By Lynn Janes

The Cobre Consolidated Schools held a special work session meeting October 17, 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 comments none currently

The board recited the board norms as they usually do at the beginning of the meeting. The norms consist of five rules the board strives to adhere to during the meeting. They are listed as actively listen to all perspectives, respond to concerns and questions as a unified board, professionalism expected, assume positive intent, and be positive and responsive.

The purpose of this special meeting had to do with finalizing the superintendent's evaluation and when they would be done.

They decided on one in January of 2023 and one in June of 2023

Spaletta had prepared a PowerPoint presentation for them use to help in the process of putting the evaluation criteria together.

Murillo brought up the evaluation that had been used to evaluate themselves and added she felt they should get the various stakeholders involved. Guadiana thought surveys would be a good mechanism. Spaletta also thought that would be a good idea.

The board discussed if the surveys should be anonymous and maybe be done by an independent party. They all talked for a while and decided it would be a good idea to use an independent party.

The survey would be for both the superintendent and board. They also made plans on when they would send the surveys out.

Spaletta commented that the survey would be a supplement and not the evaluation.

Spaletta had compiled a lot of data for them to review and Guadiana said, "It is anecdotal and not a large enough scope."

Guadiana said he would be concerned that people would fill out multiple surveys and what barrier could be used to prevent that.

Murillo asked Spaletta where he had gotten the template, he had given them, and he said it had come from the state.

Guadiana said on a side note they could make their own parameters and maybe using a statewide template would not be a good idea.

They went through each item listed in the template and discussed them fully. Guadiana and Spaletta had several disagreements and went back and forth on some of the issues. Murillo weighed in and Guadiana disagreed. The disagreements with some of the information continued and could not be resolved. Begay and Dean agreed with the document parameters.

They discussed and had confusion about action versus discussion. Dean pointed out that four of them agreed on the language of the document. Guadiana pointed out that this meeting has been for discussion and next meeting it would be voted on.

The next items on the evaluation template they all could agree on. They had read them and discussed each item.

Dean pointed out some things the evaluation template didn't include and where they should be included. One thing they wanted to add would be Spaletta's collaboration and teamwork. Another one they wanted to add would be his establishment and maintaining of positive relationships with all the stakeholders. `

A written complaint had been found and they only had two copies. The document didn't have a name on it and had questions for the superintendent's administration. They discussed how to approach it and if it should be used like the survey.

The next thing that Dean brought up about the survey had to do with how to gauge what language would be used and the fact that what a word means to one person is not necessarily what it would mean to another. Example she used was the word outstanding. Murillo pointed out it would be subjective.

They went on to discuss the kinds of questions that would be asked and if they would be a yes or no questions or left open ended. Murillo and Dean felt they should be open ended. Guadiana didn't like the idea of them being open ended. The discussion went on for some time.

Next issue to be decided would be if the surveys would be hard copy, emailed or online. Everyone except Guadiana liked the idea of an online survey. Guadiana pointed out that they had elderly people that didn't participate online, and they needed to be accommodated. They all agreed all options should be available.

At that point the meeting adjourned.