By Lynn Janes
The Silver City Consolidated Schools held its regular meeting September 20, 2021. President Ashley Montenegro called the meeting to order. The members and audience said the Pledge of Allegiance was not said.[Editor's Note: The Pledge of Allegiance was said, according to Superintendent Hawkins and IT Director Benjamin Potts, who explained to the Beat : "...the board began the meeting without verification that the streaming setup was ready, and so the Facebook and Youtube feeds had a gap where the audio and video for both were being transferred over."]
Other board members in attendance were Patrick Cohn, Michelle Diaz, Eddie Flores, Mike McMillan. Superintendent William Hawkins also attended.
The meeting started with a work session interviewing candidates for strategic planning. The school board members looked at three different companies and two were picked to give a short presentation of their plan to the board, School Architects and Studer Education Group.
Jenai Ali Emmel, CEO and founder from School Architects presented first. She said they had been in business since 2012. They would align to a new vision and organizational design. The company uses a needs assessment with four options. They look at the strengths and challenges of the schools. The board asked if she had done any other schools in New Mexico. She had not worked directly with any but had worked indirectly through other businesses. She was asked if she implemented the plan and she replied she could do both the plan and implementation. Curriculum was addressed and she said they do not do that but could find someone that could help them. She went on to say that they are looking at the big picture for the schools. She was asked what the process looked like should they be hired. Interviewing at all levels would take place and it could be done in person or virtual, and it would take 2-5 days, however on site was preferable.
Ryan Hess of Studer Education Group presented next. He said it was a comprehensive process that would take approximately six months. They would do a target environmental scan, data documents, priorities of the board, and would work with all. Community involvement would be a big part if it. They would conduct focus groups in effort to get as many voices in the community as possible. Steering committees would look at new and existing plans. When all of these have been done and the data assimilated, an extensive strategic plan would be presented to make sure to meet expectations. An integrated leadership program would be implemented to ensure success of the execution of the plan. Studer had been featured in AASA School Administration Magazine and highlighted four schools they had done a plan for. The board asked if they had done any other plans in New Mexico schools, and they had in Hobbs. Hess was asked how many days they would need here, and he replied seven days, but it could be virtual.
The board approved the minutes from the August 16, 2021, meetings, both the work session and regular meeting. Also approved the agenda for this meeting.
Presentations, non-action items.
Mr. Gary Allison, SHS Athletic Director presented lettermen from the girls' volleyball and boys' soccer. More will be presented at the next meeting.
For the girls' volleyball the first-time lettermen were Alexis Flores, Makaylah Roybal, Jayelyn Sanchez. The returning players included Rashelle Barragan, Maleah Diaz, Aysia Jordan, Lisa Lucero, Jordan McCain, Kaliyah Mendoza, Alizeah Murillo, Cameron Secrest.
The boys' soccer first time lettermen were Isaac Beck, Ayden Birch, Michael Bobo, David Gorman, Jacob Halbison, Victor Hernandez, Aiden Hooten, EJ Hooten, Michael Konopnicki, Rio Koury, Illimani Lopez, Rogelio Madrid, Abraham Martinez, Vincente Medina, Zev Rivers, Tad Theobald, Colton Traeger, Reece White. The returning players included Anson Beck, Avery Beck, Jason Brueggemann, Xavier Koury, Kinan Lopez.
Allison said schedule changes have taken place due to shortages of game officials and referees. Superintendant Hawkins said he wanted to thank all the kids and parents for getting the players vaccinated so they could travel and play.
Victor Oaxaca director of facilities and transportation currently did not have anything to report.
Information to Board
Superintendent Hawkins had several items to report on.
Esperanza Alcorta, 3rd grade student received St. Jude's Top Innovation Hope Award. Esperanza wanted to help her sister going through cancer treatments, so she invented a soft huggable "My Comfy Pillow" for her. Silver Schools also gave Esperanza a plaque and warmed the hearts of everyone with her caring gesture.
On May 28, 2020, some NMSBA Awards were not given out but are presenting them now. Sixty-eight school boards participated and there were 148 recipients, two were from Silver. The awards looked for the teachers that best promoted student achievement. Claudie Thompson and Lee Wilson received the awards.
Hawkins gave a brief report on where they were with HB33 Mill Levy Election. He said he had been to many meetings to promote and answer questions concerning the bill and election coming up in November. The bill would not increase anyone's property taxes, and all would stay the same. It in the past the mill levy has provided $1.50 per $1,000 assessed value from each property owner. He said he had brochures made up and was more than happy to attend any meeting or speak to any group about it.
Hawkins gave an update on Covid. They had only had four positive tests in the last week. There were 2 active student cases and 3 active staff cases. Year to date totals were 9 students and 7 staff. He said their numbers were so good because 71% of the staff had been vaccinated. He did add that most of those were asymptomatic.
Louis Alvarez, Associate Superintendent had several reports to give the board.
Alvarez said the personnel were almost at one hundred percent and the few openings left had people lined up for and in process.
Asbestos management had met all the state regulations. All information had been published and shared with the public. All new employees had gotten the asbestos training and were aware of what to look for and how to report. This plan is done every three years.
Execution of Documents was done to take the past associate superintendent off and add the new, Alvarez and Mr. Oaxaca.
Associate Superintendent Cindy Barris gave several reports.
The enrollment had increased, and she would have an update every Friday.
A curriculum meeting would take place next week. Kindergarten through 8 would give recommendations but they must follow common core standards. It is an ongoing process. She said she had sent the board a full presentation that they could view when they had time.
Barris explained the ESSER III ARP grant. They were applying for federal money from the art fund. They must have a plan and it must be Covid related. They would receive one third of the grant first (2.3 million) and two thirds later (4.6 million). A survey was given to the staff, parents, students, and community. They received 244 responses, 76 percent parents, 36 percent staff, 9 community members and 1 student. From the first disbursement, 68 percent would go towards replacing positions, emergency sick leave, activity bus, classroom technology upgrade, various kitchen upgrades, site upgrades, and digitization of the district. Twenty percent would go to loss of learning, including summer and after school programs. Eight and a half percent would go to activities like family literacy nights, CTE Certification and professional development. Three percent would go to indirect costs, operations budget to help support maintaining administration. The remaining half percent to additional reserve to be used to help homeless students.
The next disbursement would be broken down the same way with a few changes. Seventy-four and a half percent would be to replace positions, emergency sick leave, a community liaison, classroom technology upgrade, various kitchen upgrades, site upgrades, PPE, digitized district. Twenty percent would go to loss of learning, same as the first. Two percent to activities, family literacy nights, CTE certification, and professional development. Three percent indirect costs, same as first disbursement. Five percent to reserves for homeless students.
Barris asked the board if they had any questions. Flores asked about where all the CTE money was going. No one ever sees this money. How is it distributed, who gets it? Dollars are committed and can't be changed. Diaz ask if this grant would support and expand pathways. Barris replied these are one-time funds and to expand they would have to find money in the budget in the future to support it so it can only support current pathways. McMillan asked about the loss of learning, if they would be able to continue the summer programs and Barris said yes.
President Montenegro said referring to the CTE funds that all the current ones were already committed this year but came up every year. The last few years they were all used for lobbying. It was part of a consortium with Animas, Reserve and Deming.
Michelle McCain, director of finance, currently had nothing to report.
President Montenegro reported on the board of education. She said they had met last Thursday and had gone over all the reports. Less money was spent than the previous month, but salaries were now using recovery funds. She said they would be monitoring that closely.
Threat assessment committee report was supposed to be given by Flores, but he was not able to attend the last meeting so Superintendent Hawkins gave it. Hawkins said the committee decided to provide a certified shooter training course for the staff. Cobre had done this training and found it helpful. Hawkins met with Sherriff Frank Gomez, Deputy Palacios, Chief of Police Portillo, Truant Officer David Holguin and Associate Superintendent Alvarez. Hawkins worked closely with these individuals to put this together. It is a two-day course, and all principals and security officers will be certified. They will then come back and train the rest of the staff and students how to react to in the event of an active shooter. The course will teach skills and strategies to increase survivability during the gap between a violent event and law enforcement arrival.
Board President Montenegro presented the yearly board packet for the resolution to establish notice to the public of all meetings of the board for Silver Consolidated Schools 2021-2022
Board Comments started with President Montenegro. She wanted to thank everyone for all coming together to get everyone back to in-person school and some normalcy. Diaz wanted to thank everyone for moving forward on such a positive note. Everyone is supporting activities and teachers back in the classroom. She was especially moved by Esperanza and was so proud of her. Cohn thanked Hawkins, Alvarez and Barris for making their presence known at all the games and activities. He also gave recognition to the bus drivers. McMillan thanked the staff, parents and students and he hopes the schools can keep in-person learning. Flores thanked all the teachers, staff and students. He commented that he hoped the state didn't do another shutdown. He also brought up that at some point they needed to find a way in the budget to take better care of the students and teachers. One example he gave was the busses didn't have any air conditioning, and when the teams travel, they must eat the bare minimum because there is very little in the budget. He said they are having to stay in hotels that are not that good because of budget.
Public Comment
Mrs. Bustillos was supposed to be on the agenda but had been left off, so she was moved to public comments. Bustillos welcomed all the new employees. She said she was bargaining for more time to do planning. Meetings were important to make sure people were all on the same page.
Action Items
McCain had budget and finance items to be approved. They included checks in the amount of $911,778.31 and three budget adjustments. Donations were received from Morning Star in the amount of $775 for boys' soccer and McDonalds $2,440 for soccer jerseys. The board approved the expenditures.
Transportation didn't have any report
Approved resolution to establish reasonable notice to the public of all public meetings of the Board of Education of the Silver City Consolidated Schools.
Decision to choose the company to do the Strategic Master Plan Proposal. The two being considered gave presentations during the work session. The board unanimously chose Studer Education Group.
Federal Application Funds presented by Barris. The board voted to approve it.
Upcoming meetings
Virtual Meeting September 28, 2021, with NMSBA
Next regular board meeting October 18, 2021
NMSBA annual convention, Albuquerque, NM December 2-4, 2021
Executive session not needed or open public comments
Meeting was adjourned.