0019. Good evening. The Rancher Public Schools Board of Education meeting for Monday, June 23rd, 2025 is now called to order. If I will, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] JC, can you take a roll call for us? President Gal present. Vice President Morgan present. Secretary Tyler. Board member Trip present. Board member Miller present. All right. Thank you so much. We'd like to excuse um board secretary Jessica Tyler tonight. she's not able to be here. Um, but thanks for everyone coming. It's been nice and hot and I hear there might be rain tomorrow, so we're all hopeful for that. But thank you everyone for
002coming to our meeting tonight. We'll start with some introductory comments by our superintendent of school, Dr. Visu Cleveland. Thank you very much. And again, welcome everyone. We're glad you're here this evening. The Rio Rancho Public Schools audit committee met prior to the regular board meeting. uh this is the beginning of a new audit cycle for the district and so talked a little bit about just the the structure and organization uh of the audit and u um that will be underway soon. As I said it does start the official process uh for the audit for the district. Uh we will be using the same firm that we used last year, Beasley Mitchell and Company. Uh they are a company from Los Cusus, New Mexico. Uh and we look forward to working with them again this year.
003Uh the chairperson for the audit committee is Dr. Beth Miller. Other committee members include Gary Trip who is the audit committee vice chair. Uh I serve on the committee. Seth Mueller is our parent representative. Uh and David Vehill is our executive dire our executive director of finance serves on the committee. And then we have to have one individual who has business background in the area of finance and uh that individual is uh Kelly Wayright. This evening we have commendations. New Mexico School Boards Association Student Achievement Award. The Board of Education will honor Carl Lepelman who is our retired chief academic officer. Be presenting him with the New Mexico School Boards Association Student Achievement Award. This award is given to a few individuals who have made a significant difference in student achievement in the district over
004time. car will be introduced this evening by Lauren Hatch and the presentation will be made by Amanda Galbreth, president of the board. I would have just a few things and maybe an opportunity to share some more. Uh but Carlman was one of the original members of Rio Rancho public schools when it was created in 1994. At that time he was the principal of Enchanted Hills uh elementary, but he certainly had been with us from the very beginning. played a very key role in the formation of the district and then its development over time. We have uh this evening a bond election option overview. Eric Carrian with RBC Capital Markets will be presenting information to the board uh related to the upcoming bond sale uh this fall. This bond sale will enable the board to continue
005meeting many of its established priorities. Many of those have been very difficult to attain due to a variety of factors. Uh things like increased uh construction costs that in many cases have doubled or even tripled uh labor, equipment, material costs and been a very challenging environment for school construction uh the last few years. But we're excited to continue with the priorities that the board has uh has established for the district. We also have our legal uh our bond council here this evening from module Sperling. Okay. Uh there will be a resolution and proclamation. The board will be asked to consider approval of a general obligation bond election resolution for this year and proclamation uh calling for a district election. The information regarding this board action um will be presented by Lauren Hatch, our chief counsel,
006Eric Carrian, RBC Capital Markets, and our financial advisor, and Chris Mirhead with Ro Sperling's bond council. We have a request for the board this evening to consider renaming our social communications program for the district. which requests will be presented to the board by Jerry Reer who is our executive director of special services for the district. Tama Wheeler was a long-erving director of special services and she played a key role in the development of the social communications programs for the district. Tama was a very special educator. Uh she has been terribly missed in Rio Rancho public schools and this is a posumous recognition. We have this evening uh proposed uh action for the board uh on the uh negotiated agreement. Uh I see that our union president is here this evening and so Billy welcome and
007glad that you are here as well. The board has asked to consider approval of a ratified negotiated union agreement. That means it has gone to the membership of the union and they have voted uh to affirm and to confirm the uh the contract. The presentation will be made by Mike Chavez who is our executive director of HR and he will discuss with the board some of the proposed changes and explain the process for reaching the agreement. The agreement presented to the board has been ratified by the membership of the Rio Rancho School Employees Union. We want to thank the members of both negotiating teams. It's a lot of time. It's a lot of hard work and it's really uh it's just really very helpful for everyone. if you can have an agreement prior to the
008actual start of the school year. And so very pleased to bring a a proposed agreement to you this evening. The board of education will also be asked to consider the award of RFP um number 202521. Um it is a general contractor on demand uh RFP. This information will be presented by Michael Madrid who is our director of purchasing and of course is our chief procurement officer for our RPS. The recommendation is to issue a multi-awward to 19 contractors and they will provide more information to you uh regarding those um various vendors. We also have a real estate transaction that's been in the works for for quite some time actually several years. The board has asked to consider approval of a transaction for uh Vista Grande Elementary Property. The board is also asked to delegate to
009the administration our permission to be able to close the deal if you agree with what's being proposed this evening. This presentation will be provided by Patrick Martinez, our executive director of facilities, and Lauren Hatch, our chief legal counsel for for the district. And that's what's on our agenda. Are there any any comments, questions, concerns? You're good. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Cleveland. We'll now go to approve the prioritized agenda and proposed time allocations. Jeff Morgan, I'll make a motion to approve the prioritized agenda and pro proposed time allocations. Gary Trip second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Motion carries. You guys are gonna have to step it up without Jessica here. Yeah, I know. I was talking about I saw the 19
010companies he was going to use. I'm thinking, so that's going to be interesting, huh? We're going to make it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. All right. Well, now moving to our commendations. Um, and this is a pretty sweet commendation and that I'm really excited about. Um, so Lauren Hatch is going to introduce our NMSBA student achievement award. Um, for Carl Leman, President, members of the school board, Dr. Cleveland and and representatives of the Rio Rancho community uh that are with us today and online. It is my great honor to introduce Carl Lman, a deeply respected educator and leader who has devoted uh nearly four decades to serving students and families and educators across New Mexico. Mr. Leelman served for many years as the chief academic officer and that's where most of us know
011him from. um uh he provided visionary leadership over all aspects of the uh curriculum and instruction for the district. In this role, he guided teachers and staff professional development, managed instructional budgets, and champion the advancement of highquality teaching and learning districtwide. He also over oversaw the departments of special education, federal and bilingual programs and school improvement, ensuring that every student had access and the support and resources that they needed. Um Carl earned his bachelor's degree in science, bachelor of science and elementary education, a master's of arts in special education, and an education specialist degree from the University of New Mexico. And over the course of his remarkable 38-year career, uh, he served as an assistant principal at Rio Rancho Elementary School, uh, when it was still part of APS actually, as principal of Enchanted Hills
012Elementary under both the Hus Valley District and also Rio Rancho Public Schools. And later he served as an executive director, an associate superintendent, and a mentor to countless educators and non-educators like me. He was very generous with his time. In the final years of his tenure, I had the distinct privilege of sharing a hallway with Carl. Um, and with it, I benefited from his wit, his wisdom, and his unwavering belief in the power of education to transform people's lives. Carl's impact on this district is profound. He was one of the original principles that helped launch Rio Rancho public schools 30 years ago and he remains a key figure uh in the development of Rio Rancho uh Riot Tech High School which is opening this fall. Please join me in celebrating Carl Levelman's extraordinary contributions to
013public education and his well-deserved recognition tonight by the Reancho School Board and also the New Mexico School Boards Association. I I give you Carl Leman. [Applause] [Music] Thank you. Many of you know me. I'm a man of few words. So, I'll keep it short tonight. So, I won't go through my 45 years of of education. I think the main thing I want to say is that uh it's wonderful to be here tonight to see you and see some faces faces I've worked with. uh and I say work with because all leaders work with uh great people. I I think of Reancho public schools I think of people who are care they're they're committed and pretty important competent and and I think that you know just our district is so remarkable because the people work in
014it. It's just remarkable and I and and I' I want to thank Dr. Cleveland uh for she saw something in me when was principal of a of a school u elementary school had actually had been a K through9 school. I I called it a K9 school when it was in Hamus, but um it was K through9 school and then we became a district and I I think of the many many people that that I was blessed to work with and so it really truly has been. I think of Gary Trip. I think I remember being a colleague of his and going over there and looking at Ranch High School and say, "Hey, this is a great place for students." And he made it a great place. He has a tradition for that. then going on
015to actually supervise him as a as a as a principal for a little while. And so I I have really fond memories. I can't believe it's been a year now. It'll be a year since I retired. It feels like three. Yeah. And it wouldn't feel that way if had not had a few health health issues. But so I want to just say thank you for this honor. It is an a true honor. And continue the fight. Keep keep working. I know it is. It's not easy. Challenges are dayto-day. I mean we face challenges every We all have and we will continue to one thing about this district um we are pioneers Dr. Cleveland and we take challenges and we we overcome them. I was talking to Patrick just earlier and he goes I said how's
016that curve technical center going it's at 98% it's almost there and that's been a huge challenge but did we give up no so I want to thank you and thank thank all of you I've worked with over the years and all the leaders that I've been able to mentor and turn into other leaders and develop other leaders from that so thank you thank you don't sit down yet um yeah I'm gonna well I'm going to bring this up to you in just a But yeah, hold on second, but I just want to give her just some opportunities. I'm sure Dr. Clue wants to say something. I'm sure Gary would like to to say a couple of words. Um, but you know what I know of Carl and I think it's is that Carl always cares
017what you're saying. I don't know for for me as I became became a member of the board um he'd ask me like, "How's your morning?" or "How's this going?" And he actually would sit and listen and and was, you know, curious about my life and who I am. And I just I see that in you in your interactions with people, all of the people that that I've been around you who you've talked to and and that means a lot to people when they know that you're actually interested in people's lives and and care to know. And so, thank you so much for for being that person in our community for just always being curious and wanting to know about people and trying to make Rio Rancho a better place. And you've done such a great
018job with that. And I can't believe it's been a year. Honestly, it just it seems crazy that it's been that long, but thank you for all that you do. Um Gary, did you want to add any words? I I do. You know, I I I do want to share a couple of things with uh what I learned as Carl being one of my mentors. Um you know, when I was a principal at Rentanch High School, it was Carl Leperman that started the pre SAT test. And uh we were want to give every sophomore and those parents an opportunity to understand where they're at and where they needed to grow to be successful at the higher level. And I always keep keep that thought in my head. But but I always remember Carl saying um you
019know the the best teacher needs to be in the first grade classroom. the very best teacher you have and the second best teacher needs to be in the second grade classroom. And it just kept going on and on and on and on. And that child needed to get the very best the very best that we had to offer at the very beginning of their educational career. And that has always stuck with me for the 30 years or so that I I know Carl that he cares about, like you're saying, he cares about every single child in the district, you know, everybody. And Carl, it's it's greatly appreciated. Um, I was thinking of all the people that I talked to recently about you and I was mentioning Dave Leam a little bit earlier and but I
020I think a lot of people just uh want to say congratulations and thank you for a great career and thank you for the career being about our kids here. Oh, thank you. Did you want to say anything? Yeah, please. Carl, thank you and congratulations. I want to echo what Amanda said because the very first time I met you, that's the impression I got that you cared about me. So, I want to say thank you so much and again congratulations and good luck to you. Thanks, Beth. Go ahead, Beth. Just want to add my congratulations and appreciation to you. I think what I first remember you was when you came to a meeting. I've talked about this before and for bond um that was coming up and you you explained I didn't know a lot about
021the district at that point and you really did a good job of explaining why these funds were needed and what the school district needed to do to help our children grow and I appreciated that and then when you open the campus here in Rio Rancho it was good to work with you and CNN in terms of looking for opportunities for students to move through the system and I appreciate that it is a system approach And I appreciate working with you very much, Carl. Congratulations to you. Thank you. Well, I I mentioned it earlier, but I'd like to mention again, Carl was um with us at the very start of the DO strike, and I can tell you it was a very different world back then of what we didn't have. And uh thank you. What
022we didn't have and uh the challenges that we faced in year one were just sometimes pretty overwhelming. And yet we had a core team, principles and district staff who's worked really closely together to get this district going. And Carl played such a key role in that. I I cannot think of anyone over all of the 31 years of the school district that's had a more profound impact on our district than Carl had. and he was really um challenged first as a principal of the district office to be sure that the teaching and learning in our buildings were high quality and all the time and effort and work that went into making that a reality. uh I don't think most people have any idea uh what was involved with that but he just you know threw
023himself into it for years and and so the success that we've had academically crowd just played a really key role in that you know sometimes we think of facilities as being over here in operations but I want you to know that you know operations had the very important job of making sure those buildings got built. Carl had the important job of of helping ensure that what was going on inside those buildings was quality and that we were building buildings that supported the teaching and learning was a good learning environment for students and a good place to work for staff. And so he played a really key role in that. I I was thinking Carl I might have missed one but I think there were 13 buildings that you had an impact on as as we
024worked over the 31 years. And so, um, what went on is just as important as the building itself. He was part of of both of those. Oversaw the curriculum instruction budget. Same thing with staffing. Worked very closely um with Mike Baker and and their earlier counterparts to be sure that we staffed as well as we could given the resources that we had. And um I want to echo what was just said. You know, I never once in all of 31 years ever heard Carl say anything that wasn't geared to what's in the best interest of students. What will make a difference in the lives of of our students? And he never varied from that. And that was always what drove every decision that he made. So, I want to congratulate him. He certainly has made
025a profound impact on student achievement in this district. And it's wonderful that the board has chosen to recognize him this evening. [Applause] Yeah. Yeah. Beth, you want to squeeze? Oh, sure. Move this way. Oh, he's coming up. Okay. Okay. He's coming up. Let's put him right next to Amanda. All right. Now that you're up here now. Get in a little bit closer together. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, it's okay. We're good, right? Yeah. No, this is great. Let's go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm happy for you. Okay. All right. We'll now go into our reports. So, we just have one report tonight. Um, it's our bond election option overview and we have Eric Herrian from RBC Capital here to present. [Music] Good afternoon, Madam President, the board superintendent. Um, Eric Herring with RBC
026Capital Markets. Um so later on in your agenda um you'll be considering whether or not to send a question to voters for authoring additional uh issuance of uh bonds to continue to maintain the district that service tax rate. Um but my presentation is really to kind of talk about you know sort of you know the assumptions that we're using sort of where we got here and also some recent changes to New Mexico law that we've taken into account and and factoring into what your capacity is. Um so on the first page of the presentation on page one um we have a history of your assessed valuation. So two years ago the district uh sent a question to voters which they approved authorizing the issuance of $80 million. Um we at the time were estimating your
027growth rate to be about 4% um based upon what the district had you know seen historically in its tax base. But over the last few years, you've seen very very strong growth. you've seen three years of double digit growth and then most recently this past year you saw growth of uh nearly 22% or over 22% and a large part of that really was in your non-residential component which a portion of uh Intel um came back onto the tax roles because an industrial revenue bond uh had uh had been had been paid off. So over the last five years, you've seen growth of of over 11%. Um, and so based upon that, you know, the district has the ability to go back to voters, continue to maintain the existing tax rate that the district has had
028in place for a long time. Um, and um, uh, and then continue to be able to make critical um, infrastructure improvements for the district. Uh on page two of the presentation though, I did want to make uh the board aware that there were two fairly significant constitutional amendments that were approved by voters in New Mexico um that relate to exemptions for veterans. Um the uh first constitutional amendment which will have probably we estimate the the largest impact to your tax base is that it expanded the um uh exemptions that disabled veterans get. So, so, uh, prior to that, uh, only 100% disabled veterans got an exemption that was tied to their percent, um, disability. That's now, um, been, uh, granted to all disabled veterans. So, any disabled veteran owning a property gets to exempt that
029percentage of their disability. Um and then the other constitutional amendment is that it increased the standard exemption for a veteran from $4,000 to uh $10,000. Um it's very very difficult to really calculate what the true impact of this is because the data just isn't there. Uh but what we have done is we've attempted to try to um estimate what that impact is based upon the information that we uh do have. Um and so on page um three, I know there's a lot of numbers and I'm just going to focus on sort of the bottom. Um we anticipate that the impact will be somewhere in the range of about $253 million um to your tax base, which is around um 6%. Um and so uh we we do take this in we we will be take
030we have taken this into account the best that we can. Of course until veterans actually apply for those exemptions we really won't truly know um the full impact. uh the standard exemption will become effective this upcoming tax year and the veteran exemption will be uh will become effective in the 2026 tax year which will be um next next year. Can I just ask a quick question? I'm sorry. I just said does this um this exemption relate only to the veteran or to surviving spouses as well? That that's a great question. So it it it's to both surviving spouses um widow widowers um and disabled veterans and it's um it's tied to the um if percent of the home that they own. If they own you know only 50% of a property they would only if
031that exemption would be only eligible for that portion that they own or if they own own 100% of that property then that exemption would take place. Yes, it does apply to survivor spouses as well. Thank you. Thank you. Which again just makes it that much more difficult. Yeah. Um we do have your um uh your all of the various property tax levies that uh that the district has. Um you we've been through this before. You have an operating mill levy. You have a a two mill levy and then you have your debt service. And again, um, as we talk about the capacity for this upcoming election, um, it'll continue to maintain that $8.54 tax rate that the district has, uh, had in place. Um, the other benefit for the district, you pay off your debt
032very, very quickly. on page uh five of the presentation. Um this really also helps uh you know with the uh with the being able to issue additional bonds without impacting um the district's existing tax rate. Uh so on page six in terms of the assumptions that that we have made um so we uh we are assuming about two uh a little over 2% growth in your tax base next year as as these standard veteran exemptions come on place. We're projecting a decrease in your tax base in 2027 um taking into account the the disabled veteran. And then for purpose because we wanted to be um conservative, we did assume that that that intel property goes back off the tax roles because if they issue another EIRB that off the tax. So we wanted to be
033conservative on our estimates. uh again depending upon the actual impact it could you know change our recommendation in four years. So what we're what we are recommending to the district um is to go back to voters this November for an additional 80 million. So it would be a total of 160 million that would be going to voters over the next over over the two-year period. Um again that continues to maintain that $8.54 rate. The next election would be projected in November of 2029, so four years from now, in the amount of 120 million again, just to continue to maintain the rate that the district has. Um, and with that, I'd be happy to answer um any questions that you have. Okay. Thank you. Dr. Clin, do you want to add anything right now before we
034go to the board? You're good. Okay. All right. You're good. Gary, do you have anything any anything? Thank you. I think we're good. This is a great report by the way. I I spent some time with it earlier today and so I appreciate kind of understanding all of all of all all of all of those details and as we come up. So from what I understand now as if it could hurt us if we didn't go for a bond really at this time, right? Because of the change that's that's coming up. Is that am I kind of understanding that right? I don't know if I'm phrasing that right. that if we weren't to go to go for a bond here in the next which we're which we're going to be voting on it could be
035difficult for us to possibly depending on these all these numbers and how they're changing with these with these new laws. Is that correct? So yeah, the challenge really being maintaining your tax rate as we all know um the cost of construction has gone up significantly. Um and um you know just being able to you know being able to add the additional 80 million without impacting your tax rate will help you know go to fund some of those so some of those projects. So from from the challenges, yeah, it would be a challenge to continue. Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you. Go ahead. I I would just, you know, add one thing and I said it earlier. Um because of the the increased prices for construction, it's been very hard to complete the priorities the board already
036has in place. And so trying to uh meet those priorities and and and uh you know make those obligations pay off for the community. We almost have to do this. And I think maybe there'll be some questions. Why aren't we doing a lot of new things beyond the beyond what we're doing now? Because we're needing to finish the projects we've already started or the commitments that we've already made to the community. Some cases they are not things that we've already started like independence but we made that commitment as a district several years ago. So this is really critical I think in terms of of meeting those priorities that were established by the Rio Rancho board uh and completing them in a timely manner. So uh it is important the cost of construction is kind of
037frightening right now. Uh hopefully maybe it will come down at some point uh but in some cases it's doubled. In some cases we even seen triple what it was and u and that's pretty sobering. We haven't had anything, I don't think, like that since the maybe 1980s where interest rates were were going up and and the cost of construction. So, we've had a long good period. Um, but right now it is a very challenging environment for construction. Thank you. No, thank you. Anyone else? Anything else? Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. We'll see you up back up, I believe. Uh, so now we don't have any public comment, right? Craig, correct? JC Mills. Okay. So, we have no public comment um in person or on our online form, but for those who might be
038listening on our um through YouTube, you are welcome to come in and sign up for public comment. Um you just need to do it before a meeting starts. Um you can have three minutes to come and talk to the board. Um next is our consent agenda. Um you can go to approve. Board member Jeff Morgan. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. I second the motion. Okay, we have a motion by Jeff Morgan and a second by Beth Miller and all in favor I I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay, we have a report out. Um, the board met in a closed executive session on Monday, June 16th, 2025 to discuss the purchase, acquisition, or disposal of real property or water rights by the public body specifically for the superintendent to inform the board
039about potential property transactions. Yeah. Did someone tell me? Oh, I just hear you guys on the thing. Sorry. Um, I've lost my place. No, you're good. as permitted under section 10-15-1H8 of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act. The discussion was limited to the topics identified in the separately noticed meeting. And sorry, sometimes I think I hear my name and I think, oh, what did I forget? We were looking for Mr. Baker. That's all. We know he wasn't here to Oh, yeah. Um, so next we'll go on to our business portion of our meeting for the for today. Um, our first item is to consider the approval of the resolution and proclamation calling for a district election. So, we have three presenters. Lauren Hatcher, chief counsel, Eric Herrian, RBC Capital, and Chris Chris Mirhead from Modre
040Sperling. President, members of the board, Dr. Cleveland. Um, I have the easy job. I was just going to introduce this topic and and actually Eric kind of already did giving an overview of of what the financial situation is with the bonding program. Um tonight, uh we have a resolution to consider. The board has a resolution to consider that, um that would put a question on the November regular the general local general election ballot. And also would um have three board positions as well uh on the on the election one, district one, district three, and district five. I'm going to turn the time over to Chris Mirhead, our bond council from Madro Sperling, and Eric is here as well to answer questions if anything comes up. So, I will turn the time over to him. Good
041evening, Madam President, board members. Dr. Cleveland, your head with Mach Firm. Uh, you really been introduced to all of this. So, what this resolution in front of you is is the official action that you would need to take to put a question on the ballot for November 4th in the upcoming election to authorize seek voter approval for $80 million in general obligation bonds that could be issued in numerous series over the over a four-year period. Um, the question is drafted as broadly as permitted under the statute so that the board has maximum flexibility as Dr. Cleveland mentioned to existing projects, future projects, where it needs to go or capital improvements as Eric went through describing the the middle aid levy assessments, property values. Uh this would not it's not intended unanticipated to raise your property
042rates. It does also, as Mr. Hatch said, put three board positions on the ballot. I think the county clerk's already been notified of that, but this would be official action of the board. the cl the Santa County clerk handles everything with the election. So once you take this action, they handle all the publications, all the election requirements and the like. Happy to answer any questions about it. Um the 80 million if it's approved, then would come back to you or as you've seen over the last several years in numerous series over the four-year period for your approval tied to specific projects. You would still have the the vote and the voice about how that money is spent. So happy to answer any questions as is. I know Eric as well. Okay. Do you want to
043add anything, Dr. Cleveland? You're good. Good. Okay. Any questions from the board? We have any questions from the board on anything? Okay. Make If we don't have any questions, we can go for a motion. Thank you. I appreciate you coming out. Member Jeff Morgan. I'll make a motion for the approval of the resolution and proclamation calling for a district election. Gary Trip. Second. Okay. Okay, we have a motion. Morgan, second by Trip and Jesse, you would take a roll call vote for us, please. Vice President Morgan, yes. Board member Trip, yes. Board member Miller, yes. President, yes. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate you all coming out tonight. And we and I just have to sign that documentation, right? We don't need anyone else to sign that one. Okay. All right. And next, we
044will consider the approval of renaming the district's social communications program to the Wheeler social communications pro program. And we have Jerry Reer, our executive director of special services, presenting. President Galbra, Dr. Cleveland, members of the board, I would like to submit a proposal to the board to rename the district social communication program to the Wheeler social communication programs. Um, I just the the name change will be in honor of Tamara Willer, who I first met when I took a group of administrators um to the Phoenix area to the Deer Valley um Unified School District after I had met their um special ed director at the time. And um it turned out that Tamara Wheeler was my guide. and and after a career there, she retired and moved back to um New Mexico where she had
045grown up and gone to high school and um she came in, she just wanted to be an SLP halftime at for Child Find and six months in one of my directors resigned and recruited her to apply and and she successfully got the position of director. But when when I notified her family to say, "Hey, we we are interested in doing this." They said, "Well, what what is it that that you're renaming?" So, I just wanted to read that to you. Tamara developed what was first an autism program at the elementary level for students with significant communication and social emotional needs. Um, the program later developed into a social communication program for students of varying disability. She helped to develop this program to support our students unique needs by providing additional support from speech language pathologists
046and social workers to support the development of social emotional and communication skills. The program has been a great success for many of our students. Um she is able to develop relationships with parents and school staff to ensure um that students needs were met. So we have four programs. One at Sello Mazul, one at Maggie Cordova Elementary School, one at Roancho Middle School, and one at Ro Rancho High School. And that I'd like to Thank you. Thanks for presenting that. You know, it's interesting because as you were talking about um Miss Ward, I was I was about Carl was in here and just what a close-knit, you know, community public schools is and it's just it's a very sweet thing. Um Dr. Cleveland, would you like to add some? I think Jerry said well she just
047had she was leader in so many ways in our our district and our special services department and uh but this was a real passion for her and trying to get this program uh to really be shaped in a way that would support some of our highest need children some of our most vulnerable children in the district and uh she gave just so much time and effort to it. So really kind of sad situation for all of us because she retired and then became ill just almost immediately after after that. And uh but but we certainly remember her and we certainly appreciate all that she contributed to our district. I didn't even have a chance to to um to talk to Jerry just right before the meeting, but I had several calls today asking that we
048put her first name in as well as her second name. And that certainly would be up to the board and up to I don't you know um but we did have that request from some of the staff members uh today but I I cannot uh I I enthusiastically support uh this uh this the naming of this particular program because it acknowledges the hard work and effort and the vision in particular that she had for uh as I said meeting the needs of some of our most most challenged children in the school district. I love that. Jerry, if we were to add her first name into that name, would that cause any No, I don't think it would cause any problems. I think what they were trying to do is just have something that easily rolled
049off the tongue. Oh, yeah. But I'd be Yeah. happy and honor. Yeah. It's strictly up to you. And I just wanted to pass on I promised I would pass on that that request. So, when I make the motion, Lauren, is it okay for me to change that? Okay, just the to the board really quick. What do you feel about that? It was not going to roll off the tongue as easily, but perhaps the I'mma make the motion that way. So, as long as you guys are okay with it. Is that all right, Gary? I like the tongue. You like I'll go with it. You like the easy the I like easy. I like the Kisss. Let me share the concern that one person raised. the only reason they were afraid it would look like it's
050a commercial name rather than recognizing that it's an individual person's name and that was the concern that they would think that Wheeler might be a a program name or something that doesn't represent her. So that was I that was kind of the rationale that was given to me. That makes sense. And Gary was okay with that as well. So I like how it rolls off the tongue too, Gary. So I don't know. I'll go for emotion. So, it's whatever you all want to do. I think I think even if we put Tamara, I think they could still for you know in writing it would always say it's Tamara right but you know that they could still refer to it as the Wheeler Social Communications Program but in writing it would have her name on there.
051Yeah, we can. Yeah. So, board member Jeff Morgan, I make a motion for the approval of remaining the district social communication program to the Tamara Willer social communications program. I second the motion. Okay, we have a motion by Jeff Morgan and a second by Beth Miller. And Jess, you want to just take a roll call, please? Vice President Morgan, yes. Board member Trip, yes. Board member Miller, yes. President Gal. Yes. Motion carries 4. Thank you. All right. Thank you. And for our next item, we will go Jerry. Thank you for bringing that forward. Yeah. Thanks, Jerry. And thanks for helping us to get to know her a little bit better, too. Um, so next we'll consider the approval of the ratified negotiation union agreement. Mike Chavez, our executive director of human resources, and we also
052have Billy Helen here, um, will present. Go ahead. Good evening, Madame President, Dr. Cleveland, members of the board. Um, I am here with Billy Healing, the member or the president, sorry, of the Reancho School Employees Union, and uh we have for your consideration a fully ratified um 2526 negotiated agreement. Um I do want to um thank um the members of the union for a very professional process. Um this went very smoothly this year and um doesn't mean that we agreed on everything um but we're not necessarily supposed to. Um however um I think we came up with a um a very um jointly agreeable um uh agreement um and um and it will be in the best interest in here for both the district and the employees of the district. Um I had sent this
053um earlier. However, I am more than happy to go through the individual changes if that's what the board would like. Um or um I can simply stand for questions if there are questions on um any of the changes. Yeah, I know I have the opportunity to read it. Does anyone want him to go through the specific changes or I I was just wondering about a just a highlight version, not the specific I mean from both Mike and Billy's perspective. Just a just a highlight. There were just a number of um changes and um uh if you want to talk about a couple of the ones that you all presented and then Um, if I can get my tablet to go. Good evening, Madame President Gre, Vice President Morgan, board members, Miller, and unfortunately, Madame Trip
054is not here. Uh, I mean, I'm sorry, Tyler. Um, Superintendent Dr. Cleveland, it is always an honor to come and talk with you. Um, and I'm really happy to address you today. The union is delighted once again with the successful negotiations between the district and the union, which resulted in a suite of positive advancements that will significantly benefit our dedicated staff. This collaborative effort underscores an unwavering collective commitment to fostering an exceptional work environment. Moreover, the successful negotiations between the district and the union provide compelling proof of the power of collaboration. We are pleased with the 4% increase over the current base salary for all bargaining unit employees as was passed by the legislature earlier this year. This substantial investment reflects an appreciation for the invaluable contributions our staff make to students every day. Furthermore,
055we are gratified with the clear and equitable salary schedules for our staff. These strategic enhancements are designed to provide greater financial security and predictability while acknowledging the expertise and dedication of our entire workforce, thereby cultivating a truly stable and highly motivated team. The positive outcomes extend to our general leave provisions. This one I'm particularly excited about for our staff. Um, with the introduction of a ben a beneficial pilot program for the 2526 school year, we're particularly excited to offer employees the opportunity to convert up to two sick leave days into personal days. This initiative provides enhanced flexibility, empowering our employees to more effectively manage their work life balance and to address their personal needs. This program unequivocally demonstrates our commitment to employee well-being. Furthermore, in a significant stride toward heightened transparency in employee rights, disciplinary
056actions will al also now include informing employees about the basis of any investigations being conducted. All of these comprehensive improvements stand as a testament to the productive and collaborative spirit that defined our negotiations, paving the way for a brighter and more rewarding future for all staff members and our exceptional staff. Um, in clos in closing, the union believes that these newly negotiated provisions represent a significant step forward for our district, directly benefiting our dedicated staff, and by extension, the students they serve. The collaboration and productive dialogue between the district and the union have resulted in a forward-thinking agreement that addresses financial well-being, enhances work life balance, and refor reinforces transparency. We are confident that these positive changes will further strengthen our workforce, foster a more supportive environment, and contribute to the continued excellence of Rio
057Rancho public schools. And I also want to thank the district for always being such a great partner. Thank you. Thank you for that, Gary. Did that help that that statement to understand everything? It it really it really did. And I I want to thank and with this day and age to hear the word great collaboration is is really wonderful. And just a thank you to just all our staff, you know, all our staff and um and it's just going to like you just said foster a really strong workforce in the future. So thank you. It really did. I just want to say thanks for the work and thanks for the collaboration. Appreciate that. Is that anything? Just to add my appreciation as well. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. And Dr. Cleveland, I I said a
058little bit earlier, but thank you for your hard work and uh it is wonderful to have a contract going into the school year. It's all final and ready to go. So, we thank everybody that was part of of of that effort and we're glad to have a contract and we think it's a very good contract. So, thank you both. Thank you. Anything else, Mike, on your side? No. Good. Okay. We'll go for a motion. member Jeff Morgan. I make a motion to approve for the approval of the ratified negotiated union agreement. Gary Trip, I'll second. We have a motion by Jeff Morgan and a second by Gary Trip. Um, all in favor on this? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Maybe the last piece of business would um now I have it
059up here. Yeah. So, we're going to have Miss Hilen um and uh President Greth, President Hilen, President Greth sign. I have to find the right one. It's not that contract. Sorry, I've got a lot of paperwork today. So, this is all. No, this is all bond. This is the lands. Oh, wait. There he is. He was stuck behind. So, I will go. It's just just me that Justin. You're a softball, too. I am. What they say about lefties? Here we go. Lefties are always right. We're the best. You know, it just has to happen. Okay. We had a rough life. It is definitely a righty world. It is. It's a lefty president world there. Okay. Here is this. I don't know if you want to sign up here. You want to Oh, [Music] thank you.
060Yeah. Thank you. Sorry, Dizzy. It just got stuck behind static. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Wonderful. Okay. I'm in the right spot. Okay. Next is to consider the award of RFP number 2025-021- FAC general contract on demand. Michael Madrid, our director of purchasing and chief procurement officer will present for president with superintendent Dr. Cleveland and members of the board. As indicated, this procurement is to establish various price agreements for general contracting services on demand. This is a multiple award. As Dr. Cleveland mentioned earlier, there's a total of 19 recommended uh contracting firms. The firms are 724 724 Builders LLC, B&D Industries, Bill for USA Group Incorporated, Brycon Corporation, Consolidated Builders of New Mexico, EPX Construction Partners, Equal Construction LLC, ESA Construction, Facility Build, Franken Construction Company, HEI Incorporated, JB Henderson LLR Construction, Pluma
061LLC, Rio Konos Corporation, Rhymark Construction Incorporated, SDV Construction, Wild Construction Incorporated, and Wiser Electric. What we're attempting to do is establish a pool of contractor, qualified contractors that have experience working K12 and uh compete them against each other. When we did the solicitation, we did not have a scope of work. So it's difficult to uh get an idea of what their methodology on that particular project is going to be. So by establishing a pool of qualified contractors, we'll initiate what's called an RFQ which is a quest for quotation. Uh we'll pick anywhere from three to five contractors to compete against each other. Uh the only matrix that we have as far as pricing is labor. So with the second step of it, we can bring in the material component and those other issues and their
062methodology, their health and safety. so we can vet them against each other. The other challenge that we have in construction is Rio Rancho. Even though we're a major player, we're not the major player and there's other entities uh soliciting the services of these qualified contractors. Uh the contractors that are being recommended, I'm going to say at least half of them have performed this type of activity with us in the past. We're very experienced. They're experienced with us. they understand our standards, our work order systems, how we generate uh the different tasks that facilities initiates. The other thing that we're able to do is we're going to cap each project, each individual project at a million dollars. Any project that exceeds a million dollars, we'll solicit that on its own merit and that'll be its own
063solicitation. So, there's a cap on what facilities can use or what the district can use as far as an individual project. Uh what else can I tell you? The services that they'll perform are maintenance. It's going to be repairs. It's going to be construction, renovations, and emergency repairs. All these firms, like I said, have significant experience working K12, working with the district. And with that, I'll stand for questions. Um, Dr. King, do you want to add anything? I just wanted to emphasize, um, I think having the pool is such a great idea. because you we have as we know we have shortages in all these areas right now and if one's busy you don't want to be sitting around waiting for that person to get freed up and so you go on to another uh
064another vendor and so I think having a good number of folks to choose from not knowing who's going to be busy when and not knowing what kind of projects may come up just totally unannounced uh we've got a a good group of folks to go to so uh I appreciate all the hard work the evaluation committee put in to identifying uh 19 really good vendors that we can use as we need them. Thank you. Um Beth, do you have any questions? Um Gary, I have one question. Mike, um, you mentioned ear at the beginning there that that you would send out three to five quotes, but if they're all approved and they wanted to give a quote, I mean, is there since they're approved, do how do you determine who's going to get a quote?
065That's a good question. So, what's going to happen is as we get comfort level with the firms, we're going to get an idea of what their capacity is. Okay? So if we have a specific scope and we know that maybe 10 of the the 19 are really strong in that capacity, we can rotate them around that particular quote. Some of the vendors that are identified uh some of them are very in different areas efficient. Yeah. As far as even the security stuff, the the things for sale in his group. So that's a little bit different field than some of the others. So they do have their specialties. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for asking that question. It's actually similar to what something I had. Um Jeeoff, any questions? Okay, we go for a motion
066with 19 names to name man or board member Jeff Morgan. I make a motion for the award of RFP number 2025-021- FAC General Contracts to be awarded to 724 Builders LLC, BND Industries, Bell for USA Group Incorporated, Brighton Corporation, Consolidated Builders of New Mexico, EPS Construction Partners, Equal Construction LLC, ESA A construction facility build Franken Construction Company HI incororated. JB Henderson LLR Construction Planos [Music] Corporation Rhymark Construction Incorporated, SDV Construction, WOW Construction Incorporated, Wiser Electric. We have a motion. Do you have a second? a secondary trip. Okay, thank you. So, a motion and a second and all in favor in this I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Well done, Jeff. All right. Our last item um for the evening is to consider the approval of a real estate transaction for Vista Grande
067Elementary property and delegation to close. Lauren Hatch, our chief legal counsel, and Patrick Martinez, our executive director of facilities will present. Madam President, Dr. Cleveland, I apologize we had to hear from him so many times. Typically, this would be something that would be addressed by Mike Baker, but since he's out of town, I think I think Patrick and I can cover it. Uh you've had the opportunity to learn about this transaction a little bit over the years as we've been discussing it and negotiating it with the with the purchaser. Um we do have on the board up here a rendering of the of basically what the piece of property we're talking about. It's on the northern boundary of Vista Grande Elementary School. It's about 6 and a half acres somewhere between 6.66 and 6.8 I
068think. Um once we once we have the property replotted, we'll know that exactly um what the acreage is. This is surplus property. It's not needed for anything that the district's doing. Uh Westway Homes is a local developer home builder and their plan is to build some homes on that site. Actually, I think having lots uh we had it appraised. Um the price is $2.76 a square footow and uh you know based on a rough estimate we're thinking it's about $800,000 but it will be it will be broken down by the foot once we know the exact square footage of the piece. Um before we can complete this transaction um if the board approves it we will have to seek approval from the state board of finance. we will have to replplat the land so that
069we subdivide off that piece and then uh and then close the transaction. So um I stand for any questions and well maybe we should say the reason the district is doing this is it because it is surplus land. Um but the hope is that it will gener generate some funds that will help us improve the Vista Grande property and the idea is to do a bus loop. That would be nice. You want to add the pickup drop? Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Um yes, the goal is to really to work on the circulation overall site circulation for the for the facility. Um right now it's it's very condensed as you can see even in this um aerial uh the buses pickup drop off um parent uh you know parents who walk up and get their children.
070It's all kind of condensed. And so the goal with this is to provide an additional um parent drop off on the west and going north um on the site and utilize some of that property that's uh underutilized now and and really just make it safer and that that's the goal. We've met with the city and and come up with a plan so that they're on board. Um but yes, this you know this property sale would really help us push that forward to relieve some of those really um dense areas of the site. Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you. I mean, this school, this is one of our very populated elementary schools, so that would be great. Dr. Kovven, did you want to add anything? Well, just uh again, this is surplus land. We don't see that
071we would ever have a use for the land given where it is, given the topography. It's just land that is is there. Um and and I appreciate Patrick's emphasis on uh the fact that it will be used to improve the existing school site. I'm sure some of you have been out there uh at uh drop off and pickup times. it's it's one of the least efficient that we have in the district and uh they they really struggle with that especially given the size of that school. So I think overall it's just a win-win for everyone and appreciate the the work that's gone into this. It's been we're working on this for a long time and uh it's good to get get it to the board at this point. So I'm very much supportive of this
072particular um proposal. Thank you. Um Beth, did you have any questions? Thank you. Um, any other questions from the board? Okay, we'll go for a motion. Member Jeff Morgan. I'll make a motion for the approval of a real estate transaction for a Vista Grande Elementary property and delegation to close. Gary Trip. Second. Okay. Motion by Jeff Morgan, a second by Gary Trip, and all in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you both. All right. Thank you. It's only 6:30, so we're going to take another 30 minutes. Just kidding. You guys could have seen some of the faces that I Thank you everyone. Um, so coming up we have of course July 4th and the district office will be closed. The leadership retreat is the 10th and the 12th and I think
073JC's been able to touch base with everyone on that. And then our next meeting will be July 14th. I will not be able to be at that meeting. and I'll be traveling for work that day. Um, then we have the 28th will be an audit meeting and also another regular board meeting. So, any questions on anything for advanced planning from anyone? No, we're good. Okay. All right. With that, we're adjourned. Thank you everyone. Well, you know what?