Gerlicz left Monte del Sol in 2008 to head the American School of Warsaw, in Poland.
“Initially, we were all surprised and shocked and disappointed and upset—then quickly very happy for him,” Ken Joseph, the chairman of Monte del Sol’s governing board, tells SFR. “I had great admiration that he could let his baby go like that.”
But Joseph, who was intimately involved in the first search process, says the hiring committee struggled to find a replacement who shared Gerlicz’ vision.
Instead, they opted for an interim leader in then-Assistant Head Learner Anne Salzmann.
Salzmann, who currently heads the MASTERS Program, a new early college charter school based at Santa Fe Community College, declined to speak to SFR for this story.
“I love that school; it’s part of my heart,” Salzmann tells SFR. “I just want to stay out of it.”
A second search committee had more success, narrowing the pool down to four candidates. One of them was Ritchie, a tall, blonde woman with an air of subdued authoritativeness.
After stints as a technical writer and stained-glass artist, she turned to education.
“I kept having this pull back to education because that’s really who I am,” Ritchie tells SFR. “As corny as it sounds, it was that idea of paying it forward: So many people helped me along the way, and I really feel that education is a way to move forward in this world.”
Before she came to Santa Fe, Ritchie worked as a teacher and administrator at public schools in Georgia and Alabama, and served for four years as the principal of a K-8 Catholic school in Rome, Ga.
After extensive interviews and meetings with parents, students, faculty and the community, the board voted to hire Ritchie as Gerlicz’ successor.
“In my mind, she was among the top two,” Carlos Ruiz, the vice chairman and longest-serving member of Monte del Sol’s governing board, tells SFR. “In her qualifications and experience, she measured up to our top three contenders, [but] when I voted for her, it was because she spoke Spanish,” Ruiz says.
In February 2009, Paul Biderman, then the board’s president, told a local newspaper Ritchie was “the best combination of skills and attitude.”
But Van Sickle says students (who also sit on the board, Ruiz says, but don’t vote) had a different perspective.
“My understanding is that the students preferred another candidate,” Van Sickle says. “Out of the four they had, I’m not sure [Ritchie] would’ve made the top three.”
Angela Ritchie, Monte del Sol’s current head learner, has a more traditional approach that some worry will alter the school’s creative atmosphere.
Credits: Photo: Alexa Schirtzinger
But Cassandra Reid, the president of Monte del Sol’s Parent Teacher Student Association, says Ritchie and the school struggled to adapt to one another. Ritchie’s leadership style, Reid says, is “not particularly inclusive” compared with Gerlicz’ “extremely open” approach. Subsequently, Reid says, many of the faculty and parents once deeply involved in running the school now feel disappointed and alienated.
“The lack of openness to discussion has crippled the school to some extent,” Reid says. “There are strengths in the new leadership, but there’s also real trouble making that new leadership style fit with the values of the school.”
That challenge is not confined to Ritchie’s educational philosophy; it’s also related to her methods. The school’s low test scores, after all, aren’t her fault.
“[Ritchie] came in and noticed how extreme these deficiencies in test scores were,” Dean tells SFR. “The new administration has been a scapegoat, [but really] it’s what the school didn’t do at first to make sure we had good test scores along with this really beautiful way of learning.”
But to many, Ritchie’s businesslike leadership style isn’t the best way to accomplish the delicate balance between testing and creativity that Monte del Sol seeks.
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.