By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Consolidated Schools held a work session and regular meeting December 16, 2024. Members in attendance Ashley Montenegro, Michelle Diaz (came an hour into the meeting), Patrick Cohn, Mike McMillan and Kimberly Klement. Superintendent William Hawkins also attended.

Work session

Peter Morrison, Goodside Health chief strategic officer , had a presentation for outlining the services they will provide. They have over a thousand schools in Texas and have been expanding into New Mexico and now have 50 schools here.

Goodside Health provides pediatric services in partnership with UnitedHealth Medicaid program. They also work with other insurance providers. The nurses will have the ability to use their telehealth kiosk to connect with their health care providers for students and staff. Parents will have the option to join in on the visit, making it a three-way call. They will also come on to the campuses periodically for wellness care services.

Morrison said New Mexico has huge gaps in health care access especially for Medicaid-enrolled children. This will be the population they will be working to serve. It will provide an annual well child visit to those that don't have the access to them. To start with Silver Schools will have a six-person team and will launch in Cliff and Jose Barrios.

The nurses will have rapid tests for various things such as flu and covid. Every student will be eligible at no cost to the school. They will network with the insurance plans and have a sliding scale for self-pay and uninsured individuals. Goodside Health will handle all billing. If a prescription will be needed, they will call the preferred pharmacy of the student. He went over the full process. Goodside Health will do all the training, technical integration, family engagement and ongoing wellness events.

Hawkins wanted to clarify this would be for Jose Barrios and Cliff Schools in the beginning and if it went well, they would expand. "This service helps parents who are especially busy, but parents will be involved. People always think the schools are trying to supercede parental supervision and that is not this." He continued that this would be an added opportunity to provide what a parent would normally do. The parent will have the opportunity to give permission to do this. The nurses said this could be positive. If a student were seen by Goodside Health, the parent would be notified.

Cohn asked if this would be a pilot program and if the parents would be charged. Hawkins said the school would have no charge, but the parents could be responsible, depending on the outcome.

Klement asked how long the pilot program would last. Hawkins said at least the coming semester. The parents would be notified, and registration would start at the beginning of the semester. She asked if the parents could opt out and Hawkins said yes. Montenegro said it would be more of an opt in and not an opt out and Hawkins agreed. Hawkins referred to it as just another resource. The nurses would call the parents, and the parents would make the decision.

McMillan asked who the providers would be, and Morrison said they have five mid-level providers. McMillan wanted to know if they had any for mental health. Morrison said yes, but it would just be a front door visit and would not do ongoing care.

The supplies for testing would be provided by Goodside Health. Hidalgo Medical Services came up and Hawkins said this would just be the first presentation and they will be meeting with all the local health care providers. "I wanted you to be the first to hear about this."

Work session adjourned

Regular meeting started.

The Silver High School band played for the board to start the meeting and played some Christmas music pieces.

The board approved the previous meetings minutes and this agenda.

Information and presentations.

Dottie Pfeifer with Kiwanis attended to present the student of the month awards. The students have been chosen by the teachers at the high school and middle school.

George Silva, an eighth grader, exemplifies respect and focuses on tasks. He always has a positive attitude, with kindness and encouragement and has been a positive role model.

Jaelynn Cruz, a seventh grader, exemplifies a positive attitude and demonstrates kindness and consideration toward her peers and teachers. She approaches her education with dedication, takes pride in doing her best and brings joy to the classroom.

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

Information to the board

The Silver High School student council had a presentation for the board. Brock Anderson Amaro and Logan Wood went over what the student council does for the students. They also went over what they have done this semester and the plan for the next semester.

Montenegro asked them how the house system had been working for them. Wood said good but it could be better. Many students don't know what has been going on with their house. They need better communication.

Hawkins had met with the School Board Association in Santa Fe. He alluded to the perception that they have a problem with their budget and have overextended themselves. They will have to go back and find a way to close that gap on any insufficient funds they may have. It will not affect any of the schools. PFSA (public school facility authority) recommended that the PSCOC (public school capital outlay) participate in the total project cost for the Cliff Schools. The approximate budget will be $54,108,200. The local match would have been $33-$34 million but because of the GO bond passing they will have a match reduction, and it will be $6 million. For the other projects, roof and alarms it would have been $4 million but now will be $2 million.

Louis Alvarez, associate superintendent, provided the board with a personnel report. Currently the district is staffed at 97 percent. The change had to do with receiving some retirements and resignations. He does have interviews coming for all the positions.

Cindy Barris, associate superintendent, had an enrollment update for the board. She told Cohn she had not been able to find any pattern. The number had been 2,116 and it dropped to 2,103 but now had gone up to 2,117

Joyce Barela, mental health grant coordinator, had a report for the board. Since the school year started in August they have had 2,225 visits to the wellness rooms. Some different groups have been started for the students and some family engagement. One group they will be starting will be for grandparents who have been raising their grandchildren and later they hope to start one for dads. The renovation to make common areas more inviting has had everything ordered but they are waiting for those items to come in.

Board of education

Montenegro said the finance subcommittee had met and they went over the financial reports and the board budget. All had been on track.

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. All of the guards had passed their night qualifications so they can be utilized at night football and basketball games. The guards had done remarkably and had outshot the others at the training. They addressed the dirty cameras and have made a schedule to clean them every fifteenth of the month.

Recently they had an issue on social media that occurred with one of the elementary schools. They discussed how they handled it and how they could have handled it better. Some situations will not be considered a valid threat but because of social media it can cause panic. It had been decided that no matter if it has been valid or not it would be investigated and the parents notified to be transparent.

Hawkins wanted to clarify it had always been their policy to investigate and went on to explain the process.

Alvarez added that the cop grant they had applied for they had been awarded.

Board president

Montenegro said, "I can't believe it is already December." She thanked the teachers for their service and everyone that contributes to the schools. They had been approved to build a brand new school for Cliff. "We could not have done it without the leadership of Hawkins. Enjoy your Christmas break."

Board comments

Diaz thanked everyone for a more positive vibe. "The community advocacy on behalf of Silver Schools is huge. I am grateful for the community stepping up and excited for Cliff." She said it's a big thing for her and a huge season for giving. "We get excited to come back to our families and friends to spend time together so just be safe because there is a huge amount of flu and covid out there." She added, "If you are sick don't share it with others. Vaccinations are out there, and they can keep each other safe."

She addressed that the student spoken of earlier by the Silver High Student council, JJ Hernandez, is part of her family, and the outpouring of support for him has been so important and they have been very grateful. Travel to doctors and treatment can be very expensive and all the help has been appreciated.

Cohn wished everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. He had attended the New Mexico School Board conference that Hawkins had spoken to. It had been a pleasure to reconnect with fellow school board members and share ideas. "I kept getting questions on how we got the GO bond passed. We had congratulations from around the state." The conference had a guest speaker named Kevin Honeycutt and Cohn encouraged people to check him out. He had been very inspiring. His main point had been about finding ways to inspire kids to be active that had not been. The conference also had a speaker addressing having more nutritious food for students. He had been on a delegation with Klement, and they had nine resolutions proposed and some would be seen in the next legislature. Those that passed had been funding for homeless students, final and carry over funds, reestablish the state board of education, cyber security, reduce and relax mill levy requirements. A few had not passed and that had been the funding of electric vehicles and busses and increases in per diem for the board or salaries.

McMillan said he had been excited to hear the band play for them and the decorations. The information for the new Cliff school had been great. He thanked Hawkins for his leadership and the community for supporting the GO bond. He wished everyone an enjoyable and safe break.

Klement thanked the band for coming in and playing for them. "You just keep getting better." She wanted everyone to know that two of the band students and one choir student would be representing Silver at the All-State Championship the following month. She thanked the community for the support of the GO bond. She had completed her first year on the school board. She thanked the administration and other board members for their help, patience and answering her questions. "There is a lot to learn." The convention had a lot of great training. It had been good to listen to all the successes and struggles of other districts. It had also been great to collaborate with them. She wished everyone a Merry Christmas and to use the time to reset.

Hawkins had an award for Cohn from the New Mexico School Board Association for earning more than twenty hours of training.

Action items

The board approved all requests made by Michelle McCain, finance director. She had checks totaling $3,039,817.97, budget adjustments and donations.

The donations included:

Freeport McMoRan - $500 La Plata Middle School Science Olympiad, Engineering projects
Robert and Alida Burchett- $610 Cliff Cross Country
AZNM Property Holdings LLC (McDonalds) - $1,000 Cliff Schools
PNM - $2,500 Silver High School athletic department sports medicine

The board approved a contract with Montoya Transportation for Pre-K 2024-2025. This had not been done before.

The next meeting for the finance committee will be January 16, 2025
The next work session and regular meeting will be January 20, 2025

The board did not go into executive session

Adjourned