Rio Rancho Public Schools

Should there be a mask requirement for children going back to schools in the fall?

No, I don’t believe a mask should be required.

2) Do you believe that the State and your district returned students to their classrooms: Too Early, At the right time, or Not quickly enough? (pick one).

I do not believe the State allowed our students to return to their classrooms quickly enough and, unfortunately, our students suffered greatly due to this.

3) Districts are one potential charter school authorizer in the State of New Mexico. Could you offer a brief sentence or two regarding your feelings on charter schools and your support/opposition in your district?

I believe that the more options that our families have in education, the more likely we are to find what truly propels our children towards success in their individual education, and their lives well beyond their school years. I support having as many options as possible for our local families to choose from, whether that be public, private, charter, online or home school education options.

4) What kind of accountability tools do you believe should be implemented at the district level to improve student outcomes? How would you work within your school board to improve student outcomes?

I frequently tell our employees “Tell me what makes your job easier, what tools you need to be more efficient and successful”. If we aren’t willing to listen to the ones with their boots on the ground,

carrying out our orders, we are silencing our greatest asset for improvement. I would love to hear from our local educators on this subject. I am a full supporter of transparency in every area of education, and I believe part of that transparency comes from listening to those that we entrust our precious children with every day. This is another reason why local control of our education system is so crucial.

5) If it does not already do so, would you support creating an online transparency portal to include annual budget information, employee salaries, administrator contracts, and other public records?

Yes, 100%! Easily accessible public transparency is crucial. Our district has taken large strides in recent years to become more transparent, and although I believe there is much more work to be done here, I applaud the improvements they have made so far.

6) In your view, is Critical Race Theory, particularly the

oppressor/oppressed dynamics it teaches, appropriate for middle and high school classrooms?

No, I do not support the use of CRT curriculum in any of our classrooms.

Should there be a mask requirement for children going back to schools in the fall?
- Parents should have the final decision on what is right for their children. We should return as much freedom and choice back to the parents. Parents know what is right for their own children.
Do you believe that the State and your district returned students to their classrooms: Too Early, At the right time, or Not quickly enough? (pick one).
- Not quickly enough. Our students were already suffering. Removing them from the classroom for such an extended period of time was a mistake. The science is clear: COVID is not a pediatric disease. Hybrid and remote education models failed students for eighteen months.
Districts are one potential charter school authorizer in the State of New Mexico. Could you offer a brief sentence or two regarding your feelings on charter schools and your support/opposition in your district?
- Charter schools and broad-based school choice create competition with government schools. Competition is proven to improve services and outcomes. We need charter schools. Parents deserve as many choices as possible when determining their children’s education.
What kind of accountability tools do you believe should be implemented at the district level to improve student outcomes? How would you work within your school board to improve student outcomes?
- Transparency. Whether it’s transparency of spending, salaries, or curriculum, transparency is key to ensuring parental engagement at the district level by enabling ease of access to critical information about operations of our schools.
Are you in favor of splitting APS into smaller districts in order to encourage more local participation?
- Not applicable for Rio Rancho Public Schools, but yes, I think that Albuquerque Public Schools ought to be broken into smaller districts. The monolith of APS has proven ineffective at educating our children.
If it does not already do so, would you support creating an online transparency portal to include annual budget information, employee salaries, administrator contracts, and other public records?
- Why has this not been done already? Transparency is key: a portal like this needs to be created to help ensure accountability of our schools and our educational leaders.