APS superintendent touts progress as she heads into her second year

The state of Albuquerque Public Schools is “strong,” according to Superintendent Gabriella Blakey.

Delivering her second annual State of the District address Tuesday morning — just weeks after the start of the school year — the district’s chief executive touted milestones in student achievement, noting that students are meeting interim goals the school board established in 2023 to improve students’ academic performance.

The event took place at the district’s Berna Facio Professional Development Center as the band from Eldorado High School played and over 200 guests trickled in. The event was emceed by a student from Del Norte High School and another from Valley High School.

“We have a lot of work to do ahead of us, but I am certain that we have taken the steps forward to plan a new path,” Blakey said. “What is the state of the district? Albuquerque Public Schools is strong, and we are building on the momentum that we have created.”

She discussed the district’s collaborations, including one with Arizona State University to develop a new model to “rethink the middle school experience” and career-focused academies at three district high schools, which began this school year in conjunction with the local chapter of United Way.

“A few years ago, when the state was pressuring us to close struggling schools, we took a different approach,” Blakey said. “We redesigned them, working hand in hand with the community and teachers.” She added that the district was no longer taking a “one-size-fits-all” approach.

However, APS, the largest district in a state ranked 50th in the country by US News for pre-K and K-12 education again this year, is still struggling on some fronts.

Blakey told the Journal that chronic absenteeism was APS’ most pressing issue before the start of the school year. Two weeks into the school year, campus officers recovered five guns in one day, and enrollment declined for the fifth year in a row, falling below 65,000 students — from over 80,000 during the 2019-20 school year.

During her speech, the superintendent acknowledged the district’s attendance woes.

“While the rate of chronic absenteeism is slowly improving, still, about a third of our students are missing too many days,” Blakey said. “With each absence, we lose the chance to reach our students who need us the most.”

In an interview with the Journal following her speech, Blakey said she believes the most significant challenge she’s facing in her second school year at the helm will be building on the momentum and progress of last year.

“I think, in the past, we’ve been a little wary of celebrating schools … that are doing really well,” Blakey said. “Like any change movement, you have to really see that second year of really having to push on the momentum behind it.”

Before the superintendent spoke, APS Board President Danielle Gonzales said the district was “leading the state with our approach, our focus on goals” and added that Blakey and her staff’s reports on academic success were measurable, achievable and relevant.

“We’re at the halfway point of this work, and I can unequivocally say that student outcomes focus has fundamentally changed the way we’re operating as a district,” Gonzales said. “These reports are keeping us, the board, the district and the community, laser focused on what matters most: our students.”

While the superintendent claims the state of the largest school district in New Mexico is strong, Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein said it depends on how you look at it.

“I think it’s strong in terms of there’s a lot of really good stuff happening programmatically in APS; we’re breaking away from the one size fits all,” Bernstein said in an interview following the address. “I’d like to see us break away more from the over-testing of students.”

Bernstein commended Blakey for thanking and acknowledging educators during her speech and said she appreciated her “laying out a vision” for the district. However, she did take issue with the emphasis on the board’s established goals and guardrails as indicators of success.

“Not everything that’s important is measurable. In fact, an awful lot is not,” Bernstein said. “You’ve got to talk to the people in the classrooms to get a real measure of how our schools function.”