By Margaret Hopper

Silver District school board members were all in attendance on Monday at 6:06 p.m. to take care of the May 17 agenda, which lasted about two hours before going into executive session. The agenda was stamped GǣrevisedGǥ, and there were plenty of budget handouts, one written April 21, the other May 12, for community people to take home and compare, too. Board members present were Frances Vasquez, Mike McMillan, Chris Arvidson, Tony Egan, and Arnold Torres, board president.

Members heard four beginning program presentations. Santiago Arredondo of the auto shop told directors about the new auto paint booth needing to be set up for student use in their training. The foundation should be poured in June, and assembly after that. He said a few years back, he and others looked at the local businesses and figured some might close down, considering the ages of the staff. There is now a shortage of blue-collar workers; those ready for such positions have a bright future.

Six years ago he started a collision repair class. Taking the skills step by step for high school students, he now has students ready for the industry. They can paste, prep, prime and start painting. Juniors and seniors will be able to walk out of his class and go into local body shops and start up at a higher level than others hired from the streets, he says.

Two boys, Virgil Hickson and John Paul have scholarships already, at the $15,000 level, and additional smaller ones are possible. The class is on the schedule and kids can sign up for it now. Arredondo said he was working to help them get dual credit for the class. At present he has about 10 students in various stages of training; it takes him three or four years to bring someone to an industry-ready stage.

Karen Knight brought her Biology II students to present information about their recent trip to Costa Rica, where they kept a heavy schedule of boating, kayaking, swimming, observing the rain forest and just soaking up a new culture and climate for a week. Fifteen students and their adult sponsors made the trip. A photo presentation showed an assortment of crocodiles, monkeys and other animals; craters, rivers and beaches; and a variety of events and natural conditions.

Students said they spent a lot of time raising money for the trip; there was a $5000 donation to get them started, but they raised another $22,000 to make it possible. Costa Rica was biologically rich and beautiful. Their on-site work included tree planting to combat deforestation, and they did some serious work, according to a parent. Some of the GǣunexpectedsGǥ included delayed flights, sunburns, the humidity, and rice and beans every single day. The language was different, too, but they managed to communicate.

Those who spoke mentioned their thanks for the opportunity, and the uniqueness of the experience; it was unforgettable as well as uniting for those who went. Knight remarked how well behaved they all were, and how they delighted the people they met, some of whom invited them into their homes. It was a new awareness for the students that would stay with them forever.

Gary Stailey spoke to the board in place of Bianca Padilla who was recovering from minor surgery. Stailey had 23 years of work as a probation officer in the past. He outlined the four programs that JPPO offered to help kids: Truancy Prevention, JPO School and Learning Lab, After School Tutoring, and JPO Summer School. He said there was a unique relationship between the school and the local JP office, and there is nothing like this working relationship anywhere else in the state.

For Truancy Prevention, they had 381 unduplicated referrals for the year. Forty-seven were now in attendance contracts, ten were pending court action, and intervention had resulted in a 95.5 percent attendance average for the district. Silver Schools had provided funding of $22,464 for this help, but had the district lost those kids, it would have cost the budget $303,388.80, the report stated. A new grant of $60,000 will be applied for the new 2016-2017 year.

With the learning lab/school, there were 75 students served; 42 resulted in out-of-school suspensions, 22 provisional expulsions and 13 were back in mainstream. Seventy-three had recovered or maintained credit in core classes. Silver had paid out $15,000, JPO, $14,000, and a $27,000 grant was awarded for next year. Budget costs for this group was estimated at a $127,599.12 loss, without intervention. Sixty-six students were served by after school tutoring, for a cost of $9,400 for 467 hours of instruction, JPO funded.

The report anticipated 100 students needed summer school; 60 to 70 from high school or opportunity school and 20 to 27 more from La Plata. JPO would fund $10,000 for this, and Silver, $7500. Last summer, 43 students had maintained or recovered credits, a full 100 percent.

In summary, Stailey said Silver had invested nearly $45,000; JPO's investment was $33,400, for a budget savings of $431,087.92 to the district, and JPO considered the impact extended beyond the schools to law enforcement, courts and community. He noted that Arvidson's caseload had been reduced from 65 to 10, this year.

In the superintendent's report, Lon Streib spoke to the board about Gǣthe audit that wasn't an audit,Gǥ a scrutiny of how people documented their time. The end result was to reduce the number of social workers to four, but increase the number of speech/language pathologists by two. If the district doesn't choose to add those two pathologists, by next year it will be found to fail in its maintenance of effort, so it must try to find them, he said.

The two budget papers, of April 21 and a corrected version of May 12, were explained. He pointed out a mistake of nearly $700,000 in the first, now corrected. Due to reduced student enrollment, the coming budget is down, and must be balanced; since nearly 90 percent of the budget is Gǣpeople,Gǥ he said the reduction should also come through GǣpeopleGǥ but he hoped to do it through retirement, attrition and reassignment.

One secretarial position has been reduced at high school, and he named other changes and combined repositioning for several jobs, which he said would in the end result in zero lay-offs. There are questions about increments, such as sports coaches, drama, noon duty, etc., and these will stay the same. He said he asked building principals to reduce the numbers of increments by 50 percent; but not the rate of pay.

If this is not enough reduction, they will have to go deeper. He is trying to avoid the actual loss of a single employee or reducing anyone's job in favor of another. As Spurgeon, Oaxaca and B. Lougee are the three administrators with the most increments, he has asked them to meet and work it out. Some activities with travel expense might be restructured. The city run grade-court might work more through JPPO to cut expenses. Some of these changes could save over a million dollars in the future budget.

Insurance costs, utilities and medical are going up, not decreasing. Technology improvements and the E Rate income of $144,000 are helping offset some expenses, now. Testing times are reduced from four weeks to two or three weeks, because of the greater numbers of computers now in the district. While it is still a huge disruption, Silver is now in a position to ask PED for more local control of how kids are assessed, he said.

With all the hard decisions, Streib said people are the priority and in the budgeting, he remains open to more and better ideas. He will find the time to meet with those who need that time. Where mistakes are made, they are corrected and they will finish the budget in ways to protect both people and assets.

The policy proposals are in second reading status. The old one, medical administration, still awaits information from the state, and will remain there until someone can give information on the needs.

Trish Martinez, assistant superintendent, said she had asked nearly $300,000 in a competitive state funded grant application (Reads to Lead) to provide professional development and other services in the K-3 grades. She tied that to the new adoption of McGraw Hill reading books, asking for coaches to implement the new materials. A related element, Cooperative Educational Services of Albuquerque, might provide some services free to the district, if the grant is funded.

Candy Milam, another assistant superintendent, gave information on the PARCC testing which finished on Friday. 1746 kids had been tested, with a 97 percent participation rate. Last year 150 parents had opted students out; that was down to 32. Half of the 32 were from Cliff, so that might jeopardize their ratings in the future, as the participation figures are averaged over three years, and many had opted out last year, too.

Three Silver schools had 100 percent: Harrison Schmitt, Sixth Street and Opportunity High. Ten had not been tested at Silver High; absences had not been made up. This year there was one medical exemption; last year, four or five. It went smoothly; she said Ben Potts and his technology department had done a great job. Each school had a tech on site when testing.

Torres had promised reports from the schools on positive things that were happening over the year. Those reports were on the table now for people to pick up and see the accomplishments. He brought up the major wins at state in sports competitions and said he felt teachers were doing a great job.

Vasquez gave her congratulations, as did McMillan, for kids' achievements. Arvidson said he was looking forward to Saturday's graduate lists. Egan mentioned the National Honors Society, Skills USA and other academics. His compliment for Science Fair kids at Stout was that their presentations were as skilled as many high school kids he had seen in the past. Their achievement was amazing. Monday, the board's finance committee had reviewed the materials that Barry Word would be giving shortly.

Public comments followed. Leslie Fritz said she appreciated the work being done on the budget. She congratulated the newly elected officers to SCEA (union). She would like more information on jobs being filled, stipends, and similar information. The important thing was that none lost their jobs.

Tom Laws said the AYSL would pay for the new soccer nets; they could strike that from the expense list. When Milam asked for ideas to help with the budget, it was followed by a note in the paper that they were disappointed when no one came forward. He said it suppressed comment and deaf ears didn't encourage participation.

Howie Morales said he was concerned with the budget; he wanted to point out some of the errors that had been made. Basic units were off by 168 units; that amounted to $785,000. District adjustment units were off by 112 units; that was a value of $523,000. Ancillary units were down 83 units; $ 154,000. And a $700,000 mistake. Brushing that off concerned him. The budget versions were different.

Some of the money was going where it shouldn't; legal fees that should be around $20,000 were up around $125,000. That shouldn't be. And transportation expenses of $414,000 when $100,000 to $125,000 was more average... Gǣthere's padding of the budget that takes place.Gǥ And dual credit textbooks of $60,000. The personnel budget is about 90.8 percent. That should be about 88 percent. That's an $842,000 drain. The problem was not technology.

He said in August the board claimed $250,000 cash carryover. Eight months later there is a $1.2 million dollar deficit. Where did it go? He recommended that the budget be started all over. He was drafting a letter to the State Auditor asking for a full review. What he heard today was just confusion.

Barry Ward gave the financial figures: checks for April were $2,327,980.21; credit card expense, $43,587.92; deposits were $3,188,002.21; the ending credit balance was $3,565,428.18. There were four BARs; a final allocation for the dual credit program, $1,275; Idea B, $64; operations, $5000; Cliff athletic budget, $3000. Some were cleanup transfers for the end of the year. He asked that the board approve these. Two bus drivers' contracts were also included in the consent agenda.

Gus Benakis, the third assistant superintendent, reported on bus contracts, which included some route consolidations and added areas. The changes affected Montoya, Mangus and Shelly Farms companies.

Martinez had two grant applications for approval, a Rural Low Income application for $57,432, and a Fine Arts application, the value of which would be determined at state level. Cindy Diggs, special ed, asked for approval for her IDEA-B application of $713,694, basic, and $21,448 for preschool. Milam's application for Consolidated ESEA was for $868,682 for Title I. Title II request was for $140,938.

The 2014-2015 audit was approved after its return from the state. Streib said the next audit would have the understanding that the auditing company would come in person to explain it fully to the board. The graduations were scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Friday at Cliff, 11:00 a.m. At WNMU for OHS, and 2:00 p.m. at the foot ball field for Silver.

At the second public input period, Justin Wecks said he was confused on the budget issue. There was a 10:00 a.m. meeting which he couldn't attend; it seemed unfair that the public was not considered; he saw a need for improving public relations.

Linda Pafford said she was disappointed with the lack of transparent process. It was difficult to find the $700,000 error; she didn't know where the change was made. She, too, was confused.

A third speaker said there was also a need for transparency in the education of students. She saw a need to return to the team concept at La Plata of the 1990s, which she described. She said there was no longer a team concept. It was more of a junior high. They were not assigned to any certain teacher. Rename it La Plata Junior High, or demand that the superintendent replace the middle school structure.

McMillan asked if there could be another public meeting on the budget. Streib said the 10:00 meeting had been scheduled for those working a late schedule; there will be more; the next would be for those working more normal hours, and another one or two might be scheduled as needed. He hoped to catch those working the different shifts before the process was finished. The dates have not been decided; they will be in the paper.

Torres called for a motion to go into executive session at 8:10. The board returned from executive session at 9:06 saying no decisions had been made, and it adjourned.

The June meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 21, at 6:00 p.m. The NMSBA School Law Conference will be in Albuquerque, June 3-4. The NMSBA Leader's Retreat will be in Taos, July 22-23.

In contacts made by the Beat after the meeting, board members advised that the term GǣdeficitGǥ was not accurate. There was no deficit, although funds were limited. Further, their present efforts were to prevent a deficit in the future. These meetings are aimed at removing that potential for a deficit; it doesn't need to happen.

A recent brief public meeting had been aimed at reducing four of the eight social workers, as the State no longer wanted that many. That effort was stopped when one board member voted against the plan, saying he was not well enough informed to vote. The other simply voted no. It ended in a 2/2 split.

Now that this is no longer a potential solution, they will retire one whose contract was a non-recurring one, and the other three will be GǣrefittedGǥ into some other positions, perhaps staff or custodial, whatever the best fit may be.

In another statement, one said the Morales statement that 90.8 percent of the budget for employees should be reduced to 88 percent, might be taken as a call to lay off a few people. The members have long worked to avoid that, for years, even though the employee numbers from the Dick Pool years were excessive for the recent reductions in student numbers.

But that takes years of planning if lay-offs are to be avoided. Plans and directions in curriculum cannot be changed so suddenly, said the board member. The best way to avoid hurting anyone is to reduce through retirements, those choosing to leave the district, and similar forms of attrition. The school board is doing what it can.