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
All right. Good evening. Welcome to St. Vrain. Valley Schools Board of Education Meeting. Please join us in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance to the States of
Unknown Speaker 0:24
America, to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Unknown Speaker 0:38
It’s great to see everyone this evening Christy, can you please call the roll for us?
Unknown Speaker 0:43
Sure. Mr. Berthold pleasure. Mrs. Brooks
Unknown Speaker 0:45
Present.
Unknown Speaker 0:46
Mr. Garcia here, Mrs. tyrannic. Here, Dr. Martyr present Mrs. Ragland, here, Miss Siegrist.
Unknown Speaker 0:53
Here, and Christy, were there any addendums? or changes to our agenda? No, there were not. Fantastic. Thank you. Then, before we jump into our visitors, and we have many students here this evening, who were excited to celebrate, I do want to remind everyone, and 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 and an environment that is inclusive of every single child. A couple of housekeeping items this evening, if you have a cell phone, just a reminder to make sure that that it’s turned on, on quiet, and then also that this meeting is streamed. And if you would like to live streams, and you can also have access to it on the district website beginning to tomorrow, beginning tomorrow morning, all Board of Education, regular meetings and study sessions are accessible on the district website. All right. With that, we will quickly move on to our visitors and agenda item 3.1, which is a smart team presentation. And Jeff was principal McMurry. Are you Hi Jeff. I was just telling Dr. Martyr that whenever the smart team visits, he had a much more positive way of saying this than I do. But it is a reminder of how much I have to learn still not that I’m not smart, but how much I have to learn. Because they’re amazing. Are you ready? I am so ready. You should go. So I stopped talking
Unknown Speaker 2:43
Well, no, I feel very much the same when I learned what they’re learning about. It’s just incredible experience. So again, I’m Jeff MacMurray principal of Longmont high school could not be more proud to represent Longmont high. And what you have here tonight is just a wonderful example of the partnership that you provide us as our Board of Education and our community support. These are students called the smart team, and that represents students modeling a research topic, and they are the best and brightest of Longmont high and I truly believe in St. Vrain. And the the amazing thing about these students as they do this outside of their school day, so this is completely voluntary, and is not for credit, it is simply a passion that they are pursuing. And when we talk about 21st century skills, this is the perfect example of what what we seek in education, the collaboration that they create the problem solving skills, the passion and deep understanding of a topic that you know, that’s something that some of us will never really truly understand. But their their commitment to education, their mentors, and just the relationship that they have with one another has created what you’ll see here tonight, and it is exceptional. That being said Dr. Martyr, who now sits on the board was also a creator of this program along with Chris Chao, our wonderful department head. This was kind of their brainchild when they rolled out the medical and bioscience Academy. And again, this was an extension opportunity for kids who just can’t get enough. You’ll also hear from Kelly loop come in who’s another amazing addition to our science department and our smart team. So without further ado, Chris Chow.
Unknown Speaker 4:30
Thank you for the warm welcome.
Unknown Speaker 4:32
We appreciate your invitation for us to come here. But I’m actually turn it to my colleague Kelly loop command she she does our
Unknown Speaker 4:41
leading of our group.
Unknown Speaker 4:42
Thanks, Chris. Hi, I’m Kelly Luqman. I along with Chris Chow and Dr. Martyr are co sponsors of our smart team. You guys can We’ll have them introduce themselves in just a second but I just want to tell you a little bit about the work that They’ve done this year. In years past, we’ve had an exciting year, we usually work with a mentor at CU Boulder, Dr. Joe Falk key. And he has helped us this year get connected with graduate students in the fields of physics, biochemistry, and tissue engineering. And so we had three groups work on three different projects. And they each got to have their own graduate student mentor, which was really exciting for us, since we got to have a little bit more interaction with our mentors. And that was really cool, because then we got to have more hands on and someone with us pretty much monthly, and to help us with our projects. So about a week, a couple of weeks ago, we got to visit CU Boulder, and we had some fabulous lab tours arranged by our grad students. And we also got to present at a poster session there. That was a high school poster session with students from various high schools around the area. We’ve also been able to present at the MBSA poster session at long law High School. And we’re looking forward to present here to you tonight. So we’ll have each student just introduce themselves quickly.
Unknown Speaker 6:22
Hello, so we’ll just have each student introduce themselves quickly, and then they’ll show you their projects and the work they’ve done this year.
Unknown Speaker 6:32
Hi, I’m a champ. I’m a 10th grader at Walmart High School. And I really love smart team because
Unknown Speaker 6:44
Okay, thank you. I’m attempt to get a long while and I love smart team because it’s taught me to like love science and learning and just being with a wonderful community of people who also love learning and science.
Unknown Speaker 6:57
So I’m Abby Ferguson, I’m
Unknown Speaker 7:01
a junior at long law high and smart team has like helped me realize my love of biology as well as Miss child’s class biology. And I think I’m going to study biology in college. Hello, my name is Kimberly Hernandez and smart team has taught me a lot of valuable lessons a lot of which have to do you know with interacting with people and you know, really just finding a group that fits with you. And that shares the same interests as you and that, you know, really just helps you acknowledge what you like, and being able to fully indulge in it in a in a club. That’s just amazing.
Unknown Speaker 7:37
Hi, I’m Emma Grasmick. I’m a senior on my high who will be going to CSU next year. And I’m really grateful for the research opportunities I got within smart team.
Unknown Speaker 7:49
Hi, my name is Charlie Basinski.
Unknown Speaker 7:51
I’m a senior, long run high school and I’m going to go into Lewis and Clark to study cellular and molecular biology. And smart team has allowed me to see just how far you can take science and all the opportunities I’ll get in the future.
Unknown Speaker 8:05
Hi, I’m Grace Guyer, I’m a senior at Longwood high and I plan on attending Kane University in New Jersey to study environmental science and smart team kind of helped me realize how you did this journal. I don’t know. It helped me learn how to pursue your curiosities in a meaningful way. And so being able to go through research and projects and stuff like that really helped me realize that that’s something that I want to do into the future. So I’m gonna go study environmental science.
Unknown Speaker 8:33
I’m John Joseph, I am a senior over at Longmont High School, and I’m going to be attending Simpson College in Iowa starting fall 2022. I really enjoyed smart team, mainly because it was another way for me to have an outlet aside from sports, which is something that I’ve also clearly enjoyed for many years. It’s just something that’s really helped me with my whole education and trying to focus on the whole research behind everything.
Unknown Speaker 9:05
My name is Eva Horwich, I’m a senior at Longmont High School and I’m attending NYU university next year. And I think smart team is really great because it’s allowed me to work a lot with my peers who I really enjoyed collaborating with over the past year. And it’s given me access to a lot of research opportunities that I don’t think I otherwise would have had.
Unknown Speaker 9:25
Hello, I’m Kristin Hubbell. I will be attending. I’m a senior Longwood High School. I’ll be attending CU Boulder next year to study computer science. And so first of our team with me it’s been a wonderful interdisciplinary opportunity. You know, my my passion or my focus is in computer science, but this just shows you know, the smart smart TV shows the the diversity of topic and how they all interconnect.
Unknown Speaker 9:54
My name is Lauren Roberts. I’m a senior at Longmont High School as well. Next year I’ll be attending the University of Denver studying chemistry Grayson just said my point a whole lot better than I am going to say it. But my favorite part of smart team was learning how the subjects that I was learning in school interacted with each other, and the depth of research that was possible in science, which is largely why I’m going into chemistry next year. As a horribly overbooked junior and senior smart team was absolutely my favorite activity to do. It’s been one of my favorite activities along with Hi.
Unknown Speaker 10:23
Hi, I’m Cassidy all and then a little bit of a departure from Lauren. Although I’m a part of smart team, I’m going to CU Boulder in the fall. And I’m going to be doing a double major in gender studies in philosophy and a minor in classics and then hopefully on to law school. So while I’m not going into science, I still think that smart team was an incredibly valuable experience. I wrote about it and a lot of my college essays and had colleges reach out and say it was one of my experiences that they were most interested in. And I think it gives me a really great interdisciplinary foundation for work in bioethics and other areas like that that draw on many different areas of study. So definitely one of the highlights of my career being with these people of my high school career and also the opportunities that prepares me for in the future. And now I’m Lauren Grayson and I are going to tell you a little bit about each of our three different projects Yeah, so I mean you can do it
Unknown Speaker 11:43
they’re gonna stand over by their posters this
Unknown Speaker 12:07
video sorry for the logistical difficulties, it may be smart team but it’s about proteins not about transportation logistics.
Unknown Speaker 12:29
Okay, I guess I’ll begin. This is Abby, who’s the other member of our team tonight, our poster was colored based on her hair when it was a slightly different shade of pink. So we did our project on bone morphogenetic protein to it was the focus of study of our mentor who was Sarah skoon Rad, who is working on getting her PhD in the Materials Engineering Department at CU Boulder. And she’s especially interested in the clinical applications of this protein. So we all know that when you’re a kid, it’s pretty easy if you break a bone to bounce back. In large part that’s due to an abundance of growth factors which make it really easy to grow bones. However, as you age, it becomes an increasingly bigger deal if you have broken bones because a lot of those growth factors no longer exist. I don’t know if everyone can see right here, but in this bone, it was part of a clinical study they did. There’s critical size fractures or fractures of a certain size that are unable to heal because your body no longer has the growth factors necessary to heal them. So that’s what requires fat grafts or metal rods to be inserted into bones, which is a very invasive procedure. However, bone morphogenetic protein to is one of those growth factors that can regrow bone entirely after 21 weeks this fracture in a dog’s leg, which was about this size was completely regrown by the action of BMB, two and other growth factors. So what our mentor did was working on harnessing it to a hydrogel, it’s a jello like substance that could basically be injected into empty space within a bone. And then a matrix of mesenchymal stem cells as well as that protein would help to regrow bone, potentially eliminating the need for fat and metal grafts within bones, as well as helping with particularly difficult bones to reach such as in the spine. So very important clinical applications. And hopefully we’ll be seeing her work used within the next few years or decade more likely. And I’ll hand it off to Grayson.
Unknown Speaker 14:35
Now you can pass it to Dr. Margaret. So our group studied bacteriorhodopsin, which is brought to us by our mentor, Gail Gershwin, from CU who’s pursuing a PhD in physics and this is part of the work by some of her partners. So bacteriorhodopsin is a salt loving intramembrane protein and it pumps It absorbs green light, and then it pumps protons out of the cell. And what and in doing so it allows a proton gradient to be formed on the outside, which then is brought back into the cell through ATP synthase, which creates ATP, which is the energy storage for the cell. So this is this is a process similar to photosynthesis, turning light into the cells energy, but it operates in bacteria, as opposed to plants. So the the critical thing about bacteria adoption is not in itself, but in its application to help us observe how other proteins function. So it is a it’s a great model for G protein coupled receptors, in addition to other proteins under the rhodopsin family. And so it’s very easy to access and easy to individualize to this protein. So it allows us to study the potential of both D protein coupled receptors and their adopted family through a simple easy to access mean. And now I will hand it over to Lauren.
Unknown Speaker 16:16
So this is actually Jenna as well. This year, our subject of the smart team studied the green fluorescent protein along with our mentor, Erin Richards, doing a PhD in biochemistry, at University of Colorado, a University of Boulder, Colorado, GFP, when you hear of it, you have probably heard of either the Nobel Prize or glow in the dark fish, which really seem to be the two opposite ends of the spectrum. However, GFP is so important and so novel in scientific research, because the way in which it fluorescence is entirely encoded in its DNA, it needs no other chemical compounds to fluoresce. All you need to do is excited with blue light, shine a blue light on it, and it will turn green. This means that you can implant it in living cells, you can implant it in the brains of animals, as well as in bacteria, and understand how they function. This means that we’re able to see how cells function reproduce, and how oftentimes diseases spread itself. When we look at the implications of things like the ethical debate that you probably hear so much about with GFP, it’s really only a minimal application of GFP in the world of research, where it is used primarily to understand and track cell function.
Unknown Speaker 17:39
Any questions?
Unknown Speaker 17:42
How was amazing? Dr. martyr? I would imagine you have a few comments.
Unknown Speaker 17:50
Thank you, yes, mostly Stark admiration for the work that these students, even the ones hiding behind the posters have done. This, this is work that is really at the at the collegiate level. And in fact, my degree, I didn’t, I have a degree in biochemistry, and I didn’t start this level of work until I was a graduate student. So these students are performing at the very highest levels, certainly for high school seniors, but also addressing topics that add a level of sophistication and both with regard to the three dimensional modeling and connecting the molecular structure to the functions that we observe at the at the macro, luckily level. So I guess I would say, in addition to what they’re actually learning, the dedication that they’ve demonstrated, a number of these students who’ve been with the program for four years, and coming every Tuesday night of four year after school from six to eight is really a tribute to their passion, their abilities, and, and their focus on becoming the very best versions of themselves that they can imagine and it’s far transcends things we could even that certainly I aspire to when I was their age. So I’m tremendously proud of each and every one of our students here.
Unknown Speaker 19:38
Thank you. Any other comments?
Unknown Speaker 19:45
Well, I had to totally echo dynamometer said, that’s amazing in as a physicist by by trade, yours, I mean, all great, but that was really interesting. Like, how is she going to connect biology with it? sucks how’s that gonna happen? But I know it can so that these are amazing projects and to have done this at this at this stage in your lives at a level that most of us don’t do until we’re in graduate school is amazing. So thank you so much for all of your efforts, your time and your talents
Unknown Speaker 20:21
I’m just blown away by the depth of knowledge that you’ve all gained through this experience and what a great opportunity to have those mentors and I hope mentors are a part of your life going forward throughout many many years of lifelong learning for you great presentations. Thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker 20:39
Thank you everyone. I am certain I’m hoping that there are some family members or loved ones friends here that have supported these amazing students along the way. And if you are if you could stand up we would love to recognize you
Unknown Speaker 20:56
don’t be shy we absolutely Would you all like to take a picture all right from out behind the posters you should say great. is reasonable to argue on demand smiles everyone smile 123 And one more 123. Thank you what’s up?
Unknown Speaker 22:39
That was wonderful. What a great way to start the meeting. Donna agenda item 3.2 Is the superintendence Excellence in Education Award. You have a tough act to follow.
Unknown Speaker 22:51
Seriously, that’s that was incredible. All right. Matt buckler, are you here? Oh, if you could come on up, we’re going to recognize some students from Erie High School.
Unknown Speaker 23:14
These are students that competed in the state champions chips in the international Real World Design Challenge from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. And this is the third time that Erie high school students have competed at this level. I don’t want to steal your thunder mat. But this is an incredible group of young people are very, very, very proud of him. So throughout the 2122 school year, these students and you’re going to introduce all of them. Were you planning to say this? No, you okay? Because nothing worse than somebody saying what you were gonna say. They use the agile project management strategies and the engineering design process to create the technical design and business case for package delivery using unmanned aerial systems given specific constraints of the challenge. They presented virtually to a panel of judges in their oral defense on Saturday, April 23. And results from the competition will be forthcoming, but outstanding and congratulations to all of you and Matt, you’re going to share the names and maybe we can hear from some of them. You bet. Thanks.
Unknown Speaker 24:23
Thanks so much. You bet. So I want to introduce Shreya on DeLong hammer shores, Jacob Ward EC and will Taylor’s here in reiland reader was part of the team but could not make it and we do have the results. They were top five in the nation in their competitions
Unknown Speaker 24:51
Would any of you like to say share anything? Go ahead. I like to introduce you by name well To introduce you with your name, and Oh, Hi, I’m
Unknown Speaker 25:02
Fran Lum.
Unknown Speaker 25:04
And I’m Emma shores.
Unknown Speaker 25:06
Oh, I’m Jacob wardec. And I’m William Taylor. Anything you’d like to share about your experience? You can go.
Unknown Speaker 25:16
Sailing I would like to share about our experience was the fact that it was certainly not what we planned for. We came into the competition thinking it was a totally different thing. But we managed to put our all into it and come out successful rather the initial fumble.
Unknown Speaker 25:35
Yeah, I agree with Andre completely. It was a totally new and unique experience for all of us, I think I can say, and it definitely involved a lot of problem solving and hard work towards the end. But I mean, we made it and we’re pretty proud of our result.
Unknown Speaker 25:52
You should be your state champions. And then top five in the nation. I would say you should be very, very proud. That’s incredible. That’s incredible. Well, we have an Excellence in Education Award for you. And then we’d love to get a picture with you and recognize you for just your outstanding work. We’re very very proud of you so thank you course thank you parents,
Unknown Speaker 27:10
we do have some parents yet? very much want a waiver stand up?
Unknown Speaker 27:43
It did you have any other stung? No. You know, I have been on the board for quite some time and the students never cease to amaze me. So much hope for the future. It’s in the very best of hands. just remarkable. All right. Agenda Item 3.3 is our winter athletics and Fine Arts presentation. And Chase. Welcome.
Unknown Speaker 28:09
Welcome. President secrets board Dr. Dead Thank you for having us tonight. Just for starters, you know as we as we continue to kick off our spring season or round up our spring seasons we have many many principals here tonight to fill in for their athletic directors because our teams are participating in state competition so the success and achievement continues to shine first and foremost Brian thank you for for your your team and all you guys do for our facilities we we rely heavily on you and Dr. Dead It goes without saying whether we’ve had many talks it’s for the sun comes up and then again after the sun goes down but you’re you’re always there to to give advice and support and counsel and just just can’t thank you for your leadership and support enough. So thank you. Without further ado, we have we have a very special evening here tonight. I was speaking to the uniqueness of it. We you know, I’ll let these the schools talk more mainly about their kids but I just kind of want to wrap our brain around what what’s happening tonight with with the kids we have here potentially have the best female athlete in the in the history of st reign. Joining us tonight and on top of that we have another female athlete that was the first ever st reign women’s state champion wrestler and there can only be one first ever so she she has it. And then we have of all the high schools in the state of Colorado. CMEA does does a choir recognition and they choose one choir. So they were the best choir in the entire state of choir. Entire state of Colorado excuse me and then on top of that we’re going to round things off with some World Champions from our robotics program so it’s very unique night and lots of prestigious achievements here tonight. So without further ado, I’ll call up Eric rush called the principal at nyuad High School to bring your his guest up
Unknown Speaker 30:20
Good evening and thank you for giving us an opportunity to celebrate our students this evening. We really appreciate that. It is my honor to bring up with me tonight Mary COE Davila and I believe this is who chase may have been referring to because she is one of the most decorated athletes that will ever have graduated from nyuad High School. Her list of accomplishments is truly incredible. We’re gonna highlight just a few here. She was the four time Boco preps Athlete of the Year. She won two state swim titles this year, and she has won seven state titles overall. She has state records in the 500 yard freestyle and 100 yard breaststroke. She has been the chasseur for a swimmer of the year, she has qualified for every non diving event three out of her four years in high school. She is a four time scholastic all American, a 10 time All American. She was the Nine News athlete of the week. And I think one thing that makes these accomplishments a little bit more impressive is that she won all of those state titles without even having a state championship her sophomore year because it was canceled due to COVID. So she did all of that in three short years. She’s also our classes saluted Torian. So she is a major scholar and takes her or studies very seriously. But the thing that to me that is most impressive about Mary is there has never been someone who has been easier to cheer for than Mary. She is humble, she is kind, she is respectful. She’s funny, just really lifts the whole boat at nyuad High School. So I want to present to you, Mary Codevilla.
Unknown Speaker 32:06
Thank you guys. You know, as I approach graduation, I can’t express how grateful I am to have had such an amazing experience at nyuad High School and in this district, I can safely say that nylon High School has been such a big part of who I’ve become today. So I can’t thank them enough for that. And then I wanted to say that High School Swimming is just such a special and unique experience. And it’s so fun to represent your school and your district and to make them so proud. And I’ve had the greatest time wearing the nyuad Cougar logo on my swim cap. And so I’ll miss that a lot. And I want to thank all of you sitting in front of me as well as my amazing support staff at nyuad, including President or brands, principal, Mr. Rush Cobb, athletic director, Mr. Brown district athletic director, Mr. MacBride, my parents and of course, my teammates, because my success wouldn’t have been possible without them. And I know I’ve already addressed this when I spoke at the ribbon cutting but the pool, it’s so great. Thank you guys so much for that. It was such a blessing to be able to practice and compete there my senior year. And I know there’s a lot of excitement in my household with my brothers entering the High School swim scene over at Silver Creek. So thank you so much for that. And yeah, I’m just really grateful to have been a part of this district for four years and I can’t wait to continue to wear the color green for the next four years at Notre Dame. So thank you
Unknown Speaker 33:59
one last thing, I do want to recognize that her parents are here tonight with us beach and Pete Codevilla. And certainly Mary would not be where she is without their wonderful support. So again, thank you for welcoming us here tonight.
Unknown Speaker 34:15
Next up, Brian Young from meet High School.
Unknown Speaker 34:25
Hi, good evening. Thank you for having us here. Madam President, Board of Education Dr. Dad. Thank you chase. As Chase eluded, it is our honor tonight to recommend recognize a meet high school athlete who attends long Mountain High School as a part of our girls district girls wrestling team that is housed out of need high school. She wears many crowns and has many titles, including as I learned tonight, a member of our smart team so Jenna, I’m not sure how you do all the things that you do. But as che said she is the first First ever, St. Vrain state champion and girls wrestling. And so Jen Joseph, if you’d like to come up here and join me with your coach Rachel Salas, I’d appreciate that. Jenna is an incredibly hard worker, oftentimes attending multiple wrestling practices both with some teammates at long run high school and then meet high school currently doing smart teams every week. Jenna started and has been wrestling and same brain all four years from when it was an unsanctioned sport, to a Pilot Sport. And then these last two years as girls wrestling became a chasseur sanctioned sport. These last two years, she has modeled what hard work and leadership looks like by building and growing this program and setting the stage for future girls wrestlers in our district. I want to thank Coach Rachel Salas, who I’m going to turn it over to here in a second to speak to many of her accomplishments and that of the team. Rachel Salas is a staff member at Meade High School and has been a wrestling coach since has become an official sport and saying brain she has helped build and grow this program I speak is not only a principal, but as a parent who is also a member of the team. We’re lucky that the girls in St. Vrain have such a strong mentor and leader. So at this time, I’m gonna turn it over to Mr. Rachel Salas.
Unknown Speaker 36:18
Thank you, Dr. Young board members, it is absolutely my honor tonight to be standing in front of you in such a short time and having this sport sanction for only two years to introduce the first ever girls state wrestling champion. There are so many amazing things that I can say about Jenna, obviously, you guys saw she’s part of the smart team, like Dr. Jung said, she’s doing so many different things at so many different levels. She comes to us out of Longmont. So as a district team, they traveled to us to practice that meat every day. We practice from six to eight every night. So they still had homework and all of the other things to do all their other activities and spend time with family. So it’s it’s not the easiest of sports either. So I will just kind of get into a few of the things that her accomplishments throughout the years. She joined me wrestling team when it was in the pilot stage as a freshman, and she was one of the only one of only two girls from the original team to complete all four years. As a senior she’s been on. She’s been a team captain for the last two seasons. Jenna did not qualify for state the first year when she was a freshman. Second year she qualified but did not place. And then as a junior and the first year of girls wrestling being sanctioned in the state of Colorado, Jenna was one of the first one of two on the team to qualify by being the regional champion as well. She would go on to face the same girl that she beat at regionals in the finals at that state tournament last year. She lost that match eight to five and play second. Granted that was not the outcome that we saw for her when we went into that state tournament. But this only fueled her for this most recent season. Her eyes were set on being a state champion. Ironically, Jenna’s first match of the season was against that same person from the finals match. She beat that person with a score of eight to seven. They would go on to wrestle several times throughout the season. And Nevada who was that person? Be Jen in the finals at the northern Colorado Christmas tournament four to three. Nevada then beat Jenna in the finals at the Loveland girls tournament. Jenna turned around and beat Nevada 11 to two in the finals of the Northridge Invitational. They did not end up meeting in the regional tournament because they were seated on opposite sides of the bracket for the tournament. And then during the state tournament, they were also on the opposite sides of the tournament. It was only fitting to see these two faces off in the finals, but even sweeter for the results because we have our first state champions standing before us tonight. I don’t know that Jenna actually realizes that she has made history or that it’s actually sunk in to her that she will be the first ever and is only the first ever so Jenna had the most wins for our season. She had 30 She went 34 and three for the entire season. She had the most pins 22 out of 34 matches being pins. She had the most reversals and tied with a teammate for 13. She was also voted no northern Colorado all conference team. At the state tournament Jenna scored 28 out of our 39 team points and was the fifth highest team point scorer in the entire tournament. As a result of having Jen on the team for the first two sanction years, she helped lead the team with like I said two out of six girls qualifying for the state tournament. She was our regional champion alongside our fourth place qualifier and then ended UPS runner up last season. This season we actually doubled our numbers we went from six in the orange tunnel team to 12. And we qualified FIDE at five out of those 12 Girls in 10 weight classes. We were 14 that state when the previous season we ended up at 16th. Jenna will forever be a part of not only meats history, but also St. Vrain Valley School Districts as the first ever girl state champion. Thank you, Jenna. For everything that you have done on and off the mat to be a model student and athlete for our district. You’ve demonstrated leadership, perseverance and determination. It has been an honor to have you on our team, and an honor for me to be your coach. One of them at least, Jenna Joseph
Unknown Speaker 40:43
I would like to just start off right off the bat and say thank you to the entire board for supporting girls wrestling for the past four years. I know that my freshman year it wasn’t a sanctioned sport. But it was still thought of as we had our own little girls team that we could use to go qualify in place and compete at the unofficial Girls State Tournament. And throughout the past four years, even continuing that support has really helped to grow this program to where it is now. And to develop not only the program, but the people within it because we are the support that not only you but then again meet high school along the high school all the other schools in the district and the coaching staffs and the parents that are watching and all of the girls that are even competing just it helps grow the program to what it is now and hopefully in the near future, we’ll have enough girls in the district to create our own teams at each school because I think it would be quite entertaining to watch the different schools compete against each other like they do on the boys side. I’m truly grateful for everything that I have been given and helped with along the way. And I am very proud that I’ll be able to say for the rest of my life that I was the first state place during state champion in my district for women’s wrestling, and excited to say that I will be going to continue my wrestling career at Simpson College in the fall and as well being the first female in our district to compete at that next level, so thank you
Unknown Speaker 42:23
Jenna, do you have any any anybody here this evening supporting you? That we could recognize parents and grandparents or your oh and grandparents? Fantastic. Hello. Congratulations, thank you
Unknown Speaker 42:47
okay, I will call up next Matt Buckler from Erie High School. He has a few groups with him. My I saw him give them a thumbs up so I think you’re ready. Okay. Matt Matt Buckler from Erie High School.
Unknown Speaker 43:02
Thanks, Jason. Thanks for having us up. Again. exciting night for Erie High School. Our girls cheer teams coming out, let them load up and then we’ll we’ll get to choir after that.
Unknown Speaker 43:31
Now All righty, I’ll get started. I just have a few things to say. I’m a, an avid fan of cheer and bumps. I gotta let you know our teams are simply incredible. In the last 10 years, the cheer team is hands down the most successful athletic team at Erie High School, so it’s really something else. I’m gonna bring Nora Roth up in just a minute. She’s our head coach. These girls got back from nationals a few months ago, the UCA nationals in Orlando, Florida and took third, competing get some of the very best cheer programs in the country, some of the biggest high schools in America. Two of our athletes here tonight, Sidney Wolfe and Ella Mullins they made this team as freshmen so that means that they individually are four time champions and the team won their fourth state championship in a row so huge celebration Nora come on up. I feel like we
Unknown Speaker 44:41
know each other on a first name basis now. It’s just in my calendar every year I love it. I’m so like what Matt said. This is our fourth consecutive state championship, which is super cool. But I think ultimately our goal we’ve placed so well in the state for so long, but we really wanted to become a nationally known team. sear. And so being able to go back to Nationals after COVID and have our best year yet it was our first time ever making finals. And to come away Bronze medalists in third place in the nation is huge. That’s where your top dogs are. That’s not just your Colorado top dogs. And so that was really big for us. And I think not only are the girls a huge component of that they show up almost every day they cheer every other sport. We have a phenomenal athletic department at URI and administration at URI, and then their parents who are 100% bought in and so it goes to show with our accomplishments not only in our trophies, but just in who they are as human beings. And so I think that’s really cool. For seniors, we’d love to speak Hello Kendall, okay, I’m just talking about okay, um, so I
Unknown Speaker 46:11
I’m a senior this year, I’ve got three state championships under my belt. And I just, I don’t know, I think the program’s really amazing. And I’ve met some of my best friends, which is just as rewarding as any title we could ever earn as a team. So yeah, that’s I I completely agree with what Katie said. And I was like, I feel like, cheers just so much more than just cheering and like, the relationships that we have within this team are huge to all of us. And I’m never been more like excited to be a cheerleader ever in my life. Yeah, I’m I forgot mine. Thanks, this. You were me? Yeah, definitely, like what Kennedy was saying. Our program is something unlike any other from any other school in Colorado, we really are just like one big family, from the get go of like from day one of the season. We really are just like best friends at the core. And I think that’s like what keeps us team going strong every single year. Me personally, I came to Erie, my junior year, and I didn’t really know like, majority of the cheer team. And they all kind of like just took me in, like, I’ve been best friends with that my entire life. So our program is really welcoming. And I think everyone who like has done a different sport or did like high school and a different sport would also agree that like going to the high school cheer practices was definitely like the best part of any of the other practices. Your cheers, awesome, you should try
Unknown Speaker 48:05
out next year. You know, one of the things that I have learned, well, first of all, congratulations, because your accomplishment is really incredible. And I’m for state championships, top three in the nation. Cheerleading is a very difficult sport. I know that we’ve heard before that sometimes it’s a sport that has more injuries in it than any other sport. And when you think about not only the individual talent that you have to have, but to coordinate that with everybody else simultaneously. That’s a really, really hard thing to do. And so while you guys because of your your skill set, you’re enforced A championships. But I really want you to know that and you know this, but that is not easy to do. And you guys should be very proud because you’re talented, you’re hard working and you’re competitive. And you really should be proud of yourself. So congratulations.
Unknown Speaker 49:29
Thank you guys. Thank you. We’ll see you next year. Next year, on your calendar, yes. So I think principal Buckler as as they’re funneling out if there any any, any loved ones in the audience from the cheer team. Congratulations.
Unknown Speaker 50:05
choir choir will be in a minute, but to what Don said, there was a group of teachers and airmen that would lift weights in the morning at URI high, you know, five 515, before school, I would see those girls in the small gym and they had gotten there before I had and they’re in there working out every day in the morning. And then they come back in the afternoon, and they’re working out and they’re doing their tumbling at another club. They’re just they really are amazing athletes and very, very hard working. So all right, we’re gonna have our CR five choir that coming in right now. And I’m going to lead off and I’ll turn it over to Talia bird are our choir director. So I think one of the most exciting things for me out here is that we feel like we have a great academic program. But our kids are involved in so many activities, whether it’s sports, orchestra, music, it’s really amazing. I don’t know how they do it. I don’t know how they manage their time, get their homework done sleep, their parents are obviously very supportive. So this is our CR five choir, and they were the top choir in the state. And they were chosen to sing at the Colorado Music Educators Association. This year very prestigious. 13 of the students qualified for the Colorado Allstate choir, which for our school is a record and it’s a very high number. If you look at the, when you look at the program, you’ll see all the different schools and who gets in. And we’re just incredibly proud of them. I’m gonna have Tyler Byrd come up and talk a little bit about them.
Unknown Speaker 51:51
Hello, thank you for having us. This is only a small portion of our choir. There’s about a third of us just with how busy everyone is at this time of year. But I thought it’d be lovely to hear just a little bit from each student just their name and their grades so you can get a glimpse of the different representation we have in this choir if we have time for each student to say their name and grade. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 52:14
All right. Hello, I’m Carter, and I’m a sophomore. I’m Jackson and I’m a senior. I’m Grace and I’m a senior. I’m Griffin and I’m a junior.
Unknown Speaker 52:29
My name is Tess and I’m a junior. I’m Anna and I’m a junior. I’m styling and I’m a senior. I’m Angeles and I’m a senior. I’m Lucas I’m a sophomore. I’m Dean, I am a freshman. I’m Lexie and I’m a senior. I’m Aiden, and I’m a junior. I’m Riley and I’m a senior. And to our knowledge, this was the first time Erie has ever been selected to perform at the Colorado Music Educators Conference. So this was a first for us. And we also think we may have been the only secondary choral program to be selected at least in the past 10 years. So it’s not just the work that I’ve done with them over the past couple of years. It’s a testament to our amazing community. It goes all the way down to the elementary music teachers, the middle school teachers like Miss Abby Martinez and the program that Mr. neighboured built before my time, and the support we received from our amazing administrators are amazing parents and the district were just so honored to be a part of this amazing community so thank you
Unknown Speaker 53:59
congratulations to all of you. I’m hoping we have some loved ones in the audience this evening. Hello. Congratulations
Unknown Speaker 54:13
I was gonna say you’ve got seniors but you’ve got a also a lot of students coming back next year. A lot of a lot of opportunity to do it again. So that’s a really make us proud thank you guys really, really proud of you.
Unknown Speaker 54:54
We have one more group joining us this evening. i Oh, wait to introduce Axel when When we get a little bit of space here
Unknown Speaker 55:20
you thought you were gonna get introduced right away tonight gives Axl coming so I’m going to bring up Axel. He’s recently returned from a robotics competition but here tonight he has with him two groups from up up up a creek robotics who were deemed World Champions
Unknown Speaker 55:54
they didn’t bring the big robot tonight so. Okay. Good evening Dr. Had and members of the board. Thank you for having us tonight. As you all know, Robotics has become a regular feature of student life here in St. Vrain. Valley Schools. Tonight, you are recognizing and celebrating the very highest of robotics achievements any students or program can attain. And like anything else insane brain these achievements did not result from chance. Rather, they came from hard work and amazing vision and leadership for many people. Opera Creek robotics is a crown jewel in our community when it comes to STEM education. Formed in 2004. up a creek has consistently served St. Frane students from elementary to high school and students from across the district. First Robotics provides these students the opportunity to learn foundational engineering skills like design, fabrication, electrical, electrical engineering, coding, as well as giving them authentic chances to apply these skills and collaborate with others. The program also enriches our community through summer programming and volunteer work. Their work is certainly about more than just the robot. And I just want to make sure you understand up a creek is an independent nonprofit that serves our district and has been doing that for against this since 2004. And when we started our VEX robotics program, they were there to help us figure out how to do robotics across the district. So with no further ado, I’d like to introduce Don Hudson, who is the director of the gear Alliance and a longtime mentor for multiple teams.
Unknown Speaker 57:31
Thank you. Excellent. Thank you guys for having us here. We are just so glad to be here today. So I want to tell you a little bit about upper Creek robotics, we have 150 students that range from fourth grade all the way to 12th grade. Tonight, we have our two high school programs with us our FIRST Tech Challenge team. These guys, and then our our big robot team that has about 100. Well, all told we have about 150 students through all of the programs. We are very proud of them this year that we have double world champions. So both of these teams were world champions at the same world championship in their program, which is the first in first robotics history. There has never been a program that has won both teams at the same event. And so we are so proud of them. They’ve worked so hard to come out of COVID and then come out this strong so with that I’m going to let our FTC teen talk and tell about their season in their own words.
Unknown Speaker 58:49
Hello, we are Team 11260 up Cuca robotics we are composed of students from in grades nine through 12 from Longmont area. This year winning the Colorado State Championship gave us the opportunity to compete at the world level at the world championship in Houston, Texas. We competed with the top 160 teams out of the 60/301 Tech Challenge teams around the world. We formed an alliance with two other teams and managed to make our way through the elimination matches and ended up winning an extremely competitive championship match of our 13 member team. We have four students here to this evening to share some of our experiences and the personal significance of being world champions. So first of all, my name is Aiden. I’m in 12th grade at Longmont High School. And for me winning the world championship was a culmination of all of our team’s hard work, not only this year, but for the past few years, we’ve spent so much time learning from our fantastic volunteer mentors and from other teams constantly striving to be better than we were the year before. The experience at Worlds was also amazing, especially having the chance to interact and connect with teams from all over the world, including our alliance partners that we work with from Romania, who became first world champ beans from outside of the United States. winning the world championship was incredible experience and our team could not have done it without the dedication of our student team members, the tireless efforts of our mentors volunteering their time, and the unwavering support of our community and sponsors, including the st. Rhone Valley School District. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:20
Hi, I’m Michelle, and I’m a freshman at Mile High School. It’s my second year on the team. Winning a world championship was such an incredible experience. It was so cool to see everything that our team has worked on and put so much effort into over the season six year on such a large scale. My main contribution to the team this year was working on autonomous code for the first 30 seconds of the match, which is really cool, since our autonomous is actually one of the best in the world right now. Yeah, it was just really cool to see everything that we’ve worked on and put so much effort into succeed like that. And I’m super proud of everything that we’ve achieved this season. But I mean, winning a world championship is pretty cool.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:04
Hi, my name is Maria and I am currently a freshman at nyuad High School. Winning a world championship has been a longtime goal for me ever since I joined robotics in fourth grade. This season, I had the chance to work on outreach and our notebook for the team. I helped organize and document our entire season and just 15 Pages for our portfolio. winning the world championship this year has been really exciting because our entire team got to see all of our hard work finally pay off
Unknown Speaker 1:01:35
Hello, my name is Carson. I’m a junior at Apex homeschool program here in St. Vrain Valley. It was the World Championship really helped solidify what I have learned over these last four years in spatial reasoning and CAD development in math and physics applications. And in my leadership and communication skills in this at the championship just getting to see our robot can perform at such a high level was really was really a privilege and amazing see.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:02
Hi, I’m Olga and I am a junior at our high school. I’m also the technical lead for the FRC team. So the like bigger robot team. So we just wanted to start off with thanking all of you guys so much for your support and your sponsorship of our program because it really does mean a lot. So we have a picture of all this for you. Not sure where you’d like that. But yeah. So for us, this was a really huge thing there. 4600 teams competed in regionals across the world, and about 450 teams made it to the international competition. And so going into internationals, we had had quite a season, FTC had been multiple world records. FRC had gone entirely undefeated, we were the only team going into the World Championship undefeated, we also want to judge the awards that every competition, so we’d won the Industrial Design Award, the excellence engineering Award, as well as the eponymous award. So coming out of the World Championship are two world winning teams. And it’s the first time as Don said in his in first history that teams from the same program have won both competitions at one place. And it’s also really cool because normally there’s like half World Championships rather than one. Sorry, with everyone in it. And so it was especially cool since everyone was in one place. But the thing that really, like brings this all together for all of us is that we are not only coming out of this as World Championship winners, we’re coming out of this as two teams that are closely knit with students that have a growing love for STEM and that are able to that have learned life skills that were able to take into your future. So thank you for supporting our program.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:12
Hello, my name is Ashley with now I am a senior at nyuad High School. I am the hardware design lead on our team. For me this win was an awesome success. At the end of a very long build season we put our hearts and souls into making this robot great and it feels amazing to have all of that hard work and time and energy pay off and something on the scale of this. This team for me is not a place to learn stem and the engineering process and all of that it’s also a community of like minded people who will support you through anything and just being a part of that community through this when has just been such an honor.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:53
My name is Astrid Beamer. I am also sitting at night and I am the strategy lead for EPA Creek as well as a member of our fabrication team and this Wind holds a lot of personal significance for me, because when I was a little sixth grader, when I first heard about upper Creek, I immediately set a goal of becoming intimately integrated, a massive part of the team leaving this impact on the team. I really, I just wanted to do that if I could just do that in high school, I was set, I had done it, I had accomplished High School. So seven years later, I guess I could say I accomplished High School. But it’s just it’s amazing to see a combination of all these feelings, all this work towards trying to accomplish this goal all my late nights, all these long weeks, just culminating into this win. It’s just an amazing feeling to see. Finally accomplishing that goal. It’s just amazing.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:43
Hello, I’m Emma. I’m a senior at Silver Creek High School. And I’m our team’s spirit captain. And I’m also a member of our controls team. And I’m, I would say I’m a little unique on the team, because unlike many of our members were seniors. Many of them have been like team for a very, very long time. And this was actually my first year in a first program. And so while this win for Worlds is like, unbelievable, like I had no expectations of winning worlds my first season, I have found a really close knit family on this team. And I have found friends that I think will last a lifetime. And I think that that, in itself, to me at least is a little bit more important than winning worlds. I mean, the relationships that I’ve made on this team, and like the support that I’ve received from students and mentors is something that I’ve never experienced, especially coming from like a student athlete background. This team is something that has impacted hundreds of students lives. And you can see that just from being on a team for a week. And so yeah, this is an amazing team.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:55
And my name is violet, and I’m a sophomore at Mount High School. And I am our team’s admin lead. So I do all the business and the finance. And I’m also a member of our control sub team. So doing all the assembly and the electrical work. So it’s very hard for me to describe to you what we have taken to calling the moment when we found out that we won the world championship, we had all sweated off our deodorant a long time ago, we had forgotten what it means to have personal space. And but I wouldn’t have traded the euphoria that I felt in that moment for just about anything in the world. And not only were we the first was this a first for up a creek, this was also a first for the state of Colorado to win the world championship, and our dual championship was a first for the world. So that felt pretty great. And but while we’re winning worlds is certainly a huge achievement, our real success was found in coming together over a shared enthusiasm for building robots. And we’ve been doing that for 17 years. And in fact, I don’t actually know which is more valuable learning skills and engage in emerging STEM fields that will last me a lifetime, or making friendships and having a community that I know will also last me a lifetime. And so to that end, we couldn’t have accomplished any of this without your generous support from all of our sponsors. And we cannot thank you enough for providing us with the tools that we need to thrive. Yeah, APA Creek robotics knows that some way. Sometimes the best way to pay back is to pay forward. And which is why in the next year, we are working toward expanding our Lego League program for our elementary school students. So that we can inspire a passion for STEM in us all. So thank you so much. And we would love to hear any questions that you have
Unknown Speaker 1:09:14
that was awesome. I see you going for your microphone? No, I think this is the first time I mean, so many times you guys mentioned worlds international competition. And we we’re not just talking about the state or or or even the nation, but really about the worlds and I love a every all of you are so aware of the human side of this as well. That connection, belonging, sense of community common purpose that was really fun to listen to. I saw a robot back there. Would love to see the robot. So cool.
Unknown Speaker 1:09:50
Yeah, so this is the FTC robot. For our members in blue shirts. This is the robot we have and FRC has a much larger five foot or six foot tall robot that but but yeah, similar competitions? Yeah. So there’s our our lift. It’s all in a turret system. We have an intake that folds down to pick up there were these cubes and balls this year that we’d have to pick up in our intake and score on these different tiered platforms. Do you have specific questions about the robot? Or
Unknown Speaker 1:10:29
I don’t? I don’t know. First they right you you all are experts. And I’m not but I really wanted to see the robot. And I actually Oh, go ahead, Jim. What? Oh,
Unknown Speaker 1:10:39
this robots name is ghost.
Unknown Speaker 1:10:45
Superstition. So
Unknown Speaker 1:10:46
the first year that we did not name a robot before worlds was the first year that we made worlds. And so since then, we’ve always taken to naming our robot world. So we just know our
Unknown Speaker 1:10:58
nice, kinda like lucky socks. Kind of like lucky socks. Right? You know, I think the last thing I would say and I know that, that Don, you have a few things is that if there’s any anybody watching, if you have an opportunity to go to one of the robotics competitions, they are a whole gob of fun, they’re super interesting. And to see the kids all work together as a team, everyone understanding their specific role. And the importance of that role is just absolutely phenomenal. And once again, really, truly so much hope for the future, you all will be leading companies. And I’ll just get out of the way done.
Unknown Speaker 1:11:40
Yeah. Now very proud of you guys. Congratulations. We were watching you on the Twitter feed all the updates coming in and get all excited. So you guys are great. And I also I know we met Don, Don came up, but I see a couple others like Kathy, can you and whoever else, that’s part of the sponsorship because you know I can I know you guys have been involved. If you guys want to come up and say something, Kathy, I know that you and Terry and others have been really instrumental. And I remember when you moved into that new facility that you you guys did, and I was just like incredible generosity and of your time and your expertise. So if you want to share something, I’d be great.
Unknown Speaker 1:12:21
I just the students said it better than I could. My husband, he wishes he could be here today. But he had a work commitment. And we are just so grateful for all your support. And we love working with these students and seeing them grow. And it’s just amazing to be a part of it.
Unknown Speaker 1:12:47
I’m Tracy Ewing, them that computer science teacher at Norwalk High School. And I started on this team, I was an electrical engineer and then transitioned to teaching because I love this program so much. And my role on the team is to do the books and because after a long day of teaching, I don’t want to teach kids anymore. So So I see your check come in every year. And I can’t tell you how much it means to us. It’s so so important that lets us keep the lights on, lets us pay for aluminum and screws and that all those tools we break so. So we really, really appreciate that for me. Thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker 1:13:30
My name is Jamie Rumsey and I’m one of the mentors for the FTC team, hence the blue shirts. Four years ago, our FTC team went to the world world and I was with them for the first time and we walked by a sign on their way into their judging session. And the sign said we are not using kids to build robots. We are using robots to build kids. And that stuck with me and sort of became my mantra as a mentor. And and I have seen that unfold at EPA Craig over the last four years. We are building kids and they’re building robots and that’s fun. But they are the heart and soul of this program and I want you to know that
Unknown Speaker 1:14:27
you’re going to take a picture and then I would also like to recognize parents. Parents do a lot of work.
Unknown Speaker 1:14:52
You’re trying to get them now there
Unknown Speaker 1:14:55
wasn’t really Do we need that we need the ends to come in do you want to get so great?
Unknown Speaker 1:16:07
Chase Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:16:08
Yeah, thank you for letting us share so many of our successes. Just one last plug. Monday, May 16, from 10 o’clock to noon. We have our same rain day of champions for our unified athletes and their mentors. For those of you that are new, we started this program last year during the pandemic and it went so well. Brian Young says it’s the best day of the year. And I it’s hard to argue with him. So it’s it’s we have all eight of our high schools, excuse me nine of our high schools, we bring Main Street School with us. All the unified athletes bring their partners and they have 10 different stations that they go to at Everly Montgomery and including a dunk tank for their principals. So please join us from 10 to noon. If you have something on your calendar, you should cancel it because this is a great time. So thank you for your night.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:03
That sounds fun. I will be there. Did we get we get a shot at principals in the dunk tank?
Unknown Speaker 1:17:10
Yes, I can send you that schedule too. We can put anybody on here that you kill you want to get a time slot on the dunk tank.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:20
Chase, thank you so much. That was a wonderful way to to begin the board meeting. Yes, the date for that is 1016 Monday from 10 to noon at Longmont High School on the Everly Montgomery field. Alright, that brings us to Agenda Item four, which is audience participation. Before we begin this evening, I just want to make sure that anyone who wants to comment has had an opportunity to sign up on an agenda item or non agenda item. All right. 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 here up to 30 minutes of public comment on non agenda items and 30 minutes of public comment on agenda specific items. Each person will be limited to three minutes of public comment. At the end of three minutes. I will thank you for speaking and invite the next speaker to the podium or move on to the next agenda item. If you are speaking to a non agenda item this evening, 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 will assist you with next steps. It has been the long standing practice of the board to not address or respond during the public comment section of the agenda. But please know that we are listening and greatly appreciate and value the perspectives of our community. With that will begin public comment and first up this evening is Brenda Everett Hello, Brenda welcome. If you could please start out by stating your name and address and then we’ll begin timing after that.
Unknown Speaker 1:19:15
Thank you. My name is Brenda Everett 9393 youth highway Longmont and I so excited to see these kids that have succeeded so well. And I spent 25 years in public education, kind of working with the other end of the spectrum kids that are high need high risk. And I would just like to briefly appeal to the board, too. As your mission statement says we want all kids to be successful. And there’s a social climate right now in our society. That’s I would you’re going to be talking about bullying. And I think that’s so important. And most of my career I address that. And just watching the news listening to Paul petitions there’s, there’s a lot of bullying in our society. And one of the definitions in your bullying policy is to talks about coercion and intimidation. And I would just like to an immediate concern that came to me feels like coercion to me from political agendas, we have a lot of things going on at the state and federal level that are not necessarily in the best interest of children. And a friend mentioned to me that she was concerned her daughter received an assignment from school, which was to talk about a seven year old to talk about gender pronouns. And while I do not doubt the good intentions of people that are pushing agendas like this, the ends do not always justify the means. And seven, I’ve worked a lot with second language learners also. And young children, second language learners, they need to be proficient in language. And when we throw things at them, like gender pronouns that are plural, that refer to individuals, it’s just such a confusing issue. And I think education needs to be the basis we want our kids to be proficient in language. And so educationally, I’m concerned about that lesson. But I’m also concerned about socially and emotionally, I think, a lot of this discussion. And I know, I spoke briefly with dawn this morning, at there’s social studies, standards being reviewed by the state. But I would just ask the board that we keep in mind, the needs of children, their social emotional development, their cognitive development, when we introduce things into the district, some of these concepts are sensitive, and beyond the comprehension of a kindergartner or a second grader. And when we talk about sensitive issues as I was a professional school counselor, those are things that are best addressed, with families, in a quiet setting supportive of students that are going through challenging personal questioning and issues. They’re not really things for casual classroom discussions, especially at a very young age. So I just appeal to the board that don’t buy into whatever the current political agenda is set my time. Okay. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:22:26
Thank you, Brenda. Next up for public speaking this evening is Rachel aren’t. Hi, Rachel, welcome. If you could please state your name and address and then they’ll begin timing after that.
Unknown Speaker 1:22:44
Hi, I’m Rachel aren’t I work at Boulder County Public Health 3450. Broadway in Boulder. Good evening, Madam President, board members. Dr. Dodd, it’s good to see you outside of COVID. Again, my name is Rachel. I’m the Healthy Eating active living and built environment coordinator for Boulder County Public Health. And really what that means, in short, is that I work with nonprofits. I work with schools, and I work with community organizations and municipalities to support nutrition security, and to really examine ways that we as a public health agency can support a fair community for everyone. Over the years, my team has worked really closely with partners at St. Green Valley School District. And we’re very fortunate for that partnership on a whole host of initiatives from helping to enroll families and a fruit and veg program, which kind of provides gap funding to folks that don’t qualify for federal nutrition benefits to funding and the purchase and installation of water filling stations and some of the schools to some of the initiation of the trip tracker program which is very popular, and also helping to secure local food procurement. So we’re really happy to have had this experience working with the school district. Several years ago, my team worked hand in hand with Shelly Allen, the nutrition services director to help set the priorities for healthy eating and active living in Boulder County, for our agency and for the communities at large. And we’re really thankful for the foundational role that Shelly played. My team sees tremendous opportunity for partnership with St. Green Valley School District in the coming years and we are eager to meet with new and existing Nutrition Services staff to learn more about their priorities moving forward and how our team can be supportive and build upon the district’s work to create the optimal nutrition environment for academic achievement. And I was pretty impressed tonight, as well, madam president on not only the achievements but also the high level of emotional intelligence of the students. It’s really heartwarming. I think we all know the important role that new nutrition plays and physical health. But recent studies have also demonstrated that nutrition impacts students thinking skills, behavior and mental health, all factors that influence academic performance. We really appreciate the important safety net services that St. Green Valley School District provides, especially during COVID, to children and families that need them the most. And we really look forward to re engaging in our partnership, to support student learning, and health through partnering on grant opportunities, connecting to local fruit and vegetable producers, and to serve as strategic thinking partners with the school district. So thank you, and it’s really nice to meet some of you, and it’s good to see it done. Good evening.
Unknown Speaker 1:25:52
Thank you, Rachel. Enjoy your evening. One final check that there are no additional public comments this evening. All right, thank you. We’ll move on to our next agenda item then which Dawn is the superintendence report.
Unknown Speaker 1:26:14
Thank you, I appreciate it. And I really appreciate everybody that came in tonight as quite the night does love seeing our children do the things they’re doing is pretty incredible. You know, if you haven’t had a chance ever to watch or go visit Hawk air at hygiene Elementary, it’s a long standing program this year. They were doing Italy, and an opportunity to go and take a tour. It’s amazing what they do. And Joey, I know that you’re very closely connected to that as a former parent of children that went to nyuad. And you were actually one of the initiative initiators of that and did some great work. But congratulations to heartcare they outdid themselves once again, also wanted to share, there was a question about other ways of measuring student achievement. And as you can see, there’s just a lot of different measures of student success well beyond anything, a single a single criteria could ever do. But there was a question about looking at some other data in addition to the SI MAs. And I appreciated that and worked with Anne Reid in our entered and kale Charles in our curriculum and assessment department. Just want to report out this is grades one through eight in our reading scores for iReady. And midway through the year, the total for St. Vrain Valley schools is that 71%, which means mid year, they should be at 50% in order to be on track for a full year’s worth of growth. So the fact that they’re at 71% means that they are exceeding expectations by a considerable amount. And this kind of speaks back to my my point that I was making at the last meeting. When we get the SI mas results. It’s difficult because they report out end of the year scores for an assessment that was administered long before the end of the year, when you see an assessment being administered at mid year, and the results being presented at mid year were 71% 21% beyond where we should be for one year’s worth of growth. And then with math, it is at 59%. And so you, you can see that our students are doing very well in reading and math and those grades one through eight, from a very credible valid assessment. I ready that correlates very, very high. And kale, you might want to mention something about the correlation to the SI mas tests. And so we’re grateful to our teachers and our staff and our curriculum and assessment department for monitoring achievement throughout the year in a way that brings a lot of credibility to it that we actually assess their performance after we teach them and not assess their performance prior to teaching them. So I appreciate that. And kale, I don’t know if you want to share anything about iReady.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:09
Well, it has a high correlation to its grade level standards, Grade Level Mastery of standards. So to say we’re at 79% in reading halfway through the year, in terms of growth, where they should be is quite an accomplishment. And I want to give our teachers and our schools the kudos for doing that. Particularly still in a challenging time with this and filling in some gaps with this. It does have one of the most reliable measures of predictors of how we’ll do on CMS. So we’re helpful hopeful on that. And we’re also going through right now are we’re just finishing up our window of our spring testing on I ready as well. So we’ll be looking forward to those scores as well. I know the visiting with our principals they are very happy so far because they’re getting results right away, which is another benefit to iReady. We get the results back pretty quick. And they’re seeing the results in real time almost. And they’re very happy with what they’re seeing so far.
Unknown Speaker 1:30:12
Thanks kill. Another celebration, US News and World Report named eight of our high schools as top high schools in the nation. And so we were very pleased. That’s the highest number of high schools that we’ve ever had achieve that prestigious status. So congratulations to all of our students, teachers and staff at the high school level for being recognized. Among the best in the country for high schools. We also had an impressive is when you know, our leadership academy under the leadership of Kerry Adams, the evening of excellence at the Leadership Academy was really pretty amazing. I want to share with you some of the 40 kids completed over 6000 hours of volunteer work, they raised over $10,000 for nonprofits at home and around the world. They led classes workshops and events for over 2000 Younger students in the district, an average GPA of 4.03. They received $3.5 million in scholarship offers and next year they’re headed to CU CSU Bates, Nebraska Oklahoma State, Cal Poly Arizona State Baylor Oregon State, Cal State Fullerton, Purdue USC Berklee School of Music Colorado School of Mines Colorado Mesa University UCCS CU Boulder LEED School of Business, Concordia, Montana State College Missouri d u, of new University of New Haven, Western Washington Ozark Christian and a gap year or two for Mormon mission. And Carrie, I remember when Sherry Schumann was the principal. And we began our focus school emphasis where we have focused programs, they came forward with that recommendation and have built it into something really incredible. That’s very, very impactful throughout our community. And beyond hiring update, you’re going to hear some of the exciting news about individuals who will be joining our team. So I’ll leave that to Todd. I will numerous conference championships to date swimming, tennis, others, we’ve got State Championships coming up, and teams that are ranked in the top three of the state several of them ranked number one. So it should be an exciting spring similar to the fall and winter. We’re continuing to win major grants. Just today I found out we want another grant for $488,422 for mentoring teachers and coaching and things along those lines. And so, you know, Hillary and her team Jackie and your team and Diane and everybody, they are really, really pursuing assertively millions and millions of dollars. And you heard Governor polis at the visit to the innovation center. When we introduced Hillary, he turned to her and said, Oh, you’re the grant writer. And so they know us very well. And we’ve got millions of dollars more in the hopper that we’re pursuing. have had great meetings, follow up meetings with the Colorado Business Roundtable. We had Joey, I know you and, Jake, you both attended. And with superintendents, and we’re working really hard to build those relationships. We had a follow up meeting and we will be working with them. On our second meeting. I also had an opportunity to meet with the CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber a couple of days ago, and look forward to doing some work with the Denver Metro Chamber, Jackie and I visited with JJ Hammond and Amy Gutmann. And they were very excited about including st rein in some of their work around the economic development arm of the Denver chamber. So really looking forward to working with them as well. We’re looking forward to the retirement celebration dinner tomorrow night, we’ll have a chance to congratulate and thank many of our employees who are going to be going on to a new chapter in their life. The school visits are going extremely well I had another one today at Eagle Crest with their faculty and staff and they are working very hard. I’m down to six got six left to get through so I’m racing against the clock but
Unknown Speaker 1:34:33
actually it might be a little bit more because I’ve had to postpone a couple so but we’re gonna keep trying and then Christy’s been pushing me out the door saying get there and we’ll we’ll try but really proud of our teachers and our staff for the work that they’re doing. Today is our national school nurse day. And as you know, our national school nurse day could never say thank you enough to, to our nurses for what they always are really working hard on But through the last two and a half school years, it has been an unprecedented lift for our nurses and could not be more thankful to them for their work. Greg feet and Tony whitely and Jane and their team, they were notified again that the Association of School Business Officials awarded them with the most prestigious honor, again, for fiscal transparency and reporting. And we’re looking forward, we’re hoping that we will receive the governmental Financial Officers Association as well, which we think we will. And this is going on, you know, over 15 years now, so they are just a stellar stellar keeper, the house, so to speak with our finances. And the last thing I could go on forever. But the last thing, well, there’s two more things. Fifth Grade field day has been a thrill. Watching those kids, and the sun’s been out, and they’re running, and they’re playing, and they’re competing and having more fun than you can ever imagine. And it’s just as your heart, good to see them, you know, doing that kind of thing. So just really, really proud of all of our students for the work that they’re doing. So, anyways, I was going to share one other thing, but I must be getting older, because it slipped my mind. Oh, there it is right in front of me. We’re going to be hosting a national superintendents Summit, we were selected for that. And it’ll be in July. And we will be presenting as the keynote speakers, we did a keynote in Chicago. And thanks to Jackie and Carrie, who led the presentation, along with Superintendent from Florida. And it was about how you accelerate in advance and be prepared for the next iteration of technology and keeping pace. So they asked us to do the same presentation at this one and asked us to host it in Denver. And so we’re going to do that. And then we’ll bring the superintendents to the Innovation Center, from around the country to see the work that our students and our teachers and our staff are doing there. So it’s just a, you know, it’s a whirlwind. But it is it is a lot of fun, really, really excited about our kids and our teachers and our staff and our community. So, thanks.
Unknown Speaker 1:37:14
We don’t have any reports this evening. So that brings us to Agenda Item seven, which is our consent items. Todd, you have three important guests to introduce this evening.
Unknown Speaker 1:37:25
Thank you, Madam President, members of the board, Dr. Her dad, I have three new administrators to announce tonight. First of all, I’m going to introduce Miss Carla Allen Bach, and you will Carla and this is her husband, George. So welcome, George. And then Joining me is Dr. Conclusion that should be part of Dr. completions team. Mr. Allen Buck received her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Ed. Focusing on special education for Morningside College in Iowa. She obtained a master’s degree in special education from the University of Northern Colorado and received principal licensure from the University of Denver. From 1994 to 2000. Mr. Hollenbach taught special education and elementary education in Westminister public schools. She then joined Mapleton public schools in 2000, and has served as a teacher, assistant principal, Principal, Director, executive director and assistant superintendent. She currently serves as the Deputy Superintendent focused on leadership development and school improvement. So we’re excited to have caller with us and again, joining with is Dr. capricious.
Unknown Speaker 1:38:34
Thank you. Good evening, Madam President, members of the board and Dr. Her dad, I am thrilled and honored to have this opportunity to serve the st. Brain Valley Community Schools school district. And it will be a pleasure to join a team and a school district that has such a reputation of innovation in a public setting. And I’m thrilled to have this opportunity. I it’s my understanding that everyone from the school board to the superintendent to the leaders in both the district and the schools have a have an aligned common mission of being the best school district in the state of Colorado, and ensuring that students succeed at their highest levels. I’m excited and humbled to join a very talented team. And I look forward to working closely with the mead and Frederick school leaders and learning from them as well. And finally, I would like to specifically thank Dr. Her dad and Dr. Confucian for giving me this opportunity and I’m looking forward to it
Unknown Speaker 1:39:42
I’ll just say that I have known Carlos work for a very long time I was able to watch Carla work as an instructional coach as a principal. I worked with her for a short time in central administration. She is an incredibly hard worker and her strength is watching and helping schools, principals and students succeed. She has a tremendous amount of experience in some of the latest research around school turnaround in school improvement, and she will have so much to learn here in St. Vrain. But we will have a lot to learn from her as well, so we’re excited to have her on board.
Unknown Speaker 1:40:28
I’d like to next introduce Miss Allison Primack as the Dean of Students for Timberline Piquet and joining her tonight is her husband Sam back there. Welcome Sam. And representing Carolyn, we have Deena perfetti Dini from the Timberline area. Miss prymatt graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Health and Exercise Science from Colorado State University. She graduated with a master’s degree in Special Ed from the University of Northern Colorado and she obtained her principal licensure from Colorado State University from 2014 to 2019. Was prereq taught special education at Lincoln Elementary in the Thompson school district from 2018 to 2020. She served as an elementary Summer Program Coordinator since 2008. Teen was primarily served has been serving as an instructional coach. So Susan, emotional learning specialist and academic interventionist at the Navajo Elementary in the Thompson school district. So again, welcome Allison.
Unknown Speaker 1:41:36
Hello, President secrets doctor, her dad, members of the board. Thank you for having me. I’m very excited for this opportunity to join Timberline and support them in their work with and dedication to the students, staff and families at the school. Thank you for all of your hard, hard work in building the community that St. Green Valley School District is and I’m honored to be joining St. Vrain. And all of you. Thank you
Unknown Speaker 1:42:13
I’ll just make a quick comment. Allison’s last school that she was at in Thompson is namaqua namaqua Elementary. My daughter went there for a year I taught there for a year before I came to St brain. And she comes I know people in Thomson, I’ve talked to all of my buddies there and she comes highly, highly recommended. Just a very strong supporter of teachers, and a very strong supporter of students. And it’s really fun to welcome new people into Dean positions who aspire to be principals and who knows how far she’ll go in her leadership journey. So we’re happy to have Allison Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:42:53
And finally, I’m going to introduce Miss Lindsay Chasteen. As Dean of Students at meet high school and joining her tonight is her principal right now. Let’s just save graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature focused on creative writing from the University of Colorado. She obtained a secondary educators license from Metro State College from 2013 to 2014. Miss Cheston was a substitute teacher in the pooter school district from 2014 to 2015 was an instructional paraprofessional at Rocky Mountain High in pooter. And then from 2016 to 2015 to 2016. She taught seventh grade language arts at Arvada K eight in Jefferson County School District from 2016 to the present, Miss Chasteen has been teaching English at Meade High School. So welcome, Lindsey.
Unknown Speaker 1:43:42
Good evening, members of the board and Dr. Hidalgo. Thank you for this opportunity. I’m really excited to not only go into leadership, but remain here in St. Green Valley School District. I couldn’t be happier to just continue my career. So I appreciate all of the support that you guys will continue to provide to me and for my principal and Dr. Hidin. Thank you for just providing a great just model of leadership and thank you Dr. Confusion for your support.
Unknown Speaker 1:44:20
In same vein, we have a rich tradition of building great teachers who become great teacher leaders who then become great administrators and Lindsay is a prime example of that. Lindsay is a phenomenal teacher with our students and her team. She is a leader in our school. She has facilitated our advisory planning committee and serves on our leadership team and many others. I look forward to working with Lindsay in this new capacity and helping her she begins her leadership journey. As Dr. perfetti Dini said we hire leaders that have big goals and aspirations and Lindsay Cheston sees herself being a leader insane rain for a long time to come with some pretty big goals and looking forward to the great work she’s going to continue to do with us here at meet high school. So thank you all. I appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker 1:45:13
Thank you, Todd. Lindsey, congratulations on your new role and Carlin. Allison. Welcome to St. Brain. All right. We’ll make it official then. Do any board members wish to pull any of the consent items this evening? With that, I would entertain a motion please for approval of agenda items. 7.1. Staff terminations leaves seven. Oh, you’re working at the time. You were you were ready to roll Jim? Yep. 7.1 staff termination and leave 7.2 staff appointments 7.3 minutes for the April 13 2022 regular meeting. April 2020 22 study session, April 27 2022 study session and April 27 2022. regular meeting 7.4 recommendation to hire assistant area. Hire area Assistant Superintendent 7.5 recommendation to higher dean of students at meet high school 7.6 recommendation to higher dean of students at Timberline PK eight 7.7 permanent easement agreement with town of Erie for construction of non potable water line and 7.8 second reading and final adoption of updates to board policy J LCD administering medications to students and JL CE first aid and emergency care. I believe we have a motion by Jim Correct. Well moved. Yes. And a second. Second by miasha.
Unknown Speaker 1:46:45
Mr. Berthold? Yes, Mrs. Brooks? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. This is her ranek? Yes. Dr. martyr. Yes. Mrs. Ragland. Hi, Missy gris.
Unknown Speaker 1:46:56
I thank you, Christy. Hi, Greg. Action Item 8.1. This evening is an adoption of Resolution concerning representation on the city of Longmont urban renewal Laura Authority Board, and Longmont, the city of Longmont HAS HAD A URA for quite some time, and when they go to make changes to that new state’s relatively new state statute says that they are required to invite the various taxing districts to join that committee and be represented. And so that’s why we’re seeing this come before us correct.
Unknown Speaker 1:47:30
Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Good evening. This one is a little bit different than the two we’ve done in the last couple of months. So basically, back in January 1 of 2016 s state law went into effect that said that if a urban renewal authority creates or substantially modifies an urban renewal area, then they have to include a school board member from their taxing district within that and the city of Longmont resides completely within us within our boundaries. They have not done a substantial modification since since January one of 2016, but they are considering it in the future. So they are asking for us to adopt a resolution for Mr. Berthold to be a part of the Longmont urban renewal Authority Board.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:25
Great, perfect. Jim, thank you for serving in that capacity. Yes. Appreciate it. I can’t imagine. Many of us serve on your eyes. I can’t imagine it. Any comments or questions. So would entertain a motion for approval done by Chico and a second by Dick. Great, thank you. Thanks, Greg.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:45
Mr. Berthold? Yes, Mrs. Brooks? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Mrs. tyrannic? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. Mrs. Ragland. I miss Siegrist.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:56
I thanks Christy kale agenda item 8.2. Is the recommendation for secondary World Languages adoption. I think this is my second one in during my time on the board. That means that I am also getting older.
Unknown Speaker 1:49:14
We all are and I got a bit myself thinking about the last time about eight years ago I was Yeah, exactly. Well, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to come before you tonight. And our recommendation at the Board of Education approves the adoption and purchase of the following programs for our world language curriculum. Wayside publishing for Spanish one through four AP Spanish French one through three, VISTA higher learning for AP Spanish, French for AP French, one way education for Spanish for Spanish speakers class and in the immerse me language learning program. And I want to say this is one of the more intricate adoptions we have done And by that we spend grades six through 12. So usually we just do a middle school or we’ll do a high school. We’re not only doing six through 12. We’re also doing AP in this adoption as well. And French, Spanish and Spanish for Spanish speakers program which is grown in a very, very successful program that we have. And this time we’re going to add a lab component to it if it is adopted. One of the things that made this intricate pilot and two year process so successful were the two people standing behind me that want to reduce that we’ll go into more details about our pilot and our proposal. The first is Miss Shawna Paulson. Shana is an instructional coordinator for us in our department. And she has a lot of experience that she’ll talk about a little bit here. So Shana, would you please come up?
Unknown Speaker 1:50:57
Good evening. My name is Shawna Polson and I am an instructional coordinator in the office of assessment curriculum instruction. As a former Spanish teacher of tenures I’m here to represent to present on behalf of the world language adoption committee. In the spring of 2021, the world language adoption committee came together to review and evaluate a variety of secondary Spanish and French curriculum from over 15 different vendors. As part of the evaluation process, our committee members reviewed all text and supplementary materials through the lens of how well aligned they are to the 2020 world language standards, lesson preparation, planning and implementation, as well as how students are assessed. The committee scored all resources and provided feedback on each program. Through a consensus model, the committee selected and piloted the curriculum that we will present to you this evening, the adoption committee selected the wayside curriculum, which includes the middle and high school Spanish text empirical tourists, through couture for French and tree Angulo oppress yellow for AP Spanish. The Wayside curriculum scored four out of four for its strong alignment to in support of the world language 2020 standards, and its focus on communicative based instruction, language learning. And their evaluation teachers observed that the wayside curricula has very strong multimodal supports for both teachers and students. And were impressed by each unit integrated performance assessments or IPAs, and high quality and detailed rubrics. The digital the digital textbooks are well scaffolded for each level of language proficiency and incorporate all AP themes and sub themes throughout. In each unit students have numerous opportunities to practice all three modes of communication, and those are interpersonal, interpretive and presentational. through a variety of interactive and engaging activities. Students are introduced to Spanish and French to the lens of intercultural reality using authentic resources from a variety of Spanish and French speaking countries. Units are structured around essential questions and language acquisition is facilitated through practical application and exploration. Both grammar and vocabulary are taught inductively through context and are supported by authentic resources tied to unit themes. There is very strong educator support, including strategies and suggestions for differentiation and scaffolding, integrating intercultural communication and staying in the target language. During our year long pilot, teachers have met monthly to collaborate on best practices and effective ways to seamlessly transition to the new materials. Wayside has provided multiple opportunities for professional development during our monthly pilot meetings. For our middle and high school Spanish for Spanish speakers programs, our teachers selected curriculum from one way education specifically the enact with us program. Through that through their evaluation committee members concluded that the enacted has curriculum is a rigorous proficiency and inquiry based language instruction program, where each unit offers authentic text, real world applications and innovative learning and context that promotes bilingualism by literacy and biculturalism. Through a thematic based approach, students have opportunities to develop all three modes of communication, as well as develop their intercultural and social cultural competence. The digital platform incorporates modern and culturally relevant resources, which include contemporary and current articles, current event articles, literary texts, videos and audio audio recordings from individuals representing a variety of Spanish speaking countries in real cultural settings, grammars, contextualized and inductive and language structures are presented in an innovative way. Unit assessments determine students strengths and gaps of content knowledge and their mastery of standards. All language components and various text types connected aligned to the actual world readiness standards and prepare students for AP and IB programs as well as college and career for our French for an AP friend classes our committee select a curriculum from VISTA Vista higher learning. The curriculum is built upon communication and supports our current world language standards. The materials are rigorous and structured around the six AP French themes, with preparation for the AP exam. In addition, the VHL curriculum provides current and authentic resources from a variety of francophone countries. Our final recommendation for adoption is the immerse me language learning program. Through its robust interactive platform immerse me brings languages to life through interactive virtual reality based experiences. As a powerful supplement to the other curriculum proposed this evening, students have the opportunity to engage with native speakers in real life scenarios without the real time stress. Research has shown that has shown that some of the most effective and long lasting language learning stems from travel and immersion in for in a foreign country. Although many language teachers would wish they could offer their students this opportunity to travel abroad. They appreciate that immerse me provides the next best thing which is cultural and language immersion in a cinematic experience. Throughout the year long pilot, teachers reported that their students are genuinely engaged as they interact with the vocabulary and language structures from their current unit of study. Students receive immediate feedback and are encouraged by their progress, immerse me addresses the actual standards of communication culturals cultures can make connections and comparisons through the interpersonal and interpretive communication modes. In summary, the curriculum that we recommend for adoption provides a well balanced, rigorous and engaging language learning learning experience that will benefit all middle and high school Spanish and French students in St. Vrain. All programs promote flexibility and sustainability with classroom implementation and ongoing teacher professional development. At this time, I’d like to introduce introduce you to one of our pilot teachers Thomas Jacobson, who was taught Spanish at Longmont High School for 13 years and currently serves as president elect of the Colorado Congress of foreign language teachers. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:57:11
Good evening. As mentioned, I’m Thomas Jacobsen, Spanish teacher at Loma High School. I currently teach levels one three and Advanced Placement Spanish language and culture. I’ve had the opportunity to pilot the entity called tourists three Anglo Aparicio, demos and immerse me materials in these courses through the school year. Entry Kaltura has helped my students be more able to express themselves in our target language. They demonstrate this by accomplishing language tasks, communicative tasks, through integrated poor performance assessments. The IPAs provide students application of language concepts and vocabulary, as well as require them to demonstrate cultural competence. Most recently, for example, my Spanish one students created audio visual presentations in Spanish to convince students from abroad that they should come visit our community, telling them about different attractions in our states. And talking about the weather. And my Spanish three students are currently conducting job interviews discussing in Spanish desired traits and potential employees benefits offered by employers, and even potential for future growth. The units refer to the actual can do statements which I like a lot. These line with the performance benchmarks in the Colorado world language standards. And this This helps my students clearly identify what they’re able to do with the language and self assess their progress on their path towards proficiency. My AP Language and Culture students took their AP test this morning. And by using the Durango uppity Seattle demos and test preparation workbooks, we’ve been able to thoroughly address the six themes that are provided by the College Board that Enloe provides engaging units. My personal favorite is one that’s called his bond, which is just bread. And we spent several weeks talking about bread, different recipes in different parts of the world, but also all the way to the socio economic and cultural implications of the availability of food in different places. So these themes. These topics addressed various themes, and then the 10 mass materials help us to more explicitly address those individual topics. They’ve been able to prepare through a variety of practice activities or are required of them on the test. And most importantly, they’re they’re engaged by interesting, relevant and university level content. Thanks to this I I really have not ever felt so confident about a group of students going into the AP exams. One of the challenges of language teaching and learning is recreating an immersive experience in the classroom. Thanks to the technology available through immerse me, my students have been exposed to situations where they navigate a culture different from their own. Through audio and text conversations, which could take place in a store in Mexico or a classroom in Spain or someone’s home in many country. This helps them focus on improving their pronunciation, their spelling, the fluidity needed to to engage in conversations. So these materials have helped us to have a successful year of language learning. My students are showing progress and their proficiency in our target language, and are prepared for their next year of language study. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 2:01:04
And now, we will take any questions that the board might have about our recommendation.
Unknown Speaker 2:01:10
Thank you, kale. You know, I don’t have a question. But I just do want to point out, as is common practice in St. Bryan, for the curriculum adoption that you do have individuals serve on that committee who don’t pilots, but they are experts in the use of technology and digital curriculum. And so just wanted to point out that they participated in the pilot as well.
Unknown Speaker 2:01:31
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. We had members from District Technology Services. Shawna, who is one of our instructional coaches used to be instructional technology coach was the title. So absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 2:01:43
Great. Thank you. Any questions or comments from from the board this evening? Karen?
Unknown Speaker 2:01:50
Yeah, I think thank you for that great report and the comprehensive work that you’ve done over the last few years to, to help adopt this program. And it’s great to hear the intercultural and the communication and the immersion components to all of the programs. Just all I can say is, merci beaucoup, muchas, gracias.
Unknown Speaker 2:02:13
Very nice. Deck,
Unknown Speaker 2:02:17
I don’t know that I can follow that one. But I choose very, I truly appreciate the multi dimensional approach to learning languages. And certainly, when I took four years of Spanish and in high school, I learned a lot of words, but I didn’t learn much about the culture. And I, and you need to know the culture in order to be able to really engage. So I do truly appreciate that, that your support your approach. And in that regard. I I’m curious art, what are the languages that st brain offers? So the
Unknown Speaker 2:02:57
French and Spanish are major, we still have a smattering of Mandarin Chinese, which was not part of this adoption, because we had been adopted new materials for them as as needed is going along. And so those are two languages that we feel very strong about, we would support others as, as needed. So and then this Spanish for Spanish speakers program, I really want to say that that has been a program that’s grown. It’s given our native Spanish speakers a real opportunity to blossom and as Shanna said, into the biculturalism, by literacy, and then some of them they go, right, they skip Spanish three and four, I hope I’m not speaking out of turn, Thomas, and they go right into AP. And they can do that. And so that’s been a growing program. within our district, that we’ve seen a just a smattering of what do we do with these students to now we have hundreds of students in it, and they’re thriving in it.
Unknown Speaker 2:03:52
Well, facility with languages is increasingly important in the world that we live in now and will live in in the future. And as we see, we are affected by what happens in many languages, and it’s great to have a strong foundation, at least for our students in these two. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 2:04:19
Yes, I’ll say donkey. And that one we have here, but maybe you will convince you. But thank you so much for the presentation. It’s got I’m glad to see that we’re doing a lot in the area of languages. I think I was just talking to a friend that just recently moved from here to Texas and was asking, Why did their student their child not have to have the foreign language as a graduation requirement? I said, Well, we don’t have it as a requirement, but we definitely have lots of people who are involved in the program. So and I know back when I was in high school, it definitely was a requirement but I love my French I don’t remember any of it today, though. I can understand it. have a hard time still speak Can’t but um, I Mike, one question I had was the immersion immerse me program that you have this do the students are the students allowed are able to I should say access it outside of the classroom?
Unknown Speaker 2:05:14
Yes, they could access it on their iPads. And we’re also buying VR headsets. I had hoped to bring it to the board, maybe sometime it can be invited back to show it to you if you’re willing to try it. But we have the they are really on VR headset. So part of the adoption down the road will be to buy the appropriate VR headsets that will be in that. So yeah. And by the way, getting back to your your comment and question, Dr. Martyr, the Mercy program has a menu of languages too, so that we can as we look at it, if we do want to add anything that’s already there, that whole immersive part of it. So there’s German, there’s Japanese, there’s Arabic, there’s all that that’s included in this adoption for that part of the program.
Unknown Speaker 2:06:02
That’s great. And as we become more global, our students as you saw these young people earlier as they become more global, because they will, in their their studies, and then as they grow, knowing more than one language is definitely going to be important, as well as probably a priority for them. So thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker 2:06:23
You know, one thing that I’m excited about, because I do think there’s a real possibility to offer more languages. One of the challenges we have is finding teachers that can teach those languages. But with the telecommunications initiative, we have the opportunity, if we can find, like one teacher that could teach what whatever language we’re talking about, that could open up to kids all over the district all over the high school and middle school scene, so to speak. And so we could get one teacher in a Chinese course sodas, and then we could have five or six kids that want to take it at this school six or seven, that kind of thing, or even more. And I really think that that will be that’s part of our vision around expanding opportunities for kids to where we can offer many more, I really think we can offer many more languages that way, and breach that challenge of finding teachers. So that’s something that we’re excited about.
Unknown Speaker 2:07:27
All right. I think we’re ready to vote. Thank you very much. You’re all very patient. And with that, I would entertain a motion for approval of 8.2. by Karen, second and Dick.
Unknown Speaker 2:07:39
Mr. Berthold? Yes. Mrs. Brooks? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Mrs. Her ranek? Yes. Dr. Martyr, Mrs. Ragland. I miss secret.
Unknown Speaker 2:07:50
I thank you.
Unknown Speaker 2:07:53
Thank you very much. Yeah, let’s vote 815 will be plenty.
Unknown Speaker 2:07:59
I’d like to make a motion to extend our meeting to eat 15, please.
Unknown Speaker 2:08:03
And a second by miasha. All in favor? Aye. Hi. 8.3 is a recommendation, Brandon for approval of first reading and final adoption of board policy J IC D which is bullying prevention and education. And my understanding, based on the board packet is this is pretty straightforward, following statute and we will approve it in its entirety today and will not see it back again. Correct.
Unknown Speaker 2:08:29
That’s correct, Madam President. Agenda Item 8.3, g i C D E estrous. Asterisk, bullying, prevention and education. During the 2021 legislative session, Assembly passed House Bill 2112 21. So this is last year’s session, which among other things required the Colorado Department of Education to update its publication entitled, bullying, bullying, prevention and education, best practices and model policy. And the legislation required school districts after the model policy was updated, required school districts and BOCES to incorporate the quote approaches policies and practices outlined in the model policy in their local board policies CDE promulgated and subbed updates on February 21 of 2022. Then the Colorado Association of School Boards worked closely with CDE and developing the mala model policy and revisions. And those revisions are reflected in the recommended changes to board policy, J i c, d E. And I’ll stop there to see if there are any questions.
Unknown Speaker 2:09:46
Thank you, Brandon. Any questions or comments? Tick?
Unknown Speaker 2:09:50
I just have a not so much a question but a request for sort of an explanation about what a term ought under Support and referrals on page three of four. The second bullet that says, in terms of we’re supporting and referring support targets of bullying in ways that avoid increasing the likelihood of discipline. And I think I know what that means. I would appreciate an explanation.
Unknown Speaker 2:10:24
Well, I can take a crack at it or if Tim, you’d like to take a crack at it, I defer to you.
Unknown Speaker 2:10:30
Yeah. I mean, as Brandon’s explained, a lot of this language comes straight from the changes to the statute, but or the policy that they the statute required them to kind of formulate for the districts to adopt down the road. But I think the the issue with bullying sometimes is that a student that’s a targeted playing, gets disciplined for the the reactions to the bullying or other, you know, other things that might arise from the bullying consequence. They want to make sure that any policy that have school board adopts takes into consideration that potentiality and and addresses that in policy that they don’t have targets of bullying, getting subjected to school discipline for being the victim of a bullying situation. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 2:11:15
Thank you. That’s what I thought it was. But it was sufficiently I was sufficiently confused. I guess his answer is place. But thank you that that answers my question.
Unknown Speaker 2:11:32
All right, if there aren’t any other Chico, did you have something? Any other questions or comments? We would entertain a motion then for approval of action? Action Item 8.3. So moved by Chico?
Unknown Speaker 2:11:46
Second, and Karen.
Unknown Speaker 2:11:48
Mr. Berthold? Yes. Mrs. Brooks? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Mrs. tyrannic? Yes. Dr. martyr? Yes. Mrs. Ragland? I miss Seacrest.
Unknown Speaker 2:12:01
Brendan. Thank you. We don’t have any discussion items this evening. So that does bring us to adjournment. will recognize and say thank you one more time to our nurses on this special day. For them. We will convene again here in the boardroom on Wednesday, May 18. For a study session, and that will be to review the 2023 proposed budget. With that I would entertain a motion for adjournment please. So moved by Jim and Misha. All in favor, aye. Goodnight.