School Shuffle Angers Parents

If you are a parent and haven’t heard about the shuffle in Albuquerque Public Schools, you will. It happens every year about this time.

On the 20th day of school, when everyone has settled in, the official enrollment count is taken. That’s when teachers and students get shuffled around.

Teachers are moved from small schools to large ones. Students are moved to different classrooms when their teachers leave. Substitute teachers are finally moved out and permanent ones moved into the large schools.

“Either way, it’s not pretty,” said Associate Superintendent Nelinda Venegas. “It’s not a win-win for students.”

The school district has not found a sure way to avoid it and that’s troubling to parents.

“We think the policy is disruptive for all children,” Monte Vista Elementary School parent Mary Rafferty told Albuquerque Board of Education members and APS administrators Tuesday.

Rafferty and two other parents from Monte Vista complained at the board’s Policy Committee meeting that the shuffle has been a painful process for them since last Thursday’s count.

“We just wish it was a first-day shuffle,” said Ele Sarason, whose second-grade daughter was upset because she thought her teacher was leaving. As it turned out, another teacher volunteered to leave the school, so her students will have to be reassigned to different classes.

But Sarason’s daughter “wrote a letter right away, saying she was mad and sad” about the prospect of losing her teacher, her mother said.

About 10 letters were sent from Monte Vista families to the superintendent, the parents said.

Monte Vista Elementary, 3211 Monte Vista Blvd., was down 30 students last week during the 20-day count, which is used for funding purposes. That meant the teaching staff had to be reduced by one teacher, who had to be moved to a school that was overenrolled and needed more staff.

Across town at Manzano Mesa Elementary School, 801 Elizabeth St. S.E., the opposite scenario was unfolding. There, five classes of students were being taught by substitute teachers until permanent teachers could be transferred in from other schools.

Manzano Mesa didn’t have the space or enough teachers for the 139 extra children who showed up, Venegas said. The previous year, Manzano Mesa lost three teachers because enrollment was under projections.

Historically, “this has been a disruptive” time, said Associate Superintendent Susie Peck. Still, the district hasn’t found the answer.

“If it were easy, we would fix it,” Venegas said. There have been efforts to minimize the disruption, including early communication with parents, early registration and conservative hiring.