001Welcome. This is the June 22nd, 2026 Essence Park School District R3 Board of Education regular meeting. It is now 5:15 p.m. and this meeting is called to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Chris, please conduct a board roll call. >> Director Fere here. >> Director Roberts >> here. >> Director Shocket >> here. >> Director Reurski >> here. >> Director Wis >> here. >> Moving on to approval agenda. Board members have an agenda before you. At this time, I'll take any comments or amendments to the current agenda. Seeing none, is there a motion to approve this the agenda? >> I move to approve the agenda.
002>> Is there a second? Can I second? >> We have a motion. Second. Chris, please conduct a board roll call. Director Furry, >> I. >> Director Roberts, I. >> Director Shocket, >> I. >> Director Reurski, >> I. Director Wis I. >> I carry the vote. Agenda is approved. Moving on to agenda item two, public participation. We had no one signed up to speak this evening. Moving on to agenda item three, discussion items 31, preliminary budget fiscal year 2026 27. I'm also going to do Brian um agenda item 32. Now, um no interest loan Essor for 1. So you can do all of those documents together. >> All right. Good evening. So we'll start with preliminary budget. So in the packet there's a summary of the different funds and then at the end there's a resolution.
003Um there are two resolutions in the packet. One is the approval of expenditures within each of the funds and then there's also the separate one for the use of fund balance within capital reserve. Um then that's basically just due to money that's being moved in this year that due to timing of projects and those types of things that hasn't been won't be expended at the end of this fiscal year. So gives us the ability to use those funds next year. Um but so we'll start with general fund. So the big things within general fund this is our main operating um fund and it is supported through property tax revenue and mil levby override. Um so in the current budget we have 3.5 million in uh mil levby override and then also um you can see
004parah is staying flat this year but we did increase our defined benefit from $7 to $750. Then that was due to increase insurance premiums. Um, in the current year, we didn't pass the increase on to the staff and we ate some of that increase um through some of our expenditures within the general fund, but next year with a big enough increase, we couldn't we couldn't absorb it all. So, that's why there's an increase there, but we're still covering one of the plans. Um, and then you can see fund transfers. Um, we do transfer and supplement food service. So that's uh fund 21 and that did increase about $25,000 over the current year compared to what we sent um and that's just due to um increase in um wages with steps giving steps to the staff
005and then um food costs as well. And then you can see um fund 43 we have a transfer there of 1.5 million. Um in the current year we don't it wasn't as large as that um or actually a little bit larger is 1.6 million in the current year. Next year we have 1.5 and that's an estimate or and that is not an estimate that's program excess revenue that is coming in for the additional above the program mill that we collect. Um I have 1.5 million going into capital and then the remainder which is about 200,000 staying within general funded contingency and use it for if things pop up. We didn't allocate that program reserve money to staffing just because like last year we had that program reserve money come in from the year before because
006the BS factor was in place. So if that comes back into place, we don't have access access to those funds in that year. So that's why we don't tie it to the staffing. Um overall though our staffing and um is we're still putting the same amount of money into staffing. Um it's just the overall budget is a little bit less just because of um we don't have fund 7 coming back in this year like we did last year or the current year. And then um as you can see in the revenue we are losing some of our grant funding. So like pach that program is going away. Um the Colorado app which covers Boys and Girls Club that is basically being a little bit more than half is being cut out just because the state
007cannot fund that. Um and then all the money that the state can take back from us is in our categorical. So that's why those are shown at zero. Um, we will receive money in the front end for ELPA transportation, get the talented special ed, but that money gets reverted back to um, the state um, in June. And right now that estimate is about $524,000 will be sent back, but we get to recapture that through the program reserve mill when we assess the mills in December. um our student count is down coming up and um that's just due to us rolling off our larger years and then um we're down to a three-year average. So, it's more of a true reflection of what our current student population is. Um but with that and then with also
008um some of our staff retiring and leaving and those types of things through attrition we have not replaced all those positions um just because we know we don't need to maintain the same staffing level but we did give steps and that is why our salaries even though we have less people what we're what we have allocated to salaries is basically flat. So the money's staying um there. Our benefits did go up slightly just due to the 7 going from 7 to 750 on the defined benefit. Um and then uh our so what we collect like I said we have the program which is 11.4 4 million, but then we have that program excess and then the categorical recapture and that's how we get to the total operating budget and general fund of the 19.8. Um
009and in the current year at at midyear when we adjusted for the new revenue associated with the assessments and the new um laws associated with the percentages that we collected from residential and um businesses we had increased revenue. We kept that within general fund and set that aside for program or not for um staff retention. So that's why that number is a little bit higher at um the final compared to preliminary. We do not have a staff retention currently budget in there. But we can look at that at midyear and see if we want to adjust. We can adjust capital transfers or depending on where we come in with um fund balance as part of the audit which actually starts tomorrow. um if there's an increase there, if we want to look at using some
010of that fund balance, we can look at changing um general fund and set money aside for a retention incentive last year or not last year, next year. So that's kind of general fund. Um and we do also collect a little bit more than what the state shows um for specific ownership. Um they budget a million dollars. We get about 1.1 million just because people buy a lot of cars up here and we just get a little bit more just because of that and where we sit with it's it's based off a percentage of our mills as well. So, but we do people do buy newer cars pretty regularly up here. So, that's why we get a little bit more just because there's more being paid for people's plates. Um and then another big driver um
011within general fund is we do um pay tuition to um districts. So we have TCC budgeted in there. We have money for kids to go to Front Range. Uh Ames is a new one that we started this year that's still going. So we have those things within general fund. But the biggest driver um is about 70% of our budget is set aside for salary and benefits. And then the tuition to other districts and those types of things um is about 5% of our budget. So, and there's some other things included in there. And then um insurance premiums, our m our liability insurance premium is only about a 2% increase um which came in lower than I was thinking. Um we did make some adjustments. We are doing a increase in our deductible on property, but
012we're also increasing the value of our property at 10% instead of 4%. So, we're getting closer to covering more of our assets if we were to have a um event. But, we are increasing our exposure per event by 15,000 before um insurance does kick in. But that did get us from about a 6% renewal if we stayed the same to about a 2% renewal just because of the U property piece did go down just a little bit and it's pretty flat compared to the current year. So um so that's general fund. Any questions on that? Okay. So the next one is food service. So that's basically just um most of our revenue does come through the federal side. Um we we do not really get money through the healthy meals for all um because we
013are designated um C. So we get federal reimbursement then the state does give us some for breakfast and some a small share of the lunch and since we have started doing um free feeding during the pandemic our utilization is up and that's why our expenditures are um where they are um even though we have less kids costs are still there. So, and then we also do run a summer program which is included in this. So, that covers um July and then it'll also cover June next year. So, um that's what in food service and that's why there's about a $25,000 increase over the current year just because of the cost of food and then also giving all of our staff um steps for next year and we are opening the middle school kitchen as well
014next year. So, we're bringing in an additional FTE as well. So then that that's some of those cost drivers on why there's a bigger increase. So we will have all three kitchens running next year. So we won't be sending kids down to the high school. Um the next one we did finally get um our allocations for um special ed at the federal level. Finally got those early last week. So we got those in preliminary allocations. Um I have estimates in there for what our carryovers will be for some of the grants. Um title one we will not have any carryover. that that's our allocation. Um, IDA, we'll see what our carryover is just because I've been fighting with them on years. I don't agree with how they calculate it. They don't agree with how I
015calculate it. So, um, so we have that and then preschool we use up pretty much every year. So, there's not any carryover. Title four, um, we are using up a lot of those funds this year. So, there will not be a large carryover for next year like there was this year. And same thing with um title two. So we do have that's all basically tied. Then the local piece is where we run our EPF through. So like if um the education foundation gives us grants, we can track it there. Um so that's what that local piece is is just that's what we've been getting the last couple years is about 40,000. We can adjust it at mid year if we get more, but that gives us the ability to spend those funds when they do
016come in. um 23. We do have a slight increase um next year compared to the current year and that is due to um expanded CTE programs that we're starting to track money for as they um do things. So automotive with oil changes, those types of things. Um and then like HOSA with their fundraisers. Then we have construction geometry, we have welding, we have So there's more um programs that we're offering. So when they sell things, we can track it to that specific program instead of having one fund trying to track five different things through. So that's why there's an increase. So we budgeted money so then they can use that money once they raise it fund raise it. Um fund 31, we're basically set on what we have to um send out for principal and
017interest on our outstanding bonds. Um and then as you can see, those will be paid off in um 2031. Building fund, we just have it there, but if we were to go out for a bond election, that is where the money would live for when you made expenditures on construction and those types of things. So for fund 43, like I said, right now we have I have budgeted 1.5 million, which is about 100,000 less than what we budgeted for transfer this year, but that is um a portion of the program excess revenue that is collected through property taxes. And then the 1.25 25 is a calculation I did early last week, but we've had some expenditures come up that I was didn't have in this like a new bus, possible white fleet. Um, since we
018are having to send more students downhill and their schedules don't align, so we need we're running low on vehicles to move kids. So, we're looking at possibly getting some of those. Um, some big ticket items I know we need to look at getting done in the next year or two is like carpeting the elementary school, um, resurfacing the track since that probably should have been done last year, but it's still in pretty good shape, but we need to get that done in the next year or two. Um, just so we keep that up so we don't have to go through the whole expense of replacing the whole thing. Um, so those are some big ticket things. Uh then we're also starting some capital projects this week that I didn't have in that calculation. We're going
019to do some asphalt work starting this week and it'll flow into the second week in July. So depending on when that happens, some will happen in this year's budget, some will happen in next year's budget. So that 1.25 will probably change at midyear on what we can spend down. Um once we get the audit done, if I know it's smaller than that, we won't expend more than that. even though you guys are giving granting authority to 1.25 because we don't want to spend more money than we actually have. So um this this just gives us the authority to do to use those funds. And then the last um fund we have is scholarship fund. So this is where we have endowment sitting in college of trust earning interest and then the interest can be used
020to award scholarships. And so that's the summary of that. And then like I said, we have the appropriations. So in total across all funds, it's 26.2 million. Um and then the next page is the use of that up to 1.25 um in capital reserve to uh do projects in the coming year. Any questions? >> Um PE teach. So the grant is ending for PEach. Did we choose to absorb that and continue the program itself though? >> Yep. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Sounds good. And then >> and and we did have an increase in the um counselor core grant. So we're actually implementing it and bringing in additional counselor. So you can see we went from about 30,000 in the current year to 90,000 next year. And that'll be the same thing for
021the next two after that. Um and then um just to make sir year-over-year general fund balance we're starting the year with about 5.9 million. This is a balanced budget keeps that amount >> flat for the end of the year. >> Okay. And then next question um on the grants so all the all the different titles it looks like about 70,000 less that we're going to receive. >> Um any change to programming because of that or will we be able to absorb that one also? No, we're absorbing we're going to so like title one is the big shift. Um we've been doing about one and a half FTE. We're going to maintain one and absorb the other half of that person in general fund. >> Okay, >> good. And then yeah, just um when it comes
022to the resolution, it just making sure it's said general fund to reiterate what you already said. It looks like we're down around 500,000. That is mainly because the retention bonus that we are doing at the end of this school year is in that 2526 number. We're not pre-planning for a retention for next year. So that's why it looks like a reduction. >> Um >> and I mean that was just really my my main comment is we are not we're not spending less on the classroom. We are not spending less on the students >> in that main uh general fund bucket. >> Yep. Yep. and and we've also shifted some of the things within general fund like we've reduced our repairs and maintenance and we're going to try to shift some of those over into the
023capital piece. So then that way we can keep the money in the classroom for staffing and uh books and those types of things. So >> great. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Yeah. And then of course at midyear you can talk about the retention incentive in response to the title question. So title one has been for FTE. So we've absorbed that in the budget. Title two or title three, sorry, FTE for EL. We've absorbed or title three EL. So, those are FTE that we've had decreases in the grant funding that we've just absorbed in general funding. Um, title two, there will be a little less spending for professional development for that. That's our pot of money that teachers have a form they can fill out if they want to seek out if they they find a
024professional development opportunity they feel like aligns with our district mission, they apply and then we can say, "Yep, that's in line with our goals. go to that conference, go to that PD, we'll have a little less spending for those opportunities, but we have divvied that out to the different schools like we have in the past and we've also made um I shared at the work session um we split it and allowed some for just CTE programming because there is so much um to be learned in that area for our CTE staff and so they have their own fund that they can use and then the high school and middle school or high school, middle and then elementary and then for title four that's probably where we see the biggest impact. but because we have been
025designating that toward supplies for classrooms for project- based learning and then tutoring. And so we're continuing to um allocate it for project- based learning, supplies for classrooms when teachers have incredible ideas and want to be innovative. And then the rest will go to tutoring. We've also been using that fund to help with technology needs around the district that come up like robotics equipment and things that are really expensive. that's where we won't be having funds for that, but we have plenty in our building budgets that can be spent on that. So, none of those programs are going to suffer. We're we still have money that we can allocate toward that, just not from that grant fund. And then we're getting um a lot of grant assistance from United Way for tutoring as well to help
026with um the tutoring. And also, we we use some from general fund, too. So, it's not going to change anything we've been doing with our tutoring program that we've been using Title 4 money for. >> And United Way is reflected in that local in 22 as well. I forgot about them. >> And that grant comes through EPF. Yeah. All right. That's it for the budget. You got another one? >> Well, I I can run through the no interest one real quick. So, um in the document, there's this big legal document that is um sent to us by the state of Colorado. Um but the basically boils down to the spreadsheet that's at the back. So that's basically taking what our beginning cash balance projection is, what our budgeted expenditures are, and then so to get
027to when we think we need to borrow and how much we need to borrow. I have to do this monthly. So I take all of our actuals that we've done this year, figure out the percentages, then apply those percentages to what our budgeted amount is to figure out when we think we need to borrow money. Um, and so basically what that spreadsheet is showing, um, we start borrowing in November. Um, and then I think it's showing about $3 million we need to borrow. Um, but and that's just because of how we receive money. We don't we get everything local, so we don't get any state aid, so we don't get that to offset. So we're basically living off of savings until we collect our property taxes in March. So basically this is just letting us
028continue to operate and then we repay this in March. Um the resolution is for 6 million and that's just case that's just in case something does come up. Um at RBC Dana Rouser did suggest that we do a higher number than what was projected and 6 million is what we did in the current year. So there's no change in year-over-year what the resolution is but basically it's we live off of savings until November time frame. um if we have some big purchases on vehicles or a capital project, it might shift it up a month just because of we're using those savings to pay those bills. Um but we're one of 120 districts that participate in this program through the state. Um we're not a huge player in it. I think DPS and Cherry Creek are
029the big players at borrowing couple hundred million a year. So, um, but it's a good program to have and it helps us out, lets us operate. So, any questions. Okay. All right. Thank you. Moving on to agenda item 33, superintendent report. Superintendent Bod. Good evening, everyone. I'll start with the facilities update. We have a lot of work underway on campus and you're going to see a lot of movement happening if you visit. We have improvements happening in all places and right now we've got a new phone system that's going to be installed. Um it's started and it's going to be continuing tomorrow. Um every classroom in the district will be having a new phone. Every office in the district a new phone. That's a big undertaking. And we've got a whole team of people, Debbie
030Compton and then Andrea Sporletter who took over as technology coordinator and Nick Guch are and and Rick Compton are all have all been involved in helping and I'm sure Brian has lended a hand and Wendy's lended a hand and a whole team of people people working with um Debbie to get that to happen. Irrigation improvements and field rejuvenation efforts are underway and the preschool playground is being resurfaced. So lots of play areas. So if you look at top field that's being done today, you probably saw heavy equipment up there. You've probably seen staff down at the football field for the last four weeks. Um, and it's sectioned off and we're asking the community to stay off the field till we get the grass rejuvenated and ready for our fall seasons. And then preschool playgrounds being
031resurfaced. We're really excited about that with the same material that we did the Bobcat den with. And so no more gravel on the preschool playground. That's exciting. All this at the secondary campus, the high school locker room floors have been resurfaced already. They look great. And then bathroom renovations are in progress right now. And so we're doing those locker room updates. Looking ahead in July, you'll see more of those locker room renovations happening um with the benches and the lockers. And then you'll see crack ceiling asphalt projects going on around district. Brian mentioned that. And then also in July, we're getting a whole new security prox card system for our district campus. So that's a big undertaking that'll be taking place as well. the facilities master plan process. We launched that in November and it's
032nearing completion and it's going to provide a long-term roadmap for all of our facilities improvements, maintenance priorities and and future capital investments across the district. It'll really help with our planning in the future um and be a real great document and guidance for the board for you to make decisions. And so that's been developed in partnership with RB plus Architects and Dynamic Project Management. That plan has been guided through stakeholder engagement since November. and lots of different committees working on it. We have an executive committee that's working on it with administration and Brad's our board rep. We have a facilities master planning committee and a long-range planning committee that meets quarterly throughout the year. So, lots of monitoring groups, lots of feedback. The process has included a comprehension, a comprehensive assessment of district facilities, evaluating
033building systems, safety, infrastructure, site conditions, technology, educational adequacy to ensure our learning environments support modern teaching and learning today and where we want to go in the future. getting a lot of feedback from staff on that and recommendations are being finalized and they're going to be presented to you in your August work session. So, we're excited about that. Um, the resulting plan reflects both the community input, district priorities and the assessments from our our master planning team and it's going to position us to make informed strategic decisions that support safe, effective, and future focused learning environments for our students. So, we're really excited about that. So, look forward to when you come back after your break in July, seeing that plan and discussing that at the work session. Um, well, let's move on to finance
034updates. Thank you. We've had a big one tonight with our preliminary budget. Thank you, Brian, for presenting that. Um, a lot of hard work goes into that. I appreciate you. And at the last work session, the board reviewed um the title funding, which Brian also talked about and where that spending is going and all of that, and you'll see that in the consent agenda. I'm thrilled to also share some exciting news today. Uh so Brian mentioned the retention incentive for staff in his report, but he didn't mention how much for staff. And so as a result of the board's decision at midyear to maintain the mill levy override at 3.5 million this year, again combined with the availability of additional fund 7 revenue in the fiscal year, like Brian talked about, we were able to
035invest directly in our employees. And after finally finalizing all of our year-end numbers, we have approximately $750,000. And that means a retention incentive of $5,000 for every staff member. Um, so that's the highest retention incentive we've been able to give and we're really excited about that. I let staff know last week in our staff newsletter. We thought it would be a minimum of $4,000. So, they're going to be excited to hear that it's $1,000 more than that. You're the first to hear. So, they don't know that yet. they're going to get an email later this week unless they're tuning into the board meeting and then they spend We're going to know which staff members watch board meetings here when my when my phone starts going off. So >> how that word might go quickly. >>
036Yeah. So $5,000 in retention incentive. Um and as Brian mentioned, we're flatfunded. So there's um there's no attrition of FTE this year. I know in the past we've been with our declining enrollment really trying not to replace positions as people retire. Um we've we are in a position where we are keeping all of our staffing positions. So even though you saw that we're less by 50 or more students next year, fewer students, same amount of staff for next year. So all FTE positions have been um refilled. So f strategic plan focus area highlights. The board received an end-of-ear update from me on the progress toward our our district strategic plan goals, highlighting strong gains in student outcomes in areas, attendance, and and stakeholder perceptions. And the district survey shows that student and family perceptions met
037or exceeded a goal of 75% favorable responses. Um, staff perceptions continued to improve, but fell short of meeting that target on the Panorama survey, but did meet that target on the other staff survey that's given for teaching and learning conditions Colorado survey. So, one survey met, one didn't. Um, and then a attendance increased again for the fourth consecutive year. We're really excited about that. Chronic absenteeism went down again for this fourth consecutive year. Really excited about about seeing that as far as meeting the goals in our strategic plan. As far as academic achievement and growth indicators, they they demonstrated some positive trends with reading, math, and science performance generally across the district. Um most notable gains were elementary and middle school mathematics exceeded expectations for growth on our end ofear district assessments. We're really excited
038to see that. Um and so based on internal projections, we appear to be on track. We had a strategic plan goal of meeting and exceeding both achievement and growth on our district performance framework for the state. Um so looking at our district data, we don't have the state data back. We won't be able to share if we met that goal until we get that in the fall. Um but it looks like there's a strong possibility we can meet that goal in two of our schools, elementary and middle for growth for sure um not the high school according to our district data. So we're hoping the state data looks a little bit different um than it does for the district data for the high school. Um and then staff can compare the two and and um
039do some reflection and make and some planning efforts. So overall, the data reflected really meaningful progress toward the district's vision in providing an excellent educational experience for every student every day and also identified where we need to continue to focus and be looking at for improvement efforts into the future as far as academics go. And then building on um I talked a little bit about math tutoring and how that's funded by a lot of things like some of our general fund and we get some grants from United Way that flow through EPEF for us. And then uh we use some title four money to pay for it and really kind of grouping in together to cover tutoring costs which we probably spend 30 to 40 grand on a year. Um and we're seeing really good
040results. Uh so we're trying to really make that high impactful tutoring during the school day. students are really involved in a lot after school and we want them to be able to participate in the extracurricular activities because they're super important in the development of students as well. And so we've been bringing student uh we've been bringing tutors into during the school day to help with the math tutoring. 91 students participated in math tutoring across the schools and the students outperformed their peers on growth measures according to our end of year data. So 72% of the students that participated in tutoring met the growth targets at the elementary level and then 57% of the students participating in tutoring at the secondary level met or exceeded their growth targets. So we're happy to see that in kindergarten
041they really demonstrated some some strong progress. We had the most students exit the math tutoring um from kind the kindergarten class. We had 67% of those students meeting or exceed or exceeding their growth expectations and 42% of them exited tutoring because they made such significant improvement that it was no longer necessary to participate. So that was great to see. I'm so excited to continue that for next year. Uh and then in the August work session, you're going to be presented with the strategic action plan overview for the 2627 school year. So this will be now our fourth year implementing our strategic plan. So we have our our you end goals already established and this is the work that we did as a district and then building leadership teams to really talk about okay if we're
042going to meet these end goals what are the most important most impactful actions we can take on next year that are reasonable that we can do in a year that we feel are most important. And so, um, the leadership teams have developed those, agreed on them, and it'll be presented to you in August, and it'll be in those three focus areas of our strategic plan, and we're we're really excited about it. Those collective actions are um designed to advance our mission of um engaging all learners in authentic education for global applications. So, we are excited to be able to present that and keep moving forward with the strong plan of action for improvement for next school year, year four. And then in closing, um I want to welcome Dave Grubs. Dave Dave's joined us today.
043You want to say a round of applause? Uh I'd like to welcome him as the next superintendent of Essis Park School District. Dave will officially begin serving the district next week on July 1st. So, we're really excited to have him and I'm excited about the future of EPSD under his leadership. So, excited to have him here. And as this is my final board of education meeting as superintendent, I'd just like to express my sincere gratitude to the board. Um, some of you I've been working with for my whole tenure as superintendent. So, thank you so much. Um, and to the whole Estus Park community also. Thank you for the trust you placed in me. Thank you for the support you've shown me and for the support you have shown our schools and the kindness that
044you've extended to me and the grace um all throughout my time here not just as a superintendent but as a principal and as a teacher and as a director. It's been an honor and a privilege to serve the students, the staff, the family, and the community here in Estis Park. And I'll carry forward all the lessons that I learned from all of my time growing up here. um and the relationships that I have built and the memories that I have and I will carry those into the future and so thanks for allowing me to be part of the park school district story. >> Any questions for Ruby? >> I did have one question. Um first Ruby, thank you for your final superintendent report and uh all the good information that was in it. Um, regarding
045that teacher survey, I know there was the two surveys and I think the the state required survey you have to meet a minimum participation level, right? Um, and that was the one that we met our targets on. Can you help me understand the difference between the two surveys and why there may have been that we met it in one and not in the other? >> Yeah. >> Well, there they're two pretty different surveys. Um our survey is one that we have created through Panorama, a program we use. Panorama has a bunch of different questions. You can give them all or you can choose some. So we have picked from different categories, 12 maybe categories, a couple of questions in each category. So it's a much shorter survey. It's maybe 20 questions. Um we had 41
046staff members participate in that one. This year we have 200 something staff members. So not a huge participation rate and what it's what we've typically been seeing when we get the survey. So I think one of the big things that we should set our sights on focusing as a staff is how we get more broad participation from all of our staff and all of our staff. It's really um it's really a staff me it's really for all staff members. And so how do we get more participation? So we're getting some more broad feedback. We got a little bit higher participation on the teaching and learning condition Colorado survey. I think we had something like 65 participate in that or maybe it was a little higher than that. It was enough to meet the threshold to
047be able to get data for our district. So I do know that. Um and that one is really an extensive survey. One thing I hear from teachers is I want to take it but I don't want to take it because it'll take me forever and I really don't once I start it. I want to finish it and um you do have to sit down for a little bit of time because it's it's I haven't taken it since I was a teacher, but it's about a hundred questions from what I remember. It's pretty lengthy. Um so it takes some dedication to sit down and complete it. So thank you to the staff members that did. That one's publicly shared. You can look at our data online. Um and when you do a weighted average of all
048the responses, we do meet the um goal that we had. we still see a lot of areas where we really need to focus and that is and that's kind of aligned in both surveys actually. So that's good information for us to have. So um really we need to focus on the quality of professional development. We're hearing that from staff. Um we need to focus in the consistency of um response to behavior in our schools and the consistency and collective efficacy of staff members in responding to that. Um also, uh we're seeing district or building leadership relationships. We need to focus on on that moving into next year. And intercolgial relationships was another thing that we can focus on. So, we definitely got I mean, it's still valuable feedback even though we didn't get a high
049amount of people to participate and it's great information that we use to improve our practice as leaders and as a whole staff to improve our building. It's really data we own as a whole staff because we're all responsible for that data. We all are responsible for the culture and climate we create for each other in our schools. So, it's good data for us to look at and set goals of where we want to improve. No, thank you for that and I agree. Maybe next year we look at ways we can encourage more participation in in both surveys. So, um, thanks for helping me understand. Thanks for your kind words regarding the board and your service here. But, um, we're going to formally recognize Ruby at the end of our meeting, Chris, and the board. So,
050we're going to put that at the end of the meeting for you. >> And then I have policies that I need to >> Yep. announce that first. Let me read all that whole list for you. >> Yeah, >> you go for >> moving on to agenda item 34, administrative policy updates. It's GBA, open hiring equal employment opportunity. ACE1, non-discrimination equal opportunity. ACR1, harassment discrimination investigation procedures for students. ACR2 harassment discrimination investigation procedures for employees applicants of employment and members of the public and ke instructional materials public concerns and complaint forms. Ruby. >> Yep. So these are all administrative policies that the board has delegated me with the responsibility and if I make if any changes are ever made in our district to any of these policies, it's my duty to inform the board. These are
051pretty straightforward. All of these policies require the actual specific name of a person who's the compliance officer for the district and the reporting person and their contact information. And you can't just say the superintendent. So, we are changing my name and my contact information to Dave Grubs's to David's name and his contact information in all of these policies. There's also one at the end, the um one about materials and classrooms, the instructional materials, public concerns and complaints form that also still had Aaron Copeland listed as a contact. And so we've also changed that to Chris Douglas as well. So those are the changes made in those administrative policies. >> Any questions on those? >> And those will be effective July 1st. Thank you for that. Moving on to agenda item 35, board reports. Brenda, >>
052I attended the fifth grade promotion and the high school graduation and it was wonderful to see all of our students celebrating their success. And that's all I have to report. >> Uh yeah, kind of kind of same here. Feels like a long time ago, but all all the all the all the graduation week events uh is all the only thing to report. same. I attended the fifth grade promotion both as a parent and a board member and then um also the high school graduation. So, all great events. >> I did the same. >> I think I can say I did the same thing. Lots of activities at the end of the school year. U moving on to agenda item four, consent agenda. There are 11 items on the consent agenda this evening. 4.1 meeting minutes
053May 7th 2026 May 12th 2026 and May 18th 2026 4.2 EL5 compensation and benefits 4.3 EL6 budgeting 44 approval of 2026 2027 certified employee contracts as recommended in personnel action report 4.5 preliminary budget fiscal year 2026 2027 4.6 6 Consolidated Application for ESA funds and ESEA general asurances form 4.7 no interest loan and ESS park proform 1 4.8 handbooks administrator handbook and classified employee handbook 4.9 consolidated state model evaluation system randa 4.10 10 June personnel list 4.11 memorandum of understanding theou are there any items the board member would like to pull from consent agenda for discussion prior to approval of the consent agenda seeing none is there a motion and second >> I move to approve the consent agenda is there a second >> a second >> um a board comment I have theou that
054we approved in the May consent agenda contain errors in the dates So therefore, the document was added to this month's agenda with the corrected dates. Are there any other board comments? Seeing none, Chris, please conduct a board roll call. >> Director Furry, >> I. >> Director Roberts, >> I. >> Director Shocked, >> I. >> Director Werski, >> I. >> Director Wis >> I. Eyes carry the vote. Consent agenda is approved. Moving on to agenda item five, action items 51, GP14 schoolboard meetings, second reading. Is there a motion? >> I move to approve GP14 school board meeting second reading. Is there a second? >> A second. >> Any board discussion? >> Um, just second reading. No changes since the first reading and this is the change from Monday to Wednesday. >> Yep. >> Any other board
055comment? >> Seeing none, Chris, please conduct a board roll call. >> Director Furry I. >> Director Roberts >> I. Director Socket >> I. >> Director Rerski >> I. >> Director Wis I. >> I secure the vote and the motion passes. Moving on to agenda item 52, 2026 2027 board of education meeting schedule. Is there a motion? >> I move to approve 2026 2027 board of education meeting schedule. >> Is there a second? >> I second. >> Any board comments? >> Seeing none, Chris, please connect a board roll call. Director Fere I. >> Director Roberts >> I. Director Socket >> I. >> Director Redski >> I. >> Director Wis I. >> I carry the vote and the motion passes. Moving on to agenda item 53 JF. Policy. JF is the admission and denial of admission. Is
056there a motion? I move to approve JF. I second. >> Effective. >> Yes. >> Effective July 1st. Is there a second? Can I second? Thank you. Um, any board comments? I do have a board. You want me to go? Um, the only update to this policy is again changing the designated compliance officer from Ruby Bod to David Grubs. Approval of this update is being expedited to meet the July 1, 2026 effective date. Any other board comments? Seeing none, Chris, please conduct a board roll call. >> Director Fury, >> I. Director Roberts, >> I. >> Director Shocket, >> I. >> Director Redski, >> I. >> Director Wis I. >> I carry the vote and the motion passes. Moving on to agenda item 54, JFBB policy. JFBB is at the interd district choice open enrollment. Is there
057a motion? >> I move to approve JFBB effective July 1st. Is there a second? >> I second. >> Any board comments? >> Again, the only policy update to this policy is changing the designated compliance officer from Ruby Bod to David Grebs. Approval of this update is being expedited to meet the July 1, 2026 effective date. Any other board comments? Seeing none, Chris, please conduct a board roll call. Director Free >> I. >> Director Roberts >> I. >> Director Shocket >> I. >> Director Werski >> I. >> Director Wis I. >> I carry the vote and the motion passes. Moving on to agenda item six. Upcoming meetings. Um there are no scheduled meetings in July. The board's next work session is August 4th, 2026 3:30 p.m. at the admin building. And before adjourning this evening, um
058Chris and the board would like to take a moment to recognize Ruby um for all you have done. So I'm going to start with Brenda. >> Ruby, >> I just want you to know I've been crying since January 6 since I announced that I was leaving. So I I don't have any tears left. So don't don't that is fine. I just want you to know that every other day we came up with some fun idea of how we wanted to acknowledge you and we're told she doesn't want anything. So, I'm sorry, but we have to do something. >> That is the truth. >> Yes. >> So, like, oh, we have to Okay. No, no, we're going to scale it back. We're not going to do that, but we are going to do this. >> That's
059right. >> Yes. >> And you don't have to cry. It's okay. because all we want to do is thank you. There's so much to thank you for. Thank you for showing up for our kids every day. Thank you for motivating the district to strive for more and leading the monumental turnaround and culture change that happened with your guidance and tenure. Thank you for being part of our community. Uh we will miss you not just professionally but also personally. Um, thank you for reminding us always that we are better together. Thank you for being a role model to many students, including my own daughter. Uh, she watched the way you move through this world and the passion that you have for your work, the heart that you have for people, and saw not just someone to
060look up to or a job to attain, but a way of being to aspire to. Um, so most of all, Ruby, thank you for being the amazing, wonderful, inspiring person that you are. You will be missed. >> That's hard to hard to follow up. >> Um, but yeah, no, just thank you very much, Ruby. Um, through your whole tenure, starting as a teacher, moving to the admin team, and then leading this district the last few years, leading us forward. um and our academic scores and just as a as a whole leading our district to higher and greater places. We really appreciate you. Thank you. >> And I'm sad my time as a board member with you was so short, but I'm grateful that I had it. Um but as a parent, I've seen the direct
061impact that you have had on personally my own children, but all of our students and staff. And so I think you've left your mark on our community and our schools. And so, uh, I thank you for the dedication and commitment you had to all of us. So, best of luck to you, but you'll certainly be missed. >> Yeah, I just got to know you and I appreciate you and all your hard work. And may God bless you and where you go and what you do. And >> yeah, but you have a good time. And I just want to say thank you for your hard work, your dedication, and the countless hours, countless hours that you have invested improving our school district. Your leadership has made lasting positive impacts on our students, my boys personally as
062well, um the staff, the entire community, and I am so grateful for all you have accomplished during your tenure here. It's been both a pleasure and a privilege to work alongside you. I've truly enjoyed our time working together. appreciate your commitment, your vision, and your passion. Your passion is second to none, and I appreciate that. You've brought a tremendous amount of passion to your role, and I thank you. So, thanks for everything you've done, for what you've given to our district, our community, and your countless sacrifice I know that you've made personally as well. Thank you. >> Next up, I just want to thank you. um coming from as a community member and moving here six years ago, it's amazing how much good has been happening and and I can see now working here you
063you have started the ball and you have carried the ball but you have taught other people to do it too and you have given them the confidence and the the yes we can do it together. we are better together. And so I just want to thank you um personally for bringing me on board and for giving me another year and uh man, you know, I'm so excited to watch you embrace your next step because it's just going to be amazing and I'm so excited for you. Thank you. >> I regret that I had such a short time to work with you, Chris. I'm glad you're here. So, we have a couple of gifts to give Ruby while she's here. >> Well, some flowers arrived in my office today. >> Barely, Ruby. Barely. >> District community.
064Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. Well done with the purple. I hope it's something that will help me remember all of my great time here. >> Just might be it might be. Yeah. It's a box that says once a bobcat, always a bobcat. I give uh magnets to the kindergarteners that say that uh let's grow and plant some some basil for my new house and in Bentonville >> in Bentonville, Arkansas. >> All the memories. >> So these were just collected. Don't read those now. I can't read those right now. So, they are um >> everyone was invited to >> they are messages from staff members >> and community members. Thank you. But I'm not going to read now because babbling us. >> All right. I'm going to read those on a day when I'm
065ready for it. And then we have another >> Wow, it feels like my birthday. My pain. >> I bet it's coming. >> It is actually my Yeah, it is actually my birthday in like seven more hours. I was actually supposed to be born in July, but I just couldn't wait. That's what my mom said. a photo that photo. Oh, wow. That is so cool. Oh, man. This is This I will have in my office wherever I go. I'm going to always carry with me. So, it's a it's a photo of Ess's Park, a black and white. That's really cool. Thank you. >> There you go again. >> Thank you. This is >> You're welcome. >> I think this is when the school was this building. >> I wonder what year this is. Uh, >> it
066had the year on the Cool. >> I think in the card I put there. Very neat. There you go. Thank you for everything, Ruby. >> I think we can adjourn. >> We're ready. Moving on to where we at? Agenda item seven, adjournment. Would a board member make a motion to adjurnn? >> I move to adjurnn. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> We're journ everyone. Thank you.