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Unknown Speaker 0:00
All right. Good. Moving right along. All right. Ready?
Unknown Speaker 0:14
Good evening and welcome to the same Green Valley School District Board of Education meeting. Please join us in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Unknown Speaker 0:24
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Unknown Speaker 0:41
Barb, can you please call the roll?
Unknown Speaker 0:44
Mr. Aaron’s absent Mr.
Unknown Speaker 0:46
Bercow president.
Unknown Speaker 0:47
Mr. Garcia, here. Dr. martyr,
Unknown Speaker 0:51
present.
Unknown Speaker 0:53
Miss Pierce here.
Unknown Speaker 0:55
This is Raglan here. And Miss siegrist here. Thank you, Barb. Have there been any any addendums? Or changes to the agenda this evening? Barb?
Unknown Speaker 1:06
I have not.
Unknown Speaker 1:07
Great, thank you. Before we get started, I do want to wish everyone a happy Veterans Day and say thank you, to those veterans who have served and to those who are currently serving our country. Thank you. That brings us to audience participation this evening. Hi, Tracey, thank you for being here this evening. If you can step up to the podium and you’ll have three minutes to speak we will time that and if you could please state your name and address before you begin speaking. For the record that would be great.
Unknown Speaker 1:49
Sure. My name is Tracy Stroh, I live at 2352 dogwood drive and Erie. I want to say thank you to the board for allowing me to speak this evening. I would like to say thank you to the school employees, the administration, the teachers and the staff that I’ve worked with our children throughout COVID and before and also thank you to our veterans this Veterans Day. As cases go up, I implore you to retain in person learning. I urge you to consider the damage school closures inflict upon our youngest learners. elementary students need to be in school, not learning virtually. They’re missing crucial developmental milestones in social and emotional learning. They’re under immense physical and mental stress caused by staring at a device for large portions of the day and working in isolation. elementary students are not meant to work alone. I watch as their passion for learning decreases, and their resilience decreases with it. And I fear that we are approaching approaching the point where it will be a lifelong negative impact on our children. My heart breaks as I see the wonder, excitement and desire to learn evaporate in front of a screen. I originally planned to speak to you tonight about the hybrid model and how difficult it is for students and teachers. I originally planned to ask her return to school full time, but instead I will implore you to keep some in person learning. And if you do feel the need to offer options, please leave us the option for in person learning. Teachers with exemptions can teach children whose parents want them home. And teachers who are able to teach in person can teach kids who need to be in the classroom. If we look at the numbers today, on the st vrain Valley district website, point 001 6% of students and teachers have an active positive COVID-19 diagnosis point 0016 less than two out of every 1000 people. If we look at a study on the Colorado Department of Education website, we see a clear conclusion stating that closing of schools had no measurable effect on the number of cases of COVID-19 among children, no measurable effect. In light of this information, these numbers and studies. I’d like to ask you, what message are we sending to our students? If we choose to close schools? What answers do I give to young children? When they ask why can I go skiing, play sports? do gymnastics but not go to school? Why can you go to work Mommy, why can we go to restaurants, the dentist and the store but I can’t go to school? Why can I fly on an airplane shoulder to shoulder with strangers? But I can’t go to school? Why can other children go to daycare, private school and charter schools but I can’t go to my public school. What message are we sending to our children? Will they see their education and learning as a priority if they look around and see us prioritizing everything but in school learning by thanking you for your time, attention and service. I appreciate the difficulties of the decisions you face. And I’ll leave you with the final question of what message will you choose to send to our children. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 5:13
Thank you, Tracy, we appreciate you being here. Thank you so much. Yes. Hi, Joe.
Unknown Speaker 5:25
Well, hello, how are you doing?
Unknown Speaker 5:26
I’m wonderful. It’s a pleasure to see you this evening. Thanks for coming in. All right. Thank you, Greg. No, take your time.
Unknown Speaker 5:49
Take your time.
Unknown Speaker 5:50
You have to say.
Unknown Speaker 5:59
Thanks, Greg. Well, good
Unknown Speaker 6:05
evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for having me. Joe, mescaline. Director at Twin Peaks charter Academy. I’m just here to express some gratitude. And I really feel like our community needs to do that a little bit more on these times. And for me, and on behalf of the board of directors at Twin Peaks charter Academy, I’d really like to recognize some indie departments. Greg fee and Jen Orvis on finance, really done a great job for us, navigating us through CRF and SSR. funds have been challenging to say the least. But it’s been done in a timely and professional manner. Leanne Ardell. Who does our substitute for us? I did that was kind of one of those last minute things when we started the year. Oh, my goodness, are we gonna have substitutes? We did. And she came in. And she’s always been great. But this year, as we know, there’s a critical sub shortage. She’s done a phenomenal job. Shelly Allen and food services. Same thing about a week before school starts, oh my goodness, do they know we’re starting and in a week and Shelly Allen knew and she was there. And that’s a great partnership that we’ve always enjoyed with with the district. Michelle bourgeois and her team. They really did some wiggle room with us as we did a little few things different we transition to Google Classroom, they helped us move some things around, and especially one of the members of her department, Lorraine Baxter, navigating attendance, as you all know, in this, we’re here, we’re not here. Lorraine has probably worked more overtime than anyone I could imagine a DTS, and she’s just been wonderful as well. A shout out to all of the principals and school leaders in our 45 plus schools in this district. None of us when we are training to become principals and directors learned anything about epidemiology and contact tracing. And we’ve all had to learn that on the fly. And we’re learning I know, we’ve made some mistakes. I just did one yesterday. So just a lot of gratitude for all the leaders who have many of my friends in this district. 25 years, I know I’m at Twin Peaks, but I’ve worked in Longmont in this community for 25 districts and I love it so much. And finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t just acknowledge our community. catastrophic budget cuts this year, I think we have some light at the end of the tunnel for the next year. But if our community had not passed two mill levy overrides, which accounts for this team is 17% of our budget, we would be in some dire straits. So again, our community has been so supportive, not just financially, but emotionally. We just appreciate them at Twin Peaks. And that’s it. It was just here to say gratitude for an all in for all of you, your unpaid positions, your volunteers. God bless you guys. So that’s it.
Unknown Speaker 9:01
Joe, thank you. I appreciate that. I certainly echo your gratitude and all of those individuals, that you and countless other individuals certainly have pulled together and you know, they really you and the district, every school has had to to refashion how it delivers education. So thank you for your commitment to that and your dedication. You’ve, you have been a part of the district for a very, very long time and continue to be and we thank you for your leadership.
Unknown Speaker 9:29
I appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker 9:30
Love you guys. Thank you. Thank
Unknown Speaker 9:31
you Take care. All right. We don’t have any visitors this evening. So that brings us to agenda item five, which is our superintendent report. Don, Dr. had had two commitments this evening that he needed to maintain two very important commitments. And so he’ll be joining us this evening via WebEx. Don, I just want to make sure that you’re up and running. I can certainly I can keep filling space and talking if you need me to.
Unknown Speaker 10:03
Yes. Can you hear me?
Unknown Speaker 10:05
We can hear you. Yes. Great. Welcome. It’s nice to see you.
Unknown Speaker 10:10
I appreciate that. And, Joe, thank you for your kind words, appreciate the partnership and the work, you’re doing it at Twin Peaks. Thank you very much for that. And I also want to thank the previous speaker, for sharing her thoughts and perspectives. And also, the many members of the community that continue to communicate with me about their perspectives relate to what we’re doing with COVID.
Unknown Speaker 10:40
You know, where we’re headed, those kinds of things. So I’d like to start by giving you an update. And then after the COVID update, I’d like to give you an update on some of the other things taking place, normal day to day operations. First thing is I as you know, I speak with def sack on a regular basis, sometimes every other day, sometimes every day. We talk often. Our last conversation was this morning, just the director of Boulder County Public Health. And then we also speak with the chief medical officer, Dr. Urbina, and our epidemiologists, and as well as our liaison, and when I say we I’m talking about I do and that our our team does as well. And I want to share with you some of the major points from the last conversation that I had with Jeff this morning. The trend in Boulder County, actually a trend across the state is not favorable at all, we’re seeing rapid rise in the number of cases across the state. And it’s not just something here in Boulder County, it’s it’s everywhere. Right now, it did cause the county to move us to what they refer to as safer at home, orange level three. And with that comes some changes now, it affects the business community, and the regular community differently than it affects schools, because schools, in many instances are exempt from some of the requirements that come with that. But there is one requirement among others that is absolutely impactful in a way that’s really becoming hard to sustain, and almost insurmountable. And it’s the quarantine protocol. You’ve heard the previous speaker prior to Joe share the statistics around the percentages. And we hear clearly similar things along those lines in terms of actual transmission in the schools. And so we know those percentages are low. What we also know, and I’ve said this so many times that, you know, for anybody that’s been paying attention fully, partially, you’ve probably heard me say many, many times that the quarantining protocols are a significant challenge. Now, when we moved to orange level three, one of the requirements that we are expected and required to adhere to is moving from what they refer to as a targeted quarantining protocol to a standard general quarantine protocol. And that is a very, very significant shift that we are required to adhere to. And it’s not just a brain, it’s it’s every school district across the state. And it’s a requirement from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. And so with that change, we have been seeing a significant uptick in the number of students being quarantined in our schools. And we have also seen an up tick in the teachers and the staff. And I’m just separating out teachers in the classroom, and classified staff for operations purposes. And so that is something that is really challenging at this point. And I don’t know if it’s going to be sustainable. I did talk with Jeff sack at length today, I did invite Jeff to next week’s board meeting, he will be coming in and giving us a complete and detailed report that will, in large part, cause us to decide and make some decisions about the type of instruction we provide. Coming back from Thanksgiving break all the way through the month of December. And what I want people to know is that it is a very, very real possibility that we will not be able to continue in person learning when we return from Thanksgiving break, and that’s going to be dependent at some level one what we hear from Jesse, but it’s also important for people to understand that not only is the data I’m often asked what is that line? What is that exact number that causes us to move in a different direction. And the reason that that’s frustrating for me and for a lot of people is that learning is not as clear as people would like for it to be because you have the data points. And we shared the metrics several times, in looking at two week trends and looking at positivity rates, in looking at how many cases for 100,000 people and looking at the five to 17 year old positive cases, and looking at the hospitalizations. And then there’s the other factor, that is our ability and the county’s ability to contact traced, and to run those investigations and do those interviews. And then there becomes the logistical part of can we continue to sustain the classroom. Now one thing I want to share, we have not had to close a school today. And there is one reason for that. That is because our teachers have done truly heroic work they have covered for each other, they have given up their free time to cover other people’s classes, they have really taken on a significant amount of additional work in order to keep us able to keep our schools open. Now, some schools obviously are not as impacted as others. And we update that quarantine list on our website every Friday, I did ask Kerry McDermott to give me an update tonight so that I could share with you where those numbers are today. But I really do want to acknowledge, as Jodi and I want to acknowledge our community, because one of the things we’ve been able to do is push a lot of resources into sustaining that maybe other districts haven’t been able to reach out and have access to. And so thank you to our community. And I know I say that every time but it just, you can’t say it enough, because we are able to do the things we’re doing because of the additional support we’ve received from you. And our teachers and our classified staff on a daily basis are going above and beyond. And the stress levels, and the pressure points, and all of that that comes with it.
Unknown Speaker 17:11
Sometimes on the outside looking in, we don’t see it as clearly as we see it when we’re right in the thick of it as they are so to our teachers, to our classified staff, to our principals, to those folks that are in the building. Thank you sincerely for your excellent work. Now, one of the things that we did in response to the the change in the quarantine protocol, which I really want people to understand, and I’ve said it a number of times, it is so overwhelming. When you move to this general quarantining procedure that’s required of us. But one of the things I wanted to know is with our launch that folks what their level of the or what their thoughts were around, moving into a synchronous model, if you are in launched yet. Similar to what we were in with the first six weeks. And so we surveyed I asked Mr. Charles to survey all of the families and what we came out, we have about 3400 students in launch dead. Approximately 3300 of them said they wanted to stay in launched ad throughout the remainder of the school year, even if they had the option to come into a hybrid to come into fully in person or to come in fully synchronous. So 97.3, approximately percent of our launch dead families indicated that even with those other choices, they would like to stay in launched yet. So that was important information. We got we had 2%, which about 73 people indicate that they would like to make the shift to fully synchronous, similar to what we were with doing the first six weeks if we made that option available. And then at point seven, about 24. People said they would like to make the switch into the hybrid model. And so that’s what we learned with our survey from launch data. And that was really informative for us. We then made the option available to all families now that are in the hybrid model to switch and do synchronous learning similar to what they did the first six weeks, and they could come in and out on any given day. So if they switch to synchronous one day, it wouldn’t mean that they couldn’t come into class the next day. We wanted to give full flexibility around that. So that’s where we stand right now. As far as our active COVID cases, we have 67 students with active COVID. We have five teachers and we have seven staff. So out of 33,000 students, we have 67 students, and out of about 5500 employees we have 12 and so that’s where those percentages are coming from That I think one of the speakers spoke to and that also are data points. In terms of active quarantines, and again, these are active quarantines, because it’s a constantly evolving process. People are quarantine, then they come back from quarantine, but other people become quarantine. We have currently 1393 students quarantine, we have 42, teachers, quarantine. And we have 22 staff. Now, that could have changed since two hours ago, when I got this data. So it’s just constantly changing, evolving. And I want to really reiterate what everybody knows. But it’s just important to say a quarantine does not mean you have COVID. It simply means that you have come into contact with somebody who has COVID or somebody who has demonstrated symptoms. And all of that is determined by our epidemiologists, and it can vary. And it’s hard sometimes when you’re looking for that concrete. While we had a case here, and this many got quarantine, we had a case here and only this many Guy 40. All of that is borne out of the investigation and the interviewing process that takes place with our county health department and nurses. And we continue to follow the direction and the directives from Boulder County. Regarding who gets quarantine, those are decisions that are being made based on the Colorado Department of Public Health and environments protocol, and based on boulder County’s directives and orders. So that’s the information that is out there right now. Now, when Jeff Zach comes next Wednesday, we only have a few days left of actual instruction time, we have tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And obviously, with the hybrid model as a couple of days, two, maybe three days for each student, we also have had a number of people make the decision to move into the synchronous model that we made available. And so what we, you know, what we ended up with, I’m going to give you the exact
Unknown Speaker 22:03
the exact numbers, reference about 15% of our total student population. And that fluctuates, it’s not every day 15%, because you can come in, or you can stay home and do the synchronous. But 15%, approximately, is what we have across the district. In some schools, it’s higher, it seems to be higher at the high school level, for sure, at the secondary level, but about 15% of our students have shifted over to that fully synchronous model. And then, you know, we have about 10% of our students who are in the launchpad model. And then about 50% every day in the hybrid one day 50% one day, so when you look at that our current student population on a day to day basis is somewhere around 30% of our students are in the building, because you take out the 10%, for launch dead, you take out the 15. And sometimes that goes up to 20, or whatever it is percent that are participating in the fully synchronous, and then you’ve cut it in half with the 50% because of the hybrid model. And the benefit of having done that is that we see much more opportunity to socially distance, our h vac systems while they’re running extremely at a high level, they become even more effective when you have many fewer students. And then obviously the the cleaning potential and the sanitizing potential and all of those things with the social distancing. So that’s where we are today. Now, I would like to make sure that everyone listening at home understands that there is a very, very real possibility that we will be making the decision next Wednesday. As we move into Thanksgiving. When we return throughout the month of December, we may end up having to go fully remote. That means either launch dead, or the fully synchronized synchronous model. A lot of it’s going to depend on what we hear from Jeff zag, a lot of it’s going to depend on where the data takes us. I do not foresee the data turning around at this point this quickly. At some point it will, because that’s been the nature of this virus. It spikes it flattens and then it comes down and then it spikes and it flattens and then it comes down. And what I’m hearing from Jeff, from our conversation today, and what I’m seeing in the data is that well we’re not seeing a lot of COVID originate in the schools. What we are seeing is a lot of COVID from the community
Unknown Speaker 24:41
originating and coming into the schools. What I talked to you about the active cases and the students and the teachers and the staff in quarantine. Overwhelmingly, when they report to us their contacts have been from people outside of the school but nonetheless when they come into the school We are required to implement the quarantining protocol. And so we can’t fully separate the school from the community. That’s where we are today. And I have asked Jeff to come in and speak directly to the board and directly to the community. And again, I want everyone to know that they should prepare for the possibility of us moving to remote next, when we make that announcement next Wednesday, or Thursday, right before we go into spring break, that gives people nine days over Thanksgiving with the two weekends and the five days to make whatever adjustments they have to make. We’re not making that decision. Finally tonight, but I just want to make sure that that is on everybody’s radar screen. You know, I also want you to know, a lot of times, when we share things, people hear things, and they attach their own experiences to what they hear. And so I just want to clarify something, you know, as an educator, and our teachers and our principals, everything, you know, our mission is to educate our children in the most healthy possible way. And we know that the best way to do that is through in person learning. And so when we say that our objective is to get to in person learning, it’s only our objective to do that if we can do so safely. And it’s only our objective to do that, if we can do that logistically, if we can manage the quarantining. And so I don’t want somebody to ever miss understand that statement. That thing that we’re going to choose in person learning, even if we can’t do it based on the pressures it puts on our teachers, because of the sub pool is not available and the quarantining protocol, or that the numbers from COVID would dictate otherwise, we continue to hear from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the academy of pediatrics and pediatricians, and from Boulder County Public Health, that in school is where they want our children to be. That is where we want them to be as well. It’s also important to know that safety is going to Trump that. And that’s why we have to make these decisions in accordance with Boulder County Health Department, Jeff Zack will be here next week to share with you. And what I have shared with Jeff, is that what our numbers are as far as active COVID what our quarantining numbers are, which they’re familiar to, because they’re involved in all of those processes. And I just shared with him that it is a, it is an incredible mountain to climb for our teachers and our classified staff right now, to keep our schools open. And again, in some schools, it’s not hit as hard, but in others, extremely hard. And if not for our teachers, and our classified staff and our principals going above and beyond every day, I am receiving reports about this, many students are quarantine this many students over here, this many teachers, and that is just simply not sustainable. It’s not sustainable for our teachers, it’s not sustainable for our students. And when they get quarantine, then they’re at home for 14 days, which then disrupts their home environment, and their ability to participate in music programs and sports programs or go to work or do any of the things that families do when they’re not in school. So it’s a, it’s a very, very challenging situation for everybody involved. I also want the community know that you know, I read your emails, I listened to your to your voicemails and call you back when I can and email you back when I can. I just also want you to know that there is no consensus in our community. There is none. There are so many people who will share exactly what you heard tonight from our community member. And there are people who will share the exact opposite. And so please know that we are hearing you. And we are focused on this 24 seven.
Unknown Speaker 28:58
And we are going to continue to communicate, I would encourage you to log in next Wednesday, and hear what Jeff Zack has to say regarding where we are with COVID. And the possibility of us moving to fully remote. I have also talked again to our teacher Association President spoke with him again Today we speak always. And so I keep him in the loop. He keeps me in the loop. And we are you know, checking where our teachers at on a regular basis. And so I appreciate his work, and the teacher leadership teams as well. So I’m going to stop there with COVID and see if you have any questions and then I would like to share with you some updates related to some other district functions.
Unknown Speaker 29:45
Thanks, son. Any board members comments or questions to Sydney? No. All right, Dan, I just want to highlight a couple things that you mentioned. I also Do you want to make sure that we thank our community, our teachers, staff, parents, you know, Steve, Boulder County Public Health, for working with us so closely, those are close partnerships, and the district couldn’t have done what it’s done with hybrid learning without without their participation. So I do you want to think i think that i do want to just ask you to clarify one thing, you are talking with Jeff Daly, Jeff de act, Daly, from Boulder County Public Health, he’ll be here next week to for us are with us for a meeting. But he does continue to support the current hybrid model. And St.
Unknown Speaker 30:37
Yes, he made that statement. And we put that statement in one of our communications, it was we took that statement directly from him. And he does, he also understands the nature of the quarantining and how that impacts it. But yes, he has stated very clearly, and what they stated out of Boulder County is that because of social distancing, because of wearing masks, because of the air ventilation systems that we have, because of the extra cleaning, and sanitizing, and because of all of those things that are going on in our buildings and the hybrid model, that from a public environment standpoint, they he indicated that it was safer than the other public environments that you might go into. And so yes, the answer to your question, and at the same time, he fully understands that it’s not just about the number of COVID cases or the number of probables or things like that, that quarantining and other things have a major role in this because of the capacity to, to sustain it. The other group that I want to thank, you know, and really just tell them I, you know, I just truly sorry, that it is this way, as our students, you know, this is, this is just really a very, very sad situation to go through COVID, I have talked to some parents recently, who, as a result of the quarantining, they are now exempt from other activities that they can’t participate in. So it’s not just school that it’s affecting, and our children have been dealing with this now, you know, for eight months, and we, as adults, we can manage this, and we should manage it. And that’s what we’re doing to the best of our ability. Our children are having to deal with this through no fault of their own. And it truly is heartbreaking. And so, you know, stay resilient, understand that, we will get through this, I just know that we understand how difficult it is. And that is in large part why our teachers have been incredibly supportive, covering for one another, to try to keep the schools open as long as we can. We’re going on the sixth week now of in person hybrid, since we started back in October. So we started the first six weeks with our fully synchronous, next week will be the sixth week that we’ve been in our hybrid model. And you know, that’s where we are, but take care of yourself, students and know that we’re very proud of you, and, and teachers, thank you for everything you’re doing. And community thank you for for all of your support as well. So let me stop there and see about COVID before I move on to anything else.
Unknown Speaker 33:34
We don’t have any other questions done. I think that’s a great transition, just please know that this board of education, shares those sentiments about the students. And we’ll just hope that that this changes sooner rather than later. So thank you. Let you keep going on on those other items that you wanted to talk about.
Unknown Speaker 33:57
You know, one of the things speaking of our students, you know, this fall, several of the sports programs and music programs were impacted, the activities and the athletics, we did get to move forward in a few areas. We saw our cross country students who want to state championships in our boys and our girls and we saw the softball team out of me take second at the state level, incredible performance. And we also have seen the tennis teams win the state championships and the individual state champions as well. And currently we you know, we saw the golf players qualify and do incredible things. And our music programs, our choir and band and orchestra teachers have continued to make opportunities available virtually and otherwise for for our music and our other activities. So there’s been some highlights there are football programs are running right now along with our cheer and dance programs. And so those will be coming to a close up in the next few weeks as the playoffs start. But that’s has been a highlight for me to be able to watch and to be able to continue to support our kids in the music programs in the arts and in the athletics. And you’ve demonstrated great resilience and leadership. And I’m talking about our students and our coaches. So thank you and our teachers saying thank you very much for that. I also wanted to share with you that, you know, in response, oftentimes we are saying, students are going to lose really critical instruction. And I think we would be kidding ourselves. If we said that that was not true. When you’re not in person, you are losing instruction. We have launched our after school program, we allocated about $600,000, to pay teachers to work after school on several days a week, where kids could come in and get after school academic support, and counseling, support, and those types of things. And so I want to thank our teachers for making themselves available to that. And I want to thank our students for taking advantage of that, because we’ve had good numbers of kids coming in after school or staying after school if it happens to be their hybrid day. So that’s one of the strategies that we’re using to try to keep kids on target to the best of our ability. We also have the E recovery programs for older students that are keeping them up to speed with their graduation requirements. And so those things will continue. And we will continue to look to do some of those things. If we need to go fully remote. With a synchronous model or launch dead, we will continue to look at ways to provide education after school or during the day with small groups and individuals if possible. So I wanted to let the board know that that’s going well, I also wanted to let you know that we’re moving along well with our third p Tec pathways through technology. And it will be fully paid for through ramps, which is huge, because our students can earn that two year associate degree. And it’s extremely expensive. And you know, we have two others, the computer information systems out of skyline High School, along with IBM and frog range. And then we also have the biomedical program out at Frederick high school with tawaran, Agilent and vaxis. And those corporate along with Ames Community College. And now this third one in cybersecurity, we have confirmed Seagate will partner with us, Cisco will partner with us, Comcast will partner with us and peak resources. So we have our corporate sector lined up and we have our community college lined up. And so we’re ready to go, we will be ready to go with that third program in cybersecurity the two year associate degree for our students at no cost to the students. And so I want to thank everybody who was involved in doing that great work. I would like to shift now to the budget. You heard Joe talk about the significant cuts that have been made, I did get a first draft of the governor’s proposal. And again, there’s a long way for this process that has to go through the legislative process. So when I share this information, know that it is a work in progress. And it’s not something that we can say definitively today. This is what it’s going to be. But and Greg, I know you’re there. And so you can do as you always do, and make sure that I’m accurate in my understanding, but looks like they most likely their $811 million additional revenue for K through 12, which would translate into about $902 per student. Now those two numbers can change. One they can change simply because the legislature changes. But two, they could change because Colorado may have more students that they locate. And if they find more students than they projected for, then that $902 amount can drop. The other thing is as we get into December and get the second quarter information, economic information and reports that 811 million might decrease or potentially could increase depending on what we learn in the second quarter. It probably would not increase but we’ll wait hold off on that. So that’s good news overall from a budget perspective, but it still has a long way to go. So let me stop there and see if you have any questions about any of those first things that I mentioned with the sports music after school activities, and then pika hand or the budget.
Unknown Speaker 39:34
Questions?
Unknown Speaker 39:38
Nope, I’ll get done.
Unknown Speaker 39:40
Okay, and then one thing that I’d like to share too is Scott Killian gave me the report that we ended up with about 1600 students who came into St. Green Valley schools from other school districts primarily think as close to 500 coming in out of Boulder Valley, and then another large group coming in out Adams 12, and then some from Jeff go, and then the northern school districts to the north of us. And so St. Grain continues to attract a lot of students. And that’s a good thing. It enables us to leverage the economy of scale and to continue to provide that great education. So that’s really the last thing that I have to say other than to reiterate, I appreciation for everybody’s hard work. And everybody’s patience of what everybody has had been doing as a result of this, this global pandemic. And it’s really unfortunate that we’re seeing the numbers climb as quickly as they are, in a bad way. Go ahead.
Unknown Speaker 40:50
Hi, Don. Thanks. I just have a quick clarifying question on the $902 per student. That’s the projection coming out of the governor’s office. That is for fiscal year 22. Right, like, that’s sort of the starting point. And they’ll hammer that out when they get the legislative session, because because for this fiscal year that we’re in, we already know we took a cut.
Unknown Speaker 41:14
Correct? Yeah, we took a pretty significant cut in the fall. And then we also we’ll hear about this in the October count, which every school district experience, we not only took that cut, but we also lost some enrollment, that then brings down the total revenue stream. We didn’t lose as much as a lot of the other districts lost. And so I’m grateful for that. But yes, pretty significant budget cuts all the way around. So and again, we’re able to navigate that because of our our community support and our Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 41:53
yeah, absolutely. But so I do, I just want to be clear that we know we took a big hit this year, we took a dip, I want to guesstimate It was around $20 million between the cut and then the loss and enrollment. So that’s 902, whatever it ends up being, hopefully is, is turning that curve swinging that back up into a positive direction for funding. But
Unknown Speaker 42:15
yeah, and you know, Paul, we not only took that hit, but we dipped into our fund balance, because, you know, there were several school districts around that decided not to provide transportation for all of their students. We wanted to keep doing that we felt it was important. We also, you know, doubled up not fully doubled up, but increased substantially our custodial teams, so that we could do sanitizing both during the day and at night. And then we also allocated quite a bit of money for extra staffing, for both launch debt, and then also for our neighborhood schools, just to accommodate some sort of, you know, social distancing types of things along those lines, and then a lot of protective gear and equipment that we purchased, along with testing that we provided. So there’s a lot of money that’s been spent. And we did receive some money from the state, but certainly not as much money as we’ve spent. And so our fund balance enabled us to do that. But, but yeah, that plus the cuts, it impacted us pretty significantly.
Unknown Speaker 43:22
And this and the projections coming out of the governor’s office, they really are kind of wild guesses at this point, depending on what this latest wave does. If we go back into a full shutdown, I think the recovery in the third quarter was better than anybody thought, which is great news. But you know, we know what we’re looking at, we’re looking at some pretty significant COVID numbers now. So if we go into another shutdown, these numbers, these forecasts could change dramatically. Right?
Unknown Speaker 43:51
Yeah. And we could see ourselves as a state. And again, I not projecting this or saying this, I’m just saying what I am hearing is a real possibility. we may find ourselves in a stay at home situation based on what the data does. So that will have a significant and dramatic impact on the economy and on a whole host of other things. So yeah, there’s a lot of unknown a lot of moving parts.
Unknown Speaker 44:22
Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 44:23
Thanks, politic.
Unknown Speaker 44:26
Thank you join. JOHN. Just a quick question about the 1600 students or so that Scott tilian identified is coming into the district is that a net number or just an increase in that’s the inflow but without the outflow?
Unknown Speaker 44:46
It’s the inflow there without the outflow. And we don’t anticipate as much of an outflow this year because many of our surrounding districts like for example, you know, Boulder Valley, they have spent the greater Part of the last six weeks online, and so have other districts and so we didn’t, I don’t think we’re seeing the same level of outflow. But to your answer to your question. It is a number now, Scott tilian will be getting that report later. As to the outflow. The inflow is very consistent with what we’ve seen in years past. I think Scott told me it was like 60 kids, fewer coming in this year than in years past. But that’s, that’s not much at all.
Unknown Speaker 45:31
Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 45:35
Tom. Thank you. We don’t have any other questions or comments other than we appreciate you being here this evening. Thanks, a bunch. Anything else you’d like to cover before we sign off?
Unknown Speaker 45:47
No, I think you know, everything else. In terms of our additional staffing, you know, we’re making progress towards hiring additional nurses. And we’ll just continue to keep you up to speed. And Jeff will be here next week. And then I will continue to talk with Steve and the teachers to keep them in the loop. And I will continue to talk to our classified staff leadership to keep everybody there in the loop as well as our principals. And I will communicate with our community right after we hear from Jeff Zack, and this will be on the website. If somebody didn’t have a chance to see it. They know they can always log back in and get this update.
Unknown Speaker 46:26
Right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of your evening. Oh, of course. Thank you very much. Thanks, Stan. Well, by agenda item 6.1 brings us to our reports. And we have one this evening, Greg, you’re up up to bat so to speak for the 2019 2020 scholarship recipients.
Unknown Speaker 46:50
Yeah, so each year we try to collect data in terms of what our our graduating seniors are getting in terms of scholarships, especially our local scholarships, because those are the ones that are generated locally, they could be either charities, low civic organizations, local businesses, families who set up Memorial scholarships, and so we like to track those and report them back to the board, just so you have an understanding of how much and in the community has an understanding of how much support our students get as they move on to the next level. And so for last year, the 2018 2020 graduates, local scholarships were about $2.4 million. And that compares to about $1.8 million into 2018 19 years. So it’s up considerably. And then same with just total, you know, we like to show exactly how much money our kids are getting to go attend colleges and universities. And last year, that was $32.3 million. The previous year was about 27 point 7 million. And so, you know, what I would say is that Maura Brady McMullan, who’s one of our counselors is in charge of this program. She’s in charge of making sure all of the information gets sent out. She’s in charge of making sure counselors are tracking which scholarships come in. She and this girl she and the counselors have done a tremendous job in the last two years, we’ve kind of revamped how we track that. And then I’d also like to say thank you to Tammy Palumbo, who is the at the Education Foundation, because she’s the one that compiles all of this for me I’m even though I have a face radio, I’m the one that said, This is my face. And that’s it. If you have any question, I’d love to answer
Unknown Speaker 48:52
questions or comments this evening.
Unknown Speaker 48:55
But thank you, I guess I just in looking through the list, it’s a remarkable demonstration of the community support that the community and of firms provide for our students, and in particular, the Bright Futures program for our primarily weld county students. I think that that is really worth noting that the meet students were something like $872,000 in scholarships, as well as a lengthy list that I didn’t total up for the Erie, our students going to Erie High School primarily. So it’s just a remarkable, visible affirmation of the importance that our community attaches to helping our students achieve their hopes and dreams. So I think I’d like to express my appreciation for that.
Unknown Speaker 49:58
Absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 50:00
Right, Thanks, Greg, you know, one might think with with COVID that we would have seen those numbers decline. But we absolutely didn’t. And I’ll echo your appreciation for Maura and Tammy and their their hard work. Thank you. Thanks. Next is our consent items this evening. I just want to confirm that board members do not wish to pull any of the consent items. All right, then I would entertain a motion for agenda 7.1. Approval staff terminations leaves 7.2 approval staff appointments 7.3 approval of minutes for the October 14 2020 and October 28 2020 regular meetings 7.4 first reading adoption board policies DJ B Federal Procurement g. d j. e, procurement procedures GB Eb staff conduct and responsibilities, new board policy GBI, criminal history record information, g c E dash, pardon me g c e g c f dash our professional staff recruiting hiring, g d e g d f dash our support staff recruiting hiring and JB h truancy 7.5 approval of professional services contract for data management platform 7.6 approval of software license contract for data management platform 7.7 approval of change order seven two construction manager general contractor cmgc contract for Main Street school renovation project 7.8 approval of change order one two cmgc contract for Lyons middle senior high school auditorium addition and renovation project 7.9. Approval of change order to two cmgc. contract for Frederick High School edition project seven point 10. Approval of amendment to cmgc contract for district wide door and hardware improvements project. seven point 11. Approval of easement agreement for the field lighting project at nyuad. High School, seven point 12 approval of contract award for ESC vehicle maintenance shop ventilation improvements.
Unknown Speaker 52:23
So moved.
Unknown Speaker 52:24
Thank you, Jim. And that was a long list and a second. Second. by Karen.
Unknown Speaker 52:32
Mr. Aaron’s absent Mr. Berthold?
Unknown Speaker 52:35
Yes. Mr. Garcia?
Unknown Speaker 52:37
Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. Miss Pierce. I
Unknown Speaker 52:43
miss Raglan ragman I, and this siegrist. I thank you, Barb. Appreciate it. Agenda Item 8.1 brings us to our action items this evening. And the first action item is the adoption of resolution proclaiming American Education Week, November 16 through 20 2020. And then Barb, I have on my notes that Diane will be speaking to that.
Unknown Speaker 53:12
Whoops, you’re muted. I believe we can’t hear you. Okay, we are just going to move forward then. Jim, let’s go ahead and start out with having you read the resolution this evening.
Unknown Speaker 53:33
Okay, thank you, resolution American Education Week November 16 through 20 2020. Whereas public schools are the backbone of our democracy providing young people with the tools they need to maintain our nation’s Freshers’ values of freedom, civil II and equality. And whereas, by equipping young Americans with both practice practice skills and broader intellectual abilities, schools give them hope for an access to a productive future. And whereas education employees, be the custodians or teachers, bus drivers or librarians work tirelessly to serve our children, and communities with care and professionalism, and we’re proud of whereas schools our community linchpins bringing together adults and children, educators and volunteers, business leaders and elected officials in a common enterprise. And whereas our nation is celebrating the week of November 16 through 20 2020, as American Education Week, in the same frame value schools, we encourage community members to support our local schools by participating in school sponsored activities and by volunteering to help those activities.
Unknown Speaker 54:55
Thank you, Jim. I appreciate that. Do board members have Any comments or questions this evening?
Unknown Speaker 55:03
Oh, Paula, did you have something? Oh, are you back far? I am. Okay. Great. Glad to see you’re up and rolling again. Yeah. Hi, Paula. Thanks.
Unknown Speaker 55:14
I just want to comment that, well, this is always a very important invaluable resolution for American Education Week, I don’t think any time can amplify it more like during this time of COVID. And everything that we’ve had to gone through as a public education system and same brain, it’s almost getting verklempt, because honestly, it’s so much more than a week. But everything that our staff and our teachers and our families have gone through. And I’m sorry, Don is no longer on the call. But I’m sure he’ll know I said this that, you know, we did everything we could in the in the spring, when this slammed into everyone to just whip around and get whatever instruction and education we could deliver to our kids as, as best we could. We took those lessons we powered through a summer, put together a program started synchronous, making sure our teachers were properly trained that the bandwidth was there, the The technology was there, the materials were there it was it was a huge effort. And then every month since then, we’ve done it again, we’ve reinvented it again, starting with the synchronous, then we introduced the hybrid side, we got the synchronous down now let’s kind of like dovetail that in with what we know how to do within in in person learning, enrolled with that for a while and then to meet the needs of our our families as best we can. We turned it into more of a flex hybrid in November. And it has been a huge lift every step of the way for everyone. And I don’t think that can be understated. And I can never thank everybody enough. And here we are heading into potentially another shift because the numbers are pointing us in a different direction. But this is so valuable right now. It’s so much more than symbolic. And just from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank everybody in within the system and the families in the community that are that are helping us get through this. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 57:16
Thank you, Paula. I appreciate that. And it would absolutely be an honor and a privilege to ask for a motion for an approval of the adoption of resolution proclaiming American Education Week.
Unknown Speaker 57:28
so moved
Unknown Speaker 57:30
by Chico in a second by Paula. Mr. Aaron’s
Unknown Speaker 57:35
absent Mr. Berthold.
Unknown Speaker 57:37
Yes.
Unknown Speaker 57:38
Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr?
Unknown Speaker 57:42
Yes.
Unknown Speaker 57:43
Miss Pierce. I Mrs. Raglan I am the seacoast I
Unknown Speaker 57:50
8.1 is a recommendation for the acceptance of the 8.2 pardon me is a recommendation for the acceptance of the 2020 fiscal year Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. And Greg, we knew you would be back for the Kaffir not on November 9, as I repetitively said at our last meeting, but on November 11, which is is this evening?
Unknown Speaker 58:13
Yes. So we were able to finalize our audit. late this afternoon based off of getting all of our charter audits finalized, we were able to we were not able to finalize until we get all of our charters to finalize their audits. And so the last one came in about three o’clock. Jane and Jen and the auditors at CLA turned it around. Very quickly. They were waiting for it. They were ready for everything. And so I apologize that came out so close to the board meeting, but it has been finalized. It did not change substantially from when we presented at the October 28 board meeting. But I’m happy to answer any questions you guys might have. Or if you want more time to peruse it. I’m Welcome to answer them at the December board meeting.
Unknown Speaker 59:07
Thank you, Greg, I appreciate it. Are there any questions by board members this evening about the Kaffir the final version of the Kaffir tick?
Unknown Speaker 59:17
Really not a question, Greg, but I don’t know if it’d be commendation. But in reading the Not that I expected anything differently but the management letter at the end of the audit saying that all our internal controls are in place and there were the auditors have an interesting way of saying that they say that they found no material weaknesses. But what that is really is that’s high praise from our auditors and it affirms again, the excellent job that you Greg and your staff are doing to Be faithful stewards of our finances. And I just wanted to point that out. It is kind of buried at the end of the report, but it is nevertheless, an important component of the annual affirmation by outside auditors of the excellent job that you and your team are doing. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:19
Thank you. Yeah, I guess I should have said that we did have an unmodified opinion, which means a clean opinion, which means they didn’t find any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:31
Great. Thank you, Greg. And then I just want to reiterate one other time that we did see a draft, so to speak, I guess it was a draft of the Kaffir at our October 28 meeting, and Paul Niedermeyer was here from CLA, to answer board member questions at that time, as was Jane. And I know that there weren’t any significant changes between that draft and the final version that is in our packet for our approval this evening. I do want to, as dick said, you know, Echo our appreciation. One significant role of the budget, the Board of Education is certainly that Financial Peace and accountability to our community. These are taxpayer dollars that the district is operated with. And so thank you, for your part, your role in helping us maintain that financial accountability. Jane, everyone else, Tony, the Finance and Audit Committee, please pass along our appreciation. Thank you. Yeah. And the in the great work and, you know, the end of the day, the reality is, you know, Paula talked about the district’s response to COVID. And we’ll talk about this much more at our meeting next week. But without, you know, our strategic priorities are actually hanging right behind you. And without that, that strong district finances at the very bottom education in St. Ryan would look vastly different right now. So thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. I would entertain a motion then for approval of action item 8.2 8.2.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:04
so moved
Unknown Speaker 1:02:05
by Jim. Second. by Karen. Mr. Aaron’s
Unknown Speaker 1:02:10
absent Mr. Bercow?
Unknown Speaker 1:02:12
Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr?
Unknown Speaker 1:02:16
Yes. Miss Pierce. Aye. Mrs. Ragland. I miss secrets. I, Greg, you’re popular this evening. A point three is a recommendation for the acceptance of the district’s charter schools 2020 fiscal year assurances for financial accreditation?
Unknown Speaker 1:02:34
Yes. So inside of Colorado revised statute there, this form is called out and it’s the Colorado Department of Education much must determine annually if substantial in good faith compliance was achieved with relevant provisions of state law and generally accepted accounting principles. So basically, what this is, is each charter school these are the this. Yeah, so these are the charter schools. All six of them have to fill them each out individually. And then it goes back to see we submit them to see the E CDE. compares their audit to our data pipeline, which is what we submit for the fiscal check to this accreditation form as well. And so this is just one further step of making sure that school districts and charter schools are accountable to good fiscal policy and, and solid financial reporting.
Unknown Speaker 1:03:36
Okay, thanks, Greg. Pretty straightforward. I don’t anticipate any object
Unknown Speaker 1:03:41
just again, Greg, I wanted. So this year, they were our overall cafer was delayed in order to provided sufficient time for the our charter schools to complete these, they’re reporting to us is that is that correct? Yes.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:05
This one, they were able to kind of, they’re able to do it. So you know, five out of the six charter schools, we received these in in a timely fashion. We had one that was basically the same as what was the delay today, in terms of getting the audit finalized. And so, but we worked through it with them, and we will, we’ll meet with them afterwards. And just have a nice little discussion about timeliness. We’d always try to get the final issued report by November 1. And so this year, I mean, granted, everybody’s working so hard with with the pandemic and everything else, but we will work with them to try to put some things in place to help them be more timely.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:56
So do you anticipate next year that That’ll be remedied.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:03
Yes, I would. I mean, I think if we have looked historically over the last 10 years that I’ve been here, typically, a charter school is the one that kind of delays the process every year in terms of our Kaffir. But it’s never the same charter school. We have charter schools for various reasons that may have a delay in in their stuff. Last year, it was related to Gatsby 68 and 75, which is the pension retirement and, and going through that calculation that was only put in place like three or four years ago. So they, they kind of struggled through some of that stuff. So each year, it seems to be somebody but each year we go back to the whoever that somebody is, and we try to work with them to make improvements. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:55
Also just wanted to confirm, Greg, as I was looking through each of them for each of the charter schools, no one had any everybody was in compliance, I saw yeses across the board. Everybody was in compliance with the
Unknown Speaker 1:06:06
correct with where we typically may see them out of compliance is the financial transparency on their website. And we go out and look every year at June 30. Because that’s when it’s kind of required to be posted. And that’s the one that would normally get us in, get them into trouble and they were all solid this year.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:26
Good. Good news. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:30
Thanks, Greg. Appreciate it. I would entertain a motion then to approve action item 8.3. so moved by Chico?
Unknown Speaker 1:06:38
Second,
Unknown Speaker 1:06:39
and a second by Jim BB. Okay,
Unknown Speaker 1:06:42
Mr. Aaron’s
Unknown Speaker 1:06:43
absent Mr. Purple?
Unknown Speaker 1:06:45
Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr?
Unknown Speaker 1:06:49
Yes.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:50
Miss Pierce. I, Mrs. Raglan. I am Miss siegrist. i.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:57
a point for Greg is the approval of the district’s 2020 fiscal year assurances for financial accreditation.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:04
Yes, absolutely. So this is this same subject as what we just talked about. The previous one was about the charter schools. And this one is about the district and there are no, there are no major incidences across this financial accreditation.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:22
Right. Thank you. All right. No questions or comments. Then I would entertain a motion for action item. The approval of action item 8.4.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:32
so moved
Unknown Speaker 1:07:33
by Jim. And a second by Paula. Mr.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:40
Aaron’s absent Mr. Bercow?
Unknown Speaker 1:07:42
Yes. Mr. Garcia?
Unknown Speaker 1:07:44
Yes. Dr. martyr?
Unknown Speaker 1:07:46
Yes. Miss Pierce. I,
Unknown Speaker 1:07:49
Mrs. Raglan. I am Miss siegrist. I thanks, Barb. Appreciate it. We don’t have any discussion items this evening. So that does bring us to adjournment. Prior to journeying journeying, I do just want to mention a couple of things. The same brain Valley schools Education Foundation, their silent auction is open. And their gala is this Saturday, if anybody would like to contribute to support that fantastic cause, please feel free to check out their website or you know what you can reach out to me and I’ll hook you up with all the information that you need to, to participate in that great cause. You know, we’ve, we’ve talked about the district and community and people and absolutely the people in our community and the people who make up the same brain schools community are just such incredible individuals and schools each year for the gala, prepare baskets that are auctioned off to raise money and was on the ED foundation call board call a couple of weeks ago, and even all the schools have still put together these incredible baskets. So in the midst of COVID, you know, educating kids, you know, as Paula said, starting off synchronously, then coming to hybrid, and then we shifted a little bit again, in the in the delivery model, the beginning of this week, the schools still came together, and they created these amazing baskets. And so I would really encourage everyone to, at a minimum go on online and check them out. It’s it’s really cool and certainly a testament to the people in our st. Brian family. also want to mention that our study session next week has the week has been changed to a special meeting. It will begin at 6pm here in the boardroom, Jeff Zack will be our guests that evening. And then Don and his team will be available and we’ll be taking a look at the district and the response to COVID start to finish and looking at resources and sustainability as well. Before I ask for a motion for adjournment. I just one more time. Want to thank all of our veterans And all the people who are serving our country and thank our community as well. With that, I would entertain a motion for adjournment. so moved by Karen and a second by Jim. All in favor. Yes. Thank you, everyone.