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The NMSBVI, established in 1903, is a pre-K through 12 public school with a residential campus in Alamogordo and a pre-school in Albuquerque that was established in the early 1970s. The NMSD, established in 1887, is a pre-K through 12 public school with a residential campus in Santa Fe. Both schools have outreach programs and other facilities throughout the state.
NMSBVI Superintendent Linda Lyle, NMSD Superintendent Ronald Stern and NMSD Project Manager Richard Gorman share their thoughts on working to integrate the distinctive mission and facilities requirements of New Mexico's special schools into the state capital outlay program that serves all other public schools.
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NMSBVI Superintendent Linda Lyle and student
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Why did the capital funding process for the two special schools need to change?
LYLE: Previously, NMSBVI raised capital for our facilities via legislative appropriations and in statewide GO bond elections. These methods were somewhat uncertain on annual funding, which made long term facilities planning challenging. When the 2010 GO bond failed, it became the tipping point for a conversation we had been having for years: why should the two special schools be combined with universities for raising capital funding? There wasn't a good answer. I believe that that is what drove our transition to the PSCOC.
STERN: Our situation was the same, but in all fairness, the Higher Education Department, along with the Legislature and the Governor, have been extremely supportive of our school. When the GO bond didn't pass, we think it may have failed because the bond was so large, not because the public doesn't support our needs--we were only a small part of the bond. Through the PSCOC process, attention will be given to our facilities on a much more narrowly-defined and consistent basis.
GORMAN: Adding to what Dr. Stern said, as supportive as HED has been to us over the years, NMSD wasn't really a good fit. NMSD has two pre-k through 12 schools, while HED is geared more to the circumstances and needs of universities and community colleges.
 | NMSD Superintendent Ronald Stern and Students
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What were the major challenges in transitioning to the PSCOC?
STERN: At the onset, when the decision was made to attempt to incorporate us into PSCOC's capital process, the first thing we did was evaluate how our school functions and check to see if there would be a way to address our needs within the existing public school facility adequacy standards. It became quickly apparent that the standards used for the 89 school districts would in no way work for the special schools, and a decision was made to develop a separate set of standards. PSFA, the NMSBVI and our staff all recognized that it would be a major undertaking to develop a separate set of adequacy standards.
 LYLE: The existing adequacy standards aren't broad enough to cover residential campuses like ours. Developing separate adequacy standards for the special schools--standards that at the time didn't exist anywhere else in the country--wasn't easy and it wasn't quick, but I believe that the state and the special schools all see these new facilities standards as a major achievement.
STERN: If one considers how complex a process it was, the two and a half years that this took was relatively quick, and reflects the tremendous amount of commitment on the part of the PSCOC, the PSFA and the staffs at the special schools. This could have taken a great deal longer. While the educational outcomes that we're targeting are in many ways no different from those of public schools, we have unique ways that we have to accomplish that with our student population, including the residential component, transporting students statewide rather than in a particular district, how our classrooms need to vary from those of public schools to address the needs of our students and how to develop standards for all of those things.
GORMAN: In addition to the need to develop a separate set of adequacy standards to address student residency requirements, serving a statewide constituency and addressing specific educational needs, integrating two separate standards based on two separate sets of criteria in order to rank them together on the NMCI list was an added complexity.
LYLE: The other significant challenge was that because the special schools don't have bonding capacity, we don't have the ability to raise local matching funds, which is a prerequisite of the PSCOC funding process.
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New Mexico School for the Deaf - Dillon Hall
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Was there consensus with the state that a new set of adequacy standards for the special schools needed to be developed?
GORMAN: At the onset, I think PSFA was hopeful that we'd somehow be able to fit into the existing adequacy standards. No one was excited about developing a whole new set of standards, but when it became apparent that the existing standards weren't going to work, the PSCOC and PSFA partnered with the special schools to understand our needs and to develop standards that aligned to our mission. It was a productive collaboration, and I believe I can speak for both schools in expressing how much we appreciate all the time and effort that the PSFA and PSCOC put into this.
What were some of the highlights in developing the adequacy standards?
LYLE: The process began when PSFA invited the special schools to make presentations on what's unique in the needs we address, how we teach, the facilities aspect of how we teach, and how we fit into the larger picture of the school districts. I appreciated PSFA's openness and their willingness to listen. I think that we all went into this with the view that we were doing something new and that we assumed the best intentions on each other's part--that if we stepped on each other's toes it was simply due to how new the process was for all of us.
STERN: The PSCOC and PSFA spent a great deal of effort in developing a good understanding of our unique mission and needs. It helped that PSFA staff visited our school a number of times. I think it's important to understand that the School for the Blind and the School for the Deaf are more than just schools. For example, we offer early intervention services with the Department of Health. When a newborn baby is screened with a hearing loss, we are the first point of contact and we send out professionals to provide information and support to families throughout the state. We also provide training, professional development and support to public schools with deaf or hard of hearing students. Our capital outlay needs have to address all these different roles.
LYLE: A highlight that stands out for me is having some PSFA staff over for dinner one night at my home and inviting some of our students. Afterwards, the students took the folks from PSFA, blindfolded, over to our education building in order to offer some real world experience on what our students go through on a daily basis, and also to discuss why they were content to be on the residential campus instead of home with their families. Overall, no matter how arduous this process, it was worth the effort because the standards for expanded core curriculum and residential campus space will allow us to teach things that students with sight learn incidentally. In public schools, no one teaches you how to get a snack after school, or how to make eye contact with someone, or what social space looks like, you just learn it. For us, all of those things need to be taught, and our students only get employed if we teach them those things.
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New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
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The residential component of your learning process is to temporarily bring students to the special schools, help them learn the added things they need to learn and then re-integrate them back into public schools and their communities?
LYLE: We call them short term placements, which can be anywhere from a few days to a few years. A student comes down for very specific reasons. We work with them, we build a plan and send them back to their community. This approach is relatively new. We used to take a student and raise them: they stayed until they graduated. But with that approach they had a more difficult time fitting in with their families and their communities. If you've grown up in a small town in New Mexico, you may always be disabled, but people know you, you fit in and you belong. That's something I don't want to take away from our kids.
STERN: For the most part, when students come to our school they stay until they graduate. At times we do have kids who go back to their local school, but that's the exception. My perspective on the residential component of the school has to do with the social component of education. We learn more from social experiences than we do from books, although learning from books is also indispensible. This issue is so self-evident to hearing people that they take it for granted, but it's incredibly elusive for deaf and hard of hearing children. We are a school for the deaf, but deafness is not an issue here. When a child here does not perform well, it's not because they are deaf or hard of hearing, it's because of other reasons. But when a deaf child is alone or part of a small minority in a public school, when they don't do well it's because they are deaf or hard of hearing. For example, if you were the only white person in a room full of persons of color, you'd know that you are white! But if you were with a group of white people you'd forget that you are white. Our students in this environment have the ability to learn and develop socially without being defined by being deaf or hard of hearing because of our critical mass of peers and adults who can truly communicate with the child.
How will the special schools deal with the local match requirement for PSCOC capital funding?
STERN: Either via direct legislative appropriation, severance tax or general obligation bond revenues, or depending on the project, the requirement may be waived.
New Mexico's adequacy standards for the special schools are the first in the country?
 LYLE: Yes. Other schools for the blind that are outside the state have asked for a copy of our standards. New Mexico has developed something that is unique at the national level.
STERN: I've begun to share the new standards with superintendents from other states. They're excited about the standards, and there's a sense that this is something valuable.
What do the PSCOC and PSFA need to do to assure an effective relationship with the special schools over the long term?
STERN: Fundamentally, I think for the PSCOC and PSFA to keep in mind our very unique mission. There will be needs and issues that could come up later that are connected to our uniqueness. I also want to thank Senator Rodriguez, Senator Nava and Speaker Lujan who pushed for this to happen.
LYLE: I think that the PSCOC and PSFA are right in the middle of doing it. They are listening to us, helping us identify and prioritize our needs, and are funding these needs as they come up. I never imagined that we would be in this place today, to think that we have these standards, that we would have this much construction going on, this much change in terms of buildings. I can't tell you how grateful we are to the PSCOC, PSFA and legislative staff who have worked to make this possible.
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