Clovis Municipal Schools board swears in new officers

The Clovis Municipal Schools board of directors now has new officers, in line with an annual transition.

District 4 representative Shawn Hamilton moves to the board's presidency after serving as vice-president.

District 5 representative Terry Martin is now serving as the board's vice-president after serving as secretary of the board.

District 2 representative Cindy Osburn will now serve as the board's secretary.

The new slate of officers was approved unanimously by the board.

The new officers were sworn in by CMS' executive legal administrative assistant Jelayne Curtis in what she termed as one of her last official activities for the board before her last day with the school system Friday.

Curtis retired from her position after being employed by Clovis Municipal Schools for 27 years. In that time Curtis worked for eight superintendents.

In other business the board learned of the progress of "Camp Wildcat," a summer program for students from Kindergarten to Eighth Grade.

Mesa Elementary School principal Julie Howell who is Camp Wildcat's coordinator gave a presentation on the success of the five week program and it's popularity amongst students and parents in the Clovis school system.

The camp has activities in STEM areas (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), social emotional learning, fine arts and athletics. Students may also be enrolled in tutoring for reading, written language and Math. Camp is held at Clovis High School.

Board members also received the news graduation rates for the 2021-22 school year had been computed and the graduation rate for Clovis schools was over 80% according to Mandy Carpenter, executive director of talent management and development.

Carpenter also gave the employee services report to the board and said there were a number of openings for teachers and other positions with the school system because of a number of retirements.

"We have a lot of good people retiring," Martin said.

Mitzi Estes is one of the people retiring from the school system. Estes has worked for Clovis schools for 31 years. Most recently Estes has been serving as deputy superintendent of academic services and leadership. Estes said she is looking forward to spending time with her family, especially her grandchildren.

Deputy director of school nutrition and well-being, Debbie Westbrook told of the new free meals program in the school system.

"We knew lunches would be an economic challenge so we looked for a way where it wouldn't be so hard on families," Westbrook said.

Westbrook says the benefits to the school system's kids outweighs the cost.

The school system is on board with free meals for the Clovis schools students for the next four years.

Asked about the cost of the program to taxpayers, Westbrook said the program "is not at the cost to taxpayers."

"We receive less of a profit in the form of a claim amount per meal," Westbrook said.