001Roll call, please. Chris Brown here. Amy here. Nancy Walker Katie here. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God. You have before you the approval of the minutes of the board to approve. Second roll call, please. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi John. Hi. Hi. Hi. Next we have agenda. Approval of the agenda. Move to approve. Second. Roll please. Chris Brown. Hi. Amy. Hi. Nancy Hopper. Hi. Jess. Hi. John. Hi. Smith. Hi. Hi. Next two special presentation we have Miller and then the 256 budget. I hope you've all had a chance to look over the budget that I sent to you. I was just going to rehighlight the items that were um used the assumptions used to come up with the budget. We're looking at
002a deficit for general fund of 197603. we do expect to come in un under that because there's always unveil position things like that. So that's our conservative everything was full employment. That's where we end up. Um the state equalization came from I think it was the May 7th May. I looked that up as the latest numbers we've gotten from state of Colorado. We assumed 15 pupil increase which is pretty moderate. You never know what's going to Otober all the other revenue amounts were based on 2425 revenues. It could go up slightly. We just didn't have any solid information on that. So, we just left it flat. Um like I said, salaries were budgeted at full employment and that but it could you never know. Um the cap reserve on page 24 reflects anticipated lease payments
003to Bank of Colorado for the Pioneer construction based on 2.2 million. Um, and I'm going to meet with Cameron tomorrow and talk about that and see what our next step is to move forward on that. Um, the insurance reserve, we use part of the beginning fund balance to cover 2526 because we've over allocated in the past and so we have a fund balance that we can use. Um, and finally on the building fund, it was assuming that all the HVAC build will be cons will be finished in the next two weeks. If that doesn't actually happen, I'll have to adjust the budget in January to cover whatever spills over into this year. So, any other questions on budget? Okay. A public comment. Okay, we're going to move on then to reports. We have board um
004I'm going to report that on June 10th, 11th, and 12th, the state board of ed was here and they were conducting their regular uh board meeting on the 11th and 12th. I what they're kind of doing is just doing a traveling road show uh to different locations across the state instead of staying in Denver and having their meetings. And they had asked for a tour or presentation and so um did that on the the Tuesday afternoon and so that was going to pop up a little bit. What I did is I kind of did a historical PowerPoint from the beginning of time from when what we knew about Morgan starting out as Camp Tyler and Bordo and then becoming Fort Morgan. And what my focus was really on is trying to demonstrate the different uh
005individuals who have lived in this area. You know, starting with Indians um the pioneers that came through what the significance of the fort was. Uh it was only in existence for years. I people think it was here a lot longer than that. Um, and then as time went on when the the German settlers came in to work in the the fields and then the Spanish coming in, the Mexican American people coming in and working and then to where we are now with the the African refugees um went into some of the founders of Fort Morgan and the impact they had and some of them of course working um uh and establishing scholarships. Even I learned a few things I one of the things the big house that Vinnie Lar um had was called the Roger
006mansion and Mr. Roiger was fluent in German and Russian and so he worked for the sugar factory when it was formed in 1906 and part of his job was to help those immigrants coming in from Germany uh but both the Germans uh into settling in Morgan a lot of you gone driven on the DLD that Denver Detroit Lincoln highway and so forth didn't realize that that was people on that. So there was a lot of old history here in Fort Morgan and so I just kind of wanted to share that um and the impact that a lot of individuals had and support this gentleman here, the other one. Uh it was really funny because I went to the museum to talk to Brian Mack who is a curator there and was making sure I had
007some of my facts correct and he said, "Well, that's my fifth generation grandfather." And so it was kind of fun just learning things like that. It was fun. It's always fun to listen to the board. to listen to their agenda. Kate Clworthy was the first uh school board president and so just just little little things that were fun to glean. I want to just say Nancy congratulations on a really really great PowerPoint. You you just did us all proud. It was so good. Thank you. Thanks. It was fun. I like history. But yeah, lots of different people like the years ago that Glenn's George Glenn served in the legislature and um the Williams family scholarship and and we all know about Glenn Miller but Louisis and Mattie Miller are buried at the cemetery. Um Glenn
008Miller is not I was a nurse and did a lot of delivery of children and just just lots of fun information about Morgan County. Also talked about seven springs. I just want you to know that um two of those I was either a principal or a teacher too. So I'm sure that's something else. But then we talked about the Rainbow Bridge and the impact that that had the floods in 35 and that county was very dry and the outlaw marshall that was really shot and killed on the duty chasing after someone with bootleg liquor. And so down at the Manhattan Cafe which is on the corner of Main Street and Railroad Avenue Southwest one was the Manhattan cafe. Talked about the armory and the Germans soldiers of war that were held there. Brush had Italian
009prisoners of war held there. Talked about the big oil boots that came through. So lots and lots of things happening. That's superintendent report. That was really good PowerPoint presentation and I enjoyed getting to see it when we went through it. So, unfortunately, I was not able to be here. I was out of town when the state board was here, but I heard relatively well the It went very well other than that's good though. Um, so I don't have much on here other than um the uh u cop that we're going to talk about for the project down at uh here. I know we talked about using some extra money to to do some playgrounds, but it's recently come to my attention that is just about shot and what they do every so often is they
010do what they call a turnkey job on it and they sand it down the whole thing. They do they can do that five 10 times gone. Um I think we've hit that So part of that money I would like to at least go on record to say that I think we should consider doing as many playgrounds as we can in with that high school uh gym floor. Um I do know that right now there's some leaking issues at the high school several buildings across the district. However, starting in two weeks, we are getting all of them replaced, all the roofs replaced um through a a claim that was made uh a year or two ago and we we're just now getting paid out for. So, the company's starting and hopefully we'll have those leaks fixed
011and uh we'll have um you certainly don't want floor in there unless it the roof is fixed. So, unless you have any other questions for me, that's my report. Next, assistant superintendent assessment. Good evening. Um, you do have a discussion item later on the agenda for Lincoln High School's um actual plan measures as an alternative education campus. Those are things that we're required to submit to the state by the end of June. Um, it's sorry I keep pressing this button. Um, their map it has to do with their NWA map scores. returning student rate and their credit course completion. And they actually fared pretty well in all those categories. Now, how that all equates into their school performance framework will not be seen until probably what late August or September, but we are required to
012um submit those to the state. I did provide you with a little bit of um additional data in my report, some NWA data um across all grade levels. It's the district level profile. We are going to be getting a better growth premium report. I should be getting that by the July meeting to share with you. I I will say that our data generally at the middle of the year looks stronger than it did at the end of the year. Um pretty much across all buildings. I've had a lot of conversations with um principles. I will say high school their first year out the gate with NWA actually um they did really well for growth and um I attribute that to like doing a lot of work with goal setting with high school students especially and
013so um thinking about Rob and I have had lots of conversations about just goal setting and really thinking about um where we're at. So, um if if it's any indication on what CAMASS scores look like, it'll be fairly um there's a correlation report on how you can take NWA scores and a Colorado report on where they kids usually end up on CAMASS. I don't put all the eggs in that basket to be honest. But I will say that um the preliminary CAMASS results from the state level of course they're all still embargoed but just high level from the state they're seeing an increase a little bit in math and pretty flat in ELA. I would say that's pretty similar on our NOWA data. um dibbles. We would expect to see um if we want to
014really move kids off of read plans, we need to see a little bit more movement out of intensive um scores. And uh there are some schools that did all right. Um, happy to dig in deeper if you'd want, but I just wanted to give you a high level and until we get all of our the rest of our data, um, we do have schools really working on uh, unified improvement plans already and so high school has done a high school, pioneer, and green acres have we've spent hours with Cindy Ward as our consultant for those buildings on turn priority improvement as I shared with you in the past. Um, really solid conversations about root causes, where we're at, and how we're really going to what what Cindy says is how we land the year is
015how we launch the year, how we take off in August. And just a huge kudos, I think, to the admin teams, the high school admin team, um, Pioneers team, Adriana and Zach have dug really deep. And then Carol, we met last week with Cindy, um, because they just finished their diagnostic review and There are definitely some themes that have arisen from both Pioneer and Green Acres being in turnaround and I think a little bit different at the high school obviously but we've already been doing a lot of summer work with common formative assessments at the high school. Um high school teachers have really dug in deep um which is awesome and that that leads to kind of one of the um things going into next year is English language arts is up for adoption. And
016as you know, we've been piloting CK CKLA, sorry, that grades um pretty much K to 5 across all of our buildings. Minus Coline dual immersion looks a little different with their biiteracy pathways. Um I've only taught a few times CKLA, but what I'm recognizing is our kids are not spending enough time in text. Um a lot of research says, you know, you need in front of the books like they need to be interacting with text. And after a lot of conversations with um Cindy um it started with Cindy and Adriana at Pioneer saying how do we get kids text because we were only piloting CKLA um we have heard a lot of really good things about McGraill Wonders. Um it it has come highly recommended to Shelley as like the CLLD director. A lot of
017bigger districts that have a lot of multilingual learners are utilizing Wonders. It reminds me honestly of 25 years ago when I was in the classroom where you have it really nicely laid out for you, but you have leveled text. Kids are really digging into um into readers. And if if you want to know the truth of looking at our data, it's we're really not making a ton of strides. And I wouldn't expect to see it probably for three to five years, but um One of the other pieces that I've recognized about CKLA in full transparency is uh we don't have 90% of our elementary teachers are not traditionally trained and the materials for CKLA are very hard to navigate if that makes sense. So if I'm I'm traditionally trained so if I'm picking up a
018teacher's manual and trying to decide what are the most important components to teach my kids today um it's it's hard to navigate. Um whereas Wonders is a little more and I I use the word scripted and some people don't like the word scripted, but there it's really nicely laid out for a teacher to not have to like figure out which materials to use first and which materials to use next. And so, um I just wanted to put it out there. I'm really hoping that um Adriana and Carol um we've had a lot of conversations about their those teachers transitioning a lot earlier in the adoption cycle um because I want the other buildings to have a chance, but as I've talked to Cindy and I've talked to Rob about it, um I've always been a
019as the curriculum person, I like to use one program. Um however I think now is the time we really need to get pioneer and green acres um really moving the needle on ELA I mean ELA math and all the things but um the writing components also very strong and wonders so just I want you to know I reached out to the company um we've actually been working with sample materials at Pioneer just in May just on a whim like let's look at the let's look at the lesson plan structure let's look at the what materials look like so um I guess questions about wonders. Questions about wonders. I know that is supposed to be heavy in science and social studies content. Does this other program as well? Yes. Yes. And um the beauty is that
020we're still we're seeing a bigger increase of instructional time for social studies and science using um discovery science at fourth and fifth grade and then also studies weekly. Um it's the papers that they use weekly in in um the younger grades. And so yeah, I would say that um it's maybe not as heavy in social studies and science. it it's a lot of more rich like just text that kids can interact with and the vocabulary and the vocabulary is huge and very explicit whereas again I've only taught a few lessons in CKA in grade five but you know you think about the fraer model and all these things on how you explicitly teach vocab with studentfriendly definitions it's really nicely laid out wonders so you said that the some of the teachers were using it
021What feedback did you get from them? So, well, it started with Adriana saying, "Hey, I want to check this out. Would you support me?" Sure, I'll support you. ELA is up for adoption next year. Uh, can you get me some sample materials? Sure, I can get you sample materials. How many do you want? All my teachers want to try it. So, we basically got digital access um to begin with. And then Adriana has actually um done a beautiful job um asking it's nice when you have the same vendor or like the same person at a company. She's been working I worked with her since I came to the district level and we're getting names of other um school Colorado schools that are using it. Adriana has figured out the scope and sequence in a 4
022day school week on how to actually fit all of the instructional time in. Um, that's where I think we've been lacking a little bit on the consistency of a schedule of how many minutes each building has, what's our best first instruction um, instead of just layering in interventions. And I think that that's where I see wonders really coming in nicely. But yeah, the feedback from teachers is um, they they loved it. Again, they've only really utilized it for like a couple weeks, but You know, I'm looking at the DEL's data and boy, the importance of early instruction and the validity and because if you track if you track the further up the grades go, there's a lot more red and that's extremely concerning. And so I've heard mixed feelings about whatever it is. Um, some
023people like it, some don't. Some have heard on So I don't do that part of it and so forth and that goes back to my so to me as long as the program is meeting the standards that we're supposed to be doing and teachers have to get rid of their pet projects and teach the fidelity. I don't care what program it is because we've got to get a lot more yellow, green, blue here and get some of this red because you can just see the trend. I will I'll tell you I joked with Rob last week or a couple weeks ago and saying could we rename the board policy not curriculum adoption cycle but high quality instructional materials so we get used to having the language of the curriculum is the standards it doesn't m
024you have to have high quality instructional materials that you can put in teachers hands and honestly navigate um and until again in full transparenc until like April when I went and taught those lessons at Pioneer in a fifth grade room. The teacher, she taught two of her blocks and I taught one of her blocks and her and I chose completely different things to focus on. Um, which that was in my I was like, whoa. Um, but I agree with you. And so we did get C samples K to five. Um, so actually Tara came over and got the samples to look at for kindergarten for wonders. Just so just just an FYI. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I I think the district piloted or utilized this program this year, but Bakers had that
025program for the longest because they were earlier on with it. The pilot for CKLA, they jumped in first. Yes. And not every building jumped in kind of at the same time. So yeah, this question. So then going back to the data, I don't see a lot of difference in the data. I would think that my concern is they've had a longer time, but their scores aren't any better. And so then I think we need to do the root cause analysis. Is it the program or is it the instruction? Uh again, because if it's instruction, that's what we need to be addressing because the rest can come into play. Yeah. And then to tie into that whole curriculum instruction materials conversation. Just one last little piece is um we're in the we're going to be in
026our second year of the MTSS grant and we did meet last week and we've tied out a really solid um response to intervention referral form because we really want to make sure that tier one universal instruction and some scaffolded supports are happening before we just launch kids into these other um intervention systems. So you're absolutely right. I mean the data is very telling. It's a tier this is a tier one. We've got to really address the high quality rigor um not just for ELA but if you look at data just generally we need to really be focused on that for instructional practices. Okay, other questions. Moving on, we have a charge is not here tonight but we have support. Yes. Want to cover that or Wendy mentioning it here. Um, big thanks to Dr. Vicky
027Davis and to Jason, Mr. Fasco for putting this safer grant together. We got awarded just under $1.3 million a safer grant in order to get um their high power monkeys. Um, and so they will communicate with police department. Thanks to those guys for doing it. It's going financial officer. Um I don't have any additional items other than the budget, but when you get to discussion item A, I would like to make a couple points. On to discussion items. A, the honor import. Um, we, um, have an engagement letter receiving from DNC, which is who we used last year. They were phenomenal from my perspective, and we're still paying less than half of what we were paying before. The audit fee went up $2,700, which is minimal for one year jump. Um, so I would like
028to strongly consider them as our auditor for this coming year. questions. Okay, moving along. A Lincoln High School actual and planned measures as an alternative alternative education campus. Thanks. Moving on. 2425. Oh, that's also me. I I just actually love that they prov um provide this report to us every year just about the partnership impact that um just the dental project has alone um for our students. And so they break it up by school, how many kids they've seen, um how much basically um dental care was provided. So a huge kudos. They sent a nice thank you card. Um, so they do that every year and I think it's nice to highlight. I agree. Thank you. Uh, moving on, we have D discussion items for Oregon High School girls softball program. I believe Mr. Edson
029is here to give us some information as well. Maybe Clint or maybe it's a show. Hello everyone. Those of you who don't know me, my name is Greg Essie, new athletic director at the high school. Uh very excited to be back in Fort Morgan and to uh be working with the kids here in the district in the community and uh yeah, excited to be here tonight to talk about the possibility of more opportunities for those kids. So, I know that there's a lot of stuff in the spreadsheet that I sent out. Um, I worked with BSN, who's one of our product vendors, to kind of, all right, we're starting from scratch. You know, what's it going to take to to start up a program? I'm sure there's some things in there that you might have
030questions about. Um, but essentially, everything there is what would be needed to uh get us up and running with the softball program. Um, I know that there's a lot of questions surrounding the program, so I'm happy to answer any of those from my perspective tonight. Um, I I would say before we dig in, you know, I I would like to kind of know what the board's intentions are. You know, are we trying to start a team for the high school or are we trying to build a program for the high school? Because I feel like those are two different things when we talk about longevity. Um, we want to make sure that what we do is not just sustainable, but it's it's something that's promoting uh that program, not just in the high school, but
031also all the way down to the youth level. So, uh, I'd be happy to kind of get your direction on what your vision is for that as we talk about um the opportunity to open up some things. Ask John to speak first because I guess he's worked with um previously the high school and the previous uh director that we had. And so I think I'll let him kind of start and then I know we have other board members that have some specific questions too. Thank you. Sounds good. Yeah, thanks Nancy. Happy to start. Um so I think uh team versus a program and I think what we're really looking at is starting the program and um you know we have some theater teams already in the area um with have it and we also have
032um softball teams in the Wiggins area. Um and so really we're looking at building that program out but giving them an opportunity for a high school level. Um, I know I've been I've talked to two girls that I know that are now Rush students because they moved there. They located to there so that they would get the opportunity to play. I know a lot of uh girls in the area that sports or don't play sports in the fall and wait till the spring for the club team starts so they can get. So, I think it's something that um used to have it. was looking back and Clint, you may know, was it 2014, 2015 was the last softball team? Uh, I believe it was like 2007. Scott Miller was the last coach. Okay. So, I
033know that it was it was the program was decent, but the numbers were f they were in Rush as well. Um, and they made a decision to combine those programs so they could keep a program. Since that time, Russia has recovered a lot. And we don't to the best of my knowledge and correct me correctly if I'm wrong, I think we only have one or two or students that are now going to Russian play. I think it's one. Yeah. And I know we had more, but some of them transfer schools to play so my discussions with the your predecessor um You know, we talked about the February timeline to get into starting the high school program back and I think that there are some some great opportunities. I know there's been some questions about, you
034know, would we be competitive and I know that it's going to take some time to build a team. However, some of those teams that we're competing against, I went and looked and won a game in two years. So some of those teams are in the same struggles and so it's it's always not necessarily uh it it's the cycle of athletes that you get to. Um but I know some of the competitive teams we have here in the area that would be coming into the high school um are very competitive right now. Are those teams made up of just Fort Morgan kids or are they students from surrounding areas? So my understanding in speaking with the coaches after they came in the last meeting um not quite half of the team is from Fort and the
035rest fill in from there are couple of Russian girls there but they fill in the kids are coming from speaking to some of those coaches that have weighted students. Um, we actually are very hopeful we get this program because their options are to go to brush or go to central and pretty much majority of those students that are playing competitive soft don't do anything so they just sit out and I hate to see girls have opportunity especially when there's you know there's a number of girls out there that play softball really good and I think really represent the high school Again, it's, you know, there's a lot of logistics that go into that as I'm sure you know, but some of the club teams are already playing at Riverside to the superintendent. We have cities.
036We just have to work. Um, and I know you put down here on the list, you know, purchasing bats and helmets and stuff. It's kind of like baseball. A lot of those girls already have their own equipment, but um building out the team will certainly understand that as well. Well, and and my piece of that is if we do have a program, we want to make sure we out that program, right? We don't don't want them without the opportunity to be successful because we're trying to scrape together the used equipment or whatever we can find for them. If we do have a program, we want it to be something that not only the kids can take a lot of pride and the community can take a lot of pride. Facilities are definitely um part of
037that. Equipment is definitely part of that. you know, if you have to start from scratch, everything from from the jug machines to hitting machines to those types of practice pieces that you really need in order to to give the kids opportunity to be successful, I think are pretty important parts to have in place um to to get things started. Oh, let me interrupt here. When I originally talked to Mr. mention about this is one of the things uh one of the provisions of title N is that it's not just about your numbers balancing out. It's about having adequate and equivalent facilities for both boys and girls. So if you have a boys baseball team softball team has to have access to the same equipment, same type of facility, same type. So that's why we need
038to look at whether or not they have a bat or not. We have to provide some. We have to prov we have to have all those things that that junction machines or pitcher uh pitching stuff all that cage things like that. I think that would be a that would probably be a portable one. Yeah. And there's I mean there's options. Some of these things have values next to them or quantities next to them. Some of them had zeros. So, when I priced everything out, I asked for a couple of options on things, you know, um and I'm sure there's things that aren't on this list that we would probably need over time as well. Um I wasn't sure, you know, obviously middle of June, um trying to find a schedule would be my biggest concern.
039Um just a short time frame, you know, eight weeks away from the start of fall sports. and being able to to build that out to build it out not only where it's competitive for the kids but um value in it as well uh would be at this stage of the game pretty difficult um even at a JV level to try to find enough games against um teams that we could be competitive with to get things started. Uh my other concern I guess is that I know that there was a survey sent out this spring, gauging interest, um gauging interest and getting a kid to sign on the dotted line, you know, uh would be another concern for getting things up and running right away. What would that commitment level be? Um if it's something that,
040you know, if again to me if we're going to build a program, we go down two levels and we start working with the city and I know that they do have softball coming back this summer. I saw um I'd be curious to see, you know, what the participation's like and the interest is at that level. And then work with those club teams to develop that local club where those rules to get familiar with the game or, you know, it's a lot easier to to to learn the game when you have those opportunities outside of the high school season. when it comes time for the high school season, those are girls that have been playing all summer that are primed and ready to go. If we're entering, you know, with three4s of the team at the
041entry level, trying to build momentum for that program, it takes success. And, you know, if we're building from the floor up, I feel like that would be a better option than just putting a team out there and saying, "Good luck, ladies. We're here to support you." And so I I think that there's some deep conversations that we can definitely get into with uh you know the best way to build a program and that's why I asked you know we get a team together for sure but uh if we truly want to build something that's here for a long time and sustainable I think we need to take that holistic approach to how we how we go about it. Anybody else have a question? I have some things. Um so is the goal for the action
042item tonight to will start the season in August of 2025. Honestly, I wasn't sure where the board was going to go with it. So the conversation we're we're either going to have to make some movement on it whether we vote to pass it for August, vote to pass it for next fall, vote to not pass it, vote to table it, but there's got to be some kind of action somewhere that says we discussed it and now we're going to either vote on tonight or we're going and what that vote looks like is up to whatever the board decides based on the conversation tonight. Mr. Edson, you did a fantastic job with Excel spreadsheet. I am a fellow Excel user, so it looks great. Um, has that number been built into the 2526 budget? It has
043not. Okay. So, if we do vote to do this, I'm going to have to change the budget. I want to have a special meeting to add it to that. And would you throw that number out, please? So that I mean my point of saying roughly roughly looking about a $40,000 start startup um would be the potential. The other question I have too is you said eight weeks but my understanding is if we were to move forward with this we would need to have somebody um lined up to begin practices in two weeks or so. It would sure be nice to have some preseason opportunities for the girls and and again to gauge numbers uh to gauge interest to gauge commitment. Um yeah, that that's uh we're a little behind the eightball. And tell me when
044the timeline is that if we were to move forward with something like this according to Chass's guidelines, when is that schedule? If we were going for forward, that should have been we should have had things done in February. February. Yeah. And that's even that's a little late. I think, you know, this is definitely something to dig into and because we would have to find a league, what league would we play in? Um, would that league accept us for softball only? Is that something we can get in the Patriot League for? If that's the case, you know, the numbers change. We have a new cycle coming after next season. Is it we be in the Patriot League next year and a different league the following year? There there's a lot of logistical things uh that, you
045know, we don't have answers for yet. Okay. I'm going to go to the Sarah, any questions? Chris, I guess I just like to know what your uh feeling is. Should we start in August or should we wait till next season? Well, I'm tech not an employee yet. Um, I'll be honest with you. It feels rushed to try to do this by August. It really is. Um I don't think that the program would have an opportunity to get its feet underneath before it I think we need to have some parent meetings and uh have some input from those parents and those students that are going to be involved in the program. Uh and again work to to really build that program um starting at that middle school or even younger age. I mean, there's a lot
046of skills that are necessary for softball, just like baseball, that that you have to develop that there's a growth every single year when it comes time to develop those skills. And uh again, to be competitive and to build a team that's going to be here 10 years down the road, I mean, because it is a financial commitment and that's just an initial financial commitment uh to get things started. We want to make sure it's an investment in the future of the kids and the future of the program, not investment in equipment that's going to sit out out in the storage shed for for a long time in a couple of years. So that that would be my recommendation to the board uh would be to let's let's start working and forming that partnership with the
047city. Let's uh how can we get more engaged in working with the youth programs and is that something where you know hey we need to have some clinics and have some camps next spring getting those elementary kids hey let's go play softball let's get things going. Um, I feel like the timing is is is starting to come together with what the city's trying to do, uh, with the club interest and the programs that are there. Um, but it's big old softball when you get into high school and, you know, um, to to be competitive and to get excitement. I I feel like we need some things in place. I have a whole list of questions. Um, so let's say we do go 26 27 season and we suit a JV team. How long can we
048sue a JV team before we have to move to the varsity level? I guess is my question. Well, that's where we start to get some things, right? I if let's just say we have 12 girls of our own, we have two or three girls that come from from around. If we filled the JB program, those students that are currently going to brush would have to come play at Fort Morgan. Um, if that student is a junior or senior, are they going to want to spend their junior and senior year on a JV program? Are we going to be competitive at the varsity level? You know, depending upon the league that we get in, that level of competitiveness might might change a little bit. Um, are there ways to schedule, you know, a handful of games
049against teams more at our level in a competitive league? Absolutely. Uh, that's where it becomes my job to make sure that we we find competitive games. Um, there's not really a time frame when that happens, but it's for two years. So, if we choose to play a JB in 26 27, we're locked into that for that cycle, which would be that following year. Once that new cycle began, then we have the opportunity to to play if scheduled to compete for the postseason. So, whatever we did next year, we'll be locked into two years. How soon would we have to make that determination as to where we want to play? Well, if we I mean, as an example, as an example, we have some pretty competitive teams that I think could probably compete at the varsity
050level even though they may be younger players um because pretty competitive now and so I I just curious when do we have to make that determination to we have a varsity and we get that interest in there that would be good to know by next February when we apply to start the program we would have to apply for subarsity or varsity competition and then again whichever league we it'll make it a lot easier getting into the league if we're playing varsity subars for sure. Like I said, the balance then becomes who can we schedule to find competitive games that balances out, you know, the Eagles and the universities and and the brushes of those tougher teams that we might play. Um, you know, it would become a challenge to within the region find those teams
051that you play. So next February though would be kind of that hard deadline. Sorry. Do you know much about the survey that was sent out? Like was it sent to as far as like grade level? I can answer that. So it was sent to all 11th, 10th or I guess it would be current 12th grade, 11th grade, 10th grade, nth grade, eighth grade students. And so we had their group emails and there was and so students basically were would you be interested in softball? what other sports do you compete in you know that was majority of what and then what years of experience and that's where I got the number like 50 I think like 57% haven't played softball before there was each class had a breakdown of I think that was sent to y'all
052breakdown each grade level what was girls interested now in in that there are there's potential for girls that are currently playing other sports in the fall that they would have to choose big, you know, volleyball or softball or cheerleading or softball or you know what or cross country. So they would have to figure out way back to make make that choice. So just sent out to students. Was it sentenc? It was not sent to parents. It was just sent to students. Was it just sent to their student emails? Yes, it was. That's what I was curious about because I I also know how well I'm little sarcasm about how well the students actually read the email respond to them. So I'm actually impressed that we didn't get that over. I will say this in uh
053there's certain times kids will will check and respond like for example when we do homecoming king Wayne royalty they check their email you know they they check and they respond. So, so I mean like they they don't always respond but they they definitely for certain things they definitely make sure So back to the title N and the Wolf facilities would Legion Field be our be the girls softball anticipate home field or where would the home field be? I would anticipate using Riverside Park. Um the the main baseball field at Legion is just a whole different animal when it comes to dimensions. You know your soft shorter. Removing a mound is a undertaking. Um, and rebuilding that mound every year is a is an undertaking. So, I I would recommend that we would approach the city
054and try to make Riverside part of that field that we would use for softball. Do we know if that's a current guideline in our that we currently have with the city? Is it doing that? And how long would having that conversation and then how long would it take to to get that like I mean to go to city council? Do we have to what? It's it's part of the is the last time I was as a former city council member in school district I looked at the a lot of times it was part of it back I don't know four years ago I imagine it's probably still part of that where's not as much usage of facilities in the school district since the fieldhouse has been built and you know other things that they their
055soccer field and stuff so but I would imagine it would be that we could work with them on and they would be happy to accommodate. I don't know what programming they do. I know flag football used to be held there in the fall, but they since moved that to the uh the turf field house. So, I do not believe there's a lot of parading going on for those fields other than adult softball in the summer. But I was going to say the league has started. They do not start until like August 2nd and they go through a the end of August and they will be utilizing those folks and there's let's see 5 to 8 9 to 10 and 11 to 13 age range and I did talk to them today and they said their
056numbers are very high at 5 to 8 but not very great at 9 to 10 11 to 13 but this is kids are having to make choes on what My comments are is I was surprised this was already an answer yet. Um, but I'm on the same train as John, you seem to have like some insight with players and seem to know a little bit more about who would be making up the team just with your network. Do do you happen to know like a list of of players in the community in Fort Morgan that like would definitely play and what positions they play and all of that? Like what would make our team? Um I don't know that I I have specific players, but I do know that I I feel like we would
057have enough to team, you know, everybody coming together, team cohesion, the right coaches, and there's a number of different aspects that go into that. Um, but I think that we definitely have the numbers. Uh, my understanding in talking to some of the coaches last time with the Havoc coaches, they actually turned away 60 And those girls went to the Wings League just so they could play. So they have and they've got 36 girls right now filling out teams from 10 to 14 years. So there's girls team and I'd have I'd have to find out some additional information and get you some more numbers on that. But I agree with you know what Mr. was saying that really at this late point in everything makes sense to look at the 26 season. So, we had time
058to really lay his groundwork and do it right, not just throw it out. Same question except coaching. Have you had anybody approach you about signing up to be a varsity coach? No, I I don't think that we've gotten that far yet because they're really looking at um you know, are we going to have the program? But I know in speaking with you know like last year I'm speaking with that there were teachers in our school district that played college soft as well. So I think that there as far as getting because you played doesn't mean you're a good coach and certainly you can find a coach that's never played softball that knows the so I think it's just one of those we have to that's one of the things that I think to go find
059out is the coaching up. Can we start moving forward with this and gathering that information so that when we hit that time frame I'm going to address it's a question why is it for me it's a placeholder and what it is it gives us direction we vote on whether we vote on it whether it's to table it or whether to bring it back in January or I think December for after we gather more information whether it's you said hey I'm fine with it right now let's vote on it and move ahead or whether it's hey no we're not doing this and then then that sends the message to to our community we're not pursuing softball anymore whereas the other options are we're still pursuing it we're just going to go around a little bit differently
060or we're pursuing it we're going to start now so that's why that's Any further questions, discussion? Sit down. Surprise. All right, we will move on to discussion item B the 256 schools, elementary level and GT and so forth. I'm assuming middle school and high school will be at our next board meeting in July. Middle school and will be at our next meeting and typically the high school does their writing or they have so many we're in the process of going through but if you'd like it in July I can get it to you by July. I'm not saying that. I'm just making sure that I'm clear. I would never tell you what to do. Okay. Any questions about that? All right. Moving on. Third reading. District policy revision policy GDKA length of support staff workday.
061Any questions discussion hearing? None. Moving on to consent agenda of the board. Second roll call, please. Chris Brown. I am Amy. Hi, Nancy Hopper. I just hi John. Hi Smith. Hi S. Hi. Okay. Action items. A. Appropriating resolution to adopt the 2526 budget. Pleasure of the board. Move to approve. Second. Roll call please. I'm sorry. Oh, you're fine. Yes. Hi. Hi. Hi. Action item B. Resolution to approve spending the funds from the beginning fund balance. Pleasure. The board. Move to approve. Second. Roll call, please. I'll do it this way. I think Hi Nancy Albert. Hi Katie Jess. Hi John. Hi Smith. Hi Sarah. Hi. Okay. Item D. Lincoln. Item C. The audit firm DMC Auditing and Consulting LLC. Pleasure. The board. Move to approve. Second. Roll call please. Chris Brown. I Amy Bentham. I Hopper.
062I Katie Jess. Hi. John. Hi. Smith. Hi Sarah. Item D, Lincoln High School actual and planned measures as an alternative education campus board. Move to approve. Second roll call, please. Chris Brown, I Smith. Next on the agenda, E. Fort High School girls softball program. Pledge of the board. So, I make a motion to continue considering offering girls softball for fall 26 season. The board will study and gather information in order to make a decision in November of this year. Is there a second? Second. Could we add one thing to that of having a report back to the board with data prior to that date so that we have more information and made an informed decision? Absolutely. I think that would be the intent of the motion that we gather information so that we can make
063a logical and fiscal responsible decision as to whether or not we're going to move forward. So I do that believe that is the intent that will be apprised as we continue to study. If I am wrong in that someone needs to tell me hearing none, we're good. Roll call. Oh, I need a second. And roll call. Hi grandpa. Hi Nancy Hopper. Hi Katie Jess. Hi John. Hi Katie Smith. Hi S. Hi. F 2526. School handbooks. Pledge of the board. Move to approve. Second. Roll call please. Chris Brown. Hi. Amy Bentham. Hi Nancy Hopper. Hi. Amy Jess. Hi Cody. Hi Smith. Hi Sar. Hi. G. Third reading. District policy revision. Policy GDKA length of support staff workday. Pleasure to board. Move to approve. Second. Roll call, please. M. I Smith. Hi. Hi. H. Donation from the
064Bloodorn Foundation to the Children's Center. Pleasure of the board. Second. Roll call, please. Chris Brown. Imp. Hi. Lindsy Hawker. Hi. Katie J. Hi. John. Hi. Smith. Hi. Sarah. Hi. I Fort Morgan High School Future Farmers of America Officers overnight retreat in Estus Park on August 9th through the 10th, 2025. Pledge to board. Move to second. Roll call, please. Chris Brown. I am Amy Gam. Hi Robert. Hi Katie Jess. Hi John. Hi Smith. Hi. Hi. Next we have advanced planning. The next board of education meeting will be July 14th, 2025. And if there is no further business to come before the board, we are adjourned at 7:59.