As used in the Charter Schools Act:

A. "charter school" means a conversion school or start-up school authorized by the chartering authority to operate as a public school;

B. "chartering authority" means either a local school board or the commission;

C. "commission" means the public education commission;

D. "conversion school" means an existing public school within a school district that was authorized by a local school board to become a charter school prior to July 1, 2007;

E. "division" means the charter schools division of the department;

F. "enrollment preference" means filling a charter school's openings with students, or siblings of students, who have already been admitted to the school through an appropriate admission process or are continuing through subsequent grades;

G. "governing body" means the governing structure of a charter school as set forth in the school's charter;

H. "governing body training" means the training required pursuant to Section 22-8B-5.1 NMSA 1978 to educate governing body members and ensure compliance with all applicable laws, which training may be obtained from any source, individual or entity that has been approved by the department;

I. "management" means authority over the hiring, termination and day-to-day direction of a school's employees or contractors, whether they are licensed or not;

J. "material violation" means the act of failing to accomplish a requirement of a law, rule or contract or a charter school's bylaws that substantially affects the charter school's employees' or students' rights or privileges;

K. "nondiscretionary waiver" means a waiver of requirements or rules and the provisions of the Public School Code that the department shall grant pursuant to Section 22-8B-5 NMSA 1978 and for which a charter school shall not require separate approval by the department;

L. "performance indicator" means a measurement tool that enables selected issues or conditions to be monitored over time for the purposes of evaluating progress toward or away from a desired direction;

M. "performance target" means the specific rating to which the data from a school's performance indicators shall be compared to determine whether the school exceeds, meets, does not meet or falls far below that rating;

N. "siblings" means:

(1) students living in the same residence at least fifty percent of the time in a permanent or semipermanent situation, such as long-term foster care placements; or

(2) students related to each other by blood, marriage or cohabitation; and

O. "start-up school" means a public school developed by one or more parents, teachers or community members authorized by the chartering authority to become a charter school.

History: Laws 1999, ch. 281, § 2; 2006, ch. 94, § 27; 2015, ch. 108, § 8.

The 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, added numerous definitions to the definitions section of the Charter Schools Act; added new Subsection F and redesignated former Subsection F as Subsection G; in Subsection G, after "charter;", deleted "and"; and added new Subsections H through N and redesignated former Subsection G as Subsection O.

The 2006 amendment, effective July 1, 2007, in Subsection A, deleted the qualification that a charter school be located within a school district authorized by the local school board to operate as a charter school and added the qualification that a charter school be authorized by the chartering authority to operate as a public school; added Subsection B to define chartering authority; added Subsection C to define commission; provided in Subsection D (former Subsection B) that a conversion school is a school that was authorized to become a charter school prior to July 1, 2007; added a new Subsection E to define division and changed "local school board of the school district" to "chartering authority" in Subsection G (formerly Subsection D).