CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. — The Grants Cibola County School board held a two and a half hour meeting on June 16. During this time, they discussed the current situation with the newly constructed Mesa View Elementary School, GCCS new food services, the budget, and the renewal of their professional development.
Mesa View Elementary
Superintendent Lane Widner announced that Mesa View Elementary School is almost complete and “we are ready to start school in the new building.” The issues concerning the structure have been resolved, while the playground is being worked on.
Cooper Jones, the executive director of finance and operations said “One of the unique things about Mesa View Elementary School is the ratio of special education classrooms to general education classrooms.” The school contains eleven special education classrooms, it is wheelchair accessible, and ADA compliant.
“The student count when we started this project was 474,” Jones added “We’re currently at 485 and with the new school, we anticipate that number going to 520 [or] 520.”
According to Jones, the DFSA has not yet determined the split in which GCCS will be contributing to the playground project. “It will be 26%,” Jones informed. “I anticipate that it will be close to $250,000.” This money will come out of the capital bond.
Regarding the playground. Jones said, “There’s a lot of climbing in this playground. There’s a lot of spinning. There are things that are really good for kids in terms of sensory, but also in terms of development; picking up their own body weight and jumping and stretching and spinning and all of those things.”
Food Services
The district issues a Request for Proposals (RFP) following state guidelines, receiving four submissions. Cooper Jones explained that after evaluation, the top three proposals were allowed to serve meals to 80 students and 40 employees. Students and staff from all district sites participated in a random selection process, with principals having the option to send “picky eaters.”
The evaluation committee chose Elorin, the most expensive option, due to their transparency, quality ingredients, and local sourcing, such as green chili and beef from New Mexico. Elorin’s partnerships with larger districts like Socorro (about 1,600) and Farmington (2 to 3 times larger than GCCS) demonstrate their scalability to the district’s size. Their innovative system allows students to easily access free lunches, and despite higher costs, it aims to feed more students efficiently. The procurement process involved PED oversight to ensure fair pricing and feasibility. Jones said, “We’ve been really trying to make sure that we’re up to speed so that when we have students here on August 10th, they can get a fresh bought meal that is 50% made from scratch. So, I’m really excited about this.” Jones mentioned that a recent survey indicated that improving food quality was the top priority for the community. Budget
Cooper Jones requested the board approval of the budget, adding that the audit is not complete is “okay.” Jones said that the budget is currently balanced and “we are getting awards for all of our funds as it is balanced.”
Superintendent Widner asked Jones to explain why the board is going to approve or disapprove the budget, without the audit being complete.
“When you go through a fiscal year, we have checks and balances,” Cooper Jones explained. “An auditor follows the money be- tween the balance sheet, P&L, and cash flow state-ment… Our auditor really has the final say… So our audit has taken a long time. This is something that happened not last year but the year before where the budget was approved prior to the audit being accepted,” Jones continued. “And it’s one of those things where there are 95 school districts and a handful of charters, and there’s really only 9 or 10 auditors that specialize in school planning. So sometimes we get lucky and it gets done in April, May, [or] June… I’ve been very transparent about the audit; the audit will not be super pretty. There’s been a lot of stuff that we have shed light on that, we want our auditors to see because for the business office and how we conduct ourselves fiscally.”
Marzano Professional Development Renewal
Superintendent Widner explained that when he became implementing the “new art and science of teaching this year and [having] Marzano consultants… [provide] workshops… [be] in our classrooms and [meet] with our teachers… [Talking] to them about proficiency skills.” Additionally, Marzano will provide math professional development, sending their services here. Widner went on to explain that they recently found our that PED is partnering with Marzano resource, and they’ve asked three year rollout that can extend to five years.
Widner said, “We are wanting to continue to provide this as our professional development to people.” The cost of the renewal was approved for $135,570.24.
Upcoming
July 3-6, 2026: Independence Day/District Closed
July 16-18, 2026: NMSBA Leadership Retreat Taos, NM superintendent three years ago, the district had been spending a lot of money annually on professional development. This consisted of sending people to training in San Diego, California or to different curricular trainings. “We decided we wanted to get a little more succinct with how we’re providing professional development,” Widner said. Last year, the board approved for the district to partner with Marzano Professional Development resource, the district “to kind of pilot and be a lead since we’ve already started this partnership.” The district would be the lead of five others participating in New Mexico who have agreed to help, giving GCCS the chance to become a “spotlight school” that can present the “wonderful things” happening in the district.
The proposal provides support with strategies and classroom management. While expensive, it is less costly than last year and is a