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How Albuquerque Public Schools looks for a leader
Photo by Craig FritzTribune
Tribune
A big test is looming for the Board of Education: hiring a new leader for the Albuquerque Public Schools. "It's about the most important job the board undertakes," says Leonard DeLayo, a former longtime board member who participated in four superintendent searches. A split has already emerged on the board, with a four-member majority promoting a national search and the three-member minority arguing for homegrown talent. Jay Maharath (above), 12, a seventh-grader at Kennedy Middle School, already has his mind made up. Shown taking a quiz in science class, Maharath says the board should look close to home for the answer to their own big test. "They should get someone from APS, because they know the kids in APS," Maharath said. "In other states, some kids are different."
Photo by Craig FritzTribune
Tribune
Susan Hochrein, a math teacher at Kennedy Middle School works with a class Monday afternoon. Although many might not know it, a crucial decision is looming for the roughly 87,000 students in Albuquerque Public Schools — including Hochrein's. The Albuquerque Board of Education aims to hire a successor for the outgoing Beth Everitt by early next year, and both fans and critics of the district say the decision is crucial.
On hiring an insider/outsider
Albuquerque school board members sound off on the superintendent search
Gordon Rowe
Favors a national search
Rowe, who represents the schools in the Far Northeast Heights, will serve on the board's superintendent selection committee. "I don't think that's productive, to say (whether) they have to be from New Mexico or Hispanic," he said.
Marty Esquivel
Favors a national search
Esquivel, in his first term, represents the Mid-Northeast Heights and Southeast Heights.
"A lot of people tell me they want a quality person," he said. "Why limit your possibilities?"
Mary Lee Martin
Favors a national search
"Let's cast a wide net," said Martin, who represents the city's East Side and has the most tenure of anyone on the board. ". . . I have no preference for anybody right now. I'm assuming a lot of locals will apply."
Paula Maes
Favors a national search
"We just need to cast that net and get the best person we can," said Maes, the board president who represents parts of the Northeast Heights. "Word is out all over the country that this job is open."
Robert Lucero
Favors a local candidate
Lucero, who represents the fast-growing West Side and will serve on the board's superintendent selection committee, has been the most outspoken in his unwillingness to look outside New Mexico.
"I'm against a national search . . .," he said. "We need to find somebody in the state that understands our politics, the media and this community."
Berna Facio
Favors a local candidate
Facio, who represents the North Valley and will also serve on the board's superintendent selection committee, appears to side with Lucero.
"If we get applicants outside the state, that's wonderful. I just don't think we should spend a lot of money doing a national search," she said. "It would be better if we could find someone within the state."
Dolores Griego
Favors a local candidate
Griego, a South Valley representative in her first year on the board, not only has a regional preference — she expresses her wish for a certain candidate.
"I do like Diego," referring to Diego Gallegos, Albuquerque Public Schools assistant superintendent. "I do want to look at the criteria the community wants. I want to do things right."
Search facts
The Albuquerque Board of Education has decided to:
• Hire a search consultant for $40,000 to $60,000 to recruit and screen applicants.
• Form a community committee with 25 members to identify finalists.
• Schedule public meetings for community input over the next six to eight weeks and offer an online survey for public comment.
• Hire the next superintendent as early as December and as late as February.
• For dates of hearings and online survey, go to Albuquerque Public Schools
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We're in the Kennedy Middle School library, the center of inquiry on an aging Northeast Heights campus that has seen better days but still has high hopes for the future.
Today's question, put to Kennedy students, is simple: Tell us what you know about the hunt for the next Albuquerque Public Schools superintendent.
"I don't know much, really," responds Judy Bacdi, a Kennedy eighth-grader. "I know it's the highest rank for APS."
But a few moments later, the 13-year-old offers a prescient, perhaps riveting, thought on how the next superintendent might affect her future.
"The superintendent," Bacdi said, "lets me have a good education here by having good standards and policies."
Nice answer.
The Albuquerque Board of Education aims to hire a successor for the outgoing Beth Everitt by early next year, and both fans and critics of the district say the decision is crucial to the future of the state's largest school district.
APS, they say, is at a crossroads. And in a sprawling district with many wants, even more needs and an unending number of viewpoints, the hire of the next superintendent might be a historic moment.
"It's about the most important job the board undertakes," said Leonard DeLayo, a former longtime board member who participated in four superintendent searches.
"The district is at a crucial stage," he said. "It has made some progress, but they need to find someone to take it to the next level."
If nothing else, a new superintendent likely will have a major impact on most APS students' education. Even if a new superintendent lasts only 3 1/2 years (the national average), observers say the leader of an 87,000-student district can set a tone that can last decades.
The hiring process is in its early stages, but the process already has been marked by a turf war on the board over where the district should concentrate its search.
Last month, the inside-vs.-outside schism surfaced, with a four-member majority of the board promoting a national search while the three-member minority argued for homegrown talent.
Robert Lucero, Dolores Griego and Berna Facio made it clear they prefer local candidates. Lucero went so far as to name his candidate: New Mexico Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia.
Griego said she wants someone from New Mexico, listing longtime district administrator Diego Gallegos, who has applied for the superintendency in the past.
Griego argues New Mexico has "candidates who are very capable and competent."
She said she's not arguing for a Hispanic candidate, but she wants "someone who is culturally competent. There are other races that would understand. You don't have to be Hispanic to be culturally competent."
The board trio's preference for a New Mexican remains strong. They now have a new venue for promoting it.
Two of the three, Facio and Lucero, will sit on the board's search committee and will screen applicants. Names were drawn from a hat for the opportunity to sit on the committee.
Although the majority of the seven-member board was determined to throw a big net beyond the state's borders, only one, Gordon Rowe, will serve on the search committee.
"I don't care where they come from as long as we get the best candidates," Rowe said.
The current superintendent, Beth Everitt, was the classic insider — a teacher turned principal turned administrator whose climb up the ladder was quiet, efficient and steady.
After six years at the top, Everitt is leaving the district next year. She shocked many by announcing in June that she planned to retire with hopes of landing a superintendent's post elsewhere. For the first time in her career, she'll be the outsider competing with the insiders.
Everitt, 50, took the reins of the district after Joseph Vigil's death in a car accident in 2003. The board was looking for stability to avoid the kind of controversy and conflict that plagued a four-person superintendency appointed in the wake of former Superintendent Brad Allison's departure.
This time, the school board says it wants the public to provide guidance for what to look for in the next superintendent. And, the student voice will be included for the first time.
Two high school students will be selected to serve on the 25-member selection committee that will recommend the final candidates to be interviewed by the board.
Students and everyone else interested will have public forums and surveys to tell the board what criteria should be used to select the next superintendent.
The district badly needs a visionary, a leader and a motivator as it enters the second decade of the 21st century. DeLayo recommends the board first identify the characteristics and traits desired in the next superintendent and recruit the candidates who meet the criteria.
"Tell the search firm to find these people instead of taking applications," he said. "Find somebody to fill the bill."
Meanwhile, the politics and passion of the search play out far away from the average student — at Kennedy, at most APS campuses. Of five students interviewed at Kennedy, only one knew Everitt's name.
"She's going to retire next year, right?" asked Jay Maharath, a seventh-grader.
The 12-year-old offered his opinion about where the next superintendent should come from.
"They should get someone from APS, because they know the kids in APS," he said. "In other states, some kids are different."
Kennedy, built during the district's go-go-go era of the 1960s when the Northeast Heights was booming, has tried to adjust with the times. Although school test scores have sometimes struggled in recent years, there has been a renewed emphasis on reading — and improvement. But more remains to be done.
And even the students there seem to sense it. Back at the library table with Kennedy student Judy Bacdi, the conversation returns to the person who will lead APS as she completes middle school and heads to the final four years of her secondary education.
"It doesn't matter where he or she comes from," the student says of the next superintendent, "as long as they have good public speaking and a lot of ideas."
