It is well into the academic year and schools throughout the Española School District are still missing the supplies necessary to educate students.
During public participation at the Oct. 8 Board meeting, current and former employees of Sombrillo Elementary School addressed Board members about the lack of available mathematics and English workbooks for students. They also claimed they need additional personnel to deal with the influx of students from the Cariños Charter School.
“We could say that books are not available in the textbook depository in Albuquerque, but the books were ordered before the summer,” former Sombrillo principal Gloria Shuttles said. “Why are there not enough textbooks for the children at the school?”
Shuttles said the school has lost a number of employees, from full-time teachers, to part-time assistance staff, such as counselors and librarians. She said the school was already near capacity and the loss of personnel has stretched resources and students from Cariños just compounds the problem.
Española Superintendent Danny Trujillo agreed and said the Cariños situation has had an effect on the staffing situation. Since the charter school closed its doors Sept. 8, District schools, particularly Sombrillo Elementary, have had to accommodate a number of students from the charter school.
Shuttles said the school was not properly staffed to meet the needs of these students, so additional staff should be hired. She also said the school needs another educational assistant to support the additional workload. Currently, assistants are splitting their time among the different instructors at the school.
Second grade teacher Samuel Chavez said some students also have emotional issues and that has to be a bigger focus. He said administrators have not addressed the issue and it should become a priority.
“We have received a number of children from Cariños and many of them need specialized services,” Chavez said. “Currently, the staff person who handles these sort of situations is overloaded, he was overloaded even before the new students showed up.”
Sombrillo Principal Yanira Vasquez said she received 32 of the 50 students that transferred from Cariños. Some students have also enrolled at the Española Elementary School.
She said many of the students’ school supplies are locked at the former middle school building and they cannot access them, so she has been providing supplies for the children.
“I do not have the resources I need to be successful,” Vasquez said.
Sombrillo is not the only school to experience these issues. Española Elementary School Principal Julé Skoglund raised the same issue when she addressed Board members about accommodating Los Niños students. She told members she is still waiting for materials she ordered for her school.
For the District’s part, Trujillo continues to insist school administrators have the required materials to educate students.
He said since instructors have textbooks, they can use the practice quizzes at the end of any chapter as practice problems.
He said the workbooks are for students who need additional assistance, so not every student needs them. They are for students who have not yet mastered the subject and require additional practice. Trujillo said each instructor has a blank copy of the workbook so they can photocopy the necessary pages and provide practice exercises for students who need them.
“They have the paper at the school,” Trujillo said. “I was just at one of the schools and I saw reams of paper that was there. They can use that paper to make photocopies from.”
He also said it has been done before. Trujillo said many instructors have binders filled with student assignments so parents can visualize their students’ achievements. Those binders are filled with pages of photocopied material.
Instructors are hesitant about making copies of workbook pages because of the cost, but Trujillo said he would prefer that method than ordering workbooks for students.
“We are getting calls from District office about all the photocopies we are making,” Velarde Elementary School teacher Trannette Turrietta said. “What are we supposed to do?”
Trujillo said he is working on the issue.