By Hallie Richwine

The Regular Meeting of the Cobre Consolidated School District Board of Education began on Monday, December 11, 2017, following an executive session which lasted approximately an hour and forty minutes. All board members attended as well as superintendent Robert Mendoza.

Colleen Walker and Nancy Stephens presented about the Imagination Library of Grant County. The Imagination Library is a program started by Dolly Parton in her home state of Tennessee. Parton started the program to help encourage literacy among not just children but adults, too. This free program has only one stipulation: an adult household member must read to or with the child. The Grant County branch sends one book a month to each participating home, nearly 2100 books monthly, to what is estimated to be 80% of the preschool population. If a child is registered at birth they will receive 60 different books before they reach school, twelve of which are bilingual. Children participating in the program for at least a year have reading scores above their peers. Families can sign up their children at local festivals, events, and physician’s offices. Walker said her interest in the program was the focus on early literacy, which is often the biggest predictor of success in school.

The board accepted the superintendent’s evaluation with all in favor. They also extended the superintendent’s contract for an additional two years, with board member Gilbert Guadiana as the only one opposed.

Donations were received from the Silver City Moose Lodge, giving Hurley Elementary School $700 to purchase a new popcorn machine. The New Mexico Lions Crane Reading Foundation donated $2,300 in the second of three donations for seats in the “My Virtual Reading Coach” program. Ruth Ann Rogers also made a donation to Cobre for library books.

Budget adjustment requests were accepted by the board to allow for bond funds to be available for construction projects. Another request was passed to allow money that was received from the state to be used for books and buses.

George Peru updated the board on the status of the San Lorenzo well. Water will go through the second testing phase soon and the school has cases of drinking water until that time.

Holiday break for the Cobre Consolidated School District is from December 22, 2017 to January 5, 2018.

The next Regular Meeting of the Consolidated School District Board of Education will take place Monday, January 22, 2018 at 6 p.m.