An embattled Santa Fe charter school’s first Parent, Teacher, Student Coalition meeting this year got off to a dramatic start when a member of the school’s leadership stormed out mid-meeting.
Academy for Technology and the Classics PTSC Secretary Meriam Jawhar left the meeting when ATC parent Tammy Espinosa suggested that the current PTSC executive committee—which includes Jawhar—should resign.
Espinosa told the group that Santa Fe Public Schools Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez said she expected the committee to resign after SFPS released a report documenting widespread mismanagement under former director Ed Wood.
At the meeting, Gutierrez said she didn’t remember her statement that way, but ATC counselor Juli Bray-Morris affirmed Espinosa’s recollection.
The SFPS report on ATC doesn’t explicitly call for the resignation of either the governing council, which resigned en masse after the report was released, or the PTSC executive committee. But it does state that “Some members feel the PTSC needs new leadership as personal friendships formed with [Wood].”
Despite the obvious bad blood between the committee and some ATC parents, the majority of attendees—many of whom were new parents unaware of the school’s history—voted against a forced resignation.
