Education

A letter addressed to the Los Alamos Public School System from the New Mexico Public Education Department caused some excitement and, likely, some relief.
The letter comes right in the middle of a special committee’s efforts to formulate an alternative proposal to NMPED’s teacher evaluation plan.
The letter, which was from Matt Montano, the department’s Director of Educator Quality Division, seemed to suggest that NMPED is willing to streamline its evaluation process.
The department apparently came to this conclusion after obtaining data from this year’s teacher evaluation process, the first full year the process has been implemented.
“These updates are based on your feedback and lessons learned from year one of implementation,” Montano said in the letter. “They are data-driven revisions designed to streamline administrative efforts as well as to improve the NMTEACH process.”
The letter then went on to list the revised guidelines, which include:
• Districts and charters may conduct one observation for Highly Effective and Exemplary Teachers.

“Keep the Promise,” a statewide affiliation of parent groups, businesses, and unions concerned with reversing the some of recent changes being made to the New Mexico public education by the New Mexico Public Education Department, held a public forum in Santa Fe this week.
The topic was about the privatization and corporatization of certain facets of New Mexico’s public education system, and whether or not that is a good or bad thing.
“We’d thought we’d start this conversation with a small group of people, talk about what’s happening here in Santa Fe, figure out what the facts are, talk about where this is going on a national level down to the state and into the classroom,” said Pat Brady, a moderator for many of the Keep the Promise events.
Brady then introduced Charles Goodmacher, an official from the National Education Association New Mexico, who proceeded to frame the debate for the audience.
Goodmacher started off saying that not all privatization in public schools is bad, in fact privatization he said plays a necessary part in the system through supplying vital services to less populated areas of the state. He also mentioned textbook companies as a necessary privatization.
However, this new wave of privatization is different, he said.

 Los Alamos High School reached gold medal status after being ranked 500th in the “Best High Schools in America,” out of 19,411 schools, according to U.S. News and World Report.
Achieving gold medal ranking also qualified Los Alamos High School for status as a 2014 STEM “Best High Schools.” To determine the top STEM (science, technology, engineering and math schools), U.S. News and World Report looked at the top 500 public schools in the nation and then evaluated their students’ participation and success in Advanced Placement science and math test.
Los Alamos High School was ranked 189th out of 250 high schools. STEM rankings methodology is based on the key principle that students at “Best High Schools” for STEM must participate in and pass a robust curriculum of college math and science courses. Data for this ranking was taken from the 2012 graduates.
School Board President, Judy Bjarke McKenzie said, “this ranking serves as proof that all schools in the district are headed in the right direction.”

The Los Alamos School Board officially approved Tuesday Superintendent of Schools Dr. Gene Schmidt’s contract during a regular school board meeting yesterday, giving him a three percent raise in salary.
Starting July 1, Schmidt’s salary will be $149,185.20, an increase from his current salary of $144,840.00.
According to Human Resources Manager and Assistant Superintendent Gerry Washburn, Schmidt will also have the same benefits package as the other employees of the school district, which include 20 days of leave.
The contract is for one year, starting July 1 and ending June 30, 2015.
It’s expected that at the end of this contract, Schmidt will step down and the board will already have a successor lined up.
According to the Los Alamos School Board’s president, Judy Bjarke McKenzie, the board has already begun the search process of looking for Schmidt’s replacement, saying they are already in the process of forming a search committee.
About a month and a half ago, it seemed liked this year would be Schmidt’s last with the Los Alamos Public Schools, as Schmidt and the board seemed to have had a falling out over key issues.