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DIVE INTO DISTRICT
2015
MATANZA
Investing in our culture
VC hoops squads start league play this week Sports 7A
Special Section
JANUARY 22, 2015
News-Bulletin
SPECIAL EDITION
VALENCIA
COUNTY
Vol. 105, No. 4
SERVING VALENCIA COUNTY SINCE 1910
WEEK OF
JANUARY 22, 2015
Copyright © 2015, Valencia County News-Bulletin
50¢
Board places
Marquez on
paid leave
BHS staffer
arrested on
sex charges
By Julia M. Dendinger
By Clara Garcia
Belen
Belen
NEWS-BULLETIN ASSISTANT EDITOR
jdendinger@news-bulletin.com
The Belen Consolidated Schools
superintendent found himself at home
channel surfing Tuesday morning,
after receiving a letter from the school
board putting him on paid administrative leave.
Ron Marquez is still the superintendent for BCS, but he
couldn’t say why he’s
on leave. Marquez
said he was given a
letter Tuesday morning informing him
he was being placed
on paid leave, was
not to contact district Ron Marquez
employees or be on On paid leave
district property.
“The letter didn’t
indicate why I was placed on leave,”
Marquez said.
The superintendent said he met with
Belen Board of Education President
Larry Lindberg and turned over district property, such as the laptop and
vehicle he had been issued.
“I really can’t say much more,” the
superintendent said.
While Marquez is out on leave, the
district’s finance director George Perea
will be handling his duties.
Marquez’s sudden leave of absence
comes after an ongoing discussion
between he and the board about his
annual evaluation and whether to
renew his contract.
“It is their right not to renew my
contract,” Marquez said.
When reached by phone Tuesday
morning, Lindberg said he could not
comment on “a pending personnel
issue.” The board president said he
couldn’t say why Marquez was placed
on administrative leave.
“We will probably know more in
a day or two. Hopefully by Friday or
Monday, we will have a statement,”
Lindberg told the News-Bulletin.
The start of the new year marked
NEWS-BULLETIN EDITOR
cgarcia@news-bulletin.com
Clara Garcia-News-Bulletin photos
SHANNON WILSON and Chris Clark sang the national anthem at the 22nd annual Belen Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. Multicultural Commission’s candlelight vigil on Monday. The crowd celebrated the memory and dream of Dr.
King at the Heart of Belen Plaza.
Honoring
the Dream
Belen Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. Multicultural Commission
celebrates civil rights legend
By Clara Garcia
NEWS-BULLETIN EDITOR
cgarcia@news-bulletin.com
Belen
For many, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a time
for service and remembrance. Roughly three dozen people in the community came to the Heart of Belen Plaza
Monday to enjoy musical performances and speeches,
honoring and celebrating King’s message.
The annual event, hosted by the Belen Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. Multicultural Commission, has attracted
people from around the area for more than two decades.
After a march from the Belen Public Library to the
Heart of Belen Plaza, presentation of the colors by
Belen High School’s NJROTC, a prayer and the national
anthem, Belen Mayor Jerah Cordova, who is a member
ARIA DURAN, 3, of Belen, holds up her candle at
the 22nd annual Belen Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Multicultural Commission’s candlelight vigil on
See Dream, Page 8A Monday at the Heart of Belen Plaza.
See Marquez, Page 3A
A special needs educational assistant at Belen High School is sitting
behind bars, charged with allegedly
having a sexual relationship with one
of her students, sending him provocative pictures and serving him alcohol.
Victoria Baker, 34, of Belen, is
charged with six
counts of criminal
sexual penetration,
eight counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor,
two counts of child
neglect or abuse
and five counts of Victoria Baker
Arrested, charged
tampering with evidence.
She is being held at the Valencia
County Detention Center in Los Lunas
on a $300,000 cash or surety bond. The
Belen Consolidated School district has
placed Baker on paid administrative
leave.
Baker was arrested by agents
with the New Mexico State Police
Investigations Bureau on Friday after
interviewing a 17-year-old Belen High
School student, who told them he had
been having a sexual relationship with
her since November.
According to the criminal complaint, the teenager told the agents he
had started a personal relationship with
Baker after he got her cell phone number. He said his first sexual encounter with Baker was in November at
her home. The relationship continued
through December, and the teen said
they had sex about seven more times at
her house as well as his cousin’s home.
The Belen High School student also
told police that during his conversations with Baker via text messages
that she sent him multiple nude photographs of herself.
“(The teen) said that during their
relationship, he would stay at her house
almost every day and on three occaSee Charges, Page 8A
Moreno naMed chaMber’s
citizen of the Year
By Clara Garcia
NEWS-BULLETIN EDITOR
cgarcia@news-bulletin.com
Belen
Clara Garcia-News-Bulletin photo
MIKE MORENO, a volunteer at the Belen Harvey House Museum, the Belen Public Library, Belen
MainStreet Partnership and who is working on opening a non-profit gallery in the Hub City, was
named the Greater Belen Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year. Pictured, from left, are Anna
Duran, the chamber’s past president; Mike Moreno, Citizen of the Year; Tom Greer, chamber president; and Rhona Baca Espinoza, the chamber’s executive director.
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Mike Moreno is proud to have grown up and to
live in Belen, a city to which he gives his time,
his labor and his heart. Moreno was named the
Greater Belen Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of
the Year at Saturday’s annual installation banquet.
Rudy Espinoza, the emcee for the night, introduced Moreno, describing him as a “dream chaser,” a “mentor” and a “giver.”
Moreno returned to Belen several years ago
after a career in California to help his family care
for his mother, Mary. Upon his return home to the
Hub City, he decided to become a volunteer at the
Belen Harvey House Museum and Belen Public
Library and where ever he is needed.
“His passion is volunteering in the arts community, not just for himself, but he looks at everyone
he comes in contact with as a potential artist,”
Espinoza said. “He believes everyone has a talent.”
With his eye for art and artists, Moreno is working on opening a new non-profit gallery in Belen
Classified ...... 4B
Editorial .........4A
Databank .......2A
News Digest ...2A
Deaths............6A
La Vida .......... 1B
for local artists.
“This is just amazing — I’m just shocked,”
Moreno said Saturday. “I lived in Hollywood for a
long time and I never got an award.
“I just really want to thank all the volunteers
from the Harvey House who just do an amazing
job, and all the people on MainStreet and the other
volunteers in the community,” he added. “I like
doing things here in Belen. I used to be one of the
people who would always say, ‘I just hate it here,’
but one day, I decided I had to stop that because it
didn’t do anyone any good and it didn’t do me any
good.”
Moreno said he’s tried to encourage people to
think of the positive and making things better for
other people.
“We just have to keep the positive going,” he
said.
The Service Organization Award was presented
to the Belen Area Food Pantry. The criteria for the
award is a club or organization that gives service
to the community without pay.
The BAFP, which has been in existence for
20 years, recently moved from the First Baptist
See Chamber, Page 8A
Noticias ......... 3B
Record ............6A
Sports.............7A
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