RRPS - School Board Meeting - April 27, 2026

001Good evening. The Randolph Public Schools Board of Education meeting for Monday, April 27th, 2026 is now called to order. Um in a moment, we will rise to say the the pledge, but I want to announce that immediately following our Pledge of Allegiance, um Dr. Kurt Schmidt will come up and introduce our ensemble for tonight. So, if all please arise for the Pledge of Allegiance, Dr. Michael Berry will lead us. 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. Uh President Albers and the school Dr. Dodd, uh tonight we have a percussion ensemble from the high school, uh under the direction of Mr. William Kramer, who's our percussion coordinator for the northern part of

002the city. Um performing tonight are Tyler Lee, Raymond Molina, Trevor Ockleberry, and then Ryder Simon. Performing the piece called Continuum by Ian Briskey. >> [music] >> Woohoo! Woohoo! >> [music] [applause] >> Students, before you leave, I just want to say thank you so much for coming in and doing that. That was amazing. I don't know if you guys could see and I don't know drums really well, but they had to Not only were they drumming, but they had to change things. What is it that you change on the It's like a little lever that you guys change. Um so, this uh little lever all it does is control our snare. So, it takes our sounds from something like this. Okay. That's awesome. Thank you guys so much for coming in. There was Years and years

003ago, I was in Seattle and we were just walking around and we happened upon a like a drum line competition. And so, my husband and I just went and just hung out and it was the coolest thing. And we've been to a lot of cool places, but still in my memories, it's one of the neatest things that we ever got to do. So, thank you so much for sharing your talents with us. I want to get Dr. Dodge just a moment to say something. I just want to say thank you to Mr. Kramer. Appreciate all your hard work with with these students. Great job, students. That was awesome. Yeah. Thank you. ONE MORE ONE MORE. >> [applause] >> OKAY. LET THEM GET JC, WHILE THEY'RE TRYING TO PACK UP, YOU want to go ahead and

004do a roll call for us? President Galbreath? Uh present. Vice President Molter? Present. Secretary Murray? Board member Berry? Present. Board member Smith? Present. We have a quorum. Thank you. And we'd like to excuse Rebecca Murray. She's not to be here tonight for something else that was planned the same night. But we do want to welcome everyone out tonight to our board meeting. We always love when we see a nice full board room. And so it's great. We're trying to decide how many chairs to put up when we were putting them up, and I think we actually filled most of the most of the chairs tonight. And so as we go into this next item, I have a couple of notes. So we're going to approve our prioritized agenda. But we have a couple of items

005that I want to recommend that we pull off. The first one is our commendation. The first commendation on the New York Life. We are going to do that in our business portion, but the individual who was going to be presenting that tonight is not able to be with us today. So that item would need to be pulled off. And the second item, sorry, looking through my notes. And the second item that needs to be pulled off is under business. The third item under business and needs to be pulled off just due to the parent requesting that it's that it's pulled off at this time until they can put together more materials. So those two items, so business um item number three and commendation number one. So I'll make I'll just go ahead and make a

006motion to approve by taking off commendation number one and business item number three. I'll second that motion. Very second. So we have a motion and a second and all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Sorry, as I was going through that, I thought it was just going to be easier for me to >> [laughter] >> to make a motion on that. Lauren, did I catch all of those? Did I miss anything? Okay, thank you. All right. And so with that, we'll go into our commendations right now. And we'll start with now it's our first, but it was originally our second commendation. This is our Cognia STEM certification, first STEM school certification in the state of New Mexico and Jamison our elementary school improvement officer Emily Key, principal of Colinas Norte elementary and Brenda

007Julissa Diaz are a teacher and they will be presenting and you can totally correct me on my names. >> [laughter] >> I tried. Good evening. Madam President, members of the board and Superintendent Todd. It is my pleasure to introduce Principal Key and Assistant Principal Crissa Dorty. Dorty. She gave me a mnemonic, too. And we then we have, of course, Miss Diaz from Colinas Norte. I also want to point out we have Terry Meyer in the office and she in the office in the audience and she supports our STEM teachers at the elementary school. Rio Rancho has always been on the forefront of innovation and student opportunities for success. We are here tonight because Colinas Norte has done just that. Through the lens of student opportunity and forward thinking, Principal Key and Miss Diaz Diaz came

008to me to let me know they were applying to become the first STEM certified school in New Mexico. I said, "Please let me ask cabinet first." They said, "Okay." So, we took it to cabinet, we brought it to the board and through their collaboration, hard work, budgeting well, they paid for it themselves and with lots of evidence, they went for it. After months of reviewing standards, aligning current and future work, Colinas submitted their Cognia accreditation and we are here today because Colinas did the work and made it happen with the expertise of Miss Diaz and the support of Miss Key and Miss Dorty Dorty Dorty Dorty. Gosh, I'm going to get it. I'm going to get it. Um we they are now certified as the first STEM school in the entire state of New Mexico.

009So, I now turn it over to Ms. Kia and Ms. Diaz as they have a very short but beneficial presentation for you. Thank you everybody. This means a lot to us. We're so grateful board members and superintendent Dogford the opportunity to celebrate with you. This was all possible um by Brenda Holisa Diaz. She really pioneered this effort 2 years ago and when I saw her passion to support our scholars, I knew it was something I had to support and support wholeheartedly. The process started, like I said, 2 years ago and it started with a proposal. Last year was the most rigorous portion of the um process and Brenda Holisa came up with a beautiful proposal that just wowed Cognia. They were blown away by what she put together. This year we engaged in a heavily

010introspective process on how to improve our STEM instruction not just in our STEM program but also every day in classrooms. Our scholars begged of us for more rigor as they are ready and willing to engage upon inquiry-based experiential learning opportunities and we are now happy to provide that to the best of our ability and engage upon this continual learning journey as the STEM Cognia certification does not end here. It's something that we will continue to come to the table, improve upon, and innovate as we go and I will pass it off to Brenda Holisa Diaz to speak a little bit more about it. Hi, good evening. Well, I just want to say that this is one of the my dreams come true. I think about this for many years and well, it's that was a

011lot of work, but I'm very happy that we completed. Yeah, well, basically it's an introduction that they're mentioned before that we are happy to say that we are the first school to get a STEM certification. Well, when apply about this STEM certification, it's about they talking about standards, they talking about what instruction math and language how to provide and how they going to organize all the process Why is it important for this? Well, um This is the future. I mean, science is everywhere. So, I want to give the opportunity for my students that they can engage, they can explore, they can have a high expectation that the school is not only ending high school, so they can go in different STEM career. So, it's The collaboration, we So, we talking about the Air Force. We

012talking about our four I have the support for future space. Yes, yes. I'm going to hold you just for a second cuz we want to hear you so good. Heading in and out and I just want the whole room to be able to hear you, so we're just going to switch you. >> hear me? Yes, good. So, about partnership, we have many. We talking about the Air Force. We talking about T 4 S space. That's an organization. This is national organization. We have the Air Force creator that's here in Rancho and we going to receive more partnership like a college New Mexico Tech so they can support us not only in material and equipment so included that they can share with the student different kind of experience and different activities. Um Well, this mentioning we

013have many clubs after school so like for example Girls Who Code, we have GR Defender, we have Legos and many more so we gave more more activity for the student after school. Okay, I know this is STEAM so why include the R so we this year I incorporate the reading in a STEAM so that the reason that they are right there and you can see a patch that was last year our fifth graders the building design and code a CubeSat that that device went to the space and collecting data and we going to do it again this year and they going to fly in May 7th so Um you can see that's the CubeSat building for the fifth graders as you see in the middle of the photo the that was in the stratosphere and

014after that the student there learn how to analyze the data after they come back to CubeSat so Uh there are different activities that the student there did it so not necessary science so included math and computer science. And right here that's a simple invitation that we love that you can join us on May 13th, 2026 morning so I'll be there. I have it on my calendar. Okay, thank you. >> [laughter] >> So it's going to be a very important day for us that we can celebrate we going to be the first We are the first school and this is something that I'm going to be inspiring. Kiko? And Madam President, I know you remember that when the Lisa had an received a national award just Was it 2 years ago or just last year? Just

015last year and you can see why with her leadership and her innovation. So, we stand or they stand for questions. Well, thank you for coming in and just congratulations. I think it's absolutely wonderful. It's interesting because I think the world sees this AI as taking over everything, but with a husband who works very much in the tech world and all of those things is that they have to understand these things those things at the bottom and then they can work with AI in the future, but they have to understand these these things to be really productive with it. So, I love that that you're all are working so hard on this at Clainor. So, thank you so much. I'm going to give Dr. Dodd a moment to talk to you and then we'll go to

016the rest of the board. Just quickly, um for our audience, I had the honor of being in Ms. Diaz's classroom. I think Ms. Kiko was my first school visit as the new superintendent of Rio Rancho Public Schools and I got to see the magic that happens in Ms. Diaz's room. Um I just want to point out for everybody she teaches, correct me if I'm wrong, but you teach kindergarteners to fifth grade. Yeah, so she has to prepare different kinds of STEAM lessons for every grade level in the elementary school. Um I remember I was particularly taken by the hydroponics activity that you were that you were going to do. I thought that that was super cool. Um I just want to acknowledge you, congratulate you for your incredible effort to make sure that our students

017have all skills, arts, athletics, all important, math, literacy, but science, engineering, technology, um you're doing it every day in your room with six-year-olds to 11-year-olds. And then I also want to acknowledge our administrative team who support teachers like you, Ms. Kiley and Ms. Stahli. Thank you for your great instructional leadership. So, they're doing a great job and it was a special experience being in your room for that short time and I'll be back. Also, I get to see the celebration on the 13th. Yep. That's awesome. Stahli, you're invited to come. Love to have you. Yeah, I just wrote it down. No pressure. What time was it out again? I think it's eight. I think I'm scheduled to be there at eight. Is that all right? Got it. I'll be there. I will probably I will

018probably be teaching students right at that same time, but I will be thinking. >> We We do have a scientist on the >> [laughter] >> I mean, you should feel a little guilty if he doesn't come. >> No, I'll be there. I'll be there. >> [laughter] >> Uh Dr. Dr. Berry >> Yes, I do want to say very delighted by this. I hope other elementary schools do it. I know for a that science teaching comes with you need to have a passion for it to be a good science teacher and that is emanates down to the students and then they feel it. I am I was if you watch me, my eyes were I was getting doing CubeSat. That's what I That's my my part of my job. That's amazing and and I'm just I'm

019absolutely delighted. I hope other schools do it and thank you so much for taking charge on this. This is amazing. I just to forgot something. Um Goli knows is the only elementary school to send CubeSat to space. So, that's That's That's amazing. Yes. That is amazing. The space science is the future. I mean, when I was in school, they said if you want to do in space, you just have to work for NASA and that's it. That's not the case anymore. So, kids need to have that learning right now. So. That's all. Thanks. Dr. Smith, I realize that we have all the doctors on this side of the table. So. >> [laughter] >> No, I just appreciate all the time and dedication. Um, countless [snorts] hours that I'm sure you're all spending with those kids.

020You're really making a difference, so we appreciate it. Thank you. Go ahead, Seth. Just congratulations. Awesome work you guys are doing there. I do just want to give credit to Felix Griego, the hydroponics. He worked with the elementary schools, and of course she she wanted to take it on, but he did we do have that in how many schools? Two. So, we Yeah. So, thank you for that partnership. >> Yeah, thank you to Mr. Griego and Ms. Meyer for supporting our state Steam schools. Appreciate it. That's amazing. Well, thank you so much. Really awesome. THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> WHAT DAY IS MAY 13TH? WHAT DAY IS IT? IT IS. IT'S DURING THE SCHOOL WEEK, isn't it? It's a Wednesday. >> [laughter] >> All right. Our next is our state science fair commendation. We have

021Dr. Stephanie Moore, executive director of secondary CNA, Jennifer Myerhero, our Rancho High School science instructional leader, Isaac Burnett Bergner, BSCHS science instructional leader, Lynn Perry, our Rancho High School regional and state events coordinator, and Leah Felty, our BSCHS site reviewer. Is it okay if we stand? Yes, that's all right. Yeah. Good evening, President Galbreath, Superintendent Dodd, and members of the board. I am here today to allow our science leadership to talk about our exceptional turnout for state science competition, and the process that we got there and the teacher support that was involved. So, we're have our students with us today also. Wonderful. Hello. Thank you for the opportunity uh, to recognize the achievements of some of our most accomplished STEM students. My name is Jennifer Miyahira. I'm the instructional leader of science at Rio Rancho

022High School. And, uh, some of the students are here today and I'll be inviting them up to, um, be recognized at the end here. So, um, these students independent independent and original STEM project, which they presented at our district research expo from which they qualified to present at the Central New Mexico Science and Engineering Research Challenge. And then they went on to the state science and engineering fair against a very stiff, uh, competition. Of these, Rachel Taylor, who I don't think was able to make it today, she qualified to present at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, which is going to take place in a couple of weeks in Phoenix. I, uh, not only want to recognize these amazing students for their outstanding accomplishments, but also all the people and programs that supported them

023along the way. Uh, first, I'd like to thank the district for supporting the research expo for the last 25 years, I think. It's it's been a while. Uh, I'd like to thank the CNI department, Stephanie, Paula, Renee, Susie, and Tenisha for providing material support and people to help physically set up the venues, get the students to the competitions. I'd like to thank our school teams, including our nurse, Justine Gutierrez, and, uh, volunteer, uh, Dr. Brenda Wolf, who re- reviewed paperwork to ensure students were following safety and ethics protocols as outlined by the ISEF SRC and IRB. Uh, we had a bunch of volunteer judges, upwards of 80 judges, who came up, uh, the morning of the fair to talk to our students about their ideas and provide them with constructive feedback on extending their projects.

024Uh, the teacher sponsors, thank them for successfully guiding the students through the process of doing science and engineering properly. That is a heavy lift. And then finally I want to thank the parents and families. Uh we know that these projects can be as stressful to them as to the students. Uh most of these projects would not have been possible without their patience and encouragement. Um so truly it takes a village to to get this off the ground and we really appreciate it. Uh not all the students can be here tonight. There's they're busy kids and AP exams start on Monday and lots of things are happening this week. Um but I would like to invite those who are here to step forward and be recognized as I read the projects and their titles uh the

025student names and the project titles. So if you don't mind. Now bear with me. Some of these are amazing titles that I might trip up on a little bit. Okay. So the first one is Rachel Taylor, a fun time with a fungi, simulating neuronal galvanotropism on Ustilago maydis to manipulate growth rate direction and cell development in the mycelium and its application in nerve regeneration. Ryan Jolly, uh how intelligent was the tyrant lizard king of the cretaceous, the Tyrannosaurus Rex? Hamsini Morali, tiny plastics, big effects. Uh Gabriel Valdivia and Orion Gonzales, analog analog dual axis solar tracker, a replicable design for sustainable energy. Christina Agrusa and Melissa Montano, nylon spider webs, a passable synthetic spider silk for the detection of sound. Kira Schubert, how does the structural integrity of stringed instruments affect overall sound and resonance?

026Lauren Buford and Allison Tennant, how do inorganic and organic fertilizers affect the growth of radishes and the nitrate levels in the soil's groundwater? Ryan Wen, gastropod biomineralization and water chemistry. Ryland Garcia and Catherine Tigert, a light dose of Eldopa investigating the the biological effect of the light spectrum on enzyme reactions. Right? These are like serious. I You think are they defending their PhDs? What's happening here? Okay. Uh Malea Brashier is expired aspirin still effective? William Arnold, USB data security suite encryption hidden storage and self-destruct mechanisms. Evan Schleicher, does human influence affect wildlife activity? Aidan Ponterod and Matthias Trujillo, thermal shock and ablation resistance of hypersonic surface materials a comparative experimental study. Alex Fried, flattened whirlpool how projection and added dimension of simulation exposes vorticity and dissipated energy through curl and turbulence. Noah and Naya and

027Adelaide Call, waste production in agriculture determining the optimal ratio of coconut husk to desert soil for growing plants in the desert. Miranda Garcia, comparative analysis of breathing techniques for heart rate stabilization in teens. Katie Aragon, small changes big results an examination of bias and its effects on data. Aidan Corral and Jordan Mitchell, designing the most efficient cooling system for helmets. Trinity Peterson, evaluation of efficiency of thermal desalination at different pressures. Abigail Gonzalez and Peyton Croshad, comparing beverage staining and erosion on a teeth enamel model. Noah Lovato and Rachel Reddy, the effects of food sequencing on blood glucose. Wence Asan Gony, uh fruit fast forward accelerating fruit ripening. Carissa Alex Betourne and Sally Moreno, developing an affordable and easily accessible braille printer. And Annika Laberinto, thrust efficiency of novel propeller designs. So, we had a ton

028of projects go to the state science fair. Our kids just did great and they're doing they're doing the hard stuff, you know, and mostly self-driven. So, it's really pretty tremendous. So, these are these are the ones who could make IT TONIGHT. SO. >> [applause] >> MY KIDS HAVE BEEN THROUGH THIS PROCESS over the years and it's not an easy process. And then when you go into the competitions and you have to stand there and then you have to wait for it's just a whole thing and it's and it's exhausting. And so, I just want to say congratulations for work well well done. You are very deserving of it and it teaches you I think so many lessons too, just right? As you have to present to all of these different people and and all of

029those things. So, great job. I the names of those are terrifying to me. I I I can but I I love our science Okay. This year I'm I'm sad I didn't get a chance to go out because those seem amazing. Um usually I get to go out to them but this year I didn't wasn't able to get over there. But congratulations on work well done. Uh Dr. Dubs? >> [snorts] >> Just thanks for making me question my own doctorate degree. >> [laughter] >> Hearing your studies. Well done, you guys. Uh quick question. Does this and and I'm sorry if I don't know this Does this Does their compet- involvement in the competition have anything to do with their grade or academic standing as science students in high school? So, it depends on the class. So,

030some some teachers require that they do a project. Others don't. Uh but it doesn't affect their standing uh as in academic >> Okay, so they're this is above and beyond what they would typically do in the classroom, although it may originate with their teachers. Correct. >> Okay. >> And the teachers who require it, they're pretty high-level science classes. Okay. Got it. All All Well, it's a credit to you all for going above and beyond and putting in all the work. Good job. Proud of you. We're both on them. Yeah, we're both talking too close into our mics. Um We would love to take a picture with you guys if you want. Is that okay? You guys want to come up and we can get um Whoever would like to to be in that. We'll go

031down. I was just going to stand behind them. >> [laughter] >> All right. Here. 1 2 3. Thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU. >> [laughter] >> CAN I SAY SOMETHING BEFORE YOU GO? YEAH. I ONLY JUST mention that the only science that matters is the science that's presented. And so this is Science isn't learning in a classroom, reading a book. It's treading new territory. That's what it's all about. So this is you're doing real science that real scientists do by doing a state science fair. I just want to make that Good job. I'm only slightly sad that there's no geology-related one. That's [laughter] what my PhD's in. So. Thank you all for coming in. Thank you. All right. That was wonderful. I love the commendations always. So it's always It's a It's a sadness to

032leave them, but always good. All right. Um next we'll get into our reports. We'll start with our first report. It's a fine arts report. We have Dr. Kurt Schmidt, our executive director of fine arts, who will be presenting. Good evening, President Galbreath, members of the board, Dr. Dodd. Thank you for the opportunity tonight to talk a little bit about the fine arts department of Wylie Public Schools. So, first of all, just a to digress a little bit from the department report, but just why the why fine arts? Why do we study fine arts in in the schools? There are several reasons, but there have been some really exciting studies over the last few decades indicating that participation in the arts in the arts help with for instance growth mindset, self-confidence, improved cognition, improved communication, deepen

033cultural understanding, physical and mental health benefits, and improved general student engagement. There was also there's a link between fine arts activity and and brain research, which was particularly fascinating. However, it must be said that these are extrinsic benefits to the study of the arts, and even if these none of these extrinsic benefits existed, the arts would still be worth studying. And so, you might ask, what is the intrinsic value of arts study? And that is because it is it is a study of the beautiful and and beauty, and which we want our kids to have an experience in. Um the Yeah, they have those experiences in in beautiful things for the in the moment. Um it's important again it's important to expose our students to those. Next slide. So, continuing with the idea of the

034idea of beauty, one of the my favorite philosophers, Mortimer Adler, has an interesting take on the term fine arts, and particularly the word fine. And he says that fine well, instead of thinking fine as something cultivated or subtle, he says fine is from the Latin word finis, which means end. If something is appreciated as being beautiful, it is treated as an end, something to be enjoyed for itself not to be used as a means to some further objective. So, the arts are good in and of themselves simply as activities to to be enjoyed for them so so so and to demonstrate this I would I would I would ask the board and Dr. Dot, how many of you listen to music? Raise your hands if you listen to music. Okay. Now, how many of you

035get in your car after a long day of work and turn on the radio to think, well, I need to I need to work on my spatial reasoning skills. You you don't turn on Bon Jovi to to to to to to prove your cognition. You do it simply because of the beauty of it and the enjoyment of it. If you think Bon Jovi is beautiful, which may be true. Okay, great. So do I. So, that's good. So again, these these these studies are for a study in the beautiful and and beauty itself. And it's in the best situation we do not use the arts for anything. They are again ends in themselves. And another quote by Adler, "The fine arts are totally useless. That is their glory." And it's important to teach students the appreciation

036of the arts given the experience of of the beautiful in the moment every single day of the year. So, going on to the next slide, what are the fine arts? The term fine arts can be can be confusing sometimes where people think it's it's portraits or or paintings hung in a museum, which is part of it, but the term fine arts is an umbrella category for the visual arts and the performing arts. The visual arts, including what's listed there, drawing and painting and so so forth, these are are not dependent on time. They If you look at a statue, it can be apprehended in the moment in in one in one moment. It doesn't take time to appreciate it, although you can can dissect it and talk about its its elements. That's opposed to performing

037arts, which require time. It takes time to listen to a to watch a play. It takes time to listen to music. So, the fine arts are umbrella category talking about the visual arts and the performing arts. So, what does fine arts do? We oversee all aspects of fine arts in the district. Um that includes aid and hiring to evaluation, guiding professional professional development, handling budgetary concerns, etc. We are committed to our mission and goals. Our mission is two-pronged to help all children discover the arts and to ensure that each child receives the best education in the arts from qualified certified staff members every year. The goals are arts literacy, preparing and presenting artistic works works, and arts integration. And I won't go into arts integration because we've already had a board workshop where that was

038dealt with in depth. Um one thing to remember is that the arts are core academic disciplines in them in their own in their own right. They have their own knowledge, skills, and understandings, but they offer a different way of looking at the world and they differ significantly from other academic disciplines. Um however, there is a lot of commonality with the arts and the other disciplines. Uh for instance, the arts have their own academic standards, best practices. They seek to educate the whole child. And because of those commonalities, we work closely with all other departments, especially curriculum and instruction. Uh to clarify some terms that often cause some some confusion when you were talking about fine arts, are they terms of curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular. And fine arts are often referred to as as as extracurricular,

039which is not exactly Well, it's not correct at all, I >> [laughter] >> I guess. Um curricular refers to activities, programs, and learning that occur during the school day as part of the school curriculum. Therefore, the arts are are curricular. Co-curricular activities refer to programs, learning experiences, etc. that complement in some way what students are learning in school. That is, experiences that are connected to or mirror the academic curriculum. And although fine arts share some similarities with extracurricular activities, their co-curricular status indicates they should be handled in a different light. So, the structure of fine arts department is a little deceiving because only two of us are based at district office. The rest of the people on this chart are are either based at the schools or in the classrooms all all day every week.

040So, we have the administrative support arm of the of the department, which [clears throat] is my administrative administrative assistant, Tamara Garcia. We also have fine arts clerks at each comprehensive high school to to support student support teachers with POs, budgets, ordering buses, and anything they can do to take things off the teachers teachers' plate so the teachers can teach, which is the reason we've hired them. We have four coordinators in my in my department, the elementary band program coordinator, elementary orchestra program coordinator. These folks oversee the before and after school program and teach in the in those programs. And when they're not teaching before after school, they push into the elementary or the secondary schools for additional instructional support. We also have percussion coordinators, one of whom is here tonight, Mr. Will Kramer. He sees

041the He oversees the schools in the northern part of the city, and Juan Torres, the percussion coordinator for the south, pushes in to work with those the special needs for those instruments in the southern part of the city. Then we have two itinerant support teachers, an assistant middle school band director, who goes between the two largest middle school programs, and an itinerant orchestra teacher who supplies additional instructional support at the secondary level. We have 24 art music teachers at the elementary level. It's It's important to realize that these these teachers teach every single student at the elementary level every every year. And so they know every single kid in the school and their grade books have five, six, 700 students in on their roles for which they give grades and and evaluate. And of course

042we have the fifth grade elementary band and orchestra programs as part of the the elementary school. At the secondary level we have 42 dance, drama, music, and visual arts [clears throat] teachers. And an interesting point is that they teach at least 60% of our students at any given time of the year throughout the year. So a majority of our students are involved in the arts in in Rio Rancho Public Schools. For funding, we have two primary sources of funding, although both run through the SEG. The Fine Arts Education Act or FAEA, I'll be explaining at a later board meeting when we we asked you to to approve the application for the Fine Arts Education Act. But the Fine Arts Education Act historically provides 75 between 75 and 79% of our total budget. And other operational

043monies are historically between 21 and 25% of the the total budget. So the Fine Arts Education Act covers elementary fine arts teachers' salaries, which is 93% of those funds, transportation, this is all for elementary teachers, professional development, supplies, costs associated with our partnerships, which I'll talk about in a moment, and other costs associated with running the programs. Other operational operational monies that we receive go toward fully funding 6-12 or secondary programs, replacement of equipment and instruments, and other costs. An exciting aspect of the Fine Arts Department is our is our our our many partnerships that we have with arts organizations around the state and indeed the nation. Um probably the longest-lasting partnership we have is with the Kennedy Center and Santa Fe Opera for arts integration. Uh this partnership helps us provide four to five

044workshops, free workshops for teachers every year in arts integration so that they can take those tools back to the classrooms and implement them. Uh another partnership we have with the Santa Fe Opera, a separate partnership, excuse me, [clears throat] are the student-produced opera programs. Uh teaching artists from the opera come in to run workshops, clubs, after-school programs with our elementary and middle school uh students uh to write their own music, write their own libretti, and produce an opera, a small 10-minute opera, that are and these are these are produced in or performed at the end of every semester of the year. We have a partnership with the National Dance Institute in New Mexico, NDI. They provide movement and social-emotional learning classes for our fourth-graders at four of our elementary schools, and we're hoping to add

045a fifth uh in the fall. The Rockley Family Foundation is a partnership that provides free piano leasing for our students. And most recent partnership is with the Focus 5 uh arts integration um organization which provides arts integration help for Enchanted Hills and Sandy Sandia Vista, which again was we covered at the at the board workshop. Um we've the the district and the and fine arts department has received several accomplishments and awards over the years. Um we just received a notice that we are again a a um best community for music education for the eighth year in a row, uh which is a great great honor from the National Association of Music Merchants. Uh the New Mexico Music Educators Association has recognized the district on several occasions. Many of our students and many of our teachers

046have received numerous awards and and and commendations, and many of our faculty serve as leaders in their either the district, state, or even national level in their professional organizations. So, I'll leave you with one of my favorite favorite quotes about about the outcome wraps up the arts from Picasso. Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. And with that, I'll stand for any questions. Thank you so much. Dr. Bob, do you want to add anything before we go to the board for questions? Okay. Um we'll turn it over to Michael Berry. I have no questions. We've seen a lot of students come through here getting recognized for their accomplishments in fine arts. So, you're doing a fantastic job. Yeah. I just want to say my son started middle school playing the euphonium

047and um the amount of just time that the staff puts in and the community that it builds, it's really something. So, I just appreciate you and all of the staff and all of the students who participate. And that's just band. That's not talking about all the other arts. So, thank you. So, if there are any questions or comments? No questions. [clears throat] Appreciate it. I know that it's a lot of even the concert we went to Thursday night was amazing help from all the different kids for Dr. Cleveland. It was really good. And my daughter was in band for 4 years and I think it really helped her when she went to college having that community that she could already rely and depend on and have friends that she already knew. It wasn't a complete

048overwhelming environment for her. So, I think I can see personally the bigger picture of why it works. Um >> [clears throat] >> Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Fine arts is what I did in high school. That was just my thing. And so, I'm so grateful for it and that we have it. It truly is we talked about those elementary school programs. It is because we build up through the elementary school and bring it, you know, it's a continuous program that they grow upon and I think it's what makes us so good in the district is that we're good all the way from elementary school. And obviously, we don't have every program at elementary school level, but bringing those things up. If you could I This is just out of curiosity, what are your kind of

049hopes and dreams and envision as we go through these next few years? What would be some things that maybe we won't be able to have, but what would be some things that you would love to have for our fine arts that if we if you could have anything um for the fine arts, what would be that? How much time do we have? I know, right? Maybe just give me a couple. >> [laughter] >> No, the I think what two of the most successful programs at the elementary level are the elementary band and orchestra programs. The the parents love that. It was one of the according to survey results that I heard, that was one of the main reasons they they or one of the things they want to see come back after the pandemic. Um

050one one thing we have got rebounded in are the choruses or the choirs in the district. I would like to see some of some sort of similar program perhaps at the elementary level um for that. Um again, how to fund that the question, but that that would probably boost the the numbers at the middle school and high school levels in their choirs, uh which just have haven't rebounded as much as they they should. They're strong. They're still strong, but just the numbers we I'd like to see a little stronger. Oh, I love [clears throat] that. So so no elementary choir program? We don't We don't It it's it's it's not a it's not They do it in like as part of that day. As a Well, they do as part of part of the instruction,

051but also it's dependent on the the preferences of the teachers. It used to be we had a lot of choral teachers at the elementary level, and now it seems to have shifted to instrumentalists. Understood. >> Um so there's no elementary choir program in the same way we have the elementary band and orchestra program. There are there are elementary choirs, but just not as many as we like to see. You know, I love that that my kids went through that orchestra program in elementary school, except for my youngest cuz it was the pandemic hit, and she was going to go through band, which was going to be a whole new world, but um but it they were amazing, and it did feed them into that middle school program. So, it was amazing. So, any other comments?

052Yeah, I was just going to thank you, Dr. Schmidt. Appreciate it. Um we know that your um your just tireless leadership of the fine arts in Round Rock Independent School District have had a huge impact. I'm sure people like Mr. Kramer would say that that your leadership has an impact on him every day, as well as all of our other teachers and employees across the district. Um and I I love your emphasis on the intrinsic value of art. I'm right there with you. I I I'll listen to Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi on the way home today. But as a superintendent, I have extrinsic um motivations as well, and and the arts are critical to getting kids to school. Right. Um it increases engagement. Um our kids that are participating in the fine arts

053um they're they're giving so much of themselves, um and and it's a it's a strong reason for them to come to school. So, I um we we we need the fine arts always, um not just for their intrinsic value, but what they do for the whole child in in our schools. And lastly, um I do want to say that having been a a principal at all three levels, um especially at the middle and high school level, um our our directors are folks that are working with kids. Um they're they're they're earning a salary, but it's important for everybody to know um along with coaches and athletics, our our arts folks go above and beyond every day, beyond the stipends they make, to get kids places, to stay late, to wait for parents to pick kids

054up, all of those things. Um so, I just I we just really need to recognize our our employees that are in the fine arts across the district. So, thank you, Dr. Schmidt. Yeah. I I actually crunched the numbers once and the stipends, it averaged about $2.80 an hour. Yeah. Yeah. And for for extra I think so. It's Yeah. They're they're But they do it for the love of it. They do. They they that's the intrinsic thing. And they and they love kids. So. Thank you, sir. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Okay, our next report for the evening is um our student services reporter and we have Michelle Havel, our executive director of student services, who will be presenting. Good evening, President Galbraith, Superintendent Todd, members of the board. Bear with me. It's counterintuitive to sit

055and read from slides as a past teacher. [laughter] So, I am here to discuss and present on the number of um tasks that we have here within our student services department um and kind of the charges led. I I always think of our department home base is small but mighty, but we do have staff pre-K through 12 on every single campus in the district. Um so, we definitely are a department of many departments, is kind of how I think of it. And then we'll go through the number of things that we touch upon and the staff that support those um here in the district. So, when I speak to our home base here, we have um our director uh student services over elementary, um Ms. Amy Wada, as well as um Crystal Gallegos. Um we

056have Myra Quintanar, director of counseling, as well as her specialist, Danielle Martinez. We have our director of nursing, um Lynn Miller, and her um resource nurse, Kim Williams, as well as our student support staff who are off campus in our student support center right there off the corner of 528 Northern. You likely pass it um every time you come to district office. So, we have our director, Diana Lacore, as well as her admin assistant, Gloria Dunkel. Um we also um within our department have Kristin Nitcher, our our specialist, and Melissa Mayhew, our due process and hearing specialist. So, within the student services department, um we do cover um >> [clears throat] >> exactly that, services for students. Um we do have staff that do support instruction, of course, through SEL instruction, health education, things like

057that. However, we primarily service things that support what I'd like to refer to as that whole child, or all of the pieces that schools really set out to service children with outside of just the academic um and extra and co-curriculars. So, with this, it does include our counseling and social emotional learning, our mental health referrals under that umbrella, as well. We can even do homeless needs, nursing services, our after-school programs, which are all run in-house through the district through our SAFE programs, Enchanted Mesa daycare, which is our staff daycare that we do service just under 50 students um through a licensed daycare format for ages 6 weeks through um pre-K 8, our elementary student support, teacher training and support, foster care point of contact, um we work in collaboration with CYFD on that, our due

058process disciplinary hearings, our student support center for those middle and high school students needing an alternative educational setting, our transfer applications, support and training for registrars and attendance clerks, as well as a number of parent concerns. So, I again, when I I joke in a way that we're the appropriate department, we kind of are. We have a little bit of everything. So, to start with our counseling and SEL, again, we have staff pre-K through 12 on all campuses, and that has definitely expanded in recent years to where we do have a number of counseling staff on each campus. We currently have 56 counselors in our district, and this also includes our AdSec, our our alcohol drug abuse um support counselor. We have seven general ed social workers supporting our five elementary, middle, and high schools.

059So, we do not have that on every campus, but we are fortunate to have a number of campuses that are able to support that position. And with that, we've had 340 GE social work referrals this year. So, it is definitely a substantial need that we are seeing. Counselors at each level support again those academic and social meet social emotional needs. And they utilize a variety of evidence-based curriculum um to support those SEL needs as far as supporting college career development and suicide prevention. Um a little add-on, I know um we're we're a humble group here, but um we have had two of our counselors achieve national board certification for counseling this year. That's a huge accomplishment. So, those mental health referrals um that fall under that counseling umbrella, and we do contract as a district

060with three of our local agencies including Southwest Family, Waves, and Family Work Shop. Those are all here locally so that we're able to get students support in a timely and accessible manner. With that, we do provide initial psychological assessment with the student with a any type of a mental health crisis that may warrant that. >> [snorts] >> And of course, these agencies do their very best to um have that that continuity of service if they are able to schedule with those students needing additional visits to support their mental health needs. One of our contract agencies is also dedicated to supporting students with suicidal ideation, which um it is a need and and it is definitely a timely and urgent need. So, we are able to support families who are experiencing that crisis as well. As

061of today, there have been 172 mental health referrals. So, that is definitely another substantial need that we are seeing um at an increasing rate, and we are happy to be able to support that through our department. So, the McKinney-Vento, if you ever um hear of McKinney-Vento, this does support students experiencing homelessness within our district. Um and with this, um they are able to get benefits and services through the federal act for McKinney-Vento. Um we do have a subgrant through an MPED, and that does help us provide some of those basic daily needs, things such as clothing, hygiene hygiene support, transportation, um credit recovery, mental health. We also have a small pot of money to support those families who are experiencing homelessness while working that benefit from our before- and after-school programs as well. Um with

062that, we also are able to tailor some of those services to unique needs. So, if if we have the funding and we can support our ladies in that that area, definitely do. Counselors service the site-based McKinney-Vento coordinators, so they really um seek to identify those families that they can connect with services. And as of today, we have over 200 McKinney-Vento eligible students here in Rialto Public Schools at this time. So, one of our very uh recent adds, I know um we have had the the privilege to have attendance-focused social workers at our middle school um through grants through an MPED. Um this year, we were able to secure those funds a little bit later in the year, but um Mariah, our director of counseling, had worked very um tirelessly to find exactly the right fit

063for those positions mid-year, which we know is always a feat. And we do have um two gentlemen we were able to bring on board to support our four middle schools. And that has definitely served us well. Um that that data, I know some of you were fortunate to um review that attendance data in the last week when we had our summit. And those attendance social workers, not only the work they're doing, but some of the cultural shifts that they've done in our middle schools has really yielded positive results. Um even in their absence during that that influx of funding, we were able to see some really positive um increases in success through decreases in absenteeism. So, with that, we've currently secured a 3-year grant that will support those um um positions in a fading way,

064so it really helps us bring them on board, and eventually um they'll become ours operationally. And they do provide the the middle school um with those two social workers. So, their main goal is to network with families, identify students who are kind of those high-flyers struggling with attendance needs, and really build that rapport to help support them where they're at um in terms of any type of barriers they can identify, um needs that students at the middle school level have to solidify positive attendance habits. Um with that, they engage with those chronically absent, and again, those are our students who are missing 10% or more at any given time during the year, um which again, we know side effects of that, academic impact, social impact, etc. So, it really is um a true intervention for

065these students. They also spearhead those tier one um initiatives, and with that, they celebrate students who are already succeeding. So, it is twofold. It's It's really pinpointing those students who are struggling and need additional support, but not letting that other piece of the puzzle fall to the wayside where we have students who are truly working on those positive attendance habits and maintaining that. So, they have kind of a dual role of supporting attendance um campus-wide. We also support our nursing services, and with that again, we are um both fortunate, but also that it absolutely necessitates that we have um highly qualified school nurses on every campus. Um this really does support student needs in a number of ways, whether it's those everyday needs all the way up through our um intense medical needs that some

066of our students do have. We currently have 22 school nurses throughout the district, which is incredible. Um 20 health assistants to support, of of course, the exceptions being some of our smaller non-traditional campuses that um work between nurses and health assistants to cover their needs. We do have a the nurse here who supports um campus needs, supports our director of nursing, as well as our health assistants, and of course our director of nursing who spearheads the entire operation. So, some quick data. Of course, we're mid-year, so we did give a snapshot from the previous school year, and and you can see those numbers are are quite large. Our health offices are not idle places. Um, they are definitely, um, in high demand. We have students coming in, um, from anything from very small, minute things

067that can result in them returning to class all the way up through those true medical emergencies that we do see, um, quite often, just with the large number of students that we're interacting with. Um, they also arrange our flu immunizations for the district, um, for staff, our emergency stock medications, which allow us to respond to, um, on the fly, in the moment, um, student emergencies, especially those, um, with allergies, asthma attacks, things like that for students who may not, um, have been identified as having their own medications. This really gives us those emergency response, um, tools that we need for students. As well as that immunization compliance, and they boast almost 100% compliance. Of course, that's a bit of a moving target with students coming in and out of the district. So, to continue on

068our nursing services, some great accolades that we've had, um, for the '23-'24 year, we did have nurse Andrea Rice receive her Rising Award for the New Mexico School Nurse Association. Um, that same year, we had nurse Julie Lord receive the Excellence in Practice Award for Pediatric category. And [snorts] this most recent school year, our director, Lynn, did receive Liaison of the Year for the National Board Certification of Nurses, and I think that that definitely illustrates this next bullet point. She has nearly half of her nursing, um, qualified staff who are now nationally board certified, which, again, is an absolute accomplishment. Um, it really shows that they've gone above and beyond those professional standards to support our students and are not only qualified but beyond for what they do. Um, she does give those 10 nurses

069a great deal of credit but also um, Winningham also boasts that accolade so I want to recognize them as well. Our before and after school, you'll hear this referenced as SAFE and SAFE is on all 11 elementary campuses. This service is our before and after population regardless of the school schedule. Um, these are staff who are at school at 6:45 and they are on campus all the way until 6:00 or beyond if a student happens to still be on campus and they do serve just under 900 of our elementary students. So this is an absolute um, gem for the district. It is accessible. It is vetted through the district staff. It is not contracted through a community program and these programs are really just such an asset for our working families, our families that have

070other needs whether it be continuing education, um, juggling multiple kiddos schedules, any number of reasons. Um, but again, um, you can definitely see the numbers on our campuses um, show that that is definitely a program in demand and its services our students well. Um, with [clears throat] that, um, Amy Water, our director and and Crystal, um, her uh, specialist, they do support staff members on all 11 campuses through the SAFE program. So, um, you bet their phones start ringing at 5:00 a.m. and often don't ring until well after 6:00. >> [laughter] >> So, these are the folks opening and closing a lot of our campuses. Um, they do um, have a coordinator at each site so that staff member is really charged with leading and directing that site as far as planning, maintaining their staff,

071um, communicating with parents. Um, they do collect a number of funds from those families since this is a self-sustaining program here within the district. Um, they do have anywhere from two to five assistants and those are staff typically college age, folks who are looking at um, um part-time work. A lot of these are community members that support our programs. And a unique piece of this is we also are an employer of our own students. So, we have a number of high school students that also work for the program through um a role called uh safe mentor. And they are students who are still here as our rear entry students that we pay and employ to work with our students. So, it really is a a unique way to grow students into employability skills while also

072supporting them um as students themselves. Um we do offer um adult support with that. We do have many of our sites who provide an additional um staff or more for our students who do have additional needs to allow them to participate fully in the safe program. Um so, it is accommodated for students um based on where their needs are. Um with that, we also do financial support. And we also again support those McKinney-Vento students. So, again, um programs within our district supporting other services that we provide. So, we can really give a full gamut of services for students. So, safe continued. And I I won't read out the details. Some of this is just in regards to our scheduling. But again, offered on every campus. Um a number of community partnerships that allow vendors to

073come in and explore. The course always a favorite. Come in and do um extension activities with science. Many of our community um vendors that come in and do um kind of those one-time exploration activities and some ongoing. Um there are many student-led clubs. So, this is a high interest. It's not just hang out in the gym and and do homework until your parents get there. It definitely is a program that looks at what student interests are. And it really fosters um those relationships with staff and and building um just kind of a community after school. For a lot of our students, this is their social time. Right? They're not going home after school and hanging out in the neighborhood or going to other clubs and activities necessarily. So, this really is a a highly um

074supervised social time for our students as well. Um with that, they do of course provide that breakfast and snack through SFE for students. And then we have three sites, Colina, Cuesta, and Rio Rancho that do provide a grab and go dinner um based on qualifications at those campuses. Enchanted Mesa Day Care. So, this is um definitely a gym that has grown over the years. Um it started very humbly in a a portable over at Eagle Ridge Middle School many years ago and and grew onto the old Shining Stars campus. I say old um because we we were able to relocate to a rented facility here um right by transportation um during COVID. So, that was a a unique time indeed, but it has um continued to thrive and enrollment of course um has always been

075strong, but of course now that we have um universal child care, we're seeing an even higher demand. And knowing that we do have a new facility coming um based on the last bond, I think that will allow us even more growth um for the demands of our staff. Um again, this is a huge asset for staff retention. Um you have a great licensed, wonderful, accessible facility for your own children while you go and teach. Um I myself used both Safe and EMDC, and I have to say that those were some of the biggest draws to this district is that we support our staff through those programs as well. Um currently right now, you can see the breakdown. We have kiddos all the way from that 6-week infant age with staff who are going back to

076work, and we support those kiddos all the way through pre-K, and we do partner with Shining Stars so that we're able to transport. Um and they get the best of both worlds being both at the the staff daycare as well as having that opportunity to attend that half-day program at Shining Stars at this time. We do have a site coordinator and 10 assistants because of course these staff do work primarily full-time since this is another facility that is open before the sun and often times well into the evening hours as well. With that right now, we are our goal is to meet that three-star criteria by the end of the year and with that we're very motivated as we look ahead to the new facility in the upcoming years because that star rating does directly

077impact our reimbursement for students which does allow us more financial supports to expand and improve the program. We currently have 47 families using the universal child care and which is nearly 100%. We do have a few oddities that are not quite interested in that piece right now for various reasons, but that is a substantial number. So, we are seeing a a very quick reimbursement from the state and we have we've seen some benefits from that. And again, we'd like to increase that capacity with the new build. So, right now depending on the ages and stages we're anywhere between 46 to 52 students for licensing. However, again, there's always room for growth and we definitely always have that demand. The elementary student support, these are staff members. This is our second year of this position. This

078is a position that both Jana Chenault, previous director Rachel Acker, and as well as our elementary principals really advocated. This is a staff member that can be used at the elementary level to help support students with a variety of behavior needs. It can look different depending on what the campus needs. Some are using it as an intervention. Some as a behavioral coach to support classroom teachers with those increasing behavior needs and some in a flex capacity where it looks like students who may have needs at sometimes. They may need additional support. They may be able to flood back into those typical classrooms. So, this has really been an answer to just the increase of behavioral demands and challenges that we see with students and it [snorts] it has definitely been an asset. So, our department

079does not hire or supervise the ESS teachers, but we do provide the support, training, um professional development, and PLC groundwork for that group. So, this um involves supporting intervention. It involves um working with trainings that help support self-regulation, emotional development, um working closely with those SET chairs on students who may be experiencing behavioral challenges, and it also um we have a a check-in and check-out ticket where if there's a a recommendation for a student to be seen, they may have some needs, we have a system in place to help ensure that those students are getting the support, and eventually they don't need that support, we can also wave them out. Um and again, some of the curriculums used are listed here as well. We also support foster care, um and when I say the POC,

080that's the point of contact, that is me. Um so, anytime we have a student in foster care that is working with CYFD custody, um whether they come into our district or they exit our district, they do work with me as far as their entry and exit, as well as the campus admin and registrar. Um we have what we call a bid, which is a best interest determination, and with this, um we do meet to determine if a move is ever in the best interest of a student. I mean, with that, the goal is always prioritizing student needs rather than convenience, because of course a lot of our students experience a lot of um mobility. They move often, they may be replaced into different homes at a different time. So, our goal is always to help

081sustain continuous enrollment, and really just great routines and support for these students um while we can, while they're in our uh care at school. Um so, at the time of um March close, we had had 35 bids for students, and of those um 60% of those had been students who moved into Rio Rancho. We do have certain areas of town um that we do see a larger number of students moving in um to those um very established foster homes. And then we've had a number of students who have moved out, whether it be reunification with their family, um moving in and out from a treatment versus a regular foster care, or any number of needs. Um and again, we look at special factors with that um and networking for resources for those families as well.

082We also um through our student support center, we do house our hearing specialist, Melissa Mayhan, and she works directly with all of our secondary campuses for um times when discipline does reach that point or threshold based on um the severity or the frequency of those behaviors, and a student is eligible for um what we call a due process hearing, and these are disciplinary hearings. Um these are for our students who have either had an offense that has constituted a 10-day suspension or more, or students who have had a number of offenses, and by that that's kind of their defense at once. Um a time that we really sit back, meet together, look at all of the evidence, and determine a way to support the student um as well as safety of others. So, these are

083held over at student support. Um again, they we work with um three hearing officers. They are phenomenal, and they have incredible experience at the secondary level. Um we're fortunate to have um both a prior Santa Fe and Rio Rancho administrator right now, as well as a former superintendent from Alamogordo. Um in the upcoming year, we will um be bringing back two of our prior Rio Rancho public schools administrators as well to contract as hearing officers. Um in current data, you can see we keep Melissa busy over there. Um but last year, we did have 87 total hearings requested, and of that um a number were waived, one was appealed, and of this year, we are right on track with that same um kind of pace. I will say the spring, of course, that's when students

084hit that 10-day threshold. So, we do see an uptick in April and May. So, um with that, we are currently at 56 having been held, 14 waived, which is a parent who essentially understands the consequences of it being recommended, and they opt to move forward with that recommendation rather than to have that formal hearing. And then, we currently have two that have been appealed, where perhaps a student feels there may um be more information, a parent feels there may be more information, at which time they request a formal review. So, those are very few and far between, um but we do tend to see um one to two of those a year. And with that, student support, I again, I've referenced that um a few times where our hearings are held, um and also where

085students are able to go during those suspensions. I think we we hear the buzzword suspension, and we think kids are home, they're on their PlayStation, they're sleeping in. We really try not to advocate for that. We really try to take full advantage of our proactive solution, even though we have some wonderful students who have maybe not made their best choices, what can we do to help support them in that interim, whether it be for a 3-day suspension all the way up through suspensions that may last a semester or more. So, with that, our student support center does house those students and provide um licensed teachers as instructors both in general education and special education, as well as a number of supports. So, they really can continue to attend school, get their credits if they're at

086that high school level, but also to serve that consequence, while also having kind of a a full wrap-around of services to help, hopefully, not have them return to that setting. So, they do provide that academic and social-emotional support, resources so that they can eventually go back to their middle and high school, um over at the comprehensive. Um with that, short and long-term suspensions, like I said, sometimes it's for 3 days, sometimes it's a little reset, right? Other times, it's for those those uh larger infractions that would warrant a longer suspension. Um it also um provides students in what we call reframe. Um this is not the bulk of our students, but when capacity allows, if there's a student who you know, they're showing some of those signs that they're just not being successful in that

087comprehensive setting. Great kids, maybe doing decently academically, but they just really need some of those social pressures, whether it be a peer group, all the other things that our kiddos in middle and high school experience, they can go to student support based on an administrator recommendation to kind of just regroup, smaller setting, less outside factors, just really getting themselves on track to be successful at the comprehensive level. And we also have a breakdown of our staff members. They are again a super small but mighty group. And again, they're seeing a lot of student turnover, right? Students are coming in, out. They're They're doing intake on students daily. So, each and every single day they may have a new face. They're learning their their coursework, they're connecting with their accommodations, they're learning if they have anything

088through Google Classroom. If they are short-term, we also have students working on subject if they're long-term. And currently, um we saw 850 students last school year. And again, that's a range from a day all the way up through the duration of the year. And we're currently at just over 600 students for this year. Student transfers. I will not read all of these numbers, but there are a lot. Um so, our student transfers, this is not just students coming into our district. There's a lot of movement within the district. So, elementary to elementary, middle to middle. Um at comprehensive, we do try and stay very pure between our boundaries for the the two high schools. But this also involves students who may be transferring to a specialized um small group program, such as our social coms.

089Um it may include students coming to us from our our tribal areas. We do try and support to the extent that that capacity allows um for students coming in from um, again, tribal areas, Bernalillo, Albuquerque, other areas where perhaps um, they see that there's an opportunity for their student here in Rio Rancho. So, we see transfers for any number of reasons. Um, one of the largest um, benefits I always give my plug to this for staff who work in the district is that you do have the opportunity to transfer your student within the district as well. And of course, logistics when you're working on a school campus, um, it is nice to support that for our staff members as well. Um, so we definitely keep Kristen busy in that area. Last year we had uh,

0902,650 transfers. And currently we have processed just around 1,800 and they come in daily. And again, any number of reasons, um, but we do see a number of transfers. With that, this is Kristen Nitcher as well, our registrar specialist. She also supports our training for our registrars and attendance clerks, support anytime there's new folks in those positions, she really supports getting them onboarded and understanding those processes because they are so specialized to those positions. Um, we do not evaluate or hire those folks, however, we um, within the department do provide that training, assistance, oversight, um, really just supporting those folks who are working in unique positions, bringing them together so that they can support one another as well. Um, she also [clears throat] provides coverage and assistance to those schools where perhaps they have a

091vacancy in their front office, which we always hope that doesn't happen, but we know life happens and staff do change over. Um, collaborating with our other departments so that of course our our McKinney-Vento, our CYFD, services that students need, we do a lot of cross-referencing across the departments. And also just developing standardized processes so when there's movement between schools, students are not um, lost lost in the sauces as I like to say. We want to make sure that that process is smooth and seamless. And last but not least, um up until current, which we still are at this time, um we support a number of parent concerns that come in. Um and often times this is a supporting communication with the schools. Um we can connect parents with information as far as discipline matrix, um

092policies, campus handbooks, things like that. Often times this is um rectified through just closing some communication gaps. Um but again, we also work to support that communication um with campus admin and also other departments that may be able to support our families um with any questions or concerns that may come up. And with that, it's a lot of information. I'll stand for questions. So, I'm just sitting here thinking like, wow, she has a lot that she's over. Now, is there >> a lot of great people. >> I think you behind you is many of the people, right? Who are from Hi guys. Thank you. >> [applause] >> So, they are here tonight. Um thank you all for being here. Um uh Dr. Dot, do you want to add to that and then we'll go to

093questions from the board or I can come back to you. Let's Let's go back. Let's go to the board first. Okay. Um we'll start with Seth over here. Questions or comments? No, just thank you for what you guys do. >> [cough] [clears throat] >> Can you fix my mic, Tyler? It sounds like I'm in a barrel. >> [laughter] >> Okay, good. All right, uh Stephen. Um well, my youngest, she was part of RRPS since she was 6 weeks old, thanks to Intown Mesa. Um that was super helpful. It would have been more helpful if I could have uh gotten that free tuition, but >> [laughter] >> that's awesome. Um but I I do have a question. She also is a part of SAFE. Um that that's a a big deal for us. Um I know

094there's always waitlists. What does that look like? Um do Are you able to accommodate for all the families or At this we have been very solid as far as staffing and accommodating to the extent possible. Of course, we do have a couple of sites that are over 100. And I know Amy and Crystal support that um employing staff, making sure that ratios are safe, spaces are supportive of those students. Um but I will say as as unfortunate as enrollment decline has been, I think that has allowed SAFE to accommodate more students just because we aren't seeing 130 to 140 kiddos at each site like we did um pre-COVID. Um but I will say that they try to work to accommodate as many students as they possibly can. Um and then one other thing um with

095your student support center, uh I remember when I worked for the district, sometimes I would communicate with the teachers over there. Does that occur a lot or are they usually given their own curriculum and their own >> No, so at this time, we have kind of a twofold situation. So, our students that are more on those short-term um suspensions, we do have Google Classroom supported so that our certified teachers over at Student Support Center are able to work directly with their actual classroom teachers so that when they do transition back to their campuses, they are not um ideally behind, that they've had access to that, so that communication is definitely a daily occurrence. And then we also have students who are kind of they're more long-term and they are established on that subject platform so

096then their point of reference would be their licensed teacher over at Student Support. Where do you draw the line? Kind of how many? It Time of the year is huge, right? So, if we have a student, let's say right now, that's coming in on a suspension, of course, they're going to work through Google Classroom because those um online [clears throat] platform, it wouldn't be I don't want to say reasonable, but we're just too far into the year for them to jump in partial. Um they would want to go and finish up what they've started. And we see that primarily um at those those natural transitions during the year. So, if a student, let's say get suspended in December, they'd likely finish out in that Google Classroom, and then come January they would start that that

097subject platform for the remainder of the school year. Thank you. I'm Michael Berry. Yeah, um first off, it was nice getting sitting by you at the data summit. It was nice to I learned a lot of from you. Um I if I'm really reductive, I know this is probably complete is a little unfair, but yours yours your group handles problems that just come to your door, rather than you're managing those. >> Yes. And so I I know you're a proactive bunch, but um it's often handling what's coming in. Uh and I know that you as you said the papery department. I wanted to maybe and there's probably not one answer this. I wanted to hear your opinions and thoughts. Feel free to wax poetically. Uh what are some of the metrics as as well as

098you can track them that you would like to that you want to see or you do see to try to measure success in all your number of your groups that you're overseeing. Absolutely. I think the biggest metric for us is so many of the needs that we have in this department are time sensitive. So to me the one metric is if there's a student need and that need is met immediately, right? Whether it be a health need, mental health need, um a counseling need, uh getting kids in school and they're suspended need, or families that need child care, whether that be at elementary or pre-elementary as a staff member. Um so for me the metrics are the timeliness and that there's no students out there that have an unmet need that our department hasn't supported.

099Um and that again includes our migrant even to students, our foster students. So we really our metrics are are daily, right? There's needs that have to be met that day before that they're not things you can put on your to-do list for Friday if it's Monday. So our metrics really are in the moment and like you said a lot of problems that come at us, or not just problems, but needs that come up. Um there's really not a lot that can be left on the back burner. We're it's a it's very responsive group. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. And I have a couple questions and then going to go back over to Dr. Dobbs, but um that student support center, so we've been running I I was thinking around 6 to 5 years now

100with that student support center. Does that sound about right? >> Yes, so we did have the committee that worked on that prior to COVID, and then it kind of came to fruition after that COVID time. So, um I believe we're in our fifth year. Well, they It feels like right around when I came on. >> It was right, yeah, because we had to retrofit it. We purchased the district was able to acquire that building, retrofit it in the classrooms. So, prior to student support, there was always that alternative education setting, and it was housed at the rear intermediate school in the basement. So, we always had an alternative setting, but definitely the capacity that we can support now um with that has expanded, and of course those support services as well. Do you feel like

101we're meeting those goals? Is there anything that you feel like we need to work on a lot in the district, or do you feel like we're doing we're doing pretty well overall, or what are your thoughts? I think we're doing better than we have, absolutely. I think every year, um I can't say enough about Diana Lacore, director over there. I think if there is a space to support a student, she has has definitely squeezed more juice out of the lemon, especially this time of year when we're like, "We've got another one." Okay. You know, she always makes a way to accommodate it. Um I do think we can accommodate more students. I think Reframe is something that I would see more probably coming our way if we had more capacity for that, just because I

102think it's more proactive than reactive, right? It's they're not at that point where they've had infractions. It's, "Ooh, you're kind of on our radar. How can we get you reset?" Um I think we also have a need for a small cohort of students who safety issues are what bring a lot of students to suspension, right? We're not going to suspend students for things that aren't major safety concerns. And with that, I think we definitely have a niche that could benefit from expanded online access that wouldn't require them to be at student support center, but would also still give them access to a high-quality academic program um to finish their academic work if they cannot be with those peers for some specific reason. And then as far as I I was just thinking when we first

103started the student support center, we actually were talking to a teacher who's at the elementary level, right? And so I love that we have the you know, our elementary student support um and this can kind of go I guess to whoever wants to answer it, but do we feel like we need to be doing more there or do we need to have a facility or a a place for some of those students? I know that we've had a lot of struggles, you know, with with some student behavior at that elementary school level. You know, I will say the elementary student support teaching position has definitely given us a springboard for that conversation. I think it's filling some of those immediate needs and what's nice is it brings that support and setting to the students as

104opposed to an off setting. Um I will say just coming off of 4 years of principalship at the elementary level, the behavior needs are are intense and increasing. Um I don't mean that to be alarming, but I it denying the issue does not support anybody. So I I definitely think that we can benefit from any supports you all are willing to support us with in that area. And I'll I'll definitely let Jana chime in if she'd like to. I think Dr. Dallas got his mic Jana, I don't know if Jana wants to come up to you don't have to do I hit my button before Jana. >> Yeah, go >> [laughter] >> Um >> [sighs] >> That's a complex question. >> It is. >> last time we were here um Jerry Weider talked about special

105services um and the Gibson report, which was essentially a wide-ranging audit on our special education services, um did did talk not extensively, but somewhat about increased um student needs particularly related to behavior. Um I I think that we have to be really strategic K to 12 about student behavior and supporting it. Um, typically at the secondary level, there more there are more options of places to to have kids go. Um, but I do think as a school district we always need to be mindful of how many places we have for kids to go. Um, so we always have to balance that with what we're doing in kids home schools in the least restrictive environment. I would say that um, our our Gibson review committee will really look at those continuum of services, what we offer

106in a kids home school versus a more restrictive environment and everything in between. Um, I would hope that we'll really have answers to those questions um, soon. Um, there was one other thing I wanted to say. Um, so I I have seen uh, and I've been to the student support center, amazing. Um, what they're doing over there is really incredible and it's a it's a huge resource for us. Um, I saw when I was there um, and and I don't think the teachers necessarily knew I was coming but I saw kids engaged in learning with high quality teaching and and adults that really cared about kids even though they were there because they had struggled in some specific for some specific reason. Okay. Well, thank you. I mean as a board member I'm just I

107would really welcome to continue to have that conversation as we look. I you know, I look at one of the students in the classroom who you know, who are struggling because of some of those behaviors but also the student themselves who's struggling and then our teachers I I just don't we I don't want us to lose wonderful wonderful teachers. >> Right. And I and and this is one thing Michelle has been working on. Um, I do think what we refer to as tier one instruction, good first instruction in in classrooms does tend to take care of a lot of the the majority of student behavior issues but we have talked uh, about do we as a district adopt kind of a, um, a student behavior expectations playbook as a whole district, so we're really consistent

108in what we expect from kids and how we intervene with kids when they struggle behaviorally. I don't think we're necessarily there yet. We've tried it in the arts integration schools, which I think has been a huge boon for those schools, but I think we need to generalize something like that across RPS. I agree. So, thank you. And then >> Stephanie had it one I was just, um, a lot of my research was done in behavioral interventions and you're right on target, um, that student-teacher relationship is really I mean, obviously there's so many outside factors, but, um, yeah, having that trust in the classroom, that's definitely eliminates a lot of, uh, issues. issues, yeah. So, thank you. I'll just also mention when I was considering running, campaigning, talking to people, the number one issue that was

109brought up was behavior issues with elementary school kids. They thought the school is safe, but like when a kid throws something or they act out in class, that disrupts the learning environment for my kid, so. And And Ms. Haval said it. I mean, I'm I'm a big believer in confronting the brutal facts. I spent 27 years in elementary, middle, and high schools, um, and um, there has been an increase in behavior issues, not just in Revere Public Schools, but nationally, where I came from as well. Um, and I think school districts all across the nation are trying to do their best to figure out how we use resources and knowledge to meet the the emerging needs of kids post-pandemic because, um, I think we've seen needs increase post-pandemic, um, and we're still to an agree

110to a degree playing catch-up. Yeah. Well, I want to say towards our schools, I think everyone's doing a great job. I think we have wonderful things happening. Um, Um it's just we want to always continue to to get better, you know. And my my kids have all gone through our schools and have had great, you know, it's been great for them. So, Dr. Dodd, is there anything else that you want to um hit on before we move on from this school? >> I would like to thank uh Ms. Haviland her team. One thing I always love in in presentations is when we have data. Uh Dr. Berry, you asked that question um to to really show the outcomes of our efforts and you really provided a lot of excellent data. Um we had three data

111summits over the last 2 weeks where the executive leadership team of the school district looked at um everything from achievement data to perception data to attendance data to behavioral data. Um and I really want to highlight um that the middle school attendance improvement. That has been a big highlight. So, we've shown that we can improve attendance at a school level that's typically one of the arguably the more difficult of the three school levels we have in public ed. So, kudos to your to your group on that, Shelley. Um and then lastly, I just thank everybody in the audience. Um student services is a complex enterprise. Um she covered everything A to Z tonight in what we do for kids um that surrounds our main mission, which is teaching and learning. Their psychosocial and health needs

112um we always have to be mindful and we've invested a tremendous amount of resources in supporting their psychosocial and health needs. So, um and I think we see the impact. So, thank you to you and your team. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate it. >> [applause] >> Okay. Um I know. We're getting get too close to my mic. Um so as far as public comment goes, we do not have any public comment. I just want to make sure that I didn't miss something online. Okay. So no public comment for tonight, but we always welcome public comment both here in the board room and on the form that's online. Uh we'll now go um to the consent agenda. A motion there. Board member Berry motion to approve the consent agenda. Board member Mondor second the motion.

113Okay, we have a motion and a second and all in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. Our business. Okay, I have to keep looking at my at my notes since I have a lot scratched out. Okay, for our business item, our first is to consider the approval of a donation in the amount of $4,000 from the New York Life for Grief. Um s- sen- sensitive sensitive school training. Am I saying that right? Um Maria Afran-Trejo, our director of counseling, will be presenting this to us. Thank you for doing this. I like this new seat. Don't let me get too comfortable. >> you can just stay there. We're almost done. >> [laughter] >> Um when we were going to have a presentation with New York Life, I had put together a little something.

114I'm going to read it fast in the interest of time. Um our formal work supporting students experiencing grief began 4 years ago with the conversation between Janice and Alt, Renee Salcedo, and myself about the significant grief that many students were carrying as they returned to school following um COVID. With financial support from the Improvement Office and some fabulous counselors, that year we launched our first elementary and secondary grief groups. Uh we only know of two districts in the state who actually have grief groups in the evening for student population. So, we trained a team of four counselors who still continue to this day to support that program, and we facilitate evening student groups during both the fall and spring semesters for the elementary and secondary. It's hard to get those high school kiddos out, but

115we get a great turnout with our elementary and our middle school students. So, some of our initial training was provided through the Grief Center, which some of you who may be familiar with. It's located in Albuquerque, but it provides grief support for children and adults. It's a phenomenal agency. Uh they did some training for our group, but they also introduced us to the New York Life Grief Sensitive Schools Initiative. And through that partnership, eight of our schools received a virtual training from their um New York Life Grief Ambassadors. It was virtual. Uh they had to have a certain number of people there from their site. Uh the training was relatively short, but we got so much bang for our buck. We received grief books. They brought out resources to the school for students and staff.

116And then we did get a one-time $500 grant for every school that participated to help foster a grief-sensitive school environment. And those eight schools are Mountain View Middle School, Rio Rancho High School, MLK Elementary School, Ernie Stapleton, Lincoln Middle School, Maggie Cordova, Vista Grande, and Puesta. And we still have the opportunity in coming years to train other schools, but those were the eight that participated in this first round. So, we'd like We're supposed to have a big check and a representative here, but you got Mariah. Well, we're grateful that you are here. And [laughter] you did you did a nice job. I'm sure you have any questions for or anything on that, so we can take Do you have any add anything before we go to emotion? No, I just want going Yeah, I do.

117Um I had said no, but yes, I'm going to talk to you. go ahead, but talk in I just want to I just want to commend you on um uh the grief that kids sometimes experience of K to 12 um is is near and dear and personal to my heart. So, I appreciate all that you do because um kids go through a lot and lots of times we don't know what it is. Um so, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I'll just add to that. I mean, a few years ago I think we're all surrounded by different sort of grief things, right? But a few years ago, my son, a really good friend of his, you know, lost his dad and it was um it was so hard on their family, you know, and you never

118know how it's going to hit and when it's going to hit and what that's going to do for you in schooling and all of those things and and so, it's such a it's a wonderful thing to be able to to have these materials or to have these and I love the Grief Center. They've been so fantastic as well and so, I'm grateful that they let us know about this, but we truly are grateful and um we want to help our students to the best of our ability. So, thank you so much for this money. Um on that, we need to accept the money. So, if anyone Board member Barry moves to approve the donation of 4,000 from New York Life for grief sensitive schools training. Do I have a second? Board member Morales seconds the

119motion. All right, we have a motion and a second and all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> [applause] >> Thanks so much. I just probably haven't had it in a long time. It's wonderful. Okay, our um next item of business is to consider the award of RFP number 2026-020-LGL Legal Services. Um Chris Tweet, our uh Chief Procurement Officer and Director of Purchasing will present. And just uh to put out there, Seth Seth is so excited to make the motion on this one. So, All right, go ahead. President Gabbard, Superintendent Dodd, uh members of the board, thank you for having me this evening. Uh the purpose of this request for proposal uh is to establish contracts with law firms to assist the district in various areas of

120law. Uh the district received six responsive proposals. After review of the proposals, the evaluation committee is recommending an award to each of the six offers. And with that, I am available for questions. Okay. Um any any questions on our Just so you know, we really do use all of the many different firms and um and they've all been fantastic to us, so we're really grateful for for all the firms who did put in. Did you want to add anything before we go to a motion? Okay. We'll entertain a motion. Board member Miller, I'll make a motion that we approve the award of RFP number 2026-020-Legal Legal Services to utilize the approval of the evaluations committee and award contracts to German, Burnett, and Associates LLC, Molo Spirling Harris and Sisk PA, Walsh, Gallegos, Kyle Robertson, and

121Dewitt Law Santos PC, Polkinghorn Law Office, Hines, Bratzel, Kaira, and Foster CHTD, Taft, Stettinius and Hollister LLP. Board member Berry, second. I have a motion and a second. And all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. All right, thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. You can all applaud for me since I stood up. Just kidding. >> [laughter] [applause] >> Everybody heard that except us. Yeah, me too. We we We We missed the boat. I still applaud. >> Okay, we missed the joke. >> [laughter] >> All right. Um just as far as advance planning goes, um we have the Crimson Dinner, which is tomorrow night at Rio High School. If you're able to attend that, then employee banquet dinner, I really encourage you to go to that. And our Hall of Honor

122will be at Cleveland High School on May 6th. Um and of course I'm encouraging the board to go to that. Um May 11th we'll have a finance committee meeting with a regular board meeting and then we get into all our graduations. So we have Rio Tech coming up and then Rio Rancho Cyber. So uh make sure you just let us know which ones you if you are unable to go to some of those graduations, just let us know just so we can kind of prepare all of those things. Any questions on the calendar as it's coming up? Okay. All right. Dr. Tillery, any comments on the calendar as it's coming up? No. I keep saying no and then I say something. No. Okay. All right, then our meeting is adjourned for tonight. Thank you, everyone.

123I feel like we should clap cuz