New Mexico
4 Investigates: Hot APS classrooms
We are finally starting to cool off a little as we head into October. But some Albuquerque Public Schools are still struggling with hot classrooms.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – We are finally starting to cool off a little as we head into October. But some Albuquerque Public Schools are still struggling with hot classrooms.
We’re talking hundreds of open work orders, some in schools the district has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade.
“The problem with this is year is it was just so much hotter,” said APS Assistant Deputy of Operations John Dufay.
Dufay said, in a classroom full of students, even temps in the upper 70’s can feel sweaty and stuffy.
When cool air stops blowing, it’s more than just an APS emergency. At the start of this school year KOB heard from parents of APS students.
“I went in there right before 10 a.m. and it was already 86 degrees in his classroom,” said one parent.
Many were angry.
“Knowing that my baby, my child, is in a classroom for eight hours a day in the heat is not OK,” said another parent.
School staff secretly snapped pictures of thermostats for us. Even students themselves complained.
“Being in the classroom was pretty hard because I was sweating a lot,” said an APS student earlier this year.
APS should have seen it coming. From May to the start of school in August, KOB 4 discovered more than 3,500 work orders at almost every single APS facility.
Even schools that were part of a recent $26 million upgrade.
Despite spending more than a $1 million at Manzano High School, in the last four months, there were 59 work orders. Another $1 million at La Cueva, still 33 work orders.
Even schools that were part of a recent $26 million upgrade.
Despite spending more than a $1 million at Manzano High School, in the last four months, there were 59 work orders. Another $1 million at La Cueva, still 33 work orders.
We found 114 work orders at West Mesa after the district spent close to a million bucks there. Often, money is spent reviving old systems.
For example, Double Eagle Elementary School runs on more than 30 Air Wash systems. Old technology that’s like a large evaporative cooler. It uses water to cool air on its way to the classroom.
“A unit is not foolproof,” said APS Maintenance and Operations Technician Rupert Abeita. “Anything could go wrong with all that technology. Anything could go wrong at any time.”
Abeita is one of only eight in-house HVAC techs at APS. That’s down 44 from more than a decade ago, covering a district now twice the size.
Most APS buildings run on some type of evaporative cooler.
“I would say, probably 40% of the calls, everything is working it’s just not cool enough,” said Dufay.
We know the efficiency drops if there’s humidity and temps are above 95. But these systems live and pull air from rooftops that are much hotter. APS says its recorded temps of around 140 degrees.
It’s why many, like the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, are looking for a more reliable solution for the future.
“There was unanimous agreement that we have to start addressing this problem now,” said Ellen Bernstein, president of the Albuquerque Teacher’s Federation. “Every year it’s a little hotter and a little hotter, and we have more classrooms that are just inadequate to keep teaching and learning comfortably.”
We asked APS why they can’t overhaul current systems.
“A couple of things, cost, obviously is one, but when you do it, what are you going to do with the students?” said Dufay.
Dufay said overhauls routinely take six months, and sometimes much longer.
“Everything is going to come down to time and money, and the cost is so exorbitant to do it. So really there’s not one solution,” said Dufay.
For those schools, new roofing, new duct work, new technology, a total cost, the district said, of half a billion dollars.
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Some call the multi-million-dollar El Camino Real Heritage Center an architectural masterpiece. Others, however, call it one of New Mexico’s most expensive blunders. In 2021, former Speaker of the House Don Tripp weighed in on the project, “As far as benefit, it really didn’t have any benefit to anybody.”
Taxpayers paid more than $4,000,000 to build it, a few million dollars more to operate it and, now, a half million to tear it down.
The El Camino Real Heritage Center is a history museum dedicated to the historic ‘Royal Road of the Interior’. Established by Spanish conquistadores in 1598, the historic byway extended from Mexico City to north of Santa Fe. Armed with $4,000,000 from the state legislature and the Bureau of Land Management, consultants were hired to find the best place to build the new museum. After studying various locations, they chose a remote spot on the prairie 37 miles south of Socorro.
The experts said, ‘build halfway between Socorro and Truth or Consequences,’ and the museum will draw 100,000 visitors a year, bring in $10,000,000 to the region, and create 174 new jobs. Back in 2004, no one raised a red flag about putting a tourist attraction in an out-of-the-way location. It was only after construction was complete that officials learned the so-called experts were dead wrong. The project was doomed to fail before it even opened its doors. “Who the heck thought it was a good idea to build it where they built it?” State Rep. Gail Armstrong told KRQE News 13 last year.
The state’s newest museum opened in 2005. An estimated crowd of 2000 turned out for the dedication ceremony. Socorro Mayor Ravi Bhasker was there. “We had Bill Richardson out there cutting the ribbon, and then we had the Vice President of Spain come down here with his beautiful wife, and we had dignitaries everywhere. It was exciting,” Mayor Bhasker said.
But the excitement was short-lived. Where the historic El Camino Real trail was in use for three centuries, the museum with its namesake lasted just eleven years. The remote location meant few visitors, meager revenue, inadequate staffing, expensive utilities, and maintenance.
In 2016, New Mexico’s Cultural Affairs Department pulled the plug on the El Camino Real Heritage Center, padlocked the doors, and permanently closed the museum. The parking lot is deserted, tourists are gone, artifacts are packed away, display cases vacant, exhibits dismantled, interpretive panels removed, and the gift shop is bare. All there is to show for millions of tax dollars is an abandoned building on the prairie.
“Eleven years is disgraceful. There was a real failure in this particular project,” the late State Senator John Arthur Smith said in a 2021 interview. We asked the retired Senate Finance Committee Chair, when the history of this project is written, what will it say? “They’re going to shake their head and (use this as) another example of government waste,” the retired Senator Smith said in 2021.
So what do you do with a $4,000,000 deserted building in the middle of nowhere? Time and vandals have taken a toll. The museum was closed and boarded up in 2016, and then state officials abandoned the site. Because little effort was made to secure the empty building, it is no longer habitable. Copper wiring has been stolen. There is significant structural damage, mold, a rodent infestation, and no electricity or lights. Most of the HVAC, electrical, plumbing, water, and septic systems are either obsolete or inoperable.
Faced with a whopping $3.5 million repair bill, the Museum of New Mexico’s Board of Regents made the difficult decision last year to demolish the building. Board of Regent’s President, Dr. George Goldstein, calls the building, “A loss, a huge loss.”
“What a complete waste of taxpayer dollars,” says State Rep. Gail Armstrong who’s District 49 includes the museum site. And what did taxpayers get for their $4,000,000 investment? “Nothing. It just cost them a ton of money. Nothing,” Representative Armstrong said.
This week, a state-hired demolition crew began the task of tearing down the museum complex. Tons of concrete, steel, and glass will be hauled away. The parking lot and nearby caretaker’s house will also be ripped out. The prairie will be graded, reseeded with native plants, and returned to the Bureau of Land Management in restored, pristine condition. The demolition project is expected to take four months.
The El Camino Real museum was planned and built during the Governor Bill Richardson administration. All of the State Legislators involved in the funding of the museum project have since left government service.
Soon, the El Camino Real International Heritage Center will be just a bitter memory. All clues to the existence of a pricey government blunder will have been erased. Pay a visit to the remote spot south of Socorro later this fall, and all you will find will be desert creosote, prairie dogs, and a few rattlesnakes.
CLOVIS, New Mexico (KVII) — A baby giraffe was born at the Hillcrest Park Zoo in Clovis.
The city announced a male calf was born around 1 a.m. Thursday to Jerrica, a Rothschild giraffe who has lived at the zoo since she was born there in January 2012.
Zoo officials said Jerrica, a first-time mother, and her calf are doing well.
Baby giraffe born at the Hillcrest Park Zoo in Clovis, New Mexico on July 9, 2026 (Credit: Hillcrest Park Zoo )
The calf will make his public debut from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment you won’t want to miss! Bring your family, your camera, and your excitement as we welcome the zoo’s newest (and tallest!) superstar!” said the zoo.
Because the calf is male, he will eventually be moved from Hillcrest Park Zoo to another zoo or facility, according to the city.
The zoo plans to ask the public to help name the calf in the coming weeks.
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