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Sunday, January 25, 2009

Hopeful Critical of Some Decisions

By Polly Summar
Journal Staff Writer
          District 5 on the city's Southside pits newcomer Peter Brill against incumbent Frank Montaño, former president of the school board.
        The district includes Kearny, Larragoite, Nava, Salazar and Turquoise Trail elementary schools and Alameda Middle School.
        Brill, owner of Sarcon Construction and a nonpracticing attorney, said, "Coming from outside the system, I have some good skills that I think will translate well into policy governance."
        He cited the district's $90 million annual operating budget and 27 separate sites. "This is a complicated, large enterprise," Brill said. "It needs people serving on the board who are experienced at running organizations, at making strategic plans, at understanding budgets and finance in depth."
        Brill moved to New Mexico some 17 years ago from New York City where he ran a public works contracting business. He graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1995 and founded Sarcon Construction the same year. Its projects have ranged from the Plaza Stage to work at St. John's College and the Santa Fe Opera.
        He has two children, Shane and Sam. Shane is a freshman at Santa Fe High and Sam is a student at Rio Grande School where his mother is on staff.
        Montaño, running for his second term on the board, listed some of the issues he believes are key: school safety, teacher and staff salaries, sound financing, high school reform, student achievement scores, resurrecting school music programs and state underfunding of schools.
        Montaño was born in California but his parents, native New Mexicans, moved to Santa Fe when he was 3 months old. He has owned a tour company for 22 years and served three terms as a city councilor, from 1990 to 2002. He is raising his step-granddaughter, Ariel Martinez, who is a junior at SER Academy.
        Brill criticized Montaño's performance on the school board, especially in how he dealt with decisions to close small schools. "A committee was formed to study the issues and before those findings were even brought back to the board, some board members took public stands on whether schools should be closed," Brill said.
        "How is this an intelligent process?" Brill asked, saying Montaño took the position to close some small schools before the committee reported. "It created fear and uncertainty and probably more people leaving the public schools. This isn't leadership, it's partisan selfishness."
        Brill said good performing public small schools, wherever they exist, should be replicated. "Let's close the ones that aren't working," he said.
        In defending his actions, Montaño said the issue before the Strategic Planning Oversight Committee was not whether the district should close small schools but whether the district should have a policy that determines whether or not small schools should be closed.
        "I argued there was a need to have policy that determines" that issue, said Montaño. "I did say that based on a recommendation by the superintendent (Gloria Rendon), I would certainly look at closing schools. I am a proponent of closing schools if the community and superintendent can make a good enough argument that ought to happen."
        Regarding the student achievement gap, Brill said, "No one gets off the hook — has the achievement gap and drop-out rate dropped during the four years Frank Montaño has sat on this board?"
        Montaño said he initiated the dropout and retention task force for the district. "If we follow through on the recommendations, that will go a long way in reducing" the problem, he said.
        Regarding Montaño's concerns about the music programs, Brill said, "You're a board member, you have a professional paid staff. Why are you indulging in the specific minutiae of music programs or any of these narrow focuses? I want to run and serve trying to address the big picture, to fix one problem that fixes a hundred. I'd like to get the funding formula adjusted for the problems it causes Santa Fe."
       

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