By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Consolidated Schools held a work session and regular meeting, on April 15, 2024, in Cliff. Members in attendance included Ashley Montenegro, Michelle Diaz, Patrick Cohn, Mike McMillan, and Kimberly Klement. Superintendent William Hawkins also attended.

Work session

Raul Turrieta, Grant County chief deputy/commercial appraiser, attended the meeting to give the board an overview of valuation and mill rates for the county. He has worked in the assessor's office under different capacities for many years. He said Hawkins had brought to his attention the low rates. He went over the taxable value and rates and how they arrive at the valuations. He provided them with a document showing the rates and costs to residents for the increase. "The assessed value used to determine the taxes are one third of the value of the home." Veterans and head of household receive a discount in the valuation. Hawkins pointed out a monthly break down for the increased property taxes. They had broken it down into ranges from a valuation of $50k to $300k and the increase would be $5.69 a month to $34.17 a month. A person with a home valuation of $100k would be $11.39 a month.

Turrieta said he had been doing this for years but had just seen how low the rates have been compared to other areas of the state. Hawkins said Grant County has the among the lowest tax rates. Funding to maintaining the schools can only be generated locally. "We maintain eight buildings and we do an amazing job stretching the dollar, but it can only be stretched so far."

Klement acknowledged all the community outreach Hawkins had done for the past year and asked if anyone had thoughts of any alternatives to increasing the levy.

Hawkins said in the past the state would match any project by 7 percent and the school had to come up with 93 percent for projects. This year the state had accumulated a lot of money and changed the ratio to 63 percent had to come from the school and the state would match with 37 percent. "We still have to generate it locally." Montenegro said she thought what Klement had been asking, "Can we get money from any place else?" Michelle McCain, finance director said no, the mill levy would be the only way. Klement asked if they had any other source and Hawkins said no. Every year they reach out to the legislature and ask for capital outlay funding but would not be able to get that much and they need ongoing funding to maintain.

Regular meeting

The board approved the minutes and agenda.

Information and presentations.

A representative for Kiwanis had not been able to attend. Hawkins read the letter provided the student of the month in Cliff.

Aubrey McCauley, a senior, has been on the A-B honor roll and 3rd in her class. She is committed to excellence and has a great work ethic. She will be attending Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona to obtain a degree as an athletic trainer.

Mark Valenzuela, Bosque Advisors LLC, had not been able to update the board but Rachel Gudgel, state law and policy director, joined online to give a recap of the previous presentation and answer any questions. They will be having a meeting in Cliff the next day and Valenzuela will be available for a more detailed discussion. Gudgel said they had made a lot of progress in the past few years working with the district. Currently the levy must be renewed and has been 1.9 mill levy. It will not be sufficient to pay the current payment. The PED (public education department) will probably come in and raise it to make sure it will be enough to make the current payments due. The district has $14.4 million in existing debt.

Gudgel said they would have to have a special election to obtain more funds. They will have to have a least a 4.1. Her recap included their recommendations, tax rates from other districts, and the statistics for they other districts compared to Silver.

Montenegro said Cliff needs a new school. "We have to have a 10 mill levy to get the funding available from the state. Currently $6 million a year will not build a new school." She asked Turrieta when the last time the mill levy had been raised and he said it had been the same for many years. He said Grant County has the lowest in the state. He said residents would not see a change in value except the 3 percent cap done every year. He added that five years ago they had almost increased it, but it had been rescinded.

Montenegro asked Gudgel some questions about the bond payment. A decision will have to be made at the May meeting if they will be having a special election to ask to increase the mill levy.

The student presidents from Cliff Schools gave a presentation to the board. They included Zachary Eggleston, Jasper Allsup and Emmy Allsup. They provided a power point presentation that included celebrations, upcoming events, activities, athletics, and concerns. They had also included data of the testing scores. Representative Luis Terrazas had obtained $50,000 in capital outlay to do repairs and refurbishing for athletics and the track and field. The students have been concerned about the 5-day week requirements and had frustration about it.

Hawkins went over the two calendars they had to turn for Cliff. Both calendars will have to be turned in with the budget. Diaz asked when they would know if Cliff could continue to use the 4-day week or must change to the 5-day week. Hawkins said they would not know until July when PED had been able to look at the test scores.

Louis Alvarez, associate superintendent, gave the board a personnel report.
He said this time of year he has many retiring or resigning. They have 21 positions open but have three interviews coming up. At this time, they will be 94.3 percent staffed. He added that this has been common across the state. Hawkins said many of the principals have already been interviewing for positions that will be open next school year.

Cindy Barris, associate superintendent, said the enrollment numbers had fluxuated and she didn't have a reason but the numbers she showed the board had students down from last year.

She gave them an update on the online curriculum. They had purchased a new online curriculum. The one used before had a four-year contract and it had cost approximately $67,000 a year. The contract had ended, and they found this one for $92,543 for a three-year program. It will be a significant savings. She went over the ways it would be different but still meet the needs. Everyone on the curriculum committee had voted for the online curriculum.

Joyce Barela, mental health coordinator, had not been able to attend but Barris went over her report. Barela and Barris will be presenting the mental health program to the Grant County Commission and how the grant has been used. The district will be sending 13 people to the annual social workers conference. It will include principals, wellness room staff and social workers. They had parent training and 634 had participated. Many families have been using the replay links for the training. The students have continued to use the wellness rooms. Since they opened, they have had 2,521 visits and 639 of those had been unique.

Montenegro said the finance subcommittee had met and reviewed the budget and finance reports. In the training she had attended, they had talked a lot about the budget. "We are always underfunded and have to be very careful. Most goes to salaries." The enrollment has been down at Silver Schools and all over the state and that translates into a loss of funding. They looked at the current budget and with the mandated salary increases, it will be really tight. A conversation has been going on statewide and everyone has been hoping the funding will be adequate. The district will be losing the art funding and covid funding they had the last few years.

Klement asked if all the current funding will be spent in the allotted time, and McCain said yes it will be and went over what they had left and what they will be using it for.

McMillan turned the threat assessment report over to Alvarez. They had met and talked about the special training the guards had to have regarding the special education students. "It is very expensive and required 16 hours, some online and some in person with our special education director." The new guards will need to do physical qualifications and psychological evaluations. They have also been training with the new security system, Zero Eyes, and it has an identification average time of 67 seconds of a perceived threat.

Montenegro said this will be the first reading of the tobacco use by students/ smoking policy.

Board comments.

Montenegro thanked Cliff for the hospitality and congratulated all the students involved in extracurricular activities including Silver. She thanked everyone for hearing the conversation on the mill levy and hoped they would partner with the board.

Diaz thanked Cliff for the hospitality and meal they provided. She congratulated all the kids involved in activities and said she liked it when the kids come and talk to them. "Getting up and doing a presentation is hard." She hoped they could continue with the 4-day week and told them the board would be advocating for them. "No one wants to raise taxes, but everything has gone up and people have been struggling. It is a complicated topic. We know we must replace the Cliff school." She added that Grant County rates number 42nd with their tax rate nationwide. She said that they don't ask the kids to pay to participate in activities. "I ask people to keep an open mind."

Cohn said,, as the county treasurer he does not see a negative but a positive to fund the schools with the taxes. "Your tax dollars are important to us." He thanked Cliff for the hospitality. He had attended the region 8 meeting and said Barris had done a good job presenting.

McMillan thanked everyone for the warm welcome and meal. "We are on the home stretch for graduation." He had been in Albuquerque and had seen many people from Silver City there for a number of events. He had been there for Dream Makers and had attended many presentations on health care.

Klement thanked Cliff for the hospitality and meal. She commended the school on the many informative posters they had in the bathroom. They had caught her attention and would be good reminders. "I understand the frustration of the students concerning the 4-day week. I encourage you to reach out to the lawmakers and have your voice heard." No one wants the mill increase, but she recognized the need.

Public comment

Tammy Clifton, a special education teacher in Cliff, said she had attended the Ron Clark Academy in Georgia. She had come to represent not just herself but other teachers that had also attended the academy and thanked the board for sending them. "It was an amazing experience and will change our system." She wanted to advocate to send other teachers for this training.

Action items

The board approved all requests made by Michelle McCain, finance director. She had checks totaling $3,070,578.31 and budget adjustments. The approval also included a milk bid award to Price's the only bid received. They also received donations.

Cassie Health Center – Silver High School Tennis, $1,000
Town of Silver City – Silver High School Golf Team, $2,000

Although Victor Oaxaca, transportation director, did not have a report Montenegro thanked him for his many years of service because he would be retiring in a few weeks. She did add he would be back in the fall to teach math.

The board approved the 2024-2025 calendars.

The next finance committee meeting will take place May 16, 2024.

The next regular work session and board meeting will be May 20, 2024

Adjourned