Date set for Tucumcari High graduation

It appears Tucumcari High School’s graduation ceremony tentatively will occur at 11 a.m. May 21 at Rattler Stadium — if weather permits.

Discussions over graduation took up a chunk of the school board’s regular meeting April 19. Last year’s graduation took place drive-up style in front of the high school because of COVID-19 restrictions. Each graduate was dropped off in front of the stage by his or her family’s vehicle shortly before receiving a diploma.

During her monthly report, high school principal Nicole Bright-Lesly said Quay County’s current turquoise-zone restrictions permit 75% occupancy at Rattler Stadium. She said that means the school’s estimated 46 graduates each would be permitted 20 guests.

Initial talks among committees indicated graduates preferred a late morning ceremony because the chances of high winds or other bad weather would be less.

Bright-Lesly said if graduation has to be moved indoors because of bad weather, the number of permitted guests would drop drastically because of the Snake Pit’s 33% capacity. That venue could hold only about 300 people under current turquoise zone restrictions.

“I think it would be a disaster at best,” she said of moving it indoors. “There would be a mutiny.”

She said most prospective graduates wanted a ceremony where they would be together. She said heard one persistent complaint from last year’s ceremony: “We didn’t get to watch our friends graduate.”

She said Saturday wasn’t considered as an option for graduation because many families have gatherings or cookouts planned for that day. However, Bright-Lesly said it might be considered as an alternate date in case of bad weather.

Attendance at graduation may be lowered if Quay County’s COVID-19 risk assessment declines before that time. An apparent coronavirus outbreak struck the Logan area beginning in mid-April. If Quay County falls into the yellow or red zone during the next assessment on May 5, the maximum capacity of Rattler Stadium would fall from 75% to 33% or 25%. Indoor venues would not be permitted in yellow or red zones.

Superintendent Aaron McKinney said the school district can “lock in” its plans for the May 21 graduation based on the May 5 assessment, even though another assessment is scheduled for May 19.

Bright-Lesly said the graduating class’ annual slideshow would be posted online because even if the ceremony were held in the evening, it wouldn’t be dark enough until about 8:30 p.m. to see it projected on a large screen.

Bright-Lesly said the Class of 2021 also lacks the funds for an all-night party before the ceremony, and social distancing would discourage it anyway. She said gift cards from those funds might be distributed instead.

In other board business:

• The district was scheduled to begin surveillance COVID-19 testing this week of 1% of student body or 10% of its athletes.

District administrative assistant Veronica Hernandez said the district now has the option of BinexNow testing, which can be administered at the school by the school nurse, health assistant or trained staffers and have results within 15 minutes.

Hernandez said Vault home saliva testing or mouth swab testing also remains available, though the latter has to be performed at the Quay County Public Health Office and requires consent from parents or guardians.

Board member Jerry Lopez said off-site testing requires children to be pulled out of school.

“The ones who are suffering are the kids,” he said.

Board member Heather Gonzales asked whether the Public Education Department’s new mandate received pushback from smaller school districts that she said are being “punished” for the rise of coronavirus cases in larger cities.

McKinney pointed out that participation by students in surveillance testing for now was voluntary.

“If the parents don’t want them to do it, I’m good with it,” he said, adding the PED indicated it would validate the district’s reports even if it doesn’t meet its weekly goals because of such refusals.

Later in the meeting, McKinney said he’d been told that surveillance testing of students would persist into the next school year.

• The board approved one of three options for the 2021-2022 school calendar that was similar to the last four or five years.

Assistant superintendent Dave Johnson said 89% of teachers surveyed preferred that option over a second option that had the school year starting later with more instruction time on Fridays and a third option that would have included a later start time and the school year ending in June.

• McKinney reported that with the latest round of federal COVID-19 relief funds coming, the Tucumcari district will have received about $5 million total, including an estimated $3.4 million from the latest bill. He said he would direct district technologist Patrick Benavidez to make as many technology purchases as possible under the measure’s guidelines.

• During his technology report, Benavidez said the number of students using wireless devices in the school buildings has risen from 25% to 90% in recent months. He said he planned for that eventuality, adding internet access points in more classrooms that can handle up to 50 clients at a time.

Benavidez said the first few teacher workstations were set to arrive in the coming days. Those would enable teachers who use them to instruct other teachers. He said the rest of the workstations should arrive over the summer.

• Athletic director Wayne Ferguson said several middle-school basketball games had been canceled because of referees’ exposure to COVID-19 in Logan. A high-school game with Dexter also was rescheduled because of exposure to the virus in that district.

Ferguson said state officials have told athletic directors to strictly enforce mask mandates by players and fans because of rising caseloads in children.

Answering a question from Lopez, Ferguson said athletic directors have been instructed to schedule games as usual for the fall seasons.

Ferguson said many districts statewide have seen reduced participation in sports overall because many students got jobs or moved away during the pandemic. He said offseason sports during the summer have been instructed to practice in pods, much like last summer.

• Middle school principal Lendall Borden said 176 of the school’s students are on campus, with 28 still in remote learning. He said grades have improved “greatly” since in-person classes resumed in March because students have responded to teaches in the classroom and more accountability to do their work.

Borden said the middle school also was scheduled to give a suicide-prevention presentation, with the possibility of the high school holding one of schedules permit.

• McKinney said a survey of the baseball and softball fields recently had been completed, and he was awaiting the report from the surveyor. After that, he said, the city of Tucumcari could deed the land over to the district to make up to $3 million in improvements from a voter-approved bond issue.

• In a routine matter, board members approved the text book committee’s recommendations of using Houghton Mifflin Harcourt into Literature Collection for language arts and Carnegie Learning Que Chevere Series Levels 1-4 for Spanish language instruction for high school students.

• The board also approved an annual resolution for part-time employees where health insurance can be offered.