During the public forum at the May 8 Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education meeting, teacher and community speakers criticized district messaging about graduation rates and asked the board to clarify grade-promotion and assessment practices. Board members later discussed standards-based grading and the district's approach to cell-phone use in classrooms.

Garren Spray, a world-history teacher at Capital High School, told the board that district press materials presented misleading graduation rates. "85 percent of our students were handed diplomas, while only about 20 percent of them are actually proficient," Spray said in public comment. He criticized what he called the district's implementation of standards-based grading and urged the new superintendent and the board not to impose systemwide changes that add paperwork and stress without improving student outcomes.

An online commenter, Gracia Stuckey, who said she volunteers as a math tutor in district middle schools, described recurring gaps in basic arithmetic among seventh- and eighth-grade students and asked the board how promotion and grade-level decisions are made. "How is it determined that a student passes a grade level?" she asked in her written submission.

Board members addressed the concerns during later agenda items. Some members described standards-based grading as a contested topic among teachers and parents; others said modern curricular and assessment models differ from past practice and that participation in arts and project work can exemplify standards-based learning. "There are people who are saying that the way we are teaching and learning today is very different from 20 years ago," Board Member Heffron said, and he urged the board to work with the new superintendent to examine implementation.

The board also discussed a recently passed state measure that requires districts to adopt a cell-phone policy. Board members said the legislation requires local policy development and that district leaders should engage students, staff and families to craft workable operational procedures rather than rely solely on top-down enforcement. "We need to engage students and staff because we can't just make them into enforcers," Vice President Noble said.

Board members asked staff to return with operational options and to involve student board members and school leaders in drafting a policy that addresses instructional uses of phones, equity concerns and enforcement logistics. The board did not take formal action on standards-based grading or cell-phone rules at the May 8 meeting.

Speakers at public forum and several board members said they want clearer communication from the district about how diplomas are awarded and how proficiency and promotion are determined; staff agreed to follow up with written clarifications and to include the topics in future agenda discussions.