School Board Meeting April 24, 2012

You can find a podcast of the meeting on iTunes, or at http://cmsbears.podbean.com.

After the meeting was over the new Superintendent, Travis Dempsey, was introduced and allowed to address those in attendance. This introduction is included in the podcast.

As to the audit item on the agenda, that was just to announce that De'Aun Willoughby was selected again to be the auditor. I did ask if she was on the list of approved auditors, since she was on probation with the state auditor a couple of years ago when I served on the audit committee. Business manager Sharlotte Lund said she did not know, but that is why they have to get their auditor approved by PED and they would be the ones to decide if the auditor met their qualifications.

I will attempt to get a copy of the open meetings resolution that was approved at the meeting.

Fred Wright Retiring

Middle school and elementary school principal Fred Wright will be retiring at the end of this school year.

Agenda For Regular School Board Meeting April 24, 2012

Here is the agenda for this meeting. I hear that the new superintendent, Travis Dempsey, will also be present.

There is also a meeting for the parents of gifted students that will begin at 5:00 pm the same day as the school board meeting. They are always over by 6 pm.

Special School Board Meeting for April 11 CANCELLED

I wandered by the sacred window to see if the special school board meeting that was scheduled for April 11 at the last public meeting was still on. Since there was no notice of the meeting, I wandered inside to inquire. I guess that is the procedure for finding out that a scheduled meeting has been cancelled.

New Superintendent Selected

Per Arlan Ponder's Facebook posting, sounds like we have a new Superintendent. After interviewing candidates yesterday, the board selected Travis Dempsey from Mountainair and he has accepted.

Special School Board Meeting of April 3, 2012

The podcast of this 8-minute meeting can be found at http://cmsbears.podbean.com or on iTunes.

Basically, back on March 21 the board said that they would be conducting their interviews in public, while the "advisory" committees would conduct their interviews in closed sessions.

Now, the board has discovered that they are not required to conduct their interviews in public, therefore they will not conduct their interviews in public. According to board president Bill Denney “In my opinion we are going to have closed interviews. I think it would be better for the candidates and for the school board. We can ask better questions. Unless I’m getting voted down here, I think it’s the best all around."


But there was no vote, and it did not appear that anyone on the board was questioning this decision. This meeting was simply to inform the public that the April 7 meeting will be an Executive Session.


So those of you who are not on the hand-picked advisory boards will not have an opportunity to hear what questions the board thinks are important, or hear what the candidates have to say in response to those questions. Everything will be conducted behind closed doors and you will find out who they have selected either on the 7th, or the 11th or the 24th of this month.