Investigation of Los Lunas superintendent ongoing; district refuses records request

LOS LUNAS — Monday evening marked the third time the Los Lunas Schools Board of Education has met for an extended period of time behind closed doors to discuss the investigation of LLS Superintendent Ryan Kettler since he was placed on paid administrative in July.

In the two-plus months since his suspension, there have been no details released by the board about allegations of misconduct made against Kettler or the investigation launched into those allegations, including who is conducting the investigation.

The board held three-hour executive session on Aug. 20, during which laughter could be heard coming from behind the closed conference room door. When asked after the meeting who was conducting the investigation, LLS Board of Education President Michelle Osowski said they were not releasing the name at that time, saying it was a firm selected by the district’s attorney.

The News-Bulletin filed a Inspection of Public Records Act request on Aug. 23, asking for the contract for services, scope of work services, invoices and payments to a company called DDSK Group LLC, the company rumored to be conducting the investigation into the allegations made against Kettler. The IPRA request also sought any correspondence between LLS employees and board members and DDSK.

The district responded through it’s law firm Cuddy & McCarthy, indicating it had no records responsive to the newspaper’s request in regards to contracts, scope of work, invoices or payments.

However, the law firm did turn over a file containing more than 100 pages of emails dating back to mid-August between DDSK representative Dana Sanders, a former Los Lunas Schools superintendent herself, and board members Justin Talley and Osowski.

The majority of the emails were a back-and-forth between the three setting up Zoom meetings, although the subject lines of some emails reference “continuation of interview.” The contents of the emails don’t indicate who was being interviewed or for what.

The records produced by Cuddy were redacted by the firm to remove information not subject to IPRA, such as employee records that contain matters of opinion, content subject to attorney-client privilege and information pertaining to medical condition and/or treatment of an individual, specifically disclosure of records related to an individual’s vaccination status.

According to DDSK’s website, the company is “three retired superintendents nationally certified to conduct Title IX investigations and personnel/student misconduct independent investigations, student disciplinary hearings and other related services.” The other members of the company are Daniel P. Benavidez and Sheryl McNellis-Martinez, who with Sanders make up the ‘DDS’ part of the company. The ‘K’ stands knowledge and experience, according to the site.

Benavidez, the former superintendent at Central Consolidated School District in the Four Corners area, McNellis-Martinez, the former superintendent of Wagon Mound Public Schools, and Sanders have all been embroiled in employment related litigation with their former school districts.

Sanders did not respond to News-Bulletin requests for comment before the deadline.

The News-Bulletin filed a second IPRA request on Sept. 10, requesting the same documents from LLS but without naming a specific company. The Cuddy law firm responded on Sept. 24, saying LLS did not have any records responsive to the request.

“Any company hired to conduct an investigation was done through this law firm and is protected by attorney-client privilege and not subject to the Inspection of Public Records Act,” the letter signed by Cheyenne Trujillo concluded.

The newspaper asked the New Mexico Foundation on Open Government to weigh in on the law firm’s stance that documents pertaining to the company hired to investigate Kettler, which will be paid using public funds, were protected by attorney-client privilege.

In a letter to Brian Baca, Los Lunas Schools deputy superintendent and records custodian for the district, Amanda R. Lavin, the legal director for NMFOG, writes that while the response from Cuddy denies the existence of public records responsive to the VCNB’s request, it also suggests the law firm did hire an outside entity to conduct an investigation into Kettler.

“... even if those records are in the possession of a private entity such as a law firm, they are related to a public function — investigation into allegations of an official with the Los Lunas Schools and public money paid to fund said investigation — and are therefore public records subject to inspection under IPRA ...,” Lavin’s letter reads.

The letter continues, noting that Lavin doesn’t believe the newspaper’s request pertains to public records protected by attorney-client privilege, since that protects “communications” between a lawyer and client, so long as the communication is made for the purpose of facilitating the rendition of professional legal services to the client.

“A contract such as the one requested here, and any payments or invoices to the private firm investigating Superintendent Kettler, are not communications as contemplated by the doctrine,” the letter reads.

At the Aug. 20 meeting, Osowski also told the News-Bulletin she couldn’t get into the details of the allegations against Kettler, but did say it was “nothing about the safety of children or staff. There is nothing felonious, no sexual misconduct or moral turpitude. Absolutely none of those things.”

She said the board was hopeful the investigation would be completed “within the next month or so and the board will receive reports.”

At the Sept. 10 BOE meeting, after another extensive executive session, board member Justin Talley made a motion to give Osowski and board vice president Bruce Bennett the authority to meet with Kettler to discuss and address investigation findings.

The board held a special executive session on Monday, Sept. 30, to discuss the investigation of the superintendent, which lasted more than three hours and ended with no board action being taken.

Kettler was hired as the superintendent in July 2023 on a unanimous vote of the board. He was put on paid administrative leave at a special July 16 meeting of the board on a 3-2 vote.

The board spent almost four hours in executive session that evening, discussing “conduct issues brought to the attention of the board” as well as details pertaining to the superintendent’s contract and annual evaluation.”

Once out of executive session, Bennett made a motion “to place superintendent Dr. Ryan Kettler on administrative leave with pay pending an investigation into allegations of misconduct.”

Osowski seconded the motion and voted in favor of the motion. Bennett and David Vickers also voted in favor, and board members Justin Talley and Monica Otero voted in opposition, leaving the motion to pass on a 3-2 vote.

In July, Kettler said in a text message to the News-Bulletin he would provide a statement regarding the allegations of misconduct if he knew what the accusations were that the board is bringing against him.

“As it stands currently, I have no idea what the basis for their action was,” said Kettler. “It is a mystery to me why they are refusing to be transparent.”