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Board presses for flexible lease, land‑swap language with Pueblo as 99‑year renewal looms
Summary
The Pojoaque Valley Public Schools board reviewed a redlined lease with the Pueblo and debated easement, water-rights and renewal language; staff were directed to seek more flexible market‑value and land‑swap wording before PSFA deadlines.
The Pojoaque Valley Public Schools Board of Education spent the bulk of its Sept. 3 special meeting reviewing a redlined lease and pressing staff to add flexible language on land swaps, easements and water rights before state funding deadlines.
Superintendent Segura told the board the district had received an updated redline lease from the Pueblo late in the afternoon and that general counsel Heather Boone had identified three sections needing review. "They maintained the $500 per month," Segura said, and "they accepted all of our other red lines, including the annual payment versus a month." Segura said the district had also sent the lease to the Public School Facilities Authority for funding review.
Board members focused on Section 5.1, which sets an initial five‑year term and a possible 99‑year renewal if a land exchange cannot be completed in five years. "This lease shall be renewed for a renewal term of 99 years upon mutual agreement if land exchange cannot be completed within 5 years," a board member read aloud from the draft. Several members warned that strongly prescriptive trade language could lock the district into an unfavorable swap without full valuations. One member urged adding market‑value or equal‑value swap language; another said water and irrigation rights must be explicitly protected.
Members also discussed whether easement language would unintentionally grant third‑party access for infrastructure. Segura said the district had clarified that an existing cell tower and fiber infrastructure are not on the easement property "and we're not gonna be placing cell towers." Board members asked for alternative legal language that preserves the district’s ability to negotiate a land swap while protecting students, property and water rights.
Segura noted a tight state timeline: the PSFA will meet to approve square footage Nov. 19 and the deadline to request award‑language changes is Oct. 1, which means the district must finalize language before its next board meeting. The board directed staff to send the redline to Decker (the district's consultant) and to Heather Boone for additional drafting and to return for board action at the next scheduled meeting.
The board did not adopt the lease at the special session; instead it voted to authorize staff to continue negotiations and to prepare revised language that allows for an equitable swap or market‑value reassessment as needed.
