CMS Board Meeting - November 18, 2025

001Good evening. I'd like to welcome everyone to our Clovis Municipal Schools board meeting. May the clerk please call roll. >> Yes, sir. >> President Cordova >> here. >> Vice President Hamilton >> here. >> Secretary Martin >> here. >> Member Osbor >> here. >> Member Edgar >> here. >> Okay, we do have a quorum. Miss Cindy, would you lead us in the pledge? >> You all stand? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I salute the flag of New Mexico as the assemble of perfect friendship among the United. Thank you. All right, we'll move down to uh the approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion? >> Move to approve the

002agenda. >> I'll second. >> Motion by Mr. Osborne, a second by Mr. Hamilton. All in favor? >> I. All opposed. Motion carries. And now we have a consideration approval of the minutes from 102825. >> Make a motion to approve. >> Okay. >> Second. I have a motion by Miss Edwards, a second by Mr. Martin. All in favor? >> I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. >> Also have a consideration approval of the minutes for 11525. >> I make a motion to approve. >> Second. >> Have a motion by Mr. Hamilton, a second by Miss Osborne. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. Okay. Now we'll move down to the consent agenda. Are there any questions >> from the board? >> No, sir. >> Questions from >> No questions. >> If there aren't any questions, I'll

003entertain a motion. >> Madam Chair, >> Mr. Chair, >> I move that we approve the consent agenda. >> Okay. Have a >> I second. >> Motion by Mr. Martin, second by Miss Ed. All in favor? I approve. Motion carries. Now we'll move down to the superintendence report. Miss Russ, >> thank you. Kevin, give us your update. Make sure I'm in the city of >> Good evening, Mr. President, board, and superintendent. I don't have a whole lot. You got some amazing people here, so I don't want to stand in their way. Um, but we're excited to be back. I feel like this is a little bit of a norm now with everybody back. Um, we're just working hard, rescheduling tudos, rescheduling a ton of field trips. Um, and then I reached out to all of our

004squadron adoptions and we're getting back some feedback of what they're doing at the schools, what's happening, and they seem like they're doing some amazing service projects. So, really excited. We're going to collaborate all that together, and then we're going to brief it to let them know all the great stuff that's happening. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> I don't see that we have student representatives this summer, so come back here. don't have anything except for the celebration recognition that we do here. So, >> okay. Thank you. >> All right. We will start with the director Martin celebrate our choir. >> Good evening, President Cordova, Superintendent Russ, and members of the board. I'm James Golden, assistant director of choir at the high school. We brought a handful of students tonight that are going to fill you

005in on some of the really neat things that we've accomplished and have been doing thus far this semester, especially having CHSFA on campus with us at the high school. It's been really, really awesome to have more classes, more for these kids. So, I'm going to turn it over to them and they're going to fill you in on some really great stuff that's been going on. >> Really, I'm Bass. I am a member of the chamber choir in the men's choir and I'm going to be talking about the ENU men's fest that we had back in September. There were 28 of us all and that's the day where we go over to ENMU. We did our music and we practice throughout the day and we um just show off what we can learn all within that

006time span. It's it's very fun bit. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hello, I'm Anna Sas. I'm in the chamber choir and the women's select choir this year at the SEN MMU A solo ensemble. It was held on October 3rd. 47 of us got first division soloists. 12 were granted the second division soloist. Five students were chosen to be outstanding soloists. There were five first division ensembles. 34 total members. Three out of the five are selected to be outstanding. >> Good evening everybody. My name is Mario S heroes and today I'm from the CHS chamber choir and today I'll be talking about the third annual CMS men's day event hosted by CHS choir. So this event include all young men of sixth grade all the way to 12th grade. Wow. And so basically it's from the

007the sixth grader academy gis and yak middle school and high school we do a men's workshop where the event we have at the end of the school year that's called mag and all the students that came there were 127 young men working together in music for CHS choir for the all girl night we started at 9:00 a.m. through 1:00 p.m. And we just learned a lot of vocal techniques, learn two men selections, and that the call coronai concert will be in May. Team building games, enjoy lunch together provided by the CHS cafeteria staff. So, we thank them very much. Thank you. >> You. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, board. My name is Seth Bulldock. I'm the Ed Clovis High School and I get to talk to you guys about our honor choir coming up

008this Friday. We're going to load the bus with 71 students from Yucka Middle School, Gatis Middle School and the high school at 5 in the morning and go to HOBS to perform with other district students. Broken down our members and our numbers that we have are taking 23. Gatis is taking 24 and the freshman academy is taking also 24. So, we have good spread throughout all three schools. So, we're super excited for that. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> I'm coming up in the middle. I'm Tammy Martin, the head director. And I want to share with you our results from our first allstage process. This is the large choirs that we go and perform in. So, we did the auditions. We had 41 students that actually auditioned. We actually had 27 that made the all

009state choir from Clovis. We were the third largest number in the state in the choirs. So, we're excited about that. Um, the cool thing about this is that we had 24 of those 27 make the top choir, mixed choir, and then we have the travel choir that follows. We had three of the students that made that. The really neat thing is the data behind that. um 66% of our auditioners made the choir. That is a phenomenal rate. Um the other thing is that we had the largest per capita that made it make the mixed choir of any school in the state. So we are excited for that and that is coming up in January the 14th through the 17th. So we'll be excited to go to Albuquerque and share that information with the kids and

010and get them going and singing. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hello again. >> Aside from cool things our students are doing, I'm going to brag on myself and Miss Martin just a little bit because we we have the opportunity this year to present a clinic at the All State Conference. So, while the students are in rehearsals and such, all of the directors, we're in continuing education courses essentially, continuing to hone our craft. Um, this year we've decided as a state that we've unified our site reading. That's part of our assessment stuff that happens in the spring and we're going to this unified protocol that every district in the state is going to follow. This is a protocol that Southeast District has been doing for years and years and years and we've been very successful at

011the certain way that we do that. So this year, Miss Martin and I are actually going to be presenting a clinic on site reading. how to prepare your students, how to make them be more successful, how to give them that better educational aspect as it relates to singing. And we'll also be pulling those students because we're going to be doing a live demonstration choir for every choir director in the state of New Mexico that will be in attendance at that event. We are going to go through that process with these students who have made it into the Hall State Ensemble, which is actually something that I've taught for 14 years, have been going to Hall State for probably 20 or 22 years, and I've never seen a demonstration choir or anything like that. So, it's

012something really new and exciting that we are very excited that Clovis gets to be the one that gets to do for everybody so that we can just help, right? Help everybody be better for their students in their own classrooms. So, we're very excited about that opportunity this year as well. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Italella Cordova and this year was the first year Clovis ever got to participate in New Mexico vocal jazz all state. We had seven students audition. We had two that were selected, Samantha Lee and myself. And we also have two alternatives, Demarcus Williams and Wen Wheeler, who's standing back here. Um, yeah, we're just really excited. It will be the week after regular vocal all state. Um, the 22nd through the 24th. Thank you. >> Thank

013you. >> Hi, my name is Amaya Thomas. I'm in both the chamber choir and women select choir. Um I'm here to talk to you about the events that we have been going on and future events that we will be doing for both the women's select choir and chamber choir. Um the first one is the Lowe's Veterans Day event. We uh went about two weeks ago to sing the national anthem. Uh the Clovis Community Choir uh sorry Clovis Community College Veterans Day event which we also sing the national anthem for. Um, the Curry County Retired Educators Association Christmas lunchon, uh, the Rotary Club Christmas lunchon, Kennon Air Force Base Christmas parade and tree lighting ceremony, and the two days of our elementary Christmas tour where we go to every elementary school in the district to sing

014to them and basically hang out and show them what our skills are all about. Hello, my name is Wheeler. Thanks for that. Uh, um, so we'll be holding our annual winter Christmas concert at December 11, 7 p.m. at the First Methodist Church, and we invite everyone to come. It is free and we really like to show off how much we've practiced and how much we've over the course of the years as choirs and just extend our invitations. Thank you. >> Thank you very much for allowing us to this opportunity to come and share all of our our events that's happened in that are going to happen because we don't get to talk to you for a long time after this. So, thank you so very much. And if you have anybody standing, >> we're just

015so proud of all that you've done and all that you continue to do. So, keep keep at it. We're we're waiting to hear. Yeah, thank you very much. >> Great job, y'all. >> Wanted to stay at the the podium. Our next item is to consider travel for the choir that is slated for April 25th uh to compete in the American Classics Music Festival. And as always, you can see that Director Martin puts together a pretty tight schedule. They make the most of their time. They go, they tell them, they tell them home. So if you have questions about this travel, your students to answer those questions for you. >> There any questions from the board? >> It's a tight schedule. So >> if not, I'll entertain a motion. >> Make a motion to approve. >>

016I have a motion by Miss Edbert. I'll second. Second by Mr. Hamilton. All in favor? >> I oppose. >> Good luck in Dallas. >> Okay. Thank you. Have fun. excited. Appreciate it very much. >> Right. Next, I'd like to invite Mr. Brady. We have >> Before you dismiss, I would like to dismiss all the kids at one time because we have So, if you don't mind, please stay in for just a little bit longer. Thank you. Come on. Super Russ. Exciting stuff. The spirit of competition. The ability to win, defeat their opponents. Pops Clovis volleyball was probably the single coolest gym I've been in in 10 years. And our girls showed up. showed out and just flat stomped them into the ground. Volleyball girls, congratulations. >> Miss Williams and I would like to uh recognize

017Coach Hill and her Lady Wildcat volleyball players for the hard work and their achievement of being district champs. The first time in >> Since 2020. And so they brought home the district championship. This is the first time that we're going to curl the banner, but >> we've got some youth. We're young and we're loaded and we're ready to come back and do it again next year. Right, ladies? I'll let Mrs. Hill have a few words. >> Um, if the girls could come up here and stands and the coaches. So we have Maddie, Christy, Lily, Bren, Kiara, Daisy, Amore, Sophie, Ellie, Ashlin, Skyler, Ellie, two Ellies, um Avery, Coach K, and Coach Carissa. So, we started way back on July 1st. We had our first play day. We finished our season on Friday in Albuquerque. Um,

018these girls showed up every day, worked hard. Um, Coach Picket would be in the gym and we would talk and he'd be like, I wish my boys would be as loud as those girls out there. Um, so I'm super proud of them. They have good grades. Um, the hardest week for us is we go to Carlsbad on a Tuesday night. We got home at 1. We have first period volleyball. We got up, went to practice, we go to Hobs on Thursday. >> Oh, wow. >> And then we had practice on Friday morning. So when people say student athletes, they're the real deal. Student athletes are the real deal because when everybody else is nice tucked in bed asleep, we are on a bus heading home from Carl'sbad at 1:00 a.m. and get up and do

019it all over again. So, I am so super proud of these girls and their hard work and their dedication and their commitment to volleyball. Also, I'm going to give them a shout out because they are running the Little Kids Youth Program and I hear nothing but incredible things. I have watched it. I might be a little biased, but they have um worked hard and I just see volleyball growing and growing and growing and that's to a lot of their hard work and dedication on Saturday mornings after we've been playing all week and having games. So, they love volleyball. They're committed to it and they're incredible student athletes. >> Good job, ladies. Quick thing. Well, quick but important. Um, coach Christy Hill is also the district coach of the year. >> Can Can I say something

020before the girls, the ladies are dismissed to go back to the seat? I saw someone where you have what, three freshman or four freshman. >> Wow. Ellie, is that you? >> I know Ellie. I remember Ellie. Yeah, >> Ellie was five when I coached her in soccer. I can't I don't mean to embarrass you, but Wow. >> Well, congratulations, girls. >> Yes. Congratulations. >> Yeah. >> Now, this is a busy lady. I'm not going to give you all of her titles, but I am gonna tell you that she has grown cross country uh from middle school up to the high school level. Total participation numbers off the top of your head. >> 91 kids 7 through 12 and uh district champs this year. Outstanding. Our young ladies did a great job. Our boys showed up

021at state. I'll turn it over to coach Les and let her give you a little bit. I couldn't carry all my banners. We have three now. So, and I request them to be hung. So, I don't have them. I would have brought them. But my ladies are back here if they could come up. I have Brooke, Rosie, Delena, Dea, Diana, and Coach Turado. I don't think people realize how much work we put in. We start June 1st practicing and they run about 500 miles to receive them. Um we wake up as high school, they wake up at 5 in the morning to train by 6. Um and they beat everybody. I think the record is like over 100 teams this year when they ran. They were ranked um second in the state. Uh we had

022the top we had three or four in the top 20 of the state. So when I tell you these girls work, they work and our boys did too. But I'm very proud. Um they they are amazing. A lot of them are early college students. Some of them are multisport. Some of them play band. And so cross country has just been a true pleasure to coach and especially with these type of ladies and gentlemen. But um it's just an honor to have them. Congratulations. How >> how many uh activities do you do? Cuz I see you running everywhere. Yeah. With the schools. You did wrestling, right? >> Wrestling, cross country, track, once upon a time soccer. >> Wow. >> Oh, and I'm the athletic coordinator >> at Yaka. >> Wow. Well, thank you. Thank you for

023ladies. >> She's all in. He's all >> take a moment to allow everybody that >> no one >> one more and they can go. >> Yeah. T typically we would release our students right now but I think as we talk about the next topic I I think that it for a couple of reasons it's really important for our students to hear this conversation because you will be voters one day. But secondly, because what we're about to have your number so I sent you an email I ended up getting >> or somebody else can cover this. That would be great. >> Um I think I think it'd be great for you to to hear it because it would directly potentially impact you. So our next item I'm I'm going to start by just giving a little

024bit of a recap of our general election on November 4th. Um and we do want to appreciation to all of those who did get out and vote. And I also want to really take a minute to recognize some of our personnel first and foremost who put together the promotion. >> Hey Brad, >> see I think that's Art. Hang on Art, we'll give you a turn. um who put together the materials and really took the lead with the campaign and a lot of presentations. And so I want to thank Sarah Brooks who is our behind thescenes person who manages our social media and all of our public relations. The materials that she created were amazing. Mr. Kevin Summers who's new to the district but has incredible ideas and experience paired with Mr. Brady. uh they were

025out pounding the pavement and spreading that word. And then also especially behind the scenes is Matt Wolf who runs a lot of our audiovisisual and helped with the uh video that was produced. But I also want to thank our community leaders who were a part of that lengthy promotional video who really voiced um what it was about particularly the the geo bomb. And I think that was a great collaboration with community members and so we want to thank them along with civic and community organizations that let us plug them in their air ear and share information with them. So the outcome of the election has prevented presented a really significant opportunity. Director Martin, I think now we may be able to have a projector and choir room. That was one of the things that Tammy

026talked about in her portion of the video, but it also presents a challenge. So, I want to start first talking about the opportunity. So, we are incredibly thrilled that the general obligation bond passed. That was a huge $20 million bond for local funding, which is going to leverage 60 million to start the first phase of the renovation of the high school, which will deeply impact that campus, which has some of our oldest buildings, will be impactful for freshman academy staff and students as well. And this is a really long overdue modernization that needs to happen at that campus. So, we are appreciative for that positive affirmative vote. Our significant challenge comes with the capital improvements act t act tax. I got to show you something because I stumble over that. Mr. Summers made me a

027visual to help me. So if you need to remember I have to show you the pictures. Capital improvement act tax. This has been in place in New Mexico for the last 50 years. Um, and I want to give you some background about what the differences are between the bond and the Capital Improvement Act. The GEOB bond is like taking out a loan, a construction loan to build a home or a mortgage to to buy a home. So that's for the major major project and we pay that back over time. The capital improvement act tax that or SP9, which is easier for me to say clearly, is a fixed tax rate. And so I know all of us probably if we do any budgeting at all, we know that our utilities are going to cost a

028certain amount a month. I know that I have the look that my our heater went out right before Christmas. We know that to expect some of those types of expenses. That's the difference between the general obligation bond and the capital improvement. Um, as I said, I I did some research last night, and I'm not even sure the first year that the SB9 was passed in Clovis, but this is widely supported across the entire state and communities all over the state just to help with that recurring, preventative, proactive maintenance and ongoing expenses. The other important thing to keep in mind is that the capital improvement act tax is not an increase in taxes. that question did not reflect an increase. It was simply a reauthorization, a continuation of a tax that is already in place. And

029so for more specific examples, the things that we could cover, and you'll see this pigraph that Brandon has put up as well, so that you can see those expenditures from 2020 to the present. So things like heating and cooling systems, roof, plumbing, and electrical repairs, um ADA accessibility, Mr. Brady has mentioned to us a couple of times that those buildings at the high school uh were placed into existence before we had ADA requirements and so these funds can be used to bring those buildings current with ADA requirements. Technology infrastructure you'll hear in a little bit from Mr. Wimish about what's going on with technology um specific to classroom experiences but also specific to safety and security. Um, these funds are used to help replace aging furniture and equipment. And I think most importantly, these funds

030are directed towards preventive maintenance. Mr. Brady talked with us recently about Clovis being rated second in the state for our preventive maintenance program. That's how we've been able to have buildings that are still usable that are the age that they are at the age. So um basically preventing the small problems prevents huge problems down the road. So that's what these funds are directed towards. So our current authorization um I think 2021 was whenever we approved that and so it is in existence through 2026 with some of those funds coming to the direct the district through about October of 2027. So, if we do not successfully reauthorize that prior to its expiration, we're going to find ourselves with a gap in maintenance funding, which is, and you'll hear from RBC, our RBC representative in a minute.

031She's going to give you an update, but we've checked around $1.4 to$2 million per year on this preventive maintenance on systems, repairs, and replacements, and so forth. Due to a recent change in New Mexico election law, we are now limited to specific windows of time where we can go to the voters for capital related levies. Because of that, if we wait until the next routine cycle, we may miss that window of opportunity to be able to go back to the voters and ask for approval of that reauthorization. And so we're not rushing because, oh gosh, this didn't work earlier this month, so let's go right back out and ask. It's because that is the window that exists for us to go back to the voters in an effort to prevent having a gap down the

032road. Um, and we we want to avoid directly impacting our building safety and functionality. So if we do have that gap, what could that mean? we could lose that one and a half to two million per year for that maintenance. And I think Mr. Brady, you quoted a $6 per square foot for heating and and cooling. Um, we also know that if you let things deteriorate, ultimately you probably have a higher investment when you're addressing those issues. There's really no way to avoid the fact that at some point there's the potential for it to impact the classroom. Whether that is through temperature changes, through equipment that has broken down, we had that experience earlier this year at James Bley where it was was it the heat, it was the cooling and it was so hot

033in the silent floor. Uh we had to actually call school, but we had to rely on these type funds to address that issue at that campus. And so these capital improvement uh funds affect every single campus. Um, so we don't want to risk paying more later. I also want to very delicately address a misinformation or um an a flawed statement that was made last week at a Curry County Commission meeting. uh commissioner stated that the wrong tax was passed and implied that the district hadn't done enough to inform voters and that the district didn't give true information. Um that was very difficult for us to hear in light of the very broad and detailed campaign that we took to the voters. And so I just want to reiterate some of the places that we were

034at and the types of information that was shared for the two months leading up to that election. So Mrs. Brooks created a really comprehensive tab on our website that I believe is still there. >> It's down now after the election. >> Okay. Um you all were presented here with the 12 plus minute video that involved our community members. We also had the shortened couple minute long commercial that was created. uh posters and QR codes that led people to that web page were available at every school campus. There were posters that were made and the entry forers so that people could just click on the QR code and be led to the information. Um we had a very detailed social media campaign that had over 20 posts. There were a series of emails that went to

035families and staff. Mr. Brady and Mr. Summers participated in a number of radio interviews across several local stations. Um, and one of the, I think, most novel things that we did, it was Mr. Summer's idea. Before every movie shown at the Alba theaters here in Clovis, there was a commercial beginning from the end of September all the way up to the election. Um, they stopped at over 30 um, organizations or school sites to give those in-person presentations that were anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes. So that included civic organizations, um staff meetings at every campus, district offices, our city commission um meeting, we were able to present information there, a variety of community groups, our homecoming events, we have the the kiosk set up with the information. We were able to present at community college,

036New Mexico retired educators, and also at our youth sports events. Um so I really just want to put it out to the community that we make a good faith effort to put that information particularly because this district has not asked for a tax increase in 50 years and we wanted that to be known to the voters and that is indeed um what the voters approved. So moving forward we've got a really strong pathway to have those improvements at the high school. Um, however, we've got to return to that capital improvement act tax because it is so critical for critical for the ongoing business of the district. So, we're excited about working with administration at those campuses with working with the board um and tightening those plans going into design phase, but we've got to return

037to the work of um communicating with the voters and putting this question in front of them. So, in light of that, I'd like to invite Kaylee Wars. I'm hoping that I said your name correctly. Hi >> from RBC. She's going to give you a brief update um on these funds and what the current situation is with valuation and so forth. And I was thinking has someone here Amy we thought our county clerk was coming just to kind of be an expert on the election process but we also will have Mr. Melendres and Mr. Brady will talk to you about the resolution that we're bringing forward. But first, I want to go forward to >> Yes. Thank you for that introduction, superintendent. Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board. My name is Key Wy Scourge.

038I'm here on behalf of Eric Carrian, who couldn't make it tonight. Again, I'm here because in front of you is a special election resolution um that the superintendent had talked about, but I just have a brief update for you guys. So, on the first slide here, we have the district's history of assessed valuation. We have received preliminary tax year 2025 values and we can see that the district's assessed valuation increased by 3.9%. Now looking closer we can see that your residential values only increased by about 46%. You know historically you've seen much stronger residential values. We think the drop in growth is due to those veteran exemption uh impacts that were passed last uh November by voters. Um at the moment we'll see if that this is the extent of that impact or we'll continue

039to kind of see the impact of those new veteran exemptions you know over the next couple years. Now additionally too we can see that the district's non-residential values also increased by 10.6%. So that overall your 5-year average growth rate is currently sitting at 4.7% and then your 10year average growth rate is now sitting at 3.8%. Now moving on to your tax rate history. The district has an operational billing inflow for 50 cents. You guys also have your 2 mill levy still in place. Uh that 2 mill levy was last uh renewed at special election back in 2021 as the superintendent has mentioned and is good through tax year 206. Again, we're meeting tonight to discuss uh reauthorizing that uh SB921 rate. Overall, your debt service tax rate is set at $4.97 again for tax year

040205. So that your total residential tax rate for tax year in 2005 was $747. Again, now on the last slide and my last slide of my very brief presentation, these are just the projected SP9 in collections off of that $2 uh tax rate. And so this is based off of, you know, your current assessed valuation with a growth rate of 1 to 2% year-over-year along with a collection rate of 96%. So, in total, we would expect that the district would generate about 2 million to $2.1 million off of that SB9 tax rate uh year-over-year. That really does conclude the brief presentation that I had tonight. Um I will hand it off to Art Minds to see if he wants to add any color or commentary about the special resolution that's in front of you tonight.

041>> Good evening, U Mr. President, board members, superintendent. Thank you very much for allowing me to participate in this presentation and meeting. Um, I just have to say the superintendent has explained all of what she and the district have done and it is just a super effort. I'm very happy to hear all that. and she specifically referenced the window of time that we have for calling a special election and it is an allmale ballot election and the window of time is to have this election on February 12th which is a number of days past the November 4th election required by law. We are moving into this request because we certainly have confidence in the ability of the district to explain the importance of the 2 mill levy and the board supporting this effort. And what

042you have before you is a resolution. It essentially says we're going to we the board are going to call upon the citizens to vote on a continuation of a tax levy of $2 for every $1,000 of assessed value. Uh we call it the two mill levy or the SB9 levy. The election will be held uh on February 12th. That's when the mail ballots will go out and the citizens will be able to vote not in person but by just signing their ballot and putting it back in the mail. It will have a return envelope and a stamp. And this is in accordance with the special election law. And with that, I will stand for any questions and turn it back to the superintendent and Mr. Brady. Is there any questions from the board? Mr. Art,

043>> just a comment that it it doesn't really make sense to me that they passed our voters who have always been so supportive of our kids one and not the other. And so we had talked about maybe it was it really was the fact that it was on the back, you know, because not every um where I voted I didn't hear them saying, "Oh, and remember there's stuff on the back." You know, it just occurs to me that it it seems unlikely that they approved one and not the other. And so I I think it's interesting. I guess it's not really a question, but more of a comment that I >> we did look at that, Mrs. Osborne, and the way that the clerk reports out the results, they can report if there's underounting. And

044my understanding of that is if there's a question that wasn't answered on a particular person's ballot. And so we do believe that that explains some of the gap but probably not all of it. There were several tax related questions. And you know I think it's really incumbent upon us to provide that clarity. Um, and when you look at the question and the phrase capital improvements is in the question and it's easier, as I said, for myself and others to call it SB9 to mal levy. Um, I think that there can be some confusion. I think one of the other things that is not clear and that perhaps the county commissioner didn't realize is that we don't create the language of how the question is worded. Um it's my understanding that that is dictated by statute

045and um you know it's provided to us by art and so we don't get crafty with that language in an effort to deceive the voters. We present it just like every other district who has the same type of question. The wording is is the same. So I think that there is opportunity for confusion especially in a year when there are several tax related questions. >> I did read in the paper every single question for districts was the same. You know when that goes >> yes >> any thank you. So, uh, to bring this to the last item, uh, for consideration, uh, we are asking the board at this time to approve the resolution calling for a special election for the, uh, capital improvement act tax9 funds. Um, I want to make sure that I reiterate

046some stuff. It is, you're not walking in a voting. It's a mail-in ballot. You drop it in the mailbox. Uh the time on the resolution that we have in your packet differs from what we're voting on tonight. Uh we have listed a different date, but the 12th is when we are going to be holding the election and that is submitted in the in the uh in the document. Um again, it's a continuation. This is not a new thing for our taxpayers here in Clovis. It only affects the citizens of Clovis. And so we want to make sure that we're accurate in that. the cost. We're anticipating the cost for this special election to be right at $100,000. And so that's all on the district's expense because we're the ones calling for the election. And so

047the final thing that I would say before I ask you to consider the resolution uh is that at some point and at some level if we do not pass this continuation uh tax, this levy, this will have an impact on kids. I can't predict what that's going to look like. I can't uh really talk about all the specifics of what we will do, but we will have to go to a budget cycle where we'll have to consider how we're going to continue to repair and maintain. And when I say maintain, not just uh buildings, but also all the technology that we're putting in front of our kids device that will have to come out of our SCG funds so that we can continue to do the work that we do every day. So with that

048uh I stand for any questions. >> Are there any questions from the board? >> No question. >> I before I make a motion I want to first of all thank all the the students for for uh staying with us and listening. But I I want to bring up to everybody's attention we had 4,283 ballots cast. We had 25,374 eligible voters. That's 16% came out and voted. We hear it all the time where we want chain want to make a difference. Um but the numbers don't lie, you know, uh whether you you vote for it or against it to me, you know. Of course, in this case, we we wanted to to pass for our kids, but 16.8%. 4,283 ballots were cast out of 25 374. Let that sink in for a minute. You know, we

049have to this is get out there and vote. We want to make a difference. So, with that being said, I'll ask for a motion. Make a motion to approve. >> I'll second. >> Okay. I have a motion by Mr. Edward, a second by Mr. Hamilton. Can we have a roll call, please? >> Yes, sir. President Cordova? >> Yes. >> Vice President Hamilton? >> Yes. >> Secretary Martin? >> Yes. >> Member Osborne? >> Yes. >> Member Edgar? >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you guys for staying. >> Thank you. Now at this time all the students thank you for your time. >> Congratulations. Yes, I think we're we're ready. >> Thank you again. Have a great >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Hello. Okay, I think we're ready to proceed here. Uh, let's see. Lots

050more. Oh, Miss Nagaril, there you are. >> Yes, >> good evening, >> Superintendent Russ. Um, this evening I would like to share some information with you about the recently released ESSA accountability model, school designations. Um, again, this year, all of our committees have been identified as either traditional or spotlight schools for the 24-25 school year. Um, I do want to take just a minute to remind you of a few of the things about how those schools are scored and how those scores are calculated since it's been probably a year since I stood up before you and gave you a little bit of a lesson about that. Um, every school has a total of a hundred possible points that could be earned in various indicators. These include academic proficiency, growth, progress of our English learners, attendance,

051graduation rate, college and career readiness opportunities for students. And once every school has been assigned a point total between zero and 100 based on those indicators, the state then puts them in order by point point total to see how schools compare to one another across the state. Um the highest 25% of the schools across the state again those point totals are identified as spotlight schools. Um we did have three schools again this year identified as spotlight. That's Barry, Mesa, and Zia elementaryaries. Um, our remaining schools are all identified as traditional, which means that they fall um, between spotlight schools and then any of the other designation categories. And so that's a celebration. Um, you do have this table in your packet. This details the overall scores for each of our schools, includes their proficiency rates,

052their growth rates. Um, all of this information is available to the public on the in Vista site. But I would like to share just a few things that came out um from the state about schools in a multiple uh excuse me in a variety of areas. Um but primarily we had several schools that qualified as having the highest growth in their proficiency rates in the last year. Um starting with Sandia Elementary, Sandia increased their literacy proficiency rate by 18.4%. 4% and their math proficiency rate by 8.5%. They saw nearly a sixpoint bump in their overall Vista score. Parkview Elementary increased their literacy proficiency rate by 13.7%, their math proficiency rate by 16.8%. They saw a China point gain in their overall Vista score. Marshall Sixth Grade Academy increased their math proficiency rate by 6.9% and

053they saw a six-point gain in their overall Vista score. Yucka Middle School increased their math proficiency rate by 5.8%. Um, and we are joined tonight by the principal, Adetta Hadley, as well as a few of her staff members. And so, I do just want to congratulate you and your team on impressive games, especially um in math this year. So just a quick team and the work that they did Logus High School also uh increased their literacy proficiency rate by 6.6% increased their math proficiency rate by 1%. Um Mrs. Summers, the high school principal was here with us this even she. Okay. Um, one thing that I do think is worth noting is that in across the state of New Mexico, it is pretty um standard that our high school scores tend to be lower in

054proficiency grade than grades three through eight. Our high school students are taking a college entrance exam for their thinking the SAT for their high stakes exam. that college entrance exam is a much more rigorous assessment than our other students who are being tested over common core standards. And so um great job by our Clovis High School team as well. So >> in addition to those impressive gains in growth, we had really great performance by our English learners. All of the subgroups of students that are English learners outpaced the state um with the exception of one student group. And the progress of our English learners that are in our dual language program at Lacita and at Marshall sixth grade academy far outpaced both the district and the state in the progress that those students are making

055language proficiency and so want to congratulate those two sites as well. So our principles have had this raw performance data and efficiency data for several months. They've used it in the development of their 9A plans. They've used it to prepare for teacher professional development, to prepare for student interventions. Um, the release of Vista scores and designations were only recently made available and so that information was shared with them just last week. But the information that's contained in all of those reports has been really the basis of their decision making since the beginning of the year. Um, just as an example of how some of our school leaders use this raw performance data in data analysis, uh, we have several sites that are kind of walking their teachers through some data triangulation activities. They're comparing multiple

056data points for a single student so that they can determine what mastery they can expect to see from students as well as analyzing the validity of selected data points such as how do classroom grades compare to our district common assessments and how does that compare to proficiency on state exams. Um these are the conversations that are driving strategic planning at the district level and driving 90day planning at the site level. Um, as kind of a side note to this, we are really excited to be making plans to host Paul Santoyo in January as part of our professional development offering for our administrators and teachers. Going to learn more about weekly planning meeting protocols and how we really are intentional about planning for high quality instruction in all areas. We know that tier one instruction is

057really what lies um what what lays the foundation of growth in proficiency and it reduces the need for intervention further down the line. And so um those are just a a couple of the things that have come a lot from our strategic planning conversations at the district level. So wanted to to show you just how some of those things dovetail together. Um tried to make it a little less technical than last year. There were a whole lot of statistical figuring last year that was tricky to follow. But if you have any questions about this year's designations or report, we'll be happy to stand for any questions you might have. >> It looked like to me there was a couple of our schools that were real close to spotlight too, wasn't there? Like >> honestly, because

058that requires every school in the state to be ranked and then they take the top 25%. It's not necessarily top 25 um percent of performance. It's hard to know without seeing the list entire state. I couldn't tell you how close they were to that top. >> That makes sense. >> Some incredible things. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? Comments? >> Oh, comments. Awesome. I think that's >> great job. >> Remarkable. >> Our principles have been very intentional about the work that they're doing. So, I I'm grateful for those that joined us tonight so that we had the opportunity to recognize you, but for for all of our principles across the board. >> I'm excited to hear the emphasis on tier one because that really is so awesome. Great. >> Next, I'd like to ask Debbie

059Esber to the podium. She's going to provide an update on chronic absenteeism and our new attendance grant, followed by Laura Atkins to address family engagement. President, members of the board, superintendent Russ, the good news continues. So, um, as you know, I come up periodically to talk about chronic absenteeism, but today I am so glad to introduce our amazing attendance team. And so, we have Marina Asbury. She's our attendance lead. Haley Mattis, we have Miss Leiddesnma, Mr. McDow. And the reason I brought them up tonight is because I wanted to take time to recognize them because them along with Mr. Summers, Kevin Summers, some um of our staff from technology including Bonnie Sink and um Elizabeth Gonzalez. >> Gonzalez, thank you. Yes. And um all the way down to attendance, administrative assistance, the buildings and king.

060It was a huge collaborative effort, but everybody jumped in and they really helped us make sure and ensure that we were reporting the most accurate data for our 40-day. And so I am so excited to announce that last year um the 2425 school year at 40day we were sitting at 21% and for the 2526 school year 40day we are sitting at 16.8 chronic absenteeism. >> Wow. >> And so somebody said we haven't seen that since 2020. We haven't seen teen numbers like that since then as well. So, we are on track for a good year. But I really wanted to recognize this team, recognize all of their efforts that they do every day to combat um absences and to decrease chronic absenteeism. So, that's why I brought them up with me. One of the other

061things I'd like to bring up today is we also were awarded an attendance improvement grant. applied and we were awarded $100,000 as a district. And so, um, for the first year in that attendance improvement grant, we are going to implement several initiatives. So, we have at this time secured a long-term sub that will um, in the next two years become a permanent position for those two years to help at the elementary level. And so um that person and that role is to establish that capacity beyond the grant. So to ensure that all of our universal supports are in place um and interventions. The other thing that we have done with that money so far is we purchased um in focus social emotional learning curriculum for all of the elementary schools so that teachers have a

062resource at hand to help address or um support any social emotional needs in their classrooms. the additional funds we will also be using to continue. We've already initiated a district-wide campaign for attendance. So, you'll be seeing social media post um mark uh messages on marquees and so it is a three-year grant, but those are all the things that we're going to be doing for year one. And we any of us stand for any questions, >> questions or comments from the board. You guys are doing a great job. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Mr. President, I I want to add um the work that they do is very personal and connects with families, but as a district, the work that we've been doing to engage kids um it's been a very concentrated effort at every

063campus that makes a And when you hear about the youth programs that Jay's team all talk about, when we talk about the RCA strategies that we have put in place, that effort to get kids to want to be at school and to feel connected to something really drives that data improvement as well. So I want to extend that credit to our campuses and leaders and programs as well. Good evening, president of the board, board members, and superintendent Russ. Um, I am presenting just anformational item that meets some of the ESSA requirements for 21, and that is our district family and engagement policy. Um, our district family engagement polic policy is built in alignment with all the ES requirements for title one and is designed to strengthen the partnerships among families, schools, and the broader community

064to support student achievement. The policy is jointly developed with families, title one students, and reviewed each year to ensure that it stays responsive and accessible. On November 6, the district held its district parent advisory meeting, which included 50 parents representing all 12 title one schools, as well as parents of students with disabilities and English learners. During this meeting, families reviewed the district policy and contributed to developing each individual school's um family engagement policy. The school's policies will be posted on their school website um if you want to review those individually. The district continues to coordinate engagement efforts as we collaborate with other federally funded programs, for example, Head Start, migrant and homeless supports, and English learner services. This ensures that families receive seamless support from one entity to the other. We also work to build

065capacity by providing families with academic information, home learning resources, and accessible communication in multiple language languages and formats. Parents are encouraged to participate in decision making, advisory groups, and school improvement processes, and the district responds promptly to parent requests. Each year, parents and schools uh officials evaluate our engagement efforts to identify needs, barriers, and improvements to our family engagement policy. As required, at least 1% of our district's title one allocation is set aside for family engagement with 90% of the 1% to directly um go to the title one schools. Families help guide the use of these funds and each school also holds its annual title one meeting and reviews its school parent compact with their family. Finally, the district and school events are scheduled throughout the year to promote meaningful two-way communication following the care

066and maint. We appreciate the partnership of our families um as well as continue to build strong supportive connections that help our families thrive. And that is just a brief introduction of our district family engagement policy. And I stand for any questions. >> Any questions? >> Comments? I'm sure >> like a good plan. >> Thank you. All right. We'll move down to Mr. Strictly employee service matters. >> President Cordova, members of the board, I have quite a few policies and regulations and exhibits to present to you tonight. Um, this is a reminder the regulations and exhibits that will be for consideration next month with the policy all. So I'm going to start with uh there was a change in some definitions on alcohol and nicotine that made a couple of these change. So a 0750 just

067want to point out a couple of things. It started out as a very small policy and there's quite a bit of addition uh defining where electronic delivery devices. A lot of this came up because of the the rise in vapes and the vapes being able to dispense lots of different kinds of things besides just tobacco. Um, but it gives a definition that we've already been using, but it puts it in policy that it's our school grounds, buildings, parking lots, playing fields, school buses, district vehicles, and off-campus school sponsored events. In addition, um the consequences for students go basically to the discipline matrix. the discipline for employees that are in violation of the policy go to our regular progressor discipline. Um both of those also include offering support if there are drug or alcohol windows and

068issues and then visitors are going to be given an oral um opportunity to comply and if they don't then they're going to be asked to leave the school premises. So I stand for Any questions on that policy? >> Pretty self-explanatory. >> Yes, sir. And then the next one is regulation A0761. This just reiterates again um there's this information that our entrances of our buildings and athletic facilities which we've been doing for years. And then making the public aware that they have to complex that as well. >> Any questions on that one? >> I think we're good. E2011. This is a student transportation regulation and in the middle it does add tobacco is not allowed on the school bus or it takes that phrase out and it changes it to commercial tobacco, nicotine products, electronic tobacco

069or nicotine delivery devices, alcoholic beverages, mood altering substances and elicit drugs not prohibited in a school. It's pretty straightforward. The other changes are really um the consequences and so toward the end of that document. First first consequence for breaking this is a warning. Second in the case of suspension for the bus, third five days suspension and then fourth suspension for the remaining remainder of the school year. Any questions about that? A lot of pages but very few little changes from this point on G08811 staff conduct with students. This is a very small change. Um, just adding the word buy tobacco, adding the word nicotine couple of places and the rest of the document stays the same. Uh, G1 0. This is just a strike through because what was in this policy is now included in

070the the policy that I presented at the beginning. So asking to remove that. G9400, the retire the retiree return to work. The the basic nugget of this is that retirees, if they choose to come back to work, are responsible for maintaining the appropriate paperwork with the state. If they fail to do that, it can affect the retirement benefits. So, it really behooves them to take care of that. But it's just making sure that that there's other consequences. It could be required in payback pension payments and be available to receive until they get any compliance. This next one, we've been operating off this, but it hasn't been in our policy. This is adding an exhibit. It is a the school volunteer pledge, and it goes over what the expectations are if you choose to be a

071volunteer in our district. Stand for any questions on that. Uh J23000 stupid conduct again adding the word nicotine and believe that is it that J300 just removing the entire policy because it is uh covered in the policy that we're going to ask you to put in next next month regulation J4 4611. This is adding the statement for student discipline that harassment, bullying or cyber bullying is a prohibited activity and also possessing tobacco or nicotine is a prohibited activity. There is one piece in there using electronic communication directed to the student that is published with the intent that it be seen by or disclosed to the student and that substantially interferes with the student's ability to participate or benefit from the services, activities or privileges provided by public school. This is just addressing the rise in

072recent years of cyber bullying between students that often comes to life on the campus. the permissible penalties. Also, they added in student disciplinary conference, directed reflective activities and anger management training as possible consequences. So, stand for any questions on that one. >> I apologize this was quite a lot of policy to have at one time. Uh J25 or two J5350 administering medicines to students. All this been adds is the new drug, alcohol, and tobacco free schools reference. And with that, I for any questions on the policies. >> Any questions from the board? >> Pretty straightforward. >> The policy section will be coming back. Uh, next I have the open positions report and I'm really excited about the number. It's 51. I did sign off hand and Saturday for five uh additional positions this week to

073recommend the candidates. That brings us to around a 4% um open rate, which is pretty remarkable. We have >> I I haven't seen those numbers. So, I'm really proud of the work that Mandy does in recruiting and that Mandy and her Indian do on making sure that people are enjoying their time while they're here working. those retention activities really matter for any questions on those two. >> Any other questions or comments? >> Nothing but good news tonight. It's awesome. >> Thank you, Mr. Strickland. >> Thank you. >> All right, Miss >> You have to keep up the good news. >> No bad. >> Good evening, President Members of the board of superintendent Russ. The first item I have is a request to consider removing district cell phones as trade ends to sending the purchase of

074new district cell phones. Stand for any questions. >> Do I have a motion to approve? >> Sorry. >> Good job. >> I have a motion by Miss Edber. Uh second by Mr. Hamilton. All in favor? >> I >> oppose. Motion carries. Okay. >> From the student nutrition department to use for change of their epic Christmas lights. >> Any questions? I'll entertain a motion. >> Parade's around the corner, isn't it? >> Oh, yeah. >> I move to approve the petty cash request. >> I have a a motion by Miss Osborne, a second by Mr. Martin. All in favor? I oppose. Motion passes. >> Third item and is the membership projection projections report. This is used to determine the preliminary state funding for programs, growth units, and new program units. These projections are critical for calculating um

075our district's budget and are based on anticipated student enrollment for the next school year. These projections that I've providing uh were based off of the 40-day reporting period. I stand for any questions. >> Any questions? >> Are we following along with the 200 less every year? Does that seem to be the trend? >> The when I looked at the 40-day to 40day, it looked like about a 46 count different difference from last year. >> That's >> however when you look at 480 to 120, we often see a a drop at the 120. So, we need watch and wait. But I was glad to see 46 once I figured out the chart. Again, we just we don't interact on the chart a lot, but >> right >> that's good news. >> The initial was good news,

076>> right? >> What what we've learned from the demographer and >> however again I reference Mr. Brady because we've had a lot of conversations about this stuff and he's mentioned to us and as we went around with the campaign talked about the fact that we should reach a plateau at some point >> and we're close. >> That would be great if we would get there soon rather than later. >> Projection next few years we should plateau and stay there unless something happens. >> That's good. >> The last item I have is the national board professional teaching standard, the National Board for Certification of School Nurses. The NBPTS applies to all of our licensed step licensed employees, not just the teachers who have an active certification. and the NBCSN which is new this year for our

077nurses licensed level two and three registered school nurses with the active certification on or before our 40-day reporting date. This information is used to set the current year's final unit value and enable the February SCG adjustments. We currently have five employees who have the national board two certification and two nurses that have the national board for certification of school nurses. I stand for any questions. >> Questions comments from the board. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, >> Mr. Brady. >> Nothing but good stuff. >> That's it. members with the board, Superintendent Russ, um you guys have gone with us on this journey about what do we do to provide extra for kids and so youth athletics, a focus on middle school, um high school, what are we doing, build bigger, stronger, faster, u

078and the programming that it takes to put our kids at a place to achieve and perform at high levels. And so tonight, What we want to do is give you an idea of what the return on investment is. Uh it's been substantial, but you really can only measure in the number of kids that are out and then you saw a glimpse of what I hope is many more district championships leading to state uh playoff runs with our program. So with that, I'll turn it over to uh Coach Williams, our athletic director. Uh thank you uh board president superintendent Russ members of the board. We definitely appreciate the opportunity to get up here and give you guys a report a positive report. Um we're going to have our two athletic coordinators for u these two u

079I really appreciate these these uh these two coordinators Liz Lemoa and Jose Pada at Gatis. um you know they're really being intentional about changing the culture and um you know they're asking kids to do what they've never done before and so uh we we definitely appreciate their their actions. Um we appreciate everything that they do for our kids every day. So we're going to give you a brief overview of what's been going on positive report coming from the department. Um, good evening, President Cordova, members of the board, and Super Mrs. Russ. I appreciate you guys for the opportunity. Um, so I'll start with the general overview of our play through five youth programs. The first season we had, we started off the school year with basketball. And before I get there, I just wanted to

080talk about some of the changes we made this year. Um, restructuring the the sports. Last year we kind of did them in the season of the high school sports, but ideally out of want our basketball players coaching kids during basketball and volleyball during and so on and so on. So by us doing that, we changed the structure with making it outside of those sports seasons so that those kids are available and those coaches are available without having to worry about being in the duration of their season. Um so we started off the school year with basketball. Um that was first grade we had K through one had um 280 kids participating in that. Second and third grade we had 250 kids participating in that. In fourth and fifth grade we had 218 which was a

081total of 748 kids participating. Um with some of the new structures we made to the seasons. We prioritized more on focusing on skill development and the fundamentals more so than structural play. Um because in a two week period. There's no way a kid that's never played basketball or volleyball is going to learn how to play in two weeks. So instead, we changed it in um I did five weeks of skill development and then last two weeks we did games and it seemed to work a lot better that way with attendance and just and kids not feeling discouraged. Obviously, I want to have this program for everybody whether you've been playing for years or first starting out. I want everybody feel welcome to come. So that's kind of how we restructured that and being on some

082of the skill levels. We kind of had like a more advanced session for those kids that already know how to play so that they we can still loop them in as well. um with that basketball season and we staff with coach Cory Picker who's here um and his and his staff and then our varsity basketball players and our lowle players which I think is really important because for one it gives those kids some type of ownership in in the community and and paying it back forward because at some point they were once those kids that were looking up to the high school kids and I think it gives them a it gives them a different sense of what it's like to be a coach because I think they take it for granted Um, and they

083they'll come to us like, "Oh, they're not not they not following instructions." Like, "How do you feel all the time?" I play. You have no idea. They just told you. So, I think I think open our eyes to a lot of stuff for that. But I think it was, like I said, basketball is a great one. Then, right now, we're currently in volleyball. This weekend, we'll um we'll be going into our sixth week. So, we'll start games this weekend um with our volleyball girls. So the numbers for that is K K1 was 205 kids in that. Second and third grade was 162 and then fourth and fifth grade was 250. So we have 67 kids total right now playing volleyball. I will say it's a nightday difference with the girls working the boys. The boys

084tend to remind me why I don't have kids right now. But when I say it's it's great. I I enjoy it. Um I've gotten a lot of feedback from the community as far as um people that probably are lower income families and just the importance of it is that we were offering something for free um and that they they wouldn't be able to pay for these things with their financial situation if we weren't offering it. So, it gives us a sense of purpose and it just lets me know >> that we as a community and a and a school district, we're we're doing the right thing. Um, like I said, those kids wouldn't have those opportunities without us. So, I just want to thank you guys for the support um that you guys have been

085giving me non-stop and and the people that work day in and day out with us. We got Miss Calhoun here who she's worked every single sport, no matter what, she shows up. Uh, she she's always willing to help and it's people like her that that are keeping this thing going because at some point we just we got to own it. You know what I mean? So, I'm thankful for her. I'm glad she's here today. Um, and then moving into that, um, just like I said, the importance of this program. Um, obviously all these kids aren't going to go on to be college athletes. Like I I tell you, we talk about it all the time, but it gives them a sense of purpose. Uh, it gives them a sense of unity. And I think it

086kind of it's creating that culture that that we once had that we need to get back to of just togetherness. No matter what your financial background is or if you're good or bad at the sport or whatever, like there's always a place for you in our district. And I think that's more important than anything. And that ties into the retention of kids, which later on leads to them graduating, getting across the finish line. I think if it wasn't for this program, there are some kids that we probably got lost that they have a sense of purpose and unity. like there's someone there that that was um moving into the new structure of uh oh we also did offer coach I'm glad you're here we had a we had um a dance clinic with our wild

087cadets that had over a hundred attendees that was free of charge and they concluded after their clinic they performed at our basketball games so those kids got that opportunity as well so I wanted to make sure I made light of that and And then um lastly, we opened up indoor sales is a new addition this year and we opened it up midday yesterday and I was pleased to be informed by Miss Sarah that we're already at 360 kids signed up in a day. So, >> Wow. That's awesome. >> Good problem. No problem. >> Moving forward from that, we'll talk about our new structure of our middle school athletics. Um, we now have a offseason program. So, what that means is obvious usually typically when those kids get out of the sports, we they kind of

088get out of our our our range and we kind of lose track of them and that I think we had a retention problem as far as with the grades and eligibility because after they say if you play football and you don't play anything else, well, we lose track of you and and we and we kind of you kind of get lost in the sauce and we don't realize until the next year that you're that you're not, you know, your grades aren't what they need to be. So now we have a year round offseason program where if you're not in the sport, you're still in athletics. Um within those emphasis on that or obviously participation, growing numbers. Our goal is to have 10 teams, I mean two teams for every sport. Um we've already expanded out

089on the boys side based on their numbers for tryyouts. We have two eighth grade teams at each school and two seventh grade teams. And ideally, I'd like to do that for every program. Um, obviously that leads directly to retention and then obviously we're focusing on culture and then wins and losses. Um, with that offseason program, we're focusing on bigger, faster, stronger, which so two days a week they'll lift they'll do they'll lift weights and then the other two days we'll do some speed and agility work and stuff like that. Then we have a built-in study day uh study hall day so that we can focus still on the academic part portion as well. >> Um, That being said, I'll take it over to Miss Elizabeth Liddesma who's our younger athletic coordinator and she'll kind of

090give you some numbers and breakdown. Um, yeah. >> Hi. So, for offseason, instead of having all of our athletes participate in just football and volleyball, we gave them an option. We asked them, um, are you interested in playing certain sport? They signed up. And so, at the very beginning, we a lot of boys interested in uh basketball which was great. So we were able to uh offer them that opportunity and for the ladies too they were in the in the afternoon and the boys came in the morning. We kind of structured it different. So Gatis um they had 27 boys and 33 girls and for Yaka we had 20 boys and eight girls. So it was a really great opportunity because if not they would have been you know not working on their skills and

091so now their season is starting they're they're ready to go. Here are some pictures of us in action at both the middle schools. >> And I think the next slide has the Yaka numbers. So, um, when we first started the school, they told me that we didn't even have enough for a Yaka eighth grade team. So, I went looking. I found 36 boys and they they really really tried. Um, and out of those, there were a couple that were ineligible. Um, and out of the 12 that were ineligible, we use their lunch period to make them eligible. They get their lunch. They're my best friends. Tuesday through Thursday, and we got eight. >> Um, for seventh, we had 48 seventh grade boys come up. Huge number. I don't think I've seen that. Um, before. For

092our volleyball girls, that is a cut sport. And so, we keep we keep it at 13. Um, for our volleyball girls, we were actually able to do an A and B team. and we had 11 on each of those teams. And then cross country, I have a bunch of cross country runners at Yucka. And so I had 18 boys and 17 girls. Uh 18 um eighth grade boys and 17 girls. Those should be together. But anyways, um and one of those eighth grade girls was ranked ninth at state for the high school. >> And we had an eighth grade boy who ran varsity. And we have 91 kids and he was the top four runner. So the middle school program has done huge pro has done huge things for us as cross country. This is

093our sixth season as with the program and we are really we >> so for Gatis some of those offseason sports also included at Gatis we were a little more fortunate to add track. We had a lot of kids who were very very interested in track. Um so we had a mixture of basketball and track offse. Um so right now that football volleyball. Those kids who have been in track are preparing for track season at the end of at the end of Christmas. Um and then some of the cross country numbers some of those kids don't think many but were from Yatis um that did a home recruiting this year for coach Leesma to provide. Um so if you see it's the same thing for us. Um we had six that were ineligible for our eighth

094grade. That's based off the end of the year. Um and we did a similar thing um at Gatis. we provide every Wednesday after school u study hall um and then they come in the mornings if they're not so three out of the six got eligible um they got to participate on last three of our games um so that was that was good for them good for parents um but the biggest thing that I want to point out is is our GPA um know we talk about our attendance um our chronic attendance has been very good um I spoke with Mr. Riley the other day we went from last year to this year last year we're at 24% and I believe this year we're at 17% um a lot of that culture. Um, it's not just

095our sports. Um, I know we talked about the RCA earlier. We did have a house night today at Gatis. So, a lot of this numbers, not just the sports perspective, but also how our culture at Gatus is changing. Um, not just the sport side, but our teachers and administration, we're all willing to work together. But I think the biggest I want to point out is our GPA. Um, we were very high across the board. Um, kids know that they need to be in class. Academics come first. does something where if they have an F um they sit out half the practice and they work on their stuff and they get to practice the other half. Um so we make sure academics is our priority um before they get to >> good stuff. >> Wow. you

096guys kind of make me nervous, so I kind of forgot something. But >> just kind of with the growing numbers that we've had, um there's also against pickups that kind of wanted to be transparent about some of the facilities. Obviously, we only have so many gym spaces at those middle schools. So, we've had to make some adjustments as far as busting certain teams to different locations um and and so on and so on because like I said, "Ideally, we're trying to grow and make two teams of everything." And with that being said, we're going to have to do some things that we haven't had to do. Um, and I think I just wanted to be transparent with that part as far as we are having to kind of maybe structure. Some teams are having practice

097after school and some some teams are having to get bus other places. But I think it's a good problem to have because it means we got more kids at home. I don't know if you guys I stand for any questions that That was great. >> Thank y'all. Good thing about working with these guys, I don't have to talk about it. So, it's perfect. Uh, so the next portion will be our fall sports um participation numbers, focus areas, and also I'll talk about, matter of fact, I'll talk about strength and conditioning right now before we jump into the PowerPoint. Um, so we we've added um a full-time strength and conditioning coach with our within our school. So, he's the actual teacher and uh our athletes, which we will have probably close to 100% uh next semester

098in those weight classes. So, um of course, you know, our our goals to make sure that we get our kids bigger, faster, stronger, and also increase the agility and flexibility of our kids. And so, um you know, when we go places, we look at kids and we're like, dang, man, they're, you know, they're big or you know, they look in shape. So we we want our kids to do uh better, you know, um throughout the district and throughout the state. So I think that is very intentional um that that we made that move to Irish condition for all of our athletes to be strong this year. >> Next slide. >> Uh so uh football our participation uh vars participation was at 53. We had 53 participants uh on the varsity level. Um, as you can

099see, the ninth grade participation was uh was was pretty good. 40. I mean, that's that's probably average around this area. Um, and so, uh, you know, we we would think with the numbers increasing at the junior high for those speed next year, we'll have quite a bit of freshman come out for football next year. So, we we're I think we're in good shape on that end. Uh, our record uh for varsity, we we definitely improved from last year, which weightless season last year turned into a three and seven season this year. Um, you know, I think coach Hodgees and his staff did a great job with um with the resources they have and what they had as coaches. I mean, I know they're short a couple of coaches on staff and so, but they they

100made it happen and uh, Coach Hodgees and those guys over there have have definitely poured into our kids and uh, you know, definitely changing the culture on that side of things as well too. uh fifth. We finished fifth in our district. Um we were one spot away from making it to the state playoffs. Elorado who finished fourth in their district got a hand over us. So u you know that's that's one of those things that you know our kids can build on and and they understand that um you know it it takes a little bit more work and a little bit harder work to to make sure that we can make the playoffs into the postseason. So we ended up finishing 13th in the state behind Colorado who was 12. Uh boys soccer 51 athletes

101for coach Trudo our season record is 12 and seven. We actually finished as learn this year. Uh our strength of schedule is really uh what what we kind of um you know we we had a hard time with our strength of schedule just only because I mean we're we're out here uh on the eastern part of the state. You know it's it's a lot more teams to play in the metro area or the northern northern part of the state. So, um, you know, we don't want to have excuses, but I mean, it is a it is a u a curtain, you know. So, but you know, we we want to make sure that we sit down I sit down with coach and make sure we come up with a plan in order to strengthen our

102schedule for next year so we get the playoff. uh the uh elementary youth soccer program. I know coach G had mentioned that. Um the boys soccer team and their head coach will make sure that they take part in that as well too, just like the boys basketball and the volleyball team does with sports this year. Girls soccer um definitely improved. Actually, we were in a three-way tie for runner up for second place in our district this year. Um our defense definitely improved. So last year 2425 season they gave up 68 goals and this year they gave up half. So 38 goals. This year they only allowed which you know 68 last year. So that's a big improvement for for our new head coach Daniel Rohouse. Um he was hired in mid July. Um he started

103with 20 girls and then he ended up with 37 um to finish off the season. And uh they actually have a uh all district sele they had five all district selections. for our my program soccer. So that's I think that's big. That's something to grow on. Um and then also um fourth Drake Cobbs was in our district and so we got more district selections than COBS this year. So that's that's a big thing. We know that's we know that's huge. So uh moving on to our cheer program. Uh we also have a new program leader uh on our cheer on the cheer program. Um they currently have 19 vars cheerleaders um 14 JB cheerleaders and then currently have eight current freshman cheerleaders at this time. Their focus is uh also strength. I want to make

104sure that we get all of our cheerleaders in in that weight training class and strength division so we can strengthen their their legs and strengthen our base girls that you know that hold our girls up things like that. And then also their team culture is their focus. I walk uh currently 19 dancers uh 10 of those they have JB uh 10 JB dancers and that's a new co there for us. We just accepted that a couple months ago. So coach Martinez is doing a great job with that JB group. That's the first ever JB squad that we've had for a while. So we got something to look forward to as far as you know growing our program. Uh at Gatis right now we got 20 dance team members. At Yuck we have seven. Uh we're

105we're definitely going to grow the the the dancers at Yucka. Um you know it's it's coming you know when we when we're doing our clinics and uh you know when our program leaders were visiting our middle schools that that number definitely increase pretty soon. Uh our walking hosted a youth clinic who had and coach G mentioned this as well too. They had 100 attendees at the uh at the elementary youth clinic. So that that was a game for us. And then um they organized a middle school and JB night for our middle school dancers um you know to to perform on worship stage as well too. Cross country we just recognized them. U you know they they've done great. I think coach uh said we have 91 uh members participating in that in our in

106that sport. So that's huge for us. Um the wins, girls placed first six time six times out of 10 meets and then boys had 77 wins this year. Uh our girls team obviously was district champions. So uh give it up to them again for that. Yep. On that uh that's the highest in history that we finished fifth in state this year. So that's the highest but we never finished on the girls side in cross country. So that was that was huge as well too. Our boys they weren't a slouch either. They end up finish second in district as well too. So um next year we should have a girls and the boys finish first district. They should be district champs. And then the boys finish state this year as well. uh volleyball district champs. We

107beat Hobs. So, give it up for >> definitely beat Hobs uh this year. Um was electric during that game. And uh Coach Hill, she she does a great job with our kids. Um you know, her assistant coaches, they do a great job as well, too. And our girls are are A1. And you know, I got I had the opportunity to watch them this uh last this past week at state tournament. you know, it's it's it's only going to be up from here. I think our girls are going to make a make an impact um here in the in the next couple years, so it'll be fine. Um again, the New Mexico State volleyball alternative selection and the a five one district record district championship year for cross country. Uh oh, we already did that. Yep.

108Okay. So, uh our Wildcat heroes in the community. So we we basically have a a community service initiative throughout a built-in uh program within our athletic program. And so uh we we do uh in partnership with Neon's Pizza, we do an educational appreciation award which is called the Pizza Heart award which we give educator of the week award once a week u every week. Uh we also have the bring the energy award uh who's sponsored by uh Backwoods Apparel Company here in Columbus. Um they give athletes and awards weekly and also our heroes in community program which we partnership with the city of to the Hillrest senior center. So um we try to keep our kids busy on and off the court and on and off the field and uh the track as well too

109and uh you know just below the things that we've done this year. Um we're not we're not done. So um again uh we appreciate the community support. We appreciate the board support. my superintendent, Greg. You know, we we we talk all the time when we're in Jim's office and you know, she comes in and and messes with us. But, you know, we appreciate we appreciate every every bit of it. So, um at this time, any questions you have for athletic program, I'll be >> Well, yeah. Well, how many senior did you lose to football? >> I want to say we lost um I want to say seven maybe. No, it was it was 11. >> It was 11. Yeah, senior night. I remember senior night. >> Um, we do have some junior our junior class

110is going to be strong next year, I believe. >> And then, like I said, that that freshman class, most of our bigger bigger kids are in that class. So, good. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. >> Oh, go ahead. >> No, no, go ahead. >> I was just going to say it all looks positive. It does. >> Proud. >> And yeah, thank you to all the coaches. Make sure you let them know that we appreciate their hard work cuz being married to a coach, they put in a lot of hours out there, you know, and and uh they're all about the kids. That's, you know, of course everybody is, but >> but but yes, give them a you know, big shout out to them from us. And uh how's that uh Walkad coach working out

111for you? Got anything you want me to tell her anything? No, better than me. >> No, all of our coaches are great. Like I mentioned before came up here, you know, I think our coaches are definitely intentional about what we're trying to do. I think our kids are starting by and making sure that that we're doing what we're supposed to do to be successful. >> Well, thank you. Thank you to everybody. You guys Thank you. Before we transition to the next items, while uh Mayor Morris is here, I just want to call out the partnership with the city for our youth sports program. What we do together through that program is going to make a difference over the long haul on the experience that our kids have in this community and the product that we

112create with our children. And so we really appreciate all of the variety of partnerships that we have with the city from the SRO to this youth sports program. There's nothing but evidence tonight that those efforts are getting kids engaged and getting them somewhere to be. So >> okay, last but not least, I have Eric Windish, our senior director of technology. you on lots of things that are going on in the tech. >> Good afternoon, President members of the board. Um, it's a lot of information that's on here to try to convince it as much as possible. the the biggest thing at that at first area we're talking about is uh school security and from uh adding more cameras uh primarily at the high school we're going to add about 65 kids and the emphasis we're

113focusing on is being able to identify uh facial features and being able to get more information about the color of someone's chair like that one of the other added advantage to adding those cameras is being able to live. So, uh, one of the one of the situations that came up past weekends ago where fire was displayed. So, our zero alerts went off and we kind of saw the image more or less who the student was, didn't >> but then went into our new system which is called forum and uh a lot of great features within the analytics but not in it. So being able to take the description of that car and u put it into the system and say tell us all these different models makes bank makes of cars that are live that

114have this type of purpose and we were able to uh pull that up within minutes where uh in the past we've had to take hours of scrubbing video and going through and trying to figure out what exact. So forum of course is going to be our new camera system that's going to allow us to identify things to be in front of sort of being reactive to a lot of things. So another case that we make is uh if there was for instance something going on at a a school site and one of the things that's really challenging it's really frustrating when you're looking at the naming of the cameras, right? And so we have, you know, school building and inside the school building you have a bunch of the interior halls and so it's really

115hard to keep them straight a lot of times. One of the features that was added was the maps feature which allows you to go look at the map view and directly click on those uh camera views without having to all these different camera views. We have I talked about this before we have over 1300 cameras in the district. So at the district being able to memorize where every single camera goes, even me working on them, it's impossible for me to remember um which camera. So that's just one of the areas. Single wire. Um this is really neat. So I had a Mr. Brady had reached out to me. He's like, "Hey, we want to figure out a way to be able to do kind of a mass notification more than just what we're currently doing.

116how can we send this out to every single device we have in the district? And so I stumbled upon this product called Single Wire. And so what it'll do is it's going to bridge in our uh classroom projectors, classroom phones, um it's going to uh bridge in uh intercom systems. It's going to bridge in our um uh access controllers. Uh so that's one of the items on here was uh we did implement it was access control uh systems at the high school. So, every door has a key card access reader readily available. And what does this mean? This means that with single wire, if something happens, if there's a lock down, uh imagine yourself being the person that is hitting the button and then now you have to go through five different apps. There's all

117these other checklists that you're trying to grow up with to figure out what's going on. What that's going to do is going to take those apps, combine it into one process to where a lot of these things are going to be automating the back end. So when you hit the button to say we're in lockdown, it's going to automatically lock doors. It's going to automatically uh send out a signal or a message uh to whatever device you choose, desktops, uh laptops, uh phones, cell phones, uh the projectors themselves. So that's all going to go out simultaneously at the same time. And so uh we can leverage some of the things I mentioned zero eyes earlier. So being able to take a weapons detection and automate that process too if if we choose to. So it's

118just a lot of different things uh with this uh particular product that we can do. It's not all just about that, right? And so um there's other ways that you can use this to to do good things, right? And so one of the things we talked about so going back classroom. Um, you can present, you know, districtwide or, you know, schoolwide. You can say, "Hey, it's so and so's birthday or hey, you know, congratulations to uh teachers." So, it's not just for the emergency rooms that there's shout outs and things that you um moving on to the next thing. Uh we're talking about the information and um one of the the projects that has been around for a long time that they've talked about was at the state levels uh bringing in the states doing

119information system and so it's finally gone through they've been talking about for years even years it's finally gone through the the companies called Synergy um Clovis um had requested to be a part of cohort one um that process is going roll out through the end of this school year and roll over into the next school year. So projected that uh in summer of this next school year, we would be rolling over to the new system. What does that mean? It means that it's going to affect a lot of the different things that we're currently doing. So teachers in grade work, um being able to uh go in and um put in attendance, being able to uh manage assignments uh from from the aspect of actual assignment from uh the student information system. It's going to

120have around I think it's four different modules. Um that'll be easy. They're basically apps that depending on who you are. So if you're a teacher, you would go into the teacher access. If you were a parent, you go into the parent access. If you were um the student itself, you would go into there. And so um depending on where you're at in that approach and you may have more than one app because obviously be a parent and then be a teacher too, right? So um those are some of the things that what that would bring to to light. I want to pause there because I want to know if anyone has any questions because I know I'm going super fast. I just for the sake of all the information. >> Any questions from anybody? >>

121Sounds good. Yeah, I'm I'm super excited about it in everything that we're doing because it's really nice to be able to see a lot of these things come together, right? It's always um and one of the uh bullet items in here, you know, we talk about silos and how not only people but systems themselves, right? They kind of get used to this is what I'm doing. This is kind of what I want to do. And so we're bridging a lot of these things together and being able to get it all work together is awesome. Um the other part is uh Tyler spool uh ERP pro. Um so since we uh are moving away from Skyward which by the way we implemented Skyward in 2004. Um and so we've had Skyward for a very long time

122and of course those modules were brought in you know at various times of the year. What we're doing is we're pulling in both the student information side and the employee management and the financial side. Two different systems, the student information systems, the synergy side. The uh Tyler DRP Pro is the employee services uh human sorry finance side. And so what does that mean for Tyler? That means that when people are putting in time off requests or they're going in and applying for a job, when uh you know, we're looking for our paychecks, things like that, uh those are those areas that it's going to affect. And you know, of course, that's going to be all of our employees um that that that's going to affect. And again, those will be parents u other people that

123are affiliated with the postings for schools. Um, so on the bottom part, not only are we doing physical security, but we also have to layer on uh network security. So how do we protect things that we've implemented, right? So if we put in a door controller, how can we make sure that someone's not going to or get in there and, you know, opening up all the doors, you know, just to just to do it, right? A lot of the times the hacks are people seeing if they can just get away. And so we have uh two different systems. Uh one is our Cisco XDR. Um I always talk about that from the standpoint of this is what's going on currently. So if someone's trying to do something on a network currently, uh maybe they're trying

124to um do a brute force hack. And what that really means is they've taken either a list of uh well-known passwords or some other factor algorithm to then push that information out to try to guess what someone's username or sorry what someone's password is right and so that would show us that part. The XDR system is great because we can identify uh one of the things I I'll point out is you know in the past we when we were doing testing right online testing we'd have someone right could be a student could be a parent whoever that would intentionally bring down the network so then you wouldn't have to test. And so, uh, being able to identify that much at a much faster pace, uh, gives us the ability to shut that, quarantine that device

125individually, uh, and then, you know, do more investigation, figure out exactly where it's at, you know, keep it off the network, things like that. A lot of times, uh, it it has the other side of that where it over does what it's supposed to. And so, we have those false positives. We have someone coming down, they're like, I don't I can't get on the network anymore. and we find out no we didn't because the system told us to right and so uh that's XDR the securing part these are our vulnerabilities that could be an issue right and so there's this long list of CBES is what they call them um and and basically it tells you uh I always talk about it like credit score right and so when when you look at it how

126how high is your credit score is how wonderful that device is and how low it is is, you know, it's it's not it's mild. It's not really it's a low level attack that could happen. So, we get this report in each month and so I was really freaking out because our score went from an A to an F and that's that's F is bad, right? And so I was freaking out and I was like, what's going on? And so when we were in the meeting, they told me that they had assigned all of these um issues to me and that's why it dropped it down because it looked like I was overwhelmed with the amount of tasks that had to be taken care of. And so they rate that as an effort. So had to

127go through and kind of reassign some of those things back to uh either other staff or back to the system because they weren't that uh they weren't necessarily a high issue. uh but it w up looking like it was because our grade overall was so after doing that of course and doing some clean up we went to a C and now we're back down to a B and so I I feel really good about what we're doing in public schools and protecting and making sure that things can work great um printing so we did a big uh big overhaul just recently we we've uh brought in a different manufacturer We were using canned sharp um and so we replaced around 115 copers in the district within four days I think it was and so we

128the effort of the company they're called new uh they came out of course they delivered the copers our team went out and helped them that was also assisting staff with adding more copers back onto the machine so they print so very very big tasks and then of course the the last part is we're diving into the AI uh parts of the the world and being able to implement Google their their version like chat GBT it's called Gemini and so um being able to bring that in and assist with make things a lot more efficient for staff members right so I always talk about u you know just the daily task of reading an email sometimes people get longwinded right like what what are the most important things that I need to to know about this

129and they can summarize that for you and tell you to keep going Or if you want need help uh you know creating you know you can turn around and say hey can you make this sound nicer because you know when you tell someone that you you're sorry you took their copier away because of the cost you know you don't want to sound like you're inconsiderate. So any questions? >> Any questions? >> It's a lot. >> Yes. Hopefully I went fast. >> Yeah. No no that's >> Was that the AI version? >> Yes sir. Well, thank you. Thank you for your >> Thank you for your work very much. >> Okay. So, uh now we'll move down to uh the open form. Jean, do we have a >> Yes, sir. I have one card. Constance Williams

130speaking on rainry purchase and so on. Before you start, Miss Williams, I'd like to just read something. Uh, personal attacks upon board members, staff, or the persons in attendance or absent by individuals who address the Lord are discouraged. Presenters are cautioned that statements or representations concerning others that convey an unjusty unfavorable impression may be subject to the presental to civil action or defamation. So, thank you. Thank you for being here. >> Yes, sir. Cordova, board members, and superintendent Russ. I appreciate y'all's time today. I just wanted to come and talk with a couple um or talk for a moment about my concern and how I would like to ask y'all if y'all could address um and put the purchase of Grand Tree onto the agenda. Um, as far as my knowledge as a local citizen,

131um, this was, uh, brought up most recently in December of 2024 when they, um, had opened up the bidding process for, um, Rainree and basically initiated it at $3.3 million for that purchase. I don't know if any bids were accepted on that, but um, I did make a post with regards to this on social media. Um, you can go look at that. There were some different comments on there, but long story short, I I thought that this had recently occurred and it comes to be um just after a little bit of basic research on googling, you know, with public documents um that this occurred in 2021. And so as a local citizen, um, just to give a little bit of background, um, Rainree was, at least from my point of view, part of a larger

132project that you bought the building and they they built the apartments over there. Um, ultimately the the building, the Rain Tree Grocery folded probably within its first year and was essentially empty for the longest up until this point. Um, so I thought driving past there all the time like, man, that must be a big hold for somebody whoever purchased that, whoever made that investment must be holding on to a losing investment because it's been empty. They don't have any um income coming in. Well, then come to find out the clos municipal schools bought that in the p or in the um hopes to move the closed municipal school districts to that location. on the front end of it. I thought it was odd just because like I said it's this is a central location and

133I thought it would be hard to for a lot of people to make it out there. Um upon further um looking at this he said the initial estimates are $3.1 million what the property was worth but somehow closed municipal schools possibly bought it for $5.6 million which seems like about $2.2 $2 million more than the appraised value. I'm not sure if the New Mexico Board of Finance approved that, but as a citizen, I think, man, that's a huge cost for the citizens of Clovis as taxpayers to be holding on to a empty building that they paid more than the market value, quite a few million more than the market value and the holding costs that are attributed to that. I uh appreciate the um effort of civic engagement and everything that has gone on over

134the election. I voted for all of the bond issues. I think that it's super important. We have to invest in our kids, but I also think that we have to be as citizens aware of purchase things that are happening. And I would just like this to be brought to the forefront on a school agenda or on an agenda to see if y'all can just make a report similar to what y'all did with the um municipal information to break down the situation um and just have transparency. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yes, feel free. >> M Williams, I want to assure you that all processes um were followed with that purchase. It was a discuss that started. Those types of purchases come in over like a period of time because of that dance with all

135of the legal processes and so forth. And so that was initiated right at the onset of CO and prior to having the demographic data that we referred to before. An appraisal was conducted at that time. company that conducted the appraisals and everyone made the decision um to put that property for sale as we went through the facility master planning process which really brought to light what was happening with demographics in this area across the state even in the nation and um the phrase that we kept using was getting our house in order. And so in a other factors in that decision had to do with the age of this building in of itself and the dollars that we pour into the maintenance of this older facility. And so the data that we have at the

136time that we were working from um it was presented to the board as a very viable solution to pull together our student support uh technology which was separated into three different locations. And so that was the intention at the beginning. All of the processes were followed and then the bottom fell out of the world. U we were operating on uh facility master planning that had been conducted inhouse that didn't rely on information from a demographer. When we went through the process and got to have information from an expert, that's when the the board and the district made the decision that we've got to make some very difficult decisions and adjustments which led to the consolidations and all of the changes um that we've seen over the district in the last couple of years. Um, as

137those decisions were being made and we realized that we had the student support building, the old Park View property, the Rain Tree building, um, at that point as we're making the transitions with freshman campus to the high school and so forth, what was brought to the board was so perhaps we should liquidate and just tighten our belts here and make the most of leaks and things that we are dealing with. Um, watch the market see what happens not knowing what would happen after co how are things going to rebound or not rebound um I can tell you and this is all very very preliminary but district um leaders are looking at potential opportunities for us to leverage that building for productive use for the district um there are a number of things under consideration one

138of those being the expansion of our student nutrition services which have have been required to take on scratch cooking which requires more training for their staff. We have as district taken over summer meal provision in the community which is a big production. It's been very difficult um for student nutrition to be occupying three or four schools while our summer maintenance crews are trying to get schools ready for the coming year. And so we're looking at some funds that are available through that program to address those needs along with you're probably aware that when the SNAP dollars were in jeopardy that we took a proactive step reached out to see if we can provide meals for families which has led to supper being provided. Um I I really believe that one of the greatest services that

139this district provides to the community is a provision of food for advanced meals holidays. what was has been going on with the government and so forth. Um along with that we have an enormous freezer that is about the size of this room along with about five others. Um that largest one being exposed to the elements continuously out at at maintenance. And so what we're looking at is how might a property that we already have be able to address those needs without erecting a separate structure. And this this truly is hot off the press's idea generation that's going on right now. If you were in Rainree, you know that there is an entire section that was for food production. There was the little cafe. We see lots of potential opportunities for postart culinary baking competitions, the

140training that's now required of our student nutrition staff, opportunities for BPA marketing for kids to get engaged in work-based learning, provide a service to the community. Um along with that, something else that we were really hopeful for as we moved out of COVID was that some of these extreme behaviors that we're seeing with some of our students across the district that those would settle down a little bit. But what we're finding is that we're still having kids who are struggling socially and interacting in the larger classroom settings, showing us that we still have a really um deep need for behavioral support for some students so that they can get that targeted behavioral support to be more successful or to provide that alternative setting for them as we've seen in IAN Academy. And so before we

141go full on into the with finalizing what's happening at freshman campus. Um that was to include our training center along with where I can and I academy um have have expanded or relocated. We want to make sure that now while we're at the planning phase that if we need to provide more opportunities for students with those type needs that we utilize that space which also shows that Rainree could possibly encompass our training facility that was going to go into freshman campus. If you see stunned looks on the faces of our board members, it's because we truly are just putting ideas together because we share the same concern that you do with how the market changed and that um responsibility to our taxpayers and to be good stewards of all of our resources. And so we're

142very much in the planning phase right now. It's too soon to come to the board. We really do need to see what happens with this capital improvement tax question as we go back to the voters because all of those things together can help us get our house fully in order and be those good stewards of all of these resources. So, I hope that that helps a little bit to help you understand what's going on behind the scenes and that we're not just turning a blind eye to um that investment, but we're looking comprehensively at the needs of the district and where we're at right now and what we need to do to bring information to the board so that they can make those decisions moving forward. So, thank you so much for your question. >>

143Okay. And also just thank you for coming and and talking to the board. A lot of times people don't, you know, they don't reach out to us. Um, and it's better to come to the meeting, say what what's on your mind so that you know what's the what the truth is, you know. Uh a lot of times you get on uh social media and they just a lot of people are just throwing things out there and a lot of them aren't true. So thank you for coming and giving us the opportunity to to answer your question. If we can't answer the time then there's five of us. You can reach out, you know me, you can reach out to me anytime and and we can answer your questions or lead you in a direction. >>

144I really appreciate it. like um I think that y'all are awful people and you know we're doing this for our children and so thank you very much. >> Thank you. And uh oh we got to go to announcements Russ 24th through 28th will be Thanksgiving break for our campus no school for students or those campus staff. Uh district offices will be open on Monday and Tuesday of next week and then close Wednesday through Friday. We'll return here on December 16th for our next regular board of education meeting at 5:30 p.m. >> And with that, if there there aren't any questions, entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> I'll make a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Motion by Mr. Hamilton, a second by Mr. Osbor. All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you everyone.

145Have a good evening. Thanks.