By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Consolidated Schools held a work session and regular meetings at Cliff schools on April 28, 2025. Members in attendance included Ashley Montenegro, Patrick Cohn, Mike McMillan and Kimberly Klement. Superintendent William Hawkins also attended. Michelle Diaz didn't attend.

Work session

Hawkins provided an update on the consolidation task force and commented they had an amazing team of teachers, parents and staff at the last meeting. It had been the most important because it came to the heart of the issue.

They looked at building data and financial resources. It also included looking at transportation and the financial planning analysis. They had been able to get down to the actual possibility of consolidation. Part of the conversation had been about grade banding, meaning putting a specific grade in one building. A worry with any consolidation would be transportation costs. They had met with Montoya Busing and determined it would be minimal impact and would not increase routes.

The task force had looked at the school boundaries and layouts of each of the schools. By the end of the meeting the group had come to a decision through a poll. He stopped short of providing that decision saying they still would not be ready to make that recommendation to the board. Hawkins said they had some tough but responsible conversations. He hoped they would have a recommendation in time for the board to consider over the summer.

Work session adjourned

Regular meeting started.

The board approved a number of minutes from previous meetings.

Information and presentations.

Kiwanis students of the month. Hawkins presented the awards.

Rylee Gonzales, Cliff High School senior, a student known for her strong work ethic, leadership and kindness and has been a role model in and out of the classroom. She balances her schoolwork with extracurricular activities and recently participated in the state FFA (Future Farmers of America) competition.

Stacy Swope, Cliff schools Ag teacher and FFA sponsor, wanted to recognize some of her students. They had about 30 students compete for FFA career development events with 8 categories, and she listed some. Ag mechanics, 21st overall, forestry 13th overall, horticulture, horse 8th overall, livestock 14th overall, food science 8th overall, wildlife and pasture and range. Swope listed all the students in each category that had competed. Several of the students had attended to give their viewpoint of the competition and what they had to do. Several said they had gained skills that went past what the competition had been about.

Stephanie Tedford, Cliff schools FCCLA (family career community leaders of America) teacher, wanted to recognize a student, Ryann Tedford, who had been awarded the top score of 95.3. This achievement will give her the opportunity to compete in the national competition in July. The project had been called Make it to Market. It fulfilled a need to have regular education students interact and model life skills with students with special needs. The students work together to brainstorm ideas and create goods and services for the Gila Valley Farmers Market to gain entrepreneurial experience. Tedford spoke to the ongoing positive impacts of the project. The student had received statewide notice with people reaching out to ask more details on the project and how to incorporate into their projects. The student has been making efforts for fundraising to attend the competition.

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

Information to the board

The Cliff schools' technology student association (TSA) had a presentation for the board. Jasper Allsup, president of TSA, said the team had competed in the state national convention. They had done the Solar Sprint Competition and created a small car model that ran on solar power in which they had won second place. The team explained how the car worked. They qualified for nationals that will be held in Nashville, Tennessee the end of June. The students will have to do a lot of fundraising to attend the competition and asked for the board's support. In the past they had qualified for nationals but could not attend due to lack of funds.

Brenan Shock, Junior class president, continued with updates on school athletics in the Cliff schools. He went over each team and their successes and competitions.

Hawkins presented the Cliff school calendar for 2025-2026. They had a lot of conversation on the state level concerning the four-day-a-week calendar. A school that attends five days a week can be considered a four-day-a-week if the vast majority of the weeks will only be four days. The state will be refining and cleaning up language in the court system that defines a four-day from a five-day school. Hawkins continued with that explanation. The calendar meets the four-day requirements permissible under current guidance.

Hawkins had a presentation for the board on the RFP (request for proposal) for architectural and design for Cliff schools. This will be the first of two phases for the project. They had received eight submissions and had three finalists. The selection committee had district leadership, faculty, staff and community representatives. They had looked at all the criteria to choose the three finalists. Their location had been a big part of the criteria. The final three chosen were ASA Architects, Dekker and Vigil and Associates. Hawkins said Dekker had been the one working on the Silver City Recreation Center.

He went over each firm and their experience and reputation. They had done face-to-face interviews with each one. An approval will be asked later in the meeting and contract negotiations will begin. Once they have the contract negotiation done the firm will walk them through a timeline of their process for working with the district.

Louis Alvarez, associate superintendent, provided the board with a personnel report. Currently the district is staffed at 93.7 percent. They had attended a job fair at UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso) and been able to fill a few of the open positions.

Alvarez said they did have some changes to the athletic handbook. A committee along with the athletic directors came together to make the changes. He continued with the changes they have proposed. They addressed students that participate in multiple activities and GPA requirement. Some of the changes came from NMAA (New Mexico Athletic Association).

The new handbook also further addresses parent behavior at sporting events and dealing with unsportsmanlike behavior. "We want you to be there for our events, but we want you to do it in appropriate manner with respect and kindness towards our teachers, our coaches and our students." The first time displaying unsportsmanlike behavior will result in a warning and the person will be escorted off school grounds. The individual will be asked to complete a National Federation of High School Sporting Events online course. After that course has been completed, the person will be allowed back. A second incident will result in a suspension from attendance to that particular sport or activity for that season and a third incident will result in suspension from any event for that year. He continued with examples of unsportsmanlike behavior.

Hawkins had comments to further explain what Alvarez had outlined.

Alvarez had some changes they had made in the discipline matrix. He thanked all the parents involved in making the changes. Some changes had been made concerning bullying. A cell phone policy had been added for the elementary schools. The new matrix addresses the difference between horse play and fighting. It came down to unwanted physical contact. In the past, the possession of a weapon on campus had been an automatic ten-day expulsion and now will be five to ten. It addresses the student that has mistakenly forgotten they had a knife in their pocket or on a belt and had not threatened anyone. It had just been an oversight and gives the administration a little flexibility.

Hawkins said they had wanted to look at the knife issue and address this being a rural area and sometimes this happens. He said this would not be the same with a gun and only would be for a pocketknife.

Cindy Barris, associate superintendent, provided an update on enrollment and they increased by five students since last time. She went over the reasons why she felt they had changes and how much they had gone down or up at each school.

Barris presented for Joyce Barela, mental health grant coordinator. They had 3,443 students visits to the wellness rooms. Barela's report would give a breakdown of unique visit numbers. She addressed the new app the students have been using for support and had received feedback from students that had been positive about it. They have been surveying the students, staff and parents about the services.

Finance sub committee

Montenegro said they had met and went over financials and the budget. The new budget has been in process. Michelle McCain, finance director, has been required to make some changes in how she puts it together. She has received a new formula. Last year they thought they would have to tap into cash reserves in the amount of $3 million with only $5 million in reserve but only had to tap into $1 million.

They spoke to the consolidation of the schools and how to best use their resources. Montenegro said, "Then we turn to a not very fun topic of the failure of SB9, and we want to talk about how we are going to curtail that or carry into the next year because they lost about $1 million." She hoped they could use some of the GO bond money to help the lack of the SB9. They will be having a special budget meeting. SB9 will be put forth in this year's general election in November.

Hawkins wanted to articulate further the cost of not having the SB9 any longer. He went through a number of circumstances that they would not have any money to fix. "We have maintenance needs with eight buildings every day and week."

Audit sub committee

Montenegro said they would not be meeting as the audit had been finished.

Threat assessment committee

McMillan said they had met, and he had not attended and deferred to Alvarez to summarize. Alvarez said they met the previous week. The district had a threat situation in one of the schools and they talked about the action they had taken in that event and who had been involved. The purpose would be to see if they left anything out and could improve anything they had done. "I am happy to say it was handled appropriately. The administration did an amazing, phenomenal job. They notified the appropriate people and then put it out on Parent Square."

Cohn asked if they had addressed the technology side and referred to what had recently happened at Western New Mexico University, WNMU and said he saw that as a threat. Alvarez said that fell on the tech department. They spoke to what they had in place to avoid that happening to this district. Benjamin Potts, technology director, spoke to the board on the things they have in place.

Montenegro did a second reading on the numerous policy changes.

Board comments.

Montenegro said next time the board came out would be for graduation. The year had moved along well. She had been thankful for not having to deal with what WNMU had been. "We're thankful for the leadership we have but also all the educators and support staff that make Silver Schools great."

Cohn wanted to elaborate on what Montenegro had said. "You have an amazing administrative staff and teachers." He thanked them for all they do. He praised the innovation zone grant and its opportunities for the students. "I have yet to get a student interested in government but have not given up. They've been phenomenally awesome." All had gone on to college, been successful and he was proud.

Cohn wanted to mention some changes in the last legislation that could help people. Some tax incentives had passed. They would help head of household and veterans. People would need to contact the assessor's office to make the changes. The year had gone quickly but it had been great.

McMillan said, "It's great to be out in Cliff again." He thanked them for their hospitality. He thought it will be exciting to vote on the firm to do the design for the school. He had provided medical support for the Tour of the Gila. This had been the 38th year and one of the top three cycling events in the nation. The community comes out to volunteer from all walks of life. He thanked everyone for their support. He had a story about the race that goes to Mogollon. He had been in the first aid tent at the top of the hill. He heard a group of the riders talking about the support of the community for the race and all of the kids cheering them on in Cliff.

Klement commented on how quickly the process has gone to build the school and she thanked the community for supporting it. Last week had been administrative professionals week and she wanted to shout out to all the ones across the district and acknowledged they could not function without them; they played a vital role.

Klement wanted to recognize all the students participating in extracurricular activities and how great it has been to see them competing at the state level and some to go to the national level. She brought up that some had addressed fundraising and encouraged everyone to support their efforts. "These competitions are a crucial part of life building skills that will turn them into functional members of society."

Public comment none currently.

Montenegro addressed the public comment from the previous month and wanted to do a follow up. As a board they have the privilege of making changes to public comment verbiage. She said if they wanted to have that discussion she didn't' want to have it without Diaz's input. Last month had ended up working out and everything had been resolved.

Action items

Consent agenda

Michele McCain, director of finance, went over her requests. The board approved all requests made by McCain. She had checks totaling $3,096,730.93, and one budget adjustment requested from the Public Education Department that resulted in a decrease of $408,278.96.

Award for bids and proposals to Dekker

Donations

Silver City Moose Lodge – Silver High School SHS golf - $500
WNM Communications – SHS FFA - $700
Mountain Ridge Ace Hardware Cake Auction - $1,000
Suburban Propane (formerly Griffin Propane) Cake Auction -$1,000
Walmart food boxes - $2,500
Nkechi Nwachuku – National History Day - $5,000

Antonio Andazola, transportation and maintenance director, did not have a report.

The board approved the Cliff school calendar for 2025-2026

The board approved the RFP for architectural and design of Cliff school to Dekker.

The board approved the athletic handbook update.

The board approved the HB171 graduation requirements and class-ranking criteria presented at the March 31, 2025, board meeting.

The board approved the second reading of the policy advisories 246-260.

The board approved the 2023-2024 audit report presented at the March 31, 2025, board meeting.

The next meeting for the finance committee will be May 14, 2025
The next work session and regular meeting will be May 19, 2025

Adjourned