001Call this meeting to order. We'll start with roll. >> Director Anan Wubo >> here. >> Director Assad Lucas >> here. >> Director Bastelli >> here. >> Director Goldstein >> here. >> Director Marsh Holen >> here. >> Um I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda as stated. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Director Anan Wubo. >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas. >> I. >> Director Batistelli. >> I. >> Director Goldstein. >> Hi. >> Director Marsh Hen. >> I. I will entertain a motion to recess for an executive session to receive legal advice and discuss a personnel matter, specifically the proposed extension of the superintendent's employment contract pursuant to Colorado Revised Statute 24-6-424B and 4F. >> So move >> second. >> Director Ananubo. >> I director Assad Lucas. Hi. >> Director Batistelli. >> Hi. >>
002Director Goldstein. Hi. >> Director Marsh Holen. Hi. >> Okay, we will return to his executive session. Okay, we are going to come back to the um regular meeting. Um rise if you are able and join me in the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, superintendent updates. This time of year there are two uh significant things that go on um that aren't part of the usual pace and cycle of schools. One is that there's a lot of hiring activity and I've given you some of the updates about hires we've made to date. Today we had two candidates for the Maui Elementary Drive uh vacancy come to our uh
003a small group finalist interview. Both outstanding candidates. So we've got a tough choice to make there but it's the kind of tough choice you want to have where you've got two outstanding candidates. We uh will soon be hiring, ideally before spring break, a new principal for Horizon High School. We need to hire a principal for Thornton Elementary School. And then you never know what curveballs or unexpected changes you may have. But hopefully those will be all the vacancies we have. It's always best for the system to be hiring during the school year when staff and parents are still here as opposed to having summer vacancies or things in May that you're trying to figure out. So hopefully we're on track to make some timely hires. The other significant uh work task is developing next year's
004budget. We're going to talk more extensively about that here uh later tonight and Gina will run through I'll probably share more in conjunction with that. I've given you some information about budget. Um, and in terms of next steps, one of the key things is a meeting tomorrow afternoon about 4:15 when we'll meet with principles to share their school-based budgets and how they reflect various adjustments that we're making based on declining enrollment as a driver. So, it's a a busy time. I think there's lots of angst and wonder what will this look like at my school? And some of those things will start to be determined and revealed tomorrow. And then for some, especially at the middle and high school level, a lot of those decisions about how uh are you going to balance your budget,
005take a couple of weeks as principles work through their budget uh and determine what classes students have enrolled in and who's retiring and the rest. It's more complicated there. So, the next two weeks are are busy times in the system, but we're getting to a place where people uh we'll just have more answers um to things that I know have been on their minds for a long time. So, we'll talk more about budget when Gina is up here in a bit. That's it for me. >> Thank you. All right. Board of Education comments, recognition, and awards. And we'll start with um Director Anan Wu. >> Thank you, President Goldstein. Um three items I'd like to share. Um had a chance to visit Hunter Glenn in Meridian. Um and speak with Principal Blato Sing Gooding. Absolutely
006enjoyed my time there. Um the Thunder Vista kids um are some of them are at Hunter Glenn and I asked specific questions about integration challenges around that and and it was really good to see that uh the kids have a chance to have that integration activity during lunch and during uh recess. So things are going well. They're not perfect but going going pretty well. Uh I had a chance to sit in on a planning session at Meridian uh elementary school between the second and third grade teachers and they were talking about you know gaps in certain students how they were going to work together to close them using data that was really good talking about sprint cycles. So that was very helpful to see. So again want to thank [clears throat] Principal Blados and Gooding
007for opening their schools to me and thanks to Stephanie I'll be visiting additional schools soon. Um, number two, uh, had a chance to attend two of the state of the cities, um, uh, for Westminster and Thornton, uh, Westminster, uh, with a mirror and we had a chance to see Mayor Car me. Ah, tongue tw tongue twisted. Sorry about that. Um, Carmel Melia, um, and chamber president Jamie Chavez. And so we had a chance to see how Westminster was doing. Um, we had a chance to listen to Chris uh speak along with uh his counterparts at I believe it was Broomfield and also Boulder Valley, I can't remember, or West Westminster. West Mhm. Um, so that was really good to hear and uh kind of see different perspectives on the state of our schools. Um, and
008when it comes to the state of the city for Thornton, uh, had a chance to to be welcomed by Chamber CEO Potter and and Mayor Coleman. Um, had a chance to meet uh, Representative um, Congressman um, Gabe Evans. And uh, that was a it was it was a good exchange. I I was surprised to meet him and and I have to admit I I said, you know, great to meet you. Let me be honest, I didn't vote for you, but um, thank you for your service. Um, I really appreciate all the work you do. And then we pivoted to talking about cars because I mentioned that I worked for Ford and and that's the danger of having worked for big three. You you always get a story. Well, I had a Ford and it gave
009me this and Gabe Evans had a story about 98 Explorers and and how he had problems with his and I had a 96. So, we we kind of bonded over that for five minutes. [clears throat] And if anything, it taught me that uh despite the red, blue, right, left, we we always can find something uh to bond over or complain about. In this case, quality cars. So, that was really great. Um we discussed CTE part business partnerships, which was really good and opportunities to do that. I I sat down with with Chris or talked a little bit with Chris. had a chance to talk to Juan Evans who who I ran against and so lot of energy in terms of Thornton trying to establish those ties and see how we can actually uh support our
010CT programs. Number three, had a chance with Lori to attend teacher appreciation night on the first and again listen to Chris speak um at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Um and it and it was really great to hear all the kids talk about the personal stories about why they were honoring the principal or the the teachers that they they had up there. Um really personal stories, great night out. Um and want to thank Janella for coming up here and and inviting us last time we were here and then welcoming us when we were there this past Sunday. So um I think that is it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Director Marsh Olsson. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. Um I don't have very much from last week, but um happy women's uh history
011month and um Saturday is the Bow Swan Ball. I know it's in BVSD um but we get a lot of our kiddos um mine included from Bowswan and I think um just raising up the important work that they do and um building the inclusive housing over on their property too. um something that we um should support and so I'm excited to be attending that and um otherwise it's just been capital fun more for Lori than for me. But um I think uh I just I have to say I'm I'm down there a lot or on phone calls a lot and um it's a big sad budget but I know people are really being thoughtful about it. So, and I'm excited to see uh some stuff being referred to the ballot for this fall. So, that's
012all I have. >> Thanks, Director Bastelli. >> So, I actually had a pretty quiet uh couple [clears throat] of weeks. Um I did attend an IBS meeting and uh we made some progress there. Um, I also attended the uh jured art show with Amamira um, director Assad Lucas and it was really wonderful to see all of the gorgeous artwork that our students had created and I'm always so grateful that um, Adams 12 continues to offer the arts to our students because it's such a great way for kids to really feel like some part of their identity is encapsulated in their learning. So, um it always reminds me of how grateful I am that we offer that. Um and I my desire to see us continue to offer those experiences. Um and some of the artwork
013was just amazing. There was a lot of mixed media where they would take photos and um fiber like yarn or crochet or knitting and they would interweave it into the photos to sort of make a message. Um there was some amazing digital art this time around that was really impressive. And there was this one picture um it was a pen and ink drawing but it was basically like pointalism where it was dot dot dot dot dot dot dot and it was just extremely detailed small picture but you could see that the student had put an intense amount of effort into it and um I just love that sort of stuff and I always love seeing the ceramics are probably my favorite. Um the other thing that I did is I visited Glacier Peak Elementary School
014and I had a wonderful conversation with um with the principal over there, Principal Costa. And uh we had one of their big celebrations right now, which is actually pretty amazing, is their enrollment was actually higher than they expected it to be. And I think it was like 20 more students than they expected. and she talked about one of the ways that they did that was this past um uh this past summer they scheduled kindergarten playdates. So the kids got together, they played with each other, and they gave they gave the families I'm going to kindergarten at Glacier Peak signs. And so the kids the parents would go home and put them in their yard. And so word of mouth, you know, parents driving by and saying, "Oh, this kid's going to Glacier Peak. Oh, this
015kid's going." It created that word of mouth. I think that really helped them drive up their enrollment. Um, and I loved it. And it's a it's a little thing, but um, the other thing that happened, and this is why I love going to elementary schools, um, because spontaneous moments will happen that just show you what a wonderful community that that elementary school is. And this one was we walked into a classroom and a little boy um, he was not very verbal. um he had a developmental um delay of some sort uh in the classroom. The kids were all busy running around and stuff and he had stepped on a glue stick. [laughter] And so we took that moment to he was trying to get us to help him with his glue stick situation. But then
016um afterwards that same little boy when I was meeting with principal Costa in her office, he came in with his learning specialist and he was so excited because he had read a sentence from a book and he wanted to read that sentence to us too. Um, and so he very slowly and very adorably read this sentence to us. And at one point, [laughter] you got to love kids, he reverted to his monster voice because he likes to use a monster voice when he's really involved in something. And so all of a sudden you're then the bird flew. [laughter] So um but we celebrated with him and you know those moments seem small but they really make that community and they make that kids uh that kid obviously felt supported and loved and cared for in
017that moment. So um a lot of thanks go out to Glacier Peak. It's always near and dear to my heart because that's where my son went to elementary school and um even before then he and I would go to the um the Scholastic book fair and buy books and donate some to the [laughter] teachers and they never asked us any questions. They were like, "Yeah, come in and buy some books." So um yeah, great visit. >> Thanks. Okay, director of Sal Lucas. >> [snorts] >> Good evening everyone online. Um [laughter] and our staff here but uh so as I shared attended the um Westminster city of the state. It was great to hear or state of the city and it was great to hear updates and from our superintendent. Um, and as Paula shared, attended
018the uh, high school jured art show. Um, what I really like about that is because I'm the one of the least artistic humans on the planet and um, and so just the level of talent and by by such young humans is just so extraordinary. So, one of my favorites, um, I also attended a couple weeks ago on the 19th my last five-star foundation board meeting as the liaison and member. Um, and it's was such an honor to serve and um, support the foundation and their support of the district and everything that they do and continue to do. and I'm very excited Ike will be serving as the liaison and will do amazing things and will be a wonderful member to the board. Um, [clears throat] last Thursday evening I attended the second grade performance at
019the studio school and so at the studio school each grade puts on a whole grade level performance. And for um those of us that are former studio parents and our current studio parents, it's our kids get so excited. Well, maybe not the fifth graders. um or at least my when my daughter was a fifth grader. But uh they get so excited about it and it's so fun and just the amount of work that goes into doing that and working on it by just the grade level educators, the theater teacher, the music teacher and so um so cute to watch and they were amazing to make sure they were second graders just cuz amazing. Um last Friday I visited Cherry Drive Elementary uh with um Felicia Sandville as the new principal there and got to go
020around to classrooms and [snorts] visit and talk to students and always loved doing that. And in one of the first grade classes, a student was being the teacher and giving a lesson and was following all the um points that would be required in a lesson plan, that kind of thing to follow. And she picked a book, she read it, she asked questions um you know, stu she called on students to answer. It was really cute. Um and she was really good. And we asked after like, well, why like why was that? Like why did she get to do that? I guess a couple weeks before that she went up to her teacher and she said, "You know, when you need a day off, I'm happy to help out and take over. She really wants to
021be a teacher when she grows up." And um she's like, "You know, if you're just tired, you can put your head down and I'll take over for you." And and so they put her in that role. And she she shined. It was really cute to watch and even how this other her classmates responded to her and was really excited for her in that role. So very great things happening in Adams 12. Um that's all I have for this week. So I don't think we are going to meet again till after spring break. So happy spring break everyone. >> Thanks. Okay. Um I got to go Sunday night to the teacher appreciation at the church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints Mormon church. And um that was really cool. There were a lot of
022um Adams 12 educators that were appreciated there and um and of course Chris got to speak. Um I have been busy down at the Capitol uh to say the least, but yesterday I had the opportunity to have visitors from North Glenn High School. Um, Victoria Bull and Lindsey Brown and Allison Doppler brought students down. And one of my jobs this week is to um move the journal in in on the floor. And then if nobody signs up to do the pledge, I have to do that, too. And I found out nobody was signed up to do the pledge yesterday. And my little light bulb went on my head. It's like, oh, Northland High. And um they actually and and and the lady that's uh down the Cabo that makes all these arrangements. We made it
023happen. In spite of the fact that when um Allison went to get the van to come down here, she had to have like go through like four or five different vans to find one that wasn't that was working. But they made it in time. [laughter] They did. I was waiting for them at the front door and got them in there on the floor and they did that. And then they they sat on the floor with us and they really did get into the debate. Um they were really fascinated with the whole process. That's a it's quite a process. Um and then they got the tour. They got to go to the top of the dome and um so that was a really special day for them. Um and other than that, no, I haven't really
024had a lot of time to do a whole lot of things on at district, but I've always got education on my mind. All right. Uh board committee liaison reports. We'll start with the DAC. Uh we had a meeting just this um past uh week actually and uh it was an online meeting and there weren't too many updates to be honest with you. So um uh we just kind of went around just kind of planning for some of the work that was coming. Um but no major updates. >> Thank you. How about the fact? um fact met on the 19th and um went through uh I was on when a little bit later but they went through the first penalties and um filings and Aaron was able to report that we have had none um receivables
025and then expenditures insurance and then worked on monitoring reports and I know we're getting a finance update later tonight. >> Thanks. All right, on to board business or do you want to say something? Oh, okay. [laughter] Um, I will entertain a motion that this is the uh superintendent contract extension. Um, gosh, it's been a fast three years. Um, I will entertain a motion to approve the first amendment to the superintendent's contract dated May 24th, 2023, which extends the contract term to June 30th, 2027 with no increase to the salary paid to the superintendent during the 2024 25 and 2526 school years and increases the number of vacation days provided to the superintendent for the 26 27 school year from 20 days to 32 case. >> So moved. >> Second. Okay. Um, I personally feel that
026Chris is underpaid, overworked, and um I um I'm just I think that if he wants 12 extra days for a break, I don't see any reason why we shouldn't give that to him. um I've worked with you for a long time and uh you know I think the longevity of him being here is one of the things that makes this school district so special. So I think it's a very simple ask. >> I just think back to the the Thunder Vista fire and how the entire um Chris and the team jumped right into action um in the middle of a break. Um that kind of responsiveness is what our community needs and I think our community appreciate it. So couldn't agree more with President Goldstein. >> And just to piggyback off that that was during
027a winter break. So it's days that were supposed to be off that didn't. And so that's I mean yeah I think as even just extending it 12 days how many weekends how many other days off that where time was put in. So, I I hope you get all those days without having to make phone calls, answer emails, respond to issues. So, yeah. >> All right. >> Yep. Are we ready? Call up vote. >> Director Anan Wubo. >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas. >> I. >> Director Batistelli. >> Hi. >> Director Goldstein. >> Hi. >> Director Marsh Holen. >> I. >> All right. >> Thanks all. Sure. Okay. A debrief of our special board meeting with DTA. We put this off for a while so that um we could um or that DTA could kind of
028consolidate the themes and put it in a little report for us that was meaningful. But um I know it was a while ago, but I was Who wants to start sharing? What I really appreciate about meeting in with DTA, CSEA, it's um and any other stakeholder is just hearing what they have to say. I mean, these are people that professionals that are in front of kids um [clears throat] all day and um just getting their getting their feedback, getting their perspective of um different things that are impacting kids, things that are, you know, could be done differently, things they appreciate, things that are working, not working. you know, all of it I think is incredibly helpful when um you know, meeting with other leaders throughout the the system and just understanding and too and like
029it's not just even you know classroom teachers, we meet with counselors, we meet with coaches, we meet with um [clears throat] uh I mean every everybody and um interventionists and so it's just hearing all the different perspectives of of what's what they're seeing and even like the different buildings because what might be working in one building might not be working in another building and but then hearing them talk about that and maybe why helps us gain that um perspective of not everything not everything can be completely equal. So yeah, [snorts] >> um what struck me was uh some of the because we also met with a group of parents uh before that and and what struck me was there were some overlap definitely in terms of interest uh goals that sort of thing. One one
030idea that struck me uh when we were meeting with with some of the educators was um they don't have enough time to you know talk to all the parents that they need to during the day but when there are you know meetings such as like parent teacher night that sort of thing. they have a chance to [snorts] actually not worry about the time and actually devote some time to actually getting to know the parents and getting to know the the kids that much more. So, it's not just influencing the our our kids, but also getting to know their families and that's where the real influence comes. And and I think that that came out in the meeting that we had, but it also came out when we met with parents as well because they had
031the same concern that they didn't have enough ch time to to get to talk to teachers about concerns regarding their kids. So it was really good to get together kind of get the ideas on the table and and then for me anyway trying to see where the alignment where the overlap that sort of thing uh for future actions. So a very good night. Thank you. I always enjoy talking with the teachers. Um it to me it seems kind of essential that you you talk with the teachers. It's sort of like um uh at any sort of organization where the people who are in the non um I'm trying to find a good analogy for this. There's the guy who and I'm not saying that we're a factory, but let's just use a factory as as
032a a similar um frame of reference. there's the person who actually operates the machine and then there's the guy who puts the rules together about how to operate the machine. You want to make sure with the guy who's operating the machine that it actually works. And so, um, that's one of the reasons I think it's essential to talk with teachers. The other thing I always think of is something a a professor at [laughter] CU Boulder said to me once and it really stuck in my head is that a teacher's working conditions are a student's learning conditions. So, it's really important to pay attention to those conditions. Um, so I always go in there ready to learn from them. I know they're going to have wonderful suggestions and great ideas. As I was looking through the
033document that they shared, all of it seemed to align pretty much with what I was hearing. Um, I would say that one piece that was missing, and it's probably because the person in my group, I think she was the only representative in the room from this particular population that day, um, she was a childfind uh, person. So, she worked on assessing um, uh, preschool um, kindergarten kids. And I think there was some concern around making sure the appropriate people were doing that assessment and having time to do it. And I just called that out because I don't because it was just one person, it's hard for them to make generalizations from one person's feedback. But I wanted to make sure that was stressed um because it felt valid. But then other things, you know, that
034stood out were um conversations around the sprint cycles. And you know what the sprint cycles are sort of I think we have some schools who have them down right they know how to do them effectively and I think um it's a growth area [laughter] where there are ways to improve the process um and I found that pretty much captured here as well. But yeah, I'm always grateful for their cander and I'm happy that we have that relationship where um the administration and the union and the board can all get together and have frank conversations. Um yeah, so that was my sense. Thank you. Um, I always have a hard time with this meeting because I've been to so many of them over the years and I still feel that things just never change or they
035get worse over time. Um, we ask a lot of our educators and [snorts] what has changed over the years is people wanting to go into the teaching profession. And so, um, it gets harder and harder to find, >> [snorts] >> um, people who want to stay in the profession for a great deal of time because they it just burns them out. And so, I'm very concerned about that. You know, these people are professionals. They graduated from college and they're in their classrooms every day and they know their kids and they know what they're teaching. And sometimes I feel like that's not honored in certain places. And so I hope that um this document the district um will take this document to heart and to look for ways to um help our educators um feel better.
036Um I do appreciate that um Steve Lash listened to me and said I don't want this to be a gripe session. and he did have some very thoughtful questions um about, you know, what what is working >> and uh I still think we we're we're still in need of work and I know a lot of it is based on legislation um that I know and so um keep encouraging your legislators to work on making that legislation a little bit more teacher friendly. Um but we we we still have work to do in that as far as teachers um teachers wellbe just a few quick comments from me. Uh, one thing that I appreciate about the board is your willingness and commitment to hearing to lots of different stakeholders firsthand, whether it's our educators, our support
037staff, representatives, principles, parents, business members. We've heard all those references here tonight. And I don't know that all boards do that as robustly as this group does. It can be easy uh in your roles of mine to make lots of assessments of the system based upon your experience as a parent or of your friends and neighbors or people who are in an affinity group and it can be skewed if that's all that you do. So listening to lots of people and then looking at lots of hard data uh and bringing your own personal experience in to me that's the just right combo and that's how I see this board operating and grateful for that. Paula, in terms of the child find piece, um I'm gonna ask Heather to get some more information over what I
038believe may have uh been the underlying piece is there's been some analysis done in the past about case loads and expectations for folks in child fine compared to others doing work in the system and the perception or the data showed that the case load expectations for child fine staff were quite a bit less than other staff who are like OT's, PTS, psyches and other roles. PS and there's been some rebalancing of duties and I think that's been a fairly significant change and some still have concerns about it being a big change from the past and is this the right way to assess and evaluate kids. So I think that's probably what you are hearing. There's some data that might be helpful for you and the rest of the group to see. So I'll get that
039your way. the feedback here um we'll expressly share it with all of the folks in learning services leadership and our executive directors so that they see it as well and can uh work through it. There's a lot of feedback that I've been sharing with them recently from principles as I've done small group meetings and some uh just as there was alignment in what Ike referenced hearing from some parents and and educators. Some of the feedback here aligns with what we've heard from principles too and those patterns and themes often tell you that there's something that needs to be adjusted typically on our side uh to make change either more effective or to evaluate whether the change is the right change to make. So, we'll do that. Final thing about where teachers are at. We do
040a panorama survey each year that you've probably participated in as parents. We ask students to do surveys, staff and parents. And I think often the board has an interest in the staff surveys and seeing how each building looks. And Tim's prepared to get that out to you soon. We're just kind of in the throws of budget this week. Uh but certainly next week at the latest you'll have that data and can look at it and ask questions about uh where things are at and if there's things that are concerning what are we doing uh to address it. >> Thanks. All right. On to Thunder Vista Remediation. I will entertain a motion to approve additional expenditures of 1.7 million related to the December 27th, 2025 fire and the effects of soil movement at Thunder Vista P8
041School and to authorize the superintendent to approve future expenditures as needed provided that he keeps the board informed of any additional costs. >> So moved. >> Second, >> Miss Brandt. >> Good evening, board. Um, yes. So, we're here to approve additional expenditures. This is beyond previous amounts the board has funded for Thunder Vista. As you know, the soil movement um and now the fire that happened on December 27th of 2025 has caused additional need for the funds. Uh so due to the property damage of the fire uh and these serious continuing problems, I just want you to know how imperative our corrective measures are. We currently um are on schedule at Thunder Vista to reopen for the 26 27 school year in August and these funds will help us do that to make the repairs
042and corrections needed. of the 1.7 million uh that is being asked tonight, you'll see um some of the large uh charges in the DI report. Our remediation contractor um also our student transportation contractor as we're um transporting students over to uh the four schools. So the that and there's some other miscellaneous expenses including repairs, IT equipment, etc. as a direct result of the fire. Um we do expect and the reason for the action in which um to approve future to approve hold on how is it written to approve future expenditures as needed as long as we keep the board um included and that is because we do expect further uh design and construction as we excavate and uncover the needs. We currently have found a grease interceptor. Uh we have a geothermal manifold that we'd
043like to correct while the building is closed. Um and those are a direct uh result of soil movement as well. So those will be coming and we will um assure you that we will bring um those to superintendent Gdowski so he can share them with the board. Uh also I think it's important to note that there's both the risk and capital reserve funds that are supporting uh uh our payment of of these bills and any insurance recoveries or any settlement proceeds from our uh lawsuit um will offset our district expenditures. But it's too early to know what will be offset and what won't. But we are tracking that um to hopefully have potential recoveries of these funds you've been approving. Any questions? >> Any questions? >> Director Anan Wuvo. >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas.
044>> I. >> Director Bastelli. >> I. >> Director Goldstein. >> Hi. >> Director Marsh Holen. >> I. >> Okay. Budget update. is Laneir. There we go. Good evening, board. I was waiting for the light to come on. Um, I'm here to give you a budget update. I expect that Chris will um tag team a little bit in this update. As you all know, it's really early in the sorry in the um budgeting process. We don't know a ton of information right now. So, we're I'm going to go over what we do know and what we're using for some of our projections. So, um as we're working through the budget development, the things we're focusing on, of course, are the school finance act. That's the bulk of our revenue that we receive. We're looking at our
045projected funded pupil count, other re revenue estimates, um impacts of negotiations. That's of course to be determined right now. we are forecasting the cost of benefit um increases and then we are continuing to monitor a lot of different areas. So I think I presented back in January or February the inflation for that we will use in the school finance act this year is 2.3%. So, that increases the base funding that every school district in Colorado starts out with from um it'll increase by almost $200 to 8,89171. And I updated this slide and I don't know why it shows this, so I apologize. We had a little confusion with [laughter] I'm I'm going to talk you through it. We'll make sure you have the right copy. So, when I first put this presentation together a couple
046weeks ago or a week and a half ago, we were assuming in our projections that Oh, no. This is updated. I just can't read. I'm tired. I apologize. Sorry. I need to go to bed. Um, so originally we were projecting that we would go to three-year averaging and 30% implementation of the new school finance act. From what we're hearing, and we won't know until the March economic forecast comes out midmon around March 15thish, but what we're hearing is the revenue forecast for the state is worse than was expected. That's what they're projecting and that Medicaid costs are significantly higher than was projected. So, the state already, as you know, has a tough budget situation on their hands. With that said, we are expecting that the new school finance act will be paused. And I'll talk
047about the implications to our revenue and in I think the next slide. Chris, did you want to add anything? >> I'll just add two things. I I think it's a $ 1.9 to$2 million difference between what it means on the revenue side if we do 30% in and three-year averaging versus 15% in on the new formula and four-year averaging. And it's a new discovery. So over the weekend uh we were still I was still thinking still modeling 30% and three-year averaging. We've now quickly shifted our modeling to reflect uh not the certainty but it feels like a more probable than not outcome that will have the con the same formula of this year. So it complicates our budget planning by about $2 million is my recollection. >> Yes. And I have the exact numbers that
048I'll tell you in in a slide or two. And I hope I'm wrong on that, but that is what we're preparing for. So, one of the sides I'd like to share is what's happening with our funded pupil count. So, in 2526, our official October count, we had a total including our district authorized charter schools of 32,917.6 funded pupils. Our 2627 projection, which continues the four-year averaging, shows that we will have a decline in funded pupils of 890.1 students year-over-year. So, our big year is fall, our big years are falling off, and so that is um that is drawing some of the challenges that we're seeing in our revenue. If we were to have continued with five-year averaging, our year-over-year decline would have actually been 795 students. So, that's really a reflection of those big years
049falling off less than going from four to five, if that makes sense. So, um we're only down an additional 95 students with this. And you can see we're um projecting our charter schools to stay flat. Okay, so here are our revenue estimates. So in total, we are forecasting that our ongoing revenue from adopted budget last year. So ignore what we shared with you with amended budget because this is this is um comparing our adopted budget to adopted budget. Our total revenue, we're forecasting ongoing revenue to be up just over $39.6 million. With that, with what we just talked about with the pause of the new school finance act, we're now projecting that our school finance revenue will be $1.5 million lower than what we got this year. had we stayed with um or if we
050are able to continue the implementation of the new school finance act with threeear averaging and 30% implementation our revenue would have actually increased by $360,000. So while 360,000 isn't a lot it's not negative. So it is a it is a big impact if the um school finance act is paused. We project our categorical funding, which as a whole really grows by inflation roughly, um we're projecting that's going to grow just under a million dollars. Our 2018 MLO, that one grows by inflation, 2.3%. So that estimate is a little over 795,000. And then this one's the the tougher one is our 2025 mil levy override. we are projecting it to decrease um by 788,000 from what we were able to collect what we are able to collect this year next year and the reason for that
051is we're projecting from our advisors that our total assessed valuation is going to go down by about 2%. And so with that being a fixed mill, which in the long run is usually very positive, usually grows beyond even inflation, this is a particular year where we're looking at it's going to likely decrease. And so that will result in a little bit less revenue for us. Any [snorts] um and then the supplemental at risk funding, you all probably do not ever want to hear me talk about this again, but um was it last year? I think last year it was determined that we receive what's called supplemental at risk funding to offset a required allocation that we must make one of our charter schools who was authorized before July 1, 2004. They get funded at the
052district average per pupil and that their factors around at riskll do not get included in how they're funded. So they get funded at a higher rate than they otherwise would if they had been authorized after that magic date. Last year as part of the budget cutting measures and because the state determined it was literally impossible to calculate the supplemental at risk number um they determined they were going to hold us flat this year to what we were funded in the prior year and then for next year that number is going to be cut in half. So, our impact next year is um just over 372,000 reduction to our revenue. [clears throat] Any questions on the revenue piece? I know that's a ton of information, very in the weeds, but it is the foundation of where
053we start building our budget. >> So, the school that Gina's referencing is Stargate. And just uh to give a concrete example. So part of that at risk funding allocation for them will be based on the district being roughly 50% free in reduced lunch which is our aggregate number and I think theirs is about 8%. So there's quite a bit more money coming to them um than what their proportion of uh free and reduced lunch kids has been. Historically the state would hold us harmless and obviously those dollars are going away. So, we're now having to take money away from other students in the district uh for whom those funds are allocated to continue this grandfathering provision of statute >> unless we can get the statute fixed, which I'm working on. >> Yep. >> And I'll
054share a little bit more about that in a future slide. All right. And then um some one-time money that the district has available that we can use to offset other items is projected at $39.9 million. And the bulk of that is made up of the 2025 mil levy override revenues that we will collect this year. So we talked about that during the amended budget process in which we will collect those funds and we aren't able to quickly implement many of the things that the mill levy will pay for. So that money becomes some one-time money that can be set aside. And then in addition to that we have are estimating this is an estimate and this number will change when we close our fiscal year. Um, but we're estimating that the portion of unassigned fund
055balance that's available to keep us right at 4% unassigned, we will we are projecting that we'll have just over $5 million that would push us above that 4%. So, that is available and can be used for one-time items um as we're building our budget. Any questions on that piece? Okay. [clears throat] All right. So, there's a lot more to come as you can see on this list. And so, um I think I heard Chris share that we are um releasing the school budgets tomorrow afternoon. And so, we have been [laughter] what did he say? >> It was a big dramatic watt from Aaron acting surprised not very authentically. [laughter] >> I'm so focused I couldn't pay attention to him. So, um those will be released tomorrow afternoon and we have um just yesterday I think
056we spent over five hours working through budget decisions and and conversations and so that will continue to evolve. We um will continue to work on refining our projections with revenue and expenditures. of course, um the school finance act. We will we will see what happens with um whether or not they're able to continue moving forward with the new funding or if we'll we'll have a pause there. And then the the area I've really been working very closely with a couple of my colleagues at other districts is how we will fund charter schools. So last year during the the legislative process, they did a one-year fix uh on how we fund our charter schools. the um Stargates of the world were we're allowed to keep that grandfathering in for this current year and any of the
057new money outside of our Stargate um is allocated on a per pupil basis to each of the charter schools. Not their proportionate share, but literally taking the new money, dividing it by our funded pupil count, and then giving them theirs based on the funded pupil count. So, that was the one-year fix for this year. And um so with that, I was supposed to have a meeting yesterday that included the League of Charters and some other CFOs in case and it got postponed at the league's request because they um they really wanted to spend some more time diving into the data. >> Is that um fix come with legislation or is that or are they just doing it outside? >> No, it will require legislation. And so as we stand today, if legislative action doesn't take
058place, we literally do not have the mechanism to fund our charter schools. There the the way statute is written. We would not be able to follow the law because the wording, the name of things, the the way we're funded changed. And this was neglected when the new school finance act was originally created that this there was a whole miss on how to fund charter schools. And so they did a one-time one-year only fix. But after this year, if we don't get something in place, we will not have the um mechanism to fund them appropriately. >> And this affects all charter schools throughout the state. Just quick no question. So, the it's very complicated the way the law is written. There's basically um I'm going to sum I'm going to summarize it as best I can.
059There's basically three different ways charters are funded. And so, if a district when the charter was authorized or renewed, if the district's at risk population is 40% or more, those charter schools are funded one way unless they were authorized before July 1, 2004. And then if they're CSI, it's also a little bit different. And then those who are under 40%, they're they can continue to be funded with no problem. So it's it's that box. Although I would argue because of the way the new school finance act is and where those measures are put in place on how to fund students, I would argue that the charter should be funded the same way the district is funded. Um, okay. So, that's charter schools. We are continuing to moni monitor implications um at the federal level on
060different grants. And so, this year um you know, we we are recommending that we set a little bit of money aside for the unknown, but it's not looking as bad as it has last year. So, I'm feeling optimistic there. And um you all probably saw the the JBC staff recommendation for general fund relief document. I think I said it was 186 pages. So the finance team is skim is going through it um really page by page because we need to verify there's different grants in there. There's different things and so we need to verify do we have this grant? Is it at risk and what impact could the district have? Um, again, property tax collection rate, that was something I was a little bit worried about for assessment rates. Um, the my understanding is we
061will um we will continue to do our home residential assessment rate at 7.05 and then on the property tax collection rate. Last year, Adams County, we collected, I think, 6% less than normal. And 6 doesn't sound like a huge number, but when you do the math on our total property taxes, it it adds up. So, we are monitoring that collection rate and taking that into account as we're building our budget, um, and and I already talked to death, um, as I did last year about the charter school piece of of how we're funded. So, any questions on these? And I'm sure Chris has other things he wants to share. All right. assume he does. >> Maybe not so much. Um, I'll just say that there's a lot of things that are moving as Gina outlined
062here, negotiated items being a big part of it. And we have things that I think are getting close to landing with uh our certified negotiations. a title one salary uh schedule is probably the the biggest piece uh before we get to the home stretch around steps and other compensation things. But I feel confident that we're going to land uh in better places around things like title one and and other structures than what we've had in place the last couple of years. Classified, I think we're in a good spot in terms of having things largely landed. There are um some administrative compensation things that we're still sorting out and reclassification adjustments to make for some for quite a few administrative positions largely at the principal level where we um are trailing the market in significant ways.
063The same is true on the classified side. Right now we're dead last for example on bus driver compensation against competitive peers. and that's not a sustainable place nor a place that we want to be in just as a matter of values that we have here. So all those pieces are moving forward. The other thing I would just mention there's not a lot of things that we will be adding for next year but there will be some things that we propose to make additions to the budget on just like we did um having other seasons of budget difficulty and challenge and change. There are times that just meeting the needs of the organi or organization and investing in some new things are the right thing to do. One example that I would highlight that I think
064is likely to be in my final recommendation to you all is investing some more money in the Crossroads program where we serve students uh in an alternative setting uh at the Vantage Point campus and we've often struggled to provide the quality of uh growth support to students there that allow them to go on to high school and be successful. When you look at data, students often exit crossroads. They go back to a traditional comprehensive high school. They do poorly. They come back to Vantage Point in many cases or some other setting. And in the end, the dropout rate is fairly significant. And the number of students who earn a competency diploma instead of a credit-based diploma is significant. We feel like we can do better by having students not exit Crossroads after their eighth grade
065year, stay their ninth grade, have a small cohort with more intensive supports. um whether it's provided through counselors or mental health professionals, special education experts and equip those kids for either a transition to Vantage Point if and 10th grade if that's the right thing or to a comprehensive high school or another program. So I'm grateful to the initiative of uh Allison, our principal there, who's come into Vantage Point for seeing a new vision forward because we felt like for a while we need to do better. We also want to serve a lot more kids than we have been. And so investing in a program like that, even though it's largely challenging financial times, feels like the very much right thing to do in terms of better serving kids. So there will be some other examples,
066but that's one that's top of mind. [clears throat] >> So that's all I have. Any questions? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thanks, Gina. >> To be continued. All right. On to minutes. I will recommend entertain a motion to adopt the minutes of the February 18th, 2026 regular board meeting as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Director Anan Uebo. >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas. >> Hi. >> Director Batistelli. >> Hi. >> Director Goldstein. >> Hi. >> Director Marsh Holen. >> Hi. >> Uh, okay. On to um consent agenda. I will entertain a motion to approve the personal actions as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Director Ananubo. >> I. >> Director Sad Lucas. >> Hi. >> Director Batiselli. >> I. >> Director Goldstein. >> Hi. >> Director Marsh Holen. >> I. >> All
067right. We do not have another meeting in March. So our next meeting will be April Fool's Day. [laughter] No joke. Um um we'll have our our um cycle of monitoring reports. Um we'll um get um information on the early literacy assessment uh instructional materials presentation and then we have our meeting in the middle of April on tax day. Um and it looks like uh we're going to have our our annual opportunity to meet with your uh the superintendent student leadership council. So that's always fun. >> Yeah. On that piece, I may just add a little bit of context. So that student leadership council, we invite to have two students from each one of our comprehensive high schools, our alternative schools, our charter schools to participate. So if you have everyone participating, you could have a
068solid 20 students or so in the room. We typically don't have that much. We have customarily more student participation at the start of the year and then as life gets busy and they're doing college applications and activities and all the rest things can slim down from time to time. This year the group has gone from just sharing with me uh some of the things they'd love to see be different in their experience or maybe exploring with them policy changes or other ideas that we and staff have to challenging them to go further in terms of creating a solution to their their desire to have stronger school spirit and student sense of belonging in our high schools. And the concept that they believe can help accomplish that is to have something like a house system, which
069we do have at some middle schools. Thunder Vista has a house system where kids are assigned to a house or a group of students that's usually vertical in nature and you can just connect with others outside your normal peer group. You can do school spirit activities, community service projects, fun activities. Um, it's actually in place currently at the high school level at Prospect Ridge. And one of our students from P who I saw at the LDS event on Sunday night has brought a lot of her experiences forward. So students are cooking. They've done a lot of research about how this house concept has worked uh in other high schools throughout the country. They have research from Adams 12, research in throughout the the state and their next task is to present to high school principles
070and assistant principles with their ideas with hopes that they'll get uh at least one bite to do a pilot of this concept next year. And I think in a perfect world, they'd love to see all of our high school leaders say that they want to give this a go for next year. So by the time they come to you, that presentation of principles would have happened. That's really um I think a great leadership exercise for them to say how do you make the case to influence change. We've had students do that before years ago who were at Northland High School and had a lot of passion about changing school start times at high school to a later time. Did a lot of research about what the National Academy of Pediatrics and others had to say.
071Presented to cabinet and others. And even though the pace was slower than they wanted, in the end they prompted the change that took start times from 7:15 um to 7:45 and now 7:40. So they made some small progress, not as much as they'd like. Um I'm hopeful to see I'm excited to see where this goes with high school principles and excited for them to talk more to you all about their process. >> Thank you. So am I. All right. Well, with that being said,