Monte del Sol To Let Head Learner Go

Governing board votes not to renew Angela Ritchie's contract

Angela Ritchie, Monte del Sol's current head learner, has a more traditional approach that some worry will alter the school's creative atmosphere. (Photo: Alexa Schirtzinger)

By SFR

On Tuesday night, the governing board of Monte del Sol Charter School voted not to renew Head Learner Angela Ritchie's contract for the 2011-12 school year.

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According to Carlos Ruiz, the board's vice chairman and longest-serving member, all board members but two, who abstained, voted not to renew Ritchie's contract, meaning she will likely leave the school when her current, two-year contract expires this summer.

"Even though [Ritchie] was very good administratively and [has] done terrific work in other areas, the general feeling of the board was that she was not a good fit," Ruiz tells SFR. "She just was not the right person for our needs."

Ruiz says the vote was not a response to any particular event.

"This is not a punishment," Ruiz says. "I think it needs to be understood that this was a two-year contract, and we came to the end of the contract, and we're simply not renewing it... It isn't retaliation for anything."

Ritchie started at Monte del Sol in 2009, after a lengthy search for a head learner after the departure of Tony Gerlicz, the school's founder. Ritchie has come under criticism from some students and teachers for her leadership style. (Click here to read SFR's cover story on Gerlicz, Ritchie and Monte del Sol.)

Ruiz says he assumes Ritchie will continue the year as normal under her current contract, which expires this summer.

"Of course, there will be another search for a [head learner]--and that is a concern, in terms of, are we going to find the right person?" Ruiz says. "We're looking for someone who can fit the mission of the school and take it forward."

Just last week, another Santa Fe charter school, the Academy for Technology and the Classics, voted not to renew its own principal's contract.

Ritchie did not immediately return a message left on her office phone.

Santa Fe Reporter

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