Bunny: (00:00)
Hi there. I’m Bunny Terry, and you’re listening to the I Love New Mexico podcast. Whether you’re a native new Mexican, who’s lived here for your entire life, or you’re just considering a visit, this episode is for you. Join us as we share a lot of New Mexico stories, talk about all things New Mexico, and include topics like what’s magical here, where you ought to visit, what’s happening, and the things you absolutely cannot miss in the land of Enchantment. We’re excited that you’re here and we can’t wait to show you what an amazing place New Mexico is, because let’s face it, I love New Mexico

Bunny: (00:49)
This morning on the I Love New Mexico podcast. I have a special group of guests, um, which I’m very excited about. We’re gonna talk about Communities in Schools, and the folks I’m talking to today are in Santa Fe, but I want you to know that, um, this is a national organization. I’m gonna begin with Michelle Katz. Um, Michelle, as I understand it, you, I mean, I don’t know who, I don’t know who’s in charge here, but why don’t you let let our listeners know, um, who you are and who our other guests are, and tell us a little bit about Communities in Schools, which is a vital organization in the community.

Michelle : (01:30)
Yeah, absolutely, Bunny. Thanks. So my name is Michelle Katz. I serve as the Executive Director of Communities and Schools of New Mexico, which is an affiliate of a national organization. Um, there are, uh, many communities and schools across the nation, I think in about 25 different states. And some states have multiple affiliates, but we are the only one in New Mexico. Currently. We serve Santa Fe Public Schools, but we will be growing next year into Albuquerque Public Schools. One, one high school in Albuquerque schools. And our mission is really to surround students with all the supports that they need so that they can stay in school and thrive in life.

Bunny: (02:17)
That’s so, that’s so exciting and, and such an amazing mission. And tell me who our other guests are, because I know we’re gonna hear from everybody.

Michelle : (02:25)
Yes. I have two amazing other folks with me from the organization, Marcos Mayas, who I will let, um, introduce himself ’cause he’s amazing, but he is a board member of ours and Becca Heli, who is one of our site coordinators at one of our elementary schools.

Bunny: (02:44)
So, Marcos, tell us, tell us who you are and how, how you got

Marcos : (02:48)
Involved. Oh, absolutely. So Marcos Maez and I am a proud board member of one of the most dynamic nonprofits in New Mexico or anywhere else for that matter. Now, for me, it was very simple. I my, for my day job, I work at Santa Fe Community College, and I’ve been there for over 13 years. And throughout my time at SFCC, I had heard about the great work that was being done by Communities and Schools, and really just the incredible impact that they were making, not only on our students, but for our families and communities in Santa Fe. So when the opportunity presented itself to become a board member, I jumped at it immediately. One of the main reasons for that is because I was one of those students. I am a first generation college student, born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I’m a person of color and I share my story with a number of the students that the incredible site coordinators and team of communities and schools serve today. So for me, it was a way of being able to be involved in this board was a way for me to be able to give back to my community and to be able to celebrate the great work that is being done by Michelle and Becca and all the incredible team members at Communities and Schools. And now that I’m able to sit here as a board member and really get to see the work that’s being done, I’m just blown away. I was already inspired by the work that they did, but to actually be able to now see it from a different lens, I just applaud the incredible work that they’re doing. And I’m so thrilled to be here today to talk about their work and from my experience as a board and a bunch of other good stuff.

Bunny: (04:34)
Um, Becca, introduce yourself and tell us what you do with the organization.

Becca : (04:38)
Alright, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. And, um, I’m Becca. I am the, one of the psych coordinators for CIS New Mexico. I am a psych coordinator at Chaparral Elementary. Go Firebirds. And yeah, so what I do is I just make sure, you know, students and their families are taken care of. And I have a fabulous team here at Chaparral. Um, the great principal, Erica Maestes Martinez. And I work really closely with her in just identifying students who could use our support. Um, you know, we have a caseload of students that we have to, you know, case manage and everything, but I could say that all psych coordinators, you know, take care of the entire student body at their schools. And that is just our mission and everything. And I really enjoy, I enjoy my work, I love coming to work, and I work with a great team at CIS, so I’m very grateful.

Bunny: (05:36)
So, so talk nuts and bolts. I mean, I, you know, we talk about support, we talk about involvement, but what’s the real, in a, the day-to-Day life of a site coordinator,

Becca : (05:45)
, what

Bunny: (05:45)
Are, what are the real, what are, what’s, what are the hands-on things that you do that make a difference in the success of your students?

Becca : (05:53)
You know, just making sure students are seen, students are heard. Um, I mean, we do food distributions. Um, we make sure families have groceries for the week. There’s like various, various things that, you know, we do academic-wise, which is, you know, we have a tutoring program here. And identifying those students that could use the extra help. And, you know, we’re just a presence at the school. So the students know that they have somebody that will advocate for them, and so do so does the staff. The staff knows that we’ll also be there to take care of them as well.

Bunny: (06:25)
So, Michelle, talk about, talk about how CIS started in, in Santa Fe and how it’s expanded its reach. ’cause I know, um, you know, I have some friends who have been involved and my great friend Dion Silva speaks very highly of you. He’s my, he’s my vice chair at the Cancer Foundation. So I just, so Michelle, um, tell me about the history of, of CIS in Santa Fe. Um, when, when did it begin and how has it expanded over time?

Michelle : (07:03)
Yeah, that’s so great. So, CIS of New Mexico began about 11 years ago, but it was originally called the Salazar Partnership. It existed at Salazar Elementary School. Um, and it’s truly that that school is truly a community school. It started with a sweet couple called the Carsons who really wanted to bring services to that school so that students can continue to come to school. And it, it was really around, um, you know, food, clothes, um, tutoring and really supporting students in that way. And they learned about CIS and decided that, that it should expand into a communities in schools of New Mexico. And that’s when it grew into multiple schools and, um, began as a nonprofit organization in Santa Fe.

Bunny: (07:59)
And, and talk, I, I mean, I know that, um, food safety is kind of a big deal with kids across the country, but talk about what the issues are. Who, who wants to address that for Santa Fe? I mean, it’s, I mean, just the, just the fact that you’re making sure that kids get fed Mm-Hmm. or they have groceries. That seems like a big piece of this. I mean, isn’t that a big piece of learning? Becca, you wanna talk about that?

Becca : (08:26)
Sure. Yeah. I mean, food is so important and, you know, in order to do well in school, you need, you know, you need a good diet. I mean, you just need food in general, right? So we just wanna make sure that families are taken care of and they’re able to succeed in school and succeed, you know, just in life when they have, when they have the necessities they need in order to be able to do that.

Bunny: (08:50)
I know that we, I mean, we talk about, you know, I’m, I’m involved with a different nonprofit, and what we’ve found is that if you can, I mean, we provide grocery cards to cancer patients who are getting treatment Mm-Hmm. . And it’s like, if you, if you can keep people fed, it’s amazing how many people don’t have that, that that’s a big challenge in their life. Um, totally. And, and what, when you started with Salazar, um, at, at Michelle, maybe you can tell me, but you started at Salazar, when, where did you expand? I mean, how, where are you in every school? How many schools are you in in Santa Fe now?

Michelle : (09:27)
That’s a great question. So, it was a little bit before my time, or quite a bit before my time to know which school came on next. But we are currently in 12 Santa Fe public schools. We will be in 13 next year. We’re expanding to Gonzales Elementary, um, and, and one Albuquerque school next year as well. Um, and we’re looking to grow consecutively throughout the years and, and really live into the New Mexico part of our name. But Santa Fe Public Schools is certainly our home. And I just wanna name that. Um, the food insecurity piece is really huge. We really focus on the basic needs, but beyond food security, we, we each have, we’re not only a food pantry at the school sites. We’re at, we are a clothing closet, hygiene closet. We help parents and families, um, who need rent or assistance or utility assistance, um, so that we raise emergency request funds in, in case a family needs stable housing and can’t afford that for whatever reason on, on a certain month. And we really surround them with all those basic needs. But beyond that, our site coordinators run their own social emotional learning groups and life skills groups. We work with so many partners across the city, all our, our nonprofit friends that we get to be the touchstone person for in the school, to bring those nonprofits in. For example, not only Food Depot, but Girls Inc, um, sky Center, Gerard’s House, those are really wonderful partners of ours, big Brothers, big Sisters, um, fathers New Mexico. We, we bring in these nonprofit organizations to really boost the social emotional learning and skills of our students. And then what’s really unique, what’s really our, our, our niche and our value is that at the school, each of our site coordinators has a caseload of 35 to 40 students where they get to be the one-on-one person, the mentor, the touchstone, um, for that student and that family. Um, so, so it’s really a wraparound service of what, what’s the student’s goal this year? How do we lift that student up to meet that goal and connect with them about three times a month to really support them in meeting their goal for that year?

Bunny: (12:04)
Wow, that’s amazing work . Um, that’s, that’s, um, I, I wanna hear from Marcos because there are, uh, Santa Fe is a city of many, many, many nonprofits. So I’m curious to know, I mean, why this one?

Marcos : (12:23)
You are correct in a city of over nearly 1300 nonprofits. Again, what Becca and Michelle just stated, I mean, to say that they’re making an impact in the community is truly an understatement. It is really, really difficult to concentrate on doing your homework when you haven’t had dinner. What’s really, really difficult to be able to really have your homework and studies as a priority when you don’t have heat in the house during the winter. Mm-Hmm, . So it, it’s, for me, the services that they provide, again, it was a no brainer, but even beyond that, to be able to see not only how the site coordinators and how the CIS team helps the students, well also I think is so incredible about this organization is that the employees are happy, the employees are motivated, the employees are determined, and that is a testament to the great leadership and how they work with their team. Again, being a board member, I’m able to sit in on staff meetings. I’m able to do site visits. I’m able to sit in on different events where we have a nice mixture of board members of employees of leadership, and you can see it, I observe this and I can see that these folks are dedicated, they’re happy, they feel heard, they have this sense of belonging. And it starts there, right? Like, yes, the ultimate goal is to ensure that the students and the families in our communities have absolutely everything that they need in order to have an opportunity to succeed in school and to go beyond school and into college or wherever else life takes them. But it starts within the organization. And if you don’t have a team of employees who are not happy, who don’t feel like they’re being heard, well, then that’s going to trickle down to the schools that they serve and the students. But what I’m seeing is a motivated group of individuals who they feel heard and they take that down to the schools and they work to the best that they possibly can to serve the students and the family. So I’m just blown away by that. So yes, there are a tremendous number of incredible nonprofits here in Santa Fe, but communities of schools, just given the amount of resources that they, they provide and how they work with their team. Again, for me, that is why it was a very easy choice for me to be able to say, this board that I wanna sit on, this is a board that I want to give my time to for this organization.

Bunny: (15:08)
Well, and it’s all about impact, right? I mean, why I mean, to me, I know this is different for everybody, but to me, I we have limited time in, in the world. So Mm-hmm. the more impact on the lives of others. I mean, why, why spend, I’m sorry, but why spend your time doing something different? And I wanna, Becca, I wanna like give me here is, here is a success story I can tell you about in the last six weeks. Give me, give me some if you can’t, if that’s allowed, I wanna hear some success stories.

Becca : (15:43)
Sure. Let’s start with, um, one of my sixth grade students on my caseload. She had a really hard time reading, um, and she had struggled reading maybe since kindergarten, but we set her up with a CIS tutor, um, last year. And this year it’s the same tutor. And her reading scores have gone up, like her grades have gone up and she’s more confident she is, she’s willing to, you know, read aloud in class. And that was a huge step for her because she didn’t, she didn’t feel confident in herself because she didn’t feel she had the skillset quite yet, but now she does, and she’s gonna be, you know, successful when she goes into seventh grade. And even beyond, she’s just gonna continue to get all that help that she needs. Um, and it was really, and yeah, and it was really cool because she actually came to me last year as a fifth grader saying, Hey, I need help in this because I struggle with reading. So I couldn’t imagine doing that as a fifth grader, but she, I don’t know, I don’t know if she just felt comfortable enough telling me or whatever, but she is the success story definitely for this year.

Bunny: (16:48)
Well, I think, I mean, obviously you’ve created an environment where they feel safe coming to you with, with what they eat.

Becca : (16:57)
And I hope so. Our, it just might be the snacks that I have , so I dunno, .

Bunny: (17:03)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That’s so funny. Um, and Michelle, um, when talk expanding into Albuquerque, um, where are, can you tell us which elementary school you’re going to expand

Michelle : (17:19)
Into? We’re actually expanding into a high school. Um, so there is a massive community school movement, not only in New Mexico, but uh, nationally and in New Mexico, there’s this really wonderful group of human beings that come together and are part of swift, which stands for the Southwest Institute for Transformational Education and Community Schoolwork. Um, and together, there are three major entities that sit on that board. We are one of them. Um, a b, C Community Schools is another, which is out of Bernalillo County. And NEA and a BC came to CIS and said, wouldn’t it be really amazing to pilot a program with a community school, a, b, c, um, pro run program in Bernalillo County with a CIS, uh, coordinator? And I was like, absolutely. That would be amazing. So we are going to move into Del Norte High and Albuquerque Public Schools, and we will work hand in hand with an A BC, um, community school coordinator, um, that, that is run through, um, Bernalillo County, and we get to kind of see what, what that looks like in a new area. Becca also has a community school coordinator at Chap Chaparral. She works, and they are a really beautiful model of what it could look like to have two sports in one school loving on children. So we really think that this is the way forward.

Bunny: (19:02)
So how does the school, I mean, have you ever had any pushback from schools about, I mean, are they always, we’re so excited you’re here to take part of the load?

Michelle : (19:13)
Yeah. I think our schools are our greatest cheerleaders. Um, what’s really cool about having a nonprofit partner that is so embedded in the school is that we get to do things that maybe there are a few more restrictions within the school boundaries that, um, teachers and other school staff can’t do. So we get to help with whatever is needed and fill in those gaps. And so our principals are our greatest partners and cheerleaders. We love our school staff in terms of teachers who are our great allies, but also school counselors. We participate on wellness teams, attendance teams, um, other teams that I’m trying to think of. But I, you know, every school year we gather information from school staff about what they wanna see the following school year, how our site coordinators did, in their opinion during the school year. Um, we collect information from partners, parents, students, staff, um, and we really create a school support plan based on all that input. So we really live into the community of our name.

Bunny: (20:27)
Can can you, so, so how can this community, first of all, how can, um, I’m sure there, you know, I just think, you know, I have a nephew who’s on the school board in Logan, New Mexico, but I, how can others, how can people find out more about communities in school, and then how can they, how can the community best support you?

Michelle : (20:51)
Marcos?

Bunny: (20:52)
I mean, that’s, that’s an easy question, right? ,

Marcos : (20:55)
I am happy to jump in a a and please correct me if I am wrong, but first and foremost, find out more about us csm.org, again, cis cisnm.org, where you can find out all about the incredible work that communities and schools is doing. And of course, our donors and volunteers. Without our donors and volunteers, we don’t exist. So because of their generosity, because of their support, our team are able to do the incredible work that they’re able to do with our students and their families and our community. So if you wanna be a donor and support communities and schools, again, you can go onto the csnm.org webpage, and when you see that homepage, you’re going to see on the right hand side a red button that says donate. You are going to click on that donate button ,

Bunny: (21:49)
We love the donate button .

Marcos : (21:52)
And then you’re gonna have options. You can be a one-time donor, a monthly donor, or you can even do some roundups and round up some of your purchases through your credit cards. All of that money goes towards helping our students get the resources that they need. In addition to that, if money right now is an issue, and we understand that times are tough, you can absolutely still make an impact by volunteering your time. Maybe you have to, maybe you have an expertise in math or reading and writing and you wanna be a tutor. We absolutely need tutors and in particular, bilingual tutors. Mm-Hmm, . So again, your monetary donations are great, whether it’s $1 or $10,000 or more, every dollar counts and every dollar helps. And of course, your time as well is extremely valuable. And that also goes a long way in helping our students get what they need.

Bunny: (22:50)
So I love, I let you know, go to the website and we have those links in our show notes. Mm-Hmm. . So, so be sure and check show notes for, um, links. And, um, and I’m gonna ask Michelle to send us some, some photos that we can use to that show the community impact. But, um, before we stop, I wanna hear, um, Michelle, how, how, what are the metrics showing? How are you, are we increasing graduation rates? Are we increasing literacy rates? How, what are the metrics showing about the difference that CIS is making in the community schools?

Michelle : (23:28)
Yes. Such a great question. Um, I think our most impressive metrics is certainly the graduation rates. In the 10 years that we’ve been at Capital High School, the graduation rate has increased by about 30 points, um, which is huge. Um, and, and we can’t take full credit for that, but we, we believe we have something to do with it in terms of creating a, a space of belonging, safety and care, um, at the school site. And really supporting, again, with that caseload number, really supporting that, that rate of graduation for folks who are most at risk for not graduating, we really help them to that finish line this year. Our, um, CIS students numbers for graduation are 46 students that are graduating, that are CA part of CIS, which is huge. Um, and it just increases every year. Our focus on case management this year has really shined through with those numbers. Last year we were in the mid twenties in terms of a grad graduation, graduation class. And this year to have 46 is huge. ’cause that wraparound service of support really made a difference this year. And, and we’ll just grow and expand on that as well.

Bunny: (24:49)
Well, and I wanna apply to what you’re doing because as, as we all are well aware in this room, um, New Mexico isn’t number one in terms of education. And so getting people involved who are not paid educators, but are rather supporters, seems to me to be an important piece of improving our numbers every year. Right. Our ranking. Mm-Hmm. .

Michelle : (25:16)
Yes.

Bunny: (25:17)
So, Becca, one last, let’s, I wanna hear one last, um, here, here’s, here are a couple of things my students are struggling with and how, um, how important it is for people to support what you’re doing.

Becca : (25:31)
So I would say I, all in all, most of the students, I would say, have a hard time with. You know, I think just reading overall, um, and the supports, you know, we can always use that one-to-one, you know, reading help or just like small reading groups. So if there’s, you know, anyone out there that would love to volunteer with us, we could always use a volunteer or two or three, um, just to come in and, you know, help us out.

Bunny: (26:00)
And if you can’t volunteer, write the check.

Becca : (26:03)
Mm-Hmm. , right?

Bunny: (26:04)
Yeah. Right, right, Michelle. Sure.

Michelle : (26:07)
Absolutely. Yeah. There’s so many ways to, to support our network and our community. Um, I think Becca’s being super modest, but I just wanna like really just celebrate Becca. This is our newest school at CIS that Becca has started and really blossomed. Um, the, the way that I have experienced walking into her classroom at Chaparral and seeing students come in, yes, there’s snacks, but there’s also hugs and laughter and learning and really connecting with her. And, and I know that you’ve had so many challenging students, Becca in this last year in particular, and the way that you’ve supported them with resources outside of school has been tremendous. Um, Becca is also a big part of a family engagement project at her school that bra brought, um, grandparents that are raising students as well as single parents. Um, each semester there was a different focus, um, and there were these beautiful family engagement workshops that she was majorly a part of that created community across these families who were very, very much alone and having very, um, hard and challenging experiences of raising students. And Becca has been a major support in that. So there’s this academic realm, there’s this family engagement realm, there’s this social emotional realm. And Becca has raised these students up to their potential day by day. So I just wanna celebrate her in that.

Bunny: (27:56)
That’s so exciting. Thank you. And I suspect, I suspect there are a number of others just like her. I, I just wanna thank you for what you’re doing. I mean, working in the nonprofit world is not a very profitable method for spending your time, but it’s so important and it’s so, it’s so needed in communities. Mm-Hmm. where the other resources are slim. So thank you to all of you. Everybody go to the website, push the red button, donate, donate a dollar today while you’re listening. Or, or as Marco so, so eloquently said, $10,000 would be helpful as well, . So thank, thank all of you for what you do and thanks for being on the podcast and, um, keep us posted. We wanna know how, how you’re expanding in New Mexico and how you’re making a difference for New Mexico kids and families. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Michelle : (28:51)
Thank you so much. Thank

Bunny: (28:53)
You. This has been fun.

Michelle : (28:55)
Yes.

Bunny: (28:56)
Thanks to all of you for taking the time to listen to the I Love New Mexico podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please feel free to share it with your friends on social media or by texting or messaging or emailing them a copy of the podcast. If you have a New Mexico story that you’d like to share with us, don’t hesitate to reach out. Our email address is I love New Mexico blog@gmail.com and we are always, always looking for interesting stories about New Mexico. Subscribe, share, and write a review so that we can continue to bring you these stories about the land of Enchantment. Thank you so much.

Speaker 6: (29:49)
Here, I’m back on the road heading out west to the mountain time zone. There’s one thing’s on my mind.