RRPS - School Board - February 23, 2026

00110 9 8 Good evening. The Rear Ranchro Public Schools Board of Education meeting for Monday, February 23rd, 2026 is now called to order. Um, if all would please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Board member Michael Barry will lead us. I aliance 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. [snorts] >> Thank you everyone. Claudia, will you take a roll call for us please? >> President Gre, >> present. Vice President Mohler >> present. >> Secretary Miller, >> board member Barry, >> present. >> Board member Murray, >> present. >> We have a quorum. Thank you. Uh we'd like to excuse board secretary Miller and wish her well. We'd like to welcome everyone into our boardroom. Those

002who are streaming in probably cannot see quite what it looks like in here today, but we have so many students and members from the community and parents and teachers and it is wonderful to look out and see. So, welcome to everyone that's here. Um, tonight's meeting um will start with some introductory comments by our superintendent of schools, Dr. Visu Cleveland. >> Good evening. So, we have no video again. >> Oh, up here. Yes, Dr. Cleveland. Do we have her? >> All right, we're good. >> I don't know if I have her notes, though. Can her slides? >> Do you want to send them? >> If you send me her slides, I can put them up on my computer. [clears throat] >> Okay. You know, technology is absolutely wonderful when it works, and when it doesn't,

003it's a challenge. But thank you for being patient with us. Did you% friend. Okay. trying to make it. >> Okay, >> that's fine. I think we're good. Do you want you can or I can just push in here if you want. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> All right. that prior to uh um the meeting this evening uh there was a board workshop session and uh the the topic of that discussion was a new prek uh at Postados Elementary and the uh the one entire wing of that building is being reconverted to uh to serve children of prek age four year olds. The uh individuals who spoke on the status of this project this evening was Janice Chenel, our elementary school improvement officer, uh Dana Petro, who is the principal of Prostadels Elementary, Patrick Martinez, our

004executive director for facilities, Britney um Griffith our prek assistant principal, and Felix Grigo, executive director of student nutrition, and Jerry Reer, who is our executive director of special services. Uh the the topic that was discussed in this meeting, this is a major project. It will add a good number of prek uh spots for children in in the community of Rio Rancho. Uh the board was given a history of the project, kind of how we we got to the point we're at right now. Uh the status of uh of the project and what were the timelines that things were that things will happen uh so that we can open next fall. students um who will be uh served at Pasadels uh focusing first on the Pasadels community itself and then opening it to others in the

005neighboring schools primarily in the south end of the district and then um building and renovation updates uh what classrooms are going to look like in terms of size and what will be the amenities there. Uh, one of the areas that people have asked a lot of questions about is where we have a a beautiful playground uh that we have at Shining Stars and uh what that would look like and what will happen to the existing uh playground and then uh taking a little bit of time to talk about staffing and uh other considerations for the prek program. We have some commendations this evening. Uh the um one one of the first commendations is the St. Felix Pantry here in Rio Rancho. Uh Michelle Havl, our executive director of student services and Mariah Afentanger, who is

006our director of counseling, will be presenting the commendations. As many of you know that the St. Pantry has provided services to children and many of our families for many years in this community and it's a privilege to recognize their many contributions this evening. Thank you. Uh we have another uh commendation this evening u from the United Way of uh North Central New Mexico. Uh we are welcoming uh Ted Jurnney who is the corporate relations officer and Janette Bra uh the Alice uh state director uh and they will be here this evening. I I would want um you hopefully Miss Brown can explain a little bit about the project the Alice project and uh describe the population that it serves and some of the things that are are going on in New Mexico. This is a

007national uh project and it's a very exciting project u and uh you know Rio Rancho public schools has a a really long history of supporting the United Way. Uh we have always believed that the needs are very great. Uh Mr. Jurnney came on several occasions and shared with the board some of the specifics about the needs that exist in this community and how they are being served by the United Way. Uh many of our companies here have United Way campaigns and we have always had one in the district. The person that does the heavy lifting for our campaign is Claudia Valdez and she does a wonderful job with that and has for for for many many years and uh and we have always been proud to be part of that that effort. As I said

008the needs always exceed uh the resources in the community and u and just on a historic note Mrs. Ball was um um she was in in this district when we first started early in the early in the district's history and she was a teacher at Rio Rancho High School and she helped us with our earliest efforts at uh career placement and some other things and uh we enjoyed having her the years that she was part of our our school district and we've never forgotten the contributions that she has made. Uh we have other commendations. We have some uh additional ones from the New Mexico Music Educators Association, All State, um and recognitions related to that. And if you have a child is in music, you are probably very familiar with All State, but it's uh

009it's a statewide um um conference and it meets at the University of New Mexico and students are selected from throughout the state to be able to participate in uh all state. And many many many many years ago I was honored to be at all state. Uh but it um we we will talk about the students who qualified to participate this year and we will also discuss uh the um NMEA jazz allstate uh recognition as well as the New Mexico ADA youth allstate um event and uh of course Dr. Kurt Schmidt will be the one to share some information about that. But we want to to congratulate all of our Rio Rancho public schools music students who represented their schools and represented this district in such an admirable way. We have uh another presentation um this

010evening. It is time for uh the audit report. Uh audits of course um are involved in examining uh the records and assessing how we're doing um all of those standards and criteria and verifying to the board what things are being done and if there are areas that we need to work on to get better then those are addressed as part of the audit. But audit is a very important function. We have a a committee of the board that oversees the audit and uh the audit is conducted uh by um an outside firm and then it has to go to the state auditor's office and they review it one more time and after you know they look at it then they send it back and then it can be presented to the remainder of the board

011and to the community. So we will have that report this evening. the um the the presenter will be Dalia Garcia with Beasley Mitchell and company. They are CPAs and they will be the ones presenting the audit findings for the 2025 school year. Uh this firm has been meeting regularly with the Rio Rancho public schools audit committee and after the audit committee as I said it has gone to the state auditor and then sent back. I would like to really thank the firm and also uh all the members of our Rio Rancho public schools finance team led by Heather Gabaldon uh our interim director for uh finance and for just the amount of time and effort and work that they put into having a thorough uh and uh a cooperative effort with the u with the

012audit company. And then um some of the topics that will be presented this evening for um for the board will be the audit timelines, the opinions that come as part of the finan opinions on the financial statement and budgets, the single audit uh for federal awards. So they also look at our federal dollars and then um the if there's any repeated findings from the previous year they will note if those were not corrected and then they will talk about internal controls over our capital assets. We will have a presentation this evening by Suzanne Wyn and she will be presenting uh for for the areas that she supervises and that uh will be the uh she has a long title federal bilingual and Native American programs and um she is the executive director for that department

013and she will share with the board uh what the staffing looks like for that department, what are the priorities um and functions of the department uh the strategic support and the community engagement. This department is really strong in the area of community involvement and community support. They'll be sharing some of that with the board this evening. Our English language development program and as you may have seen on the previous slide, we have 23 languages spoken in the Rio Rancho Public School District and uh so we have a very diverse student population. And then language access and compliance. Our Native American programs are um we have some wonderful programs in this district. Uh we're very proud of our Native American students and and their achievements. And then uh some of the special programs and events that

014they sponsor. Uh and if you've not ever had a chance to attend one of the pows, that might be something that you would enjoy attending because it's a very special event. Our next uh departmental report will be for uh school communications and it covers a lot of different areas and the person that will be presenting that is Windom Kinsley and so um the um he will be sharing uh several things with the board this evening and and he'll be discussing really how that department really supports student success in this district and how it also keeps parents and others in the community informed about what's going on in the Rio Rancho public school district. And so, um, he some of the topics that he will be addressing is managing, um, various stakeholder groups across the district,

015facilitating media and public relations, managing emergency communications. when you get that snow day call. Well, that's coming out of his office and um maintaining and promoting brand and digital assets for and protecting uh and promoting digital ass I can't speak tonight assets for the district. This report will also include information about some of the departments school and community projects as well as the coordination execution of many of our special community events. The purpose of these events is to connect our school and community as well as to share the story of many good things that are happening within the district for students and for staff and for our families. Our our uh primary uh business item this evening will be the school calendar for the next school year. Each year a school calendar committee is formed

016and every school in the district is represented and every department has representation and uh the director uh Peggy Johnston from human resources um is the one that chairs the committee and she will describe for the board uh the process followed by what the committee is recommending for next year's school calendar. If there are any other questions, comments, or concerns, and next time I'll bring my other glasses so I can read it better, [laughter] >> but thank you all. >> Um, Claudia, you are much better at pushing slides than I am. [laughter] >> These are my distance so I can see you all really well. Of course, was a little bit of a >> little bit rough. Um, we'll now go to approve the prioritized agenda and proposed time allocations. Get a motion. This is >>

017board member Muller. I a motion to approve the agenda and the time allocations. >> Board member Murray second. >> Okay, I have [snorts] a motion to second and all in favor >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay, motion carries 4. So we'd now like to um invite up Dr. Kurt Schmidt, our executive director of fine arts, to introduce all of these wonderful students that we have um up here in the performance we're about to watch. [applause] President Galbreth, members, Oops. President Gworth, members of the board, Dr. Cleveland. Um, I'm very, very excited to uh introduce uh Mariachi Club from Mountain View Middle School and the director, Mr. Adrien Baka. This is a uh a first attempt I believe in the district at a mariachi group. We're so excited to for their inaugur in inaugural performance. I

018believe I don't think you've performed any place else. Have you? >> Okay, you have. >> No, this is >> this is it. This is it. So, uh, I'd like to introduce the mariach club known as mariachi las pumas. [music] >> [music] [music] >> is Mary [music and singing] was quiet and [music] >> [music] [applause] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey. [music] Hey. >> [music] [music] [applause] [music] >> Hello. [music] Hello. Hallelujah. >> [music] [music] >> stand. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Thank you. [applause] BEFORE you guys step down, let's have you turn because I think all these parents want to get a really nice picture of their students. We can You're able to get it. [applause] >> President Gworth, I would like Mr. Mr. Adrian Baka to say a few words

019if that. >> Thank you so much for having us tonight. I'm super proud of these kids. Um most of them this is our first time ever experiencing any type of like music with mariachi. Um all of them are band orchestra and choir students at Mount View Middle School. And throughout the year we started in like towards the end of September meeting two times a week just learning the culture of mariachi music, the style and how it's different than how we play in band and orchestra and choir. And I'm amazed at how awesome they did today. And thank you so much for having us. >> Thank you. [applause] Just on behalf of the board, I just want to say thank you guys so much for coming in. We're so grateful. This was beautiful to see. I

020know I could see some of you were a little nervous about singing and all of those things. You all did such a wonderful job. Um I'm so grateful. Thank you, Mr. Baka, for for being willing to do this in the in the schools because I love when we it's part of our culture. Like this is New Mexico, right? we get to see these things and so I'm so grateful that you get to experience it. Um I want to give Dr. Cleveland a moment if she'd like to. >> Well, again, thank you so much and and it was so enjoyable enjoyable. What a wonderful way to start our board meeting this evening. So, thank each and every one of you for coming out this evening and we thank the parents uh who are here as well

021to support their musicians. But um thank you for coming. We're glad you can. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. [applause] [applause] >> Yeah. Parents, feel free if you need to if you need to go. I don't want to hold you in. You're good. [laughter] We might lock the doors. No, I'm just kidding. >> [laughter] >> All right, we'll now go into our commendations. So, our first is um St. Felix Pantry. Um, we have Michelle Havl, our executive director of student student services, and Mariah Efron Changer, our director of counseling. >> Come on out, guys. [laughter] >> Good evening, President Greg, members of the board, and Dr. Cleveland. I'm Shelley Havl, the executive director of student services, and I'm accompanied here by Mariah Akenranger, our director of counseling, as well as one of our amazing

022middle school counselors, Sarah Martinez from Mountain View Middle School. And tonight, we are proud to recognize St. Felix Pantry for their extraordinary partnership and unwavering support of Rio Rancho Public Schools. Nearly a year ago, Tim Shien, president and CEO of St. Pelix, approached us with one simple question. How can we help? Tim asked our department to identify the schools that did not have the support of a local organization to support their students in those schools who were experiencing food insecurity. Since that time, Tim and his incredible team, including Lisa Lane and Peggy Bar and the rest of their amazing team at St. Felix have stepped in to support our schools without active snack pack backpack programs, ensuring that any students who are identified go home on Fridays with the nutritious food that they need for

023those weekends. Since the beginning of the school year, St. Felix has delivered snack packs each week or every other week to the following sites: Cleveland High School, Mountain View Middle School, Rio Rancho High School, Sandia Vista Elementary, as well as our Desert Pathways programs and our student support center. >> Mountain View. >> Oh gosh, that's because I'm reading too fast. [laughter] We have her in the flesh. You know, we're going to brag on them even more. St. Felix has demonstrated compassion, reliability, and a deep commitment to our students and families. We are profoundly grateful for their dedication and partnership in caring for the children of RRPS. Their generosity and making is making a meaningful difference in the lives of our school community. We would like to present them with a certificate of recognition on behalf

024of our department after a few words from Sarah Martinez from Mountain View Middle School. Thank you very much. Um I just want to say that I know I'm tiptoeing. Um I want to say that um our students are so excited on Fridays is when we have them pick up their bags and they're always like ready to come and get their bags. And then I will add that some of them have come during the school week. We have sometimes extra snacks and so who what middle schooler wouldn't want a snack during the day? So, we often have them come in and um sometimes prepare like uh mac and cheese and sometimes they didn't like the lunch so much or they wanted more. And so, I just feel like for those students who aren't used to having

025extra food um at school, I feel like that was that makes their day special. So, thank you so much. And they're always on time. Even before we get there, our food is there. So, thank you so much. >> [applause] >> get a picture up here. >> Just want to say a couple words real quickly. President and uh vice president and superintendent Cleveland. First of all, congratulations on your retirement coming up. Anyway, I just want to say it's it's a pleasure to serve you guys. It's a pleasure to serve your students. That's what we're all about, serving this community. And I think what we've also got out of this, not just the students, but we've found out that there's families out there that you have that need our services, too. So, they're getting the services at

026the same time. So, they're they're able to come pick up the family, the family pack, if you want to call it that, during the week. So, but thank you again. And we're always here to serve you guys. >> Thank you. [applause] >> As you're coming up here, I know Dr. Cleveland's gonna want to say something. >> Well, again, I wanted to come up. We You can come up here. We'll get a a photo. But I I do want to emphasize what I said earlier. Uh St. Felix Pantry has has over the years been uh a wonderful support for this community and for some of our most vulnerable kids and families and has stepped up anytime we've asked for help. I can't remember a time when that help was not forthcoming. And so, uh we appreciate

027it and we appreciate the great job you do and just thank you for making this a better place for children to live and to learn. So, uh, we have, uh, really, you know, as I said, it's a privilege to be able to recognize and honor you this evening. >> Thank you. Thanks for coming up. >> Come on up. >> I come up and I get a picture. >> Should we come down? [laughter] >> You get it, too. >> Windom, is it weird? Should we come down or we uh, >> it's up to you. >> I think they kind of format we do. So, it's >> okay. >> Got to get in a little bit further. All right. One, two, three. >> Excellent. Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay. Um, our

028next commendation is United Way. You can come on up. We have Ted Jurnney, the corporate relations officer, along with Janette Brawl, our Alice state director. >> Great. Thank you very much, President Gre, uh, Superintendent Cleveland, and members of the board. Again, my name is Ted Jurnney, and I work for United Way of North Central New Mexico. I'm here with my colleague, Janette Brawl, and we are here to express our gratitude and thanks to you, Dr. Cleveland, for your years and years of support for our efforts within the community. um both as a volunteer to our organization, as a donor, and as the leader of a very, very, very successful workplace campaign here in Rio Rancho. Your leadership has had incredible impact both on our organization, but more importantly on the community here in Rio Rancho

029and beyond. So, we come bearing gifts uh with us tonight. And spoiler alert, it is not a pony in this bag. I'm sad to say. >> Oh, I'm really glad. >> I know. And you probably don't Well, okay, good. Yeah, right. >> But there is a nice mug and some nice tea and more importantly, a a planner that you can use to map out the new adventures in the new chapter that I know are coming your way as your retirement unfolds. So, thank you very much. Um, Janette Brawl would also like to say a word uh or two. So, please Janette. >> Thank you. Thank you, Ted. Thank you, President Gilbreth and members of the board and Dr. Cleveland. It's so wonderful to be here to um express our appreciation for this community and all

030the employees, parents, and others who were involved in making lives richer. Um I am very proud to say I served at Rio Rancho schools for 10 years. I am the proud mother of three Rio Rancho High School graduates and my daughter is the school nurse at Rio Rancho High. [laughter] So, uh, strong connection with this wonderful community. I remember when I started at Rio Rancho in 1995, one of the earliest things we did was a little uh silent auction campaign for uh United Way. And I was so um pleased to know that I was working for a caring um entity that that didn't that walked the walk and uh always has and your leadership Dr. Cleveland is key to that. Um so we give you our thanks. I will tell you just a moment about

031Alice because I don't want to go on and on. [snorts] Alice is an acronym for asset limited income constrained employed. We know that uh 17% of New Mexicans live at the pover federal poverty level. So they live below the federal poverty level level which is about $32,000 a year earnings for a family of four. But above that is a whole segment of folks who meet this Alice um uh designation. And what that describes is families who are employed but their employment does not allow them to keep up with basic needs. 46% of New Mexico are either Alice or in poverty. Half of us struggle. So Alice families make decisions like, do I pay a utility bill or get the prescription I need? Do we get a tire for the car or some other need? And

032these constant worries are a real hardship to so many households. United Ways and our partners across the state are working to imagine new collaborations and um efforts that we can do to alleviate some of that. Our 211 helpline is one immediate way that United Ways help. Anyone can call 211 for access to resources. We do many other things to help Alice households and in the future that will include public policy. We are want to lend our voice to the work to lift up families who are working hard but need some help. >> Thank you all. >> Bring it up. >> I just want to say thank you for all you guys do and thank you for recognizing this wonderful wonderful superintendent. She is she is great and so I'm grateful that the community sees. So

033thank you so much for coming in. Dr. Cleveland, you want to >> Well, I this this is kind of an embarrassment because and till JC I thought this was accommodation for the United Way and so uh but it should be and and you know as a history in in our district um we have prided ourselves as a district in being a district that gave back to the community that has given so much to us and we didn't want to be one of those school districts that always our hand was always out. We wanted to be a district that gave back. And so our United Way campaigns have allowed us to to contribute back to the community. Um, often through the United Way, but we also have many of our schools even do other things as

034well to give back to the community. But this is a good district because it's been a caring district and it's wanted to be part of the community and u and so I I don't I can't think of a school in the district that hasn't done something special to try to help and so uh but you have been one of our best partners over many years and uh the years I served on the board I very much enjoyed uh that that opportunity uh and I hope that that tradition of being a storm partner with the United Way will continue And uh even I I'll just say one other thing. You know, one time Claudia came in and she said, you know, I don't know how it's going to go during COVID. I mean, things are really

035bad. And and then she came back in later and said, you know, that the staff in this district stepped up in spite of that, maybe even because of that. And so, it's the staff and we have had such a wonderful staff here and they have contributed year in and year out. And so I'm very proud of the of the employees of this school district who have been solidly supportive of of the United Way for many years. So thank you for being such a wonderful partner and thank you for all of the work that you do in this community that supports, you know, just the things we heard right immediately before this presentation. The needs are great and if we have an opportunity to help, we try to help. So thank you both so much for

036coming. Janelle, so wonderful to see you again. And Ted, thank you so much for uh for for coming back and and uh again um convey our our thanks to the whole board as well for the United Way. >> Sure. Welcome. >> Thank you. [applause] >> All right, our next commendation. Well, we'd like to invite Dr. Kurt Schmidt because he has the next three commendations. >> Yeah. Our executive director of fine arts. Um our first will be the NMEA allstate com. >> Uh with your permission, President Calbreth, uh can I do them all lumped together maybe out of order? Is that >> I am okay with that. I I believe Lauren Hatch is okay with that too. >> Okay. Wonderful. So I would invite all the students and their teachers to come forward this point. >>

037We have several students. Unfortunately, we have several um uh things going on on Monday nights that precluded many of the students from being here tonight, but most of them are. So, come on up and if you can form a horseshoe right in front of the board and at the risk of being disrespectful, have your backs toward them. >> It's fine. I know a lot of these students, they can they can put their backs to me. It's okay. [laughter] They have to make a double row. >> All right, perfect. So, President Greer, members of the board, Dr. Cleveland. I present to you this evening for commendation many of the 75 music students who earned places in this year's All State Ensembles. I would first like to present uh four middle school students who earned spots in

038the 2026 New Mexico American Coral Directors Association Allstate Festival. And as I read names, if you could for for all these combinations, if you could just motion in some way, raise a hand or something like that uh so people know who you are. So, those students uh for the NMACDA and my papers are out of order, my apologies. Uh Jason Gua, Sophiato, Alfaa Nia Kunan, and Vivian Wright. Okay, wonderful. >> [applause] >> I would also like to introduce these students fine and dedicated teacher Mr. Miguel Haramino of Lincoln Middle School. Thank you. [applause] Next, we have some of the 61 students who earned spots in the annual New Mexico Music Educators Association Allstate Festival. And again, I'll read all their names even though some of them are aren't here. Um, if you we could hold

039our applause. at the end. That'd be great. Uh, from Reanch High School band, Jeremiah Gusa, Sarah Alman, again, justiculate when I call your name. Lillian Brooks, Augustus Casares, Wyatt Estus, Javier Flores, sorry. Yeah, have your floors. Dylan Harker, Chrisanne Hernandez, Colin Jones, Kaylee Kit Kait, Isa Le Point, Dylan Li, Brooke Masoner, Zachary McGee, Kaden Montes, Brilen Mosley, Ryan Wen, Alan Wen, Trinity Peterson, Michaela Pretty, Samuel Stafford, Noel Thurman, Josh, and Joshua Zaggler from the Reanch High School choir, Kaya Lucero, Sha Sorenson, Oliver Floyd, Sebastian Zamora from Reanch High School orchestra, Julia Cra, Elas Gerle, Valentina Martinez, Zachary my Carmen Velasquez for Ria Rancho High School guitar, Josiah Chadiri from the Cleveland High School band, Aiden Blackwell, Elizabeth Cousins, Aiden Harmo, Daniel Lucero, Alex Magno, Joseph Morgan, Trevor Oakleberry, Justin Padilla, Nathaniel Pennington, Jordan Pritchard, Isabella

040Richmond, Kaylin Rodriguez, Abel Salgado, Darius Smith, Alexander Thood, Sophia Trap, Marissa Trujillo, and Lily Zarate. For the CHS choir, Melanie Bean, and probably none of these folks are going to be here because they have a concert tonight, unfortunately. So, uh, Melanie Bean, Evan Browning, Gianna Clay, Victoria Morgan, Brandon Opie, Juliet Paul, Darlene Laauo, and Tiana Romero from the CHS Orchestra, Connor Cooper, Lauren Mc Lauren McGee. And that's all the students. [applause] And those students outstanding teachers are Mr. Daniel Salt and if these teachers could raise their hand too uh are Mr. Daniel Salt, Mr. Damon Hess, band directors at Reancho High School, Miss Rebecca Kendall, choir director at Rear Rancho High School, Dr. Zach Grey Bush, orchestra director at Reancho High School, Mr. Jim Rivera, guitar teacher at Rear Rancho High School, Mr. Daniel Holmes,

041Mr. Josh Jay, band directors at Cleveland High School. Miss Ya Flam, choir director at Cleveland High School, and Miss Trista Beherano, orchestra director at at Cleveland High School. I would also like to recognize Mr. Juan Tours and Mr. William Kramer, our district percussion coordinators, Miss Alli Brasher, itinerant orchestra teacher, who also have had a hand in these students development. So, congratulations to the teachers. [applause] Finally, I present to you 10 students who earned places in the New Mexico Music Educators Association Jazz Allstate Festival. They are uh Jeremiah Agusa, Joseph Buckner, Ryland Garcia, Isa Le Point, Ellen Wen, Michaela Pretty, Samuel Stafford. Those uh folks are from Reancho uh band, from Rio Rancho High School Choir, Jazz All State, Sebastian Zamora, and from the CHS band, All State, Daryus Smith and Alexander Thood. Congratulations. [applause] And

042those students teachers are Mr. Sam Nesbbit and Mr. Daniel Salt, jazz band directors at Rear High School. Miss Rebecca Kendall, choir director at Rearent High School, and Mr. Daniel Holmes, Mr. Josh Chumé, jazz band directors at Cleveland High School. Uh, the success of these students is of course due to their talent, work ethic, and dedication, but it is also indicative of the support our music programs receive from district leadership and the board of education for which we remain extremely extremely grateful. So, thank you very much. [applause] You're all done. So, is it >> That's it. Well, I just want to thank everyone for coming in. You guys, this is awesome. This is a huge thing. We don't have easy classes and so anything that you do that is anything that is extra and going places

043and doing things. It takes a toll on everything. And so, thank you guys so much for um for using your talents. Um I'm so grateful for all of our directors. Um they're fantastic. My son just recently is been taking guitar and has been loving it and so we have wonderful wonderful directors. Um Dr. Cleveland, would you like to add some things? >> Well, again, congratulations. And so, you know, all state means you're the best in the state. I mean that it's it's a wonderful recognition and uh every year Rio Rancho Public School sends a very large number of students who who make it to All State and and we're just so proud of the of of the the recognition for you and we're proud of of the hard work that you have demonstrated to get

044to that point and so I know it's a wonderful experience. All State is a wonderful experience. At least it used to be. Is it still pretty pretty good? Yeah, it wonderful experience. And so I'm glad you had that opportunity to go and to be recognized and to be celebrated for the work that you have done and we are so proud of you for you and so thank you for coming. I also want to echo these programs don't happen uh without a lot of support and so we thank the instructors who take a lot of time and effort uh to to get our students to this place and then of course our district leadership uh Dr. Schmidt who's been just committed to excellence in fine arts uh over many years. So again, congratulations and thank you

045so much for coming. >> Thank you. [applause] >> I think they're dismissed. >> Yeah. Parents, did you want to get a picture? Oh, yes. Pictures. >> You wanted to get out of You are welcome to come up and do that. I'm like creeping in the back, so I'm just [laughter] I do feel like I'm Is everyone good? We get all the pictures. Thank you. [applause] Hey everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, do we have some teacher? Did any of the teachers or directors want to say anything? I don't want to. If you did. Okay. >> Were they >> our directors that are going out? Do you are you guys want to say anything? You are more than welcome to. >> You sure? Okay. >> [snorts] [laughter] >> This fulfills my school. Um, all right. Oh,

046this is the sad part when it starts to empty out. [laughter] It's fine. It's fine. We really should maybe lock the doors. No, I'm just kidding. Um, no. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um, so we'll now move into our reports. Um, we'll start with our first, which is an audit presentation from Dalia Garcia with Basisley Mitchell and oh, Heather or Heather Galdone as well. Do I have the names totally off on this [laughter] one? >> That's my fault. I thought Dalia was coming tonight. >> I'm like, that is not [laughter] >> this is not Dalia. Uh, good evening, Board President Galbreth, Dr. Cleveland, and members of the board. I'm Heather Gabaldone, interim executive director of finance. And tonight, I'd like to introduce you to Juan Garcia, and he was the audit manager

047on the audit for the fiscal year ending 2025. Um, the audit was released by the Office of the State Auditor on February 3rd, and Juan is here tonight to present the audit report. Um before I hand it over to him, I would just kind of like to describe the audit process to all of you. Um it really is a fivemonth process beginning in June when the auditors begin asking for our preliminary financial information so that they can do some initial initial test work, determine which federal programs they will need to be auditing. um they we we meet with the auditors monthly throughout the audit. So, four probably four times. And they came out in person, I would say three times, two or three times this year. And when they're out here in person, they meet

048with staff members. They interview us. They observe us. They look at us in action to see if the internal controls that we say we have, we are actually doing those. Um, they it's really a district-wide audit. and they also meet with our HR department, our um IT department to test you know the security of our systems. Um they will meet with some pe some of the individuals from federal programs. um this year because we opened a new high school, Riot Tech, they actually came out and took a tour of Riot Tech and observed our kind of our fixed asset internal controls and uh Juan will be going over some of that in his report. So the whole audit ends and culminates in in November when we have our exit meeting with the audit committee and

049we go over the results of the audit. And of course we love to hear everything that we're doing right. That's always fun and great. [clears throat] But we also welcome the feedback in areas that we can improve on. And so tonight um will be reporting on some of that. So I will hand it over to one >> as one's coming up. All the board members were you able to pull it up if you can have it. Does anyone need help? So, >> yes. >> Okay. >> Well, good evening. How you doing, board members? Uh, madame president, uh, Dr. Cleveland, my name is Juan Garcia. I'm audit manager for Beasley Mitchell & Company. Um, as Heather Gin said, I am presenting 2025 results. Uh, they do stamp from July 1st all the way to June 30th,

0502025. I want to thank management. I will start with Dr. Cleveland. Thank you for your hospitality. Thank you for everything you do and give us access to everybody. uh Heather Gobbledon as well. She's our main point of contact. She made it really easy for us to gather all the information. She helped us pressure everybody else and the other staff to get us on time and it was all very timely and went really well. Um one of the reasons that we are presenting a little bit later this year, we did have our federal shutdown. Uh we did have what we call a compliance supplement for federal awards was released a little bit later. Um because of that, we did have an extension instead of November 15th, which is our normal uh deadline, we did u uh

051have a deadline all the way January 20th for our initial submission. Um, like Heather did mention, we did get released on February 3rd and became public by February 8th. I would like to thank management and say that we did not encounter any difficulty in the audit. There was no disagreements and we did not encounter on any unrecorded statements. I am going to go through two opinions. Uh, the first one is opinion on the federal financial statements and the second one is on your financial statements as a whole. uh the ones within the financial statements as a whole. They do have an a little piece on the budgets as well. Your budgets need to be in compliance and we also offer an opinion on that. Um our opinion on your financial statements is a nonmodified opinion

052which is the best opinion you can get. This does state that we hold no reservations and we believe that your financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects. When it comes to your single audit, uh it is also a nonmodified opinion. The only slight difference is the federal awards are presented fairly in relation to the financial statements. like to go through some items in the in the financial statements. We do have different presentations. Uh one of the biggest presentations is what we call our governmentwide financial statements. These are not representative to the information that you receive on a monthly basis because we do include our long-term items like capital assets. It also includes long-term debt, uh net pension liability, and other things that are more long-term in nature. On the fund level, which are

053your fund financial statements, this is more representative of what you all receive on a monthly basis because we do include only about 60 days worth of acrruel. Everything else is on a cash basis, cash in, cash out. We also have proprietary financial statements. These proprietary financial statements are what we consider a business-like financial funds. These funds are uh I think is a messag uh um which is your daycare center. So, we do present a little bit on those. Uh looking at your governmentwide financial statements, we did have a change in net position. If this was a business, this would be your net income. Uh and it was quite a bit of a a jump of 66, uh 158. And even your we did also have a restatement of uh 11 million due to uh what

054we call cap uh your compensated absences. In current year, we did have what we have a gas b 101, which required a revamp of all compensated absence recording, which included this year for you all. The biggest difference is that we had to record some of your sick leave. In prior years, sick leave was not recorded since it was not paid off at termination of your employees. Um, but the change that the federal government decided is that if there's any estimate of the amount that might be taken, we did estimate that amount and we did record it as a liability. Because of the restatement, your ending net position on a governmentwide level is 62,512,000. 62,512,235. On a fund level, we also had a change net position. This one was a negative 3 million uh leaving your

055ending net position of 103,897. For proprietary funds, those are very small and we did have a change of net position of -26,000 leaving your ending fund balance of 262713. On our opinion for the finan for our budget budgetary comparisons, we are only looking at a few of these budgets. We do not look at all of them as a whole. We looked at we call all the general funds and any major special revenue fund. Uh there were three uh general fund that have been broken out and this is your operational your people's transportation and your local revenue operational. I am happy to report that you are in compliance with your budgetary compliance and we did have uh an over budget of expenditures and it was a very minimal so very close it looked very good at

056the end. Next I'd like to talk about the single audit. Um the way the single audit works is that we do select a few federal programs based on a risk assessment we conduct. It is m mostly done on uh prior year the large the size of your audit program and as well as prior year audits and how long these programs have been audited in the past. Current year we did have a special education cluster and your Medicaid cluster. These are the two programs we did uh report on and like as I mentioned earlier was a non-modifying on both modified opinion on both. there is no findings related to your federal programs. Uh we are going to be submitting within the next couple of weeks to the federal audit clearing house. Uh Heather will help me

057with that and we both kind of will review the the submission, approve it and then the federal government will have a copy of this um public for public to everybody. Next I'd like to talk about prior year findings. We did not have any prior year findings to report. Um but then on the next slide we will go through one finding of current year. This is what we call in other matters. Other matters is the lowest level of finding you can get. We do have higher level of findings which is like significant deficiency or material weaknesses as well. This internal control over capital assets. What was the issue here was that when we went to a real tech the high school there's a lot of moving parts coming in and out. There was a lot of

058equipment that was coming in and one of the things that we found some equipment that did not have a tag. Um, now researching some of this tags, they were able to identify which items they were. We were able to see the depreciation and all that was in order. So, we didn't consider at a higher level. We just believe that maybe something as simple as a little stronger tag will really uh help what we call preventative controls. Detective controls were there. We were able to count the list as you all get presented to your list at the end of the year. You'll be able to certify, but we just knew those preventative controls can really help in the future prevent any of these uh issues. Um the lucky thing about it, it doesn't hasn't caused any

059issues in the past that we noted. So it is that's why our level lower level level finding. And finally, we do have our timeline. We did have an exit conference. This was management. We did sit down with management before we we submit any of these uh financials. They go through it. They make us any changes. They give us a little bit of feedback. After that, we do submit to the OSA, which is a state auditor's uh the office of the state auditor. And we did submit on January 20th for that. We did have an OSA released on February 3rd and as you all know today we are presenting to you all the final results. Is there any questions, comments, concerns that can help? >> Any questions room anyone any questions on anything? Do you want

060to give any comments? >> Just if if any member of the board wants additional information or have any interest uh we certainly are willing to provide that as well. So, uh, this is obviously a an overview of of the report, but know if you want more information, it's available for you. >> Yes, ma'am. Well, we all work for the board, so you're we're available throughout the year for any questions and concerns. >> Yeah. Um, [clears throat] do you want to talk since you've been on this committee for? >> I've been on the committee. I was a parent community member for five years on and then now I'm the chair of the committee. Um, but yeah, I think we're looking for a a new parent community member. So, if you're out there, you're watching or you're

061here, you want to participate, it's it's only, as Heather said, five months of the year, it's only five meetings that you have to go to, but it's very informative. It tells you a lot of the behind the scenes on what actually goes into all of the money stuff for the school. And I appreciate all the hard work that you guys do, the staff that Heather and their team does. So, yeah, thank you for coming up from Hopefully, you're staying the night and I'm driving back home tonight. Are you >> close by? >> Yeah, thank you for coming out. Um, I do want to just put out to the board that you're going to see these emails that come in and they ask, you know, it's like an audit, like it is an audit, so they're

062going to ask you some questions. And so sometimes you're like, "Am I supposed to answer this?" But just know, you can always ask Heather um if this is a an okay email um um to answer because those do come and sometimes I'm like, "Oh, wait. I do actually need to look at this and and answer the questions that come from it." So just be aware. When does that usually come out? I'm [clears throat] trying to remember. >> About July. Okay. So, just be aware that that will come out in in July. But thank you for everyone who's helped with with all that, those who are on the committee and everything. And if you do become that parent, look at like what could happen later, you can become a [laughter] member of the a member of

063the board. So, anything further from you, Dr. Cleveland, or anyone else? >> Okay. Yeah, we're good. >> Well, thank you very much. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. >> I feel like we were clapping all the time that I need to clap for everyone. [laughter] >> I know. I'm like everyone good >> talk when they're finished. [laughter] >> I know, right? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um our next report is going to be on federal programs by Suzanne Wyn, our executive director of federal programs and many other things. S. [laughter] >> Good evening. Madam President Gford, members of the board, Dr. Cleveland, thank you so much for your time tonight. I'm happy to report about our department. A little bit about our department. We have a small yet very, very wonderful, talented, hard-working

064team. There's myself. There is Evan Thomas who's our federal programs instructional coordinator. We also have our district translation and interpretation specialist, Erica Espiron, and administrative assistant, Michelle Priest. Next slide. These are the foundational priorities of our department, mainly student centered focus. So everything we do is about how do we enrich and make the educational experience richer for our students and also fiscal and programmatic um stewardship. So I manage and oversee all the federal programs titles 1 2 3 4 state Indiana uh bilingual education funds and federal Indian education funds. And lastly, but not least, compliance and alignment, ensuring that all of our programs are aligned for that greater purpose of serving our students and community. And we always um champion meeting beyond the compliance requirements. So going above and beyond and making everything that we

065do a really meaningful and enriching experience for all stakeholders, not just checking the box to make sure that we've done it. And here we have three different categories if you will around the the work that we do. The first bucket I'll call it is the professional learning that we support and work in close collaboration with other departments around to ensure that the adults in our system have the tools and skill set to best serve our students and also providing direct support for our students and parents. just providing a lot of support through various programs, communication, relationship building, and then also community connection. We put a lot of time and energy into building these relationships with community agencies, entities, and our tribal partners through mechanisms such as tribal consultation and just really getting to know people

066and groups of people at all levels to make sure that we're engaging all voices and really responding to the needs of our community. Here, I'm happy to highlight some of our programs through different bullet points. Highlights, and photos are always a great way to illustrate the great work that's going on for our state funded bilingual multicultural education programs. We have nearly 2200 students in program this year. Languages represented within those programs include Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, German, American Sign Language, and Japanese. And next year, we're proud to add to that Portuguese. And noteworthy to date, since its inception, we've granted 221 graduates with the New Mexico State Seal of Bilingualism by Literacy. And there along the bottom, you see various photos from our events like Springfest. The black and white photo is the emblem of

067the state seal of bi bilingualism by literacy that gets embossed on a foil sticker. adhered to a student's diploma once they earned that distinction. Our Dia de los Muertos event, beautiful Japanese writing and um drawing from our students, Chinese lanterns. Just a small sampling of the beautiful rich cultures in our community. Next here we have our English language development program or in short ELD. We have a really strong, clear, precise identification process that follows federal law. In New Mexico, when a student enters kindergarten, uh depending on how they fill out their language usage survey, it prompts us to screen a student if they're a potential English learner. And from there, depending on the outcome, they're either identified as an English learner or not. and a similar process for other students that transfer in from either

068another district in the state or out of state perhaps. And then we also administer the annual access for ELLL's assessment. Um, and here on the screen you see two charts and the left one is the district exit rate and state exit rate data. The district's data is in the red bars from 2023 and the blue line is where the state was performing as far as students who have exited program. And in New Mexico, if they score a composite of 4.7 or greater, they've meeted uh exit criteria, which means they're fluent English proficient. And you can see every year we exceed that of the state rate. And then on the right in the orange yellow color is our district progress and state progress. So Dr. Happy Miller had presented on data last time and talked about

069how students have within five years to reach that proficiency and it's an incremental growth. So that's their growth from when they're first identified and the growth toward the exit. And you can see again we outperform the state. Next slide. Oops. Earlier Dr. Cleveland was talking about the rich linguistic diversity in our community. And I'll just note that that 23 plus languages was representative of the e families or English learner families within our community. You expand that further to our entire community and we have over 48 languages represented. So really really culturally and linguistically rich that we're super proud of. Um we also provide interpretation and translation services in our uh in our district. So this is just data from last year. We met 487 total requests for interpretations. 162 essential documents were processed for translation.

070So just a point of clarification, interpretation is what is interpreted verbally or orally and then translations are written. And then the scope of our work for translations and interpretations is from general education to special education, anything legal. And it also includes district-wide exams for students who are eligible for that accommodation. Here we go to Native American programs. I have two slides of photos for this. This first one here highlights some of the district level programs and supports that we offer. We are proud in our district to have students representing all 23 New Mexico PBLO tribes and nations. and our students exceed that of the state performance rates as well. It was just too much information to share with you tonight, but our all of our students are doing really well. Um, this one here shows

071some school-based level support. So, I'll say that our department is very small. However, we have a larger network of extended team members and most of them are teachers or in some other capacity as their normal job contract, but then additionally they take on additional roles and wear other hats such as Native American leison or EL coordinators, bilingual coordinators and so forth. So, we have a whole network, a broader team serving all of our students. And these are pictures from some of the school-based um activities and programs that they engage in. Almost last are some flyers for upcoming programs and events that we have coming out of our department. I warmly invite each of you to attend any or all of these different events. We have a parent learning series coming up, Love and Logic, facilitated

072by our very own principal of Joe Harris Elementary, Trent Hefner. Um, this has been a huge success. This will be our third year of offering this parent class series. We have Springfest coming up pretty soon in March. We have our annual Powow 18th annual, believe it or not, and also our Native American senior banquet. And then at the bottom, it doesn't I didn't mean for it to be so small, but it's hard to get all the information on as kind of a bookend or a bridge to next year, if you will, our a robust offering of summer programs that we have. And lastly, I welcome any questions or comments you have. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um I just I need a I want to put a plug in for for the POW.

073Um, all of these are so good. But, you know, last year I had that opportunity to it. I think I can't remember there was a track event that was happening at the same time. And so, we walked over there and there's food vendors and we got some food and some lemonade and everyone was really jealous of um that we had that and walked around and um just the jewelry is out and all of those wonderful things and the performances. Um it's it was just spectacular and so I hope so many you do such you truly do such a good job with all of these. Um and so I hope more people in our community and our and especially in our school community will go out and and see these things. We are we are richly

074blessed with um with all these events that we put on. Um Dr. Cleveland, would you like to the pow-wow is a wonderful event and it draws in a lot of people, but one of my favorites is the senior banquet and I've attended many of them and and and I think it's just a it's a wonderful celebration of our Native American students who are graduating and they generally bring a motivational speaker and then each student is awarded a piece of art and um you know I thought they looked wonderful but and someone told me that this particular gentleman who gives them that piece of art every year has art that hangs in was sewn in and so it it's um and really encouraging young people to reach for their for their dreams and that they can

075do anything and they can be anything and it it it's it's always just a very inspirational so I've enjoyed the banquetss and pawa is wonderful but the point is there a lot of we have a lot of events that celebrate uh the uniqueness of of the people in this school district and we um sometimes I'm I'm amazed when I talk to people other places they don't realize how diverse Rio Rancho public schools really is and they're shocked I tell you how many languages we have and where all of our students have come from and and but we're proud of that and that has made our district very rich and very strong and so uh Suzanne does a wonderful job in this department. She's built lots of bridges uh to our various communities and uh always

076with the intent of making them feel wanted and feeling part of the district and u so I appreciate your hard work. One one other thing um I just want to comment on is the uh the bilingual certificate. You want to just address briefly I don't you take two classes in uh Spanish and you get the certificate um kind of what the rigor is that's associated with that seal. >> Of course it's a highly rigorous uh bar to to reach. So the students have to have four units of credit in the same language other than English and they have to meet all of those courses with the C average or better as well as all of their English classes. So that's the biiteracy bilingual piece. So C average or higher in English and the language other

077than English. And then they also have to meet the the language proficiency exam score criteria. So, for example, if they're taking the AP exam, they have to score three or higher, which means that they're fluent in the other language. >> Thank you. >> I have to say, I love to see Portuguese on there. My daughter served a mission in Portugal. And um I had no idea actually how many countries around the world actually speak Portuguese until she was there. And so many African countries. And of course, everyone knows Brazil, but um that's fantastic. That just makes I'm excited to to tell her that. So, um, we'll go to questions and comments from the board. Um, so you're good. Okay. U Michael, >> uh, forgive my ignorance here. Is it, do we have language immersion programs

078in like elementary schools in Rio Rancho? >> We do have a few different program models. So, we do have dual language programs at both Quest Dulo and Maggie Cordova. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Pretty neat. >> Yeah. >> And students may transfer to that program if they have an interest in doing so. Are they heavily utilized? Are they full? Always >> they both have a waiting list and it's the the biggest challenge we have with our bilingual programs, especially at elementary is staffing. So finding the right person. >> Right. Right. But but it is a program in high demand. >> Yeah, >> we would love We've talked about this. I hope maybe at some point we could have another language immersion in another language for perhaps another part of the world.

079And so uh whether it would be Portuguese or whether it would be Japanese or whether it would be whatever, it would be nice to have one opportunity for students to uh even choose a language from outside um our own particular area >> that is just gaining so much interest especially at the high school level. We just don't have the capacity right now but we want to started at elementary but when American Sign Language started that just was bursting at the seams. This is Japanese first year and they're at capacity. Huge waiting list and I expect the same with Portuguese. >> My daughter has loved American Sign Languages. Love taking that. So, thank you. Anything else, Michael? On your Okay, Rebecca. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> Anyone else? Any other comments?

080Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. Thank you so much. >> All right. And our last report for the evening is on communications. um Wendham Kimley, our executive director of communications, will present and as he's coming up, so board, I don't know if if you've realized, so we're trying every year, honestly, for the board as we try to do reports. Um, and this is especially great uh as we have three new board members right now. So, you can kind of just get a feel for all the things just like you're saying like do we have language immersion? like like there's we I you don't know until you're like you know you know what all the things that happen in our schools and and sometimes um it's interesting because Seth was just saying like maybe

081we should have like people follow us you know you know they have these different programs like that because there is so much that happens that people don't know and understand. So with that we the one other thing we we waited because we wanted the new board members to to hear the the report. So that's why you're kind of getting double time. Usually we spread those reports out over the entire school year, but uh we wanted in this case it was a purposeful decision to wait until the new board members came. >> Handing it all over. >> So now you've got double. >> All right. [laughter] >> Okay. >> All right. Go ahead, Windom. >> All right. Good evening, uh, President Galbrath, Dr. Cleveland, members of the board. My name is Windom Kemley. I'm in the

082executive director of the communications strategy and engagement office. I'm going to preface my presentation by saying this is the first time that I have ever introduced myself like that. I am the executive director of the communications department. That's that's how we go. But if you ever see anything that comes from the communications strategy and engagement office, that's that's us. So rest assured, it's it's the same thing. But to save us from, you know, saying a lot of words that we might not need to, we just say communications. So um first and foremost, I'd like to um sort of outline the the purpose of communications. And I know this is sort of groundbreaking, but our main purpose of our department is to effectively communicate. So, uh, basically we we take any information that needs to be

083disseminated to the public, to our staff, any stakeholders that we have in the district, and we we do that in a an effective and and timely manner. Um and now that that is kind of a a broad topic that that we have um where we are um talking about internal communications, external communications. There's certain projects that we work on and I'm going to introduce you to our our team in the next slide here. But um everybody in this department wears many many hats and uh we all exchange hats all the time and it's it's just we are very much um like um Susanna's department where we're small but we're powerful. So um next slide please. I'd like to introduce you to who's on our team. So um Jennifer Smith is our executive uh assistant. She

084keeps the the boat afloat, so to speak. She does a lot of budget work and um really keeps the party going for us. Um, Mr. John Longwell is our web master. He's in charge of the website, of the app, of our mass communication service, Thrillshare. He does a lot of online training for our staff, uh, when it comes to form site. Um, he's kind of a wealth of knowledge when it comes to anything online or it in the communications department. >> Thanks for his picture because he's always in the background and I >> That's John. That is him. I know he's Yeah, he's kind of our eye in the sky for board meetings, too. So that that is him right there. He's a [laughter] very handsome gentleman. Um we also have Claudia Valdez who is

085our special events coordinator. Um I'm I'm saying this for anybody who's watching because of course I know that everybody up on the stand knows who Claudia is at this point. She works very very closely with the board in a lot of different events and for all of the board meetings she is she's very present does a lot of of excellent work. And then uh finally we have Mr. Douglas Casease. is our special or I'm sorry, he's a a um communication specialist. And when I talk about somebody who wears a lot of hats, that is [snorts] he comes to mind first and foremost. He uh when he started was doing a lot of um newsletter work, a lot of graphic design, but that has since turned into videography and photography and um he's still writing a

086lot for the district. He still does a ton of of more graphic design things. And he's we're we're just grateful to have everybody. We're honestly grateful and fortunate to have have this team of of wonderful folks here. So, um, moving on to kind of I want to talk about some of the main priorities that we have and and I will preface this to this is sort of just scratching the iceberg with what the the department does, but I wanted to consolidate it into sort of our ongoing main department priorities. And first and foremost, of course, is the dissemination of communication both internal and external. So internal, we're talking updates from the the office of um the superintendent, any information from the district that needs to be out to uh staff members. That includes newsletters, district

087updates, there's policy updates that that we inform our staff about. Um and talking points. We we write talking points quite a bit for principles and for directors. And then on the external side, it's a lot of the same things, but that relate to parents and community members. So, um, we're talking emails to to parents, crisis communications, which we're we're going to touch on a little bit more. Um, calendar and program updates. Um, the the list goes on and on. Anything that needs to be told to parents, we are in charge of that in this department. All right, next slide for me. Um, that includes media and public relations. So uh part of our responsibility in the communications department is to maintain effective and positive relationships with media outlets. We want to uh make sure that

088the community at large both in our own city community and statewide and even nationally sometimes um that we have a good reputation and that we we maintain that uh positive outlook that we have. And that also um includes responding to uh media inquiries all the time. And we have we're we're fortunate in the district to have a pretty robust and and positive relationship with the media both local and a little bit farther out. And um that is in part to the great work that is done in our department. All right, next slide for me. Uh this kind of goes handinhand with media relations sometimes but of course we are also responsible for crisis communication and so uh Dr. Cleveland mentioned earlier that we are in charge of the snow day messages. I never thought that

089I would um not enjoy seeing a snowstorm come in. But it just means that I'm going to be up at three o'clock in the morning writing the message together. And that's not a bad thing. It's it's you know it's part of what I do and I'm glad to do it. But man, I really do not pray for snow anymore in my life. But >> doubt people are going to show up at your house. >> I know. I I'm sorry to everybody that you know is listening. But uh no, that that also extends into some emergency situations. So on the uh slide that I have here, if you can see that, that was um one of the most recent crisises that we dealt with was the the water main break in uh Rio Rancho. and that

090fell into the communications department to let parents and students of the affected schools know immediately and let them know what the plan was and keep them updated with um where we were with returning back to school when that happened. But um another part of the the department's responsibilities is maintenance of the crisis communication plan and we actually have a revised crisis communication plan in the works that you will be notified about when it when it starts to become a little bit more real. So, uh, we'll move on to the next slide here. This is my favorite part of the job and this is why I feel like working for the communications department for Rio Rancho public schools is one of the most fun jobs in the district. We get to just go out and highlight

091all of the amazing things that are happening in our schools. And that's both sort of spontaneous and on the other hand planned projects that we have. So, we uh maintain good relationships with principles and and activities directors to find out when cool things are happening, find out when they have something that they want to highlight in their schools. And we go out and take pictures and videos and um it's a lot of fun. I am always so so impressed with the talent and the um drive of our students and our staff in the schools. Um all of the cool programs that that go on. I think that um it's it's important for myself to to realize how amazing our district is and it on the other half of that that coin. I get to share

092that with everybody and I get to brag about the district and it's it's so much fun and everybody in our department takes part in that whether it's going to take pictures of events that they're going to or um highlighting the the cool things that are happening in the district. And um another part of that again is planned projects. So we uh take the brunt of of big district-wide um community and and school engagement projects. For example, I'm going to do a shameless plug here. I apologize for that. But the destination graduation video series, if you haven't looked into it, if you haven't watched any of the episodes, I'm a little biased because they're coming out of my office. But I'm telling you right now, it's it's next level stuff. I mean, it's it's some fantastic

093things. If you don't know, we we document the lives of a handful of seniors across the district during the entire senior year, and it all culminates into we've done two seasons now, but it always culminates into this fantastic final episode where you get to see all of the students walk across the stage and get their diplomas. And uh not only is it a feel-good story for the district, but it's a way for the community to see what it's actually like to be a student in 2025, 2026. And it's something that not a lot of people um can relate to today. So we we get to shine that light on on our amazing students. And that's just one of the projects that that we work on. We're always continually trying to um think of new ways

094to highlight the the amazing work that our students do. Um, one other aspect of the department is uh, brand and digital asset management. We are responsible for the website. We're responsible for the app, for uh, all social media channels in the in the district and that is a lot easier said than done, especially in the age of of the internet. We have to maintain a a a steady presence online. And that's another fun part. It goes handinhand with the um the previous slide here where we get to um shout out our students every single day. We get to brag about our students and it's it's easy in this in this district. So um we also maintain pretty steady growth in our online avenues. So, um we we've seen uh positive growth in all of our

095social media channels, which um when a lot of people think about social media, they think like content creators and that's how you make a living these days. Any kid wants, you know, to be a Tik Tok star these days, but for us, it's just another avenue to disseminate communication to to our parents, to our community. And so, we um we do a pretty good job of of keeping those up to date and relevant in in today's world. All right, next slide for me. Um I think we're we're behind one. If you could skip one up. There you go. Uh this is the the last one that we have. And um Claudia has a big hand in this, but we are responsible for special event coordination [snorts] um within the communications department. And that kind of

096reaches a lot of fun things, a lot of trainings, a lot of um it's it's a wide-reaching uh topic. But um just looking at the list here, there's a a wide uh variety of events that we are responsible for. And I I do want to point out the just to illustrate this a little bit, 60% of the communications department is currently here in this board meeting and is in board meetings every single week. So it you know that that is an easy way to see kind of what something we are are responsible for is. Um, another thing we were talking about today and with the commendations is district fundraisers, fundraisers, excuse me. Uh, United Way is coordinated by the communications department by Claudia. Um, we have some fantastic uh life-changing fundraisers and and drives this

097past year. We did a very successful food drive in the district office where we collected it was over 11,000 pounds of food for 11,700. Yeah. Yeah. she knows. But um it was to benefit um food pantries in the in the city as well as we collected food baskets for um families in our district for for students and their their parents. So um there's a lot of fantastic things that happen year round that keep Claudia very busy, but um a lot of things that that are very positive for the community. And with that, I'll be happy to take any questions or comments that you >> Okay. Um Dr. [clears throat] Clinton, do you want to add anything? Well, I just just a quick comment on um you know th this department of course like all of

098our departments is a very important one. I think one of the things that's interesting though about this one is as as the school district grew as the community grew um this department became increasingly important so that we could stay in touch with our parents with our kids with with our staff. we have 200 employees. Um and and that whole piece of communication and getting out information because if you don't uh people come up with something that's not always good, you know, it just people don't deal well with uncertainty and not having the information. But this is, as you can see, this department does a wide variety of things. And um when when they're even they're probably the most visible as emergency situations, they have to be fast and they have to respond quickly, have to

099have a good plan. And um and women is pull together a really good team and they they do a great job. And you know, when I retire, the one thing I won't miss are snow days either. So uh they're they're not the fun thing, but everyone's waiting to know. Everyone's wanting to know what's are you going to have school? Are you not going to have school? And and why was that decision made? And so uh I appreciate the department and all they do and I hope you will look if you haven't had a chance to look at destination graduation some wonderful segments and and uh they were recognized by NISRA which is the national school public relations association and those um projects come up against all the projects across the country and uh and and

100it was one of the projects that they chose to to recognize as uh really being an outstanding example of school communication. So, I thank Windom for his, you know, it's always we've got something. I know every time he sees this coming, any of us, me, any of us, oh my goodness, we've got we've got something else that we've got to to to look at. But this department is just critical in terms of communication. Um, you know, when when we started the district in 95, this community was about 35,000 people, and today we're well over 100,000. The school district grew with it. That means it's harder to get information out across the community. Used to be pretty easy to do. Not so easy anymore. Our populations have changed. We don't have just a population, as you

101heard in the presentation before. We have lots of populations in this um in this community that we need to have outreach to. And we're proud of the events. Most of the events that we have, I think, have just been so well done and and represent the district well in in the eyes of the community. So, um, I just want to express my thanks for the work that they do and a good good it's a good presentation of of all of the things that are on the plate and there is an awful lot that's on this this plate. So, um, and thank you for for the report. >> Yeah, I want to say thank you, too. And I know that sometimes it's really frustrating when someone says, "Well, I want better communication and I don't know

102what's happening." and you're like, we put out an email and it's on our website and we put it out on social media and we like called your house and and so [laughter] so sometimes it can be I hear those sometimes and I'm like it is everywhere. Um so thank you uh for all of those things um that you're doing to try to try to communicate as much as possible to um to our community. Um so we'll go to questions and comments from the board. Michael, anything? >> Thank you for your dill service. I don't have any questions. Thank you. >> I don't questions. I just want to say thank you for all your hard work. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Um I do want to put one more maybe I shouldn't put

103the plug out there, but I'm going to do it anyway, Windom, so hopefully you're okay. Um is that I through Dr. Cleveland, if there's things that you need as far as sometimes we get asked um questions through media or there's something controversial that happens, um this is this department can help us as well. Um and so you can always reach out to Dr. Cleveland and um and she can kind of help navigate talking points. They'll send us talking points um for things um as well as sometimes and I used to do this with Beth all the time. I think she used to go, "Okay." [laughter] But she said she never did that, but I'm sure inside. Um, but I just I I would sometimes be worried that I was going to say something that wasn't

104right, you know, and it's going to get printed somewhere. And so, um, if you receive those things in writing or even if someone does call you, you can say, "Okay, um, I'll get back to you or give me a moment." And we can have a conversation with the district and they can help us just to make sure that what we're saying we think is is appropriate, um, for those things. So, >> and if I could I >> you will never bother us with questions. Any staff members, any community members, anybody that has a stake in Rio Ranch public schools, do not feel like you're bothering us with questions or that you're bugging us. >> And truly, I know Beth wasn't Sounds like a challenge. >> No, it is. I challenge you right now before everybody.

105No, but communications rps.net if you have any questions regarding any sort of communication or any anything on that topic. >> I saw Kevin like, >> "Yeah, >> does she do that every time?" [laughter] No, not every time. Um but it is you know these things are going out public and so we just want to make sure we're representing right. So don't feel stressed when those things do happen. Um you can reach out and we can get the help that we that we need with that. So and sometimes it help the legal department helps with that too. So um anything else from the board? Anything else wind from you? Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> Okay. We do not have any public comment. Correct. Okay. Unless I miss something. So, we do not have

106any public comment for tonight. Just going to go through that. Um, we'll now go to the consent agenda. There's nothing that needs to be pulled off to talk about. We can go for a motion on the consent. >> Board member Mer, I motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Board member Maurice. I second. >> All right. We have a motion and a second and all in favor. >> I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. All right. We'll now move into the business part of our meeting. And I'm telling you, there are families across Rio Rancho who are really excited about this this next part. They're not tuning in, I'm sure, but they are. Um, we will now consider the approval of um draft instructional calendar. Peggy Johnston, our director of human services, will be presenting. >>

107Thank you so much. Good evening. Uh, let's do the list of important dates that might be easier to follow along with. Thank you for asking, Claudia. >> You're good because it's taking me a minute to pull it up over here, too. >> Okay. >> Perfect. Well, good evening, uh, Madame President Galbreth, uh, Dr. Cleveland, and members of the board. My name is Peggy Johnston. I'm the HR director of operations and I'm here tonight to present to you the draft uh instructional calendars. So, we do have two instructional calendars. In fact, we have three. Uh it's kind of a good news, bad news situation. We didn't have to make a new calendar for Riotech this year like we did for last year, but we found we had to do a new calendar for our Questa prek

108program. They had some different days, but we have a different calendar for elementary and secondary, and that is based on the number of professional development days that the um New Mexico Public Education Department allows us to count. So, that's why we have different calendars. I think following along on that list of important dates that Claudia has pulled up will be the easiest way to go through it. I did want to say that I've been spending the last several months with our calendar committee, a wonderful group of people uh representing all of our district uh school locations and also our departments and they've just been fantastic to work with. They bring back information from their sites and we talk about it together. Uh they take information from the committee and our discussions back to their sites

109and bring us, you know, their recommendations from everyone that they work with. So here's what we've come up with. Our first day of instructional staff uh contract contract sorry will be August 3rd and there will be three professional development days. That's very similar to what we've done in most of our previous years. There will be a secondary jump start day on August 5 and then all students uh first day will be August 6. I am not going to reference the secondary I'm sorry the um prek at PUA on this list. Um, we do have that calendar included though if you'd like to look at it. We of course have a Labor Day holiday. Uh, then we've got a professional development day on September 8th. Um, probably we don't care too much about the quarters and

110trimesters and such except for all the teacher all the CNI people in the audience. Um, and then we have another professional development day for elementary on October 7. We have two days of fall break which again is following what we've done several years in in the past. We've included some of our testing dates on this calendar. So we have PSAT testing on October 14. Elementary conferences again on November and I'm sorry I I believe we actually pulled that date. Um so I think we pulled the November 2nd. Nope, we put it back in my my apologies. So many moving parts. >> We do have a lot of moving parts here. That is something to I wanted to point out. Our elementary calendar, if you do take a look at it, we do have two conference

111days built into the calendar for next year. In the past years, we've had two in November and two in March. This this year, the 2526 year, we tried something different. We tried having elementary conferences throughout the months of November and the month of March. Um, and not sure it it seemed like it might not have been a great experiment. Um, it could have just been that it was the first year and change is hard sometimes. Um, but it didn't seem to work for all the stakeholders. So, we went back to having designated conference days. So, we have one designated conference day in November and one in March. That is also a change from the peed. They used to allow us to count four days as instructional days and now they are only allowing two days

112to be counted. That doesn't mean that all of the conferences will happen on that day. There may be other conferences that would happen throughout the month. For example, if there were uh any parents that might want to do virtual conferences, they may happen at some other time throughout the month. And then we have an election day holiday on November 3rd and we do have to to uh follow that uh per the legislation and that is because a lot of our district uh locations are used as voting locations. We have a Veterans Day holiday on November 11. Thanksgiving will be 3 days off November 25 to 27. Uh, two really important days on our calendar that I think get passed over a lot are these bus rider count days. Those are the only days that peed

113looks at to see how many children are riding our school buses. That's really important for our folks to know um out in the community. If you can get your kids on the bus that day, it's a great day to get your kids on the bus. So, that's why we include it on the instructional calendar. Um, and then we have our winter break beginning on December 21st. And I did want to note that winter and spring break are aligning with APS's same dates. We will have a professional development day. The first day back after winter break, which is January 4, so no students. [snorts] Uh and then students are returning on January 5. Martin Luther King Day of course holiday will be the 18th. Uh that other bus rider count day is February 10. This year

114we will sorry, next year we will be including a President's Day holiday. uh we've been able to include that sometimes in the past and other times we've not been able to. So, we were able to fit it into the calendar this year. That was something that we did hear a lot from our school sites that they'd like to see that holiday put back into the calendar. Um I'd say probably three things that were really important were starting in August and not July, uh President's Day holiday coming back and ending in May and not June. So, we were able to accommodate all of those. another professional development day on February 16th and then some more testing dates. Uh another elementary conference on March 19 uh which will then be followed by our spring break which is

115March 22 to 26 again aligning with APS. Uh a professional development day in April and then we have our graduation dates which are to be determined. I will also point out one thing that's a little different than in past years. We're not going to do an independence um high school winter graduation. We've done winter graduations in the past. Uh they will still graduate, but they will walk with everyone. Everyone will walk together in May. And then the last day of school and the last day of the contract for our instructional staff will be May 28th. So, uh we do actually get to end our school year before the Memorial Day holiday. So, that's nice. If you'd like to take a look at the PUA prek calendar, I did include it. The shining stars prek calendar

116will follow the elementary instructional calendar. And I will stand for questions at this time. >> Uh for Riot, are we going to have that put up on this as well? I'm seeing that. >> Yeah, on the list of dates and then also on the calendar, there's no >> graduation TBD for Riotech. So the Riot Tech students are actually their home schools are Cleveland and Rio High. So they actually graduate with those home schools >> because I know this year Dr. Johnson's doing a graduation for them. Is that different? >> Sure. Absolutely. >> Like let me tell you. >> No, that's >> Come on up. I love you, but Riot Tech does have their own graduation. [laughter] So, and we do need to add that. We need to add the Riotech date on there. Thank you

117for reminding that. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Also, Renee, would you D address the the shift this year uh for um they this year we followed CNN's calendar. Next year it will not that will not be the case. Could you just share a little about about that? >> Yes. Um we had a few issues following a different calendar. For example, during spring break when Riot Tech was in school and the rest of the district wasn't, uh there was no transportation for the students, security, there were we had to work something out, the nurses, we had to work something out. So, the days that they were in and we were the rest of the district was out caused some problems. So, what we're going to try this upcoming year, they're going to follow the um the schedule

118that Real Rancho Public Schools does and the kids are in college. So, if we're on spring break and they have college classes, they've got to get to their college classes. On the reverse side of that, if they have their high school classes and there are no college classes, they can come in late or leave early. So, we're going to kind of open up that campus a little bit. Um, but we are going to follow the Rio Rancho public school calendar for the high school portion of the school. >> How have you have we received any feedback just from students or anything on that? Just kind of I guess we'll see at the end of this next year and how that goes. >> It'll probably be kind of like it was this year where during spring

119or during like when they when was it during fall break, I guess we were like, "Ah, >> wait a second. There's no transportation for these guys. >> Yeah. >> So, yeah, >> this we all knew there'd be some changes after the first year. We would learn through this this year and we've learned quite a bit. >> So, um I think the changes will work much better next year. >> I'm hopeful. Yes. >> And and we're going to get those dates as soon as possible. We've submitted them to um Rio Rancho Events Center and I'm just waiting to hear back they're okay that for the dates for graduations for the two comprehensives and then we'll just kind of build on all the other ones from that. >> Okay, >> they hang on until the very bitter

120end because they are trying to uh balance their concert schedules and we understand that's their money making that's their business. Uh but we are always really eager to get those dates so that our families can make their their plans as well. But we're lucky to have the center and we very much appreciate working with the city to be able to use uh the event center. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Renee. >> So that's what you will see. The only things that are still to be determined then will be those graduation dates and we'll get that Riotech graduation also on there as well. >> Okay. Okay. Other questions or anything from from you questions on this side of the table? >> Quick question. Can you describe the committee process for working with a little bit more

121in detail? >> So uh I send out an an email to all uh principles and uh executive directors in December and I ask for nominations for the committee. Um some folks will nominate one person, some folks will nominate two or three uh from their site. So we try to get as many as as many as want to. Uh we'd like to hear have as many voices as we can. Uh we also have a union representative who is on the uh calendar committee as well. Um and then we have uh folks who maybe have a different sort of stake not so much in setting the calendar but they need to know for example um April who works with our powers school uh she's our p power school administrator. She needs to have a good idea of

122what's happening with the calendar kind of uh you know firsthand. So she's not necessarily there to give her opinion on things. Um but she does want to see what's happening with the calendar. Are the nominations principally staff members then on the committee? >> Yes. Yeah, they are. I have had some members of the public who have reached out to me in the past and asked to be on it. We absolutely welcome that if they would like to. Um it's not something that we put a call out for, but we do ab absolutely welcome anybody who'd like to come. Yeah. >> And I don't know about the other the number one question I asked is like, can I be on a committee for the calendar? And that's they don't care if there's lions in the school.

123They just want to know what the calendar is. So, um, I don't know how we would accommodate that, but just curious. Thank you. >> Yeah, and we can definitely look at that. That's something our our calendar committee considered a few things. Dr. Cleveland had brought up the idea of I'm not sure if any of you are aware of this, but APS is putting out a survey to their community uh for their 2728 calendar year of whether they would like to start um the traditional start date or start a couple of weeks later. Uh, and so we were talking about would we like to do that? So, we're considering some of those things and involving the public a little more. >> It goes a week into June. Just putting that >> It does. It [laughter] does.

124Yeah. >> Yeah. If you start later, you got to go later. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Dr. Cleveland and I were just talking about this. You might have some thoughts on this. We were just talking about this. Well, it's it's you know, I I I hope what the public realizes in in the the process is that we are greatly constrained with a calendar by state regulations. And it's not like in some other places where um each district just kind of comes up with their own calendar. We're locked in for a lot of reasons. The number of days, the number of hours, but also some of the testing and some other things. So, uh there may be a little flexibility with a calendar, but there's really not a lot. Um and and so it

125doesn't vary much from year to year. I'd be very interested to see what APS gets back uh in terms of starting later and how folks feel about going into the middle of June or early June. I'm sorry, the middle early of June. I think it was June 8th. Uh our experience in the past is you can have school after Memorial Day, but unless there's finals, they won't come. If there's finals, they'll come because they need obviously take their tests and whatever. But we find even at the elementary level, very few families bring their children back after Memorial Day. So, we can have it. Uh, but I'll just be real interested in seeing what the Albuquerque parents have to say about a a late start. >> I am really curious, too. I I saw it come

126out and I'm like, I want to see what this >> Yeah. >> Anything else, Michael? And uh Rebecca, any thoughts? Okay. I I have to agree. I think that's the biggest thing is and a lot of people don't understand. And I think that's the biggest thing we get as a board is like why why is the calendar this way? And it's like we really there's not really much we can in the past we used to have a little bit more leeway with it and we really just don't anymore. Um I don't know if that looks like if that could change from with a different administration. I'm not I don't know if that is that something that could change possibly in the I don't >> there's been some discussion of giving some powers back to local

127boards and that's one of them is the calendar. So um but with that goes has to go the number of hours that we're required in order to get full funding and uh you know there could be a lot of changes there. There generally are when you get a new administration so there might be some additional changes there but I I don't think it's going to be all that much. >> And then I guess I have one more question. I know so last session there was we were trying to make movement with those professional development days. I don't think we saw anything in the It was a short session. Is there any whisperings that you We're going to try again for that in next I know it's a year away. Um I'm looking at Lauren. He's

128kind of shaking his head over there, too. So, >> you know, LA this year was not a year for that kind of policy. It was a 30-day session, but we are committed. Lauren has talked about we're going to go back hard again next year. He's already made some contacts with LFC to have that conversation to try to understand why they were really so opposed to it because we think maybe some of the the assumptions right the same as ours and uh but we do need to get that discrepancy between elementary and secondary fixed. It's really not a fair uh it's not a fair situation. Also, every year we still get and I still get good number of folks who would like us to look at a balance calendar year round. Um but there are lots

129of issues with that particularly related to extracurricular. Um and so um it I I think everyone felt like they did not want to take that task on at this time. But we do still have um every year a good number of folks who say, "Have you looked at a balanced calendar?" So maybe that's something for the future. >> I I don't know. >> Yeah, Las Cruus has had some success with it. I think at first they didn't like it, but they seem to have settled into it. Though when I sat down, I sat down with some coaches, just some of my kids coaches and asked them about it. They were concerned as as far as it goes with sports, it does make it really, really difficult. Um, and I'm sure with a lot of other

130programs, too. So, [clears throat] >> um, any other comments from the board? Any anything else, Peggy, from you before we go to a motion? So, we can go for a motion on this calendar. >> Can we do all three at the same time? >> Yes. board a motion to approve the 2627 school year elementary school instructional calendar, secondary school instructional calendar, and the Questados prek instructional calendar. >> Board member Barry second. >> Motion and a second. And um all in favor? >> I opposed. Okay, motion carries. >> Thank you. Um, yeah, this is I think I get questions starting in January, usually on the calendar, I think maybe even before then. It >> it's a tough job and Peggy does a great job pulling it together, but the the committee does work really hard to

131try to balance everybody's everybody's needs and it's it's just not an easy it's not an easy job to sign up for. >> Yeah. No, for sure. So, thank you. Um, as far as advanced planning goes, um, so we have another special work session that will be coming up, um, on the 9th and then our regular scheduled board meeting. Um, audit committee is starting back up on the 16th um, with a special board with our with a special board meeting. Um, we have a work session on the 23rd. So, we have just a lot of meetings [laughter] that are coming up. Um, also with us as we're going into March, we'll have um, Dr. Dodd will be joining us. um starting March I think March 1st really is his is his start date. So he'll be

132here with us um as well as Dr. Cleveland and um if you look there on the end on u March 31st there's a New Mexico um schoolboard association region meeting um this one will be held in Grants New Mexico. They're part of our region, so it's a little bit further out. Um, but that is good training. And if we can drive together if people want to go out to grants, they're actually um I really enjoy sitting with the with their um their board. They're really um enjoyable to sit and talk with and such. So that will be out in grants. Um one last thing on the calendar I just want to bring up coming up. So I I was asked this question. It's just probably easier. we have all these graduations and a lot of

133dates that are coming up and kind of the the question was is what you need to attend and what you don't need to attend. Um if you can attend the graduations that is um by any there's there especially our big all of our schools are important but our big ones it's a lot for one of us to try to do all of those diplomas. So if you can be at the graduations please please be at the graduations. Um there's some other dates sets around that we do like um our teacher recognition. Um those are really important for us to be at. Um there's some different dinners. Um it's great if you can make it out to those ones. If you can't that's that that is okay. Um I'm trying to think of other ones that

134are coming up that um we might need to >> Well, we have um at at Rio Rancho High has the Phoenix Center uh which has been sponsored every every graduation since the beginning and the first graduating class in 99 by Chmer's Ford. It recognizes the top graduates of uh Rio Rancho High. And then they also have something called the Phoenix dinner uh that recognizes u uh students who struggled the most and and overcame that adversity and graduated. So it's it's a the two very different groups of kids both wonderful uh and those the board is invited to to those if you have an interest in attending. But the staff really the the staff recognition mainly is our um um staff at each building is being recognized but mainly it's our retirees and it's always a

135very nice event if you can attend um to honor their years of service and >> it's a good opportunity just for the staff to be able to see you and it's an opportunity where you can actually greet you know staff from a lot of different buildings. So that's a really good one. I do want to bring up that there's a good chance well I'm not going to probably be able to make Cyber Academyy's graduation um this year. So just kind of keep that on your radar that we'll need someone to speak probably will go to the vice the VP um so we can talk more about that though. So >> yeah the only one is for Rebecca and I was Independence High because it's the afternoon of Cleveland and both of us have at Cleveland

136but other than that I think at least I'm planning to be at all the other ones. Okay. Okay. >> That would be the only one I'll miss. >> Okay. So, so that's good. I just wanted to get any other questions on just any upcoming I know there's a lot that's coming up. So, I'm sorry to everyone that we had to stick around for a second, but just things that needed to be dealt with real quick. >> A little bit of a break in the summer. >> Yes, it's true. It is true. Okay. Um, we are adjourned for tonight. Thank you everyone. >> Okay. When are you going Okay.