By Lynn Janes

The Cobre Consolidated School Board held a special meeting on June 23, 2025. Board members in attendance included Gabriella Begay, Gilbert Guadiana (online), Emmarie Heredia and Angelina Hardin. Interim Superintendent Randal Piper also attended. David Terrazas did not attend.

The board approved the agenda with the exception of moving some items on the agenda and removing the executive session.

Public input none currently.

Action items

Kaeley Weimerskirch, Vice President RBC Capital Markets, LLC, had attended to answer questions and propose possible resolutions for the General Obligation (GO) bond question for the upcoming ballot in November. The resolutions would allow for the district to go forward with a $6 million GO bond question to the voters. The last time this had been proposed to the voters had been 2017. Since then, they had sold all the bonds authorized and that is the reason the district will be coming back to do it again. Also, in this election they will be looking to renew the SB9. Renewal of this will just be a continuation of the tax rate and will not be an increase. She had also provided a resolution to move forward on the sale of education technology notes.

Currently the district has seen a 12 percent increase in the assessed valuation which primarily had increased because of the increase in copper. She will be looking at a 0 percent growth rate because of the fluctuation of copper to be conservative because it tends to go up and down. At the last legislature they had changes in property tax exemptions for disable and veterans. She had done an analysis on how that would impact the district and the assessed valuation. The district has 485 veterans and 99 of those have 100 percent disability. The assessed value of $241 million will lose about $8 million. She had a lot of variables in this analysis.

This will be the last year on the education technology bonds and they will be focused on the GO bond. Weimerskirch continued explaining the bond process and how much they could be sold for. State statute allows school districts to bond up to 6 percent of their assessed valuation. And so, 6 percent of your assessed valuation will be $14.4 million. Because Cobre only has about $4 million outstanding, they could issue an additional $10.2 million but will not doing that because it would cause a tax rate increase. Again, that GO bond amount of $6 million supports a level tax rate.

The SB9 2 mill levy had renewed in 2021and expires in the tax year 2026. School boards may propose requests to the voters on odd years at no cost to the district. If they wait until 2026 it will cost the district to do a special vote and in 2027, they will lose a year of funding.

The GO bond will be for $6 million, and they plan to do two installments of $3 million each, one in 2026 and one in 2028.

The district will be selling $1.5 million of education technology notes with the state treasurer's office. The board had some questions and the issue of copper prices and the fluctuations. Katelyn Church, technology director, will have a written plan for the board at the next meeting. Church had presented at previous meetings but had not presented a written plan.

Piper said he had visited with the bond council and the main thing will be to advertise the bond question for the election. He felt a work session would be in order to set priorities from the board, staff and community. They needed to start the process as early as possible. The board approved the actions to start the process for the election, general obligation bond, mill levy rate and education technology equipment.

New business

The council approved the first reading for policy advisories concerning emergencies, instructional goals, cell phone use, cardiac response and parental guidance. All have been posted on the Cobre website. The board discussed each one and their ramifications.

Action items

The board approved several board meeting minutes, June 6, 7 and 9, 2025.

The board approved policy advisories concerning graduation exercises and student discipline after the second reading.

Most of the board approved, with Guadiana opposing the membership in New Mexico Legal Services retainer. Guadiana asked how much they had spent with them the previous year. Frank Ryan, finance director, said approximately $80,000 and said that had been significantly lower than in previous years. Previously they had speat $165,000 approximately. Guadiana had some other questions about the membership.

Piper said, as a superintendent he had used Walsh Gallegos Law Firm many times. He had worked with them for 10 years and said the most important thing can be that first phone call on any issue and has always been free and he had utilized it many times. The basic rate for the membership he thought has been about $1,000. That first phone call can solve a problem or let you know it needs to be gone into further. "I think it is a great program and well worth the $1,000."

The membership includes the no charge for the initial consultation, free subscription to a bimonthly newsletter and latest updates on education law.

Guadiana said, "I would just want to say my objection with all due respect, Mr. Piper, that a lot of this has been really to disenfranchise certain elements, particularly myself, to put in things that really don't resolve any issues. It's more confrontational and I have that feeling way down to the core." The experiences with the firm had been very disappointing.

Begay disagreed with Guadiana and has liked the service they had received. She thought it had been Guadiana that had originally brought them forward to help. Guadiana said it had started well but went downhill. Begay asked the rest of the board to speak to their professionalism and Heredia said she enjoyed having them and Hardin said they had been professional.

The board approved several renewals of service including sign language interpreter services, physical therapy services and speech and language services.

The next item on the agenda had to do with the calendar for the board meetings, finance committee meetings and audit committee meetings. Everyone on the board except Guadiana wanted to start the meetings at 4:00 pm. He felt that would make it difficult for the public to attend. Begay suggested starting with the executive session. Guadiana said public comment would possibly be related to the executive session and they would not have the information going in. The board tabled the decision until the next meeting.

Guadiana had a point of order and said they had already approved having one meeting a month at the last board meeting. The board discussed this action for a while.

The board approved two budget increases from IDEA B funds. Ryan explained each one and what the changes had been. The public education department had made changes in what they could carry over to the next year.

Board member reports.

Hardin and Heredia did not have anything to report.

Begay said she wanted to give a shout out to the community and Piper for coming on board and really assisting with the recent fire affecting the community. The fire had affected a lot of the families they serve in Mimbres and San Lorenzo. The district had been very proactive and had opened up the parking lot at the high school for people to stay and opening up the parent center for any help people might need. She commented that Piper had been doing an amazing job.

Guadiana wanted to echo what Begay had said about Piper. He had done a lot more outreach than his predecessor by tenfold. He greatly appreciated it. Guadiana said his performance certainly reflected his application that had been extraordinary. "I am glad to see it materialize in what you are doing."

Piper thanked him. He had mentioned in one of his updates he would be happy when he could update them once a week and not three times a week. He did however feel currently it has been important to keep them informed on the issues with the fire and other things.

Superintendent report

Piper went over all the current fundraisers that have been going on in the schools and what they have them to raise funds for. He appreciated all their hard work because it helps the district with the budget.

The staff had been working hard. That morning, they had 33 vacancies and had filled four that morning and four will be pending recommendations. He went over all the staff that have been interviewing and working to fill those positions.

Piper had sat in on the fire meetings at the convention center. The focus has moved to the possible flooding that could happen now. Efforts had gone into filling sandbags, and they had 40 pallets filled, and they were gone in 24 hours. The Las Cruces detention center had been filling bags and loading them on semi-trucks to bring down to Mimbres. He commented on a lot of misinformation had come out on social media and had caused a hinderance.

For the audit they had collected a bunch of the information the auditors needed. He would be meeting with the auditors in a few weeks and looked to have a positive report for the board at the next meeting.

Meeting adjourned.