By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Consolidated Schools held a work session February 27, 2023. President Ashley Montenegro called the meeting to order. Other board members in attendance included Patrick Cohn, Mike McMillan, and Eddie Flores (phone). Superintendent William Hawkins also attended. Michelle Diaz arrived later in the meeting.

The board approved the work session agenda.

Mike Stone from Stone and McGee attended the meeting to give the board their report on the 2021 / 2022 audit they had done. The audit had been turned into the state, but the state had just recently approved it. The audit had an unmodified opinion which Stone said, "Is as good as you get." The audit also had an unmodified opinion on federal regulations and no comments on internal controls. "You can't get better." Stone thanked the administration and especially Michelle McCain, finance director, for having everything they needed and having total cooperation. The board discussed how much longer they could renew the bid with Stone and McGee. Stone said until 2025. The board thanked McCain for doing a good job.

They adjourned the work session.

Regular meeting

The Silver City Consolidated Schools held the regular board meeting February 27, 2023. President Ashley Montenegro called the meeting to order. Other board members in attendance were Patrick Cohn, Mike McMillan, and Eddie Flores (phone). Superintendent William Hawkins also attended. The Pledge of Allegiance and salute to the New Mexico flag took place. Michelle Diaz arrived later in the meeting. Montenegro said she would have to leave during the meeting.

The board approved the minutes from the January 30, 2023, work session, regular board meeting and finance meeting January 26, 2023

The board approved the agenda for the meeting.

Information and presentations

Dotty Pfeifer with Kiwanis attended to present the student of the month recognitions.

Harmony Abalos, a senior at Cliff High School, had been nominated. She has placed second in her class with a 4.249 GPA. She has been an outstanding student showing leadership characteristics. She always helps other students struggling and always goes above and beyond.

Aubrey Rodriguez in grade 7 at La Plata Middle Schools shows great integrity and always helps other students. She does not complain no matter what the challenge. Her teacher said she's very intelligent but does not make other students feel inferior.

Araceli Saucedo, a senior at Silver High School, has been involved with FCCLA (Family Career and Community Leaders of America). She is motivated and has been hard working. She wants to attend UNM (University of New Mexico) after graduation and get her degree in political science and journalism.

The board recognized Silver High School football team 4A state championship runner up and number one defense in the state. The whole team and coaches attended. One of the coaches thanked the board but said it had all been the kids' hard work. Hawkins thanked the coaches and kids for the hard work and showed the board the plaque they had received at the state championships.

Claudia Smith, Silver High School principal, and Daniel Burke gave a short power point presentation to the board concerning vaping in the school. Smith said they had an uptick on vaping and have concerns the parents don't know much about it. She turned the presentation over to Burke. If a student has been caught the first time the parents will be notified. The second and third time will result in suspension (3-5 days). The fourth will be a 10-day suspension. In all incidents the vaping pens will be confiscated. They had a chart of the current and past statistics. They have installed vaping detectors in key places and that had been done over the Christmas break. Burke said it has helped a lot and brought the numbers down. If the vape pen has THC in it, law enforcement is called and that has happened three times this year. They've been doing presentations to the students about the dangers of vaping. The National Guard has also come and done a presentation on vaping and the dangers.

McMillan asked if they would provide counseling for those students. Burke said no but they had been discussing doing it. They have started to look at programs available and possible partnering with HMS (Hidalgo Medical Services). Flores said he had a concern because he had heard the detector would go off because of the air fresheners. Burke said they had moved the air fresheners because of that. Cohn said "It is important to have the parents educated because it affects the health of the students.

Montenegro had to leave during the presentation.

SCEA (Silver City Education Association) did not attend to give a report.

Superintendents report

Hawkins addressed several things for the board.

He gave the board an update on the legislature and gave them a written report and went over some of the bills. He has done this weekly. He told them if they wanted deeper analysis of a bill to let him know.

Hawkins had met with Studor and the high school administration concerning the strategic plan. They talked about what qualities they wanted the students to have when they graduated. They asked the students what they needed and what has been done well. They would continue to work with parents and the community.

Cabinet staff evaluations had been done by Hawkins and said he recommended all for rehire.

Hawkins said they had met regularly concerning policies on arming the school security guards. The committee has reviewed and will present the first draft to the board. They will be having 2-3 events for the community to have the opportunity to look at the policies and give feedback. After they have received the feedback, they will look at it and make adjustments. Cohn thanked them for the hard work they had done on the policies.

Louis Alvarez, associate superintendent, gave the board his personnel report and said it seems to stand at 98.4 percent. He said he had interviews coming up to fill the open positions. He also said they had requests for transfers within the district.

Cindy Barris, associate superintendent, gave the board an enrollment update. She said, "They had lost and gained but the total right now was 2250."

Michelle McCain, director of finance, said she had a request. Changes in minimum wage have caused a need to raise the wages of the hourly activity drivers rate from $15 an hour to $20 an hour. This has been needed for retainment.

Board of education

Cohn said the finance subcommittee had met and went over all the expenditures and deposits. Nothing had been found and any questions McCain had answered.

Diaz joined the meeting and took over presiding of the meeting.

Flores turned the presentation for the threat assessment report to Alvarez. They had met and gone over the polices for the armed guards. Another issue they discussed had been how to be more proactive with CYFD (Children Youth and Families Department). Some incidents have been time sensitive and CYFD had not gotten the information from the police department in a timely manner so from now on they would be contacting both police and CYFD on some incidents. Diaz had some questions about which ones would be reported.

Montenegro had not been able to give her reports. Diaz read a document she had left to be read. She said they would be nominating one or two people for the Student Excellence Achievement Award. The board will be voting to give a onetime district retention stipend and superintendent stipend. It will be $500 and would be coming from extra funds and the rest would be used for school supplies and instruction supplies for the next school year. The next region 8 meeting will be held in Silver City, and they would be hosting it at the Silver High School cafeteria and the culinary arts class would be providing the meal.

Board comments

Diaz apologized for being late and said it could not be helped. She congratulated all the winter activities and all their hard work.

Cohn said he enjoys his time on the board and has been blessed to work with great people. He thanked the staff for thinking of the teachers with the $500 stipend and it would be great to already have school supplies for the next year.

McMillan said it has been a busy week with sports and now they would be getting ready for spring sports. He thanked the administration for the retention money and school supplies for the next year.

Flores congratulated all the winter sports.

Public comments none currently.

Action items

The board approved the consent agenda which included the following.

Checks totaling $ 2,770,673.90

Budget adjustments, McCain explained each one. Public Education Department (PED) had asked her to make some adjustments. Some had to do with the stipends and school supplies. They received the final ARP (American Recovery Plan), covid money $286,909, carry over from last year of $172,703, after audit tech funds carryover $245,689 and final debt services from property taxes $307,358

Bids and proposals they have received include:

The HVAC system for Stout Elementary School. It had been between J and S Plumbing and Enoch Mechanical. They had a $1,000 difference. They had to consider supply chain issues and chose Enoch Mechanical.

An RFP had been sent out for E-Rate and only one bid came in from SHI International in the amount of $235,513.43. This service has to do with switches and wireless across the district. E-Rate is a universal service program to ensure all schools and libraries have affordable telecommunications and information services.

Only one milk bid came in from DFA Dairy. McCain said that it had been Dean and before that Prices.

The donations included:
Arenas Valley Animal Clinic – Silver High girls basketball, $1,000
Edward Jones – Silver High non sport, boys, $250 and girls, $250
Silver City Lodge 1718 – Silver High golf team, $1,000
Silver City Lodge 1718 – Silver High boys basketball, $500
Hatch Toyota Stateline – SCS (Silver Consolidated Schools) Spring break food donation, $1,000

Diaz thanked the donors for all the donations.

Transportation did not have anything to report.

The board approved the audit they had received from Stone and McGee.

The board approved the salary increase for the hourly activity bus drivers.

The board approved the bid for the HVAC system at Stout Elementary School.

The board approved the E-Rate bid for wireless and switches.

The board approved the milk bid

The board had two nominations for the Excellence in Student Achievement Award. McMillan nominated Victor Oaxaca, transportation director. Diaz said he goes above and beyond and so much of what he does has been behind the scenes. "He keeps the doors open." Cohn and McMillan agreed. Cohn nominated Crystal Drennan, a parent. He thanked her for all she has done and always goes out of her way at activities. Hawkins said, "She is a member of FFA and is always the first one to step up." The board approved both nominations.

The board approved the district retention stipend and superintendent stipend.

Public comments none currently.

The next regular board March 20, 2023
Finance committee meeting March 9, 2023
NMSBA spring region 8 meeting – Silver City – March 28, 2023

Adjourned.