Superintendent: Standards could be 'contentious'

New Social Studies standards that the New Mexico Public Education Department is developing could be “contentious,” Portales Municipal School Superintendent Johnnie Cain Monday wrote in a report presented Monday to the school board at the board’s regular monthly meeting.

The social studies standards, Cain said in an interview after the meeting, are likely to include some guidelines involving “critical race theory,” a topic that has become very controversial nationwide.

Critical race theory teaches that racism has been built into American laws and institutions throughout the nation’s history.

The guidelines, however, will not go out will go out for public review and comment before the fall, Cain said.

In other matters, Cain said the state has yet to provide details of how COVID-19 situations will be handled in the PED’s “tool kit” of pandemic guidelines for the upcoming school year. He expects that information to become available at the New Mexico Coalition of Educational Leaders Conference in Albuquerque July 19 and July 20.

In the board meeting staff reports, Ruth Chavez, the new athletic director for Portales Municipal Schools, told the board two Portales students won events at the State Track and Field Championships on June 26.

Kylyie Paden, became state champion in pole vault Class 4A and Traise Cain won state championships in 110-yard hurdles and pole vault, Chavez said.