DIXON — Tasked with teaching students in kindergarten through second grade, Patricia Mondragón rushed around her classroom to dish out three distinct sets of curriculum to kids clustered by grade.

“ I'm just trying to do the best with what I was given to do this year — what was put on my plate,” she said Tuesday. “But I'm not sure how it's going to affect students later.”

While combined classrooms of students in two different grades have been common at Dixon Elementary School, Mondragón is new to teaching three grades at once. The lack of a dedicated kindergarten teacher this year is the result of budget tightening amid dwindling enrollment across Española Public Schools, which might end in a decision to close the elementary.

Mondragón, who has just four or five kids at each grade level

See Full Page