Nick Seibel, publisher and editor of the Silver City Daily Press, covers top stories each week on the Silver City Report. This week we hear about a change in a lawsuit filed against individuals associated with COBRE Consolidated School District, a pair of twin boys who marched the Bataan Death March and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham lauding WNMU.
Susan Morée:
So Nick, there were some lawsuits against COBRE and the former superintendent and a current board member, and there's been a new update on this. What's happened? Tell us about it.
Nick Seibel:
Yeah, there are actually fiveseparate civil lawsuits that date back to November of 2023 and February of 2024 that were filed by five former COBRE school employees. Most of them were administrators, kind of high-level employees, and they made a lot of allegations in those lawsuits. Among them that Gilbert Guadiana, who's a member of the school board, and then Superintendent Jeff Spoletta had conspired to fire them after they'd made complaints against Guadiana, who got censured by the board back in 2021 and actually has been censured by the board. He's a controversial member of the board, but the longest serving member of the COBRE School Board at this point, just got reelected last fall, in fact. So, part of the reason for the dismissal of the two individuals from the lawsuits is that when the lawsuits were first filed, they also included counts of racketeering and infliction of emotional distress. And those were actually dismissed from the suits pretty early on. So, for the last year or so, they've kind of been expecting those two individuals to be released from the lawsuits. This gets the former superintendent out of those, which I'm sure he was anxious to have happen. Mr. Guadiano, on the other hand, is still a member of the school board, and the school board as a whole is still fighting the remainder of the charges in the civil suits. So that will continue for him, at least as part of the board.
Susan Morée:
Okay, and you've got a really sweet story for us about two twin brothers. Tell us about that.
Nick Seibel:
Law and Orion Sturdevant, who are both nine years old, twin brothers, and they completed the annual Bataan Memorial Death March that took place at White Sands. That's been a couple of months ago now, but we don’t know that they're the youngest ones ever, but we do know that they're among the youngest kids ever to participate. And they were really interested in doing this. So they were very interested in history and also just the idea of setting records, doing things that hadn't been done before. And so that was kind of the appeal to them. They also marched in sort of memory of a specific veteran who was caught up in the death march during World War II. And so, it was a great learning opportunity. This year was a particularly hot death march, and they still made it through and finished.
Susan Morée:
All right. Good for them. That's a great story. And the governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, visited Silver City recently. What happened?
Nick Seibel:
Yeah, commencement at Western was last Friday, and she was the commencement speaker for the university. And so, you know, the governor's really kind of been at the center of a lot of the controversy at the university over the last couple of years. She appoints the Boards of Regents for all of the universities in the state. And after the previous Board of Regents gave what a lot of folks perceived to be a golden parachute to [former WNMU president] Joe Shepard, she asked for the resignation of the last Board of Regents, and they all did that. She appointed a whole new Board of Regents, and they recently hired a new permanent president of the university who starts work here in a month or so. And so, the governor showing up and being the commencement speaker was kind of a big deal after all of the controversy, which, of course, she didn't mention in her speech. She did talk a lot about Western New Mexico University and their leadership in early childhood education. They've got the Early Childhood Ed Center of Excellence. You know, Western has really been a leader in early childhood education. And of course, the governor, one of her big priorities in her second term has been the expansion of universal childcare across the state. And she talked about how key Western meeting that goal and making that happen all across New Mexico. So definitely, a feather in the cap and hopefully a fresh start for the university there.
Susan Morée:
Okay, and where can readers find these stories, Nick?
Nick Seibel:
You can find us online 24/7 at scdailypress.com.
Susan Morée:
All right, thanks so much.
Nick Seibel:
Thank you. Have a great week.
