Profile: Meet APS' new superintendent on her first (official) day

Jul. 1—Golden Pride is the place to find Albuquerque high schoolers ditching class, according to incoming Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Gabriella Durán Blakey.

Blakey frequented the restaurant when she was recruiting students for the Health Leadership Charter School, which she founded. She was looking for kids who weren't being reached by the existing school system.

It's been a theme of her career, trying to engage students who, for whatever reason, fall through the cracks. Education sometimes takes a "one-size fits all approach," Blakey said. She'd like to change that.

"That's what we need to do as a district ... make sure that we're adapting to what the community needs," Blakey said. "Not just, 'this is who we are, and you fit into us.'"

Blakey's first official day as superintendent is today . She has a two-year contract with a district and a $295,000 yearly salary. She succeeds Scott Elder, who was superintendent for four years.

For about two decades, on and off, APS has been a part of Blakey's career.

But Blakey's relationship with APS started much earlier. The daughter of a nurse and educator, she attended an APS elementary school, middle school and high school — Sandia Base Elementary, Van Buren Middle School and Highland High School.

At Van Buren, Blakey broke new ground with her research on the effect of X-ray radiation on pole bean growth — honored at a regional science fair and in a newspaper article. Sandia Base Elementary was where she picked up the violin, which she plays to this day to relieve stress.

Blakey said she had a good experience with the district. But she learned early that "not everybody had those same opportunities and experiences" as she did.

She recalls a food drive at Van Buren.

"When we went to deliver (food), it was my friend's house," Blakey said. "... I think that's when I started to realize the importance of equity and the importance of making sure that we're providing resources to people that need them so that they can have equal outcomes."

Blakey resisted a career in education initially. She wanted to be a dentist — no, an attorney — or maybe a psychologist. She played with the idea of moving to New York to become a professional violinist/street busker. After seven degree changes at New Mexico State University, the inevitable happened.

"I remember, to this day, walking down, back to my dorm and calling my parents," Blakey said. "'I picked my major finally: I want to be a teacher'."

In one last act of rebellion, Blakey decided to move out of state for her first teaching job. She became an English as a second language educator for Everett Public Schools outside of Seattle, Washington. Blakey primarily taught refugee students.

But the pull of Albuquerque proved too strong. Blakey returned to her alma mater to teach social studies and ESL at Highland High School.

Administration

When Blakey teaches classes for aspiring principals, it always comes with a warning — their foray into administration might come sooner than they expect.

Blakey was still at Highland, working as a teacher and an activities director "on the fringe" of administrative work. While she was getting her master's degree, she was moved into an interim assistant principal role at Roosevelt Middle School.

"I wasn't quite ready," Blakey said. "I was getting my administration degree just to have it in my back pocket for when I was ready to do it."

In 2012, Blakey left APS to head the Health Leadership High School, a charter school geared at students interested in pursuing a career in health care. The connection between health and education was full circle for Blakey.

"I was really interested in it because it served the kids that I've always had a heart for serving," Blakey said. "That connection of my experience, growing up with an educator and a health care provider, I saw things coming together — and I like to take on challenges."

And it was hard, Blakey said, as the school started recruiting students before they even had a building, without the "safety net" of a public school budget.

But Blakey said she learned about how to adapt to family needs in the smaller setting.

Blakey later moved to Santa Fe Public Schools as the assistant superintendent for curriculum and professional development before returning to APS.

Return to APS

But the return to APS was less than triumphant, as nepotism allegations swirled. It's true the apple didn't fall far from the tree — Blakey's dad, a former teacher and principal, sat on the APS Board of Education at the time — when Blakey returned to the district from charter school leave and a stint at Santa Fe Public Schools.

Blakey said she always intended to return to APS, and she was never directly supervised by the Board of Education while her father served. The allegations made the return challenging, Blakey said.

"I remember, at the time, seeing other people whose kids follow in their footsteps. It's seen as something positive, right?" Blakey said. "Like, 'Look, this basketball player's dad is a basketball player. Now he's a basketball player, it's so great.'"

Blakey said her time in Santa Fe and at Health Leadership Charter School informed her approach at APS.

"All of these experiences that I've had are to bring it back to Albuquerque," Blakey said.

Education during COVID-19

Blakey became the interim chief operating officer in APS in 2020 — when the COVID-19 pandemic radically changed the way students showed up in the classroom.

Filters, ventilation, hand sanitizer and masks were the focus as APS opened up empty facilities as vaccination sites.

"My goal with the team was (that) kids can't be here unless they're healthy," Blakey said. "I don't want our physical space to be a reason kids can't come back to school.

Going forward

There's things to be proud of at APS, Blakey said: Internationally recognized dual language projects, a diverse community, the expansion of elementary arts and music programs.

Speaking positively about the district is important, she said, to avoid a "self-fulfilling prophecy."

"I want all of our kids to grow up feeling proud about the place that they come from," Blakey said. "No matter what area of the city."

Bringing up reading and math scores is a priority as she assumes her new role, Blakey said. Last year, standardized testing results posted on the district's data dashboard showed APS students had a 40% proficiency in English and language arts, up 5% from the year before, and 26% proficiency in math, up just 1% from the previous year.

Improving students' background knowledge could be an important part of that, Blakey said. Two students may have the same reading comprehension level, but if one student took a vacation to Washington, D.C., they might perform better on a test about the nation's capital.

"The barriers I see are policies we put in place that are one-size-fits-all models that just don't work for all kids," Blakey said.