Kansas Enrichment Network

After-school funds held
APS officials say mayor's timing is threatening fall programs

By Susie Gran
Tribune Reporter
June 30, 2006
http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_local_state_government/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19859_4813189,00.html

The mayor wants a hand in deciding whether quilt-making, juggling and teddy bear club are the best ways to spend city money in the schools.

Mayor Martin Chavez has not released about $2.4 million that Albuquerque Public Schools is waiting on to fund after-school programs this fall, district officials said Thursday.

This is the second dispute with the mayor this week over how the school system is run. On Wednesday, the mayor criticized APS for not building schools fast enough to meet demand.

"I don't understand the mayor's political agenda," said Robert Lucero, chairman of the Albuquerque Board of Education District Relations Committee. "He's hurting the community and kids."

Lucero's committee on Thursday decided it needed the City Council's support to release city funding for after-school activities.

Superintendent Beth Everitt was prepared to give councilors a nine-page list of the school activities offered in their districts.

The city money in question is spent at 99 schools.

Homework club, tutoring, science club and other academic programs are typically offered along with sports, games, crafts and music. The activities are available to about 66,000 students.

For the first time, the city is going to make the district accountable for how it spends the money, said city Chief Administrative Officer Bruce Perlman.

"Doll-making and ballroom dancing are offered," Perlman said. "Most citizens wouldn't see this as beneficial."

Perlman said the school district will get its money after the city decides how programs should be evaluated and establishes criteria for spending.

That's bad timing, says Lucero. The mayor "should have developed the criteria (for the programs) six months ago and not put these programs in jeopardy," he said.

The mayor's Education Council will meet next week and make a recommendation to the mayor on how to evaluate the after-school activities.

"I think they'll have the money in sufficient time, but we're going to expect results," Perlman said. "We're not just going to give it away for doll-making or break dancing."

In the past 14 years, the money has been forwarded to the district by mid-May, allowing time to get programs ready for the opening of school in August.

This is the first time city funds have been held up, said Alan Armijo, a former city councilor who started the city's Middle School Initiative. The program provides $1.5 million to middle and elementary schools for after-school sports, clubs, tutoring and other activities.

In addition to the middle school money, the city budgeted $640,000 for dropout prevention programs at the high schools and $305,000 for mentorships, services for homeless students and others.

Armijo, the school system's lobbyist and chairman of the Bernalillo County Commission, said he had heard criticism that the school programs funded by city money "were not academic enough." However, the idea behind the initiative originally was for "the neighborhoods to decide what was best for their communities," Armijo said.

Everitt sent the city a memo June 19 asking when the funds would be released. The city's response was released Thursday, though Everitt said late Thursday she had not seen it.

In a letter to the school district, Valorie Vigil, director of the city's Family and Community Services, wrote: "There is some question from the city administration as to whether our children and the community are receiving maximum value from the millions of dollars the city currently is investing in our public school system."

She assured the superintendent that City Hall was going to act quickly.

"Certainly if Mayor Chavez believed that withholding funds from APS would improve the education system he would ask the City Council to support that plan. However, that is not the case," Vigil said.

Everitt told school board members Thursday that parents were counting on the after-school programs and that it was "almost panic time."

Staff members needed to be hired to run the programs, and background checks must be completed.

"We'll be glad to meet any level of accountability" City Hall requires, Everitt said.

The district is willing to help decide what's working and what's not in the after-school programs, she said, "but midsummer is not the time to do it."