Pam and Rylee Make the News This Time...

Our event was a HUGE success! Governor Richardson mentioned the "friendly picketers at his book signing" several times and said that was the reason he came to Cibola. We hung up our "friendly picket" signs where the governor talked to politicos before his speech (we later found out they were looking for Brooke to give her views...but we had gone to Cibola's Performing Arts Center to make sure everything was ready for the Gov's speech!) Brent was once again on the news on channel 7 (this time just walking a very crowded hall where Richardson walked so that the Gov. could see how crowded it was). I was quoted in the article.

Brooke ditched school to come with me; we sat by Pam, Rylee, and Carson. Pam and I KNEW they'd make the paper as the Albuquerque Journal photographer took about 20 pictures of them while listening to the governor.

Here's a link to channel 13's news report... Governor Witnesses Westside School Overcrowding First-Hand
(LOL...Just noticed Pam getting out of her seat to get Carson during the news report. This link is good as of 12/8/05...not sure how long it will work).

Here's the front page of the Albuquerque Journal (click thumbnail for larger version)..

Here's the Story in it's entirety...

Thursday, December 8, 2005
Gov. Pledges School Funds;
2 West Side Highs Part of $290M Plan

ROBERTO E. ROSALES/JOURNAL Rylee Jorgensen, 4, holds up a sign for Gov. Bill Richardson to see Wednesday at Cibola High School. At left is Rylee’s mom, Pam Jorgensen.

By Andrea Schoellkopf
Journal Staff Writer

    Gov. Bill Richardson is pledging money to build two new high schools on Albuquerque's West Side by 2008 as part of a $290 million proposal to help fast-growing school districts.
    The proposal, which would allocate $115 million to Albuquerque Public Schools, would come from capital funding over a two-year period and would require approval by the Legislature.
    "When the state is doing well, it's important that we invest in schools and kids," Richardson told several hundred West Side community members, students and teachers during an assembly Wednesday at Cibola High School, the state's largest high school with 3,000 students.
    The proposal— which came about as a result of West Side community leaders looking for a solution to school overcrowding— also includes $120 million for Las Cruces that would allow that district to build a high school and middle school. Rio Rancho would get $26 million for two elementaries, and Gadsden, Los Lunas and Deming each would get an elementary.
    "We will address the high-growth areas in the state," Richardson said. "And these districts are wasting precious time playing catch-up just to meet current facility needs for kids, and I won't tolerate that."
    The districts, in return, are being asked to trim construction costs and be more efficient, shortening construction time to open schools by 2008.
    "Yes, we can get this done," Superintendent Elizabeth Everitt said Wednesday. "We will lose a lot of sleep. People are going to work incredibly hard."
    APS must also agree to build two elementaries and two middle schools on the West Side and to help lobby to get the funding bill passed in Santa Fe. The governor did not set a deadline for those schools to be built.
    There are currently about 5,500 students in Cibola and West Mesa high schools, with 8,000 anticipated by 2011.
    "Every elementary school, every middle school, is either at capacity or well over capacity," school board member Robert Lucero told Richardson.
    APS had been awarded $48.3 million from the state Public School Capital Outlay Council in the past two years to build the two high schools but was unable to come up with the matching funds required to build them quickly.
    The northwest high school is scheduled to open for ninth-graders in the fall of 2007; other grades would be phased in as funding becomes available. The southwest school was not scheduled to open until 2013.
    The governor's plan would allocate $35 million for the northwest school and $80 million for the southwest school.
    The two new elementary and middle schools, however, are not in the district's list of projects to be funded in the February 2006 bond election.
    "We'll just have to move those up" on the priority list, Everitt said.
    Board president Paula Maes said the governor's proposal was what the district had hoped for and will free up money to help projects elsewhere in the district.
    "Everybody's needs have to be met," Maes said.
    Members of the planning committee were hoping that the freed-up money could be used to complete the performing arts center and gymnasium at the northwest school.
    "They just deserve all the same things all the high schools have," committee member Cheryl Jorgensen said.
    Richardson's announcement was made after a campaign by West Side residents to seek part of $1.5 billion in oil and gas revenues for new school construction.
    Two West Side lawmakers, Sens. Joe Carraro and Bernadette Sanchez, are both planning to sponsor legislation that would allow that to happen. Sanchez, a Democrat, plans to ask for $300,000 and Carraro, a Republican, has indicated he will seek $400,000.
    Carraro has said the way to get support in the Legislature is by ensuring that other fast-growing districts benefit from the one-time appropriation.
    Members of the West Side Coalition of Neighborhood Associations, the Southwest Alliance of Neighbors and community members on the new northwest high school planning committee had called meetings, gathered children to lobby Richardson at a recent book signing and rallied support during middle school redistricting meetings.
    "We're in dire need in the southwest mesa and northwest mesa," SWAN director Klarissa Peña told Richardson.
    The students and parents also had asked Richardson to visit Cibola and see how bad the crowding was, which he did Wednesday.
    Shortly after meeting with neighborhood delegates and school officials in the school library, Richardson waded through Cibola's hallways during the 12:47 p.m. passing period and held a mini-news conference in "E" hall as throngs of inconvenienced students pressed through. He later called the crowding an "unacceptable situation."
    "Getting from class to class is really the biggest struggle here," Cibola senior Alex Alanis told Richardson earlier.

Here's the story from the Albuquerque Tribune--I'm quoted here too :-)

By Susie Gran
Tribune Reporter
December 8, 2005

Students cheered the governor's promise of two new West Side high schools in two years, then analyzed his motives.

They assessed the hoopla created for their benefit at Cibola High on Wednesday and decided Gov. Bill Richardson is a brilliant campaigner.

"It almost feels like he's running for president," said Cibola High senior Lane Luper, 17.

"He's a politician all the way," added Amanda Gozur, 17.

They still liked what Richardson had to offer. The new schools will mean their brothers and sisters won't have to deal with the crowded halls and classrooms at Cibola, the largest in the city with more than 3,000 students.

Lane and Amanda ran the sound system and lights in the Cibola auditorium where Richardson on Wednesday announced a $115 million proposal to build northwest and southwest high schools.

A huge crowd, including parents who rode three buses from Cottonwood Mall, filled the room.

"I want to be known as the education governor who builds schools," Richardson said.

The governor's $115 million for Albuquerque's high schools is included in a $290 million package of nine schools he will ask the Legislature to approve next month. Schools for Gadsden, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho, Los Lunas and Deming are included to sweeten the appeal statewide.

The new Albuquerque high schools should be open in 2008 for all grades, the governor said, acknowledging that the district already intends to open the northwest school in 2007 for freshmen only.

After meeting with West Side legislators, community leaders and a few students in the library, Richardson and his entourage pushed through the freshman E Hall for the B lunch crunch of bodies shoulder to shoulder, bouncing off lockers.

"I'm glad he got to experience what we experience every day," said Amanda.

The crowded hallways are "why we're sick all the time, coughing all over each other."

She said the governor's promise is clear about money for two high schools, but she was skeptical.

"I hope it happens and APS does its end of the deal."

The governor said APS has to build two middle schools and two elementary schools on the West Side, plus be on time and on budget with the high schools. That's not to mention he needs the Albuquerque community to get legislative support necessary to approve the package.

"I'm going to be very mad if these two high schools are not up and running," Richardson said.

Richardson gave students the credit for convincing him that he had to help the West Side.

The students picketing his book-signing last week in Albuquerque "made a strong case," he said.

District officials said there would be no problem living up to their end of the deal, although several were talking about the possibility of raising property taxes to do so.

Robert Lucero, West Side member of the Albuquerque Board of Education, said the district will sell off surplus property and tighten its belt before going to voters.

But Kizito Wijenje, the district's master plan director who wanted a tax increase in February that the board rejected, said a tax hike is "what we need to do."

Bob Gorrell, the state's executive director of the Public School Facilities Authority, agreed.

"They can't take care of their children without raising taxes," he said of the Albuquerque district.

However, the governor's package "is a very wise move," Gorrell said, because it gets Albuquerque out of its deficit for the two high schools.

The district was short $35 million for the northwest school and $80 million for the southwest school.

The $115 million "is enough to get them over the hump," Gorrell said.

Cibola parents and West Side activists, while elated with the governor's support, said their work is still to come.

"We'll have to get 1,000 people to rally at the Legislature," said Cheryl Jorgensen, who brought out Wednesday's crowd with only 24 hours notice. "I'm tired of the fight."

At the Legislature, Richardson can expect complaints that his $290 million for new schools is not enough, said Sen. Joe Carraro, a West Side Republican.

Carraro has a proposed bill calling for $400 million to be spent statewide for new schools in high-growth areas.

Richardson's proposal for "$290 million is better than nothing," Carraro said, "but somebody is going to be left out of the governor's package."

One last thing...

Link to blog debating who should get credit for the Governor deciding to help fund new schools

Back to Jorgensenfamily.org