Santa Fe's newest school, Amy Biehl at Rancho Viejo Community School, won't open until next autumn. But it already has a principal.

She's Pam De La O, who began working in the Santa Fe school system in 1982 as an elementary support teacher and an after-school programs supervisor and worked her way up to teacher, and then assistant principal, before becoming principal of Sweeney Elementary School in 2004.

This year, she's serving as principal of the new K-6 facility slated to open in 2010.

The 64,000-square-foot school, named after the Santa Fe High School graduate who was killed in South Africa in 1993 while she was advocating for voter rights, is under construction.

Which leads to at least one key question: Can Santa Fe Public Schools afford to pay her $67,657 to oversee construction while the school system is preparing to cut other expenses?

Bobbie Gutierrez, Santa Fe Public Schools' superintendent, said involving a principal during the building process is vital. "I've been around long enough to see the mistakes that can be made when you don't involve the principal because there's so much to be done when setting up a school," she said. "There is a lot of work that goes into getting a new facility up and running to create a new school community, and we don't get to do this very often."

Patricia Miller, superintendent of Fort Sumner Municipal Schools, agrees. She and her principals were all involved in the construction of the 20,000-square-foot educational complex known as The Fort that was just opened on the Fort Sumner campus (it was the first new construction on the site in 50 years, she noted).

"It is a very intelligent investment to put an educator in the design and construction process, because no matter how good your contractor is, no matter how good your subcontractors are, nobody is going to be as vested in ultimate outcome as the person who is going to be living there on a daily basis," Miller said.

As writer G. Hubler noted in a 1997 article for the journal Schools in the Middle, "Principals are among the nation's best school designers," because they can notice potential problems during the planning period. Recently, while looking over the blueprints for the school, De La O noticed that the basketball court was designed to be placed outside the kindergarten class on one side of the structure, and the playground was slated to be put outside the sixth-grade class. She told Edward Dixon, senior superintendent for Cameron Construction, to switch the two around.

"She was right," Dixon said during a recent visit to the site. "She's caught things like that; she's been in the design phase initiating things she wants in there."

Besides keeping track of construction, De La O's job also involves building curriculum, developing community relations, and mentoring new principals and principals with experience who are new to the district.

The practice of hiring a principal oversee a new school is commonplace in Rio Rancho, according to Kim Vesely, communications officer for Rio Rancho Public Schools since 2000.

"From our standpoint, it is desirable to do that," she said. "We will identify a principal six to 12 months in advance and basically give them leave to oversee it and still do other duties." She said it's been done that way with every new school the district has built since at least 2000.

The Amy Biehl school will use geothermal heating and have solar light poles in the parking lot. It will also use recycled water for irrigation purposes, feature outdoor courtyards that can double as classrooms, and include such eco-friendly elements as a school garden and a wetland area.

The school will serve a little fewer than 500 students, De La O said, most of whom will transfer from Piñon and Sweeney Elementary schools. She expects to line up the first five or six teachers for the new school by January, though they won't start teaching until August.

De La O's father was a state police officer. As a result, she traveled all over the state as a child, living in several different communities including Mora and Las Cruces. She still recalls with affection and admiration her middle-school principal in Mora — "Mr. Armijo, who had been my mother's teacher," she said. "He was interested in the students, he got to know the parents, and he made an impact on me."

Still, although she received a bachelor's degree in elementary education from New Mexico State University and a master's in educational administration from The University of New Mexico, she wasn't enthused about taking on the job of principal.

While working as a teacher at E.J. Martinez Elementary School, De La O saw what her principal — Gutierrez — had to deal with on a daily basis.

"As principal, you're responsible to a lot of people, from the parents to the students to the staff to the school administration," she said. "You have to be able to adapt to all kinds of situations and play so many roles."

But Gutierrez encouraged De La O to consider moving up the educational ladder, so she did. She's glad she made the jump.

"It's service-oriented work," she said. "People need leadership, and I provide that. There's a great pride and reward in serving students, parents and the community."

She spends about 40 percent of her time mentoring, helping new principals set priorities, building timelines that encourage them to stay on track with projects and giving them common-sense advice.

"I tell them, 'You should have an open-door policy for any and all. If you don't, people feel they don't have a voice,' " she said.

By early 2010, De La O will do less mentoring and be more involved in specific planning for Amy Biehl, including choosing the school colors and ordering supplies. She hopes to move from the district's administrative offices on Alta Vista Street into her office on campus in June, about two months before school begins.

"It's a great place to be, to be a part of a system that cares about educating its kids," she said. "And I'm going to be part of it again at Amy Biehl. And I'm proud of that."

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.