YIKES! Rio Rancho schools students head back to the classroom in less than two weeks

Barely a week of summer remains for Rio Rancho Public Schools students, whose first day of school is Thursday, Aug. 3.

“We’ve seen summers get shorter and shorter,” RRPS Superintendent Sue Cleveland understated at the July 24 meeting of the school board, again a relatively short meeting – in the 45-minute range.

This is the first time all students – in the elementary, middle and high schools – report the same day to start school. Cleveland noted that there are two areas of emphasis for this school year: attendance and behavior, with a plan to ensure those priorities expected to be presented to the board to review soon.

Parents’ help in those areas will be important, Cleveland said.

“We have got to have more support in terms of re-establishing behavior and attendance – and school attendance has dropped off dramatically – and it has across the entire country, and that’s bad for kids and that’s bad for their learning.”

Greeting many of the students will be an estimated 140 new teachers, who went through a recent three-day introduction, and many RRPS employees are expected at the July 31 convocation at Rio Rancho High School, which features an address by guest speaker Stephen Michael Quezada, a Bernalillo County commissioner, who some may know from his appearances in “Breaking Bad.”

“He is not going to talk about ‘Breaking Bad,’” Cleveland cautioned the board members, except for board president Amanda Galbraith who was not there; board member Gary Tripp was there virtually.

As students return, they will notice ongoing projects – at Lincoln and Rio Rancho middle schools, four elementaries and Rio Rancho High School, where it became necessary for food preparation.

Supply chain issues and labor shortages have compounded progress, Cleveland said, although she said the district is in “better shape than recent years for HVAC.” With the excessive heat wave, that’s good news.

Chief of Operations Officer Mike Baker reviewed and addressed some changes in the bond priorities.

“We did take out the restroom remodel (at RRHS), and the reason for that is the cost was much greater than we originally anticipated,” he said, when the priorities were approved by the board at its May 15 meeting.

He said a community survey, conducted by Research & Polling, found considerable support, especially to the enhanced security plans.

And, he told the board, “Many of our projects actually will be able to receive (Public School Finance Authority) funding and so the $80 million, assuming our voters vote ‘yes,’ can be leveraged against PSFA funding. So we estimate that approximately $32 million of the funds on these projects will come from PSFA, for a total of $112 million.

“If the voters vote ‘yes’ to this (on Nov. 7), there will be no tax increase,” Baker added.

Baker went over the anticipated bond allocations:

• Safety and security upgrades and classroom additions at RRHS, Cleveland High School and Lincoln Middle School: $13.224 million.
• Roof replacements: $8.32 million.
• Additional preschool space: $1.95 million.
• New Independence High School: $26 million.
• Drainage: $3.29 million.
• Plumbing, electrical and HVAC upgrades: $14.3 million.
• Information technology infrastructure: $55,000.
• Special education program support: $8.066 million.
• Fine arts production space and band room at RRHS: $3 million.
• Athletics projects: $1.3 million.

The board voted 4-0 to approve the revised bond priorities.

Also at the July 24 meeting:

The district’s Naviance Program for students in grades K-8 received a $10,000 check from the Schumann Foundation; Tim Sheahan and Sandoval County Commissioner David Heil presented a check to help the district cover the Naviance expenses.

“So we are enthusiastic about this (presentation),” Heil said, echoing Sheahan’s note that about 70 scholarships are also made available through the Schuman Foundation for Sandoval County students of all ages – even beyond high school – has been sponsoring this for 10 years,

“We very much support and appreciate the effort to provide opportunities for adults to be able to go back to school, as well as improve their educational opportunities,” Cleveland said.

Board vice president Jeffery Morgan was especially appreciative, as he took a minute to say his son Jaylen had been a Schumann Foundation scholarship and it helped pave the way for him to graduate from the University of New Mexico this December.

The school board’s regular meeting is at 6 p.m. Monday, July 31; the board has a work session slated for 4 p.m. that day.