Saturday, May 29, 2004

Pargas named Belen HS principal

La Merced parents want Nixon to stay

Haley Wachdorf News-Bulletin Staff Writer; hwachdorf@news-bulletin.com

Belen Tamie Pargas, current principal of Rio Grande Elementary School, will be the new principal of Belen High School. Pargas' hiring was announced during Tuesday's regular meeting of the school board a week after Superintendent Don Duran interviewed two candidates from outside the district for the position.

The two candidates were Jeff Gorum, superintendent of the Reserve School District, and Kathryn Manley-Crockett, co-principal of Gila Vista Junior High School in Yuma, Ariz. Duran said Gorum was offered the position but declined, and the superintendent decided to offer the job to Pargas, who was already set to move to the high school. Pargas had recently been named as an assistant principal at Belen High and was chosen to be the leader of the new Ninth Grade Academy. That position is now vacant as Pargas moves up to the top administrative position at the school.

On Tuesday night, Pargas was given a standing ovation by the audience, which included members of her staff at Rio Grande. Pargas, who taught at the high school for eight years before becoming an elementary school principal, said she is looking forward to the challenge.

"If you know me, you know that the high school and the students and the people who make it work have always had a very special place in my heart," she said. "And, don't get me wrong, I love Rio Grande. It's a great school. But it's going to be a great school with or without me. I'm terribly excited to go to the high school and work with the teachers and the staff that I personally think are some of the best in the state. I appreciate the opportunity you've given me."

Pargas has 20 years of experience in education in a career that has included teaching, coaching and administrative work. Duran said on Tuesday that, although this district's search for a principal brought applications from excellent candidates, in the end, he believed Pargas' many years with the district gave her an advantage at the high school.

"We interviewed for a high school principal and had a committee that was very involved, and it seemed to me that, sometimes, in our own community, we have people who work hard, and we lose where the tree is looking for the forest," he said. "After having interviewed people from the outside, I always think Belen has a richness."

Pargas is one of several principals who have been assigned to different schools this year by Duran, who has the final decision-making power in all matters related to personnel. Before the passage of House Bill 212 in 2003, school boards voted on personnel changes, but the bill gave that authority to school superintendents.

Not all of the decisions Duran has made this year with regard to principals have been popular with parents, teachers or school board members.

At Tuesday's meeting, Connie Boyer, a first-grade teacher at La Merced Elementary School, told the board about a petition the staff at her school have been circulating asking that current Principal Geneva Nixon stay at the school.

Earlier this month, Duran announced that Nixon, who has been at La Merced for one year, would go to the high school as an assistant principal in the 2004-05 school year. Boyer told the board that many staff and parents are not happy with the decision, feel La Merced needs consistent leadership to flourish and want Nixon to stay there.

"We've collected 189 signatures to see if we could get a reconsideration of keeping our principal at La Merced," she said. "We think it would be advantageous to us to have her stay with us, and we're thinking that the continuity of having a principal at the school is very important. I've been at La Merced for six years, and I have had five principals."

Board President Julian Luna thanked Boyer for approaching the board but said the board's hands are tied with regard to personnel matters under House Bill 212.

"One of the biggest issues that I've had in the past year and a half was House Bill 212," he said. "It gave the authority to the superintendent to make any decisions and choices as he deemed necessary with regard to hiring, firing and changes, so it's fallen on his lap. Myself, as a school board member, it's difficult for me to sit here and say that I'm representing my district and not be able to do anything when I'm given a petition. It's tough. It's very tough. We have to depend on the superintendent to listen to the community and then make the best decisions that he feels are going to benefit the school the most, and, ultimately, benefit the children and the whole district."

Board Member Jamie Goldberg joined Luna in criticism of House Bill 212 and also said he disagrees with some of the personnel decisions Duran has made.

"It is hard not being able to have, I don't want to say the power, but the voice," he said. "As one board member, and I'll say it, I don't like some of the changes. But I have to deal with them. Our only recourse is to work with our superintendent and make sure that he's moving in the right direction for the schools and the students. But it's been tough. It's kind of like we have our hands tied."

Duran told the board that he had agreed to meet with parents and staff at La Merced to explain his decision regarding Nixon.

Pargas and Nixon are the only two administrators to be named to the high school, which will have completely new principals next year. Current Principal Joe Trujillo has announced his plans to retire. Assistant Principal Aubrey Tucker will be the new principal of Belen Middle School, replacing current principal Nancy Blackney-Lopez, who was reassigned to a classroom teaching position by Duran. Assistant Principal Kenneth Griego will be district transportation coordinator next year, and Assistant Principal Frances Conroy will be the principal of La Promesa Elementary School, replacing Richard Tafoya, who has requested a return to classroom teaching.

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