GRANTS, N.M. – A Grants Cibola County Schools regular school board meeting took place on August 5th, this one lasted a little over two hours, and as discussed at the previous meeting, attached to the agenda it stated how long the presentations or discussions were not to exceed.
During this meeting, the board discussed the Mesa View Elementary construction, the Verkada security system, and Bluewater Elementary School construction.
Mesa View Elementary Construction
Mesa View Elementary School has experienced different setbacks, most of which were due to ambiguity and lack of clarification between the general contractor, Bradberry Stam and the design professional Wilson and Company.
Cooper Jones explained “It started with something that was really minor. There was a detail left off of the original plan for a wind bearing for a specific part of the building.”
The general contractor has asked for seven more months for them to complete it, making the new timeline of completion estimated to be in September of 2026, assuming there are no more miscommunications or other setbacks. However, “When you add days, you also add a dollar amount... That’s really where some of the disagreements are coming from.”
One of the major setbacks happened in 2024 when the area was “flooded totally.” This required the teams need to compact much of the dirt and redo soil testing.
“Construction never fully stopped.” Jones explained, also stated “This has been somewhat of a challenging project.”
Now that the timeline has been moved, the total cost is to be determined.
Verkada Security System Implementation
Jeremy Hocker, the head of security, recalled that roughly three months ago he had asked the school board for the $1.9 million camera system that provides cameras, access control, visitor management, and vape detection. Verkada was approved and was started on May 27th. As of August 5th, it was over 90% complete, with it being installed at 20 sites, 706 devices, and 697 installations that are operational.
Hocker explained “The phenomenal thing to me is that they started this on May 27th, this is August 5th. In 71 days we got our district, aside from Mesa View… we got our district covered with cameras and access control.”
The vape detectors do more than just detect vaping, as it can also tell the temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide amount.
“There’s a wealth of information that’s there for our principles to use... for our security to be able to utilize.”
Visitor management will include a QR code for people to go into the schools, whether they are a visitor, have an interview, etc. An administrative assistant will receive a notification concerning the person who is going to check a student out of school, meet a councilor, etc, and will allow that person inside.
“It’s really going to streamline our system across the board for check in and check out.”
Bluewater Elementary Construction
Bluewater Elementary School, as of August 5th, was 99% done.
All that was left was a final roof walk and inspection. The building has a year warranty, which Jones explained could cover something as minor as the wall paint being chipped and needing to be repainted or something of a larger scale. Though the board had questions concerning the billing, which staff said will be determined.
Additionally, the school was covered by insurance for the flood that Bluewater Village recently experienced.
Upcoming
August 19: Regular School Board Meeting August 22: No School for Students - PD Day for Staff