Cobre may return 6th grade to Snell – Silver City Daily Press and Independent

(Press Staff Photo by C.P. Thompson)Ralph Toy Sepulveda and Frank Cordova are sworn in by Magistrate Judge Hector Grijalva during a school board meeting Monday. They were reelected in Novembers first-ever consolidated local election.

The Cobre Consolidated Schools Board of Education heard from the district superintendent during their Monday meeting about the possibilities of moving sixth-grade students to Snell Middle School. Board members also tabled the superintendents contract because of time constraints.

Our elementaries are tight, Superintendent Robert Mendoza said. We have no more room. Theres no classrooms. The only way to get immediate relief from the elementaries is that we move the sixth grade [next year], the current fifth-graders, instead of being sixth grade in their elementaries, will be bused to Snell Middle School.

This year, the school includes just seventh and eighth grades.

Mendoza said this will be discussed with school administrators, and then a plan will be created for board approval. Snell Principal Pat Abalos has already expressed he is willing to take them, Mendoza said.

I think we really have to educate the community and get the community on board also, because, if not, we may have a lot of parents that are going to be really against it, said Deputy Superintendent George Peru. We were really aggressive, going after all these buildings. I mean, theres a lot of districts in the state that didnt put up as many schools as we did. But when we went after [the schools], we had a lot of layoffs [at the mines], so we built the schools for the amount of kids that we had at that time.

Associate Superintendent Jose Carrillo said that sixth-graders were originally moved to the elementary because Snell was being remodeled.

If you remember, we had seventh and eighth grades here at the high school, he said. And sixth grade went to the elementaries to help with that remodeling. We had the space at the time.

Carrillo said the districts early childhood programs have increased in numbers, and Mendoza assured board members that, so far, this move is just at the discussion level.

The board went into closed session for about an hour to discuss Mendozas contract and evaluation, but the action items were tabled after the board emerged.

We did not finish the evaluation, said board President Ralph Toy Sepulveda. Were going to table that, and resume at the next board meeting.

Magistrate Judge Hector Grijalva swore in Sepulveda and Frank Cordova as board members during the meeting, after they were re-elected in Novembers first-ever consolidated local election. The board then voted on officers for the year, and Cordova made the motion to keep the same board members as last year Sepulveda as president, Cordova as vice president and Frank Gomez as secretary. Gomez seconded the motion, and it was passed by the board, with Gilbert Guadiana being the only one to vote against.

I think the current makeup of the leadership of the board doesnt prioritize to get more people to participate in the meetings, Guadiana told the Daily Press.

He also complained that the board doesnt talk about the students education, strategies and issues even when there is a substantive strategic plan.

The current leadership of the board circumvents information to the board that should go to the board by engaging in one-on-one conversation with the superintendent, he said. The leadership is not fulfilling our responsibility of fiscal oversight.

During public input, Ruben Udero, coach of the Cobre Youth Wrestling program, said he would like a key to the facility at Cobre High School for practices. He said there have been multiple times that he had to call wrestling coach Reyne Maynes and Athletic Director Nelson Diaz to open the facility.

I feel like, why shouldnt I have a key? Udero said. I dont even lend my keys to my coaches. To tell you the truth, people, I just dont see any sense. I am not your enemy. Im not going to destroy that place. The success of this wrestling program is because of the feeder programs.

Peru updated the board on school construction projects, one of which is a new well at San Lorenzo Elementary.

We got cleared last Thursday, he said. We can open that well to the public, and theyre going to let us connect everything. So what well do is well hook everything up. Well just continue to test it. Right now, they feel that its OK for public use, especially after we start treating it.

The new well will pump more than 30 gallons per minute, Peru said after the meeting. The old well it replaces would sometimes run dry.

Fixing a problem with heating at the high school wrestling room, Peru said, will be about $6,000 for a new unit.

Construction of an auxiliary gym at Cobre High is on hold because of a lack of funds.

Once [President Donald] Trump put all those tariffs in, the [cost for] metal went through the roof, and we couldnt do anything, he said. We went now to check to see if we could do it with block, and the block is right at about the same cost. We can build one, but were only going to get about half the size that we had anticipated wed be able to get for the money we were going to put in. And if we build one half that size, we wont be able to accommodate the wrestling, the basketball and all those things at one time.

Peru said he visited with Lt. Gov. Howie Morales and District 28 state Sen. Gabe Ramos about the auxiliary gym, and that district is short by about $500,000 to $600,000.

In other news, Guadiana made a motion to allow No Regrets Basketball to use Cobre facilities, but there was no second from another board member, killing the request. Board members approved a preventive maintenance plan, which will now go to the New Mexico Public School Facilities Authority, Peru said.

C.P. Thompson may be reached at cp@scdaily press.com.

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Cobre may return 6th grade to Snell - Silver City Daily Press and Independent