Augustine Romero, principal of Pueblo Magnet High School, in the Tucson Unified School District was not one of the six superintendent semifinalists named by the Albuquerque Public Schools Board on April 2.
According to the Albuquerque Journal, Romero applied for the spot in the second wave of applications. The Journal reports that the “initial deadline for job was March 2. Earlier this month the board, however, decided to extended its superintendent search timeline and reopened the position for more applicants.”
Fifteen applicants applied in the second wave.
Included in the first wave were TUSD’s Maria Figueroa, the new Director of Student Equity For Mexican American Student Services, and Scott Hagerman, Director of Exceptional Education.
Hagerman was named new superintendent of the Continental Elementary School District on March 27.
Under the failing leadership of H.T. Sanchez, administrators are fleeing the district. long time administrators began to leave early, and now Sanchez is unable to hold on to his own recruits.
Romero, a political operative for the Grijalva family, is unpopular with both sides of the political aisle. His hot temper and unimpressive academic work have been the sources of much resentment in the district’s central offices, however, the Grijalvas have seen to it that he is protected.
The protection came in handy this last year, when Romero’s quick temper was caught on videotape during the National Association of Multicultural Educators conference this year. Romero had to be escorted out of a meeting after losing his temper during the conference at the swank El Conquistador Hotel in Oro Valley, Arizona. In that emotional meltdown Romero admitted that the classes he created to be offered to students this year were identical to the classes that were found to violate Arizona law two years ago.
A group of teachers and education operatives released their fifth scathing indictment of TUSD last week. In the email message, they write, “This makes the third TOP level administrator to leave TUSD since August: Yousef Awaad, Daman Jackson and Steve Holmes. It has got to be extremely challenging, and even compromising for someone with values, to work closely with someone who believes he is right all of time, does not tolerate any level of disagreement, is greatly deficient in scruples, acts out his anger in retaliatory ways, and treats all decisions like car deals (wheeling and dealing).”
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