Ritchie’s arrival may have thrown Monte del Sol’s identity crisis into stark relief, but some believe it may have been inevitable.
Randy Merker, who taught at Monte del Sol from its founding until this year, says the current conflict is merely “exposing a lot of historic factionalization in the school.”
And the debate at Monte del Sol, he says, is happening everywhere.
“There are people who believe testing is a reasonable measure of student and school success,” Merker says. “[In] the first three or four years, we were much more interested in student-centered, project-based learning—a lot more concerned about specific student interest and desire in their own education,” he explains. “That’s not true now.”
Grover says that’s every charter school’s constant battle.
“What charter schools are really doing at their very heart is changing the way we think about public education,” she says. “There is a constant push-back of trying to make charters look like every other public school,” Grover adds. “They’re not supposed to be, and they don’t want to be. If they wanted business as usual, they would not have chosen to work in a charter school environment.”
Because charter schools see themselves as the vanguard, Grover says, they’re often populated and maintained by very passionate teachers, students and parents—and it will always be hard to reconcile the drive to revolutionize public education with the need to work within its confines.
Yet while schools are currently tied to this need to meet and maintain AYP, the broader, national picture may be shifting.
This March, the Obama administration released its “blueprint” for reauthorizing the Education and Secondary Education Act, the original basis for NCLB.
“They’re putting forward new ideas and building off accountability and reform,” Brooks Garber, federal policy vice president for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, says. Some of the reauthorization goals, Garber says, will include better modeling for teacher effectiveness, transitioning AYP to “college and career readiness” and rewarding excellence.
Gerlicz, for his part, believes NCLB will change.
“[US Secretary of Education] Arne Duncan and company already know it is a flawed system of reform,” Gerlicz writes.
Those changes are unlikely to come soon enough to affect Monte del Sol’s immediate future. That rests largely with Ritchie.
This June, after fielding the types of complaints voiced in this story, Ruiz says the school’s governing board opted to renew Ritchie’s contract for only one year, with measurable benchmarks—he’s reluctant to call them “conditions”—for her to achieve better harmony with the school community.
Of 301 prospective students in the lottery to enter Monte del Sol’s 7th grade class this year, 68 have received spots.
Credits: Photo: Alexa Schirtzinger
It’s an ironic echo of the very flash point that’s dividing the school: whether a set of measurable benchmarks—test scores, a restructuring plan, a provisional contract—can actually make things better.
When asked about her contract, Ritchie denied that it was punitive. Instead, she described it as the first stage of a process to formalize the school’s personnel system.
“We’re creating clearer job descriptions for every position,” Ritchie says. “When I came, there were no job descriptions written. I wanted, and I’m sure everyone wants, a job description with measurable goals.”
Ritchie says all school administrators now have well-defined objectives. When the teachers return from summer break—school starts Aug. 23—she’ll begin working on establishing similar benchmarks for them.
The goal, in Ritchie’s view?
“Just a little bit tighter ship.” SFR
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.