By the time anyone at Santa Fe Public Schools thought to ask who authorized the microphones, 61 cameras were already recording audio across district facilities. Their servers quietly overwrote footage every 30 days. An external investigation commissioned by SFPS has now exposed a years-long, largely hidden surveillance network spanning nearly every district building, including at least one elementary school classroom. The district’s two top security officials have been fired, law enforcement is involved, and almost everyone in a position of authority over this system says they had no idea it existed.
How It Unraveled
A single installer’s comment triggered a district-wide investigation and two terminations.
On September 2, 2025, office manager Shanda Martinez watched an installer mount a new fisheye security camera near her desk at the SFPS Facilities and Maintenance building. She asked whether she would be able to view the feed. The installer said he was “not sure” because “this one has audio.”
That answer traveled fast. Within days, staff were stepping outside to use their cell phones rather than speak freely indoors.
Romero, a retired New Mexico State Police officer and former SFPS security head, recognized precisely what he was looking at. By September 17, he filed a formal HR complaint citing state wiretap law, the same day Superintendent Christine Griffin placed security executive director Mario Salbidrez and his deputy Mark Lewandowski on administrative leave. Both were officially terminated February 9, 2026.
What investigators found when they looked closer was not an isolated mistake:
- 61 cameras were actively recording audio by mid-September 2025, with servers overwriting footage approximately every 30 days
- Salbidrez told Griffin that audio-capable cameras were installed in 98% of district buildings
- At least one classroom at El Camino Real Academy was included in the network
- Audio was accessible “with a mouse click” from the Safety and Security office and via district VPN from home, according to staff interviews
- Approximately 1,000 additional cameras were audio-capable but not yet activated
Who Knew What, and When
Competing accounts, missing documentation, and shared audio files contradict the denials.
The question of authorization runs through three superintendents. Salbidrez says former Superintendent Hilario “Larry” Chavez approved what the security team called the “Front Office Project” after a November 2024 meeting at Tokyo Café, framing it as a way to protect front-office staff from confrontational parents. Chavez, now at Grants Cibola County Schools, texted General Counsel Joshua Granata to deny approving any audio devices and could not be reached for comment. The report notes that Salbidrez and Lewandowski produced no documentation showing authorization for the project.
The first audio cameras predate Chavez entirely. According to the investigative report, the initial units were installed in November 2021 at Capital High, Santa Fe High, and Milagro Middle School, reportedly at the direction of then-Superintendent Veronica García to monitor contracted security guards suspected of congregating and sleeping on the job. García flatly denied authorizing audio recording and said she “wasn’t even aware we had that capability.”
The most consequential finding involves files recovered from Salbidrez’s computer and cloud accounts. Investigator Christopher Cappon of Robert Caswell Investigations found shared folders containing audio recordings sent directly to Chavez and Granata.
A folder dated February 12, 2025 held audio from an incident at Aspen Community School, shared with Chavez and assistant superintendent Felicia Sena. Another, dated February 6, 2025, contained audio involving a counselor at Nina Otero Community School and was sent to Granata and an HR specialist. Granata told the investigator he was never asked to review the legality of audio recording, denied using audio in any disciplinary matter, and suggested that if he received such files, he was not informed of their audio content.
Granata’s response was pointed: Monagle’s framing, he said, “sounds like he’s making an admission of criminal guilt on behalf of his clients.”
The report also documents at least five cases where camera audio was used in employee discipline. Among them: facilities director Marissa Bonifer learned that audio from a Santa Fe High security office camera had contributed to a written warning for her daughter, a security guard, after Bonifer had filed a complaint about the school’s security lead.
Taxpayer Money, Board Oversight, and a Culture of Deference
$7.1 million in surveillance spending flowed through procurement channels that bypassed camera-specific board review.
The Safety and Security budget grew from $1.7 million in FY 2023 to $2.8 million in FY 2024. Total non-grant spending across FY 2023 through 2025 reached $7.1 million, supplemented by $630,000 in grants, all drawn from mill levy and general obligation bond funds estimated at roughly $16 million, according to CFO Richard Halford.
Some of that spending moved through “large blanket” purchase orders the board had approved for maintenance and repair, a mechanism that did not require camera-specific board approval. Chief Procurement Officer Marie Gutierrez confirmed blanket purchase orders are intended only for maintenance and repair; the report concludes their use for new camera installations violated district rules.
Not everything was obscured in procurement fine print. At a July 17, 2025 board meeting, members approved approximately $1.1 million in camera spending without discussion, including a $129,225 purchase order for Santa Fe High that explicitly described a “Fisheye Camera with Audio” as “perfect for monitoring common areas such as weight rooms, halls, and team spaces.” Griffin signed off the next day.
Capital Outlay Director Martin Ortega, who routed the requisitions, told the investigator: “I was told never to question what was on the invoice.” Board President Kate Noble said in a written statement that after reviewing Cappon’s report, the board was “clear in its opposition to license plate readers and surveillance cameras which are enabled for audio.” The board has since been assured no audio-enabled cameras or license plate readers remain in SFPS facilities; a separately approved program allocating more than $80,000 for license plate readers at high schools, with plans to cross-reference plates against a sex-offender database, was halted amid the broader scrutiny.
Where the Legal Lines Are Drawn
New Mexico’s wiretap statute leaves a critical question unresolved, and prosecutors have not yet answered it.
New Mexico’s wiretap law, NMSA 30-12-1, is generally classified as a one-party consent rule covering telephone and wire communications, meaning one participating party’s consent is sufficient to make a recording lawful. Whether that rule extends to fixed institutional microphones recording staff and students in offices and classrooms is a separate and unresolved question. Some legal analyses suggest in-person conversations fall entirely outside the statute; others point to employment law, constitutional privacy protections, or additional statutes that could apply.
Salbidrez and Lewandowski reportedly cited one-party consent to justify recording practices, but the law’s actual reach in this context remains for prosecutors and courts to determine. Granata confirmed the matter was referred to law enforcement and that a criminal investigation is ongoing, though he did not identify the specific agency. Monagle has formally notified the district of impending civil litigation on behalf of his clients, and SFPS leadership, citing ongoing potential litigation, has declined to comment on specific claims. Independent observers note that cases of secretly tracking users in institutional settings have increasingly drawn prosecutorial attention in recent years.
The investigative report, heavily redacted before its public release, was commissioned October 2, 2025 and dated January 5. Five months later, no complete, documented answer exists for who authorized years of audio surveillance across a public school district.
