News from the Superintendent: May 18, 2009

May 17, 2009

Dear APS Community Member,

This is it, the last week of the school year. It seems like the whole year went by in a flash, and so will this week. Remember that Friday is a scheduled FULL day of classes.

I would like to congratulate everyone on a good year. Everyone worked hard and accomplished a lot. APS students won academic acclaim in all subjects at state and regional levels, earned National Merit Scholarships and improved ACT scores. Teachers and staff won awards like the Golden Apple for their talent and hard work. It was announced just last week that Joyce Newman of Arroyo del Oso Elementary was named 2009 National Distinguished Principal. And we graduated more than 4,000 high school seniors. There’s a lot to be proud of.

The largest piece of business to complete before we can put 2008-2009 in the books is next fiscal year’s budget. The budget will be presented to and discussed by the Finance Committee at 5 p.m. today, and should ultimately be approved by the Board of Education at its meeting on June 3. This has not been an easy process this time around, but I’m confident we will make it through next year and perhaps the economy will pick up by the next budget cycle. My thanks to our budget office for putting it all together.

There’s still a lot to do, of course, but we can continue to shoot for some things next year. We plan to keep each high school open late for students who need to catch up or just work in a different kind of environment. We need to eliminate the barriers to graduation and this is one way to do that. Also, it is still my intention to find a way to put art and music in elementary schools full-time.

I have really enjoyed my first year as your superintendent. Your hard work and support made the successes of this year possible, and I’m very much looking forward to getting started next fall. This will be my sign-off until then.

Have a great summer, and we’ll see you in August.

Sincerely,

Winston Brooks, Superintendent
Albuquerque Public Schools