United Way of Santa Fe County and New Mexico First released their Mobilizing for Education Excellence Summit report in late July. The report came out of the two-day meeting that took place at the Santa Fe Community College in June that was designed to come up with a community action plan to improve the quality of education in Santa Fe.

Three implementation teams that were formed during the summit will continue to meet every month through the end of the year to advance the suggestions put forth by the summit. Whether summit participants can find a way to truly fund and implement these ideas remains questionable, but here are some of the group's main recommendations:

• Start a literary initiative to "make reading cool" focusing on K-3 students.

• Train and pay teachers well.

• Lobby legislators for financial support for education

• Engage the community at large and parents in the system

• Actively recruit and train volunteers, and get local employers to give their employees time off so they can volunteer in the schools.

The full report can be found at nmfirst.org.

Another report — courtesy of the Rio Grande Foundation, an organization dedicated to the study of public policy — came out last week advocating for more online educational opportunities. "Enchanted Future: The Promise of Virtual Education in New Mexico," by Lance T. Izumi and Vicki (Murray) Alger, argues that New Mexico can improve and transform its quality of education by expanding virtual education opportunities in the schools. The report notes that New Mexico was the first state to create a statewide virtual learning system, Innovative Digital Education and Learning New Mexico (IDEAL-NM). I've put in a request to IDEAL to find out just where and how these virtual learning programs are being used.

It's not surprising to see the report suggesting that state legislators provide more funding for virtual education. Among the other recommendations: expand enrollment policies for virtual schools, eliminate rigid teacher certification mandates so specialists in specific fields can teach, and protect parents' rights as educators, particularly if their children are learning online at home.

Visit riograndefoundation.org to access the report

Four schools within Santa Fe Public Schools have received funding for the Fresh Fruit Vegetable Program for 2011/2012. The FFVP is part of the National School Lunch Act and will operate in selected schools in all 50 states. The New Mexico Public Education Department's Student Nutrition Bureau is allocating a total of $102,388 to Agua Fría, Kearny, Salazar, and Turquoise Trail elementary schools this year to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables that will be made available free of charge to students at least three days a week.

The New Mexican holds a Book Sale & Pet Adoption from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at its south-side New Mexican Plaza building (off the frontage road near the intersection of Cerrillos Road and N.M. 599). Book-sale proceeds support the Newspapers in Education program, which promotes the use of newspapers in the classroom (at no charge to the schools) in an effort to improve reading and writing skills. Proceeds from refreshment sales go to scholarship funding for our Generation Next student writers. You'll also find vinyl records, videos and pets from local animal shelters who are looking for homes. For more information, call Michelle Chavez, The New Mexican's NIE Coordinator, at 428-7620.

Santa Fe Public Schools' 2011/2012 calendar year begins on Monday, Aug. 15. See this past Saturday's New Mexican for our annual Back to School special section, which informs parents and students about the school year, the code of conduct, what supplies students need, snow-day procedures, and other school-related issues.