On Tuesday, participants in the Santa Fe County Mobilizing For Education Excellence summit set their goals for improving the quality of education in the community.

Among the priorities on their list are higher teacher pay, more effective teacher evaluations, and more and better professional-development opportunities for educators. So is the idea of creating a "Reading Is Cool!" literacy program and a proposal to expand the number of instructional hours in the school day.

The two-day summit was convened by United Way of Santa Fe County and facilitated by members of New Mexico First, a nonprofit group committed to engaging citizens in public policy issues. It began Monday when about 180 people — including educators, parents and students — chose 21 goals for promoting academic success among schoolchildren in Santa Fe.

By Tuesday, that list had been whittled down to roughly a dozen topics. Three groups comprising about 10 people each were formed to focus on three broad areas: parent and community engagement; teacher effectiveness and school policies; and programs and funding.

Those teams will meet monthly through the end of the year to discuss how to make the goals a reality — and how to pay for them. The Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation is making $10,000 available for this part of the process.

Almost immediately, the teams ran into what could be major challenges. For example, when the teacher/policy group began discussing extending the school day, participant Suzanne Goodwin, executive director of Citizens Schools, pointed out that it will cost about $2,300 per child to add two extra hours of instructional time four days a week next year for the 250 students at DeVargas Middle School. And, given most federal studies on the cost per student, $2,300 is a conservative figure, she stressed.

Likewise, given Gov. Susana Martinez's push for a new system to evaluate teachers, one summit participant said community efforts in this area may be for naught if the state mandates new guidelines.

Brian Dineen, vice president of strategic planning for United Way, said that while he is a "skeptic by character," he was inspired by the level of community involvement and enthusiasm in the summit.

"This group impressed me as having thoughtful, creative thinkers," he said, adding, "It will be a challenge to move from a shared desire to make things happen to an acceptable plan for real change."

He said both continued community support and a willingness on the part of Santa Fe Public Schools to "change the way it teaches" are paramount to the success of this plan.

Bobbie Gutierrez, Santa Fe Public Schools superintendent and a summit participant, said, "Everything that was identified (by the implementation team) fits well with the planning that has been going on or discussed in Santa Fe Public Schools. I did not see anything new or alarming that we cannot do."

United Way CEO and President Katherine Freeman said the organization will release a public report on the two-day event by the end of the month.

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