Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
As the fall semester drew to a close, staff and administrators for Tucumcari Public Schools drew praise from school board members for improvements seen during that time.
At least two of three schools at TPS have reported a boost in student achievement during the semester under new superintendent Carl Marano.
Elementary school principal Deanne McKinney told the board during its Dec. 16 meeting that reading proficiency grew 11.4% at TES since benchmark testing began at the beginning of the school year.
McKinney said math proficiency with TES students grew 11.8% during the same period.
Marano said later during his superintendent’s report the results at the elementary school represented more than one year’s worth of growth.
He said he is emphasizing data to help boost student learning. He said overall proficiency is important, but so is improvement.
“We might have low proficiency rates, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t improved,” he said.
Marano also thanked staff — everyone from custodians to teachers to principals — for the past semester since he took over in July from the retiring longtime superintendent Aaron McKinney.
Middle school principal Lendall Borden said some preliminary data on student proficiency showed improvement there, as well.
High school principal Nicole Bright-Lesly said later it was too early to judge student proficiency there, noting that testing there is more complex.
Marano said more testing data for the middle and high schools would be presented at the board’s January meeting.
Borden also said grades and attendance at TMS had improved, and disciplinary referrals had fallen.
Marano said later that overall attendance had risen 10% to 15% this semester.
The three board members at the meeting praised Marano and his staff.
“It’s sounds like we had a heck of a semester,” JD Knapp said. “I hear nothing but good stuff in the community.”
Board member Robert Lucero thanked Marano, saying many residents were happy with him.
Lucero said he also appreciated Marano attending many sports events at the schools.
Board member Jerry Lopez said he agreed with those comments.
“There has been no complaints this year,” he said. “Things are going great.”
In other business:
— Administrative aide and procurement officer Veronica Hernandez reported the New Mexico Public Schools Authority has issued a demolition award to tear down the vacant Mountain View School.
Answering follow-up questions, Hernandez said she anticipated the building would be razed sometime in the spring. She said she did not have a cost estimate on the demolition.
Mountain View Elementary closed in the 1990s.
The district a couple of years ago had considered potential offers to deed the property to the state, but it never materialized.
Early Head Start, once a tenant there, moved out last winter when the building essentially was condemned by the district’s insurer because of its deteriorating condition.
— Hernandez said work on the elementary school’s playground won’t begin until February, about a month later than expected.
She said re-roofing the high school continues, though it had been paused during finals week.
— Borden said two digital bulletin boards had been installed in the middle school, with more coming later.
— The board approved a feeder route for a family that moved to the Montoya area.
The route would pay the child’s parents 65.5 cents per mile to transport their child in their personal vehicle about 23 miles to the district’s closest bus stop. The payments would be reimbursed by the state.
Assistant superintendent Dave Johnson estimated it would cost between $6,000 to $7,000 for the feeder route.
The alternative would be adding a bus route, which he said would cost at least three times more. The district also is short of bus drivers, he said.
“It’s the better way to go right now,” he said of the feeder route.
— The board approved a textbook committee that includes two high-school science teachers, two middle-school science teachers, one elementary science teacher, all three principals and one school board member, which would be Carlos Romero.
— Bright-Lesly said high school students had completed 106 dual-enrollment classes, mainly through Mesalands Community College.
Marano said he wants to eventually expand dual-enrollment offerings from other colleges or universities.
— A presentation by the high school choir was on the agenda for the meeting, but that was delayed to the January meeting because of an illness.
Marano said four students are in choir, and eight to 10 are in the band — both which are fledgling programs. He said more are anticipated to join those programs during the next school year.
— During the consent agenda, the board approved lightly revised language in the tobacco policy. Many of the changes reflect the state’s tobacco rules.
Marano called them “a few alterations,” adding: “Our policy was pretty close to compliant.”
Marano directed the changes after the board heard a presentation in November from Sam Colombo, a campaign manager for 24/7 Tobacco Free Schools who urged a comprehensive policy by the district.
— The board approved these donations: $450 from Josh and Veronica Pacheco to the high school volleyball program and $200 and $300 from Pacheco Family Dentistry to the THS volleyball and wrestling programs respectively.