By Lynn Janes

The Cobre Consolidated School Board held a regular meeting on August 12, 2024. Board members in attendance included Gabriella Begay, Gilbert Guadiana, David Terrazas, Angelina Hardin, and Emmarie Heredia. Superintendent Michael Koury also attended.

Administration – principal – directors reports

Food service had not been available for her report.

Katelyn Church, technology director, had a report for the board. Currently they have been having problems with Power School rollover but will have it resolved by the end of the week. She has 32 percent of the staff trained for cybersecurity.

Roxanne Ogas, Central Elementary principal, provided a packet to the board. They will be completely embracing the skills they learned at the Ron Clark Academy. After implementing the skills last year, they saw more participation with the students. They have a discipline matrix that will be followed by all teachers. Ogas said they had started a positive respectful environment at the end of last year and will remain consistent with it. She had learned a lot from the new principal at Bayard Elementary and his suggestions had been working very well. They will be having interventions to help address each student's needs. Ogas said they would be focused on test scores and plan to see a difference.

Laverne Martinez, Hurley Elementary principal, said she has been excited on how the school year has started. Not all assessments had been ready for the meeting, and she will have it all ready for the next presentation. They wanted to make sure everything had been thought out well. Martinez provided the board with the data on student performance. She went over the type of testing and percentage outcomes. They had growth in all grades except one. The growth had been significant with some and the at-risk students had improved significantly.

Action items

The board approved the minutes from three meetings and bills. Hardin said the bills had come to finance and had been approved. They had also been able to have a community member join the committee as required by the state. The board approved the appointment.

The board approved the stipend and salary schedule.

The board approved the appointment of Marisa Castrillo for the audit committee. They had also needed a community member as required by the state. Koury said he had sent out a flyer and had received two applicants and only one qualified.

The board approved RFP (request for proposal) for physical therapy services, speech and language services, sign language interpreter services, server storage and occupational therapy. Church explained the server storage. She didn't have time to build computers and other services for technology. The tech bond money would be used. She will be looking at better options on software that will save money.

The board needed to appoint one of the board members to serve on the collective bargaining negotiations. Guadiana wanted to serve, and the board approved.

New business

Koury provided a list of the presenters for upcoming meetings.

Hardin had given a report on the finance committee earlier

Guadiana said he could not report on the audit committee because it would be confidential until it had been finished. They have been working on the 2022 audit. They will be meeting in August.

Board reports

Heredia said the first week of school always has challenges, but the custodians had everything looking great.

Terrazas thanked the administration for obtaining shirts that show they serve on the Cobre Consolidated School Board. He had received calls about not having a football coach. Koury said they do have candidates they will be choosing from.

Superintendent's report

Koury said the start to the school year has been remarkable. "We have a great environment and are heading in the right direction."

Gila Regional Medical Center has donated $3,000 for one of the high school games to allow all families to go to the game for free. They usually only bring in around $600 for a game. The board and Koury decided the upcoming Cobre vs Silver game would be a good one to use the donation on.

The food service department had been audited by the state. They didn't have any findings and met all the state and federal regulations.

Koury gave the board an update on the conversion of the portable buildings behind the administration building. Bayard has had a problem with housing, and they have had problems finding housing for teachers. The city of Bayard approved the project. Priscilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments executive director, has reached out to contractors. They will be renovating the buildings to provide four small apartments. Lucero will be helping to find a funding source. Koury hoped it would help attract teachers. He said if they had already been done, they could have been rented. Currently they have teachers that must travel a long distance to work. He told the board he would keep them updated on the progress.

Meeting adjourned.