Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
CHS Choir Director Sean Galloway, at podium, addresses the Clovis school board at their Tuesday meeting about the choir "bringing home" the top award from a statewide competition. Students, from left, Yasmine Ceniceros, Galloway, Kelaina Woznick and Daniel Zulueta hold a trophy and banner.
Clovis School Board members voted unanimously Tuesday on a redistricting plan to move Marshall Middle School's seventh and eighth graders to Gattis and Yucca middle schools due to the creation of The Sixth Grade Academy at Marshall this fall.
Board members opted for a plan, one called "Option four," which would result in a Gattis student population of 574 and a Yucca student population of 509, a difference of 65 more students for Gattis.
Three other plans the board members considered would have put anywhere from 201 to 241 more students in Gattis than at Yucca.
Board members discussed other aspects of the matter including student/teacher ratios and average poverty levels for each school in each option.
"It gives us a balanced student population," Board President Shawn Hamilton said of the decision for "Option four." "It makes sure the students get an equal opportunity."
Clovis Municipal Schools (CMS) sixth graders will be going to their own school this fall with the creation of the Sixth Grade Academy at Marshall.
"The primary purpose of the Sixth Grade Academy is to create a learning environment designed to help all students successfully bridge from elementary to secondary school by implementing specific academic and social-emotional supports that facilitate a gradual and smooth transition into middle school and beyond," CMS Superintendent Renee Russ said to The News in January.
Marshall Middle School will transition to hosting sixth graders only in August, school officials said.
In other business, Russ presented a draft of the CMS academic calendar for the 2023-24 school year, one that has added hours as mandated by the state legislature. The new calendar, approved unanimously by the school board, allows for 1,180 hours of instruction across all grades.
Another item mandated by the state legislature is across the board 6% pay raises for school personnel. Some staff groups received larger percentage pay raises as learned from a presentation by CMS Deputy Superintendent of Finance, Shawna Stowe.
An example of a higher pay raise was "E.A.s" or educational assistants whose minimum pay was stepped up to a minimum of $25,000 a year, which is more than 6% according to Stowe.
A student group from Marshall Middle School, The Marshall Airbenders, will be going on a field trip this summer to the renewable energy competition, The National Kidwind Competition, in Boulder, Colo.
The Airbenders recently picked up a first place award in a reginal renewable energy competition.
Their achievement and achievements of other student groups, such as the statewide award to the Clovis High School choir, were recognized by CMS Arts Director, Corey Pickett.
