Here are the candidates for Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education

This November, voters who live in Albuquerque Public Schools boundaries will send at least two new members to seats on the governing body for the largest district in New Mexico.

Four seats — Districts 3,5,6 and 7 — are up for grabs on the APS Board of Education, and following filing day with the county, nine candidates have emerged.

Historically, the local teachers union, the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, and the metro’s business community power players, the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the local chapter of NAIOP, a commercial real estate organization, have been key organizations in the battle for power on the APS board.

Currently, each faction has three members on the seven-member board. One board member, Janelle Astorga, won her seat without endorsements from either faction and is not up for reelection this year.

The incumbents

Two business-backed candidates, District 3 Board Member Danielle Gonzales, the board’s president, and District 7 Board Member Courtney Jackson, the board’s vice president, are up for reelection.

Gonzales will face two challengers: Isaac Flores, who has spent his “adult life working with young people in the juvenile corrections’ system,” according to his campaign website, and Rebecca Betzen, a “27-year veteran teacher” who is backed by the ATF.

Gonzales was elected to her first term in 2021. She began her career in education as a 4th grade teacher and eventually worked in education policy at the national level.

Jackson will face Kristin Wood-Hegner, who is backed by the teachers union and describes herself as a “mom, public safety expert, financial watchdog and lifelong advocate for victims of violent crime.”

Jackson was elected in 2021. She is a graduate of the University of New Mexico law school, and an executive assistant for the Economic Forum of Albuquerque.

If Jackson or Gonzales is elected, they will be the only members on the board serving a second term.

Open seats

Two current board members are vacating their seats.

In District 5, Crystal Tapia-Romero, who was supported by the business community, is vacating her seat, and in District 6, Josefina Dominguez, who was supported by ATF, is leaving her post.

Tapia-Romero announced she would not be running for reelection in May and endorsed Joshua Martinez, the New Mexico health equity and community impact director for the American Diabetes Association. Martinez also serves as the president of his homeowner and neighborhood associations. The local chamber of commerce has endorsed him.

Brian Laurent Jr., a former special education teacher and former director of school accountability support for APS, will challenge him.

According to its president, Ellen Bernstein, ATF has not endorsed in the race because the two candidates “don’t necessarily” hold the values the union is looking for.

“Our union’s endorsement is not easy to obtain,” she said in a Friday phone call. “We care about two things: Somebody committed to public education and the people who work in public education, and are supportive of labor.”

Vying for the District 6 seat are David Ams, a “PTA president and accomplished scientist,” according to the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce’s endorsement page, and Warigia Bowman, a University of New Mexico law professor endorsed by the teachers union.

District 3 represents the city’s north-central corridor and stretches across the river to Corrales, bordering Rio Rancho Public Schools. District 5 represents the city’s central and far West Side, bordered on the east by District 3.

District 6 accounts for the Foothills, part of Uptown, and the Northeast Heights’ lower end, stretching to the East Mountains. District 7 represents the northern part of the Foothills and the north end of Northeast Heights. It is bordered on the west by Interstate 25.

Election Day is Nov. 4. Early voting begins Oct. 7 and ends Nov. 1.