Roswell Independent School District Superintendents Advisory Council Agenda

The mission of the Roswell Independent School, Superintendents Advisory Council is to share ideas, work as a team as we “Focus on Quality Education for Each and Every Child” and to better inform all staff. Team Norms Be On Time Refrain From Cell Phones and Texting August 16, 2016 Respect Others Opinions No Sidebars Contribute to Achieve Positive Results 3:30 pm

AESC Board Room

Tom Burris, Superintendent  Significant number increase from last Friday to today about 700 students  Teacher Attendance – will not count first three days but if it goes to the fourth day they will count all days, this comes from the Coalition of School Administrators  Board Member – Mackenzie Hunt has resigned. District I is open and applications are accepted until Friday, August 19th by 4:00 pm. No late applications accepted. Submit letter of interest and resume to the Superintendent’s office. The map of board districts is on the RISD webpage.  Background Check – everyone since 1998 has been background checked. If employed prior to 1998 you might not have a background check. Going back to people who gained employment before 1998 and they will have to be background checked. The board has had the first reading of the background check policy and it will go for a second reading September 13, 2016. Human Resources have already started contacting people who needs background checks. Notifications will be sent to you if you need a background check. Problems will be dealt with on an individual basis. Anyone who has contact with students has to have a background check. Employees have to pay for the background checks themselves.  Teacher Leadership Opportunities - (Handout)  The NEED Project and Energy Bingo, Oct. 27, 2016. 4-12 grade Science teachers (Handout)  Discussion of supply lists for  Calendar  tentatively put spring break the first week of April 2018 and get the extra Friday of the spring holiday  Christmas Eve is a Sunday in 2017.  One week at Thanksgiving, see how that backs us up to a first day, maybe start on Thursday or Wednesday. Not start on Friday and do not go a full week.  180 days on your contract. Count 184 days back and that is when we start.

Eddie Ramirez, Finance  New Mexico Teacher Supply Program – 2nd year of the NM classroom teacher supply $100 debit card. Business office is development a schedule to get out to campuses for distributions of the cards. (handout) You will have to sign an  agreement that is assigned to your cards. You are responsible for the receipts and you can be audited for up to three years. Card can only be used for supplies on the agreement. You will be asked to turn in copies of your receipts for the district has them on file.

Troy Hudson

Tamie Pargas/Brian Byrd, HR  Teachers will be asked to view a video for NM Teach in a couple of weeks.  Career ladder, putting together a flyer to get out to teachers and EA’s. Two high needs areas have been added; Math and Gifted. RISD will help pay for this

Brandy Samuell, Special Services

Dr. Christian Northrup, Testing  Istation – K-2 program that took the place of DIBELS. Seems to be going smooth, only a couple of glitches. There is an assessment and an intervention component.

Dr. Arsenio Romero/Elisa Begueria/Pat Lujan, Instruction  Thank you for a great start to the school year. Saw instruction happening immediately, very positive first day. Admin will be visiting school on a regular basis.

Royce Braggs, IT

Kenneth Bewley, Bilingual  We are still seeing some language issues in first grade, with parent permission we are allowed to reassess students. The teachers need to let Mr. Bewley know.

Rhonda Gardner/Kristie Jurney, CLC  A big thanks to all who were willing to sign a postcard to our legislators in support of arts education! We were able to collect over 500 signatures at the "Back to School" meeting.  Thank you to maintenance for repairing/painting the peeling trim on our building!  Thank you to the Grounds Crew for all your work in the heat to keep the outside of our building beautiful!  We have another student art gallery in our community! On May 16th we held a gallery opening at Eastern New Mexico Medical Center. Art displays are located on both the first and second floors. Check it out!!

Treiva Rue/Patricia Espinosa, Berrendo Elementary  Really great start to the school year  Mr. Lujan attended open house and they appreciated him  Testing with Istation, directly in line with LLI  Issue: new teachers do not have an email yet. Causing major issues. Tamie Pargas – looking to expedite. It goes through HR first and they have to have all of their paperwork first. From HR it goes to Visions, then Technology. The issue is being looked into. Principals need to let HR know who the people are.

Ashley Owen/Elizabeth Heady, Berrendo Middle  Great start, two different open house nights, one for 6th grade and one for 7th and 8th grade  Thank the custodian for making the building immaculate  Thank everyone for their support

Jan Neff, Del Norte  The students were greeted the first day of school by the GHS Band, and smiling teachers, associates, and administrators passing out “We Can, We Will” stickers to every student. Awesome 1st day! Positives  Aug. 4-5, the staff met from 8:00am -3:30pm for UVA training. There was a great amount of laughter, smiles, and a lot of hard work. Everyone is excited to begin this new journey.

 First 2 days of the 90 min. rotations went smoothly; the older students thought it was great.

 We have welcomed many new staff members

 Dori Johnson is heading a new committee to help with the number of SAT’s. this group will meet with the teachers and help design a plan for the students in need and help with R-4’s and the SAT plan if needed

 Our building looked awesome when we returned; Chris Chavez and his helpers are the best!

 This will be the year of the Dragons! “WE CAN, WE WILL”

Claudia Miramontes, East Grand Plains  I want to take an opportunity to thank Administration for coming to our school on the first day of school.  The first day of school was fantastic!  We want to welcome the new teachers to our school: Molly Pierce, Janet Romero, Rosa Perez, Jamie Wagner and Cynthia Lupien.  We are excited about using Clever.  We are excited to fully implement Standard Based Instruction. We appreciate all the hard work that went into this.  Our CPI Times are working out wonderfully.  The new teacher orientation was very helpful for our new teachers. Thank you to those of you who put it together.  Second grade took the first ISIP (Istation) reading assessment. It seemed to go smoothly. Question:  How will our teacher evaluation, for progress shown, be affected if we do not have the whole Istation program? (compared to the progress in other districts across the state)

Karla Buchanan, El Capitan  First grade wanted to see if we can have changes done to the school supply list. There are things on it we do not use (ex: binders and rulers). Mr. Burris – his thinking is each school needs to make their own school supply list. Dr. Romero – stated thought needs to be put into what you are requiring of parents, ex; large families. Have consistency and add a wish list, items that are not mandatory. At the next SAC meeting please bring a supply list from your school. Email the supply list to Dr. Romero, put supply list in the subject line.

Adrienne Mounsey, Goddard  Thank you Dr. Romero for coming to Goddard  Smooth first day of school  Students seem excited to get back to school

Jamie Furney, Mesa  Good start of year  Working on 90 plans for UVA, everyone really liked it. Good process. Positives coming out the work  Fun with training.  Question – if a teacher does lunch duty they should be entitle to a free lunch? Mr. Burris said Lyman has to account for every meal sold and turned into the Feds.  Question – what does the new placement of Mesa as number 6 mean? Mr. Burris – Mesa has been moved to seven. Chances of Mesa being funded this year are not good. Chances of them being funded next year are good.

Hope Morales/Manuel Garcia, Military Heights  Teachers were very pleased with the two extra work days provided by UVA. Activities were meaningful and were not rushed.

 491 students attended school today, we have 76 kindergarten students in 3 classes.

 364 parents attended our “Back to School Roundup” last week.

 MHE has adopted a new motto: T.E.A.M. (Together Everyone Achieves More)

 New systems are in place and are beginning implementation with a positive staff attitude.

 We have created a new data room, which teachers seemed to be excited about having the new meeting space, which includes the extra copier machine and the laminator.

Questions/Concerns  Teachers feel that Edulastic does not offer many question choices for the younger grades. (For example 2nd grade ELA) Dr. Romero – yes, every week more questions will be added and you can also add your own questions.

 Teachers would like to request that the Teacher Center is open and has extended hours close to the start of the school year. Dr. Romero – we will create some blackout days it will be open.

 When will new teacher email accounts be active?

 Will the grant for teacher attendance, school grades, and VAS scores be extended to this school year?

 Concern that cost of postage may get high with schools now having to mail parents invitations and parent rights for IEP meetings. Brandy Samuell – invitations should have always been mailed home. Rights should be handed to the parent because they have to sign for them.

 Teacher was upset we did not begin our back to school meeting with a prayer Tom Burris – Freedom From Religion group threaten to file suit against the district. The district chose a moment of silence

 Some Year at a Glance documents are highlighted to identify them as main standards compared to supporting standards, can this be completed for all grades? Dr. Romero will share the feedback. He recommends printing only one 9 weeks at a time.

 School grades should be released in the next 5 weeks.

 The deadline for the State Teacher Committees, like NM Teacher Policies is September 9th. There are four short essay questions and there is a stipend.

 If you are interested in the Dream Team Committee you need to ask your principal to write a referral for you, the deadline is also September 9th. Amy Ashlyn, Missouri Avenue  Real excited with Mr. DeSoto, he is great  Up eight students  Blue Cross Blue Shield brought school supplies for students  The Police Department have been at the school in the mornings and afternoons everyday so far.  Made it through Istation, thank you Brian Yates and Brent Green for their help  When do we get new students in the system? Dr. Romero – once they are put in powerschool, it will be 24 hours. This goes for new and transfer students.

Carrie Jurecek/Steve Whalen, Monterrey  We are off to a great start, despite the fact that we are still trying to fill two teaching positions. The staff has been positive and encouraging of the students and each other.

A few of “concerns”...

1) Some parents did not like that we started school on Friday. (I explained to the teachers that the reason behind that was because of our Winter Break and getting an extra day to keep people from having to travel on January 1.)

2) One of the associates asked me to bring up the concern of how low the associate pay is “...it’s not a livable wage.” Mr. Burris – the district will pay 100% EA’s to go back to school and become a teacher. Would not have to pay back if they stay with us. See HR about the career ladder. Nobody is turned away, they need to fill out paperwork. They have to give the district three years working as a teacher and they have to get A’s and B’s for the district to pay. C’s or below the district will quit paying. If eastern offer the classes we go through them. Counselors and Admin are paid at 50%.

3) SEAS is down and therefore we cannot get our accommodations for our SpEd students. Any thoughts on when this might be fixed? Brandy Samuell – Shelley went through every working folder for every student in Sped. It is the case manager and Sped teacher at your schools responsibility to get that to you. Sped case manager should have them.

4) Students cannot access Reading Plus. We have many students who have completed Lexia, were added into Reading Plus at the end of last year but cannot get in now with their new user name and password. (Are these the same as the new Lexia User names and Passwords?) Royce Braggs – there was a problem but it has been corrected. If you have issues call.

5) Can we have a District Wide Calendar for Open Houses or Special Nights(i.e. Reading Night, Math Night, etc.)? There were 5 schools whose Meet and Greet Open Houses were on the same night and some parents had to choose which school to go to so they were not able to meet teachers or get info. Mr. Burris – we have so many schools and so few days, do what you can do.

Cortney Busby, Mt. View Plus -School year started off great! -6th grade orientation was very successful! -Having custodial at home buildings was good, campus looks awesome

Delta -District Supply List -Computers/ Promethean Boards/Phones were not reconnected/updated after summer break. Royce Braggs – Custodians should contact IT to move promethean board, also when things need unplugged. -Printers are not assigned to an RISD technician. Sometimes simple issues do not need to be solved by the external company. – Royce Braggs – RISD techs check first to see if they can fix, if not the contact external company.

Questions -When will district computers be able to be updated to Windows 10? – Royce Braggs – Windows 10 is in phases, it is ongoing. Should be done throughout the year. -When does the transfer freeze start? For positions that are opened after the freeze starts, may staff still apply? Tamie Pargas – Started July 8th, once the freeze goes on you cannot apply. It is only for vertical moves, if it is a pay increase they can apply.

Crystal Eldridge, Nancy Lopez  Thank you for moving the three portables  252 students as of today  New pre-k program and it already has a waiting list Plus It was really good not starting on a Monday! Suggestion: Wednesday, or Thursday would be nice too! Again, not starting on Monday was fantastic!

Delta Many teachers/staff were not very pleased with the speaker on the first day back. We felt he was extremely inappropriate and negative for an UPLIFTING first day back! Suggestion: Instead of us all meeting, can we divide up by grade levels and meet at different schools? We could discuss ideas and share pros and cons of our grades/jobs.

Calendar It would be nice if we as teachers had time to prepare for the week before school by having our work days on Calendar, i.e.: work days, data day, etc. instead of a letter a couple of weeks before stating TBA. It will help us to be more organized and professional. We will know what we need and what to bring with a much further notice. A breakdown of the 1st week of school for the teachers/staff would be beneficial. Dr. Romero – there are things we have to do as a district. We give that to the Principals.

Margie Reyer, Parkview  Staff is doing great with changes  Concern: other schools go Monday – Thursday and the go Mon, Tue, Thurs and Friday.  Concern: going until 4:00, parents are late teacher have to stay.

Veneranda Soltero, Pecos  Great start  Welcome Ms. Cordova, 2nd grade teacher

Laura Lucero-Carrillo, RHS  Happy to have Mr. Bolanos back in the driver’s seat

Sandra Whitlow, Sierra  Police and fire department were there for lunch today.  Why are stipends included with regular pay checks and subject to unnecessary taxation? Brian Byrd – if paid into 1099 it is taxed at a higher tax rate.

Brian Morales, Sunset  Started with a full staff  First day was fantastic

Andrea Batista, UHS

Tennise Lucas, Valley View  We have had some pretty large bumps in the road as our fifth graders are still not allowed in their portables at this time, However, like always, we are managing the best we can.  There has been a question as far as allowable service when an employee comes back into the school district. This has come from those who have previous years in the district and have come back, and those who have a couple of years in NM, but not in Roswell. This policy does not seem to be followed in some cases, so the teachers would like clarification. It was told to one employee by HR that they were not going by that, that there was something from board policy addressing this. I looked at the last policies I had and could not find anything pertaining to this. We appreciate your help in understanding this policy. The following is from the Salary Schedule on the website... Maximum allowed out-of-district experience is thirteen (13) years for BA +00, fifteen (15) years for BA+15, and eighteen (18) years for all other columns. In order to move horizontally on the salary schedule all additional hours and degrees require verification to be submitted to the Human Resources Office by the first of October, 2015. Each employee will be responsible for providing verification of teaching experience in other school systems. All verification of experience must be submitted to the Human Resources Office by the first of October, 2015. This salary schedule applies to all kindergarten, regular education and special education teachers, librarians and facilitators. This salary schedule does not apply to Counselors Tamie Pargas – there is not one answer for that, coming back to the same type of position, change levels? Have that person speak to Tamie Pargas.  Our enrollment has grown. Thank you for our TOSA and 2nd secretary.  Open house was great

Penny Rodriquez, Washington Avenue  Washington Ave is off to a GREAT beginning!  We held our first open house Thursday, August 11th with a good turnout.  We have welcomed several new staff members, still looking for a third grade teacher.  We’ve all watched the dreaded back to school videos, our Sunshine Committee provided soda and chocolate for out viewing pleasure so they weren’t as dreadful and now we are officially ready to rock and roll.  Our new security door has been installed and looks great, we have a new fresh coat of paint on the gym and it matches the brick so that’s pretty cool!  I big thanks to the maintenance crew for the awesome paint job in the hallways! It actually was painted. The custodial staff did a good job on the floors!  Technology techs are quick to respond and we appreciate that!

However… several of our staff has expressed that the General Faculty Keynote Speaker was not the least bit motivating. His speech and video content was inappropriate. It is disconcerting that we were a captive audience to such a brassy speech all the while being asked not to display our faith as part of faculty meetings.

The next SAC meeting will be September 20, 2016 @ 3:30 pm in the AESC Board Room