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Name: Michael P. ("Mike") Kruchoski
Age: 50
Occupation: Engineer / Scientific Analyst; retired Air Force officer
Family: Married to Jill Hartman (math
teacher at Del Norte H.S.); Paul (Hayes M.S.); Aron (Mark Twain E.S.); adult son Ben and two grandchildren in Wisconsin.
Education: BA (mathematics and philosophy), Univ. of Wis. – Whitewater, 1975; BSEE
(electrical engineering), Univ. of Utah, 1984; graduate studies (applied statistics), Utah State Univ., 1981-88; continuing coursework in management, engineering, statistics, communication, mediation, computers, and
technology (1978 to present)
APS District Sought: 5 (Bill Rothanbargar seat)
Political Experience: No previous elected public offices or campaigns. Participated extensively in
legislative testimony ongambling and telecommunications during 1999 NM regular session.
1. What qualifies you to be an Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education member? Twenty-five year commitment to voluntary community service in a broad spectrum of activities. Thirty years
leadership and management experience in military career and private business. Relevant teaching experience in military and universities. Sustained, active involvement in school programs and
activities. Outstanding mediation and problem-solving skills. Family tradition of commitment to public school excellence: my wife and six family members are teachers or staff.
2. What is the biggest issue facing the Albuquerque Public Schools system? General lack of parental involvement, which creates low expectations about their children's school performance and sends the
wrong message to our children and community about the importance of education. Ill-defined, inconsistent, and unrealistic goals and expectations within our community thwart our efforts to improve student
performance and quality of education.
3. What is your position on publicly funded school vouchers? I will support pilot voucher programs, provided we "level the playing field" to give public schools more flexibility for innovation and allow them to compete on equal terms with private schools.
4. Do you believe in the right of teachers to have a union and bargain collectively? Yes. I encourage more teachers to become actively involved in their union to ensure that union initiatives
accurately reflect teachers' concerns and values and constructively promote teachers' goals for educational excellence.
5. How can you best contribute to improving the Albuquerque Public Schools system? By raising public awareness of the underlying causes of poor student performance; practicing innovative
problem-solving to forge strong community partnerships for necessary support and resources to effectively address those causes; and placing equal emphasis on parents', students', and community responsibilities to
support their teachers' best efforts.
6. What is your assessment of the job being done by Superintendent Brad Allison? He is doing a good job, in consideration of the short time he's been here, our entrenched community attitudes about
education, and the constraints placed on him.
7. Do you favor building more schools on the city's edges or concentrating resources on repairing older campuses? Neither; this is not necessarily an "either-or" proposition. Although easily
accessible neighborhood schools are often viewed as a right, we cannot afford to abandon our schools in older, perhaps poorer, parts of the city, because these are the areas where we need to foster the most dramatic
improvements. The Board needs to balance our desire to reward "good performance" with our need to support schools requiring the most help.
8. What are your views on the state's new public schools accountability system? The present accountability system focuses solely on teacher and school accountability without demanding commensurate
accountability from parents, students, and the community. This narrow approach doesn't recognize that educational improvements must involve a team effort, thus creating unintended, counterproductive results.
9. Using a classroom grading scale, please score the job you think the Albuquerque Public Schools system is doing education students overall. B+ overall for a good curriculum, dedicated teachers, and
innovative programs. Always room for improvement, but excellent opportunities abound for those willing to step up to the challenge.
10. A number of school reform plans will be discussed during the 2001 New Mexico Legislature. Which plan is most appealing to you, and why? None, although a number of them alarm me. I won't begin following legislative proposals closely until the bills are posted on the State web site, since bills change significantly during committee hearings. Although I'm deeply interested in school technology proposals (because of technology's impact on our economical vitality and social well-being), my focus would be on bills that levy parent, student, and community responsibilities commensurate with the high expectations we already have for teachers and the school system.
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