00130 seconds [Music] 11 all right good evening the Rano Public Schools Board of Education meeting for Monday February 24th 2025 is now called to order if all would please arise for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all JC can you do a roll call for US president gal pres vice president Morgan pres secretary Tyler pres Bo member trip present board member Miller present we have a quorum okay thank you we'd like to welcome everyone out to our meeting tonight and we'll just get right to it we'll start with our introductory comments and by our superintendent of schools Dr visu Cleveland thank you and again welcome uh we're glad that you were
002here this evening we did not have any uh board committee or Workshop sessions um that were held today before the the board meeting so there's nothing to report out uh about that we do have a couple of important board reports this evening um the reeno board is asked to approve and accept a donation from leadership sandavol County and TLC Plumbing and Dr Christoper Johnson who of course is the riotech principal will be sharing some information with you about this proposal this proposal is regarding an HVAC refrigerated air conversion facilities project at Ernie Stapleton Elementary and I can tell you it's a very exciting proposal the second report discusses the crosswalk between Arts integration of mon soy uh the board was given several um articles I think about 15 studies that describe the commonalities that exist
003between these two approaches to Elementary education and the presentation this evening will be made by Janice shenal Elementary School Improvement officer and Dr Kurt Schmidt our executive director of Fine Arts um this item is also on the uh business agenda as well and the board will be asked to consolidate the two programs at Sandia Vista and again we we have found a lot of um commonalities crosswalks and I really hope you did have a chance to read the research and the articles but I think um they they were pretty strong and I one of the things I would noce um uh at least half of the Articles came from the monor school and and from monory journals so I hope you did have a chance to review that we also have um a request from
004the board this evening to consider approval of a Project Lead the Way Grant uh this request will be presented by Larry Davis our director of Career Technical education for the district uh this is a $20,000 Grant from Project Lead the Way Solution Center and it has been awarded to Mountain View Middle School we're excited to be able to do more things at the middle school level and then the uh we will have a presentation this evening on the draft calendar for 2025 2026 uh it will be presented by Human Resources Director uh Peggy Johnston uh the district is waiting until the end of this legislative session to be able to finalize our academic calendar at the present time though we're not seeing any really significant changes that would have a major impact on the calendar
005obviously we are hoping that uh we will be able to secure the same amount of professional development for secondary as we do for elementary and uh we have had some presentations in Santa Fe um regarding that Renee Salo and Lauren hatch have been there for um making the case to treat both levels the same uh the uh required 1140 hours will still the Mandate for all public school districts in New Mexico we also um had a request from uh board member trip uh to consider one additional name for the New Mexico Association of school boards award this award is excellence in student achievement and it goes to individuals in our community uh or in our district who have um have improved outcomes for students and so um this is uh one of the top awards
006from the uh n nasb and and now we have one um I believe Mr CHP has one more um nomination he would like to make that will be presented of course by board president grith and then we did have some request to requests for proposal uh these will be presented by Michael Madrid our director of purchasing and our chief procurement officer and the board is being asked to look at two things this evening consider the awarding of RFP number 20256 uh for the um uh CEO's CO's office and this is a program review of special education this review will highlight areas of success and will hopefully identify any recommendations for continuous Improvement we've always been committed to continuous Improvement in all of our our program areas and then the second request is to consider an
007award uh for RFP number 20 2517 for facilities and this is for architect design services for Cleveland High School classroom atici and security and their vesu area and so um as you know Cleveland is out of every single classroom we boarded up every common open area and uh they are in need of additional classroom space and so that uh will uh address the uh the the the RFP will address the need to open uh some additional classrooms and uh are there any questions or concerns or anything that you would like more informational thank you very much thank you I just have really quick Tyler is there a way to switch these screens over here so they show the PowerPoint instead of myself I just don't want to see myself giant um right here if not
008it's really not a big deal um we'll now go to reports so we'll start with with our first um we'll invite Dr Chris Johnson up from our rotech principal and he'll go do our donation from leadership sandal County and TLC pluming Madam president real quick I think we need to Executive I got so distracted by my up there so I'd like to make a motion to approve the prioritized agenda and propos time allocation board Jeff Morgan a second okay all in favor any opposed perfect thank you board member T okay it's usually me that jumps the gun I even marked it off on my thing like we had done that so once again come on up president galri Dr Cleveland members of the board uh thank you so much um so as you know uh
009Rachel AER and myself are were selected for rear wrench Public Schools this year to participate in leadership sandal uh great experience so leadership sandal develops leaders committed to enhancing sandal County's quality of life throughout the 10-month program participants refined leadership skills uh explore local challenges and learn to drive change graduates joined a network of alumni serving on boards and committees uh Countrywide and I know several of the leadership here in rear Ranch Public Schools has attended leadership Sandoval um so it's a great thing part of that 10-month commitment is a community project uh so ironically Rachel and I were both selected as leaders for different groups uh so we have two eight member groups um that are working with communities so we in October we presented our group projects uh that we work from October
010till May uh my group selected watermelon wrench we did uh request uh ernold Stapleton early on in the process and I know Rachel did as well um unfortunately the leadership sanal board said let's go with this one well Rachel and I started talking um I talked with Cheryl Clark and said hey here's what we need so we did Loop in some of our other members um so I'm join Carlos robis who uh works for TLC uh Nathan Lopez who is from Albuquerque winner Briana Al Nasser is from leadership sandal uh Alise Gibbs uh from Stapleton so uh we met with facilities we met with our groups from leadership TLC and we said what are some of those needs so the needs for Stapleton is a complete refit of two portables where they've run out of
011space and need those HVAC units so when we reached out to TLC he reached out to Nathan uh who will I'll let them talk a little bit about what they're going to be providing for that we're also going to be securing six buddy benches um and some paint to do sensory Pathways for leadership but we'll bring that to um another board meeting once we get that Don Mission so I'm going to invite Carlos up here to talk about TLC and Nathan to talk about albquerque winner awesome hey guys um there was he told you there was a they're running out of room there ernold Stapleton so we want to do everything we can to help um there's two portables which is four systems um unfortunately we weren't able to get all four um but we
012were able to u to house one new or one full replacement for one system which I was told two classrooms they're both identical um if you you have the proposal of there it's two uh traditional split systems a furnace on the inside coil on the inside and then a condenser on the outside um TLC is willing to we're going to purchase one of the the equipment ourselves um from Nate Nathan Lopez he's the the owner of alquerque wiir and then he himself is going to provide one donate one himself and my work will do the install bring it up the code have it inspected the only thing that's not included in this is we do have the we do have the uh we have a bid for the electrical for the circuits to be ran
013but it's not for any kind of panel upgrades I just want to make sure that's pretty clear but when we went to go take a look at it it didn't appear that you all needed it they seem like there is plenty of room I showed pictures to my electrician so that should not be a problem at all um and it's like I said I wish it was all four but it is one full portable I don't know if you have any questions you have any questions for him we'll have one more who's going to talk here just no question just thanks are you done yet we want we have another one that's we have someone El you can come and talk and then we'll and we'll say a whole bunch of St so don't go
014and run away okay okay I don't have too much to say besides thank you for letting me be involved in in this and uh yeah thank you doing it's a good partnership thing that's awesome that's awesome and we we were joined by several other members of our team for leadership so I do want to acknowledge them uh for making a trip out here tonight so if you do uh participate in leadership sandall if you could please stand up to be recognized right because uh what they what they don't know is they'll be out there helping us paint and and do some things on a weekend uh real quick but um and that's in addition to our other group projects that that we've devoted our time to after hours weekends things like that so um I'll
015see questions yeah Dr GL do you want to add me I just add my thanks to you that this is a wonderful project and and we are really appreciative of it and I can just tell you you might want to think about what it's like to start teaching on July 30th in a portable classroom that isn't very cool and so a really very miserable experience and so uh this is just very generous and and very one you know we're just very excited about it so thank all of you for uh considering the school district and to uh help help with this particular project so very grateful thanks Gary trip do you want to add anything just want to say thank you and as I look at this list of everything that is being donated it
016looks like a lot of a lot of money and it looks like a lot of Labor and and actually a lot of love for kids and I just want to say thank you can't believe a 20-year lifetime craftsmanship warranty and everything else but uh thank you on behalf those kids will truly enjoy the thank you Jeff go I just want to say thanks to all of you this this means a lot thank thank you so much we appreciate Jessica I just love the way that leadership sound evolve came into really strengthen our whole community and I think it's a great uh partnership and so thank you for participating in it I know it's a commitment to participate in a program that's that long but it does bring a lot of value networking but also being
017able to participate in projects like this is to me truly what it should be about so excellent excellent job on bringing everything all together and thank you for doing this for our students don't really know that I can add anything to all of that but just thank you so much uh I participated in that program many years ago when I first moved to rear Ranch on was very important to me when I was starting with the university here so I appreciate what what the program does and this project will be so helpful to our students thank you so much yeah I just want to add a thank you it was fun to hang out with so many of you up in Santa Fe um Dr clevand and I were just talking about how tired we
018were after yeah on that Friday um thank you so much I think this you know leadership sandal it really shows what can happen when you know having these sort of programs to really bring people together you know and that's what we need more of in Rio Rancho um I think sometimes I I grew up here and I see that we're drifting a little bit more Albuquerque and that makes me concerned and so things like this where we get together and we do things for kids and like Gary said I kind of look at at the amount of money really all these things are worth um and the time that these things are worth and so thank you so much thanks for the donation thanks for the work thanks for all those who I don't I
019kind of want to do this leadership sandal fall now but I can't even like think of like the time I don't know if I have the time for that when I hear all the things you are doing so thank you thank you everyone for for for all the things that you're doing we appreciate it I'd like to say one more thing too you know do we uh we thank TLC we've had a long relationship in this district with TLC um and I think it goes way back with Mr Armstrong's um strong desire to contribute to the community and so um I want to acknowledge this isn't just a one-time thing uh over the years TLC has helped in in a lot of ways so if you would please convey that to the folks in in
020in your company and we look forward to working with win a as well so thank you thank you thank you [Applause] okay um our next report will be um our Arts integration and monory crosswalk so Janna shenal our elementary school Improvement officer will present along with Dr Kurt Schmidt our executive director of Fine Arts good evening Madame President school board members and Dr Cleveland we are here to and I think Dr Cleveland said it really well connect the two programs of Arts integration and the Monas at Sania Vista go for it you can keep going cudia so we wanted to remind the board what the definition is for Arts integration according to the Kennedy Center Arts integration is an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form students engage
021in a creative process which connects an art form in another subject area and meets evolving objectives in both and so the question is why Arts integration it offers a different way to approach content Foster student teacher creativity gets students moving which is huge right now for our students provides alternative ways for assessment and engages students who may struggle with the written work while laying the groundwork for them to improve in reading and writing and we do have a guest with us this evening so if you do have questions about this we have Mr Shawn Lane who wrote the book acting right that we will be implementing at Sandia Vista which is a behavior program around the Arts and so he'll be here to answer any questions if you you have questions about what this might
022look like together so looking at the information that we were given with the different articles from that monory lens there really were five themes that came out of course there's more but these are the big ones interdisciplinary learning to make connections between different subjects of learning and arts integration in the curriculum in all content areas and it's different ways for students to express their learning besides pen and paper it allows that creativity that both stor and arts integration encourage students to have and to explore the inner world through art students can develop artistic habits of mind that can be applied across academic disciplines holistic development supports the whole child including their intellectual emotional social and physical skills self-expression which is extremely important provides opportunities for students to express themselves in monori students can express their
023inner world through ART and in arts Integrations students can use art to express their understanding of a topic and then of course collaboration both of them stress the collaborative nature of learning some aspects of integrated arts and Fine Arts education in general complement monory principles respect for the child educating the whole Child individualized Learning freedom of movement and choice and you'll see some of that when we talk about Tableau intrinsic motivation Independence and interdependent and then we shared some articles around how a lot of monor schools are using art or Arts integration to enhance the learning of their students in a PhD study this was a very important paragraph that came through this study and the study was the benefits and barriers to Arts integration and arts accessibility and public monu and the conclusion was
024to identify monor teachers perceptions of how their professional knowledge experiences and resources affect their ability to integrate art into their General classroom curriculum major findings on the benefits of Arts integration in public elementary schools and the barriers teachers report that prevent them from feeling confident implementing the art lessons in their classrooms so the goal really was to get them more professional development around the Arts so they could imple Implement that more into their monor and arts integration promotes the uniqueness and strengths of all students focused with monaster philosophy this was another it's kind of hard to see the language but this was another article and it came this quote is from Marie monasi our aim is not merely to make the child understand and still less to force him to memorize but so to touch
025his imagination as to enthuse him in his innermost core while arts in education has long been a priority at this school Arts integration and approach to teach teaching that integrates Visual and Performing artarts to enhance students learning and understanding became a key part of our school strategic plan in 2014 another article spoke to where they are not seen as separate subjects but as integral parts of a child's overall development monor's approach to artistic expression is deeply rooted in the philosophy that every child is inherently creative and capable of self-expression and they can develop their own unique artistic style and fosters a sense of confidence in their creative abilities the current monory enrollment we just wanted to update you on where we are the prek program has six students our goal in Rio Rancho and currently
026they pay for that to go to the prek monu and we want our prek to be free to all children and so we're hoping to incorporate that into shining stars and as we expand and then these are the current numbers in the classroom there are two Kinder first grade classro rooms a second and a third so they're not M multi-grade and then two four five classrooms one of the questions when we talked about monory in the past was out of District students that attend the monory program so we wanted you to know that currently we have five students 28 students that are Rio Rancho students somewhere else in the district and 76 of the current students are sanyia Vista students emphasizing that all students are at Sandia Vista will be welcome to stay at Sandia
027Vista and so the recommendation that we'll be making later is to implement Arts integration for all K5 students at Sandy Vista and Enchanted Hills Elementary School to Sunset mono K5 after this school year including the prek but keep the students in their current grade level cohort if parents want that they've asked for that unless they otherwise request and to make sure that current monory students remain at San die Avista and so we have um Sean Lane here if anybody has questions for him you and Dr Schmid wants to talk to you uh Sean Lane happens to be in town to work with Sania Vista and en chanted Hills and so we invited him to come tonight since this was a topic on the agenda um so he's he's got a few comments if you'd like
028um just to tell you and answer any questions you might have for Arts integration in so thank you I should y I should introduce him a little bit so uh Shan sh you're a founding member of focus 5 right yeah Focus 5 is is a organization he helped found it's an Arts integration um um professional development Consulting agency uh many teaching artists they work all around the country I can I rarely call Sean and he's not in an airport or someplace at a school around the United States uh but this he's he's part of this organization and we are partner ING with them specifically Sean and his his uh Behavior program um acting right uh so he's he's he's wored as he'll say he's worked with some monory schools in numerous uh schools on Arts
029Integrations thank you good evening exciting night to be here uh as the author of the definition of Arts integration for the Kennedy Center I'm just humbled all the time to see where when and why it's popping up and the impact having nationally and internationally so if you have questions about Arts integration I certainly am the one to ask and I would say in a seemingly polarizing time when it's this or that either or this seems to be an exciting decision in my perspective in that I don't see that uh we're replacing monor I see it as an expansion an expansion from a small group of teachers to all the teachers in these schools an expansion from a small group of students to all of the students in the school so uh I would I would
030encourage you to just think of expansion and I would also say as the field of education is looking at artificial intelligence right in the face what we know is that we are going to have to empower our students to collaborate and creatively problem solve and have empathy and be able to connect to other people which are all of the uh components that artificial intelligence is incapable of and the Arts is so capable of doing so uh I hope that helps you uh with the decision that you are faced with thank you I have to say I have to tell you Sean so I was up when we were up in Colorado I was up there with um with our district and I was so impressed by some of the things that I teach high school
031students and so I actually tried it in my high school classes like I even put the music on and we like we did it up and then we looked at art pieces and and it was so it was fun it was a good it was something that was really good and I have to say too for for Sean that he really held us accountable um when we were adults and we were doing it and you know as we talk about those things and and you do get you get out of your comfort zone and there's something about it that it becomes less scary I think when you first start you're like can I be like this with everyone and just the the whole program I'm just so impressed by by how it kind of it
032does you become a collaboration of people and it becomes less and less scary and that's what one of the students said to us as well when we were there he said so was it scary to be so close to people and to to be touching he's like well at first like and I guess he was kind of one of the little bit harder kids little rambunctious he's like at first it was hard but um he's like but now we I really like it I really like I really like and and so I just think it's such a great program um and so thank you for being here I'm guessing you did a training over at the schools today is that okay and okay so thank you so much for coming out so anyone from the
033board um I don't Dr Cleveland want to add anything and we can ask see if anyone has questions for just a couple of things for those of us who who went and what everybody in the uh and the audience to kind of know what what transpired we have visited schools that were integrated art schools we took a team uh the team had board members it had staff members and had parents and um and so after several visits we felt really positive about the direction uh that that we we wanted to go in these two elementary schools uh to see how it would work for us I do had the opportunity to visit Mr Lane's class and I've visited a lot of classes over a long long period of time but I can tell you the
034engagement was 100% in that classroom 100% you rarely ever see that and so that was just so impressive and the ability for students to regulate their behavior and to get ready to learn and and that's something that looks like we're going to have to do more of is teaching children how to get ready to learn and so it was it was a really really wonderful experience I um I I think we all benefited a lot and then I would also want everyone here to know that Kurt Schmid Dr Schmidt and I visited um each of the two elementary schools one time uh to visit with the staff and to hear their concerns and their questions and and I thought they had very good questions we I didn't sense a lot of and principal can certainly
035address that far better than I can but um i i people were curious some were little apprehensive changes hard but we didn't sense any real opposition and people seem pretty open uh to looking for for things U that are better because our kids have changed and our world has changed we're going to have to change how how we work with kids in order to be successful with them and so um so we visited first with parents at each site and then we we uh and then with staff so we got feedback from both of those groups at the school-based meetings we had a very good turnout uh for uh for both meetings and uh uh parents seemed very positive that we talked to I didn't hear hardly any opposition at all from from parents a
036lot of questions questions are good because it helps us think through some of the things that we're going to have to consider um but it was those those meetings I thought were very productive so we've talked to staff we've talked to parents we've visited sites uh we've seen it in action and so this has been thoughtful process to get to this point this evening one other thing kind of completely different uh but certainly want to um you know we were looking for something better we're always looking for something better and we we felt like this was a um an approach that would be um be very positive we also were struggling with our monory program as we can't find teachers and even the monaster programs themselves are telling me they can't find teachers just a
037real shortage of individuals who have that training now so this is a way you we talked about really you know you did a great job on what the crosswalk is the strong crosswalk and I think many of the things that parents look for and want in the monstory program they will find in this program and we think it's just and the whole school will move together we have two schools working together so that there's a partnership and support between two buildings not just one so that's just a little bit of the background but I kind of wanted you to know all the all the bases that we had covered before coming here this evening thank you um Gary trip do you have any questions um for anyone who's up there we'll vote on this in
038in in a few a little bit down the road but just I have uh two questions but one is very confusing that I that I need to know and maybe Jenna can help me maybe not but right currently with the monory program in since I live in the siia Vista neighborhood are there kids that don't get to ride the bus for free or prek so yeah um or members triip that's correct they pay for their prek and they don't get busing parents have to bring them and it's a half day and this would if the whole school's integr integrated arts and the kids in that neighborhood of Sania Vista would they be allowed to be on the bus for free k five students um prek we were looking at recommending sunsetting the prek to we
039only have six students right now so it really doesn't cover the cost of the teacher got it okay I just I was just didn't know that about for the kids sake yeah and then and then uh I really appreciate the inclusivity and the acceptance of integrated arts so um well I would ask the principal in the future is not only are we reporting back on the proficiency rates but maybe we could report back on the um on the um discipline behavior of students because maybe it would demonstrate that we are becoming more inclusive to everyone and more acceptant to everyone that we're connected with thank you board member trip that is that is part of the Arts integration um roll out that we will be U surveying or doing comparative dat data from from the
040past and throughout this process for its integration especially with acting right just to to look at that plus u academic achievement Etc so that's it's on our radar so but thank you for the reminder yeah thank you um Jeff do you have any questions comments no no no questions uh thanks for the information I appreciate it thank you thank you uh Beth Miller well it was a pleasure when we went to Denver for me to be able to observe these things I want to thank you for your commitment to children in this in this Arts integration and I'm glad the district is moving forward with this um I saw a lot of benefit to it I look forward to hearing how you're doing in the future thank you so mucha Tyler yeah so my question
041because I think it would be a question from the community I think Dr Cleveland you answered some of it but as to why not keep both right they're so closely related the crosswalk compliments each other so well why not still keep monor it sounds like I know we've had issues finding people who are certified in monu uh but I think that there's going to be some questions from parents thinking well you know the name mon aor that kind of stamp of approval it's something that people know that they're comfortable with there might be some hesitant hesitancy to say like are we going to get the same quality out of the programming with Arts integrated arts alone and so I think that that might be a question from the community and then further what will happen
042with those pre-s we've you know been looking at expanding prek if we Sunset the monor will they be absorbed into normal prek I know these parents choose and they pay for this program uh will they have spots in our other pre- programs if they choose or how will that be handled thank you for the the questions board member Tyler I would say to your first question we call it monor it's not monor so we aren't being very true to the program um we say that but we have our Ela curriculum is a curriculum that every student uses in the district and then math is a little bit different they used to have two and a half hours of work time I think it's down to an hour now so I I think we're calling it
043that but we're not doing that and so the benefit of having the school all do the same thing as I think will be saying exactly what we're doing and honest about that right now we don't have multi-age in a couple of the grades which is against monor and a lot of the curriculum they're doing is what every other student is doing so I think if we're being if we want to really do monor we would have to do monor the way it's supposed to be done we've watered it down quite a bit and to your second question that I've already forgotten the thank you we I mean we could choose to keep that if we wanted to the thought is it's free for every other child so we definitely would want to open that up
044to other families if they want it if we want to continue doing it until we get the expansion of prek we can there'll just be no there will be nowhere to go from that prek into another monor so we were thinking that can't go into Kinder monor after that but we could certainly continue it I know um Kirk doto has talked about keeping prek if we want to do that he's willing to keep prek so that really could be a board decision if you want to do that or not we just won't have a place for them to go if we don't continue monor but they would be absorbed into the kindergarten Arts integration could could you elaborate just a little bit before and then and then uh let uh uh principal SoDo speak but
045why we're not doing it exactly mono and what was the factors that made us make that change and we were very open with parents that we were not going to be able to do pure monoy do you want to kind of give just a little about little history about the why on that yes um thank you Dr Cleveland for the question lots of reasons um starting back when we looked at test scores seven eight years ago we found that the way monor was delivering instruction our kids were not performing at a higher level or in some cases they were performing at a lower level according to State Testing and wa so there was this work to kind of align and and that caused us to change what they were doing for their curriculum which is
046why we went to our Ela curriculum that's not how monor typically works monor is more self-paced students work at their levels and so we weren't meeting everybody's needs grade levelwise because kids were at such different places as the program has become more inclusive we have more students now I would say years back there weren't a lot of students with disabilities that were allowed in the program as we have over the last few years we've really tried to make it more of an inclusive program and that's been difficult because then students with special needs have been pulled out of that individual time it's really a combination of teacher certification we are having a difficult time with teachers with the background so they aren't even they don't even have monor trained teachers we're doing the best we
047can we added that instructional coach and then she left us and went to a monu school so that was a loss we lost that professional development we end up spending three to $5,000 for every new teacher just to get them the educational assistant training so they have something when they go in so it's training it's the materials we're using and it's the structure of the program that over time and then we've I think we're our enrollment is about half I can't say that's because of the program that maybe that parents we've had this conversation several times and they decided not to do the monu but that's really the history over it it's changed over time I would add a couple of things to that as well I we mentioned earlier we we find it very
048hard to find certified monory teachers period there's just very few of them I want to really say though publicly and really emphasize this it's not a criticism of those teachers at all they've worked very hard to make the program work or very very dedicated we've had some of them asked to go back to traditional classroom and I think that the reason for it is it's a double lift they felt like they were doing two jobs instead of one and the hours are just not there to do a double and and they felt like they weren't doing either one of them at the level they wanted to do but I I just really want to say this is not any way any kind of a criticism of the work that they have done how hard they
049have worked and it just seems like that right now we can't deliver um the program that we um we think that um a true monory uh program would would have so um I just I really wanted to emphasize uh that point but I'm gon to teach that it's just so hard to do two things and and not feel like you're doing anything at the level that you really want to thank you for saying that Dr Cleveland because you reminded me after No Child Left Behind came out um it was very difficult for the teachers because if you're multi-age you have to teach all that grade level content to each student so they were trying to figure out some of the teachers would teach third grade math to second and third graders and third grade ELA
050and then the next year teach second you it was really kids were not getting all of the grade level material and it was really hard for the teachers to teach multi-g grades and that all changed when No Child Left Behind I think that's the same time we closed down the family school because it was just too difficult to meet all of that one of the requests we've had from the parents is to see if we can try to keep some of those kids together and so I'll let uh principal doto address that as as well as the other things that he might want to share thank you Dr Cleveland um president gelth Dr Cleveland members of the board um member secretary Tyler just a couple of um answers to your questions the current preschool students
051are are four years old they will naturally go into our kindergarten program um Mrs chanal is correct I have requested that we be included in the prek Grant in some form or fashion in the future and that's something that I will keep advocating for um in the future because I truly believe in early childhood education um especially in our neighborhood school and to your point board member trip we do have the capacity to to have more students in the four-year-old program um if possible because we do have a waiting list usually but when parents found out that it's an astronomical fee for their children to attend the preschool program that's when they dropped and said I'm either going to somewhere else or I'm going to shining stars and I'm going to make other choices from
052our family um and we understand that as well um one of the points that um Mrs Chenal also made was the certification and I know that we've spoken about this um a couple of times but right now we have two trained monor teachers in the program um one is a traditional teacher who is trained for the through the district as Mrs Chanel said um an online program and then one teacher who's currently on leave um for personal reasons um is a true monory trained teacher um that came to us um and so what that looks like and and it was hard for me to wrap my mind around because I wasn't under the current system as a teacher is that they have to have monor training but then they also have to have a degree
053they have to be able to be licensed within the state of New Mexico that's always most often a very sticky situation for a monory trained teacher because they're not able to be licensed and so you have to get them through that process and probably an alternative license and then they have letters so that's something that I truly believe should be a college course um and it's starting to be but um it's almost a college course that all of our teachers in primary are going through as you all know um and then on top of that if they're a first or second year teacher they have to go through micr credentialing nhr has addressed that multiple times in front of the board about microc credentialing it's it's tough to get through as well and so to
054put that all on someone that's a new teacher in a new program um I try to be very honest with people that I'm hiring as well to say these are the things that you are looking at and you need to be aware of these requirements um and and the stipulations from the district and of the program um as well but this summer I did mention to you guys as well um that like Dr Cleveland also said we I truly feel uncomfortable saying that it's a monitory program when it's not um when when we are delivering the best education that we possibly can but as Mrs Chanel said it's very comparable to our traditional side of sanisa as well yeah so um Jessica you had mentioned something about feedback from the parents what was your question
055you would asked about how would the parents feel again oh I was saying I think that questions from parents of children who are in the monory program would ask why not do both when they're so closely aligned the philosophies you know when they did the showed the crosswalk there's a lot of similarities in the benefits to the children through the monaster program and arts integration so we're being asked to consider sunsetting the monory program I was saying that would think that the kids the parents of children that are in the monory program would ask why are we why Sunset it if they're so closely aligned why not why not keep both and so we don't have the teachers yeah and we don't have uh you know that our teachers tell us very difficult to do
056both programs and they have to do both programs in order to do well on the state assessments G trip I I would just say that living in the neighborhood where these kids are are monu when monor started in the district back around 2013 when I moved into my neighborhood there was true kids of a true Monas program and there were true monor teachers recruited at Sandia Vista and those kids for the most part in our neighborhoods they're at Cleveland High School now and um and so the parents parents now they don't see it as a true monor the ones that are going in now they don't they don't see it as a true monor some of them do and they hang on to it but the numbers dwindle every year the kids that really did
057ja through monu there there are high school students now or they're graduated yeah so yeah what's interesting to me just and in what like three five minutes we're going to be voting on this here in a second but is this I think is the third time that that we've taken a look at monor and what we should do with the program and it hasn't gotten better right it just every time we look at it gets worse but what's been interesting is that I haven't had any emails and so the last the two times previous to this I received the first time out extreme an extreme amount of emails we had a lot of public comment um last time I received a little bit and then as we've been working with the parents more I haven't
058received not one um right on on these on these issues I did talk to a parent this last week um just about it and I couldn't say enough about Arts integration as we spoke but I think that also that kind of is kind of speaks volumes I guess in in of itself that I haven't heard anything from from the community recently on this and and usually it's it's a big deal when we see it so so to me that that shows that we've at least done a good job at at really talking about what we're looking at and explaining you know where we're hoping to head so so um any other questions from the board or comments Dr I would just emphasize one additional thing we did have parent night and we went out and
059we sat and it was well attended yes how many parents that I just right but I just want you to know we did go and talk to parents we felt that was something the board really expected of us and wanted us to do and we had good questions but we did not sense any really strong opposition uh the evening that we spoke and it we had good turnout at both both schools on those parent nights so um I think parents were very much aware I give a lot of the credit of that to the principles uh who I think have had uh more opportunity than we had uh to talk with uh with parents about uh what it would look like and again I think our parents are fairly sophisticated about looking at what the
060integrated arts offers and it has many of the things they were looking for uh for their children yeah and it was good because when we did go up to Colorado we had Parents with us who were there and so I think that actually was a huge it was huge what we did with that because those parents now have been able to go and talk with other parents and I think that's what's probably helped as well to um educate our families on on what we're looking at and so and some of those parents at the beginning were very timid about it and then after actually participating in this program with us um they there really was a big change and so and many of you have the opportunity to listen to them when we had our
061board Workshop a while back so um any other questions to your point we didn't take the the all the Rah parents we took some of the parents who had really serious concerns about it and uh and I think that was very good because they asked the hard questions other parents would be asking as well but um it it's I I wish we had the opportunity to do more in that area you know but um it just we're we're very limited by resources we're really limited by staff and finding people that are qualified to teach in the program yeah you know and on the monory I I have someone that one of my nieces works with the monor and she and they're having a hard time even getting monory teachers in the monory programs you know
062these these private schools and so I don't know it's something that that maybe we're just changing right and that's okay for education to change so there's no other question any other questions okay can I ask one more thing wants to ask something but um uh you might uh you might want to uh address too the the reverse of it uh because some of the monor teachers ask us how will that work out for us and you you had a really good response on how you would support them as they transition in um into the traditional uh school and some of them already had experience in that area but I thought your response to those teachers was a really good one you had really thought through how we would support them too so we have a
063couple of teachers that requested last year to move to the traditional program and they did successfully this year um there's there are a few that have said we're going to have retirements this year so it's natural um they've already they already kind of know who's retiring and they're like I really want to go to this grade level or that grade level um but what I told the two the two teachers that are actually teaching monasi that are at the school I said they're best practices for everyone they're good practices for all kids and so you can take all of the money that that has been spent on manipulatives and things um that are at the school and housed at the school um it's it's still there and we can we can all use that so
064um we'll still have the capacity to house all of our teachers um next year and and just I'm not throwing anybody under the bus but I was in a third grade classroom this week and she was doing a fraction lesson she had traditional fraction units from our traditional program that we use she had monor fraction units from the monor program and she was making comparisons between both of them and she did a really good job hopefully she's watching but she did a really good job doing that and the kids were like oh that's what that is I'm like yes she was successful at that at that and and was using um just different types of of teaching methods and she did a really good job with that I just I wanted to I know president
065gorth board member Miller and Dr Cleveland were up in Colorado with us but if the rest of you want to stop in this week to to watch Sean work with the students of these schools at any point just contact me and we can find a good slot for you if you wish to come by watch those and participate and have participate be a part of it okay yeah all right if there's no other questions then we're good thank you so much we appreciate it okay um for this evening so I'm going to triple check J we have no inperson public comment okay so we just we have one um public comment that came in through our online form um and that is from Alec Reinhardt and I'll just summarize um it's asking about um special
066education teachers um getting the phase 2 retention stipends that are listed under the nmped website and so that is the only public comment that we received online and nothing in person but we welcome our public those are listening to come in and give public comment if there's something you would like to talk about that in regards to our schools um our next is the consent agenda we'll go to approve the consent Madam president this is board member Tyler I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda board member Jeff Morgan a second okay we have a motion and a second and all in favor I any opposed okay motion carries here we are okay and told you it was a couple of moments until we got there um so we'll go ahead and invite Jan
067shal back up our elementary school Improvement officer she got a break for a moment um to consider sunsetting the monor program so good evening um president GTH members of the board in Dr Cleveland we are making the recommendation to combine the Monas program and the Arts integration program for next school year at Sandy a Vista the other recommendation for the board to consider is whether not you want to continue the prek paid program at Sand Vista okay do we want to do both of those now the prek or are we looking at the prek later are we looking at the prek right now I think they're all together Madame President okay is that correct it's not in on the agenda so I think we're gonna have to take them separate right I'm just looking at
068that's right okay okay so we'll have to do that next meeting monor's prek to five I mean I think we could do it together unless we wanted to separate it we just need monor's pre5 okay we just looked to Lauren hatch for all things I to okay again I just got one question though I don't know if I do we have to have the grade levels on here I think we're [Music] okay okay yeah the only prease students are monory students there are no other pre students okay Jeff go ahead so um is it a monastery program or not it's call they call it monaster they just call it a monastery program yes but but that's not what it is though if you were to compare a board member um sorry Morgan if you were
069to compare a monory school or a monory program that wasn't at Sandia Vista with all of the components of the monory program it would not be a complete monory program we have said for the past couple years that we've had uh best practices in monu that was the best way that we could describe it yeah I just I just feel like there's a level of integrity that's that's my concern I just I would just prefer we call it what it is at the end of the day so that way we don't feel like we're misleading anybody it's tough for me to vote on something that that that's really not what it is so what we're looking at is just is getting rid of that completely so we don't so then we're not going to have
070that label anymore because that label what we're looking at is not having monor and we're going to have Arts integration okay so it's going to be called Arts integration right yeah yes sir it'll be just Sandia Vista and they'll be do they'll be an Arts integration school yeah so it's that program that we're looking at CH because of where it's at exactly with what you're saying Jeff exactly with what you're saying because we don't because it's not what it is we're not we're calling it something that it isn't so is is is changing is changing and and looking for kind of merging to but it's not that help we we're keeping some of the best practices of monor because that's already in integrated arts and if you read the articles that and the research that
071was provided to the board I think you saw that from the mono side because at least half the Articles came from Monas rather than from integrated arts and they talked about how they do integrate so keeping some of the best practices because they're good practices for kids in terms of the integrity I want to be absolutely sure that everybody knows we came to the board and we explained very clearly that it would be an integrated program that would have some monoy but would also meet the requirements that that we have to meet for the state of New Mexico assessment we also told the parents that parents were very specifically informed this is not pure Monas here are the test scores you know we we've got to be sure that your children are meeting those state
072standards and benchmarks because as a public school we're required by Statute to do that so the parents were informed and and knew that um and but we also brought that to the board of education and and said this is going to be kind of a hybrid experience we're we're not we're not losing all of that and I guess that's what I'd really like to really emphasize in the Articles uh it talked about how Arts integration is one of the primary focuses of monoo and and and those practices will still continue to be used in the integrated arts but it also has some other components as well so it it's um I just wanted want to assure you the parents were aware that was integrated all along and and and we made that very clear I
073hope to the board as well that it we could not manage to do both what the teachers are telling us what they told me in a couple of of instances is it's killing us to do both you either need to do one or the other but we we went out and deliberately looked for some kind of approach to teaching and learning that incorporated many of those things that monor parents wanted and were looking for and we found those in integrated arts we saw that in in in that program so I think parents are going and some of the parents that went with us were really uh I think very pleased to see a lot of the things that they were looking for like movement and cre it and some of those things were part of
074both programs and and so that's what we're saying we think we can can can save many of those best practices through the integrated arts but to your point you make a really good point don't want to call it monory because it's not pure monory we're moving um you know we're moving toward an integrated arts model and that's what we're asking the board to approve thank you Dr G Gary trip has a comment just just a comment now that I think I really understand board member Morgan's Point and that is just living there in that neighborhood and I know the parents have heard over the years I know they've heard in for PRP principal doodo what the monor program looks like and I know they heard it from Miranda Chante the previous principal and I actually
075know they heard it from Pat dasto the the principal before Miranda so just living in that neighborhood I I think I think it's a real valid point to say Integrity wise did the did the parents know and I I think now that I understand the position I I do think the community of that Sandy of Vista neighborhood were those 70 some kids and the kids before them they knew what kind of a curriculum they were dealing with um over the last few years so just want to make that CLE Point yeah any other questions from the board on this or Janna do you have anything else that you want to share or Dr we we did um and I don't want to overstate this but certainly one of the questions we were asked um in
076in our meetings at the school site was student achievement and that's what kind of got me looking for U sources of information studies that look to okay you know how does this all affect student achievement and now and we found some some some pretty good examples of it moves student performance that one of the other things I think that was um we we we found very clearly in looking at those studies and in those articles was it increased the joy of learning and kids liked School more because they the included things allowed them to be more engaged in their own learning so we haven't talked a lot about that but certainly that was one of the questions that parents ask is what about student achievement and I think we found uh things to support it
077the schools we visited were moving from having some real challenges to uh but they they were seeing Improvement in the in the the teaching and learning both in those schools and so real quick so a point of clarity so when we if so when we talk about sunsetting the monory program a part of that will be sunsetting that pre-ap program correct Madam president okay I just want to make sure that we all have that and then but we are still looking at inserting them into that prek um Grant is what was or we'll see not the pre Grant this year but as we expand following year yes okay okay so I just want to make sure we're all clear on that so we will consider a motion board member Tyler I'll make a motion to
078Sunset the monory program board member Gary tripal second okay we have a motion by Jessica Tyler and a second by Gary trip and let's do a roll call vote on this one please JC vice president Morgan yes secretary Tyler yes board member trip yes board member Miller yes president galberth yes motion carries 5 zero okay thank you thank you thank you appreciate it okay all right we have she she's just going to hang out with us for a long time mik so we're going to consider the approval to look at um a science magnet school at Riv Rano Elementary and once again J Shanel um thank you board member grith members of the board and Dr Cleveland so we're going to switch to science um and so we're take you through what we're asking for
079tonight is just permission to have a the community in the school district come together and explore the possibility of a science Magnet or Science school science-based school in Rio Rancho right now we're talking about R ranal Elementary as the possible site for several reasons the current enrollment at R ranal Elementary is 481 the capacity for the school is at least it was built for 600 I'm not sure if that includes Portables Patrick would have to tell me that but as you can see from the trajectory we have a lower Kinder in first grade enrollment than we do second through fifth so we are not seeing as many young students in that neighborhood and the idea is how could we draw more students into riar ranal Elementary and keep the fact that this is a special
080school in our district the first one built in the district and can we do something new and unique with reanal Elementary so the point or the purpose is to increase student choice in Spotlight RI Rancho as an Innovative Forward Thinking District we've identified that rean Elementary could be this site we would like to have a Community Committee establish a coalition of community members to explore option which would include but not limited to and I know Dr Cleveland's had several conversations with people in the district but Intel the chamber the city we have worked in the past with the Air Force research lab and I know some of our schools still do former reenal students have expressed interest in the positions there in now to be on this committee our business partners and state and local
081and land and water bureaus these are just a couple examples these are not what we're proposing but for example we could look at a K5 science magnet on that campus keep it with kindergarten through fifth grade we could change the way we do our related arts and do something as simple as that where we would have a steam class technology class engineering art and math we could be creative and look at a 48 science magnet school with a focus on our midlevel students we have seen some of our students who identify as gifted and some of our middle school students make the choice to go elsewhere for middle school and a lot of them have had an interest in the science and math field so another possible suggestion could be looking at a 48 fourth
082grade through e8th grade population I'm not sure if you're aware but we have access to some UFO documents in our district thanks to Mr Baker so there's an opportunity for primary source research and investigation we've had people expressed interest to build a planetarium on the campus with all the space that is there with Partnerships we could have some top-of-the-line science labs that kids could use for their investigations and then again that OPP that opportunity for genuine research and have the time built in for that the impact we know when kids have opportunities to delve into science it improves their mathematical thinking their written responses critical thinking they have more geographical awareness especially if you're talking about things like the solar system or geology their oral presentation skills change as they're collaborating and presenting their findings
083and it it enhances all academic content we want our students to have an increased interest in science professions and that will build our local Workforce and give back to our community how are we going to pay for it so there we have a bond coming up if the board um decides after we've presented some of the community information maybe that's something that goes on the bond we really want to build Community Partnerships there are are a lot of free resources out there there are grants that we can look at Larry Davis has helped us quite a bit with our steam labs and then we want to see if we can get any donated equipment from around the city I know it's some of the schools that have Automotive or other labs in their schools they've
084had companies that have given them their materials when they've bought new materials so there's other ways we could look at with our Community Partners so the request tonight is just to move forward with a Community Committee no decisions for the next school year to explore a science-based school model at RI Rancho Elementary the committee will spend the next 2526 school year exploring magnet options building Community Partnerships developing a curricular Focus evaluating cost and designing the physical well maybe the physical campus we'll see and with that I stand for any questions and we'll go to the ladies Jessica Tyler any questions be Miller questions thank you okay and you want to start I'm always I'm always on this side so it's just the way my head looks don't do you guys have any G Gary Gary
085Gary has a question go ahead Gary oh boy you're not gonna make it that I'm not are you I I just have comments about because I don't know who who's gonna throughout the 25 26 school year but my my comments are what is the this the size are the goal of an elementary school and then what I worry about is if it's not a I I would love to see a magnet school because what I worry about is when I looked at the numbers from kindergarten first second third and fourth if it was just an average of 60 that's that's 360 kids that would be leaving that neighborhood to go to another school and we kind of just kind of went through that so A C five school science Magnet School makes a lot of
086sense but what would be the goal is to attract 100 more kids or something like that so maybe maybe just as we get into the committee what are some of the overall goals that we're looking to accomplish to keep our elementary kind of intact as far as size but but I do think a K5 magnet school I think there would be a a handful of parents with quality interest in it so just a couple of thoughts as we probably move forward on it thank you board member trip we've talked we haven't even started and all of us have been asking questions to your point a couple of things we've tossed around is keeping a core of that community and then opening it up for transfers we just learned today that if you make it a
087magnet then you have no boundaries so you can't count any transportation so we would lose transportation funding for the kids that live in that neighborhood Jeffrey's writing this down that's so um that's something to consider but we just learn learn that today so as we go through this process our goal would be I think we need to decide if the current facility is going to be sufficient or if there's going to be any renovation and then how many students we could have with that renovation um at least I would say you know 600 is what the current school can take but I think the vision would be I guess whatever we could fit in there and do with a reasonable amount y a lot of yeah I'll leave it at that but you could teach
088every subject through stem correct yeah yeah I think Dr GL wants to add something well I think just a couple of things we what we want is to give this to a community committee and let them look at all of the options we don't even really want to constrain them by this is what you got to do because we've got really capable staff and we've got a wonderful community and what we really want is for them to come together and try to think about what's the very best thing for the School site and and uh you know how do we uh how do we better utilize the site that site once had over 800 children in it so it's about 50% below the capacity and yet that building is very old building and it needs
089a lot of work regardless and it's um you know um the the building is 20 years older than the school district so it was the first uh Public School building built in the community of Rio Rancho and it started as a few Portables um up on the on the CL up in Coralis Heights and and uh and then became a full-fledged Elementary over time but the building is 50 plus years old we had a 50th anniversary and one of the things that really amazed me is how many people in Rio Rancho went to school there if they are the original folks who came to Rio Rancho almost everybody went to school there then they built pesta and it kind of divided um but we have so many people in this community that are graduates of
090that elementary school and they hope to see that school continued to be a viable campus over the years we've also had teachers from all of the buildings ask for a science center in this district and so another way of looking at that site might also be for all of the elementaries to access it for example one of the the hopes I would love to see is a planetarium put there uh that all all of the elementaries could access and use at that that site the site also is a pretty good siiz site there's quite a bit of on that site so um you know you have some you have opportunities to do some different um to do some different things there but it's um you know it could be a site where others come to
091that site to access Services as well but the general model is a core and then bringing additional students in I spoke with Kim vesley about as they start this boundary process would this be an impediment or would the you know how would this work in terms of boundaries and she actually said it could be it could be a real plus to go with that because you're going to have a hard time moving other neighborhoods into that school and so um and then I think the other piece is today we live in a world of choice and if we don't provide choice to our parents they find it somewhere else so looking to provide our parents in this community with more choices about uh the programs that we offer at least at some of our schools
092seems to me to be a smart way to ensure that we don't lose students out of the district so it's but I I hope we just kind of we get a great committee together I've already had a lot of folks say they would love to be part of it uh we've already had someone step forward from the chamber who'd love to be a co-chair um and and let's just see where where they take it where the community takes it because it's their school and see what they what they think might be a good use for for for the building but I really want to underscore you I think there's real strong support of that that school be utilized um and I think there's a really strong feeling that we need to do a lot of
093work at that site regardless and so maybe we just think differently about what that site will look like uh when we go through that process any other questions or comments from the board oh we good we'll consider a motion on this I can make a motion to approve looking into a science magnet school for RAR Rancho Elementary Jeff Morgan a second okay so we have a motion by Jessica Tyler second by Jeff Morgan all in favor I I any opposed okay motion carries thank you all right our next is to consider the approval of donation from um leadership sandal County and TLC Plumbing and once again Dr Chris Johnson our rotech principal will present thanks everyone for hanging out I'm so we appreciate everyone being here go ahead all right so I would uh ask
094the board to consider the approval of the donation from leadership Sall County TLC Plumbing Albuquerque winter uh on behalf of rear wrench public schools and Ernest steton Elementary and I'll stand for questions this is bman any questions so we can board member Jeff Morgan uh make an motion to approve the approval of donation from leadership sandal County and TLC plumy thank you Tyler I'll second okay we have a motion I'm by Jeff Morgan and second by Jessica Tyler all in favor I any opposed okay motion carries thank you thank you thank you again thank you all for being here again say anything else okay all right our next is to consider the approval of um the project the Project Lead the Way Grant and Larry Davis our director of Career Technical education will present Madame
095President Dr Cleland members of the board it's an absolute honor to be here uh presenting to you this opportunity for our students uh four years ago we had a project lead the way at one Comprehensive High School I'm very proud to report to you that we have Project Lead the Way at both comprehensive high schools and next effective next year we will have Project Lead the way at all four uh middle schools in the district so uh one of the reasons uh we've moved toward this is uh is H you may already know this fact that if a student in high school completes two or more courses within a pathway uh National Data State data and certainly our district data would prove that they become close to 100% graduation rate and so we get them
096hooked on Hands-On activities and uh and we walk into these classrooms and we see the light bulbs coming on and they're engaged and Dr Cleveland made a comment earlier uh about 100% engagement and and this these classes is where math comes to life and where science come to life and and we want to provide every opportunity for our students to be engaged we've looked at that critically from a vertical perspective of where they can start it in middle school and then continue that in high school so uh just solidifying their uh their graduation rate and uh I would be remiss if I didn't uh really ultimately give the credit to the people that are behind me so we have Mrs Arnold here who is the school principal at Mountain View Middle School and uh without
097the support of the principles and their knowledge of the the good this does for their students and their willingness to work with their counseling team to build this into their Master schedules and ultimately we have nothing so a very sincere thank you uh Mrs Arnold for consideration of this and and I'm very pleased to to announce that she will have uh Project Lead the Way Gateway pathway but she'll be offering three courses next year uh four courses next year and so uh that's going to be a big plus and of course those students feed directly to Cleveland High School of which we've established Project Lead the Way computer science so uh also I'd be remiss if I didn't uh recognize Shelley Kenan and Shelly is um our uh CTE pathway coordinator and and I have
098to tell you she's pursuing her uh administrative license this uh this year and uh Shelly came to me uh with this opportunity to write the Grant and uh she asked me if she could and and fairly she wrote the Grant on behalf of every one of our middle schools but uh what we were ultimately awarded the $220,000 for Mountain View Middle School so uh I want to recognize my team because I get to be up here and talk about it and smile about it but uh the reality is that I'm standing on the shoulders of giants here that are that are making things happen so a very sincere thank you would you like to say oh yes I would like to say thank you very much because this is something as a middle school administrators
099we have been really working on is how to offer more engaging in a variety of um elective courses to our middle school students and the work that we've done with the CTE department has really allowed us to do this and um we're really excited to be able to offer these classes to students and we're also very thankful for the teachers who are willing to take their time to do the training to offer these classes to our students so we're very excited about this opportunity and we think it's going to be really great for Mountain View that's awesome just to give you an idea what that looks like teachers if they're they're receiving the training during the school year then they're they're devoting uh I think it's from six o'clock to 8 o'clock every evening for
100a couple weeks to to pursue this training and earn that certificate to teach and then of course those that don't have the the opportunity due to family reasons or whatever then they are completing their courses during the summertime so uh as she mentioned just a great deal of thanks to the teachers who who see the value of this and and ultimately uh are driving the success for our students and making their classroom is a place where students want to be so with uh with that said I I respectfully request that uh that you uh consider this uh $20,000 Grant and uh and that we are able to put it in use over the next two years thank you you go sure Bo we good Bo M Jeff Morgan I make a motion of the approval
101of the Project Lead the Way Grant member Miller I second the motion we have a motion by Jeff Morgan a second by um Beth Miller all in favor any opposed thank you for your hard work on this yes thank thank you yeah Dr CL is there anything else you would like to I just want to thank them for their hard work I do too thank you for all exciting to see where this goes yeah I love to see that you know we did we try to aim big right we were talking about with the grant with shy R try to aim big and I it's just we're grateful that we were able to get to that one of the schools so that's a wonderful thing so thank you thank you for all that you're doing
102all right okay our next my my notes are getting scary over here so okay um our next is to um consider the draft um of the instructional calendar for the 2526 school year so Peggy Johnston um our director of Human Services will present thank you so much president grith Dr Cleveland members of the board so our calendar committee has been hard at work again the Cal committee is made up of representatives from each school and each department of the district and that's a great way to combine our efforts and make sure that everyone has a chance to be heard uh and they get to take that information back to their uh schools or departments within the district and ask questions and bring concerns to the committee uh as we've seen in the past several years
103what we're bringing to you tonight is simply a draft we are waiting on the current legislative session to end and um for of course the governor to then have time to consider anything that was presented during that session this happens to be a long session so we have a little bit longer wait so we'll be back again uh it might be easier Claudia if we go to the list of important dates I know that calendar is a little hard to read up there on that screen so maybe just looking at these dates will be a little bit easier and I'll just go ahead and go through uh everything for the calendar and then we'll stand for questions on this instructional calendar and then next we'll have Dr Christopher Johnson speak to you about the Rio
104Tech calendar because it will be slightly different from the instructional calendar so we're looking at our first day for the staff as I believe Dr Cleveland mentioned earlier that it would be July 30 potentially quite warm in some of those portables for sure uh that would be three days of professional development for our instructional staff and then students would all come on August 4 uh we've got some holidays in here we've got professional development days and I wanted to mention that what we are presenting tonight is actually a draft calendar allowing for 10 professional development days in both Elementary and secondary the way the current legislation is written that's only available to Elementary however as mentioned we have been presenting to this the state and are hoping that that bill will pass so that secondary
105will also have sorry 60 hours of professional development if we need to come back we will make those changes and then make it very clear on the calendars we may in fact divide the calendar so that you have Elementary and secondary calendars so that it's not so confusing for families uh but we've got the Labor Day holiday there in September and then we have a professional development day after that on September 2nd giving for a little bit longer weekend for our students another professional development day on October 8 which would then lead into our fall break uh of two days on October 9 and 10 professional development day in November that's on Monday November 3rd leading then into election day on November 4 on that Tuesday and as you might remember we are now required
106to be closed for election day uh because some of our schools will be used as polling locations we have the Veterans Day holiday on November 11 and then our Thanksgiving holiday November 26 to 28 just a quick note uh board memb Miller was uh very kind to point out to me if you look at the actual calendar uh the text is correct but the well I believe on the calendar the T text is not correct uh so it is the 26th through the 28th the calendar block is correct but I just had those dates incorrect on there but I will get that corrected on our calendar so your list is is correct and then we move into um Independence High School having their winter graduation of course in December our winter break we aligned with
107APS with Albuquerque Public Schools we know that is a very important thing for many members of our community uh not only not only for our students and staff here who may have family members or parents who are in APS uh but we want to make sure that we're aligning with that so we are we are uh then we return for a day of professional development before the students return we've got a holiday with Martin Luther King Day in January and our President's Day holiday in February which then leads into a new another professional development day which allow again will allow for another long weekend for students we have a professional development day on March 27 which happens to be a Friday that will lead us into a spring break you may notice that spring break's
108a little bit later uh than it has been in the past but again we did that to align with APS they already had their set and so we wanted to make sure that we were aligning with them uh we have that Vernal holiday on April 6 and then professional development day following that our graduation dates are to be determined part of that again is wait we're waiting on a little bit more information from peed and from the state uh but we will get those dates figured out as soon as we possibly can this year we do have to go a little bit longer we're going to go past Memorial Day which I know we've wanted to avoid that in the past but we just didn't have a way to get around it this year so
109that our last day of school will then be May 28 and at the request of Dr Cleveland and some members of the community we have added in a makeup snow day which would be that next day uh so that if we do indeed have a make a sorry a snow day next year in our calendar I know we haven't had one yet this year but if we have one next year we would have a built-in day so students could actually have a snow day so we did have definitely heard that from the community uh one thing you might know Noti when looking at this is we don't have two set dates in November or March for our elementary conferences uh that's because we are looking at some alternatives to the way we can conduct our
110conferences next year and the proposal right now our elementary team is working on is making the month of November and then the month of March available to our teachers to schedule those conferences at their convenience with with families uh we hope that will be an alternative that will be helpful to folks um many folks find it difficult to come in especially if they have children in multiple schools or um we may find that our staff gets everything done prior to those two days anyway um and so we didn't feel feel like it was a good use of the time of the district's time but if anyone has any specific questions about the conferences uh Jan Shanel has so kindly offered to come up and answer any questions um so pajam Hots either um but at
111this time I will go ahead and stand for questions on the uh traditional instructional calendar okay all right thank you well Dr Gin did you want to add anything before we go to question the only thing that you might want to be aware of and and so far we're not seeing it develop at least we don't think it is um a concern was raised about graduations and having graduations earlier uh that in fact um when students were no longer here we would be we would lose revenue and so um you know we've tried to we've really tried to make it very clear why we think that's not a good idea um I mean I can't even imagine how Albuquerque would handle that with the number of high schools they have uh L crues I think
112has seven graduations uh we have four um and I don't know any place in the country that makes students go to the very last day for seniors and and some of that is uh oh okay well you know they're in school and you don't need the funding for them um students in high school has been my experience having taught in high school for many years is they're done um in the middle of May I mean they're you can make them come but it it's they they're they're pretty much finished but a much more important reason is that um CNN begins its summer gra uh its summer program early and if we make them go till the very end of May they can't they can't attend that first summer session and a lot of our students
113here in Rio Rancho go to that first summer session at CNM they' be locked out of that so we're hoping that that does not come up but that was a real concern it was raised if you know if you let them out two weeks early you're going to lose the revenue for those students and that would hurt our district so we're monitoring that right now we hope that in this sense that Common Sense prevails because like I said I think they're through learning at that point in high school stuff uh but many of them do have summer jobs to go to they have CNM to go to they have other things and uh it also Cuts them out of some of the summer employment you if if you can't report until sometime in in in
114June so those just that's something we're watching and just want you to be aware of that okay thank you any other questions from the board Jeff anything Gary I I just I just want to make sure that that the Native American Community because I know we have so many families and I bring it up every year but all Kings Day is on January 6 2026 the first day that students return so I know every peblo celebrates all King's Day so I don't know if Suzanne or or if that was discussed with the community because I know means a difference to 10,000 families in this community yeah so we have already been in discussion with our native Community uh about that topic we're waiting to see if the bill passes um we still we we' like
115to have a conversation with um with our native Community about perhaps a compromise that uh that we could all be happy with and so uh Suzanne has reached out to uh one of the uh one of the parents who wrote us a very nice letter wanting us to explore that issue so we're already in conversation I can tell you what um you know some would like to keep the um the the mortar void being the same for all students to symbolize that we are all one class and we are all in this together but honoring the native dress in terms of the clothing and the shoes the moccasins all of the Lays all of that kind of thing to see if we can find something um that we could all live with but of course
116whatever the statute eventually says is what we will do we will comply with but uh we are we already are in the process of having discussions with them okay any other questions from the board comments okay board we good board M Jeff Morgan I make a motion to approve the consider of the draft instructional calendar for the 2526 school year for M Mill I second the motion okay we have a motion and a second um all in favor I I any opposed okay motion carries 5 zero thank you so much so much at this time I'd like to invite Dr Christopher Johnson to come up and speak to you about their rotch calendar okay I have to say I was so excited when I opened up this calendar and I saw the professional development days
117I just was like this is wonderful so I hope that we can do that go uh president gab Dr them members of the board um so part of the conversations we've had uh with the instructional calendar and and I do sit on that that calendar committee is looking at the uniqueness of having students who are attending high school for some part of the day and then college for the other part of the day uh so we really looked at the calendars for CNM and rearo public schools and tried to mesh them as closely as possible uh one of the big differences is certain holidays that that CNM does not observe uh that rear Rancho does and and our students still have to come to school on those days because they do have classes uh so
118we were trying to find ways to kind of work with that calendar CNM doesn't start till September 2nd so we would have August 4th we would start traditionally July 30th 31st and August 1st as our PD days which is the same as the district August 4th students start and that's where we'd get a bulk of our instructional time with them and then as we move into September and October we would sprinkle in the PD days uh Labor Day is one of the holidays that CNM does have so we would have that day off uh the Thanksgiving break would only be Thursday Friday because of the fact that CNM still has classes that Wednesday uh of Thanksgiving break so they would only have Thursday Friday off and then December the the intent is to finish by
119December 15th uh CNM finishes on December 14th so the students would start their winter break on December 15th because of the missed holidays for fall break and things like that in the spring term uh students would return back on January 6 uh again CNM doesn't start till January 12th uh Martin Luther King uh observance for that holiday is the 19th CNM and rear Rancho do observe that as well February March and April is a long haul uh because there is no Spring Break um so we've tried to find ways to do some PD days in there I it the 10 days does get approved so that way we are able to kind of give students and teachers kind of a little break in there uh CNM would end at the end of April April 26
120and then we would look at wrapping up our school year on May 19th which gives students the opportunity to take summer classes our digital media is an Associates so they are required to take summer classes so that's why we we've decided to to go with this calendar and I'll stand for questions yeah questions um Gary trip questions on this question about funding do we lose funding when our kids aren't in school or or and then in the summer school can we can do the kids have to pay for summer school with CNM or in that Center no so summer school for C&M as long as they are dual credit uh my understanding is they they will not have to pay for that okay and I believe the instructional days turn out to be the same
121on both calendars okay okay and you still meet the 1140 hours and that's what's that's critical I I I wonder um and I think what what drives some of this is CNM has a union and they have a te a contract and their teachers adhere to that contract so we we have to make some adjustments I kind of wonder what's going to happen in March just to be honest uh of whether our students are going to come when um their brothers and sisters and others are out for the week and spring break and whe they're going to show up but I guess we'll we'll find out hopefully they will and uh it's just a rethinking change just set as hard but I think that you know our students will step up and do the right
122thing so it but I see that as the biggest challenge on this calendar is the loss of that spring break for them and I do know that over the past two years we have had that spring break at the CNM reenal campus where our students for welding and computer networking are showing up uh that Monday through Thursday um for their classes so they they did show up uh we did not provide them Transportation um and they did show up yeah so that's good I just think as you know probably as our students do enroll we just need to make sure that we have that out there that they understand that as they enroll into this this is what the calendar is going to look like right and we're really enforcing and with them you are
123college students too and and so you know you need to act and behave as a college student yeah that's different other questions Jessica I just have a procedural question because we jumped the gun on that we're okay yeah so we're going to vote on this one as well no I know but they were under they were both they were all the items were under one agenda item and now we've already made the motion and took action so is it okay we just do another motion under that yeah okay I texted the lawyer in the middle so we need to do two yeah so we'll we'll vote on this one as well okay so if there's no other questions I'd be happy to make a motion other questions or you guys good I'll make a motion
124to approve the riotech 2526 school year instructional calendar draft one Jeff Morgan a second we have a motion in a second and all in favor on this any opposed okay motion carries 5 Zer thank you yeah I had to yeah all right our next um our next item is to consider the additional nomination um for the new School Board Association excellence and student Achievement Award and so last meeting we had two and we did Julian Garza and um also Craig Brandt um but one of the board members um Gary trip was asking if possibly we could nominate another one so I'm going to pass it to him to to nominate another and still since this is honors if there's anyone else that anyone thought of and would like to nominate we can do that as
125well at this time but um Gary trip thank you madam president fellow board members I I would also like to to nominate Carl leppelman who with his per his outstanding professionalism and and what he did to for this community for the last 30 some years um he led uh a school he led curriculum he led with his leadership for the entire district and I think we all know Carl in this room and I think we could create even a better language and I'm then I'm warant to and trying to honor him with but I would recommend Carl leelan for the the award as well thank you thank you thank you for that nomination I think it's a great nomination when when Gary brought it up I was like yes of course I still feel like
126when I look out I should see Carl sitting out there and so we should just maybe put a little stand alone thing out for Carl but I but I love that Dr did you want to say it's just a very worthy nomination and and when Gary raised it I thought the same thing you know someone that worked for most of the history of the school district it's a principal district office um person and uh and he just gave so much of himself over those years so it's a wonderful nomination that's great there any other nominations at this time okay with that we'll go to a motion I'll make a motion to approve the nomination for the new School Board Association excellence and student Achievement Award for Carl upman thank you I'll second it Gary trip
127we have a motion by Jessica Tyler second by Gary trip and all in favor I any opposed okay motion carries thank you and thank you board member trip for for having us add that okay our next um two items will be by Michael Madrid our director of purchasing and chief procurement officer will first consider the award for RFP number 202-1638 of work includes the review of the process and procedures within K12 Special Services Program the review is designed to evaluate the program's efficiency Effectiveness and compliance with relevant regulations and policies identify inconsistencies and irregularities and offer actionable recommendations for improvements excuse me uh the solicitation we received uh six responses resp responses will receive from afon Partners CLA which is Clifton lson Allen LLP Gibson Consulting Group Incorporated learning Little People LLC public Consulting Group
128LLC and wested as is typical when we get the proposals we do a pass for verification to ensure compliance all documentation affidavits were received and all venors were deemed responsive and were eligible for evaluation by the evaluation team um recommendation this afternoon is to award this procurement to the highest ranked offer Gibson Consulting Group Incorporated okay Dr do you want to add anything on this just yeah we've been talking about doing this for quite a long time and U and and as I said in my introductory remarks we want to identify those things that are doing that we're doing really well and uh and and we should continue to do and replicate um we're also looking are there some areas we could be more um efficient and perhaps there's some different things we haven't even
129thought of in terms of our program so it's just a a a look at at our program uh always with the focus of how can we do something better than we're doing it right now but we also want to capture those things that we are doing really well already so um that's that's the purpose of this this study yeah that's great thank you any questions from the board I'm just is how long you think this will take this study uh we still need to negotiate the sequence of events and the deliverables once we get the approval from the board we'll start that contract negotiation um we would I guess Envision about a six Monon schedule thank you any further questions from the board on this we'll consider a motion I'll make a motion to award
130RFP number 20 25-16 the special education program review to Gibson Consulting Group Incorporated board M Jeff Morgan a second have a motion in a second um and let's go ahead and do a roll call vote on this one vice president Morgan yes secretary Tyler yes board member trip yes board member Miller yes president galberth yes motion carries 5 Z wonderful thank you okay our next is consider the award for RFP number 202-1758 classroom addition and security vable upgrade so once again Michael Madrid off president grith uh superintendent Dr Cleveland members of the board the requested action this afternoon is for the board to approve um the award of RFP architectural firm will be providing comprehensive Design Services for classroom editions and a security vestibule upgrade at Cleveland High School the scope of work summary includes
131site analysis conceptual design con developing of construction documents and permitting assistance ensuring compliance with applicable codes and District standards the form the firm will coordinate with District stakeholders consultants and Regulatory Agencies to develop cost effective functional and secure design Solutions construction Administration Services could also include uh the review of submittals and construction observation Services I just want to give a little more detail on the scope of work the program and design portion of it is for uh new classroom a new classroom building which include eight classrooms a program designed for a cafeteria extension SL addition the security upgrades would would include a CMU perimeter wall uh main secure Lobby upgrades and design and secure Lobby vestibules between uh the gym and the cafeteria the other thing I want to express about um mlan U plus
132Architects uh they do have extensive experience in K12 uh they also have experience with rear Rancho Public Schools most recently they were the design consultant for the cenus Del norti Elementary School HVAC replacement project and currently they are partnering with snpc uh for the new Independence High School um in response to the solicitation we received 12 proposals I'm not going to read The Proposal names unless you want me to they're they're listed there all firms were deemed responsive and were eligible for evaluation and recommendation is that the board approve the evaluation committee's recommendation to the highest ranked offer mlan plus u architect and design okay Dr clev do you want to add anything just a a question I because I forgotten how many classrooms uh does this will will this build eight okay thank you
133questions from the board yeah I I got one go ahead I didn't see and you might you might I think you kind of talked about what was going to be added but I didn't see a design do you have one yet so that's a yeah is forign okay all okay I just well you read off the list like you already had in I that's just an idea what you want to do right correct the so what we do is we develop a um an idea of what the project consists of and then we come up with a project estimate that we give to the architect to design around okay good enough man I just want to see what it look like that's okay any other questions and oh by the way you don't want to
134read off the 12 I'm sitting there saying to myself what if you would have selected eight of these guys we would have had to read all eight just I'm just throwing it out there for you just to go right ahead it's just one okay this is one of those few that we're not doing a multiple thank you by the way yeah I'll make a motion to award RFP number 2025 d017 dfac architect design services for Cleveland High School classroom addition and security vegetable upgrade to mlan and you architecture and design board M Jeff Morgan a second okay we have a motion in a second and J will take a roll call vote for US vice president Morgan yes secretary Tyler yes board member trip yes board member Miller yes president galberth yes Mo carries 5
135Z awesome thank you thank you board thank you um just as we were looking at this one just to Dr Cleveland i i as just as I was thinking about money and where everything's going and different projects we're doing I'd really like and I'll forget if I don't ask now i' but I would like to have an update on our bond and where that money is going and how and what the projects look like right now yeah so if we could do that in the next couple board meetings I would appreciate that would be a good thing and because I think we've had some updates kind of spread throughout but it'd be good to have just an update on everything at one time um okay going into advanced planning so our next meeting will be
136March 10th um and then we have Elementary School conferences 13th and 14th Spring break is coming up not soon enough but 17th through the um through the 20th and then March 24th and we have a regular meeting as well as April 14th any questions on any upcoming upcoming things on the calendar I don't have any questions but uh Peggy can I see you afterward if you don't mind please thank you so much awesome all right then our meeting's adjourned for tonight thank you all thanks just I something for you to sign here for