APS superintendent hosts student discussion on school culture

Albuquerque Public Schools administrators and students who met on a recent day to discuss school culture began by tapping into their inner artist.

In a small room inside the district’s office building, APS Activities Manager Leslie Coe showed the group several works of art, including an ink drawing of an animal with a long bill. Coe asked the group whether they thought the drawing was of a duck or a rabbit.

After several students, including La Cueva High School student Konner Vigil, gave differing viewpoints, Coe said to Vigil, “You thought it was a duck. What do you think now?” Vigil responded he thought it was a rabbit.

The activity was meant to test students’ perceptions, which administrators believe is a critical factor in school culture. The conversation around the topic came under Superintendent Gabriella Blakey’s student advisory council, or SuperSAC for short. The council’s meeting was an attempt by the district to “increase the percentage of students who demonstrate the skills, habits, and mindsets most aligned to life success,” one of the APS Board of Education’s four goals on student outcomes, according to the district website.

Blakey, who began her tenure as superintendent in August, said in an interview that SuperSAC predates her. But the format of the council, which meets monthly, has changed under her leadership to be more interactive, she said. Principals also have their own advisory councils, and the superintendent also has a group of community leaders who convene occasionally to bend the district’s ear, Blakey said.

With the most recent SuperSAC meeting, the district wanted to gauge students on how “they feel connected to the school, how they feel a sense of belonging (and) how they’re growing in their own perseverance,” which are all metrics examined in Goal 4, Blakey said.

“(The student advisory council) helps us as we make decisions holistically for the district. It’s not, ‘We need this input right now, in an emergency situation, on school culture,’” she told the Journal, “but it’s really helping guide us, making sure we have the voices of our students in our heads as we make decisions for (the) future.”

The superintendent was not the only administrator on hand during the Dec. 17 meeting as she listened to over a dozen students during a round-robin exercise initiated by Coe. Each student was given several minutes with each administrator to talk about why their school culture is “the best,” why it is working and what they would do to change it.

In a discussion following the exercise, Coe asked Freedom High School junior Cheyanne C-King how school culture helps her. C-King responded, “We don’t really have school culture,” and recommended hosting more “ice breaker” opportunities for students at school.

Joaquin Olay, a junior at Career Enrichment Center & Early College Academy, said his school culture is “a little weird,” with students engaged in school spirit while others “don’t really care.”

Cibola High School student Joel Aldavaz and Albuquerque High School student Kaylee Shelton, who are both seniors, have been a part of the student advisory council before.

To Shelton, school culture is defined by the atmosphere created by students and staff, she told the Journal. That culture is mostly measured by how excited students are to come to school each day to not only achieve academic success but to engage in “the social side of school,” Shelton said.

“We have a good school culture, but after the pandemic, it’s taken a hit,” Shelton said. “Kids aren’t as excited to come to school. Kids aren’t as serious about (learning). They don’t care about the social side of it, either. They have their little friend group, and they don’t need to talk to anyone else.”

For her part, Shelton has worked to make students feel more included at Albuquerque High by enlisting her peers in projects, from playing games during lunch to handing out hot chocolate during “passing period,” she said in an interview. Shelton brought up the examples during the council’s discussion.

Like Shelton, Aldavaz said he has noticed students’ declining attitudes toward school since the pandemic.

“I know we’re improvising, but we have to adapt with the times,” he told the Journal. “Because, yeah, you can spend all of your time scrolling on TikTok or you could use your phone to build connections and start a business.”

Aldavaz said he would like students to engage more in the classroom and work to build a sense of community at school.

After the meeting, Blakey said one of her takeaways from the council is to work on making sure students have “a sense of belonging” at school.

“I think the students have really good ideas of making every student feel like they can be attached to at least one club or organization,” she said.

Blakey noted the district makes an effort to make each student feel connected to another adult in their school. While several of them told her they did, Blakey was also interested to learn during the advisory council meeting that students feel connected to their peers. With this feedback, Blakey hopes the district can make plans to help with student connect even before they walk through the door of their first day of school next year.

Aldavaz said in an interview that feedback on how students feel at school is among the “most important” information the superintendent can receive.

“I think it’s good to just take in as much information as you possibly can to make the right decisions,” Aldavaz said. “This council helps that immensely.”

Shelton told the Journal she believes that while Blakey is in charge of all APS schools, “deep down, at the basic level,” her responsibility is to students.

“I think she is a really great listener. She always seems super active when she’s listening. During conversations, her body language is always super open,” Shelton said.