By Margaret Hopper
The Cobre school board met on Tuesday, May 26, as Monday was a designated holiday. The agenda was very short but there had been other meetings earlier. Frank Cordova, vice chair, called the open meeting at about 7:10 in the absence of Toy Sepulveda, who was in Albuquerque attending the Law Conference meeting. He remarked that Sepulveda had called in but was brief, unable to say much at that time.
Board members present were Cordova, Frances Kelly, Robert Montoya and Frank Gomez. Their first meeting was at 5:00 p.m. to honor the Cobre band at the Performing Arts Center for winning its 16th first place position at state over a 17-year period. At 5:30 they had voted to go into closed session back at the district office, where they discussed limited personnel, student identifiable information, cafeteria personnel and contracting, the state department audit, the budget and goals for the superintendent.
There was no unfinished business and no public input, so the first action item was to adopt the 2015-2016 board meeting schedule and then approve the financial report of funds spent in the past month. That total was $1,009,260.69. The superintendent's report told of a fundraiser, a car wash, on May 30, which Cordova said later was a make-up for an earlier one that had been rained out.
Other information in Mendoza's report included the early dismissal this Friday. Kids would put things away, have something to eat, perhaps a sandwich, and get their grade cards and get on buses. San Lorenzo would leave at 12:30; Central at 12:35, Hurley and Bayard, about 12:50, and the high school at 1:20. They would all meet at Snell and do the turnaround, or exchanges. He thought this plan would do a nicer job.
Grade schools would do their 6th grade "completions" on Thursday; Bayard at 1:00; a single 6th grader at San Lorenzo would be promoted at 1:30; Central would have its celebration at 5:00, and he would speak a bit at that one; Hurley's would start at 6:00. Snell Middle School would start at 7:00 and they would have the Performing Arts Center for that.
High school would use the little gym for its graduation, starting at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Mendoza asked the board members to be there at five to get a good parking space, get through all the other things, and be sure they could start at 6:00 without any delays.
There was no student representative report, but he said he and others would take Jose Rubio out to lunch shortly to thank him for his work over the year. Mention was made of Judy Morris and her group going to California. Mendoza said he understood that air fares and hotel expenses were already paid, but they were still working on the bus trip to El Paso to make those connections.
During the second public input, Alma Grijalva, food services director, reminded the board that there were needs to be finished this summer. There was equipment, flooring and a walk-in that should be addressed. Also a freezer that went out. Mendoza asked her for her estimate sheets, saying he would be working on things, and that George Peru, operations, had found the electrical switch problem and that was being fixed immediately.
Another item came up. About two years ago, when Mendoza first came, he learned of the condition of an old station wagon the cafeteria was using, in unsafe condition. He said the final word on that was that they had been able to replace that antique with two vans that were doing very well. The old station wagon would be in an auction when they gathered up the properties for it and the board approved it. It would likely be sold for parts.
The next meeting is scheduled for June 22, as there was no plan to meet on June 8. At that meeting, the budget would be approved and sent to the state. This meeting ended about 7:23, short of fifteen minutes from its start.