SFPS absent students falling behind
While Santa Fe Public Schools students’ proficiency on the 2021-22 New Mexico Measures of Student Success & Achievement align with the most recent statewide assessment, absent students in the district have “greatly reduced proficiency” in English and math, the district announced yesterday. SFPS reported its findings as the state Public Education Department released the most complete achievement data since switching to the Measures of Student Success and Achievement test, following an inability to do so for the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Statewide, 34% of students in grades 3-8 show proficiency in language arts; 25% in math, according to the new data. In the SFPS district, students in grades 3-8 with daily attendance of 96-100% had 44% proficiency in language arts compared to 17% for students with an attendance rate of 80% or below. For math, students in those grades with a 96-100% attendance rate had 35% proficiency as compared to 8% percent for those with an attendance rate of 80% or below. “The lower proficiency rates for frequently absent students are startling and a wake-up call for parents, students and educators as to the importance of attending school each and every day,” Superintendent Hilario “Larry” Chavez said in a statement. “When students are not in class, they are not learning. With this news, we are issuing an urgent appeal to parents and families to make school attendance a priority each day.” The statewide results, PED Director of Research, Evaluation and Accountability Matthew Goodlaw, said, “don’t pass muster, and we don’t pretend that they do. We are looking at the data with clear and eager eyes…and we’ll work with our local school systems to identify and target schools and specific supports throughout the state.” SFPS, Chavez says, is taking numerous steps to address both proficiency and attendance, including “phasing in innovative standards-based learning and grading in schools; forging community partnerships for high-quality after-school programs; and focusing on student absenteeism and reengagement.”
State Supreme Court: Public can wade in public waters
The state Supreme Court yesterday provided the legal reasoning behind a March decision announced from the bench that people have a constitutional right to walk or wade on the streambed of water flowing over privately owned land in New Mexico when they recreate fish or otherwise. The case stems from a lawsuit filed by several recreation groups against the New Mexico Game Commission and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2020 over a Game Commission rule that allows private landowners to limit public access to streams and rivers (the rule predates Lujan Grisham’s term and was enacted during former Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration). “We hold that the public has the right to recreate and fish in public waters and that this right includes the privilege to do such acts as are reasonably necessary to effect the enjoyment of such right,” the Court wrote in an unanimous opinion written by Justice Michael E Vigil. The opinion references a 1945 state Supreme Court decision and pre-state law that established the public’s right to fish, boat and engage in other forms of recreation in public water. Yesterday’s opinion addresses whether that right also allows the public the right “to touch the privately owned beds below those waters” and concludes that it does. US Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, who filed an amicus brief in the case along with former US Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM, released a statement following yesterday’s opinion describing it as “an enormous victory for people who care about our history, our culture and our natural resources. Public waters will remain public.” A comparable battle between landowners and recreational users is playing out in Colorado.
See ya, gloom!
Tonight’s the night. Gates open at 4 pm at Fort Marcy Park for the 98th Burning of Will Shuster’s Zozobra, with hours of music and other activities leading up to the burning right around 9:10 pm (event organizers recommend arriving by 8 pm). You’ll find your Morning Word scribe at the gloom table where you can write down or deposit any of your misery for conflagration (it’s also not too late to submit your gloom online). To get into the mood, be sure to check out historic footage dating to 1938; aerial footage from 2013; last year’s burning; and the Gene Hackman-narrated documentary about Will Shuster’s Zozobra. Here’s a map with the road closures. This is the first in-person audience without COVID-19 restrictions since the pandemic. Masks are optional, but encouraged and there will be an increased number of hand-washing stations and hand sanitizers available. Not sure what to wear? The Decades Project hits the ’90s this year (and it’s almost flannel weather, anyway). Zozobra is also a fundraiser, with the Santa Fe Kiwanis using proceeds to benefit local youth organizations. If you can’t go, you can still donate here.
COVID-19 by the numbers
Reported Sept 1
New cases: 464; 611,765 total cases
Death’s: 18; Santa Fe County has had 346 total deaths; there have been 8,465 fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 134. Patients on ventilators: four
Case rates: According to the state health department’s most recent report on geographical trends for the seven-day period of Aug. 22-28, Santa Fe County’s case rate continues to decline and was at 19.8, compared to 20.5 the prior week. The state recorded 3,420 cases statewide—based on reported cases—over the seven-day period, a nearly 11% decrease from the previous week.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent update for COVID-19 “community levels,” updated yesterday, only one New Mexico county—McKinley—remains “red,” aka has high levels—down from three last week. Santa Fe County is one of 23 counties with green, or low levels (one more than last week). The state map, which updates each Thursday for the prior seven-day period, uses a framework that combines case rates with hospital metrics. The community levels site has accompanying recommendations at the bottom of the page. The CDC also provides a quarantine and isolation calculator
Resources: Vaccine registration; Booster registration Free at-home rapid antigen tests; Self-report a positive COVID-19 test result to the health department; New Curative testing site: 9 am to 5 pm, Monday-Friday, Santa Fe Technology Department, 2516 Cerrillos Road; COVID-19 treatment info: oral treatments Paxlovid (age 12+) and Molnupiravir (age 18+); and monoclonal antibody treatments. Toolkit for immunocompromised individuals. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453. Vaccines for children: Parents of children ages 6 months to 5 years can now schedule appointments for vaccinations at VaccineNM.org.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
listen up
On the most recent episode of Santa Fe Public Schools Inside SFPS podcast, host Public Information Officer Cody Dynarski talks with Gonzales Community School principal Chris Lopez about his Dolphins fandom, his education path, why he decided to go to law school and ultimately decided he didn ‘t want to wear a suit and be a lawyer, but wanted to make a difference in students’ lives.
Standing up for indigenous reproductive health care
Elle magazine profiles Indigenous Women Rising, founded by 32-year-old queer reproductive rights activist Rae Lorenzo (Mescalero Apache/Laguna Pueblo/Xicana). Lorenzo, who uses the pronouns they and them, endured what they characterize as a “dehumanizing” experience when an emergency room visit 13 weeks into a pregnancy ultimately required an abortion that a white male ER doctor refused to perform. Also, Lorenzo founded IWR, the only US abortion fund dedicated to Native Americans. Indigenous communities’ need for better reproductive health care pre-dates the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in June, and Lorenzo’s own political activism dates to their freshman year at the University of New Mexico when they heard a speech by then-candidate Barack Obama 10 days prior to his election. “If he could do it, Lorenzo could: ‘I remember crying and feeling so inspired that maybe one day a queer Native kid could be president.’” From there, Lorenzo began volunteering for the Democratic Party of New Mexico, and was chosen as a fellow for Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign under now US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. IWR has already helped fund more than 450 abortion fund requests this year (the fund is currently closed but accepting donations). “It’s getting hard for us to keep up,” Lorenzo tells Elle. “But our staff is more precious than gold. Nothing compares to the compassionate, loving care they provide to our clients all over the country.”
Welcome to the wild west
Wild West’s autumn 2022 edition features Billy the Kid, along with several stories related to New Mexico. One story contains five recommendations for New Mexico-centric books, including Mariana’s Knight by W. Michael Farmer, a novel based on the February 1896 disappearance of lawyer Albert Jennings Fountain and his 8-year-old son; Anne Hillerman’s Spider Woman’s Daughter, the first Leaphorn & Chee mystery novel based on her father Tony Hillerman’s series; and Hampton Sides’ Blood and Thunder, a national best-seller that retells the story of Kit Carson’s 19th-century bloody plunder of the Southwest. Writer Melody Groves also provides five “wild Westerns,” for the New Mexico-centric edition, a list that includes Young Guns (Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Philips and Charlie Sheen); High Noon (Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, among others); and The Missing, directed by Ron Howard and based on Thomas Eidson’s 1996 novel (Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett). The NM-centric issue also features a story on Cuervo, NM, described as unusually accessible—for a ghost town.
Three days of sun (and rain)
The National Weather Service forecasts increasing clouds today with a high temperature near 86 degrees. We have a decent chance for rain on Saturday, less of a chance on Sunday, and Monday, Labor Day, right now looks sunny with a high near 81 degrees. Remember no trash pick-up on Monday, with the schedule sliding forward a day.
Thanks for reading! The Word is ready for fall! She is unlikely, however, to purchase any Lime Punch-colored clothing (or any of the other best fall fashion colors, for that matter). Morning Word will return Tuesday, Sept. 6. Have a happy Labor Day weekend.
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