The work session of Silver school board meeting began at 5:00 p.m. with four board members present.

Arnold Torrez, vice chair, presided until the reorganization which happened in the second session.

The first item was to swear in Mike McMillan. Apparently Frances Vasquez had already been sworn in at state level in meetings earlier at Albuquerque.

Superintendent Lon Streib called on Ben Potts, the district's network director, to explain the CIPA, Children's Internet Protection Act, which was informational only and did not require any board action. His overview included points on appropriate materials, safety, hacking, use of personal information and filtering. There were ways to educate students, teachers and administrators, and to inform parents about the protection system. The district has Lightspeed Systems on a 3 year contract which runs through May of 2016. Lightspeed is the filter which protects the student computers. Not perfect, but good.

The price of the equipment needed is $280,000, based on $150 per student. Potts said the district would need a 20 percent match of $57,000. There is a $50,000 grant through Freeport McMoRan presently available, and the district would pick up the $7000 to finish out the plan. If ERATE approves the district's proposal, the schools of the district can be brought up to standard in the 3-year period that Potts is working for. Other benefits were that either the state or private individuals could do the instructional classes to help the district do this CIPA training, and it was also possible to get instruction from the FCC at the national level.

Additional work session discussion centered on planning a retreat in the future. Streib asked each board member about the convenience of time and place. Consensus suggests it will happen here in the board room on March 26 and 27, Thursday and Friday. Regarding changes to the agenda, they considered doing away with work sessions just before the public board meetings, perhaps having them a week before the regular meeting to get more work actually done before those meetings.

Vasquez and McMillan said they wanted two public comment spots on the agenda again. These changes should show up as action items on the April agenda. Streib mentioned a farewell dinner at the Buckhorn recently, for the retired board members, saying no district funds had been used; a private individual had paid for it all. The work session ended at about 5:40.

The regular session began at 6:00. The first business was reorganization of the board, which took about five minutes. Vasquez became president, McMillan vice president and Egan secretary. Vasquez took the gavel immediately and finished the meeting.

Under public comments, Dick Pool spoke of a number of issues he wanted cleared up about board and district standards, his personal integrity and Bub Graham's contributions. Linda Pafford spoke about reservations she had with the PARCC test and not knowing how the information would be used. She also wanted policies to be made public. District secretary Sandra Estrada told her where those could be found. They were under a different location.

Margaret Hopper asked Mrs. Vasquez about her comments on excessive board expenses during the forums and how she had handled them at the board training. Vasquez said she had paid for her own personal expenses, but that the district had paid for her registration fees. Streib interrupted and said he thought it was difficult for any board member to answer questions without a chance to think about the answers in advance; please use a different approach in the future. A fourth person said she was against the raise the superintendent received last month when the district was in such bad shape financially.

Beth Lougee, high school principal, reported on attendance figures, saying they had averaged 96 percent last year but had dropped to about 92 percent presently. Interventions were under study and they would use JPPO attendance officers as needed, with results to be posted on the website. She profiled graduation and athletic activities requirements. Out of 154 seniors, most were in good shape to graduate, but 21 still needed to meet the science requirement. Her information was written in packets which she gave board members for further study.

Bianca Padilla and Bub Graham reported on "JPO School", offering both statistics and techniques for helping kids get back on track after making wrong decisions. They told of many hours of educational instruction and the potential for Friday rewards when studies were well done. Padilla thanked Potts for the important technology upgrades, and presented Potts and Streib plaques for their help. They were doing well with a dozen students, but if the numbers increased to 20, they might need help, they said.

Sherwood of the union said bargaining was relaxed now while he waited on state budget information. He hoped to increase salaries by three and a half percent if possible. The district had held retirement banquets in the past and by moving it to August, they hoped to get more attendance and keep the old tradition going.

The superintendent thanked Potts for excellent work preparing for the PARCC, and Milam for her work with the teachers and how the students got in their practice work. Milam said she had learned a lot and would make changes the next time; she had spent up to a hundred hours of her time making it work. She said she thought much of the student fears were due to mostly bad information. Once they got into it, they admitted it wasn't so bad. While $49,000 would go to Pearson for PARCC testing results, another $13,000 would go for the science testing.

Lougee seemed to agree that the fears were worse than the facts about PARCC. Milam suggested that if people were so upset about the PARCC, they should talk with legislators, as school administrators couldn't do much about it. As to those who opted out, there were figures of two and three percent at some schools, more at Harrison Schmidt, La Plata and Cliff. Perhaps the most frustrating was trying to get direct help from the test experts. She was put on hold far too long and little service resulted.

The thing to remember was that the key for diplomas rather than just certificates was for students to take the PARCC, regardless of the results, because the alternate demonstrations of competence required that step before they could use these other options.

Potts said technically, things were smooth. The downloads worked, the occasional breaks in testing were brought back up without having to go back and start over. Techs were stationed at each school doing the testing and there were no major shut-downs. Lougee said the high school had specific teachers doing the testing so most teachers could stay in the classrooms and it seemed to work well. Some tests seemed easy, but not Algebra II. Math seemed harder. Streib concluded that they were learning a lot from this.

Milam's financial report included a check list of $2,336,214.89 for February and a number of budget adjustments. Among them were a final operational adjustment for the 2015 fiscal year unit value of $11,860, a Title I-IASA ffinal allocation and carryover of $117,935, education of the homeless, $2,986 carryover, rural and low-income schools, a $30,402 carryover, and teacher and principal training and recruiting, $14,247 carryover and capital improvements, SB-9, $72,900. The five carryovers were PED related. A final operational budget cleanup was listed as zero. These were approved by the board.

There was a bid proposal for equipment for the network department, dependent on ERATE approval.
The $280,000 improvement package Potts had spoken of, which required the 20 percent match, and which could work out to be the $50,000 grant from Freeport and an additional $7000 from district sources. This is the first time the district has been eligible for these ERATE finances since 2006, as these funds are based on student conditions and Silver has not been so funded recently. If it all works out, the equipment would be available by 2016 and every school in the district will benefit.

The Cliff and Silver calendars were approved for 2015-16. A Region VIII meeting is scheduled for April 14 at Animas; the April 21 work session is still scheduled, and the board went into executive session at 8:00 p.m. to discuss limited personnel matters. That ended at 8:47 and the meeting adjourned at 8:48.

The work session of Silver school board meeting began at 5:00 p.m. with four board members present.
Arnold Torrez, vice chair, presided until the reorganization which happened in the second session.
The first item was to swear in Mike McMillan. Apparently Frances Vasquez had already been sworn in at state level in meetings earlier at Albuquerque.

Superintendent Lon Streib called on Ben Potts, the district's network director, to explain the CIPA, Children's Internet Protection Act, which was informational only and did not require any board action. His overview included points on appropriate materials, safety, hacking, use of personal information and filtering. There were ways to educate students, teachers and administrators, and to inform parents about the protection system. The district has Lightspeed Systems on a 3 year contract which runs through May of 2016. Lightspeed is the filter which protects the student computers. Not perfect, but good.

The price of the equipment needed is $280,000, based on $150 per student. Potts said the district would need a 20 percent match of $57,000. There is a $50,000 grant through Freeport McMoRan presently available, and the district would pick up the $7000 to finish out the plan. If ERATE approves the district's proposal, the schools of the district can be brought up to standard in the 3-year period that Potts is working for. Other benefits were that either the state or private individuals could do the instructional classes to help the district do this CIPA training, and it was also possible to get instruction from the FCC at the national level.

Additional work session discussion centered on planning a retreat in the future. Streib asked each board member about the convenience of time and place. Consensus suggests it will happen here in the board room on March 26 and 27, Thursday and Friday. Regarding changes to the agenda, they considered doing away with work sessions just before the public board meetings, perhaps having them a week before the regular meeting to get more work actually done before those meetings.

Vasquez and McMillan said they wanted two public comment spots on the agenda again. These changes should show up as action items on the April agenda. Streib mentioned a farewell dinner at the Buckhorn recently, for the retired board members, saying no district funds had been used; a private individual had paid for it all. The work session ended at about 5:40.

The regular session began at 6:00. The first business was reorganization of the board, which took about five minutes. Vasquez became president, McMillan vice president and Egan secretary. Vasquez took the gavel immediately and finished the meeting.

Under public comments, Dick Pool spoke of a number of issues he wanted cleared up about board and district standards, his personal integrity and Bub Graham's contributions. Linda Pafford spoke about reservations she had with the PARCC test and not knowing how the information would be used. She also wanted policies to be made public. District secretary Sandra Estrada told her where those could be found. They were under a different location.

Margaret Hopper asked Mrs. Vasquez about her comments on excessive board expenses during the forums and how she had handled them at the board training. Vasquez said she had paid for her own personal expenses, but that the district had paid for her registration fees. Streib interrupted and said he thought it was difficult for any board member to answer questions without a chance to think about the answers in advance; please use a different approach in the future. A fourth person said she was against the raise the superintendent received last month when the district was in such bad shape financially.

Beth Lougee, high school principal, reported on attendance figures, saying they had averaged 96 percent last year but had dropped to about 92 percent presently. Interventions were under study and they would use JPPO attendance officers as needed, with results to be posted on the website. She profiled graduation and athletic activities requirements. Out of 154 seniors, most were in good shape to graduate, but 21 still needed to meet the science requirement. Her information was written in packets which she gave board members for further study.

Bianca Padilla and Bub Graham reported on "JPO School", offering both statistics and techniques for helping kids get back on track after making wrong decisions. They told of many hours of educational instruction and the potential for Friday rewards when studies were well done. Padilla thanked Potts for the important technology upgrades, and presented Potts and Streib plaques for their help. They were doing well with a dozen students, but if the numbers increased to 20, they might need help, they said.

Sherwood of the union said bargaining was relaxed now while he waited on state budget information. He hoped to increase salaries by three and a half percent if possible. The district had held retirement banquets in the past and by moving it to August, they hoped to get more attendance and keep the old tradition going.

The superintendent thanked Potts for excellent work preparing for the PARCC, and Milam for her work with the teachers and how the students got in their practice work. Milam said she had learned a lot and would make changes the next time; she had spent up to a hundred hours of her time making it work. She said she thought much of the student fears were due to mostly bad information. Once they got into it, they admitted it wasn't so bad. While $49,000 would go to Pearson for PARCC testing results, another $13,000 would go for the science testing.

Lougee seemed to agree that the fears were worse than the facts about PARCC. Milam suggested that if people were so upset about the PARCC, they should talk with legislators, as school administrators couldn't do much about it. As to those who opted out, there were figures of two and three percent at some schools, more at Harrison Schmidt, La Plata and Cliff. Perhaps the most frustrating was trying to get direct help from the test experts. She was put on hold far too long and little service resulted.

The thing to remember was that the key for diplomas rather than just certificates was for students to take the PARCC, regardless of the results, because the alternate demonstrations of competence required that step before they could use these other options.

Potts said technically, things were smooth. The downloads worked, the occasional breaks in testing were brought back up without having to go back and start over. Techs were stationed at each school doing the testing and there were no major shut-downs. Lougee said the high school had specific teachers doing the testing so most teachers could stay in the classrooms and it seemed to work well. Some tests seemed easy, but not Algebra II. Math seemed harder. Streib concluded that they were learning a lot from this.

Milam's financial report included a check list of $2,336,214.89 for February and a number of budget adjustments. Among them were a final operational adjustment for the 2015 fiscal year unit value of $11,860, a Title I-IASA ffinal allocation and carryover of $117,935, education of the homeless, $2,986 carryover, rural and low-income schools, a $30,402 carryover, and teacher and principal training and recruiting, $14,247 carryover and capital improvements, SB-9, $72,900. The five carryovers were PED related. A final operational budget cleanup was listed as zero. These were approved by the board.

There was a bid proposal for equipment for the network department, dependent on ERATE approval.
The $280,000 improvement package Potts had spoken of, which required the 20 percent match, and which could work out to be the $50,000 grant from Freeport and an additional $7000 from district sources. This is the first time the district has been eligible for these ERATE finances since 2006, as these funds are based on student conditions and Silver has not been so funded recently. If it all works out, the equipment would be available by 2016 and every school in the district will benefit.

The Cliff and Silver calendars were approved for 2015-16. A Region VIII meeting is scheduled for April 14 at Animas; the April 21 work session is still scheduled, and the board went into executive session at 8:00 p.m. to discuss limited personnel matters. That ended at 8:47 and the meeting adjourned at 8:48.

The work session of Silver school board meeting began at 5:00 p.m. with four board members present.
Arnold Torrez, vice chair, presided until the reorganization which happened in the second session.
The first item was to swear in Mike McMillan. Apparently Frances Vasquez had already been sworn in at state level in meetings earlier at Albuquerque.

Superintendent Lon Streib called on Ben Potts, the district's network director, to explain the CIPA, Children's Internet Protection Act, which was informational only and did not require any board action. His overview included points on appropriate materials, safety, hacking, use of personal information and filtering. There were ways to educate students, teachers and administrators, and to inform parents about the protection system. The district has Lightspeed Systems on a 3 year contract which runs through May of 2016. Lightspeed is the filter which protects the student computers. Not perfect, but good.

The price of the equipment needed is $280,000, based on $150 per student. Potts said the district would need a 20 percent match of $57,000. There is a $50,000 grant through Freeport McMoRan presently available, and the district would pick up the $7000 to finish out the plan. If ERATE approves the district's proposal, the schools of the district can be brought up to standard in the 3-year period that Potts is working for. Other benefits were that either the state or private individuals could do the instructional classes to help the district do this CIPA training, and it was also possible to get instruction from the FCC at the national level.

Additional work session discussion centered on planning a retreat in the future. Streib asked each board member about the convenience of time and place. Consensus suggests it will happen here in the board room on March 26 and 27, Thursday and Friday. Regarding changes to the agenda, they considered doing away with work sessions just before the public board meetings, perhaps having them a week before the regular meeting to get more work actually done before those meetings.

Vasquez and McMillan said they wanted two public comment spots on the agenda again. These changes should show up as action items on the April agenda. Streib mentioned a farewell dinner at the Buckhorn recently, for the retired board members, saying no district funds had been used; a private individual had paid for it all. The work session ended at about 5:40.

The regular session began at 6:00. The first business was reorganization of the board, which took about five minutes. Vasquez became president, McMillan vice president and Egan secretary. Vasquez took the gavel immediately and finished the meeting.

Under public comments, Dick Pool spoke of a number of issues he wanted cleared up about board and district standards, his personal integrity and Bub Graham's contributions. Linda Pafford spoke about reservations she had with the PARCC test and not knowing how the information would be used. She also wanted policies to be made public. District secretary Sandra Estrada told her where those could be found. They were under a different location.

Margaret Hopper asked Mrs. Vasquez about her comments on excessive board expenses during the forums and how she had handled them at the board training. Vasquez said she had paid for her own personal expenses, but that the district had paid for her registration fees. Streib interrupted and said he thought it was difficult for any board member to answer questions without a chance to think about the answers in advance; please use a different approach in the future. A fourth person said she was against the raise the superintendent received last month when the district was in such bad shape financially.

Beth Lougee, high school principal, reported on attendance figures, saying they had averaged 96 percent last year but had dropped to about 92 percent presently. Interventions were under study and they would use JPPO attendance officers as needed, with results to be posted on the website. She profiled graduation and athletic activities requirements. Out of 154 seniors, most were in good shape to graduate, but 21 still needed to meet the science requirement. Her information was written in packets which she gave board members for further study.

Bianca Padilla and Bub Graham reported on "JPO School", offering both statistics and techniques for helping kids get back on track after making wrong decisions. They told of many hours of educational instruction and the potential for Friday rewards when studies were well done. Padilla thanked Potts for the important technology upgrades, and presented Potts and Streib plaques for their help. They were doing well with a dozen students, but if the numbers increased to 20, they might need help, they said.

Sherwood of the union said bargaining was relaxed now while he waited on state budget information. He hoped to increase salaries by three and a half percent if possible. The district had held retirement banquets in the past and by moving it to August, they hoped to get more attendance and keep the old tradition going.

The superintendent thanked Potts for excellent work preparing for the PARCC, and Milam for her work with the teachers and how the students got in their practice work. Milam said she had learned a lot and would make changes the next time; she had spent up to a hundred hours of her time making it work. She said she thought much of the student fears were due to mostly bad information. Once they got into it, they admitted it wasn't so bad. While $49,000 would go to Pearson for PARCC testing results, another $13,000 would go for the science testing.

Lougee seemed to agree that the fears were worse than the facts about PARCC. Milam suggested that if people were so upset about the PARCC, they should talk with legislators, as school administrators couldn't do much about it. As to those who opted out, there were figures of two and three percent at some schools, more at Harrison Schmidt, La Plata and Cliff. Perhaps the most frustrating was trying to get direct help from the test experts. She was put on hold far too long and little service resulted.

The thing to remember was that the key for diplomas rather than just certificates was for students to take the PARCC, regardless of the results, because the alternate demonstrations of competence required that step before they could use these other options.

Potts said technically, things were smooth. The downloads worked, the occasional breaks in testing were brought back up without having to go back and start over. Techs were stationed at each school doing the testing and there were no major shut-downs. Lougee said the high school had specific teachers doing the testing so most teachers could stay in the classrooms and it seemed to work well. Some tests seemed easy, but not Algebra II. Math seemed harder. Streib concluded that they were learning a lot from this.

Milam's financial report included a check list of $2,336,214.89 for February and a number of budget adjustments. Among them were a final operational adjustment for the 2015 fiscal year unit value of $11,860, a Title I-IASA ffinal allocation and carryover of $117,935, education of the homeless, $2,986 carryover, rural and low-income schools, a $30,402 carryover, and teacher and principal training and recruiting, $14,247 carryover and capital improvements, SB-9, $72,900. The five carryovers were PED related. A final operational budget cleanup was listed as zero. These were approved by the board.

There was a bid proposal for equipment for the network department, dependent on ERATE approval.
The $280,000 improvement package Potts had spoken of, which required the 20 percent match, and which could work out to be the $50,000 grant from Freeport and an additional $7000 from district sources. This is the first time the district has been eligible for these ERATE finances since 2006, as these funds are based on student conditions and Silver has not been so funded recently. If it all works out, the equipment would be available by 2016 and every school in the district will benefit.

The Cliff and Silver calendars were approved for 2015-16. A Region VIII meeting is scheduled for April 14 at Animas; the April 21 work session is still scheduled, and the board went into executive session at 8:00 p.m. to discuss limited personnel matters. That ended at 8:47 and the meeting adjourned at 8:48.