By Mary Alice Murphy

Silver Consolidated Schools Superintendent Audie Brown thanked community members for being partners with the schools to help determine the direction of educational efforts in the district.

"I've been on both sides of this issue," Brown said. "I was self-employed. I am very familiar with what it takes to start a business, run a business and keep it going. The goal I have established for myself as superintendent was that I wanted someone to help us with career and technological education. Education is mostly focused on going to school. I wanted options for certifications for trades."

He said the purpose of the continuing community dialogue is to figure out how to partner to meet with businesses and community members. "We want to provide education that will enable a student to go into the military, become a plumber or become a doctor. We want to help students succeed."

Priscilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments executive director, said such initiatives had worked in Lordsburg when they completed an economic analysis. "And in Deming, the incubator system got into the conversations. Freeport McMoRan awarded a grant to Silver City for economic diversification. We didn't want another student. What we need is implementation."

She introduced Adam Hughes, chief executive officer, and Kelby Bosshardt, chielf operation officer of Better City, who will help lead the conversations and gather data.

Hughes said Ogden, Utah, was a community he lives in and has worked with. "It is much different from Silver City. When we talk about economic development, we can create positive catalytic change."

He talked about East Liverpool, Ohio, which is a pottery center. "They said: 'We don't want a study, no plan, but we want implementation.' They brought skilled trades into an old furniture store and old five-and-dime store. They did adaptive reuse. It took $8 million, but they pulled in every incentive. It attracted a regional development company to do lofts, which are now full. Over several years, they have seen $15 million in investment. In Wells, Nevada, a mining community looking to refocus, they had secured a grant for acquiring property in the flood plain to get it out of the flood plain. Thirty acres between the off ramp and downtown will be game."

In Meeker, Colo., which was dependent on oil and gas energy extraction, they have started creating strategies, including attracting three new outdoor recreation companies. In Region 10 in Colorado, a two-county project in Delta and Gunnison counties, will address job dislocations by the coal industry. "Western Colorado University will have two jobs centers and a job accelerator and Gunnison will have an incubator."

In Delta County, they are focused on agriculture and culinary projects. "We helped them leverage what assets they had."

"We will help develop priorities for Silver City and Grant County," Hughes said. "We will work with stakeholders to determine the economic diversification priorities and assist with implementation. Partnerships are critical. When you galvanize around a single idea, it is attractive to branding agencies. In Delta County, the schools worked in partnership with the county, the city and the economic development administration. We got them excited when we told them we had a wide group excited."

State Rep. Rodolpho "Rudy" Martinez asked what cooperation they had had with state agencies.

"Once we have a project, we will reach out to them," Hughes said.

An audience member asked how the group would avoid duplication.

"We need to focus on the impacts of projects and how to ameliorate any impacts," Hughes said. "The big need in Ogden was workforce housing. It is critical to have attainable housing for educators and retailers. We did housing for work force in Ogden. We developed form-based code, so that the housing was spread throughout the community. For instance, aging in place is the same concept."

Silver Schools Associate Superintendent Curtis Clough, who organizes the dialogue events, said when he was interviewing for associate superintendent in East Liverpool, Ohio, he was thanked for committing to the process with the community. "Thank all of you for committing to this process. We can't do it without community input. There are no wrong answers. Make sure your voice is heard."

"At the first dialogue meeting, we had 36 individuals from 14 different organizations," Clough said. "We did data analysis and identified trends. They include skills gaps, employability and professional/soft skills. We want to address the skills gaps and priorities. We sent out more than 400 student surveys and got an 80 percent return rate from the students. We picked 18 people in the schools from elementary through high school to help us develop career readiness. We are committed to this process. We want our schools to have As across the board. We have 79 people on our email list, from 30 to start with. We want to get to 100. Anyone we are leaving out, please put them on the list. We are talking with the Bridges program in Las Cruces."

The groups split into focus groups to react to the needs of those in the groups. The groups were Planning, Policy, Support Services and Business/Tech/Health Care.

Each group answered two questions. "After the second question, I will give you questions three and four," Clough said. "Then we will debrief and go on to next steps for the next meeting."

He said those participating will be broken into one of four groups in the future: 1) a career and tech education advisory panel for the district, with two meetings per year; 2) a needs pathway advisory panel for priority pathways, which will meet as needed; 3) community committees, with policy makers on how to leverage the collective will in the community; and 4) impact to workforce development.

"Sometime in January, we will send out the debriefing and home in on the priorities," Clough said.

The attendees broke up into the four groups of planning, policy, support services and business/tech/health care, and answered the questions for each group.

The next meeting will take place sometime in February.