Moderator's Note: There has been new debate in the APS Board approved redistricting saga. Lawmakers representing the West Side are against the 2nd option presented to the APS Board (the first option submitted by a committee was voted down in favor of their 2nd option. That option shifted districts around as opposed to dissolving one of the east side districts in exchange for one on the west side where the majority of the student growth has been). The following legislative information and articles from the ABQ Journal will get you up to speed on what is going on...
Westside Legislators Senators Bernadette Sanchez, Linda Lopez and Sander Rue and Representatives Moe Maestas, Eleanor Chavez and Miguel Garcia have sponsored a joint resolution (SJR16/HJR27) in response to growing dissatisfaction with the redrawn APS election map. Because of a technicality, the joint resolution is written in the affirmative and the legislators' intent is to vote it down. Their hope is to send it back to APS for further work.
Make your voice heard by attending the following this week and/or send committee chairs of Education and Senate Rules your thoughts:
- Tuesday, Feb. 7th, 10AM, Westside Day at the Roundhouse with a rally in the Rotunda
- Wednesday, Feb. 8th, 8AM, SJR 16 Hearing, Senate Rules Committee, Rm 321.
- Friday, Feb. 10th, 8AM, HJR 27 House Education Committee, Rm 317
Education Committee Chair: Rick Miera--505-986-4842; rick.miera@nmlegis.gov
Senate Rules Committee Chair: Linda Lopez--505986-4737; linda.lopez@nmlegis.gov
West Siders Balk At APS Districts
Lawmakers from Albuquerque's West Side have seized on an obscure provision of the state Constitution to
send a message to Albuquerque Public Schools: Your redistricting plan needs a do-over.
And they are hoping a measure they have introduced in the Legislature shakes things up enough to prod
APS back to the map-drawing table.
APS last month approved a plan that shifts several board districts westward to absorb the West Side
population boom, instead of creating a new West Side district.
A constitutional provision appears to require the Legislature to approve redistricting of school districts with
populations over 200,000 and seven-member boards — in other words, APS.
Now, some West Side lawmakers are sponsoring resolutions in the House and the Senate to approve the
APS redistricting — but they actually want the Legislature to reject the resolutions.
If they are rejected, APS would be forced to redraw districts, they argue. That's because the new redistricting
plan would lack approval, and the old districts would remain illegal because of unequal population.
At the least, says Rep. Antonio "Moe" Maestas, a West Side Democrat, the Legislature's failure to approve
would provide more fodder if a lawsuit were brought to challenge the new redistricting plan.
"The goal is to have APS redistrict," said Maestas, a sponsor of the House resolution. "The reason West
Siders are sponsoring this legislation is to be at the table."
West Siders should have three of the seven board seats, Maestas and others contend.
APS board president Paula Maes defended the APS redistricting plan.
"We are not disregarding the West Side at all," Maes said Friday.
Population in the area supports between two and 2¾ districts on the West Side, but there was "not enough
for them to have three," Maes said. "The map we approved does exactly that."
Maes also said Hispanics are well represented in the new APS districts.
APS board member Martin Esquivel, who voted for the APS redistricting plan and says it's fair to the West
Side, questioned the legal premise of the new legislative effort.
"Legally, it's a long shot. … It's a Hail Mary, and I think they know full well what it is," Esquivel said.
His interpretation of the provision is that legislative approval was meant to apply when the board first went to
seven members, but not to subsequent redistrictings every decade.
A sponsor of the Senate resolution on the APS redistricting issue, Rules Committee Chairwoman Linda
Lopez, D-Albuquerque, said she plans to put it on her committee's agenda early next week.
She said she and other supporters want to "get the attention of the Albuquerque Public Schools board and
let them know that …. those of us who live on the west side of the river feel that we have been left out of the
discussion."
Lopez acknowledged that it "will take some education" of her colleagues to make it clear the resolution's
sponsors are actually in opposition to its passage.
Critics say a seat should have been eliminated on Albuquerque's East Side and moved to the West Side.
They say the plan adopted in January was designed instead to protect incumbents.
In the meeting in which the new districts were approved, Maes said, all the current board was harmonious.
She said current board members deserved a chance to run again.
Republican Rep. Tom Anderson says he would join his colleagues in voting against the approval resolution if
it reached the House floor.
"We're going to continue to grow," said Anderson, whose House district boomed so much over the past
decade it had twice the population it should have by the time it was redistricted.
Republican Sen. Sander Rue said the desire for more West Side representation is shared by groups that
might disagree over other issues.
"There are a lot of people that aren't happy with the current plan," Rue said. "We were all hoping for three
distinct West Side school districts that didn't cross the river."
Email the reporter at dbaker@abqjournal.com.Call the reporter at 505-992-6267
abqjournal.com http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/02/04/west/west-news/discontent-with-aps-plan-grows.html
Discontent With APS Plan Grows
Rumblings are being heard on the West Side, and they're not from the five volcanos.
More than a week after the Albuquerque Public Schools board approved a redistricting plan for its seven
seats, discontent from residents on the west side of the river appears to be growing.
"Nobody is accepting this," said Laura Horton, secretary of the Northwest Alliance of Neighbors.
"People don't feel that they got a fair deal on this vote, and after what happened in the last redistricting,
people are not going to lay down for this," she said.
Horton was referring to the 2002 remapping, when West Siders at the time also complained that the district's
plan didn't adequately represent the growing population west of the Rio Grande.
The APS board at its Jan. 23 meeting on a 6-0 vote, with one member absent, approved a compromise plan
that largely keeps the existing districts, but shifts portions of several of its seven districts west to absorb
growth west of the river. West Side advocates wanted a plan that would have moved an entire board district
from the Northeast Heights to the West Side.
The action re-ignited rumblings of court challenges and long simmering debate about whether West Side
residents should break off from APS and form its own school district.
This week in Santa Fe, West Side Albuquerque lawmakers Rep. Antonio "Moe" Maestas and Sen.
Bernadette Sanchez, both Democrats, introduced joint resolutions seeking legislative review of the board's
plan.
"To continue to have only two out of seven districts of APS on the West Side is unacceptable," Maestas said
in a statement. "The children of the West Side trump the APS `Incumbent Protection Plan.' There's an easy
solution to avoid a constitutional crisis — for the APS Board to redraw its map to reflect one person-one vote
for the West Side."
Maestas said there is a provision in the state constitution that requires the Legislature to approve
redistricting of school districts with populations of more than 200,000 and seven member boards. APS is the
only district in the state that meets that provision.
District 3 school board member Lorenzo Garcia welcomed a review. Garcia's district includes the North Valley
and part of the northwest city area.
"If that's what the law says has to be done, then it should be done. It's always good to have a review," he
said, adding that he wonders why this provision wasn't invoked in the 2002 remapping.
"Why didn't they do it then and why now?" Garcia asked.
Garcia, who preferred a plan that would have created a third West Side district, said, "I still wish the board
would reconsider and look at it again."
He added, "I don't think that the board is inclined to want to look at it again."
After Wednesday's regular meeting of the school board, Garcia accompanied District 2 board member Kathy
Korte to a meeting of the Westside Coalition of Neighborhood Associations.
The meeting was attended by 40 to 50 residents.
"They were not happy. They thought the board acted to preserve our seats, and I don't think that was the
intent of the board," Garcia said.
"Our idea was to try and come up with a fair redistricting map," he added.
Meanwhile, during this week's school board meeting, Garcia called for cordiality from constituents, saying he
had received "hate mail" in the form of email criticizing the board's redistricting decision.
"It's inappropriate and uncalled for," he said.
Reprint story
Email the reporter at asanchez@abqjournal.com.Call the reporter at 505-823-3960
APS Board Member Dismayed
Albuquerque Public Schools board member Analee Maestas said this week she is "disappointed" the school
board did not move a new seat to the West Side when it voted Monday on a new redistricting map. Maestas,
who represents the South Valley, was en route to Washington, D.C., during the meeting, and did not vote.
"I wish that it had not come to a vote, because I wasn't there and because I think it's a district issue that
every board member needs to vote on. So I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to cast my vote," she said. "My
priority was trying to get another seat on the West Side because I think we need one there. I'm a little
disappointed that that's not what happened."
In her absence, the remaining six board members unanimously approved a plan that shifted portions of
districts west to absorb increased population, but did not dramatically change the map of board districts, and
ensured that all sitting board members will still live in their current districts.
The vote has led to frustration among West Siders, who lobbied for a plan that would move a district from the
Northeast Heights to the West Side.
Maestas said she was in Washington to attend a conference on future uses of the National Assessment of
Educational Progress – a test given to a sample of students in every state and often used to make crossstate
comparisons. Maestas said her flight arrangements were made before the meeting was scheduled and
she could not avoid the trip.
"I was hoping they would postpone it or have a discussion and not a vote, but that didn't happen," Maestas
said. "I think there will be a lot of disappointment because I think the community overall expected we would
have another seat on the West Side. I just have to trust what they did was the right thing."
Although the vote was 6-0, Maestas' absence could have affected the redistricting outcome. West Side
board member Kathy Korte said losing Maestas' vote affected her decision to work toward a compromise,
and board member Lorenzo Garcia, who represents the North Valley and part of the West Side, said before
the vote that he didn't have "the votes to do what I want to do."
Former school board member Robert Lucero, who left the board last year after representing the West Side
for many years, said he was "beyond floored" by the decision.
"If I had been there, I would have been screaming," Lucero said. "I would have threatened for a lawsuit, and I
would be leading the charge to split this district."
Lucero, who left the board partially because of poor health, said he doesn't know if he'll be active in fighting
the board's decision, but he may help "incite" others to act.
"I'm getting too old to fight that fight, but I sure hope the community is going to jump up and down," he said.
Lucero said the West Side was poorly represented when redistricting was last done in 2002, and that he was
assured when he left the board that West Side representation would improve.
"How could they do this again?" Lucero said. "How could they not give the West Side the rest of the
representation it needs? Does the rest of the board want the West Side to split off?"
— This article appeared on page C2 of the Albuquerque Journal
Reprint story
-- Email the reporter at hheinz@abqjournal.com.Call the reporter at 505-823-3913
abqjournal.com http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/01/29/opinion/aps-remapping-vote-raises-ws-splitissue.
html
APS Remapping Vote Raises WS Split Issue
Monday night's school board redistricting vote was an embarrassing show of just how far some elected
officials will go to protect their political backsides.
The board unanimously rejected a redistricting committee's preferred plan that would have recognized
communities of interest and a decade's worth of growth on the city's West Side — and the potential for
continued growth the next 10 years — in favor of a plan that keeps all board members snugly in their current
districts.
Board President Paula Maes summed up the political movida: "If all the people on this board want to run
again, they ought to have the opportunity to continue the work we're doing," she said. And in the flush of the
excitement of potentially being a school board member in perpetuity, she gushed that the current board is
very "harmonious," its members "get along" and are "making accomplishments."
That should not be of much consolation to West-Siders, whose growing population will be marginally
disenfranchised for another decade. After all, the city has nowhere else to grow but west in coming years.
Former West Side board member Robert Lucero said the West Side was poorly represented when
redistricting was last done in 2002. "How could they do this again?" Lucero asked. "Does the rest of the
board want the West Side to split off?"
Board member Kathy Korte has been representing 42 percent more people than she should have. While the
adopted plan reduced that to a reasonable level with almost 5 percent room for growth, it did so only by
moving more West-Siders into a district with the North Valley.
So how did this unconscionable decision come about? It would seem to be a classic blend of New Mexico
politics and incompetence.
Analee Maestas, who represents the South Valley and Southwest Mesa and who favored greater West Side
representation, was on an airplane headed for a convention in Washington, D.C., when the vote was taken
— missing one of the board's most important meetings of the decade.
Absent Maestas, Korte, the lone West Side-only board member, tried to make a case for the preferred plan,
which moved an entire district to the West Side and put two districts fully west of the Rio Grande. She didn't
have the votes. Korte then threw in the towel and brought a secondary plan she preferred over one
proposed by David Peercy, who represents the Northeast Heights.
Former Board President Martin Esquivel, who under the adopted plan would have lost his seat until the
board altered it to keep him safe, had little to say.
Lorenzo Garcia, who represents the North Valley and upper West Side, said the West Side needed more
representation, but went along with the pack.
So, many members realized the West Side needed more representation. They decided they didn't care.
Lucero said he would have thrown a tantrum and threatened to sue. Not necessarily a bad idea, given that
the board's action shows that politics trumped demographics and would be good evidence at trial.
District Judge James Hall wisely recognized West Side growth merited redress in the plan he selected for the
state House of Representatives. The board's action sent an unmistakable message that communities of
interest and equitable West Side representation going forward doesn't matter in public education.
What's next? Clearly, West-Siders can no longer trust their school board to do the right thing for all APS
voters, schoolchildren and parents. And if Board Member David Robbins feared the committee's preferred
plan would have given leverage to the debate on whether the West Side — using the illogic that the West
Side would have had three board members in uniquely West Side districts — should form its own school
district, the board's decision is likely to add fuel to that long-smoldering fire.
Then again, maybe it is time for serious discussion of an independent West Side school district.
This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and
is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
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