RRPS - School Board Meeting - May 11, 2026

001Good evening. The Public Schools Board of Education meeting for Monday, May 11th, 2026 is now called to order. All would please arise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Dr. Stephanie Smith will lead us. Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. JC, will you take a roll call for us? President Galbraith Present. Vice President Moller Present. Secretary Murray Present. Board member Berry Present. Board member Smith Present. You have a quorum. Okay, thank you. I would like to welcome everyone out, especially all of our parents and our students, and um all those from our community that are here with us tonight. Um as we started, we have a newly elected mayor

002for our city, and so we want to welcome um Paul Weimer into that position. We're really excited to be able to work with him um as our Redondo Beach Public Schools. I know Dr. Dodd was able to meet with him this this just this last week, and so we're excited for to keep that great relationship with the city. We do lots of wonderful things together, lots of wonderful things together. So we're excited um to have him and to be able to work with him. Um we will now go to approve our prioritized agenda and proposed time allocations. Do I have a motion? Motion to approve prioritized agenda and a proposed time allocations. Board member Berry second. Okay, we have a motion and second, and all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. All

003right, we'll start tonight with our commendations. Um Our first commendation is for NMSBA Student Achievement Award to Tasha Young. We have Jana our elementary school improvement officer along with Renee Saucedo our secondary school improvement officer who will be presenting this. >> [clears throat] >> Madam President Galbraith, Dr. Dodd, members of the board, we are pleased to be here tonight to to honor Ms. Tasha Young. Today we have the privilege of recognizing someone who has made a tremendous impact on our schools, our staff, and ultimately our students. What stands out most about her is not just how knowledgeable and capable she is, but the way she shows up for people every single day. She is organized, dependable, and always prepared, but beyond that she genuinely cares about helping others succeed. When she presents information, especially around

004the NM Dash and school data, she has a way of making people feel confident instead of intimidated. She takes the time to truly understand the work so she can support schools in a meaningful way. Whether it's a leadership meeting, an NM Dash meeting, or a last-minute request for help, which she gets a lot, she is always willing to step in. Schools know that when she's in the room, they will leave with clarity, better understanding, and practical next steps to support student learning. It's all good. >> [laughter] >> What we personally appreciate most is the way she approaches people. She listens, she's patient, she never makes anyone feel like a burden for asking questions. She gives her time generously and helps people solve problems in a calm and thoughtful way. In moments when teams feel overwhelmed

005by data or expectations, she has a way of making the work feel manageable and purposeful again. The work she does is not always highly visible, but matters deeply. So much of the success our schools experience is connected to the support, guidance, and steady presence she provides behind the scenes. We are incredibly lucky to have her on our team and we are personally grateful for all she brings to this work and to the people around her every day. And I do want to say it is you are never too old to have your parents show up and celebrate you today because Tasha's father and her husband are here to celebrate us or celebrate her with us today and they're very proud. Please join me in thanking and recognizing her for everything she does. >> [applause] >>

006Oh goodness. [laughter] Um President Galbraith, Dr. Dodd, members of the board, the last time I was sitting in this room with a microphone was when I was doing the spelling bee. >> [laughter] >> Which is a very nerve-racking thing. >> give you a word if you want. >> [laughter] >> Um first of all, I want to thank the board for this honor. Um I've been in education for about 30 years and this is the first award I've won. So I'm so excited. Um thank you to Jana and Renee for nominating me. I really I appreciate it and I love all the kind things you said. Um I have to thank Happy Miller and my Radda team um for taking a chance on me in this job. I do remember the first one of the first

007projects Happy gave me when I, you know, first on boarded in the summer. She was explaining to me how to do something and I said, "Oh, that's math." >> [laughter] >> And I think she had a moment where she was like, "Hmm, I'm not sure." >> [laughter] >> But I've done okay since then. Um I can't do this job by myself. I don't know what I would do by myself. So, I have to thank the departments that that allow me to collaborate with them. I have the school improvement departments. Um both elementary and secondary C&I collaborate a lot. Um I've worked with federal programs this past year and I've worked with special services. Um I have to thank the schools. The schools allow me to come in and be part of their improvement process. Um

008you know, sometimes they're they're unsure about what my agenda is and I'll share what my agenda is in just a minute, but it really is about student success. Um and I'm also there to help, you know, increase their data and assessment literacy. Um the reason why I'm so invested in student achievement, I I joke, but it's kind of serious. Um I live in this community and unless I win a really big lottery, I'm probably going to grow old and retire in this community and I don't have children of my own. Um and so I'm going to be very dependent on the students that are sitting in this classroom, these classrooms today to take care of me. Um they're going to be my mechanics. They're going to be my bankers. They're going to be, you know,

009my financial advisors, my nurses, my doctors. And so it is is is imperative to me. It's a moral imperative that these kids can read, write, do math, become critical thinkers, problem solvers, productive citizens of their community, um and really just good people. Um because I want the community to to thrive and I do believe in the Rio Rancho community. Um and then last but not least, I I have to thank my parents who have instilled the value of education in me. Um and then my husband who is my my greatest cheerleader. So, thank you guys again for this honor. Thank you. >> [applause] >> I DID JUST SAY ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD AND IF DR. Dodd wants to say a few words, he's welcome to. But, you know, when we this award, we look

010at not just the school community, but Rio Rancho and just all of those who have contributed to our schools. And so, you are a standout amongst all of those. And so, I am so grateful. The district always helps us to to come up with the right people that we can that we can look at. And when they brought your name forth, it was the right person for for this year. So, thank you to the district for helping us with that. And it is so sweet to have you here with us. And I um and I just want to say thank you for all you do. And just continue to be with us forever and ever and ever and ever. [laughter] Dr. Dodd, do you want to add anything? Yeah, you can't leave. >> [laughter] >>

011Congratulations, Ms. Young. Uh well deserved. Um So, when I got here a few months ago, um one of my first priorities in my 100-day plan >> [clears throat] >> was to really just uncover the DNA, meaning data, of our amazing school district. Um and uh we're incredibly fortunate as a public school district that um the the team that Dr. Happy Miller leads, including Tasha sitting here, is is a team that's admired in the state of New Mexico. Um The state The state of New Mexico actually comes to us to find out about how to interpret data um and and how to do it better. So, I decided early on that we needed to have several data summits to really get an understanding of where we currently stand with performance in our school district. Um Dr.

012Miller said, "Oh, well, we need Tasha. We can't We have to have Tasha to do it." So, um we had three uh very important meetings with all of our executive leadership in the district where we looked at data A to Z related to our students in Rio Rancho public schools. You could not find a better facilitator for adult learning than Tasha Young. Uh she's a teacher at heart. She talks a lot about when she taught, she spent a lot of years in the classroom, that comes out when she works with adults. But I think anybody that was and we had board members that were at those meetings. Um we we learned so much. We all had some level of anxiety about the data we were looking at. You put us at ease and I think

013all of us walked away after those three days having a really in-depth understanding because of your skillful facilitation. And I know you do so much beyond that namely for our schools. So thank you so much. Congratulations. We're very proud of you. THANK YOU. YEAH. >> [applause] >> WE CAN ARE WE DOING A PICTURE? DANIEL, DO YOU WANT TO DO A PICTURE REAL QUICK? YEAH. We're doing a picture with these guys. Tasha, don't fall over. I'm wearing my tall shoes. Wow. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. 1 2 That's good. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, well I thought I was going to have to stand by Jan. >> [laughter] >> Thank you guys. Okay, our next commendation of the evening will be the Cleveland High School Wind Symphony for winning the NMAA State Concert Band Contest with

014Dr. Kurt Schmidt, our executive director of Fine Arts, who will be presenting this. Good evening, President Galbraith, members of the board, Dr. Dodd. I would like to present for accommodation tonight the Cleveland Wind High School Wind Wind Symphony and its director, Mr. Daniel Holmes. Also with us is the CHS associate band director, Mr. Josh Dumay. The Wind Symphony has brought home the 5A first place trophy for the high school state band contest. The band was up against 11 other bands from around the state. The CHS Wind Symphony consistently performs with phenomenal musician- musicianship and aplomb with a tone quality and finesse that are enviable among high school bands. The continued success of this ensemble, indeed every ensemble in the band program at CHS, is a result of teaching at the very highest levels. So, with

015that, we'd like to congratulate Mr. Holmes, Mr. Dumay, and the Cleveland High School Wind Symphony. >> [applause] [applause] >> THANK YOU. YEAH. THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH, UH DR. DODD, BOARD. Thank you guys so much for your support of all our fine arts programs. Uh this wouldn't be possible without you guys. Um obviously, we'd like to thank our students for all their hard work this semester. I'm a to be a very busy time of year. Um they also have to run the state marching or state concert band contest. So, they host it for 3 days and then get to perform. Um and they just work so hard. So, we're very proud of them, very thankful for Josh and and the rest of our staff as well. Um and the fabulous administration at Cleveland High School.

016And obviously, a huge thanks uh to Dr. Schmidt for all of his support and for putting this together. So, we're very grateful. Uh takes a village to to make this happen. It's not just, you know, a people conducting and waving our arms. It's It's a lot of work behind it. So, thank you. Well, thank you guys. I'll echo all of that. But, on top of that, too, if I could just thank our middle school feeders for sending us some awesome students over the years, too. It makes it much easier for us. So, thank you guys so much for this recognition. I'm going to let Dr. Dot say a couple words for y'all, and then I'll go to the board if you guys would like to. >> Mr. Holmes, Mr. Demay, I just thank you so

017much. I uh what thing that uh not all of us see, many of us don't see, is all the time that you put in behind the scenes, um beyond what gets presented when the kids wow everybody with their performances, all the hard work, all the waiting for parents to pick kids up or driving kids here or there, all the time that you put in. So, um it's obviously shown up in the kids' performances, and congratulations to Cleveland High School. Well done, you all. Thanks. Anyone from the board? Mike Barrett. Sure, I'll just say uh congratulations. Um you know, the fine arts and orchestra is wind symphony, excuse me, is really what makes kids want to come to school. That's why my kid is it in obsessed with school is because of orchestra and wind stuff.

018So, congratulations. Thank you. Debbie Smith, if you'd like to say anything. Uh I just like to recognize how much, again, time that you all put in. I know uh early in the morning before school starts, after school, um it's a lot that I don't think a lot of people understand how much time. And so, we we appreciate that. It congratulations. I've watched many things that you all both have done with all the students, and absolutely amazing every time. Thank you, guys. Congratulations. Appreciate, and I know there's a ton that you guys do. Mr. Mr. Demay was my daughter's middle school and then high school. So, yeah. It's We appreciate everything that you guys do for the students in the district. Do you want to add something, Dr. Yeah, I was just going to say, and

019don't worry, Dr. Schmidt's talked to me about stipends. So. >> [laughter] >> We'll work on those. I have to You're now on public record. >> [laughter] >> So funny. I have to say I think this is the most color I get to see you guys in, you know, usually you're in black when you're performing and I and I see you I'm like, "Woo, it's too much." Um, but you guys do you do do a wonderful job every time I am able to see perform in your different um, groups. It's amazing. And so, keep it up and I'm a huge advocate if we ever have any one who's wondering for our middle school and our elementary programs cuz that's truly what feeds into our high schools and just really makes them the top tier of what

020they are. So, thank you so much for being here tonight and congratulations to you and all the students and everything. So, thank you. YOU DO THE JOB. >> [applause] [applause] >> OKAY. OKAY, OUR LAST COMMENDATION FOR THE EVENING is Rio Rancho Cyber Academy and NM A A state 2A title for e-sports and we have Julie Arnold, our principal for Rio Rancho Cyber Academy here to present. As she's coming up, I have to say this was a great Facebook post that I liked. It was fun to It was fun to see that you guys got a state title. We didn't have a picture, so I'd like to invite the real thing to come forward. Yes, please. They're all here, so we need to have them come out. They can't JUST SIT THERE. >> [applause] >> I'M

021EVEN TOO SHORT FOR THE MICROPHONE. SITTING DOWN. [laughter] And then we need to get the same stool. >> Dr. Todd, members of the board, thank you all for having us here this evening. It is a great honor for me especially to be here. I'm going to turn the mic over to Mr. Figueroa, but this is the first time Rio Rancho Cyber Academy has ever won a state title in absolutely anything. So, it is a great honor after 9 years of being there fighting for my school every day that this has been such an amazing thing. And I have to say it's all because of them. We have the most fabulous students at Cyber Academy and I am so glad that they get this opportunity to shine. Mr. Fig. Uh good evening and thank you board.

022Um >> [snorts] >> I just want to start by thanking Ms. Arnold actually, my principal here. She supports the program. We have what we need, the equipment we need, full support. Um >> [snorts] >> and I like to thank the families of my athletes here or my players they're here too. Late nights sometimes uh with eSports is not as predictable as normal sport like times go longer. Hey, we got to stay later and they're there. Um yeah, it's just it was amazing this year. It was my first year at Cyber Academy with this group of kids. Uh New Mexico in general really supports eSports like on the cutting edge nationally. Um we've Rio Rancho had the first state champion at Rio Rancho High. So, this district we're bringing another title back to the district thankfully

023and um I think we I want to keep going with this. New Mexico Tech just won two national championships. So, like we could we have a very unique population in the school who they do very well with eSports and I'm looking forward to hopefully building this program out even more. Thank you guys. Awesome. >> [applause] >> Okay, I have a question. So, what are the games currently being played? I know I know what games I kind of started with, but it's been gosh, how long has it been 6 years since that we've been doing or more but since they've been doing e-sports? Yeah. So, what games are they currently? Um Mario Kart still there, Smash Super Smash Brothers, um um Rocket League, >> Rocket League, that's the one I was thinking of. Overwatch, League of

024Legends, um Madden which we have actually oh, I've even bring this to um forget to mention Andre Wheels here. He is our first individual state title. He won overall for Madden for the state. Wonderful. Great job. [applause] He's an eighth grader. Yes, and he's an eighth grader competing for the high school since we are 6 to 12 school. That's awesome. That's awesome. Do you guys any seniors? Any of you guys seniors this year? >> two seniors I'd like to Orion right here and Coop. This is their last year. They I was really uh ecstatic to be able to send them out with a state championship actually. So, okay, I'm going to ask one of our seniors would any either of you like to just talk for like a minute just to about your experience with

025it? We didn't know you were going to come in and I was going to do all these things. If you don't want to, I I always tell my own students I it's okay if you want to pass, but you good? You guys are good? I know. That's totally okay. That's okay, but really really congratulations to all of you. I'm going to let Dr. Dodd say a couple words and then I'll go to the board. I would just say congratulations. I think I I saw some subset of you in action when I visited cyber um when I was doing my initial school visits and you all didn't even know I was there because you were so engrossed in what you were doing, um but it was incredibly impressive. Um so, I'm just I'm just really proud

026of you as a school district. This is I mean, you're in This is big time. We've had one state championship from from Rio Rancho High School. Now, this is our second as a school district in New Mexico. That is a big deal for e-sports and a Madden champion. Wow. That's great. >> That is really great. So, congratulations, you guys. Thank you for all that you've done, all the time you put into practicing and competing. We're proud of you. Board, if you'd like to give words, you're welcome to. Uh do you guys all play all the games or or is there a breakdown of Um they all play at least two to three titles. Does everyone play League of Legends? The League of Legends >> Okay. Raise your hand Raise your hand on League of No.

027Which one of you guys are junglers? That is [laughter] That is We did This guy's probably a criminal, so I got >> [laughter] >> Do you believe he was trying >> Just Okay, good. That's good. Yes. Having played jungler League of Legends that the junglers are the crazy. So, good job. Anyway, congratulations. I'm a New Mexico Tech alum. I didn't play on the e-sports, but I'm congrat congrats. So, Stephanie, if you want to say anything, you're welcome to. I just think it's so great to see all your smiles and those those big medals. I really want to I kind of want to look at look at it, see what it looks like. Yeah. And we're just really proud of you. Congrats. Congratulations and good luck to the seniors over there. But congratulations. I've only two

028of those games and the others I have >> [laughter] >> I'm not a gamer at all. My kids are way better at gaming. Congratulations. Well, thank you again for coming in. Do you guys want to do a picture since you guys are here? Why don't we do a picture and your parents can get a picture if they want to. I'll come down. Thank you guys for coming in. I know you >> All right, 1 2 3. >> [applause] [applause] >> And to the board, if you ever I know um Principal Arnold was saying she's she welcomes you to come if you'd like to see Cyber and I'm sure Dr. Dodd can set that up if you guys want to go and visit that school. It's a great school. >> Be happy to. Yeah, they're doing

029some great work at Cyber. Yeah, it's a great school to be at. So, all right, we're into reports. Um our report for the evening is on transportation and we have Nicholas Brooke, our executive director of transportation, who will present. All right, good evening President Galbraith, members of the board, Superintendent Dodd. Thank you for having me here this evening to uh with a chance to tell you guys what we do over in transportation and how we uh keep the wheels on the bus rolling. All right. Um this is an overview of the transportation team. We have 76 total drivers, uh 29 attendants. We also have supporting our drivers and students 12 office personnel, which includes myself and four maintenance personnel out in the shop. And that's a picture of us at the beginning of the year.

030All right. Why transportation matters. Uh it gives access to education. Transportation is the first step in the school uh a student's school day. If students can't reliable can't reliably uh get to school on time, um everything like academics, programs, and opportunities become what harder to access. Uh transportation directly impacts attendance every day. Reliable transportation reduces absences, which ties into student achievement. Uh student safety is our top priority. From driver training to vehicle maintenance to student management, everything we do is built on getting students to school uh to and from school every day safely. Um well while transportation is not provided to every student uh due to walk boundaries, we focus our resources on students who qualify and those who are at greatest need. This is where transportation can have the biggest impact. It extends the

031school day for many students as it's the first and last interaction of the school day when you get on the bus and get off the bus in the afternoon. That environment sets the tone in the morning and closes out the day for the afternoon. We currently have just over 16,000 students in the district uh with while 11,600 are eligible to ride, not all utilize transportation. This number is important because eligibility uh drives potential demand and even if the ridership varies. Students we transport are 8,500 students. Uh this is twice a day every day within a 3-hour window. Um that's over half the district's enrollment we we take to school. Um 6,500 miles every single day. That's uh just 1.2 million miles a year. Um uh little nod to the Artemis missions. That's like going to

032the moon two and a half times coming back. Um we serve 21 schools uh and we also provide transportation to out of district programs like the school of visually impaired and the school of the deaf. Our fleet includes 81 buses and three SUVs. Of those 81 buses, 67 are route buses. The other 14 are older spare buses. Most of our buses are on a four-tier system, which means they serve four four schools per shift. All right, these are the five primary layers of transportation, dispatch, safety, maintenance, routing, and special services. I'm going to dive into each one over the next slides. >> [snorts] >> All right, dispatch is where plan meets reality. Every day starts with making sure every route is covered. We have absences, dispatch is responsible for reassigning routes and making sure students

033are still picked up on time. Real-time problem-solving, once routes are on the road, dispatch is constantly responding to issues such as breakdowns, traffic, and unexpected delays. We've made great stride over the past few years. Just 3 years ago, we were at eight little over 8% of runs that are 10 minutes or more late. Now, we're just over 2% and that is 555 or 550 runs a day that we do, so more including morning and afternoon. >> [cough and clears throat] >> Um, so the majority of those late buses come in afternoon and that's due to our time and distance. We have 40-minute windows in the afternoon. And we have 7 minutes we have to wait in the bus loading zone, so that cuts it down to 33 minutes right off the bat. And I was

034I rode a a bus last week from Cleveland High School and it took us 8 minutes to get out of the the parking, so we're already 15 minutes behind schedule, but we we we usually make that up, but usually when we have late buses, that's what it entails. Um, also student behavior or uh not or parents not being home to receive their student, uh we'll have to take the student back and that's just a trickle-down effect when we have to do that. Uh field trips and activities, dispatch also plays a key role in coordinating field trips and activities. These trips have to be scheduled around our daily routes and available drivers. Not all drivers uh sign up for field trips, so we have a smaller pool of drivers we can pick from and that's all

035voluntary. Um for the the trips. Communication hub, dispatch is the central communication point for drivers, schools, and our internal teams. They're managing the radio traffic, phone calls, and updates all at one time. All right. Safety is the foundation of everything we do in transportation. Uh first starting off with a new driver and attendant training. Um I'm sure you guys have all heard at least one point over the past few years of a driver shortage national um and throughout the country. Uh I started um many moons ago at January 2005 as a bus uh bus slot attendant and that summer in June I moved over to be an a mechanic uh in the shop and that so I had to get my CDL. Come July, mid-July, I get my CDL. Two month two weeks later, August,

036they hand me a bus route and they say, "Here you go." And I drove that route for three straight years working on buses driving that route. And that's just how it is over the years. We have ups and downs. We'll get pulled off sometimes, you know, we'll we'll have to drive, but um it's a real thing and I don't think it's just a new thing. I think it's been around for a while. Um we train all new drivers and attendants according to the state regs. Drivers require 36 hours of training. This is uh combined classroom and behind the wheel. We also do a 4-hour behind the wheel exam with them, first aid training, and mindset training. All training is done and exams are done in-house. We have our own examiners and SPDI trainers. It's about

037a month-long process from when a new driver comes in, starts a trainee, to by the time they get their CDL and get on a bus, it takes about a month. Uh >> [clears throat] >> safety doesn't stop after training. We have ongoing support. Uh we continue to work with employees to address concerns, provide coaching, and conduct state-mandated uh mandated in-service trainings. We are required to do 16 hours uh 8 hours every semester. So, we conduct those with them every every year. Uh student So, it's been talked about student behavior um before in the classroom at the schools, and that carries over to the buses. It's um no different on the bus. Uh it might be a little little worse since you're in a smaller area. Uh we average about 800 video reviews a year uh

038on the incidents that's hap- that happened on the buses. We work closely with the schools uh on student referrals on behavior concerns to ensure drivers can maintain a safe environment on the bus. Uh safe environment is critical not only for behavior, but so the driver can focus on on the road. Uh our team also reviews routes for uh and bus stops for safety concerns, whether it's traffic patterns, visibility, construction, or road condition. And uh during the wintertime, when there's inclement weather weather, we do snow watch. We get out there 3:30 in the morning, check for uh any issues that might cause a delay or cancellation, and report back to our our leadership, and they take that into account when making decisions on those days. Maintenance uh helps keep our operation running safely and reliably every

039day. With our preventative maintenance, we follow a structured program to service buses regularly and identify issues before they become bigger problems. Um this [clears throat] helps reduce breakdowns and keep buses safe and on the road. We also do state inspections uh on all buses. That has to be done twice uh twice a year. They must meet strict DOT safety standards in order to stay in service. This is done by a DOT inspector. We schedule that with an inspector once every semester to come in and do all of our buses, check them all out. Our daily readiness. So, every day our goal is to have as many buses available. You'll have the buses that are long-term breakdowns that are out, but you have things where buses might They might have left the lights on, won't start,

040hard start buses, headlights out, bulbs, all that stuff that puts a bus out of service, can't go on the road. So, our guys will get them ready to go before they they head out. Those are the quick things we can get done, have them ready to go. When issues do come up, our maintenance team works quickly to diagnose and repair buses to minimize the downtime. A challenge we face right now is and everybody faces it, the rising cost of everything. It's really hit the parts and lubricants and fuel especially right now pretty hard. So, that's something we struggle with out there. Um We also have a lot of dirt roads in Rio Rancho and they're not very well maintained. And a 30,000 lb bus and a dirt road don't do well together. So, those take

041an extra heavy wear on our bus and vibrations on on all those parts. So, that's just another thing that we have to make sure we're keeping up on. Um our So, our fleet life cycle planning, we manage a long-term life cycle of our fleet and making sure we do our upgrades when we do get new buses such as GPS cameras. Um >> [clears throat] >> the replacement cycle is set at 12 years. That bus the bus can only run for on that route for 12 years and then it has to either be disposed of or put as a spare. Spare bus. Um After 20 years, that bus has to be retired and we have to just take it out of service all altogether. Routing. This This fun part. So, general education routing is designed to

042move the largest number of students as efficiently as possible. We have a higher student volume. Uh the walk boundaries for high schools 2 miles, uh middle schools 1 mile or 1 and 1/2 miles, and elementary's 1 mile. And this is from home to the bound the start of the border of the the school boundary. There's a misconception that it's to the front door, but the state uh their guidance is it's as soon as that boundary starts for the school, that's where that that time or that measurement is is done. We have more flexibility to adjust and optimize due to uh our centralized stops. We can have community stops where we have the kids gather and and meet up. We right now we're we're transporting 7,900 students, GE students, uh 33 over 300 3,300 miles a

043day with 40 buses. So, that's just that's 49% of our combined assets and workforce with uh for those 7,900 students. Uh special services routing is very different. It's entirely built around individual student needs and IEP requirements. We have student uh fewer students per route, door-to-door service, meaning we pick up at home instead of at the community centralized stops. Um we have limited flexibility due to that. Uh specific timing and service requirements for individualized stops. We are currently doing uh 650 special needs students, almost 3,200 miles a day with 27 buses. That's just over 51% of our combined asset workforce. Our [snorts] biggest challenge with routing is time and distance. That's something that's been mentioned a lot. That's very popular term with uh transportation. We only have so much time to cover a big amount of

044distance, and we have 100 square miles in Rio Rancho, just over 100 square miles. And you might not see buses that are full, but that's not be not because we're not optimizing. It's we just don't have enough time to get enough kids on the those buses. Um then we also might have students living in certain areas. There's a few students way out there. We still have to go pick them up. So, that takes time to get out there. So, um, we can't really optimize as as best as we can or want to. And we also have program schools that might not be in the home school the students home school area. So, we'll have to bus that student. Could be across town to another school. So, we'll have to bus those students to um, that

045school as well. Uh, we're currently bussing students right now to the the New Mexico visually impaired and school of the deaf. And and that is over on Eubank and Central. So, that's one bus pretty much doing that. That's all they have time to do a day. So, um, we're doing that as well cuz we don't have the program here in the district. Okay, special special services. So, for students with special service needs, transportation is determined by their IEP, which means it's tailored to their individual uh, to each individual student. This often includes door-to-door service, specialized equipment such as lifts and harnesses, or uh, specific timing or training requirements. Uh, principals and APs and SEALs work with us uh, well at the schools to make sure we're getting all the necessary training to help out with

046these students. McKinney-Vento, we also provide uh, transportation for the student students experience experiencing homeless or relocation under McKinney-Vento, including um, transportation to their school of origin. These usually mean longer distances and we transport them in SUVs. A lot of times we have kids being uh, relocated in Albuquerque or Bernalillo. So, we're we're able to use an SUV for that. Shining Stars, we provide transportation for Shining Stars, uh, bringing in pre-K students from all around Rio Rancho. These are tiered as we do a morning take in at 8:00 and then we take them back home at 11:00. As those buses are taking those kids home, we're picking up another set of kids to take them in at 12:00 and then we return them I'm 3:00. In addition to the daily routes, we support field trips and

047extracurricular activities. These usually take place between routes, after hours, and on the weekends when we can do them. Some of the larger events we do are the big event and then the holiday carolling that we do for Kirk. Current projects we're working on the Wi-Fi. We recently just had Wi-Fi finished installing on our lot to so buses can access the wireless points from the cameras we can download request from this. In the past we would have to go into the bus, dig through the bus, get in the get in the DVR, pull the hard drive, go back, do the video, take it back. So this is going to help us in a timely response in getting these videos out. And also it's not good for these hard drives to be pulled and and reinstalled all

048the time. So they wear hard on those hard drives. We've received 25 new buses this year and those are replacement buses. So that's getting 25 old buses off off the road and 25 new ones. They all have AC, the warranties, all that good stuff. So that's 25 new buses with ACs on the road and that also helped us update our spare fleet as we were able to get rid of some of the older spares and get some of these 2015s and 14s on spare buses. Right now we're working on ESY. This it's runs the whole month of June, the extended school year for our special needs students. These routes are created every year. We start getting forms mid-April to end of April. We build the routes and we run about 15 buses over the summer

049for these students. And then electric buses. So we have the legislative money for electric buses. We have six buses on order and our facilities team is working on a design with the vendor for our chargers. Hopefully we'll have some more info on that soon. I know there's a lot of anxiety around electric buses. Some of the cons are initial investment, which we don't have to deal with because the state provided all that money. One that I that I get anxious about is range limitation. You can you have to pick and choose what routes these buses can go on. They might not be able to do a field trip and go for you know further for the day. And then infrastructure woes is is probably the the main one I hear when talking to other districts

050and and the vendors. It's getting the infrastructure started. That seems to be the the dragging point for all the stuff the utility companies getting transformers. Um So that's that's the the the phase we're in right now. But some of the pros though, cost of upkeep is cheaper. You don't have to do oil changes. There there's fewer moving parts in the engine and and transmission. It's it's all one um piece and electricity is obviously cheaper than diesel, especially right now. And then one thing I'm really interested in I've gotten a lot of feedback is quiet buses. So I've heard a lot if you get on a bus it's loud. There's just so much noise and I think that stimulates the kids to get louder and you know a little crazier. But it seems they're getting a

051lot of good feedback cuz you go it's like driving a an electric go golf cart. You can barely hear the thing going you have to put a ice cream truck um deal on it. But we're hoping that'll and that and our test run and I'll we'll see how that that reacts with the student behavior. So um And with that that's how the buses go round and round in transportation. I'm set for any questions. >> [laughter] >> I'll just say sometimes with electric vehicles though as I cuz I'm a runner right I'll be out there and I'm like oh there is a car right like coming cuz you can't hear them. >> Yeah humming So I can only imagine the buses [laughter] Um thank you. Um Dr. Bot do you want to add anything before I

052go to questions from everyone? Okay, we'll go to questions from the board if you Do you any. It's okay if you don't. No questions? Um so no questions? Any questions or comments over here? Um huh? We need to get a lot of questions. I know. Nobody has any questions. I'm trying to think. I loved seeing I I I loved seeing the the statistics of it going down with the with lateness. I mean a few years ago I was getting constant emails about buses being late and so that was a pretty huge move that you guys made from that just over eight to about what 2.6 or something. So that is huge. Do you feel like as we look at recruiting drivers? So in the past we upped our pay and some of those things and

053I of course I see it on buses, >> [clears throat] >> you know, how much we pay and now we have benefits and all those things. Is there anything that you feel like that we could do in additional to help to recruit bus drivers to come into Rio Rancho Public Schools? Um so wages we've gotten very competitive with wages. We have Amazon and UPS and a bunch of CDL different companies. So we've gotten pretty competitive. Uh you get to a point to where that's like you can keep paying but then we still have problems with people coming to work and so I think of the next big push should be more towards incentive based attendance that's what we're working with right now or safety bonuses, different bonuses you give to get through the year, achieve

054different things and then make extra money. So I think that's um the next step that we should take if when we start looking at that. Okay, thanks. Yep. to hear. This is the Figured one question. Is the limiting factor drivers alone or I know we need bus everyone everyone wants buses but is the limiting factor drivers right now? It's drivers and buses. But is there one above the other? Well, we don't have the buses so we So okay, that's okay. So I guess it starts with the buses and then if we get the But every bus has a driver right now. >> Right now, yes. Yes, we're in a good spot right now. Well, and that would probably be good for the board too to understand because our buses all funding that comes from the

055state. So, we have to try to which we have tried to get >> [clears throat] >> And I think you've you've said, Mr. Brooke, that we're actually we have folks that want to drive for us that we don't we don't We actually have a backlog of people applying to be drivers for us, correct? >> Yeah. So, we're in a we're in a good spot that way. Yeah. Our turnover's been lower. We've kept people and which is good cuz we put all that time and effort in training them and making sure they stay consistent. So, but yeah, we have a lot of applications. We just don't have the room for us. So, it's right now it's been we're in a good spot right now. I'm just hoping it stays like that. So, he just wants more

056buses. Yeah. And money. >> [laughter] >> I mean, and that's one of the big things and I think we always advocate for it here, but that's one of those big things that whenever you're talking to someone, one of our state legislator like when we when we talk about the SEG, which we're talking about right now, and we're not funded in that transportation, it really hurts us for all of these things. And so, so, things that Rio Rancho Public Schools really, really needs. We need buses and we need to be able to fund our transportation. And even though our enrollment may be dropping, we still have students who live out in the I keep using the word "boonies" and my students tell me that's not a word, but way out there that we still have to

057go pick up. Yeah. >> Um, despite that. >> losing 100 if you lost 100 kids, but that those could be spread out between 78 buses, but we still have to go to all those same stops. So, it's not the same as with, you know, maybe a classroom or you know, if you have a can short of classroom or not. Mhm. Go ahead, Dr. Don. Yes. I just want to thank Nick and his team. Um, one of my first field trips as superintendent of Rio Rancho Public Schools was to the depot. Um, and just the commitment to safety, the quality of service, the care that you and your team provide, uh, the dedication that you show to our students and our families every day. Um, and and Nick has a great team. He's empowered people to

058do um, do really fine leadership work. Um I'm not sure I kind of I think I'm happy that Nick and I haven't had to make a call on a snow day yet. I guess that's past now. I don't have to I know. I don't have to worry about that, but I'm that'll happen next year, right, Nick? And we'll we'll blame it on you. Got it. So, kudos to you and your team. Great great great work. And I got to see the depot in in in in its, you know, all of its glory and the coordination, the organization. I got to visit maintenance. You could eat off the floor, how how well you all are taking care of our equipment. So, thank you to your and your you and your whole team. Thank you. Thanks for

059your part. We appreciate it. Thank you. I always feel like it's too quiet. I don't know if I should applaud or >> [laughter] >> That's great report. Thank you. Um as far as public comment goes, I don't I know I should have just applauded. Maybe some fun. NO, IT'S TRANSPORTATION. I WAS SUPPOSED TO SPEAK TO DR. DEV. It always feels so quiet after we do those. And but Jason, we have no public comment, right, that came in? Correct. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Um so, we'll just go over to the consent agenda. I don't know if we can get a motion on that. Secretary Murray, motion to approve consent agenda. Do I have a second? You you I did. >> [laughter] >> Board member Smith, a second. Thank you. You have a motion and a second.

060Now, all in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. We're now on to the business portion of our meeting. Um our first will be I get to see all these wonderful principals tonight, which makes me happy. So, our first business item will be consider Independence High School reconstruction. And so, we have Renee Sacedo, our secondary school improvement officer, along with Jessica Sanchez, and the principal for IHS. Good evening. Good to see you all. Good to see you. Madam President Galbraith, Dr. Dodd, members of the board, we're back. I know pretty soon you're going to be like, "IHS, come on." We're saying right before the right before the meeting. Um, so the next step that um, Principal Sanchez needs to take is to come up with the We've talked about restructuring. So,

061now she's coming up with that restructuring plan. Um, you're going to have to sign at the end of this, and I I have a copy of it, but I think JC also has a copy. Um, President Galbraith and Dr. Dodd, the assurances for this. So, one of the requirements is that we do the presentation, you approve it, and sign the assurances. Within this presentation, um, Jessica's going to talk about some extra days, some extra Saturdays, and we're actually going to attach that to the calendar. So, that as you approve those calendar days, that's kind of part of the calendar approval, too. Um, for the big calendar for Independence High School. So, I will let Jessica take it on cuz she's doing all the work. Not without your support and the support of you all. So,

062I appreciate [clears throat] that. Um, so if we go to that first page, uh, it it's just a recap of where we are and and where we're going. Um, sustaining our upward trajectory. Uh, Independence High School is is established a strong momentum in raising our scores, and I have just the last 5 years. Keep in mind we are a year behind, so we won't even see this year's scores until next spring. Um but if if you'll you can see there uh we're on our way. The goal here is 66.7 or higher over the course of 3 years, so it's got to be an average. Uh and and [clears throat] I think we're getting there, and as I said at our last meeting, I feel like we've got it. We've we've got the momentum. We've we've

063tweaked some things. We just need more time, you know, this this is is not going to happen overnight. And so, when we were when I was speaking with the state, our three options were closure, uh which was not an option for us. Uh restart, which means you kind of you wipe the staff you just start from scratch. You just wipe it all. Or restructuring, and in my conversations with the state, they agreed because we are making gains and we're heading in the right direction, uh it it just made sense to restructure. So, I I say all this to say we are keeping a lot of the things that we're doing because something's working. We we're working that. We just need to fine-tune, refine things a bit. Um and to do that, we had to sit

064back and and it's not just these great ideas that we have at the table cuz believe me, there's a lot of great ideas, but I'm somebody who has to in in my staff the staff knows this. You got to back this up with data. What are we looking at here? So, I'm going to show you a little bit about what we're doing and why we're doing it. Um and I want to start with the reality of the students that we work with. Um a lot of you know, these students are are are special. They're just a special bunch of kids. My heart is with them. You all know this. Um but I think the I don't know that everybody knows the realities of the students that we're dealing with. We have students who um are

065working full-time, 40-plus hours a week to help support their families. Um some of these students who because they're over 18 are working till 2:00 in the morning and shutting down, closing down and they you know, they need to be to school by 7:30. Um, we have young moms and they've got to get their babies to daycare or they've got to feed them they've got their own responsibilities. So, they're coming in late. Uh, and then of course we have those students who are are taking care of younger siblings who school doesn't start till 9:00. They've got to get them there. So, there's a lot of things that that obstacles that they're dealing with. So, what we've said is we've got to bridge that gap, right? We got to figure it out. We pulled the data out

066and our highest failure rates come from first and second period. It's not a shocker, right? These [clears throat] kids can't get there. Um, so we thought what is what can we do to um, flex some of these the scheduling. Um, we went through transportation and God bless them. They they want to work with us, but there there's limitations there. So, we came up with spoke with our staff and and I'll have I'll have you know when we sat down with them at regarding this restructuring, we said, you know, this is a an undertaking and you've got to be committed. And and and if you're not, that's okay, right? That's okay. It's not this is not everybody's mission in in life, but I think every single one of them said, we're invested. We're here. Which I

067love. And so, um, one of the big things that we'll talk about is the flexible scheduling coming up. Next. Uh, the structural blueprint for this student success is it's not complicated. It's three pillars. Um, I we're I'm looking at time, which is the extended learning opportunities. I'm looking at talent. And this is going to involve a three-week coaching style and that's to ensure that our students are getting the best of the best. Um, and that pillar three is truth and it's data-driven decision. So, let's look at pillar one. Um, it's expanding the boundaries of the school day. We've got to find a way because transport we can't we can't adjust the transportation piece, but what we can do is we can work within what the bounds that we have for those students who are driving

068cuz they're coming late anyway, right? So, they're not utilizing the buses. Um, so we are extending the school day by 1 hour every day. It's an opportunity for those kids who want to take an extra class to accelerate their their credit attainment, their graduation, that's there for them. But, especially for those students who just can't get their first period. Um, and they have legitimate reasons, right? And I I can't expect her that that's going to change on there, and we have to we have to work with what with what's in our control. So, we're extending the school day by 1 hour. We are adding adding Saturday school to every uh month. And if you add that up, that's an additional almost 2 weeks of opportunities that not no other student in this district is getting

069outside of summer school. So, they've got an additional 10 days there when you add that up. Now, what are we going to do with that time? So, that extra hour a day, it's an extra period during the day. There will be live classes. There will be um some credit recovery through the subject platform. And then we're going to have uh staff on on call who are going to be doing some remedial support, small group, one-on-one. Everyone on that campus is available to students an additional hour each day. And that is to with the goal in obtaining additional uh instruction, support, and credit recovery during that time. Pillar two. Uh, we have been working closely the last 3 years with Coaching for Excellence, and they have been the foundation in which we are we are moving

070forward with regard to uh our teacher I call it the teacher talent, right? We have got to engage students. We've got to make things more relevant. We've got to get them through those doors. We There is no reason I I There is no reason that anybody should be failing a class with the class sizes that we have and the supports that we have. We've got to constantly reflect on the practices that we're doing. If they're not getting it, that's our problem. That is not theirs. Assuming they're coming to school, right? That's the ca- caveat. You got to come to school. And I say that, if you don't come to school, we can't help you. So, we're taking all the work that Coaching for Excellence did, and we are putting it into practice. So, next year

071we are going on uh a 3-week uh coaching cycle. And this is the engine of continuous improvement. So, what they're going to be doing is they're going to be filming their own practices. Prior to doing this, they're going to we're going to gather the evidence, right? And we're going to figure out what is it that we're lacking in these classrooms? And they are going to have their personal goals because they know what's working and what's not working. It's constant reflection uh within the classroom. Um and then we're going to have a school goal surrounded by those CLR practices. Um cuz that's that's what what's what our kids need. So, we're going to we're going to set some goals. We're going to film, and they're going to reflect. We are going to provide feedback. So, we

072are constantly in these classrooms. We uh Ms. Yarbrough and myself will be in those classrooms every 2 to 3 weeks giving feedback constantly. And then we refine is what's working, what's not working, how can we make it better, what do we need to do? So, it's it's constant uh feedback in um and and the big goal is the engagement piece, right? We've got to keep these kids kids engaged. Um pillar three. So, it's shifting to proactive student support. Um, this is where that data really comes into play. We are looking at data every week. We have a team, we sit down every week, and we are constantly, if we got to we have to pivot, that's what we have to do. We are going from a reactive intervention, meaning we have to wait till they

073fail. We don't have time to do that. These students are already behind. We are on an accelerated semester as it is, so we are looking at this data every single week. So, if we look and I see Johnny, um, he can't get to school, we got to come up with the plan on the spot like we've got to come up leave that room with the plan. And that's where we go to the proactive data-driven support. Um, and it's progress is constant consistently and constantly, um, tracked. Interventions are deployed immediately. We are going to have a lot of uh supports in place, safety nets, so so we don't lose anyone. Um, and resources are directly aligned to immediate student needs ensuring no student falls behind or noticed. And this includes things that are outside of the

074classroom. We plan to continue with the mental health services that we have above and beyond the school counselors. It is a private, um, place that we we are funding through grants. Um, so all our students have access to those mental health services, um, and and we are closely aligned with those uh medical uh assistants, day care assistants, that kind of thing. So, then we get to the AHS ecosystem of success. So, coaching cycles, data-driven support, extended learning time. With all of those overlapping each other, it is guaranteed success, right? Nobody should be falling through the cracks. And and if they are, then we need to go back to the drawing tables and and figure out what's going on there. So, um measuring our return on our investments, it's increased graduation rates. It's uh strengthened accountability.

075And it's greater student engagement, and it's the mission where we're aligned as a staff. You should be able to walk in that door and ask any staff member, "What's the plan?" and they should be able to tell you that. And timeline for implementation and funding. Um so, we have already submitted our DASH plan. A lot of work went into that, and kudos to to Tasha. She's not here, but she was a big part of that. Um and we we got that plan in early. Uh the application is not due until June, but I will be passing off my part by the end of this week, and we will get that in early as well. With the goal to uh and for July, upon application approval, IHS restructuring initiatives are fully funded and activated July 1st.

076Um and so, we're trying to get getting ahead of things right there, so we can when August starts, it's not the planning process, it's not implementing, it's it will be done day one. And this is all um to secure the future of the students at Independence High School. And it's the thought is by tailoring our structural environment to the diverse real-world needs of our students, we do more than accommodate them, we empower them. The restructuring plan secures our upward trajectory in graduation outcomes and guarantees a flexible, supportive, and highly effective environment for the 26-27 school year. Okay. Hopefully, I didn't drag that out too much. I I would just like to say So, I've been over to IHS a lot in the last couple of months, and um like one of the there were two

077instances, and they happened to both be with two young men at different different weeks that I was there. And um at this time of year kids are starting to finish up their classes, and so if they're seniors, they're actually finished. And both times I was there with two different young men, um they came in and they're like, "Miss, I did it. I finally did it." And Jessica would always say, "I knew that you would. I'm so proud of you." And they said, "Re- Both of them, like it [clears throat] was so funny. Remember when I didn't want to come to school and you forced me to?" And they're just like the pride that you see in in those students as they finish up, it was just I don't know. I am so lucky to have

078been there on those days and gotten to experience that. And it's just a sample. These kids every day it's just too hard or they want to give up, and we have to champion them. We have to keep bringing them back, and they do it. They We never thought that they couldn't. It's it's they that they needed that that confidence, and then we needed to cheer them on. It's a special place, guys. I I say that all the time. It's a special place. And we now stand for questions. Um thank you so much. That's a great presentation. Um honestly, even as I looked uh your I just I went over a little bit today, um and just it's a beautiful presentation just overall. Um but, you know, I've been really thinking about those those characteristics of

079individuals who can move, like who can move a group and to create change. And as I look through these things and what you were attempting to do, and you have such a great team, and I know it's not all just all you, but you're spectacular. Um but this is I think it's it's really good. I think it's a really good plan, and I'm excited to see it implemented as we go as we go forward. And it is such a special school, and those kids they do they just need some of that confidence. But I think making some of these changes, some of these improvements, out adding that extra period, I thought that was a great idea. And the Saturdays is going to be a That's huge. It's a big sacrifice for for a lot of

080people. But, I think Well, now, when you do that Saturday, is it looking like some teachers will be in on those days and they get to kind of alternate so it's not hitting the whole staff on those days? Right, correct. So, we will have all contents there available. We'll have a math teacher, an English, a science and a social studies teacher. We will also have special ed services available on those days. And we are paying them, right? So, it's a nice little side gig for them. So, believe it or not, they sometimes fight for those Saturday positions. So, I'm not I'm not concerned about that. So, we have everybody. And again, they all knew going into this that we're committed. We are committed. We're fully committed. We can't have one foot in and one foot

081out. So, and again, so you you're not concerned about it's being funded through this nice grant. >> [laughter] >> So, we've got a plan and and the state is willing to support it through the money to get these teachers to pay for them for that extra time. So, my hope is and I'll go to questions from the board and and to Dr. Doty here in just a second. But, my hope is that maybe in like August of '27, you guys we can come back and kind of cuz I would think that's enough time to give us a little bit of an understanding of how it's going and how it's working. So, so I hope you're willing to do that. So, Thank you. Okay. I'm going to go to questions for the board unless you want

082to speak first, Dr. Doty. Okay. Let's go ahead and start on this side with Esther. Good. Okay. Now, you did answer the monetary question. So, I'm so happy that that's all taken care of and beautiful presentation. Thank you. And over on this side, Stephanie. I have a lot to say, so do you want to go first? >> [laughter] >> Uh look out. Um uh no, I was going to ask about making sure I mean I know that all those teachers are super committed and I know that they're there for the mission and um but we got to make sure they're not getting worn out. And so I'm glad to hear that I you answered my question that they're getting taken care of for their extra effort. So, that was all my question. All right. Let

083them have it. Well, um as you know, I'm a graduate from Independence and I mean, we're talking about over 20 years ago. Um and so I don't know if all of you understand, but it is life-changing for these kids. It really is. Um I mean, you know, you said 63% that's 63% of kids who already were, you know, didn't think they were going to graduate. So, that's just you're just adding on, right? Um and a lot of my research was on um disengaged students and you hit everything. Just student-centered, flexibility, um building those relationships, individualization, um and it's not easy to do and I know that. >> [laughter] >> Um and so um on top of that you know, it it's unfortunate that you have to go through the um you're constantly having to defend

084your purpose, right? Because they don't get the results that a typical traditional school receives. Um and so that is unfair, um but I think those of us who who understand what happens, you know, within those walls, uh you're making such a huge difference and um I'm really excited to to go visit. Um I know when I went there, um I was living in an apartment and I didn't have a way to school. At that time, um Independence did not have bussing. Um, and so I remember the principal at that time called me up and was like, you know, why aren't you coming? You're you're going to get, you know, kicked out. And so, the person in the apartment above me also went because she had two children, and he actually worked a deal with her

085to take me to school every day. >> [snorts] >> So, it's things like that that I don't know if people are aware of, but it's definitely definitely life-changing. So, thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you. Dr. Dom? Yeah, Dr. Smith, um, thank you for sharing that. You've first-person experience. Um I had the opportunity to visit Independence in my first month, uh, as superintendent, and what a place. Um, just the the feel when you walk in, the commitment of your staff and you and your team, um, it's just you can just see it in everything that's happening in in the school. Um and I do want to point out, I think we have Dr. Miller in the back, the four-year graduation cohort rate is in the 60s, but the five-year graduation cohort rate is in the 80s.

086Um, so the the that that's that's an important distinction for us because, um, there there are a lot of things that are going really well at Independence that are impacting kids positively. Um, the outcomes look differently depending on how you look at the outcomes. Um, but I know that that four-year cohort rate, you want that to improve. You it's not just because of the number, it's because you want more kids to be successful as far as, um, earning a earning a diploma. Um, couple things that I just want to highlight. There is a lot of research out there, not just for alternative programs like Independence, but comprehensive high schools, extended learning opportunities, flexible scheduling, those are all things that I think high schools should be experimenting with, innovating, and you're doing that at Independence. I

087think it'll have a positive impact on on kids. Um and um I I just want the board to know that uh between the time that Ms. Sanchez has spent developing this plan, the support she's had from Ms. Saucedo, um uh I have every confidence that um things will continue to get better at Independence. They're already great um and that the outcomes will follow. Thank you. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you all for your support, and Renee, this I mean it it takes a it really does take a village, and and I appreciate the support. Well, thank you for all you're doing, and if anything that we could do, obviously we're happy and to do that. So So I think do we need an approval? Yes. I mean, I don't mean to No, you

088are correct, and that's where exactly where you need to go. Yeah, I'm like, thank you. >> [laughter] >> We do, so And I have And I think on the paperwork it's just me and Dr. and Dr. Dunn on that one. Okay. So we'll go for a motion on this. Board member Berry uh motions to um approve the reconstruction proposal from the Independence High School. I don't exactly know the words. That work? Board member Smith seconds that. Okay. We have a motion, and are we good? Lauren Hatch, yeah. We have a motion and a second, and all in favor on this? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. And I will sign, too. Okay. Yeah, so it's just the two of us. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Let's pull this

089stuff out. Okay. Our next business item for the evening is to consider the approval of the Fine Arts Education Act application. We have Dr. Kurt Schmidt, our executive director of Fine arts who will be presenting. Thank you, President Galbraith, members of the board, Dr. Dodd. Uh first of all, I want to just go over what exactly FAEA A A is. Uh it's the Fine Arts Education Act. It's a um it's a it was a legislative act uh passed about 25 years ago that um works through the SEG to supply monies for K through 6 elementary fine arts education. Um it's 6th grade uh because a lot of the a lot of school districts in the state have 6th grade at the elementary level. We happen to have it in the middle school, but those those

090children are are included in the in the in the in the calculations. Um however, you um you do need to uh put a program program proposal in every year in order to receive those funds, but it does run through the SEG. It's a portion of it portion of the of the SEG. Um what what FAEA is not it is not a grant. You'll hear language set calling it a grant. It is absolutely not not a grant. It as I said, it's part of the SEG. Um however, as I said, you must apply for the funds every year through an application that talks about what you're going to use the funds for um about pedagogy, scheduling, et cetera. So, the the formula um back a slide back another all right, one more slide. One more slide.

091What? That's the beginning. The beginning? Oh. There should be a calculation on there. Huh. There are some pages missing. So, um the the the uh funding formula is similar to what you heard in the the finance committee about the the um student count and the the um program units etc. etc. So, it is the average of the 80 and 120 day count, which is uh 7,980 student point five students. There's an FAEA multiplier, which is point zero five five. Uh so, using the combining those two or multiplying those two factors or factors, you get you get 438.928 units. The unit value is 7,117 dollars and 10 cents. It yields just over 300 three sorry, 300 million three million uh dollars uh for FAEA funding. >> [laughter] >> Uh so, it does I think we're on

092Yeah, we're on track here. Uh it does support uh the salaries of fine arts educators at the elementary level, just K through five. Not the sixth graders, sixth grade uh teachers. That's about probably probably it probably over 90% of of of the funding goes towards salaries and benefits for those elementary teachers and there are 24 of them. Uh covers stipends for elementary band and orchestra program teachers and elementary content leaders in art music professional development for fine arts and general and general education teachers, instructional materials and supplies K through six, transportation for students to attend enrichment in the arts, instruments and equipment for fine arts programs, and also there's a portion of this going toward arts integration efforts at at Janet Hills and Sandia Vista. It also supports our partnership Our next slide, uh supports

093our partnerships with uh the Santa Fe Opera and Kennedy Center. Um and you've heard about those before, the arts integration workshops, student produced operas at the elementary middle schools. Uh the partnership with National Dance Institute in New Mexico to to run movement classes for fourth graders at four of our elementary schools. And we are I'm 99% sure we're going to add Enchanted Hills to that roster for a fifth school for the NDI program. Uh, so staffing at the elementary level, we have 11 art teachers and 13 music teachers. Each elementary school has at least one full-time art and music teacher. >> Claudia, you want to go back one real quick? There we go. Sorry, keep going, Kurt. There we go. Um, so there's at least one full-time art and music teacher. There are two schools

094that have two music teachers because of the size of the school and the the yeah, the needs for the to to coverage for the rotation. At the sixth-grade level, uh, we have five art teachers, 17 music teachers, and one theater teacher. These sala- As I said, these teacher salaries are not covered by the FAA. Yeah, those are other operational funds. Um, however, we do support through the FAA those teachers uh, supplies, equipment, and professional development. And for that, I will stand for any questions. Um, do you want to add anything before we go to questions? Um, any questions on this side of the table or comments? Any questions over here on this? Okay, do you want to add anything now before we go to vote, Dr. Dunn? Uh, no. No, okay. Thank you so much

095um, for your presentation. This is good and it's always good information to know and understand as we were doing the budgeting and this came up of course and then that when we were talking about budgeting too and how important this is. Um, so thank you for helping. >> I don't know what happened to confuse those slides. They >> [laughter] >> went into cyberspace, I guess. I know, that's okay. Sometimes I don't know. Oh, no problem. They disappeared. They just disappeared. It's okay. Um, so with that, uh, with the board, if you don't have any questions or comments, then we can go for a motion on approval for this. Board member Berry motion to approve the Fine Arts Education Act application. Secretary Murray, second. Motion and a second, and all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion

096carries. And I do need Dr. Dodds and Ms. Engelbrecht's signatures on the assurances page after the meeting. Thank you, Dr. Schmidt, for your hard work on this. We We appreciate it. Pleasure. Thank you. Oh, okay. Sorry. I'm looking at all my signature things, and afterwards, if the board, too, just stay back because, especially when we get to our last item, we're going to all need to sign that. So, just make sure that you stay back for we for those. Okay. Our next is to consider the approval of resolution resolution cooperatives. Chris Twee, our chief procurement officer and director of purchasing, will be presenting. Uh President Galbert, Superintendent Dodds, members of the board, thank you for having me. Um before you is a um request for the school board to approve the school district being a

097member of purchasing cooperatives. And the reason for this is that the function that purchasing cooperatives provide is to provide contracts that have been vetted for governmental entities, including school districts, to use. Now, the vetting process, which for purchasing cooperatives is the same as the vetting car vetting process that our school district uses, is normally done through a request for proposal or through an invitation for bid. And when the purchasing department normally brings an award recommendation to the school board, that is usually the the culmination of the vetting process. But the way that the process usually begins is when a need is identified. And when a need is identified um to uh put it through a request for a proposal or an invitation for bid, we need to come up with key elements. Um some of

098those key elements are a detailed uh scope of work uh that will clearly uh define to a potential respondent um exactly what is being requested. Uh in addition to that is um establishing evaluation criteria, uh which lets the potential respondent know exactly um what is being requested uh in the response to the request for proposal or invitation to bid. And it also shows how those um criteria will be will be scored and are weighted, and will come to a um a final scoring um of of the documents that are that are submitted. Um an evaluation committee then comes together, uh reviews, evaluates, uh scores the submittals, and then makes an award. Um it can be for one company, it can be for multiple companies of who should be awarded the project. Um part of the

099documentation that has submitted has been submitted to you is a section of statute um state of New Mexico procurement code that talks about cooperative um procurement. So, the cooperative procurement are the contracts that these purchasing cooperatives have issued requests for proposals or invitation for bids for, have received responses, have evaluated all the responses, and have scored the responses, and then decided um who to award the contracts to. And so, this request that we're bringing to you is to be able to use um contracts awarded by purchasing cooperatives as another procurement method um for the school district. I hope that hasn't confused you guys, but I and with that I stand for questions. Thank you. Um, did you want to add anything? Okay. Okay. Um, questions from the board? Questions from the board? We don't have

100any questions, then we can go for motion. I make a motion to approve resolution 25-013 for membership with purchasing cooperatives including but not limited to Omnia Partners Cooperative, and to a local purchasing system, TIPS USA, BuyBoard Purchasing Cooperative, Choice Partners Cooperative, Allied States Cooperative, Sourcewell, PEPPM Purchasing Cooperative. Board member Berry second. And all in favor? I. >> I. Any opposed? Thank you. And thanks for your good explanation. It's always helpful with these to to have some >> Thank you, Kristen. Excellent. Thank you, board. Okay, our next um, is to consider the approval of the 2026-2027 budget. We have Michael Baker, our Chief of Operations Officer. Uh, good evening. Madam President, uh, Superintendent Dodd, members of the school board. I can't see that slide very well. How about that? >> Um, so before you is the

101um, uh, the operation budget that you're looking at, the 2026-2027 uh, operation budget. We spent uh, two uh, work sessions with uh, the the finance committee or you all, uh, and we reviewed um, the budget in in a bit more detail than uh, what I will be presenting uh, this Good Um, just for the um, public's benefit, uh, the finance committee does meet on a regular basis, which essentially is the board. And during those meetings, we give the committee regular updates on our monthly reports. Those include our actual revenues and our actual expenditures to ensure that we are on target. So we will continue that process as well as developing additional budgetary information and giving that information to the committee over time as we go into the 26-27 budget. The budget overview, you can see

102on the screen. So we have our total revenue of approximately 256 million dollars. Our SEG is right at about 240 million. We have other revenue and we have our beginning fund balance of approximately 13 million. And so that's on the left side of the screen. On the right side is basically you will see that our expenditures match do not exceed our revenue. And in the line below, you can see that we do have a balanced budget. In the balanced budget, board policy requires that we have a 1% reserve. And so that 1% reserve is in the budget. In addition, and some of the challenges that we had to work with this year is we have a transportation deficit. In prior years, the deficit was much greater. We did convince the the legislature and the PED

103to actually make an amendment to the formula, which they did. Um but we still have about an $800,000 deficit for transportation. Uh instructional materials is another challenge and typically we do not receive the appropriate funding for instructional materials and in this particular case we're approximately uh $1.8 million short. Some of the mandatory additions this year uh issued by the legislature was a 1% salary increase for staff. We also had an increase in medical premiums at 9.95%. A 4% increase in dental uh premiums. Um the big change for staff had to do with the 80/20 uh premiums. Essentially, what that means is that the district will pay 80% of the premiums and the employees will pay 20%. Uh we anticipate that we will have additional uh staff that will get onto our insurance policy. Uh that

104will increase our expenditures uh by approximately 900,000. And we have uh an increase in our risk insurance. Uh in addition to that uh this year we have um we have to pay the the um the entire Rio Tech uh operational cost at approximately 1.8 million. And also we have to pay for PreK. Uh this will be the first year of operation. Most of those funds, however, are paid uh by a grant uh for a total of about 2.4 million. So, overall, this leaves us uh a deficit of approximately uh over $4 million, which we had to make up in budget reductions, which we did. So, at this time, I stand for questions. Okay. Thank you. And um before we go into questions, do you want to add anything right now? I think I'll uh pass

105until the board ask questions, and then I can um summarize a few things. >> That'll be great. Um Michael Berry. Sure. Um first off, thank you, Mr. Baker, for all the effort you I I sat with you at least twice, and you walked me through everything. I appreciate the effort there. I personally, as as the chair, I not because of like trying to have oversight or like too detailed oversight, I wanted to just plot things myself and see if I could get my head around it. Uh everything I looked through made sense, and I I was really everything was very sensible. I think it's hard to argue with uh the situation we're in. Um I think I I wanted to kind of ask I two questions. First one, we're we are drawing this $13 million

106from this year's balance funds. We're not going to have that next year, right? We're I mean, presumably not. Are we in a worse position next year consuming Uh yeah, that's a good question. So, typically, um we do have um funds that are not spent. So, I am sure that we will have a beginning fund balance. Uh it's hard to actually project what that is going to be. Um somewhere between uh probably around 5% is is what we need to be looking at. I at this time, I don't anticipate that it will be much. Uh maybe somewhere between 8 million and 13 million for next year. Um however, uh Dr. Dodd has established what we call the staffing um uh the staffing meet uh the staffing review meeting. Um and so on a weekly basis, we

107are reviewing staffing, specifically the vacancies. And so we have a lot of vacancies that are um still in our budget. And so we are incrementally going through those trying to make a determination um if we really need those positions or not. So uh as we go through that, we think that's going to um really bring a be a big help to that uh ending fund balance. You you don't anticipate you know, you guys are being very reasonable in the management right now. You don't expect it to be a tighter screw next year or Yeah, you're not expecting it to be a dramatically tighter screw next year. I'm not expecting that. Now that being said, >> I know you can't predict the future. >> Yeah, it depends on enrollment. And and the wild card is uh

108you know, fortunately Rio Rancho is experiencing construction growth, which brings enrollment into the district. What we what is very difficult to anticipate are the charter schools coming into our district and those charter schools um potentially taking students away. So absent that variable, um I think we're going to be okay. Um it assuming enrollment is going to continue to decline. Typically, it's been declining 1 to 2%. Um however, when a charter school um comes on board, they will take a bigger chunk of that. So, absent that, I think we're going to be okay. Thank you. And overall, I just want to say I as a as a with a new superintendent, I believe that they should have um as much latitude as as reasonable to to execute their vision, especially early on. So, I hope that

109you're feeling like you can do that with what's been provided you. Um, I'll let you pass on the There's a question for you, Dr. Dodd, and I'll let you pass on it. I asked you in passing if you were granted a 10% budget increase from the PED, what would you do with it? And if you don't know the answer to that, I'll let you pass. But, you said you'd think on it, so I'm giving you In front of the world, I guess. >> [laughter] >> Sorry to put you on the spot. Forgive me. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Berry. >> Yes. Uh, cover transportation and instructional materials. That That's the most uncreative response I could come up with. Um, I'll continue to ponder it. Um, I think, um, in order to continue to increase enrollment, um,

110I want to make very clear to the public and and to our audience that, um, we're not we're not losing kids at a dramatic clip, um, but we have seen attrition in our enrollment. Um, we need to turn that around. Uh, I do think whether, um, it costs a lot of money or not, we are going to have to be really creative as a district, um, in our pre-K to 12 programming, uh, to compete. Uh, once upon a time in the United States, public schools were and and private schools were the only two games in town. Um, education has diversified over the last 30 years, and so we have to diversify what we offer in order to be attractive to as many families as possible. Sometimes that might cost some of that money that you're

111offering, but I think a lot of times it's going to require us to be more creative, more efficient, and more forward looking to find to figure out what our kids need for the future. Be clear, I wasn't offering it. I was just wanting to hear the fundamental >> thought it was an offer. Didn't you hear an offer? I have the check ready to go. [laughter] I just Thank you, Dr. B. All right. Stephanie Smith and I Yeah, first I just kind of like to echo what Dr. Barry said about um your willingness to meet with us, be transparent, ex- explain what what we're seeing. Um and then um kind of with what Dr. Dab was saying, you know, despite this deficit, I guess you could say, it it it gives us opportunity to get creative

112and and think um in innovative ideas that we could come up with to to recruit more students. Um So, I'm kind of excited for the challenge, I guess you could say, to see what ideas um the district can come up with. No question, sorry. Just comment. All right, Rebecca Murray. I don't have any questions. You answered a bunch of them earlier in the finance committee, but thank you for all your hard work with doing this difficult job. >> [laughter] >> Thank you for everything. I know from being in local government that unfunded mandates are always tricky to work with and they are in New Mexico historically. This is just left throwing out there, but and you guys have done amazing to figure it all out. And I think the biggest part of it and takeaway

113for any staff, right, is we're keeping all of our staff. We're not getting any We're not getting rid of anybody. Other districts started laying people off. We're not We're not getting rid of anybody. We're our employees. So, you've been able to do this, keep us in line, keep us on the rails, and not have to throw anybody off the train as we're going, so thank you. I will say, we have had shortages for the whole time I've been on the board and we've always cuz we have an amazing team, good things we're always able to to get through these things. It's always scary this time of the year as we look at everything and sometimes we do have to make some waves up in Santa Fe with some different things, but we do have a

114really good team and we've been able to to get through all all of these things. So, Dr. Dad, what would you like to add? I just want to thank um Mike Baker and his team uh we've been fortunate as a school district to have someone with Mr. Baker's experience in operations and in finance to lead us through the budget development over the years. I certainly as a new superintendent I want the board to know and the public to know how fortunate I feel like coming into a situation where there's excellent fiduciary leadership in the district that I benefit from um as as a superintendent. We've put a lot of time in the development of this budget with the board finance committee as a team. Um I do think that this budget puts us on very

115strong footing to continue our investment in the priorities that we think are important for our students. Um I do want to point out that the lion's share of our budget is invested in people. Um we believe in Rio Rancho Public Schools that our employees are the key to our students' success. That will continue, that continues in this budget. Um we've actually even increased that with mandates from the state um that we're funding and the state is supporting us in that. Um I do want to say I don't want to beat the enrollment um concept to death, but um >> [snorts] >> we're we're we're going to need to continue to be very mindful of that because I think all of us can understand that if enrollment continues to decline and we continue to spend more

116money, that puts us in an untenable financial position. So, with the board, me as the superintendent, we're going to have to work together to make sure that future budgets are really tied strongly to a strategic plan. Our strategic plan has run out, and so we want to when we plan as a school district to improve student outcomes, to define who and what we are and what we expect our students to be able to do, that has to be synonymous with how we spend money, our budget. So, that's really going to be the kind of the the next horizon for us is how we take a budget like this, which is a really good budget, but not just have it be something that we hope supports a plan, but we have a plan and the budget's

117built around that plan. That's that's for our for next year. I'm I I again just want to thank our team. They did a phenomenal job, and I think we're in a really strong strong position, but we can always come back and continue to amend that budget. Correct, Mr. Baker? That is correct if we need if we need to. So, lastly, I just want to thank the board for your support in ensuring that our employees, our students, and our community have everything they need to be successful. Thank you. Thank you so much. Any Any last words before we go into a motion? No, thank you for your your patience, and I know a number of you, you know, going through public school financing in New Mexico is is quite an experience. So, thank you for your

118patience and and hanging in there. We appreciate it. Thank you. So, with that, we can go for a motion. Board member Barry, motion to approve the 2026-2027 2026-2027 budget for Rio Rancho Public Schools. I move to nominate second dimension. Okay, we have a motion in a second and all in favor. I. Any opposed? >> [clears throat] >> Motion carries 5-0. >> Thank you. Thank you, I appreciate it. >> Thank Thank you, board. Appreciate your support. >> Yeah, thank you. Thanks for taking time >> [clears throat] >> and going through all of those things. It's been It's been good. Um before we close, as we're going into advanced planning, Dr. Schmidt, I don't think I have your sheet to sign. So Oh, you have it. Okay, good. I just want to make sure. Um and then

119with that, we have a all these graduations coming up. So starting on the 20th, um we've got Rio Tech, [clears throat] 21st, um Sabre Academy, um then of course we get a little break with Memorial Day, and then we'll have Cleveland High School and Independence, and then Rio Rancho High School um graduation. If you have any questions, just just let us know. I think Claudia got a good You got a good head count on everyone who's going to be there, right? Okay. Okay. Um Okay. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. Um she can carry all those things. So it's it's up to you. I know those you guys have special robes a lot of time. So for our doctors in the in the house, um if you want to keep keep yours, Claudia does a great

120job taking care of them. So if you feel comfortable having your take them to each graduation, she can do that for you. Okay. All right. Um with that, our meeting's adjourned for tonight. Thank you all. Should I smack Thank you, everyone.