The state Public Education Department will have to make its case against Elsy Fierro without the school records for a Rio Grande High senior who passed English after Fierro intervened.

Fierro, an Albuquerque Public Schools administrator, is accused in an ethics case of "exerting undue influence" and not giving her superiors complete information on the grade change.

District Judge Nan Nash on Thursday paved the way for Fierro's public hearing Jan. 23 by saying the state can use witnesses, not the student's records, to present its case against her.

Among the witnesses expected to be called by the state are the Rio Grande High Principal Al Sanchez and English teacher Anita Forte, and retired APS associate superintendents Susie Peck and Nelinda Venegas.

"While the records are extremely useful, NMPED can present at least some of the information through witness testimony," Nash wrote in a decision blocking release of the student's records.

The student is the son of former Albuquerque Board of Education member Miguel Acosta and Bernalillo County Commissioner Teresa Cordova.