Board of Education May 6, 2026 Regular Meeting

001let us know. So we will start and I'll call this baby school district and we'll start with a roll call. >> Mr. Iverson's absent. Mr. Lynch here. >> Mr. Mackey here. >> Mrs. Schik here. And Mr. Taylor here. Four out of five present. All right. And then we'll open the pledge of flags back there. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands nation indivisible and justice for all. >> All right. Um, I'm going to take the lead on this and I make a motion to approve the agenda with two changes. We are we are going to strike the enrollment trends. We're going to strike the action item on the bill. So, I would propose uh approve the agenda with those two changes. So, that's my motion.

002>> Is there any context to the changes? I can provide >> not quite ready. >> I'll second motion and second any other >> Mr. Lynch. >> I >> Mr. Mackey. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Shik >> and Mr. Taylor. >> I motion carries. All right. So, with the agenda as modified, we'll move into the minutes from the previous meeting, the April one meeting, and we'll look for a motion to approve or amend those minutes. >> I have move to approve the April 1st, 2026 regular meeting minutes. >> I have a motion second. We have one more motion and a second. Anything else on those? All right. So, we'll take take >> Mr. Lynch. >> Hi, >> Mr. Mackey. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Shik. Hi, >> and Mr. Taylor. >> Hi. >> All right. Next we have

003a send agenda with several designations, terminations, non-renewals, uh several new hires, grant a transfer, uh changes from part to full-time substitutes, April claims, all as part of the consent item. So we'll seek a motion to approve that or anything you have question about, we can pull it out and have second discussion on it. I'll go for that one. So, Mr. President, I'll move that we approve this consent agenda as we have seen on board board dock. Sorry. We have a motion to approve consent items. Any second? >> I'll second. >> Any discussion on any of those items? >> Mr. Lynch. >> Hi, >> Mr. Mackey. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Shik. And Mr. Taylor, >> I comment. Um Rick on with that set of new hires and and the tech resignations, that kind of thing, where

004do we stand? How do how do you feel about that right now? >> Oh, it feels pretty good right now. Yeah, we have we still have a couple of positions to fill at the middle school. I believe the elementary is predominantly filled out. Um and I believe the high school minus the principal assistant principal is also completed. So yeah, things are moving around. >> We've also, we should note, had a very busy three days here. It's been a teacher appreciation week and and a detailed long three days interview with two principal candidates. So you've been busy, man. >> Been busy. It's all time well spent. Find the right candidate. >> Yeah. Do you can you update us on a timeline on a decision? Um, we'll have a decision uh by Friday afternoon, I believe. >>

005Okay. >> Still working through a few few things. >> All right. Very good. Thank you. >> All right. Next is a public comment period. Anybody sign up? >> Yes, sir. >> Eric's supposed to make a public comment just to keep us on our toes. >> Okay. So, now we have discussion item in Sandville. First up, we're looking forward to hearing from Bill Pagosa and latest progress and latest status and how we move forward together in this partnership that's been really really satisfying. So, look forward to hearing from both of you and we'll meet Roxan tonight too, right? That's first time. >> It's all to you. >> Uh, thanks Bob. Nice to be here. Nice to see everyone. Uh, we were here a number of meetings ago. you'll recall giving an update on progress mostly on

006the regional workforce center. Uh another time uh we could go deeper and talk about new programs and kind of vision for things that were growing as an organization beyond that. But in interest of kind of staying focused uh we are we are here to talk continue to talk about the regional workforce centers. So there's really two things uh to to go through. One I'm going to hand over to to our new program director Roxan Ricker. Uh Roxan is amazing and is now full-time staff at Build Pagosa. So demonstrative of that growth uh in programs and and and work that we're doing and kind of trying to keep our ducks in a row as we scale up and get closer to building a building. Uh and then the other is uh a conversation about kind of

007engaging with the next generation of ourou that we share and specifically thinking about the the lease agreement on on that piece of land that we're going to put the regional workforce center on. Uh so with that then I'll I'll hand to to Roxan to tell you uh walk through a little bit more on the business plan that had been requested. >> Yeah, I think you guys all have a copy of the business plan. Um I know there was requests to see what this regional workforce center would look like in actuality. So we put together a business plan. Um and you can see we've got some projections. Um you know we kind of talk about what the building will be. um we talk about the methodology for those projections because there really isn't anything like this

008in our market to compare it to. Um but yeah, that's I this business plan is specific to the regional workforce center. It's not Bill Pagosa as a whole. Um just this entity of it. And Will's here because I've only been on the job two months. So I will try my hardest to answer any questions, but I might have to defer to him. So, we're we're actually waiting on getting that document. >> Oh, okay. >> Communication. >> Okay. Well, uh certainly we could send it to you and field questions digitally or uh >> can you project it? >> Um that would be helpful. >> Yeah, my apologies. No, >> no, that's that's a And um I will say one of the sections was written by Mr. Kyagua's intro to entrepreneurship class. Um so we went in

009I went in there yesterday and we worked on the SWAT analysis together and it was a really hands-on activity that the students were excited about. Um so yeah, here's your executive summary and your organizational profile. I think everyone here is kind of aware of this. Um, if you want to scroll. Oh, >> okay. >> I think in light of you guys not having read this, the what we really wanted to put on the table and have you guys understand was how much is operating this new facility going to cost? How are we going to cover that? And what are we going to be able to do because of it? Those were, as I understood it in the last time you were here, those were the kind of the key questions that you guys were asking

010that we've tried to to answer here with more kind of clarity and evidence from other other buildings that you guys own and operate. >> So, I think to that um what's going to be of interest is the what this might cost the school district. Um, so we are guesstimating that it would cost the district approximately 3,400 a month. Um, and Bill Pagosa 1,100 a month where those numbers come from. So we took the high school three-year average because u and divide it by 10 because that's a 100,000 square foot facility and we took the San Juan Mountain School average and times it by four because that's a 2500 square foot facility to kind of give us a range. Um, and so that's how we were able to kind of get some of these numbers and

011Jason helped with these. Um, you know, some of the things like your alarm monitoring is an exact number because he was able to get an exact number for that. So that is your yearly cost. And then according to our 2023U um it was 7525 split and that's kind of what we are talking about. We want to revisit talk revisit ourou and make sure that this is meets the spirit of what everyone intended >> that calculations on a 12 month 12 month basis >> that is on a 12-month basis. Yes. Go ahead. >> I think the 548 is annual, right? And so you were saying that it was the 35 or 25 monthly. Is that >> correct? Sorry. I think I was just trying >> that's taking an assumption of that uh previously uh discussed 7525

012split. I think that's the type of content that we uh need to kind of crack open uh rewriting in anou that fits today and and kind of our previous there's two versions of the MOU previously uh and they kind of drive in a direction of a shared intention here but now that we are really moving forward we got to get these numbers clear between the have one finalou uh make not reflect the actual proportionate split in terms of use of the building and and those kinds of things. There's also kind of a I think implied in that there's a next iteration that you might call an operating agreement or a contract or so there is it's time glad you're bringing that up the right time to get it tighter on how it operates everything early

013on was how do you get there and then now it's closer how does that really operate who shares what >> and and we've uh I've mentioned to you but so the whole board knows we are kind of in those now final stretch stretch of fundraising, including piecing together some last big uh federal grants. And as we move through merit review into compliance on those, uh they're going to be checking that every tea is crossed and every eye is dotted. And that includes that our relationship with you is clear and and uh that we have contractual coherence. Uh and so driving towards having the information to put that together is one of the purposes of this business plan as well. And so here you can see um that second to last bullet, our fundraising income averages

01461,000 a year. Um and so that would cover our utility costs just from that. But you know, we're always going to be going after grants. And we do have a threeear $450,000 um commitment from a private foundation for three years. So we feel confident with these numbers um if it were to move forward in this format we could cover our expenses. >> That is a really uh uh generous buffer that that the course foundation provided us in part because it's a little hard for us to know how much money we can raise year on year uh because we'll be exploring new revenue streams. So, we have some years to try those on uh with with like a solid net try that on. But then also, we've been raising money in the context of a capital

015campaign. So, obviously, we've raised way more than $61,000. We've tried to keep separate our own books, what's for the building and what's for our own programs. And we would like to scale those programs way up. We're going to stop capital campaign fundraising, push all that energy into programs. So I expect that that would be a much higher number. Um but it we're in a kind of a period of growth and transition along al alongside you guys in this project. >> And I should clarify that income is just from events. So that that was just like our annual auction sleds on res if we were having enough snow to introduce new events. Um so yes sorry for not making that clear but that was just the income from events. It it also looks like kind of

016just credit to you that your the big event the kind of signature event isn't losing momentum. Haven't had you done it a lot of times and it seems to be sustaining and looks full. You raise a lot of money every time with that. Yeah, we were um analyzing our event and um some of our top biders were new biders and so that's always good to see um that we're we're engaging other individuals and then um we have some of the people that come every year. >> Would you mind going back to that previous breakdown of the costs for just a second? And so >> I just wanted to see what was all on there because I and maybe you'll get to this so if I am jumping ahead just tell me but what are just

017projected cost over five years 10 years with equipment staffing insurance maintenance? Are you guys that far out? Will we see some of that today? Am I getting too far ahead? Because I'm sure that that's not 3500 a month on the district side. >> Yeah. So this was just um specific to the the regional workforce center. So some of those other costs are kind of some of our costs as for Bill Pagosa as an organization. So we didn't put that in here. Um but yeah, we haven't gone five years down the road. I might say too that like maybe not five and maybe even not 10, but uh 15 or 20 years from now, there'll be parts of this building that need to be uh maintained and that will have higher costs. >> Expensive equipment's going

018to change quickly. I I completely get that. I was just curious of what the the longterm kind of financing the lights on and then we we get to dream big together about what equipment we want to prioritize, what types of programs we want to prioritize together. Uh and those will come with cost considerations >> and some of this too is we don't know 100% which way we're going to grow. So, we talked about this earlier. Um, bringing a PBLO community college into this building and having them, you know, work to offer things at nights, on the weekends, in the summer. Um, on the one hand, that could be more harder on our equipment and take down the usable lifespan if we're using it, you know, for multiple things, but we can also charge them. Um,

019and that will and that revenue is not captured in here because we are just in the beginning conversations with PBLO Community College. Why does why does electricity take a dip in your ass? >> Oh, sorry. That's not a dip. That is your high school average. Um and versus your >> I'm sorry. I didn't see the top. Okay. >> Yeah. So, some of those like we don't our building won't have gas and so that comparison didn't quite make sense. But again, there's not a building like this in Pagosa. Um, so it was kind of hard to come up with this and and we ran this with past our construction I mean our um our architect and their energy modeler looked at these and said they they thought it fell within their rule of thumb. Um, but

020we are just a little bit guesstimating. >> So, I was the one that came up with those those averages there and that was a tricky thing. You know, if you're selling houses, you look to comps and that's, you know, typically what you do to come up with comparable numbers. So, what you have up there, the three-year average divided by 10 is 100,000 square foot building divided down into 10 to get to a 10,000 square foot regional workforce center. San Juan Mountain School was on the other side that it's a smaller building 2500 square foot. So we took those averages of the three years and multiplied them by four. And then we basically looked at those two numbers as a way to triangulate or at least get an idea of what we thought electrical might look

021like in a building of this size. Very different technology in this building. Um different systems than we had seen together. So I was pretty nervous putting this together. really relieved to hear that the professional looked at it and thought that it's in the ballpark. >> Roxer, will I was just curious if you could speak a little bit of the I know it's pretty early in the process, but the work you're doing with LPA looking at electrification for the building is I think is an opportunity for cost savings in the future and for sustainability. >> Yeah. So we uh have a relationship and have met uh now twice the the CEO over there and the conceptual idea that we came up with there together well I guess taking a step back when we are designing this

022building we are frugal and trying to be costefficient it's really hard to raise this money and so our initial design is to try to limit that initial cost when you do that you do end up with less efficient electrical systems namely the the wood shop right now as it stands in the design would be heated by like an electric oil type type heat kind of the cheapest that you can put in up front that is less comfortable, less efficient, more expensive uh but it is cheaper up front and that's a we're just trying to get to the finish line. So we we've contacted LPA and we said we really want this building to be a model of beneficial electrification. So uh that's all the things that contribute towards kind of uh grid uh communication and

023being as efficient as it can be. So they we're trying to push them to come to the table and and actually contribute some capital. If you know anyone at LPDA, we would love for you to to kind of have this conversation because we're right in the weeds right now uh thinking about what the investment would be. But their idea as well is that they have access to some really really lowcost financing options. They almost free zero to one% loans and they have a system where they can kind of put that onto your electric bill. So you could spread the cost of that investment out over a significantly longer period of time. And we would kind of leverage the delta between your kilowatt usage in a world where you have none of the efficient upgrades and

024your kilowatt usage where you bring it way down with all of the additional upgrades you have including potentially batteries so that you can take advantage of uh off peak uh rates and things like that. Uh so we did just have a call today with our educators at odds architecture LPA. Jason was there uh as well and so we're we're kind of pushing towards calculating what is the savings that we can make. So how much money are we going to create on a monthly and yearly basis and what is the cost of all these investments up front to think about how much we would need to finance through those different vehicles they have. Um, so we're definitely exploring every avenue like that that we can building together. There's a lot things like that to try to

025make everyone fit. I can show you the student section um if you want. Um yeah, so the intro entrepreneurship class um came up with the SWAT analysis um just trying to work with all the CTE courses um and this is what they came up with. And if there's any other sections, I can certainly bring those out. I think what we would like to drive conversation towards then is uh that we as we prep this final mile, we would like kind of you guys' blessing to work with brick to create the kind of lastou or the operating agreement so to speak including beginning to kind of explore what options would would look like in very practical terms for the lease agreement. uh we have not done that work uh and so we don't have a lease

026in front of you for approval uh but we would like to start working with and your lawyers to do that that's within our perview to say this needs to be you know radically updated you know goes back to 2021 and 23 so and given the point where you are in the project it's really time to for us to direct Rick to lead the district's effort in figuring out the next iteration of an agreement. So that's all we need. We don't need a vote. We just agree that we need an updated agreement on how this school work. >> That makes sense. >> Then my assumption is I bring that back for approve once we get close to a final product for if it needs any ratification or anything. >> We need board approval. >> Yeah. Because

027this is about envisioning like this building exists and students are going there and how does it work? What hours do you have flexibility for? What do we want to make sure we always have control over? Who pays what bill when it comes in attorney? How does money flow between us? All all those things we we would employ our attorney as well and whatever resources you have to make sure it it makes sense for the district because you know it's it's simple when the district builds its own building. say we own it and it works in the way we want to. And so we have a partnership where there's advantages to that, but it's also important that we work out all the details in advance that someone isn't saying, well, we get it at five o'clock.

028Oh, no, you had it at five o'clock. So, we work out all those details and all those costs so there's no surprise. >> I think there'll be a heck of a lot of details like that as we start to unpack this. So having the opportunity to just get started on it now, I think it's going to take us a couple of months to have the back and forth with legal that will be required. But then also just the practical things we've talked about with Jason time and being really involved in this and there's a lot of how do students flow from building to building when is it available to whom? All the things that you've identified. I think we're we're ready to kind dive into the details on that. I'm envisioning that there's probably a

029a technical lease agreement that talks about the leasing of the space back to us and the leasing of the land which we have not done yet. We have just kind of more of aou and gentleman's agreement or middle person's agreement that that's going to do and then an operational agreement that hammers through all the other details. So, probably two different things for you to review um and make sure that it's okay with our with Daryl with our lawyer. Um he approves of it. I've already spoken to him briefly about the lease agreement. He feels confident that that's something that's happened all the time and it'll be easy to draw up. >> I will say that one reason I strongly agree with that is because the lease agreement will be a part of the nuts and

030bolts that get checked by the federal government. Uh, and so it would be a shame to hand them a big 20 or 30 page operational agreement that they didn't ask for and then make it pay for us to change it if our relationship evolves. So the simpler we can keep the lease agreement, the less we have to hand over to our friends of the federal government. >> We we need that next step. >> Great. Well, thank you guys for the time. Appreciate Any other questions from the board while we have >> the MO thatffected you guys? Well, will that go into more detail, Brick, regarding financial asks or because right now um I mean I think I had possibly a different expectation for this conversation today or be provided more with that and I realize

031that that question is wrong. So, I just want to make sure that theou that you're saying to move forward with is not agreeable or not agreeing to financial content at this time. Correct. >> I think that um well, I would ask what were you expecting so that we make sure we deliver on that. Um and then uh two it would probably be their f our first best guess. But is that if it's still a 75 25% split on all operation costs? Um things like insurance that you brought up, is that primarily responsibility of Bill Pagosa? Is that primary responsibility of the school district? Is that also split? Who carries that? Those are all things that need to be explored. But if if there were things tonight you were expecting to see and hear and that

032we didn't bring that, then you should let us know. Now >> be too far ahead. So that's why I'm asking. like I'm curious about like I wrote down things like benchmarks for success, enrollment numbers to make this financially sustainable. Um what are job placement outcomes? Honestly, what happens if community partnership is low? Is there an exit strategy that doesn't default back to the the school and somehow that we can again financially support this? So I think again some of my stuff might be in longterm wonders about this. if we were going to agree to something financially, I I want to know what it is because I do not feel comfortable advancing a financial initiative when we are already in the middle of a huge potential financial initiative. So that's why I was asking what this

033is. I I don't want to go through my question that quickly, but I was trying to respond to what you asked. And so do we have stakeholder feedback? Do we have comparable examples that we can evaluate and compare? Um, have we seen fully supported career pathways that could be viable long term? You know, what information are we getting to vote on that's within our purview of voting on understanding I think again the long-term stability of this um because I just want to make sure it's stable and I want it to be clearly communicated that it aligns with district priorities which I believe it does. My caution is not negativity. Please hear that. It's just the timing of what I was wondering what what would be coming across to us. Um as I think that you

034know we have huge initiatives and big priorities right now and I want to know how this compares to what we are being asked financially. So that's kind of what I I didn't know what we would be presented to. I I was under the impression there was going to be an ask for an action item to vote on. So, I've tried to come as prepared as I could to hold those conversations. Um, and so when I'm asking about projected cost, I think that's really important for us to know because it is not us that are going to be dealing with that. It's going to be the same thing where it's like, boy, if that board only knew, if they only would have asked this, the same things that we're talking about that the, you know, prior

035boards did not do effectively, I I don't want to put anybody in that position. So, trades are incredibly important. I want to know um you know student to community I want to know an exit strategy for the board financially for the district excuse me financially as well. So but that is not what is happening here today. So you >> good question to get answered. Those are good questions. >> And that's what I'm saying. I don't think that that thisou that's what I was asking when comes is that the time that we get to ask these questions more in depth and we actually have responses to these questions um or is that not the right time? >> I would like a list of the questions because I would not have come prepared with responses to some

036of those. So, if there are specific asks, I guess I just asked that I know what those are so we can be be prepared to respond to them. >> I was going to I just uh thinking about walking out of here knowing exactly what we're going to spend our time on to make the next time we meet as useful as it can be. Sounds like there's an operational agreement that goes into the details of like how we share a building and work together. there's a lease agreement that's kind of a financial component of this. Uh and then maybe we also collate questions from all of you so that if there are doubts concerned we can do our best to answer them. You know we have answered a lot of questions like that in grant applications.

037Uh and so we actually have like put thought into this and and been interrogated by grtors who say well we're going to invest in a building. How do we know it's going to be doing what we want it to do in 10 years? And how's your sustainability plan? And those are the types of questions that really we've kind of been uh practicing fielding now. So I think it would be great to have those and we could prepare something for you. So we we might have a work session at some time where it's a little more open-ended where everything on our mind that needs to get answered by all these doctors whatever it is >> and so I think we can do that this summer the next time that makes sense more open-ended from our end

038and then feedback to you. >> That sounds great. Can we can we come to work sessions? Is that allowed? >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. Okay, cool. >> You guys, >> great. >> Very good. >> Thank you guys. >> Have a good rest of the >> All right. >> Have questions. >> Don't know how to answer things that I haven't heard. >> I I don't know. Oh, I read the agenda and I thought we were going to be doing this. I don't come I don't have meetings with you. If you want me to offer my questions every Wednesday, this is this is what it's supposed to be questions here. >> It's fair enough. And and and we was all done a little better to see that be ahead of time that presentation that >> Yeah. >>

039And we have this uh business plan, right? and we can we can read that and discussion. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um let's move on to the not sure what CKLA stands for. We're going to hear about curriculum, right? >> We will tell you all about >> fill us in. >> All right. Thank you both for being here. >> Yes, thank you. I had um Amber Turkham come. >> Yes. >> To be with me so I don't have to stand up here by myself. >> All right. Um so we are here to talk about um our um kindergarten through fifth grade uh uh literacy curriculum. uh and uh we have been through a process of uncertainty and um just trying to figure out what is best for our students in terms of literacy instruction at

040the elementary school and for our fifth grade partners at the middle school. Um just to give a little context um in the 202122 school year that was our first um it was our first year using two pieces of reading curriculum. So we have kindergarten, first and second grade using uh a curriculum called open court which was selected for its strong phonics instruction and then our third, fourth and fifth grade students are using the benchmark workshop curriculum which is strong in a comprehension component and we thought at the time that that would be a wonderful fit for our students. um we have had some challenges with the adoption of two different reading curriculum in our building. So I want to take you through the process of some of the challenges that we have seen for our

041staff and students uh the process that we've been through over the last two school years and then ultimately um the potential adoption of this curriculum. So um I want to start with uh our our struggles with the two pieces of curricula the two curricular um components and how it has caused some gaps in uh for our students. So um having two different curriculums that have different instructional designs um expectations and skill progressions has caused gaps between our kindergarten, first and second grade students and then our third, fourth and fifth. Um and we do see that in our CAMass data. And so the image that you see on the left is our third and fourth grade um achievement results for CAMASS. So where students are scoring at. And then our right hand side is the growth

042that our fourth grade students made from when they were in third third grade. Um and so I'm gonna go up to the >> I'm gonna go up real fast. Can you point? Okay. So this center line right here is um approaching and then this one is the met so the green. So you can see right here like we are consistently achieving at that approaching um that approaching mark. Maybe I can use this right here. So this is where we seem to be stuck right in the middle. Um we have seen um stagnant achievement and it's not at the proper level. We want it to be meeting expectations. And then over here on the right hand side, you see that in 2022, I think 2020 stu2, our growth um was meeting expectations, but has declined over

043time. And um this happens to fall and coincide with the time that we shifted from our previous reading curriculum to what we are currently using now. um it has been something we've dug in as a team and looked a lot at and we are trying we are noticing that this seems to be a curricular uh cause um and I'm going to use a term that I think Rick has used with you but it's a very educational term so guaranteed and viable curriculum so guaranteed means that every student in first grade no matter what classroom that they are in are receiving the in the same instruction content progression over time so that they get the same experience. Uh but it also that guaranteed piece also means that over time kids are getting the same experience kindergarten

044through fifth grade. Um the viable piece is that we can cover the amount of content that is required by us for the standards in one year's time with sufficient materials. Um and I I believe that we do not have a guaranteed and viable curriculum when we see these gaps. So our students are not having that vertical alignment that we we should be providing them. So um we can't ensure that every student in our building is building the skills they need with two different skills progressions at the exact same time. Uh I will shift now to the impact on staff. Um I don't know if you guys have seen this stool. This is Ray Colt's stool. Um I will give him all the credit. But student is student success is built off of three pillars or

045you know legs of a stool of relationships, curriculum and instruction. And at the elementary school um we have worked really hard on building relationships with our students. Our student um perception surveys are really positive to with the relationships that we have between staff and students. um our instruction at the elementary is stellar and yet we are still seeing the CMAS scores um like you saw on the previous slide and it just that's where we're at. We feel like this is a curriculum cause um and our staff are really tired. Um they I I'll give you some kind of some context. Two years ago uh I consistently meet with teachers in what we call PLC's, professional learning communities. we get together and we talk about data and um just instructional practice that we're using to make

046sure that everybody is doing the same thing. And our our PLC's took a turn about midway through um that year um away from standards and away from uh all of those pieces that we were trying to align and it all became chatter about when can we get a new curriculum? Why are we having to work so hard to deliver um things that we're creating? and our teachers are teachers. They are not curriculum designers. And unfortunately, because of the gaps that have been created with the two different uh literacy curriculum that we've adopted, we have um an increased workload on our staff and they're putting a lot of effort and thought into it when I would prefer that they put all that effort towards instruction. Um and it's produced a lack of clarity. So, we have

047teams at our elementary school who are maybe better at curriculum design than others. um and and we see gaps in that too. So it is creating a lack of clarity and a an inconsistent or incoherent experience for our students. Um and I want to speak very highly of our staff. They are dedicated and have put in so much time and I want to thank them so much. They they have really uh risen to the occasion. But it this is a systemic issue. Um and so we thought about what are we going to do next and how are we going to adjust our materials. So, um I will tell you kind of the whole process that started. I told you u about midway through last year. It was the whole chatter of when are we going

048to get a new curriculum? Is this something we can consider? Um I heard some staff members mo more vocal than others and I really had no idea where we where we stood. So, I surveyed our staff um and of course it came out that 50% wanted to pursue other options and 50% wanted to keep it. And I didn't truly understand why we were split 50/50 because of all the chatter, but when you got down to it, the 50% who wanted to keep our curriculum, had designed curriculum, had bought into it, were seeing success. I mean, we don't see it in our CMAS course, but they felt like they did hard work and then adopting something new was going to be a difficult thing. So, um, the next step I wanted our staff voice to have,

049uh, to be center point in all of this. And so, we, um, went through a process. You can see this portion of a spreadsheet. So, we had listed all effective curriculum items on the left hand side and pieces that teachers would like to see. Every teacher got 10 votes. They got to spend 10 votes on anything they wanted. if they really cared about um teacher usability, they could spend all of their 10 votes there, but they could also spend it across a variety if they would chose to do so. So, you can see um I pasted that the results on the right hand side. And first and foremost, our teachers wanted um a curriculum that was based off the science of reading, which is basically saying we want a good curriculum. Um, and we then

050had a tie for second place between student engagement and writing. And when we were looking at this, we're like, well, student engagement is very much dependent on the teacher and how they deliver it, but the writing component in both open court and benchmark workshop are lacking. And so that was something that made us pause and think. And then our fourth one is that our teachers really crave and feel it is lacking that we do not have a curriculum that is aligned kindergarten through fifth grade. I did this with our staff, so it says K4, but the cur the conversation very quickly came to why aren't we all doing the same thing, speaking the same language at the same time. Um, and so that was really telling. We we did another survey. It was still split.

051I'm like, oh my goodness, what what in the world did we do with something like this? this mixed data and it came back to conversations with Rick and some other people had done these things before that we owe it to our students. I think it's a district strategic uh goal to have high um high quality instructional materials but that means that they are guaranteed and viable um for our students and we hands down did not we currently do not have a guaranteed and viable curriculum kindergarten through fourth and then four fifth is all by themselves. So, um, so that that's kind of been our thinking. So, unfortunately, I was the bad guy in the scenario. Okay, I'll take that back. I was not the bad guy, but I made the hard decision of we have

052to do better for our kids. Our data doesn't show this and our staff don't deserve to write curriculum. So, we made the decision um after quite a length at the end of last year to move forward with looking at new materials. So, we started the very I think the second month of school this year talking about curriculum and inviting anybody to the table. Our fifth grade team had a presence um to be to get their voice involved as well. And um the very first thing out of their mouths was we just need to do what the middle school is doing like and align with 8th grade. And so we we have taken the time this year to um look at CKLA. Did I even tell you what CKLA stands for? Okay. Well, I just like

053throw it out there like you should. It stands for core knowledge language arts and um that is uh I guess authored by the same company Amplify that the middle school is using for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Um and and so our staff really wanted uh to look at that alignment and so we did. Um I put this up here. I am a a book nerd, but I also knew that in the process of looking at new curricular materials that I needed to know what I was looking at and what was best practice. And so these are several of the books. There's also a podcast on there that was phenomenal. Um, so I I've done a lot of reading, a lot of digging, um, and understanding of, you know, the the different approaches of the

054different curriculum. And I also have been working with a CDE elementary literacy cohort all year um traveling to different schools to look at the materials they're using, doing classrooms observation and seeing some of these in action. And CDE will never recommend a curriculum, but I definitely had several sidebar conversations with people at the state level sh telling me about the success that certain schools have using CKLA. So, it is something um that I've I've dedicated a lot of my time to because I don't want to make a mistake in and leading us wrong. Um and so we we looked a lot into CKLA and why um CKLA is the best option for us. And I I won't get too far into this, but I do think this is the foundation of understanding why CKLA is

055an effective literacy program. Um on the right hand side you will see something called the scar bros reading rope and the top it's a lot of little writing and you don't need to know all the little writing. I will share it with you if you want. Uh but the top is language comprehension which goes into background knowledge, vocabulary, um strong experiences with um content that they'll find in the world. Um this also is grammar, syntax, those kind of things. Um and then the bottom is word recognition and that's knowing that cat A t spells cat which means cat. So um effective reading is when you have both strands that are solid. You have to have the language comprehension and that oral presentation of material but you also need to have the word recognition of words

056on the page. We learn to read with both our eyes and our ears. And that's what this shows right here. Um and it is a multiplication equation. So, language comprehension times word recognition equals comprehension and and you know what we're trying to do with reading. And so, if either one of those is weak, you don't get skilled reading. And um CKLA it is the most effective program. It's been proven over and over again because it builds both strands simultaneously. Uh, one of the pieces that is difficult is that the language comprehension piece, the delivery of content is about two grade levels above where a student is. So, a third grader would be exposed to fifth grade content, but that's because we were made to understand content orally. They have the the understanding when it's presented

057to them and then they are then presented with um reading material at their grade level. So, that third grader would get third grade material. So that's kind of the the foundation of CKLA and I will let Amber uh talk about CKLA. >> So teachers are really excited about it. We had a chance to sit with the CKLA amplify rep was that December January. >> Um I was wearing a green sweatshirt. So yeah, Christmas. Um and she really reiterated that is truly founded on the science of reading which is what the teachers wanted in a new curriculum. Um kind of walking through how it is all lined out and we are incredibly excited to dig a little deeper into it and learn more about it. Um we're excited unlike the current model that's currently being used.

058Um, this is a fully coherent system across grade levels K5 and it's going to perfectly then just allow these fifth graders to move up into sixth grade into the Amplify um, six through eight language arts curriculum and I've kind of taken a peek at like peek at that and it's really cool how closely it aligns and I think our kids will be incredibly prepared when they move into true middle school curriculum. Um we're going to move from a fragmented system to be fully aligned K8 which kind of cool with possibility of a K8 building. Um yeah the benefits of CKA it's guaranteed and a viable curriculum for kids um across all grade levels. There's a strong phonics instruction and early literacy piece. the knowledge building that's going to strengthen comprehension and vocabulary. There's a reduced

059need for teacher modifications. It's going to take a lift or that load off of teachers backs and we can just get back to doing what we love. Is there still the ability to have teacher flexibility? I know that's really important in classrooms. You want to be aligned and you want to still have some autonomy. Do you feel like this curriculum supports the flexibility of teacher? Yes. voice and you know what they're really great at, you know, in their teaching. >> I think so. As a teacher, I feel like it's going to give me the outline and I can really jump in on those best practices and how I like to deliver instruction. >> Y um yeah, it's just it's going to be consistent instruction K5 and it's going to benefit kids. Um, I know we've

060kind of chatted teachers were excited to jump into this and really learn and get some professional development so that we can start this next school year ready to go and teaching this with fidelity. So, um, just to summarize, um, CKLA it in a very simple way teaches kids how to read, how to decode words. It teaches them what they need to know about the world and and give them something to speak, listen and write about. And then it ensures consistency and equity for all students. It's um been pro proven time and time again that this curriculum actually helps students who come in disadvantaged in some way. They don't have as much language. They don't have as much background knowledge. They don't have, you know, what whatever it might be. It actually helps close the gap

061uh between students because it gives them like I said it gives them something to um to speak about, write about and listen to. Um and um we I really do think that we've seen really great growth with the middle school in their CAMAS scores and I think we need to jump on what's working there and right why invent something new if it's working at the middle school. I think that makes the most sense. I I do have hope that our scores will reflect um on the success of this curriculum. So, what questions do you have? >> So, so it's it's the same kind of system as the >> Yes, >> it's called CKLA. >> Yeah. And I'm not really sure why the two why one is called CLA and why one is amplify. Um >>

062it's all one >> I'm gonna leave that to somebody who built that body of knowledge. >> It's all the exact same. It is it is built solidly on the foundation of background knowledge building. So both of them are >> good. Thank you. Question. >> Um does it come with like intervention material? Does it facilitate small groups? That is one of um the cons I'll say with it is that it does have a remediation piece to it. Um Amplify has a digital component that is called Boost. um that is really difficult for us to say intervention is putting a kid on a computer. So, it's a digital platform. Um we do have very effective intervention materials and systems um at the elementary school that we could use um alongside this. So, that's one of our things

063that we'll be working on next year is how do the two align and how can we make them a cohesive system. So you would keep your current intervention practices, your current intervention system that you have. >> And do you feel like that's been sused out to show that that is not a direct correlation to maybe some of your bigger test scores? Do you know what I'm saying? You exit off of that and say this actually works, but we're still missing the the kind of tier one from the curriculum piece overall, but our intervention strategies and systems and small groups are actually effective. Are you seeing those growth scores come up enough from the intervention side just to feel confident that your system can complement the curriculum? Yes. And so our current intervention system is built

064um it's a strong phonics system built off of the the Wilson uh organ Gillingham kind of style of materials. It was built for students who have learning disabilities, dyslexia, those kind of things. Um our teachers actually were like why can't we just use this as our curriculum because it is so effective. our teachers have bought in. We we are starting to get our initial dibbles data which is our reading assessment and we have seen many students go from red which is well below grade level to green and it is phenomenal. So we do see >> um great growth it with our students who are receiving that intervention. One of the hard pieces that we talked about when uh last year we were talking about the intervention is that we do have huge numbers of kids

065who were well below which indicates a tier one problem and I still stand by that. I think we have a tier one problem. Our interventions working but it's drowning because our tier one is not effective enough. I do think the two systems together would be beautifully aligned. >> And then just on the flip side, how will this support your gifted kids? Oh, this will definitely curriculum is is well suited for kind of your gifted overachiever children as well. >> As it currently stamps with the curriculum that we have, it's like here's the story we're reading this week. Here's the content for this week. Uh let's do it and um and be done with it and and then we move on to something next week. What this curriculum does is it has um lengthier units and

066it's about a topic and and there's like I said the delivery of the information is two uh grade levels above so it's high level vocabulary and content um and they do it for a period of time so kids can really understand lots of things and it's the perfect springboard for our students who are above grade level um to just I I can see teachers um aligning with the theme and making more uh extensive programming like writing assignments, other non-fiction texts that connect to it that they can. So it it's kind of this beautiful launching pad for kids to extend from which we don't currently have >> other questions. Go ahead. >> So I think a lot of operational things just so I understand are you currently using this is an adoption that we have to

067approve at some point in the future and this is an introduction correct and is amplify and CTL or equivalent from middle to grade what company is the company called amplify >> okay so it's it's the company called amplify provided this so as I understand this this you say K through five But is this actually going to be the goal of aligning K through eight, you know, so it's consistent from when they jump >> again that's they're going to be in a similar school hopefully in the near future but still they're jumping a grade level that they will recognize when they get to fifth grade or sixth grade how the systems been working over time is that the one of the goals of this paradigm >> well and I think if we were to adopt this

068curriculum it we can say that we are aligned kindergarten through 8th Even though it's called two different names, it is essentially aligned kindergarten through 8th grade >> because it's an aligned paradigm. It is a paradigm that is is it's going to differ at grade 8 and and from kindergarten to first grade, but the way it's presented is similar. Yes. Is that the way >> it builds from like a a stronger phonics based learning how to decode words to the entire thing is content rich and so it sequences from kindergarten level systematically until you get to that eighth grade level where it is languagerich like we've seen in the classrooms here. So it is we can say just like our illustrative math curriculum is aligned we can we will also be able to say our reading

069curriculum is aligned kindergarten through 8th grade. >> Okay. So the math I thought was already in place. >> Yes, that's in place. So just just like that, we'll have an aligned reading curriculum. >> So on the flip side of what director Shik said, there's a lot of ELLL English lang language learners. Do I have it right? Do you foresee that this curriculum maybe it's worked well in middle school for that purpose? uh got the high functioning kids but there are kids not that they're low functioning but the the language itself if they're from a Spanish speaking or other language speaking family how does this uh you must have looked at this is this curriculum going to be adequate for them as well >> um this will be difficult for our um multil- language emerging bilingual

070students it is the feedback that is heard across the state um and uh I I have in close contact with our curriculum rep and she has she says she has systems and and things in place to help support our students. I also know that I can't speak for the middle school then maybe you can't but um Julie Fox at the elementary school has a really great uh program to work with those students and has been successful in doing so. And so that's one of our respon I meet I will meet with Julie frequently so that we can make sure that here's the vocabulary and here's the content that we're using in in the classroom. How can we transition that into working with your students? What do they know need to know ahead of time before

071they do this lesson next week? So a lot of it falls on the systems that we need to create for um those students. And so I I do know that uh but I also know that a lot of the curriculum um is not meeting the needs of those specific students too. So it is something that we need to to look at experience for the first year or um you know even check in midyear what is it that we're seeing that this group of students need and how can we help bridge that because it is a lot of knowledge delivery and if they aren't at that language level it is difficult. So what do we need to do for them? Um, and I think there's ways around it. And I I'm hopeful after speaking to our

072rep, I know that they get paid to sell their curriculum, but it does sound like there are are um ways that they have mitigated those difficulties. >> Well, then even currently, don't you have English language learner specific aids or maybe not teachers in positions, but for all five of your grade levels there that you have? Yes. Yes, we have a a teacher and she she uses one curriculum with all of them, but there are supports we might need to put in place with this new curriculum. So, >> that make sure these two mesh so to speak because the curriculum you're talking about within the ELLL, it's not going to be exactly this. If you're trying to get something caught up, is that my understanding? >> That is correct. And currently, we do not have um

073her curriculum is not aligned with ours our current programming either. Um, so it is something that we have already worked through. We'll just have to do it with a new curriculum. >> It sounds like challenging, but something you've already thought about. >> It's something we've thought of and I think it we're ready to tackle it as a team. Like I' I've talked with Julie Fox quite a bit about how we're going to resolve some of these problems. >> And just just finally, is are there is there formative testing that comes with this curriculum or is that something you will invent outside? Um I actually one of the assess the assessment piece of this is really great for our students. We currently don't have um any of those curricular assessments in kindergarten, first and second. That's

074one of the difficult transitions into third, fourth and fifth is that it's assessment heavy. And the assessments in third, fourth, and fifth grade are really rigorous, but the delivery of content is not. So our our third, fourth, and fifth graders have difficulty with that those assessments. And so right now it's like it's it's it's a stumbling block for us. Um and CKLA does have the same assessments built through. It looks different in kindergarten and first grade as as we would expect. Uh but they are similar assessments and they give really great information on what knowledge kids are retaining and what skills they still need. So it gives both of those. But this also um directly ties into our progress monitoring and our benchmark testing assessment. So dibbles right is made by amplify and it all

075lives in the same system which is incredibly convenient for our teachers. So when we're talking about intervention, this is giving us the next step and we didn't have to do any work for it. It's all the light. So >> and so that that testing then presumably would be aligned with Colorado state standards for those particular grade levels. So to me that would be the most important thing. Yes. >> It wouldn't fail in that aspect. So anyway, thank you for answering all those questions. It's just I wouldn't fully understand. >> Just to clarify, you're planning on rolling this out beginning in August. What is the plan to ensure that your teachers I mean it's May, right? You guys are going into summer. what kind of is the the strategy for Pey expecting them to pick up

076the curriculum and understand it by August because you guys are starting earlier this year. It is very difficult. So starting in and the our poor fifth grade teachers have not been the benefactors of this but I in preparation for this I have focused a lot of our professional development for um since the February time frame on on how do we build background knowledge? How do we you know do all of these pieces? So, and how do we engage students and what does it look like for direct instruction? So, there's already been some seed planting because of all those books I read. I knew what what good practices for a curriculum like this look for. So, we've been paving the way. Our teachers were also incredibly eager and which indicates that they really wanted to move

077on. They were eager to uh pilot this and teach the curriculum. And we have several grade levels who have jumped in to this curriculum and have learned it. they've already become, you know, initial experts on the content before we do it next year. Um, and it is our our hope it comes with professional development. We'll launch it in the fall. Um, I think I've done a lot of really good ground work with our teachers, but then launching in the fall and it's one of those things that we're going to have to give ourselves grace and do the best we can. But also a a the reason it's been successful at the middle school with Amplify is a strategic professional development plan. And that is something that like we will have access to representatives on our

078professional development days on Fridays. We will be talking about reading instruction and delivery on our Tuesday PLC meetings. And I I really have no other plan next year for our professional development other than tackling it through curriculum and making sure it's solid. I think um one of the biggest pitfalls that we make is we oh we already trained them. Why aren't they teaching it? Well, they just need ongoing support. So next year will be an ongoing support kind of feel and we will we will work through all of the things together do a lot of um what I like to do is micro teaching and our teachers teach it in front of other teachers so we can say hey how does that feel? What did that look like? What are we missing? Um so there

079will be a lot of that next year to help support them. Um and we'll work together as a team. It also gives us vertical conversations we've never had and so we can have those vertical pieces that will help solidify it too. Leslie and I at the middle school have talked with Kelly and Josh about us being able to be available to go over to the elementary school and participate in that so that fifth grade can be completely in sync with everybody. >> I mean, Kelly, you said I don't want to make a mistake. That's what you said tonight. And I just want to let you know that I mean, your leadership is so respected. I think you care very deeply um about the kids in your school. I appreciate your thoroughess of your presentation, knowing

080you would get kind of questions asked again about your thought process, how you see this being implemented in your school with your staff. Um, and I just want to say thank you for all that work that you do to ensure that our our kids are, you know, the the best that they can be. And I think that that is just a loving touch that you personally put in to the elementary and in fifth grade as well. So, I just want to say thank you for that. and um you did a great job on your presentation. So, thank you ladies. >> Any others? >> Thank you for coming tonight. Well done. Look forward to hearing a little progress maybe in the fall and how it's going. >> Yeah, >> sounds good to do that. >> Thank

081you, C. Very good. On to Jason and our capital. >> Yes. Good evening everybody. So the good news is that I am not going to be going over this document page by page for you guys. Um it's honestly not it's not as big as it looks. I just wanted to give each one space you and I can go out for beer later and we'll go over the packet. >> Um I did want to make >> What's that? >> Anyway, >> don't worry. little bit of levity on the prairie dog page. >> She just randomly tipped a deck. >> You know, I did think that uh Rick's little exercise that we did at the at the board me or at the retreat that we had where what what did you call it? The ungrateful task when

082it's high effort and low reward. Basically, I thought there is no better way to sum up the prairie dog battle an ungrateful task. Um, okay. So, anyway, what you have in front of you, this is, uh, these are the projects that we are asking for your approval. And we're not looking for approval tonight. Um, Eric will be going over the budget later, um, this month. But I did want to make sure that you all had a really good resource in front of you that shows exactly what it is we're wanting to do in the next 12 months. um so that whether it's a a constituent or taxpayer asking questions about where this money is going um or for your own questions um pictures are in there so that you kind of have a little bit

083better context of where things are and what it is that we are doing. Um and over the course between now and when you actually approve this um any questions that you might have feel free to forward my way whether it's an open session or if you want to send me an email. Um there's a couple of things that I did want to go over tonight and I'm giving myself five minutes and then I will be done. Um, and then if of course if you have any questions right off the bat that you want to ask, um, absolutely can. Real quick on on kind of how to read the report, uh, the district is broken up into building essentially. So like on page two, if we look, we have the elementary school. And then within that,

084the the little grid is going to show the projects we're looking at that are prioritized from one on down. one being required, two is safety, three is um uh saving expenses, four is teaching and learning, and then five is just kind of other things. Um little bit of a description as well as the cost. And then that initial page on each building will show the total cost of the request for that building. At the very tail end of the report, the whole thing is kind of compiled together so that you can get a full number that we're looking at. We're looking at a number of $450,000 minus just a couple cents of change there. So, we're just under $450,000. Um, this is a really unique year when it comes to capital improvements because right now

085we don't know what's going to be happening with the bond election. Um, and of course, you know, down to the we don't know what the best grant's going to be. We don't know whether we're going to take it to the polls this fall. If we do take it to the polls, we don't know if the taxpayer is going to say yes. There's just a lot of questions and of course uh we know that we do not want to be in this building and we don't want to be in the elementary school building any longer than we absolutely have to. Um so my goal throughout this year and kind of the filter that I've run all of these projects is that we don't want to have to spend taxpayer money unnecessarily in a building that we

086are hoping to be walking away from. That said, um there's a couple of things that have come up particularly at the end of uh the elementary school that absolutely have to be addressed and and those are the things that I wanted to spend a few minutes of your time on tonight to go over so that you understand why it is that we're looking at putting large sums of money into a building that we don't intend on being there longer than we have to. So, um first one that I want to go over, if you will flip to page four, LED light conversion. This is a district-wide project that we began this year at the high school. Our strategy this year was to replace our fluorescent lights at the high school and then farm those used

087fluorescent bulbs down to the middle school and the elementary school. Um, as fluorescent lights have burned out in these buildings, we are no longer able to replace them with fluorescent lights. We can't purchase them. Um, so we in essence we have to find fluorescent bulbs to go in or we have to put in new LED light fixtures. Um, my hope naively this year was that we'd be able to make it through the next three years on the bulbs that we are pulling out of the high school and bringing down and very quickly finding that that is a pipe dream. There's no way we're going to even make it through the next 12 months on the bulbs that we have. So, kind of looking at a costbenefit analysis of the sooner we get those LED bulbs

088into all three buildings, a the longer we're going to be able to enjoy that light in the elementary middle school before we move out, but B, and maybe more importantly, the more time that we have to recoup our costs in the way of energy savings. Um, had Dan Britain do some number crunching on this and determine that we would be saving 47% per light bulb on energy. Um, I really wanted them to be able to convert that into a dollar number, but we we just couldn't. There's too many variables to try to work through to be able to get a, you know, I was hoping to be able to tell you that we would be saving 50 cents per hour per light bulb times 5,000 light bulbs across the district. >> 47% per year. >>

089Well, but the problem with that is this is just like there's a lot more devices that go into our electricity and and like our bills through LPA than just the lights. But if we could break it down to determine exactly how much we're spending on lights, this would be a 47% decrease on that >> calculator. Do you know that takes 47% less energy? >> Correct. >> Yeah, that that's what we know. Um and it's not just the bulb savings. We also when we're moving to the LEDs, we're eliminating ballast from the whole thing. And the ballast has to be powered by electricity as well. So we're saving money on the bulb itself. We're saving money on the ballast. Um this is going to be a good thing in the long term, but it's a fairly

090big chunk of change up front. Um this year we're hoping this coming year to complete the first half of it in the middle school and the elementary school and then a year from now I'll be asking for the rest of that to finish the whole thing. So approximately 5,000 bulbs across the district. U my guys are going to be busy. That is a project that we'll be doing in house. and that. So, I think when my school in Kery went through this process about five years ago, I think it was a $200,000 project that we did. I'm believing here we're going to be able to get it done for about 60,000. So, big savings by doing it inhouse. Um, we'll go ahead and skip down uh to page five. This is the big ticket item.

091Um, I am not putting Gosh, there was my five minutes already. Oh, shoot. Um, I'm not putting a number on this because we're not paying for this particular item here. We're paying for this out of the reserves, but I still wanted you to know what it is that we are doing with the fire alarm. So, that's why I'm putting it in this report. So, our elementary school fire alarm really is a ticking time bomb right now. Um, it's 15 to 20 years past its lifespan and there are certain components of it that go all the way back into the 60s and 70s. um what ends up happening if a component of the fire alarm goes down to where it's no longer functional, we go into firewatch. Now, if that's something as simple as a pull

092station, then it means we're in fire watch for that particular area. So, maybe the library is the area. That would mean that every 15 minutes we have to send someone into that area to document and verify that there is no fire in that area at that time. We keep a log of it. 15 minutes later, that person goes back to that same space and says, "We still don't have a fire in this." That has to take place the entire time that we have students in that facility. If a piece of the alarm system goes out that governs the entire system, the entire school would be on firewatch, which would mean Kelly or someone is going to walk the entire building. It might take her 20 minutes to walk the entire building and then turn around

093and start walking it again from the beginning. This winter when we went through our um inspections of this particular system, we found that the panel, the main panel, which is located in our boiler room, is not functioning properly to the point where the display sometimes works and sometimes the display does not work. It did not pass that inspection. Fortunately, the elementary school has what we'll call a slave unit in the main office, which is basically a duplicate display of what's going on in the boiler room. Currently, that display is working properly. As long as that display continues to work properly, we are okay. As soon as that display does not work properly, we're no longer okay and we're going to have to go into that firewatch on a 15minute basis. um our alarm company and

094yes they they sell alarm systems. So this has been a concern for me like are we being sold on something? Are we being pushed towards something? But the general consensus of what we have is that our system might make it through the three to four years that it's going to take to get into a building, but there's a much higher chance that it will not make it into that time. Um, we actually had a pull station go down in the boiler room. Because of the age of the system and the way that it's set up technology-wise, each component is addressed to a specific location in the system. So, we can't trade a component from one area to another area. We have to find that component in this case on eBay because you cannot purchase these

095things new anymore, right? So something as small as that pull station in the boiler room, we we can't replace it. And so if it wasn't for the fact that there is a pull station on the other side of the wall, we're all right. But if this happened in another part of the school, just something as simple as that pull station would put us into that firewatch problem for that particular area. So looking at this whole thing and kind of weighing the risks and and not I mean it gives me indigestion every time I think about spending this much money at the elementary school uh it it's something that we're going to have to do because if in October this year or October next year that main panel goes down to the point where this system

096is no longer legit and functioning it the way it has to and the fire department says we have to go into firewatch. um it will take at least six months to be able to design, build, and install a new system. And that whole time we're going to be having students and going through that process. So um this is the big one I wanted to talk to you guys about so that you know where where I'm coming from, the reason for doing it. We do have the money in a reserve to be able to pay for it. So we are we are planning on moving forward so we can get this done as quick as possible. Best case scenario, you're looking at um four months for the state to approve our plan once that plan gets

097developed. It it takes time. So, this is not something that will go in this summer. This is something that we're going to start the planning on as soon as possible with the intent of it actually getting installed next June after we get through everything. So, I hope hope that the thing holds together for the next year until we're able to get that in. Um, that's a gamble, but I'd rather gamble with 12 months than try to gamble with 48 months. Can I take any questions about that piece? >> Your best guess on the estimate. It says your security estimates cost, but what is >> $200,000 is what we're looking at. I had hoped for 150. And that's one I mean we have to get multiple bids, right? So, you know, that's what one company told

098me they thought it was going to be. So, we'll see what it comes down to. What we're going to do is we're going to contract. So, the money to design, basically, you have to design the system. It's similar to construction. You design the system and then you have to get that design approved at the state level. The design of the system runs between5 and $7,000. We're going to get that done quickly and then we'll take that design and put it in an RFP and send that out for bid and then the installation of that system which is designed. That's where the really big money comes from. I would still love to get it in in that 150 range. We'll see. So Jason, I'm sure that you've already thought of this, but this is the panel

099in the office that you're referring to. >> So yeah, let's look at these pictures. So the one on the far left that is the main panel that is in the boiler room. >> Okay. >> Right now right there it is functioning. The one in the middle which so it's just to the right of it is a smaller panel that's located in the front office. That's the one that Kelly reads when when they have you know pull the fire alarms and whatnot. And it reads the duplicate display of what's going on. But it's not I don't even want to say this. It's just a screen if that makes sense. Like the real guts of the whole thing is what's down in the boiler room and then the screen in the front office is just displaying what

100the panel says. >> So they're not the same thing. They're one is just a reflection of >> a mirror. Yeah. I'm trying to remember. You have a name for is it a visualizer? Is that what you call it? >> Oh, I mean >> there was a fancy word for it and I can't remember. Yeah, I mean it's >> that's a good way to put it. I like that actually. >> It's a display screen. >> The terminal >> can't be replaced. Correct. >> What's that? >> None of those parts can be replaced at this point. So none of those parts are manufactured. So you have to the only way we can replace them and this is an option. We can go to eBay and we can attempt to purchase those parts used. So they're coming to

101us used. Uh my understanding with the eBay option is that the people that are selling these parts on eBay know how desperate you are at the point that you're doing that and that the markup on those C on those products are really really ridiculous. So that was really my question about that I guess it's in the boiler room that is the computer >> the brains are in in the boiler room. So there's no way of prospectively as in before something fails going in and diagnosing what there there's probably more than one problem. >> There's many many opportunities. >> There's no way to go and look at that that would be substantially cheaper than putting in a whole new system. It's just, you know, I have to ask the question. Is it possible that somebody could

102go in and just like overhauling a vehicle, overhaul it so you know it's going to work? So, we we our John Deere tractor is kind of a good example of this. um we can have a mechanic work on that tractor, but if we can't get the parts for the tractor, then being able to wherever the point of failure might be, whether it's in the transmission or if it's in the oil delivery system, you know, there's there's lots of different places where it can go wrong, but the same issue exists across the frame of that machine in that without the parts being available, um it it becomes very difficult or very very expensive. whatever it is that might go wrong. So like in this case, the symptom was that display not working properly, they were able

103to wiggle some wires and be able to get it to go, you know, and hopefully it continues. But that's one little tiny component of an entire system. Any one of which could go wrong. Which is why I call it a time bomb because there's so many, you know, when you talk about installing a $200,000 system, there's a lot of components to that system, any one of which could go wrong. >> No. >> And that's not a system that you can take with you. >> No. >> Okay. It's like built into the building, right? >> And it's designed for the building. >> Yeah. >> Just No. That's that's a great question, too. >> Yeah. >> Um there are some things we've looked at with other systems that we've looked at that potentially could go, you know,

104to the new building. A fire alarm, unfortunately, is not. >> So, you you're confident that it's just a lot of fun. That that was a lot one of those. >> Yeah, 100%. >> And I know you've already said you have ulcers or whatever, sleepless nights, whatever. >> Indigestion. Alas, it's just that's just so I didn't know if some electrical engineer could come in and guru it out, you know, for $50,000 or something. I don't know. >> Uh yeah, it hurts. >> Are you still exploring possibilities or right now are you just getting quotes to >> I want to get the system designed and then we got to get quotes after that. So the design process is a relatively small piece. Now, if you would like me to contract with an electrical engineer or, you know,

105someone like that to have them come out, I'm happy to keep looking. Um, because you're correct. It is a huge amount of money. Um, I don't foresee the answer coming back differently than the one that we have right now. >> Who is going to be the designer then? Is that a local engineering firm or >> Well, no, there So, it's ETG Solutions. >> Okay. So, you've already got the person. Yeah, we've got some groups of it. >> Yep. >> Their their alarm guy is a guy that we've worked with for gosh, I don't know how long we've worked with with Eric Reed, but a long time. He was the one that installed the system here at the middle school, and that's why we've continued to work with him because he knows our district systems really

106well and has been trustworthy and done good work for us for a long time. >> I mean, I I do not doubt your thoroughess, the research, the time that you put in at all. I think with Tim those sticker shocked a little bit of that cost. So Rick, do you see any reason to look at potential alternative still doing the the build piece and then looking to see if somebody can you know I don't I'm just asking there's the money. Would you want us to pursue that due to time is it worth it in your opinion? I I believe that Jason's done a thorough job of vetting out like if we can part out any other pieces and I think the risk of is too too high um that either we have system failure and

107someone gets hurt or we have system failure and it you know shuts down the ability for us to hold school there. Um, so we're we're going to take advantage of the time that we have while we have already done what best we could to piece it together and get busy on on making it right. Um, and then just know that when when we're ready to retire that building and someone else gets to take it on, they're going to have a high functioning fire alarm system in there. That that's good for them, too. It's still going to be used by the community, and so it's a community asset. this way I look at it. Um, and you know, realistically, like if everything goes the way it should, we're still in that building for three years. And

108>> we find out May 21st if we're going to be in there in four years and a year from that if we'll be there in five years. So, we we we need to take take the time that we have right now, use take advantage of the reserves we do have to solve this permanently. >> Well, thank you, Jason, for all all the work that's out. So >> Tim's concerns are well founded and they fall on good ears as far as like I know exactly where you're at with this. Um and especially given throughout this whole process these was not what I wanted to spend our money on. We'll just put it that way. So um I want to spend just a couple minutes talking about uh the backup generator um that we are looking at

109putting in at the elementary school as well. Uh I've talked a little bit about the PSPS public safety power service uh or power shut offs that we are potentially going to see. Within a week of that announcement, we actually had a real power outage that went out. Um middle school and high school are set up reasonably well to be able to weather those issues. Elementary is not. They do not have any kind of backup power system that um can handle um a power outage. And so what ended up h what ends up happening is that there is no backup system to run our fire alarm panel is a good example. Now we have batteries in there that are supposed to run that panel for 24 hours. Um and we don't have a reason to believe

110that they wouldn't, but your backup generation at the middle school and the high school will run that fire alarm system indefinitely if needed to be in there. Um, other things, uh, food storage is a really big issue that we have freezers and coolers full of food, thousands of dollars worth of food. Um, you have a power outage that is out for multiple days, which is what we've been told we need to be prepared for in the case of these PSPSs's um, and you end up losing an entire freezer and and refrigerator full of food. And not just like your kitchen refrigerator. We're talking about these massive walk-in coolers, right? Um, network. Um, we worked with BART to determine that, you know, we do have, uh, UPS's or um, uninterruptible power supply. >> Thank you. Uninterrupted

111power supplies that are basically designed to, you know, if the accountant is doing payroll, that in the time between the power going out and her losing all the payroll work that the UPS kicks in and saves that work so it can go on. But within what, 30 minutes is the best we can hope for there. It's not the best. That's what we shoot for is about 30 minutes. Yeah. >> So about 30 minutes and beyond that network capabilities go down. And so at the elementary school, what we're finding even in trying to get through that 2hour delay that we were in was that our systems were failing for lack of power because it's just not set up to be able to make it through more than a little bit of time. Fortunately, that was a

112fairly short um term issue. We did not lose any food for it. um teachers did a good job of working with kids in the classroom to help us get through that two-hour delay, but I don't know in this case that we were going to make it through the entire school day and we at a minimum want to be able to do that. So, um immediately following that in conjunction with the immediiacy of having that issue with knowing that we've got these power um PSPSs coming which may or may not take place during the school year, but we've been told we need to be prepared that they could. Um, we have started investigating the possibility of doing this generator. The generator here at the middle school was done a few years ago. Um, and it and

113it's set up well. It's got the generator transformer that steps it down to be able to put power pretty much wherever we wanted to go. Um, and that was $48,000 was what we spent on that generator two two years ago, I believe. Um, the challenge with the elementary school is that their lighting is not set up such that we can run it straight into that generator. I'm not an electrician, so I don't have all of the the specific answers there. But that's why I'm asking for a little bit more money for this particular system than at the middle school because again, the emergency lighting is not set up quite the way it would need to be. Now, if we get into this and we realize, hey, you know, we could get that generator in for

114say 50,000 and then do emergency lighting with battery backups in the ceiling to bring that cost down. I'm I'm very willing to do that. But at a minimum, I want to make absolutely sure that our fire alarm, our network, and our food storage are going to be um powered. >> All these generators travel to a new building. >> They could. So, this is one where they could. This one being brand new. >> This one would be brand new and the one here is also brand new. >> Um, so yeah. No, I would love to see that happen. Um, that would be something we would need to talk to work with our architects on to determine whether >> uh anything I was going to say what I don't have is like is it cost efficient to

115move a used device over? But to the question that came up with the like the playground, the question of would it be possible for it? It it would be possible to move a generator to a new building >> and and you also consider a future tenant would be that >> right. Can I ask one that's not on here? >> Yeah, 100%. Um, sometimes I think I've just gotten kind of used to it. Used to kind of bug me right by the street out here window spacing kind of that we call that >> I have good news for you. So >> it is one of the rougher looking >> the front of this building is the ugliest part of Main Street. all of our buildings and yeah, it's despite it's kind of early prison motif, that

116window section is really awful. >> Yeah, it doesn't speak well to our maintenance. >> 100%. >> Yep. So, basically with funds, so we had two projects that were approved a year ago that were directly related to the middle school. They were fence projects, one of which I've actually brought back up in this report for this next year. But Rick, Josh, and I sat down back in December, maybe something along those lines. >> Um to basically talk about the front of this building and what what could we do to be able to make this place look a little bit better or a lot better. Um so we ended up diverting $20,000 from that for a paint job for the front two sides of the building and to replace those um greenhouse panels. So it's a greenhouse

117is what it is. So we have we have contracted Yeah, they need to be fixed. It looks awful. Um, we've contracted with Growing Spaces to replace those greenhouse panels and then we've contracted with a local painter to go ahead and paint the front side of the building. Uh, the next step there is for me to sit down with Josh and Rick and actually determine what the color scheme is going to be on that >> one. One more. So, the grand total back here, if I did get it right, is about half a million. >> A little under. Yeah. >> Little under 449. Yeah. >> Um and when we generally speak in public, we talk about we spend about two quarters of a million on maintenance. This is a separate budget. >> I was overlap on

118that. >> So I don't know where the three4ers of a million on maintenance comes from. >> Yeah. because >> well I would just say that it's f nearly 500 on the on the books without a dollar amount attached to the fire alarm. So we're still and that fire alarm is around 200. So we're still in the same neighborhood. We're just pulling from different buckets the general fund dollars that are going towards the maintenance that's documented here and then pulling some from reserve primarily because uh there's a lot of pressure on our general fund budget currently with uh funding not coming in from the state declining enrollment. And so we are not seeing a typical increase in funding. And so we moved some of those expenses that we normally would have said, "Oh, it's right around

119that range to some reserve dollars. So is capital items plus >> I don't I don't know that I capital I was going to say typically so last year if you go back to last year's capital request it was for $723,000. Um, now we started >> that's where we >> Yeah. >> this year all of the things that Rick just said, we backed it off to 500,000 to say, you know, we we need to try to be more fiscally responsible with this and then we went from 500 down to 450. So, we have cut pretty significantly. Now, it's a really valid point to say, you know, if fire alarm system comes in at $200,000, then we're sitting right back up there at that, you know, 650 700,000 that we've been in the past. But we consciously

120cut way back on the number this year from what has been requested in the past, not withstanding that fire alarm system. I just want to say it's primarily around the idea that we think we're short-term owners of some of our buildings and we're trying to prioritize systems that we need in order to function in those buildings and delay expending on those systems that we can for lack of better word kind of limp along with you know because the school functions and so we're trying the best we can um to to to manage that and uh also be good stewards of the buildings. We can't have it fall down around us either. >> I just want to reference it again before. So that that's that's good to hear. >> Yeah. >> I I think, you know,

121if you're asked by the community, you know, the desire from the district has been that, you know, we want to make sure we can get our teachers a raise. That's a conversation that we've had a number of times, you know, and how do we make absolutely sure that we can get that step in and so we are consciously decreasing the amount of money that we're putting into these capital projects for all of the reasons that we brought up tonight. Um, and I think at the top of them is being, you know, fiscally responsible. >> Is the only thing coming out of reserves the fire alarm or is it because that's the only thing that's designated on here. So everything else is capital just to clarify the list. >> Okay. Yes. >> Okay. Yep. Thank you.

122I'm gonna declare it. I do agree. >> No, you're right. I don't want you back to Good evening. I'll cast it here for our large inhouse audience. Also, uh update for cash. We are comfortably around $6 million in investment accounts right now, but we only received 577,000 in taxes in April. Um, our next payment should be on Monday the 11th, the first of our May payment, which is traditionally a multi million receipt. So, that one will help push us up closer to the $10 million. Any questions on cash proceeding as expected, right? >> Yes. As we historically, >> yeah, we're getting into the right money time. >> Correct. >> And then here I mentioned at the retreat I was looking to provide a little more detail and a little more clarity on what we have

123by fund versus just a roll up of all of our funds on some chart. So, this one is similar to what we've seen in the past showing our expenditures and revenues by fund by quarter and what our year-to- date percentage looks like. Right now, we are at 66% of expenditures, budgeted expenditures, and 55% of revenues received through March 31st. If we look at it, the left hand side of your chart is Q3. The right hand side would be the fiscal year to date broken out by eight categories that are broken or the objects uh within the expenditures in the state of accounts. So you can see salaries, benefits, etc. as you go down there. So for Q3 expenditure 6.25 5 million and for the year we're looking at 5.77 15.77 uh for revenues if we

124look at these in terms of where the bulk of the revenues coming from property taxes SOT state and federal revenues interest one clarification on the other revenue portion it's going to show as a negative in most cases because the monthly EPR payments that we pass through to the charter school are shown in the system as a negative revenue not as an expense. So that category you will see that as a as a negative in most most quarters for the fiscal year. So for Q3, we saw 9 million almost 9.1 million of revenue of the 12.9 that we've pursued here today. And I won't go through all of these, but what I've done is taken each of the funds that are reported in these reports and giving you general fund. It's fun 10 and then the

125definition from the state chart councils those amounts that are in each of those funds and then each of the funds that are in here have the same charts showing EQ3 and then the fiscal year to date for both expenditures and revenues you'll have it for general fund or food service grants fund which is and right now entirely federal money now that the project aware has completed student activity fund the capital projects fund and the trust fund which is almost entirely scholarship in so we have 250,000 that's invested Then twice a year we take that interest earned on that 250,000 and issue a check to scholarships as proof for huge score is that I'm just curious is that a separate group or do the realtors actually have the group is that a group of realtor there

126is an led by Mike Branch who's a little over and then we have representatives from the real group yourself into the high school. >> Okay. And they actually disperse the funds to students that are attending to a higher education. >> Correct. >> Um, one other thing I've added in here to go with these is slide 22, which basically is a definition of each of those categories. We look at expenses for salaries, benefits, etc. Let you know what's what's in each of those. throw it to you as you look through the different funds and see amounts in there and the various or the variations in those different categories between funds what that is made up of. >> Sorry to back up a little bit. Those grant from the grant expenditures um for the entire year, you

127know, it's over half million dollars. Are you expecting those grants to come back for next year for those salaries and those positions? Are you having to absorb any of those into other forms or >> project aware had ended? So that one is is gone. Everything that's in there currently is title one, two, four. Uh there's a small amount of title three we get through tellide and then also the easy coaching ECIC is the acronym I forget but basically it pays for a sub to take over classes within the elementary school when a a teacher is >> but now your counselors or mental health professionals are losing their grant money SHP is currently in the general intent. >> Oh, okay. Okay, that's good. I guess I should have just then from slide 24 on is you're

128familiar with seeing the investment summary looking at our deposit accounts by month 423 ending in March. All of our investment CD accounts have matured and have been closed and those dollars have been rolled into the main Colorado trust account which you see on the right side. So the investment pool accounts broken out by general fund. The Moody money student activity used capital has has been closed or zeroed out effectively. That was the money that was provided that you approved to provide some bills of earlier this year. The scholarship and esro is the last account there at 232,000. Total investment balances at the end of March last year was 8.7 million. This year 7.5 partially because we had to withdraw more money to get through February's payroll versus last year. And also because we're seeing lower

129interest rates month versus what we saw in year ago. And then the final slide shows the balances by institution and then the interest earnings by month year to date. So last year through March we 273,000 of interest earned. This year we are currently at 228. Now, we'll see a jump in those interest earnings for April, May, and June because we're over the property tax money. So, balances that significantly higher than what they've been over the last few months. So, that's the 700 7,583 is dynamic, right? That's going to go back up. >> Funded. That's it. Right now it's about 6.5 because we had April payroll. Okay. So that numbers that was as of March 31st so April and this week's transactions lower that we'll get payments May 11, May 24th of property tax then June

13010th and June 24th. So that 7.5 or 6 million looks like we lost money from youth. It's just a a dynamic number that's going to go to that whoever to make sure $100,000 continuously available money. It's still our main is it in a regular money market? It's in a liquid investment pool. >> Yeah. >> Local government time duration. >> We can get uh we can do a wire to get the money within an hour. Any transfers that we do for payroll or break runs. I put in a request by 11 a.m. and it's in our account at 6 a.m. >> Still ends up pretty decent. It's it's much in a in a general sense if we were to try and go back and look at CDs and and book those in, we're locking those in

131at 12 to 24 months, >> right, >> at a fixed rate, whereas this one we have liquidity within an hour and we're seeing competitive interest rates that flow with the market. Other question. >> All right, now we switch to trends. I've been looking at the special meeting. Oh yes. So we are working on compiling the budget for next year. So we have a proposal for you. We did receive a new run from CD this morning. Slight uh change, nothing dramatic in terms of our trouble program funding. It still is influx. It will be changing. There's nothing that's been passed or signed yet. So those the figures that we have are the best that we know right now. I would like to propose either May 20th or May 27 for a virtual meeting Zoom meeting at

132say 5:30 to propose and present and propose the budget for you for the next year whichever to your schedule. I have 20 easier days. >> Yeah. >> 5:30ish. >> Yeah. We'll do >> we've done I think we did the last last year we did it here in the main meeting but we have a little more time get it together. That's right. >> That will just be budget correct. You just present the budget correctly. Okay. >> Yeah. We have a I would like to propose that we have one other item on there which is just a formal approving of the curriculum. It is one of the functions of the board to formally approve. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we we could do that on that date as well. That would be great. >> You're talking about

133the elementary school. >> That's correct. What we heard tonight from Kelly. >> Is there anything else? I'm trying to think of a regular board meeting. I mean, you're going to be on the scene at the end. >> Yeah. There I tell you. Yeah. So, I'm talking about I have my bike in the back of the truck says, "You want my bike tuned up for the iron horse and you're riding down in Son about 45 miles an hour. You want to make sure someone besides you check the brakes and a guy who goes down rivers and flies out with freezing water says, "Oh, that's too scary for me." >> I was referring to having someone else work on my brakes. That's just what about we could look at the last like couple of days of June

134or even the first day of July. I know that gets close to the 4th of July if we want to stick with Wednesdays the 24th or the first >> I'm out of town >> of June. >> Yeah. Amanda, >> are you not here that third week, the 15th through the 19th? Are you not? Is it >> I'm gone. >> Okay. >> Yeah. The 22nd through the 26 is hard for me personally. >> Could it work? Did we say on the 30th or >> Yeah. Tuesday or Wednesday of that week? That week is June 29th to the 3 of July. And this might be the we might be exciting about a bond machine >> and and we might find out that we get to we won't have to have this meeting. So I think it's us

135tenatively saving that space. >> Yeah. >> Which preferred anyone on a day of that week? Um, it's like I I'd want to do it sooner, but honestly the 30th would work better for me than the 20 minutes. Personally, my work schedule 30, but that would be 5:30ish too or something. >> I could probably 6. >> No, I could I could meet I have time to make some adjustments. So, I could meet as early as 4. >> I'm not trying it, but I'm saying I could I can just normal time works. >> 5:30 or 6. 5:30. Good. >> 5:30 would be fine if that works with anybody else. So, we would not need to meet any earlier regarding >> I you know there's um the reason I said that is a I want to be optimistic

136but I'm a bit of a pessimist at heart. Um depending on where we're ranked uh on the 21st of May, we should be able to have pretty good discussion in June about what our options are. in in June, we we could potentially say like, oh, we're way out of the running from having a because really we're looking at the end of June or July is if we need to uh declare that we are pursuing some kind of ballot initiative >> want to do a work session before our meeting at all. Would there be any reason to hold a work session before the June meeting >> related to the bond? We could Oh, you're saying like right before that June meeting. >> Yeah. Like on the third if we met at 5 to 6 for a

137work session and then our regular board meeting went >> we will know the best results. >> Yeah. We would have that. So I I would just say and there we needed more time we would have for whatever reason. So if we did a work session on the 3 at five o'clock, that would be to me makes sense to give us room and time and >> since that news will be >> correct >> first. May 21st >> and we sorry May 21st is the news. >> Sorry is the news and I'll actually be doing a public presentation that evening. So, >> is that one of the collectives that you're doing? >> Yes. >> The first one is what? On the 14th. >> 13th is kind of an intro session at the high school. The 21st is

138PLOA. >> Yeah. It's a good question though for for the group. Like if I find out on the 21st, I mean I assume that it's okay to share that whatever those results are that evening >> the 21st of May. >> May >> public information. >> It would be public information >> best. >> I will be speaking publicly about >> referring to the best to the best whether or not we were given it or where we're ranked on the page. >> Okay. Where are you at on the 21st? >> The LPOA. >> I'm sorry. >> When are those? >> There's a series of meetings that uh Candace Jones uh economic development um Emily There is uh uh GOP there. There's a good group of folks who are just like, "Hey, there's potential for quite a few

139ballot initiatives. Can we talk about those and see what the implications are, what they are? So, we're gonna the county, the hospital, and the school district will get up and speak in general terms on the third at the high school. And then we're going to do a discussion led by Rick Halter. He's going to do a little Q&A with us. And then each of us will get an evening to just present um this is what we've done to this point. this what we would do um so that people understand. I think that would be an important meeting on the 21st uh be able to tell people if we move forward um here are some funding bands we might look like, you know, if we got $50 million and we're asking for this much more if

140we did a little bit more than we'd ask for this. This is how it impact your taxes and I think that's on me to get that all together by the 21st. So right now 5:20 5:30 Zoom June 3rd 5:00 PM work session and pencled in June 30th just as a floater right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. For 5:30 >> if if need. >> Yeah. Okay. >> And the June 30th would be in person. Correct. Correct. only 20%. So related to that, right? So we have we have a little time this coming Friday to get organized the best where we get our time on the agenda and then that's on the 12th. >> That's correct. So, we're meeting this Friday for an hour or so with our rep from the state, uh, McDonald, our folks from RTA,

141Doug and Brian, Bob and I. I think I've invited now Eric and Jason to attend. We get to bring a team of five to a meeting on the 12th where we get very little time to talk to the best board. I believe we have a twominut presentation and five minutes of questions. Um, so it's lightning fast. Uh, Meg is going to coach us on what the content of the two minutes are. I suspect she's going to say, you know, focus on those areas that they might have seen as us not scoring the full number of points on their preliminary scoring of our best grant. Um, and then five minutes of questions from the best board. And I think the decision is who do we bring to that meeting who has the best content knowledge to

142answer quickly and succinctly to those uh and I I believe next Friday is really us problem solving around uh what will we say? Yeah. >> And that's then that meeting with us is the final >> dra answer question >> and that's not in person anymore. That's >> it's virtually now. Yeah, that's new. >> Okay. >> As is that uh the scoring the scoring that I'm referring to if you're listening is that we got preliminary scoring from the staff at CDE who helps facilitate the these best grants being submitted. And uh that preliminary scoring has says that we have met uh the minimum standards to and the funding requirements or the funding readiness I believe was the word to proceed and we were uh one point off or having exceeded uh the standard. So nine and

143a half points 10 and a half points would have been exceeded. We were at nine and a half points. So, I think that's encouraging, but I'm a little I'm trying to be realistic about it also. Yeah. So, that's timeline. I think we have meetings all set. Anything else from the board to post comments from shar? >> Yeah, I really have. I was virtual last month so I didn't try to catch up on all the early childhood council of Archela County meetings. There's had been three of them in February, April, actually two in April. And just one thing about federal funding, this is goes a couple meetings back that Lauren Har was saying that there's uh some angst about overall federal funding for early childhood and so the the future funding at at present is in

144flux. Um this committee has or this group has funds through May and then a two-month reserve. And it's really maybe sad to be talking about this, but the committee will be solvent through July, but beyond that is Kelly knows something more than I do. We that's the state. We're okay right now, but if federal funding gets cut off, then there's going to be crisis throughout these early childhood committees throughout the state and I guess I presume throughout the country. Uh the last meeting there was a discussion of this potential lodgers tax that's going to be in effect. Is this part of the discussions you're having with that group? >> That's correct. The county will be presenting uh tax. >> Right. And so the early childhood uh arena is trying to see if they can be

145included on part of that uh if that would pass. You get some of that tax money. Um Ben, the director uh of Wing's Childhood Center, he he really presented a compelling argument that he was speaking with one of our commissioners. I think wants to speak with everyone about how the early childhood centers positively affect everything in the local economy and uh he he presented it so well he probably should come here and talk to all of us. Uh he's a sharp guy. Uh so I mean he he just gave the example of wings closed funding goes away and they can't get enough money to run the center that would affect directly 70 families with unknown number of children and all those people then who work at an early childhood center would be out of work

146and you could see the trickle down that's not a trickle which everyone look at that would not be a positive impact that's why these early childhood centers in addition to actually providing the childhood education early childhood education um is a integral part of our economy as well. So a compelling argument for that. Anyway, uh they're making do. They run very lean as all these centers do. And so that it was a very positive discussion. But when we're talking about potential additional monies for these centers coming from public uh funds like the lodgers tax u that may be something that you can just keep in mind to encourage the powers that be to consider this that early childhood education be greatly benefiting and would benefit you know roll back into the economy. He says it much

147better than I and that's it. The early childhood just some of the federal funding doesn't maintain >> uh well this was just the early childhood council of Archeletta County that we receive some money from. Uh I think it comes through the state positive about that. Of course there's a lot of grants as well that Lauri very good but if all that funding gets cut off it would be almost dire straits and that we can't predict what's going on but that's a little bit scary. >> Anything else? >> Yeah just two two things. Uh Cortez has said that they will no longer pursue breaking up the Boseies. That is under the leadership of their um new superintendent Eddie Ramirez. That's been that's great. It's very exciting. So we are starting to mobilize around how do we

148strengthen programming and in fact we really had a a substantial experience with Boseies which included uh program reviews of all of our buildings existing programs opportunities for improvement based on uh state rubric for highquality special education programming. So I'm really excited that we're starting to move in that direction and that the Boseies is no longer going to be distracted by this. Are we breaking up or continuing in our relationship? So that's really exciting and uh all of our building principles responded very positively and and and affirmed that uh it's it's time to get to work on improving our special education programming. So that was great great start great kickoff to that. I'm sure that uh I'm not sure. I know that each uh school will have a special education goal for next year. So, that's

149exciting. Other thing I just um we received today from uh there's every Wednesday there's a rural school alliance meeting and uh superintendents from across the state jump on a zoom call and usually there's some folks from CDE that share some important information. This time there was a group from uh Protect Colorado's future um which I believe is initiative 195 that should be coming out on the ballot. Um this is an attempt to uh put in a graduated income tax. Uh their claim is that it taxes 3% of Coloradoans, those people making over $500,000 a year or more. and it decreases taxes uh substantially from below that. So rather than having a flat income rate, have a graduated income tax rate. Their claim is that what they're ask is that they raise $2.7 billion to be

150invested in um public education, early childhood education, and health care. um they see those are three areas that our state could really use additional funding. And so that's just something to be aware of and keep an eye out for. Um we we're just seeing some initial predictions and their initial prediction for Archeletta School District is that if this were to pass uh beginning July 1 of 2027, we could see an additional $1.3 million towards our total budget, which is nothing to sneeze at. That would be significant for us. Um, so I I'll uh keep you up to date on what I hear. This is not a statement in favor or against this initiative. This is just factual information that was shared with us. And again, it's called protect Colorado's future. >> Is it all similar

151to talk about California tax? >> Don't know. I wouldn't I don't have enough content knowledge to to know if that is this is similar case or not. Anything else? All right. With that