Mr. Audie Brown is the superintendent of Silver Consolidated Schools. He came to Silver City during a time when Silver Consolidated Schools seemed to be embroiled in much turmoil and chaos. Due to his care for this community and his concern for the students… Mr. Brown jumped into the frying pan to take on the challenge of correcting many things that needed to be fixed within the local school district. And… he took it on during a time when the State of New Mexico was struggling to find money, cut funding, and implement a testing program that was not being received fondly around the State.

I'm going to share this personal observation – Mr. Brown has some exceptional intestinal fortitude to take on the job of superintendent.

Changes needed to be made, and some have been made. Mr. Brown and the members of the school board are working diligently to make Silver Consolidated Schools good for the students, good for the community and good for the district staff. Yet sometimes I am embarrassed by some of the comments on social media about our superintendent. Not too long ago the district decided to hold the kids indoors during recess and other periods due to mountain lions being seen near some of the schools. Amazingly, some people condemned this decision saying it wasn't fair to the kids. Well, how fair would it have been if a mountain lion had snatched up a child and dragged some young boy or girl off into the brush? Come on folks, let's use some common sense.

Supplying our youth with good educational opportunities is very important. As a business organization, the Chamber of Commerce understands that these young people are the future workers and even future community leaders of our area. A good education is vitally important for the future of the individual students and the economic growth of our community.

We have invited Mr. Audie Brown to be the guest speaker at the Chamber of Commerce lunch meeting, tomorrow, Thursday – February 1. The meeting will be held in the Sunset Room of the WNMU Student Cafeteria beginning at 11:45 a.m. The cost to attend the lunch meeting is $15.00 per person. We look forward to hearing Mr. Brown talk about the current state of Silver Consolidated Schools, as well as the future goals set by the superintendent and the local elected school board officials. Mr. Brown will have a question and answer session at the end of his presentation. Anyone wishing to attend can attend… as long as we have enough seats.

The Silver City Grant County Chamber of Commerce holds a monthly lunch meeting the first Thursday of each month. It is open to chamber members and non-members. In coming months, we look forward to hearing from local experts about the new bridge and haul road on Highway 152, we will hear from the CEO of Gila Regional Medical Center, we will host other new physicians who have opened practices within Grant County, and we have invited officials from State Government to speak with us about their departments and commissions.

If you would like more information about our events, please call our office at (575) 538-3785 or stop by our office at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Conference Center, located at 3031 Highway 180 East in Silver City.