001president gal present vice president Morgan presid secretary Tyler presid board member trip pres board member Miller pres have a forum okay thank you so much we' like to welcome everyone out to our meeting tonight on this freezing cold day and week so we're grateful that everyone's able to come out and tonight we'll go ahead and get started we have some introductory comments by our superintendent of schools Dr V Cleveland thank you and again welcome we're glad that you are here this evening it's all right we'll make it work all right so uh welcome back uh we are at the beginning of the uh 2025 spring semester I would have you know that there were a lot of people um on break in our district during the the end of December but everybody was on break
002uh there were several projects that were underway by facilities and the IT departments and they took advantage of uh the opportunity of not having students and staff in the buildings and were able to complete some of their their projects we also had a good number of Student Activities that were going on during the break and and one of them is the um was the real Rancho High School basketball holiday Hoops T tournament we had teams from all over the state and it was quite an event and so a lot of things were going on but I I hope that most people had a chance to to get a break and uh to rest during U during those two weeks uh expans uh expansion uh one of the things that we absolutely know is that we
003are seeing a um increase in the number of very high need children in this school district children who come if they do not get a prek uh experience they come to kindergarten one even in some cases two years behind where they should be developmentally and so because of that uh the need to get to Children earlier uh and to uh we know that the earlier that we get to children with disabilities but even other children the sooner we have an opportunity to work with them the greater their chances are for success in kindergarten and so um it's not something that's just a nice to have but it's something that I think is absolutely fundamental to meeting the needs of of the children that we see coming to our district uh their needs are great and
004the need to intervene is great and now we are also looking at some other things in addition to PK expansion to address some of the some of the challenges that our students come to us with we always welcome every child we welcome every child that comes to our school district but we also have to face the reality that the needs are are much greater than they have been in the past and what we certain cly seen some changes uh before co co only made some of those situations even more pronounced and and more challenging and um we had a a study with the University of New Mexico Dr happy Miller who was here coordinated that on behalf of the district and uh one of the things that she uh has done is she has worked
005with children to kind of uh talk with them and their families about the experience during Co and she's getting ready to publish that report we're very um interested in seeing what she has found but she does told us at least even in the preliminary report that Co did more harm than we thought the the damage was greater and and the after effects are asting are lasting longer than what we had anticipated the prek expansion committee as I said has been working for several months it was comprised of building and District level rep representatives from across the entire District the task that was assigned to the committee was to recommend the best option to expand prek services for three and four year old students especially for students who have disabilities uh as for federal requirements and
006we've seen the number of children rise uh that uh qualify under special education the numbers have not only increase but so has the severity of their disabilities and so um and and of course under federal law we take every child with a disability that falls in that category surveys have indicated that our parents would like an option to at least have a full day uh prek program it was pretty pretty strong numbers that indicated they were interested in looking at that the Early Childhood Department uh currently does allow both models though secretary ginski has indicated that her goal is to provide food day programs in all school districts across the state and that she'll be working this legislative session toward that goal and then uh the board um to determine whether they were ready to
007take a vote on this issue or not and president galberth will will address that we also have um U um an agenda item the board is being asked to approve uh accepting a donation from Charmers Ford the uh board is asked to approval of a monetary donation uh from Don chamers for to our riotech campus we are very appreciative of their ongoing support of our district and certainly of its Automotive program and an introduction will be presented by Dr Christoper Johnson who's a principal um at um RCT Center we also have a request for proposal the board is asked to consider the award of RFP number 202 25 06 in the for the IT department and it's the E rate Category 2 for Maggie cour of Elementary and it's for cabling at that school site
008this item will be presented by Michael Madrid our chief procurement officer and he is also the purchasing director for the Rio Rancher Public School District this is a two-year agreement for upgrading the copper cabling infrastructure at Maggie cord OFA Elementary School and then we have some SEC okay and we'll now go to our next item which is to approve the prioritized agenda and the proposed time allocations this is board member Tyler I'll make a motion to approve the prioritized agenda and proposed time all we Mo with Jeff Morgan a second okay we have a motion by Jessica Tyler in a second by Jeff Morgan all in favor I I any opposed okay motion carries all right we'll now moveing to reports um as Dr Cleveland said our first report and only report is a donation
009from Don chers Ford to riotech for 3,000 so um Dr Christopher Johnson our principal over at our rotech will be be presenting tonight good evening president gal Dr Cleveland members of the board uh and guest my name is Dr Johnson I'm the principal of riotech rear wrench public school's newest CTE high school it's my pleasure to recognize chers board as a remarkable industry partner uh through uh specifically for our Automotive students uh their commitment has provided invaluable hands-on experience to include tours of their facility questions and answers um skill trades uh center right we think that's an amazing program as far as creating the pipeline for technicians coming into the workforce which is in high demand we also see a great benefit in that and of course supporting the rear Ranch Community we love doing
010that in general as well so it's always a pleasure to work with uh rear Ranch of public schools as well as Dr Johnson we're extremely happy to donate the money for the program that they're needing for the shirts polos jackets and of course any future needs that we're more than happy to participate with as well so that's all I have have to clap thank you thank you yeah before before you go I just want to say thank you so much and if you could bring back I think from us and I know Dr Cleveland like to say something too but we've just been so blessed by Don chers here in our um city and all of the wonderful things that they've done for us and so we're so grateful for that partnership um and so
011thank you thank you thank you thank you I don't think we could say it enough but thank you for being here and please bring that back to everyone that we're just beyond grateful for it Dr you want to add anything just add that thank you for for for many years of supporting our district and uh you know this the skill trads is is phase one but the second phase will come with CNN and that will be a new stateof of-the-art Automotive um Center so we're excited about what we've got now and just as excited about what we hope is coming fairly soon so again thank you for your role in helping make that a reality as well and uh really appreciate you being here this evening yeah yeah definitely uh definitely appreciate that and of
012course I mean Don definitely set that foundation for us and we just try to carry that on as best as we can awesome thank you thank you thank you thank you for being out [Applause] okay we'll move to our public comment portion of our meeting tonight so we received we received three public comments online today and I'll go through those um after we go through those we'll go ahead and do our public comment um that came in person today I'm just counting those up so we have H six public comments that will be in person tonight as well um so to get us started let me go through I'm buzzing is that buzzing on I'm into the boardroom tonight um I just want to set some reminders I think most every all those who are
013on it have been giving public comment over the last little bit and so you guys get to hear m bille a lot um but just a reminder that JC will have a three minute timer and when that goes off we ask that that you will sit back down so it leaves time for everyone to be able to give their public comments um another reminder that directly within this time period we are not able to respond back to those public comment but since I think all of these are in regards to something that's on our agenda tonight they may be add addressed as we go through that um that item tonight and so with that uh JC are you set up and ready to go okay so the timer will start um when you start speaking
014and so our first is Chris mofat and you guys can always correct me on names just so you all know good evening my name is Chris Moffett Moffet I am a licensed Master social worker and infant and Early Child uh mental health consultant I work with children teens and adults in our community and I'm also a proud Ally of the lgbtq plus community and so is the agency that employs me small steps child counseling it is owned by Courtney Lewis who is a parent in the Rancho Public Schools community I will be reading a statement on behalf of small steps this evening speaking to the impact of board policy 404 on the mental health of lgbtq students from our informed perspectives on child psychology and development as mental health professionals dedicated to the wellbeing of
015all students we are deeply concerned about the district enforced removal of Pride flags and other symbols of lgbtq plus identity from classrooms this decision does have the potential to negatively impact the mental health and emotional well-being of these students who already face unique developmental challenges in navigating their identities in a world that might not always be accepting or supportive to them research shows that lgbtq plus students who experience affirming environments where their identities are recognized and celebrated are significantly less likely to experience feelings of isolation anxiety depression and suicidal ideation Pride flags and other lgbtq symbols serving as vital affirmations of belonging helping these students feel visible respected and supported these symbols provide a sense of safety comfort and validation that is essential for fostering their mental and emotional health removing these symbols from classrooms
016May inadvertently cause an environment where lgbtq students feel unseen marginalized or unsafe this could have a devastating consequences on their mental health potentially leading to increased stress a sense of alienation and a diminish ability to succeed academically it is critical that schools send a clear message that all students regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity are valued and supported as mental health providers we urge the school district to reconsider the decision to potentially remove these uh these signs from classrooms and recognize a profound impact that the visible lgbtq representation has on the well-being of students we ask that the district prioritize creating an inclusive supportive environment that actively Fosters the mental health and success of all students including those who identify as lgbtq affirmation representation and visibility are crucial to the overall health and
017happiness of all of our students and removing these symbols could undermine the progress that we've all made towards creating inclusive and Equitable educational environments thank you very much for letting me speak this evening I appreciate it thank you thank you thank you next is Robert Ortega good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board I'm back again um I've had the privilege over the last few weeks to meet with several of our developers that are developing here in Rio Rancho members from P homes uh hes Brothers Richmond Holmes Amon in the last uh say two weeks that we've been talking they've purchased over 1450 lots east and west of rainbow and south of Northern these are homes that they're selling at an average rate they said of $350 to $400,000 are targeting the young adults between
01825 and 30 years old which means they're bringing in young kids young families and three out of those four developers said that the reason why they looked at these areas is because we have a school in the neighborhood Questa Del Sol they said that has been their key selling point so to repurpose pesta to put a prek is going to hurt a lot of things you're looking at the numbers now what we currently have we need to look into the future of what we're bringing in in the next year to year and a half R Rental is going to surpass Los Cruses is the second largest city in Mexico and that is happen as a family and being a member of the United States military I had no choice to go where I wanted to
019go they have a Cho they have a choice to go where they want to go as staff members and teachers and Educators they don't feel comfortable working at a school that they're going to be forced to work at they'll leave they'll go to another school district and we can't afford to lose any Educators it's hard to come by as it is we need to keep what we have here locally they're great teachers great administrators great auxiliary staff right now I'd like to commend all of them for working tails off during this hard time knowing that this might be a possibility of losing their school they show up to work every day they give it 110% and they brought their kids scores up in all their testing and I'd like to applaud them right now for
020the job well also here with me today I have petitions of over 12200 signatures of members from Maria Rancho also including here are city leaders and state leaders that want to see Presta remain open as a school and I will hand this to you you give that to yeah it JC thank you thank you so we have support at every level state city I even have some friends in the National level that are willing to help out they just need to know how and what they can do thank you thank you thank [Applause] you next is Quinn hollerbach [Music] this is definitely understandable however I think creating a pre- program for every school is the best option and more availability to the community um the emotional stress that this is going to cause changing schools
021learning familiar surroundings and adjusting to new routines and expectations can be emotionally stressful potentially causing loss of continuity continuity in education is essential for Effective learning as you I'm sure are aware um the social environment plays a significant role in academic success as re research consistently shows that positive peer relationships a positive classroom culture can significantly contribute to student motivation engagement and overall academic achievement um this is not in the best interest of the kids existing and future um and how do you plan on addressing the emotional stress this change will cause the students involved who don't have the tools needed to navigate through these very strong emotions thank you you our last toight is T nun good evening board um with I get a post I have two kids that both go to pesta
022the staff has changed not only my vision of what I had to deal with at APS they have been nothing but amazing for both my kids I want to point out that you brought up kids with disability issues I'm not saying that they don't matter but as a parent we have kids with a disability issues we have kids that are going to have to start a whole new school learn new teachers they're going to have to be put with not as much time with a teacher that they need because there's other kids that they have to compensate because the schools are going to be overcrowded now I don't I don't have a list of facts like everyone else say and I do apologize for that but I don't see it as being beneficial for the
023kids this over 700 kids that are there or the over 100 teachers that are plus Del Soul that it would be beneficial for any of them I had my son who is in Miss Mayberry's class I went in thinking he was going to have to be put on a special education program miss Mayberry not only miss Mayberry but also him as well but majority because of miss Mayberry got him what he needed to be he is raised up to where he is not top of the class but he is getting to the top of the class and all these teachers that are sitting here are all willing to do that for every single child that walks through their door I say if there's any way we can expand plusa we are more than willing and
024welcome every single one of us to welcome these kids into our school but just placing every single one of them between two schools three schools it's not going to work you're going to see your numbers plummet and the disability is going to be even worse than before because the kids are not getting what they need that's all I have to say thank [Applause] you we want to thank everyone who came in tonight we appreciate when the public comes in and gives us public comment um it is good to hear from you so thank you all and I know for some um it takes a little bit of being brave to come up so thank you for coming tonight and we'll now move to approve our consent agenda board M Jeff Morgan on make a motion
025to approve the cassin agenda on second okay I have a motion from Jeff Morgan and a second from Jessica Tyler all in favor I I any opposed motion carries 5- Z thank you okay so we'll move into our business portion of our meeting for this evening um we'll start with the consideration of the approval of a $3,000 donation from Don chmer Ford to riotech so we have once again um Dr Christopher Johnson our principal at rotech sttc that's what I every time I see all the letters I get do you we just need to go to a motion I don't think yeah I'm board member any questions no questions thank you for working with them and app the Partnerships are always great this say board member Tyler I will make a motion to approve the
026$3,000 donation from G chmer Farm to rotech Mo Jeff borgan I second have a motion in a second and all in favor hi hi hi any opposed I hope not all right pass thank you you appreciate it we could clap again that's always a good thing we're always grateful for very grateful very very grateful um so our next item is to consider the prek expansion plan for the 2025 2026 school year and so we'd like to invite um J shanal our elementary school Improvement officer along with Jerry reer who is our EX itive director of special services to present this good evening president GTH um members of the board and Dr Cleveland we are here this evening to share the committee's recommendation we've been working with the committee this whole semester starting in September we've
027had meetings every month actually August and two meetings in December to bring you a recommendation and you also gave us a list of questions in October so hopefully we provided you with the answers to those questions you want us to go through the whole thing or you just want us to make the recommendation board what would you like to do how would you guys like to go through tonight should we go back through the slides are you guys willing to do you want to just start discussing and have some questions I think we just ask questions and maybe they could go over there for the recommendations the first two recommendations or the three options that were proposed and go from there so as a as a committee I will say that it was unanimous for
028every member of the committee that their recommendation was a new center that was unanimous across the board I think the the wish or the hope of the district was that we would have another building similar to shining stars but with more of what shining stars has because we know there are things that are missing however that wasn't something that we had at our disposal at that meeting we couldn't Vote or make a recommendation based on that by itself solely and so the First Choice from the committee was to repurpose pesta for a prek center that was the recommendation the number one recommendation by the committee the second option that we discussed in the workshop was the possibility of repurposing one of the buildings or one of the Wings at pesta to do a smaller expansion
029just keeping in mind that that won't that might meet our current Grant requirement but it won't allow us to expand prek it'll allow us to move into fulltime with all the students the 410 could be full day but it wouldn't allow us to add more 4y students to the grant so we stand for questions um Dr Cleveland do you want to go ahead and speak to this and give your recommendations clarification points I think have come up but so you know for the record we have um we we do not have our our data for this next year it's coming unfortunately in the next few days so uh we've had a chance to see some preliminary but that's all and can't can't talk about that at this point but I think we can say in
030general that we're having more and more students come to us with with real needs and um they're coming earlier and some of these students what what we what we know what we've learned is the earlier we can get to these students the better their chances are of being successful in kindergarten and we hear that across the entire district from all of the kindergarten teachers they're coming further behind there's a lot of catchup that has to be done um some students are a year behind developmentally some are two years behind developmentally and one of the things we know is the sooner we get to Children the better our chances are of getting them up and ready for kindergarten we also see the other side of that and that is kids who do come on to kindergarten
031without having prek um experiences and teachers says they can tell which students had that opportunity and which ones didn't just almost from the the beginning so the importance I think of um the why we need to expand is we've got more highe kids they are further behind than we have ever seen before history of the school district the sooner we can get to them the better we have a chance to intervene earlier that's particularly true with children with disabilities it's true of all children that are that are struggling and so uh the goal is to get them ready so that they can take advantage of that kindergarten experience it's a good one it's a positive one and when it's not positive we often sit in in in in motion a longterm um dissatisfaction with schooling
032and so our goal was to to help get our students ready for kindergarten so it it's we have more kids our scores bear that out um the severity is is being documented in numerous studies but one actually at the University of New Mexico Co did a lot of harm to a lot of children so on top of all of this we see children that were impacted during the pandemic that has also made uh it more difficult for them to be ready uh for uh traditional kindergarten so that's the why the why is that we we need to get to kids earlier we need to expand the program the other thing we learned in this process is we talk to the parents across this community they wanted full day program and that many of the children
033who desperately needed our services for PK can't take advantage of it because they need full day care and so they can't do a half day they can't leave their job at Kirtland Air Force Space and come out here and pick up their child at noon or leave and and deposit a child uh at 12:30 to start a half day program so we we we heard from our parents in this community that they would strongly prefer a full day program if they needed it in order to take advantage of those Services we are full at at sh starts we are completely full there and so we are turning away students that would really benefit from the program we do not turn away one special ed child we don't ever turn away a special ed child because
034um it's not the right thing to do but also it is not legal to do that and you must serve every child so one of the other kind of growing concerns is that we will lose the peer model program completely because we will have to take children with disab abilities and and the the peer model program has been just a um a fundamental part of the success of shining stars because what every teacher here knows is that children learn from each other every bit as much as they learn from adults and so having that peer model has just been such a boost to helping our children uh who may be developmentally delayed or who may have a disability a a chance at at at doing well in school so uh we all know that those
035um those needs and and how we go about resolving it has been very problematic and as Janice Shalo just said you know our goal it would have been nice if we could have built another shining stars that would have answered a lot of the questions but if we go full day we're going to lose half of the children we have even now so if the state this session decides to go with a full day model we will we will lose half the children that are there right now so it seems like you know for the future of the children the future of the district um we need to be able to provide pre opportunities uh for our kids and and we are seeing that played out in very hard data in terms of this school
036district we have lost 700 children in this District so while we're building homes so far they're not coming with kids but boy we hope that won't that will turn around and we hope we'll start seeing growth again uh we lost the 700 students primarily because of the 920 start time that is as F unfriendly for families it's anything you could do um and it made their lives very hard and so some did not stay so it is a rather complex issue it's not an easy fix and it's not an easy issue but I believe if we do not address the issue of helping these children get ready for kindergarten so they have a chance to be successful um we we are really making um a decision that will hurt not only the children but I
037think it will also um it will also hurt the future of our of our district so uh that's kind of the why and um how is is the big question how do we go about addressing that okay thank you Dr Cleveland so I can see Gary trip has some some comments or questions to start us off I'd like to make a motion but can I give a comment first okay I I I think I think that the committee did a more than an outstanding job um and I think the people of pesta have done more than an outstanding job but and I've had this conversation with many people I I don't think we're preparing for the next 30 Years in the city of Rio Rancho so my my proposal in order to be ready for
038the next 30 Years is to look at a wing at pesta but also a wing in repurposing a school on the North side and also looking at replicating a shining stars on the South Side maybe not in the next year but maybe in the next 10 years and then continuously continuously to grow because our three and four year old population special ed or regular Ed is not going to go and I just I just think we're we we we don't have any money and it causes us sometimes not to plan like we should be planning for the future and I think this this is my biggest hangup with the sign that I see the City of Vision is that we're the vision and I know we don't have the money but I think we need
039to look at taking care of the three and four year old population in a community has 100,000 people that mostly work because kindergarten is going I mean this three four yearold program is going to full full day so if you can make sense out of that motion that's my motion com the motion soard member trip before we go to that I I think we're gonna have to have a clear motion like from not I I'm willing to try to help you when you're I told her she said it better way better than I did ready is every okay I mean even after we have a motion we can still have further discussion if we needed to but um so this is board member Tyler I will make a motion that we move forward with changing
040One Wing at pesta to be repurposed to a prek with knowing that we need further work in the very near future to accommodate additional prek facilities and so hopefully one day our state will get get their I won't use a bad word because I caught myself their stuff together and actually allocate correct funding for prek and allow us to build a new you know a second shining stars like facility um but I think that the I'm sorry I'm talking instead of just giving a motion see see Gary you got me yes sorry yes so the motion is to proceed with doing a wing at pla with additional prek planning needed in the future that's a motion we need a second well can we now ask another question I we have a motion out I'll second
041it then now you can discuss before we take so if if we move to the wing you indicated that we won't be able to bring more kids and when will we be able to bring more kids um board member Morgan when we get more space and the reason is a a wing at pesta if we go full day um Patrick Martin Patrick Martinez figured out we can probably do about 199 four year olds so that's not quite half of the grant if we have some families who decide they want to stay half day at shining stars and then some Go full day we'll just meet what we currently have for the grant we won't be able to expand in the school year 2627 to board member trips comment if we were to look at another
042facility um and do another Micro Center it's just a consideration for the board to think about each of those centers is going to need the same Administration the same front office staff and so all of those costs will will replicate but if we do a a wing we'll just be able to meet the Grant depend depending on how many families want full day if we still offer half day we can probably serve some more students but it really depends on what the family's needs are going to be we also did not have a as much room on the North End for schools most of our North End schools are already full Mr grandi is approaching a thousand 900 I think 900 and some um s Vista is getting pretty full so that's another issue a
043lot of our growth right now is on the North side uh so we really don't have um the space on the North side that we do on the south at this point in time in full transparency we'd probably have to look at a cleanest campus and see if we could do a similar model at the cleaness campus because their population is similar to the size of pesta and they have a similar building so that would be something that we would have to look into and that would be more West Side than than North North I have a question for Jessica Tyler so can you just expand on what you were saying in our work in our work session that we were talking about about the your concern about money sure yeah my concern is that
044we were at a huge budget short shortfall this year we had enough in reserves to be able to cover that because of the funding formula changes that state ped made um largely around our longer school year so previously we got extra funding for that they changed the funding to where we didn't um get that funding this year we were able to um cover that this year but if the state legislature does not make changes moving forward we will be short again and so we're going to be looking at potentially having to make program cost if that is the case and so my concern is that if we move forward to repurpose all of pesta from a budget standpoint the money that will be needed for construction as well as standing up another facility will put
045us at even more um at risk for having a balanced budget and so I was saying I feel right now we can be judicious like Dr Cleveland said we never know what the legislature will do so we don't know what they'll do with funding we don't know what they'll do with potentially require Ms but right now if the grant is out for prek still allowing half day that's a pretty good indication that for at least the next school year that will be allowed so I I feel that we're safe at serving our current students with the half day prek based off of what's Allowed by the grant that's been um announced so far and closes in February so largely my concern with repurposing a whole school and building a whole new prek center right now
046is the budget concerns and the unknowns there and board member Tyler I just want to clarify we are um over capacity at shining stars right now and we're halfway through the year so just something to consider in in the decision we'll have to think about that if we go full day and half day and how many full day slots we can possibly do in the future and I think those are other decisions that can be made once the board makes this decision as far as you know what do we offer at shining stars we can't we we aren't they don't have the facilities to offer full day right now so that's going to be sometime down the road anyhow so we do have more time to decide how we want to offer our prepaid programs
047maybe we will offer half day at shining star programs and a full day at pla or something along those lines and of course yes the the grant funding is going to be dependent on the number of students that we can enroll the number of students we can house at pra um but again there are a lot of unknowns and so that's where it becomes difficult for us as a board trying to weigh the pros and cons and make the best decision when we don't have a crystal ball that's why I think the judicious thing to do is to move forward with starting with owing up stuff Ju Just um a point I just want to be sure people also aware there would be no increased operational expenses in terms of the building because the building's
048already operational and so we we would if we move students they are going into buildings that are already operational and and would not impact the the cost of the of utilities or you know the basic operations so there isn't any increase there but the the where the increases will come to your point is the refurbishing and re re rebuilding that building and uh and that is going to be costly so um the other is uh as as was shared in the workshop uh we don't get complete funding for anything really but we certainly don't get full funding for um for our prek programs just like we don't get full funding for our special red programs and that continues to be a challenge for the school district um the the last study that was done shows
049we get about 85 cents on the dollar and and that's not true of the majority of districts in this state so it it is very challenging and we don't control those variables and there are a lot of unknowns but uh it in terms of the basic operational cost of the building would not change because the building is already operational so I just want to be sure people are aware of that okay do we have any additional comments that need to be made I just have a quick question you talked about the envirment um at uh if we had the wing at Festa and looking out into the future en Rance what are your projections there I know it's kind of hard but you may have some idea about what those enrollments might be and how
050quickly would you be at Max I guess I would say it w for the prek program Miller we would um as soon if the wing was fully optional we would be is if we take the current students at shining stars and they wanted to be full day we would be at capacity upon opening also I want to note on the special ed programs every year we end with about 30 to 50 more students that require special education services than we did the previous year so so that those numbers are constantly going up sometimes I've told the special services department you were the victim of your own success because so many people moved to this district for a programs or their children in special services and and so that's good on one hand but we certainly
051see a lot of people who move here with very high knat children uh because they feel the services are strong um a couple things I just want to address really fast before we kind of finish this that you know as we were in public Comon a couple comments were made um just a and I don't think it was made in a way that was that was trying to it just didn't sound great but I just want um our district and and pesta and and all of the students in our district to know just how much everyone matters how much our staff matters and I think when we're making decisions like this it can feel like maybe you don't matter or people are just looking at the numbers and such and and you do have to
052look at the numbers right and you do have to look at the money and that at the same time that every single child matters and every single staff member matters um very much to us but the hard thing is when you're in these positions you have to really look out at at the future and you have to look at all these things and if we don't do that as much as as we are caring for everyone here then we're not really doing what we should be doing we're not really doing a good job of the things that we should be doing and and so I just wanted to bring that up because I have the opportunity to uh to work with the board and we don't get to talk about these things outside of the
053boardroom because they need to be always in public um but also because I work with the District staff very often and sit with Dr Cleveland and that um and I've talked a lot with Jan about these different things and just how important everyone is um to I know that that everyone's important and so I know there's been some controversies and it's been hard as we go and make these decisions but I just want to make that clear that um that in our district all of our students are important all of our staff's important and it's a really hard job when you have to look at the whole so and with that is there any other comments before we go to um a vote no I mean I think that those are very worthy comments and
054none of us know definitively right we this isn't what any of us this isn't the perfect scenario like Janna said I mean perfect scenario would be we money would be abundant we could build a great new fac facility um shining star would have their cafeteria they could do you know full day prek we they could do half day and we would be able to just replicate that and do it even better but that's just not uh the reality of it and so we're making I feel like this is the best decision that I can make given the resources that we have with the least amount of impacts while also trying to serve more children eventually although I know if we move to full um day it'll only be serving the current students but we said
055to brought in our pre- program and if we move our pre- program from half day to full day that's still a win and so if that's all we do and we still only serve our full the same number of students if that's what the study say is best for our our students then we're still moving the needle in the right direction it might not be as far as we want to move it and so that's where Gary your comments are um very well taken that we have to continue planning this isn't a oneandone fix right this is just a step the direction of what we need to do for prek for our district and so I would ask that everybody be mindful of that that this is not you know the end all be all
056we're not going to just do a wing at pra and call it good and be done with prek we're going to have to continue to do additional work to be able to serve the children that need to be served so you second okay I think he I think he did second it or do you have that on the record or no yes I do I have a motion um did he you okay with the second I'll second it I have who made the secondary it was Gary I have a checking my notes I have a motion by Jessica Tyler and a second by Gary trip and if there's no further comments then we'll go ahead and go to a roll call a roll call vote please vice president Morgan yes secretary Tyler yes board member
057trip yes board member Miller yes president galri no motion carries 4 Z okay thank you okay 41 yeah 41 so do we need any further direction as you guys are going to to sit down on this or are we feeling are we feeling good on Direction I think you know whatever the board votes is what we will do and we will do enthusiastically and so we'll move forward um very concerned about um a lot of children I think we're not going to meet their needs but we are constrained by the lack of finances and we're continuing to work on that as well so uh we we will uh I think we've got good direction and we know what we need to do just for clarification board membership are you asking um like as we keep
058looking to kind of look at another keep another school in mind were you asking for that yeah in I in I head of dreams if we had the money I know Sai Sai is moving out and they're moving over here and I thought oh there's a the building you know and I know it would be a playground like like the playground of Dreams over there by the hospital you know with tur and everything but just thinking there might be some things out there that can possibly be refurbished I know it's a nightmare because I know you know what you guys have all had to do with CT all of you you know because I think it's an amazing thing what you guys do I meant it sincerely when you guys did a great job so
059I'm just hoping in my dream that tomorrow there's a building and you say oh we could do a wing and Mike Baker will pull a magic wand and there's money to refurbish it I mean that's really a my my prayer my true prayer to God and and my dream you know did you want us to look at another Wing in another school like was that I think I think we if if it's possible with the boundaries it's just something that as part of a a look at you know I know Dr clevand May mention people that weren't in the work session but you know we we have Kim Bessie coming to help us with boundaries and I think that's a really good thing for our district um probably should have say more when she retired
060but she did so many of those underlying things that could really help us because there might be a possibility out there but somebody like that would know you know so thank you thank you thanks could I say just one more thing I'm not I'm sorry so I I mean I think it it's kind of anti-climatic to me in some ways because I feel like you know we're not resolving the prek issue really with tonight's decision and like I said it's a step in the right direction but to Gary to your point I think that the additional direction is that we need to keep working on having a a better a better option because I think that closing Questa fully didn't sit right with a lot of us I think it displaces a lot of students
061it does create potential you know um space issues at some of the other schools we're going to have to redistrict anyway I think we can do some other things I think we need to like you said keep working on it and and maybe one day we'll like I said Monday soon maybe Mike Baker will get that pot of money uh when we have legislators that realize that we have money that we need to put towards prek and that they'll actually support school districts doing that versus just Community Based programs and if I can I think it's pre I think we've struggled with the alternative schools or with cyber Academy we're I think we're great District that meets the needs of a lot of kids with a great staff with a great district office but we
062need some help from the state on all those things and we got great minds so maybe we can make it work anything else from anyone else okay well thank you and thank you everyone for it's it's been a lot of it's been a lot of work for everyone and um pesta I love you all I'm excited maybe to not hear as much from you but I love you all it has been [Laughter] good though I'll probably miss you all so if I just start emailing you it's fine okay all right so we'll now go to our um our next item and which is to consider um Award of RFP number 2025-the members of the board uh before I get started with the presentation um I just want to make an acknowledgement to the IT staff
063uh this eate procurement is one of the more technical procurements that uh we administer throughout the district it requires compliance with the New Mexico public procurement code it requires compliance with eate and their auditing requirements and the district's policy so I'd like to acknowledge Scott leelan and the IT staff and thank them for all their assistance with um with the procurement but in particular I'd like to acknowledge Mr James Cleveland who helped develop the technical specifications the cad drawings uh he assisted with the site walkthroughs addressing questions at those site walkthroughs and as questions got uploaded to our electronic bidding platform he also provided assistance in drafting the responses that we issue through a formal agenda so I'd like to acknowledge the IT staff uh the solicitation is for an award recommendation based on the
064evaluation committee's ranking of the proposals uh the RFP award is for 20256 it erate cat 2 for Maggie C Elementary School of cabling to be issued to Cypress communication systems uh just a brief description of the scope the scope includes an upgrade of the Cat 5 cabling that currently exists to a cat 6 um the responses received for the solicitation there was five Advanced Network Management Incorporated out of Albuquerque American fire protection group out of Albuquerque counter trade products out of Arvada Colorado Cypress Communications out of Corrales New Mexico and it connect out of Santa Fe as part of the solicitation we verify compliance and responsiveness all vendors met that criteria and were evaluated by the evaluation team they were scored and ranked um a little bit about Cyprus Cyprus has extensive experience working K12
065uh they also have experience working with re Ranch of public schools we did a solicitation back in 2223 for Ernest Stapleton almost an identical scope and they were the um the awarded vendor they completed that project on time and within budget uh we have confidence that they'll be able to continue if if the board makes recommendation I mean if the board Awards the recommendation that they'll be able to complete this and in addition they were the highest rank but they were also the lowest price so with that I stand for questions questions from the board question I just had one you said that you were replacing the older cat five yes sir and and what's the new one cat what six is that the highest uh that's beyond me it's Scott well I guess the
066only reason why I'm asking is if we're going to replacement Let's uh just let's just go to the highest level if it's possible that's why I'm asking if that's the highest level or not Cleveland president galberth members of the board sorry uh can you repeat your question one more time I was asking him we going to replace cat five cabling and going to six I'm ask is that the highest level there is 6a as well um but there's really no need to do that and they're much thicker cabling and they require different um patch panels um the the speed ratings are close to the same what we need there's really no um need to add on the cast 6A it's also more expensive and so if we do now how many years from now we
067have to turn around and so we see the infrastructure last for about 20 years okay not more than that um so yeah I don't I don't see any need based off of current technology and future technology uh at this point to to go beyond sex okay can I make the motion anybody else got questions we're good I make a motion that of the approval Award of RPF number 2025 d0 6 it e rate category can is that category just cat two we're good with that cat two yeah okay good at Maggie or cordover ES cabling with Cypress Communication System well that was pretty good wasn't it yeah that's impressive thank you just before second okay we have a motion in a second all in favor I I any opposed motion carries 5 Z I want
068to quickly reiterate what um what was set up here about what James Cleveland did with this project he has to do multiple of these every year um it's a lot of work trying to do the timing trying to schedule the schools um also the amount of work that's done with eate uh we're saving a tremendous amount of money on this um the total cost was something like I think 119,000 we're only on the hook for 35,000 of that between the eate and the psfa reimbursements by the end of the whole project so um going through those processes doing the rfps following all the paperwork um working with our vendors that is a lot of work and we save a lot of money as a result and this is just one of you know a dozen
069projects we've done the last several years we've saved millions of millions of dollars through these programs so uh and James is is a tremendous uh backbone to that so uh I very much appreciate it the district appreciates it so uh you know thanks again thank you thank you thanks for all the hard work everyone thank you thank you B thank you okay and we'll now go we have um second readings on uh the next four policies so we'd like to let's see welcome up it looks like Mike Chavis is working on all of these um a lot yes okay so we have our um second reading for board policy 7-Eleven which is a drug-free workplace uh for 722 which is the termination or discharge of employees um 730 7 for medical leave and 738 um
070for non-medical leave um and so we'll go ahead and we'll hand it over to both of you sorry good evening Madame President Dr Cleveland members of the board um as you've said we are here for the second reading of the um uh board policies that we presented gosh last year um so we'd like to um uh review those with you there were some edits made um based upon some comments that we received um at the last board meeting and um at this point I will turn it over to my colleague all right I'll keep it short and sweet this has been a an eventful evening 711 is the drug free workplace policy what we did is um per um board member Tyler's recommendation we shortened that introductory statement cleaned it up a little bit so
071that it's it's less wordy it's it reads a little less patronizing and it just gets to the heart of what we're trying to accomplish which is just to put um folks on notice that we don't want drugs on our campus um the other thing we did is we removed the requirement that anytime there's any kind of an accident um a an employee involved in that accident will be transported to be tested what we're really concerned about is impairment and if it's obvious that an employee isn't impaired we're that we're not going to get involved in driving them to be tested we will ask them to drive themselves to be tested but we won't use the man power woman power to to drive them there with with other staff resources being being used to that to
072that effort um those are the only changes we made to 7-Eleven if you have questions on it now uh I could address those now or I could move through all of these and then do them separately what what is your preference it's good to just keep moving through them okay we'll just keep going through okay okay uh so we move to the next 7 22 um all all we did here was fix some typos the board recognized there were a few typos we cleaned it up no substantive changes on this one 737 um what we did here is if you go if you could scroll claria to the right to the end um in the second to last paragraph what we did is uh per we took um board member trips uh advice here and
073we added examples of related medical conditions um so you can see it's the second to last uh paragraph at the end um maybe just scroll down to the last [Music] page sure why they're not there is it 14 17 and I think yeah 14 apologize I think on pack you can see them in there but what we did and I apologize that it's not presenting on this screen but what we did is made some examples of what of what those um um what those related medical conditions might be so related to pregnancy so so that it's a bit more clear yeah I looked at them earlier today does anyone have questions on on that are you good okay it's a non-exhaustive list yeah they're just examples of what what um what count okay and then
074we'll move on to 7:30 8 and this is non-medical leave and what we did with this one again we took um board member trips guidance on this one is there was some concern that um if we left the time frame open-ended for when people had to to provide evidence that they were going to take domestic abuse leave it might leave inconsistent enforcement or application and so what we did is we we took a stab at a reasonable time frame and we said five working days from commencing the leave we'd like to see something some evidence a police report could even be a statement from a police officer um but we kept it uh at five days to to make sure we're Equitable and those were the only changes that were made okay awesome do we
075have questions from the board on these on these polies want to make sure that your thing had 15 pages on 37 that you'll make sure that I think the difference is a Google doc in our what we're looking at in the Google Drive versus a PDF so the spacing might be different so the pages don't it wasn't up here yeah that's what I'm saying that was sent to us is different than the one yeah I just want to make sure the one that we agree upon is the 17 Page not this one is all I'm saying okay president and board member Morgan yes okay Ure that the one you're agreeing on that on is the one that you see in there you go that's that's what I'm asking yeah be the one that is published
076okay all right thank you okay any other questions or comments on these and we can go to a motion I think on all go ahead and go on all of them but um okay this is board member Tyler I'll make a motion to approve board 711 drug free workplace 722 termination or discharge of employees 737 medical leave and 738 non-medical leave board member Jeff Morgan a second we have a motion in a second and we'll go ahead and do a roll call vote on these ones vice president Morgan yes secretary Tyler yes board member trip yes member Miller president gal yes motion carries okay all right that's it on did you have anything you wanted to end on those policies or anything I think it was pretty self-explanatory perfect um okay as far as advanced
077planning going goes um so our next meeting will be the 27th there's also an audit committee meeting that that night as well um on the 10th we have a finance committee meeting and a board meeting on February 10th um the board Institute is coming up so that's the one that's up in Santa Fe so that's the 13th through the 15th um has everyone registered who's planning to to attend that JC actually can you sign me up for that please and is there anyone else that needs to okay okay you are okay okay so if we can just let them let her know and then if you did want to meet up with Chris Balan we also need to set up an appointment with him so please let us know with that I find it's a
078little tricky up there to some of those things so um you can get on the floor and talk to um some of the Reps and stuff but they're pretty busy and so sometimes it's hard to get there and really and really have I think those conversations are best had honestly before the session goes in so and but there is time set up I believe on Thursday is that right Gary Thursday I think there's time set up if you would like to go and do that but they tend to be in and out of sessions so and on Friday as well and if you need um if you need to stay up there please also we need to let JC know that as well so anything on Advanced planning anything any questions or anything on that
079okay our meeting is adjourned okay thank you everyone