Adams 14 Board of Education, Regular Meeting, May 9, 2023

001foreign Welcome to our May 9th 2023 board meeting um maybe we begin with the instructions for interpretation for our Spanish-speaking audience thank you madam president hey hello services foreign I'd like to call the regular meeting of the Adams 14 Board of Education on Tuesday May 9 2023 to order um we'd like to start with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence in the past few weeks we've experienced the loss of two of our students I ask that you please keep their families friends and our school staff in your thoughts as we observe this moment of silence Liberty thank you foreign agenda 2.4 is roll call over money can you please conduct real call Mr Amador here Mrs Estrada she's excused MS Ms Lovato Here Is Molina here is Zubia here thank you we

002have a quorum we are mostly here um next may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the April 11th regular meeting the April 18th special meeting and the April 25th 2023 study session and special meeting so moved a second Ramona roll call please Mr Amador aye Ms Estrada Ms Lovato aye Ms Molina aye Ms Zubia aye yo next on the agenda is uh 2.8 to Prevail the agenda I may have a motion to approve the agenda for this evening a motion to approve a second uh Ramona roll call please Mr Amador aye Ms Estrada Ms Lovato aye Ms Molina aye Ms Zubia aye uh next is recognition of Adam's 14 student teachers and mentors um this is the part of the meeting that we all really enjoy and this meeting or this evening

003we have several celebrations of recognitions the first is recognition of Adams 14 student teachers and mentors I'd like to ask Dr Lauria to introduce these items unprecedented members of the board thank you I would like to ask Dr Bowden our chief of HR to come up we actually have a few um actually a lot of great things happening in HR as we build the capacity of our teachers are we ensure that we being in the hiring season we are hiring highly effective individuals with a great passion to come and support our students in our schools so I'm going to pass it on to him because he has several great things happening thank you we have three wonderful things to share this evening so Madam president Dr Lauria I'm going to ask Drew to come up

004please Drew Adams is Director of Human Resources and I wish we could go back a little bit in time Jeff mccanna Drew and myself all began last summer really planning for what we wanted to do in the district and really bring the district together with student teachers University Partnerships and even grow our own and tonight I am so incredibly proud and excited to let you know a lot of that's coming to fruition and so I hope Dr McCann is listening to us because he was one of the founders of all this and and I know he's he's as proud as we are so Drew has done a lot of the work recently and he's going to introduce to you our student teachers we have a number of student teachers and their Co-op teachers and he

005would like to present them with a very special document tonight so Drew all right members of the board Dr lodia thank you very much for having me here and it's a great opportunity and as you mentioned before that this is the chance where we get to recognize and appreciate it's sort of the fun feel good times of this meeting for sure so we will uh not spare any more of that fun because we want to recognize these individuals first of all I think it's really critical to recognize that the Partnerships that we've now been able to create and recreate with many of our universities have made this happen and just as kind of evidence of it we are now partnering up for next school year and already thinking in the future of partnering up with

006Regis with Metro with Western Governors and with CU Boulder again which has been almost 10 years since we partnered with CU Boulder for to bringing in more student teachers and we really hope that this opportunity allows us the chance to find the right fit for the type of teachers that we want to make part of our family here and become the next members of Team Adams 14. so without further Ado I'd like to First recognize up one of our own teachers who decided to share her classroom a phenomenal teacher from allsup so could we have Dana Finch please come up here [Applause] yes of course so on behalf of the school district we'd like to present you with the certificate of appreciation for being a rock star and also supporting a great student teacher so

007thank you Next Step Sarah Lowe could you please come up [Applause] Sarah loge is a student teacher who joined us and not only that I actually have a letter of intent to give her but you know what's great is I don't even have to give her this letter because you know why she's already accepted a job offer last month so we're really excited to have her come join us and continue to work for us here at Team Adams 14. so thank you so much Sarah Dana thank you so much for all the time you've provided all right we do have two other student teachers who are unable to make it here with us tonight Unfortunately they were unable to make it with their schedules but Emma Roy is another individual that we would like to

008present a letter of intent to provide her a position for next year and she's accepted [Applause] and our final student teacher is from Regis she her name is Giselle Sanchez she goes by Gigi and we tried as hard as we could to get her to come work here next year but then she got a full ride to go study English in England so she's going to go work on her master's degree there and I've told her she always has a place we guarantee her a job here in the future and we hope that we can recruit her to come back if she decides to come back after her sojourn in England so thank you very much we really appreciate that you were able to support and we look forward to having you work for many

009years with us Sarah thank you come on here well can I just stay down there for the next child for sure can I do that how are you so it's gonna take us a little bit to get there you guys go first um principal Menard can you come up here all right we'll stay up here you can go together I'm sorry yeah I would go down there yeah you guys can hold her hold that in front of you there you go thank you yeah yes we need you guys let this amazing program yeah thank you thank you congratulations thank you I'm going to ask Dr botano to sit down because our next agenda item is also um for him well and before we move on I just want to thank our amazing HR department and

010Dr McKenna if you're watching us um because this is something that um I know we've wanted for so long and I'm so excited that we have grown our own teachers and they're going to be back and and teaching our students that they thank you experience life with so thank you so much for leading us and um especially bringing back new Partnerships that we have lost for whatever reason it's a lot of work and a lot of great work thank you but we have even more great news I love tonight this is great news yeah this is the fun part so uh about a year ago I reached out to a partner that both Jeff and I had experience with over the years University of Dubuque it's a smaller private college in Iowa that produces absolutely

011amazing teachers and we've partnered with University of Dubuque off and on for the last almost 20 years and Chad said I would love to bring students out to see Adams 14. so we've been working for the last nine months and we made it happen and so for the past week we've had five students from the University of Dubuque not just teaching in our district to learn what it's like to teach in Adams 14 but living in our employees homes with our staff so they have these great conversations during the day about teaching and then at night they go home and the conversation gets to continue with another teacher or with a counselor or somebody from the school and then they ride back to school in the morning and it's back to work you may have

012seen them Saturday and Sunday they've all volunteered at the soccer tournament and so they were out in fact they were supposed to go hiking all day Sunday in the mountains and if I'm not mistaken you all went back to the soccer they went back to soccer and we had a couple of winter winning teams right oh and I keep asking what was the highlight I keep hearing soccer so it was supposed to be instruction but I keep hearing soccer so um again I'm going to have uh Drew come up and do the announcement for um the university but Chad biermeier is here to he's one of the he's the director of uh student teaching placements in the the College of Ed and he's he came out with his students and it was a great experience

013and we have already told him how wonderful student teaching is here and so we're hoping to see five back again when it's time to student teach that's fine all right thank you for having me back up so um I used to think that Iowa only produced corn what we're learning is they're producing phenomenal teachers and we're really thrilled to start this new partnership and to gain their trust and to bring them out here we've already taught as as Nathan indicated we've already started talking about plans for next year and we're really hoping to see this continue to grow in many ways I'd like to start off first by recognizing our Adams 14 staff members they were hosts so I don't know if you are familiar with with the process but these individuals came and they

014lived in their homes they brought them back and forth to to school or to to all other other locations as well and shuttle them throughout the metro area for different events so I want to First bring up our host family Representatives so uh Kayla Havens Emily sipley Christy Johnson and Sheila Burns if you could please come up [Applause] so these individuals they were really willing to just share their spaces and share their homes and I'm very thankful for them because I told our Our Guest teachers that if we didn't we didn't find out of the home they'd have to share their spaces with my two teenage daughters and that might have worked out fine for him I'm not sure how they would have enjoyed that but you know it was the alternative so I'm really

015grateful that all of them were able to share their spaces and share their time and share their lives with them because it means a lot and as as was indicated before they get the pre and post conversations it really helps them understand what happens at the schools so I'd like to bring up some of our guest teachers who are coming to us from Iowa Olivia can you come on up yeah Dorian come on up Lexi Samantha and Sarah [Applause] so these individuals some of them are in different years of school some of them are sophomores some of them are Juniors and oh and thank you very much for coming up too if you didn't know notice before we actually have another individual who's up here this is Dr Button excuse me Dr beer Meyer who

016has accompanied them at the Suburban that's parked out front that's been him he's been basically an Uber driver for them for the entire week shuttle them around from as far as Mead to all the way down to Highlands Ranch and everywhere in between so can we just give a round just for a chat dear Meyer in addition to the roles that he's played as shuttling around he's also visited all their classrooms he's working with them as their Professor back in Iowa as well and helping them kind of through the thinking process and really helping them understand what it's like to be a student teacher and to work in different classrooms so we're hoping that all of you decide to come back here and in anticipation of the moment that you decide you want to come

017we're actually going to offer you a tentative letter of intent of a job to come back and work with us one day so I'd like to give these to you now and then I know we're going to have a photo so don't move laughs all right could we have a round of applause for these amazing individuals and I think we're gonna have Quick photos so don't go anywhere yes we'll stand up again we'll be back here there we go you don't want to leave us by yourself thank you yes thank you [Music] Madam president Dr Lauria there are two Math teachers a physical education teacher two elementary teachers in that group that will hopefully be coming back and I have one last piece of information to share they weren't able to come this evening but

018I did want to let you know that we had our first meeting for our Aspire program and we had 14 of our paraprofessionals come to the boardroom last week and talk about signing up to become teachers in the future it's a 900 per year program for them to get their bachelor's degree and we hope that we have our first cohort of 14 going through that program on their way to become teachers in our school district so thank you very much for this opportunity tonight thank you so much great work [Applause] that is awesome um we covered two agenda items in one so thank you um next up is our May 2023 classified staff recognitions um this is um yes um Earth is uh knowing tradition every month we recognize uh some of our head here

019got it all right we're gonna start again thank you madam president members of the board as EDSA Tradition now we recognize every month our some of our classified staff employees for their hard work for going above and beyond and always being a cheerful and and um you know individual in their own departments these are individuals that are selected by their peers by their supervisors or uh by by colleagues so um definitely not something that is centrally done it's it's by their peers so I would like to invite uh it's um if Olivia osornio is here Olivia osornio is instructional para serving a long as a long-term sub is gifted in English and Spanish and is able to connect with both students and Families she has the ability to build High trust in relationships and with

020everybody around her and is able to plan explicit lessons with her teammates including the math teacher and ESS staff and administration she is always willing to take feedback to improve her practice to better serve our students Miss Olivia has an encouraging and positive spirit with our students and it has a positive impact on their students learning and growth she is very dedicated in her working and her hard work is making a huge difference for our students growth in especially English language arts Miss Olivier is often here late at Rocio Elementary planning and she is a positive role model for students and other instructional parents Ms Libya has taken ownership of difficult situations it has lifted our students to reach new levels so we are very proud of Miss Miss Olivia we have a certificate for

021her and also a check token of appreciation from our partners so we every every month we give a 300 check for them as a a little tiny token of appreciation so um that's what I have today thank you Dr Lydia and congratulations Olivia I'm sorry we missed you uh next on the agenda is our may substitute of the month recognition um Dr Lydia back to you yes Madam President we actually expanded this program because we do we did start with classified employees but then we also know that we Depend and enjoy very much our substitutes and we are working with a an organization or company that helps us retain or or have great substitutes in our schools so we decided to start recognizing the hard work because they just like our peers and teachers come

022many of them are here uh on the long term and they come day after day to make an impact on our students so today we're recognizing Cecilia Moreno Hernandez Cecilia Moreno has worked with a Monaco Elementary Community since the beginning of the school year in October of 2022 is is um Miss Moreno here no all right um her Monaco staff members have stated the following regarding her performance and dedication to learning um Syria has been I call her Cecilia but he's actually Sally and my apologies Celia has been an asset to the team because even though English is a barrier for her she has been very professional with all her responsibilities at Monaco and has not given up she practices English in the building and it is awesome to see her grow she is a

023fast learner and willing to grow in areas that are needed out of all of our responsibilities I want to highlight that she has not missed one day since she started and is always on time and friendly to everyone in the building I am very happy that she has become part of the Monaco's family and we hope she can and will come back to Monaco next school year so we also have a certificate and a little token of appreciation for her because coming every day it is a commitment we know life happens sometimes we feel exhausted sometimes a little headache when we wake up which are things that we all go through but there's a true commitment on on in in understanding that our presence in the classrooms on time actually makes a huge difference for

024our students and she is a testament of this so I we want to recognize her as well wonderful congratulations Celia and um yes [Applause] show us a picture right we're gonna go to their schools we know where they are we can find them yes uh next on the agenda is 3.5 uh May is Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month and we have a proclamation uh director Zubia would you mind reading the proclamation happy to Proclamation Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month whereas the month of May is Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month which celebrates the contributions and histories of individuals of Asian and Pacific Islander descent in the United States whereas the terms Asian American and Pacific Islander include people with ancestries from the continent of Asia and or the Pacific Islands

025of malintia melanesia Micronesia and Polynesia whereas Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have played crucial roles in writing this country's story from building the Transcontinental Railroad to advocating for labor law changes fighting multiple Wars and many more contributions whereas Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have shaped this nation's fabric while facing persistent discrimination and violence throughout U.S history including but not limited to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Japanese internment camps established during World War II whereas Asian Americans still experience discrimination and violence and threats of violence towards them only increased during the coronavirus pandemic whereas Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage was first recognized as a week-long event in 1978 and Congress later made it into a month-long celebration in 1992 whereas Adams County school district 14 recognizes the Great Lengths and efforts that

026Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders must undertake to be heard and seen due to systematic injustices and inequalities therefore be a proclaimed that the Adams poor team Board of Education and the Adams 14 superintendent proclaimed the month of May as Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month and recognizes these people's tremendous contributions we encourage our staff and community Community to observe recognize and celebrate the culture Heritage and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to our country our state our cities and our schools let this Proclamation enter the into the official records of the school district thank you directors that we may I have a motion proclaiming May 2023 as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month a motion to approve thank you Ramona Rocco Please Mr Amador aye Mr s Lovato aye Ms Molina I

027miss Zubia aye thank you so much um next on the agenda is mental health awareness month Proclamation um Dr Lydia I understand we have a video to show yes Madam president I will ask actually Allison she is our mental health coordinator and members of kids first I see Whitney and Brianna if they can come up here if they want to share some of the um things that we are doing and they are doing we're partnering our community I know it's not the only organization that provides mental health but we do have a um a video they actually asked us if we could partner with them in creating a video that can that could be shared with the community and this is the video that you will see here foreign can I get Cameron in here

028to help me that's that's that's a new look that was for Joe Priceless right yeah oh and this morning if you just whenever you insert read it and then I put a new one okay yeah so I just read it I don't have to say anything thank you [Laughter] you're just doing it on purpose we're just teasing you about them they're freezing of the you have to have fun video right stupid there we go Kids First Healthcare is [Music] foreign [Music] this could look like asking questions such as what I'm hearing is can you please tell me more about your feelings how does your body feel take time to give your student your undivided attention and listen to what they have to say remind them that you're there for them and that you're there to

029support them [Music] see important status here are some behaviors to look for that may indicate your student might be struggling with a mental health concern lack of appetite weight loss or weight gain decrease or increase sleep sudden lack of interest in activities in school expressing feelings of loneliness or nervousness irritability or anger isolation from family and friends foreign [Music] Healthcare we'd love to have you join us on May 2nd for our upcoming Community advisory Council we'll have experts from Kids First Healthcare and from Adams 14 school districts to talk to you about children's mental well-being we'll have resources information mini workshops and we'd love to have you join us remain second 5 37 PM Adams City High School the hope to see you on May 2nd hi great video welcome thank you I'm Allison I'm

030the mental health coordinator here for Adams 14 School District thank you all for your support of mental health especially in the years post covid the mental health concerns of our students have continued to increase I'm happy to report that starting next year in all fifth grade classrooms we will be pilot or using after a pilot riding the waves which is a suicide prevention program and all seventh and 9th grade classrooms will have signs of suicide which teaches youth how to notice signs of depression and themselves and their peers and how to talk to an adult if they're worried about themselves or others we also and you guys have the um contract approval later even though Hanson and Monica Hanson and Monaco are becoming one school next year we're still asking for nine school-based therapists from

031Griffith Center for Children because we currently have weightless at multiple schools just due to increased need we also partner with Kids First Healthcare and they have a school-based therapist that's one day a week at Kearney and four days a week at Adams City High School this year we've gotten to use our Mental Health crisis response team as well in response to a couple incidents over this school year and are doing a lot of professional development with our wonderful school counselors School social workers and school psychologists their jobs are thankless and I'm always appreciative of all that they do they go kind of under the hood so to speak outside of classroom teachers and so they also deserve to be recognized as a part of this month because they are day in and day out holding

032space for the social emotional Wellness of our students last week we had an event with kids first where we partnered and had little mini workshops for mental Wellness as a way to kind of give that information out to families as well so I'll try to to them if they want to talk at all as well about mental wellness and again thank you all for your support of the mental health and wellness of our students thank you hi good evening I'm Whitney Gustin Connor executive director of Kids First Healthcare thank you for the opportunity to speak just briefly tonight and we'll all of your participation in this video as Allison had said child and youth mental health has become at that crisis level and to have leaders in our district in our schools show that mental

033health is a part of all of our Lives the stigma sometimes the shame is unnecessary um our communication to our kiddos is all feelings matter um and we do everything to break down those barriers um we're up to now five mental health professionals in our clinics in addition to the school-based health centers we have mental health services available at our new clinic at 7190 Colorado Boulevard um the event on on May 2nd was a big hit really building upon the history that director Zubia has established with our community advisory Council this was one where we brought in a number of community members lots of questions engagement parents with kiddos who are old and young we had presentations by Allison by our medical director our lead mental health professional who's a great event that we expect

034to continue with that so and very much appreciate this partnership and the opportunity to serve the kiddos of Adams 14. again young and old we're there to break down barriers and make sure they access this important service so thank you thank you so much [Applause] all right um we also have a proclamation director of Zubia would you please read the proclamation yep happy too sorry so I have to apologize to everybody I actually had surgery on my foot so if you guys see me being antsy and I can't go down the stairs is because I my foot's in a cast so if you hear me bumping against the thing it's all good I'm not kicking stuff Proclamation Mental Health Awareness Month May 2023 whereas mental health affects millions of people in the United States each

035year across all demographics and it is important to understand its physical social and financial impacts to reduce stigma and advocate for Better Health Care whereas mental health conditions are common among school-aged children in the United States with one in six children experiencing a mental health disorder whereas less than half of Americans struggling with mental illness receive the treatment they need and treatment numbers are lower among marginalized communities including people of color people identifying AS lgbtq Plus and low-income households whereas according to the Colorado Health Institute 26 to 30 percent of high school students in Adams County report symptoms of depression making it one of the counties with the highest rates of depression among youth in the state whereas recognizing that early intervention and proper treatment can improve mental health outcome Adam's 14 partners with organizations

036like Kids First Healthcare and the Griffith Center for Children to provide our students with access to high quality resources and counselors therefore be a proclaimed that the Board of Education of Adams County school district 14 on this date May 9 2023 declares may as mental health awareness month and invites all of our staff to engage in conversations to better understand mental health the steps we as Citizens can take to protect our mental health and the need for appropriate and accessible Mental Health Services for all people let this Proclamation enter into official record to the school district may have a motion proclaiming May 2023 as mental health awareness month so moved a second thank you Ramona broco Please Mr Amador aye Ms Estrada aye Ms Molina aye Ms dubia aye thank you everyone um I think

037this Proclamation Highlights part of the priorities that we've identified in our strategic plan around social emotional learning we hear you we think it's very important and I'm very happy that we're taking steps to address that um I also agree with what Whitney said we need to address the stigma of mental illness especially within our Hispanic culture I recently read that only two out of ten latinos with symptoms of mental illness talk to a doctor about it and only one in ten contact a mental health professional so it's it's something that we we struggle with and it's great that we're addressing it with our students starting young so thank you next on the agenda is National teachers week May 8th through May 12th uh Proclamation director zupiah once again I ask you to read another one

038one more yes yes thank you so National teachers week May 8-12 whereas Adams 14's vision is that our students will graduate empowered inspired and equipped to be who they want to be whereas through their dedicated efforts to ensure our children learn the knowledge and skills needed to be successful in college careers in life our teachers help accomplish the district's Vision wholeheartedly whereas teachers spend countless hours preparing lessons evaluating progress counseling and coaching students to be the Future Leaders of our communities whereas teachers are the backbone of our society enabling the incredible potential of our youth and service servicing as role models to instill positive lifelong values in them whereas just as we know a student's circumstances do not dictate their potential we know that having an Effective Teacher is the most important in-school factor for

039Student Success therefore be a Proclaim that the Board of Education of Adams County school district 14 on this date May 9 2023 declares May 8th through the 12th 2023 as now National teachers week and extends its sincere gratitude to all of our hard-working Educators that make a difference in the lives of our students every day let this Proclamation enter the official records of the school district thank you so much may I have a motion proclaiming May 8th through 12 2023 as National teachers week a motion to approve second roll call please Ramona Mr Amador aye Ms Estrada Ms Lovato aye Is Molina aye Ms Zubia aye thank you um I'm beyond grateful for our teachers you all Inspire love heal coach encourage and Lead every single day I wish we could celebrate you every single

040day please know we appreciate you and thank you this week uh next on the agenda is audience comments at this time we'll begin our audience comment period just a reminder that we allow three minutes per speaker this evening we have one speaker Joanna Rosa science did I mess up your last name I'm sorry signs oh well and I I should know that because that's one of my favorite singers sorry but it shares your last name thank you so much my name is Rosa signs um I haven't been in the district uh I appeared 2018. uh helped you with a lot of community work where um we had a motto of Step Up or step down and we had three board members and one superintendent stepped down for the biliteracy bilingual program so I have some

041skin in the game know the parents and I'm back I'm back under the Youth Empowerment agency um a contract worker in Adams City Middle School and I have had the honor to see Bianca again what an amazing individual you guys have here um so so happy to be here um however my question for you this evening sorry oh my gosh I'm sorry no you're fine okay my question is the budget I um I'm wondering what contract Youth Empowerment agency has with you all and to my understanding to my understanding it is public record so I was wondering if you would be so kind to share that with me I don't know if that's via email or do you let us all know now I don't know how that works but I'm wondering what the contract

042is with that um okay thank you for your question yeah there's a couple of ways you can um do a quarter request I don't think that's really necessary because it's public information sure but um Sheila uh and Sheila Burke will follow up with you and we'll get that to you thank you so much for allowing me inside I teach an entrepreneur class and refocus room and I have to have such an amazing time with the students I appreciate it great thank you thank you for joining us and this was just the one we only had one all right thank you Joanna um next on our agenda is the superintendent report uh Dr Lydia I'm president members of the board I have a couple of this is again off Madam president there you go members of

043the board I have um a couple of quick updates besides the ones that you uh that we have brought to you and also a video to show you so I'm going to start with um just recognizing our students at the high school aliyahcevedo she was honored at the capitol for her leadership and advocacy this was a couple of weeks ago I know some members from our staff went with her Ms Ronnie bricklial and Stephanie Redd it's went with her and I I think you actually and um councilwoman Douglas yes yes one of our council members for the City of Commerce City and I just want to highlight she was here with us last month and she was receiving also the recognition for her leadership and advocacy for this young age for the the community with

044um she is Ian so we are very proud of having her she's not even a senior I want to say she's in 10th Grade so it's um just the level of leadership that she has displayed is unbelievable so I want to highlight her once once again because she was honored at the Capitol um and also we have a staff member who was selected as the assistant principal of the Year by the koalas the Colorado Association of Latino um administrators and superintendents and uh this is Nathan cavadera he is at Kearney middle school so I think it's one more piece of evidence that we have phenomenal staff members we're bringing new members who are phenomenal as well you saw them earlier so uh the district just continues becoming stronger and stronger I do want to also

045thank the academic leader the academic team Sheila Josh principals in really um everyone else all the way from um you know our bus drivers cafeteria workers nutrition workers our teachers front office really every single staff member put was all hands on deck to ensure that our students were going to be here taking the CMAs test we have record high levels of participation which is actually phenomenal for us not only you know for accountability ranking but also um you know us as a as a community demonstrating how interested each one and committed each one of our employees and students are on moving forward the district so thank you thank you team uh it was hard work I heard um actually that Dr Cochran was seeking out for students maybe even moving vans from one place to

046another picking up students look at the list so it was really all hands on deck so I just want to to acknowledge their hard work because it's for our students and lastly we do have a video about the World Cup that happened this um this weekend I have some stats here for you we have 279 players I was one of them um sadly I don't know if that was a good thing or you know for my team because you know they were telling me you're off uh what is it called off all sides there you go although I heard it a million times I couldn't like I'm of what uh off-site um I was taking picture when I was then being passed the ball uh you know from afar I'm doing this to take a

047picture I was just having fun when everybody was taking this you know game very seriously so we have 279 players um who represented 20 countries and these were employees alumni and students who decided uh or who selected the country they wanted to represent of course I was representing Costa Rica but then all the different countries were forming one team so we had members there in each one of the teams coming from um different backgrounds um supporting different uh countries but at the end of the day it was one color sure and um and I cannot I cannot explain how many times I saw our students just being supportive of each other just being and um just just demonstrated great sportsmanship and even consoling each other when they were losing some of the kids were crying

048when they were they were taking it seriously we have 22 teams uh 32 games and 40 volunteers um we had um actually I'm gonna ask Mario Marquez who come up here because I want him to share a little bit also of it and as I present this stats I can tell that he does take seriously soccer let me just let me just show why so we have a game 64 that were representing Qatar 2022 32 in Adams 14. um I think I understand that one we had 214 yellow cards at the Qatar World Cup in 2022 and we have only eight in our Adams 14 so this is a true comparison of Qatar World Cup of 2022 to us we had a Qatar 2022 for red cards meaning kicking out an individual um player zero

049red cards and Adams 14 and 172 goals two or three per game at Qatar 2022 and are ready to shout for this one 305 in Adams 14. and I was I was watching I you know I heard grandparents that's my grandkid the one who just scored the fourth goal here so all praise of the team reached their finals and categories of pre-K Elementary one three Elementary four five secondary six eight and secondary nine twelve in each one of these players uh basically everybody who reached Sunday um final will receive a free three-month membership to play soccer at the city at Soccer City in Aurora so we also have members from Soccer City who partner with us and are extending this phenomenal opportunity for our students and now that summer is coming they're going to be

050able to go and play we did see the passion in each one of these individuals going to the end and actually on Saturday as well but thank you so much I know um you know Mario if you want to come up here and start getting your place um if um according to Mario in his stats um I always joke that Mario as an engineer he thinks pipes you know and how one thing connects to another through pipes because his background is an engineer so he says that if this were a MasterCard commercial yes uh then budget will have twenty five thousand dollars uniforms would have cost eleven thousand dollars Flax One Thousand ball six hundred watching a middle school soccer player come for Comfort an opponent student after a lost game in watching a preschool

051player's kids or medal that is priceless [Applause] represented from soccer city of Aurora here as well so Mr Marquez our chief office if you would like to introduce them yes tonight with us we are honored with the presence of three representatives from soccer Siri Aurora and as you may know the relationship between Adams 14 and Soccer City Aurora was governed by a contract yes for the rental refuse but it was actually fueled and sustained by a common Love of the Game and so I'd like to bring up here Wilmer and Emily Faye [Applause] hello my name is Rudy Villalobos first of all I want to thank God items 14 and Mario for giving me the opportunity to speak today it truly is a blessing and a privilege I live in Aurora with my wife and

052three daughters I work with the Colorado soccer Foundation at Soccer City Idaho as a facility and League manager I grew up playing soccer in Southern California My Three Brothers Mino first hand the impact sport can have on kids I see it every day at Soccer City and again this weekend I was able to witness it again with your guys's World Cup event the way the presentation was from the beginning from when you drive up with the flags to showing every nation that can be presented out there was just something that Drew them my attention is incidentally as a soccer professional who runs tournaments and leagues out of Soccer City I know how much effort and time it takes and effort to make them successful so congratulations to every single one of you for an incredibly

053successful weekend I mean hats off to every single one of you guys for what you guys produced this weekend um with that being said maybe a kid score their first goal maybe a kid did a new move they've been practicing or maybe just shared some laughs with somebody's having some Dippin Dots which happen plenty of times at our front desk and got to bond with many kids either way the memories in the community that you helped create this weekend will be long long lasting and hugely impactful on the kids and their families for many years to come I mentioned us at the Colorado soccer Foundation is to provide access access to soccer for all kids who want to play We believe that our work that the work you did you all did this weekend was

054directly aligned with our mission and we are excited to continue exploring ways to evolve our partnership with you guys I know I now would like to introduce Emily Faye the director of programming our Colorado soccer Foundation to speak a little bit more about our work thank you guys thank you [Applause] my grandparents lived in the trailer park at 72nd and Highway 2 and so I have spent most of the family picnics of my childhood at the Gazebo directly behind here so I'm having some Nostalgia today um I grew up in Aurora I've made friendships with people from across the world through the game of soccer and I now have the privilege to be the program director for our soccer after school program which is in Partnership and collaboration with about 25 Public Schools across the

055Denver metro area we know and we believe that learning happens in and outside of the classroom and we know and we believe that character happens in and outside of the classroom and the extension of soccer after school is building these teachers or these custodians or these paraprofessionals and training them to become coaches and to extend their time and their relationships with our students into those after school hours that's something that we hope we can extend in partnership with you all at some point um and even offer pickup play right an unstructured form of the game in its most beautiful form so with that I'm going to introduce Wilmer Barrera muchisimas gracias foreign [Applause] [Music] I wanna I wanna give you credit to this man who really put a lot of hours and and and it's

056a privilege that you guys have a please do that thank you Mary and like uh I'm not going to repeat you guys know all the mission uh but on behalf of Colorado soccer Foundation I hope that this partnership continue with you guys thank you so much and I will have this quote Casablanca movies I had the feeling that this is the beginning of a new friendship so thank you so much guys thank you my only claim to fame in this whole thing is that in the afternoon of Saturday May 6th I failed to block a high-speed shot from Nathan Cabrera the game of vipers versus pythons and that is why he won the award of top scorer in that category yeah so uh he can say that he beat somebody that is 40 years he's

057senior yeah can say that but I would say that Nathan is very very good I know that my reflexes are not the same my my head know exactly what to do but he's very very good and it was how beautiful um also what Wilmer calls uh this man is actually a team of very very talented dedicated people that put a lot of passion into the preparation for this and we have some of them here tonight Karen [Applause] the people from the arms 14 Foundation that helped us with all the administration of the money Chief Moss that kept us trade with all of our spending attorney Salazar that went through that contract and Tommy several times get this out of there that cannot be there so yeah that's why we have a contra that works the

058master of the audiovision Nathan [Applause] provided by the operations Department transportation and all the logistics math Dr Cochran was in several of the uh the conception meetings for this and so a lot of what the registration system looks like is because of the feedback given by Josh [Applause] those are only a few there's an army of people that worked on this people coming from out of the woodwork to offer uh help and that is why this this vocal was made possible a lot of people worked on this volunteers and employees from here amazing and I um I see also volunteers were here including sitting you know around me because I just want to play right but they were actually volunteering I went there to uh to have fun uh but there were referees um you

059know modern president was getting out pizza and really everybody was supporting it was just the vibe of um what you know of those two days it was just it was just incredible um truly the beginning of a new era for us in Adams 14 uh where I know the importance of feeling that belonging of being part of something great right so uh you know our um friendship and our partnership will continue but fair gain because I'm all about fair game we have spots for you you can come back to our district it's springtime so we're in the hiring season right but at any time uh because definitely Sports and soccer is especially is in our veins and I want to take this opportunity before we show the video to give this to Mario because just

060like it was shared his outstanding leadership and commitment to the other 14-hour soccer World Cup 2023 uh made it a great success it is with great appreciation that we recognize Marie Marquez thank you for setting the bar high for future years by bringing student staff and Community together through the beautiful game of soccer so we I do have a little plaque for you and um so yeah maybe you know come up here because we cannot come down here yeah they can come up come here yes come on everybody everybody everyone everybody that made it our foundation people Josh Mr Josh Mr Dale Mister everybody yeah of course let's play I said play the role let's do it all away three one two three there you go [Applause] thank you Mario thank you Cameron because I

061always blink see yeah yearly that's not really how I look like this looks like I'm always with one eye some Madam president the reason why um you know I I do want to take a special recognition um for for this work in in Marius leadership is because this is nowhere near or around his job description um this is something that one day as he shared uh he said I have this idea where the parking lot we were leaving a meeting it was late at night he said I have this idea because we've been talking about how can we um Implement your vision and experience have everybody experience the vision of this board to bring the community together to to just share in in until our students that you know they belong here so he had

062this idea and I just said um you know make it happen and then I got out of the way right so um it's not in his job description but I know there were hours and hours in it so um certainly thank you thank you for that you can watch the video it's a short video [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] yeah this this is just a preview because we're gonna have a a whole video with um action um with the actual action of the students so we're working on it but this was just a little preview of how exciting that was for this award that needs to be caught tomorrow into at least 100 pieces and you shoot it um yes we're going to be creating a documentary of what happened this weekend and also in

063the days and weeks and months leading to uh the the preparation for this to go with that then there is a survey that has been circulated this afternoon for all the participants to come in and express their opinion about the event a section of the survey is about any good memories or anecdotes that people want to let us know about so here's one uh if that wasn't enough during the World Cup I found family there is a teacher by the name of blanca Martinez she's the wife of Jose vermouth and they are a couple of teachers that came through the international program from Spain you remember that my favorite team in Spain is Atletico yeah there was an email when Jose was talking about his children and I could see by the the names that

064they are from that part of Spain I didn't make a big deal out of it at the time that's addressed what I needed to do and let it go through a casual conversation a very unlikely conversation in the field I mean because many things have needed to happen for us to start talking it had to do with him seeing the logo of that theme on my shorts and there was a talk it so happens that Blanca is the needs of my cousin in Spain my cousin in Spain is Marta Martinez listen and Blanca is Blanca Martinez and when I went to Spain and went to the stadium to watch my favorite team I did it with a season ticket of her father We are family and so uh I am now one of you because

065uh the people in Commerce City are all related that's how we roll thank you thank you thank you thank you you're always one of us yes yes that's right that concludes my updates Madam president thank you Dr Lydia um yeah I had the pleasure of attending it was amazing I I caught myself I get teased I have uh Kleenex up here because I cry but there were happy tears and I was like just focus on the video but thank you it was an amazing event um I also want to congratulate I think they're playing right now are girls uh Varsity soccer team at the high school were uh League champions and they're playing their first round uh right right now so good luck to them and yeah we have we have great soccer going on

066here can I just say that um in attending uh I have family Who had who were playing so you're right a lot of us are related so um so they they informed me uh they were playing and I heard back not only from family but extended family of our neighbors and everybody else that we need to do more of this that really does um you know create a community it creates more relationship building and it's nice to actually show the kids how to have fun and not all be about the stress of academics but also uh you know how enjoying the Simplicity of just hanging out with family and friends how powerful that is so thank you for that because I think that's what we've been asking for for a while as the board is

067we used to have things that brought Community together and we need to do more of it so thank you thank you for like you say setting the bar high but um you know it's a bar that got moved somehow we need to bring it back up so thank you so much all right thank you for a great report this is a great start to a meeting now on to the business um we have uh the approval of consent agenda items uh 6.1 through 6.7 uh may have a motion to approve the consent agenda items so moved a second thank you Ramona roll call please miss dramador aye Ms Estrada Ms Lovato aye Ms Molina I miss Zubia I thank you um we do have those available um on board docs if you have any questions

068next on the agenda is 7.1 approval of the agreement between certified Teachers Association and Adams County school district 14 for the upcoming school year um I believe we have a presentation that is correct Madam president members of the board um I do have a team Nathan and Jason is here is the president of the certified teacher Association uh we had a very successful I would say again for the second time a successful negotiation season and uh Dr Bowden if you can come up here and share a little bit um we'll share your presentation not a little bit show it all thank you so much Madam president Dr Lauria members of the board with your permission I'd like to bring two three actually additional people up to this stand with me this evening uh Jason from

069the certified teachers union from the classified Union and I wanted to bring all of us together at one time for the presentation because this was truly a collaborative effort we made a lot of progress we worked on a lot of big issues this year we tackled some things that had been really outstanding for years that just needed to be addressed and I don't think we would have been able to do it if it wasn't for the collaboration of all the members of the negotiating parties and so the very first meeting that we got together we talked about what we want to accomplish how we want to accomplish it and the way that we're going to accomplish it by working together and everybody looked at each other and said we got this and for roughly four

070meetings we went through four meetings about that and every single meeting it was exactly the same we walked in we set the agenda and we got this and it was a true collaborative effort so I'm going to very quickly just highlight some of the big things that we did and the reason I've asked them to come up with me this isn't working but that's okay I can pretend there goes um is that the the throughout the negotiations we're very careful to make sure that what we were doing with the certified we were also looking at on the classified we wanted to bring the two groups together as much as possible because there's been a lot of confusion on how certain things are handled how do we handle it for certified how do we handle it

071for classified so as you can see the negotiating teams are on the board our Focus for both the certified and the classified was really to clean up some language that we had we had some very confusing language in both agreements that when we went to administer things it became very very confusing because the language wasn't clear if it wasn't clear for us an Administration how could it be clear for our employees in the classified or in the certified to understand what the agreements letting them do telling them they can do and guiding them so we wanted to clean up language throughout the the document the other thing that we wanted to do is we wanted to make sure that we addressed personal time off currently we have a lot of different types of sick leave

072available to us which is wonderful but it gets very confusing do I use temporary time do I use sick leave do I use vacation what do I use and how does that look at the end of the year honestly I've been here almost a year I still don't know which ones to choose when I'm having to to pick a day so if if the person administering it doesn't understand it how can we expect our custodians or our teachers to understand it so we work together to change how we do and earn personal time off and the last is that we we realized that we really didn't have a comprehensive leave program especially for our newest employees when an employee's been here for a while and they qualify for family medical leave they have protection but

073for our brand new employees who just show up if something catastrophic happens we didn't as a district have any type of protection for our folks and we all agreed we we had to change that that wasn't what we wanted as a district so those are the big Focus items we also we have a focus on renewed descriptions for our jobs we have some job descriptions that go back many many years and it's not what we do anymore and we we go round and round about how do we compensate people but if we don't understand the job duties we don't understand the workload we don't understand the impact of the job we don't understand the effort it takes to get the job done it's really hard to be Equitable in how we compensate so we made

074a commitment both certified and the classified we made a commitment to each other that we are going to work together to have job descriptions for every single position for every type of club for every supplement that we do so that we can hold people accountable but that we can also compensate people appropriately and equitably based on the work that they're doing in the classroom or in the bus or in the cafeteria or in the office or wherever they happen to be and so that was a a big focus and the final focus of course compensation right we got to look at compensation so it if you'll go to the next slide for me so the language that we really looked at was in the sick leave bank and we looked at both classified and certified

075the sickly bank had some very confusing language so employees who wanted to use the blank may not know that they could use it or may not understand how to use it so we spent a lot of time really cleaning up when do you qualify for the sick leave Bank how do we contribute days to the sick leave bank and then if you're in the sick leave Bank how do we make sure that we're Equitable and how many days you're given for the certified we looked at our supplemental pay I think a couple months ago we heard in fact a staff member come and talk to you about being a coach in supplemental pay so we wanted to address that because we knew we were using some data that was really outdated and we wanted to

076honor the work our employees did so we focused on the supplemental pay and cleaned up some of the language so that those employees who are working in the fall in the winter in the spring with different sports or as a director have the ability to be compensated appropriately for that and then we looked at our stipends and how much we're paying for those critical needs positions some of our positions we're having to Outsource because we just can't find applicants so we want to make sure that there are employees working in our district and committed to us so we looked at our stipends to make sure that we were being Equitable in making sure that we're going to attract great staff and great talent to our school district another accomplishment that we were able to do

077was temporary disability leave temporary disability is kind of a new word for us going into negotiations we had a lot of different kinds of leaves parental leave extended parental leave child they're just too many to name it was very confusing so what we did is we standardized on one type of leave so our employees whether they're certified or classified were being consistent and Equitable because it takes all of us to educate a kid a teacher classified we've all got to be together on this so we came up with an idea called temporary disability leave so an employee who's been here for over a year would qualify for family medical leave which gives them an ability to be out for 60 days 12 work weeks and have job Assurance when they come back that their job

078is waiting for them but for our newest employees we didn't have anything like that so we created TDL which is very similar to family medical leave it provides them job protection from day one so that if they're in a car accident on the third week of school they know that we want them back and they're going to be welcome back in 60 days if somebody's on temporary disability leave or family medical leave and the 60 days ends right now we don't have a lot of protections for them so TDL picks up where family medical leave ends and provides extended protection throughout the rest of the year and gives our folks an opportunity to really become healthy and return to work effective in our in our classrooms in our in our all of our different departments

079to service our kids so if you were to look at the agreement on the certified side that's 14-2 on the classified as 13-4 as I mentioned earlier we looked at sick leave because it was so confusing we standardized on a single type of leave our employees now earn personal time off at the end of the year if they don't use all their personal time off instead of trying to figure out what I get paid for what roles to what they can cash in up to five days or they can choose to let it roll but it rolls to personal time off for next year so if I were to be given I'm just going to use a random number of 10 because it's easy if I were to get 10 days this year and at

080the end of the year I didn't use them next year I get 10 days and my 10 days from this year is added to next year and I'll have 20. if I get sick next year I have 15 days that I'm okay and have coverage at the end of next year I can still cash in five days if I want to that personal time off is consistent with the classified and the certified because we felt it was important that we have one single way of administering how we earn sick leave and so it's a great what we think is a team we thought it was a great benefit to our employees to have that available to them and you can see on the certified agreement that's number 13-1 and on the classified is 13-1 in

081the agreement and so the next slide I think is is probably the most telling slide of all of this work that we did we basically took chapter agreement chapter 13 14 Article 13 14. 13 14 and 12 and 30. basically we took two entire chapters of the agreement two entire big chapters tossed them out and started from scratch and built it for what our employees need and what's going to benefit our employees may not be the easiest thing to administer but it's what's right for our employees and so I can't I can't express enough the work that both these teams did in negotiations to truly understand this and ask those in-depth those super rich questions how does this look what happens if this happens so that we could produce really a very robust personal time

082off that we can all be proud of and that should outlive all of us and hopefully we'll never have been doing this one again because it was a lot of work but it was it was work that was worth the effort a couple other major accomplishments on the certified side we worked with some language giving us the opportunity to have a late start once a week with professional development so our teachers have the ability to continue that great PLC work that they're doing those those great things are happening that are pushing our classrooms and our teachers to that next level to be successful and there was a lot of language around that that we had to go through and both sides were really really accommodating to each other listened and I think that's my biggest

083takeaway from this we all listen to each other every time somebody would talk everybody gave them the the respect and the honor and listened and not just because they had to listen but because they wanted to listen they wanted to learn and a lot of Minds were changed on on all groups of people as we went through this process the just a couple more quick accomplishments um for compensation we wanted to honor and we wanted to be Equitable with all of our staff and this was really really important to both the classified and the certified in the past we've given raises but our steps and typically around eight or nine which means once you've been in Adams 14 for nine years if we give a step raise there's no step for them to go to

084so they don't really get an increase in compensation and we as a group on both the classified and certified thought that that doesn't do a very good job of honoring our most uh our most dedicated employees so what we did is we um we proposed them we both agreed on a step raise for all employees for those employees who are at the end of the pay scale rather than being frozen we added an additional step so that every employee including those 9 10 12 14 veteran teachers in in classified everybody has an opportunity to get a step raise nobody is frozen nobody's locked in everybody got a step race we also added a one percent Cola we'd like to have added a huge Cola but we have to also be conscientious of our budget and

085make sure that what we do is sustainable so it was a one percent Cola and then the district is covering the increase in medical benefit costs which did go up this year and so we didn't want to give our employees an increase in compensation and then take it away in benefit costs so we covered that entire cost so they'll be able to see the entire increase in their in their paycheck on the certified side we also looked at the longevity and we increased longevity one percent so that our folks who've been here a little bit longer have that extra little little added to it and then again we adjusted stipends based on that one percent on the classified side we had to make some adjustments to some of our scales some of our folks were

086not being paid at the same rate as some of our surrounding districts and we do a survey to determine how Denver how all the other school districts are paying each group of people and so if we were at at the average of everybody else we were okay in our race is we're fine but when we had a group that fell below when another school districts around us started paying a certain group of of classified more than we were we knew we had to adjust because we need to stay competitive and we need to stay equitable and so we had to make some adjustments too I think it was five of the scales five of the scales and we had to move a couple of groups from one scale to another scale just because we wanted

087to make sure that we honored the work that they're doing and the effort and the responsibility that they have to our district and so that was the major accomplishment on compensation we left with a couple of of takeaways because we can't get it all done in one one year this is a multi-year thing and so what we are taking away on the certified side is that we're going to be watching the universal Pre-K roll out this year how that looks we're going to be making sure that we're honoring all of our Pre-K teachers appropriately and that we're not that how we roll This Out is consistent with the agreement because the agreements is there for a reason so we want to make sure that we're doing that so we're going to have a committee that's

088going to continue to monitor that throughout the year on the classified side because it's such a different way and it can be very controversial we're going to be monitoring how we evaluate compensation through those surveys to make sure that this is the right solution for our school district and that this really does honor all of our employees the best that it possibly can so we're going to continue to work we have meetings that we'll be doing throughout the year to make sure that the the compensation ranges and how we evaluate those are being done correctly so that is basically what we accomplished in a very short period of time we started in January February and we've worked collaboratively as a team since and so I would like to invite Jason Wayne is there anything you'd

089like to today hi you guys hear me on this thing yes um well I think a lot just a second everything Nathan said uh I do want to just you know sort of big picture point out that like when we win the corporate war on public education in Adams 14. and we've we've when we have won that it will be because we collaborate it will be because we are on the same team okay it'll we'll look back on things like this steps along the way and we'll realize oh that's how we were able to fight back these billionaires funding attacks on public education in minority places and so that you know big picture I'm really proud of the work that the district has done I'm really proud of the work that uh CTA did in

090our particular process um because I think we kept that big picture in mind um I do want to also on that last slide point out you know that you're you know like all things uh there was a lot of uh committee work that got assigned to sort of oversee things as they develop and we're in a pretty big state of flux right now on Adams 14 and it's something that we want to keep an eye on you know through a contractual lens but I just really appreciate the district I appreciate our team members uh that stepped up and took many many hours put in represented their viewpoints and their particular job titles and and all their colleagues well and I'm really grateful it's a it's a great team and it was a it was a

091good process and I look forward to the next step in this ongoing process to make sure that we you know get the schools that our kids deserve here in a sports team where everybody is accessible no matter where you're coming from all right thank you thank you foreign Jason hit it right on the money it's a super long process that we have to take a lot into consideration um the team did a great job thank you to HR and Doug he came you know with what we needed to be able to get through this they were super supportive during this process we have a long way to go but we're creating a foundation that is is sustainable and we're doing it with a lot of respect and a lot of heart and intentions behind it

092to ensure that what we say is what we show we know that for classified yes they are the heart of a lot of this that goes behind you know the scenes and instead of just saying it we're trying to show them the survey salary is it was super important to make sure that we keep our stuff we hire them we cannot retain them there's a lot of positions that there's huge openings inside of our school and we're only as strong as our team so thank you yeah I I just like to say um it feels really positive we've been trying to uh get after job descriptions for probably seven years now and uh We've uh we feel really positive that we we're not there all the way yet but uh we've got a good plan

093and I think it'll it'll work out and then on the subway survey you know uh I'm 14 joined all of the neighboring districts because they all use this same salary survey and so uh that's a real plus it's a third party and so um you know it has some uh positive and some confidence in it from all of the communities around and so I want to thank uh Nathan and all of his team for working with us and uh on behalf of our president who's out driving kids right now when Rogers uh we want to thank the school district also for all of your hard work and moving to support thank you and I think I get to see Bianca tomorrow we're doing training on how to write job descriptions we have a whole process

094where they're going to review all the job descriptions for the classified side as we write them to make sure that we really are capturing the work that they're doing um accurately and that it's reflective of what we we need to have it say so um are there any questions I can answer about either the I think the certified agreement is the first one yeah we kind of combined the boat or two together so thank you for doing that uh board members I opened it up for any questions comments I guess I I more than a question a comment I want to say thank you because it has been years in the making I know um hearing from both um a classified and certified there was always that mismatch between both um and like we said

095you know we need both in order to make this school district successful and we want to make sure that people are compensated appropriately but also acknowledged for the work that they do so thank you for taking that into consideration and I know that it's not easy everybody has ideas on how things work but um I think we're getting a lot further than we were before so I appreciate the time that you guys all put in to make this happen and I know that um you know this is like the beginning it's it's a foundational step and then moving forward we just built on it and get stronger so thank you for all the work that you guys put into it did awesome and I have one question so I just want to make sure with

096the classified one I know last year I had some questions about it because when we did it we were only choosing like one group of classifieds that were getting these stipends a year I want to make sure that we're doing it for all of the classifieds and if we do vote on something like we did last year for us type in that it goes to all of them not just one group like it did last year or that's that's what we're doing now so there's no stipends with the classified for this we actually voted on the retention stipends earlier in the Year Rick and that was a four thousand dollar retention stipend and it is the same for classified and certified so our certified that return next year and are classified whether you're a bus

097driver or custodian a teacher everybody's four thousand dollars so that's consistent across all groups yeah I just want to make sure because last time we only had like the nutrition services getting it where the the office staff was in and other things so I want to make sure that we're making sure everyone is right yeah yeah it was yeah I was on the board we voted that I was like what why so I just want to make sure I'm glad that we're doing that now I think I have one question um related to that because I'm sorry Doug oh oh okay okay I see okay so Doug clarified part of that I think we used to look at one third of our classified staff for potential adjustments because of equity among other school districts now

098we look at every single position that's the the new the new survey that that we've all been referring to now we look at everyone and we look at those that fall below and it could be the same position that falls below three years in a row that has to be adjusted it could be different ones each year but we look at the ones that fall below to increase them so that we're Equitable across all thank you um I had a question around the retention stipend as well um because with classified the I guess we call them Subs but they're not really Subs they're like temporary workers are they not eligible for that um because like like as we're adjusting their um the positions of somebody's out for an extended amount of time they're three theoretically

099working full time for whatever amount of time are they not eligible for that stipend unless they are hired full-time employees they have to be employed by the district okay yes ma'am and then most of our subs are hired through the the essence but what about the classified we have some that are are here part-time and on call they're not a permanent employee okay so they're not they're not okay um another question I had I know Dak has brought it up a couple of years in a row um we had talked about um having a stipend available for our bilingual classified employees because as we know they're constantly called in to answer phones or sitting on meetings or did we look into that or address that I didn't see it in the contracts but it was

100not it was not brought up for the contract okay we talked about it was it the last day it kind of came up the last day and so that's one of the pieces that we're going to be looking at this year in fact I think we're meeting in January is that what we would yep we're going to be meeting in January to look at that for next year because we have to have a some type of criteria for determining who's bilingual who's not bilingual what's what what would be eligible for that stipend yeah and we didn't want to try to piecemeal something together quickly and then have to come back in a year and go so we wanted to take our time and do it right so we'll be meeting that's part of one of

101those takeaways that I just didn't put in here but that's a takeaway that we'll be meeting I think it's in January that we start that process so that when we come to negotiations next year we have a plan in place awesome thank you um and then we received a note that classified ratified last night did certified already ratify or um I in in the original communication we said we were going to close it at five o'clock tonight but to give everybody as much time as possible I'm going to leave it open a little bit longer to try to get everybody to participate okay wonderful thank you um yeah I think you guys ratified last night okay it ratified with over 90 percent positive yeah um and last I think um I did hear so um

102we assigned board Liaisons to attend negotiations if you guys would please invite us include us we didn't hear about it this time um totally not to step on toes but I think it just helps us um understand the process and what was discussed I completely appreciate the PowerPoint and all the work that you've done but to me it um not only gives us a firsthand insight as to what the issues are about how we can carry them forward the great things that are happening but um I spent a lot of time on the phone in the past couple of days just trying to obtain the feedback that um I would have been able to to witness um I I think to add to that what I heard in the feedback and I'm sorry I'm sorry

103to pick unclassified I didn't um I think uh director Zubia and amateur or the classified Janet okay or certified so I don't mean to pick uncertified but that's who I talked to um in addition to the bilingual stipend um I did hear some concerns around nutrition services which I had brought up a couple of times because I we we see the turnaround happening um is there anything we can do to kind of um help I think the governor approved an increase in funding for for schools next year but um I don't know how that will look or if that will help any of that yeah and so um one of the groups that moved had a pretty good move in that wake study was the nutritional service people it was okay so we're just incrementing

104incrementally I can't speak moving up to to comparable okay Mr Stephen like one or two dollars an hour makes a difference and it's it's easy enough to drive to the next District yes we did move them up but the governor has not given any additional he hasn't okay nutrition service I'm reading the wrong reports here thank you Mr muss oh yes I think you might be think uh referring to the increase in the likely but pending increases I couldn't believe it was like yeah people funding yes that that is a thing that that is happening I do want to point out that the biggest lobbying arm in the state for that is cea so um I want to take a little win on that one yes um but I think those are two different okay

105yeah that's what I was reading thank you um Madam president I think those are the only questions I had Madam president oh oh so there was um an increase to school funding um but amongst 179 school districts the increase is 150 million so it's 7.5 percent increase from last year but still um okay thank you in our internal documents when we analyze like the per pupil increase literally because of some external fact well because of the bigger picture Adams 14 got the smallest increase in the state So yeah thank you yeah right all right um thank you all for the amazing work I know it's tons of work and you guys are making huge strides that we haven't had we've been fighting for for years so thank you for an amazing job I can't thank

106the team enough for the work and just being open and bringing ideas to the table that that we could all consider and as a single voice between all of us I think it's much more powerful because we collaborate truly collaborated this year so thank you for your time great thank you so much um board members we have an option to consider these for approval tonight um we heard from our certified leader that um they have not yet ratified yet we are okay also waiting until June so if you prefer to not make a decision now um I think we're we're okay waiting but um oh yes Mr Musk please correct me if I'm wrong I would uh hope that you would approve tonight so that we can get contracts out early before our staff leaves

107oh gotcha that's what we're going to try and do okay and we can do this without the ratification of this Prospect okay all right yeah you heard it from him we have double confirmation and members of the board um next this year we started negotiations in February next year we're going to move it to January because I heard you know your um direction to have a little bit more time and did not feel that you know it's at the end you know the last hour yes because it's a lot to read so um just know that that is coming um as well so that you know it will help in the future and I also want to add that this uh process of looking at all job descriptions and Equitable compensation Equitable duties based on

108salaries and in in titles is not only been done at the certified and classified groups but also supporting Tech and administrative and we are in the process of of doing that as well we have been in the process this last few weeks and we'll continue doing it all right well that being said um would anyone like to make a motion a motion to approve 7.1 and 7.2 okay a second thank you any further discussion Ramona roll call please I'm sorry who seconded thank you Madam president yes yes prefer if you did it separately do 7.1 and then 7.2 okay so you might want to remove your second and remove your first all right I remove my second and I'll remove my first and I'll motion to approve 7.1 thank you I second to approve 7.1

109any further discussion on 7.1 .1 Ramona roll call please Mr Amador aye Ms Estrada MS Lovato aye Ms Molina Zubia aye [Music] two a motion to approve 7.2 second any discussion comments Ramona Rocco please hi is Estrada Is Molina I miss Zubia aye thank you madam president yeah thank you uh Troy legal [Laughter] next on the agenda is 8.1 Board of Education new business requests and committee reports and other communication I'd like to take a moment of privilege if that's okay um we have had um some changes in our Education Foundation so Dr Lydia I'd like to turn it over to you too yes Madam president members of the board I would like to acknowledge our um executive directors for the foundation if you um please come up um we do have um Dale mingleton

110he is retiring after many many years and he alongside with Mr Gold Josh gold our new executive director for the foundation worked on a phenomenal fourteener I want to uh also apologize because I should have done this with my you know update so I asked him to stay a little longer because it was inadvertently I passed on the page and then didn't acknowledge you but uh so uh thank you for your hard work um actually two hundred thousand dollars in scholarships over time um 100 um 255 yes cannot even speak anymore in scholarships and um just watching being there myself and just watching and listening to our students how emotional this is uh their parents could not be any any more proud of each one of those students and um I just want to personally

111say superintendent thank you for for your efforts and your support not only with our scholarships but also with the mini grounds so many of the students are able to participate in clubs because you fund those play soccer now because you're supported as well so it's just um a true partnership and I I want to thank you Mr Gold I want to welcome you um you know to Adams 14. it's it's a great place to be and you actually made a great choice by coming here and of course foundation made a great choice in having him so if you would like either one of you would like to say any uh anything um thank you so much for the welcome it's been so nice to meet the of all of you um over the last month

112so it's crazy to think that I started on April 4th and um have been here a month and was really thrown into it and and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to learn from Dale um I've known him for a number of years but to to see him in action to see uh the passion that he has for the students here in this District to see just the relationships that he's built over the last 10 years they've really given us a strong Foundation really to continue this work and I look forward to learning more about the district learn more about the schools and have had the opportunity to go to a few of them but really I'm grateful for the foundation board for for giving me this opportunity but also there's not many opportunities that

113you get to learn from a previous executive director and so that the fact that they gave that opportunity committee so that I did not have to do the 14er Fest three weeks after I started by myself um I'm truly grateful for that so excited to work with all of you and learn more about the needs that this district and how we can support thank you um just thank you for your support publicly I also have to thank my partner in crime that the first fourteener and all the students I would not be a success without Terry as you all know she put as probably as much time and energy into this as I did so I'm not gone yet I think Josh is going to keep me around through uh full-time through June and then

114I'll kind of filter off so but thank you thank you thank you and again my apologies for keeping you a little later [Applause] can I just say um I am very appreciative of all the work that you guys are doing um Dale I can't thank you enough personally for all of the time that you have spent in our community supporting our students and participating in our community from rotary to Boards of all kinds to just supporting the community as a whole so I wanted to personally say that that I'm going to I'm not going to cry that I'm going to miss you I'm glad to hear you're still going to be here till June but um you will be missed and um welcome Josh because yes there's a lot that can be done and um

115Dale um single-handedly did a lot with Terry yes of course but we know that um he was the staff of one for so many years and so I just want to acknowledge all that work that he has done personally to help these kids and how grateful they are because a lot of the students that you funded are students that participated in my groups and I still hear about how grateful they are so thank you can I I'll just uh add to because I'm I'm that proud parent though and Josh and I want to I get emotional because I'm a single mother and I know one thing for sure that without my son being able to get this uh scholarships um I I couldn't afford it by myself um I'm I'm very honored and thankful to

116the district also I have a graduate this year right my son will be graduating um and you know full right to MSU and then the foundation support is a great relief for a mother like me um I am a proof and my son uh looks up to you a lot that Miss Dale he's like oh look they get the other yesterday or when we were at the game but look there's Dale and I was like hey Josh I was like hey Josh uh just a month right but like you heard uh director Maria your family now that's how we're all related in Commerce City right because uh Dale's like already family you know he's but yeah thank you to the the foundation for everything and and making this this mama really happy and thankful also

117uh for my son gracias for all your work um I have the distinct honor of uh being able to get to know Dale uh personally and uh over gosh it's been almost four years now um so I just want to thank you for your dedication to our students um to me for walking me off some clips a couple of times um but um also the continued support because we not only award the scholarships through the foundation but um you and Terry check in with the students regularly our boards uh Mentor the the students and um it's just so cool to see them graduate high school make their way through college and then you guys get to attend some of their graduations and it's just um we have amazing talented students in in our district and

118I just thank you for honoring them and supporting them um welcome Josh look forward to working with you and continuing great work from the foundation all right um next on the agenda was Board of Education new business requests do we have any this evening regarding I don't think we can sorry I wasn't done I knew I I knew somebody would let me know if it wasn't so um uh if this is where I can ask for an update on um you know the the parent involvement um and uh the involvement around security and um I know we had talked about having a like a subcommittee to help look at that uh and the reason I bring it up is because I had invited um my fellow board members to meet with our youth Advisory Board

119that's really looking at the safety around schools and around Commerce City they recently met with a commissioner and they had invited city council members and so we want to make sure that um there's some connection there and would like to ask if it's possible to have them as youth come in prison to at a study session maybe and give some of their feedback to this group and I I have to recuse myself from that because obviously it's it's a youth advice report that I facilitate through my day job that they're very interested in in presenting their ideas and so I wanted to see how we can make that work so that's the one thing I have three thank you I think that's awesome I think um I know we um are meeting with Doc um

120at our next board or next study session in May I believe um and I would love if we can somehow coordinate that to invite them because I I definitely don't want to duplicate efforts and I think we have some very strong leadership on that Council as well as our Adams County Youth commission and ideally it would be great if if we all work together because I know doc was charged with um developing a committee that included representation from parents and students and community members so perfect thank you thank you oh see so we can start working thank you for Doc you guys are amazing as always um is there any other new business requests for this evening all right um Board of Education committee reports 8.2 do we have any committee reports yes I actually

121at this point if it's okay Madam president I wanted to um as a I guess sharing with the work that we've been doing with rotary um you know it's been awesome but I wanted to share that we recently lost a long time friend family member of rotary Mr Dick Stevenson passed away and he just so you know um is was one of the longest running members 50 years wow at the Commerce City rotary and very passionate about helping the students in Adams 14 and in the Commerce City Community just was a wonderful person um just learned a lot when he would speak about his passion for this community and so he's going to be missed dearly and I just wanted to acknowledge Him publicly by thanking him and his family and his memory obviously and

122his family for everything that they have done for this community and the back end without recognition with no even need for recognition and that's what rotary does for Commerce City our rotarians are very passionate about giving to us and every time I attend those I just feel I'm with family when we talked about family today I'm like we have such an extended family now that it's beautiful we just need to find a way to continue embracing our additional family members that really support this community and having a way to bring them in to really Embrace what community and 14 is and not from the outside but actually part of what we do and this group has done a lot in fact we were doing the uh what did we do oh we put labels on

123all the dictionaries last week for the dictionaries that go to the third graders um and as you know they do some of the other programs and they also sponsor some of the scholarships that Dale is able to provide or that the foundation is able to provide so I just wanted to say that um publicly I wanted to acknowledge dick for all of the work that he did in his lifetime for our community and our kids and like I said it was an emotional time for all the members that he has been that they've been around for a long time like I said we have members that have been around for a while about 50 years is amazing and he lived by the four-way test so if anybody doesn't know the four-way test one of these

124days we will share it with everyone um so it's a fabulous way to live and yes thank you for that so I just wanted to give an update thank you director Zubia um director Amador do you have any I would just remind everyone who's still watching um tomorrow for Dak if you are on that list to come there doing their elections for officers um and they're so they really need a turnout for that because last time I don't think that a quorum to be able to vote so they really need to have people show up for that and they can do it virtually or in person thank you um I think my only group that has met is the Commerce City urban renewal Authority um we had a short meeting last night um at 9

12530 at night um it was uh we did approve a developer to began developing the space for Parcels A and B um I believe they are working with Adam's 14 and another provider to develop those buildings so they'll be reaching out soon um the Adams 14 Foundation we had a great Fortuner Fest um and the other those are the only updates um Commerce City Council I attend weekly um mostly virtual they've had a lot going on um I don't know that we publicly have things done but they did unanimously approve um funding for funding and and putting together the um speed tables for around our schools so they're moving immediately on that even where a couple of our schools crossed the boundaries into unincorporate Adams County um they also provided 4 000 I might be

126wrong on the amount for our also students students to take a field trip was it two it was a couple thousand um so I just want to thank them for um assisting with um those opportunities for our students um one that's not on here that I would like to thank uh publicly is the Community Choice Credit Union they I joined their board meeting but I've learned so much more they have a liaison that works really heavily with our schools and she is amazing so I just want to thank them for their involvement and their support with our the schools and our students director Molina do you have any updates for not just for the uh the EC pack is uh they're looking just to promote the campus and we want more organizations that might fit

127with the campus so just I know that mostly is for us my recommendations just to get the word out that we exist there that were there and the services that are being provided for the community um and it's just to get right now we're trying to just put the word out to let the community know what is being offered okay thank you um next on the agenda is other communication from the board [Music] oh yes go ahead so um I just wanted to remind everybody that um the public health emergency is ending but covet is not so I want to make sure people understand that um that the public health emergency is going to be ending soon and that just means that a lot of the programs and the funding that was in place is

128no longer going to be there but doesn't mean that covet is ending um and I'm bringing that up because I also know that a lot of the families if they did not make um any address changes or other changes they needed to their Medicaid and their CHP information they may need to do that so that they don't lose coverage because that is going to be a huge impact on a lot of our families so also know that we have a community center that was opened at the Mile High Flea Market that I oversee on Saturdays so just a little plug that we can help you and it doesn't cost anything to have us help you same with the campus that Lucy was talking about they have folks that help as well and so we're still

129doing covet vaccines because people still are getting coveted so I just wanted to put that out there and the last thing I have is I want to wish all Las Mamacitas happy Mother's Day because you're welcome it's um officially in our culture is tomorrow um the 10th of May is always for us in Mexico and for mother's day here in the US it's on Sunday so I want to invite everybody to come and if you're at the flea market come visit me at c19 for covet 19. we'll have a celebration and on Sunday we're going to have another event there at the flea market to celebrate the Mamacitas so yes happy Mother's Day and Felicia De Las Madres to all the moms out there you do not go unnoticed trust me as moms we appreciate

130everything that these moms go through so thank you thank you um I have a couple of announcements we're ending the end at the end of another school year so thank you all for everyone's great work um I would like to remind everyone we have our Lester Arnold graduating Phoenix commencement ceremony that's going to be Friday May 19th at 7 pm at the Adams City High School in the krogue stadium or outside in the krogue stadium weather permitting if not we may go inside um our Eagles from Adams City High School will have their commencement ceremony the following day Saturday May 20th at 9 00 a.m in the same place at croak field and congratulating all of them because yeah um modern president just to clarify or to share once again um for if we are

131able to do it outside there's no limitation for students to bring anybody in their family we know we have large families and we enjoy large yes however you're not on I think your children yeah ready if however the weather does not allow us to be outside we're going to move inside the gymnasium and the students will have a limitation for individuals but there's going to be an opportunity for um yes for the Overflow room thank you so um whether permitting it's outside and anybody and everyone is invited thank you and watch for social media we'll have updates um as the date mirrors um any other communication board members I'll do two more so I know there was confusion for both Kearney middle school and Adam City Middle Schools um for Kearney Middle School it's going

132to be on May 23rd on a Tuesday from 6 to 7 30 at the high school and everyone can attend there's not a limit for parents as well as Adam City Middle School which will be the following day the 24th from 6 to 7 30 and everyone can attend there's not a limit that you're going to have and just remember this coming at the end of May will be our Memorial Day parade that everyone for Commerce City should be invited to and everyone else May has lots of celebrations yeah oh great it's wonderful and we have all of our continuations look at social media for our elementary schools too they're scattered through the next two weeks yep lots happening but great things this is always a fun time of the year all right um without

133any further business uh may I have a motion to adjourn so a second thank you Ramona roll call please Mr Amador hi Ms Estrada Ms Lovato aye Is Molina I am I thank you we are adjourned our next meeting will be a study session on uh Thursday May 25th