Hobbs Municipal Schools board approves student, employee and transportation handbooks, budget actions and open-meetings resolution

The Hobbs Municipal Schools Board of Education approved a set of routine operational items at its meeting, including the elementary and secondary student handbooks for the 2025–26 school year, the 2025–26 employee handbook, the 2025–26 transportation handbook, several expenditure and investment items (including a one-time payment for summer reading transportation), three nutrition-services bids, and maintenance budget bars and transfers. The board also adopted an open-meetings resolution covering the coming board-year dates.

District staff presented a one-page summary of edits to the student handbooks that staff said were made to reflect recent board-policy updates and to align handbooks with the district’s mission, vision and values. The employee handbook was reported to contain a single change tied to a State Department of Finance update to the state travel rule; staff said per that change the per diem for travel reimbursement is $70 per day in-state and $70 per day out-of-state. The district also noted a lodging reimbursement increase in the employee handbook materials presented to the board (the amount cited in the meeting materials/transcript was unclear). The transportation handbook received one clarifying addition describing the process when a student is suspended from bus transportation: campus administration will be notified.

On business items, the board approved June expenditures and an investment/short-term cash balance report; staff noted receipt of one BAR (budget adjustment request) tied to funding for summer reading transportation that would be processed as a one-time payment if approved. The board also approved three bids for nutritional/cafeteria supplies (coffee-bar supplies, concession supplies and concession chips) and later approved maintenance budget bars and transfers that allow the business office to maintain and move budgets at the fund-function level during the 2025–26 year.

All of the above motions were made, seconded and approved by verbal assent during the meeting; no roll-call tallies with member names were read into the record. The board also approved an open-meetings resolution for the board-year dates noted in the packet; aside from updated dates, staff said the resolution content was unchanged from prior practice.

Procedural notes and personnel counts appeared in meeting materials and staff comments. A monthly HR report showed five classified hires since the June meeting and one certified hire who began service the day of the meeting; the report also listed one classified resignation and 10 certified resignations (some listed teachers had effective hire dates of 05/23 but subsequently resigned). Staff invited board questions on the report but none were raised.

The motions and approvals were presented as routine business and carried without recorded opposing votes in the public record.