The teachers union retook control of the APS board. Here's a glimpse of what could change

Four years ago, Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education candidates backed by the business community won three of the four seats up for election — taking power away from the Albuquerque Teachers Federation for the first time in decades.

But the results of Tuesday’s municipal election gave the teachers union four candidates on the board and cut the number of chamber-backed candidates to two and the union became the dominant political power on the board again.

As a result, the way that the largest school district in New Mexico’s governing operates, passes policy and prioritizes academic performance could change.

Following the 2021 election, in 2023, the board became gridlocked as union-backed Ronalda Tome-Warito defeated longtime board member Peggy Muller-Aragon in District 2. Heather Benavidez, also backed by ATF, won easily in District 4, and Janelle Astorga, not endorsed by either the business community or teachers union, won in District 1.

Since then, the board has had its ATF-endorsed members and three business community-endorsed representatives, while Astorga has largely been a swing voter.

However, before the board became split three to three between the factions, goals and guardrails were set by the previous board centered around improving students’ early literacy, math proficiency, college readiness and skills for life success. But Ellen Bernstein, longtime president of ATF, questioned their effectiveness in an interview Friday.

“Here’s the thing, it doesn’t matter what your goals are, and it doesn’t matter if you call them guardrails,” Bernstein said. “What matters is whether or not, as the community voice in the governance of the school district, you understand your schools.”

She also expressed some discontent with APS Superintendent Gabriella Blakey, whom the board picked unanimously to head the district in 2024. The superintendent is the only APS staff member for whom the board oversees employment.

“Right now, I’m frustrated,” Bernstein said. She added that, as the representative for district employees, she hears mixed perceptions from teachers about Blakey.

“Everything that has to do with their working conditions ... that’s how they measure Gabriella,” Bernstein said. “Are they in a cool classroom or a hot classroom? Are they overwhelmed by mandates, or do they have the ability to put some professional creativity in the lessons they design and the work that they do? That’s how they judge the superintendent.”

Other things the union leader took issue with were the amount of time students are spending using technology in classrooms from a young age, the emphasis on standardized testing and the amount of work being placed on teachers to align with the district’s target scores on assessments.

With the Albuquerque Teachers Federation now the primary political presence on the board again, their opponents worry some of the growth the district has seen under the current board and superintendent, such as students hitting the academic targets established by goals, improvements in early literacy and rising graduation rates could be at stake.

Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce President Terri Cole expressed concern about the focus on adults.

“Our public schools need to prioritize student learning and career preparedness above all else. Those things just haven’t been the union’s priorities; it’s a special interest group that has generally valued the comfort of adults over the academic progress of our children,” she wrote in a statement to the Journal. “The business community continues to be energized about our superintendent’s laser focus on students being able to do math well and read on grade level, and we’re also really pleased to see her vision of preparing students at a younger age for exciting careers and aligning instruction to better prepare young people for the workforce.”

Additionally, New Mexico Kids Can, an education policy advocacy group whose political fundraising arm was the lead donor for candidates backed by the business community, also worries about the direction the new board could lead APS.

“I’m really concerned that we will revert back to the way things were before,” Amanda Aragon, executive director of the organization, said in an interview Friday. “A lack of prioritization on academic achievement, a board that functions more like seven individual people with seven individual agendas trying to get something done, versus a board that’s united around a common goal and a common mission.”

She also questions why voters, who have tasked APS with improving the environment in which it educates its students, bounced Board President Danielle Gonzales from her seat.

“We talk a lot about how we want young people to stay and invest in New Mexico,” Aragon said. “We talk a lot about keeping talent here, we talk a lot about electing people with a heart of service,” Aragon said. “And yet, we had the opportunity to keep … a board president who led a massive turnaround of a district that was finally starting to see academic results, a member of the board, who chose to move back to New Mexico five years ago to reinvest in the community that she comes from, and we said, ‘No, thank you.’”

In the 2021 election, the key was fundraising: In the three races the Chamber of Commerce-endorsed candidates won, they significantly out-raised their opponents.

But on Tuesday — despite the chamber candidates out-fundraising their opponents in those three board races again — the teachers union reclaimed the board majority, flipping one of the seats they lost in the 2021 election.

“It always worries me when money can buy where we go in this country,” Bernstein said. “Do I believe in the power of the people? Yes. I mean, that’s what I do, is organize people around common ideas and ideals.”

Business-backed candidates brought in around $186,000 in the four races where they endorsed a candidate, while the teachers’ union-supported candidates received about $129,000 in the three races where the ATF endorsed. The elected candidates will assume their seats in January.

District 5 chamber-endorsed candidate Joshua Martinez garnered $22,550 in campaign contributions against his independent non-union endorsed opponent Brian Laurent Jr., who raised $2,025. Martinez won his race handily.

In District 7, incumbent board Vice President Courtney Jackson raised over $60,000 in contributions compared to her union-backed opponent, Kristin Wood-Hegner, who raised $36,000. Jackson held onto her seat.

District 6 was the only race where the teachers’ union endorsed candidate out-raised a business-backed candidate, with Warigia Bowman bringing in $49,366 compared to David Ams’ $31,600 in contributions. Bowman won with 62% of the vote.

It was the race in District 3 that shifted the balance of power on the board.

In that district, the seat flipped by the union, Gonzales shattered the previous campaign finance record of $55,889 — held by Jackson in the 2021 race — taking in $73,275 in contributions for her reelection campaign. But she only won 39% of the vote on Tuesday.

Union-backed Rebecca Betzen earned 50% of the vote, coming out victorious in the race. Her campaign raised $45,845 with key donations from the local and state teachers unions.

Both Aragon and Bernstein — though they disagree on how the process should have been handled — believe that the shuttering and subsequent repurposing of Taft Middle School North Valley played a key role in the election.

The decision came as part of the district’s right-sizing plan as APS adjusts the number of campuses they operate to fit the declining number of students enrolled as APS, like public districts across the county since the pandemic, sees a declining number of students.

“Time will tell. I think we hope that there continues to be a sincere accountability and what’s happening daily in our classrooms, especially in ensuring that funding reaches the classroom and that teachers are supported in ways that allow them to do the job,” Mandi Torrez, the education reform director for statewide think tank Think New Mexico, said in an interview Thursday.

She added that she is concerned with the increased and continued politicization of the board races.

“It’s unfortunate that we have to go to these sorts of ‘business versus teacher’ kind of discussions, because then that puts a focus on the adults and not on the students,” Torrez said. “In recent years, APS has taken on accountability, with achievement, with transparency and with the board members themselves. And that’s not an easy thing to do.”