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.
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Unknown Speaker 1:31
To the very best opportunities and an environment that is inclusive of every child. Alright. Moving on to the next item on the agenda I would ask bill I saw there you are we talked earlier, I would ask the board if they would be in agreement with removing visitors. Agenda item four up above agenda item three, which is audience participation, since we have a guest this evening. Great, thank you. Then john, for the record. Can you just note that we’re now moving to agenda item 4.1, which is united power presentation. And Bill. It has been quite a while since we have seen you welcome.
Unknown Speaker 2:18
Thank you, Chairwoman Seacrest and to the board. Dr. Had dad and staff. It has been a while and I have truly missed you so. So it’s a pleasure to come here. And I was thinking just while sitting there in the last few minutes. I think except for Thunder Valley. I have been around with United power long enough to see every school building in weld county begin from the ground up and have had a part in each one of those facilities, of which we have 2020 meters in weld County are not just weld County, but you need that you know, to power serves the district. And also tonight, I’m accompanied by United powers. Chairman of our board of directors. Miss Ursula Morgan from meet
Unknown Speaker 3:14
Ursula, welcome. Thank you. I did this today all day. So I’m, I’m done. We have an empty seat if you’d like to join Shin hours, it’s enough for me.
Unknown Speaker 3:27
So I had a curiosity I in my handouts here I drew a line where united powers approximate tutorial line is relative to the school district map and it is in fact mostly the county line. We we go slightly into Boulder County on lookout road all the way up to Alexander Dawson campus. But for the most part, we’re limited in weld County, and that’s in agreement through the PDC and excel serves the west side there in the city of Longmont, of course serves electricity to that within the limits. So there’s a list of all of the 20 accounts on there. And the important thing of why we’re here is that united power is a not for profit, as opposed to a nonprofit aid not for profit cooperative. And as such, if and when we do make a profit on an annual basis, we are entitled to retain some of those earnings of which we use to operate. And then eventually we give those earnings back. And our purpose here tonight is to present to the district, the 2021 2021 Capital credit check in the amount of $18,376 and Ursula has in in the board that she preceded Silver is the do all the considerations based on staff recommendations. And Ursula, I’ll give you a moment to describe how the capital credit allocation then becomes manifested in a check as we are here tonight.
Unknown Speaker 5:17
Put me on the spot, I’m told you I was done. Um, we look at where were our projections for where we’re going to be for every year like we’re looking at our key assumptions for next year, and where our allocations might be. So we can return your money back to you we look at you know, staffing needs and how much our power supply is going to cost. Right now our energy costs are, for every dollar we spend is 74 cents is going straight to our power supplier. So we’re operating on 26 cents of every dollar to pay all of our staff all of our linemen everything. And so we look at all those numbers. And this year, it was five and a half million that we’re giving back to our members. And, you know, we’re looking at what we’re going to be able to do next year based on those numbers. So we’re very, very proud of how much we’ve given back over the years to all of our members. For the people who live in weld County, yay. Um, so that’s why we’re here today. Um, before I give the mic back to you, to him, I’d like to invite everybody to come see our new facility at in the southwest territory. It’s on the frontage road. It’s our new building, it’s 100 130,000 square feet. we occupy 100 and 100,000 square feet. And we’re going to have tours of our battery and of the building food, fun, excitement games and an opportunity to talk to staff and board for anybody that has any questions or concerns. So we’re available on Saturday, come see our new building, because it’s pretty cool. So that’s where we hold our board meetings now. Because of COVID. We needed more space to spread out. So
Unknown Speaker 7:05
thank you, Ursula. So for me, the check the actual checkout the actual check, not the phony check. And if you didn’t, don’t just love to have a picture of absolutely thank you. There. Yeah. And Bill out tweeted out. Bill, take care. Thanks again. All right. ursuline. Bell, thank you very much. Yes. Yes. Appreciate you being here.
Unknown Speaker 8:33
Alright, so that brings us back up to agenda item three, which is audience participation, the Board of Education values, community perspectives and the feedback from our parents, teachers, staff, and community. During Board of Education meetings, the board will hear up to 30 minutes of public comment on non agenda items, and 30 minutes of public comment on agenda specific items. To allow for the greatest number of community members to participate. Each person will be limited to three minutes of public comment. Please note that comments on individuals or personnel matters are not appropriate topics for public comment. If you wish to discuss an individual or personnel matter, please reach out directly to a board member Dr. Haddad or the HR department. All right. I get my list here. This evening. We have 12345 individuals who have signed up to speak on non agenda items. I we had one person who arrived this evening. Yes, thanks, though. Is there anybody in the audience who’s here to speak on an agenda item? All right. Then we shall jump right into our public speakers. And Cheryl mckarrick is our first speaker did Cheryl arrive yet? Jen Has she not arrived? Okay, then we’ll just go ahead and go go right to you, Jen. Perfect. Okay, I’ll kind of keep No, I’ll keep an eye out for her to not a problem. So also just
Unknown Speaker 10:12
like, coexist with her with her Wednesday church, so maybe maybe she took a break.
Unknown Speaker 10:19
Okay, so, um, Jim, you’ve been here before. So I think you know, you know, the the drill, so to speak, address, we’ll start timing at three minutes. And when you get to three minutes, then I’ll interrupt you and move on to the next person. Great. Thanks, john. Go ahead.
Unknown Speaker 10:33
Okay, guys. So Jen Henderson, Colorado, he does explores the room. So I would like to start by thanking Don, for the time you’ve taken to hear our concerns over the last several months and the courage you’ve shown and in addressing them. Although we have a long, long way to go, I want to acknowledge the fact that you have continued to hold the line for our kids. And I appreciate that. And days where everything’s so uncertain, I appreciate the partnership, right. And look, it looks like it’s a pretty sticky, sticky situation for this year, coming up. With everything on the plate, from CRT to black life matters to LG, deep LG TV, q two masks and vaccines for our K through 12. There’s a lot that we’re going to need to really decide on right. Right, a breaking point in our nation, when with everything and everyone so divided. This is the time to stand up and continue to do the right thing by supporting our parents in this district. How you can do that is by trusting us to raise our kids and know that you’re as much as your value is there in that in their lives. You’re not a co parent, your district does not co parent our kids. I understand that you can’t control everything that goes on in every classroom. Right? I know that and I understand that. Which is why I would respectfully ask this board to really reenact permission slips. anything out of the scope of academic excellence, really just needs to be a parent’s decision. My oldest daughter, I got the permission slips with the sex ed classes and all of that, and my kid was one that got to do something else for some of those segments. You guys, my youngest kids didn’t get that. And it caused problems inside my household COVID COVID-19 and masks. Look numbers from the CDC, you guys this is one and 100,000 Kids only point 2% of kids die from COVID. If they drive to school, they’re at a higher risk of dying at a point 5%. Suicide however, still rings at a 1.5% of deaths for our youth. Homicide is at a point seven, cardiovascular is at a point six, pneumonia and flu is at a point three and I don’t ever remember our kids being masks because of mass because of a bad flu season. I understand that there are parents both for and against everything that I’ve lined out today. And I know it doesn’t make it easy for you guys. Put these choices back in the parents court. Don’t make a sign a slip that we could potentially be on the next boulder Child Protective Services list of why I’m hurting my children or trying to murder them by sending them without masks. Give us our right back. Give us our choice back. Be there for us, right as what you’re supposed to be doing you guys, but you’re not co parents and let us make those decisions for our kids.
Unknown Speaker 13:39
Thank you. Thank you, Jen. Next up this evening is Taylor Huffman. Hello Taylor. Welcome. Thank you for being here this evening. If you could please state your name and address for the record. And then you’ll have three minutes, three minutes for your comment. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 14:02
Taylor Hoffman. I live in Meade, Colorado. I’d like to thank the board for having me to speak today on behalf of kids, parents and teachers against the mass mandates. I currently have a two and a four year old and childcare in Longmont. I want to start off by saying that there are two things that can’t be true at the same time. COVID is real and has the potential to be deadly for some individuals. And number two is that government has a record of removing individual liberty and choice under the premise of emergencies. And those liberties are rarely rarely returned. And that is why mass mandate should be stopped immediately. Let me give you some info for my kids school to give you a perspective of what’s been going on and why the mass mandates need to be looked at. So in 20 months of operation, my child’s school has not had one positive COVID case, not one that’s 161 days without wearing masks at the height of the pandemic from when it started. Until today, how are my kids wearing masks? My two year old? How are they wearing masks at a time like this? We need to reevaluate. Dr. hidin. You gave some info two weeks ago about this topic. You said there’s 20 hospitalizations, seven deaths over the time of students around the area. I want to be clear, I’m not. I’m against death of any kind. I do not want to see any kids die. But when do the masks come off? What are my children going to be able to go to school normal again? When are anybody’s children going to be able to go to school? No, normal again. You had mentioned that you talked to Boulder County Health and they gave you they didn’t give you a timeline of when these maps were going to be off? They don’t know that’s not good enough. We have to give a timeline we have to give real data. It can’t just be I don’t know. They can’t just say I don’t know. I have pretty similar statistics to what the previous speaker said. Drowning is point 5.2 for COVID. Should my children be wearing arm floaties around in case they come upon some standing water? It would be ridiculous and so is mass. So how are we okay with risking these children’s mental health and growing over a 2% chance of dying of dying from COVID the master causing inability to communicate with each other, both from teachers to students and from students to students. I see my kids try. And they see their friends and they smile at them. But their friends can’t see their smile. So they can’t share that exchange that normal kids should have. It makes you less likely to empathize with others. If my teacher cannot see that my student is hurting or is upset. How is that teacher going to do their job for what their job is? They want to see those students succeed. They want to make sure that those students are okay and these master in the way I’ve spoke to teachers and staff at my child’s school. They talk about kids breaking down in tears. I just want you guys to understand, please reevaluate the mass mandate. Thank you. Thank you Taylor. Next step is OST to Siena. Welcome
Unknown Speaker 17:22
I think you probably know the drill by now to name an address and then three minutes
Unknown Speaker 17:31
My name is us to Siena my pronouns are they them or he him and I live in raspberry Hill in Frederick 80504. I want to begin by acknowledging that my father is an administrator at Erie high school and my mom is a teacher at Erie middle school, but I am an adult. Why views are entirely my own and should not be associated with him or her or their schools. I decided to speak here today after seeing the last board meeting I was frankly appalled at the behavior of the audience. It frustrates me to see parents who expect their kids to be quiet and respectful during class, booing and jeering during a formal board meeting. I commend Dr. Her dad and the rest of their board for their patience and composure, even in the midst of this unprofessional behavior. That being said, I’m not a parent. I’m here to speak as a member of the class of 2019 at Erie high. Some of you have probably seen me throughout the years, I may have even had class with your child. I held various leadership positions in student government choir and the gender and sexuality acceptance club at Erie. And because of those experiences, I came to know many of my fellow students on a deeply personal level. hearing all of the recent talk in the community and the District of protecting students mental health leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Where was this concern for kids who felt like failures because they were pushed into classes far above their skill level designed for fields they weren’t even wishing to pursue? where it was this concern for kids who were constantly praised for their innate giftedness, then were abandoned when their sparks burned out and they actually needed help with school, where it was this concern for the queer children that I worked with every day who lived in constant fear of being outed, and who felt alone when their existence was either ignored or turned into a debate. Where was this concern when my class experienced firsthand the devastating loss of a battle with mental illness? It is naive to think that being away from school or wearing a mask are the only challenges our children are facing. Parents are using their children as political pawns, getting shares and clicks and hearts off of the complicated emotions of childhood and avoiding difficult conversations they need to be having privately with their children. Our district is so focused on looking good on paper that caring for students needs actually looking them in the eye is something left entirely to our already exhausted teachers, parents of our district. Have you asked your children without judgment, how they feel about masking up about their safety board members? Have you given your students an accessible way to talk about their school experience without judgment. Why are we so concerned about a parent’s right to choose whether a child wears a mask and not What the child, the one who is in the building all day and who owns the face that the mask goes on wants to do. I went through schooling as a queer and trans person with undiagnosed autism. I knew from the get go that it was going to be difficult. But to see from my own community, such animosity and politicizing with only superficial regard for the well being of our kids is disappointing. I know we can do better. Talk to your children. Thank you for your time.
Unknown Speaker 20:29
Thank you very much. And I think we had one individual this evening, who signed up here at the meeting. And that will be Susan Bergstrom. Susan, are you here? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 20:53
Hi, Susan. Welcome back. Please state your name and address and then you have three minutes.
Unknown Speaker 20:59
Okay, I will be brief. I didn’t prepare a statement. I just came as an observer, but we only had four people speaking. So I said, Okay. Because there are I do have some concerns. And I hate public speaking. So, um, but I was going through the website for St. vrain. Valley School District, and I came across the guidance for educators, working with transgender and gender nonconforming students. Um, and some concerns popped up here. If you if you’ll read it says, working I’m sorry, I don’t have my glasses on I forgot to grab them. But let’s see working with families when contacting parents or guardians of transgender, or gender non conforming student, school personnel should use the student’s legal name and the pronoun corresponding to the student’s gender assigned at birth. Unless the student or parents and or guardian has indicated otherwise. I thank you. Oh, thank you. Oh, they’re even mine. Alright. Um, this, you know, frankly, is infuriating. What this sounds like is I’m a deliberate attempt to, I don’t know how else to say it to deceive parents. You know, if Johnny goes to school, and wants to be called she and Jill and is wearing a skirt, this policy from what I just read when contacting parents or guardians of a transgender or gender non conforming student, school personnel should use the student’s legal name, and the pronoun corresponding to the student’s gender assigned at birth. That just sounds like we’re deceiving parents. And I think a lot of parents, most parents, every parent, I know, would want to know if Johnny’s wearing a skirt, you know, further when we get into, let’s see, we’re talking about secondary school here, I’ll skip the first sentence. While No, I’ll read it. Generally, the students, parents or guardians will be aware of their transgender or gender non conforming child. In some cases, notifying parents or guardians of the student’s transgender or gender non conforming status carries risk, such as being kicked out of the home or experiencing rejection from the family. I don’t know where the basis would come from, from such a thing other than asking the student, right. And, again, the student is not it’s not the parent is not the adult. And when it comes to a mental health issue, which most parents that I know, would regard transgenderism as
Unknown Speaker 23:56
it would behoove the parents to be aware of it. Um,
Unknown Speaker 24:03
and so what this seems to me if I’m reading this correctly, is a pre emptive vilification of parents, right. Oh, they might be.
Unknown Speaker 24:14
Thank you, Susan. Okay. Enjoy the rest of your evening. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Yes. That brings us to the end of our public comment this evening. Do you offer any speaking spots since we’re not done with our time yet? No, we’re gonna ever pardon me, Melissa. I’m sorry,
Unknown Speaker 24:33
find out to speak. But I do want to speak. Are you going to ask if anyone in the audience who hasn’t signed up? wants to speak since we have time left?
Unknown Speaker 24:42
We do have a little bit of time left yet? I did. Yes. Absolutely. And if you would like to sign up, Melissa, that is fine. If somebody has already spoken, I’m not going to have them come back to the podium. But we do have time and so if you would like three minutes, Melissa? Absolutely. Can you please State your name. And you’ve heard I feel like I say that so many times during the meeting, you understand? Yes. Yeah. Great. Thanks, Melissa.
Unknown Speaker 25:07
Sure, Melissa martyr in Firestone. So I didn’t, I didn’t find to speak. I wasn’t planning on speaking. But I literally just wrote what I wanted to say right down there. So I want to talk about the student’s mental and emotional health. I’m glad that that they brought up a few minutes ago, because I really wanted to talk about that. And it’s mostly about the possible segregation between mask and unmask children in the classroom. I’m not going to go into specifics, I’m going to be very generic, because I’ve already addressed this with dawn. But it’s been alarming the last few days, I’ve been getting phone calls from parents insane rain outside of St. Brain one just before I came in today. And it seems that there are still teachers. In our st. Brain schools, there are a few specific schools that I won’t name on camera that are segregating the mask and unmask children, regardless of whatever written protocols they’ve been given, it is still happening happening. Some of the unmatched children are being paired together and sat in a different area of the classroom. It is obviously further enough away from the masked children who are sitting in groups of five, six, or however the room is laid out, the unmatched children are either paired together, away from them, or they are paired separately away from them. And that is something that we can no longer allow to happen. It disrupts the flow of class, whenever you have an unmatched child sitting by themselves. It also breaks the parents trust, because we were told a couple of weeks ago that this would not be happening. And I’ve literally been on the phone six times this week, with six different parents. And one more before I came in here that are talking about the emotional turmoil, this is happening on some of the children. And I and this is not a dig in any of the at the at all of the teachers in the district. I understand that this is a very small percentage of the 33,000 kids that we do have in the district. But I also think it’s an important to raise awareness that even though this is a small amount, and while it’s great that we’re focusing on the good that the kids are doing in our district, whether it be through Facebook, or Twitter, or emails or whatnot, we have to make sure that our children who are unmasked who are masked who are being segregated, who were being bullied who are having their finger pointed, all the things are also being taken care of. So while it’s a small percentage of the 33,000, it doesn’t make them any less, or any more than the other ones who are doing good in the district. And I just want to encourage parents my last 18 seconds to make sure that if you are comfortable with talking to your principal, or talking to Don or contacting me, because you know me personally, if you’re comfortable with giving specifics, that is what we need. We need specific so that it can be addressed and each school individually, because we cannot let this happen anymore.
Unknown Speaker 28:11
Thank you. Thank you, Melissa. Anybody else? Natalie, right? Yes. Hi, Natalie. I’m very good with faces not as great with names, but I’m glad I remembered yours.
Unknown Speaker 28:33
I’m very good with numbers, and I can’t remember names at all.
Unknown Speaker 28:38
Then we get along well, great. Please state your name, address and then you have three minutes. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 28:45
Scared me. All right. My name is Natalie Abshire I live in need. And I just want to say to the two topics, the two speakers, Jim, I forgot your name already. I’m sorry. But I think it’s important to note that as parents the issue of the LGBTQ or trans or or just the gender and, and issues all together, I don’t want it to come off if a parent speaks out, you know, against something that’s LGBTQ related or gender related or any of that, that they’re anti that subject. I think that from all the parents I’ve talked to, and I’ve talked to a lot of parents, and myself being a parent, although my kids are older, is that it isn’t that we’re against that. It’s just that in the schools, the teachers, if there’s something that comes up that the parents need to be notified, they should notify that that you know that the parents have that if if there’s a trans issue or a gender issue like that where a student isn’t sure about what their, what who they are and how they feel inside, parents have the right to know that if and if a, if a teacher becomes aware of that, I think they should share that with the parents. And that doesn’t mean that there’s no right or wrong in that area. There’s not there’s no right or wrong people feel how they feel, and they want to live how they live. And I think from a parent’s point of view, people can grow up and live, however they want to live their life and be happy, you know, whatever that is. But as children, I don’t, I think from my, what I’ve heard from a lot of parents is that they don’t want to not know and not be aware of what is happening in the school. And I think that’s, maybe that gets lost sometimes. And when when somebody speaks out against, you know, the queer endeavor workshops, or whatever that is, that doesn’t mean that you’re homophobic person or transphobic. That just means that these kinds of discussions should happen in in the home. And if they’re not happening in the home, then the parents should have a right to know how the student is feeling. And sometimes those students aren’t going to share that with their parents. But that doesn’t mean that the that the teachers should take over that parenting role. Does that make sense? I did not prepare for this at all. So I’m kind of going off the cuff here. But and I think that’s true with with everything that we’re going with what’s going on in schools, you know, is, is that, you know, maybe I’m naive, and I think but you know, I want everybody to have a childhood like I had, well, the world is a lot different now. And we have to recognize that as parents. So that’s really all I had to say. And just Everybody listen and take everything. There you go. And I’m done.
Unknown Speaker 31:52
Thanks, Natalie. All right. Thank you to everyone who was here this evening and made a comment we appreciate and value your input. Thank you very much for being here.
Unknown Speaker 32:11
Don, that brings us to agenda item five, which is the superintendence report.
Unknown Speaker 32:18
Thanks, I want to start out by sharing a little bit, I’ve had a chance to visit all of our schools and the system over the last several days. And it’s been a lot of a lot of fun getting back into the schools, it’s great to see the students back in our schools, I think that it’s much better than the, you know, the distance learning that we’ve endured for quite a while. So I’m glad to see that we have we’re getting close to about 800 more students this year than we had last year, we did a count on Monday. And then we also did a count today. And if you look at pre K through 12, we’re looking at I think it’s 792 right now. And we’re doing another count.
Unknown Speaker 33:03
I guess I’ll get another report today, we did another count today. And I haven’t gotten that report. But it seems in in years past to trickle up all the way through the Labor Day weekend. And then some students will come back after Labor Day weekend. So I anticipate that we’ll continue to see growth. But right now 800 is a pretty healthy number for us. So we’re excited about that. The other thing I want to talk about is the continued meetings that we’re having in regards to, to the masks that are coming up. And I I want to reiterate publicly. And we have provided this in writing for for all of our teachers and staff, that students who are masked or unmasked, are not to be treated any different that all students are supposed to engage in the same way in our schools. They’re not to separate students out. They’re not to allow any disrespectful behavior towards any student who is choosing to wear a mask or choosing not to wear a mask because of a medical exemption. And so we will continue to monitor that we have been made aware of a couple of instances that we will look into. But we’re going to make sure that we maintain that safety element physically and emotionally or that’s concerned. I want to share with you a couple of other things that and I one of the one of the comments tonight was about specifics and I would encourage anybody to really make sure because the message has been delivered very clearly to our entire staff and the expectation both verbally and in writing. And so if there are specific examples of something that is counter to what we have directed, I really would like to know about that so that we can address that particular situation. And we’ve got a lot of people that are out in the schools, all of our assistant superintendents, all our deputy superintendent, all of our executive directors, and we are having lots of conversations with students and with teachers and staff, and with parents. And I do appreciate the open lines of communication. Because I think that’s how we get our work done. And we get it done on behalf of our children. So the other thing I want to share with you is, there’s a lot going on across the country right now with cybersecurity, and systems that are being compromised. And then ransomware. And institutions being held ransom, so to speak for some money, that what they do is they hack in, and they access data, that that’s private data around students, we have not had that happen. So but we are also in a proactive mode. And Michelle was won our entire district technology team has worked very hard, we have put a lot of resource into firewalls and a lot of resource into educating and they’re her programs are called educate, mitigate and investigate. And we are having all of our teachers and staff go through this training to make sure that they are aware, and they can spot these types of things as they come across your email so that you don’t, because a lot of our fishing expeditions where somebody will say something, and they can be pretty convincing. They really can be convincing. I’ve seen a number of them. And so we’re taking a lot of measures to educate people so that they are aware of it. And then also to set make sure our systems that our systems are very, very safe. But what we also know is a lot of systems that are very, very safe have been hacked into. And it’s just a constant, you have to stay out in front of it. And so that’s and this is at the highest level, we’ve seen these things. So know that that’s happening. The other thing that we’re getting ready to start is our achievement acceleration Academy. We call it our triple A program. And it’s several days a week after school students can stay and work on math and science and Language Arts and Social Studies and worldline, whatever it is that they might need additional support with. And we’re getting a lot of positive feedback about that, and a lot of involvement around that. So I was, for example, I was out at Columbine elementary school yesterday and principal said we had 98% of our students participate in Project launch, which was the first the month of June, which is when you have 98% of your children in a school, choosing to go to school the entire month of June. And there were 1000s of kids doing that. And then now she’s saying well over 90%. And this is a consistent message across the board. But I’m just sharing this one, over 90% of our kids are signing up for this after school learning. So these are good signs that our kids want to engage in more school. And hopefully, these types of things will help us as we have conversations with the state to try to encourage other districts to move away from the four day week, back to the five day week. And then look at how much time off our students are getting, which I don’t think is a I don’t think it’s the best thing for our students to have so much time off from school. And there’s a balance, and I also support family vacations, I think those are outstanding and spending time with the families always a number one priority. I just think we have to be careful that we’re not taking too much school away from our children. And I’m talking not about saying brain so much. But I’m talking about education across the state and beyond. It’s important. So other than that, I don’t have anything. If you have any questions, I’d be more than happy to, to respond to them. Now,
Unknown Speaker 38:49
just a quick question, with regard to the project launch during the month of June, do we have a sense of how many students throughout the district participated?
Unknown Speaker 39:00
Yeah, I think the last count I saw was 30 400k through eight, but then we also had a number of students participate in our jumpstart program over and above that. And then we also had a number of students participating in the recovery programs over and above that. And then we also had a large number of students participating in our STEM camps at our sports camps and our music camps. And so it was it was a good number of 1000s. So,
Unknown Speaker 39:28
but even 3400 is almost twice as many as we had the first year in probably our launch. Absolutely. So that’s that’s tremendously encouraging. Done.
Unknown Speaker 39:38
Yeah. Well, and you know, it was a it was indicative to because we went that whole time without without any positive COVID cases. And, you know, that was important data that we shared with Boulder County and, you know, as as you know, and I would say this just for the audience’s sake, at home and everyone else, and I know that I’ve said this But we are under under a mask order. We have no option right now but to be in compliance with wearing masks. And that’s, that’s an order that we have to adhere to with Boulder County, we have asked them for benchmarks around when might they the mask? In other words, if we got to this place, what would happen? And we have been told repeatedly that we can’t give you a timeline. But it’s a conversation that we’re having continuously on a weekly basis. No, but that was some data that I thought was interesting that we went through the entire summer program without any cases. And a number of kids with masks were not required at that point in time, because there was not a mask order.
Unknown Speaker 40:45
Thank you very much. I would be interested, I think it would be interesting to have a report at some point about the total, kind of extended a extended year number participation across the district. Here we have, Oh, go ahead. I’m sorry. Well, just as an indication of the direction and receptiveness of our families to that opportunity. Yeah, we
Unknown Speaker 41:09
have an achievement report coming up. And we’ll try to weave some of that in as well. You know, what we saw with CMS, across the entire state, is a decline in the CMS scores. And that’s consistent, we saw that in St. brain as well. And so I think that’s in large part due to the fact that our kids were, you know, out of school for so much in and out and back and forth. And online. It was predictable. But we did see a drop, we did see an increase in the SH T’s and a decrease overall, I think in the C mass, but you’ll get the specific data around that. And then we can talk a little bit about our efforts to try to bring that learning back for students, and an increase in the graduation rate as well, we saw a great increase in the graduation rate, and we’re all of those things. And, and, you know, our kids did really well. But it’s, you know, it’s disappointing that we are facing this, this COVID stress again, I was hoping that at the beginning of this year, we wouldn’t we wouldn’t be in the middle of it. But unfortunately we are. So but we’ll keep walking through it the best we can.
Unknown Speaker 42:19
You can look at that several different the decline in several different ways. Also, I mean, you know, stressful global pandemic, right. Anyway, just want to emphasize you opened with it was how wonderful it is to have students back in school. And I just want to let you know, I visited schools. Jackie, thank you for going with me, Jackie. And I spent a morning in schools last weekend. And it was wonderful to see all of the kids back and in the classrooms and reading and honestly, felt very normal.
Unknown Speaker 42:51
You know, I’ll tell you, it’s the highlight of my day. Honestly, I have spent every day in the schools for hours. And you just you walk in the classrooms, kids come up and talk to you, some of them recognize and say, Hey, aren’t you this? And then you say hi. And they tell me about yourself. And they start telling you what they did. And the teachers have been great. The staff and we got on some sports teams. You know, I was watching on Channel Nine, we had two students from meet high interviewed by Channel Nine, about the football season in the games, the game start this weekend. And so it’s a you know, it’s just a lot of energy
Unknown Speaker 43:26
is, yeah, Jackie, and I sat in on one of the principal, young Dr. Young’s presentation at mead high school to the sophomores. And that was so much fun. They were all in the gym, and just the energy and they were asking him questions. And it just felt good to have everything, have everything to be back at it, I guess is what I would say. As a parent, I’ll tell you what, though. There’s nothing better than going to those elementary schools and seeing those itty bitty kids, their backpacks, it just brings up fond memories. Yeah. Anyway, I’m digressing. And this is a birdwalk. But anyway, thank you, john. Appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker 44:01
I also wanted to thank Bill again, Bill has been from United power they’ve been along both of those still here. They leave no pay have been great, long term partners with us and appreciate the extra resources. But even beyond the check that they give us. They give us a lot of a lot of support. So
Unknown Speaker 44:20
they do Yeah, well said, Greg, I have I’m going to give you this check before we leave. I don’t want to be in charge of it. Okay, Don, Thank you. Appreciate it. And speaking of Greg, that brings us to agenda item 6.1, which is a purchasing cost savings update.
Unknown Speaker 44:39
Yeah, so we just wanted to give you an update on how we did in fiscal year 21 in terms of district wide savings based off of procurement activities. And so we have our purchasing department and they provide buying and contracting services in support of all of our schools and departments, a lot of our board policy kind of encourages that when you hit a certain dollar level. And so they do take care of that. But they also take care of selling off our our surplus property. And so Tracy did a great job. In this report of highlighting all of it, I’m just gonna highlight some of the key ones. Excuse me. So we spent based off of the purchasing and contracts that we did through our RFP or request for proposal process, about $5.28 million. And when you take a look at what that savings is, if you compare it to the average bid that we got, we saved over a million dollars to get to that five point, roughly $5.3 million. So that’s a 19% savings by integrating them into this process. Again, they did 58 formal invitations to bid and requests for proposals. They also were integral when we moved into COVID, in terms of getting PP mass sanitizer, some of those and they use some agreements. Part of what they do is they use agreements that other districts or other municipalities or even this state has done, that kind of guarantees and locks in rates. And so they go and they look at those to see if those are lower than what they can cost out in the normal market. And so in terms of pee pee, we saw, we were able to order quickly, we were able to get things in, we saw, we sold about 2.6 million of surplus technology and other equipment this past year, which is primarily your iPads. But I just wanted to point out that they’re this they do an awesome job for us. They’re working constantly with people and they work well with them. I mean, Brian’s group, and everywhere across the district, if you look at the last page, you’ll see it’s a pie chart. And you can see how many different areas that they touch in terms of, you know, furniture for new schools, replacing old furniture, equipment, transportation warehouse, they’re, they’re all over the district doing things, they do a phenomenal job. The buyers all have the highest certification that they can have, they’ve won awards in those areas. And so that’s really my big selling point is the fact that you know, that 19% savings, they more than pay for their department based off of their salaries and benefits. And that’s, to me, that’s always a key indicator of whether or not something is really valid when, when you’re looking at stuff. It’s not. You can’t necessarily gauge that in an educational environment, but you can in a financial book environment in a purchasing environment, those types of things. And so they do an awesome job. I think this shows in demonstrates that. Happy to answer any questions. Thanks, Greg. Any questions or comments from the board? deck? Thank you. presidency, Chris.
Unknown Speaker 48:20
I would I read with interest as I have each of the years that we’ve had these reports about our acquisition procurement program. And, Paul, I am impressed as you are with the financial savings that we are realizing in my view of finances is not the only thing. In fact, I would have Well, it’s incredibly important. In an initiative like this program like this, it is a critically important investment for the district to ensure that it is not overpaying for the goods and services that we need, and not. And being sure that we are following all of the guidelines that the board has passed and that the public expects of us as good stewards. So I would submit, and I’m not suggesting that we operate that program at a deficit. But if it were to be necessary for us to break even or even have a small net expense, I think the daiyu that this program brings to the district and the assurances that are then clear to the public that we are good stewards, their funds are worth it. Multiple times what we are, in fact realizing in terms of dollar savings, so I would want to pass along my appreciation to the intellect Tracy and her entire department and to, for helping us to be good stewards and, and do it in a way that where you can saving money. So I appreciate that very much and wanted to express that to you.
Unknown Speaker 50:25
Thank you. One of the other things that they do a great job at is contract review and contract management, you know, ensuring that we’re not putting the district in, in a in a liability situation in terms of the contract. And so they do a great job of that as well. So should be mentioned.
Unknown Speaker 50:45
Thanks, tick, Greg, thank you. I agree with your your assessment of their contribution and their work. And dick, just to take your final statement a little bit further. They absolutely do serve an important role in ensuring that the board and the district, you know, Dawn, that we’re all the very best stewards possible of taxpayer dollars. And to me, that’s really what it boils down to. Thank you. Thank you. Agenda item seven is next, which is our consent items to board members wish to pull any of those items this evening? No. All right. Then I would entertain a motion for approval of 7.1 recommendation of naming st ring Valley schools swimming swimming pool 7.2 approval of first reading be EDB agenda 7.3. Approval of change order to contract for cleaning services 7.4 approval of purchase of vehicles and equipment 7.5 approval of contract award for district wide irrigation controller replacement and networking and 7.6 approval of change order for to the contract for Lyons middle senior high school auditorium addition and renovation project. so moved by Jim and a second second by john. And then john, can you also call for the vote please? Mr. Arens? Yes, Mr. Bertha? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. Miss Raglan. Yes, Miss Seacrest. Hi. Agenda Item eight is our action items. And we have one this evening. 8.1 which is a recommendation. First reading adoption resolution addressing remote learning during the 2021 2022 school year, and updates to board policies i j ND a b instruction through online programs, J Eb entrance h requirements. And j LCB. immunizations of students. That was a mouthful. Hi, Brandon. Welcome. This is something that we talked about in detail at our study session last week, so we anticipated this resolution, and the policies would be coming before the board.
Unknown Speaker 53:09
Oh, great. Thank you and good evening. I’ll go through and just briefly describe what each of these items do and then see if you have any questions or concerns as we move forward. The first is a resolution addressing remote learning during the 2021 22 school year. The resolution is required by the Colorado Department of Education for hybrid remote learning options. And while we don’t currently offer that option in our classrooms, we did want to bring this resolution before you so that you know we would have that option later in that the school year if we needed it. The resolution sets force forth procedures for taking attendance and sets instructional standards for hybrid remote learning situations. The second item board policy ij n da B instruction through online programs, we are updating this policy because of our online options have changed. Instead of global online. The district is now offering launch dead and st frame virtual high school policy is currently out of date and needs to be updated to address the current online options available to our students. The next is board policy j Eb entrance age requirements. These changes were suggested by the Colorado Association of School Boards. The current policy does not differentiate between the start date for kindergarteners and first graders that has created some confusion. So the updates to this policy policy address that issue and make it clear what the start dates are for the different different grade levels. Finally, board policy j LCB immunization of students. These updates were also recommended by the Colorado Association of School Boards. These changes are designed To track with new state law with a new state law that requires all districts to publish their immunization rates, and exemption rates for the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.
Unknown Speaker 55:13
Thank you, Brandon. And, um, my understanding as far as the resolution goes that this is a resolution that’s in place for one, one school year. Is that correct? Yes, ma’am. That’s That’s correct. Great. And then dick, I think that’s a beautiful segue into your suggestion. Maybe not beautiful. But that’s the segue.
Unknown Speaker 55:34
But well, thank you. Are we going to move to the top and then discussion? Or would you like that
Unknown Speaker 55:39
now? If you could make the suggestion first, that would be great. And then if if the board and brands and if everyone’s in agreement with that, then if you could make a motion for approval, and include that suggestion, please. Alright, it’s gonna be a mouthful. There’s a lot there.
Unknown Speaker 55:58
Well, thank you. My mic. My observation and reading the material we have before us was that the resolution which is, before us to adopt, would be adopted by a simple majority, but would require a two thirds majority to amend it. That does not make sense to me. And I would suggest amending this resolution to amend the proposal to eliminate the requirement of a two thirds majority to change it. So it’d be a simple majority to adopt, and a simple majority to change the resolution. So that would be my suggestion. I have talked with Brandon about this, and I would welcome your perspective on it.
Unknown Speaker 56:53
Dr. martyr, as we discussed earlier, I didn’t see any reason why we wouldn’t be able to change it why we needed a two thirds majority vote. And I think that language in the resolution is for repeal or extension, not for amendment. But regardless, I don’t think we need a two thirds vote. I did have a chance between our conversation and now to phone a friend I reached out to Kathy tallarico said, Hey, do you Can you think of any reason why we have to have tutors. I also reached out to Samantha Jones Rogers didn’t reach Samantha but I’ll follow up with her as well at Caz, B. Kathy didn’t see any reason why we needed two thirds also. So we’re in agreement on that. And I think that’s a good thing. I would like to thank you for you know, reading these as closely as you do. I think you We always find things in there, you know, when you have a close close reading. And it certainly helps us improve the policies and the resolution. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 57:56
Well, thank you. So it’s if there are there other questions that we have? I don’t have any questions. Does anybody everybody accepting of that?
Unknown Speaker 58:10
Well, then I would move that we move the subject, this item striking or replacing the tooth requirement for two thirds majority vote with majority vote to as Brandon reminded me resend or extend this board resolution.
Unknown Speaker 58:32
So moved. Did you second deck would move and you would second? Perfect. Alright, john. Well, and so we’re in the discussion phase now. I thought that was the discussion phase. Did you have something else you wanted?
Unknown Speaker 58:48
I just wanted to ask if we had if there’s on CP rail, as President of the Association had had a chance had any concerns about this.
Unknown Speaker 59:03
Steve, any concerns? Hi, everybody. Hi, Brandon. And I chatted a little bit about it. And I did actually read it ahead of time. And it seems to be pretty much in line what we were doing most of last year. And I didn’t have too many concerns. There were a couple questions I had for Brandon. And I think we were able to clarify those.
Unknown Speaker 59:26
Okay, great. Thanks, Steve. Appreciate it. Nice to have you back. Great. Alright. So that no perfect. So then, john, that was a motion by Dick and a second by Karen. Thank you, and that would be for the adoption of 8.1 with the changes recommended or suggested by Dec. Should I go for a vote? Mr. Arens I missed your birthday. Yes. Yeah, yes. Yes. Miss Raglan? Yes. Missy grus. Hi. Thank you, Brandon. I want sign this the resolution this evening. And if you want to make that update and just shoot me an emails come down in and sign up for it. Sounds good. Great. Thank you. All right. So that brings us to the conclusion of our meeting this evening. Do you want it? One last time thank all of our guests who spoke the board values, values, everyone’s input. If you’re not able to come and speak at a meeting, please don’t hesitate to reach out via email or phone call to any one of us or Dr. Hat add. We will reconvene again on Wednesday, September 8 year in the boardroom for a regular meeting. And then for the next meeting on September 15. That will be actually be a study session and we’ll be meeting at Apex homeschool that evening at their new facility. So good luck to all of the sports teams this weekend, as I know that we’re already many students are already participating. But good luck this year, this weekend as we kick off some additional sports. With that I would entertain a motion for adjournment please. Some have by Karen and a second by Jim. Gotcha. All right. All in favor, aye. Good night, everyone. Thank you.