Photos and article by Lynn Janes

On March 21, 2023, Cobre school district held a public forum to map the needs of the schools. The board hired a company out of Albuquerque, CES Educational Services. This meeting will help decide what the plans will be for the next three to five years to move the district forward.

Part of the service entails the company coming in and doing a needs assessment of the district because every school has different needs. The approximately 105 participants identified 63 needs in this meeting. The people that attended included teachers, students, and other community members.

They started with asking people to tell them what need they felt the district had. They listed those and then broke people out in groups and they broke that down to a total of 33 needs and then sat down and broke it down to 10 needs. They ranked those needs from the most important to least. A point system had been used to break it down and rank the needs.

Some of the needs listed in the first round had a lot to do with the needs they had for the students. The first thing an audience member said was "clear expectations." They wanted to see a deeper relationship between the schools and parents. The teachers wanted curriculum for their classes. A need for facilities for comprehensive wellness for students and teachers physical and emotional support. They wanted more councilors. Some teachers asked for more support to address the low math scores. Support for parents in behavioral management and mental health. They all thought they had a need for technical vocational support.

One of the young students asked for better food in the cafeteria and stopping kids bullying. Special education needs came up several times and for several reasons. Teacher leadership pathways and encourage substitutes to become certified and support them in the endeavor. Communication strategies came up a few times and in relation to both the staff and students. It came up that they needed to identify those students that needed help with having enough food at home. Bullying came up a few times and not just for the students but for the community. They wanted a better and more transparent partnership between the schools and board. Better facilities for several venues came up.

Some wanted to see the social networks used better for the district. They brought up the need to have the students work-ready when they graduated and doing it by having internships and part time jobs. Favoritism of students, staff and teachers came up and that it should not happen. A need for vaping detectors came up from a few people and the need to educate not only the students but parents about the dangers. Along with that came parent accountability. One teacher expressed that they, the teachers, should not be raising the kids. When they broke it down the first time many of the needs were combined that had been similar.

David Chaves, CES executive director, explained the next steps that would be taken. The board would have to do a retreat and decide which needs of the top ten to start with and how to implement them. They will need to have a leadership team and Chavez said they would come down and work with them. A plan would be formulated from these and presented to the board. At that point another retreat would be needed to make any modifications. It will be revised and resubmitted to the board for approval to adopt. Chavez said they would be reporting to them quarterly to keep them up to date on the progress of the plan. Although only ten of the needs will be addressed to start with within the next three years, they will address thirty to forty.

CES and the district will start with the ones arrived at and rated with a point system.

Physical, emotional, and mental health programs.
Ability for students to do internships and part time jobs.
Parent accountability on attendance and behaviors
Safety of the students and staff
Career and technical education funding.
Discipline matrix that is consistently enforced
Incentives for teachers to stay in the school district, also attract and retain teachers.
More effective strategies to deal with drugs in the school and community.
Acclamation from elementary to secondary.
Academic rigor in classrooms and accountability for maintaining.