Beautiful Dreamer: Tom Chambers’ magic realism Pasatiempo, inside The New Mexic an’s Weekly Magaz ine of Arts, Entertainment & Culture July 25, 2014
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Friday, July 25, 2014
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New casino rules ahead?
Bad week in the skies A cluster of disasters spanning three continents contributes to one of the worst spans in memory for the airline industry. PAGE A-2
SFPD revives 4-day workweek
Pojoaque defends changes proposed to feds as necessary in ‘flat’ market. PAGE B-1
10-hour shifts popular with officers slated to return next month
Inconsistent subsidies
By Daniel J. Chacón The New Mexican
Santa Fe police plan to switch back to a four-day workweek next month, reversing a 2011 decision that was unpopular among the rank-and-file but
Consumers worry about what they’re paying for health insurance. PAGE A-3
City’s high schools receive lower marks State gives majority of Santa Fe public schools poor letter grades; district reviewing data to explain big drops at Capital, SFHS By Robert Nott The New Mexican
A
bout half of Santa Fe’s 29 public schools received a D or an F from the state this year. While a similar number of low grades were issued last year to schools in the local district, both of the city’s main high schools saw surprising drops INSIDE this year — from u Santa Fe B’s to D’s. students’ In 2013, reading and Santa Fe High math scores School had improve raised its grade on state to a B from a SBA tests. C in 2012, and PAGE A-4 Capital High School had seen an even greater improvement, jumping to a B from 2012’s D. Santa Fe Public Schools Superintendent Joel Boyd called the high school grades “anomalies” that lead to questions regarding “the credibility” of the system. “To jump up or down by two grade levels in two consecutive
Capital High School, which jumped to a B grade last year from a D in 2012, has dropped back to a D this year on the state’s A-F scale, which weighs student performance, student growth and the growth of both the highest-performing and lowest-performing groups of student populations, among other measures. LUKE E. MONTAVON/NEW MEXICAN FILE PHOTO
one that former Chief Ray Rael attributed to a decline in burglaries and overtime costs. Rael, who resigned before Mayor Javier Gonzales was elected in March, instituted a five-day workweek and immediately met resistance from officers, who said the shift change killed morale and affected their quality of life. “I talked to two officers who told me it affected their personal
lives so much that they blamed their divorces over it,” Matthew Martinez, police union president, said Thursday. “It wasn’t just the morale issue. It was also a quality-of-life issue, and they never factored that in,” he said. When the city hired Eric Garcia as the new police chief, he said he would potentially change back to four, 10-hour workdays per week.
Garcia did not return a message seeking comment, but Deputy Chief Dale Lettenberger said the switch back to four-day workweeks would go into effect Aug. 2. Gonzales said he hasn’t been briefed about the change by City Manager Brian Snyder. “I expect he [Garcia] would communicate and seek approval from the city manager before any
Please see SFPD, Page A-4
Agua Fría Elementary School (soon to be El Camino Real Academy) D
Mental health shake-up hurt N.M. youth, educators say
Amy Biehl Community School
B
By Patrick Malone
Aspen Community Magnet School
D
Atalaya Elementary School
B
Capital High School
D
Capshaw Middle School
C
Carlos Gilbert Elementary School
A
César Chávez Community School
D
Chaparral Elementary School
D
De Vargas Middle School
D
E.J. Martinez Elementary School
D
ESPAÑOLA — Public school students with mental health problems have not received the help they need after a shake-up in behavioral health providers, Española school officials told lawmakers Thursday. “The biggest tragedy for our children is that the services were immediately interrupted,” Christina Baca, special-education director for the Española Public School District, told the Legislature’s Behavioral Health Subcommittee. “This included access to medication, access to psychiatrists, access to counselors.” The New Mexico organizations that had been providing behavioral health treatment and support to students in Española schools were among 15 that Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration abruptly terminated last year over suspicions of Medicaid billing fraud.
SANTA FE PUBLIC SCHOOLS A-F GRADES Academy at Larragoite
C
Academy for Technology and the Classics
A
Acequia Madre Elementary School
B
The New Mexican
El Dorado Community School B
Please see SHAKE-UP, Page A-4
Gonzales Community School D Kearny Elementary School
F
Monte del Sol Charter School B
years leaves the question as to the value of placing grades on schools in any way,” he said. Capital Principal Channell Wilson-Segura said school leaders are reviewing the grading data because the drop “doesn’t make sense.” She said
certain elements within the grading system are not adding up to similar measurements in last year’s grading, and the D “does not reflect our school’s work.”
Please see GRADES, Page A-4
Nava Elementary School
D
Ortiz Middle School
D
Piñon Elementary School
B
Ramirez Thomas Elementary School
D
Salazar Elementary School
F
Santa Fe High School
D
Water depletion rate alarms researchers
Sweeney Elementary School D
Study finds underground supply in Colorado River Basin is dwindling
Tesuque Elementary School
B
By Staci Matlock
Tierra Encantada Charter School
C
Turquoise Trail Charter School
A
Wood Gormley Elementary School
A
The New Mexican
Drought, combined with well pumping in the past decade, has drained Colorado River Basin groundwater at an alarming rate, according to a new study by NASA and University of California, Irvine scientists. The implications could be severe for 40 million people in the seven states that depend on Colorado River Basin water, including New Mexico. “The take-home message is we have depleted a lot of groundwater already,” said Stephanie Castle, a water resources specialist at the University of California, Irvine, and the study’s lead author. “We aren’t managing groundwater as carefully as our reservoirs, and it is our strategic supply during times of drought. We really don’t know how much we have or how much we are using. “It would be really scary if groundwater dried up and we didn’t have that as a backup during drought,” Castle
In addition, two state charter schools located in Santa Fe — The MASTERS Program and the New Mexico School for the Arts — both received A’s.
ON OUR WEBSITE Santa Fe High School’s grade also fell to a D from a B this year. Superintendent Joel Boyd called the high school drops ‘anomalies’ that lead to questions regarding ‘the credibility’ of the state’s grading system. CLYDE MUELLER/NEW MEXICAN FILE PHOTO
u Statewide school grades at www.santafenewmexican.com
Please see WATER, Page A-5
Blasts kill 16 at U.N. school in Gaza Source of strike still unclear; both sides exchange blame By Ben Hubbard and Jodi Rudoren The New York Times
BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip — For more than a week, as the war engulfed their homes, families in this northern Gaza town packed up their belongings and children and headed to the one place they presumed would remain safe: the United Nations school. But in the last few days, the war approached there as well. The Israeli military warned on Monday that the shelter should be evacuated.
Index
Calendar A-2
Classifieds C-2
By Thursday, the U.N. had decided to withdraw its staff and to stop providing food. Then, as the Palestinians gathered in the courtyard on Thursday, believing they were about to be bused elsewhere, blasts tore through the crowd, killing 16 people and sending scores of wounded, mostly women and children, streaming into local hospitals. The source of the blasts remained unclear, setting off recriminations between Israelis and Palestinians over which side was responsible. People in the school reported from three to five blasts and accused Israel of shelling them. Israel suggested that rockets fired by militants might have fallen short of their targets or that the school may have been hit with errant shells
Comics C-8
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Crosswords A-8, C-3
Lotteries A-2
Today
from either side in fighting nearby. The U.N. said it could not confirm the source of the blasts. The shelling came on the 17th day of an increasingly bloody conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants that has killed nearly 800 people in Gaza. On the Israeli side, 32 soldiers and three civilians have been killed. This was the fourth time that U.N. schools had been struck. The blasts in Beit Hanoun highlighted the desperate search by Gaza civilians to find refuge. It also came as Secretary of State John Kerry was pushing intensively to achieve a cease-fire. One proposal under discussion,
Some sun. High 92, low 62. PAGE A-6
Opinions A-7
Sports B-5
Time Out A-8
Henry Lavell Alexander, 90, Española, July 21 George Case Bolt, 93, July 22 Bebe Krimmer Jean Caroline Krahe Mee, July 17
Peyton Manning getting used to unfamiliar Broncos teammates.
PAGE B-2
SPORTS, B-5
Obituaries
Please see GAZA, Page A-4
New faces, fresh start
Generation Next C-1
BREAKING NEWS AT WWW.SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM
Three sections, 24 pages Pasatiempo, 88 pages 165th year, No. 206 Publication No. 596-440