General Obligation Bond 3 Would Fund Bricks and Mortar Projects Across the State

In a presidential election year, when most voters' attention is directed to the top of the ticket, it can be easy to overlook other key items that are also on the ballot. This year, one of those items is Higher Education Bond 3, which provides essential funding for New Mexico's public colleges, universities and specialty schools. This General Obligation Bond would deliver $229,565,000 funding without raising the property tax rate.

The projects to be funded by Higher Education Bond 3 range from renovation of the College of Pharmacy at the University of New Mexico to upgrades to the agricultural science and experimentation stations run by New Mexico State University around the state. All of the projects are designed to ensure students have the tools and learning environments they need to excel.

As part of Bond 3, Western New Mexico University would receive $9M for the first phase of construction of a new home for the New Mexico Center of Excellence in Early Childhood Education (NMCEECE). The new facility will be built on university-owned land off of N. Alabama St., behind the St. Mary's Academy building in Silver City.

At 11,350 square feet, the new Child Development Center building will house infant and toddler programs. It will have five classrooms, each with age-appropriate indoor and outdoor play spaces. The facility will also have a reception area, an outdoor learning space and an amphitheater.

While the university hopes to eventually expand the scope of construction to bring the rest of its early childhood programs to the same site, it chose to initially focus on infant/toddler programs due to the profound demand in the region, said Dean of the College of Education Dr. Cindy Martinez. "Looking at the needs of our community [and] looking at our infant/toddler spaces, there just aren't enough," she said. "There just aren't enough providers that have space for infants and toddlers. . . That is the biggest need in our community."

In its current facility, the NMCEECE does not have room to grow. "We have completely run out of space," said Martinez. The new facility will double the center's capacity to provide care and education to infants and children aged 8-weeks to 36-months.

The Child Development Center and Growing Tree, NMCEECE's program at Silver Opportunity High School, currently serve 140 children. The new facility will create space to serve an additional 56 infants and toddlers.

By moving the care and education of infants and toddlers to the new building, the college will also free up space in its current facility to house the family counseling program, one of the key pillars in the model of education practiced at the NMCEECE.

Expanding the Child Development Center will also benefit future teachers. "We are a lab site," noted Martinez, "so [the new building] gives us more places for students to participate in real learning opportunities, so they can then go and teach in other places in our community and our state."

Most importantly, emphasized Martinez, creating new space for care and education enhances the wellbeing of children in New Mexico. "The majority of children that come to our centers qualify for state assistance-subsidies-so it is pretty much open to anyone," she said. "We are trying to take out the gaps of child wellbeing that are caused by poverty, so it is open to any child to come and be part of it and have quality learning opportunities."

"That is what we are looking at," Martinez added, "building our communities through solid care and education."

This story is part of a series about General Obligation Bond 3.

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