Union urges teachers to skip survey
ATF leader calls APS budget questionnaire problematic, divisive and inappropriate
Former Albuquerque Public Schools teacher Julia Burrola says she left APS after two years because she felt like she had no voice in the district.
She often tried to share her input on classroom and curriculum procedures with administration, saying she was shot down time and time again.
But Burrola, now a second- and third-grade math teacher at the statechartered Mission Achievement and Success Charter School, was encouraged when she saw APS’ new 2018-2019 budget survey on the district’s website that invites members of the public, including parents, teachers and students, to weigh in on budget priorities for next year.
“I was excited to hear they were progressing,” she said.
That excitement was tempered when she learned of an email blast by the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, the local union, urging APS employees to skip the survey about APS’ $1.3 billion budget.
APS’ anonymous, 11-question survey included ranking school subjects and programs in order of importance and suggestions for reducing expenses, among other questions.
The district has conducted several online budget sur-
veys over the years, according to APS spokeswoman Monica Armenta.
“Although the Fiscal Year 2019 has a more positive projected budget, we are always looking for ways to increase efficiencies while improving educational services to our students,” the survey description says. “This is where we need your help with ideas that move us forward with a strategic, sustainable and cost-effective model of delivering education to our children.”
Armenta said a budget steering committee will review the survey feedback, and programs could grow or shrink as a result.
ATF President Ellen Bernstein sent the email blast to thousands of people that ATF represents, urging “every employee in APS represented by this union” not to take the survey, because she felt it was problematic, divisive and inappropriate.
The ATF president told the Journal that APS staff shouldn’t have to rate their colleagues’ jobs, saying the survey pits programs against each other.
“It is stunning that a survey asking for budget priorities would list programs like English Language Arts, Bilingual Education, Music, and many more basic educational programs, as a possible ‘waste of money,’” Bernstein wrote in the email. “Nowhere to be found are Central Office departments. Nowhere to be found are administrative positions.”
The survey is a mix of multiple-choice and short answer questions. The longest multiple-choice question lists 33 programs, classes and extracurricular activities that survey takers are asked to rank as “extremely important,” “important,” “slightly important,” “don’t care/not important” or a “waste of money.”
“It is clear the survey lacks anything that is actually inefficient,” Bernstein wrote. “Providing educational programs with the blood, sweat and tears of underpaid employees in underfunded programs should never appear on a list of possible inefficiencies unless the goal is to further demoralize employees.”
But the survey also asks questions such as: “What other suggestions do you have to help balance the Albuquerque Public Schools Budget?” and “What is your single most important concern for the budget?”
Armenta said the survey was posted online “to provide a venue for employees to be heard,” and no one is required to fill it out.
Berstein said ATF does a union negotiation survey every other year and gathers input from teachers throughout the year.
She said in the email the APS survey is “inappropriate — and perhaps destructive to our collective bargaining relationship — for the District to ask employees represented by a Union to identify their budget priorities. That’s our Union’s job.”
Burrola, who previously was in the union during her time at APS, said the email quieted teacher input, which she believes is already in short supply.
“I have heard from members they won’t take (the survey),” Burrola said, citing the email as the reason.
She called ATF’s email “self-serving” and said she’s been encouraging members to take the survey regardless.
While she isn’t a part of APS any longer, she still plans to participate, saying it’s important for teachers’ voices to be heard.