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Category: Front Page News Front Page News
Published: 11 June 2013 11 June 2013

By Margaret Hopper

Cobre school board met at the District Office in Bayard on June 10 at 7:00 p.m. Chairman Toy Sepulveda called the meeting to order with all members present, announcing that the closed meeting began at 6:00 p.m. considering student identifiable information, limited personnel, investigation of an incident and possible pending litigation related to special education issues. No decisions had been made.

Board member Fran Kelly asked questions about the 2013-2014 Title I and Title II ESEA Consolidated application. Jose Carrillo verified that staff and teachers had been included in the process and that there was parent involvement in the related activities. Carrillo said the individual schools were scheduling a Math Night and Reading Night plus other activities. Kelly further asked confirmation on assurances about constitutional prayer, salute to the flag and similar policies. Carrillo said the district didn’t restrict these events.

Further information about the K-3Plus summer program said that grades 4-5-6 would also be involved in remedial work separate from but simultaneously with the K-3Plus program. There would be four or five teachers working the grades 4 to 6 students who needed remediation. Carrillo expected 80 students would participate, of which 66 percent must be from Cobre District and others could be from other areas. He said he thought no child would be refused.

Peru said teachers would start on July 1 and students would come July 2 for the next 5 weeks. In addition to the math and reading, there would be some physical education, art and music instruction. Regarding the K-3Plus program, the number was now 169 signed up and that represented 41 percent of the Cobre children in those grades. The board voted to approve the application. A paragraph of information prepared by the district will follow at the end of this report for further parent information.

The board also approved the Elementary Arts Education Program request application for the year 2013-2014. Regarding the list of 2013-2014 scheduled board meetings, Cordova asked if it identified when board meetings would be held at the various schools in the district. Peru said those decisions would be made later. The list of meetings was approved.

The bids for the milk for the district came down to a single firm, Price, as Shamrock failed to return its bid by the deadline. The Price bid was accepted without competition at $73,760.85 for the year.

In the superintendent’s report, Peru said Tatsch Construction had accepted conditions in the letter of intent for work on Bayard Elementary. One benefit expected with Tatsch is the opinions of Project Manager Linda Hutto and Quality Control Bryan Head. Peru said they would be looking for ways to save the district money where a reduced amount of work could be justified.

The project contract is stated at $8.6 million and if the work could be reduced, that amount could be slightly less. The school’s portion of the financing was at 43 percent of the expenses. Sepulveda asked if substitute workers could be hired from local sources. Peru said that was a possibility and that some sub-contractors who had proven lacking in the past might also be avoided for what the district hoped would be more reliable ones.

The district’s New Mexico Skills USA group reported it had already raised $7100 of the $11,000 needed to pay for students to attend national and other competitions coming up shortly. Peru said the event Hurley Elementary wanted help with was posing a problem as that activity didn’t meet the definition of a school function. In the past, donations from Freeport McMoRan had helped fund these excursions, but the donated amounts had been reduced from about $40,000-$50,000 to more like $10,000-$15,000 this past year.

In the public input session Sepulveda said the Forest Service’s request for use of facilities over the summer was already being acted upon as it had set up a command center at San Lorenzo and by 1:40 this morning had evacuated some people from Kingston. The fire was identified as Silver Creek, in the Black Range.

The amount of the budget approved on June 4 and sent to the state was reported at $11,504,527. The budget work is expected to be returned from the state and finalized by the board shortly. On Thursday, June 13, the board plans to interview for the superintendent position.

Notice:
The Cobre Consolidated School District K-3Plus Jump Start Program will begin July 2, 2013 and end on August 7, 2013 for students who will be entering kindergarten, 1st, 2nd or 3rd grade for the 2013-2014 school year. Students will attend from 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Monday – Friday. The K-3Plus program will be held at Bayard, Central, Hurley and San Lorenzo elementary schools.

The K-3Plus program is an extension of the regular school year with 25 additional instructional days focused on Reading, Math, Bilingual Education, Fine Arts and Physical Education. Registration is still open, so do not miss out on this great opportunity. Call the district office at 575-537-4010 to make arrangements for registration or for additional information.

The board adjourned at 7:30 p.m.