Adams 12 Board of Education Meeting 4/15/2026

001All right, we will get the meeting um called to order. Start with roll call. Director Anya Wuaebo. Here. Director Assad Lucas. Here. Director Battistelli. Here. Director Goldstein. Director Marsh Holschen. Here. So President Goldstein is trapped at the Capitol right now. She will be here said hopefully around 6:30 if everything goes as planned on the floor. So we will move forward and then when she gets here she will be taking over. So we will um move for approval of agenda. So I would recommend an action to approve the agenda as stated. So moved. Second. Director Anya Wuaebo. Aye. Director Assad Lucas. Aye. Director Battistelli. Aye. Director Marsh Holschen. Aye. All right. So for those that are able to stand we will stand for Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States

002of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. So we will move forward with the superintendent day and we have Deputy Superintendent Bo Fopper here to give that to us. Thank you. It's great to be with you all tonight. A quick acknowledgement of our superintendent's absence. Chris is out in Washington D.C. right now with other state leaders lobbying our federal legislators and leaders around interests related to public education in the state of Colorado. I think we can all agree that there's probably no one better to articulate those needs and challenges and we're thinking about him and wishing him well tonight. I also wanted to take a minute and acknowledge that a week from today is Administrative Professionals Day. And in Adams

00312 we are so fortunate to have scores and scores of really excellent administrative professionals. Our folks especially our schools are the first ones that our parents and students encounter. Their friendly faces, their helpful connectors. They help a lot of us in our leadership positions organize our work, follow through, hold us accountable. And just do a wonderful job of taking care of all of us in the system and making us look great and they do it all humbly and with very little fanfare. So the least we can do next Wednesday is to celebrate them and there's no doubt that some administrative professionals have it harder than others and I think I would be missing the mark if I didn't identify that the person to my right Stephanie Hicks gets to support all of you, Chris and

004I and that's quite a load but you do it so well and we're so lucky to have you and appreciate you. So thank you Stephanie and thank you to all the administrative professionals throughout Adams 12. Sometimes it's like juggling cats. Or herding cats I guess more like right. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thanks so much Bo. All right, we will move on with Board of Education comments, recognition awards and vision. We will start with Ike. All right. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you Vice President Assad Lucas. Um it's been a long time since we met so there's quite a bit to go through. And I will try and be brief. Um I've continued to have internal meetings with some of the staff here at the ESC. Most recently I had a chance to sit down with

005Megan as well as Tim. So had a good chance to take a look at how learning services and HR works and really appreciate their time in taking me through that. Two school visits. I've [clears throat] had a chance to continue to visit schools that are in my district. Yesterday had a chance to see Stargate. Had a chance to see Robin Green, Dr. Green and uh I always drive by the school but never have been inside of it. So I had a chance to see some of the construction, some of the kids. They're preparing for some of them are preparing for a world competition in robotics. So it was fascinating as an engineer to to talk about their design and and activities around that. I've also had a chance to go to Prospect Ridge Academy where

006April Wilkins had a chance to show me around the school. So had a chance to see a couple charter schools for the first time. And finally I went out to Washington Square future forward and had a chance to get to know Marv and as well as Tess. And really absolutely incredible all the work that they do in terms of preparing the kids for for being firefighters, EMTs, you name it. Really really good to see. I see [clears throat] the New America school tomorrow and so that should be a good experience. And so that is what I have on the agenda there. In terms of miscellaneous activities quite a bit of those. Um on the 12th we had the Five Star Community Food Bank which Shannon Hancock and her team. We distributed something I wrote it

007down 1300 pounds of food to a total of 143 families over 700 people. So it definitely was a great opportunity for the community to pull together and and support those of us who are challenged in these times of high inflation and the cost of everything going up right. So that was a really good experience. We had the Adams County mayors and community or commissioners youth awards on the 19th. So Mayor Coleman as well as Thornton Council and Chris Russell were there to offer awards to various students in Adams 12 and that was really really good to see. And see all the kids get recognized for all the good work that they do. I've had a chance to uh be involved in the award season. So we've had the various awards and I've tried to get

008to as many as possible. I've I've gone to the core award with Principal Payne I believe it is and the D D and E award as well and so that was it's really good to see the recognition of our certified and classified folks because I mean we all have positions and jobs we like to be recognized and and they're doing great work for our kids right. We had the Northland Coral play which was included a community theater and Stucky Stooky Elementary actually had some participants there. And so the kids were singing, they were dancing, they were it was wonderful to see someone who is is clearly perhaps you know older, experienced and and someone and and she's with someone who's in first grade. So you [clears throat] get the chance to see the community really

009come together regardless of age which was really really inspiring to see. So had a chance to go there last weekend and see their performance. Um Finally and and sorry I I can ramble on forever my wife and kids will will say that but I'm trying to try and keep it short. Um we have something our first soul dinner event standing for strength, opportunity, unity and legacy. It's an opportunity for the community to come together and as one and celebrate our African-American community and and family and kids in Adams 12. It's going to be our first event on Friday actually right here at ESC from 5:00 to 7:00. We're going to have line dancing, we're going to have singing, we're going to be playing games. So it's going to be really community event and and Maria's

010been outstanding in in kind of shepherding us through that. So looking forward to seeing it, being a part of it. Giving a little bit of a speech. We have 80 apparently 80 people signed up to go. So I thought didn't think it would be that warmly received but it is. So I'll provide an update on that but if anyone wants to come the entire community is encouraged. Soul food, line dancing, who could say no. All right and that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you so much. Alexis. All right, well thank you. It's also legislative session for me so I don't get to go out a lot um but I was able to go to STEM Lab Mountain or Thunder this Thunder Vista basketball game girls basketball game and that was a lot of fun

011and they had two teams. So STEM got to play twice and they enjoyed that. And the Play It Studio and they just have a great program there. Um we I think those are really the only things um outside of the Capitol I've been able to do. But I know that it's CMAS time so I just wanted to acknowledge all the testing and um that it is a lot on our kiddos and it is a lot on our teachers and I think that we need to acknowledge and give grace cuz that it's just very stressful testing for all and um I had more but I think that's it. I'm tired. Thank you. Paula. So I have a few things. I've attended a couple of um the interest-based bargaining sessions um with DTA and the administration. Um

012I also I have a somewhat lengthy list because it's been a while since we met. Um And I hope you all had a wonderful uh spring break. Mine did not overlap with my job so um I attended Lee Coca's memorial service. Uh it was really lovely. Um for those of you who don't know Lee, he was our emotional support person over there before this gentleman. And it was really nice. His family invited everyone to attend here in this room and [snorts] they had a nice display of everything his grandkids had made for him over the years back there. Um And it was wonderful to learn new things about him like Jackson 5 was his favorite album and he listened to it all the time. And uh he was a big motorcycle enthusiast and most importantly

013it he was a great dad. Um I'm so grateful to his family for inviting us into that space to to remember him um and because I'll always sort of see him over there >> [laughter] >> granting me grace when I'm always the person who shows up late because I had to use bathroom. Um so um yeah, that was a wonderful thing to attend. I also attended the elementary visual art show at the Front Range Community College. I always get to do grades 3 through 5. It's one of my favorite things to do. I love seeing the students' artwork. This year um I noticed a theme around sort of a 3D buffalo painting where the kids would cut out a buffalo, painted, and then affix it to paper against a a backdrop and that was really

014nice. And then there were also 3D paintings where the kids made um aliens out of clay and then used paper plates to make it like half of a spaceship and so it's always wonderful to see how the talented work that the kids bring um to those activities. Um I attended the Northglenn High School food truck problem-based learning presentations so this year and that was very tasty. >> [laughter] >> If you didn't go, you missed out. You should volunteer to be an uh you an uh What are we going to do that? We're assessors, right? We We evaluator, yeah. And the problem that they explored was um how to bring more allergy-friendly foods to food trucks in a way that's still um affordable for the food truck operator. And they actually had several food truck operators

015there as evaluators as well and so um me having a son who can't have dairy and a a husband who can't have uh gluten, it was especially important and there were some really tasty foods. I tried something called a Korean hot dog I'd never tried before. Um there was also some fried macaroni and cheese and that was kind of amazing to me and it was really tasty. Um but yeah, the kids are really creative and they were learning a lot from talking with those people who actually operate those businesses and so I saw lots of possibilities um for them in the future. Um On that note, I want to invite any nonprofits or businesses who may be listening or who you folks in the audience may know um to submit problem suggestions to the Northglenn

016High School STEM uh coordinators because right now they're looking for more problems for their students to focus on. And they've done some pretty amazing problems in the past. They had they've explored why attendance is going down among certain student populations, how to get people more involved in uh civic participation. It's not just STEM activities so if if you're affiliated with any of those and you're willing to be an expert for that group, please do reach out. Um again, I hope everyone had a nice break and you came back rested. We've got graduations ahead and a whole budget thing we're trying to figure out so it's going to be a packed month and a half I have a I I sense so thank you. Thank you. All right, so yeah, it's been stated quite a while

017since we've met last. Um Spring break also did not I did not get a break. My kids lived their best lives that week. Um and come back to see mass testing. So it's very get a break and then go full force. Uh so as stated, we have our art show display currently going on at Front Range Community College. So we always get to select art and it's probably one of the hardest things I have to do every year. Um seriously, it really is hard. Um yeah, there we have such so much talent in our district and it's really exciting to be able to walk through the halls, through the library um and just get to see the amazing things that our our students are capable of doing. Uh with that being said, then we get

018to have our the district art ceremony celebration next Thursday here at the district building. So if anyone is able to attend or if your art has been selected, hope to see you there. Uh We've had budget meetings, meetings about declining enrollment which we will hear more about this evening. Uh On last Friday, I attended the Westminster annual awards with with Lori Present Goldstein. Um And four Adams 12 teachers were nominated for educator of the year. And one of them was uh James Hawk who was at our at our table. Um and he is a teacher at Mountain Range but yeah, we had an educator Man, I cannot remember all the schools now. Um yeah, four four Adams 12 educators. So it was really exciting. We have some great teachers, great schools that serve the Westminster

019city but all obviously Adams 12. Um Yesterday, I got to go on a field trip with my my seventh grader over here. She goes to Century and it's a it's a family consumer science. What is the class? Is it Yes, okay, okay. I call it home ec and I get I get shamed. No, it's definitely not that anymore as I am informed every time I say it. Um but anyway, so uh their class got to come over and um view the uh culinary program and um talk about what that looks like for them if they choose to go into that career, make crepes. Uh so it was really fun. She actually made eye contact with me and talked to me and even let me have a bite of whatever she made so it was it

020was a win. Uh cuz I was informed I was not allowed to talk. Going to but again, great ways of building and bridging that gap between our middle schools and high schools and letting students know those opportunities that they have um and it really for me it kind of solidified those choices that we made when going for the mill and building the programming for uh future forward programming into middle schools because they loved it and they were so excited about it and just opening up those opportunities for middle schoolers. Um so once they get into high school, they have a path and they have something to look really look forward to if they didn't if they didn't have that already. Um last thing I really want to encourage people to do is if you have

021not already signed up for the five star 5K uh run. See annual, I think it's May it's a little later this year than usual, May 9th or something. >> [snorts] >> Um I'm guessing Lisa tried avoiding snowstorms and weather. But yeah, it's it's such an an amazing um uh district event. Last year the weather was perfect. The year before there was a major blizzard the night before and so not as many people showed up as those of us that have been there every year, we were there and we ran it. Uh So but yeah, it's just a great event. Uh goes to great causes and um and then we have the uh What's the the scholarship award afterwards? The recognition. The Is it It's not badger. No. The Adams County um scholar award that's Yeah.

022>> awarded by the county. Yeah. Yeah, so we get to award the students and um just recognize them in their hard work after. So it's just it's a great event. So highly recommend registering if you have not already. Um and I think if you register by this Friday, I could be wrong so don't quote me, you're guaranteed a shirt. So let that be motivation. All right, that is all I have. Um we will move forward with public comment. Good evening. The board welcomes public comment to learn about the preferences and concerns of the Adams 12 Five Star community. Each speaker will have 3 minutes. Please use the microphone and state your name and city of residence before beginning your comments. Please give any handouts or information you would like to share with with the board

023to Ryan Parker. >> [snorts] >> A 3-minute timer will be set for each speaker. Please keep an eye on the timer and kindly conclude your remarks when the time has expired. Uh we have one speaker tonight, Megan Cruz. Yeah. Yeah. You can step up. Yeah. >> The the mic Push the button. >> need that for people watching at home and I think there might be a button you need to turn on. Kim might help you with that. Hello. Perfect. Thank you. I'm going to use my phone and I might cry, so I apologize. It's okay. Thank you for having me today. My family, this is my husband Raymond and my daughters Moxie and Poppy. Moxie's the older one. She goes to Glacier Peak Elementary. She's in third grade. On March 5th, we had an incident

024at school where another child put his hands around her neck and squeezed. Um she immediately felt pain and when he released, she could still feel him on her neck. She went and told her music teacher like we all hope that kids do. Um the music teacher was a substitute that day and brought that concern to her home grade or her home class teacher, Mr. Johnson made the kid apologize to my daughter. She came home from school that day and was in tears and her voice was raspy. I'm a victim advocate at the DA's office, specifically in the child victim unit, and I know the signs and symptoms of strangulation and the outcomes and the consequences of that. So, I knew it was serious. All of my advocacy went out the window. I had no idea

025what to do. I consulted with some people at work. I called the Department of Human Services and I was forced to make a police report on a 9-year-old. Due to his age, they couldn't file charges and my time's almost up, so I'm going to wrap it up really quickly. That child is still having contact with my daughter despite the school telling me that there's a no contact order. They have characterized his contact with her as apologies and made it seem okay. They've made comments to my daughter that boys don't process the same way girls do. Our family has made requests that both students get the fair education they deserve and be separated. There's a multiple different third grade classrooms that the other child could be removed to and they've denied that request. My daughter doesn't

026feel safe at school and we've had to pull her out of class. So, right now she's not going to school, which is something that impacts her. I'm just asking for your help. I know that there's laws. I went to try to get a civil protection order and because of his age, we couldn't do that either. All of this is gutting me, but I need my daughter to feel safe emotionally and physically while she's at school. And so, I'm just hoping that we can come together as a community to make sure both of these students are educated, supported, and safe. Thank you for sharing your story, Megan. Ms. Cruz, thank you for sharing that comment with us tonight. If you as a family have a few minutes, I'd like you to maybe connect with my colleague,

027Megan Cain, who's our chief academic officer, so she could hear more from you and we could open up those lines and start to work through this, but thank you Yeah. >> for making your comment tonight. Thank you. We are going to move on to the board committee liaison reports for DAC, FAC, and LRPC. Um we'll start with DAC. All right. Thank you, Vice President Asaad Lucas. Um we had our meeting on the 8th and unfortunately I was very cold and freezing my you know what off in Nova Scotia, Canada. Uh business trip uh to a wind farm. Um so, I did not have a chance to go to the meeting, but the meeting minutes were sent out and um I think Bo, you're going to go through that a little later. Uh the declining enrollment

028discussion came up and basically the the district's thoughts and and status on that was shared with the DAC team. It's public information. It can be taken can be reviewed by the public right now. Um we also talked about mill levy override updates in terms of how the mill levy override monies are being spent. Um and I'll just read off some numbers. 25.1 million um still going to compensation, another 1.4 to student and uh safety and student mental health, another 9.2 to expanded learning opportunities um for for our students. And finally, uh in terms of the bond, uh some of the different bond um monies in terms of how they're being allocated to the various schools was discussed. That's far too much to go through, but again, it's public information. Please do take a look um

029on the district site and find it under DAC. If there are any questions, you can always reach out to the DAC folks. I'm the DAC liaison as well. So, that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Is there a FAC report? Um FAC is meeting again tomorrow, but they met um March 19th and discussed um with uh they got a briefing from Margie on deferred maintenance um and facilities and then they will be getting the the the briefing on consolidation tomorrow and will be presenting to the board. I know they're looking for FAC volunteers, so if anyone's online listening um to present to the board for May 6th. So, we will see them then. And I attended um the LR uh PAC meeting. So, there has actually been two since our last meeting cuz it's

030been a while. Um we the the March meeting was March 5th. It was the Thursday right after our last board meeting um and we met at the uh VMAC, the Veterans uh Memorial Aquatic Center just to understand more of the um operations of it, the building needs. Um a lot goes into building, like a lot. Um and it's a it's a beautiful facility and uh and not even just for our students, but contracting out with other programs and teams. Um and there's just a lot to offer and even talking they shared even how to stay competitive um in order to attract more people to rent it out. So, so um yeah, we got a tour the facilities, uh talked to maintenance or the uh maintenance crew. Yeah, it was a great meeting. The uh other

031the second meeting, the uh April meeting was the 9th, April 9th and um just talked a lot about what we're going to hear tonight with uh declining enrollment, school closures, repurposing, um uh consolidations, things like that. So, yeah. So, we will the presentation we got on LRPC is I'm assuming the one that we're going to hear here soon. So. All right. Thank you. Thank you all. I got to leave that on. I keep turning it off cuz I'm so used to doing that. It's like habit. After someone's done talking. All right. Um we will move forward for board business. The first thing on the agenda under board business is instructional materials presentation by uh Ms. Brady. All right. Good evening, board members, deputy superintendent. Really glad to be here this evening to talk about our

032recent instructional materials review committee. Um the purpose of this committee is to review instructional materials for use in the classroom. And so, you'll see that um we start first by making sure that those materials are aligned to standards and aligned to our Colorado academic standards or to the common core. And so, that's the first step in this um process when our committee comes together. And so, we begin with that as our first kind of check to make sure that it's aligned. And then um in alignment with policy 6230, the committee works off of a consensus model. And so, all of the materials that you're looking at today, we didn't have any that we couldn't come to consensus on. So, the second um bullet on here, we don't really have to consider because we are bringing

033forward um a strong recommendation to you that all of these materials should be considered for approval with um a wholehearted consensus approval. Um the committee was pretty firm that we believe that all of these meet not only Colorado academic standards, but also that we believe that they should be utilized in the classroom. So, no need for our chief academic officer to weigh in here. And um again, we really go through an identification process first to determine if whether a school brings it forward or whether it's our content team bringing it forward in support of a new course or program or whether it's just an update to a series that already exists. In what you'll see today, we have some materials that are brought forward by schools when you're looking at novels. And then we have

034some materials when we look at the math pathways materials, those are actually brought forward by our content team. So you're going to get a little bit of both. No updates and you are going to see some things that are part of a new course pathway with the math materials. And the folks that serve on our instructional materials committee, it is a multi-shareholder group representing me as the representative for the chief academic officer, but we have building leaders from all three levels, classroom teachers from all three levels. We have students who are favorite part of this particular committee, and then we also have community members. So we really strive to have a lot of voice in terms of do these represent the values and perspectives of our community when we are considering these instructional materials. And

035like I I've already mentioned, our first check is do we believe that these meet the Colorado academic standards and that's our first real kind of check for instructional materials. The next is is it aligned to what we believe are our students' needs and the content and the data available based on what we know about our current curriculum. And so we definitely analyze that. And then we've got a rubric that we look at that includes these other important components. That is it appropriate to the interest ability maturity level of the students that we're recommending it for? Is it aligned um to what we know that those students are learning about in that particular grade level? Is it appropriate? Does it stimulate their factual understanding or their literary appreciation and aligned to aesthetic values and ethical standards

036for that particular grade level? And then finally, we want our students to have multiple perspectives. So we want critical analysis and controversial issues to be discussed in multiple perspectives so that critical reasoning and critical analysis. We also want especially if it's something in relationship to the American experience, we want various different religious, ethnic and cultural groups represented and then we want to show fairness in relationship to those different perspectives. So all of those components are on the rubric that that committee is evaluating when they are looking at these instructional materials. So you can see if you are looking at the evaluation, we looked at some novels and all of these novels were brought forth by 12th grade English teachers, but when we approve them, we are approving them for use in high school. So we

037go by grade level band. So these five novels were all considered for high school and then in the non-fiction space, we looked at two resources for our math pathways. So just to talk a little bit more about our fiction texts, those again came from high school teachers who have all taken these to their school accountability committees. They were on display in their respective high schools and their school accountability committees felt like yes, these are appropriate texts. They do provide windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors into perspectives that our students may have or could be reflective of their experience or into an experience that our students need to have because they don't have that as part of their lived experience and they recommended that they move forward for district-wide approval. And again, our committee felt like

038they were all worthy of approval. These are the texts and no concerns about any of them. The one that was we did have a little bit of interesting comment about is Woman of Light. It is a Denver author and there was one review you'll probably see in our notes that it did say it was for an older audience. But again, this is a 12th grade literature course, but we are approving it for the 9th through 12th grade band of students. So I think it's just important that you know, teachers know when it's for an older audience. And then for math pathways, we are recommending two texts as part of the work that's being done with the Colorado Department of Education. CDE has really identified that students who are taking math classes in high school and

039needs to be much more aligned to their post-secondary plans and to the college and career um work that they're doing. Whether they intend to go to a post-secondary institution and have a college major that is more in the humanities lane or might be more connected to a workforce task that is not necessarily always calculus-based. You may have a STEM career, but not every student needs to be on a trajectory of you know, algebra one, geometry, algebra two and then going directly into trig and precalc. So having more flexibility in that. And so they've really started to talk more with school districts about how do you change your learning to align with that? And so they've done a lot of work with various different leaders in the math pathway space, community colleges, post-secondary institutions um the

040institution of higher education. You'll notice that there are Colorado math leaders on here. And they really have leaned into this space to say what should those math pathways be? And they've ultimately gotten to a place that in our system, it means students will take integrated math one, integrated math two and then they have choices when they get to their third level of math. So they could take integrated math three and be on a traditional pathway if they are interested in a STEM career, which that would then mean that they take trig or precalculus and then they go to calculus or students may have an option of taking mathematical modeling or exploring data science depending on their post-secondary trajectory. And so the two resources that we were looking at were aligned to those two new classes,

041mathematical modeling and exploring data science. And so you'll see a textbook that we were considering for statistics and probability with applications and then an online resource called Math Medic, which we piloted both of these this year. The teachers really loved them. They felt like they were both the just right resource and then our committee when we looked at them, they really liked that they also had more real world applications for students who might be going into these post-secondary pathways, especially if you were going to go like I said into a more humanities-based kind of post-secondary um like major in college that you would have experiences that would be more realistic for your math classes in college and that you wouldn't necessarily have to jump straight into like an AP stats course. You could take this

042exploring data science before going into AP stats. So there's a trajectory of learning that made a lot more sense. So these two resources again were wholeheartedly recommended by the committee. So I'm going to pause and answer some questions. Any questions? Yes, actually. Thank you Kim for taking us through this. Yeah. >> I have a comment and a question. I love the idea of of looking at kind of an application for math specifically. And small story little story, I took statistics in undergrad and grad and I hated both of them. Didn't understand them, didn't get them. And it was not until I got to to Ford Motor Company about eight years after I graduated from from grad school where we started using statistics to solve engineering problems, manufacturing problems in a Ford F-150 factory or talking

043to customers during customer labs, that statistics made sense. It was like a light went off and now I still I'm a senior director in quality. I love statistics. So I really like Yeah, I know I love statistics. Um but I really love the idea of of actually having applications in the real world to to statistics for instance in math. If we go back a couple slides, I noticed that with the math one What was it? Yes, [clears throat] math three integrated math three and then there was exploring data science and statistics. There was environmental studies under one and there was environmental science under the other. I'm curious, what's the difference between those two if if you can speak to that? Yeah, I think that's the way that our state is really defining those trajectories and

044what a student's major might be and what would be appropriate coursework for that level third level of math. I think there's still a little bit of it could be either or in terms of a student might take exploring data science and or they might be able to take integrated math three. Um We're still kind of working out some of those, you know, it could be in especially like with integrated math because some of those concepts are still integrated into what we have in integrated math three. It's not a traditional just algebra two class. Whereas if you're in a much more traditional approach to the way that you would teach a trajectory like algebra one, geometry, algebra two it might be more linear and might exclude some of those respective potential majors down the road or

045careers down the road. But because we still teach it in an integrated fashion in Adams 12, there still could be a little crossover. Oh yeah. That perfectly makes sense. There's definitely going to be some overlap. Thank you, Kim. You're welcome. I was just going to say that I'm thrilled that we're adding you know statistics and data analysis to this. Um in that reflecting on my career as an English professor I do think that one of the difficulties facing people today and an important part of civic literacy is the ability to understand statistics because they're so often used in arguments and people have a really difficult time comprehending. Like Like Ike said, what's the point, right? But they're so often used against us. So I'm glad to see it. I would echo that as well and

046we want students to see themselves as mathematicians. So in their third year of math to continue to take take it in their fourth year. So to have some success and not tap out. So what could be the option in the fourth year for for a student to? I did have one other follow-up question and it was about sort of the approach of the textbooks because I did not get a chance to go by and see those. But does it use the the inquiry-based approach that problem-based or project-based? Yeah, lots of inquiry, lots of applied and real-life scenarios in order to get students thinking about the math which was really exciting and why our teachers really loved the both the online text and the traditional text. I have a question. So [clears throat] some of our

047students are a little bit more accelerated. Now, I mean the way it's been. Is there a segway Is there a way for that to happen in this particular Yes, definitely. Like just because a student is accessing the third level of math doesn't mean that that's happening in their junior year of high school. Some students are accessing that third level of math sometimes in their you know sophomore year. Well now, but with this new proposed uh is that going to continue? Yeah, absolutely. And there's you know, the pathway just continues on for them based on whichever whichever pathway they they choose, there's still the continuation of of math after that. I don't do math anything. But I'm excited for the books and I'm excited I have two new books to read that I took down. Um

048and I was with my daughter at the library and she saw the I'm not your typical Mexican daughter, I think it is and she's like, oh they highlighted that at my library. I'm so excited. So like it is I think we forget how important books are to kids in this digital age. So I'm excited to see those. Thank you. Great. I also don't do math. That's why I became a therapist. However, I didn't research my undergraduate well because I got a bachelor's of science where you had to do statistics and it was awful and I almost failed. Um But that being said, I I I appreciate um this model and the pathways mainly for that reason because I think you know, if I had it my way thinking back at high school and if I

049had these picks, I'm like, well, I want to go into psychology or whatever. So I don't really need that. But you do as much as you don't want to cuz statistics is a big part of our job and research and data. And so but giving them in a way that makes sense to them and that they can understand it and then apply it in a way that won't make them lose interest in it. Whatever that that uh model or that path is. And it's just a highlight. Like I said, the comments about books same. I mean even at the book fair or when we were at the middle school book fair fair the our fourth grader even recognized like, oh I saw this book and um >> [clears throat] >> and just how important it

050is that we continue fostering that and exposing them at at least understanding so when they get to that secondary um and when they are assigned to it. Yeah, it's a passion. So Thank you. Can I ask a couple of just logistical sorts of questions and you've told me this before and I apologize. But this only happens once a year in my defense and so I always forget what actually happens. So with this list of books, particularly if there's a a book that might have sensitive material, there's always a guide or some sort of material provided to the teacher to help them understand that and make decisions based on that, correct? Yes, and at the secondary level, um we ask our teachers to publish a syllabus where they also let parents know what materials, especially with

051novels, that they'll be using with their students at the beginning of the year. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you. And there's an opt-out right option? Yes, in our English language arts classes. Yes. Thank you, Paula, for asking that question because I know it's on the minds of people and though we we do approve these 9-12, I think the pieces that Kim mentioned ensure that both our teachers and our parents are making an informed decision on either end of that equation. So thanks for the question. I just had a quick comment on the the math piece. Very much aligned with our work right now to create as much choice and relevancy for kids and there's often this perception that we have to choose between relevance and rigor. And I think part of this process is we

052don't. We can keep things rigorous and still find ways for it to be relevant to students so that both of those happen in unison. This does speak though to the importance that we have really effective counseling teams and support teams to help kids make a informed choice and a smart choice about their pathways. But also I think supports our long-standing and even amplified recently commitment to finding ways that kids can find themselves and what speaks to them in their coursework. So I appreciate cuz the the level three has been a challenge one size fits all for quite a while and I think this approach it's not again, it's not um dialing [snorts] back the rigor in any way. It's finding ways for rigor and relevance to live in tandem and I appreciate the work. And

053I think back to my own high school experience. If you wanted to continue to take math, there was only one way to go. And this really gives kids options that they can see themselves in and thinking about how they continue that math trajectory. So being able to graduate from high school and say, you know, I really like math and I can do math is a completely different trajectory. There is only one other thing. Uh I'm sorry I'm so scatterbrained about the comments tonight. I'm looking at the three different options. The one thing that's missing and I will admit I have mixed feelings about it is artificial intelligence and the programming around that language models, that sort of thing. I do know it's going to be a big career um choice for a lot of people.

054And so just having that there too for for the counselors to under understand and help kids find those paths would be Yeah, and these are just some examples of types of potential careers, types of potential majors. I think one of the things that we recognize in learning services is that we need to be thinking about how AI fits into all of the different careers that are coming forward because it has to be part of integrated learning in every single industry and every single post secondary option that we provide for kids. Yeah, the the follow up with what Paul has said when it comes to AI, you know, 30 years ago machine learning we would think it belongs in computer science. But you you're spot on Kim. It it actually covers all of these topics, all

055three areas. So it definitely will be a challenge to incorporate it, put some guard, you know, guard rails on it and and make sure that we use it responsibly, right? Yeah, absolutely. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right, just for those listening at home. If you haven't noticed, >> [laughter] >> thanks. Sorry, it gets a little crazy about now under the dome and today was one of those days. But thank heavens for the expressway. All right. Um Are we on to the next one? Operating limit, okay. Operating limitations 2.1 closure consolidating and repurposing schools. I believe that we have a presentation for that too. We do and it's going to come from right here. Okay. So I'll be uh doing my best to uh drive and navigate and share all this right from here, but

056uh if you need to slow me down, please don't hesitate to do that. As was mentioned uh during some of the earlier comments tonight, the presentation I'm about to share with you is one that we have already started to share with several audiences in our system. Our principals have seen this at their uh March principal meeting. We've shared it with uh LR PAC and DAC. Uh we will be sharing something very similar uh as we start to go out and do some uh interacting with uh our city partners throughout the district and I think it's important tonight uh for you as a board to see that same message and be able to react to it. So obviously it's it's no surprise to any of us here at the dais or in this room or watching

057at home that we find ourselves in a period of declining enrollment in Adams 12 and think the first thing to note in that space is that this is not at all a problem that's unique to Adams 12 in any way. If you've been following local news coverage, coverage nationally, you know that declining enrollment has had a broad impact up and down the front range throughout the state and indeed nationally. And we always want to begin, well, what's what are the causes? What's the background related to to that? And first and foremost, the the piece that is having the broadest impact across all areas throughout the state and the country is a declining birth rate. We know that the current generation of millennials and up and coming Gen Zs are just having fewer kids. And if

058you look at the graph here that's provided by um the state demography office, you can see uh kind of current and projected population growth in the state of Colorado. And what you notice here as you look forward is the largest age group uh largest expanding age group in our state right now happens to be 65 and over. Um That is not a group that we serve in K12 as it expands. Uh we're happy to have been a part of their past, I would hope, but uh certainly not a part of their current or future. Simultaneously, if you look at the bottom of the graph in the navy color there, that's the 0 to 18 group. That obviously is the group that we serve and and will serve and you can see that's a population that's

059actually in a slight decline right now. And even looking forward out uh 10, 15, 20 years from now, you see that that uh decline levels off, but we never at this point are projecting growth forward. So that declining birth rate uh is really um the most substantial cause for declining enrollment here in Adams 12 um and across the front range. It's reflected in that aging population, which really uh speaks to the the last two uh bullets on here, which is a high cost of living combined with a really challenging housing market locally has a lot of people staying in place. What typically happens in neighborhoods, um especially in in urban and suburban neighborhoods, is your kids age, they grow up, they leave, you become an empty nester and then it's time to downsize and the

060next family comes in and we have a kind of a regeneration of of school age kids. Well, now because uh it often is not the best financial decision to leave your current home and buy another one um and find something that you can afford and manage with a mortgage rate, we have more of that uh aging in place. And we certainly uh believe we see that in several neighborhoods throughout our district. And then we're just seeing reduced state and national migration. Colorado is is not growing as it once was. Uh we also are wondering uh especially as I get to some data specific to this year if we've seen some kids uh no longer attend school or go home because of recent uh changes around immigration policy uh in our country. So let's look more

061specifically at our decline here in Adams 12. So you you see our enrollment data going back to 2018 and projected through 2030 and I think this really clearly paints the picture of declining enrollment here in Adams 12. So this is a non-charter count. It's important to note that here. We're just looking at our district managed schools uh pre-K through 12. Um and what you can see is going into the pandemic, although we were seeing a slight decline and had been seeing, it was not extreme and it was more gradual, uh less impactful and then coming out of the pandemic as you look at that 2019 to 2020, you can see that's the first really significant drop in our enrollment uh where we have several thousand kids exit the system uh and they did not and

062have not returned since then. Over the last few years uh since uh returning from the pandemic, you see more of that gradual decline again. And then if you look at uh last year especially, you see another significant decline. Again, uh we think these uh larger cliffs are largely due to uh some of that aging in place and the immigration impacts that we've mentioned, but there's no doubt as you look from 2019 through today um that we're in the midst of a pretty significant enrollment decline. And then unfortunately, projecting forward, we just see that continuing to happen. Um You know, at 29,271 uh as of this October and we're projecting to uh 28,613 and then if you go out to 2030, you actually see that we're just barely a tick above 27,000. So certainly some uh

063pretty strong indicators of declining enrollment and impacts to us. I'd like to pause here historically just to talk about there was a time when I first came from the school level to the central office in 2013, 2014, we were still growing and growing to the extent that at that time there was some belief that Adams 12 may serve 50,000 kids at some point. We never reached that point. We never quite got all the way with district managed to 40,000, but we'll we will not see a 50,000 uh service model as a district, but it just goes to show it wasn't all that long ago that we were solidly in the 40,000 range and now we find ourselves looking forward and getting awfully close to 25,000. So when you talk about declines to that extent, uh

064it has a pretty big impact on the school experience and that's what I want to spend some time talking about. So first, what does this mean just in terms of building capacity? So what this slide represents here is uh given all of our elementary buildings and the capacity we have to serve students, what are we seeing as of this last October? Uh that capacity uh related to the number of students we have in enrolled. So when you look at all of our K5 buildings and it's important to note that this does not include our K8s. These are K5 buildings only, does not include preschool enrollment. Uh we have the capacity to serve slightly more than 15,000 kids throughout those elementary buildings, but as of this last October, we were serving about 10,500 students. That puts

065our utilization rate at about 69%, which means we almost have 4,800 seats that we could accommodate additional elementary students. Question often comes up here, well, what what what's uh what's a preferred capacity? What's that rate? Industry standard tends to be around 85% as as a a school district. There's some pieces we move forward where that needs some context, but if you're looking for kind of what would be kind of a standard, it's around 85%. Some people think it's 100. It's not realistic when we think about the movement of kids throughout the day, uh but 85% is typically preferred. This graphic here specific to the elementary level, I think really drives home the changes we've seen due to declining enrollment. We often use the term rounds to describe how many classes at a certain grade level

066does an elementary school have. So if you have three kindergarten classrooms, we would say you have three rounds of kindergarten. If you have four fourth-grade classrooms, we'd say you have four rounds. Back when we were working on our blueprint work about 3 years ago, we had a variety of parents, board committee members, board members, central office folks do a deep study of what makes a thriving elementary school. What is the just right size that we would say that's a really robust and full experience for students. And what we discovered is that the three rounds at every grade level is the sweet spot. That's what you want to have to have what we would consider a thriving experience at elementary. What you see here, again, over that same trend line is how many of our classes

067our grade levels have had number of rounds. So, what you can see in the red there is the number of two-round classrooms we have in a district has really skyrocketed since just before the pandemic. And the number of those thriving three-round schools has actually gone down a little bit. And naturally, we've seen a pretty big decline in four-round schools. And what happens at an elementary school when you get away from that three-round sweet spot and you have mostly two, and in some cases in our schools one round, it has some pretty negative impacts on the experience of both staff and students in a building. When you're in a a three-round or a three-to-four round school, everything is just more robust. You have full-time teachers to support music, art, and PE. Um you have robust teacher

068collaboration where you have two or three other teachers you can collaborate with. You have more dedicated staff to support intervention, instructional coaching, social-emotional learning. You have more people on your staff that will volunteer to do before and after school clubs. You have more people that will raise their hand to serve as leaders in a school. Uh you increase your chances of having a full-time assistant principal or at least a half-time assistant principal. And obviously, we have to have enough enrollment to secure enough interest for us to offer before and after school care for a building. So, you get these uh these levels of economy that really help a school thrive. When you get to two rounds or less across the school, you move into situations that are itinerant when we think about staff. So, instead

069of a fully dedicated music, art, and PE teacher, you might have those teachers shared between two small schools. And they are not full-time in either one of those schools and go back and forth. Uh you have less teacher collaboration. You have less opportunities for kids to be distributed in multiple classrooms because they connect better with a teacher or do better when they're separated from another student. You have limited or, again, part-time support staff for intervention, for social-emotional learning. You end up having fewer after-school activities cuz you have fewer people that are interested in offering them. And then you tend to have a lot of the same people raising their hand to do leadership work. And over time, that can be pretty taxing on a staff. So, when you get below that kind of three rounds

070per grade level, it really starts to have a negative impact on the school experience for both the kids and the adults. As we look forward to K8, you see a slightly different story here, and it definitely comes with an an asterisk. We have four K8s in our system. Uh two of those are fully magnet at STEM Lab and Hulstrom. We have STEM Launch, who operates also has a magnet but does serve a substantial number of neighborhood students nearby. And then we have Thunder Vista, of course, which is a true neighborhood K8. Um because of the magnet components in three of those schools, obviously, we see a higher utilization rate. Those schools fill to their capacity through interest every year. Um and that's what skews this number upwards to 90%. When you look at middle schools,

071however, you see a different story. Again, we have the capacity to serve almost 8,700 middle school students across our comprehensive middle schools. As of October, we were serving about 5,200. And that puts us about a 60% utilization rate with almost 3,500 open seats for middle school. A little caution on the 85% preferred piece that I shared with you earlier. Back when we were growing substantially as a district, we were also intentionally making decisions to build very big middle schools to accommodate that growth. And so, architecturally, Rocky Top, that was interesting. Rocky Let me back up a little bit. Rocky Top, um Silver Hills, and Shadow Ridge are all large middle schools. Uh and if we were to build a middle school today or other districts that are, you would not build a middle school of

072that size. It was the right move when we were growing at that time. But because those schools are so large, uh getting to 85% at those buildings is probably not realistic given our enrollment moving forward. So, that 85% number can be misleading without that historical context. But still, at 60%, this is another place where we really have to consider the impacts. Wanted to share high school as well. You can see we're right at kind of that ideal threshold of 85% serving about uh capable of serving 10,500 as of October. Little more than 9,000 would put us at 85%. The story here, of course, is declining enrollment is just making its way to our high schools. Because of that declining birth rate being the driving factor, uh the smaller classes are slowly making their way up

073through the system. And a data point I often share here is that our current largest class in Adams 12 is our current senior class. Our smallest one is first grade, but only by about 40 students compared to kindergarten. So, that kind of just demonstrates the impacts of declining enrollment and why high school here to date has been largely uh unimpacted by declining enrollment. They're starting to see some, but over the next two to five years, they're going to see uh the full effects of declining enrollment. I have a question, Bill. With the way this is trending, what um how is choice working? I mean, as far as is it pretty much open everywhere or is it limited in some places? >> We have definitely seen as a result of declining enrollment more of our schools

074opening up choice seats. Um until very recently, you would not have seen high schools like Horizon and Legacy have open choice seats. Over the last couple cycles, they have. Um and so, the question around are we seeing more availability for choice? We certainly are. What we track uh really intentionally in that space is is where are folks choosing to and from. And so, obviously, it doesn't help our overall enrollment if the choice is just internal migration. And I'm going from one school in Adams 12 to another school. We're happy that they have an option to find something that fits for them. But that is not increasing our enrollment when we go from one school to next. We also want to track those that who live in another district but have chosen uh to choice into

075Adams 12. Obviously, that type of uh import is what we would like and hope for. And we want to be able to have attractive options where we have space for uh families who are interested to be able to to come to Adams 12. Um but choice is certainly going to be a factor moving forward for us around uh how much we offer, how much we're able to offer to non-district students, and and what's going to be the just right uh balance that we have in that space to ensure that we're meeting, I think, a variety of different interests. That help? Okay. You bet. So, um same but different when we talk about the impacts of declining enrollment at the secondary level. So, I actually had the opportunity to meet with our middle school principals today

076because as I shared this presentation with other audiences, they were sharing, "We really understand, and it's clear around the three rounds piece being the sweet spot at elementary school. But what does that mean at middle? Is Is there a Is there a comparison? Is there something we can use to capture that more clearly?" And I had a really great discussion with them today. And what's interesting, what they shared with me is is the ideal spot for them is what they would call three core rounds. And what that means is when you think about English, math, science, and social studies, being able to fill three full classrooms at each grade level of those becomes their sweet spot. So, um we typically in Adams 12 core and keep those together. But their idea is that when you

077have three full rounds at those four content areas, that is the sweet spot. So, uh it's interesting that that three level across core classes kind of holds at middle school. Uh and that's what they would share with me. And what that translates to most typically is an enrollment that would be around 800 to 1,000 with some variance in there. Doesn't mean if you dip below eight, you couldn't be thriving. Doesn't mean if you went over 1,000 that you still wouldn't be thriving. But that idea of having three uh classes within each of those core content areas, then they said that also affords you a full, uh, catalog of electives where instead of when they can they shared that you can make it work at two rounds per core content, still have a good elective catalog,

078but not a lot of student choice. You have to tell students, you're going to be taking this, you're going to be taking this you're because there are limited options within a schedule with only two rounds for kids to do it. But when you get to three, you have not only a full catalog, but choice within the catalog. So if you want to really focus on art or music or CTE, you're able to kind of opt in versus having less of a choice. So same kind of concept, but as we think about thriving enrollment compared to low enrollment, the same things really apply. When you have a a smaller school, obviously what I just mentioned is an impact. You're going to have less options and opportunities to pick the elective track that you're most interested in

079or less overall choice within an elective uh, area for you to explore. Um, there are also impacts at the secondary level where you ask teachers to teach outside of their content area or their grade level because you're trying to make half rounds work. So where the ideal would be I have a an eighth grade math teacher who just teaches eighth grade math, now I have to ask that teacher to take seventh and eighth grade math. Two different preps. Adds to the challenge. In some cases, we have to look for uh, secondary educators that are dually endorsed. So I have an endorsement in English and an endorsement in social studies and therefore I'm doing a prep on seventh grade social studies and seventh grade English. Again, not ideal when you're prepping two things. I'm thrilled that

080we have people in our system that are dually endorsed. I'm I'm thrilled that we have people that will raise their hand and do that. But when we're talking about a thriving situation, we'd rather have people teach within their content, teach within their grade level. Um, similar, we offer and we're really proud of middle school sports. When you have a smaller staff, that means you have fewer people that will offer to coach the sport, be the assistant coach, fewer people that will say, I'll sponsor the chess club, I'll sponsor uh, a student affinity club. Um, fewer staff members tends to equal fewer opportunities for kids because you just don't have as many people to offer in that space. And then same thing, when you get to a certain size, you don't have as much uh, money

081within your budget to hire additional interventionists, instructional coaches, deans, social emotional learning specialists. Um, and the exclamation mark at the bottom here I think is just the the most succinct way to talk about the impacts of declining enrollment. Fewer students means fewer dollars and less staff and that means really tough decisions on the part of principals and staffs to decide what to offer and what not to offer. And all of this, um, over time, uh, really puts us in place where it's difficult as a school district to maintain equitable experiences for all, which is what we want. We don't want because you go to a big school or a small school to really limit your experiences, but we have to have had to backfill so much at small schools to keep us roughly equitable. And

082you know, with our resources continuing to become more precious and less abundant, we have to make some really thoughtful decisions around uh, how to move forward in that space. And so if we don't adapt, we're going to see pressure and inequity uh, come throughout the system. We'll see schools that don't have a thriving enrollment be able to provide reduced learning opportunities to students. They'll have full uh, fewer dedicated full-time staff. Uh, they'll have part-time teachers, part-time assistant principals or no assistant principals at all in the case of some of our elementary schools. Uh, and all of that means less folks to collaborate with, less folks to share the load, um, more burnout over time and I think uh, we don't do our our good work to use the resources we have to their fullest potential

083and be good stewards of those resources. So our path forward has to be to ensure a thriving school experience for all students regardless of where they attend. And that means making sure we have enrollment levels that support full staffing, full adequate programs, teacher collaboration and full-time teachers, specials, electives, wrap-around support. Uh, we want uh, families and kids to feel they're part of a vibrant community where there's lots of opportunities to interact and connect within and beyond the school day. And then obviously we want to use our resources to their maximum benefit and make sure we are good stewards of that money. And so what this means for us is that we are going to have to think about closure and consolidation as a school district. The only way we can continue to maximize those resources

084and ensure every student in Adams 12 goes to a school where there aren't limited offerings, where there are enough teachers uh, to provide the support is to really think about closure and consolidation. We have been lucky as a school district as you look around the front range that we have uh, been able to not reach this point as early as some others have. Um, but it's pretty clear to us now as you think back to that earlier slide on declining enrollment that the time to act is now. And so in front of you is the timeline that we've established that ultimately brings us to bringing a recommendation via the superintendent um, to you uh, early next school year, September and October with recommendations around closure and consolidation. We're being really thoughtful about this process. We

085started months ago in starting to think about the data um, and some of the guiding principles that would help uh, really um, elevate for us what we believe are the right choices. Uh, we're now in the the building understanding of the problem, sharing this deck with a lot of different audiences, connecting with city leaders uh, throughout our five municipalities and um, Adams County uh, and [snorts] starting that education process as well. Um, the hope is that we will continue to revive uh, our options and and be really clear on what we think is the the the most reasonable and responsible recommendation and get to a point where we can make announcements and decision-making in that September-October time frame. We're conscious of that time frame very specifically because we think it will be critical over the

086months thereafter to be really thoughtful about all the processes that are necessary in that time. One no doubt is grieving. Schools are um, neighborhood uh, keystones. There's deep identity connected to them. As an Adams 12 alum, uh, I have great affinity for every school I went to and they are a part of my fabric and any school uh, that that's true and it's going to close, uh, we have to allow time to grieve that and there has to be time for the last of everything. It's also critical that we have a lot of time for new schools who are coming together to establish a new identity and have time for those uh, families and students and teachers to uh, reimagine themselves in a new community. A small silver lining to the Thunder Vista experience was

087seeing uh, what can happen in that space and we learned some things through the all be at a temporary co-arrangement uh, that will be very helpful for us as we go down that road, but the time to handle the transition well and obviously to make sure we take care of our impacted employees and give lots of runway for us to take care of them and get that figured out is also important. So um, this weighs very heavy on us. Uh, it's not going to be uh, easy uh, or enjoyable for any of us to go through this, uh, but it is the right thing to do to ensure that we have thriving experiences um, for the kids that are in our schools now and will be coming soon and I'm confident um, that through our

088processes and through the ways that we listen and engage as a system that will make a difficult decision as thoughtfully as possible. So with that being said, I'll pause there and take any questions or reactions and then we have another piece for us to talk about related to next steps. I think too, um, we've seen this go on in other districts around us. We've seen some of the challenges that they have had to deal with and I'm very hopeful that we've learned from their uh, I won't call them mistakes, but just from their experiences. Um, because and I I I think that this isn't shouldn't really be a surprise to the community. I will tell you we have been unabashed in our reach out to our peer districts that have gone down this road and

089to their credit, they have been very upfront with the good and the bad and the in between uh, with their experiences and um, sometimes you don't have the luxuries a school district of uh, waiting on others. We will benefit, there's no doubt from those who have walked this path before us on both both what to do and what not to do. We haven't been shy about asking and our peer districts have not been shy about sharing that with us. So I do appreciate that um, and we'll definitely leverage that and continue to leverage that as we move forward. And I also think too, it's very important that if we are closing a facility, what are we going to do with it? And um, you know, because we're closing a facility doesn't mean another school should

090come in because that's why we're closing it. We don't have the kids for it. So I also appreciate some of the ideas floating around of possibilities with some of the um, extra real estate that we might have. That's obviously a big uh, part of our interest in connecting with our city leaders is um, these buildings have value and um, making sure that we have a solid plan for their use afterwards is important not only to us as a district, but those communities in which they sit. And so we want to have those conversations and cuz you're absolutely right, Lori, having a plan for what uh, what may become of them is a part of this work. Bo, you mentioned that um, you've reached out to some of our government local government officials. Has there been

091any feedback from them? Any initial thoughts, comments, concerns that they've been willing to share with you? Appreciation. I mean, obviously it they appreciate that there's lots of time for them to think about this and and providing them the gift of time to think about all the different implications and what might be interests of their citizenry. So I think that's been the first and universal reaction is thank you for getting to us early. Um, Lori hit the most common interest right on the head. They often want to go to and what's your plan with the building after what are you thinking after and it makes sense because none of us like the idea of of a vacated unused building that becomes something that I think is a magnet for behavior that city district wouldn't want and

092there's a lot of public services or at least potential for public services that might fit in these buildings. So I'd say most typically there's been appreciation letting us know early and then what are you thinking about with these buildings is very much what they uh, want us to engage with them and think through with them. Which leads us to the next part. >> Let's transition. Does that sound good? So as I shared with you at work study, um, it's really important that you as a board um, give the superintendent and all of us on the leadership team uh, through your operating in statement some guidance around how we move forward with these decisions around closure and consolidation. So what's shared with you tonight in the board packet uh, is an initial draft around some operating

093ends related to closure and consolidation. The goal tonight is to give you a first read, some reactions, discussion among yourselves, questions for me. Cathy and Megan are in the audience. They're uh, also here to listen in. Uh, what we're just looking for tonight is some initial reactions, your discussion. This is going to reappear on the next and probably the subsequent meeting. Our goal is that we come to consensus and you ultimately approve a final draft of these operating ends and guidance before your final meeting so that we can go into the summer uh, and do the work that we need to to bring forth a recommendation. So this is the first pass uh, and we hope that over the next two or three meetings we can revise this to a point where you as a

094board feel like it captures your interests and will provide the superintendent and those of us uh, who support him with the direction needed around closure and consolidation. Go ahead. Did you want to say something? Oh. Um, and I I've discussed this with Chris and Bo too. Um, I think that you know, looking at this for a first, you know, first blush, it's it's kind of in line with what I'm thinking is, you know, we are policy governance board and it's not our job to say this school or that school. It's the district's job to give us recommendations based on the information that they gather. So I like that the first draft of this, um, which might take some more tweaks to it, but maybe not, but um, that just says, you know, we will listen

095to your recommendations and these are the things that you will keep in mind as a district when making those recommendations. I especially like the part about um, similar um, SPF. Um, yeah. Any other comments on this? I'm just uh, taking some time to to absorb, right? It's like Oh yeah. I wrote this earlier. I'm still reading it. I'm going to need to just keep sort of meditating on it. I mean, one thing that could be helpful to consider what place this might have for the board as far as specifying that the superintendent and we know in this case there are plans to do community outreach, but is that specification of community outreach something we want voiced in here. Because it's not articulated as the superintendent shall solicit community feedback. So. I'm going to channel Chris

096here a little bit and if you want to correct the record, he will two weeks from now. I I think that's a good discussion to have. Here's a piece that he's been up front with and I think we've been up front with and a lot of this is kind of born out again of what we've heard from some of our uh, peer districts who've gone down this road. We want to be really careful in the engagement space that we don't create a situation as we move forward in this that pits communities against each other. And there's a really uh, careful line in gathering feedback and gathering perspective that's helpful in the guidance and the recommendations and the criteria, but that can easily be crossed around it should be them not us. Are you thinking about

097them or them or them? And so the engagement piece is obviously important and the feedback piece and the criteria is important and so too I think is doing this in a way that doesn't create that uh, situation where schools and communities and neighborhoods are arguing for and against each other. And so when I say community feedback, I don't think going back to the fact that we don't decide the how. >> [laughter] >> We just decide the what, right? Um, it wouldn't necessarily be a specific this is how we see you doing this and it has to be done in this way or that way, but just in a statement that feedback from the community in whatever way the superintendent deems best for the situation is solicited. Well, and I think that um, flushing out 4F,

098not to get too in the weeds, but I mean it does talk about minimizing the impacts on neighborhood and surrounding schools. I think one of the things as a homeowner or somebody that's living in the neighborhood I would want to know is like does that mean you guys aren't going to mow the lawn or does that mean you guys aren't going to, you know, do these other things? So I think that rather than feedback just explaining how how that's going to be done is is going to be useful. So maybe communication with with the community, right? Well, and even like again, what will that building be repurposed for? I think that's a really that's going to be a really important um, conversation to have with homeowners in those neighborhoods and stuff making sure that it's

099something that um, you know, I guess fits in their in their neighborhood and their community. Yeah, but you also have to be and it's important. I don't disagree. You have to be cognizant of when you ask a two pro you a question with two choices, you're going to get half with one choice and half with the other. No, for sure. >> You're not going to get a majority. You tend not to. I mean, I think back to school start times and uh, calendar. Well, and I don't even think it's necessarily a choice. I think it's more uh, helping explain the thoughtful decisions behind that repurposing and why and why those decisions are um, cuz I think sometimes you know, when people um, are told something, even if they agree or support it, they're still upset.

100Like, well, why didn't we? And so when you can explain, well, we thought of this and we thought of that, I think it just it eases that into it. Like, oh, okay, but it's just more accepting. So. And even though you're going to be doing the last of each monumental event, you also have to figure out how to put two different school cultures together or even three. I mean, however many. Because school culture or the climate is very um, evolutionary, I guess is a good way of putting it. Yeah. I think back to um, when we have opened up schools over the years, um, like high schools where we've opened up two grades because and we let those two grades, ninth and 10th grade, develop the culture of the school. Or when we went to

101middle schools, um, and a whole bunch I was one of them, a whole bunch of us went to high school and uh, a whole bunch of elementary I was a teacher, not a student. A whole bunch of teachers came up from the elementary school to the middle school. I mean, that was cultural shock for the staff, too. So it's just, you know, we have to just capitalize on what our what we know and what we've done over the years just to you know make it a as great of an experience as possible. Regarding community concerns, has there been any thought given to the knock-on effects such as housing value that the community may raise as a concern thinking about the what Alexis mentioned. Um and have any other uh school districts that have gone through

102these this exercise uh been brought that concern and how did they deal with it? That's a great question. I don't know. It's one that we can certainly ask. I I do know when it relates to when both ends. When we are considering consolidation, we want to make sure we've thought through any neighborhood impacts around traffic routes, walking routes, um and obviously as we've discussed with the closure, we want to be really clear that there's some value add or plan to the building being there. I haven't heard direct comments around uh home values, but I think they're connected to both of those around quality of neighborhood experience. But we can certainly do some outreach to uh some of our peers that have been out before us and see has it has it come out concretely around

103and what's the the adverse or perhaps the beneficial effect this has had on home valuations. We'll check on that. Thanks, Bo. Yep. All right. Well, we obviously will be having more conversations on the subject. That said, I I do want to specify just so that I'm not like y- it is a great start. >> [laughter] >> It is. Yeah. And I'll And I'll just the the the soak comment taken in, that's very much why we're bringing it to you tonight. So I would encourage you to soak on it, share your feedback with with Chris and I as appropriate. Uh we will definitely be talking about it at subsequent board meetings, but this idea is to give you an initial exposure and some initial discussion so that we can get to a place where we feel

104really good about a final draft about a month from now. Okay. Okay, thanks. All right. Action item. Proclamation Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Um I will recommend an an action to adopt the proclama- well, I'll entertain a motion to adopt the proclamation declaring May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in Adams 12:50 Square Schools as presented. So moved. Second. Um I do believe that I was the um honor one of the recipients today of the the Sikh culture who are part of the Asian American Pacific Islander. Um they were down at Capital and they they brought us lunch and it was really good. Um but um you know, there's a lot of different facets to this culture. Um and we've all um are familiar with some of the um cultures that

105have been blended with ours and uh it's great that we can um do this. So, oh, I didn't get the motion, did I? Who's going to mo- make a motion? You did. Oh. Okay. Okay, any other discussion? I was just going to add that I I really appreciate you bringing up the point of this the Sikh culture um because w- I think one time we were looking at data and we were trying to figure out why the data had shifted so profoundly and it's because well, duh, American the people people from Afghanistan are considered Asian and so they go into that category, right? And so it's just really a a great reminder of how broad and expansive we are being when we say this. So I appreciate that you mentioned that. Asia's a big place.

106All right. You can call the votes then. Director Anya Weebo? I. Director Assad Lucas? >> I. Director Battistelli? I. Director Goldstein? I. Director Marsh-Holschen? I. Okay, on to minutes. I will entertain a motion to adopt the minutes of the March 4th, 2026 work study session and regular board meeting as presented. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Okay. Director Anya Weebo? I. Director Assad Lucas? I. Director Battistelli? I. >> Director Goldstein? I. Director Marsh-Holschen? I. Okay. On to monitoring reports. Um Operating Limitations Policy 2.2 Treatment of Staff. I will entertain a motion to acknowledge that the board received a monitoring report as of April 15th, 2026 for the period April 16th, 2025 through April 15th, 2026 and finds the superintendent's interpretations are reasonable and supported by data that is relevant, justified, and complete. So moved. Second. And

107Mr. Griffin is on queue ready to tell us about it. Yep. Good evening to the Board of Education, to our Deputy Superintendent. Um I'm here to just review um the Treatment of Staff Monitoring Report tonight. And I think it's a report that um you've seen a couple times before and so I plan to just overview the high points and um just really move through this year's results and then um for sure just entertain any questions you might have after the report. So this report is just broken down um within seven items and the the first item um part of the policy is where the superintendent is charged with um protecting against um wrongful conditions such as nepotism and preferential treatment. So every year within the Panorama Survey, we have some custom questions um that um

108are captured each year and and we give this and we capture this within the Panorama Survey that we this year was given in January right after break. And um the results results are back in and we're seeing some really positive trends and so you'll see some tables in pages two and three that really captures our custom questions that are related to these items. And so you'll the first one you'll see a 80% favorable um rating as it relates to staff leader relations um uh at 80% and I will I will note I want to bring your attention that last year in 2025, we had some very high scores um historical milestones, you know, in in many questions and so um although the the scores aren't as high as last year, um they're still representing um

109very strong scores and positive trends um and sustained high performance throughout. Um the next question um really just uh a positive trend represents um to the question about how connected you feel to the district's mission and vision. And um so there's some positive um trend scores within that within 62% um which year over year is just 2% lower than some of our highest scores that we've received in that bucket. Um and then there's as far as um rights as an employee um and um fair treatment um through supervisors, um we also see um scores of 91% 88% respectively. Um so due to those scores um I am reporting compliance into the first item. The second item is about being clear about performance expectation and value evaluation timelines. So we have used the state's evaluation system

110for many years and um online is training is provided to administrators um um every year um and it's also available to educators and administrators and evaluators throughout the year um that they're able to take a look at that. So we have trained our evaluations um for sure and we have consistency in the approach and process. And so within this item of evaluation, I'm reporting compliance in that. The third item has to do with the internal grievance process. And so we have custom quest- uh a custom question um that shows a general favorable trend um and talks about um if the complaint was um if a complaint was not resolved um by the supervisory team, that they that they're aware and they understand that there's options to take the concern and the complaint to the Board

111of Education. And so we're reporting that 80 86 86% of people say that they agree or strongly agree with that with that um with that analysis that they understand the process and that they can take it to the board. Um we also collect um and track um from people if and when um there has been barriers and if there are perceptions of retaliatory or fearfulness um within um making complaints. And so over the years, there's a there's a question that we track that and um last year there overall, there's 39 um there were 363 um people that um answered this question and in the in the form of a free response and that's just slightly down from last year um but within that, we've kind of just tracked some trends that I would just like

112to highlight a few for you. A large percent of people, 39% to be precise, um responded in a left it blank or um just similar con- just a similar answer um to that answer um that as it as it relates to the process. Um I will also note that um 19% reported that they needed additional clarification of the process. Um and no fear of appraisal and reprisal in that, but there was also um 16% um that talked about there was a lack of faith or trust um within if they make a complaint if there's going to be any meaningful movement with that. >> [snorts] >> Um majority of people say that they know how to make a complaint and um most people responded there were um about uh 11% of folks that said that they

113feel comfort within their administration and their supervision and they feel confident that um they would be able to handle um any situation through those means rather than raising a complaint to a different level. So um being that most people um have said that they understand that they would make a com- how to make a complaint, I report compliance in this item. The fourth item has to do um with um the uh not allowing um reprisal against staff. And so this deals with our policies 8400 and 8410. And so I'm pleased to report some data on page six. And also on page um Yeah, just on page six. And this information was reported to me by Michaela Bland um with who was our formal Title IX and non-discrimination coordinator, but currently serving in the role of

114deputy counsel um and she's doing both jobs right now. So she's in both of those roles. Um but uh she has reported that we do have an annual process and um that that grievance process is outlined in master agreement and communicated out with staff. And this year in the in the realm of Title IX, our policy 8410, um we had um three complaints this year. Um two of those complaints with no findings and there's one active investigation going on right now. Um in the in 8400, um we have seen an increase in some of those complaints and so we had 12 this year. Seven of those resulted in no findings and two of those resulted in some areas of findings of discrimination. Um overall, um I do report that the district performance complies with the

115policy and the standard. Um the next the fifth item has to do with appropriately training and equipping staff for for a fore- foreseeable emergency situation. And um I was able to connect with Anthony Mack, our director of safety and security. And on page seven and eight, um you will see that he has links for threat assessment, drills, and all the initiatives that are related to safety and security items. And um in my review of those items, um I am reporting compliance in that space. Um the final the next item uh not the final, but the next item has to do with um acquainting staff with the superintendent's interpretation. Um so it's a bit of uh you know, it's represented in all the other items that we've reviewed. Um so um I'm just going to go

116over that quickly and say there's compliance in that space. Um the the seventh item really kind of talks about ensuring that there is a culture and climate survey um every year process every year as a process for the district and this is what we're talking about with the um the Panorama climate and culture survey that I described a little bit earlier that took place in January. Um so on page nine and 10, you will see trends over time and also um participation rates. And so over time, um we've seen consistent rates um and we had just a slight increase from last year um with um 69% participation for school-based staff. And um over the years, we've seen just um just a bit of survey decline fatigue. Um we've you know, we've given this um as

117you can see, we've given um the survey ever since, you know, 2000 um 2017 and um there's just some survey fatigue that we're seeing um within non-instructional staff um as they came in at 43%. When looking at trends over time, I want to point out that um in some of the areas that we do have um a national um percentile range to compare to, um and that's people taking the same ques- questions across the nation, we're seeing scores in the 80th percentile, the 90th percentile, and the 70th percentile. Um so that's that's really good. It's good that we took it in January and um um those are represented within those scores. Um there's also some trends that show a steady um representation of just really good scores and um some some deviation and you know,

118from last year where I mentioned that we had really good scores, there's some that have climbed a few points and some that have dropped a few. But overall, it's steady steady growth and compliance in that issue. Um principal and AP survey each year, um we also use a different measure and a different vehicle to really assess and ensure that principals and APs have the opportunity to provide feedback here at the ESC to executive directors, um cabinet, and also to um Chris in our superintendency. Um we have um very consistent participation as outlined and this year we had 108 um responses that were able to respond and I'm pleased to report that 90% of principals in the system principals report that there's an atmosphere of trust and respect with Adams 12, which represents a 16% increase

119from last year. Um The superintendent and cabinet members do collect that feedback and go over with the principals later in the spring. Um so overall with the final element, I report compliance and um Mr. Deputy Superintendent, I don't know if there's anything that you would add. Tim, I think you did a nice job. Let's hear if there's any questions or feedback. Anybody? Yeah, thanks Tim. Um thanks Tim for taking us through that. That was a lot of information and good data. Um overall, it looks really good. Um I had a simple question. Um when complaints are made, uh who [snorts] carries out the investigation? Yep. We have um so we we we have a very um we we carry out those investigations sometimes with the HR team, um but depending on the nature of the

120complaint um in in the in reference to this report 8400 8410, um they start with our non-discrimination um and Title IX coordinator and um she selects a um a member of the HR team or outside counsel um to be able to support us in providing that investigation depending on a multitude of factors um in in in each individual case. All right. Thanks, Tim. I have a few questions. Yes, ma'am. >> Um let's go back to the questions about the board and grieving to the board. Yep. Now that I'm the only one left on the of the board that put that in there. Yep. Um board, do you see it as relevant? I absolutely see it as relevant. I was just talking with a group of um future teachers at CU Boulder for a panel and

121they were astonished to hear that in their various districts, they all have some appeal process that takes them straight up to the board and they were not aware of that. So I consider it relevant. Relevant or irrelevant? Relevant. Because my question is I guess my question is is that there's a chain to to grieve something and the board is really the last resort. And [snorts] um when's the last time we got grieved? That it came all the way up to us. And when it came up. I mean, I guess well, I mean, okay. I mean, maybe we should keep it there just in case. I guess it's one of those things that I mean, it's a good thing that we don't get grieved. Um I know boards all over the place that get grieved. Um

122and then also do grieve >> [laughter] >> grieve get you know, both ways. Um but also um I did want also ask, you know, this is very there's you know, 52 buildings in this school and this is great to say overall for the most part, but we have hotspots in this district where things really aren't very well culture and climate wise. And what kinds of things um do you guys do or does HR do to help with um making those better? Yeah, I think I think we work very closely with our leaders. Again, there is a process that we do ask building leaders to go through and um look at the data that is reported within the culture and climate survey and make a very specific action item. And we work in a three-team prong

123with um with our um executive director that's over that building, the HR partner, and with the building leader to really make sure that we develop a responsive plan to really look at some strengths and some areas of growth that we need to be able to respond to. And is association leadership brought into that? Yeah, I think it definitely when we see consistent and items that need to be looked at there's been in the past there's been listening tours that come in where the executive director and the association president and coordinator come in and really support those buildings on trends. So, thank you for highlighting that as well. Yeah, I would add a couple pieces. I think Tim's exactly right and I appreciate the question Lori. I mean I think we do benefit from a solid

124relationship and an open door where association leadership of both employee committees routinely will go to Tim, will go to Chris, will come to me, will come to Megan and share perspective and ask questions always looking for a constructive path forward specific to these data. We've had a long-standing process and Megan has organized it. I believe coming up next week to begin where executive directors share with the superintendent and with me trends and patterns around the schools that they support and certainly where we see some of that outlier data good and concerning. We have conversations around what is that connected to? And those are very robust conversations. Sometimes concerning data has a very compelling story behind it and with the context it's understood and other times it is a signal for support and intervention to be

125provided. But I think that process where the executive directors along with Tim kind of share that data, superintendent and I ask questions, Megan ask questions and usually we have a pretty good idea of what the next steps are to either address the issues or to amplify good things and get them implemented in other buildings. So, we use it outliers in both directions. And I I do have some concerns on page 10 of some of the trends are way below the national percentile. I hope that there's things being put into place to try to close that gap. And also I asked for the comments from the survey. I haven't seen them yet. Oh. Thank you for asking that. I am they are in the folders that I shared I shared with you with the scores. So,

126in those same folders I can reshare it and make sure that I I communicate they get that. So, comments are included in those folders. I just have a a question about on page eight for the threat assessments. Yeah. So, for alternative went up slightly but I guess my question is for charters that's a big increase. And have we um >> [clears throat] >> been talking to our schools and trying to understand why that has been increased. I mean is it how they're doing risk assessments, forms, how they're reaching out, how they're connecting, how it's being reported just because that's such a large number. Amara, I'll check in with Audrey around that. Um their processes are their own of course and that we are supportive especially when there's really acute cases around kids but typically their

127threat assessments are own within I hate to speculate but I will. Typically when you see an increase of that magnitude you've introduced a new tool and some new training that raises awareness and kind of fine-tune approach but I'll verify that and I'll after I consult with Audrey let you know. But my suspicion is they've done some training, they're using a tool and they're they're tuning in a lot more than they may have previously. Well, and that's what I assumed too. Like maybe outreach is different how they're all that and so just ensuring that. Yes, so. Yeah. Thank you. And I was going to ask a question um with regards to when we met with the teachers and they shared with us some of the the their successes and their pain points at Adams 12, the

128sprint cycle came up quite frequently. And so I'm looking at 2.2.2 and I'm wondering to what degree but I think it's mostly certified staff that specify anyway. To what degree do those sprint cycles factor into the evaluation process for educators and what sort of impact do we think it may have had on some of the items on page 10. So, I can take a stab at that question. So, the sprint cycle is the intention of the sprint cycle is a teaching tool to support educators in adopting and implementing new practices within the classroom context and the sprint cycle tool is utilized to determine based on our professional learning our next step of implementation. Where are we as a school in our ability and effectiveness to be able to implement that. And then that data is

129intended to inform the next either professional learning cycle or sometimes it's just to provide some additional resources and support for individual teachers that are struggling with being able able to do that effectively. Now, it's separate from the formal observation feedback cycle. And there is an ultimate time where we as a school if we've been working over the course of a school year to implement a strategy effectively for our students that there's a time where the leaders like the expectation is that it's implemented now and then that is that happens during that observation feedback cycle and also then in the mid-year and end of year final evaluation rating for an educator. Thank you. And then I was also going to ask a question about the um threat assessment outcomes. Just and this is again just a

130logistical question. Um so the process has not changed for elementary, middle, high school or our K8s. So, in Adams 12 other than the alternative the way we do threat assessment has not changed in any way the past year. Correct. Okay, thank you. Well, then I think we have some successes there that we should celebrate. That's why I bring it up. Absolutely. [laughter] Yeah. I just back to President Goldstein's point. I am curious if we could get an overlay of the responses you know by not necessarily by school but maybe just like area they're in and and the reason I asked for that is to have that data which I'm sure you guys have um because we are about to enter a sticky situation and an emotional situation with consolidation and I would just be curious

131to see you know what what people are responding to next year if that's a continuing trend of a spot that isn't being dealt with in like the middle of the district or is it you know a response to a consolidation and just I think having that geographically would be really important when we're comparing this for next year. Yep, we can we can do that. Okay. All right. We have to vote. Director Anya Nwebo. I. Director Salud Lucas. I. Director Batastini. I. Director Goldstein. I. Director Marsh Holston. I. On to directed inspection monitoring governance process policy 4.7 cost of governance. Look over our budget here. Um and um we have a um update on from Feb the end of February of what we've spent. It's not like we really spend a lot as a board. Uh

132but we do have to keep track of it and we have to be transparent about it. So, uh seems to me we're doing pretty good. We're not overspending. We're actually under budget. And uh one thing I pointed out to when I was looking over this with Stephanie is there is quite a chunk of change put aside for an election which we had last year which I don't foresee us really worrying about that next year including with a ballot question. So, um that'll be um it just rolls back into the general fund. So, that's good. Considering I just had to vote on cutting 1.4 billion dollars out of the state budget. Okay. So, with that being said, is there any comments or questions? I don't believe we vote on this. Okay. So, on to the consent

133agenda. We have I entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda items E2 and E3 as presented. So moved. Second. Is there any comments? Okay. Director Anya Nwebo. I. Director Salud Lucas. I. Director Batastini. I. Director Goldstein. >> I. Director Marsh Holston. I. Okay, on to future agenda items. You'll see that our next meeting is May 6th. And uh the topics for May 6th and May 27th and June 3rd are um they're right here, but where else are they that people can see? They're on the They're in yours? Okay, you have it, too. Okay. Um sorry. I You know, sometimes just have to punt back and forth. So, if there's anything that you want to um comment about or or change or add, um we're getting down to the end of the school year. So,

134there's a lot of really important things on May 27th, but I will not be at that that meeting. Okay. That's when I'll be in New Orleans at our uh uh presenting at the conference. Well, I will be here because session will be over. >> [laughter] >> That's what's left. What's left? Right. It's okay. I'm doing it. I would um hope to be able to join virtually for June 3rd because I booked a vague post-session vacation and I'll be in Palisades, so um but I can join. Stephanie, how do we have that ability? >> do that. Okay. Well, that's the case. I might Hopefully on May 2nd I can get here. Um and then, you know, we have graduations coming up. I was going to make a little video today. I have the script ready. I

135didn't get out in time to come up here, but we're going to try tomorrow. So, um yeah. Sorry I didn't get to share anything. Did I Did you share about the um Westminster and we had some four We had four teachers honored there. That was That was a highlight of the Yeah. All right. Well, then gee. President Goldstein? Yes. I just wanted to make sure on the consent agenda, I see two items that I didn't hear were discussed or Because it's consent. Right. We did a joint motion. Okay. So, >> what I thought, but I just wanted to make absolutely sure. Thank you. Well, and if anybody wants to know, it's the ELAT application and um personnel actions. That's that's typically how how we deal with that. Anybody's um can pull it out of the

136consent agenda, but it doesn't happen very often, but you can.