How a New Mexico school district helps students recover from disaster

In April, a prescribed burn in Santa Fe National Forest botched by the U.S. Forest Service grew into the largest wildfire in recorded New Mexico history. Then thunderstorms brought summer flooding, made worse by the wildfire. Many families in Mora County had to evacuate their homes – some had to find new homes altogether. 

In response, the rural Mora Independent School District has tried an experiment linking environmental recovery to that of students.

For example, students made “seed bombs” one Friday morning – clumps of mud stuffed with seeds of native grasses that they can plant where they please. They also learned to fly drones for aerial data collection and tested post-fire water quality.

Beyond this “expeditionary learning” model, the district hired a second social worker to deal with an upswell of behavioral issues and doubled down on logistical preparedness, which includes ongoing food distribution to local families and the drafting of school flood-response plans.

Laura Schifter, an education researcher, appreciates the district’s efforts. “Schools really need to be adapting and building resilience to climate impacts,” she says, “and what this district is doing in thinking about it holistically can really be used as an exemplar for other districts to consider.” 

Small hands round clumps of wet clay and compost, forming sticky spheres. Sara Villa watches her second grader, Aaron, focus on the task, his jacket hood raised against the November chill. He’s one of several dozen students on a school excursion at a New Mexico ranch.

The Villas evacuated their nearby Holman home in the spring due to wildfire, then again in the summer due to floods. Because of water damage, the family went into debt purchasing a new mobile home, says Ms. Villa. Other scars are harder to see.

Aaron gets “scared now when it rains,” she says. “I just try to explain to him that he’s OK.”

Aaron, shy, offers a snaggletooth smile. The ball in his mud-smeared palms is stuffed with seeds of native grasses. Students can plant these “seed bombs” where they please, such as at home or here at Collins Lake Ranch, where about half of its 300 acres burned last spring in the state’s largest recorded wildfire.

The activity is part of a school district experiment linking environmental recovery to that of students, whose families lost ranchland, income, freezers full of food, and safe drinking water. This school year, the rural Mora Independent School District (MISD) has tried several ways of harnessing lessons about such disasters to “promote the healing,” says Superintendent Marvin MacAuley.

Beyond an “expeditionary learning” model that brings students outdoors, the district hired a second social worker to deal with an upswell of behavioral issues. MISD has also doubled down on logistical preparedness, which includes ongoing food distribution to local families and the drafting of school flood-response plans.