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Q. Will the district increase my taxes?
A. No tax increase will be necessary, as the new district will have significant financial resources. CASA, a citizen advocacy group, hired a leading school bond financial advisor to perform a feasibility study, which confirms the district's ability to function without a tax increase.
Q. APS has built the schools that the Westside needed, so why do we need to split now?
A. Having facilities to ease overcrowding is what was due to the Westside for over 20 years. However, there are many more issues involving student performance, parent /community participation and local representation.
Q. Why split now, when redistricting for the board will be taking place in 2010?
Redistricting will not guarantee more representation for the Westside and favors incumbents' boundaries. We do not anticipate any gains for the Westside.
Q. What about representation?
A. The new district would have 5 elected board members, representing proportionally sized districts.
Q. How long would it take to create a new district?
A. It took Rio Rancho approximately 2 years to transition into the independent district.
Q. How would it happen?
A. The Secretary of Education would appoint an interim superintendent, support staff and board of directors to help with the transition.
Q. Why use Rio Rancho as Model?
A. State audit found RRPS to be a well run and appropriately focuses efforts and resources on the classroom, which helped produce positive student outcomes. RRPS exhibits many of the best practice qualities that lead to a successful district. In addition, RRPS shows that a district spinoff can be successfully achieved.
Q. What about Rio Rancho's financial problems?
A. State audit found that RRPS needed to do a better job in planning for student population growth that resulted in extra expenditures associated with the openings of several new schools.
Q. I've always heard that APS was top heavy, is it true?
A. Yes when compared to RRPS. APS student to administrator ratio is much higher than RRPS, as is teacher to administrator.
Q. What about the new district's administration?
A. The new district will be fit and trim, with a small central office. The new executive employees will be hired by the district and will have the vision and skills necessary to become an innovative / top performing district. Other newly created school districts throughout the country have been able to attract numerous qualified candidates, many with “hybrid” backgrounds of education and professional business experience.
Q. APS has a low turnout for elections. Will the new district improve voter participation?
A. Yes. APS has less than a 10% turnout on average and has had two failed bond elections. RRPS has had a 20% average turnout, with high favorable bond votes. The new district will encourage voter participation, as allowed by law, and seek to combine elections where possible. The Westside has a high voter turnout in elections with local community issues, as demonstrated on road bond votes. We anticipate that the Westside community will take ownership of their new school district and participate in greater numbers at the polls.
Q. Why split now, when we have a new Superintendent making positive change?
A. APS is too large and the new Superintendent would have a better chance in making positive change in a smaller district. A new Westside district will also be able to improve student performance in a short time frame.
Q. Why did the boundaries not include the entire Westside?
A. The district would have been too large. Studies have shown the optimal district size to be approximately 200 square miles and under 30,000 students. The district would have been over student populated at the start and would not have room for growth.
In addition, the boundaries correlate to the proposed South Valley City, which may consider formation of its own school district.
Q. Why should we care?
A. We can do better with community ownership.
APS has a 47% graduation rate, compared to Rio Rancho's 72%.
APS has a 28% truancy rate, compared to RRPS 2%.
Only 16% of Westside schools are making AYP.
Cibola's cohort graduation rate is 66%; West Mesa's is 31%.
Westside composite graduation rate is only 48%.
(Source APS Cohort Report)
Q. How will this affect the proposed new stadium and other capital projects?
A. The APS Capital Master Plan and bond election will continue as planned. The new district has adequate bonding capacity to encumber the planned projects without a tax increase. Using the Rio Rancho creation experience, all APS properties within the new district would be transferred to the new district, as well as all debt related to those properties. We anticipate an MOU agreement for joint use of the stadium, since APS is planning to use it for graduations.
Q. What about the demographics of the new district?
A. The new district would mirror APS as far as ethnicity and economic demographics. The district would also be similar in demographics of RRPS.
Q. What happens to our school's current employees?
Using the Rio Rancho example, roughly 90% of the employees were hired by the new district, providing that they agreed with the new district's vision. Almost all of the employees who did not agree with the new philosophy were rehired at APS facilities or retired.
Q. How is the new district going to be any better if it has the same teachers and administrators?
A. Again, using the Rio Rancho example, teachers and administrators were reinvigorated in teaching and were encouraged to be innovative with strict accountability. The new district, along with a desirable place to work and live, attracted the best. The new district is all about student services at the student level, not about a massive central administrative office.
Q. What happens now?
A. PASS parent ambassadors will be holding small group informational meetings throughout the new district boundaries. Use the contact us form to request a meeting or learn about one in your area, or become an ambassador.
Q. What happened to start this district?
A. Area legislators and neighborhood leaders sent a request to the Secretary of Education on January 5th, 2008, requesting her to form a new district as allowed by law. The legislators were responding to their constituents' long time pleas for an independent and more responsive district.
Q. How can a new district be created?
A. According to New Mexico law, there are three ways to create a new school district:
1. The existing district's Board of Education may vote to approve the formation
2. 60% of the registered voters residing within the boundaries of the proposed new district may petition the state for the creation of a new district
3. The Secretary of Education may create a new district after public hearings.
New Mexico law also stipulates that the new district's creation must be in the best interest of public education for the new, existing district and the state. PASS believes that the new district meets this requirement by creating two smaller districts that work and improve the state's overall academic standing.
Q. What about APS' efficiencies of scale?
A. While APS does have purchasing power with its size, the new district would also have strong purchasing power as the state's third largest school district. In addition, there is a possibility of creating a regional cooperative operations support center that multiple districts could use to increase buying power.
Q. What about support services, such as school security, bussing and meals?
A. Services could be handled internally, contracted out or provided by a regional cooperative operations support center.
Q. How can schools be operated more effectively in smaller districts?
A. Many states have Regional Cooperative Operation Support Centers that pool resources and provide professional services to multiple districts. They are professionally run and have a board of directors with membership representing the different districts. The board's primarily responsibility is to hire the chief executive officer who handles the day-to-day operations. The centers are funded by operating and capital funds from the districts and some federal dollars. The centers allow districts to concentrate on education and allows business professionals to attend business items.
Some of the areas that could be included in a center serving the area districts include:
- Facility Design & Construction
- Capital Master Plan
- Real Estate Office
- Energy Conservation
- Student Transportation Services
- Food & Nutrition Services
- School Police
- Building Maintenance & Operations
- Warehousing
- Records Management
- Graphics Production & District Services
- Purchasing Cooperative
- Procurement Process
- Information Technology
- Research, Development & Accountability
Q. But won't we be at the mercy of the operational support center for building rehab and new construction?
A. No. While the center would administer capital projects and help create a facility master plan, each member district would approve their own master plan, which prioritizes construction projects based on need. In addition, capital and operation funds would be in individual accounts dedicated to each member district.
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