RRPS math instructional materials adopted for next six years

RIO RANCHO — Departing Rio Rancho Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Sue Cleveland said Monday the school district is millions of dollars short in being able to pay for the cost of instructional materials and she urged lawmakers to make it a legislative priority.

Cleveland said that RRPS is $1.5 million short on footing the cost of the bill for new K-12 math instructional materials, which the board approved Monday ahead of a March 31 purchasing deadline. The district was also more than $2 million short in paying for science instructional materials last year, she said.

“That’s something that needs to be a legislative priority. Obviously, (instructional) materials should be paid for,” said Cleveland. “When you don’t get that money, that means it has to come out of your classrooms (or) from some other budget, (like the operational budget).”

She noted that in a 2019 landmark ruling in New Mexico’s Yazzie-Martinez case - of which RRPS was one of the original plaintiffs - a judge ruled that one of the ways the state failed to meet students’ educational needs under the state Constitution was by not fully paying for instructional materials.

“We’re still fighting that battle,” Cleveland said, adding, “we’ll continue to try to work toward full funding of instructional materials as stipulated in that court decision.”

Her comments came during an adoption year for instructional materials, which are expected to arrive in time for the 2026-27 school year and be used for the next six years. On Monday, the board approved elementary schools’ use of “Eureka Math^2” from publisher Great Minds and “Illustrative Mathematics” from publisher Kendall Hunt.  The instructional materials will cost $2.2 million and an additional $27,000 in professional learning to assist teachers in how to implement them, according to Joy Morales, executive director of elementary curriculum and instruction, in a presentation to the board.

The board also approved middle and high schools’ use of “EdGems Math” and “Into Math” by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, as well as five elective math course textbook recommendations by Cengage & McGraw Hill and three advanced placement textbook recommendations by Cengage & BFW. The instructional materials will cost $1.8 million, and an additional $41,600 will go toward professional learning, according to Stephany Moore, executive director of secondary curriculum for RRPS, in a presentation to the board.

Following the presentations, Cleveland said district officials are optimistic the materials are going to serve students and teachers well.

“They have to service well for six more years, so it is important we get good materials,” she said.

The approvals followed an hour-long work session in which the Cleveland board members heard from district officials about the instructional materials approval process.

The process to select instructional materials is outlined in board policy, which stipulates a committee comprised of at least two teachers from each RRPS school, at least one student parent/guardian, and a community member. Teachers who are not on the committee, however, are able to review the proposed instructional materials, selected from an approved list created by the New Mexico Public Education Department.

“Teachers are the driving force for selection,” Moore said during the work session. “We hold the sway, but we don’t make the decision.”

Implementing the use of instructional materials is a process that lasts at least four years, according to information provided during the work session by Moore and Morales. The process includes committee members culling from the approved NMPED list, evaluating potential instructional materials with a rubric, holding stakeholder meetings, and bringing in publishers for presentations. 

The committee met multiple times in 2025 and 2026 as early as September,  and a community open house was held Jan. 28, Morales and Moore said in a joint statement following the meeting.

The instructional materials selection process, Moore and Morales stated, has “served the secondary team well” for more than 15 years.

“We are always open to ideas and suggestions to improve the process and feedback from stakeholders,” they wrote.

Moore and Morales agreed with Cleveland that fully funding instructional materials should be a top priority of the Legislature and all schools should receive the funding needed to order materials.

Morales and Moore added that since RRPS only selects materials from the NMPED-approved list, the state and PED know how much materials are going to cost school districts.

“Those costs do not differ based on where your district is, so the state should be able to fund it appropriately for all schools,” they said.

Cleveland added during the work session that while paying the full cost of instructional materials is “still a challenge for us,” the district is “committed to providing our teachers with the best tools they can possibly have.”