RRPS - School Board Meeting - February 9, 2026

001We're really proud of our fine arts programs. They continue to be just one of the real crown jewels of our school district. You know, we offer many, many different electives, many different opportunities, and we have some incredibly talented young people in this district. Uh you, if you came in, may you may have seen some of the artwork that was out that will rotate over the next several weeks. But some really outstanding artwork. our coral groups are very strong and um certainly our band and orchestra and um our choirs and we're just very proud of our programs and we get so many honors. You know, you almost kind of get to the point where you think you take them for granted. Um but they are exceptional honors and very few districts have the number of students

002and staff recognize that we do. And so I just want to say how very appreciative we are of those programs of the fine staff who work with the students but particularly students uh students who work in these programs uh dedicate to doing an excellent job. Uh we are very very very proud for you. We have a very important um assessment presentation. It's one of the ones that will share with um the board and the community information about how we're doing in a variety of different areas and areas where we've seen some growth and areas where we will continue uh to to work. But we are excited in the number of our spotlight schools have gone up in the district this year and we have just some really good news to share uh with several of

003the areas. one that I would mention and we'll mention again but one is independence and we have seen just some dramatic growth in independence and very very proud for them the hard work that they've done to accomplish that that growth. So Dr. Happy Miller who is our executive director of research assessment data and accountability will be um presenting a very important presentation uh to the board this evening. And then we have um just a couple of business items. One of those is um um a copper refresh at u one of our middle schools at Eagle Ridge. And they can explain to you a little bit about what that looks like. And then uh we have a proposed uh request for an easement agreement between the district and and PNM and um Patrick Martinez, our executive

004director of facilities will provide the information for you on that. And on the copper uh the award for um the RFP, uh Chris Tweet, our director of purchasing and our chief procurement officer will be the one to present that and answer your questions. So um that's our our agenda for the evening. Have any questions? >> Questions. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So I am flying blind up here, but is the other everyone else can see the slides. It's just not what I can see. Okay. Make sure that that's So um real quick before we move on, I'll show this to Dr. Cleveland because I can't um we can't see it up here. But I wanted um just to to take a moment and to um recognize Dr. Cleveland as she was recognized on the Senate

005floor. I believe it was on Wednesday. Is that correct? >> On Wednesday. Um and we have a beautiful picture with her and her family. And that's Teresa size. Is that I'm gonna say her last name? >> Teresa size. >> Okay. Um up there with her and um she was recognized um by Robert Gonzalez, Senator Robert Gonzalez. Um, in addition, there was many others who spoke that day as well. Um, Mimi Stewart spoke, um, Senator Souls, Padilla Block, and Nava. And a couple of the things that they said, I wish I could have been up there, Dr. Cleveland. And, um, but a couple of things that were said is um, Senator Gonzalez said that Dr. Cleveland was more than just a superintendent because she really started a district from scratch, right? Just all the way down

006from from the ground. Mimi Stewart said, "Dr. Cleveland was always looking uh for solutions and something that she added in there which I loved. I don't know if you caught it but she says I think she knows us better than we know ourselves is what Mimi Stewart said that day. Um and um Senator Souls he just talked about her consistency of leadership. He also was hopeful that maybe she would you know take on a different role maybe in the future. Um Senator Padilla said V for victory. So V Sue Cleveland V for victory and that she's really an economic developer of Rio Rancho as well. Um Senator Black just had he was the only one that had courage because he's from Rio Rancho to say that we truly do have the best um the best

007school district in the state. So um and then Senator Nava, she just talked about how you were grounded and lead and you lead with your heart. And so next week she will also be honored on the floor um of the house on is it is it oh it's this week. Yes, I forget it's Monday and it is this week. Um, but Dr. Cleveland, we just wanted to make sure because you never talk about yourself with all these things that you were recognizing that way. Would you like to say anything about it? >> Oh my goodness. Uh, it it it was a a wonderful it was a wonderful experience. I was thinking I have been at every session in 32 years. And um as I look back over all of the sessions over time, sometimes, you

008know, the the legislaturator's frantic uh frenzy to get things done and and to to get bills passed and and all of that, and that's their job. It's always continuous improvement. It's always how we move forward. But if you've done it for 32 years, you have a chance to look in the rearview mirror. and I thought of all the things that have happened in our state over those 32 years and how far we've come in in so many different ways. And so it was um it was a a a really nice um a very humbling experience. and and Senator Block, those of you who know him, um you know, he took great pride in saying he made me cry and uh but he was very kind as everyone was and it was uh it was a

009very uh it was a very special event and um but it it's been I appreciated the thing I appreciated most about Senator Black's comments is he said you and the team and everything has been that has always been a team effort and we have great members of our team and that's why as a district we've always been successful and so I I appreciated that he recognized um the the the team as well. But um you know I I was I was just sharing with board member Barry I I'd love to know how many bills I've advocated for how many uh committees I have testified before and uh how many task forces that I've ser served on on occasion. But it was a it was a wonderful experience and I was very thankful for their kindness

010and they were very kind and they were very generous and so uh I was very appreciative of that. I always get really emotional, so that made me emotional. Thank you. Um, you know, it's interesting because those those senators were not all from the Rio Rancho area. Most of them were not. Um, and it really does it takes uh Dr. Cleveland is so good at reaching out throughout the state um to get the help that we need. And last last year I had the opportunity to go up with her and sit with some different people as we advocated um for some concerns that we had and I I just sat there in in awe of her leadership and the way that she knows New Mexico. And so thank you again Dr. Cleveland for for all that

011you've done. >> I I would just add one more thing. The the person who drafted the bill was Senator uh Bobby Gonzalez and uh when I first met the senator he was superintendent of TA as well as a legislator. And uh I would want to just say that um Senator Gonzalez uh had no reason to help Rio Rancho, but in the very beginning he stepped forward and helped us in so many ways. And that is the strength of New Mexico. I think that we see all children are our children. and he gave a lot of time and effort to helping Rio Rancho even though he was representing uh TA and that northern part of the state and um and Senator Souls and I crossed paths because uh he was at the same high school where

012I got my first teaching job. New Mexico is a small state. Uh but one of our strengths continues to be that we do help each other and um and and and some of those folks were very helpful and very instrumental in the early years of the district. So um that uh that's the strength of our state. >> That's right. Well, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Cleveland. We will now go um to approve the prioritized agenda and proposed time allocations. Do I have a motion? >> Board member Mer. I motion. to approve the prioritize agenda on proposed time allocations. >> Board member Marid second. >> Okay, we have a motion, a second. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. All right, thank you. All right, we get to go to my favorite part

013always. We have the commendations for tonight. Our first commendation um is the National Art Education Association Pacific Region Secondary Art Educator Award for 2026 to Diane Lee and Dr. Kurt Schmidt, our executive director of fine arts will present. >> President Galbreth, members of the board, Dr. Cleveland, uh tonight I'm very excited and proud to present you for accommodation. Miss Diane Leah, art teacher at Rear Rancho High School. The National Educ Art Education Association or NAEA is the professional home for visual arts, design, and media arts educators. As a collaborative worldwide community, NAEA continues to shape and advocate for the field while promoting and providing professional learning, research, resources, connectivity, and opportunities since their founding in 1947. Each year, the NAEA awards program recognizes outstanding art educators in all NAEA divisions and regions and from each

014state, province, and international association. Awardees will be celebrated this will presented this um will be celebrated by in these at the 2026 NAEA National Convention taking place in Chicago, Illinois in March, which happens to be the hometown of Miss Leah. Miss Leah is this year's recipient of the NAEA Pacific Region Secondary Art Educator of the Year for 2026. Miss Leah began in RHS in 1999 and has taught many if not all the courses offered there. Presently, she teaches all photography and graphic arts classes at Rear Rancho High School. Miss Leah is a dedicated teacher who always has the best interest of her students in mind and is constantly thinking of creative ways to help them engage with the visual arts. And I I believe this award is the Pacific region which for the NE's purposes

015is anything west of >> everything north and west of us >> anything north and west of us including all the territories and in Hawaii and Alaska can Canada and so forth. So so I give you Miss Leah. Um, I I was shocked when when I, you know, got the email and I had to write this curriculum vout and do all this work and I was like, you know, this the competition's got to be pretty stiff. Um, but I I'm honored. um my colleagues in NMAEA were the ones who nominated me and I'm very grateful to them uh for recognizing my work and then always the support that we always received from all of you um from Kurt and you know and from our administration and um as I was I was in my classroom before

016I came here I have a poster hanging it's it's a poster that was printed by the NAEA and it's the 10 things that the arts teach uh and I won't I don't I don't have them all memorized but one of of them was uh the 10th one actually was uh the position that the arts have in the school curriculum communicates to our kids are to our students the import what you know what we hold important. So we're we're very appreciative that there is this you know prominent position of the arts in our curriculum in our schools. So thank you all. >> Thank you so much. Kurt knows always that I like to talk and that's why he's going to hold you up here for just a second. We just want to say thank you. Um

017I went through those art programs, not your art programs because I'm old. Um but at Rio Rancho and I >> I believe we were teachers there when you were >> Were you there in 1999? >> Okay. You I didn't realize that you were there too. >> You know, like 30. >> Yeah. Okay. That is awesome. Well, and that is like it's so important, you know, as we were we've been looking at art integration at some of our elementary schools and such. And it just it's so important to help our students to be able to see those things. And I think even if you don't carry on with art throughout the rest of your life, you know, that being able to see the world in that way, it changes you to be able to look, you

018know, deeper into those things. And so, I really thank you for for carrying on those programs. Um I I just think that they're super special. one of my nieces, I don't know if you know Clara Hawkins, but she's gone through she and and she just she loves I mean it's just her her place and kind of her way to that she's made it through high school really is to be able to take those classes. So, thank you so much for for all that you do. Um does anyone else on the board want to Michael? You're welcome to >> I'll just say um my most influential teacher growing up was an art teacher and so it's um going through APR it was a very special thing to me. Um I I think I ran into you

019on Friday night uh looking at the lovely art. Um I'll mention with my kids are big artists. They love they love art too. And the way we after that after we we met with you and we look through the thing uh uh the way we get them excited about art is talking about which art piece we're going to steal as we leave the uh so um but thank you for all your hard work. It it's tremendous to have good art programs >> and I will take an inventory after the meeting. >> Oh, you should. That's a good idea. Yeah. >> Rebecca, do you want to say anything? >> Congratulations and thank you for all your hard work and everything you've done. >> Well, congratulations. Thank you. I know my daughter went to Cleveland, but photography

020was her favorite class and I think even still it's one of our electives at NMSU. So, it definitely has an impact on the kids. >> Awesome. Dr. >> Again, congratulations. And you said you're shot, but we're not. And this is not the first and only recognition that that that um that she has received and uh just consistent excellence and just commitment to students and to the arts. And so we we are lucky to have you and and we thank you for uh your your service to this school district. And congratulations again. >> Thank you. and she gets to stay up here for the next accommodation. So, >> I'm just going to let you announce Kurt since you're just going to keep going through. >> Uh, President Galbreth, members of the board, Dr. Cleveland, um, the

021next commendation is for a number of students who recently excelled at the New Mexico Scholastic Arts U competition. So, if those students could and teachers could come up those we had several conflicts tonight, so there but there are a few students here. Uh, the New Mexico Scholastic Art Awards is a partner program with the New Mexico Art Education Association, which is the state affiliate of the NAEA. Uh, all students 13 years old through 12th grade can enter their work into the competition. Work can either be entered directly by the student on behalf of the student, by their art teachers, or by their parents. Oh, good. I didn't realize Okay. I didn't realize there were so many students. That's wonderful. So I will go through and just uh mention what who received what award and when

022I call your name if you could simply indicate and I believe we have their artwork being shown on the monitors as I read through these. So uh first of all uh those from Rio Rancho High School. Oliver Smith received a gold key and drawing. Alisa Teague received a gold key in digital painting, drawing and collage. Maria Velasquez received a an honorable mention in photography. Seven Halo Hartzog received a gold key in painting and also an honorable mention in illustration. Leila Sproutling received a gold key in for comic art. Alisa Teague again won a gold key in painting and Rebecca Fcker won a gold key in drawing. And from Cleveland High School, uh Shireen Kamali, uh received an honorable mention in drawing. Also an honorable mention in sculpture. Also an also al also an honorable mention

023in drawing. Also a silver medal in sculpture or se silver key in sculpture and also a silver key in portfolio for a for art. And Caitlyn Opie won a silver for film and animation. And I would also like to recognize these students teachers, Miss Miss Dian Leah, whom you've met, uh, Miss Liz Olive of Cleveland High School, and Miss Amber Spence of Rear Rancho High School, who is unfortunately ill tonight. So, congratulations to all these students. >> I'm so glad we can't see it up here, so we're That's why we're like glancing over at the side over here. Um, did you want to say something? they could uh be before you finish if you could come up and and face back that way because we've got a lot of parents I think that would >>

024want a picture >> would like a picture. So um if you would not run off yet. >> Okay, >> we can here. Come on up. We'll just do a picture. Let's do a picture together. >> Sorry. Tippy toe. >> Yep. Any parents who would like to come up and take a picture, you're welcome to. >> Smiles real quick for me here. >> All right. Thank you. >> Awesome. I think we're covered. students. Any of you guys thinking about taking um art in college? Yes, that's awesome. Is anyone hoping that to be their career? You guys hoping for that to be your career? It's a great career. So, thank you guys for Thank you guys for coming in. Congratulations. There's one thing about art students is they all know how to dress. You guys all look

025fantastic. So, I really want to emphasize that this is a big deal, is it not? This recognition is a really big deal and so congratulations. Would you like to >> Yeah, come up. >> I just want to microphone. >> How big of a deal this is? >> Please come up. Thank you. >> Um, so I am involved with the New Mexico Art Educators Association and I helped monitor adjudication for this. Obviously, I couldn't judge anything because my students were there and that wouldn't be fair. Um, but the show received about 2500 submissions from New Mexico and El Paso and only about 300 made it into the show. Anything with an honorable mention is going to be on the online gallery and I will share that with you guys when it is available. Anything with a

026silver or gold key is at the gallery which is the Oreium in Albuquerque. It's a really nifty little space. Um, and then anything with a gold key gets to go into the national competition. Um, some notable artists who got their start in Scholastics when they were in high school was Andy Warhol, uh, Joyce Carol Oats, Robert Redford. Um, it's it's a it's a big deal. So, thank you so much for honoring our students tonight. >> Thank you. Thank you for coming in. >> A very big a very big deal. And you can see for the quality of the work the students produce, they're they're more than deserving for to be recognized in this this competition. So >> yeah, you're beautiful. >> Um, our next combination uh is for Miss Kier Kipnis in the Cleveland High

027School drama program. Miss Kipnis and her troop of thespians won first place in the annual New Mexico Activities Association one-act competition last month. The production entitled Wy and the Hairy Man was a children's theater piece based on a Bayou folktale. The group also took third place in Backstage Crew, Lights and Sound, and Costume and Makeup. Although CHS has placed before in previous festivals, this is the first time I believe they have garnered the blue trophy. So, I'd like to bring up those students and Miss Gipus. Looks like they all must have enough to do a rendition of the the play, right? >> I know. That's what I feel. >> So, um I'd like to have Mr. Gibnas say a few words. >> Thank you. Um, it was an honor to win this year. When you

028put on a production, you put your heart and soul into it. We do painstaking hours of rehearsal. Um, I'm a big believer in process versus product because if the process is the joy of the art and the work is you as the instrument, then the product is going to be great if you love what you're doing. These students put their heart and soul into my program. And this particular uh play that we chose was very rhythmic and the ensemble had to be um constantly moving, constantly telling the story the whole time. No one left the stage. Um and this group is uh really talented in music, musical theater, and so much art form that they really came together and they knew this was the script for them. clearly because we won. Um but uh it's

029intense because you go through um loving your show and putting your your heart on the stage and then it goes against all the other productions and all of the intense judging down to how clean were you backstage, how perfect were your entrances and exits, your characterization, your movements on stage. So, we had to be really meticulous. Um, but then our hearts were in it and I think that's why why we won. Um, I'm going to have some of my students come up and share. Um, I'm going to have Michael and Ian and Sophia who were leads in the show come up first. So, come on over, guys. >> Hi. >> Use my projection voice. >> Um, and go ahead and tell them what character you played. And then if you guys want to share with

030them um what your favorite thing about the story was and then your favorite thing about competition or um the experience. >> Hi, my name is Michael Montana. Uh I played the hairy man. Um he's uh this like mischievous like Bigfoot character, but uh I'm not that big. So, uh, it was more kind of just like this wonderful experience of, uh, seeing all of my castmates, um, experience this, like Miss, my teacher said, this musical, like swamp elements of a show and watching us all fall into these characters and really grow to love them. Like, we I'll never forget performing for the Hairy Man. And I'm sure none of my other castmates will forget performing any of these characters just because of how in-depth we had to get with them. Um, a really good part about

031competition was just seeing how much talent there was in our state and just young actors coming out and like Miss K said putting putting our hearts out on that stage to uh a crowd full of high schoolers which are grueling. So, it's um it's a lot of fun being able to uh get the feedback on how good the programs are and seeing like, okay, we we did do very very well with the materials that we had. Um so, yeah, thank you. I'm going to pass it on to Ian. Hi, I'm Shackleford. I played WY and Wy and the hairy man. And uh I think my favorite part of doing competition uh was the bonds that we all made along the way. You know, it was a really it was really special just having this opportunity

032to do this one act and like and you know, I'm so grateful that we uh got all the assistance we needed to perform such a production, but the teamwork and the bonds that we made during comp, I think those will never go away. And honestly, I'm just so grateful for the experience, you know, I'm passing them. So, just my name is Sophia Lanner Dent. Uh, I played Mama and Wy and the Hairy Man and it's just been incredible the entire experience. Um, I've been in this program since freshman year, freshman through senior year and a lot of these people around me have too. And watching everyone grow and be able to go and win competition with them was absolutely incredible. Being on stage with them, it didn't feel like we were all separate. It felt

033like one, for lack of better word, hive mind. It's like I could think what everybody was thinking and feel them and it was just incredible. And being at the competition, it watching everybody all the other schools put on performances that were in my opinion just as good as ours really. It's so hard to judge acting competitions. I to the judges cuz it watching everybody it's it's incredible that everyone was so good and that we all got to come together and win and I'm really grateful for it. >> Um and then my last few students come on over. We couldn't obviously get everyone in the cast here. Um but I'll let each of you say your names and then would you guys just share why you love doing theater? >> Just got a Um, I'm Markeel

034Wilson. I played dog number two. But, um, honestly, I love theater because it's like one of the best ways to like express yourself. You know, there's so many characters that you can play. Like so many things that you can do. It's I would say it's probably for everybody in one way or another because there's always something that you can do with it. a character you can play, monologue you can do, musical you can sing, right? It'll always speak to somebody, you know, and it's always going to probably be in my heart forever. So, >> Markeel's really tall. Hi, my name is Juliet Sandival and um I'm kind of an outsider to this group. I came mostly from marching band and really coming in and getting into the theater department was really nice because it's very

035close-knit and I'd like to give props to Miss K for being able to like just let me come in after like being an outsider. Um I think overall Oh, also I play narrator 3 and I was the top of the giraffe. So, >> but I think overall the theater department's uh one of the most like amazing parts of the fine arts department because it's so like close-knit and they're all like together and it's just very like it's just a beautiful thing. >> Hi, I'm Caitlyn Opie and I played the illustrious role of narrator 2 number two. Um um something I love about the theater, especially here, is a lot of it's been said already, so forgive me if I repeat something, but just it's so cool to have this place of community where we can

036come together and put on a show and try to impact the audience. Something I love in general is just the arts. There's so much fun stuff to do and this theater program is an amazing way to explore that and to spend time with other people and broaden your worldview at the same time because hey, you have to spend time with people to act. Um, and it's just an incredible experience. I'm so grateful for it. >> My name is Senise Cotton and I played narrator 2 three in Wy and the Hairy Man. And like she said, everything has been put so beautifully already. But I believe that theater is an amazing way to get to know people and get out of your comfort zone. And it's just such a beautiful thing to perform for other people,

037to make people happy, to get people in their emotions and everything like that. And one good thing about competition is that everybody there it has the same passion for theater that you do. And it's just so beautiful to have that connection with everybody. >> So I just want to say thank you to the board for supporting theater so in such a a huge way because it gives as you can see these students a chance to find themselves in such a pivotal time in their life with a safe community and full expression. So thank you for making theater a part of your district. >> Thank you. students. I hope that just like you were just expressing all of the wonderful connectedness and all the wonderful skills that you've gained from it. I hope that maybe some

038of you, I know not everyone, but that you'll take some of those over at UNM, you'll feel those same things. If any of you guys go to UNM, I have a student a couple years ago, she went up and did costumes for the Santa Fe Opera and just loved that experience. And there's still so many things that that you can do and experience within the state. Um, and I love theater. So, I'm really sad actually that I missed your guys' act because it sounds amazing. Are you guys doing musical? Are you guys going to do a musical this year? >> Okay, let's give a plug. It's It's time for a plug. >> So, we're doing Le Miser Rob in March. Hey, >> we have several leads who are here. So yeah, big if you want

039a depressing French sung sad story, please come to our school. Come. >> I'm excited. Yeah, give us the dates because you said it's in March, right? So >> um second and third weekend of March and I will send Kurt all of the promo info and I hope I hope you guys can come and then in turn um Miss Natal at Rio, she's doing Singing in the Rain in April. So, we have a a very fun and a very dark, depressing, passionate for you coming soon. >> And both two of my favorite musicals. So, I'm really grateful that both of them were happening. B, did you want to add anything? >> Yeah. Um, as I mentioned in the art, one of my another one of my most favorite high school experiences is after a theater performance

040harassing the local diners that were taking us all in. So, I think you all Yes. Yeah. >> Yes. It was Denny's. Denise is always the brunt of the uh theater department's um late night after. So cor and you know Amanda always brings this up too but you know regardless of whatever careers you take in I think I was always dog number two in my whatever I did. So um I never leads but I think having the experience of standing in front of an audience and and rehearsing is a life skill that is ever more needed no matter what career path you take. So uh you all present yourself fantastically. Uh congratulations to you. Thank you. >> Yes. I just want to say congratulations to you all. I know a few of you. Um and I

041my daughter has Missknis so um I've seen a few of your productions so far and Aubrey Aubrey might have. So congratulations to you all. I know a few of you. I know you're definitely familiar. So congratulations. I hope you take this on to your career or college, whatever you decide to do. >> You want to say something? >> Congratulations, Markel. I'm glad to see that this is a good reason to leave the bowling team. No, I know that. And I had met Julie a long time ago. Probably you don't even remember it, but I've worked with her parents and the fire service through management for a long time. So, congratulations to you guys. and awesome job >> Dr. Well again congratulations on being the state champions for uh the one act play and I know

042it is incredibly competitive and so u you know the your hard work really really paid off. you know, I think about the joy of the process that you you address, but also the production, but I I also think about uh what are all the things you gain in terms of life skills through the drama experience, and that will serve you well forever. And so, again, congratulations to you, and uh we're just very proud that you represented your school and your district in such a a really fabulous way. >> Thank you. Thanks for coming in. UH, FINALLY tonight I'm very excited and pres excited and proud to present to you for commendation many students who were accepted into the Southwest American Coral Directors Association honor ensembles and who performed at the S SWACDA bianial conference last

043month in Albuquerque. So I invite those students and teachers to come up. some of whom you've met already in singing tonight. Uh the mission of SWACDA's parent organization ACDA or American Coral Directors Association is to inspire excellence and nurture lifelong involvement in coral music for everyone through education, performance, composition, and advocacy. These students were chosen among students from New Mexico, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. So, quite a large swath of the country down here. And I'll go through and mention uh the students um some of whom couldn't be here tonight and what their school and what their ensemble was. So, uh from CHS, we have Clay, Giana Clay, who is in the 7 through9 honors trouble ensemble. And if you're here tonight, please indicate. >> There you go. Um Harper Herbert uh from

044Mountain View Middle School 7 through9 Honors Trouble Ensemble. Khloe H from CHS 7 through9 Honors Trouble Ensemble. Sophia Loner Dent from CHS who is in both the 12 12th grade honors ensemble and the jazz ensemble. Allison Ludy from CHS in the 10th 10th and 11th grade honors mix ensemble. Victoria Morgan from CHS in the 10th and 11th honors mixed ensemble, Juliet Paul who is in from CHS who is both in the 12th grade honors ensemble and the jazz ensemble. I would also like to recognize the teachers of these students, Miss Julen Alam from Mountain View Middle School and Miss Yther Flam of Cleveland High School. So congratulations to these students and their teachers. Hi. Thank you so much for recognizing these students. We're so proud of them. They're going to sing in March. So, we're

045excited. Um, they were accepted months back. They auditioned early in the school year and so now they get to join people from all over uh the region and it's a fantastic national um honor. So, thank you so much for your support. Thank you. We are so incredibly proud of these students. They take This is above and beyond. They have to prepare all the materials on their own. They have to sing without any piano assistance or anything like that. They really have to prove that they're independent musicians. And it really also prepares them to have those life skills uh when they graduate to just be able to do things on their own and do adult things. And so this is a great organization that um supports students and builds self-esteem. And we're just so incredibly grateful

046for all the support that the board provides for Dr. Schmidt for always being such an encouraging uh vessel to our programs and just the community for supporting always and always believing in us. And we're just so grateful these students for their support. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. My my uh I'm I must say I made a mistake. You will will perform in March. >> Okay. There's so many choir festivals happening in the last few months. I get confused. But so in March you'll perform. Okay. My my fault. >> Do do any other students want to say anything? Do any of you guys have anything that you want to say? You're welcome. >> I don't talk. My name is Giana. I'm Giana Clay and I just personally want to thank my family. Um

047I want to thank God and I want to thank my amazing choir directors. I actually went to Mountain View Middle School. So, I had the chance to have both Miss Alammon and Miss Slam as my choir directors. And I think Miss Alammon because she started me in choir very early um in sixth grade and introduced me to honor choir and All State. And I really found a love for it. And this year I was able to participate in honor choir, All State, and ACDA. So, I just want to thank them and everyone who supported me this far. >> Thank you. Thanks for sharing that. Is there anyone else that wants to sing? >> Hi, I'm Chloe. Chloe H. Um, I I would like to thank my parents, my all my choir teachers, and I've always

048loved singing ever since I was really really little. And I want to do it as a career either in musical theater or as a choir teacher. I would love I would love to do the things that these sort of people have done for me uh to people who are like me when they were younger. And it it's just an amazing opportunity to be in choir to experience being on a stage and singing in front of people and it's just such an amazing way to connect with people. >> You can come back and work at our schools. >> Anyone else want to say anything? These are good. Go ahead. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think you've heard enough from me. I'll keep it short. But um uh I just choir is another one of the things that

049I have done since freshman year. Uh it's incredible to see new faces as well. Be so interested in it. I'm so happy that Miss Flam has more strong singers. Um it has helped me to mix with theater and do musical theater. I'm in the musical at Cleveland. I will be cassette. Um, and I also want to thank my dad and my mom, but my dad is here and he is the current theater tech director at Cleveland. I just want to give him a shameless plug, but yeah, thank you. >> That's right. That's right. Good. I want to thank you guys all for coming in. Um it's I what a musical talent is one that I do not have and I wish I did because it evokes so much emotion and helps us to understand remember

050all of those things um so much better than just normal life alone. So thank you for all that you're doing and and just as I'm listening to you and just all of our groups that came in today, it is when we have that those funds available to be able to start our students early that really makes a difference and makes these programs work. And so I hope that that's something that we will always continue to and as far as when I'm here, we will, but that we can continue to make sure that we support all the way down. You know, we start in elementary school a lot of these programs. And it's it makes you who you are today and these and helps you to get these awards and be able to be ready for

051college and all those things that you want to do. And so I'm grateful that you all came in um tonight. Anyone from the board want to add anything? >> Say congratulations. I was also in choir but I never made if they if there was a try out I didn't get in. So So you you're all and from what we heard this and the the star swingle banner was fantastic. So congratulations. Good job. >> You congratulations and good luck in March. >> Thanks >> guys. Congratulations. Thanks for coming and sharing your talent with us. Again, I think everybody said it, but we are so proud of you and and your accomplishments and I listen to you. I watch you come up. I hear you speak and and you know, we uh and you've got such poise

052and and you communicate so well. And so, um, thank you for your hard work, our instructors and our students. And, uh, we are proud of our programs and they mean a lot to our community and to our school district. And we're so glad you came this evening so we had a chance to tell you how much, uh, we do appreciate the work that you do. >> Thank you. Thank you guys for coming in. We're gonna have to decide what we're going to do with the presentation. Board can't see. >> Oh, do we want a picture really quick? We missed If you guys would like a picture, we can do one really fast. >> If you all would like to come up. >> We totally missed the all the drama kids. >> Yeah. One, two, three.

053>> Yeah, we can do that. Um, I'm gonna look at Tyler for just a second. Can we take a a Should we do a fivem minute break? Do you think we're going to be able to get it up at all? Okay. Why don't we I'm going to do a fivem minute break just so the board can get their computers up. So we're going to take a five minute recess. Um if if Jaci will just give us a timer that will start us back up just so we can get our computers and all those things up so that we can see the reports for tonight. Okay. Thank you everyone for who did come in all of our students and thespians do rock. I'm a thespian. We they can see but we cannot >> so I can

054I can look on Michael. Yeah. Where does he pull it up? >> You're totally right. >> I don't know where. Should we go get a couple of uh additional computers? We we really can't do this presentation without you being able to see it. >> Can you see there? >> Uh we have one here. I was trying to find >> but the the community can see >> I think right >> because we have a legal obligation to show this to the community. >> So I'm worried if if you think >> I can't find the slides on any of the documents we got. >> Okay, >> I'll talk to Jason. >> Yes, >> they don't have the slides and documents. >> I'm just going to move I'm moving your chair for a second. This is an important

055presentation for the board and so I want to be sure you if not we can reschedu it. >> I have another idea. Well, no then we can't do that either. We can't go across the hall because we can't >> we can't we can't distribute it. >> If there's a way for the audience to see it, >> we could go across the hall. >> Well, we could go another option. Oh. I think we'll be all right. >> You know, I'm wondering if that would just be better just to quickly bring copies and uh >> I used Congratulations. >> That is amazing. >> I'm so glad you did. That is amazing. This is your Okay. >> Congratulations. Just remember when things are still >> Oh, congratulations. >> Okay, I can open here. >> This summer, we're going

056to redo this whole system and hopefully we won't have this anymore. >> So, I can put this one in between us, too. I think Tracy went to just make copies of everything >> maybe easier and then we don't have to worry about it. >> It keeps going off and we too can look on here. >> I guess Seth could come over and look on yours if but I think Tracy's gonna make copies. It shouldn't take her very long at all. >> Yeah. The big one I'm really concerned about is when we do like business and we have to do the reason we have to make the motion and say all the things that we don't have it I guess we can look at it. >> Yeah. We we have um two weeks blocked off uh

057the the beginning of the summer to redo the system. >> So hopefully we won't have any of this next year. That will be good. >> These kids are so polished. >> I know. I feel a little bad. I think I tripped the art kids a little bit. Like it was just a whole thing. >> Yeah, >> they are. They are so fun. >> I just love hearing from them >> and Yeah. >> Yeah. Patrick's got >> all right. I said five, but I think we're >> okay. >> Gentlemen, we're just gonna make we J's gone to just make printed copies. >> So, I think we'll just work with it. >> She can make the copy. So, you don't have to >> worked out. So Patrick, if you can do this now before you walk out.

058>> Yeah. >> We're going to be doing the system in May. That's what they said. >> So hopefully >> but now there's so many legal requirement apparently that's okay. >> Of course. Of course. Oh, okay. >> No, no, no. You don't want you like I can see from him. Can use paper. >> All right. We're good. >> Okay. All right. We'll go back to our meeting. Um we'll go into our report section now. Um assessment data. Um Happy Miller, executive director of RADA is here to present. >> Good evening, President Galbreth, Dr. Cleveland, members of the board. My name is Happy Miller and I'm the executive director of the department called research assessment data and accountability. We shortened that to Rada because it's a very long title. Um so what do we do? Um research

059means reviewing the research requests that come into the district to try to make sure that we're upholding all of the protections for our students and our staff um like an institutional review board does at the higher ed level. assessment. We manage all of the state assessments and some of the districtmandated assessments. I do have a link in the presentation for you. I know you have an electronic copy. You're working off of a paper copy right now, but in your electronic version, there is a link to our district assessment calendar if you're ever interested in what assessments we give. Um, data is a variety of things. We manage a tool from Renaissance called data and assessment that helps us manage our data. We provide professional development in assessment and data literacy. We help staff utilize the

060data to improve school impro well to improve instruction. Um we provide reports to help determine program effectiveness. We manage state and federal reporting at least some of it. and we also contribute to data governance. What we're going to talk about today is accountability. And when we talk about accountability, we're talking about the ESSA accountability um system, which I'll explain in detail in a minute. State, we also look at state accreditation, school graduation, and dropout rates. within our department. We have I have a wonderful team that I work with and Erin Morren oversees our assessments and she is not here tonight. Tasha Young, if you would stand up, please. You heard about her during the last meeting. She works with the schools in interpreting the data and using the data to improve our dash plans and

061works a lot with data and assessment literacy and we very much appreciate her. Angela Mchuan joined our department recently and she's been very helpful. She works primarily in the assessment area and Britney Hood oversees state reporting. School accountability is within the parameters of the federal every student succeeds act. So federal statute regulations set the parameters and the state then has to each state submits their own plan within the parameter of the federal guidelines. The state plans must include academic measures, school quality measures, disagregated data, and a system of meaningful differentiation with improvement strategies. New Mexico has different criteria depending on the level of the schools. Elementary and middle schools have the same criteria with reading, math, and science proficiency indexes, and I'll explain that in a minute. Reading and math academic growth, English learner progress,

062and regular attendance. High schools have additional criteria. They have college and career readiness and graduation rates. In addition to the other measures, some districts may have K2 only schools and they have part of this, but the two that I'm focusing on today are the elementary, middle, and the high school because they're most relevant to us. The reason there's an asterisk next to the academic growth for high schools is academic growth is only for students in grades four through eight. So if the high school like um Rear Rancho Cyber Academy has students below 9th grade, they have academic growth. If there are 91 12 only, they don't have academic growth within their system. So what is a proficiency index? You're probably used to the concept of this is the percentage of students who are proficient, which

063really means proficient or advanced. In order to earn points, the state has decided to join other states that are using a similar method and they award sort of partial credit. And so if you are a student in the first level beginning steps, you earn zero points. If you're nearing proficient, you earn a half point. If you're profic proficient, you earn one. And advanced earns 1.25. And so I will be showing you both a proficiency rate and a proficiency index rate because the points are based on the index but more commonly when you're in the community talking to people you talk about the proficiency rate. These are based on the state assessments and um those are in grades 3 through 8 and 11 and the sciences 5 8 and 11 because federal law says once per

064grade bound for science but federal law also specifies every year 3 through 8 and once in high school in New Mexico chose grade 11. I do want to caution you at the high school level, we are using the SAT for English and math proficiency. This is the College Board SAT, the college and career readiness SAT. So, I do want to caution you that when you look at our rate and you look at national averages, it's not totally an applesto apples comparison. And the reason for that is in many states students take the SAT voluntarily and so it's going to be your collegegoing students and many of them will take it in the fall of their senior year. They may take it their junior year and then take it again the fall of the senior year.

065For New Mexico for accountability purposes all of our 11th grade students take the SAT. So it is not optional. it is mandatory and so you have a broader spectrum and when you have more students taking it the average tends to be lower than in a state where it is purely voluntary. Also please keep in mind that New Mexico defined proficiency as the college and career readiness benchmarks which is 480 for English language arts and 530 for math. Those are defined as a 75% probability of a C in a college level class like um algebra, statistics. Um and so they didn't choose like an 11th grade cut score. It's the 12th grade college and career readiness. So just keep that in mind when you're looking at and interpreting our 11th grade SAT scores. So what I

066have for you here are the district proficiency rates. This is 3, eight, and 11 combined compared to the state proficiency rate. And also the proficiency index where we receive partial credit or extra bonus points. As you can see, we are above the state average in each of the content areas. And the next slide shows you the proficiency rate by grade and by content. The next section is academic growth and academic growth is based on student growth percentiles calculated using MSSA scale scores. MSSA is the grade 3 through 8 English and math assessment. And so what that means is they look at students in their prior years. So for a fourth grade student, they look at how they did on the third grade test. So let's say the student scored a 350 on the third grade

067test. They look at all the students around the state that scored a 350. And then how did they do in their fourth grade year? Did they do higher than their peers or lower than their peers or about the same? So if they grew a typical amount, their growth percentile would be a 50. A 50 is sort of typical growth. And so each student has an individual growth percentile. And then they look at what is the median, what is the middle growth percentile for the school or for the district. Next slide please. So when you look at this chart you can see that the state median percentile is 50th in math and 49th in English language arts. By definition the state percentile is going to be between sort of 49 and 51. It has to be

068the average would be 50. The median is going to be very close to 50. If we are above the state median, it means that we are growing a little bit faster than the typical student in the state. At a 58th percentile in math, we're growing not hugely above, but our middle student is growing faster than a typical rate compared to other students around the state. And our language arts is similar. We're just a little smidge above. Next slide. English learner progress. When a student arrives and is screened and is identified as an English learner, they take the access assessment in their first year. The state expects that they will be proficient in academic language, reading, writing, speaking, and listening within five years. and they define proficiency as a 4.7 on the access assessment. That's actually

069higher than some of the other states. For example, I was talking with Dr. Dodd in Maryland, it's a 4.5 to exit. Our definition of proficiency is 4.7. So, they look at the grade level the student is when they enter. They look at their first test score and say, "Okay, you're at a level one now. You need to get a 4.75 years. We're going to set these interim targets for you. And so this measure is whether the student met their interim target to be proficient within five years. So it's not the percentage of students exiting, but whether they met this target that's on a chart, but really it's just stepping stones towards proficiency. Next slide. And you can see that our rate of meeting the target is higher than the state average. Our rate is 25.4%

070in the state is 16.5. Regular attendance is the inverse of chronic absenteeism. And let me explain to you what chronic absenteeism is. If a student misses 10% or more of class for any reason, they are considered to be chronically absent. If it's excused, if it's unexcused, I shouldn't say for any reason. If they have an activity or something, they're considered present. But if they are absent then and they miss 10% or more of class which is 18 days across the school year then they're considered chronically absent. So we talk a lot about the percentage of students that are chronically absent. Regular attendance is the flip. So it's the percentage of students who were here 90.01% 01% to 100% of the time. Last year, by our calculations using powers school, we had about 22.6% of our

071students who missed class. So, our regular attendance rate was 77.4%. As of 80th day this year, it's about 19% for the district. This is significantly less. It seems like a lot. It is a lot. And you will hear at a future point in time I am sure um the efforts that the schools have been going to to reduce their chronic absenteeism. Um but compared to 22 23 and right after the pandemic these numbers are about half of what they used to be. College and career readiness is for high schools only. The state has both participation and success. Participation is the proportion of students who were ever members of a cohort who participated in one or more college or career ready assessments or courses. So whether they did CTE, whether they took the PSAT, um and

072then of those students who participate, how many met the college or career readiness benchmark for whatever that measure is? I should let you know that this is a lagging indicator. So this data is from the class of 2024 even though it's for data year 2425 and our participation and our success rate are again higher than the state level. Graduation is a little bit complex um to calculate. What you need to really realize from this is a graduate is a student who receives a diploma. Non-graduates include students that we don't know what happened to them. Maybe they were absent for 10 or more days and were disenrolled and they didn't reenroll in a peed school. They might have gone to a private school. They might have gone out of state. We just don't know where they

073are. It can include students that are known dropouts. It includes students who get a GED. It includes students who go to a non-diploma granting institution like JobCore or the National Guard Youth Challenge Academy. So, the only students who are counted as a graduate are those with a diploma. Even though we have had students who have gotten a GED and gone on successfully to higher ed, they're not considered to be a graduate. Um, some students are excluded from the calculations and those are students who move out of state or go to a private school or basically a nonPED school. The other thing to consider when looking at graduation rates is how long they've been at a school. New Mexico has a system of proportional accountability which means that if a student starts at say Rio Rancho

074High School and spends three years at Rio Rancho High School and then goes to Independence High School for one year, both schools are accountable for that student's success or not graduating. And the way they portion that is by how many snapshots they're here. We have four snapshots in a year. Um second week of October, uh December 1st, second week of February, and end of year. And so for four years, we're looking at a total of 16 snapshots if they were here the full year. So if they were at Rioancho High School for three years and independence for one, Rio Rancho High School would have 75% of the weight and independence would have 25% of the weight. If a student is here in New Mexico in a ped school, let's say for 10 days, and they

075happen to cross a snapshot date and then leave again, we have 100%. Because it was one out of one, next slide. So, graduation is also a lagging indicator like college and career readiness. The data that is showing here is from the class of 2024. And you can see that our four-year, 5-year, and sixyear rates are higher than the state average. The class of 2025 data is almost ready to be published and um we expect that it'll be published by the end of this month. Right now, we have tenative rates that are embargoed that we're looking at to validate, but we will come back to you soon with the class of 2025 graduation rates. And those class of 2025 graduation rates will be in the next cycle of school accountability designations. So once we take all

076these and we earn points in each of the categories, they get added together and schools are given designations. And this is part of the federal requirements. You receive a spotlight designation if your point total is in the top 25% in the state. Traditional, you are not in need of improvement, but you're, you know, not quite up in the top 25%. And then there are designations either based on how subgroups are performing or all students are performing. And you can see there, um, I'm not going to go into detail at this point in time about each of these designations, um, but I'd be happy to provide you more information if you ever would like more specific details about each of the types of designations. Next slide. I do want to point out that for the comprehensive

077school improvement and the more rigorous interventions designations, there are two types. There's low performance for a title one school whose overall score is in the bottom 5% of title one schools statewide. And we do not have any schools in that category and graduation. And this is important for Independence High School. By federal law, any school, and it doesn't matter if you're an alternative school or not, if the 4-year graduation rate is below 66.7% enters the CSI designation for graduation, and if you don't exit it within the three years, then you move into the more rigorous intervention category for graduation. In order to exit, um, the school needs to have a three-year average of the four-year cohort rate above 66.7%. So, how did we do? Um, for anyone who would like to look in depth at

078how our schools are doing, they can go to new vistas.org. Um, the majority of our schools, we have 12 schools in the spotlight designation. Again, spotlight is in the top 25% in the state. We have six schools in traditional designation and independence high school is in the MRI graduation category and I believe that there will be a board report in March for Independence High School and they've been doing really wonderful things and they're making tremendous progress. So they are in this designation, but there is reason to hope that the things that they have been doing and putting into place are really making a difference in terms of their graduation rate. In addition to these school designations, there's additional criteria that are included in the district report card. Um this includes per pupil expenditures, educator qualifications,

079post-secary enrollments rate, school climate which is taken from the civil rights data collection data, alternate assessment participation and schoolboard training. So as schoolboard members, you're required to participate in training. The school board association gives it to them. It goes on new mexicovistas.org whether you have met your requirements or not. It's also in the state accreditation system. I do want to caution you if you are trying to compare data from this year to last. There have been some business rule changes on the district report card per pup people expenditures. Last year they aortioned some of the district expenditures to the schools because things like let's say software or assessments or other things that we pay for out of the district go to serve the schools. This year they have new staff. They have a new way

080of doing it and they strictly did it what is in the school budget versus the district budget. So if you try to add up the school budget and you compare it to the district, it's not going to match. And so just realize that you can't compare. Treat this year as a baseline year because the methodology change. Also for educator qualifications, the federal government says you have to look at the um number of teachers who are inexperienced and whether they're in a high poverty or a low poverty school, etc. And the way that they determined high poverty and low poverty last year was the free and reduced lunch program. And since 100% of our students participate in the free and reduced lunch program, it made it appear that all of our schools are high poverty. This

081year they changed the business rule to determine the economic status to direct certification of SNAP benefits. And so it's a different way of assessing. And so again, be cautious when comparing the two because the business rules changed. For the last several years, the school designations have been released by a deadline of November 15th and the district report cards released by January 15th. That's what happened this year. By state statute, we are required to print district report cards and they should be printed by the end of the month in the journal and the observer. Um, we do anticipate changes. Um, there is a real push to release school designations earlier in the school year, hopefully by the beginning of September. In order to do that, they have to change some of the methodology of who is

082included because they were looking at students who were enrolled 120th day, second week of February, and end of year. and if you had been there 90 days, they can't wait till the end of the year because that data isn't finalized and certified until the end of July. So, the peed will be um releasing for comment an amendment to the state plan to try to change the business rules to include students who were enrolled at the school on 40th, 80th, and 120th day. So, still 90 days or approximately thereabouts um but just shifted earlier in the year. The hope is that they're able to um get approval from the federal government to change their business rules so that they can release the designations earlier in the year. Um and I think there's a lot of support

083for that. Um other anticipated changes in the peed's action plan for the Yazi Martinez judgment. They proposed a listening tour this spring to consider additional categories for the plan. And so it's just something to keep in mind if you hear something about the peed um on a listening tour. Um it's an opportunity to provide feedback on the state's current plan and whether there are other types of measures that you might want to have included. In Maryland, I saw that they have a well-rounded curriculum. Um some states have surveys. There's different things that can be included as quality measures. And so you may have the opportunity to provide input. And the state also mentioned um trying to develop more items that are considered culturally relevant um to be included in the assessment itself. And finally, I

084just want to finish up with mentioning another um study you might have heard of recently. Um, Everest Analytics released a study um that they call Lexile growth study and a number of districts from around the state participated including Rio Rancho and in their conclusions reading growth they found that reading growth in New Mexico is comparable to national trajectories and in some years surpasses the national median. So looking at growth, we're making typical to sometimes above typical growth when looking at Lexiles because they need a measure. Every state has a different assessment right now. And so they're saying, how can we compare ourselves to other states and look at growth? So they use Lexiles as an intermediate way measure to look at that. Um they al one of the conclusions was the bar to be considered

085proficient is higher in New Mexico than the national median across grades three through eight. Um and if the students MSSA scale scores were quote reexpressed using the threshold of neighboring states the state's projected proficiency rates would increase marketkedly. So next slide. Um, so what that basically means is if every state has their own assessment, every state determines what proficiency means. NAPE is an exception. NAPE is the same test across the country, but with our state accountability assessments. Basically, you have a team of people go in and say, I think this, you know, meets the definition of the standards that we have and this is the level of work that would be required um in order to be considered proficient. This is not a new concept. I linked a study from 2007 from NWA and the

086Forom Institute called the proficiency illusion which said way back in 2006 um New Mexico's standards um showed that our math standards were some of the most rigorous in the country. We were I think third or fourth from there. So you can see what they did is they looked and said what score do you need on NWA which is given across different states throughout the country. What score would you need to have a 50% probability of passing the state accountability assessment? And in doing that by doing these linking studies they can compare the relative rigor from one state to the next. I was looking at this more carefully today and I noticed that at that point it was a 55th percentile. Um, and this was back in No Child Left Behind when we had the SBA.

087And now the percentile you need is even higher. So our tests are more rigorous now than at that time. But the concept of every state having their own definition of proficiency is not new. And it's part of the reason why there was the push to have consortiums with park and smarter balanced was so that we would have a common definition of proficiency and we could make comparisons from stateto state. Um and this is borne out by other measures with our interim assessments. Um, I station did a linking study in and showed that students needed to be between like the 65th and 80th percentile to have a 50% probability of p of being proficient on the MSSA. So remember before I said a 50th percentile, you're typical, your average. If you're between the 65th and 80th,

088that means if you line students up from like one to 100, you have to be better than like 65 to 80 of them in order, you know, to be at that percentile rank. NWA also shows that students need to be between the 60th and 80th percentile depending on the grade and the con well content but in reading and in math between the 65th and the 97th percentile in order to be proficient on our state accountability assessment. So the conclusion you can draw and I think this is true probably in every state a nationally average a typical student nationally of what's observed in their work is not likely to be proficient on our state assessment. So when you look at our proficiency rates and you're like why are so few proficient? When you compare us nationally,

089the level the definition of proficiency is high enough that you would only expect 20 to 35% of the students to be proficient based on our interim those cut scores. And with that, I stand for questions. I know we just covered a lot of material in a very short period of time. >> I know we kind of went all over. I'm glad that you talked the these last slides. I just talked about it a little bit up at the schoolboard conference too. And so I think it's really important for us to understand. Do we have any I mean so now and we've known this in the past and I guess and we know it again and now they're talking about it at the state level but is anyone actually going to do anything with with these

090proficiency and how it looks and because this is kind of what it has where it has to do with New Mexico always looking so bad education wise but is there anything that we can actually do about it in the state to to show nationally that we look not as bad as we are >> that we aren't as bad as we are? Well, one is norm referenced where we are relative to others and sort of our state and sound, but then there's also what the criterion referenced. What is the rigor of our standards? >> Yeah. >> So, >> do we really want to change our definition of proficiency? We, you know, >> so it's it's a tough it. >> Yeah. We want to make sure that we're providing the best for the students so they can

091succeed globally and that they do well on assessments like NAPE and other things as well. >> Um but I don't know if Dr. Cleveland or other people would like to answer. >> No, Dr. You want to talk you could talk any more to the report or to that? >> Well, I think um I I suspect you heard something about this at school boards. >> Yes, they we talked about it. It's be it's become a very hot topic um of discussion and um where you know over the years what what what drove this study actually were superintendent who came to New Mexico from other states and they looked at the proficiency and they thought you know kids aren't proficient here but but when kids in my state performed at this level they were proficient so what's

092happening you know why is there that kind of discrepancy NWA is considered a wellrespected national uh assessment organization. And so they began they they hired an independent firm, the Everest firm, come in and really take a look at that and and they confirmed what we felt for a long time that our SC our cut scores were higher than many other states. Therefore, when they the information was presented out, it somewhat distorted where our kids were in their way of thinking. And so it's been the discussion of legislative committees. It's been, you know, how do and there's no easy answer. Happyy's right. There's no easy answer. Um, you know, you you say, well, you want a higher cut score because you think that will make students strive harder and do more and it's it's a tougher

093standard. And that's true. On the other side though, that when they start are when it's inflated somewhat by that process, that's somewhat demoralizing to students and teachers to tell them that they're at the bottom when they're not. And so that's been the push. Um I don't know where the state's going to go with it, but it certainly uh opened up some discussions that we as a state have really needed to have for a really long time. And so you see on the chart kind of where we fall. Um I don't think anyone thinks that where we are is where we want to be regardless one way or the other. But it is um this you know it it came from other superintendents who worked in other states and they said right you know our kids

094were proficient with with these with these scores. So it'll be interesting to see where it goes. I think that um you know there's a couple of other things to just briefly comment on. Um but this is the hot topic this year in the legislature the the Lexile um and the NWI NWA data. Uh one of the other uh I think challenges that we continue to face is um you know we our absenteeism has dropped dramatically and we put a tremendous amount of effort u middle schools we have uh social workers who helped get kids to school. we put some incentives in. That's just, you know, you can argue both sides of that. But, you know, you can't teach children if they don't come to school. And and so, anything to get our kids back in

095after the pandemic, uh, we we were really stretching to find some kind of of way to get them back. But no matter how you cut it, no matter how you look at it, when you miss more than 19 days, 20 days a year, um, that's going to impact your child's performance. I don't care what you say. It may be that they're legitimate absences. May be that they have a chronic illness or it's not passing judgment on the absence itself. It's just simply saying when you aren't there, you can't do that science experiment. You can't do that at home or when you're not there, you can't participate in that social studies discussion. You could do some work, but it's not at the same level. And so we need to, you know, we continue to try to

096work with our our our community is just so critical to get your children to school and uh and that is an ongoing battle and and I you know that's going to that'll continue to be a challenge I think in the years ahead. But it is so important that children come to school. And despite all of this, our scores are reflective of many children who miss 10, 20, 30, 40 days of school and they cannot they cannot get the work done. They just can't. So we encourage, you know, we continue to work with our parents and our our community to to really encourage our children to uh come to school. I would like uh just briefly to uh address and happy maybe is better to even to address it. Um independence I talked with the person

097who was assigned to independence this year. Um she she's and Renee has done a lot of work with independence and and this and she said your system the way you've set it up is set up for failure on your system because um in in other states you're a a junior and you have five credits, they don't they don't let you come back, you know, they push you into the adult system or they do something else. But if you think about it, if you come in as a junior with five credits, unless you're just handing out credits, they're not going to finish in the four-year. They they can't. It's not possible. And our philosophy has always been, you walk in with five credits in your junior year, we're glad to have you. Come on in and

098we're going to get you through. So, uh, some states, and maybe Happy can address this because I've heard different things, but I know some of our our my colleague superintendents talk about their states have five-year cohorts or they have four-year cohorts that start when they show up. In other words, if you come in with five credits, you are automatically assigned that you were a freshman and you have your four years. or other states have I guess some some variances in how they deal with the cohort issue and and that um you know that's a challenge for independents. They work really really hard when when kids come in to get through uh but they don't pass out credits just to pass out credits. I have to do the work. And so they have done amazing work

099given where students will sometimes walk in the life challenges these kids have already experienced and and and we always welcome them. But that doesn't fit this system very well. And so they have made incredible strides and I believe they're going to get to the 60 uh seven. I think they're going to make it. They're really close this year. And um but they have to work awfully hard to to to get there. And uh I would hate to have a situation where we would be forced to turn kids away because it's going to cost the district its accreditation. And and that's uh and I don't think that's what our state wants. We've had conversations with the secretary. She reiterates that's not at all what she wants. But she also addresses the framework that she works under.

100And so, um, many of the, uh, MRI schools in our state are schools somewhat like Independence who take children that have just had a lot of things happened to them in their life and they come in way behind. Sometimes they don't. I mean, sometimes they go to Independence because they just love the smallness of the school and they love the the the personal interaction and other things, but some of our kids really do come a far way behind when they walk in the door. I just want you to know that that this is not a reflection of the work that they do in trying to get to that 68%. Uh honestly, I think sometimes they should be candidates for statehood because of how hard they they push to get get the students through. So, we're

101excited about the gains. Um I think when we called over there uh and told them where it came in this year, I think Rene said they were crying. They were so emotional over where they had come from and how much work it goes into getting our kids through. But I just want you to have a picture of the challenges and why independence I think is worth every single bit of effort that that we put into it. And u uh the cohort system for graduation doesn't fit this very well. What what would you add to that? Happy anything else? It's just I want to give particular new board members a kind of a picture of what the challenges are for any of the um alternative schools that work to target our higher need kids. >> I

102believe it's a federal rule that applies equally if you're below 66.7% you need to be identified within the state plan. There's great latitude as to what actions you're taking and how you treat the schools. And that's one of the areas where the state could amend its plan to be a little bit more supportive and less threatening. Um, >> but the school is doing amazing things. They typically do not accept students until they're in their junior year. So, they're not going to have 16 snapshots at Independence High School. So, if they graduate them within four years, they count as a graduate, but they're not going to have that much weight. they do a wonderful job of getting students graduated within five years which makes sense um when you have students coming in that are behind. I

103will also say there are 20 something like 22 or 24 high schools um in the state that are MRI graduation right now. Um they're certainly not alone. Many of them are alternative high school. Not all of them are, but I believe that um when independence presents in the future that they will bring you additional information. >> Okay. >> And then the last the real brief comment is that you see on the district report card and uh that we are required to publish that and they've given us some new um direction on how how to do that. that will be available not only on a website but it also has to be a published document in a um a newspaper of general circulation I believe and we work with the observer always on uh on on

104that requirement >> there'll be a special section in the observer and I believe the journal both >> yeah is that correct >> still here >> no >> um that's okay um but it should be coming out later this month um Windham's already in conversation with the newspapers and the newspaper association has been working with PED on a common template and so it'll show each school with like a little speedometer where they are in terms of points and proficiency and um it's a lot of information that's sort of compact but that will be so it's not all information for all information please go to nmveistas.org or >> there's a lot of really good things in this document, a lot of progress. There's some really good things. We still obviously have a lot of work to do

105and um so um but but some really bright spots here. >> We'll go to questions from the board if you have any, but it might be a good thing with our three new board members to just do a little tour over at Independence. And um I thought that was really helpful for me. Um even though we're changing the location here pretty soon, it's just nice to go through there. And also with our that's not in this report but our little cyber academy too. I think that's always a good school to to go by too. So um questions from the board. Michael. >> Sure. I I'll have a question then I first want to just mention I uh in being involved with a lot of interviewing it's it's it's a marketing thing too. I mean how

106much people are like I don't know if I want to come to New Mexico because school issues. But then it's kind of hard to No, no, no. We have more rigorous standards. It's like a it's when you're explaining sometimes you're still losing. Um I would be sad to see standards reduced too. So I mean I don't know how to to it's too short. Um real quick when we're comparing against state things this is in the weeds. Is this all stu they put all students in a pile or is it the average of the average of a school district? Does that make sense? >> Um what I'm giving our district >> Yeah. But when we compare districts to like the state >> is our district average compared to the state average. >> Is the state average

107come from averages of the school district average or is it all the students in Okay, that thank you. >> There can be a difference there if you >> I didn't really mention about 99% of our students take the um measures of student success assessment and the assessment of science readiness. 1% take an alternate assessment. the dynamic learning maps. Those are for students that are the most significantly cognitively disabled, but their scores are also in those averages. >> Thank you. >> Like they also have performance levels and it's combined. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay, Rebecca. No questions and any questions here. >> Any last comments from you, Dr. Cleveland? >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. That's a lot to put together and so thank you so much for doing that. >> Overwhelming. It's

108it's really good information though. So, thank you so much. Okay, I have to get back to my right place. Okay, we do not have any public comment for this evening. So, we'll go through that. Um and and we're now on the consent. If nothing needs to be removed and discussed on the consent, then we can go to a motion. >> Board member Muller. So moved. >> Moving to approve. >> Approve the consent agenda. Board me board member Barry second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second and all in favor >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay, motion carries 4 Z. Okay, we'll now move into the business portion of our meeting for tonight. We just have two items here. Um our first is to consider award of RFP number 2026-11-IT- rate category to Eagle

109Ridge Middle School Copper Refresh. We have Chris Tweet, our director of purchasing and chief procurement officer who will present. >> Good evening, uh board president Galbreth, superintendent, uh Cleveland, members of the board, and uh Scott Leman is kind enough to to join me if you have any really really tough questions for us. Um so this project is for the um category 5 replacement the capabling replacement at Eagle Ridge Middle School. The district did receive two responses as you can see. Um the award the vendor being uh recommended for award uh has done several projects uh with the district at several of the schools. So with that we stand for any questions you may have. >> Dr. Bloom, do you want to add anything on this one? Any questions from the board on this item? If

110not, then um I'll actually make a motion. So I motion to approve um award and award uh let's see RFP number 2026-11-IT-ER category 2 Eagle Ridge Middle School Copper Refresh to Cypress Communication Systems LLC. Is that correct? >> Correct. Okay. >> Do I have a second? a second. >> Um, all in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay, motion carries. Thank you. Appreciate it. And I did that one mostly because I have it up on my screen and I don't think anyone else had that one there. Um, so Patrick Martinez has our next. He's our executive director of facilities. Um, this will be to consider the approval of PNM easement agreement for Riot Tech campus. >> Thank you. Uh, President Gris, Dr. particularly the members of the board. Um I'm here uh for your consideration

111for the approval of the P this P&M uh electric easement agreement. Now what this agreement is is identifies the electric utility is easement on the Riot campus specifically for the automotive technologies building that's currently being built. Um this agreement has to be signed by our board because it is our property. So uh with that we there is an exhibit that shows the exact location of this easement and now we have verified that that is not in any uh there's no issues with the placement of it. It doesn't impact the vacant property that we do have um that we will still have after the automotive technology building is complete. So with that I stand for questions. >> Okay. Anything you want to add Dr. Cleveland? >> It it's just a it appears to be beneficial both

112sides. I don't know if Lauren wants to add >> Yeah. Lauren, do you want to add something? >> Can I just mention um the reason why the board is being asked to take action on this is it's actually the board that owns all the real estate. Um the board will need to uh agree to grant this to PNM. This is a normal course of business to build a to build a building. And as long as there's a building there, there's going to need to be an easement for the power >> uh from PNM. Comes off of their utility easement on the street. Um, typically what would happen is the board, if the board approves it, we would have the superintendent actually sign the agreement. >> Yeah. And that's what I see on here. I don't

113see we have to make any signatures or anything. I'm just looking at it online. So, >> okay. >> Questions from the board? Any questions on this one? Go for a motion. >> Board member Barry, uh, I've blinked on the wording here. uh consider approval of the PNM easement agreement for Riot Techch campus. >> We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? >> Board member Marie. Uh second >> that motion in a second. And all in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Okay, motion carries. 4. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right. Um, as far as advanced planning, um, you can go ahead and take a look at what is in the agenda for, um, is there any questions on anything that's coming up. Um, we do have a special work session

114that will be on early childhood um, in our training rooms on the 23rd. Um, and that's just before the meeting, right? Or what is that right? Okay, just before the meeting. Okay, so any other questions on anything coming up? Okay. So, with that, our meeting's adjourned for the night. Thank you everyone. Appreciate it.