Questa school board hosts meeting in ABQ casino-hotel

The Questa school board hosted its annual retreat Friday and Saturday (Oct. 26-27) at a casino hotel that’s more than two hours away from the community.

The five-person board met for two days at the pueblo-owned Santa Ana Star Casino Hotel near Bernalillo on the north side of Albuquerque, according to the meeting notice.

In addition to talking about strategic visions and expectations for interactions between the board and the administration, the board was scheduled to go into several executive sessions — a closed-door section of the meeting — to discuss collective bargaining in union negotiations, pending or threatened litigation and the superintendent’s role in the direction of the district.

Questa superintendent LeAnne Salazar initially responded to Taos News questions about why the retreat was not held in Questa or Taos County by saying, “The Open Meetings Act does not place restrictions on the location of a public meeting. Keep in mind that the notice provisions still apply, and the public must be given reasonable notice of the meeting’s time and location. We have provided you with a meeting agenda with the executive session noted.”

She later added it’s “common practice” to hold retreats away from normal places of business “to get out of the ‘same old, same old’ routine and be as self-reflective and creative as possible.”

However, the practice isn’t common across the county. Taos Municipal Schools superintendent Lillian Torrez said the district’s board always hosts its annual retreat in Taos.

Salazar did not say how much the board retreat is costing the district or if the board members would be staying in the hotel on the school district’s dime. She only noted that the board member’s hotel rooms “are standard (government) rate comparable to similar hotels.”

The Tularosa Room, where the retreat will be held, accommodates 50-82 people.