School Choice

Elections for two open local education seats are Feb. 3—one on the city's school board and another on the governing body that oversees the Santa Fe Community College.

During the past two years, the college has been through a public relations nightmare. In the summer of 2012, the governing board hired Ana "Cha" Guzman as its president. Just a year later, they fired her, then settled her wrongful termination lawsuit for $500,000.

Guzman's successor, Randy Grissom, is much less divisive, winning praise from local building groups and newspaper editorial boards. But he's also made controversial decisions.

Last summer, he devised a plan to lay off 2.5 percent of the college's workforce and make tiered pay cuts to staff in the wake of a $5 million deficit that he largely blames on Guzman.

The college's governing board—five members elected at large to serve six-year terms—isn't free of blame. Last fall, the Attorney General's office found that the board violated the state's Open Meetings Act on multiple occasions during the process that led to Guzman's firing. And the board approved the budget plan that led to the deficit.

Xubi Wilson, who serves as the college's Renewable Energy Programs coordinator, says that's largely because the board got "bad data" from the administration. But he adds that he believes the board is too reliant on administrators for the school's financial information.

"The board really didn't understand what it was deciding," says Wilson, who is running for the open SFCC governing board seat vacated by Chris Abeyta.

Wilson's history with the community college dates back more than 20 years when he started taking classes there. At the time, he was a pastry chef. He attributes his training at the community college with getting him started in a renewable energy career. He co-hosts a radio show on KSFR dedicated to sustainability.

Wilson's opponent, however, says being an employee at the college presents a conflict of interest on the board. Jack Sullivan, a former two-term Santa Fe County commissioner who is also vying for the open SFCC board seat, argues that Wilson would have to recuse himself from a number of votes.

"Hiring or firing your boss is one of them," says Sullivan.

Sullivan says that his first order of business on the board would be to "get the college back into fiscal strength." That includes "aggressively going after grants" and promoting programs that lead to direct employment for students. As a civil engineer, he says he wants to see more focus on science, technology, engineering and math training.

Wilson also ranks the college's finances as a big issue, but he quickly adds that he thinks the school is on the right track with Grissom's stability plan. He acknowledges that his college employment may prompt him to sit out on some issues, but he doesn't include contracts for the college president among them.

"I'm there representing the best interest of the college," Wilson says. "I'm not a child and I'm not corrupt."

In that race, Glen Wikle is not seeking re-election after one term of service. Two contenders want to replace him in a voting district that includes the parents of children who go to El Dorado Community School, Amy Biehl Community School and parts of Capital High School.

Peter Mitchell, who served as the state's economic development director under Gov. Gary Johnson, the state's executive director of space commercialization under Gov. Bill Richardson and Albuquerque's economic development director from 2007-2009, says he's wants to bring more trades-based vocational programs into the district.

"New Mexico has some good incentives to attract residents, but we have a poorly-trained workforce," Mitchell says.

Mitchell also says he isn't a fan of the state's teacher evaluation program and "high-stakes testing" and says he wants to address the issue head-on.

Yet, when asked recently by a reporter, he wasn't familiar with the school district's modified teacher evaluation model, which relies less on testing and was approved by the state in 2013. Mitchell also wasn't privy to one of Superintendent Joel Boyd's biggest pet projects—launching an International Baccalaureate school.

The school, Mandela International Magnet School, opened last fall.

Wilson's opponent, Maureen Cashmon, is a former air force lieutenant colonel who has served on the school district's Citizens Review Committee for eight years. She also worked as a substitute teacher in the district but left voluntarily to start her campaign.

Cashmon also says she would like to see more resources go to the school district's trades-based programs, naming the Academy of Sustainability Education, which kicked off this year as a way to train students in green technology with project-based learning. She also says the district shouldn't base hiring and firing on the current teacher evaluations.

But her top priority is student safety.

She argues that the district hasn't always prioritized safety issues. Recently, for example, she says she witnessed a student in wheelchair at Nava Elementary slip off of a handicap pathway, but the school did not take immediate action. She also criticizes Santa Fe High School's plan to fill large cracks in its tennis courts rather than build new ones, which she maintains is a cheaper option in the long run.

"We're going to spend $200,000 to patch that in and hope it stays for the next decade," she says. "In my opinion that's taxpayer dollars put to a bad use."

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect the following—Jack Sullivan is not retired, Maureen Cashmon served in the air force as a lieutenant colonel and SFPS District 2 includes portions of Capital High School.

Santa Fe Reporter