The Grants Cibola County School Board held a board meeting on March 6th, discussing current and future projects, some of which have the potential to improve the school in a way that will positively impact students and teachers.
The board has decided to make their meeting shorter, and therefore easier for those watching in person or online, while still getting all that needs to be said spoken within the meeting, which lasted nearly two hours.
During this meeting, the board was introduced to the new IPACT officers and leaders Ekahi Tiller and Devin Suazo from Laguna Acoma High School and Joaquin Gomez and Riko Valencia from Grants High School.
New Strategic Teaching
Superintendent Lane Widner in looking into the Dr. Robert Morzano resources as part of their strategic plan: goal 2.
Dr. Morzano researched meta analysis and is able to determine what strategies will work best for classrooms. He breaks it down into 3 elements, 10 categories, and 43 strategies, which the teachers or principles will be able to decide which is most effective for their school or classroom.
Partnership between the schools and Dr. Morzano would help the teachers to get hands on professional development in their classrooms by coaches who will educate them on the art and science of teaching, while improving classroom management, classroom organization, and student engagement.
Teachers will learn to specialize in teaching, as it will provide the same special development training for all of the teachers, rather than a few teachers learning and bringing back the information and more cost effective than having motivational speakers come to classrooms or sending people to training.
With this training and strategy options, teachers should be able to craft lessons, set expectations, and evaluate students, while keeping the students engaged.
District wide goals can be set, along with elementary goals, or teachers setting their own.
Widner announced “We truly want to help our teachers to be masters in the classrooms.” He also mentioned that the teachers and principals need to lead the charge in educational change.
It will align with the DASH plan and more.
If all goes as planned, there will be multiple professional development days in the future, when this is implemented.
Using Morzano resources has proven efficient in southern New Mexico. The Gadsden school district has seen much success, having done this for three years.
This program is increasing in popularity, as Belen, Farmington, and many other schools are adopting it as well.
Widner invited the board to attend a Marzano event and visit other school districts using this program so they may see the improvement that is likely to come to Cibola County this year as well.
New School System
Many of the schools within the district have been using the Sharp Business Systems for over a year. However, there has been many issues, which led to the staff doing more than their own security system and the system failed to cover the whole network, while the detect and response solution did not work as well as they hoped.
With the antivirus license expiring, the schools have decided to replace this system with one that has the potential to me more efficient, cost-effective, and have functional solutions.
Sophos, will deploy a more robust and secure antivirus solution, managing detection and response services 24/7, while being more collaborative and customizable. This system known as Sophos, will streamline the help desk ticketing process and improv inventory tracking. With the previous system, the school had to pay $13,000 a month for the help deal and another $14,000 per month for the antivirus server protection and updated, which will now work together, hopefully under $60,000 at a higher level. Using this new technology will save the school district a lot of money, despite the exact price not being known yet.
Cubero & Seboyeta Elementary Schools Update
The Cubero and Seboyeta Elementary Schools have a goal, which at tier 3 involves interventions and data driven instruction.
These schools host cultural celebrations, heritage celebrations, and conduct social and emotional learning, as well as evaluate on a daily basis.
In Cubero, the students are improving in reading and math. There has been a 19% growth in IMSSA Math from BOY to EOY. The upcoming regional science fair will have three students from Cubero participating. The school will be hosting the math showdown in May. According to the principle, the staff is amazing and do not mind helping out, even after school hours. There is great community support and expectations from the school.
Seboyeta has a 31 percent growth in station reading from BOY to MOY, as well as growth in various areas on IMSSA from BOY to MOY. The school is fully staffed and reportedly has great community support.
Donations & Approvals
Continental Divide Electric Cooperative donated $5,000 to the Grants High School Scholarship Fund. This money will be used for scholarship night and awards.
Approximately 3 years ago the fences surround GHS were taken down in order to partner with the City of Grants in making the walking trails. Because these fences were removed, they were damaged and are rusting. In order to keep the students safe and the school secured, the board has approved to hire Valley Fencing to put a 5-foot custom metal fence for an estimated amount of $69,180.15. It is not yet known when it will begin or how long it will take, but Widner hopes it will start once its passed and it will be completed soon.
In the March 18 meeting, the board will discuss and consider approving the purchase of 40 individual heating and cooling units for GHS. There us an estimation for 10 units, which is $47,315.40.
School Budget
The school district received $312,500 from Red Mesa Wind, which will continue until the end of the industrial revenue bond in 2050.
The district was given $128,700 from Route 66 solar energy center. One board member recalled that as the place they get money from expands, the amount of money they receive is supposed to increase, though it hasn’t despite this deal being over 16 years old.
A local revenue operation fund revenue received was $336,399, which also lasts till 2025. This money is not tax payer dollars or given specifically to the district, which allows for them to spend the monetary on teacher recognitions and other things for the staff.
As of March 2025, in the past four months $100,000 has been spent.
Upcoming The next regular board meeting is scheduled for April 1.
There will be a Spring budget work shop at Sandia resort & casino, during the 9th, 10th, and 11th of April.
There is not an exact date for when, but staff and students will be doing comprehensive awareness training.
The plan and data from the 2024-2025 school spending will be finished on July 1st and then reviewed in a school board meeting.
The board is preparing for the 2025-2026 school year, with the hope of using the Morzano resources to improve their students results.