Updating Some Documents

A while back I asked for, and received, a copy of the new superintendent's contract and a copy of the invoice for the consultant that the school board hired to conduct the search for the new superintendent. Here they are:

Consultant's Invoice
Superintendent's Contract

School Board Workshop held Yesterday

The school board held it's meeting yesterday to discuss goals for the superintendent and evaluate and set board priorities. Sounds like pretty heavy stuff. It was attended by exactly ONE member of the public...my husband. Since I'm out of town, he took care of the recording of the meeting, which I will podcast when I return on Tuesday. The meeting went for about 4 hours, and I can already tell you there were some "technical difficulties" that will result in some of the meeting not being recorded.


Here is what school board member Arlan Ponder had to say:


REPOST from Arlan Ponder's School Board Member News Facebook account:


Just finished a VERY productive work session for the Cloudcroft School Board. I think people will be impressed with some of the changes coming in the next year.

Look for more community input and board meetings IN communities like Weed or Timberon. Plus possibly a newsletter with updates from the superintendent.

I won't lie though ... We will have a few situations that not everyone is going to understand, but we have ALL committed to ensuring EVERYONE in the community understands the situations.

I think the days of "shut up and take it" are over. The age of transparency, respect AND teamwork should be the norm going forward.

In case you've forgotten the Cloudcroft School Board meets the third Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. Come by and meet the new superintendent and see what good things are going on at YOUR schools.

School Board to Hold Workshop to Set Goals & Priorities

Per the "sacred window" the school board and superintendent will be meeting this Saturday, July 7, at 9 am at the Co-Op to discuss goals for the superintendent and evaluate and set board priorities. I don't know if any public input is invited or welcomed, but it is a public meeting.

Here is the Agenda for the workshop.

Regular School Board Meeting June 19, 2012

Sorry for the tardiness of this post, but the Little Bear fire took a big chunk of my time.

I did make it to the board meeting Tuesday evening, and have posted the podcast. Here is the Agenda.

It was also the official passing of the keys from outgoing Superintendent Tommy Hancock to incoming Superintendent Travis Dempsey. I believe Mr. Dempsey's first official day is July 1...but he can get into the building before that, so I imagine he'll be around once he gets moved into his new house, which he was hoping would happen this weekend.

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.

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.

School Board Meeting Held February 21, 2012

Here is the article from the Alamogordo Daily News.

Here is a copy of the Technology Plan that the board approved. It must be approved by PED before it can be sent on to E-Rate in an effort to qualify for more technology funding. Interestingly, the school's technology plan was not presented (or apparently drafted) by the school's IT manager, but rather by teacher Sam Snoddy. No acknowledgement of this was made at the meeting. In fact, the 12-page document was not even included in the school board's packet (though it was on the agenda), so they were given about 10 minutes to scan it, but they unanimously voted to adopt it.

Right now they are talking about the "committees" having a meeting with the consultant on March 14, 2012. They are talking like this is a public meeting, but then they are also talking like it will be "executive session." I'm not sure how the Open Meetings Act can allow an executive session to take place with 12 or so hand picked community members allowed to attend and everyone else excluded. My understanding is that for an executive session to be warranted under personnel matters, you have to be talking about a specific school employee. Since potential employees don't fall into this category, per the Attorney General's office interpretation of the OMA, I'll be most interested in seeing how much the community and public are allowed to see.

The other dates discussed include a tentative date of April 9 for the committees to interview candidates (again, I don't know if this is public or not), and the regular school board meeting, which has been rescheduled to April 24, where the school board will announce who the new superintendent will be.

The podcast can be heard at http://cmsbears.podbean.com. You can also find all of the podcasts on iTunes by searching "Cloudcroft" in the podcast section.

School Board Decides to Hire Consultant

At last night's special school board meeting, the board unanimously voted to hire consultant Dr. Dan Patterson to assist in the superintendent search.

Here is the Alamogordo Daily News Article

Here is some information taken from the New Mexico School Board Association's website regarding Dr. Patterson's service.

The podcast for this meeting is available at http://cmsbears.podbean.com

Special School Board Meeting Scheduled for Tomorrow Night

Here is the Agenda for the Special School Board Meeting scheduled for tomorrow night, Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 6 p.m.

Thanks for the heads up from someone who must press their nose to the window on a regular basis. I'll just take this moment to point out that (1) I have received no "personal notification" from Arlan Ponder, as was promised in a previous blog comment, (2) there is no "special place" on the school's website where Doug Porch said he would PERSONALLY keep the community updated about these meetings, and I have yet to receive a robocall notification of this meeting, which Bill Denney said he would PERSONALLY make sure happened from here on out.

Just one action item...Superintendent Search.

Cloudcroft's Policy Manual as it Relates to the Superintendent

At last night's meeting, there was discussion as to developing a rubric with which to evaluate Superintendent candidates. Here is what currently exists in the Cloudcroft School Board Policy Manual with regards to the Superintendent and his/her evaluation:

Qualifications and Duties of the Superintendent
Superintendent
Evaluation of Superintendent

An important thing to remember is that there is room for the policy manual to be changed to suit the needs and desires of the specific school board as long as it doesn't violate state law. For example, teachers and staff used to submit their own evaluation of the superintendent. The school board would thus have input as to how everyone else in the school felt about how the superintendent does his or her job. This has been done away with, meaning that the school board is evaluating the superintendent based upon very limited knowledge and input. I don't know whether the parents and community have ever been asked to submit their evaluations or opinions.

Special Meeting of School Board Held

The podcast for this meeting is available at http://cmsbears.podbean.com.

There were probably 20 people in attendance, despite the lack of a robo call or the existence of any agenda or notice on the school's website. When people complained about the lack of notification, Superintendent Hancock told them that the information was posted on the window and if they wanted to know about meetings they could take the time to stop and read the window.

The board unanimously accepted Hancock's retirement, effective July 1, 2012. They then discussed beginning the procedure to search for a new superintendent.

Here is the article from the Alamogordo Daily News.

Special School Board Meeting Thursday Jan. 5 at 6 pm

This is reposted from Arlan Ponder's Facebook page, since nothing is posted on the school's official website....

Special school board meeting on Thursday at 6 pm. Two items on agenda - 1) accept superintendent's letter of intent to retire and 2) discuss plans on new superintendent search.

Rather than waiting until we're way into the process ... Speak up now if you'd like to see us focus on a specific area of expertise. The board will be listening.

Too bad the school blocks Facebook, as it sometimes has very useful content! Thanks for the heads up Arlan.

Hancock Resigning Effective July 1

There has been a rumor going around for several weeks that Superintendent Hancock was retiring. On Tuesday night the school board went into an executive session to discuss "limited personnel matters." They said they would be adjourning after the executive session, so the 4 of us that attended the meeting went home.

I can only assume that the executive session was to discuss this resignation/retirement. However, it seems to be official. I have heard that a search for a new superintendent will begin after the first of the year.

Hancock's Cut in Pay Comes With Fewer Days Worked

At Monday night's meeting, Mr. Hancock offered to take a 5% cut in pay and associated benefits, citing the savings to the school at around $5000. What few people caught was his proviso that it be accompanied by a 5% reduction in the number of days worked.

Here is a copy of the new contract. The line at the very bottom was not on his last contract, which I posted on June 7th.

Cloudcroft School Board Approves 4-day Week

Here is the Alamogordo Daily News article covering Monday night's meeting.

Here is the powerpoint presentation given my Mr. Snoddy to support the 4-day week. Here is the handout Mr. Snoddy provided.

The podcast of the meeting can be found at http://cmsbears.podbean.com. The horrible acoustics in the commons make it hard to understand the podcast at times. I'd suggest getting in a quiet place and using headphones. I will be making a formal request to the school to move these large meetings to the middle school cafeteria, as I understand that people who were at the meeting were also having a tough time hearing what was said.

Superintendent Hancock's Contract

There was some discussion in the comments section of a previous post about the validity of the petition to have the Superintendent removed. I decided to request a copy of the Superintendent's contract utilizing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Here is a copy of the contract as provided by the school pursuant to this request.


Here is a link to the New Mexico Administrative Code which is referenced on the petition. The biggest difference I see between the contract and the one shown in the administrative code is that the language "provided there is no other position for which the administrator is qualified, consistent with the academic necessities of the district." is not in Mr. Hancock's contract.


I'm not a lawyer, but I wanted everyone to have easy access to the information.

Cloudcroft School Board to Again Vote on 4-day Week

This information is from Amanda Woeger:

This email was received in response to a Freedom of Information Act request sent via email on May 20^th, 2011 and via certified letter on May 26^th, 2011.  The request was in regards to a written resolution the Cloudcroft Board of Education is to provide to the public prior to voting on a 4-day condensed year schedule.  

The email from Mr. Hancock states that in order to comply with the law the Board will again vote on the resolution at the June 13^th meeting.  It also shows that the Board did go ahead and vote on a measure without regard for the legal process under which the 4-day schedule is to be implemented (6.10.5.8 NMAC).

This is simply one of many examples showing a lack of understanding of the gravity of the current budget situation and how it affects the community.  The leadership on this issue must be greatly improved in order to save our school in the long run.

It is important that we make our presence known at the next board meeting in order for our elected representatives to understand where the community stands on this and other issues. 

Amanda Woeger

On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 11:03 AM, T Hancock wrote:

I received your letter today (June 3, 2011) asking for a copy of the resolution for the 4 day week.  As you know the Board did have action items on the May agenda and made  motions to approve the items and did approve the items.  The items were the proposed measures to cut our budget which included a 4 day week and the calendar which reflects a 4 day week.  Our attorneys have advised and are preparing an official resolution to ratify both actions approving the 4 day week and it will be on the June agenda.  As soon as that ratification resolution is adopted you may request a copy and I will be happy to give you one.  I am sorry that there was not an earlier response, I was not aware  the request had not been addressed. 

Tommy Hancock, Superintendent

Cloudcroft Municipal Schools

PO Box 198

Cloudcroft, New Mexico 88317

575-601-4416

thancock@cmsbears.org

Parents Circulate Petitions

Last night's meeting of people concerned about the direction Cloudcroft Schools are taking produced two petitions. One to oust Superintendent Tommy Hancock, and a second that rejects the four day school week.

Here is an agenda of last night's meeting.
Other handouts at the meeting included a list of contacts at the state level, an alternative calendar to the 4-day week, and an estimate as to the utility savings from a 4-day week.

Parents were also very upset that longtime kindergarten teacher Sarah Welch, and longtime science teacher Jean Davis, were being removed from their classrooms to do Special Education.

Here is the Alamogordo News Article covering the meeting.