Monte del Sol opened its doors in August 2000—less than a year before Congress passed the Bush-era education reform bill known as No Child Left Behind.
Gerlicz, who held the title of head learner (Monte del Sol’s version of a principal) for the first eight years, says Monte del Sol was founded on the idea of giving Santa Fe students and parents an alternative—but still affordable—education option. Gerlicz, who answered SFR’s questions via email while overseas, says he wanted to create an arts-heavy, community-based educational model that “encouraged students to create, to innovate, to lead and to see their education as a critical tool in improving themselves as well as the communities in which they live.”
Even before the end of its first school year, demand for Monte del Sol had soared, with hundreds of students competing for a few spots in the school’s lottery system.
The new school bounced from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Fe to a space in the Solana Center on W. Alameda before landing in 2003 at its current location, in the Nava Adé housing development near Santa Fe Community College.
Meanwhile, Monte del Sol pursued Gerlicz’ educational vision, boasting, at the height of its arts offerings, eight different options ranging from radio arts to film, spoken word, writing and photography. A unique mentoring program allowed students not only to try out careers that interested them, but also to interact with the greater Santa Fe community.
Gerlicz, whose background before Monte del Sol included leadership roles in two alternative schools and an international one, is unabashedly proud of the school’s success in many ways—graduation rates, student satisfaction, community interaction.
Still, “I wish I could tout the same high levels of achievement for our NCLB scores,” he writes, “but that is another whole level of conversation that is currently being played out at the national level.”
As a charter school, Monte del Sol is subject to the same standardized tests and federal programs public schools are. But, Gerlicz admits, “We never focused on testing.”
At first, the school didn’t have any trouble meeting adequate yearly progress, or AYP, the major test-score benchmark of No Child Left Behind.
But by the time of Gerlicz’ departure, AYP was the one area in which the school just wasn’t succeeding.
Victoria Dean, a rising senior at Monte del Sol, says the school “was so much about creating this safe space for people to really learn” that preparation for standardized testing fell by the wayside.
Designed to measure whether schools are improving, AYP draws from a variety of qualifiers—standardized math and reading scores, graduation rates and test participation.
When schools don’t meet AYP, they are required to implement a series of increasingly drastic changes. Making AYP again can stall the process, but Monte del Sol hasn’t done so in years. As a result, the school is currently in “restructuring”—one of the final disciplinary phases, with recommendations as draconian as firing half of a school’s entire faculty or turning the school over to the state.
Monte del Sol, which currently serves 373 students in grades 7-12 and retains many of its original faculty members, has plenty of company. In the 2009-10 school year, nearly 78 percent of New Mexico’s public schools failed to meet AYP. In Santa Fe, that number was 90 percent.
In part, declining scores are a function of rising standards. One of the oft-criticized aspects of NCLB is the increasing unattainability of its requirements. (As some evidence, the percentage of New Mexico schools failing to achieve AYP has risen steadily in the past five years.)
By 2014, every child at every school in the United States is supposed to have a perfect score on national standardized math and reading tests—a goal Ritchie calls “not realistic.”
Tony Gerlicz, Monte del Sol’s founder, envisioned a school that would encourage students to create, innovate and lead.
“We’re in an era of educational change right now,” Ritchie tells SFR. “I think there will be some good that has come out of the school improvement movement, and there will be some things that probably weren’t appropriate.”
But such a statement is at odds with Gerlicz’ philosophy on the “school improvement movement”—an achievement-oriented campaign founded on No Child Left Behind.
“The punitive approach to education reform”—punishing schools for failing to score high enough on standardized tests—“is fundamentally flawed,” Gerlicz writes. “It does not work and will never work.”
It’s not just Gerlicz who thinks this way. With him is a cadre of parents, teachers and students who see Monte del Sol as a response to traditional public education’s manifest failings.
“Were I to do it all over again, I might have focused a bit more on teaching testing skills—but never at the expense of building a strong community,” Gerlicz writes. “Teaching to the test is a Faustian bargain.”
Some fear it’s a bargain that Ritchie is willing to make.
In spite of the desperately positive spin the writer attempts to impart to the MDS experience, the fact is, it is little more than a day care drop-in center for teens. I noticed that "Head Learner" Gerlicz had his own child attend SF Prep. As would any parent, he wanted to see she received a quality education - and he knew MDS was never going to provide that. That's pretty telling all by itself, isn't it? It's typical of the fuzzy-headed thought process that all too many Santa Feans proudly embrace to ignore testing in education, and instead rely on "this really beautiful way of learning". Unfortunately, not much is actually learned, but we all feel real good about the fact we didn't learn anything. Of course, MDS students are enthusiatic about their "school", and why not? It requires essentially nothing of them. Feel like learning? Go ahead. Not so motivated? Go strum your guitar instead. When every class is recess, student approval is unsurprisingly sky-high! I wonder if they will be so enthusiastic about their MDS "education" when it's time to compete against actual students in college, or the real world workplace? Maybe a little more reading, and a little less interpretive dance would have been a good idea, huh? Oh well, too late now. But at least we didn't conform! Anyway, we can always live at St. E's, right?
It's good that we have Santa Fe Prep to educate The Realist's young Biffs and Muffys and put them on the inside track to Princeton. It's even better that we have Monte del Sol, ATC, Desert Academy, St. Mike's, the Waldorf High School, Tierra Encantada, Santa Fe High, Capitol, and all the other schools in town for the rest of our kids. MdS and ATC have long had high graduation rates and high numbers of kids going on to college- even, Realist, to name-brand colleges where they have done quite well. I don't know where your negativity comes from, but it can't be from interacting with the majority of kids from Monte del Sol.
I just wanted to clear up that Tony Gerlicz did not send his daughter to MDS because she did not want to go to school where he was principal. As a teacher, I've often seen students not wanting to attend where their parent is a principal. Several teachers had their children at MDS, but everyone had to join the lottery (including Tony's daughter if she had wanted to go). At my time there I saw several teachers in tears after their son or daughter did not make it into the lottery.
Just the facts. i'm not jumping in this argument.
Sorry, I didn't have a Muffy or a Biff to educate at SF Prep - Tony Gerlicz did. Does that make him a bad guy, in and of itself? If it matters, my kids attended MDS for one year, but I yanked them out and sent them to public school, as I found MDS to be a complete waste of time. The "negativity" in my initial comment comes from the article itself, which although overtly sympathetic to MDS, also clearly points out that it is failing the kids. It's interesting that you seem to feel I must never have interacted with any MDS kids. Actually, I've interacted with quite a few, aside from my own. By and large, there's nothing wrong with them, but they're being let down by the school, which is failing to educate them. I never suggested the kids were the problem, as they are not in charge of their own education. Tell any kid he has a choice between doing algebra or playing hacky sack, and which will he choose? That doesn't make him a bad kid, but he WILL suffer for it down the road. That's why it's up to educators provide an atmosphere of education, rather than playtime. At MDS, it's hard to tell who the adults are, and this is now painfully obvious in light of these abominable test scores. And rather than be outraged at the pathetic job this school is doing for our local youth, you're more offending by "negativity". If these test scores aren't cause for "negativity", what is?
In response to The Realist:
As a graduate of MDS, class of 2008, and a Junior attending The University of New Mexico, I can honestly say that I was completely prepared for all of my higher education courses at UNM. And seemingly much more prepared than the majority of college students in those courses. I believe this can be attributed to the years I spent at MDS (7th-12th grade). I can attest to the fact that the teaching methods compared to that of other schools is unique, however I can also attest that the teachers never once failed to take an interest in the students' learning. With many teachers recieving awards and nominations (Lisa Otero, Teri Wyrick) and others with credentials beyond that of most high school teachers, it cannot be said that "not much is actually learned". As for test scores, all of Santa Fe has low scores. As for graduation requirements, compare MDS to other public high schools and find out that Monte requires more from their students.
Tony Gerlicz is a brilliant man, who created an even more brilliant school, and surrounded it with charismatic, caring and compelling faculty. It is a shame that the school has come to be on a different path than he intended. However, I understand that budgetting is very difficult, and see no evidence to lead me to believe that Ritchie is not trying to make the most out of the money that the school is entitled to. I am still "enthusiastic" about my high school education, and have the higher ground in the "competition with other students in college". Do not make the mistake of false accusations, when a true testimony of someone who has gone through the experience has not been heard.
I hope MDS is able to thrive in the future, and provide the same educational experience it gave to me and my brother.