 |  NNMC President Nancy "Rusty" Barcelo with NNMC Board of Regents President Rosario "Chayo" Garcia (left). Entry sign for Northern New Mexico Community College at El Rito. |
NNMC President Nancy “Rusty” Barcelo and her Executive Team recently closed all programs at NNMC at El Rito—the seat of the college as defined by the New Mexico Constitution and as defined by New Mexico State Statutes.[i]
Media, including The Albuquerque Journal, The Rio Grande Sun, and The Santa Fe New Mexican have each covered the illegal plans for closure of all classes at El Rito. The move to close El Rito is currently under investigation by several New Mexico State authorities. Yet, Barcelo and her team did their best to cover up the unconstitutional and illegal closure of El Rito by hoodwinking the Northern New Mexico Normal School Alumni Association into celebrating a “ground-breaking” at the El Rito campus.[ii] The Alumni Association Vice-President, Maria Dolores-Gonzales, was recently paid by Barcelo to act as the NNMC El Rito "Campus Coordinator" while simultaneously running her privately owned business, Bilingual Strategies, out of the El Rito Campus. The “groundbreaking” of the Alumni Memorial Wall amounted to unveiling two full-color posters with Barcelo and her Executive Team posing for photo ops armed with smiles and golden shovels, using the unsuspecting alumni as props.
President Barcelo and her Executive Team timed the event to cover up the extensive coverage of the closure of El Rito and her Administration's years-long neglect and destruction of the campus. Here is what Barcelo wanted the press and public to see:
Media, including The Albuquerque Journal, The Rio Grande Sun, and The Santa Fe New Mexican have each covered the illegal plans for closure of all classes at El Rito. The move to close El Rito is currently under investigation by several New Mexico State authorities. Yet, Barcelo and her team did their best to cover up the unconstitutional and illegal closure of El Rito by hoodwinking the Northern New Mexico Normal School Alumni Association into celebrating a “ground-breaking” at the El Rito campus.[ii] The Alumni Association Vice-President, Maria Dolores-Gonzales, was recently paid by Barcelo to act as the NNMC El Rito "Campus Coordinator" while simultaneously running her privately owned business, Bilingual Strategies, out of the El Rito Campus. The “groundbreaking” of the Alumni Memorial Wall amounted to unveiling two full-color posters with Barcelo and her Executive Team posing for photo ops armed with smiles and golden shovels, using the unsuspecting alumni as props.
President Barcelo and her Executive Team timed the event to cover up the extensive coverage of the closure of El Rito and her Administration's years-long neglect and destruction of the campus. Here is what Barcelo wanted the press and public to see:
Indeed, Barcelo travels with at least two (often three) public relations staffers (Sandy Krolick, David Lindblom, and Stephanie J. Montoya) whose State salaries are paid by New Mexico taxpayers and student tuition and fees. Click pictures below to view larger
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President Barcelo is pictured here with her golden shovel (above left). Barcelo was sure to autograph the images of the Normal School Memorial Wall that were generated and paid for by the alumni group (above right). Barcelo's publicity team of Sandy Krolick and Stephanie Montoya spent the day at taxpayer expense capturing photos of Barcelo and her Executive Team posing with the unsuspecting Normal School Alumni.
What barcelo didn't want the Normal School alumNI to see
Above is the true state of NNMC El Rito under her leadership. El Rito's educational mission precedes New Mexico statehood and its land was donated by Venceslao Jaramillo. Jaramillo, State Senator from Rio Arriba County, helped draft laws for the state in 1912 as a member of the Constitutional Convention. Venceslao and his wife Cleofas (Martinez) Jaramillo would begin their married life in El Rito. Cleofas Jaramillo--author, historian, preservationist in her own right--organized La Sociedad Folklorica de Santa Fe (Folklore Society of Santa Fe) in 1935 with the mission of preserving the traditional Spanish folklore and customs of New Mexico. Today the Jaramillo legacy at the Normal School (today NNMC at El Rito) has been reduced to crumbling walls, black mold, dangerous exposed asbestos, electric wiring next to massive, active water leaks, Heritage Arts course materials strewn like trash. Such a sight would no doubt break the hearts of Venceslao and Cleofas Jaramillo, who set aside the Normal School at El Rito as a place for cultural preservation and as a place to train New Mexicans to become educators. Today, under the leadership of Barcelo, neither is occurring.
What is perhaps most shameful is that Barcelo has required the Northern New Mexico Normal School Alumni Association to pay for the Alumni Memorial Wall themselves. Further, Barcelo will require the non-profit alumni group to "donate" the Memorial Wall, which will cost thousands, to NNMC. Barcelo has appointed VP of Advancement Ricky Serna as the "official liaison" to the alumni group to guarantee the transfer of property to the college, though Barcelo has closed the El Rito campus to all credit-bearing programs and has removed all classes from El Rito, in violation of the NM State Constitution and State Statute.
The NNMC Study Group would encourage alumni, current students, community members, and Legislators to hold Barcelo accountable for the closure of all credit-bearing programs at El Rito, the closure of all Heritage Arts classes at El Rito, the complete divestment from El Rito, and the heartbreaking and dangerous disrepair of our historically-significant campus. While Barcelo focuses on the surface, on cheap photo ops, the college is very literally falling to pieces.
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The NNMC Study Group would encourage alumni, current students, community members, and Legislators to hold Barcelo accountable for the closure of all credit-bearing programs at El Rito, the closure of all Heritage Arts classes at El Rito, the complete divestment from El Rito, and the heartbreaking and dangerous disrepair of our historically-significant campus. While Barcelo focuses on the surface, on cheap photo ops, the college is very literally falling to pieces.
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[i] See “NNMC Relocation Move Sparks Debate,” The Albuquerque Journal, April 17, 2015. http://www.abqjournal.com/570810/news/nnmc-relocation-move-sparks-debate.html
[ii] See “Normal School Alumni Break Ground on memorial Wall in El Rito,” The Valley Daily Post “Virtual Newspaper,” May 12, 2015. The reader should note that the images provide for this story by NNMC show a lush courtyard. Under Barcelo’s leadership, that once lush courtyard and fountain have fallen into neglect and disrepair as seen in the current images of the El Rito campus. http://valleydailypost.com/nnmc-normal-school-alumni-break-ground-memorial-wall-el-rito
[ii] See “Normal School Alumni Break Ground on memorial Wall in El Rito,” The Valley Daily Post “Virtual Newspaper,” May 12, 2015. The reader should note that the images provide for this story by NNMC show a lush courtyard. Under Barcelo’s leadership, that once lush courtyard and fountain have fallen into neglect and disrepair as seen in the current images of the El Rito campus. http://valleydailypost.com/nnmc-normal-school-alumni-break-ground-memorial-wall-el-rito
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