By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Consolidated Schools  Board held a work session and regular meeting March 31, 2025. Members in attendance Ashley Montenegro (phone), Michelle Diaz, Patrick Cohn, Mike McMillan and Kimberly Klement. Superintendent William Hawkins also attended.

Work session

Cindy Barris, associate superintendent, provided an update on professional development for the board. "Your focus determines your reality." The objective has been to continue to train the staff and administration to build and sustain a movement. Soon they will be at a time that the dollars will become shorter so for the past few years they have invested those dollars in things they want to continue to sustain. "We still believe our greatest resource is our people."

In September they had taken 6 people to Atlanta for the Ron Clark training and in November they had taken 46 people. In January they had taken 12 people and for June, they are projecting to take 11 people.

Some professional learning has taken place in Phoenix. They had also done some collaboration with Cobre Consolidated Schools. Barris had photos of all the different events to show the board on a power point presentation.

Barris said they wanted to see a clear indicator that they have been moving forward with what the teachers do, if it matches the students' performance and assessments rise. The assessments had risen. They have continued to focus on the house systems.

Diaz asked if this all would help with consistency through the grades. Barris said yes it would and explained how that happens with the assessments and professional learning.

Mike Stone, Stone McGee and Company, attended to address the audit report. The audit had an unmodified opinion on the financial statements and an unmodified opinion on compliance with federal funds. The district also did not have any comments on the audit. Stone said this would be the highest they could have. "It was a nice clean audit report and as good as it can get."

Hawkins asked Stone about the process of finding and using an auditor. Stone said the schoolhad used them for the last year and they could and would have to put out an RFP (request for proposal) for the next year's audit services. The state allows an entity to use the same for eight years and then they have to choose another for at least two years. The board and Hawkins discussed not wanting to use an auditor that would not be able to be on site and would do everything long distance. Cohn has had to do that with his job and spoke to how difficult it had been. They had spent a lot of time scanning documents.

Hawkins talked about how they could continue to use Stone. Stone didn't know how that could be done. He did have recommendations on what should be specifically documented in the RFP for scope of work.

Work session adjourned

Regular meeting started.

Information and presentations.

Dotty Pfeifer, Kiwanis, attended to present the student of the month awards.

Shay Barentine, Cliff High School, a senior, exemplifies excellent effort in academics and strong leadership. She consistently strives for success and always has been ahead of her classmates but always supports and advocates for her peers.

Gabriel Vigil, La Plata Middle School, has been kind and considerate of others and goes above and beyond to make people feel welcome. He always jumps to help students in need in a positive way.

Ariel Alvarado, Silver High School had not attended.

Dianne Carrico, president of SCEA (Silver City Education Association), didn't have anything to report.

Information to the board

Some students from La Plata Middle School had prepared a power point presentation for the board to list their achievements and goals for the school year. They started by saying the house system had been a great addition because it has more students becoming involved. The students have been given hard questions to make points for their house, and every Wednesday they wear their shirts to increase their points. The house system has proved useful for leadership and working together. In each house they have a leader and representative that meet with the principal on future events. They listed a number of other things but ended with that they would be participating in the WNMU Great Race representing their houses.

Seven groups made it to the state, including NHD (National History Day) and FFA (Future Farmers of America). They continued to list a number of clubs and what they had been doing.

The students have been testing and have been very focused on that. Science testing had already happened, and math and ELA (English language arts) would be the next week.

The school had not had any fights in the eighth grade and fewer had to report to the principal. Attendance for 2023-2024 school year had been 89 percent but this year it had increased to 91 percent.

The students continued and went over all the sports and how it had been going. They had interviewed many of the students participating and they said they really enjoyed sports. The students did have a petition for the cafeteria to ask for better lunches.

Klement complimented them on their progress with their presentations. Their confidence and public speaking had progressed. "You are definitely leaders in your school."

Hawkins addressed the 2025-2026 school year calendar. The committee looks at the past calendar and upcoming events. They also take into consideration the required elements. Parents, teachers, staff and board members make up the committee. Hawkins continued with what had changed in the requirements. Diaz asked about the Cliff calendar. Hawkin said this had only been for the Silver calendar and Cliff would come later.

Hawkins brought up the calendar and legislative session. At this point in time, they had no changes to the four-day calendar so Cliff could continue their four-day schedule.

Klement asked if he had any feedback on the long spring break. Hawkins had said he had not had any negative feedback but most of his has come from students. He had mixed reviews from the parents.

Hawkins had a bonds projects update. Currently they have several projects submitted to the New Mexico Public School Finance Authority. The projects include the Harrison roof project, fire alarm project (various campuses) as well as the closed schools projects.

The roof projects next phase will be to review the RFPs.

Cliff schools had RFPs that will be due April 9, 2025. Eleven vendors had come to visit the school and walk the campus and ask questions. This had been for them to get a feel for the circumstances of the project before they submitted their bid. Hawkins pointed out the rock building and administration building with the new gym would stay. Hawkins said the rock building would not house students moving forward when the new school is built. He didn't know what it would be used for. Once they receive all the RFPs, they will narrow it down to two or three candidates and they will come and do presentations.

The following week they would have their first meeting on the in-town schools. Diaz wanted to know if in the consolidation they would continue to use the same class ratio and same staff. Hawkins said yes. What they will be addressing is they have more buildings than needed for the number of students. Many classrooms have been empty. They will be looking at being more efficient and reducing the overhead costs in maintaining those buildings.

Hawkins had a legislative update for the board. He didn't have anything new, the session has just ended, and the governor had not signed off on any bills. She has 30 days to sign, veto or line item a bill. Right now, they don't know the outcomes.

He did go over some of the bills such as House Bill 2 that would increase salaries by 4 percent and explained how it would work. The bill would also allow for $40 million for career tech education and innovation zones. Over the past few years, they had seen a decrease in funding for that. The board went over all the jobs students had trained in and how successful it had been and hoped the funding would not be eventually taken away.

Hawkins continued to go over a number of other bills they will be waiting on.

Louis Alvarez, associate superintendent, provided the board with a personnel report. Currently the district is staffed at 97.2 percent. They will be attending a job fair at UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso) and hoped to pick up some candidates to fill positions.

Barris had an enrollment update. She said she had continued to try and figure out a pattern but had not yet. Currently they have been down eight students. She reminded the board the information is updated every Friday, and they have access to it.

HB 171 graduation requirements had been passed the previous year at the legislature but did not take effect until this year. It starts with the incoming freshmen, and it will be for those graduating in 2029 and beyond. The requirement for Algebra 2 has been removed but they still must offer it. The legislation removes the requirement of end of course exams (EOC). A component of the graduation requirement now includes honors, dual credit or distance learning.

Barris said the graduation committee has been meeting for two years and have hashed out a lot of things. They knew they wanted to have consistency between Silver and Cliff high schools and obtained that. Barris would not be asking for any action items and had provided the board with a lot of information on this. Next month she would have action items for the board. She wanted them to have time to review them and ask her any question they might have. Everyone on the board had questions and Barris addressed them all and went over some of the other requirements they will have to address and how they could cover the changes.

Joyce Barela, mental health grant coordinator, had a report for the board. She reported that they have had 3,443 students visit the wellness rooms.

Barela had been using parentguidance.org for a couple of years and had developed four programs from it, including parent coaching, live trainings, on demand courses and Ask a Therapist. She had data on the number of people that had used the programs. They had 148 families who had engaged and looked at 333 different items on the website. The parent coaching sessions have had 31 families sign up and on the Ask a Therapist three had attended. She had positive feedback from the parents on the various programs.

For their March campaign they wanted to address the promoting of spending less time on social media and phones and replacing that time with conversations with family, friends and going outside for outdoor activities.

Barela said all of the information on the programs ist on Parents Square and the Grant County Health Coalition has posted them on their website.

Finance subcommittee

Cohn said they had met and went over financials and the budget. They had also reviewed the innovations grant.

Audit subcommittee

Montenegro said they would not be meeting as the audit had been finished.

Threat assessment committee

McMillan said they had met, and he had not attended and deferred to Alvarez to summarize. Alvarez said they had been testing the Zero Eyes cameras. It has been a passive system and now they had turned it into an active system. When the students are gone because of summer break, spring break etc. he likes to do blind tests. He calls the company to let them know he will be testing the system and notifies the police he will be testing. He carries a wood look-alike weapon to see how many detections they have. He reported the system had worked really well and had cut down the reaction times by two thirds. It had actually been due to an update Zero Eyes had done utilizing artificial intelligence. Alvarez said they would be putting up signage to let everyone know that they have 24-hour surveillance as well as armed guards.

Diaz asked if all the campuses now have armed guards, and Alvarez said all do and all have passed their qualifications. They have been certified by the state as well as local law enforcement. Diaz asked if they would be required to continue the education and training. Alvarez said yes, and they have another one coming in late April. This training will be weapon retention. The guards use a level three holster, the highest level and require certain parameters to withdraw the weapon. This training will be how to further defend the weapon from being withdrawn by another person.

Diaz had been standing in for Montenegro and had a series of policies to read at the first reading. She read the long list of policies. Hawkins said this had been done due to legislative changes and explained the process of making the changes. Montenegro added that this would be the first reading and next month they would do the second reading. She asked the board to read them so they would be educated on the changes for the next meeting.

Board comments.

Montenegro thanked the board for accommodating her absence. She had traveled to Farmington to watch the golf team,, and they had come in at fourth place. She wanted to thank Silver schools for the support they provide both in and out of the classroom. She asked the board while she still had a phone signal about changing the board meeting the following month to April 28, 2025, and the finance subcommittee to April 24, 2025. It will be addressed later in the meeting

Diaz wanted to thank the committee that worked on the calendar and always trying to recreate a new and improved plan. She had heard positive comments regarding the two-week spring break. She told the kids from La Plata Middle School they had done really well with their presentation. Public speaking can be hard, but they had just become better each time they presented. She thanked Michelle McCain, finance director, for doing a great job and told her she could not retire. She appreciated all the work she did especially on the audit.

Diaz wanted to bring up Women's History Month and wanted to thank all the people in the room that serve as role models to the kids. She thanked all the instructors that lead the kids and let them know they can do anything. "It is based on the kids not their race, gender or socioeconomic status."

Cohn hoped everyone enjoyed the spring break. He thanked Hawkins for all his efforts at the legislative session. He wanted to bring up the innovation zone grant and said it has been phenomenal. He had interns in his office and each one had been successful. However, none of them had wanted to be in government. He hopes to have one that wants to pursue a government job so he can lead them and be a role model. "I am hoping the innovation zone grant is approved and awarded for the next school year. I am looking forward to one or two new interns."

Cohn thanked McCain for leading them through another successful audit.

McMillan welcomed back everyone from spring break. "We are in the home stretch to graduation." He hoped everyone had been recharged from the longer spring break. In addition to its being Women's History Month it also had been National Athletic Training month. He wanted to give a shout out to Silver's athletic trainer Lawrence Castillo who helps prevent student athletes injury. If they do have an injury, he helps them to overcome those.

Klement said the year had flown by. She wanted to shout out the neighboring district of Lordsburg for hosting the Region 8 meeting the previous week. They had hosted a phenomenal meeting with not only food but a great topic. An attorney had been there to speak to social media and the number of teens and young adults addicted to it. She spoke to being a role model and how as adults they should unplug the phones. Even as parents she suggested that they follow their kids on social media and watch what they have been doing. Klement said the statistics had been shocking.

Public comment.

Diaz said the comments had to be directly related to items on the agenda and listed the rules and how to have your name added to the list for public comment.

Carol Miller had come to address the board concerning the principal, Ms. Alexander at Silver High School. Diaz told her they do not speak about students, personnel, staff, etc. and that usually will be done through different channels. She said they would definitely help expedite and facilitate a meeting outside this forum. Hawkins suggested they ask to be put on the agenda, which could be another pathway. He also said he would be more than willing to meet with them. Richard Miller, the husband of Carol Miller, said they would take the pathway to be on the agenda.

Amena McDonald had also come to speak about the Silver High School principal and said she would do the same.

Action items

Michele McCain, director of finance, went over her requests. The board approved all requests made by McCain. She had checks totaling $3,246,133.24, and a number of budget adjustments from the release of the audit of which most would be carryovers.

Donations

Elks Lodge #413 - Cheerleading $500
GC Farm and Livestock – SHS FFA $500
Allingham Golding Post 18 American Legion – SHS $600
Runyan Construction, Inc. – SHS Track $1,000
Silver City Lodge 1718 – SHS Wrestling $1,000
WNM Communications – Cliff Schools cake auction $3,860

Antonio Andazola, transportation and maintenance director, did not have a report.

The board approved the 2025-2026 Silver Schools calendar.

The next meeting for the finance committee will be April 24, 2025
The next work session and regular meeting will be April 28, 2025

Adjourned