RRPS - School Board Meeting - April 28, 2025

001Good evening. The Rancho Public Schools Board of Education meeting for Monday, April 28th is now called to order. If I would please rise for the pledge of allegiance will be led by Gary Trip. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. JC, can you take a roll call for us? Present. Vice President Secretary Tyler present. Board member present. Present. Okay. Thank you. We'd like to welcome everyone out tonight. I know we have a lot of um students and family here from our science expo and for some other things that we have tonight, but it's always nice to have um have a good good amount of people in our boardroom. So, welcome. Um, tonight we'll start

002with introductory comments by our superintendent of schools, Dr. Visa Cleveland. Thank you all for being here this evening. We are one month from the end of the school year and so uh there's just so much that is happening across the district and uh all of it good things and it's just amazing the year has really flown by. Uh coming soon of course is Riotac. Uh Riot held a ribbon cutting last week and there was just a great turnout for the event. There were representatives from of course the district, from CNN, from our state and federal officials. We had our state secretary of education. Uh we had um LC and LFC who represent the legislature. I just had a lot of various people from uh from the state. We had um some of our uh federal

003officials that representatives to the opening. We had union leaders. We had a good number of students and some of them spoke and the business community. And so while the building is not completely finished, there was certainly much to see in the new facility. And the district will be opening that facility uh for the community to see it in the summer uh once all all the equipment's in, all the furniture is in before we actually start the new year. taken five years um given COVID and a lot of other challenges, but it certainly has been worth the effort and uh when it's completed, it will be a tremendous asset to our our school district, not only to our district, to the community and to the entire metro area. It's a fabulous facility and um and everyone

004who walked through had really positive comments to make about uh the programs that would be housed there and uh the better opportunities we have for our students. We are also uh plea we were also pleased to have Senator Martin Hinrich visit Riot Tech on April 16th. He and several of his key staffers toured the building and spent some time with the students themselves. And in fact, the students that will be going there, many of them uh actually conducted the tours and interacted with the senator. Uh the senator also uh provided the school with the flag but had flown over the United States Capitol building. U we needed the flag so it was very much appreciated and uh he also met with some of the teachers in the school district as well. Uh before this meeting

005uh this evening uh the school board uh finance committee met uh they reviewed the year-to-ate financials and uh they heard a preliminary report on the 2025 2026 budget. They also talked about uh compensation budgeted expenditures and uh our move as a district to uh online uh cash purchases as well as a land trans transaction. um that is possibility for the future. Uh executive director for finance David Vhill and director Heather Gobbledon were the presenters for this uh committee meeting. The uh executive secretary for secondary curriculum instruction Stephanie Moore will share information regarding the participation of Rio Rancho Cleveland students at Science Expo 2025. We had a really great turnout for that. she will recognize students who took first and second place at both the regional and state events. Uh we really uh appreciate all of

006our students for representing their schools and the district in such an exemplary manner and we're also very pleased to recognize the scholarship. All of the hard work and some real creativity was demonstrated in these research projects this year. So, congratulations to students and thanks to our instructional staff who supported the effort as well. We have uh as we've had the last several years, the gift of glasses for students who are colorb blind. Uh for the past several years, Mr. Ronald Elden has very generously donated glasses to some of our students who are color blind and this will enable them to see objects in full color for the very first time. Additional information regarding this special donation uh will be made by Wendham Kimley, our executive director of communications. But again, thank you so much uh

007to Mr. Ronald Nelden for his kindness and his generosity uh in these in this in this donation. We are back again. We've been back several times for school calendars this year uh for next year for 2025 and 2026. And so tonight, the board is being asked to finalize the school calendars after receiving information that we needed uh from the 2025 legislative session and from the New Mexico public ed department. Due to different um peed grade level requirements, our elementary and secondary counselors counselors, sorry, calendars have some uh minor differences. They're not major. Uh but uh parents should be aware that we do have some variances between the two levels. Also because Riot is a collaborative effort between Rio Rancho public schools and CNM, we will need to have a calendar aligned with CNM since many

008of the Riot instructional staff are actually uh CNM teachers and employees. And Peggy Johnson, our human resources director and Riot principal, Dr. Christopher Johnson will present and take questions from the board. This will be the second reading of uh policy uh 712 repeal and so the board will ask be asked to consider approving the repeal of this particular policy and it will be presented by Mike Chavez, our executive director of human resources and David man, general counsel for the district. The repeal to board policy 712, which is drug-free workplace. It's not that we're getting rid of it, is due to a more comprehensive policy having been created for policy 711. In other words, those two policies have been merged into a more comprehensive document. We also have information for the board this evening on a

009new online learning platform for the Rio Rancho Public School District. Stephanie Moore will share a committee report that proposes a new online platform for our students uh who are learning in a virtual or blended environment in the district. She will discuss the selection process and the enthusiasm for this new program. There will also be a short demonstration of uh subject programming and the the um subject in this sense is a a a vendor name as well as a a a general uh a general noun. Okay. And then we have the food services contract for uh management of our student nutrition and food services for the district. Michael Madrid, our director of purchasing and our chief procurement officer. Uh, and Felix Grigo, executive director of student nutrition, will present to the board information regarding the contract

010for next year. The district received several interested bidders for next year's contracted services, and it was nice to see more interest in the contract and and more people expressing um a desire to bid on the contract. They will share with you the recommendations for the awarding of food services and management contract for Rioancho public schools. I would like to thank everybody who worked on this. It's a very comprehensive contract. We have uh also two federal state applications uh that need to be brought before the board this evening. Suzanne Wyn, our executive director for federal bilingual and Native American programs, will introduce and explain two important applications for the board's review. The first is the NMPEED state bilingual multicultural education program funding application and the second proposed application is for the New Mexico public education um

011department title three which is of course federal money uh funding application which addresses among other things the needs of English learners. And then uh in the next uh the next week we will be uh celebrating teacher appreciation week. Uh we we appreciate all of our teachers during this week. We celebrate all of our employees uh in the district with a special focus on our instructional staff do just a wonderful job for us. And so uh we're looking forward to thanking them and celebrating teacher appreciation week the 5th through the 9th of May. And that's all I have unless you have any comments, questions, concerns. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate that. I do I just I do want to make a comment actually about the our opening of Riot Tech. It was just a

012really nice and wonderful day. It was so good to see just the whole community come out to support such a great initiative. And so, um, I really do I hope that the community will come out and see that building as it's ready to be opened. And, um, it's just it's a wonderful thing for our community. So, thank you for sharing about that. It was a big crowd. It was a big crowd. It was a big crowd and it was nice. It was And it was a nice It was a nice day actually as well, too, which isn't always happening lately. So, all right. And we'll now go to approve the prioritized agenda and proposed time allocations. Madam President, this is board member Tyler. I'll make a motion to approve the prioritized agenda and proposed time

013allocation. Board member Jeff Morgan. I second. Okay, we have a motion by Jessica Tyler and a second by Jeff Morgan. All in favor? I any opposed? Okay, motion carries 5-0. All right, we'll now go to our commendations. I can see the students out there are just so excited. So, uh we'll start with our state science expo. Um Stephanie Moore, our executive director of secondary curriculum and instruction, will present I got it. Good evening, Madam President, Dr. Cleveland, members of the board. Today, we are here to honor our science expo um students that have won first and second place at regional and state. And because I just provide space and opportunity, I'm not going to do this today. I'm going to allow our um science leaders to do this. Jennifer Miaro's here, Lynn Perry and Leah

014Felty to introduce our students and their success. Should we invite all the students to come up? Is that Come on up students. Madame President, members of the board, Dr. Cleveland, this year we had over 230 projects uh at our uh district science fair. six about 65 went on to regionals and 20 or so went on to state. So we had a tremendous turnout. Um we've uh more than doubled in size since the postcoid slump. Um so we're very happy about that. So I just want to take a moment to thank you for recognizing the students who placed at our state science fair in our regional competition. These students worked really hard, had to make many sacrifices, pull together the projects they have. Many of the students have very busy lives with academic rigors, afterchool activities,

015and family and job commitments. Their grit, intellectual curiosity, and creative problem solving skills enabled their successes. However, much of their success was only possible because a teacher guided them, prodded them, hounded them through the process, and a parent or mentor gave them other supports that they needed. to actually start and finish their projects. I recognize everyone's efforts to help our students excel with their projects. And I'd like to read the list of students and I'll read the ones from Rio Rancho um and their sponsors to be recognized. So, the uh the sponsors, not all of them could be here today, um but the sponsors from Rio Rancho High School are myself, um Jack Cadman, Raina Serrano, Lynn Perry, Rosa Taylor, Lynn Perry, Rosa Taylor, who I think is not standing up. She's filming the whole

016thing, I guess. Uh and so I just want to go ahead and call out those students um who uh won first or second place. So, uh, Julia Mononttoya and Talon Ortiz, their t their project was entitled Block with a Ring. They won third place at the Central New Mexico Regional Science Fair in engineering. Anukica Learon, blade number and pitch effects on propeller efficiency won second place in engineering at the regional science fair. Hamsi Morali, how does the concentration of kumbbacha have an effect on the fermentation project in plant-based milk compared to cow's milk? She won third place in microbiology at the regional science fair and then went on to win honorable mention at the state science fair. She also got um a greenhouse award, a CO2 and greenhouse award. Uh Lauren Buford and Allison Tenant

017uh their project, how does the ratio of composted coffee grounds to soil affect the growth rate and mass of radishes? They won third place in plant sciences at the regional fair and honorable mention at the state fair. Rachel Reid and Celinda Stallings who I believe are standing behind me. Uh they uh their project was uh simulating the effects of beverages on plasma through osmosis. They won second place at the regional science fair in biochemistry and went on to win honorable mention at the state science fair. Rachel Taylor, how varied amounts of serarine proteasis hemattoxin affect mamlian red blood cells and coagulation. That was a big certificate because of all the words. Uh she won first place at the regional science fair in biochemistry and then went on to win honorable mention in the state science

018fair. Jacob Cummings, it's rocket science. Are radioisotope thermal engines efficient? won second place at the regional in physics and astronomy and second place in physics, astronomy and technical arts at the state science fair. He also won a US Air Force award special award. Uh Tanner Donaldson and Jacob Rice. There he is. Okay. Uh paradox theory and its applications. Like he had to pull in retired Mr. Keiny to help him with this one because it was really wild. uh won second place at the regional science fair in computer and mathematical sciences and then second place in mathematics, robotics, software and technology. Uh Christina Agusa and Marissa Montano um their project spider silk sound sensing. They won honorable mention at the regional science fair in engineering using spider silk to pick up sound waves. It was pretty

019wild. Um but then they went on to place first in engineering, technology, statistics and dynamics at the state science fair. They also won the New Mexico network of women in science award. Um and then finally from Rio Rancho High School, Haidider Mandelawi and Shawn Rayvon effective variable electric stimulation on early plant development and hydroponics. Second place at the regional science fair and plant sciences and first place at the state science fair. And I'll let Leah Felt. I'm doing such a good job. I will just keep reading. Um, probably want to thank the Cleveland teachers. Oh, yes. So, the uh the Cleveland teachers uh the sponsors were Leah Felty and Gretchen Futy, not to be confused with Gretchen Fely because that's confusing. Okay. And so, uh, we have, uh, Jerry Stan Stanfield, beating the odds, won

020third place at the regional science fair in medicine and health. Eric Gilbert, Brittany Robertson, and Jack Murray. Thermal conductivity with nanofluids won second place in chemistry at the regional science fair. Enda Guza, metal disinfect disinfection in search of a trend won second place at the regional science fair in microbiology and honorable mention at the state science fair. Uh Gene Huntley, his project collaborating a smoke plume simulations with photogometry, won second place at the regional science fair in earth and environmental sciences and he won a NASA earth system science award at the state science fair and he was also selected as a 2025 presidential scholar semiinal semi- finalist. Um, Gabriel Valdivia, uh, analysis of various insulation materials and their efficiency. Uh, won second place at the regional science fair in energy and transportation. And Kenan Star,

021the power of the pulse, exploring EMP effects, won first place at the regional science fair in engineer energy and transportation, and then won a CO2 and greenhouse award and an office of naval research award at the state science fair. So, um, all in all, our students did really, really well. Uh, some projects I don't even know what they're about. I was just reading the words. Anyway, first let's applaud them. It's amazing. Before you guys go down, do would the sponsors like to say anything? Do you want to say anything about any of the You're welcome to. They're They're all amazing. Great. We are really proud of these kids. they uh they put in a lot of time and effort and having to stand in front of a bunch of judges who are kind of experts

022in the field is, you know, nerve-wracking and they they did it not once, not twice, but in some case three times. So, um we're we're really proud. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks you guys. I know it can be kind of a grueling process. You know, a couple years a Well, my kids did the district one, but a couple years ago they went, they kind of did a little bit further. And I remember Tanner, I think that year did bananas, the fire, I remember, right? And um and it is it's kind of a lot and you have to stand out a lot and you have to talk a lot and do all those things and it can be kind of grueling and you're probably thinking why did I do this? Why did I enter in? And yeah, it's

023so good for you one to put on those applications and all those things and it's such a good it just and it shows so well for our district and that you guys are learning so many different things. Uh my kids even brought up the spiderweb one. they were telling me about it when they came home and were talking about some of those things and I was like oh because I I didn't get down there and I was kind of sad because I wanted I'm like oh that would have been so cool to see and so congratulations for for all that you guys are doing um it really I hope you guys feel at this point now that you've passed and you don't have to go to all these different places that it was worth it

024at this point um I think it's a great opportunity for you guys I'm going to give the the board an opportunity to talk they may ask you questions that does happen sometimes but first Dr. Cleveland and then we'll go to the board. Well, again, just congratulations to all of Thank you. congratulations to all of you and I was just impressed with the topics uh that were studied. I thought they were interesting. I thought they were different, creative, and really thoughtprovoking and I do know a lot of time and effort goes into this. Um, and it it's uh it's just it's just a lot of work, but it's also a wonderful learning experience and experiences that you'll take on with you as you leave high school and either go on to college or into perhaps some

025other uh other types of uh of activities. But again, congratulations. Also, I want to thank the staff. It doesn't help it doesn't happen without a lot of help and support and encouragement. And yes, I'm nagging. Um, and that's okay because they're trying to push you to do the very best that you can be. So, uh, we're just thank you for coming and giving us a chance this evening to tell you how proud we are of you and recognizing your hard work and and this is a really important accomplishment. So, uh, we're really glad to have you here. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. G trip, you want to add anything? Congratulations to the teachers and the students. Wonderful job. And um students, I just ask you to consider the following is maybe someday consider working in

026our national laboratories because I like the side of you. I'd like to see you guys defending the research of what our nation needs to be a the best country, keep it the best country in the world. So maybe a consideration where your great minds can go. So good luck to you all in college and if you're coming back next year, good luck at winning state. Thank you, Jeff. Just want to say congratulations to both the teachers and the students. Thank you for representing the Rio Rancho School District. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks, Beth. Yes. Congratulations. We are proud of you and for you, not only you, but your teachers and your friends, your parents. It takes a lot to help a lot of folks to help you. And I'm sure you realize that that support is most

027most important to you as well. We look forward to hearing from you again. Thank you so much, Jessica. I'll sound like a broken record, but yeah. Um, thank you to the sponsors and for taking the time to lead them through these processes. And like Dr. Cleveland said, I'm sure you guys all learned a lot throughout the process and that we can do hard things. And so, congratulations on your achievements and doing all the work to to get there. Yeah. Thank you. How many of you are seniors? Bunch of you guys are seniors. Well, thank you guys. Thanks for coming in. And we can do [Applause] Now, if you all come forward, we'd love a picture. This will be your prized possession. This picture that you'll take with us. [Laughter] I have the perfect people in

028front of me. Yes. Yes. We want all of you in. We're coming. Hold on. Hold on. Windom. You're all gonna have to like each other a little bit more. Come in a little closer. Yeah. Okay. Any other parents? [Music] Feel free to come forward if you did not get a picture. Yeah. Is anyone else? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Okay. All right. Our next commendation for the evening will be the colorb blind glasses and Windham Chemley, our executive director of communications, will be presenting this. And I have Jerry Reer on too, but I think it's just Windom that's present. Is that right? Okay. All right. So, um, good evening, President Galbre, Dr. Cleveland, members of the board. I am incredibly fortunate to be up here this evening to once again recognize

029and commend the efforts of Mr. Ronald Nelden, excuse me. Um, I want to welcome him up here. Um, this is, I believe, the fourth year that he has, um, orchestrated a donation event for En Chroma colorblind. Uh, they're not called correction glasses. They're called colorblind assistance classes, I think. Um, to students in in Rio Rancho. Um, to give you a little bit of background, Mr. Nelden is a US Air Force veteran and was stationed in Saudi Arabia in the mid 1990s. Um, he was personally affected by an a bombing event at an apartment complex. And from that whole experience came a desire for him to give back and and help those that um that he could. So um a couple years ago, I think 2021 was the first um donation event that we had. He

030decided that he wanted to change the lives of of some youth in New Mexico, Rio Rancho specifically, and um provide students with color blindness um with these glasses that that help them see color for the the first time. And so this evening he presented nine pairs to uh middle and high school students in Rio Rancho. Um at this point I believe he's he's donated over 50 pairs. So it's um pretty amazing. And rumor has it this might be the last time that he um is able to do this. I think that he and his wife are are moving away. So um we're sad to see him go, but um we just want to offer our our sincere thanks from everybody in the district. Thank you so much for everything that you've done. And I'm gonna

031invite him to say a few words as well, please. Dr. Cleveland, President Greth, nice to see you all again. Rest of the board. I'd like to really thank Mr. Kley for all his help. He got involved. I believe in the second year. And anytime I reach out to him, say I want to do this again, he's always been willing to solicit the students and the parents to see who needs the glasses. Thankfully, this year we were able to provide classes to every student that needed them. So, to me, it was really awesome. Like you said, we are looking at moving next year. My wife wants to be closer to her daughters and our new granddaughter, so she's looking at Tennessee. I was stationed here for 14 years. It'll be 10 years we've lived here. It's

032like a second home. What I will promise you, I will check with people at the VA to see if there's anybody else who'd like to take my spot. I've already had a couple of parents tonight offer to make donations for it. They may not have the long story short and to back up a little bit. After the bombing, I became involved in a loss against the country of Iran. After our first payout of that, I'll never see all the money I'm entitled to. But out of that first payout, I tell my wife, "Okay, I want to give one pair to a male and a female student." Ended up being six pair and two test kits with four pairs each that first year. Like I said, we're up to probably 50 pairs total. Tonight the biggest

033impact I noticed I don't know why it caught my eye so much but were the parents the smiles were huge all of them came up thanked me for it they can see how their child his life has been enhanced the students were very appreciative um it all got started because one of the gentlemen I took over to Saudi Arabia with us was considered one of the seven seriously injured. It took me a day and a half to find out where if he was even alive or dead. But he ended up having a son that's born totally deaf. So thankfully I have the ability to watch YouTube videos at home. So I started watching, you know, people hearing for the first time. Then it pops up. Oh, let's see people seeing color for the first time.

034So even before we I knew I was going to get anything out of the lawsuit, I talked to my wife and she totally agreed. Let's make an impact for these kids. My mentality behind it is to show that something out of can come out of a tragic Jeep that is so positive and can impact these students lives. My life was redefined by the bombing. I'm hoping I'm redefine the lives of the students I've helped out with these as well. Other than that, I can't thank you no. If we don't move in time, I may sneak in and do it again next year. But yeah, it looks like we're moving. But I thank you everybody for their support over the years. Thank you. Oh, thank you for that. [Applause] I hope you can sneak back in.

035That's our hope is that you can come and sneak back in. It's sorry I didn't talk to you more out in the foyer earlier, but it he makes a huge impact. And so we're just really really grateful that you do that. Um I have a student who's colorb blind, not in our district. And and we were talking about that and I was I was actually talking about you and how you've been able to donate these. He's like that is that is so neat. like that is just so neat. And it really is. We've just our district has been blessed um by you doing what you've done for for us and so we're really really grateful um for it and you're always welcomed back to New Mexico. When you go to any other state and you

036realize, wait, New Mexico is the place to be. Come on back and we'll accept you. Uh Dr. Cleveland, do you want to add anything? I would just add thank you so much for caring so much about our students and making that very generous donation. And it really if you have family members who are colorblind, which I've had, it is an amazing it's just an amazing opportunity to see color um the way it's meant to be seen and then to be viewed. So again, we appreciate it and echo what everyone else has said. Maybe you'll find your way back to New Mexico. We hope so. But uh wherever you're going, it's their gain and our loss. But thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you again. Thank you. [Applause] It's good. There's something about New Mexico. It

037just they they call it the land of enttrapment. I know. But I love it. I've always loved it here. So, all right. And well, now we actually do not have any public comment signed in or on our online form. But for those who desire to give public comment, who might be listening tonight, you're always welcome to come in and give public comment both in the boardroom um or on our public comment form um that we receive. And we we just summarize those here in the boardroom. And so we'll now go to the consent agenda to board member Tyler. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Go member Jeff Morgan. A second. Okay. We have a motion by Jessica Tyler and a second by Jeff Morgan. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Okay,

038motion carries. All right, we'll now go to our business portion of our meeting for tonight. Hoping that I'm not missing anything. Okay. Um we'll start with what everyone has been waiting for and all the emails I've been receiving. So, I'm really excited u with um to consider the approval of the school calendars for the 2526 school year. So Peggy Johnston, our director of human services, uh our human resources will u present along with Dr. Chris Johnson, our principal of biotech. Thank you so much, President Galbreth, Dr. Cleveland, members of the board. As Dr. Cleveland said earlier, we're back. Um so I think probably the best way for us to go through this is just to look at those list of important dates. The calendar gets a little muddy when it's up on the screen, I

039think. Um, but just to go over again why we did come back, we had to wait for the legislative session to end. Uh, we did need to address the difference in professional development hours that would be allowed for elementary versus secondary. So just to clarify again, elementary will have 60 hours of professional development uh which translates to 10 days, 10 instructional days and secondary will have 30 hours of professional development which translates to 5 days. So that means that our sec our staff will start and end on the same days. They will also work the same days throughout the calendar. However, there will be five days where elementary staff will have professional development days. Elementary students will not come to school. Secondary staff will be having instructional days with students in the classroom. So that's

040why we have the two separate calendars to hopefully not confuse everyone. And then we will have a third calendar as Dr. Cleveland mentioned with Riot Tech. Uh and Dr. Johnson is going to speak about that in just a moment. The other big change that we have from the last time that we were ahead of you is that we've changed our instructional start day for staff. Uh we heard from staff, the community, the union. Overwhelmingly, one of our requests was could we please have all of June and July as a summer and could we start in August? And so we really took another hard look at that and what could we do to make that happen? So our proposal tonight is to do that. In fact, that would mean the start date would be August 4

041for the first day of the contract. students then coming on August 7. Our end of the school year would then be May 29. Uh so the nice thing is we did not we do have to come back after Memorial Day, but we don't have to go into June. However, to make that happen, I do want to make you aware we did have to remove the President's Day holiday. However, we made that a professional development day. So it would only be staff who would be here. The students would still have that as a day off. We also had to remove the vernal holiday. Uh again, that will be staff only on the elementary level. They'll have a professional development day, but secondary will be in school in session on that day. And that allowed us to

042actually start in August and then end in May. And those are the big highlights of that list. I do apologize. I realized later after I had sent this to Jaci that I lost a couple of my lines on the end of my list of important dates. So again, that last day of school, the last day of the contract is going going to be May 29. There is a Memorial Day holiday on May 25. And I will let you know as well, our graduation dates at the end of the year are going to be determined. we are still working that out with the locations and so we need to uh come back later but that will not change the instructional calendar won't change any of our starter end dates or anything um so we'll be looking

043at that adding that uh I know that uh Renee Saledo is working really hard on that and at this time it may be easier just to stand for some questions for those two calendars and then we'll have Dr. Johnson do his calendars okay thank you um Dr. Dr. Kman, do you want to add anything before I go to questions? Um, no, I don't think so except just well, just add one thing. One of the things that's it's uh we are facing a change and that is our dates for graduation and the state is maintaining that you will have to go till the very end of the school year uh before seniors can have finals and graduation. So, that will be a change from the past. We're still working though on exactly what that will look

044like and we'll bring that back to the board once that's finalized. Okay. Thanks, Gert. Okay. Uh qu uh instructional days each semester. Yes. Do you have that number breakdown? Yeah. So if you're looking at elementary, the instructional days in the first semester are going to be 92 and in the second semester are going to be 98. That was a bit of a challenge for us. We do like to have them be a little more even than that, but again, that's just sort of the way everything fell. the majority of our winter break this year is going to be falling in that first semester category. Um so that's why we ended up with those dates a little bit different than we normally have had them. And then for secondary uh it worked out the same. Okay.

045And then the summitive assessment is it changing next year or is it still at this time of the year? It will still be at this time of the year. Yes. So, you know, it may be that a specific date on the calendar changed, but no, the time of year will not change. Thank you. Okay, Jeff Morgan, I don't have anything. Thank you. Okay, Beth Martin, no questions. Thank you, Jessica. Tyler, I'll just say I know it's always an extremely difficult balancing task um to figure out the calendar and especially when there's drastic differences in secondary and um the primary calendars as far as the professional development hours as well. So, I think that there's, you know, probably some people feeling like one person has it better than the other next year. Um, but with that,

046I would just remind people that you guys definitely do the best that you can and so I appreciate the work that you do. Um, and there's always that give and take as well, right? So, it's like, no, we were able to get them out in May and not start till August, which I think is a huge win overall. And also just I know a lot of families have been waiting for this to be able to make plans. And so, thank you for getting this back to us um as quickly as you could given the the information that was needed from peed on the professional development hours. So, so thank you for that. Thanks. I have a quick thing. I don't know. I was just looking at I always look at kind of the other districts

047around just to see. Um and I thought it was interesting because one of the districts had actually put their it was the PSAT date on there. I don't know if that's something that we can do or if we have that date, but I think that would be because no one ever knows, you know, and then you're you're like, "Wait, my kids are off this, you know, and so it could be that might be a nice addition." So, our RAD department is going to work with me on that. So, as soon as I get those dates, we Yeah. Okay. That would be great. I I would want you to know in the differences between elementary and secondary. We worked very hard this legislative uh session to get that changed and it passed uh every committee unanimously

048that that heard it uh understanding that we needed to balance professional development for both secondary and elementary, but it did not get heard by the last committee. And so uh we were there on Friday night before the session ended at noon on Saturday hoping that it would be heard and uh it did not it got did not get heard and so uh we'll try again next year and we do feel that both levels need professional development. It's important for both and we understand how secondary teachers were very discouraged by that. I do want them to know we worked really hard. Uh, Representative Cullen carried that bill and uh, truly up until the the night before the closing, we we were still hopeful that we would get it through, but it just did not make it.

049So many things in New Mexico, you have to go back two or three years before you actually get it accomplished. And so, not giving up and we'll try again. Um, but it was a disappointment that that did not that that did not pass. Yeah. Well, and on that note, Dr. Cleveland, I you know, I know sometimes people sometimes people tune in to our YouTubetubes. I'm sure five or so, but you know, as we're hearing this, I think it's really important for us as a community and as a statewide that if this is something that's really important that we make sure that our voices are heard and that we're talking to our representatives because this is honestly, and I'm I'm going to be a little more pointed on it, it should have been seen and it

050wasn't and that's unfortunate. And so this is something that people need to hear that is important. And if it is important to, we really need to be speaking out and talking about it and not just letting it slide. So, so thank you for for bringing that up. So, on this one, do we want to go into our Go ahead. I was just going to say I think we'll have Dr. Johnson pres. Perfect. Yep. All right. U President Gabbath, Dr. Cleveland, members of the board. Uh good evening. So, before you is the Riotech calendar as uh Dr. Cleveland did mention that we align this uh one because not only are the faculty um half of the faculty will be CNM faculty but students are also CNM students and so trying to find that balance between being

051a rearential student and a CNM student uh where the calendars really don't mesh uh was a difficult challenge uh but we did want to keep true to what Rio is doing in their academic calendar so it did not challenge families who have students going to Riotch and students going to Cleveland or any of the other schools. So looking at that our start date um just you know the key dates uh we will start our staff on August 4th. Um students will start August 7th. CNM starts September 2nd. So that gives us some time and flexibility to frontload a lot of the instructional hours for our core classes. And then uh they'll get the Labor Day off. Our quarters are pretty balanced. Uh in November, the only time uh we'll get off is for the election

052uh because that is a state law. So we we have to adhere to that. Um then we'll get the Thursday, Friday off for Thanksgiving. And our winter break will actually start on December 16th or 17th. So the 16th will be the last date. um which will kind of make up for uh everybody else. So for the fall, we have 93 days in our term. Uh and then in the spring again, we'll start back uh with PD on the 5th and then students come back on the 6th. Uh CNN will actually start a couple days later on the 12th. Uh the big difference here is uh February, March, and April there really are no days off for students. We we CNM does not have a spring break. Um so so that made it a little bit

053challenging. Uh but CNM's last day of instruction is April 26th, which is a full month before everybody else uh gets out. And then of course we looked at what we needed for our instructional hours. So we will end our contract date on May 20th uh will be the last date and that kind of makes up for that. Uh CNM summer classes start on the 18th. We'll have several students going through there. Um and then in then the fall summer spring term we'll have 97 days. So we'll have 190 total uh instructional days for our instructional staff on the rearential side. And other than that I will stand for questions. Questions? Dr. add anything on this? No, I think he covered it nicely. It's just it's a different calendar and and I know you've had two

054parent meetings so far uh to give people an opportunity to hear about the the programs, the offerings, but that's been stressed to parents that this is a a college um combination program and that it is a different calendar and they would have to commit to that calendar in order for their students to participate. And everyone seemed very positive about it. There wasn't any negative feedback from parents at all. Getting out early is a plus. That is a plus I would say. Uh Gary Trip, anything? Just the the is there any concerns with any struggles with CNN? No sir. Um so the the CNM um we've kind of geared this towards that. They've run this calendar through CCHS which is a APS run uh campus on the CNM side. So, uh, looking at how they run

055theirs without spring break and how CNM runs it, um, it it really does seem it's a lot easier to do because then students aren't missing days of class because they don't have transportation or they don't have other issues that have come up where the past two years we've had students show up for CNM classes without having rearial classes. So that that's one of those kind of tricky situations that um students and parents have been fully supportive of this. It would be nice to have a smooth process. Um is there any word on when ground is breaking? I know where it deviates from the instructional calendar, but Yeah. Yes, sir. Uh from from my understanding, it's uh May 22nd. We do have a meeting coming up um at the beginning of May. Uh, but I I

056believe it's May 22nd um time frame. I'm I'm not sure. I want to say it's around 10:00 a.m. on the 22nd. I know Tracy was inviting, you know, we're all welcome to come out to that. Yeah. But they're pretty set on May finding. Okay. Thank you. Is that great? Yeah, it's great. They announced it at the CEK opening uh for the community and everyone. So, we think it's pretty firm. Um and pretty excited about that finally taking place. Yeah. It's so good. So wonderful. And Jeff Morgan, I don't have anything. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Okay, Beth Miller, no questions. Thank you, Jessica. Tyler, you awesome. Thank you. Anything else with calendars or any other last questions on calendars? I would I and maybe I'm kind of anyway I'm just going to put this out

057there again that I would be interested as a as a board member talking with other districts and going to peed and asking for those for a change of heart on the seniors as far as getting out early but I don't know if other districts are interested in in that but um especially thinking about those CNM you know we talked about CNM and their schedule and how some students who might desire to do that that it they kind of it it anyway Anyway, so that I just want to put that out as that I'm interested in that. So if that's something that we could look into. All right, we'll go for a motion. Member Tyler, I'll make a motion to approve the school calendars for the 2526 school year. Miller, I second the motion. Okay, we

058have a motion by Jessica Tyler, second by Beth Miller, and um why don't we do a roll call on this one? Vice President Morgan, yes. Secretary Tyler, yes. Board member Trip, yes. Member Miller, yes. President, yes. 5. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thanks. We appreciate it. All right. Our next is the second reading of proposed repeal to board policy 712 and the employee use of tobacco products. Um, so Mike Chavez, our executive director of human resources and maybe just David man, our general counsel will present this. Madame President, Dr. Cleveland, members of the board, I'm here with Peggy. This is a straightforward one. We came before you two weeks ago on this. We're just repealing policy 12. So in its entirety, it'll be repealed. When you look on the website, it will just

059show with a strike through for now with in parenthesis, it will say repeal. And then eventually when we create a new policy when a new policy is needed we'll slot it in that space in the in the in the sequence. Okay. Do you have any questions questions from the board or comments Dr. Cleveland? Anything else you want to add? No. As I said this is just a consolidating of two two policies to make it more cohesive and and easier to follow. Okay. Yeah. Just one comment on how if it if it shows repealed on the website, I think that could be misleading to the public if it just maybe put like placeholder because otherwise they might not necessarily know that it was at, you know what I mean? I don't know. They just might think

060we just went did away with it instead of adding it. I don't know. Maybe it'll just be a missing number, I guess, is really what Well, you could have the number and then just put like open as a placeholder, I think, is how it's oftentimes done. Maybe it's not a big deal. I don't know. Yeah, we can work with John Longwell on making that more obvious to the public so they don't worry that we've we're no longer interested in preventing tobacco. Right. Right. Right. Right. There you go. Yeah. Exactly. All right. With that, I'll make a motion to approve the repeal of board policy 712, employee use of tobacco products, as the substantive prohibitions have been recently adopted into board policy 7-Eleven. Bo Jeff Morgan. and second. Okay, we have a motion by Jessica Tyler,

061second by Jeff Morgan, and let's go ahead and do a roll call vote. Vice President Morgan, yes. Secretary Tyler, yes. Board member Trip, yes. Board member Miller, yes. President Galbreth, yes. Carries 5. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Our next item is to consider the recommendation for online learning platforms. So, I'd like to welcome back up Stephanie Moore, our executive director of secondary curriculum and instruction, who will present. Good evening, Madame President Galbreth, Dr. Cleveland, members of the board. I am here today to ask for approval for um the use of a new online learning platform. We have um been with Egeneuity for a long time and it was time to go out and review and we um in working through this process decided it would be most appropriate to review this in

062light of instructional materials like we would for anything else because that's how we use it in our district. So, um next slide. uh on the on the team I I organized the team and then Susie Sitig, one of our um coordinators um facilitated the conversation with them. Uh the purpose next of this is just like with science instructional materials which I was here about last month um was to adopt an instructional material that would meet the needs of our students and meet the standards for the state of New Mexico to support um a K12 student. This the use of these materials will only be in secondary. We wanted to ensure for a long time um our online learning usage has kind of been siloed. And so we have um really worked to bring and worked

063specifically with the teachers at Cyber and then our other users and how do we ensure that um our online learning students, our blended students are getting the same GVC, the same quality of education that a student attending one of our other schools would get. And so when we went out, this was one of the things that we were looking for. How could we find a platform and which platform out there would allow us to meet these needs and ensure that we h we could we could say with confidence that these students were getting the same highquality education that all of our other Rio Rancho public school students are. Um so our online learning in um Rio Rancho public schools. Um for a long time has lived outside of CNI a little bit. And so the

064goal this last year and a half was to really look at how we can bring this fully into CNI into curriculum and instruction and um work with all of those stakeholders to do that. Um, so we wanted to fully utilize the instructional material process. Sometimes I think we don't always realize the scope of our digital learners in our district. So in on the next slide I really lay out all the different places because it's not just cyber academy that uses digital learning. We have a lot of usage in the district and so and very diverse needs. So, we wanted something that would be able to meet all of these needs. So, Cyber Academy uses it. Independence uses online learning to fill gaps for graduation. Um, our student support center uses the online learning platform for

065our long-term placements. Um, credit recovery at both of our comprehensive high schools. We have night school programs at both comprehensive high schools. We have an integrated ed program through our special education department and our desert programs, our secondary desert programs through special education. So we have the it had to be pretty robust and flexible in order to meet all of these needs. So on the next slide you'll see our committee. We tried to have representation for each of these voices from each of these areas present. Um I want to call out while and to and make sure that we included um our diverse learners perspective in this um this was one of the gaps that we had seen is how do we support a diverse learner on our online learning platform. So we had um

066one of our EL coordinators sit on the team, we had an SE coordinator sit on the team. we had administration on the team so that um we were really aware of whether or not we could meet the needs of our students when we reviewed. So you've seen this um image before. When we did science, the process was very similar, right? We went out, we found reput all of the reputable vendors. We used an evaluation rubric. You could pull up the science rubric and pull up this rubric. They are very similar because it all goes back to our standards and um our curriculum maps that we have built in our district. um they evaluated um three different platforms. Uh we selected a finalist, two finalists, we brought them in and then the committee um convened afterwards

067to plus delta both and make a final decision. So in our finalists, we brought in um our three that we evaluated and the two that came for presentation. So we evaluated imagine learning's egeneuity which is our current um digital online learning platform. We evaluate we evaluated subject and BYU online high school. We brought in BYU online high school and subject for final presentations as the finalists. Um both companies did a very good job in their presentation but the final recommendation was unanimous for subject. You'll see in here um these are the quotes from their justifications about why they um as a team decided that this was our best step forward. Uh one of the things that really um came to the forefront two very distinct things. One we needed NCAA accredited firstr run courses. um

068BYU online high school did not offer that to us. We had to go out for our own accreditation for it. Uh but two, we also needed a system that could handle credit recovery and those are very different purposes and subject provided provides different pathways for that and it looks different for kids. Um, Subject is a new company and has been incredibly responsive and the feedback we got back from other districts who have them has been very positive. So, um, we are excited to try something new. Um, we've been with Egeneuity for a long time, so it's going to be a change, but even if something is really good, maybe 20 years later, it's time to evaluate what we're doing. Um, Dr. Cleveland has asked that we have a demonstration. So, I'm gonna ask Anna from

069Subject and John from Subject to come up. They flew in today from um LA. They're an LA based company to um model some of this for you and demo it for you so that then we can stand for any questions that you have. Okay. Thanks for coming out by the way as you're setting up. That's Thank you very much for having us. Uh Dr. Cleveland, members of the board, Madame President, thank you for having us. Uh this experience uh being part of the review has been extremely humbling. Uh and we thank you for your diligence in uh choosing a new provider. Uh my name is Anna Romero. I'm here with my colleague John and we're excited to walk you through a quick few exciting pieces of the platform. Uh subject is a new online learning

070platform. We are hoping to reimagine what digital curriculum looks like. Our students today, as you very well know, uh have a very high bar for engagement. They are addicted and obsessed with Netflix and Hulu and Tik Tok. And so it's our job to make sure that our curriculum is uh rigorous, standards aligned, um provides supports for these students, but is also extremely engaging and culturally relevant to them. Online learning for uh the past few years has also had a very negative stigma attached to it. Uh we've heard the click for credit model before where students jump on an online platform and they're met with multiplechoice assignments and they find the answer banks online. Um and so I'm excited to walk through with you how we are responding to academic integrity and uh the sorts of

071assignments and different assessments that we are asking students to respond to. subject has over 150 courses all of which are standards align and meet new Mexico uh standards. We are also approved by several bodies including NCAA. We are also an accredited body. Uh we are accredited by WASK and Cognus. I always like to start off there because we are standards aligned and we meet all of we need to meet all of the important um uh bodies uh requirements for standards alignment. All of our courses have everything that a student would need. Students do not need to access any outside materials and this is extremely important when it comes to our science courses for example. And so when you look at our science courses like chemistry, we have what we call virtual labs. And so students

072are able to come here and uh complete their labs and submit these uh for for scoring and feedback. Again, nothing a student will not need to purchase anything outside of the subject environment to be able to meet the standards and requirements. And then speaking to academic integrity, a subject is looking to move away more and more from multiplechoice assessments. Uh and for a few reasons, one of which being that these are very easily found online for students to uh just quickly find the answers. Uh but two, uh we want to really dive into students depth of knowledge and become a lot more creative with the way that students uh show their mastery and understanding. And so I'm in an English one course here. And you can see that this is a warm-up. Uh we are

073talking about tone. And in this assignment, students are being asked to recite the poem twice using two different tones. Uh again, uh different if a student was going to use open AI to help them understand tone. That's only part of the assignment. They have to be able to demonstrate what the different tones mean. And so we're trying to get creative with the sort of assessments that we provide. You might also be wondering who is going to be providing all of the scoring and all of the feedback for all of these assignments that are not automatically scored. Subject is really proud to say that we provide all of the suggested scoring uh and feedback for these assignments and assessments. Um we call them suggested scores because ultimately your teachers will have final say in um what

074students receive uh for these assignments. you know your students best and we're here to provide a suggested score. Here's another example of an assignment in English. Um here students are being asked to read a um a paragraph and they're being asked to respond to what feels authentic and inauthentic to them. Um but I see some of these words and I might not know what they mean. And so what is subject doing to support these students? Here we have a 247 homework helper um available in the platform. It is AI powered and the nice part about it being owned and protected by subject is any data that a student submits here is protected by subject and will not be shared with any third parties. Um so it's very important for us to share. It also will

075not give students the answer. So that makes it very different from an open AI extension. Um, so a student could try to ask it to give it the answer. Um, but they'll get very frustrated very quickly when the AI homework helper tries to scaffold the problem for them. Another really neat feature uh that we have here is our explain this homework helper. And so we know that during the review was extremely important that subjects would be able to support multilingual learners and learners who maybe weren't reading at lex at uh grade level. And so what our platform can currently do is a student will be able to jump in and highlight maybe a few words, maybe a sentence. And when they do so, they'll be met with three options. It's explain this, translate, and read

076it aloud. And so if they highlight, per se, maybe it's a word, it'll provide them with a definition. If they highlight a sentence, it'll rephrase the sentence for them. There's also a translate button. Uh you might have a long-term English learner that has been in the classroom for some years and really only needs a part of the curriculum translated. We can support over 150 languages. And then there's a readaloud button uh for students who need some part of the curriculum or content read aloud. should probably also share that all of our course library is available in Spanish, Arabic, Ukrainian, and Russian, but we also support over 150 languages. I'll go ahead and show you what that looks like. Uh, but this is extremely beneficial to schools who maybe only have one student who only speaks

077one language and they've had trouble finding curriculum that this one student can access. It's also very expensive to go out and find curriculum for just one language for one student. Uh if Rio Rancho came to us tomorrow and said, "We have a student who only speaks Mandarin and we'd like to get them a chemistry and world history course immediately." Subjects would be able to turn that around for them. Moving on to the engagement side of it. Uh so Subject is located in Los Angeles. It's a very it was a very strategic decision. We have our own sound stages and set stages where we actually film all of our curriculum. It's standards aligned. Um, and so after we create the assessments and the curriculum, we get to have fun with the scripts and the videos. The

078videos serve as direct instruction uh for students. And so think of it in English, they might preview a text. In history, it might run through uh the Great Depression for students. In math, it might show how to solve linear equations. and in chemistry it might preview how to complete a virtual lab for them. I'll go ahead and play just a few seconds from our New Mexico history course here 1960 above the deserts of New Mexico a lone figure ascends to the edge of space reaching an altitude of over 100,000 ft. This is Joseph Kittener, an Air Force pilot on a mission that would push the boundaries of human endurance and courage at a height where the curvature of the earth is. Our videos have an average of about 5 minutes. Uh because we know attention

079spans are fairly short. Uh and we even think 5 minutes now is a little too long. So, we're working uh very hard on making sure that these are shorter and shorter each time and that they're met with formative assessments and assignments that um reflect to what was just taught in the video. But again, uh we want to make sure that our multilingual learners are supported and this might include newcomers to the school district. And so, I'm going to go ahead and play a quick video for you. This is a video that was originally filmed in English. Uh this is one of our instructors, Craig. He is uh he has a YouTube channel on just everything about history. So he is a subject matter expert but I don't believe he speaks Spanish. Uh so feel free

080to provide feedback. If you looked closely, his lips move as he's speaking. Uh we want to provide an extremely immersive experience for our newcomers and make them feel like this is authentic to them and to their language. And so all of our courses that are provided in uh the native language have videos that are completely translated as well as the curriculum. And any assignments that students do submit uh will be scored in their native language. I'm going to jump into our educator site here and ask John to help me uh touch on a few important pieces. Subject is a data driven company. We want to make sure that your educators and your teachers have data at their fingertips to make informed decisions. And we also know how extremely critical it is that you all are

081very well aware of how students are performing um at any given moment. And so here with subject we have something called live reports. So I'm going to go ahead and click in quickly. These are reports that are all customizable. And so for some districts sometimes um the completion rate is the most important piece along with how much time students have spent on a platform. Other times it might be what the attempted or pacing score is. And so we're excited to work with Rio Rancho on what report um what reports are important to you all. We don't want to make sure that you're running through 50 different reports and trying to figure out uh trying to find the data yourselves. I don't think I need a microphone. Pretty loud. Again, my name is John Pacitis. I'm

082director of implementation and sales enablement. Thanks for having us out. At Subject, we know data is the most important piece. It's the ROI. It's why you use our product. It's how we determine what students are doing better. We do that by funneling all the data into a single report. So, we have all of our data in a Google Looker Studio report, which by the way will tie into your district spreadsheets automatically if you wish. We have a very uh advanced and robust data integrations program. So we tie directly into your student information. Not only do we pull the enrollments and students out of that, we pass the grades from subject back up. So now when your teacher when your parents are going to the parent portal, they're going to see individual graded assignments every day.

083This once a day, keeping them informed. So no longer do you have that I didn't know that he was failing kind of problem with your product. Um, again, this is part of our our our montage of this product is to remove all of the administrative work that we can from the platform and put that time back in the hands of teachers to actually interact with students because that's where the learning happens. If you look at the legacy players on the market today, they're very administrativeheavy. There's teachers having to do grading. There's teachers having to monitor work. It takes time away from the actual job of education. Thank you, John. The last piece I want to leave you all with is um our customer service. We actually joked with Stephanie that if you went and selected

084subject that you were actually mandated to let us come on campus four times a school year. Uh we want to hear how your students are enjoying the platform. We want to know how onboarding has gone for your teachers. We want to be here when onboarding happens. uh we don't believe that a successful onboarding will happen virtually. So please be aware that we are excited to be here uh for the potential launch of subject. Thank you. Yes. And I'd like to add to that unlike anybody else in the market, we are truly engaged in the success of you and of your students. To exemplify that, we started selling an Elmagoro last summer. We released Mexico history this January. We listen. Most of what's on our platform comes from educators like yourself. So, thank you very much.

085Thank you. Now, we stand for any questions. Okay. Thank you. Um, Dr. Cleveland, do you want to You just answered one. Where are we on New Mexico history? So, uh, thank you for already answering that. And I hear it's really a really great unit. So, I'm looking forward to seeing that in particular, but thank you for coming. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh, board member Trip, you have any questions or comments? Thank you. Jeff Morgan, I don't have anything. Thanks. Appreciate your time. Okay, Beth Miller, thank you very much for coming. Jessica Tyler, I'm going to be the pain, I guess. Yeah, I know. Which anyone in the room could probably tell you that's kind of the case usually, but yeah. Um, so you guys have mentioned a couple times you're a newer company

086that you kind of came out of COVID. So, how many customers do you have? What is the longevity of your company? Um, obviously it's a little bit I work actually now on software so I know that people oftentimes have hesitation going with new companies because of your staying power. So can you tell me a little bit about that? The number of customers number of states you're in eternal California, New Mexico, Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina. And one of the things we didn't touch on, but because we're selling in those other states, we also have a beautiful CTE platform cover that as well. That answer. Yes, that answers that. So, Jessica, also it was a it was a talking point with the committee, right? Because as a lot of you might know, BYU online

087high school has been around for a very long time. And so did we go with something that was wellestablished or um did we go with something new? And the committee really won. They appreciated the um responsiveness of subject the fact that we have New Mexico history out and ready to go already, which is one of our bigger problems um in our high school graduation requirements. Also, they've already developed six AP classes. BYU online, despite having been around for as long as they have, only has nine and doesn't have an English class. So, they were the committee felt taking the risk on the new, but it give us some more innovative opportunities because it did come up. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Um, what about costs and things like change orders, adding additional curriculum? If we have legislation

088that changes and our curriculum changes, how does that work in the pricing structure for you guys? Beautiful part of our product, the cost that we did is the cost. We don't charge for anything else. any new courses that come out like we have middle school coming out this summer any new courses we develop on-site PD unlimited support integrations the whole thing is built into the cost it's a oneline course okay awesome and then I think I just have one or two last questions on the analytics um I think that's obviously the way of the future with reporting you talked about integrations already into P school so that's outstanding on the analytics is that viewer based or is again is that for any teacher can access and do their own reporting or is it going to

089be restricted on the licenses based on your level. So if you're a teacher, all those reports will show your students. If you're a site administrator like principal, you'll see your school and the district admins can have varying degrees of access multiple layers of access. No, and nowhere is somebody seeing data they shouldn't. Okay. And then final question, I know you said it's one item, one line item. Is it for as many users as we want? So, it's a subscription for the x amount of years that we're entering into the contract with you. Um, or is it restricted to a specific number of students that would be able to access it? Go ahead. Uh, license based and those licenses are transferable and so once a student is done with a license, you are able to share

090it with another student. Okay. Okay. Any other questions? Sorry. No, that was good. That was really good. I'm glad I'm glad that you Well, hold on one second. I I yeah really quick I and this isn't really a question for you guys but I guess I was so I'm so grateful that it has so many languages built in. I think that's a really really good thing especially when we have umu students who may come from you know difficult situations and it's kind of one last burden. I guess my comment is though is just as um you know when when those kind of circumstances do arise that we don't just create where we just keep that student on that. Okay, good. We also didn't touch on very much and I think it's really important because of

091the wide variety of use um subject also has an large number of other accessessibility features for students for our students with disabilities and things like that. But it's not the the language support is amazing, which we have not seen anywhere else in in anything, even in science materials we're adopting now. Um, but it also has really great built-in supports that can be tailored down to a student that they need, whether it's um Lexile changes, whether it's um reducing choices, things like that. So there are other accessibility features also available in subject. Okay, that's good. Did you want to add anything? Well, I was just going to point out with our language solution, we serve a huge Arabic population in Michigan and they've been using us for about a year now and those students are outperforming

092the regular language students now because we removed that language barrier. What do you know? Those students are really sharp. It was always just that was the problem. The courses are identical. So you can roll them in both. So they have the ability to transition Yeah. Yeah. It's just so important to me that our students are ready to go back go out into the world and so that they do learn English, you know, as they as they go through. So I think that's that's a great thing. And I think you answered kind of my other question. I just wanted to make sure we did have stuff for like dyslexia and all of those sort of things. So that's it was a I will admit right it wasn't near the large team that we put together for

093science, right? Because we had close to 40 members on that team. It was a smaller team, but they were highly critical of what we were going to do because if we're going to make a change, wanted to be very intentional about that change and ensure that it would be smooth smooth. Uh when I and they're not kidding around about being here. Um when I they were here last week for presentations, when I called Anna to let her know, she was back at the airport to fly back to New Mexico already. So, they have been incredibly responsive. um to the things we've requested, but also to the districts they already serve here. Okay. Well, thank you. I mean, one nice thing about going with new software, just my my home is a software crazy place. That's

094what my husband does for on his side gigs and his main gigs and all those things. But is that sometimes they get really comfortable, companies get really comfortable in their software and so and so that I can see as a good thing is that, you know, we can see some of these new features that come in because you're building up new. So, I think that's a really good thing. Uh, hold on, Dr. Cleveland and then Gary Trip. Go ahead. Go ahead, Gary first. Go ahead first. No, just some good things uh got brought up and just one thought that I had and that was um the state of New Mexico changes standards every like we wash hands and every time the state of New Mexico changes standards, a lot of the people that are changing

095the standards aren't subject experts. So the curriculum, it's not a curriculum, it's just an alignment. So because I work in that field, so we just have to align to the standards and it's like checking off. So I hope that to be honest with you, I hope that we can adopt curriculum in the subject matters that like Michigan, you I think you mentioned Michigan or something like that that have a really good curriculum scope and sequence and you probably are going to see your subject experts. So I just ask that you take care of our kids. Absolutely. Yeah. In the state of New Mexico. So, but we have a professional team, very experienced. I've been in this business a long time. Our lady that's over curriculum has been in it just as long. She That's why

096we're only selling in 11 states. We only sell where we can align and where we can do a good job. So, you're you have our assurances. We'll keep on talking about stuff. That's good. That's good. You know, well, I would just to build on what President Galver said, you know, a couple of years ago, we went out to Renee and I went out to um uh cyber academy and we talked about maybe changing and there was just like, oh, and then and then we went back this year and they were they were excited about the change. They said that that what we had before was becoming increasingly dated. Um it wasn't staying up with with world events. it wasn't staying up with some of the changes. They were frustrated by the lack of of it

097being relevant and current. And so it was a very different change by the teachers themselves really recognizing the need to to make a a change. I I would why I'm really interested in New Mexico history. So I would like to see it because I know it's something you've developed uh you developed for our state and for us in response to what we asked for. So, I'm really eager to see that so that we could get a feel um to Mr. Trip's point of if you if you need to make an adjustment, what does it look like? So, that's why I'm so eager to see it. But I hear it's wonderful. And uh yeah. Um and one last question I should have asked earlier. How do you select your teachers? How do you find them? On

098screen. Yeah, on screen. Great question. Um a few different criterias. First and foremost, they have to be subject matter experts. Um, typically they're teachers. Um, but two, they have to be engaging on screen. And so, we do fly people out to kind of audition for uh these roles. They're very long days um that we have these instructors on screen. And so, we want to make sure that they can commit to the one week, two weeks of filming and um to the long days. And because they're subject matter experts, can they add in just additional fun pieces of information that we haven't thought of before? Thank you. Someone add one more point in your selection today. The reason it's so important is if you look at what you were using and you look what's on the

099market, we emphasize the academic integrity because we're 40% multiple choice or less. We force kids to critically think and teachers will know that students are actually learning. That's the biggest differentiator out of all the stuff we presented today. At the end of the day, you're going to produce better students. So they they go into a a space that's safe and that we can have we can ensure test security and academic integrity when we are when they deploy the subject. So that's great. That's great. Any other questions from the board or any other comments? No, no. Also glad to hear you'll be here in person for training, so that's always great. Yeah. Maybe I'll come get trained just like um Okay. With that, I'll make a motion to approve the recommendation for the online learning program,

100our learning platform to go to subject.com. Okay. I have a second. Gary, I'll second it. Okay. We have a motion by Jessica Tyler and a second by Gary Trip. And if you'll take a roll call vote for us. Vice President Morgan, yes. Secretary Tyler, yes. Board member Trip, yes. Board member Miller, yes. President Galbreth, yes. 5. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for coming out. Appreciate it. Wish we could demo all of them like that. That was a nice was nice to look at. Okay. We'll now consider the approval of RFP number 2025-018-7s. SND, Food Services Management. And so we have Michael Madrid, our director of purchasing and chief procurement officer, along with Phix Grigg, our executive director of student nutrition, superintendent, Dr. Cleveland, members of the board. Before I get started

101with the presentation, I do want to acknowledge as Dr. Cleveland mentioned earlier the evaluation team, Felix and his team. Um the proposals received on behalf of the solicitation included hundreds of pages of content that had to be reviewed. Uh they had to familiarize familiarize themselves with that content. They had to familiarize themselves with the evaluation criteria. They had a score. We had many hours of discussions. So I want to acknowledge that evaluation team. The other thing I want to mention that makes this procurement a little unique is it required a collaboration on the procurement documents. The RFP boiler plate. Typically when we do a solicitation it's only our uh Rio Rancho public schools boilerplate but we had to merge in New Mexico public education department's boilerplate as well. So we had to uh constitute one

102document for the presentation and we had to do the same thing for the contract. So uh that makes this procurement a little unique and uh as far as the volume of information it was quite a challenge for the evaluation team. So I want to acknowledge those team members for participation. Um the requested action for this afternoon is award of RFP 2025 uh-018. It should read SND uh food service management um awarded to Southwest food excellence. The selected food service management company will collaborate closely with Rio Rancho public schools to provide premium quality food products including whole muscle chicken and other items that meet or exceed the quality of their currently featured uh menu items to the district. The chosen vendor has demonstrated experience working in K12 and has showcased innovations that involve students, staff, and

103the patrons in a dining experience. Their proposal includes reference menus and appropriate portion sizes that align with the nutrition standards. The food management company will work alongside Rio Rancho public schools to introduce uh desired products that enhance the students dining experience. In addition, the company will comply with all requirements outlined in the New Mexico healthy uh free food meal free meals NMAC rules established by the New Mexico Public Education Department. Uh these include mandates to minimize food waste, incorporate New Mexico grown products, uh serve at least 50% scratch uh meals, and actively promote participation in the National School Lunch Program. To ensure effective, efficient operation, the district seeks a staffing a staffing plan that includes a minimum of 140 kitchen employees, each earning not less than $16.50 per hour. Additionally, the district will require key

104leadership roles, which include a district manager, three assistant general managers, a chef, and a catering supervisor. Um, the proposal must also include a food truck to support student feeding programs and be available for special programs. Um, we received a total of five solicitations to the RFP. Proposals were received from um Aramark Educational Services LLC, Compass Group, US Incorporated by and through their Tartwell division, Genuine Foods Labs, uh Southwest Food Excellence, and Sedexo America LLC. As part of any procurement that involves evaluations, we have to do what's called a pass fill verification to ensure compliance uh with the um evaluation criteria and all vendors provided the required affidavit and were eligible for evaluation. Based on the evaluation results, the highest ranked offer was Southwest Food Excellence. A recommendation for award is being made to Southwest food

105excellence on their strong qualifications in K12 experience, high quality food offerings and innovative students engagements strategies included sample menus aligned with USDA nutritional standards. Um I'll also turn over to Felix and he'll give you additional content on his program. Um good evening, President Galbreth, uh Dr. Cleveland uh board members. Um I just wanted to kind of throw in a couple of things with regards to this RFP. It was a lot of work. Um so I thank my committee. Um they have their own jobs and responsibilities and looking over you anywhere from two to 400page RFP is pretty extensive. Um one thing that we were uh very strategic on getting a a good diverse uh committee that has their you know their own interpretations of what food service is. And so we were very diverse in

106the procurement process and I think that led to uh us selecting the best food service management company. Um SF this is their first term four years and so over the course of the last two years um Rio Rancho public schools all uh obviously invested in the student nutrition program um and and actually making that a department and so I think that was a good move on behalf of the board as well as Dr. Cleveland and uh Mr. Baker. Um, but I did want to throw out a couple of things. One of the things that we came in over the course of the last year, so it's been two years already, um, is food quality. Um, you know, coming from my background, you know, I did review all food service management companies, um, in my in

107my previous position. So, I've seen a lot of different food service management companies. But um I do think that with student nutrition as well as Southwest food excellence, it's a good combination to offer the best quality meals for our students. Um that's my priority. That's Southwest Food's priority. And over the course of the last two years, um we've done really well. Um when I came in, the district was serving about about nine 1.9 million meals um two years ago and and over the course of getting the food quality um you know working and getting a good um management team and and and having high expectations for the food service management company. Um we should hit about 2.7 million um which is about $700,000 uh meals more. Um, one thing, um, the budget with within student

108nutrition on reimbursements from the state and the federal was about $7.5 million. Um, this year we'll hit about $12 million. So, um, you know, it's it's a win-win situation. One thing that I did want to throw out that's important um to to the board and and and Dr. Cleveland is um, SF has is going to be making some additional investments. Um, one of the areas is trying to do cooking for kids. Um and uh chief of operations officer here uh Chris Odum thought it was very important to get culturally specific. So we're going to be getting a tortilla machine. So we'll have fresh tortillas um that we can utilize for breakfast burritos and things of that nature. So um and then they're they're they're willing to invest in some curriculum pieces to incorporate food um

109with the classroom which I think is very important as food is the foundation for our students learning. Um and and so with all these things, you know, I I think it's a it's a great investment for Rio Rancho public schools and I think our partnership with with not only student nutrition, but Rio Rancho public schools and SF SF is a good investment for for the district and our students and our staff. And so we've grown significantly over the you know the last two years and so we want to continue that that growth and make sure that our students are getting the healthy nutrition meal nutritious meals that they deserve. So, um, with that, I stand for questions. Again, we do have our director, Re Rex Slash, as well as, uh, Chris Odum, who's a, uh,

110chief operations officer for Southwest Food Excellence that flew in, um, earlier to provide any, um, answers to any questions that you may have. Okay, awesome. Thank you. I just have one question. I'm guessing it's a typo because you said five, but the um, memo says that it receives 12 proposals. Okay. Just want to make sure. Um, Dr. Cleveland, do you want to ask any questions or give any comments? I I would just make a couple of comments. One about um the uh the the partnership and how it's grown and developed over the last several years in such a positive way. And u we we were concerned about the quality of food u and the freshness of food. Uh I have a very unscientific approach. Every time I'm in a cafeteria around lunch, I go in

111there and I ask the students, "How do you like the food?" You know, is it pretty good today or whatever. And students are always brutally honest with you about uh just about anything. But we've seen uh you now the number of meals increase, certainly satisfaction with meals um increase and uh and so I just want to say we've come quite a ways in in the last period of a few years. really appreciate uh seeing that progress and uh and appreciate the partnership as well. Thank you, De. No questions. I I think I I just have a thank you because at the school board um a couple weeks ago um the uh the food was terrific, but u how they put everything together, you know, for for our visitors and everything else. And I know that

112has nothing to do with this, but I just want to say it's very much appreciated, you know. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, that was catered very nicely. We appreciate it. Go ahead, Jeff. I don't have anything. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Uh Beth, no questions. Thank you. Jessica, do you have any questions? I think Dr. might help. I just one other thing I wish I had mentioned and so I will really appreciate the willingness to work for extracurricular events or for special events in the community and um and and that really helps become a community-minded community effort uh for student nutrition and uh been several events and we have appreciated your willingness to step out and help us with those u and and they have all been very very well done. So I would want to

113add that as well. Yeah, it has been really good. I think we've had a few catered events, huh, Claudia? Over the last over the last little bit and everything's been really good and so we appreciate it. Um, so with that, if there's no more questions, I'll make a motion to award RFP number 2025-018- SND, Food Services Management, to Southwest Food Service Excellence. Board member Jeff Morgan. I'll second. Okay, we have a motion by Jessica Tyler and a second by Jeff Morgan. And um Jason, you want to just take a roll call? I'm just on a roll call kind of. Just take a roll call for us. I can just do it. You okay? Vice President Morgan. Yes. Secretary Tyler. Yes. Board member Trip. Yes. Board member Miller. Yes. President Galbreth. Yes. Motion carries 5. Thank

114you and thanks for all the leadership in that. You guys have done a great job. Thank you. All right. We'll now go to consider the approval of the 202526 NMPED uh state bilingual multicultural education program funding application. Suzanne Wer, executive director of federal bilingual and Native American programs will present. Thank you so much. Good evening, Madame President Galbreth, members of the board, Dr. Cleveland. I'm thrilled to be here to present to you our district application for next year's bilingual multicultural education programs. Um just about uh 2800 students we have projected for next year which is nearly triple the number of students we had about two years ago. Um this would continue to be at Questto Soul, Maggie Cordova Elementary, Eagle Ridge Middle School, Lincoln Middle School, Cleveland High and Rio Rancho High School. and to

115include the languages of Spanish, American Sign Language, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, and we are adding to this application from the PBLO of Santa Ana, the CARIS language. We have been offering CARIS to our high school students for three years now, and next year we're looking to add that program at Mountain View Middle School. So, that planning is well underway. And um additionally before um we entertain questions, I would like to share some positive student achievement data points just about our bilingual program. Since 2017, we have awarded 178 students with the New Mexico State Seal of Bilingualism by literacy through the class of 2024. And those have been in the languages of Chinese, French, Latin, Spanish, and German. And for this coming up graduation class of 2025, we have yet to receive AP scores.

116The students haven't even taken their AP exams yet actually and we get those scores in mid July. But some other avenues for languages not assessed through AP. Um we know definitely we will be awarding 10 bilingual seals for American Sign Language and also four students in CARIS from the PBLO Santa Ana. So that'll be our first representation of a tribal language. So, super excited about that and I stand for any questions about that application. Okay, that's awesome. Dr. Kum, do you want to add anything? I don't have any. Thank you though for all your hard work on these applications. They're rather comprehensive. Yeah. Here, Chip. I I don't have a question. I have a a comment I'd like to make and that is a thank you Susan and thank you to your teachers that work

117with this because I I want to make a point of emphasis that I believe in the caris language. Uh, several PBLO speak caris, but but you you dignified the Santa Ana PBLO because everyone has their unique caris language. And so that's a lot of work for you and this is a lot of work for our educators and um it goes to show the shining stars that we have in this district because of the fact that that's a lot of bilingual right there because we carry every PBLO in the state I believe here. So, thank you for all the hard work and thank the educators for all their hard work with the kids and it's an honor to uh to be here endorsing this that they're out there working hard at this uh certification. Thank you.

118Yeah. Thank you. And Jeff, no questions. Just want to say thank you. Yes. Thank you to to you and and your staff for what you're doing for our students. Appreciate that very much. Thank you. Jessica, do you have anything? No, thank you for everything you do and um it's definitely another bright spot for us for our district. So, I appreciate the work that you do. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Do you have anything else? Before we go into a motion, let me just add one one thing just so everyone here knows the complexity of of of this. We have every PBLO um in New Mexico represented in this school district. And on top of that we have of course the Navajo Nation which is the largest number of students about 600 I think or something very

119close to that. And then we also have some of the other tribes like Apache uh Comanche some others as well. And so in terms of the native community we are extremely diverse district. Uh we are also now one of the top in terms of numbers of Native Americans serving districts in the state of New Mexico. And so that's uh really uh it's a very complex undertaking to meet the needs of all of those various groups who are very distinct as you well know. Um they are certainly not monolithic in any way and different languages, different history, different culture. Um but I want to to also add my support for all the hard work that you've done in that area and developing those relationships and uh meeting the needs of students for so many different different

120groups. Yeah. Thank you. This is board member Tyler. I'll make a motion to approve the 2025 2026 New Mexico PED state bilingual multicultural education program funding application. Member Jeff Morgan. A second. Okay. We have a motion in a second. And JC, if you want to go ahead and take a Yes. Secretary Tyler. Yes. Board member Trip. Yes. Board member Miller. Yes. President Galbris. Yes. Motion carries 5. Thank you so much for your time. It really means so much. Yeah. Thank you. And you can go ahead and I guess do our second one here which is the title three funding application. Yes. Thank you so much. And that is named as the NMPED because they are the actual um grantees for this federal funding stream and that this is granted through a direct flow. So then

121our district would be a subgrantee. So this application is for next year for the title three subgrant um for supporting our English learners. Um, it's $85,645.13 is our planning award. And aside from indirect costs, the entirety of that money would be used toward a supplemental English language development coordinator/teer to better meet the needs of all of our students. And just some data around our ELD program. We currently have 988 English learners. That number continues to grow steadily year after year. And as of our 2023 2024 ELP data, we continue to outperform the district in terms of our ELP data. So first with proficiency, number of students or percentage of students who have reached English language proficiency, our district is at 6% whereas New Mexico is at 3.8%. So we're significantly higher than the state rate.

122And then for English learner progress and that is the percentage of students on track to English language proficiency within 5 years. Um I'll start with New Mexico. New Mexico is at 17.5% whereas Rio Rancho is at 24.7%. So we're doing really really well. Full credit to all of our really dedicated and devoted educators and educational leaders for just their commitment and dedication to supporting all learners. Yeah, that's awesome. I stand for any questions. Thank you. Um Dr. Cleveland, do you want to add anything? Oh, I think she's covered it nicely. Thanks, Gary. Trip, any questions? No, it's just what I the the question in the in the budget, you know, just making sure that just worried about the federal dollars and the state dollars and making sure we're meeting the needs, but no no uh

123no nothing but kudos to the educators for shining in the district. Yeah. Thank you, Jeff Morgan. Anything? Thank you. Anything, Beth, or anything, Jessica? Okay. A motion to approve the 2025 2026 New Mexico PED title 3 funding application. I'll second. We've got Jessica Tyler and then Gear Trip with a second. And you want to go and take a roll call vote for us? Vice President Morgan? Yes. Secretary Tyler? Yes. Board member Trip? Yes. Board member Miller? Yes. President Galbris? Yes. 5. Awesome. Thanks. Thank you, Suzanne. Suzanne does such a good job. We're just grateful for her. She really does an an amazing job. Um we're just going to real quick over advanced planning. So, um our next board meeting will be on the 12th of the finance committee meeting. Um and then we have all

124of our graduations coming up. So, if you guys could please just let um probably Claudia start letting Claudia know who's going to be there for those graduations. Um just so we can be planned out for those things. Um, any questions on anything with graduations or anything coming up? Those things. Um, we do have the law conference that's coming up. Um, I think I think everyone's let JC know if you could go to that already or not. Okay. Um, so I think with that, anything else on the calendar? Okay, then our meeting's adjourned for tonight. Thank you. Oh, Jessica. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you, sir. Thank you. Thanks for coming out. We sure enjoy working with your staff. Oh, that's awesome. They they really are just always willing to help us and uh just very exc

125I I want to tell you that personally because we we do appreciate this gentleman and uh others. Uh it's just so nice to work with people that are willing to get together and resolve problems and Okay.