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News-Bulletin
VALENCIA
COUNTY
Vol. 105, No. 8
SERVING VALENCIA COUNTY SINCE 1910
WEEK OF
FEBRUARY 19, 2015
Copyright © 2015, Valencia County News-Bulletin
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Belen board names acting superintendent
After an hour in executive session last week, with
the school district’s attorney Art Melendres present, the
board emerged but made no indication a decision had
been made to name an acting superintendant.
Belen Superintendent Ron Marquez has been on paid
administrative leave since Jan. 20, and it is unclear when
or if he will return before his current contract ends on
June 30.
As per the district’s chain of command, finance director George Perea, a licensed school business official, has
been the acting administrator since the superintendent
By Julia M. Dendinger
NEWS-BULLETIN ASSISTANT EDITOR
[email protected]
Belen
Most people might not know it yet — until now — but
there has been another change in the leadership of Belen
Consolidated Schools.
On Tuesday, Feb. 10, the Belen Board of Education
named Jennifer Brown, district’s human resources director, acting superintendent.
Seven make
top list for
LL super
was put on leave. Brown, who holds an education administration license, said she was asked to serve as acting
superintendent after the Feb. 10 meeting.
“I don’t know how long I will be in this position,”
Brown said Tuesday. “That is dependent on the future
decisions of the board. I am here to provide consistency
as we move forward.”
On Wednesday, Feb. 11, Brown sent out a districtwide email announcing the board had asked her to serve
Jennifer Brown
See Superintendent, Page 8A Acting superintendent
LL graduation
rate increased
to 73 percent
SENSATIONAL SLINKYS
By Deborah Fox
By Deborah Fox
Los Lunas
Los Lunas
NEWS-BULLETIN STAFF WRITER
[email protected]
Los Lunas Schools will soon have a
permanent superintendent. At a closed
executive session Feb. 11, the Los Lunas
Board of Education chose seven finalists to be interviewed on Saturday, Feb.
28.
A public meet-and-greet with the
finalists will be held the night before at
6:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 27, at the Teacher
Resource Center, 801 Coronado Street.
Twenty-two people applied for the
position, but the seven finalists were
distilled from only 17 applicants. Five
of the applicants backed out and gave
no reason, said Charles Tabet, board
president.
“I was impressed with how many
people put in — we got some really
good, qualified candidates,” Tabet said.
“There was a couple that were coming
from a small district ... but some really
qualified superintendents applied. I was
really impressed.”
The board is looking for candidates
with years of experience and who have
their administrative licenses or are
eligible for them. They want people
with experience as a superintendent
in districts at least close to the size of
Los Lunas or larger, and they have to
be willing to move to the district, Tabet
said.
Each board member reviewed the
applications and rated them as “yes, no
or maybe,” and when the board members had reviewed all the applications,
Dan Patterson, the management, edu-
cation and human resource consultant,
tallied up the results.
“We just went kind of round robin
until everyone got through with them,”
Tabet said. “What was surprising was,
the board was really close. There were
only a couple where we weren’t. So, we
were all pretty much on the same page
and I was impressed with that.”
Initially, they sought six finalists, but
there was a seventh they didn’t want to
leave out, Tabet said.
The seven finalists include Dana
Sanders, who is currently serving
as interim superintendent; Brian G.
NEWS-BULLETIN STAFF WRITER
[email protected]
Deborah Fox-News-Bulletin photos
IN HER SLINKY ROOM at her home in Los Lunas, Susan Suazo, set the Guinness Book of World Records with
her collection of 1,054 Slinkys.
LL woman sets
world record
By Deborah Fox
NEWS-BULLETIN STAFF WRITER
[email protected]
Los Lunas
Los Lunas resident Susan Suazo set the Guinness
Book of World Records with her collection of 1,054
Slinkys, the coiled spring toy that can flip and flop
down a flight of stairs. She received notification of her
accomplishment early in January.
“I am so excited about it,” Suazo said of being selected. “It was just amazing to me and I just shook.”
Although she won’t make it into the actual 2015 publication of the Guinness Book of World Records because
it went to print before she was accepted, she has plans
to add to her collection before the next publication.
“Since then, I’ve probably added another hundred
Slinkys to the collection,” she said.
Suazo works at Sandia Labs as a telecommunicaSLINKYS HANG from the ceiling in Susan Suazo’s Los
tions specialist, subcontracted through Jacobs Federal
Lunas home. She has a collection of Slinkys of all
See Record, Page 5A shapes, sizes and colors.
See List, Page 8A
Los Lunas Schools surpassed the
state 2014 graduation rate and are inching toward the national average of 81
percent.
Nearly 74 percent of Los Lunas
high school seniors graduated last year,
exceeding the state by 5.4 percent and
beating the district’s previous year
by 4.5 percentage points, said Dana
Sanders, interim superintendent.
The state average dropped to 68.4
percent in 2014 from 70.3 percent in
2013, while Los Lunas Schools’ graduation rate rose to 73.9 percent in 2014
from 69.4 in 2013.
The increase in the Los Lunas graduation rate is attributed to interventions
that catch struggling students early,
programs that help keep students in
school and the district’s truancy program, Sanders said.
“I think it has to do with moving
toward giving kids what they need in
school,” she said. “Now, we haven’t
arrived, but we’re definitely working
toward our interventions — catching
our kids early, and our truancy program that has been in place for at least
five years.”
Attendance is critical to graduating
on time, she said.
“It is paramount. Kids have to come
to school for us to be able to help them
do what they need to do,” Sanders said.
The programs the district created
to keep students in school include
ATLAS, which is an alternative to long
term suspension; the GRADs program
for teen parents; Edgenuity, the E2020
online credit recovery program; distance learning for online high school,
and the AVID program, advancement
via individual determination, an elective class that helps students who are
the first generation in their family to
plan to go to college.
The AVID program supports students during dual-enrollment classes
and offers other strategies to help them
be successful,
Since 2010, the district has gained
10 percentage points in its graduation
See Rate, Page 8A
Correctional officers file lawsuit, claiming ongoing sexual harassment
By Clara Garcia
NEWS-BULLETIN EDITOR
[email protected]
Los Lunas
Five Central New Mexico Correctional
Facility corrections officers have filed a civil
rights lawsuit in Santa Fe claiming they all
have been subject to sexually-based violence
WEATHER
7033
and harassment, and say their supervisors have
refused to protect them.
The five female plaintiffs, Many Kennedy,
Niadra Lemons, Allison Eastman, Antoinette
de la Cruz and Benita Joe filed the lawsuit last
Thursday in Santa Fe District Court.
The defendants include Greg Marcantel, secretary of the corrections department; Joe Booker
Jr., deputy secretary; Jerry Roark, director of
Call us: 864-4472
www.news-bulletin.com
INDEX
adult prisons; former Warden Joseph Garcia,
Warden Robert Stewart, Major Andrew Sweeney,
Capt. James Rigdon, Capt. Mike Sanchez, Capt.
Luis Tellez, Capt. Richard Henderson, several
lieutenants, a sergeant and other officers.
When the lawsuit came to light, the warden
and four top-ranking prison officials were placed
on paid administrative leave.
The lawsuit claims that the policy makers at
Classified....... 4B
Editorial ..........4A
Databank........2A
News Digest....2A
Deaths............6A
La Vida........... 1B
CNMCF in Los Lunas “have long endorsed a
physically violent and sexually abusive culture”
... resulting “in a long history of sexual misconduct in the facility.”
The plaintiffs, three of whom currently are
still working at the facility, say in the lawsuit
they face a greater threat to their personal safety
See Lawsuit, Page 3A
Noticias.......... 3B
Record.............6A
Sports.............7A
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