001Thank you. Yeah. They're not surprised. So no, I think I would go. >> Yeah, >> okay. We'll call our meeting back to order and put it back to you. >> Would you announce that this is >> Yeah, I I can do that real quick. So, for those who are watching and I don't know how this is coming across as far as the virtual part of it, but we just are having complications with YouTube um the YouTube, it seems to be the YouTube platform that's something with that that's causing us issues. So, hopefully everything continues to be good and we don't have to have another meeting. We're gonna hope for the best. So all right back to >> member our board member Albert members of the board Dr. Cleveland. We are at the point now where
002we're in construction, we're in planning, we're looking at program, currently working on expanding the grant. The way this will work with Shining Stars is we still will have one grant for the district. We will just add an expansion piece to ask for full day at Questa next year and it goes by seats. So, we'll get into a little bit of that with you, but we'll just be adding on to the shining stars for grants. the report writing and all of that they'll be doing together the two schools. Okay, Claudia, this is the survey that we sent out to families in 2024. And I just want you to see the data because you'll see a more current survey. We were asking in the community, and this is the different um children that were in our community
003at the time. So we would have an idea of how many three and four year olds may be coming up if we open the new prek. And then we asked if they would want full day or half day or either. By looking at this information, we had approximately 75% of those that surveyed would be interested in a full day. So that gave us more information about what that need may be. Okay. And we also saw that families would be willing to transport. The way it works for three and four year olds is you can apply for transportation funding. It becomes very difficult for transportation especially at shining stars when they're transporting half day. We've even implemented super stops. The decision for PUTA is that we would not be transporting unless it's part of their IEP
004and they have to have transportation, but otherwise the parents would be bringing them and picking them up. And we'll talk a little bit about what that process looks like. >> Sorry, it's my computer. >> Come on. >> Do you have any questions about what happened prior before we get into the details of the grant? This is the fun part. So what we know for the grant um did you want to stop? Sure. >> Okay. So there are many requirements in the Mexico PreK grant. We did include um for your reading pleasure the standards if you want to go through that. I'm just going to briefly kind of review this information that's up there. It will be a five day a week program Monday through Friday. If we are requesting any variation in the grant, it
005has to be clearly justified in the application and still meet the minimum instructional hours. Um that's the expectation from the state um to give families consistency and routine in that schedule. We did make a variation um in the calendar for this prek just based on family engagement requirements that are also included in the grant. Children must be four years old before September 1st of the school year. Um, and they cannot be eligible for kindergarten. We have to provide 1,080 instructional hours to ensure high quality full day learning and then 90 hours of family engagement. So different from elementary, those conference days do not count towards instructional hours. And again, that is why the need for a slightly different calendar. Let me just interrupt for a second. Shining stars because they're half day, they do half
006of those instructional hours, but they still have to do 90 hours of family engagement. Uh the family engagement is not optional. It's a core component of the grant. Um and then the day must be at least 6.5 hours, no more than seven. So our plan is to mirror Quest of Delu's calendar from 8 to 2:30 for students that meets the requirements and then we'll have that consistency for those that continue. Uh the grant also says that 20 students is the maximum amount of four-year-olds per classroom. uh the rooms must provide 50 square feet per student so that there is enough place or space in the room for them to play and engage in activities. So our recommendation would be 16 to 18 students and we'll look at the map just based on the square footage
007of the classrooms at let's see the required ratio is one adult for every 10 children. So at 11 students we must have an additional adult. So one teacher, one EA per classroom. Uh this supports supervision, small groupoup instruction, and overall classroom quality. The reimbursement rate for students is 10,920 per child. That is a slight increase from the New Mexico grants that shining stars was awarded last year. the startup funds. Um, we can apply for up to 25,000 per classroom with an additional 5,000 per classroom for curriculum. Uh, there was a meeting that we had just to get some questions and answers about the grant. And if we are requesting startup funds, that does not have any bearing on us getting the grant. That's just additional funds. What the grant covers is funding supports, classroom materials,
008salaries, and benefits for teachers and educational assistance. Because this is a full day program, we are required to provide breakfast and lunch and we will serve that family style in the classroom. We stop there for questions or keep going. Keep going. Okay, next slide. We're going to require that our teachers be dualcertified in early childhood and special education or actively working towards the lensure. This ensures we meet the needs of all the learners in an inclusive setting from day one. Teachers will serve as the IEP case managers for any prek student with an IEP. That includes writing the IEPs, monitoring goals, and collaborating with families. Um, this also keeps the supports integrated within the classroom and not separate from it. There are a lot of professional development requirements in the grant for prek teachers. 45
009hours of training within the first two years of hire and then a minimum of 24 hours per school year after that for teachers and DAS. PreK administrators are required to have a total of 40 hours of prek specific PD within their first two years. EAS again 24 hours of PD per year. Um although they're college courses which they are required to be enrolled in an associates program for early childhood or already pulled that those classes do count towards their professional development hours. That's one of the most difficult things about staffing for the prepaid classrooms is that the educational assistants have to get that associates degree. That is not required in the daycare setting. They don't have to have the same level of certification and our pay is kind of capped at what we can do
010for EAS. In order to meet that, we um are going to partner with a friend day through Santa Fe Community College so that we they will support our educational assistants in getting their associates degrees and they actually get a little bit of a stipen for doing it and their teacher mentors get a stipen. So we are excited about that. We are also um going to have to intentionally plan for teachers to have time for the required coaching. teachers have to meet with their coach bi-weekly and they need to be given that duty-free time. So, we are looking at we've budgeted in the grant for four floating EAS to help serve duty-free lunch planning time and also that coaching requirement. The staff will provide handtoand arrival and dismissal to ensure student safety. And we'll talk about
011what that looks like for drop off and pickup um in a little bit. Okay. So, we opened a survey not long after I started um to just again get an interest in full day. Um and we it was sent out by all principles to current families in the district. We were really looking at kind of that southside, those schools closest to Presidel and what the interest was. Now this slide was made when we had 113 responses. It's still wide. We are still taking those and signs have been posted at different businesses close to Questa. So we are still getting data from that. As you can see, at this time, 64 respondents reported their child was not currently enrolled in prek or a child care setting and but they would have a four-year-old eligible before the
012start of school. And then this question, if we offered a full day prek program, would you apply? And you can see 65% definitely yes and se another 17 likely yes. So um the response so far has been very positive. They're looking for a full day and would want to attend the dosa. Okay. And then this was just really to help me with the grant and to see what issues families were having with accessing early child care programs. um the majority of them it's a limited availability in the spaces and as part of the grant process I have been calling around to other New Mexico pre-K programs close to Presto del Soul and the majority of them hold a weight list the other thing that we have is 60% saturation rate in Rio Rancho for 40-year-old
013prek which means that we are not serving 40% of the four-year-olds um either in prek a New Mexico prek program or a head start program. So there is definitely a need for four full day. >> I would just add one thing really quickly to that on several occasions. I think the board has heard that several occasions. LFC uh has said that we have the highest percentage of unserted children in the state and looking at strictly from a district standpoint and and and historically not today but historically the reason for that was that we were always growing so fast that we needed any pressure for K5 and really did not have the resources to look beyond that. Uh today we are obviously we've made some great strides with shining stars and and continuing to meet the
014needs, but the point being that we aren't serving as many prek children as other districts are and and um and and given, you know, concerns about what is the long-term gain for prek, but Secretary Gazinski maintains there's pretty solid research and of course she you have to know now she's a strong advocate for a full day. So she's coming with a really strong predisposition. But uh her concern was not having full day. Then she didn't feel you would make the gains that half day that half day could not make the same amount of gains. The question is is that true or is it the lack of alignment? Is it totally ours or is it other things that maybe account for that? But the bottom line is we have a need to serve more children. Um
015and and and she she put it this way and I thought, well, you know, she's she she has a point. If other districts are serving most of their their children at prek and we are not, then she raised the spectrum. What will the long-term impact be for the school district? I don't know what that is and I don't think she knows either, but but that was, you know, her push for us to try to serve more children. >> Can I add to that though, too? Because I think it's important for the board to know that it's not that we haven't tried to serve more kids like we >> exactly have the room. >> Yeah. We don't have the space and we've been trying new buildings. It's been very difficult um to to work with, you
016know, trying to get the money that we need to do that. And so I think it is important just to understand that background is that the district has tried a lot of different things to to try to get this going more. Um, so this is just a step in that direction of >> most districts in New Mexico or she said the the majority of districts because we had experienced declining enrollment the state had for for several years. They had an empty school and so the state was trying to get the resources for those empty buildings before they built new ones. And yet that really wasn't the case in the rancher we had in that system. In a previous presentation, we did uh Mr. Reader and I did some research to see what types of settings
017were in other districts and there was a trend that more districts were going to centerbased just consolidate your resources, but to Dr. McQueen's point, it was for the purpose of they had that space and they could do that. But there are places now where they're building brand new centers and having all the kids come in. So, it's it isn't ideal necessarily to be in a school setting. Um the center is kind of the preferred model just for resources, but it does help when you're looking at alignment. Keep going. Uh our goal is to have so and Patrick will speak to this too about how many classrooms we have there, but we're looking at four or eight full New Mexico prekf funded classrooms and then we are anticipating that we will have a small group of
018students that are currently three-year-olds at Shining Stars that will come to Qua and be in the 4Y program. Our goal is totally have them all day and repeat their homeschool. We our goal would be to serve 142 students, but our final numbers will be dependent on what they give us in the grant award and then how many parents actually apply year one. This is a large conversation that we have. Who will attend Qua? Who attends Shining Stars through the child find process? We have to serve every student as soon as they're three if they have a need for specialized instruction. So, we have to do that and right now they go to shining stars and Britney can speak to a little bit of how they've done this in Santa Fe, but it will really depend.
019Questa will be focused more on prek trying to really build that full day prek in an inclusive environment. There could be students where their needs in their IEP require more services than will be at Qua. There will not be the same level of service at Qua. So those students may need to be served at Shining Stars just based on their IEP need and that need and that will be an IEP conversation. If we get into a situation where we have the same exact model as Shining Stars does, we'll be duplicating a lot of resources and that will become very costly and that won't be covered by the grant. It will really be splitting the special ed funds between the two schools. It's kind of the same conversation why there's only one trauma one center in
020New Mexico because all the resources are consolidated. So our goal is to be as inclusive and pos as possible, but we know that there will be some students that may have more need than what we can provide the support for. And that's where the staffing gets really tricky and trying to predict how many SOPs we have. We'll have how many staff members we might have to share with Qua versus how many will we need on our own at that site. And we really won't know until the kids show up because we're going to have kids that aren't identified that show up and have meet as well. So we'll try to serve as many as we can at least. So we're looking at nine licensed prek teachers dual certified. That would be the goal. And I
021know Jerry has been working with CES. I don't know if you want to touch base on that. >> Um right now we're have anou in process that basically will create a prek specialed program through LEAP. um prior to this upcoming year they did not have such a program and even in the past our preschool teachers have applied to them and they were um they were not given a seat through lead because they they didn't serve that that group of teachers but they they will going forward um with with both Rancho and other districts across the state >> the grant requires that 1:10 ratio however if If we end up in a classroom that has more than four students that are receiving services, the recommendation that there be two EAs in the classroom at that time.
022Again, until we have the students, we won't know. But we do know for those planning periods, coaching time, and lunch, we have to keep two adults in there. So, we'll either have to have two EAs and a teacher in each classroom or one teacher, one EA, and those four floating EAs to provide that coverage. We also will not be in parody right away with what Shining Shining Stars offers. They have a counselor. They offer art PE. I mean, think about preK level. They have music opportunities and they have English language services that right now we're trying to figure out how we're going to navigate that to have some parody with Shining Stars. So, we know that we'll be building toward that. Right now, we're thinking we might have to have a couple people that maybe
023play those dual roles, but we only have one space in the building to do that. We can't expect the Questa teachers, they're not early, early childhood certified, so they can't service the preschool in that capacity. So we are planning to have between two to four special education teacher allocations um at plusa with four special education education assistants. Um the ancillary services will probably be shared um but we will increase the number of um ancillary providers on the Questa site to be able to serve um the students in the preK. Um these numbers are compared to shining stars and um our 25 26 80day count we have 286 students with disabilities. 222 are in the 3 Y 4 Y program with 64 of those receiving speech only. So we currently have 20 special education teacher allocations.
024Um three of those are special instructional leaders. We have 33 special education EAS and we have 7.6 SLPs, 1.8 OT's uh point4 PT and two social workers. you know, if you have any questions, this might be a good place to talk stop if you have any questions about staffing or we can keep going. >> Have other questions about staffing, but I can wait until the end. Let's do that. >> Sound good. I have all the long ones. I'm so sorry. So, every um part of the day is intentionally aligned to the early learning early learning guidelines, which are the case standards. Learning is integrated across domains, meaning children are um developing literacy, math, social skills, scientific thinking simultaneously through play and structured experiences. The whole group time is intentionally brief, no more than 20 minutes.
025This is to be in alignment with developmentally appropriate standards. Um at four years old, attention spans are still developing, so instruction must be interactive, engaging, and developmentally appropriate. Our small groups are also capped at 20 minutes for the same reasons, although this can happen more than once per day. So, they might do centers or I'm sorry, small group instruction, go through other parts of the day, and then do another small group rotation. Um, outdoor time is not recess. It is learning time focused on structured gross motor development. The children receive 60 minutes of that a day to build coordination, strength, and their overall well-being. Physical development is directly connected to brain development and readiness to learn. So there's a lot of time spent there. A sign a significant portion of the day, which is 120
026minutes, is for learning centers or play. So again, those teachers and EAS are intentionally interacting with the kiddos on those standards, but it's through play um and students are given choice. As I mentioned earlier, breakfast and lunch are going to be served family style that is um the recommendation of the grant. It builds independence, conversation, skills, manners, and fine motor development. The meal time becomes another opportunity for language development and social learning. But as you can see, these teachers are working through all of these moments. They don't get a break during playground time or a break during meal time. They are still expected to plan those times in their lesson plans and be interacting with the children. Um the daily schedule reflects what research tells us about how four-year-olds learn best. It's rigorous, but it's
027developmentally appropriate. and curriculum. The grant requires that each program must have curricula based on many different standards, but it's got to be developmentally appropriate. There's that word again. Um, in early childhood practices, be researchbased. It can't have any um religious components to it. the needs, interests, desires, and relevant life experiences of the children and the families are really considered and thoughtfully planned in their lesson plans. So we are actively right now looking at some different curricula and we'll be meeting with CNI to talk about what those possibilities are and it's the grant listed some um approved curricula and then this week when I talked to them said we don't endorse any specific curriculum. So um that kind of opened the door for us to do a lot more research. And can you talk a little
028bit about the lesson planning that they have to do with all of those different components? Each P there is a required lesson plan format that ECC requires us to use and so they have to complete all components. Like I said, they've got to make a plan for meals. So what might that conversation be like? Um so they're going to need time for that planning that your class >> just what's in that lesson plan. Yep. And you got to plan >> all parts of that schedule and they have to be posted for the families to access. Um so they're planning for gross motor, the whole group, the small group, um numeracy, literacy, all of the different developmental domains they're they're planning and integrating into the day. And through that coaching model, that's part of that conversation
029that they work on with the teachers is how to plan for all of that and coach through those moments. when the coach comes in and observes for a little bit and then they have a conversation and they debrief. So, it's a very supportive but it's also it's a lot a lot of expectations through the grant. So, we we worked with Felix about student nutrition and we walked the campus and so you can see here the what he's going to be adding and I don't know if he wants to continue the work that's already been done there, but we'll use the current kitchen and cafeteria. They are making some modifications. The kitchen area is pretty small at so there's been a lot of conversation about navigating around that. We are looking at adding a food warmer
030and refrigerator and that's in the current lounge. >> Yeah, that would be going in the current staff lounge for that staff to use, but there'll be a small area designated for those things. >> And then the way Shining Stars functions because they don't have a cafeteria right now, they're going to continue to operate the way that they are and getting their food from Rancho Middle School. I know Patrick can speak to he's been we just he just had a study completed so we can try to get a cafeteria over there. As of right now we don't have that yet. >> Well, can I ask a question on that? What um you know it's one of the better kitchens that we have in the district. We have Rancho Middle. I mean we once served 2200 kids
031there was pretty good size but I assume there's certain types of things that you need for younger children that we don't have. So what are those things that we need? What what are the things we would add to rearential middle school would need to add in order to make it better uh you know more able to serve younger children >> rearential middle school requested >> no rearanch I I can go ahead and elaborate on that Dr. Good afternoon. Um, so the couple of modifications that we're going to be doing at Rio Ranch Middle School uh middle school, as you alluded to, is a larger kitchen. Um, there's plenty of space um to go ahead and uh make some modifications. So, one of the things that we're actually trying to do is um we're trying to
032get a couple of uh additional equipment which will help speed up the operations. And one of those equipments is a tilt skillet. So in New York technology as well as the rationale and combi to go ahead and um ensure that the staff there can produce the the amount of meals. And so what we did want to do at Shining Stars is offer a breakfast and lunch. Currently they're half days. So we just been offering snack but um our goal and student nutrition is to be able to offer more quantity or better nutritious meals which is a breakfast in the morning and probably a lunch in the afternoon. Um with that being said, um we're looking at uh some transportation um to get the meals to and from Rio Rancho Middle School. So we're working um
033to get another vehicle that will be housed at Rioancho Middle School. Um the difference as far as you know the mills are are the are the uh calorie intake um the portion sizes and so we'll probably have to modify some of our smallers just to ensure that the staff have what we need. and we're providing the the compliant meals for Shining Stars. One of the things that we potentially got to work with um administration um over at Shining Stars is it it's already pretty crowded um at Shining Stars. And so we have a difficult time even offering snack currently. Um we share an area or a space um with them as far as their their work room. So, um the operations is a little interesting there as you know right now we have put um
034a larger refrigerator in that area to be able to house milk and things of that item. But I think the biggest obstacle that we do have and Pat can kind of talk to uh you all about how we can potentially get some additional space to accommodate us. Um, but we're going to do our best to to be able to try and offer those meals on on our end that way and with a little bit of planning with facilities, you know, the administrators at Shining Stars, we can try and um move that process along and then we'd have to amend our application with ES ECC to incorporate Questa as well as um Shining Stars. So, from my perspective, that's kind of the the plan and what we're trying to do. Then my second question is kind
035of follow up to that is uh what are there things obviously also was better equipped because of the you know it was built as an elementary school >> but are there things in that cafeteria that have to be modified in order to provide for prek population? >> So so that's uh very similar. So over the course of the last two years we've made a lot of modifications not only at Questa but clear across the district with a lot of grant funds that were um given to the district. um for universal healthy meals when they passed the rule that all students can eat for free. Um one of the things that we did is we expand the hood size um to incorporate we only had two ovens there and that was most of the districts. We
036expanded to have four total ovens. So another set um there and we've expanded that area. We're working with Patrick to um redo the walk-in refrigerator and freezer um to expand it into an actual closet that was in the back end which is be a little bit it's a little costly and that's something that we're working on in the planning stages with Patrick and his team as well as moving the line up a little bit to try and get a little bit more space um because we are going to be um serving you know 140 extra students. Um, so that's the plans for right now as far as operationally from Qua to try and ensure that we have space and then um the resources and equipment for those. One of the obstacles that we did have
037is Questa's kitchen. It's rather small. Um, and so we have um tables that that are standard size for our K through five. Um, but our little guys, right, they would probably need smaller tables and I don't really necessarily see that we have space in there. So the discussions with family style will allow them to eat, you know, in in their setting in the classroom and and you be able to kind of adjust. >> Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> That's exactly what I was going to say. >> Especially the tilt scale part. >> Yeah, it gets a little bit complex on our any other question. Yeah. Okay. Claudia, sorry. Um, and we worked with nurse Wheeler to talk about the health office. Shining Stars has one of the highest security rates and Miss How can
038speak to that if if you guys want to hear more. They have two nurses and a health assistant and they are on fire constantly just because of the size of the students and they can't always explain why they don't feel well. And then when you're doing an injury, you have to call every parent there and make contacts. It just takes a lot longer. We are going to have to wait and see what kind of needs we have that come to Qua. We may need to ask for another nurse there. I know the Quest nurse is willing to work with preK. We just don't know what that will look like long term as we get, you know, four year olds on campus. And I know with the students that are coming in small group, we've talked
039about them. They don't have extreme health needs. And so that's one of the reasons why we're more than willing to have them come to Plus. That's going to be their home school. >> The vision, hearing, and dental screening. Sorry, I got really excited. It's actually the first 90 days, so we have a little bit more room to breathe, but those are requirements of the grant. Um, so we are um the nurse would be expected to do the vision and hearing or if we could get additional support to get that requirement done and looking at partnering with somebody in the community to do the dental screenings. Ongoing enrollment from Childfind and students transitioning from community providers. um that requires frequent evaluation of student needs, but the majority of that will take place at Shining Stars just
040because of those kiddos transitioning and early intervention from C to B. Um which is age three when we take over as LEA. Um but there might be some four-year-olds that your child finds that need a seat and and then we can work with Shining Stars to see if there's a space available at Pestadel or if they're served there. Um, parents of preschool age children, like Kenda said, um, they do require more communication, especially if their kids can't tell them how they got hurt. So, they do want to hear from an adult when something happens. We alluded to this a little a little while ago, students who have IEPs and they have to have transportation. Um there's I don't know we have transportations here if you have questions as well but they said a minimum of
041two more buses and I believe you guys have some of the largest number of buses that come through think we're adding three more too now >> one of we had a walk and talk and it was a walk and a lot of talk trying to figure out what we're going to do with pickup and drop off because for prek you have to be parents have to walk them to you and you have to take them from parents they can't drive through and drop them That required some creativity to think about what we have. So, we're going to talk about that when we look at the parking lot and you'll get to see some of that as well. This is a nice aerial shot that we thought we could show you. And and now we'll get
042into a lot of the facilities conversation, but I want to know if you have any questions. I don't even think we told you what ECED stands for. It's early care and early childhood department. And if we speak in acronyms, please stop us and ask. >> Yeah, we apologize. We try to put them on here and not write them in acronyms, too. >> Right. Okay. So, >> as as Jana mentioned, it's a high level aerial of the campus showing you where the pre prek wing is going to be um where the prek playground and then where the new kinder playground is. So, uh, going back to the original, um, meetings that we were having and it was determined that this wing was the best wing for us to renovate to put prek in. And, and we'll
043go into that when we look at the floor plan. Um, but as you can see, with that being the prek wing, we will now we will take over what is currently the kinder playground, repurpose that as a prek playground, and then we'll be building a new playground in that open space you see there. Uh with regard to transportation, we are going to have to make some upgrades to the current parking lot, which is really the main uh parent pickup and drop off uh to accommodate the additional parking for that hand-to-hand, but also accommodating the same number of cars that are going to be uh moving through there. Currently, they do kind of like a snake zigzag. We won't be able to do that anymore, and we'll have to provide we're looking at an option right
044now to provide two drop off lanes. Um, and we do have that at other campuses and and we're able to make it work. So, you know, there'll be some safety modifications we got to we have to do along with some striping. So, minimal, but it will have to be redone to accommodate that. And the idea is that any overflow would would be using the current overflow parking just to the north of uh the school. So, we can go into the facility now. >> Wait, can you go back for just a second? I think Dana wanted to speak. >> Yeah. So um if you look at this map and those of you um who haven't seen Questa yet um if you can imagine I I read in looking in some old memorabilia that the school is
045designed to look like um like a sunray. So, the administration building is the farthest building north. And then with the three other buildings, um the prek building um in between the prek building and the middle building is creation and that is where music and art um is and that is one of their newer buildings on the campus. U the the green building, the prek playground where the pre uh prek playground is noted there, that's where Kinder is currently. Um, and I just wanted to give you a quick update on what's happened so far. South of that, I know Patrick will go a little bit more on it's not really south, but on the bottom of the screen are the portables. What we've done is we have evacuated one of the pods. So each of those
046wings have pods and the pods you cannot get to another pod unless you go outdoors. So they don't, you know, there there's no walkways indoors. There's just classrooms. you go out the pod, then you can go down the walkway and get into another pod. So, what we've done right now is we've evacuated the last pod in the green building, which we call Freedom, and it is empty now. And and Patrick will talk about a little bit more about where when that will start. Um, we've moved a couple of those classrooms out into some of the portables, the very last portables down there that are single and then the one classroom that are in pretty good shape. And currently they're renovating the other ones. And so they moved out right before Christmas or the winter break
047and then right at the end of the school year is the plan unless something happens differently. the rest of the staff will move, people will ship, will go out to the portables, and then the the facility will be empty in >> Yeah. And and it's a and we you know, it was really um crucial to get at least one pot emptied. So, you know, we worked closely with the school and we picked the portables that needed the least amount of work. Um we're currently working on the other ones while students are in the in the ones that need the least amount of work. But having that pod will allow us and we can get into that when we get into the building kind of the timeline, but allow us to start some construction sooner. We
048can mobilize the contractor a lot sooner and and that will really help with our timeline because it is a tight timeline, but um that in itself will help. And and as Dana said, once school is out, we'll do the full shuffle and the the rest of the the building will be vacated and we can really hit it hard over the summer. >> And that group was fourth grade, correct? Correct. That moved out to the portables. We didn't move kinders out there. So those are fourth graders that move to the portables and the other pods that are left are kindergarteners. >> Correct. Go to the next slide. So this is the freedom wing and this is the wing that will be for prek. So we're doing some uh minor renovations. Uh one of the one of
049the things right off the bat is we're just looking at finishes. So flooring, casework, uh just to kind of bring these classrooms up to a better standard. Uh and then uh one of the other things that in in some of the programming we looked at is just maybe repurposing some of these areas for some office space, some support spaces. So minimal uh construction, but in the blue there that that is currently going to be sort of reworked to have an AP office, a seal office, instructional coach office, and some storage. Um and then the just in the center pod there you'll see that there's some ancillary spaces as well that we're creating uh for you know speech therapy um social worker uh we are providing a flex space which is going to be really helpful
050in as this program evolves and we can kind of utilize that. Another big thing that Britney mentioned was training and being able to utilize that for for teacher training. And then one of the big things we had to do being a prek is we have to renovate the restroom. So the nice thing is each pod has a set of restrooms. So we can go in and we'll renovate and it is some significant renovation to bring the fixtures down to prek standard. We have to move quite a few of them just to be in line with uh what the prek standard is and what that age group is. The really good thing about this school in general, but this, you know, being able to use this pot is we did complete in the last few years
051an HVAC and lighting upgrade at this school. So they have brand new HVAC and they have a brand new uh LED lighting system. So that's really helpful. Uh so if you look at the green, that's those are your prek classrooms. So the first two pods, which would be A and B, those have currently the kinder classrooms and those will be the preK uh the larger pre-K classrooms. The other pod, those ones are a little bit smaller. And then as they mentioned earlier, as far as the the warming and having the additional refrigerator, this work room here is existing. It's existing lounge. will be able to utilize or sorry the the lounge will be able to utilize some of that space for the additional storage and warming. Um and then if you look so the the
052timeline right now is we do have the design is finished for this renovation. We did bid it out. It's currently in bidding. We should have those prices back by March 2nd with the anticipation to start construction over spring break. again being able to vacate that pod was really helpful so we can mobilize the contractor start some of the demo in pod C um and then they can sort of just move into the other pods as uh school lets out and then this you know the goal is to have this open for uh fall the fall semester in August. Some additional things that I had mentioned are the playgrounds. We are going we are having to reconfigure the current kinder playground to be prek ready and then we're having to create a new kinder playground. And
053one of the big things that we had talked about initially was um you know that parody the equity of of shining star versus this one. So we are designing we're currently designing a pretty robust playground for both kinder and prek that we'll be able to replace. Now, because of the timing of it, there will be a little bit of a lag in the completion of it. So, we we will be creating some temporary playground areas for kinder as well as prek while the the construction is being completed for the playground. Uh yeah, and then also to touch on what Felix said, we we are going to be looking at doing some some modifications to the kitchen, the cooler, being able to knock out a wall that is currently into a storage that's a little bit
054underutilized to be able to provide a larger cooler and then in the future look at kind of the serving line and how that function works and being able to upgrade that. We don't believe that we can get that done over this summer, but we'll be looking to that in the in the coming months. Other than that, that's that's where we stand as far as construction. Like we said, the portables are currently under construction and those will move into the summer once students vacate the portables that are currently being used. With that, if you guys have any questions as far as the facility timeline, >> it's good to see hear the progress and what's happening. >> One slide left. I think that's it. So, we're ready to submit the grant for expansion. Unfortunately, they're telling us
055it could be May before we know whether or not we get it, which then puts us up to a really tight timeline to try to hire and get people in position. It's a little tricky. Um maybe they'll be earlier than that, but we'll see. And then with that, we um stand for questions. There's probably lots of things we haven't told you yet that are still in in process, but so as we go to questions, we probably have no more than 10 minutes at the most um to go through questions just because we end up having to recess and such, but we need to get to a board meeting soon. So um with that, I know Michael says he has lots of questions. >> I'll I'll rapid fire to make. So is it full time? Are
056we doing full-time? You probably said this. So it is both of them are going fulltime >> just shining stars. >> How much does that net out students that we're going to be able to handle? Because I assume we're leaving pressure off of Shining Stars. >> Is that is there are we not are we just going to replace what'sever at Shining Stars whatever gets transferred over because we went to Shining Stars in camp and that's >> so I guess what's the net out? I suppose >> they're trans. Shining stars is transferring 26 seats over which equals 13 full-time and we're hoping to have around 140 students but they will stay at their capacity now. >> Okay. Um how do we think that the early this this free child care that we have does that impact our
057expectation of how many students will be coming into the preschool? I think you asked that in the survey that and um one of the questions of the grant is how are we going to prioritize students in the New Mexico prek program versus in an early childhood um subsidized program. So they're making free for all, right? But they really want us to go through the New Mexico prek first um which bodess well for us putting in for the grant. So, I think to answer your question, we're gonna get the kiddos in HUTA because ACCD, the early childhood educ department, really would prefer kids go there first. >> Understood. Okay. And you mentioned that because so many teachers have to be engaged all t how do we stop burnout? I mean, this is super important for those
058kiddos. >> I'm sure this is your expertise. >> Absolutely. Um, and that is why I advocated and we put in the budget for the grant to have some floating meetings so that we provide that time for teachers to step out and do meaningful planning, get their coaching, get a break. Um, lunch is really important even if you know they say they can give up their lunch. I really advise that they don't because it is a lot. Um, but preK teachers that I have worked with in the past love what they do. Um, and they're in it for that love and joy of being with the kids and they know that expectation coming in. >> I love my kids too, but the day all the time. So, >> we're going to encourage naps for everybody, not
059just >> good. There is a nap time 30 minutes included instructional time. So, not all kids. >> My kids have Thank you. I'm questions answered. Thank you. I'll say my kids never napped, but when one of them was in kindergarten, they did have a nap time and totally like was laid out and do it. So that's good. So >> well again just to remind the our goal and our need is eventually to build another prek um but but this is going to really help in the short term and and so it's a and and it's going to help at Boston in particular. So uh it it's but we are going to have other pay means in the future and I think everyone is predicting with universal chocolate coming in um it will probably more children
060in when my children were small uh most most all of us found prek but they're going to find it in the public school and so it's a very different time and so I suspect you exactly what you see more as we saw our universal child come in to pre shining stars, >> but we don't think it's going to cannibalize because they'll the state's pushing them towards the prek for the school, not to leave them in their daycare that they're otherwise. >> I think you know what Secretary Kazinski said is that there's just not enough doing it. >> Yeah. >> So, she doesn't think there's a count that's going to happen. She just thinks more children will be served than have not been served before and need to be served. and and some people will still
061choose a private prek and different kind of program and that's what they they prefer for whatever reason >> but they the the goal is I think at the state level is to give every child who is four year four years old who wants that opportunity should have it and there should be a place for them whether private or public or whatever but we have so many unserved children in Rio that uh it'll be a while before we able to serve all of that might want that service and and that's one of the things we saw on the survey. Uh but the one thing the parents did tell us and Shannon mentioned that earlier that for most of them they wanted they because of their work situation and for our teachers for example uh we've had
062some of our own teachers and say I can't access it because I work full for a full day. So, um, secretary believes that there there's we want the private end and and it will it will just an opportunity and now don't get it and and some families don't want it at all and that's their they don't but I think most families would like to have some opportunity for their children to socialize and have a some learning opportunities before they go to kindergarten. And we do know from our kindergarten teachers that those who had that experience start off ahead of those who did not have had that experience. >> We do know we haven't reached every family. I was just talking to a staff member here last week and they had no idea the survey went
063out and their their child's in a private care. So I know we hadn't reached everybody that realized it's going to be open. The other thing we do better than anybody else is we provide that specialized instruction for kids who need it. that that doesn't I don't think that happens anywhere else in Rio Rancho as well as we do it. So for families who need a little bit more I'm hoping we'll draw those kids in full-time. And then we did explore wraparound services as part of that like maybe adding a prek safe to that so we can keep the kids a little bit longer and pro provide that support for parents who may work longer. But I don't know if we're going to be able to talk about that year one, but we did talk about
064that and that might be a possibility for our families that really need a longer a longer day for their kids and somewhere for their kids to be. We just we said from the beginning that we feel like we're the best place that they can go if we can just make this happen. And then parents can choose if they want half day or full day, but we'll have both options. >> And I think this is all so so good. We just I even though we're doing this of all this, we already need to be starting to think of what else what what's our next step and where we're going to be. This is 30 minutes from Enchanted Hills, you know, to get up to Quester from over there. >> Take us an hour round trip from
065where we live to get to Sher. It was tough. So, >> yeah. And so, it is just trying to think of like what's the next step to that side of town and how there's so much happening right now. I just don't want to lose sight of there's still more happen. So, >> I know Jan's like, I got this. We got it. We got it. Um, any other questions from the board? Any other comments? Any other comments? I'm sure there's things we forgot, but we can always share Dr. Cleveland and she can get that information to you. It's a lot, but um just thank you for your time and allowing us to share this with you. It's it's been quite a process and a journey and a lot of commitment from a lot of people. So,
066just thank everybody who was involved. Great. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate anything else that's on here before we close. Okay. Um we're going to go ahead and this meeting is adjourned for for now. Well, we're going to go over to you get all stressed. Am I clicking?