001[NO AUDIO] [Video playing] Speaker: That's a nice virtual background. Pamela Cort, President: Welcome everyone I apologize we are running a few minutes late. Thank you so much for waiting. I call this meeting to order officially at 416. [Roll call] fantastic four of us are here and let us all now stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. [Pledge of Allegiance] Thank you all. Motion to approve June 2, 2026 Work Session agenda. [Voting] That's unanimous. I would like to table the previous session minutes to allow time for review. Thank you so much. The board met in closed executive session to discuss a limited personnel matters specifically so that the board could discuss with the superintendents and the board could continue to discuss possible changes if any to the superintendents contract. And the board met in close executive session
002on Tuesday June 2nd 2026 from 3 p.m. To 4:10 p.m. To discuss limited personnel matters as permitted under section of the Open Meetings Act specifically so that superintendent could update the board and advise regarding specific employee movement and contemplated movement. Regarding status of Las Cruces public schools . We do not have any public comments . With that, we will move to the superintendents report. Ignacio Ruiz, Superintendent: I'd like to begin with our spring ceremony of Champions and give Coleman a little bit of time -- on May 20th over at Centennial High School we celebrated our spring champions recognized the student athletes and activity participants who earned first place honors at the state level for the event filled the gym with energy pride and celebration as students were recognized for their outstanding accomplishments. I want to
003thank students coaches, advisors and family who support these achievements. Events like this remind all of us that extracurricular opportunities are a critical part of the educational experience. Participation in athletics, fine art and activities helps develop leadership teamwork, discipline and a sense of belonging that supports success both inside and outside of the classroom. May 21st I had the opportunity to attend Almeida Community Elementary School pre-K moving on ceremony, it was a joyful celebration of some of our youngest learners as they prepare for their next step in the educational journey. These moments are a reminder of the important foundation our schools provide from their very first years with us, I especially enjoyed the students singing and more information on this it was great to see these little kids that probably couldn't sit still that were paying attention
004following directions and they were just an awesome, they had their shades on, looked cool. The parents as you can imagine had a great time at this event. Throughout the final weeks of the school year campuses hosted senior walks at elementary and middle schools, this tradition continues to grow each year and provides graduating seniors the opportunity to return to the schools that helped shape them. Walking the halls in their caps and gowns, our seniors inspire younger students while reconnecting with the staff who supported them along the way and I'd like to draw your attention to that photo there. As I was walking in, the four five kiddos on the bottom were recreating their photo they had when they were fifth graders at Bellevue. The same kiddos, that was great to see. Of course many of you
005joined us for six commencement ceremonies where we celebrated the accomplishments of thousand 279 graduates and if you look at the first picture somebody familiar there congratulations Mr. Nolan on his daughter's graduation as well. I want to congratulate each of these students and thank the families educators and staff members who helped them reach this important milestone. Graduation represents the culmination of years of hard work and is the goal towards which so much of our work as a district is focused. It is always one of the most meaningful times of the year and board members shook more than 1300 hands. Following graduation the southern New Mexico Community Foundation hosted a special senior celebration recognizing students who have demonstrated exceptional perseverance and determination in overcoming significant challenges on their path to graduation. The event was a powerful reminder
006of the resilience of our students and the impact that carried adults, schools and community partners can have in helping students achieve their goals. I will be gone in June. This was a film that was written and directed by a former CPS exchange student. It was filmed in Las Cruces in 2024, and this past May 17th to be specific it premiered at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France, that's a huge deal when you think about just the exposure for Las Cruces public schools, but again this was a film inspired by Katarina's experience as a high school student in our community, making this accomplishment especially meaningful and this recognition demonstrates we are increasingly being seen as places where creative talent can thrive and where stories worth telling can be found. As New Mexico's film and media
007industries continue to grow, opportunities for students in digital media visual arts communications theater and career and technical education are more important than ever. We are proud to see a story rooted in our community reach one of the world's most respected film festivals and showcase Las Cruces on the global stage. At this time I would like to invite an update on this year's Count Me in Attendance initiative , as Bridget comes up here recognize I know they're here visiting us today, just our partners and just really highlight their commitment to our kiddos and the commitment impact that they're having with regards to attendance and advocacy and the impact you also have on our community. Thank you again for your support. Speaker: Good evening, thank you for giving me the opportunity to shine a light on a
008very special program near and dear to my heart. This year we were very happy to revive the count me in Attendance initiative which is a program designed to encourage strong attendance and reward those kids that do come to school and encourage those who may not want to come to come. We are celebrating the sponsors that made this possible . I would like to thank them for the contribution to our students! [Applause] To all of our sponsors once again thank you for believing in the students in Las Cruces Public Schools and your partnership helped transform count me in as a growth opportunity. Please help me congratulate them one more time. [Applause] Ignacio Ruiz, Superintendent: Thank you to our partners in that great initiative at this time also I would like to welcome Staff Sergeants from Las
009Cruces Police Department to give us a quick update as we have incorporated the keeping it Real curriculum in our schools this year, I know you've been part of those graduations and you can see how much the kids got out of it beyond the drugs etc. But really making the right choices what it means to be a great citizen and helping others, so thank you again to Staff Sergeant as well as our Lcpd partners on this. Speaker: We have our team members here from the National Guard . First of all, thanks again for allowing us to have this time to come in and report out on the opportunity the board and Superintendent Reece provided to us last year in Reimplementing the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program curriculum back into the school district . It was a
010great experience for our soldiers in regards to being able to be part of that re implementation through the report that we had submitted prior to the board meeting today for you to read, we worked collaboratively with the police department based on the information from the National Drug Prevention Professionals Law Enforcement Agency in regards to the epidemic that's going on with fentanyl and things of that nature and we felt we needed to do something to reconnect with our youth at an early age, so in collaboration with Lcpd we talked and looked into the data program and decided to implement that curriculum and we are happy to say we are able to do outreach to six elementary schools this past school year. We reached 390 one fifth grade students , it was very well received from all
011the schools through parents, through school administration, through teachers and I believe that our staff with the National Guard had a really good time with the kids. I know we got some good feedback from you the board members that attended our graduation ceremonies and we really appreciate that. it means a lot to the students and the community, I will let Sergeant Gonzalez talk about Lcpd and what they have going on in regards to their program moving forward as well. Speaker: We have two other officers , we were at Central Elementary because we are bringing the program back but due to the success of the program we are trying to rebuild it currently and I do have four more officers slated to go to training in July so you can Reach more schools and each I believe
012some of you guys may have been at Officer Kelly's graduation, he had a good time over there and even after before that we were sending more to Dare training and hoping to send four more after the school year starts and continue to grow the program. Speaker: Our team is going to add the elementary school to the program and we are going to go back to MacArthur elementary and if Lcpd is able to send four more officers to training with their eight and the three schools that we do outreach in there's a possibility we can do outreach and bring that curriculum to at least 15 elementary schools next year. So we are pretty happy about that, and just the reception we received around the school district in regards to the effort we have going on .
013Pending any questions? Speaker: Thank you for your support and advocating for these supports in our schools and really offering an opportunity for our community and our students to really see our military personnel, our officers as resources, as partners and also that mentorship piece is so important in our schools especially with our kiddos that are getting into that middle school age as they matriculate over to middle school so I just want to thank the teams for just the positiveness of this and the impact that it's had on our kids, so thank you. Mr. Frank: How long is the program? Speaker: Typically we are at school for a semester during that time. on the National Guard site, all our services are free. The partnership we have with the schools and things is if they could purchase the
014books for the students and the schools have been happy to purchase that literature that we need, but our services are all free. Pamela Cort, President: I had the great honor of getting to see the Sergeant in action twice because he came in when I went to another classroom subbing, he came in it was really great to see his interactions with the kids and see that the program is now more focused on decision making and I really appreciated that, going to the graduations you all did such a good job for the kids it was really beautiful to see so I'm really excited that you are getting more officers trained and that you can offer this. To schools request from you? Or how does that work? Speaker: Just by word of mouth, for our program anyways. One
015of the things we will wind up asking for down the road in another meeting is services that we have and that we have this available if any of them are interested and once we get more staff members we can help support them at their school, but just so they are aware of it . Member Frank: I only got to attend one session at MacArthur and unfortunately I missed the graduation, certainly a loss to me, but I was really impressed with the MacArthur presentation and the enthusiastic participation of the students, and the mature responses that they were giving to the prompts. I was also pretty impressed that I actually got dragged into the whole thing myself, I remember there was a point they were dividing into groups about how you felt comfortable about different types of
016confrontations and it's just a really high quality presentation and it only has upsides for our students at a really key point of their lives, thank you for doing this. Pamela Cort, President: We appreciate all of you coming tonight and presenting to us. Thank you. It's an exciting meeting, you can stay if you want to but we will also be okay if you sneak out. So we will be moving to old business, which is the second meeting policy KCB. Speaker: I am here for a second reading of policy Cxb, the dates suggested from the last board meeting have been included in your packet as well as a copy so I stand for any questions or changes that you would like to make. Pamela Cort, President: When I look through it I didn't see anything, but --
017Member Frank: I tried to go through it very carefully at its first reading, so I'm very content with the way it stands right now. Pamela Cort, President: I would like to entertain a motion to approve the policy as it is in the best interest of the school district to take immediate action. [Voting] We are going to move to our second reading with Doctor Miller Tomlinson . Fingers crossed! Speaker: We took the three inch for the shorts out and replaced that with mid-thigh, we took flip flops out as a prohibited item. We did some clarifying, Mr. Frank made the point that where it says clothing jewelry accessories or personal items that the mid-thigh thing wouldn't necessarily apply to that, suggested some clarifying around that. At Mr. Frank's suggestion, part of the discussion was to remove chest.
018Mr. Frank felt we should address that somehow, so we put that back in under section G, it is a little nebulous about an appropriate amount of cleavage, how do we say that in a policy so that it is enforceable? I will just add, I was at the convention the other day and they had a dress code posted so I took a picture of it and one of the things they had in there was no visible cleavage, which you could still have a V neck or a scoop neck top, just without cleavage showing so you all could discuss something like that. Other than that I did not have a lot of luck finding successful ways to address the chest area without making it too restrictive or uncomfortable for administrators to enforce. I believe that was the
019extent of the revisions, so I will stand for questions. The code simply stated no halter tops, no tube tops, no visible cleavage, was the part of it that addressed the chest area. Member Frank: It's probably not realistic. I don't think that's realistic, I think given the state of fashions as it exists right now , I know this is difficult but I think we need to have something in there, we need a rule and I think we do need some flexibility and I think we need to allow each principal to sort of do what they think is best, but this is really difficult. I really firmly believe we have to address the issue, as difficult as it is. Because, it's just unacceptable to have no rule . If you have no rule then you have no
020enforcement and that can lead to all kinds of complications and we don't want to go there so you have to have something. What we have to deal with is coming up with something that is workable and realistic. Pamela Cort, President: Can we see all of letter G? I do have an issue with reveal an unreasonable amount of the chest or cleavage because what is reasonable to someone may be unreasonable to another and there is a lot of wiggle room right there and I also have an issue with not showing any cleavage because as I stated in the meeting before there are some women , people are all different sizes and they are going to be some women that are going to have cleavage no matter what and then it becomes body shaming . Anyway --
021I don't know what to do. I am also unsure about the language, as Mr. Frank stated. He thinks it needs to be addressed. And just from the staff perspective, from the admin and for and implementation I think we need to think about that because there's no sense in passing a policy that we are not comfortable with implementing Mr. Frank: It seems like it's a solution in search of a problem, I don't know how we define this. I don't like number five. I don't -- I like the inches change to mid-thigh but also I would rather not address that situation either. Shorts are going to be short, shorts are shorts. It's in the name. So I don't know, whether or not it goes above the mid-thigh I just don't think it matters to the educational experience
022necessarily how short your shorts are, what kind of shirt you are wearing I just don't think any of it matters so like the pornographic stuff, the threats, undergarments is all general sort of B professional kind of stuff. I would rather not touch anything that has to do with 5 or 3, let's throw four in the mix as well. Maybe four can be obviously transparent, I could see that as an issue . Those three I'm just not comfortable, I don't know how we enforce it. What is that burden that we are creating? Is this an actual problem that is impacting learning ? I don't know, I don't think so. I haven't heard that necessarily, that's my thought on all of this. Pamela Cort, President: I think we can take number three out because it really is
023covered in number two. If your shorts are short enough that we are seeing your underwear or other things, then they are too short and we've already done that in number two. Mr. Frank: My wife makes fun of my short shorts all the time, it's so hot here. All opening a can of worms that I don't think we necessarily want to deal with or should be dealing with, necessarily. Pamela Cort, President: And it was brought to our attention because there are a lot of people in principals concerned with the manner of the dress that is happening in the school and I think that's why it is here. And we can talk about that, but we can get rid of number three because it really is taken care of in number two. If your shorts and skirts
024or whatever it is that you're wearing is showing underwear then that's not acceptable and it just doesn't matter where they fall . Member Frank: In the past the solution was that they had these t shirts that they would give to young women -- I never actually was personally involved in any of these cases but there were many young women walking around the school on rare occasions with these t shirts that said I wore something inappropriate to school today. And it was sort of done in good nature, I don't remember student rebellions or anything of that sort. I think if you don't address it then you are basically allowing anything to happen, and that's a scary situation. I think a bad rule is better than no rule . Maybe there's not a lot of gain, but
025at least there's something there and take the analogy to pornography is accurate. It's hard to define, but we know it when we see it. We all know what unreasonable is and we can leave that up to the discretion of our school administrators to go there. Ignacio Ruiz, Superintendent: This is also part of the feedback that we receive from our principals as well, that they were looking for consideration of these type of situations that they deal with as well. The conversation we had with principals, and the feedback. Speaker: I believe that was feedback from principals wanting the excessively short shorts addressed, some principals had shared that they were visitors in the school that commented on the dress code and how students were dressed and they were just sharing that as part of the feedback that they
026wanted something that they could use to make some rules about some of these problematic clothing choices that students were making. Pamela Cort, President: The feedback wasn't clear to me. If we just kept two so it doesn't become a whole measuring thing, if pants or shorts or skirts are showing undergarments, then that just takes care of it I think. Speaker: I think the counterargument would be that sometimes there are no undergarments showing, that there are just body parts showing. Pamela Cort, President: But we took care of that in number four, right? Speaker: Yes. It would address the accessibly short shorts if you decide to keep four and two . Pamela Cort, President: The only thing for me that's just really difficult is the whole cleavage thing. Speaker: The recommendation is to remove three and five .
027Pamela Cort, President: I couldn't find any other language that didn't just apply to one gender , and didn't body shame. And that's where I have my issue. Mr. Frank: I remember telling some people other people can be offended by this, for short shorts with some people. I remember I once told a young man to turn his t shirt inside out, there was something offensive on it. And I recall a young lady who had some obscenity with her girl power socks but I told her I loved the socks, make sure nobody else sees them . It's a variable thing , who perceives it as a problem maybe needs to loosen up some but then I can see that it can be too loose. Speaker: So we have somebody that's going into a school and they are
028saying I don't like the way these kids are dressed, I don't know who these people are. I have staff and another organization offered feedback to me that my staff's shorts were too short. It's 95 degrees, we're out on the land, they want to be comfortable. So I think I don't want to make policy based on a few grumpy folks that are just going in and saying these kids these days, because who cares? I just don't think it matters. I also get the principle feedback, I also think let's empower those principals to manage their schools, and I think we do that. You know, it's your high school. It's definitely a high school thing, create culture. Build best practices, do the things that a principal is supposed to do in those schools and not rely on a
029policy that's going to be impossible to enforce. Like, this isn't going to matter. Ignacio Ruiz, Superintendent: The other piece of this, we did some research and part of the Black Education Act calls for local school boards to involve parents personnel and students in the development of these policies, and public hearings shall be held during the formulation of these policies in the high school attendance as well as each school district. This is if you are establishing student discipline policies, although this is not necessarily a discipline policy but it is tied to that enforcement piece. We are going to be holding public hearings next week and part of that is also to get feedback to you so there may also be some information that could help inform some of this as well. I just want to make
030you aware of that. Pamela Cort, President: I just received a text message from someone listening in, her concern was the rule was short should not show underwear and if the rule was if they weren't wearing underwear and we addressed that in number two. Wear clothing may not expose undergarments, it takes care of it in number four -- the failure to fully cover stomach buttocks midriff and genitals. Mr. Frank: We need to give our school administrators the policy to do what they should do, we need to have something. That's why I think flexibility is important, each principal needs to do their job but we do need to have policies in course that empower them to do that. I welcome comments about that before we move on. Mr. Frank: I appreciate in our position , we want
031kids ability to express themselves, to have their hairstyle, gender identity and expression nonconformity, sexual orientation all of that to be respected and if that is an overriding part of this policy , then how a principal uses the information looking at the specifics of the kids dress then perhaps a reasonable cool head will prevail. What is your sense of the temperature of principals regarding this issue? Are they haunted about this is happening too much? What causes that? Is it that some people are complaining, or? Speaker: Thank you for the question. I think it depends on the principal, I think it depends on the teacher. There are some principals, back to Mr. Nolan's point and Mr. Frank's point as well, building culture I think principals obviously are doing that. They are trying to build a culture in
032their buildings where kids feel comfortable being there, expressing themselves but they are also kind of caught between parents I think Mr. Nolan used the words uptight or grumpy or something, there's kind of a wide range of folks in the school building, and I think where principals are coming from they would just like to have something as their building culture . You may have one building where people are more chill and one where people are a little more traditional, but I think where principals are coming from they would like that tool to be able to support them as they build culture because as we all know as soon as you tell someone no, you can't do that, they are going to find the policy and say show me where it says that I can't. Can I
033think that is where principals are coming from as we are trying to honor the perspectives in our building we want to have a tool that will back us up. Speaker: It continues to be a concern that they have every year that they bring forward , and as you stated earlier it's not necessarily elementary, it really is middle school that continues to bring it up, high school also has their specific concerns regarding student dress but I would just like to say they are trying to build their culture at their campuses, they just would like some support and some guidance on how to provide some guidance to it whenever there are some situations that arise. Pamela Cort, President: If we do get rid of number three and number five, just saying you have to fully cover your
034stomach, derriere and your genitals, and that your underwear or lack thereof should not be showing, does that provide enough of a rule that principals could be comfortable then moving forward and making sure that things are happening the way they want it to because then there will be a regulation that goes with this and I sort of feel like maybe G is a bit of a regulation , so do you think this is enough? Speaker: I do feel like those are the underlying issues in terms of exposure with students with the midriff and then also the very short shorts, I do feel like if we had those guidance that that would take care of the majority of concerns regarding campuses just from the feedback the superintendents have gotten from the principals and I know the group
035Doctor Wendy had met with also that was a lot of the concerns they had had and they had also gathered feedback from their levels. Mr. Frank: I get the policy as a tool to create the culture, I guess what I'm really failing to understand is why short shorts and midriffs , what is the problem necessarily around those two things specifically? That does seem to be what we are focusing on. I just don't know why those two things and the cleavage piece why is that impacting education, why is that impacting academics? Behavior and classroom management? That's what I'm not understanding. I'm just not seeing where those things are connected . I think that's where principals are trying to navigate some domestic tranquility in their building and trying to come to a happy medium. There may be
036research out there that says if your belly button shows, you don't do as well in math. I don't know, I haven't seen a study like that , I think it's trying to get to a place where they are honoring all of the perspectives and listening to all voices in the school building. Pamela Cort, President: And I think there's a lot to be said for addressing to learn. When you dress for the beach, when you come to school -- And if you're in your pajamas -- if I came to a board meeting in my sweats I would not be as productive. I think there's a lot to be said for when you show up to school , you don't have to show all your skin, you can just come and anyway that's my standpoint, and how
037you present yourself. And I think it's never too early to let kids know how to present themselves, first impressions sometimes are everything. I will just leave that there. Mr. Frank: If we are having that conversation, a uniform solves every single one of these issues. Whether we are going to do that now, I know obviously . I wore a uniform and Catholic high school, it was just pants or whatever. It literally solves every single thing that we are talking about. Member Frank: I don't think I can support a policy that doesn't address the issue of chest , and what I wrote I thought was a middle ground type of position. It was nowhere near as strict as what was originally in there , and I admit that this unreasonable thing is impossible to measure, it's not
038measurable but at least it gives our building administrators something to work with . So unless it's in there, I would think not putting it in there is not facing reality, it has to go in there as difficult as it is to deal with something in there is better than completely leaving it out. And if it is completely left out I will vote against this policy when the time comes to vote. Mr. Frank: To Mr. Nolan's point I don't think there's any research that says dress has a direct impact on student achievement and outcomes but I think the consideration for me here is also that the focus when you look at dress and dress code is that the focus is on learning, the focus is on safety and really going back to that positive school culture
039which does impact them learning but not make it to where it's so specific to all of your points that we're going around measuring and doing those types of things. I think there's some meat to this for our principals, but not to the point where the focus becomes on this dress code and now we're running around focusing only on this. That it is about learning, that it is about safety and those types of things. Pamela Cort, President: Just as Mr. Frank is concerned about wanting to keep in number five, I just think number five calls out. It is, it's sexist. And if we are going to keep chest in then I would keep chest at number four and say failed to fully cover chest like we had it in the first two. I don't know how
040else to do that, help me with that one. You could, it leaves some leeway but it also comes back to the culture the principals when you say failed to adequately cover . Speaker: Instead of specifically targeting a certain area, it could be considered reveal an unreasonable amount of upper body instead of just targeting one section, just something to consider because I do understand the concern of just the specificity. Speaker: If we take out the word cleavage and perhaps just leave number five as is because we don't want to adequately cover the genitals, we want them fully covered, right? I think perhaps leaving number five and taking out the word cleavage, would that be easier? School board members, I appreciate having this conversation because we don't want a policy that appears sexist or is unreasonable to
041adhere to, that's not the point. Speaker: So the recommendation at this point is to remove three, or shorter than mid-thigh because two and four would cover that and then in number five remove the word cleavage and just leave the word chest, and that would cover both boys and girls and anyone that is showing too much chest. Mr. Frank: We say have the right to be treated equitably . Letter C is where we say they have the right to this. I am just trying to put the paradigm of look at it positively as opposed to don't do this. I wonder if our policy has enough positive wording that says we think your dress is important which I suppose is letter C number two. To ensure the students dress does not disrupt the educational process, those are
042important. Our purpose was also to encourage them to be themselves. I think that would be a fine academic undertaking, maybe have some purpose as well. Speaker: We do have public hearings scheduled for Monday and Tuesday of next week, so what I would like to do is incorporate these changes tomorrow, repost the policy on the website and where the policy revisions go and Miss Jamison and the communications department will send out information about those public hearings, so the public has time to plan but also where they can find these policy revisions, I don't think adding language, I think we can have that additional language later on and I just wanted to apprize you of our process from here, how it will be communicated to the public and then the plan is for tomorrow to get this
043posted with your recommendations from this evening so they are publicly available for comment. Pamela Cort, President: Board members, anything else? Thank you so much for coming up and helping us out. Now we will go to new business, I believe that is u again doctor Miller Tomlinson. Speaker: We are here this evening to present policy JFB for consideration and possible approval, and the reason why possible approval this evening is because the board is going to vote and then it will also go to referenda, and as soon as those votes take place then the policy will go into effect. So there's not some wiggle room like it's going to go into effect as soon as the vote's over, it will be an active policy. This policy that the board is considering is called the one time transfer
044rule , it allows student athletes one free transfer so they can transfer among to a different high school and not have any impact on their eligibility for athletics . Many districts of more than one school are not in favor of this because what it does to enrollment. We have student movement for reasons other than academics, we are jumping around for athletic reasons and not academic reasons so that's the first piece of it. The other piece is thinking about the work that you have done on your student transfer policy just to ensure balanced enrollment. As we are thinking about the rebuild being very intentional about increasing enrollment in the Mayfield area this could certainly have a negative impact on schools where students could go to other schools where they think the teams are better, they might
045have a better chance in participating so there was an article that came out and the perception is the rich will get richer and vice versa, schools that are struggling with enrollment and being competitive in certain sports could continue to suffer under this policy. So the policy change here for your consideration is to retain the current MMAA eligibility rules for LC, so essentially the rules in place today would remain in place for students even after the vote. As the school board you have the latitude to go above and set your policy . Do you have anything to add? Speaker: There is consideration about eighth graders being able to open enroll . Speaker: We sent out basically are you in support or not support 65% of our coaches indicated they were not in support of this roll,
04635 said they were And on February 5th Mr. Ruiz and myself met with all of the athletic coordinators high school principals and had a conversation and discussion about all the different impacts this might have on our district, especially our rezoning and keeping balance within our programs and schools, I believe everybody was in agreement this would not be in the best interest of our district. Pamela Cort, President: The students were all of the same mind. Board members, do you have any questions or comments? Mr. Frank: Every large school district This policy would mostly impact opposes it. Is that what I'm hearing? Speaker: Las Cruces Public Schools is second largest in the state, Albuquerque I don't think is in opposition to it but Rio Rancho and Roswell are two of the districts that are also looking to
047either continue the current rules or adapt the rules to suit their district. I think ultimately we're so far removed from there that the impact up here is very different. We are 17 minutes square for any side to another but to doctor Wendi's point, students who have the ability to change addresses or who have a vehicle will become much more advantaged than students who do not have those options because if they are a bust student they will not be provided transportation. Secretary Nolan: Part of this is the litigation, when transfer is not approved or they go through the appeal process then sometimes it gets into legislators and even the governor's office sometimes and the other piece of this I'm probably going to not say this correctly but the threat of legislation then it becomes law where
048now you don't have an option so that's where the enemy A is also coming from as well. I sit on that board and I definitely don't agree to this but part of that is again the legal piece that's coming down and not just us, this happens across the nation in different states. As our executive director does collaborate, he sees that and that's part of that as well. But he's going to have the greatest impact on the largest school districts in the state. Speaker: The one thing I want to point out is just the difference between adopting a policy after first reading and waiting second or third versus adopting a policy after second reading and waiting third because you just adopted a policy after second reading and waiting third and under your policy on policy adoption
049and revision you can do that on a determination that it's in the best interest of the school district to take immediate action. But in order to waive second and third reading which is what is before you right now, that category is in response to change in statute or law. I just want to make you aware that if you decide to proceed and waive second and third reading to forego that, it would be in response and has already been pointed out by Doctor Tomlinson the issue is trying to not have a gap in time where there's chaos over how to apply the new rule because your existing policy is really written in contemplation or in recognition I should say that the rule that exists right now . Pamela Cort, President: Board members any other comments or
050questions. Mr. Frank? Speaker: This was cut and pasted from current laws , and we discussed changing for example the pronouns his and hers to theirs just so it is parallel to our other policy . Mr. Frank: The punctuation after discontinued programs, does this sentence hold together or are we missing the end of the sentence? Speaker: I believe that the end of the sentence... Mr. Frank: It could just be a clarity issue, there were some clarity issues. And then the other thing, we reference eighth graders at the end of that. Do we want to call them eighth graders? Students who are ascending into grade nine or? Is it just a clarity issue with that letter? Speaker: If the board decides to forgo further reading and adopt this tonight, it sounds like they are also approving adapted
051to Elsie policy standards as discussed in Open Session. If you decide to approve the policy after following first reading you say adapted to LCC policy standards as discussed in Open Session, and then you would proceed to explain the subject to the bylaws waiving all subsequent readings. Does that make sense? Confirm there's also a clarification change that needs to be made, it's discussed in open session. Mr. Frank: I'm asking chat. [Laughter] If we just add a period at the end of it doesn't the other sentence make sense? We can also just make this language our own now. Shall be afforded -- That's how I read it, at the school . And we'll have eligibility immediately because your home school no longer does. I think that's the sense of it . I put in the search engine
052I can't find that exact language. If a sport is eliminated and a student participated in that sport they can go to another school and immediately be eligible for varsity . What number is that? Or did you find it? This isn't the new proposed language but we are adopting it because it makes sense for us. I think those are my only clarifying points and I am fully confident doctor Tomlinson and Mrs. Ronca can put together the points. [Reading text] I would like to entertain a motion to entertain the policy and adapted to standards and clarifications as discussed in Open Session and subject to adoption of new eligibility bylaws waiving all subsequent readings to timely address the bylaw amendments. [Voting] Pamela Cort, President: Thank you all so much, we are now going to move to doctor Mr.
053Silver, the discussion of the board meeting scheduled for the next school year. Speaker: I am here to present to you all the calendar, it's your favorite thing to do. Just a couple of notes on this, one of the ongoing struggles for the group is often the schedule. Robin was very helpful and we do have the October date for that already . That meeting I think is October 6th, which is why there's not an October meeting there. They have not set their spring calendar yet, so this calendar doesn't take into consideration the spring calendar. Maybe a other thing to add to this , two extended work sessions identified in my handwriting as E w eight seven, so the meeting in early August and again in February which follows the same kind of structure as this current
054year. I am here for any questions you all might have. Mr. Frank: The other thing, and I don't remember when it is , the national school board I do think that's an important one to attend . Speaker: Have they established the dates for the February conference in Santa Fe? Mr. Frank: We can adjust, there's a lot of dates we don't know yet. we can change that once it happens. I think we've had 20 established meetings in years past peer how many meetings do we have scheduled? Which one is the equity ? Secretary Nolan: It does not look like that date is posted, they still have the 2025 date and that was February 2nd through fourth. And looking back the last couple of years, the number of meetings that you all had this current academic year
055is higher than you've had in past years . The current one we are in right now included dates like the first Tuesday coming back in January peer could also included dates like we did have the election day in November that was a meeting I believe by two. January you said we had two meetings this past year. It's back to back, October and November . We have two meetings in December, sometimes we don't get that done . Would a work session in early November, sort of a mid-year check in . I feel like I was the one that got us to two. Pamela Cort, President: I do like the idea of having an extended work session on November 6th. That will give us more time to cover whatever would need to be covered. We could do
056it October 30th, which makes it two weeks in a row but you could do it either October 9th or October 30th. October 9th would give us two meetings in one week . I don't know if that matters to you all. Secretary Nolan: I believe Miss Robin has confirmed the October 6th date . Pamela Cort, President: Let's toss around some times for just another extended work session, it doesn't have to be the entire thing. If we can just meet for a couple of hours that would be great. Would you like to do October 2nd? Yes, exactly. Mr. Frank: Maybe we can consider to keep two extended work sessions knowing it's preparation for the state of the district, takes a lot of preparation and I guess I'm trying to think and I apologize the reason for adding
057a third work session. Secretary Nolan: It is scheduled on October 28th, which is Wednesday. I don't think it has an impact on strategic plan updates, I can't think of anything. Pamela Cort, President: And I know those extended work sessions are strategic planning and where we are as far as our growth, so I'm fine with that just leaving it as is. If we feel like there's too much going on though we can add another meeting , how do you feel about that? I would like to entertain a motion to approve the 2026 2027 board meeting schedule. [Voting] For zero, thank you very much for your patience. And just when you thought that you were done, doctor Miller Tomlinson we get to see you again. So sorry, I got all excited. I missed a whole thing. Doctor
058Miller Tomlinson talking about our student internship summer program. Speaker: I just wanted to give a brief update about the summer internship program because it is a little different this year. Our member Tenorio has been very engaged in the program, so I wanted to just be able to share how the program is different this summer and try to answer any questions you all may have. As you know, the summer enrichment internship program has been in place for several years, prior to this year the public schools has been in heavily involved in the program helping to place students, doing some training with students for those components that are required for their curriculum. The change this year is that the department has hired an external company called Education at Work. So now education at work is partnering with
059towns and tribal governments for the program and at this point I know there is frustration in the community about students waiting to be placed. They are doing virtual internships and students don't want a virtual internship, they want a more hands on . It's one day a week, I think it's on Wednesdays We did help them with a facility . So that is where the program stands And parents are expressing a little bit of displeasure with the county or if it's the external company it's kind of a storm of just a lot of changes with stuff not going as smoothly as it has in the past. I did put in a call , our community partners don't necessarily discern between who's doing the internship , I do not want the displeasure to reflect poorly on our
060Ace program . I did want to just express some concerns to the Education Department . It's not necessarily about being an external contractor per se And the other thing is I'm not sure if the students are going to want to engage sitting in the classroom , maybe they don't come so I just wanted to get some more information about those aspects . So if you hear comments in the community and questions, they're really happy to help people navigate . Pamela Cort, President: I'm reading a note, unfortunately I can't be here because I have a family engagement. I wanted this discussion because I have serious concerns about how our students summer internship is being run by the company education at work. I'm not alone, a lot of us share this concern. Last Tuesday morning May 26th
061at the regular session the commissioners had questions and comments that expressed worry and disappointment with the students summer internship program peer can update was presented by the county's HR Assistant Director who later sent an email with an exclamation to the commissioners. I was forwarded the email and I hope the information provided is relayed to you board members and to the public. I recorded the minutes of the commissioners discussion and posted it on the socials. Some parents shared current and past experiences of their children in the program. The majority had not heard back from the program that were seeking the same generic responses to their inquiries while the email from Seneca indicates that 700 kids applied, 500 supposedly placed with local businesses and another 200 are being placed with virtual or remote assignments. While Miss Seneca's
062email didn't get into specifics I first learned through a comment on my post that student participants would be required to do X amount of hours of training to be considered a work based learning. Since then, my own daughter has been placed in a remote assignment and has had to check in via Zoom. It appears to me to be some type of course or capstone project. My daughter is already expressing frustration and other students are not fully participating in the Zoom meetings and she worries this may be a problem. As a parent getting zero information from the internship program even though I helped her apply and gave them my contact info. When I asked my daughter for information she has very little to share. It could be this is just my teenager's M.O. There's definitely not
063a clear vision of what she is doing for the whole summer. She is waiting day by day for emails and notifications via Slack. As a parent trying to plan out our summer not having a clear written plan or knowing how to best support her is disappointing. From prior Summers we know there are employers so the applicants can have an in-person experience. I am more than bothered that remote remote placements do not give students experience with real world employers and networking and even promotions after the program. I will forward those Facebook comments to you that I have received also. Thank you so much. Speaker: Thank you for the question, that was the intent of my phone call to give unsolicited feedback and to just have some questions because I was really seeking to understand what is
064the need behind the classroom hours quacks I don't agree with the notion that we have to have classroom hours for it to be work based learning so I just really wanted to have a discussion with someone at the college and Career Bureau about the why behind this and also provide some feedback about the frustration we were experiencing with this vendor. So one of the components of the program is that they hire coordinators to work with the students and many of our teachers serve as the coordinators and they have the same feedback . The program started yesterday, I said what are you going to do? What are you doing on Monday? They said I don't know, I don't necessarily know where to go or what to do so this is all feedback that if there's a
065formal way to share that ? Pamela Cort, President: At this point there's not an actionable item for us. Speaker: I believe the frustration because she's been interested in this program as a board member but also now experiencing it as she just wanted to bring us to the surface and help our community understand where our limitations are as a school district even to place students in our own departments has been difficult as well, so it's not as easy as come work with us, we've had to go through additional steps as well. Ignacio Ruiz, Superintendent: I think this is definitely a conversation we need to have next year but knowing it's also an election year, that can change. Know Speaker: We don't have any information, we can work from the county to see if we can get
066some of that information but to be honest I don't know how much of that where the counties involvement stops and where education at work starts, so that still remains to be seen. I'm just curious to see how many students come and how many persist . Secretary Nolan: It's a good program, we should make this a legislative priority. Maybe it's a letter to our delegation come a we really should be pushing something to highlight this program . To say this year has been worse than the other two years is really saying something. It's interesting because we are investing in basic income kind of thing, it's really percolating and the state is funding these kinds of things. We are not dropping the ball, others are dropping the ball. Pamela Cort, President: And now we have our safe
067routes to school annual update . Ignacio Ruiz, Superintendent: I just wanted to bring up, the opportunity that we have to be outside, so many activities and activities for our kids. Thank you for your work around this and the impact she and others have on our kids. Speaker: Thank you so much, I just wanted to thank you for this opportunity to come and do the annual update, this is a funded opportunity from the Department of Health this is something we want to keep you informed . I know you know the program well, thank you for your kind words. We continue to do what we do, I'm just going to throw out the numbers for you and I will get to some of the exciting new projects. This year we implemented for the first time fifth grade
068graduation, so that was something fun to do as well. We walk in lest there's lightning. We had over 4000 participants in that event and this is just a really great community so that was super fun and we'll continue to do that and that's 100% of the elementary schools participating in every way they can. We go in 14 times during PE so the kids don't need a bike, they don't need to bring anything with them. Because we saw so many middle school kids not being able to ride bikes, I thought why aren't we teaching these kids how to bike quick so we implemented this year for the first time a Strider bike program, this is fair Acres Elementary . Hill rise and Messiah we bought a fleet of bikes and there was a 95% success rate
069. Then after school we had some learn to ride bike clubs, and then we also have just after school bike clubs in addition . all of the bike clubs are a great thing to do in the big family event they do annually is the Fiesta . We had 272 students, 101 volunteers. We repaired 92 bikes and gave away 174 helmets. I think we had over 24 community partners . The family bike fiesta is to prepare our students for national bike to School day so those spread out May 5th to May 8th. We had 169 students on bikes and then we did have 35 students on scooters. It's a very inclusive event where everybody rides , we have helmets the health community we are actually working to produce a video that will be out soon that
070will give you a better idea. We have continued with our classroom education and now have three of us full time in the office and three additional part time staff so we were able to get into every fifth grade classroom for a full curriculum which includes things you can see on the left. The kids go on a walking field trip preferably to a light intersection and they can practice when they are in middle school and they would already have had that education when they were younger. Mr. Dickinson asked us to come in and do education with all of the middle school students so we will be doing that when school gets back in as well. We do a lot of engagement , we work with a lot of partners . We were honored to host the
071New Mexico School summit this year, they came in participated. It was interactive so everybody participated in presenting and it was really a great community builder for the state and we continue to work with our partners around the state. Southwest disposal is one of our big community partners, students are selected typically through social work or we leave it up to the school so we get a list and reach out, we always give away helmets as well. And I will just add here quickly I think we have at least 4 or 5 of those kids so it's fun seeing these kids receiving the bikes and then coming to participate . One of the things that we've done , one E is equity and another E is engineering so we work to improve our built in environment. We
072apply for and receive funding , on the left you can see Columbia and then theoretically we are working with the city so that would be the long range and on the right that's a little bus lane, we've just received another grant to make that would connect to Peachtree Hill so students would be able to get in and out. With that grant we have to do an opening event, the Elks Trail opening we had to do so it was a two mile event. We went all the way there and then back and we also happen to nail the windiest coldest day you could ever expect but nonetheless we had 101 attendees so we were thrilled. It was really well attended. As Mr. Rodriguez talked about, we've been really involved all along . It reduces serious injuries
073and fatalities if there were to be an incident. It's really important that we build the environment in the way that best suits their likelihood of success . On top of doing bike camps , we go walk the neighborhood for a half mile radius around elementary schools. We're looking for anything that the city can do or the county can do to improve, we are looking for obstacles or issues. We create reports and then we send it to the city and just let them know these are some obstacles students might encounter to prohibit them from getting to school safely. That's one of the things we do in our free time. Next please. This is a super exciting project, I just want to share with you we wanted to make a trail and we want kids to be
074able to do it more than once , so the county approached us and said we would really like this to come from within the school rather than come from the county on us. They asked if we would be interested in doing an engagement project. My colleague did a series of curriculum , took them out, invented something called practical dreaming and really worked with them on engineering. The county was involved. How funding works, how voting works, all kinds of things and they wrote letters and they got to visit the county commissioner and so we took a bus to the county, you can see on the left there's a group and then the winners of the riding contest got to go and then the county surprised us by having a really elaborate voting set up for the
075kids, so the kids actually got to vote and then it was a tie, it was absolutely amazing but I got a text message from Sara, her daughter was there and she said it was just the most amazing experience her daughter had had just being able to really understand as we talked about how government works. It was a really fun project and I think the next one there's the proclamations and the kids up there, we also go to city council kids from Booker T Washington and they go to city council for the walk to school and back day as well. So we engage twice a year with each of those and then the next one will be just a short video if you can just do a quick video. [Video plays] I just will end with
076that super joyous picture of kids walking to school, thank you so much for your continued support. You are all there doing the things along with us and I appreciate it and now if you have any questions? Thank you so much. Pamela Cort, President: I'm amazed at this bike and walking empire that you have created in a very short period of time. When I started on the board it was very small, there wasn't a lot going on and look at all the things you have accomplished. I'm so proud of you, it makes me teary to. Not only because I love you as a person but you are amazing at all these things you have done for the kids that would otherwise not have had these opportunities, thank you so much. Speaker: Thank you, I really appreciate
077all of you and now you are even happier because I think we are done? Right? Pamela Cort, President: I will get that with you and figure out, when I first started on the board I feel like you were just starting to. All right you all, I would like to entertain a motion to adjourn. Please take the roll call to call us out. [Roll call] I vote yes, we are adjourned at 6:48 p.m.. Thank you all. [Music playing]