The Raton Board of Education made a consolidation decision at Monday night’s regular board meeting that would close the Kearny School for the upcoming school year. Kearny 4th and 5th grade students would shift to the current Raton Mid School to join the 6th and 7th grades in that building. The plan also means that the Raton High School would accommodate 8th thru 12th grades. The latest proposal came up at last night’s meeting and was endorsed by several Raton teachers and upon approval of the NM Public Education Dept. (NMPED) will affect the district for the next school year., 2015- 16. The decision passed on a 3-2 vote and was made necessary because of declining enrollment and a failed school bond election last November that would have built a new elementary school for the district. In 2007 the Raton School District had just under 1,500 students and this year the enrollment has slipped to under 1,000 total students.
Supt. Dr. Neil Terhune told KRTN the savings would amount to approximately 350 to 400 thousand dollars per year with the consolidation. Savings would include personnel as one administrator; library/media/secretary and custodian positions would be eliminated. Most of the teaching positions would be retained with retirement and attrition projected to keep the teacher’s staffing levels at a steady rate.
Terhune also said the first year’s savings would probably already be spent. The Mid – School roof is in bad need of replacement and projected for a total cost of $850,000 of which $380,000 would be the responsibility of the Raton District.
Should the proposal be turned down by the NMPED, the second alternative, according to Terhune, would be to close two schools.
In other business, the board gave its approval of a resolution for an Educational Technology Bond that would give the school the necessary money to bring the district up to date with the ever-changing needs of today’s technology. There will be a public hearing in a couple of weeks and another appearance on the agenda, before anything can be passed.
Also at Monday’s Raton School Board meeting, this month’s recognition was given out to:
Tammy Gagliardi – Support Staff member; (Longfellow)
Brandon Hightree – Elementary Teacher; (Kearny)
Wayne Hogg – Secondary Teacher ( Alternative School)
Student recognition at Raton High School included:
Trevor Portillos; Most-Improved
Autumn Archuleta; Service Award
Halle Medina; Academic Award
