LPSD38 Board of Education 6/26/23 Regular Virtual Meeting (full)

001we're going to stop got it and we're going to start off with the Pledge of Allegiance Miss Wood did you have a flag we can use for the Pledge of Allegiance perfect if everyone would um stand for the flag I pledge allegiance on the flag of the United States of America and to the Republicans indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you Miss Wood okay um so first we need an approval of the agenda um and I'm going to start um precedence that we need to start as a board in which when the any item that we view we're going to start off if it's an actionable item with entertaining a motion in a second and then after the motion in the second then we will enter into discussion information items we will entertain

002and and go right into questions thoughts or persons so can I get an approval uh motion for approval of the agenda I'll make a motion to approve the agenda um Mr Claussen has seconded Miss Phillips would you call roll would Mr Clawson hi Miss Phillips aye Mr Norris aye Mr Schwartz hi Miss Upchurch and I am so our first agenda item is uh this is the time of year when uh every year we have to have our budget approved by the end of the month and so and when we do that we have to also in accordance with CRS do a public hearing uh regarding the proposed budget and this is no different with our 2022 3 2024 School District budget and our chief business officer Brett Ridgeway will present an update in summary um

003this is a proposed budget will be considered education approval later in this meeting um so Mr Ridgeway I before you start Miss Wood do we have any public uh comments regarding the budget only no no comments regarding the budget okay um Mr Ridgeway would you like to give an initial overview where we can wait until later in the bud in the meeting when we uh approve or vote on the budget yes I raised my hand actually not virtually uh has anybody requested attending a public hearing with respect to the district's proposed budget no sir okay so in the past do we still have to hold a hearing if no one has come forth to attend it in in the event that someone wants to do so in the last minute or do we simply move

004forward I believe uh still presented if I'm not mistaken Mr Claussen sir can you repeat the question Miss Upchurch um do we need to if we do not have anybody that is attending the public hearing part uh who has not made a comment do we still need to do a public hearing um yeah from my understanding we do correct me if if I'm incorrect Mr Summers Dr Summers yeah I think we're ready we're ready for Mr Ridgeway to do a an overview consistent with the hearing uh and then you can take your your action uh during your action item portion of the agenda okay um real quick it's been brought to my attention Mr Belcher thank you uh the live stream is currently is currently not working is that correct I do not believe it's

005working I cannot see it on our YouTube page I know Vicky is is doing her best to run it so we'll see if it starts working at any point I know during a test earlier today it was working so we'll see if we can't get that functioning but if not uh it will be the recording of this meeting will be uploaded uh following the conclusion of the meeting okay um keepa can you keep us updated that's something that I think is important um I know we have some folks that wanted to tune in live and especially if we have an individual that's wanting to make a public a comment that might be important later as well um but I don't want to hold up the meeting um while we're trying to get that because it

006will be still streamed later correct it will be posted in its entirety so yes okay so let's make sure we can get that working um in the meantime Mr Ridgeway why don't you go ahead and take it away all right very good thank you I appreciate everyone uh joining the meeting today uh I know that that business and budget is a big part of the meeting and so I appreciate the efforts that everyone has gone to to uh to make this happen I'm going to go ahead and share a screen now and work from starting from board Docs uh where the package is posted that I will be going through and so on the item number one B1 or the proposed budget overview I'll be opening up the attachment there and this is an Adobe

007PDF file uh that will that will open up for you I'm also going to go ahead and click on this open on the desktop button and I need to change my my sharing so I can show this one because the reason I wanted to to switch to uh this version which is sitting in an actual Adobe is that it I have the uh the bookmarks available to me over on the side here which everyone would also have if they're viewing this through board Docs so the package here is is is pretty lengthy which reflects some of the changes that we've made over the past year uh by the way I'm almost to my one year anniversary here uh by the end of this week so uh we get we finally get to the point where

008I'm doing things for the second time uh for you all so this budget uh proposal does include the monument Academy budget at the end you see the the items that are listed on the uh the contents the bookmarks bar which is also in the table of contents uh then those are labeled to to bring you to the high level points that uh someone might want to uh go through in terms of understanding the budget this is really the compilation of of the work we've been doing for the last six months uh going back six months really uh to where we did our survey with the overall staff and and then took that into conversations with the staff collaboration committee and then working uh with them and with of course the Board of Education uh throughout

009all the meetings over the course of the spring to build this budget over the course of of those uh weeks and months so I'll just go through some of the pages here uh just for to memorialize a little bit of what we have in here uh and again most of these are something that have already you've already seen uh and already may have seen literally this exact page so here we have uh the Strategic processes and priorities for uh the business office to come up with this budget and again a budget from from my perspective is not meant to predict the future the budget is meant to communicate a set of coordinated assumptions by which revenue is received and expenses are planned to be spent uh based on those assumptions so that when something comes

010in different as it will undoubtedly will as we get into the new year then we'll know what is the what is the driver of that difference and how can we how can we how should we react appropriately to that through these high level drivers of the budget we've talked about the growth in per people Revenue driven by the school Finance act also what is happening to student count uh We've made some some adjustments to the capital maintenance projects for this year returning it to a a an earlier level of spend which has been necessary to maintain and improve the uh the quality of the buildings we have added a health an HSA program into our benefits program and also made a number of changes in compensation which I can go through here in just a

011minute as well throughout the course of spring we had this four C's category approach where we were focusing on um different strategies that we can and will continue to review and to propose and to develop and take and pursue uh as we move forward compensation calendar capacity and culture being those four C's that we want to to work on this slide is of course very important and I know most of you if not all of you have seen this before but this is going back to that staff survey that I mentioned that we did back in the winter items that were prioritized by the staff and we presented here and reviewed with the SCC and the items that are starred are the items that we have specifically now put into place and we have one

012item there number two which we determined after the survey was completed not to be an issue like we thought it was when the survey was initially administered the budget package here has some some historical history which can be used to orient uh anyone in terms of how they might like to uh see the components of Revenue and of course a big component of Revenue is the local support that comes from property taxes and so here we have a historical trend of that property tax revenue in its three major components being the school Finance act also known as the regular mill then we have the that and that's the the pink areas here the green areas is the male Levy override and the purple area on the columns here is the bond Levy what you can

013see here is that uh after reaching a peak well the peak was really in 2006 but the last time that the mill Levy rates total military rates increased were in the 2010 to 2011 time frame and ever since then it's been a steady decline in rates uh because of the growth in property value and so uh because the bond and the middle Levy overrides are focusing on fixed dollar collections there's even a data table there for someone who really wants to get into the minutia of that next if we just touch quickly on on uh student count because it is per people revenue and the funded people count that drive the majority of the budget and so here also is a historical trend of of how that uh people count has has changed over time

014and how it's projected to move into the 23 24th year which really continues the normal pattern of very moderate growth but growth and nonetheless uh for District 38 overall there is a little bit of changing of mix that you can see in this in terms of the components the two major pieces of the district being the operated schools and Monument Academy as our Charter School also have some information in here in the background of how that information that projection was derived with the waterfall analysis uh going back in time and then calculating individual matriculation rates and projecting that as we go forward uh to determine what is that funded people count for this coming year this one page here as we're on page 25 is is a single page which for the operator portfolio again

015covers really the need uh statutory need that you have to know what is the budgeted revenue and expense by fund and how does that interact with fund balance and so this is a sheet that we've had and for a long time and been showing uh over the course of of many meetings but I wanted to kind of maybe take a little bit of pause and spend more time on this slide because this is a new slide that I am uh introducing tonight and trying to bring this to as simple of a point as I can in terms of determining of demonstrating what the revenue that the district receives how it's organized um and I call this so I call this high level View and I call it almost too high of a level view because

016this this does not have any distinctions about what funds are in place this is looking at Revenue sources across all funds and really focusing on the total amount of Revenue that would that the district is receiving some of that Revenue as you can see in that middle comment column is really a pass-through to Monument Academy and then the remainder of that Revenue the majority of it goes through the operated schools down the columns on the left side you can see those different sources of revenue the vast majority of course being the school Finance act funding number on the very top line where the district is projected receive is a little under 64.5 million dollars this year or in 23-24 11.7 of that being allocated to Monument Academy leaving a net for the operated schools of

01752.6 million dollars then as we go down that we can see the other major pieces of funding what I'd like to refer to as local discretionary funding next being the middle Levy override and the bond financing that uh that we receive then there's non-school Finance act specific ownership tax revenue and the reason that this is non-school finance act specific ownership tax is really an unusual interesting item because the the county receives that and remits it to us and they re they do that allocation based on the collections that we're receiving for regular Mills Millennial rides and Bond Mills so there isn't not no more uh science to it than that and so there is a piece of it that is included in the school Finance funding and there are pieces of it that are allocated

018to Mill library and bond financing which are uh still received but categorized just a little bit differently the next line item there is program subsidies those should be uh should be read to mean exactly what that what that says what it means is that there are programs that we have and or are required to have and we are required therefore to spend School Finance act money to do that and if we do all of that then there will be some subsidized funding that will come uh usually from the state also a little bit uh from the federal programs for for nutrition services but so this this is a is a lump sum number of everything from special education funding from the ecea to uh the state uh support for transportation to the federal programs for

019nutrition services uh Etc and so those are programs that we have and that we that we operate but and we can receive some support for them but they are not funded entirely uh by these programs they are only subsidized the grants line is where we receive the most of our federal money uh specifically uh comes in with with uh Title One and monies like that uh that uh flow through the state level but are ultimately sourced from federal government we have a fees and fundraising Line This is as you can see noted as transportation fees lunch fees uh School participation fees all of that that comes directly as as really a a user fee uh for those that are accessing the education services for us and so 4.7 million dollars is the budget for that

020for next year and then a couple items there at the bottom for interest income and all other Revenue so that comes to this 81.2 million dollars all in all funds and the reason that I wanted to project that is to say here is one single number that could be useful but that also of course has has a danger because there's not enough context to this number and that's why the following page which is something that you would recognize that I would would author shows a lot of numbers and adds a lot of context and application of how that money uh then will be used and and different area ways that it can be characterized in terms of Revenue sources with that after that we have the appropriation resolution which is designed to Again cover the

021statutory requirement that we appropriate the funds that we are intending to to receive that means what we are intend to spend as less much less to do with what we generate in revenue and pretty much everything to do with what we are intend to spend so it's a very very focused on the expense side of the budget uh and that becomes the official appropriation uh that the board would put into place as we go into the next year and then as I wrap up here there's a couple of other sections that talk go into more detail about the school Finance act uh what what are the components of those revenues the funded people count Etc we have a section about the staff Compensation Program which talks about the different employee segment bases that we have

022and what um what projected pay change item amounts we are working with as we go into next year again this has been a year of of really a big catch-up the public sector typically lags behind the private sector in terms of uh when you see things like inflation like we've seen these last few months and it takes it takes a a year at least for a lot of that stuff to work its way through the system to really change revenue streams on the public sector side and that's what we are seeing now with the change in PPR that we are able to translate then uh really directly into a change in compensation for our staff behind there you will then see uh uh several Pages dedicated to breaking down the general fund in in its

023various components of school locations uh expense types Etc then there's a section of all other funds non-general funds particularly this will include Mill Levy override which is a a a a project that we've undertaken this year to break that out very visibly and very separately from other general fund Revenue so that we can make that visible to our public and so that fund is in here along with many other things about Capital maintenance uh liability insurance the new Universal Peace School program Etc so things that we account for outside of the general fund fund 10. and then finally the budget package has again has the monument Academy budget and we'll be going through that a little bit more here in a minute as they make their own presentation uh I think the one thing I'd

024want to say about this because I think it's it's maybe a new step for E38 but it is really a necessary and appropriate step for the d38 Board of Education which is the chartering authority of Monument Academy to make a a an action on the monument Academy budget because it is only the d38 Board of Education that is truly elected by the constituents of this District that have the accountability to the community for the local Revenue that's generated that Monument Academy does share in and so it's a really important step that we'll take to start that process off this year here tonight so those like into my formal comments any questions that have come up from anyone in the meeting or from the public or do you have any questions for Mr Ridgeway no everything's

025straightforward I have no questions Miss Phillips I don't have any questions I appreciate all the work that's gone into this over the preceding months especially thanks so much thank you Mr Schwartz none thank you Mr Claussen yeah first of all congratulations on your almost one year anniversary I appreciate the great work you've done for the district and I don't have any questions thank you but I do have one question for you mess up church are we streaming yet uh we have are streaming now anything that uh may not have been missed will be posted later in its entirety but we are now streaming on the YouTube page uh right now it says the date is 5 26 at the bottom but that will be corrected as well I'm sure um so thank you for the

026update Mr Ridgway thank you for all this work I um and I appreciate and applaud that we have um the ability as the school year goes on to if we need to make some adjustments um we had talked briefly about my question to you is the opportunity to get a new set of eyes or new um uh audit by a different firm or an independent firm different from what we've always had in the past so yes as we uh as we close out the 2223 fiscal here uh Year by the end of this week and and we start the review of of that Year's worth of activity we will be switching to a new audit firm uh moving uh forward from the CLA that worked with the district for many years uh and we appreciate

027their their support and their contribution over the years we are switching to uh begin working with holding and Company which is at Colorado Springs based firm uh which is one of the unique and I think valuable aspects of of them and of their presence is that they are here locally in the area versus most all other audit firms are based out of Denver so they've already done a little bit of preliminary work with us but they the bulk of their work will come in September and early October thank you so much and congratulations on your first year I think it's always good to have a fresh set of eyes um for transparency and credibility so thank you so much Mr Ridgway um great thank you since we have no more questions um uh that was

028part B um and so we're moving on to public comments which regarding our budget which we have none so we are now going to move on to um our regular part of our agenda um which is number c regular public comments um and so with that we have one individual that had signed up to make a comment publicly we also have several other uh virtual comments that um that anybody can look at and see and those individuals uh commented on um uh excuse me I'm uh our public comment was one was two regarding our school bus service one regarding our curriculum review uh one from um and so those are available in board docs to see uh one was from Mary organ Dolph and if I pronounced your name incorrectly Mary I apologize another comment

029came from Mr Steve Warman regarding our bus services and another one came from Mr Stephen Shapiro and we do have one public comment from uh Miss Christy Davis um so and I am going to go to our public comments individuals wishing to participate in this virtual meeting regarding any appropriate issue other than the 2324 but proposed budget must have contacted Miss Wood by noon on Friday June 23rd um additionally members of the public May submit written comments online via the electronic submission form these written comments may be received by 12 noon as of today for inclusion in the meeting digital public comments must adhere to the guidelines that are set forth in b e d h including limiting comments submissions to 450 words uh or three minutes and by receiving a digital public comment the

030board of education is not beholden to reading a comment aloud or responding to said comment and all comments will be reviewed then entered into the record via attachment to Board of Education documents individuals who have signed up to participate in this virtual meeting will be assigned to the zoom room um and Miss Woods I believe you have granted Miss Davis access for comments um and from there uh Davis were you able to see Miss Davis yes okay there we go ahead I can speak now yes okay good evening my name is Christy Davis I'm a stakeholder parent of two children in d38 the VP of the PTO at my children's school and the co-chair of moms for Liberty in El Paso County I would like to thank the sport for your time and dedication and

031for the transparency allowing stakeholders to review curriculum prior to voting it is a very valuable experience I recently submitted a review for a social emotional learning program called second step I found a lot of concerning content from second steps creators committee for children CFC provides resources that are littered with critical race Theory diversity Equity inclusion racial bias social justice political propaganda lgbtqia plus oppression and Alicia most of these are banned in d38 within policy IMB which states that any race ethnicity religion color disability sexual orientation or national origin is inherently Superior or inferior District 38 has given approximately thirteen thousand dollars to CFC which is inclusive of Second Step found from information I obtained in a choral request it is not about the money but the fact that d38 could possibly be financially supporting an

032organization that does not align with the values and morals of the majority of our community's beliefs and policy IMB CFC also has resources specifically for lgbtq youth that provides links to glsen a company that provides information on hiding gender transitioning from parents once opened a tutorial on quick exit appears that shows the child how to click three times to immediately exit the site and erase their browser history hiding the site from anyone who may walk in do you want d38s counselors to have access to links shareable to students that teach how to exclude and hide parental involvement in cfc's what is coming in 2023 statement they announced they are looking to add more cultural culturally relevant information and more Equity if this board chooses to renew Second Step please review all of the content and

033be specific on what is allowed and approved I do not believe d38 know of this content nor do I believe you brought these values into your District intentionally I believe this program has and is continuing to morph into something that does not align with our District's values and morals I urge you not to renew Second Step curriculum or bring in any content or material from CFC there are better programs and organizations that align with what our students and staff deserve in this amazing District I urge you to not renew second step in closing why would d38 want to financially support a company teaching acceptance of controversial materials that go against the majority of our community's values and our District's policy IMB thank you for your time thank you Miss Davis we will now move on

034to board member comments um I'm going to start let's go around I'm just looking at the order that I have on my screen so Mr Claussen you're first up thank you um Miss Upchurch I don't have any comments this evening thank you for asking okay uh we now have it looks like Mr Schwartz you're next in the spirit of gravity I have no comments as well Miss Phillips I have no comments tonight either thank you Mr Norris I have no comments thank you and I instead I didn't have comments or anything but I actually have one brief comment I wanted to bring attention to the board um I wanted to bring one initial point to my fellow board members that I was just made aware of today the casby delegate assembly is October 6th the

0357th and the deadline for the resolution submission is August 17th um given our June and July Board calendar we often fall short or scramble to get our resolutions submitted um so while the time frame is too short I would like to propose that we add resolutions the resolutions to our next board work session at the beginning of August we submitted two resolutions last year so they've already had readings and we've already approved them so we could look at those I would propose that we resubmit those two resolutions one was affirming local control of curriculum and the other was affirming local control of our budget so since they've already been written I would just propose that we add that to our work session in in August um and in full transparency if there's a resolution that

036another school district were to submit in response to another education groups resolution I personally would be in favor of that resolution that supports economic freedom so I'm just putting that out there um but we can talk about that with the agenda setting um and then finally the transparency accountability and partnership with our stakeholders is Paramount so governing through polities such as policy kcb which is about public partnership helps ensure that we as a school system are acting on behalf of putting our kids first and in alignment with our Community Values so I want to thank all of our engaged stakeholders our staff our committee members there's been a lot of work that's going on students and parents and if anybody would like some fun board members would like some fun summertime reading uh visit the

037policy sections of our website a few policies I found Goodreads was jldac ihak IJ and IG so that's what I wanted to say like I said I had no plans to say anything about just one to bring that caspi uh delegate assembly to everyone's attention so um Mr or Dr Summers uh superintendent update you're next thank you Mrs Upchurch I'm going to keep the superintendent update very brief uh and I did not prepare a PowerPoint but I did want to do just a few brief summer shout outs uh there's just been some outstanding work that's been taking place over the past several weeks including uh wrapping up with summer school very successful Summer School uh activities this year so thank you to all the staff students families that helped make summer school this year it

038was hosted at Bear Creek Elementary possible we also have our second phase of extended school year that's going to be kicking off here uh in July so again a big shout out and appreciation there uh we have several uh summer types of activities that are going on including summer Sports Camps multiple educational trips we had a group of students who went to Washington DC and then to New York City and then we have some extended travel taking place to Italy and then Japan as well so thank you again to all the uh sponsors who've made that possible as well as Partnerships with ef and all of our students and families who have made the most of those opportunities last I just wanted to do a another shout out to our Tri-Lakes area and El Paso

039County First Responders uh for hosting a mass casualty uh training event at Lewis Palmer high school a couple weeks ago very educational very informative and really appreciate all the partnership that goes into making sure that we're ready for the emergencies as they may take place and again just a big note of appreciation there so with that Mrs Upchurch I will hand it back off to you man this is Upchurch I don't think we're hearing you again it's still in that Zoom thing where you have to tell everybody to unmute themselves um thank you Dr Summers and thank you to your team I know that through thick thin weather and summer you guys are all still uh working hard over there in big red so thank you so much okay so moving on to items number

040D board discussion action items the First on our agenda is the consideration to adopt the 2023-2024 monument Academy um Mrs McClellan uh was um to be able to were we able to get Mr Gustafson in and he's also Kim McClelland in the meeting there's two of us [Laughter] McClellan thank you thank you so much Mr President and I wanted to just um really kind of do a shout out to your Administration team they have been so welcoming and so wonderful it's been nice to be able to work with Amber and Brett again after being in d49 together and it's been great to get to know Casey better and there's you just have a stellar team and it's been really um it's just a great partnership so we do appreciate that partnership um we also Glenn

041and I have been quite busy in the last six months um there where it's a lot of cleaning up that we needed to do and Glenn will talk a little bit about some of the work that he's done in terms of getting us on to a different format more of a CDE approved format and we've been cleaning up account numbers and working with the district on some of our purchase services and whatnot so it has been a um the work we have done is very um it's been a lot of hours but we are really excited and as Glenn has said before it's a very pretty budget he's really glad with how pretty the budget is and how um robust and we've got some really good budget controls that we're going to have in there

042and um we're cleaning up just some operational pieces with budget and with finance and so um we're just really excited about where we're going to be moving into this next year so things are looking up for Monument Academy and um Glenn go ahead and take it away thanks Kim thank you for having me my name's it's going Gustafson I'm the former CFO for Colorado Springs district 11. after 32 years I retired and I'm helping Kim with Monument Academy um as their CFO left uh in the middle of the year in December and I just uh we'll give you a quick Reader's Digest version of your the highlights of our budget so I'm pulling that up right now if you can all see that I think I'm sharing that um there it is I think it

043just popped up so just some of the highlights of our budget for next year we're looking at elementary enrollment of 676.5 Middle School 402 High School 141 that is an increase over the current year our per pupil funding assumptions for both PPR for pupil revenue and the levy override are included our total appropriation for all of the five funds of Monument Academy totals 23 million dollars of course a lot of that is tied up with our the bond issues for our two buildings and our expenditure assumptions you can see for how much we cover for insurance para Medicare Colorado minimum wage and our debt service some of the big changes from fiscal year 2223 is we are implementing a new salary schedule for all instructional staff and new hires and we're raising our minimum starting

044salary from 33 to 37 000 per year in addition all staff got a four percent uh pay raise in addition to the adjustment that staff got and uh percentage rates for our returning staff uh classified staff increase was one dollar per hour and uh inflationary increases depending on their grade or level uh administrators received a five percent and all staff receive a five percent benefit contribution increased to offset the rising cost of health insurance we are looking at a total about 55 new elementary students and 57 secondary students and some of our big changes from last year is we're backfilling the 2223 funding Gap um the fiscal year 2223 uh general fund had an enrollment shortfall and in fundraising shortfall and a number of positions that weren't in the budget that were hired and were

045fixing all that with the 23-24 budget you could see a detail of all the different positions that were hiring for 23.24 and one of the big changes that we're making is we're now going to break out Middle School separately from the high school so while our bond reporting requires us to combine the two secondary campuses we'll be able to in our books keep track of Elementary versus middle versus high school which will allow us for more autonomous growth and accountability between levels of schools and the school by school budget balances you can see are about 179 000 to the good for elementary and this this is an old version we actually were able to balance the middle school and the high school so that they equal zero so I I forgot to change that from

046uh the prior version and uh we have some graphs that just show where our revenues and our expenditures go uh I'm not going to go through those in in the interest of time but you can see all the detailed information on our school by School uh budget both based on program and object and our number of FTE it's interesting to note that we will now have 134 ftes uh working for the school in the new year and all this information is available to you for your convenience and we're excited that we think this budget will position us well to be more additive to fix some of the budget structural issues that we inherited and allow us to grow for the future we still have many challenges with our bond issues so we need that increased

047enrollment to cover our debt service so we think we're on the right track and we're excited to have a a budget that's much more accurate it's CDE compliant in terms of account codes and um it's something that Lewis Palmer board could be very proud of and with that I'll stop sharing and I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have all right board um did we want to do we want to start with a motion before questions I'd like to make a motion to approve the monument Academy Charter School for 23 2023 2024 proposed budget as presented a second is there a discussion or questions anyone oh you guys get off easy tonight um I want to say thank you for your partnership uh uh d38 is a better district with our partnership with

048Monument Academy so um I applaud the work that you're going into this for anybody else that wants to see the budget is indeed published and was up for review uh for us as board members and for the public in board Docs so if there's no more discussion um Miss Wood Mr Claussen hi Miss Phillips aye Mr Norris aye Mr Schwartz aye Ms up Church hi thank you so much Miss McClellan and thank you so much Mr Gustafson um and happy summer to you all and we'll be seeing you guys soon yes um we were just both approved today for another year so you guys are you're stuck with us for another year excellent welcome to the area and welcome to Monument Academy in d38 yeah you're welcome thank you okay so uh moving on our

049next uh agenda item is um are to prove consider and approve our audio enhancement proposal did I miss one no yes I missed one I'm sorry um considered a School District budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 and Appropriations resolution do I have a motion for the d38 School District budget I guess I will do it else I propose a motion that we approve the uh patio uh public address system enhancement as presented in the previous meeting and during our work session before that one we had to take a step back Mr Schwartz were on the to adopt the School District budget the the d38 school district I thought you were on the audio enhancement I know I had my two we're on number two uh which is to consider and adopt School District budget for

050the fiscal year 2023 2024 and the Appropriations resolution as presented so that I'm asking for a motion for our School District budget I'm happy to make the motion I'll second okay do I need to read the entire motion though I it's a little bit lengthy I'm glad to do so yes please miss Phillips okay so I'd like to make a motion that it be resolved that the Board of Education of Lewis Palmer School District 38 in El Paso County state of Colorado in accordance with CRS 22-44-105 that the 2023-2024 annual budget be adopted and that the amount shown in the resolution attached to the minutes of this meeting be appropriated to each fund as specified in the adopted budget for the ensuing fiscal year beginning July 1 2023 and ending June 30 2024. and that

051has been uh the motion has been made by Miss Phillips and it has been seconded by Mr Schwartz um they have a clean record I will second the motion okay and Mr you would like to Mr Schwartz I am fine with you doing it Mr Claussen thank you we need to make sure that once it's read that we we have a motion hence my my request for I'm seconding it thank you thank you so much Mr Claussen um is there any discussion no okay well then we we've seen the presentation prior so um with that Miss wood would you take the vote Please Mr Claussen hi Miss Phillips aye Mr Norris aye Mr Schwartz aye Mr Church aye now moving on to number three to consider approved our audio enhancement proposal uh and this was

052the district leadership presented a proposal to install an upgraded intercom and classroom audio amplification system which is known as the audio enhancement and so that we will entertain a motion I am happy to do that and in the spirit of thoroughness when I read it the same way Ms Phillips did the previous one I'd like to propose a motion to approve phase one pursuit of the audio enhancement proposal for Lewis Palmer Elementary School Lewis Palmer Middle School Lewis Palmer high school consists in with the planned three-year sequence for all buildings as presented is there a second I'll second the motion I'm sorry Mr Norse God said I'll second motion so Mr Norris we'll have Mr North Second that one first sorry miss both um is there any um and can we get a brief just

053a brief update on this one uh sure this is Brett I will I will uh lay the groundwork a little bit and then Casey or anyone can uh can chime in uh Genghis going back to board docs and pulling up the item uh I will uh bring up the exhibit that was attached there and this is this this is the same exhibit that was attached at the work session and what this is is a project that eventually would improve the audio capabilities at every single School uh and focusing in the priority sequence on the three schools that were mentioned in the motion being uh Lewis Palmer elementary middle and high school those being priorities based on their current uh state of their current systems and uh and also the fact that we have work ongoing

054at Lewis polymer Elementary School in particular that allows us to kind of do this project a lot while while it's taken apart if you will for other purposes uh the audio enhancement project really focuses uh on on various things it has a a strong orientation towards the technology and the type of structure infrastructure that it will actually add it has a strong benefit for Safety and Security Programs to the district and also has strong benefits for educational delivery as particularly I think in the elementary schools but uh KC can can talk more to that so what you have here on the screen here is kind of the full project as it would be scoped out and priced out currently we presented at the work session both a two-year sequence and a three-year sequence and the

055reason again we wanted to go ahead and start with this is is to start funding this out of the 22-23 Year money here where we have some contingency money in the general fund which can be applied to this first set of phase one projects for Lewis Palmer elementary middle and high school Casey or anyone for any other clarifications actually I think you hit the key points pretty well there Brett the only other thing I would add is um we will be monitoring closely uh as we move into 2324 to determine if we would rather do a two-year versus a three-year sequence so there is that option that's available to us but I think we'll certainly be pleased to see the progress that can be made at at all three of our LPE LPM and lph

056sites as we work into uh the summer and an upcoming fall so I think that that is uh that's the S and seven unless there's any other questions that we can speak to Mr Ridgeway or and Dr Summers can you share out what what why this is needed what is the significance of this and why are we looking at this right now yeah the simple answer is we have failing intercom systems uh failing and aging um at different varying degrees uh and is alluded to uh Lewis Palmer Elementary School has as their intercom system would be um essentially non-operational going into next year if we did not prioritize this project so that's that's one of the primary reasons and then the other one and I would say is is probably equally of uh note is

057that we have the fortunate ability with this system to amplify the audio systems within each of our classrooms so that all students have the ability uh along with all of our teachers to be able to amplify their their voice through unique and Innovative technology and that's really the the groundwork for audio enhancement uh is creating more enhanced audio systems throughout the school but it has the added benefit of also upgrading our again our ability to have systems communication throughout a school through the intercom as well as alignment to other security monitoring systems um that that essentially upgrades are are safe and secure uh school focus as well so it's it's really if you look at it from a strategic plan for perspective it's addressing Priority One of safe healthy and welcoming schools as well as

058priority two contributing to an atmosphere of academic excellence foreign are there any other does anybody else have any discussion or comments um for Dr Summers is Lewis Palmer the Lewis Palmer Elementary School is that the only school that has a failing um intercom system at this point uh they they would be yes the most significant in need of uh updating or or Replacements um as as soon as this summer uh Lewis Palmer Middle and High School are not quite as drastic but they are not that far behind um so if we were not looking at it doing something this year it'd probably be within the next two years or so at both of those sites so those are the three that are most in need right now uh and then we see the um opportunity

059and the potential to to address all of our schools across the um our district operated schools with this need over the next two to three years 695 000 budget um for these items um you know I think we have roughly 40 million dollars of the Ford maintenance and you know this this would probably be very nice for a school and obviously I always prioritize safety but my concern as one board member is we we have a lot of other big ticket items and as one board member I'm not going to be supporting the motion however I'd be willing to make a motion to fund the intercom system for LP Elementary School you know maybe we take them one at a time as as um you know it really becomes necessary but just simply to update

060everything and have the convenience although once again it'd be very nice it's a very very large amount considering that many experts think we're on the the cusp of the recession I would be a little um trepidatious about a lot in these types of funds considering the unknown coming up with the economy anybody else yeah why don't I go ahead and chime in here on this one director closing those are actually excellent points and uh there's there's some value doing this in a piecemeal format but I was fortunate enough to be asked to join in on a deep dive with both the Technology Group and the supplier who would be implementing installing maintaining it as well as the manufacturer or the foundational software that makes this system work and there is actually some value to the

061ubiquity of having it go across the system as rapidly as possible and the value really amounts to three or four simple things one's Public Safety and the capacity to leverage the IP protocols they used versus the current analog Protocols of the system and go directly to long voice law enforcement fire and paramedics in the event there's a there's something horrible happens and it's about the fastest most secure way to do it secondly there's integration with with ancillary systems like card readers and the like that allows us to really enhance our physical security footprint and create greater and greater deterrents and given that we're an environment of more and more unfortunate horrible events this might be a timely investment to try to get a little bit ahead of it and create some deterrence versus be in

062a reactive mode and this this allowed us to do this in an arc this proposal allows us to do this in architectural step-by-step manner I appreciate that Ron and you know safety is always Paramount but wouldn't you agree with me that you know Radio Systems cell phone systems are also a um another effective way of community communicating with um first Proprietors they are but they're also single point of failure where this creates multiple paths and it's a it's a more robust uh way to do it and it's actually how folks have been other enemies have been migrating for the last decade or so in fact there was a 911 Commission came out with a report that was very specific about migrating away from analog to IP based Technologies for exactly that region and the capacity

063to integrate on one platform if you don't have a backup yes we have backup systems for the just like a house all right thank you I'm just kind of looking online how many times over the last 24 months our internet system our email system went down so um so I I guess for my information you know when our internet system goes down is there another um source to to provide that communication or if the internet is not working at a school and we get an email that it's not does that just let us know that um if there was a catastrophic super beaming cataclysmic event that um we would not be able to contact First providers through the internet system or the voice over IP uh uh if the email system goes down it may

064not mean the internet goes down there's usually multiple Pathways it's built and I I did ask the question it's a it's a great and fair question and they built what's called a mesh design to ensure that if one of the links goes down there's another way to get home of your Forte but if you have a pipeline of data coming in and that pipeline is severed then there's really no way for that data to come in and there are out of that pipeline if no that's why as I mentioned that's why we have multiple paths if all right perfect sorry to put you on the spot Ron I probably should have asked you these questions before we got online happy happy to answer it thank you sir I have a follow-up question um and miss

065Mr culture this may be more your Forte I'm not sure um so when we're doing this um and we're looking at the bids is there a financial or fiscal advantage to doing it all at once or is there a financial or fiscal advantage to doing it one at a time um and is this that's numbered one and then number two does this fit into the long-term plan that you had presented um regarding our our facilities earlier this year uh Miss South Church it absolutely does in the sense that um I I would I would regard this in the in the world that that I operate in as a life safety system um uh you know it is leveraged by the fact that it is IP based which I think is actually advantageous and then obviously

066making sure that we have um you know multiple uh mechanisms to be able to contact and communicate with one another working we and that's why Dennis Coates has been he's been integrated through the process of of vetting this organization of looking at their technology looking at how how the integration occurs he's been he's been with us uh the entire time to get to your other uh question Miss Upchurch um I I find it that if we could do the purchase um as as a lump sum at this time it sort of um I don't know it it puts us in a better situation that we can uh secure the pricing that we need to secure for the equipment um but it as you know these days um honestly it's the labor side of things and

067the ability to sort of Leverage um a team of folks across the district like um the team his name is rulon is going to do as well as the understanding that he has of our district he he and I and um and Mr Mack did multiple walks across every single hallway every single Corridor every single head end of every single Lewis Palmer School District facility so that we understand exactly what it is that we're getting ourselves into you know the ceiling types construction types uh pathway pathway types you know what's going to be difficult what's going to be less difficult um so the the back end homework uh that rulon and his team have done really put us in a great situation to be able to go as fast as we need to go to

068get Lewis Palmer Elementary done and honestly um I can't I feel very strongly about Lewis Palmer Elementary I'm very optimistic about where we're going to be on the middle school and the high school but I firmly believe that by uh Christmas time Thanksgiving time all three of those schools will be 100 operational as well as he has made sure that all of our all of their the labor operations can occur uh in the evenings or early mornings and things like that so that we're not hindering day-to-day School operations from a security perspective as well as a a day-to-day classroom and a school business perspective as well so um I feel like he's done a lot of research he's got a lot of experience both in Colorado and obviously in the intercom business and things of

069that nature and he's done a very good job of answering a lot of questions that we've uh that we've asked of him and we put him on that spot a lot of times and he's also built contingency into all of his um School estimates the estimates that he's provided on on for each school so that we're not going to run into situations where jobs might stop or or things might happen where we're not able to procure or gain the ability to sort of Leverage the labor team and or the equipment that he is bringing into each individual school so I've been very impressed with the team it's been and I feel like life safety issues are those that have certainly run to the top of the stack Miss Phillips or Mr Norris do you have

070any uh to add to discussion before we vote I don't this evening no I don't have any comments okay um I actually appreciate um that I appreciate the uh what Mr claussen's brought forth and I appreciate what Mr Schwartz has brought forth um those of us that have been stuck in an emergency situation such as uh during the Waldo Canyon fire or black forest fire recognize what happens when you have everybody trying to get out on their cell phones at the exact same time and how that jams and you can't get any cell service I'm also sensitive to the ticket but I also don't want to be in this position where we're having to vote for this at the exact same time next year um for a higher cost because of the higher cost of

071materials and labor um so that's just my own two cents worth but I do applaud and appreciate the thoughtfulness that went into this vote for from everybody so if there's nothing else to add let's go ahead and vote Miss Wood Mr Claussen hey Miss Phillips aye Mr Norris aye Mr Schwartz aye Mr Church why Tiffany you muted yourself see you think after all this practice from covet I would get this and I still uh okay my apologies uh we're moving on to number three D3 um uh to consider approved new curriculum in elementary counseling resources and purchase um we have two motions for this uh we've divided it into uh the purchase of new curricular resources and the adopted purchase of Elementary counselor resources so I will entertain a motion at this time and then

072we can enter into discussion if there is emotion no I'd like to make a motion okay I'd like to make a motion to to approve the adoption and purchase of the following new curricular resources as presented fourth to fifth grade science from the Carolina biological Supply Company fourth grade social studies the Colorado story from Gibbs Smith education and Algebra 2 from Glencoe is there a second for that one Tiffany I'll second that motion Mr Norris has seconded it is there any discussion from anybody Mr Schwartz Mr Norris Miss Phillips no Mr Claussen no thank you okay um I want to try and expedite things um do we want to go through and Miss wetstein would you like to um just refresh us real quick Yes actually I'll just highlight a couple of changes since the

073last uh meeting where we had our first reading and then if there are further questions that you or areas you'd like me to recap I'm happy to do that so um I will let you know that for the curricular materials we are proposing adoption of fourth and fifth grade science fourth grade social studies which in Colorado is Colorado history and then a new Algebra 2 textbook we did synthesize the comments after public review acceptable comments generally indicated that the text and this is for Colorado history I should say that the text was fair honest and accurate account of Colorado history that it was age appropriate and inclusive of multiple cultures and perspectives and that this just reiterating is an updated version of our currently approved textbook our current textbook was published in 2011. some of

074the not acceptable comments included General concerns about information related to recent Colorado history and there were also some typos noted since this uh text that we provided to the public was a prototype with an expected publication date in July I will uh just also reiterate that our teachers typically teach up into about the World War II era and so generally do not teach recent Colorado history as part of their curriculum as for comments on the proposed science materials General comments indicated that the program provides a balance of digital and written materials comprehensive teacher guides and Hands-On project-based engaging lessons for students there were also comments related to take-home packets that are included to encourage parent involvement there were a few comments in the not acceptable range that had to do with accommodations for special needs

075students and English Learners some of those comments disagreed with the fact that materials should be modified for students needs others felt like they should be modified more than what was provided and some comments referenced balancing perspectives on the use of renewable energy sources I will jump over to the character education resource proposal and there is a change from the first reading here where our original proposal was to adopt two separate resources one being fly five which is a responsive classroom resource already approved by the board for use in our schools and the second being second step which was only used at Bear Creek Elementary School in the past since that time Bear Creek has asked that if fly 5 is approved by the board they would migrate to that resource instead of second step to

076be consistent with other elementary schools so we are only proposing adoption of fly five at this time comments on these materials included folks thought that the lessons were well thought out that they were age appropriate and student friendly they also appreciated the resources for families to support family conversations at home and in general the comments that were rating the resources not acceptable uh mostly did not agree with character education being taught in schools I will also reference a document that's been added to boardox for your review which summarizes all of the comments how many folks rated the resources acceptable and not acceptable and then you can also see who the reviewers were and whether or not they had students inter-operated or Charter Schools and I'm happy to answer any questions or provide any additional information

077at this time any questions I know that Mr Schwartz has a hard stop coming up very quickly so we do want to move along pretty quick Mr Norris did you have any thoughts no ma'am Phillips no Mr Schwartz amen Mr Clawson no thank you um I just wanted to share real quick that some of the feedback that I saw was good feedback both pro and con as a board member and a parent I actually out of the book for the Colorado histories overall Goods but I also agree that the one section in particular on activism would be interpreted as controversial um especially for fourth graders so I'd hope that in accordance with policy um that this section wouldn't be used but my question is this while we have policies in place do we need to

078strengthen any policies to give them teeth to ensure that in the future sections such as that one particular section that may not meet our community's values or our standards if we're not board members board members are here or our administrators aren't here we have different teachers that might be something we want to think about visiting in the future to make sure that we have policies that do we have do we need to ensure that there's more teeth or not that's just a discussion for a later time because I do know that that particular section uh we have board policies to to that cover that so um my thoughts on that one thumbs up thumbs down um and then I also wanted to share that I scrutinized the responsive classroom last year and this year which

079is the fly five and I reread the sponsors then and now um which shared favoritism for that program with the caveat that parents also have the right to be engaged and make decisions and that as they're the ones that make that are responsible for their kids education um the responses that were in favor um people want to see Common Sense character education but that should not be a primary focus that sacrifices academic learning of math science social studies and language arts and that we need to ensure that the family values are respected and that privacy is protected all of which I personally agree with um the counseling resources if we didn't approve that but now it sounds like there's not anything that ensures common sense and transparency and accountability so um personally I feel uncomfortable

080with us going into school year not having something that's tangible accountable transparent and consistent and dependable and if there's something out there that might be better then that's something we could definitely visit in the future but character education has been around for decades I mean it's been around for counting my decades it's been around for five decades and it's been called different things from non-cognitive skills to 21st century skills to sel to other things and I just think that parents want to ensure that we are respecting our community's values and I think that that's a fair thought and a fair way to look at it that we're not getting caught up in the National agendas and that we are being mindful of who our students are and who our parents in our community is and

081think that that's what we as a board are trying to do here so um and when I think about our policy ihak that the Board of Education believes that parents are the primary and most important moral educators of their children that the board strives to provide programming within the schools that complements and enhances values that are taught at the home and that includes programs that align with the characteristics of portrait of a graduate and traits such as honesty respect responsibility and integrity so um with that if there's no other comments let's go ahead and vote any other comments questions discussion no saying not miss wood Mr Claussen Miss Phillips aye Mr Norris aye Mr Schwartz you're on mute mess up Church hi okay so moving on to our next section yeah well hold on um

082just a minute Tiffany I think um we also have the recommended oh yes yes motion number two so I'd like to make a motion to approve the adoption and purchase of the elementary counselor resource fly five is presented is there a second I'll second that motion Miss wood or is there any discussion on that one I just lumped all mine in with one so okay Miss Wood Mr Claussen okay Miss Phillips aye Mr Norris aye Mr Schwartz aye Ms up Church hi so moving along to our next vote thank you all um our next vote will be D5 consider approved revisions to policies ADF jlj jka this is a second reading I will entertain a motion before discussion I'll make a motion I'd like to make a motion to approve revisions to District policies ADF

083School Wellness jlj physical activity and jka use of physical intervention and restraint as as presented I will second that motion clawson's Miss Phillips has made the motion Mr Claussen II is there any discussion I I'd like to make one comment um this was quite a lot of effort on the well um from the wellness committee this year then um I wanted to compliment those who put in a lot of time and effort uh throughout the year to make sure that we have a really robust wellness policy and physical education policy any other discussion no uh Cigna thank you so much for all the work that's gone into this some of this is also a legislatively uh driven and has to be voted on and approved before our school year is that correct Mr Frampton yes

084I got a yes by July 1. so well we're really pushing it aren't we um any other thoughts if none no okay seeing none Miss Wood will you take the role Mr Claussen hi Miss Phillips aye Mr Norris aye Miss Upchurch hi and I do believe Mr Schwartz had to step away from the meeting he did our next uh item is number 7d7 consider approved notice of intent to participate in the November 2023 election uh state law requires that we as a board Miss Upchurch I'm sorry to interrupt we still have item D6 I thought we just did that oh no we didn't why are we okay that's a that's a new policy so uh we just need to make sure we do that one separate Yep this is the first reading right nope this

085is a second reading of a new policy jlcdc okay I apologize I thought they were all grouped in when you're on Zoom sometimes you're bouncing back and forth that's okay we gotcha thank you yes sir to approve new District policy jlc DC mental health necessary treatment and school settings and corresponding regulations documents j l c d c hyphen R authorization to access metal medical medically necessary treatment as presented is there a second Miss up church I'll second that motion Mr Norris is seconded is there any discussion um Mr Frampton this is also in uh comes down from uh legislation is that correct yes that is correct it's new legislation that we're required to write a policy uh specific to medicliness necessary services in schools and it too is required by July 1st this also follows

086along with like a and age students as well falls under this is that correct uh that is one example yes is there any further discussion I want to thank Mr Frampton as always he does a wonderful job thank you agreed any other discussion Mr Norris or Miss Phillips nothing for me okay Miss wood would you take the role um on this motion Mr Claussen hi Miss Phillips aye Mr Norris aye Ms Upchurch hi so my apologies that's twice I've tried to jump ahead of two action items uh there's a lot on the agenda tonight um so moving forward item D7 uh which is to consider approved notice of intent to participate in the November 2023 election um and what this is in just FYI this is where we have to approve the notice to in

087regarding to participate in the 2023 election um the law requires us to notify the county clerk and recorder in writing at least 100 days before the election um that it has taken formal action to participate in an upcoming November general election um so this is just um we have four board seats on the ballot uh so this is procedure but I will entertain a motion before entering into discussion Miss Upchurch I'd like to make a motion to declare the board's intention to participate in the general election on November 7 2023 to a point Vicki wood is the district's designated election official for this election and to direct Miss Wood to notify the County Clerk and Recorder the bird's intentions to appear on the bottom in bed I think I heard Miss Phillips this time so

088Mr Norris made the motion and Miss Phillips seconded it is there any discussion uh seeing none um Miss Phillips Mr Norris or Mr Claussen no thank you no thank you okay um Dr Summers is there anything that we need to know nope it's all there so just um with with this approval you will be officially registering to participate in the 23 election okay I have a question a school district to participate in Board elections or anything I think it depends uh depends on the specific ask I don't know that we've received a quote yet for this one have we Vicky not yet we will have that maybe by August when they send us the IGA it's dependent on how many entities registered to participate in the election oh yeah I remember hearing that okay thank

089you um Miss wood would you take the call take the role Mr Claussen hi Miss Phillips aye Mr Norris aye Ms Upchurch I mean I all right moving on to d8 which is also in relation to this same subject consider approved call for nominations for school directors for the November 2023 election against Law requires uh that we do this no more than 90 days more nor less than 75 days before the election and the public notice will be published in the August 9th August 16th and August 23rd editions of the cry Lakes Tribune the August 9th publication date happens to coincide on the first day of the candidate petitions to be circulated which is 90 days prior to the election um and those petitions will be available for Mrs wood Miss Woods in the superintendent's

090office on the state um is there a motion to approve Mr Upchurch I'd like to make a motion to approve the call for nominations for the November 7 2023 School director election and placement of a paid ad seeking candidates as presented thank you Mr Norris is there a second no second is there any discussion thank you Miss Phillips thank you Mr Norris is there any discussion um I'll also point out uh something we talked about at our work session that we'll be doing is hosting an information night uh the date will be coming soon uh for our community uh or maybe it'll be a time that will be posted soon um to give our community members information on on the distribution of packets and and signatures and what the election looks like and roles of

091board members so um for those that are tuning in uh tune in and that that date will become forthcoming and I'll I'll be hosting that I'm no I'm not on the ballot um any other comments discussion no okay well seeing none Miss wood would you take the role Mr Claussen hi Miss Phillips aye Mr Norris I miss Upchurch hi okay so it's almost 7 30 and we are at D number nine um and this is just going to be a brief update uh regarding the 2023-2024 school year Transportation consolidation update this does not require an action this is just uh information item um thank you Dr Summers and Mr Norris and and um Mr Schwartz for attending the the session that uh within in alignment with and in conjunction with the responses that we got

092from our community members um and we did receive again we received two Communications um that it will be in in board docs that were for uh public comment consumption um Dr Summers yes thank you Miss Upchurch I'm gonna um do the primary overview of this update for you all this evening and as you just spoke to the community input meeting uh that occurred let me make sure I'm scrolling okay here uh on May 23rd we do want to say um and Express gratitude and appreciation for our families who have been providing uh feedback both through that forum and then through other channels uh over the past several weeks um so this just gives you that that sense again of the timeline that we've been operating on this has been a Hot Topic uh really the

093past couple of months um as you recall we went into some pretty significant detail at our May 2nd board work session uh and through that initial presentation heard quite a bit of feedback uh questions concerns Etc that again we were able to process through on May 23rd with all of that information um and with the feedback that we have continued to be working to respond to we were able to make um a couple of adjustments to our plan uh and that was detailed in our June 2nd follow-up letter to our families that have been impacted and then here we are with you again this evening providing additional update to our board in terms of where we are going into the 23-24 school year uh so as we have continued to evaluate the landscape of how

094we are providing busing services uh we really um want to make sure that we are articulating our key goal as well as uh our our considerable strength constraint uh and the goal is to continue to provide as full and predictable of service to all of our standard d38 routes which we hope to accomplish uh by ensuring our driver team is fully staffed uh and that is our key constraint is really our staffing shortages that make Staffing all of our current routes um very challenging and unfeasible so a little bit of more a little bit more details in specific to the open routes that we have and our strategies for how we're prioritizing those routes uh in preparation for the upcoming school year uh so you can see those listed here in a few different priority

095buckets Priority One routes include three different routes 624 626 and 627 because they are all special education routes um and as a result are required by federal law unlike our regular neighborhood bus routes which ultimately become optional Services uh as you see then the second priority uh there are five different routes right now throughout the district um each of those routes are historically at or near a hundred percent capacity and as a result we have prioritized those routes um given the number of students that are riding those buses uh as priority two and then we are also identifying utility drivers uh which are essentially our substitute drivers as well as activity trip drivers they serve dual purposes so you might see a substitute um driver take on a full open route at any given point

096in the day and then also be in a position to take on additional routes whether they be related to field trips or other program services that we are running and then what you can see is that the routes that have been most impacted by our consolidation plan that are all east of Highway 83 have been Consolidated into for the moment a single bus that will be running and picking up at various uh pickup points across the landscape and I'll get to a slide in in a moment here that that demonstrates that but essentially we have uh in that consolidation process uh rendered three of those four routes as still open and considered to be priority three at this time so we are really in the process of continuing to recruit uh and train uh drivers

097that are new to our system uh and what you should know is that as of June 26 as of today we have four driver candidates that are in training um they are in the process of completing tests and other requirements in order to be officially hired and upon successful licensing these drivers will all be assigned to Priority One or priority two open routes and then additional drivers as we continue to hire and train uh will be identified for the routes that are currently um open under priority three so you can see the current plan for our Eastern routes is to at this point in time anyway move forward with one route which is bus 59 which serves the area east of Highway 83. uh following the community input meeting that we mentioned we added a

098Black Forest Reserve pickup point so you can see that one in red in addition to five other bus stops and that additional stop at the pull Pine Point lowers the average distance from student homes to any one of our centralized stops so you can get a visual here of What that particular single bus route currently is looking like and just as we're wrapping up this particular update we wanted to mention again that we're in a continuous Recruitment and hiring process for our bus drivers uh we do want to definitely Elevate that we've been continuously working on hiring over the past year and our efforts in that process were even made news uh recently in an article through the Colorado Springs Gazette actually last February so we're continuing to redouble those efforts uh including what we're

099doing via paid and other organic methods so we're going to continue to commit to making safety our top priority looking for oh part of me looking for opportunities to innovate and maximize our efficiencies we are going to continue to do our best to support Athletics and educational trips when we do have drivers that are available to take on those routes and then maintaining a positive and welcoming work environment and culture to continue to maximize staff retention and again just a big shout out to Julia beta and her whole team for their continuous work in this effort and with that I will open it up to any additional questions or comments any questions team or comments I don't have any questions or comments Mr Norris I don't have any questions or comments Mr Clawson no thank

100you Dr Summers I just want to say thank you for um I know that this is an ongoing process and and I I understand that the shortcoming comes down to bus drivers um and that's our families are still uh waiting um on seat's edge hoping for um hoping for more bus drivers to be able to accommodate our students that are on the eastern part portion of our district I am thankful that we're not in a position that we're trying to mitigate and not do what we see in school districts to the north and to the south of us where um families will have any random bus drive routes because they are also on short supply of bus drivers will families will get a phone call in the middle of the day with if they're at

101work saying you do not your child doesn't have a bus ride home because there's not a bus driver to fill that route or getting a call at five in the morning that there's not a bus driver to pick up your child and so you'll need to drive them to school so while this isn't ideal I understand that you and your team are trying to do your best to ensure that we are not putting our families in that type of lurch in our school district so I thank you for trying to be as Innovative and create creative and mindful as possible and hopefully by the start of school we'll have more bus drivers and this will be a non-issue thank you appreciate those those comments what's up troops thank you very much thank you okay um

102moving on to our Ida next item which is uh item number D 10. Financial Planning and Analysis um this is pretty standard this is uh Mr Bridgeway will facilitate conversations regarding our monthly Financial reports um and I'm assuming that my fellow board members have reviewed the information that's presented are there any questions or comments or for discussion I don't have any questions or comments tonight no questions or comments for me either what's up Church likewise I have no questions or comments thank you Mr Bridgeway thank you for putting this together I actually don't have any comments or questions tonight either and I appreciate uh the work you put in the effort that you put into this um and the reports that are on here there's also some other reports um from that uh with saw

103in in relation to um our enrollment and um our history um and there's a lot of information to digest so I appreciate the information and it's again good summer reading yes and all this you know the financial reports are on the the website it will be posted on the website so people can uh consume them there as well thank you excellent thank you so much okay um our next uh and uh agenda item is d 11 approval of consent agenda are there any uh questions or anything anybody first of all like entertain a motion and then we'll go into discussion if that is okay with the board I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented a little second that motion during the video okay um Miss Phillips made the emotion

104Mr uh Clawson seconded it is there any questions comments discussion on any of the items that are on the consent agenda no okay I did actually have one um under the budget items requiring board signature um and I'm not sure who to direct this question to and I apologize for not asking ahead of time can can you guys explain Imagine Learning and I don't know who that would maybe Miss wettstein I think that's Ingenuity it's a different name for it's our online courses um yes I was looking for it that is probably what it is is that the which item are you looking at 57 980 for online courses district-wide for the upcoming school year Edgenuity online course Amber I think that's just the the I'm trying to to recall if that is the per

105pupil or if that's the the total cost oh here it is I found it opening it PDF yes so it's the digital libraries 9 through 12 comprehensive site licenses High School content for math English language arts science social studies electives AP World Language virtual tutors and excludes their e-dynamic learning and purpose prep um yeah for some reason it's not showing up in the in board docs for me so but I do believe that that is ingenuity it is yeah I'm just reading the exact uh invoice is this something that the board has previously since it is related to curriculum resources and so is the the one before that the Colorado digital learning Solutions um have those been a prior previously approved by the board uh look both of them look like they're Professional Services so

106I would consider them supplemental um supplemental to the Core Curriculum as a resource for students so Edge annuity many students attend summer school for credit recovery as an example um students elect in to Colorado digital learning Solutions classes individually to take those classes um but they would not be a district Core curriculum so is it something that we um that we contract out to and students correct the students use their services so it's not something that d38 um Edge annuity is a software program so we we would contract with Edgenuity to provide those um those resources similar to other software companies but we would not um they would not be used as like a school-wide curriculum okay um so how does that fall into our policies on um on our on um like kcb or

107uh any of our other review policies um Casey jump in here but I I would liken it to something like how we partner with Pikes Peak Community College so students can take classes there our career start programs so their supplements to the Core Curriculum that we would provide as a school district my interpretation of our policy on curriculum adoption is that the board shall approve curriculum that is used school-wide but I'm happy to hear Dr Summers opinion on that as well you know I'm pulling up IG this up Church bottom line is these are all standards based core classes that students who are taking an online curriculum so it's not all students to miss wetstein's Point these are students that are electing to take for example now in algebra one or a geometry one course

108you are not having to approve the curriculum per se that is that is contained as part of that class because all those classes are already aligned to Colorado standards in order for students to demonstrate proficiency on those that earns them the academic credit that may be apart from what their their typical like in-person class would be so you're really just you're proving our ability to offer these online courses to students who are electing to take those okay so when you Akin it to uh taking a Pikes Peak Community College that's not something exactly it's it's an equivalent class that that is meeting the standards that are set forth as part of those requirements built into each of those particular courses that's a family choice to to decide to opt into that that um program or

109not but it's not d38 guided or correct so we have a number of students that are taking classes online and the this is the curriculum or this is the vehicle I should say that the students are electing because we are we are not necessarily operating our own online classes independent of the the Baseline of the coursework that lives in this system called Edge annuity yeah I would love to learn more about that um appreciate the explanation is there anybody else that has any other questions regarding our consent agenda yeah I just I just noted some noticed uh uh something real quick sorry to put you guys on the spot the uh estimated cost of the job is 67 980 but the invoice on the attachment is 22.6 is that is that for the three semesters

110is that what's the what's the Delta there so it is a payment schedule over a three-year uh span of time it's a 20 so we're essentially getting the one-year cost of the 2324 school year for the next three more through 24 25 25 26. okay yep thanks I see that scrolling down so often in negotiations with these uh vendors we can uh enter into a three-year deal for uh the price that it is as of this year which typically it it escalates year over year so from a business perspective it's it's a good way to do business knowing that we're going to continue to offer online courses like these are okay appreciate that any other thoughts or questions no okay Miss wood would you take the role Mr Claussen hi Miss Phillips aye Mr Norris

111aye Ms up Church hi okay um we are at the end of our meeting um before eight o'clock it is 7 46 but wait there's more uh is there for the good of the order before we adjourn is there anything else anybody would like to add for the good of the order I don't have anything thank you hi Miss Phillips no nothing uh Mr Norris no ma'am I have nothing thank you okay I actually do I wanted to say thank you to miss wetstein and um some discussion that came in uh as we've been working through what does our curriculum and our resources improve um uh the work that goes into this the and some of the transparency pieces that came about um that something we'd like to see done and I would encourage us

112to do this is at the beginning of every school year we talked about at the beginning of every school year um in each of our buildings the opportunity for parents to be able to review and see what the curriculum and the resources that their students will be face facing and looking at for the school year and I think that's a fantastic idea and a good way to be accountable and transparent and collaborate and engaged with our parents so I applaud and appreciate that when I've been talking to folks what I noticed is that um parents just want to ensure that that there's not the opportunity for our curriculum our resources to be used or abused for uh agendas or indoctrination they just want that local control to ensure that there isn't another push to usurp

113our values in our parental and student rights in our school district so I think that that's a great opportunity to show that um weirder d38 and our community of parents and stakeholders and our students and our staff um our Y d38 is so great so um I just want to say that I think that's a great idea and I I'd like to see that happen but then wondered if we could put that on our agenda at the work session as well which I will talk to Dr Summers about happy to do something and that is what we're planning to do and I'll just also remind folks they're welcome to not just view curriculum when we have it up for display but anytime they would like to contact their school they're more than welcome to schedule

114a time to do that as well okay great all right well um thank you so much um team is there anything else you want to share this is your opportunity since uh we've got one minute until 7 50 uh between um Miss Welch Mr culture uh Mr Frampton Mr Ridgeway Mr Belcher anyone okay thumbs up all right thank you thank you everybody with this we will adjourn and reminder we do not have a board meeting in July um so we will see everyone at the beginning of August um Miss Woods that date is August um the exact date August 8th August 8th thank you so much 8 A.M August 8th at 8 00 a.m in the Learning Center um for our first board work session of the school year just before school starts um and

115I will see you all uh probably before then but happy summer if I don't thank you and good night everybody what's up church thank you sir thank you all good night yeah thanks have a good night all right