001All right. I would like to call this meeting to order. >> Oh, it is 501. >> Director Anan Wubo >> here. >> Director Assad Lucas >> here. >> Director Bastelli >> here. >> Director Goldstein. >> Director Marsh Hen >> here. I would like to make a rem uh recommend an action to approve the agenda as stated. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Director Ananubo. >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas >> here. Hi. >> Director Bastelli. >> I. >> Director Marsh Holshen. >> I. >> All right. Um, now I'd like to recommend an action to move to into executive session or to recess for an executive session to discuss specialized details of security arrangements related to the purchase of birectional amplifiers or BDAS to ensure emergency responders can communicate via radio in the district school pursuant
002to CRS 24-6-424D. So move. >> Second. >> Director Ananubo. >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas. >> Hi. >> Director Bastelli. I >> Director Marsh Hen. >> I. >> All right. We will be back after executive session. Okay, [clears throat] I will call this meeting to order. We'll start with roll. >> No, we already did that because we broke into exec. >> Oh, okay. Okay, we are coming out of our executive session and we are back in our general session and get for missing it. Um, we need to do the pledge. So, please rise if you are able. 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. >> Are we on to reports?
003>> Superintendent updates. >> Thank you, Lori. So, I'll just start out with a little bit of clarification in terms of the executive session for security purposes. I believe that concluded at 5:47 and then we had about a 13minute uh discussion outside of executive session within the work session format talking about primarily compensation matters. So I just wanted to clarify that piece. Uh I know Lori came to us at the end and so like the logistics of that were more complicated and tricky than normal. Um I'd like to transition next to talking about um just a painful loss that many of us uh are grieving right now in this room. So for many many years uh the seat occupied to the right of the deis has been occupied by a man named Lee Koka who worked
004in Adams 12 for 20 years. His wife's an educator here very invested as a parent, grandparent and employee of the district in the district's success. and Lee served as our night security person that would often be present for a variety of after hours events. He's also been here uh on some pretty sleepy nights at board meetings when nobody's here and not much is going on. And he's been here at some high intensity nights when we had hundreds of people here who are unhappy. Uh sometimes um people really unhappy about things like masking requirements and the pandemic and remote learning and hybrid learning and all the rest. and he was just a steady rock of security for all at the deis and frankly those in the audience too know that we had somebody sitting to our
005right with a watchful eye to make sure that we all approp uh acted appropriately and professionally and responsibly in this setting. Uh I remember the last time that uh I had the chance to interact with Lee which is right before the winter break and I got locked out of my office which happens uh fairly often at night. at our custodians lock our offices when uh they're doing their rounds. And so if I'm down here and I haven't taken my keys with me, I get locked out and have to beg for help. And so Lee rescued me that night and uh we talked as we went up um just about catching up on things. And it seemed to me that Lee looked thinner and less vigorous and slower in his walk that night than what I
006had seen before. And it turned out that there was a reason behind that. that not long after that during the winter break he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and sadly um that cancer took Lee's life yesterday. So there's a lot of us in the system uh who have worked with Lee closely um who are grieving his loss, grieving the ch the sadness that he didn't have the chance to live the retirement stage of life um that many of us hope for uh for ourselves and for our loved ones and friends. Um, so I just wanted to take a brief moment to pause in a moment of silence in memory of Lee and his contributions in this space and to this board of education and leadership team. Lee, we miss you and we'll
007miss you. Um, I guess the other thing that I would talk about um is budget process. It's a big part of the work that we do and it's high stakes, high stress for um all of us here wanting to make thoughtful decisions that advance u student opportunities and learning in our system the very best way that we can. And the way that we do that is through adults and a variety of staffing roles. support staff, uh, educators and administrators. And that task, uh, of figuring out how many of those people you can afford and how to compensate them in a competitive way is just perpetually challenging um, in Colorado throughout the state. And it will be so again this year as we prepare for the 2627 school year. And for some, I think that comes
008as a surprise given our successful passage of 5B in November with the $39.42 $42 million that will come in as additional operating funds in our district. Um those funds will be used exactly the way that we uh described them to our voters and a good chunk of them will be invested starting next school year and allowing our certified classified administrative employees to be compensated in a way that's more aligned with the market. will still trail the market uh in consistent ways. But right now, I think you all remember the data that we talked a lot about during uh the campaign season that educators were often as a practical matter in Adams 12 next to last in our regional market. Uh only ahead of 27J. Lots of our administrative positions were in the bottom two or
009three of our peer district comparison. So, we look forward to making investments in compensation to be more competitive and keep people uh incentivized to come to and stay at some of our schools uh where we have lots of high stakes needs to serve and challenges in recruiting and retaining namely our title one schools. So, a lot of that work is going on and dollars have been earmarked for that purpose. The big challenge that we have and most districts in Colorado have is at the same time uh that we have resources in to help districts who have been lagging to shore up some of those gaps to some degree. There's also just widespread enrollment declines throughout the state. I heard that from a variety of school leaders today when I was uh meeting with them. Maybe
01020 to 30 of the school districts out of the 170 in Colorado are not declining in enrollment right now. It's a widespread issue largely caused by people having fewer children and by a number of people sometimes leaving uh our state or certainly certain regions of the state because of the cost of living and because of the way that we fund schools in our state when you lose enrollment and because of changes to how we uh fund districts that are declining in enrollment uh under things that have been brought forward by Governor Polus. there's just continued reductions in resources that come with that. So, in the end, um, one of my obligations and one of your responsibilities is to adopt a budget by June 30th of each fiscal year. And yet, the timing and mechanics and
011logistics of this are really complicated and frustrating. So, you have until that time to adopt it. Gina, Eron, myself, and others who are trying to figure out how much resources we'll have won't really know that number. most likely until midappril to early May. You never quite know. Um there's some years that the legislature and the JBC and all the parties have money figured out sooner in time and there's other days in my tenure that we found out finally, conclusively, definitively our funding for the next year on the last day or two of the session. So, you have April to May uh certainty that starts to emerge, but you have urgency to start making allocations to your schools and letting them know how much money they have to spend on staff starting now. And frankly, it
012hits a fever pitch as you start to get into early March. And the the dance that we all play in public educated guesses about how much money we're going to have. um and guesstimate a lot of expenses way in advance for us. One of the expenses that we have to estimate much further in advance. Uh that creates some uncertainty around it is health insurance where health insurance in Adams 12 is a January 1st through December 31st contract period and we're having to estimate that midyear cost increase for health insurance premiums. That will happen January 1st of 2027 when we're adopting our budget in June of 26. And as a practical matter, we're having to balance our books in terms of what we're going to do with school-based allocations and departmental allocations typically in March so
013that we can get everything going. So, I share all of that background uh to let you know that what I will uh endeavor to do my best with in the weeks ahead is to give you more granular insights into how we think we might go about balancing out next year's budget. Given declines in enrollment, for example, I'll just give you a piece of the puzzle. Don't hold me to it, but an early estimate is given the declines in enrollment we've seen that we can and should eliminate 11 classroom teachers at the elementary level for next year because there's been enough enrollment decline in that school at that grade level that I'm guessing on most of these cases we can go from three teachers in that grade level to two teachers in that grade level. But
014we'll look at that kind of granular student enrollment data, case load data for all the various people who work in schools and determine where might we have opportunities and needs to make reductions. And we're likely to start uh making definitive decisions to say, "All right, elementary schools, here's what we're going to cut or recommend to the board that we cut." and to start communicating those decisions in early March to mid-Marchch, even though you won't see a lot of the granularity of the budget and be adopting it until June. And I I share a lot of this just because I don't want you to think we are trying to usurp your power and authority. Um, and we will do a lot between now and when we start to push out school-based information to let you know
015all the analysis, all the data, all the reasoning why things we've considered and rejected and not. Um, but we're in this really tricky spot that if we wait longer than that until everything gets more certain at the state level in terms of funding and that we can have more and more lengthy discussions in the setting. We've done that sometimes before and we haven't really gotten to the spot of having school budgets developed until mid to late April in some cases and we uh we lose out mightily in terms of being timely in the market to hire people. More and more people are making some of those hiring decisions as early as January. So that's what's going to start coming. Budget I think is one of the the largest responsibilities that I and the leadership team
016have. It's one of the largest responsibilities you have as stewards of the community uh and fiduciaries of the resources. And um I'm just publicly wanting to share some of how this will work. And for those who might be listening or watching to let them know that just given the timing of when board meetings are going to occur in the next uh month or so, there will be a lot of information that's shared with you uh through email and through updates, but a lot of that may not become publicly uh shared out in this setting at least until late March or even April. And it's not like there's any gamesmanship going on. It's just the timing doesn't really fit together neatly the way that it should in a in a better system. So budget is uh
017big, hairy, and hard, but we're going to do thoughtful work. I don't believe we're in a spot uh from what I've seen and what we've discussed so far that the magnitude of reductions will be uh close at all to the scope of what we did last year, but there still will be meaningful reductions that go on at schools and enrolls in this building for next year. That's it for me. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Chris. All right. Um, board of education comments, recognitions, awards, and vision. We'll start with Ike. >> Thank you, President Goldstein. Um, five things I'd like to cover. Uh, the first is my sincerest condolences to the North Glenn High School community um for for their loss. uh freshman Hayden uh Mar Maruo. Um anytime [snorts] we have a loss,
018it it's difficult, especially when it's someone who's barely started their life. Um so I just wanted to mention that and and Principal Russell and her community and what they're going through. [snorts] Um number two, uh had the chance with Paula and my lovely wife to go to the pow-wow this past weekend. Um that is run by Apac. It was the 15th annual pow-wow. And uh for those of you who are watching and here in the room, uh Paula and I received these wonderful, wonderful um uh prints. Um really honored and uh it was a wonderful afternoon of culture, great food that I ate too much of um and people. So I I just want to acknowledge uh the APAC team. They're just phenomenal. already looking forward to next year's. Um it was a great opportunity
019for everyone in the community to come out and support our APAC uh community members. Number three, um had a chance with with Lori and Amamira to go to the state of the city and county for Broomfield uh to hear Mayor Gene Castrioto uh speak and and talk about the status of the city. Um it was really good to to see her after her election re-election win and hear about all the good things going on in Broomfield. Um and next week I believe we have uh the same with Westminster and and Mayor Claire Carmela Car Carmeella. Um so looking forward to that as well. Um, the next thing after that is I had the chance to serve pancakes last week at the Cherry Drive uh, elementary school with Principal Sandival and and Bo was there taking
020pictures of me falling behind almost like looking looking like the episode of I Love Lucy, you know. [laughter] Um, but it was wonderful opportunity to meet the community. um see principal Sandival step out and and and meet and work with her team for the hour that we we served. So, it was great. Um in terms of internal and external visits, um had a chance to meet with Tim Griffin and the HR team last week. So, that was really eye opening, the outstanding work they do in in support of everything Chris just mentioned, making sure that we offer competitive salaries, making sure that we retain outstanding talent for our kids. Um, so really appreciate uh Tim making the time and his team making the time to meet with me along with Chris. Chris was there as
021well. Um, and uh I have uh two school visits this week tomorrow and Friday to Arapjo Ridge and Hunter Glenn. So in advance I want to thank uh Principal uh Plato and Coco for for their time in in hosting me um Thursday and Friday. And that is all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. Alexis, my thing's been on the whole time. That's weird. Okay. Um well, I also [clears throat] it's been a hard couple weeks, I think, um with a lot of loss and so um I know that that's been really hard when it's both the administration building and then schools with um you know, students and and everything else. So, um we will just have to keep eyes on our kids. I know Bo has shared the um suicide the people in suicide
022prevention um going up and and that's always concerning. So, you know, just thank you to our educators who are um not and not just our educators, all the people in the schools that all the adults in the schools that um are there for our kids and how important it is. Um I have been working because this is my busy time. So, I have been able to make almost nothing unfortunately. Um, but I did out of big mom guilt find tickets to uh the North Glenn Theater and took my kids and there were a number of Adams 12 students including Amamira's daughter in the play. Um, so that was so much fun to see our students out in the community theater. Um, and both my kids want to join now. So, um, that was great. And
023um coming off of the break we had, I know before that was conferences and just always such a hard time for our teachers to do double duty. So just thank you to them and um their commitment to reaching out to parents. So that's all I have. >> Thank you, Paula. So [clears throat] um I had a pretty busy last few weeks and I was trying to remember the last time we met as a board. I think it was what January 20 something. Um so a lot has happened. Yeah. So um I visited Eagle View Elementary School and I met with um the principal there and they have quite a few celebrations. They saw some really high growth percentiles on NWA. Um they've had a great year utilizing the PM tool and they think the district
024provided great strategies on how to utilize that tool to help them meet their goals. Um they are really looking forward to teacher feedback. They think that with their new approach to professional development, they're going to see a lot of positive response from teachers. Um, and uh, the principal visits classrooms at least once a day, which I found really impressive. Um, and then uh, a parent wrote a grant that covers their subscription to Oh, wait. I think that is actually um, from Holstrom. So, I'm going to put a pin in that one. But my final story was when I went to um, Eagle View. This was hilarious. Um, it was the 100 days into the semester celebration. And so all the little kindergarteners were walking around wearing little gray wigs. And I don't know if it
025was affiliated or not, but I went into the art classroom and there was a a fourth or fifth grade boy in there. And he's either going to be uh he a real charmer when he gets older or he really needs a new prescription [laughter] for his eyes because he looked at me and he goes, "Are you a student?" [laughter] I was like, "How many fingers am I holding up?" But [snorts] anyway, um that was sort of my you either deserve an A or we need to get you to an optometrist. One of the two. Um I attended the family engagement focus group where we met with family and community members on how to improve engagement and they had some really great ideas. I loved hearing that. Um I also visited Holstrom K8. They had lots
026of celebrations too. They showed growth on uh their MAP scores this winter and growth in your GT gifted and talented community is hard to do [laughter] um because they're usually already at a pretty high level. Um Holstrm's demographics are becoming increasingly more in line with those of the district. Uh and I thought that was impressive. Um their PTA remains very active and impressive and their growth on Dibbles was also really strong. Um, I attended also another meeting with teachers to discuss their experiences in the classroom. And [snorts] a few things came up around the sprint cycles and retaining interventionists and things of that sort. And I'm always really appreciative of the teachers in their cander um when they're they share their feedback with us. This is my third year attending the Pow-Wow. It's always one
027of my favorite things to attend. Um, and I'm just so grateful that uh we're welcomed into the uh that community. Um, so I did want to kind of explicate the picture that I have here in honor of that community. It shows uh it's basically Turtle Island. And in the uh indigenous and First Nations Turtle Island, well, the turtle is a pretty common um symbol. Um there's a lot of lore and legends around civilization being built on the back of a turtle. And so here you see the turtle with the different um North America, Central America, South America, and then it's all printed or the he drew it against um using superimposing or whatever it is the DAO roles. So the US census roles for indigenous and first nation peoples in the late 18th century. So
028um I was really appreciative of all the history behind this picture, too. Um, and if anybody wants to see a closer picture of it at some point, I'll just, you know, it's here. And so, finally, I attended two IBS meetings. I've been really enjoying that process and, um, I think that's enough for the time being. Thank you. >> Thanks, Paula. Amir. >> Good evening, everyone. Um, yeah, it has been a while. I mean, we had our parent engagement meeting, but, um, lot's been going on. So due to a vacancy on the CASBY board of directors, um, President Goldstein was serving and had to step down to pursue pursue her current endeavor. Um, and so I applied for the vacancy and was appointed. And so I've been um serving on the CASBY board now for month
029and a half and just being engaged in that process. Um early February we I attended the National School Board Association Advocacy E um equity institute um that they put on yearly and then that's a two-day event and then we go on Tuesday to the Hill to meet with our uh Colorado delegates and so we were able to meet with all of them but one um So, uh, it's great. The big talking points, well, the big talking point every year is IDA, which continues to be, but this year a lot about vouchers and immigration, um, which I'll probably talk more about when we discuss the resolution later. Um, we had our special board meeting with DTA, which I think we're going to talk about more >> Next time. Yeah. Uh, IBS. I got to last Thursday
030visit the capital. It was CASBY um, uh, advocacy there, I think. You know, and they do that every Thursday in February. But, uh, I went down last got to go hang out with [snorts] Rep. Goldstein um see our office and go to a committee meeting and listen to all the third not all of them but many of the third readings on the floor. So it was great process and experience ran into some familiar faces while down there but just continuing to really advocate for uh public school funding and education funding. So, uh, also stated attended the state of the city and county of Broomfield event and always get great information from there. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the APAC uh, POW this year. This was my first year miss since joining the board.
031And, um, you know, it's always a great event. They worked so hard uh putting this on for the Adams 12 community and um yeah it's one of my most favorite events of the year. So I was really sad I had to miss it this year. uh yesterday along with >> [sighs] >> uh some other district leadership uh participated in um in the mock trial uh or uh practice for uh at Vantage [clears throat] Point and got to serve as a juror. And I was actually really excited about it because I never get to serve as a juror. I always get booted. Um, and so gota got to serve and write all my notes and I was a lot of it was actually a lot of fun and just watching that experience and it's a it's
032a club so you know the these kids do it voluntarily and they have three teams this year going to compete uh and I think they compete Friday and Saturday I believe. So yeah, like in just helping practice and um you know, I was with Kathy Shannon and a former student at Vantage Point with our team and it was just fun watching the students and their process and even some of the students as the attorneys were getting flustered with the jud but honestly that's real life like this is the things you see actually in a courtroom and um and just the process of like well why would you rule on it or this and that and so um but it was just it was a really great experience and I'm glad they get to do this
033and I was really honored to be a part of it. Um, I will be visiting uh Cherry Drive next Friday uh with um so Felicia Sandifold, the new principal will always hold a place in my heart. She was the assistant principal at Thoren Elementary for a few years. And um so during co Betsy Miller who is the principal at Thornon Lat down to help with um the co uh stuff here at the district. And so the current principal Janet Weston uh stepped in and then Felicia stepped in as assistant. And as interim and we got notice as parents about, you know, there was going to be looking into of who would be a good fit or you know and uh opening up that process possibility or a process. And um I wrote Chris the most
034obnoxiously long email about why Shannon and Felicia should stay there and their leadership skills and what they bring to the school. And seriously, I my husband I was like, "Will you proofread this?" And he looked and he said, "No." Because it was so obnoxiously long. [laughter] And he's like, "You cannot send that to Chris." I was like, "Yeah, I'm going to like I'm really passionate about this." [snorts] and I sent it and not even like 20 minutes later it was announced that they were going to be the new leadership there and I immediately email Chris I go don't read it never mind. Um [laughter] um but she is a phen she's just she's great and I'm so excited to go see her in our new role and just what she will do for the school.
035Um, so yeah, I'm a little jealous, but um, she will do great things for Cherry Drive and is a great asset to the district. Also want to share my condolences to all the family and loved ones who have been significantly impacted by the losses um, [clears throat] that have occurred recently and my heart goes out to all of you that um, yeah been really very much impacted and will forever be impacted. So that is what I have for tonight. >> Thank you. All right. Um [clears throat] I haven't been [snorts] in our schools very much, but I have been very c uh public education focused. Um I do want to give my condolences to Lee's family. Um his daughter Erica especially. Um she was my student at at North Ken Middle School many years ago.
036And that's that's kind of hard. And then the student from North Glenn High, um Jaden and his family. Um so sad when somebody you never get to find out what could have been. Um I did go to Broomfield State of the City. That was nice. Um there were several representatives from the surrounding cities there too that we got to touch base with. And um Broomfield's doing some pretty cool stuff. They really are. Um you know, they've only been a city and county for about 25 years and but they um the mayor really um has a great vision and she's done some great things. Um when kids from uh Adams 12 come down to the capitol, I usually get notified and so I get to go over and say hi to them and talk to them
037about the capital and answer some questions. Um there was um two they didn't have school yesterday. So, um, there was a couple of siblings from one was from Hunter's Glenn and then I think the other one was from, uh, oh gosh, he was a middle schooler, so maybe Rocky Topper Century, but um, it was um, fun seeing them and you always have see groups of little kids or kids walking around the Capitol and uh, they're just kind of aruck in the beauty of it. I I kind of feel that way with them too because that's that's where I work and that's where I go every day and it's just that the the noises reverb through the whole building because you know the middle's hollow and um just when I walk up if I take the
038train and I walk over to it from the bus I have to take a bus then I come around the corner and there's this big gold dome and it's just kind of cool marching up and going in and and I've been already busy with some um legislation that helps. Um hopefully we can get across the finish line. That helps public ed and that's I'm happy to have conversations with anybody about that. Um and then um I was sad that I couldn't go to the pow-wow this weekend. I always enjoy going to that. Um but I had a three-day weekend and decided to take advantage of it and go visit my 97year-old dad. But that was definitely worthwhile. So that's all I really have to say tonight. Um, with that we'll go on to general public
039comment. >> 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 three minutes. Please use the microphone and state your name and city of residents before beginning your comments. Please give any handouts or information you would like to share with the board to Ryan Parker. A threeminut timer will be set for each speaker. Please keep an eye on the timer and kindly conclude your remarks when your time has expired. We have one speaker tonight, Janella Carlson. Thank you. I'm a mom of five children. I could speak loud enough you'd hear me without this. I'm pretty sure. Good evening and thank you for this opportunity to come tonight. Um my name is Janella Carlson as she said. I am the communication director
040for the Westminster um Broomfield City um uh stake for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And on Sunday, March 1st at 6 PM, we will have a night, a teacher appreciation night that we will host. And and um in this night, we have 20 about 25 seniors that will take a few minutes to give a heartfelt thanks to a teacher or coach that or mentor that has um impacted them. It uh from their K to to um K to 12 grade. And um it is a wonderful evening. The the teachers of course will be there and the principles will be there. We've invited the city council and some of the state um state representatives to be there. And we wanted to invite you. It is our privilege or honor to have uh Mr.
041Gdowski as our keynote speaker and we're grateful to have him come and do this. It is a wonderful heartfelt event that leaves you with optimism as you watch the emotion the teachers feel as they realize the recognition as they realize that they have made a difference in these um students lives and I just wanted to come and give you give you this invitation personally and again thank Mr. Gdowski for for being our keynote speaker and it's an event we look forward to and I have the invitations here and an empty one if anyone else would like to come and I appreciate this opportunity. Thank you. >> Thank you. And I already got my invitation in RSVP. [laughter] >> Yeah. Gang, if you're able to make it, it really is an uplifting night seeing young people
042uh with the maturity of u the years of school and about ready to transition out to what's next after high school. just expressing sincere gratitude for people. There are some really moving stories that will bring a smile to your face, times tears to your eyes. I can't wait for it. It's really time well spent. >> Thank you. Okay, board committee liaison reports. Start with the deck. >> Thank you, President Goldstein. Um, just a couple updates uh on the DACK. Uh we had our midyear um measures of academic progress or MAP. I I wanted to spell out the acronym um for those who don't know because I'm learning about acronyms as it is myself, but uh the MAP data was reviewed and and some really good information, really good data in terms of how our students
043are performing. Um just a snapshot but when you look at uh reading scores fall uh to winter um every single grade except seventh and eighth have increased. There was a minor decrease in seventh and eth for reading but for math all grades actually increased fall winter 24 25 to 2526. So we're really seeing some improvements. Um, if anyone is interested in more information on the MAP data that was reviewed, um, please contact me and I can put you in touch with the DAC and we meet every couple weeks and, uh, any parent is more than welcome to join the DAC. We need people and and we welcome people. Um, in addition to that, we had Audrey Monaco come and speak about the charter authorizing practices and and the processes and procedures around that, which was
044really helpful to learn and and understand. Um, and so we also have the spending survey is out there. We're getting data as we speak and we're going to be reviewing that in the coming weeks. Those are the only updates. Thank you. >> Thank you. FAC. So the fact meets it, [clears throat] excuse me, again tomorrow. actually met um in January and um it was on um the monitoring [clears throat] reports and we're getting a report tonight and um just lost my notes as well as um department interviews, purchasing department interviews um and assess assess acquisition um and conflict of interest uh certification um of the uh of any I'm sorry like conflicts of interest I guess is the way to say it. So um I think you know kind of some of the notes um
045in looking through the monitoring has has been really around um what um Superintendent Kowski brought up in terms of compensation and and looking um to make fair market pieces around that and I'm sure more is to come on funding financing which uh sounds like a terrible job right now. [laughter] joint budget committee. >> Yeah, I know about that. JBC. >> All right. Um, LRPAC. >> Yeah. So, we met last Thursday and I taken over as the new um board liaison as um uh Lori stepped down from [snorts] because has tied down to other locations now. Um no, so what was uh Thunder Vista gave an update about Thunder Vista and what's currently going on? talked about the uh remediation process, the repair update. Um that's needed. Uh there's now a project manager that is on
046site daily. Um just to ensure that things get done and are done right. Was quoted the meeting um and it's kind of like the contact person for contractors. [snorts] So discuss the expenses of that which is almost 1.7 million. Um and the biggest expense is the student transportation as has been discussed in previous meetings and um having to contract out. Uh and then the uh next highest cost is the remediation contractor. And so um the next thing discussed was CTE um just check in and updates about programming um bond expansion project expansions. uh you know t talked a lot about um bring the blueprint work that has been done and uh well with the with the passing of the bond in the mill and how that brings the blueprint kind of uh together uh discussed
047the middle school CTE what the idea of that with the programming different or there's going to be designated areas in each of the middle schools and then KA eight schools that are uh designated or converted to CTE programming and then the expansion of the current CTE campuses or future forward campuses. Uh Bowman expansion is scheduled to be completed in fall of 2028 they were talking about and wash square expansion will be completed towards the end of the bond cycle. So with that then con later in the meeting talked about kind of the framework and plan floor plans of Bulman um and the programs that we'll be going into there. Also talked about board policy 2.5.2 two just understanding that um based off that 3% with the current budget and needs um one of the last
048things discussed was the BDAS or what we just talked about um the birectional amplifiers and there was just a presentation about that of what they are um how they're used and um by our first responders uh when reporting to events at schools. So that was I think the majority of it. Thank you. All right. On to monitoring reports. We'll start with internal monitoring report 2.4 financial conditions. Do I have to do a Oh, and I will entertain a motion to acknowledge that the board has received a monitoring report as of February 18th, 2026 for the period July 1st, 2025 through December 31st, 2025 and finds the superintendent's interpretations are reasonable and supported by data that is relevant, justified, and complete. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay, Gina. Good evening board. So um in your
049packet you have the monitoring report, quarterly financials and then the presentation. And so what I want to remind you of the presentation is both the monitoring report and the quarterly financials are as of December 31st, 2025. And so there will be some things where you go wait I know you did this or um we amended the budget and the budget isn't amended in these. That's because the budget was amended in January and the reports are as of December. So, it's always a little weird timing for the second quarter financials, but a important reminder. We're we're talking about the past. And I have [clears throat] a I'm I'm almost done with a cold and so I feel fine, but I sound a little crazy with my voice. [clears throat] And so the um what I want
050to point out and we've talked about this before, but the report is 17 pages long. It has 16 specific ends that we're monitoring for, but those really can get boiled down into five areas. And so we look at the fund balance, reserves, cash position, investments, liquid, liquidity, accounts payable and receivable, bonds and borrowing, MLO and bond tracking, and then our audit and internal controls. And so through the slides, I really do we um Aaron and I keep it to these five areas, though the report goes through all 16. All right. And so um in the management report we cover several areas with the monitoring the fund balance and reserves. And the area that I primarily talk about because Taber is very simple. We calculate that we ensure we are always compliant with Taber. We ensure
051that we have the right reserves to meet any contracts and other obligations and that we're using the the dollars for what they're intended for. The piece that there's more discretion about is the unassigned fund back. >> Um, by way of comparison, I believe the state has a 15% of expenditures reserve requirement. I was talking to a superintendent in a small rural district the other day where they have more than 100% of what they spend each year in reserves. And it's like, yeah, you might want to bleed some of that stuff down because they feel like they're in a spot that we can't give any comp increases because we start to have a delta in terms of ongoing revenue versus ongoing expense. But, uh, there's a lot of differences of opinion about how much money you
052need to hold in the bank. I feel like, uh, that's something we could always revisit if the board has interest. Right now, I feel like we've got a good safety net, but not so much that we have stakeholders feeling like we have too much in the bank and that we're making reductions to programs that we could forego if we uh had more money in play. >> I hit went the wrong way. Sorry. And so this schedule right here is found on page four of the monitoring report. And what it's showing you is the forecast of where we are for this unassigned piece. And so we're at $24.8 million. That green bar is the minimum 4%. So you can see that we're above it. And then the purple bar is the 8% and we are obviously
053well below that. The next piece is where we look at the district's liquidity and the amount of cash we have on hand in addition to um how that works with our upcoming revenue collections and our expenditures. So on page five of your report, you can see the green bar is our average monthly operating expenditures. And you'll notice that this is across um all all of our funds. And so that amount is about $50 million a month and then you can see our different portions of cash. The blue is our restricted numbers where we we cannot use those for other purposes and then the purple is our unrestricted cash. So you can see our liquidity is really good. As a reminder, we typically we always start out the year with much more cash on hand and
054that's because of the timing of our property tax collections. Some of this has evened out um in a much more positive way over the last I think we're on the second year of doing this that our state equalization portion of funding is coming to us in nine equalish installments. It used to come to us in 12. And so when we're getting it spread out closer um those months when we receive those higher property tax revenues, we're not getting that state equalization which is helping us receive some of that state share earlier on. and has really helped with our cash flow. It's been a it's been a very big positive for our district as well as others. A really a really good change. And if I didn't say it, that's found on page five of the
055report. [snorts] All right, the next piece, we monitor our timing of paying our bills and collecting our monies owed. And so happy to report that on the accounts payable side of things, we are not recording instances of paying late fees and um things are being done on a timely basis, which is really good. And then on the the um revenue side, the the receivables, the probably the the biggest receivable that we watch and monitor closely is those types of receivables from our students where the student fees types of thing. And so that is monitored and we include that information. I didn't write down the page number, but we we break out a blur about where we are as of December 31st. As you know, we monitor the bond and mill levy override on pages 11
056and on pages 11 and 12. That's where we break down how we're spending the mill levy override dollars and we're spending those in accordance to what voters approved and that information is there. You'll notice the 2025 mil levy override isn't captured yet and that's because we haven't started collecting that revenue and therefore we haven't started spending those dollars. as that begins to happen, we while the policy itself and that that is probably a comment to mention the the way the monitoring report is written, we don't call out 2025 yet and that's probably an amendment we we need to get made, but we will capture it even if we're not required to for the for the way it's written. Um, page 10 of the report breaks down where we are on spending for the latest bond.
057And as of December 31st, we had spent a total of 36.7 million. Of that 12.4 million was the allocation to our charter schools. We will see that spending ramp up over the summer. That's when a lot of the projects are happening because of course we don't want to cause disrupt disruption at the schools. And then finally for the monitoring report piece, we have areas where we ensure and provide assurances to the board that we are following audit compliance and our internal controls. Um, an area that you'll notice in the report, we don't talk about the completion of our audit partner RFP. you did receive an email about that and that'll be updated in the next quarterly report um because it happened in January. So, any questions on that piece or anything? Okay. And then um
058I mentioned in your packet you have the quarterly financial statements. I'll just focus really briefly on the general fund. You'll notice looking at the very first financial statement that our spending and our revenue collections are within a per a percentage or two of prior year that's very much on track and what we would expect to see. And so that's the end of my presentation. Any questions? >> Any questions? >> Thanks. >> [laughter] >> The foamy thing fell off my microphone. I didn't want to cause all that static. I put it back on. Um, okay then. I guess we're ready for the vote. >> Director Ana Muebo. >> Hi. >> And director Assad Lucas. >> Hi. >> Director Batistelli. >> Hi. >> Director Goldstein. >> Hi. >> Director Marsh Holen. >> I. >> Okay. On Gina.
059Thanks, Gina. [snorts] On the board business, um the birectional amplifiers and I will entertain a motion to approve the encumbering of up to 4.1 million in unassigned fund balance for the purchase and upgrading of birectional amplifiers across the district. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. And um I believe >> yeah is Bo going to give us a or Chris? >> So no more presentation. Uh we did that in exact session but if board members want to make a comment about uh this item before they vote that would certainly be appropriate. >> Yeah. So, we were just updated about um what they're used um what schools need updating, things like that of um uh just so first responders can in special like fire can communicate from outside the buildings to inside the buildings. So, they
060are in the process of that's what they share. Yeah. of just going through the schools and figuring out where needs to be updated and installed and all that >> and uh school safety is definitely a priority. >> Okay, >> so that was basically what I was going we'd had a long conversation at one point about um how much money we should put aside for maintenance and we had talked about revisiting the policy language particularly around um scale of urgency in maintenance. This is certainly what I would call an an emergency sort of um you know because it entails student staff educator safety. So, um I'm behind it >> and that that amount shown as worst case scenario they were saying um too of that um that's if what they do know about repairs or updates
061or you know whatever the case may be that is the absolute worst case scenario cost so it might be lower than that. >> Okay. Director Ana Nuebo. >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas. >> Hi. >> Director Batistelli. >> I. >> Director Goldstein. >> Hi. >> Director Marsh Holen. >> I. >> All right. On to proclamation. Women's history month. I will entertain a motion to adopt the proclamation declaring March 26th as women's history month in Adams 12 fivestar schools as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. comments. >> Women's History Month. Yay. [laughter] >> Of course, I'm in support. >> Well, in the, you know, famous words of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, women should be where all important decisions are being made. That's right. >> So, yeah. >> But we also like Ike. [laughter] >> Absolutely. >> Thank
062you. >> Okay. Director Anan Wubo. >> Hi. >> Director Assad Lucas. >> Hi. >> Director Banastelli. >> Hi. Director Goldstein. >> Hi. >> Director Marsh Holen. >> Hi. >> Okay. On to the next resolution opposing the new federal tax program to fund public private education. All right. This one I think is a little bit more in depth to the conversation. Um, for those of you that don't know, >> Lori, I'm going to just jump in real fast. You might want to get like a motion and a second on that and then jump in with some more commentary from there. You think I never run school board meetings. Um, I will entertain a motion to adopt the resolution opposing the new federal tax program to fund private education as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >>
063All right. Now, I can tell you if you're not um up to speed on this, um HR1, House Resolution One from the federal um government allows for a $1,700 tax credit and you can give this money to a scholarship granting organization and it is up to the governor of the state to decide whether or not they want to opt into this. Um, Governor Polus has expressed an interest in doing this. Um, organizations like CASBY, Case, CAerns about this because if you think about it, basically um the money can go toward a voucher to a private school. And um that kind of goes against a lot of people's um principles and philosophy about what um a public ent you know public funds going toward a private entity and it's caused a lot of conversations and so
064um organizations um have been talking to each other about this and I think we might be one of the first school districts to be um addressing this as a resolution. But tonight we're going to um we we've been asked to decide whether or not we want to support this resolution. Um that we feel that the governor should not opt into this. And this is something that is has to be done on a yearto-year basis. And this would not this would be for the 2026 tax year. So it wouldn't be until you do your taxes in 2027 that you would be able to utilize this um opportunity, I guess. So, um, and I think the governor does have until the 31st of December to opt into it and the rule making at the federal treasury hasn't
065even been done yet. So, there's a lot of uncertainty here of what this really looks like, but um, not accepting it in the first place kind of solves the problem off the bat. But anyway, comments. So, this was a big big talking point like I said earlier at the National School Board Association um uh conference and so as of now so and correct me if I'm wrong, so he has until December 31st to to opt in. However, once we get a new governor, they then can opt out. Um so that's and and that's for all states. So it's a little it's kind of hectic. This is the biggest thing as of right now. So the recommendations made to the treasury for all this is to exclude public schools. Um that is the recommendation made by
066the current federal um or the current administration is that uh fed public schools could not be an SGO. Um so that's really concerning. Another recommendation that is being made to the treasury is that these funds can go to SGOs's without regulation or without oversight. Um, and so, uh, there's a lot of a lot of concerns and issues with all of it. And so and as of now I the Treasury is not even hasn't even scheduled the time to to meet and to discuss the uh limits and regulations and everything around um the voucher program. So and I think they have I mean this is for this coming up academic year and they haven't met or scheduled the time to meet to discuss it. So it's still it very it's very very kind of thrown together.
067Um but those are the concerns. So one of the biggest things that they talked about too is not just going to private but how the areas that will be the most impacted that are already being impacted are rural communities. there are not choices like there are in urban areas obviously um they're already hurting um and this would cause even more of a strain and one of the I think the states that we talked a lot about uh um NASBA is uh Nebraska and what they attempted to do uh so one of the things Nebraska did is they put it on the ballot and the voters voted for it in favor and in one year realized how catastrophic it was to the majority of the districts. I think it I think there were three or four
068districts that it did not really impact and those were the urban districts that had um a variety of choices schools but all the rural districts lost a significant amount of money. a year later, they got enough signatures um to get it back on the ballot to vote it down and it passed. It it was removed. Nebraska is trying now they're opting into this, but um so that's just one example. Florida was another example that they talked about that does have this and um they have a massive massive deficit and missing I can't even remember the exact amount they they shared in one of the breakout sessions at the conference but um it's a few I mean a few million dollars that are unaccounted they can't they don't even know where the money is unaccounted since
069they've started this program or voucher program in Florida. Um, so there's just so many concerns. It does not benefit kids. The other, like I said, the other area that we're always there to advocate for is IDA. And this will be, I mean, that's already not even close to being funded, fully funded. and a voucher system will significantly impact um students with disabilities that receive education services under IDA laws. Um private [clears throat] schools do not have to follow those, but yet they can get money for it. So, um that's just yeah, it's a pretty devastating thing for kids, for um public schools. I think they said to what 80% of kids in the country I think that's what it was attend No more than that >> 90% >> is it 90 yeah 90 yeah 90
070yeah attend public schools so 90 this would only impact 10% of kids and it's already those 10 uh would benefit and they're already not in public schools and so 90 it would yeah impact significantly 90% % of kids in our nation. Uh god, what were the other big ones? Like this was a huge talking point this year. Um [clears throat] even probably like I said, IDA is always a big talking point, but this was a big big big one. So yeah, I think we have a senator when we talked to legislators both our senators aids said that they do not support it as it is right now. Um so uh and then we had a few reps that were adamantly opposed to it. So, >> go ahead. >> So, there are a few reasons why
071I'm opposed to this. The first being that uh the actual public schools are not going to benefit from it in any way that I see. Um particularly if they get through um the to the Treasury Department about setting rules where public schools can't utilize it. So, that's one reason it's inequitable. Um the other reason is the 300% income limit. And when we think in terms of who benefits from, as you said, uh private school settings, it's people who typically already have the funds on hand to pay 15,000 or more per year per child for education. Um not even not even including college. We're just talking K12. So, I don't see how this would benefit even if we were to move in that direction, benefit your typical middle class family and open a pathway for them
072to a private school setting. So, um I consider it a wolf in sheep's clothing to be honest. So >> yeah, I would agree. Um, and it's [clears throat] uh disappointing to see that the governor is considering it con considering what budget shortfall we know that we're already going into not just for this year but now projectedly for the next three years. So um this is just not not the answer. Um and I I agree with you on the um uh disability um side and and really affecting that. So >> uh thank you Amamira for sharing the history of Nebraska. I did not know that Nebraska tried this experiment and it failed. Um it's disappointing that they're opting in nonetheless again. Um but you know I I believe that we should follow the data and the
073data tells us this does not work. Um so uh I'm definitely against it based on that alone. Thank you. >> First of all, I just want to say it's such an honor to serve with people who think like I do when it comes to public education funding. And this is basically a tax credit for the rich. >> Yeah. >> Let's just call it what it is. And um I've said this before and I think you guys have said it too that there is um a movement to destroy public education and this is just part of that movement. And I will probably fight till the day I die, you know, as far as arguing about how injust things like this are. Um, you know, we've been having a lot of conversations at the capital about this
074also and um, you know, it's we're not sure, you know, what we can even do legislatively because there's just no rules, but we're not going to be quiet about it. And I appreciate this board um, wanting to think about um, supporting this um, resolution. So, um, I will wholeheartedly stand with you if you choose to do this. Director Anan Wubo >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas. Hi. >> Director Batistelli. >> I. >> Director Goldstein. >> Hi. >> Director Marsh Holen. >> Hi. >> All right. Thank you everybody on that. >> Stay tuned to see what happens. It's the most nebulous thing around. All right. I will We're on to public schools week appropriately. I will entertain a motion to adopt the proclamation declaring February 23rd to February 27th, 2026 as public schools week in Adams
07512 FiveStar Schools. >> So moved. >> Second uh comments public schools. Yay. No, but seriously, public schools I've said this before and I'll say it again. I think public schools um they help us ensure a level of equity in society that's greatly needed. Um they can open doors for people um when done well and effectively, right? And so uh the backbone of a good democracy is a strong public education system >> and it levels the playing field for everybody. >> Yep. Yeah. I mean Alexis has said this before, it's the last true equalizer. >> Yep. So, >> I always have to appreciate my middle child, Hannah, because she did go to a private institution for her undergraduate degree and her graduate degree. And she graduated from North Glenn High and she was probably third or
076fourth in her class. And she worked really hard and she went off to the east to a school in DC. And she was surrounded by people who had been raised in boarding schools and private schools and everything. And she said to me, "Mom, thank you for making sure I had a public education." >> And she had a good one in Adams 12. >> Director Ananu, >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas, >> I. >> Director Bastelli, >> I. >> Director Goldstein, >> I. >> Director Marsh Holen, >> I. >> On to the minutes. I will entertain a motion to adopt the minutes of the January 14th, 2026 special board meeting of education meeting, the January 21st, 2026 work study meeting, the January 21st, 2026 regular board meeting, the February 4th, 2026 work study meeting, the February
0774th, 2026 special board of education meeting, and the February 9th, 2026 special board of education meeting as presented. So move >> second. >> Any discussion? Okay. >> Director Anan Muebo. >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas. Hi. >> Director Batistelli. >> Hi. >> Director Goldstein. >> Hi. >> Director Marsh Holen. >> I. >> On to the consent agenda. I will entertain a motion to approve the personnel actions as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. Director Ana Newubo. >> I. >> Director Assad Lucas. >> Hi. >> Director Batistelli. >> Hi. >> Director Goldstein. Hi. >> Director Marsh Holen. >> I. >> Okay. You have um future agenda items on the next three board meetings listed. Uh what we will be discussing and looking at. And uh go ahead. I think there's some possibility that we may consolidate
078two meetings into one in March just given that those are pretty thin agendas. I think uh staff will have a recommendation about should we keep the 4th or the 18th in the next couple of days. A lot of it would be we just want to make sure that we have meaty information around budget to share with you in a timely way. So we'll know more um that we can pass on to Lori and Amamira to make that decision next couple of days. But it's it's likely I would say that we'll just do one meeting in March given the discussions we've had. It's also possible that VMAC doesn't come uh as an action item. It's certain that it won't come as an action item next time, but we may not even be in a spot to
079do a material update with you. Just the dialogue and exchange of drafts between attorneys is going slower than we had hoped. >> Is there any complaints about that? Okay. Um, with that being said, I will call this meeting adjourned.