001because right now Yeah. So, right now, turn the sound off on that. Okay. And that way there's no double playback. Okay. and then go back to the Zoom. Well, now who? Oh, someone. Yeah. And as long as you end the Zoom, the YouTube is automatically ended and updated to the live stream. Okay. Does that make sense? Yes. Just need to share the agenda. Okay. And if you want me to come to the next one just to do it a couple times with you. Okay. So now this is what they're seeing. Okay. Let me turn this on. Thanks for Thank you. Yeah. I'm going to go out here and just make sure I pull it up. Okay. Sorry about [Music] the Hey, you let me know. You want me to start? I'm ready. Okay. Is it
002on then? Yep. All right. I'm going to bring the Ground County School District Board of Education regular board meeting to order. It's Wednesday, March 26, 2025. It is 2:40. Um, we are here at the district office. Um, we are also um Are we zooming? We're zooming and we also are on YouTube live stream. Live streaming. Okay. Um, Jenna, Melissa, Kathy, and Dave are present in the boardroom, and Lauri uh is zooming in. Mike Mcfalls and Maxis are also present. If you are uh here to uh speak to the board, please fill out a speaker card and turn that in. Please turn your phones to silent. And we're going to do the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation
003under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Jenny with the mission statement. Yes. Um, our mission is to put each student first every day. Thank you. Um, I will um I do all the things. Um, I'll accept a motion to approve the agenda. I make a motion to approve the agenda. Second. Kathy Williams makes a motion Dside seconds. All those in favor of approving the agenda say I. I. That passes 5. Right. Next on the agenda is public comments. Sarah Henderson is here. All right. I would just like to uh piggy back on what Hank was talking about at the last school board meeting about the negotiated agreement that's been proposed. Um I know most of you know me, but um for anybody that doesn't, my name is Sarah Henderson. This is my 27th
004year teaching at HMK at the Grand County School District. As you can imagine, in those years, um I've seen a lot and I've been through a lot. I've served on the negotiations committee for over 20 years. First starting out as notetaker and quiet observer, eventually transitioning into the role of spokesperson and facilitator. I can tell you when I first joined the committee, things between the association and the school board were a lot less amable than they are today. Back in 2010, I know many of us remember this year, I was voted in as GA president, not because I wanted the role or responsibility, but because no one else at the time would step up and do it. Anyone who knows me knows the association and all that it stands for is at the heart of
005all I do. I like to think of myself as an advocate for the association and for people and for this profession, which is why I come before you today. Of course, had I known what I was going to be dealing with just a few months later, I probably would have seriously reconsidered my decision to step up as a president. It was the NE GA negotiations team who first initiated the inquiry into the missing funds that same year. It was through the mediation process that it became public that the district was misappropriating funds to the tune of $ 1.9 million. If you remember, our district was facing a possible collapse. Overnight, I felt my whole life caving in as the weight of the situation wore down on me. The shortfall quite literally became my life. Every
006single night for months, I met with district folks, parent groups, staff members, and district leaders, all working together to find solutions. Understandably enough, as time went on, the community sought out accountability for the district's shortfall. Unfortunately, the blame began to shift to the school board for them not knowing budget and seeing the mistake earlier. Inevitably, as GA president, it came to the point where I, as the association, where I had to make a public stance, I went back and forth asking myself, do I back the school board or do I call to a vote of no confidence and publicly ask the board members to step down because that's what I was being pressured to do. What do the members want? What is the right for our kids and their education? This was not a decision
007that I took lightly. As a negotiations team, we have always believed in advocating for what's best for the district as a whole, not what's best for our own self-interests. So, in the end, I chose to publicly support the school board. I wrote a heartfelt letter to the editor of Times, the Times Independent, urging all of us to move forward and finding solutions rather than focusing on casting blame. Although I never want to go through something like that again, that was the defining moment that changed our working relationship as an association and with the school board. It seems now that you find yourselves in a similar situation. Do you support your staff and their right to have a voice into their working conditions and salaries, or do you not? Are you willing to risk the relationship
008we have all worked so hard to build and maintain, to be crippled by a legislature who doesn't value our profession, or will you stand side by side with us and say, "No, HB267 is not right, and we value the negotiation process." And don't forget, there is a chance that that bill will be repealed. Are you as a board prepared for what that will mean if you don't sign the agreement? Where will that leave you in the eyes of your staff of the school district? Of course, ultimately it will be up to the five of you to discuss and decide the answers to these questions, but for me, the answer is clear. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks. Hi. Um I'm just here to um just give you a little background. Um I think my voice needs to
009be heard for um the day and and so on. So anyways, background is I worked um 28 years with people with disabilities and I worked in the general education for nine years and I earned my master's degree in severe special education in 2011 and have worked with the severe population at HMK for the last 10 uh last decade. I enjoyed working with this population. Some would say that I have unique tolerance to work this with this population. I believe it's due to my love for them. Um they teach me how to be more empath empathetic empathy, caring, loving and patient and and that I can do uncomfortable things like today stand out and be different. Um overall 17% of the public school population three from 3 to 21 receive special education services. Specific number 7.5
010million students receive these services. increase. Um this represents an increase of 13% um a decade earlier. Common disabilities are a specific learning disability, speech or language impairment and autism spectrum disorder which I deal a lot with. Um speech or language impairment is 19% which all my children serve under that and autism disorder is 12%. And so state variation, the percentage of students receiving special education services across state varies. Um I have concerns about how we are maximizing this educational opportunity for this population. As you may have may or may not know, this population in many schools districts can be treated as a byproduct of education. As you may know, laws are in place to protect this population. And as a school district and as a school district, I worry that um we are setting ourselves
011up for lawsuits. As board members, you may know a little about the population and what the state requires us to do appropriately to serve this population. Please bear with me. I'm going to ask I'm going to ask two questions from you. And as I do that, I want you to be able to not use your your words. So the question is going to ask is what is Grant County School District doing to ensure the students with special needs have access to the curriculum, peer relationships, and meaningful inclusion? And the other one is, what is the plan for teaching teachers, staff, and peers how to accept students with special needs? Okay. Do you have an answer that you miss can tell me without speaking? It's kind of hard. It is hard. And a lot of times
012you have to use different tactics. So that's my kids. That's who I serve are those kids who cannot speak like that. Um and if they do, I have um a limited um those I have some that do speak, but they have very limited um vocabulary or pronunciation. So it's very hard. So with that um I manage 18 students. I have six pairs and now I'm down to four along with 11 classroom teachers, exploratory, recess and lunchroom duty personnel and 14 parents. That's what I have to deal with. Um, which is awesome. I have great there's some great teachers out there. There's great staff. There's great parents. Um, I teach all my students academics. um they that are personalized to each student and give them access to their gened at curricul curriculum functional skills in their
013in my room and in their gened room and in all the areas that's the functional skills um of school behavior goals also in my room in the gened room and everywhere in the school setting those are what I teach I try to attend PLC's in the last 10 years you can count on my fingers how many I um be able to leave my room to go and and sit in um find time to I have to find time to collaborate with gened teachers. I have to write IEPs and any other paperwork that involves a student create a curriculum for non-speakers to learn and communicate what they um what they learn and a lot of prep and brain power to observe and to detect how each child is learning. So I have to do all that
014with my my students. create a classroom environment that change um monthly and even even daily to the needs. Today I had to um make my room even smaller for a student and my room changes constantly um the environment teaching uh I have to teach paras about safety of of the children and behavior management in the school environment and each setting teach how to teach each child collaborate what they have learned and ways to implement their teachings. I have to um and any change to a schedule, whether it be schoolwide or classroom, I have to reorganize, reign, and redo. Um we begin our day at 7:30. I have a parent that gets on the bus. I have to have breakfast ready by 8:00 a.m. Um and then and then I have others that trickle in at
015a different time. So, we're all over the place help serving these kids. So those are um for the first question of what are we doing um as a district to ensure the students with special needs have access to the curriculum, peer relations and meaningful inclusion. I will fight um for that my parent my students are not segregated. That's what I do not ever want and I want them to have access. So as a board let's think about what are we doing, how are we doing it. Um and then the other one was how are we going to teach um staff, teachers, staff and peers how to accept students with special needs. The nice thing is is um the state has a meaningful inclusion that they do and it would be nice if we could bring
016that down and that and and usually the people who go to these meaningful inclusions are us special ed teachers and that's not really we already know that we want to set up a meaningful inclusion in the classroom but we also need our regular ed teachers. We need even staff to be there around so they can see how all these students that are Grant County students are part of one society, you know, a part of the whole group. They're not just singled out. Um, I see what I see is tremendous growth when my students are with their peers. That's where I get to teach and I get to teach alongside and and it's it's um wonderful. It's I don't have to create it. It happens. And so I get to teach on the spot. I get
017to teach um um as my one son says because he has a child with disabilities, the playing children along with the unique and fun children. So that's my biggest bang for buck and I've seen growth and parents can tell you there is great growth. Um, when teachers don't I have teachers actually I have teachers who will look at my child who will include my children and they're not just mine, they're ours. They'll include them. They're part of the team. They're part of the group. They'll come up with stuff. They collaborate with me. And I have some teachers that just smile at them as they walk in and out. And so I need the children to be um seen. I need them to be relevant, not irrelevant or obstacles. And that's one thing I want to
018teach um to the staff. Um and um when the student is in with their regular peers, uh when they're not actually in, sorry, with their regular peers, they're missing out on a great opportunity to learn, as I did, learn how to be more empathetic, learn how to adjust, and then be uncomfortable when a kid tells you no or pushes you away. It's really embarrassing. It's really hard. So, those are some things that kids, we get to teach these kids and and they get to grow and they get to learn. And as life goes on, you can ask anybody who has a child or a sibling with a disability that um the empathy that they have, the the grit that they have for having a a a sibling or child isn't is you can't teach that.
019It is is just a beautiful it's a beautiful thing. um are unique children. I have 18 14 of them considered non-speakers. Two of the four uh speakers are not um be able to express themselves in complete sentences which is great. Some are very echelic and other two are very limited in their language and they use repetto sentences. My 18 and um and they are growing in numbers if they're not getting less. uh they they can and will become successful members of this community. I know these kids have a life. Sometimes the parents think that I have one parent wishes that child can go with them when they already know that I have two grandchildren that like this. I have a sister. I have lots of family members um that and other friends. No. And I've
020worked with people in their home. They are they can be a part of society. They can have a job. They're there. They can get married. My sister got married, had three children and five grandkids. Never would have thought. Never would have thought. Okay. People think, "No, no, no, they can't. They can." And I want to be able to give them that opportunity. We are unique here in Grand County. We don't have other places for them to go where they can ship them off and learn and and have all the other um help related services. We're here. We're we're that's just us. And I and I need our town to see that these guys can be part of society. They can grow with their peers and with everybody else that they're wonderful. We see the kids
021on the street. I have taught them. They've been in my class in second grade. They've also been in my room. They make me smile. I love watching them work. And that is where I would like to see our kids go. So with that, I had 18 students and it's me, six parents down to four. Very hard. I can't do it. I have this. And I'm going to show you this. This was surgery that happened to me because last year I clenched because it was so stressful. I clenched and I had less kids. I clenched and I clenched at night and I broke my tooth and now and I had access. It was life-threatening. I had to get in my car and drive. Was in the hospital for 4 days. All because I can't do it.
022I can't do it alone. When I jumped out, it was hard. I had to jump out because I knew what was ahead. I jumped out of that, taught first grade. My heart is here. I got my masters in this program. I love these kids. And while I'm in here teaching in the gened, I'm thinking of how am I teaching my kiddos. And I jump back in with my husband saying, you know, if you go in, you can't complain. I've never been here before in this situation. I'm here because I love these students. I can't I I'm 54. I can't keep going on the way I'm at where I'm at with my body, with everything else. It's not sustainable unless we do something. Thank you, Jo. All right. Any other public comments? All right. Thank you.
023Um, next on our agenda is executive session. So, we're gonna um we're going to executive session. So, we'll um smooth you guys and then come. It'll probably be about max probably 10 minutes. So, um you you're welcome just hang out side. There's a table. Nice weather. Get some vitamin D. Um so, I will Thank you. So, uh, we're going to talk about negotiations. So, um, I'll accept a motion to go into executive session to talk about, uh, negotiators. I make a motion to go into executive session to talk about negotiation. There a second. Second. Jenna Whitbury uh makes a motion to go in executive session to talk about negotiations. Dave Beide second that. Um we will do a roll call vote. I'll start with Jenna. I Melissa, yes. Kathy, yes. Dave, yes. Laura, yes. All
024right, that passes 5. Um, we will turn off the reporter and then Jenna, I mean Lori, can you call Can we call Might be easier if we call her, right? We We're We have to call you, Laur. Okay. So, gotcha. So, we turn off this. You'll be turn You'll be turning this off, right? You'll turn the Zoom. Yeah, we'll turn this off or Well, this will be on but just muted. Okay. Hello. I can hear you. Uh, I'm on the phone. Yes, I can. I'll mute myself. I'm going to hang up. Yeah, I should be in. Okay. All right. Bye. Video back on. Laurely, can you hear us? I can hear you. Yeah. Awesome. Are we back in open? Good job. As soon as you go back in open. Well, you turned on the record.
025Okay. I think we are back in open. We are back in open. Okay. We are back in open session. It is 3:17. Um, we are here at the district office Wednesday, March 26, 2025. And again, just to be clear, did you make a note that Laura Lee was by phone? Did you make in your executive virtual, but I could Okay. Well, when we do those affidavit things um again and Lauri is on Zoom or here. Okay. Um next on the agenda is the consent agenda. And what we have on there are the February 6th, February 12th, and February 19th, 2025 regular board meeting minutes and board work session minutes, regular board meeting minutes. We have the March personnel list. Um we have February's detailed check register expenditure report and revenue report. We have all these
026are um we have out of state travel for baseball. They're going to Colorado. Um, out of state travel for the business administrator, the out of state travel for DECA and the out ofstate travel for secondary princes. Yeah. Um we're welcome to um we can pull out any of those if you don't feel comfortable or we can approve them all if you want to do um a quick I'll accept a couple quick if anybody has any questions about um how about I make a motion to approve all those listed and we can discuss service. There second. Second. Dave makes a motion. Kathy Williams seconds to approve. That was your motion. Yeah. To approve the consent agenda. Um any discussion? I do. Okay. Yeah. Well, I'm looking at um the DECA request um and I don't think
027it's been signed I don't think by the principal. So I would assume it needs to be signed by the principal. Oh, and we can we can get that signature if it is not signed by the principal. I do know that I've spoken with DECA. Okay. Um extensively about that trip and the challenges so that she's aware of it. Okay. Um it's probably just a sign. Okay. Just want to make sure that and Carter sent it to me. The DECA. Oh Ki Kaylor, right? Yeah. Yeah, we need to make sure it gets sign by also by Matt. I think if you sign these before they get on our agenda so that we know that you've gone through Yeah. the questions that you know liability finance and and we have on we have on what you have
028presed in front of you all. You've looked at all those. We've talked about any of the hurdles with with finance or like risk and things of that nature for a decade going out of state. Okay. eventually someday when we're really banging on all cylinders. I'd like to see all athletics trips approved just once or twice a year. We should know our schedule in early fall and then do it again in January and may not come up again. Um who who is going to the DECA? This is just people who who um qualified. We have I think we have two students and a um advisor. Okay. And they are Oh, we are piggybacking off of uh the Weaver Wever Wever School District is to utilize some of their transportation and it's being paid for by CT
029well their fun. Yeah. CT funds their CT funds are paying. Okay. that they don't have to um fund raise. To my knowledge, they haven't fundraised. Okay. But that's just to my knowledge. Okay. This says DECA is the funding source. So that that's the club account to me. And that means that they have that much money. Wow. have a lot of club money. Well, club money might not be the correct term, but CTVs separate funding than the Why does baseball? I'm just trying to get a non-regional tournament for right and that's that's fairly common for schools in this area to go into Colorado to uh Arizona. It just says owed for three years now. Like that mean scheduled baseball games owed for three years now. Purpose of the travel maybe told them we would do it.
030They probably came over here and played and so now we owe a game that and so it's been on the books. as a debt liability. We just want to keep our work. Yeah. Where is Bayfield, Colorado? She does. Durango. She does have Durango. Can I ask a clarifying question? Yes. Your uh Never mind answered my own question. Okay. Any more discussion? Did the audit committee meet? Okay. All right. We had a big work session thing. Normally we meet before. Oh, yeah. Oh, then it was a big retreat. Okay. Um, all right. I'm going to call for the question. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda say I. I. I. Laura Lee, did I hear you? Yes. Yep. I Okay, that passes 5-0. Um, next is information items. Um, so we'll start with the
031school land trust amendment. Um, I will move I'm going to move the dual immersion language immersion for first grade to the end. Um, because there's some action items we need to get through. Um so but Michelle is here for trust lands amendment will you just go through what you're asking us to approve? Yeah. So sometime I don't know was it February the um the trust lands sent us a notification that we had an excessive rollover. Um that's commonly we don't we don't usually find out how bad our rollover is until January. Um and so it we got notification that there was an excessive rollover requiring an amendment to explain what you will do with those funds. So, anytime you submit an amendment to um change your plan, they can look at any of those steps
032again and even if they've been approved, they can unapprove them. So, there's two changes to this. The first is number nine, which is the amendment that I made, which they allow for what they call a backup plan. So, this is our backup plan um on the school community council to catch any remaining funds before we're penalized for having too much rollover because we're only allowed a 10% rollover. Um and then at the same time they said number eight no longer fits the um the requirements for a a a step where monies can be appropriated and so we had to take that amount and put it into professional development. So it in the same category or same goal. No changes were made together. Two goals or their steps just this goal and we added eight well
033we took away eight added those funds to the professional development that you'll see above. And um and then number nine to cash any remaining funds. This would Okay, we got it. Got it. Okay, you met their criteria. Yes, this this So what happens is I'll I'll do whatever they ask me to do. I submitted this new step which is now actually number eight. Um and then they'll approve it and then they expect the the school board to then approve it. So So eight doesn't exist anymore. Eight does not exist. So are we proving should that just be xed out? Yeah, you can ex I can exit out either way. Just know that eight was taken out. Those funds were moved to the professional development line. And then number nine is um is the backup plan.
034Yes. And you don't have to have an amount on I bet you don't because and that I like I was they send you this really nice required training video when you when you mess up I guess. And so then um that was one of the suggestions was to create the backup plan that and so I did. So there was $7,500 in number eight. Yeah. And there was whatever the carryover was. Yes. And that's all going into professional development. Yes. That $75 plus the carryover. And so professional development, paid collaboration days. So this allows teachers to also have paid days in the summer to work on team building, pacing guides, curriculum development, whatever they need to do. Okay. But I it all just has to be spent by June 30th. Everything but the 10%. Right. You
035can only have 10%. So, and we had more than 10%. So, yes, we had about 25%. So, you Wow. So, that's a lot. Why did that not get spent? Um, I think there was a um there's a piece of the uh last year. So that the plan that I was working off of was the previous principal's plan and there was a piece of that plan that included um whenever you include like salaries, especially teacher salaries, sometimes it gets a little difficult to make sure that's getting pulled out of the right place. And because those funds don't usually close until the school year closes, you don't and my school community council doesn't meet after May, right? you don't always know that there's remaining funds until it's too late. And so in this case, I I believe
036that that was what happened. There was some um personnel funds attached to the the plan that didn't actually didn't know. So this year we've been really vigilant about what like this is where everything is going and the funds need to come from this account. So obviously the teachers were probably paid but probably out out of different it's possible because it was like a very short portion of their self probably right. Yeah. Do you know what position that was? I feel like it was a fourth grade teacher. there was like a small chunk of that teacher salary that was um that was appropriated from school community council for some reason which is really weird. It it's kind of rare that that would happen and so my assumption is that didn't get caught. Um but I'm making
037assumptions. I don't know exactly how it how it played out but that it we do know that it kind of surprised us. Yeah. in June because we were being really vigilant because it had so the year before it had also had an excessive rollover, but they don't make you do anything about the excessive rollover unless it's been two years in a row. Wow. Yes. And so it happened to be that first year that I was working off that plan that there was an excessive roll over too. So it and and then so then they're like, "Yeah, you're in trouble now." So, but if we do it again this year, they will actually take that remaining amount of money and they they reward other school districts for not doing that by giving them like a bonus
038from you. So, yeah. So, we don't want to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe not putting it towards salaries. Yeah. it it's okay if it's like a um like an hourly or a stipend like hourlysies and stipens are a little more easy to track that way. Um it's difficult when it's like part of the salary. Yes. When it or like a portion of it is it's that's a much harder thing I think to track. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. We're going to move to action items. All right. All right. So, first on action items are um to post columns in columns four and five for public comment. DB A D ABN, DBN, DCA N, DB or DLBN, D A I N, DB N, DH A N, and B L A N. Um was this
039um the board reviewed and had the second reading of these policies last week and now you have we have the opportunity to vote to approve the posting. There is a recommending. Do you want me to read them all? Sure. Okay. Um, I will make a motion to approve the posting of policies DABN, DBBN, DAN, DLBN, D A I N, DGN, DH, and D L A N on the district website for public. Is there a second? I You're so quiet. No one hears you. I hear you. Kathy Williams makes the motion. Um, Jenna Kbury seconds to post um the form five policies, negotiate policies on the district website for public comment. Any discussion on those? All those in favor say I. I. I. Laurely? Yep. Great. Thank you. Sure. Um, next would be um this year
040the policy DGN exhibit one was removed on a state level. The board may now vote to have that exhibit posted to the district website for removal. Um there is a recommended motion there as well. I move to approve to post policy exhibit DGN exhibit one on the district website. public comment to be removed. For public comment to be removed from Grand County School District made the motion DA seconds to post exhibit NG and exhibit one on the district website to public comment to be removed. Um any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. That's [Music] 5-0. Um next is earlier. No. Uh, last week the board was presented with the board budget revision for fiscal year 2425. We now have the opportunity to approve the revision. Motion. I would move to approve the
041fiscal year 202425 revised budget as presented earlier. Second. You fiscal. No, I said physical. Yeah. You said physical. Oh, fiscal. The physical fiscal budget. I do know what fiscal is. I'm very physically physical. Is there a second? I second. All right. Dave Beerside makes the motion. Jenna Wbury seconds to approve the fiscal year 2425 revised budget as presented. Did you say that? No, you said that. I said as presented. As presented. Um, any comments? All right. All those in favor say I. I. I. Lori Lee. Hi. Hello, Lori Lee. Oh, you can't hear me? Yes. Hi. Thank you. Sorry. Zero. That's okay. Yes. Okay. Next. The board previously reviewed policies FAB, FDAC, and FDF. Those policy have been posted on the district website for public comment. Um, we have not received any public comments regarding
042the policy and we now may approve the policies. Um, so FAB is transgender studies, FDAC is medical treatment, and FDF is positive behavior plans. transgender, excuse me, transgender students, right? Not Oh, did I studies? Okay. I just want to make sure I didn't miss something. Okay, no problem. Okay. There a motion? Um, I'll move to approve the policies FAB, FDAC, and FDF. Motion. Okay, there. Second. I second. Heather Williams makes a motion. Laura Lee Green uh seconds to approve policies FAB, FDAC, and FDF. Any discussion? I had a question about um FDF just who the our positive people are [Music] um like our positive behavior specialists for each school. Who are they? Is this a new policy? No, it's not a it's not. So, we do we have a positive behavior specialist at each school.
043I mean our um our skills program are our two behavior aids that does a big portion of what they do under the direction of Libby are students. They do quite a bit of work in that positive behavior um reinforcement. The specialists shall receive an additional stipen from funds provided by the state board of education. Um Matt and Mike, can you um report back next month on um who those positive special behavior specialists are and if they're receiving and then Matt receiving additional stipings of funds provided by E. You know where that? Yeah, I don't at this time but you we can get next we report back. Thank you. And then I guess it would be Mich will you put on your um the agenda planning of like just so that we remember either you're going
044to put it in your reports or Yeah. Um, we'll have a specific meeting though. You said the agenda, but you want it important work session. Um, just put it on our list of things to talk about and then we'll so that we can circle back and your question doesn't have anything to do with um really approving it since it's code. It's just additional clarifying. Um, any other discussion? Okay. All those in favor of approving. I was just going to point out that this is part of the state's health curriculum. Um, all those uh in favor of approving the policies FAB, FDAC, and FDF um say I I I passes waiting. Okay. Um next policy FDACG has been included as a part of the updated FDAC policy which is previously approved. Um so this makes current
045FDACF policy redundant. So um we are approving to remove FDACF which is student selflication of sunscreen from Gran County School District. I would move to approve to remove policy FDA CF student self- application of sunscreen from the grand county's school district policy. There second Dave Beers makes the motion Kevin seconds to approve to remove policy FDACF student self- application sunscreen school district for policy. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. I. I didn't hear you early. All right. Next is um land trust amendments were presented um from HMK this season this afternoon. Um, you may now choose to approve those amendments. I make a motion to approve the lay trust amendments. Is that further? There second. Second. Jenna Woodbury makes a motion. Kathy Williams seconds to approve. Move to approve the land
046trust amendments presented earlier this afternoon. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. I that passes 5 zero. All right. Next, we have action item as per executive session. Um the board can take action on um my identified want me. Yes. Okay. Um, I propose that the Grand County School District provide a onetime compensation adjustment to all contracted employees working greater than 15 hours per week and hired prior to January 10th, 2025 and still actively employed as of March 21, 2025. The amount should be equal to 2.5% of their contracted annual salary, excluding any extra assignments, plus a $750 fixed amount. The $750 fixed amount will not be prrated based on the full-time equivalency of the employee for all contracted employees and beacon employees hired after January 10, 2025, but hired prior to
047March 20 March 1st, 2025 and still working as of March 21, 2025 and regular part-time employees averaging less than 15 hours per week, not including substitutes. There will be a $500 onetime compensation adjustment provided. This compensation adjustment does not apply to coaches, any extra payroll situations, extended days, extracurricular payroll activities, substitutes, or other miscellaneous payrolls. This compensation adjustment is to be paid on or about March 27, 2025. I'll second what Kathy said. You need to repeat it. You need to repeat that. Kathy Williams makes the motion. Um Dave Bshide seconds um to approve a onetime compensation adjustment. [Music] Um basic um summarizing 2.5% on the contract and the salary and plus a 750 fixed amount. Um any discussion? Um Um this this I just want to for transparency uh where this money um is coming
048from. So this is coming from our fund balance that we discussed and have used in the past this this as a tool to kind of um be fiscally conservative in our budgeting and ensuring that we're running sound and then also um putting everything we can into employee compensation. So this is the tool the mechanism that the board's using to manage that fund balance properly and also um increase in compensation to avoid and that answer your question. Yep. And then um with the budget revision that we approved moments ago that was um in that budget that movement of the money from the fund balance up into salaries. Correct. Um, any other discussion, questions. All right. All those in favor of approving a Grant County School District onetime compensation adjustment to all contracted employers employees uh working
049greater than 15 hours um with all the stipulations that Kathy um read. Um, say I All right. Um, that passes 5 Z. Um, usually we do have a letter that goes out. Um, I think actually I did that in the past. I think I wrote that email, didn't I? I'm not chang We collaborated on it last time. So if you need anything from me, I think it's still about whatever work on it tonight or the Yeah. When did you think of sending that letter out? Um, it'll probably go out in the morning. I would recommend at the high school going out sometime after 8:30 a.m. Yeah. Usually I I have to do it before that because um Christa gets all the phone calls about starting about 5:45 of people going, "Hey, why is there money
050in my account?" I'm just hearing a rumor there's going to be a lockdown. Oh. Oh, okay. On that after you want it after 8:30. I'm just saying it could get complicated. You I let you know. Do what you think works best. Also, just to clarify for the board, um that language says on or about and and that is on or about. This is outside of our normally scheduled things we do. So, Oh, that's true. We're we're it's just not going the same time as regular. We are hoping to do this as quickly as possible, but it could be on or about tomorrow or the next day at the very latest. Okay. Depending on how AC travels through bank. Okay. Is that is is this week normal payday? Yeah, that's usually what happens is that so
051everybody goes why is that their normal paycheck, right? And that's why they get it. Okay. Okay. Um I have followup questions for Hank, but but it's not on the agenda. Um okay. Uh we will go to staff community [Music] reports. Um these are let's see we have not in here the clinical safety um probably met clinical safety did meet. Okay. Do you want to make a quick report on that? Um yeah I don't have the agenda put up in front of me. Okay. We talked uh we did our our normal debriefs on a couple of incidents that took place. Um we spent a significant amount of time with Shane was talking about some of the tech technology and radio difficulties that we face that we learn about as as we do these drills. Um, we
052had Tyrion from the charter school talk about their piloting using a like a sub substitute iPad that would give the substitute access to um the rest and how that's going and what that might look like for us. Um, it was actually a really good about an hour and a half. It was really really good conversation. We got update from school resource officer and the school security chief um and just chug along discipline they have no um DTL evaluation they meant that but it's it we're do I'm going to ask this question we were as we're still working on um looking at stakeholder feedback. Um those probably went out to um students but not parents yet. You know, Michelle, I I sent it to my school council but not Oh, that we were was that a
053test run for Okay. So, but because I didn't create the board, I didn't get the And I don't think you were at evaluation last. I think that Oh, yeah. You were. Were you there too? You remember um we talked about um solidifying the student student one and did have we but it hasn't gone out. I thought we had a date. K2 has not. Okay. The upper grades we told teachers that if you have quarterbased classes, you need to do them with your students before the end of the quarter. Okay. If you have semester based classes sometime in April, I can't remember the date. Okay. Okay. And I think since that new law, do we don't have to do we have to say put that out, get permission to You mean one with surveys? Yeah. No,
054I intentionally asked my higherups and they said it doesn't. Okay. Thank you. um facilities should be coming. Absolutely. I was at finance and audit committee. I don't know where they were exactly when we call this meeting. We didn't have a meeting. I'm going where were you? You weren't even here. You're here for the regular meeting. Yeah. Anyway, no, we didn't have meeting. Okay. um negotiations uh were meeting Monday um uh prevention attached are the minutes. [Music] Um, I heard the Corey Jewel Jensen presentation was pretty um like very it was a really intense presentation. So, but did not go to that. The the big thing to note about the prevention group is that Beth Wright has been hired as the prevention coordinator for the four corner. She's taking over Carrie Valdez. Um she's been doing
055prevention adjacent work here in Moab with the health department for years and she's going to be taking over the effort to grow and maintain communities of care full-time. So instead of our library director doing that as an additional 15 20 hours a week, she'll be doing and leading that group. And we will talk with her as she gets more training about how to use some of this time to forward those goals with this group so that we are creating collective countywide prevention goals in conjunction with school district goals. Um so that we've got a collective what we want to address in terms of building protective factors and reducing risk factors and lower. And I think just to point out some notable dates uh March 28th which is a Friday are the career fair at the
056high school and then on April 4th is reality town. Um, board members are welcome to go to those and come buy a house for you. Are you selling a house? [Music] All right. Yeah. At at Reality Town. At Reality Town. Well, I'm not selling any houses, but I sell about 50 of them there. Um, this this weekend, if you'd like to support the American Club, they're selling well, they're they're providing lunch for a suggested donation from a donation of food from the from Caven and we'll be selling lab tacos at their event, their indigenous resource fair for the indigenous community on Saturday at the center this Saturday. Yes. Um I don't know why it's not on there. That's okay. Is there a time for that? Um at the Grand Center 11 to 2. three. All
057right. Any other any questions for Jeremy? Is the career fair all day? The career fair is from I think 9 until noon. It's a half day. It's a noon30 maybe. It's a well It's wellness day. So they get out early. They get out early 12:20. They get the high school get that at one point or do all the kids go or is it there's a chunk of classrooms that go middle schoolers will go. Um I think that yeah she's Ashley's worked it out where several subjects will go for their whole day. Yes. And I think it's a mix between upper classman and lower class. Thank you. Um not really prevention, but there's a tonight there's a it is it's prevention. It's zero fa fatalities presentation at the high school um that now any kid who
058wants to get their driver's permit license has to take this. Um I haven't seen it anywhere. I haven't seen on Facebook or anywhere. We got announced. You did? Yeah. Okay. I didn't I didn't see the email. I saw it somewhere else. School high school. I know it's been in the announcements and they emailed they were supposed to email. Okay. I just didn't see it. Um that's tonight at 6 o'clock for all the people out there listening that have 15 years. um maturation is that no who's the um district person who's the person in maturation committee I think Libby Libby um business administrator report um okay uh so we are uh in the middle of the insurance roofing claims um over at the elementary school. If you've been over there, you you probably heard them. Our
059bid for the HMK preschool um and outside work was going to close tomorrow. Um it came to my attention that there was an omission on some light fixtures. It's a pretty material change. So, we're going to be issuing an addendum and extending that bid period until Tuesday and then we will uh complete that, get the bid package, and hopefully be able to bring that to you on schedule for the 23rd. We have board meeting in April. Um, yeah, that's that's that's where we're at on that. So, we're approving a a bid, but I guess we don't approve the plans. I mean, the plans are what they they are what they are. I mean, we really haven't seen as a board the architectural plans. Yeah. So, we approved that to go out to bed in a
060board meeting. Okay. And that's and that's what went and that Okay. Which was probably one. So, we'll see um where that comes in. You know, last time when we did just the outside work, there was a huge discrepancy. If you remember, it was a couple million dollar ships. So, we our our intention was that we would put that combine those and get maybe a better economy of scale, more biders interested in that. We did have a pre-bid conference and walk the um site in looking at that. And we had a fair amount of interest. So, I'm hoping that we get uh and there were some people who had emailed said they're interested but couldn't make make the the pre conference. Um, that being said, I I I'm really hesitant to even even estimate or ballpark
061what what that cost is like. And as you can imagine, even like with our um current in roof uh replacement that is being paid for by insurance, those prices on materials have gone vol as you can imagine just because of what's going on in the economy and and things of that nature. So, it's really hard to kind of guess what we're coming in at. Um, and then the time frame on that is going to be could be anywhere from 90 to 150 days depending on um what what the contractors tell us. Start date or completion date completion completion. So, it will it is it is targeted right now. If we award the contract in our 20 our our uh April 23rd meeting, that would give you contractor time to get all their cementals in and
062start staging so that they could start I think it's May 27th. Is it Tuesday after Memorial Day? Um, so school will be out and then they would they would they would start um would be staging and ready to rock and roll and have at the very minimum we want to have as much done as we can without students in the building. the very worst case scenario, we're still finishing the inside um in October and then uh so so we could start the school year with the preschool up at the Sunwall and then after October be going down there. Again, I'm interested to see it's a pretty big scope when you look at both the remodel is probably the easiest part of it because we're not doing anything structural, but outside there's a lot a lot
063a lot of work that's coming into play. I don't know what that time what that specific time is going to be. You guys are aware from our work session that we talked about. Uh we've been focusing on program and position priorities for the board. Uh we're I've got my student teacher ratio in a draft form form. The numbers are a little tighter. Um before I bring that to the board, uh are we posting? So, I guess the question about openings and and ratios and and where we're at, I feel like we're kind of we're we're getting close to, you know, being so yes, I we are close and and I I would love to have a student teacher ratio already in place. We haven't had that in place in years past, but right now we
064have one opening opening elementary teacher that we've posted. Mhm. We have three middle school positions that we've posted. Correct. And a special education and a special ed education teacher we posted and a handful of classifies that are so and and they're posted. Yes. Um okay. So they're posted. That's um yeah working on that going going through with the team uh looking at where we can create our goal in our consensus in the past is to create uh a higher level of coherence and understanding not just for redundancy but kind of helping uh payroll and accounts payable accounts receivable and our planning system to not just know the numbers but know what those numbers are. I'm working working looking working looking working through that. Uh it's I I don't I'm scrambled right now. I should have
065written something down, but it's been super super busy. When was the roof starting? The roofing has started at HM. It has started. Yeah. And they will transition over to you have an end date for that roof? Uh we have to go back and look at contract that I want to say it also. Not off the top of my head. There there is an end date in the contract um you know with with all the on schedule. Yes. Yeah. Um, we executed a couple of things that we talked about in the past with with Onward with Diligent Community, which is going to make board meetings so much better and uh utilizing our tool we've been paying for and now utilizing a much part of Frontline, which is one of the two national recruiting uh softwares for
066public education. I don't know it's not software website. Um we are utilizing what we have in paying for now and we're going to pick up the applicant tracking and really bring our application process, our reference checks, um our screenings into the 22nd century which would be fantastic. Um yeah, other than that just from just to continue from work session, you know, we looked at 18 or 19 programs and priorities. Um some of those naturally are filtering, you know, up or down depending. There's going to be a handful that are probably no doubters. um the board will won't want to go down that direction. Once we have an idea of of that the remaining the board is really going to have to pick and choose their priorities on what they want to do. So just keep
067that in mind. Do you think that will start in um in earnest in April? Yes, it is. We'll have numbers and we'll have some similar discussion for that work session about where you want to what you want to prioritize. Any questions? Any questions? Laurely, questions? No questions. No questions for me. Oh, one last. Sorry. Yeah. Superintendent received a letter um from it's Utah. Utah dedicated open government. I can't remember. Yeah. um with some confusion that we are the Grand County Education Foundation that is actually functioning right now because it has our name that is not us. We are not affiliated with them. We cannot force them to go to open meetings or or follow any of that. So that's been that's been uh reported to them. I am in the process of activating um our
068B County School District Education Foundation that was started back in I think the it was registered with Cup of Commerce in 2001. I don't know that we 21 I don't know that we ever got complete clarity on roles. Um obviously what the mission would be is is Grant County School District interests. So, we have um parallegals with our our legal council looking at where we left off and what we need to do to pick up and um get that established so that we as a district have a 5013C um number that that we can utilize for grant applications and other other things. Uh we might have to get creative about the name when we um register with the the commerce department. We did have it but it dissolved because of inaction. about a year ago
069now, I think. So, it kind of just got stopped, but that's something we're actively working on. Grand County School District Education Foundation is what it was called and can be called. Can we use the same name? That's where I Yeah, it's already I don't know. I don't know how else it Yeah, they meet over in Dave's building. No, it's a GR grand That's Grand Education Foundation. That's different. Yeah, we got to add the county. You got to get a grant money. It's grand county education. Yeah, we can the one that Conniey's on. That's Grand County Education Foundation. Yes. Okay. Be Grand County School District Education Foundation. Just be Grand County School District Foundation. Be Yeah, good point. School and Education is done. Anyways, just just an update on that. Okay. Um, community report community report
070is attached as perfect. Take questions in my prevention. Um, superintendent report. We have anything? Yeah. I submitted a hard copy last time. So, and he's making um time nothing new. We'll keep you all posted on my Friday updates. I have type two quick things. If anybody wants to help out with reality sound, I have a few spots still needed for community report. Second thing is just got a date scheduled for our Native American Foundation, our Native American of the year excellence celebration and that's on May 1st. So, there sorry for where will that be? Uh, it'll be at the middle school again. Um, and we'll do dinner and then awards. I'll get that info out to staff to be able to do nominations. When you say May 1st, May 1st is a Thursday night. It's
071a non competitive night with other events going on with this character before all the craziness happened. All right. Um attached are the school department reports. Um if you have any specific questions or the principles, please email them directly. Um, we now have I'm going to leave 10. We can talk about um dual language immersion for first grade for about 10 minutes. I'm sorry. Um so tenant, you want to give us an update of uh where we're at? Um sure. So, uh dual language immersion um is a program supported by by Utah. Um I believe one of the principles and pretty sure it was it was Michelle. Yeah. That that brought that to my attention. So teaching Spanish has always been a goal and a dream of mine, K12, um because three years of high school
072Spanish is not near enough. So we became I was made aware of the dual language program. I applied for a grant that was approved within 20 minutes of of submitting. And so uh where we're at right now is uh we're working with the state. Ailia weight uh is our contact. Uh the state provides uh funding for materials and curriculum. They uh help vet the Spanish teacher. Uh they actually go to foreign countries such as Mexico, Peru, Spain uh and vet and bring them for us to interview. And so we have the capacity at HMK should we decide to proceed with this uh to implement the dual immersion program. Uh Jeremy is working with some uh community members uh that are embedded in the Hispanic community to garner some support. So we would essentially have two
073classes, one that would be English all day, one that would be Spanish all day, and the kids would flip-flop. And the ultimate goal here is that our kids are truly bilingual. They don't just learn a second language, but they actually are are bilingual. Um, and so we're we're in the process of investigating that. Um, I think our next step is to put together a field trip to go visit uh a dual language um immersion campus so that we can see uh what that looks like. Uh these students typically score higher than than most of your other students because they're being taught in two languages and uh they get to think in two languages and and uh so we're we're moving along with that. the uh and as as we have talked about before, the board
074is we're keeping the board informed so that they can make the final decision once once we get get to that point. Far as cost goes because we're going to absorb the teachers uh in first grade and the state is providing funding for curriculum and materials. the the cost. We don't have an exact amount, but it should be fairly minimal because we'll we'll need the teachers anyway. The idea best case scenario is that it grows uh goes from 1st to 9th. So, every year we would uh continue to add if if we were able to if we had the students and we had the slots. No teacher will ever lose her job because of of the program. Uh we want to make that real clear. Um, and so we're we're moving forward uh gathering information and
075I'm open for questions. Mike, I have a question. Um, is this the standard um dual immersion program where um math and language arts is taught in English and then um science all history that sort of thing is taught in Spanish. Is that the approach you're thinking? I did not know the answer to that question. Okay. Okay. What with your your daughter has gone through the Mandarin Chinese. So what is what is your experience with that? So as a parent my um so my daughter um she completed uh the Mandarin Chinese dual immersion program and graduated with her associate language degree in high school through the University of Utah. um as a first grader what they did now ours would be slightly different because it's two-way she was in a one-way dual immersion which groups students
076who aren't native speakers at all um into two coho two cohorts um and then they flipped in the day and so her her at least our experience was she was taught math science social studies and reading in Mandarin Chinese starting in first grade. And then she would flip to the English side and she would have those same instructions, that same instruction in English. And so every day would be all of that in in Chinese and then all of that in English. And so she learned to read, write, understand culture, um lots of different aspects of the Chinese um language. and and that continued in that manner up until middle school when she had just two classes that were immersed in in Chinese. And then she prepared to take the AP Chinese language exam for her
077ninth grade year before the end of 8th grade. and and all students that pass that AP exam, which they now have a really high rate. She's she's 21, so it's been a while since Utah's been doing this. So, um they they um if they pass, then they proceed to take a uh co um what do they call them? Concurrent enrollment course through the university. um and and receive credit as a as a high school student for their language courses. But the programs that I'm familiar with in our county that I came from in Virginia, they're uh dual immersion program in the elementary level. I don't know what it was like um after that but it was um you know part of the day was spent with the science and history in that language you know
078Spanish and then the other part of the day was in English. That's what I'm familiar with. I was able to speak with Oilia last week and was very impressed with her as a leader. Uh they've been doing this program for 15 years in Utah. it is an exemplary program in the nation and internationally. Um I was curious about attrition and about about um that angle and she said there's never been any chaos created by this program in districts. You know at the elementary level we look at teachers come in and out each year teachers switch grades each year. We're only we're only switching one teacher in and out. Um, so there's there's never been in her experience any issues in terms of that. I look at this as a great addition for our district because
079it als in addition to giving credence to language speakers, our our Latino students who we worry about having, you know, on on the playground, we're having students clustered by by language and background. That kind of stuff shifts. The other thing that this does is it creates uh for our our higher achieving interested parents and our wealthier parents. It is a program that in the state and in the nation is one of the best um it's a very high achieving program in Utah and it's used as a model across the United States. And then those students who are are you know wealthier students whose parents are you know how's the district? What's going on? what's exciting this is a program that can they can it can be a feather in our cap in that way as
080well. So it was really intriguing talking to her and exciting. That's my my two cents. One of the questions we were going to see if um there are other districts our size and you were going to talk to so I I have been playing phone and sharing emails with Oilia. uh in Spain right now and I have not had anybody uh currently respond as to what the smaller districts are doing. Um I think what what Jeremy shared for the most part I I would agree with. I do think when you look at a smaller district you have economy of scales and anybody who has staffed any school for any position knows no matter what you do there's chaos when you start looking at moving grades around. I mean it does happen and it's regular but
081it is stressful and my concerns here and uh you know like I said is back on the 6th and uh we're we're meeting um I my there's no I don't disagree with anybody that it's a great opportunity and a great program are we at a spot where we are able to implement it properly and we have seen poor implementation um really really harm this district and that that's that's my concern what the lift is. Have we thought it out long enough? You know, I mean, I I'm assuming there would be community buy in, but have we looked at community buy in? And then just the state sustainability, not knowing not knowing what exactly that is. And then again, I think you saw a classic example here in um in in in public comment is we
082have other areas that are in dire need of, you know, administrative support. um districts district level administrative support uh where we have some complications and and I think it's fair to say you know they're not running as as as smoothly as we would like and so is this one more thing to add when we're struggling in other areas. I think there's a lot to be said about there's never going to be ideal time and I don't I don't don't disagree with that comment. There's likely never going to be an ideal time. I don't know. These are just the thoughts that are coming as I look at it. I'm hoping to get a lot of those cleared up when I have that conversation on the six with some of the the backend questions. I do echo
083what Jeremy said. It's a it's a very respected program statewide model. Um but that's that's my thoughts. So I have um Go ahead. Go ahead. Sorry, Laura Lee. Go ahead. Yeah. So I had an a comment that I have seen in in schools. I don't know if the Utah program has different options and I guess that's something that Mike will be looking into where you all but another another um successful program I've seen is where you have and this is at the at the elementary level where you will have um a Spanish teacher come you whittle out like a 40 30 to 40 minute block of time just like you would with science and PE and everything else where this particular Spanish teacher would come and come into the classrooms and do a lesson and
084that's like twice a week. Um, it's not quite the immersion program that you're talking about, but it is another way of getting Spanish into all the classrooms. Um, anyway, just want to throw that out. Thank you, Michelle. Did was your was the school the Mandarin school? Was it the entire school or were there some class just some classes that kids were doing Mandarin but or was it all of the kids that went to that school? It was dual immersion for everybody. Yeah. So, so she was in the very first year of the elementary school where she started. So, she started the first cohort of that school because they had adopted it. I see. And then it grew with her. So, first grade and then and so every child after her also also would have had
085the opportunity to go through it. And and there are like weird little rules like if your sibling started in it and you wanted your your other siblings to join like they came first priority and so there was like lots of little nuances to the program every year that at first the first graders came in all of them were doing Mandarin parents it wasn't like there were like some of the classes were just English only. No, there were definitely. Yeah. So, there were four teachers in the first grade. Um, there was a a Mandarin speaking immersion class. There was a teacher who worked directly with her and that was the other that was the English side for that group of students. Um, and then there were two just regular first grade teachers. So, I just wonder
086if there was like was it very competitive like Yes. You didn't get into ma mandarin. Your kid didn't get in. It was like Yes. They had to have a lottery because what happens um is that you once you start as a non-native speaker, you are you you can't enter in second and you can't enter in third. You have to start in first. Now, that wasn't true for for native speakers because she had um like classmates that joined that move from like Hong Kong and then they were able to join in like third and fifth because they spoke Mandarin. So, so that it was different for students that came in speaking the language than it was for students that's that were learning the the bilingual piece. Okay, I'm gonna have to All right. Apologize. Um, all
087right. Um, we can talk advanced planning if you have any questions about Yeah. So, I'll accept a motion to adjourn. I'll move to adjourn. Is there a second? Kathy Williams makes a motion. Jenna Woodbury seconds to adjurnn. We are journal. I'll be right back. Right. I'm going to I'm going to head out. Thank you.