Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Alamogordo Daily News School Board Meeting Coverage

The Alamogordo Daily News coverage of the school board meeting is here.
Posted by Margo Whitt
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousDecember 15, 2009 at 5:20 PM

    I noticed that the link to the ADN article was no longer available, so here is the text:

    Alternative thinking may help Cloudcroft schools

    Innovative ideas for saving the school district money were discussed Monday evening at the Cloudcroft School board meeting to help the school through the current financial crisis. These new concepts included installing solar power to save on the electric bill and creating income to make educational programs self-sufficient. Other items of business included appointing Ed Woten as the newest board member.
    Cloudcroft School system is applying for a grant to receive stimulus money to install solar photovoltaic systems at the high school. “This system will save the school district about $30,000 on electricity each year,” Tommy Hancock, superintendent of the Cloudcroft Schools said Monday evening during the school board meeting.
    According to Mike Richline, Cloudcroft School District’s transportation director, these are competitive awards, funded from the recently designated $10 million in federal stimulus funds by Gov. Bill Richardson to develop green energy in public schools.
    “This is 100% funded. All the school would have to come up with would be the actual digging and putting in the cement for the poles” Richline said. “This could add up to a $750,000 grant for the school.” If the funds are received, according to Richline, the solar panels would be installed around the high school and on tracks arranged for maximum efficiency.
    Other items of discussion included a report by Robert Booky, FFA, woodworking and metal arts teacher at Cloudcroft High School, on efforts to make his program self sufficient. Booky displayed fine art metal cut-outs surrounded by a geometric pine wood frame. “These are our newest products from scrap products donated by local contractors, so the cost is basically nil” he said. Booky indicated their intentions to sell these products in local stores.
    Booky reported a $2500 donation by the South Central Mountain Resource Conservation & Development Council, of Carrizozo, to these projects, an old saw mill donated by the Circle Cross Land and Cattle Company, of Timberon, so the school can mill their own wood, and donations of lumber by the U.S. Forest Service, possibly from the Solano Trestle, to preserve the historic value and make quality wood products to generate revenue. Other support came from the Lincoln county small business association.
    “We started visiting with local contractors, businesses and the forest service for donations. The goal was to become self –sufficient using scrap materials and to improve existing materials that we have.”


    Some of the other donations to Booky’s program included discarded hot water heaters. “We take the covers and turn them into “no hunting” and “no trespassing” signs. That is $50 profit from each water heater donated” for each sign that is sold.
    He described other project working with the science teachers constructing solar green houses for hydroponics. “We hope that the germinations that we do will contribute to science and ag science. Our goal is to become as self sufficient as we can while looking at curriculum that includes biomass education,” Booky said. “The kids are having so much fun they don’t even know they are learning.”
    Other items of business included a closed executive session to consider letters of application for the open seat on the school board. Ed Woten, a retired Cloudcroft School teacher, local Boy Scout troop leader, and business owner, was appointed by the Board to fill the vacancy. Woten’s term on the board will continue until the next election scheduled for February 2010.

    Jennifer Smith

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