Española Valley residents will get two new education leaders in a few months. These two leaders could change education here and set us on a path of real improvement. Or they could fill the space and allow us to founder at the bottom of New Mexico’s many lists of what we can’t seem to accomplish in this state.
Northern New Mexico College will hire a new president, following an epic five years of growth led by Rick Bailey. He’s the first Northern president to truly make a difference at the institution. Add to that fact he did half of it under the restrictions of the coronavirus. We will always wonder what Bailey could have done had he not been slowed (slightly) by the virus and state closures.
He left the College in great financial shape. A testament to his fundraising, cooperation and collaboration can be witnessed in the recent $300,000 donation by Jemez House to the College’s foundation. Bailey repeated the old saw all new leaders and politicians make, that he would seek other sources for revenue. He did that almost weekly his entire tenure.
Most bureaucrats in his position fill the squares, eat lunch with whomever, keep regents happy, take cursory glances at financials, rub elbows with legislators and hope for the best every legislative session. A college president must be so much more than that.
The Española School District hasn’t had a solid superintendent in decades. School boards’ inability to hire people based on education, experience and skills versus ethnicity, place of birth and current address is always our downfall.
Board members deny it but the Veronica War-Montoya lawsuit says it all. Former Board member Gilbert Serrano is accused of telling her “This is a man’s job, and the kids need to see a strong man here.” He doesn’t represent all school Board members’ thoughts but he speaks for many of them.
Anyone brave enough to make it through the last two school Board meetings know where this Board’s collective head is. Sports. Specifically basketball.
Board member Ruben Archuleta continues to try to get his son’s locker room updated. Board Vice President Brandon Bustos wants more money spent on baseball and softball. The whole Board was bogged down on whether to buy a hanging scoreboard or wall-mounted. The Board March 24 spent an hour and seven minutes on sports related issues, which weren’t on the agenda as action items. They spent 52 minutes on education-related issues and part of that was reports on COVID-safe practices, during which most Board members were on and off their phones.
It’s embarrassing to have a teacher or administrator make a presentation and the Board is totally disengaged. After a 45-minute discussion in February of student population and facilities capacity, two very serious issues, Board members took turns with perfunctory “thank you for your great presentation,” remarks and they moved on. Not a one of them could pass a basic test on what was presented to them.
We have always said the District can limp along with a strong board and weak superintendent or a strong superintendent and a weak board, but not both. We’ve suffered that situation a very long time and our test scores, attendance, discipline issues, graduation rates and the passing of uneducated students into the workforce proves that.
By law the College doesn’t have to release the names of all the applicants. They are allowed and should, but won’t. We’ll get the last five applicants’ names just before the president is chosen. We’ll never know who they didn’t consider or why. We don’t know what they fear by being open.
The school Board needs to hire a strong, qualified, experienced superintendent. Read the very brief descriptions of the 13 candidates the Board is considering (page A1). There are some gems in there. There are also local applicants who pale in comparison.
However, the argument will be made, they’re from here, they “understand us,” “they get the culture.” These same candidates have participated in the District failing the entire time they’ve been employed by it.
We’ve been reporting on this situation too long to think anything will change. That holds true now, without a lot of parental and teacher input.
If they make a good hire, the Board must let them lead. That means no direction from the Board to the superintendent regarding administrative hires. We’ve got several bad ones right now, indirectly hired by Board members, who need to go and that’s going to require an unbiased, matter-of-fact superintendent who will tell Board members to stay in their lane.
Regents mostly stay out of the way. Higher education doesn’t allow for many bad hires by regents. But a question of the president’s role versus regents’ roles did play a part in Bailey’s departure. Regents aren’t qualified to run the College. They’re primary role is one of fiduciary. The president runs the operations end of the College.
In short both bodies must hire the most qualified candidate based on experience, education and skills and leave them alone. If that happened the Valley would surely improve and grow.