By Margaret Hopper

The Cobre school board met at the District Office in Bayard on Monday, October 13, 2014. Board president Toy Sepulveda opened the meeting at 7:20, with four members present. Frances Kelly was unable to attend.

Sepulveda said the closed session began at 6:05 and a number of topics were under discussion, but no decisions were made. Topics included in the closed session were limited personnel, regarding a resignation, the recent audit report, student identifiable information and goals for the superintendent.

Unfinished business was the Body-Mass-Index letter draft that would inform parents of the children in the grades assessed and of possible needs and practices to improve the health of some students. The board read the letter and approved it for that purpose.

In the public input session, Brandi Warhank thanked the board for approving the use of
facilities needed for instructing the Dig-It volley ball classes she, her husband and another adult were giving the children in elementary and junior high grades. She said 96
students had signed up for the classes, which were now in the fifth week. Three more weeks will complete the program for the year.

Warhank gave each board member a team shirt and invited them to come to the games, which were held on Sunday afternoons and root for the kids. While most were from the Cobre District, eight or ten had come in from Silver, as the instruction classes were open to the entire area. She said this year's kids were making good progress. The program has the backing of Kiwanis.

Superintendent Robert Mendoza asked the board to approve a use-of-facilities request from the Grant County Grapplers, who wanted to use both the high school gym and the elementary gym at Santa Clara. The board approved the request.

Mendoza also outlined a BAR (Budget Adjustment Request) made to the state public
education department to pay for textbooks used by students, who were taking dual-credit classes at WNMU. The amount of the request was $5795, and the board approved it.

Next came a list of fundraisers student groups were using for various projects. Groups requesting the opportunity and telling how they would raise the funds included Margaret Kesler's Hurley Elementary students, Judy Morris' Snell students, Betsi Pena's Snell students, and another group of Snell 8th graders who were saving up for summer camp. Cindy Lee's Snell students were raising funds in support of International Limbs.

High school requests for fundraisers included Jaeger and Montoya's junior class, Esparza's cheer leaders, Miller's WNMU group, the School Pride organization, Lisa Garcia's Student Council group and Gary Garcia's group planning for state conference.
All these groups had been pre-approved by the superintendent, who said he was keeping the board informed of these activities.

Next on the superintendent's report was mention of elementary calendars. Mendoza reminded the board that a local hero, one of the Navajo code talkers of World War II, would be honored in November on Veteran's Day at Central Elementary in Santa Clara.

Cobre High School has once again won the Director's Cup for activities, which include the band, cheerleaders and other student involvement in a broad spectrum of school events, as a 4A school. Athletics, club efforts, and student achievements all count. According to principal Frank Quarrell, both co-curricular and extra-curricular efforts count toward the award. He said Pat Abalos had a lot to do with the honors.

This year's award is preceded by another from 2013, when Cobre was classified 2A. Abalos said Cobre would hold the trophy through this year; by next October, the award would go back to Albuquerque for placement to the school that earns it in the year 2014-2015.

The October 27 board meeting is being moved from Monday to Wednesday night, October 29. It, too, will be at the District Office in Bayard. The November 10 meeting is scheduled to be held at Hurley Elementary. The second November meeting will be in the Thanksgiving period and has not been scheduled.

The student representative, Leticia Rodriguez, was not at the board meeting and no report was given on events at the high school.

Sepulveda commented that at the Albuquerque meeting for board members, there were 13 resolutions submitted, two of them repeated from previous sessions and eleven new resolutions. He thought all of these were passed.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:35, resulting in a total meeting time of about fifteen to seventeen minutes.