By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Consolidated Schools held a work session and regular meeting at Cliff schools, on November 18, 2024. Members in attendance inlcluded  Ashley Montenegro, Michelle Diaz (phone), Patrick Cohn, Mike McMillan and Kimberly Klement. Superintendent William Hawkins also attended.

Work session

Luke Allsup, president of Cliff High School student body, had a presentation for the board. Malcolm Ullery II, vice president, had been unable to attend. He had a power point presentation and went over all the activities such as the bonfire, fundraisers and fall fest that they recently had. He went on to go over what would be coming up. The students would be decorating the lobby for Christmas and homecoming in January. They will also be having dress up days.

Cliff has a podcast called Cliffhangers. Three students have headed up the project, Jasper Allsup, Andrew Eggleston and Hunter Kotchick. They started the podcast not knowing anything and quickly learned how the process worked. It started in August, and they do a ten- minute program that covers what has been and will be happening in the school. The students have also filmed some events like the fair and Veterans Day events. The podcast can be found on YouTube and Facebook.

Zachary Eggleston works with three other students designing and selling laser cut items at the Gila Valley Farmers Market. They had a grant to create a business. The tech department had a laser cutter, and they have used it to design jewelry, keychains, and ornaments. Next the students will be expanding what they create using leather and cork to make coasters and wall hangings. They design the items using Adobe Illustrator, which had been new to them. The profit the project makes goes to the TSA (technology student association) chapter.

Work session adjourned

Regular meeting started.

The board approved the previous meetings minutes and this agenda.

Information and presentations.

Hawkins presented the student of the month Kiwanis award.

Bryson Shock has been an outstanding student and athlete and strives to do his best in both. He has been on the A-B honor roll and a team leader for cross country. He also always is willing to help staff and students.

Brian Shock, Cliff athletic director, wanted to recognize the cross country and golf teams. Currently Cliff has 70 percent participation in sports. He went over all the past tournaments and future ones they would be competing in. The kids had done a lot of fundraisers for the programs. The golf team had just started two years ago and accomplished a lot.

Stephanie Moon, Silver High School Ag teacher, had an update on the FFA (future farmers of America) competition held in Indianapolis. She had taken a team of four Silver students to the national convention. They competed in Ag mechanics and technology. The competition had been extremely hard, but they had ranked 12th in the nation of 44 teams and came in at the gold category. Moon added they had been the highest ranking team in New Mexico. The four students who attended included Walter Woodward, Kathryn Woodward, Colter Massengill and Trey Greeman. Walter Woodward placed 28th out of 172 participants, Kathryn Woodward placed 35th, Massengill placed 55th and Greeman placed 29th. Kathryn Woodward  attended the meeting and thanked the board for their support. She described the competition. They had to do a lawnmower diagnostic, structural welding, surveying, electrical wiring, engine repair, math test and pouring of concrete. "The amount of knowledge we learned and gained can't be replaced."

Dianne Carrico, president of SCEA (Silver City Education Association), didn't have anything to report.

Information to the board

Antonio Andazola, transportation and maintenance director, presented the preventative maintenance plan sent to the New Mexico Schools Facility Authority. Currently the district has been rated outstanding, out of 44 points they had received 40. They had recommended a training catalog to keep better track of the staff training. Andazola will be working with Palms Insurance to provide more training.

Hawkins had a PSCOC (public school capital outlay council) update for the board. The past week he, Michelle McCain, finance director, and Andazola had done a presentation on the Cliff school project in Santa Fe. This had been the second component of moving the project forward. The first had been the letter of intent. The council had previously come down to walk through the facility and verify the ranking. Hawkins had only had fourteen minutes for the presentation but had received positive feedback. On December 16, 2024, Hawkins will be returning to Santa Fe and meeting with the public school finance authority on the recommendation to the PSCOC project approval. It will include the Harrison Schmidt roof project and fire alarms. A feasibility study will be done as they begin the process of addressing the consolidation of the schools.

After the approval of the planning and design of the Cliff school they will come back to the community and start a task force to begin the design phase. Hawkins hoped that by this time next year they would be prepared to go out for the construction.

Louis Alvarez, associate superintendent, provided the board with a personnel report. Currently the district is staffed at 98 percent. The change had to do with the influx of special education students.

Cindy Barris, associate superintendent, had an enrollment update for the board. Enrollment had decreased by three students and said she has not seen any patterns.

Barris shared the recent countywide PD (professional development). A group of teachers had come together from not just Silver but Cobre, Aldo Leopold, Calvary and Guadalupe Montessori. They had some great conversations. Health care providers had come and spoke to them. It had taken place at WNMU (Western New Mexico University) campus and Freeport McMoRan had provided the lunch.

Barris spoke to milestone one and two. They had done comparisons and making some adjustments with the input from teachers.

Barris provide the report for Joyce Barela, mental health grant coordinator. Since the school year started in August, they have had 1,833 visits to the wellness rooms. Recently they had taken thirty staff members to the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia to "Reaching and Teaching Boys." The campus renovations have almost been finished to make the lobbies and common spaces more inviting. Every month a wellness campaign flyer has been made and put in frames in the bathrooms where they have a captive audience.

Board of education

Finance sub committee

Montenegro said they had met and reviewed the financial statements and budget expenditures. They will be reviewing the board budget.

Audit sub committee

Montenegro said they had met, and the audit had been completed and submitted to the state. When it has been accepted and approved, they will present it to the public.

Threat assessment committee

McMillan said they had met and asked Alvarez to summarize. They have done a full ALICE (alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate) training at all schools, and they do this training every two years. The armed security guards have continued their monthly required training. Three other security staff that will be doing the training to carry. Alvarez said they had a tabletop exercise with Cobre, Aldo Leopold and Guadalupe Montessori. They had come together with local police, fire, EMS and sheriff to discuss actions if they had a live shooter. At that time, they brought up reunification sites. The idea of having it more rural such as San Lorenzo or Cliff had been discussed but decided it would be better to continue where it had been planned because of resources. They talked about switching to card access instead of keys and utilizing cameras to show parents when dealing with disciplinary issues.

Board president

Montenegro said they had met with Moody Investor Services, the bond rating agency. One year ago, they had been setting up the groundwork building a new school for Cliff and the only way would be to pass the 10 mill levy. "It is happening now, and we are excited."

Board comments

Cohn thanked Cliff for their hospitality. He thanked them for partnering with them on the bond, and he would be excited to move forward and honored to be a part of the new school. He would also be excited for the students so they could be proud of their new school.

McMillan thanked Cliff for the hospitality and said it has always been a pleasure to come. The majority of the kudos went to Hawkins for his many meetings with the community because the first step had to be the 10 mill levy. "We could not have done it without Hawkins leadership."

Klement thanked fellow board members for helping her on the mill levy. She had come onto the board in the middle of the process. She had been shocked at how fast the process has gone but very pleased.

Action items

The board approved all requests made by Michelle McCain, finance director. She had checks totaling $3,757,754.64, budget adjustments and donations. The budget adjustments had been an increase in title one of $5,154, award from DFA to renovate cafeteria equipment $100,000, operation budget increase $214,100.26, increase for fellows program $93,700 and several others.

The donations included:

The Hiller Companies, Inc. - SHS Lady Colts Basketball $500
Silver City Dental - Lady Colts Basketball $500
Silver City Lodge 1718 - Resource Center Clothing Bank $500
Terrazas Funeral Chapels - SHS Lady Colts Basketball $500
U Bar Ranch - Cliff Fall Festival $500
Victor Nwachuku - SHS Lady Colts Basketball $500
Silver City Lodge 1718 - SHS Boys Basketball $1,000
Amplified Therapy, Inc. - Cliff Fall Festival $2,500

The next meeting for the finance committee will be December 12, 2024
The next work session and regular meeting will be December 16, 2024

The board did not go into executive session, but Montenegro wanted to clarify something. They had said no action had taken place in the executive session at the last board meeting, but Hawkins oral evaluation had taken place and that needed to be part of the record.

Adjourned