By Lynn Janes

The Cobre Consolidated Schools held a board meeting February 13, 2023. President Serina Murillo called the meeting to order. Other board members in attendance included Gabriella Begay, Gilbert Guadiana, Elizabeth Dean (phone), and David Terrazas. The Pledge of Allegiance and salute to the New Mexico flag took place. Superintendent Jeff Spaletta also attended.

Public input on the agenda none currently.

The board approved the agenda with changes. Several items moved to after the approval of the agenda. A few were combined, student representative report moved up and several items were deleted. The deleted items had to do with the Central Elementary gym, water project and the report from union president.

Student representative Micaela Roacho gave a report to the board. She had participated in the induction of new students to the NHS (national honor society). The Key Club has a leadership trip coming up. She added that some of the students contacted her with a complaint about breakfast. They didn't want bacon, they wanted sausage. They also passed on the dislike of bread pudding.

Spaletta gave a short bio of the interim principal and principal for San Lorenzo Elementary. The interim principal will be Shay Biebelle, and the principal will be John Olson.

Spaletta wanted to acknowledge Assistant Operations Director Pat Abalos for excelling in his new role. "He has put in a lot of hard work and gotten a lot done in a short time."

High School Principal Sandra Montoya has overseen planning the graduation. She turned the presentation over to Micaela Roacho who has been working on the event. Roacho said they would be having it in the gym and Nelson Diaz would be the speaker. The principals will be handing out the diplomas and photos will be taken of each. She added that the bleachers would need to be fixed beforehand. Some of the students will be decorating their caps. The administration will be seated up front. The board asked her how many would be graduating, and she said seventy.

Dean had received a call about the use of the track after school hours. Spaletta said he thought it had been open. They will be looking to put a walk-in gate. Dane Kennon, operations director, said they could go a step further and put a maze type gate so bicycles could not get in. He said they would take care of it right away. Dean asked what hours it would be open, and Kennon said they would leave it open. Guadiana said, "I am disappointed this was not done before, we had talked about it." Spaletta said they would take care of it right away and put signs up that had been discussed in prior board meetings.

The board approved minutes from January 23, 2023, and January 30, 2023.

The board approved the bills. Begay said the finance committee recommended approval after review of all of them. Guadiana asked if they will be doing them monthly. Frank Ryan, finance director, said they would be doing them each meeting of the finance committee that meets twice a month.

The board approved the SPED (special education) BAR (budget adjustment request). Melissa Maynes said they had received $1,612 and would divide it up between the schools and each would get approximately $268 to use on technology and education material.

The board tabled the board policies' reading. They did discuss the policies for a while. Guadiana asked if the website had any place for people to put concerns or comments on the policies. They decided that they would have that done.

Unfinished business

Michael Koury addressed the board concerning Title 9 and the safety report. He said he had a safety plan, but it will be a secure document and can't be passed out. He did tell the board he would be happy to show it to them any time they would like to see it. POMS Insurance will be doing two walk throughs with the district in relation to safety and security. This would cover OSHA, fire hazards, slips, trips and falls concerns, etc. Snell Middle School has a new door with a security system and video. The front desk can see who is there and unlock doors. Currently they will be working on signage that gives visitors directions. He said they had received the radios that had been requested by the board and ordered. However, they would not work for the district's needs. The frequency is not secure. They have been sent back and others ordered that will fit the needs. The new ones will be coming from a local vendor and be secure. Koury said he would be attending a conference in Albuquerque at the end of the month.

Koury said they had Title 9 Solution Company come in and do an intense training. The training lasted four days and had been all day each day. He commented they had been a great company and would be sending videos and training materials. They had invited surrounding districts and it helped considerably with the cost. The training company had ties to judges, police and others that had day-to-day experience with Title 9 and they had access to. Currently the district has two active Title 9 cases that will be wrapped up in a few weeks. He brought up that some places have been doing informal resolution which happens much faster, and they would be using that when they could. A full investigation takes much longer because of waiting period requirements. He added that everyone on the Title 9 team has been crosstrained for every position. Guadiana said he had concern because of the new Title 9 rules coming shortly. Koury commented that the possible changes proposed in the legislature currently would change the process and make it far more difficult. During training that had been discussed. Guadiana asked if the Title 9 information had been put on the website and Spaletta said yes.

Spaletta said Aaron Lewis, the union president, had sent an email to everyone that they had finished with the collective bargaining. He would have a presentation for the board in April. Guadiana said he wanted a copy before it was ratified.

Spaletta had a report for the board concerning the previous legal bills with Cuddy and McCarthy LLP Attorneys at Law. He said he had sent numerous emails and left many voice mails, and no one would respond. Guadiana and Murillo said they had sent in complaints. They decided at this point they need to go to the state bar association. Spaletta said he would look into it.

Ryan gave the board a finance report. He wanted to let them know the auction had gone well and in total they made $56,851 and would be working on another one to do in May or June. He told them that the special audit currently being done had provided them a list of information they needed to move forward. Ryan told the board they would be providing that as soon as possible.

Suzanne Chavira, director of curriculum and instruction, gave the board a report. She had compiled it on a power point presentation with charts on all aspects. This had to do with the data assessment review for 2022 / 2023. She showed were they had improvements and major improvements. Math had fallen short in all levels. She pointed out Cobre has shown improvement. Guadiana said he appreciated the detailed report because it helps them identify where resources would be needed. He commented on they had not seen this detailed information before.

Chavira went on to talk to them about the DASH (data accountability sustainability and high achievement) plan. She said the plan would be unique to a schools population, opportunities, and challenges. She had examples of sample plans. A team will be created with members being from a variety of positions in the school environment. Guadiana wanted to know if this would be put on the website and Chavira said a portion of it would be.

The school calendar for the next year had been put together with some options. Chavira said they wanted to hear all voices. Last time it had been done online and they got very few responses so this time they did it online and the old fashioned way with paper and pencil. This time they had gotten a total of 379 responses. They had asked about adding time on to the school year (10 days) and all had been ok with that. A choice on the Christmas break had been given of starting earlier or later and coming back to correspond with the change, having the same number of days. They had mostly voted later to leave and later to come back. The staff survey had a similar outcome.

The curriculum adoption had been very busy this year. Chavira said they had adopted and trained for the bilingual education at a cost of $150,000. They brought four vendors to the teachers to review their curriculum they had to offer. In March they will be coming to give presentations and a committee will chose in April.

Chavira and Spaletta will be continuing the classroom walk throughs. Murillo said some teachers had contacted her and said they had been happy to have them. Begay said she had gotten the same feedback. Guadiana said, "I am thankful for the steps in the right direction and thanked Spaletta and Chavira for their leadership."

Deana Davis, human resource director, gave the board a report. She provided a complete list of all the openings at each school. They currently have been working on the 120 day submission but still had time to submit.

Davis said she went to five surrounding colleges to confirm the job fairs they would be having and confirm the dates so they could attend. They have been waiting on two others to confirm the dates.

Maynes gave the board an update on the equity council. She said they had met two times and had sent out a readiness assessment and would be waiting for feedback.

Kennon turned the director of operations report over to Abalos, assistant operations director. He and maintenance had done a walkthrough of all the campuses with Spaletta. The purpose had been to pinpoint all the highest needs and the smaller ones. The big ones have been heating and cooling and roof repairs. They have had improvements. Terrazas asked if they would be going back to see periodically. Abalos said yes, they would be checking periodically. Terrazas asked if outside help would be needed and Abalos said yes for the roofs. Guadiana said again he saw things moving in the right direction and thanked them for their efforts. The HVAC systems have mostly been fixed but still have some problems. Kennon said they have patched the systems over and over, but the time has come when they just must be replaced. He said he would be getting bids on those. Guadiana asked if they had a prevention maintenance schedule. Kennon said they didn't have a schedule, they had been to busy just trying to keep everything working. Abalos said he felt the maintenance guys were knowledgeable and have let them know when something needs or would need attention. They have some painting projects and have been getting quotes to present to the board.

Spaletta gave a report to the board. He said they would be having a teacher of the year banquet. He and Chavira had been working on it and would have more information later.

Spaletta provided a two page report to the board of the post entry plan committee findings. It gave a list from the stakeholder's meetings. They will be putting committees together for all the areas.

The board talked about the current legislative session taking place. They discussed what had been requested and the cost to the district. In the past a new building would have cost them 80 percent of the total and now it had gone to 53 percent. Spaletta said in November they had asked at the prospectors presentation for $486,000 for safety and security. They discussed some of the bills concerning education in the legislature this time. Guadiana said they had the opportunity to meet with many other organizations about collaboration. He also brought up WNMU (Western New Mexico University) at the legislature looking for $15 million to do a technology school between Bayard and Hurley.

Denise Mathis had not attended to give the attendance report but had submitted it. The report showed enrollment had dropped from 1,022 to 1,007. The attendance accuracy has greatly improved with the new software. Letters had been sent out to those with high nonattendance. It included those with 80 percent or less attendance (approx. 4 days a month).

Spaletta said Elite will be doing an instructional technology audit. This has never been done before at Cobre. Next meeting a report will be presented.

The following week Spaletta said he would be attending a superintendents' conference. He planned to attend presentation in personal learning, tech innovations, student run businesses, workforce skill and opportunities, recruitment / retention of teachers, community partnerships, academic recovery, creative pathways, reimagining high school experience, culture of safety and teacher residency programs.

The five year strategic plan will start with a letter sent out to the seven stakeholder groups after spring break. Spaletta said he would have more to present to the board in March. He told the board he wanted to have another retreat to come up with a vision mission, goals and how to implement them concerning the strategic plan.

A list of current fundraisers had been given to the board from Spaletta.

Freeport McMoRan and Spaletta will be having another meeting concerning future taxes on March 8, 2023. Guadiana asked if he could also attend, and Spaletta said yes.

Public input none currently except Guadiana said he had a concern from a parent about the student to teacher ratio at one of the elementary schools. He said they needed to look into it.

The board went into executive session for approximately one hour. They went in to discuss personnel matters and the status of the investigation of complaints against the superintendent.

The board came back into open session and said no decisions had been made.

Adjourned