By Margaret Hopper
The Cobre school board met at the District Office in Bayard on March 30. The closed meeting began at 6 p.m., according to board president Toy Sepulveda, where they discussed student identifiable information, the audit report, limited personnel and goals for the superintendent. No decisions were made at that time.
The public meeting began at 7:25 with all board members present. Because there had been no update on the Calvary Chapel request to use school facilities from weeks past, the board decided to take no further action. Another item of old business was policy and procedures for special education. The request was to approve the policy and procedures, which they did. Further information from Javier Salas, Special Education consultant for Cobre, informed the board that there would be training in Deming on this topic, with the author of the policy present. The training date is Thursday, April 2, between the hours of 9:00 and 3:00.
Under public input, Linda Pafford of Mimbres asked again where to find more information on the website or other places. She said certain attachments referred to were not in the reports. She was given contact information to make further inquiry.
The first administrative topic was the application for funds through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA. The request was for $357,829. A request for use of facilities was made by Infant Jesus Shrine. It wanted to use the cafeteria at Hurley on April 5.
Cobre received a donation of $7500 from Freeport McMoRan to assist "homeless students" through Helping Hands. Fran Kelly advised the board that there was a rather large number of students who didn't reside at their parents' homes; some slept in cars or drifted between homes of friends. This generous donation would help meet some of those needs. A second donation of $50.00 by Freeport was in memory of Darryl Horsley, a 2012 graduate, who died recently in a gun accident. That amount went to the Cobre Golf Team, as Horsley was a former member. The board voted to accept these donations and to send letters of thanks for them.
In the financial report, the review of March bills came to $1,038,324.09. A number of BAR's, budget adjustment requests, were approved. The Title 1 BAR was for $70,646.97, a carry-over. Another increase of $55,622 was for Title II. A $40,350 increase was for IDEA B Entitlement, and a $16,413 increase for the preschool IDEA B. The Senate Bill 9 state match of $71,958 and a transportation BAR increase of $32,097 were also approved.
The E-Rate funding application is for the year of 2015-2016 amounts to a total of $312,070.77. The 13 percent match at the local level amounted to $40,569.20. This is the 18th year of E-Rate funds for Cobre. Not all school districts qualify for these funds, as they are based on a percentage number of students meeting certain financial guidelines. These funds help a district finance the technology department. The contract is with Desert Communications, Inc., and is contingent on the receipt of the funds applied for. They would be spent for internal controls and basic maintenance.
The superintendent's report included a list of student fundraisers for the board to review and accept. Hurley will receive another shipment of foods from the New Mexico Food Pantry Program shortly. Spring Break will begin this Friday and extend to April 10. The Central Office will be closed from April 3 through April 6, according to Superintendent Mendoza. The spring budget workshop will be for a three-day period, April 8, 9 and 10.
The elementary principals are sending a thank-you letter to the donors of the $930 given for art supplies recently. And the next Region VIII meeting will be held at Animas on Tuesday, April 14, between 5:30 and 8:30. Arrangements will be made for board members and others to attend, he said.
Jose Rubio, student representative, commented on the PARCC test, saying it was "not as difficult as