Regular School Board Meeting June 18, 2013

Here is the agenda for the meeting.

Here is a summary of the policy advisories.

Complete Policy Handouts.

Open Meetings Resolution

Vehicles to be auctioned (note that the vehicles will be auctioned separately on the public surplus website.)

Superintendent's Report

There will be an auction of school equipment on Saturday, June 29th at 8 a.m. The public can preview the items on Thursday and Friday prior to the auction and place an absentee bid if you can't be at Saturday's auction. There is a list at the school of the items to be auctioned, but it would not scan so I can't include it here.

There is also a public meeting scheduled for July 2nd at 4:30 pm in the High School Commons to discuss the proposed Facilities Master Plan and give the community the opportunity to make suggestions.

The podcast for the meeting will be loaded tonight at http://cmsbears.podbean.com

Offer of Website to School Board

After the school board meeting Thursday night, when everyone else had left, there was some discussion from the superintendent that he thought the school board should go through the school's website instead of form its own blog. He said something about the school's lawyer would probably prefer that. Some school board members indicated that they didn't think they could post something to a blog or it would be taken as speaking for the entire board.

That discussion prompted me to send the following email to every school board member yesterday:

Hello Arlan and all-

I have the domain name www.cmsbears.info paid up through May 2012. Using MyDomain.com, I can have it forwarded to whatever blog name you come up with at no cost. You can even set up email addresses via the domain, and it will forward to you. For example, if someone emailed "dougporch@cmsbears.info" I could have that forwarded to Doug's forest service email address.  Also, I looked into the Policy Manual, and there is specific wording that if a board member speaks about something or voices his/her opinion, he/she is NOT speaking for the entire board but for him/herself. I'm pretty sure I found that in Section B.

I see no reason why an elected official cannot voice his/her opinion on a blog or website outside of the school's website. That's just another way of communicating with your constituents.

I never got a chance to sign up my email address last night, however I, too, would like to put my name in the hat as an interested parent willing to serve on the search committee and help in any way possible to assure we have a vast array of qualified and capable candidates from which to choose.

Arlan, let me know what I can do to help with the blog...

Margo


The policies that I'm referring to are:
Board Member Authority and Responsibilities
Board Powers and Responsibilities
Board Member Ethics

Handouts from August 16, 2011 Board Meeting

Here are the policy revisions which were presented for their first reading at last night's meeting:
Board Member Conflict of Interest (B-0800)
Contracts for Purchases and Services (D-2450)
Staff Conflict of Interest (G-0700)
Prohibited Personnel Practices (G-1900)

Here are the copies I received of the AYP presentation:
PDF version
XLS
Powerpoint

It was also mentioned at the meeting that Shannon Porch will be retiring the first of October. I know all of the Middle and Elementary school kids are going to really miss her hugs and smiles.

Here is the article from the Alamogordo Daily News that ran on Wednesday.

School Board Meeting November 8, 2010 *Updated with Article*

The podcast of last night's meeting is available at http://cmsbears.podbean.com/

Among the items discussed were proposed policy changes to the discipline policy. I have included a link to the documents that were provided to the Board members.

Here is a summary of the meeting from the Alamogordo Daily News.

Freedom of Information/Public's Right to Know

In perusing the School Board Policy, available on the school's website www.cmsbears.org, I found the form that a member of the public can use to request information from the Superintendent's Office. This is a link to that form. However, the Superintendent has also told me that he'd take a written request on any piece of paper and no one had to use a special form.

You can also find information about what is and is not public at this same website.

Proposed Policy Changes Now Available Online

In response to my request (see blog post), the school board and Mr. Hancock have agreed to make proposed policy change wording available on the school's website. The proposed policy changes can be found here or on the school's website under the "Board of Education" tab.

Overview of March School Board Meeting

It was an active School Board meeting last night, with around 20 citizens attending. Several folks signed up to make public comments.
1. One man spoke against the idea of a 4-day week. The Superintendent said that it was being considered as a last resort should they need it for budgetary concerns or should the citizens/teachers decide that they wanted to add staff with the savings from going to a 4-day week. Mr. Hancock suggested that people email him (thancock@cmsbears.org) with their thoughts about the 4-day week.
2. Another man asked about the school's priorities. He said that when the board was asked about its priorities that the students were never mentioned in the response. He referenced programs like "Character Counts" in the elementary school and asked what was being done along those lines in the Middle and High School. Mr. Hancock suggested that he get with the school's principals and they could fill him in on the various programs at the Middle and High School.
3. Dulaney Barrett handed out this letter pointing out that the executive sessions which were held to appoint both D'dre Brock and Ed Woten to the school board were in violation of the open meetings act. (see blog post "Open Meetings Act" posted on February 5th). Mr. Hancock suggested that the school board consult an attorney, which they voted to do. Mr. Hancock also commented that "this could cause the school to have to consider a 4-day week if they have to pay an attorney to fight it."
4. A woman asked whether any follow-up action had been taken with regards to a staff member using tobacco products on school grounds. Mr. Hancock informed her that there were specific procedures for filing complaints and that they needed to be specific with names and dates before any action could be taken. He said that there is a complaint form that needs to be filed with the person's supervisor. (Here is a copy of the complaint form.) Then if the matter is not resolved, they can come to the superintendent, and if the matter is still not resolved they can come to the school board. He stressed that they need to go to that person's immediate supervisor so that person has the details, otherwise the board and superintendent are not going to spend time trying to figure out who/what they are talking about. The woman said that they had gone through channels, that the channels didn't work, and that when they complained their children were harassed.

After the public comments, the Action items included:
1. Changing the next board meeting date to April 5th due to Spring break.
2. The "first reading" of Policy Advisory No. 69 (GBEB) which deals with "self conduct" and No. 70 (JFC) which deals with student withdrawals. I asked that copies of these proposed changes be provided for the public, but they were not. (see "Making Policy Advisory Changes available to the Public")
3. The board approved a waiver for a senior who just moved here from another state so did not have New Mexico history.

In the Information Items, Assistant Superintendent Amy Lane gave a summary of the various testing that is required by the Feds and the State. Apparently New Mexico's Public Education Department (PED) has received numerous complaints from schools that the unfunded testing mandates were becoming a financial burden with the ongoing budget cuts. The result of this is that some testing can be eliminated next year, saving the school approximately $3,200.

Mr. Hancock said that, if the Governor signs the budget bill, we would be looking at another 1.8% budget decrease, on top of the 2% decrease from the Fall. He said this would amount to about a $150,000 cut. He noted that we had already cut about $110,000 through "personnel." He also brought up the 4-day week and said the biggest issue with the public is babysitting on the fifth day.

It was also announced that the school had hired a nurse.

As acting school board president Jackie Cates was about to close the meeting (Terry Buttram was absent from the meeting), John Braziel, spokesman for the "Concerned Citizens" objected, saying that he was told that the board would read and respond to the questions that he had supplied earlier (see February 25th blog posting "More Questions for School Board from Concerned Citizens"). Board Secretary Doug Porch said they had decided before the meeting not to read the questions. I had some trouble following the timeline of who promised what to whom, but the bottom line sounded like the "Concerned Citizens" thought their questions were going to be addressed by the board and the board did not do that. Mr. Braziel also said that the issues had been taken through the chain of command and the result was the kids were being harassed and intimidated when the parents made a complaint.

Making Policy Advisory Changes available to the Public

At last night's school board meeting, there was a brief discussion as to the merits of making policy advisory changes available to the public. This discussion came about because I had asked Mr. Hancock to provide public copies of the changes to Advisory No. 69 and No. 70 that were referenced in the school board agenda. He said that it was a board decision, not his, as to whether or not this information would be made public. Since the information was not made available at last night's meeting, I have sent the following letter to all school board members, with a copy to Mr. Hancock.

Dear School Board Members,

At last night's board meeting, Mr. Hancock notified you that someone was interested in getting copies of the policy advisories that were being considered. That person was me, and I have forwarded to you a copy of that email below.

It seems to me that proposed policy changes are entirely appropriate for public dissemination. How else is the public supposed to know what the policy says and what changes are being proposed? Not making this information public is not exactly fostering open communications, nor is it allowing the public to offer any opinion as to the proposed changes.

I understand that most of these changes are suggested by legal staff at PED, and that most of these changes are considered to keep policy in step with current law. Since these changes are considered as action items on the board agenda, providing a marked-up copy to the public as well as the board is the best way to keep ALL interested parties informed.

Since I'm no fan of wasting paper and ink, it would be really cool if the school would post the mark-up on its web site!

Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

Margo Whitt

Begin forwarded message:

From: Margo Whitt <johnandmargo@pvtnetworks.net>

Date: March 8, 2010 3:21:44 PM MST

To: Tommy Hancock <thancock@cmsbears.org>

Subject: copies of policy advisories

Hi Tommy,

Would it be possible for ya'll to provide a couple of copies of the policy advisories that the board will be considering at tonight's meeting? I plan on attending and am interested in what is being considered.

Thank you
Margo

How to Access Board Policy online

At last night's school board meeting, Mr. Hancock explained how to access the School Board Policy via the school's website, www.cmsbears.org. Since there are a number of steps involved, I have summarized the process in this document.

New Admin Policy on Sex Offenders

This email was sent to the Principals and School Board on Tuesday, Feb. 16 by Superintendent Hancock.

Administrative Policy----Personnel-----Sex Offenders List

You are or should be aware of the statute that requires anyone that appears on the sex offenders list to report to you before coming onto campus.  This law needs to be enforced without fail. 

If a person who is on the sex offenders list is present on campus or at any school activity ask them to leave and get enough information that a no-trespass order can be issued from this office.

Beginning today-February 16, 2010- Have anyone that is going to be in a supervisory or instructional role over any student while at school or any school sponsored event fill out the application insert titled “Criminal History Affidavit”, return it to you, and get your sign-off before assuming that role.  Send the signed affidavit to this office to be kept on file and keep a copy for your file.

Each Principal will determine procedures for implementing this policy on their campus.

Tommy Hancock, Superintendent

Cloudcroft Municipal Schools

PO Box 198

Cloudcroft, New Mexico 88317

575-601-4416

thancock@cmsbears.org

Letter from Parent re: Registered Sex Offender on Campus

The following letter was sent by parent Jennifer Smith to Superintendent Tommy Hancock and High School Principal Roman Renteria. Every member of the school board was cc'd.

Hello,

It has come to my attention that there was a known sex offender working with the cheerleaders.

I dont know if he happens to have the same name or if he is the same felon listed on the NM state Web site or not.

Either way, the issue has been brought to light that there are absolutely  no background checks done on the people who interact with our children.

As a university professor, I was told by our administration at NMSU-A, that everyone who steps foot on the Alamogordo school campuses are required to have a background check. I also have a student who is not allowed to substitute teach because of a 20 year old misdemeanor charge of possession of less than 1/4 ounce of marijuana.

If the Alamo school are implementing these types of protective measures, why are we not protecting our children as diligently? Yes, they have had their share of personnel sexually assaulting minors. Cloudcroft has it's own history of the same.

Are we going to wait until one of our kids get hurt before we do something? I personally do not want to sacrifice any of our mountain kids before the  policy is put in place.

I know many parents, including myself, will not put this to rest until a preventive policy is put in place. In Alamo, the folks who want to help on campus pay for their own background checks. I know I would.

Thank you for your attention to this matter,

Why is a Registered Sex Offender helping to coach Cheerleaders?

Here is the email that I sent this morning to High School Principal Roman Renteria with a cc to Superintendent Hancock. I will gladly post their reply...


Hi Roman,

It has come to my attention that a registered sex offender is helping to coach the cheerleading squad. He was in the commons yesterday with the squad.

Has this been approved by you or someone else in the administration? Do you think it is appropriate? Have the cheerleader's parents been informed?

Since my kids are involved in extracurricular school activities, I would like to know the school's policy with regards to allowing known registered sex offenders to interact with the kids.

Thank you,
Margo