By Margaret Hopper

The Silver school board held a very brief special meeting on Tuesday, June 17, rather than cancel out entirely, as certain request applications and bids needed attention to keep the financial process going, according to board president Trent Petty. The meeting began at 6:00 p.m. instead of the usual 5:00 workshop and many of the usual reports were missing.

The board members themselves were a scant three, just enough to create a quorum to do the abbreviated work on the agenda. Tony Egan and Arnold Torres were the other two. Few staff members attended, signaling that this was not the usual meeting.

The sign carriers who promised to picket the board were winding up their bid for attention about 5:45 as clouds rolled in and a few sprinkles threatened their efforts. Most of them went in to the meeting, joining a few community people already seated. Other latecomers continued to drift in after the meeting started. As previously stated, the special meeting did not include public input opportunities.

Petty explained later that Thursday, the usual day, appeared to offer no quorum at all. Often in the off-school months the board would simply drop a meeting when so many interruptions surfaced, but that was not an option this time, he said. There were too many time-critical needs that had to be addressed to keep the work on schedule later.

In the short agenda, the board approved the applications for Title I and Title II requests. The amount of $754,724 would be spent mostly for elementary children and pre-schoolers, to develop their math and reading skills. Title I is aimed at helping low-income children succeed. Another application, the Bilingual forms, requested funding for 120 hours of instruction, and much of that would be directed to La Plata. On both applications, the motion carried to approve them.

Another resolution the board approved was for Participation in the Local Government Road Fund, administered by the New Mexico Department of Transportation. In the past year, according to Petty, the northernmost area of the Fox Field parking lot had been resurfaced; this request would see the repaving carried on from where the first work had left off, and this funding allowance should cover most of southern end of that large lot. The board approved that resolution. Funding requested was $29,569. NMDOT usually pays 75% of an approved project, the local school, 25%.

The bids that have been received included bakery products, milk, paper supplies, propane and diesel fuels, and flooring for the football locker room. Many of the bids had a single quote. Where the conditions had been met, the board approved the single bids at this meeting.

Armstrong's Floor and Wall of Silver City was awarded the locker room flooring at its bid price of $27,627.12. Flowers Baking of El Paso, single bidder, asked for $1.61 for 60 count 4-inch whole grain buns, $1.21 for a dozen wheat hot dog buns, $3.99 per dozen
Hoagies, and $.99 per sandwich loaf, regular wheat.

Prices Dairy, El Paso, single bidder, quoted $.2555 for a half pint of fat free chocolate milk, $.2455 for low fat milk and the same for skim milk.

Griffin Propane, Silver City, single bidder, asked $1.49 per gallon/ $.46 over rack price.

Fuel Center Plus Inc. of Silver City, single bidder, quoted $3.38 for Diesel fuel, $.50 over rack price.

In the only contested bidding, Contract Paper Group of Uniontown, OH asked $25.20 per case; Quill Corporation bid $29.99 per case. Contract Group was awarded the bid.

All bids were for the 2014-2015 school year. The board approved those given above.

After the bids and awards, Trish Martinez, assistant superintendent, asked the board to allow an additional item, the Rural Low Income School Application, to be added to the night's work, although it had not been previously placed on the agenda. The request was for $58,954, which would help homeless children with books, consumables and other needs. The board voted to allow this agenda change.

According to Streib, the rules have changed a lot in the past year; the same problems exist, but many formerly approved expenses now no longer qualify. The district will help the children as best it can. These funds come out of New Mexico Public Education Department.

The very short meeting ended before 6:20. The July meeting is scheduled for July 17, at the district office, according to Sandra Estrada, secretary, but that is subject to change as
Board meetings in the summer often have conflicts.