On Tuesday, August 20, a school bus crosses the Rio Ruidoso. Educators feared the Ruidoso Municipal School District would lose a significant number of students at the start of the school year after natural disasters this summer. (Photo by Danielle Prokop / Source NM)
RUIDOSO – As Michelle Thurston prepared to start the school year in August, she said she and her fellow teachers were concerned about how many students would actually show up in their classrooms on the first day.
Natural disasters during the summer left many Ruidoso families without homes or in precarious living conditions. Thurston said educators were concerned that this could mean the district would lose a significant number of students.
She said she was pleasantly surprised that only one student was removed from her schedule.
“I thought those were pretty good numbers,” she says.
The South Fork and Salt fires that burned thousands of acres of Lincoln National Forest land and destroyed more than 900 homes in the Ruidoso area displaced many New Mexicans. The severe flooding that followed destroyed another 200 homes.
The village was still in the midst of monsoon season and frequent rains when school started in mid-August for most students at the Ruidoso community schools.
“Over the summer we were very concerned about the number of students when we came back in August, and we didn’t know until the first day,” said Becca Ferguson, the district’s superintendent. “We had called parents in the summer to see if we could reach them, but phone numbers change and things like that. So there were a number of parents we couldn’t get in touch with.”
Ferguson said enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year is down 15 students compared to the same period last year. Between the four schools in the district, there is a total enrollment of 1,805 students.
“Fifteen students, obviously in a district our size, is a significant financial impact, but it’s not as extreme a concern as we had this summer where it could have been 200 or even more because of the fires and the disaster. flooding,” Ferguson said.
But, she added, preschool enrollment in the district has increased. Ferguson said the enrollment numbers indicate that not as many families have moved from the Ruidoso area as educators originally predicted.
“That shows to me that we have a very resilient community that will stay and rebuild, and that Ruidoso will bounce back from this,” Ferguson said.
Candice Castillo, assistant secretary of Identity, Equity and Transformation at the state Public Education Department, said officials have been in close contact with Ruidoso district leaders this semester. Backpacks and some school supplies were presented to students recently when Castillo visited the schools and during the “Cabinet in Your Community” event hosted by the governor’s office in Ruidoso this month.
“We understand that after the two natural disasters that they have faced, families are really focused on making sure they can rebuild,” Castillo said.
She said most, if not all, of the questions directed to state government representatives were regarding updates on federal and state financial aid — and not necessarily school.
The Department of Public Instruction is promoting its “Be Here NM” campaign to combat absenteeism across the state. Castillo said Ruidoso is a community the department is particularly working on because of the unrest over the summer.
Castillo said the district appears to be operating relatively normally this semester, with little major impact on attendance. However, as data from this and future semesters is reviewed, Castillo said the department will look for trends that require additional state support.
“Right now, based on what we’ve seen, the district at least has a pretty good system in place for exercise throughout the school year. And like everything in education, we will have to wait and see what the data will show,” Castillo said.
The school district is implementing weather protocols
Before students returned to the classroom, the district announced its weather protocols, which include three levels of preparedness and action. Level 1 is Flood Watch, which means weather conditions are favorable for flooding. Level 2 is Flood Warning, which means flooding is occurring and schools are on a shelter-in-place protocol. Level 3 is a flood emergency involving active flooding that is endangering roads and bridges. Shelter-in-place orders continue at Level 3.
Ruidoso Municipal Schools Flood Protocols
Level 1 – Look: Weather conditions can cause flooding
Level 2 – Warning: A flood occurs. Shelter in place.
Level 3 — Emergency: Floods endanger roads and bridges. Shelter in place.
Ferguson said she was in daily contact with the National Weather Service and issued warnings as necessary. This remains a consistent call that the district and other entities receive every morning.
Ferguson said the district worked with the village of Ruidoso, the Ruidoso Police Department and the bus transportation company to develop flood control plans. In the few weeks since school started, the district has placed schools under shelter-in-place orders four times due to possible flooding, and dismissed students early three times due to active or threatened flooding.
The bus transportation contractor also had to identify alternate routes in case the roads were impassable and safe areas where buses could park and wait for water levels to recede.
“We’ve never had to do this before, so this was all brand new to all of us here in Ruidoso,” Ferguson said.
She said the schools have been “very fortunate” because most of the damage to their buildings was mud seeping into the parking lots.
“So basically the schools are the best and safest place for students,” Ferguson said.
She acknowledged that shelter-in-place orders, early dismissals and cancellation of extracurricular activities “will always be a disruption,” but that the safety of everyone in the district takes precedence over “convenience.”
And attendance so far this semester is on par with “typical attendance rates,” Ferguson said.
Disruptions in the classroom
Michelle Thurston has been teaching in the district for more than a decade. She said the McBride Fire in spring 2022 was “kind of when the trauma started” for students.
“We definitely had some kids after that who had PTSD. But this is different because it was a little more devastating,” Thurston said.
She says that in some cases, early discharge is better because everyone involved knows the plan for the day. When school shelters in place or the weather is monitored, teachers lose the attention of their students and the quality of instruction time.
“Once the clouds roll in, a lot of those kids start to get a little worried,” she said.
Parents are also starting to experience some anxiety when storms roll into the area, Thurston said, and they are checking on their children or picking them up from school early, despite there being no official early dismissal. Thurston said in those cases, teachers turn on their radios to communicate with the front office, further interrupting class time.
‘Thanks to the early dismissal, at least we know it’s happening, and until then you can continue teaching as usual. And the kids usually stay in class until then,” she said.
Lindsey Salas’ daughter is 15 and now a sophomore at Ruidoso High School, but was in high school during the McBride Fire. Salas said there has been some disappointment with extracurricular events being canceled due to the weather, but the goal is mainly to “get back into a normal routine as quickly as possible.”
She said she didn’t feel the need to keep her daughter at home because of possible flooding hazards.
Salas’ family was among the first to be evacuated this summer due to the threat of forest fires. She said their neighborhood survived, but surrounding areas were burned. And because they live on top of a hill, they only encountered flooding when they returned home.
She said that every time school lets out early, she has to make arrangements for pick-up because her daughter can’t drive completely on her own yet.
“I think we’re all trying again to remain a community and work together and live through it,” Salas said.
Thurston said that after the erratic summer events, she thinks parents want children to go to school and experience that normalcy.
“We need to give all these families a little bit of grace,” she said.
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