https://otter.ai/s/7mjW4UP6Sdq_Lg6rB5NRWw
0:00
You’re looking at it and we’ll fix that. still
0:09
glad you were able to bring it up.
0:12
No, I appreciate it and would invite further comments. If you see stuff like that. Please feel free. Thank you.
0:37
Okay. What?
0:40
Hi, everybody.
0:41
Hi. It’s good to see you.
0:58
Evening
1:42
We are
1:42
gonna be having restrictions so in the summer but it’s kind of
1:49
like the 45 days now.
1:52
Thankfully they open it up because it was
1:58
so we’re hoping to have Tonight
2:02
we’re having lunch. Nope.
2:07
That’s a good number. So I’m
2:09
not gonna complain after,
2:14
after June 15, we’re gonna be able to start groups twice a week. disinfecting, wiping, taking temperature.
2:21
I used to coach soccer.
2:24
And I know from the little kids all the way up to the high school kids
2:32
stop punching.
2:35
little balls of socks. Yeah.
2:46
That’s a thought. Have you ever watched it in
2:57
Westminster hi
3:18
Good evening and welcome to the st. Brain Valley School District Board of Education meeting. You could please stand and join us in saying the Pledge of Allegiance.
3:47
Hello, Barb, it’s nice to see you this evening. Could you please could you please call the roll?
3:54
Mr. Aaron
3:55
President,
3:56
Mr. Brutal
3:59
Garcia
4:00
Here after Martin
4:02
present, this appears
4:04
here. This is Brian one here. And the secret here. Thank you, BB, BB. Were there any addendums or changes to the agenda this evening?
4:15
Then we’re not.
4:17
Thank you again. That brings us to agenda item three, which is our audience participation. I do have some messages to read this evening. We are inviting and accepting public participation through an online platform. I do have three that I will read this evening. The first comment is from Romy Cooney at nine to six for blue spruce lane.
4:43
She writes,
4:45
schools in the fall must be opened up full normal capacity. Our children already suffered through distance learning or no learning has occurred. They have a right to an absolutely deserve to have an in school education. All science demonstrates no potential harm to our children if they go to school. Follow science, not fear. In reality these kids are already spending tons of time together without masks, and without social distancing, sleepovers, playdates playing sports, etc. They along with most are done with all of this, and there haven’t been any spikes in cases. drive around town. No one is safer at home. Traffic is as bad as ever. Everyone is back out leading their lives. Let the kids lead. There’s with full education and everything that comes with being in school sports activities and socializing. The Next comment is from Tracy means to Bruce place. Hello, my name is Tracy means and I have two daughters who were eighth graders at Westview Middle School. I also have temporary custody of my three nephews. My daughters are in special education and have special needs. I would like to tell you how online learning when at our house, my daughters are twins and we’re both in eighth grade. Their names are Cassidy and Renata. They did not like online learning at all, or not especially, she does not like change and likes having a normal routine. with having five kids It is hard to maintain a routine sometimes. She was very stressed out and emotional about this whole situation. Her teacher Mr. Cyrus Collier was awesome during this time with her. He made his classes just like school where they got on everyday at the same time for her core classes. That was not enough for her and if technology was not working, she got overwhelmed and had a meltdown. Let me tell you what a meltdown is for her. She would start by yelling at someone in the house then it would end by her being in tears and not be able to calm down for at least one hour. This happened every day that we did online learning. It was so bad that Mr. Call you’re concerned for her mental health told her pinata that she did not have to do science and social Studies only focused on reading and math. Excuse me, it’s hard to read for a long time with the mask on. Before online learning, she would have a meltdown maybe once a month, but not every day. It got to the point I thought she was going to hurt herself and she did not but I have never worried like that before. I would like you to consider that the kids with special needs do not adapt well as their peers to my girls are starting high school in the fall and I know that they cannot handle starting a new school and having online learning. I’m not even sure they could wear a mask all day because of their sensory issues. You have to follow the IEP in place and not sure how that can be accomplished online. Please consider having the special needs kids attend regular school every day since that group of kids is small. Thank you for your time.
7:52
Excuse me. This is from Amy Hartley 5723 skyline Avenue. What are the plans for the children with IEP and SSN classes in the fall, I struggled with distance learning with my seventh grade SSN child. She receives a lot of support throughout the school day. And I cannot provide all of the support she needs and be a parent as well. She gets frustrated and takes it out on me. She is mainstreamed for part of her day. And her two core classes for that is social studies and science. She’s not on a seventh grade reading level. So that made things complicated to be able to do the work. She also has a processing disorder that also complicated things having to go back and forth between things while doing the schoolwork. I would like to suggest a physical book to read from in order to attempt to work with her if distance learning continues in the fall. She and I did a lot of life skills to fill our days. Being a special needs parent already requires a lot of hats and this was very difficult for me and her both. Unfortunately, she also missed out on speech and occupational therapy in and out of school due to social distancing. So I’m sure there has been some regression in both Have those as well.
9:03
So we thank the community.
9:06
Excuse me for their comments. Don,
9:11
we’re on to the superintendents report.
9:14
Yeah. And just a quick note, I did have a chance to talk to a couple of those parents from those.
9:20
And thank you.
9:21
Yeah, no, I was great to visit with them. And just they were wanting to put their support behind the return and full. And I shared with him that that was our best hope as well. And they acknowledged as well that the governor’s office and the county and state health departments will make that decision. And so
9:44
they acknowledged that they understood that they just wanted to,
9:49
you know, tell us that that’s what they were hoping for. Very pleasant.
9:52
Yeah. And that’s what we’re all hoping for, as well. So
9:56
thank you. You bet.
10:00
I would like to take a few minutes to share some thoughts
10:07
that, you know that pertain to recent events in our country, as well as throughout the entire world. There’s really no way that words can fully describe the extremely disturbing and tragic killing of George Floyd that recently took place. It was disgusting. It was heartbreaking. It was violent and it was criminal. And simply, there are no words to strongly enough condemn this horrific act. Over the past weeks, I’ve had several conversations with members of our staff, our leadership team, our community, and have reflected quite a bit on recent events, and on other events that have occurred over the many years both in my personal and my professional life. events that have clearly demonstrated that everyone does not experience the same human rights, respect and dignity that each person, in fact has a right to experience. It is a sad reality. And I believe that each of us has a responsibility to do what we can to change this. Condoleezza Rice In a recent interview that I watched, said something that really resonated with me. She said that a question that she believes we should all ask ourselves in reference to the issue of racism and discrimination, is what am I going to do? She was asking this question in the context of how each of us could individually take action to better our world. She went on to share that she and her family believes strongly that education was always for us, as she put it, a way to break through the barriers of prejudice. In regards to what we can do, I have always believed One of our nation’s most important institutions, and catalysts for advocating ensuring and advancing every individual’s human rights is our public school system. This in large part is why I chose this profession 35 years ago. And this is why I’ve remained committed to advancing public education for every student, teacher, staff and community member. You’ve heard me say numerous times that over 90% of our children in America, K through 12. attend our public schools. This is much more than a statistic. This represents how critically important public education is to ensuring an America that equitably and proudly serves every person. This is why I believe that ensuring the human rights of each and every person must be held as our top priority and must be advanced every day, every week, every month. year and beyond in our public schools. Further, this work is not represented in a single short term event, but rather a process that continues in perpetuity. The quality of an individual’s life, and the quality of our democracy as a whole is in large part dependent on the quality and the sincerity of our public schools, the equity of opportunity, the equity of respect, the equity of dignity, the equity of care and concern, and the equity of love that we show to our children, as well as each and every adult. toward this and our voice matters, as it represents what we believe and what we value. And our voice must extend well beyond our spoken words. It must be demonstrated through our actions over time in some cases, over a lifetime. I have come to understand clearly over the past 35 years in education, and more recently over the past 12 years as superintendent of schools insane rain, that my voice is best reflected and most impactful when acting on my unwavering unequivocal belief in ensuring the human rights to the best of my ability for each and every student, each and every teacher, each and every staff member, and each and every member of our community. In st reign, we believe that a great education is not only an opportunity, it is a human right, for which every child has an absolute right. A belief in these rights that must not only be verbalized, but demonstrated a great child, a great early childhood education is something we saw insane rain early on as an inequity writes such as a high quality preschool and full day kindergarten.
15:06
And while Colorado has most recently acted on this belief, St. Rain dedicated the resources and acted on this belief over a decade ago because we understood clearly how important this was for every child, a quality and safe school facility in which to learn St. Brain and our community acted on this in 2008 in 2012, and again in 2016. And in all the years in between when bond and mill levy override initiatives enabled us to build new modern schools, renovate existing schools, and create equity and access to high quality safe learning environments, high quality, rigorous curriculum, and outstanding highly qualified and diverse teachers, staff and administrators All of which have resulted in higher graduation rates, lower dropout rates, and numerous excellent opportunities for each and every child in our schools. By Design System of high expectations, and rigorous learning for all 21st century technology designed to expose every child to the wonders of our vast world, to different cultures, to different races, to geography, to governments, and so much more. The ability to acquire a post secondary associate degree college education, whether or not your family possess the finances necessary to do so. I know that we may never fully understand the discrimination, the racism, the hurt, the fear and oppression that another has faced and yet What I do know is that we can listen. We can learn, and ultimately act on our deeply held beliefs and values, that the well being of every person and the human rights of every person is paramount. And toward this end, I believe that we must all assume the responsibility for creating an environment where this is actualized and moves beyond words and beliefs in order to become a reality. It is this deeply held belief that has been ingrained in me by my parents and others since the day I was born. And my unwavering commitment to act on ensuring the best interest of every person that will continue to inspire and drive me and this public school system to relentlessly pursue the resources necessary to ensure that our education system and st brain and beyond sincerely and successfully serves each child and family in an equitable and excellent way with Their purpose, commitment and resolve a system that ensures that our learning environment and our policies and practices such as student discipline, non discrimination, equity and access and many others are intended to serve, and lift up each and every person in such a way that they can pursue the hopes, aspirations and dreams that we all possess. As john F. Kennedy once said, in reference to education, let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities. Because in each of us, there is a private hope and dream, which fulfilled can be translated into benefit for everyone, and greater strength for our nation. As you know, we’ve prioritized the safety, well being and success of every student in the same brain Valley School for years. We have valued the voice and partnerships of our community. And toward this end, we have scheduled numerous community meetings for the upcoming fall and spring semesters. Similar to what we’ve been doing for past years. My superintendents update being sent out tomorrow will include dates, locations and times for these community meetings, where we will once again have the opportunity to listen, to learn and to collaborate with our community. We will also have the opportunity to share information regarding our commitment and our efforts towards ensuring and advancing the best we can be for each and every one of our students, our teachers, our staff and our communities. The topics will include st reign Valley schools strategic priorities, an allocation of resources in alignment with our mission and values.
19:54
We will discuss board policies designed to ensure equity safety, we will talk about counselors interventionists, school psychologists, social workers, campus supervisors, teachers, sorrows, discipline policies, and much more. And it will all be with a focus on the overall well being of our students and our teachers and our staff and our community. Recent events around our nation and world, including the impact on St. reign and beyond, will be discussed, as well as plans to address important issues in collaboration with our community. As you recall, we’ve had extensive community meetings last year and in years prior, related to our sorrows, and many from our community, joined us in these conversations, and other topics as well associated with safety. And I’m looking forward to continuing these important conversations at our upcoming community meetings in person so that our communication can be interactive, detailed Comprehensive. In closing, I want to reiterate my denouncing of discrimination, racism and violence in any form, and strongly condemn the horrific killing of George Floyd. And I would like to reinforce my unwavering commitment to continue taking the necessary actions as the superintendent of the same brain Valley schools to ensure the human rights, respect and safety of each and every person. And thank you for your time.
21:35
Thank you, Dawn.
21:41
Thank you.
21:45
I couldn’t agree more. Dawn, that there are simply no words strong enough to condemn the killing of George Floyd. My heart is heavy. Yet regarding what we can do as leaders and public education, I agree with you Public Education is an avenue to and promotes the advancement of every individual’s human rights. I firmly believe public education is a cornerstone of democracy and significantly impacts the future of our communities, state, nation and world. I want to read the district’s mission statement. It is to educate each student in a safe learning environment so that they may develop to their highest potential and become contributing citizens. This board of education in partnership with our superintendent are unequivocally committed to this mission. To that end, the board will continue to prioritize every student in st brain Valley schools having equitable educational opportunities. During my time on the board, this conviction has been clearly demonstrated. Don highlighted Some examples of our commitment to equity such as expanded programming, investments and all learning environments, expanded support for students, families and staff, as well as investments in curriculum safety and technology. These investments have taken place across this across our district, in all schools in all communities. And that will not stop. This board of education will continue to be guided by the commitment to equitable educational opportunities for all students as we partner with the superintendent and community in decision making. I often say publicly that the role of the Board of Education is to serve as a conduit between the communities we represent and the district and conversely, to share the district’s work with our communities. I believe that today more than ever, this board looks forward to listening to and engaging with the community at the upcoming Superintendent meetings this fall. It is the Through these conversations and community support in partnership with schools that we’ve been able to create, as Don said, a system built on equity of opportunity, respect, dignity, caring concern, and love. In closing, please know you have this board’s full commitment to putting every student’s best interests at the forefront of our leadership decisions. Does anyone else from the board have any comments that they’d like to make at this time? Chica
24:36
Yeah, I just wanted to
24:39
thank you both for those statements.
24:43
And both you spoke to some of the examples that are that are currently out there work that’s been happening already.
24:51
Done I think it’s important to
24:54
like I said, you mentioned a couple things but you spoke of equity by design and and you can give a few more more examples of the work that’s already happening and continue to happen. And
25:06
you know where that’s taking us and where we’ve been and, and just I just think there’s so much more out there that I think it’s important for the community here. some more examples of what we’ve been doing in this space.
25:17
Okay, I would be happy to and thank you for that, Chico for that question. And one of the things that we believed is important is to create a diverse teaching force and staff and so we started our own pee teach program. And we are graduating our first class of actually, it’s our second class, but this year’s classes 29 of our students, and they will become teachers and they will come back into our system and they all represent a diverse group of young people that I can’t wait to see, come back and pass on to others. We’ve also pushed really hard and have increased the number Have administrators and others in our system that represent diversity. We have seen through our programming, significant drops in discipline procedures, you know, something that I shared years ago, when the district had somewhere around 20,000 students. This district was averaging anywhere between 70 and 90 expulsions a year, and they were overwhelmingly our minority students. Now, on average, we’ll have two or three and we have 33,000 students, sometimes a before and a couple years ago, we had zero and they are not Pranab, predominantly our minority students, and I’m proud of that. And I attribute that to many of these programs that I’m going to share with you. I also want you to know that we manage and monitor constantly. The interactions between Are sorrows and our students in our schools. We have a parents in education program that focuses on our title schools and it’s facilitated in Spanish. For years we have supported posso and El Paso groups of parents that work with our children and work with our staff. And we have supported our Hispanic Education Foundation comprehensively as a system. We have an outstanding diversity director, coordinator and student services and special needs are split into so that we could have two executive directors to focus primarily on our children with special needs and our student services programs. We offer preschool and full day kindergarten to all of our children because we know that a great start is paramount. And we also know that that is very unique throughout the state of Colorado and the United States. We offer to P tech schools pathways through technology where our students are able to earn a two year associate degree at no cost to the student, and they are predominantly first generation and minority students. We offer seven Title One schools five bilingual schools. We have this year past year included a bi literacy seal for a diploma. And it’s just amazing how many students are graduating now with that honor. We have pushed hard for our co curricular programs to increase the number of students participating. We added comprehensive advanced manufacturing Academy with certifications in the last two years. With over 25 manufacturing companies where our students earn certifications. We provide state of the art technology for all of our students at no cost. Because we don’t want financial barriers to be a barrier. we’ve engaged in trainings in partnership with cu with our teachers, our administrators, our counselors, etc. For our Gay Straight Alliance programs, we’ve added them at every middle school and every high school and work hard to train our teachers, our administrators, our counselors. Several years ago, we won approximately $20 million through Race to the Top and i three, and all of that money was invested in our skyline feeder system to develop a state of the art nationally recognized STEM program. We work with our partners in various community organizations. Last year, we sponsored a Latin x youth summit, with 300 and middle school, middle and high school students that all participated.
29:52
All of our teachers receive sheltered instruction annually for English language learners. Our priority programs culturally responsive teaching for the past two years, and an extensive five year Latino history project that we did in partnership with our teachers and see you, Boulder. We started a Master’s cohort, a master’s degree cohort for culturally and linguistically diverse education. We have 30 teachers engaged in that. We have the best unified athletics program in the state of Colorado that serves the needs and the opportunities for sports and athletics for our special needs children. And we were recognized one of our high schools was recognized as a top school in the state. We have revised our board policies around discrimination to be inclusive of each and every one of our students. We launched project launch a one month program in the summers for extra literacy four days a week and it was predominantly majority of our ESL and Hispanic students. The Advanced Placement College Board identified st brain as an honor roll School District, one of only four in Colorado and I’m one of only a few hundred in the entire nation of 14,000 school districts for our diverse population and achievement levels for our students. We opened a 50,000 square foot Innovation Center for additional opportunities and many of our students in our P tech program being mentored by IBM engineers. We have began to put more and more cultural responsiveness books in our libraries, and building into our unit plans and our curriculum essential questions to allow for students to explore cultural and diverse perspectives in partnership with level cu and level two training. We implemented as you know, a K through 12 social and emotional program within focus at the elementary, seven mindsets at the middle and sources of strength at the high school level. And it’s required in every school and it focuses On diverse perspectives identity and cultural awareness. Our leadership cabinet is representative of the value that we place on diversity and inclusion. Our communications are also focused on being able to communicate effectively and represent equally the successes of all of our students. We’ve held community meetings for several years, eight in the fall eight in the spring, to engage our community on these very topics. And as you know, we’ve been doing this for years. We have parent leadership teams that are led by bilingual and bicultural family liaison at each title one school monthly. We host monthly cafecito shows. We have parent education partnership programs that are Title One schools and have begun American Indian outreach initiatives. This past year. Our community and partner groups are being led by Olga Cordero Patrick and myself And we have representation from across the community, civic leaders and engaged professionals and parents. We’ve made sure that there is access to the most advanced programming in our elementary schools up into our middle schools and high schools. We have after school tutoring in partnership with Longmont youth center. And we have various multicultural clubs throughout our high schools that are going very strong. And you know, Chico, I’ll tell you I I could go on and on and on. But what I would also say to you is we’re not done. This is not an event. This is a process. And this is our life’s work. And so we are going to continue to make sure that every single child gets exactly what they deserve a great education and our love and our respect and I’m really proud of it. I also want you to Know that on a regular basis, I am interacting with our elected officials, throughout our district, with our safety chiefs throughout our district, through our business community, setting up mentoring and internships and all kinds of opportunities for our children. And I track the data very closely. And I will give you a report and our community a report at our community meetings, on the interactions in terms of student discipline, both with our staff, and with our SRO program.
34:37
And again, I’m going to stop there and see if you have any questions about any of those things. But what I want to really emphasize is that we have moved beyond words years ago and saying brain we have moved beyond words and into actions and it is our mission. And we practice it every day and we have embedded it into the daily fabric of what We do and who we are every single day of the year. So thank you for the question.
35:10
Anyone else?
35:14
All right, thank you everyone. Agenda item six our reports. And I believe this evening agenda 6.1 is specifically the athletics and Fine Arts update. Chase. I believe we have you with us this evening via WebEx. I’m here
35:32
I chase How are you? It’s nice to see you. It’s been a while
35:36
Yeah, yeah, madam president board doctor dad, thanks for having me. It’s certainly a unique circumstances. But it’s it’s good to be in front of you guys again, and, and talk about a little bit of the achievements and successes we had this year. And, you know, and I’ll start with with the winner of course, because Due to, due to cobit, we weren’t we were not present for our winter update. So if you’re okay with that, I’ll start from there. And then I’m going to tell you a little bit about what we have going on this summer and field some questions if there’s anything after that. So to start, we had a record number of all state music participants this year. You know, and I want to thank Dr. Dad and crucian for allowing us to add a fine arts coordinator. She’s really helped Janae bird from former choir director from Erie she’s really helped promote our fine arts and working with her we’ve we’ve made a push to make those as well known as our athletics in our district as they are equally as important. For High School Allstate choir, we have 56 students statewide out of 170 from the state Um so you know we essentially covered a third of those all stay ban we had 14 Allstate orchestra we had 15. And then at the Allstate Middle School section we had 64 of our students Longmont high school they were awarded a our our highest earner for Band Aid qualified for the state national festival which only three bands in the state are selected to participate in. So they were they were due to head to Columbus Ohio for their for their national competition that was to be held in April but they were not able to attend so if you if you see any of those guys or you know if you get over the long month, they’ve got a great thing going and tons of momentum so and with that Lyons was an alternate so they they were right there as well. Just a little recap on how the winter went for us. For for wrestling we had seven of our students from st rain wrestling in the state finals. board. We, a number of us went to the Allstate choir concert right before the state finals and transitioned over there and it was a night of celebrating St. Francis brain students. We had our seven kids we had two of them that won state championships, or in half from lions and Rudy Lopez from Erie and swimming. Mary court Avella, she added to her career so far winning two more state titles from ny watt. And her 500 free at the time was the fastest time in the country. She she’s not clearly ranked number one, but she’s, she’s right there and she’s just a sophomore. So it could be a pretty special type athlete that we have a nine out there. For basketball we had quite the day one day we we had five games insane brain and we’re in the final 16 and we It was fun to have to solve this the problem of staggering start times within the four games that St. Barry hosted so Don and myself could make it to every one of them. But it there’s there’s good problems and there’s bad problems and that was certainly a good problem that particular day are saying brain teams with foreign one with the only loser being somebody that lost to a same brain school. So we we maxed out for the day. You know, continue on with that, you know, seven out of our eight boys teams made this or excuse me, eight out of eight of our boys teams made the state tournament this year so that that was a first time for same rain and you know, it was it was bittersweet a little bit because we we had the number one ranked team in the state and most would say that the the two best teams in the state played in the front Late, which was Lincoln High School and meet High School and meet ended up winning that game and if you were able to attend I think I saw a few of you there at
40:10
about a half hour before the start of the game we had to stop letting people in because it was it was jam packed to say the least. But it’s certainly exciting and you know, they, I feel, you know, I certainly feel for them as they were heading to the Final Four and we we had to call them at 1130 at night to let them know that their game The next day was going to be canceled but they certainly have nothing to be ashamed of. They lost their first game of the year and then when their next 25 and, you know, they Darren Reese, their their coach, he was a water Colorado Coach of the Year. So we’ll certainly have to get him in front of you guys and celebrate him for that. Our girls teams we had we had close to equal success five out of our eight teams made it with a number of them advancing to the final 16 or final eight spots as as Dr. Han dad said we were awarded a special award for our unified program at at Meade High School, which was the state’s top recognition. We’re going to continue to expand with our Mia unified programs. And next year, we are set to start unified basketball at the middle school. And we will do that and then in the spring, so that that should add another bit of excitement. So then looking forward a little bit to the spring and what what that could have looked like it was it was interesting, because the first day of fall, or spring sports was March 12, which was the same day that we we went home and we had a meeting here at 315. And I told the athletic directors that this could be our last day and a few of them said, well, should we cancel our game tonight? And I said no, I mean, God forbid. But what if this is your only opportunity? As it turned out, it was and Fortunately, all four of our teams that played that night one, so we, we, we finished with an undefeated screening, if you will. But you know that that was kind of bittersweet as well. Up to this point in the year we have any school district in the state we easily top the number of state champions. With through this through the winter, excluding basketball, we had 10 team state champions, excuse me, 19 state champions and 10 individuals. With me, I said playing in the Final Four and then heading into springs, lions and nightwatch both had the top ranked boys and girls track teams. in baseball they Erie and Silver Creek were ranked number one and number three in the cross areas ranked number one and then in girls soccer we had three teams are ranked inside the tip top 10 so As well as a number of boys swimmers that that competed for state championships the year before. So it was it was a bit of a bummer. And, you know, I think that we we certainly grew a deeper appreciation for our co curricular and extracurricular activities. And we’ve learned that on some level, they’re therapeutic and we’re doing all we can to, to make sure we’re ready to get our kids back involved and back to active in our community. We we have plan a Plan C, Plan B, plan D, we’re ready to go. So if however, it may adjust where we’re going to be there. A little bit of on how the summer is going to look we up to this point this. Today was the first day any school ventured to try some workouts we’ve been working closely they DS and myself have been meeting once or twice a week to plan out what the summer will Look like we recently have received some guidelines. It certainly made it way more manageable. Originally it started at four kids per group and then it went to 10 Kids per group and, and now it’s at 25. And you know, just just for a little bit of your visual images here we, what we did as each campus we divided it up into into grids. And then the athletic director is assigning certain groups to certain grids at different times. So we stagger time, so we never have too many people there at one time. We also have a screening process that we are running on our athletes and our coaches before.
44:47
Before they are able to participate, they get their temperature taken. They asked a series of questions about you know, their health and do they have a cough, sore throat, things of that nature and then they sanitize their hands and then they Guided down a path to their particular grid. So it certainly looks a little different than it has in years past. But, you know, our, our athletic directors have certainly shown a lot of leadership within their buildings and in app design that so that everybody will, we’ll get a fair opportunity this summer to accomplish what, whatever the guidelines let us do. And we, we have plans going forward to to hopefully expand that as well as contingency plans if those were to stay the same and or go backwards. So that’s, that’s a little bit of what I have. If, if there’s any questions, I’ll be happy to answer. But I know for two thirds of the year we we were able to achieve what most districts don’t achieve in multiple years. So it was certainly a fun year and I don’t expect any of that to change in the near future.
45:56
Thank you, Chase. Do board members have any questions or comments for This evening. No, no Chase, if you could, on behalf of the board, please pass along our appreciation to all of the athletic directors that have worked so hard to make the practice possible. Again, I know that it doesn’t look normal, and it takes a lot of effort to draw, you know, to make sure protocols are are, are followed. grids are created. Thank you for all of that. And I cannot wait for the day when you bring a group of kids back into this boardroom.
46:31
We know we hope to overtake your your boardroom again, the next time that we get the opportunity to
46:39
Well, I would thoroughly enjoy that. So Hey, Joe.
46:42
Yes, I was just gonna say, you know, one of the other things that’s been happening this spring this exciting is the hiring of some really good coaches. And that’s such a critical thing because, you know, as chases background involves a lot of coaches that have mentored him, as well. And that’s It’s just such a important part of our students growth. And so congratulations on some really outstanding hires.
47:09
Yeah, thank you done. It’s, you know, it’s, it’s really, just to echo his point a little bit, you know, we had, we had parents and families reaching out and you know, just begging for the opportunity to, to let their coach and speak to their kids. I mean, that’s a relationship that that’s often carried on many years past high school, you know, they’re invited to your wedding, and then you stay in touch with them. And you know, and as some of you may know, you know, Dr. Dad was a principal of mine when I was in high school, and here it is, you know, 16 years later, we’ve managed to stay in touch. So it’s certainly those are the kind of relationships that you that you Foster, and you build and they help development the greater good of the, of the child. So when we’re doing our best and we’re trying to get the right people in front of our kids, and we’re gonna keep working hard at
47:58
thanks, Tracy. You know, there was A nice article in The Times call this morning or today I should say I read it this morning about the volleyball coach at Meade High School. And she was the former student from there. I think she was a freshman in 2010. It was a great article that featured her.
48:14
Yeah. She’s done a nice job.
48:17
She had a very successful first year. You did see Dad? Yes. So, Chase. It’s wonderful to see you. I wish you and your family all the best. And thank you for your dedication to the students of St. Brain.
48:29
Thank you for having me. Mm hmm.
48:30
Take care.
48:34
Agenda Item 6.2 is the public hearing of superintendents proposed fiscal year 21 budget for all funds. Tony. Good evening.
48:43
Good evening.
48:44
Welcome. It’s nice to see you. Thank you.
48:49
So, two weeks ago, I had the privilege of introducing the superintendent’s proposed budget for St. Brain Valley schools for the 2021 fiscal year in compliance state statute and then in the spirit of transparency and community engagement, I’d like to assist the board tonight with conducting a public hearing on this budget. And in doing so bring forward any comments or questions received by the finance office, and then make myself available to answer any questions by the board or community members who may be present. Pending any changes the budget will then be brought forward to the June 24 board meeting for formal adoption. Typically, there are a few to no changes between when the budget is proposed at the end of May to when it is adopted at the end of June. However, as I mentioned at the previous board meeting, due to the pandemic, there has been a delay by the state legislature in financing the budget for K 12 education in Colorado. There was also a subsequent postponement of the finalization of any compensation changes for next year’s budget. Therefore, we have been updating the budget as new developments occur. And at this time, the legislature has indeed made some progress on k 12 public school finance And has introduced the school finance Act, which funds schools in our state. While not finalized yet, the school finance act bill does contain funding proposals that we have been told should not shift too much before it is passed, which is expected in the next week or two. And so we have incorporated the funding amounts that are in the current bill into this budget revision today. If you recall, we used as a placeholder a potential decrease of total program revenue of approximately 10%, which translates to about $26 million in our general fund revenue. I’m sadly pleased to report that the current school finance act under consideration contains a less worse decrease of only five and a half percent, or about $14.2 million compared to the previous year. In addition, district administration has gone to great lengths to identify areas where expenditures might be delayed by a year to allow for some temporary breathing room. On the expenditure side. We have thus incorporated these items and budgeted a decrease of expenditures in the amount of more than $9 million that reflect mostly one time savings primarily in the areas of capital projects technology and curriculum. Finally, compensation conversations and negotiations with education association continue, and thus this budget does not contain any changes or estimates with regard to such. To give a recap, I had previously brought forward a proposed budget for FY 21 containing a general fund plans spend down of $27 million compared to the $3.8 million surplus budget that we are operating under in the current FYI, 20 year. However, due to the decrease in state funding, that is less worse than our original placeholder, as well as the incorporation of the one time expenditure savings, the current proposed budget planned spin down is now at $7.4 million. I want to reiterate that this number can and probably will change once again before the budget is brought forward for final adoption at the board meeting on June 24. So we expect changes at that time will primarily be the result of finalization to our fy 21 compensation plan. Similar to this evening, I will go over the summary of changes for the board and be happy to answer any questions. This document will be published on the financial transparency section on our website at St. vsd.org. for public inspection. As for the public hearing, Barb steggy, posted the public notice. Thank you, Barb, on our proposed budget in the times call last week inviting comments on the budget and participation in the public hearing today. Neither board Barb nor the finance office has received any comments or questions from the public regarding the proposed budget, but it would still be my pleasure to address any questions or comments by the board at this time.
53:00
Thank you, Tony. Questions or comments by the board? deck.
53:12
Thank you, joy. Just a question with regard to your understanding of the possible timing of changes that might be made subject to the negotiations for the Education Association. St. Brian Kelly. You bet.
53:31
So, I do know there’s a meeting next Monday. I don’t know if things are slated to be finalized at that time. But what could happen is if compensation is not finalized by the June 24 board meeting, we would probably leave the expenditure budget in place as is unless it received direction to do otherwise based on estimates or progress in negotiations. And then what we would do is in mid year for the amended budget cycle, we would go ahead and incorporate any subsequent changes at that time.
54:09
Thank you very much. That’s exactly what I was asking.
54:13
And one thing too, that might be helpful is, you know, there’s a lot of uncertainty with our enrollment. And there’s also a lot of uncertainty with property values and taxes that will be coming in. And so we may not have information, the first iteration will be in October, and then the second one will be somewhere around December, January. So we may very well, and I’m not saying we’ve agreed to do this by any stretch, but we may very well look at trying to complete something now. And then as those two kind of benchmarks, hit us, come back and do something retroactively if we don’t get a mid year rescission or, or not just depending on some of those uncertainties. And we just had a meeting yesterday with the Teachers Association. And I just want to thank Steve for his leadership because it’s very productive meetings collaborative and productive?
55:03
Yeah, thank you doing and what I’m hearing through my role on Kashi board is, of course, no one has talked, talking in certain terms about what’s likely to happen in December January with regard to possible rescission that it is prudent to anticipate that there might be a rescission from the state at that point. And we’d be in a position of needing to adjust our budget in any case. So thanks for help helping me understand that timing.
55:40
Anything else?
55:43
Thanks, everyone. Tony, thank you. much. Appreciate it. It’s nice to see you this evening and we appreciate your work. And Greg, your work everybody in the department in such an unusual, unusual year. That requires a great deal of flexibility and you know, Don As we roll into 6.3, just one closing comment as far as the budget. I appreciate. I think it’s wonderful that you have, you know, the district has a good working relationship with Steve, and the association that you can have those meaningful conversations with them about different scenarios. I don’t believe that probably happens everywhere. So I recognize that
56:22
they are very great. They’re great to work with.
56:25
Yeah. All right, Tony. Thank you again, Greg. Thank you. And that brings us to 6.3. Don, which is your COVID-19 update.
56:35
All right, Tony. Thank you, Greg.
56:40
All right. In my recent call on Tuesday yesterday with the agency administrators that we have each and every week and ongoing, we learned that there were no new fatalities in the Boulder County area. We are at 63 total 50 of the deceased are in long term care facilities, the number of new cases continues to drop in terms of the five day rolling average. They did see a slight bump in hospitalizations, but it’s still very, very low medical and surgical beds available. They had an 195 available as of yesterday, and many of those that are being used are not related to COVID. They’ve started elective surgeries. Colorado total of 28,000 cases. And Boulder County is doing well. We just saw weld county for the first time that flattened out and have fewer cases than Denver. So wanted to play that that’s a good news report. The data continues to decrease. We had a conversation with the governor’s office on Thursday, and the governor was on the phone call and we talked about potential plans for reopening in the fall. We are, at this point allowed to have our preschool programming at full capacity. The number of students at the end of June, the governor will revisit the number of students that were allowed. He has been relatively positive in his conversations with us in terms of preparing for the fall doesn’t necessarily mean that we will be able to bring everybody back in full time. But that is our hope. And that is our goal. And that’s what we’re striving towards. We’ve also been working on videos that each of our principals will be making and I will be part of those videos so that they can welcome students back and share some of the things that they will see that are a little bit different. We’ve also started summer school we have 711 enrolled courses with 498 students. We have established a foothold with our Florida Virtual programs one of the best online learning programs in the country and we’ll have students there will be a possibility for students to engage in that if they have health circumstances or other extenuating circumstances. We also now have the capacity for synchronous learning through our laptops, which each of our teachers have Stan’s lenses and microphones, so that a student who is at home can engage in real time into the classroom and follow the lesson. We also have talked about setting up Saturday school support for our students. And we are looking towards graduation on July 25. And right now it’s looking positive, but again, it’s this constant update that we get. We’re also working on our community schools with an objective of trying to get one to two sites per feeder so that we can accommodate any overflow daycare issues. The the hope, at least especially at those younger grades, Is that we can start with everybody back in full time. But again, we just don’t know if that’s going to be able to happen. And it gets more challenging as you go to middle and high school just because of the numbers of students. But we have several plans in place. Our principals have been outstanding. Jackie and her team have been outstanding. We have our plans in place, we’re going to communicate at the end of June with some tentative information and probably finalize some decisions around the mid part of July, which will still give people a chance and by that time, we should have a pretty solid message and direction from the governor’s office as to how many students we can bring back in. I want to reiterate, I’ve appreciated phone calls and conversations and email exchanges with our community. They have been outstanding. And I want to reiterate to them that we are doing everything we can to get our students back in as quickly as possible on a normal All normal basis that’s that is our objective.
1:01:05
I am going to
1:01:09
share these with you Jackie has ordered these
1:01:16
Jackie wanna
1:01:25
These are our st brainstorm
1:01:26
masks.
1:01:30
Everybody take off the one you get No, I’m just kidding.
1:01:34
And then the other thing, Carrie McDermott is in the final phases working together with Jackie. They are working on a reopen plan document that we will submit to the Boulder County Department of Health and weld County Department of Health and we will provide that with you but it’s it’s just about complete and it only include an elementary school schedule a middle school schedule a high school got this letter that will be coming out from me at the end of this month is pretty extensive. And it talks about everything from transportation, to how we’re sanitizing and cleaning buildings. The thing that I really appreciate, and Jackie, you can share your thoughts on this too. But something about our team that Jackie’s always leading is this concept of work coming back to school. And our kids are going to engage in some really exciting experiences and they’re going to learn and we’re going to, you know, there’s a lot going on, but it’s still it’s our top priority that they come in and they have a really, really positive experience. And so that’s what we’re doing with everything. One of the things that we thought would be helpful in terms of getting everybody into this
1:02:45
mindset
1:02:46
of taking that extra step is what we’re calling our safe with seven campaign. And the first one is take your temperature at home prior to coming to school. Second one is if you are sick and you have symptoms, You are encouraged to stay home. Three is to stay hydrated and we will be using refilled water refillable water bottles versus traditional drinking fountains. Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands and use sanitizer, face masks when appropriate. Try to avoid touching your face socially distancing appropriately and then engaging in enjoyable activities that enhance your well being. And these will be placed throughout the school in large posters and small posters and everywhere and shared with our parents. And we can’t wait to get our kids back in school. And we’re really excited about what’s happening now with our summer school. We’re really excited what’s happening now with athletics in the summers and those kinds of programs. And we’re really appreciative and grateful for our our communities. Greg shared with you the budget he and I just met not too long ago today, and we’ve got I think we’re somewhere now around Six, between six and 7 million of that 16 million that we are looking to encumber. And so we’re continuing to look at the ways in which we can maximize those extra dollars to create those experiences for our children and maintain safety. Jackie, you have been involved in this 24 seven. So I’m gonna stop there and let you share your thoughts.
1:04:35
Well done.
1:04:37
Much more to share other than, you know, one thing we are encouraging our principals to really think about in addition to this number, staying in this social distancing piece, and, you know, you heard Chase, talk about a grid that kids have to practice on and, you know, just all of those new rules that are working Through, respect those because we know that, you know, keep our schools and our children’s say is how do we also pay really close attention to the experience.
1:05:12
So we don’t want them to forget that they’ll get to see their friends, they’ll have a very good day, as much as we can allow them to have a very day they’ll have their art, they’ll have their music, they’ll go out to recess, it will look different. But we will structure activities that are still really fun and engaging for them.
1:05:33
And
1:05:35
when we do the videos, the idea of the videos was to welcome children back so that they understand that school will be a great place to be. And so in addition to just a lot of the structures that we’re living in right now, we want to also pay really close attention to the quality of the experience. So our principals are doing a great job thinking about that. They’re sharing ideas.
1:06:15
Thank you Jackie.
1:06:16
Yeah, enjoy one thing I want to say to you know, as Greg sitting here, and Jackie, thank you as Greg sitting here. You know, I really appreciate the the flexibility in terms of time and commitment. You know, we talk often on the phone usually after, well after eight o’clock at night and Greg is on top of along with his team have so many moving parts, so many moving parts with our budget, that it’s it’s incredibly complex and complicated and he does it was makes it look so easy. And, you know, I I know that when I talk about our team, I always probably leave somebody out. You know, Brian lamer is working on transportation. He’s working on nutrition services. He’s working on the custodial staff and the operations in Maine. And we’ve got our human resources department, Todd and his team. And we’ve got Laura has in special ed and Carrie and communications. And you’ve got Chase, you heard about what Chase is doing up here. And you’ve got Michelle and Patrick, really doing incredible work in technology and all of these moving parts. You’ve got Jackie, who is leading in each of these areas. So it’s not only one or two, but it’s all of them. And then Greg, with his financial oversight and everything, we’re really feel like we’re in a strong place. But it’s that constant state of uncertainty. What’s the next message coming out of the Capitol? And what’s the next message? We did visit with our friends from Boulder County Health and the news continues to get a little bit better each time. So, Greg, any last comments or Jackie, any last comments?
1:07:53
Thank you, Dan. Do board members have any questions or comments as it pertains to COVID or or the school year graduation All right. Thank you. That brings us to our consent items this evening. We have seven of them. Are there any of the board members would like to pull for further discussion prior to voting? Dick?
1:08:16
I just have a question clarification not to pull an item. But with regard to 7.4. Accepting the federal grant monies, the narrative says up to not to exceed 4,200,000 expenses listed or more than that. So I assume that that means we’ll accept all the money that we qualify for and spend more beside is that the correct interpretation?
1:08:46
Now, my understanding Diane is that you’re on WebEx, but I haven’t seen you there.
1:08:54
We will call her on the phone. Good. Quick, excellent. Yeah, would just be that we have here
1:08:59
okay. We carry on. Oh,
1:09:02
hi Diane read it. We are receiving $3,869,000 this coming year. So the total not to exceed is 4,000,200. We could get more. And so historically we have always
1:09:23
put a little bit more in the board memo.
1:09:26
Then we our preliminary allocation is
1:09:32
thank you that that was the question that I had. I thought that was something like that. That would make sense and I appreciate that, Diane.
1:09:43
Thank you, Diane.
1:09:46
All right. Then we have 7.1 approval staff terminations leaves 7.2 approval staff appointments 7.3 approval of minutes for the May 13 2020 regular meeting and the May 22. 2020 regular meeting 7.4 approval to accept Every Student Succeeds Act SS a consolidated grant funds for fiscal year 2021 7.5. Approval of change order for to construction manager general contractor cmgc contract for Longmont High School addition and renovation project. If anybody hasn’t driven by there, you should on your way home. There’s so much happening at Longmont High School 7.6 approval of recommendation to hire assistant principal for Black Rock elementary school and 7.7 adoption of resolution to appropriate funds for superintendents contract. I would entertain a motion for approval, please. by Karen and a second. Second by john BB. Can you please call for the vote? Mr. Aaron?
1:10:54
Yes. Mr. burpo?
1:10:56
Yes. Mr. Garcia?
1:10:58
Yes. Factor martyr.
1:11:01
Yes. Miss Pierce.
1:11:03
Hi, Mrs. Raglan.
1:11:05
Yes. And Miss siegrist aye. Thank you, Barb.
1:11:10
Yes, action item 8.1 is a recommendation for the adoption of resolution accepting the fiscal year 2021 student fees, which is board exhibit Jq dash E. So I have Diane or dawn written next to this if board members have any questions or comments, if not, we’ll move directly to the votes unless Diane or Don wants to speak. I don’t want to prevent anybody. Anyone know? All right. Any comments you or Diane would like to make? And if not, we’ll go ahead and vote.
1:11:46
Yeah, the only thing that I’ll say is, I know we had talked at a previous meeting about coming back with some details, and we’ll try to revisit that. Right now. Kirk, Greg and his team have been working refunding a number of fees? What was the last is like $600,000, something like that. So it’s 613,000. And so a lot of that work has been happening. And then we’ll come back and have that conversation. I know there was something added into this around an additional $10. Diane for the hundred mile club. Was that what it was, but we will come back and have deeper conversations about the fees when all of the
1:12:28
dust settles. Great. And you know, Don, as typical, if there were a student that can’t cover that $20 then the district provides, they still have an opportunity to participate without paying the fee. I don’t want anybody to believe that that fee would prohibit students from participating in the hundred mile club.
1:12:47
Correct. Correct. And then before before Diane closes out, as I was reading so many of those things like our master’s degree cohort and all of those programs I wanted to thank her for being at the kind of the head of that spear and doing a lot of that great work with our teachers and around professional development. She may have already closed out, but I just wanted to share that with you.
1:13:13
Absolutely. And based on what I’m reading that professional development is continuing. Over the summer, it might look a little different, but it’s still happening
1:13:21
across something last time with like 900 courses or something. Yeah,
1:13:27
yeah. So all right, I would send an entertain a motion then for approval of 8.1 which is the adoption of resolution accepting the fiscal year 2021. student fees board exhibit Jq.
1:13:40
Show moved.
1:13:41
I gem and a second. Second, by Paula BB. Can you please call for the vote? Is there anyone?
1:13:50
Yes. Mr. Booth? Oh, yes.
1:13:53
Mr. Garcia?
1:13:54
Yes. After martyr.
1:13:56
Yes. disappears. I Mrs. Raglan? Yes. And I thank you, Barb.
1:14:07
We don’t have any discussion items this evening. So that brings us to the end of our meeting. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, June 24. Here in the Board of Education room that will start at 5:30pm with our may financials, and then the regular meeting starts, begins at 6pm. Currently, that is the last meeting we have scheduled until August. Certainly if something significant arises or we need to get together we will call a special meeting and in July given that this is a unique summer, and we’re rolling into a unique school year. I think that’s it. Thanks, everyone. It’s wonderful to see you. And I would entertain a motion for approval, please. approval. Oh, you’re all just gonna have to stay here. We’re just gonna finish All night long a motion for adjournment. Please. so moved by Karen in a second. Second by john. All in favor, aye. Hi. Thank you everyone. Have a wonderful evening.
1:15:37
2020
1:15:37
Well done
1:15:54
I can’t wait.
1:16:06
It’s true
1:16:32
Bye, guys. Okay
1:22:24
Look forward to seeing
1:22:25
you
1:22:27
on the 24th
1:22:41
all right Good night everyone
1:22:59
which is
1:24:03
easy for me to do because I have to go around the tables anyway.