'I hope that I ... made a tangible difference': longtime school board member Barbara Petersen reflects on her tenure.

Editor’s note: This begins a series of Journal “exit interviews” with outgoing Albuquerque Public Schools board members.

School board member Barbara Petersen never sought out a spotlight.

Before her first term on the panel, which she started close to 9 years ago, she had no political ambitions. She’d spent half a lifetime as an educator, and when she finally hung up her teaching cap, she became a political outreach coordinator for the local teachers union.

But it didn’t take long for those around her to begin pushing her — or, as she tells it, “twisted my arm” — to run for a seat on the Albuquerque Public Schools board.

“I was always a supportive person … it wasn’t something I aspired to,” Petersen told the Journal. “But when I came onto the board, it was interesting just to see how the district works from a completely different point of view. And I learned a lot.”

Ultimately, Petersen stuck with the job, and in 2023 was one of the longest-serving members on the board and was named the school board member of the year by the New Mexico School Boards Association.

Still, Petersen, whose final meeting was on Wednesday, Dec. 20, personally hopes she was able to make a difference for the people in her community.

“I have really been touched by how many people have talked to me since I decided to step down,” she said. “I hope that I also made a tangible difference in their lives and in how they’re able to do their work.”

Petersen — who spent some 35 years in the classroom — still carries herself like a teacher, drawing from a deep well of experience to break down complicated concepts into their most basic parts so those she’s speaking with can understand.

Her experience as a teacher also helped give her a clear idea of the issues that needed extra focus.

One of the issues Petersen highlighted among her proudest achievements was the expansion of community schools, a strategy that in part leverages out-of-school resources for students, providing them an array of different services tailored to that specific community.

In the 2015-2016 school year, there were roughly 16 community schools in the metro area, according to the Bernalillo County Community School Innovation and Strategic Partnerships Department. Today, there are 76.

Department Director Danette Townsend said Petersen was a “staunch supporter of quality implementation” of community schools, and that she helped grow the number of such schools over the last several years.

“She’s amazing,” Townsend said. “Barbara has been one of the constants in the community school development process.”

Another of the issues Petersen highlighted was thrust upon her.

In 2020, the initial thought on the school board was that the shutdowns prompted by the spread of COVID-19 would last just a couple of weeks, Petersen said.

But in late March, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that schools would remain closed for the rest of the academic year, and those weeks stretched into months. In late August, the school board voted to continue remote learning, and in mid-February of 2021 voted again to keep it going, despite ongoing criticism from the community.

“We have continued to come under attack for (that) sometimes,” Petersen said about the board’s efforts to “keep the community safe during the pandemic.” “I feel like we went about it with the best of intentions, even if on a microscopic level, not every decision may have been perfect. … I’m proud of that.”

There are many low points for school board members, who, as with any public official, are scrutinized for each major decision they make. The pandemic, Petersen said, was “probably the most stressful time of my tenure.”

But Petersen said she never felt the job wasn’t worth doing. In fact, thinking back on her years in the role, she could count on one hand how many board meetings she missed outright — every other, she was able to attend in person or remotely.

“I’ve never felt like I don’t want to do it anymore. I mean, I stepped down for your whole array of personal reasons, and just feeling like there were other ways that I wanted to be able to engage in public (education),” Petersen said.

That may include volunteering with tutoring programs to teach reading and community lobbying in the Roundhouse — both ways she thinks she can “continue to support the things I care about.”

But Petersen, who’s 71, said the ability to explore that being semi-retired will afford her — whether it’s rediscovering the piano, or traveling — provides its own sense of relief.

“From the time I was 15, until now, I’ve never had real time off,” she said. “It’s really bizarre, thinking ‘I can say no.’ ”