Green Fire Times April 2019

APRIL 2019

A CALL TO RIGHT RELATIONSHIP FOR NEW MEXICO’S CHILDREN

A NEW MEXICAN-BASED MULTICULTURAL CURRICULUM

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY AND EQUITY IN NEW MEXICO

VOLUME 11 NUMBER 4

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN OUR COMMUNITY

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VOLUME 11 NO. 4 APRIL 2019

CONTENTS EVERY CHILD IN NEW MEXICO DESERVES A QUALITY EDUCATION – EDUARDO ESQUIVEL GONZÁLEZ / 3 THE RIGHT TO A SUFFICIENT EDUCATION: SETTING THE CONTEXT – DIANE TORRES-VELÁSQUEZ / 4 PART I: SETTING THE CONTEXT; PART II: A START TO THE REMEDIES OUR CHILDREN BRING THEIR OWN ASSETS: AN INTERVIEW WITH SEN. LINDA LÓPEZ – PATRICIA MARINA TRUJILLO, PH.D. / 8 AN INTERSECTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR EQUITY AND ACCESS – BERNADETTE TRUJILLO ELLIS AND ANGELA RODRIGUEZ / 10 MEANINGFUL, PURPOSEFUL AND RELEVANT LEARNING: ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN OUR COMMUNITY – BERNADETTE TRUJILLO ELLIS / 12 BOOK PROFILE: ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN NEW MEXICO BY VALERIE RANGEL / 13 A CALL TO RIGHT RELATIONSHIP FOR NEW MEXICO’S CHILDREN – LATINO EDUCATION TASK FORCE AND MEXICAN AMERICAN LEGAL DEFENSE FUND / 15 CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY PAGES – PATRICIA MARINA TRUJILLO, PH.D. AND BERNADETTE TRUJILLO ELLIS / 16 ONSITE FOCUSED MONITORING PROCESS FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION – DR. LAURA SULLIVAN GALLEGOS / 18 AUTISM IN NEW MEXICO – MICHELLE ROSSLER / 18 STAYING TRUE TO A VISION THAT EDUCATION IS THE BEST PATH OUT OF POVERTY – JAMES JIMENEZ / 19 THE FIGHT STARTED BY DR. GEORGE SÁNCHEZ – CINDY A. KENNEDY A CALL FOR EDUCATIONAL EQUITY: RELATED READING / 23 CHICANA AND CHICANO STUDIES AT UNM – IRENE VASQUEZ, PH.D. / 23 OP-ED: CICLOS DE LAS TIERRA: A NEW MEXICAN-BASED MULTICULTURAL CURRICULUM AND FRAMEWORK – ALICIA CHÁVEZ AND DR. VIRGINIA NECOCHEA / 24 NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES: A PLACE OF COMMUNITY – TIFFANY S. LEE, PH.D. / 25 BEAUTY – ROLANDA TOME-WARITO / 27 OP-ED: OIL IN EDUCATION – SCOTT GULLETT, PH.D. NEWSBITES / 20,28 WHAT’S GOING ON / 29

EVERY CHILD IN NEW MEXICO DESERVES A QUALITY EDUCATION

BY EDUARDO ESQUIVEL GONZÁLEZ

New Mexico’s state government has been forced to address the massive inequities faced by students who are American Indian, Hispanic, English-language learners and those who receive special education services. We must now continue building on this momentum to finally create concrete institutional change in our education system.

I came to Albuquerque at the age of 7 and navigated the public-school system as an immigrant child in a mixed-status family. I was ultimately successful in my journey through a system that was not designed for me—a system that is instead designed to weed me out and make me feel like I don't belong. I succeeded because I had a strong and powerful community to guide and teach me all along the way. I was fortunate to have more people pushing me to be the best I can be than those telling me that I was not college material and that I did not need to worry about preparing for university.

The teachers that impacted me most were those that saw me for my assets and refused to see my difference from the “norm” as a deficiency. To speak a different language and come from a different country was a good thing with those teachers, and it motivated me to keep pursuing my goals. People tend to meet the expectations set for them. I feel as though these experiences truly kept me from that prison bed or immigrant detention center or deportation to a country I no longer know. Not everyone is lucky enough to say that.

I am convinced that things are changing for the better. In the following pages you will find examples of community leaders and educators that are humanizing themselves and their students with liberating forms of education, using frameworks that focus on equity and access for our most marginalized students instead of models of education that shut down and punish anything that challenges the status quo.

Education is both a seed to be planted and soil to be tilled and worked. It is both a product and a set of conditions. Education must not be relegated to the regurgitation of accepted “facts.” It must activate a critical mode of understanding, construction and deconstruction and a never-ending drive of curiosity. Education never exists individually, either in its creation or proliferation. Historically, education has been siloed and segregated along the racial/class divisions of the country, much like access to any other institution sanctioned by the state. Education should instead be fostered and spread to every human being. Every child in New Mexico deserves a quality education, regardless of his/her ethnicity, gender or immigration status. ¢ Eduardo Esquivel González immigrated to Albuquerque with his parents at the age of 7 from Chihuahua, Mexico. He grew up in the South Broadway neighborhood, graduated from Albuquerque High School and studied biochemistry at UNM. González currently works on education justice with the New Mexico Dream Team, the state’s largest youth-led immigrant rights organization.

THE RIGHT TO A SUFFICIENT EDUCATION

BY DIANE TORRES-VELÁSQUEZ PRESIDENT, LATINO EDUCATION TASK FORCE

PART I: SETTING THE CONTEXT In the spring of 2011, former Albuquerque Public Schools board member Dolores Griego approached me and Dr. José Armas with a special request.

As a founding member of the Latino Education Task Force, she was familiar with our advocacy for public education. She had seen our organization working closely with legislators, as she herself had done, to express the needs of our community and of education statewide. We had analyzed the damaging consequences of shiny but dangerous reform initiatives coming from a new administration. We were successful in demonstrating concerns with the proposed separate schools, Third Grade Retention bill and many other bills. We pointed out that our enacted Indian Education Act, Bilingual Multicultural Education Act and Hispanic Education Act were not only not being followed; they were being violated. Decades before, Dr. Armas worked with MALDEF (the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) in organizing the classic Serna v. Portales lawsuit, and, given the situation in 2011, he had been contemplating what it would take to organize another suit. I had been studying our constitution, especially Article XII, with Dr. Rey Móntez, a former attorney who had taught at UNM and the University of California at Berkeley.

The context for public education had been dire in 2008 when New Mexico board members studied the sufficiency of funds for our schools. They decided not to sue at the time. But in 2011, districts were reporting even harsher conditions due to lack of funds for the most basic expenditures.

Public education in New Mexico was at risk. Superintendents reported that they felt “amputated.” We agreed we needed this suit, with the condition that it go beyond a demand for more funds and additionally make possible the services needed by students to succeed academically.

In 2011, public education was not a fundamental right in New Mexico, a right determined by each state. We knew obtaining that right would be crucial to the suit. We held weekly meetings with the attorneys who, back in 2008, had considered taking on this suit and contacted David Hinojosa, the Southwest regional director for MALDEF. We met regularly with community organizations to expose our data and our plan and to garner support for this potential suit. Having written the first Pre-K-20 Hispanic Education Status Report, I knew this data well. The demographics were clear. Just as Dr. Armas had been telling anyone who would listen, Latinos were indeed the majority ethnic student population in New Mexico. We exposed that fact and the fact that students in what we call “minority” categories comprised 72 percent of the state’s public education student population.

Yet most of that 72 percent (now 76 percent) were at the very bottom of all graphs demonstrating student achievement. In our forums, we identified what it would take for all students to succeed.

Wilhelmina Yazzie (Diné), namesake of the Yazzie v.

State of NM lawsuit, and James Jimenez of NM Voices for Children spoke at the state capitol. Photo © Seth Roffman

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At a joint press conference with MALDEF in 2012, we proclaimed that New Mexico was not providing its students a “sufficient” education, nor was there perfect equality in education services, something guaranteed in the state’s constitution. Even with what might

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The trial in the summer of 2017 put New Mexico on the map with the most comprehensive education lawsuit in the country.

look like fair funding, something was very wrong. We knew we had the basis to file a suit based on the constitution, and MALDEF agreed.

They set out to draft allegations based on the information that came from our community forums, 174 allegations in all, around English learners, students with disabilities, students from low-income families and students who were of low-achieving ethnic groups. In the end MALDEF identified 51 plaintiffs. The lead plaintiffs were Louise Martínez and her children. For this reason the case is known as Martínez v.

State of New Mexico. It was filed in 2014, and the first step taken by the Public Education Department was to request a motion to dismiss the case. Mr. Hinojosa placed the issue of public education as a fundamental right front-and-center in defending the standing of the plaintiffs. In October 2014, the court determined that Martínez v. New Mexico and its plaintiffs had standing, and in her next breath the judge announced that public education in New Mexico is now a fundamental right.

PART II: A START TO THE REMEDIES Our state government has three branches: the legislative (House of Representatives and Senate), the judicial (courts) and the executive (the governor, her cabinet secretaries and state officers). They are intended to keep our government in check and balance. We might agree that things were out of balance when hundreds of students marched in protest from their high school in Santa Fe to the Roundhouse in February 2015 because they recognized the harm from PARCC testing. Teachers at the time were punished for merely speaking about the test, and students who spoke out were expelled in numerous districts in the state. Just before the Martínez suit was filed in 2014, teachers were already experiencing harsh and punitive consequences for attendance patterns and the effects of test results from a test that had never been validated or for which proper training and preparation was not offered.

At first, MALDEF attorneys did not want to include allegations around education reform, but around English learners and multicultural students. But they realized that basic teacher rights were being violated, teachers were leaving the field in droves, and that soon we would be in the situation we are in today, with a severe teacher shortage. While we recognize the need for accountability, testing and compliance with federal funding acts, such as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), we know there are better ways to meet those needs without violating the constitutional rights of students and their teachers. In the process of listening to students, teachers, administrators, business and community leaders, and working with the Latino Education Task Force, MALDEF created a case that demonstrated the complexities of public education, including testing and school reform, and how they are related to school finance.

Martínez v. State of New Mexico is a school finance case. Allegations centered on violations of the education clause, the equal protection clause and the due process clause of our state constitution. The education clause states: A uniform system of free public schools sufficient for the education of, and open to, all the children of school age in the state shall be established and maintained.” (NM Constitution, Article XII §1) A few states have constitutions that include provisions for a “sufficient education,” but New Mexico is the only state that includes rights of Spanish-speakers, as per Article XII, section 8. The 51 Martínez plaintiffs were either Latino or Native American students and their parents or guardians from Albuquerque, Española, the Gadsden area, Las Cruces, Magdalena, Santa Fe and Zuni. As a school finance lawsuit, it was

not about the failure to provide adequate school buildings, but the sufficiency of education for all children. This consolidated lawsuit challenged the adequacy of public education in New Mexico for students who are Native American, English learners, students with disabilities and students from low-income families or in poverty. Under federal funding and state law categories, our federal government labels students in such categories “at-risk,” although we certainly see their strengths and assets.

The New Mexico Center for Law and Poverty filed a case in 2014 focused on school finance, Yazzie v. State of New Mexico. The plaintiffs in the Yazzie case are 10 children from Gallup-McKinley, Albuquerque, Grants-Cibola, Santa Fe, Moriarty-Edgewood, Río Rancho, Cuba and Lake Arthur. In January 2015, the court consolidated the two cases, and the Martínez and Yazzie plaintiffs presented evidence at the same trial in 2017.

Witnesses included parents, school administrators, legislators, education experts and more. Local and national experts in public education, Indian education, special education, bilingual and multicultural education testified about the lack of services and lack of monitoring. District superintendents talked about families in extreme poverty and about lack of funding even for hiring teachers.

One superintendent stated that he had to eliminate 53 classroom positions due to lack of funds and the timing of funds reaching the district. Another stated she had 28 classrooms without teachers in 2016-2017, even after reducing 41 positions and increasing class sizes. All superintendents agreed that even where there were funds and positions, there were not enough teachers to fill the positions.

The eight-week trial in the summer of 2017 put New Mexico on the map with the most comprehensive education lawsuit in the country and in the history of this state. Between plaintiff and defendant attorneys, there were usually 10-15 attorneys in the courtroom at a time, and sometimes more than 25 with staff.

Every day the court recorder typed between 300 and 400 pages of record.

The court provided a Decision and Order in July 2018, declaring public education in New Mexico unconstitutional and requiring the state to provide every student with the opportunity to obtain an education that allows him or her to be college- or career ready. Judge Sarah Singleton wrote, “The overall appropriation is insufficient to fund the programs necessary to provide an opportunity for all at-risk students to have an adequate education,” (p. 53) and “lack of funds is not a defense to providing constitutional rights” (p. 54). The court provided 11 sources for more revenue and suggested some could be realized through legislation or constitutional amendment. In December 2018, the court issued more than 600 pages of Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, detailing the findings of the case. The state was given until April 15, 2019 to take immediate steps to create a funding system that would meet the requirements of the constitution.

REMEDIES

After the decision, attorneys and advocates for both the Martínez and Yazzie plaintiff groups worked to prioritize findings and design remedies. Martínez plaintiffs focused on a values platform and interviewed community leaders, public school activists, service providers and experts in the areas of Community Engagement, Poverty, Multicultural Education, Ethnic Studies and Special Education in order to create remedies and legislation.

As Martínez Plaintiffs’ advocates, it was our responsibility to provide legislators with ideas and ask them to create legislation around our priorities and suggested remedies. It was also our responsibility to provide our feedback on any steps taken toward remediation, including any proposed bills that would affect students in “at-risk” categories. This served not only to inform policy and lawmakers of our expertise but also to put into record the degree to which we would agree with the type and amount of remediation in the end. This was a critical step because, on behalf of the plaintiffs, we needed to document our feedback and provide it next to the court.

The first official action taken by Gov. Lujan Grisham was to do away with PARCC testing. She had already announced that this lawsuit and public edu-

Community members will have the opportunity to voice their expertise and help create the process for accountability. cation were her top priority. This swift action was significant for students, teachers, board members and experts on teacher evaluation and student achievement testing.

The governor’s choice for secretary of the Public Education Department (PED) was Dr. Karen Trujillo. The PED is responding quickly to the need for a new assessment tool and process. They are actively seeking community input by hosting forums across the state, and Sec. Trujillo is currently seeking nominations for a task force to make important decisions around the kind of standardized assessment required by the Every Student Succeeds Act. This significant step represents one way that community members will have the opportunity to voice their expertise and help create the process for accountability. We are hopeful that more opportunities to contribute to public education will be made available to our communities statewide in the days and months to come. Martínez advocates believe this important step will keep our win centered on the distinct needs of our diverse New Mexico communities.

New Mexico has a citizen Legislature. It is up to each of us to contribute where we see a need and have expertise. Not all states provide that opportunity, or hold the expectation that we work to inform our legislators as they create laws that affect our daily lives. As advocate for the plaintiffs, our responsibilities included taking every GREENFIRETIMES.COM

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opportunity to present their needs and remedies on their behalf. As the 2019 legislative session began, it was clear that the New Mexico Center for Law and Poverty and its advocate group Transform Education New Mexico had worked hard to create some bills on their priorities with members of the House of Representatives. At the same time, the advocate group for the Martínez plaintiffs, the New Mexico Education Coalition, worked with Sen. Linda M. López and Majority Leader of the House Sheryl Stapleton on legislation around Martínez remedy priorities. As citizen lawmakers, we have a responsibility to the state to define terminology and to plan legislation in fiscally responsible ways.

Now that the legislative session is over, Sec. Trujillo will develop a budget for public education based on bills that were passed which provide state funds. Bills dedicated to the state budget include House Bill 2, Senate Bill 536 and House Bill 548. Each year, after the session, the Legislative Finance Committee provides a post-session report on its website to inform the public on all funds allocated for the state. The committee has its own page on the New Mexico Legislature website. The report will be made available at https://www.nmlegis.gov/Entity/LFC/ Session_Publications in the link entitled “Post Session Review” for year 2019.

Within the report, look for the Appendix named “Public School Support and Related Appropriations FY 20.”

Sen. Mimi Stewart, chair of the Legislative Education Study Committee (LESC), and Majority Leader Stapleton sponsored companion education bills entitled Public Education Changes. Senate Bill (SB) 1 and House Bill (HB) 5 address many of the findings of the court. While some legislators publicly stated this was not a response to the education lawsuit, the court and the plaintiff attorneys and advocates will certainly examine what was provided in these and other bills that passed, when assessing the remedies provided.

New Mexico has a state equalization guarantee. This means that no matter where a child lives, the state provides an equal amount of funds for his or her education.

For the 2018-2019 school year, the state provided $2,582,377,600. for equalized funding. The court found those present levels of funding were not enough to meet the needs of our public-school students and declared that funding needed to be increased. With SB 1 and HB 5, the State Equalization Guarantee for 20192020 was increased almost 19 percent to $3,068,803,400. These funds are distributed equally for every student in every district and public school in the state. In addition to equal funding for every student, the state provides additional funding to each district to meet the educational needs of those students considered “atrisk.” In this year’s session, the Legislature increased the portion of the SEG that goes to “at-risk” students.

The 6 percent salary increase provided in SB 1 and HB 5 for all full-time district employees, including bus drivers, is much needed by our state educators. In addition, beginning teacher salaries will start at least at $41,000. Level-two teachers will start at $50,000 and level-three teachers will begin at $60,000. These increases will also be reflected in the salaries for principals and other full-time school staff.

House Bill 2 states that the PED shall monitor and evaluate the ways in which school districts and schools use public-school fund for at-risk students, in bilingual and multicultural programs, extended learning time programs and K-5 plus programs, along with monitoring use of instructional materials and classroom instruction in fiscal year 2020. The PED will report its findings and recommendations to the governor, legislative education committee and legislative finance committee on or before Dec. 1, 2019. (p. 164) House Bill 2 also promises: The general fund appropriation to the state equalization guarantee distribution includes sufficient funding for school districts to purchase culturally appropriate instructional materials for eligible students. The public education department shall monitor and evaluate the extent to which school purchase and use instructional materials relevant to the cultures, languages, history and experiences of culturally diverse students. (pp. 164-165.)

This language is a good start. Part of monitoring includes comparing the state’s target achievement scores and actual achievement percentages at a school or district. HB 2 provides target achievement percentages that are in part based on

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The court provided a Decision and Order, in July 2018, declaring public education in New Mexico unconstitutional.

our ESSA plan and in part were negotiated by the Department of Finance and Accountability (DFA) and the Legislative Education Study Committee (LESC).

During the trial, experts identified and detailed gaps in the oversight of programs for students in all of the at-risk categories. Monies were not being followed, and programs were not monitoring the progress of their students.

Bilingual education and special education were only being monitored using static data, and equity was not being monitored at all.

There was no way of knowing if students in at-risk programs were receiving the services promised and if they were making progress.

The court determined that all schools and all programs for students in at-risk categories need to be monitored, but it didn’t state how.

Ernest Herrera, MALDEF staff attorney, examining an In HB 2, the state is expert witness on multicultural education. Photo by Diane Torcommitting to monres-Velásquez itoring schools and districts, but they too are not stating how it will happen. Funds in HB 2 have been approved to update data collecting systems that have been proven to be problematic. It is our hope that desk monitoring will only be part of the process. We agree that it is important to monitor, but numbers are not enough.

Monitoring can be constructive and inclusive if it is done well and includes onsite monitoring with caring and experienced specialists as part of the process.

Lack of equity can often be John Arthur Smith, Senate Finance Committee Chair, provided testimony seen in the data on public school finance in New Mexico. Photo by Diane Torres-Velásquez at a point when it is too late to make changes for a student. We suggest going further with monitoring to include interviews with the students and families and provide the opportunity for the school to develop a plan with realistic goals and a timeline. That plan may include more support and additional measures from the state. The red flags that arise can be used as indica-

tors that students need more attention, rather than a punishment for the teacher or school. We have lived through a period of extreme deprivation in our schools, and some teachers did not survive. We need to bring forth ideas for family input and best practice in constructive monitoring. As a result of this kind of monitoring, we will have a better understanding of what contributes to student success at the school and district levels. We will have a better understanding of what our students need and how to provide it.

Upcoming changes to public education will hit classrooms and families by surprise. Most families and teachers are not aware of the Martínez and Yazzie lawsuits. We suspect families, teachers and administrators will want a voice in the changes to their curriculum and pedagogy. We cannot expect public education to change overnight without a process that involves the very people making the changes. We also need to take into account that we desperately need more teachers or staff.

MALDEF

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) is a national non-profit civil rights organization formed in 1968 to protect the rights of Latinos in the United States and the constitutional rights of all Americans. Founded in San Antonio, Texas, it is currently headquartered in Los Angeles and maintains regional offices in Sacramento, San Antonio, Chicago and Washington, D.C. INDIAN EDUCATION ACT

While positive changes are being made for our schools, teachers and K-12 students, the bills and memorials seeking funding for universal Pre-K through the Land Trust continue to fall to the Senate Finance Committee. When the Joint Memorial for 1 percent of the Land Trust (Permanent Fund) failed to pass Senate Education, Gov. Lujan Grisham and Sen. López took it upon themselves to create a bill to request .5 of 1 percent for Pre-K funding. Despite the efforts of the governor, this bill did not pass.

In the end, there were some bills that didn’t make it all the way through both Senate and House chambers due to lack of time, or somehow didn’t make it into HB 2, the state budget bill. Every legislator in 2019 was afforded an opportunity to support special projects in their communities or across the state. Some bills were picked up by legislators as special projects in SB 536 and HB 548. Included in the state budget were funds to support student health, education and creative initiatives that may or may not have been introduced as a bill, but received funding. The tables below provide a sample of the items that were funded. In reading the special project budget bills in their entirety, it makes sense that the items are very diverse and reflect the communities where those legislators reside. This provides one more reason that legislators who represent every region of our state could be asked to create the remedies for this lawsuit.

WHAT LIES AHEAD

As we think long-term into the future, we want to know that changes we are making as a result of this education lawsuit are sustaining and worthwhile. The classic failure of Mark Zuckerberg’s strong philanthropic support for Cory Booker and Newark schools is one we wish to avoid. The district had five years to spend $100 million donated by Zuckerberg and matched by philanthropists for a total of $200 million, and it was all funneled through a foundation. Critics say the foundation parachuted into the city, meaning that they dropped funds for what sounded to them to be good remedies. They eliminated attendance counselors, advocated for private charter schools and bought out contracts of low-performing teachers and implemented a student performance-based pay system for teachers. It was an expensive lesson that we can’t afford to repeat in New Mexico. Education experts claimed to know exactly what was needed to “fix” Newark schools. Philanthropists and celebrities provided lots of money, but in the end, the lesson was that lots of money thrown at public education was not the answer (Russakoff, 2014). Money could have worked, but this expensive experiment demonstrated that reform initiatives fail when they are not informed by the residents of the community and when community members are not integrally involved in the reform.

The New Mexico Indian Education Act (1978) ensures equitable and culturally relevant learning environments, educational opportunities and culturally relevant instructional materials for American Indian students enrolled in public schools. It also assures maintenance of native languages and provides for the study, development and implementation of educational systems that positively affect the educational success of American Indian students. It ensures that parents, tribal departments of education; community-based organizations; the Department of Education; universities and tribal, state and local policymakers work together to find ways to improve educational opportunities for American Indian students.

BILINGUAL MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION ACT

The Bilingual Multicultural Education Act (1972, 2004) is an “exceptional national model for state legislation.”

Students’ right to a bilingual education is provided for in the state’s Constitution and New Mexico is the first state in the U.S. to have a bilingual multicultural education law.

State-funded BMEP goals are for all students, including English-language learners, to become bilingual and biliterate in English and a second language, such as Spanish or a Native American language, where a written form exists and there is tribal approval; as well as to meet state academic standards and benchmarks. Parents with teachers and district employees are empowered to decide the type of bilingual multicultural education works best for their children and community. It ensures equal education opportunities for students in New Mexico. In 1989, the Legislature adopted the New Mexico English Plus Resolution, also the first state to do so.

HISPANIC EDUCATION ACT

From the beginning, Martinez v. State of New Mexico has been community-based. We worked with community to conceptualize and organize the suit. All plaintiffs were children or their families, not institutions. We continue to see the value of listening to the very families whose children are facing obstacles or challenges. Our ideas for effective monitoring are onsite and involve both teachers and families.

Some of the remedies we proposed did not require massive amounts of money but rather a change of practice so that current staff and administrators instill equity and accountability practices.

Martinez plaintiffs never asked for one lump sum to settle the case. We know that some increases in funding are needed to provide key remedies, but the state should be guided by principles outlined by the court in order to make public education in New Mexico constitutional. What we do know is that we are going to have our day in court to review where we are in this process and make sure there is a sufficient education system for the children of New Mexico. ¢ Dr. Torres-Velásquez is president of the Latino Education Task Force. This community organization was instrumental in writing and passing the Hispanic Education Act (the only act of its kind in the country) and organizing the Martínez v. State of NM education lawsuit. Dr. Torres-Velásquez is associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership and Policy at UNM. She teaches graduate classes on research, curriculum and social justice. She has a Ph.D. in Special Education with a focus on Bilingual and Multicultural Special Education.

The Hispanic Education Act (2010) aims to close the achievement gap for Hispanic students, who comprise nearly 60 percent of students in New Mexico. It focuses on improving educational success and postsecondary attainment and provides for the development and implementation of educational systems that affect the educational success of Hispanic students. It encourages parental involvement in the education of their children and provides mechanisms for community stakeholders to work together to improve educational opportunities for Hispanic students. It created the Hispanic education liaison within the Public Education Department and statewide status report to include information on Hispanic student achievement, attendance, graduation rates, and number and type of bilingual and multicultural programs in each school district and charter school.

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OUR CHILDREN BRING THEIR OWN ASSETS AN INTERVIEW WITH SEN. LINDA LÓPEZ

BY PATRICIA MARINA TRUJILLO, PH.D.

One of the exceptional qualities of legislative leadership in New Mexico is how many of our legislators are active, not only in session, but throughout the year in their communities and across the state. Over the past three years I have gotten to know Sen. Linda López at community meetings with teachers, parents and students working to create a statewide Ethnic Studies requirement for New Mexico’s students and in several other educational settings such as her participation on a policy panel at the 2018 Statewide Diversity Summit hosted by UNM’s Division of Equity and Inclusion. In these forums Sen. López consistently demonstrates her commitment to community and her willingness to demystify the legislative process for her constituents and all New Mexicans.

Sen. Lopez is a Democratic member of the New Mexico State Senate, representing District 11. She was first elected to the chamber in 1996. In the interview below, Sen. López opens up about her own education and her motivations for being a champion of public education. In this era of Martínez/Yazzie v. State of NM, she reminds us that New Mexico’s children come to the classroom, not only with challenges but with many assets, and when we work from an assets-based framework we can create positive change for children and strengthen public education.

To provide context for this interview, I’m wondering if you can tell us about your educational experience in general. How does this inform your work today?

P.T.:

SEN. LÓPEZ: I attended Albuquerque Public Schools elementary through high school. I enjoyed school, was in Honor Society and participated in student government and various school clubs. The teachers I had were good and encouraging. My parents were always involved at school and were chaperones at many club activities. If there was an issue, my mom would show up at school, request a meeting and get a resolution to the matter. I learned that using my voice would get a result and that my studies/good grades would get me into college.

P.T.:

Where else did you learn? Did you attend college?

I attended UNM for 1.5 years and essentially flunked out after my probationary third semester. My college advisor, Monique, essentially told me that my type of people would not do well at the university level and I should go get a job. That was my first taste of real-world bias/racism. My parents were saddened by my performance, and I enrolled at the College of Santa Fe, where I earned my B.A., and a few years after, I earned my M.B.A., attending night classes after work. CSF was smaller, student-friendly and welcoming. So very different from UNM, which is why it is important to advocate for all our institutions of higher education, big and small.

SEN. LÓPEZ:

“I know we have already begun the healing process for our educational system.”

P.T.: What lessons from home and community do you carry with you? Who were your teachers at home and in your community?

My parents finished high school at the 10th grade. After World War II, both went back to finish their studies—my dad became a machinist and worked at Sandia National Labs, and my mom finished her studies at TVI. Mom worked at APS as cafeteria manager and worked some evenings/weekends to clean houses for physicians or to cater a special dinner for the same families. I am the first in my immediate family to earn a degree. I learned so much from my family: One must work for what one wants; nothing is given freely; keep your word; keep your head up no matter what; value your cultura; help those who cannot help themselves; stay strong; have faith. Children bring their assets of life with them—we all have something positive in our lives—it is from the valuing of that positive that our children can grow their self-esteem, which leads to their learning.

SEN. LÓPEZ:

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In your tenure as a state senator, you have been a champion of public education. Why do you feel called to this work?

P.T.:

SEN. LÓPEZ: Education is the key to open many doors. My parents understood the value of education and instilled that in me. I was blessed with a family that was nurturing. In college my eyes were opened to see that not all in my community had the same upbringing. I began volunteering with United Way and saw the disparities in my own neighborhood and how widespread throughout Albuquerque they were. Age brings more experiences with it, and I saw how students in certain areas of Albuquerque were not rising to their potential. Running for office in 1996 was one way I felt that I could help in changing the laws and bring more attention to the disparities. Racism existed then and still does today. The way our history is told and learned is from the point of view of the “victor.” With the legacy of such policies as Manifest Destiny, our country’s stories west of the Mississippi River were changed and degraded. Mexican Americans were taught that we were conquered people. Pride in one’s culture was destroyed. Assimilation was (and is) encouraged. Acknowledgement and understanding of one’s own cultural history and contributions were not encouraged. Because of these mistakes, I stand to create opportunity for our true and accurate histories to be told, so that our children/students understand the whole picture, good and the bad, but have pride in who they are.

“Today’s workforce changes jobs regularly.

To manage that, higher ed must be adaptable and ready to train the returning student.”

P.T.: The last few years of getting to know you has been in the context of working on a statewide Ethnic Studies requirement for New Mexico’s high school students. It has been super-impressive to me to be in community meetings with you and other legislators like Rep. Rick Miera, alongside teachers, parents and students. At those meetings, we are usually in restaurants in the community, munching on chips and salsa and drinking ice tea, all while having important conversations about culturally responsive pedagogy for New Mexico’s students. I have a couple of questions about this: a. Why do you think an Ethnic Studies curriculum is important for New Mexico students? b. Why do you think it is important for us to have those meetings in public?

SEN. LÓPEZ: Ethnic Studies is important to bring a critical eye to where we have been as a people, what our journeys have been and where we are going. Our students need to learn history that is not whitewashed to be clean of the ugliness (the reality) of structural racism and only give one perspective of what has made us. Ethnic Studies gives credibility to one’s culture, history, language and interpretation of life through the arts, literature and social sciences. All students can benefit from learning about other cultures. Meeting in public spaces to talk about Ethnic Studies is good—the conversation needs to be in the open!

P.T.:

What connections do you see between K-12 and higher education?

I see the connections between K-12 and higher education as positive. Our children/students can learn and find a place of work that will interest them after high school, whether it be after attending a trade school, community college or university. Our world of work is not as it used to be, where one would remain in a certain job/position until retireSEN. LÓPEZ:

L-R: Sen. Linda López, Dr. Patricia Trujillo, Ronalda Tome-Warito, Dr. Virginia Necochea, Amanda Short, Bernadette Trujillo Ellis, Dr. Diane Torres-Velásquez. January 2019

Meetings and public forums are important to engage our parents, students, teachers on how policy affects the delivery of public education. I would encourage teachers and parents to try to attend such forums, but I would also encourage the people planning the forums to think about how to be inclusive regarding the times and places where meetings are scheduled. How can the forums go to where the people are? Consider people’s work and family responsibilities? Educating, informing, getting feedback to/from those that are affected by policy creates the bridges needed, and we need everyone to get involved. We have to go out of our way to invite everyone to the discussion.

SEN. LÓPEZ:

There are always opportunities to learn new ways of educating students and informing teachers, staff and parents. We must commit to valuing each student with or without a learning disability so that each can learn and achieve at their own pace. We must commit to be inclusive and appreciate the differences that each one of us brings to the table of learning.

P.T.: Thank you for your time, Sen. Lopez, and for your continued advocacy. I know that the work never ends, but I do hope that you can enjoy some down time after this year’s legislative session!

ment. Today’s workforce changes jobs regularly, and to manage that change, higher ed must be adaptable and be ready to train the returning student. Education is lifelong learning.

Now that the first legislative session of the Lujan Grisham term is over, how do you think public education fared this year?

P.T.:

Public education has a new beginning under Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. More money was placed in the budget to compensate our teachers/staff. More money put into K-5 plus program to extend the school year for students in need of learning assistance. The student tests under former governor are being reformulated. The Martínez/Yazzie lawsuit against the state factored in with some legislation too. I believe after the new administration learns more about the extent of hurtful education policy and lack of oversight/accountability, we (executive and legislature) will correct the misguidance and set the path in the right direction.

SEN. LÓPEZ:

As a state, do you think we are in a position to begin healing from the last eight years under then-Secretary of Education Hannah Skandera, who brought in the often criticized PARQQ standardized testing, school grading (A-F) system and teacher evaluations? What did we learn from this era of governance?

P.T.:

SEN. LÓPEZ:

You are very welcome. ¢

Successful community development must begin by convening citizens to converse (la plática) in order to understand their concerns; how these concerns impact the people; what is the causation of the problematic issues and the process that has brought us to this point in history; then, to determine what the community needs and wants, followed by a plan of action to achieve the community’s goals. To convene the community is to respect democracy. The organizational goal is to establish consensus and to strengthen the ability of the community to mandate the political leadership to act on their behalf. Strong leaders will emerge from a strong community.

– Excerpt from an article by Miguel Angel, a retired professor of Chicano Studies who is currently the director of Casa de Cultura in Las Vegas, N.M.

I know we have already begun the healing process for our educational system. There was much misguidance in educating our students and lack of support for those professionals (teachers/EAs/staff). Students with a learning disability are not appreciated or welcomed. I believe we have learned how to destroy our public education system. Now the work begins to rebuild and strengthen for the next generation of learners and those who are teaching.

SEN. LÓPEZ:

P.T.: With the settlement of Martínez/Yazzie vs. State of NM in favor of the plaintiffs, there seems to be a lot of opportunity for policy shift in public education. Can you give folks—especially parents, teachers and students—any advice for how we can continue to build bridges between policymakers, lawmakers and the “people on the ground?”

Sen. Linda López is a Democratic member of the New Mexico Senate, representing District 11. She is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the chair of the Senate Rules Committee.

L-R: Sen. Linda López and Dr. Patricia Trujillo

Patricia Trujillo, Ph.D, is the director of the Office of Equity & Diversity and an associate professor of English & Chicana/o Studies at Northern New Mexico College.

She was born and raised in the Española Valley where she currently lives and works with her community.

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AN INTERSECTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR EQUITY AND ACCESS What if students’ learning were constructed around their needs?

Keres, Arabic, Navajo and Mongolian. La Washa has a dual-language program and a vibrant fine arts program. Students can sign up for Mariachi San José, band, orchestra, art and graphic design. The teachers are sincere, thoughtful and committed to providing rigorous and challenging classes.

BY BERNADETTE TRUJILLO ELLIS AND ANGELA RODRÍGUEZ

I am opening the door to a school and asking that you take a bit of time to come to know the realities of what education looks like in a New Mexico middle school. You will see earnest and determined problem solving, overwhelming and heart-rending challenges, profound love and caring, and developing equity-based approaches.

Stereotypes about poor people are perpetuated by implementing educational policies that suggest we must ‘fix’ them instead of eliminating the inequities they endure.

La Washa, as Washington Middle School is lovingly called, is the oldest middle school in Albuquerque and is rich in strengths and assets. It is situated in the heart of downtown, surrounded by the Albuquerque Zoo, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Tiguex Park and several museums and community centers.

The students and their parents care deeply about family, learning and education. There is pride in connections to place, to culture and language. A mural on a school wall proclaims former student and acclaimed novelist Rudolfo Anaya, El Mero-Mero de La Washa (boss of the school). Another mural, the largest in the state, is titled Resilience and was painted by students with an artist-in-residence. The students speak multiple languages: English, Spanish,

Some WMS students achieve at high levels and graduate from high school with honors. But the majority do not. La Washa students, 97 percent of them students of color, struggle because of opportunity gaps characterized by unequal access to basic necessities such as food, safe housing and well-funded schools. WMS is a designated Title I school. The majority of students are of low socioeconomic status. About a third are English-language learners and receive Special Education services. La Washa has strong partnerships with community resources that assist in addressing the needs of the whole child through health and social services, youth development and community engagement.

INTERSECTIONALITY

The concept of intersectionality (Kimberle Crenshaw, 1989) is critical to understanding both the strengths and challenges that La Washa students embody. The students are complex. Their identities overlap in myriad ways. A student may have a parent who immigrated and another who was born in the U.S. and is of Mexican and African-American descent. A student may express high potential in math and yet struggle with a learning disability in writing, while developing biliteracy in English and Spanish. He or she may excel in sports, yet carry a pervasive anxiety throughout the day due to significant stressors in the family. The students carry all of their identities to all of their learning settings.

The math teacher may challenge a student in math and may also need to assist with the student’s writing. The social studies teacher who teaches in Spanish also supports the student’s language learning. All of the teachers need to be able to provide relationship, empathy and responsiveness to their students’ emotional-behavioral needs, which may be expressed as difficulty focusing, a need to constantly move, or conversely, shutting down.

Simplified overview/understandings of the Intersectional Framework for Equity and Access. Ellis, B. (2016). Framing intersubjectivity to provide equity & access. Department of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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Context matters. Working at a school like WMS is harder than working at a school with more privileged students. Put simply, students who live in poverty and whose identities are marginalized in society experience more risk factors that make everyday life a struggle. As Steve Grineski and Ok-Hee Lee of the School of Teach-

ing and Learning at Minnesota State University explained, “It can be easy for even the most well-intentioned of us to inadvertently perpetuate stereotypes about poor people by implementing educational policies and school reforms that suggest we must ‘fix’ them instead of eliminating the inequities they endure.” Seeing this scenario clearly is challenging. Research has revealed that most people in the U.S. believe that poor people are poor because of their deficits, rather than because of unequal opportunity.

Such a stance is biased and based on stereotypes.

Teachers at WMS must work with a nuanced understanding of students’ assets, their needs, and know how to respond with empathy, caring and respect. The concept of providing equity and access through responding to the needs of community requires developing the literacy to engage in a critical reading of society. In communities that have inherited legacies of generational grief and trauma, patterns of communication have been fractured into the power interplay of dominance and oppression. What makes this all the more difficult to comprehend, as researchers have explained, is that this power disparity or inequality takes place on at least three different levels: institutional/structural, interpersonal/hegemonic, and intrapersonal/internalized.

The framework helps build understanding among all the people working together at the school. When you have a vision of creating an inclusive learning community that is supportive, nurturing and has high expectations for students, it is important to address belief systems and biases—beginning with mindset. The intersectional framework tackles this from the beginning and serves as an ongoing reminder that mindset is at the forefront and crucial to developing a deeper understanding in order to bring other levels into fruition.

WHY IS THE INTERSECTIONAL APPROACH SO RELEVANT HERE?

As a full-service Dual Language Community School, it is vital we address the complex needs of the whole child within the demographic we serve. Regardless of which theoretical and pedagogical system you have been developing, the framework highlights best practices from educators who advocate for underserved populations. It shows how these systems are aligned.

IS HAVING AN INTERSECTIONAL FRAMEWORK ENOUGH? ARE THERE OTHER RESOURCE NEEDS?

What this means is that educators at schools like WMS not only need to understand how to respond to the intersecting identity needs of vulnerable students, they need to understand how to do so at societal, relationship and individual levels. This is incredibly complex and daunting, but it is, nevertheless, the task at hand. It is no longer sufficient to address students’ learning needs discreetly. It is necessary to focus on how individual programs such as special, bilingual, multicultural and gifted education can be improved. In practice, teachers need an intersectional framework that is multi-level and integrates the best practices and understandings, whether the student is in the general education setting or receiving special education services.

The work is always ongoing; it’s never-ending. The need to continue to constantly revisit the framework within professional development for teachers and purposefully highlight where the learnings and practices align needs to be highlighted as the work evolves. There needs to be intentional time dedicated to review and reflect on the conceptual level on a continual basis.

As the instructional leader, it is important for me to remember to purposefully show the alignment and intersectionality with guiding principles such as Dual Language Pillars, Pillars of Community Schools, and Principles of Culturally Relevant Education.

Proactively responding to students’ needs at WMS requires openly and consciously asking: What are the power relationships that impact students’ opportunities, and how do we address them? The Intersectional Framework for Equity and Access that is the overarching academic master plan at the school was developed in the summer of 2015 in response to this question.

The Intersectional Framework for Equity and Access cannot be used to engage whole-system improvement at all levels all at once. Its strength is in making the invisible visible so that educators can have focused conversations to intentionally develop, refine and extend to all students the supports they need.

Educators need to understand how to respond to the intersecting identity needs of vulnerable students at societal, relationship and individual levels.

This framework came about by initially placing Tomlinson’s framework of the Key Elements of Effective Differentiated Instruction, esteemed in Special Education, next to Hill Collins’ framework of the Domains of Power, which reveals how inequality works at different levels of society. The placement of a framework developed with the needs of students with disabilities/exceptionalities next to that of one developed with the needs of culturally diverse people of color has deepened our understanding of intersectionality and assets-based thinking.

Over time and with reflection, the frameworks were fully integrated and aligned into a framework that continues to be refined. It provides a critical and insightful reference in discussions about school improvement. The greatest power leverage in providing students equity in their learning is starting from the top down, with leadership going first and modeling positive change because research clearly demonstrates that “principles shape our thoughts, words and actions” and mental models drive action.

AN INTERVIEW WITH WMS PRINCIPAL, ANGELA RODRÍGUEZ

WMS’s principal, Angela Rodríguez reflected on having an overarching intersectional framework to structure the ongoing work for school transformation:

A reality of public education is that it is a societal institution. Recognizing and addressing that reality and how it organizes and structures students learning is key. Complexity is another reality. Students in New Mexico are diverse; 76 percent are students of color. Students who live in poverty, who are culturally and linguistically diverse and have special education eligibilities are struggling. In education, we are too used to remaining in our silos, isolated from collaboration and professional discourse. There is a need for humility in the work of addressing the needs of vulnerable students because none of us alone can see as well as when we come together to construct students’ learning around their needs. ¢ Bernadette Trujillo Ellis has an M.A. in Elementary Education with a focus on Reflective Practice and endorsements in reading, TESOL, Bilingual Education and Gifted Education. She is a Level III teacher with 21 years’ experience in Title I schools and dual-language programs.

Angela Rodríguez, principal of Washington Middle School in Albuquerque, has an M.A. in Special Education. She has been an administrator for 16 years. As a school and district leader, using the lens of Special Education and social justice, Rodríguez works to develop and align content and curriculum to support student learning and increase teacher effectiveness.

HOW HAS IT BEEN HELPFUL TO HAVE AN INTERSECTIONAL FRAMEWORK?

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MEANINGFUL, PURPOSEFUL AND RELEVANT LEARNING: ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN OUR COMMUNITY

BY BERNADETTE TRUJILLO ELLIS

Albuquerque’s Washington Middle School (WMS) Environmental Justice Project engages students in culturally sustaining, inclusive learning. The concept of student participatory action research emerged through conversations about how to better utilize advisory classes to further develop environments where students and teachers establish relationships that promote success in school and wellness in life.

When students are struggling and underachieving, reflection alone may make little difference and can undermine relationships. Understanding why this happens is key. Advisory is designed as a time (with the guidance of a teacher) for students to organize themselves, gather data, set goals, reflect on their progress and better understand the “why” of learning.

A space is created in which students serve as supports for each other.

How we do all learn to be good neighbors to each other?

Research shows that one of the most positive impacts on student learning is the correlation between expected performance on tasks and the actual outcome. Does the student have an accurate understanding of his or her capacity? The ability to set challenging, yet achievable goals, to have the confidence in attaining them, and then have that belief validated, is incredibly powerful.

Minority and lower-achieving students, though, are less accurate in predicting their performance. It is not that they tend to overestimate what they can do; rather, it is a loss of confidence and efficacy. It is a pattern of underestimating their achievement and losing the confidence, over time, to take on challenging tasks. By the time they have reached middle school and adolescence, their lowered confidence has been reinforced over many years.

Students ask questions and define problems to examine human environmental impacts on the health and wellness of people in their community.

The critical question then becomes, how do we inspire students to have higher confidence?

How do we encourage them to risk-taking on challenging tasks? Too often the conversation about achievement centers solely on what happens in school, which leads to a repetition of negative thought patterns for students who have developed a fixed mindset. The Environmental Justice school-wide project asks, “What if we inspire a change in perspective? What if we change the way we talk about learning? What if we step outside of the school to see what’s happening in our community?”

SEM is not prescriptive; it is implemented by each school and serves its community of learners. Working through the SEM, a district-wide initiative, bridges understanding of resonances in inquiry-based enrichment and community-based approaches, as well as increasing resources and collaboration. Using student participatory action research as the SEM focus at WMS is a culturally relevant and sustaining approach because the community itself is the text. Students explore their community and their experience of the world. Through this process, students learn to think critically, asking, “What’s happening here and why? What are the various perspectives? What are the challenges? What resources are available?”

TYPE I: GENERAL EXPLORATION WHAT ARE THE HUMAN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS IN OUR COMMUNITY?

Across the street from Washington Middle School is the SouthWest Organizing Project (SWOP). The organization offers a space for community members to identify problems and develop solutions, and youth organizers are supported in their efforts to build a thriving community.

The project is an idea that asks, “What if we step outside of the school to see what’s happening in our community?”

SWOP developed an Environmental Justice Tour of the downtown, Barelas and San José neighborhoods.

SWOP’s tours provided a way for WMS students to explore their community and identify a focus for their project. In the fall of 2018, SWOP provided 13 tours. As they toured San José on a school bus, the students and staff observed asphalt terminals, concrete factories, waste management, metal recycling, a chlorine facility, oil refining, Superfund sites, railroads and gentrification. Guides Juan Reynosa and Amanda Gallegos explained concepts related to city planning, air quality permits and environmental impacts.

The students learned about the residents’ high incidences of asthma, and impacts on cultural and traditional ways of living. Their guides thoughtfully presented multiples perspectives, including that of the people living in the neighborhood, as well as the companies and workers employed in the facilities. Reynosa and Gallegos also spoke about environmental and educational organizations that are working for solutions. As a result of the tours, the students were able to develop a deeper understanding of

Over the 2018-2019 school year, all students are taking part in participatory action research through the School-wide Enrichment Model (SEM). The Renzulli SEM represents a shift in mindset from the idea that enrichment is only for students in honors or gifted programs to the position that all students benefit from and need to engage in critical thinking and problem solving. It engages students in three types of experiences: General Exploration, How-to Training, and Individual and Small Group Investigations of Real Problems. These types of experiences broaden students’ awareness through observing the world, learning skills, tools and thinking that they can utilize—and then putting them to work in real-world problem-solving.

7th Grade Washington Middle School Environmental Justice Community Engagement Day, March 25, 2019. Photo by Bernadette Trujillo Ellis

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7th Grade WMS Environmental Justice Community Engagement Day Photo by Bernadette Ellis

ESPAÑOLA YOUTH ARE UPWARD BOUND Upward Bound is one of eight Trio programs that receive federal funding. The programs provide opportunities to help students succeed in their precollege performance and ultimately in their higher education pursuits.

Upward Bound serves high school students from low-income families and those from families in which neither parent holds a bachelor’s degree. The goal is to increase the rate at which participants complete secondary education and enroll in and graduate from institutions of postsecondary education. The Upward Bound Program at Northern New Mexico College, started in 2017, serves 70 students. It is under the direction of Tobe Bott-Lyons, who has an M.A. in Educational Leadership.

the complexity and interplay of humans’ environmental impacts.

TYPE 2: HOW-TO TRAINING HOW DO WE ORGANIZE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE IN OUR COMMUNITY?

In March, community partners participated in Community Engagement Days at WMS. The presenting organizations included Juntos: Our Air, Our Water (Conservation Voters NM Educational Fund), UNM’s Community Engagement Center, SouthWest Organizing Project, Latino Education Task Force, Sandia National Labs and the Learning Alliance. They provided sessions on Activating Student Voices, Community Organizing, Root Causes of Environmental Injustice, Asset Mapping, Creating an Action Plan to Address a Problem, The Legislative Process, Renewable Energy Alternatives, The Value of our Land, Air and Water, and The History of the Environmental Justice Movement. Students not only gained skills and tools; they saw themselves reflected in the presenters from professional organizations.

TYPE 3: INVESTIGATIONS OF REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS HOW CAN WE PROBLEM-SOLVE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE IN OUR COMMUNITY?

In the final months of the school year, students will focus on a specific human environmental impact of their choosing. By employing creativity and critical thinking, they will consider what is achievable and what can be done to contribute to a solution. Some will have community partners to whom they can reach out to for mentorship.

SALES REP NEEDED FOR GREEN FIRE TIMES

REFLECTION

Janet Kesterson Isbell, in Who Are You to Judge Me? explains, “When schools ignore the people and places where students live, students may begin to feel their lives and communities have no real value. When students’ communities become part of their learning, students develop pride in their communities and a sense of purpose in their own lives.” ¢ Bernadette Trujillo Ellis has an M.A. in Elementary Education with a focus on Reflective Practice, and endorsements in Reading, TESOL, Bilingual Education and Gifted Education. She is a Level III teacher and has 21 years’ experience in Title I schools and dual language programs.

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LOOKING FOR MOTIVATED AND DRIVEN PEOPLE INTERESTED IN BEING PART OF OUR TEAM

For details, please email résumé to: Editor@greenfiretimes.com

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BOOK PROFILE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN NEW MEXICO: COUNTING COUP

BY VALERIE RANGEL; FOREWORD BY BOB HAOZOUS THE HISTORY PRESS (HTTP://VALERIERANGEL.COM/HOW-TO-BUY/)

This is a particularly poignant time in history to share voices of New Mexico’s communities of color—their successes, adaptation, survival and reactions to forced changes and pressures of the dominant society. There is great immediate concern for the integrity of natural systems and present health dangers. Together with a revived sense of reverence for sacred places, environmental stewardship and belief in the interconnectedness of the web of life, New Mexico communities continue to battle for social and environmental justice.

There is a need to disseminate knowledge of these issues to a wider audience. Valerie Rangel’s Environmental Justice in New Mexico: Counting Coup may be the only book on the market today that, using community perspectives, focuses on environmental land-use history as well as ongoing battles.

Rangel earned a Master of Community Regional Planning degree from UNM. She worked at the Center for Southwest Research, the New Mexico Records Center and Archives and for environmental consulting firms. She presently works as an environmental planning and public health assessment consultant and community program manager for the state’s non-profit community foundation.

Environmental Justice in New Mexico

Adding to Rangel’s research, the book’s foreword, written by acclaimed sculptor, Bob Haozous, uses humor and indigenous constructs to shed light on uncomfortable truths regarding policies and decisions that have impacted the socio-cultural history and land use of the state.

n New Mexico and across America, communities of color bear the brunt of contamination from generations of expansion, mining, nuclear testing and illegal dumping. The nation’s largest uranium waste spill occurred in 1979 at Church Rock, and radioactivity in the Rio Puerco remains at dangerous levels. The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Mount Taylor as the one of the ten most endangered historic sites in America.

After decades of sickness from Rio Grande river water, the first female governor of a Pueblo Nation, Verna Olgin Teller, led tribal members to a Supreme Court victory over Albuquerque.

Valerie Rangel presents stories of strife and struggle in the war to protect the integrity of natural systems, rights to religious freedom and the continuation of traditional customs.

$??.99

RANGEL

Environmental Justice in New Mexico takes the reader on a journey that starts with ENVIRONMENTAL the history of land use, ECOLOGICAL EMANCIPATION JUSTICE in which transformed New NEW MEXICO I Mexico’s landscape and Counting Coup paved the way for an era of mass-resource mining and environmental degradation.

The first section focuses on the legacy of uranium and communities that have been impacted by its extraction, dumping, testing, storage and water use. The following section focuses on water issues, highlighting stories of Isleta Pueblo, the Gila River, Zuni Salt Lake, the Río Grande, Las Animas River and Santa Fe. Land contamination issues such as illegal dumping, Superfund sites, immigrant farm workers and the preservation of historic cultural resources and archaeological sites such as Chaco Canyon illustrate other types of justice issues.

VALERIE RANGEL

Foreword by Bob Haozous

The book also highlights case studies in which environmental degradation has resulted in controversial battles regarding health disparities in disenfranchised communities throughout the state.

INTERESTING DATA FROM THE BOOK

• Historical facts about notable landmarks and tourist draws are featured, including Church Rock, the Las Animas River, the Río Grande, Mount Taylor, Los Alamos and Santa Fe. • Zuni Salt Lake and the Sanctuary Area were listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of 11 most endangered historic places in America.

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• After decades of tribal members becoming sick from contact with the Río Grande, the first woman governor of a pueblo, Verna Teller, was determined to regain use of river water for Isleta Pueblo’s agriculture, ceremonial and religious purposes. The chapter titled David and Goliath: Isleta Water War tells how the tribe of 2,500 members won a battle over the metropolis of Albuquerque in the U.S. Supreme Court, in a war over water-quality standards, religious freedom and tribal sovereignty.

• New Mexico is one of the wealthiest states in mineral resources, with mines located in some of the poorest communities of color.

• An estimated 70,000 Navajos presently do not have access to safe sources of water and lack running water in their homes.

• The places where the first atomic bomb was researched and tested in New Mexico have affected the health of many downstream and downwind communities. Aggressive mining led to the largest uranium mine tailings spill in the United States at Church Rock.

• New Mexico contains invaluable archaeological treasures such as Chaco Canyon which presently face threats from oil and gas extraction.

• New Mexico markets its scenic landscapes and waterways for tourism, even though its rivers have been listed as “endangered,” due to lack of instream water flow, pollution, damming and diversion. According to the World Wildlife Fund, inadequate water supply is the main reason that the Río Grande-Río Bravo continues to rank as one of the world’s 10 most endangered rivers.

• The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Mount Taylor as one of the 10 most endangered historic sites in America. ¢

A Call to Right Relationship for New Mexico’s Children How do we ‘come-into-knowing’ a sufficient education for our children?

Nothing about us, without us, is for us.

– Based on a slogan popularized by South African disability rights and youth activists The Latino Education Task Force, working with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), is hosting listening gatherings in northern New Mexico to better understand the needs of the community in regard to the education of its children. The Call to Right Relationship Project is an initiative to develop solutions that address these needs. The first gatherings took place March 26-28 at Northern New Mexico College with students in the Upward Bound Program.

The court’s landmark Martínez-Yazzie ruling is an affirmation that all students can learn, and all students deserve justice, equity and access to educational opportunity.

But having the ruling and a constitutional right to a sufficient education does not make that right a reality. Rather, it is the enactment of the constitutional right that does so. The education of northern New Mexico’s youth has taken place in a context shaped by issues of power, including genocide, multiple colonizations and immigration. The resultant effects on children in 2019 are apparent in the form of inter-generational grief, trauma and differential achievement.

As New Mexico reconstitutes its relationship with children by providing a sufficient education, it is vital to recognize the role of community in this context and to willingly take on the work in “right relationship” because it is how to “come-into-knowing” what is sufficient. It is through work with community that meaningful, lasting and effective change takes place. Families and communities need to be included as central participants; they need authentic, collaborative efforts for fair treatment and meaningful participation.

This initiative would greatly benefit from your perspective regarding the following questions: • • • • • •

Who in your community is it important that we listen to and inform regarding the court’s ruling?

What does the community value in its education, of both children and adults?

What are the community’s strengths?

What are the community’s root challenges, and what is needed to address these challenges?

How do the root challenges align throughout north and central New Mexico? How do they differ?

How can we, working together, continue to effectively advocate for the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of communities in northern New Mexico?

The Latino Education Task Force and MALDEF are committed long-term to working with communities to understand the needs of northern New Mexico. Systemic change takes time and will be ongoing. As change is enacted, it will require continued reflection and advocacy. Do the changes sufficiently meet the needs of the communities? If so, how well?

If not, what needs to be better understood? What solutions need to be developed? How can both the Latino Education Task Force and MALDEF continue to support the educational needs of the communities of northern New Mexico?

If you would like more information or to organize a gathering in northern New Mexico, please email reconstitutenm@gmail.com. ¢ The community listening gatherings have been made possible through funding provided by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Foundation, which is dedicated solely to learning and public education. The LANL Foundation has a special focus on Río Arriba County and looks specifically at programs that link education and economic development for rural northern New Mexico, providing pathways to alternative careers and post-secondary education. Family and community support are valued as a means of supporting students’ success.

The Call to Right Relationship for New Mexico’s Children Project is also collaborating with NM Highlands University’s Center for the Education and Study of Diverse Populations and New Mexico Voices for Children.

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ACTIVITY PAGE DESIGNED BY PATRICIA TRUJILLO, ANALIESE ELLIS AND BERNADETTE TRUJILLO ELLIS

Martinez/Yazzie v. State of New Mexico is important to everyone in our community – especially children and young people. Lawmakers, policy makers, and educational experts need to hear from children as we re-imagine education in New Mexico!

We’ve designed this Word page for kids of all ages to have fun, and to encourage dialogue about the articles con3/18/2019 Search Generator :: Create your own printable word find worksheets @ A to Z Teacher Stuff tained in this volume. Pull out your crayons and enjoy! Adults, please speak to our little ones and listen to their ideas for how they want change in their world.

MAKE YOUR OWN WORKSHEETS ONLINE @ WWW.ATOZTEACHERSTUFF.COM

WORD NAME:_______________________________ DATE:_____________ SEARCH Schools for Us R A Y P G U E C L F W U N O M D D A E K S B X R F

K Q E R P J X R I G H T S U H R S Y F D G K X Z Z

N S J V D T S W K R Y M L V A S B E V S V K T U I

Z C I S A E U Z S P R T C O E E O X U K F U L O U

T C X O A N X F H I I N N T L U J X C C U G B F T

Y W S B P B P J I C Y L S X T S G Q V S X F Q K E

X Z P A O P I J U G N T Y U W T E P N L V F U Y W

S I A S L F O L R M L D B D O R B D O E P U J J A

K V N W T H T R I T Z L J Q R E N H U T S D L V K

M L I H L U O D T T U T S V F N V F C E C P X V X

J L S C R N P R I U Y Z V O B G K L C D L J P K C

F U H A V F H N K N N C K I S T X I M U H X R S V

G F L F P W E Q T U E I J C W H M U U C S E N O D

C R E A T I V E E R E O T E A S L D S A L V J N K

T Z U M G Q F V R E M I N Y H A J J M T F R E R Q

C O M M U N I T Y B N X L P T G D V Y I B L Y P C

O G Z L K O X V K O U Q D B W D J D I O F M W P P

M B E E V E R Y O N E L F K W M A B U N D A N C E

K H F H D Y C J T S L O E T A A R I L Y K E G K R

D Z S Z V P O Y E N G L I S H O F W K A O C P O S

X T E Q B W C H J I C X G O I N C L U S I V E B K

U U E H E A L T H Y S Y L R Y G Q M F A M I L Y Z

C C P D I V B W C P M Y H P H W K R K H E I T A U

D K E D J K C E Y F E K V H R H D H E A L I N G L

EDUCATION RIGHTS MULTICULTURAL SPANISH TEWA ENGLISH DINE ABILITY OPPORTUNITY COMMUNITY VOICE STRENGTHS ABUNDANCE HEALTHY HEALING CREATIVE FAMILY INCLUSIVE EVERYONE ASSETS

P K O I W D E R

What would your DREAM school look like? What classes would be offered?

What would you have for lunch? Encourage the adults in your life to use their imaginations when working on new ideas for schools! Dream big together.

Ask your parent or guardian to help you share your ideas with the New Mexico Education Coalition by taking a picture of this completed activity page and emailing it to: reconstitutenm@gmail.com Or, ask them to help you draw or write down other ideas you may like to share! We want you to help us design your schools because children are smart, creative and have the greatest ideas!

16 GREENFIRETIMES.COM APRIL 2019

Start with some Tic Tac Toe!

STUDENT BILL OF RIGHTS Youth organizer, Amanda Gallegos of the Southwest Organizing Project worked with students at several schools. The students thought about what they’d like their rights to be and they came up with several. They say that ALL STUDENTS SHALL HAVE:

Freedom from discrimination

Access to extracurricular and after school programs

Students shall have affordable and nutritious food

Information, resources, and support to prepare them for life after high school, and shall be highly encouraged to pursue higher education

Full protection of their constitutional rights while in schools

Equitable school and classroom environments

How about going outside more?

Safe and secure public schools

The right and the opportunity to organize themselves and selfrepresent in important school decision-making processes

Access to bilingual education and learning in their own language(s)

What do you think? Can you think of other rights children should have?

As a student, what are my rights? What are my responsibilities?

Puppies?

IMAGE OR WORD What are your strengths?

What do you like about school?

What would you change about school?

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ONSITE FOCUSED MONITORING PROCESS FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION

BY DR. LAURA SULLIVAN GALLEGOS

Special education is individualized to meet the needs of students with disabilities.

When a child qualifies for special education services, an Individual Education Plan (IEP) is developed, so that there is a step-by-step plan to ensure that the student’s needs are being met. The IEP is developed by a team that includes the student, parent/s, special education teacher, general education teacher, a representative who can interpret results and others with related knowledge or expertise about the student. It is a legally binding document that specifies the student’s learning goals, as well as the services and supports the school will provide to support the student in meeting them.

As a retired special education administrator of more than 20 years, I find the challenge to ensure that teachers and special education staff comprehend the importance of accountability in the implementation of the IEP for students has become more difficult. Many trainings and IEP guidance manuals emphasize the regulatory language with little exposure to the actual implementation. In 2003, I was able to participate as a team leader in the Special Education Bureau Onsite Focused Monitoring process. This entailed leading a team of professionals made up of special education teachers, retired special education directors/coordinators, principals, teachers and parents into school districts that were selected for monitoring. A percentage of districts was selected each year based on the data submitted to the New Mexico Department of Education (NMPED).

Since New Mexico stopped regular Onsite Focused Monitoring rotation of districts, I’ve observed less emphasis on enhancing the practice of linking the design of the IEP with the implementation of the services it requires. It could be said that many special education teachers entering our schools are not driven to do so by the law and so may lack a comprehensive understanding of the legal requirements that drive the process for developing and implementing the Individualized Education Program (IEPs). Brookshire and Klotz (2002) found that 49 of 52 special education teachers “agreed that they had sufficient knowledge of special education law,” however, all 49 scored lowest on questions dealing with IEPs” (p.1).

In New Mexico, like many states, recruitment and retention of qualified staff are threatened by the fear of litigation and the significant focus on legal mandates surrounding the IEP (Hudson et al. 2001; Kroeger, Liebold, & Ryan, 1999; NASDSE, 2003; Weishar, 2001).

An Individual Education Plan is a legally binding document that specifies the student’s learning goals, as well as services and supports the school will provide.

This monitoring included a parent meeting, intense compliance file review of special education documents, interviews with special and general education staff and student observations. The process culminated in a report of triangulated evidence of findings in multiple areas. Those districts that were found to not to be developing and implementing compliant IEPs were assisted to develop an Improvement Plan and required to submit quarterly monitoring of progress data.

Progress toward the Improvement Plan was monitored and supported for one year. The evidence of change review was held, and if the district was not 100 percent compliant, it was prescribed a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) by the Special Education Bureau.

It has been approximately 10 years since Onsite Focused Monitoring has been in place. Currently districts in New Mexico experience a system of monitoring-only when complaints, over-identification, low graduation, Least Restrictive Environment, missing 60-day evaluation timeline, suspension and expulsion rates are extremely out of compliance.

18 GREENFIRETIMES.COM APRIL 2019

Fred Weintraub, liaison for the Council of Exceptional Children (CEC), indicated that Congress originally “had four basic purposes for the development of IEPs: 1) to provide an opportunity for communication among parties regarding the individualized education to be provided for the child; 2) to encourage planning among the individuals most in touch with the child including parents and school personnel; 3) to assure an annual review, more frequent monitoring of student progress, and IEP review prior to making changes so that the child’s educational program would not be arbitrarily altered, but that changes would be made based on the child’s educational needs; and 4) to serve as an accountability tool for state and local agencies to assure FAPE [Free Appropriate Public Education] for each eligible child with a disability” (NASDSE, 1996, page 4).

Without a proactive system of monitoring districts, how can we expect districts to know what they are and are not doing well? How do educators receive the feedback they need to improve their practice? How do students receive the education to which they are entitled? ¢ Dr. Laura Sullivan Gallegos retired after 25 years as a Special Education administrator and teacher. She currently is the executive director of LSG and Associates Inc., based in Albuquerque. LSG provides diagnostic and therapy services. www.lsg4schools.com

AUTISM IN NEW MEXICO

BY MICHELLE ROSSLER, M.S., CCC-SLP

In November 2018, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that one in 40 children were diagnosed with autism in the United States. The State of New Mexico does not collect data on children with this disability, so its frequency is not exactly known.

Autism is a disability in neurological brain development that affects how individuals communicate and relate to people around them. Children and adults have difficulties with everyday social interactions. They may have tantrums, be unable to maintain eye contact, exhibit repetitive behaviors and have difficulty processing auditory information and following instructions.

In order to address these children’s needs appropriately, it is necessary to develop a data collection system so that specialized services can be fully developed and implemented. In New Mexico, specialized training for teachers in this area is not required. Very few general education teachers know the teaching techniques or behavior strategies needed for children with autism. Parents seek help from the schools where autistic students are included within general education classes but are left without appropriate supports. Teachers often believe that these students’ behavior is not part of a disability. They regard these children as attention-seeking or disruptive.

Fortunately, in the past few years, the process for services in special education has been refined, and schools are becoming more aware of children with autism. The beginning of this process is a Student Assistance Team (SAT) referral, where diagnostic professionals assess the child and determine if an autism evaluation is needed. There are organizations that teach and provide services to autistic children in New Mexico. A few of the strategies that can assist these children include: visual schedules, sensory areas, communication systems, organization, work stations and token systems.

Public and private organizations, in conjunction with the state, need to make the public more aware of autism and its impacts. ¢ Michelle Rossler, M.S., CCP-SLP, is a certified, advanced autism specialist. She works for LSG and Associates, Inc. in Albuquerque. Lsg4schools@lsg4schools.org

STAYING TRUE TO A VISION THAT EDUCATION IS THE BEST PATH OUT OF POVERTY

BY JAMES JIMENEZ

While it may be true that education provides the best path out of poverty, taking advantage of one to escape the other is not as easy as it sounds. Poverty and education are something of a Catch-22. It’s difficult to escape poverty without education, but it’s extremely difficult to access the best education when you and your family live in poverty.

Current data on child poverty and educational attainment in New Mexico is troubling at best, but in 2019 we have the opportunity to begin to fundamentally change this dynamic. The outcome of the Martinez-Yazzie K-12 funding lawsuit has given a new sense of urgency to providing educational opportunity to our children.

Through more culturally and linguistically appropriate curriculum, better coordinated early education programs, and salaries that begin to compensate educators for their critically important work, we can begin to transform education and thus opportunity in New Mexico.

Cognitive scientists now know that the rapid brain development that takes place in the preschool years lays the foundation for academic success in the school years and beyond. High-quality early childhood education programs are vital to ensuring that this brain development occurs in a way that enhances a child’s opportunity to succeed, not just in school but in life. Research has shown that there are a number of reasons children whose parents have higher incomes and educational levels are likely to be more successful in school than their peers—reasons that are directly related to their environment. For example, children from high-resource families may hear as many as 30 million more words in their early years than their peers from low-resource families. The more words they hear, the more robust their grasp of language—an enormous asset when it comes time to attend school.

know that it will take much more than one legislative session to accomplish our education moonshot.

Everyone who cares about the future of our children must continue to be engaged in the debate and the oversight of our educational system to ensure that these dollars are truly reaching the classroom. Implementing the vision will take the hard work of families, educators and advocates over an extended period of time, and we must have the stamina to see it through.

By staying true to a vision that supports the notion that education is the best path out of poverty, we can change the direction of our state and the future for our children. ¢ James Jimenez, MPA, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico’s School of Public Administration. Jimenez served as the chief of staff under Gov. Bill Richardson from 2006 to 2008, and as Cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration from 2003 to 2006. He also served as city manager for the City of Rio Rancho, NM.

With these stacked advantages, children with higher socio-economic status often start school ahead of those who don’t have these advantages. These children are then further advantaged by attending schools that tend to be better resourced and, thus, are better able to attract and keep the highest quality teachers.

Summer breaks only exacerbate the academic gaps that follow. Children who have access to enriching summer experiences like music or science camps return to school ahead of their peers, while children from families that lack the funds for such activities are likely to fall further behind.

While these advantages accumulate, the gaps in academic achievement broaden, leading to disparate rates of high school graduation and college attendance. While we need to assure that children have all of the advantages they need throughout their educational journey, we know that no programs offer a better rate of return than those that address a child’s earliest years, when rapid brain development is taking place.

In order to improve how we serve children in those years, Senate Bill 22, sponsored

by Sen. Michael Padilla, establishes a single department to better coordinate the many early childhood programs now scattered across several agencies and allows us to expand access to high-quality early education programs in culturally appropriate ways. This is a huge step toward ensuring our children can thrive.

During the 2019 legislative session the Legislature made other important strides in setting in place a framework that better supports the educational needs of our children. But this framework, which includes reversing the devastating cuts in school funding, raising pay for educators, and targeting support for the children we know are most likely to struggle, is just the first step.

RESERVE A BOOTH TODAY

Our governor and legislative leaders have talked about achieving an “education moonshot.” Just as it took about a decade to land an astronaut on the moon, we GREENFIRETIMES.COM

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NEW MEXICO LEGISLATION: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE

CONNECTING THE COMMUNITIES OF NORTHERN NEW MEXICO!

Prekindergarten and other programs for children from birth to age 5 better prepare children for kindergarten and help them develop emotional and social skills.

Advocates say that children who experience these programs tend to achieve higher student achievement scores, lower dropout rates, and become better prepared for college and careers.

Last month, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the Early Childhood Education and Care Department Act (SB 22), which creates a standalone Cabinet-level department. The bill includes a $1.25 million appropriation to help set up the department.

It is an effort to increase early pre-K and pre-K program eligibility for New Mexico families, and to make services more efficient and comprehensive. All pre-K programs under the Public Education Department and the Children, Youth and Families Department, as well as some Human Services Department and Department of Health programs, will be centralized in the department, which will also include special education, home visitation, Head Start and support for families with children 5 and under. The delivery of pre-K services will still happen in private childcare centers and in schools.

The governor will appoint a secretary of early childhood development and care. An assistant secretary will focus on providing services in Native American communities and working with tribal governments.

In January, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded New Mexico a $54 million Preschool Development Grant, Birth to Five to help build a high-quality early learning system for families and young children.

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Recycle Right, Santa Fe! YES

CANS

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CARTONS

No Plastic Bags (return to retail)

Aluminum & Steel Cans (Empty)

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PAPER

PLASTIC No Tanglers (no hoses, wires, chains, or electronics)

Mixed Paper, Newspaper, Magazines, & Flattened Cardboard

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Remember, glass should be taken to a dropoff center!

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ot sure if it belongs in your cart? Don’t be a “wishful recycler” - improperly recycled items can contaminate everything else in the bin!

Contact us to be sure before you toss it in!

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No Food or Liquid (empty all containers)

No Clothing or Linens (use donation programs)

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Do Not Bag Recyclables

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THE FIGHT STARTED

BY DR. GEORGE SÁNCHEZ

BY CINDY A. KENNEDY

George...Dr. Sánchez...Don Quixote...Tata...pioneer...

These are all names my maternal grandfather was called.

“Kid Felix” is the name he gave himself when he was a young man learning to box.

My grandfather was a small man in stature, but he had a large amount of determination. He overcame many battles, including poverty, discrimination and tuberculosis.

Dr. Sánchez, fondly known to his five grandchildren as Tata, was born into poverty.

His parents, Telesforo and Juliana Sánchez y Sánchez, raised three sons in the poverty-stricken community of Los Nuanes, near Albuquerque, New Mexico, and in the mining town of Jerome, Arizona. All three sons, Juan, George and Telesforo, learned to overcome adversities at an early age. My grandfather graduated from high school at 16 and immediately began teaching in hilly Bernalillo County, borrowing his uncle’s mare on snowy or rainy days when the dirt roads were impossible to drive, due to ruts and mud.

By 19, my grandfather became a principal/teacher at Los Padillas School in Albuquerque. Graduating with distinction in 1930 from the University of New Mexico, he had never attended traditional classes, but instead attended classes on weekends and during the summer. This was partly due to racial prejudice he felt from professors and other college students. My grandfather was required to take an IQ test and became fully aware that these types of tests were not designed for minority students like himself. In the early 1930s, his dissatisfaction prompted him to research the validity of these tests. From 1930 to 1931, he worked on his master’s degree in education from the University of Texas in Austin. He became friends with his academic advisor, Herschel T. Manuel, also an opponent of the inherent discrimination of IQ tests. My grandfather’s master’s thesis was entitled A Study of the Scores of Spanish-Speaking Children of Repeated Tests. His classic research on the bias of mental measurements was published in an article that continues to be used in graduate classes today. In 1934, my grandfather graduated from the University of Berkeley with a doctorate. He returned to New Mexico with the dream of Cover of original edition of setting up the first state departForgotten People by Dr. George Sánchez

22 GREENFIRETIMES.COM APRIL 2019

ment of education. In 1940, his activism led him to write The Forgotten People: A Study of New Mexicans, on the plight of Mexican-Americans in rural New Mexico.

Unfortunately, as his academic career was excelling, his personal life was falling apart.

In 1946, he divorced his first wife, Virginia (Virgie) Romero Sánchez. George and Virginia came from very different economic backgrounds. Virgie came from a powerful and wealthy Bernalillo County family. Their two children, George E. and Julienne Consuelo (Connie), remained with their mother in Albuquerque. In 1944, George was admitted to Garfield Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C. with a case of tuberculosis. He was constantly ill and had to have one of his lungs removed. In 1945, he met a young doctoral candidate, Luisa Garcia Guerrero, his academic equal, while working at the University of Texas. They married in late 1947.

My grandfather became more politically involved in the fight for equal rights for Native American and African-American students. Although he died in 1972, I believe his fight has not been forgotten. One graduate student posthumously called him the Don Quixote of Chicano/a Studies. This was not appreciated by his widow, Luisa, or his daughter, Connie. They saw his passion for equalizing education not as an illusion or dream but as a reality needing correction.

In 2011, Dr. George I. Sánchez’s legacy served as inspiration for the Latino Education Task Force, a group of education activists who recognized that New Mexico was not providing its students a “Sufficient Education” and that public education was still not a fundamental right. They worked with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) to shape Martínez v. State of New Mexico around the promises of Article XII of the state’s constitution. In 2018, the 1st District Court ruled that New Mexico was in violation of student rights and that our public education system was unconstitutional. The dream and vision of Dr. Sánchez lives on in the fight for equal rights for all students. ¢ Cindy A. Kennedy, the youngest granddaughter of Dr. George I. Sánchez, taught pre-K through grade 12 for 23 years. She is seeking a publisher and illustrator for a bilingual children’s book she has written about her grandfather.

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A CALL FOR EDUCATIONAL EQUITY RELATED READING The following is a short list of suggested reading on the topic of educational equity, drawn from suggestions made by contributors to this issue of Green Fire Times. Although not comprehensive, it represents a set of works with insightful perspectives.

CRITICAL RACE COUNTERSTORIES ALONG THE CHICANA/CHICANO EDUCATIONAL PIPELINE by Tara Yosso. Routledge New Ed edition (2004) CULTURALLY SUSTAINING PEDAGOGIES: TEACHING AND LEARNING FOR JUSTICE IN A CHANGING WORLD by Django Paris, H. Samy Alim, et. al. Teachers

College Press (2017) DISCRIT DISABILITY STUDIES AND CRITICAL RACE THEORY IN EDUCATION

by David J. Connor, Beth A. Ferri, et al. Teachers College Press; Reprint Edition (2015)

DOES COMPLIANCE MATTER IN SPECIAL EDUCATION?: IDEA AND THE HIDDEN INEQUITIES OF PRACTICE by Catherine Kramarczuk Voulgarides and Alfredo

J. Artiles. Teachers College Press (2018) EDUCATION AT THE EDGE OF EMPIRE: NEGOTIATING PUEBLO IDENTITY IN NEW MEXICO'S INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOLS BY JOHN R. GRAM. Foreword

by Theodore Jojola. Univ. of Washington Press (2016) FORGOTTEN PEOPLE: A STUDY OF NEW MEXICANS

by George I. Sánchez.

UNM Press (1940) GEORGE I. SÁNCHEZ: THE LONG FIGHT FOR MEXICAN AMERICAN INTEGRATION by Carlos Kevin Blanton. Yale University Press, 1st Edition (2015) THE POVERTY AND EDUCATION READER: A CALL FOR EQUITY IN MANY VOICES. Edited by Paul C. Gorski and Julie Landsman. Stylus Publishing (2013) RETHINKING MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION: TEACHING FOR RACIAL AND CULTURAL JUSTICE by Wayne Au. Rethinking Schools (2014) SENTIPENSANTE (SENSING/THINKING) PEDAGOGY: EDUCATING FOR WHOLENESS, SOCIAL JUSTICE AND LIBERATION by Laura I. Rendón.

Foreword by Mark Nepo. Stylus Publishing (2014) TEACHING TO TRANSGRESS: EDUCATION AS THE PRACTICE OF FREEDOM

by Bell Hooks. Routledge (1994) TRANSFORMING EDUCATIONAL PATHWAYS FOR CHICANA/O STUDENTS: A CRITICAL RACE FEMINISTA PRAXIS by Dolores Delgado Bernal and Enrique

Aleman. Foreword by James A. Banks. Teachers College Press (2016) WHY ARE ALL THE BLACK KIDS SITTING TOGETHER IN THE CAFETERIA?: AND OTHER CONVERSATIONS ABOUT RACE by Beverly Daniel Tatum.

CHICANA AND CHICANO STUDIES AT UNM

BY IRENE VASQUEZ, PH.D.

In the fall 2018-2019 academic year, the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department (CCS) at the University of New Mexico experienced an 8 percent enrollment increase. The CCS is an interdisciplinary program within UNM’s College of Arts and Sciences. It was founded as a result of community and social justice efforts in the 1960s and 1970s that called for culturally relevant, community-inspired education. CCS’s academic program provides a critical understanding of Chicana/o, Hispana/o and Mexican communities through teaching, research and advocacy and prepares students to work in and contribute to New Mexico’s economy.

Research by scholars from Arizona State University and Stanford University has shown that when high school and undergraduate programs align with students’ cultures, retention and graduation rates greatly improve.

Because of this, CCS is well-positioned to help to provide clearer paths for students to achieve undergraduate and graduate degrees. Particularly in light of the Martinez/Yazzie v. New Mexico court case, CCS’s career pathways are particularly relevant to the state’s legal education mandates.

In studies conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (2018) and the Pew Research Institute (2016), employers said that they value the following skills in students: problem solving, collaboration, written communication skills, leadership and a strong work ethic. Chicana and Chicano Studies at UNM are designed to enrich these abilities, along with innovation, community development and intercultural competency.

CCS is well-positioned to help to provide clearer paths for students to achieve undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Among Carnegie Research One universities, CCS is the only program offering comprehensive undergraduate and graduate degrees and certifications, including online and traditional B.A. degrees, a graduate certificate, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees and a New Mexico Cultural Landscapes certificate.

Government is a major employer in Albuquerque. Behind government, education and health services, business and finance are growing sectors.

All require advanced degrees. Students who graduate with degrees from

Basic Books (Updated edition, 2017)

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23

OP-ED: Alicia Chavez and dr. virginia necochea

interdisciplinary fields such as Chicana/ Chicano Studies are trained to perform well in these burgeoning sectors. In addition, the United States Department of Labor projects that between 2016 and 2026 there will be a major increase in the number of educators in Ethnic/Cultural Studies in the secondary and postsecondary sectors.

CICLOS DE LA TIERRA: A NEW MEXICAN MULTICULTURAL CURRICULUM AND FRAMEWORK It is with great excitement that we formally present the Ciclos de la Tierra: Cultivating Querencia through Mutualismo and Justice Curriculum (Ciclos Curriculum) and Framework. The Ciclos Curriculum represents an ongoing collaborative effort that pushes educators and our state’s communities to move away from the typical scripted curricula that leaves out the essence and history of agricultural traditions that continue to exist across New Mexico.

CCS offers educational linkages with community members, including high school students, full-time working adults and retirees. Currently there is no other CCS program in the country that offers pathways from high school to graduate school through multiple educational formats. CCS’s specializations include: • Creative Cultural Expressions (Arts, Language, Literature) • Communication, Language and Culture (Media, Language Use, Spiritualities) • Community-Based Studies (Land, Law, Well-Being, Sustainability) • Chicano/Latino Public Policy (Education, Health, Law, Land, Planning) • Transnational/Hemispheric Migration Studies (Economy, History, Media, Politics) • Intersectionalisms: Race, Gender, Sexuality (Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies, Women’s Studies, LGBT Studies).

Because CCS’s program is based at the flagship institution of the state that has the largest percentage of Hispanics in the country, its mission is integral to furthering all peoples’ understanding of New Mexico, as well as the nation’s multicultural future. ¢ Irene Vásquez received her Ph.D. from the History Department at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the founding chair of the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department and has a joint faculty position in that department and American Studies at UNM. Vásquez is co-author of Making Aztlan: Ideology and Culture of the Chicana and Chicano Movement: Ideology, 1966-1977 (UNM Press).

We are presenting the Ciclos Curriculum at a crucial moment; when many of New Mexico’s citizens have demanded that the state provide sufficient education to populations of students who have historically been underserved and marginalized through an inequitable educational system. The Martínez/Yazzie v. State of New Mexico ruling and the governor’s and state legislators’ recent actions open up vast opportunities for change, especially in the arena of multicultural education.

The Ciclos Curriculum is offered as a potential framework that can be used in schools and organizations statewide.

It emanates from the precious knowledge, history and agricultural traditions of New Mexico and utilizes concepts from acequia philosophies that teach individuals how to become better stewards for Mother Earth, emphasizing a deep connection to land and water.

At this pivotal moment, it is important for multicultural models to be developed that include local perspectives and the wider community. The Ciclos Curriculum, which was created by the community for the community, accomplishes this.

What this curriculum most represents is a return to and focus on the importance of place, history, traditions and people.

CREATION OF THE CICLOS CURRICULUM

BY ALICIA CHÁVEZ

The health, wellness and justice of my community are very important to me. I am not alone. I have met so many people across New Mexico who have been working for equitable change. For my professional project that was part of the University of New Mexico’s Community and Regional Planning Master’s Program, I opted to undertake something that would add to this movement. My original intention was to create gathering spaces for people working for justice.

With the proposed idea of developing concepts that would help build organic connections and sustainable relationships among the organizing community, I was accepted to the CESOSS (Center for Social Sustainable Systems) Leadership Institute under the mentorship of Dr. Virginia Necochea and Jorge García. There I was introduced to the longstanding traditions and movements in New Mexico. People in this state have been organizing themselves for the protection of water-sharing systems for a very long time. Through research and conversations, the four major concepts of mutualismo, resolana, querencia and self-governance were introduced. I used these concepts to create a framework drawn from traditional acequia knowledge to further support community organizing.

Querencia involves a deep connection and love of place. Resolana represents the gathering spaces created for conversation

24 GREENFIRETIMES.COM APRIL 2019

CEOSS staff and reflection.

Mutualismo teaches us the responsibility we have for ensuring the well-being and health of one another and our communities.

Self-governance has long been part of acequia communities that understand the importance of these principles in relation to water-sharing systems.

The Ciclos curriculum and framework are based on traditional agricultural practices and understanding. For us, it was vital to not only teach about gardening practices, but to include the connection that gardening has to our families and ancestors. This practice has long been part of our culture, our people. We also wanted to highlight the powerful technologies that our people created to improve agricultural practices. These agricultural and water-sharing systems provide sustenance, water, shelter and community organizing tactics. This is powerful.

We are certain that many other cultures share similar concepts and ideas found in the Ciclos Curriculum, and it is our goal to include other languages, especially Navajo and Pueblo languages as part of the framework. It is important to note that these concepts connect to land-based traditions across the world and speak to the sacredness of land and Atrisco (South Valley) acequia walk water for Indigenous peoples. By beginning with the traditions that are part of New Mexico, we are promoting multicultural education models that represent the people of this land. ¢

Alicia Chávez’s mom’s family is from Las Vegas, N.M. and her dad’s family is from Torréon, N.M. Chávez has “dedicated her life to working in community for justice, wellness and peace.”

Dr. Virginia Necochea is executive director of the Center for Social Sustainable Systems (CESOSS), a nonprofit that works to preserve traditions connected to land and water in the Middle Río Grande region. She is also a faculty member at UNM.

NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES: A PLACE OF COMMUNITY

BY TIFFANY S. LEE, PH.D.

Indigenous studies and Native American Studies (NAS) programs have been growing and evolving across the world over the last 40 years, with each program focusing on goals related to their contexts and interests. NAS at the University of New Mexico (UNM) aims to foster purpose in education that is community-oriented and that facilitates students’ roles and connections to community. In this sense, NAS is creating a learning community rooted in Indigenous values for community and relationships (Cajete, 2015; Kulago, 2016).

Practicing a pedagogy of community also requires confronting the challenges of recognition and legitimacy as a discipline in academia and among our own Native peoples. It requires stimulating critical consciousness of Native peoples’ history and experiences that shape contemporary life in Native communities. NAS aims to ignite our students’ critical Indigenous consciousness for the purpose of supporting the sustainability (and often revitalization) of our Indigenous heritage communities, lands, people, culture, language and self-determination. The ultimate objective of NAS at UNM is to promote communal goals for supporting communities and cultural continuity.

Public schooling experiences, in large part, shape this region’s student perceptions about college as a place for attaining credentials, skills and knowledge sought out by employers (Gossman, 2015).

Additionally, Western, academic, elite settings such as universities have not valued Indigenous knowledge, perspectives and lived experiences, further influencing students’ perceptions after they enroll in universities (Battiste, Bell, and Findlay, 2002; Champagne, 2007).

Yet, many of our students come from communities that impart values for giving back and using their education to benefit their people.

Our challenge in NAS is to confront those perceptions about the individualistic purpose of college and channel students’ values for giving back toward communal goals and application of their skills and knowledge to support the self-determination of Native Nations.

While our nations

Our new MA degree in Native American Studies has a focus on leadership and sustainable communities.

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need committed community members, especially when socioeconomic conditions are difficult on our homelands, NAS students learn that they can generate opportunity as creative, skilled and committed community members. This is the responsibility of NAS for giving back to our communities.

U.S. Native Nations’ politicized relationship with the U.S. federal government based on treaties and agreements makes the work of NAS unique from other ethnic studies programs. Scholars involved in NAS programs across the country have debated its role in this respect. But recent scholarship has pointed toward nurturing a collective communal spirit in NAS that is focused on addressing community needs and interests, whether through a dialectic space (Warrior, 2014) or a focus on theorizing and “intellectual promiscuity” (Simpson and Smith, 2014, p. 6) or preparation for innovation in careers that empower our communities (Yellow Bird, 2008).

These scholars’ work signals evidence of a community of scholars working towards articulating the importance and intent of NAS and Indigenous studies.

Through a concentration of courses on Indigenous research and scholarship, our approach at UNM is the development of students’ critical thinking, writing and research skills—skills which can be applied across numerous contexts, careers and over time. In the spring of 2016, UNM reported there are approximately 1,000 Native undergraduate students enrolled at the main campus (5 percent of the total student population) and another 2,000 Native undergraduate students enrolled at branch campuses located in towns across the state (University of New Mexico, 2016). Our program enrolls approximately 200 students per semester, the majority of whom are Native American. Since our degree was approved in 2005, we have graduated over 200 students with their Bachelor of Arts major or minor degree in NAS. Students also select an area of concentration in either Leadership and Self-Determination, which focuses on governance, policies, activism and nation and community building or Indigenous Learning Communities, which focuses on education, language and community renewal. Students can choose from a variety of courses in these concentrations. In the fall of 2017, our first cohort of master’s degree students began their education to earn our new M.A. degree in NAS, which has a focus on leadership and sustainable communities.

Our curriculum and teaching as practiced in NAS has a responsibility to address the current realities in New Mexico and our communities, given the complex nature of cultural and linguistic change in Native communities and among the Native students we serve. It is a pedagogy that values Indigenous communities and seeks to sustain Indigenous people as they determine. Cecilia Fire Thunder, former president of the Oglala Lakota Nation, once said, “Before you can commit to your people, you have to love your people. But before you love your people, you have to love yourself ” (2005). A pedagogy of community seeks this full circle effect and to move our communities forward in ways that keep us connected, strong, skilled, prepared and thoughtful in our decisions. It is how we survive. ¢ Adapted from original publication in AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 13(1), (2017) Native American Studies: A place of community. Pp. 18-25.

Tiffany S. Lee, Ph.D. (Diné/Oglala Lakota) received her doctorate in Sociology of Education from Stanford University. She is a professor and chair of the Native American Studies Department at UNM.

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Native American Studies Department staff at the University of New Mexico

Table 1: NAS Sequence of Core Courses NATV 150 NATV 250

Introduction to Native American Studies Sociopolitical Concepts in Native America

NATV 251 NATV300 NATV 351/352

Research Issues in Native America Research Methods in Native American Contexts Independent Study/Internship

NATV 474

Seminar: Applying Traditions of Native American Philosophy

References

Battiste, M., Bell, L. and Findlay, L.M. (2002). Decolonizing education in Canadian universities: An interdisciplinary, international, Indigenous research project. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 26 (2), 82-95.

Cajete, G.A. (2015) Indigenous Community: Rekindling the Teachings of the Seventh Fire. St. Paul, Minn.: Living Justice Press.

Champagne, D. (2007). In Search of Theory and Method in American Indian Studies. American Indian Quarterly, 31(3), 353-372.

Fire Thunder, C. (2005, October) Keynote Address presented at the National Indian Education Association Annual Meeting, Denver, Colo.

Gossman, J. (2015). Teachers rank goals for college, career readiness. Education Daily, 48(172), 1-4.

Kulago, H.A. (2016). Activating Indigenous Knowledge to Create Supportive Educational Environments by Rethinking Family, Community, and School Partnerships. Journal of Family Diversity in Education.

Simpson, A. and Smith, A. (2014). Introduction. In A. Simpson and A. Smith (Eds.) Theorizing Native Studies. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1-30 University of New Mexico (2016). Office of Institutional Analytics, Spring 2016 Official Enrollment Report. Retrieved on March 22, 2016 from http://oia.unm.edu/factsand-figures/official-enrollment-reports.html Warrior, R. (2014). 2010 NAISA Presidential Address: Practicing Native American and Indigenous Studies. Journal of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, 1(1), 3-24.

Yellow Bird, M. (2008). The Future of American Indian Studies in the time of Global Warming. Wicazo Sa Review, 23(2), 91-101.

OP-ED: Scott Gullett, Ph.D.

OIL IN EDUCATION There is a paragraph in New Mexico’s constitution that deeply summarizes why our state’s efforts to retain its natural heritage is so stunning: The protection of the state’s beautiful and healthful environment is hereby declared to be of fundamental importance to the public interest, health, safety and the general welfare. The legislature shall provide for control of pollution and control of despoilment of the air, water and other natural resources of this state, consistent with the use and development of these resources for the maximum benefit of the people.

Think of those words that dictate—they don’t suggest—that New Mexico’s guardians will keep the air clean, the land unspoiled, and that it will be for the “maximum benefit of the people.” There are no words suggesting that pollution is a guideline to be ignored. Rather, that simple paragraph states directly the opposite.

There are other aspects of our constitution that are equally compelling. They included that New Mexicans will be taught Spanish—just think of the progressiveness of that being included more than 100 years ago. Other aspects point out that all students in the state will be educated sufficiently.

The constitution [written more than 100 years ago] included that New Mexicans will be taught Spanish.

These two concepts—oil and beauty—have sometimes been in conflict. During the past decade, as oil revenues ebbed, New Mexico students and teachers were hit with cutbacks that were beyond painful. Combined with the punitive aspects of the former administration, such as high-stakes testing without the appropriate funding, it was a dark time in New Mexico education.

Oil revenues have rebounded. And so has education—at least in the Legislature, where about $500 million was appropriated for increased student and school funding.

The state’s constitution dictates that New Mexico’s guardians will keep the air clean and the land unspoiled for the “maximum benefit of the people.”

That problem is that we have a distinct failure to communicate about what is needed for a quality education and a quality environment.

Despite Townsend’s words, this is not about who stands up for oil and gas. It is about standing up to the reality that eventually how oil is managed in our state must change. Legislators did indeed turn back a number of environmental and financial proposals that were advocated by activists. The strongest of those would have increased royalties through the amendment process from New Mexico’s permanent fund by 5 percent. Another would have asked for a pause— just a pause—in New Mexico’s fracking efforts. There are serious concerns about what fracking does to our environment, particularly in areas where our groundwater is so fragile and close to the oil.

What most legislators who “don’t like oil and gas” really want is a balance. They want a response that is, well, responsible—and which allows that those essential parts of the state’s constitution can mutually exist. ¢ Dr. Scott Gullett is a teacher and journalist. He earned a bachelor's in journalism at California State University, Fullerton, and master’s and doctoral degrees in Special Education at UNM. Gullett is a board member with the Latino Education Task Force, which monitors issues of equality in New Mexico education.

KUNM 89.9 FM kunm.org

But there is still a problem, and it is one that is somewhat hidden right now because we have more money: New Mexico’s educational system exists on a boom-and-bust cycle. Yet despite the current boom, those oil-producing legislators aren’t happy right now, it appears.

House Minority Leader State Rep. Jim Townsend (R-54) of Artesia said many lawmakers from metropolitan areas simply don’t comprehend the needs or mentalities of less-populated, far-flung regions of the state. He was quoted in a southeast New Mexico paper: “The southeast New Mexico legislators really had to stand up for oil and gas. The lawmakers from Santa Fe, Las Cruces and Albuquerque don’t like oil and gas at all.”

As someone who has been involved on the citizen activist level, I believe that Townsend’s words are simply untrue. New Mexicans like gas and oil. We survive on it, not just through government, but throughout our daily lives. We drive, pick up our kids, run our homes on electricity, and use machines that depend on oil and gas. We know where our plastics come from.

Much more than

RADIO live & local

But there is a problem in New Mexico’s funding, and it is growing more severe as research demonstrates that the oil and gas we depend upon are killing us.

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NEW MEXICO’S ENERGY TRANSITION ACT SIGNED

BEAUTY

Last month, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed into law the Energy Transition Act. Senate Bill 489 positions New Mexico toward cleaner energy generation, sets up a financial mechanism for Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) to close the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station in 2022 and provides a $20-million fund to aid displaced workers. Job training programs will be set up to support communities that will be economically impacted. In addition, an apprenticeship program for construction of new electric generation facilities in the northwestern part of the state will be created.

She sits patiently, intently Why am I here?

This doesn't matter I am no one.

But I speak, The words bring me to a place So deep within my soul Buried, covered by hardship, Traumatic experiences and Separation.

This place of loneliness, Where I questioned at times, At first so painful, and now a part of me Separating the situations at this moment The relentless bombarding words, beatings, cries, Never going back to the place where beauty once resides.

I continue on in my conversation Telling, repeating and noticing the hardness being lifted

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions that impact climate change, New Mexico’s major electricity suppliers will be required to get 80 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2040 and 100 percent from carbon-free sources by 2045. Twenty percent of the carbon-free electricity can include nuclear from the Palo Verde Station in Arizona, as well as coal and natural gas sources equipped with carbon capture and sequestration equipment. Such equipment is controversial, as it is allegedly unperfected and expensive. The act limits carbon dioxide emissions from large coal-burning plants to about half of what the plants have been emitting. The bill also allocates up to $30 million for reclamation costs.

Only California and Hawaii have similar targets in place. The bill only applies to electricity used within New Mexico and will not directly impact the state’s oil and gas industry. The Four Corners Power Plant can continue to burn coal because its electric generation is exported.

To recover its investments and make up for the revenue the company will lose by closing the San Juan plant, which has had to contend with unfavorable market forces, PNM will be allowed to issue bonds, to be paid off through customers’ electric bills.

Two bills designed to allow residents freedom to choose 100 percent renewable electricity (Local Choice and Community Solar), the securitization financing tool bill used to facilitate fossil-fuel power plant closures, the 10 percent residential and commercial solar panel tax credit bill, an electric vehicle and home-charging station tax credit bill and others failed to make it through committee hearings.

Stronger with each word, with each emotion, with each cry, This heavy blanket, which has tried its best to keep me, But through time shredded and no longer holding me.

May I see with each passing experience, Letting those in who understand,

RESOLUTIONS ISSUED REGARDING PROPOSED FEDERAL CLEAN WATER RULE CHANGE

For the young women who was left so long ago,

April 15 Public Comment Deadline

Maybe, my scars are becoming tangents of beauty,

Both the City and County of Santa Fe have passed resolutions in response to President Trump’s Executive Order directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Army to rescind or revise the 2015 Clean Water Rule. The agencies published a proposed new rule in the Federal Register. The 60-day public comment period ends on April 15.

Slowly coming together to make me whole, The search has ended with each passing expression.

I am becoming whole.

The proposed new rule will roll back protections of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) with potentially detrimental effects on the nation’s rivers and streams, including the Río Grande and the Santa Fe River. The proposed rule redefines “Water of the United States” to remove protections from all ephemeral waters, such as the vast network of arroyos and ephemeral rivers and streams in New Mexico. Ephemeral streams are estimated to make up 90 percent of all surface waters in the state.

I have always been beauty I am walking in beauty.

It is all around me.

I am beauty.

I will walk for this journey is mine.

– Ronalda Tome-Warito, 2016 Written for my mother, Lucinda Harrison, as she deals with the trauma of boarding school.

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Santa Fe County’s ephemeral and intermittent streams within the boundaries of Los Alamos National Laboratory that drain into the Río Grande above the county- and city-owned and operated Buckman Direct Diversion Regional Water Treatment Facility would no longer be protected and would leave the area’s newest (2011) source of drinking water imperiled, according to the Santa Fe River Commission. That body sent a letter to the county listing 11 potential consequences of the proposed rule, including loss of protection for the Santa Fe watershed, impacts to the outdoor recreation economy, unregulated watercourse dredge and fill projects, and risks to river restoration and stormwater management projects.

In March, the New Mexico Environment Department filed a motion to withdraw the state from a federal lawsuit challenging protections for waterways and wetlands. The department said that the positions taken in the lawsuit are inconsistent with its stance on proposed revisions to the water rule that were issued by the EPA. New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney said that all water in New Mexico—including groundwater and seasonal streams—must be afforded legal protections. Combined with the effects of climate change, the state argues that New Mexico’s waters may become more intermittent and therefore even less protected under the proposed rule.

WHAT’S GOING ON

FIRST SUNDAYS

ALBUQUERQUE

Museum admission is free to NM residents on the first Sunday of every month. 505.841.2800

APRIL 4, 7 PM

NM MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY AND SCIENCE

1801 Mountain Road

WALKING BACKWARD INTO THE FUTURE

SATURDAYS, 1 PM

A conversation between Dr. Greg Valerio, founder of a Celtic monastic community on the South Downs of England, and Laguna/Santo Domingo Pueblo elder, storyteller, Larry Littlebird. An exchange of stories rooted in ancient wisdom traditions. $10. www. listeningground.org, www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4078499

Tours of exhibits and themes in the Art Museum. $2-$3, free with museum admission. 505.246.2261, nhccnm.org

S. Broadway Cultural Center, 1025 Broadway SE

APRIL 5–6 NATIVE WOMEN’S BUSINESS SUMMIT

Isleta Resort & Casino, 11000 Broadway SE

Workshop brings together 300 Native American businesswomen to grow social capital and create a network. $175. www.nativewomenlead.org APRIL 6, 10 AM–3 PM SMALL BUSINESS RESOURCE FAIR

W. Central Development Group, 5921 Central NW Education and technical assistance to start a small business. Product showcase.

505.768.3184, www.cabq.gov/smallbusinessresourcefair www.abqhomeandgardenshow.com APRIL 15, 6:15–7:45 ABQ CITIZENS’ CLIMATE LOBBY

Edna Fergusson Library, 3700 San Mateo NE

Monthly meeting. Lisas.ccl@gmail.com, https://citizensclimatelobby.org/chapters/NM_Albuquerque/ APRIL 16, 1–4 PM NM FOOD & AGRICULTURE POLICY COUNCIL

ABQ Open Space Visitors Center, 6500 Coors Blvd. NW

WEEKLY DOCENT-LED TOURS

National Hispanic Cultural Center, 1701 4th St. SW

ABQ 2030 DISTRICT

Voluntary collaboration of commercial property tenants, building managers, property owners and developers; real estate, energy and building sector professionals, lenders, utility companies; and public stakeholders such as government agencies, nonprofits, community groups and grassroots organizers. Property partners share anonymous utility data and best practices. Professional partners provide expertise and services. Public partners support the initiative as it overlaps with their own missions.

Info: albuquerque@2030districts.org CAMP BIOPARK

Zoo, Botanic Garden and Aquarium

Interactive camp for children in preschool through 9th grade. More than a dozen classes to choose from. Children learn science through handson activities. Camps run weekly from June 3–July 26. 505.768.2000, Abqbiopark.com/camp-biopark GROW THE GROWERS

Gutiérrez-Hubbell House Preserve and Farm Partners

Learn how to farm in the Río Grande Valley, market and manage a business. Applications accepted for 2019 growing season. 40-week program begins in March. Full-time interns receive a weekly stipend for first year. growthegrowers@gmail.com, bernco.gov (search for Grow the Growers).

The council will share legislative outcomes, successes and plan for the year ahead. pam@farmtotablenm.org

SANTA FE

APRIL 18, 6–8 PM

APRIL 6, 6:30 PM

EIARTIH PANEL DISCUSSION

NUESTRA MUSICA

UNM Art Museum in Popejoy Hall, 2nd Fl.

Bill Gilbert, Erika Osborne, Kaitlin Bryson, David Naranjo and Brionna Garcia explore ecopedagogy and how it relates to art, teaching and learning within our community and beyond. Cornell Parking Structure parking $5. 505.277.4001, https:landarts.unm.edu/ APRIL 25, 5:30–8:30 PM ETHICS IN BUSINESS AWARDS BANQUET

Hyatt Regency Albuquerque

Annual awards honor individuals, businesses and nonprofits. Winners include ABQ Health Care for the Homeless, Mike Silva, Adriel Orozco, HB Construction, Silver Leaf Farms. Proceeds benefit student scholarships. Tickets: $150. ethics@cnm.edu, ethicsinbusinessnm.com THROUGH MAY 25 EARTH MASTERY COURSE

Ideas and Coffee Co-Working Space, 5021 Indian School Rd. NE #500

Program on implementing climate change solutions into peoples’ lives. Home energy, clean energy, transportation, food, green building and more. Saturday field trips. $75/$50. Presented by the NM Solar Energy Assn. www.nmsolar.org/product/earth-mastery-march-2019/ THROUGH MAY 31, TUES.–SAT., 10 AM–2 PM GENÍZARO IDENTITY AND CONTINUANCE EXHIBIT

Gutiérrez-Hubbell House Museum, 6029 Isleta SW

According to oral history and DNA, some families in the Abiquiú area are descendants of captive Native Americans. Donations requested.

Gutierrezhubbellhouse.org JUNE 26 KIDS COUNT CONFERENCE

Embassy Suites

“Framing the Future for Families: The Road Ahead” NM Voices for Children. www.nmvoices.org THROUGH OCT. 20 “OURS: THE ZIA SUN SYMBOL”

Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, 2401 12th St., NW

Exhibit includes a short film, contributions from Zia Pueblo and communities in New Mexico. www.indianpueblo.org

Lensic Performing Arts Center

A celebration of traditional folk music of the Spanish Colonial people. $10/ seniors free. 505.988-1234, ticketssantafe.org APRIL 7, 11 AM–3 PM REGENERATIVE SOIL ECOLOGY

Ampersand Learning Center, Cerrillos, NM

Workshop on regenerative gardening for home and community gardens.

Learn no-till/no-fertilize methods, microbial inoculation and creating biodiverse polyculture. $35. https://ampersandproject.org/event/regenerative-soil-ecology/ SANTA FE CONCERT BAND SPRING CONCERT

St. Francis Auditorium, 107 W. Palace

Free/by donation. www.SantaFeConcertBand.org APRIL 11, 10 AM–2 PM FANTASTIC FUTURES CAREER, EDUCATION AND TRAINING RESOURCE FAIR

SF Community College Main Hall and Campus Center

Employer and school representatives, small-business support resources.

Free. Open to students and community members. 505.428.1406, www.sfcc.edu/offices/career-services/ APRIL 11, 5–7 PM COMMERCIAL & INDUSTRY WATER EFFICIENCY SOLUTIONS

SF Public Library (Main Branch)

A city forum to gather public input for the 5-year water conservation plan.

Business owners, industry experts and commercial water users are encouraged to participate. Free and open to the public.

Light meal provided. wco@santafenm.gov, https://savewatersantafe.com/water-conservation-plan/ APRIL 11, 8:30 AM–4:30 PM, APRIL 12, 9:15 AM–3 PM “RISING AUTHORITARIANISM: CAN DEMOCRACY MEET THE CHALLENGE?”

SF Community College Jemez Rooms

Symposium features noted national and international speakers. $95/$120/$60 (students) both days; $75/$65. one day. https://sfwaf.org GREENFIRETIMES.COM

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APRIL 13, 11 AM–1 PM

MAY 5, 2–6 PM

FACING CLIMATE CHANGE & DROUGHT

FESTIVAL OF LEARNING

A city forum to gather public input for the 5-year water conservation plan. Free and open to the public. Light meal provided. wco@santafenm.gov, https://savewatersantafe.com/water-conservation-plan/

A celebration of all forms of learning. Activities for all ages. Booths by Opportunity SF partners. Presented by the SF Mentoring and Tutoring Collaborative. scheney@santafeb2c.org, www.opportunitysantafe.org

SF Public Library (Southside)

SF Community Convention Center

APRIL 15, 6 PM

MAY 11, 10 AM–12 NOON

CHACO-ERA DIVISION OF LABOR

COMMUNITY COLLABORATIONS & PARTNERSHIPS

SW Seminars lecture by Dr. John Kantner, RPA, author, Great House Communities in the Chaco World. $15. 505.466.2775, SouthwestSeminars.org

Meeting to discuss ways local governments, nonprofits, private industry, etc. can work together to address water issues in SF. Free and open to the public.

Light meal provided. wco@santafenm.gov, https://savewatersantafe.com/water-conservation-plan/

SF Women’s Club, 1616 Old Pecos Tr.

APRIL 17–MAY 29, WEDS. 5:30–8 PM; 2 SAT. FIELD TRIPS

Genoveva Chávez Community Center

SF CLIMATE MASTERS SUSTAINABILITY COURSE

Science of Climate Change and Its SW Effects; Social Permaculture and Building Sustainable Communities; Reversing Climate Change by Building Healthy Soils; Greening Homes, Energy and Transportation; Consumption Redemption: Reconsider, Reuse, Recycle; The Food We Eat; Backyard Permaculture; Localism and Intercultural Conversations: Keys to Resilience; Water Management in the SW. $25.

505.820.1696, claudia@santafewatershed.org, www.santafewatershed.org/event/register-for-climate-masters-2019/

MAY 17 HERITAGE PRESERVATION AWARDS CEREMONY

Palace of the Governors

NM Heritage Preservation Alliance, 505.603.2548, info@newmexicoheritage.org, www.newmexicoheritage.org MAY 18, 1–3 PM LOS LUCEROS GRAIN TEAM PRESENTATION AND TASTING

APRIL 18, 9 AM–3 PM BUSINESS EXPO & JOB FAIR

SF Convention Center

Free to attend. Presented by the SF Chamber of Commerce.

505.988-3279, santafechamber.com APRIL 27, 10 AM–4 PM; APRIL 28, 1–4 PM

IAIA, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, 108 Cathedral Pl. Join Slow Food-SF to learn about this new venture at the historic Los Luceros Ranch near Alcalde, NM, where the team is growing ancient, heirloom and local grains. $30. www.slowfoodsantafe.org MAY 18, 7 PM WILD & SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL ON TOUR

GEO-ENGINEERING & BIO-ENGINEERING: THE UNMISTAKABLE LINK

The Screen, Midtown Campus

Author Elana Freeland (Under an Ionized Sky) and Clifford Caricom, founder of the Carnicom Institute, explore a “mysterious link to another world that surrounds and affects our every move.” Free. Reconnect4today@gmail.com

MAY 30–JAN. 19, 2020

SF Women’s Club, 1616 Old Pecos Tr.

Hosted by the SF Watershed Assn., Presented by the Center for Contemporary Arts. $15.

RECONCILIATION EXHIBITION

APRIL 27, 12–4 PM EARTH DAY CELEBRATION

Railyard Park, 740 Cerrillos Rd.

Celebrate the Earth and local biodiversity in honor of the national theme: Protect Our Species. Educational presentations, performances, interactive activities for kids, animal ambassadors. Free. shannon@railyardpark.org, www.railyardpark.org/event/2019-earth-day-celebration/ APRIL 29, 6 PM EARLY AGRICULTURE ON THE COLORADO PLATEAU

Hotel Santa Fe, 1501 Paseo de Peralta

SW Seminars lecture by Dr. John A. Ware on Excavations at Lolomai Village, Black Mesa, Ariz. $15. 505.466.2775, SouthwestSeminars.org MAY 1–3 BOYS AT RISK CONFERENCE

SF Community Convention Center

Focused on the link between early childhood development and later acts of violence in adolescence and adulthood. $350/$400/$135 single day. Limited scholarships. Continuing education credits available to psychologists, social workers and mental health counselors. Hosted by the SF Boys Educational Foundation. www. santafeboys.org MAY 2, 3–6 PM SFCC RESPIRATORY CARE DEPT. MEET & GREET

SF Community College’s Health and Sciences Center, Rm. 442, 6401 Richards Ave.

Explore the possibilities of earning an Associate Degree in Respiratory Care. Free.

505.428.1723 MAY 3 NOMINATION DEADLINE 33 RD PIÑON AWARDS

The SF Community Foundation honors exemplary nonprofit organization in SF and northern NM. Winner receives an unrestricted grant, public recognition and short video that can be used for marketing. Ceremony takes place Oct. 8. www.santafecf.org/pinon-awards MAY 4, 1–4 PM FIXIT CLINIC

Make Santa Fe, 2879 All Trades Rd.

Free do-it-together event. Bring broken electronics, appliances, toys and more.

Specialist will help disassemble, troubleshoot and, if possible, repair your item. Appointment required. Contact Sustainability Specialist, Neal Denton: 505.992.9832 or ndenton@santafecountynm.gov

30 GREENFIRETIMES.COM APRIL 2019

IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, 108 Cathedral Pl. Hispano and Pueblo artists’ collaborative artworks and responses to aftermath

om

ussion...

for J oi n u s

JUNE 12–14 3 RD ANNUAL NEXT GENERATION WATER SUMMIT

SF Community Convention Center

Brings together the building and development community, water reuse professionals and policymakers to share best practices and learn about innovative conservation and reuse techniques. Keynote by Radhika Fox, chief executive officer of the U.S. Water Alliance. $299/$50 students. www.eventsquid.com/event.cfm?id=3298

ac

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of controversial Santa Fe Entrada celebrations.

Iaia.edu/iaia-museum-of-contemporary-native-arts

CONNECTING WATER CONSERVATION & COMMUNITY

“Water is personal, water is local, water is regional, water is statewide. Water is the most personal issue we have.”

– Susan Marks

SUNDAYS, 11 AM JOURNEY SANTA FE CONVERSATIONS

Collected Works Books, 202 Galisteo St.

Watershed Series hosted by Andy Otto: 4/7: Christina Chávez, City of SF Water Conservation Office on SF’s Conservation Plan; 4/14: Andy Otto: Exec. Dir., SF Watershed Assn., on What Is a Watershed and Why Do We Care?; 4/21: No program; 4/28: Steve Harris, Exec. Dir., Río Grande Restoration, on Toward a NM Protected Rivers Program. Free. www.journeysantafe.com MON.–SAT. POEH CULTURAL CENTER & MUSEUM

78 Cities of Gold Rd., Pueblo of Pojoaque

In T’owa Vi Sae’we: The People’s Pottery. Tewa Pottery from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Nah Poeh Meng: 1,600-sq.-ft. core installation highlighting Pueblo artists and history. Poehcenter.org MON.–SAT.. 8 AM–4 PM RANDALL DAVEY AUDUBON CENTER

1800 Upper Canyon Rd.

Trails lead through several habitats and plant zones ranging from meadows to Ponderosa Pine forests. No dogs allowed. 505.983.4609

Join a series of conversations about Santa Fe's Water Conservation future.

Residential Water Saturday, March 30th | 10:00 am - 12:00 pm University of Art & Design (Community Room) Commercial & Industry Water Efficiency Solutions Thursday, April 11th | 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm Main Library - Downtown (Community Room)

TUES.–SAT.

El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe 555 Cam. de la Familia

Rotating exhibits, community programs and performances designed to preserve Hispanic culture. Elmuseocultural.org

TAOS

APRIL 18–22, 10 AM–10 PM TAOS ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL

Taos Community Auditorium

4/21, 4 pm: Walking Thunder: Ode to the African Elephant. $5 suggested donation. 575.758.2052, www.taosenvironmentalfilmfestival.com APRIL 22, 8:30 AM–NOON EARTH DAY CLEAN UP

Filemon Sanchez Park (start)

Facing Climate Change & Drought Saturday, April 13th | 11:00 am - 1:00 pm Southside Library (Community Room)

Along Paseo del Pueblo Sur from Ranchos to Cam. de la Placitas. Volunteers welcome. 575.770.9127 APRIL 22, 7 PM SOMOS BENEFIT CELEBRATING EARTH DAY

208 Civic Plaza Dr.

Community Collaborations & Partnerships Saturday, May 11th | 10:00 am - 12:00 pm Genoveva Chavez Community Center (Community Room)

All events are free and open to the public.

Co-hosted by City of Santa Fe Water Conservation Office, Water Conservation Committee, and Santa Fe Watershed Association

Visit savewatersantafe.com for more info.

Ecologist/botanist/poet Will Barnes, water rights activist/poet Olivia Romo, Somos co-founder, poet Anne MacNaughton and several youth poets.

575.758.0081 MAY–SEPTEMBER ANCESTRAL, FOLK INDIGENOUS MEDICINE

Weekly classes plus in-depth work-study. Field trips and medicine plant walks.

Ten teachers incorporate many cultures and healing modalities. Limited worktrades available. Sliding-scale registration. $3,000 for full course. Open by donation to tribally affiliated people of NM. 914.400.7558, www.nativerootshealing.com JUNE 17–21 AND 24–28 FOLK FARM AND FOREST YOUTH CAMP

One- or two-week camp for ages 9-16. Permaculture and farming projects.

Learn about plants, multicultural traditions and hike into mountains. Music, art, storytelling, games. Scholarship and financial aid available. 914.400.7558, www.nativerootshealing.com GREENFIRETIMES.COM

31

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