001foreign thank you Cameron um prior to the start of our Forum math uh Lupe to provide the administration interpretation thank you madam president buenos a Los participants is thank you so much good evening [Music] team Board of Education I'm here with my fellow colleagues who I'd like to introduce um I'll leave it up to if you'd like to stand or wave um secretary Maria Zubia Treasurer Janet Estrada and director James Amador our moderator this evening is Joseph Salazar I would like to invite Mr Salazar to continue in our farm thank you president Lovato thank you members of the board Madam superintendent and also members of the community for appearing here in person as well as virtually the board has received two letters of interest for the board vacancy and you will hear from the applicant
002who is present we thank you for being here this evening and we thank the community that is here in the audience this meeting is being videotaped and will broadcast on our local channel 22 so we ask that you refrain from talking while our applicants are speaking and that you turn off your cell phones or place them on silent mode as you heard earlier we do have interpretation available tonight is the final step in the process to fill the remaining time until the November 2023 election of the vacancy left by Ramona Lewis it's an impos an important process to make sure we have the best person possible representing our students parents and community and your engagement is crucial to that process we are providing cards so you so we may select a few questions from the
003audience to ask prior to the end of the form if time permits please turn these into the secretary to the board Ramona Lewis Ramona please stand and if if you didn't get a card they're out in the um entryway if somebody could maybe get them and pass them out to people that would be great thank you the board provided the applicants with five questions to frame their remarks this evening they are number one well would you intend your major contributions to be as an Adams 14 board member number two what do you see as the primary work of the Board of Education number three what is the school board members role and responsibility how does that role differ from the role the superintendent or Administration number four can you please describe your understanding of the
004current situation between Adams County school district 14 and the Colorado State Board of Education as well as accountability actions overall five what is your definition of equity and how does it apply to Adams 14. I will repeat these questions when it is time for each applicant to answer each applicant will have three minutes to show their thoughts well the one applicant who is here we'll have three minutes to share her thoughts on these five questions they will be alerted that her time is ending when Ramona holds up a 30-second warning card all right let's hear from the applicant Miss Molina can I please have you come on up and stand over here at the podium and just to double check is the other applicant present we do know that the other applicant was provided just
005like Miss Molina notification of this meeting it was not only publicly noticed on our board docs but also Communications went out to the other applicant inviting the applicant here so with Miss Molina being the only applicant present we will allow Miss Molina four minutes to introduce yourself and why you are interested in this seat that's Molina please go ahead good evening my name is Lucy Molina I am a Community member here in uh Commerce City the South I uh have two children in the district I am very proud to say I have a senior at Adams City High School this year so I tell my son we did it we're doing it and I really think all the support that we he's been given the last few years to be able to follow his dreams
006here through this District so and I also have a junior she's here also my kids are our Treasurer I I mentioned in our letter of intent that where our our treasure is is where our heart is right and our children I always say that our community is um we have bilingual children we have children that speak two languages and uh we have a strong culture and also a very stubborn Community yet I am part of this community so I would um I've been working from La chispa nightclub here from being a waitress serving my community through our local Latino businesses here as well I understand my community so um yeah I'm Lucy Molina here from Commerce City gracias great thank you very much Miss Molina so I'm going to ask you the the questions that
007were presented to you earlier and you'll have three minutes to answer the questions the first question is is what would you intend your major contributions be to be as an Adams 14 board member thank you for the question um to protect the future of our district and public education to offer opportunities to our communities that have been robbed from our students in the last decade and in addition Unite with my current board to be a voice for the community of which I am also part of and I made them sure because I never have three minutes uh I'm like you know I thought you're a veteran of a three-minute rule that's for sure right you know I've been practicing a lot testifying and we only get sometimes we only get two minutes all right so
008three minutes is like okay short and sweet and let's get to the point right on what do you see as the primary work of the Board of Education so I understand that the school board members are locally public service that are entrusted with governing our communities Public Schools now the role of the school board is to ensure that the school districts are responsive to the values beliefs and priorities priorities of their community they are they are they're also the governing body of the district this requires members to collectively bring the proper education to our district that competes with the with the global village basically taking us to the Future thanks thank you what does a school board member's role and responsibility and how does that role differ from the role of the superintendent or Administration
009so generally I understand that the boards are elected again by the community to set the priorities to establish policies and evaluate the outcomes of District Operations the superintendent identifies needs and the policies right develop regulations provide leadership and manage the day-to-day Opera operations of the district can you please describe your understanding of the current situation between Adams County school district 14 and the Colorado State Board of Education as well as the accountability actions overall okay now this one's a long one so uh you know I will take the three minutes probably here so um I have been following the Adams 14 very closely I've showed up to many state board meetings even to going up to Estes Park to support my board and support my district so I do understand that through the educate education
010accountability Act of 2019 which authorizes the Department of Education to uh make these annual reviews right to uh for the performances of our Public Schools so through that things have changed I know that we have um you know testings and uh other and this is stuff that I from CD from uh CDE you know right so I did my research and this is something it's very close to my heart because my kids have been in this District all this time when the accountability act began which I have witnessed myself uh how it went downhill because this act and that was passed in 2009 does not apply to communities like ours uh when you even their own statistics and their own percentages they're saying that 56 percent of our students are Spanish-speaking so then uh that
011and then one of the tests is based on English performances okay so then how does that apply to our district so then I believe then that is why since then our district has been targeted I understand also that uh as of May of this year they well not on this whole year they took our accreditation away uh they are moving forward with the um with the reorganizing our district um so this has been very impactful for me and my family uh my kids are like hey where am I going to go to school without understanding the current situation of our district I also understand that our uh District we sued the state board and that didn't go through I understand that the district judge denied it uh again to me proving that we are facing
012a a racist leadership at the at a state board level um even based on the on the on the 2009 accountability act that again does not apply to districts like ours thank you what is your definition of equity and how does it apply to Adams 14. we just and to be fair uh which is definitely not a process that I feel as a parent of of students here and as a community leader as well that Equity has that the the State Board of education's process has not been Equitable again I just shared a little bit of uh of what I saw as far as this is a highly Spanish-speaking Community where if 56 percent of our students are English learning students uh it doesn't make sense that they're being that we are being uh judged
013or um I guess based on this law that passed in 2009 um so definitely if I understand also that this is a historical situation that has happened and uh I feel that our district has been targeted uh not only by our state board of education by by charter schools by privatization private privatization privatization of education and um and it's not fair it's not fair for our students it's not fair for our families that we are constantly scared and worried of what's going to happen next what decision our state board is going to make to impact our families okay thank you very much um I'm going to take a moderator's privilege and I'm going to adjust the order here just a little bit and um instead of having you do a finalist speech since the closing
014speech is something that should be done after after everything is is over with let's go with audience questions so um do we have any audience questions seeing none um why don't we go with uh board questions do we have any board questions I just have a clarifying question um why now and um why would you like this position at this point in time hold on a second did everybody hear that no go ahead sorry I I asked why now why um which why are you interested in this position now I know that that was kind of part of the opening question but I didn't really hear a full response to that part okay so why not first of all and uh this is not the first time I apply in fact you and I applied
015together a long time so some of us have already applied together so I've this is the third time right uh I'm I'm not doing this for special interest I'm not doing this uh for a selfish uh Reasons I'm really really doing this for our students I've seen the struggles that we have gone because we have gone through it together right with our kids throughout the years um and I feel I believe I don't think it's fair I really don't think it's fair and um and I'm I'm always here right I'm always around through serving my community whether it's uh through the dock through uh the city wherever I'm able I'm I serve and I'm gonna just re rewind a little bit to remind everybody how you know we were I worked at an at us
016at a business a long time ago where we were robbed and shot they they shot my my boss nine times okay and that was a very clear eye opener for me that I did not want my children to what can I do as a parent as a as a citizen to make this community better for my kids I don't want my kids to be the next victim I don't want my kids to to be aggressors either then what can I do as a community member to serve my community and it started here I started serving even you know with a lot of my with with you and some of the with Maria that invited me to a lot of committees that I got to serve and I and I love it and I love my
017children I've I love the children at uh of our district from all levels I see the potential again our children are uh most of them are bilingual we have a treasure here we do have a treasure in our district and we have to start valuing them and as a parent I feel I also needed to step it up Maria you know I I also need to step it up and uh become a better example not only for my children but also for my community thank you I described it sorry thank you so much for joining us this evening um for me my question would be um you you displayed many volunteer and and board work that you did in your resume I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about how how you would
018work through the process when making a decision like if if the board as a majority approve something that you weren't necessarily in favor of how what is your process and and how would you support that and work through that well sometimes we have to you know make the hard decisions I would say I've done main you're right I have served I'm a board member from for for another organization as well so and sometimes we have to do what's best for the community not what's best for me I would say I want to be happy sometimes but like you know but you know I I always think we need to be uh think what's the best for the community and what's best for the for our students and our families and especially in this and what's
019best for our district yeah great thank you any further questions board Miss Molina go ahead and give us your uh your closing speech well first again I want to just thank our board for all their hard work and also my our our Madam president from the DAC that is here today Ms ghani for everything that you have done for our district I really acknowledge that and and honor your work uh to all our volunteers and our students and families uh I want to thank everyone for you know sticking it out I mean you guys we went through covet together uh that showed one thing is that uh we are a resilient community and uh we have to be more united so we could make the decisions based on what is the best for our community
020for our students according to what the the situation is now I really hope that I can be a difference and be an uh additional voice to this board so I could be able to represent our kids here in our district I'm not afraid and I feel I am I believe I'm ready thank you very much Miss Molina for submitting your letter of interest to the position of Board of Education director and also thank you to the community members who joined us this evening and that now concludes the community portion of um of this application process and the board will take a final vote immediately following this form and a special meeting and announce the new board director if that vote is uh is taken thank you muchas gracias