Former Mountain View Elementary parent advisory committee president Myrna Romero said she plans to make the best of her recent appointment to the Board of governance for Cariños Charter School. She said she hopes to raise enrollment numbers and turn the Española District charter school into a magnet school that continues to be an asset to the community of Cordova.
Romero, a Cordova resident whose previous experience includes 36 years working as a manufacturing manager at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, first expressed interest in joining the charter school’s board over the summer and was appointed to the position on Sept. 30 replacing Stan Sanders who stepped down due to health reasons.
Romero will serve a four-year term in her new role as Board member after attending meetings over the summer to become more familiar with the school’s operations.
“I wanted to get the feel for how the school was operating, what their mission was, their focus, what being on the Board of the school entails,” she said.
Romero was just another involved parent at first, but she said she always had a stake in education in the region.
Cariños Chancellor Vernon Jaramillo said Romero could be a really good advocate for the charter school at the local sate and national level.
“She fits all the qualities for the position because she is very passionate, articulate and supports the mission of the school,” he said.
He said she understands the school’s goals and the budget and is committed to focusing on student achievement.
“I was very active with Mountain View (Elementary) and continue to try to be active with this school and that’s what drove me and led me to be interested in an appointed on the board,” she said.
Active parent
Romero said her management experience in procurement and lobbying, as well as her involvement as a community volunteer, makes her well suited for her new position. She has served as the secretary for the Community Water Consumers Association and is an active member with the Nuestra Señora Land Grant Association in Cordova.
She has three grown children and six grandchildren but Romero said she is currently raising a special needs child and it is the special needs program which really inspired her to get more involved with the charter school.
“Cariños was there to assist me and provide the services that my child needed through the special education program.”
The newly appointed Board member said the biggest challenge the school faces right now at its current location in Cordova is a drastic drop in enrollment and the cuts in the budget which accompanied the drop.
“Enrollment has dropped more than half, so the challenge right now is trying to pick up the enrollment, trying to educate other parents, other people around about what Cariños has to offer,” she said.
Although the school has not branched off from the Española School District, the school is now in the process of applying as a state charter, which school officials hope will bring much needed resources to the school.
Homeless
Romero said when the charter school was at its original location, smack in the middle of Española, it attracted students from the surrounding areas, but as the District closed the school, Cariños was left out in the cold.
“They didn’t have a home so they got placed even at the (Misión) Plaza,” she said. “They were having classes in an outside structure and they moved to the community college for a little while.”
After busing students to El Rito Elementary for sometime, enrollment started to suffer.
“They started losing students, with all due respect, no parent wants their child to be in Limbo,” she said. “There were some pretty committed parents that kept with the school however.”
Romero said during one of the proceedings last year, one of the issues that came up was that Mountain View and Velarde elementary schools were up for closure, Mountain View, having the least amount of students, was on the chopping block first.
“The official story was they were closing them because of low enrollment,” she said. “But they had announced to the parents that they would complete the school year.”
Romero said parents were reassured that they would see some stability and consistency, but that turned out to be wishful thinking.
“We got that commitment from then superintendent Danny Trujillo, which after everything that occurred, turned out to be an empty promise,” Romero said.
Romero said the closure of Mountain View coming out of the winter break vacation and the subsequent relocation of Cariños staff and students left many parents frustrated with the District, including herself, and contributed to the friction which continues today between the school and the District.
“I was one of the vocal parents that attended the public meetings and opposed the closure of the school,” she said.
Growing enrollment
In addition to seeking state charter status, Romero has plans to improve the schools’ falling enrollment and its overall status.
“What I would love is for the school to become a magnet school so that we could really show what Cariños and Cordova could actually provide for students as a dual language facility,” she said.
Romero said she believes the school’s dual language instructional model is of great cultural benefit to students, allowing them to better understand their culture, while at the same time being better able to communicate with their elders.
Another goal the newly appointed Board member would like to see accomplished during her tenure is to raise the grades of the school by raising test scores in fundamental areas like math and reading. In addition to raising the school’s academic and performance goals, Romero said dealing with budget shortfalls is a major challenge facing the Board collectively.
“We go through the Española District right now, so we pretty much have to make requests to them and right now there is not a very friendly relationship there,” she said.
Romero said school officials have started the process of applying for state charter and she believes that will take some of the funding burden away.
“It’s a lengthy process,” she said. “Our application was just submitted a few moths ago.”
Española School District Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez said the relationship between the District and Cariños has been stressed for a number of years and stems primarily from their space at the Old Middle School East property, initially because the District wanted the space for the Early Childhood program. After the relocation to Mountain View, lawsuits were filed and still pending for Cariños.
“The relationship is strained, but Chancellor Jaramillo and I have been working to build a better relationship,” Gutierrez said. “With the Board’s recent change in legal counsel, there is hope that the District may be able to achieve resolve with Cariños prior to an actual trial. At the current time, a trial date has not been set.”