By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Consolidated Schools held the regular board meeting March 20, 2023. President Ashley Montenegro called the meeting to order. Other board members in attendance Patrick Cohn, Mike McMillan, and  Eddie Flores. Superintendent William Hawkins also attended. The Pledge of Allegiance and salute to the New Mexico flag took place. Michelle Diaz did not attend. 

The board approved the minutes from the February 27, 2023, work session, regular board meeting and finance meeting February 23, 2023

The board approved the agenda for the meeting.

Information and presentations

Bob Carson with Kiwanis attended to present the student of the month recognitions. Recently he had attended the regional convention for key club in El Paso and it included students from New Mexico, Arizona, and El Paso. 

Jordynn Clifton a senior at Cliff High School, had been selected and is an excellent student and athlete. She holds a 4.063 GPA and ranks third in her class. Her teachers said, “She is a good role model, hard worker and is involved in many clubs.” When she graduates, she plans to attend NMSU (New Mexico State University) and obtain a degree in speech language pathology.

Luke Bower, a senior at Silver High School, had been selected. He has focus, discipline and is driven. His teachers said he excels at anything he undertakes. 

Anthony Macias from La Plata Middle School had been selected. His teachers described him as hardworking, kind, and self-motivated. They also said although he seems quiet, he has not gone unnoticed. 

Cindy Barris, associate superintendent, recognized Hatch Toyota Stateline for their recent contribution. Barris said they have been able to give food to families at every break but this spring break when they ran out of funds. Toyota stepped up and donated $2,000. It made them able to feed 150 families. She presented them with a plaque for the help. 

SCEA (Silver City Education Association) did not have anything to report.

Superintendent’s report

Hawkins addressed several things for the board. 

He gave them an up-to-date document on what had been going on with all the bills pertinent to the schools and a brief rundown of some of them.

HB2 would provide a 6 percent raise to teachers and staff. High school graduation requirements would be changing but would not affect the current students. It will affect the ones that currently are in grade 7. Algebra two will not be required at that point any longer. 

HB127 would increase the salary of educational assistants to $25,000. Hawkins explained how it would be funded. 

HB130 would increase the hours of instruction to 1,140. The feedback the legislators received back from both teachers and parents favored increased hours over increased days. He said they would still need to find time for professional learning because of the importance. 

Health insurance funding will change. The state will cover 80 percent for all staff making under $50,000, 70 percent for staff making between $50,000 and $60,000 and 60 percent for those making over $60,000. Michelle McCain, director of finance, said this would be an increase in the current amount. 

Hawkins said some of these have gone through and some have not, but all still have not been signed by the governor. He said if the board wanted, he would see about having Representative Luis Terrazas and Senator Siah Correa Hemphill come give a report on the legislative session like they had done the year before. 

The board had a few questions for Hawkins. Cohn asked where the funding would come from for HB134. Hawkins explained what the bill would be for, it required menstrual products for the bathrooms. He said he thought the state would fund it but pointed out they already provided this product with the nurses. This would just make it easier for the student to obtain. Flores asked about the capital outlay. Hawkins said it had made the cut but had not been signed. It will provide $300,000 for Silver and $50,000 for Cliff. 

McMillan brought up HB450 that would require all coaches to be trained in CPR. He pointed out that this district would be ahead of the curve because the majority already have had the training. 

Hawkins gave an update on the strategic plan. Currently they have been focused on the high school. 

The armed security guard policies have been put together. Hawkins provided a copy to the board and said now they will be doing community meetings to get feedback. He briefly went over what it said. Hawkins will have three meetings for the public to give input.

Montenegro asked the board if they would be ready to look at the policies and how would they want to proceed. Flores asked that it be a work session agenda item. Hawkins asked that he be able to do another survey after the meetings and see what the community had to say. The board agreed that would be a good idea. 

Hawkins gave a history of the next item on the agenda. It had to do with the settlement offer for government entity claims against JUUL Labs, Inc. It had been a class action suit against this company, a major supplier of vaping products. The lawsuit took place last fall and the board had supported the action. The lawsuit had to do with the negative impact vaping has on high school and younger students. The offer from the company for this district came to $50,000, a onetime pay out. The attorney had recommended the acceptance. Hawkins said the district had already spent $36,000 to mitigate the problem and this would help recoup that expenditure. 

Louis Alvarez, associate superintendent, said no matter what they do the personnel percentage stays at 98 percent. He will be going to two job fair events and hopes for recruitment there. 

Montenegro asked if they had put a survey out to see who would be coming back next school year and who would not. Alvarez said they had, and he thought it had been seven indicating they may not return and four of those were teachers and the rest staff and not administration. 

Alvarez gave the board documents and said in December all the staff had taken youth mental health first aid training from POMs Insurance. This training will help staff recognize when a student has a problem, diagnose it, and know who to contact for help. Alvarez said the POMs trainer commented on how well everyone had done and how attentive they had been. 

Cindy Barris, associate superintendent, said enrollment had gone down this month from last month by 10 students. One reason seems to be the requirement of vaccinations to attend school, so they had to be dropped. The state had been lenient but now required vaccinations to attend school. Barris said the exemption requests must be approved by the state department of health. Hawkins wanted to point out that “The requirements now are the same as they were before covid, so they were not any different.”

Barris had a power point presentation for the board concerning testing data. She went over all the different ones and what each had measured. She went over the grades and what the data meant for each one. 

McCain said she didn’t have anything to report currently but the next month they would be working on the budget for the next year and would have more information. 

Montenegro said the finance subcommittee had met and they still have a 78 percent budget to salary ratio. They had looked over bids, proposals, and RFPs (request for proposal). They had some questions but had gotten answers right away.

Flores said the threat assessment committee had not met because of spring break so he didn’t have a report. 

Montenegro said she did not have an update on the NMSBA (New Mexico School Board Association) scholarship. The district had not been eligible this year. 

Board comments

Montenegro welcomed everyone back from spring break. She wanted everyone to know how hard Hawkins had worked for them at the state legislature. The district has had a lot of events going on and she thanked everyone who had been involved. The next month she wanted to recognize the wrestlers because they had done so well at the state championships. 

Cohn agreed with everything Montenegro said and added a thank you for the great dinner that had been provided. He apologized for his almost lost voice. “I was a cheer dad at the cheer competition in Albuquerque.” He said he got a lot of compliments on the cheer uniforms at the state championships. Many people had attended from the area to show support. “I am excited for what is ahead.”

McMillan said it’s a countdown to graduation, only 6 – 8 weeks away. He thanked everyone involved in the food drive at spring break. The legislative session would be wrapping up and McMillan wanted to express thanks to Priscilla Lucero, executive director of Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments. He said she has done a lot to help the community. He also included Terrazas and Hemphill. Hawkins had been very engaged in the legislature and recognized as an education leader. 

Flores wanted to echo all the comments made by the board. He thanked everyone for all they do. 

Public comments none currently.

Action items

The board approved the consent agenda which included the following.

Checks totaling $ 2,455,914.95

Budget adjustments, McCain explained each one. SR2- social emotional learning carry over of $6,299. Carl Perkins CTE grant for travel carry over of $3,290. State match for replacement of delivery truck that needed replacement $85,538. USDA rural low income grant of $163,124. Pay back an award for school lunch co-pay grant of $454. 

Bids and proposals they have received. Award for phase one of the parking lot to SW Concrete for $147,749.60

The donations included: 

Raul and Michelle Diaz – Silver High power lifting, $500

Hatch Toyota, spring break food boxes, $1,000

McCain said the district wanted to disclose some possible conflicts of interest. None provide services to the school and just wanted the public know  they are aware of the connection. Matt Beck, a coach, works for J and S Plumbing, Christine Brown works at Jose Barrios and is involved with DK Brown. Liz Harrison, a tennis coach, teaches CPR. Ryan Wenzel is a coach and works at Big O Tires.

Victor Oaxaca, transportation director, did not have anything to report.

The board approved the government entity settlement agreement with JUUL Labs, Inc. for $50,000.

Public comments none currently.

The next regular board meeting will be April 17, 2023, in Cliff

Finance committee meeting April 13, 2023

NMSBA spring region 8 meeting – Silver City – March 28, 2023

Adjourned