Silver School board recognizes many community members and students

By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Consolidated Schools held a work session and regular meeting May 18, 2026, at the Silver High School Little Theater. Ashley Montenegro, Michelle Diaz, Patrick Cohn, Mike McMillan and Kimberly Klement attended. Superintendent William Hawkins also attended. For the work session Diaz and Klement had not attended.

Work session

Michele McCain, finance director, said she would present the 2026-2027 operational budget, salary schedules and increment schedules for the district. She said they have many components to the ever-changing budget process and one will be community involvement and thanked everyone for taking time to be part of the process. As a requirement they must have school board approval. Each New Mexico district will be required to submit a balanced budget by May 26, 2026.

Once the budget has been submitted to New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) along with other documents, school calendars, salary schedules, etc., it will be analyzed for errors and making sure they have met all requirements. She continued to list the other documents they would be required to send.

The data used for the funding formula includes but is not limited to student enrollment numbers, student mobility, homelessness, poverty levels and at risk data. Also considered are teacher licensure levels, athletic participation from homeschool and private schools, gifted student population, etc. McCain went over the unit value for each group.

Any licensed school staff who would like to take the National Board Certification Teaching Standards training and test may qualify for the National Board Teacher Certification, which is one-and-a half-times the unit value each school year. This year, $7,117.10 equivocates to $10,675.65 that will be paid directly to each teacher or staff member holding the National Board Certification. It must be renewed every few years, but as long as the teacher holds this, they earn that extra compensation. Last year they introduced the National Board Certified Nurse Program, and they will now receive the $10,675.65 paid directly to them.

McCain went over the different funding and how it could be used. Many have strict rules on how they spend the funding. They have many different funding sources with different requirements.

With expenditures salaries will be the largest and it includes the benefits. This budget the total will be $29,020,123.72. The district pays 80 percent of their insurance, and the employee pays 20 percent. This year they will have a 10 percent increase in medical and 4 percent increase in dental. McCain continued with the other benefits the district pays for each employee. Utilities will be electricity $400,000, propane $150,000, water and sewage $260,000 and internet- communications $275,000. She had kept them the same as last year not knowing how the closing of the two schools will affect the costs.

McCain continued with the list of expenditures that included general liability insurance that had increased, student travel $502,880, board travel $125,000 and audit expenses $40,000. The legal has been estimated high because of the mental health grant litigation. She continued with many other expenses. She had set aside $650,000 for ancillary services, contractor-related services. For some years they had not been able to hire in-person staff to work for school prices.

Schools must maintain a healthy cash balance to have funds available while they wait for reimbursements and cover insurance payments due in July ($1,302,989.36). This year the estimated cash balance will be a little over $2 million. The student enrollment will be down 129 students. McCain pointed out the decrease in enrollment would not be unique to them and has been seen across the state and nation.

Two schools had to be closed due to the decrease in population. The sale of those buildings will not go into the operational budget but be used for funding more facilities projects. It will provide some savings in utilities, insurance and maintenance costs.

The board asked a lot of question to clarify some of the funding and insurance coverage.

Montenegro spoke to the need of closing the two schools. None of them had wanted to but it needed to be done to stay solvent. She thanked the community for their support.

Work session adjourned

Regular meeting started.

The board approved the minutes from the finance meeting April 14, 2026, and work session and regular meeting April 20, 2026. They also approved the agenda.

Information and presentations.

Bob Carson attended to present the Kiwanis student of the month awards for this month and last month.

Aracely Martinez, Cliff High School, although quiet has been hardworking and consistently demonstrating her dedication to education with focus and determination. Beyond academics she has been known for her kindness and respect for others and always willing to lend a hand.

Raiden Lopez, La Plata Middle School, had been nominated because of his character and work ethic consistently standing out by approaching responsibilities with a positive attitude. Beyond academics he shows initiative by helping maintain the classroom picking up trash and putting chairs up without being asked. He serves as a quiet but powerful example of leadership through actions.

Leilani Hoffman, La Plata Middle School, works hard and her positive attitude shines through. She participates in class, challenges herself and encourages those around her to do the same. Her compassion, kindness and caring heart make a difference every day. She has been part of National History Day (NHD), National Junior Honor Society and the gifted and talented program.

Mia Cordova, Silver High School, always has a great attitude that goes beyond work ethic and has an innate desire to help others by tutoring classmates with assignments.

Reagan Turrieta, Silver High School, maintains a 3.6 GPA while being active in sports and has been a friendly, hardworking student not shying away from new experiences.

Hawkins and McMillan presented the NMSBA (New Mexico School Board Association) 2026 Student Achievment Awards.

Hawkins presented several awards.

Aysh Heneghan, a teacher has had a profound impact in student achievement through his unwavering commitment. He cares deeply about the content he teaches and each student he teaches holding high expectations for each one to prepare them for success.

Norma Coker, a teacher, has had exceptional progress demonstrated by her students scores. "Strong assessments results are not achieved by chance." They will be a result of thoughtful lesson planning, high expectations for students, consistent monitoring of progress and ability to engage students in meaningful learning. Coker teaches first grade.

Analysia Salcido, a dedicated special education teacher has put her students at the center of everything she does and make sure any student that needs extra help receives that support. She has built a strong relationship with the families to regularly share the students strengths; celebrate progress and work to areas they need additional support.

McMillan presented the next two NMSBA awards.

Lieutenant Governor Howie Morales used to coach for the schools and always advocated for student safety and coaches attended seminars on first aid and sports medicine. After that he went on to become a senator representing the county for ten years and continued to advocate for education and student safety throughout his tenure. Now for the past eight years as Lieutenant Governor he had continued that support of public education and student safety.

Dean Thompson has always been on the baseline with a camera as long as McMillan could remember. Before social media and the instant gratification, you could look at the Silver City Daily Press to find out what had been happening with sports. He has always been an advocate for the students by recognizing them in the newspaper. "Coaches and athletic trainers come and go but Dean is still there." He had been doing this for 44 years.

The board recognized Gila Regional Medical Center (GRMC) and the Town of Silver City for their donations to the district. Hawkins said for the last few years since covid,  Silver Schools has had a tradition around the end of April putting banners downtown with the seniors that would be graduating, and both of these entities had helped. Because of some things with the city, they needed help to hang the banners, and the district reached out thoGRMC and without hesitation they said yes. Hawkins is on the GRMC trustees board. The board wanted to thank them for making it possible to keep up the tradition. Robert Whitaker, GRMC CEO and Jacqui Olea, interim town manage,r attended to receive the recognition.

Susie Marin, Silver Scholars principal, wanted to recognize Gabriel Garcia with Silver Turf Landscaping. She referred to an area outside of the school where he had done landscaping as a community service. Last year he had passed by and saw they did not know how to landscape, and he stopped by and after hearing the story he said he had to do this for them. The area had been for a memorial to one of the little students who had passed away a few years earlier. Marin thanked him for his gracious gift.

Artie Sanchez, athletic director, and Coach Hartwell had come to recognize many of the student athletes.

They started with the power lifting team, that attended state championship. Leah Hartwell had broken not only her record but state records. Ty Gonzales had been a state runner up.

Sanchez continued with spring athletics and extracurricular activities and went through a long list of students and teams to be recognized and how each team had placed. Sanchez also recognized the coaches for those sports.

Dayna Jones, teacher La Plata Middle School and sponsor of the National History Day (NHD) Students. Nineteen students had qualified for the team. She had brought the students that qualified for the national competition and would be asking the board to help offset expenses for travel to the competition. They will be competing in Washington DC in June and would not only be competing against the 50 states but other countries such as Guam, Puerto Rico, South Korea and some schools in China. Each student, six of them, introduced themselves and told the board what their topic would be. For all of them it would be $16,000 for flights, meals, transportation and hotels. Any donation would be appreciated. They had already raised some money

Lee Wilson, teacher Silver High School and sponsor of NHD students, had come to ask the board for funds to help offset their expenses to attend the national completion in Washington DC. For the state competition they had 25 students with 18 projects.Ten  of those projects qualified for nationals . This would be the 18h consecutive year that they would be taking students to the national competition. Some had received special awards at the state level, and he wanted to acknowledge them. They had already been able to cover quite a bit of the expenses but still needed a little more and asked the board for funds.

Lawrence Castillo, athletic trainer, had come to ask for funds to cover expensed to a HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) leadership conference. They had started it three years ago and last year had 12 students and this year they had 23 students that had competed in Las Cruces, and all had qualified for the state competition and went with 17 projects. Now they have done an Athletic Training Challenge put on by NMAA and the New Mexico Athletic Trainers Association. The students had done this for the past 6 years. They have almost reached their goal of $12,000 but said they still needed help to offset the costs of the conference.

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

Information to the board

The La Plata Middle School student council had a presentation for the board. They had interviewed students and teachers for comments and ideas and also asked for positive and negative feedback from both. As part of the interview, they asked them what had been going well. The students highlighted the clubs that included NHD, Science Olympiad, National Junior Honor Society, Builders Club, Future Farmers of America (FFA), Cyber Patriots, Garden Club, GRIT (a club to teach young men how to behave properly), Photography Club, Art Fusion and GATE for gifted and talented students. To continue they went over all the sports and why the students wanted to be involved.

At the Ron Clark Academy an event called Amazing Shake had been started. It gives students the opportunity to learn soft skills and how to communicate with adults in real life situations. They had pictures of the recent event and talked about what a great experience it had been for each one of them.

The students recognized the janitors as the unseen backbone of the school and added the students should be more mindful and pick up after themselves.

Hawkins had an update on the NMAA eight grade / high school sports. This would have to do with the requirements that the eighth grade students will have to meet to participate in high school athletics. Currently it has been at the discretion of the coach and Hawkins, and he provided some examples. NMAA has some proposed changes and went into an extensive explanation with many variables. The conversation continued for some time on the changes. At this time these have been proposed and not voted on so they will have to wait to see.

Keith Bausman, associate superintendent, had a personnel report for the board and at this time they have 98.6 percent of the positions filled. Out of the eight full time positions open, three currently are in the process of hiring someone to fill them.

Cindi Barris, associate superintendent, said they currently are down nine students and went over each school. She reported she did not have any reason why the students had left.

Barris had a mental health grant update. They had submitted their report but not to the Department of Education. She and McCain had done a presentation, and the person seemed very positive but would not be the one making the decision but hoped they would know in June. Barris said they have now gone to a reimbursement process, and you must have permission beforehand or you will not be reimbursed.

She said they have been approved to attend the Ron Clark training in July. She added the state will still be providing for the mental health professionals they have and currently have three with an intern.

Barris reported on the math adoption process. She went over the choices and what the team had decided. The program would be K-12 and will be Savvas Math and Science curriculum. Montenegro and Diaz had a few questions for Barris that she answered about the program and Hawkins had a full explanation of the program.

McCain had Carlos Rojas, Beasley Mitchell and Company online to provide a presentation on the audit. He also had a PowerPoint presentation for the board to follow. The district had received an unmodified opinion for the financial statements which would be the best possible opinion. They had no reservations and believe the financial statements had been presented fairly and complete. The audit part that addressed federal awards had also had an unmodified opinion. He thanked management because they had not encountered any difficulties with performing the audit. He continued with the financial statements and full explanations and critiques of each document. They did have a finding due to the audit being turned in late, but it would not be anything abnormal, and it has been resolved. Hawkins added that it had happened due to the change in auditors and interpretation of how certain submissions would be done.

Finance sub committee

Cohn said they had met and reviewed all of the reports and everything had looked fine. Any question he or Klement had McCain answered.

Audit committee

They had not met due to the audit being closed.

Threat assessment committee

Bausman said they had met but did not have any concerns or issues to report. They did discuss the ALICE (alert lockdown inform counter evacuate) training and reunification training. The core leadership will be attending these trainings.

Board president

Montenegro did the first reading for policy advisories concerning employee assistance and public's right to know.

Board comments

Montenegro thanked everyone for hanging in there because it had been a marathon meeting. "We always love recognizing our students and the amazing things happening in our schools." Cliff's graduation had been amazing and knew Silver's would be also.

Diaz thanked Sixth Street Elementary for their performance and knew Jose Barrios Elementary would be coming up. "We don't take the closures lightly and it is a tough situation. We appreciate the community's understanding and support." She congratulated all the spring and winter activities and encouraged the kids to continue to participate. Diaz wished good luck to the students that would be moving to nationals in the summer. She apologized for not being at Cliff and said she had to attend her daughter's graduation from college. She congratulated Cliff and Silver on their graduation, "It is a huge accomplishment." Diaz added a thank you to all the donors.

Cohn, "I'll have to say it has been a phenomenal school year." Tonight's recognitions had said it all and he had been proud to sit there and witness it firsthand. He had attended the Cliff graduation and looked forward to Silver but added an apology for not attending the celebration at Sixth Street Elementary because of work.

McMillan commented it had been a long meeting but glad to celebrate and recognize sports and those attending national events. Cliff's graduation had been an excellent ceremony, but he would not be able to attend Silver's graduation because of his niece graduating in Deming and she will be the salutatorian.

Klement congratulated all the honorees of the evening, sports and activities. It had been amazing to see these programs continue and sustain excellence and grow. This has been because of hard work by the students, teachers, coaches and sponsors. She congratulated Cliff on their graduation but had not been able to attend because of work meetings. She would be attending Silver's graduation and had a senior graduating.

Montenegro said Lisa Lucero, administrative assistant, will be in their thoughts and prayers for her family and thanked Christine Brown for stepping up to take her place for the meeting.

Public comments none currently

Action items

Consent agenda

The board approved all requests made by Michelle McCain, finance director. She had checks totaling $3,623,6535.18, and three budget adjustments and explained all in depth

The district had donations.

Allingham-Golding Post #18 American Legion - $500
WNMU Title Co. Inc. — SHS NHD $500
Seth Traeger - SHS NHD $900
Beck Family Dental - SHS NHD $1,000
Terrazas Funeral Chapels - SHS NHD $1,500
Dr. Nkechi Nwachuko - SHS NHD $8,000

McCain had also provided a list of disposal items that would be obsolete or broken. Some will be auctioned off and some disposed of.

Antonio Andazola, transportation and maintenance director, did not have anything to approve as an action item. He did want to review the preventative maintenance plan. Not a lot of changes from year to year but wanted to update the goals. The abatement at Harrison Schmidt Elementary School they hope to have finished by July 31, 2026. They will also be replacing the playground equipment at Harrison and Stout Elementary Schools, He continued to review the goals they had on some of the projects. By updating the preventative maintenance plan each year helps when they request funding from the state to improve the buildings.

The board approved the request from La Plata Middle School NHD and Silver High School NHD request to offset expenses for the national competition.

The board approved the request from Silver High School HOSA to offset expenses to attend the national leadership conference.

The board approved the Silver Consolidated Schools 2026-2027 operational budget and salary schedules.

The board approved the 2026-2027 increment schedules.

The board approved the 2024-2025 audit.

The board approved the disposal list.

Public comments none currently.

The next meeting for the finance committee will be June 11, 2026
The next work session and regular meeting will be June 15, 2026

The board went into executive session.

The board came back into open session and said no action had taken place.

Adjourned