The Gadsden Independent School District on meeting night recognized student accomplishments across extracurricular and academic programs, including state‑level esports placements, national qualifiers in career‑technical student organizations and dozens of scholarship awards.

Superintendent Dempsey opened the recognitions by introducing esports sponsors and student competitors from Gadsden High School and Santa Teresa High School. Esports sponsor Patrick Baca described the program as “playing video games after school, but for educational reasons,” and said Gadsden’s teams produced multiple state‑level finishes over the last two seasons, including a state championship in Madden 25 and runner‑up status in the 5A overall competition.

Why it matters: Administrators said esports brings students with diverse interests and backgrounds into structured after‑school activity, and the district identified the program as one of the larger extracurricular offerings in New Mexico.

The board also recognized students who qualified for national competition through Educators Rising and other career technical student organizations. Ben Trehill, representing the Karen M. Trujillo Memorial Foundation, announced a $5,000 donation to GISD to help defray travel and competition costs for qualifying students.

The Gadsden Foundation Scholarship — funded entirely by GISD employees — was presented to seniors from multiple campuses. Counselors from Alta Vista Early College, Chaparral High, Desert Pride Academy, Gadsden High and Santa Teresa High introduced individual scholarship recipients and summarized their academic plans and honors.

The district also announced a large bilingual‑seal recognition: staff reported 187 students awarded New Mexico’s State Seal of Bilingualism and Biliteracy across district schools this year. Presenters said participation nearly doubled from the previous year, and they singled out Alta Vista, Chaparral, Gadsden and Santa Teresa high schools for particularly high numbers of recipients. The district said each bilingual recipient in attendance would receive a $25 Walmart gift card funded by local partners.

District leaders closed the segment by thanking sponsors, coaches, teachers and families and by saying the recognitions reflect sustained campus and community support.

Ending: Board members and the superintendent used the recognitions item to highlight the district’s extracurricular breadth and community partnerships; no formal action was taken on the recognitions beyond public acknowledgment and acceptance of donations.