By Margaret Hopper
The Cobre school board met at the District Office on Wednesday, October 29, 2014 with all five directors attending. President Toy Sepulveda opened the meeting at 7:05 p.m., saying the earlier 6:00 closed session included discussion on student identifiable issues, limited personnel and goals for the superintendent. No decisions had been made.
Under Administration, Superintendent Robert Mendoza recommended the board approve the September list of checks paid, which amounted to $1,039,118.50 of operational funds. Some of the largest items were the payroll clearing accounts of $439,686.78 on September 9 and $433,334.77 on September 25, and PNM Electric and Gas Service, $37,503. City of Bayard received $13,737.87 for water use and related services, and two checks for fleet fueling amounted to $5,917.33. A lot of school supplies and paper, communications and news services were in the mix.
Special Revenue Funds also had two payroll clearing account bills of $52,098.06 on September 9 and $46,602.76, on September 25, with a few more checks to teachers. The bus transportation companies, Porter and Montoya, received $66,194.35 in Special Revenue Funds. Paper supplies, teacher materials, attorney's fees, computer software and other similar expenses brought Special Revenue Funds to a total of $252,631.70
Other spending categories included $175,457.67 from the Bond Building Fund, most of which went for building improvements on Bayard Elementary. Tatsch Construction, Inc. had the largest check, $136,586.25 for the month. Architects and Consulting Engineers made up the rest of that category.
The Athletics Fund had many smaller checks, mostly amounting to $200 or less, for travel foods or individual referees. The entire amount was $6,254.65. The Activity Fund
checks were spent on similar things, foods and equipment, totaling $33,906.63 in September.
One BAR (Budget Adjustment Request) was for $1,150. This was a budget increase from the state department of education and is to go for software for English Language Acquisition in the regular school program. The board approved all the above requests.
In the superintendent's report, Mendoza restated the invitation for all to attend the celebration planned for Luis Victor Armijo, World War II Code Talker, at the Village of Santa Clara on Veteran's Day. Fundraisers were reviewed, and contacts with Mayor Ed Encinas and the town council regarding Hurley Elementary School's school crosswalk and traffic re-design project were in a letter. The District's portion of the cost is to be $700.
Early dismissal is planned for Friday, October 31, for staff development and planning.
Board members are planning to attend the Open Meeting and Inspection of Public Records Training meetings, which are being held both in Santa Fe and locally at WNMU.
Three of the directors have plans to attend those meetings at one of the given sites.
The next board meeting is to be at Hurley Elementary on November 10. Adjournment on this night was at 7:15, one of the shortest meetings on record.