Retiring Principal Served Students for 29 Years

By ANDREA SCHOELLKOPF Journal Staff Writer

It’s been nearly 20 years since Stan Agustin rolled into work at John Adams Middle School.

At the time, he said, the school’s name — and its reputation for gangs — struck fear for many in the community.

So when the Hawaiian native and Army veteran took over as principal some 10 years ago, it was to continue a quest the school had to clean itself up.

"We have made serious changes in how we provide education," said Agustin, who is retiring this year after nearly 29 years with Albuquerque Public Schools.

Gangs had to be taken out of John Adams, and the changes included a new dress code and serious efforts at discipline.

Now, if a John Adams student so much as doodles a gang symbol on a notebook, a parent is called in for a conference, Agustin said.

Changes also included bringing children in the special education classes — isolated in portable buildings — into the regular classrooms as part of an inclusion program that Adams is known for nationally.

"The fighting and disrespect diminished considerably," Agustin said.

He created a mentorship program between struggling students and staff to help foster better relationships in the school.

The changes at John Adams, though, meant convincing its parents, who were instrumental in the early 1990s with switching to a uniform dress code along with neighboring Truman Middle School.

Those who remember the "old days," however, were slow in accepting the "new and improved Adams."

Minds changed

Parent Arlene Bullard said she spent an entire year trying to find things wrong with the school and Agustin when she found out the man that used to discipline her oldest daughter had become the middle school principal.

The two came to an arrangement: If Bullard was not happy with the school after the first semester, he would help get a transfer for her daughter to the school of the family’s choice.

Bullard — with visions of being threatened by students in the halls and children smoking on campus some 10 years earlier when her oldest daughter was there — said she went there looking for faults.

What she saw was that the school lockers were no longer being used and students were clad in uniforms.

"I had actually seen a drastic change," she said. "… It took a year for him to grow on me. I really held a grudge."

Agustin then started inviting Bullard — who was at the school daily — into meetings with teachers and for the budget. She then asked for a parent center, equipped with a computer, conference table and cabinets to enlist other parent volunteers, and became one of the school’s advocates.

She said Agustin and Garcia frequently went on home visits for students who were troubled or falling behind. Once, she went with them to pick up a student who wasn’t showing up to school when his grandmother went to work.

"We let him know he was important to the school, and he came to school," Bullard said. "And after that, we had no more problems."

Getting involved

Doug Patterson and his wife Julie had been students in Agustin’s Spanish class at Garfield Middle School in the North Valley many years back.

While they liked the man, they were very reluctant to send their daughters to Adams — their West Side neighborhood’s school — because of its rough reputation but soon became convinced things were OK.

"He was on top of it," Patterson said. "We were involved. Went to the parent meetings, and he knew all the kids. He knew who the troublemakers were, he knew all the kids by name."

The end of his career, however, was marked by the vandalism of fish tanks at the Albuquerque Aquarium by seventh graders — an action that brought shame to the school and other students.

"There’s a tremendous amount of pride in the school," Agustin said. "We’ve tried to be the voice of reason."

The students, however, are determined to rise above that.

During his tenure, Adams started a student leadership program to give kids a sense of belonging while instilling skills of independence and good decisions. Recently, members of the class raised funds and offered their services as volunteers to the Albuquerque Bio-Park to help build bridges with the city.

In 2003, Agustin was given an award from the National Assistance League for his role in education.

Outside of school, he was also named as part of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission’s New Mexico Advisory Committee, where he heard testimony about the violation of rights of American Indians.

The retirement decision had been made years earlier. Having turned 60 last month, he finally realized it was time to work on his next dream.

"For me, I think education is a calling," Agustin said. "You have to believe in kids, our staff and or community."

Agustin moved to New Mexico in the 1970s in search of a teaching job, where he ended up working in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho middle schools, including Garfield Junior High and Cleveland and Lincoln middle schools, before moving to Adams.

"It goes by so quickly," he said. "Especially when you’re enjoying yourself."

His wife, Geri, retired as a Rio Rancho school teacher four years ago. Their children are now grown — daughter Elena is an architect and son Vincent is at University of New Mexico’s Pharmacy School.

Agustin, happy with his career, said he looked up one day to realize his wife had started their retirement years without him and he then remembered their plans to retire early and see the world.

"In the process, you forget you make those plans," he said.

He alerted APS to his retirement last fall, but only announced it to his staff last month when the district decided to name assistant principal Renee Salazar as his replacement.

"It’s really nice to have stability," said Agustin, who had also come up from being the Adams assistant principal under Jo Ann Coffee, now the La Cueva High principal.

(c) 2007 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.