APS Board Names Superintendent Finalists

The public can meet and ask questions of the three candidates in forums at 7 a.m., 11:30 and 4 p.m. today.

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education today named three finalists as it seeks to fill the position of superintendent for the 88,000-student school district.

            Named as finalists were: Almudena ‘Almi’ Abeyta, currently deputy superintendent for teaching and learning for Santa Fe Public Schools; Michael Cardona, chief school officer for the Houston Independent Schools and Luis Valentino, associate superintendent/chief academic officer for the San Francisco Unified School District.

            To see their resumés go to: http://www.aps.edu/about-us/superintendent/superintendent-search/superintendent-candidates

            The three finalists were chosen by the board after being interviewed by board members in a meeting that began at 7 a.m. today. They chose the finalists from a field of six semi-finalists, who were selected from a pool of 59 applicants. The other three semi-finalists, who were named last week, were Veronica Garcia, Angelica Ramsey and Rolando Treviño.

            Later today the APS Board of Education will host community forums with the finalists for the APS Superintendent position. All meetings will last about 90 minutes and will be held in the John Milne Room at the Alice & Bruce King Educational Complex (APS Building), 6400 Uptown Blvd., NE.  The forums are set for: 6 p.m., today, with a focus on parents and families; 7 a.m., tomorrow, (Friday) with a focus on students and APS employees; 11:30 a.m., tomorrow, with a focus on business and government officials; and 4 p.m., tomorrow, with a focus on students and APS employees.

            APS Board of Education President Dr. Don Duran said any community member is welcome to attend any of the forums. “We just wanted to make sure that we scheduled them at times that would be convenient for the target groups,” Duran said.

            The Board will meet with the finalists on Saturday morning and expect to name a new superintendent later that day.