By Margaret Hopper
Silver School Board began its April 21 meeting at 6:p.m. Tuesday, not opening with the work session at 5 as in the past. All board members were present: Chris Arvidson, Arnold Torres, Tony Egan, Mike McMillan and Frances Vasquez, board president.
Linda Pafford of Mimbres spoke in the beginning public comments period, asking the board to resist some of the assessment requirements set by PED at Santa Fe. She said the district's attorney could help with this and another issue of teacher protests; under the No Child Left Behind Bill there were two paragraphs that would challenge the state's present positions. As further support she gave members information on a recent resolution from Arlington, Texas, urging school boards to create alternative plans that would place authority with local boards. Another speaker, Janie Turrieta, thanked Lisa Ortega in public for her three years as principal of Sixth Street Elementary.
Principal Travis Yurcic reported to the board on this year's achievements at Jose Barrios. He reported 240 students and an attendance ratio of 95 percent, with good parent support. Parent/Teacher Conference attendance was 100 percent in grades K, 1,2 and 5. Grades 3 and 4 were 97 percent. A long list of activities was followed by school goals and a dozen initiatives expected to improve instruction. He mentioned two teachers who were awarded honors, Vanessa Lopez and Eileen Piercy, and spoke on the technological upgrades that every grade now had.
Lisa Ortega, principal of Sixth Street, also reported a 95 percent attendance rate for her 104 students. Stress on courtesy helped bring down the high level of discipline referrals to about half of past years. One goal of 95 percent returns on quality of education surveys has reached 90 percent, with time to push it over the top. She also told of the technological improvements students now enjoyed. This was a weak area that they have worked hard to build. Computer intervention and enrichment times are a huge success. Parents bring kids in for that and they run out of computers; they have to turn some away. Teachers volunteer to run this program for them. First New Mexico Bank partners with the school, too.
Candy Milam, financial director, gave a thorough report on how revenues were calculated for students of all grade levels and categories. Student numbers appear to be slightly less than last year, but the differences are not great. Numbers of national board certified teachers, at-risk units, charter school student activities and home school student program units all affect the incomes for the district. Ben Potts, network technology, helped the district get $130,000 in e-Rate funds recently, the first time in many years. Donations, such as from Freeport-McMoRan, make a difference, too, she said.
These figures go into revenue estimates for budgeting and this particular work affects the operational budget. All schools have a number of budget categories, but boards work on the operational budget mainly, and the figures that are reported at monthly meetings are on the operational budget.
The reported information was projected on a large screen for community to see. Teacher and staff salaries account for over 88 percent of this budget; student travel, utilities, medical services, dual credit expenses, properties, professional development, JPPO tutoring, backpack nutrition, and many other categories are also listed.
Making adjustments to fit it all together, Milam said the district would cut a teacher at Cliff, two in kindergartens, 3 at La Plata, a secretary at high school, two at Sixth Street, four library aides, two maintenance staff, and some related services. These were not final; when school starts in the fall, enrollment could require other changes. The reductions amounted to about $736,000, 3 percent of the present budget. Some of the "cuts" would be moved to other areas, avoiding layoffs. Attrition would also ease the changes. These decisions were deliberated and given much thought, she noted.
The total revenue projections of $23,404,186 for 2015-2016 leave a cash carryover of $314,784 for a 1.3 percent reserve. Milam cautioned that there will be more changes and that the work won't be finalized until fall. Even then, there will be budget adjustments later on. The state has districts send in requests for such adjustments, which it usually approves, but these BARs are an accounting requirement. Resignations and retirements also change the figures. Adjustments have to be made throughout the year. She asked Superintendent Streib if he had comments.
He said some schools, like Santa Fe and Moriarty are asking for emergency funds before the next year even begins. The financial issue is state-wide; all decisions have to be carefully considered. The Silver Schools District is solvent. Many other schools are not. The question of the S Plan came up. It seemed to focus on SPED, Title I, Title II and the operational budget. Streib said these strategic plans are written at state level and may require help to carry them through.
The SCEA (teachers' union) report by Wayne Sherwood brought up the agreement that any reduction in force (RIF) would be discussed in advance with the union. He said he wanted clarification of what was meant by these cuts. Streib assured him attrition, retirements, etc. had taken care of it; no actual losses were happening. Bargaining continues, Sherwood said, and the costs of medical and similar costs may result in less take-home income. He hoped next year employees wouldn't feel the extra costs.
In the superintendent's report, Streib mentioned the Hudson bridge closure which was being postponed to May; the route changes were figured to be about five minutes per bus run; drivers would make practice runs before it starts. This construction could last a year and efforts will be made to prevent and reduce lengthening travel time for students, he said.
A policy advisory, #114, regarding emergency medication administration to students, is in process. Health Service Coordinator Aimee Jaurequi noted that allergies and asthma were the issue, and the changes might require a pharmaceutical license. The board asked her for more information and suggestions or wording, etc. She said the timing was for August, but it was voluntary, not mandatory. She would have more information for them soon. Streib decided it was not an action item immediately.
The strategic planning meetings with district administrators were discussed next, with dates being a problem for some board members. Streib said the two meetings didn't have to be back to back; they could be worked in as convenience allowed. Meetings would start at 5:30 and should end at 7:30. He hoped to get an answer to this before the May meeting so teachers would be able to use it in their planning over the summer.
The next items on his agenda, restructuring board meetings, public comment periods and agenda development led to a lot of discussion. Streib said he wanted this discussed now so voting on it later in the evening would be easier. With four options given, each board member was asked what the public comments period(s) should look like. Vasquez said she wanted both early and late spaces. McMillan suggested early for limited comment, later for open discussion.
Egan wanted to know ahead and put topics on the agenda so board members could respond; present rules let comments be made that members couldn't respond to as they weren't on the agenda, or might not have information about. Torres said he liked the attorney's idea; they could limit content or even refuse to allow it at all. The meeting was there for board business and that was the priority. Arvidson said he thought comments at the end would be reasonable.
Another question was about the work sessions. Streib said he felt they were awkward; things that happened in that first hour were not available at the later meeting and to some degree it was off-record. Others said it was enough to schedule them as needed. Vasquez added that work sessions should be treated as official meetings, and the results couldn't be approved just a few minutes later at regular meetings. Special meetings didn't have the same requirements, she said she had learned.
An audit committee is needed; it would be a combination of board and community persons to meet state requirements. The district needs to hire an auditing group soon, a change from past procedures. There is a May 1 deadline that may not be met in getting these proposals in place. Streib said he spoke with Valdez at the state office to learn what must be done and what late penalties would be. Arvidson said they could try to squeeze a quick special meeting in before the deadline.
Vasquez said she thought they could refuse to do it this year, but it would be mandatory by next. Streib said it was becoming important to address this one, even with unmet deadlines. Vasquez appointed Torres and Egan as a financial sub committee to continue looking over the reports before they are presented at board meetings, and herself and McMillan as audit committee appointees; Pam Webber and Mike Morones were also included. Streib said he thought he would let the audit committee take the lead and wait; there had been so many other meetings lately. But members could call him if they wanted to talk about this.
A number of BAR requests were presented to the board for approval. Five were zero balances needed to clean up the budget or show indirect costs: three were operational budget topics; another was a Title I IASA and a New Mexico Reads to lead, K-3. Two others were instructional materials sub-funds, a final cash carry-over of $59,499 and a special appropriation of $40,925. An athletics carryover of $27,775 and a food services carryover of $171,594 finished the group. The March check list offered for approval was $2,431,188.51.
Donations of $7500 for Helping Hands grants (Milam and T. Martinez had helped develop this program), and $50,000 for a grant Ben Potts wrote, came from Freeport McMoRan. Another grant of $16,540 bought Ipads for elementary students; three Stout teachers, Erica Gonzalez, Laura Brown and Blaine Cumeaux wrote it. Jason Ping wrote another proposal for the Opportuity/Vocational educational program; it was also a $50,000 grant. Freeport funded all of these.
Milam said each grant recipient of $500 or over sends a letter of thanks to the donor, and Sandra Estrada, board secretary, also sends one. These amounts go into special accounting as they are earmarked and specific. These do not go into any of the usual accounts.
These financial items were approved as Item A. The policy advisory #133, Item B, competitive food sales and vending machine revisions, was approved. Item C regarded the open meetings act change of moving work sessions to different dates from the regular meetings, to better comply with regulations.
D was the vote on placement of public input sessions. Egan started a motion and retracted it. Arvidson moved on option B, with public comment near the end, but that motion died for lack of a second. Egan tried again and option C was voted in, with limited input on the early one, open topics near the end of meetings. Additional time limits could be addressed at a later meeting, he said.
A request for a leave of absence issue, E, was brought up but tabled for further discussion in the closed session; it was suggested that it was of a personal nature and could only be discussed in closed session. It was also suggested that it might be finished after the closed session ended and before the final adjournment.
The next regular meeting is scheduled for 6:00 pm.,on May 19. The NMSBA school law conference will be May 29-30 in Albuquerque; NMSBA leader's retreat is to be July 10-11 in Cloudcroft. The board voted to go into executive session to discuss limited personnel matters related to staffing at 8:12 p.m. It came out at 9:38 with the leave of absence topic tabled and carried over to May. No decisions were made during the discussions, and none were brought up afterward. The meeting adjourned at 9:40.