyfriend, who worked as a vendor at the school.

The incidents included in the report were referred to local law enforcement and were under investigation by the Albuquerque Police Department White Collar Crime Unit at the time of Maestas' resignation. Officer Tanner Tixier said charges could be filed against one to three people.

Analee Maestas founded the La Promesa Early Learning Center in 2008, and she went on to serve as the executive director of the school. She denied having any knowledge of the alleged embezzlement and said her daughter had substance abuse problems. Analee Maestas' attorney said she learned of her daughter's substance abuse problems when she was hospitalized after the report was released. Both Analee Maestas and Julieanne Maestas left their positions with the school in September 2016.

Analee Maestas was implicated in a possible misuse of funds in a different report from the state auditor's office that was released in February 2016. It claimed that Analee Maestas had changed a receipt from a $342.40 cleaning service in her home to list the school's address in order to be reimbursed. Analee Maestas denied any wrongdoing related to that incident, and it is being investigated by the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED).

In response to the state auditor's September 2017 report, the PED released the following statement:

“	The PED has been aware of these concerns and at all appropriate points took steps to ensure that the State Auditor’s Office and law enforcement officials were made aware of them. The PED takes these financial mismanagement issues very seriously and – prior to the release of this report – had taken appropriate steps that align with the recommendations regarding licensure, training, and oversight of business managers. As the PED’s previous recommendations and actions reflect, charter schools must be held accountable for their financial, as well as academic and organizational, performance. Our students and taxpayers deserve better and we are confident those responsible for any illegal or unethical actions will face the appropriate consequences.	”
—New Mexico Public Education Department (2017)

After Maestas resigned on October 10, 2017, Keller said, "By resigning, she is at least providing the district a chance to be represented by someone who is not connected to the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars that should have been going to our kids’ education.”

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing recall in New Mexico

Petitions for recall "must cite grounds of malfeasance or misfeasance in office or violation of the oath of office by the member concerned," according to the New Mexico Constitution. A district court judge was scheduled to rule on whether or not the recall petition against Maestas fulfilled those requirements, but she resigned from her position before the hearing was held.

If Maestas had not resigned and the judge had ruled that the recall could proceed, recall supporters would have been able to start circulating petitions. To get on the ballot, the petition would have had to be signed by at least 208 registered voters (33.33 percent of the 625 votes that were cast at the last preceding election for the seat).

About the district

See also: Albuquerque Public Schools, New Mexico

The Albuquerque school district is located in Bernalillo County, New Mexico.

The Albuquerque school district is located in Bernalillo County in central New Mexico. The county seat is Albuquerque. Bernalillo County was home to an estimated 676,953 residents in 2016, according to the United States Census Bureau. The district was the largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 93,001 students.

Demographics

Bernalillo County outperformed New Mexico as a whole in terms of higher education achievement between 2011 and 2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 32.6 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 26.3 percent of state residents. The median household income for Bernalillo County was $47,725, compared to $44,963 for the entire state. The percentage of people in poverty in the county was 19 percent, while it was 20.4 percent statewide.

Racial Demographics, 2016
Race	Bernalillo County (%)	New Mexico (%)
White	84.6	82.6
Black or African American	3.4	2.5
American Indian and Alaska Native	6.1	10.6
Asian	2.7	1.7
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander	0.1	0.2
Two or more races	3.0	2.5
Hispanic or Latino	49.7	48.5

Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Analee Maestas Albuquerque Public Schools recall. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Analee Maestas recall, Albuquerque Public Schools, New Mexico (2017) - Google News

See also

• Albuquerque Public Schools, New Mexico
• Albuquerque Public Schools elections (2017)
• Albuquerque Public Schools elections (2015)
• Recall campaigns in New Mexico
• Political recall efforts, 2017
• School board recalls

External links

• Albuquerque Public Schools
• Bernalillo County Clerk
• New Mexico Education Improvement Project
• Maestas Recall Operation: Three Strikes

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