Santa Fe Waldorf Cancels Upcoming School Year

Santa Fe Waldorf School calls it off

The Santa Fe Waldorf School, a private school known for its hands-on curriculum and outdoor learning program, will not be opening its doors to teach students this year. The school’s Board of Trustees announced the decision via email Friday afternoon, stunning parents and teachers just a few weeks before the school year was planned to begin Aug. 23. “We sincerely regret to announce that, due to unexpectedly low enrollment and because tuition is our main revenue source, we have determined that we do not have sufficient revenue to sustain our operations and will not open for the 2023-2024 school year,” reads the message sent to parents of Waldorf students. The school, which was founded in 1983 and had offered programs for early childhood through high school grades, has served between 200 and 240 students per year over the last decade. However, the board says as of Aug. 4, less than 140 students had signed contracts. Kevin and Bonnie Taylor, the parents of a student who planned to enter kindergarten at Waldorf this year, tell SFR they are now scrambling for enrollment at a different school and awaiting the promised refund of tuition already paid to Waldorf. “I wish they could’ve given us a heads-up on this…you know, just give us an opportunity to rally behind them, which I really would’ve, because I do love Waldorf,” Kevin Taylor says. “But, this is really disappointing, and it makes me wonder.”

Four candidates closer to public campaign cash

Four candidates for City Council have made it to the next step in qualifying for public campaign financing for the Nov. 7 municipal election. City Clerk Kristine Bustos-Mihelcic tells SFR she delivered documents to the county clerk just before the close of business Friday and the clerk will next review and potentially certify the four candidates: Alma Castro and Brian Gutierrez for District 1; incumbent Councilor Mike Garcia in District 2; and Louis Carlos in District 3. Bustos-Mihelcic says final word on who has qualified should come no later than Aug. 10, with money heading to the candidates by Aug. 14. Other prospective candidates who had announced they would seek the required signatures to receive taxpayer funds for the campaign didn’t meet the requirements or didn’t turn in documents by the deadline late last month, including Katherine Rivera, who tells SFR she still plans to run for District 1 but will now try for private funds. Candidates who are not using public financing have until Aug. 29 to formally file petition signatures with the county clerk. Read SFR’s Election FAQs here.

Wildfires send smoke to Santa Fe

Yesterday, the Santa Fe National Forest reported a new lightning-caused fire in the San Pedro Mountains east of Cuba in Rio Arriba County. The Black Feather Fire was estimated at about 1,500 acres in a report issued just before 9 pm. Firefighters are in “full suppression mode” and numerous aircraft are already assigned to the incident, including five large air tankers, one very large air tanker, helicopters, air attack and a lead plane. In addition, several hotshot crews have been ordered. “Due to the fast-growing wildfire, some areas have been placed in set status to be prepared to evacuate if necessary,” the Forest Service writes. (Brush up on the “Ready, Set, Go” protocol here.) The Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Department provides updated evacuation details here. Fire managers say hot, dry, windy weather in the forecast over the next several days means the fire behavior will likely remain “very active.” Santa Fe is also experiencing smoke from the American Mesa Fire, burning farther away near the Colorado border at Dulce. That blaze, reported Saturday, had consumed about 450 acres as of yesterday’s report and is at 8% containment. Find air quality information here.

Trust and favor

Just when you thought the Oppenheimer chatter might be quieting, The Garrity Group Public Relations firm has released its latest public opinion poll that notes New Mexicans’ favorability of the film industry has fallen recently while its good impression of federal laboratories has remained steady. The firm’s annual survey, conducted by Research and Polling Inc., measures trust in 17 industries and institutions, among other topics. The 2023 survey indicates the favorability of Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories outpaces the New Mexico Film and Motion Picture Industry 65% to 63%. “As the motion picture Oppenheimer entertains audiences around the world, we were curious to see which of the industries were in the driver’s seat of perception; both are ‘favored’ but the National Labs a little more so,” Tom Garrity, president and CEO, says in a statement. “Favorability of the film industry appears to have been impacted by the Rust movie-set shooting; it is really the only thing that captured the headlines in regards to the industry locally and would help to explain the 15-point drop from the last survey in 2020.” After prosecutors dropped charges against Alec Baldwin and made a plea deal with an assistant director, the only remaining pending criminal case resulting from the fatal on-set shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins is against set armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, whose attorneys late Friday waived a preliminary hearing that had been scheduled for Aug. 9. She faces charges of manslaughter and evidence tampering, and the case now proceeds to trial.

Listen up

Green chile roasting has already kicked off in Santa Fe, and the good word about our favorite vegetable is again making the rounds to a wider audience. The latest Atlas Obscura celebration of “the world’s strange, incredible and wondrous places” for its Small Town, Big Stories series travels to Hatch for the latest episode. Show host Dylan Thuras attended last year’s Hatch festival over Labor Day weekend and spent about a week in the town getting ready, including some time in the fields for the harvest and culinary advice. “A dish without chile is probably not food at all,” explains one enthusiast. Closer to home, KRQE reports on how the hot summer affects the chile crop.

Orfeo critic’s fave among SFO season

Classical music critic Joshua Barone reviews the Santa Fe Opera’s production of Orfeo in the Sunday New York Times. Barone called the production, the final to open in this summer’s program, “the highlight of the company’s current offerings.” And he should know—he saw it twice: once on opening night July 29 when understudy baritone Luke Sutliff played the title role after tenor Rolando Villazón injured his back in the final dress rehearsal; and again with Villazón performing his intended role (though Barone notes his voice was “uncooperative.”) Barone doles out praise for the “deferential new orchestration by Nico Muhly for modern instruments, and a myth-free yet no less magical staging by Yuval Sharon.” Muhly, he writes, “has written an indisputably clear, easy-to-replicate version of the score for modern orchestras, with enough lushness to satisfy a large opera house in future productions.” The critic offers a capsule review of all the SFO shows from this year as well. (Spoiler alert: He also liked Rusalka. But Tosca and Pelléas et Mélisande? Not so much.) SFR also reviewed the entire SFO season, which runs through Aug. 26.

Bode’s forest legacy

The Santa Fe National Forest grew by 57 acres this year thanks to the last wishes of an Abiquiú mercantile proprietor. Karl Bode, son of Bode’s mercantile founder Martin Bode, deeded the family’s Frijoles Spring property to The Wilderness Land Trust upon his death with the goal of transferring it to public ownership. Last week, reports the trust, the land officially transferred into adjacent Arroyo de los Frijoles Inventoried Roadless Area. “While not designated wilderness, inventoried roadless areas (IRAs) are public lands with strong wilderness characteristics including, as the name suggests, connected habitat unencumbered by roads,” the trust explains. Bode, who died at age 90 in 2020, had retired in 1994 and sold the store to Dennis Liddy. The storied century-old mercantile continues to offer burritos, burgers, groceries, camping gear and various gifts. Locals know: If Bode’s doesn’t have it, you don’t need it.

Sweat it out

The National Weather Service forecasts a sunny day with a high temperature near 90 degrees and southeast wind of 10 to 20 mph becoming west in the afternoon. There’s a 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon. Critical fire weather conditions will be present through Tuesday due to high winds combined with low relative humidity, warm temperatures and an unstable atmosphere, the agency says.

Thanks for reading! Now that backyard tomatoes are in full swing, The (Substitute) Word is thinking about tomato ice cream with candied basil.