By Lynn Janes
The Cobre Consolidated School Board held a regular meeting in the Cobre High School library on April 8, 2024. Board members in attendance included Gabriella Begay, Gilbert Guadiana, David Terrazas, Angelina Hardin, and Emmarie Heredia. Acting superintendent Michael Koury also attended.
Action Items
The council approved the agenda and moving public comment to after the action items, minutes from the previous meeting and a budget transfer.
The council approved two calendars for the 2024-2025 school year after discussion with Koury. He had sent them the calendars but said they had to make changes and gave them the new calendars. The changes had to do with the 4-day week and the requirements. Koury said the state had been making changes weekly. They have to provide PED (public education department) with two calendars one for 4-day and one for 5-day along with the budget. He said it had been a very difficult process. Both calendars had gone through the calendar committee.
Begay asked what has been the opinion on the issue with the superintendents' association. Koury said they will probably have litigation.
They went over the requirements for the 4-day week and only being able to use it if they reached certain scores. Those scores will not be known until July 2024. PED expects the district to flip calendars in July depending on scores. Koury said it would be unrealistic for many reasons.
Guadiana had requested board reorganization. He said because of the upcoming litigation he had concerns and because of his experience he felt he should be the president and take them through the challenges. He went over finance and budgets. "We need to take a more active role to protect the budget for all the schools." He had spent a lot of time recently being involved in the current lawsuits, him being one of the defendants. He has experience with litigation. "As a board we need to be more informed in the aspects of these lawsuits.
Guadiana nominated himself as president and no one seconded it. Heredia nominated Begay. The board voted for Begay 3 to 2. Guadiana had voted no, and Hardin abstained. Begay will retain the position of president.
Terrazas nominated Guadiana for vice president and Hardin seconded. Guadiana retained the position of vice president after a vote of 3 to 2. Begay had voted no, and Heredia abstained. Begay had nominated Heredia.
Terrazas retained the position of secretary with all voting yes.
Public input
Destyni Martinez provided letters of support from the softball team and parents regarding Coach Randy James Dominguez. Martinez, a member of the softball team Dominguez had been coaching said she and the team did not agree with the decision. [Editor's Note: No explanation was given as to why the coach is gone.] "He is a great coach, has a heart, and understands the game. He makes us a better team." She said the team has been struggling since he has been gone. "We want an explanation of what is going on." She further said he gives a lot of time to the team and the community, and they wanted a positive resolution.
Stevi Dominguez, the wife of the coach and parent of a student on the team, said the students had not been given any time to be heard and would like to be on the agenda for the next meeting.
Isenya Silva, a student on the softball team, said Dominguez has been the best coach they ever had and had coached a championship team. "He always gives us the discipline and drive to do better."
Betty Tovar, a parent of a student on the softball team, said having them all there at the meeting should be a testament to what the team wants. "These girls are here to support Mr. Dominguez." He has sacrificed a lot of his time from his family for this team. She mentioned that they already have a problem with finding volunteers and coaches, and they needed to be careful and be good to the coaches. She reminded them to read the letters presented to them.
Old business
Koury gave the board an update on the camera installations. He provided the feed from the schools to show the camera's view at each school where they had been installed. The system has an internet interface so it can be viewed from anywhere. Hurley Elementary and Central Elementary do not have cameras currently. Koury said he had received quotes and then they had come back and said they had given them too many discounts.
Koury will be turning in an application for the same grant this year so they can finish the safety projects and purchase radios for all employees. They will also be going to a digital key system. The next project he will look at will be the purchase of a film that goes on the windows. The film will keep the windows from shattering and in case of an event they will keep the glass intact. Guadiana asked him why they could not use some of the tech grant they had received to finish the projects. Koury said that money will be used to replace Chromebook for students. Guadiana said he was concerned if the police had access to the camera feeds at the schools. Koury said as long as they have an internet connection they have access. Guadiana said, "I want assurance they can connect." Koury said they all also have keys to enter at any time.
Koury went back to the cameras and explained to the board that the cost of the cameras is not as much as the cost of installation. They asked him about the longevity of the cameras and Koury said he had purchased the best according to the police department.
Guadiana had asked to have the community schools grant be put on the agenda to discuss. It had been briefly discussed in the last board meeting. He asked Koury if he had made an effort to look into it. Koury said, as he had said in the last meeting, that he had done extensive research on the grants and said they would not fit for the area because of requirements, so he would not be moving in that direction. Koury said that he has been looking at other funding out there, but it will not be to that level.
Board member reports
Heredia congratulated the Cobre High School cheerleaders and coach for taking second at the state championships.
Begay echoed Heredia on the cheerleaders. She had not been able to attend the region 8 training but thanked Koury and Charlene Fletcher, administrative assistant, for having it all put together.
Terrazas congratulated all the athletics programs and their accomplishments at the state championships.
Guadiana congratulated the cheerleaders also and the opening of the family center. He updated the board on the lawsuits. They have five of them and he, Dr. Jeff Spaletta, past superintendent, and the school board have been named defendants in those. He had met with his attorney, and they had gone over responses and reviewed the allegations from the plaintiffs. He could not comment to the exact response made to the allegations but said they will be strong and grounded. "We will speak in closed session with more explanation." He addressed the need for the board to all be concerned about the state reaching into the decisions that the school board makes. The ability for the state to remove people from positions Guadiana found concerning. The state has had a new secretary of education every year. "That communicates to me decisions are not coming from PED but from elsewhere."
Terrazas said he looks forward to the training and board retreat coming up for the strategic plan.
Superintendent reports
Katelyn Church, coordinator of technology, gave the board an update. They have been updating the students' Chromebooks and these have a better case to protect them. She had samples for the board to see. They will be getting 30 new laptops for the administration with 16" displays. She went over some of the new software that would be installed but added all meet the state regulations. The internet speed of San Lorenzo came up, and Church said they have a different fiber optics line, and it has limits. She did add that many changes have been taking place with the networks currently. Koury said they used to have problems with the internet in San Lorenzo but no longer do.
Koury gave the board an update on the project for building a new high school and combining it with Snell Middle School. He had multiple meetings recently concerning the project. They thought they had the presentation ready to go with phase one design and phase two construction. He has been made aware that they will have to have money to begin the project even though they would probably be able to qualify for a waiver. They will have to go out and get bonds to start the project. "I was told if we don't have the money in hand to start to not even bring them a presentation because we will not be successful." They have two choices to accomplish this. They can ask for a special election in November that will cost the district $25,000 or wait until 2025 and it will be on the election cycle and will not cost the district. Guadiana asked how much bond money would be available and Koury told him $8 million.
The discussion moved to having public involvement in the idea of putting both the high school and middle school together. Koury said he wanted to be able to present phase one to the state and see if they could even put them together before he had public involvement. It would be a win across the board, but they can always just have the high school built. "I want to make sure it is an option before it is presented to the public for comment."
Lisa Walton, director of operations, said, "I am happy to report the 4-inch line at Central Elementary School is in the ground." They do still need to fix the roads that had been damaged in the construction but will be done soon.
Norma Ramirez, coordinator of human resources, said they had implemented the Smart Find Express software but still needed to do some training on it. This software makes it easy to alert the substitute teachers when they have a need They have started using Frontline software for recruiting and hiring and have posted current open positions. Koury said that Ramirez has been working hard to bring everything up to date and has been going back 20 years and found many things that had not been done that should have. They have had instances in which people have worked for many years with the district, but a background check had never been done.
Theresa Villa, coordinator of family engagement, said since the recent opening of the parent center they have had a lot of traffic. Fifteen families have come to use the services. The county commissioners and the college will be coming to see what "we have been doing to get ideas." They discussed the process of donations. Villa said she will be there all day and if someone is in need of the services after hours they can call her, and she will make arrangements with them. She has been working on Summerfest but doesn't have a date yet in part due to the calendar changes.
Erica Luckhurst, coordinator of special education, said they have implemented the co-teaching program at Snell Middle School, and it has given them good insight on what has and has not gone well. They will be implementing the same program at the high school next year.
Suzanne Chavira, director of academics, has been preparing for the teacher of the year banquet on April 30, 2024. "I am excited to honor our teachers."
Chavira said they have been in the season of testing, and it has been very stressful. The teachers and principals have a lot of pressure on them. She went over all the testing and assessments happening and coming up.
April and May will be the time for the district to apply for grants. They all will be due. Chavira said they need to know the budget to make plans.
Summer school will be June 10, 2024, to July 3, 2024. They will be very fortunate to have sixteen teachers that want to teach for the session. It will run five days a week 8 am to 12 pm and serve pre-K to 8th grade. Chavira ended with saying they have had 65 of the teachers attend the Ron Clark Academy
Frank Ryan, director of finance, provided the board with a preliminary budget. They must submit it to the state but have until June 20, 2024, to make changes and approve. They had a unit value increase of 3.22 percent. He went over some of the budget items and provided explanations. The state has mandated a 3 percent increase that will cost the district on the salaries alone $410,000. They will also have increases to both the district and employees of 15.53 percent for health care, 5 percent for dental care and 3 percent for vision care. Those will make a total of $500,000 increase. The risk insurance will increase 32 percent for a total of $474,000 to the district. Ryan said this increase has been due to high claims made across the state.
Begay said that the finance committee has been talking about these increased costs and loss of the some of the income from grants that they had in the past. "It will require some tough decisions."
The board went into executive session.
The boards came back from executive session and said no action had been taken.
Meeting adjourned.