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A charter school associated with UNM presented University regents with a national award on Tuesday.
Kathy Sandoval-Snider, director of the Albuquerque Institute for Math and Science (AIMS) at UNM, presented the Blue Ribbon Shield award to the UNM Board of Regents at a meeting.
According to a press release, the Blue Ribbon Shield award “is part of a national program by the U.S. Department of Education that recognizes schools of educational excellence.” AIMS works in partnership with the University, according to the release.
Sandoval-Snider named some of her school’s accomplishments since its founding in 2005.
“(AIMS is) credited now with being a national Blue Ribbon school, one of the 12 charter schools in the United States,” she said. “We are the first charter school to be a Blue Ribbon school in New Mexico. We were rated 48th in the nation, for public and private, as far as rigor of curriculum.”
Sandoval-Snider said she started working with AIMS, originally called High Tech High Albuquerque, one year after it opened in fall 2005. She said she and her administration started making changes to the school, which included implementing an evaluation system in 2008 in order to improve student success.
The evaluations are based on student performance on standard based tests, teacher research, student surveys and faculty evaluation.
Students from all around the Albuquerque area attend AIMS, Sandoval-Snider said.
“Where do our students come from?” she said. “They come from as far as Santa Fe and as far south as Socorro. We are pretty scattered.”
The demand for AIMS now exceeds the school’s supply Sandoval-Snider said.
“Right now, we have about 40 or 45 applicants for every slot that we have,” she said.
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Sandoval-Snider said she received a grant from the Daniels Fund to help replicate the program.
UNM Regent Conrad James congratulated Sandoval-Snider for her success with AIMS.
“I really do commend you,” he said. “I’m so pleased to see that you have developed a teacher evaluation system that is actually collaborative.”
ASUNM amendments pass
The Board of Regents approved two amendments to the student undergraduate constitution.
At a meeting on Tuesday, the Board of Regents voted to approve the constitutional amendments voted on by UNM students during the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico election in November.
ASUNM President Isaac Romero presented the amendments for the Regents to approve.
According to a document provided at the meeting, the first amendment presented, Amendment 2, requires ASUNM elected officials maintain and complete at least six credit hours during their time in office. Amendment 3 moves the composition requirements of the ASUNM Elections Commission from the ASUNM Constitution to the ASUNM Law Book, according to the document.
UNM Regent Gene Gallegos expressed surprise at the standard for ASUNM office holders.
“So you can be a student senator or a student body president taking six credit hours?” he said. “Has there been any discussion among student government?”
Though there has been discussion about increasing the minimum GPA requirement for the ASUNM President, Romero said the student government has not discussed raising the credit hours requirement.
