For election resources and to read candidate questionnaires in full, visit the Journal’s election guide at ABQJournal.com/election.
Questionnaire excerpts
Questionnaire excerpts
Robert Trujillo
What’s the biggest issue APS faces? How would you address it?
Student outcomes, performance.
Albuquerque saw more guns on school campuses last year than any other year in recent memory. As a board member, how would you shape policy to address this issue, and to increase school communities’ feelings of safety while on campus?
By implementing increased education and awareness on the dangers of firearms and encouraging the district to work with law enforcement, community organizations, and parents to conduct workshops that encourage open dialogue to address safety concerns and shared responsibility. Regular policy reviews are key to ensuring they remain relevant and effective.As APS continues with its districtwide effort to right-size, what would your priorities be when faced with tough decisions about reimagining or repurposing schools?
I would defer the district professionals.
Janelle Astorga
What’s the biggest issue APS faces? How would you address it?
Inequitable funding and the current bell schedule are huge issues. We need to meet schools where they are at by having individual assessments to identify what is needed, create a plan and budget and create approval methods by the board to ensure all schools are treated equitably. We also need our budget to prioritize infrastructure.
Albuquerque saw more guns on school campuses last year than any other year in recent memory. As a board member, how would you shape policy to address this issue, and to increase school communities’ feelings of safety while on campus?
Prevention: Inside schools, we need DEI training, trauma-informed care, mental health resources, and rehabilitation processes. Outside of schools, we need common sense gun reform and safety workshops for parents. Intervention: Self defense classes, ongoing conversations about emotional control, behavioral health, and gun-safety. Support: Budget for more counselors and social workers, peer support, and mediation programs.
As APS continues with its districtwide effort to right-size, what would your priorities be when faced with tough decisions about reimagining or repurposing schools?
All schools should receive the resources needed for teachers and students to stay in our schools without having to right-size and for students to flourish in their education. If we do have to repurpose schools, buildings should be used as community spaces where families have access to social services help, food pantries, health clinics and possibly affordable housing.Verland Coker
What’s the biggest issue APS faces? How would you address it?
Pedagogical stagnation. We have a system that isn’t designed for the 21st century and fixing this would require a cascading reinvestment in teachers, community schools, technology, and students. Largely, a system for the hiring, retention, and creation of 21st century ready teachers is the immediate goal.
Albuquerque saw more guns on school campuses last year than any other year in recent memory. As a board member, how would you shape policy to address this issue, and to increase school communities’ feelings of safety while on campus?
Most instances could have been prevented with robust restorative justice practices and more open community schools. We often criminalize students rather than see the root cause of violence in our communities. Policy should be shaped for the best interest of all students, including those that need help.
As APS continues with its districtwide effort to right-size, what would your priorities be when faced with tough decisions about reimagining or repurposing schools?
(Ensuring) that we keep as many schools open as possible. Large depopulations are a result of the unattractive nature of APS schools rather than (any) demographic shifts. This being said, I would focus on the long term investment in student success when it comes to repurposing a campusFull candidates questionnaires are published on ABQJournal.com/election.
School Board District 1 candidates
School Board District 1 candidates
Robert Trujillo
Age: 43
Education: High school diploma
Occupation: Contractor business owner
Family: Alma; 4
Janelle Astorga
Age: 26
Education: Bachelors in Chicanx studies and political science from the University of New Mexico
Occupation: Co-director of Learning Alliance of New Mexico (2 years)
In the race to represent Albuquerque Public Schools’ soon-to-be open South Valley board seat, the three candidates for District 1 have made one thing clear: The district must bolster student safety while at school.
But they all offer different solutions for how to do that.
For Robert Trujillo, who owns a contractor business, the solution to stemming the tide of guns found on school campuses is “implementing increased education and awareness on the dangers of firearms,” as well as collaboration between APS and law enforcement agencies.
Janelle Astorga, a licensed educational assistant, said she supports things like trauma-informed care for students, “common sense gun reform and safety workshops for parents,” a larger budget for more counselors and social workers and, as an intervention strategy, self-defense classes.
But Verland Coker, a substitute teacher, pointed out a need for restorative justice practices, arguing that many instances of students bringing guns to school “could have been prevented” and that “we often criminalize students rather than see the root cause of violence in our communities.”
Last school year, District 1 had four guns reported or seized on non-charter school campuses — the highest of any board district. Across Albuquerque, schools saw more guns on campus than any in recent APS memory.
In the face of mounting safety concerns, APS has invested millions of dollars in security infrastructure and has already implemented some of the things mentioned by candidates.
Albuquerque has seen more guns at schools this year than any other in recent memory. How far is APS going to trace the weapons' origins?
For example, APS often coordinates with the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, which in fact responded to an early-September incident in District 1’s Atrisco Heritage Academy High School in which two teenagers allegedly brought guns on school grounds.
For some time, the district also has been implementing restorative practices in schools, sometimes using them for conflict resolution between students.
But other solutions aren’t so simple.
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New Mexico at large has had ongoing issues with filling vacant counselor positions, for instance. While such positions don’t have the vacancy rates of that of teachers and educational assistants, they have been between 30 to 60 statewide over the last five years, according to annual reports from New Mexico State University’s Southwest Outreach Academic Research Evaluation & Policy Center.
In early October, APS put its counselor vacancies at 17.
The candidates
Trujillo has been endorsed by the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, whose support has held a lot of weight in past school board elections. Thus far, he’s run on his record of community service and South Valley roots, but he has had to fend off concerns stemming from battery charges dating back to 2006 that, over a decade later, were conditionally discharged.
Astorga has been endorsed by several local unions but was passed over by the ATF, despite her educational-assistant credentials. Nevertheless, she touts a decade of experience working in schools and says she aims to close academic opportunity gaps.
Coker is no stranger to school board races. In 2019, he made an unsuccessful bid for the District 4 seat, currently held by outgoing board member Barbara Petersen. This year, he’s been vocal about pushing APS past stagnation, and has criticized the five-year goals the current school board has set for the district as not lofty enough.
While school board candidates run nonpartisan campaigns, the District 1 race is less politically divisive than the others, which are more or less evenly split. In a Journal questionnaire, Trujillo and Astorga identified as Democrats, and Coker identified as an Independent.
