By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Consolidated Schools held a work session and regular meeting July 22, 2026. Ashley Montenegro, Michelle Diaz, Mike McMillan and Kimberly Klement attended. Superintendent William Hawkins also attended. Patrick Cohn did not attend.

Work session

The board had their work session out of the board room and had done a walkthrough of all the work that had been done at Harrison Schmitt Elementary School over the summer.

Regular meeting started.

The board approved the minutes from the finance meeting June 11, 2026, work session and regular meeting June 15, 2026. They also approved the agenda.

Information and presentations.

Diane Carrico and Desire McGee, SCEA (Silver City Education Association) had not attended and did not have a report.

Information to the board

Hawkins had a proposal to set Silver High School graduation on Friday May 22, 2027, and Cliff High School to May 21, 2027. This will be a change from what had previously been agreed on. Montenegro went over why they had proposed the change. What had always been traditionally done would not work this year due to changes in spring break. The graduations would usually be a week apart. Because of bond projects the Silver High School graduation may need to take place at Western New Mexico University, and they had already reached out and the university will be happy to accommodate them. They had also made sure these dates would not conflict with any sports events.

Hawkins presented the handbook for the Silver Scholars Academy 2026/2027 and said no changes had been made from the previous year. Mrs. Marin said they have some changes to make later but needed to form a committee to make the changes. This had been presented for information purposes.

Hawkins had an update on the bond projects and will be doing these as they progress. The Harrison Schmitt Elementary school will be finishing up. It included new floors, paint, plumbing to support tiny toilets if needed, updated playground and fire alarms updated. Later they will be installing HVAC cooling and taking out the swamp coolers. When weather permits the roof will be replaced.

The district has been in the final stages of the consolidation process of moving Sixth Street Elementary and Jose Barrios Elementary to the different locations and the moving company had finished. The closing date on those two properties will be happening soon through New Mexico Title Company.

Keith Bausman, associate superintendent, gave a personnel report for the board. Currently the district had 98.9 percent of the positions filled. Three of the open positions are in the process of being filled.

Cindy Barris, associate superintendent, did not have any updates on the enrollment due to the July transitioning and entering new students. It would not be accurate and would produce bad information. She said they were still waiting on the mental health information.

Michele McCain, finance director, had not reconciled the end of year completely but had a little information to provide the board. They would end the year with $3.5 million, which will be 10 percent of the budget. They had started with a $1.3 million risk insurance bill and have $554,000 that will be coming in reimbursements.

Finance sub committee

Klement said they had met briefly and had reviewed expenditures. McCain had updated them on the cash carryover balance and deposits. McCain said the checks she would be asking to be approved would be high due to summer payroll.

Audit committee

They had not met due to the audit being done.

Threat assessment committee

McMillan had not been able to attend. Bausman said they had met with all the principals and some health service providers to review their suicide protocols. This had been done to make sure they had the best follow up and reaction whenever they had these delicate situations. A follow up meeting was planned. The also discussed the final plans for the active shooter and reunification drill that will take place on September 18, 2026.

Board president

Montenegro did the first reading for policy advisories pertaining to the use of cell phones and electronic devices in schools. Hawkins said this would be added to their current policy and these updates had come due to legislative updates and changes.

Montenegro did a second reading of policy advisories pertaining to teacher residency program, cardiac emergency response plan, automated external defibrillators and reporting child abuse. Action would take place later in meeting.

Board comments

Montenegro said, "Summer is flying, and we are thankful for the rain and kids." She hoped everyone had been able to have some rest and rejuvenate. For those that had worked all summer, she said it had not been unnoticed. They had been excited to do the walk through at Harrison Schmitt Elementary and see what had been done.

Diaz wanted to extend her gratitude to the custodial staff and teachers involved in the transition because change could be hard. A lot had to be done behind the scenes to make it take place. Teachers had to completely disassemble their classrooms and move. A lot of people came together to make a smooth transition. "I want us to come in rejuvenated and ready to continue to raise the bar." Her personal goal is to extend communication and extend it through the district. Diaz added that her daughter would be starting her first year of teaching and wished her good luck.

McMillan said, "It is really surprising the thing we are talking about setting graduation dates." He hoped everyone had a restful summer and thanked all those that had helped in the transition. He thought it was great to see all the work done at Harrison Schmitt Elementary.

Klement wanted to reiterate how exciting it had been to see the bond dollars at work at Harrison Schmitt Elementary School and thanked the community for the support of the bond projects. She thanked Bausman for bring up the conversation of suicide prevention.

Montenegro said the recommendation of their nomination for New Mexico School Board Student Scholarship Award had been accepted. They had put forward as the nominee to be Luke Stailey and congratulated him.

Public comments none currently

Action items

Consent agenda

The board approved all requests made by Michelle McCain, finance director. She had checks totaling $8,505,373.90, and a couple of budget adjustments and explained all in depth. As explained earlier the check total had been high due to summer payroll.

The district had a donation from McDonalds for Silver High School girls' soccer in the amount of $1,000.

Antonio Andazola, maintenance and transportation director, said they had four bus contracts to present, Montoya Transportation, Cliff Bus Lines, Mangus Bus Lines and Shelley Farms. They had a good increase in the budget for transportation this year and had been able to share it with the bus contractors. Hawkins explained that now they could adjust the budget and previously had funded transportation from the operational budget and now will be able to move it back to transportation. One item will be the bus insurance because the district insures the buses.

The board approved the policies that pertained to teacher residency program, cardiac emergency response plan, automated external defibrillators and reporting child abuse.

The board approved the transportation contracts Andazola had presented. Montoya Transportation, Cliff Bus Lines, Mangus Bus Lines and Shelley Farms.

Public comments none currently.

The next meeting for the finance committee will be August 13, 2026
The next work session and regular meeting will be August 17, 2026

The board went into executive session to do an evaluation of the superintendent.

The board came back into open session.

Adjourned