On Saturday, a subscriber sent El Defensor Chieftain a photograph of a meeting notice that was posted on the bulletin board at the Socorro Post Office. It was approved by the post office to appear on the board on Thursday, October 26, 2023.

The notice said:
October 26th, 2023. On October 30, there will be a special school board meeting to address specific business matters. If you have any questions, please contact Heather Worley, District Administrative Assistant at 575-838-3127.
However, the posted notice for the Socorro Consolidated Schools violates the Open Meetings Law in the state of New Mexico, for the following reasons:
1. The notice does not state the place nor location of the meeting.
2. The notice does not state the time of the meeting.
3. The notice does not list an agenda for the meeting.
4. The notice does not appear on the Socorro School District’s official letter head nor on the district’s website.

Finally, the newspaper of record, El Defensor Chieftain, was not notified of the meeting.

Questions were to be addressed by District Administrative Assistant. But in a Google search, the phone number is listed as the contact for Superintendent Ron Hendrix.
This information along with a photo of the poster we shared on our Facebook page on Sunday.

In the comments David Hicks, School Board President responded “This was sent to me yesterday afternoon, after the post office closed, by two different city council members. It was sent to both of them. Obviously, it is an oversight, our board secretary was out on vacation last week. We will fix it Monday, reschedule our meeting and implement training to our staff. People make mistakes, we will address it and move on with business. The meeting is to approve the contractor for the new middle school. (It has a quick deadline) Thank you everyone for your patience and enjoy your Sunday afternoon! Dave Hicks, Board President.”

Jessica Carranza Pino, Editor