Resource Officer, Visa Funding, Attendance System, Enrollment
GRANTS, N.M.— The Grants/Cibola County School meeting that took place on August 18 covered topics such as a designated resource officer for Grants schools, residency visa funding, the EDIA attendance monitoring system, and student enrollment numbers.
Additionally, Superintendent Lane Widner described the first week of the 2026-2027 school year as, “a very successful return to school.”
Designated Resource Officer
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Grants/Cibola County Schools and the Grants Police Department was approved. This agreement provides for one school resource officer to serve the in-town schools in Grants, including Mount Taylor Elementary, Los Alamitos Middle School, and Grants High School.
The officer is tasked with ensuring safety, responding to incidents, and supporting a safe learning environment. The funding for this initiative comes from the school district’s budget, with an approved amount of $83,671.60 allocated for the officer’s salary for the year.
Superintendent Wider explained that this partnership is crucial as it enhances the safety of students and staff, facilitates quicker police response in case of emergencies, and strengthens the collaboration between the school district and local law enforcement.
“Next board meeting,” Widner said, “I will come to you with a similar [MOU] with the Laguna Police Department.”
Residency Visa Funding
Jacqueline Jones, the Deputy Superintendent and Director of Human Resources, presented a proposal for the GCCS Human Resources Department to use additional funds exceeding $60,000 to cover the legal and residency costs for international teachers.
The district is nearly dully staffed, with 77 new hires, and only a few music teacher positions remain infilled. Hiring full-time teachers, Jones explained, has significantly reduced spending on long-term substituted from approximately $2.7 million to $1.7 million.
Jones said, “So, every time that the district hired an international teacher… there are fees as- sociated with that.” The district sponsors teachers to fill hard-to-staff positions, with costs such as $4,100-$4,100 per H-1B visa and lower costs for J-1 visas. This year, 8 new international teachers were hired, leading to large upfront cost. Visa expenses include attorney fees, consular fees, and renewals, and teachers on H-B1 visas can apply for Germany residency, benefiting long-term district stability.
The district has already reached the $60,000 annual expenditure threshold for these services. Savings from reduced substitutive spending and fewer bonuses are being redirected to cover visa expenses, with over $1 million saved compared to prior years.
The board approved the funding request, considering future use of RFPs or sole source agreements to streamline expenses.
EDIA Attendance Monitoring System
According to Trish Garcia, the EDIA Attendance Monitoring System is being piloted in high schools for the 2026-2027 academic year.
The system aims to enhance family engagement and has already sent out 2,255 personalized messages, achieving a 33% response rate, which is six times higher than that of robocalls.
Garcia reported that it saves staff time by automatically updating 777 absences, equivalent to three full 8-hour days of phone calls that attendance clerks no longer need to make.
Board member Donalyn Lorenzo asked about the environmental caused by AI, and how EDIA contributed to that.
“I can answer as somebody who understands artificial intelligence,” Financial Director Cooper Jones explained. “EDIA, as an artificial intelligence platform is not computing or generating like something like Chat GPT would be doing.” He added that it is a closed source and complies with FURPA regulations, ensuring that data is not used to train other models. Unlike large AI companies, EDIA is not invasive.
Jones said, “I would argue that EDIA is actually not even artificial intelligence. It’s a computer science platform. Somebody put a platform together that was really smart that said learn from… it’s machine learning… It’s two-way information but not enough information even where if [it] got leaked, it would be damaging. It’s going to have student names in attendance.”
When asked if EDIA can think independently, Jones clarified, “No. And you have to remember that when students are enrolled in Synergy, their parents or guardians have to put a phone number down. We have to be able to communicate with them at some point at some time. So, they are essentially opting in to us tracking student data. It’s our responsibility as stewards of that data that that data is not identifiable by somebody.”
Student Enrollment Bluewater: 64 Cubero: 166 Mesa View: 478 Mt. Taylor: 339 Laguna/Acoma High School: 152 Grants High School: 827 San Rafael: 36 Seboyeta: 21 Milan: 363 Early College High School: 66 Laguna/Acoma Middle School: 36 Los Alamitos Middle School: 438 Total Enrollments that are online: 42 Total Enrollment: 2,986 Trish Garcia, the attendance and student information coordinator said, “[The numbers are] changing every day, probably for at least the first ten days.”
Upcoming
September 1: Board Work Session September 2: Cultural Day - No Students/No Staff September 7: Labor Day District Closed September 11: Parent Teacher Conferences September 15: Regular Board Meeting September 16: IPAC Monthly Meeting