Here's how many schools across New Mexico moved into good standing with PED - Noah Alcala Bach, Albuquerque Journal
Nineteen New Mexico schools are no longer designated by the state’s Public Education Department for poor academic performance after showing strides in student achievement and in improving learning environments.
Nearly half of those are in the largest school district in the state, Albuquerque Public Schools, where five elementary schools and four middle schools were taken off of two designation lists due to improvements in academic performance.
The district still has 28 campuses with designated status, including 13 charter schools for which APS does not oversee the day-to-day operations.
PED has four designations for struggling schools:
- Targeted Support and Improvement Schools for campuses “with consistently underperforming student groups,”
- Additional Targeted Support and Improvement Schools, which are defined as those “in need of support with one or more of the lowest performing groups of students,”
- Comprehensive Support and Improvement Schools, which are those scoring “in the bottom 5% of Title I schools overall or that have a graduation rate below 67%” and
- More Rigorous Interventions Schools, those that have not improved enough after three years of receiving support.
If a campus remains on these lists long enough, PED can close and reopen the school, but “that sort of Draconian measure has not ever been exercised,” according to Amanda DeBell, PED’s Deputy Secretary of Teaching, Learning and Innovation.
She added that APS’ success in getting nine schools off the list comes down to similar goals between the state agency and the district.
“We know that (what) the Albuquerque Public Schools has done is they have focused really tightly to improving outcomes with their strategic plan,” DeBell said. “And their strategic plan is not that far out of alignment with the PED strategic plan.”
That was echoed by APS’ Chief Academic Officer Sheri Jett, who said one of the district’s established goals of building students’ self-efficacy was showing up in improved academics at the nine schools for which the designation was removed.
“When we look at those nine schools, and we see their academic achievement increasing, we are also seeing their perceptions and skills, habits and mindsets increasing,” she said. “That is a major part of the story we’d like to tell: Those skills lead to academic success, they lead to higher attendance, and, like I mentioned, student persistence.”
The district’s strategic plan is centered around the goals and guardrails set by the board in 2023. The teachers’ union president, Ellen Bernstein, questioned the value of those goals and guardrails after the union retook control of the school board in the recent election.
But Jett believes the goal of building students’ skills, habits, and mindsets will remain despite any sea change on the APS board.
“I don’t have any concerns about that, because I think the board has a role, and I respect that deeply, but so does the administration,” Jett said. “The things we’ve put in place have momentum beyond the goals at this point ... I know for a fact that the board is not going to say, ‘Stop doing good work.’”
In addition to the nine schools taken off the designation lists, the district also had two elementary schools moved from the Comprehensive Support and Improvement schools designation to the Targeted Support and Improvement designation.
Barcelona Elementary School remains designated for “historically low performance in reading and math for Students with Disabilities,” and at Emerson Elementary, the school saw “historically low performance in math for Hispanic students,” according to APS spokesperson Martin Salazar.
“We look at those designations really thoughtfully, like it’s telling us something about what is happening in that school, the supports that they need and the changes we need to make,” Jett said. “The goal is, obviously, to move everybody out of designation, right? And so we still have schools that are in designation, and we’re going to continue that process with them.”
While the designation status can be concerning for schools, Elisabeth Peterson, director of the Priority Schools Department at the PED, said it also means the state offers more assistance to improve.
“You’re going to get more attention, you’re going to get more resources in the form of a grant, and you’re going to get more support,” she said. “We really collaboratively want to work with schools who understand their community, who understand their data, who understand or need to have a deeper dive into ‘What does this mean, what does the designation mean?’”
NM Sen. Luján introduces three wildfire-related bills - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) introduced three wildfire-related bills this week in a newly reopened United States Senate, all of which use New Mexico’s recent wildfire experience as a guide — or a cautionary tale — for the rest of the country.
The three bills seek to limit the number of out-of-state companies that receive fire-related contracts; expand the use of technology to monitor nascent blazes; and require the federal government to pay 100% of costs in rare circumstances when a federally managed prescribed burn escapes into a wildfire.
Luján introduced the “Local Employment Access for our Forests Act,” or “LEAF Act,” on Monday, which incentivizes Forest Service to hire local contractors specifically for preventative forest maintenance, including thinning dense forests of organic material before a major wildfire hits.
Luján spokesperson Seiichiro Nakai told Source that Luján’s office has heard from the New Mexico State Forester that contracts for hazard fuel mitigation are “frequently” going to “large, out-of-state foresters.” In a news release, Luján said the bill would require the Forest Service to give preference to local contractors and also to issue an annual report on how many wildfire mitigation contracts it gives to out-of-state companies.
The “Fire Innovation Unit Act,” introduced Tuesday, would create a pilot program for emerging technology that detects, prevents and responds to wildfires. The bill requires the federal Agriculture and Interior secretaries to create a “Fire Innovation Unit” to deploy and monitor wildfire technology.
Luján pointed to the recent state partnership with Pano AI, which has installed wildfire detection cameras in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe areas recently. The company promises its cameras offer 24/7, 360-degree monitoring, along with artificial intelligence-powered wildfire detection.
“As wildfires continue to wreak havoc on communities across New Mexico and the country, we must find innovative tools and technologies to combat the ever-changing threats posed by wildfires,” Luján said in a statement.
Finally, the Responsible Wildland Fire Recovery Act, also introduced Tuesday, would require the federal government to shoulder the cost if it caused a wildfire.
In New Mexico, the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire in 2022, the biggest wildfire in state history, began due to botched United States Forest Service prescribed burns in Northern New Mexico. In that case, federal agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the federal Agriculture Department agreed to waive what is often a 25% state cost-share for disaster response expenses, but that was only because the senator required them to in a separate piece of legislation, according to a spokesperson.
“The goal of the Responsible Wildland Fire Recovery Act is to ensure that were the federal government to set and lose control of another fire, Congress would not need to step in to waive the cost share again,” spokesperson Seiichiro Nakai said in an email.
Municipal League says $200M more is needed for water projects – Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
Water infrastructure projects across New Mexico are $200 million short of being fully funded for fiscal year 2026, according to the New Mexico Municipal League.
Leaders with the Municipal League, a nonprofit organization that aims to solve common problems shared by locales across the state, told state lawmakers at a Legislative Finance Committee hearing Tuesday morning that statewide drinking water infrastructure needs have a price tag of more than $3 billion.
In addition to those steep costs, League officials raised concerns about how long the funding process takes and how an eroding tax base is making it disproportionately difficult for smaller cities and towns to pay for their critical infrastructure needs.
In 27 of New Mexico’s 33 counties, the state Water Trust Board has authorized 113 water infrastructure projects with a combined cost of $522 million, according to the League’s report. Those include $16 million in improvements to a Gallup water reclamation facility, $4 million for water meter replacements in Las Vegas and $10.8 million for a lake conveyance project in Raton.
The discussion came as water systems in virtually every corner of New Mexico are feeling strain. Last year, the state identified issues with nearly 140 drinking water systems. More recently, issues of contamination have cropped up in Curry County, where “forever chemicals” were found in drinking wells, and in Doña Ana County, where the New Mexico Environment sued the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority over alleged mismanagement and repeated failed arsenic tests.
“What we saw this year was over $500 million in notices of intent…we’re still $204 million short of what we need to fully fund the applications that came in,” New Mexico Municipal League Executive Director AJ Forte told lawmakers Tuesday. “They just don’t have the revenue in place to update these systems. It’s not in the millions, it’s in the tens of millions to get them updated.”
Forte said much-needed funds for water infrastructure projects stay in an irritating holding pattern after they’re approved. By law, the state Water Trust Board makes loans and grants for water projects, but the money can only be disbursed by the state Legislature during the legislative session. That can delay funding by as much as 180 days, Forte said, and can lead to a host of issues including inflation, supply chain constraints and missed construction windows. In July, the Municipal League said it wanted lawmakers to give the New Mexico Finance Authority the power to greenlight water-related funds for three years.
One state lawmaker pushed back on Tuesday. Sen. George K. Muñoz, D-Gallup, said that removing legislative oversight could cause more problems than it solves.
“When we give up our legislative authority, things can go awry very quickly,” Muñoz, who serves as chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said. If the funding decisions are less centralized, Muñoz said, the state runs the risk of disproportionately funding these sorts of projects in bigger cities with deeper pockets. “You’ll see a large municipality outbidding a smaller pueblo.”
Concerns over funding voiced on Tuesday stemmed from what the Municipal League report called “tax base erosion.” Municipal budgets largely depend on tax revenue to fund costly projects, but local governments often use tax deductions or exemptions to entice developers to build, meaning these locales must rely on a “narrow and volatile base,” the report said.
Some reductions to gross receipts tax revenue have come from state law. The report said that Senate Bill 425, a 2019 law aimed at GRT deductions for defense-related satellite contracts, has led to $1.75 million in reduced taxes; and House Bill 252, a 2024 law that provided GRT deductions for Medicaid home renovations, childcare and geothermal facilities, has led to $12 million in reduced taxes.
Three-quarters of New Mexico cities rely on gross receipts tax revenues of less than $10 million, according to the report. And 40% of cities rely on GRT revenues of less than $1 million, meaning that the cost of a water infrastructure project is likely to eclipse what is often a small town’s largest source of revenue.
“These things really add up. These are significant numbers,” Alison Nichols, New Mexico Municipal League’s deputy director, told lawmakers, adding that the idiom she and her colleagues use for these proposals is, “death by a thousand cuts.”
Taos formally renames Kit Carson Park to Red Willow, with Taos Pueblo's approval - Santa Fe New Mexican
In Taos, a prominent city park has been renamed.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports the Taos Town Council on Monday approved a resolution changing the name of Kit Carson Park to Red Willow Park and agreed to several conditions from Taos Pueblo.
Councilors Genevieve Oswald, Darien Fernandez and Corilia Ortega voted to approve the resolution during a special meeting, while Councilor Marietta Fambro voted no. The New Mexican reports Fambro asked for more financial and logistical details about how the measure would be implemented. Mayor Pascual Maestas was absent from the meeting.
Oswald and Taos Pueblo Second Tribal Sheriff Jesse Winters presented the recommended name as the culmination of the work of the Kit Carson Park Renaming Committee, but the name was ultimately chosen at the request of the Taos Pueblo Tribal Council.
At an Oct. 23 meeting of the Park Renaming Committee, Tribal Secretary Jeremy Lujan read a letter identifying Red Willow Park as a name that was suitable for “unceded” Tiwa territory, and introducing several conditions from the tribe.
The Taos News reported at the time the word "Taos" is believed to be a translation of “place of the red willow” in Taos Pueblo’s native language, Tiwa.
Previous efforts to rename Kit Carson Park date back the early 1970s.
The New Mexican reports around 50 people participated in citizen forums during monthly renaming committee meetings, and three times that number participated in surveys about the park and what a new name should represent.
The park is located about two blocks northeast of the plaza and is the site of the Taos Community Auditorium as well as the Kit Carson grave site and cemetery.
ABQ asks for immediate removal of encampment at Quirky Books - Gregory Hasman, Albuquerque Journal
The city of Albuquerque says a homeless encampment outside Quirky Used Books & More needs to be removed immediately, just two days after a fatal shooting outside the store.
On Monday, the city requested a preliminary injunction that would put an end to all camping activities on the property, according to a city news release.
“The emergency filing argues that the city and nearby residents will suffer irreparable harm if the property continues to operate,” the release states.
The request comes two days after Gregory Antone, 28, was gunned down outside the business on Jefferson, near Central.
“For more than a year, the city has documented a persistent pattern of criminal activity, public safety hazards and code violations associated with the encampment operating on the property owned by Jefferson LLC and Gillam Kerley,” the release states.
“Despite repeated notices, hearings and fines, the property owners have continued to allow individuals to camp at the location, creating escalating harm to adjacent businesses, residents and the broader community.”
The bookstore owner said the business will fight the city in court.
“What the city is alleging, once again, are things which have nothing to do with the people who are camping here, but reflect issues with homelessness and crime in this part of the city in general,” Quirky Used Books owner Gillam Kerley said in a phone interview. “So, we will be vigorously opposing this and expect that the court will deny the request for a preliminary injunction.”
Early Saturday morning, the Albuquerque Police Department responded to a call of a shooting at the property. When officers arrived, they found Antone’s body, the release states.
According to the city, Antone got into an argument with people at the encampment before being fatally shot.
“The homicide this weekend underscores exactly why the city cannot allow this illegal operation to continue,” City Attorney Lauren Keefe said in a statement. “The neighboring properties have had to deal with drug activity, litter and violence. We are taking decisive action to protect this community.”
Within the past year, APD has responded to 235 calls for services in the area of the property, according to the city. The property had been previously cited for violating ordinances, including the city’s prohibition on outdoor storage and restrictions on overnight camping, the release states.
“It (is) disappointing that the city is exploiting a tragic act of violence in order to escalate their case against us, a case against people who are not responsible for that violence or the other issues that neighboring businesses complain about,” Kerley said.
The fatal shooting happened over a week after city officials asked a judge to declare the bookstore a “public nuisance” because of health concerns and alleged illicit drug use by unhoused people staying in the parking lot, the Journal reported.
If the court grants the city’s public nuisance request, city code enforcement will be allowed to enter the property and evict the people living there. The city also asked 2nd Judicial District Judge Daniel Ramczyk to grant the city permission to petition a judge to sell the property to a new owner if the property remained a public nuisance.
“The city maintains that shutting down the illegal activity at this property is necessary to prevent additional violent incidents, ongoing code violations, and restore safety to the area,” Monday’s news release from the city states.