By Margaret Hopper

The Silver District school board met April 19 at the District Office with all five members present. Board President Arnold Torres opened the meeting at 6:02. Other members present were Frances Vasquez, Mike McMillan, Chris Arvidson and Tony Egan.

Katrina Bustillos of La Plata Middle School represented SCEA with a report on the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) program, which replaces No Child Left Behind. She explained many differencs in the programs. There will be less testing with ESSA, more state involvement, along with teacher and parent input, respect for dual enrollment, a removal of teacher responsibility for student scores, no mandate that the PARCC be used; other tests may be acceptable, as in the past.

Some things that will remain are the discipline standards, anti-bullying issues, accountability, nurses, counselors and other assisting staff. Bustillos gave a website for those who want more information. She suggested www.nea.org/essabegins, and /edglossary.org, to help with terminology; some ideas may not be easily understood without the help, she said.

Superintendent Lon Streib's report to the board was on the PED/SPED requests for changes in the way statistics and finances were recently mandated to be reported. In a recent meeting with PED personnel, Aguilar, Lovato and Skandera, he said Candy Milam, Cindy Diggs and he were there, but they didn't get their questions answered. But they had agreed that if they couldn't be recognized in themeeting, they would gather around Aguilar afterward and get some answers, and they did.

Some of their questions were not easily answered. Streib said Aguilar had promised to respond on Tuesday, (the 19th). That final response had arrived just an hour and a half before the board meeting. He also informed the board that he had been forced to send in a report that he considered less factual than the reports of the past, but he had refused to sign it. He had signed the correct report of the past, but not this one. If PED wanted to be responsible to the federals for it, fine. He would not be.

In addition to school people attending that meeting, a few legislators had attended; not many. Senator Morales had stood with the districts, but John Arthur Smith, Deming, had taken the stand that the districts were at fault. That was most disappointing. Streib said accurate data was needed and he would not sign for any other.

Egan added that he was greatly concerned that PED was forcefully pushing these changes. The issue needed grass roots support. Others added comments after this, too.

Streib commented briefly on some new policies that would be made soon regarding sports-related head concussions and that this would equally affect community groups using district facilities. Four policies being passed tonight would be used in the student handbooks for next year, and the budget work would be reviewed publicly Thursday at 4:00 p.m., at the District Office. This would allow for some community input before the budget was sent in to Santa Fe.

In the assistant superintendent comment spaces, Trish Martinez said there was an all-principal meeting Monday and they had selected the McGraw Hill reading series. Some funds should be budgeted for that. Streib said there would be a $100,000 shortfall from the state; they would have to budget carefully.

Milam added that there were far fewer opt-outs on the present year's PARCC testing. By meeting with parents beforehand and other communications efforts, last year's number had been reduced by two-thirds. Of those still planning to opt-out, most were from Cliff.

Torres said he had been in the all-principals' meeting, and he would shortly have a number of things to report that told of good things happening in the district. Vasquez told of the joint Cobre/Silver WNMU Art show, noting that a fifth grader, Hannah Skinner, had won a $500 check and had been told when she was ready for college, there could be another check available. Vasquez mentioned other events, too.

Egan showed interest in the budget, saying it was still working and on target. McMillan offered his services if there was to be any local celebration of the National Teachers' Day coming up soon; he would be glad to help with that.

In the first limited public comments period, Linda Pafford said she approved of the stand not to change the budget figures, as PED had demanded; that decision was appalling. Also, as ESSA would put power back in the board regarding student evaluations, the public would stand behind that.

Barry Ward, financial manager, gave the financial report. He said the State's word on next year's finances was not what he had hoped. There was still time for input before the budget was sent to Santa Fe. Its mandates were more than in the past. The March check total was $2,372,957.25.

One bid had come in; $24,777 for some parking lot work. This would finish off the project with DOT, which was paid 25 percent locally and 75 percent from DOT. He added that these projects were months in the making; the paper work passed back and forth, taking a long time.

Streib added that these parking lot projects might be done in pieces; the district figured what it could afford, and what the state match would be. They went as far as they could, and might finish a year or two later. Once this one was done, Harrison Schmitt would be next for upgrades.

Ward explained the BARs (budget adjustments) next. One for $250 moved funds from teacher travel to director's travel in the Autism Project. New funds in Title II showed a final carry-over of $45,391.89. Incoming funds from the Federal Forest Service were $231,908.32. PED had adjusted that to $280,320.25, but after that, withdrew $55,411.93, reducing the original amount for a loss; effecting a decrease in SEG. The final BAR was $74,067 coming in from the Senate Bill 9 mill levy.

Streib gave board members a preview of Ward's budget presentation on Thursday, mentioning various sources of information, funds being affected, calculation codes, and how comparisons would be made with the past. After the presentation, if they still had questions, he said he would be glad to go over the information and help them understand it.

The next action was to approve those items on the consent agenda. After finances were approved, the four tobacco policies were approved, Policies 120, 121, 122 and 123. These would go into the new handbooks.

In the second comments period, Annette Molina spoke about student learning, saying opting-out of testing was not a good thing for students to do; it could affect their futures. Further, she wanted the record to show that she had gone through the chain of command. She also wanted the names of the recipients of funds in the Anthony Montoya fund to be known. These funds reflected Anthony's memory, his dreams and his goals.

Justin Wecks said the recent acts taken by PED were the reason for the reserve funds; They were for emergencies, but they were no longer in place. He charged reckless spending. Further, teachers under collective bargaining agreement hadn't had a raise in ten years, but the board had given Streib a three percent raise, even after public outcry against that.

The next board meeting is scheduled for May 17. Torres mentioned other meetings in New Mexico and when they were scheduled. Then he called for executive session at 7:21. That lasted until 10:16, when board members came back to reopen the general session. Torres then said he accepted a motion to negotiate with the superintendent. That motion passed unanimously.

The board adjourned at 10:17 p.m.