School Board Approves Policy in Short Meeting

By Marty Mayfield

KRTN Multi-Media

The Raton Board of Education started their meeting with reports and moved on to the financial report for the month and the adoption of the updated wellness policy.

Moses Bueno was on hand to present the Student Senate report. Student Senate will purchase pink trinkets for homecoming in honor of Cancer Awareness Month. The homecoming Rowdeo will be held in Tiger Gym the week of homecoming with powder puff flag football game on Wednesday October 9 at Tiger Stadium. Homecoming Royalty will be presented at the volleyball game and will be crowned at the homecoming pep rally on Friday morning and presented again at the Raton v Tucumcari homecoming football game Friday night.

At Longfellow the student enrollment has increased from 239 when school began in August to 242 as of the board meeting this month. Students participated in the jump start to learn who their teachers are and other important things like which bus they will ride to school.

At Raton Intermediate School a monthly growth monitor assessments will continue this year along with standard mastery tests as teachers see fit. Adding a growth monitor will give RIS another measure to look at and where students may need support in layer one instruction. At RIS enrollment is at 252 with 95% average attendance.

Raton High School has an attendance of 353 students. RHS will have a MTU mobile education unit which will provide students with a simulator to drive a big rig or use a simulator to operate heavy equipment Thursday and Friday September 19-20.

Superintendent Kristi Medina informed the board that themPublic Schools Facility Administration calculator has calculated that the new school building should only be 120,000 square feet. The original calculations by engineers calculated that Raton needed 132,000 square foot building. Medina has not signed the MOU with PSA to begin the design process. Medina will continue to negotiate with PSFA to get this issue worked out.

The board discussed and approved the 48-page 2024-2025 Wellness Policy. The policy is the road map for achieving a healthy active school environment for Raton public Schools. Studies have shown that good nutrition and physical activity before, during and after school are strongly correlated with positive student outcomes.