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Sixty million dollars in federal funding is at stake in the legal battle over the release of a former Rio Grande High School student's records, say attorneys for Albuquerque Public Schools.

They have asked a state District Court judge in Albuquerque for the opportunity to protect the money from federal sanctions.

In a motion filed Tuesday, the school district requested to intervene in the case involving a Rio Grande graduate who wants his school records to remain confidential.

The district contends it could lose the $60 million in funding — "a matter of great importance," the attorneys said — if it releases the student's records and is found in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.

A hearing was scheduled this morning before District Judge Nan Nash on the release of the school records to the New Mexico Public Education Department.

The department wants the records as evidence in its ethics case against Elsy Fierro, the APS administrator who changed the student's "F" in English to a "D" so he could graduate with his class in May.

The student is the son of former Albuquerque Board of Education member Miguel Acosta and Bernalillo County Commissioner Teresa Cordova, who have said they will press for the federal sanctions against APS if it releases his records, the school district's attorneys said.

Under the federal law, the district would also be subject to a five-year restriction against providing student records to the Public Education Department, the APS attorneys said.

"That would place APS in an impossible position under state law, which requires cooperation and sharing of information between local school districts such as APS and the PED," attorneys wrote in their motion.

They have asked the judge for a determination of the meaning of one part of the federal law, which would clear the way for the district to comply and avoid sanctions.

If the district is allowed to intervene, it will not ask for a postponement of Fierro's hearing scheduled Jan. 23, the attorneys said.

Nash has ordered Fierro's hearing be held in public, as Fierro requested.

Fierro's attorney, Gail Stewart, said Fierro wanted the public hearing to clear her name.

Fierro has been accused by the Public Education Department of "exerting undue influence" and providing "incomplete and inaccurate" information to her superiors to get the grade changed.

If Fierro is found in violation of the educators' ethics code, her administrative license could be suspended or revoked.

Fierro is working as an administrator in the Rio Grande cluster in the South Valley.