By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Consolidated Schools held a work session and regular meeting, on October 21, 2024. Members in attendance were Ashley Montenegro, Michelle Diaz, Patrick Cohn, Mike McMillan and Kimberly Klement. Superintendent William Hawkins also attended.

Work session

Cindy Barris, , associate superintendent, and Jessica Enriquez, Western New Mexico University (WNMU) had a presentation for the board concerning the dual enrollment partnership. Barris said they had built a strong partnership, and it had not always been that way in the past.

Silver Consolidated Schools pays for the lab fees for welding, nursing and electrician classes. They also pay the online fees, IDs and books. Freeport McMoRan (FMI) helps pay a large part of the lab fees.

Enriquez want over some of the things they had changed to make the partnership work better for everyone. They had started by looking at what had been working and what had not. In the past they had one person for the program and now they have four full-time employees and four graduate assistants to help. WNMU now also has office hours in the high school. In the past they had done paper forms and those seemed to become lost or other things happened to them. They have changed to all electronic so they will be available to all parties that need them at any time. In the past students could only enroll for the current semester and now they can enroll for both semesters.

In the past the process of obtaining the right book had been challenging. Enriquez said the bookstore is a separate contracted entity, and the university has no control over them. They have been working on finding ways to make that process easier.

Barris said they have committed to regular meetings and calling each other directly. Emails now will be answered within 24 hours but usually have been answered within a few hours.

Barris had a presentation showing the different lab fees, books, etc. and what had been paid out. Last year they had paid $13,783.85 in lab fees and $20,029.87 in books and instructional materials. The costs had increased. She reminded the board that this could not be accomplished without the help of FMI. Many districts pass these costs off to the students, but Silver pays, so every student has access.

Diaz asked what a hybrid class meant. Barris said it would be a class offered on the high school campus online with a university professor teaching but had a Silver teacher present to monitor the class.

Work session adjourned

Regular meeting started.

The board approved the previous meetings minutes and this agenda.

Information and presentations.

Bob Carson, Kiwanis, attended to present the student of the month awards. He gave an overview of the programs they offer at the schools and the community programs and events.

Baily Klement, Silver High School, had been nominated by the band director. She plays the clarinet with excellence and currently has been preparing for her all-state audition. She serves as the woodwind captain and band uniform manager. She always goes above and beyond, and her positivity is infectious. She brightens up everyone's day.

Aubrey Harsh, Cliff Schools 8th grade, had been chosen because of her growth and perseverance. She has always been a positive influence on her peers and actively participates in class. She demonstrates a positive work ethic and inspires others. Harsh participates in high school cheer, golf and track.

Lola Torres, La Plata Middle School 8th grade, consistently demonstrates a positive attitude and desire to improve. She has been kind and considerate and always goes out of her way to help classmates and teachers. Torres has made impressive academic progress.

Lee Wilson, Silver High School teacher, came to recognize the students in NHD (national history day). They had come back from competition and won again. This year they had thirteen students with eight projects compete. Since 2016, they always have at least one make the top ten each year.

Stephanie Moon, Silver High School teacher, came to recognize her FFA (Future Farmers of America) that would be leaving to compete in Indianapolis the next day. The agricultural mechanic team would be given a project they have no knowledge of beforehand that would require them to build a project from the forms, electric code, mix concrete and pour it into the forms. One of the students said the convention sometimes helps them find jobs and college opportunities. They did request some funding from the board. Moon said that Indianapolis will be very expensive.

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

Superintendents report

La Plata Middle School house leaders had a power point presentation for the board. They went over their goals, achievements and how the house system had been a great addition. It has helped everyone be more involved. The presentation was made by Lisa Bernstein, Austin Gonzales, Pia Weisdorfer, Kendall Laney and Leyla Thai.

This year they have had fewer tardies, higher attendance and less bullying. The students had a full list of sports and how they placed. Some struggles the students have had has been keeping their grades up, vaping, ignoring of teachers and 7th graders drama. One thing they wanted to see would be more events with the houses. They also spoke to the need for students to be more aware of the special education students and have more respect.

Montenegro asked the students if having the houses had improved the morale. They told her yes it had.

Hawkins had an update on the Gila property donation. Previously he had brought the donation to the board that Cliff Gila Livestock and Farm Association wanted to make to the district. They have a parking lot at the fairgrounds. The attorney had prepared the agreement, and the title search had been done. They would be selling it to the district for $1 and Hawkins added it would help with the new building.

Hawkins had a report for the board on the recent visit from LESC (legislative education study committee). "We did a phenomenal job hosting the event in the library." They will be upgrading all the libraries in the schools. Hosting the event provided them with the opportunity to ask questions and find out what would be happening at the next 60-day legislative session. They also discussed funding and Michael Koury, Cobre Consolidated School superintendent, attended. Hawkins said they had shared their concerns with the changes in the budget due to the significant decrease in transportation funding, language in the budget and the impacts on the rural districts. Some years ago, LESC had done studies on the middle schools, and they had been able to see those results. Hawkins had been able to provide them with some recommendations.

Hawkins spoke to them about having more students that have experienced homelessness and had been able to present that information and the need for more funding.

In the meeting they had been made aware of a change they would be seeing in administration licensing requirements in 2028 or 2029. They had also been able to have a discussion about insurance and the impact it had on small communities.

Montenegro asked Hawkins to give an update on the GO bond and PSFA (public school facility authority) process. After the election, they had sent letters to public school capital outlay council. It had been received and accepted. The council had already been down and done an evaluation of the Cliff school. The next step Hawkins will be doing is a te- minute presentation on November 12, 2024, to the public school capital outlay council. He will be taking McMillan and the principal at Cliff. This presentation will be for the first phase that will be planning and designing. After that has been done, they will be requesting money for phase 2 which will be the construction. Mark Valenzuela, Bosque Advisors LLC, will be helping in the process.

Louis Alvarez, associate superintendent, provided the board with a personnel report. Currently the district is staffed at 97.7 percent. The change had to do with the adding of some new positions.

Cindy Barris, associate superintendent, had an enrollment update for the board. Enrollment had decreased from 2125 to 2106 students. She had provided a report with each school and the enrollment.

Joyce Barela, mental health grant coordinator, had a report for the board. She highlighted the key ways they had been trying to improve students' mental health. Through the wellness program they had implemented the Alongside app. It had alerted them on four students within ten minutes that needed follow up intervention. The app will now ask them about vaping and has been designed to help them not do it or stop. The district community center, clothing closet had received $15,000 from Freeport McMoRan

Board of education

Finance subcommittee

Montenegro said they had met the previous week, and the bulk of the conversation had been about the LESC. They had discussed the direction of the upcoming legislature. "We need to continue to have conversations with our legislators on the challenges of the district."

The audit subcommittee had met. Montenegro said they worked on the audit entrance.

McMillan deferred his threat assessment report to Alvarez. He had not been able to attend the meeting. Alvarez said they had 230 Zero Eyes cameras and found they had exceeded the contract by 30 cameras, so they had to remove some. They have continued the two trainings per semester required by each armed security guard. Alvarez had attended a crisis management training in Las Cruces. He will be bringing in Palms and Associates Insurance to do a vulnerability test. Only Alvarez and the principal of the school will know when this person will be coming to see if they can enter without any obstacles. This will let them know what needs to be tightened up. Hawkins wanted to clarify it would just be a person trying to gain access and not a shooter.

Board president

Montenegro said she had joined the meeting when PSFA did the onsite visit. She thanked everyone who helped put the LESC meeting together. It had been very well done and so had the presentation. Montenegro praised the partnership with Cobre. LESC had been very interested in the Ron Clark training and the house system they had implemented.

Diaz thanked the community for voting for the GO bond. "It is October, and I encourage everyone to get their covid vaccine and flu vaccine and take the appropriate precautions. We need to keep each other safe." She said it will be cold and flu season, and she respected people's stances but also recognized they needed to take precautions. "It is important—we are a democracy, and voting is not just a privilege but an obligation." She added voters needed to be responsible voters and not just voters.

Cohn thanked the people that decorated the board room. He wanted to give a shout out to all the teachers and coaches that use the Parent Square app. "It is a great tool." With the innovation grant he has been able to have an intern in the office and they have been doing a phenomenal job. He wanted to remind people that half of their property tax would be due November 10, 2024. When he sent out the bills, he had put a graph on the bill that shows where the tax dollars would be going.

McMillan had been excited to have the students celebrate their wins and present to the board. He thanked those involved in hosting the LESC meeting and felt they had made a very good impression of Silver Schools. He thanked Hawkins for his leadership and knowledge about the legislature and Diaz for her great presentation concerning insurance needs. He had received a few texts from administrators inquiring if the board could limit Hawkins to 10 minutes for presentations as the PSFA had.

Klement wanted to recognize the partnership with Freeport McMoRan and Western New Mexico University. She added a special recognition to all the small businesses and community members that volunteer and donate to the schools.

Action items

The board approved all requests made by Michelle McCain, finance director. She had checks totaling $3,235,502.99 and donations. The donations included:

Edward Jones – Silver High School $500
Elks Lodge #413 – Silver High School Band $500
Griffins Propane – Silver High School Lady Colt Basketball $500
Larm Unlimited Construction – Silver High School Lady Colt Basketball $500

The board approved the deed transfer of land from the Cliff Gila Fair Association for a parcel of land to Silver Consolidated Schools.

The next meeting for the finance committee will be November 14, 2024
The next work session and regular meeting will be November 18, 2024, at Cliff Schools.

The board went into executive session to discuss an oral evaluation of Hawkins.
The board returned to open session and said no action had been taken.

Adjourned.