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Editor’s Note: This article was written by New Mexico State Senator Pete Campos (D – Colfax, Guadalupe, Harding, Mora, Quay, San Miguel, and Taos)

While some advocates might be laser-focused on early childhood, with others just as attentive to higher education, all understand education, from birth through career, is a system that only works if each piece works. Young children are more likely to succeed academically with support from birth. A junior high student can’t tackle higher level language arts, math, and science without a foundation built in elementary school. A high school senior must have strong skills built over years of classroom instruction to continue to higher education or a career.

With that in mind and with unprecedented state revenues available, the Legislature invested more than $6 billion in the care and education of our children and academic advancement of our young adults for the budget year that starts July 1. Spending on early childhood, public schools, and higher education now makes up more than 60 percent of all spending of state general fund revenue.

We expanded funding for the support program for families known as Home Visiting, made childcare affordable for most New Mexico families, and added prekindergarten classrooms throughout the state. Public schools now have more funding than ever for literacy help and other interventions for struggling students, extended learning time, and the wraparound social supports offered by community schools. More funding for scholarship programs means almost every New Mexican who wants to go to college can afford it.

The Legislature has committed to helping our children succeed from their first day to their first day on the job. The focus must now shift from the level of investment to the implementation of programs that evidence and research tells us will make a difference. We know Home Visiting, which starts with services before a baby is born, can help that child succeed throughout life but only a small percentage of eligible families are enrolled. We know extended learning time, including longer school years, can help improve student test scores but most of the state’s largest districts, serving 75 of all public school students in the state, declined to add days even after the program was substantially revamped to meet their needs.

It is critical that we strengthen accountability, transparency, clarity, and strategies to make sure those who administer the hundreds of millions of dollars in their programs make the best use of those dollars. We need a coordinated statewide framework with annual, unified reporting on progress. We need to see data on the health of our children and their families, the school-readiness of our prekindergarten and kindergarten students, student academic performance, and the job placement of our high school and college graduates, and we need the analytics that tell us what the numbers mean and how they can be improved.

State lawmakers have invested your tax dollars in an education system that stretches from birth to young adulthood. We cannot ensure that those dollars improve the system unless we measure the results. You deserve to know that your tax dollars will pay off, for our children and their futures and, through them, our communities.

Senator Campos, a Democrat from Las Vegas who holds a doctorate in educational leadership and a master’s in guidance and counseling, has been a member of the Senate since 1991 and a member of the Senate Finance Committee since 1997. Campos is also a member of the Legislative Finance, Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy, and Water and Natural Resources committees. He has served as the senator from District 8 in northern New Mexico since 1991 and has served as president of Luna Community College, superintendent of the Las Vegas City Schools, and mayor of Santa Rosa.

With a significant investment of over $6

News

Albuquerque Public School Board President Yolanda Montoya-Cordova announced that the district will begin its search for a new superintendent in July, and will have a superintendent chosen by the spring of 2024.

The need for a new superintendent comes after the APS Board of Education chose not to extend Superintendent Scott Elder’s contract. Elder will leave the post when his contract expires on June 30, 2024.

At the June 21 APS board meeting, Montoya-Cordova said, “We’re just beginning the process, there’s a lot of work ahead but I’m hopeful that once we can get a search firm, they can guide us through the process.” APS will put out a Request for Proposals – the process of looking for a firm – in July; from the firm, the board will seek assistance in rewriting job descriptions, setting timelines and assuring a smooth transition of leadership.

Montoya-Cordova said a draft timeline of the hiring process will be presented to board members in July. A full timeline and details about how APS will engage with the public on this decision will be discussed after the Board of Education hires a search firm.

By the time a new superintendent starts their post, at least two members of the Board of Education will be new, this is because of the coming board election on November 7. The APS board recognizes this challenge, with Montoya-Cordova saying, “[We’re] trying to build in some time before the new board members are sworn-in, [so the board has] an opportunity to bring them up to speed in terms of where we are in the process, so they can hit the ground running.”

Montoya-Cordova said she wants this process to be smooth, allowing for a transition that is comfortable for the new superintendent and staff. In the meantime, she said, the board is revising the superintendent’s job description, so it better aligns with the Goals and Guardrails being set by the APS board.

Despite the work ahead of them, Montoya-Cordova said the board would like to have a new superintendent chosen by the spring. This does not mean that Superintendent Elder would stop working however, with Montoya Cordova saying Elder has continued working and she believes he will continue to work as he has not expressed a time when he will take leave. Elder was not present at the June 21 meeting. He was unable to attend due to his attendance at a conference.

APS is looking to have community engagement in the search for the new superintendent.

Montoya-Cordova said she wants to see significant engagement with the community, bringing up the idea of a committee made up of local residents to help choose the next superintendent. She said the board can make this decision and set search parameters after a search firm is hired.

“We are really committed to making this process as transparent as possible,” Montoya-Cordova said. She said there will be regular updates to the superintendent search, “So we can make sure we are being as transparent as possible with the community,” she said.

Albuquerque Public School Board President Yolanda Montoya-Cordova

News

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education is working on updating its goals and guardrails, tools they say will help improve the academic proficiency of students and better support teachers. The board set its primary goals and heard updates from Superintendent Scott Elder related to interim sub-goals which will track their progress. The board took no action on the sub-goals at their June 7 meeting.

The interim sub-goals are being used as measures of progress meant to increase the likelihood that the primary goals will be achieved. The district is also working on interim sub-guardrails to help guide their performance, but at the June 7 meeting discussed only the sub-goals.

Goal 1: Early Literacy

APS’ Goal 1 focuses on improving literacy and English Language Arts performance. The district is working on three sub-goals to monitor progress toward their target. All three sub-goals aim to improve ELA proficiency rates from May 2023 to May 2026.

The first sub-goal is designed to see an increase in kindergarten student ELA proficiency; the second goal focuses on increasing first grade student ELA proficiency; the third goal aims to see an increase in second grade proficiency increases.

Goal 1 reads, “The percentage of third-grade students identified in the Yazzie-Martinez decision plus African American students who demonstrate grade level proficiency or above on the state English Language Arts (ELA) summative assessment will increase from X in May 2023 to Y in May 2028.”

Goal 2: Math Proficiency

Goal 2 focuses on improving student performance in mathematics. APS set three sub-goals, looking to see growth in student math proficiency. The first sub-goal wants to see an increase in sixth grade mathematics proficiency; the second sub-goal aims to see an increase in seventh grade students; and the third sub-goal looks for an increase in eighth grade student proficiency.

Goal 2 reads, “The percentage of eighth-grade students identified in the Yazzie-Martinez decision plus African American students who demonstrate grade level proficiency or above on the state mathematics summative assessment will increase from X in May 2023 to Y in May 2028.”

Goal 3: Post-Secondary Readiness

Goal 3 aims to see an increase in students who earn two or more credits from advanced placement, dual credit, bilingual seal and industry certification courses, setting a time limit for 2028 to achieve this. APS has set three sub-goals to reach this goal.

Sub-goal 3.1 looks at students who drop out of high school. The district wants to see the number of students who dropped out in 2023 decrease by May 2026.

Sub-goal 3.2 is a benchmark for the district, looking to see an increase in students taking two or more credits from advanced placement, college, bilingual and industry certification courses from 2023 to 2026, with the hope it will keep the district in line to meet the main goal by 2028.

Sub-goal 3.3 will specifically focus on 11th grade students, it is geared toward seeing an increase in students taking advanced placement, college, bilingual and industry certification courses by May 2026.

Goal 3 reads, “The percentage of high school graduates who earn credit in two or more Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or Dual Credit courses, or earn an industry certification or Bilingual Seal, will increase from X in September 2023 to Y in September 2028.”

Goal 4: Skills, Habit, and Mindsets for Life Success

Goal 4 focuses on equipping students with skills, habits, and tools for them to be successful post-high school. There are three sub-goals, focusing on fifth grade, eighth grade, and 10th grade students. The sub-goals are oriented toward increasing the number of students demonstrating the “skills, mindsets, and habits most aligned to life success: perseverance, self-regulation, self-efficacy, and social awareness” by 2026.

Goal 4 reads, “Increase the percentage of students who demonstrate the skills, mindsets, and habits most aligned to life success: perseverance, self-regulation, self-efficacy, and social awareness from X in 2023 to Y in 2028 as measured by an evidence-based and aligned tool.”

What About Other Grades?

Students and grade groups that are not specified in the sub-goals will continue to receive instruction and tracking, but the focus of these goals will be on the specific school groups. Explaining this, Elder said to the board, “You all have asked us to focus on four goals and align resources to four goals to meet these needs. To an extent, you are correct that there will be a lessening of our ability to support or maintain – you know – full observation on these other programs. However, I will say, nowhere in your goal did you say we should feed kids, we’re still going to feed kids. We are not going to stop teaching reading after third grade. We will still look at those rates.” Elder said the district will continue tracking all grade levels, regardless of the specific requirements in the goals.

“I would say that we have worked hard to try to align these things, so it does match: One – what the goal is asking; two – that it measures as much of what the student performance is,” Elder told the board.

APS will establish the X and Y of their Goals after they receive results from the 2022-23 state assessments.

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education

News

The New Mexico Public Education Department hopes to improve student achievement in English Language Arts, mathematics, and science across the state by using tools that have been shelved since 2019, but are getting new life in the form of a new website. The renewed effort will study schools in New Mexico to see where students are performing well and where they are struggling, so that success can be replicated and low performing schools can improve.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, PED used a tool called New Mexico Vistas to evaluate school performance and monitor student progress. In 2019, the state moved away from using the tool and has since seen student proficiency rates decline across ELA, math, and science. Vistas is now a new website with a fresh look.

Vistas is being updated to determine what training and resources need to be put into which schools to promote educational equity, helping prevent any student group or school from falling behind the rest of the state. Vistas will help community members understand how schools in their area are performing, and give parents a better idea about the level of education their child is receiving. With this information, parents will be able to make informed decisions about their child’s education.

Currently, Vistas is using data from the 2021-22 school year. In January, the data will be updated to reflect the 2022-23 school year.

PED is seeing support from education advocates since announcing the return of Vistas. “A strong educational system includes transparency of data and accountability. We know these tools help improve student outcomes, because New Mexico was on the rise when we had a quality accountability system in place.” said Hope Morales, executive director of Teach Plus New Mexico said. Education Secretary Arsenio Romero said New Mexico needs to take control of its own story on education. He outlined several priorities to address the state’s education crisis, with data collection being one of his biggest priorities. Vistas promises to be one such tool by organizing data on proficiency and learning growth from the state tests students take annually, and other data points like attendance and graduation rates. Romero said that once the state has this data, it will be better equipped to allocate resources and promote improvements in schools.

How will schools be rated?

PED hopes to improve the state’s education system by restarting a system to evaluate school performance and intervene with necessary supports. To determine which schools need extra support, PED uses a “School Accountability Index” that takes a school’s proficiency rates in ELA, math, and science; proficiency improvement rates; and attendance scores to determine where on the scale a school falls. Each school is assigned a score which is highlighted on their Vistas webpage.

Under this system, PED will be able to assign training to schools and districts, and if necessary, take action as drastic as closing a school to help improve academic achievement.

Academically successful schools will be given the designation, “Spotlight School.” Only schools that score above the 75th percentile will receive this title.

Schools that are not identified as needing additional support nor “Spotlight” will be identified as, “Traditional Support Schools.”

Schools with one or more student groups significantly under-performing will be identified as, “Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI)” schools.

Schools with one or more student groups under-performing to the point where they do worse than the lowest scoring five percent of Title I schools will be identified as “Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI)” schools.

“Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI)” will be a more severe designation. “Comprehensive Support and Improvement” will be assigned to schools that:

  • Were previously identified Additional Targeted Support and Improvement and have failed to meet state mandated benchmarks for improvement.
  • Serve high school students and have a four-year graduation rate of less than 66.67 percent.
  • Are in the bottom five percent of all schools.

If a CSI school fails to meet its state mandated benchmarks to improve, they will be identified as “More Rigorous Intervention” (MRI). If an MRI school does not successfully meet its state mandated requirements for improvement, the state will consider the school as having “Demonstrated persistent failure” and “PED will require more forceful restructuring, such as requiring staffing changes, ‘restarting’ the school with a proven operator, or working with a district or authorizer to close the school by 2027,” according to a PED presentation about Vistas.

What happens with low-performing schools?

Low-performing schools will be provided additional funding to support their improvement efforts. This funding will come in the form of grants to support the strategic improvement planning.

Each school identified as TSI, ATSI, CSI or MRI will be required to participate in a readiness assessment that will determine the root causes of issues at the school. In a presentation about Vistas, the PED said this assessment is to help improve the school and not judge or demoralize the school staff.

Using a 2010 study, PED found that school principals spend less than six percent of their time observing, coaching, and evaluating teachers. To help principals become better teacher-leaders, PED will mandate that all schools with the More Rigorous Intervention designation have a performance coach who will offer advice, implementation advice for new strategies, and a virtual coaching session each month.

Schools do have the ability to appeal their designation. Details on the appeals process were unavailable by press time.

If you have used Vistas, let us know your experience. Email diego.lopez@nmeducation.org with your feedback.

The New Mexico Public Education Department hopes

News

The Gallup-McKinley County School District (GMCS) is working to equip their students with tools to be successful in future careers. Through the career-focused education they offer, GMCS is hoping to increase graduation rates and better prepare students to successfully enter the workforce.

The district offers students a career-focused education by exposing them beginning in elementary school to different job opportunities and providing opportunities to consider future careers. 

In middle school, students are asked to think about what they might want to do for a  career, and in high school, students are offered courses and skill development opportunities so they better understand how their learning is connected to their future career goals, like mechanics, media arts, or computer science.

The district’s instruction links traditional coursework with career-focused learning. Students take traditional courses like English Language Arts, mathematics, and science, though these courses are taught in a way that connects the work they do in those classes to their career pathway.

How did this initiative begin?

Ten years ago, GMCS began an effort to turn around its schools and improve the academic achievement of its students. “This is a massive project. The district had been at a point where teachers were teaching whatever they wanted, there was no curriculum for the district, there was not a lot of targeted professional development to help teachers become the best that they can be for the students, so we did a lot of work over the years to shore ourselves up,” GMCS Superintendent Mike Hyatt said.

The district’s turnaround was gaining steam prior to the pandemic. “We did a lot of work for years trying to shore ourselves up in regard to instruction,” Hyatt said.

When students returned to the classroom after the COVID school closures forced the district into virtual learning, there was a noticeable difference in attention spans and interest in schoolwork, Hyatt said. So, the mission became to make schoolwork relevant to their futures. 

Four years ago, the GMCS school board approved a strategic plan called, “Elevate 2022” which has since been updated, but the spirit of the plan has remained. “We’re really not preparing our students for graduation,” Hyatt said. Instead, “It’s about how we help our students be productive citizens and be able to explore the options they have post-high school. So, we really became a career focused school district rather than a graduation-focused school district.”

The work was slow. GMCS wanted to ensure that the educational foundations like English Language Arts, mathematics, and science were strong and relevant to modern students. Across the country, Hyatt said, students involved in career-focused education were more likely to graduate.

Discovery Centers

Elementary school students at GMCS can go to their school libraries, which are being renamed “Discovery Centers,” where stations are being built to offer young students hands-on, interactive learning opportunities about different jobs. This is the beginning of a student’s career pathway journey at GMCS.

Middle school students are taken on career-exploration opportunities. They are exposed to different businesses and companies to help students begin thinking about what career path they might be interested in.

When students enter high school at GMCS, they begin their career pathways. “Last year, we had almost 160 interns. High school students are going to different businesses and interning,” Hyatt said.

Deputy Superintendent Jvanna Hanks explained that some students are even interning at GMCS. All intern students are paid for their work. Students are connected to different careers, like a hospital or law firm.

What if students change their career decision?

GMCS offers “employability skills” courses to its students starting at sixth grade. These skills may seem simple, like showing up to work on time, collaborating with peers, and the importance of completing tasks, but are “soft-type skills that individuals don’t necessarily [learn] until they get into a career,” Hanks said. Both Hyatt and Hanks said that these soft skills are important to the professional development of students in their career. With these soft skills, they said, the district is preparing students for all types of careers.

But students are young, and sometimes change their minds. If a student begins their high school journey wanting to be a mechanic, but in their senior year decide mechanics isn’t for them and they would rather work with animals, their time in high school will not have been wasted. Hanks said that all career pathway instruction is done in a way she called, “linked learning.”

Students are learning broad skills that transfer across all types of career opportunities. Linked learning allows students to learn skills in a broad range and take those to other careers if they ever change their mind. Hanks said GMCS supports their students and are making the extra effort to incorporate traditional learning with the students’ chosen career pathway by linking traditional, core subjects to chosen career pathways.

“We’re not trying to fit [students] into any single career path,” Hanks said.  “We can’t offer every single career in every single school. We have schools with only 50 [students]. How do you get the staff to do something like that?” Hyatt said. Students aren’t fixed into any one specific job skill.

Before students enter high school, GMCS works to help them understand different job opportunities that are available so they have time to consider what work they may want to do. The district allows students to be involved in their chosen career pathway and looks for opportunities to connect students with the appropriate tools for the pathway, even if it isn’t offered at the student’s school.

GMCS already links multiple career pathways. Students that are interested in becoming chefs or bakers are working with the chemistry department in their schools to better understand the chemical composition of bread, how to combine ingredients, and create yeast. Students interested in a biomedical science pathway that are learning about Romeo and Juliet in their English Language Arts courses can link their learning by discussing the brain development of the young characters.

“There are ways to put information together that maybe you don’t see natural pathways to, but you can link to. These are skills that students can use their whole lives,” Hanks said.

Other Opportunities

While GMCS is focused on preparing students for future careers, they also offer other opportunities for students more interested in civic service. GMCS is one of the largest rural districts in the state, at 4,857 square miles with more than 11,000 students.

GMCS has 400 students in Early College High School where they can earn an associate degree or higher as they graduate high school. The district offers a civic readiness course for students interested in military service, police, and political careers. Expenses are covered  by the district, and students do not pay for any of the services.

In this courtesy photo, students from the

News

The Albuquerque Public School Board of Education voted to approve a resolution announcing the next board election, with news that two current board members will not seek reelection.

Board election

The board approved an election resolution, complying with state law and creating an opportunity for members of the community to choose new leadership for the APS Board of Education. Two board members will not run for reelection, meaning there will be at least two new board members in 2024. The election will also allow voters to decide whether or not they would like to approve an extension of the capital improvement tax that helps pay for student equipment, building maintenance, and improvements for the district.

This election will take place on Tuesday, November 7.

Three board members will be up for re-election, setting the stage for challengers to vie for their positions. Three districts will be re-electing their representative to the school district: District 1, currently held by APS Board President Yolanda Montoya-Cordova; District 2, currently held by APS Board Vice President Peggy Mueller-Aragon; District 4, which is currently held by Instruction and Accountability Committee Chair Barbara Petersen.

During the meeting, Superintendent Scott Elder said Montoya-Cordova and Petersen will not be running for reelection. Mueller-Aragón intends to run for her third term.

Albuquerque residents interested in running for the school board are required to announce their candidacy at the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office on August 29, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Capital Improvement

Currently, APS uses mill levy funding to support their school improvements and purchase materials used by students. Mill levies generate money that comes from county property tax payments, APS takes $2 for every $1,000 of taxable property. Approval of mill levies does not increase taxes. 

The Board of Education worries that the district will not have the resources students need to succeed without extending the mill levy.

Because of state law, APS needed to pass the resolution at the June 7 meeting. With the resolution, APS can get their mill levy extension on the ballot.-

If the mill levy is not approved by voters, APS will have to work quickly to get the resolution on a February ballot or face a lapse in funding come 2025.

In a unanimous vote, the Board of Education approved the election resolution. Voters will elect new board members and decide whether to extend the mill levy on November 7.

At the conclusion of the June 7 meeting, the APS Board of Education read a statement, announcing Superintendent Scott Elder’s contract with the district will not be renewed.

The APS Board of Education has approved

News

Superintendent Scott Elder, who led Albuquerque Public Schools through the COVID-19 pandemic, will not have his contract extended by the board of education.

Tonight’s meeting concluded the annual process of evaluating the superintendent’s contract.  Recently, the board has  worked closely with experts to write new goals and guardrails for the school district in an attempt to increase the academic proficiencies of students and to reverse plunging enrollment that has plagued APS since 2016.

In a statement, Elder said, “I am proud of my service to APS and this community, and I am particularly proud of the progress APS has made, despite the challenges we faced and the unique issues created by the pandemic.  I am grateful to the Board for the opportunity and to the many wonderful APS employees who work so hard every day for our students.”

The board’s statement at the conclusion of executive session read by Board President Montoya Cordova said, “Superintendent Elder has led APS through some challenging times, and we are grateful for that leadership. We wish him well in his future endeavors, and we look forward to having his help as we transition to APS’ next era.”

Elder will work with the Board of Education to create timelines for the selection of a new superintendent and will work to oversee an orderly transition of management, according to a statement from APS.

The board extended its thanks to Elder and called on community members to be involved in selecting the next superintendent.

Elder’s contract will expire June 30, 2024.

Who is Superintendent Elder?

A third generation New Mexican, Elder attended Albuquerque Academy before attending the University of New Mexico, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in political science and Spanish, and a Master’s degree in business administration and secondary education.

Elder’s grandfather served on the APS Board of Education off and on from 1945-1969, and his mother worked for APS for 20 years.

Elder began his career as a substitute teacher more than 30 years ago at APS. After his stint as a substitute, he became a teacher at Highland High School. Later, Elder served as principal at McKinley Middle School, the Career Enrichment Center and Early College Academy, Highland High School, and Sandia High School. He then became Chief Operations Officer of APS and managed several departments within the district before becoming interim superintendent. He was appointed superintendent in 2021.

Recently, Elder helped defend the largest budget in APS history before the school board. The APS budget now rests at $2.16 billion and is larger than the City of Albuquerque’s budget.

Elder watched over APS during the COVID-19 pandemic, overseeing the change from in-person to virtual and then virtual back to in-person learning.

In June 2022, the APS Board of Education approved a salary increase for Elder, saying that it was in line with other employee raises, but did not extend his contract an additional year, waiting for his evaluation to come up, a process that began officially this year. The board of education entered three separate executive sessions during regular board meetings to discuss the superintendent’s contract and evaluation over the last three months.

The board entered executive session again on June 7, emerging from the closed session to make a statement on the decision to not extend Elder’s contract.

Superintendent Scott Elder served the Albuquerque Public

News

In greenlighting a nearly $2.2 billion budget on May 30, the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education approved a 12 percent increase in spending for next school year. 

Salary increases for teachers and educational staff account for most of the increase in the coming year’s budget, with a combined total of $40.2 million in raises for employees.

The APS board  heard a presentation from the budget and strategic planning and finance departments on May 24. The departments proposed a $2.16 billion budget for the next school year, with $928.3 million in the operational fund. 

APS’ budget is larger than the City of Albuquerque’s proposed 2024-25 budget of $1.4 billion. The APS budget is nearly $107 million higher than the 2022-23 budget. The district’s budget team told board members this increase was driven by laws passed in the New Mexico State Legislature, including mandated 6 percent raises for all staff, minimum salary increases for educational assistants, and funding for additional school hours.

The 12 percent budget increase amounts to $99.1 million in new spending, with salary increases for staff accounting for $40.2 million of that. Additional instructional hours are costing the district $13.2 million.

APS received $3.4 million from legislative appropriations to help pay for educational assistants’ new, higher salaries, but the budget team said this caused a deficit because raising all educational assistants to a $25,000 minimum salary will cost APS $8.3 million.

APS has experienced declining enrollment, losing 16,434 students since 2016. Despite the decrease in students, APS has seen an increase in funding per student from the state, helping to supplement the district’s budget.

For every student APS loses, the district loses approximately $11,000 in funding, according to Chief Financial Officer Rennette Apodaca.

The operational budget includes $923.8 million in revenue, but the district plans to spend around $928.3 million next  year, creating a deficit of $4.5 million. The budget team said that even if the district needs to access its reserve budget, the reserves will remain strong at $61.4 million.

“This deficit, we believe, is manageable,” APS Executive Director of Budget and Strategic Planning Rosalinda Montoya said.

“I want to applaud the taxpayers out there and thank them for funding a $2.16 billion budget for our 68,900 kids. They deserve a big thank you,” Board Member Peggy Muller-Aragón said. “That just tells me our community cares about our kids. Even though they are not seeing student outcomes improve yet, they’re still willing to fund them because they believe in our kids.”

Muller-Aragón said the budget has been increasing fast year-on-year, and she asked if the growth was sustainable for the school district. The budget team said federal Covid relief funding has contributed to growth of the budget, but now that those funds are drying up, the next several years will see a flattening of the budget and an eventual decrease in spending.

“We have completely pivoted and we’re in a new direction,” APS Finance Committee Chair Crystal Tapia-Romero said. “A $2.2 billion budget is enormous.” She said that the budget will decrease in the next few years and called on APS’ finance teams to start preparing for the future when this funding is not available.

On May 24 the APS Board of

News

Education Secretary Arsenio Romero outlined his plans for the future of education to a group of Albuquerque community leaders on May 31, explaining that he wants New Mexico to “take control of [its] own story” on education.

The “Education Matters” luncheon was hosted by the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce. Romero used the opportunity to speak about the work he said the Public Education Department is doing to help drive New Mexico’s students to success, talk about his team, and a little about himself and his track record of increasing the academic performance of students in under-performing schools across the state.

What’s Coming to PED

Romero addressed the teacher shortage in New Mexico. “We had made some pretty good progress in filling classrooms with highly qualified people. We’re not there yet though, we still have a lot of work to do,” he said, adding that  there are about 700 teacher vacancies across the state.

“The truth is that we have even more shortages when it comes to principals and superintendents,” Romero said. “One of the root causes of [the current state of education in NM] is because we have such high turnover in these positions.”

Romero said principals and superintendents are leaving schools and districts after only a few years. He said the state is looking for superintendents who will stay long enough to implement the changes they want to see. The PED is looking to start a residency program that trains principals and superintendents, Romero said he is looking to move $2 million to this program.

“This is where we have to start telling our story. We have to share the amazing tales of what’s happening in New Mexico. We have to celebrate those spotlight areas, replicate and scale up those ideas,” said Romero.

The PED is working on implementing extra instructional time, so students and teachers have more time together in class. This comes after the legislature passed House Bill 130, increasing the amount of time elementary school students have in the classroom to 1,140 from 990 for elementary schools and 1,080 for middle and high school students. 

Romero said he spoke with several teachers across the state who all asked for additional time with their students.

New Mexico follows a Career and Technical Education (CTE) model. Romero said he is excited about the future of this program, giving students an ability to receive work experience and more hands-on learning opportunities. He said he wants to expand CTE across the state to help students plan for the future and give them an advantage in the workforce after high school.

The PED will soon be updating New Mexico Vistas, a website that, pre-pandemic, was used to share information about the performance of New Mexico schools. The website has been clunky and difficult to use, Romero acknowledged, but will be updated “in the next few days” to show accurate and current data on schools across the state. This will be the first time New Mexico Vistas will be updated since 2019. 

Romero said, “I’ve been in those hard districts, in those schools where for years and decades they haven’t been able to be successful. But there is a way for them to get where they want to be. New Mexico Vistas is the platform to do that. Be on the lookout because in the next few days you’ll get to see what this looks like.”

Who is Secretary Romero?

Since he was a boy, Romero said, he wanted to be a teacher. He was inspired by his mom, a teacher at Belen Consolidated Schools. As he spent more time at the school, his ambitions grew and he decided that one day he wanted to be a principal.

Romero attended Belen High School, and after finishing high school he traveled to Las Cruces and enrolled in New Mexico State University.

After graduation, Romero began his administrative career as an elementary school teacher, before becoming a principal. Slowly, Romero added responsibility and risk to his work, overseeing the performance of multiple schools. He fell in love with the Las Cruces area after college, going on to become the principal at several schools in the southern town. Eventually, he was called to Roswell to help improve performance at Roswell Independent Schools. After seeing continued success in the schools where he worked, Romero became determined to be a superintendent. As luck would have it, he was called to rural Deming as superintendent and was able to turn around the district’s academic performance in just two years. He was then called back to Valencia County, where he became superintendent of Los Lunas Public Schools before taking on the role of public education secretary.

Today, Romero said he is looking forward to employing the same skills and tools  he used to improve schools across New Mexico to improve education across New Mexico as the Secretary of Public Education. Romero said he expects big results out of his team and department.

New Mexico Public Education Secretary Arsenio Romero

News

High-performing East Mountain High School in Sandia Park, is looking to expand its ability to teach the next generation of students. 

Offering pathways for students to express their creativity in productive, fun, and academic ways is part of the reason the charter school has seen an increase in student enrollment to 380. Now, the school hopes to add a middle school component, which requires approval from its authorizer, Albuquerque Public Schools..

When Smith stood before the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education on April 5 to request an expansion of EMHS to expand to middle school grades, he was met by an unreceptive board of education that tabled the request. As of press time, APS has not placed an item on their agenda to act on the expansion of EMHS.

Adding a middle school to EMHS would be beneficial to the school and students, according to Principal and Head Administrator Trey Smith.

 Last September, the New Mexico Public Education Department released spring assessment results, which showed EMHS has more students reaching grade level proficiency than their Albuquerque Public Schools peers in English Language Arts, Math, and Science.

Smith said that this success is because of the dedication of EMHS’ students, staff, and initiatives.

What Drives Success?

Smith said the staff at EMHS work hard to ensure that students and educators have all the resources they need to be successful. Students are empowered at EMHS, where they are able to determine which courses they are interested in and have their education nurtured by caring teachers.

EMHS does not see a high turnover among staff. The average tenure of faculty is 12 years, “Why do they like being here? I think we have some things in our scheduling that make it more conducive to better teaching,” Smith said.

EMHS runs on a block schedule. Students have four classes in the fall and four in the spring, with each class running 90 minutes. Under this model, teachers have a 90-minute prep period every day, “Teachers appreciate the extra planning time. And the 90 minutes gives our students and teachers an opportunity to have stronger relationships.”

Smith said that students do well on assessments when they feel safe and that their education is being nurtured. The school goes out of its way to ensure it is serving its students equitably, EMHS has a high population of gifted students, and students on other forms of individualized education plans.

“We have higher requirements than the state requires for graduation,” Smith said. This includes mandating all seniors take a math class in their final year of high school, juniors must take an environmental science course, and some extracurricular activities have been turned into classes.

“A lot of our elective courses are based on student interest, which is unique and also directly correlates to activities they’re doing outside of school,” said Adelynn Nee, EMHS alumni and Director of Development.

Robotics, Math Engineering Science Achievement, debate team, and what Smith called a “robust” music program are only a handful of these “student interest” classes. At EMHS, the curriculum at school incorporates autonomy, giving students the ability to have control over their academic future while providing them with opportunities to be successful.

In the robotics room, students were seen working on robots; in the music room, students were preparing to create an album, many students were happy to show off their original work, including music they had written with visuals they had designed to accompany the sounds. Ninety percent of students at EMHS are engaged in skill-class like these. Smith said the school focuses on leadership and works to support their students in whatever way they would like to express.

“These are things that keep students happy, interested, and wanting to be here. It gives them an inner drive, I think, for success,” Smith said.

Expanding the Pack

EMHS sits on about 30 acres of land that the school owns.

“We do have a plan with the county for long-term expansion,” Smith said, “the population up here is actually expanding, a lot.”

The county and EMHS are going to build an auxiliary gym. The plan is built into the Bernalillo County Master Plan. Smith thanked the county for their assistance and their partnership. This is expected to be a multi-year project, taking about five years to complete.

A new gym is not the only expansion plan for EMHS. The school is looking to help further foster success by adding a middle school to the campus.

“We want to have a clear pathway for a high-quality education system,” Smith said. The school looked over data for their freshmen class and found students were coming from 29 different middle school programs. The school identified the freshman class as their most challenging cohort of students, because they came from such a wide variety of programs.

Smith said EMHS is looking to become a sixth grade through 12th grade school. By serving students earlier in their education journeys, EMHS hopes to align their students with the goals and mission of the school that lead students to success.

“It’s related to academics, but it is also about the culture of the school,” Nee said, “Starting them early would really give us an opportunity to get them on track with the mission.”

Expanding EMHS to a middle school would require new buildings. A new building would house  10th, 11th, and 12th grade students, with a building for sixth and seventh graders, and another building for eighth and ninth graders.

When Smith went before the APS Board of Education on April 5, his discussion about expanding EMHS was questioned by elected officials who wondered about the demographics of the school, a status, Trey said, was decided by a blind lottery as required by state law. While the board approved an increase to EMHS’s enrollment cap, it tabled a resolution permitting EMHS to expand to serve middle school grades..

“The community wants [the expansion], badly,” Smith said, “we just want to have a clear, high-quality option for families.”

Joining the Pack

Founded in 1999, EMHS was one of the first five charter schools to be opened in New Mexico, looking to serve the underprivileged communities in the area.

“I was someone who lived up here,” Smith said, “The closest school for me was 30 minutes away in either direction, either Manzano or Moriarty.” Smith said the school was opened with a class of 100 freshmen. The original mission was to be part of the growth of the community and to be more convenient for the people living outside of Albuquerque.

State law mandates all charters hold a lottery to determine which students will attend the school; in true New Mexican fashion, EMHS uses a chile roaster to pick names. Because of the lottery, the majority of students at EMHS are from the local East Mountain area, but the school’s reputation has drawn students from Moriarty, Estancia, and Albuquerque. EMHS currently has a student population of 380 students. To apply for the lottery, click here.

East Mountain High School in Sandia Park, New Mexico is a school with higher proficiency rates than the rest of the state, Principal Trey Smith said the school is looking to expand so more students have an opportunity to benefit from high-quality education like what is offered at EMHS.
East Mountain High School in Sandia Park, New Mexico is a school with higher proficiency rates than the rest of the state, Principal Trey Smith said the school is looking to expand so more students have an opportunity to benefit from high-quality education like what is offered at EMHS.
In English language arts, 72.8 percent of 11th graders at EMHS were proficient in English language arts, compared to an average of all 11th grade APS students who scored 39.9 percent, with the statewide average sitting at 33 percent. In mathematics, 55.5% of 11th graders at EMHS were proficient, compared to the APS average of 22 percent, and a statewide average of 16 percent. In science, 67.4 percent of students at EMHS were proficient, APS scored an average of 34.1 percent, and the statewide average was 33 percent.
In English language arts, 72.8 percent of 11th graders at EMHS were proficient in English language arts, compared to an average of all 11th grade APS students who scored 39.9 percent, with the statewide average sitting at 33 percent. In mathematics, 55.5% of 11th graders at EMHS were proficient, compared to the APS average of 22 percent, and a statewide average of 16 percent. In science, 67.4 percent of students at EMHS were proficient, APS scored an average of 34.1 percent, and the statewide average was 33 percent.

East Mountain High School in Sandia Park,