APS is thinking of expanding one of its most popular schools next school year. But the idea would leave nearby schools behind, some say.

When a ship is sinking, common wisdom suggests the crew should plug the holes letting on water.

But when it comes to Albuquerque Public Schools, stopping the flow of families leaving the district is proving to be more complicated than that.

APS is in the midst of a wide-ranging effort to right-size, which has meant repurposing schools to balance declining enrollment with districtwide spending, as well as finding ways to retain students. As one part of its overall plan, the district has mulled expanding Coronado Dual Language Magnet School, in the historic Barelas neighborhood of Albuquerque, into a kindergarten through eighth-grade school to help stem the hemorrhage of families who leave the district entirely after their children finish fifth grade.

In each of the past two school years, the district calculates that over half of Coronado’s fifth graders going into middle school do just that — oftentimes opting for private schools, charter schools or schools in Rio Rancho. Adding middle school grades, officials hope, could be one way to stop them from leaving.

But in the months since APS officials first teased the proposal in January, teachers and families from nearby schools — East San Jose Elementary School and Washington Middle School, to name two — have spoken out against it.

At the center of many of their concerns is a question: Why is Coronado up for this expansion when there are other schools, just a few miles away, with larger populations of students in need of help?

“Why are we sucking resources — when we don’t have enough resources as it is — out of all the neighborhood schools and the middle schools instead of lifting them up?” Rachel Baucom, a dual language teacher at East San Jose, told the Journal. “It’s an equity issue.”

Coronado, East San Jose and Washington all had higher rates of Hispanic students than across the district, according to end-of-year APS data. And all of them have dual-language programs, which immerse their students in both English and Spanish.

But only 36% of Coronado students qualified for free or reduced price lunches last school year, which is a common measure of students facing poverty. Washington and East San Jose, on the other hand, saw about 63% and almost 57%, respectively, according to district data.

Because it’s a magnet school, Coronado attracts families from across the city, and is at full capacity. Washington and East San Jose, meanwhile, still have open seats for their dual-language programs, district officials say.

“It’s in Washington Middle School where we need the financial investment to then continue programs like the bilingual program,” former Washington parent Eladia Martinez told school board members in Spanish during a meeting in early August. “We cannot run the risk that that access is limited.”

APS officials, though, argued at a recent right-sizing discussion group that making a change at Coronado shouldn’t necessarily impact other schools. They also said that when it comes to the district’s declining enrollment — from almost 86,900 students in 2012-2013 to about 69,800 in 2022-2023 — there are many leaks in the ship, and expanding Coronado could be just one plug for one leak, which is still forward progress.

“We do have passionate teachers in those schools, passionate leaders, and families who want those programs there,” Chief of Schools Channell Segura said. “But … it’s looking at this as just one, and we’re gonna lose these families. We’re trying to prevent that from happening.”

APS expects considerable financial benefits, as well as gains in enrollment because of the middle school-age students they could keep, out of the plan. The district predicts roughly $2 million in savings by the 2028-2029 school year and a jump from an expected total of 380 students next school year, when the idea would take place if greenlit, to 600 students four years down the line.

The idea also enjoys significant support from Coronado families. According to recent surveys by the district, most polled families supported expanding the school, and in one survey almost 62% of families said they’d remain in the school indefinitely if it was expanded.

“(For) my daughter, we (chose) Truman, because we belong to the district. But she didn’t get into the dual program because there’s a waiting list,” one Coronado parent, who didn’t give her name, said during the right-sizing discussion. “It will be very beneficial if she could be in a school where you can continue with the dual program.”

But at that meeting — which didn’t include the full school board and was only a discussion about the plan as it currently stands, not a vote — board members nevertheless pushed back on the idea of seeing Coronado’s proposed expansion in a vacuum.

“I look at this, and all I can see is (that) we are putting another nail in the coffin of a lack of commitment to equity,” board member Barbara Petersen said. “The kids that will benefit from this — yes, they deserve to benefit from this. But where’s the investment for Washington?”

“We’re going to create this other middle school — … that’s essentially what we’re doing — for a group of families that are choosing not to use our middle schools that do have dual-language programs,” board President Yolanda Montoya-Cordova added. “And that narrative is what is out there, too, which I think hurts and hurts a lot. It’s hurting Washington, it hurts our other schools.”

The plan for now is fluid, and the purpose of the Monday meeting was to work on it.

But it does have deeper implications for the district’s larger strategy for much of Albuquerque’s North Valley and West Side, which in part could see Coronado fourth- through eighth-graders moving into the Taft Middle School campus. Taft students, in turn, may move into Taylor Middle School.

Students who go to Taylor from Seven Bar Elementary School, then, would go to James Monroe Middle School. But in light of concerns with the Coronado expansion, Capital Master Plan Executive Director Kizito Wijenje said, the district will have to keep tweaking its plans.

“Everybody agrees that we’ve got an under-resourced system. At the same time, we are being forced to choose between either/or,” he said. “So we shall just keep on working at this.”