Stable school leadership a plus for Santa Fe

Stability can be an underrated virtue in these tumultuous times. Yet for Santa Fe Public Schools, having a thoughtful, solid leader in charge of the district is worth valuing.

That’s why we were pleased to learn that Superintendent Veronica García could be receiving a one-year contract extension this week. She is already on board to stay at the helm until 2019.

Should the board approve the extension and the superintendent accept the terms, García would stay on until 2020. That would give her four years in charge of the district. Her predecessors, Joel Boyd and Bobbie Gutierrez, also spent about four years at the top. Their terms, however, seemed marked by greater tumult than in the past few years. García has been a steadying hand, and that’s been good for Santa Fe students and teachers.

By 2020, the new Milagro Middle School should be up and running. The Board of Education should be closer to districtwide rezoning and should have decided which — if any — schools could be consolidated. Work on graduation rates, reading scores and math proficiency will be continuing. Improvements to school security, a topic on which García is uniformly sensible, will be ongoing. García also has managed the district through tough financial times, not hesitating to fight for more funding when necessary. There’s a lot to be said for keeping a steady hand at the top.

With a new governor taking office in 2019, García’s expertise in educational law and her statewide contacts — she is a former secretary of public education, after all — will help our district in the transition. Whoever is elected, whether GOP Rep. Steve Pearce or Democratic Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, it is likely that educational policy will be in the spotlight. Such initiatives as school report cards, standardized testing of schoolchildren, the evaluation of public school teachers and most recently, grades for teacher education programs, all could face reform or elimination. García’s expertise will be invaluable as these policies are debated.

At home, she is a superintendent who represents Santa Fe well. She can listen calmly when angry constituents are upset. She can explain complicated policies in simple terms. She has put in her time in the trenches, whether in a classroom or leading schools. She also understands the broader needs of children — that a hungry, tired kid is not going to be able to learn as easily as the comfortable child whose belly is full. As director of Voices for Children in New Mexico, she worked on the root causes of poverty, key to improving our educational outcome in New Mexico. She understands that the community and schools will have to work more closely than ever so that our children have the best possible start.

For all these reasons, keeping García in her job is good for our schools.