$2M in capital outlay will go to ‘dire, long overdue’ repairs at Early Learning Center
April 4, 2025, Published by the Santa Fe New Mexican
Written by: Andre Salkin
Marisol Baird used to pray for rain. Now, she said, she prays for more time.
When heavy rains pelted the Early Learning Center at Kaune in October, Baird came into work early. She was “almost in tears,” she said, at what she saw: Ceiling tiles and computers floated on a floor covered with water, actively flooding into the school’s library from a breached roof overhead.
“There was water everywhere. And it was in other parts of the school too. It was just — it was awful,” said Baird, the chief operating officer of Growing Up New Mexico, a nonprofit that acquired the old Kaune Elementary building in 2016 through a partnership with Santa Fe Public Schools.
It wasn’t unexpected though.
Throughout her more than three-year tenure at the school-turned-early learning center, Baird has had to intermittently deal with problems arising from the school’s 20-year-old roof, and 20- to 30-year-old HVAC and boiler systems, which go haywire at random. The school has been forced to close three times since June, mainly due to problems in the heating or cooling systems. The roof has had some problems too in the past, but the “big rains in October,” Baird said, “were what really pushed it over the edge.”
Correcting those problems is the reason for $2 million in capital outlay funds headed to the learning center this year. The funds are marked for “improvements” on the capital outlay spreadsheet, but really, Baird said, the funds are for repairs.
“Dire, long overdue,” repairs, Baird said.
Capital outlay is a funding mechanism that directs state money to build and improve infrastructure like roads, water systems and public buildings like schools.
Rhonda Montoya, vice president of early learning at the school, is the one who makes the call to close the school.
A hard decision, she said, when she gets a morning call from a teacher about temperature issues in their classroom which jeopardize the safety of the classroom. “ I think for me it always goes to the impact for our families,” Montoya said.
“Just knowing that they have to change their plans unexpectedly when some of those closures do need to happen.”
The center now serves 118 kids from 6 months old up to kindergarten. Baird said she is the one making “intense” calls to repair people when situations arise.
“ I’m almost begging like, ‘Can you please come today and fix it?’ ” she said.
The most critical repairs of the school — the three worst-performing HVAC units, boiler and roof repairs for the school’s central corridor — will be paid for with $500,000 in capital outlay funds directed for the school last year. That’s phase one, Baird said, with the HVAC repairs to start in a few weeks and the roof repairs to begin in May. That work is expected to take a month or two.
The second phase, repairing the wings of the school, will be more extensive, and will start next year. That will be a more costly operation, and is expected to cost $3 million, Baird said.
The $2 million capital outlay funding will go toward that work. As for the $1 million remainder, Baird said she’s “optimistic,” that those funds will be raised by the school through a variety of methods.
Crews will work on weekends to minimize disruption to students and families, Baird said.
It’s been a stressful time for the parents and staff, she said.
A few staff members who worked in the library had to be displaced throughout the school — wherever there was free space available, she said, extolling the resiliency of families and teachers who have borne with the school throughout the disruptions.
“The fact that work is starting and that we have this good money and this great partnership with SFPS — there’s hope,” Baird said. “It’s the light at the end of the tunnel.”