Discontent With APS Plan Grows

Rumblings are being heard on the West Side, and they’re not from the five volcanos.

More than a week after the Albuquerque Public Schools board approved a redistricting plan for its seven seats, discontent from residents on the west side of the river appears to be growing.

“Nobody is accepting this,” said Laura Horton, secretary of the Northwest Alliance of Neighbors.

“People don’t feel that they got a fair deal on this vote, and after what happened in the last redistricting, people are not going to lay down for this,” she said.

Horton was referring to the 2002 remapping, when West Siders at the time also complained that the district’s plan didn’t adequately represent the growing population west of the Rio Grande.

The APS board at its Jan. 23 meeting on a 6-0 vote, with one member absent, approved a compromise plan that largely keeps the existing districts, but shifts portions of several of its seven districts west to absorb growth west of the river. West Side advocates wanted a plan that would have moved an entire board district from the Northeast Heights to the West Side.

The action re-ignited rumblings of court challenges and long simmering debate about whether West Side residents should break off from APS and form its own school district.

This week in Santa Fe, West Side Albuquerque lawmakers Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas and Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, both Democrats, introduced joint resolutions seeking legislative review of the board’s plan.

“To continue to have only two out of seven districts of APS on the West Side is unacceptable,” Maestas said in a statement. “The children of the West Side trump the APS ‘Incumbent Protection Plan.’ There’s an easy solution to avoid a constitutional crisis — for the APS Board to redraw its map to reflect one person-one vote for the West Side.”

Maestas said there is a provision in the state constitution that requires the Legislature to approve redistricting of school districts with populations of more than 200,000 and seven member boards. APS is the only district in the state that meets that provision.

District 3 school board member Lorenzo Garcia welcomed a review. Garcia’s district includes the North Valley and part of the northwest city area.

“If that’s what the law says has to be done, then it should be done. It’s always good to have a review,” he said, adding that he wonders why this provision wasn’t invoked in the 2002 remapping.

“Why didn’t they do it then and why now?” Garcia asked.

Garcia, who preferred a plan that would have created a third West Side district, said, “I still wish the board would reconsider and look at it again.”

He added, “I don’t think that the board is inclined to want to look at it again.”

After Wednesday’s regular meeting of the school board, Garcia accompanied District 2 board member Kathy Korte to a meeting of the Westside Coalition of Neighborhood Associations.

The meeting was attended by 40 to 50 residents.

“They were not happy. They thought the board acted to preserve our seats, and I don’t think that was the intent of the board,” Garcia said.

“Our idea was to try and come up with a fair redistricting map,” he added.

Meanwhile, during this week’s school board meeting, Garcia called for cordiality from constituents, saying he had received “hate mail” in the form of email criticizing the board’s redistricting decision.

“It’s inappropriate and uncalled for,” he said.