Board of Education - Jun 16, 2026

001[>>] [Audience, board members chatting] Speaker: Okay. You beat me to it. Speaker: Traveling. Speaker: It was cold and rainy come new York City was perfect. We did the Freedom trail and the concert. Pamela Cort (President): Good evening everyone, I'm going to call this meeting to order. Thank you so much for being here on this hot summer day. [Roll Call] Please stand for the Pledge of allegiance. [Pledge of Allegiance] [Applause] Speaker: Where is my sticker? Pamela Cort (President): Thank you so much, I appreciate that. I would like to entertain a motion to approve the June 16th 2026 regular session agenda . [VOTING] I would like to table the approval of the June 12th minutes to allow more time for review. [VOTING] The ayes have it, 5-0. I would like to entertain a motion to approve the

002following consent agenda items, notice of board meetings, open meetings act notice resolution, contracted food services between public schools and Steam Academy for the 2026 2027 school year, family support center implementation and management phase two. [VOTING] The eyes have it. The board met in closed executive session Tuesday June 16th 2026 from 5 p.m. To 5:17 p.m. To discuss limited personnel matters , specifically so the superintendent could update the board regarding specific employee movement and two, the superintendent could update the board regarding investigation of classified or certified employees and I affirm the items discussed in closed executive session were limited to those. I would now like to turn the microphone over to [Inaudible] Speaker: We are here tonight to proudly recognize Jessica Barnhill for receiving the 2026 National Community School Coordinator Award for the Institute of Leadership.

003She was honored at the family engagement conference in Long Beach California, this national recognition reflects her outstanding dedication, leadership, and service to her school community. Since joining the campus in November, Booker T Washington, November 2019, she has played a key role in strengthening partnerships and connecting students, families, and staff with meaningful resources. Her work reflects the heart of the motto, she leads with care, builds strong relationships and consistently keeps students and families at the center of her work. Through her leadership she has helped create a stronger sense of connection, trust, and support across the community. We are grateful for our commitment and with that I have the honor to represent . [Applause] Speaker: Would you like to take a picture with us? [Background chatter] How are you? We are just so proud of you, thank

004you so much for coming tonight so we can honor you. You put us on the map. Thank you, thank you. Before we move to public comment I would like to remind our audience of the board's procedure for handling public comment found in board policy and on the public input form for student policy. It is limited to three minutes for individual speakers but the board members can restrict or waive these limits. The board welcomes public input, it does not receive criticism or personal comment on personnel matters. The board neither adopts nor resumes responsibility for comments made by individuals in the public comment section of the board meeting. That being said, we only have one public comment this evening. You are both first and last. Speaker: Since it's a slow night, I can comment on anything I

005want. I'm going to take that opportunity. I wish to address you on this update of separation of church and state, specifically the Pledge of Allegiance . You may believe we are one nation under God, but the institution of that language into federal law , into the definition of the Declaration of Allegiance, is not only a violation of my conscience and my freedom of speech, it's an institution of religion. Congress shall pass no law establishing religion telling school children there's a God and that he is benevolent towards America is an establishment of religion. Not only that, it's aimed at children. These are kids who still believe in Santa Claus, and they are being told there's a God, and that God is benevolent to America. That's what they are being told, they are being told that every

006day at school . Somewhere around one third of Americans no longer believe that. When that was passed in 1952, 90, 95% of Americans would have agreed, now it's about two thirds. It's time to rethink religion in America, it's time to force those who want to force us to acknowledge God and every public meeting to stand up and say no, I don't want to be told there's a God anytime at a public meeting any more than you want to be told there is no God every time you go to a public meeting, and if you had to swear there was no God and to declare your allegiance to America you would be as hostile to the declaration as I am . Think it through. Be bold. Thank you. Speaker: Good evening, the president sends her best.

007I'd like to begin my report by acknowledging the hard work the collective bargaining team worked on in order to complete the collective bargaining agreement. We were able to work productively with the district's team and come to a final agreement which our membership ratified with 98% of votes cast in favor. I will go over the details of the changes later in the meeting. Next, extreme student behaviors have been a concern this school year, especially at the elementary level and with special education students. We have brought our concerns to administration and to Mr. Reeves personally, we are happy to report the district is responding with a new program and training this summer, as well as revitalization in therapeutic learning classrooms. We look forward to the implementation of these and the positive effects they should have for both

008students and educators going forward. As the school year has come to a close, we want to offer gratitude to the educators who offer their time, energy and talents day in and day out. Education ultimately comes down to the individual that is interacting with the student, whether that is a teacher or a related service provider or educated support professional or any of the hundreds of students throughout their time in the school district. When educators are supported, students are supported and we thank you for your support. I will now stand for any questions. Ignacio Ruiz (Superintendent): Yes, I think we have a strong agreement and I urge you to ratify it as well as the changes we are able to implement. Ignacio Ruiz (Superintendent): Part of that is the expansion of that and being able to expand

009it to other sites, also look at staffing around those classrooms with regards to ensuring that we have the right expertise in those classrooms, part of the other piece which is part of the ratification today in our agreement is also providing some incentives for personnel. We are looking to expand that program and also enhance it. Back to the comments on challenges we are having around behavior in specifically elementary. Speaker: He is fantastic on making sure that we get out of the weeds, if we are getting intent on too many details he helps keep us on track. He's a great teacher in the sense he assigns homework and makes sure we do it, so that's also helpful as well and he has an extensive understanding of labor law on various marketing practices and helps us when maybe

010we need a little guidance on what would be a good way to bargain a particular article of conversation so I would very much appreciate his continued service. Speaker: Good afternoon . Negotiations were challenging, and again as I have expressed, disappointed in our legislature as to appropriating the 1%. We are grateful that another point five was [Inaudible] Because I know your team had a lot to do with it, thank you for that. So I don't know whether you had an opportunity to look at negotiating, but I think we also negotiated the language if we weren't clear and strengthened the agreement , this is one of the best in New Mexico for classified staff, so tomorrow the ballot will be going out to our members and we are going to give them at least five days to

011vote, especially because many of our school staff are out on their I don't want to say vacation, but summertime. Anyway, we're going to give them five days and look forward that it will be a yes vote. I will email the superintendent and president court, and from then on the rest of the board will get notification. So we have to work very hard at what is going on with the legislature and hopefully partnership with the district that there will be more of an increase of our school employees at the next legislative session. If you've heard me say I'm very disappointed because New Mexico is not a poor state. We've been led to believe it's a poor state, we are not a poor state. It's just that the legislature has to understand the work that has been

012put in place from administrators to teachers to counselors to social workers to custodians to E s, everyone that makes this district work for the benefit of the kids. Employees, staff that put their dedication, their commitment and their service to our children in New Mexico and again, hopefully at this next session they will recognize the work and legislate more. I hope you have seen our agreement. Remember, our agreement is on the website and I will be reaching out for doctor Lozano . I want to thank Terry for her work, and for caring. Dedication that I saw, and her efforts. She's a spokesperson for the district for this time, I did apologize. I do want to thank the district team, I especially want to thank my team, my executive vice president . Also the first time at

013the table was Oscar for rallies. Our nutrition services also always making sure those employees are working very hard. Also Daniel Salazar, unfortunately he was on medical leave but he will be there the next time . Our vice president of secretaries was there as well, we look forward to the committee that we would be having for our secretaries because I think our secretaries deserve-- they are very dear to me because I've worked with secretaries for 30 years so they are very dear to me, not that the admins are not, because they help me do the work I need to do there. I have a fabulous team, and a district team as well, so we were able to keep the 9010 as you see , a big game for our employees who are less paid in the

014district, so I think we did quite well and again I hope you have an opportunity to see everything we are tentatively agreed on this time around . On a personal point of privilege, I'd like to welcome, I had the opportunity to visit with her in a positive relationship with her, so I've even sent some emails to her with some recommendations and so I hope to continue a positive relationship with her. Another thing, I'd like to probably say Jessica is my niece, and I'd like to say that my sister , a single mom, she raised Jessica and she instilled in Jessica the work ethic that she has to work hard, and to always be proud of her culture , and also to have a caring heart. This was distilled by our parents, my father being an

015immigrant from Mexico who worked very hard, and my mom as well, and that distilled in us hard work so that has been passed down from generations, that's why Jessica is the person that she is, so thank you for allowing me to tell you a little bit about my family . Speaker: Thank you, we want to thank the partnership, open dialog, all the bargaining team and hard work as mentioned earlier ensuring we are supporting our team. In moving forward I also want to report last week I had the opportunity to visit the summer aviation program. This regional program brings students together from southern New Mexico, including Las Cruces public Schools, and surrounding communities to explore careers in aviation and related industries. Also what really makes this program meaningful is its commitment to expanding opportunities for students

016who have traditionally been underrepresented in aviation fields, including young women and students from diverse backgrounds. A quick thank you for the advocacy to this program . He is offering his own hangar, grateful to be out there to see the opportunities the kids are having. This event brings together central office staff, physical plant employees, and school custodians for an afternoon of fun and tacos as well. The event was organized by our team and I want to thank everyone who helped make that a success. The feedback from employees has been overwhelmingly positive, and opportunities like this help strengthen relationships across departments and recognize the importance of hard work the employees do every day to support students and schools. June 6th I had the honor of serving as a keynote speaker for Four Corners graduation ceremony, it serves

017emerging leaders from across the Four Corners region including Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado, and is part of the larger organization's mission to develop and support Latinx education leaders. The graduation ceremony was a celebration of leadership, perseverance and service recognizing educators and school leaders who are preparing to make a positive impact in schools and communities throughout the region. It was especially meaningful to celebrate these future leaders and encourage them as they continue their professional journeys and service to students. A special congratulations to Esther Peterson, [Inaudible] Who are working to strengthen public education systems and improve outcomes for students. The fellowship will take place during the 2627 school year and combines in-person learning, learning sessions at Yale with ongoing virtual collaboration. The program focuses on strategic leadership, systems improvement, organization effectiveness and center change. The effectiveness represents

018quality leadership development taking place with within Las Cruces Public Schools. You see the opportunities some of our cabinet members are taking , also want to recognize Columbia Elementary School for receiving customary service Award . Director of construction attended the event in late May, and the award recognizes the successful completion of Columbia Elementary , the project required overcoming significant challenges including unstable soils, steep elevation changes, drainage concerns and an accelerated construction schedule. As a reminder also, summer school graduation for the class of 2026 will be held Friday June 26th, we look forward to celebrating the accomplishments of our summer graduates and recognizing the hard work and determination that brought them together to this important milestone. Also welcome our new Chief Human Resources Officer for Las Cruces Public Schools, she brings more than 20 years of experience

019in human resources, organizational leadership, employee relations, workforce development across educational and nonprofit sector organization. I will invite her just to say a few words, I would also like to extend my sincere appreciation for Interim Chief Human Service Officer. We are grateful for his dedication to our employees and district. [Applause] Speaker: I just want to say I'm honored to be able to say hello and thank you for this great opportunity. I'm on week two and have gotten a chance to learn more about the district, as well as employees of the district and thank you for acknowledging my wonderful HR team , they have been absolute superstars and I'm very less than pleased to be in this wonderful team in the next chapter and I look forward to this exciting school year and getting to see all

020the students, thank you very much for such a warm welcome. Ignacio Ruiz (Superintendent): I'd like to now turn over the time to Carla Reagan to provide a year end wrap up of the family stabilization report this year. Speaker: Good evening, earlier in the year we presented to you about the family Stabilization pilot project along with the guaranteed payment for success program. They are two separate grants, I just want to make that distinction. Tonight we are presenting the pilot project. The GPA program is a three year pilot project so we will be reporting on that as we go through. As you see in front of you, our goal was to serve 100 families, and we served 131, so we are very proud that we met and exceeded our goal. You can see the breakdown, 75 of

021those were from elementary, 23 from middle school, and 33 from high school. From those families, 350 students [Inaudible] It includes students experiencing homelessness and from families at risk. Then what we want you to look at is students who benefited from this. Six of the students were unaccompanied youth, meaning youth that lives on their own, they are independent youth. There's a further breakdown where you can see the different types of housing situations those families were in. You did not have to be one of these families to be served under this grant, we looked at any students who were experiencing issues with having stable housing, and those students were referred from school staff through our referral process and then our team, which included three navigators and our community outreach and staff who all reached out. So then

022this is how the funding was broken down, if you remember we received $1.4 million, we spent almost every penny of it, there will be a little bit left but not much, they did an amazing job spending down the funds, we've broken that down so you can see how the funds were spent. The first was flex fund one , that was 7%. Two was housing subsidies 28%. The district set aside was for the program operational cost, which included salaries and some of the other costs to operate the program, that was 37%. That also included some of the items that we needed to fund of the program, so we needed shelves, we needed some other supplies for the staff but it included things we could purchase for the future. A lot of gift cards for gas for

023families, for food for families, we were able to purchase those to be able to use as the grant ended over the summer. So the next slide is a video that Colin helped us put together that we will share with you, and then after that we will take questions. Speaker: [Non-English Speech] [Video Plays] So as you can see this work was incredible and truly changed the lives of families . At the time the video was made we didn't know if we were going to receive the funding back. We did get word last week that we will be receiving some funding we don't know the amount yet, we don't know all the details but we did get word we will be receiving continued funding. So as soon as we know how much we will be getting, of

024course we will let everyone know, but we are very excited to be able to continue this work, to continue to help our students and families. We are available for questions. For of the students that were part of the GPA program were also part of this program. But it can be any student, parent, or staff member. Speaker: Is it rental properties we are doing these renovations at? Speaker: Those were actually the homes of our families, that's how they qualified so that's how we were able to make them more standard and livable in all the pieces that were needed for that combination. Speaker: I would share this with City Council, and other folks . Sorry , this is bad dollars? Thank you. Who was doing all the handiwork ? Speaker: When I got to see the quotes,

025they were reasonable. They worked with us, their words were they didn't want to make it extensive profit, they wanted to make sure these families had a place to live, my kudos to them, they were absolutely amazing. We had our team reach out to different contractors here in the city and were able to to work with them . None of the projects went over $10,000, that was the cap that we set. To give you an idea , and vendors all discounted prices for us. Speaker: We interviewed each family member and listened to their story and what they needed, we had quite a bit of families who owed a substantial amount of back rent. We were able to get them caught up and then come up with a plan of how they were going to sustain themselves

026throughout the rest of the semester. We kind of just met them where they were at , and some of the rent payments are very expensive. A lot of the times when we were able to support them, we made a plan with okay, we are able to support this month of rent, to allow families to save for the next month, which is very helpful for them. We got the funding around November, so by the time we got final approval and budget forwarding, it was around December. We started the program in January, so we had January through basically June 15th to complete all of the projects and spend the money. [Applause] Pamela Cort (President): Thank you for doing the good work, I love it that our community came together, it's just amazing. Ignacio Ruiz (Superintendent): That concludes

027my report. Pamela Cort (President): We're now going to move to old business, third reading and possible approval of student dress . Speaker: We are here this evening for the third reading and possible approval of policy JICA student dress. Just to remind you of the work from second reading , the entire line was struck having to do with the length of shorts, skirts, things like that. So that line was struck, and then the word cleavage was removed from that line. On June 8th and ninth, we had public input webinars . There were a total of 92, or 95 participants in those meetings , and attendees were invited to ask questions or leave comments. I was invited Questions about the policy but everything they said we captured and sent to you all. We also received emails which

028were provided to you, as well. One of the things that we did was we took all of the input and categorized it, we thought that might be helpful to see where the sentiments fell for public comments, a lot of folks spoke to clarity of expectation, they wanted it to be very clear and black and white what can be worn to school. The second area was student clothing standards, and that had more to do with covering the midriff and of shorts and skirts, so that was kind of the second thing in the comments. The third theme was consistent with schools, we had some of the public commenters saying that certain schools were deemed more lenient in dress codes were more strict , it felt like there needed to be some consistency across the board. And then

029there were questions and there were comments about the administrative flexibility around principal discretion, and really that was added to give principals the latitude for students to be at school if they came to school in, C, pajamas. It was not intended to let principals decide on everything . So all of those documents were sent to you. One of the other things I think it's important to keep in mind here is that remember, policies are the overarching and a lot of the detail work comes in the [Inaudible] So that is another thing to think about we could make the policy even less specific, very broad, and have the details or kind of the do's and don'ts . The plan is to get principals and perhaps teachers in the next few weeks to really think about the regulation,

030because the other thing in the public comment was about reinforcement. I didn't want to get into a situation with a policy or a regulation spending all of our time enforcing that. We want the students to come to school dressed to learn, dress for success but we also don't want to spend all day focusing on the dress code rather than the learning . So with that, I think those are a couple directions to go, really just simplify the list two here is what you can and cannot wear , more broad to be specifics in the regulation. With that I will stand for your discussion. My colleagues here are school principals that can also answer questions, provide their perspective. Pamela Cort (President): It's important to get the feedback for sure. Board members, who would like to comment?

031Teresa Tenorio (Member): I was watching as a participant that day. I think I would have probably spent time here questioning what was struck out . I went home and I got on AI because it can do something in three minutes that would take me more than a day was to compare the current policy we have versus what is being proposed, and from when I did my own reading it didn't look like there was a lot changing here, except for the second reading. When Claude did it, it said there wasn't a lot of change, there was some more clarity when it came to coverage of tops and all those parts. but then whoever recommended striking out how short the skirts could be, to striking out the word cleavage and making it more broad as far as

032chest area, that it kind of made me wonder when I heard that principals were asking for some guidance and clarity on this and some how that would make it harder if we didn't offer that guidance and clarity. With that, I think I'm just really kind of unsure-- unless they are proposing in the regulation they may offer more standardized for how long a shorter skirt could be, how you would measure that. I just thought it would be something kind of like instead of the fingertips , the palm. I don't know how you would quantify the chest area. I've read other people's policies and they were talking about excessive underarm holes, I don't think ours even covered that part unless it's to talk about underwear, like a bra maybe, or chest area being exposed, midriff. I think

033it not being in the policy kind of makes me concerned, and I would like to know how principals feel about that. Speaker: The policy as it stands right now, if it becomes policy, does that give you what you need to create in your schools the atmosphere that we want that is going to be conducive to learning. Can you make this policy as it stands right here, can you make it work for what you want to do? If you believe that, then I can support this policy. Speaker: What we have proposed is better than what we currently have. My opinion is what we have is very difficult to enforce, and what is being proposed right now in my opinion is moving in the correct direction as far as helping us to create an environment for our

034students. It's not necessarily the principal statement. I'm not too familiar, I understand what Doctor Wendy mentioned as far as our latitude. Speaker: Back to what doctor Wendy mentioned earlier, I agree with her, the principal gets to make the decisions regarding doing whatever we feel is right. The way the policy is written is my opinion of what we'd have to follow if the intent is working with the student to try to help them make better decisions and to keep it inclusive, I have no issues with that. My only concern at the high school level, again last time we were here we had an elementary principal and I stated at that time, it's completely different in my opinion. Elementary school kids a lot of times don't get to make the decision as to what thing to put

035on for that day. They are given it, it is chosen for them as opposed to high school students . And so I'm very conscientious of the fact that we want to make sure even at the high school level that it is correcting wrong choices, we are trying to correct them and eliminate them. Pamela Cort (President): Do any other principals want to chime in? Speaker: I have three teenage girls at home, they don't dress like that but they definitely pick their arguments. One could make the argument, as teenagers do, that if it's covering their underwear and private parts or whatever, that that's enough which could still show a lot of thigh and leg that I don't know if necessarily is comfortable, but I don't think it's appropriate in a school setting so I just want to

036say as it's currently written , a middle Schooler or high Schooler teenager especially could get away with something that looks like a denim blue bomber . Just saying, that's the silhouette, right? That's the, is just cover your underwear, we are assuming they are wearing underwear, we don't know how much coverage. Speaker: Thank you for the summary of all the input, there was quite a bit in real time and I was very appreciative of the thoughtful emails which people spent time to send us, and your review that clarity and consistency, that we need across the board to make sure the training we do with our principals and in turn our staff makes the policy consistently applied. The unequal application of the rule that a few parents brought up is an important one, so thank you for

037addressing that the chest or torso is probably a better word to grab the underarm things because we don't want to make it gender specific and I think in regulation the pertinent question is can you provide enough detailed support you think our policy is on target and if so I'm very happy to support it tonight. Speaker: Yes, I glanced through the regulation thinking about the policy as it currently is for third reading, and how the regulation might be bolstered to support the policy, I believe these people are really important to think about. I met with the principal and assistant principal today who said it very eloquently, I wish I would have written it down but I didn't, she talked about how we should set a school environment that is at the very least what you could

038wear to a job . People at Starbucks do not wear tube tops and flip flops, so really thinking about maybe more of a learning environment . Shifting the mindset instead of don't don't don't, express yourself, but express yourself in a way that you could do it in all kinds of places. The guidance we can give them to lead them to understand a little more modest cover up is what we are after in terms of what your adult life will be spent like, so I think we are good with the policy. Speaker: I heard there was students wearing Playboy bunny symbols, they didn't know what the symbol meant. It meant something to another generation , -- there's nothing we can do necessarily with, it's covered under I think the first item on explicit language or symbols

039and messages. It was more in terms of how do we stay on top of that ? I think we are moving into a valuable discussion having to do with the speech side of dress as opposed to the appearance side of dress, and I do want to mention, what you can maybe resolve through regulation, but constitutional issues around speech expression of dress, I think you have a lot of latitude in terms of the parents side of things but on the speech side of things we start regulating a point and start moving into the constitutional realm, just looking at this I just wanted to raise a couple of things, it's that time of year to advise not just Las Cruces but other districts on their dress codes, and the gang affiliation is the one that has been

040most struck down by courts because what constitutes gang affiliation is first of all, even experts disagree on that. A couple of things I want to just raise, the courts that have struck it down have done so on two bases. One is unconstitutional due to its vagueness, so the need to define it pure and some school districts who had it struck down did so because they were basically leaving it to law enforcement, they would send the image to law enforcement, and law enforcement would locally say yes it's a gang symbol, or no it's not. It's very clear that the courts don't want law enforcement or administration ad hoc making that decision. The definition needs to be clear enough that it's not suggestive , not vague because things like crosses could be getting into gang affiliation and

041starts getting into freedom of religion expression and that's where it starts getting complicated so I think it could be handled through regulation but I just want the board to know that it does need to be defined in order for it to pass constitutional muster. So examining any of these areas as well, it's just going to be really important that when you're going into the viewpoint arena, for example we talk about hate speech and so we need to be able to show that it would result in a substantial disruption of learning. So I definitely trust, based on what I've heard as I sit here with you that we have enough experience behind us to know how disruptive hate speech for example, worn on a t shirt, could be disruptive. The most recent New Mexico court case

042example along those lines where children passing out plastic doll fetuses as a speech statement, and the school district, I'm trying to remember which one, but here in New Mexico, who had that challenged. They didn't have to prove the actual disruption, they needed to show the likelihood of substantial disruption. That burden doesn't exist with the appearance kinds of comments that you are having, but it absolutely does when it comes to regulating the expression of viewpoint. It has to be based on the substantial disruption, and the particular place where we have to worry about vagueness the most is with respect to gang affiliation. Speaker: It does seem vague, a kid can make up any words for what it stands for but I don't know if there's some type of trend out there that's very dark and disgusting

043that these kids just happen because sometimes they like morbid stuff. I don't understand it, I just felt like if that was something happening , how would we even identify it if that's not adult slang, we are kind of the last ones to find out . Speaker: Trends come and go, and I think trying to quantify or codify all of the possible things that can be worn on a t shirt would be untenable to do that. We need some direction, some definition around what is hate speech so there is clear guidance about what that is. There's middle school teachers who would probably want to ban six seven, but that will pass . I think that's a fair point, I think it goes back to the disruption and how much disruption does something cause in a school

044. Speaker: The stop it app , I think building relationships is so important so students have an adult they feel comfortable with, especially if someone is wearing something that makes them feel threatened or unsafe, the Stop It app and also just letting students know A safe place to report any kind of behavior That makes them feel unsafe at school. Speaker: Does the handbook going mostly from regulation? Speaker: I believe it does, typically that's where the most detail is . But the purpose of the handbook is to communicate the expectation . I think it would be appropriate to reference both the policy and the regulation, because we want people to know what the expectations are, and if we just reference the policy they may not get to the part where things are more clearly defined .

045I think that is what we would want people to see in the definition. Schools Typically take them in their own handbooks as well. Ed Frank (Member): I would like to see a requirement we are going to take another look at this about another year from now and maybe get Feedback from the principals. So that we have time to take some steps to fix it in a way that we can make the school environment what we would like it to be. Because is that something we can add? We are at the point now where we pretty much have to move on. We looked at this thing, we spent a lot of time in it, but let's make sure to evaluate that to make sure we are on the right route. Ignacio Ruiz (Superintendent): We are always

046looking at the policy calendar on a yearly basis, this could be a policy we can revisit , some of the conversations from our work session last Friday looking at impacted policies, we kind of have a mechanism already where we can revisit policy, so that would be my recommendation. But to your point, that's something we can definitely look back and see where we are. Speaker: I'm not sure all of us want to spend more time on this, thank you for your feedback. It's hardly a ringing endorsement, I realize you're trying to be diplomatic here, but it's hardly a ringing endorsement of this policy. For me personally when I think about this, uniforms was a theme . For me the problem Is around the timing for all of this, it seems rushed and pushed through. I'm not

047blaming anybody, I think there was a legal reason we had to do that, and I get that. But it feels really rushed, and I think the comments and questions we are getting here , and that we are continuing to ask, is really a reflection of the process of coming up with this, and the timing of it. I don't have any particular problems with this Policy as it stands, it's really about enforcement and how schools are going to manage this new policy. We're putting a lot of faith in the translation of our policy without a lot of clarity, and I think that's problematic for us as a board to get into a practice of doing that. It just doesn't seem like we're where we need to be. Robert Wofford (Vice President): I was going to suggest

048we ask for a report on this in support of Mr. Frank's idea next spring, and perhaps we should ask a wider group of students to give some feedback next spring. Patrick Nolan (Secretary): Sometimes we just have to make decisions, this one seems like a specific one where student feedback would be valuable. Speaker: As I listen to this discussion, I am thinking about the extended work session and the recommendations of the consultant in terms of building into policy some kind of measurement or criteria or something, so I just wanted to follow up on what Mr. Frank said about perhaps a review in one year . If you don't want it to get lost, then report or review . Is that enough? Do you see that on that last page? this policy will be reported on with

049student feedback and reviewed no later than one year from date of adoption, and you can pick up from where it was. Robert Wofford (Vice President): That's fine. Teresa Tenorio (Member): The part that was struck out about the mid thigh , is anyone interested in bringing it back? Pamela Cort (President): We took it out because it became, we felt, over policing . Just because when we say, I remember when I was teaching, straps had to be two fingers or three fingers, you couldn't have anything lower than your hand from here. We had a lot of things like that where your shorts tips of your fingers had to -- anyway, we had all of those things but it becomes something I'm concerned with. We don't want to constantly police kids on what they are wearing when we

050start adding more specifics in there of this is how short things can be, whatever, does it create issues and problems and does it become over policing when I don't think it's the point of this policy . Teresa Tenorio (Member): Without a standardized way of how short these can go, then there is no consistency in schools and really just based on whatever the administration in the school decides it's acceptable or not , but there is no consistency, there is no standard. Pamela Cort (President): I know we've done this a bit, but once again, we took it out because the conversation at the last meeting was then it becomes overbearing for you all , and when you've got three kids, when your arms are longer than you are tall it means you've got to wear like capris

051quacks it becomes very subjective. Speaker: That was my recollection from the conversation that we had , we felt it was covered or could be addressed because specifically we were looking at two through five . Teresa Tenorio (Member): It's acceptable, you're covering your underwear, you're covering your private parts. Is that appropriate or are we asking for a little bit more coverage ? Just some bit of standard so that everybody understands what it means. Speaker: I don't know that I have the right answer necessarily other than to say if we leave the policy general and maybe put more specifics into the regulation it gives us the ability to clearly define it more . I don't know that there's a quantifiable amount of shorts we can put on their. Speaker: We had discussed at my former school doing

052cartoon cutouts and drawing lines . It is difficult to buy clothing sometimes for your daughters that fit appropriately to our generation But I think most of us have understood that times are different. I understand your point about there going to just be pushing to that level, and that's the leeway or for principals to call on that. Or handbooks, we would do class meetings at the beginning of the year. We did grade levels, we did it through our science classes, then the next day sophomores, we went through it with examples of a theme . You can draw a picture and just put a line right there and it's kind of understood does it look like that or not? I was going to ask if you worked with individual students and had an opportunity to correct dress

053code violations , there was a did you work with students at the beginning of that sentence. Did it seem to work when you did that? Speaker: As an administrator you always want a second person in that conversation, reaching out to parents and helping them understand. We have a closet with Acceptable replacement clothes , most students would rather leave campus than dress appropriate for a school. The comfort of having those conversations backed by policy and regulation makes those conversations go a little easier , especially with parents that want to support their students even when they may not be making correct choices. Speaker: I don't think we want to create a regulation that over polices. I'm not sure what that looks like in the language of the policy, or if it needs to be reflected in the

054language of the policy, but I really want to make sure that the regulation is in the spirit of the policy, the board's policy is intended to be more general, less rules to follow and they create a regulation that does exactly that. While it can be more specific, creates some of the definitions that miss Gallegos mentioned that we need to have in the regulation . I just wanted to make that comment, so the regulation is consistent with the board's view on the issue. The only other place I can see that is subject to regulation in this policy is where it says reveal an unreasonable amount of the chest, and I think that begs a regulation that defines unreasonable. Beyond that I don't think that was inviting, so if there was some board members here that believe

055that it is, that should be clarified because the way he is interpreting it is the correct interpretation of what you all have heard here . the length of the shorts beyond the buttocks, I don't believe that this policy permits that and I believe at least some of the members on this board specifically is saying we've chosen these words because we don't want that. The bare minimum is also the maximum to regulate the consequence. Definitely the coverage of the stomach failed to fully cover, if that requires more definition, that's fine. But fail to fully cover stomach, midriff, buttocks, genitals, I hear some of you saying that's fine, and administration can do that, but it's not apparent in the policy. Speaker: I don't want the regulation to run afoul again of this sentiment of the policy you

056want to create around this, I want to be very clear in thinking Miss Gallegos for clarifying that. The more nitpicky we are in this policy is I think just going to end up in my view just creating issues. We are moving to call to question which means we are stopping our discussion. All in favor, say aye. Teresa Tenorio (Member): I do a lot of shopping, when I was looking at lengths of shorts, it looked to me -- I'm not asking for us to put in anything about inseams but it looked to me the shorts seemed to be shorts but still not obscene where a four inch inseam, and where I was looking at where these models hands were it was shorter than where their fingertips would be if they were next to their legs but

057the palm of their hand was touching the fabric. Just saying, it wasn't a fingertip measurement but it was at least the palms or close to the shorts. I'm not asking for inseam, but I don't know how you guys are going to regulate and enforce these in schools, and I think there's just going to be kids trying to get away with very short shorts. Pamela Cort (President): We have a motion to call to question, so I am going to take the vote . [VOTING] Pamela Cort (President): That's a unanimous call to question. All in favor of approving the policy? [VOTING] it passes 3 - 2. thank you all I appreciate your time. Let's talk about the approval . Speaker: I want to start out by letting you all know we are not asking for any action

058on that agenda item , for the wages and allowances those are incorporated into the Certified document agreement, so no action specifically on wages allowances , it will be part of the actual CV a, if that makes sense. I'm coming today as part of the administration team asking for potential board approval. The tenant of agreement has been ratified. Speaker: Good evening, we are bringing two items for board approval. We've reached a tentative agreement on wages and allowances and we've also updated the language, we are going to present that for you this evening. Speaker: We have our ten team members here . [Reading Names] just some major updates with regard to compensation and stipends for certified staff. The 1.5% salary and stipend increment increases, we included a new $1,200 stipend for certified teachers leveling from level one

059to level two licensure before the fourth year or fifth year if they are going through instruction literacy training. $1,000 stipend for teachers leveling up from level two to level three before their seventh or eighth year if they're in structured literacy training. We have included a $7,500 stipend for our teachers working in therapeutic learning classrooms as an effort to recruit and retain those individuals . Just to update the stipends we incorporated into the agreement last year, our stipend for working with those classes. Speaker: We also looked at some provisions for safety and support, currently if a student has assaulted or better the teacher the student will be removed, we wanted to have better help for that student and educator when they go to another classroom . The increased communication is so that educators can know what

060corrective actions were taken if a student is written up or sent to the office, that gives us the feedback of how we can work with that student. For support, we call this the Harry Potter provision, we've had educators looking at service providers, a lot of times there would be limited space , we wanted to make sure they had a place to do their work and provide their services. Most teachers and departments were asking requests for budgets , going from campus to campus they might miss that conversation. The last one there, discipline and job performance, last year we worked on a provision to encourage administrators staff courtesy conversation before going to formal disciplinary action, for example if an educator is late a couple of times and the principal notices that, they can say let's not do

061formal discipline, can you please correct this behavior? They were told right away it's a courtesy conversation and no discipline. Speaker: I really like not being in a closet. I shared a storeroom closet space with other floaters in D-wing at Las Cruces High School for two years I think . Speaker: The issue is pretty much never got addressed, it always came down to the wire and we dealt with salary and benefits, the same conditions that were really bothering people were just not addressed, so I am incredibly impressed that you have done that here . The question is, I don't really understand the elementary increase . If you could elaborate on that ? Speaker: We were looking to give them more time, it's difficult for scheduling . Some teachers are under a huge amount of stress, and

062they just have much more paperwork than anybody else in the system, and to address that is very commendable, thank you. Speaker: Our bargaining team has worked very well together, but in the end it comes down to being able to work together on a common cause and finding the language that will support the common cause. [VOTING] The ayes have it, 5-0, Congratulations. Speaker: Good evening, I would like to see if she would like to recognize her team members again. I'd also like to recognize our team members. I would like to take a moment to recognize all the team members and thank them, each of them brought valuable experience in their area . Can be difficult, but we all are there to reach a student agreement. Everybody provided professionalism, taking time away from their campuses and daily

063responsibilities . I'd also like to thank her expertise. I often told her she taught me too well, I really do appreciate it . First is our compensation and benefits, we agreed to a 1.5 salary increase . Speaker: For stipends, We added the special education educational assistance showing it's not just a job, it's a career. Speaker: This is an additional $2,500. Speaker: we have MOA for some of our employees in educational assistants, and we will honor them by providing the longevity for those that were affected. Speaker: We worked hard to align some definitions , we added Thanksgiving day. It's an additional day we included along with those other holidays. In particular this was for our mobile patrol officers. Speaker: We are defining flexible schedules , And definitions for confidentiality in those processes . In our personnel

064records we added what is currently the current practice. In our HR files we sometimes have discipline, employees we see with different discipline memos or concerns that don't go in the personnel file or the website file and so they have the opportunity to request it be reviewed and possibly shredded after 12 months, which is consistent if they have no other incident as well. Speaker: Even with the lead custodians, there have been incidents that possibly it ends up that things are happening, that they're not exhibiting leadership as a custodian, or a lead employee and many also put forth that concern. We really contemplated all that because this is something that was not taken very lightly or if not taken into consideration that possibly in order for that school, that department to be effective and efficient, and if

065we have an employee who is a leader or a manager and they are not fulfilling those lead responsibilities that we take a look at it, however it's not that the administrator is going to recommend a demotion, they still have to go through the process so there is support to provide it for that lead and that manager and before the administrator recommends the motion . This is something that impacts the employees, so please know we took a lot of time on thinking conversations before we decided to put that in language, and that's where the benefit for children because it's the children we bargain for at the end, so please know there was a lot of conversation about that. We still have the opportunity to order what is there in the agreement , let's see what the

066employee chooses to order. We are going to try for a year to see how that works and then take a look at it at the next negotiations. Speaker: There were two salary schedules we adjusted this year. The first is security, most security employees are retired professionals coming to our district, so we created a new range which will be reflected of those that have specific experience in law enforcement, corrections, military experience. Anybody who comes from private security, or those with no experience. We did increase the starting wage on those as well. On the Nutrition services managers, that schedule also went under construction, so it now is going to be reflected of meals served per student versus just having straight job ranges. Our cafeterias will be on our lower ranges than our middle school or high school,

067so this creates a structure where managers may want to take on more responsibility as more entrees are served at different schools and creates more work and responsibility to add a higher wage to that as well. Speaker: The current salary schedules and nutrition services, everybody makes the same. With the director is finding out is that she has trouble for anyone to go to the high school, because they would prefer to stay and the challenge was trying to recruit managers to go to the high school, now it's based on how many meals are served per school to try to again, compensate them for the work that is needed to prepare the meals for that particular level of school, so we have different ranges that reflect how many meals are served, and also how many -- So it

068just made sense , we made sure no one was going to lose any pay. Speaker: Unless they are moving to another school site that would create that. The other part is for the kitchen staff, that they're going to come in at a six hour instead of a seven hour workday. Speaker: We're going to see about the new employees coming in , And these are just for the new hires. Speaker: We get requests from departments to look at the positions in their departments and make sure they are equitable, so we have a change in the office staff. We looked for inequities and pay structures , but we did approve for the physical department and Operations Division staff. Going forward, we made a commitment to create a committee reviewing secretary duties in compensation. Any questions? Pamela Cort

069(President): I do have a quick question, your new employees coming in on a six hour contract and then you have your existing employees working on a seven hour contract? And so the new employees would then be coming in at six . Speaker: Different things are being tried . Any other questions? Teresa Tenorio (Member): Do they have a specific window of time in a year that you guys put in your orders, is that what happens? Speaker: The language used to be not as specific as it is now, and that wasn't necessarily needed . Usually it's the shirts and jackets that have had to be reordered every year . Aware of their clothing and shoes, but at the same time being reasonable , so we took this seriously. Once you order, that's it, don't come in the

070fall-- Speaker: I just made a couple comments on my notes, seems thoughtful and practical what you guys are discussing . Very good job. Speaker: They bring to me things they want for us to look into, many times the language changes and it's based on what the employees are wanting to have , is very much employee based . I shared her experiences, her teeth have been knocked out, she's been bitten, she's been scratched , those things were not included in the stipend . Move that forward, want us to take a look at it . Pamela Cort (President): Great job, thank you. Board members, anything else? Fantastic job, thank you so much. I would like to entertain a motion to approve ratification of wages and allowance for the 2026 2027 school year. [VOTING] the ayes have it,

071I would like to entertain a motion to approve the collective bargaining agreement. [VOTING] I appreciate your enthusiasm. The ayes have it, thank you so much for your solid work and making sure our employees are taken care of. Robert Wofford (Vice President): I think I knew that you guys did this without a moderator. The question I might have asked was how many agreements does this make? Over 40. Wonderful. Speaker: I have a copy of each in my file. Pamela Cort (President): During our last evaluation cycle we talked about making some changes to the superintendent evaluation template, I would like to talk about and possibly create a subcommittee to review and make recommendations to the board regarding the superintendent evaluation template. I'm opening the floor for discussion. Do we have any discussion ? Ed Frank (Member): We

072have to take a good look at these things, I'm in support of doing this. Teresa Tenorio (Member): Just keep in mind we were at the beginning of a new evaluation cycle, I know part of this you all expressed at this session you desired to have superintendents input, hopefully it's a joint recommendation between the superintendent and the subcommittee to the board, but regardless, it's in everybody's interest to finalize that work early and have it go before the board, so assuming this passes as you make your assignments to that committee or appointments to that committee, needs to be people who can get on it rather quickly, perhaps even the next board meeting for approval. Ed Frank (Member): I'm not sure I do have the time to devote to it and I think it would just be a

073lot better to have other eyes working with it, than the same person that is responsible for it as it stands now . Pamela Cort (President): I was going to say I think you are a perfect person to work on it because you worked on it before, but I get where you're coming from, thank you. Any other discussion or comments? Patrick Nolan (Secretary): If nobody else is inclined to do it . Robert Wofford (Vice President): Yes com I would be willing to do it. Teresa Tenorio (Member): I wrote this action item, so there might be confusion around the language, but I think where we start is moving to create the subcommittee, and once that passes actually then you would have the authority to do the appointment of those members. You are appointing the members of the

074committee. I think it's all going to be necessary input. Pamela Cort (President): Is there any further discussion on creating a subcommittee to make further recommendations? [VOTING] That is fabulous. For the second person, both of these individuals on either side of me are great writers and insightful, thoughtful people, and what I may do -- do you have any recommendations for me? I know this is my job . Robert Wofford (Vice President): You were instrumental in bringing this about. Patrick Nolan (Secretary): Yes, if you choose to nominate me I accept your nomination. Pamela Cort (President): Thank you for your time, I know it's going to be a quick turnaround, I have confidence in you all, I can't wait to see what you all come up with. We are ready for some end of year data on literacy

075and numeracy . Ignacio Ruiz (Superintendent): Just a reminder, there's a proficiency piece of this and this also as a reminder informs our strategic goals as we look at growth. It's important data to start looking at . Speaker: I'm here with my colleague , her team compiles this data for us, and the data we are looking at this evening is end of year proficiency data , so later on when we get to the strategic plan update in July at that point we will have the data that aligns to the strategic plan. With that, we start with just an overall view of proficiency data, starting at the beginning of the year back in August we see the proficiency levels for the proficiency rates at each level starting with elementary, starting at 21% to 39 and almost 53%

076in literacy, middle school also showed an upward trajectory starting at 25, ending at 33. High School showed a slight gain in proficiency over the year. So we will move on to the breakdown by student groups, specifically the first set of data there are all other students, so those are students that are not [Inaudible] The blue bar represents proficiency at the beginning of the year, the purple bar the end of year assessment. These are assessments in the Iready platform, so you can see the growth among student groups. In middle school, you can see the growth in proficiency is strong , in high school all other students that was about a half point did between middle and the end of the year, but all other students represented here did show growth. You see the Native American, there

077was a slight dip at the middle of the year but that student group finished strong overall from the beginning of the year to the end of the year . So just kind of a summary of where we ended with literacy , all groups showed gains and there was a significant amount of growth among economically disadvantaged students and all other students had about a 14 point increase in literacy. At the middle school level again, all subgroups saw gains in efficiency , special education 2.2, all other students had a slight gain. In high school as I mentioned a moment ago, there was a slight dip among students, just half of a percent. Overall, I think very good news in literacy trending in the right direction there, this graph just shows the difference from year to year, so

078the red line represents the gain in proficiency from the middle of the year to the end of the year, last year 14.5% gain, this year 13.6. These are not the same students tested every year, we want to know how we are doing year over year but also recognizing that these are different elementary school students. the same trend for middle school, you see a slight dip this year . It was still a gain, but it wasn't as much as it was last year so we are still going in the right direction as far as increasing proficiency, and then high school this year the gated proficiency was pretty flat . Strategic goal will follow the same format here, you see again proficiency rates . And when we say proficiency I should have mentioned from the outset that

079we are talking about students. At the beginning of the year in mathematics 10% of elementary school students were on grade level, at the end of the year 44% were on grade level. Middle school 16%, finishing the year at 24 and then high school 30% at the beginning and 25 at the end. Good news in that, looking at it by level, if you look at all other students starting the year 19% and ending the year at almost 65%, then you see all of our students . in the middle school, again you see trends in middle school perform better, but all students again show growth in proficiency or gains in proficiency . In high school again, we have our student population from 19%. If you look at the beginning to the end you will see some gains

080in efficiency in students at the end of the year. Elementary showed the biggest gains , about a 24% increase from middle to end. Middle school, most groups saw something in proficiency, merging bilingual students had a nice gain in proficiency and all other students We're about at a 3% growth in proficiency, same story at a high school. Again, economically disadvantaged students showed they gained 4.3%, all other students had a slight increase in proficiency as well. So looking at this overall, I think it's important to note we are leaning in the right direction, particularly at the elementary levels, so these are very nice gains in elementary school in proficiency and mathematics. Again, though proficiency trend, just to note these are gains from the middle of the year to the end of the year, so when we are

081talking 20% gains in proficiency each year, this year was just slightly under 20% showing more students reaching proficiency at the elementary, middle school level. Again, gains showing growth from middle to end, this year slightly less growth than last year, again different student population being tested. Finally, in high school , showing growth each year from middle of the year to the end of the year you can just see the percentages there. Overall, I think the end of year data is positive for showing growth from beginning to middle to end, which is obviously what we want to see , all our student populations continue to perform well on these assessments, as Mr. Ruiz mentioned at the outset, we will next look at the growth across the board, because I believe that's a question you asked. How many

082of the students met their typical growth and how were students progressing? The team we're working on looking at that, just making sure the data is cleaned up, test regularities are taken out of the equation so we can share with you. With that, we will stand for questions. Pamela Cort (President): Thank you for that data extravaganza, if I may say so. Board members, do we have any questions or comments? Patrick Nolan (Secretary): Thank you for the data, all of this is pretty encouraging. Growth is happening, I feel like as you were talking about apples and oranges it sort of reminded me of cohorts. Could we look and say how is the class of 2029 doing? In a cohort kind of fashion? I think that would be really helpful. Perhaps we've gotten that in the past, I

083may have forgotten. I think it would be really interesting, and then I wonder -- this 21% figure for literacy, it's sort of a figure that is burned in my -- I think our job here is to talk about that with a little more soulfulness than some of those other folks talk about it. I guess, how do we look at that when we are looking at 21% of our high school students are reading proficiency level, what are we going to do? And what does that data mean? Speaker: We need to look at data as a way of which areas we can grow. It's difficult to teach high school, there are a lot of other factors that you also have to consider , their developmental stages . also looking at other assessments and comparing it to our

084common Core , and take a look at where our teacher models where we get best practices and see what works with them, what makes the students successful. Once we have that information we can share it with all the different departments , we also have our team of leaders so when you have conversations then we can include that so that we are consistent in saying this is our data, these are some guiding questions . So what are some areas , Referencing our plan and frameworks, and looking at what is doable that we can achieve knowing that we have the steps? Speaker: Triangulation of data , but we do have some other data points looking at AP scores, looking at course grades, PSAT data, so I think there are a number of other data points that tell

085the story. This is very valuable data for instruction, where teachers can look at how our students performing at a point in time on the standards that are assessed, but I think to paint a clear overall picture that we have to have multiple data points. Speaker: As we triangulate the data being able to identify what are the areas students are struggling, continuing with our work , how are the kids growing, are we growing them from the beginning of the year to the end of the year? The one thing we are looking to really enhance and prioritize is our student goals, we tend to see at the high school level how serious students are also taking these assessments . That's a challenge for us, especially at the secondary level. But that's not an excuse, that's where student

086goals come in because students are owning their learning, owning their growth but something I just wanted to add to the conversation definitely as you look at 21, we are better, our kids are doing better than that because we see that in our classrooms and our observations. It's really looking at where are the areas having the challenges, supporting the teachers and supporting growth is going to be a key piece to this next year. Patrick Nolan (Secretary): I was going to say exactly the same thing . Ed Frank (Member): Many of them don't take it seriously, doesn't count toward their grade, and that's what we are seeing. It's very hard to get them to change that behavior, but of course we have to try. It's just possible that proficiency decreases from the middle of the year to

087the end of the year, it's totally possible that that can happen, things are happening in these classrooms, they are gaining skills and they are showing that -- Ignacio Ruiz (Superintendent): I invited our assistant director of leadership. Speaker: Members of the board, yes to every sentiment that has been said by everyone. There's a lot of work that's going on at the campus level and at the district level, and really triangulating that data but also taking into consideration the Wrap-around supports that we provide for all of the students and the staff that also include attendance data that we look at with instructional data, also taking into consideration how we are tiering our schools , we have identified growth at the campuses and areas of additional support that is needed and I think it's just important to highlight

088not only the work done to have these conversations where we are talking about this data and looking at different points of data, but also identifying what next steps could we provide to help support the students. Goal setting was a perfect example, we just created a goal setting protocol for our instructional staff, which we will be introducing this year that is tied to the strategic plan, and it really is, students should know where they are sitting at in terms of academically but also social, emotionally, all these things tie in together but I just want to highlight all the work that everyone was doing to support these numbers of growth . It is one set of data but it also tells the story of all the work that is being done . Speaker: When we are talking

089about the minutes, it's that Vista dashboard category? Speaker: To the school board we talk about our support system, and we do have our green schools which again, we take in different pieces of data. We take in academic data, we take in attendance data, and we look at all of that and really determine along with-- it is our own tiered system because we do realize that even if you are a green school, for example, you could be lacking growth with those student groups and so when I gave the example of being a green school but then you have pockets of red, that would be an example of that. So when we say a tiered school support, it really is our district's system of identifying areas of support for our schools. Speaker: I can't always remember, are

090they tested in their primary language? Speaker: Monitoring as well as looking in to 504, and looking in structurally into the progress of a student. A teacher would hopefully be documenting, gathering data to say this student is showing progress in whatever language , and then we determine recommend within the committee that this would be the language of instruction or the language for the assessment. Speaker: When looking at the snapshot on the graphs , are they reflected in both graphs? Speaker: It's possible that they are, what we can do is break it down further to see who are these students that are double coded. They are special education, and also are bilingual. In fact, when this data was shared where the bilingual department was present, right away let's elaborate and take a look deeper, we look at

091the dashboard specifically for our bilingual group so they can look at their data much closer. Speaker: When I'm looking at it, I always keep in mind our teachers and the staff are doing everything they possibly can, give them full credit for anything they can work with their students. I sometimes wonder beyond that, because it's beyond what they can physically possibly do, is how else can we give them the support? I think a couple of us have already asked. You have different profiles of economically disadvantaged, but let's say in most ways except for being economically disadvantaged or they would be in the top category of all others, except for that one thing and I think those people have the most potential for that kind of thing, exponential growth. I don't think I'm talking beyond what's possible,

092because you see it in these kids, it just happens and they just flourish. So I wonder, I know they have hard and big challenges but if we were to say are these kids getting tutoring that we can just give them that little oomph so that they would just fly, or even after school if they have a transportation issue, if they have an extra exposure , say have fun with the other kids and that exposure itself improves their language or improves their sense of belonging and things kind of click in place, I just was wondering how we can, I know you like to segregate data but to show which of these kids can decide to plug in and say these are the easiest ones to bump up the fastest, and this is not just a test.

093It's all around. Speaker: One of the things teachers do with this data is progress monitor. Not with this data, but really looking at after layer one instruction our kids learning, are they progressing? Do they need intervention? That's where the process where we're applying some interventions to the student, are they now becoming successful? Are they not progressing? Which is a little more formalized and really looking at the interventions, how often are we intervening? What is the outcome of that intervention and that is really where I think the answer is is the progress monitoring and what are we doing with the data? Are we intervening , if they're not successful are we trying a different kind of intervention and continue to progress monitor until we get the student with the successful outcome. Speaker: I wanted to quickly

094address follow up on your question regarding language of instruction, just going back to the purpose of the assessment is to assess their proficiency in the standards we are teaching. We have assessments for emerging bilingual students, over the years we've tried different approaches, we've tried to give very strict guidelines if they score based on the language proficiency then you should test in English or in Spanish, where we've landed over the last 4 or 5 years is really putting back on the teacher , and really what we want is for them to showcase what they've learned through that segment, so we've left it up to the teachers to determine what language of instruction they will be assessed in for this assessment. Speaker: I'm not sure if from one year to the next when you guys do 5050.

095Sometimes that's where those challenge is for those kids that are extremely bright, and sometimes they miss that lesson or whatever. Sometimes I look at the graph and I think those kids are in their. Pamela Cort (President): And we should be testing proficiency, not language. If we are testing in math, they should not be testing their language skills, their testing their proficiency in math. You should be testing what you're testing, and not testing the language. It didn't come out well. Anyone else? Robert Wofford (Vice President): Thank you for putting the proficiency graphs . That's useful to see. The cohort in middle school and high school doesn't change entirely, a good chunk of the kids we are still looking at, and I appreciate the discussion on the different ways we need to look at a kid and

096not just a single score. We will have more hard data than we can compare with the nation, do we compare tests across Mexico? Do we have that data? Speaker: I don't know that there is really any way to compare , but the state doesn't collect that diagnostic, so this year we are supposed to get it . Patrick Nolan (Secretary): I read an article the other day, it's owned by private equity, which is a red flag. But I'm wondering if we need to look a little bit bigger. Its value to us is an assessment tool, you look at K through 571%, you drop 20% from middle school, 50% is just elementary students and then all other students 30% K through 12. Member Frank mentioned it's not like they just stopped learning after the middle of the

097year, you mentioned this, if I-ready is not giving us the data that we want, then why do we continue to use it? I get that's in assessment, it's marking time and tells us some valuable data, but maybe it's not the full thing, maybe there's an alternative way to look at some of these things? Some of it just doesn't make sense that there's so much regression, because that just in the real world, middle schoolers are smarter than elementary, and high school students are smarter than elementary, so there's something amiss and I think it warrants a larger conversation about how are we measuring these things ? Ignacio Ruiz (Superintendent): I-ready was the most aligned to the state's standards, it's not really about the assessment, the other piece of this is that one time during the year the

098kids are being assessed, the way this type of assessment helps us not just in the one snapshot at the beginning and middle and end of the year, but what is happening between. This assessment does give us that, you can look at the growth, that's really when we're looking at strategic planning it is appropriate for us to be looking at growth, this gives us another snapshot of where our kiddos are at, but if we are looking at growth from beginning of the year to the middle of the year it isn't aligned and that's where we need to dig deeper into the data and we get our professional learning communities that where kiddos are looking at how are they doing, how are they progressing? Not only in the assessment but also how are they progressing in the

099classroom assessments, those types of things. It's not throwing out the assessment and then coming in with a new one, the other piece of this is this is the third year we've had an assisted assessment, we need the time to accumulate and have the data to look at the trends etc. So where I would respectfully not necessarily disagree but say it's not that the assessment is not giving us what we need, it's what are we taking out of the assessment that warrants a conversation that says how is it that our middle schoolers actually went down, why is that happening? It does warrant a deeper conversation with our sites. Absolutely. Speaker: There's a larger conversation around all of this how are we celebrating the good work that is happening? Speaker: Something I didn't mention . Those kids

100who are chronically absent, they are not learning, so what does the data look like for the kids who aren't showing up? Ignacio Ruiz (Superintendent): Definitely your cohort suggestion is something for sure that I agree with you, that would also give us another data point as we look at growth and process. Speaker: We really appreciate all the data and all of the information you've given us this evening, thank you so much. Pamela Cort (President): A report on procedures governing special education . Take it away! Speaker: Good evening, Mr. Montoya and I are here this evening to give you our annual presentation on special education policies and procedures, and the idea B application, it requires school boards to take specific actions to ensure compliance with federal and state regulations. The district policies and procedures must be reviewed

101and updated regularly to align with the state's policies and procedures. Each year school boards must formally adopt an assurance statement, this is a necessary step for the district to receive approval of its application. The assurance demonstrates the district's commitment to meeting all requirements under support services for students with disabilities. the administration confirms it has reviewed board policy and confirms that the policy is current and aligned with legal requirements. It continues to utilize the Handbook of Special Education Procedures to guide special education practices across the district, which is updated annually by the attorneys at the law firm. The handbook includes all relevant updates needed to ensure the district remains compliant with procedures. The handbook can be found within regulation IHB and can also be reviewed on the website and will be updated with this new version

102tomorrow. Over the next few slides, we are going to take you through the substantive changes made to the updated handbook. First off, child with a disability, updated the definition and procedures to align with amendments made in the 2026 legislature and the Special Education Act which is Senate Bill 64. These changes ensure all policies reflect current state law and support accurate identification and service delivery for students with disabilities. Child find is the district's legal obligation to identify, locate, and evaluate students who may have disabilities and need special education services. Revisions more closely align procedures with Mexico administrative code requirements, these updates also address areas identified through state corrective action plans and provide clear guidance to staff regarding timelines and responsibilities . The third bullet is least restrictive environment, the revisions here clarify the placement decisions must

103be individualized, and based on each student's unique needs. These additions reflect guidance frequently reviewed during monitoring. The revisions emphasize shortened school days should be used only in limited circumstances and cannot be implemented for administrative convenience. Additional safeguards require clear justification, ongoing monitoring, and plans for returning the student to a full instructional day whenever possible. The procedures also highlight the impact shortened days can have on a student's access to instruction, and participation in the least restrictive environment. First bullet here, state education responsibility for general supervision. The creation of the Office of Special Education and outlines its responsibilities for statewide oversight and support, the update ensures district procedures remain aligned with current state law and evolving structure of special education governance in New Mexico. Minimum state complaint procedures. Adding procedures to provide staff with clear guidance when

104addressing complaints, corrective actions and these updates promote consistency, strengthened compliance efforts and support timely resolution of concerns raised by students and families. Personnel qualifications, the third bullet. Procedural language was revised accordingly to ensure staff had access for professional learning opportunities that support student achievement. The last bullet, this revision ensures staff are utilizing the latest state guidance regarding the combinations and accessibility support during assessments, maintaining current resources helps make sure students receive appropriate testing supports while preserving assessment validity and compliance. So definition of IEP added procedural language in anticipation of development at the statewide electronic IEP platform required under New Mexico Special Education Act of 2026. The statewide system is intended to standardize development, progress monitoring, and compliance tracking across New Mexico school districts, the goal is to improve consistency, fidelity, data accuracy, and compliance with

105timelines and procedural safeguards. Second bullet, participation assessments, additional guidance helps make decisions regarding student participation in statewide assessments and alternative assessments. The revisions reinforce the assessment as additions must be individualized and based on established criteria rather than disability category alone. This update supports equitable access to assessments while ensuring compliance with state and federal requirements. The Office of Special Education is identified through corrective action plans for districts to maintain records that are clear, organized and easily retrievable. Updated procedures clarify staff responsibilities for documenting the receipt, processing and disposition of the reevaluation request. These revisions strengthen accountability, improve record keeping practices, and support timely responses to student needs and parent requests. Parent participation... facilitated meetings provide families and school teams with a structured process to improve communication, build consensus, and maintain a student centered focus when concerns

106arise. These updates support meaningful parent participation and strengthen collaborative partnerships between families and schools. Development review and revision of IEPs , these provide additional guidance for understanding and assessing behavioral needs that may impact a student's educational progress. The revisions reinforce the importance of using data driven strategies and evidence based practices when developing and revising IEPs. By strengthening behavioral supports, the district can better address student needs while supporting positive outcomes and access to instruction. Prior written notice, consistent with findings from Office of Special Education Corrective Action Plans, districts are expected to maintain records that are clear, organized, and easily retrievable. The revisions emphasize the importance of documenting the received processing requests for initial evaluations and Reevaluations. Strong documentation practices, support transparency, compliance, and timely communication with families. The addition provides staff and families with guidance on

107collaborative approaches to resolving concerns before disputes escalate. These resources support the district's commitment to resolving issues collaboratively. This statement signifies that through the application process required, the district provides assurances that it meets all eligibility requirements for part B of the individuals with Disabilities Act, and the budget regulations. The assurances are as follows -- the district ensures continued compliance throughout the duration of any grant awards, Las Cruces Public Schools has completed its annual review of policies and procedures relating to special education, the district confirms it meets all conditions required for assistance. The review reinforces the district's commitment to ensuring students with disabilities receive the services and supports they are entitled to under federal and state law. so, we stand for questions at this time. Pamela Cort (President): Thank you so much for that information, board members,

108do you have any questions or comments? I had a quick question , I saw it in multiple areas, have we removed the term dyslexia or are we just moving dyslexia under structured literacy? I don't really understand, because it felt like dyslexia was no longer considered a disability and it didn't make any sense to me and I'm still unclear. Speaker: Dyslexia has never been a disability in itself, it's not recognized as a disability, it's something that a child or any of us may struggle with, so you'll find they have tendencies to dyslexia but it's not considered a disability. I shouldn't say it's not considered a disability, it's not one of the recognized federal definitions of a disability. It would fall under a learning disability under reading, specific learning disability and reading and writing but it is

109not specific to just dyslexia. Speaker: Dyslexia first of all is a true condition, it's recognized in state law and it's recognized in federal law. The beauty of it is that there's so much research on it that what we know in education research is that when we identify particular characteristics of dyslexia early, we actually can prevent a child from getting to the point where the dyslexia results in an identified learning disability. Dyslexia is a type of a learning disability, but oftentimes especially with intervention, they never actually meet the formal criteria for learning disability, which is why you see it throughout the document is the law expects in particular combined with federal that we actively look for those characteristics, identify the child as such, and through the layers of support address the needs so that in the

110ideal world they never get to a learning disability as a result of the recognized dyslexia. Dyslexia is a type of learning disability, but not every child identified with dyslexia meets the criteria of specific learning disability. Robert Wofford (Vice President): I think they just changed resources. Speaker: I don't know if it's up in the air everything needs to be litigious in order to get attention or for them to care, but is this mostly our own state caring about special education? Speaker: We are required by law to do this, as part of our application for the idea . I'm certain we will continue to have to do this. Speaker: It's driven by federal law, but it's federal statutory, not regulatory. What's interesting about this law when Secretary Nolan talks about pages and pages, the first column of

111his handbook, I've been doing this one myself for the last 15 years, so this year I did all of the updates myself with support staff and final review, the first column is federal, the hyperlinks get you where you need to go fast using the table of contents. The middle column is state but the existence of the state law is to implement the federal, so the reason we have a lot of in Mac and a lot of statutes is because the state is required by federal law to have policies and procedures and regulations in place to implement the federal law, and part of that is the state is required to ensure we do. That's why the three columns, basically shows ultimately complying with federal law. Because Congress passed it , if all you had is what

112Congress has passed, if you pulled away all the regulations and only have the statute, it would have just as many pages because the regulations are reformatting of the statutory language. You won't find any education law that is as prescripted as the special education law, so Congress would have to appeal it for it to go away . It would change the first column but it would just be the citations, the column is there because Congress required the state to do it and our third column is there because the state requires us to do it. I think right now special education is reasonably secure, also because Congress hasn't reauthorized it since 2004, it's never been a partisan reauthorization because everybody's affected by disability . the cost is shared among the district. The updates cost you about $100,

113what really matters is the work that the team have done to localize it , make sure it's a living document so really, the kudos is to you all, thank you for that. [VOTING] The eyes have it, and we really do appreciate all your work on that, and thanks for making it slightly easier for us by giving us the revisions. Appreciate it. All right you all, board reports. Ed Frank (Member): I really have no report, I can't think of a single thing relating at this point, so let's move on. Patrick Nolan (Secretary): Every once in a while I do a book recommendation, so I'm going to do it's called "The Quiet Before", it's about these small ideas that grow into bigger ideas. Do one thing that is crazy and it might turn into something good, I

114don't know, I really enjoyed the book, so that is my board report. Teresa Tenorio (Member): Just a couple of things coming up, I plan to attend the community school retreat on Thursday at the Hest building. Juneteenth events on Saturday and Sunday at NAACP , I was invited to do something with the Learning Action Buffet, youth with power, that will be this Saturday. They want to know what we do so that young adults can be more involved and run for office. I plan to go to the summer graduation and to the leadership retreat. That's all. Robert Wofford (Vice President): I think we've had graduations since our last board reports . I look forward to this board reviewing the recommendations and thinking about which aspects we want to take advantage of. They were interesting things that came

115out of the law conference, it will be interesting to Find out what we are going to do in that regard, finally the Equity Council will be meeting with the superintendent , and I look forward to that collaboration. Pamela Cort (President): I look forward to the retreat, we have the whole day together. I attended the engage Institute , Secretary Nolan was there as well, talking about it was a symposium we were talking about paid internships for juniors and seniors and behavioral health internship programs and paid interns and the whole thing, it was a couple hours well spent with community partners working on solutions for helping our kids, so that's always worthwhile and makes me super happy. I just want to acknowledge miss Barnhill's entire family was here to see her get her award , when the

116whole family comes out when you get an award I think there's something truly special about that pure happy June, everyone, I can't believe it's almost July. Thank you for staying so late. I would entertain a motion to adjourn. [VOTING] we are officially adjourned at 9:40 p.m. Thanks you all.