By Lynn Janes

The Cobre Consolidated School Board held a special meeting on February 12, 2024. Board members in attendance included Gabriella Begay, Gilbert Guadiana, and David Terrazas. Angelina Hardin and Emmarie Heredia joined after their appointment and swearing in. Acting superintendent Michael Koury also attended.

New business

The board has two vacancies to fill and two applicants. One of the applicants had been interviewed February 9, 2024

The applicant would be given three minutes for an opening statement and three minutes for a closing statement. Each board member would be asking two questions and the candidates would have three minutes on each question to answer.

Emmarie Heredia said she has been a second-grade teacher at Stout Elementary and has applied to New Mexico State University (NMSU) doctorate program. She had taught in the Cobre district in the past but feels her heart is still at Cobre and she felt this would be a good way to give back to the community.

Guadiana asked her why they should pick her and what the biggest challenges would be at Cobre. She said she had gone to Cobre and that gives her one perspective and as an educator that gives her another perspective. “I am not done learning and I can give back to my community.” The biggest challenge will be the teacher shortage and she feels they need to find a way to help people get qualified.

Begay asked her how she would handle a board decision she didn’t support or vote for and how she would address the shortage of teachers and substitutes. Heredia said they are a team even when they don’t agree. They would need to be positive and respectful of others’ choices. In reference to the teacher shortages, she said she currently has been involved in a project at NMSU designed to help fill those gaps. “We need to empower the people in the community to go into these positions. Reach out to them and let them know about the benefits.”

Terrazas asked how she would interact with the board to be unified and if she would be comfortable raising a question that was against the status quo. Heredia said everyone’s thoughts and ideas would be important and should be respected and she had no problem going against the status quo.

She didn’t have a closing statement and felt she had covered everything.

The board nominated both and approved both. Judge Hector Grijalva attended and swore both members in.

The finance committee had not met since last board meeting. Begay said they would meet February 20, 2024.

Guadiana said the audit committee met to discuss the progress. Both the 2022 and 2023 audits are in process. The special audit will be done after those two years have been completed. They will need an outside contractor to help obtain all the needed documents to finish the audits. They have a contractor doing some now and will be expanding their contract.

Board member reports

Guadiana said he had visited the high school and middle school and will be sharing his report to the principals.

Terrazas had received an email about an activity bus not being up to par. Artie Sanchez, athletic director, said they had a lot of trips and he thought they had to use a regular bus on some and maybe that had been what they referred to. Koury added they also had a window shot out in one of the buses.

Begay said the NMSBA (New Mexico School Board Association) conference in Santa Fe had been informative and went over some of the sessions she had attended.

Guadiana commented on the same conference. He had learned about the strategic plan and how it should be used by the board. Student outcomes need to be the priority. He had found out that not being compliant with the audits could be a problem with capital outlay funding but will be working with the committee to get it in line. The district will need to have public input concerning combining the high school and middle school before they start planning the new school.

Superintendent reports

Koury turned the report over to the principals from each school to give an update on the DASH (New Mexico educational plan for student success) plans and 90 day literacy and math goals.

Each principal gave the board a list of what they would be doing. They include deep analysis of the data and intervention. Many had put leadership teams together to address what has and has not been working and how it could be done better. They spoke about bringing in the skills they had learned with the Ron Clark academy.

The DASH plan is a new platform the state has implemented, and the principals commented about it not being easy to use and a difficult process.

Koury had given the board a list of fundraisers currently happening in the schools.

Western Bank had contacted Koury and made significant donations.

The board went into executive session to discuss several pending litigation cases and discuss with legal counsel and obtain advice. They have four cases currently, Annette Acosta v. Cobre Consolidated School District Board of Education (CCSDBE),
Cecilia Barela v. CCSDBE, Melissa Maynes v. CCSDBE and Daena Davis v. CCSDBE.

The board came back into open session and said no action had been taken.

Meeting adjourned.