GRANTS, N.M. - The Grants Cibola County School Board Meeting taking place on November 18 last two hours, in which they discussed professional development reports, budget framework, and recognitions.
Professional Development Report - Marzano Sit Visits
The director of academics, Jennifer Griego, explained that she had taken a team last year to visit high schools that used the Marzano program. “We decided that that would be a good pathway for professional development for our teachers and our instructional leaders at our school sites.”
Marzano, the new art and science of teaching by Robert Marzano, “is a comprehensive framework that redefines effective teaching by integrating research-based strategies focused on student outcomes. It shifts the emphasis from what teachers do to how students learn, providing a structured model for planning, instruction, assessment, and reflection that supports continuous improvement in classroom
practice.”
Highlighting the emphasis, Griego stated “It is about good teaching, good quality teaching and how we support those teachers in the classroom by looking at what the needs are of our students.”
Marzano has 43 elements, which takes years to do. So, the instructional leaders at the campuses chose two goals that they felt their campus needed to work on with the support from Marzano professional development representatives.
Professional Development Report - Synergy Training/Reporting Conference
Director Griego explained that the student information system, Synergy, has been used by every district in the state as chosen by the state four years ago. Presentation synopsis stated “Energy CONNECT 2025 is the annual users-conference for Edupoint’s energy Education Platform (SIS/learning management) system. It gathers 12 administrators, district staff, technical leads, and other education practitioners from across the country in order to: Explore the latest enhancements, features, and roadmap of the Synergy system. Provide hands-on training, break-out sessions, and peer-led discussions so users at all levels (beginner to advanced) can deepen their skills and workflows. Foster networking and knowledgesharing among districts utilizing Synergy, with customer-success stories, best practices, and peerto- peer exchange. Address state-reporting, data analytics, security, and system administration topics to help districts maintain compliance and best practices… Attendees and [the] districts were expected to: review and evaluate how synergy’s newest modules and updates can align with their district’s goals (student data management, scheduling, grade-book, learning management, etc.). Participate actively in breakout sessions and hands-on labs (from beginner to advanced) to improve operational efficiency, deepen user competence, and ensure districts can best leverage the system. Bring action- able insights back to their home district: assess opportunities for improved workflows, streamline administrative tasks, and implement more effective data governance and security. Connect with other synergy users and Edupoint staff, build a network of peers facing similar challenges and exchange best practices — thereby increasing value for their investment in the platform.”
Professional Development Report - New Mexico Technology in Education
The presentation explained “New Mexico Technology in Education is setting the standard for technology innovation and education throughout New Mexico. Grants Cibola County Schools praised as being in the Top Three Most Secure Networks in the State of New Mexico amongst other K-12 districts, universities, AND municipalities) this is a huge deal and a testament to how sharp our IT Team is). Many sessions provided training on topics like AI Usage and Policy, Technology Support in Instruction and Learning, Network Infrastructure, and CyberSecurity. Our focus is to provide students with tools to succeed in a technology driven world in whichever career or college pathway they choose.”
Budget Framework for 2026-2027
“You go through months of building the budget.” Superintendent Lane Widner explained “You look at projections. You look at your numbers. You look at your staff. You look at your… retirees. You look at your positions, your class numbers. And so… we talked to stakeholders, you know so much of our budget goes to salary… So, we are starting the process of building the budget of the new board members will come on and there, we’re hoping it’s a seamless transition and that we can build a solid budget that is fiscally sound and good to provide opportunities for the kids. So, I wanted to create a framework, a timeline to let you know kind of what we were going to be doing with the budget and the work that you all will do as board members and what I’ll do to make sure that we’re accountable to having our budget built and ready by spring after we know what the SEG money is, what kind of… funds we have… But I wanted you to know that we are starting the process of working on the budget and looking at.”
Recognitions
The Social Emotional Learning award recipients in the month of November are Trish Garcia and Edwina Gamboa.
The Edu-Champion belt recipient is Amanda Gallegos-Ortiz.
Upcoming
December 4-6: NMSBA Annual Conference Albuquerque, NM December 16: Regular Board Meeting