By Margaret Hopper
Cobre began its school board meeting about 7:10 p.m. Monday, May 11. All members were present: Fran Kelly, Frank Gomez, Robert Montoya, Frank Cordova and Toy Sepulveda, board president. The earlier closed session reportedly began at 6:00, where they discussed teacher contracts, student identifiable information, food service contract and retirement and resignation issues. No decisions were made at that time.
As there was no old business, Tony Sosa, truancy specialist and Bianca Padilla of the JPO program reported on past activities with Cobre students under the JPO work for the year. Their total truancy referrals this semister were 469 with 244 from Cobre High; 63, Snell; 74, Bayard; 54, Central; 64, Hurley; 4, San Lorenzo; and 14 from other sources. Truancy figures were checked for cause, and some were illnesses. Others were unexcused and the first one prosecuted, said Sosa, for the first time.
Of the 469, 409 students returned to school after the first contact, a courtesy call. That was an 87 percent success; the 60, a 13 percent total, were put on attendance contracts. One family with three children has already been taken to court, and another five families, with fifteen more children among them, are being considered for similar action. Parents can be fined from $25 up to $500 or given up to six months confinement, he said.
The District Attorney's office has cooperated, giving authority to require check-ins with the truancy office or the JPO, he said, and it also helped with filing the charges. In financial terms, the district has paid $20,000 for this help, but gained about $300,000 in funding that might have been otherwise lost. The goal for attendance is 95 percent for students; Sosa said it appears that these intervention efforts are successful for the district, and that Judge Laney has been very helpful for their efforts.
By creating a database for the program, it tends to show patterns of attendance behaviors, and it should help focus on the repeat offenders. Factors such as transportation problems can be sorted out from cases of abuse or other issues, and staff can respond more quickly. Where contracts have been violated, they have hosted community service days, requiring students to attend and serve. This can happen on Saturdays and also on school breaks.
To make his work effective, Sosa said he depends on school referrals to keep him informed and he also works with parents who must see that students get to the meetings. He and JPO are working for more uniform responses once contracts are in place. Some parents do not update their moves or changes in phone numbers; this makes it hard to keep in contact. And some teachers don't take accurate attendance, adding to the problems, he said.
Pedilla explained what paperwork Sosa had to develop to take a case to court, including past efforts at intervention, witnesses to verify actions, and recommendations to the DA as to what their offices wanted the court to support. This might include asking parents to prove that students were back in school, tutoring if needed, classes for parents to attend, or other efforts to bring the family to activities that should help both better attendance and quality of school work. Taking families to court is extra work, but she said she and Sosa are learning how to do it and get results.
Alma Grijalva, food service coordinator, told the board how Cobre was trying to work with Fort Bayard on a transfer to move its food services temporarily to Snell. This is happening as soon as school is out, the end of May. Mr. Rottman, Snell principal, will be moving all the school's equipment out and will store it so the hospital's equipment can be moved in.
The need is caused by a flooring problem at the Fort Bayard facility and repairs are expected to last at least three weeks, perhaps longer, according to some. Sepulveda noted that this use would increase as the hospital would be serving on the weekends as well as daily service, more use than the school requires. In discussion, they planned a bit on how to make the timing and transfer work.
During the summer Mendoza reminded the board that Central and other schools had working kitchens that could supply the hot-meal needs of students who needed this; Grijalva said that kids might be served a lot of sandwiches, too, as needed.
The board took action on the pre-kindergarten 2015-2016 handbook, approving it and the elementary handbook, in a second action. Daena Davis noted the few changes that had been made and a few typos that had been corrected in preparation. The attendance policy had more changes.
Under the superintendent's report, Mendoza informed the board of some additional fundraisers the students had applied for, and commented that the softball, baseball and track teams were in state competitions. Friday this week is a day off; the snow day was not needed. The Spanish family, (Esther Monje Perez has been a teacher at Cobre) was returning to Spain at the end of their contract.
One daughter, Marcia, had competed in spelling bee competitions with distinction. In the English spelling, she had gone to the regionals in El Paso, and in Spanish, she had made it all the way to the 8th round, finishing 6th in the state. Another daughter, Sabina, had also done very well, but was too young for the official bees. Marcia was given a momento and a page of news clippings to remind her of her achievements, and to start a scrapbook for her future honors.
In the student representative report, Jose Rubio also mentioned the track and softball teams going to state this week. He congratulated the baseball team for being undefeated as they won the district championship, and also the band for winning its 16th state championship. He said some freshmen thought the End Of Course (EOC) curriculum and test navigation were easier than the PARCC had been. Juniors and sophomores would take the EOCs next week. Graduation will be May 29 this year.
In the public input period, Bianca Padilla told of free swim lessons at the Hurley and Silver pools for kids aged 12 to 17. Hopefully students who can't really afford the lessons will sign up. Hurley will offer lessons starting June 8 and Silver will offer a week starting June 15. The lifeguard issue had been difficult to solve, as there was no local instructor to teach another group of new guards. She said Freeport McMoRan had paid for Daniel Lopez, a local person, to be certified to teach new lifeguards in the area.
Kids are encouraged to sign up for the free classes any time, now. They will take the first 20 to 25 who apply. Classes will be from 10 to 12 in the mornings. Further, some kids who attend will be selected for lifeguard training to alleviate the shortage of needed lifeguards. That, too, will be free. The JPO program is sponsoring the events.
Maria Dominguez spoke her feelings about the cafeteria program and JPO issues. She said it saddened her to know students had to deal with "bracelets and contracts" and other enforcements. Also, she knew kids were unhappy with any foods but home-cooked meals served with love and compassion. She said she hoped this could be turned around, and that so much prepackaged food would stop being dumped in the trash cans. Perhaps meetings and planning would meet the children's and community's needs.
Juan Vivas, chef from Southwest Food Excellence, introduced his director of regional operations, Kevin Gutierrez, who was visiting. Gutierez mentioned a culinary demonstration they would be putting on at Bayard Elementary, starting at 9:30 Tuesday.
Regarding graduation, Frank Cordova said he and Frank Gomez would not be there on May 29 as there was a law conference in Albuquerque at the same time; he said he felt some of the board needed to attend that, too.
The next board meeting on May 26 will start at the performing arts building for the recognition of the band and sportsmen for honors recently received, but the board would be back at 6:00 to begin its closed session in the district office. This meeting adjourned at about 7:55.