Portales school board approves security enhancements

Security enhancements to Portales schools received approval from the Portales School Board as the way the district will use $584,876 allocated to the district by the 2023 New Mexico Legislature

Superintendent Johnnie Cain recommended the board accept the funds and said he must write a letter of intention showing the state how the school district plans to use the funds.

He said the security enhancements will include building new fencing, purchasing cameras, and possibly strengthening bulletproof glass across the school district.

"I will put in a letter to show them what we would use it for,” Cain told the board. The district, he said, had already earmarked “ half a million” in bond funds for security enhancements, and now, he said, the district can “make our bond money go into other places.”

The board unanimously voted to accept the funds.

Career-technical educational facilities

The state legislature also appropriated just over $1 million to the district for career-technical educational (CTE) facilities, pre-kindergarten facilities, or for the maintenance and repair of public school buildings.

The board unanimously decided to accept the funds, but some determinations still need to be made regarding how the committee plans to use the money.

Cain said CTE is the way to go. CTE is education that combines academic and technical skills, giving students the training and skills to succeed in today's labor market, according to educationnorthwest.org.

School board Vice President Inez Rodriguez said the demand for tradespeople in the area is high.

"I cannot believe how many plumbers are needed, how many electricians are needed, and you can't find them," she said.

Cain said a million dollars is not much money to construct a new building.

"That's the problem, it's not enough (money) to really say we want a certain CTE facility and be able to go out and build that," he said, adding that a 10,000-square-foot building today will cost about $8 million.

"It doesn't mean you couldn't (use this money to) go in and remodel something or do something like that, if you have the place to do it and a place to remodel, we just don't have that," he said.

He said using that money to assist the district’s existing CTE programs is possible.

Caine said this money does not have to be used immediately, so the board still has some time to decide how to proceed.

Member Cade Standifer said he would also like this money to go towards CTE and vocational training.

"I'd like to see it go towards vocational CTE training or education on those lines, and we can pursue grants that are available also. I don't know how many there are, but there has to be some (grants) out there, and this will help supplement some of those costs and get a foot in the ground for vocational training. That's the direction I wanted to see," Standifer said.

The board unanimously voted to accept the funds but did not decide what to use them for. Most board members, including the superintendent and the vice president, seemed to be leaning towards using it to support vocational training within the district.

Renovation of Portales athletic complex

The board discussed increasing the funding required to renovate the baseball field at the district’s athletic complex in light of Portales' water emergency.

Some of the original plans included installing grass at the complex, but a committee involved with the complex reported its members think it would be more advisable to install artificial turf in light of the water issues.

Cain said he asked the contractor, Nick Griego and Sons, to draw up some plans that include artificial turf in light of the water situation, and board members said they feel that is the responsible way to go, even if it costs more upfront.

"I don't think it looks good on us when our whole community's on water restrictions, and we're putting in grass. We gotta do our due diligence as well," said member Cade Standifer.

Standifer said he realizes it will cost more upfront but hopes it might pay for itself over time. Other board members agree, considering that turf will last a long time.

Board members are leaning towards installing turf on the baseball field even in areas, like base lines, batter’s boxes and pitchers’ mounds that are usually bare dirt. That would compensate for high winds that could possibly blow the dirt away, increasing costs to replace the dirt and clean it away from artificial turf and grass areas.

The outside of the field will be xeriscaped, using no vegetation except for a few trees that would need water.

Cain said the rough estimate for an all-turf field would be $503,000, plus tax.

"We're already got quite a bit of money in this thing (and) knowing that everything costs more than what we expect it to cost, we've got that much more money set aside that we could use there if we wanted to do it... the whole field would just be turf and no dirt," he said.

The board is considering installing brown-colored turf where dirt would typically sit on the field.

The board unanimously approved the all-turf field under the stipulation that the exact figures from the contractor come back under $600,000.