Several weeks ago I mentioned that I had been appointed to fill a vacant seat on our school board. This was the "at large seat' which covers, I believe, about 250 square miles. Up until a few weeks ago the district was much larger. Our district used to extend all the way to Rio Rancho, a very fast growing, largely affluent suburb of Albuquerque. It turns out that an ultra posh development called Mariposa (Google Mariposa Rio Rancho if curious) was in full swing when they discovered something that apparently horrified them. Unbelievably, and long ago, the district boundaries had been drawn in such a way that these $500,000 to $1,000,000.00 dollar homes were in the Jemez Valley School District. Big surprise!
It would have been a long way to bus kids to school-and, I think, this was a convenient "fig leaf" which allowed all the fat cats to to push for re-districting without having to voice some pretty obvious concerns about schools populated by Indians and other poor people.
So, we were in a situation where monetary offers started to pour in as compensation for agreeing to splitting off part of the district. Basically, it was a conversation about how much money we would need to walk our poor smelly selves out of the neighborhood. (Yes, I am a little bit prejudiced, as I love these people). Poor people so seldom negotiate from a position of power-but this was different. Homes were going up, ready to be sold, and the first question the buyer's want answered concerns the school system.
I can't take credit for this, but I was proud of our little negotiating team who cut the deal. We all knew that in just a few years Mariposa (a fast growing community) was going to be the dog, and we would be the tale. But that would take a little time, and time was of the essence. So our little team agreed to walk out of Mariposa's life. And they paid $750,000.00 to have us out of their life. That money is going to go to very good use. Mariposa will hardly notice the difference. As far as they are concerned, they are still the big winners, and they probably are right. But there are a few small-town boys in the Jemez walking around with big smiles on their faces.
It would have been a long way to bus kids to school-and, I think, this was a convenient "fig leaf" which allowed all the fat cats to to push for re-districting without having to voice some pretty obvious concerns about schools populated by Indians and other poor people.
So, we were in a situation where monetary offers started to pour in as compensation for agreeing to splitting off part of the district. Basically, it was a conversation about how much money we would need to walk our poor smelly selves out of the neighborhood. (Yes, I am a little bit prejudiced, as I love these people). Poor people so seldom negotiate from a position of power-but this was different. Homes were going up, ready to be sold, and the first question the buyer's want answered concerns the school system.
I can't take credit for this, but I was proud of our little negotiating team who cut the deal. We all knew that in just a few years Mariposa (a fast growing community) was going to be the dog, and we would be the tale. But that would take a little time, and time was of the essence. So our little team agreed to walk out of Mariposa's life. And they paid $750,000.00 to have us out of their life. That money is going to go to very good use. Mariposa will hardly notice the difference. As far as they are concerned, they are still the big winners, and they probably are right. But there are a few small-town boys in the Jemez walking around with big smiles on their faces.
