Families in the Placitas community could soon have the option to keep their children at the neighborhood elementary school through eighth grade, as Bernalillo Public Schools moves forward with a plan to expand Placitas Elementary from a K-6 to a K-8 campus.
The Bernalillo Public Schools Board of Education passed a pair of resolutions Dec. 22 signaling the district’s intent to reorganize Placitas Elementary into a K-8 institution and Algodones Elementary into a pre-K-6 school. The proposal is pending approval from the New Mexico Public Education Department.
The board’s action followed a Dec. 9 town hall at Placitas and online surveys in which parents largely endorsed the plan. Superintendent Matthew Montaño said the Dec. 22 meeting was called to move “forward with other administrative requirements for reorganization.”
The expansion is the latest step in a years-long effort to keep Placitas-area students in the district. BPS previously won community support to grow the school from a K-5 to a K-6 campus, Montaño said, but families continued leaving the district once their children reached middle school age. The district has lost roughly 600 students since 2017, a decline Montaño attributed in part to past leadership instability, though he said recent improvements have helped stabilize enrollment.
“When I first came to Bernalillo, I would have never in a million years thought I would go to K-8 at Placitas,” Montaño said. “But based upon feedback from that community, based upon seeing the unique needs, and then also talking with colleagues from around the country and how they deal with enrollment, we saw an opportunity to do it.”
Infrastructure preparations for the expansion are underway, and the board has approved facility upgrades at Placitas including new scoreboards and a gymnasium.
Montaño credited the board’s community ties for driving the proposal forward, saying members regularly bring constituent concerns directly to his attention.
“They’re very student-centered. They’re all based in our communities,” he said. “When they hear feedback, they bring it to me and say, ‘Hey, Matt, this is something we got to consider,’ and it ends up becoming part of an agenda.”
He added that the board’s backing has not come without scrutiny. “Just because they’re supportive, they’re still holding me accountable and asking me the tough questions,” Montaño said.