Snider asks board if they want to take legal action
By John Earp
At the December meeting of the Jal School Board, Superintendent Brian Snider began by mentioning the six-year study the school has been undergoing through CES (Cooperative Educational Services), which he said “is a state cooperative agency,” which has to do with staff development and teacher certification pathways, among other things. Snider mentioned that there were only 16 districts in New Mexico that are involved in the six-year study. He said, “What we’re trying to do is make things better, and make scores go up and do better as a state.” He continued, “Right now, they’re still gathering a lot of information, gathering surveys, a little bit of data,” with a view to encourage higher order thinking at lower grade levels. He said the strategic plan developed from the six-year study will be geared to find what the school district wants to accomplish, what does the community want, etc. He said, “We want to be able to shine, no matter what we do.” One of the plans for Jal Schools is to make it to where all seniors will have a full schedule, with no students getting off for the day at noon. He said seniors will either go to CTECH or NMJC in the morning with afternoon classes as well, or they will have a full schedule at JHS all day. He said the new commons area for the junior high is being looked at as to how to plan for its administration. He said the district is also experiencing more English language learners of late, not only from Mexico, but from other primarily Spanish-speaking nations such as Cuba and Venezuela. He said, “We have not really addressed that to the point that we need to, either staff-wise or program-wise.” Snider says the program involves a growth mindset. “We need to make sure that we keep and maintain a growth mindset. That’s a lot easier to say than it is to do in all program,” adding that the strategic plan will involve constant evaluation of programs with a view to improvement in all areas. Board President Jim Gooss commented that he would really like to hear what the CES folks have to say about ways the district can improve.
The cafeteria will be furnishing chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, salad, green beans and desert for an inservice on January 8th. Snider said there will be about one hundred staff members from Jal Schools attending, with another sixty attending from other districts. The in-service will be a toolkit on how to deal with increasing special education problems. He said the district has had a huge influx of SPED students, adding, “A lot of times, a teacher can get us in trouble before we even know about it.” He said the in-service is designed to help avoid problems by thoroughly training those who work with SPED students.
Snider said the four-day school calendar elimination is being pushed by the New Mexico Public Education Department, noting that he noticed the overwhelming majority of those speaking to the issue are voicing their opposition to forcing five-day school weeks on all districts in the state. Snider said he thinks the idea is being pushed by the governor especially, with NMPED pushing the five-day rule, even though the New Mexico legislature allowed the four-day school week several years ago.
Snider says that Jal Schools’ results over the past several years are “ticking up quite a bit” under the four-day week arrangement. He said, “And it’s being able to recruit good teachers.” Board President Jim Gooss menti0ned that absenteeism, teacher recruitment and retention have all improved. Gooss said the PED sees it as they are paying the districts for a five-day week. Snider noted that Jal Schools have over a hundred more instructional hours per school year than what is required, and would have to decrease that if they went to a five-day school week. Gooss and Snider both said the idea of forcing all districts to have five-day schedules has “no common sense.” Gooss added that even though NMPED can make a rule, the district doesn’t have to follow it. Snider said districts do have to follow the rule to get certain funding, however, and that NMPED has the power to suspend a superintendent’s or administrator’s license and possibly even remove an entire school board. Snider added that NMPED is not going to want to come all the way down to Jal to run the district though. Snider then asked for a straw poll of the board, with no official vote, as to whether the district should take legal action against NMPED if they enacted this proposed rule of five-day school weeks for all districts. All board members present voiced their agreement that such should be undertaken if NMPED tries to force the five-day schedule on all districts. Snider said Jal School District was likely to lose staff if a five-day schedule is forced upon the state.
