Albuquerque school board administers its latest self-evaluation. Here's how it scored.

In a self-evaluation administered Wednesday, the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education scored the same as it had in the previous quarter, coming up 14 points short of its goal.

The board members are required to score their work and perceived success in six categories: vision and goals, values and guardrails, monitoring and accountability, communication and collaboration, unity and trust, and continuous improvement, with the potential to earn 100 points. This last quarter, the board scored 58 points — the goal set was 72.

The board is tasked with turning around student outcomes for the largest district in a state that, in many metrics, has consistently ranked last in the nation for education. APS itself has struggled with issues such as absenteeism and student academic performance, though some progress is being made.

Though 58/100 may seem low, the board scored a 15 just two years ago for its work from April to June 2023, so the sub-60-score represents progress from where they were as a board back then. However, the score shows a backslide from the 65s the board scored for its two quarters of work, spanning from July to December 2024.

This time around, the members largely agreed on the scores in most categories, except for one: unity and trust. Scores ranged from zero to one.

“I scored us a zero, and it was based on poor attendance by board members for this quarter,” Board Member Heather Benavidez said during the meeting.

She argued that the criteria to score a one on the question would require consistent attendance of 80% or more — something that, among the seven members, the board has only done twice since the quarter began in April and ended in June.

“How can we work to increase the attendance numbers of our APS students if the board members aren’t even showing up to board meetings?” Benavidez said in a phone interview ahead of the meeting.

A discussion ensued in the APS boardroom about whether the attendance of Board Member Janelle Astorga should be counted against the board’s attendance. Astorga has been absent from all meetings except for one — which she joined remotely — since April, as she has been on maternity leave. Astorga did not return a call from the Journal on Friday.

“I think the flexibility, the grace, the acknowledgement that, yes, women give birth and need to go and do that away from public life and away from the dais, is important for us to acknowledge,” Board President Danielle Gonzales said.

However, no discussion took place regarding the attendance of Board Member Crystal Tapia-Romero, who missed four consecutive meetings — out of the five total in the quarter — and, before Wednesday’s meeting, was last seen in the APS meeting room on April 2.

Tapia-Romero has not responded to multiple requests for comment from the Journal for months, and did not do so again on Friday. However, according to her personal Facebook page, she has traveled to the Kentucky Derby, Greece and Italy over the past few months.

She also posted from her board Facebook account in May that she would not be running for a second term in November, and instead endorsed a successor.

During the meetings she missed, the board voted to pass its largest budget to date for the upcoming year, discussed and vacated its coaching contract with a Washington, D.C.-based consultant, and performed and debated its previous self-evaluation.

Retreating from the scoring goal of 72 it set — and missed — for the past quarter of work, the board set a goal of 58 for its current quarter, which runs through September. Since it began conducting self-evaluations in 2022, the board has exceeded its goal once.