When the kids came back to Anansi Charter School just north of Taos last week, they could hardly believe it was the same school. Well, it really wasn’t the same. Now, it was twice as big with staff and contractors having worked long days all summer to make it happen.

The entire inside of the original school was completely renovated for Kindergarten through second-grade students. Third-through-Fifth-graders got a huge, brand-new addition, including new classrooms, a second well-stocked library, and a bank of brand new technology stations.

Outside, it’s almost like a theme park, with plenty of play spaces and playthings and plenty more still on the way. Michelle Hunt says nobody believed her when she said they could get all this done over summer break. But, they believe it now.



Parents and children were all involved in the makeover, with the little ones voting on some of the outdoor equipment, in the best democratic tradition.

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According to an article on the “Taos News” website, Superintendent Rod Weston is between a rock and a hard place – the hard place being the budget-conscious School Board and the rock being the accounting firm that won’t return calls.

Taos News reporter Matthew Van Buren says Keystone wanted more fees when working on the audit. Former TMS Business Manager Bobby Spinelli refused to pay more.

Weston agrees with some of the audit findings but says other audit issues have been addressed. Weston described the relationship with the firm as unfortunately “aggressive”.

Are schools in Taos and around the State making the cut? Not according to the Public Education Department report released yesterday, August 2nd. Preliminary Adequate Yearly Progress , or AYP, results show that 77.9 percent of schools did not make AYP. That’s 644 schools out of 827 total not making it. That’s worse than last year; which was worse than the year before, and so on.

In Taos, two charter schools made AYP: Taos Charter School and Anansi Charter School. Alta Vista Elementary and Questa Junior High made the grade for Questa.

How bad is this? Well, the schools are nowhere near where they need to be, but neither is the testing instrument, says New Mexico Public Education Secretary Designate, Dr. Susanna Murphy. She says each school must meet 37 different criteria to meet AYP. Murphy pointed out that 438 schools only missed between one and three indicators, ending up not making it. She said communities and parents should look at their schools and see where they can be improved.

If we don’t want to leave a child behind; well, it looks like we have to not leave them behind ourselves.