Portales schools superintendent's contract renewed

Portales Schools Superintendent Johnnie Cain on Monday had his contract renewed for another year in a unanimous 4-0 vote by the Portales Municipal School Board.

Board member Inez Rodriguez was absent.

The decision came after an executive session Monday at the end of the school board’s regular meeting.

Last year, Cain’s contract was extended through the 2024-25 school year, and his salary at that time was about $133,000 per year. Cain said Monday any change in salary would come after the New Mexico Legislature budgets for teacher and administrator pay adjustments.

The board on Monday also approved a social studies textbook series for kindergarten through 12th grade, culminating a year and half of sometimes contentious negotiations statewide with the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) over subject matter to be covered.

As first proposed, the state’s standards came under fire from conservative groups who thought the standards would create racial tensions by identifying some racial and ethnic groups as oppressed and other as oppressors, and emphasis on slavery and mistreatment of Native American tribes in history.

In Portales on Monday the school board adopted a textbook series published by Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt (HRH), which is on PED’s list of approved texts. The HRH series was the choice of a committee of teachers and administrators from Portales elementary schools, Portales Junior High School and Portales high school.

Representatives of the committee told the board Monday that the HRH series was “straightforward, factual and unbiased” in presenting social studies class materials, more so than other series they reviewed.

Superintendent Johnnie Cain said adopting a K-12 series would help make up a deficit in learning social studies for students in the higher elementary grades, who now complete those grades “not knowing what they should” about history and social studies basics.

Board member Cade Standifer said he was impressed by the work done by the committee, especially when he became aware of the volume of materials they had to read through.

Board president Rod Savage also praised the work of the committee and agreed with their conclusions about the HRH series.

The board on Monday also:

• Approved proposals from Nick Griego and Son, a Clovis construction firm, for improvements in track and field sports facilities at Portales Junior High and Portales High School. At Portales Junior High, the firm will install a six-lane running track with rubberized asphalt, as well as lanes for broad jump and triple-jump competition. The total cost of the project is estimated at Apron $533,000. Repair of the high school’s track and broad jump and triple-jump lane is not too exceed $207,725. Cain said both projects will improve student safety.

• Approved the use of $38,655.26 in capital outlay funds to cover the state’s share of the cost of producing a five-year facilities master plan for the district. The state’s share is 55% of the project’s total cost of $70,282.29, with the remaining 45%, $31,627.03 covered by local funds, Cain said.

• Approved a facilities maintenance plan for 2023. Cain said for 2023, a stricter schedule to control pests was added after termites were discovered in two school buildings.

• Heard Cain discuss last week’s closure of schools on Thursday and Friday and transferring to remote learning. At Portales Junior High, he said half of the teachers were out with illnesses, and James Elementary School was also “out of teachers.” One day last week, he said, a total of 47 teachers and staff were absent due to illness and 414 students were out. On the same day last year, he said 28 staff and 200 students were out.