SWOPblogger

CARLSBAD — Carlsbad Superintendent Ron Owen has received a one-year contract extension. The Carlsbad board of education voted 4-1 during its regular meeting Tuesday night to extend Owen's contract. Board member Martin Dorado cast the lone dissenting vote. Owen has served as superintendent for more than a year.

SWOP member leader Martin Dorado, less than a year after his landslide election to the Carlsbad Municipal School (CMS) Board is doing exactly what he said he would, focus on what’s best for the kids.

At Tuesday night’s school board meeting, Superintendant Ron Owen was up for his annual review. Not coincidentally, Owen was hired by the school board during the interim period from when Dorado was elected and he was sworn into office. Martin’s election marked a significant shift from a good old boys system to a wave of community change…and the school board didn’t like that.

In a last ditch effort to hold on to control the school board hired one of their own, Ron Owen. During the first year that Owen was superintendent he hired a number of school principals across CMS that weren’t supported by the local teachers unions or by the parents.

In a story that SWOPblogger broke last year, and that the tv new stations picked up a few days later, parents, teachers, and student were outraged by a letter written by Carlsbad High School (CHS) Principal Ray Burrola scape goating “Hispanic students, students with disabilities, and economically disadvantaged students,” for CHS not meeting it’s No Child Left Behind mandated Annual Yearly Progress. Well guess what? Owen hired Burrola, and that along with many other reasons is why Martin Dorado voted to not extend Owen’s contract. Why was he the lone dissenting vote? Years of fear, intimidation, and hate don’t go away over night, but as we the People continue to become stronger, in Carlsbad and across the entire state of NM, Martin will be joined by more and more people who aren’t afraid to speak out.

Way to go Martin! Keep up the good work. Like Martin always says, “it’s all about the kids”.