Taos Municipal Schools District is the largest school district in Taos County, serving roughly 2,000 students in and out of the classroom. The district has had to contend with a dizzying number of challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic over the last two years. But in the end, it was teachers’ unwavering love for their students that made the return to near-normalcy possible.
At the helm of this unbelievable accomplishment is school superintendent Lillian Torrez, who has served the district for the last eight years.
Torrez said the district’s successes are due to “the great staff that we have. They are just incredible. We also have great administrators and an incredible school board. Everyone is focused on our precious children of this District.”
Taos Municipal Schools District includes Arroyos Del Norte Elementary School, Ranchos Elementary School, Enos Garcia Elementary School, Taos Middle School and Taos High School/Chrysalis, as well as Taos Cyber Magnet School and the Taos Tiger Connect K-12 Online Academy.
Since the start of the pandemic, K-12 students and staff have had to negotiate a transition to remote learning and a return to in-person learning. Facilities had to be upgraded to meet new state health protocols. Students were faced with, not just learning loss, but challenges to their social emotional learning as well. Even providing student lunches became a new problem that the district had to solve.
Torrez said to meet these challenges, the district applied for more than 51 federal and state grants. “Every grant has its own focus,” Torrez said.
The money has paid for a safety coordinator (coming soon), career technical education, literacy development, social emotional learning and art instruction.
“We’ve really worked hard to get our literacy rates improved and really make it a focus,” she said. “And the one thing that we haven’t done, I would say, is, we need to work more on math. This year, we’re going to look at some of the math programs out there and work on increasing these student academic rates as well.”
Grants also support programs to combat emergency homelessness and help pregnant teens (GRADS program). There’s even a grant to supply organic fresh fruits and vegetables to students.
The district also receives support from local philanthropic organizations, including The LOR Foundation, J3 FUND and the Taos Community Foundation.
Kit Carson Electric Cooperative has teamed up with the school district to help provide mobile hotspots for students to use at home for online learning.
Torrez said the district is providing students with 1,200 new Chromebooks. “Students are going to have them for four years because we want to promote ownership,” Torrez said.
“We have three district instructional coaches, that work with classroom teachers to address the implementation of accelerated learning standards, as well as to address highly effective intervention strategies,” Torrez said. “These coaches guide teachers through reflective instructional practice.
“You know, when you reflect on your craft, you just improve,” she said.
The district has a family engagement coordinator. “She works specifically with at-risk families, and connects them with community and school resources. That improves educational outcomes,” Torrez said, adding that the coordinator collaborates with other team members like the homeless liaison and the nurturing center. “So everybody works as a team. So we don’t duplicate services.”
Coordinators monitor parent participation, and make recommendations to Torrez and school principals. “In addition, they work with the social workers, and help connect students and families with mental health support, which is totally just so highly needed right now.”
Coordinators also create programming to support students after school and during the summer. “These are really important, because school is closed, and it helps them stay connected.”
TMS district is well known for its athletic offerings, which include football, baseball, softball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, golf, bowling, tennis, track and spirit (cheer and dance).
What may be less well known is the myriad of clubs and other opportunities for students in the district: speech and debate, theater, business, robotics, chess and more.
Torrez said the school district has recently started field trips again for elementary school children. “One of them is rivers and birds. One of them is a hike. Another one is rafting down the river,” she said. Second and third graders are also planning to visit Sand Dunes National Park in Alamosa, Colo.
“Taos is a wonderful place to live,” Torrez said. “There’s really great teachers here who love to teach and do it well.”
Taos Municipal Schools 310 Camino De La Placita Taos, NM 87571 575-758-5202 taosschools.org
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