Positive community voices at La Promesa Elementary

VEGUITA — The drive south on N.M. 304 is pure New Mexico scenery. Swaths of empty desert roll away into the distance as the two-lane highway parts the landscape.

After a while, it’s hard to gauge how far you’ve come and how much further you need to go. So you look for the trees.

When you see the rows of stubborn evergreens along Leo Trujillo Road, you know you’ve arrived at the promised destination.

La Promesa Elementary is the most far-flung school in the Belen Consolidated District, almost 18 miles from the district’s central office on Main Street in the city of Belen in Valencia County.

The school is one of the few public buildings in Veguita, an unincorporated part of Socorro County.

A promise made by the school district and the state decades ago after the closure of the La Joya school system to consolidate it with BCS was the genesis of La Promesa — a promise the community had to fight hard to make sure was kept until the school opened in 2001.

Now 200 some students in the Las Nutrias-Veguita community feel the benefit of that promise and they, along with numerous adults in their lives, are working together to make not only the school stronger and more resilient, but their community as well.

Three years ago, LPE Principal Cheri Montoya read an article about something called a “community school.”

“The idea just seemed to fit us perfectly,” Montoya said.

The New Mexico Public Education Department was offering competitive grants to schools through out the state to become a community school — a whole school approach to transformation through community voice, collaborative leadership and the innovative community school strategy, according to PED’s website.

On her third attempt, Montoya was successful in winning the funding.

In its second year, LPE and its community have successfully melded students and adults into a cohesive unit all focused on one thing — positive outcomes for the children of the community.

One requirement of the community school grant is to have a site-based leadership team that incorporates parents, students, community members and educators. The team at La Promesa is fittingly called the Promise Keepers.

They meet twice a month for an hour, making deep dives into topics, such as the root causes of student literacy and numeracy (math) proficiency.

“The school board has made improvement of literacy and numeracy scores a priority district wide,” said LPE community school coordinator retired Gen. Andrew Salas. “Now, our students are improving but we’re not at the level we want to be. Why not?”

The team advocacy approach to the problem will hopefully draw out actionable solutions and see proficiency continue to improve, Salas said.

The leadership team provides Montoya with valuable input that helps with decision making at the school. Her goal for the community school is to provide resources to the community.

The school is the location for the monthly Road Runner assisted food pantry, a clothes closet and provides computer and internet access to community members, as well as provides referrals to families in need of services.

“I really want this to be a family resource center,” Montoya said.

Salas emphasized that everything originates from the students, their voices.

“To have a child be engaged, they have to be welcome and heard,” he said.

The school keeps students and parents engaged by offering numerous events, such as father/daughter and mother/son dances, English and Spanish spelling bees, Earth Day, A Multicultural Day, Explora Night and Thanksgiving lunch.

Out of school time, clubs offer students something to do after school every day — sports, student government, gaming, cooking, tutoring, STEM programs and even family yoga nights.

To help the students maintain their voices, there is a student leadership team made up of elected fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders.

After establishing a quorum at their April 10 meeting, the student leadership members reflected on their April 8 presentation to the Belen Board of Education. The consensus was more practice would make for a smoother, more confident presentation next time students are before the board.

In their presentation to the board of education, student government president Jaxson Adams, a fifth-grader, covered numerous accomplishments, such as assisting in the development of a vision statement, helping to develop a community asset map and participating in identifying the root cause to help students increase literacy.

Gregory Morgan, the sergeant at arms, said the student government team looked at what it means to have students thrive — essentially make school a safe and fun place.

He also talked about the schools’ kindness and gratitude awards given to two students in each class for being kind or showing gratitude.

Belen BOE member Aubrey Tucker, who’s district includes La Promesa, thanked the students for emphasizing kindness in their school, saying it was something very needed in this country right now.

Member Joanne Silva said it was good to see the students working to find ways to increase math and reading proficiency.

“We are working on very similar goals. It’s good to see we’re all on the same page,” Silva said.

For more than a year, the board has made student outcomes it’s No. 1 priority, said board president Jim Danner.

“Some of the things you showed in your slide show really reinforced what we’re trying to do as a school board — student involvement and outcomes,” Danner told the students.

The 20-plus students involved in student leadership meet from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m. every Thursday after classes finish for the day.

On this particular Thursday, because the Promise Keepers were due to come in at 5:30 p.m., about half of the students stayed to be a part of that meeting.

They took a break to run out some energy on the playground before coming back in to have a quick snack break of chicken nuggets and ketchup before meeting with adult community members in breakout groups. They discussed solutions to some of the root causes identified at a previous Promise Keepers in regards to math and literacy achievement.

That night, the groups brainstormed about how to improve student engagement and lower absenteeism. Ideas ranged from making sure students had a ride to and from school, to having teachers provide daily affirmations to students, snack and/or nap time for “brain breaks,” having health habits that keep students from becoming sick, PE-based learning, outdoor classrooms and trying to make sure students are getting enough sleep.

“All this information goes to me and is compiled, then becomes actionable. We do act on it,” Salas said as the meeting wound down.

Barbara Buttram, mother of Annie, a sixth-grader who is part of student leadership, has been a long-time volunteer at La Promesa and has become a frequent donor and supporter of the community school concept.

“As we’ve become a community school, it’s become the community’s voice,” Buttram said. “Not just educators, not just students but parents, too. They listen to our input.”

“What we have here is shared leadership, not just shared responsibility,” Montoya said. “We listen to and support the community and student leadership helps us do that. In a community school, the community is coming in.”