MAGDALENA -- Magdalena High School is ranked among the best high schools in the United States, according to a study released by U.S. News and World Report.
The magazine’s website states that “in collaboration with School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education and data research and analysis business that provides parents with education data - analyzed academic and enrollment data from more than 21,000 public high schools to find the very best across the country. These top schools were placed into gold, silver, bronze, or honorable mention categories.”
Magdalena High School was listed in the bronze category.
In the study, it was first determined that each school's students were performing better than statistically expected for the average student in the state. Then, it was determined whether the school's least-advantaged students (Native American, Hispanic, and low income) were performing better than average for similar students in the state.
Superintendent Mike Chambers said a number of factors were responsible for the recognition.
“It’s always nice to have this kind of acknowledgment. It validates what the general view of the school has been,” he said. “We have a staff that works hard. The ACT test scores were good. This year and last year they were above the state average.”
The high school has been on the best schools list three out of the last four years.
Chambers said it takes a continual effort and commitment to provide the best education possible for students.
“The kids are always our first priority, and what’s needed is to give them opportunities to excel. It doesn’t happen by accident, but by design. We focus on the kids,” he said. “We have a meeting once a week with key players on the staff and talk about things that can be done. That’s our bottom line. We ask ‘how is this going to impact kids.’ That’s our major focus.”
Chambers said the Magdalena School District is facing the same problems other schools in the state deal with – funding. “We are the third highest poverty district in the state,” he said.
“But we have a lot of help (from the state and federal government) to offset that.
“When I came here, there was a very minimal cash balance. Now we maintain a good balance.
“We watch our (fiscal) P’s and Q’s,” Chambers said. “We’ve been fortunate.”
Another plus for the high school is that the teaching staff has been consistent.
“We rarely lose teachers. In fact we typically have more wanting to come and teach, than leave,” he said.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Magdalena High School Gets High Marks
Village Moves To Curtail Flooding
MAGDALENA – A long awaited infrastructure project designed to reduce flooding of several Magdalena streets is finally getting underway, according to a report by Mayor Jim Wolfe at Monday night’s Village Board Meeting.
He said funding from a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) has been approved by Housing and Urban Development, which means an engineer can start studying the problem areas.
Wolfe, who, as an engineer for the federal government before his retirement, was one of the designers of the north-south diversion channel for Albuquerque.
“The first thing will be to figure out where are the breaking points for drainage, and sort out how many acres are in that area,” Wolfe told the Mountain Mail. “Then the engineer will have to develop a rainfall intensity over a certain amount of time, and then come up with a flood flow analysis, based on a 100 year flood.
“We had some mapping done, and they can produce some high quality topography from those maps because of high resolution giving four to five foot contours.”
He said the village would not be able to finance the installation of storm drains.
“We don’t have the money for that,” he said. “What they may do is come up with a design to channelize the runoff at Limit Street into the big ditch, and conceptualize a design for modifying the (west side) arroyo to use for drainage.”
He said Pat Stovall of Smith Engineering will be heading the project.
“They are the ones that helped with the lagoons, and the dam issue,” Wolfe said. “It will be a big project.”
Joint Utilities Director Steve Bailey said most every unpaved street in the village is susceptible to flood damage during a heavy rainfall, especially the cul-de-sacs north of First Street.
“Those accumulate all the debris. Once the water gets down there it just chews it up,” Bailey said. “But we have to deal with rain water all over town. On some streets customers will ask if I can help out with filling in dirt in washed out places, but it usually washes out again with the next rainfall.”
He said some property owners have been given permission to put in their own culverts.
In other business:
• The board approved the expenditure of $6,000 to pay for Basic EMT training for six new volunteers. Marshal Larry Cearley said the approval “will relieve some of the pressure on the current EMTs.” The training course, taught by John Cole, will be held on 10 consecutive weekends.
• The board approved the purchase of eight sets of up-to-date bunker gear for the volunteer fire department for $12,736.50 from First-In, Inc. Fire Chief Art Rauschenberg said the suits incorporate “drag rescue loops” for added safety. “The company will come in and make sure each set of coat and pants will be fitted to the volunteer’s size,” he said.
County Looks Into Judicial Complex Options
SOCORRO -- The Socorro County Commissioners all agree there is a need for a judicial complex and a detention facility.
But there are many questions still out there.
Will it be a regional complex along with Sierra and Catron Counties? Will it be just a county complex? How are they going to get the money? There are many other questions as well.
But on Wednesday Jan. 13, four members of the commission, county manager Delilah Walsh and detention superintendent Evangel Maldonado heard a presentation from Gerald Martin, a construction management firm based in Albuquerque.
“We will walk you through the process in how to get your program off the ground,” said Robert Martinez, the director of construction management.
Martinez outlined a chart, indicating the steps it would take to build a judicial complex.
“We will help you every step of the way,” he said.
Walsh asked the commissioners if this something they wanted to pursue. Commissioner Rosie Tripp said, “We can not make any decisions today but I would like to put it on the agend.”
Martinez said: “All we are looking for is a minimum investment to offset our costs. We are ready to start and we have started investigating things.”
Walsh said she will prepare a proposal “to get the ball rolling. It gives us time for our attorney (Adren Nance) to look into this.”
Bustamante To Lead Electric Co-op For Another Term
SOCORRO – The three new trustees took their seats as the Socorro Electric Cooperative board met for the first time in this year on Tuesday, Jan. 12.
The first order of business for the new trustees -- Luis Aguilar, Prescilla Mauldin and Donald Wolberg – and the rest of the board, was to elect officers.
Aguilar nominated Wolberg and Leo Cordova nominated Paul Bustamante for the presidential spot. By a 7-4 vote, Bustamante remained as president.
Leroy Anaya nominated Dave Wade as vice president, and Wolberg nominated Mauldin for the vice president spot. By a 7-4 vote, Wade was elected vice president.
Aguilar was appointed to the secretary post. Nine trustees voted for Aguilar and there were two empty ballots.
Trustee Charlie Wagner made a motion to combine the secretary and treasurer posts, but Bustamante said “maybe we will look into that next year.”
Wagner then nominated Aguilar for treasurer, Manny Marquez nominated Milton Ulibarri, and Mauldin nominated Wolberg.
Ulibarri got the treasurer post with seven votes, Wolberg had three, and Aguilar one.
The trustees moved on to the business portion of the meeting and the approval of the minutes.
Wagner pointed out the word “sexual” was left out of the minutes of the last regular meeting. He was referring to being accused of discriminatory comments aimed at co-op accountant Kathy Torres.
“That word was left out and it should be reflected in the minutes,” Wagner said.
“They are important and that should be included in the minutes,” attorney Dennis Francis said. “There are other changes. You also accused the accountant of falsifying records.”
Wagner said, “This was a teleconference meeting about the Form 990. My complaint was that the Form 990 was not correct and some information was false. The auditor agreed with me and he changed the answers to two or three questions.”
“We need that in the minutes as well,” Francis said.
After some more discussion, Wagner said, “We have a policy 217 that directs the manager to take action when sexual discrimination takes place. The manager did not obey the policy.”
Francis said, “We agreed ‘sexual’ should be in there and the minutes will be corrected.”
After approval of the minutes, trustees asked questions of General Manager Polo Pineda about the co-op expenditure report.
“I was troubled by the number of payroll advances,” Wolberg said. “If we have employees that have problems, we should work with them.”
Pineda said the money is taken out of the employee’s following paycheck.
Wolberg asked Pineda about the Christmas party expense, which totaled around $10,000.
Wagner added that he would like to see itemized expenditures for the banquet in 2008 and 2009.
“We live in difficult economic times and we really have to re-evaluate what we do and why,” Wolberg said.
Wolberg’s emphasis, though, was all about communication between the trustees and its members.
“We really have to work on this,” he told the board. “In the mail today, I received a package from the National Rural Cooperative. They had some information about being a trustee and a calendar and I got a bumper sticker that said, ‘I love my Electric Co-op.’ I would love to see that on every car in this town.”
Bustamante said, “We need to go forward and we always seem to be going backward. There are a lot of issues we need to take care of.”
In its last meeting of 2008, the board voted to utilize the services of Michael Olguin for its insurance.
Pineda said that since then he has been approached again by Aon and Brown and Brown.
“I am going to tell them to contact us next year.” Pineda said.
Wolberg then brought up the subject of an informational meeting. He said he wants the members to know what resolutions are coming up before the general meeting in April.
Francis pointed out that there nothing in the co-op bylaws about an informational meeting.
Wolberg said, “[I] don’t care what you call this, but we have to do this. We need to change our image with our members. If we don’t, we will go down this path forever.”
Bustamante said it was something the co-op has to check into, and Pineda added it probably would cost $10,000 to $15,000 to hold such a meeting. Wolberg said money could be saved by putting the meeting documents in upcoming bills.
Wolberg then asked Bustamante to clarify the co-op attorney situation.
Bustamante assured Wolberg that the co-op has one attorney, Dennis Francis.
Wolberg pointed out that in a meeting in November, the co-op had hired the services of Joanna Aguilar and Paul Kennedy as well, and there had been nothing in the minutes about the termination of their services.
“There was no contract. There never were three attorneys. There was a transition,” Bustamante said.
Wolberg then said he had concerns about Francis.
“He represents another co-op and I am concerned about a conflict of interest,” Wolberg said.
Francis responded by saying, “I was the attorney for this co-op between 2002 and 2005, and was the attorney for another co-op and there was never a problem.”
Wolberg said, “I just want to protect the co-op.”
After about an hour and half, Pineda asked that the trustees go into executive session to discuss a personnel matter.
The meeting was called back to order after about 20 minutes and it was immediately adjourned.
This is the bumper sticker that new trustee Donald Wolberg would like to see on every vehicle in Socorro.
Udall Visits Tech
U.S. Senator Tom Udall met with New Mexico Tech students and university administrators Wednesday for a roundtable discussion on job opportunities after college. Students from several disciplines, including mining, petroleum, mechanical, mathematics, and others, related their experiences and voiced comments. At the end of the meeting, Udall said the job prospects for graduates of New Mexico Tech were excellent, given the challenges of energy needs in the coming years. University President Dan Lopez led the meeting in Brown Hall on the campus.
OBITUARY: John Duletsky / Ruby Lee Hawk Duletsky
Ruby Lee Hawk Duletsky (June 14, 1931-Dec. 28, 2009)
John Duletsky passed away on Dec. 28, 2009 in Grand Junction, CO.
John’s wife of 58 years, Ruby Lee Hawk Duletsky, followed him in death less than five hours later at 11:47 p.m., also in Grand Junction. John was 83 years old, Ruby was 78 years old.
John was born on Aug. 13, 1926 in Detroit, MI. Ruby was born on June 14, 1931 (“June the flag day”) in Martin County, Texas (near Ackerly). They were married on Sept. 28, 1951 in the Socorro Church of Christ.
John & Ruby are survived by their three children: Sam Duletsky of Grand Junction, CO; W. Luanne Sterner and her husband Tom Sterner of Leavenworth, KS; and J. Mark Duletsky of Casper, WY. They are also survived by five grandchildren: Anna and Alex Duletsky; Dana and Sam Sterner; and by Bailee Jo Hansen.
John was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers and two sisters.
Ruby was preceded in death by her parents (Miller and Olive Hawk, of Lemitar, NM), by two brothers: Albert Miller Hawk, Jr. (Jack), PFC USAAC, kia on 7 SEP 1944 off the West coast of Mindinao, PI ; by William Robert Hawk who died of typhoid fever in 1938 and is buried in the Tres Lagunas cemetery north of Pie Town, NM.; and by one sister, Neva Nelle Hawk Cook Sullivan, who is buried in Belen, NM. Two sisters survive; Shirley Hawk Bailey and her husband Richard K. of Socorro, NM, and M. Luwilda (Lukie) Hawk Fletcher and her husband William S. of Olathe, CO.
John and his siblings (2 brothers, 2 sisters, plus one child who died in infancy) were 1st generation Americans. Their father had been an officer in a Cossack regiment in the Czar’s army prior to emigrating to America before World War I. [ The father could reportedly pick up a handkerchief from the ground with his teeth while riding at a full gallop! ]
John enlisted in the U.S. Navy with parental consent when he was 17 years old and spent the last ~2 years of WWII on active duty as an Aviation Machinist Mate/Aerial Gunner. [John’s older brother, Paul, (also an alumnus of NMSM) was a B-17 pilot in the USAAC in WWII.]
John transferred to the New Mexico School of Mines (now New Mexico Tech) from the Lawrence Institute of Technology in Highland Park, MI, and graduated in 1952 with a BS degree in Petroleum Engineering. He worked in the “oil patch” for several years in Texas and in Venezuela (Lake Maracaibo). After returning from Venezuela he was employed by the United States Geological Survey in several western states. He transferred to the USGS headquarters in Reston, Va. in 1971, and internally moved to DOI national headquarters in Washington, D.C. Prior to his retirement from the USGS/BLM, John was active in helping to generate many of the on-shore procedures and regulations concerning oil and gas development still in use by the USBLM. After his retirement, John was active in the training of BLM Fluid Minerals Group personnel across the country in the interpretation and enforcement of on-shore orders pertaining to continental oil and gas exploration, development, and production. He often acted in a liaison capacity between the USBLM and Congress. He was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus by NMIMT in 1985. John was an avid golfer during his retirement years and always enjoyed working on various projects around the house. Ruby was a mother and homemaker while the children were growing up. Later she enjoyed several trips to Europe and to Hawaii when her daughter’s career-Army husband was stationed in Germany and Hawaii. Later she became a licensed realtor in Virginia for a number of years.
John and Ruby are deeply missed by their family and many friends.
Memorial services for both have not yet been finalized.
Tech Student Dies in Car Accident
New Mexico Tech
New Mexico Tech lost one of its students last weekend. Thomas Matthew Brooks, a sophomore electrical engineering student, died after he was involved in a one-car crash Saturday in Rio Rancho.
Brooks was in a car with four other teenagers when the crash occurred, according to Officer John Francis of the Rio Rancho police department.
Francis said five people were in a vehicle traveling on Unser Boulevard north of King Boulevard when the crash occurred at 10 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 9. Two people died as a result of injuries sustained in the crash.
The three other teens were taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Brooks matriculated at New Mexico Tech in the fall of 2008.
Francis said Monday that no other details about the crash are being released, pending the outcome of the police investigation.
University President Daniel H. Lopez extended his condolences to the Brooks’ family.
“New Mexico Tech is a small community and any time we lose a member of our community, the loss is especially hard on everyone,” he said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Thomas’s family and friends.”
Refuge To Conduct Mountain Lion Study
The portion of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge east of the Rio Grande was closed to the public Monday in order to initiate a mountain lion study.
The closure, which may last up to 90 days, will have some impact on public use on the refuge. Due to the remote nature of this portion of the Refuge and that access is by foot only, the impact to the public is expected to be minimal. The only members of the public that may be affected are occasional hikers, and oryx hunters, who possess off-range permits for the months of January and February.
The refuge is working with its conservation partners to implement a mountain lion study in the east boundary of the refuge, which will include setting various remote sensing equipment in order to observe mountain lion activity in the area. Capturing and collaring is another technique being used in this study. “Protecting wildlife on the refuge is our mission,” said Tom Melanson, Manager of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. “In order to understand the natural habitats of these large cats, we first need to study them, and that is what this particular effort intends to accomplish.”
EDITORIAL: Time For Co-op Board To Mend Some Fences
The three new Socorro Electric Cooperative trustees – Luis Aguilar, Prescilla Mauldin and Don Wolberg -- vowed they want to make a difference.
Here is hoping they can.
But it is not going to be easy.
Needless to say, the wounds run deep between the members and the co-op board.
There was a full house at the first meeting of 2010.
And things escalated even before the meeting started.
At 6:30 p.m., trustee Charlie Wagner demanded the meeting start on time. But Trustee president Paul Bustamante insisted the board wait for Dave Wade, who was running late.
“Will you extend me the same courtesy if I am ever running late,” Wagner asked.
Bustamante said: “I sure will.”
Ten minutes later, Wagner said: “This is not professional. We have to go by our bylaws and we have to start on time.”
Trustee Milton Ulibarri told Wagner to keep his voice down.
“We have a duty to start on time and we have a quorum. We don’t have the right to not start on time,” Wagner yelled.
Bustamante scolded Wagner, telling him his tone causes a lot of hostility.
Wagner told Bustamante that he was not a very good leader.
After some more bickering, a woman in the audience yelled out, “here is your old fool,” as Wade walked into the meeting room.
Ulibarri swung around his chair and confronted the woman, telling her she had no right to say that.
The woman responded by saying, “we don’t need you either.”
Wade humbly took his chair and apologized for being late. “I almost forgot my shoes,” he said. “I appreciate you waiting for me.”
This little episode, though, indicates how much work the trustees have in front of them.
They have to earn the trust back of their members.
Bustamante should be commended because on more than one occasion he said the board has to go forward and not look backward.
Time and time again, Wolberg reiterated that the board has to reach out to its members. He said the members have to know who the co-op employees are who go out each day and risk their lives, making sure everybody has power in their homes and their businesses. He said the members have to know how the co-op board is spending their hard-earned money. He said the members have to know what resolutions are coming up in April’s general meeting.
But of course, how much influence the new trustees have remains to be seen.
They likely will be on the short end of most votes.
What’s good, though, is that there are some new voices to be heard on the board.
And hopefully, everybody on the board will be listening a little more carefully and making better informed decisions.
LETTER: Tired Of Antics
I am so tired of the antics of the current board members. It has become a soap opera.
Perhaps we would do better to cut to the chase and just appoint a board composed of N.M. Tech juniors. They could perhaps conduct business in a more adult manner.
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