A total ban on students’ mobile phones is not coming to Albuquerque Public Schools.

The two finalists for the district’s superintendent position ruled out such a move during a public forum Tuesday at which they answered questions from APS employees.

Dr. Gabriella Durán Blakey and Dr. Thomas Ahart also said that the solution to school safety issues includes more mental health assistance, expressed support for more career and technical education and called the relationship between APS and its teachers’ union important to the ultimate goal of both parties — student success.

The two also fielded questions from the general public at a second evening forum. Tuesday morning, the pair answered student questions.

The candidates 

Ahart, now a consultant with the Council of the Great City Schools, is a former superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools in Iowa. Other roles he has held include middle school principal and classroom teacher; he held the latter position for 11 years.

Durán Blakey, APS’ chief of operations, has also been classroom teacher, principal and associate superintendent in the district. She is a former APS student and a graduate of Highland High School.

One question submitted at the employee forum sought the candidates’ plans for serving the diverse populations within the district.

Durán Blakey said that as a woman of color, she realized while growing up in Albuquerque that differences are assets to students, not barriers. She said that during her teaching career, she noticed the power of students finding someone like them in leadership positions.

Ahart said that DMPS had students born in more than 100 countries, who grew up speaking as many languages.

“It’s important that, regardless of background, regardless of language group, we be engaged meaningfully with not just the students, but with their families,” he said. “So that all families have an equitable opportunity to participate in the education of their students and in the school improvement process.”

Unions vital to the process

When asked about their experience working with strong unions, each mentioned being active in the union while working at lower levels and being involved in negotiations with unions as an administrator.

“I’ve walked in the shoes of both sides,” Durán Blakey said.

Ahart said it’s important that a collaborative relationship exist between the parties, to the benefit of the students.

On a question about teacher accountability, Ahart said that evaluation metrics should be developed with the input of teachers, and that educators deserve regular feedback that is not evaluative.

Durán Blakey said she believes accountability starts at the top, and that the support district administrators give to teachers is critical. She said all parties should be held accountable “based on a mutual understanding of what we know every child can do.”

Disruptions and guns

Ahart addressed a question about disruptive behavior and school violence by saying leaders need to be clear about what behaviors are acceptable and which are not. He said families should be included in planning for changing a student’s behavior.

“Our solution can’t just be expulsion,” he said. “We have to double down on restorative justice.”

Durán Blakey said more mental and physical health support is needed, along with making sure students are engaged and aware that they’re responsible for their own behavior and learning. She said the district may need to find community partners to help with the former.

A related question came up at the later forum, asking how the candidates would address the issue of students bringing firearms to school. Ahart said that intervention is key, with students — and their parents and guardians — understanding acceptable and unacceptable behaviors and tracking behavioral data at the elementary level so that middle schools don’t get surprised by incoming students.

“We can’t pretend like this stuff doesn’t exist,” he said. “So we need to make sure that our students have a safe avenue to talk to an adult whether that’s directly, face-to-face to an adult, or an electrical or electronic avenue to report things that they think are a bit off or that maybe ought to be looked into.”

Durán Blakey said gun violence isn’t exclusively a school issue, and that ensuring children understand the consequences of bringing weapons to school and talking to families about safely storing firearms should be part of the plan.

She said that when children are caught on campus with weapons and asked why, they frequently say they did so out of concern for their own safety. She said that such concerns indicate a need for more mental health services and increased efforts to combat bullying.

‘It’s successful, but we could do better’

Both of the candidates pushed back against an implication in one question that public education is perceived as failing.

“I’m a product of Albuquerque Public Schools,” Durán Blakey said. “And I’m sitting up here in front of a community all day, applying for one of the top positions in the state. I wouldn’t say that it’s a failing system. It’s successful, but we could do better.”

She said that educators are generally humble, but need to be more vocal about the successes of public schools.

Ahart said that political leaders in Iowa were “pointedly anti-public education” and that as a superintendent, he used publicly available data to show that some students’ shown more improvement in test stores in Des Moines than in wealthier suburban schools or in nearby private schools.

Another question covered teacher retention strategies. Ahart said that he set as a goal making DMPS a “destination employer,” and that the district was rewarded by being named on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Midsize Employers.

He said it’s important to ensure that educators are respected as professionals, not just within the district, but also in the greater community.

Durán Blakey said the strategy must include an examination of teacher workloads and listening to them to make sure that the district is providing the best possible work environment for educators.


In the forum for the general public, both candidates touted the importance of multiple perspectives in the curriculum.

About those phones ….

Regarding phones, Durán Blakey said a ban ignores the safety the devices represent and mentioned that some parents rely on them as a means of communicating with their children.

Ahearn said he didn’t wish to adopt a policy that couldn’t be enforced “and the only way to enforce a no-cellphone rule would be for us to actively frisk our students every morning.”

He said he established a policy at DMPS under which a student’s device would be confiscated if she or he was using it inappropriately, and that only parents could retrieve them from the office.

He said that policy was largely successful and that its most vocal opponents were parents who had to make multiple trips to collect devices.

What happens next?

The Board of Education was to conduct final interviews with the candidates this morning at a closed-door executive session. The board could then vote to offer the position to a candidate, which would lead to contract negotiations. 

Monica Armenta, the district’s Director of Communications, said the chosen candidate will likely be announced at a Thursday press conference.

Parent Ian Esquibel attended the public forum. He said it was good to hear from the candidates and that the questions, chosen from about 1,200 submissions, were reflective of what the community cares about.

His children, in third grade and kindergarten, attend Sandia Base Elementary School, as did Durán Blakey.

Esquibel said he prefers Durán Blakey, who knows the city, but believes either would be a good leader for APS.

Julie Radoslovich, president of the Pat Hurley Neighborhood Association and a member of Lavaland Elementary’s Community School, said she participated despite having no children in APS because of the district’s impact on the community. She said school board members have a difficult task ahead of them in choosing from two candidates she felt positive about.

Radoslovich said she wants the board to choose a visionary.

Speaking after the last forum, which nearly filled a large conference room at the Berna Facio Professional Development Complex, Armenta said the turnout and public participation in the superintendent search have been impressive.

“We’re grateful to all the people who took time out of their busy lives to invest in the future of APS,” she said.