001It is 5:30, so I'd like to call this meeting to order. Um, our first item is approval of agenda. Do we have a motion? >> I move that the board of education approve the agenda for January 26, 2026 as submitted. >> Second. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> I I >> I >> um Okay, the motion's passed. Sorry, we're thrown off because we're not saving our normal. [laughter] All right, our next item is pledge of allegiance. And as we rise, I'd like to invite the gold camp students to um help us lead the pledge and also come take their spots around the room. >> [laughter] >> I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible and justice for all. Our next
002item is student spotlight. And as I mentioned, we have Gold Elementary here tonight. And so I'd like to ask Miss Becky Royal to um get us started. Thank you very much. Um good evening, President Melo, Superintendent Peak, and other board members and cabinet. Um I am again Becky Mur, principal at Gold Camp Elementary. I have the distinct honor of introducing our um student spotlight this evening. Uh we have our sixth grade scientists under the direction of Mrs. Marty Marcus, our sixth grade science teacher. Um they've been immersed in a uh extensive project-based learning um where they developed their own uh experiments and had to follow the scientific method. So um I introduce Marty. so she can give you a little details of what you might see this evening and um and invite you to enjoy
003our students um efforts and their great presentations. They were um very excited to be here today. So, thank you. >> Thank you for hosting us. We brought one or two of our students here today. They were very excited uh to come. So in sixth grade science, we had the opportunity for inquiry based learning. So they were put into diverse groups. They got to choose a phenomenon that they wanted to investigate. So it was really wonderful to see um that collaboration, that teamwork. Their team decided on a phenomenon. They learned about all the steps of the scientific method. Um and so throughout the project we saw um you know that leadership, teamwork, analysis um they had to perform the experiments, look at how they interpret the data and culminated with them presenting in front of their
004peers. Um so it really was a great opportunity for them to explore phenomenon and how we combine that um with that student centric student driven um project learning. Um so we also really appreciate and we want to thank the board for being so supportive of projects like this so that students can um grow and wonder right in that um safe environment. Um, and I know they're excited to talk to you about their investigations. The neat thing was, like I said, it was student centered, so they got to choose what they investigated. Um, so please, as you walk around, ask them about why they chose that, what was their independent variable, dependent variable, constants, how many trials they did, what worked well, what didn't work well. Um, so we really feel like this is something that's
005going to prepare them well for the future. So, thanks. I hope you have fun talking to them. and I'll be walking around Mrs. Roy. So, logistically, help out our girls in a little bit. If one or two or a couple of you could go to a table, then the students are going to have about three minutes um to to share and then the next person at that table will share. So, if you stay put, I know you only get to see the two or three at your table, but that's what we you gave us 15 minutes. So, so if you could kind of spread out, that would be great. And then, um, cabinet, if you could fill in, that would be wonderful because I we counted for five, but it looks like Michael's on here.
006So, um, that would be great. And then we'll get our kids started. I'm going to be a timekeeper. Okay, guys. And I'll be taking a picture. My name's Dr. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. Excuse me. Sample I'm not afraid of Oh yeah. >> Yeah. Looks like we were >> San Diego. I usually teach. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry there. What? Brown sugar. 15 seconds. >> So what were the I know. >> So, how do you expand? So they work [laughter] with expanded That be the best one. All right. >> Yeah. Last rotation. Last rotation. You guys, right? >> [laughter] >> All right, guys. >> [laughter] >> Is that what it was about? Wait, shoulder on paper. You're okay. And then everyone's like I don't think one Gold's in the middle. They're going to be they're going to
007be taller than all the students. You guys sit down or a few sit you on your knees and then we'll have the board members in the back. cuz some of you have all of the super good. >> Okay, all you beautiful human beings, master scientists, you guys looking right here on a count of three. Here we go. Three, two, one. >> Here you've got some family want to take pictures real quick. very still. >> All right. [cheering] So appreciate you have to give them back. Everybody [laughter] Good job everybody. return. >> Oh my goodness. Thank you so much. Great job. the chip bags. >> All right, that was that was the exciting part of the evening. Um the next item is visitors. Um at this time, we'd like to welcome members of the public who'd
008like to address the board. Liz, do we have anyone signed up to speak this even? >> Okay, very good. Um, if I could just say the board welcomes the comments of our Shy Mountain School District 12 community members to include residents, parents, legal guardians of students, and students currently enrolled in the district um as well as former students and district employees. To assure to ensure that the board can accomplish our work already on the agenda, we will be limiting each speaker to three minutes. The board reserves the right to set a time limit on the total time for public comment. Um, in addition, pursuant to open meetings law, issues relating to specific district employees, specific students, and specific contractual matters are not normally addressed by the board in public meetings. The board requests that individuals
009addressing the board in public comment also follow this laws guidelines. Um, we greatly value the comments from the public. And to be clear, this public comment time is for the board to listen to the community. We won't be responding to public comment during the course of the meeting. Um, [clears throat] so who is our first speaker? >> We have Brooke Hoffman, a student, and the session item is performing arts. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Brooke. >> Good evening, members of the board. My name is Brooke Hoffman and I am a student at the junior high. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. I am here because I'm very disappointed and concerned about the decisions to eliminate the full-time choir and musical theater positions as part of the changes happening in the performing
010arts program. I take musical theater and show choir and these classes are some of the reasons I enjoy coming to school. They give me confidence, help me express myself and make me feel like I belong. And for many students, the performing arts is the where is the place where we can feel seen and supported. I understand that difficult decisions have to be made, but cutting back on the performing arts affects more than just one class. It impacts students mental health, creativity, and motivation, especially at the junior high level when students are still figuring out who they are. I respectfully ask the board to reconsider how this restructuring affects students and to find a way to continue supporting strong performing arts programs for us. Thank you for listening to my voice tonight. >> Thank you very
011much. >> We have another speaker. >> Yes, our next speaker is Aolan Yaks, performing arts. Um, so I so I feel like um thank you for um letting me speak and um also I feel like if we had more opportunities in elementary school to um get a love for the arts that would help more um more kids really find out um like more about the arts than having than you know like restricting it to higher their grades cuz I feel as though it is important to have people introduced to what they to some to an option um before they could before they make a decision. Um so like um introduced to so say that you were um wanting to do sports and like because you were introduced to that and you learn you um found
012love for that um then you would um have more of a then you would you know be more open to that. Um, so I feel like having more opportunities in elementary school um really would help um PE all of us um find what we want to do for the higher grade levels and in life. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Do we have another speaker? Yes. And next would be Dustin Gatser. Hi, my name is Dresen Gats. I am another um member of the performing arts and I'm kind [clears throat] of not a huge fan of the idea that um the arts programs are getting cut back. A lot a lot is important to me about that because it's the one place no matter how much of myself I am I I only feel truly
013whole when I'm at the musical theater and you know the lot [sighs] a lot of people feel the same. A lot of people love the arts. We can say things and do things in a lot of other classes we wouldn't be able to. We aren't restrict our mindset isn't restricted as much to one thing. We can be as insane as we want or as calm as we want. It's it's like true freedom. Not just being able to do something when no one's watching, but being able to do something and be supported for it because a lot of that is, you know, not appreciated. So, yeah, please don't cut back the arts. Thank you. >> Thank you, Justin. >> Do we have any more? >> Yes, I've got just yet. Uh thank you board members. Um
014two of those were my daughters since we share the last name that probably makes a lot of sense. Uh I'll try and keep this to three minutes but I wanted to talk about they addressed the changes in a way that I obviously couldn't but I wanted to talk about the institutional structure and I first wanted to thank some of the um members of the board Dr. Aldridge for spending time with me earlier and helping me understand like what's driving this. When I look at the three pillars, one of the things I heard a lot is the three pillars that make up Cheyen Mountain district and the excellence. Academics, athletics, and arts. When I look at those three, two of them have a support structure that I don't see for the arts. So when you look
015at the um advisory committees, you look at the advocate or whoever sits in there to help design the overall program that covers the school district, I see that I see a lack there in terms of that engagement. So in terms of addressing the kids' concerns, it's how do we put an institutional structure around the arts that mirrors the athletics and the academics. And I say on top of that, it's also letting these kids, as you hear how important it is to them be celebrated for that choice to do arts. My daughter wore a very specific shirt. Obviously, it says theater is my sport, right? That I think that is probably more emotionally true to them than probably resonates with a lot of adults, right? This is their sport. So the chance for them to be
016seen and be celebrated as part of that is critical. Um so I think as we as you look at the changes that are necessary and changes the natural course of anything that you operate and run, how can we reinforce the scaffolding that exists for performing arts, visual arts and band all the things that encompass that uh for these kids and the kids to come. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> And we've got Virginia D. You got the whole family tonight, people. I'm sorry. Um, thank you all. It is very important to have the opportunity to be heard. And part of being heard is feeling not only that you get to express yourselves, but that your opinions are duly heard and weighted. So, I appreciate that. Um, two things that I feel haven't yet been
017covered. Number enrollment is down. Um, you guys have a fantastic infrastructure for art and for the performing arts. Your two theaters at the high school are unparalleled, are unheard of for a high school level. There are people that would kill to perform on a stage like that. I believe that you have a solution available instead of cutting back these art programs, these performing art programs that I do think are vital. And I'll get to that real quickly. Um, if you lean into it, one of the best kept secrets is what Shine Mountain offers from a theater perspective and a choir perspective, particularly at the high school level, but also at the junior high. I think that enrollment would explode and demand for these courses would explode and I certainly wish that you would take the
018alternative direction instead of cutting back to lean in to get the word out about what there is to offer. The next thing is I know Cheyenne Mountain in particular leans heavily into the college prep concept. We have teenage suicide crisis in this world. We have overdependence on AI instead of creating things yourself to sit there and use chat GPT. We have a crisis of social media and kids inability to connect. Choir and theater are major in this coming time. When you go on stage, you instantly connect with whoever you're with. your ability to present or to do public speaking or to make things up on the fly um is directly taught and impacted by these kinds of classes. It takes guts to get up there and get on stage. And if you aren't getting an
019opportunity really to do that until you're in high school, who's going to be brave enough at that point in your teens to do it? You need to lean in. You need to lean in early. Thank you very much. I appreciate everything you guys do. Thank you. >> And that was our last speaker. >> All right. Um our next item is board member and superintendent correspondents and comments. And I just want to start with the um comment that I am so pleased to have had um three students speak to us tonight during public comment and and also two parents because I I I think it's probably been at least six years since we've had that many students come and speak to us and you guys are really important to us. So I very appreciate you all
020coming and being here. Um, second of all, I would like to say that the um Colorado Association of School Boards had its board retreat this weekend, and I just wanted to share a few highlights about that board retreat with um, everyone present at this meeting. Um, one, so I'm I'm on the board of Colorado Association School Boards and I was elected to be secretary treasurer of that board. So, um either either congratulations or condolences, but [laughter] I'm really excited to serve in that position for the next year and I think that it will help me to advocate for Cheyenne Mountain to be in that position. Um, second of all, we got a legislative update and um, Natalie might speak more deeply on this topic um, but the state is experiencing a significant funding shortage um,
021to the tune of um, maybe around a billion dollars and um, unfortunately education is expected to be cut. There was talk that, you know, one of the best case scenarios might be the return of the negative factor um because some of the other ways that education funding might be cut might be less equal equitable among the districts. But we do expect a decrease in education funding. Um with that, I'll ask if there are any other board comments before we move on to superintendent comments. I want to say I attended a lot of sports activities over the last week and it's just fun to see our kids um participating in those activities um and um looking forward to upcoming art shows and concert things are all happening. So it's it's fun just to see our students
022excelling and enjoying their passions. >> Sure. All right. Um Dr. Peak on to you for comments. >> Great. >> Thank you. Um well it is uh board appreciation month although we're at the tail end of the month and um to our surprise Miss Lindsay so and Shy Mountain Elementary School surprised with the big banner that you see right behind you. Um, so they wanted to um shout out some love, but I know um I I can speak confidently across the district for all of our student, staff, leadership, I believe for our parent and community at large. Just a significant thank you for your service. Mr. Gray, you too on camera. Um what you do for our student, staff, and families in our community. steadfast leadership, the ability to to have stable leadership is um such
023a gift and it's such a gift for for the school district to continue its important work. So, thank you for that. Uh you have a small token of appreciation aka crumble cookies. So, hold them dearly as otherwise we might swipe them from you. Uh they're delicious, but thank you so much um truly for for all that you do. A couple of uh um highlights. Uh we do have uh we had an incoming freshman orientation on the 21st that was really successful turnout for our incoming uh freshmen. Uh recently had open mic at the high school that was a successful event back on January 13th. We have a futures concert coming up on February 3rd which is fantastic because we have our elementary bands and our junior high band and our high school bands. Night of
024one act plays is also coming up. on February 12th. I think tickets go on sale at the end of this week. Um so there's uh some upcoming art activities, lots of things going on with athletics, um boys basketball, girls basketball, ice hockey, girls swimming, boys wrestling, and girls wrestling, which is our new newest sport. And we have a terrific team. Uh Mr. Robert said we're in the low to mid20s for membership girls wrestling. So, uh, check out the, um, calendar for different events that are coming up. Lots going on in that world as well. We have our family awareness network event, um, that's going to be, uh, fan is hosting mindfulness and positivity project. So, uh, many of you know, um, Meg and Jeff, and, uh, they will be along with some of our very
025own students, and that is, uh, scheduled for February 11th at the high school starting at 6:30. So, there was a blast. I'll send out another reminder here soon to all of our staff and families. Uh, our DAC parent survey that of course we rely on heavily every year for rich feedback from our parents. We often have over 2,000 folks that respond, which is great. That window opens February 9 through March 1. We will be sending out obviously um notifications to be on the lookout for it through our socials, email, and text message. Uh and then I wanted to take an opportunity to ask Dr. Claudio if he would just share with you a couple of brief updates about preschool. And I'm going to ask Mr. Miller to share a couple updates around solicitation of getting
026more information from the district out to our patrons. But I'll start with Dr. >> Thank you, Dr. B. Madam President, members of the board. Um, when I first came on board, one of the things that Matt Gordon talked Matt Gordon talked to me about was extending our preschool program for our four-year-olds under the under the guidance that we are going to inspire passion um through learning. And so he has moved mountains over at Canyon, but he knows that we could do more. So the business proposal that he put forward was increasing the time that our four-year-olds would spend in preschool, allowing for more phmic awareness, funological skills, fine motor skills like handwriting, letter formation, which would be huge for our kids to be ready to go into um kindergarten. The three-year-olds would actually lose about
02715 minutes a day. um they would go from um they currently receive 12 hours, they would go down to about 11 and then our four-year-old program would actually gain three hours. So it would go from 12 to 15 all within the scope of UPK, Colorado UPK. Um the increase in time, again, it's it's it's huge for our four-year-olds and their readiness to go into kindergarten. Feedback that we've had from parents and staff has been incredible. They understand the difference between the academic rigor and the time spent in classroom between three and four year olds. And so they totally understand the importance of having more time for our four-year-olds. Um and we just look forward to continuing this conversation and we'll update you more as the time comes. The most important piece about this um change
028for the preschool would be that it's done with the same amount of staff and we don't have to increase any staff or anything like that. So that's the best part. anticipate >> we we anticipate budget neutral or even favorable for us also um less important but understand this is always a challenge is um does that mean anything changes for start time and end time >> thank you I apologize I left that out >> because the reality is about parking and drop off and pick up >> thank you for bringing that up Dr. You got told you for forgot about that. Right now, the junior high school lets out at 3:15. Preschool will be letting out at 3:45. So, there wouldn't be any interruption at the junior high school pickup time at 3:15. >> And the
029start times are still the same, too. So, inside of that structure, we're looking at that adjustment to to increase on the learning opportunities for four-year-olds where we know we're going to get more traction, their readiness for kindergarten. >> Great question. Um, is this an either or an and and? In other words, have we done any looking at what if we kept the same for three-year-olds and for four-y olds added in just a little bit more and what the fiscal note would be on that? >> Based on the teacher contract time, we wouldn't be able to increase that without figuring out how to increase staff salaries because it would it would take up their lunch time and it would increase um and it would take away their planning time as well. We don't know what that
030exactly would be >> other than looking at that financial piece. No, math. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Which challenge did you want to add to that? >> Are you asking if we should increase three-year-olds? I just wanted to clarify. >> Keep the same for three-year-olds. In other words, instead of decreasing time for three year olds, what if we just added some time for four year olds? Got it. That was the question. Then what would the fiscal note be on that? Because clearly it would take more staff time, right? But I was just wondering, you know, what would that look like since it's a relatively small amount of time? Is it an either or or or could we do an and? That was just my >> We certainly can examine that. That's
031part of our conversation. >> We're actually exploring options for the three-year-old program because we're finding we're not getting as many three-year-olds. And what I'm hearing are things like, uh, I want to send mine to the church because I can only do because I can do two days there and you guys only do a four-day program. I'm finding mommies that don't want to quite let go of their three-year-olds for four days in a row right off the bat, which is different from when I had a three-year-old because I was like, "Take her." [laughter] Great. So, we're just exploring options on how we might be able to try to get more three-year-olds in to begin with, whichever way works best for families. For sure. [laughter] >> Yeah. And and we have not done a really good job
032of advertising our three-year-old programs. The last advertisement that went out was strictly for four-year-olds. And so, we know we've got to increase that as well. But that's the followup piece that Matt and his team doing and I'll share with cabinet when we get that. >> Yeah, good question. Mr. Miller, would you be able to share a quick screen and give a little background? >> Sure. Um, really I think I'm just presenting what M Dr. Kleiner has kind of nudged. Uh the conversation that we've had is just how do we start engaging more of our community that doesn't have students in our school district and really that's come to okay let's start some sort of an email notification or email text depending on how we follow through with this uh so that we can start engaging
033them and at least allowing them to know about things like hall of fame or you know we always do I'm blanking the golden ticket >> concerts. >> So, it's like offerings to sport events, offering to some of the arts, those type of things. They're already here and a lot of them have a lot of time on their hands. They just aren't necessarily invited um to those things specifically or individually. So, the thought really came uh Dr. Kleiner was like, look, I I've got parents in the district. I know that they have people that would like to be on the list. So, we've collected a certain amount of names and and addresses to start with. The goal is to start that communication out to them to try to build that list further. Um, there's also been
034conversation about maybe talking to parents of their last child is leaving uh the 12th grade and adding them into that because most of those people are also still patrons in the community. With that, we also kind of built out a web page that has a place to basically land them into all of the things that would be related to a patron that doesn't necessarily have a a student in the district. The main ones at the top, um, some of which you've seen before, uh, you know, connecting, being able to add to that app so they get some of those live feeds and those type of things that you guys see that come through on our website. as principles or Dr. Pink are posting. Uh but the other one that we've added in here is this
035join an email list. So it's just simple. They click on it. It's a quick form. What's your name? What's your email address? We can look at adding other things that we may find important as we go. Uh but this at least gives a new place for us to send stuff. This would not include emails like, hey, we have a Satie Hawkins dance or we have a two-hour delay. This would just be some of those bigger items. Uh we also have the district newsletter and then as you go through you guys are on there. Um calendars is something that regardless they seem to want to know about whether they have grandkids or or others others. Um so there any of these things we could add or take away from. Uh but we these are the pieces
036we chose as of right now. The goal is just to give them a landing page that they could reference and that we could put in in frequent emails. >> Side note, had uh our tradition of excellence foundation board meeting today. And I also just shared a sneak preview with the board, the foundation board, and they were ecstatic about the prospects of also just piggybacking on exactly what Greg was describing and what you Dr. Klein have shared about getting more information out there. So I think one of our once we have this kind of solidified our goal really would be to take any list that already exists to put them on and then also to send out a blast to all staff and all families and include a link that we would ask staff and families
037would you kindly just forward this on share this with anybody that you know that might be able that might have interest. So, if people are part of HOA groups or nextdoor groups or any of that or they just have emails of friends who are neighbors um to just kind of start getting the word out that way and we're hoping that this will gain some traction. >> Thank you. Very excited. >> And also have an opt out. So, anybody that gets something and they're like, "Hey, I didn't want this." They can just >> click a button, >> pick a button, opt out. So, >> yep. Thanks, Craig. >> So, when is go live? because I have a lot of people send me as you know like I'm not gonna send this please tell me it's okay.
038>> I'd say our next step will be trying to draft what that communication looks like. I know there's already a first draft and then grabbing that list so we can start building that in the structure. >> Give us a week or so to get some of that solidified. >> Yeah, >> we're [snorts] Yeah, we're ready. We just we're ready for information. >> Yep. Great. That's it. [snorts] >> Okay. Um, before we move on to new business, Michael Bridge, I realize I skipped over you. Did you have any comments? >> Only that I wanted my crumble cookie. [laughter] >> Yours? >> No, thank you, Susan. I appreciate it. And thanks, Natalie, and everybody for the updates. I appreciate those, too. >> Okay, so on to new business. Um, speaking of Natalie, >> the approval of the
039consent agenda first. >> Oh, thank you. Um, approval of consent agenda. We have a motion. I move that the board of education approve the consent agenda for January 26, 2026 as submitted. >> Second. >> Very good. All in favor? >> I All right. Now, on to new business. Natalie, >> yes. >> I didn't give you full budgets, Grace. So, that's a lot of [laughter] you. Look, they have >> I know what it is. I watch my budget. [laughter] >> Who knows when my copier budget goes up? >> Okay, so budget. Everyone has a hard copy of the budget in front of you. Um, inside your packet is is this little uh sheet that has some green brackets. Um, this is the third and final budget of the of this fiscal year. So, this is the
040budget where everything comes together. Um, we have final October student count funding from the school finance act is recalculated and number statewide numbers are finalized. All of our staff is hired. Salaries are assigned. Benefit levels are known. We've been through our October column movement, so we can incorporate that in there. Grant allocations are finalized. Building allocations are recalculated based on the final student count. [clears throat] Um, we have all of our final carryover amounts, finalized beginning balances. We've reconciled final expenditures and revenue from the previous year. So, I know what to increase, what to reduce just based on last year's numbers. And we've done our December mill levy. So, this is the budget where we finally know everything and we can put it into the document and give it to you for the final budget
041of the fiscal year. Um, the document I'm just going to look through the document here with you real quick. If you turn to the first page of your cover page, it's where you you'll see some red the cover memo. Everything in red is what's changed from the previous budget. So hopefully it highlights it very easily for you. Um instead of having to go line by line throughout the budget, I try to summarize it in the cover memo for you. So for this budget, our final PPR ended up being 11,100 um per FTE. That's an increase of $310 over last fiscal year. Our student count ended up being 3,622 which is an increase of 20 from last year which is good. We're going up in the right direction. That does mean we're now out of averaging
042at least for this year. Now averaging h can happen any given year. It just so happens this year now because our count is higher. We're not averaging our our count and we're funded for the full 3,622 students. >> [snorts] >> This budget because of our increased student count is showing an increase of 97,000 from the last from the last budget that we did. So whenever our student count increases, it means more funding to us. So that that's a good thing for our budget. If you look down at the bottom at the bulleted number at the bulleted items under revenue, um I just uh reiterated the same things about our student count, our FTE, and our total revenue. you turn the page. Um, some of these things we've already talked about. Now, we have all of
043our gral allocations set for revenue and for expenditures. So, cumulatively between all of our grants, we're down about 13,000 from what we had budgeted the previous year. And now we have expenditures to match on the other side. Per all of Stacy's work in the grant, those are now outline item by line item in the budget as well. Um we have act uh accurate counts now for helper gifted and talented state transportation and rate act and cumulatively those have only decreased by about $5,000. Um this year universal preschool is projected to decrease by about 66,000 from reduced preschool student count. That will change next year though. [laughter] Um, our equalization adjustment, we had to add that this year. Um, every few years CDE does an audit of our student count, our transportation, our food service, and
044if there's any discrepancies, they you either have to pay back money or they give you money if there's any issues with their audits. So, there was an audit done back when Walt was still here right before COVID hit where we had to pay back money for about 12 kids, I think. But with COVID and with everything, it kind of got followed by the wayside. A letter went to wall. COVID hit. They shut down. We shut down. So then they reminded me nicely this year that we still owe that from a previous audit. So that was just a onetime thing that that will come off and then that would come off the budget for the following year. Um again, we we adjust revenue and expenditures as needed to reflect what we anticipate. And this revenue in
045this budget shows our increase in the levy override increased by 2.3 million. This is where that money is now being shifted to the capital projects fund. So because it's onetime increase to the MLO because we know that once we go for a bond down the road that's going to reduce back down to its normal number of 9.3. So we don't want to get used to that in the budget because it's not going to be there next year. So, we transfer it to the capital projects fund into a line item that we're using for any type of pre-bond work for architects, owners, rep, any type of work to get bids, prices, anything like that. Um, expenditures. You can see there's not a lot of changes there because mainly what this budget does is just bring in
046line all the line items for salary, benefits, um, health, anything like that. Um and again we talked about the title funds the the actual expenditures are now um allocated to each line item based on the consolidated application. So the the top line on the next page shows that the general fund is projecting a deficit of 985,551. That is a decrease of 306,965 from the previous budget. I'm going to come back and talk about that in more detail in just a minute. I'd kind of like to go through some of the other funds first and then talk about that general fund and what that deficit means. That's okay. So, the other funds, um, there's not a lot of change in the other funds. Risk management is the fund that we use to pay for our general
047insurance, property insurance. um we now have the actual uh premiums built in and our property casualty decreased about 532,000 from the previous year. So we are showing a contingency in that front of just over $2.4 million. That's a good strong um contingency to have. Um, back in the day I thought 500,000 was a good contingency to have and then our property insurance didn't double, didn't triple, didn't quadruple it was five times what it was. So I like Huh. >> It was a really tough May. Yeah, >> we were very fortunate that we just had strong contingency balances and general fund and capital projects that that wasn't a big hit to us. I mean, it is don't get me wrong, but we didn't have to cut any programs or cut anything to pay for it, but
048building up that contingency makes me comfortable just in case anything h unexpected happens in the future to have a strong uh fund balance like that. Um, I do anticipate that general insurance and property insurance will decrease, but just in case, we're we're a little protected there with that with that contingency. Um the food service fund revenue and expenses just match our anticipated revenue and expenditures. Um the food service fund is completely self- sustaining. So it completely pays for itself, pays for its own salaries, benefits, expenditures, everything. Um we have a pretty good contingency in the food service fund. So we do try to do a good job of trying to spend as much as we can out of that fund that we can alleviate from the general fund. So any repairs, maintenance or anything like
049that that is in service, we definitely make sure and push to that fund. Our land revenue and expenses are we get very little money for land revenue and expenses. Basically, we let it build up for a couple years and then we'll spend it um on some asphalt replacement or concrete. Um at this point, we um have a contingency there of 52,000. So we're going to let that ride for a little bit. that builds up a little bit more. We'll use it for some of my projects. Um I did build in the sale of the easement that you guys approved last May. Um that's where the revenue went into that fund as well [laughter] for the 15,000 um bond fund. We just updated with um actual uh payments and expenditures from the from the bond letter
050that we just approved. We have a contingent there of $9 million as Dan O'Connell came and met with you last month and kind of talked about how that balance would be used for that service. Capital projects revenue and expenditures did not change much. There's a few things that we added to the budget, but we're still showing a contingency of just over $5 million. So, Capital Projects has a good contingency in case um something happens, [clears throat] boiler explodes, anything along the lines, something that we're not anticipating, we have a good contingency there to hand over projects like that. The insurance uh revenue, I'm sorry, insurance reserve health fund and dental are both strong. um health fund is showing a contingency of 360,000 and the dental reserve is showing 261. Those are pretty good strong fund
051balances that that um will continue to grow or at least by themselves. Um real quick if you can turn the next page is your index. The page after that I've incorporated just the little funding somewhere in the budget. You've seen this before, but now I actually just incorporated it into the into the budget. It shows our increase um of 20 students from the previous budget. It shows that the PPR went down $7 from what we were projecting last budget, but overall we were up 97,448 in revenue from the school finance act um after the student count was done. If you want to jump up to page 59, I want to talk about the deficit in the general fund and kind of what that means. So, I'm passing out a little packet of paper for you
052to look at. So, that's a general fun page 59. page. Yeah. Oh, and I'm I'm sorry. My guy had a handout that you're you don't have access to at the moment. >> That's okay. >> I can email it to you though, >> right? Thanks. >> Greg might take care of that for me. [laughter] Uh yeah. >> Yeah, thanks. There we go. >> Okay. So, just a recap on on how the history of of the deficit that we have in the general fund. So, back in 2223, our budget was projected to be at 49% of the fund balance. That's a pretty high fund balance. as typically 30 or 35% is a more reasonable amount to maintain cash flow and to help offset unforeseen financial burdens. So when I'm talking about maintaining cash flow, the bulk of
053our money that we receive, we get in March, May, and June. So whichever fund balance you end up with at the end of June has to kind of last you to get back to you get your bulk payment in March. So there's always a cash flow that you want to make sure you have enough cash flow to make payroll and everything like that all the way till till March. Um a lot CDE and my good friend Glenn who used to work at D1 will tell you 25% is a good fund balance portion. I disagree for smaller districts in case you have the unforeseen expenditures that happen all at once and you need some sort of contingency to help weather a storm or handle handle any emergency that comes up without having to cut programs and
054stuff. So that's where my 30 to 35% comes into play, not just for cash flow, but also for any type of unforeseen emergency that you're just not planning for. Um so we made the decision to intentionally spend down the fund balance by giving um substantially higher raises than we normally would have in 22 23. Um using fund balance for recurring expenses can be tricky. You have to be very strategic and thoughtful about your future budgets because when you're using it for reoccurring expenses, if you keep pulling from your savings account, eventually your savings account is going to dwindle down, right? because you can't reduce you can't reduce your recurring costs. So the challenges with what we did in 22 23 is just one our volatile school finance act just not knowing what our revenue is
055year after year kind of creates a tricky situation. Um we just have to be prepared for any reduction in revenue or or whatever the state might throw at us. Additionally, the challenges with spending down balance is your uncontrollable increase to expenditures like utilities. Got to pay for utilities if they come in. Perah, if PAR decides they want to increase our portion of what we pay for in benefits for employee, then you automatically increase your salary just by that much. Um, insurance, as we all know, can hit us at any time. So, things like that that are uncontrollable, make a challenge when you're running a deficit in your budget. So our goal was to get to a more reasonable fund balance somewhere around 30 to 35%. Um our goal is to work towards balancing that budget
056strategically by reducing the deficit each year slightly to eventually come out of the deficit. And then um all while trying to stay competitive with salaries and benefits because that's our number one asset. 85% of our budget is salaries and benefits. And the last thing we want to do is lose any ground with where we are with paying for salaries and benefits because if you start coming falling back on those um on the salary schedules and the benefits, it's hard to get caught back up. So, we have to maintain we have to be competitive, especially when our district orders all these other districts whose PPR is going to increase higher than ours is. we have to be very strategic about ensuring as many dollars as we can can go into salary and benefits. So, it's kind
057of a quite a balancing act. We want to reduce the deficit. We want to keep salaries and benefits high. And we want to get to a balanced budget. So, in order to do this, um one, of course, we have to be fiscally responsible all of our expenditures. We're all we all continue to evaluate areas in the budget that we can reduce. um things that maybe don't apply anymore or maybe could be changed or looked at differently. Um we have to be very cautious about additions to the budget. Um we can do additions to the budget, but it's all one pot of money. So if you have to siphon off to add something to the budget, it it affects how much you can pay out in salaries and benefits. So we have to be extremely cautious
058and thoughtful about when we add to the budget. Um, if you go to the next page, this just shows a model of of what it looks like on how we can reduce our deficit year after year. So, we can never project accurately on out the next five years because you never know what the revenue is, what your student counts going to be, and everything that you do. But what is very obvious, the first column shows our current budget. We have budget revenue of just over 51 million. We have budget expenditures of just over 52 million, a projected fund balance of just over 21 billion. And our current deficit is 985,551, which is a 41% fund balance. Right? We know that 30 to 35 is where we want to be. So 41's good a good fund
059balance. So what it what this model shows is no matter what our revenue increases by we have to ensure that our expenditures only increase by by half percent less than what our revenue increases by. So if revenue increases by 3% then our expenditures can only increase by 2 and a half%. Um and that goes the same if revenue increases by 2 and a half% we're going to want to keep our expenditures at 2%. So, it kind of gives us an idea when we start seeing the revenue forecast, what we think school finance act is going to do. Um, go ahead. >> Oh, sorry. When we start looking at those numbers, it kind of gives you an idea of what we're going to have to do with expenditures. Um, there's a scenario uh the third one
060down shows, well, what happens if we don't have any new revenue? Well, do we still want to try to reduce the deficit by by a half a percent to take it down to about 247 a year? So, it just shows it just shows that no matter how the numbers play out, our expenditures will have to be less than the amount of new revenue we take. If we follow a model similar like this, we would be out of our deficit spending by 2930 and we would still have a fairly strong fund balance percentage. You'll see those numbers are like 34.75% maybe 35%. Some of them are 39 36 which are higher which means we have more wiggle room to what we do with the budget. And each year what we will need to do is just
061kind of re-evaluate and bring forward actual actual numbers from the previous year. So the deficit that we budget for is worst case scenario. So that 985,000 deficit is if every position is filled, if every staff member is is being paid in so far, the full deficit since 22 23 hasn't been fully realized because we've had a hard time keeping positions filled. We budget for every position and sometimes you have pairs that you can't find or that quit mid year and you can never refill those positions. So, as we don't completely fully realize the full deficit, we roll that forward and then re-evaluate each year to see where we're at. >> So, Natalie, as the only board member who was part of the board who decided to start this. >> Yes. >> Um I recall that
062um I I would just like to let her let the rest of the current board [clears throat] understand where we started when we did this. I think that the deficit that we planned for that first year was somewhere between 1.4 and 1.7 million. It was a large deficit, wasn't it? >> It was. It was um because we've been chiseling at the size of that every year. >> It was 1 I think it was 1.8 million that first year in 22. >> It was close to two. >> Yeah. So I mean I I feel really wonderful that you know it we talked a lot about it. It feels nervous to to a lot of us to even say the word deficit, right? >> But this is a really I feel like that still feel like this
063was a really logical plan and I love to see that we're at the point where we've basically cut it in half since we started in 2223. >> Yes, absolutely. >> So I really appreciate your excellent management of this really complex budget. >> Thank you. Yes, like I said, it can be extremely tricky when you're def when you're deficing. The best way to do it is to spend it down for like one time expenditures. But when saving benefits is 85% of your budget, there's not much else to do the one time to spend it down. And when you have a fine high fund balance like that, it was the great thing to do that that year because we gave I'll show you on the next sheet. We gave 8 and a half% raises that year. And
064that's where the bulk of that that money went to. Um so in 2223 you'll see that that was the year we gave 8 and a half% raises and we um covered 100% of the insurance increase. So in total for salaries and benefits we were able to do a 3.8 million increase to salaries and benefits when our projected additional revenue was only 1.7 million. Um, and then we did 7% raises, six and a half percent raises, and then last year was when when it had to drop to 3.3% for for raises. So, that gives you an idea of the new revenue coming in, but how much we were still trying to spend to invest in salaries and benefits and how we wanted it'll give you an idea moving forward when I say, oh, new revenue might
065be 1.2, might be 500,000. If you go back and look in here, you can kind of see what we did the previous year of where we're at. Um, so this is was justformational for you to kind of see what our history is because we'll start having a lot of conversations at each of the next meetings as to where school finances, what we can do with the budget for the follow, anything like that. Um, so my last page is just kind of some takeaways from all of this information. Um, that the deficit was strategically planned as a way to increase salary and benefits and reduce our high fun balance. Um, currently I feel like we're in good shape with our budget. So long as we just stay focused on what our goals are and what our
066strategic plan is, I think we're in good shape. Um, our hope would be our plan would be to get back to a balanced budget about 2029 230 and that would be about a 35% fund balance. Um, bulk of the budget is recurring cost. Um, we're going to continue to make salaries and benefits a priority. Um, we will continue to re-evaluate each year once we see what our final deficit spending was. We'll carry those forward. So, that will always change the numbers year after year once we look at actual numbers. So, down at the bottom are just a couple things that I know of right now for school finance. Um, so too early to really know anything as we know this is just starting the conversations. It's going to go back and forth. Susan mentioned already
067the challenges that the state is having with their gaps um with their financial gaps and a lot of people are under the impression that school finance is going to be hit the worst because last year they felt like we were protected given that we actually got additional money while other departments actually got cuts. So, as of right now, the runs that are showing on the school finance on on CD's website are showing um a 2.3% to inflation, 30% implementation of the new formula. Three are averaging from four, which right now doesn't affect us. And right now, that revenue is shown that we could potentially have an additional $1.2 million. It's just the beginning of the conversations, though. That was just from the original governor's budget proposal. Those conversations are happening as we speak right now
068and are probably already changing. The one that really concerns me, however, is the proposal to use um specific ownership tax. So there's there's a lot of conversation happening at the state level to use specific ownership tax to back fill a lot of the of the state budget gaps. So specific ownership tax, part of it is built into our formula. So when we get our student count, we run through all the formula. Part of our funding comes from SOT. Another part of our formula, we just get um from SOT. The our district gets 1.4 million above and beyond what the school finance act gives us for SOT. If that goes away, we automatically lose $1.4 million right off the top. that would be detrimental to our district. So, I've already reached out um per case's recommendation
069to Senator Schneider and Representative Pelle about our concerns with this this potentially going forward. They've heard back from Pelle's office saying they are not for it. They're not for anything. They've cut um K12 funding. They think this is sneaky, so it's on their radar. Senator Schneider's office was still trying to look into it. I haven't heard a lot back from them, but this is the one thing we need to really be vigilant about and and try to get head off in any conversations we have with anybody because them pulling the SOT to go back to the state to help their funding issues is going to hurt every school district. >> Yeah. One thing that um one reason why Caspy's taking the position that this is not the way to go about um rearranging the money
070is um this is going to be an inequitable cut among the districts and I think that we're a little harder hit than some districts by the specific ownership tax proposal. >> I think we're a little bit harder economies to scale, right? So for us it's like what did I tell you David? Just over 300 per student. >> Yeah, higher percentage for us. >> Higher percentage for us per student because of our size. >> Yeah, it's three. It was a high 300 almost per >> which would be a size. >> Yeah. There's uh and I shared with Miss Miller and Dr. Kleiner so I get other copies with the rest of you. But um case as as Natalie mentioned has also been strongly advocating um that really it is kind of shifty in the eyes of
071moving things around when really school districts rely on this as part of the court formula and have done so since 1994. The other is um the Colorado school finance act which or I'm sorry school finance project Tracy Rainey and but we are members and they also produce some information. So, I shared a couple of copies. I could certainly forward it to the full board if you're all interested in seeing it. But basically, it says exactly what Natalie is summarizing what you shared that we we need to do our best to be supporting CASBY in my mind supporting case supporting the school finance project and advocating where and when we can. Uh we don't want a $ 1.4 million hit to us. And as you can see just from what Natalie is, you know, an initial
072projection that would mean we start off going into next year already, you know, 200,000 plus in the whole >> when we think about how are we navigating salary and benefits that we need to continue to try to be competitive with. So it's tight. Yeah. >> The room's fault. [laughter] >> The Broncos game for something. >> So, um, there are a couple motions on the budget. Yes. Okay. I move that the board of education adopt a resolution appropriating funds and revising the 2025 2026 budget for the Cheyenne Mountain School District with a total appropriation of annual revenue revenue and fund balances of 1 million 9 $19 million 917 and $354. Motion two let's one first. Thank you. Do we have a second? >> Second. All in favor? >> I I All right. Motion one passes. Motion
073two is I move that the board of education adopt the resolution authorizing the use of a portion of beginning fund balances as authorized by Colorado statutes. >> We have a second. Second. All in favor? >> I I >> I Okay. Second. Motion passes. All right. We're all done with the budget. Now we have first readings on policy review and revision. >> Great. Was uh not wanting to inundate you all with too many but I would just a a quick um high level of what you see from first reads. put into parentheses if it's actually a policy that we would be recommending retired because it either is no longer supported by CASV, it's significantly outdated andor we already have this covered through language and other existing policy that CASBY has. Then there's also some that are
074in PNS with review and that's not to be tongue and cheek of the fact that of course you review when something comes as a first read but this is really um as we move forward and have some of these policies where there's been no um no change in in statute from what we can tell no change from what CASBY has articulated to us but the last time it shows as a date review um dates back many many years and so we want to do at least our due diligence with those particular policies and have a concerted effort that you've at least gone through a review. If there's nothing further than what we u go through here this evening we'll footnote that and I will not bring that back for second or third reads. we will
075I will just simply communicate to CASBY please just make a note that we reviewed for the month of in this case January of 2026 and they'll simply update it and we will leave it alone. Um there's a couple of slight uh maybe typo or something there. Correction. Yeah. Right. But if it doesn't have any substantive, I would suggest that it unless you see or want something different that that would probably follow up. If it doesn't have a obviously if it has a retire that is for three reads and if it doesn't have a review or or retire that would still be for three reads as well. Does that make sense? Okay. So, I will jump right in. >> My problem was on the board. [laughter] >> Just so uh yeah, a we would recommend retiring.
076We already have this captured either by practice or existing policy or procedure as we hasn't supported this in decades. Uh any questions on that? Okay. The next is AD. Uh obviously this is one to update because we actually have our uh mission vision and core values that are marketkedly different and excited for that work. So that's articulating that uh policy beab use of electronic communication by uh schoolboard members. Um, this one is an example of just demonstrating uh I just got to double check I'm looking at my footnote. A review. So, uh, this still reflects what is required by statute, still reflects what CASBY recommends. So, if we're okay with that, we'll just update as is. >> Okay. All right. The next one is BEC executive sessions. Same. This is a review. Uh and uh
077any no substantive changes. I just capitalized a couple of things but uh and I added the additional CRS's that were missing but nothing has changed in terms of fazby or the statute. Are we okay here? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um the next one is BEA notification of school board meetings. Again just capitalization added the citations but nothing has changed by statute or by we okay here. [clears throat] >> Yes. >> No questions. Okay. >> All righty. Uh BB this is simply called agenda. This is actually Casby policy as well and just speaks to um proceedings in the framework accordingly business meeting um again and no change um at all by statute or by casume no news good news keep moving okay be same thing Robert's rules of order of which we follow is highly recommended
078that casby Okay, there be BE DF voting method. Um [clears throat] I or no in alphabetical order when we remember just just kidding. No sub no changes by statute by CASB with that BEDG minutes. Same again nothing of a change. So unless the board has any see we have any more. Oh, BG >> BG school board policy process again consistent with CASBY. It is exactly what we already do to a T just adding some capitalization on a few spots but okay there too. >> Moving right along. Also my B I uh B I school board member compensation uh expenses insurance liability same thing. Um no no changes and this one's a little bit newer. We actually did this one since uh I but uh what we're trying to do is get to at least a
079fiveyear window. So we've been here for five years along uh CA admin positions. This is just way outdated and um recommendation is that this moves forward through the process for retirement and then uh CC administrative uh uh organization. [snorts] It's actually we would move it to be um yeah from school building administration to administration administrative organization. There was since a change in title I'd recommend that this one actually goes through for three reads because we're changing the title. >> So okay otherwise substantively still the same and obviously we're add we're adding CRS. Okay. Any other questions on first reads? So, as it as it stands right now, we will have um uh two retires and one that just has a name change going forward for second reads. Make sense? >> And new mission and vision
080>> and a new vision vision. So, a couple Yeah. So, we'll have like three or four they'll come forward. The rest they won't keep going forward and we'll just update CASBY this week and >> it's great. It'll be preview a little bit shorter list. >> And then uh for if we good to go to third uh readings, there were no changes from second readings to third readings. We had two particular policies, social media and websites that I know Greg went through from a couple meetings ago and IF Stacy had gone through a couple of meetings ago. So, um, unless unless there's any, uh, concerns about either of those, those do need a motion for approval, and then I'll update those policies with CASBY as well. >> Ready for it? Yes. All right. I move that
081the board of education app revisions to policy EHCA, social media and websites, and policy IKF, graduation requirements upon readings. Do we have a second? Second favor I >> I all right policies and we're down to set and announcements. >> So in your packet you have the rest of spring semester. Lots going on. So be sure to >> check in on your calendars with our different uh visits all the things associated with that. came at 7:30 on Wednesday morning. >> Yes. The day after tomorrow. Yep. Uh so an early start on Wednesday morning and then also from just a request from uh I think either from you Susan or from the previous meeting just asked uh Liz to just get an initial draft of schedule for next year. Just know it's very drafty [laughter] word but
082we're just going to say it's very it's drafty. You should put your coat on look at it. You might feel a little chill in the air because it might change a little bit, but it's the general approach that you I think will anticipate is the beginning of the year is always a little busy. Then we get into a bit of a pattern and then we've got school visits and then the end of the year gets busy again. So, nothing else. >> All right, this meeting is a journ. >> Enjoy your trip, Michael. >> Thank you. Good night, everybody. birthday.