Education

Cancer can be a pretty hard thing to deal with, but when surrounded by your community, things become a little more bearable.

Tuesday was sweet day at Los Alamos High School, kicked off by an Orange Crush as students and staff rallied in support of LAHS math teacher Marilyn Fabry.

“Marilyn Fabry is, without a doubt, one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known,” said math teacher, Joy Handsberry. “She couldn’t be any funnier, any kinder, any stronger, or just generally any niftier. Her heart is as big as her home state of Oklahoma! We just wanted to show her how much we love her.”
Fabry, who is battling cancer, has been fighting the good fight and this week had some inspiration to continue the battle.

Head cheerleader, Joy Handsberry, with some help from Sherry Anderson and the AP psych students blossomed into the “Orange Crush It, Mrs. Fabry,” campaign. The morale booster was launched Tuesday, with some underground assistance from Stephanie Pittman, LAHS staff member and Mrs. Fabry’s daughter.

“I loved it,” Pittman said. “It was wonderful to see the entire staff and student body come together to help uplift my Mom’s spirit. It was amazing!! She was so surprised and was just overwhelmed by all the support.”

Aspen Elementary held it’s first “Field Day” a few weeks ago, much to the delight of students and teachers.
The brainchild of Colin Hemez, a student at Los Alamos High School and Andy Garcia, a coach at Aspen Elementary School, the students participated in many activities, including: running races, “Zumba” excercises, ball games and just some good old running around. A couple of trucks from the Los Alamos Fire Department were there too, and firefighters were on hand to demonstrate some of the more interesting tools on board as well as give tours of the trucks’ interiors.
“It was really fun. It felt like a celebration,” Kathryn Vandenkieboom, principal of Aspen Elementary said.
She said not only did the kids get some exercise, but they learned teamwork as well.
“Colin was looking to do a service project and he at first thought about organizing a race,” Garcia said. But after we met it turned into a field day for the entire school.”
According to Garcia, it was the first time the school had a field day. It’s an event they hope to make into a tradition, he added.
“Next year, the school will be in the middle of construction but the year after that we definitely plan to continue it.”

The Associated Press is reporting that New Mexico’s Public Education Department made a clerical error that added S218,076.73 in extra funding to the Los Alamos Public School District’s “at-risk” students fund.
Each year, the PED gives schools a certain amount of funding to aid the district’s “at-risk” students. The funding amount is supposed to be based on the number of students the district has at that time. At-risk students are considered to be students who don’t attend school regularly, cannot speak English, or are considered living below poverty level.
In the article, the PED is said to have made an alphabetical error in its annual list, due to where they placed West Las Vegas. This resulted in Los Alamos as one of the districts that received more funding than it should and others to have received less than they should, according to the article.

A judgment made earlier this year by the New Mexico Human Rights Division of the State of New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions could affect the outcome of a pending lawsuit filed against the Los Alamos Public School District by a school employee.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by Mountain Elementary teacher Zeynep Unal, alleges she was forced out of her teaching position at Aspen Elementary through the use of trumped up disciplinary actions allegedly used to intimidate, harass and discriminate against her.

“Defendants unlawfully discriminated against the plaintiff through their repeated and continued harassment of her,” a statement in the lawsuit read. “The repeated and continuous harassment included unfounded disciplinary actions, an attempted improper termination and other adverse actions and unequal terms and conditions of employment.

The Defendants engaged in this repeated and continuous harassment because of the plaintiff’s national origin in violation of her rights under federal and state law.”

Unal is from Turkey. The lawsuit was filed April 18. Besides the Los Alamos School District, Unal also named Superintendent of Schools Dr. Gene Schmidt and Aspen Elementary School principal Kathryn Vandenkieboom as defendants.