ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Scott Elder will continue to run the largest school district in the state.
The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education voted 4-3 to select Elder as the next superintendent, ending a search process that started shortly after Raquel Reedy announced in October 2019 that she would retire.
Board members talked for hours on Monday behind closed doors before taking the vote publicly.
Board President David Peercy read a statement that said members considered community input about all three finalists.
Elder, who has been the interim APS superintendent, was up against Ignacio Ruiz, assistant superintendent for the Clark County School District in Nevada, and Bolgen Vargas, a self-employed consultant and former superintendent of Rochester City School District in New York.
“We understand that community members have provided passionate support for each of these three candidates and hope that we can all come together and support our board decision as we enter into a critical and challenging period of return to full in-school instruction,” Peercy said. “The board decision was that Mr. Elder would be the best candidate at this time based on his educational background and current understanding of our district challenges.”
Elder said he’s “very happy” and “very excited” to take on the job in a more permanent capacity.
“I think we recognize we have a lot of work to do and that we have to come together to understand the goals that will help push this district forward through this incredibly historic time and then as we move forward and we get back to a more traditional and more normal pace of life,” he said during a news conference on Monday.
It was a very tough decision to pick a superintendent, Peercy said. As the vote indicates, there were differing opinions among board members.
“I know you all heard the words ‘equity’ and ‘equality’ and ‘fairness’ and ‘anti-racism’ — all words and actions that our community truly cares about. But now it’s going to be up to you, the public, to decide if the actions and selection the majority of the board took, validates them. And whether the selection will take APS forward to the future our kids so rightly deserve,” said board member Peggy Muller-Aragón, who voted no.
Peercy said that the board “looks forward” to working with Elder to ensure that diversity, equity and inclusion are fostered at APS. And Elder said achieving that in schools requires everyone to work together.
“I know well that together we can achieve great progress on behalf of our students and our families and that’s why I feel very confident and very much ready to continue in this position,” he said.
Meanwhile, members Candelaria Patterson and Barbara Petersen also voted against. Patterson said she aligned her vote with what she heard from constituents and Petersen said she saw an opportunity to bring a fresh perspective to APS.
Elder has a decades-long career in APS that started in the 1990s, including as a teacher and principal, and he has master’s degrees in secondary education and business administration. Elder was also previously the chief operations officer for the district, stepping in as acting superintendent in July amid a massive shift to remote learning. His annual salary as interim superintendent is $225,000, which Peercy said will likely remain the same under his new contract.
Peercy said the basics of the contract are nailed down, such as it will be for two years with opportunities to extend, but the other details will be worked out in the next couple of weeks after which the document will be made public.
Monday’s decision came after superintendent deliberations had been postponed previously because the district had not received FBI background checks for all of the finalists.
Before the pandemic hit New Mexico, the search was well underway. There had been 39 applicants and five semifinalists were chosen from that pool. Elder didn’t apply initially, citing personal reasons.
But the board suspended the superintendent search in March 2020 due to the novel coronavirus, later appointing Elder to fill the role in the interim. It wasn’t until November that the board decided to resume the search, opting to repost the job to consider additional applicants. That’s when 15 more applied to be superintendent, including Elder, and six semifinalists were selected. After interviews, the board whittled it down to four finalists but Ushma Shah, assistant superintendent of elementary schools, instruction and equity for School District U-46 in Illinois, ended up withdrawing.
Elder will continue to run the school district during a time of substantial challenges in public education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. APS is weeks away from reopening all schools in the district after the state Public Education Department called for full reopenings by April 5.
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