Kudos
Kudos to Superintendent Spencer and the Española Public Schools board for their unanimous vote to make financial literacy a district-wide yearlong high school graduation requirement.
This decision guarantees that every Espanola graduate will receive the knowledge and tools they need to become financially secure. When students increase their financial literacy, studies find that they make better financial decisions, such as shifting from high-cost to low-cost sources of credit. They also often bring those lessons home to their parents, benefiting the whole family. We commend the Española district leadership for their visionary leadership, which will have positive impacts for students, families, and the entire community for generation.
Fred Nathan, Jr.
executive director
Think New Mexico
Wants to be mayor
At least six persons have announced their candidacy to run as Santa Fe’s next mayor with the latest being Ronald S. Trujillo, a former 12-year city councilor with strong family ties also to Rio Arriba County.
He announced his candidacy in a news release over the weekend. Trujillo ran for mayor in 2018 and was defeated by current Mayor Alan Webber who has not announced if he will seek reelection. He is completing his second term.
In his news release Trujillo said, “I believe that it is vital to the future of Santa Fe to create a governing infrastructure and a society that contributes new values, opportunities and cultural achievements to the benefit of all citizens.”
According to a news story in the Santa Fe New Mexican, “Trujillo has been critical of the Webber administration and has spoken out publicly against what he views as attacks on New Mexico’s Spanish culture. In 2023, he called Webber a ‘racist’ who ‘hates Hispanics,’ pointing to the removal of the statue of Don Diego de Vargas in Cathedral Park, the destruction of the Plaza obelisk and Webber’s role in ending the Entrada, a controversial dramatization of the Spanish reoccupation of the city that had been part of the Fiesta de Santa Fe for decades.”
Trujillo, in his news release, wrote, “I am a Native Son of Santa Fe, New Mexico whose roots go back to a mix of the Hispanic and Native American cultures. I am proud to say I am Mestizo.”