By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
The Raton Public Schools Board of Education swore in its two new members Monday evening before the regular monthly meeting got fully underway. 8th District Judge Steven Romero swore in new board members Brenda Ferri and Dustin Walton.
Jason Phillips was once again voted in as president with Ryan Boone being voted into the vice president position and Brenda Ferri was voted into the position of secretary. Former board members Kathy Honeyfield and Beaver Segotta were recognized for their 10 years of service to the Raton Public Schools as board members.
Superintendent Kristi Medina noted that the school is out of snow days and that they are planning for remote learning should the need arise. Medina noted that they will try to use delayed start as much as possible rather than calling school for a day. In her report Medina noted they have received funding for demolition of Columbia School. March is the month for moving forward with the new school funding process. Medina noted that in her experience the process will be a slow one.
The new activity bus is scheduled to be delivered in the next couple of months with a price tag of over $230,000. There was some money left from the original $2 million with some of the remainder being used to finish replacing lights in the buildings. Medina noted the cafeteria in RHS Gym was the only lighting that remains to be done. Archuleta Construction has been doing some cement projects and repairs around the district.
Jason Phillips noted that the City of Raton has received $399,000 quality of life grant that will go to work at the ball fields. Work will be done on the restrooms at the fields and rebuild of the little league field concession stand along with other work.
The board discussed a proposal from Yearout concerning work on the repair of the building boilers. PSFA only had $161,000 left to do the work, which includes a shortfall of $57,994. The school district will provide $409,725 for the project to include the shortfall. Medina noted that the boilers at Longfellow and the High School are touchy and may need to be babysat to keep things going during the extra cold period the area is seeing.
J3 Systems has quoted work for a new HVAC system for RHS Gym. After some discussion about what the HVAC system will do and how it will be needed once the high school is shut down after the new school is built. Phillips questioned that they were under the impression this was just for air conditioning, which is not the case, it will also be used for heating. There is some question about how all that will work as one of the boilers at the high school is supposed to be repurposed for the gym. The board decided to table a decision till the February 6th meeting which was moved from February 19th regular meeting date.
