After the last two Board meetings were consumed by parents’ complaints, McCurdy Charter School Board Chairperson Deborah Anderson, Treasurer Nancy O’Bryan and Board member Marcie Davis met with current and former teachers to discuss their issues.
“The idea was that the teachers made lists of issues and concerns, and we would go around the room and give them each one chance to (put) their issue on the board and then go to the next person and the next person,” Anderson said during the March 1 Board meeting. “We’d go around until people were passing.”
The issues on the board, during the Feb. 27 meeting with teachers, were somehow narrowed down to five choices and the Board members had the teachers rank them by importance.
“They were asked to come up with potential solutions, to issues brought up,” she said. “We did another round in that regard, until we ran out of solutions (and then ranked them).”
Anderson described the meeting with teachers as informative and thoughtful. The two administrators, Director Michele Lucci and Dean of Students Donna Wollmann, were not allowed to attend.
“I can give you a general idea of the issues covered,” Anderson said. “Special education, and we talked about morale and teacher retention, academic rigor, safety and especially discipline. The business office, teacher evaluations, interventions, and did we need another administrator. That one come up a lot. A lot.”
Later in the meeting, in response to a parent who wanted to know what will happen during the next school year, Anderson said, if she could go back to the time that former director Janette Archuleta retired, she would write the new job description differently.
“We went through 20-something candidates and only interviewed four,” she said.
When Archuleta was the director, there were two principals, for elementary students and the “secondary school.” After she retired, the Board got rid of both positions in favor of a single dean of students.
According to salary lists from the past two years, former principals Kiva Duckworth-Moulton made $72,050 and Chalamia Quintana made $87,500 during the 2016-2017 School Year. Wollmann makes $79,000.
Duckworth-Moulton and Quintana, were encouraged to apply for the director position, but they did not, Anderson said.
“If they need manpower, are they being open about that?” Parent Audrey Salazar said.
She said if Lucci and Wollmann are not willing to admit they need help, especially with issues of bullying and discipline, it should be reflected in their evaluations.
The negative culture and attitude on campus also came up during the discussion with teachers, Anderson said.
Lucci and Wollmann were supposed to attend the meeting to tell parents what their proposed solutions are for the concerns that they and teachers have about the school.
Lucci did not attend the March 1 meeting because she called in sick. Wollmann’s absence was not explained by the Board.
Anderson said the Board must see where parent and teacher concerns overlap and figure out solutions.
“We’re listening to you guys and the teachers,” she said. “We need to look at solutions.”
After Anderson finished her very brief synopsis of what the forum was about, newly elected Board member and Rio Arriba County Attorney Adán Trujillo said the Board needed to discuss what it will do with that information. He was elected to the Board during their Feb. 15 meeting.
“No,” Anderson replied.
Trujillo said Anderson indicated that she was not prepared to talk about some of the concerns teachers brought and asked if Lucci’s evaluation was the actual intended purpose.
“It’s part of the evaluation process,” Anderson said.
At the end of the meeting, the Board went into executive session, a closed meeting, to discuss Lucci’s evaluation. They also discussed Lucci’s evaluation at the end of their Feb. 15 meeting.
Another executive session was set for March 7.
The only items on the agenda were Lucci’s evaluation, during an executive session, and to take action on the renewal of Lucci’s contract, after they come out of the closed session.
The Board voted to not renew her contract.
Anderson said she sat down with O’Bryan to try to group the concerns of the teachers and parents, and to start finding solutions.
“Some of the Board hasn’t even seen them yet,” O’Bryan said.
Parent LyAnn Vigil, asked if the results of the teacher forum would be shared with the parents.
“When we find solutions,” O’Bryan said.
Anderson suggested the Board hold a parent forum, much like the one they held with teachers.
“We could all come together and talk about the issues and potential solutions and merge it with the teacher issues,” she said.
Vigil said the parents attended the last three meetings.
“It’s the same parents with the same concerns,” she said. “We still have, as of yet, to hear a solid solution from the Board.”
Anderson responded that Lucci was supposed to address the parent concerns, but she called in sick.
“You’re responsible,” Vigil said. “It’s not our job to find solutions.”
She said it is Anderson’s job to delegate before the school loses more students.
Salazar said it felt like everyone was “spinning their wheels.”
“In my career experience, one thing I want to caution the Board about, is having a forum and then not taking action,” she said. “The staff might have left with a better outlook and maybe a little bit of excitement, but if you don’t make changes, you’re just going to go back to the same morale.”
Besides the teacher forum, the Board has not taken “concrete steps” toward fixing the problems at the school.
“That’s what the director was supposed to do,” Anderson said, referring to Lucci’s sick leave.
Textbooks
Parent Jon Petersen said he was concerned about the shortage of textbooks in two classrooms.
“I inquired with Wollmann and she said there are shortages in two classrooms,” he said. “(She said) ‘Yes, in one class, English, there’s a shortage and they can’t bring things home.’ In Spanish, in this classroom, they have no textbooks.”
The Board was meeting in the Spanish classroom.
“She said there’s not enough money for textbooks for this class,” Petersen said. “I find that objectionable.”
When McCurdy was a private school, parents were sometimes asked to pay for textbooks.
“I personally don’t find that objectionable,” he said. “If you need textbooks, let’s pay for them.”
Petersen held up two Spanish books he found at a thrift store in Santa Fe and said, on Amazon.com, they cost $6.
Davis said the School will find some way of paying for textbooks.
Parent David Lujan suggested the Board allow parents to hold a few fundraisers to raise enough money to purchase the required textbooks, but the conversation quickly moved to the health code requirements of bake sales and the textbooks did not come up for the rest of the meeting. No parents volunteered to organize fundraisers to pay for the textbooks.
New Board member
The Board also voted unanimously to accept Juan Valdez as its newest Board member.
Because there are now eight members on the Board, they need five to have a quorum.
Valdez could not be reached by presstime for comment.
During the Feb. 8 Board meeting, Valdez told the Board that he is the Information Technology director for El Centro Family Health.
“I have a kid in kindergarten,” he said.
He said he likes what McCurdy stands for and wants to help it grow.
Anderson said she wants to hold a “strategic planning session” for the new members, including Valdez and Trujillo, to understand “how we got where we are.”
Davis said she thinks the Board should have a retreat in the near future.
“(We should have one) as soon as we’re not dealing with emergencies every second,” she said. “It’s always proven very beneficial, to ask questions and strategize.”