By Lynn Janes
The Cobre Consolidated School Board held a regular meeting on December 15, 2025. Board members in attendance included Gabriella Begay, Gilbert Guadiana, Emmarie Heredia and Hector Carrillo. Interim Superintendent Randal Piper also attended. Agelina Hardin did not attend.
Dottie Pfeifer with Kiwanis attended to present the student of the month awards. The students have been chosen by the teachers at the high school and middle school.
Christian McBride, Cobre High School, consistently brings positivity and energy to the school encouraging others with his upbeat attitude and genuine school spirit. He has been a true role model
Santiago Arrendondo, Snell Middle School sixth grade, excels both academically and athletically. He demonstrates kindness and strives to reach his full potential. Currently he has been maintaining a 4.0 GPA.
The board approved the agenda with some changes. Some items would be moved to sooner in the meeting.
Taylor McWhorter, 2025-2026 student representative, had a report for the board. She thanked Ms. Lucinda Valencia for hosting "Shop with a Cop" for the Cobre district. It had been a great success. Many students had complained they had not been paid from the innovations grant. They had been turning in time sheets since October 30, 2025. They hoped to be paid soon. "I know it is a big problem right now."
Carrillo asked if the problems McWhorter brought to them previously had been addressed. McWhorter said to her knowledge it had not been addressed. Begay said because it had not been on the agenda they could not discuss it. Carrillo said it should be on the agenda the next time after problems have been brought forward so it can be addressed.
The board approved the purchase agreement between Cobre Consolidated Schools and the village of Santa Clara. Yvonne Gonzales, attorney for the village of Santa Clara, came to explain the agreement and answer any questions. It will be for two lots in Santa Clara purchased at half the value. It had been approved by the DFA (Department of Finance and Administration). Gonzales had been working with Crystal Smith, attorney for Cobre Consolidated Schools to execute the agreement.
This had come about due to not enough housing to bring in new teachers. The agreement will also have a clause (30-year) for the option of the village to purchase the property back if the district decides to sell. This had been done to show DFA they had not just given the property away. She continued to line out the other requirements of the purchase, how it would be used and where it will be located.
Guadiana had a request to explain the application process for those renting the homes that would be put on the property. Gonzales said that would be up to the school board but did provide some guidance on what it should look like. It didn't need to be like applications for HUD housing. She also provided an example of how it would process if the district decided to sell. Although the village will be selling the property to the district for $10,000 when it has an assessed value of $20,000 if the district down the line wanted to sell it the village would have the option to buy it at the full assessed value of the land only.
Guadiana asked Piper how they would be doing the lease? Piper said it will be transitional housing and described how it would be used.
The board approved the RFP (request for proposal) brought by Smith to seek competitive proposals to purchase the mobile homes to put on the property the district just purchased.
Public input none currently.
New business
Mark Valenzuela, Bosque Advisors, attended to provide a presentation for them to assistt in bond advisory for the district. They assist other schools in New Mexico and would like to compete for Cobre business. He had started the firm and specializes in working with smaller districts, cities and counties in New Mexico. Valenzuela was born and raised in Deming. Bosque is the only bond firm in New Mexico, and he started it to help support government entities, particularly school districts. They have four people, and it has been a family business, with two being his sons. The other person in the firm, John Archuleta, has 45 years in this business but works mostly in the northern part of the state. Valenzuela spends a lot of time in the area because of other business, and he will be teaching a class at Western New Mexico University in the spring. He went over all the districts they had helped across the state.
Valenzuela went over what the district would be eligible for with the current legislation and tax rate. Cobre High School has been ranked number 17 out of almost nine hundred school facilities. He added that San Lorenze ranked 70y and Snell ranked at 67. The state only looks at the top 100 so they would be eligible for those three projects. "We really try to optimize the bond structure so that you're paying the least amount of interest cost when you issue debt." Valenzuela said he would be there face-to-face and it would be him that they would be dealing with. "We would love for you to put out an RFP on the street and allow us to compete for it and really show you the value that we bring in a longer conversation."
Guadiana asked for some clarification on the bonds and Valenzuela fully explained and also referred him to the portion of the presentation that also explained them.
The board did a first reading of policy revisions. These had to do with the naming or renaming of school facilities.
Action items
The board approved the minutes from November 17, 2025.
The board approved the 2026 preventative maintenance plan. Piper said they must do this every year. It would be important for building a new facility and the state requires it be done and up to date.
The board approved the bills. Begay said she had not been able to attend. Carrillo said the meeting had been very informative. Frank Ryan, finance director and Piper had gone into detail on the bills. He didn't have any questions out of the norm.
The board approved the initial budget for the innovation zone. Ryan said this fund has been used to employ students in house and in the community for job training. They have an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with Silver Consolidated Schools to employ a specialist to work with the kids and find employment. It will also provide stipends to teachers working in the program. The total will be $200,000.
Ryan wanted to go back and address something said earlier by the student representative. She had said the students were unhappy about not being paid. "I'd like to clarify some misinformation that was given to these students by the interim superintendent and the high school principal last Thursday morning. They were told that they would get paid." At this time, they discussed if they could address this part as it had not been included on the agenda, just the financial part. "They were told that they would not get paid until January because of an error on my part that I did not submit a budget to PED timely. It was news to me when I found out on Monday, December 8, 2025, that these kids were even employed prematurely by the high school without a budget in place. These students have also been employed without going through our HR process to get them onboarded." Ryan continued citing the timeline of events. He said he would take full responsibility when he had made errors, but this had not been his and felt they owed him an apology for the misinformation.
Piper encouraged the board to speak to the students present at that meeting Ryan spoke to and ask them what had been said. He said bottom line he would be responsible and owned it.
Guadiana expressed his objection to having the conversation because it would be a personnel issue. If they wanted to have the discussion it needed to be on the agenda so they could hear from all sides. In spite of this, the conversation continued. Begay said she thought it related to the agenda item, and it would be ok, and Guadiana said the public would not expect this with the language on the agenda.
The board approved the online training with EDvice Partners LLC. Piper said this would provide the online training the board needed and would be required to have. This will also be required for school accreditation needed. The fee will be $3,228.75 and would be for all board members and not each. Piper said compared to milage, hotels and registration to trainings this would be a significant savings.
The board approved the fiscal agreement with Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments. Piper went over what they had helped the district with the past year.
The council approved the GPA program. Piper explained the program guarantees payment to students for attendance to school. It comes from the McKinney Vento program out of the public education department. Students who qualify will receive $500 a month. They will also have to keep their grades up. It will be an effort to have students in school. It typically will be for freshmen and sophomores and will be good for three years. They will also allow some juniors and seniors that qualify. Not many of the students will qualify at Cobre because they have to qualify for McKinney Vento which has been a homeless program. Homeless can mean insufficient housing or doubled up housing. They had already done a pilot program, and it had done well last year. The students will be issued bank cards to receive the funds.
The board tabled the salary schedule study. Piper said he had contacted several organizations that could do the salary schedule as the board requested. He had included the information in the packet to the board for the meeting. The organizations he had contacted had been recommended by legal counsel. The study will look at the administrative staff and compare with like-sized districts. The one he recommended would cost the district $7,500.
Carrillo said he thought the state set the standards for teachers and principals. This study will be for the administrative staff. Piper said they generally do the recommended raise from the state and last year it had been 4 percent. Carrillo pointed out that they could do the study but may not have the budget to make any changes. Piper said they had promised the staff over the summer it would be looked at. Gaudiana asked why it could not be done in house. Piper said he felt someone independent would sit better with the staff. This study would affect about fourteen people within the office. Begay wanted custodial workers, secretaries, instructional aides and food service be included. Piper will come back at the next meeting with a quote that includes all workers except teachers and principals.
Guadiana came back to something he has pointed out concerning the teachers and days worked. He and Piper went over that issue again for some time, as before.
Carrillo had brought forward the discussion and possible sanction against a board member. "I was given the opportunity to be on this board, my first thing was to have a level of accountability, not just to myself, to the board, and to our superintendent, to have a good building relationship with you all. I've seen a few flaws within these last few months and specifically being talked to by our own attorneys." The attorneys had told them not to take this action. He spoke to a letter written by Guadiana concerning salaries being out of line at Cobre. The letter says that he has asked that these items be up for discussion on the agenda and Begay has not included it on the agenda. This letter had been published in the Silver City Daily Press. The attorney had asked them not to speak to the press.
Carrillo had researched the code of conduct for the board members. He felt they should be discussing these things in meetings and not going to the press and Guadiana sending the letter to the press had not been the ethical thing to do. He read over the code of conduct he had cited for his decision to bring this forward.
Gaudiana wanted to take the opportunity to respond to Carrillo's request for sanction. He had tried over and over to have things put on the agenda and over and over it had not been done, and he didn't feel he had any other choice. At that point Carrillo wanted to know who rejected them. That question didn't have an answer except they send some things to legal counsel and if they say no, it would not be included.
Guadiana continued with the many requests he had made for things to be put on the agenda that had not. He felt these items needed to be a public discussion and his rights had been violated. This all brought up more questions from Carrillo, but he still felt sending the letter to the press had not been the answer.
Begay said every month when she receives agenda requests she forwards them to Piper. If they have a question about how to list them it will be sent to legal counsel and then they send back advice on how to list it on the agenda.
Carrillo said just because a board member does not get what they want they should not be contacting the press. Piper asked if what Guadiana wanted on the agenda had been there and he said no. He had wanted an inspection of public records for Begay. She had told Piper to hand it over to him that she did not have anything to hide.
Begay said she had tried to accommodate Guadiana and sends everything to Piper and Charlene Fletcher, executive secretary/board secretary. Piper went over the requests made and some of the information the attorney said Guadiana didn't have access to. He continued with an explanation. Fletcher said in the three years she had been at Cobre she had done numerous IPRA requests that asked for staff information, and it had never been brought to the board. They continued with the IPRA requests Guadiana had made. Carrillo continued with his questions to Begay, Piper and Fletcher. He pointed out that most of those documents would be heavily redacted and they would not be able to obtain much information anyway.
This conversation continued for some time. Carrillo said, "Let me go back to the agenda item. I don't believe we should go to the press if we don't get what we want. That's really where it comes down to."
Gaudiana pointed out that everything he had sent in that letter to the editor had been public information. Maybe they didn't feel like it would be appropriate, but they had to recognize him to be an individual. He had spoken on radio shows and stated although a board member he would be representing himself and not the board. In the letter to the editor he had said "my individual opinion" and it would be within his rights to let the public know.
Carrillo reminded him he held a position, and people would have not known this information. Gaudiana said it had all been public information. "I felt restricted here, so this was justified." Carrillo said they needed to continue to work through Piper on the agenda items. "My point to this. I want to say it again, just because I didn't get my way, your way, we don't go to the press. I've read the board ethics and whether I have to hold myself accountable for things, I do it, but this is not the way I want to proceed in the next year and a half that I want to be here as far as going behind people's back. I think we need to unify as a board and hold each other accountable and move forward."
The conversation continued for some time. Piper said his frustration comes from the salary discussion that has gone on month after month. He had done power point presentations to show how these amounts had been arrived at, read the statues, showed budget documents and many other documents. He went back to the discussion on the number of days they worked and explained it again.
Carrillo made a motion to sanction Guadiana for his actions. Gaudaiana had more to add about the days worked by the teachers and principals. This continued the conversation and how none of them would have a daily rate that would match. Guadiana and Piper went back and forth on this.
Carrillo said he had made a motion to sanction Guadiana. All voted yes except Guadiana, and it passed.
Finanance committee report
Begay said they had met but she could not attend. Carrillo provided the report. He, Piper and Ryan had met, and they had been the only ones there. They had gone over the innovations grant which had already been discussed earlier. Ryan had proved a spreadsheet to itemize everything to make sure the district understands the processes. It had been very transparent. It was the first finance meeting he had attended.
Guadiana asked about the finance reports that should be provided to the board. Ryan said it had been in the packet the board receives. Some things had not, and Ryan said he would send that to him.
Audit committee report
Piper said they had not met because both community members could not attend. Also, Hardin could not attend due to an emergency.
Board member reports.
Heredia wished the staff and students a relaxing winter break. As a teacher, she knew the last week before break would be crazy and full of excitement.
Begay wanted to take this time to thank Heredia because this would be her last meeting and thanked her for her service to the board. She will be working on a doctoral program. "I am excited for what her future holds." She appreciated having her on the board and wished her the best of luck.
Carrillo said he had attended the new board member training conference in Albuquerque, and it had been very informative. He found many of the school districts had been having the same issues as Cobre. He mentioned to Piper that he would like to see the issues presented in the student report be addressed. Even if it is not something that can be fixed, they should address it with her and be transparent. She represents the students.
Guadiana wanted to echo what Carrillo said about the student representative and addressing those issues. He still has concerns about the forensic audit and in particular the findings and corrective actions. This has never been brought to the board. Part of the requirements by the state must be they have taken corrective action. Piper said the audit had not finished. Guadiana said one had, and the board had not received the findings. Piper said it had been presented to the board and Guadiana said yes but it had not been a point of discussion of what the findings had been and what had been done to correct it. Piper said that would not be a board discussion but for the audit committee. Guadaiana said, the audit committee never reported the actions to be taken. Piper said that would be ongoing and confidential. This discussion went on for a while.
Guadiana said the Christmas party had been done really well, and people had a good time.
Superintendent report
Piper had a covid update. A few days before Thanksgiving the numbers increased progressively. It went from two to four to eight with the staff and the kids started at sixteen and went to forty. "I think calling it was probably a wise choice." When they came back from the break none of the staff had covid. They still had a number of students out with it. Currently they have a lot of testing that needs to be happening so that will have to be made up.
Piper had provided a list of the current fundraising events being done.
The board went into executive session to discuss the following:
Interim superintendent's analysis and determination of individual employee salaries and overpayment, interim superintendents evaluation, update on student issues and limited personnel matters.
The board came back into open session.
Meeting adjourned.
