Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
After struggling to find an alternate site to the doomed Mountain View School, an official with the Early Head Start program said she wants to use classrooms at Tucumcari Elementary School before a modular facility would be installed nearby.
Pagie Evans, education specialist of the program, gave a presentation in front of the Tucumcari Public Schools board during its Dec. 18 meeting. She said the program serves 32 children.
Evans said she’s been told that Early Head Start would have vacate Mountain View School by March. The program leases the building from the school district for $1 a year.
The building has been essentially condemned by the district’s insurer because of its deteriorating condition. Assistant superintendent Dave Johnson said the New Mexico Public School Facilities Authority has offered to cover all costs of the building’s demolition if it’s empty by March.
Evans said it’s been “a struggle” to find another site for the program in Tucumcari. She said other possible sites are being used for other purposes or are in bad condition.
Evans said demolishing half of Mountain View School and leaving the other half for Early Head Start was “not an option.”
She said the program’s best option would be to use three empty classrooms at TES once a licensing entity signs off on them, which is not a certainty.
Those classrooms, however, are not suitable for toddlers. Those children will be moved to the Eastern Plains Community Action Agency building near downtown.
In the meantime, Early Head Start likely would set up a modular building on vacant land near the elementary school.
However, Evans said the process to obtain federal funding for that takes up to a year or more.
Evans rebutted resident Matt Bednorz’s comment at a recent Tucumcari City Commission meeting where he claimed Eastern Plains, which runs Early Head Start, receives more than $5 million in federal funds.
She said it spreads $4.5 million among six counties, and much of that is devoted strictly to staff development. Early Head Start doesn’t have the funds right now for a new building, she said.
“If it were that easy, we’d already have it built,” she said.
Board member Jerry Lopez labeled Early Head Start as “crucial” for the community, noting his granddaughter is in the program.
He expressed doubts, however, the program would have to leave Mountain View School as soon as March.
Johnson said he would work with Early Head Start and offered to provide a proposal or update by the board’s next meeting on Jan. 15.
Board Vice President Matthew Pacheco said the board might have to act fast because the short time frame for demolition and Early Head Start still in limbo regarding its future site.
“I don’t want to hold things up,” he said. “That’s what I’m worried about.”
Mountain View Elementary School opened in the 1950s and was closed about 40 years later.