By Margaret Hopper

The Silver school board met at Cliff on November 18, 2014, with a bare quorum of Tony Egan, Arnold Torrez and Trent Petty, as Chris Arvidson was absent and a new member was yet to be installed. The work session began at 5:35 p.m. Much of the discussion in that part was about the state evaluation process for teachers.

Superintendent Lon Streib said a complex "value added" system was under development at state level, but at present the district would be permitted to evaluate on a "what-we-see" basis, in which district administrators were setting up criteria on what counted with district needs. Streib said teachers needed to know how they were being evaluated and the district would use this until the state had time to work out something other than what it was presently offering.

Streib also discussed the need for changes in the calendar, which he hoped would be adopted in the 2015-2016 year. One was changing the Early Releases, which now happened once a month on Wednesdays, to shorter but more often ones of about an hour and a half on Fridays. He suggested that many parents might appreciate the slightly earlier breaks into the weekends, and that these would not disrupt student work to the degree that they did now, in the middle of a school week.

Another change would be to plan the graduations at Cliff, Silver and Opportunity schools, so that none would fall on Sunday, as they presently do, because the state athletic competitions competed with the graduations every year. Streib said he hoped there would be solutions to this and that they would be included in the calendars from the beginning, rather than being added later by special votes.

The short work session ended at 5:50 and a ten-minute break was allowed before the second session began at 6:00. In this brief period a number of people arrived for the longer meeting, which would carry the formal decisions. Silver City people were well represented in the audience at this point, a change from years past, in which few had traveled to Cliff meetings.

The first action item of the main session was the introduction of a candidate the board members had selected to interview publicly and consider as a replacement for the open seat. In discussion, the board said they had contacted all applicants and were ready to proceed.

Anthony Gutierrez, who presently works for Grant County, stepped forward and stated his qualifications, which he said included work with non-profits, budgets, direction of up to 33 employees, contract negotiations, projects at local, federal and state levels, grant writing, 23 years in administrative work, and an interest in helping those students who wanted to be able to work on high school graduation, to reach that goal, well prepared.

Upon a board motion and vote to accept him, he was then sworn in and seated at the table with the other board members, and given materials the others had received earlier.

During the Public Comment section, Sandra Estrada, board secretary, said there were no requests to be presented at this time. The next item was a report on Cliff Schools by the principal, Dean Spurgeon. He told of the recent remodeling projects in the school's 27 restrooms, most of which were still equipped from the period when they were built, going back to the 1940s and '50s, in some cases. It would take time, but eventually, they would be upgraded. A few were already finished.

He mentioned the work being done in drama, as students were now interested in producing plays. In marks from the state, Cliff had been rated an A school, the same as the year before. Spurgeon also remarked on the excellent community support in many areas, including fundraisers, and the nature of students who soaped windows on this Hallowe'en Night, then spent the weekend cleaning them up. He said he was proud of everything Cliff did, both students and adults.

Wayne Sherwood spoke for the Education Association, with hopes for another successful negotiation this year. Lon Streib said it was time to start negotiations again, and the team would be the same as last year: Candy Milam, finances, Beth Lougee, high school principal, Travis Ursic, principal of Jose Barrios, and Wayne Mendonca, La Plata principal. He asked those who had concerns to present them and start talking, so the work could be completed successfully again.

Milam reported that the recent audit by Stone-McGee & Company was finished, approved at state, and she hoped to present the findings to the board very soon—at the December meeting, Stone could possibly make the report public. Streib commented that it was another clean audit with no major findings to report.

Gutierrez commented that there were financial opportunities to enter into competition for funds from Freeport-McMoRan; the deadline is December 1, and it is late, but not too late, to send a proposal. Local schools should try for these grants. He said, as a part of that committee, he couldn't help anyone by advising, but he would encourage them to try.

In Milam's report, she asked for approval of the October check total of $2,525,133.66, and the Budget
Adjustment Request (BAR) of $39,612 which finished the recent transaction by Montoya Transportation for the two new buses. This would clear the paperwork with the state. Further, she reported a donation of $10,000 from Freeport-McMoRan, which was to be used for field trips and other student use. The board voted to approve these items.

A separate action approved the graduation dates of May 15 for Cliff, May 16 for Opportunity High, and May 17 for Silver High. Two more resolutions made way for the February school district elections and election procedures. Because newly appointed Gutierrez said Tuesday evenings would work as meeting nights for him, no change was needed on meeting times. The last motion approved the superintendent's attendance at New Mexico School Board Association's Annual Convention in Albuquerque on December 5-6.

The next board meeting will be back at the Administrative Building, on December 16, with the work session at 5:00 p.m. and the action session beginning at 6:00 p.m. There was no closed session at the Cliff meeting this November. The meeting was adjourned at 6:53 p.m.