APS staff report burnout, heavy workloads in union survey - Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
A quarter of Albuquerque Public Schools employees who responded to a district-wide survey said they were dissatisfied with their jobs, according to a report from the Albuquerque Teachers Federation.
Unmanageable workload, strained work-life balance, poor student behavior, too much testing and administrative issues were among the chief complaints. Special education teachers also reported high caseloads and inadequate planning time.
The survey received about 2,000 responses from union and non-union teachers, counselors, speech therapists, nurses, social workers and other employees, a response rate of around 30%, according to ATF President Ellen Bernstein.
Elementary school employees reported slightly higher levels of dissatisfaction than other APS staff, while high school staff said they were slightly happier with their jobs.
The greatest levels of dissatisfaction in the report appear among special education employees, particularly at the middle school level. Nearly 37% reported fair or poor professional well-being, and almost 58% said they had a fair or poor work-life balance, the highest percentages of any educator group.
“The number of struggling educators is significant enough to make addressing these issues urgent if they're to be able to manage their careers,” Bernstein said at Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting.
Educators often reported significant workloads, requiring them to complete administrative tasks outside of work hours. Some school staff said in the survey they worked anywhere from 10 to 12 hours weekly outside of their regular contract hours. One special education teacher said they worked 25 to 30 hours off the clock every week.
Special education teacher Desiree Spielman told the board Wednesday that she consistently works at least 10 hours outside of her obligated hours to complete paperwork, prepare lesson plans and update students’ individualized education programs, or IEPs.
“I am asking the leadership and board to eliminate superfluous, confusing mandates that have dubious effects on students' learning and educators' ability to meet student needs,” Spielman said.
Nearly 50% of APS respondents said their workload was unmanageable, levels which rose to 56% among elementary school teachers and 55% of teachers at K-8 schools.
Almost 63% of elementary special education teachers and almost 68% of middle school special education teachers reported unmanageable workloads.
“I am exhausted, overstimulated, and questioning how long I can do this,” one anonymous teacher said. Another said their job had become impossible to do well without sacrificing weekends and family time.
Teachers reported needing more planning time and fewer interruptions to sort through a backlog of administrative tasks.
“Paperwork has drained me,” one teacher said. “Every time I feel caught up, something else is thrown on my plate.”
Almost 69% of survey respondents said work-related stress affects their personal well-being.
Last month, the New Mexico House of Representatives voted unanimously in favor of House Memorial 47, which requests a study on teacher workloads. The study seeks to understand how teacher time is allocated throughout the instructional day, and how administrative requirements and available time and resources impact teacher workload.
APS Superintendent Gabriella Blakey said in a statement the district supported the study and recognized how much more complex teaching had become in recent years.
APS is committed to working with the union to strengthen behavioral support systems and to give teachers more “time to collaborate,” Blakey said.
“Our teachers are the backbone of our school district, and we’re incredibly grateful to each of them for the important work they’re doing to improve outcomes for our students,” Blakey said. “We are always striving for improvement and look forward to working collaboratively with the teachers’ union as we continue the important job of preparing our students to succeed in the world.”
Many school staff members spoke of worsening and often violent student behavior in the years since the pandemic. Some raised issues with cellphones, vapes and weapons on campus.
More than a third of survey respondents — almost 35% — reported experiencing physical harm from a student at school. More than two-thirds said they’d experienced verbal aggression.
“The worst was when I was intentionally set on fire by a student with a magnifying glass until flames were visible in my hair,” said one respondent.
Other teachers talked of having work-related nightmares in their survey responses and said they had to seek professional help to keep their jobs.
“It feels like I’m a prison guard that is also a teacher, counselor, parent and provider,” one respondent said.
Board President Ronalda Tome-Warito told school staff Wednesday she’d heard their concerns.
“Where there was need expressed, we are working with the administration on resolutions,” she said.
Trial for former House majority leader reset for August - Olivier Uyttebrouck, Albuquerque Journal
A federal judge this week ordered the trial for Sheryl Williams Stapleton postponed until August, nearly five years after criminal allegations led to her resignation as state House majority leader.
In his order, U.S. District Judge James O. Browning raised the possibility that the delay could give both Stapleton and her co-defendant an opportunity to negotiate a plea deal with prosecutors.
Browning ordered the continuance on Tuesday, less than four weeks before Stapleton and her co-defendant were scheduled to begin trial in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. He set Aug. 5 as the new trial date.
A federal grand jury in 2024 indicted Stapleton, 68, a former Albuquerque Public Schools official and state lawmaker, and her co-defendant, Joseph Johnson, 74, each on 35 federal criminal counts, including multiple counts of mail fraud, money laundering and bribery.
In a separate state case, Stapleton faces 23 felony charges and three misdemeanors in 2nd Judicial District Court, including racketeering, money laundering, fraud and engaging in an official act for personal financial gain. She was indicted on the state charges in September 2021.
The state case is set for trial Oct. 5 before Judge David Murphy. Johnson is not a defendant in that case.
In the federal case, attorneys for both Stapleton and Johnson argued in a joint motion that they needed more time to prepare a joint defense and review a vast amount of evidence in the complex case, Browning wrote in his order.
"Further, both defendants will have additional time to engage in plea negotiations independently and as part of a global plea resolution and prepare for trial if necessary," Browning wrote.
Stapleton's attorney, Ryan Villa, said Thursday that his client was not engaged in plea negotiations "at this time."
"We are not actively negotiating," Villa said. "Of course, in every case, (a plea deal) is always a possibility at any time, but nothing is ongoing right now."
The charges stem from an APS contract with Robotics Management Learning Systems LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based company owned by Johnson, that provided software and training for vocational students at a cost of more than $5 million from 2013 through June 2020. Stapleton and Johnson each have pleaded not guilty and deny the charges.
Prosecutors allege that Stapleton, as director of the federally funded Perkins Project, oversaw the contract and diverted more than $950,000 from the contract into personal and business accounts that included her personal consulting firm and a family restaurant.
Stapleton used blank checks from Robotics to write some 233 checks totaling about $1.15 million for her own benefit, or 35% of the funds APS paid to Robotics, prosecutors allege.
Villa said Thursday that services obtained from Johnson's company passed through APS' procurement department "properly in the normal fashion" and that Stapleton "was not a part of that process."
The federal indictment filed in March 2024 charged Stapleton and Johnson each with multiple financial crimes, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and multiple counts of fraud, money laundering and bribery involving programs that received federal funds. They are set to be tried together.
NM AG joins coalition asking federal appeals court to preserve employee access to contraceptives – Leah Romero, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez joined more than 20 other state prosecutors this week in urging a federal appeals court to protect access to contraceptive care and uphold a previous ruling against regulations introduced by the Trump administration.
The coalition of attorneys general filed an amicus brief with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday, calling for the court to uphold the Affordable Care Act’s requirement for employers to cover no-cost contraceptive care for employees. The Trump administration expanded religious and moral exemptions for employers in 2017 and 2018, making it easier for employers and health insurance companies to refuse to cover workers’ contraceptive care.
A lower court previously granted an injunction against the expanded regulations and ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in August 2025.
“For tens of thousands of New Mexico women, contraception is simply routine health care — and they deserve the same access to it as any other essential preventive service,” Torrez said in a statement.
According to the brief, more than 80% of women between ages 18 to 49 report having used some form of contraception in the past 12 months. The brief calculates that with contraception averaging $584 per user per year, the regulations could result in $73.8 million in costs to people who use contraceptive care.
“Shifting that cost onto working families creates real financial harm and undermines that access,” Torrez said.
The coalition noted in the brief that access to birth control options has declined since the Trump administration introduced the expanded regulations following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. The administration has also cut federal funding for practices offering reproductive health services.
The coalition argued that the regulations leave the health of employees vulnerable and the states to financially fill the cost of services. The brief also stated that the regulations disproportionally impact minority communities and people from lower incomes, who are already more likely to have difficulties accessing health care.
“By defendants’ own admission, the Final Rules will deprive hundreds of thousands of employees, students, and their dependents of contraceptive coverage. That deprivation threatens the health and wellbeing of the states’ residents and the economic and public health
of the states generally,” the brief reads. “As a result of defendants’ unlawful actions, states will be forced to expend millions of dollars to provide replacement contraceptive care and services for their residents.”
The coalition also noted that since the administration introduced the expanded regulations, other federal programs that provided reproductive health care experienced cuts to federal funding, such as Title X. A freeze on federal funds in early 2025 led clinics across the country to close their doors, the report adds, further hindering access to contraception and care.
Gubernatorial candidates speak before business leaders – Gillian Barkhurst, Albuquerque Journal
For the first time since announcing their campaigns, all but one of the eight gubernatorial candidates sat in the same room to talk policy during a Hispano Chamber of Commerce forum Wednesday night.
The forum, intended to be a meet-and-greet with business leaders and gubernatorial hopefuls, pushed Democratic candidates Deb Haaland and Sam Bregman into the same venue as tensions in the race rise.
The forum also brought out all five Republican candidates: Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull, state Sen. Steve Lanier of Aztec, cannabis entrepreneur Duke Rodriguez of Albuquerque, former Public Regulation Commissioner Jim Ellison of Cedar Crest and business owner Doug Turner of Albuquerque.
Ken Miyagishima, the only independent candidate and former mayor of Las Cruces, did not attend the forum.
The Republicans
While Democrats Bregman and Haaland have garnered the most attention in the race, the forum gave lesser-known candidates in the crowded field of Republicans a platform to pitch their ideas for New Mexico’s future.
“Hear me out, New Mexico is not a poor state, punto,” Rodriguez said to the crowd. “But we are absolutely a poorly run state.”
Rodriguez evoked civil rights leader Cesar Chavez in his speech and declared he would be a candidate for the people.
Just before that, Lanier also appealed to rural New Mexicans.
“My first job, I was 6 years old, shoveling manure,” Lanier said. “So my work ethic, I’m proud of it.”
Lanier cited his role as state senator as proof of his ability to deliver on promises of supporting small businesses, uplifting rural New Mexico and deregulating industries within the state.
Closer to home, Hull touted his more than 10 years in office during his speech.
“I'm very proud of the work that we've achieved in Rio Rancho,” Hull said. “We've been nationally recognized time and time again as the best place to raise a family and the best place to live. Now I want to bring those same results to the state of New Mexico.”
Ellison used his time to strike a more adversarial tone. He said that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham booted him from his commissioner seat and that New Mexico needed a change in leadership.
“I’m an outsider — I’m not a politician,” Ellison said.
Rounding out the last of the Republicans was business owner Turner, who largely focused on New Mexico’s education system.
“If we don't get a hold of what's wrong with this state, improve education, improve the business climate, improve public safety — we won't have a place for our kids,” Turner said. “They won't come back.”
The Democrats
Wednesday’s forum put Democratic rivals Bregman and Haaland under the same roof as the June 2 Democratic primary grows closer.
Bregman has been openly critical of Haaland for turning down opportunities to address him and the public directly. He escalated his criticism after Haaland’s campaign declined a request to debate on KRQE-TV last week.
Wednesday, Bregman took a similar stance, telling the crowd that he’d been waiting 167 days to debate Haaland, as she sat just several yards away from him.
Haaland sidestepped Bregman’s remarks and instead talked about her experience in Washington, D.C., as a representative in Congress and later as Interior Department secretary.
The two Democrats are scheduled for a debate hosted by the New Mexico Public Broadcasting Service in early May.
New Mexico comes to agreement with plaintiffs on child welfare system case goals – Esteban Candelaria, Searchlight New Mexico
New Mexico made strong progress in its goals to reform its troubled foster care system last year and is ready to start work on another set of goals, the state and plaintiffs in a landmark child welfare lawsuit said Monday.
The New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, Health Care Authority and plaintiffs of the Kevin S. lawsuit last week negotiated a new agreement in the case which acknowledges improvements in the state’s commitments under the lawsuit. Still, New Mexico still must improve on several key areas, including foster family recruitment and cutting workers’ caseloads.
The agreement, part of a lengthy arbitration process in the Kevin S. lawsuit, also lays out a number of new goals, including making improvements to better support New Mexico’s foster families.
“We are at an important crossroads. The work is not finished,” said attorney Tara Ford during a virtual hearing Monday morning. “… We are really, really pleased that the state has come together to work with us to continue to move forward.”
The Kevin S. lawsuit was filed in 2018 by more than a dozen foster children. It was settled two years later when the state made an array of commitments designed to reform its foster care system. However, after years of stagnation, plaintiffs in 2024 argued the state was failing to make good on those commitments, and started a lengthy arbitration process aimed at bringing CYFD and HCA into compliance.
In the new pact, plaintiffs and the state agreed New Mexico had largely satisfied the remedial orders handed down by arbitrator Charles Peifer last year who largely sided with plaintiffs and required New Mexico to make progress on targets in several key areas. Among the areas the parties cited was the state’s improvements in its rate of providing timely wellness checks to children entering state custody, which shot past 75% during the second half of 2025.
However, the state and plaintiffs disagreed on whether New Mexico had complied with previous remedial orders in other areas.
Both sides agreed CYFD has not lowered the number of cases being carried by frontline workers to acceptable standards based on their field, did not meet a recruitment goal of approving and licensing 265 new non-relative resource homes last year, and failed to approve and license 244 new treatment foster care placements last year as well.
However, the parties did not agree in other areas. For example, they disputed over whether the state notified and provided safety plans on time to field experts in the case when there were child fatalities or other critical incidents involving children in offices, group homes or other similar settings.
The new agreement suspends enforcement of the previous orders. Still, the state will be held to similar targets under the new remedial order, such as being required to make incremental progress on its annual targets for nonrelative foster home recruitment and treatment foster care placements, and reach 100% of those targets by Dec. 1. CYFD will also be required to bring down caseloads to field standards for 90% of all its workers by Nov. 1.
It was not clear Monday what the state’s recruitment and placement targets for this year are — the state has a deadline of March 31 to agree on what those targets should be with the field experts.
“We have all agreed on a plan going forward to address those items that [were] not in dispute that the targets were not hit,” Eric Loman, who represents CYFD and the state Health Care Authority in the case, said in summarizing the agreement.
The new deal also came with new requirements for the state, including for CYFD to create a foster parent advisory board designed to better the experiences of families by improving training, licensing processes and other systems.
The new board will be designed to “improve business practices to ensure timely payment and reimbursement to foster parents,” Ford wrote in an emailed statement.
NM governor candidate Haaland proposes overhauling troubled child welfare agency - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland on Thursday announced her gubernatorial campaign’s plan for public safety issues, which includes overhauling the troubled Children, Youth and Families Department, creating a statewide behavioral health response department and prohibiting ICE agents from operating near places of worship, parks and government buildings.
Former state Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, former State Police Chief Pete Kassetas and New Mexico Behavioral Health Providers Association President David Ley all joined Haaland at a news conference outside a shuttered Albuquerque behavioral health clinic to endorse her plan.
Reforming CYFD and boosting the number and quality of behavioral health services across the state will free up police officers to focus on their “traditional police work” and will secure potential youthful offenders the help they need before they commit a crime, they said.
“Too often, individuals in our state don’t receive care until there is a situation that is escalated to an emergency,” Ley said. “Expanding access to early intervention services, treatment programs and recovery resources will help close the gaps that currently exist throughout our behavioral health system.”
Haaland said she hopes to address the “root causes” of crime by meeting kids where they are.
That starts with overhauling CYFD, she said.
Her 19-page plan calls for appointing an experienced cabinet secretary, increasing pay and boosting recruitment efforts and mandating data sharing between the Office of the Child Advocate and the New Mexico State Police, Health Care Authority and the Early Childhood Education and Care Department. In a Thursday statement, Haaland’s campaign said the plan represents “a path to overhaul CYFD and replace it with an independent commission.”
“On day one, I will appoint a qualified secretary and direct them to take drastic measures to increase staff, rebuild partnerships, standardize foster recruitment and certification, all with the end goal of creating an independent commission to bring the consistency that our children deserve,” Haaland told reporters before noting that she views these as long-term answers to a longstanding problem. “These are not overnight solutions.”
Problems have plagued CYFD for years. It’s been a revolving door for leadership — when Secretary Teresa Casados abruptly retired in September, she was the fifth secretary in six years. The department is currently run by Acting Secretary Valerie Sandoval. And Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham only recently abolished the practice of letting kids stay in agency office buildings overnight.
In response to a query from Source NM, CYFD Deputy Director of Communications Jessica Preston said the agency had not yet had a chance to review Haaland’s proposal and it would therefore “be premature” to comment on it.
Haaland said that she would also create a statewide Office of Community Safety to send social workers, counselors and behavioral health professionals to the scenes of nonviolent 911 calls, much like Albuquerque Community Safety does.
The Albuquerque Police Department has long reported the highest rate in the nation of police killings. The police force continued to hold that distinction in 2025, according to data published by the nonprofit Mapping Police Violence, despite several years of ACS operations.
Haaland, for her part, said she believes the new state department will serve two critical public safety functions: Give people in crisis the behavioral health resources they need, and free police officers up to work on serious crimes, like drug trafficking.
“Being homeless is not a crime. Being in a mental health crisis — not a crime,” she said. “Those folks need help from people trained to manage those situations. This is a shift that must happen.”
Her plan focuses on public safety systems beyond municipal and state police departments — it includes proposals to fully fund the Law Offices of the Public Defender, to create a task force that will streamline Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons cases and support the work of the state’s newly formed Jeffrey Epstein “truth commission.”
Haaland also pledged to ban ICE agents from wearing face masks while on the job and to prohibit them from operating within 500 yards of schools and child care facilities, state courthouses and government buildings, religious institutions, health clinics, public parks and “significant cultural sites.”
There have been efforts to that effect at the federal level, as well. U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujàn (D-N.M.) on Wednesday introduced bills that he said would require ICE to disclose more information about its arrests and deportations. Another of his proposals would evaluate whether ICE agents hired during a recent recruitment blitz were properly trained.
Elected leaders in Denver recently approved a ban on law enforcement officials, including ICE agents, wearing masks.
Haaland said she would end cooperation agreements with ICE and sign a law to prohibit National Guard troops in other states from deploying to New Mexico.
“When I’m governor, no one will be above the law,” she said.
This story was updated following publication to reflect CYFD's response to Source NM's request for comment.