By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Consolidated Schools held a work session and regular meeting June 15, 2026. Ashley Montenegro, Michelle Diaz, Patrick Cohn and Mike McMillan attended. Superintendent William Hawkins also attended. Kimberly Klement did not attend due to being in Washington DC with the NHD (national history day) students.

Work session

Cindi Barris, associate superintendent, had a presentation on the title application. The application will be a little different and now will be called the unified application. A few of them had worked on it but it would all be submitted at the same time. She said it had required them to spend more hours on it than before but forced them to have conversations and it helped save time. For Title I they had received $813,730 in student funds, Title II $112,734.38 and Title IV $58,859.82. All had been approved. Title I over half will be used for salaries and professional development. Title IV they looked at safe and healthy schools and technology. Title V will be $69,570.34. The NextGen state grant will be $110,822.26.

Barris went over what each title funding would be used for. They will continue to receive the mental health grant for a few years, and they will be funded $315,000 ,which will cover all costs.

In the past a presentation, Stand for the Silent, had been brought to the area by the police department and both Silver Schools and Cobre Schools. They will be bringing it back for the middle schools in August because last time they could only have the high school students attend.

Work session adjourned

Regular meeting started.

The board approved the minutes from the finance meeting May 14, 2026, work session and regular meeting May 18, 2026, and special meeting May 29, 2026. They also approved the agenda.

Information and presentations.

Diane Carrico and Desire McGee, SCEA (Silver City Education Association) had not attended and did not have a report.

Information to the board

Hawkins had an update on the summer bond projects. At Harrison Schmidt Elementary they had taken out the flooring and been doing an abatement of the asbestos. Everything has been sealed off to make sure no asbestos will remain. He had pictures for the board on the process. They have also cleared all of the popcorn texture on the ceilings throughout part of building. Part of this process will include fresh paint on all the walls and ceilings. They also have a section that does not need abatement, but they will be replacing all the flooring. Next summer they will do the other side of the building.

All of the playgrounds had been taken out and will be replaced with new equipment. He hoped to have photos for the July meeting of the playgrounds all finished.

The next day Hawkins had a meeting with the state board of finance concerning Sixth Street Elementary. He said it would be more of a formality, but they had to approve the sale.

Keith Bausman, associate superintendent, had a personnel report for the board. Currently the district had 98 percent of the positions filled for full time. He said some have been in the process of hiring. Some coaching positions and part-time stipend positions still need to be filled.

When the discipline matrix had been presented by Louis Alvarez, then associate superintendent, no requests had been made for changes. Any changes that the board discussed will be addressed when Barris presents the handbooks.

Barris had several updates for the board. She had provided the board with an enrollment update for June and concerning the mental health grant they had addressed in the work session.

Barris went over the school district handbooks. She explained some of the differences in Cliff and Silver High and referred to the different pages. The board all had questions and comments. Montenegro asked if they could provide the handbooks with the areas that had been changed or added highlighted. Barris said she would do that. They discussed the discipline matrix and dress code for a while and how some of it could be confusing. Part of the discussion surrounded the idea that Cliff and Silver had cultural differences. Cliff has an allowance for hats and Diaz did not think that would be a cultural thing. Montenegro asked that they unify the language to make it clearer. Montenegro added, "It's a K-12 campus, 30 miles away, and they do a lot of things differently than they do at Silver High School." Diaz said, "When you're in a classroom, you're engaging in your education and if someone can't see your face or your expression. I think this deserves more conversation is what I would say because I don't think it's just a cultural thing." Montenegro didn't think they had been allowed to wear hats in the classroom.

Some discussion took place on the school equipment and if had been addressed in the handbook and how would that be tracked. They had general policies, and the athletic equipment would be addressed in the athletic handbook.

Diaz had a comment. For the requirements for enrollment it had been highlighted as changed. She wanted clarification. It say guardians must have a driver's license, state ID or military ID. She asked if that had always been the case?

Benjamin Potts, director of technology, said, "That was put in this year as just guidelines, general guidelines to help with enrollment because we're making sure that we have proper addresses and that the person turning in the address is actually who they say they are. It's just better documentation to make sure that when we're getting the information for students that are enrolling or registering that we're getting it from the proper person." Diaz said she had concerns that would be excluding people. Potts asked her to clarify what she meant by excluding. They will just be making sure they will be enrolling students in their district. They have had people use other addresses to enroll students in the district.

Diaz further spoke to having undocumented or people unable to obtain an ID did they just not enroll that student. Potts said if someone shows up with their child and a birth certificate and some documents they may be enrolled. He said a few years ago they had students from overseas that had been enrolled. He added the bigger issue for them has been people living in neighboring communities that want to enroll in Silver Schools, and they have full classes at certain grade levels. They recently had a man with an ID, but the students were from Yemen, and it took them two hours to enroll the students. Diaz said they must be inclusive and not exclusive when looking at enrollment.

Diaz addressed the part of the handbooks speaking to missing or late work. She felt most teachers have been very collaborative and would not be attacking teachers. Teachers usually work well with the students on assignments. "I don't think we want to hold anyone to a time limit." It needs to be at the discretion of the teacher. A debate on that took place for a while. Diaz, "All right. I'm just going to be blunt about this. I don't want us to say we don't want people involved in extracurricular activities and we don't believe in student athletes." Hawkins said they have had a group of kids that graduate every year at a high percent, who have been magna cum laude and 90 percent have been student athletes. Thos kids had extracurricular activates, dual credit and honors classes. Diaz said that has been the message and she wanted it to continue.

The board went over the changes that would be made to the handbooks per the discussion they had.

Finance sub committee

Cohn said had met and the big questions had been about the bond project expenses. All the questions had been addressed and explained. He wanted to bring up the drone show for graduation. The district did not pay for this, and it had been paid for by donations and fundraisers of the senior class. Hawkins wanted to clarify that no bond money had been used for the drone show.

Audit committee

They had not met due to the audit being done.

Threat assessment committee

Bausman said they had not met but in full transparency they had a larger meeting with local, state and county agencies in planning a drill for housing reunification. They have planned a threat assessment meeting due to increases they have seen in suicide.

Board president

Montenegro did a second reading of policy advisories pertaining to employee assistance and the public's right to know. They will take action later in the meeting.

Montenegro did the first reading for policy advisories pertaining to teacher residency program, cardiac emergency response plan, with automated external defibrillators and reporting child abuse and protection. These had come forward due to recent state legislation.

Board comments

Montenegro said it felt like summer. The kids have been out doing all kinds of different things. She had seen a lot of kids come out to participate in summer school not just for credit recovery but additional learning. She thanked the teachers that commit to doing it. She also thanked the staff that works all summer and keeps the ball rolling.

Diaz had attended a law conference. She had brought back a few things. One would be regarding AI, artificial intelligence. The University of New Mexico has some verbiage within their policies and protocols. Everyone has been trying to evolve through the process and utilize it as a tool but stay safe for the people using it. It had been a big topic of conversation. They will start seeing more guidance regarding AI and its implementation as a tool, not a replacement of education.

Diaz said another thing there has been a whole new interpretation of the attorney-client privilege. It will be something for them to realize that what is said to a lawyer may not have attorney-client privilege. She congratulated the NHD students competing and thanked the community. The last thing she wanted to comment on, during the law conference, social media came up. She cautioned people that posts should be what they would say in person. Nothing takes the place of human interaction and people need to sit down with their kids and have a conversation about human interaction. It is not about sitting next to each other and texting each other. She added that at the conference they did speak to the fact legal action may take place with defamation on public platforms, so what a person posts could have legal implications.

Cohn continued to speak on the legal conference. He wanted everyone to know that although they could not attend all of the training offered, they could go to the website and view them on PowerPoint presentations. He thanked the board for their receiving the region eight attendance award.

He thanked and bid farewell to all that had retired and wished the NHD students good luck in their presentations.

McMillan hoped everyone had a good summer break and thanked everyone working to have the schools ready for the upcoming year. He thanked the voters because the bond dollars have been improving the schools. The following week a health resource fair would be happening at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center. He hoped people would attend.

Public comments none currently

Action items

Consent agenda

The board approved all requests made by Michelle McCain, finance director. She had checks totaling $3,599,131.91, and budget adjustments and explained all in depth.

The district had donations.

SHS NHD-COLICIA MEYEROWITZ-$100.00
LPMS NHD-Gila Regional Medical Center-$500.00
SHS NHD-Gila Regional Medical Center-$500.00
SHS NHD-Maria Perkins- $500.00
SHS HOSA- Elks Lodge #413-$500.00
SHA HOSA- Turtleback Pest Control- $735.00
SHS Art- Elks Lodge #413- $1000.00
SHS NHD- Elks Lodge #413- $1000.00
SHS NHD- Silver City Dental- $1000.00
SHS NHD- Nkechi Nwachuku- $1000.00
LPMS NHD- AZNM Property Holdings LLC/ McDonald's -$2500.00
SHS NHD- AZNM Property Holding, LLC/ McDonald's- $5000.00

Antonio Andazola, maintenance and transportation director, did not have anything to report.

The board approved the discipline matrix.

The board approved the policy advisory for employee assistance and the public's right to know.

The board approved the title application for 2026-2027.

The board approved all handbooks with the amendments or additions as discussed.

Public comments none currently.

The next meeting for the finance committee will be July 16, 2026
The next work session and regular meeting will be July 22, 2026

The board went into executive session.

The board came back into open session and said no action had taken place. They had discussed the superintendents 2026-2027 contract. They will be having a special meeting to take action on the contract, and it will be announced later.

Adjourned