Cobre Schools recognize Special Olympics and creators of the golf course

By Lynn Janes

The Cobre Consolidated School Board held a regular meeting on June 15, 2026. Board members in attendance included Hector Carrillo, Gilbert Guadiana, Agelina Hardin and David Wilguess. Interim Superintendent Randal Piper also attended. Dr. Verenice Gutierrez, superintendent, attended. , Gabriella Begay did not attend.

Hardin recognized the people involved in Special Olympics. She thanked their coach Jessica Garcia and volunteers Aaron and Desirea Amador. The athletes recognized Gabie Hardin, Auggie Jaramillo and Ace Amador. All received certificates.

Garcia said in order for the students to participate in the state games they must participate in area games. She said in the past ten years the most she had ever taken to state had been three students. She hoped the board would approve the purchase of uniforms because they have represented Cobre well.

Guadiana recognized the 15-year anniversary of the Cobre golf course. On June 30, 2015, these individuals, Brad Holmgren, Drew Demorest and Mark Demorest. took it upon themselves to engage the community and Cobre School District to build a golf practice facility. The Bayard city council and beautification committee participated and fully supported the building of the practice golf course. They had personally contributed and solicited donations to transform an unused portion of Cobre school grounds to create the practice course that consists of two short range fairways with a sand path and chipping area. They had built a shop to work on equipment and provided some equipment. In the past eleven years they had donated endless hours taking care of the grounds and keeping them up without compensation. This golf course has served the entire community and also with a beautiful place to walk avoiding the dangers of traffic. Gaudiana said Cobre had the upmost gratitude for their efforts.

Andreas Montoya joined online to provide a presentation to the board on Southwest Food Service (SFS). He had presented to the board before. He said this company has been the largest food service management company in New Mexico and one of the largest in the country. In New Mexico they currently have thirteen schools and provide students with fresh from scratch meals. The company was founded by chefs and still run by chefs. Every school has a customized menu, which  will be unique to that school. Their goal has continued to ensure students have excitement about eating school lunch every day. In developing the menus, they use student input. He said they had been in Lordsburg for ten years and Silver Schools for a few years.

Montoya said they work with the existing staff and ensure they keep their jobs, hours and pay. They do provide them the best in class training providing opportunities for advancement. Their company provides resources such as chefs and dieticians. As part of their service, the students have access to an app where they  may view the menu at any time. They will be able to give feedback on the items. Nutrition education will be part of the service, along with farmers' markets to expose students to different foods and cuisines. All of these classes may be attended by parents also. Montoya said this would be so they would be able to help in undoing some of the generational habits that families have been plagued with. Their menus will consist of locally grown ingredients and they try to work with local farmers and vendors to obtain the freshest food. He had a power point presentation of some of the schools they partner with and the food available.

Montoya said the current employees would not lose their jobs and would retain their pay. The students would have more food options than ever before, and they can do this as a large company and know how to reduce waste and maximize purchasing.

The company had sent a crew and had samples for the board, so they took a ten minute break to try the samples.

Montoya had spoken to having a roving chef that went around to the different schools and Guadiana asked if the students would be able to work with them through the innovations program and have them paid to learn. Montoya said in many districts they have hired students as part of these programs.

Carrillo said he understood that they would provide the food service and do the ordering, but the employees would be retained. The district would still be in charge of the employees wages. Montoya explained they will be a concierge service, and it will be Cobre's program, and they would still be in control and SFS would be the support service. "We do the purchasing, we do the menus, we manage the day-to-day programs, but we manage it the way you want us to. When it comes to employee raises, we would work with the district to ensure that we are in step and that we are aligned on the same goals." More questions on the structure continued. Montoya said they would bring in a chef manager to supervise the employees and would provide training. If the district has a food service director the chef manager would work alongside the person to ensure the program runs the way the district wants it to. The district would continue to have the burden of processing their payroll, workmen's compensation, state pension, etc. SFS would be liable for the food quality, and menus that meet state and federal regulations. This will ensure that the district receives all of the funding they will be entitled to. They would continue training employees to keep them safe and the kitchens compliant with OSHA. The discussion continued on food quality and safety for a while. Montoya said they have a team that regularly visits distribution centers they work with to make sure products have been properly stored and the facility maintains a clean operation. He pointed out that most of the processing of food would be at the school because they cook from scratch.

Montoya answered a question from the board if they would take over employees,  and he said some of the districts they have taken over the employees because the district had some financial hurdles and had no choice to transition the employees, but they also have districts they have worked with for twenty years and the employees have remained district employees. Gaudiana asked if they had programs for diabetics. Montoya said they have registered dietitians but make sure the menus have enough variety so the students can make the choices. Each menu has all the information they need to make those choices. Gaudiana said currently the employees have learned which students have dietary needs and ensure they stay within the diet. Montoya said the employees would be telling them what they need to stay in the parameters, and they have not been offered a choice. What SFS will be able to do will be to educate the students on their choices and empower them to make those choices. If too young, the menu will be online, and the parents will be able to help them make those choices. He said his daughter has dietary restrictions and they sit down with her and review the menu to show her what she can and cannot have. By offering them choices they will be empowered for the future, for adulthood. Gaudiana asked if they offered soft drinks and Montoya said that would be up to the district. The USDA does allow some soft drinks that are diet or zero sugar but does not allow the others. Some Gatorades have been allowed and some not.

Montoya had looked at their financial statement and saw that Cobre spends $1.2 million a year. Almost a quarter of that has been spent on substitute pay and overtime.

Carrillo suggested that Gutierrez, Piper and Alma Grijalva, food service director, meet.

The board approved the agenda. Guadiana said, "I am glad to see some of the items I requested on there but still not all of them. This is the third month of not having all of them on. It is going to be cause for alternative action." Piper said the items he had requested had gone through legal and because some had been personnel matters, they could not be included. He told him he could continue to take whatever measures he felt he needed to.

Public input none currently.

Action items

The board approved minutes from May 18, 2026, and May 27, 2026.

The board approved the bills. Gaudiana said this usually comes after the presentation by the finance committee saying they have reviewed the bills. Carrillo acknowledged that he was right and said they had reviewed all the bills and nothing had been irregular.

The board approved the credit card statement.

The board approved 30  BARS (budget adjustment requests) and Rebekah Runyan, Vertex, had joined online to answer any questions. Carrillo said in the finance committee meeting they had reviewed all of them and had some questions that Runyan had answered. The board had received the packet and Carrillo opened it up for them to ask any questions they had.

Runyan went over the reason for the BARS and why they had so many. They had adjusted the budget based on the actual fund balance versus projected fiscal year 2026 budget.

The board approved an RFP (request for proposal) recommendation for SLES Flooring. Crystal Norero-Arellano said they had received two bids, and she recommended Armstrong Flooring. Both vendors had been local, but Armstrong had been $110,000 less. The funding for the project will come from SB-9 funds.

The board approved the RFP recommendation for auditing services. Norero-Arellano said they had only received one proposal from Jaramillo Accounting Group. They currently have been doing the audits, but state law allows them to do it for only eight years before choosing another.

The board approved the RFP recommendation for SPED SAS. Norero-Arellano said they had received ten proposals and had done the scoring process. Sunbelt had scored the highest. They will be used to fill the vacancies they had not been able to fill with in-person employees.

Carrillo did the second reading for policy advisories concerning employee assistance and public's right to know. The district had not received any comments on these changes, and they had been posted to the website. The board approved the policy changes.

Carrillo did the second reading for policy changes concerning J-1 exchange students and graduation eligibility. The board approved them with one change. Piper said they had some conversations regarding foreign exchange students and what they would need to do to receive a diploma versus a certificate. This policy firms it up on what will be required. The student must meet all the graduation requirements of the state. It makes it clear to the student and host families. Gaudaiana wanted changes made because using the word may be eligible makes it discretionary and arbitrary. Gutierrez recommended they leave it as is and explained the reason why. They would not be guaranteed unless they met the criteria. She had experience with this issue in Colorado and some variables could happen. Gaudiana still disagreed. The policy will have to go to legal for review.

The board tabled the board meeting schedule for the 2026-2027 school year. They talked about trying to keep it at one a month but pointed out they have had to do a number of special meetings. Piper proposed that in December they move the meeting up a week due to Christmas. It would not affect the audit and finance committees. They talked about changing the time for the finance committee meeting to better work with Vertex.

New business

Gutierrezhad this put on the agenda to discuss the Desert Southwest Pipeline proposal. She said it had been discussed back in May at the prospectors meeting. Priscilla Lucero, Southwest Council of Governments director, had brought this to the meeting. This company would be coming to put in a gas pipeline through west Texas, southern New Mexico and southern Arizona and they will have money available for communities. In New Mexico they will be targeting Dona Ana County, Grant County, Hildalgo County and Luna County. They have said they will be investing a significant amount of money in these counties. An estimated 5,000 local and union labor construction jobs will be created. After scouting the area, they realized not a lot of places would be available to live, and services for the employees. She related because of trying to find a place to live, but her husband and been able to find something pretty quickly. After the pipeline finishes, they will still have 75 permanent positions to manage the pipeline.

Gutierrezhad been the only person from Bayard at this meeting and immediately thought they needed the mayor, council, police chief and fire chief in attendance. This company will be willing to invest in infrastructure to create places for people to live and eat. Some people from Silver City said they didn't want people living in a bunch of tents. She will be meeting with Lucero to see how Cobre could have a cut of the money. It is a two-year project starting in 2027. William Hawkins, Silver Schools superintendent, said it would mean more enrollment. The board acknowledged most of the investment would be in the southern part of the state where the pipeline would be.

The opportunity for students to learn a skill could happen. Gutierrez said she had created a program in Colorado, in which kids could learn to use large machinery and after graduating they could be making  $80,000 straight out of high school.

The board discussed what stipends will be planned for work already performed, retention or other items not included in the employees' contract terms. Piper said at this point they had not planned any stipends or retention bonuses. Gaudiana wanted to know if it had been decided. Piper said as of that day it would not be his call.

Next item for discussion would be the compensation and contract days for the middle school and high school principals. Piper said, "Here we go again Mr. Guadiana." He went over what he had numerous times. The salaries have been set by the state and must be turned into the state to make sure they meet the requirements. A discussion continued with the number of days on the contract and what that should be. Piper commented that even though their contract reads a certain number of days they work more than that always and cited the games that last until around 8:30 pm and have to be at work at 7:30 am so they have extended hours. Gaudiana said his problem has been when a principal makes more than the superintendent and felt that was clearly wrong. The discussion came back to the number of days in the contract. Gaudiana said they have come to a point of standoff and will be letting the attorney general and public education department decide and will be contacting them. He believed the middle school principal has been paid for time not worked and believes it has been done because of the influence of a board member related to that recipient.

Carrillo asked if the salary schedules would have been approved by the board and Piper said yes. Gaudiana said they had provided the schedule at the last minute and approved it with the stipulation of changing if needed and it had never been changed.

The number of days on the contract continued to be discussed. Runyan said the budget must include the salary schedules and guarantee they meet the minimum requirements, but the days would not be part of that.

Finance committee

Carrillo said in talking with Gutierrez they will be restructuring the finance committee a little bit. The last few meetings they had been there a very long time with questions and want to make the meetings more productive. In the past few meetings, they had employees questioning the superintendent on their decisions and that would not be the purpose of the committee. He had been lenient with people asking questions, but it had become out of hand. It n he future they will be also asking Vertex to attend and hopefully the online technical difficulties could be resolved.

Gutierrez said she would be meeting with the technology department to talk about some other tech tools. "Open source is great because it is free and helps reach a lot of individuals." She referred back to the forum they had with her and the other superintendent candidate, when  they kept having problems with audio and they messed with it for 20 minutes to have it work. Ever since then her laptop has not worked properly because Google took over her microphone and left some kind of bug. The Cobre system had done something to her personal laptop, and she had it less than a year. Now she has to take it in to be repaired. "We need to get off Google Meets." She will be meeting with the technology department to see how they can improve. The board had been having problems with emails, Gutierrez had sent them from that laptop.

Audit committee

Hardin said they had met and gone into executive session. The auditor advised them not to talk about what had been discussed until the forms have been released. She did say they have been moving forward, and it has been positive. Piper said he agreed and that the auditor has now received some of the documents that they needed and could not obtain before. He said this would be the special audit and the 2022-2023 audit. Piper suggested that during executive session in the July meeting they ask the auditor for an update for the entire board. If they want to do that, they will set that up. The board asked that to be done.

Gaudaiana wanted to know if any corrective action had been done. Piper said he knew Gutierrez had  plan and that they had spent ten hours meeting on this. Gutierrez will address these concerns.

Board members reports

Wilguess said a woman on the internet had been unhappy because her son attends Central Elementary and he has an illness that makes him unable to be out in the sun and in the heat. She had taken her son to the park to pick up lunch and they told him he could not have the lunch unless he sat in the park and ate it. He had quit taking his kids because he had to sit in the hot car while they ate lunch. It would also be hard for kids to be out in 80-100 degree heat. He felt some changes needed to be made with the summertime lunch program.

Wilguess said he had gone out to the Mimbres area, and three parents stopped him and wanted to know why a number of councilors would be cut. He had no knowledge of this. Piper said no councilor had been cut.

Wilguess asked for an update on the ADA compliance. He had not seen anything change. Piper said they had been discussing some of these issues and they have to do and ICIP (infrastructure capital improvement plan) and will be adding that on because what needed to be done would take millions. Wilguess said all of the schools have problems concerning ADA compliance. Piper spoke to the new facilities they have been looking at would be ADA compliant. He continued on the other issues and said they would have to make sure whatever they did would not cause another problem. He and Gutierrez had talked about going building to building and look at what needed to be addressed but it would take time. "It is on the list, and it is a priority."

Guadiana said nothing has been done to address the ADA and last meeting they discussed it and nothing had been done. He spoke to all the problems that could be solved he thought easily. "These are not cost significant." To him it seemed a conscious effort to say no they would not do any ADA compliance anywhere. "That is the message it gives me. We have a board member that needs this." Wilguess said it seems to be falling on deaf ears.

Hardin thanked Garcia for all she does with Special Olympics. She wants to make sure these students have all the opportunities they can. Garcia had done a tremendous job with positive outcomes. "They bring more money to the schools than regular kids do."

Carrillo congratulated the Cobre baseball team and went on to congratulate many others that had gone to state. He congratulated the NHD (national history day) participants that had done a presentation on the Tierra Amarilla conflict. All four elementary schools have been recognized as model schools by the New Mexico Public Education Department. Cobre had been the only one to have all elementary schools recognized with this prestigious status. Summer fest will be July 25, 2026. Carrillo also wanted to recognize the staff that retired after being there for many years and named them all. For graduation he recognized the valedictorian, salutatorian and top ten percent of the class.

Moving forward, he pointed out the differences in the reports. He did say he would look into the issues Wilguess and Guadiana had brought up. He encouraged emails be sent to Gutierrez in the future. That way they have the opportunity to do reports that would not just be about what has not been done. He did say their concerns would be very important and were not being addressed. Moving forward he would like to see them put on the agenda or meeting with Gutierrez. That way they also can provide positive reports because he knew people reach out with how the district has been succeeding. "My vision is to keep Cobre in the positive."

Interim superintendent report

Piper said this would be his final report. They had found a vendor for the marquee  at the high school, and they will be coming but don't have a date yet. He went through the processes they had gone through. The ICIP is due July 1, 2026, but since this would be the first year for the educational institutions to be required to do them, the deadline had been extended to the end of August. Lucero has been helping them to compile the plan. He and Gutierrez had taken care of all the needed changes at the bank.

Piper said one thing missed at Cobre that he thought next year they should address, the need to have a scholarship night. The schools he had been at before they had a night to honor those students that had received scholarships before graduation. "We have to make sure our kids are applying for the scholarships available to them. We have some great students here and they deserve to be recognized." Cobre needs to do a better job at making sure the students know what scholarships would be available.

Carrillo told Piper thank you and whether he had agreed with him or not on some things he had always kept it professional. He has continued as interim and helped the district through the whole process of finding Gutierrez. He thanked him again.

Piper thanked them for helping pass SB9. They released the $1.2 million in capital outlay that had been tied up. A lot had been accomplished. He said Gutierrez had his personal phone number and he would help. "I am confident the district is in good hands, and I have enjoyed my time."

The rest of the board also thanked Piper.

The board went into executive session for updates on pending litigation specifically regarding investigation of an employee compliant. It would also be for the superintendent to update the board regarding employee movements, contemplated movements and contemplated reclassifications.

The board came back into open session and affirmed that no action had taken place, and discussions had been limited to the items listed above.

Meeting adjourned.