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 0:04
Good evening and welcome to St. Green Valley Schools Board of Education Meeting. Please join us in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Unknown Speaker 0:14
I pledge United States of America nation indivisible.
Unknown Speaker 0:34
Hi, Christy. Hello. How are you this evening?
Unknown Speaker 0:38
I am good. How are you doing?
Unknown Speaker 0:40
I’m great. Thank you. Could you please call the roll?
Unknown Speaker 0:43
Mr. Arens? Absent. Mr. Berthold here, Mr. Garcia, here, Dr. Martyr, present. Miss Pierce here, Mrs. Ragland here, Miss secrets here.
Unknown Speaker 0:57
Thanks, Christy. Were there any changes or addendums to the agenda this evening? No, there were not. Alright. Then a couple items before we get started. As the board convenes this evening, I’d like to emphasize that the district’s mission statement is this board and Dr. Hat adds Northstar, we make all decisions within the context of educating each student in a safe learning environment so that they may develop to their highest potential and become contributing citizens. We do not take that mission lightly. Our focus is on each and every student having access to the very best opportunities in an environment that is inclusive of every child. Before we move on to our visitors, I would ask you, if you have a cell phone, if you could just double check it, please and make sure that it is quiet. And then a reminder that this meeting is being recorded. And it is being televised as well, you can stream it live and access those recording on the recordings on the district website beginning tomorrow morning. Alright, that brings us to our visitors, which is agenda item three. And first on the list this evening is 3.1. And Colin, I believe you’re here to talk about the mobile lab. It’s nice to see you.
Unknown Speaker 2:23
It’s nice to welcome guys. It’s always a pleasure. And thank you, all of you for letting me come and talk tonight about our mobile lab, our future ready innovation lab that we have in our school district, I do have a one page infographic for you guys to take a look at. So I’m gonna pass around this folder for you guys to take a look up. So just a quick thing to get started our vision for our mobile app. It is, you know a lighthouse for public education. It’s a tool used as outreach for our community and beyond. And so we like to bring a very unique learning experience that really focuses on design thinking to our schools. As I like to tell people it has its own gravity, when you show up to to an event, people want to come and see it. And I really think that it’s a it’s a fun opportunity for kids and families to see what is going on in our schools, schools. classrooms today do not look like they used to. And it’s a really fun time to be in education, and really exciting time to share what we are doing in our classrooms. So I did not get to come and check in on the first year 2019 When was the mobile app was born, we didn’t get to come back full circle, because 2020 was hard. It impacted all of us in a lot of different ways. So from March 2020, just as a recap, we had to cancel 25 events. It was it was from that to the end of the fiscal year, where we really had to stop and think about what we were all doing. Much like all of us were. So we ended up canceling events. But we wanted to get creative and how we were using that mobile lab and trying to get out resources and still be a value to our community. So a recap of 2020 and 2021 is really what we’re doing here. And and what I’d like to talk about. We started with a book distribution. It’s really fun when your boss Dr. Capetian, in this case, calls you up and says I want to give away books. And I said yes, let’s give away books. So we ended up giving away 3500 More than 3500 books at over 10 sites in July of 2020. It started slow people were uncertain about getting out there, but it picked up pace. Doctor had Add was at our first event and whether it was a problem and we were moving books in and out and moving tables, but it picked up pace. And by the end, it was a really great event for communities to connect up. We ended up going to lunch to distribution sites. This was simple. This was giving out STEM at home stem resources while students were still at home with their families, giving kids something active using their minds learning hands on. What I really took away from that, and going around our district was the amount of support that we all saw. Right lunch, lunches were handed out breakfasts were handed out at an incredible volume. And so that was pretty special to see across our district. Many of you know that I have a passion of video creation. And so we took that on being a video creator, I was in high demand during our COVID time. So we got creative and trying to create resources for classrooms, and doing that with teachers and for schools. For instance, we worked with meet high schools energy Academy, and we instead of doing a field trip, which we were limited on during the time, we were able to do a solar tour. And we went around with our partners we did, we worked with United power, we worked with a few different people. And we filmed an actual solar tour and talked about those different things and interviewed different industry partners around what solar looks like in the industry. So that mean high school students could see that. We also filmed veterans for Veterans Day, and talked about what that means the importance of Veterans Day. And and that was a really special one that ended up going out through our curriculum department, Ginni Pedic, got that out to teachers across our entire district. And we saw quite a few views from that one. Going back to the previous teachers appreciate appreciation day and week, we were able to surprise some teachers in their home, when we were still working remotely, we were able to bring the mobile app to their home, and we were able to get it out there. That was a lot of fun to work on. And that one saw a lot of success. It got a little bit viral and saw over 300,000 views on that video.
Unknown Speaker 7:24
Then we started with the spring of 2020. And we got together the Innovation Center and said how can we bring communities together? And how can we do something fun around design thinking? So Kristin Brahm and myself created the design guild. So it was interactive, it was fun, it was outside, it was safe. And we showed up to 22 different school sites, elementary school sites, we saw over 5000 people, and we created design kits, right, just a bag of really fun things that kids could build with prototype with. And we supplied them with five different challenges that they could, that they could complete. So we ended up giving away 3400 design kits during that time, and saw a lot of success. And it was really fun, because we also worked with the ED Foundation, to to give three awards $500 awards that was to the schools that for a student at each school that was, you know, turned in their design prototypes. And it was a really good fun way to engage around those challenges. So I’d like to recognize those three students because and those schools because they did a really great job. So Travis plaster, who was that long amount of states at the time, now is moved on to Westview Middle School, Gabriela rumley from Prairie Ridge Elementary and Maeve Simon from Alpine elementary all 315 $100 for their schools to make upgrades in a health challenge around their office space. Again, the most important part of that process was seeing communities come together. Parents, talking to other parents meeting their friends, you know, their kids, friends, parents for the first time, teachers interacting and seeing those fun learning experiences. That was really important part and something that we intended for but was even greater in the end once we reflected back on it. Those were the big highlights of what we completed. We completed 53 events and saw 1000s of people. It was for a year of a lot of impact and not knowing how we were going to handle that I felt like was a lot of success and was very proud of that work. This cannot happen without our project team. Our students that are from the Innovation Center. They are employees of the St. Green Valley School District of very unique opportunity in our district. They do an amazing job, helping run these events plan these events, lead these events. And so I brought two of them here today to talk because I I can talk all day about what we did, but it’s fun to hear about firsthand from our students of how this really went. So I have two students with me they’re both seniors in the school district. Xena Khan is a senior at Longmont High School. And Colton Steadman is a senior with our st frame virtual high school. So I’m going to invite Xena to come up now and share just a few words.
Unknown Speaker 10:40
Hi Cena Welcome.
Unknown Speaker 10:47
Good evening. It is a pleasure to be here tonight. My name is Dana Khan and I’m a senior at Loma High School. I’m an honors student involved in the medical and bioscience Academy, linker leadership steering Council National Honor Society. So start off my journey. I started working at the innovation center back in October of 2018. And it has been an incredibly rewarding experience. I learned a plethora of new skills under the umbrella of STEM I got an exposure to virtual reality various applications of our technology, and firsthand saw the evolution of technology in our district. Additionally, it has been incredible time meeting new people in our community and establishing lifelong bonds with my peers. The Innovation Center is a place where it broadens the career path you want to pursue opens up a tremendous amount of opportunities and it creates and strengthens your relationships within the community. The Innovation Center is not just a place to work, it’s a bridge between you and the community and having that outlook prompts us to be a better member of the society at large. Not only is a bridge for our community, but also an intrinsic opportunity to advance in our academia. In essence, that competitive advantage that I’ve garnered from the mobile app has bolstered me for success. I now have the skill set to perform excellently my math and science classes as a mobile app has given me the knowledge and biotechnology the underlying aspects of physics I’m more so critical thinking skills. as I progress in my schooling career, I want to head into the medical field. As an interest in STEM being part of the mobile app has provided me with the wisdom of problem solving and the mathematical and scientific knowledge. I can embark on my college journey confidently with the mindset that I can conquer anything because now I have exposure to some of the greatest technological and mathematical skills. As medicine is becoming more interconnected with engineering my options for potential career paths feel more reachable and attainable. Coupled with academic competitive advantage. The mobile app has gifted me with a successful social skills, I have been able to openly communicate and talk in front of huge crowds and coherently explained what the innovation brings to our community. For instance, my very first event of the village of the peaks was a robotic showcase. Back in October, that event has a special place in my heart as a sparked a new profound interest within me, as well as the first mobile lab event. I’m surrounded by things I love most such as science, mathematics and the other elements of STEM. Most importantly, I was attuned with the community, I got to converse with families and share with them the goals in my life. That Innovation Center unites like minded students and individuals who share the same passion and goals and being able to openly converse about them is the reason it makes working at the Innovation Center such a rewarding experience. Thank you. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 13:37
I Colton.
Unknown Speaker 13:42
Alright, thank you for having me speak today, this evening. So I’m on a couple project teams at the Innovation Center. I am on the mobile lab and media team project teams. I’m just going to be talking about my experience on the mobile app tonight though. So I’ve been working around the same time as Xena has since 2019, when the lab started, and it’s been a really rewarding experience, all the way through, I’ve been able to meet so many amazing people, whether they be peers or teachers at other schools, principals at other schools. And I wouldn’t have that opportunity without the mobile lab. And just seeing our kids interact with some of the awesome stem stuff we bring to them is really cool like it is if I had that type of stuff when I was their age in elementary school, my mind would be blown. And I think it’s great to be able to show both students and parents what the future of STEM education holds, because we’re able to bring some cutting edge new innovative learning tools to kids that schools might not be able to afford yet or might not just want to right now because they don’t see the need to. And so we’re able to bring that to students and, and teachers as well to show them what the future for education holds. And show parents what that holds as well. Because schooling today is way different than when you guys or my parents or whoever was in school, we have a one to one iPad ratio in our schools. Now, every kid elementary school through high school has an iPad, and my dad sometimes doesn’t know how to adjust the brightness on his phone. So it’s great to be able to show them, you know, how far we’ve progressed in education. If you’re watching out I’m sorry, that I called you out. And working on the lab two has given me some really amazing career skills that I wouldn’t be able to learn in the classroom like communication with people and leadership, I call him can vouch for me at some of our summer events, I quite literally stole the microphone out of his hand and helped lead kids in what they were going to be doing on the lab. And you can’t really, you know, teach how to do that in a traditional classroom setting. So to be able to learn that and to get paid for it in high school is a real great competitive advantage for heading out into the real world into post secondary education and into the workforce. So and I’d like to thank Colin for giving me the opportunity to work on the lab. And it’s been a really great opportunity. And I’m very grateful that we have something like that in our district. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 17:20
Thanks to the both of you guys, I’ll pay you guys later. Okay. So, no, really, they they are fantastic students. And this honestly cannot happen without those students really quick just to finish up future events coming up this year, things that we’re thinking about. First of all, we’re working with step Toyota right now, for Educator highlights for the teachers that might be watching or we are showing up once a month to our school buildings and getting to surprise our educators. So that one person every month in our school district, that mobile lab is showing up and and Debbie stamp and the whole staff family who’s phenomenal supporters of our school district we all I think we all know that here. But they are we’re heading out and we’re getting to highlight those teachers. Soon Coming up next month, I’m getting to go with a small group of these students for a couple nights in Alamosa or we’re going to be able to work with 14 rural school districts. We’re doing a career fair for hundreds of students down there in that rural area. And then we’re thinking about our design guild 2.0. So how can we make it better? How can we get out there and connect with schools, thinking about reaching all schools instead of highlighting just elementary schools, thinking about going around to each feeder system and so that’s something that we’re we’re aiming to do. And then I can’t be up here without saying my thank yous. I don’t want to sound like an award speech here. But I do need to have some thank yous here. First of all, our mobile lab is 100% funded by sponsors. And so I need to make sure that that’s clear for everyone. Stop Toyota Crestone peak resources, IBM United power and UC Health are five major sponsors, along with others where they have donated funds, but also in kind donations, mentorship donations. And so that’s a really big part of why we’re able to be so successful in what we’re doing. The support of Dr. Dad and Dr. Capetian the number of times that they’ve shown up to events, the number of times we’ve had those conversations and the support I received from them is incredible. Again, our student team for events. I have 23 right now on the team and I am looking for more to come into the mix because I have 11 seniors this year. This includes six seniors from last year that graduated, all six of them going to four year universities, two of them with full ride scholarships, one a better scholar, and they’re just really incredible students that I get to work with On this support from a couple people in the district, Dylan Whisman, teacher at Timberline STEM teacher at Timberline K eight, and Danny Ford, my para educator that works at an innovation center does a lot of great work for me. And with me the support of Patty can Jonas, our assistant superintendent of innovation over at the Innovation Center, and the Innovation Center team and the incredible work that they are doing over there. But more specifically Kristen Brown and Jay Jackson. The team I get to work with which are incredible people, Hillary Sontag, for one, we all know that she does amazing work. I am lucky that I get to work with her, Matt Wiggins. His partnership skills is incredible. And then our communication team, working closely with them and making sure that what we’re doing looks, you know, great every time. Our transportation team, this does not happen without them. They are integral to this. They eat the employees at the East bus terminal. The mechanics Daniel Rios, the shop manager does a lot of work. But most importantly, Tim Dolan, he is there day in and day out. He is, you know, login tables and making sure that that lab is still running and, and so I actually brought Tim tonight so I just like to really recognize him and give him a hand really quick. So thank you and, and of course, you guys, our school board. Your support, I get to see so many of you at our events from Breckenridge, Mr. Garcia to I think I see Miss egress almost every single event I’m at and she’s out there in the school district. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about Dr. Martyr, who was my chemistry, AP chemistry teacher at Longmont High School. So thank you, Dr. Murder, for your support. And thank you for your time. Appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker 22:10
Collin, Colton, and Xena thank you for a wonderful presentation. I do want to give the board an opportunity to ask questions or make comments if anybody has one. Paula.
Unknown Speaker 22:23
Hi, thanks, Colin. Good, terrific update to hear the significant impact that the mobile app is having the thing, the thing that struck me I remember when it was launched at the Innovation Center. And at the time, like, first of all, how visionary it was from Don and Jackie and everybody down the line to kind of take academics on the road to kind of break down the traditional brick and mortar limitations, time limitations. We that was very visionary and impactful. But what I heard tonight was something I really didn’t anticipate, which was the people skills and the leadership skills. And they call them soft skills. I don’t like that term. But the those those kinds of qualities that our students need to have for the next step for that for the next level of of their lives. And so it’s just another added bonus, like I didn’t, I didn’t see comment, and it’s yet again, another really critical component of the mobile lab and during the during COVID. I mean, nobody obviously saw that coming. But the lifeline that the lab provided during that time, is really incredible. As far as just I was at one of the meal handouts when the mobile lab was there, like giving out the books and just keeping keeping us out there as safely as possible. But to just you know, we didn’t give up, nobody gave up, we were still trying to make connections with people. And we were going to get through this. So even symbolically, it was excessively critical. So thank you so much for the work you’ve done. I know it’s incredible, constantly coming up with new applications and uses for it. It’s really exciting. And I and I just thank you so much for all that work. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 23:57
Thank you joy, call and I wanted to just express my appreciation for the work that you and your your volunteer students have done and all of the support you’ve had. It really does take a leader to realize the vision and to operate in such a way that draws the results in so much success. That success, in fact, will draw more and more people as you continue to explore the potentials and implement the things that are really on the cutting edge. I loved your characterization of the mobile lab as the lighthouse for public education. I think that that captures in a very few words, the work that you’re doing and the impact that we are having through your program on how public education can imagine becoming more and more integrated in The lives of our students and in preparing them for success for generations to come. So thank you and congratulations to all you’ve accomplished thus far. I will follow you closely with great interest as you continue to push back on other frontiers. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 25:18
Thank you. Colin, I also I have mentioned notes, I also loved how you opened with the the innovation lab, the mobile lab, being the light a lighthouse for public education. And I think woven throughout your entire conversation and or presentation, always at the forefront. Of course, his student achievements always in our district, and I love how you tie that so much to community connection and a sense of belonging. And so I know you say lighthouse, but I sort of picture public education as as that hub, right? And and the mobile lab also being in that hub, and really connecting people with with a goal always of student achievement. But how cool to showcase what’s relevant, what’s current, and also what’s possible in the future while providing opportunities for 1000s and 1000s of children. That’s cool. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 26:11
I love my job.
Unknown Speaker 26:12
I imagine you would love your job and one plug for your videos because they are fantastic. I can’t let that slide. And Tim, I have seen you drive that mobile lab into locations that I’m telling you if I was behind the wheel, I would never be possible. Thank you so much for everything that you do to help student achievements and to connect our community because that’s absolutely absolutely what you do. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And and Colton and Zaina. Best of luck to you and your next endeavor. Thank you for helping make this possible. Chico, did I see raise your hand
Unknown Speaker 26:51
for a couple of things? echo what what has been said here. Appreciate all the work in the presentation done. A couple things I wanted to mention one, to the students. I know when I’ve had interactions with the mobile lab, I’ve always been so impressed with the skill and enthusiasm of the students presenting which I think is equally a part of the program that that you mentioned that I should appreciate the work that’s happening for the students in our district who are involved. I also appreciate the mobile app getting to places that maybe need it in different ways than than others. My right so you talked about being across the state and in different places that you don’t have access to, to resource like this. But even as I definitely want to encourage that to continue to happen, as well as within our own community, just that the places that can utilize it the most and benefit from that interaction just outside their front door. And so appreciate that work and excited to see that continue. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 27:52
Thank you. Thanks. Agenda Item 3.2 Is the superintendence Excellence in Education Award. And a fantastic segue.
Unknown Speaker 28:12
Right, Tim, could you come on up?
Unknown Speaker 28:17
I’m gonna
Unknown Speaker 28:21
read this to you and also actually call on and Joe would you guys like to come up?
Unknown Speaker 28:39
Would you like to say a few words to Joe and I both nominated. Tim and I just mentioned this, but he really is really just an important part of what we do. impossible without him. So Tim Dolan epitomizes service excellence in addition to performing his assigned duties with rock solid dependability and professionalism. Mr Dolan’s impact on the students in Greater St. Green community became apparent with the introduction of the mobile app project. This is not his main job. This is above and beyond it. From the project’s onset mr. Doyle embrace the challenges and nuances of leading a complicated, multifaceted and multi year effort with grit, intelligence and creativity. His efforts efforts are proactive, Tim solves problems directly and patiently regardless if they are rooted in technical or human areas. For example, when Tim discovers several issue issues upon receiving the mobile lab from the manufacturer, Tim could be counted on to fix everything from air conditioning challenges on the buses roof to large monitors on the side. He continues to go above and beyond Mr. Dolan has has personally driven the mobile app for over two years. This includes early mornings, late nights, weekends, overnight trips, he shows up early and always helps us as much as he can to set up for the event. This is all in addition to his daily role as our fleet manager. Perhaps most impressive is that Tim does all of this with a smile. He is always amicable even in the midst of stressful situations. For these reasons, we’d like to nominate Mr. Tim Dolan for a superintendents Excellence in Education Award.
Unknown Speaker 30:40
Joe, anything you would like to share? Thank
Unknown Speaker 30:44
you, behind the technology,
Unknown Speaker 30:50
the human aspects that the heart, the smiles, the laughter, the frustration, that spirit of service is really epitomized in Tim he, Tim is an amazing human and amazing worker. And he’s exactly what we want and st brain and actually everywhere in K 12, everywhere in the world. So it’s just been a real pleasure to work with Tim and Colin, but, Tim, you deserve this buddy.
Unknown Speaker 31:22
And Tim, I would echo everything that’s been said, and just from a personal perspective, you do have a way of making everybody around, you feel better and be better. And every time I have seen you, you always have a smile on your face, you always have a kind word, and you have really taken ownership. And I know it’s not your other job, you do multiple jobs in a school district, but you have taken ownership of this mobile lab project and you become the face of it. And you really everywhere it is you are and I just am so grateful that you are in this school system. And that you are and this is not anything compared to what we we could give you but it’s a small token of our appreciation. So I hope every time you see it, you will you will have a smile on your face as well. So this is a Excellence in Education Award and, and thank you and if you wouldn’t mind, we’d love to take a picture of the three of you and the two students if you guys would come on up. We would love that to take that picture of all of you.
Unknown Speaker 32:46
Guys I’d say smile but know how it goes? Thanks, Dan. All right. That brings us to Agenda Item for this evening, which is audience participation.
Unknown Speaker 33:48
Um, I don’t see. Adrian Ramirez Are you here this evening? Okay, Adrian, if you want to wait one second, I just want to find out. Does anybody else here? I don’t see anybody signed up to speak other than Adrian. On an agenda or non agenda item? Is that correct? Okay. All right. The Board of Education values, community perspectives and 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 comments. At the end of three minutes. I will thank you for speaking and invite the next speaker to the podium. As the length of public comment time is limited. It is possible that not everyone will be able to share their public comments. Given that that won’t be an issue this evening. No worries. Adrian, you’ll have your your three minutes. emailed comments of course, are considered by the Board of Education, just one reminder that you’re speaking to a non agenda item this evening to please limit your comments to matters of public concern about the district. If you have a concern about a specific individual or personnel matter, please reach out directly to a board member, Dr. Haddad or the HR department and we’ll assist you with next steps. Adria Adrian, if you’d like to come up to the podium, please state your name and address and then you’ll have three minutes and thank you for for joining us this evening. I know that you’ve attended several board men, several board meetings. Yeah. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 35:33
Thank you. So Adrienne Ramirez, my address is 3600 Bomar Avenue in Loveland. So, I believe that parents have lost trust in the public school system. A couple of years ago, between three and 5% of students were homeschooled. Now that is a little greater than 11%. And it has no sign of slowing. I believe this the school system, the public school system is losing its legitimacy. And as a parents, you know, I have put my kids out of public school as well. So I go to the one day a week Apex school system, which which is through SB VSD, as you all know, but even that, for me is a little bit of a struggle, because I don’t know what my kids are being taught every day. I think that a lot of parents have concerns that they don’t really know what’s actually going on in the classroom on a day to day basis. And then you see articles, frequent articles of you know, these highly publicized events that happen and board meetings and in school systems around the country. Anything from highly sexualizing children to CRT to Dei, I know that we’ve, you know, this school system is not embracing CRT. But I believe that SPVs Dini needs to restore trust in parents and in their legitimacy. They don’t necessarily have to, you know, the stigma of the public school system doesn’t have to be because of a fault of SPVs. D, this is something that I think is plaguing the public school system as a whole. And so the question then is, well, you know, what options do we have? How do we restore legitimacy? How do we ease the concerns of parents? And I think that one of the options for this is, is for parents to be able to drop in. And what I mean by that is cameras in the classroom. And so I know that the you know, opponents of this would probably say, say something along the lines of You know, we need to preserve our children’s privacy, we don’t want our children broadcast to the public. And that’s valid, that would be a valid concern for me as well. I think that some of the solutions to that would be that we could have parent only access. I think that parents with children in specific classrooms could have access to view video feeds of those specific classrooms that their kids are in. I think another option might be to have the camera zoomed in on the teacher, we don’t necessarily have to have students broadcast over live streaming. Or maybe the whole thing starts with just audio recordings. Maybe if teachers can hear what’s going on in the classroom, this could put some of the some of their minds at ease. I feel like the time for this is now the the schools are well funded right now. They’re well populated. There’s a lot of students enrolled. I mean, who knows what’s going to happen over the 10 over the next 10 years? Now, if if the school has continued to be become non legitimate? I mean, I don’t I don’t know how many, how many parents might homeschool their kids over the next 10 years. But right now, there’s funding. There’s lots of kids in schools right now is the time to put parents minds at ease. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 38:43
Thank you, Adrienne, enjoy the rest of your evening. One more call for audience participation. All right, thank you. Don done, the superintendents report is next. But I wonder if you wouldn’t mind and if the rest of the board is in agreement. If we move the Erie high school feeder report up. It’s okay with you. All right, Brian, sorry to spring that on you. I’m a little out of practice with kids being here, guys. Sorry. I should have done that very first thing. So my apologies to all of you. I, Brian, good evening. Surprise. Your next.
Unknown Speaker 39:34
Madam President, Board of Education. Dr. ADAD. Thank you for the time this evening to talk about the Erie feeder system. We’re very excited to do that. But I just want to take the opportunity to thank the people in the back two rows there, which is a lot of times where they like to sit. And those are the principles of the Erie theater system. I consider an honor and a privilege to work with them and I would and compare them to any any group of administrators anywhere in the nation. So I’d like to just recognize each one of them. I’d like to recognize Mr. Tim Garcia at Red Hawk. Mr. Ryan ball, who’s new to us from Highlands. And Mr. Mapp buckler, the principal of Erie High School. Also Dr. Karen music, who has been kind enough to cover at Grandview elementary for a leave of absence. Also another new person with us Sherry Carter from Black Rock Elementary, Lauren acre from Erie Elementary, and Kim Watry, from Erie Middle School, and then Mr. Weinberger from soaring heights couldn’t be here tonight because of the family commitment. But I just want to recognize them for the work that they do. They care deeply not only about the kids and their staff, and the school itself, but also their communities. And they really care for each other too. And it’s been really great to work with all of you, and thank you for the work that you do. But what I’d like to do now we just have a really short presentation that talks about why Erie and I hope that you enjoy that. And I hope that you enjoy the students that put so much work into it. But I’d like to bring up Liz Russell, the assistant principal from Erie high school, and she is going she’s the one that brought all these kids together and worked on this. And so thank you, Liz for your work. And then if you want to have the students come up with a great
Unknown Speaker 41:34
Absolutely, thank you, Mr. Kraus for that introduction there. And I have been working with these students these past couple of weeks on this project. And you know, we handpick this group, so we knew they were pretty solid off the bat bringing them in. I just can’t say enough about how much they took initiative. They took charge. They weren’t innovative, and they showed their talent so much while getting this project together. They just took the bull by the horns, they talk to each one of these principals gathered what was important in each one of their schools, and came together to create a wonderful video that we’re going to show you here in just a minute about why Erie is so fantastic. Why the community of Erie is booming the way it is and how the schools make that community continue to grow the way it is. So I’m going to invite my students to come up right now and introduce each of themselves. And then we will show our video
Unknown Speaker 42:37
Hi there, I’m Jackson pace. I’m a senior at your high school. I’m involved in mock trial. I was on the debate team. I’m a vice president of choir and I really hope you enjoy our presentation tonight.
Unknown Speaker 42:52
Hello, I’m
Unknown Speaker 42:53
Eva Welty. I’m involved in mock trial. I’m a two sport varsity captain and I’m committed to play lacrosse at the University of Denver next year.
Unknown Speaker 43:06
Hi, I’m Kirsten Hansen. I’m a football player at Erie High School and then I’m also participate in Model United Nations and tigers together peer mentor.
Unknown Speaker 43:18
My name is Yana Martinez. I’m a senior. I’m a part of the varsity volleyball team and I hope to play varsity in college. And I’m also a part of the Tiger scholar peer mentoring as well.
Unknown Speaker 43:29
My name is Levi glaze. I’m a part of the varsity men’s volleyball team, and Hs and jazz.
Unknown Speaker 43:38
Hi, my name is Shreya and lemon. I’m a junior at Erie High School and I’m currently in the aeronautics program of engineering.
Unknown Speaker 43:50
So as you can tell, we have quite the group here of students and I look forward to showing you what they put together. All the video
Unknown Speaker 44:09
is growing at a rate surpassing locales all across the country with a massive influx of new students teaching talent and financial resources. Within the same brain Valley School District in particular, we’ve seen a considerable increase in student enrollment, particularly with an Erie with areas enrollment jumping from 5440 and 2019 to over 5921 in 2021. There are a myriad of different communities to choose from within our school district. So what makes areas such an attractive place for education? Well, that’s what your high school superintendents Advisory Council delegation set out to find the answer to by interviewing administrators, students and community members across areas eight feeder schools, we were able to definitively answer the question of why Erie
Unknown Speaker 45:11
Hi, my name is Cyrus Weinberger. I’m the principal here at soaring heights. Today, you’re going to get to learn about our innovation time that propels kids into the scientific process a bit about our elective offerings, as well as lots of different extracurricular activities. When you put those things all together, you create a great learning environment where kids are excited to learn and have fun. And that’s what attracts everyone to our schools here. I think
Unknown Speaker 45:41
that robotics is just been such an awesome vessel for learning, not really just focusing on engineering and computer science skills. But I really see a lot of awesome social skills that the kids get to work on. They’re working in teams, they’re trying to problem solve, overcome big challenges. And it’s really just been an incredible experience, to see the kids grow over the years
Unknown Speaker 46:06
that innovation projects are pretty unique. And they all bridge to things in the real world, whether it be like a more simplified version of it, or like maybe just a model of something.
Unknown Speaker 46:20
I like innovation because we get to build stuff. And we often do sort of like hands on learning. And we constantly like move through what we’re doing. So every
Unknown Speaker 46:32
student has innovation at every single grade level, every single thing
Unknown Speaker 46:37
to see the progression of where they start as early elementary kids, and working their way up through the program has been fantastic.
Unknown Speaker 46:50
So if you’re elementary special, because we’ve been here for a really long time, this school has been here for almost 55 years. And we love our school. And we love the things that happen in our school. And we’re STEM school. So we get really messy. And we do lots of design thinking. Our school is an OG train school. So kids are really getting what they need and phonics and phonemic awareness. And we have a lot of fun. We do lots of fun projects. We dance together, we sing together, and we have a really good
Unknown Speaker 47:27
teachers here at BlackRock, many of them have been here since the school began, they helped open the school, and they stay. And the ability for the teachers to meet the needs of students is unlike any that I’ve ever experienced in my whole 17 years of being a principal. They truly know how to differentiate instruction for all of the children, the push kids who are needing a push that are high level kids, and then they also go in and scaffold and meet the needs of students in that way. They hold students to a very high standard. And I think in addition to that, they have the parents support to be able to meet the needs of students. It’s a really nice partnership.
Unknown Speaker 48:29
Garcia, and I’m the person who’s blessed to be able to be principal of Red Rock. How long have you been? So this is my fifth year here. So for me, it’s all about building that community, building the family building the relationships and wanting to be here. If kids have fun, and they want to be at school, the learning experience, that becomes the easy part. If we do the relationships, well, if we build a community foundation, we do that the right way, the learning
Unknown Speaker 48:57
experience. We love red hot, because it’s it’s our family. It’s the people that we love to be around and I don’t want to go anywhere else. I’ll probably retire from here.
Unknown Speaker 49:14
What do students like about Highlands Elementary? I guess first and foremost, we have a great staff here, have some of the best teachers and I think they provide an environment where kids thrive. And they’re excited about their learning. They connect with their teacher, so they’re excited to be here and excited to come to school every day. We also have, you know, in our mission statement that we want to empower students to explore their own interests. So we do a lot of things in our classrooms that allow kids to go off and explore a question they might have about something they’re learning about. Or if they have an interest about something else. They’re going to be able to go in and work on something or create something or give a presentation about something that they’re interested in, in their class. So we really push that with our staff here. And I know they allow students the opportunity to to do a lot of things around what they’re interested in.
Unknown Speaker 50:21
What’s special about Grandview and about the Erie Community is that they’re focused on innovation and creating kids that are able to go into the 21st century with life skills that help them to be adaptable, because we don’t know what the workforce is going to look like by the time my fifth graders graduate. And so their ability to be problem solvers to be collaborators to be outside of the box thinkers is something that we really focus on at Grandview, our focus is to be an innovative and innovative like an innovative school that creates innovative students. And we try to weave that thread of innovation through everything we do all day, every day. And so we opened just only three and a half years ago, or not even three and a half just over three years ago. And through that we’ve overcome being a new building and having to create a community with our surrounding families and with our surrounding. Bit like businesses and stuff to partner with. And beyond that, then we had the pandemic. And so we really haven’t had a normal school years of building. And yet our teachers and our educators are at any change, of course, or change of path are willing to just jump in and do it. There’s no apprehension are no complaint, no anything other than what is best for students, what’s best for our community, and what can we do to better ourselves. And so I think that’s what’s really special about our teachers and educators is that they’re just willing to do what is best for kids and for our community, no matter what.
Unknown Speaker 51:52
Hi, I’m Kim watching the principal at airy Middle School. And I’m proud to work with such an incredible community here at every middle school, we are a pre Advanced Placement focus school. And that means preparing every student to take at least one Advanced Placement class when they travel on to Erie High School. And a big part of that is preparing students with confidence and success and strategies to be successful students. And a part of the process of supporting kids and those strategies to be successful students is our web program
Unknown Speaker 52:26
where everyone belongs. And it is a program that we start out on the first day of sixth grade, we pair 10/6 graders with two of our eighth grade mentors, and it is a program that we keep going all year long.
Unknown Speaker 52:41
And the program is really neat, because what we do with the eighth graders is when they’re seventh grade, they have to apply, and we select them. And then we actually train them for two days, they take their summer off basically and come through a series of, of activities on how to work with sixth graders as far as leadership communication, so they dedicate quite a bit of time.
Unknown Speaker 53:05
So we have eighth grade students who are mentors and leaders that work with our weblinks our our sixth grade students to give them strategies to be successful in school. Not only that, it creates community within the building and relationships for sixth grade students to know that they have two web leaders that they can turn to and ask advice of, and look for in the halls and see them in the halls as they say hi, is such an important part of building community. So we are proud of our web program. And we hope to continue to build on additional strategies to provide that community and support.
Unknown Speaker 53:39
So our feeders are important to build the foundations of success for our students at URI High School. They have a lot of great programs there. And I think what’s unique here at Erie is a lot of the students in elementary school or even in middle school are able to come to Erie high and participate in programs. Hi, my
Unknown Speaker 54:07
name is Lucas Lee. I’m a sophomore here at Area High School. And what I love about being a student is how involved you can get him within the community.
Unknown Speaker 54:13
Hi, my name is Talia Cowley and I’m a junior at URI High School. And something that I love about being a student here is that the community is super welcoming, like in choir and band or any of the sports that you play, you feel like you’re a family and that’s really fun to be able to come to high school every day and know that you always have a place that you belong.
Unknown Speaker 54:36
Hi, I’m Alex Pulaski. I’m a junior at high. And I love being part of Erie high and the community here because it’s just it’s a huge community and it’s just full of a bunch of people that are here to support you and help you and whatever you want to do. And it’s just really fun walking in the doors every day knowing that you have a whole support system and that you could do whatever you want to do here.
Unknown Speaker 54:56
Hi, my name’s Shane McCarty, I’m a senior in high school and the thing I love most about being a student at Erie is the strong sense of community.
Unknown Speaker 55:03
Hi, I’m Eva Welty, and I’m a senior at Erie High School. And for me, both the academic rigor and the athletic opportunities has prepared me for my future college experience. So both lots of AP classes, as well as the athletic sports, I participate in lacrosse and basketball has prepared me for my future college.
Unknown Speaker 55:22
Hi, I’m Jackson pace. I’m a senior here at your high school. And your high school has really helped me to become a leader in my future, mainly because of the amount of AP classes and like the rigor of the coursework that you’re able to have access to here. Starting in my freshman year, I was able to take AP Human Geography and it really introduced me to my love of social studies. And it’s now something that I’m likely going to pursue in college. And with other classes like AP, AP Lang, and AP Lit, I’ve just found a really great love for the humanities. And it’s really helped me to prepare for my college and careers in the future.
Unknown Speaker 55:58
So you’ve heard me say this many times on the announcements or when I tweet things on Twitter, but I really believe we do have the best kids in America. And we have, I’m going to also say, by extension, the best families in America. And it’s true, if you look at how we’ve grown over the last seven years or so, we have people literally from all over the country moving into Erie, hice, Erie high but also into the Erie feeder. And then even people from all over the world coming here. They like the quality of life. They like the schools and the quality of education. So we’ve always said there’s a lot of excitement here. I think our teachers feel that or kids feel that. And the other thing I would add is, we’re still a one high school town. So even though we’re the biggest high school and st brain, we everybody in Erie knows about Erie High School and is excited to come up here and do great things and achieve.
Unknown Speaker 57:32
Thank you, you know when I when I watched that video, and I’ve watched it probably 15 times now, I always think of Dr. Haddad, and you say out of the public schools grows the strength of a nation. And I watched those students and I see these kids right here who came up through this feeder and are now moving on very soon to very big things in their lives. I know that that is true. And I have a lot of hope for our future. So thank you for watching. And I guess if you have any questions for our students, they are ready and willing to answer anything that you may have to ask. Right. Thank
Unknown Speaker 58:07
you. I still Yes. I certainly share that hope for the future. You know, your feeder report is the first one we’ve had in over a year. And it was the perfect way to kick off the season of feeder reports. So thank you very much. It was outstanding. Do board members have questions or comments this evening? Paul?
Unknown Speaker 58:32
I have more of a comment than a question because it’s Joey’s said we haven’t seen one of these reports in over a year. And we haven’t we’ve tried lately to get back out into the schools more which has been fantastic. But it was limited last year. So it’s it’s just warms my heart to get back to this to get back to what really matters. And I just want to share as a board member, what what you know, we generally fly at 30,000 feet like we’re looking at the big picture. And then looking at the foundation foundational things like are the finances in order, you know, does Dr. Haddad does he have our support? Has he built a system that can can educate our students? Do we have the best quality teachers? Do we have the best buildings and safety we look at those foundational things. And the reason we’ve spent so much time on that sort of bedrock work is so communities like Erie can do what you’re doing so so you can have the second to none staff and leadership in place that is flexible enough to differentiate instruction to be creative in innovation to get all that bedrock education done to to follow the Colorado Academic Standards to bring in the AP classes to have all the standard required things done but then to lift it to another level. And so I just can’t thank you enough for doing what we hoped you would do, you know, like we spend all this time to like to get the foundational work done, so that you can go and just make it great and like, take it to another level. And I just can’t thank the community enough because without their support, the buildings don’t get built, the teachers don’t get hired. I can’t thank the parents enough for partnering with us every single time we’ve had to open a building out there. And there’s always, there’s always growing pains. Every single time we’ve been able to come together with the Erie Community, and work it out and make it better every single time. It’s an incredible track record out there. And I just want to thank you all, and the students are just the proof. Thank you for coming, you guys are the proof you make all of this worthwhile. And my just makes my heart happy for the future. Thank you so much, and congratulations to you all.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:52
Thanks, Paula. wish all of you best of luck as you continue your journey throughout the school year. Glad to see that you’re back in your hair with us. And there was a presentation. And it’s wonderful to see all of you. And so the building leaders, thank you so much for for everything that you do. We appreciate all of you greatly. So Brian, thank you was a wonderful start. Wonderful start to our presentations, our feeder reports again, so thank you
Unknown Speaker 1:01:25
now you all can go home and do homework study. Alright, that was agenda item 6.3. I’m going to jump back up to agenda item five done, which is the superintendence report. And thank you for being gracious and allowing the students to go first. So they can go home and do some homework.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:45
All right, well, they are definitely or have dinner fact to follow. And that was a highlight. So my pleasure to defer to them. I want to just give you a few things, one, you know, we’re in the middle of the October count. And as you heard from Erie, our schools are busting out at the seams, we are growing at a pretty rapid pace. We have almost all of them accounted for. And we have until the first of November to identify the last group. And then we will bring to you the October count when I share with you a little bit of information. You know, I and I appreciated the comment. Because I’ve always said that public education is the backbone of America, there used to be 90% of our children K through 12. Were in public schools. That is increased now to 91%. And so you see the enrollment, public schools continuing to grow. And you see, you know, the economy, you know everything around public safety, national security, and the values of our homes, the quality of our service industry, democracy, when you have 91% of your students K through 12 enrolled in your public schools, and that number is growing quickly, you realize just how critically important it is. And when you see students like this, you understand that our future is in good hands. And I’m very, very proud of our kids. I want to also share with you some statistics, I had an opportunity to meet with a pretty successful entrepreneur from down in Denver. And we talk and he you know, he’s a businessman. And he shared with me that in the business community, which we all know, they look at profit margins and bottom lines. And he said what you know, what’s your bottom line for schools? What do you look at because you have a whole host of metrics that we discussed from attendance rates scratch, I said, you know, at the end of the day, it’s about our graduation rate. We’ve established among the highest requirements in the state and the region, and perhaps the country, because we want our students to graduate with, as you heard several times a strong competitive advantage. And they are and they are graduating now at the highest rate in the history of our district, approaching 91% in four years. And then when you go to four and a half, etc, it climbs even higher. But some of the interesting data I asked Hillary Sontag to pull together for me because we are a people organization, but there is also a bottom line to it from the business perspective. And so I’ll share with you some of the data that that she shared with me. If you look at a graduate somebody who does not graduate from high school will earn third $331,000 Less over their lifetime than somebody with a high school diploma. And if you have some college, but not a degree,
Unknown Speaker 1:04:48
you will make about $574,000 And obviously it’s given take more than someone without and then if you have an associate degree or higher you’re looking Making about $754,000 more a year and then you look at the cost in other ways, someone without a high school diploma is likely to cost about $292,000 More in Medicaid and better care. And so you see that now insane rain, this last year I shared with you about 20 723 students are returning back, and overwhelmingly they’re coming back from homeschool. They’re coming back from private schools, and they are coming back from other school districts. So we have seen a surge of enrollment in our public schools. And I’m very proud of our teachers, because I know that they are at the, at the at the heart of this. And at the end, the parents and the students working to make the system so successful in so many ways. We have challenges, there is not an organization on this Earth that doesn’t have challenges. And we are certainly an organization that has our challenges. But you can see the number of students coming back into our public schools. And you know, I’ve been out and about in the communities presenting to different chambers of commerce presenting to different rotaries, and businesses and elected officials, and the outpouring of parents support. And you all saw some of it at our Highlands opening of the elementary school, just parent after parent after parent telling us how much their children love to be back in school. And I know that COVID was hard on everyone. But that excitement to come back and that energy, and then watching them be so successful, and watching them achieve at higher levels than ever before. We saw our LSAT scores go up again, we’re excited about that we call in didn’t mention this. But we have 170 robotics teams active 170 out of 60 schools. And they’re doing work not only during school, but after school and in the evenings. And on weekends. We’re partnering continuing to partner or partner with over 90 business and corporate partners who have expressed extreme trust in our schools. And they vet our schools before they commit their time and their energy. But what they’ve said to me places like IBM and apple and Toyota, you heard some of it is we know your kids are getting a great education. And we know the integrity of your organization. And that’s why we’re willing to commit. When you heard about the mobile app, the mobile lab cost $800,000 and was funded fully by our corporate partners. And you see that kind of commitment. And these are folks who will not commit until they are certain that you are delivering an outstanding education. So I was grateful to hear all of that. I did share with you guys the graph that showed the spikes in enrollment, coming from homeschool, private school and other school districts. And that’s always an indicator. Because there’s so much choice. There’s so much choice parents can choose where they want their children to go to school. And the good news is that they are choosing in many, many instances, the same brain Valley School District. So I’m very proud of our teachers. I’m very proud of our staff, our students. I’m very proud of our parents, and our entire community. And our administrators, the dedication, the commitment, you just saw it and this is one feeder system, but you could take any feeder system from st rain and you would get something similar. The education system has never been stronger ever, at any point in time in American history. And I’m very, very proud of the kids and saying rain. Also want to share with you we had our first leadership st reign meeting we had about 150 parents participate. And we’re still doing that virtually. Hopefully we’ll get to that place in time where we can get back together. But it was a really productive meeting. It was great to hear from parents, great to see them even though it was on our WebEx system. And lots of great questions. And so I know there were a few board members that attended and you guys might have a comment about what what your perspective was. And I’ll wait till after my report and share that I also went to the band night last Wednesday. What an incredible evening, hundreds of students participating in our incredible bands. And the pack the stands were packed with parents, just so proud of their children and our band instructors. And our students just knocked it out of the park as they always do. And I’ve been seeing the choir concerts and the orchestra and the debate and the theater all of these things. And we’re getting ready to go into this weekend. The state playoffs in many of our sports programs are just they’re ranked in the top 1% of the state. You see many of them are ranked number one, number two number three our our kids are not going Get out of the park competing against other school districts.
Unknown Speaker 1:10:04
I was at Blue Mountain today, Eagle Crest, and nyuad Elementary along with nyuad High School and Silver Creek. And the energy is just palpable. And, again, I would be remiss if I didn’t again, say thank you to our teachers and our staff. These are heroes that deserve respect from all of us. Because again, 91% of our children in this country are attending public schools. And we have a great country. And I think in large part, it’s because of the excellent education they’re receiving. And they have received over many, many years. And I also would be remiss if I didn’t thank our parents who have supported to mill levy overrides during my tenure here and to bonds, we are nearing close to $1 billion in extra revenue, because of the goodness of their hearts and their commitment to our schools. And I could not be more grateful to them for that. And our administrators who are leading these buildings and at the central office, and all of our classified staff, our bus drivers, our custodians, our nutrition services, feeding our children, transporting our children, making sure the buildings are clean and safe. Our grounds and maintenance, if you go to our buildings, they’re they’re clean, they’re safe, they’re spotless, they’re a source of pride. And we have, you know, approximately 33,000 students. And before you know, we’re going to have to build more schools because we’re headed towards 80,000 students. And sometimes you wonder, you know, can you keep up pace with all the kids coming into our schools, but you know, how I am I, I love having the more the merrier, because the more students we have, the greater the stories and the excitement and the energy. So a big thank you to everyone. And I know that some of you were in out in the schools, and some of you have worked at the leadership, St. Brain. So if you have any thoughts or comments you’d like to share, but again, thank you to everyone in making our schools as strong as they are.
Unknown Speaker 1:11:59
Thanks, Dan, appreciate it. You know, you talk about the bottom line and Raj Chetty out of Harvard. He’s an economist. And he’s done several different studies, one of them specifically about the quality of kindergarten teachers. And at the end of the day, his data comes up with very similar numbers that you come up with, which I really is has nothing to do with anything, but I think it’s interesting. Yeah. Did anybody wants to comment? He’s fascinating. If you ever want to read anything, you’ve read Raj Chetty, I’m sure fascinating. Did anybody want to comment on leadership? St. Brain or? Jim? Sure.
Unknown Speaker 1:12:37
unusual, but I’m gonna make comment. Yeah. That was telling Dr. Margaret, and I, Karen, you were on tour, I was amazed at the, at the interest that the parent showed and the quality of the questions that they had, they weren’t all asking the same question to all those questions. Were specific and focused, you’re articulated very well, not a lot of thought went into it a lot of concern. And I thought dying, combos smoke, but you handled every one of them is as as you normally do. Very, very succinct, very clear, very honest. And I think a lot of were satisfied. And I don’t have any idea how many more of those written questions that were showing up at the bottom of the screen that you guys had to handle with the staff afterwards. But I know it was a significant workload for the rest of the staff to, to respond to some of the written questions that were there. But yeah, I would it was excellent, because I’ve been attending leadership for seven years now. And I just, that was one of the more focused ones with with really great questions, and a friend of parents and a lot of concern. So there’s really good, and I look forward to the next one.
Unknown Speaker 1:13:54
Thank you, Jim. Appreciate that.
Unknown Speaker 1:13:59
Don’t how many parents were involved in this session?
Unknown Speaker 1:14:03
We had about 150, who signed up and you know, a lot of them stay for the entire time and some will not. But it was it’s a great turnout. It’s a great turnout, a lot of representation from all of our schools.
Unknown Speaker 1:14:17
Yeah, I think especially some excellent questions for Tony and Greg. Coming from that, which is such a it’s, you know, I have a really hard time personally understanding school finance, I just constantly have to study it. But the questions that were coming from our community were just so important and so poignant. And I just think that our parents and community must be learning from our amazing students and Saint brain because
Unknown Speaker 1:14:43
you know, what else was something we shared and will continue to share? We have so many students now, back to the economics of it all. We have so many students that are earning so much college credit before they leave our school system, and they’re entering into college as sophomores in college, that gives you an indication of how rigorous the coursework is. And then we’re really seeing large amounts graduate. You know, we added those three P TECH programs when I talk to you about the economic impact of an associate degree, three P TECH programs, one in computer information systems, one in cybersecurity and one in the medical and bio biomedical field. And it’s at no cost to the student in partnership with some of these corporations that we’ve discussed. And so all of these children earning these associate degrees, and then the certifications that they’re earning, and things like welding, and optics, and electronics and machining, and all of these things that they’re going in, they’re getting their two year certificates. And they’re going out into jobs making 40 50,000 60,000 a year. So you just you’ve never seen the kind of preparation for post secondary that we’re seeing right now. And it’s it’s really good news.
Unknown Speaker 1:16:02
All right. Thanks, everyone. That brings us to Agenda Item six, which is our reports and 6.1 is our 20 to 2122. First quarter gifts to schools. Hi, Greg, how are you this evening?
Unknown Speaker 1:16:22
Can you hear me? Okay?
Unknown Speaker 1:16:24
I can. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 1:16:28
Thanks for having me tonight. Yeah, so first quarter gifts. This time this year is about $62,000. Last year was about $153,000. We did note was there as a timing of a large year over year donation that typically comes in the first quarter that we did not receive the first quarter of this year. And so it’s still below where we normally are. While we’re doing we’re doing well. Couple to to just highlight $4,000 from Seagate for robotics support. And 8500 for micron gives for the mobile app to happiness record any questions? I can.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:14
Thanks, Greg. Any questions this evening? It looks like there are no questions. So we’ll go ahead and move on to agenda item 6.2, which is the school finance update, specifically the total program mill levy updates.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:31
And I’m gonna let Tony talk about the total program, mill levy correction. And then I have a couple updates on federal relief funds per audit and answer three proposed expenditures.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:42
Right. Thanks, Greg. Hi, Tony.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:46
Hi, good evening. So I want to make sure everyone can see the slide deck here up on the screen. Yes, we can. Great. So I’m here to provide an update on a state mandated change to our total program mill levy for a recent bill that was passed by our state legislatures House Bill 2111 64. I want to start out this presentation tonight to give just a little bit of context around our current mill levies that we charge in terms of our property taxes within the district, the district levies for property taxes. The first is the total program mill levy. The second is our voter approved mill levy override. Our third is the abatement Levy. And the fourth is the bond redemption fund Levy. Those are four individual different levies that make up the total amount of property tax that let mill levy that the district levies on property tax owners within the district. Now with that said, this entire bill, and this entire presentation all has to do only with the first one, the total program letting all the other ones are not affected by the following slides. The following information I’m going to share tonight, our total program mill levy is actually set that 24.995. It’s set per the Colorado Department of Education, we don’t change that we don’t adjust it. They tell us what that’s going to be that levy funds, most of the local share portion of St. branes told a program formula funding that the overarching total program formula is funded from three sources. And the state is the local share that local share portion is almost entirely comprised of this total program melody that amounts to about $107 million for FY 22 and represents about 40% of the total program funding of about $269 million. The remainder of total program comes from the state equalization payments. Here’s a pie chart just showing that illustration there so you can see stabilizations about 157 million that comes from state funds, which is funded from things like income taxes, and sales taxes. The total program mill levy that we’re talking about About tonight funds that 39.7% or almost 40% Share 107 million. And then there’s a little bit about 2% that comes from local specific ownership taxes, which is like vehicle registration taxes. Alright, now with that said, let’s go back to 1992 when the state passed the constitutional Tabor amendment. Among other things, the Tabor Amendment says that as property values rise, that unless voters approve otherwise, Tabor would require the mill levy be adjusted downward each year, so that it would raise only the amount raised in the previous year plus inflation and growth. Again, the key word there is unless voters approved otherwise. And in 1998, same brain voters did exactly that. They approved a ballot measure that exempted the district from this particular Tabor requirement at the time for context, St. Greens total program, mill levy was 35.552 Mills, this is the number that’s now 24.995. But over the years, many other school districts around the state debriefs and I think there’s only one or two, I think there’s two left in the state that haven’t debriefed or exempted themselves from this table requirement. Now through 2007, as I mentioned previously, CDE tells us what our total program their levy will be. And what they did was they told us, as well as many other districts around the state to reduce their total program, mill levy. And they calculated that levy as if the districts had not decreased. And then finally, in 2007, total program mill levies were finally frozen statewide per legislation. So we were seeing a tick down of our total program mill levy, to where it is today. We’re actually could have kept a little bit higher where it was when we deepers. Individual total program mill levies vary widely from District, district to district. So some more, you know, similar to where we were around 25 Mills, some had dropped below 10. Here’s an example of what happened around the state with various mill levies total program mill levies. So the red line would represent where a mill levy should have probably stayed without CDE incorrectly didn’t create decreasing, instructing schools to school districts that decrease that total program, mill levy. But what happened was they instead instructed school districts to decrease their mill levy, as if they were still subject to Tabor. And so what happened is that in 2007, when mill levies were froze here, there was this gap between where mill levies could have been versus where they are now. And this gap is, essentially, state contends is tax collections that should be raised locally, but instead is being funded from.
Unknown Speaker 1:22:48
On a macro basis, this chart kind of represents a part of what was happening. And so the black line is the state share of the total program funding for K 12 education over the year, and the white, the white line is the local share. So you can see as overtime, there’s this gradual increasing of the state share and a gradual decreasing of local share. And this was causing a real big budget pressure on the state in order to consistently make up more and more and more of K 12 funding state share. So this brings us to a few years ago, based on the results of a Colorado Colorado Supreme Court case from 2009, which actually had to do with that 2007 miletti Freeze. The legislature based on that Supreme Court case, felt like they would be able to remedy the incorrect decrease of these total program mill levy reductions and instruct school districts to to correct them upwards and increase those total program mill levies without going back to the voters and getting the Tabor required voter authorization to increase those. And so in 2020, they set the stage by passing a bill that said everyone was supposed to now set their gross mill levy rates to 27 mills. And then they would provide property taxpayers with a mill levy offset or a credit for the difference to return them to what their prior mill levy was, though, thing brains mill levy has been 24.995 for many, many years. But we were instructed to increase that to 27 and then provide a credit for the difference of 2.005 mills. And then essentially, we’re loving the same amount. It’s just broken into two phases of growth and a credit so we’re still loving 24.995 today. However, this year, HB 2111 64 instructed school districts across the state to start eliminating these credits that were set put in place last year. We are instructed to decrease these credits at one mill per year until we reach that full 27 mills. And so this December st reigns, total program mill levy will be set to 25.99 By instead of the former 24.995. In two years, it will go up one more mil. And then the in the third year that last little point 005 will get tacked on. And so after three years this will be fully implemented for st brain and we will be at 27 mils instead of the current 24.995. Now, anticipating a legal challenge, the legislature did submit this plan as an interrogatory to the Colorado Supreme Court, requesting a ruling ahead of time on its constitutionality. In May of 2021, the Colorado Colorado Supreme Court ruled that HB 2111 64 is constitutional and does not violate Tabor. Alright, so let’s talk about the impact on our taxpayers. So with a current assessed valuation of 2020, assessed valuation of approximately 4.1 billion St. Grey taxpayers would contribute an additional 4.1 million in total for each additional mill that is Levy. So once fully implemented, the additional 2.005 mills would result in about 8.2 million in additional property taxes per year. Now that’s based on current assessed valuation. So as market values go up, this number will go up a little bit as well. For the individual homeowner, I’ve got a couple of charts here for year one, and then year two and ongoing. And so you can see here that for a property tax owner, excuse me, a property owner with a home value of approximately $500,000, they would see an impact in year one of about $3 per month, or about $36 per year, year two and ongoing that doubles approximately doubles to about $6 or 72 $6 per month was $72 per year for a home value of $500,000.
Unknown Speaker 1:26:50
Now, what happened statewide, we asked the state to try and run some numbers, what would happen in the statewide and what they’re anticipating they’d be collecting on a on a statewide basis, they gave an estimate of about $92 million in year one. And that ramped up to about 207 million by year five. And then once fully implemented way down the road, because some districts have a very long way to go before they get their mill levies to 27, they would see about 253 or so million dollars statewide. And this again presumes all other things being equal, no increase in market values or anything. It’s all using the current assessed valuation rates. So what do they do with this money, while these additional amounts would relieve the impact of the state side, their budget that funds K 12 education. And while the intent for this is that the state would hold its share steady, thus resulting in increased K 12 funding overall, there’s nothing saying that that is required. In addition, these additional monies, if they’re kept in K 12, funding education may not necessarily flow through our total our normal total program funding formula, it might pay for changes to the formula or other K 12 funding initiatives that maybe devise down the road. Now, one thing I just wanted to emphasize here at this property tax increase is an externality it’s been imposed on same brain taxpayers by the Colorado Department of Education in the state legislature, we as a district, nor the board of directors or any of these administration, we don’t we do not have discretion on whether to implement this change. And we didn’t advocate or ask for this increase. So next steps. So from here, what we are doing the finance office levels, providing documentation on decreasing elections, relevant tax certifications, and such, we have all that squared away and prepared for them. We also want to communicate changes with the Board of Education. Thus, this, this presentation today, as well as our core study session on the subject. And finally, community notification and engagement. So we’ve been working with a communications office, and a recent newsletter that went out from superintendents update, had a link to an article on this to provide some information to the community on what’s going on. We also have an article on STV st.org. On the website, there are a few featured stories where people can go out and find more information. And then finally, we’ll come back to the Board of Education in December as we certify our tax mill levies with this appropriate change. So with that, that’s all I have for my presentation. But I wanted to ask the more effective questions.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:30
Thanks, Tony. Any comments by board members this evening or questions? I know that we talked about this in our study session. We’ve We’ve sent letters to the community, pretty black and white. And Tony, I think the only thing that I’ll I’ll reiterate that you already covered is that this wasn’t our choice. And the reality is that because of that error that happened years ago by CTE, Colorado Department of Education, this is where we are today. They did impose this and I think it underscores. Karen, just your statement also that public education finance is complicated. And I personally don’t view this as any type of a real solution. And I’ll stop there. So Thanks, Tony. If community members have questions, I know that in the letter we suggested they reach out to you have you had anyone reached out to you with questions so far?
Unknown Speaker 1:30:25
I haven’t yet now, at this time that we’re ready to take any questions and explain individual impacts, or where this is coming from or who they can provide feedback to at the state level, they’re welcome to contact finance.
Unknown Speaker 1:30:36
Okay, great. And this is a tax increase, again, not chosen by the Board of Education. But certainly do want to encourage people if they have questions to reach out and get the answers to those questions. So alright, Tony. Greg, do you want to I think you said you had a few other things to bring up this. Tony. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker 1:30:57
So in terms of federal refunds, so far, we’ve been awarded $52.4 million, we have spent 34. Point 7 million. So that leaves about $17.7 million dollars remaining. We talked about these numbers before. My main purpose for sharing that with you is that I would like to, for those people who haven’t watched an important meeting before. We talked about this earlier on the show, if you go to our website, you go about halfway down the page. Can you see where I’m at?
Unknown Speaker 1:31:34
We can Yes, thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:31:36
There’s this community input on s3 funds. And what that shows is where we’re planning to spend these dollars. And then there’s also a place for people to provide community feedback, I’m so happy to have that, we are getting ready to consolidate all that information. And so I would say, if people want to do that, they need to do it fairly soon. In terms of an audit update, just like last year, we’re gonna have to do our single audit separate from our financial statement audit. So CRFs are one and so do will be done later. And that’s mainly due to compliance releases that have not come out yet. We’re on a similar timeline is last year with a draft to the board at the October 27 meeting of clay, no one in the November board meeting. And charters, we had one issue with the charter to begin with, we resolved that they’re back up to speed with where we expect him to be. Currently, we’re working through data pipeline. That is what’s slowing us down. And that is based off of this decision I made 15 months ago in terms of how we code things into our accounting system, so as to not blow up. How many account codes we have in there. And so some of the delay is to reverse out some of the things that we did. But again, we’re similar to where we were last year. I’m happy to answer any questions on any of those.
Unknown Speaker 1:33:19
Just you’re not Greg, your deck. Sorry.
Unknown Speaker 1:33:23
I’m one of those. Greg, just a quick question about the ESA three public comment that we have been accepting and you’re accepting through the website, I know that in our meetings with the public we’ve done has been solicited impact as well. I just want to confirm that the public input that we have received and that we anticipate receiving meets the requirements of s are three,
Unknown Speaker 1:33:54
we’re still evaluating that some of them do not meet. It’s because they’re related to the COVID 19 pandemic. And that has to be it has to be directly fat to the COVID 19 pandemic. So there are some things that people are recommending that we can’t use S or three funds for.
Unknown Speaker 1:34:15
But but the public comment process we have in place meets the intent of the s3 requirement. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 1:34:22
absolutely. I think it I think it supersedes anything that they were looking for, as we develop our or LEA plan as part of yes or three application.
Unknown Speaker 1:34:33
Thank you, Greg. That was my question. Thanks.
Unknown Speaker 1:34:40
All right, Greg. I don’t believe there any other questions? No, thank you so much. All right. Agenda Item Seven is our consent items do board members wish to pull any of those consent items this evening. With that I would entertain a motion for approval please for 7.1 Staff terminations leaves 7.2 staff appointments 7.3 approval of minutes for the September 8 2021 regular meeting, September 15 2021 study session and September 2220 21, regular meeting 7.4 approval of contract award for cooling tower and 7.5 approval of amendment to CMGC for district wide H Beck H back project. So moved by Jim and a Second. Second by Karen.
Unknown Speaker 1:35:32
Mr. Aaron’s absent Mr. Berthold? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. Miss Pierce. Aye. Mrs. raglan. I miss Siegrist.
Unknown Speaker 1:35:42
I our action items this evening begin with 8.1, which is a recommendation for adoption of a resolution proclaiming classified school employees week, October 18. Through 2220 21. Hello, Todd.
Unknown Speaker 1:35:59
Good evening. And thank you, President Secrest, Superintendent ADAD members of the Board of Education. It’s my pleasure tonight to bring forward a recommendation for the approval of the proclamation from the governor’s office that October 18 through 22nd. Big proclaimed classified school employees week, we have approximately 1800 employees in the classified group. Those include people from bus drivers, custodial technicians, food and nutrition committees, schools, secretaries, assistants, pair educators, maintenance ground coaches, to name a few. Our classified staff are such a valued part of our school community, and our school district, and from even before the start of the school day, until sometimes well after that, the school day and our classified employees contribute to the overall success of our students and well being. And they support the work of all of our school district and our employees, administrators and teachers and we so appreciate the work that they do on an everyday basis. So it’s my pleasure to introduce a proclamation for this and I, I think one of our board members is going to read the proclamation.
Unknown Speaker 1:37:18
I was just going to ask if you would mind. Could a board member volunteer please to read Chico? That’d be great. Yeah, thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:37:28
Resolution classified school employees week October 18, to the 22nd 2021. Whereas classified school employees are an essential part of the same brain by school district’s educational system. And whereas classified employees are dedicated to assisting in the provision of Safe Schools for the students of this district. And whereas the classified employees of our school district perform the daily cleaning, maintenance, and delivery of school property, safely transport students prepare and serve nourishing meals, maintain records and reports provide maintenance and support in the field of technology, assisted in classrooms, and school playgrounds and perform a variety of other tasks on behalf of our students. And whereas we recognize the important role of classified school employees, and the invaluable services they provide to our students. Now therefore, it be resolved that the same region by School District Board of Education proclaims October 18 through the 22nd 2021 as classified school employee week, in the in the school district and urges all parents students and staff to join in saluting these dedicated men and women.
Unknown Speaker 1:38:41
Thank you, chico. Appreciate it. You know, Todd, I was I was thinking about this resolution while I was driving to the board meeting this evening. And I suppose I’m getting older and my mind wanders. But I was thinking about my career in as a student in St. Vrain. And thinking back I still remember the bus number, the the number of the bus that I rode and my best drivers name from elementary school. His name was Bill was bus 49. But you know, I think that it’s so important to remember the contributions of all of the individuals who make educational opportunities possible in St. Vrain. And classified employees are vital to that process. I know that you know, me as a parent, as a student, my children, we have so many really remarkable stories about all of those people and how they impact their lives. And we couldn’t do it without them. Yeah. Any other comments by board members? Before we Alright, then I would entertain a motion for approval of agenda item 8.1. Second, by Karen, that was Paula, Chris. Thank you. I don’t know why I need to tell you that you’re here. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:40:00
Mr. Aaron’s absent Mr. Berthold? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. Miss Pierce. Aye. Mrs. raglan. I miss secret.
Unknown Speaker 1:40:10
I. And just one more. Thank you to all of those classified employees. We appreciate you. Action Item 8.2 is a recommendation for approval of accreditation for district schools. I am.
Unknown Speaker 1:40:29
Good evening, President Siegrist. Thanks for having me. Board of Education. Dr. Dan. Dr. Christian, it’s pleasure to be back this evening. We are seeking in approval of the of the accreditation of St. Green Valley School District and its schools. Currently, due to the accountability pause the 2019 school performance frameworks are still in place for the school district and it schools. So we’re we’re seeking that approval this evening. We are also seeking the approval of our two priority improvement schools you Iips. The permanent timeline shift is now October 15. From April 15. The we spent a good time on the study session in December of 2020. Discussing the school plans that was not posted April 15. It’s now being posted October 15. That this plan is the same priority performance challenges as well as major improvement strategies. So we seek that approval this evening as well. And Dr. perfetti Dini will speak to the summer programming and what’s happening at the school this year. Right.
Unknown Speaker 1:41:41
Thank you, man. I just like to provide you a brief update about our district supportive these two schools and then as Anne said, the engagement level of our students and staff at each of those schools for the extended learning opportunities. This year, our Learning Services team strategically selected our learning leaders who would provide teacher level support at each of these schools. And we also invited support personnel from our English Language Learner department and our special ed departments to join teachers in the really the day to day work of instructional planning, individual coaching cycles and all of the data team conversations that happen on a weekly basis. The process of school support is comprehensive. And it truly is in the spirit of partnership with our teachers and our principals. We focus on mathematics and English language arts in all of those conversations. This past summer, Rocky Mountain had 127 out of their approximately 300 Students attend project launch, that’s about 42% of their school. And they had about 82% daily average attendance. So we’re really proud of James Garcia, his as principal and their teaching staff and support staff who have really rallied around students there. In addition, Rocky has 49 students enrolled in their AAA program, which is the extended school day for our students. And at all of our elementary is that is up and running. And at all of our elementary is they are focusing on mathematics in this first trimester. So that’s pretty exciting to have almost 50 students and they keep recruiting more. at Timberline, we had 227 out of their approximately 460 students at elementary attend project launch. That’s about 50% of the school. And they had an average daily attendance of 92%, which is just incredible, all day, four days a week for the entire month of June. In addition, it was our first year of middle school project launch. And we had 33 Students attend the middle school program there, which is about 15% of their middle school population. And we certainly expect that to grow. In fact, Karen mccluer, the principal there and her team of teachers and support staff have recruited 40 middle school students to begin the triple A extended school day, which I believe begins next week at their school. And they have 40 students at their elementary school, attending the after school program. And again, those principals and teachers and staff are continue to recruit kids to attend and engage. So each of these students I can assure you and and can assure you are fully committed to accelerating achievement. And they have the full support of our learning services team and our district resources to accomplish their goals. Don, we really truly want to thank you. These resources and support systems are possible because of you the financial commitment that you have the years of discipline around our finances and, and having learning leaders and just such a systemic group of leaders supporting our principles. So we appreciate that. And we’re proud of the quality of the work of our teachers and our staff, and our administrators as well as our students and our parents. I mean, I feel like everyone is all in at both of these schools. In addition to all of The people who are wrapping their arms around both communities to ensure that we have a really accelerated and joyful school year in terms of achievement and well being and engagement. So we can open it up to questions that you may have or comments that you may have
Unknown Speaker 1:45:17
questions
Unknown Speaker 1:45:18
or comments this evening.
Unknown Speaker 1:45:25
Thank you joy. I just want to acknowledge the system changes that you’re implementing here. And recognizing that the underlying challenges we’re facing, require several years of the, for the new system to work its way through and for us to see sustainable results and improvements that we expect. I’m tremendously encouraged by the, by the work that is underway has been underway the plans, and also tremendously encouraged that this is a systematic approach that is really going to benefit the whole district in addition to these two target schools. And it’s exactly what what I believe is needed and I want to just express my appreciation for the hard work of you, your staff and our teachers.
Unknown Speaker 1:46:19
Thank you. We’ll pass that along to both schools.
Unknown Speaker 1:46:23
All right. If there are no other comments or questions, then I would ask for a motion for approval of agenda part of the action item 8.2. So moved by Dec. Second and Chico.
Unknown Speaker 1:46:35
Mr. Aaron’s absent Mr. Bertel? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. Miss Pierce. Aye. Mrs. Ragland. I miss secret.
Unknown Speaker 1:46:45
I andina, thank you so much. Agenda Item 8.3 is a recommendation for adoption of Resolution proving 2122 district employee membership in Colorado high school activities Association. Hi, Chase.
Unknown Speaker 1:47:02
Hi, Madam President. Dr. Dad, thank you for having us tonight. I’ll be quick here. Just again, thanks for the shout out about our band night last week. It was a great night to see see Everly Montgomery, so so forth. So yes, in addition to their, their the busyness of their daily jobs, we ask that that our athletic directors take any kind of leadership role possible, specifically with the state. So I want to read off and ask for the adoption of their resolution. First Janae Janae Berta fine arts coordinator chasin music committee, Colorado Music Educators Association, American choral Directors Association Colorado AllState Band board member, chess activities Advisory Committee, Cameron Wright Twin Peaks charter Katie member Mile High League President foot foothills League President Michael Green, Skyline High School, Jessie unified bowling committee, Katie member northern League, Coleen Ford Katie member Mile High league volleyball and check track seating rip, Joe Brown nyuad High School Qaeda executive board, Chaska executive board chess at tennis committee, chess coaches Education Committee Long’s peak vice president and st brain Joc board member for UC Health tie Gordon Frederick High School Katie member chess a soccer committee long speak Secretary he’s the host of this final four soccer state championships at Frederick High School for both boys and girls. st Vrain Joc board member for UC Health. Chad Isaac’s jogger meet high school, northern league Vice President Kaler board member Joe golf committee chair for CESA pet D Camilla silvercreek Kate a board member northern league wrestling committee, as well as wrestling state committee member Pete check Longwear high school kid a board member, northern League, st brain Joc board member for UC Health. Justin carpenter Erie high school kid a board member northern league Front Range League, chasing bride K to member playoff restructuring committee district athletic director committee, chess Equity Committee, state tournament softball director and St. Vrain Joc, board member for UC Health. With that I asked for the adoption of the resolution for employee membership in Colorado high school activities Association.
Unknown Speaker 1:49:36
Right. Thanks, Chase. This is something we see every year. So I don’t anticipate there will be any questions, but would ask that you pass along our appreciation to everyone who’s taking on these extra roles. We know that it’s for the benefit of the students and recruiting opportunities. So thank you. Thank you. All right. I would entertain a motion for approval than of action action item 8.3 from Chico, and Karen, thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:50:05
Mr. Arens absent. Mr. Bertel? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. Miss Pierce. Aye. Mrs. Ragland. Hi, Miss secrets.
Unknown Speaker 1:50:15
I thanks, Chase. Enjoy your rest of your evening. Action Item 8.4 as a recommendation for approval of second reading and adoption to board policies Jay LCDJ, LLC, d dash E and J, l, c, d dash R. Hi, Brandon, I don’t anticipate there will be any questions or comments. We’ve seen these policies several times now. Did you have anything you wanted to to note? No, ma’am.
Unknown Speaker 1:50:41
Just that action item 8.4. As you have already stated, first JLC, D, JLC, D and JL CDR. All of these are related to the administration of medication to students. And these three policies are being updated as a result of the passage of Senate Bill 56 During the 2021 legislative session, which updates provisions to state law allowing the administration of medical marijuana to students in schools. With that, I would ask for the adoption on second reading.
Unknown Speaker 1:51:11
Great. All right. I don’t see any questions. So I would entertain a motion then for approval of action item 8.4. Karen or pardon me your Paula. Paula. Second, and Karen. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:51:26
Mr. Arens absent. Mr. Berthold? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. Miss Pierce. Aye. Mrs. Ragland. I miss secret sigh
Unknown Speaker 1:51:37
action item 8.5 as a recommendation for approval of requests to grant an exception to board policy GB e a staff ethics conflict of interest for Kimberly Taylor. Hi, Greg.
Unknown Speaker 1:51:49
I saw again, board policy GBA states that no school district employee or for home by a school district employee shall be allowed to sell to the school district good schools, goods or services without the prior written consent of the Board of Education. Miss Taylor has provided spirit wear uniforms and promotional items to the district for over 10 years. She was recently hired as a guest teacher to help us through some of our substitute issues. And we are recommending that the board allow an exception so that she can continue to provide her spirit wear uniforms and promotional items, um, throughout the district.
Unknown Speaker 1:52:35
Thanks, Greg. Questions, comments? Now? All right. I would entertain a motion for approval in of action item 8.5.
Unknown Speaker 1:52:43
So move Dick
Unknown Speaker 1:52:45
second. And Jen.
Unknown Speaker 1:52:47
Mr. Aaron’s absent Mr. Bertel? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr?
Unknown Speaker 1:52:53
Yes,
Unknown Speaker 1:52:53
Miss Pierce. i This is Raglin. I miss Seacrest by
Unknown Speaker 1:52:58
action item 8.6 is a recommendation for approval of requests to grant and exceptions to annex an exceptions to exception that’s what I thought board policy GBA staff ethics conflict of interest for Ismail Reyes. Greg?
Unknown Speaker 1:53:16
Yeah, very similar to the previous one. Ismael Ray, as is the husband of Gina Vega, who’s a general music teacher at Burlington Elementary School. He is a musician and flow unit clinician, and he would like to provide his services as that through the middle and high school bands throughout the district. Um, so again, he is requesting a waiver from that the administration is in support of that exception.
Unknown Speaker 1:53:45
Thanks, Greg. All right. No questions or comments by the board. So then I would entertain a motion for approval of agenda item 8.6. Please. So moved. Deck tech. Second. You, Jim.
Unknown Speaker 1:54:01
Mr. Aaron’s absent Mr. Berthold? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. Miss Pierce. Aye, Mrs. raglan. Hi, Miss Seacrest.
Unknown Speaker 1:54:12
i We’re about five till eight and we’re approaching agenda item 8.7. I would like to we have to vote at eight right Christy to extend the meeting. I would like to go ahead then. And just request a motion and a second please to extend the meeting until 815. Please. So moved by Karen. And a second by Paula.
Unknown Speaker 1:54:40
Mr. Aaron’s absent Mr. Berthold. Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr. Yes. Miss Pierce. Aye. Mrs. raglan. I miss secret
Unknown Speaker 1:54:50
I Brandon, you can take your time making your way to the podium because it’s gonna take me a while to read all this. Action Item 8.7 is a recommended for approval of first reading of board policies AC non discrimination equal opportunity, AC dash a dash one non discrimination Equal Opportunity sample notice exhibit GBA dash open hiring equal employment opportunity. G C E G C F professional staff recruiting hiring g d G d f support staff recruiting hiring J B equal education opportunities J F admission and denial of admission jFB A j F BB open enrollment J FB A j F BB dash r open enrollment regulation Ji C D E bullying prevention education J i student concerns complaints and grievances and LBD relations with district charter schools.
Unknown Speaker 1:55:53
Thank you, Madam President. Yes, welcome. Each of the policies referenced in action item 8.7 is being modified as a result of the passage of House Bill 1108. During the 2021 legislative session, House Bill 1108 adds definitions of gender identity and gender expression in anti discrimination statutes. Those new definitions are being incorporated into our policies by these updates. Additionally, board policies JFBAJF BB and jFB a gf BB dash r are being updated due to the passage of House Bill 1217 During the 2021 session, this bill clarifies open enroll Rollman policies related to children of military members transferring duty stations to Colorado. Finally, since these revisions are mandated by changes in the law, board policy, Bg specifies that they do not require a second reading vote and may be adopted upon the majority vote of the board.
Unknown Speaker 1:56:57
Right. Thanks, Brendan. Any comments or questions by the board on any of these policies? Now? Alright. With that I would entertain a motion for approval of action item 8.7.
Unknown Speaker 1:57:10
Paula, second, chico?
Unknown Speaker 1:57:14
Mr. Aaron’s absent, Mr. Berthold? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. Miss Pierce. Aye. Mrs. raglan. I miss Seacrest.
Unknown Speaker 1:57:25
Thanks, Christy Brennan, thank you for keeping those policies current with statute. Yes. Our final agenda item this evening is agenda item nine. It is a discussion item 9.1 specifically, and it is an update on the fresh Frederick, high school mascot change. Hi, Jackie. Hi, good evening board president members of the board and Dr. Hat add. Senate Bill 21 116 was passed during the last legislative session. And it prohibits the use of American Indian mascots by public schools including charter schools, and public institutions of higher education. As of June 1 2022. The Act imposes a fine of $25,000 per month for each month that a public school continues to use a mascot after such date payable to the State Education Fund. This evening, we’d like the Board of Education to provide feedback to Frederick high school related to the new mascot options that have been generated by the carbon Valley community and the mascot committee comprised of Frederick high school students, staff, community members and administration. So at this time, I’d like to turn it over to Dr. Ross Fox, principal of Frederick High School to tell you more about the process and the options for a new mascot at Frederick High School. Hi, Ross. Welcome. Hi,
Unknown Speaker 1:58:50
thank you, Madam President and Board. So this has been a really big important change that we’re considering. Right. And it’s, it’s an exciting one. It’s also a heavy one for our community. And so I appreciate you guys taking the time to give me some feedback that I can also take to our committee into our community. But before I jump into a little bit of the process, and then ultimately, the committee’s three suggestions they’d like to propose to you tonight, I want to tell you a little bit about a few conversations I’ve been having the last couple of weeks, been talking to some of my peers around the state who are grappling with the same dilemma, right? Other high school principals, superintendents, who are navigating this change, and the thing that’s interesting to me is when I hear them and mostly when I listen, I hear panic, right? panic amongst them. And, and I think when I when I’m listening to these conversations, I think back to at a leadership meeting, Dr. Dad, you shared a o’clock it looks sort of like a gear of like and how to survive or navigate a pandemic, right and all the things that we know are important like strong fire Strong financials, having the right people in the right location, being able to kind of see around the corner. And even though you were talking about the pandemic and the floods, I was thinking about the mascot. And it, I think I, it. I think I knew intellectually that that same brain was different, right, but in no way in my heart and tell him listen to these other superintendents or these other principals who just don’t have the support that we have. And so I’m really grateful for your leadership and for that support, and to be able to call numerous people at 830 at night and talk through different things. So it’s been a really, you know, it’s been a, an interesting process. But it’s also been one that I’m grateful for, that we can do here in st brain. And selfishly, I’m grateful that I am not the principal of the school with with not the level of support that we have, because it would be an even bigger, daunting task. So thank you, and thank you to all of your leadership. Our process has as extended back about six months, six months ago, the former principal of Frederick Brian Young, sent a letter to our community outlining essentially what Dr. Bhushan has shared with you tonight and the process that we are going to take that time I worked to form a committee, the Committee of well represented well rounded people. In the summer I sent another letter just kind of reminding people keeping this change fresh in people’s mind and really spend a lot of summer having conversations with community leaders of the community and and people who are, you know, excited and or frustrated. When we convened in August, I brought together a committee of people and I want to just quickly thank them and I also want you to hear how well rounded this committee was that has been working with me through this process. Students Quinn McNeil, Sofia Mesa, Kim Taryn and Ruby Jimenez John Wargo from the town of Docomo, Shelly Marez teacher and coach Mel Allen teacher and student council representative Angela Wilson from the town of Frederick Lulu buck from st brain. Kevin Brown is both a teacher and on the Frederic board. Gino Chuco is a community member Bobby Sindelar town of Firestone Eunice from St. Brain, Tracy crites from Frederick, town of Frederick. He knocked Miller is a teacher and a coach Suzanne Robinson and Roger do for also teachers and coaches and so really robust committee that we’ve worked with. And we worked with that committee and our communications team to develop a survey that we sent that survey out to our students to our parents and with our town partners posted that on their social media pages to try to gather as much input as we could about potential different names, suggestions, right, we allow three different submissions per form, and also a place to put rationale for why they wanted, or we’re proposing that name suggestion. And, and when I talked to the committee I kept, I kept coming back to our mission is a tough one, because we have a town and a community and a school that is prideful, and, and prideful in a warrior mascot, right and to change that is a heavy lift. And we need to do that with respect, and also with excitement. And because our kids deserve that our kids deserve to be excited about whatever we become next year. And I think we will. So when we first look at the survey results, we had over 600 responses to that survey, with well over 100 unique mascot suggestions.
Unknown Speaker 2:03:41
Starting in August, we had bi weekly meetings with our committee to narrow that initial 600 down to 100, down to 50. And then 20. And then And then really down to 10, when we really started to dig into the pros and cons of what different mascots might be. And it led to some really fascinating conversations. And of course, like always, we all know the most interesting comments came from the students. But But yeah, really incredible stuff. And then we ultimately the committee suggested a final three that I bring to you tonight. And our last meeting which happened late last week. We went through our final three suggestions. And and I had them make sure that I could represent to you both the really that like the positive points, and also the questions or concerns that they had about each and so I’m going to share those with you now. So the committee had three suggestions. I didn’t know if one would come out of the committee like a clear, a clear preference of the committee. And you all know trying to get 20 people to agree on one thing is very tough, and that wasn’t really the goal of the committee. But none of these came out as particularly stronger. then the others each had their champions and each had people with with concerns about them. But what I’m convinced of is that all three of these are ones that I can help lead the Frederick and carbon Valley community around. And all three of these are ones that we can be excited about, if you should choose to support one of these. So the first was golden eagles. The strengths identified by the committee is that golden eagles are prideful. They’re patriotic. Their colors match well, with our colors, right, there might be a nice color scheme. And that’s something that has been important the whole time is even though we’re changing our mascot, Frederick has been and always will be blue and gold and that runs deep in the committee in the community. And also there’s a nice tie in our athletic logo if you’ve seen it. There’s a an eagle feather as part of that. And and a nice tie and a nod to our our past and our tradition is warriors. The concerns that were brought up from the committee is that other St. Vrain Valley Schools are birds, Silver Creek, new Meridian and Skyline all having bird mascots. And some concerns about is that too many, or is that too similar, and that there’s some other Eagle schools high schools around our area. The next one that came out of committee was Mustangs, like golden eagles. Mustangs are strong, powerful, prideful, I think capture the pride and tradition of Frederick High School. It’s also note that our blue and gold colors would work well with a Mustang logo. And there’s also a tie just like the golden eagles. There’s also a nice tie to horses and Native Americans and a nice nod to our past as a school into our future. The concerns what so many of the strengths were the same many of the concerns are the same too, right? Even though there are no horse mascots, in secondary schools and st brain. Mountain Range just up the highway, just south of us in Fort Morgan school that we play commonly in athletics are both the Mustangs. The last one was the Hornets. The strengths of the Hornets was that the committee identified Hornets embodies the teamwork nature of Frederick high school that no one person is more important than the others, that we all work hard and that we work together. And the other big strength was as unique, there’s no that we could find in our Google searching other Hornets around the concerns, or things to consider for Hornets, were first that the logos that we could find were either cartoonish or phallic in nature. The second, the colors don’t naturally fit as well as the other two. And Hornets are often considered a pest. And not sure if that is the most appropriate mascot.
Unknown Speaker 2:07:57
But those are the three and and like I said before, this is a big change for Frederick, I’ve had a lot of conversations. And weirdly, I’m thankful a little bit for the opportunity that this has provided me to have conversations with tons of people that may have normally taken me years to connect with just in the in the course of being the principal of Frederick High School, it kind of expedited a lot of those conversations, and they’ve all been really good. And at the end of the day, even if people are frustrated or or saddened by this change. They are because they love Frederick. And they love these kids. And they love this school the same way I do. And and so we have common ground there. And that’s really exciting. And the good news is we can leverage this kids will be kids are going to be excited, they’re already excited. The new uniforms, and the just the excitement around a rebranding for next year is an exciting thing. So not unlike COVID in the pandemic, where we’ve seen some hardships, but also some really positive changes come out of that such as student participation at our sporting events, we’ll see the same things here. Right, because we’ll be able to phrase it in that way that this will be a positive thing. So I’m here really to answer questions to provide you feedback, I gave you a very brief summary of something I’ve been working on very diligently for four months. And, and also if you have questions about next steps, I can answer any questions that you guys might have. And so I’ll hang out well, while you guys discuss. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 2:09:24
Thanks for us. I appreciate how you’re approaching this work. I know it’s a lot of work, please pass on our appreciation to everyone else who’s involved. I also agree with you that there’s opportunity in every situation. So thank you. You want feedback from us. So so I’m going to we can’t vote or make any decisions but we can certainly give you feedback on what our individual preferences might be for as far as the three options that you’ve provided us. Chico, I’m going to start with you if you don’t mind since you are out in the Frederick area and that is in your director district.
Unknown Speaker 2:10:00
Sure. Thank you, Russ, thanks for the process. Thank you for what is a heavy decision I, my, in my conversations I, I think I feel how heavy that is when I’m talking to people who grew up with wire as a mascot versus others in the conversation, I think when you have words, as mascots are different than if it’s a bobcat, or a bear or something like that there’s so much pride in, in the imagery of a Native American warrior, which makes it hard for folks. And at the same time, I understand that the how we got to here right, and so the challenge is there. I think for so long. We’ve glamorize the consumption of Native American traditions, and without any accountability for the impacts of that consumption. And so I understand why it’s okay to move on at this point. My lens is obviously as a as a former graduate of Frederick High School and along with you know, family back to the 40s of graduates of Frederick High School and, and current, Mike, Mike, my son certainly obviously is, you know, at Frederick High School and on all the way in between my family has been involved. So it definitely is heavy, I mean, means a lot. A couple of the things that I think about the the three, the three options that you presented, I feel like Golden Eagle is would be would be a strong choice. I appreciate the majestic nature of it the power, its connection to the community there are eagles are prevalent in the in the tri town community. And its connection to the indigenous culture, I think is that feels good as well. I’m not concerned about other schools and things and, and their relation to having similar mascots or for for that or for the Mustangs but also appreciate, we’re golden in its connection to our colors and keeping that intact, as well as its connotation with excellence and some cool things that can happen there. I think so. With Mustangs, I have a hard time seeing that the color scheme with a Mustang when that’s come up in conversation, where my brain goes where others have said is quickly goes to dia that the horse that is there. And so you know that that is a bit of an issue for me. Also, I appreciate the connection to the indigenous culture, but not so much to the community. You know, for me, I’ve literally seen more wild mooses in Frederick than I have wild mustangs, so so it’s weird that that’s a real thing. And then Hornets I think Hornets is cool. And there’s lots of cool characteristics with it. But other things, as you stated that I’ve heard is annoying and past and small and bug and squished in how things like that, that I don’t know necessarily has the same sense of pride and majestic nature that the Golden Eagle dies and so I feel again with that, with that lens that golden eagle is would be a strong choice for those reasons.
Unknown Speaker 2:13:34
Thank you. Thanks, chico. I Karen. I just defer to Chico I think that was so thoughtful. Everything that you said and I totally agree with you. I I really I love birds. So golden eagles.
Unknown Speaker 2:13:52
Okay, I’m going to do to you what your committee did to you. I agree 100% with everything. Chico said that rationale makes perfect sense to me. But I liked the Mustangs it’s just for all this the same reasons that it does have that still have a tie to the indigenous people. And it’s just it’s shorter, you know, like it’s just shorter and has more like a punch than less of a mouthful than golden eagles. And I want to back up a little bit again, as Joey said, and thank you for the process because this is a very, I mean, on the one hand, it’s a symbol nothing is really going to change at the school. The foundational work we talked about all the student achievements we talked about, that’s all still gonna be there. But on the other hand, symbols are really important. And we don’t want to over overlook that and so I appreciate how seriously you’ve taken this and how inclusive you the whole process has been. So I certainly don’t want to overlook anything influenced the community in any way but yeah, you asked for my input and that’s that’s I kind of like the Mustangs that’s that’s my my personal choice.
Unknown Speaker 2:14:58
Thank you. Thanks, Paula. Deke
Unknown Speaker 2:15:02
Thank you. I was I also want to express appreciation for the process you and the community have gone through. It’s a tremendously can be stressful, but also exciting. But the process itself is very important to carefully go through and really listen to the input. And it’s clear to me that that’s happened. During this time, I would second what Paul has said. I could go on and on about various aspects, but for me, the the golden eagle that rises above, you know, off the ground above and Consor and is a native to the plains. And its connection to indigenous peoples as well. I worked for the National Audubon Society for 14 years, and they’re in my view just can’t be a better choice than the Golden Eagle. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 2:16:12
Okay, again, Chico, really expressed. As my mind was going, I was writing Synchro Tiko with all the different things and the hard work that came out of this. I can’t imagine how you get down to three from hundreds. But it’s it seems like with all the information you gave us, there’s been a lot of thought and a lot of consideration. And not to just regard the opinions of the people who support some of these I am with other addicts. It’s the eagle puts it off. Above all this issue. It takes it up above the issue that you have to worry about. It’s the golden eagle to me is a magnificent I see them out along the along the foothills, and they’re just they’re phenomenal birds, and I think it’d be proud if I was a golden eagle.
Unknown Speaker 2:17:08
Thank you. Russ, thanks, you know, I I’m going to go opposite direction. At this point I came in she go. Honestly, after listening to Russ, I came into this conversation, leaning hard on the Mustangs, but hearing your description of the Golden Eagles really opened my mind. So I’m going to say, Russ, I would be I would embrace Golden Eagles or Mustangs, I feel pretty strongly that I wouldn’t support Hornets. I recognize that there are people who liked that. I appreciate that. I, you know, I respect their perspective. But I think there are many reasons to not have have that be the mascot. So I’ll come at it from that way. Thank you. Yeah. Did we give you enough feedback direction? Do you feel like you can go back to the committee now and make a final decision? Yep. I feel great. And what are our next steps? When will we see you again?
Unknown Speaker 2:18:10
That’s a good question. I don’t know that answer. Whatever you want.
Unknown Speaker 2:18:15
We’ll see tomorrow has that we’ll reconvene. I’m sure everybody would love to come back to the boardroom tomorrow night.
Unknown Speaker 2:18:21
Yeah. So our next steps is, is when we you know, right after we have this finalized, we were operating on a pretty tight timeline to meet that deadline. Right. So we have already for example, ordered new football uniforms. We’ve ordered ones that we can fix the name too, right. And in some of those uniforms are backordered months and months and months with supply chain issues around the world. So you know, carry McDermott has been a great partner throughout this process. And she is, you know, really ready to dive in. At you guys know, Frederick is a beautiful school. And a lot of the reason why it’s beautiful, is we have giant areas that are are really, you know, intentionally wallpapered around our imagery of excellence and warriors. And so we will, the next step is to rework all of that so that’s our next step. And and a lot of that work like with the OEM team after the design is done, will will happen over spring break and then of course over the summer, the big big ticket items like refinishing the the gym floor and replacing a lot of the outdoor athletic things I think will happen over the summer.
Unknown Speaker 2:19:32
Right Great and anticipating you’re going to speak I have great peripheral vision up here. I can tell you what I’m cost to make all these changes if you have a ballpark cost that I would love to hear that too.
Unknown Speaker 2:19:48
Yeah, and my conversations with Brian lamer. We were talking about was $750,000 for everything, you know, give or take. So that would include the mascots on On the gym floors and walls and uniforms and things like that,
Unknown Speaker 2:20:04
of which the state they require the change. And as Chico, you’ve very clearly laid all of that out, but not the cost. The districts bear the cost of that.
Unknown Speaker 2:20:15
One thing I would just share, and you don’t have to respond to this, but it’s just something I thought about, given the nature of your comments. I’m not sure if you have the authority, I guess I’d have to ask you to delegate your decision to the administration. And then we can make a decision based on what we’ve heard here and move forward. And again, you don’t necessarily have to respond because you might have to research that, but it’s just a thought to expedite the process. I do have some concerns about the supply chain. And I know that you know, we aren’t reconvening as a board for another two weeks, we have a study session, and things like that. So just something to consider.
Unknown Speaker 2:21:02
Thanks. It is a discussion item. So I don’t want to make a decision or vote. But I do think our feedback was pretty clear. Thank you. Great. Jackie, did you have anything else you wanted to mention? I will just say that they have run a very thoughtful, inclusive process. I think in the end, with the two that we heard clearly as being brought forward with your feedback that Frederick High School will make either of those work really, really well. And the kids are very excited. I’ve heard them ask Dr. Fox, does that mean we can get new T shirts and you know, they are they are ready to start picking some of those things out. So I think we quickly will shift to a lot of excitement and enthusiasm around this. So thank you for your feedback. It was very helpful. Great. I would agree. Rest. If you don’t have anything else, then we’ll just thank you for being here. And being patient. You waited a longtime. Thank you. Thank you. That’s a long process. Right. All right. That brings us to the end of our meeting. We will convene again on Wednesday, October 20. And that’s next week at 6pm at WestView middle school for a study session and look forward to being there and seeing principal Spencer and then we’ll be back in the boardroom again on Wednesday, October 27 at 6pm for regular meeting. I would entertain a motion for adjournment please. And a second. Karen and she go all in favor Aye. Enjoy your evening. Thanks, everyone, and thanks for staying late.