Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Portales assistant superintendent of instruction appointed

PORTALES — At Monday evening’s Portales Municipal Schools Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Johnnie Cain announced the appointment of Henry Montano as the new assistant superintendent of instruction, effective in the 2017-2018 school year.

Montano, the current director of federal programs, will replace David Van Wettering, who will retire from PMS effective June 30.

“He’ll be working with David from now until the end of the year to make sure he’s able to step right in there,” Cain said.

The change has a domino effect throughout the district:

• Rick Segovia, principal for Lindsey-Steiner Elementary, will replace Montano in federal programs.

“Once again, he’s got some pretty big shoes to fill, but I think he’s going to do us a good job for that,” Cain said.

• Rebecca Flen, principal at Brown Early Childhood Center Principal Rebecca Flen, will replace Segovia. Administration is still working on a replacement for Flen.

Montano expressed both gratitude and excitement about beginning work in his new position.

“It’s a great honor to accept this position. It will definitely be a challenge, but I think it’s a challenge that I’ll be able to take on,” he said. “I look forward to continuing to serve the students and the families of this community.”

The following were actions taken at the Portales Municipal Schools Board of Education meeting Monday in the L.C. Cozzens Administrative Offices Building:

• Board members approved four budget adjustment requests, including an increase of $330,298 in Portales Municipal Schools’ Senate Bill 9 fund from the state.

“That is lower than what it was last year,” said Director of Finance Sarah Marquez.

Other adjustments created a $10,058 increase in the migrant children education fund and $158,798 in carryover from the Title I program, which provides financial assistance to educational institutions with high numbers of children from low-income families.

• Federal Programs Director Henry Montano recognized district Spanish Spelling Bee winner Karen Ivarbol, a sixth-grade student at Lindsey Steiner Elementary School.

“She did a phenomenal job,” Montano said. “I think I mentioned last month that there’s a lot of words on there that I was even clueless as to where to even start, but she did a great job,” said Montano.

Ivarbol will represent PMS May 13 at the State Spanish Spelling Bee in Albuquerque.

• Gifted and Talented teacher Katrina Prince presented the teams that competed in the academic competition Destination Imagination, including three teams that qualified to compete in the Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The three qualifying teams were The Four Floor Breadcrumbs (Portales High School), The Peptimisms and Skitles (both from Lindsey Steiner Elementary School).

• Board members recognized members of Family, Career and Community Leaders of America who competed in March at the State Leadership Conference in Albuquerque.

High school sponsor Debbie Stenstrom presented three PHS students: Sophomore Corey Parmer, senior Sydney Stenstrom, and freshman Kylie Stenstrom.

Debbie Stenstrom emphasized the importance of FCCLA for young people at present.

“It’s a youth leadership organization that focuses on the family, focuses on careers, and doing things for our community, and those are things that I think our students are desperately in need of,” she said.

• The Portales High School boys basketball team was recognized for being Class 4A runnersup.

Basketball coach Rickie McBroom said that while his players didn’t win, they gave the tournament 100 percent.

“I couldn’t ask more from a group of kids,” McBroom said. “To the bitter end, they were fighting,. I was very pleased, very happy. There’s a lot to life, and I hope that somewhere down the road that they learn those kinds of things.”

• The board recognized New Mexico Science and Engineering Fair winners from Portales Junior High School and PHS.

Sponsor Laura DeBusk presented eighth-graders Sam Gore and Martin Barnes, who placed third in robotics in the junior division, as well as sophomore Tony Yan, who placed second in computer science in the senior division.

• PJHS students Falon McDaniel, Kirsten Victor and Daizia Looney were recognized by the board for taking second place in floriculture at the Future Farmers of America State Career Development Events at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

“I can’t begin to tell you how many hours and hours and hours they have spent being this successful,” said sponsor Morgan Arguello.

• Board members approved the submission of an application for funding from the New Mexico Finance Authority.

The requested funding is $1.5 million, according to Superintendent Johnnie Cain, the first installment from a general obligation bond that was passed during the February school board election.

• Board members approved three out-of-state trips: A PHS junior and senior class trip April 20 to Main Event Entertainment in Lubbock, Texas; the Destination Imagination team’s trip May 22-29 to Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee; and a trip June 26-29 for PJHS cheerleaders to a cheerleading camp at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas.

• Board members approved a donation of $500 to the James Elementary School color run from First Baptist Church of Portales.

• Board members authorized Cain to sign a contract with Woodard, Cowen and Co. for audit services for the 2017 fiscal year.

• Board members approved the award of a request for information to La Casa Family Health Center for dental services.

La Casa’s contract is annual, and can be renewed up to three times before PMS would have to send out another RFI, according to Cain.

• Assistant Superintendent of Instruction David Van Wettering presented the 2016-2017 quality of education surveys completed by parents.

Van Wettering said that in 2016 and 2017, the district has had the best results in the past five years.

He said 94 percent of parents strongly agreed that their child was safe in school (the highest scoring survey question), while 74 percent of parents of Valencia Elementary School students believed not enough extracurricular activities were offered (the lowest scoring question).