Rio Rancho Public Schools needs plan for full day of pre-K coming in 2025

RIO RANCHO — Rio Rancho Public Schools has a conundrum: The district already has early childhood learning opportunities, namely Shining Stars Preschool, but a directive from the state mandating a full day, instead of a half day, means Shining Stars enrollment will be slashed in half.

That’s unless the district finds a way to find more space for those 3- and 4-year-olds before the 2025-26 school year. The district will also need to find a way to allow for a second year of kindergarten, Superintendent Sue Cleveland said, often useful for 5-year-old youngsters not ready for kindergarten.

The board heard information about what might happen, which includes using space at Puesta del Sol Elementary as an early childhood center and changing the boundaries to allow for a larger student population there.

What makes the most sense about that, Cleveland said, is there’s a larger portion of underserved children in the southern half of the city, and Shining Stars is in the northern half. The city of Rio Rancho reportedly has the largest percentage of underserved children in the state.

“We fought pretty hard against (full days),” Cleveland told the board at its two-hour April 8 meeting.

Cleveland called it “a perfect example of one of those things where there’s really hard decisions to be made, difficult decisions to be made” and complicated to meet demands for “two very worthwhile needs … from limited resources,” Cleveland noted.

She said options have been looked at for a year, after the Early Childhood and Care Department of the Public Education Department, ruled in favor of full days for pre-K children, so it’s not something new being sprung upon RRPS.

The original Shining Stars began in 2005 at what had been Ernest Stapleton Elementary on Northern Boulevard at Rockaway Boulevard. Stapleton got a new site, to the west, and Shining Stars moved out of what had been mostly modular buildings when the new Shining Stars building opened in August 2021.

There are 690 students attending Shining Stars now, Executive Director of Special Services Jerry Reeder told the board.

“Children who don’t get served in pre-K end up being a challenge for every elementary school (in RRPS),” Cleveland said. “More and more children coming to kindergarten aren’t ready.”

To serve more students in Rio Rancho is the goal, added Janna Chenault, the elementary school improvement officer.

“We have no more option of a half day,” she said. And in going to a full day, those youngsters will have art, music and physical education added to their days in school.

“No decision has been made,” Cleveland said before the board approved a motion to get a plan developed. “We’re on a tight timeline here.”

In other matters coming before the board:

• Military veteran Ron Eldon again donated — for the third time — some colorblind correction glasses; this time 14 pairs were donated. Eldon told the board of his near-death experience overseas while serving his country and his desire to give back.

“It is a wonderful thing to give people those opportunities to see color in a way they’ve never seen it before,” Cleveland said.

• “Reading for Miles,” an out-of-school project for second graders that took place over a two-week period in March, amounted to a total of 215,344 minutes (3,589 hours).

Three bicycles for each school’s top three readers were donated thanks to a partnership with Intel. Readers at Ernest Stapleton Elementary led the way, with the district’s largest elementary school combining for 73,787 minutes.

“We hope next year we’ll be better still,” Cleveland added.

• Dr. Kristopher Johnson, the principal at the CTE high school, gave an update on his role at the trades facility, a partnership with CNM to offer trades programs, such as welding. Board members will be given a tour on April 22. The building is expected to be ready for students in time for the 2025-26 school year.

• The second readings for Policy 903 (Student and Staff Health and Wellness) and Policy 606 (District Credit Card Usage) were done, and what Cleveland termed “fairly minor” changes were unanimously approved.

• The board approved new instructional materials for health in grades 8-12 and new materials, which includes robotics, for CTE students in grades 6-12. Executive Director of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction Stephany Moore went over the process of evaluation of the materials that led to the final recommendation for each.

• Board President Amanda Galbraith went over the process for New Mexico School Board Association ($1,250) scholarship process, recalling an RRPS winner a few years ago. There are four criteria for those planning to go to college: leadership, academic performance, community involvement and extracurricular participation.

The nominees for NMSBA consideration were Kassidy Bennett (Cleveland High School), Dori Ko (Rio Rancho High School), Alyssa Zielinski (Cyber Academy) and Wendy Molina (Independence High School).

“They are all deserving,” Cleveland said before the board decided on its finalist. Picking just one, she said, is a “really hard job.”

“We like all four of them,” Galbraith said after a brief description of each, as board members had more information on each at hand.

Gary Tripp was puzzled why no males had been nominated; several board members preferred the IHS and Cyber nominees; Ko was known by all from her recent board meeting appearance. Jeffery Morgan then made a motion to nominate Bennett, who carries a 4.2 GPA, accumulated nine AP courses, and is heavily involved in activities at Cleveland, as well as working part time — sheepishly admitting his wife, who works in the CHS office, “had put the heat on me.” Bennett was unanimously approved as the RRPS nominee.

The next regular board meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. April 22, with the expected final session of the 2023-24 school year set for May 13.