Since Las Cruces Public Schools Superintendent Sonia Diaz was placed on administrative leave last week, I’ve spent hours talking with people about the situation.
This community is incredibly divided. Good people, including many I know personally and respect deeply, are at odds over whether Diaz is the district’s savior or another devil, or something in between.
In June, just before the school board voted to hire Diaz, I wrote that the next superintendent would have to reach out to all people in the school district, and that she would have to bring about massive change while also preserving our heritage and honoring our culture.
I wrote that even those who are resistant to the change must be included in deciding how it happens, or the division that has consumed this district for years will continue to spread.
Here we are. It’s continuing to spread.
As a journalist who has covered every major controversy this district has faced since former Superintendent Jesse Gonzales left in 2001 – and there have been many – I want to share some thoughts and observations. Because there’s so much division, there’s no way to do this without upsetting many. Please understand I share these thoughts not as one who believes I have all the answers, but as one who has no direct stake in the school district and who is trying to examine the situation from that perspective.
There are a lot of allegations flying about Diaz’s conduct and her past. I’ve spent time looking into much of it in the past few days. Here’s some of what I learned:
• It’s true that she has made some unilateral hiring decisions since coming to
• It’s true that she has dared to broach the subject of whether some high school athletes – but not all – should receive course credit for practicing their sports. She should be leading the entire community in a discussion about whether this is the right policy, or whether it needs to change.
• It’s true that Diaz has made some quick changes in top-level administration. Most I’ve spoken with thought these changes needed to happen. They just don’t like the way she went about it.
• It’s true that she’s a bit white collar in a blue collar town.
• It’s true that Diaz has been superintendent in a
In that school district, local corruption was so bad that the mayor of the city, who was at odds with Diaz for much of her tenure, is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2003 of federal charges related to public corruption.
The school board member who cast the deciding vote in 2004 to get rid of Diaz recently told the Connecticut Post that she did so under pressure from her brother-in-law, a member of the powerful Democratic Town Committee. She had been a strong ally of Diaz before being pressured to switch sides. She refused to tell the newspaper how her brother-in-law pressured her.
It’s also true that, in the
Diaz helped the Bridgeport district accomplish that only after cleaning house, which leads to the most common complaint I’ve heard about her – that she doesn’t treat people well. Many would call that an understatement.
I spoke with Diaz about this Monday, and she admitted that she has made some mistakes. She said she hasn’t done enough in her four months in
“I’m very demanding. In some cases, I have a very different style. I’m not always easy, and I have very high standards,” Diaz said. “I have to slow down.”
Diaz acknowledged that her tendency to respond immediately means she has at times said things that are hurtful, and said she sometimes doesn’t realize she has done that.
“I have to be more thoughtful about how I respond,” Diaz said.
She also said she needs to spend more time listening and making a greater effort to build consensus.
“I’ve recognized that I have to step back and be more thoughtful and find a different stride,” she told me. “I have to be mindful that I am an outsider and I come from a different culture.”
What’s the next step?
“I want the community on board,” Diaz said. “We have to have a meeting of the minds and find common ground.”
The board believed when it hired Diaz that she could find common ground among the many divided populations in the school district. She has won over many groups in her first four months. Others feel as alienated as they did under former Superintendent Louis Martinez.
Diaz said she is impressed with much of what she has seen in
One problem, she said, is that teachers are “not always working to the same purpose.”
That’s understandable. This district has been without strong, consistent leadership for at least the past decade, going back to at least the mid-point in Gonzales’ tenure. In the absence of good leadership, principals have found their own ways to get the job done. Teachers have done the same.
In some classrooms, and even some schools, that works. But it’s not the best way to run a district. Without consistency, many students will be left behind.
They are often poor and, in this community, Hispanic, but they are also those whose parents don’t make time or are too busy to raise them, and have left it to the schools. Such families aren’t uncommon, and they come from all ethnicities and socioeconomic groups.
With so much chaos in the district in the past decade, is it any wonder, then, that our gang problem has grown?
Our school district has to change. Federal and state regulations demand it, but at a more basic level, our humanity should require it. Read the newspaper. Examine the test scores. Watch our students drop out of high school at unacceptable levels, and it’s easy to see that our district is failing to serve a large percentage of students.
Is Diaz the right person to lead the Las Cruces Public Schools into the future? Many I spoke with say she’s not. Many say she is. The majority say the verdict is still out, pointing out that she’s only been on the job four months and is tasked with cleaning house from more than a decade of inconsistent and, for the majority of the time, poor leadership.
I can tell you that, when Diaz was hired, I spoke with several people who predicted turmoil similar to what is now happening. Some people need to go. Some systems need to change. Some will welcome the change. Others will fight it.
Because of personnel law, only board members, Diaz and their attorneys will know the full story of how she has treated people since she has arrived and the gravity of the mistakes she has made. Rumor is rampant right now, and many I’ve spoken with have shared stories with me in the past week they believe to be true about Diaz.
Some are stories that, when I began to dig, were easily disproved. Others are impossible to prove or disprove. That’s the nature of rumor.
What I can say for certain after investigating for the past week is this:
Diaz could have done more to communicate with the community and employees about the changes taking place. She needs to be more tactful in implementing change. It sounds as though she plans to make a greater effort to do that in the future.
But let’s not take our eyes off the ball. This school district has to change. Implementing the sort of transformation needed here is Diaz’s specialty. She left
It’s up to the school board to decide where this community goes next. Let’s hope its members have the courage to put politics aside and do what’s best for children, whatever that may be.