EDUCATION
APS opens first preschool at former Duranes site
Shuttered elementary school is now an early childhood center for up to 240 students
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Albuquerque Public Schools opened the district鈥檚 first early childhood center this week in the former location of Duranes Elementary School, one of the schools tapped for closure in 2024 due to low enrollment.
Duranes Early Childhood Center had its first day of school on Tuesday for preschool students ages 3 to 5.
The center can serve as many as 240 pre-K and special education pre-K students, though as of this week, it had 70 enrolled, said Allison Gabaldon, executive director of early childhood education at APS.
Though APS has 106 preschool classrooms districtwide, Duranes is its first school dedicated solely to pre-K students.
鈥淭here鈥檚 demand across the state for pre-K programs, and so APS is filling that need,鈥� Gabaldon said. 鈥淲e have a lot of children in Bernalillo County that still aren鈥檛 being served for preschool, so we wanted to make sure that we provide that for them.鈥�
The school cost about $36 million, about 15% of which came from the state Legislature and the rest was approved by voters, district officials said.
Duranes has 12 classrooms organized in three pods 鈥� called 鈥渓earning neighborhoods鈥� 鈥� a cafeteria and a commercial kitchen where young students can learn to cook.
The University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College will train their early childhood educators there, APS officials said.
Though APS and other districts nationwide are losing students, New Mexico is seeing a growing interest in its free public preschool programs, which are struggling to accommodate the demand, APS Superintendent Gabriella Dur谩n Blakey said.
鈥淲e know that we need more sites, and most importantly, we need more teachers to do that,鈥� she said.
Bernalillo County has 220 providers participating in the state鈥檚 free pre-K program and 6,387 funded slots, according to data from the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department. The total number of funded slots in the state is up almost 10% since the previous fiscal year.
When trying to find a preschool program for his 4-year-old daughter Calliope, Edmund Romero said he felt lucky when one popped up at Duranes, a minute away from where they live. The process was smoother than he anticipated, he said.
鈥淚 thought it was going to be a little more complicated, but it was pretty straightforward, really,鈥� Romero said.
For mechanical engineer Nick Jaramillo, Duranes holds sentimental value. Jaramillo is the fifth person in his family to attend the school, and still lives in a house next door, where he stayed throughout the noisy two-year construction, he said.
鈥淭his school laid the foundation for a lot of my family鈥檚 education,鈥� Jaramillo, now 39, said.
While the interior of the 36,463-square-foot new school is now complete, the landscaping is still in progress.
鈥淚 think I miss the trees,鈥� he said.
Natalie Robbins covers education for the Journal. You can reach her at nrobbins@abqjournal.com.
