By Lynn Janes

The Cobre Consolidated Schools held a board meeting September 12, 2022. President Gilbert Guadiana called the meeting to order. Other board members in attendance included Serina Murillo, David Terrazas, Elizabeth Dean and Gabriella Begay. The pledge of allegiance and salute to the New Mexico flag took place. Superintendent Jeff Spaletta also attended.

Public input on agenda items none currently.

The board approved the agenda with a few changes in the order. They moved the gymnasium construction presentation to the next item and the student representative report after that. They also removed the union president report and the authorization to develop an RFP (request for proposal) forensic audit.

A representative from Stantec gave a presentation on current status of the Central Elementary School new gymnasium. He said originally, they had wanted to do a much larger one, but the budget would not allow for it. Currently they have been in the design stage to do a gymnasium half the size. The original cost of the bigger one had been $1.8 million. Next will be to send it out for bid.

Guadiana asked if the bathrooms will be Title 9 compliant. The representative said since they will be single restrooms, they will automatically be compliant. They will however have to label one bathroom as girls and one as boys.

The representative warned that construction will take longer due to supply chain issues. He warned that they would not see any construction start for some time after the project had been awarded. Getting supplies takes much longer now, it will be a three to seven month wait for supplies.

Guadiana asked if the pond would be a problem in the construction and he said the engineer said nothing needed to be adjusted for it.

Spaletta commented about the representative's worry he expressed about the budget. He asked what would happen if it went over budget. The representative said: "Since you had half of what was needed, we adjusted the size to fit the budget." However, prices have continued to accelerate, worse than had ever been seen. He said when the bids come in, they will know more and then can make decisions at that time. He also cautioned that a price increase could happen in the middle of a project.

Guadiana said this gymnasium had supposed to have been a wrestling gym but now "we don't know when we will be able to do that." He said they needed to let the public know of their intent.

Begay said she just received a text that the meeting had not been streaming on YouTube. Guadiana said last meeting they talked about this, and he had been of the understanding that they would be on Google Meets so people would be able to participate but it would still stream on YouTube. Some discussion happened around the confusion of the situation with some thinking it would be on both and some thinking it would not be on YouTube until later.

Student representative Micaela Roacho gave a report for the students. She said they had seen a lot of great improvements. They had seen the mats installed for the rain and fire extinguishers. The food situations reported on at the last meeting had become better but again recently the main course ran out and about ten students didn't get the main course and had been given cereal. The board asked her if she would be willing to become a contact for the students at all the schools and she agreed.

The board approved the minutes from three meetings with some adjustments and clarifications. They included August 8, 2022, August 22, 2022, and a special meeting August 26, 2022.

Joyce Barela gave the board an update on the latest PED (Public Education Department) tool kit that came from the state. This kit gives the guidance for current covid procedures. Last meeting the board wanted a survey before making any decisions because now the state left the decision to the local boards. A survey had been put out to the staff and on social media. They had 77 responses. The questions had been based on the recommendations from the state. State recommended lifting the quarantine for people not fully vaccinated that had been exposed. The responses received showed 74 percent agreed and 26 percent did not. The state lifted the fully not vaccinated people having to test. The response that agreed had been 68 percent and 31 percent still thought they should. The last question had to do with test to stay, and the state lifted that requirement. Test to stay means if a person that is not fully vaccinated is exposed, they must test for a period of time. The responses returned had been almost half and half. The board had been given a copy of the current recommendations by the state.

Dean asked if they had a covid response team and Barela said they did but had not met since last year. Dean then asked what the stats had been of people with covid and Barela said the first few weeks they had quite a few but recently only had one last week and two the week before. Guadiana said he wanted an update every board meeting on cases.

The board wanted to know when the policies for covid had to be submitted to the state and Barela said the end of the month. The board approved the first two recommendations but the third, test to stay would be kept in place. If exposed a person not fully vaccinated had to test three times.

The council approved some of the bills but still had questions on some and tabled those. Murillo said they still wanted clarification on the Cuddy and McCarthy LLP bill. Next question had to do with Tesel reimbursement. This is continuing education required for some. Murillo wanted to know if this reimbursement had been offered to all teachers. Barela said it had to be on their degree plan, but it had been offered to all. Murillo asked how the teachers had been told this could be reimbursed. She asked why some teachers knew and some didn't. She was told word of mouth and if the district requires it, they know it will be covered. Murillo said she had been told it would be required but no one said it would be reimbursed. Word of mouth is problematic and not fair. Guadiana said teachers not knowing this exists sounds very problematic to him. He said this might not be an isolated incident and the district needs to see what is available to the staff and what the budget allows. Spaletta said he had been researching the Cuddy and McCarthy bill and would get them information as soon as he could and, he had been going over all the bills.

The board approved authorizing the administration to procure an independent public accountant to conduct a special audit in accordance with state law and district policy and notify the Office of the State Auditor of the action.

Unfinished business

Spaletta gave the board an update on the air-conditioning repairs. There had been four units at Snell Middle School that needed repair. They had the parts for three of them and the others on the way. Those repairs would be happening during the week. The mini splits would be in soon and larger ones for the high school had been ordered.

The district has a lot of roofs with leaks. Bayard Elementary had a warranty and the company came out and fixed it. Snell had a warranty but after several weeks of not being able to make contact, a contractor had been contacted and that roof will be fixed in a few weeks. San Lorenzo will be a large repair. Spaletta said he had been getting quotes and would have them for the board at the next meeting. Hurley's repairs had been small and were currently being worked on. Spaletta said he would also bring quotes for the district office roof repair to the next meeting.

Murillo said the finance committee met on August 29, 2022, and had reviewed a number of things including staffing and RFP (request for proposal) for legal counsel. They asked Frank Ryan, finance director, to give them information on all the bonds for the past year. They also talked about the restitution for the monies illegally spent by the district on recall legal fees. They had looked at figuring the amount owed back. They had a question about ASA Architects that had been paid but never came across on review of bills. This also caused the committee to question how many other bills had not come to them for review. Ryan said he would have a report on ASA Architects for them at the next meeting.

Guadiana gave a report on the audit committee. He said they met August 31, 2022. They met with the Jaramillo Accounting Group and discussed some of the expenditures from last year. The district needs to send a letter to the state to advise them of the audit of expenditures. This will require an extension and might affect the district's ability to seek the selling of bonds. They talked about identifying the problems and what to do to eliminate them. Murillo asked how long the audit would take. The RFP had to be developed and then it could take 60-90 days. She then asked what happened if criminal activity had been found. Guadiana said it would have to go to the attorney general's office and action taken.

Superintendents report.

Spaletta said he has now come to the second part of his entry plan. He will be holding town staff meetings, cleaning up the district office and maintenance warehouse, visiting local churches, developing a public relations plan, meet with Cobre alumni and start teaching some classes. Dean said she heard great feedback on his sack lunches with the kids. Guadiana said he had also gotten great feedback on it.

Next had to do with assessment data. Spaletta handed this over to Joyce Barela, director of curriculum and instruction, and Deana Davis, human resource director. The report had been given to the board to review and Barela went over some of the highlights. This came from the state and assessed language arts and math. The district had a 33 percent to 54 percent proficiency in grades 3, 4, and 5 in the language arts. Snell came in at 32 percent and Cobre at 31 percent proficiency. Math across all the grades had been struggling.

They all discussed the data used and how it had been used. Dean asked if they could break it down further. Barela said they could only break it down to look at each individual student.

They said spelling and vocabulary scores had been down also.

Guadiana said he wanted to see an analysis of the data not just the data. He commented on Albuquerque and how they analyze the data.

Murillo asked what grades had taken the test and they said K-5

Begay said she didn't feel these tests had been a good representation sometimes.

Guadiana said he wanted to expand on what corrective action had been taken. He wanted to know how many interventionists they had. Barela told him that they only had interventionists for language arts and none for math. Davis said they did have one for math at Bayard Elementary.

Murillo commented that an interventionist is not enough, they had been past that. "This will now be a district problem." She asked if a list of the curriculum had been done and when it had been adopted. Davis said she just found out this morning but would put it together before the next meeting.

Spaletta said these scores do indicate a curriculum problem.

Dean asked if the training for intervention has been the same in all schools. Barela said it will be. She went on to explain all that they had been doing. Dean had more questions concerning intervention and how it will be implemented, and programs being used. She asked about communication with the parents. Barela said they had been working on it. She said they are in the process of making some changes to the curriculum. Guadiana asked her how long that will be. She said they have been reaching out across the state to see what other schools have been using. She explained that this had been taking a while and in part because she is doing the job of principal at Central Elementary along with her main job.

Murillo asked how they received funding for curriculum. Barela gave her an explanation of all the resources for funding it.

Spaletta said the 12-6-6 notification to the state auditor had the draft finished and met with the attorney. He said it would be filed today. It addressed four main areas.

The position of principal at Central Elementary has been open and Barela has been covering it. Spaletta said they have had several interviews, but the position remains open.

Part of Spaletta's entry plan includes the listen-and-learn tour. He said he hoped to get a lot of participation. They will be advertising the program soon.

The position of operations director has been offered to an individual. Spaletta said this person had not accepted yet.

Spaletta had given the board a list of fundraisers currently going on in the district. Guadiana had questions on three of them. Spaletta explained two of them but the one for Hurley he didn't have an explanation but told Guadiana he would look into it.

After the listen-and-learn tour has finished, Spaletta said he would start the staff town hall meetings. He explained those would be with the union president, teachers, and himself.

Spaletta had someone working on the facilities master plan but had delays. They had some illness within the group working on it and a parent that passed away. They will have the plan by the end of the month.

Next the board and Spaletta discussed having laptops for the board members. The laptops are all ready for use, the board just needs to decide if they want to use them. Guadiana brought up that they had looked at this because if the board becomes involved in some legal action their laptops can be subpoenaed for the records. By having a laptop for just board business they would not have to turn over their personal laptop. It had been brought up that even their phone could maybe be subpoenaed. Murillo said, "So now we have to have a board phone." Spaletta said that would be the board's choice. Guadiana asked him to look into it.

Spaletta wanted to make the board aware of a new professional service contract. The contract will be with Mr. Abeyta for physical therapy at $90 an hour. This is the same vendor they had been using but this would be the fourth year and next year it would go out for bid again. Begay asked if this rate had been typical, and they said yes.

Murillo had asked Keana Huerta to come present to the board what had taken place at the state student council meeting. Huerta is on the student council and Murillo wanted her to let them know any information she had gotten while there. Every year the state holds this meeting. Huerta could not attend because of band practice but Murillo said she would try and get her to come next time or to give a written report.

Public input none currently.

New business

The superintendent evaluation will be coming up. Guadiana asked Spaletta if he had found any samples for them to use. Spaletta said he had not found any appropriate ones. Guadiana said although they will not be doing it now, he wanted to get the criteria together. Spaletta said he had asked the board for this two months into his starting to work for the district. He asked the board if they wanted to do it in a regular meeting or have a special work session. They decided to do a work session and would schedule it at the next meeting.

Spaletta wanted to let the board know that Freeport McMoRan had donated $5,000 at the summer festival and that in total the district had gotten $25,000. Guadiana suggested a thank you letter and to post it on the website and put it in the newspaper.

The board discussed current technology and how it fit into the district. First thing brought up had to do with people having issues with Google Meets.

Guadiana addressed the need for better technology to accommodate those students who for whatever reason did not feel safe to come to school. They need to have the ability to do virtual classrooms. Maybe expand into other schools and possibly other countries. Guadiana talked some about the robotics program and Deming's rocketry program. He said they needed to provide programs that challenged the students and set them up for real life jobs. Today's jobs depend on technology and that has become prevalent.

Dean came back to Google Meets and asked if they had any other choices. Victor Arambula, director of technology. said they should not be having any problems and they are a Google School. Guadiana questioned "Google School" and asked if that had been in cement. Arambula said they use Google Chromebooks. Murillo said she felt Google products had been more user friendly. Arambula went on to explain the technical reason for the use of Google.

Guadiana went back to the use of remote access for the classroom and the need to explore other methods of teaching to better prepare the students for the work world. Arambula said they already had the tech available.

Spaletta said they had come a long way with technology but needed improvement. He said he had been meeting with the university to see how they could improve.

The board had a discussion concerning SEL (social emotional learning). Begay wanted to know if it had been done at all the schools. Barela said some have been, some not. Begay said she thought it had been a good program and it helped build relationships. Murillo asked if teachers had the authority to do SEL. Barela told her yes. A lot of discussion went on around this.

The agenda had listed an RFP for legal counsel. Spaletta said he has still been in the process of putting it together but has not received everything back he had been waiting for and hopefully for the next meeting he would have it to present.

Guadiana said they needed to get ahead of the Title 9 and plan to do an assessment of the district's compliance. He said they needed a coordinator and training done. Spaletta said they had not had any incidents where it had been necessary.

They talked about the out-of-district agreement. Spaletta said they had been working on putting one together using other school agreements for a template. Currently they have not needed one but still should have one in place. Dean asked if they followed up with other schools to make sure a student had not been a problem. Davis said yes, they ask for records and make phone calls to the other schools. Guadiana asked if they had a policy and a way for a decision to be challenged or appealed because this could be a potential legal problem. He said this policy needs to be done quickly since they didn't have anything.

Title 1 funding has always been applied for but not for the high school. Spaletta said he had noticed this when he came and asked why the high school had not been included. Barela said they never had but would look into it for next year. Spaletta said the other schools have been eligible so the high school should be also. Title 1 allows extra funding for areas of low-income demographics.

Spaletta announced the NMSBA (New Mexico School Board Association) region 8 meeting in Lordsburg on September 27, 2022. The presentation will have to do with reunification of parents and children, in case of an emergency. Recently the school had a drill concerning this.

The board went into executive session and read all the reasons possible for closed session. They remained in closed session for about one hour.

The board came back to open session. Spaletta said no decisions had been made and they discussed a student issue, collective bargaining strategies and executive staff investigations.

Next meeting September 26, 2022, at Central Elementary

Adjourned

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