School district factions need to stop posturing for power and start working together

Posted 11/21/2006 02:29:00 PM

A day after its school board fired Superintendent Sonia Diaz, the Las Cruces Public Schools community finds itself in a familiar situation: A battle is fought; a leader leaves amid scandal; many are wounded.

If you’re feeling as though we’ve been here before, it’s because we have.

Five years after the departure of former Superintendent Jesse Gonzales, this school district has yet to get back on its feet. There have been some improvements in the district during that time, but other areas have been neglected and deteriorated.

There are deep divisions over the future of the district, and they’ve only grown during the past several years.

I was shocked to hear Monday night some board members sounding almost apologetic for not responding sooner to the firestorm that was brewing over Diaz’s leadership. Two board members told me they didn’t know about the allegations against Diaz until concerns were brought to them at a meeting two weeks ago.

Talk about a failure to communicate, not just by the board, but by this entire community. Board members should have been in closer contact with constituents and employees. Those who had complaints should have gone to board members sooner with concerns. Many members of the media, and I include myself in this, knew of the allegations long before the board did.

We should have investigated the allegations sooner.

I’m not going to judge Diaz. I join most of the community in not knowing enough about what happened, and I probably never will. What I do know is that many district employees, including those at the highest levels in the administration, had been complaining about Diaz’s actions since she arrived just over four months ago.

Yet the board didn’t learn of the allegations until two weeks ago.

Many in the community will blame the board for this breakdown, saying its members have discouraged communication. To those who would say that, take this as precedent: As soon as the board learned of the allegations against Diaz, its members placed her on leave. They kept her there until they gathered all the facts they needed to make a decision.

Their verdict was unanimous and firm.

Others will blame employees for not coming forward sooner. Realize, however, what they’ve had to deal with: Not counting the tenures of Joann Patton and Virginia Foltz, former Superintendents Gonzales, Louis Martinez and Diaz were all accused of being tyrants or worse. Some employees have been working in fear for years.

Many in the community are willing to work together and communicate. Michael Swickard’s interview with Briseño and Jim Spence Monday morning was a great example of the dialogue that is possible.

But many others in the community are so busy yelling “recall” every time they don’t like something that they aren’t making an effort to listen or understand other viewpoints. That has been one of the unintended and unfortunate consequences of recalling two board members several years ago who needed to be ousted.

It’s time to move past that.

This community is changing. This district is changing. The transformation will be controversial and it will be hard. But we’ve seen, for the last five years, the negative result of various community factions posturing for power instead of working together.

Until that ends, it won’t matter who holds the job of superintendent.

Many are justifiably wounded by the events of the past several years. But bitterness won’t move this district forward. Only forgiveness will bring healing.

Briseño said it well Monday night: It’s time every member of the LCPS community commits to treating every other member with dignity and respect. Unless that happens, we’ll be trapped in this purgatory between where we were and where we want to be.

And as long as we’re stuck here, the children suffer.