Support Ecological Sciences / Environmental Education in Santa FE

[maury brooks]

Later this week the Santa Fe Public School board will be voting to hopefully establish our first ecological sciences magnet school. The vote is very close.

Because it is a pilot project at a small school some board members who represent larger schools, or who want to demolish the unregistered historic building for more new buildings at the railyard are not totally supportive of this golden opportunity for this magnet school which has been three years in the making.

The vote will probably happen Wednesday April 8th, 4:30 PM at the school board meeting at the SFPS office on Alta Vista near the train park. Public comments can be made normally in the beginning part of the meeting if you would like to share your support. Or you can email the following school board members who have not communicated their commitment if you believe it is time for them to stand up for Santa Fe's 1st Eco magnet school and educational reform.

Mary Ellen Gonzales, Tel. [phone]. [e-mail]
Frank Montano, Tel. [phone] [e-mail]
Barbara Goodwin [e-mail]

Richard Polese [e-mail] and Angelica Ruiz [e-mail] have been strong supporters of this program and they deserve a big thank you.

The new ecological magnet school will have an outreach program so that kids and staff from all SFPS school could participate in outreach events at our new neighboring Railyard park and at held in conjunction with neighboring organizations such as Museo Cultural (co-founded by school board member Frank Montano) which years ago expressed interest in offering Sustainability programs for kids, and the Farmers Market.

An ecological school for our kids needs to be part of our new ecological railyard complex if the kids really matter in this town. This vote will either mark the beginning of ecological programs in Santa Fe public schools, as the board shows support to the community, parents and teachers who worked endless hours for three years to get to this point or maybe in three years, 2012, we will again be voting the same issue for another highly dedicated school community which is trying to bring innovation to our schools.

The world can't wait.

maury

[Howard S]

This is really interesting. It seems like more and more school systems are finally beginning to offer more diverse programming. Not quite a return to what vocational training was at one point but hopefully these steps in the right direction will be a benefit to the students. Hope this situation went well.

Aprilaire