Colleagues:
I want to thank each of you for the personal and professional commitment you have made to our students in New Mexico. After my many years in New Mexico Public Schools service, I am tremendously impressed with your leadership and your tireless efforts of rekindling our public school practices assuring that every student in New Mexico is well served.
As we continue to emerge from the “Covid Cloud” it is imperative that we not only rekindle our practice but that we also redesign our system. It is starkly apparent to me that the students “in our doors” today have changed from the students that were “in our door” as we went into the “Covid Cloud”. It is also apparent to me that parental interactions and expectations have also changed over that time and, in my view, each one of you in this important leadership role, will best lead us through by working strategies which best fit this moment in your community. I don’t believe that one size fits all and I don’t believe that we can move forward without some changes to meet our students “in the place they are in.”
As an organization we realize that many of you may be relatively new to your current position, and we are here as a support to you, as you operate through your day-to-day challenges. Your leadership matters and you matter. As I write this reflection, I note that we have changed 52 of our 89 superintendents in about the last 15 months, and I heard a report that we have also changed a significant number of our principals over this same time period. By banding together as a professional association, we are most likely to thrive. We have important partners in NMCEL that possess and deliver great support. I encourage you to reach out to them for help and counsel. You are not alone. You matter!
Please note the “suite” of training opportunities that are available through CES, NMASBO, NMAESP, NMASSP, and NMSSA and several other of our NMCEL family members. We encourage you to reach out and connect with our membership. We are blessed with a great team to support you.
Later in this newsletter I will be providing you with our adopted legislative platform that was approved unanimously by our school superintendents and our NMCEL Board. In this year of great available resources, we are targeting a series of improvements in resources to public schools in New Mexico. It is time for us to begin our efforts of discussing our needs now with our legislature. I ask that you become familiar with our “asks” and begin communicating them now.
I want to recognize our partners at the New Mexico School Boards Association and thank Joe Guillen for their support and alignment on our combined legislative “asks”. Together, we have a strong voice to offer. Partnerships and collaborations are the “watchwords” on which we need to focus.
Best Regards:
Stan