 (Deming) – Parents of Deming school children can breathe a
sigh of relief – early-release Wednesdays are ending.
Superintendent Harvielee Moore said there will be two more early-release days – February 20th and 27th, but there will be no more early-release days after March 1st for the
remainder of this school year.
Moore said Wednesday afternoons were used to analyze data, create instructional plans and develop teachers’ skills so they could implement the new Common Core State Standards.
Now, she said, it’s time to practice using the standards.
While early-release Wednesdays may have helped teachers and school administrators, they were generally disliked by parents and employers, who had a once-weekly disruption in their afternoon
schedule. In fact, early-release Wednesdays were noted by at least one parent to be the “rudest thing Deming Public Schools ever foisted on working parents.”
Again, there will be no more early-release Wednesdays after February 27th for the remainder of the school year.
 (Deming) – The Deming School Board will meet in special
session Thursday.
According to the legal notice, the purpose of the meeting is to hold a work session to discuss a proposal from the city of Deming regarding an industrial revenue bond.
No official action will be taken.
The special session is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the board room of the Emmett Shockley Administration Building, 400 Cody Road.
The meeting is open to the public.
 (Deming) -- If you are a Deming High School graduate who still needs to pass portions of the New Mexico High School Competency Exam in order to receive your official high school diploma, retakes for the exam are being offered now through January 24th.
The New Mexico High School Competency Exam is the test all high school graduates had to pass in order to receive their official high school diploma.
If you graduated from Deming High between 2008 and 2011 and still need to pass any portion of the exam, contact the Deming High School Guidance office at 546-6561 during regular school hours to set up an appointment to retake the test.
Again, retakes for the New Mexico High School Competency Exam are being offered now through January 24th.Contact the Deming High School Guidance Office weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 546-6561 to schedule an appointment to take the test.
 (Deming) -- An event designed to assure that high school
seniors interested in going to college have FAFSA pin numbers will take place this Friday, January 11th, during the home
boys’ basketball games.
FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Students who plan to attend college or a trade school in the 2013-2014 school year will need to start working on their FAFSA paperwork.The preferred deadline for FAFSA
completion is March 1st. This Friday, computers will be available in the lobby of the main campus gym from 4:30-6:30 p.m. during the freshman and jayvee Deming/Silver High boys basketball
games for parents to obtain their FAFSA pin numbers.
Deming high school seniors must get a pin number before starting on the financial aid application.
Again, you can get a number and more information this Friday, January 11th, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. in the lobby of the main Deming High School gymnasium during the freshman and jayvee Wildcat basketball games.
If parents have questions regarding the FAFSA application, they may visit with an academic advisor during that time or anytime during school hours.Phone 546-2678 ext. 2780 for more information.
 (Deming) – Voting for the February 5th school election begins this Friday with paper ballot, and next Wednesday with electronic voting.
County Clerk Andrea Rodriguez said it is a county-wide election with a question before all Luna County voters on the
continuation of a two-mill levy for capital improvements in the
district.
Also, five people are vying for an open seat on the Deming Public School Board, while an incumbent is facing an opponent in the other seat up for election.
In District One, incumbent David McSherry, who is running for a third term on the board, is being
challenged by Ronald Wolfe.
And five candidates have thrown their hats in the ring for the District Two seat currently held by Anne Keeler, who is not seeking reelection.
Those five are, alphabetically, Mickey Hamilton, Jr., Frederick Metcalf, Kenneth Perea, Phillip Skinner and John Sweetser.
The election will be held Tuesday, February 5th.
 (Deming) – The graduation date for the Deming High School Class of 2013 has been set.
Deming High Principal Janean Garney said the Deming School Board approved the graduation date of Friday, May 24th, 2013.
Garney said the date, which is nearly a week later than many years, was selected because of statewide calendar issues.
Years in which July 1st falls on a Sunday shift the New Mexico Activities Association calendar to a 52-week calendar, not a 53-week calendar as in every other year.July 1st, 2012, was on a Sunday, and that set the NMAA calendar for 2012-2013.
The difference with the NMAA calendar means statewide activities are adjusted by six days, and athletic and activity events run one week later. Garney said seniors will have the week of May 20th off for their “senior week.” Mandatory graduation practice will be Friday, May 24th at 9 a.m.
 Superintendent Harvielee Moore (Deming) – Deming School officials are standing by the information disseminated – or not disseminated – to Deming High seniors before the October retakes of the Standard Based Assessment
Superintendent Harvielee Moore said she believed all information received by the district had been adequately communicated to students – although she admitted that she was not personally aware of exactly what seniors were told about state-mandated graduation requirements for the class of 2013. Moore, and Assessment and Accountability Director Terri Trejo, both pointed to a memo from State Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera to school superintendents dated August 31st which said students must “exhaust all opportunities to show competency on the SBA” before alternative demonstrations of competency can be considered.
But the same memo lists alternative demonstrations of competency as simply passing the courses required for graduation.
So this year’s seniors who do not pass the SBA with a score of 73 or better will still receive a diploma as long as they pass Biology or Chemistry, Algebra II, Language Arts III and U.S. History, along with other credit requirements.
Moore said the information coming from the state department of education is constantly changing and often confusing, but that she and her administration were acting in the best interests of the students by telling them that the safest path to a diploma was to do their best
on the retakes.
Scores achieved on the retakes will not be known until next month. And to further confuse parents, the graduation requirements for the class of 2014 include passing the SBA or passing
end-of-course exams for the four targeted classes – even if students took the classes as a freshman or sophomore.
And the class of 2015 could have an entirely different set of state-created graduation requirements since those students will come under the new Common Core Standards curriculum.
 (Deming) – Was it manipulation or misinformation? Regardless, this year’s Deming High School seniors were told by Deming school officials they had to receive a score of 73
on the Standard Based Assessment in order to graduate, and that is simply not true.
In fact, KDEM/KOTS news was told by school officials in mid-September that this year’s senior class was to be the first graduating class required to pass the SBA in order to receive a high school diploma. Students who did not pass, we were told, would receive a “certificate of completion” in lieu of a diploma.
But a memo from State Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera to school superintendents
dated August 31st said that is not the case.
The memo said students in the class of 2013 simply have to meet their credit requirements – in
other words, pass all their classes – in order to graduate.
Although school officials obviously had that information prior to the SBA retake test
administered October 2nd and 4th, seniors taking that test were led to believe that passage with a score of 73 was still a requirement for graduation.
Calls to Superintendent Harvielee Moore were not immediately returned.
 DHS Speech & Debate Team (Deming) – Deming High School Speech and Debate Team members placed in a tough competition Saturday in Albuquerque.
Public forum team members Katie Cox, Eli Hutts,
Ryan Larko and Tatiana Villalobos brought home two third-place trophies in debate from the tournament held at Sandia High School.
Sponsor Rachel Zarate said the six Deming High competitors went up against teams and individuals from 20 schools around the state.
Zarate said four of the six students she took competed for the first time Saturday, and she was very proud of the team members’ performance and high level of professionalism and academic
intelligence.
 (Deming) -- Members of the Deming High School Fellowship of Christian Athletes are inviting interested community members to their annual before-school public prayer event Wednesday.
Organizers say the "See You at the Pole" event will kick off at 7 a.m. Wednesday, and is a good opportunity to pray for our schools, students, school staff and nation.
In past years, members of Deming’s Jr. ROTC raise the flag at 7 a.m. on the flag pole in front of Deming High School.
There traditionally is praise and worship music, and an open microphone for students and community members to share.
"See You at the Pole" was started in 1990 by some teens in Burleson, Texas, who felt compelled to pray so they went to three
different schools and prayed at each schools' flagpole. From there, a challenge was issued to students throughout Texas to meet at their flagpoles and pray simultaneously. The concept ballooned as word spread through youth ministers and organizations reporting that students across the country were feeling the same burden for their schools as the Texas students had.
"See You at the Pole" is not a formal event, but more of a non-denominational prayer gathering. People sing, read from the Bible and pray -- some out loud and some silently.
The event will be held this Wednesday at the flag pole in front of Deming High School.Anyone interested is invited to attend.
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