By Lynn Janes

The Cobre Consolidated School Board held a regular meeting on September 23, 2024. The meeting took place at Snell Middle School. Board members in attendance included Gabriella Begay, Gilbert Guadiana, David Terrazas, Angelina Hardin, and Emmarie Heredia. Superintendent Michael Koury also attended.

Dottie Pfeifer with Kiwanis attended to present the student of the month awards.

Lorenzo Aguilera, Snell Middle School, has been an excellent and dedicated student. He has the honor of making first violin chair with the Mariachi band. His teacher said he has always been happy and respectful to all.

Isabella Garcia, Cobre High School, always challengers herself academically. She has been involved in sports and other extracurricular activities. She made the national honor society and has been an excellent student.

The Mariachi band from the school preformed several music pieces for the board.

The board approved the agenda.

Administration – principal – directors reports

Frank Ryan, director of finance, addressed the board with his report. "It was challenging to get started this year in part due to the special audits, but it was a good start." He thanked his staff for doing a good job. Guadiana asked if he would be training everyone in the department to do monthly reporting so he didn't have to do it all the time and Ryan said he would be.

Erica Luckhurst, coordinator of SPED (special education), said that one of the strategic goals for them had been a 5 percent growth for students' scores. She had provided the data to the board and went over all of it. They had increased more than the 5 percent. She also went over all the training they had done, and programs implemented. Gabriella Begay asked if they have been doing inclusion in all the grades and Luckhurst said yes. Guadiana asked if the parent component had been met. The last meeting she had said they could not get any parents to participate.

Margaret Begay, Snell Middle School principal, provided the board with documents on the data. She would only highlight the information. They had increases in the testing data and she felt it had a lot to do with a positive school culture and after school programs that had been implemented. This year the school had started to partner with the community to improve involvement. In the past they had just partnered with the parents. One program had started progress reports so they can work with the kids to see how they can do better.

Guadiana said he had seen a lot of success, and the school had been a much different story compared to last year. It had become a learning institution with functionality and purpose, conducive to a learning environment. He asked how many interventionists they had, and Margaret Begay said one and Guadiana said they needed more. Hardin had concerns for the SPED kids and the inclusion and if it had caused any problems with the kids not understanding some things. Margaret Begay went over everything they had done, and they had not had any problems.

A long discussion took place on what else they needed and how the board could help. They discussed adding a teacher, interventionist and more training. Margaret Begay said she would be emailing them a list.

Action items

The board approved the minutes from September 9, 2024.

They also approved two requests for proposal (RFP). One had been for server and storage services and the other for speech language services. It also approved a budget transfer for the Carl Perkins funding after Ryan explained the need for the transfer.

New business

Hardin had requested the council discuss a letter received concerning the recent football game between Silver High School and Cobre High School. The letter addressed the condition of the amenities and them being dirty and smelly. Koury said the amenities she had spoken about they didn't know would be used. Because of this incident the director of athletics will have a checklist and cover all facilities. They had a little miscommunication. Guadiana said he had a report on miscalls by the referees. Koury said they could not discuss this issue in an open meeting.

Finance committee report

Gabriella Begay said they had not met but would meet October 3, 2024.

Audit committee report

Guadiana said they had met the past Friday but didn't have a quorum to make any decisions. They had rescheduled for October 9, 2024.

Board member reports

Gabriella Begay reminded the board they would be having a region 8 meeting and Koury would be driving. She asked that anyone with an agenda item to send it to her and copy Charlene Fletcher, executive secretary/board secretary.

Terrazas thanked Snell Middle School for its great hospitality and tour of the school. "You are heading in the right direction."

Hardin thanked them for the tour and information.

Heredia thanked them for the tour and information. She added that Margaret Begay had set the bar high. She also thanked the Mariachi band for their performance.

Superintendent's report.

Koury gave the board an update on the portable housing units. The first quote he received to do the work had been higher than he expected. Priscilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments director, will help find the funding for the project. The project will probably not be fully funded but they have started to look at other avenues to help.

Koury provided a current fundraiser list for the board.

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 will also be discussing with legal counsel complaints against the superintendent, progress of special audit and personnel matters.

The board came back into open session and said no actions had taken place.

Meeting adjourned.