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Planting Seeds of Hope
Taos Municipal School Board President Speaks Out to Dispel Community Myths January 17, 2010
By Lydia Garcia
 Of the many fond memories of working with a congregation of religious women, many were filled with the “You Tube” image spinning in my head. My mind’s eye can see a petite framed woman wearing a long skirt and sensible shoes, looking up at a stout CEO of a corporation like Ford or General Electric and, while smiling, telling him—in a voice that is at once soft and strong—that the imperative for greater corporate responsibility should no longer be an option. And while the women religious might have to make many attempts to have constructive dialogue in order to create meaningful change, the seeds of hope are watered and nurtured with every step.
Sí se puede is the only time you’ll ever hear Lorraine Coca-Ruiz say yes for political purposes. She too is her own woman in every sense. Small framed and soft spoken, Coca-Ruiz leaves no doubt that her love and desire to see children succeed are the driving force behind her quest for transparency and accountability, the very things that are no longer an option for Taos Municipal School District.
Coca-Ruiz and her husband of 28 years, Dan Ruiz, are the parents of four children and 25 foster children. Of their four children, one is adopted: Eugene, an Anglo who is a third year student at UNM Albuquerque who recently purchased a house with a bedroom for mom and dad’s regular visits. All of the fosters were of diverse cultures. The Ruiz household is currently home to a young girl who was a foster baby who was eventually reunited with her mother—but when she became an adolescent, had approached the couple for a guardianship-granddaughter relationship that no doubt will last a lifetime.
A twin and middle child of 13 siblings, Coca-Ruiz has strong ties to her family, particularly the elders as they entered the later stages of their lives. In the middle of that, she maintained a career outside of the home.
In 1976, Coca-Ruiz went to work for the finance department of the County of Taos as a payroll clerk. She worked her way up to finance director and has served in the capacity as purchasing agent. She served two four-year terms as county treasurer. After retirement, she decided that there was still more work to be done and went to work as the director of finance for the Taos Municipal School District. During her 15 months there, she began to question some of the practices and processes that go against the grain of accounting principles, and she understood that the only way for her to make the change was to run for the board.
Director of Finance
“While I was working at the school administration, the business manager quit in order to care for her parents; the Public Education Department changed the method of reporting line items and the budget was due and the superintendent, therefore—Mark Space—recommended that we hire a consultant. During my time at the administration building, he hired three consultants. One from Cuba, one from Española, and then he hired Elizabeth Trujillo, who was a good friend of the auditor. Trujillo rented her home from the auditor and the auditor served as Trujillo’s babysitter. When Trujillo came in, the auditor made statements that she wanted her friend to get the job of finance director. By this time I had already seen a lot.
“Rose Martinez and Liz Trujillo made the allegations of my misappropriation of funds and the auditor later got involved. Taos Municipal School would get audits, but they were always performed by Trujillo’s friend and I knew that was not going to work. This is why I have been asking for an objective audit.”
When asked about the allegations of the school board micromanaging the administration, Coca-Ruiz offered the following. “I don’t feel like we’re micromanaging at all, we give directives and the superintendent brings back recommendations. The reason it is done in the public meetings is that we want it on record, we want to be transparent so that the community knows that we are not hiding anything by giving directives behind closed doors.”
According to NMSA, Section 22-5-4, Items A, B, C, D, H, J and N say the board is responsible to:
A) subject to the regulations of the department, develop educational policies for the school district.
B) employ a superintendent of schools for the school district and fix his salary.
C) review and approve the school budget.
D) acquire, lease and dispose of property.
H) provide for the repair of and maintain all property belonging to the school district.
J) except for expenditures for salaries, contract for the expenditure of money according to the provisions of the Procurement Code.
N) give prior approval for any educational program in a public school in the school district that is to be conducted, sponsored, carried on or caused to be carried on by a private organization or agency.
These directives directly dispel the myth of micromanagement by the board. The superintendent is hired by—and the continued employment is at the pleasure of—the board. As such, there is liability by the board members for actions or decisions of the superintendent, especially when the superintendent is acting outside of or in direct opposition to board directives; then the board must take action accordingly.
According to the New Mexico School Boards Association’s manual for superintendents and boards, section B - Expectations Placed on the Superintendent: It is equally important in a successful board-superintendent relationship for both parties to know what is expected of the superintendent. It is then fair that a board would expect that the superintendent will:
1) operate in a fair, open, and ethical manner at all times.
2) work with board members on an equal basis and not show undue preference to individual members of the board.
3) strictly enforce the policies set forth by the board and operate within the established procedure.
4) keep the board fully informed on all matters of its concern.
5) interpret accurately to the public the needs of the school system.
6) work toward the improvement of the instructional program and staff relations.
7) at board meetings, avoid unexpected or surprise issues, topics, and areas of action so the board can have adequate time to respond after being fully advised of all the facts.
8) operate the system in a fiscally sound manner.
9) support board decisions at all times.
10) evaluate the staff on a regular basis and in a fair and objective manner.
11) keep the board advised of changes, innovations, and trends in education that might be applicable to the system.
12) function as the board’s chief executive officer.
Since the October 28, 2009, board meeting at the Taos Pueblo, Taos Horse Fly has reported in the TaosDaily.com numerous occasions where Interim Superintendent Robert J. Gonzales openly and consistently defied board directives and has directly or been a party to significant lies told to members of the board.
Members of the board have learned that the school district is paying for items that should be paid for directly from the charter schools.
Gonzales advised the board that the entire district lost its accreditation, when in fact it is only some of the charter schools that are non-accredited. Gonzales not only failed to reprimand Mary Ann McCann for openly lying in a public meeting and causing a complete disruption of the meeting, but he also openly defended her lie.
Gonzales additionally advised the board that, after Gonzales failed to acquire the full $500,000 of emergency relief funds required to balance the budget, the budget committee made the adjustments for the $200,000 shortfall. Coca-Ruiz confirmed, “If the budget needed to be adjusted, it needed to come back before the board for approval. Although the topic was repeatedly raised in the public meetings since October 28, Gonzales never advised the board of this information until a special meeting for budget cuts took place on December 9.”
The IDEAS Report
The IDEAS report contained information regarding the misappropriations of monies in the special education department. A lead from the IDEAS report led to the discovery of the salary of one retired teacher working for Rocky Mountain Youth Corps in the capacity of service-based learning teacher for children falling between the gap of mainstream and alternative schools. While the program is worthwhile, the matching funds paid by the school district are illegal in two ways.
The first aspect of illegality is that, according to Betina McCracken of New Mexico Human Services Department (HSD), a teacher is not a health-based service delivery and therefore is specifically forbidden by HSD as an allowable reimbursement.
According to Coca-Ruiz, “The second problematic aspect of this program is that it has never been presented to the board for inspection or approval. Basically, the district’s participation in the program is causing the school to be acting in an illegal manner.”
Coca-Ruiz further stated that there are numerous Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) that also have not been presented and approved through the board members. “Each and every MOU not properly initiated are additional counts of noncompliance and as such, places the school district at great risk,” added Coca-Ruiz.
It was also because of the IDEAS report that Coca-Ruiz learned that, since her time as finance director, bank accounts were collapsed—thus merging monies that by contract were not allowed—and school district investments were emptied without knowledge of the board.
Five Superintendents
Taos Horse Fly asked why there have been four interim superintendents and one fully appointed superintendent since Coca-Ruiz’ tenure on the board. Coca-Ruiz softly enumerated that, “Rose Martinez was a temporary position recommended by Mark Space and voted by Gary Embler, Patrick Romero and Michael Torrez.
“Loretta DeLong was selected by a 25-member community committee but was not their first choice. The committee’s first choice, Patrick Cooper, withdrew when The Taos News inappropriately scooped the news before the selection and well before he had a chance to notify the district in which he was currently employed. DeLong had been the committee’s second choice; third choice was Christina Baca from Española and fourth choice was Roberto J. Gonzales. J.P. Dawson from Alamosa, Colorado was fifth choice. DeLong was not terminated. Due to DeLong’s consistent reticence to carry out directives and be accountable to the board, the board placed her on administrative leave and allowed her contract to expire.
“Alfred Cordova was torn between serving as superintendent and continuing his efforts as principal of Taos Middle School. He told the board that he still had a way to go before retirement eligibility and he still felt that he had much work to do in order to make the middle school the best model school it could possibly be. He would have been the preferred selection as a permanent superintendent, but he chose to serve the children in a more direct manner.
“Gonzales chose to step down in the public aftermath of his complicity in the events from October 28 to December. During the December 16 executive session, he handed me the resignation letter as soon as the door closed.” On numerous occasions, Gonzales told board members, “You don’t fire people; people fire themselves.”
Additionally, Coca-Ruiz offered the following: “NMSA 22-5-14, item B(1), says, ‘carry out the educational policies and rules of the state board and local school board’ and item B-(3) says, ‘employ, fix the salaries of, assign, terminate or discharge all employees of the school district.’ Gonzales’ failure to properly inform the board and carry out board policies and rules is what has caused the divisions he conveyed to members of the media.”
Mary Ann McCann caused an egregious spectacle at the October 28 board meeting at the Taos Pueblo. During the course of the disruption, McCann made numerous false allegations against First Financial Group of America (FFGA) that also cast aspersions intended to discredit board members Coca-Ruiz and Arsenio Cordova. Ironically, the board would never have addressed the issue of 125-cafeteria plan and 403(b), had former Director of Finance Liz Trujillo and former Superintendent Loretta DeLong made the decision on their own, as procedures allow for. Afterward, when the administrative employees attempted to unilaterally act in cancelling the FFGA contract mid-stream, they did not follow the proper procedure to inform the board and therefore put the district at risk of violating laws as set forth by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
Budget Cuts
The issue of the proposed budget cuts presented by Gonzales from the budget committee was improper and diametrically opposite of the November 18 board directives to Gonzales in which Gonzales tried to assert that the request was illegal. Coca-Ruiz replied, “This is the Board of Education Policy manual that Mr. Cordova has asked you to go by. He is not asking you to go against the law. He is simply saying that staff should work on this scenario for right now and bring it to the board. That was the motion that I heard.”
Thinking back to the November meeting, Coca-Ruiz mused aloud, “How can McCann cut $36,810 from student nutrition when my granddaughter is already complaining that the high school only serves pizza daily? McCann said she found the extra money because of the snow days, but the snow days have not happened yet. There is still much of the winter left to determine that choice.
“I also question the proposed cuts by the director of instruction of $36,000 when teachers are already paying for materials out of their own pocket and some students are forced to do without supplies.
“Have you seen the school grounds? Except for weeds, there is no landscaping and the buildings and playgrounds are already very poorly maintained. Where will they cut? Will the proposed $20,000 reduction eliminate light bulbs in the classroom?
“There definitely is an attempt to micromanage at the school district; it is the administrators that are directing the superintendents and undermining and micromanaging the efforts of the school board,” offered Coca-Ruiz. “And the ones who lose out in all of this are the children. The deplorable AYP report card is the proof that children are left out of the equation. Yet, high school principal Rodney Litke lives in a mobile home located on school property at Ranchos Elementary, rent and utility free, plus stipends and additional compensations that are over and above his $90,000 annual salary.”
At the end of the day, Coca-Ruiz says she remains firm in her commitment to clean up the administration. “It is because of the students; they have no one else to speak up for them. The budget belongs to the kids. It is the students that bring in the money and all I have seen is abuse of those funds.”
So too that corporate responsibility should no longer be an option, the fiscal well-being and sound management of the Taos Municipal School District is no longer an option. When considering that, the imperative to weather through the current economic slump is creating more and better opportunities to look for ways in which the children of Taos are given the hope to succeed. Sí se puede.
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