By Margaret Hopper

Cobre's school board met July 28 at the district office in Bayard. All five board members were present for the very short open meeting that began at 7:06. Before this, the board had met in closed session to discuss limited personnel issues, student identifiable information, goals for the superintendent, food service changes and the recent financial audit report. No decisions were made in the closed meeting, according to Toy Sepulveda, president of the board.

The major business at this short meeting was the review of June bills amounting to $2,345,241.64. There was no discussion on the bills and the board approved them.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:15. The next meeting is scheduled for August 11 at the District Office.

In a phone call to Alma Grijalva, Food Service Director, she said there was word that the new food contracting agent, Southwest Food Service Excellence, said there would be a meeting with cafeteria personnel on this coming Monday, August 4. In the past, there was USDA training for a couple of staff members from various districts, in Albuquerque, which would last about a week. She thought there would be a chef trained and assigned to Cobre in the new agreement with SWFS Excellence.

Grijalva said she couldn't predict what changes were presently being made, but USDA control was mandatory and it would be hard for any food contractor to meet its standards; she couldn't even add salt unless guidelines specified it. If the district was not in total compliance, it could be fined or shut down. She said she would wait and see how the new arrangement works.

Irene Rodriguez said the 2014-2015 school year would begin with grades 1 through 7 and 9 attending on August 12, and grades 8, 10, 11 and 12 beginning on August 13. The kindergarten children would start on August 18. The K-3 plus students had already been in classes over the summer, but there was no new information about them, yet.

The update on Bayard Elementary work is that the interior work is finished, but the paving is only 20 percent done, according to George Peru, and until Deming Excavating can finish, there is no certificate of occupancy to open the doors. Peru said recent rains had slowed the work down. The board had postponed taking the tour of the school before this meeting and should do that before the next board meeting on August 11.