Española School Board members learned their personality types and evaluated themselves, so they can develop goals for the upcoming school year.
The effort was made with the help of consultant Hugh Prather, at the Board’s first quarterly retreat, July 26, at the Ohkay Casino.
Prather grew up in Española and his father served as the Española School District’s superintendent from 1944 to 1960.
Española Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez said Prather’s roots in Northern New Mexico were part of the reason she reached out to him to help with the retreat. She said she had Prather as a professor at the University of New Mexico and remembered that he was a tough professor when she had him for a systems thinking course.
Prather has owned Albuquerque’s Prather Consulting for 20 years and has worked as a teacher, school administrator, university professor, organizational consultant and executive coach for more than 40 years.
He began the retreat by handing each Board member, and Gutierrez, the results of a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, which they had taken before the retreat. The results were intended to identify each person’s communication and problem-solving preferences.
Prather lined the Board members and Gutierrez up, based on their results and the order illustrated the different approaches each Board member prefers when making decisions.
Prather compared the spectrum of results to being right- or left-handed. For example, if a Board member had a strong preference for the thinking approach, thinking through the logic of a situation, it would be harder for them to understand the feeling approach, thinking about the values and needs of people in the situation.
Board President Ruben Archuleta said he thought the training gave the Board insight to its strengths and weaknesses.
“It was a very useful tool,” he said. “It showed me where I need to improve (in my decision making).”
Board members joked about how accurate or surprising the results were for each member, and Board secretary Gilbert Serrano said he was surprised by his results.
“We can laugh about it, but it sticks in your mind that, ‘I have to work on this.’” he said.
During the second half of the training, Prather had each Board member rate the Board’s performance on a four-point scale, in nine categories: strategic planning, Board/superintendent relations, Board meetings, financial oversight, Board policy and governance, Board interpersonal qualities, relations with staff, relations with community and Board development.
The Board rated itself highly for interpersonal relationships, strategic planning and its relationship with the superintendent.
The lowest ratings were in Board policy and governance and Board meetings.
The Board didn’t rate itself on the category of financial oversight because its budget is under Public Education Department oversight.
Gutierrez said she hopes the district will be out of Public Education Department oversight next year.
Salazar said getting control of their own budget is one of the Board’s top priorities.
“Without control of our own budget, it’s hard to accomplish much else,” she said.
Board member Pablo Lujan said the Board rated itself poorly for policy and governance because in the past, they had just implemented the statewide policies, instead of implementing policies of their own.
Prather said the Board has access to the New Mexico School Board Association policy service, which can write policies for them, at their request.
The Board ended the retreat by discussing the pros and cons of the three firms that provide its legal services. They decided to table the discussion until they make a decision, at the next meeting, whether to keep their current legal services.
The District is currently contracted with Ortiz and Zamora, a Santa Fe law firm.
Prather said the Board demonstrated all the signs of wanting to improve.
“I love to see schools improve,” he said. “With better Boards, kids get better services.”