School board president Tommy Gonzales and Socorro High School Athletic Director Charlie Savedra presented two Socorro men with Lifetime Achievement awards at the Nov. 30 meeting of the Socorro Consolidated Schools board.
 
 
George Funkhauser and Manny Marquez, who have together become known as the "Voice of the Warriors" for their countless hours spent announcing Warriors football games over the now defunct KMXQ radio station, were honored with framed certificates and lifetime passes to school athletic events.

The pair are continuing to announce games over the Comcast local television channel and on the Internet at socorrolive.com.

General obligation bonds
Charlie Casey of Casey Financial, which manages the district's bond issues, was present at the meeting to obtain approval for the issuance of $720,000 in general obligation school bonds at an effective interest rate of 1.66 percent. In a telephone interview, Casey said the funds will be available to the district on Jan. 7.
As of Nov. 30, the district has issued $4.22 million of the $6.5 million in general obligation bonds authorized by voters in February 2009, for improvements to the schools' facilities, including remodeling, adding to and furnishing buildings, and buying computer hardware and software.
Some of bond issue was spent on recent renovations to Sarracino Middle School, and more will go toward remodeling the Socorro High School vocational building. Claudio Vigil of Claudio Vigil Architects, the firm in charge of both projects, said work to replace the heating and cooling system at SMS is almost complete. Vigil said $29,000 is being held from the contractor, pending the results of a test and balance report, but that equipment which had been installed but not hooked up is now all in place.

"The comfort level in the building is fine right now," reported Superintendent Cheryl Wilson.
Vigil said he expects to go out to bid for the SHS vocational building in mid- to late January. The approximately $2.4 million project is divided into four bids lots, the first to cover the base building.

Vigil said the plans call for a metal building system because it's economical, with bare concrete flooring for the shops and classrooms. The air conditioning and heating units will be upgraded and the plumbing will be converted to low water use. Dual occupancy sensors that respond to both noise and light will be used for the interior lighting, and exterior lighting will be installed around the building that will operate on timers. The plans also call for a new sewer line to be installed.

"We'll be gutting the building completely," Vigil said. "We'll let the kids finish out the year in the existing building and begin remodeling over the summer."
The second bid lot will take care of brick facing for both the vocational building and the music building, the third will cover building a pole barn for storage, and the last bid lot will deal with paving the area between the new building and the cafeteria to create an outdoor student commons area.
"The time line for the project is about 10 to 12 months for the build," Vigil said. "All projects are going very slowly right now. Companies are staying in business, but they're doing it by having a lot fewer employees to do the work."
Superintendent's report
With her annual evaluation coming up in December, Wilson took time to give the board a detailed report on where the district stands with regard to the goals set during their "mini-retreat" in July.

"Enrollment continues to be up over past years," she said.
Wilson said the Educational Learning Center is serving 33 students, and the day-care center currently has more staff babies than students' babies, but that staff babies generate funds.
With regard to the board goal of increasing morale and confidence, Wilson reported that 55 staff members will receive $250 or $500 bonuses, as approved by the board, "for not using very much sick leave." She said the maintenance staff reports being happy with the change in their assignments: they're now each responsible for a specific building, and it allows them to feel more ownership and to develop a close working relationship with the staff at their particular site.

With regard to the goal of increasing community confidence and relationships, Wilson said hard work on the part of Associate Superintendent Anton Salome has resulted in Parent involvement Committees being significantly more active than in past years.

Wilson also shared a discipline summary with the board that showed about 50 percent fewer fights taking place at the high school. She attributed the improvement to the shortened lunch periods and passing periods between classes, and to increased visibility of teachers in the hallways and on school grounds.

Sarracino Middle School, Wilson said, has seen an increase in the number of students receiving consequences for conduct violations. She attributed that not to more incidents taking place overall, but to increased vigilance and intervention by staff and the presence of a School Resource Officer at the site full-time.

"The staff has reported a much healthier climate at Sarracino," she said.
Wilson also reported that auto-dialers to 911 and electronic door locks at all the sites are "on the way to becoming fully functional."
In other business:
• The board gave its approval for Phase I of the Parkview Elementary Outdoor Classroom, a plan spearheaded by teachers Jennifer Keller and Kaerl Sloan. Using money raised from donations and grants, approximately $12,000 worth of work will be done over Christmas break, including moving the flag pole in the school courtyard to the front of the school, building a gazebo where the flagpole is, and creating a dry riverbed where water will flow when it's raining. The riverbed will be part of a model Rio Grande watershed and at the same time will address drainage issues on the site.
• The board heard a request from Sherry Rodriguez and Michelle Elwood of Calvary Chapel to purchase the portable buildings that are not presently being used at the Torres campus. The board said it would consider their request.