Albuquerque Public Schools
Celebrating the Power of Us
In her weekly message, Superintendent Blakey reflects on the APS Rising Back to School Conference.
I’ve had many great moments as superintendent of Albuquerque Public Schools, but standing before 6,000 educators at our APS Rising Back to School Conference on Monday was an amazing experience I will never forget.
It was the first time we’ve been able to gather all of our teachers, principals, counselors, nurses, community school impact coordinators, diagnosticians and other service providers in one place, and it was a powerful reminder of the collective might we possess to make our corner of the world a better place! It was also a reminder that APS is more than one school or one office building or even a collection of campuses.
At its heart, APS is an army of incredible individuals with a singular mission: preparing our students to succeed in the world. There’s no question this is a monumental undertaking, but seeing all of you at the Albuquerque Convention Center on Monday solidified my belief that we have what it takes to achieve that mission and to make our students’ lives better in the process.
The Convention Center event was awesome, but it wasn’t perfect.
We were missing our educational assistants, Food and Nutrition Services personnel, Police Department, bus drivers and a host of other APS employees who play a key role in serving students and keeping our district running. I welcomed back Police Department and Food and Nutrition Services personnel last week, and we held additional welcome-back events for educational assistants and bus drivers.
But my dream is to have one big welcome back event for all employees in the future.
During my speech at the Convention Center, we did a ThoughtExchange exercise in which I asked one question: How can we shape our district culture to ensure collaboration, support and shared purpose thrive among all staff?
About 3,600 people participated, rating 3,000 shared responses nearly 64,000 times on a scale of one to five.
I love exercises like these because they provide a good snapshot of where we are and what we could be doing to improve. Put simply, they give us the ability to harness the power of the group and to tap into your experience and expertise.
So what did we learn?
- You emphasized the need for more time and opportunities to collaborate, both within and across schools.
- You want professional development that respects teacher autonomy.
- Many of you stressed the importance of respecting teachers’ time, recognizing their professional experience, and ensuring diverse voices are heard.
- Other consistent themes were the desire for adequate resources and smaller class sizes, especially in classrooms with special education students.
- And many others pointed to trust, clear communication and effective site-based management as essential to building an inclusive and unified district culture.
I want you to know that we heard you and are working toward many of the things you’ve asked for.
We know collaboration time makes a difference and that we need to give teachers more time with colleagues. We heard you when you told us you wanted to learn from each other, and that was the impetus behind the APS Rising Back to School Conference. We heard you say you want a seat at the table, and that’s why I created a Teacher Advisory Council.
Another comment that resonated with me was this one: “We take a lot of criticism. Positivity and examples of the good work we are doing need to get out to the media and the public.”
I completely agree. We are doing amazing work at APS, and we need our community to know about it. Let’s brag about all that we’re doing for the children of Albuquerque every day, and let’s be proud of being a part of Albuquerque Public Schools.
To that end, we invited the media to Jefferson Middle School on Wednesday to highlight the wonderful Where Everybody Belongs initiative we’ve implemented at all of our middle schools. The program connects sixth graders with eighth graders, making them feel welcomed and letting them know they’re not alone.
It’s one of several positive stories we’ve worked to highlight over the summer. Others include our incredible Alliance for Leading and Learning Principal Preparation Program, our sixth- and seventh-graders exceeding the interim math targets and our Newcomer Summer Program.
We have a lot to be proud of and to celebrate!
And since we’re doing more bragging this year, I’m going to leave you with a story about Gloria, a wonderful bus driver I met on Monday while riding a school bus to the Convention Center. She spoke with pride about getting kids to and from school safely every day, and talked about the importance of greeting our kids with a smile. Gloria loves her job, and our students are fortunate to have APS employees like her in their lives.
Have a spectacular school year!