Taft MS, Coronado ES parents decry APS 'right-sizing' plan

Following an early November meeting between Taft Middle School families and officials with Albuquerque Public Schools, J.D. Mathews said his sixth grade daughter, Carys Mathews, looked like “a deer in the headlights.” She and others had just learned that next year, the district planned to close their school and move the students to nearby Taylor Middle School.

But what Mathews’ daughter did next surprised him: she wrote a letter opposing the plan to the APS School Board, which is set to vote Wednesday on whether to close the 66-year-old school. “She shouldn’t have to go through that,” Mathews said. “But also, I was very proud to think she took the initiative (to write a letter). It was really amazing.”

The proposal to close Taft is just one of several decisions that the school board could vote for in the name of a “right-sizing” plan, which allows the district to change its attendance boundaries, repurpose schools or take other measures in response to a dramatic loss of students over the last 10 years. But parents of the impacted schools and its feeders claim these decisions were made without their input and are not responsive to the needs of North Valley families.

On Dec. 4, numerous parents, particularly those at Alvarado Elementary School, a feeder school of Taft, spoke out against the scheduled vote. That week, APS Superintendent Gabriella Blakey issued an op-ed in the Journal acknowledging “missteps” in failing to inform the school’s feeders about the potential change and impressing upon families the plan was “a done deal” and did not face board approval.

On Tuesday, APS Board President Danielle Gonzales said the board moved the vote out two weeks to allow more time for public input and questions, not just from the community, but from board members, too.

“That allowed everyone to get more information and then, hopefully, to go into this Dec. 18 board meeting, able to review, comprehensively, feedback from all sides. There’s obviously opinions on both sides,” Gonzales said.

She said her email inbox has received a lot of community feedback on the proposed plan, but more people she has heard from are for it rather than against.

The plan

The board plans to take a series of votes regarding the right-sizing plan.

The first relates to changing attendance boundaries so the former Taft Middle School can become a dual language magnet school serving grades K-8. In her recent Journal column, Blakey said Taft “has been declining in enrollment for several years due to demographic and other changes in the North Valley.” In a November letter to Taft parents, the school’s principal, Crystal Avalos, said that Taylor “offers educational resources and ancillary services that smaller schools like Taft simply couldn’t provide.”

The second vote could repurpose Taft into the new Coronado Dual Language K-8 Magnet School. District officials told the board in meeting materials posted on the APS website that the expansion of grade levels will help curb 60% of Coronado students who leave the district after the fifth grade.

The board’s third vote could move Coronado and expand its grade level offerings. Coronado Elementary School, which is already a dual language school serving grades K-5, would move from its current home at 601 Fourth SW to where Taft is located at 620 Schulte NW. In meeting materials posted online, the district said families surveyed supported the K-8 option.

The fourth and final vote could establish an International High School within APS. District officials said this school was created in response to a significant rise in immigrant students, and will launch during the 2025-26 school year with anywhere from 80-900 students and will add a grade level each school year.

‘I was sad’

Oriana Sandoval, an APS parent who has two children attending Coronado, said there had been talk and even district surveys regarding the elementary school’s future for years. But in November, she said school officials announced the decision to move Coronado and expand it into a middle school.

”I was surprised because I didn’t think that was an option,” Sandoval said, believing the elementary school would stay at its current location, while the 6-8 grade portion would move to Taft.

Sandoval said she is not against an expanded Coronado, but is unsure about the entire school moving to Taft.

Her fifth grade son decided he wants to go to Jefferson Middle School, which Sandoval attended, but she said his decision has nothing to do with Taft. Meanwhile, it is not clear where Sandoval’s daughter will attend middle school and the district’s decision could impact her.

Sandoval has not seen the Taft campus but has colleagues and friends whose children attend the school.

”I think there are concerns about displacement there and I am concerned about that, too,” she said.

Sandoval will not attend the upcoming board meeting in part because she feels the plan is “a done deal.”Taft parent J.D. Mathews said he is “heartbroken” by the district’s proposal to close Taft and move its students to Taylor.

“I also don’t think it’s a good decision based on the facts I have and the experience we had,” said Mathews, who once considered moving his daughter to Taylor. “(Taylor) was a ‘no’ then and it hasn’t gotten any better since then.”

Carys Mathews said the November meeting in which she learned her school was likely to close was “hard to hear.”

“I was sad because the school has been here a long time, has a great principal; all the staff is nice and the custodians help make it really clean,” Carys said.

Her letter to the school board said, “You can’t do this. You need to tell people.”

Like her father, she is not optimistic the board will vote against closing Taft. Her only hope, she said, is that its members are inspired based on the number of families who show up to the meeting.