Driving along rural highways, in the long spaces between cities and towns, the landscape is often scattered with residences and abandoned buildings.
Some of the buildings are the remnants of a great disaster, others simply are not needed anymore. Across New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado — all the states under the big sky — school houses can be counted amongst these discarded buildings.
Last month, the Española School District took the first steps in a process which many Velarde residents fear will end with another closed and discarded school building.
“In one choice, they (the Española School Board) can take away the community identity,” Kelly Duran, lifelong Velarde resident and Velarde Elementary School parent, said. “What price tag do you put there?”
Duran was speaking Jan. 10 during the first and only school-site Facilities Master Plan update discussion.
At the beginning of the school year, District Superintendent Danny Trujillo presented before the Española School Board, the plan of hiring an educational consultant.
The Board actually approved going out for bid for a consultant during a special board meeting Aug. 6.
However, Trujillo came back before the Board requesting to change the title from educational consultant to Facilities Master Plan update, so the state Public Schools Capital Outlay Committee could offset the cost by paying 62 percent or $34,668, leaving the District only having to pay $21,258. At a Nov. 6 meeting, the Board awarded the job of updating the Facilities Master Plan to Marilyn Strube, an associate with Albuquerque-based firm Greer Stafford.
When the Board awarded the contract to update the Facilities Master Plan to Strube, Trujillo made it clear consolidation and reorganizations are both possible outcomes. During a Jan. 10 interview, Trujillo said when the original Facilities Master Plan was created in 2012, the community was not adequately involved in the process.
Trujillo said this time around, the process will start with community participation. Strube set up two-hour visits with all school sites, besides Española Valley High School, which will not be involved in the updated master plan. First, Strube visited every school site to get a sense for the feel of the community and discuss the issues, needs, concerns, goals and objectives of each school community.
“It’ll be more of a conversation with the community,” Trujillo said.
These visits occurred between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. at all schools, Dec. 19, Jan. 8, 9 and 10 — the only time Strube meets with each school community individually.
“If I’m not satisfied with the participation, then we’ll do the process all over again. We’ll have to,” Trujillo said.
Trujillo did not specify what an acceptable number of participants would be, however, the only school community to have more than four representatives show up at the meeting was Velarde — about 20 showed up to the meeting in the Velarde gym. However, parents and community members said more parents would have shown up had the meeting not been scheduled for 2 p.m. on a Friday.
“It’s unfair to the community. More parents would have shown up but it’s at 2 p.m. on a Friday. That doesn’t work for most people,” parent Jerry Velarde said.
Duran said the meeting had been very poorly advertised, most parents found out from the parent advisory committee. A flier was also handed to the students a day prior to the meeting, cordially inviting the recipient to attend a Facilities Master Plan update discussion.
Trujillo said notification of the meeting went through the principals at each school.
“And I think that’s the way it should’ve been done,” Trujillo said.
Velarde and Dixon Elementary School Principal Wilfredo Aguilar said the reason for the delay was a change in the schedule. “We had a change of schedule. There’s no one to blame but myself,” Aguilar said in an interview following the master plan meeting at his school.
Whatever the scheduling conflicts, the Velarde community boasted the largest turnout in the District and one of the larger turnouts in Strube’s career.
During the course of the meeting, Strube asked the audience questions about a variety of ways of reorganizing the classes and schools throughout the District.
“How would Velarde feel about a sixth grade academy? Or having a kindergarten through fifth grade school?” Strube asked.
A sixth grade academy would bring all the sixth-graders throughout the District together into one classroom building.
“It could work,” Duran said.
Duran said since so many students from the smaller schools outside the Española city limits were better behaved, those students could have a positive influence on their fellow sixth graders.
“How do you feel about a kindergarten through eighth grade school?” Strube asked.
The educational consultant said she was there to look at all possibilities for the District. The audience at Velarde were not opposed to option, however, the concern was the closing of their school or of any small school.
“Don’t take this question the wrong way. How do you feel about JHR (Española Elementary School) and San Juan (elementary school) students being in a big school and not a small school? Those kids don’t have a choice,” Strube said.
“The parents make the choice,” Velarde said.
Velarde said the larger schools often have after school programs, paid for with District and federal funds, which help with working parents’ schedules. Velarde Elementary School teacher Roiba Sanchez said another reason the larger schools attract out-of-district students are the sports programs offered.
Parent Marie Martinez asked if there was going to be another meeting similar to this one, and if not, what the next step would be. Strube said after this, the advisory committee would meet at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 23 in Española Middle School auditorium. The advisory committee consists of community members selected by each board member and the superintendent to fairly represent each community.
After the advisory committee meets, Strube will sift through all the comments and create a set of questions, which will be asked at a community-wide meeting Feb. 6. Strube said it was more important to be at the District-wide meeting so Velarde representatives could voice their opinion and engage in conversation with the District community.
“You guys do a great job representing your community. And it’s so refreshing to see. I’ve done a facility master plan with districts twice the size of this one and haven’t gotten a group this big,” Strube said.
As well as attending the community-wide meeting, Strube recommended going to Board meetings and talking with their Board representative.
“We need to hold the Board accountable and the only way is to be in their face,” Duran said.
Duran said typically at each Board meeting, there are only three private parties in attendance: himself, another Velarde Elementary School parent and a reporter.