[Captioner Present]
Test.
[Background Conversation]
>> Good evening everyone.
It's 6:00 and I call this meeting to order.
Thank you all for being here on this fabulous Tuesday night.
Secretary Nolan would you please take the roll?
>> Yes.
Mr.?
Member Frank.
Secretary Nolan S. Vice president Wofford.
And madam.
>> I am here.
We are all present.
Thank you so much.
I would like to welcome our student
advisor coming from Arrowhead Park Early College.
It's so great to see you on the DS
and I know this is your last time with us.
Which is a little sad but also exciting.
So please know that you are here for student input
and we welcome anytime you want to speak please let us know.
If I am not looking at you, get my attention
to say Madam Court or President and I'll call on you.
All right?
Thank you.
If everyone would please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
We have Miss Aaliyah and Miss Anaya,
who are fifth graders from Connelly Community Elementary
School coming to lead us in the pledge
and just as a side note, I went to the Dare graduation
at Connelly Elementary and they did the pledge there,
and it was amazing prepare yourself,
it's going to be awesome.
>> 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.
[spanish[ I salute the flag of the state of New Mexico the Zia
symbol of perfect friendship among the united creatures.
[spanish]
>> Told you.
Right?
[Applause] Well done.
One more round of applause, because they are both amazing.
Thank you so much.
[Applause] I would like I would now
like to call Mr. Joseph Flores, director of the Fine Arts,
to introduce our entertainment this evening.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
Good evening.
Madam president court and all the
distinguished school board members.
Superintendent Ruiz.
Student advisor Saeed.
And everyone else here this evening.
It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you the Picacho
Middle School Advanced Choir under the direction of Virginia
Ramos.
Tonight they will be accompanied by Michelle Lang.
The Picacho Advanced Choir will be performing Carmelit music
live, by Greg Gilpin, featuring vocalist will include
Gina Lopez and Sophia Wyatt.
Everyone please join me in welcoming the Picacho Middle
School Advanced Choir.
[Applause]
[choir singing]
[Applause]
>> Oh that was so beautiful.
Thank you so much for providing the entertainment for us
this evening.
That was the best part of the meeting.
Thank you for being here especially the end of school.
Happy last week of school y'all.
Absolutely.
I just wanted to say, I couldn't remember the name of the rock
band that came to El Paso, and you
participated in some kind of competition
where you had to sing their song.
Was it poison or foreigner?
>> Foreigner.
>> You guys sounded amazing.
And you sounded even better in person.
Thank you for coming here.
You guys really rocked that song.
>> Thanks again you all.
One more round of applause.
[Applause] All right down to the really fun stuff.
I would like to entertain a motion to approve the May 19th
2026 Regular session agenda.
>> So moved.
>> Second.
>> Moved by Vice President Wofford and seconded
by Secretary Nolan.
All in favor please indicate by saying I.
>> I.
>> All opposed motion carries.
I can't believe approval of the agenda comment everyone left,
I'm just kidding.
I would like to entertain a motion to approve the May 5th,
2026 work session minutes.
>> So moved.
>> Second.
>> Moved by Mr. Frank and seconded by Vice President
Wofford.
All in favor please indicate by saying I.
>> I.
>> All opposed?
>> The ayes have it.
Thank you so much.
I would like to entertain a motion
to approve consent agenda items four B one, memorandum
of understanding between region nine educational Cooperative
and Las Cruces Public Schools, for median autism evaluation
training.
Five b one bid number 25-26-06 r e fresh produce five B two bid
number 25-26.
Dash oh seven.
Five B two the number 25-26-07.
Rebid Milk Products.
Five B three.
Budget adjustment request.
Which are also bars.
Five B for property dispositions.
Five b five vendor payments.
And five b6, ratification of the superintendent's approval
of budget adjustment request bars from May 20th to July 15th
2026 and finally five b seven, commitment of fund balance
according to G p standard, number 54 for FY 2627.
>> So moved
>> Second.
>> All in favor please indicate by saying aye.
All opposed?
All right the ayes have it.
The board met closed executive session Tuesday May 19th 2 p.m.
To 5 p.m.
To discuss a limited personnel matter under ten dash 15-1H2
of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act.
Specifically so that the superintendent
could update the board and Council
could advise regarding specific employee movement.
The superintendent could update the board
and legal counsel could advise regarding
the investigation of classified and certified employees.
And B limited personnel matters under permitted under section
ten 15-1H2 of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act,
specifically so that the board could continue to discuss
the superintendents interview evaluation and begin
the contract.
And I affirm that the items discussed
enclosed executive session were limited to those stated above.
Now we're going to move on to public comment
but before we move to public comment
I would like to remind our audience of the board's
procedures for handling public comment which
are found in board policy BEDH and on the public input
form referenced in policy.
Public comment is limited to three minutes
per individual speaker.
However the Board President may further restrict or waive
these time limits.
The board welcomes public input.
The board does not prohibit public criticism or comment
of personal matters however any person making public comment
shall be solely responsible for the content of their comments.
The board neither adopts or assumes responsibility.
And we have five public comments this evening.
And they were given to me in the order they were received.
The first person will be Jeremy McGowan.
Jeremy?
>> Welcome.
>> Thank you Madam President and thank you Lord for giving me
the opportunity to speak.
I'm here tonight to speak on some safety issues
that I found at some of the schools
that I transport students to and from.
Mainly Mayfield High School.
We have a lot of parents dropping off
at students on Isaac's Lane.
Which to me does constitute a safety concern
because the bus pulling in there,
as well as the vehicles coming out
and the neighborhood behind there,
it would be easy for a student to get hit
if somebody is not paying attention.
I thought of some ways around that.
Either marking that side a no student drop off zone
or possibly moving, making the parents
responsible for dropping students off
in the proper drop off loading zone.
To help with the safety matters.
Another thing is, it takes a lot of time for us
bus drivers to get out from certain schools because
of the traffic.
Way we can get around that would also
be to have security or school resource officers stop traffic
for the five minutes it takes the busses to pull out.
I think that's pretty much all I had on that matter
because I'm just speaking from my personal experience
at the schools that I have.
>> Okay thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Our next person, and I hope I'm reading this correctly,
William Hinton the third.
Mr. Hinton, I hope I said everything correctly.
Excellent.
Thank you.
>> I'm not very good at public speaking.
So I hope that this works out.
My name is Will.
And I am the union President for our local 6431.
And I'm here on to speak a little bit
about wages for our drivers.
For our Las Cruces public schools.
I have a compensation analysis right here.
If I may be able to submit.
Sorry.
It details single driver wages and single family wages
and cost analysis on inflation.
And comparisons between 25 hour and 40 hour week.
It also compares the local average for drivers
here in Las Cruces compared to other class D driver license
drivers in other states across the United States.
So, it's all in the submission there
and I would really like for you guys to peruse.
I know there's not a -- we are a little late behind and speaking.
But we definitely for sure that make our voices heard and known.
And that's all I have for now.
>> Thank you.
And you did a fine job.
>> Our next one is Corey Burford.
I'm sorry did I say that okay?
Thank you.
>> I'm also a school bus driver.
We're here basically trying to get
you guys to take us back or take us to be a part of the school
district.
One thing I can say for us, it's hard because our considered part
time employees for school bus driving
and so we don't get the benefits of full time employee.
And it is actually we get minimum essential coverage
so if any hospitalization or any surgical procedures
or any special visits that we need as bus drivers,
we don't get that covered.
We also have to pay into this coverage which also makes it
less for our pay in our day to day activities
and trying to pay for medical bills and things like that.
We are just wanting for us to be heard
that we would love to be a part of the school district instead
of a third party owning us.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
Mark Peterson.
>> Hello.
Who am I?
I'm Mark Peterson.
Bus five and Las Cruces here.
I'm a school bus driver from Las Cruces.
Oh by the way, these are my personal comments and opinions.
I drive a 40 foot 20 ton bus with a smile.
Sometimes a frown depending on the situation
but we all provide the same thing as drivers.
Student safety while transporting busses
full of mostly happy, smiling, but sometimes
unpredictable or disruptive children, sitting behind us.
You can call the students moving parts.
Like those under the hood.
We transport through all kinds of weather.
Road hazards.
Cracked and broken asphalt of which many
there is in this town.
And sorely in need of refurbishing.
And plus detours.
Train stoppages.
And upset parents who occasionally
visit the bus and children who are non-registered riders
attempting to ride the bus with their friends
because it's fun, don't you know.
In addition, as another example, yesterday one of our busses
was near barricaded suspect situation on the
and the bus had to pull over pick the driver
and the kids had to stay down on the floor.
Everyone made it home safely again.
Also yesterday turning on a left green turn signal and a vehicle
headed towards me showing no signs of slowing down
runs the red light nearly caused a head on collision
with me and my students.
Had I not waited a split second.
This happens all the time.
Of course the students know nothing of the near disasters
and I took it in stride.
I got them to their home bus stops
where we are professional drivers.
Our well trained in rodent situation --
and situationally smart.
And tough.
We get our kids home every safe with next to zero fanfare.
All we ask is a compensated fair wage
that reflects our skills and the daily road
and the interior bus environments we drive within
to get our students home safely.
This is my opinion, in my humble opinion
a contract of at least $2 an hour
or a 3.3% per year over the life of the contract
is not too much to ask after you take
into account the monsters responsibility your school
district bus drivers provide to Cruz's school district kids
who ride the busses to get the education their parents expect
them and deserve.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
Andy?
Is it Andy Kessner?
Thank you.
Am I five for five on names right now?
Okay good.
>> Hello my name is Andy Kastner.
Madam court come up particularly Secretary Nolan,
I was here two years ago, with unified front of fellow STS
union bus drivers and the hope was
there would be some type of support from the school board
at least to advocate in Santa Fe for increased funding.
The situation remains the same.
Bus drivers that are part of a union
that were here 12 years ago.
It's the same situation that financially they
are beyond Undercompensated.
The reason why I am part of the union,
yet I'm not an employee of STS, is
because I knew there was other opportunities with the CDL
that do compensate better and similar to other state
standards.
So even within the state of New Mexico, let alone the country,
there is more compensation for school bus drivers.
And for some reason, even though we are under the school
district, we are not allowed benefits
that teachers and other district employees enjoy.
And it's really a big deal because this job is not
for everyone.
And when you find somebody who's willing to work
for more than a year as a school bus driver, try to keep them.
And I absolutely, I've continued my CDL employment,
but with another school district.
Another school outfit here in town.
What's wonderful about STS, there's a lot of great people
and it's overall a good organization.
However we are always at the mercy of owners.
The owners always change.
And then they change their policy
and they change their pay scale and they change everything
that they want so we are always dealing with change that often
doesn't benefit financially.
The school bus drivers, the aides that deal
with Sped students, which is obviously
a very specialized experience, and I'm
surprised we haven't heard from any of the school board members
at a union meeting.
So I am here to personally invite any of you, particularly
Secretary Nolan, that we have been
told is an ally of our union, to come and enlighten us as far as
what can we do proactively now and also in the future
to ensure funding from the state of New Mexico
because that seems to be the rhetoric all the time.
That there's no money from the state
to support a transition of our outfit to the school district
so that we can become school district members or employees.
Or have some kind of standard for cost
of living that any owner that takes over, if we do
continue contracting, to be a fair living wage.
Thank you.
>> All right that concludes our public comments and now
we'll move to the superintendent's report.
Superintendent Ruiz?
>> Thank you members of the board at this time I would like
to invite our NEA Las Cruces and Las Cruces partners,
president Julie Waco, and President Irma Espino
for their reports.
>> Good evening.
Members of the board.
If it's okay I would like to begin by addressing same.
Who I have known since he moved to Arrowhead sophomore year.
Watching you grow into the young men you are now has been a joy.
What you do not know, same, is that I
have had a secret benefactor these last three years.
Every time you have said Miss Waco I have a question,
they donated a nickel to a secret account.
Which is why tonight I'm announcing my retirement.
In all seriousness, Sam, students like you
who are so inquisitive and whose love of learning shines through,
are why we show up every day.
I would like to thank our educators
for their tireless work and another great school year.
I hope there's a lot of rest and relaxation
over the next few weeks.
And we look forward to seeing you all over the next few days,
as you celebrate our graduates and shake all those hands.
Thank you, and I stand for questions.
>> Thank you.
Any questions, Board members?
Sam
>> I just want to say I'm very thankful.
You taught us a lot.
You asked the question all the time.
School, the community, and how to thrive in this world.
It was amazing.
I'm upset that I'm leaving.
And you're leaving as well.
>> Thank you so much.
>> Thank you president Waco.
Miss Despina?
>> Good afternoon.
President Cort.
Members of the school board.
Superintendent.
Please first I would like to begin that as you have probably
been watching television, Memorial day
is coming up with the sales that are being advertised.
The end of school.
Commemorates the the Memorial Day is coming up.
And also sometimes to it is recognized or known
as being the unofficial beginning of summer.
However, we need to remember the significance of Memorial Day.
What it really is all about and it's
a federal holiday dedicated to and honoring
the US military who died serving in the Armed forces.
Let us not forget that is a reflection
to recognize the ultimate sacrifice made for our nation's
freedom.
So I would like to also thank the school employees
for their service and dedication to our students.
For the nurturing that they give to our kids.
Every single day that they are at school.
But, let's not forget the 12 month employees
who are holding down the fort.
We recognize always our school employees.
And thank them.
But then we have to remember those 12 month employees are
holding down the fort.
They continue the service to our children of our community.
The custodians will do the deep cleaning and disinfecting.
Our administrative staff here will continue the service
that they provide for the admin building.
Our physical plant department they
will maintain the integrity of our school
buildings and other facilities.
And so I can go on and on.
Let's thank our school employees for the service.
But let's not forget those 12 month employees
that are holding down the fort.
In addition to that, I would like to also make you aware,
but you may already know through the superintendent's report
that he gives you on a regular basis,
that our mobile patrol officers, they have received their body
cams and their ballistic vest.
Is that what it's called?
And also a non baton.
I have to thank Superintendent Ruiz
for not getting upset with me for not telling me to leave.
Because we had a lot of interesting conversations,
didn't we Superintendent Ruiz?
>> We certainly did.
>> But I think we achieved the goal of getting these equipments
for our mobile patrol officers.
Because as you know our mobile patrol officers,
they are the ones protecting our schools at night.
They start their shift approximately at seven, 8:00,
and they work into the evening period so, with this year that
they're having --
I hope they're more protected.
Because prior to having body cams and their ballistic vests
and their nonlethal baton, they were not protected at all.
They depended on their former law enforcement experience
to protect our schools at night.
I am glad that that was accomplished.
Superintendent Ruiz I want to thank you
for us working together collaboratively on this project.
We still have some other things we want
to talk about, as you know.
The pilot program that we are talking about expanding.
Our campus security officers to have body cams themselves.
And so I look forward to our continuing talks about that.
In regards to collective bargaining,
we're still bargaining and as you know I cannot give you any
details.
About this but just know that advocacy,
the passion continues with Seasick Las Cruces.
And providing more than a living wage.
As some of you have heard me say,
I don't like the word living wage
because living wage means the basics.
We need to talk about is having a wage where employees thrive.
And so that's what we're working at and we have work to do.
And we do have a deadline as you have heard me say in the past.
We have a deadline that by the end of June we have to finish.
So that your round employees can have their first raise
in their July 15th check period so we will continue.
We will continue our passion and our advocacy
for my team to make something that is positive
and for our classified school employees.
Our support staff.
In regards to what I heard the bus driver say, as you know,
I have been in the past very supportive and yes it's double
that it would be great if they were part of LCC and so I have
had conversations with far more --
former superintendents that it would be essential
for the district to bring them as part of the LCC employees
because, absolutely they would be reaping the benefits of being
in the district place.
So I'm here for any questions if anyone
wants to ask any questions.
>> Have a good evening.
>> Thank you.
>> Sorry, the president, I'll turn the time over
to the Student Advisory Council board.
>> Thank you Mr. Superintendent Ruiz.
Honorable president, Madame, respected school board members,
superintendent Ruiz, district leadership, staff, families,
and everyone in attendance.
My name is Sammy Paul and I'm a senior here
at Arrowhead Park College High School and a student leader
and a proud member of the Student Advisory Council.
First I would like to sincerely thank
those who took their time throughout this year
to attend and support our advisor meeting.
Thank you to Madam Court.
Board Vice President Mr. Nolan.
Superintendent Ruiz and District leadership
including Mr. Peterson Mr. Rodriguez, and doctor Wendy.
Creating opportunities for student voices to be heard.
Willingness to listen and engage with students
has created and will create a district where
students can truly thrive.
Dedication has strengthened our schools
across Las Cruces public schools through support
through innovation technology.
Student opportunity and faculty success.
Because of your commitment to our schools continue to thrive.
As places of growth, learning, and opportunity.
This year has also shown me and everyone
in this district and everyone as a whole
the power of student voices.
I want to say this advocacy, when students are heard, when
student values and voices double student voices is more
than simply sharing opinions.
It is about identifying challenges common
presenting ideas, and having shared the future of education
as a whole.
Students are invited into conversations.
Schools become stronger and when students
are empowered to advocate and the entire community
thrives Student Advisory Council has shown that students
are not just partners in education
but partners in making our school better as a whole.
Personally it has been one of the greatest privileges
of my high school journey to serve
on student Advisory Council for the year 2025 to 2026.
As I prepare to graduate I reflect on this role
with deep gratitude.
I'm incredibly thankful for the opportunity
to meet with our president Madame Court, Mr. Wofford, Mr.
Nerio, Mr. Nolan, Mr. Ruiz, Mr. Peterson, and many others.
Sitting at the table with these leaders
allowed me to bring forward concerns and ideas
not only from my school, but from students
across our district, Las Cruces Public schools.
These conversations helped me better
understand how the district works and the efforts
it takes every day to support students faculty and schools
so they can thrive.
Serving this role has taught me that leadership
is about listening, working together, and taking action
to help others see.
I've learned so much and I'm very deeply grateful
for the trust placed in me to present
student voices this opportunity has inspired
me to continue advocating for others wherever life takes me.
What makes this role so special is knowing our voices mattered.
And this district values hearing from its students.
This is something I will carry with me long after graduation.
I'm also very thankful for our advisor.
Miss Stewart for everything she does
to support the Student Advisory Council.
Also it has been bittersweet to say goodbye.
I leave part of what we have accomplished together
hopeful for the future of student leadership
in this district as a whole.
Student leaders continue to speak boldly and educate
because your voice helps others thrive.
To the school board, and district leadership,
thank you for believing students to give us a seat at this table,
for a continuing walk to help every student, every educator
and every school thrive.
Thank you so much.
>> Great job, thank you very much, president,
core members of the board, this group of kiddos this year has
been awesome.
Some great conversations and those of you that
attended as well.
And also I know Saeed mentioned, her passion
for this work and the great job she does with these kiddos
and making sure the voices are heard so thank you.
To the SAC and our sponsor there.
Moving forward, president Court and members of the board,
as we heard graduation season is here in addition
to all the exciting events coming up this week,
I would like to recap some of the themes that
have been happening since our last meeting.
On May 7th I attended the Elk Bilingual Seal ceremony
at Mayfield High School where we recognize students earning
their seal of bilingualism and literacy.
The ceremony reflects the strength
of multilingualism in CPS and our ongoing commitment
to supporting bilingual and biliterate students
across the district.
We recognize the 134 students at this event.
Receiving their sales for Arabic, Bengali, French, Latin,
Russian, Spanish, and Rudy.
As part of the Teacher Appreciation Week,
I had the opportunity to meet with the CPS
teachers of the year finalist, Congressman Gabe Vasquez
here at his Las Cruces office.
He specifically wanted the opportunity
to personally thank and congratulate our educators
for the tremendous work they do for students and families
across our district.
It was a meaningful way to celebrate
the impact our teachers have on this community.
Thank you for joining us at this event.
Senior Honor Nights have also been taking place across LC PCs.
And I have truly attended these celebrations
alongside members of our cabinet.
These events give us the opportunity
to recognize the class of 2026 for their academic achievements.
Leadership Service.
And perseverance it has been inspiring to celebrate
our graduates and the bright future ahead of them.
As a reminder the Arrowhead College High School Senior Honor
Night is Thursday May 21st, this week at 6 p.m.
At Arrowhead.
Another exciting initiative continuing across the district
has been the Subaru count me in attendance Grand prize drawing.
I want to thank Sbarro and Frozen
Custard for supporting student attendance this year
and also providing funding for this initiative.
Throughout the last couple of weeks
we have visited high schools across the district.
To award $1,000 attendance prizes to students reinforcing
the importance of being present and engaged in school every day.
On May 12th we honored 99 l CPS retirees during their annual
retirement celebration at the Convention Center.
These employees represent more than 2000 years of service
to LCC s.
I want to especially thank Jessie Perry
and our human Resources team for organizing
such a meaningful event.
It was a powerful reminder of the dedication and legacy
of the people who have devoted their careers
to serving students in Las Cruces public Schools.
On May 12th we hosted a -- this continues to be an important
opportunity to connect directly with the Spanish speaking
families.
I'm hopeful the series will continue
to grow as we strengthen relationships and ensure
families feel connected, informed, and supported.
This really was a personal, for me it also hit personally,
just thinking when my mom was trying
to advocate for my education.
It would have been really nice to have
some of these types of events.
And it would have been powerful for her
and giving her that voice as well.
Very important to me that we continue
to grow this event as well.
On Wednesday May 13th I had the opportunity to meet with New
Mexico Representative Rebecca Dow.
During her visit to El CPS.
We visited the former Cesar Chavez Elementary
School and Sunrise Community Elementary School
and had the chance to showcase outstanding work taking place
in our schools and classrooms.
Thank you to Representative Dow for your interest
in the exciting work we are doing
to ensure all learners thrive.
May 14th I attended the college graduation ceremony.
I was especially proud to recognize more than 80 students
from Arrowhead Park Early College High School.
Who earned college degrees even before receiving
their high school diplomas.
Their accomplishments are incredible example
of what is possible when students
are provided with opportunities, support, and high expectations.
Finally, as we reach the end of the school year,
I simply want to say thank you, thank you to our teachers,
educational assistance, principals, counselors,
custodians, bus drivers, nutrition staff, office staff,
families, community partners, and especially our students.
Together we continue to build a culture
where students can learn.
Grow, and thrive.
I hope everyone has a safe, restful,
and well-deserved summer and I look forward
to welcoming our students and staff back
for another great year in July.
Thank you president and members of the board.
>> Thank you superintendent.
I was just looking at --
I'm back and it's all good.
We are now moving to old business and our first and only
thing on old business, discussion and possible approval
of Cesar Chavez Elementary School new name.
Now I would like to open up the floor to Doctor Lozano.
Thank you all for being here.
I'm ready when you are.
>> Madam president members of the board, superintendent Ruiz,
student advisor said, thank you for being here today,
great job come a very articulate.
Madam, like you mentioned, I'm here today to give you
and update results of where we left off during our last meeting
regarding the reading of -- the renaming of Cesar Chavez School.
Background can voted on last meeting to rename the school.
So here today is my colleague Tara Fabres,
who is our assistant superintendent leadership
and for the Oregon mountain feeder
pattern, who works directly with Miss Rubia, who
is the school principal.
I also have a representative from Thought Exchange.
Thought Exchange as our platform that we use to elicit feedback
from our school community regarding
the name of the school.
Let me introduce you to Mr. Rick Chandler.
Rick, if you can hear me?
I believe he's in Canada.
So.
Thank you for joining us.
>> No problem my pleasure.
>> Are you in Toronto?
>> I am.
>> Go to the next slide, it's not picking up.
>> Just as a reminder, madam president,
your board policy FFA, I put this up last time.
Basically is your authority over renaming of schools.
Schools here in our district.
Making every effort, for us to make every effort
to get feedback from the community.
I really appreciate the feedback that we received from you all.
During the last meeting.
I know president Tenorio requested
that we exchange for this very reason
that we get as much feedback and hear as many voices
as we can regarding the name for the high school.
Not for the high school.
For the elementary school.
Next, just want to remind you of the timeline.
On April 22nd, after the board meeting,
which I believe was on April 19th, April 22nd,
that's when the feedback period began.
We sent out the survey on April 22nd.
Thank you to Miss Caruba and her staff for making sure parents
had access to the survey.
May 19th, here today, we're here to review recommended names.
If you choose to go that route.
And if you are to select a name tonight,
May 20th through June 30th, begins our updates and school
Regrinding which I'll go over a little bit of what happens next.
And then of course July 1st, the new name is officially adopted.
And used by the community.
So a little background of how we gathered the information
from our school community.
As I mentioned earlier, President Dinardo,
board member Dario, had recommended
we use thought exchange.
And the reason we used thought exchange is a good platform
to use because the way it works, the participants are
able to enter their thoughts.
We call them thoughts.
Their response to the question that we post which was what name
do you suggest for our school.
So again this went out to just the school community.
As you know, Cesar Chavez Elementary
is pre-K through second grade school.
So it would then come the survey,
we did explicitly ask parents to sit down with their children
and talk about the name change and what they recommended.
What we really like about that exchange is people
are able to rate other's thoughts.
It's not just about the most popular
but it's really kind of the most popular
but it's not just the number of times someone
suggested the name.
It's about the amount of times people like it
or, Josh, Mr. Silver, had a really good analogy.
If you shop on Amazon, it has a star rating.
I look at that when I purchase something.
The same concept.
The more people commenting on it or rating it,
the higher the rating.
Depending on whether they liked it or not.
That's kind of how it works.
Again, parent notification went out the beginning of April 22nd.
We use parent square to make sure that our school
community knew our parents.
And also individual teachers.
We sent weekly reminders to their newsletters.
One of the things we've done over the years
is parents typically pay more attention when the teacher asks
them to do something.
So really trying to leverage the relationship that our teachers
have with their families.
This is when reminders were sent out.
April 23rd.
April 27th and May the 4th.
Here is a summary of participation for the survey.
As you can see, this is all including families and students.
Staff.
You're going to see in the first column
that it's not going to add up the 8646.
Why is that?
Oftentimes participants, when they log on,
they might not finish the whole, they might not enter a,
but they definitely do a rating period
so they look at the responses and do a rating
period so that's why the number doesn't coincide.
Thoughts though, those numbers add up.
There weren't 109 participants who entered,
who submitted their thought on what the name of the school
should be.
And number ratings, these are the number
of times that a participant was able to rate it, other people's
thoughts.
So here in this slide what you see
is really this is capturing the sentiment of the entire pool
of participants.
What are they thinking.
This is what we really enjoy about doing the thought
exchange.
It gets to the essence of the sentiment of the participants.
As you can see there was a strong connection
to our local landscape and environment.
So, names that came up were desert sage.
Desert blue.
Yucca.
Really talking about the land for the name.
These are themes and I think this
will help you in dissecting and deciding what name to vote on.
Next suggestion, celebrating our scenic mountains
and natural surroundings.
Oregon Mountain.
Mountain View came up quite a bit.
Of course sun inspired names are popular.
I think that was discussed last time.
As you know the neighboring school that's almost connected
is called sunrise.
So that theme came up to compliment the neighboring
school.
And then also names that reflect our community identity
and individual pride.
So regionally rooted.
A couple of names came up.
As suggested of local people that
have made a difference in our community
and then the overall sentiment around preference
for names that are neutral timeless
common and easy to recognize ensuring our school name
stands the test of time and avoids future concern.
That was the overall sentiment.
So here, this slide, what it represents
is the total number of participants.
As I mentioned earlier.
These are people that started participating
and submitted a thought.
What this chart represents is the number
of suggestions mentioned by certain themes
the one that was suggested repeated most was mountain.
Specifically Oregon Mountain.
That was a top end frequently suggested the most.
It doesn't mean it was liked the most it means
it was suggested the most.
Not so much reading but it was suggested frequently the most.
Second is sunset, desert, Koito, and Halaman.
All participants of the survey.
Out of those, frequently suggested names,
these are the ones that were rated the highest.
If we combine all of the different stakeholder groups.
Across family, students and staff.
Desert came out on top by having the most amount of stars.
A rate of 2.7.
When people filled out, during the 200,
2322, the one that popped up the most was the theme of desert.
Second Coyotito.
And Mountain Oregon.
Sunset.
And Holloman.
So, here this gives you a whole lot
of information of different stakeholder groups.
Your first column represents the number of ratings
by students and families.
As a reminder we had 86 participants
that identified as being a family member.
They selected, they received the link.
To their teacher and the highest rated here
was Sunset Elementary followed by Mountain View Elementary.
And then the tie was between Coyotito Elementary
and Correa Caminos Elementary Caminos meaning Roadrunner.
And the last was Desert Peaks Elementary.
The next column represents staff who submitted,
who rated out of 46 participants, 1131 ratings.
Desert Bloom Elementary was the one that was the highest rated.
Next was desert Sky elementary desert Sage Elementary.
And the last two were aligned to the highest
theme of Oregon Mountain Elementary or Mountain View
Elementary.
The last column represents our school leadership team
which is composed of 16 members of the leadership team.
So what they did there, and if you don't mind
we are just explaining the process
that you all went through the day that you met to discuss.
>> Good evening.
Madame.
Members of the board.
Superintendent Reece.
Our leadership team used both quantitative and qualitative
data from the thought exchange process.
To identify the top five.
Which you see differ just a little bit.
The quantitative data was from participation numbers.
Also from the readings.
Reoccurring themes.
We looked closely at frequent patterns
as well for quantitative data.
The qualitative data was -- helped provide context behind
the quantitative data.
We were able to review community comments explanations.
And the meanings families and staff had behind the names of.
We use that in many of the responses comment as you see,
reflected the themes that tied to our community identity.
It tied to the geography.
Our culture.
Our student pride.
And our sense of belonging.
The leadership team analyzed both measurable trends and this
is how we came up with our top five.
>> Thank you so much.
>> So where do we go from here?
Of course you'll have a discussion ask us any questions.
We have Mr. Chandler on the line.
If you have any questions regarding
the results of the survey.
The thought exchange.
And then if you do choose to select
a name tonight, what happens next, rebranding process it
begins.
Physical updates.
Signage.
Materials.
Etc..
I know we went over cost.
Other items I know the school is eager to learn the name,
they're wanting to select a mascot for the school.
So -- >> We are hoping to keep our same mascot.
We have built such a wonderful culture
around our Coyotes community.
>> Internal system updates.
I know Mr. Peterson spoke about that.
Ready to go with his team on student information system.
Doctor Wendy working with the Public education Department
to officially change the name.
And then of course all the things that come with it.
With our communication platforms.
With that Madam Court we will stand for any questions you have
or any questions related to the process
that we undertook to elicit feedback.
>> Thank you doctor Lozano.
Excuse me Principal Rubio.
And I got tongue tied when you came up and didn't
say your name.
>> You nailed it.
>> Okay.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
Board members, I now open it up for question or discussion.
Would anyone like to start?
>> I would like to know, Mr. Chandler, did I hear it right?
And what was his role?
>> I apologize, if I didn't clarify that.
Rick Chandler works with us on -- he represents that exchange.
Is an expert in using the platform.
He just helps us when we create thought exchanges
and knows the system inside out.
>> So you can get the best out of it.
Okay.
And the only other thing I wanted to comment for now,
would be the slide about top rated themes.
Where it was ranking out of five stars.
I was kind of, it caught my attention
that nothing was very highly rated.
Does that mean there's not a lot of excitement
among all these things?
Is there some fives hidden in there, just a couple?
>> Madam president, Rick and I spent probably 2.5 hours going
over the data, looking at and Rick I don't want to speak
for you but you shared with me that there was no clear
consensus.
I don't want to speak for you but I
don't know if you want to touch on that a little bit.
>> Yeah absolutely.
And you're kind of right.
There was obviously some ratings that were higher than others
but overall it wasn't like everyone loved one thing.
And I think it goes along the same lines
as Roberto was saying, people resonate
with the area that they're in and the environment.
And yeah it kind of rounded itself out.
I think the only time I really saw a clear was staff only.
Where desert Bloom I believe it was came out to the top.
But yeah.
It was very close.
I think coming to be honest with you, it could go either way.
I think most of your participants,
your stakeholders would be happy.
>> So, I'll start.
Even though desert Bloom Elementary came up
as one of the top ones, we also have a cannabis seller
that uses the same name.
And I feel like branding wise that would not be the wisest.
>> Thank you for knowing that.
>> I knew that honestly because someone else told me.
Okay.
>> Sure madam.
[Laughter]
>> I'm serious.
But also maybe if we have Mountain View elementary School,
it's the same thing it's the same initials as multi Vista
Elementary School and we might end up with some confusion
and so you can talk me off of my cliff of whatever,
but those two names, even though they are very prominent
in our -- in the extravaganza, I would avoid those two.
>> Madam president, I think that's why it's important
to lean on the overall themes of sentiment of the participants
and that's the beauty of doing this type of survey.
Getting the thoughts of different people in the readings
because it really gives you a good overview
of what their sentiment is around this topic.
Which gives you >> I just wanted to throw that out there first.
And board members who are ready for more comments.
And discussion.
Mr. Frank? >> I have be about sunset.
To me sunset is the end.
And yet school is the beginning.
>> I concur.
>> That to me is a concern.
>> I agree, although my daughter teaches at Sunset Middle School.
And another town.
And
>> And Sunset Boulevard.
Very famous.
So I think we can look at it in multiple ways.
I think of the song from fiddler on the roof.
Maybe Vice president, could you sing us a couple of chords?
>> Sunrise -- >> Thank you
>> There it is.
>> Thank you Mr. Frank.
But I also agree because if we have sunrise and then
the sunrise.
Anyway.
Anybody else? >> I think had similar concerns.
I was not in the desert bloom piece.
But I'm glad you mentioned it.
The mwBe, with Monte, we like our acronyms,
that could be confusing.
And Mr. Chandler while we have you,
I'm a big fan of thought exchange.
We appreciate you, the folks in this room
know how much I like it.
Thank you for being here.
It is interesting that there's no real consensus.
I think part of it is because the names are all very similar.
This isn't like we are over here and over here.
We are all kind of in the same area.
I would maybe say that Oregon Peak Elementary,
I don't know if we already have an Oregon Mountain high school
but that wouldn't be, I wouldn't rely on necessarily.
If we named it Oregon maybe I'll have to recuse myself.
>> Or Desert Peak's.
>> Yeah, or desert peaks.
That's really all I'll say on that.
>> Will, desert bloom showed up at the top of a couple
of the columns.
So I thought that one looked like a choice.
I saw Mountain View on all three of the columns.
They did appear to me to be very similar.
I adored seeing the coyote and the Roadrunner.
Very precious.
So, I don't know, I suppose we should avoid desert bloom
because of that.
>> Or maybe not.
>> I'm sure it will go out of business.
>> Also that.
>> Yeah.
Well.
I wonder what the rest of us think.
Because Deborah Bloom is a very nice name.
Desert sky or Oregon peak.
They're all very nice.
These all came to the top so they were
liked by a number of people.
So, staff and parents have spoken through this data.
So I won't put you on the spot for which one you like.
[Laughter]
I mean you could ask.
Yeah I would definitely tell you.
>> You've had the benefit of the conversations outside
of the thought exchange data collection.
>> I had two favorites.
East Mesa is one of my favorites just because it's neutral.
That's where we're at.
You're looking at the mountains on the east side
and we are the East Mesa.
I really liked Correcaminos just because we love our mascot
and like you said we thought it would
be super cute to have the Roadrunner and the coyote
together.
That's just my opinion.
Thank you.
>> Just another quick thought, when we're looking at the data
and looking at how many students and families and staff
and school leadership, most of these students,
and I'm not trying to, they will leave the school in two years,
you know come up with the staff school leadership folks,
they're the ones building culture around this school
and so I would personally put more weight on that data.
Acknowledging the student family piece of it.
Maybe some will have students that come after.
But staff, school leadership folks, they're
the ones who will build the culture around the school name.
So that for me carries weight.
I also think East Mesa Elementary.
That was my favorite one the whole time.
Less letters.
Makes it cheaper.
[Laughter]
>> Hello.
Give me the stare down.
>> I didn't mean to give you the stare down.
Because you had started, I wanted
to know if there was anything you wanted to add up here
>> I think my sentiment around school leadership,
I kind of saw it as a verb and for me specifically the verb is
like another way of saying they're thriving
if they're blooming.
I like that concept.
I don't want it to be associated with a dispensary.
So yeah I guess it would be a very board
thing to do to be like hey come on let's just
call it Desert Flower.
But I don't think that's fair to the work that was done here.
For me I would never call it Mountain View
because it is Monte Vista.
It's the same thing.
It's not just the initials.
Sunset again, the association of something coming --
it's beautiful because we enjoy sunsets but these are just itty
bitty kids.
Itty bitty children.
They're just getting started.
We should associate that with the beginning, not the end.
And although I like Roadrunners and I also
think that's a lot of animals for one school.
Yeah I think it's like you might have
a little competition between what you guys go with more.
The Roadrunner or the coyote.
I guess for me East Mesa would be an easy one.
>> I looked up desert bloom, there is a desert bloom beauty
bar.
LLC salon.
>> Okay this is just information I got from somebody.
I honestly don't know for sure if that's a thing.
>> That's why I had secretary check it out just to make sure.
>> My job as secretary.
>> Research.
>> East mesa for me is a little bland.
It doesn't have the same visuals as a lot of the other ones.
>> Like New York, it's public school number 123..
There's a beauty of simplicity to that.
>> Will, that makes me feel better.
Thank you.
Unless Somebody else knows that that's a thing.
Speak now or forever hold your peace.
>> This is a good time when public comment should be allowed
during agenda items.
Bus drivers?
>> (indiscernible)
>> Beautiful.
Thank you.
All right thank you.
All right you all.
I don't really see consensus as a name at this point in time.
Do we have it?
>> I don't sense that.
I really like this coyote.
I just think it's so unique and it's already the mascot.
Right.
Anyway.
That's just what I think.
I came into this, I was definitely
a fan of Desert Bloom.
But even if there's another store,
it's going to be confusing.
People will Google desert bloom and they're going
to get maybe multiple hits.
Let's come up with something that, that
won't cause that confusion.
>> Thank you Mr. Frank.
I can see the coyote in two ways.
Usually if you go to the other school
we are the East Picacho nights, so you would
have to be repeating yourself.
Which is kind of a lot to say.
Otherwise we are coyote, that's it,
you don't have to say it twice.
>> Desert Bloom is a dispensary in Tucson.
>> Oh, wow.
>> Can I recommend that we each kind of on paper put our top 2
or 3 and then you compile it and do it that way.
I don't know how did you want to do it, just do a motion?
>> No, I was just hoping we would come to a consensus.
But I should have known better.
>> I think we can come to a consensus.
>> As we come back around, I would like to voice that I do
like desert bloom, despite the potential dispensary
connections.
And
>> Which we don't know.
That's Arizona.
Desert sky is fine.
They're all very nice names.
I thought Mountain View when I started but the logic has
talked me out of that.
So I would vote for Desert Bloom.
>> Can I make a motion for East Mesa Elementary?
Absolutely you can make a motion.
>> All right I will make a motion.
>> Before you make a motion, turn it over to our student
advisor.
>> First of all I just want to say as far as elementary schools
goes, the naming and stuff, and regards to like a company
or the name of a person, I think we should move away from it
because it could be symbolizing branding and I think Cesar
Chavez is the fact that if we use that name,
if we get something similar to that or if they committed
something in the past that people don't know,
released after 20 or 30 years afterward, like Padre Martinez,
or stuff like that.
I just have a few suggestions to throw toward the school board.
And respected and honorable principle of currently
Cesar Chavez elementary school, if you may,
I could give those >> Of course Saeed.
>> My idea, we are looking at mixed Spanish and English
community.
Like Spanish, like sole elementary Zia sole elementary.
Esperanza elementary.
Solstice elementary.
Le Phare elementary.
And one thing I liked was Florida as a elementary.
>> Thank you Saeed.
I appreciate that.
Pulling on our heritage.
Thank you.
Before you make your motion, this is not ringed very high,
and it's only on one, and it's the smallest
of the participants.
>> Exactly.
And if nobody seconds, then we all --
if you would like to do that, go do it.
>> I would like to make a motion to name Cesar Chavez Elementary
East Mesa Elementary.
>> I would second that.
>> All right.
We have a motion and a second for East Mesa Elementary.
I would like for you, Secretary Nolan to take the roll.
>> Mr. Nolan?
>> No.
Mr. Frank.
>> Yes.
>> Nolan.
>>
[Laughter]
>> Oh man he was so hopeful.
He almost had a name.
>> I would like to entertain a motion to select Desert Bloom
Elementary as the new name to replace the name Cesar >> Are
you making the motion yourself?
Oh shoot I am making the motion.
Thank you.
Watch my words.
>> I would second that.
>> So moved by President Korte.
Seconded by Vice President Wofford.
If you would take the roll again please.
[roll call]
[voting]
>> Can you call me later?
>> I will come back to you.
Secretary Nolan was a yes.
>> I will vote yes.
Let's make it unanimous.
>> Congratulations.
[Applause]
>> Desert bloom coyote.
>> And the desert bloom goes with your mascot.
It reflects your school.
>> So many flower possibilities there.
>> Rip East Mesa elementary.
>> There may be another one someday.
Right.
There may be.
>> We'll save that in the bank.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you so much for your time.
>> Really quick if I may come up I want to recognize Miss
Ruby's leadership throughout this whole process
and transition to a new name and just want to recognize that
and thank her.
>> Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
Moving on to new business, I would
like to entertain a motion to approve
the end of year evaluation of Superintendent Ruiz as completed
in executive session.
>> So moved.
>> Second.
>> Moved by Mr. Turino and seconded by Mr. Wofford.
All those in favor please indicate by saying I.
All opposed -- the ayes have it.
Thank you all for your patience and yea I'm glad you made it.
Doctor Lozano.
And Mr. Toyokawa would you come up and introduce our students
and their presentations.
Thank you so much and thank you for your patience, students,
we're really anxious to hear what you have to say.
>> Madam president thank you come on we're going to introduce
Mr. Metafora, who is the director of the Southwestern
Las, we work very closely with her.
She works with Mr. Morales and myself
and these wonderful teachers and students.
I'll pass it over to you.
>> Thank you school board.
President madam court.
School board members.
Superintendent Ruiz.
Doctor Lozano.
For providing the students with the opportunity
to share their voices and experience tonight.
Your continued support of student leadership,
student centered learning, means a great deal
to our students and our program here tonight we
are proud to highlight some of our work.
Our students have completed through Participatory action
Research Conference that we did.
Or as they refer to it as by Park.
Because we love acronyms.
Empowers students to identify issues impacting the schools
and communities.
Research those issues and develop solutions
through actions and advocacy.
Students build skills and leadership.
Communication collaboration critical thinking,
and research while learning that their voices matter.
And they can play an active role in creating positive change
in their communities.
This year's conference was held in December.
So it's been a little bit.
They've had lots of refreshers over the last couple of weeks.
Thankfully Mr. Morales met with them.
We featured 46 presentations over two days.
We have more than 350 students.
Participating in those two days.
From fifth grade through 12th grade in three different school
districts.
The topic most frequently researched this year by students
was gun violence.
Reflecting on issues that many young people feel deeply
impacted their lives and community.
It was a big thing this year that students
come it was important to them, and I just
want to note that we don't tell the students what
topics to pick they pick these topics all in their own.
They do the research on their own.
We have never said no you can't do that.
If it's important to them and it's
something they should be able to express that period tonight
several of our students will share
the work that has been done.
The issues they explored in the conversation.
I want to say thank you students for coming.
I know it's been a long day.
Thank you guys.
We rushed from Vista Orchestra.
Thank you to the parents that brought their students.
And our students, I know it's a lot coming
but I was excited for you guys to see the process
and how things work.
With voting and things like that.
At this time I would like to welcome
Vista Middle School to the table with their presentation.
Come on boys.
[Applause]
>> I have to do this.
>> Okay.
It's easier to hear.
>> And then you also get a seat at a microphone.
You can sit next to each other or apart.
>> There's five boys on this presentation.
They all came tonight.
And -- >> Do we need another chair?
>> We're getting one.
>> And I would also like to note that Mr. Beso was here.
Our principal from Vista supporting our students
and our principal and our teacher.
>> Fantastic.
Welcome all you all.
We are ready when you are.
>> Thank you school board members.
President. (indiscernible)
>> Great.
We're going to have you speak into the microphone a little bit
more because we are televising it to.
Thank you.
Go ahead.
>> The number of deaths from gun violence in New Mexico is 544
people each around 2 to 3 days.
These happened from 2015 through 2024.
We got the info from every stat dot org new Mexico.
And then the gun rate has doubled
in New Mexico has risen by 45%.
The gun rate is just the gun death rate.
As you can see the New Mexico gun death rate is 40% higher
than the US average and the gun deaths for 100,000 people is
2010.
Which as populations grow is going
to be more people that are bad and will
use these guns for bad things.
But New Mexico is higher than what the US predicted
and it's getting worse and worse each year.
And as time goes on, you know, and you've got the stat
from stat.org New Mexico.
>> We talked to ten students at our school.
Most of those ten said they have experienced gun violence.
And they are scared about shootings at school
and they shouldn't worry about it
yet they are still worrying about it
because people are still getting their guns illegally
and without their parents knowing.
>> Gun violence is affecting your communities in many ways.
Like practicing lockdown drills.
Of course you know it's protocol and just in case these things
happen.
We should be ready.
But, schools should be a place of learning.
Learning English and math and science and going to lunch
and having friends.
And we shouldn't have to worry about guns and an intruder
coming in and like our brains are still developing
and like the trauma that it would put on kids at our age, 12
and 13, is a lot.
And it affects us in many different ways.
>> Where do these people acquire the guns?
They can acquire their guns from their parents closet, cabinet,
or anywhere left open and without their parents knowing.
Or without their parents knowing.
And then another reason is that people just lie to people
to get their guns to them.
And they lie about their age and then
they can use them for bad things such as shootings.
And
>> How can parents keep their guns away from kids?
One way is putting them in a safe or a locked drawer
where only the parents have the key.
And by making sure the kid is okay with their mental health
or any problems going on with the school
and one of our peer interviews said that the parents should
check on their kids and if they need help they should
get the help or if they need therapy
they should get the therapy.
And if they needed it or if they just
need it just in case or something's
going on with their family.
Like separation, divorce, something
like that, it could really be very
beneficial for our students.
>> What it all means is gun violence awareness is very
important.
A lot of people need to know the effects of guns
and how it can harm other people or even just
putting their own lives at risk.
It can put a lot of lives at risk, including their own.
>> So, this is our action plan.
We want to present it to you guys
and how it's going to be streamed live on YouTube.
For the people to know the importance of gun violence
and how it's been increasing over time and how it's been,
I don't want to say where's, but how it's gotten worse over time.
And we would also want to encourage people
to get help if they need it.
With their mental health or suicide or something like that.
So they get it and we don't lose another life.
>> These are our sources.
Arizona State news.
Peer interviews and every stat dot org slash New Mexico.
Thank you for your time.
Are there any questions?
[Applause]
>> Wow you all did a beautiful job presenting.
Thank you so much and it is such an important topic
and I appreciate the fact that you all in middle school
are researching, sharing your concerns,
and then letting people know about the dangers of gun
violence and that you have some tangible solutions.
I love that.
Board members, do you have any questions or comments?
>> No question, just a thank you.
You guys did a great job.
Thank you.
>> Anyone else?
>> Just stay with this issue because in a few years
you're all going to be voting and try to support people that
support the things that you have discovered in your studies.
In this research.
So, thank you.
Stay with it.
>> Absolutely.
>> You guys did a great job.
I like how prepared you were and everything you shared
is coming from not only your perspective but shares
what your experiences.
I always remember, I have three kids,
and when my oldest was like a certain age, probably just
kindergarten, but I must have been like that kind of mom that
was where are your shoes.
Putting a lot of pressure on her.
She said mom, it's my first time on earth.
And I always think about that with the kids.
This is your first experience at schools.
So what you guys see and feel and experience,
we aren't there to know what that feels like.
We can only get a feel.
Based on your teachers and stuff.
But what's most important is what
you guys experience and I never want
you to think this is normal.
If something doesn't feel right, feel
like you have to say something.
And your message basically is that.
And get help for people who are struggling
and I really value that you guys are here today.
Because we can't always make it to that conference.
Which is an amazing thing you guys do.
I really invite you and others in Las Cruces.
We want our board members to hear it.
Thank you so much.
>> I just want to say you did a phenomenal job and amazing job
presenting and speaking on the issue that is a concern
Commandant just in our district.
And the United States as a whole and we
should do as society as human beings
to find solutions to gun violence.
Reduce it and make people feel safe during school time as well.
I feel like kindergarten, things that the world about rainbows
and happiness should not feel or experience
an event that even a split second that
is so traumatizing for them as a whole
that it leaves a scar for the remainder of their lives.
You are advocating for a thing that is deeply creating concerns
in our community you're creating a lot of division.
On how to handle it and stuff like that.
I'm hopeful that you guys will continue
on the issue that needs solutions as fast and as quick
as possible.
>> Thank you all.
[Applause]
>> I think leave that chair there.
We may need it.
Thank you so much.
>> Thank you.
>> All right come on whenever you're ready.
I think someone has the clicker.
So.
Perfect perfect.
Thank you.
Whenever you're ready.
>> Thank you for having us.
Today we're going to be talking about our presentation
Living in fear.
>> We are all from Mayfield High School my name is Jesus Cordero.
>> I'm Samara
>> I'm Jasmine Guay.
>> Other people who have helped us in this presentation doing
the research were Ariana Perez and Kisara Amador.
Before we start the current administration has pushed
for hundreds of thousands of deportations to take place over
the country and about 65,000 people are being held in Ice
detention centers as we speak.
Many of them are just hard working
individuals who are trying to provide
a roof over their family's heads.
After we did digging on our experts from both parties
whether they were for it or against it,
they have clearly stated that -- and it goes against human
rights, some might say this is the right way to do it and other
experts also, people who are supporting this ultimately
decide or they're supporting an idea of separating families from
each other.
Whenever we did our research we tried to incorporate both sides.
Rather than just sticking to one side.
>> We sent surveys out to classes all around our district
and the data we collected showed that many students felt worried
and scared and even angry.
After we did our digging on both parties,
we are comparing and contrasting a lot
of their opinions and thoughts they might have on this topic.
And some of the similar themes we found
was that anxiety spreads across all families
that are going through this situation and people
going through this live in fear to step out of their front door.
Another difference we got from our community responses
and then the experts was that our community,
the responses were more like individually based.
They were more opinion based.
They were more personal to each person depending on if they
lived it or if they didn't.
>> This impacts schools and students because it causes
student stress and leads to absences and lower academic
performance.
So a solution that we all as a whole, as the researchers
of this topic, we came to the conclusion
that we can help by providing legal support
and making sure people are aware of their rights.
Another way we found could possibly help
was we raise awareness to this problem
and get people to be aware, as we said of their rights
and if they have any questions they can go to somebody
they trust so they can answer that for them.
We are really grateful that Las Cruces Public Schools takes
measures and certain policies that
helps keep our students safe and feel welcome.
Not depending on their residence status.
We hope to expand that throughout New Mexico.
>> Our sources that we used are UCLA Latino policy and Politics
Institute.
K, Kaiser Family Foundation, and Uconn School of Education.
>> Thank you guys for your time are there any questions
or comments?
>> Awesome.
Thank you.
[Applause] You all did a beautiful job
and it is certainly one of the main sources
of worry of our time.
Did you all look up the policy that Las Cruces Public
schools have on immigrants?
>> Yes.
We had found out that Las Cruces public schools need
for immigration officer to come into our building
they would need a judicial warrant.
And if they have administrative warrant
I'm pretty sure it's called, they
will have to come downtown to get approval.
>> Exactly.
Thank you.
Yes.
We worked hard on that policy to make sure all of our students
are safe and not worried.
Clearly they are still worried but I really appreciate
you bringing this topic to us.
Board members, do you have any questions or comments?
>> Sure.
I found you guys are very knowledgeable and prepared.
You came across this very cool and collected.
I am so impressed.
Whatever you guys do to come up here and be
able to speak the way you do is, I
don't know if I should give laurels to your teachers
and what you're doing in school, but, I'm really impressed
and I'm glad you guys tackled this topic.
>> Very good information.
You did a wonderful job presenting it.
>> Yes, thank you for doing this.
It's going to be kind of a downer but there's recent data
that showed 100,000 kids come up more than 100,000 kids are
without their parents as a result of these immigration
actions.
I'm glad you guys are taking this on and leading.
I'm particularly proud that you're
supporting part of the action that took place in November.
The student walkout.
Or if you didn't, just proud that LCP has students
lead the way on that.
Thank you for doing that.
>> This is a very bleak time in our history.
I mean all four of my grandparents were immigrants.
I don't think they could have ever envisioned
that their grandson would be sitting there with immigrants
from Eastern Europe.
I mean can they imagine that their grandson would be sitting
on the dais of Las Cruces New Mexico listening to you make
this wonderful presentation.
Anyway.
We've got to fix the problem.
We all have to work at it.
Thank you.
>> Madam court, I just wanted to say,
you guys did an amazing job explaining the situation.
Creating divide in the community and the compassion
you guys have, highlighting the issue in front of everyone,
just astonishes people.
It seems like you have voices and you guys
are providing putting their voices towards our school board
and stuff in accordance to that.
I also notice that the spring of 2025
we had the issue with Las Cruces High School in
regards to immigration enforcement.
Asking for IDs and stuff like that.
Toward a group of people.
Individuals that were going toward El Paso.
And from there I remember superintendent and you guys
were taking action and stuff.
I just want to say, one of the most important things,
especially for our youth.
We are 30% of our community.
30% of the nation population.
But we are 100% of what the future of the world.
And our voices are important as a whole.
One suggestion I would say, this presentation,
take your voice to other policy makers in law makers
across our district.
And the State of Mexico as a whole.
Thank you.
>> Thank you all very much.
[Applause]
>> Can I make a comment?
>> I love that last recommendation you made of going
to all of our legislators.
Or policy makers.
You guys can keep going.
>> Absolutely.
All right, we are ready when you are.
>> Thank you school board, president, board members,
superintendent Ruiz, my name is Daniel Sanchez,
and my name is David Esparza, and today we're going to present
the effect of AI and technology on young minds.
>> With this students more and more for doing homework.
For personal stuff.
This is a graphic where you can see
how technology has increased over time in 2021
it was about 92%.
>>
[speaking spanish]
La
>> So, study found 147,000 students in 60 countries suffer
addiction.
All of these reduce learning.
Also they are constantly thinking okay,
what if my friend texted me back or do I have a new snap.
This also loses their skills.
And creativity.
For our solutions we have -- >>
[speaking spanish]
>> Yeah come on leave the phones in the pockets.
>>
[speaking spanish]
>> This year have the opportunity to have one
of my teachers who all their assignments were doing in class
and I feel like I learned more in that class than in my other
classes.
>>
[speaking spanish]
>> So for the last one we have a health and wellness day where
our teacher take us to the Field of Dreams and we do activities
outside.
And it feels pretty good because we disassociate from technology.
Also, we spend more time during other activities
than being on our cell phones or using technology
and also having more persons know about how technology
can affect them.
We are not saying technology or AI is bad,
it's just we really have to use --
to learn how to use this tool these are our sources.
We're not going to read them because they're a lot.
And does anyone have any questions?
Thank you for having us.
[Applause]
>> Bravo.
I loved your bilingual presentation.
When you were talking about cell phones in the classroom
and putting them in pockets.
Were you talking about those shoe things.
>> Not all the teachers use them.
>> Okay.
Do the majority of your teachers use them?
>> No.
I don't have classes that they made me put in there.
>> But some teachers do?
>> Some teachers but not all of them.
>> Board members do you have any questions or concerns,
not concerns, comments.
We all have concerns.
Yes.
>> Good job.
We are grouping with the same problem.
Technology is, it does serve a purpose
but you've got to figure out what is too much.
You have to figure out where to draw the line.
With actual authentic learning.
Thank you for making a contribution to our struggle.
>> Absolutely and for realizing the benefits of being without
your cell phone.
The world will not fall apart without it.
Anyone else?
>> Just thank you.
Appreciate it very much.
>> I just think it's really awesome for all of you to have
such a great concern.
Not just for yourselves, but for every student that comes to us
and asks, that you're thinking of others
and what's going to help everybody.
Make them better at learning.
It starts with your experience.
You guys are so empathetic.
And forward thinking as far as what you decided to present on.
You shared that with us.
Thank you.
>> First of all, I want to say it's amazing to see a group come
here and talk about issues in our community.
Our country and the world facing these days as a whole.
First of all technology as a whole has its benefits
but also has its negative factors as well.
Research suggested it has a correlation with mental health
but also our brains as well.
The more early someone is showcased technology or given
technology, the more the brain performance common motor cells,
the research currently by multiple people
and organizations, I forgot one person that is full
on technology against technology,
young people as a whole and he suggested that technology
as a whole and especially mobile phones,
impact students ability to perform in classroom and test
scores and etc..
And socialize how to talk with others
and how to giving their voice as well.
And also it leads to mental health.
Right now we are facing a huge mental health crisis.
>> Thank you both appreciate you.
[Applause]
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you to all of you I can't tell you how much we
appreciate hearing some of these beautiful presentations.
I think our schedule didn't allow
us to go to the conference.
Which was such a bummer because I love to go every year.
And bringing it to us and having a more public forum
for the beautiful work that all these students is doing
is super important.
>> Thank you guys so much.
I appreciate you guys giving us the opportunity
to speak in front of you.
These are abbreviated presentations.
So, our other presentations are longer and a little bit more
in depth than stuff.
But, this is what's important to them and this is
a space for them to be able to express that and have
those conversations with their classmates and everybody else.
Thank you guys for giving the opportunity
and we'll be sure to invite you guys next year.
>> Thank you so much.
And as a board if we don't understand what's
important for our student population then
we're not doing our job.
>> You will have about 500 students that you can survey
and ask.
So come on down.
And
>> I feel like you guys what you do is very important,
the first time I was invited and got to go, I realized Holy moly,
this is where we should be.
I feel strongly about it that while we're doing our calendar
that we should be mindful that somehow we communicate with you
all so that we coordinate that.
>> Yes Ma'am.
Sorry go ahead.
>> Actually the last two years we have started planning
our schedule out in July.
So hopefully in July we will have those dates.
As soon as we have those dates we
will forward them on to you all.
>> We appreciate that.
Thank you so much.
>> Thank you guys.
Thank you.
Yes.
>> You can stay if you want.
Thank you parents for showing up at.
>> The exciting part is about to begin.
>> Exactly.
>> Now we're going to move to our first reading of policy.
And miss O'brien.
>> Dress code was one of their topics in past conferences.
>> Yeah I haven't had a chance to look again.
Thank you miss O'brien.
How are you today?
>> Good evening president caught members of the board
superintendent Reese, Saeed, I am here this evening to do first
reading of policy Cxb.
Mr. Wofford and Miss Adam Court were my partners on this policy
and first reading is in your packet.
Some suggestions came in after the packet
was already published.
If it is okay with you president court,
may I share those suggested changes?
>> Absolutely.
>> Excellent.
From Mr. Wofford, he suggested in section a, the last two
sentences, be combined into one sentence.
Thank you Mr. Wofford for being thoughtful and combining
the language.
And it would be changed to the school principal
shall be an active member of the school Council
and may serve as the chair of.
So that's kind of nice to combine those two.
I thought that was a great idea.
Also the sentence right above that
where it says the school principal may serve as chairman.
That we want to change chairman to chairperson.
So that was another suggestion and I
believe those were the two suggestions Mr. Wofford.
Am I missing anything?
>> No that was it.
>> It is straight out of the statute Mr.
Frank also provided feedback.
Thank you Mr. Frank.
If it's okay with you, madam court,
may I share Mr. Frank's suggestions?
Okay, section A. The very first sentence
where it says each school shall create a school council.
He suggested changing the word and to with.
So each school shall create a school council
with its membership elected in accordance with local school
board rule.
Does that sound okay?
Also Mr. Frank asked about local school board rule.
My interpretation of local school board rule
would be our regulation.
And that's where we put in all the details
of the makeup of the committee and the process.
Timeline.
The whole procedure for getting onto the committee and we
do have a regulation place that spells all of that out and as
soon as we have the policy approved
we will revise the regulation to match policy.
The other suggestion that Mr. Frank had
is the next sentence that starts with school council membership.
School Council membership shall reflect an equitable balance
between school employees.
Get rid of the and.
And then it would be parents, and community members.
Just kind of cleaning up the language a little bit.
And then Mr. Frank also suggested
in B1 the sentence starts with work with the school principal.
And instead of that sentence, Mr. Frank
suggested advise the principal.
Consistent with stated school district policy
on matters related to instruction and the school
budget.
Semicolon.
>> Rather than give advice.
>> Instead of saying curricula.
I mean he just condensed it.
It includes all of the components of that sentence.
But he just condensed it.
So I think you all need to join the state with writing statutes.
They can make them much clearer.
>> Can you say that one >> Sure.
Advise the principal, consistent with state and school district
policy.
Policies.
On matters related to instruction and the school's
budget.
That would be B1.
>> It occurred to me afterwards that there are other matters
besides the budget and instruction.
There's a whole culture of the school and maybe
that should be put in there.
I'm not sure how to word that.
Advise the principal.
School district policies on matters
related to instruction, school culture.
And the budget or something of that sort.
>> We absolutely can add that if that is the pleasure
of the board.
This again is exactly what statute says,
and that's how this policy was written previously.
We just updated it to match the policy.
I mean the statute.
I'm sorry.
>> Exactly.
I don't think we have an issue because yeah because --
>> We should hire Frank at the state.
>> Exactly.
Sure.
>> And that really summarizes the feedback I got from
the three board members.
Miss, you did not have any suggested changes.
So, if there's any other feedback,
I'd be happy to take that.
>> Board members?
>> A question about the scope of this policy.
The purpose we are doing this is to align ourselves
with new state statute.
Just these four points, the Essa parte.
That would be sufficient for us to have our say
on school Advisory Council.
>> Yes sir.
This is what it basically says.
They're helping with budget.
They're helping with policies related to the school.
It is, I know you had a question about how it aligns,
how it's different from PTO.
This is delving a lot more into school,
as I said policies, budget, providing guidance
on instruction.
It's a lot more involved than for instance, PTO.
>> It sounds like your regulation will flush those out.
>> Yes sir the regulation is very comprehensive.
At number five we deleted because it's
no longer in statute.
However, every school student succeeds act is still
very much in effect.
We do use that.
It uses more of a family engagement component.
It says in Essa it does say parent and family engagement.
It's not in the statute any longer.
>> Are we using school advisory councils?
I feel like it kind of fluctuates.
>> President Obama I believe after COVID I believe we were
just trying to get back into schools.
We were limiting visitors into the campuses.
I think some campuses were continuing on
as we opened schools up more but we really
do want to get the whole district back
into this, into this structure.
Exactly pick this organization.
And it will feed into our district
Advisory Council which we will be implementing also.
This next school year.
>> All right.
This was brought to mind because I attended
a site based leadership team meeting at Mesa Park Community
School and the principal was passing out forms and asking
parents if they would like to apply to the School Advisory
Council.
And I took a look at the policy and went oh comments
a little outdated so I'm glad we're bringing SAC and DAC back.
I've been waiting all meeting to say it.
>> SAC and DAC are back.
>> Exactly.
>> Board members comment anything else?
>> I had the same question.
How much we use them.
Honestly I don't know that I heard
of school advisory councils before seeing it on this agenda.
It's an interesting concept.
But policy wise it's good to me.
>> When I got started as a parent I was more interested
in this than the PTO period but it really was , was an active.
I decided to do the board thing.
>> I was at Centennial.
It's a great way to get feedback from our parents and families
on these important topics.
>> I think we are good and we'll move on to second reading
>> Sounds good.
I'll have that ready for you soon.
>> I appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
>> Now we're going to move on to the first reading of policy G.
With Doctor Miller Tomlinson.
But we have three principals here
who are going to help us with some student
input and some things.
So Miss Covarrubias I'm going to get it
without having to look at the paper, it's going to be amazing.
From Desert Bloom Elementary.
Try it out.
Miss Miller from Lynn Community Middle School.
Mr. Bryant from Centennial High School.
Thank you all for being here.
>> Good evening Madam President and members of the board
superintendent Ruiz we are here this evening
for the presentation of first reading of policy J I c a.
This policy was last revised in 2020
and to date we have received no public comment on the policy
revisions.
Our structure here, I am just going
to run through the revisions here for first reading.
And then our principals are here.
They have made some recommendations regarding
the policy and then they will stand for questions.
In the first two sections, A and B,
there are just a couple of grammatical changes there.
A grammatical change.
The bulk of the revision starts in section E. Or after section E
so section F and G. This section was reworked
based on principal feedback.
So the Assistant Superintendents of Leadership
worked with principals to get some feedback together
on the student dress code and so those comments comment
or feedback was reflected changes.
So Madame court had a recommendation.
One of the recommendations is about the length of shorts.
And the typical measure for shorts is fingertips.
So when standing up with your arms at your sides,
shorts should be no shorter than your fingertips.
But not all people are proportional.
I'm going to use myself as an example.
I'm tall but I have the shortest arms in the world.
That would not work.
And for others as well.
Madame court suggested perhaps we use different language there.
So I did a little research and there are really
two different measures that are used in many dress code school
dress code policies.
One is mid-thigh.
So we can change it to read mid-thigh.
Or the other was three inches above the knee.
So for this revision I changed it to three inches
above the knee.
But that is a point of discussion for our principals.
And you all.
The other piece that in section for notification
the language was changed to the principal
shall take appropriate action against students
and that sounded a little adversarial.
So the recommendation was made to change that
to when addressing students.
Something of that nature that sounds
less punitive or adversarial between administrative
and students.
The other recommendation, and it's not
reflected in this revision, but I had a conversation
with these principals earlier.
This afternoon.
And one of the things that might serve school administrators well
is to have a caveat in here that principals
have some discretion about the parameters of this policy
and using their judgment.
Of course we have a regulation that is attached to this
and a lot of this is spelled out in the regulation but I think
it's also important to note in the policy that sometimes you
may see students not hearing -- adhering strictly to the dress
code.
Because of reasons that may be known
to the school administration.
And I think it's important to give building administrative
some latitude when applying this policy in their building.
With that I will turn it over to you all.
Thank you
>> My whole thing cover my husband calls it and I
don't know if it's right, but it's the ape index,
which is the length of your arms is as tall as you are
but my husband is, his arms are very very long
and so my daughter had long arms.
This whole thing came from my daughter
saying when I put my arms down that I'm wearing Bermuda shorts.
So, and it is, anyway that whole arm thing came.
And I would like to add, I would like
to add skirts to the shorts thing
as well because we have length of skirts and length of shorts.
Do we have skirts anywhere?
>> The way that it reads now, president court is students may
not wear clothing, jewelry, accessories or personal items
that are shorter than three inches.
I think that would apply to any clothing.
Shorts, skirts.
I can't think of anything else.
>> My only issue was three inches above the knee.
Which part of the knee.
You will get into some nitpicky things.
Are we talking about the top of the knee.
The middle of the knee.
Bam exactly.
The recommendation may be mid-thigh.
Would be a better term to use instead of,
because I don't think anyone's going to run around
with a ruler and measure.
Well.
>> Then you also have people who have got different sized knees.
Anyway.
Yes.
Thank you for stopping me.
>> I just wanted to add to that.
If we do that couple where does it apply to student athletes
when you have track and volleyball and cheerleading.
Those are not three inches.
They are beyond three inches above the knee.
>> Very true.
Good point.
>> If you look at section F right above G,
it says schools may establish additional attire requirements
when necessary to support safety or participation.
That's another area that I think we can fix up.
But not limited to physical education.
Science labs and career and technical education.
Swimming.
Gymnastics.
There is some language in there about if you're
on the swim team, obviously you're not
going to be wearing shorts that are mid-thigh.
Because you won't swim very fast.
I believe we can do some work in that sentence.
To clarify what you're talking about.
Thank you.
>> I would like to hear from our teachers.
Their experience so far with the student dress code enforcement.
Principals.
What did I say.
>> Teachers.
>> Who wants to start.
>> I can go ahead and start.
I believe that elementary campuses
developmentally different from secondary campuses.
And what may be considered breaking the dress
code in a secondary may not be considered in elementary.
For example, pajamas.
Sometimes we get kiddos that come in pajamas
and it's not their fault. That's all they have.
We are not a community school.
It's not the fault of the kiddo.
We are just happy that they're there at school.
I would hesitate to send a kiddo home because they
came in sweats or slippers.
We would do our best to reach out
to a social worker or counselors to get them what they need.
That's why I think it's very important for principals
to be able to have that discretion.
Because it's a case by case basis.
>> Good evening everyone.
One of the concerns, when I first
arrived, at the new campus, was dress coding and so,
what I did to get some life back in the staff I said
every Friday will be spirit day so let's start wearing
our spirit shorts and the staff said to me gosh I haven't worn
this shirt in years and our kids can say we take pride in being
a member of our campus and on Tuesdays I instituted,
which is why I'm wearing it, College and Career day.
So we're going to be -- normally I would be in a Michigan shirt,
but today I'm wearing an MSU because of my fiance said I had
to because he works there.
But we wear college and career and I
said it's not just that, it could
be military it could be does your dad or mom own
a local business.
Anything to show education pass just 12th grade.
Because I know at least two days a week
my kids can be dressed in something
that is not inappropriate.
We do have a lot of concern regarding that.
Elementary is going to look a little bit
different than secondary but in our community schools
we do have kind of a closed closet.
If there's something and I'm like oh
come on kiddo come on let's go get something to wear,
and I've even told staff members if you have extra clothes come
and bring them in, we'll put them in the clothes closet.
That way we can ensure our students have --
or even embarrassed a student.
>> High madam president, could you repeat,
you said you wanted specific information,
you had a question from us.
I'm trying to remember.
Something about upholding the dress code.
>> Sure.
I think I was looking at, I've been out of the classroom
since 2019.
Are there some specific concerns that you
have on your campus as far as dress code goes?
We've heard from members of the public.
When I go into the schools, I see some things,
but I don't see drastic things.
Where are the -- what are the big ticket items or what is
the most concerning as far as dress code.
>> If I must say, very revealing.
I've heard the same feedback from parents.
Walking through our front office area.
Oh my goodness have you seen that girl.
No I didn't and no I won't.
But, comments frequently about how revealing the attire
is of our student population.
I can give you examples.
Probably even make me blush.
Yes, my concern, at the high school level, and my wife
works at Sonoma Elementary and I understand.
I agree that varying cultures.
Elementary versus high school.
Not necessarily expectations.
But how you have to work with in the culture of your school
is completely different at the different grade levels.
But many of our students at Centennial
and I may say all the high schools
are going directly from school to work.
We are trying to establish a culture for that preparation.
I don't know how to put this nicely.
There's not too many professions that I'm aware of,
even in our town or our city that
would approve of the attire we are wearing currently.
>> It's the amount skin showing?
>> Yes, and wear.
>> So do you think that what we put in G,
and I know that came with your input and I really appreciate
it.
The principal's input.
Do you think that would cover it?
And I'm just going to say, okay, I didn't even try on that one.
If that takes care of what we need to take care of without --
and if I can say without body shaming because as a smaller
chested person, I can probably wear something that a larger
chested person would not be able to wear.
Do you know what I mean?
There's this line of I can wear it because I
don't have the cleavage.
But, it's considered inappropriate in other ways
and I don't want to body shame females.
It's already happening way too much in society.
That we add it to our list of things.
And I know we are walking a really thin line with that.
Do you think this right here is sufficient, is there anything
else we would need to add?
I think I'm going to speak more to our secondary principals
than elementary.
If that's okay.
>> I personally think, especially the boys with
the sagging of the pants at this grade level and the young
ladies, it's the crop tops and the bra.
That's really truthfully for me that's the most inappropriate
and it's not just because it's, I'm never
going to body shame a young lady ever.
I agree with you.
But we are still in a school and it's a house of learning
and so I just say come and dress for success
and again the kids, the girls especially, my bad Miss.
You know.
And they will.
But it's just an appropriate amount
of attire for a student boy or girl to be in school.
>> Number four, the failure to fully cover chest, back,
stomach.
Buttocks and genitals.
That takes care of it?
>> Nontransparent.
I mean yes.
To be covered.
Yes.
>> If I may say, the lens I was looking at, I tried to look
at both genders because again what you do for one you do
for all.
And one of the things, when I look
at the situation or the attire for young men,
I always go to the basketball Jersey.
The basketball Jersey, and this was back in the days
where on the shoulder it was two fingers, three fingers all that.
I don't appreciate that.
What I do appreciate is I like the statement
that the chest is covered in the back is covered
and I even asked a few people, knowing
I was going to be here today, not knowing
necessarily female attire.
I don't wear it.
I'm sorry.
With clothing, and article of clothing,
if the back is covered as is stated,
does that mean the front will be covered naturally?
Instead of having to get into, back to your point,
where we have some young ladies that are larger than others
in the chest reason -- region.
If the back of the attire is covered,
does that mean the front is going to be covered?
And meet the expectation.
That would be helpful instead of, as far as a gentleman,
if I'm looking at my student population,
I'm sorry I'm not looking at the chest.
But if I see a young lady walking down the hallway,
her back to me and her back isn't covered as stated there,
I can address the young lady.
I can still be effective as opposed to the reverse.
>> Got it.
>> So with young men, years previous, the basketball Jersey,
what we used to say was the shoulders must be covered
because again this was back 20 years ago when I first became
an administrator.
I had a committee at a previous school
and I asked the females on this committee, the teachers,
give me something that is unilateral.
And that's what they came up with.
That the shoulders must be covered because
in female garments if the shoulders are covered,
the chest is covered.
And then looking at boys, equal to that
is the shoulders being covered.
If they wanted to wear a basketball Jersey,
they had to wear a t shirt underneath it.
To be in compliance.
So it's both gender.
Based on what I'm reading and seeing,
I think it does a good job.
And I asked one of my colleagues this afternoon,
we were going over this, and he said
but it's so much better than it has been.
And I mean that's great but I want
to make sure we get to a point that it's what we want.
>> Absolutely.
And we don't want to spend our entire day
dress coding students.
It's a house of learning and so that's
why we felt it was important to bring the dress code now
so that we can get things in place so that students
understand.
And parents understand.
>> We appreciate it.
>> Thank you.
Board members?
>> A couple things.
These are simple things.
Nothing is complex as what we've been discussing but on three,
G three, I'm kind of reading this like the statement in G,
is like continued with all the items that follow g.
So I would read, students may not wear clothing,
jewelry, accessories, or personal items that are shorter
than three inches above the knee.
Should it be is?
Is three inches?
>> Items is plural so items are, you wouldn't say items is
shorter.
Is that right?
>> Yes.
Because in g, is plural.
Clothing, jewelry, accessories, personal items.
>> Okay.
I just wanted to check that out.
And I have a problem with five though.
When I read that one, students may not
wear clothing come a jewelry, accessories,
or personal items that include flip flops, slippers,
house shoes, that doesn't flow rate to me.
And I was thinking a way to fix it in five, after include,
include the following:.
And make your list.
That includes the following.
And I realize it's kind of a complicated sentence.
>> I think it's clear either way.
Number five, with the pajamas, because we just
heard from Miss color, I think we should discourage PJ wearing.
I don't know that it needs to be here.
>> Okay.
>> So thank you president court member Frank,
I did get those suggestions and I have made a note of those
suggestions for number five.
In terms of pajamas, I know at the elementary level
we need to get it a little differently.
At the high school level and I will
defer to Miss Miller and Mr. Brilliant,
to speak to that and that's earlier
when we talked about principal discretion.
To be able to apply or not apply the policy in certain situations
where they may have more information about the student
or by level.
>> Is there a reason why we don't want students to wear
pajamas?
I know you're in the house of learning but,
pajamas in the grand scheme of things
seems like a smaller item.
Is that something that happens a lot?
I know slippers did.
>> Madam president, yes we do have at the high school students
who wear pajamas.
Maybe not every day but with a number of students
that we have, we have pajamas nearly every day in our student
population and my statement earlier with Doctor Wendy
was, we have homecoming week come spirit week,
we have lots of spirit weeks for different things.
We have homecoming, we have lots.
And sleepwear or pajamas tends to be one of the go tos.
And my response has been why that.
It's an everyday thing.
Spirit week is supposed to be special
and that's not something special as it is currently
in our culture at the school.
I again personally support the fact
that as we're preparing them for work, potentially,
pajamas is not the best at the high school level.
>> Great, thank you.
>> I agree at the middle school level as well.
We have pajamas every day.
It's not an issue.
I mean the children are still performing as best they can.
It's not an issue but it is again just
trying to change that culture and that mindset.
I always remind them, I'll right,
if Miss Miller shows up in her pajamas,
you want to see me in my sweatpants and my t shirt,
and I'm like no, I'm a principal I have to dress the part.
But it is, my students especially,
as long as it's clean.
I'm not going to shame a child.
If that's a conversation I want to have privately I
will give them what they need if I have to go to savers myself
for my kiddos.
But it depends.
It's a campus by campus especially
for some of our students.
>> Of course.
And they should be dressed to learn and not dressed to sleep.
Gotcha.
>> About not shaming students, did we have a place that says
that.
That we respect students rights to their expression
through what they are wearing.
I appreciated that the policy was gender neutral as much as
possible throughout.
Clothing is the term we want there.
Is there a section that affirms do not shame?
>> There is a section that says okay now I can't go.
I thought I read it.
Thank you doctor Miller.
>> Madam Court and Vice President Wofford, in section B,
it alludes to the fact that students,
we want to give students the latitude to determine
their hairstyle, personal items.
Things like that.
In section D or letter D, the last page it says staff
will use reasonable efforts to avoid dress coding
in front of other students.
If that is sufficient enough or if you
would like to strengthen that.
>> It's important to me that it be in there.
And that it also be gender neutral because we have students
that may not dress in traditional roles
that someone may see.
And I think we don't want to in any way
those students to be ashamed and so I wondered,
the cost references to other policies on this
and it does maybe cross back to jbd or something
with the Crown act with the hairstyles.
Some other policy.
Am I remembering that?
>> There is a section, and Doctor Lozano may have to help
me which policy mentions the black Education Act.
>> May be just a cross reference.
>> There were a couple of times where it says the word
appropriate.
Where was it, down in section three.
E. A substantial disruption as well.
I wonder how definitive our language
is when it says dress should be appropriate.
How are we defining that term?
Because if we hear from different parts of our country
and different cultural perceptions,
appropriate means different things to us.
And in three, we say it shouldn't be disciplined
or removed from class as consequence of wearing attire
in violation of this policy unless the attire creates
a substantial disruption to the educational environment.
And so I'm not quite sure what that
is if we just a persistently stubborn child who
wants to wear a dog collar.
Studded dog collar.
Is that a disruption or would that
cause them, how do we define crossing
the line into your clothing.
Messing me up too much.
Do you remember when hats were just the worst
thing in the world?
Boy if they wore those hats, we knew they couldn't learn.
And
>> We had that discussion, too about hats and we noticed that
hats are not really addressed.
But we did have that discussion at the high school level.
And Mr. Brilliant talked about that culturally some adults
have, were brought up you don't wear hats,
you don't wear hats inside, boys can't wear hats inside,
girls can't wear hats inside, other schools have I think
abandoned the -- that's not a battle they're going to fight.
They have abandoned that again because we are there
to educate, to learn, they're focusing efforts
on other things.
I think there are different points of view, regarding hats.
I think back to the discretion part,
leaving some latitude for campuses based on their campus
culture to be able to go a little farther on their dress
codes and what they want to require in their building
as long as it does not conflict.
With the board policy.
>> With substantial disruption or appropriate,
I think you've defined things pretty precisely.
But if you can look over one more time.
>> Do our principals have any suggestions for substantial
disruption?
>> Clothing that poses a hazard to the health or safety
of others.
I can't think of what that would be.
>> I'm sorry folks, I apologize, madam caught,
yeah yeah I'm just trying to come up with an example
of substantial disruption, and as I said before,
a current fad right now, and I'm sorry to say this,
female students wearing shorts with the button undone.
The flap open and the zipper down.
That has been brought to my attention many times.
Examples like that, in my opinion
in the culture of Centennial High School,
that is a disruption.
But other than -- what feedback I've gotten from parents being
in the opposite area, where somebody walks
by and their shorts are so short that the bottoms of the high
knee is hanging out here they are saying that is uncalled
for or unacceptable to me that is a disruption.
>> You have shirts that people can wear if they need them.
To borrow for that day or other things.
>> Absolutely.
But to your point, Mr. Wofford, we
do have students in the past that have refused.
To wear anything that we have the ability to provide
peer they say I'm not wearing that.
And again it's school t shirts.
Whether it's basketball team t shirt or cross country.
It's school themed.
And so they refuse to wear it.
In the past, before we change to what is currently in place,
we called the parents and let them know.
If they're not able to come bring
a different article of clothing, then the student,
unfortunately chooses to be in in suspension for the day.
We did not suspend them and we provided them their education
while they're in in-school suspension.
>> Kids can be so -- >> To your point as you made earlier,
yes we do have students that will continue and repeat
and repeat.
To use the dog collar example.
The dog collars, not to my knowledge
but we do have the bracelets and things of that nature.
It's not very prominent but we do have
a few students that do that.
>> President caught COVID Mr. Wofford,
and actually the entire board, when you think about it
substantial disruption some examples in my experience back
when gangs were a gang environment would cause fights
if they were wearing certain shirts.
Things like that.
Or somebody going out in the community, different sides
and wearing the attire that, that
could be a potential, substantial disruption.
>> President Kurt?
>> Yes?
>> I just want to make a comment before I turn it over
to our student advisor, I'm just wondering how we communicate
this to our students.
How are we sure that they know what the rules are.
Is there a time when it's presented to them
when they're all together.
So we can make it really clear to them
what the expectations are.
In the student Handbook.
It's got to be communicated to the students for this thing
to work.
They need to know what the rules are.
>> We will be starting at our 2627 school year welcome back
meetings for each grade level.
And I will be going over certain basic everyday attendance.
Clothing attire.
Those types of things.
We will be addressing it with the students and parents
at the welcome back.
With the policy.
So definitely.
>> That's just vitally important.
>> Hang on just a second.
Before you go.
>> Board members come up madam president, to your point, Mr.
Frank, in my opinion it needs to be sooner than later
because again, as parents over the summer potentially could be
buying clothes for their students,
we definitely don't want them going out and buying anything
that is not approved for use at school.
The sooner we can the better.
>> The kids possibly communicate to their parents items that are
clearly not acceptable.
>> Absolutely.
>> I know at Las Cruces High School,
it's too late at that point because they've done
their shopping, but they do their orientation and they say
kaba and they have students come in and say they're dressed
inappropriately, here's what's inappropriate.
And then some students come in dressed appropriately here's
what's appropriate.
They do a whole thing.
But at that point it's already at the beginning of school.
Okay.
>> I had one suggestion.
And the one personal experience. (indiscernible)
the question is for g5, it mentions all the footwear
and stuff like that.
Our Crocs one thing that students should not
wear during high school hours or middle school hours or does it
follow the umbrella of footwear that is not allowed basically?
>> So, president, said, I think that's a great question and when
you're thinking of certain footwear for example flip flops,
I think safety.
Safety if you had to evacuate the building quickly.
Can you walk upstairs.
Our flip flops safe to wear in the school environment.
I haven't really heard anything about Crocs
being either unsafe or not appropriate.
With how shoes and slippers, we get back to is it appropriate
or are we ready to learn or are we ready to take a nap.
I think it's more drawing that line
are these students at school ready to learn or and
how is that reflected in how we're getting ready to be there.
>> I have a suggestion.
Because this is an issue I'm seeing all around high school.
Maybe Mr. Brilliant may agree with this.
Maybe I'm wrong.
But if there's an issue with boys wearing pants like they're
showing their underwear and stuff.
Especially students showing their underwear.
Not the label but a lot of the underwear.
Moving around the hallways and stuff.
I was wondering if there's, if it's
included in the policy or something
like that could be added to the policy.
Supplementing the other stuff as well.
>> Thank you.
I believe, I don't know if it necessarily says that.
I think it says something in here about undergarments.
Exposed undergarments including pants or shorts
worn below the waist in a manner that reveals underwear.
So that's I think what you're referring to.
Yes.
>> I miss the open.
>> If I may can we scroll back toward the top.
Letter g.
I think something that was very nicely written
in this is the splitting of hairs between the adults
and the students is exposing undergarments, including pants
or shorts worn below the waist.
What we get as feedback or what we had in the past,
when we tried to address this, especially with boys
was their shorts.
They wear undergarments and shorts and then pants.
In this definition, in my interpretation,
anything worn underneath the pants,
the primary piece of clothing isn't undergarment.
And therefore it still applies.
>> Madame court?
>> Yes.
>> I'm going to go back to some of the things we discussed
earlier.
And so we're talking about smaller chested persons
versus larger chested persons.
There may be an issue with something as simple as a V-neck
or a scoop neck shirt which is like available in stores
and I just feel like unless you're trying to tell people
that they can only wear the crewneck,
I mean we are really minimizing options for students
and it all goes back to a person's size
and I do think that's not Fair when it comes to just a shirt.
And it's not purposely trying to show too much.
It's just incidental by the style
of the t shirt or whatever.
I don't know how we want to address that but I think to say
fully cover the chest is going a little too far.
We're not saying yes, expose the chest.
But to fully cover it means for some people
it's up here because if you're saying
oh, then any type of cleavage is a no no, that's not fair.
I thought it was really helpful to hear
about the t shirts in school.
Tuesdays and Fridays.
And I know with a lot of these kids,
they may not have access to these types of shirts.
I don't know if you guys or any school
would be open to doing like a t shirt giveaway.
>> I have pretty much written to every college that I possibly
can and I've asked for donations and everything and all
my friends and every educator I know.
And everybody just send me your college shirts.
I really want them to have as much opportunity.
I'm begging people.
>> Yeah especially the kids who don't even know,
they wouldn't get it for themselves.
>> Where I'm from, you throw a stone and there's a college.
It's a little bit different here in New Mexico.
So I want the kids to see, if that's what they choose,
or military or trade school.
They can wear anything that's -- >> Just a diversify the wardrobe
a little bit.
>> On that part, we have that dress for success program.
Where I'm not sure how far it goes in our schools
like which high schools participate.
But if we could find more opportunities for that,
I keep thinking about this TLC show
I used to watch back in the day where these women would come in
and it seemed like they had low self-esteem
and they would dress very provocatively
and it seems like there's, like it wouldn't connect.
Like how can you dress and show so much of yourself
and you have low self-esteem but somehow
they don't see themselves as somehow worthy
or whatever to dress differently.
Or they just don't know how.
I think to offer more of those opportunities for these kids
who, whether they can afford it or not,
are the ones that are displaying,
they're showing off too much and saying there's another you in u.
You are still a beautiful person.
If that's important to them, and attractive person,
or just being a person of value, wearing
things that make you look, that show another part of you.
Going to be interested in what you have to say.
Just to give that chance to know what else is out there.
Thinking of how to communicate.
The dress code.
I was wondering if based on how your buildings are set up,
if there can be some kind of wall projection slide.
Something they can read or see examples of.
Yes or no.
In the lunchroom.
Another slide presentation.
That's kind of where I see opportunities to share stuff
from our handouts or our policy.
They are very visual.
They want to see examples of that or at least to read it.
I want to thank you principals for being here and sharing this.
It so valuable that we wouldn't get otherwise.
I do remember that I did do a presentation a couple of years
back on the student dress code and one of the things
that kind of surprised me but probably shouldn't have come
the kids were wearing lingerie.
To your point of things that are less than common
I'm not in the schools enough to catch that
and you guys do have to deal with that.
I think this has been about time that we
can cover this again and maybe get more student input as well.
Thank you so much.
>> Quick thoughts.
The elementary situation is clearly just different.
Than what we're talking about.
I'm curious middle and high school.
As we're talking we're talking about hats.
We're talking about jeans.
Fashion is changing so much.
Every generation has talked poorly
about how high school students are dressed literally forever.
I'm kind of wondering where do we go from here.
I kept thinking about middle school.
Uniforms.
Boom.
Problem solved.
Uniforms.
High school is a little more sort of individuality.
I wonder if there's a way, you're right,
they're getting ready to be young adults and make decisions.
Do want to empower them to make decisions.
How are we teaching them that the decision, the pants unbutton
thing, why is that a bad decision.
How are we using that as a learning lesson.
Are we just not enforcing three inches.
It seems like we are just chasing
the cat around a little bit.
But I don't know.
I think there's some quicker ways to get from point A
to point B on this.
We're almost getting to prescriptive.
It's almost locking us in.
A larger viewpoint on this.
Is what I'm hearing because fashion is just,
it took me back the thing about hats.
We freaked out about hats forever.
It was hats.
Now nobody cares about hats.
How do we accommodate those changes
or how are we teaching our high school students
to sort of dress professionally and academically.
Also respecting their individuality.
I don't know.
This is a tough one and it's hard for me
to sort of think of this is the priority necessarily.
I get we should address it and talk about it.
I wonder if there's other things we should be thinking about.
As we're talking about this particular issue.
Every school should have a school closet.
You don't have one at Desert Bloom Elementary.
Let's come in maybe that's an opportunity to think about that
and talk about that.
I don't know.
This is tough.
I get it.
I've seen how my daughter has left the house at times.
Holy smokes.
She did it.
She became a senior and just dressed like a normal teenager.
And there's merit to that journey.
Letting them have that journey.
Just my thoughts.
>> Good first reading.
>> Yeah.
Woo hoo.
So any changes that you all feel need
to be made please direct them to words doctor Millard Tomlinson.
And I appreciate the fact that you all came come
to the principal's comment and it's already almost 9:00.
I'm sorry.
But, thank you for being here and thank you for all the work
that you do with our kids and making sure
that they are dressed and ready to learn.
Thanks again.
>> Thank you.
Good night.
>> We'll still be here.
>> Exactly.
>> Under the cover of darkness, we changed the dress code.
>> Exactly.
Now we're going to move to our facility master plan
with Mr. Rodriguez and Miss Martinez in town.
And in person.
Welcome.
>> Thank you good evening Madam Vice President Wofford.
Members of the board.
Superintendent Ruiz.
We are here tonight to present the five year facility
master plan that was completed by Miss Colleen and her team
and will present it to the board.
First I would like to thank Colleen and her team
for the extensive work that they did in doing the facility master
plan with us.
And not just the facility master plan but also
working with us in getting the assessments done early
for Mayfield and White Sands.
As we're requesting funds and working with PSU OC.
Which Gloria and the team did present on those.
And I would just like to say my appreciation to her
for getting those.
And with that we will begin our presentation
on the Facility Master Plan.
And
>> Good evening Madam Court.
Members of the board.
Superintendent Ruiz.
I'm going to go over some things in broad terms
and then I'm going to go into some details about other things.
When we look at the facility master plan,
we look at what is it, why does it need to be done,
and the purpose.
Basically it's a roadmap and it's
a roadmap for how the school district will
address the facility needs over the next five, ten, 15 years.
While this is only a five year plan
there are certain things set up that
can extend beyond that because, just the sheer number
of facility needs district wide in place.
It needs to be done to ensure schools are safe.
Efficient.
Changing enrollment and educational needs.
And as we talk later on, more about some
of the age of these facilities and the educational needs,
how those crossover, that is also important and it also,
when we look at the facility conditions,
we also are keeping in mind potential funding from the state
through the public school.
Capital Outlay Council.
And what projects may be eligible.
And the purpose is the plan guides,
decisions about repairs and upgrades,
facility replacements, new construction,
and any potential consolidations adding new schools.
As a district grows and contracts over time.
Those decisions do need to be made
and then it helps prioritize those needs and a lot of times
with the district of this size and the large amount
that the council matches, over 40% to the dollar,
it's really important to align with the rankings are
with the schools with the monies that the district has.
And it's also in addition to those needs.
All school districts and state charter schools
must have a facility master plan in place per state law.
That is part of that.
Just looking at population growth, we look at Diana County.
And then we also, as I've mentioned
in previous presentations, we have the ability
to look at the school district as a whole.
And all of our other things we've been able to research.
Looking at Dona Ana County, we have had almost 6,000% increase
in population.
Over the past ten years.
I guess that's projected.
I'm sorry.
I was looking at the different, the two different ones.
Looking at the growth of about 10,000 between 2010 and 2020.
While the school district has also increased as well.
And then we are looking at another growth
between 2024 to 2050 of about 6000 for, the county as a whole,
and about 5000 within the school district.
Those 5000 don't always mean direct students
because of the types of people that are maybe moving in.
Including retirees.
We see that with the flat enrollment rate.
You know over the past several years.
The median age within the school district is 34 years old.
With a stable male to female population
it's almost split between 49 to 51%
the average family size is about 3.1 persons.
And when we look at 3.1 we are not
generating more than if you have a couple you have one child.
And of course we do have a variety of families.
We look at that.
We have 20 housing developments within the school district
and that are active and the 20th one,
the largest is south of Morgan Mountain.
With 8000 acres.
That's going to have a significant impact.
We had that information early on from the city
and so once we started looking at that rezoning,
we did all of that it's to try to help
overlap in that area to accommodate that in the future
once those houses start to get built. About 60%
of students from these developments
are already enrolled in the school district.
We are looking at that extra 40%.
When we have families move in they do have
school choice in Las Cruces.
Not only through the traditional public school
but the charter school.
Not all of those children are realized.
When we look more long term, because
of the growth on the Northeast mesa,
we are looking at the potential for having,
of needing an additional elementary school nature.
We accommodate that within our costs.
It's not anything within this first five years.
We've identified it and put a cost to it so it's kind of there
and it's not a surprise in five years.
>> We already have a name for that school.
>> I think you have a wonderful list of students to choose from.
>> Looking at enrollment over the past ten years enrollment
has declined 10.8% with elementary schools seeing
the largest drop of 17.7.
While middle schools declined 12.8.
High school enrollment actually increased 2.6
but that's a symptom of your cohorts that were really large
that are now exiting the school system.
That become high schoolers.
When you take a look at this, over the past ten years,
this is the first school year the state as a whole has dropped
below 300,000 students statewide.
You know, they've lost 8033 and now below that.
There's even more when we look at the decline based
on birth rates as well.
We have that as part of it.
Looking at capacity and utilization
we look at the utilization of all elementary schools,
basically how they're used.
From elementary schools just looking at general classrooms
and how many students are in the classrooms.
We did the same thing with middle schools
and with high schools.
Even though they have the rotating schedules.
Elementary we have overall capacity for 13,860 students.
The enrollment was 10,088 based on 40 days.
We look at scheduling, we are on average about 93% utilized.
The seat capacity we are only at 70.3%.
And there's a difference between the two.
>> Sorry I had a question.
What do you mean with scheduling?
>> With scheduling so you know, I'll use middle school
as an example.
You know in period one, in a math class, we use a prep period
and they only teach maybe five classes.
So you've got six out of seven periods that used.
That kind of helps determine that.
And we look at the class sizes.
If you go max PED for seventh grade, your 27 students.
But if you're only loading that class to 14,
you still have 13 seats still available.
On the elementary schools, those are really
assigned all day long period the classrooms.
That's what we look at but then you
have classes at elementary school
that maybe music is only taught four hours a day.
And you have an additional three hours
that are used for another program
or for a different type of class.
That's not used fully.
That's how the state evaluates them.
>> Okay.
The example helped.
Okay.
>> But middle schools and high schools are the same.
That's the reason why when you see the scheduling
at 93% on average, there are some schools that
are lower than that.
We are looking at the available seats.
That's where that percentage comes in.
Middle schools are at about 86%.
Which is in the range that the state
likes to see between 80 to 70 5 to 85 which is also
the same with the high schools.
Let me preface middle schools and high schools
can change their utilization based on their scheduling.
Traditional class period and that
changes all of those calculations.
Overall all three levels fit within the acceptable ranges.
With middle school we've got a capacity of 5856
and an enrollment of 4748 while the high school
capacity is 9318 with an enrollment this year of 7329.
When we take this and compare it to the projected enrollments,
we are looking at elementary enrollment,
remaining stable through 2030, 31, that's a tough one.
The rates will vary by school because of those population
shifts.
And we know as more people some of the schools that
are on the west side are starting to decline.
Middle school as well is looking at maintaining
a stable enrollment although we still
need to look at some of those micro adjustments.
Even at the elementary level.
And then at the high school level as well.
It's going to remain stable.
Looking at again micro adjustments
and I know one of them that will come up is going to be Mayfield.
In order to be able to draw off Morgan Mountain as some
of the new housing comes out.
That's 4 or 5 years away for that.
Looking at facility conditions.
We look at 40 school sites.
With district facilities that were assessed.
The total educational square footage is 4,091,167ft²
and the district facilities square footages 199584 and that
includes Field of Dreams.
The administrative complex.
Head Start buildings.
Etc..
Across the district.
Total combined, almost four point 3,000,000ft² that
the district owns and operates.
As we go through each facility, you
look at the physical condition, including building systems,
such as roofing Hvac, we also evaluated the classrooms.
Whether they met adequacy.
The new state standards.
Determining whether classrooms specialized space or common
support current teaching methods.
Review safety and security and then analysis Ada requirements
and finding those things.
We've compiled these long lists for each individual.
And when we did this it's just not capping needs.
If we saw maintenance items and things
that needed to be repaired.
We get that over to the district so they
can create work orders on it.
I'll use an example of a water fountain
that may be leaking as you're going down the hall.
We're not going to just ignore that.
We're going to write that down and submit that to operations
as a maintenance need.
That's not something that needs capital projects.
When we evaluate the difference between the two, we look at it,
if it's something that costs less than $5,000 to repair,
it shouldn't be a capital need, it should be a need that gets
addressed by maintenance.
Once it starts growing larger than that,
that becomes a capital project.
Looking at the individual schools,
we have 24 elementary schools.
One combined pre-K. Eight middle schools
and six high schools that we went to.
We looked at their conditions.
So looking at the facility conditions,
looking at the average elementary school age
is about 50 years old.
The oldest elementary school in the district
is MacArthur elementary.
Constructed in 1941.
It's 84 years old.
And you've got two other schools that
are very close right behind it.
White Sands Elementary is 47 and Central Elementary is 49.
When we think of schools that are built in the 50s,
with 13 elementary schools, over 50 years old, we look at --
when I think of 1950, 1960, I'm not thinking 75 years old.
My brain just doesn't compute.
That's not that long ago period but when you really
look at the buildings and the conditions that they're in,
well district maintenance has done a great job over the years,
and the district has invested a lot of money in,
some of these buildings are at the
are starting to be at the end of their life.
Not only from condition from the number of students.
Some of them are larger than they need to be.
And some of the classrooms don't even
meet adequacy standards anymore because they're too small.
Looking at average middle school age we're at 41 years old.
The oldest middle school is Lynn constructed in 1960.
But then we have five other middle schools
that are over 40 years old.
Again putting these schools on a replacement schedule
somewhere along the way and average high school age.
While Las Cruces High School had a lot of work done,
there's still some of those buildings that are there from
the 1950s.
And the gym.
The Vogue area.
The shop areas over on that south side of the campus.
I want to say building E or F where the science labs are,
yeah, some of that building.
>> It's D that they put in.
>> So some of those are a lot older.
And so you have infrastructure needs
that while it's been elevated, you have
plumbing and stuff like that.
Unless that was completely ripped out and start over,
you've got those problems still potentially
and so when we go through and look at all these average ages,
maintenance again has done a well job
but there was some missteps along the way.
20, 30 years ago in terms of starting to address these school
replacements.
We are starting to become more costly when
we could have replaced the school of $200 a square foot.
Not even just 15 years ago.
Looking at the capital improvements,
these are some of the general areas that we found.
Perimeter fencing.
Damaged, broken, parking lots, drop off lanes.
Wear and tear over time.
Walkways and sidewalks.
Some of them have cracks or just the concrete deteriorating
drainage issues causing ponding and erosion and even
water intrusion in some cases.
Some schools have more playgrounds than others
and some of that equipment is old.
Landscaping is sparse.
Exterior lighting is inadequate and signage
and playground signs are often lacking.
This is just a small part of the large list
of things we evaluated on the exterior of the building.
And looking at overall general facility needs, stucco systems.
Cracking.
Need repair.
Start to get really expensive.
Hardware aged or damaged.
Needing replacement.
This is again on a lot of the older schools.
While they still function.
They are starting to have problems.
Exterior windows beyond service life.
There's still a lot of paint and windows.
For those facilities, roof systems
are past their lifespan in a lot of areas
with leaks and deterioration.
I'm sure you heard over time.
Moving to full LED.
Things are replaced.
Some of the upgrades are being done
but district wide that does have a direct impact
on your operational cost.
Restrooms needing renovation and Ada improvements.
That is a significant need district wide.
And then you combine that with plumbing and sewer systems
that are aging and require replacements for leaks as well.
Hvac equipment.
The district does replace units as they go down.
But then you end up having a hodgepodge
on certain schools where you've replaced three units
but the rest of the units are 25 years old.
Those costs are going to come due at some point
and while I know cost and money is a factor, when
you look at a school that it might cost $2.5 million
to upgrade their Hvac, there comes a point
where I think in certain instances
the whole thing needs to be done because you're
going to not only have problems overall down the road
but when you're only replacing 2 or 3 here
or there along the way.
When we get to what the capital plan illustrates,
we have needs exceeding $1 million
and I'm going to preface this right off the top
that to projects, I would say Highland is a lot less but just
white Sands and Mayfield is a significant contributor to that.
This is 1.08 billion if the district had
paid everything 100% itself.
Again a lot of these projects are
eligible for funding through the Skok,
based on the ranking, when you all have your money match
and they're willing to meet you in there
and take on these projects.
One of the things we do recommend
is requesting funding for full school renovations.
There are some schools that are newer.
If you just need Hvac or some restroom renovations
but some of these older schools should
be applying for the full deal if they're not
going to replace long term.
Looking at how that breaks out between elementary and high
school, when we look at elementary school, just
25 elementary schools, you've got to operate and maintain,
some of them are really old.
That's when we get to that cost.
That also includes the cost of the potential new elementary
school in the Northeast as well.
Middle schools are at 148 million.
Which does include replacement but at least one
of the middle schools and high school costs are at 396 million
that also includes Mayfield.
That would be about half of that.
District facilities and we are talking
Field of Dreams administration, all the other facilities
are another 48 million.
>> Sorry I know we're pausing for question,
but this $1.08 billion, are you including --
like you're saying little middle's are our oldest middle
school.
Are you incorporating, that includes
a replacement for middle?
>> That's the one middle school we've identified for replacement
long term.
And we've got Coronado identified for replacement.
And if you really look at that school,
it's a very non effective educationally.
It's a maze.
You have to go outside to that courtyard to get back in.
You can't -- classrooms don't meet state adequacy standards.
You have a litany of issues with that school site.
When that school is eligible for funding
and the district has its match for it,
that would be a school that the district can
apply for replacement funding.
And then it could be right sized based
upon the number of enrollment at the time.
There's a lot of to fix them up projects
and there's the larger replacement projects included
as part of the elementary cost.
It also includes White Sands and that one is close to $90 million
because of the federal cost.
But on the other hand, while it's included there,
you're only paying 20% of that and so, we
have to have the overall total before we start to split it out.
Some projects may not rank high for ten years plus
and certain things may not be able to be waited on
and that may be a choice the district has to proceed at 100%
and that's not unusual in a lot of school districts.
So when we start looking at those funding resources are,
we've got the 12 million that remains from the 21 Geo bond.
We've got the most recent Geo bond at 65 million.
The district does get SB nine funds.
8.9 million annually plus another 2.5 million from state
match.
So 11.5 million a year.
HB 33 funds come your three mill rate.
That brings in another 11.3 and then the future right now come
up approximately another 60,000,000 in 2029.
Schools that are ranked in the top 200
really because of system projects
can potentially be eligible for 43%.
Cross matched by the state.
That's where you've got to leverage those opportunities.
The school rankings as part of that.
When we look at the next five years,
we took a lot of the work that was done by the committee
to include in a lot of this.
White Sands, Mayfield White Sands and Highland, Connelly
and Cesar Chavez are now the new desert bloom,
presented to the PSC meeting last Thursday.
I was there.
And presented with Miss Gloria Martinez and myself.
And answered a lot of questions the Council had.
They won't be making a decision until early June.
I will say the district is ahead of the curve.
And also having working on the pre-planning for White Sands
Elementary.
No other school district went up to the empiric
we are going to show we have the project already.
In addition to that we've also asked for some waivers
to see if we can get a higher cost share
percentage for Mayfield.
>> Miss Martinez mentioned the work that was done around
Mayfield as well as White Sands, taking that up to the committee,
that was part of the recall we had the facility master plan
to be here earlier but because we focused in we want
to prioritize those two projects and delay it a little bit.
I just wanted to point that out.
>> Excellent.
I hope that's made a difference.
That's a nice place to be.
Again we are looking at the next five years.
Tom Barton, zero, that's looking at those,
those are cost shared projects with the state
and the district will be using HB 33 and Geo bond bunnies
and those are current projects and when
we look over the next five years on these whole projects,
we are looking at Mayfield High School replacement
and we are looking some Geo bond money.
SB nine, HB 33, PS f a waiver as I mentioned
to see if we can get that percentage match increased
on that particular project.
White Sands Elementary Middle School funding and Sffa share.
We are trying to bargain with them a little bit.
We are only asking for 20% instead of 43
on that project to help us out more with Mayfield.
Highland Kitchen renovation again that
would be a cost share project.
Using that 2021 bond carryover.
Connolly, Hvac and roof replacement.
33 funds and Sffa.
As well as Desert Bloom Elementary
replaced as well as part of that and those
were given to the council.
Falling behind those, we are looking at prioritizing repairs
to Sierra Middle School and then identified
that new potential elementary school
because if a lot of that housing goes really fast,
that may need to be part of the focus of the 29 bond.
Just to put that out there now as something
that may need to be considered as part of that.
And that's pretty much, this five year cycle
coincides with your Geo bond.
>> Madam, can I?
>> Of course.
>> I understand kind of where the priority is here.
I guess I would like to know how we can somehow --
I feel like for me this is a little bit
defeating because in the next five years
I won't see Daniela Elementary and East Picacho get
that multi-purpose room where, they'll never
get to have full school and family all in one space
to celebrate.
Do whatever these schools do when they want to be together.
Okay, we are going to do second grade.
We're going to do all the fourth graders.
I experienced that personally as a parent
but I also just know that they've been waiting and waiting
and waiting and that's the story for a lot of different schools
for different reasons.
I guess I would like to know, are we going to put it
on the 23rd to facility master plan period when does that
happen?
I'm sorry I'm a thorn in the side of all this.
I know they're out there and they just get quiet about it
because they are just like all right.
>> Great point.
Things we continuously think about.
It's to the point of if we prioritize that, so, where
are we not going to prioritize.
>> I understand why they are there.
I do get that.
>> The other consideration is we look at some of our schools
comment as Miss Martinez mentioned,
and especially in the west side, those declining enrollment,
looking at more than likely, in my mind, this next school year,
start thinking about those low enrolled schools and are there
any adjustments that we need to make.
Doniana being one of them.
There's other schools in that area.
Hard considerations that we'll have to make.
In building and additional section.
Ballpark cost we're looking at $30 million per 20, $30 million.
>> Let me kind of preface something.
You probably saw two different costs for maybe Dona Ana.
Not always showing the addition component that needs to be there
because there is a 6,040% kind of unspoken rule that
if a school, to create in addition to make it adequate,
and the renovation combined with exceeding 60%,
the state will consider replacement of that building.
We need to identify where some of those additions
would need to be in a lot of the schools.
Especially elementary so that we can
show that it has a deficiency and those priorities
can roll over into the new master plan.
If something has a catastrophic failure
and needs to move up on the list,
this doesn't lock the board in their.
I've made it very clear, multiple sections,
if the board found that it had to absolutely shift something,
you had a roof failure at a school that was unexpected
or somewhere else, that can be shifted
or rankings change every year.
So where we've identified where we're
going to pursue state funding, if we saw another project that
rose up in the rankings closer to 100,
then maybe that kind of needs to be reevaluated as part of that.
So that way you can try to catch up.
Trying to catch up is going to be very difficult
because of decisions made in the 90s and early 2000.
Just to keep patch repair, patch repair, and not
replace strategically.
When we look at only three new elementaries
this century constructed, that's out of 25.
Just keep that in perspective.
The district's only gone into the replacement.
There's value in keeping buildings that are
older and maintained very well.
But I give you an example of Hobbes School District.
We've recently gone through their.
Their number one ranked in the state on their maintenance.
Which is phenomenal.
But they have a lot of school stock that's in the 50s.
Because they've maintained so well.
They're going to be in the crosshairs of the opposite side.
None of those schools are being educational adequate.
We can't do the things we need to do in the 21st century
education.
Now they're going to be in the position as well.
Of doing that.
>> I never understood how in those schools that were kind
of built around the same time with the same design,
we're not thinking okay our capacity is high but then we
don't have the common space that they all can use for these big
events.
It just didn't make sense.
>> I can address a portion of that.
With some of the changes to the adequacy standards.
I call them cafeterias.
I've never felt they were true multi-purpose rooms.
Because you can't go in there and bounce a ball
without hitting the ceiling.
You don't have goals.
You don't have those things in there
and it's just an open room.
If it's a rainy day you have the kids running around.
They can do their activities from recess inside.
That's not educationally effective.
Having a separate gym space, adequacy standards
do provide for that.
With some of the changes that have been occurring now.
We can bring those into the mix as part of that.
For example White Sands Elementary Middle School
would get both a gym and a cafeteria
and as these new schools are replaced,
Columbia has a cafeteria and a gym.
And that was a fight.
Gloria and I fought that all the way through.
We were successful and now other school districts have been doing
it and -- >> If I may.
Members of the board, I think that goes to your point,
we have to start looking at that part
because the cost we are currently
spending on maintaining older buildings
is far exceeding some of those things
as far as looking at replacements.
Talking about the windows.
Having the conversation about Lynn and the single panel
windows.
It's common we're losing a lot of electricity.
We're monitoring all that stuff.
Pulling all the data from our school.
A lot of our older buildings.
A lot of our older buildings are work order hungry.
And that's really the point of at what point is replacement
the most cost effective point.
It costs $1 million.
How are we ever going to get there.
I think it's at a place where there's
conditions and challenges.
We're at the place where we're at.
That's the condition.
The challenge now is being very strategic and intentional
in how we prioritize.
As Miss Martinez says.
Some things may shift in that part.
We look at funding.
We have to utilize other funding sources.
We have to look at that part.
Even as far as federal with White sands.
Sometimes the thorn in the side of their.
They need adequate access to adequacy.
That's the biggest part we tend to be firefighters putting out
fires, that delays other things we
need to be as cost effective and efficient with our funds
while still seeking out other funds to make
sure we can at some point, and Mr. Silver
and I had this conversation.
Take over for us.
Left it in a better place for the generation coming next
and I think that's all of our charges.
How are we leaving this district when we choose to part ways.
That it's better for the next generations that are coming up.
As we use the facility master plan,
working with Miss Martinez, a lot of it was identified.
It was prioritized within our master plan that we had access.
Everything we talk about each and every day, roof
replacements, you can see on the charts,
that's one of the biggest areas of what needs to be replaced.
Which then causes other issues.
We won't say what exists sometimes.
Leaking buildings.
>> So, I mentioned this probably in public comment.
I've been a thorn in Mr. Ruiz's side as well.
When it comes to the city and housing developments
I feel like they're not being equal partner
in the communication.
It's not fair to us these things go up and we are behind already.
And I just don't know how we can,
I've heard this about the city about other things.
We need to be a lot more, what's the word, what's the word?
It's like when you're kind of like you
have to put yourself out there.
Assertive.
Maybe stronger than that.
I don't know.
I feel like it's not happening.
>> I assure you that is happening.
The relationships I've been able to build,
not just myself but the team and the city, and the county,
I get every subdivision that's being
proposed before it's approved, that comes to our emails.
They are seeking our input.
How does this impact you.
How does this affect you.
We are looking before it's even approved.
We are giving them and providing and we
are getting a lot more access to those things
because we have built those relationships
we've been very intentional to make
sure we build those relationships
and I think it's the biggest thing that I told Mr. Easton we
need to be at the adult table.
No longer at the child table.
Making -- we need to be having those communications with
the different entities that we have.
>> And not doing a favor for those communities
and neighborhoods if we're not a part of the plan.
>> And we need to get to a point where these builders are also
committing dollars for school buildings as we're building
these communities and not just, a lot of times it's land
but it's also the dollars in the building of these schools
as well.
Those are the type of conversations
that, back to your point, we need to be a little more
aggressive around that.
And
>> Thank you.
And let me add to that madam Corde, board member,
you're speaking to the choir on this.
This is my biggest frustration.
It's not a Las Cruces problem it's a Carlsbad
problem it's a Hobbs problem.
It's an Albuquerque problem.
It's a Rio Rancho problem.
It's a Los Alamos problem.
It's Los Lunas.
It's statewide.
And we don't have as a state or on the county level a way
to put on some sort of impact fees
on some of these developments.
Which could then generate that money back
to the school district and I've talked with other legislators
and they just don't want to really pick it up.
And I feel it's a failure and I don't
know if it needs to be at the state level.
If it needs to be the county and city levels.
How those things coordinate.
It's a serious issue.
When you go in.
I look at 5000 homes south of Morgan Mountain.
Who's going to pay for the middle school.
In addition to that elementary school.
I can tell you who's going to build
the wing of additional classrooms at Oregon Mountain.
When you look at those the city is approving these
with no financial consideration to the school district
and it frustrates me greatly and if I
can find a way that we can solve that problem,
I would be so on board to support it.
>> I think we can lobby for it.
Which committee will legislate that.
>> And that's where I'm not sure what level that needs to be
at the city, county or state level.
I do feel advocacy is going to be very important on this
because the school districts don't
have the kind of broad capacity that is really
needed to be able to not only address these problems but all
the problems that are going to be a result of some
of this development.
And I'm not Anti-development.
It brings jobs and people but at the same time, what cost.
As we go through this facility master plan
and we start looking at West Side schools in addition
to potential zone shifts, some of those schools over there also
need to be replaced and it's going
to be evaluating which ones are in the right place
versus they're not in the right place
to be replaced and have to move.
That's the other side of that as well.
>> Thank you very much.
And
>> And then here are the final set of projects.
These are the district projects coming directly
from the bond committee.
Operations annex that's already in process.
As well as all the title nine projects.
There is a project for Donia on here.
The nurse's office.
But it's a start.
Again some of the play structures.
Sonoma and MacArthur.
And Alameda and Desert Bloom.
And some of these other projects that
have been identified as part of that.
>> Just real quick.
This is our bond projects.
We still have our other funding sources.
We still have projects.
This is not the entire list of the projects
that we will be working on over the next five years.
We will be utilizing other funding sources
that we have to ensure we are still
progressing through our facility master plan.
There are other projects that we are
working on as well to meet those needs of those schools
that we have.
>> For that we stand for questions.
>> Yes.
>> Colleen coming in 2 or 3 places come on I think middle
school, high school, elementary, you said that critical
improvements are deferred, then we will end up with further
deterioration.
How many of these critical improvements
are we >> I think a lot of them.
Especially around mechanical systems.
One of the big issues is you know you have a school.
And mechanical system needs to be replaced as well as the roof
system.
And yeah and you've only got enough money for the roof.
The roof is $1.2 million.
Another is Hvac.
If you don't do them together and you put that amount of money
to do them both at the same time,
it's going to cost you more on the replacement
because now you're up on the new roof.
You're doing all of these things.
We try to put some of the projects
together that kind of mount certain disciplines
or areas of concern together.
If you're doing the roof you're doing mechanical.
If you replace windows on a building that has stucco,
now you've damaged the stucco so now you've
incurred other costs versus looking at some of that stucco
maybe bad and fixing it all and re color coding it together.
It costs more when you get to that point.
There are a lot of systems district wide.
I would say roofs, Hvac, we found roof issues
on buildings that are only 14 years old
and it's a failure of the roof membrane system.
We've had people come out and look at that further.
One of the things we've been noticing,
just I as a business owner and doing this across the state, me
and my team, we've been seeing especially in New Mexico,
TPO may not be the best roofing system.
They do have a modified asphalt roof that is reflective
and meets all code requirements for reflectivity
and when we look at the buildings within the district
that have those roof systems even when they're old
and now 35 years, they've held up a lot longer than some.
>> Do we have a schedule to elastomer to paint the roofs?
>> We are currently recoding some of the roofs.
We are recruiting, doing university hills on some of that
with the -- but we are still seeing looking at it.
They've changed the formula for their TPO so many times
trying to find the right balance of chemicals and everything
else.
Just with our hot sun.
I mean and the specifics of what we're talking about
is middle school.
Just into that point.
We were going back and forth currently with them
on the warranty piece.
That was still under warranty that's not something we were
going to --
I think it was Sonoma Elementary, the last one that
had similar issues and under warranty that whole roof was
replaced with a brand new roof.
Again that's how we're trying to find those other avenues of how
we can get a whole new roof for something that's only from 2010.
So it's 60 years old.
>> And we discovered those Micro-tears in the material when
we were doing the assessments in Mesa.
And so again that's something we kind of noticed
on southern New Mexico and we did
meet with two different roofing manufacturers
and they finally kind of admitted
those roofs weren't tested in the high wind, high UV.
Everything that's southern New Mexico has.
In terms of our weather system and the heat and UV rays.
That's one where we started digging in and worked
with Mr. Rodriguez's team on how we could solve that problem.
We knew that was under warranty still.
Those little things.
Going back to my example.
Again you've got that.
And conversely if you replace the roof
and you don't replace the mechanical then
you're bringing out the cranes again and putting the roof
material on that could have lifted up the Hvac equipment
period there's a lot of things that have to be paired together.
And unfortunately they're not cheap.
>> All right.
Thank you.
>> One other question.
>> I told somebody I was going to pinch you if you started.
[Laughter]
>> Somewhere in the document said there was a 3.7 increase
in enrollment between now and -- >> Yeah,
3.7% increase but other ones, schools are going to increase.
>> So this is against the trend that we're watching.
>> Over time with the sheer amount of housing.
Some of the other economic development
overall in Dona Ana County.
Some of the information, there will
be new families moving in our population in the state.
We are on the decrease.
This moment in time that's not five years from now.
>> Thank you.
>> Awesome.
>> Thank you so much for your presentation.
We appreciate it very much.
Is it too late to fix something on their Quebec
>> Because it's about me.
The Gabon Committee I took over his place.
I don't know-- >> Ed and I were listed in their.
And
>> They want to blame me they should blame me, right?
And
>> There were lots of pages missing.
Refers to the 11 by 17.
We didn't see it.
We can get it.
And the table of contents.
I tried.
To search and For headings in the table of contents
and I could not find them.
It was somewhat difficult to maneuver through the thing.
>> Usually their published.
Like a certain amount.
That will happen later?
>> Thank you all so much.
Now come on Mr. Liu, Mr. Signs, finance, thank you.
Oh my word.
Thank you for staying.
Let's have a discussion and possible approval
of our fiscal year 2026 2027 proposed Operating Budget.
Hello.
>> Thank you.
Before I turn it over to Matt I just
want to start by saying thank you
for all of you for the support through all this process.
Your conversation with the constituent.
The different public meetings and your guidance.
It's really important to us.
Through all the process.
As we focus on the people.
The kids.
That's where we focus on.
As an LCP as finance.
It's always our priority to focus on the kids.
The people the community collaboration.
Not just purely on the accounting work.
The pivot table.
All of that.
It's focused on the community.
That's why we, this year we presented to the city.
Presented to the county and at a parent support center, equity
council, multiple town hall meetings, and even the realtor
association to get their perspective
about our budget and our list of priorities
and with those people's participation and student
participation, this year we received a historical record
height of participation in our budget process.
It makes night and day difference.
Especially the recent budget town hall meeting.
A special someone participated and really stands
out and Superintendent Ruiz.
I was very happy.
And be able to step in for me and I was sweating already.
That makes the night and day differences because
with the zero other funding reach 100% compliance
in the county which 100% reconciliation and compliance
with federal, state and local law, it's the beginning.
Of what our goal always will be.
Student success.
How we can move from the bare minimum
to our priority and our goal.
Student buy in.
The community participation.
Guidance from the board and the vision from the superintendent.
I just want to say thank you for your advocacy.
I'll turn it over.
>> Thank you very much Alex.
Good evening.
Members of the board.
My name is Matthew Science.
Budget director of Las Cruces Public Schools.
It's a pleasure to be here today.
We have presented this information.
Also we had some great conversation
at our work session.
Thank you so much for that.
For our budget process, we went out into the community
to make this process very accessible to everyone.
We worked with various organizations.
Las Cruces Realtors Association.
Thank you so much for that.
Also through our process we worked along
with Doctor Barbati.
And that can be taken by the students.
Over 2000.
We had some celebrations with the students
which we would like to invite you all to join us next year.
Which would be great.
Get some free ice cream.
We are looking forward to this process for next year.
Just as a reminder, our budget is made up
of different buckets of money.
Total budget of $642 million.
General funds which is our operation.
For the district at 365 million.
Which is our federal and state funding.
78.7 million.
Our capital funds for projects and 100.6 million
our debt service.
On these capital projects of 44 million.
Which are trust funds.
To support some of our programs here at the school.
Just as a reminder, 2026, we were able to accomplish maybe
$10.9 million.
Most notably we had the installation
of the weapons detection system and also the high school traffic
renovation.
They received third in state.
Maybe that's a contributing factor to them.
Good job, guys.
For instructional resources we have extended $11 million.
Instructional curriculum materials and supplies.
Also looking at the extension classroom for those activities.
Athletics and fine Arts.
Health we have estimated $7 million.
These are the services that go to support students, health
and safety.
Wellness we haven't estimated 11, excuse me, 10.7 million
to support emotional social and emotional learning.
And we had some capital projects.
Looking forward, we are estimating projects
at 39 million.
We are continuing with the weapons protection system.
That includes staffing as well as software renewal.
We have a lot of capital projects
that include mainly roofing and Hvac projects.
Instructional resources we are looking at $11 million
to support programs.
Also platforms that support students.
As well as the extension of the classroom for Athletics.
And Fine Arts.
Health is estimated at 7.6 million.
Also we are renovating an elementary nurse suite.
Wellness is $36.4 million.
Mainly this consists of social worker salaries and benefits.
Also for curriculum and training for social and emotional
learning.
And Athletic improvements.
To address the title nine issues.
I believe those changes will be installed.
To help those young ladies out.
And congratulations to the softball team this year.
They all made it to state.
The championship with Mayfield and Las Cruces High.
>> The South was represented.
>> So legislative updates for the year,
we have the approval of Senate Bill 151 which is 1% average
salary increase.
We also had the approval of House Bill 47
which increased employer contribution
for insurance premiums.
From 6040 to 8020.
The district has been taking care
of that over the past several years
by providing that benefit to the employee.
We did see an increase in medical premiums of 9.95%
and also dental at 4%.
So the benefit to the employees, another cost benefit
to the employees is that additional portion.
Mainly taken up by the district by the 80/20 approval.
Just a reminder on how classes are staffed.
This is in accordance to New Mexico State annotated 197822
dash ten 820.
So this on the screen is a list of various requirements
on how classes are staffed based on grade level.
The public Education Department does define
what is called functions.
So the function on the screen is what are considered classroom.
These are direct expenditures towards the classroom.
It's what they considered.
Even though everything pretty much
goes to support in classroom use, just the way
they divide it out, between In-classroom use and more
administrative functions, so the functions on this screen
are more of your administrative functions.
Taking a look at our proposed budget for the year,
second to the last at the bottom you'll see total budget proposed
is $354.9 million for our operational fund.
This is about half a percent increase from our current year.
Although we did see a 3% increase in our net value
from the Public Education Department, at the same time
we are seeing an inverse relationship
with the decline of enrollment.
That's about a half percent increase.
For the most part our budget is pretty
similar to this current year.
A slight variations in the function.
I do want to point out that at the very top of the screen,
for the year 1000, 21 and 22, those
are considered in classroom.
We are continuing our dedication to 77% into the new year.
>> Did I just hear you say you are decreasing the line item
1000 because of the decrease in FTE and total number of teachers
where you put the 1% raise.
Is that where the 1% raise goes?
>> Sorry, president caught, vice president Wofford,
can you repeat that question?
>> You've increased the instruction of the 1000
to accommodate raises.
Is that correct?
But then decreased it because you have fewer full time
equivalent teachers.
>> President, vice president Wofford,
thank you very much for the question.
This reflects salaries within each function.
Salaries are still based within every one of the functions just
depending on what that job classification is.
One person is allocated throughout.
>> Right.
So the question is from 63.2% to 62.71,
what accounts for the decrease there?
>> President, vice president Wofford,
thank you very much for the question.
Within that function, within the different functions,
there's some flexibility on how the schools can budget.
This is what I'm meaning by there's some slight variation.
In that you can see instruction is slightly lower
than previous years for the 1000.
However within the support services for student,
that one increased at the same time.
>> That is correct thank you very much.
This is a visual of what the functions look like.
63% of the budget is allocated.
2100 support services for student is and 2200
for support services 3%.
That altogether is your 77%.
The remaining budget goes to more
of your administrative functions.
This is to look at our state equalization guarantee.
We are estimating that we'll receive $326.3 million.
What that looks like when we're looking at expenditures
is that 98% of that is going to personnel.
65% for your salaries.
Also 33% for your fringe benefits.
That leaves the district 2% to allocate
for the rest of the operating expenditures.
With that I want to thank you so much for your time.
I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Liu
to discuss the student enrollment and also
strategic goals.
>> Thank you Matt.
The presentation previously, that's
why we want to add this slide to show the board
and public that the trend that we're seeing,
nation, experiencing a decrease throughout the year
and under leadership of Superintendent Ruiz
we have been successful in our student outreach and effort.
K-12 and Graduate Alliance.
In the process of combining the budget of the schools.
The expenditure that submitted majority of them
are supporting the board's strategy goals.
Some of them are supporting a specific goal.
Some are supporting multiple goals.
Goal number one outcome for literacy 67 million.
Salary and benefits related to literacy personnel
and professional development.
[Laughter] Okay.
67 million.
Goal number two on top of the salary and benefit, expenditure
we are facing a mass extraction material
period that's the textbook way we
are trying to adopt this year.
That's over the latest number we received. $7.9 million.
Goal number three, environment, mental health, well-being,
that is a wide range that ensures
the students are able to come to school and get ready to learn.
Goal number four, environmental safety.
That's not only covered the salary and benefit
for the operational fund, from security related personnel
to personnel support of the clean environment
but also as we heard from the previous presentation
five year facility master plan.
Hvac and security projects are included.
As well as student maintenance.
The building maintenance portion.
School culture and climate.
The school leaders.
Local leaders that pay out of this goal and also capital.
We are supporting family Support centers which
is very important to support the family and student period goal
number six, engagement attendance, 60 million,
internally our effort to reach our student
and also externally the Graduate Alliance over 281 and K-12
are close to 500 kids recruit from their effort of outreach.
With that we are going to go into the goals
of the expenditure.
Total $200 million.
Multiple goals.
For example elementary school teachers.
Not only supporting literacy but also mass
and also well-being and also for the federal side, 22 million.
Community schools are supporting multiple school goals as well.
With that we will stand for questions
and I want to say that we are going to continue to improve
our budget process and budget presentation to ensure
that useful and easy information will provide
throughout the year as well as the process
to the communities and one lesson
we learned this year is to include the student Council.
As early as possible because that makes a huge difference
in our budget town hall and we have the best budget town
hall this year.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
Board members do you have any questions or comments?
>> I do.
We made a lot of requests at the finance subcommittee
and you guys are on it.
So we really appreciate that you guys took that extra effort
to get that information.
>> And we appreciate all the work that you've done throughout
the whole year to make the budget process easier
to understand.
Both for the board and for the public.
Thank you so much for that.
>> I really want the vast audience to understand that we
have asked many many questions about this.
At the last work session.
At the Finance Subcommittee.
If you're noticing maybe there's not a lot of questions tonight,
it's because we've pretty much exhausted our supply.
And thank you for all that.
>> Speak for yourself.
>> Thank you, I have a question in regards to the state funding
as a whole.
As far as attendance goes and absences,
how does it affect the district's budget.
For expenditure usage and most importantly do excused absences
cause more, what is the relationship with absences
with state funding?
>> President, said, thank you for the question.
Absences do affect the budget that we did.
When we received funding from the State of New Mexico,
>> Sorry, can we also have Doctor Lozano maybe address some
of that as well.
For the attendance piece.
>> I can just make sure there's a point.
It does affect our funding based on attendance.
The schools are funded on membership
give the students are not in class,
that's less money that the school will receive.
>> Madam president, thank you Matt.
So, if a student stops coming to school after ten days,
then we disenroll them and depending on where that falls
or if we get funded on the 80th day of school or 1/20 day
of school for our operational funding,
if they're not enrolled during the 80th day, or the 1/20 day,
that impacts us.
Aside from that we want our kids to be in school and make sure
they're enrolled because after ten days that's
when we could possibly disenroll students,
depending on the situation.
>> Good.
>> Add back to that.
I was wondering, as far as absences go,
does it also include excused absences.
Because I was talking with a couple of (indiscernible)
I was just wondering does it also
impact Las Cruces Public School District as a whole
or like for the budgeting processes and stuff like that
or it's just an excused absences.
Certain duration time.
>> Madam president so it does not.
There is no impact to any budgeting period
if a student is excused or not excused.
>> Okay.
>> I wanted to add on to what Mr. Frank said.
And to reflect on the minutes.
I think the beauty of having our full board in Finance
subcommittee is we are engaged with you pretty much year round
and so we see how the budget starts
and how it kind of has to move and move back
and we've kind of seen that and learned a lot
through this process.
So that's very helpful.
>> And the public can also come to these subcommittee meetings.
It's not just for us it's for everyone.
>> Absolutely.
We need a lot more.
>> For sure.
Thank you all for your time and oh,
>> I appreciate the tying in the strategic goals.
I really think that helps me understand the budget.
I think it helps us talk about the budget in ways
that how does it express our values as a community.
Thank you for doing that.
I'm going to say one more time.
I think we need to rethink our survey strategy on how
we're gathering data.
I think getting that student feedback is really important.
I wonder what a focus on teacher and administration
and cabinet level staff, like a focus on that group of folks
to build this budget and I know we talked to them
and I know there's conversations and all those sorts of things
but, a concerted effort to really get
that teacher principal, I guess you folks in the background.
Your viewpoint.
How does a safety budget impact technology.
We talk about technology all the time or safety all the time
but we can't talk about safety if we're not
talking about technology.
I think that's sort of one example.
Building maintenance.
Like safety.
How does this impact his sort of particular realm.
I think that's one thing that we need to understand.
And again I know we're doing the right thing with this budget
money.
We are good stewards.
We are smart financial folks.
We're doing good things.
I want us to sort of think about a better way to sort of,
how do we celebrate that and explain
what we're doing with this project,
with the greater sort of community,
I think it would be helpful.
But otherwise everything is great.
All right I'm done.
Oh my God it's >> Just to piggyback on that as well
though, when we're talking about that
and we're spending $139 million on safety.
I think it would be good to know,
have we improved safety because of that?
Because we're putting a lot of money into that.
It's putting, having that data, we've put that money in,
it's great and it's aligning to the strategic plan,
but has it helped safety, are we improving safety,
are we improving our literacy with the money we
are putting into our instructional resources.
It's sort of adding that piece to it.
This is where we are putting the money
but is it yielding results.
>> Thank you very much president Cort.
Great points.
Part of that is also, as we're aligning it
to the strategic plan, reporting on the impact of the progress.
Some of those would be answered for example.
What I'm hearing is maybe bringing some of that data
also into the budget piece and highlight some of the successes
like Mr. Nolan had talked about.
I think as we've been thinking through this,
we've been taking notes of all of these different
considerations as we implement the budget
process for the next school year and definitely the staff piece
is one we are going to definitely prioritize as well.
Support staff Et-cetera.
Thank you.
>> I think our budget process is amazing.
And transparent and full of understanding
the community and their needs and I
don't think we can say that about the budget.
So thank you all.
>> President thank you so much for the comments.
And if I can just give a quick shout out.
To all the finance today.
>> It's after ten and you're here.
>> I like seeing them in 3D.
For sure.
>> I would like to entertain a motion to approve the fiscal
year 2026 2027 proposed operating budget period
>> So moved.
>> Second period bam moved and seconded all in favor please
indicate by saying I. All opposed.
All right that has it.
Unanimously approved.
Bravo.
1008.
Still going.
We have our board reports.
I would like to start by saying I have attended
22 events this month which is a lot
but it's all in celebration of staff and students
and it makes me super happy and I wish everybody
a very happy and successful last week of school and a excited
for graduations.
I'm trying to get my handshake hand in shape.
Mr. Wofford.
>> It's been a busy month.
A lot of activities.
One I've really enjoyed was the elementary arts show.
Just did a fabulous job.
Enjoyed that very much and looking forward to
not dislocating my shoulder.
At all the.
And so have a fabulous summer.
Everyone enjoys their brief time off in the summer.
And our rejuvenated.
All school employees back in the fall period
>> I'm just going to be super brief.
We had a community school meeting
and we had something that wasn't done before.
We now have the parent representative, the first one
of perhaps several.
Did we put a limit on how many?
She was very excited.
And happened to be there as well.
We discussed a summer retreat that will be happening June
18th.
So we are going over possible topics
and with the elk Foundation, it was kind of fun.
Donyetta Community College has the culinary department
and they have students who will put on a luncheon for you.
And it was really cool.
That's where we had our meeting.
>> Thank you.
Mr. Nolan.
>> Yeah, I guess we have equity council.
We have our meeting coming up and I
think we're working on equity promise and all that good stuff.
I am the chair of the DAC Advisory Council.
I have to solely accumulate all of the work.
I am looking forward to graduation
and I want to shout out from the dais.
My daughter wrapped up her athletic career
and I did this on social media but I
think it's good to do it here.
I want to thank Miss Ramdhan.
How much we contribute, it's reflected in our budget.
I would sell those at 50 cent bag of chips.
Those are not paying for bus transportation.
LCP hasn't really comes out and supports athletics
and getting those kids out there and seeing them run around.
I live right by Mayfield Park did a little honking parade
thing for them.
I didn't know it at the time.
I felt that when I realized that it was
and then I realized what it was for.
But a shout out to the folks at El CPS Athletics.
For the work that they do.
>> Mr. Frank.
>> One of the cool things I did was the best buddies thing.
I didn't go to the prom but the next day there
was an event at Oregon Mountain High School
and I walked around the track and went to all these rooms.
I got a tattoo on my arm.
[Laughter]
so.
This event is the anti-bullying event
where there's nothing but support for each other
and it's always an important event.
And also I want to talk about the teachers.
Teacher Appreciation Awards.
That is a really great activity.
First of all it's really beneficial for the athletes.
They have to do that.
Causing them to have to reflect when somebody influenced them
and it brings tremendous recognition to the people.
They pick as the person.
I really think Coach Lopez should be recognized.
And all the other people that help him to pull that off.
By the way come up the speech at that was extraordinary.
(indiscernible)
>> I'm sure everybody would love for me to take that time.
[Laughter] I appreciate that very much I will repeat it I
will repeat it one of these days but maybe not --
>> I understand.
>> Thank you.
Thank you said for being on the dais with us for the last time
and we'll see you at the Senior Honors Night on Thursday
and we'll see you at graduation on whatever day
it is you graduate.
Ceremony of Champions.
Yeah.
Three days in a row.
>> Student government, for me community awareness.
>> It wasn't for your dance moves at Quebec and
>> Stewart recorded me.
>> I know it was awesome.
>> With that I would like to entertain a motion to >>
So moved.
>> Moved by everyone.
And seconded by Vice President Wofford.
All in favor please indicate by saying I. I. All opposed?
All right we're adjourned at 1014.