Board agrees to broadly solicit NMSBA Student Achievement Award nominations, committee to review submissions

The Los Alamos Public Schools Board instructed staff to broadly publicize nominations for the New Mexico School Boards Association Student Achievement Awards and assigned a small board committee to review submissions and forward recommendations before the statewide deadline.

President Colgan explained the award process and noted the awards are given by NMSBA but recommended locally. "The criteria for the award ... it's for anybody who's helped a student," Colgan said, noting nominees can include teachers, coaches, scout leaders or community members.

Board Members Copeland and Adams volunteered (or were confirmed) as the committee to review nominations. Board discussion centered on how widely to solicit nominations. Staff reminded the board that broader publicity yields more nominations and that the committee will need time to review submissions; Copeland and another committee member said they valued the broad outreach despite the extra work.

Board Member Spector and others suggested including student voice; the board agreed to email nomination materials directly to student liaisons and student bodies at the high school and middle school to encourage student participation while keeping the submissions process manageable. The board set no formal vote on the outreach approach but agreed by direction to proceed with a public press release and keep the current Google Forms submission method for this year, with staff to explore alternate formats for future cycles.

Staff noted the March 7 deadline for submitting chosen names to NMSBA and said paper forms will be available for those who prefer them. The board will accept committee recommendations and move forward with recognition ceremonies later in the spring.