Belen schools name veteran educator David Glasrud teacher of the year

Belen Consolidated Schools named veteran educator David “Scott” Glasrud its Teacher of the Year for the 2025-26 school year, recognizing a career that now spans 28 years and reaches far beyond one classroom.

Glasrud’s path to the honor reflects the mix of instruction, student support and school leadership that Belen leaders say has shaped his work. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in special education from the University of New Mexico, then later received a PhD in finance and administration from Northfield University. Over the course of his career, he has served as an educational assistant, basketball coach, teacher, special education department chair, assistant principal and charter school head administrator.

The work that helped distinguish him in Belen centers on the district’s Interim Alternative Educational Setting for elementary-aged students. Glasrud began as an instructor there three years ago, helping lead a program designed for children who need a different path than a traditional classroom can offer. Glasrud said Belen Consolidated Schools’ middle- and high-school alternative setting dates back to the era of Public Law 94-142, later IDEA, but district leaders saw in 2023 that too many students were being placed into alternative education only after falling far behind academically and sometimes after accumulating legal trouble.

The elementary version was created to intervene earlier, rebuild missing academic skills and teach self-regulation strategies before those problems escalated. Glasrud said he and assistant Scott Ross work to get to know students and families personally, then issue a report at the end of placement with recommendations for referring teachers. He described the job as teaching social-emotional learning, remediating academic deficits and training staff at the district’s seven elementary schools on strategies that worked for individual students.

That work unfolds inside a district serving 3,463 students across 10 accountable schools, according to the 2024-25 NM Vistas report. The district’s reported proficiency rates were 25% in math, 42% in reading and 21% in science, while the BCS NM VISTAS page lists Belen Family School, Dennis Chavez Elementary and Gil Sanchez Elementary as Spotlight schools. It also reports graduation rates of 71.1% for four years, 70.5% for five years and 80.5% for six years, underscoring the academic pressure points facing schools in Belen and the need for interventions that reach students earlier.

Glasrud’s selection follows a district pattern of honoring educators tied closely to student support. Tracey Shaw, a fourth-grade teacher at Dennis Chavez Elementary, was named the district’s 2024-25 Teacher of the Year, and Len Ridley previously held the title while leading the middle and high school alternative education setting at Infinity High School.

Glasrud’s recognition arrives with a complicated public record that includes a 2018 federal sentence tied to charter-school fraud convictions. Even so, his current role highlights the district’s focus on early support, family engagement and school-based intervention for students who need a different kind of help to stay on track.