Note: The following is the output of transcribing from a video recording. Although the transcription, which was done with software, is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or [software] transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the meeting, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
Read along below or follow along here: https://otter.ai/u/d6PvJ2NXhOkBaTWEb2oWl0PHwgc
Unknown Speaker 0:01
Good evening and welcome to st rune Valley schools Board of Education meeting. Please join us in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Unknown Speaker 0:11
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Unknown Speaker 0:32
Welcome, everyone. It’s wonderful to see you. Barb, could you please call the roll for us this evening? Mr. Arens absent. Mr. Berthold here, Mr. Garcia. Here, Dr. martyr present. Miss Pierce here, Mrs. Raglan here. I’m Missy gris here. Thanks, Barb. Were there any addendums or changes to the agenda this evening? There were no changes. Wonderful. Thank you. I do have one small change this evening, Barb, this will be your last board of education meeting. And so we do want to recognize you and thank you for your many years of service, not just to the district, but to the board. Thank you, Karen.
Unknown Speaker 1:13
Thanks, Joey. I just wanted to share a little bit about Barb. So everybody gets to know her a little bit better. Barbara is born in Minnesota and spent her childhood there and in Chicago. She moved to Colorado in 1981. She has been married to Brian for 40 years and they have three children, five grandchildren into grande dogs. Barb has been with the district for 26 and a half years in various roles and as Secretary that Secretary to the Board of Education since 2008. She’s touched the lives of many students indirectly in this role, but also at the CDC, where she worked for many years. Her funniest memory was taking care of a giant tub of tilapia fish in the CDC horticulture. One summer while his teacher was on a 110 Barb loves hiking, biking, Caribbean cruising, snorkeling, bird watching sewing embroidery, crocheting gardening, kids, animals and old people. And we are so glad that she’ll now have more time to enjoy all these things. Barb, you’ve kept us organized. You’re always so kind and professional. You’ve made our experience on the board more enjoyable. And we can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done over these many years. On behalf of the current and former board members in the entire St. Brain Valley School District, we wish you the very best in your in your retirement and please keep in touch. Thanks.
Unknown Speaker 2:43
Waiter.
Unknown Speaker 2:45
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Karen. Thank you, Barb. Congratulations. Enjoy retirement. Well deserved. Thanks. Yes. All right. That brings us to audience participation this evening. Did we have anybody BB sign up? I know Dan Malloy is here. Yeah. No one else signed up. I emailed
Unknown Speaker 3:07
or tried to sign up. Okay. Would you like to sign up here, please? Right here. That would be great. Yeah, if you’d like to sign up perfect. While you’re signing up. Dan, would you like to go ahead and come up, please? Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 3:22
You’ll be you’ll be the first one and Dan, do you already know the routine, but please state your address, your name and your address? And then we will start timing and you have three minutes for your comments. I appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker 3:37
So my name is Dan Malloy. I live on Papi view lane in Erie. And I believe that is everything that we needed. Am I missing anything? Cool. Okay, now we can get started. So I’m here tonight, again, I wanted to talk about keeping schools a neutral place for education tonight. But we still haven’t solved the quarantine issue. So I’m here to ask the board and the leadership for two things. The first thing that I’m asking again, is that we push back on state and county health guidelines that are at odds with reality and are harmful to children. The other thing is that I’m asking the elected members of this board in their future elections to turn down any donations from the Education Association and its national and local affiliates. And there’s reasons for this course field bars, the Broncos Mile High Stadium or capacity, and yet our children and parents who have no choice but to use public schools, who have no choice but to follow the rules when they’re in the schools are being held by their toenails. So that state and county officials can save face. Why are they doing this to our children, because they can’t do it to the Broncos and the Rockies and bars and restaurants because they’d be voted out of office and they have billions of dollars to advocate for themselves. But our children can’t advocate for themselves.
Unknown Speaker 4:56
The reason I’m asking you to turn back any donations to future campaigns
Unknown Speaker 5:00
From the education association is that they are gaslighting parents and saying learning loss didn’t happen yet the district is putting on summer school and extended learning and doing everything they can to help overcome something that didn’t happen. And it’s being called fake science. This is not educational halitosis, as they say. This is real learning loss. This is real emotional trauma for our children, called Children’s Hospital Colorado has declared a mental health emergency. And again, we’re being gaslighted by this organization saying, no, no. The mental health emergency started before COVID. It has nothing to do with it. No, it does. They’ve gone up two to three times the mental health visits at these hospitals, our children are suffering. There are parents that cannot get an appointment for a psychologist or psychiatrist for their child for what’s happening in the state right now. And yet, we’re still going to continue to punish children into the future and into the fall where they don’t know if they’re going to school. They don’t know if we’re going to be shut down. It is not.
Unknown Speaker 5:57
It is not morally right for these agencies to save face and protect their futures, electorally, by forcing districts in district leadership to go ahead and implement guidelines that they will not publicly implement themselves. They call it guidelines instead of laws because it wasn’t passed by the legislature. They call it guidelines because they don’t want to come down and enforce it themselves. yet they’re going to trust the teachers and the district. And parents will follow these rules so that they can say face, and that’s not right, that’s morally corrupt, and wrong. I know you guys know better. I know you guys are doing everything you can. And we all need to stand up and help you to get past this. I appreciate your time once again, and I hope that we can still get a second talk in the future about keeping schools focused on education and keeping dogmatic school buildings. I appreciate your time. Thanks, Dan. Take care.
Unknown Speaker 6:51
Our next speaker this evening and Natalie, you’re gonna have to help me Natalie aptian app. I’m sorry. What? Abshire Abshire. Great, thank you, my apologies. And Natalie, if you could please just like Mr. Malloy, if you could please state your name and address and then you’ll get three minutes for your comments. And the time will start as soon as you state complete stating your address. Okay, before I state that, I practiced this three minutes, like a couple seconds over, just give me a heads up okay, but I will do my best. My name is Natalie Abshire. I live at 125 Hunter’s Cove road in need. And I’m here tonight to talk about this. Ready? Okay.
Unknown Speaker 7:34
During the May 26 school board meeting, the parents and the NAACP called for more district wide critical race theory, anti racist curriculum, training and check policy changes using the ignore innocuous words diversity, equity and inclusion. This was called for from an incident meet high school where the students stupidly reenacted the George Floyd tragedy on a video that went viral. Without a doubt the actions of these students were very wrong. But critical race theory is born out of Marxism and has become a national religion within academia, corporations and even our military. Public School should not be indoctrinating CRT any more than they should be indoctrinating Catholicism or Scientology. With unchecked implementation, parents, students and faculty and public schools who disagree have little ability to opt out of this curriculum and training. This is also wrong and two wrongs don’t make a right. CRT teaches people to view and group each other based on skin color, gender, sexual orientation, or other minority groups. These groups are further defined as oppressor or victim hierarchy. oppressors are indoctrinated to feel guilt because of their white skin, gender or perceived privilege. And minorities are indoctrinated to believe their victims who can’t succeed because of the oppressors. This is a lose lose situation that causes division and hate among all people. 41 years ago on August 14 1980, a police officer shot and killed two Hispanic residents during a traffic stop in Longmont. This tragedy forced community members to come together and recognize social issues, which ultimately lead to improvements in police training and race relations. Guess what? This was done without adopting Marxism and or undermining the achievements of a 1964 68 civil rights acts acts. I’ve lived in this area since I was five years old, and I’ve seen the area grow and change the building. Next door was once the parkway movie theater where I watched the original Star Wars movie. I’ve raised my children who all attended meet elementary meet middle of skyline and Longmont high schools. And now watching my grandchildren, both white and brown, attend schools in the district. At no other time Have I been more frightened for what children will be taught in public schools than I am right now.
Unknown Speaker 9:57
Our community doesn’t condone the actions of the meatsuit
Unknown Speaker 10:00
And we can, but we should be able to address social issues without adopting CRT, which only teaches racism rather than helping to abolish it. Our schools outperform the state averages on standardized tests. We have high graduation rates, low dropout rates, and a high percentage of students go on to higher education and training regardless of the color of their, of their color, gender or ethnicity. Like Hester Prynne from the scarlet letter, the meet students will be forced to endure the shame of their poor decision, as anything uploaded to the internet stays forever. Their families are shamed colleges, employers and others will be able to find the video for years. Any person or organization calling for CRT implementation must recognize their own willingness to inflict the evils of racism on students and faculty of our schools. The school board must have the courage to reject and cancel existing and future CRT curriculum and policies that will thank you now the result of being here this evening it in our future. Thank you. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 11:13
And there were no other visitors that were commenting this evening. Correct.
Unknown Speaker 11:18
Thank you. Thanks, Richard. Alright, that brings us to agenda item four, which is visitors and Don 4.1, as a superintendent, Excellence in Education Award.
Unknown Speaker 11:31
Thank you, and we actually have three of them. Okay, I’m gonna go through
Unknown Speaker 11:38
the first one.
Unknown Speaker 11:40
Brian lamer, I want to share with you and your entire team. Now you gave me a list of 90 plus people. So rather than read them all, I know you’ve got a another event plan for them to share with them and some information and communication. But I want to thank you and your entire team for many things, but I’m going to highlight to one, for the last almost year and a half, your team has worked on facilities in unprecedented ways, from h vac systems to cleaning to supplies, really doing double and triple duty for the last year and a half. And I appreciate that. And I know that our children do and I know that our parents do, and I know that our teachers and staff do so thank you, and I’m going to present this to you. But I’d also like at some point an opportunity. And I know I see a lot of your folks when I go across the street and stuff but at some point an opportunity to sit down and just have lunch with them and, and make sure they understand how much we appreciate what they’ve done for all of us. So I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 13:09
Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 13:15
I want to follow up, Jackie, with our Learning Services Department. You know, I remember before spring break a year ago, we were told really with last minute notice that our schools would be basically closing in person learning. I don’t know how many hours notice we had to do that. But within
Unknown Speaker 13:36
really within an unprecedent time you were able to create curriculum for our teachers, both virtually and then hard copies for 1000s of families to pick up from our resource center. And I know I remember seeing cars lined up in the droves, picking up all of those along with over 1.5 million meals were provided to our families that would not otherwise have had opportunities for food in the way in which they were used to coming into our schools. And I remember, you add, you know, adding about 800 additional iPads to make sure families every child had an iPad. And then I also remember making sure that every family that did not have internet connection that we provided hotspots for them, so that they could maintain access to doing that. And then all of the professional development with our teachers for blended learning to be able to teach both the kids who are at home and then when we went to a hybrid coming in and teaching with them. So we were asking our teachers to do double and triple duty. And in order to do that, we ordered microphones and stands and wide angle lenses for the classroom so kids at home could log in.
Unknown Speaker 14:52
We also our bandwidth was increased to make sure we could have everyone online without crashing the system and then
Unknown Speaker 15:00
New grading policies were created new attendance policies were created a new school with 3400 students was created in a matter of months, and hired for and all kinds of things I could go on and on and on and on.
Unknown Speaker 15:16
And I just, you know, I don’t know if people understand the monumental lift that took place for our children, and our community, and our teachers and our staff. I know a lot of people express their gratitude. But sometimes it all happens. We just did a thank you to our teachers and staff and our parents and everything. And when you started to see the list of everything that was done, he just, it’s overwhelming. And I think that it just, it’s something I wanted to recognize for your team. And thank you very much for it.
Unknown Speaker 16:13
Okay.
Unknown Speaker 16:27
The last one I have is carry McDermott carry, one want to thank you and your communications team. I think it was, you know, every, every week at least, and sometimes more, we were sending out communications to over 33,000 families, and getting all that communication translated. Because things were changing so fast. Sometimes things would change within a matter of hours from the state level. And we had to get that communication, whether it was our safe with seven campaign, or all of the different resources that were available, or the processes and procedures. And I know that you probably within a month period of time, we’re doing as much communication out to communities that we would normally do in a year. And no matter what communication would go out, there would still be questions and clarification because that’s the nature of communication when you’re communicating out to, you know, 10s of 1000s of people. But I appreciate it. And I appreciate all of the feedback and all of the opportunities that we scheduled town hall meetings, and meetings with the health department’s and everyone else involved, constantly trying to keep everybody in the loop. I know we weren’t able to do leadership st brain this year, but we did schedule those virtual meetings with about 150 parents to start with and then it slowly dwindled after we were getting, you know, closer to what we hope is the end of the pandemic. But again, you know, it’s one of those things where communication is is hard to do on a good day. And the way in which you and your team managed it. I’m very grateful for that. So thank you. And I’d like to present you and your team with this as well.
Unknown Speaker 18:32
I want to
Unknown Speaker 18:34
jump right into the superintendent’s report if I can.
Unknown Speaker 18:38
At the next thing. I’m actually I was going to give Todd an opportunity just to introduce our guests that will be our new hires. Yeah, the only thing I was gonna say Joy’s there’s a couple things relevant in terms of I think that Boulder County Health that I just wanted to make sure and get out. But as long as people that are interested in that sounds great. Why don’t you do your Superintendent report and then Todd, we’ll jump right into into those introducing our guests. Okay, sounds great. Thanks, Tom. All right. Last night, I had an opportunity to meet again with Boulder County Health and some of the members of our team, and I was able to share with them my deep concerns once again, regarding the mask issue. And also regarding the quarantining of students. And in essence, you know, I appreciate our partnership. I appreciate the difficult situation that people find themselves in with an unprecedented pandemic. But I also was able to express that
Unknown Speaker 19:38
it’s my understanding that the
Unknown Speaker 19:42
curve has been flattened so to speak, the hospitals are not full and the positivity rate is down at 1%. And much of society is wide open. When I go into the malls when I go into the grocery stores when I go I know that there’s full seating now
Unknown Speaker 20:00
The athletic events, the major sporting events, professional and otherwise. And I expressed significant concerns about continuing to quarantine our children. And I asked specifically for it to stop, because we’re not seeing that transmission. And
Unknown Speaker 20:20
we are trying to give students the benefit now of additional instructional time and other things. And we’ve heard from other major organizations, the difficulties that our children are facing with anxiety and stress and things like that. And so I asked for a concrete answer as to why this practice continues. And I am waiting for that response. Now, what I did here today, just about 20 minutes ago, is that
Unknown Speaker 20:49
we’ll be getting an update with the the mask order on the 10th. And tomorrow, maybe tomorrow, actually, as soon as tomorrow.
Unknown Speaker 20:58
The other issue is,
Unknown Speaker 21:00
we need to have clarity around the quarantining because if you’re not wearing a mask, and I’m talking about our students, then you have a 12 foot radius, where you would be quarantined. And so we would be quarantining large groups of students. And so having a mask
Unknown Speaker 21:21
makes that radius smaller, and limits more quarantining. So it’s kind of a little bit of a catch 22. And I am 100% committed to the safety of our children. So I would never advocate for this if there were consistent application of this policy and these, whatever they are called.
Unknown Speaker 21:42
But it is very difficult to watch a packed arena, and packed malls and packed restaurants and packed grocery stores, and then have our children quarantined for long periods of time,
Unknown Speaker 21:59
in the absence of all of the things that we were made aware of,
Unknown Speaker 22:04
that would warrant this type of quarantine. So I appreciated their response they are setting up hopefully, I have requested a meeting with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, so that I can get a very clear answer to communicate with our community. Not simply that that’s what we say, I need to hear an answer. And so that’s what I’m asking for. Now, I appreciate members of the community who reach out to me and say, Why are you doing this? Why are you doing, I want to say clearly,
Unknown Speaker 22:40
that this is an order from the Boulder County Health Department.
Unknown Speaker 22:45
And it is shared with me that it is an order from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. And we are working very hard and very closely with them to try to get some clarity around these requirements.
Unknown Speaker 23:02
That’s what we’re in the process of doing right now. And we will communicate as soon as we have that clarity around the mask rule, the quarantining the isolation and other things. And I want to repeat, there is nobody who is more focused on the safety and well being of our children. So if the answer is, if the answer is that our children are at risk,
Unknown Speaker 23:26
and this is a necessity,
Unknown Speaker 23:29
then we can have that conversation.
Unknown Speaker 23:32
And I also need to see consistency of that concern, day to day because the other thing that I know about quarantining is that oftentimes when our children are quarantined, they don’t stay at home, they go to the parks, and the swimming pools and other places. And so I’m not sure if the quarantining is actually achieving what it’s intended to otherwise achieve. Now, I want to be clear, I am very appreciative of the health department’s for their expressed concern for our children’s safety and our teacher safety and our teachers and staff. I don’t want there to be any doubt about that. I also need clarity in the explanations that I am given, so that I can clearly communicate with our community, other than simply saying, because we said so.
Unknown Speaker 24:21
So, that’s the update, and I will share that with you once I receive that clarity on the 10th where the masks are concerned, once a meeting is set up with cdphp at my request, if it’s honored, and then also any adjustments to the quarantining process. So that’s one update. The other is we are full of students this summer. We have elementary school students, middle school students, high school students, literally hundreds of 1000s of students that are engaged in what we believe are really meaningful learning opportunities. And therein lies another challenge for us because for example,
Unknown Speaker 25:00
Project launches 20 days of instruction. And the federal government is releasing millions and millions of dollars in SRO funds to support that initiative. But if we have to quarantine our children for 14 days, then we’ve got conflicting interests there. So I need some clarity around that, so that I can be a good steward of our dollars and our children’s education.
Unknown Speaker 25:23
The other thing
Unknown Speaker 25:26
that I will tell you is we’re getting ready to pilot a telecommunications project, which would allow us to have students at one school, take classes virtually from another school, if the class was not necessarily offered in their school. So if you had a world language, for example,
Unknown Speaker 25:42
that wasn’t offered at one high school, but it was offered at another, the students could then take that class through a telecommunications network. And we’re working with our system to do that. And we’re very excited about that. And then finally, you know, in the last several years, we have passed approximately 16 bills into law that have been initiated out of st reign.
Unknown Speaker 26:05
In terms of education bills, and this year, we put four forward, one was around internet access for all students, and other one was around safe to tell and making it a more effective and efficient process. And a third one was to look at our accreditation system, which has not been reviewed for at least a decade, that looks at perhaps auditing. Is it doing what it’s supposed to do? Does it disadvantage certain students? And do we need to make a broader, more comprehensive system of accrediting the quality of schools and how well our students are doing? I think that it’s imperative in this 21st century, when we know how fast things are changing that well, we would keep standardized tests as a part of our system. Standardized tests can’t represent our system, as a state or as a country. So my hope is that we will be able to broaden our look at
Unknown Speaker 27:01
how schools are accredited. So those are some things that I wanted to share with you and see if you have any questions or thoughts, comments.
Unknown Speaker 27:13
Sure.
Unknown Speaker 27:15
just jot down a clarification with regards to the legislation. Could you give us an update on the status of those initiatives? Yeah, to have been passed into law, and then there to tell you exactly.
Unknown Speaker 27:31
To have made it through the House and Senate, the ones that we’re waiting on to see if the governor will sign them are safe to tell and our education accountability system, but they have both both made it now through the majority of the process. And so we’re very optimistic that those two will be signed the first two on the internet service and the childcare centers have been signed by the governor, and to law. Thank you very much. And congratulations on the success of you and your staff and in pursuing those initiatives and really improving education for all Colorado public
Unknown Speaker 28:07
system students.
Unknown Speaker 28:10
And then one last clarification, I was asked a question about somebody had been informed that masks were no longer required in schools back in May. That’s not accurate. They are still required in schools. And that is a Boulder County order. So I just wanted to make sure that people understand we’re not imposing something subjectively.
Unknown Speaker 28:32
Thank you, Don. Appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker 28:37
Todd, we have a couple of new hires this evening on the consent agenda, if you would like to introduce them. Sounds great. Thank you, Sara, if you want to come up.
Unknown Speaker 28:49
This is it’s my pleasure to introduce Sarah coniglio, who is going to be the new dean of students for Centennial elementary school and joining Sarah today are her husband Matt and Kristen Ville, her principal so little back that.
Unknown Speaker 29:07
Sorry, Miss coniglio graduated from Colorado State University with a bachelor’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies. She continued her education at Colorado State University, where she received a master’s degree in educational leadership and human resources. For the past three years, Miss coniglio has been a first grade teacher at Grandview Elementary School, where she implemented the four components of a blended learning classroom and assisted the principal and planning for the project launch program from 2014 to 2018. That’s coniglio served as a second grade teacher at Rice Elementary School in the pooter School District. Prior to that, she served as a fifth grade and second grade teacher at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic school in Boulder. So
Unknown Speaker 29:49
Hi, thank you so much. I just want to say thank you so much for this opportunity. I’m very excited to work with the centennial community, partner with them and continue
Unknown Speaker 30:00
The awesome work of St. Green Valley schools, I feel I very much appreciate how much we work very hard towards things of equity, inclusion, and innovation with the school district. And I just really, really love working with students. And I just am so excited to continue that passion in this new role. Thank you. Thank you, Sara, congratulations on your new role.
Unknown Speaker 30:30
It’s also my pleasure to introduce to you miss Lindsay cheney as the Dean of Students for your crest elementary school and joining Linda today are her colleagues, Alexander downing and Jody garden. So thank you for the support.
Unknown Speaker 30:45
Miss cheney graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a bachelor’s degree in humanities. She continued her education at the University of Colorado at Boulder where she received her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction literacy. Miss cheney also received a principals licensure from Colorado State University. For the past four years, Miss cheney has been an instructional coach and stem coordinator at Columbine elementary school and the Innovation Center where she collaboratively planned school improvement strategies, guided grade level teams through targeted professional learning communities, and impact teamwork and worked with teammates to unify a district step model and create substantial, sustainable programming for students at all levels. Prior to that Miss cheney served as the stem coordinator on the Race to the Top grant from 2013 to 2017. And Miss cheney also started as a first grade teacher at Alpine elementary school, from 2009 to 2013.
Unknown Speaker 31:43
Thank you, I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity to continue my career and St. Brain schools. I’m very proud to be a part of the system and what we stand for and what we do. I received a very warm welcome from the eagle cross community and parents. And so I look forward in partnering with them in the upcoming school year.
Unknown Speaker 32:02
Thanks, Lindsay. Congratulations, welcome to Eagle crest.
Unknown Speaker 32:11
Todd, thank you. And congratulations to both of you again. And thanks to your your cheering section, who came this evening to to welcome you to those new new roles.
Unknown Speaker 32:23
Agenda item six this evening begins our reports. 6.1 is a Finance and Audit Committee update. Hi, Greg.
Unknown Speaker 32:33
Hi. So Heather Parrish, who is our chairperson is not here yet. I haven’t been able to confirm that she could make it today. So if we could move it to later in the meeting, that would be great. Or if we need to move it to the June 23 meeting, I would appreciate that. Okay, great. Is that all right with the rest of the board? Well, why don’t you just keep an eye out and I can I can keep an eye for Heather as well. And if we see or we’ll jump back to it. And otherwise, we’ll just ask Barb to move it to the the June 26. Meeting for committee is just a tremendous amount of work. And I would like for her to be here as we go through it. It is a lot of work. Absolutely. And I would like to be able to have an opportunity to thank her for all the time that she volunteers for many years now. Great. Thanks, Greg. All right, then, Tony. That brings us to agenda item 6.2, which is the public hearing of the superintendent’s proposed fiscal year 2022. Budget all funds. Hi, Tony. Good evening.
Unknown Speaker 33:30
So two weeks ago, I had the privilege of introducing the superintendent’s proposed budget for St. Green Valley schools for the 2021 22 fiscal year in compliance with state statute and 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 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 23 board meeting in two weeks for formal adoption.
Unknown Speaker 34:05
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 last board meeting, due to the pandemic, there has been a delay by the state legislature in finalizing the budget for K 12 education in Colorado. There was also a subsequent postponement the finalization of any compensation changes for next year. Therefore, we have been updating the budget as new developments occur. At this time, the legislature has indeed made progress and just yesterday wrapped up their session for this year. They have passed the K 12 public school finance act, but they introduced some changes that have yet to be implemented by the Colorado Department of Education and so we do not have yet solid revenue adjustments. As a result of that. I do not believe they will be extremely large changes however, compared to the current estimated amounts that we have in this version of the budget.
Unknown Speaker 34:56
In addition, as I mentioned at our previous meeting, the compensation agreement with the st. Fran
Unknown Speaker 35:00
Valley Education Association has been finalized, and those increased expenditure amounts have been incorporated into this new budget version.
Unknown Speaker 35:07
So to give a recap, I had previously brought forward a proposed budget for FY 22 containing a general fund spend down of 16 point 3 million, compared to the $19.9 million spent down in the budget that we are currently operating in the current fy 21 year. The budget version that has been brought before the board tonight contains the change as a result of increases in compensation. Thus, we are adding another 9.1 million in salary and benefit expenditures, which increases our budgeted fund balance spend down for FYI, 22 to $25.4 million.
Unknown Speaker 35:39
No changes were made to any of the other funds. This document will be published on the financial transparency section of our website at sv st.org for public inspection, and a physical copy is printed out and available at the district office. As for the public hearing, the district posted the public notice on the proposed budget in the times call on May 27 28th. And 29th, inviting comments on the budget and participation in the hearing today. At this time, we have not received any comments or questions from the public regarding the proposed budget. But it would be my pleasure today to address any questions or comments by the board. We’re going to communities, community members who may be present at this time. Thank you, Tony. Appreciate it. Are any community members present this evening that would like to comment on the budget?
Unknown Speaker 36:26
Any board member questions or comments? We’ve seen the budget many times and talked about it in great detail.
Unknown Speaker 36:40
Alright, Tony, I think that’s it. Thank you. If people want to reach out and ask questions, they can contact you through the website, correct? Yeah, that’s probably the best option. There’s a number there that they can call it the bottom. And there’s also I think, a form that they can complete to provide
Unknown Speaker 36:56
some input for questions. Great, thank you. And I guess I would just remind the public that the Board of Education, as well as you and Greg discuss the budget at great length during a study session. We discussed it again at our regular meeting our just our last regular meeting. And then the Finance and Audit Committee has reviewed it multiple times as well.
Unknown Speaker 37:18
Alright, great, then we’ll see you for the final time for the budget.
Unknown Speaker 37:24
Not really the final time but the final time for what we have next on our list of tasks at the June 23 meeting. Great thanks, Tony. Appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker 37:37
Agenda item seven is the beginning of our consent items do board members wish to pull any of those items this evening.
Unknown Speaker 37:44
All right. Then I would entertain a motion for approval of agenda item 7.1 staff termination sleeves 7.2 staff appointments 7.3 minutes for the May 12 2021 regular meeting, may 29 2021 study session and the May 26 2021. regular meeting 7.4 2021 2022 fuel purchases 7.5 recommendation to hire Dean of Students for Centennial elementary school and 7.6 recommendation to hire Dean of Students for Eagle crest elementary school show moved by Jim second. And Karen. Mr. Aaron’s absent Mr. Bercow? Yes, Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. Miss Pierce. Aye. Mrs. Raglan. I am a secret I
Unknown Speaker 38:39
Hi, Greg 8.1 is a recommendation for approval of those s or two supplemental funds for special education. Yes, good evening. So if you remember, back in December, we did a approval and transmittal form for Esther one we did Esther to and Esther three, beginning of May. This is Esther to supplemental. And what that means is Esther two
Unknown Speaker 39:08
went to the state and the state allocated 90% out as Esther to funds. They were able to hold 10% for whatever the state wanted to do with it. This is part of the 10% where they’re allocating out to students with disabilities. So administrative units. And so the same brains administrative unit was awarded $306,000. And so this form is similar to that. It’s just making sure that you the boards are aware and provide assurances to the fact that we’re going to spend the funds appropriately.
Unknown Speaker 39:46
Thanks, Greg. Any board member comments or questions for clarification? Pretty straightforward. All right. Thanks, Greg. I would entertain a motion then for approval of action item 8.1, which is the SB two sub one
Unknown Speaker 40:00
Mental funds for special education. So by Chico second and Karen. Mr. Aaron’s absent Mr. Berthold? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. marner? Yes. Miss Pierce. Aye. Mrs. Ragland. I am a secret I
Unknown Speaker 40:17
8.2 is the recommendation for approval of the 2021 2020 2022 negotiated agreement with the St. vrain. Valley Education Association. Hello, Todd. Good to your name. Again, President secrets and members of board and superintendent, Superintendent dad.
Unknown Speaker 40:37
It’s my pleasure to be here with see Valerie owl, who’s the president of the st. Brain Valley Education Association and want to talk on behalf of us for a little bit and then see if you can add any color commentary along with it. But I want to think I’m actually on all teams for for the work on in there didn’t negotiation session this year. We have great collaboration and work together well and and presenting ideas and understanding each other’s viewpoints. The district and the association have a great working relationship. And both recognize its importance and providing opportunities to demonstrate value for employees and positively contribute to a continued committed student success. The negotiation teams for the district and the Education Association met for several months this spring, to discuss regarding proposed language to the existing agreement, which is the mo a that you have. And SV, the Educational Association has notified me you and Steve have notified me that they have passed the ratification of that that
Unknown Speaker 41:51
number of a number of agreement.
Unknown Speaker 41:55
I’d like to give you a little bit of the highlights and stuff like that, to the negotiated agreement, I know that you have copies of it. But one of the big things I think is important for us is that this added $1,000 to the base, bringing our status starting starting salaries up to 45,250, which makes us very competitive in today’s
Unknown Speaker 42:18
teaching market, as well as the addition of steps and lanes, the continuing contributions of to insurance premiums, as well as money in some of our longevity steps. We did some clarification of the languages. in Article One, you’ll see some definitions to what SSP is or special service provider, those are a little bit different. They have a different designation than teachers at the state level. They’ve separated those out in in, actually licensure. So a little clarification there. Article 10 is the clarified screening of interviews for screening interviews for transfers. So to clean up a little bit of language or how we will go through our transfer process. Article 16 clarified some language for ensuring planning time for special ed, we did have discussions that in some cases, it’s not a set time because they have some flexible scheduling, and to work together with principal and especially a teacher to ensure that they get the proper amount of planning time. And the lunch hour also added language for the special Advisory Committee which we call siak. And siak will be meeting again this year to continue to work on and talk about workload and the special around and then we have a couple mo use a special a demo EU,
Unknown Speaker 43:39
which we clarified some beginning of the year target that causes us to actually take a look at at possible workload and, and some things that we might do. So we really focused actually and around the center based program. for elementary and secondary. We’ve kind of separated that out because it didn’t make sense in our target ranges. And then article 21, we clarified language to meet requirements, the Healthy Families work law. So that law was put into place by the Colorado legislature, legislator, legislature sorry, that caused us to that need to clarify some of our language to make sure we were meeting and adhering to that law. Appendix B, we added some positions that were added by ch acid so just added some sports like unified bowling, and things like that. So we needed to add those into language. We had an mo you on early childhood. And really this is around professional giving some options around professional development for early childhood. And then mlu
Unknown Speaker 44:42
regarding early childhood, as well as early childhood special education, and really coming up with some discussions about how to increase the number of early childhood special education teachers that we have, that’s a struggle across the state. It’s it’s something that what
Unknown Speaker 45:00
What’s interesting is you can have a special ed license. And you can have an Early Childhood Special license, and you can hold both. But you’re not qualified to teach Early Childhood Special Ed, you have to have a special designation and special classes to go to teach Early Childhood Special Ed. And I, what I understand is one of our major universities just dropped the program in Early Childhood Special Ed. So it’s gonna make it even tougher, but we want to increase those, because, again, the impact in the students and stuff like that. So that’s kind of a general summary of what’s in the MLA. Steve, I don’t know if you had anything to add to that. Just a couple quick items. First of all, thank you for you know, having me here tonight, it’s always a pleasure to you know, actually be in front of a board instead of being at virtual and everything else that we’ve had to do over the last year, I think we had a, it was an exciting, you know, discussion that we had, as far as negotiations went this year, I think we really covered a lot of things, we got some solid language that’s going to help our teachers, but also help our students at the same time. You know, one of the areas I think we’ve been really working on over the last couple of years has been special education. And I know what we’re doing is we’re, you know, putting band aids on shotgun wounds, because unfortunately, the federal government is not fully funding, special education. And until we can get that accomplished, I just don’t foresee us really being able to move too far in that direction. But it is tremendously encouraging to be able to have these conversations, and to be able to really begin to look at, you know, the workload issues. But again, also making sure that each of our students are taken care of, during, you know, when it comes to special education, when it came to salary, I think, you know, we have, you know, what was it 2015, we went to the new salary schedule, and I think the golden objective of that was to get as many educators to career earnings as soon as possible, that’s advantageous for all of us, because, you know, we want to retain our teachers, and, you know, one of the flaws that we did see in that was at the top with our veteran teachers, they were seeing, you know, barely above, you know, inflation, you know, increases. And we were able to address that this year. And I think a lot of our teachers were very thankful for the ability, you know, for us to be able to tweak with that a little bit. And that’s one of the glories of this new salary schedule is it’s really easy to fix. But again, I want to extend my, you know, thank you to the negotiation team, our negotiation team, and, of course, the district negotiation team. It was, it was definitely an interesting bargain, you know, being that it was actually like, you know, live streamed, and I don’t think, you know, as the first time we’ve ever done anything like that. And I think it opened the eyes of a lot of people to see, you know, what exactly goes on in these sessions. And we’re truly excited about what we have here, and 97% of our members would agree that this was, you know, a good bargain and a good outcome.
Unknown Speaker 48:06
So, again, we appreciate the support of the Association and the district bargaining team, as well as our superintendent and and our cabinet people that as they’ve answered questions, and helped, you know, clarify things as we negotiated, and we would be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Right. Thank you. Any board member questions or comments this evening?
Unknown Speaker 48:32
Thank you, Todd. And Steve, it’s
Unknown Speaker 48:37
not well, it’s unusual, but expected in St. Fran, that we develop and maintain good working relationships with our association. And I’m pleased to hear it the way that you have both characterized that I’m particularly
Unknown Speaker 48:54
happy that the special ed approach is being was the topic this year. And as I read through the master agreement, it seems like very constructive progress has been made. So I have, I’m happy about the progress we’re making with regard to our salaries, I think it’s a significant step in the right direction. And it really continues the trend that we’ve established a number of years ago, in terms of progressively elevating our
Unknown Speaker 49:31
early career teachers to
Unknown Speaker 49:36
well, the fee level for first first year teachers and the whole schedule, I guess, just as a miscellaneous item. I noted with great pleasure the
Unknown Speaker 49:49
seat see 10.7 on new hires,
Unknown Speaker 49:54
eliminating that provision that it required automatic termination of those
Unknown Speaker 50:00
We’re Hard Light. I know it’s something that hasn’t
Unknown Speaker 50:04
significantly affected us in the last year or so. But, in fact, it was in the master agreement. And I was really happy to see that. That was eliminated. I think that’s a
Unknown Speaker 50:18
positive step forward and allows us to hold those great teachers that we just happen to hire late. So thank you, again, for your good work and the tough negotiations that you’ve gone through, I think this is a very positive step forward. Thank you for pointing that out. We actually stopped that in practice. And it was as language we needed to remove because you’re right, exactly right. We have some good teachers that if you’re hired late, you know, there’s to be a choice to that. So thank you for pointing that out. And it was a common sense thing to do. I mean, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 50:51
Thanks, tech. Anyone else? No. Steve, I was glad that you mentioned the that the new salary schedule came out in 2015. One of the things that Don and I’ve talked about several times over the past couple years, is when we got together, and we had a conversation about a commitment to bring that base salary to 40,000. And the district has made significant progress since that time, thank you for your, your role in that. And I think, really, the only thing that’s left to say is thank you to everyone on the negotiating team. Steve, it’s been a challenging year. I hope that you get to spend some time with family and take a little break this summer. We’re gonna try I mean, we have a trip to Hawaii scheduled so great. Well, I’m gonna take me, I was just going to say I was thinking if you had trouble I could go along. It’s funny. I’ve been getting a lot of friend requests lately. So yeah, a trip to Hawaii. I might do that. So yeah. But truly, sincerely, thank you very much. And I do hope you have some time to rest this summer. It’s been a challenging year. We will. Great. Thank you. It has been challenging. Yeah, sure. All right. Thank you. All right. With that, then I would entertain a motion for approval of action item 8.2, which is the 2021 2022 negotiated agreement with the St. vrain. Valley Education Association. so moved by Dick suck my gym. Mr. Aaron’s absent Mr. Bercow? Yes, Mr. Garcia, I’m gonna recuse myself from voting to a relationship with Okay.
Unknown Speaker 52:22
All right. Dr. martyr? Yes. Miss Pierce. I Mrs. Raglan. I am Mr. grisay. I thank you, Barbara. Appreciate it. Alright, so that brings us to the end of our agenda this evening. We will be back in session on Wednesday, June 23, at 5:30pm for May financials, and then a regular meeting at 6pm. And then we will not meet in the month of July.
Unknown Speaker 52:52
Which and so we’ll be back here in the boardroom on August 11. Believe it or not, that’ll go by quickly.
Unknown Speaker 53:03
That’s it. I feel like I’m forgetting something. Anybody? No. All right. I would entertain a motion for Paula.
Unknown Speaker 53:12
Sorry, I just wanted to jump in because I I don’t think Heather’s here yet. That’s what I wanted to come back to you. Thank you. So I just wanted to I’m sure we can defer that report. And I agree it would be nice to have her here. But there was a memo in our packet that we all read that outlined a lot of the work that they’ve done all year long. So I would I know you’ve all read it. But I just wanted to bring it to everyone’s attention, how helpful they are that group of people in just bringing in that level of expertise from the public sector from the private sector. Karen, I sit in on those meetings, I learned something every single time and just to hear that sort of institutional conversation around financial management is tremendously helpful. So I thought the memo covered a lot of it. So I’m glad everybody got a chance to see that. And hopefully we can see how they’re here. But I get it. We already take a lot of your time. I kind of get it. We might have to just be okay with the memo. So yeah, thanks. And they do volunteer. I mean, it is the experts from the community that volunteer their time. Thanks, Paula. Alright, then we’ll look forward to having Heather report at the next meeting. Thanks, Greg. Appreciate it. All right. With that I would entertain a motion for adjournment. Please. so moved by Karen. Second. Chico All in favor. Aye. Good night everyone Drive safe.
Unknown Speaker 54:44
16.
Unknown Speaker 54:48
District vice president is sitting there and it has been taught
Unknown Speaker 55:26
Because this this
Unknown Speaker 55:29
is coming tomorrow
Unknown Speaker 55:40
if you just
Unknown Speaker 55:44
kind of
Unknown Speaker 55:46
strike
Unknown Speaker 55:48
yeah
Unknown Speaker 55:57
a drag race kids
Unknown Speaker 56:03
with issues
Unknown Speaker 56:09
right or wrong just keep it challenging feel joy stimulation
Unknown Speaker 56:15
was a no that