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City Councilor Don Harris and Mayor Martin Chavez want to inspire southeast Albuquerque middle school students and tap into local scientists' expertise.

They both say a charter school is the way to do it.

Chavez and Harris don't find themselves in agreement all that often. And while their objectives are similar, their two proposals might well compete for the same students.

On the one hand, the city has $100,000 set aside in the 2007-08 budget to study a technology middle school, an idea Harris claims as his own.

Harris said his idea is separate from the charter technology high school Chavez helped start in 2004.

Meanwhile, Chavez said he's working on expanding that school, now called AIMS, or Albuquerque Institute for Mathematics and Science, at the University of New Mexico to serve kindergarten through eighth-graders in the southeast quadrant.

The mayor's school was the first to come out of City Hall. At the time, state Education Secretary Veronica Garcia said city government could not be involved in operating the school. State law allows only parents, teachers or community members to open charter schools, not government entities.

About $79,000 in city money was spent to get the mayor's charter school started under 2003 contracts with the founders.

The mayor on June 26 said he couldn't operate a charter school but "we can certainly be involved in starting them and working on them."

Harris' proposal, however, came as a surprise.

"It sounds like something different," the mayor said of Harris' school, also planned on a southeast site. "He's never discussed it with me. I don't know what he's done."

Harris said a site for his school will be donated by Juan Tabo Hills Corp. close to the Sandia Tech Park, which will provide scientists to enrich the curriculum.

"It's an opportunity to share what they know with young minds who are curious," he said of the scientist-student connection.

Harris said his school follows the mayor's educational ideas.

"The objective is consistent, and I think we're concerned about the same things."

AIMS Principal Kathy Sandoval said she's moving ahead with plans to expand her school on the nearby Van Buren Middle School campus, under the name SciMatic, and on another campus in the Manzano Mesa subdivision.

"My school is the mayor's school," she said. "And we decided we needed a science and math charter for K through eight" in addition to the high school.

AIMS, now a high school only, will also expand to include middle schoolers, she said.

She said her school and the expansion sites are a collaborative effort with the mayor, UNM and Albuquerque Public Schools.

"How powerful is that?" Sandoval said.

"Maybe we'll be competing with Harris' school," she said. "I hope he's ready for a fight, because I'm going to win."

Sandoval said she is seeking approval from the Albuquerque Board of Education for expansion of AIMS.

Harris said he didn't know what entity would approve his school. Under new state laws, charter schools can go directly to the state Public Education Department for approval.

"We're going to study it first," he said.

Harris scheduled a news conference this afternoon to announce the study and the partnership he said he has established with the developer and the technology park.

Harris said the Juan Tabo Hills development of $300,000 to $400,000 homes wants a school of its own, instead of Van Buren, the closest middle school, on Louisiana Boulevard Southeast.

"They are not happy with Van Buren," Harris said. "It seemed like it (a charter) was something that needed to happen."

Sandoval said AIMS is moving to its new building at 933 Bradbury S.E., across from Isotopes Park.

Sandoval has 120 students in AIMS, with 150 expected in the fall.

Sandoval said the SciMatic school at Van Buren is planned to open in 2008, in cooperation with APS. It will be the second charter on a public school campus, following the lead of Wilson Middle School, where the Native American Academy is located.

"We'll start with K through three" at Van Buren," Sandoval said, "and expand a grade each year until eighth."

No date is set for the Manzano Mesa campus. "It is still in the planning stages," Sandoval said.