TIMELINE: SCHOOL CLOSURES
April 2009: Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez announces Santa Fe Public Schools is facing a $4.5 million budget shortfall due to dwindling state revenues and proposes closing Larragoite and Alvord elementary schools and Alameda Middle School, just southwest of the downtown area.
March 2010: The school board considers combining students at Larragoite, Alvord and nearby Kaune elementary schools at a new K-8 at the Alameda site, among other options.
May 2010: The consolidation is approved, and Alameda Middle School closes for good. The board proposes consolidating the eastside Acequia Madre and Atalaya
Elementary schools — a plan that meets fierce opposition.
August 2010: Aspen Community Magnet School opens at the old Alameda site with students from the three shuttered elementary schools. The brand-new Amy Biehl Community School at Rancho Viejo on the city’s south side opens as a K-6 facility to serve a growing population of kids in the area.
December 2010: More cost-cutting proposals in response to a shortfall of up to $13 million call for closing Acequia Madre.
January 2011: The board takes Acequia Madre off the chopping block. February 2011: Newly elected board members who had opposed plans to close Acequia Madre criticize a plan by the current board to extend Gutierrez’s contract before they take office March 1. But the
contract is approved until June 2013.
February 2012: The board ends Gutierrez’s contract early with a $168,000 payout.
August 2014: The new K-8 El Camino Real Academy opens off N.M. 599 to replace the old Agua Fría Elementary School, and the K-8 Nina Otero Community School opens on the city’s south side. Both are intended to help ease overcrowding in the area.
January 2016: The school board and Superintendent Joel Boyd, who stepped into the job in August 2012, propose consolidating Capshaw and De Vargas middle schools, both in the midtown area. The plan generates an uproar.
April 2017: The school board and Superintendent Veronica García, who started the job in August 2016, announce a plan to consolidate E.J. Martinez and Nava
elementary schools to address another budget shortfall. The plan eventually is abandoned.
August 2017: The new Milagro Middle School opens on the Capshaw campus after a phased-in consolidation of Capshaw and De Vargas. August 2019: Milagro moves into a brand-new campus constructed on the site of the old De Vargas school.
September 2019: Board member Maureen Cashmon and NEA-Santa Fe President Grace Meyer, with support from Lorraine Price, push a plan to close E.J., Nava and Acequia Madre elementary schools to address declining enrollment, aging facilities and equity issues.
November 2019: The school closure plan, which faced sharp criticism, is rejected by the board.