Las Cruces Public Schools Superintendent Sonia Diaz was allowed to lead a meeting of school board members and legislators this morning before the board advised her that she had been placed on administrative leave Tuesday night and asked for her keys and cell phone.
In an interview, Diaz said she had no idea she had been placed on leave as she led the meeting. Several of the legislators had already heard rumors, and asked to meet with school board members about the situation after their initial meeting to discuss legislative priorities.
Two board members – John Schwebke and Sharon Wooden – went with legislators, and told them Diaz had been placed on leave. Two others – Leonel Briseño and Chuck Davis – met privately with Diaz to inform her, Diaz said.
“They said that there are allegations against me and they wanted to give me a cooling-off period and they wanted time to investigate,” Diaz told me.
Board members met for hours in closed session Tuesday night. Diaz was with them part of the time, but they sent her home at 9:30 p.m. I’m told they came out of closed session at 10:50 p.m. and did their business in open session.
Diaz said she could not reveal what was discussed in closed session.
Four legislators – state reps. Joseph Cervantes, Mary Helen Garcia, Joni Gutierrez and Andy Nuñez – all told me they will meet with state Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia tonight to discuss the process of a state takeover of the school district.
All four support such a takeover, they told me during a meeting of the four legislators and Diaz, to which I was invited. The secretary will either fly to
Rep. Garcia said she’s concerned about “the revolving door” of superintendents in the school district, which has been in turmoil since 2001.
“It’s not good for families and children in our district,” she said.
All four said Diaz has not been given enough time to implement change, and said placing her on leave is premature, regardless of the circumstances.
“Hal Mumme inherited a losing team and is being given time to make it better,” Gutierrez said of the
In a later interview, State Sen. Leonard “Lee” Rawson said it’s premature to say he supports state takeover of LCPS, but said that might become a reality.
He said he is concerned, based on what he was told this morning, that the board’s response to allegations against Diaz “is not comprehensive.” He said the board failed to support former Superintendent Louis Martinez – regardless of whether he was the right man for the job – and is currently failing to support Diaz.
He said the school district has not had an effective leader for at least 15 years and, as a result, has many problems. Rawson said the board needs to give a superintendent the support to make necessary changes.
“Give her room, let her do her job, give her a chance to set the direction that the board wants,” Rawson said. He also cautioned that he is “not taking a side as to whether she is the right person” and acknowledged that he can’t know all the facts about what’s happening because it’s a personnel issue.
“The (legislative) delegation is unanimously in support of allowing Sonia to do her job,” Rawson said. “The board is yanking the rug out from under Sonia’s ability to perform.”
Rawson said supporting a state takeover is, in a way, judging the voters who have put the board members in office, and said he is “not sure I want to go there yet.”
“We are not seeing the results we should be getting, and we’re questioning the school board’s decision,” Rawson said.
Nuñez said he is concerned that Diaz will leave the district if the board continues down this path.
“We don’t want to lose her,” he said.
Diaz said she has no immediate plans to do that.
“Apparently, they think I need some cooling off,” Diaz said. “Apparently, I have some fans here, so I’m going to wait and see.”