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Appended May 22

When Adrian Trujillo asked for makeup work so he could pass his High School said, "Sorry."

His request came too late. The grade books were closed.

He failed Spanish 3 and Economics the first semester of his senior year, was kicked off the wrestling team and eventually dropped out.

The star Rio Grande wrestler who was state champ his sophomore year didn't graduate with the class of 2006. And he's still wishing he had.

On Thursday, he was wondering why he didn't get a break like his friend, who graduated this week after his F in English was changed to a D by district order.

"He lucked out on that one," the 19-year-old Trujillo said. "I could have turned in late work. I could have worked something out with the teachers. That's not right. I was crying. I was hurt."

He still wants his diploma but says he's getting a GED instead in June. He's still three credits short of meeting high school graduation requirements.

Trujillo's friend, the son of former Albuquerque Board of Education member Miguel Acosta and Bernalillo County Commissioner Teresa Cordova, received a diploma Tuesday in the wake of a furor over his grade change.

The fallout includes a grievance filed by the teachers' union on behalf of the English teacher who failed Acosta's son and a promised overhaul of Albuquerque Public Schools' notification process to ensure parents are aware of failing grades and excessive absences.

Reliable notification of parents should lead to intervention for students and help for seniors on the verge of failing, Acosta and Cordova have argued.

"I hope I have opened a Pandora's box," Cordova said Thursday in a telephone interview. "I don't want any other families to go through this. It's definitely happened to a lot of other families. There are systematic problems that need to be addressed. We need to talk about solutions."

This month, Cordova took her son's case to the district level after the English teacher and Rio Grande Principal Al Sanchez refused to change his failing grade.

Adrian Trujillo's mother, Lucille Herrera, said she appealed his case, too, in January 2006.

Both families met with Elsy Fierro, director of instruction for the Rio Grande cluster, who supervises Sanchez.

Fierro said Thursday she handles each case on its own merits, reviews the school's action or inaction in notifying parents and referring the student for intervention, then reviews the student's and parents' comments, said Rigo Chavez, district spokesman. She would not provide specifics on each case, he said.

In Trujillo's case, his mother said Fierro upheld the decision of his teachers to fail him and not allow makeup work.

"It's not fair," Trujillo said. "I didn't ask for a grade change. All I wanted was to do makeup work."

In the case of Cordova's son, Fierro called in a teacher to review his work in English, then ordered his grade be changed to a D, Chavez said.

"I didn't ask for a grade change, either," Cordova said. "Our situation might be different, and maybe I was able to make the argument better. That's why I want change.

"I support that (Trujillo) family," she said. "What a shame! Why are we so punitive toward our children?"

The Spanish teacher who failed Trujillo said she never forgets seniors she had to fail.

"Sure, I remember it," said Sarah Brown-Martinez, who had Trujillo in class the first semester of his senior year.

"It's traumatic failing a senior," she said. In her eight years teaching, she's failed four seniors, including Trujillo.

Trujillo's problem was excessive absenteeism, she said. Plus, he didn't ask for makeup work until after she had issued report cards.

"There's a point of no return on attendance," she said. "When you are not there, you can't do the work. He came in too late after the grade book was closed. I don't keep it open forever."

He missed about 30 classes, she said. But Trujillo said he went to class enough to get credit.

Trujillo's mother remembers getting a deficiency notice about her son's D in Spanish in November. "I wished it was a better grade, but it was good enough to pass," she said. When he ended up with two F's, "I was devastated," she said.

She said her son could have gone to night school but didn't.

She confirmed her son had 37 absences for which she did not receive notification, but that didn't matter in the final analysis.

"They weren't going to budge," she said of school officials. "The principal said he can't go against his teachers."

Principal Sanchez said he always backs his teachers and has been overturned only once - involving Cordova's son.

"I did the same thing in Adrian's case," he said. "I ruled in favor of the teachers."

He said he gets two or three cases appealed every year with the same issues: "The students didn't go to class, and they didn't do the work."

Sanchez said Adrian Trujillo can come back to Rio Grande anytime.

"I thought he was still in school," Sanchez said. "Tell him to come see me."

Herrera said her son gave up on school after he was kicked off the wrestling team, which kept him focused. "He started spiraling downhill. Wrestling was his life. It was hard.

"Yes, Adrian had a big part in throwing it away," she said, "but he was a good kid, a poster child, really respectable."

She said she couldn't understand why school officials were harder on him than her stepson who had a reputation for disorderly conduct and fighting. "He got makeup work," she said. "And I was told some teachers do take makeup work and some don't.' "

Cordova said she is arguing for intervention to help students like Trujillo make it to graduation.

"Why did it get to that point, that many absences? He had a bigger case of `senioritis' than my kid.

"Why didn't they direct him to NovaNet (the credit recovery program)? That's part of the issue here."

As for her own son, Cordova said he deserved to graduate and is headed for college.

Although he doesn't want to speak publicly about his case, Cordova said her son would like to leave a bit of advice for other students: Don't procrastinate.

Appended: This story should have said Albuquerque Public Schools spokesman Rigo Chavez confirmed that a Rio Grande High School senior's grade was adjusted to allow him to graduate. Chavez did not specify the grades.