001Okay, good evening. I call this meeting to order at 7:15 p.m. Present tonight are director Titler, Director After, Director Deferred, and myself, meaning we have a quorum. Thank you to our interpreter, Rodrigo. Would you please share the interpretation instructions with our participants? And then we can turn on the interpretation function. Thank you. The first business in orders the approval of the of the agenda. Directors, are there any proposed changes to the agenda? >> I would like to propose a change to the agenda. I would like to propose that we move item action 10.1, board resolution, culturally and linguistically diverse education, and make a motion to table this resolution until our November 12th meeting in order to um get some support from key stakeholders um in outreach. We are proposing also to change our next meeting
002to November 12th. >> Do I have a second? Second. Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Motion passes. Um our next agenda item is our opening celebrations and updates by our superintendent Dr. Anna Nicole. >> All right, just a couple this week. Um want to celebrate aligned to strategic priority number four, student centered partnerships that it is parent teacher conference week. Those started last week are moving into this week. Um I know there's many happening right now. Um, Friday is a dedicated no students day that we really allocate that time so that staff can meet with parents. Um, so big thanks to the staff, students, and especially the families who are making time for these meaningful conversations and they're actually the subject of the superintendent report. So I'll talk more about parent teacher
003conferences later. Um, also want to uh celebrate the Riverview School early childhood education program this week. Director Enz Borbano is also a CMC staff member in the early childhood program. And CMC has a really strong partnership and is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, also known as NAI. If you're in the early childhood world, you definitely know about NAI. Um so NAI was here accrediting CMC this week and came to visit um the Riverview School early childhood program because of all our partnerships with CMC and their teacher education programs. Um, we partner with CMC with staff throughout our early childhood programs, but because Enz is on staff at CMC, they came to her center. Um, it was really wonderful to have this national organization really see our early childhood programs,
004see the way we partner with CMC. Um, NI's purpose, it's a national organization that promotes highquality early learning for children from birth to age 8. They connect early childhood practice, policy, and research to advocate for early learning programs and professionals. So really want to celebrate director Bubano, her very professional staff who did a phenomenal job showing off the their programs and their rooms. Um the entire Riverview team and then our CMC partners for hosting an important accreditation visit. It was great to have them come see us. And then finally um I want to celebrate and this is aligned to strategic priority number one, students first. Um want to celebrate and promote Roaring Fork High School senior Zenobia Todd's capstone project. Um, it's called Renewing Connection, a well-being summit. It'll be held at the Third Street
005Center on Saturday, November 8th from 10:00 to 4:30. The summit that is designed and run by Zenobia. Um, will include nature, art, meditation workshops, catered lunch, and will culminate in a community roundt discussion. Attend attendees will walk away with practical tips and tools to use in their everyday life to boost their capacity for resilience, hope, and wellness. Uh their goal is to provide a space to cultivate mindful presence, share ideas, and connect with community. It's co-sponsored by the Andes Andy Zena Youth Empowerment Program at KD&K. Folks can learn more about it on KD and K's website. So, we're wishing Zenobia the best on the project and also want to appreciate all the students, the community mentors, and the high school staff who are right now, many of them really hustling around their um capstone projects.
006So, uh, congratulations to Zenobia and hope that day goes goes really well. Thank you. >> Thank you. The next business in order is the superintendent report including an update presentation on two strategic priorities, student centered partnerships and operational excellence from Dr. Anna Cole. Each board member will have two minutes to share comments or ask questions. There's a lot going on in the district and I'm covering tonight for two of our leaders who really own these strategic priorities and um we just wanted to take a minute to celebrate some of this work and share with the board some of the work that's happening that you might have seen as parents and community members be lifted up and distributed. But we wanted to talk about the alignment with that work to some of our strategic plans and
007priorities. And in a lot of ways, these two priorities and some of the work around student center partnerships and operate operational excellence really overlap here. And so I'll be talking about both of these priorities and some initiatives that were that hopefully folks have seen recently. Um I mentioned this a little bit, but one of the things that we know and the research shows all the time. Um we know that partnering with families is essential to student success. And if we drill that down, um, even though we do a ton of work, and I'm really proud of the work we do at the district with our district accountability advisory councils, our equity advisory council, the students who show up for the superintendent advisory council, all the parent partnerships we have at the district level. What we
008know from the research is the most important relationship we can cultivate and support with parents is between parents and their child's teacher. Um, and we hear that from parents all the time that they love uh some of the leadership and partnership opportunities at their schools and district level, but again and again we hear from parents they really just want to know well their children's teachers. And so we really see parent teacher conferences as a huge component of of really cultivating this relationship. And so I wanted to highlight this year that we saw an alignment between our efforts to really support meaningful strong um meaningful strong parent teacher conferences and our goals this year around stronger communication tools for parents. So as the board is aware under operational excellence, one of the things we're working on
009is district office communications. We're really trying to strengthen and streamline the communication that we push out as a district, recognizing again that the most important relationships we can curate are between parents and their teachers. And so this year, and I don't I hope some of the board members who are parents saw some of these tools, but these were very strategic. They're tied to the strategic plan. Um we launched a couple of things. Um we have started to really identify some key um topics that we want to provide more additional information, educational resources for families around. And so in preparation for parent teacher conferences this week in our community newsletter and some of our schools pushed it out, we created an English and Spanish video that really gave parents some quick hits on how to prepare
010for parent teacher conferences and why they matter. And then we definitely don't feel like we need to recreate the the wheel. And so we borrowed from Kolarine, Colorado um some really great resources and flyers that we distributed to parents about how to prepare for parent teacher conferences. Um so just wanted to share some of these things that really are deeply aligned to our strategic plan that folks might have noticed or not noticed in the community newsletter. Um but will continue to show up. So um a couple of additional things that I want to show you. Where did it go? I'm jumping around a little bit. Um maybe I missed it in terms of those communication tools. There's a couple of other upcoming topics. Um there it is. Okay. Um parent teacher conferences was really our
011our October topic. And you can see that now we have a family and community editorial calendar. So, what's coming in the next couple months where parents can expect more flyers, more resources, more links to helpful websites, more videos, um, is topics including social emotional learning, supporting student reading skills at home, school safety when we kick into January, and then supporting healthy screen time habits, which will really be moving into February. These emerged from priorities that we heard from school leaders, from teachers that they really felt that they wanted parents to have more tools and resources. And we also heard from our family advisory council that these are also areas where parents were hungry for more information. So just wanted to draw your attention to that work that's happening under the strategic prior priority of um
012district communications and is aligned with um student centered partnerships. And then also just want to highlight a couple of other things that are happening related to our strategic priorities and in student centered partnerships operational excellence communications. Um, we are consulting with uh Shayla Groves on the editorial calendar, really trying to strengthen how we share this material. She's helping us develop a more refined social media strategy. And then we're bringing back superintendent coffee talks. We have our last fall coffee talk tomorrow morning at 9 at CC's and Basalt. So would love to have families that would would love to chat with me um attend. And then also want to let the board be aware that a lot of work around family partnerships, we often talk about making sure that um our schools and our staff are
013aware of best practices and how we support families and how we work with families. So last year under student centered partnerships, Kelly Medina and the family resource center really spearheaded developing a toolkit um for roar that was really made for Roaring Fork School District staff. It's aligned to the Colorado Department of Education's family school community partnership framework, but it really details how our teams and programs function. Um, it talks very high level of why parent partnerships matter. And then it gets very granular into kind of action items and checklists of how we want to greet parents at the door, greet them when they're walking through our buildings, um, how we want to really cultivate and curate those those really strong um, partnerships with families. And what's happening now um in an additional really nice alignment
014is the some we have done some initial training for the staff toolkit to support family partnerships this fall but we're actually having the equity steering committee that is a really strong muscle for developing professional development. They are working on developing a formal and what will be ongoing training when we get new school leaders around this toolkit. So, lots of work happening in supporting um partnerships and communication. Um and of course, there's always a lot of different things happening with us in the way we're partnering with families. So, just lifted up some of the topics as our equity advisory council, family advisory council start fleshing out their agendas for the year. Wanted to make sure the board and community knew what we'd be working on. Um you can see some of the policies, a little bit
015of a preview. We know the cell phone policy is going to be a hot topic and a lot of folks have interest in that. So, we will make sure equity advisory council is going to tackle the first draft and then we'll make sure that when we bring it to the board, we have lots of time for school-based parent staff input around that. Um, and you can see some of the other policies that need to be updated by the board, but we want to start with um equity advisory council tackling that first. Okay. Would love any questions or comments that you have on some of these initiatives. Thank you, Director Defried. Sure. Well, it's timely. I think several board members spent several hours involved in their kids uh conferences today, even maybe just me, but um
016started at 2 p.m. at the middle school. Then my seventh grader confidently led us through seven different classrooms with his Chromebook, sat down, explained what they were doing, showed his work, asked for our questions, got his signatures from teachers, and insisted that I not ask too many questions, so we stayed on fact. So, um, that was going to be my appreciation later, too. But it ties in so well. was entirely student centered and and I I know my kid and how long that would have taken to prep him to be able to own all of that material and so it's obviously a priority. Um, I also appreciate that again the strategic plan is driving this conversation. um and that you're checking in with us on it and that these committees that uh previous board directors
017have worked so hard to establish are finding relevant roles and I hope we continue to lean on them and like to not that they weren't relevant before but voices that carry weight in these conversations and help us see them with a different light that just as a board member sequestered behind this table I lose sight of. So uh thank you. That's all I have. Director Taylor, >> I would just like to say thank you for making sure that conversations are based on family and community and students and that connection and how we know what a great role that families play in their their um their children's academic and school success. And so I'm glad that we're focusing on that. And I guess if my question is if you could just talk a little bit more
018about what it is we're doing as a school to get parents into the classrooms and getting parents to these meetings and especially parents matching the demographics which we've in the past had so much trouble trying to have that representation. >> Yeah, great great question. It's you know every school does it a little bit different. I think the goals of of engagement and partnership especially that's representative across all of our parent groups is really important. Um you know it's it it ranges. I mean I think the certainly the flexibility that we see in time like timing we see schools working with a lot of alternative time like timelines for parent teacher conferences. Um it really varies school by school and how they're communicating with parents and families. I mean I will say a lot of our
019strategies are informed by families. I mean, even the like twominute video is definitely not something I'm comfortable with of a communication channel, but when we met with our equity advisory council last year and sat down with kids, especially our high school students, and said, "How do we need to get communications to your families?" The kids basically said, "You need a 30-se secondond um video that can go through social media." And they my parents will will take a look. And so we've really identified from talking to kids and families that we need to broaden some of our strategies. And so um you know they're it's it's interesting. We're like a pretty lowbudget comm's team, but I think it's pretty cool the videos that we were able to create. And that's really Jonathan had a Landon had
020a big role in that and Christina Vargas who really I should be holding this work because she really has led um the content and driving those and making them um feel like ours. Um, and so I that's more from a district lens to be honest, Director Titler, but I would say the schools are grappling with it um, in various ways. I know it's been a topic of interest when our board members come as to saying who's showing up at your meetings and how are we making sure that's a representative group. Um, I think it's a work in progress. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thanks, Anna. Um, Dr. Cole, I have a question on the slide. Um the la the last slide before it says discussion on student centered partnerships. Um there's this list here under
021family advisory council and 2025 26 topics and then equity advisory council 256 topics and I gathered from your commentary that the um the ones under the EAC are going to be policies that are going to come to us and then is that right? And then are the are the ones under Family Advisory Council also going to be policies that come to us? >> Great question. No. Um and I'm glad you asked as asked for that distinction. So what's what's interesting about family advisory council is that team of parents and community members sets their own agenda. And the intent is really to provide opportunities for parents to learn about what we're doing and provide input and push back. Um and so all four of those topics are just things that Family Advisory Council prioritized at their
022very first meeting. They went through a protocol to identify interests and concerns and then really did a kind of a group vote on prioritization. So what might mostly what those look like in the typical structure for family advisory council is that the first say 15 to 20 minutes of those meetings will be a presentation from the appropriate board member or not board members um district staff on those topics and then followed by conversation, discussion um questions. Sometimes policies are part of that. For example, part of the school safety presentation which will be late January is is partial school safety and bullying. And so when when we um share with parents about bullying practices, we actually always start with the board policy and what y'all have adopted. So policy is part of the conversation and guides
023it, but it won't immediately result in something that comes to the board. Um whereas equity advisory council doesn't always have kind of that complete control over their agenda because there are certainly when um Jonathan and I and the executive team goes through the policies that we need to update for the year when we're trying to figure out which ones do we need to get family and community input on. We then identify those and calendar them to make sure that that like we can deliberately bring them to equity advisory council and as because we really see that group and the way the board has written policy ADB um and the affiliated regulation is that the equity advisory council is supposed to provide input specifically on board policy that relates to kids and parents and schools. Um
024so really what's interesting about that those agenda topics is the first three were policies that we're bringing to the group and if you recall um and actually secret society's gang activity we tried to we had initially planned to bring it to the board last year and received push back from community partners saying hey these revisions didn't go through enough of a robust process. We thought that was a really fair push. So, we pulled the policy out and delayed it this year so we could have more um process around that policy. And then what's fascinating is as we were talking about some of these policies and topics with the equity advisory council and kind of saying are there other things you want to talk about the attendance protocol not necessarily the policy but the way we
025manage attendance really came into question by students and parents with really um thoughtful questions around equity around implementation fairness um and they wanted to dig in with us and so we thought that would be great. So, equity advisory council is a little bit of us driving the agenda, but also the the team. Does that kind of answer your question? So, those especially cell phone, tobacco, nicotine, secret societies, those will all come to you this year. >> Okay. After the team gets a first crack at it. >> Thank you. Um, do you mind going through just the I think we get this question a lot too of like the difference between the the FAC, the equity advisory council and even what they do as opposed to the DAC. Totally. That would be helpful. >> Yeah, for
026sure. So, we we have at the district level, we have three key advisory councils. The district accountability committee and it's actually it's it's kind of interesting if we think of them on a spectrum. I would say we have the district accountability committee on one end of the spectrum where it's very much so guided by state statute. They have statutory requirements of who needs to be on that committee. Um what they need to provide to the board in terms of input and guidance and recommendations. And in fact the the district accountabilities committee is really meant on an org chart. Think of the board at the very top superintendent directly below you. The DAC is meant to be up here advising you independently. Um, so the the DAC is really a curated group of parent and staff
027um who were meant to reflect the diversity of the community and have have very statutory requirements of what they provide input on. Um the then on the other complete end of the spectrum is family advisory council which for us we we really hold as a kind of anyone's welcome anytime. um what topics that that team wants to work on is what we work on. Um so and and it it is um determined by the majority of the group. So it's really who shows up and what's on their minds is what we're going to talk about. And it it really has to do with the first meeting of the year is kind of when we set the agenda. Um we will occasionally bring things to family advisory council um for their review or input, communication tools,
028videos. Um but it really is we it's important to us that the autonomy over that agenda stays with the council and that we talk about the topics that families want to talk about and then equity advisory council is not state statute require like directed but it is board policy directed. So you have very clearly stated the role of the equity advisory council in policy ADB and its affiliated uh regulation that talks about what that team should do. They're supposed to be providing um input on um policies, protocols that have a connection to our commitments to equity, diversity, anti-discrimination, and um anti-RA and inclusion. And so, um they're a little bit in the middle where that that group is really driven by kind of board policy and then some of the the projects that we're working
029on as a district and of course things that are lifted up by that team. Um does that does that help? And I would say the DAC requires a commitment and it require you know kind of folks are welcome to come and check it out and then it there is a process to kind of officially join and become appointed. Family advisory council anybody can come anytime. We're so excited to have everybody and anyone who wants to join us. Equity advisory council is pretty open for the first two meetings and then we ask people to kind of lock in because we can't um we don't want to retrain people on how to review policy every time. we really need to start getting to it. So those actually even follow kind of a spectrum of all welcome, all
030welcome, and then you have to commit. All welcome, and you got to commit to the year. >> Thank you so much. I did have a question just on the critical partnerships part. Um I know that that's something that we have had over the last couple of years and actually I don't even know how long, but I know that's been such a important part of our programming. Um, did that number go down? Um, >> you know, I think it's moved through throughout the last couple years of how many parent mentors are serving. I think it has to do with staffing and parent availability. >> But our >> I think that's I'm not maybe it's it might have moved a little bit. For some reason in my head I remember 44 being a number, but that might
031have been last year. >> Okay. >> Um I just I guess my question was more so that's not because of our us as a district saying it had to be this amount. That's just our >> staffing. Not at all. And to be honest, we actually in our kickoff meeting with Valley Settlement Parent Mentors, we were we were really trying to problem solve barriers to increasing participation um for parent mentors. We are eager to support as many parent mentors as would want to serve. >> Yeah, agreed. Um and then on the school-based parent partnerships, I did notice that we put a place of unique to each school. Um, do we have I mean I know as board members you know from our schools we're supposed to be receiving some of these invitations but is there a
032master calendar that gets shared out or something that uh or like how do we know that schools are having these unique events? >> You know it's funny a lot of times if you're not in the school community you don't know and we don't you know the schools often have their kind of master calendars but we don't we have yet to really roll that up at a district level. It's a good question. Um, and I want, you know, it's a good wondering too of like, is there a way for those school-based um, celebrations or events that are open to the public or open to the Roaring Fork School District community, is there a way of getting those better optics? Yeah, it's a good question. >> Yeah. I I I just I think that's really important. You
033know, I I think every school community, you know, the um depending on the city obviously and depending on the grade level, like they have their own community. But I think it would be really interesting for us to loop back around even with our strategic plan conversation coming up of like how do we support that? Um because I do think there is the school community sometimes coexists and exists so much farther out than just those >> um those families momentarily. So >> well and you know to as you're saying that um Director Ramirez, one of my thoughts too is that like I've highlighted a couple things here and that like the the Riverview preschool Latino Heritage Celebration is very quiet. It's really just for those families, but there I would love for our other preschools to
034come and see it. Do you know, you know what I mean? So, there is also the added advantage of our schools seeing what's working and where we are getting strong turnout or engagement and getting to come and celebrate um and learn from each other. It's a good question. >> All right, directors, we will now have five minutes for open discussion. Does anyone have any further comments or questions? >> I would just like to add that I'm super glad that cell phone policy is on the agenda. I think that's super important. >> Thank you. Thanks. >> Okay. At this time, we welcome members of the public who have signed up to address the board. There are zero speakers signed up tonight. The board all lots 45 minutes for public comment to respect the time of all
035who are present. Speakers are to limit their remarks to three minutes or less. Since no speakers are signed up, um we are going to sorry there are also we received zero written comments. Um, the next business in order is the approval of the consent agenda, which includes routine personnel minutes from our last two previous board meetings and policies AED, CBB, CF, and CH. Directors, are there any items that you would like to pull off the consent agenda for a separate discussion and vote? Hearing none, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> I move we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Do I have a second? I second. >> You please call for a vote. >> Director After. >> Hi. >> Director Defrades. >> Hi. >> Director Ramunes. >> Hi. >>
036Director Titler. >> I Okay. If the next business in order is discussion on this year's superintendent evaluation. We will begin with Director Taylor. I would just like to start by saying thank you to Dr. Anakola for the role that you play within our district and especially just want to recognize the survey data that we got back from the constituents who took this survey out of many hundreds 426 responses. It was overwhelmingly positive and both in the in the multiple choice option of it and in the comments and it just I think is a testament to the great job that you're doing within all of the different groupings of our values from of of our district from teachers to staff to parents to students in all those categories. You were very wellreceived. You're doing and as
037a board I think we are very appreciative of the job that you're doing in your tireless effort, your positive attitude, your transparency, your willingness to be open to conversations. And so just want to say thank you for a great job. >> Director After. >> Yeah. Um Dr. Cool. Thanks for the um openness with which you um completed the evaluation process for your annual review. Um we appreciate the thoroughess of the community community responses as well as your own self evaluation and a self assessment. And then um the um deep conversation we were able to have in executive session last week um to go over the qualities we really appreciate in your leadership as well as the places we'd like to push the district um continue to push the district. Um in particular, I think we
038saw it already tonight. Um one thing that came out again and again was your adherence and your consistent drive on the strategic plan. And um it's great to see that literally every every day we work with you um which really shows I think and gives us faith in your um in your vision for the district um and everything seems to flow from that. So thank you director. >> Yeah I would encourage everyone who is listening or will listen in the near future to pull up the memo attached in our agenda. It does share all the community response data which is tells a very clear story with almost every category coming in um at more than 75% I agree positive statements for the work that Dr. Cole is doing in a variety of different categories. And
039none of us behind this table here have ever had the experience of operational day-to-day leadership for an organization like this school district. And so, um, we get to evaluate you and and our job is to hold you accountable to what we've what we believe is most important and and your willingness to accept that and apply it day after day and challenge yourself, um, is just so appreciated. And what I hope is that so many of the systems and long-term goals that we've set in place, whether it's a strategic plan or upcoming shifts in CL CLTE programming or just the consistency with which you show up for our community in the long term. That is what will help all of our students rise to their greatest potential. the continuity, the cleareyed vision of leadership, the willingness
040to look at where you need to improve. Um, I'm very excited about the direction our district is going with you in a leadership position. Thank you. >> Thank you, team. Um, I just want to reiterate, you know, um, some of the points that we've shared that the survey was available to the entire community between September 16th to the 3rd. There were a total of 426 responses. um with the biggest group being uh being 56.3% being parents followed by 27% identifying as certified employees. Um I will note that there were fewer responses than uh we received last year and yet you know I think the accomplishment of the board being able to do this for a third year is really important. Um, I would like to also name that we shifted timeline um to move this
041um before December, which is different than we have in the past. And so I appreciate the team's ability and flexibility in and the community's flexibility in working with us um to be able to um execute this summary to our team, to the superintendent, um to Christina, everybody who was able to work with us to make sure that this happened and um that we were able to get all this information pulled out. Um and then I just want to highlight some of the um areas that we recognize that there's progress in um strategic and datadriven leadership, governance and collaboration, equity and inclusion, workforce and operational leadership, community and public communication, and also celebrate um recognize important areas for continued growth which include accelerating efforts to close persistent achievement gaps. expanding engagement with Spanish speaking families and
042diverse community partners and truly all families across the entire Roin Fork school district and continuing to plan proactively for declining enrollment and financial challenges um and strengthening systems of instructional leadership. I think it's incredibly important to name that this board recognizes how much work and progress has been put in in the last couple of years. Um, and how much we have relied on you as a leader, steady, thoughtful, resilient um, during even our financial challenge within the last couple of months, although it feels like years. Um, but I think just really being able to get community feedback and go through this with you as a team was really important for us to continue building. So, and we I saw it even in our school visits this week. I mean, it has shifted our district to
043be focused on data and I've have really appreciated that. Um, so thank you um Dr. Cole and to our team and to our community for making sure that we are consistent with this process. It's I know I we say this Katherine and I say this all the time, but it is really phenomenal that we are getting consistent with having an evaluation process as a board and for the superintendent to actually move the district forward. So, okay, I'll open it up for five minutes for open discussion. Anybody have any other further comments, questions? >> I guess I just would like to add one more thing is Dr. Cole, I appreciate your willingness to engage in conversation and not shut down conversations and be willing to move forward and through the conversations and do it in a
044way that brings everybody forward instead of shutting down. and I think that is a positive outcome of your leadership. So, thank you. >> Anything else? I'll just say um to reiterate what Kenny said and Jasmine too, like I'm just really grateful for your leadership on a personal level. I mean, I think it's um it's like it feels good to be on the board when you have a lot of faith in the leadership and the staff and that makes this job a lot easier. And last year was well the timing of this one was a little bit off but or like different. It'll be more consistent going forward. So, the time period was mixed but if I just say last year was a hard year. And so even though this review encompassed a shorter time period,
045I think it was really clear that you helped lead us through a really tough um financial environment and it didn't it could have gone a lot worse. >> Did you want to say anything? The only thing I would want to say to the community is um I mean thanks for sure for the folks who jumped in on the survey. It was really helpful. I mean not just to the evaluation but even some of the topics that I know we need to dig back into as a community. Um I would hope the community can recognize how much work is I don't know I don't know that it's possible for folks to actually recognize the hours that the board puts into this work and um I know it's a heavy lift. And I would say the other
046thing that I think is important to lift up that really emerged in our conversation with the board about this at our last meeting is that um I would say that for my perception of this evaluation was that there there were no surprises um and especially the areas that are areas for continued growth. I feel um I feel that the this governance team with the the board of education with our leadership team is incredibly well aligned that I think that the things that the board has identified as areas for continued growth have been you know they're on my list as well. They weren't surprising. I feel like our focus is in the same area. our um goals are very well aligned and I I do think you you've all mentioned kind of consistency and clarity and
047I think that that's a big piece of the work we do together. Um so I just want to thank you all for that and just make sure our community knows that too that this um I think is a real affirmation of the alignment that this governance team has in the direction for the district. So thank you. It remains um a real honor to serve this board and the district Thank you. >> Okay. The next business in order is discussion on policies KDDA, KHC, KGA, and JB. Each board member will have two minutes to share comments or ask questions. We will begin with director after great. I'm going to start with the KGA, the corporate sponsorship, corporate partnerships. Just a tactical question. I see that um uh our CO Ben was in the document. Looked like
048some changes were maybe made today. Is that right? Can you just talk us through what's going on in the document because I read it this weekend and now it's looking different. >> Sure. you know, it was just a delayed um revision to some of the things that came out of policy committee. So the and I apologize for those what what looks like a real, you know, basically the second half of the policies kind of disappeared. What happened in policy committee was this is not a required bylaw policy. And so there was some conversation and directors, please jump in if I misrepresent this. Um, we had some conversation with the the board members on policy committee of whether we need to just repeal it entirely and a lot of the work around corporate partnerships shows up
049in athletics and um, Chief Bombfaulk overseas and supports our high school athletic directors and so he works very closely with that team. They actually felt and Chief Bomb Fox's recommendation was that it would actually is really helpful to have those first two paragraphs in particular for the board to really stamp that um corporate partnerships are about sponsorship. Um it's not about marketing. Um it's really needs to focus on the education and well-being of our students. And we really wanted our team really wanted the board to stamp that um that goal and priority so that that then we can navigate um offers or good ideas or you know and really stamp it against kind of a guiding document. And what we decided in policy committee and we just hadn't had a chance to update it until
050today was that everything else s felt very operational and technical and could be moved elsewhere. And so everything that you can see that's going to be struck from the bottom on general principles and process are going to move into a corporate partnership regulation and protocol um that we can then adjust as necessary. So it was a it was a matter of really trying to separate out what felt like something we we needed or we we really hoped and wanted from the board to stamp kind of the overarching vision of where and when corporate partnerships uh were relevant and appropriate. um and that then we could work out the operational details elsewhere. >> If I could, you know, see that that regulation is already live. There's a link in the policy memo. So, it's already been
051moved there. >> Thank you. >> Does that make sense? >> Yeah, that change makes sense in terms of process. I think my feedback on the policy um I think this is really important to get right because as we enter this un as we are deep in the middle of an uncertain financial future then corporate partnerships might whether people want it to or not become a real important source of revenue for the district especially for athletics but it could be for other things as well and I think it would be Um I think it reads a little naive on the last sentence around sponsorship considerations will be for recognition and acknowledgement rather than for commercial advertising because most corporate sponsors have a commercial advertising budget from from whence sponsorships come. So I think this this is
052a well-meaning document. I'd kind of like to look at it with knowing that there's a regulation now attached to it. and bring up other questions on second reading, I guess, would be the right process because um I just think it if we're doing this now, you might as well get it right because I think the district's probably going to need to go ask for money from corporations at some point. >> Yeah, I I think that's super fair. And um I think what we could do, yeah, because we do need to bring it back for a second read. And if there are specific components and you can get those to us for policy committee through the board tracker, I think would be the most appropriate like if there's recommendations or language that you would suggest. I'm
053sure I know policy committee would be happy to go back through it. >> Yeah. like some of the questions from reading it prior were are probably more appropriate for the KGA are around how you're valuing the cost of a sponsorship and what like what a you know placement on the BHS scoreboard is compared to the placement on a >> Roy Fork scoreboard versus you know and it it's easier to think through that in advance so that you can look at those opportunities with that kind of filter. We would definitely appreciate those comments on this before second read. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Um I'm curious about I know that um school entrance age requirements has been a long time coming and a long discussion. I'm going to not ask questions about it because I feel
054like um my colleagues who have experience in early child education will have better questions than me. I would also say like bring it bring if there are things to surface. I think policy committee felt um that there were a lot of concerns around this and that we definitely needed to air out some of the components. The the memo is significantly shifted from what policy committee initially saw because of some of the pushes that we heard from um from policy committee on things that felt like they needed to be attended to. So, I would say um >> okay, >> your questions and concerns are really valuable and we have a limited amount of time um if this is going to pass this year, it we we really like if it if we determine that we need
055more time on this, it pushes the change back a year. Um, and so I do think that um, and we could come I don't you know when you're ready, but I would say like I'm ready to take notes on the components of that proposal that feel unfinished, unclear, um, needing more attention. Um, because it's it's it's significant. It's a big shift. >> Okay. I guess my my I think the early admittance between August 15th and September 30th is a total minefield that is going to cause a lot of headache and process questions for the people making decisions about who gets in early during that during that window seems like a nightmare um to constantly be making exceptions. >> So that's one thing. And then I just had a general question from the memo. What is
056um what's the problem with quote unquote red shirting? I mean, if you don't think your kid's ready for kindergarten, what's the what's the problem with that? >> One of the challenges we see right now is that the ability to red shirt your kid um the desire may be universal. Um but the ability to do it is very dependent upon socioeconomics um and parents having money >> to pay for an extra year because UPK does not pay for an extra year. And so a piece of this um interest in bringing, you know, backing that up was at least for those kids who fall really close to that October one date and certainly for the kids who just weren't going to be five by the time we put them on a school bus. um was to make
057it more equitable for families because what happens is then UPK funding adjusts with us so that at least for those kids late August September birthdays and families who would have said gosh my kid's so close I would love to red shirt but I can't that at least that's a little bit more accessible for families um now because of that adjustment it doesn't completely solve it in some ways the argument it's fair to say well okay but now the first week of August families it's the same thing. And so I hear that I don't know that it solves it. I don't know that it makes it perfect. And I think there's plenty of families who are going like, I I actually don't want another year home with my kid in preschool whether UPK pays for it
058or not. There's a socioeconomic component to that as well. So it's not perfect. >> Yeah. I guess I feel like we can't solve every socioeconomic problem out there. Um, but I also think if if the experts are saying you shouldn't have four-year-olds entering kindergarten, then I that's I I'll go along with that. That's fine. As a kid who as a parent of a kid who is on the cusp. Um, yeah, this all makes sense to me. >> I don't have to use my time anymore. >> Director Drades. >> Uh, yeah. So, I was in policy committee when this came up. Um, I noticed we shifted it to August 15th, not August 1st. I think, um, I think that's a good move, especially alignment with nearby school districts as laid out in the memo. Um, or
059yeah, in your memo. It's I still struggle with this one. I think there's an equity minefield on both sides of this decision. you know the what you guys just identified where UPK is okay but it is definitely not a fix all for the financial realities facing a lot of families in this valley around prek and and then median income is indicative of how much you get but the cost of living here is so challenging that sure you might get a UPK um stipen but it's still really expensive. My daughter was August 24th, so she started as a four-year-old and she's thriving. And if we had had to do another year, it would have been awful. We would have been financially struggling. And so, I was the one, alone, pushing for an easier and clearer ramp
060in for those parents who still wanted because the state statute requires the October 1st cut off for school funding. That's why the opt out is so complicated. The highly gifted access is a is a procedure. It's very it's this you do a lot of tests and you make sure your kid is actually gifted. It's not something that's super accessible to a lot of families who don't know it exists already. Um but that only applies to October 1st. So I still I still feel pretty strongly that we need to have a clear access point for parents who can just choose yeah no they're ready or I'm sorry but our family's reality is we can't do another year of preschool. And there's a lot of reasons for that. And if we're not going to uh compromise our
061state funding and if we're not going to compromise up as I'm saying it, I'm hearing like if it aligns with the school district, does allowing an off-ramp prevent them from agreeing with us? Do you know what I'm saying? I think I have a little I think so. Um what would our off-ramp and we we heard that loud and clear from policy committee which is why you know the clarity on that like what we're talking about what what that offramp is what would be called early admittance, right? That's that year in August 15th until September 30th birthday and you're saying I want my kid to move on. Um and and so what we'll bring to you by the November meeting is that regulation that here's the early admittance process to make sure it's not overly complex.
062Also feels like leaders aren't buried in some sort of bureaucratic unnecessary challenging process but to make sure that that off-ramp is accessible to families. Um, what families can't do is the year before that say to UPK, I want my four-year-old funding this year because I'm going to send my kid early admittance. UPK is not going to flex with that. So, that would be an issue. >> Like, they'll they'll get it that year before preschool. Um, but if they decide, nope, I just want to push my or they'll the four-year-old funding comes the year before kindergarten. And so, but if a family is saying this would be, you know, they're they're with the with a new adjusted rule saying I have a September 15th birthday, the 25 20, let's go, 26 27th school year would be
063my year before kindergarten. And they're saying, I actually want to send my kid, they will have not been able to access that year of funding through UPK. Does that make sense? because it'll align with our recommendation. >> It aligns with our recommendation. >> So, they really tailor it to each district. >> And to be honest, when we were doing the research on this, the best data we could find for district start dates was from UPK because they know it and they just adjust to whatever school districts are. I might come back in five minutes, but >> Okay. Um sorry, direct. already out. I'm sorry. >> A couple things. First of all, I same one on the cuto off date for students. I found it interesting in the memo that 80 84% of states, 42 states
064have a kindergarten entrance date of September or earlier. That was eye opening to me. I didn't recognize that. And that more than half of the school districts in our state are September or earlier, too. So, that surprised me. Um, I think that regulations can be really important for us to look at. And I don't know, I see that this is like a grandfather year for this first year. So maybe it doesn't matter that we're passing this in these readings now. But that might be a good thing to have before we decided on the policy in general. So I don't know, but I guess if we're grandfathering, it doesn't matter at this point. But I think that's going to be important for the follow-up conversation. So I don't know if it should just be bumped back
065until we talk about regulation also. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean our our intention is to bring you that regulation to look at by no by the next meeting. You'll have it and can reference it. But you're right that for the first year we implement. We would just say if a parent says I want to go, we go great go. Like if you know I I understand that now I could have another year of preschool but I don't want it. We're going to grant we're going to let people just do that choice simply by telling us if their children are August 15th to September 30th birthday. >> Uhhuh. And then moving forward, we do have to stamp some sort of early admittance process per state law. >> Yeah, I think this can be important to have
066it very black and white with that. Um, and then I also had the question about KGA and so I saw that conversation between dire um director Kenberg's comment and then Chief Bombfox response to her. And so I'm still confused about KGA how it was written because what Chief Amak wrote was following the discussion at policy committee I created KGR which I saw and I looked at um the staff recommendation is to only the first two paragraphs but way more than the first two paragraphs are still written in this policy. So why aren't beyond those first two paragraphs all redlined >> the in policy? >> Because for example C that says sponsor recognition guidelines which is still in KGA but it's also in KGA are equally the same. Why isn't it then like taken out of
067here? The red line I see for KGA has everything redlined after the first two paragraphs. >> Okay. Not in the one that I'm looking at. >> Oh yeah. You're not in my document. >> Oh, what document am I in then? >> I have no idea. >> Oh, I think I had it open from before and I never refreshed it. >> That could be it. That could be it because it really was we we talked about it in policy. I had never opened my tab and I never closed the tab out. And so now then if I were to reook at it, it' be all right. >> We're just refreshing. >> Answer my question. >> Okay. I'm good then. Thank you. >> Refresh. That's the That's the what I take from this. >> And plug it
068back in. >> Okay. Um I just I kind of wanted to mention also on KGA and the regulation you know I think it's really important for um did the policy committee talk about KG coming to the board? >> We we basically just said take everything below those second two paragraphs put it in KG and there it is. And we wanted you to see where it went but we didn't feel like it's a regulation. And I mean it's not required by law, the policy in general. So the regulation isn't really required, but just wanted you to see where it was going and how we were structurally rearranging it. >> Okay. >> I think one of my I think you know one of the comments we were talking about earlier was you know spons sponsorships like from
069different stakeholders. I would understand community partners and businesses, but I also think there has to be there has to be an expectation of which and how we're choosing um that. And I just I think that to me in the regulations was really important that we maintain that because we could get into a place where some of the like if we had I don't know some company that sells bait pens, you know, who wanted to put out an ad like I think the district would very decisively be in a position to say no thank you. Um, and so I just wanted to make sure that when we're talking about corporate sponsorships, even if it's within the regulation, because I I I feel like that commitment is here on this policy of like must meet an identified
070school or district need and align with our educational goals and policies. Like I think that's the right language for this because to me that still gives us the authority to say yes or no. Um, and so I just wanted to make sure I shared that those thoughts. Um, I think on JB like I know there's just so much conversation around this. I feel like I heard some of the conversation that you guys had policy committee. Um, you know, being that I also serve on the ECLC for the state, I think it's one of those it was it's a good thing and a hard thing, right? Because every school district and every community uh engages with early childhood education so differently. And so, um, I think my push really was going to be for the team
071to have alignment with providers, um, to make sure that we're communicating well with public, to make sure that we're communi communicating well with parents, including, um, like future parents, but also like I don't know, maybe family planning, you know, just to start making sure that that becomes a norm in our community. And then one comment I did have on JB that I thought was kind of weird. I'm not sure if you guys did talk about it, but the dates um you know beginning in the 26 27th school year and then like I always feel like a policy has to be able to um exist like 10 20 years from now. And so to have those states to me was a little weird. I'm not sure if you guys uh I get what you're saying like
072actually in the policy itself. >> Yeah, because I feel like that would live more in a memo about the policy as opposed to the policy itself. >> Agreed. >> And so that those were just some of the flags that I had on the the dates like I think the August 15th and September 30th is fine, but also does that change ever cuz the calendar? Yeah. And I'll just add like as a used to be preschool teacher and still love little minds. I I think there is more and more conversation around kindergarteners being five and being ready and being able to and you know there are definitely kiddos who are able and have the resources and have the opportunities or are gifted and are able to go into kindergarten earlier. But I do think that there
073is a push for that statewide. And so I appreciate the team's commitment to like finding doing the research. I think that's important. I think it's important for us to not just do something because, but to like have be research based. Um, but I also think it's super important for us to make sure that we are as much as we can communicating it with partners, families, leaders, ECE leaders, and also to have alignment because all of us do depend so much on each other. Um, and so I just wanted to make sure I gave the team that push. >> Yeah. You know, and to be honest, I will say we've been working on this since 2018, and it came before um the board chair last year, >> okay, >> with that same push of like don't
074bring it to policy committee unless you have talked to providers, unless you've gotten input from them on what their parents need. And so we did frontload um Dr. Park and her team had a series of meetings and outreach to local preschool providers to check in with folks and share what are your concerns, questions and and specifically ask a question like how do how do we need to communicate this to your families? Um and so that work has happened and so a lot of that feedback would be in forming the communication um plan that would happen frankly like the day after this policy is finalized if it's finalized with the adjustment. Um, and then I would also say the alignment is also really important and I've been talking with our neighboring superintendent about this. There is
075absolutely a shared interest in aligning and a shared understanding of the why. Um, every governance team is going to work at their own pace. But I will tell you from those superintendent uh conversations, you know, Garfield R2's are Garfield 16 is already there. Um, but in terms of RE2 in Aspen, there's definitely a shared interest in alignment. Um and again that that why was shared across our superintendents but I can't speak for their process. I just know that that interest is there. Yeah. And I think my push comes from a place of like seeing that initial conversations with leader and wanting you guys to very finely execute the roll out in a way that doesn't cause confusion. Um, okay. Directors, we'll now have five minutes for open discussion. Are there any further comments or questions?
076>> Yeah, I had a question. Um, have you guys ex I'm sure you have. Maybe tell me about how you've explored the implications for headcount like the predictive work that we do in the spring around how this is going to change because does that mean we're going to have a tiny class like we're going to those bridge years are just going to be smaller? It's a really good question and we've we've actually talked about that quite a bit of the economic impacts of this. I mean eventually there's a catchup but you do um you know if we if we assume that children's birth dates are equally distributed across the calendar year and um the impact of this could potentially be a drop by 1/8 of the population of that little class of whatever 20 39
077or something um that would carry with them. Um, and so if you take one/8 of a kindergarten class across our five programs, what's that? You know, what does that do? Kindergarten, what does that do when they move up to first? What does that second? So, we've been talking, we talked about that with executive team where we financial impacts of this. Um, we went back to school leaders, those numbers directly impact our staffing and really pushed leaders who have been strong advocates of this shift. you do realize this will result in some impact on your student count. You think that us, you know, initially we had talked about um moving all the way to August 1 and doing it over two years. We had talked about maybe one year and I think some of these conversations
078about economics and the pack shift that and frankly also just alignment with knowing that 16 was already August 15th and then not really wanting kids five just before school starts on August. Um the other thing that we're anticipating is that for the families that were planning to enter the you know the kids who would be acted next year with the grandfather And then And do I have anything? And then we did postpone our finance committee meeting to the 27th. So we didn't have it um this the beginning of this month or on the 20th. I think we rescheduled it. When did we res Yeah. So we rescheduled it to the 27th. So, um, that was the only committee that we were expected to have but had to reschedule. Um, I think that's all everything on
079my calendar. Any Okay, if there's board members, did I miss anyone? No. If there is no further business and there is no objection, the meeting will be adjourned. It is 8:40 p.m. >> Thank you team. Thank you.