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 0:00
Good evening. Welcome to the St. Vrain Valley Schools Board of Education Meeting. Please join us in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance
Unknown Speaker 0:10
to the flag of America. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
Unknown Speaker 0:28
once again, welcome to all of you. John, can you please call the roll for us?
Unknown Speaker 0:36
Mr. Aaron’s here, Mr. Bertel. President, Mr. Garcia excused, Dr. Martyr present. This fears you’re struggling here. Mr. Chris, here. Thank you,
Unknown Speaker 0:47
John. Were there any agenda items or changes to the agenda this evening? There are none. Great. All right, then I’ll once again, welcome all of you and just give a reminder as the board convenes this evening, that this districts, pardon me, 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 next agenda item, I’m just going to give everybody a quick reminder that this meeting is being recorded, and it is broadcast. So how many people are watching us right now I’m certain. And if you could also just double check your cell phones and make sure that they’re quiet for us, that would be much appreciated. So we’re gonna roll right into our visitors this evening. And Don, I believe that you have several superintendents Excellence in Education Awards to pass up tonight.
Unknown Speaker 2:14
Yes, and thank you very much. I appreciate that. And I’m going to start out with our Erie police department and chief steward, I appreciate you and your team being here. And want you to know how much we appreciate everything that you all do every single day, to keep our children and our teachers and our staff and our entire community safe. And to say that you’ve gone above and beyond would be an understatement. Everything that you all have done in terms of safety is been remarkable for us. The SROs in the building, Chief, your leadership, even when we had transportation challenges with the roads, every single morning, five o’clock, we would get an update from from you, chief. And I know that your team was out there providing additional support to help navigate that. But we want you to know that there are so many ways in which you demonstrate your commitment to our children. And our SRO program in Erie is stellar. And we want you to know how much we appreciate that. And I see all of you here. And Chief if you’d like to say a few words and introduce your team, and I see Malcolm, the town manager and I appreciate all of the support that you provide for our school system, and your leadership in the town but also how that leadership impacts all of us as well. So if you guys would like to come up and say a few words. And then we also have something just a small token of appreciation that we’d like to present you with.
Unknown Speaker 4:07
We’re gonna come to the podium. Yeah. If you want to speak we’d like to have you say a few words if you’d like and the podium. Yeah, there you go. And then we’re going to ask for a picture too. So wherever you wherever you’d like.
Unknown Speaker 4:26
We have the safest room in town.
Unknown Speaker 4:28
Yeah, I’d like to introduce a team from left to right. This is SRO James Carroll he’s at soaring heights. SRO Cara Jones, she’s at Erie High School, SRO. Connor Williard, who’s at Erie Middle School, SRO. Brandon Newman, who’s at Erie High School, and their sergeant Sergeant Chris Musa. Papa we call her moose and then town administrator, Malcolm Fleming, and then sitting back in the back row is Deputy town administrator Melissa Wiley, who was very key to all of this too. So, these SROs in the SRO Sergeant clearly For the kids, and that’s all they do it for. And they love those kids, those kids, I think for the most part like them, there’s a few that don’t, but they really liked the kids. And I am very blessed to get to work with all of them. And it makes coming to work fun. So thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker 5:23
Thank you, Dr. Dodd and school board members really appreciate your recognition of chief steward. We agree with you. She’s a tremendous leader and an asset to the entire community. And we appreciate your leadership on the board and superintendent. We have a great collaborative relationship. Doctor, he had died, and I trade phone calls at all hours of the day and night. And when I see his name on my phone, I’m answering, and I feel like he does the same thing. And we really work together to solve problems. And so I so appreciate that teamwork. So thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker 6:00
Thank you. And, you know, we all take for granted every day. I think, not all of us but some of us take for granted every day our safety, and our well being and the well being of our children and the safety of everyone within our schools and our community. And I want you to know that it is not lost on us, how much you enhance our safety, and the children’s safety and the teachers and the staff and having you there gives us a level of comfort that’s hard to describe. So thank you all and we’re gonna present you with a an excellence in education, plaque and it’s to chief steward and the entire police department. And then we’d like to take a picture if you don’t mind we put that out on social media just to say thank you to you to our community. So absolutely absolutely. Yeah. Thank you
Unknown Speaker 8:01
oh what’s going on?
Unknown Speaker 8:12
Yeah. Thank you, man. Kim, do you have all right. In case you all want to put it out. Donna, let you move on to the next one whenever you’re ready.
Unknown Speaker 8:40
All right. We have a number of superintendents Excellence in Education Awards to some of our teachers. And I’d like is kale here. Kale, you want to come on up with Greg. And we’ve got these and we’ll present them. But we’ve hoped that you would be able to share a few things. That’d be great. Hi, Greg.
Unknown Speaker 9:08
Good evening. Thank you for having us here this evening. We want to recognize the site coordinators for our eighth ninth grade Transition Program. These folks did an incredible job this summer, managing, organizing, recruiting teachers, recruiting students and families to make that very, very important transition to high school. And what we did this year is we took the traditional jumpstart, which was a very site based program with activities and added an academic readiness component with English Language Arts and Math Readiness and putting all that together, creating a student centered schedule recruiting teachers to help be part of that was just some phenomenal work in organization, especially communicating with families that they didn’t even know yet. These were students and families coming into the high schools to make that very important transition. So we want to make sure they get recognized at the very highest level for a successful program this summer.
Unknown Speaker 10:01
Thank you, Greg. I’d also, I also do want to thank Greg George, he was our district liaison for the site coordinators. And also for Zach Chase, we actually built the curriculum for this program during the spring of last year for the summer. And Greg and Zach, and the whole team did a marvelous job. And then Greg, helped organize buses and transportation, meals and snacks. And so great, thank you for your efforts in this as well. And I’d also like to thank the site coordinators who helped make this really go and make it a great program for our young eighth graders transitioning in the ninth graders who are coming up. So thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker 10:38
You know, before we present these excellence in education, just want to share a little bit, you know, I was visiting with, with kale a little bit in his office and just reflecting today on how many years we’ve worked together. And it’s, you know, well into that second decade, and, you know, 15 years. And so I’ve just watched your leadership since you were at Indian Peaks as the principal, and then your leadership afterwards. And it’s been stellar and your leadership now in the, in the curriculum department, I really appreciate you a lot. And as I look at, Greg, I remember some of the walks we take around the nyuad track when you were a teacher at nyuad. And I was whatever they called me back then the principal, something like that, I felt like that school didn’t need one because you all are so outstanding as teachers and staff. But I filled in when I needed to. And I remember those walks and I remember your passion for math and the excellent job you’ve done as our math coordinator. So thank you both for your leadership. And then what I’d like to do now is call up individuals to come on up and Matt roaming.
Unknown Speaker 11:59
We’re gonna we’re gonna let you say a few words. Each of you. We had Christina Smith, if you guys would all come on up now and then we’ll have you all up and then anybody who wants to share a few thoughts
Unknown Speaker 12:11
David Glover, Gina Carnes. Katie sands and Megan Schlegel. And Eric Awesome. All right, would any of you like to share any of your experiences or any of your work? Yeah, that’d be wonderful.
Unknown Speaker 12:47
Alright, hi, my name is Christina Smith, and I am out at Frederick High School. And I know Greg talked a little bit about the Jumpstart program, which kind of sort of inspired this and then obviously, these guys just made it even better. So we’ve been doing that program for little over eight years. And this just made it so that we could actually get it out to more students and more schools. So it just really brought me a lot of joy, because I’ve been involved with it since the beginning. This year, we had 120 students at our high school come and do this with us. And that’s almost half of the freshmen class. We were actually turning students away on day one, and we’ve come up with a plan on how to let them join even though we don’t have stuff ready and we didn’t have the supplies. And so we did we took them in on that day, because they were just so excited about it. So we anticipate we might even have 175 200 out of our 300 Freshmen next year. Because they just they want to be there. So I just think that summer education is so important. And this just shows it because we had the numbers, we had the kids who want to come out there, especially with COVID. And all of the learning gaps that are going on. This is like where we need to go for the future. So I loved it. It was awesome.
Unknown Speaker 14:04
Hi, I’m David Glover, from Lyons. Hi. I would just echo that sentiment. The kids were highly engaged. They really enjoy coming every day. And the biggest thing I noticed is how prepared they were for ninth grade. It was a noticeable difference between the students that joined our program versus the students just coming in. And kids were like bragging about it the next week. And it was really cool to just see how prepared they were organization wise, and also learning some of those basic skills that our teachers really felt were necessary and were able to target in advance and it worked out really great for us. Thank you all so much.
Unknown Speaker 14:44
Thank you, okay. All right. Well, let me these we have to take a picture Good guys. We’re not here and school board members like to drive sure okay hello, I cannot see you. There you go perfect. Thank you all your tags and? Thank you. You bet.
Unknown Speaker 16:25
Don, with your approval and with the agreement of the board and approval of the board. I would like to skip down now to agenda item 6.2, which is the Silver Creek High School Student Advisory Council fetal feeder report. If that’s all right with everyone. Okay, great. So, um, Dina, I was actually hoping the board is super excited to have a student from Student Advisory join us again this year. And so I was hoping that she would help kick off the feeder report right before you speak if that’s okay, great. Hang tight a sec. So, Sierra? I’m so sorry, Sierra, how do you pronounce your last name? binzel Ben Zeile. Okay, I played that over, in my mind many different ways. And Iowa was not how it came out. So, Sarah, welcome. It’s wonderful to have you here. The Student Advisory Council plays a very important role in providing feedback to our superintendent and via our superintendent, also to the board. And so I wonder if you could maybe just introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about yourself, and maybe a couple things you like about Silver Creek High School?
Unknown Speaker 17:39
Yeah, my name is Dr. Ben Zeile. And I’ve been serving on the Student Advisory Council since my sophomore year. And I feel like it is a great opportunity for students to get their voice heard and really make an impact in our school district. So I love that as something that St. Brian does. And I really feel like I’ve had a chance to make some awesome connections through that. I am a senior this year at Silver Creek High School. And I would do we’ll talk a little bit more about myself later in our in our future presentation. But I really love going to school at Silver Creek. And I think it has provided me with so many opportunities there from leadership, to anything else that I’m interested in. So thank you all for having me here tonight.
Unknown Speaker 18:17
Thank you. Welcome. And just just to let you know, if you have any questions at any time, please raise your hands get our attention somehow. And you’re welcome to provide input, ask questions, share your thoughts. Anything that comes to mind, we would love to hear it. Awesome. Thank you. All right. All right. Dina, thank you so much. It’s wonderful to see you. And we’re excited for to hear more about the feeder. Well, thank
Unknown Speaker 18:41
you, President Secrest. And I’ll have our principals come join me up here and Sierra and rocky also. So we are first I want to thank Dr. Haddad for having us here for the presentation and our board members. We are very excited to have our Silver Creek feeder presentation tonight. I’m incredibly grateful to our five principals in this feeder system and the staffs this the teachers, the students in the coal communities that they lead really, Don talks a lot about our foundation innovation, metaphor, the iceberg. And we all know that that strong foundation, which is the iceberg that lives below that waterline, supports and really enables the innovation that happens in our district, which is the part of the iceberg that lives above that waterline. And I just feel like each of these principals, along with their staff do both at an exceptional level. And that’s what you’ll hear tonight in their feeder presentation. So we’ll go a little bit old fashioned on you and they’re all going to talk with you as we go through a PowerPoint and you’ll look at some pictures of some of the work that they describe and and then we’ll end our presentation with our two senior student advisory council members who will round it out for us. So with no further delay, I’ll turn it over to Eric Finnes stead the principal at Silver Creek High School presentation.
Unknown Speaker 20:07
Thank you. Well, let’s dive into the deep end. First of all, good evening, and we appreciate the opportunity to address the board tonight. My name is Eric phenacetin. I do service that principal of Silver Creek High School. I’m also a proud father of two students at Silver Creek High School this year, Silver Creek feeder, we continue to excel and produce positive outcomes for children at all levels, because of your terrific support the stability which you’ve provided as a board to our superintendent and the stability in which you provide it over the many years that we’ve had the benefit to work together. And we’re incredibly grateful for your your contributions and also the time that you give to our kids in this community. It means a great deal to us as administrators and also as parents. As we begin to explore the successes of our students and schools. We’d like to share our themes for the evening. First of all, our themes are two parts. The first is associated with the enduring traits of leadership, scholarship, character and service. And these themes were adopted 100 years ago by principals who had started the National Honor Society, and we celebrate that centennial year here in 2021. Our feeder system has schools in the elementary, middle and high school, which have chapters of the national Elementary Honor Society, the National Junior Honor Society, and of course, the National Honor Society at the high school level. As important as they were 100 years ago, these enduring themes of leadership, scholarship, service, and character are representative of the students that we’re nurturing today in the work that we do together. Secondarily, you’ll note that our themes are associated with the St. vrains Aquatic Center, which is being constructed at Silver Creek, and we’re all very proud about that, and it’s coming along. And on behalf of our St. Vrain Valley School District, our kids are going to benefit tremendously. This new sustainably designed facility will provide for aquatics based classes training of lifeguards which we start next semester, usages for innovation, and also opportunities for competition within our community as well. And with the generous support and leadership of Dr. Had dad and on behalf of the Board of Education, we would like to also thank our best operations and maintenance department that I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with in this career. And this facility will be finished in December of 2021. And we’d invite you out for a ribbon ribbon cutting we’re we’re looking forward to putting that together. And once again, I’d like to thank you for your steadfast leadership for that of our principals here. And for all the support services that support our schools throughout St. Vrain. Valley, and let us leap into leadership. Let us cannonball into character swim with service and splash with scholarship. And I’d like to welcome Amanda Holden, principal of Eagle Crest as we leap into leadership here.
Unknown Speaker 23:01
Thanks Thank you. As you know, leadership is the golden thread that weaves throughout our entire feeder system here in the Silver Creek area, and links our students in pre K through 12th grade, which is actually soon to be 14th grade with our cybersecurity P TECH now underway. We’re so fortunate to see some of the visionary work of Dr. Dad, our board members past and present. And of course our families in the southwest area have long line come to fruition as our leadership opportunities for all students are coming to life in the 2021 2022 school year. At the elementary level, we have students in our autism program operating a coffee delivery business for staff called Joe to you, which gives them an opportunity to develop and practice social skills in an authentic and service driven way. We have school based leadership opportunities in our Student Council, which we know is a stepping stone into civic duty and engagement. And at my school at Eagle Crest, our Eco eagles are taking care of our environment and taking that to heart. They strive to educate their peers and our community to make good choices for the planet. at the secondary level these opportunities expand. Students in the web program, meet with leaders in our community and serve as student leaders in our school. They take parents on tours run orientation activities for new students, and they serve as role models in our building and run our daily student announcements. And finally, our high school students which you’ll get to meet today create culminating projects using all of their experiences and skills gained in their leadership journey. This year we have 42 Silver Creek Leadership Academy capstone projects, ranging from upcycling formal addresses to internships at local veterinarians, to jazz mentorship projects, video game design classes, and building animal habitats at the wildlife animal sanctuary, just to name a few. Be on the lookout for our capstone Expo, which will be hosted online. This November and join our leaders this December with our stla sponsored ugly sweater and please welcome Jeremy lacrosse principal of Altona Middle School
Unknown Speaker 25:16
Good evening, everyone. Thank you to our school board. Dr. Had dad in our district leadership, who helped us create unique opportunities to strengthen our students character development. At the elementary level students participate in daily infocus lessons seven mindsets at the middle school level, and sources of strength at the high school level. These programs helped to enhance each individual’s school’s character development programs and lead to the application of character in programs such as counselors choice to teach younger students how to deal with peer conflict in healthy and productive ways. Intermediate students provide academic support and reinforce our character education trades with primary students through our bed buddy program. Students development skews me students demonstrate character by working collaboratively in groups problem solving and designing in an activity called experiment design in Science Olympiad. And yes, we do robotics but it’s not just about STEM. It’s also about working collaboratively in teams to solve problems. We’re building character in authentic ways that students will carry with carry with them into the future. And students exhibit character through multiple service organizations at Silver Creek, including the National Honor Society, which inducted over 40 new members this October. The Raptor leadership cruise celebrates our incoming freshmen class and supports them throughout the school year. And our sources of strength program has already trained 30 new peer mentors who provides this assistance to our school community. At this time, please welcome Stephen hole principal of Blue Mountain Elementary.
Unknown Speaker 26:58
Good evening, everyone, I’m going to talk to you about service an orientation towards service begins at a point where leadership and character intersect. The mindset is established in the primary elementary grades of students learn about community and their place in it. Over the years, it develops into an integral piece of the tapestry that makes up the Silver Creek feeder services a process that has become self perpetuating in our feeder, our students begin to participate in opportunities to help and support others as early as preschool. Many of those opportunities are provided by student leadership groups at each school, participating in events like the SPVs de canned food drive, Mombasa club resource drives, Blue Mountain Farm fundraisers, and the like provide our youngest learners a model for how to fully participate in in our community. As students get older and assume leadership roles in each of our schools. They move from participants to organizers and leaders. Through groups like student council National Honor Society, Green Team future problem solvers, web counselors choice and peer mentoring. Students have the opportunity to learn more about what it means to serve and how to rally a community around a vision. This culminates at the high school level of students use their experiences as both participants and organizers to develop their capstone projects as part of the leadership academy as members of National Honor Society participating in community service projects and through multiple service organizations such as environmental club, peace and service for Africa and Student Senate. This work often brings high school students back to their elementary and middle schools where the cycle of service begins again. Please welcome Tracy Haley principal Longmont estates Elementary.
Unknown Speaker 28:42
Good evening. thoughtful and consistent implementation of core curriculum leads to a strong foundation of academic achievement across our schools, which allows students to apply their skills and exciting and innovative and authentic ways. We are incredibly grateful to the school board and Dr. Her dad for providing strong curricular support and materials which enable us to build a strong academic foundation. Academic excellence starts in our elementary schools where we have students engaging in robust instruction, including fundations ready Jen and envision math 2.0. Students who need additional support, participate in our Orton Gillingham reading program and attend our achievement acceleration Academy also known as triple A students who are challenged or challenged to work beyond the standards in our STEM classes, robotics, Media Club, and future problem solvers. That excellence carries on to middle school where students are challenged at their individual levels in math, language arts, social studies and science. At Altona. Students have options to take advanced classes in Math and Language darts. Students are provided additional support and literacy and math labs so they can access the core curriculum at grade level and beyond. Students have enrichment opportunities in areas such as science, Olympiad math counts, and in their robot bust comprehensive elective classes, which include music, computer science, visual arts, robotics, and more. As our students transition to high school, they continue to gain a strong competitive advantage as they choose from 22 AP classes. Silver Creek maintains one of the greatest participation rates at the Career elevation Technical Center and at the Innovation Center. From AP research co taught classes, new aquatics offerings, and our new raptor tech early college program. Silver Creek is leading the way in supporting all students in innovative innovation and academics. Students at Silver Creek are routinely routinely recognized as all state musicians, athletes and scholars, which results in millions of dollars in scholarships and many opportunities for post secondary success. And now we would like to have the members of our student advisory council from Silver Creek introduce themselves.
Unknown Speaker 31:30
Good evening, everyone. I’m Rocky guitar. Yeah, and I’ve been a proud student in the Silver Creek computer system since sixth grade. As I continue my education, I plan to major in aerospace and Environmental Engineering, while pursuing a minor in Computer Science. At Silver Creek High School. I’m a member of the National Honor Society, students Senate and peace in service for Africa. The Silver Creek feeder system has given me the opportunity to partake in leadership such as through the silvercreek Leadership Academy, it’s been one of my biggest highlights in the feeder system. I’ve learned extremely valuable skills, such as teamwork, problem solving, and respect that I’ve applied in every aspect of my life. For my senior capstone project, inspire innovation, I am going to Columbine Elementary to teach the students about hands on and stem experiences outside of the classroom, because you can’t be what you can’t see. I’ve applied these leadership skills outside of the classroom and academics through silver creeks environmental club. As the president of the club in the past year, we were really involved in environmental legislation and helped to pass the plastic band bill, which has been recently passed in July. And this year, we are focusing on becoming the district’s first green star high school by creating a community with mindful waste and composting. And we also plan to plant trees in our community to offset our school’s paper waste. Additionally, this year, I’ve been honored to be SRLs Youth Climate stewardship awardee. In addition to climate justice, I’m passionate about social justice as well. Just this past May, I was standing up here, alongside the curriculum and equity departments discussing equity in our schools curriculum, which has been an honor and an opportunity that has come through being part of the Silver Creek feeder system. Overall, the Silver Creek feeder community has provided me with the space that allows me to grow in bed better myself along with my community, I will take these empowering experiences and lessons with me to whatever my future may hold. Now I’ll pass it on to here. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 33:42
Thank you, Rocky, that was great. I just wanted to start off by saying that we wish our other members of the Student Advisory Council could be with us tonight. But they have both had other commitments that are very important soccer tournament and a band concert. So it is just us to hear today. But as I said earlier, my name is Dr. Ben Zeile, and I’m also a senior at Silver Creek High School. In addition to being on the Student Advisory Council, I’m also an ambassador for the Silver Creek Leadership Academy, a member of the varsity swim team, cross country team National Honor Society, and I’m a student employee at the Innovation Center working on an aquatic robotics project. After high school, I know that I would like to study mechanical engineering, and I’m currently looking at several colleges to do that. It feels like just yesterday that I was talking to the board after I got back from the world championships with my middle school robotics team. And now I’m back here as a senior. But whether it’s VEX robotics, the innovation center or the Silver Creek Leadership Academy, I have always felt as if St. Rain and the Silver Creek feeder system have supported me throughout all of my endeavors. Recently, as I’ve been filling out my college applications, I’ve realized how many hands on engineering experiences that I’ve gained at the innovation center that many students and other districts don’t have access to 3d printers, laser cutters in collaboration with professional and Engineers have encouraged my interest to pursue my career as an engineer. In addition, being a part of the silvercreek Leadership Academy has allowed me to gain so many essential life skills such as public speaking, a better understanding of my local and global communities, and project management. I’m currently working on my senior capstone project where I’m collaborating with sixth grade technology classes to develop lessons on women in STEM and inspire younger girls to get involved in such a male dominated field. Overall, this district and the Silver Creek feeder system has made me feel truly prepared for the next steps in my life and has allowed me to attack to tackle whatever obstacles come my way.
Unknown Speaker 35:39
Thank you Oh, and also as a token of our appreciation, we have some really cool shirts that we would like to give you
Unknown Speaker 35:53
I love really cool shirts. I know presence presence small is beautiful. See even got a shirt out of it tonight well, I can almost selfie with that. Oh, that was wonderful. That was great deck. I know that that your director district happens to be our Silver Creek, the silver, I got to say this, again, the Silver Creek feeder system happens to be in your director districts.
Unknown Speaker 38:15
It is it needed to be in the area that I serve. And I just wanted to acknowledge the the way in which each of the principles were aware of in court and coordinated with the programs throughout the theater. It’s it’s a characteristic that is essential for truly integrated education. It reflects the larger district’s commitment to educating having a continuity in education from the first moment the students come to us and in pre K, all the way up through to the senior in high school. And to have that model in a way that is clear that all of our principals and of course the teachers as well are participating in a uniformly connected education path for our students. I know that it’s true, but to see it model so well and the accomplishments of our students is truly inspiring. So I just wanted to acknowledge that for Eric Finn stead and and his team and Jeremy lacrosse. And I started off at long lead high together so it’s a tremendous it’s a tribute to the leadership throughout the theater and also dawn to you and your staff and the approach that you’ve helped us not only aspire to but achieve.
Unknown Speaker 39:59
Thank you deck Yeah. Eric And Jeremy, thank you so much Dina. Thank you. And Sarah, we’re so pleased that you’ll be joining us for the rest of the meeting. Right. Alright, so I’m going to jump back up on the agenda to audience participation, the Board of Education values, community perspective and feedback from our parents, teachers, staff and community. Dick, I didn’t see that anybody signed up to speak this evening? Is that correct? Okay, and is there anybody in the audience that I’m there isn’t anybody in the audience that wants to speak this evening? So all right, then I’m going to move on, Don, from audience participation, just going to remind everyone that you can certainly reach the board by email, or phone the same with Dr. Hat ad, and we do welcome you attending our meetings and providing your input and, and thoughts. So I’ve done a Superintendents report is next.
Unknown Speaker 40:58
Thank you, very briefly, we a little bit of a hiring update, we did hire an offer a position who accepted for our HR Human Resources executive director, he is an experienced Human Resources individual. And he also is an attorney. And he will be joining us formally later this upcoming month in November, and you’ll have a chance to visit with him. He’s out of district 11. And comes very, very highly recommended. So we’re very excited about that new hire. And that’s a replacement for Jessica, who did a great job for us and then moved on a couple months back. So the other thing is, is our October count is finishing up this week Friday, we did get below that 100 mark, and we’ve got a couple more days. So we feel very good about our numbers and our growth in enrollment. And I want to thank Amber Muir and Scott tilian and Brian lamer. And all of our principals and our deputy superintendent and our assistant superintendents, everybody who’s been really laser focused on identifying all of our students as we wrap up the long process of the October count. While So, we will be sending a letter through our communications department for inclement weather protocol. And learning services has done a really nice job of striking what we think is going to be a great balance, we will have school when we have snow days, however, we will condense the schedules to where each day will end by 1130, which would include a office hour for the teachers to connect with students. So there’ll be very shortened periods where students in the morning can log in, go through the regular schedule, have a very condensed schedule, get some direction from their teacher, and then 1130 on it would be time used at their own discretion. And same thing with teachers rather than having students logged in on with technology throughout the entire day. So we feel that that will be a real benefit for our teachers to be able to continue the pacing of their curriculum, and also for students to be able to get some of that direction, and then also have a balanced day to where there’s an afternoon to do other things. And as usual, anytime that a parent chooses to excuse their child for any reason, that is always their prerogative to do so. And then students would be marked excused and can make up the work at their, at their convenience within the next couple of days. So that’s where we are and that communication will be going out to all teachers and staff. And it’s not new, we shared this with everybody last year. But we’ve invested quite a bit of money in technology, and resources. And it creates an excellent opportunity for for our children. The other thing that we have just completed recently is our students survey, our wellness survey. And so we’ll come back with all of the data. And that’s a really useful tool for us to develop ideas where we can see patterns and then allocate resources. And it’s been the, you know, the catalyst for hiring quite a few additional counselors, and interventionists and other opportunities for our students. So we will give you the big picture overview once we aggregate all of that data and decide which board meeting makes the most sense to do that so that we can go into some depth with you, maybe perhaps at a study session, and then share with you some of the strategies that we’ll be implementing to further enhance the wellness of our students and our teachers and our staff. The other thing that we are working on is planning. We had a little bit of a planning session today for what we we anticipate perhaps going from are a bond in 2024, which is still a couple of years out. But as you know, we start planning and thinking about things, we’re going to have a little bit of a retreat this summer with our Learning Services Department and our operations and maintenance department to take a look at all of our existing facilities, one to see how we can maximize the facilities that we have currently, and then reconfigure some of our current facilities, and then look at what would be added in a potential bond election, down the road in a couple of years. So we’ll keep you posted on that, as our initial suggestions and drafts come in. And then as things get closer, we’ll look at bringing together a community committee and those types of things. And again, we’re growing at a very fast pace. Now, again, we grew this year by hundreds of students, and we anticipate that that growth will continue. So we’re always intending to be out in front of that growth. And that will be our plan. And then lastly, our COVID update. We did see, the last week average at 70.6 cases per day, is down now to about 55. And so that’s good news, where we’re seeing that drop, we actually went from in the 100,000 persons lower last week by 189 cases. So we’re seeing those things move in the right direction. And we’ll get we’ll hope that that trend continues. Our quarantines are down stable, and so we’re feeling good about that. And we continue to work closely with the county health departments, on trends and on both individual schools and then collectively our entire school system as a whole. So that’s where we are with COVID. And it’s a daily process. I want to thank everybody our teachers and staff for the great work that they’re doing navigating these challenges, and our operations and maintenance teams for the great work they’re doing keeping the buildings safe. And then our our leadership cabinet for all of the work they’re doing orchestrating things to support our teachers and our staff. So that’s it, there’s probably a lot of updates you’re going to be getting here in the very near future because the athletic season is coming to a close this fall. And we have all kinds of students that are engaged in state championship efforts and things along those lines. And you’re going to hear some outstanding achievements with the with music and the arts, and all of the wonderful accomplishments for our students. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 47:37
Thank you, Don. Agenda Item 6.1, is a report on the 2021 fiscal year annual comprehensive financial reports. Hi, Greg, the Board of Education along with you, Jane and the representative from our auditing auditing firm, met first in a during a study session at 5pm. This evening, and actually discuss this very topic.
Unknown Speaker 48:06
Yes, we did. And we went more in depth. But the key points are is that we are we are close to finalizing the report. For the most part, what’s in in the document that we reviewed, will not change from a financial significance of a financial point of view. What may change is we will add in the transmittal letter will add in the statistics section. And there are some cosmetic issues that we need to address as well. But it shouldn’t change significantly from what what you had in your packet. And so next steps are trying to shore those up and maybe try to get it finalized get the audit finalized by next Friday. So that it can be in the board report that comes to you for the November 10 meeting. But again, we we try to get as as firm of a an audit draft to you as possible before the end of October so that we so that people have it when we go into the election cycle. This, what you’re seeing today is just the financial statement audit. There’s also a single audit that’s related to federal funds, that has been pushed out and delayed due to the fact that the federal government hasn’t come out with compliance requirements for our federal relief funds. And so until that happens, we can’t finalize our single audits. We’re thinking we may be able to finalize it in the February timeframe. And so that’s really where we’re at. I would love to take the opportunity to thank Jane and and all of our staff and and actually staff from other departments who help with this audit and they’ve done a tremendous job just like they always do. Jane puts a ton of work into this and it is a say great document the kind of identifies where we as a district or from a financial point of view.
Unknown Speaker 50:06
Thanks, Craig, just want to reiterate that the auditors found no significant, I’ll let you take it from there. Sure you read it.
Unknown Speaker 50:14
There at this point, it’s an unmodified opinion, which means in old terms, that was a clean opinion, which means there’s no statistical significant deficiencies or material weaknesses, which means that they did not find anything significant in terms of our internal controls in terms of our reporting, or any of those types of things.
Unknown Speaker 50:37
Great. Thank you. And if community members have questions, they can certainly reach out to your departments. And do you want to let everybody know that there will be a recording an audio recording of our study session, if they would like to learn more, or actually listen to the auditor’s presentation as well?
Unknown Speaker 50:52
Yes, that will be posted out to our website.
Unknown Speaker 50:55
Great, John. Yeah, I
Unknown Speaker 50:56
was just gonna say, Greg, and Jane, and I know everybody else on your team. Your work has been stellar, and really appreciate it. And you’ve been recognized by the governmental Financial Officers Association for many years, and also the Association of School Business Officials, for your reporting. And those are two of the highest recognitions that our finance team can receive. So thank you for your excellent work. And it’s it’s been well over a decade now. And it’s, it’s stellar. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 51:25
Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Agenda Item Seven is our consent items do board members there to this evening do board members wish to pull either one of those consent items? All right, then I would ask for a motion for approval for agenda item 7.1. Approval of architect selection for district wide H fac upgrades. Best grant project and approval of 7.2 change order 11 to construction manager general contractor contract for Spark discovery preschool renovation. by John second and Jim. My bad, okay.
Unknown Speaker 52:22
The vote will take place Mr. Arens? Yes, Mr. Berthold? Yes. Mr. Garcia is all right. He’s not here. Dr. martyr? Yes, his peers. I miss raglan. I am a secret.
Unknown Speaker 52:35
Thank you. Thanks, John. Action Item 8.1 is a recommendation for approval of a contract to the Wild Plum center for young children and families. Hello, Diane, it’s nice to see you. Thank you so much presidency, Chris. Yes. And this is something that we have seen many times before.
Unknown Speaker 52:53
Yes, Wild Plum is one of our long standing partners. And we always look forward to being able to take a look at our contract again, because they do a great job of servicing our students. You’re familiar with the Colorado preschool program. And so we are in partnership with them, their money flows through us. And then as they enroll students in the program, we are able to provide them that tuition. So we have the contract with them. And we’re looking for your approval. Thank you so much. Thanks, Diane.
Unknown Speaker 53:23
Any questions or comments? So
Unknown Speaker 53:28
thank you just a brief question. Can you we are have before us approval for up to 90 students. Is that correct? Yes. And could you share with us the number of students we were able to place maybe last year or the those that we expect to be placed this year?
Unknown Speaker 53:47
Well, we have definitely seen an uptick in the number of students placed. This current year November 1 is a is you were all familiar with October 1, which is our October count, November 1 will be our count for all of our preschool. So we’re very close to that. And I’m very happy to say that our Wild Plum numbers are up from last year, and we hope they’ll be very close to the 90, but they may be still a little bit shy of those slots. And we will continue to give them throughout the year. So even though November 1 is our count day, they will have that opportunity to continue to enroll students. You may have also heard that our preschool numbers are up significantly this year. And we’re very excited about that. We’re closing in on about 1300 students this year. And that’s a lot more than about proximately the 900 students we had last year so our families are coming back. Our programs are strong. And we’re we’re really excited to continue our great work with our partners.
Unknown Speaker 54:56
It’s a wonderful program, the wild pump center in particular Hiller and I just wanted to acknowledge the the work that we’re doing and the support we’re providing for our students.
Unknown Speaker 55:08
We’re fortunate to have them in our community.
Unknown Speaker 55:11
Right. Alright, with that I would ask for a motion please for approval of action item 8.1. So moved. My deck. Second. And Karen John. call for the vote, please.
Unknown Speaker 55:23
Thank you. Mr. Evans? Yes, Mr. Purcell? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes, Miss Pierce. I Raglin. I miss Secret’s.
Unknown Speaker 55:32
Hi. Brandon,
Unknown Speaker 55:35
can I just make one comment? Absolutely. I just, you know, Diane mentioned that, you know, our numbers are coming back. But what she didn’t say is that she and her team really stayed connected to our families throughout the entire time. And that connection is, in large part why we’ve seen so many come back. And it was an ongoing process of students coming and going. And so Diane, thank you very much for that detailed work. Appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker 56:05
Thanks, Diane. That’s how people know they’re important, right? Yeah. Brandon, I’m gonna take my mask down for for this one. 8.2 is a recommendation for approval on upon first reading all of these Correct? Yes, yes. approval first reading and adoption of board policies GBB staff conduct and responsibilities. GC QCGCQD resignation of instructional staff administrative staff GC QC GCQ d dash r resignation of instructional staff administrative staff mandatory reporting requirements regulation, GC qf discipline, suspension and dismissal of professional staff. GC q f dash r discipline, suspension and dismissal of professional staff mandatory reporting requirements regulation, and G D, Qb, resignation of support staff and G D, Qd, discipline, suspension and dismissal of support staff. That was a lot of letters in there. So Brandon, welcome.
Unknown Speaker 57:17
Well, thank you, Madam President. And I am pleased report. This is probably our last book, group of policies that we’ll be going through, we may have one more or two next month, but this is really the the major thrust is is done with these policies referenced in action item 8.2 are being modified as a result of the passage of Senate Bill 17. During this last legislative session, Senate Bill 17 provides that an educator who engages in a sexual act with a district student whose 18 years of age or older, also commits the crime of abuse of public trust by an educator. The above reference policies are being updated to align with the requirements of the new law. And as a result, under our board policy, Bg, they only need the single vote in order to be adopted.
Unknown Speaker 58:10
Okay, thanks, Brandon. Any questions? clarifications? No. All right. With that, I would ask for a motion for approval for agenda. Pardon me. Action Item 8.2. So moved. Jim. Second, and Paula. And John. could call for the vote, please.
Unknown Speaker 58:31
Mr. Arens? Yes, Mr. Bertha? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. This appears I straggling I miss secret. Hi,
Unknown Speaker 58:41
friend, and thank you for shoot it. Policies are ever fluid. Yes. So we don’t have any discussion items this evening. And so that’ll bring us to adjournment. I do you want to note, did I miss something? Oh, yes, Sierra, I’m sorry. I’m a little out of practice, Sierra, if you can’t tell. And to be honest with you, I forget something or do something silly, every single meeting. So now you’ve just seen me in my finest form. But I do you know what, sir, I do want to give you a CRM, I do want to give you an opportunity to ask questions, provide reflections, anything you want to share? And you you have the attention of the Superintendent and the Board of Education.
Unknown Speaker 59:26
Oh, yes, that was a very short meeting for today. But I would just like to say thank you to all of you because I know how much work that you guys put into this school district. And I feel like it really shows throughout all of our students in our schools and I’m just so thankful for all the opportunities that I’ve been given. I mean, I talked to miss her dad about this, the Student Advisory Council meeting last week, but also the new pool at Silver Creek High School is really gonna benefit me and a lot of other people in the community, because I’ve been swimming forever and we’ve needed this pool. forever. So that was just an awesome decision on who’s ever part it was. So yeah, I just wanted to say thank you to all of you. And I’m not really sure if I have any questions tonight.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:13
questions aren’t mandatory. No, they are mandatory. But I do want to have an opportunity, you know, we wear these masks. And I just want to point out that when you and and rocky were up there speaking, I had the biggest smile on my face the entire time. And, you know, I was just filled with such props, such pride, and hope. I think that I can only speak for me personally. But it doesn’t take much to look out into the external world and sometimes feel a little discouraged or disappointed. But when I was listening to Sierra, I was filled with nothing but hope for our future, our community’s future, our state’s future, our nation’s future. And I just want to thank you for that.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:57
Thank you. Now I’m smiling underneath.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:01
It’s hard to see, isn’t it? It is, I mean, you can tell when somebody’s smiling. But I think that’s important. It’s good for us to have those touch points in life, always. But I think for me personally, especially right now, so thank you for being that touch point for me today. So of course, yeah. Did any other board members have any any questions or comments this evening to before we in the meeting, Paula,
Unknown Speaker 1:01:26
say a quick thank you for being here. Because I’ve said this before some of the other student presentations, but I believe St. Bringing, you know, under the leadership of this board, prior boards, Dr. Haddad has built an exceptional system of education with a lot of student agency, a lot of ways to, you know, align your learning style with with what is offered, but you can build the best system in the world. And the the only way to know what’s working is to see the people in it and the products that produce and so when students like you come before us, it is just it just affirms everything that we do. So thank you for your time for sitting here tonight, you know, for listening, just and leveraging the system that that the public around you has has given you so I just asked you to pay it forward. And I thank you so much for for, for everything you’ve done within the system.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:20
Yes, of course. Thank you guys again.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:23
And now you’ve met every one of us. And you have clearly do you have a friendship with Dr. Had ads. So don’t hesitate to reach out if anything comes up. And then you also have student advisory, of course. Karen is wondering what your plans are for next year.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:41
I’m currently in the crazy process of applying to all of my colleges right now trying to get that that November 1 deadline. So I’m not exactly sure where I want to go yet. But I do know I want to study mechanical engineering. And that’s something I’ve been interested in ever since middle school robotics. So I think that’d be an awesome career path for me. And I’m very excited.
Unknown Speaker 1:03:03
What a great. Yeah. What a great way to model for other young people. Yeah, and thanks for sharing your precious time given that upcoming deadline with us. Yes. All right, we’ll see or if you want to join us again, we will be back in the boardroom on November 10 at 6pm for a regular meeting. And then we’ll also be back here on number seven, November 17. At 6pm for a study session. Thank everybody for being here this evening. Have a great evening and I would entertain a motion for adjournment please. So moved by Karen and a Second. Second by John. All in favor. Aye. Thanks everyone. Drive safe.