Education secretary lauds House, Logan

HOUSE — New Mexico’s secretary of education paid a visit Wednesday to House Municipal Schools after the district’s elementary students improved from a “D” to its first “A” grade in one year in the state’s school report card.

Christopher Ruszkowski, appointed to the secretary of education position by Gov. Susan Martinez in August 2017, and other Public Education Department officials were fanning out across the state on the agency’s New Mexico True Straight A Express to applaud A-graded schools.

Logan Elementary School also was honored by state education officials Monday for logging its fourth consecutive A grade.

Ruszkowski gave House Municipal Schools a banner celebrating its accomplishment and took questions from students before the presentation. He also toured several classrooms.

Ruszkowski noted fewer than 10 schools in New Mexico went from a D to an A in one year.

“That’s incredible progress. That’s very rare,” he said.

Ruszkowski said it takes months for his department to honor about 120 schools that earn an A grade but thinks it can help other schools.

“If New Mexico education is going to improve, we have to learn from each other,” he said. “Our A schools are doing something special. ... One way to do better is to learn from the A schools.”

Ruszkowski said the idea for the Straight A Express came a little more than a year ago when he and other state officials visited Tucumcari. There, he heard from a school official from Grady who said A-graded schools in eastern New Mexico were being ignored by the state.

House superintendent Bonnie Lightfoot said there were several reasons for her district’s improvement.

“If I had to pick one thing that contributed to that, it was the awareness of that you can do together as a team,” she said. “The four elementary teachers, they looked at data together and had meetings with our reading interventionist last year. And we had tremendous kids who were motivated. We had that mentality that, ‘We are better than me.’”

Dennis Roch, superintendent at Logan schools, also said there are several factors for his district’s perennially strong showing on the report card.

“Logan Elementary School is blessed to have outstanding teachers who strike just the right balance of high expectations for all students and personalized support for each student,” Roch stated in an email. “In addition, our parents are fully engaged as allies in helping students achieve.

“Also, Logan Elementary remains committed to a well-rounded education, providing every student with daily physical education and weekly instruction in fine arts.”