By Lynn Janes

The Cobre Consolidated School Board held a regular meeting at San Lorenzo Elementary school on February 24, 2025. Board members in attendance included Gabriella Begay, Gilbert Guadiana, David Terrazas, Angelina Hardin and Emmarie Heredia. Superintendent Michael Koury also attended.

The board approved the agenda with the exception of moving the San Lorenzo presentation and student presentation to next. The students had done a slide show for the board.

Shay Biebelle, principal of San Lorenzo Elementary, had a presentation for the board. San Lorenzo builds a strong foundation by focusing on the academic success, character and supporting individual growth of each student. At the beginning of each semester, they take tests to see what they know and don't know. She had provided all the data to the board and said they had done their best but had not done the best. At the end of the semester, they take another test. The data showed they did much better. She went over each grade and the outcomes. She also mentioned several of the employees that had done well.

"We like rewarding outstanding behavior." Any time a student does something good they will be given a little note by their teacher, which is sent to the principal's office. Biebelle puts a picture of the student and that note on the board. Each month the teacher will pick one student from each class that did something really good, and they will be allowed to dance and play music in the hallway. When the students finish breakfast and dump their trays they pick a rule of the day from a book of 55 essential rules. Students with perfect attendance, no absences, tardies or early check outs will be given 30 extra minutes of recess.

San Lorenzo takes Christmas very seriously. A few companies had donated gifts for Toys for Tots and other organizations. The Forest Service adopted a whole family for Christmas. One company donated a whole ham to every student for Christmas. The staff always builds gingerbread houses.

They had done a Trunk or Treat at Halloween and had 26 trunks. The school celebrated Veterans Day and provided a dinner for the Veterans. She continued with a number of other events that they do, as well as field trips. Some of the field trips they have and will be having included the Farm and Ranch Museum in Las Cruces, Glenwood Days, Catwalk and White Sands.

Biebelle provided the board with their vision statement. She continued to go over testing data for all grades. The number of students that need intervention has dropped to one. The SPED population at the school has been declining. She thanked the new teachers and staff that had come in and a volunteer that had been helping with math interventions. She recognized a sheriff's deputy that comes in every day and always helps out. If he has a day off, they miss him.

The Silver City FFA (Future Farmers of America) provided a trunk for the Trunk or Treat and then asked to come back and do a presentation to the kids. They had done the presentations to each class.

Biebelle said she had been working with a coach to better herself. She felt like all she has done had been to manage the school and has not been a great leader and she has been working on that. She has tried to give more feedback to the teachers and visits the classrooms every day.

Guadiana had some questions about SPED and inclusion. Biebelle said all of their students have been high preforming. She felt it had worked very well at San Lorenzo. Math has been a big challenge in the other schools, but she had been lucky to have the volunteer that has a math and teaching background and has helped tremendously.

Public input none currently

The board approved the minutes from the February 10, 2025, board meeting.

Administration, principal and directors' reports.

Alma Grijalva, food services supervisor, had a report for the board. "The semester is at 12 weeks and counting." The enrollment currently has been 932. The food service department had applied for the 2024-2025 equipment grant and had been awarded $21,489.

They had started the hydroponic garden at Central Elementary and Grijalva had photos of the process of putting them together and what they had grown. They would be harvesting soon and would reseed and continue to reseed at each harvest. The food will be used in the kitchen, and they want to continue to add these farms to all the schools.

Katelyn Church, coordinator of technology, said they would be installing the new servers and storage. The company that had been awarded the contract will be doing the installations the next day. The technology department has been fully staffed. She said Tuan Tran had been doing an amazing job and she was proud to have him.

New laptops for all the teachers had been ordered. The department has been doing well, and she has had a lot of comments that they have been doing well.

Terrazas asked why Church had been using her personal vehicle to go to the schools and not using a school vehicle. She said many times she receives calls in the morning before she would be able to obtain a district vehicle so must use her personal vehicle. Sometimes she knows she will finish just before lunch, and she doesn't want to be using a district vehicle to run errands and didn't think it to be appropriate. She honestly would rather use a district vehicle if possible because she doesn't receive reimbursement for gas. If she has the option, she uses a district vehicle. Coming out for this meeting she had to use her personal vehicle because it would be late, and they don't take district vehicles home. Church said it did make her taxes more complicated.

The board spoke to the compliments they have received due to the excellent service Church had provided. Church said technical calls would be her first priority. Now that she has a full staff, she had brought her response time down to thirty minutes.

The board, Koury and Church spoke about the technology bond and this being the last year. Guadiana brought up the concern over the Power School hack earlier in the year. He wondered how much of the information that has been stored on there had to be. He worried about the student ID numbers and resident information. Church said unfortunately because the state pulls reports directly from Power School it has to have that information. That information includes social security numbers, addresses and birthdates. The hacker has all the information they need for identity theft. Cobre had not been hacked, Power School had been hacked. "It was out of our control." It happened December 21, 2025, and Power School didn't let anyone know until after the second week in January.

Church said she has been upset with Power School because they had done the bare minimum to help keep the parents and employees up to date. They had given the entire project over to Experian to contact everyone. Many states have deadlines of contact within 30 days and New Mexico had not been one of them.

Koury said this had not happened to just New Mexico but all over the world. "We pay Power School to safeguard our data. We pay them a lot of money." He quoted $50,000 a year. They all discussed using a different platform in the future.

Finance committee report

Begay said they had not met since the last meeting. They will meet March 4, 2025.

Audit committee report

Heredia said they had met the past week. Much of what they talked about had been in executive session. They now have Angelica Trujillo, a parent, on the board with a lot of audit experience. She mentioned that with Trujillo and Robert Esqueda they would have a huge asset.

Board member reports.

Hardin wanted to give a shout out to the NHS (national honor society). They had delivered some flowers to special education.

Terrazas appreciated the presentation the students had given them earlier. He spoke to the student athletes that had attended the state tournament the past weekend.

Begay said she had attended the NMSBA (New Mexico School Board Association) conference. She and Heredia had attended together. She went over some of the current legislation being presented. One of the sessions they had attended had been an update on the money coming from oil and gas and how it would be used in education. Legislation would be proposed to have a board of education having 10 members from across the state that would be elected by the people in those regions and five would be appointed by the governor.

Heredia echoed what Begay said. She wanted to also congratulate the wrestlers that had made it to the state tournament along with the girls' and boys' basketball. She thanked Biebelle for a great presentation. She added, "I don't think you just manage the school because when you look at the scores, especially the math scores. They say a team is only as good as its leader."

When they had been at the NMSBA some of the conversation had been about the low math sores across the state. She added Biebelle's had been high. Math scores seem to be a struggle all over the state. Heredia commented on all the sessions they had attended, and one had been about giving school boards more local control. One of the sessions had talked about the relationship of the school board, superintendent, teachers and community. It would be like one unit. They heard about Las Cruces public schools having sensors that detect firearms.

Guadiana said the girls had gone undefeated in this year's basketball season. A call from Dr. Rosser had been received. He would like to do a program at Cobre under the Innovations Program. Guadiana remined everyone he had been the doctor that did a presentation using remote control robots in surgery. He had set up contact with Koury.

Guadiana spoke to the new school store that would be selling school paraphernalia using printer and laser machines. It will be great that they will be running the store and business.

Superintendent's report

Koury said they had been scheduled for the board retreat on March 1. 2025 but had to cancel because the presenters had a conflict in their schedule. He wanted to know if the board still wanted to do it, and they said yes. He had a few proposals. Maybe they should have it before a board meeting instead of a Saturday and make it easier. They could do it on a week they didn't have a board meeting. The board agreed and they talked about some dates. Koury proposed having it at the new parent center. He said he would give some options. They decided to start about 4 pm and make sure to have some amazing food.

Koury wanted to give a huge shout out to Charlene Fletcher, executive secretary /board secretary. She takes care of everything when they have to travel or do anything. He wanted to thank and commend her for always doing an impressive job.

Fletcher had also dug into the policies. She said some of the policies had been changed in 2022 but had never been sent to NMSBA for approval. Guadiana said they didn't need approval. The discussion of the need for approval went on for a while.

Old business

Board self-evaluations

Guadiana said he would only be addressing the comment part. He had been an adamant proponent of having department heads present progress reports. When they have had the meetings at the schools the board has asked what they need and in reference to Snell Middle School they had asked for an interventionist. No effort in that direction has been made. He had a number of other concerns that he felt had not been addressed.

The finance department does not have policies for proper management of the district finances. Guadiana said he had asked for two years to see the policies and they have not shown him a single policy that provides financial controls or direction to the staff. The district still has not submitted an annual audit for the last four years. The board has not impressed the importance of this issue and instead has proposed action that will weaken the audit committee's efforts to bring accountability and compliance.

The district maintains a quality education program much better than before and has had dramatic improvement. One program has a disproportionate amount of funding. "I am remiss in pursuing information regarding this program and access to the funds versus the request made by principals to improve their schools." He had been referring to the amount of money spent for teacher instruction in Georgia. It had never been discussed at a school board meeting and if it would be a sound thing.

Guadiana said the board does not receive timely quarterly financial reports. It would be a key piece of information necessary to assess the budget. Salaries would be public information, and he had repeatedly asked that it be posted on the website.

Guadiana continued with the audits and how they continue to face five lawsuits and a special audit. He spoke at length on these issues. Currently because of the audits not being done they will not be eligible for the new high school and junior high. "They are oversized and outdated. The district has a history of misuse, abuse and lack of financial policy controls."

Teacher and staff satisfaction has been a concern. The district has had some vacancies for some time. Guadiana said all of these things would not be resolved unless the board unifies around the issues and stops the personal issues. That would mean following laws and policies and holding people accountable. "The board is essentially very new and would benefit greatly from financial, legal, human resource and leadership training."

Begay pointed out they had to spotlight a few things in the past year. She spoke to the schools that had been spotlighted, and the Ron Clark house system roll out. "I feel like those are big things for our schools and especially the Ron Clark house system has helped with moral and school culture. It had given the students a sense of community and belonging."

Hardin said she needed to get to know the staff more. She suggested work sessions and how they could help. She needed to understand the boundary lines with the superintendent better. Community involvement had been something Hardin said she needed to do better and find out what they need.

Hardin has concerns over the lawsuits. She has questions on how the maintenance system worked and if the orders came to him first. Koury said no and they had been doing an amazing job. He went over how the system worked.

Heredia had attended a session at NMSBA and talked about knowing your role as a board member and staying in your lane. She told Hardin she would share all her notes and information from the session.

The board went into executive session. They would be discussing current legal actions and advice of legal counsel for Annette Acosta v. Cobre Consolidated School District Board of Education (CCSDBE), Cecilia Barela v. CCSDBE, Melissa Maynes v. CCSDBE, Daena Davis v. CCSDBE and Maureen Peru v. CCSDBE. They would also be discussing the superintendent evaluation.

The board came back into open session and said no action had taken place. The superintendent's evaluation had not been done and would be done later.

Meeting adjourned.