TODAY'S TOP STORIES: APS super blasts federal education goals as unrealistic

The head of Albuquerque Public Schools told a gathering of school administrators and parents Monday that the immediate goals of the federal No Child Left Behind law are unrealistic, and that he would prefer the goals be set locally, The Albuquerque Journal reports.

Superintendent Winston Brooks said the federal mandate that calls for 100 percent student proficiency by 2014 can’t be met under the district’s current plan, which calls for 3 percent improvement every year. The APS goals are “research based,” he said, while the federal goals are “arbitrarily set.”

“I would rather identify targets that are doable, that are reachable, than set targets that are not reachable,” Brooks said. No Child Left Behind has such high goals that it “sets districts up for failure. It sets schools up for failure, and it’s not fair,” he added.

State Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia has warned APS that its current goals are too low to meet the federal proficiency standards. While the APS target “seems reasonable,” she said, “we have a federal mandate and I have to make the charge of 100 percent proficiency.”


The state’s top game officer is still feeling the effects of having shot a deer illegally last year. The Journal reports that a hearing officer has suggested Bruce Thompson, director of the state Game and Fish Department, lose his hunting privileges for two years when his case is reviewed by the New Mexico Game Commission next month.

Thompson was cited last November for shooting a mule deer on private property in Lincoln County. He has called the incident a navigation error, saying he thought he was on public land. “It’s regrettable,” he said at a hearing Monday. “I’ve taken responsibility. An error was made — so be it.”

But hearing officer Joe Canepa said Thompson should have known better. He had a map of the area and a Global Positioning Satellite device. “You had a burden to check your maps and know where you were when you shoot a deer,” Canepa said.

Thompson has already been fined $500 for the offense. His department recommended Thompson also lose his hunting privileges for three years, which is the maximum allowed by law. But after the three-hour hearing Canepa called for a lesser penalty of two years.

The matter now lies in the hands of the New Mexico Game Commission, which is scheduled to meet Oct. 2 in Alamogordo.


A former magistrate judge in Taos has sued a Taos newspaper for libel over an article published in May, The Taos News reports.

Former Magistrate Court Judge Erminio Martínez and his attorney, Samuel Herrera, filed the complaint Monday in Taos District Court against Bill Whaley, the editor and publisher of the Taos Daily Horse Fly.

Neither Martínez nor Whaley would talk to the Taos News about the issue, but court documents cite a May 2008 article in the Horse Fly regarding Martínez’s run for the state senate. The Horse Fly wrote that the judge “had trouble understanding and applying the law,” that he covered security cameras inside his Questa courtroom while he worked, and that he handled a case as a judge in which he was also the plaintiff, the Taos News wrote.

The complaint alleges that Whaley made defamatory assertions about Martínez and that the former judge’s reputation was damaged.


The much-discussed but long-delayed improvement to the road into Chaco Culture National Historical Park looks like it’s still a long way off, The Farmington Daily Times reports.

The last 13 miles of the 21-mile road from U.S. 550 to the park are sand and gravel washboard, making for slow and sometimes treacherous driving. Local residents have complained for years about the road and wanted improvements, but the San Juan County Commission has been unable to help, stymied by different government bureaucracies including the Navajo Nation and the federal government.

The county would need a federal Finding of No Significant Impact, or FONSI, before it can do the reconstruction work, but officials say they fear their attempt to get the ruling might actually require the need for a second, driving up the cost.

The last three miles of road are on Navajo Nation land, but buying easements to move the road would be too costly, commissioners said.

And the cost of construction has risen beyond the money available. It could eventually become a $3.5 million job, county Public Works Director David Keck said.

Commissioners agreed to continue working on the planning process, the Daily Times reported.

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