ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Former Newark, California superintendent Patrick Sanchez and Marnie Hazelton, a former superintendent in a Long Island, New York, district are among the applicants seeking to become the next school chief of Albuquerque Public Schools, the district announced Wednesday.
District officials said they hope to have a new superintendent by July. Almost half of the applicants are from New Mexico, the district said.
The applicant pool also includes Deming, New Mexico, superintendent Arsenio Romero and Austin, Texas, school administrator Michelle Cavazos.
Albuquerque Public Schools board president David Peercy said the board is looking to hire a leader who will understand the unique needs of a diverse school district in one of the nation’s poorest states. “We need to get the right person who puts students first,” Peercy said. “The stakes are pretty high.”
Peercy said about eight semifinalists will be named later and the district will hold forums with community members with candidates.
Hazelton led the Roosevelt Union Free School District outside New York City for four years until she left last year after a family accused her of deleting a student’s transcript over a vendetta. The majority Latino school district ranked among the poorest on Long Island.
According to 2019 state data, about 20% of students were proficient in math and 30% proficient in English in Albuquerque Public Schools. The district is 67% Hispanic.
The incoming superintendent will replace Raquel Reedy, who announced her retirement after more than four years.
Previous school chiefs left the troubled district in the state’s largest city amid complaints of favoritism, contentious tenures, and allegations of drug addiction.
In 2015, for example, Superintendent Luis Valentino stepped down just two months into the job after he hired an administrator facing child sex charges. He replaced Winston Brooks abruptly resigned over a secret personnel issue. His tenure was marked by controversy after he insulted then-state Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera on social media using farm animal sounds.
Former superintendent Beth Everitt left her post in 2008 following a controversy over changing a student’s failing grade, and former superintendent Joseph Vigil died in a bizarre one-car rollover involving alcohol a few weeks before the start of a school year. Vigil was not the driver.
Former school chief Brad Allison resigned in 2002 amid allegations of alcohol and drug abuse and left with a $380,000 settlement that drew criticism. In his farewell letter to Albuquerque published by the Albuquerque Journal, Allison compared himself to Luke Skywalker from Star Wars
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Russell Contreras is a member of The Associated Press’ race and ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras
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