Portales school board approves PHS graduation

PORTALES — The Portales Municipal School District plans to return to full re-entry on March 23, following its spring break.

Two months after that, the Portales High School seniors can anticipate a more normal graduation.

The school board has approved a PHS graduation for 7 p.m. May 28 at Greyhound Stadium.

“At this point, we don’t know what the graduation rules will look like by the time we get to May, but we think with it being outdoors it will be something acceptable at that time,” said Superintendent Johnnie Cain.

With COVID-19 concerns still high last May, the district decided to hold its PHS graduation in the Ram Athletic Center parking lot with everybody mostly limited to their vehicles.

“I really think this is a good opportunity,” Cain said about hosting graduation outside at Greyhound Stadium, “to do something different … and see if this is something we’d want to do in the future.”

The Public Education Department announced less than three hours before Monday’s Portales board meeting that it had a goal to get all school districts back into full re-entry by April 8. Districts were encouraged to go earlier if possible.

Cain delineated from the superintendent’s report he prepared for the board over the weekend, given the Monday announcement.

Cain said the district would continue with four-day school weeks and Mondays off, and was confident the district would handle full re-entry well based on its month in hybrid learning. Since Feb. 8, Cain said, the district has had one positive student case and two positive teacher cases — and one of the teachers tested negative immediately afterward.

“There are still going to be challenges,” Cain said, “but I think we’ve met all the challenges since this came up a year ago. The kids have done a really good job of following the rules like we asked them to.”

About a third of the district staff was fully vaccinated as of last week, and Cain said vaccinated people won’t be considered close contacts when positive cases come up. Also, teachers who have been vaccinated would be exempt from surveillance testing.

There will still be some people in an online-only mode, as required by the PED, and they will largely be shifted to online platforms that existed prior to the pandemic. Cain said in a few schools, at least one online instructor has already been moved to in-person because that’s where the student population largely went.

In other business at the Monday meeting:

• Cain said there are various bills moving through the Legislature to add 10 additional days of instruction. If such a measure does pass, Cain said he’d prefer a bill that gives districts latitude to just make the current days a few minutes longer instead of stretching out the calendar.

• Cain plans to spend an upcoming round of CARES Act money to replace 167 HVAC units throughout the district and replace any water fountain without bottle filling options to those that have them.

The bulk purchase of $1.2 million on the HVAC entitles the district to some hefty discounts, Cain said, and the new units will be more energy efficient.

“If you’re going to be on the board 15 years from now,” Cain said of the HVAC units, “you’ll have to think about replacing all of those.”

• The district received an unmodified opinion with no findings in its 2019-20 audit report. John McKinley of Woodard, Cowen & Company said that doesn’t necessarily mean there weren’t items that would qualify as findings, but that they didn’t show up in the standard testing.

McKinley told the district its CARES Act money would receive some type of test in future audits because the awards are large in nature.

“A lot of those funds are going to be used for material-type items,” McKinley said. “I’m not sure how much that can flow into personnel-related items. And we’re at a little bit of a disadvantage because we’re still waiting for the audit guidance to come out on that.”

• Board members thanked the public for supporting the district in its recent bond election, and the board approved a measure allowing Cain to act on an April bond sale for the first portion of the $7 million.

• The board recognized three students for their performance in a recent Business Professionals of America regional conference.

Diego Gonzalez received the Torch Award in the diplomat and statesman category, while L.J. Jackson and Emily Wilbanks qualified for the national convention. Jackson was second in personal financial management, while Wilbanks was third in health administration leadership.

The national convention will be held virtually April 26-May 8.

• Shaunna Smith, food services director for the district, said she was working on meal packages to help students while the cafeteria is down due to spring break. She thanked the Ministerial Alliance for its help during the process.

Smith was asked if service in cafeterias would happen with school reentry. She said that was the goal, but, “we may have to rearrange some things.”

• Athletic Director Mark Gallegos said the Friday night Rams football game drew about 500 people with restrictions on ticket availability due to the quick turnaround from the Thursday night announcement spectators could attend.

Gallegos hopes the county can enter the green designation and have fans for volleyball matches.

Gallegos credited his coaches for their work since the summer with athletes in limited pods.

“They’ve been working since the first day of June,” Gallegos said, “and they have not stopped. I think we’ve gotten more than our money’s worth out of them.”

• The next meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. April 12.