By Margaret Hopper
The Cobre School Board met in the Snell Middle School lobby on Monday, February 09, 2015, with all five board members in attendance. Board president Toy Sepulveda called the meeting to order at about 7:20 p.m. He announced that at the earlier 6:00 closed session, they had discussed student identifiable information, limited personnel, and contracts for food service. No decisions were made at that time.
High school principal Frank Quarrell spoke about the PARCC Test scheduling coming up shortly. The juniors would be tested first in the morning, the sophomores after them, and the freshmen in the afternoon. The scores of the juniors would influence graduation decisions, and they were given the priority early morning use of computers. When finished, juniors would be free to leave. Sophomore scores could be banked for the future. Freshman scores were not significant for graduation levels, but they would affect the school's ratings. When each class was finished with testing, students would be free to leave.
Seniors, most of them not involved with the testing, unless they needed to take finals that they didn't pass as juniors, would not be at school during the testing. Quarrell said that it was possible some computers might malfunction, and techs would be working on them to keep the testing going. He noted the high-anxiety levels students had about the testing and said he had been working with them to bring this down. There were testing windows in parts of the year when these tests could be scheduled, and some periods would cover four or five days.
Under Public Input, Linda Pafford of Mimbres told the board that its past minutes were not properly displayed on the website, that the agenda appeared to be posted too late and not in the proper form. These omissions were not optional; they must be corrected in the future.
Pafford said she came to ask the board to correct injustices being thrust on the children; the testing was out of control, regardless of the hard work everyone was doing to meet the demands. She said the testing was helping corporate pockets, but hurting kids, the curriculum, and creating excessive stress. She said the board had the power to refuse these state mandates. Parents and others were standing up to the threats the system was imposing, and she asked the board to stand against it, too. These evaluations were not the way to go; she hoped the board would "just say no." For help on how to change what was happening in schools, she suggested a website, Dianeravitch.net.
Judy Morris, teacher, introduced three of possibly 35 Snell students, who were trying to raise funds for a five-day trip to California in June. The students told of their efforts to raise the money. Some qualifying requirements were grade-point averages, attitude and other aspects. The schedule includes a flight from El Paso to Long Beach, where they will tour a battleship and the Queen Mary. San Juan Capistrano, Disneyland and other attractions have their part, as well as time on the beach and an Astros game. Then, it's back home. Kelly asked how far along they were on goals; Morris said about halfway, but they would be working long and hard to raise as much as possible in the school year.
Chris Rottman, principal of Snell Middle School, told the board of the diagnostic testing in Read 180 for 7th and 8th graders, and of the way they were handling the process to get improvement from the students. There are three testing periods over the year; early after school started, a second one in December, and another one later before school is out.
He said students who rushed through were asked to go back over the work. Comparing 7th grade scores, the average rise of sixty to seventy points came after the second test. Eighth grade results were similar; starting at about 559 points and ending at about 629 points-the growth was impressive. Even the students in the lower quartile classes were showing growth and working hard to improve, whether they were up to proficiency or not.
Regarding fundraisers, Frank Cordova questioned the wording on the band's application. It mentioned the coverage of food and other expenses not provided on the trip. His question was whether the district sent the kids to events where their expenses were not met. The explanation was that on most trips, such as sports, when their event was over, they came home. But because band so consistently took firsts, they stayed an extra day for the awards, and they paid for that day themselves.
This Wednesday is parent-teacher conference day, and students will be released for that. Monday, February 17, they will be out again for President's Day, according to Superintendent Robert Mendoza.
After the superintendent's report, a sophomore, Hannah Burnette, gave the student-representative report. She talked about the testing schedule and PARCC tests. Students thanked the board for the new student activity bus. Students also decried the "bland food" but were told the cooks are not allowed to use salt, so they can bring their own from home and improve the taste of it. Students did appreciate the salad bar and the different food choices.
Barnette mentioned the hopes for the varsity wrestling team and boys' and girls' basketball teams, as students were heading into district games and getting close to state tournaments. Rottman said the morning half of February 27 would be Career Day, with presenters coming to each of the 12 classrooms. One would be a chef.
The meeting ended shortly after 8 p.m. The next board meeting is slated February 23 at the District Office in Bayard.