001All right. Good evening. The Ranchro Public Schools Board of Education meeting for Monday, April 14th, is now called to order. If all would please rise for the allegiance, uh Jessica Tyler, our board secretary, will lead us. After we're done with the pledge, if you please remain standing. I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you. President Greb, members of board, Dr. Cleveland, uh we have the Sandia Vista Elementary School elementary choir for your for for you to hear tonight sing the national anthem. And on top of the national anthem, you got an extra pledge. So that was that was pretty nice. So I'd like to introduce the two uh the two
002directors uh Mr. Chris Fleming, Mr. Augie Elderando. uh both of whom are Rear Rancho public schools, Reancho High School specifically alumni. So we're very happy they're back teaching with us in the district. So I'll let Mr. Fleming take care. [Music] By the dawn early lights, what so proud we held at the [Music] twilight stars through the barrow. flight on we were so bur [Music] Oh, say does that star spangle [Music] yet for the [Applause] land and [Music] the praise. [Music] [Applause] Board member Tre wants to get a picture of you. [Music] Okay. [Applause] We didn't even get a chance to thank them. As the parents are walking out, we just want to say thank you for bringing them tonight. We appreciate it. Thank you. We're practicing. All right, we'll go ahead and come back to
003order. And JC, if you'll take a roll call for us. President Galbra, present. Vice President Morgan, present. Secretary Tyler, present. Board member Trip, present. Board member Miller, present. We have a quorum. Okay, thank you so much. I would like to welcome everyone out tonight. I have to say that we saw we had all these young students outside and everyone was feeling a little concerned for a moment and uh but it was so so nice to have them um in today. So so thank you um Zia Vista for just having great programs. Uh this last week we had a regional I think it was last week, right? We had a regional board meeting. Um we we did it over at Rear Rancho Middle School and their chamber orchestra played and one of the superintendents who's also
004serves on a school board in another district came up and and said, "Please, please don't ever let go of these programs." And I said, "Oh, no. We love our art programs. We love all of these things." And that is something that we are so proud of, but it's really a special thing for our district, all the different programs that we have. And so we're grateful for that. Um tonight we'll start off our meeting with um introductory comments by our superintendent of schools, Dr. Visu Cleveland. Good evening and thank you all for being here um on um this Monday evening. Okay, we had a a workshop or an openhouse actually um to discuss proposed changes to middle school attendance boundaries and it was held before the meeting and really what we are looking at are minor
005changes to middle school boundaries just for the 2025 2026 school year. During next year, um we will be looking at all of the boundaries, a major study assessing uh attendance boundaries for all levels and for all schools. So, uh a really major uh look at at school district attendance areas uh will be um part of next year's plan, but this is a minor uh adjustment and it's mainly to address overcrowding that we have at a couple of of schools. And uh we had good attendance and we appreciated everybody who came out and provided um their their feedback during that session. Okay. Again, we we thank the Sandia Vista Choir uh for coming this evening and uh the uh they're they're just wonderful at all levels. We have such strong programs and the programs build on
006on one another uh from elementary to middle to high school. But as we've said multiple times, we see our fine arts as one of the crown jewels of this school district and we are very proud of the programs. Uh the uh the director is a former student of this district and uh is uh is now working as a teacher. And that's always one of the best things we see is when our staff come back to us uh having been students and want to be part of the district again as uh as as adults, as teachers or in other capacities. And so, uh, but Christopher has been one of those that we've watched literally grow up, um, in in the district. So, again, we thank all of you for coming and, uh, and we were very
007excited. I I felt really badly because they left and we didn't have a chance to thank them before they left, but we'll make sure that they, uh, that we get that word back to the to the school. We have a special certificate presentation uh from the New Mexico House of Representatives and this will be introduced by Representative Katherryn Cullen and is being supported by Senator Craig Brandt, Representative Jos Hernandez, and Representative Alan Martinez. A certificate will be presented to Bethne Pendergrass who is our former chief communications strategic planning and engagement officer for the Rio Rancho Public School District. and she's being honored for her work not only in the district but also for her efforts to share her experiences with others as she has battled cancer. We're just so pleased to have her here tonight.
008And uh um and I bet she's missed board meetings a whole lot. I don't know. Um maybe she has and maybe she hasn't. But it's wonderful to see her and also her husband Jamie. Thank you for being here uh this evening. We have some other commendations this evening. Dr. Christopher Johnson, who is the Riot Tech principal, will be providing information about the New Mexico Skills USA State Leadership and Skills Competition. And our students from Riot did very well in a variety of competitive events in those areas. And so, we're really proud to recognize the award winners who are here this evening. Congratulations to all of the students and to the staff who work with them and support them. We also want to thank all of the parents who have been supportive of our our career
009technical education programs and we have a lot of them not just the skill trades have them in many different areas but that's another area that we're very proud of and very excited in a couple of weeks. Uh we will be doing a grand opening for Riotac and it I can tell you it's a beautiful facility and it will serve our students our students well um as well as the adults in the community and this is a partnership with Central New Mexico Community College and together I think that we put something that's really really special and is a model that will be emulated by other districts in the years ahead. So again, but we congratulate the students who are here this evening for their accomplishments and you'll learn more about that in just a minute. We
010also have um a request uh for approval for a donation from leadership Sandival County. Every year the Rio Rancho public schools participates in Leadership Sandival by uh sending district participants to learn more about the county. This program uh that is sponsored by the Rio Rancho Regional Chamber of Commerce provides training and also supports a network of community-minded adults and they come from all walks of life. Um they represent the the whole community. One of the program requirements is to design and implement a special project and Dr. Johnson will be providing you some information about their project and we'll be asking the board to accept it this evening. This is a wonderful program. I think over the years we were trying to think of how many we have sent, but I bet we're close to having
011some 40 to 50 people over a long period of time. We watch those folks become even more involved in in our community. One of the things we have always stressed in this district is we want to be a district that gives back. We want to to be a district that participates in the community, not just one that's always asking, uh, but one that also gives back. And so um this is one of the programs that uh really helps support that and uh it it it has been an extremely worthwhile program not only for the people who participate but for the community at large. As I mentioned earlier, uh we'll be looking at middle school uh boundary adjustment. And the board has asked to consider adjusting some of the middle school boundaries to deal primarily with
012the overcrowding at Mountain View Middle School. And the proposed changes will be presented by Windam Kimsley, our executive director of communications, and Kim Besley, a district consultant who was also a longtime employee in this district before she decided to retire. but we have brought her out of retirement to help with this project this year and and hopefully will be able to help us next year as we look districtwide at making some adjustments. The the these changes tonight are very minor um but certainly we will be looking at more comprehensive changes in the year ahead. We also have a proposed Rio Rancho board of education calendar. This is not to be confused with the school calendar. Um this is um setting a preliminary schedule. Uh some of the dates are not yet in from the New
013Mexico School Boards Association related to board training and some other events are not finalized. We'd like to at least get some of our meetings scheduled uh so that board members will have that for their own planning. New Mexico does also require all schoolboard members to complete at least five hours of annual training provided through the New Mexico School Boards Association and the New Mexico Public Education Department. And some of these events are uh opportunities to meet that state requirement. And then the tonight's superintendent's evaluation. Uh the board has held two sessions to review the superintendent's annual evaluation and to discuss that evaluation with the superintendent. Uh the board president Amanda Galbreth will present this item for the board's consideration. We will have a first reading um for a a a repeal. This is unusual. We
014don't usually have a board policy repeals, but this is uh what the board is going to be asked to look at. In board policy, there's always two readings. The first reading is a chance for the board and the community to take a look at those changes and then the second reading is at a later meeting when they actually take official action on that policy. This item will be presented by Mike Chavez, executive director of human resources and David Man, general counsel uh for the district. And this is uh to repeal board policy 712, which is the drug-free workplace. And the reason that's being uh repealed is there was a more comprehensive policy that was created and incorporated into policy 711. So we're not getting rid of any of the content, but it's just been moved
015into one more comprehensive plan. So uh the board will be asked to consider that as a first reading this evening and then uh I'd stand for any comments, questions or concerns that the board might have. Questions from the board? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Clear. Appreciate it. All right, we'll 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 allocation. Board member Gary Triple second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, motion carries. All right, we'll now move to our commendations for the evening. Our first um will be presented by um Katherryn Cullen, one of our state reps uh representatives and also Lauren Hatch, our chief legal
016counsel. Um this is a certificate from the House of Representatives res representatives to Beth Pendergrass. Thank you, President Alred, board members, Dr. Cleveland. Um, thank you for having me this evening. Um, with the several of the House of Representatives and senator in the Rio Rancho community really felt that we needed to recognize Beth Pendergrass for all of her hard work that she has not only contributed to the Rio Rancho public schools but our community and as well as cancer patients that she has supported over the years. And so we had decided to go ahead and do a certificate for her that we will be presenting and I'll read to you for this evening. And I probably should have brought some magnifying glasses, but uh the House of Representatives of State of New Mexico 57th Legislature
017for session 2025 recognizes Bethany Pendergrass. Whereas Bethany Pendergrass joined the Rio Rancho public school district as its public information officer in 2015 and was pro promoted to the chief communication strategy and engagement officer in 2017. And whereas as the chief communication strategy and engagement officers for the Rio Rancho public school district, Bethany acts as the official spokesperson for the district overseas the district strategic planning initiatives, community engagement and government relations and holds rel and builds relationships to support and promote the district's mission. And whereas Bethany has more than 16 years of experience in public affairs, communications, and government relations. And whereas Bethany has a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University and a master's degree from University of Idaho. And whereas Bethany is deeply engaged with the Rio Rancher community, serving as a member narative as
018the board of directors of NAOP, the commercial real estate development association and a member of the Sandaval Health Collaborative, the communications committee of the Sandaval Economic Alliance and Intel's Corporations New Mexico Community Advisory Panel. And whereas in 2018, Bethany was diagnosed with breast cancer and she has documented her cancer journey on social media to connect with other cancer patients and help support and inspire them. Whereas with Bethany has began losing her hair from chemotherapy, she saw the opportunity to inspire others by using wigs and makeup to transform herself into iconic celebrity images and characters from the movies and televisions such as Marilyn Monroe, Marge Simpsons, Charlie Chapman, Lucille Ball, Mrs. out fire Miss Piggy and many others with her husband photo uh photographing her creations and posting on social media platforms. And whereas Bethy's family,
019friends, and co-workers often joined her in the humorous and imaginative images and her unique use of social media had gained nationwide media attention and an international following, especially among fellow cancer patients and who are inspired, encouraged by Bethy's creativity, humor, cander, and positivity. And whereas Bethany does does speaking engagements and other events to inspire and support cancer patients. Now therefore, be it resolved the House of Representatives of the state of New Mexico that recognition be extended to Bethany Pendergrass for many years of service to the Rio Rancho public school district and her creative use of social media to inspire and support people affected by cancer. And it's signed by um Speaker Javier uh Speaker of the House um Speaker Martinez uh Lisa Ortiz McCuchen of the chief of staff and representative Katherine Cullen, Representative Josh
020Joshua Hernandez and Representative Alan Martinez. So this is the one from the House of Representatives and this is from the Senate, Senator Craig Brandt. You're welcome. Sorry. Sorry. I do need magnifying glasses. I And did did anybody come on? Okay. So, I I know I have been coughing, so I don't want to hug. So, did you want to say anything? President Galbreth, Dr. Cleveland, members of the board, it is an honor to be back. Sorry. And it's an honor to receive these wonderful certificates from the state. Thank you, Representative Coen. Thank you, Lauren Hatch. And thank you to the state and this wonderful board for all of your time and all the support you've given me over the years. It means a lot. So, yes, it's bittersweet to be back. I'm certainly glad I'm not
021doing [Laughter] boundaries, but it's it's hard to see everyone and remember how much I love the people here and the job I had. So, thank you so much. Thank you, Beth. You know, you can't go sit down, right? You have to wait till the Dr. Cleveland, did you want to Well, it's Thank you, Representative Cullen, for for taking this this initiative and getting this done because it is so welld deserved and as you know, Beth has made a tremendous impact on our school district and in our community and um she is known throughout this community and uh it is a very emotional thing and we're really glad to see you back uh th this evening. I um on this weekend was the Rio Rancho Regional Chamber of Commerce Boots and Blaine. And I want you
022all to know that she was also recognized by the chamber for all of the work that she did with the Chamber of Commerce, serving on their board and and participating in many of their events as well. But Beth just touched this entire community and the community is very very uh pleased to just have a a small way of saying uh to you personally how much we appreciate you and uh the impact that you have have made on uh on our our district and our community. So thank you very much for being here this evening. Thank you Dr. Thank you. Thank you. Gary, do you want to say anything? I just want to tell Beth thank you for everything you've done for me personally. I'm a better person because of you, Beth. Thank you for everything
023for everything you've done for this community. We love you. Thank you. Go ahead. Twice in like three days I've cried. Cried with you. If I see somebody crying, I can't not cry. But yes, we sure missed you. And I I do think it's kind of ironic that you're here on school boundary night. so filth. Um, but your leadership, your abilities to be able to bring people together and bring the voices of our community together, to be able to present those to the board have certainly made our job easier since I've been on the board. And and we definitely miss that. I don't think anybody will ever be able to replicate your exact skill set. And so, thank you for everything that you've done, like Director Cleveland said, not just for us in the school district,
024but for the community. And we do miss you and we love you. And it's always good to see you here. And if you're ever bored, feel free to come, you know, sit here with us. Yeah. Thank you. Well, I just want to add my congratulations to you, Beth. I haven't known you as long as some of the others here, but I think I first came across in Rotary perhaps. She came to a Rotary meeting talking about a bond issue that was coming up and then I've worked with you on the Sanderville Health Collaborative board and we've kind of gone through some challenges the last few years but you were right there. I don't think if you had participated in that 10 by10 book that it ever would have been completed and it's been extremely successful
025for our young students and learning how to take better care of themselves and their families and health issues at a young age. And I think it's a it's a wonderful thing that you have done to put that together. And so it's just been my privilege to know you and work with you and God's blessings to you all. Jeff Morgan, you want to say something? Beth, I just want to say congratulations to you and appreciate you. Um, yes, unlike Gary, uh, you have made a difference in all of our lives and just appreciate the work that you have done. Uh, stay encouraged and, uh, yes, I miss you. Wish I could have been there, but travel, but always thinking about you. Again, congratulations to you. Thank you. And um I just you guys, this lady, she's
026just talent is an inspiration and she's been such an inspiration to me. I thought I was holding it together for a second, but um when I first got on the board, well, even for the whole five years I've been on the board, I would if anything came at me, I would text or call Beth. Beth, did I say this right? Was this okay? Was this all right? and she always knew exactly the right things that I that I needed to do and has just been a sweet friend to so many people in the district. If I could, I would not do that tonight, but I could have so many people stand up tonight and talk about Beth because she's just been such a helpful and wonderful person. Um, and not just for all the things
027that she does in the district, but just because of who you are. And so, thank you for sharing some of that with us. And we're so grateful, so grateful that you came out tonight. Um we're just so happy to have you here and and I do I want to thank our representatives, our state representatives um who put this together along with Senator Brandt um because it couldn't go to just a more beautiful human being like you. So thank you for being here. Thank you to all of you. Thank you. Thanks. [Applause] Okay. So, our next commendation for the evening is our New Mexico Skills USA State Leadership and Skills Competition. I've been enjoying watching all of these wonderful red blazers in the back of the room. So, we'd like to invite um Dr. Chris Johnson,
028our riot principal up to um to talk about these wonderful students. President Galbirth, uh members of board, Dr. Cleveland, thank you. Uh that's a hard act to follow, so I'll do my best. Uh before we begin, I definitely want to invite uh Mr. Booker, uh, Cleveland High School, uh, criminal justice teacher, Dorene Abney, and any other advisors from, uh, the schools to come up real quick, as well as all Skills USA students. Excuse me. So, we're really proud to recognize the outstanding achievements from our students from Riotch Visu Cleveland High School and Ria Rancho High School who competed in the New Mexico skills state leadership and skills competition uh held March 26th through the 29th. Uh these talented students demonstrated excellence in their technical and leadership skills across a wide range of competitive events. And
029if you're not familiar with Skills USA, it's a national organization that empowers students to become worldclass workers, leaders, and responsible American citizens. It provides quality education experiences for students in leadership, teamwork, citizenship, and character development while building skills in more than 130 occupational areas. A special congratulations goes out to the students who placed in the top three of their events. The students who are in first place uh will represent New Mexico at the National Skills USA leadership and skills competition June 24th 23rd through the 28th in Atlanta, Georgia. Um so we'll be sending 27 students uh this year to that uh as well as our adviserss. Uh this was the first year that Rear Wrench Public Schools sent 63 students to Skills USA. Uh, and it was just a great showing that we've almost topped
030HOBS. Uh, and that's our goal for next year is to beat them with the number of students that not only that we send, but that will come up here next April and with first place medals. So, uh, for Riot Tech, I'd like to bring up Jackson Dennison, who is a junior at VCU Cleveland in the welding department, and Israel Pleasant, who is a sophomore in computer information systems. This is their first year that they competed and both placed second place uh in their respective competitions. So, Jackson and Israel uh just step forward real quick. At this time, I'm going to At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Abney from Ria Rancho High School, and she will introduce uh her students who competed in the uh places that they earned. Good evening
031board. So for Rio Rancho High School, this was our first year competing in Skills USA. Um we have three first place winners that will be representing New Mexico. Um we have Cameron Sus who be representing related technical maths which is um taking our math and making it more industry standard. We have Kevin Konwin. Where we at? He is doing technical drafting. This is CAD design. So, he will be representing New Mexico with that. And we have [Music] Odessa Bochamp. Bochamp. So, I don't want to butcher her name. She placed first in job interview. So, she will be representing New Mexico for job interview. We also had a second place team called Quizbull. We um took five students for that. So we have Leila Dez, we have Matias Strao, Israel Snackenberg, um Taylor Robinson, and Kevin
032Khan win. He went for that one as well. And then we also had a civil medal silver medalist for related technical math because Rio Rancho High School took both first and second place for that. So that was Braden Grigo. I'm trying to find where they all at. So these are all our representatives from Rio Rancho High School. also like also would like to recognize uh Miss Justina Miller, a rearential high school teacher who also served as an adviser uh with us as well. Um I do know that two of our adviserss from Cleveland are not here uh Kristen Sidor and Reagan Montoya uh instrumental. But now at this time I'm invite uh Mr. Booker up uh who really spearheaded a lot, took a lot of responsibility and roles and helped uh all of our programs
033um do what we needed to do to compete. So, Mr. Booker, thank you. Hello again. I'm uh John Booker, a teacher at Cleveland High School. This is our third year with uh Skills USA, and this year we're very proud with um Dr. Johnson's assistance to bring 26 Cleveland High School students um to Skills USA uh conference. We um we had seven gold medalists. Um not all of them are here tonight. Uh and approximately 12 to 14 medalists in general. So I'd like to recognize those that that didn't um were able to to show up tonight. So first, uh Aiden Nos uh who competed in the crime scene investigation, Gavin Knots, uh Watts, sorry, Gavin Watts, who competed in crime scene investigation. They both placed gold on their team and they'll be heading to Atlanta to
034represent New Mexico in crime scene investigation. Uh next we had a uh Absin Duncan who placed bronze or third place with crime scene investigation. The rest of her team was not able to make it tonight, but we're very proud of her for her first year of participating in Skills USA doing so well. Uh next we had uh a bulletin board demonstration and two of those representatives are here tonight. They are um Olivia Bullerwell and Jada Jones. Very proud of them for their competition. This is actually Olivia's uh second year. And I'll go back and and recognize um someone we're very proud of. Olivia's second year as a silver medalist in the bulletin board competition. Um I'll ask one more student to step forward again and his name is Aiden Nos. Aiden Austin. This is his
035second year in a role being a gold medalist. Last year he competed in the law enforcement competition and placed top out of about 15 other competitors um as number one and represented us in uh Atlanta as the law enforcement officer. This year he switched teams and went to crimec investigation. And again with the support of his team and all the knowledge that he's been able to acquire over his years at Cleveland, he um he's earned gold again. and he'll be going back to Atlanta for our first time um as a gold medalist to compete there. So, thank you very much to everybody from Cleveland High School for representing. We did have a large portion of our uh team that wasn't able to make it tonight, but I'd like to thank all of them for for
036what they did to contribute to this year's competition. Thank you. [Applause] and we're just going to get a quick uh photo. So, we're going to have the students come right down in the front and take a quick photo uh with their adviserss. Yeah. By team. So, uh we'll start with Cleveland High School. Cleveland High School first. There you go. Sure. You smile. Open your eyes. Perfect. All right. When High School all those parents come up And finally, Riotech. It's a huge group. Do you want to say something? Thank you very much. something else. We want to thank you all for coming and uh certainly our our teachers, our sponsors, and especially our students. And I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg on things to come as this program grows and becomes stronger
037every year. So, we're excited for all of you. Thank you so much for being here. Yeah, thank you guys. It's fun to have you in. I really need one of those blazers. So, if you guys just have an extra, I will take I will take that. And it's really fun to see. Some of them I've known since they were in elementary school, some of these kids. So, that's super fun to see them here. So, thanks again for coming tonight. All right. All right. So, the next part of our meeting tonight is for public comment. Um, we received We have no public comment in person, right? Correct. Correct. Okay. So for public comment tonight, we received two that came in through our online form. And so I'm going to summarize both of those. Whenever they come
038in through the form, I just summarize them. So, please note if anyone would like to give their public comment to please come into the boardroom and they can give um their full public comment. But the two I received, one was from Eric um Deutsch and his was in regards to um curriculum at Rear Rancho High School as well as some safety and security issues um that he was concerned about. The other public comment was uh Laura Briggs um and she had a question um and some I guess not really a question but a comment regarding the boundary changes that we're looking at tonight with the middle school and if eighth graders can be um grandfathered into that if they would be able to stay at um their current school. And that is it for our
039public comment for the evening. So thank you. All right. Next, we'll go to the consent agenda. Madam President, this is board member Tyler. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Board member Jeff Morgan. A second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Um, all in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, motion carries. Okay, now we'll go to our business portion of our meeting for tonight. Our first is to consider the approval for a donation from leadership Sandwell County. Um I don't know. Oh, you made it. You're back in. I don't know if you went out. So once again, Dr. Chris Johnson, our riotech principal will present this. President Gabbath, uh Gabborth, Dr. Cleveland, members of the board. Uh thank you. So as part of Leadership Sandival, um we've had a phenomenal phenomenal
040experience myself and Rachel who couldn't be here tonight. um just learning all about the government, the city government, state government, um everything that has to deal with Sandal County. Um really good connections and we we really have enjoyed our time there. It's coming to a close and some of the things that we've learned is about giving back. Um so not only did we choose our own projects because we had two groups, each group decided on a separate project. We came together as one group uh to select Ernest Stapleton as receiving another project. Uh so last month uh TLC came aboard uh and they have completed the process of redoing one full [Music] um trailer or what are they? Classrooms. The portables. Portables. Thank you. uh with uh a brand new HVAC student uh that um
041principal Clark and assistant principal Gibbs, they're already using for their testing center. So, they're they're absolutely using it. One of the other things that that we've received uh from PlayWell groups uh or that we'd like to accept is six buddy benches. And the theory behind a buddy bench is so that students that do not have friends or maybe their friend is out for the day or sick, uh they can go sit on one of these buddy benches, have a seat, and then students will go up and ask them to play. Um it is a phenomenal concept. Uh, so Playwell is is willing to send us six brand new benches for Ernest Stapleton for our project. So that way we can set them throughout the the school and from the kindergarten playground to the Big Gib
042playground. That that is what they're for. So we're hoping that you'll approve this uh so we can move forward. Um it is 100% donated. uh we will work with facilities to have them installed uh over the summer so they'll be ready to go for the 2526 school year and I'll stand for questions. Okay, thank you. Any questions from the board? No questions. Thank you. That's a great concept. Yeah, Dr. Great idea and so thank you for for thinking of us in this in this process. Questions or a motion? We can take these. This is board member Tyler. I'll make a motion to approve the donation from Leadership Sandival County. Board member Miller, I second the motion. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank
043you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It has I have to just say I know I think I talked about it last night, but it's been really fun to I It was fun to see you guys up in Santa Fe. It's fun to see people from our district who were up there who were involved in that. So, I think it's just such a wonderful program. All right. Next is to consider the approval of middle school boundary change recommendation. So we have Windom Kensley our executive director director of communications as long as well as Kim Vesley who is our district consultant who will be presenting. Uh good evening president Galbreth member of the members of the board Dr. Cleveland. Thank you for taking some time to uh consider this kind of process that we're
044we're undergoing. Um, I will preface this by saying this is quite literally my first rodeo. I am not very experienced with with boundary changes. So, um, luckily Kim Vesley is agreed to come back on and do a lot of the heavy lifting. I think at this point she probably feels like a CIA operative coming out of retirement to do that last job. So, um, like Dr. Cleveland mentioned this is kind of a a two-phase process where um right now we're we're focusing on one smaller aspect of reboundering whereas next year we're going to consider a little bit more of a comprehensive larger u more involved process. So hopefully this isn't her last job that she'll she'll come back on for for more work. But um if we could hit the next slide, I'll touch on
045a little bit of the scope of of what we are doing here. Like I said, this is most likely going to be a a two-phase process where the first phase um is considering two middle schools um namely Mountain View Middle School and Rio Nacho Middle School. The scope of the committee's work right now is to provide immediately immediate relief, excuse me, to Mountain View Middle School who has a population that's about a little bit more than a 100 students over their maximum capacity. So, um, right now we're wanting to, like I said, provide immediate relief going into this next school year to not only, um, you know, provide relief for a school that's already overpop populated, but we're thinking more into the future. Whereas, you know, there's a lot of, um, development that's going into
046the Mountain View area right now that we want to proactively think about and and prepare for. Um, I'm going to turn the time over to Kim. She's going to talk about a little bit more of the technical details about maybe what um what factors were considered and of course talk more in depth about the the options that we would like to present this evening. Thank you, Wend. And good evening, President Galbreth, members of the board, and Dr. Cleveland. Gee, I've really missed those board meetings. Uh but it's great to see you all and and so many of uh my former colleagues. It's good to be back with you. Um, we did hold a workshop as Dr. Cleveland mentioned or actually not a workshop but an open house where parents could come and ask questions and
047uh provide some comments and we had about a dozen parents and family members show up and they provided us with a lot of very good input. We want to sincerely thank them for coming because we learn a lot in this process from the comments and questions that we receive from our parents. Also want to thank the members of the boundary committee. Uh Windham chairs that committee and it consists of district specialists in several areas that are touched by the boundary process like transportation for example. Um, we also have repres representatives from the principles and we have parent and community representation and Carl, who is one of our community reps, is here tonight with us. So, thank you for being here. All right. Um, I'm going to go through this fairly quickly because some of it
048you're probably somewhat familiar with. There are two slides worth of factors that we look at as we try to consider might what might be the best way to draw attendance boundaries. And like I said, I'm just going to put the list up. Uh this is the first part of it. A lot of which deals with transportation, which is always a big factor. Can we get buses from one school to another? Can parents easily get from one school to another? Can they do so without passing another school that's maybe closer to where they live, for example? Those are the sorts of things that we look at there. And here's the second slide, which is another series of of factors um that we look at. And one that is we've kind of talked about a little bit
049with this uh process uh has had to do with feeder school alignment and maybe trying to improve that um in in some cases elementary to middle. So uh uh it as you can imagine with a list that long it's very difficult to come up with boundaries that meet every single one of these things for every line we draw. But we do try to come as close to that as we possibly can. Um, also a couple of other things that come up in the process. Um, our special needs students, regardless of what school they are assigned to, are entitled to receive the services as outlined in their IEPs. And, you know, parents are oftentimes very concerned about that when they transfer schools. uh if they have special needs students. Yeah, we do want to assure them
050that those services are provided at whatever new school the student attends and we uh do work both schools both the transferring school and the receiving school work with parents uh to try to make that transition as smooth as possible for those students. Uh we also look um at socioeconomic uh status. We don't want to create rich and poor schools. Um, and we are allowed to consider that legally. Uh, there is a Supreme Court ruling that came out a number of years ago. It's not a recent political development uh that precludes considering ethnicity, but we can still look at socioeconomic status and and and some other factors that have to do with student demographics. So, here's another question, and this one came up a lot. uh with our parents uh and that is how do we
051handle transfers? Uh first of all uh transportation is not provided for for transfer students and we did try to make that very clear to the parents that attended. Um, if a parent wants to request a transfer from the school in their new boundaries to say have their student stay at their old school, they do have to provide their own transportation and they complete a transfer request just as any student that's changing schools for any reason, we ask them to complete that. Um, as the board, you have some options as you consider the options to include some additional uh provisions as part of whatever changes you choose to approve. And one that comes up, it it came up with the parents today and it comes up quite frequently has to do with grandfathering. In other words,
052since this is a middle school process, if you have a seventh grader moving to eighth grade, you know, they may be very attached to their school or very involved in extracurriculars and and not want to it might be difficult or more difficult for them to transfer. Uh there could be other reasons as well. and boards in the past have sometimes included a provision which allows those incoming eighth graders or incoming fifth graders if it were an elementary school to remain at their current school. You can also um we'd also like to note that any requests for out of district and current transfers uh are subject to the district's open enrollment policy. There are provisions in statute that kind of put into into a rank order the different um um priorities for accepting transfer students and
053and that is in district policy 1003. I hope I got that right, Lauren. I hope I got the right one. But anyway, it's in the open enrollment policy and we do have to follow that as we do attendance boundary changes. Okay. Um, another thing we look at is where is Rio Rancho growing? What kind of development is coming in? Where are they building new houses? And the map you see on your screen here has a lot of funnyl looking little yellow boxes on it. Those funny looking little yellow boxes are developments that are in various stages of construction and in a couple of cases still planning. This is not an all-incclusive list and we will be adding to that uh as we learn of new developments coming online and we'll also be working closely with
054the city to try to keep track of that. But you don't want to completely fill a school, for example, where we know we've got 350 new new homes coming in because you're going to get kids, students coming into your school off of that. And you want to make sure that you uh can accommodate them without putting yourself in the position we're in right now, for example, with with Mountain View Middle School. um enrollment about 930 and we've got Lis and Canadas and about and a couple of other neighborhoods there that are building at a rather rapid pace. Um also coming into Mountain View, we have Mariposa and any construction, new construction or developments that might be coming in at the Hawk site. So that's another factor. We've got a lot of new homes coming in
055up there and we need to make sure that those students can be adequately accommodated. Okay. So, what how does the process work? Um, it begins uh kind of at in the district level with the development of scenarios. Okay. if we're going to do this, what what might possibly be able to be adjusted and what areas might it make sense to consider moving and conversely what does it make no sense to move and from that we develop scenarios and scenarios include sometimes some good ideas and sometimes some really bad ideas. Um I've drawn a lot of lines and looked at that and gone what am I thinking you know and you know those go those go into file 13 very quickly. Um these scenarios then are shared by shared with the boundary committee and the boundary
056committee um not so much with this particular process which was run relatively rapidly because it's so late in the year but um but in general we will ask them for ideas but we've been known to take laminated city maps and hand them grease pencils and say okay how would you do this and from that We modify the scenarios. The boundary committee looks at them. Um in this case uh we presented I think five different scenarios to the boundary committee. Uh the v the variations were primarily in the number of students that would be uh moving from uh Mountain View to Rioancho Middle School uh which is a a larger capacity campus that has more room. Uh there were also a couple that looked at maybe making adjustments to a couple of other schools. Uh those
057were discarded. We decided not to do that right now. We'll take a look at that in the broader process that that is to come. Um the committee then um decided to recommend two of these scenarios uh for consideration by the superintendent's cabinet. Uh we took those to the cabinet uh I think the next day actually. Uh the cabinet looked at them and decided to forward both of those scenar both of those scenarios as options uh for presentation to the community. Uh at that time, Windham noticed all of the parents through um emails uh of the proposed change uh provided opportunities for the parents to comment and he'll talk about that a little bit a little later in the presentation uh in a little bit greater detail. Uh we also held the open house which was
058held earlier today where we had parents attend and ask questions. Um, and then based on that, we present all of that to you as the board of education and you have the final say in in how we do this and um whether we move forward or or perhaps whether we don't move forward. There have been cases where where the board has decided not to do anything. So that's that's a possibility too. You you you may, as it says, approve an option. It's presented. You may approve it with changes. Well, yeah, we like this, but don't move that, for example. Um, you can add additional conditions. Grandfathering is an example. Um, you can ask for additional public input if you feel you need to do that. Um, or you can decide not to do anything at
059this time or or you can defer it and maybe ask us maybe defer it and take it up at the next meeting or even call a special meeting uh if you would like. Uh so you you can do all of those things. Once you approve the boundary changes, we uh do all of the steps that are required within the district to implement that. um you know make make changes to the maps that are online and transportation goes in and works on the routing that will be necessary for their buses. Um I would point out the director of transportation Nick has been very helpful in this process. He's looked at these scenarios uh and options and uh says they work from a transportation standpoint and that's pretty much what the process is. Um the goals for
060this first little phase of of what is a larger process is to decrease the enrollment at Mountain View Middle School. That's pretty simple. Uh Mountain View Middle School enrollment um on the date we chose as the baseline for the process was 934. The capacity is about 800. So they're well over capacity. And as we've noted, we've got growth coming in there uh that we that we need to accommodate. The other one of the other big goals here was to when we did this not move any the make sure we didn't do anything that would have to be changed again when we do this broader process. We do not want to have to move kids twice in two years. and we are confident that the changes that we are presenting today will hold up. So wanted
061to uh give you that one last uh note uh before we actually get into the uh options. I'll show the maps and once we get through the presentation I can kind of switch modes on the computer and put up a map where we can actually zoom in on on specific areas and that should you wish to do so. Can't do that with this one. Uh but can with the other and you see some of the pros and cons to the op the options listed there. Option one moves three areas. Uh the first one is Cleveland Heights. Uh Cleveland Heights of course right next to Cleveland High School. Um there is very easy access from there to Mountain View Middle School, especially once they uh complete the construction that's on Idelia. Uh that should wrap up
062in October. And once that happens, it's going to be a pretty straight shot right up Idelia. you know, you you go over, you you go down Iris, you pick up Idelia, and it takes you right to Rio Rancho Middle School. Uh this area, there's 33 students uh that are in Cleveland Heights. And we had a scenario that would have moved just that, just those 33 kids. Didn't think that that might be enough to provide meaningful relief, however, and out of that grew the next two um scenarios, which are the two options. This is option one, uh, which moves Cleveland Heights and also moves, uh, two areas right around Northern and 528 that are again actually closer to Rio Rancho Middle School. Transportation was thrilled with this. They they they thought that made a whole lot
063of sense from a transportation standpoint. Those areas are Los Rios, which is just right north of the industrial park. It's it's it's like Kitty Corner across from the district office. Um and runs up to Corales Road um east of 528. And then the other area is River's Edge One. Um and that's um north of uh Corales Road and it runs up to about Riverside. It's the boundary is actually south of Riverside. Um, it's historically been part of the Mountain View district. In some ways, it was a little bit of a wrench, you know, wanting to change that because that's been historically the case. But we we do think that it will be in a lot of ways easier and more convenient for many of the parents in this area. It is closer to Rio Rancho
064Middle and it just makes a lot of sense from a lot of standpoints to do that. That's option one. Option one moves a total of 79 students. Uh the 33 from Cleveland Heights, there are 11 in Los Rios, there are 35 in River's Edge 1. And that gives you a total relief of 75 79. And it drops Mountain View's enrollment from 934 to 855 approximately. Okay. 79 students. That's better. But it still doesn't get Mountain View even down to 800, let alone below it. So the next thing becomes, okay, well, what else is there that we can do? And then this led to the creation of option two. And option two moves everything that we have just described, plus River's Edge 2, which is a little bit further north and the area on the other
065side of 528 from River's Edge 2, the area around Honduras Boulevard, the black line you see kind of snaking through that area is Iris Road and the boundary is actually at the Aoyo that's south of Iris. Um on the north end uh I believe it's about at Pacia um and that that northern end of that particular area is um Idelia and some of that is actually closer what if you go down Idelia is actually closer to Rio Rancho Middle School. Um River's Edge 2 kind of depending on where you are in River's Edge 2 it's maybe a little further maybe a little closer maybe about the same. So, uh that option adds an additional um almost uh 70 kids I think. Um it takes it it takes the number of students moved to 145. Um
066that and includes 44 students from River's Edge 2 and 22 students from the area on the other side of uh of 528. um and it would take Mountain View's enrollment down to 789 which is slightly below its capacity. So those are the two options that we have for for your consideration. Um I do want to mention one other factor that comes up and that is uh transfers and what is the impact of transfers. In the case of Mountain View, we have students that are transferred both out of and into, you know, there's actually a fair number of students who have transferred out, a total of 46 that are attending other schools that are outside the Mountain View attendance area. And of those, 24 are already at Rio Rancho Middle. Um, and uh others are at
067other Rio Rancho schools. And a small number of those are attending other um other schools, charter schools or or or whatever home schools. Um so that's that's students that are coming out. Um I'm losing my mind. Here we go. Okay. This is students that are coming in, transfers in and there are 16 actually 16 kids from Rio Rancho Middle that are attending Mountain View. So it works both ways. Um, and there's there are 70 that are out of district. And you see in the in the chart on the right where a lot of those students are coming from. Uh, and a lot of them are coming from up up north, Bernalo, um, uh, Placidus, uh, some of the PBLO communities up there and and a couple from Corales and and in that area. So, I
068just wanted to provide that. It's it's more of a wash than I thought it would be actually. Uh but uh but that is a factor that you might want to take into consideration. All right. So that's the kind of the technical end which is kind of what I was brought in to do. And then uh as I noted uh once we came up with these two options uh Windom went to work and presented this to the parents. And I'll let him talk about that. So once the two options were presented um to cabinet and approved to to move forward, we notified the parents in the affected areas which resulted in about it was around 200 um contacts that we had. Um I I notified them via email about the um potential change and what that
069would mean for their children for um the the boundary itself. And uh we gave them a a detailed map. We actually provided them with both of the maps that you have access to. Um we gave them a little bit more um information about how the process works and a little information about how we kind of use the factors to to come up with these options. And we provided an outlet for feedback. So, there was a form that was sent and included on the website um that gave parents the opportunity to ask questions or um kind of let us know what they were thinking about it. And of course, like Kim said, we we also hosted an open house earlier today where uh we had about a dozen parents come through. So, what we saw, at
070least from the online form, was favor for the two options was pretty much split in half. So half of what we heard said option one works best. Half is option two works best. The vast majority of questions that we got on the form and actually in person um today had to do with transfers had to do with grandfathering in their their already existing Mountain View students and uh how that process works. So, um I I think that we've been able to provide some valuable information regarding that and um we had a lot of opportunities to um hopefully settle some fears and some anxiety around this but also provide as much information as as is available. So, um we had about two dozen online submissions which equates to about 10% response rate for um the group
071that we were targeting. And uh like we said about a dozen um folks came in to our open house today. So um we have talked about transfers and I I feel like um the the result of those conversations has been that transfers are going to be a little bit more lenient going into this process given that you know the this is taking place so late in the year. Um there's a lot of of different factors that that play into that of course, but um also we've been talking a lot about grandfathering and that is absolutely an option like like uh Miss Vesley mentioned. So um of course if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them about feedback feedback, excuse me. But that's about where we stand with um with that. And of
072course we stand for questions from from the board about anything. I'm going to put up the map for option two uh because it includes everything that's under consideration and um and then we can kind of go from there. Okay. Um Dr. Clash is doing that. Do you want to add some things? Well, just a couple of comments. I think um I I was interested to see we don't have that many Corales students on the north end, but then I thought historically they have gone uh to the other side. they have pretty much fed into Rio Rancho High School. So maybe that's not a surprise. Uh one of the things uh you probably are aware of if not they're planning to build a middle school, a K8 school. And so I think we will be losing
073some of our Corales Middle School students in the years ahead and that plan is moving pretty quickly. So um that should probably just be taken into consideration. Um we've talked a lot about a K8 program and some point might want to try that on our own. I think the um the the just, you know, in full transparency, I live in River's Edge, too. So, I've heard a lot about it. And um and so far, no threats or, you know, I think my house is secure. I'm not worried about it. They're wonderful people. the the the general feeling there is the frustration we have experienced over many years and that is that those who have been there a long time get pushed out for those newcomers who are coming in and and they see it as
074their school. It's always been their school. We saw that kind of with um um at the elementary level uh a little bit with Stapleton, you know, it is it's always been their school. So you you get that um and you understand it and there is resentment of taking established neighborhoods and forcing them somewhere else and then moving to the newer part of town and and so that but that being said we've had to do that over many many times. We used to do this fun thing called boundaries every two to three years because we were growing so fast and it was and so we had to make those hard decisions and they are hard decisions to make and you understand how people feel you know um you know I'd be pretty disappointed if what they
075wanted was to get out of that school you know and they they weren't attached to the school. So, I think, you know, it's a good thing that people care and want to be in this in in a certain school, but there have to be decisions have to be made. And I know you've all looked at the, you know, the options. There doesn't appear to be a lot of options if we're going to make uh any real significant movement in bringing the numbers down at Mountain View. But, you know, my kids went to Mountain View, so I was a little sad about that, you know, for the neighborhood. But, I also understand that sometimes that's just the only option that you have. And I think maybe that's kind of where we are. The grandfathered issue, I
076want to mention just a couple of things. We've always made that very clear. That's a one-year thing. It's it's for that that that final grade unless the family had younger siblings. And we tried we've always kept the family unit together. And I think that that might be something the board would want to look at is allowing the the family unit to stay together. But normally um we we have seen historically once the um their friends move on to a new school generally the other the other kids want to go on with the friends that they've been um you know friends with in school and and neighborhood and they they move on and they make the move and then they love their new school every bit as much as they love their old school. So, but
077the grandfather, you might want to take a, you know, think about how long you would allow that to to go on unless there are siblings. And as you mentioned, the open enrollment piece. Um, a lot of people have asked about that. And open enrollment is a state regulation, state statute, and we have to adhere to it. And one of the top priorities is if you've been in a school before, you take priority over other students who have not been in that in that school. And historically we have always taken um a priority over those who live in that area over those who have not. But we try to serve every child who comes to our district and we have tried to do that historically and welcomed all children. Um that's been a bit of a
078challenge as this north area of Rio Rancho has grown. So those are just some thoughts but um you know boundaries are one of the reasons we haven't done it for a long time is because they're really hard to do. they they evoke a lot of emotion and but but you have to look realistically. So, thank you for doing a really good job putting out the options and getting a good process in place. Um and um this is kind of a trial run for next year, which is going to be a much much bigger um uh scaled effort, but um it's hard. Change is hard and it's what it really kind of comes down to. So, well, thank you, Madame President. If I could, uh, one thing that, uh, was also mentioned too has to do
079with academic achievement of the two schools and they are both I would I they're both spotlight schools. I wanted to mention that. Yeah. Yeah. They are both great schools and we enjoyed our time over at Ranchoto Middle School this last week. It's a great school. Wonderful school. It really is a great school. Um, just a couple So, we're going to go to the board for for further questions. Um but um as we do go into this, I really appreciated being able to sit in that um open house today. And so as we're looking at these um larger, you know, boundary tra changes that will come up, I would love for us to be able to do that again as well as maybe do it a little bit earlier, too, just to give us some more
080time and maybe even do a couple of them, especially since it's going to be such a such a big change. So that's just an ask I guess from me for to just to start us out. Um but we'll go ahead and go to the board and um we'll start with um let's start with Gary Trip. Uh thank you. I've got several questions and comments and there's no rhyme or reason, but one of the things that kind of wanted to share with the parents was on this grandfather thing. um you got to have the means to transport your own kid and um that kind of always has bothered me about the fact of being being from a a poor family that doesn't have that means or that option. But the other option, the other thing that
081kind of bothers me a little bit is if there's a seventh, fifth, and third grader in the family, because I know they're not just talking about the seventh grader that's going to be an eighth grader, and the fifth grader that's going to be a sixth grader, but they're talking about the third grader that's going to be a sixth grader in three years. So, I mean, I can I I think I think the option two is the only way we can go. Um, and I think it alleviates 160 students eventually. I think that's what we're we're talking about. The other thing that I think we need to mention is we have so many issues with uh we only have enough money to build Independence High School in the next few years. And then we still have
082major needs for the cyber academy, the three and fouryear-old program. We still have some other elementaryaries that need work on. And then this middle school that we need is probably going to be over $und00 million and it's probably probably a decade away. So, with that being said, it's it's there it's going to be a big um nightmare to be a middle school student in large schools. But the nice thing, I think the ultimate goal that I heard today was that we really care about teacher pupil sizes and we care about safe schools and we're trying to do our best with what we have currently. And so the thing I'm going to leave with is how how much land do we have by cello or maraposa in the future? Do you do you remember how much
083land is there? I can I can address that. We we have um and add one more comment that might be gerine to what you're talking about. Uh we have a middle school site uh paid for that is right adjacent to um S Lazul and so it's a full size and and we've had that paid for for quite a long time. We have another elementary site right off of Northern. uh the enrollment growth has shifted and so uh the board has discussed the possibility but certainly no no decisions were made about trading that for another piece of property where there's higher growth but uh again there was no decision ever made about that and it's an excellent piece of property one of the most buildable ones that we've had. We have one other dynamic that is
084happening right now and that is a a really strong growing movement uh on the south part of town close to Joe Harris to get a middle school site there. Uh we have a high school site there, we have an elementary there, and parents are asking for um a middle school to be built there. Um because of the growth in that area, but also because it's on the way out of town and so very easy for people who work in in Albuquerque to have a a you know, a way to go to school and then out. But as you said, we don't have the money for that at at this point in in time. But there is a community group that is working to come to the board to talk to you about the need in
085the future for a middle school site uh around Rust Hospital in that that general area. So to uh board member Trip's uh point, our needs far exceed our resources and uh but in the short term uh we are not going to be able to do all those th those things. And the original five-year master plan uh on middle school was next on the agenda and we did jump over that for independence and discuss discussions about jumping over it for cyber or cyber's enrollment is down now quite a bit. So um I don't know you know no decisions been made of how to deal with that. So we have two pieces of property um one elementary and one middle school and a high school uh property. All of those have already been purchased, paid for. Um,
086so that was good thinking on the part of previous school boards to be able to to have that property out there. One of them might be better to be traded uh to a site where there's higher growth. Um, and but that would be a decision the board would have to to uh to make. So just just I haven't missed any property, have I? No, I think it's okay. Um, I think that's it. I just wanted to mention one more thing and I I think all the other board members agree is this is what this is the most civil meeting I think I've I've been to and um our community I mean our nation and our state could could look at this meeting as a as an example of how a tremendous quality human being uh
087respects one another. So, I want to thank the parents for this was a great meeting and I I too listened and try to do my best, but thank them. Thank you for all those that were at the meeting today. Yeah, it was great. It was great. Um, yeah. And doc, and there was a time where the board and I can't remember Gary and Jessica, I know Beth wasn't, but we went and visited all those sites. Were you guys a part of that? Okay. So, I mean, if that's something else too in the future, if you want to do that, we can always do that again and take a look at all those all those different sites. Um, Beth, would you like to give any questions or comments? Um I don't have any particular questions but
088it was very interesting at the meeting to listen to the parent concerns and um for the district to try to explain the various components that well the board has to look at as well as the district and planning where facilities will be and and if if a student population needs to change why and how and how that might impact the future and so forth. So I think I think the parents got a really uh strong idea of how the district has to look at those issues and I think they respected that although they still had their concerns about their children which we u for sure understand. So I appreciated the time with them um it isn't an easy decision to make but um I think that you've the committee has done a great job of
089bringing two good options to us. Thank you. Thank you and Jessica. Yeah, I don't have much further to add, but would like to also echo what Gary said. I mean, you're absolutely right. I mean, we had parents that were concerned and they asked direct and, you know, difficult questions, but everybody was very respectful and open-minded and um yeah, we could definitely take something away from that in the lives that we live, right? Um, so I think that's a great a great call out. And Dr. Cleveland, I also am happy you addressed because that was one of the questions that came up from one of the parents as far as keeping the family units together and you know I think it's trying to weigh again because we talked about it a little bit. Um I think
090somebody I think maybe Windham you had addressed it during the workshop that you know at some point we have to take the cut off otherwise the boundary changes mean nothing. Um, but again, I think a lot of people are willing to try something new. And I could even sense a turning of the tide even with the parents that were in attendance tonight. And also wanted to thank the administration from Rio Rancho Middle School for being there because I think they were really able to showcase the strengths of their school and kind of set some of the anxiety and questions that the parents had. Um, put that to rest. So that was nice for for them to take the time to do that and be able to also think about how they could potentially handle the
091influx of students if a boundary change is made. So appreciated their time and um and their thoughts on the process. Yeah, I'll get Jeff Morgan. You know, no questions. Just wanted to say uh thanks to the parents uh for their support. Uh thanks to you Kim for uh the information that you provided. I thought the delivery was just fantastic. So again thanks for your time. Really really really appreciate your hard work. Thank you. Good to hear you if not here. Yes. Thank you. I do have actually a couple questions. Can you tell me what's the what is the student population? It might have been up there and I missed it, but what's the student population right now at Rear Ranchel Middle School? um at the uh date that we chose as the baseline which was
092the 120th day it was uh 1026 1026 and then what's the capacity for that that school as it's around 1,800 yeah that's what I thought okay 1,800 and so we're looking at moving 145 with that option too into that school and we will have some additional room there probably there is growth in that area that whole Broadmore corridor obviously is going to feed in there. But, uh, but that does still leave us a little bit more room if we need to make adjustments down south, uh, when we do the larger process. Yeah. No, that's great. I love that. Um, I am of just a huge I'm grateful to that Dr. Cleveland talked about, you know, having those families come in because that was a concern. I don't know if I don't I'm not sure where
093everyone stands with option one or option two, but do we want to have a discussion on that grandfathering in students if that's something that we're all interested in? And um and I if we want to add that into into one of these things, I don't know, Gary, did you have any thoughts on that? I I would entertain a motion. I mean, I think we're I think we're all going to be on the same page on option two and grandfathering, but yeah, I mean, I guess my question about grandfathering is it is it more really just semantics because they still have to apply for the transfer and anybody can apply for the transfer. So, does grandfathering mean anything or is it just kind of a feel-good mechanism? Honestly, they get priority. Priority if they're grandfathered. Yeah.
094Okay. They get the first shot at it. That's the only difference than a regular open enrollment. Yeah. And and that is one other question I had. I noticed I think um Kim on slide 13 you highlighted some of the current attendance numbers and it appears that there's about um let me do some quick math. 64 students that are attending Mountain View that are probably out of district. So I'm assuming those are on approved transfers. So, I think one could ask, you know, if we're going to allow or grandfather current students in, what happens to those or why would we not just stop other transfers to control the population there uh versus redistricting? That's a good question because I mean I thought that same thing I don't know if Dr. Cleveland wants to about that because
095we have about a hundred that come in. At the same time, I don't want to lose any enrollment and so we want to welcome them. Yeah. I'm just saying I think I think based by the numbers some people might question it. I think the biggest issue to to just be very blunt is that we need the enrollment in the district to maintain our programs and uh and and the other is that we have longstanding longstanding um relationships with for example students at Sana uh that have chosen to come in and that's been a kind of a um nothing formal nothing in writing it's been an understanding uh that goes back to almost the beginning of the district uh and prevent that there were some proposed changes that that could have occurred uh if that understanding
096had not been honored. That that being said, that is an option and it has been discussed on several occasions. It's just hard, I think, if there's somebody that really wants to come into your district to to say no u because we're all public schools and we all try uh to to accept kids who come, but there are limits and and there's some areas we've had to close schools because we're just too full. So that is an option uh it is definitely an option uh that we could say no transfers from outside the district because we are having to move some internal students to another school site. Um I will tell you there was a time when at that um when Rio Rancho Middle was Rio Rancho Mid High and we had over 2,000 students in
097that building. So, we have a lot of room in the in the building, but not as much as you might think because we put some special programs there that have taken up some of the space. So, the board would need to be aware that that that has impacted the overall usage of the building. We don't have as many places available because of those special programs that we had say 20 years ago. So, it's but that is certainly an option that the board could look at if you chose to do that. Yeah. I mean, I think it's just something we need to keep. I don't think that my me personally, I don't think we need to make that change now, but I think it's something to keep um at the in the back of our minds.
098Uh I can make a motion to approve option two of the middle school boundary change recommendation with having the grandfathering in of the current seventh graders who will be enrolling to 8th grade. I Mary Trip, I can uh second it. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Are there any other questions before I go to a vote on that? Okay. Um, JC, you would take a roll call vote for us on it. Vice President Morgan, yes. Secretary Tyler, yes. Board member Trip, yes. Board member Miller, yes. President Galbreth, yes. Motion carries 5-0. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. It's a pleasure to see you all again. Thank you. It's been nice having you. We'll see you again soon. I do, you know, just before we leave this item, um, one of the parents had asked
099if their child, and I'm sure that this will get in, I just want to make sure I say it too, that that I fully support it, but one of the parents asked about having their student be able to go to that new school and be able to see it and walk through it and how that would be kind of a comfort. And so, I know the principal had brought up that they have a sixth graders. Um whether that's the right time, I don't know, but I do think that that's definitely something that needs to happen here in the next couple of weeks. So, I think that's a great idea. We've done that in the past when we move students from one building to another. Um more so at the elementary than at the middle school,
100but we have done it. Uh I would think if we're going to do that, we do it in the spring sometime. We're not have a lot of time left, but before the end of the school year. So that's not um it's not on that student's mind all summer long about what that might why what that strange place is going to look like and get over there and see it and it it's a it's a great school and I think they would be fine. So we'd be commit we would be committed to trying to work something out maybe on Saturday or something where they could come and walk to school and meet some of the the the the students there student government and um I think that'd be a very good idea to do just everything
101we can do to make that transfer to those students who are listening. I was during part of that big, you know, the craziness in Rio Rancho and I remember when Rio Rancho High School was built and I was at Siola High School and all my siblings graduated from Siola High School and then I was put over at Rio Rancho High School and it was a little shock at first but it was really one of the best things. I mean it was a wonderful school to to be there with everyone. I got to meet so many more um students and so it's always really scary you know as a student to have especially when you're in the middle of something to have to change but um I think if they give it a chance they'll really
102enjoy it. So you know we I think I may have shared this with you. We had a board member whose children attended three different elementary schools. they were kind of in that every two to three years. And so they went to Plusa, they went to Ernie Stapleton, they went to Kenas and and um but you know to your point um their mom said every one of those was a wonderful experience. And so when everybody got kind of panicked, she would talk, you know, as a parent to others saying, you know, there there are good people at every school and your child will grow by, you know, having some new friends as well as some existing friends and and all of that. And you know what's amazed me over the years as we've split schools, I
103remember particularly one of the hardest was Vista Grande and they did not want to go to San Die Vista. They did not want to go there. And you saw tonight the the the support for the kids, the families, and they love that school. And I suspect if we said we're going to move you back, um they would just they would just, you know, be very unhappy with that. So our goal uh you know our job ahead of us is to make sure it's a good experience for for those students. We can certainly give them an opportunity to go in and meet meet some of the staff and the student government kids and some others. So we'll be glad to take that on. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um so we'll
104now go to consider the approval of the draft school board calendar for the 2526 school year. And once again, this is for the school board. Um uh go ahead JC JC Oliver our executive assistant um will present. Good evening President Galbreth, Dr. Cleveland, members of the board. In front of you is the 2526 board calendar for this next year. Um as you can see the dates reflect what we are doing now which is the second and fourth Monday of the month. The exception is going to be in November where we do the first and third to work around the holiday. Um, on the second page is some of the different meetings that she mentioned that Dr. Cleveland mentioned earlier that you guys will probably be attending to get your credits. At the bottom is a
105section for the audit committee meeting as well as the finance committee meeting since those are individual meetings. I stand for any questions you might have. Okay, thank you. Hey JC, if it's possible, all of these um the board meetings, the the NMSBA meetings, could you stick that on the board calendar for the year? I know that's kind of a pain, but if we don't have it on our on our actual Google calendar, none of us remember to go to it. Absolutely. Um other questions from the board. Go ahead, Gary. Just that's a very good comment. Uh maybe just for JC's uh sake, did we say APS was hosting the fall Yes, I believe APS is is doing that. Yeah. So, we know about one of them where the location is. Yeah. And that's good. That's
106good. Anything else, Gary, on your end? Um Beth, any questions or comments? Thank you. And Jessica? No, thank you. And Jeff, do you have any questions on the calendar or anything? Comments? No. No. Thank you. Um, really quick, I do want to bring up just because I know I am not going to be there for the July 14th meeting and I won't be able to get on uh virtually at all. I just want to make sure we have a quorum for those if anyone knows any other like travel or anything like that. Just so we make sure we have a quorum for those summer meetings um that are coming up. We should Okay. So, we should be okay on those. Okay. Okay. Dr. Piv, any comments on the calendar? Okay. So, we can go for
107a motion on this one. Board member Tyler, I'll make a motion to approve the draft school board calendar for the 2025 2026 school year. Board member Jeff Morgan. I second. Okay, we have a motion from Jessica Tyler and a second from Jeff Morgan. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, motion carries. I should have made you do the roll call all the way from over there. Were you? We're good. We're good. All right. Um, our next is going to be to consider the approval of the superintendent's evaluation for the 2024 2025 school year. Um, and I don't think we have much discussion, but I do just uh before we go to motion to approve this and and I'll give the board if you if you want to say anything, you're welcome to, but I just
108I I want to say just at this time and it gives us an opportunity um and I I think we try to do it as much as we can, but once a year just to say how grateful we are um to have Dr. Visu Cleveland as our superintendent and um her leadership is just um has sh I think our district is a great reflection of her leadership. Um we're just so fortunate to have her. Every so often we are in meetings um from different school districts and we love all the school districts in the state but not everyone has the relationship um like we do with our superintendent as a board and also as a community and as well as our staff. And so um Dr. I just wanted to say publicly how grateful we
109are for your service in our in our district. So, thank you for that. So, is there anything else anyone lets in before? The only other thing I'd add to that is um during this process we were talking about the fact that she often gets recognized throughout the state and receives different awards and we always bring everybody else in the district up to recognize them when they get awards and so that everybody has a chance to publicly celebrate them and we don't do that for you and so I think we should change that. Um, and I she is the most humble leader as well, and so she would probably, you know, cringe at at that in some ways, but I think it goes um it goes a long way to to show her leadership and how
110well, you know, she is respected not just in our community, but throughout the state and throughout, you know, education within our state. And so, thank you for that. and you do deserve those those recognition um pieces and the awards and so you know we should do a better job of of sharing that with the community when you receive those. But thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I I'd just like to say thank you Dr. Cleveland for for everything she's done for this district. I know it's been said but we're in great shape because of your leadership and thank you so much. Thank you. Anyone else? Oh, I too appreciate your leadership, uh, superintendent, and it's been, um, it's been really nice to see your influence in the state as well. Um, I'm I know it's
111there in the nation, too, but I haven't really had a chance to see that, but in state, it's been wonderful to see the impact that you have in the legislature and also in uh in meetings with other superintendents and other districts and so forth. So, thank you so much. Appreciate everything that you've done. Thank you. Thanks. And continue to do. Thank you. Jeff, I don't know if you want to say anything if you're able to. Yes. Yes. If you don't mind, Dr. Cleveland, I just want to say uh how proud I am to be part of this board because every board meeting we go to and people see the Rio Rancho uh school board up earning my name, they always talk about how we have one of the best superintendent in the state. And I
112have to tell you how proud that makes me feel when I hear that. So, thank you. I really appreciate that. Thank Thank you all. And and it's um you know, we we were talking about earlier that the districts that do well have a good partnership between their board and their superintendent. And we have been blessed with that over most of the years of the school district. And um I think it it shows and and we are we have a wonderful district leadership team and and that is how we're able to accomplish a lot of what we we have a lot of people who take on a lot of responsibility and I'm so grateful to all of them for all of the work they do to help support um the district. And so they're pretty phenomenal
113group of people. I'll take some credit for having picked some of them. Uh but but they are wonderful and and grateful. And we have a wonderful we have wonderful staff in every area of the school district. And I'm just amazed at at what they do. And you know, we have uh we've got great custodial group. We've got I mean, we've got strong uh departments, all of our departments. Um and so I'm just grateful for the people I've had a chance to work with. And uh and most of the time that includes the legislative group. Uh our team is great up there and so are most of the others. That's a hard hard process and we just all sit back and wonder how people do it. I do and I'm grateful that they are able to
114to do it. But the the big word that we were talking about earlier is partnership and and that's what makes it successful. And so I thank all of you um for for making our district a strong district. And um we just I I don't know I I one of the the challenges in New Mexico little bit of editorializing until we get a hold of this issue of our superintendents the majority vast majority have two or three years of experience at best and they turn over every year. Our state is not going to make progress. It cannot make progress unless we get more stability and leadership. And so, uh, that's an area that I hope that our state will continue to be committed to working on. Uh, after me, I think it drops to, um, like
115maybe seven years of experience as the next person and and then it goes on from there. So, that's an area of state I hope we work on. Um, but again, thank you all for for your kind comments and uh, and thanks to all of the staff who work in this district. that makes it such a a strong district and we're we're proud of that. I think we've talked about we're have still we're we're we're bigger than we used to be. We still have a family environment and we still view ourselves as part of a group that that really works to make things better for kids. So, uh and the board has been a powerful leader in that in in in that direction. So, uh thank you all very much. Yeah. Thank you. Madame President, this
116is board member Tyler. I'll make a motion to approve the superintendence evaluation for the 2024 2025 school year. Gary Trip, I second. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. And let's go ahead and do a roll call vote on this one, DC. Vice President Morgan, yes. Secretary Tyler, yes. Board member Trip, yes. Board member Miller, yes. President Galbreth, yes. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you. Okay. And our last item for the evening. Let me add one more thing. I just want y'all to know that with and and the folks who are here, my cabinet uh in particular, I want you to know with that evaluation, I take and share it with them and we talk about all of our areas together. And so um they are part of that process as well. And so
117I will take this and I will share it with the with with cabinet and we'll talk about you know how we can pull together as a team to address those areas of priority for that have been put out there by the board. So, I just kind of want you to know what I do with it. I don't take it and lock it up. Um, I I take it back to the team and and we look at Yeah. So, anyway, I just would want you to know that. Thank you. Yeah, it probably does. Real quick on that note, I neglected JC to bring a signature page. So, for our next meeting, can you bring a signature page so we can sign it and date it and make sure we do file that and maybe lock it
118up? Thank you. Okay. Next is our first reading of proposed uh repeal to board policy 712 employee use of tobacco products as the substantive I'm not say pro prohibitions included in this policy were recently adopted into board policy 7-Eleven drug-free workplace. So Mike Chavez our executive director of human services along with David man our general counsel will present. Good evening uh madame president Dr. Cleveland members of the board. Um we are here for a rather unusual reason. Um, however, after reviewing all of our policies, because we brought forward quite a number of them to you all, um, we went back and looked at all of them to make sure that everything, uh, was posted, um, completely up on the website. Um and we realized um that we neglected to um repeal this policy which was
119um included into the um policy 712. Um so I'm going to allow uh ask Mr. Man to uh give you a little more information about that. Thank you members of the board, Madam President, Dr. Cleveland. It it's quite straightforward. So this is actually 712 that you see before you. employee use of tobacco products. And so we're not by deleting this, by by removing this, we're not implying that it's now okay to to light up on campus by any means. What we've done instead is taken this content and then some and put it into policy 7-Eleven, the drug free one. You probably remember we brought that for forward a few months ago. And so that um no, there's no need, I don't think. um unless the the board would like to see it. But um 7-Eleven
120includes this content and then everything required by rule. And so when uh a few board meetings ago, a representative from the peed came in and mentioned the need to update our policies, um essentially she she probably didn't recognize that 7-Eleven already included everything she believed needed to be in policy. So this can be repealed and we'll leave it as a placeholder for a new policy down the road. Does the board have any questions? Any questions from the board? Thank you. Okay. And this one's just our first reading for the night. Dr. Clin, did you want to add anything? No. Okay. So, we're good and we'll vote on it at the next meeting. Thank you. Appreciate it. And thank you, too. I know that when they came in, you were able to get out there. I
121think maybe David, you were able to get out there and talk to her. Someone was who was Renee. Thank you for doing that, Renee. Going out. Sometimes I'm up here and I'm like, it would be so good. And I love when I watch everyone kind of trickle out to go to go meet with everyone. So, thank you for doing that. Um, anything last thing before I go to the Well, just if you want to give me just a little bit of privilege to Yeah, I laughed it was we were teasing Beth about not missing board meetings and and Kim said she really didn't miss them a whole lot. And but we had a it's been a little while, but we had a a hearing officer by the name of Jack Ward. And you knew Jack
122well. He superintendent for many many years in Bloomfield. And uh he retired and and moved here, married one of our teachers at Ernie Stapleton. And we asked him to be our hearing officer for several years. And he did a wonderful job for us. And one night I saw Jack Ward sitting in the back of the of of the of the room and and I thought he there's no hearing or there's that, you know, and I kind of wondered what he was doing. So afterward, I went back and I said, 'Jack, we don't have anything on the agenda. He said, 'Well, you know what? I was getting a little nostalgic for being a superintendent. And so he said, I thought I'd come to a board meeting and see how it goes. And I said, well, how
123did it go? And he said, oh, it did the trick. I was okay. So anyway, a little bit of teasing about board meetings, but um thank thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. He he was some of you remember him. He was a real character. Oh, that's wonderful. And I'm looking at all of you now. You're going to miss this one day when you're not here. Maybe. Funny enough, I used to tell joke about that with people because I spent years attending county commission meetings and then city council meetings and I would always tease that those are hours of your life that you'll never get back. And then I volunteered to attend more meetings for four years of my life. Um, so yeah, that's what teasing will get you. But yeah, so I I always
124appreciate that that joke and Kim, thank you for taking the time to take on this work and come back to it with us tonight and it was great to see both you and Beth. Yeah. So good. All right. Well, thank you everyone. Um advanced planning, we have a a regular board meeting that was today. So on the 18th will be the vernal holiday. Um no school for students for those parents who might still be possibly listening. um on the 21st that is now an in-person learning day um for that Monday and then on the 20 28th we'll have a finance committee meeting and a regular board meeting. So any questions on the calendar? Okay, our meeting's adjourned for tonight. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Good night. Good night Jeff.