Minutes – March 24, 2010

March 24, 2010 6:00 – 8:00 PM

Procedural Items:

1. Welcome/Call to Order: Meeting called to order by Chair Naomi Swinton at 6:14 PM

2. Establish quorum: Quorum established

3. In attendance: Director Cindy McLeod, Governing Council Members Naomi Swinton (Chair), Suzanne DeVos-Cole, Sally Flores, Kim Kirkpatrick, Pat Leahan (Secretary); Guests — Janice (4th grade RGS teacher) & Ricky

Excused: GC Members Diana Moore, Caroline Garduño-Lopez, Chris Cudia

Absent: Student Reps. Marisol Meyer, Cat Leger, Jaibo Bailey

4. Approval of Agenda: Motion by Suzanne, Second by Diana, all approved, motion passed

5. Approval of Minutes: Motion by Kim, Second by Sally, all approved, motion passed

6. Confirm date of next regular meeting: Wed., April. 28, 2010, 6-8PM; Pat will not be present for this meeting so Naomi will take minutes.

Public Comment, Business Manager’s Report, Director’s Report, Amigos Report, Student Rep. Report:

7. Business Manager’s Report (Dawn):

We’re grateful to Dawn for attending our meeting and sharing the following bits of information with us. WLV School District monies are being reduced, yet expenditures are increasing, so the district is working on the details of the budget over the next several weeks. RGS will have cuts related to loss of federal stimulus monies, SEG, and other sources. NM is switching from Bank of America to Wells Fargo. There are drastic ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) changes going into effect shortly or may already be in effect. The first weekend (Fri. and Sat.) in June is a law conference/training for school district folks re: school law. Schools can get free legal advice at the conference. Dawn will attend for the WLV District. Ideas from Ricky (guest) re: budget cuts: Reduce benefit costs by looking at switching some people from employee to contractor, turn some full-time positions into 2 part-time positions so they are still at the school full-time but you don’t have to pay benefits, consider negotiating a decrease for what RGS pays for the Expeditionary Learning fee. Input such as this from parents, guardians, students, and community members is encouraged at the upcoming budget hearings (see below). Dawn will attend our next monthly GC meeting on April 28th.

Impt. 2010-2011 Budget Hearings (parent/guardian/student/community input needed):

Wed. March 31, 2010 6-7:30 PM at Socorro Site (Kim will represent RGS-GC)

Tue. April 20, 2010 6-7:30 PM at Socorro Site (Suzanne will attend)

Wed. April 28, 2010 6-8:00 PM ACTION ITEM at Governing Council meeting

May 13th will be the technical review for RGS with the WLV School Board. Diana Whitten will attend to represent RGS, along with Cindy McLeod.

8. Director’s Report: (see attached) Cindy McLeod

9. Amigos de Rio Gallinas Report:

All of the fundraising Amigos does is for EL (Expeditionary Learning), field trips, teacher resources, etc. Teacher Janice suggested an email from Amigos to explain each fundraiser.

SynergyFest Help Needed: April 24th, NMHU Melody Park; Please consider helping.

Grow Dome help is really needed: Sat. April 17th is a workday; lots of help needed. This is an important day for the Grow Dome — working on an outdoor classroom, indoor Dome work, and more. Much needs to be done. Starts at 9:00 AM. Join in if you can.

10. Student Representative Report: No student reps. were in attendance

Executive Session: none needed

Action Items:

11. BAR Increase – Federal Stimulus

Motion by Suzanne to table, Second by Diane, all approved, motion passed

12. BAR Increase for SB9 funds $16,974

Motion by Suzanne, Second by Kim, all approved, motion passed

13. Budget Transfers –

71000 2400 55914    71000 2400 53215    $1,500
71000 2400 51300    71000 2400 53330    100
71000 2300 52111    71000 2300 55812    600
71000 2600 52311    71000 2100 54415    500
71000 2600 52111    71000 2600 54610    500
71000 2700 54314    71000 2600 54610    500
71000 2400 51300    71000 2600 54610    500
71000 2400 51100    71000 2600 55200    300
71000 2400 51300    71000 2600 55915    200
71000 2500 55914    71000 2600 55915    4,000
71000 2600 55915    71000 2600 51100    7000
71000 2600 54610    71000 2600 41615    763
71000 2600 54610    71000 2600 52111    763
71000 2600 54610    71000 2600 52112    491
71000 2600 54610    71000 2600 52210    434
71000 2600 54610    71000 2600 52220    102
71000 2600 54610    71000 2600 52311    740
71000 2600 54610    71000 2600 52312    100
71000 2600 54610    71000 2600 52313    100
71000 2600 54610    71000 2600 52314    50
71000 2600 54610    71000 2600 52315    50
71000 2600 54610    71000 2600 52720    20


Motion by Kim, Second by Pat, all approved, motion passed

Old Business:

Outstanding Items from Previous Meetings:

14. Governing Council Member Trainings: Santa Fe Training Sat. March 20th 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM; Diane, Sally, Suzanne, and Caroline were registered; Snowstorm hit, GC members unable to attend; Other options include upcoming training this weekend, as well as upcoming webinars.

15. Governing Council Members are encouraged to visit the school: Lunch is at 11:30, and we are also welcome to come earlier and sit in on a class. Diane and Sally will arrange a visit together in the near future. Let’s make an effort to visit the school. Janice (4th grade teacher) eagerly invited us into her classroom anytime.

New Business:

16. Grant-Writing Update:

Naomi and Suzanne will begin submitting a one-page “grants update” for our monthly meetings. They are currently working on some grants.

17. Strategic Planning Document: Cindy emailed a draft document. An SPS (Strategic Planning Survey) will be going out to teachers, parents and students over the next 3 weeks. In May, we will have an SP (Strategic Planning) meeting based on input received. Naomi will send an SP format that can be brought to every meeting to monitor our progress on the SP. Cindy will give us the survey draft for our input.

18. Plan for Review of Charter: We all need to be familiar with the goals of the charter. We need to begin to prepare for the process of re-chartering. We need a committee to help with updating the charter. There are now state authorizers and district authorizers. WLV is our current authorizer. We need to look at pros and cons of us being a state charter vs. a district charter. Besides the charter committee, we also need an audit committee and a finance committee. Be thinking about what committee(s) you are willing to serve on.

19. For March meeting — Director Evaluation and Contract: We are required to evaluate the school’s head administrator annually. We each need to familiarize ourselves with the current evaluation form Naomi handed out last month, as we will fill it out as a group during next month’s executive session. We talked about enhancing the current evaluation. Naomi will meet with Cindy to discuss this, and Naomi will send a draft eval to the GC, to go into effect for next school year.

20. Discussion: “Charter School University Book Section 1: A New Kind of Accountability” — Section Two (Chapters 5-11):

Naomi suggests that we get together for a separate meeting to just discuss the book to enhance our learning. Diana suggested meeting for lunch at the Spic-n-Span. We agreed to have a special meeting for discussion only (of the book), Tue. March 30th, 12:30-2PM.

Adjournment:

Motion by Sally, Second by Kim, all approved, motion passed

Meeting adjourned at 8:12 PM



Director’s Report

March 24, 2010

Budget Workshop Report:

PED 2008-2009 6.5 % Cut

PED 2009-20109.5%

Data reporting and assessment which are federally unfunded mandates

2.1 million

Raise the cost of finger printing processing and licenses to make up some of the costs. PED Vacancies will not be filled.

Governor funds: 15 million Governor can decide what he wants to do with these funds. Some may go to the SEG (State Equalization Guarantee)

Audit Committee

Finance Committee: The governing council needs to have a finance committee that is fully aware of the budget,


LAWS OF 2009 – HB 321: School Finance Audit Report Requirements – Section 22-8-13.1 NMSA 1978

Allows the Public Education Department (PED) to impose sanctions for those school districts and charter schools that do not submit timely audits.

  • The Requirements:
  • The required annual audit report must be submitted by the due date specified by the State Auditor.
  • The Sanctions:
  • Within 90 days: The entity will be put on monthly financial reporting to the PED.
  • After 90 days but within 180 days: The entity may have up to 5% of its current-year SEG temporarily withheld by the PED.
  • After 180 days but within 270: The entity may have up to 7% of its current-year SEG temporarily withheld by the PED, and may be required to submit a corrective action plan to the Secretary of Education.
  • After 270 days: The entity may have up to 7% of its current-year SEG temporarily withheld and may be subject to the Secretary of Education’s suspension of its board of finance.


The Audit Committee HB227/HB251

Under this bill, a local school board must appoint an audit committee that consists of:

  • Two board members,
  • One volunteer member who is a parent of a student attending that school district and
  • One volunteer member who has experience in accounting and financial matters.
  • The superintendent and the school district business manager shall serve as ex-officio members of the committee.


The duties of the Audit Committee are:

  • Evaluate the request for proposal for annual financial audit services
  • Recommend the selection of the financial auditor
  • Attend the entrance and exit conferences for annual and special audits
  • Meet with external financial auditors at least monthly after audit field work begins until the conclusion of the audit,
  • Be accessible to the external financial auditors as requested to facilitate communication with the board and the superintendent,
  • Track and report progress on the status of the most recent audit findings and advise the local school board on policy changes needed to address audit findings
  • provide other advice and assistance as requested by the local school board and
  • be subject to the same requirements regarding the confidentiality of audit information as those imposed upon the local school board by the Audit Act and rules of the State Auditor.

The department may at any time suspend a local school board or governing body of a state-chartered charter school from acting as a board of finance if the department reasonably believes there is mismanagement, improper recording or improper reporting of public school funds under the local school board’s or governing body of a state-chartered charter school’s control.


Recommendations

Every board meeting should have an agenda item where the board gets an update of the status of the district’s budget and other finance related items.

The Board should know about the status of the current year audit. Has the RFP been prepared? Has the auditor been selected? When is the entrance conference? When is the exit conference? What are the findings from the audit?

The Board should know about the status of outstanding audit findings from previous years. Have they been corrected? Do we have a plan to correct outstanding audit findings?

The Board should have a sense of student membership trends since this drives the amount of funding the district will receive from the public school funding formula. Are we declining? Are we growing?

The Board should know if finance reports are submitted to the PED in a timely manner or are they late. If they are late, why are they late?

In summary, the Board should not be involved in the day to day operation of the district but should be informed regarding all district financial matters.


CHARTER SCHOOL NEWS

SB378: ALLOWS CHARTERS SB9 FUNDS  Rio Gallinas will receive $16,974.00

SB 584 Allows NM Facility Authority to bond charter school facilities> Gives Authority the option to use public bond funds to construct charter school facilities

Seven charters will pilot the program.

Small School Size still on the table.

Tabled in senate SB 260: Take away severance tax bonds (source of lease monies) to put into emergency fund for schools. Settled with a percentage of

Future gas and oil money will go into fund

Reporting Days will be same across the state. 40th, 80th, 120th funding based on 80th and 120th.

Educational Plan for Student Success:

NWEA Maps will be reviewed in the next week and goals set with each teacher and school-wide to enhance student achievement.

Strategic Plan Committee: survey will be mailed to parents and given to teachers to address needs of school.

March 18, 2010 Meeting with staff about budget. Staff met with one other staff member to discuss budget needs. These were compiled. Cindy McLeod is reviewing notes from staff budget meeting and addressing immediate needs, looking at the current budget to see what can be done this summer, and creating chart with need, timeline, committee, budget needed, the action plan.

STORAGE:

Shelving to make the Socorro St. Shed more user-friendly.

Kitchen-style cabinets (upper) wall mounted to give teachers more storage, with doors so they could still be used for displays. This would limit access to teachers only without taking up additional floor space.

Often cabinets are available inexpensively at the Habitat Restore stores (ABQ & SF).

Playground

Socorro Site

Playground equipment

Climbing, jumping, building, tether ball, tables

Complete fence in parking lot, gates with wheels

Lines on parking lot repainted

Tether ball courts upper/lower

Planned enrichment of outside

Someone who plans to add equipment and games on regular basis-

Rotate equipment between the two campuses-

Example of disc golf could be better utilized- or climbing


Equipment for both sites.

Outdoor -

Books

(non fiction, all subjects & levels) & book shelves Children’s audio books with printed books

Good children’s Spanish dictionaries.

Spanish books (all levels) in sets (for some possible bilingual book clubs–particularly for kids who are bilingual)


Technology:

Color printers for the Socorro St. site More Acers so that 3rd & 4th don’t have to share/switch off.

Science Kits–it would be good to look more carefully at what we have (not all of them are complete) and see what gaps there are. At this point I feel pretty strongly that access should be limited to one teacher from each site–then we will be better able to keep track of what we have, know what needs to be replaced, make better use of what we have, etc.

Please look at Scott Foresman because we have a written curriculum to go with this.

Substitutes! I know that some schools in ABQ have full-time sub positions–maybe extravagant for a school our size–as an aide position perhaps??

Trailer for recycleables

Trailer for bike storage and transportation

Funding support wilderness bound experiences that scaffold experiences that build upon themselves-

Technology-  ink paper

Tech person to have the time to trouble shoot, support tech issues

Scaffolding plan created this summer that looks at what each class needs to cover (cursive / keyboard / )

Another staff person with bus license –

Expedition Budgets for each classroom so that classes can base their plans on a real budget- also include Budget for expedition resources. Could Amigos hold these individual pots of money so that we can access them-

Staffing Needs Requests

  • Bilingually Endorsed person at both sites
  • Special ed. One person at lower campus
  • Special ed. One person at upper campus
  • One person reading specialist
  • Counselor- full time

Special Education

More special ed support-  consulting time and training to work with special ed kids specific to needs in class- once have the tools can use them-

  • Process for distribution of meds. (504?)
  • Technology
    • Lower campus calculators
    • Person to do inventory of equipment twice a year
    • Removal of old non working tech equipment
    • Technical training for lower staff ( sped needs)
  • Substitutes _ outside of staff
  • Bus driver and one bigger bus
  • Storage spaces for supplies (organized, inventoried, and public knowledge)


Blades of Power

Expedition News

Our expedition, Blades of Power, has covered an immense amount of ground since our first immersion trip to Tucumcari where we visited the Mesalands Community College’s Wind Energy Program. Some of the key experiences have been…

  • Science of climatology, wind generators, wind, and electrical systems explored
  • Wind powered structures built and tested
  • Each classroom created a pre-electric village
    • The village was eventually wired for a 3 volt system
    • Students learned the science of electricity and electric circuitry
  • 7th and 8th grade have been using the text ‘The Boy Who Harvested the Wind’ as their common text based on a remarkable young man in Malawi who created his own wind generator
  • Nuclear, Coal and Gas fired electricity generation systems were investigated and presented to all classes
  • March 19th, 5th-9th grades traveled to Villanueva / San Miguel area and were presented with five different positions against a proposed wind farm there by resident activists
  • March 24, Gilbert Ortiz spoke representing Invenergy (Company proposing wind farms)

Over the next two and a half weeks, students will begin to specialize in areas of support or challenges of such a wind systems. By Saturday, April 24th, students will be presenting their work at Synergyfest, Las Vegas’ annual celebration of green living.

Blades of Power Newspaper: One of the products to come out of this expedition will be a newspaper distributed as an insert in the Rio Gallinas local paper that will educate others of the issues surrounding this environmental conflict in our back door.


Heart Butte Ambassadors

From April 19th through the 23rd , nine students and three staff members from Heart Butte School in Montana will be visiting our school. We have initiated a school to school relationship with this small tribal school in northern Montana and close to Glacier National Park. Sixth and Seventh graders will be particularly involved in the hosting of these ambassadors representing the Blackfeet Nation with whom they have been sharing letters. The week will culminate with a trip to Albuquerque’s Gathering of Nations, the largest Pow Wow in the world.

Jane Goodall, Earth Day April 22nd

Jane Goodall will be here on Earth Day and the 5th and 8th grades are hoping to be among the groups presenting to Ms. Goodall. They will be prepared to sahre our current expedition ‘Blades of Power’.

Synergyfest Saturday April 24th Melody Field

Our students will be showcasing their electrical village, their positions on the local wind farm controversy, and wind based power generation.

Electives Have Begun

On March 19th, we began our Friday afternoon electives. Among the choices offered this semester are archery, jewelry, copper, web design, hip hop, biking, poetry, photography, book club, and computer animation. Electives are for students ‘in good standing’ which means that they must be current with their homework assignments. We also have two study halls to help students who are recommended by teachers. We appreciate all the experts who come into our school community to offer their expertise.