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Angry over Navajo Elementary School's 40-year wait for a new campus, Dolores Griego wants equity for her South Valley schools.

Griego, an Albuquerque Board of Education member who has complained before that the district has failed children in low-income areas, has proposed a new approach to dividing the district so South Valley schools get more attention.

She wants a serious look at splitting the district in three — grouping high schools, middle schools and elementary schools.

Each district would have its own superintendent, though she said she doesn't want the administration to grow. The district has plenty of administrators already to cover three districts, she said.

"I want accountability," Griego said. "I don't want any more of our schools neglected like Navajo. I want all of my schools re-evaluated."

Her proposal didn't get anywhere Monday night, however. At a special meeting of the school board, Griego's motion to study the three-district idea died for lack of a second.

Fellow school board member Robert Lucero, who in the past has advocated for splitting the district, said that a study could be done after a new superintendent is hired.

"I don't have a problem with a study," he said.

Griego is fighting for her schools, Lucero said, "and I think her schools would get more attention. The squeaky wheel does get the oil."

If the past is any indication, Griego won't give up.

As a school board member, she said her job is "not to cover up or protect the administration" for allowing inequities to continue.

"I'm not going to be passive on this one," she said. "Navajo is just the tip of the iceberg. It's deeper. It's a system thing."

Last week, the Navajo elementary community complained that it had been waiting for a new school for 40 years, yet Georgia O'Keeffe Elementary in the Northeast Heights will be replaced after only 20 years.

The Navajo campus, at 2936 Hughes Road S.W., had 12 new classrooms completed in 2005 but the rest of the school was delayed. District officials are now promising Navajo will have its campus finished by January 2009, a year before the new O'Keeffe school is ready for occupancy.

Griego said the delay at Navajo was inexcusable and "disrespectful to that community."

Her idea for splitting the district into smaller units could be studied along with other ideas the 2008 Legislature might want to consider, she said.

A bill proposed by the Governor's Office to study the feasibility of a West Side district had not been introduced as of Monday, said Joseph Escobedo, lobbyist for Albuquerque Public Schools.

The idea of splitting the district has been studied twice within the last five years but the school board has taken a stand against it.

One of the studies concluded a split would not be healthy for the community. The other said the West Side did not have the tax base to support its own district, said Rigo Chavez, district spokesman.

Still, the board is not against another study, Chavez said.

"We're on record against splitting the district geographically," Chavez said. "We support the study."