Pacers overpower Heat in Game 1 of Eastern Conference finals Sports, B-1
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Surveys give students say on teachers
Floods beseige Balkans Water triggers more than 3,000 landslides, destroying entire towns and unearthing land mines left over from the region’s 1990s war. PAge A-3
Questionnaire generates mixed reaction; results, expected in the fall, will factor into evaluations
Tablets as teaching aids U.S. schools are expected to purchase 3.5 million tablets by the end of the year, giving students access to an array of modern educational opportunities. TeCH, A-8
By Robert Nott The New Mexican
Capital High School teacher Meredith Tilp has mixed feelings about the surveys filled out last month by students in Santa Fe Public Schools, in which kids were asked to rate their teachers’ effectiveness. Santa Fe Public Schools will use the perception surveys as part of its new teacher evaluation system. The responses will make up 10 percent of a teacher’s final score, which also
Union talk gridlock costs N.M. taxpayers
will be based on a principal’s observations of the teacher and students’ performance on standardized tests. “You have huge anomalies where kids just don’t like you or don’t get it, regardless of what you do,” Tilp said. “But on the other hand … how do you get that information as to whether they are learning or not? You ask the students.” For elementary school students, the survey contains 10 statements. There are five possible responses to each statement, ranging from “totally
In one item designed to test the accuracy of the survey, students are asked to say whether their answers are truthful. Some say the question is insulting to the students.
untrue” to “totally true.” The survey for students in grades 7-12 contains 37 statements, ranging from “My teacher wants us to use our thinking skills, not just memorize things” to
Cyclists take on Century
W
hat if you spent at least $125 an hour for a labor negotiator who billed you for two years but never settled any contract disputes? You would be a New Mexico taxpayer. Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration hired an Albuquerque company, Management Associates Inc., to head the state’s negotiating team in contract talks with employee unions. No mention of Milan Management AssociSimonich ates’ contract exists Ringside Seat on the state’s Sunshine Portal, even though the website is supposed to contain public documents. But an open-records request turned up 75 pages of the company’s invoices. The total charges to taxpayers were more than $166,000, the records showed. The company’s payments were capped at $125,000 a year. Even with heavy redactions by the state, the line-item billing records offer a flavor of the services provided by Management Associates: u One invoice was for reviewing and responding to emails from Martinez and and another state employee. The time on this task was listed at 0.7 hours for a fee of $105. Reviewing emails was the most common work listed in the company’s billings. u Opening day of contract negotiations with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers and the Communication Workers of America took 3.5 hours. The company charged $437.50. u One-way travel time from Albuquerque to Santa Fe drew a consistent fee of $125 for company employees. On top of charges for travel time, Management Associates always added a mileage fee of $62.50. u A conference call brought the company a fee of $165. The entry contained no details on the participants or purpose of the call. u Management Associates charged $600 for an emergency arbitration hearing lasting four hours. The invoice contained no particulars, but this work was outside the
Please see RINgSIDe, Page A-5
“My teacher pushes everybody to work hard” and “My teacher will be paid based on my answers.”
Please see SURVeYS, Page A-5
Coke ring bust nets 21 in Taos Six others not present during raids face charges By Andrew Oxford The Taos News
Riders make their way up a hill as they head toward Santa Fe from Galisteo on Sunday while participating in the Santa Fe Century. PHOTOS BY LUKE E. MONTAVON/THE NEW MEXICAN
Please see BUST, Page A-4
Riders from near, far challenge themselves on 103-mile course
Today
By Robert Nott
Sunny and windy. High 83, low 46.
The New Mexican
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harlie Loesch might have come off as a tough guy as he prepared participants for the 103-mile Santa Fe Century, the state’s largest bicycling event. As far as he was concerned, once the bicyclists headed out on the sometimes grueling loop running from Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe down through Madrid, Cedar Grove, Stanley and Galisteo, they would be on their own. “It’s not a catered event,” Loesch said, explaining that it would be up to riders to fix their own flats, and those who got tired and quit would have to wait for a shuttle to pick them up. And it
TAOS — Twenty-one Northern New Mexico residents were arrested Thursday morning in an operation to crack open what investigators characterized as a cocaine-trafficking racket spanning the Southwest and reaching across the Mexican border. The operation began at dawn, when approximately 70 federal, state and local law enforcement agents fanned out across Taos to execute search warrants at seven residences as well as two businesses. The first raid began at 6 a.m., when law enforcement officers arrived at the Ranchos de Taos home of Ismael and Angela Adame while a Blackhawk helicopter circled overhead.
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Bicyclist Tim Wohlgenart of Denver stretches at a food and water station before setting out to ride the last 8 miles.
likely would take a while for the shuttle to fill up with played-out participants before it could take anybody home, he warned. “It’s not a taxi service.” As it turned out, most of the 2,600 riders who took part Sun-
day didn’t need catering or a taxi. There were a few flats and one biking accident that sent one or two people to the hospital, but most of the riders pulled off the hilly ride without too many problems.
Please see CeNTURY, Page A-4
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Southwest Seminars lecture The Gift of Poetry, with poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, 6 p.m., Hotel Santa Fe, 1501 Paseo de Peralta, $12 at the door, 466-2775.
Targeted in blitz, Bushee says she never sought Zozobra swap City councilor surprised by social media attack after helping constituents voice concerns about timing By Robert Nott The New Mexican
As Ray Sandoval sees it, Zozobra sure creates a lot of gloom. Take, for instance, the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe’s use of social media and phone calls to rally Zozobra supporters to give grief to City Councilor Patti Bushee for backing some downtown
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business owners who prefer Thursday as the burning night for Old Man Gloom, as Zozobra is affectionately known. On Sunday, Bushee said she never suggested organizers move the burning from Friday to Thursday. “I don’t have a personal stake in this,” she said. “My personal feeling is that I would like to see it happen on Fiesta Friday.
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I’m not proposing changing the night, I’m not proposing anything. All I did was bring some people who wanted to be heard [on the issue] to the city manager and mayor.” Sandoval, Zozobra event chairman for the Kiwanis Club, said he is delighted with that news. But, he said, Bushee could have involved herself more in the public planning process for the event before getting involved. The hoopla started late last week after Bushee accompanied some downtown business owners to City
Life & Science A-9
El Nuevo A-7
Opinions A-11
Hall so they could express their concerns about a Friday night Zozobra event leading to a large and possibly unruly crowd descending upon the Plaza afterward. For 16 years, the annual ritual that entails torching a 25-foot-tall puppet that represents a year’s worth of gloom, has been held on the Thursday night before Fiesta weekend. The last time the Kiwanis hosted the burning on a Friday night, a deadly shooting on the Plaza ensued, leading to concerns about public safety. This year, the
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Kiwanis Club, which has organized the burning for years, received permission to hold the 90th Zozobra event on the Friday before Labor Day weekend. Bushee said all she did was orchestrate the Thursday meeting, and she was surprised to learn Sunday that she had become the target of a social media campaign designed to put pressure on her. “I love Zozobra. I’m not trying to mess with tradition here,” Bushee said.
Please see ZOZOBRA, Page A-4
Two sections, 24 pages 165th year, No. 139 Publication No. 596-440