Farmington elementary schools awarded $50,000 grants to develop community schools plan

A variety of new services could be in the works at two Farmington elementary schools after each was awarded a $50,000 grant from the New Mexico Public Education Department to develop a community school plan.

Animas Elementary School at 1612 N. Hutton Ave. and Apache Elementary School at 700 W. Apache St. received the grants, which are designed to allow school personnel to conduct assessments of school assets and needs, according to a news release from the Farmington Municipal School District.

Community schools are institutions that are designed to offer services and programs that exceed the traditional children’s educational model, including adult education, tutoring, counseling, family support and after-school programs, according to the release. An increased level of engagement by parents, local residents, and community businesses and organizations is considered essential to the success of the model.

“It truly becomes a community initiative,” said Nicole Lambson, the district’s curriculum director, describing the community schools concept.

Lambson said officials at the two schools already had begun embracing the philosophy of community schools before they were awarded the grants, and that has left them well positioned to develop a community schools plan. She said the plans will explore the idea of how school officials can identify resources that are available to them and collectively begin shaping those resources to help families with what they need.

Those plans will be produced by staff members at each school. Lambson said PED officials will offer training on how to conduct surveys, focus groups and outreach committees that will be responsible for soliciting and compiling feedback from different segments of the community.

Once those plans have been completed and submitted to the PED — a process that should take approximately a year — the schools will be able to follow up with a request for $150,000 grants from the state to implement the plans, she said.

“It’s an application process, so there is no guarantee,” she said.

Nicole Murillo, the principal at Animas Elementary School, said her school has 385 students, 53% of whom are Native American, while 100% of students are on the free or reduced-price lunch program. She said Animas already offers many community school-type programs, including a community fair for families that took place earlier this month. That event featured the participation of the Farmington Public Library, San Juan College and other local entities. Visitors were served hot dogs, and many children took the opportunity to sign up for the library’s summer reading program, she said.

The school also holds regular family nights during which visitors are fed a simple meal, and a community garden project has been initiated through which families will be able to receive fresh produce.

“It will help (families) understand how you can grow your own food and eat your own food,” Murillo said, explaining that seven large garden boxes have been constructed outside the kindergarten playground.

In the future, Murillo said she would love to see the school begin a food pantry program — one that is available not just to the families of students but to any family or individual in the community who does not have enough to eat. She also is interested in initiating a family counseling service, nutrition classes, GED classes, workshops on how to apply for college admission, and perhaps even a medical and dental clinic that operates on nights or weekends to make it easier for working parents to access.

Each of those ideas fits into Murillo’s concept of Animas becoming a community hub “where we can identify obstacles for families and eliminate them by getting them the necessary help.”

Davina Terry, the principal at Apache Elementary, said her school is one of the oldest in the district, serving as an institution where multiple generations of the same families have been educated. Her student body is 65% Native American, and more than 98% of students are on the free or reduced-price lunch program.

Apache already has in place a partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Farmington for an after-school program, and Terry said that initiative has proven to be very popular, resulting in a lengthy waiting list. The school also implemented a tutoring program last year and provides take-home backpacks filled with nonperishable food items for students through the ECHO Food Bank.

“There’s definitely a need for these exterior programs,” she said.

The funding that could be available down the line through the state’s community schools program would allow Apache officials to offer more programs of that nature, she said. Her wish list includes the opportunity to offer adult education programs, parenting classes, medical and dental clinics, and family counseling services.

“Those are a lot of things we’ve seen in practice at other community schools,” she said. “This community definitely has a need for all those things.”

Terry said her staff was very excited to learn it had received the $50,000 planning grant, but she understands the process of becoming a full-fledge community school is only beginning.

“We know we have a large challenge ahead of us, but we’re ready to face it head on,” she said. “We want to provide more opportunities to our families.”

Terry said it can be a challenge for schools to increase their level of parental and community engagement, but she said her institution has been focused on that challenge for quite some time. Apache has partnerships with such businesses as Pizza 9, the Fly High Trampoline Park and Spudnuts, which provide school officials with free coupons to award to students as a form of positive reinforcement.

Apache teachers and staff members are excited about beginning the process of becoming an official community school, she said. But she noted the concept is not new to anyone at the school.

“This has been a vision for this school for many years, even I was a kindergarten teacher here,” she said.

Lambson said that while a number of schools in the Farmington district long have embraced the community schools concept, full implementation of the idea has lagged locally. But with Animas and Apache entering the community schools pipeline, that could be changing, she said, and that could lead to other schools in the district following their lead.

“We’re always open to offering any opportunity to any school that’s ready,” she said, noting that Animas and Apache were well prepared to take that leap.

Erin Gockel, the district’s teacher development and equity coordinator, will be supporting Animas and Apache officials as they move through the planning process. She said the schools already have completed a general needs assessment and are in the midst of mapping their assets.

She acknowledged that the possibility of each school receiving $150,000 to implement their plan would be a game changer, but she said Apache and Animas officials already have done much of the heavy lifting.

“This amplifies and (expands) what we’ve already been doing,” she said. “ … This will allow for more powerful students and family engagement.”

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com.

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This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Animas, Apache elementary schools receive $50,000 grant from state