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Committee forwards Rosemary Gallegos to full Senate for New Mexico School for the Deaf Board of Regents
Summary
The Senate Rules Committee voted to advance former superintendent Rosemary Gallegos’ nomination to the New Mexico School for the Deaf Board of Regents after supporters described her long career in deaf education and expansion of early intervention services.
Rosemary (Rosie) Gallegos, former superintendent of the New Mexico School for the Deaf (NMSD), was advanced by the Senate Rules Committee to the full Senate for confirmation to the NMSD Board of Regents.
Senator Stewart introduced Gallegos and outlined her career: Gallegos worked at NMSD beginning in 1984 as a preschool teacher and later rose to superintendent from 2015 to 2021. “When I started out, working at the New Mexico School for the Deaf in 1984, right after I had received my master's degree in deaf education, I became a preschool teacher, which was my dream job,” Gallegos told the committee. She described early intervention expansion during her tenure and said the program now finds children “as early as 3 days old,” a change she credited to outreach and program development.
Three witnesses spoke in organized support: Mary Lynn Bransford, identified as a former NMSD student and president of the NMSD Alumni Association, said Gallegos had “fought against language deprivation” and was “an outstanding leader.” Joanne Corwin, identified as director of early intervention services at NMSD, provided program detail, saying direct services grew to “around 260 families each year” and that outreach now serves thousands more. Current superintendent Jennifer Herbold said the board currently lacked an educator with Gallegos’ policy and administrative experience and that Gallegos would fill that gap.
Senators asked Gallegos about outreach, transition services and extracurricular programming. Gallegos described athletics, academic bowl and robotics participation, summer immersion events, and the Sky High early intervention curriculum, which she said the school helped implement and later update.
Senator Bergman moved to forward the nomination to the full Senate. A roll-call vote recorded Senators Bergman (yes), Block (aye), Brantley (yes), Gallegos (yes), Stefanik (yes), Stewart (yes), Townsend (yes) and Jaramillo (yes) voting in favor; Senators Lopez and Duhigg were recorded as excused. The clerk announced the nomination would move to the full Senate with eight yes and two excused.
Gallegos’ nomination will be scheduled for a full Senate confirmation vote.
