Saturday, March 13, 2010

LFC Blasts Bernalillo Schools' Failures

By Elaine D. BriseÑO
Journal Staff Writer
          Bernalillo school board President Jack Torres called a recent blistering report on the district's schools a tool to do better.
        And outgoing Superintendent Barbara Vigil-Lowder said Bernalillo Public Schools was already aware of most of the problems, adding that solutions are in the works.
        The Legislative Finance Committee released a 55-page report in December that chastised the district for failing to improve student performance and allowing student scores at Santo Domingo to fall. The report also questioned the district's spending practices.
        But Torres, who recently was elected mayor, said the report has provided an opportunity to grow and improve.
        "Student achievement is a frustration shared by a large number of people," he said. "We have to continue to find ways to improve it. We need to have some kind of intervention if a student is not achieving."
        The district seemed to be making progress a few years ago with its American Indian students at Santo Domingo Elementary and Middle Schools, but the scores have since dropped again.
        "We didn't need the LFC report to let us know about these concerns, especially at Santo Domingo," Vigil-Lowder said.
        School board members this month voted against renewing Vigil-Lowder's contract.
        She said she wasn't given a specific reason why, but San Felipe Gov. Feliciano Candelaria wrote a letter to the board expressing "no confidence" in the superintendent, citing the LFC report and the failure of the district's American Indian students to reach proficiency in reading and math.
        Among the issues raised in the report:
        Finances
        • The report questioned why the district allowed working lunches in town. It gave dozens of examples of working lunches charged to district credit cards during the 2009-10 school year.
        While the practice is not illegal, the report said it's not clear whether the charges benefit adults or students. Vigil-Lowder said she took away the credit cards and has limited the types of purchases that can be charged on the cards.
        "I put an immediate stop to that," she said. "We can now only use the credit cards for travel, to secure a room or airfare."
        • The report reviewed the district's practice of paying some employees more than their yearly salary for extra duties, and said the district lacked the necessary policies and control to make sure additional compensation is reasonable, affordable and helps achieve educational goals.
        According to the report, the district spent $24.1 million on salaries and compensation in the 2009-10 school year, but only 45 percent of the staff are teachers. Torres said the district is working with the union to incorporate the pay into the teacher contracts. He said the district will also adopt a policy that outlines a process for determining when an employee receives extra compensation.
        • The district is inflating its utility budgets, which means there is money left over at the end of the fiscal year.
        • In 2008, the district bought an "unnecessary" tow truck for $91,000 and sold it soon after to the Los Alamos school district for $75,000.
        Torres said the district kept some of the equipment from the truck, which is why it was sold for less money. He said in hindsight, the purchase might not have been the best idea.
        Student performance
        • Although the district has shown growth in student performance in reading and math, the report said most of its students are still not proficient in either subject. In 2009, 45 percent of all tested students were proficient in reading and 32 percent in math.
        • Math scores for Santo Domingo Elementary students have fallen drastically since 2004, when 80 percent of students were proficient in math. That number dropped to 19 percent in 2009. The report pointed to a number of possible reasons, including a change in leadership and the hiring of too many first- and second-year teachers.
        John Ryan, the district's executive director of human resources and accountability, said in December that the district was aware of the downward trend and was once again "focusing intensely on the school."
        It was not all bad news.
        The report pointed out that Carroll Elementary, for third- through fifth-grade students, continues to improve. More than 50 percent of students are proficient in math, a rise of 32 percent from 2005-06.
        The report credited high expectations, regardless of racial or ethnic background, stable school leadership, use of data to drive decisions and alignment of curriculum, both across and within grade levels.
       

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