By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
The Raton school board of education met Monday evening where they heard about the consolidation progress and other items including a report on solar for the Raton Middle School by a group of middle school students.
The students presented a report on funding and benefits of how solar could cut utility costs for the school. The drawback to the project is with Raton Public Service losing that revenue and/or purchasing the excess power from the school. According to the student report RPS is unable to benefit from subsidies that coops or public utilities have access to.
The NEA of Raton members are asking the school board to be recognized so that they can begin collective bargaining again. Melissa Medina told the board that eight of 10 teachers were in favor of collective bargaining.
Board member Art Armijo had asked that the consolidation issue be placed on the agenda as an action item instead of an informational item. There was some disagreement about the request by Armijo and Superintendent Dr. Neal Terhune. Board president Ted Kamp put the question to the board but it was defeated as most of the board agreed this has been discussed and voted on already.
The board then heard from Dr. Terhune on a couple of buildings that the school could acquire. One was Lark’s In and Out Lube to be used as a auto mechanic classroom and save the school money on oil changes and other maintenance to school vehicles. The other building next to the downtown car wash on Second Street will be torn down by the students to learn the proper procedures for tearing down an old building.
The process of packing and moving has begun with the libraries and as noted that many boxes were already moved into the library at the high school. Maintenance supervisor Ben Munden informed the board that he had received bids for fencing and playground relocation. The bids had ranged from a low of $4,000 for material and another $4,000 for labor for the fence work to as much as $14,000 to $23,000 for material and labor.
The bids to relocate the playground equipment from Hansen and Prozano Company, the original playground equipment vendor, are as high as $47,108 from Columbian to RMS and the bid for the Kearny playground equipment is $31,526 this doesn’t include the wood chips or rubber chips for cushioning. The district is looking into having a local contractor do the work provided it wont be a liability issue.
The other big issue is with moving a portable building over to Longfellow School for ancillary personnel. The costs vary greatly depending on the size of the portable. One estimate is for $47,113. This includes foundation and utility hookups. But doesn’t include other items such as fire alarm hookup and renovations required by Construction Industries Department.
The board then heard from the principals on their plans to house students at the various schools and the work being done there to accommodate changes in schedules and class sizes.
Lita Sanchez gave the board a review of the preliminary budget that will be sent to the Public Education Department for their approval. (15-16 Raton School Budget) The budget is only a small part of the complete package that the district has to send to the PED. The complete packet which includes teacher and student numbers and estimated counts is close to half an inch thick. A couple of the board members weren’t happy with the school calendar feeling it went too far into the spring and needed some time-off trimmed to allow students to get out earlier in the spring.
The board then talked about staff policies before going into an executive session to discuss selected personnel matters which included secretary and staff positions and Superintendent and board member conduct.
