001Welcome. This is the March 23rd, 2026 Essence Park School District R3 Board of Education regular meeting. It is now 5:16 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, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Chris, please conduct a board roll call. Director Far >> 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 the agenda? >> I move we approve the agenda. >> A second. We have a motion and second.
002Chris, please conduct a board roll call. >> Director Fury, >> I. >> Director Shake, >> I. >> Director Rushki, >> I. >> Director Wis I. >> Ice 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, spotlight on success, paper bridges. Miss Barberry and students, please come up. come over here. Hi, school board president Free Fury, school board members, um, Superintendent Bode, and our superintendent council. This is an honor to share a project that our students did. It was a studentdriven project and um we want to recognize those students and on our certificate it just says global outcomes because we covered all of them. They had to problem solve, they had to anticipate, they had
003to collaborate, you know, so they had to be leaders in the moment. Um sometimes stepping in for others. So they worked really really hard. We had tours for elementary and middle school and um public two public tours and one tour for our foundation and they work so hard. They were they are so over it though. I will tell I will tell you Yasm mean our photographer and I'll recognize our project manager and our other students and give them their certificate. Yas mean's just going to say a word. I just wanted to say it was like really fun and like really nice to get to like be the photographer and like it was kind of more of like a I guess like a spectator kind of like view cuz I got to see everybody else's like
004jobs and like everyone else like all the kids and or like all the tour groups and I got to like switch and move around so I could get pictures of everyone and it was just like really nice to be able to like see everything and it was a really nice project. Thank you. Thank you, Yasmine. I also want to just quickly recognize the students, then I'll give the certificate and tell her what the certificate says. Um Evie McGillicuy was our project manager. She had to handle two tours happening at once and with middle school that can be really interesting. Um we had four different worlds. Um so, you know, trying to manage that and make sure we didn't have crashes and letting our our students have a break and go get snacks. She handled it
005with so much grace. So, I want to make sure I recognize her. And um we had a blogger write a wonderful, eloquent article and she noticed Willow's voice as an artist. So, I I may share that with you. I think I shared it with you. Maybe you can forward it. But it was um it's so nice to see the student art student voice be recognized. So, I just want to rec make sure I I comment on that. So the certificate students, it says um certificate of achievement global outcomes paper bridges project connecting connecting students through Hispanic art and your name in recognition for successful participation and dedication to cultural connection and artistic expression. Um and it has my signature and this um and greenways our a wonderful principal signature. So I'll try to recognize what
006they did and give the certificates. Your certificates are in in by last name. Okay. By in order by last name. And if you'll just come stand over here, then we'll turn and let your parents take a picture. So, we'll line up here and then we'll flip. Okay. So, Victoria Case Victoria was a colon Victoria worked at the colonial station. So, she had to explain and do research about everything colonial and colonization tying in wonderful history. um you know and that's a very touchy subject for some you know for some people so she hand she was able to do that and honor that culture um AJ Jordan was a weaver so I want to make sure and Yasm mean Lopez was our photographer Evelyn McGillicuy was our project manager Willow Manning was doing wood burning And
007Adriana Munz cannot be here, but her mother is here. So, I want to I want her let her mother get her certificate because she was really upset she had to work today and couldn't get out of it. So, I'll make sure you get you can come on and get this. And a Adriana was at the Day of the Dead um just explaining that culture because it's it can be you know people are very curious about it especially if they're if they don't understand it and there's so many misunderstandings that it's tied to Halloween. It isn't. So, she was a she and her partner were able to really share about that culture. Isa Pontius. She was a tour guide, a very fearless tour tour guide. And finally, here tonight is Draven Thacker. And Draven was a
008wood carver. He handled sharp tools with responsibility. So, um, so guys, why don't you turn and face the board and recognize you and if you turn, I'll take a picture and make sure I get it to the parents. You guys will turn, I'll get a picture. This way, I can get the school board into everybody. I'll take a few. Thank you. And thank you students. Um, you you are the reason we're all here. Do you want to ask questions? Oh, hey students. Do you want to stick around? The board might have project. Is that okay, Miss Barbar? Yeah. Thank you. So, if the students could just come back up to the podium, please stop. >> Thank you all so much for being here tonight and for putting together this wonderful project that you all did.
009The question that I have for you is what did you find um was most meaningful to you? Was it the creation of the art or was it the presentation of the art? >> Um, I thought it was like >> um I really liked when seeing like the kids' face like light up of the all the different like art project X. Um, that's what I thought was like the most important part about it. Um, I think I would say like my own like personal connection with like all the like different like art or like stations. Like I think I only made like a few pieces that were actually there, but like like I had a personal connection with some of like all the stuff that was there. >> Thank you all for being here. I enjoyed
010I actually attended the event and it was really well done. I appreciate all your hard work. You could see it um displayed in the hallways and hear it in your voice your appreciation for that. So, thank you all very much. >> Yeah. >> Now they can escape. All right, moving on to agenda item four, discussion items 4 when superintendent council report. So this is our March report. I'm Neva. >> And I'm Olivia. >> And I'm if and we are the superintendents council. We each hold different positions. Our goal is to increase increase school pride culture and give the student body a contact point. Currently, we are working on strengthening the connection between the students and the admin. We've recently had meetings with Dr. Harris and Miss Greenway with more to come. This Thursday, we'll be
011having a Bobcat buggy field day with all of our schools and we're going to try and do like a field day. Yeah. And for happenings in the school, it is first week back from spring break. A lot of people didn't want to be there today, but they made it. And there's still some kids out from the Europe trip, so we're waiting for them to come back, too. Um, boys and swim has an away meet and girls soccer has three away games this week. And baseball has two games, one here and one away. I was not able to find which schools they were going for exactly, but good luck to them. Um, the day before break, we had Alex Sheen come and speak to the student body. Alex spoke about motivation and mental health tactics. His
012slogan is to fulfill promises that we make to ourselves and to others, which is because I said I would. And he invited students to come and speak on stage about their own promises that they have fulfilled. And there's some photos of us with him. And yeah, that's what we did. And we also want to say a goodbye to Miss Copeland, who not only worked with us as the board secretary, but also as our teacher, coach, and mentor. She committed a decade to our schools and always been loved by our students and staff alike. I personally had her in seventh grade, and she was my favorite teacher ever, especially during co and uh we just want to say that we're going to miss her. And that is the end of our presentation. Thank you. >> Um,
013for the upcoming field day, can you tell me a little bit more about kind of the how the student superintendent council has worked with maybe the PE teachers or admin in in preparation? >> So, right now, because it came up on us kind of fast, we're working on the details, but basically we're separating the schools onto each of the fields cuz ideally it won't rain. If it does rain, we have worked with the PE teachers to work inside all three gyms and we just want to give the kids time to play really from kindergarten to seniors. We all really want to play and I think it'd be a great way to connect the students. >> So, you did mention um separate fields and separate gymnasiums. Does that mean that there won't be interaction between the
014different schools in this field day? Um we're we're aiming to have them all on our high school field because it's our biggest one. Um and except for our preschoolers because it's kind of a big walk and yeah. So we're going to keep we have classes from high school paired up with the young kids. So like our high school classes will walk up to the preschoolers and then the rest of them will all be together at the high school field >> in the top field. Yay top field. Um, I also want to ask you to elaborate a little bit more on Alex Sheen's visit and his speech. Did you his speech? Did you find it as impactful the second time around? And tell us a little bit more about the participation with the students. Were people
015willing to come up and talk about the promises that they had kept from the last time that he was here? So last time, it's hard to compare them because they were two very different presentations. The first time it came around is about his story, how he created because I said I would, his motivations behind it. And this time around, it was more of a workshop to really teach the students how to improve, how to what was it was like five the I remember there were like 10 thinking hats, how to think as a pessimist, how to think as an optimist, and which points of life to use those different perspectives. So I don't I don't know. It's hard to compare them, but I loved the story in the last presentation, but I also learned amazing
016lessons in the second one. And sorry, and also students were willing to come up with like we had a a couple of plan students that we had before to like encourage engagement and some of those were superintendent council members. So that sparked engagement from everyone and there was lots of students coming up to talk. >> Wonderful. Thank you both so much and thanks for being here. >> Moving on to Jandina Portu. Superintendent report. Superintendent Bod. >> Good evening everyone. Um, as far as facilities updates in the district, our next master planning committee meeting with the RB PlusB architects has been rescheduled for Thursday, March 26. Uh, that's coming up this Thursday. We needed some additional time to allow for the completion of a detailed commercial contractor estimate aligned to the building assessment that the state
017did back first semester. Having a more precise cost estimate for was pretty essential for the committee right now to effectively evaluate options and determine our next steps together. And so we decided to postpone that in order to have more accurate numbers. And so we've reached a point in the process where more refined financial data is going to be necessary to move us forward in a meaningful way depending on what we we are planning for the future. Several projects are right now scheduled for for spring and then immediately following the school year when summer starts for facilities updates including resurfacing the preschool playground, irrigation improvements and field regeneration on Topfield repairs and renovations to bathroom showers and benches at the high school locker rooms. We're also replacing our Prox card key system over the summer. Um
018and we're looking at the a cost estimate for some crack sealing. I think we we are seeing a lot of damage around campus that crack sealing could really improve. July there's going to be a lot of work being done in the district. So that's a good time. We also always every year annually that we wax all the floors in July. So there's going to be a lot of maintenance and happenings around the district in July. We really try to close our buildings down in July. We do still have Boys and Girls Club operating in July, but for the most part, we really try to keep our buildings empty so that we can um keep everything or so that we can do all of that repair and maintenance in July. We do have free feeding again
019for the summer. We're going to operate that out of the middle school kitchen this year instead of the elementary kitchen um for a few reasons. Boys and Girls Club actively uses that area a lot and needs that space over at the elementary and we can it's much more we can keep it more secure at the middle school with people coming in. It'll be open certain hours and we'll be communicating that for the summer feeding program. Some major summer projects um that also will be taking place are restoration of vegetation around the district. We're going to try and do some trimming. You might notice there's um we've had all those irrigation problems last summer. We're going to really be trying to get noxious weeds out of there, regenerating the growth of our grass. So, lots of
020landscaping work also in the works for the summer. The retaining wall in front of the middle school has been completed by two high school students, Isaac and Nadair. Uh that is a project that started. You might remember we had Erica Davis present that project idea with her class at one of our board meetings. they were a student spotlight and they started the project last year but they didn't complete it by the end of the school year when all the students left. So these students took it upon themselves and completed it as a service project which is really cool. They did an outstanding job and the final results look really excellent. So if you haven't been by the middle school you can see that's finished. Um, and then you heard from Ravi and her students in
021their spotlight last month, Ravi Davis, our middle school teacher, that they have some plans for landscaping that area with their project for their class. Uh, at this month's DAC meeting, Brian Lund provided provided a great financial update to everyone. Overall, while Colorado is projecting modest increases in statewide school funding for next school year, it's it's around at this point about 167 million. These changes are going to have minimal impact on our school district. EPSD is fully funded through local property tax and continues to recapture a portion of those categorical funding, which means we collect them, but then we return them. So, increases in state funding don't really significantly affect our revenue. As we look ahead, we anticipate a similar budget to next year. The greatest financial pressures coming for us will be from rising operating
022costs, rising insurance costs, and the need to maintain competitive staff compensation. Overall, our financial focus remains on managing rising costs and ensuring long-term sustainability for the future. Each year, we also seek input at that DACK meeting regarding the best use of any remaining funds. This year, there was a strong agreement around prioritizing the replacement of worn classroom furniture and expanding out playground equipment and outdoor area play options at the elementary and middle school and outdoor seating areas at the high school. So, following the distribution of retention stipens for our returning staff, which we talked about several meetings ago, we're going to consider allocating allocating any remaining funds towards some of those priorities. So, building principles are going to be working with their staff to make decisions, look at equipment, and make those improvements. At this
023time of year, building departments are also asked to review their budgets and finalize purchasing by the end of March. Some of these needs may be purchased as buildings identify remaining funds in their general budget. So, if they see an opportunity there, they might purchase some of those equipment needs as well for their outdoor seating and play areas. this year. Um, this is something we do yearly. It's we always ask staff to end their purchases by March from their general accounts. This doesn't mean their activity fundraising accounts. Those can be spent whenever, but this allows us to allocate all the funds and fully utilize all of them to meet the current needs and allow us to accurately plan year-end financing for the next year. It supports the development of next year's budget. And it provides clear
024expenditure data for our district. and it helps inform decisions rel related to staff compensation for the following year, budget adjustments, and any other anticipated cost increases. So, we anticipate being closer to finalizing salary schedules for the 2620 school year for staff by the end of April after that process is all completed. For family and community engagement, I'll be hosting a coffee and conversations at Starbucks on April 9th. It provides an opportunity for community members to connect in a casual setting outside of the school district with me. The superintendent council talked about their Bobcat Buddy Day for Thursday, March 26. We've had those dates on the calendar since this summer. We've had four planned. This one snuck up on the council really quick because they'd put all their energy into planning for Alex Sheen to come.
025So, I stepped in and and helped them get organized and we'll do final details when we meet on Wednesday morning. But they're focusing on wellness and play this time. And hopefully we're gonna have a great day. The weather should be warm. It's just a matter of if we get an afternoon thunderstorm that that day because there is a chance of rain, but they have a backup plan to utilize all three gyms and spread students around for some games. And then some focus area highlights. Student le conferences were held across all buildings this month right before spring break as we concluded the third quarter and we're transitioning to fourth. Family participation was strong this year. This work directly supports our strategic plan by engaging students in reflecting on their own learning and taking ownership of their
026growth. As part of this effort, schools are beginning to implement student learning portfolios. As they do this, it'll allow students throughout their time at EPSD to reflect on their learning. And then our goal in our strategic plan is that in the 27th, 28th school year, so two years from now, that fifth grade, 8th grade, and 12th grade students will extend this work through presentations of their learning, reflecting on progress toward the global outcome competencies. It's really important work that we're doing because student reflection has really significant impact on student learning. The paper bridges exhibit that you saw tonight showcased the global outcomes. I also attended and I was really impressed some of the students here participating and others that were in the photos. They did kind of a shiakewin performance and I was really impressed
027by their ability to stay in character the whole time when the middle school and elementary students were asking them questions and they were still talking with the point of view of the artist and that's hard to do. And I was really impressed with with those students. They really transformed that wing into a live art museum. It felt like an art museum and showcased work from all three buildings. It was really neat. And then the superintendent council in partnership with the education foundation funded to bring Alex in and they shared that. It's the second visit. And we've we've launched what's called the reachout crisis hotline. It provides 247 access to train counselors for students and families. And we got some feedback from Dak about about that. The reach out crisis hotline. That's the name of it.
028But you don't have to be in crisis to utilize it. You can you can use it for any support you need with parents can use it if they need some social emotional support for a teen who's suffering anxiety, depression, and they want to talk to a counselor. The whole family can utilize it. The student attends our school. So, it's a it's a really neat thing. We're going to look at getting more information out there so people know you don't have to be in crisis. Your house doesn't have to be burning down to use the reachout crisis number. Um it's there for you for general social emotional mental health support. And so that's been being shared in our newsletters and we'll continue to share that throughout the end of the year. And that's it for my
029report today. Thank you all for your support of our schools. We're better together. >> Any questions? Um question on the preschool resurfacing. So I know we recently brought the retaining wall in there. Is is that related to that or is it are we resurfacing what we already had in there? >> Yeah, the whole thing. So where the port in place that was in there is ripping and there's a lot of areas in which it's ripped. I think prior to the retaining wall solution, that hillside had gravel come down frequently and then the kids, you know, ride the scooters and the and walk on it and play on it really tore up the port in place. So the whole port and place area needs to be resurfaced as well as once we put the retaining wall
030in, it's now just gravel. And so the we just need a better surface for the students to play on because the gravel still is kind of continuing to get onto the port and place surface. the the original goal. We were kind of waiting the math. One of the geometry classes did a project where they were measuring out the surface and we're we had some leftover the maintenance department had some leftover surfacing um tur not turf fake grass the >> Yeah. Yeah. material. and they were maybe going to resurface it for their project, but we decided that was not going to be the the best surfacing and would just weather and tear up. So, we're just going to resurface the whole playground with the same tile that we use for Bobcat Den. So, it's going to
031have the same surfacing. >> Sounds good. Thank you. Um, and then for the the crisis line, is that being the the people answering that call, are they local or is that uh not local? Okay. >> Oh, not local. It's a ex it's really to be utilized, you know, when outside of the school day for students when they don't have access to a a counselor or for families if they're struggling. Um, but the counselors are all over, you know, all over. I I don't even think they're in the state of Colorado. All of them. This is from um not securely but Gaggle which is a company that's nationwide and so yeah all over the place. Moving on to agenda item 4.3 administrative reports. Miss Miller. I was about to say good morning. So that Hi, it's
032good to see everyone. Um I have a couple of really exciting celebrations to start out with. One of them is that we are excited that uh to offer Project Launch to our families again this June for the fifth year in a row. and um we opened our registrations and more than half of our spots filled um probably within 20 minutes. So um pretty excited about that opportunity for our families and to share that Ashley Silva will be taking on the coordinator role this summer and we're really excited for her leadership in their program and for her to bring her creativity and for all of her ideas to our programming this summer. Um, we also want to share our Golden Globe award passed between our staff this uh month went to Corey Light, our counselor, for
033all of her compassion and collaboration with uh teachers across the school. And then Amanda Winsel, our special education teacher in the upper grades for all of her collaboration and uh perseverance and problem solving to support all of our students this year. So, just so proud of our staff and their continued recognition of each other. Um, some upcoming events happening on Monday, April 6th. Our next PD day is our annual Junior Bobcat Roundup Day. This year, we're going to be extending it not just to our kindergarteners in our community, but also to our incoming preschoolers. Last year, we updated our roundup experience to have um our service providers come and do a kind of holistic assessment, a kindergarten readiness assessment on our students, including language communication to kind of support our early intervention process so that
034we weren't waiting to meet our kids and then realizing, oh, speech services might really benefit this student and supporting families with early intervention or childf find if they're in need of that early. And so we're going to be providing that to our incoming preschooler families as well and making it just a really big event to welcome our newest, youngest junior Bobcats into our community. And then um our final ESAC meeting of the year will be this Thursday where we'll be working um getting parent and community feedback as well like Ruby shared about our upcoming fifth grade presentations of learning towards our student global outcomes and working with our families uh towards forming those. Our uh student council has planned a family movie night for this Friday. They are yet again doing a fundraiser for Makea-Wish
035Foundation. And our kids are very invested in supporting our Makea-Wish and making it come true. And so we are going to be hosting a family movie night on Friday that families can come. There's no charge to come in, but then there'll be concessions and other things. Uh, and then it'll be a big the end of their fundraiser where they're kind of doing a penny wars by grade level and that'll be the big celebration and reveal of which grade level won the penny wars for the fundraiser. So, just a thank you to Seven Carill for supporting our young leaders and all their ideas and um and their inspiration to really support and create a big event for the school. So, pretty exciting to see. And then um we have our upcoming fourth grade music performance next
036Wednesday. And then just putting on your calendar for because it'll happen before our next board meeting is our f annual PSO family dance. So if you want to come out and join the um join the big dance this year will be an outer space theme. So dress up, come on out and join us. And it's a fun event. In the area of academic achievement and growth, our last PD day, we were really excited to have that time to really do some deep collaborative planning across the building. You know, we that was our last our PD day with our planning our last four weeks of quality instruction before state testing. And so our teacher teams really dug in to make sure that our instruction these four weeks was as strong as it can be. Jan McGawan,
037our instructional coach, worked with all of our ELA teachers who are teaching our new arts and letters curriculum. And they're all planning and backwards planning for our new the third module of the year. And so, you know, as they've been kind of taking it module by module, learning these new units. They really dug in and it's exciting to see some of their plans. And it's exciting. Some of their current studies in module 3 are really relevant. like our first graders are learning all about wind and how wind impacts people's lives and reading fiction and non-fiction stories and they can very much relate to it. So exciting to have that um coming together. And we also use that time uh collaborating with uh Brooke Forini and Maggie Hor teachers because our arts and letters curriculum comes
038with prologue units that support the access for our multilingual learners in the tier one classroom. and so they were planning those lessons to support them along the way. So really great use of time uh on that day. We are continuing our last round of peer observations this month and teachers getting into each other's classrooms. Every Wednesday teachers have the opportunity to sign up and go and visit each other and learn from each other and particularly have taken advantage of that with watching each other teach this new curriculum. So, it's been a really fun experience and lots of positive feedback from our teachers who are engaging in that. In the area of real world learning, um we had our student led conferences on March 10th through 12th with a really high um with a really high
039attendance rate from our families. And just a huge thank you to our families who came out and the PSCO who cooked dinner forever who brought dinner and um all of those people who supported our staff for engaging in those experiences for our community. our end of the year, our teach our grade levels are really um finishing up a lot of their project- based learning units. And so some of them, you know, right now our fourth graders are doing their annual ice cream flavor project that they do. So they're currently writing their essays to take to find ice cream and they will be presenting their um ice creams. Yes, mark your calendar for uh April 29th after school. They will have five different flavors from the persuasive essays that the fourth graders wrote and anyone who
040goes can taste test them and vote on the winner that will be served at Lara's Fine Ice Cream. So, just a great collaboration with a local business and the students are highly motivated to learn and write their persuasive essays. Um, we also, uh, it's been great to see our teachers taking our ELA units from Arts and Letters and creating these project-based learning opportunities. And so, you know, I'd already written about one of them with our third graders making robots that they had to write a persuasive essay about whether they would rather explore the ocean or outer space. And then they made Ozobot robots that were traveling one of those two and had them in costumes like Galileo and uh the people who were watching and the parents at at uh student le conferences could learn
041and see that. Um and then one of them that I just learned about today we just organized um for the fifth grade unit has been about disasters and multiple perspectives when people are experiencing disasters in their community. And so, um, our Rocky Mountain National Park dispatchers and SAR team are coming in to talk about how they make those decisions within our community and the processes they use. So, just really excited about those partnerships happening for our students to see real world application of how this learning can can impact their decisions growing up. Um, and then our fifth graders are lined up to go to High Peaks Camp on May 7th and 8th for their overnight camp experience. and um Lauren Longworth and the fifth grade team decided to host a readathon during ReadAcross America week
042to raise money to support the cost for them. And so they raised almost $1,000 and our PSCO generously uh honored that they would double any funds that the students raised during the readathon. So we're excited about them and for that experience. And then in the area of wellness, we are continuing um you know, I'd shared in our strategic plan, one of our goals in the elementary school was just ensuring that our comprehensive health standards are taught across the grade levels, whether it's in science, through innovate and relate, or through PE with coach B. And so they've just done a fantastic job of creating that alignment plan. And um our fifth graders are wrapping up with their health standards instruction this week and it's gone really well. and we've gotten really great feedback from the teachers
043of the support for students through that instruction. And then, you know, I shared a couple of months ago about our PBS team really working to problem solve in some of our recess behaviors. And one of those solutions has been that coach B has been going out to recess the past few weeks and will be this week to ret and teach some of the science and games and good sportsmanship and supporting our students. And so we've had a lot of positive feedback and less behavior referrals since we started that process. So excited to see that having an positive impact on our students. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> So Erin, is the project launch is that the one that uses the town funding? Yes. >> Can you tell me a little bit more about that kind of
044back and forth and what happened there? >> Yeah. Um we uh at first were informed that we weren't going to get any 60C funding this year. They had made decisions to already through to fund other programming in the community. Um they did respond back um and are honoring giving us $40,000 to support through the out of um school funds through 6E. And so we will get partial funding from them. uh their recommendation in the future was to apply in July through their sustainability funds and so we can apply through the sustainability funds to get more money in the future. So yeah. Yeah, thank you for asking. >> And does that amount of money impact the number of students that can participate this coming summer versus previous? Um, we hope not this summer because um, you
045and Ruby and everyone have has um, dedicated to make sure we're supporting. We're still planning on the same staffing and the same number of students as we had originally planned. Um, our hope is that we can continue that, but you know, we shared with the town that without their support, you know, the money we get from Reedact to support summer school is uh, very little and couldn't support the kind of programming that we currently offer. And so we're really hopeful that we can continue this partnership to offer this programming for our families because they've become to rely on it as an opportunity for our students and for them for, you know, it offers it's it's great because it's educational programming for us, but it's also free child care for the whole month of June for
046families. And so yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you all. Thank you. Miss Greenway going to ask for music next year. Good evening. I'll start with some events and happenings. Um J.R. Hawker, one of our high school seniors, will be traveling to state honor band in April. Excited about that. The high school play too many detectives in the murder mansion was um was in February. But um it was just hilarious, wonderful performance. I I love when I can laugh out loud and it was surprising. There was a surprise after surprise after surprise. So really well done um by the cast. Our student led conferences were March 10th and 11th. We included a resource fair and the um paper bridges art exhibit the high school this year. I'm happy to say at the high school attendance was
047much improved from fall. So we'll continue to work on um engaging families and students um presented their portfolios at the high school and the ones I was able to see I was I was quite impressed. So they jumped in and um took it on and I think it was really nice for students to reflect on looking all the way back sometimes to freshman year and then looking at where they are now. We had one senior who had a piece of writing from freshman year and then a piece of writing from senior year and were able to really look at the growth. So that was fun to see and there was a variety um of ways that students approached it. So they had some voice and choice beyond the criteria that was expected in the portfolio.
048So we'll continue the work on that. Um the choir concert um was just joyful. Um music was beautiful. It was really I think what we needed to wrap up the quarter. It was it was really lovely. Um our last middle school dance coming up April 3rd, the spring fling. Um the middle school robotics tournament at the end of February was a big success. Um I judge that every year and it's just a lot of fun. If talk about global outcomes, every single one of them all the time and it's amazing to see kids come together and work together and how poised they are and how prepared they are for the interviews that they do. It's it's really great work and big shout out to Cynthia Jorgensson and her crew for putting that tournament on. It
049is a lot of work in organization for academic achievement and growth. We are gearing up for testing season. So working on getting SEMAS put together MAP testing coming up one more time in May. SAT PSAT um in April. So it'll be interesting to see um our results having put some SAT prep um in motion at the high school this year and next year we'll start off with that right away in the fall. So, I think we'll see some really good results from that. Um, and we'll share that data when we get it. We had uh I think I already talked about students sharing their growth and global outcomes with their parents at conferences. We raffled off some good prizes this time. So, I think that helps with engagement. But I think also um the expectation
050that we we expect to see you at conferences and we expect you to share how you're doing with your parents. um is starting to take hold. We had a group of students visit the Thompson Career Campus this month and then another trips going to Ames I think uh this week. Um our teachers will be planning on how to incorporate public speaking into um all of their classroom since that's not a separate class anymore. So, we're having conversations about what that will look like um and working on some shared rubrics and working with our language arts team on that. At the high school, teachers are um engaging in instructional rounds, getting into each other's classrooms. I think they're about done with the second set of rounds right now. A lot of good conversation about teaching comes
051out of those. for real world learning. Um, Ruby talked about our high school students, Isaac and Adair, completing their retaining wall. Took a long time, but they got it done. So, really proud of them. And they reached out to the community um for some extra resources and help did that all on their own. Like took it upon themselves to really problem solve um some things that weren't going well. And I'm really proud of them for finishing. And then our ERT at the middle school is working with um SEMAX, which is a company in Longmont for landscaping, and they've gotten a lot of donations. So, it'll be real zeroscaped native plants that don't take a lot of water. Um, and so it turned into a collaborative project with some speaker phone calls with everybody on the
052team to make sure we were all on the same page. So, that should be finished before school is out. Um, on our March 2nd PD day, our teachers worked on the presentations of learning. Ruby talked a little bit about that too for 2028. So when our eighth graders stand in front of that audience, so when our seniors stand in front of that audience, we did some visioning on what that's going to look like and differentiating between the portfolio work we're doing now and what those presentations of learning are going to look like. So we're getting closer and closer to a product. Um, and I think we'll be in good shape next year. So, we planned out kind of a timeline, what we need to do right now, what are some action steps, and then hitting
053the ground in the fall, what we need to do, and then moving through next year so that we're ready for 2028. So, that's exciting. Um, six middle school students and their parents are taking a ham radio operating course at the observatory. They're doing that on weekends. And that's Robbie Davis. and um she's been working on that. Um we have another steamboat riotta this week at the rec center on Wednesday. So we'll see if those cardboard boats sail. That's always fun. Um the paper bridges immersive art show was really was really something. I'm really really proud of those students. It was completely run by the students. Miss Barbara really took a step back and let them solve the problems and let them work it out. Um, it was really interactive. Um, and we're already talking about
054uh, immersive Van Go for next year. So, I think we'll continue and then she may need to take a year off, but we'll see. Um, one of our students as part of NFCCLA, that's the family career community leaders of America club. Sana was our first student to complete the six-hour intro to modern AI course that's offered through Elevate AI partners. So, she took initiative and decided to do that on her own. So, really proud of her. Our high school is holding an IAP day in April and that's a studentrun um project led by Miss Klein's interns. So all students will be doing a hard I not hard I it'll be a fun I can't day but um a dive into that um and really working on it. We attended um a Zello update today with
055reps from the Zello company and um learned a whole lot more about the capacity that Zello has. They have a um we're using that for the portfolios and the IAP, but there's a there's a lot we're not using with it that I think we'll be able to do. So, they're going to come back and do some training with us in the fall. They have a really amazing um it's a PFL simulation um through Zello. So when students do um the surveys on careers they might be interested in um they are set up in a simulation where they get a starting salary in that career field and then a budget and then they have to work through here's the lifestyle I want to have and here's the money I'm going to need and here's my budget
056and then they're working on an extended version of that through Zello where it takes you 5 years down the road now you make this much money and now you want to buy a house and here's your taxes and your mortgage and all those things. So, I think that's going to be a great tool for our students. Um, they're taking the PFL class, so this will really enhance it. Um, our anatomy and physiology and health sciences students toured the CSU science and cadaavver labs on March 12th. There's another trip coming up in April to the CU um the CU labs that they'll go to. and we had Mayor Gary Hall and Jason Bradley social studies classes to talk with students about town government. For wellness, we've partnered with the boys and girls clubs and are offering
057a boxing club at the middle school. Um the focuses are on building strength, confidence, and character which aligns with our global outcomes of perseverance, perseverance, wellness, and compassion. It's called Worth the Fight. It's a six-week program, and it's a boxing and personal development program. So, I'm not sure how many kids have signed up, but the permission slips were coming in. That starts this week. Um, both schools really enjoyed Alex Sheen's um presentation on March 12th. uh was inspirational and I think students left inspired to make a difference and to make commitments and was really proud of one of our recent graduates, Saka Brown, who attended Alex's previous um presentation and is now working in the middle school as a math tutor through Americanore and came up on the stage and talked about the inspiration from
058Alex's first presentation and how Zakaya really didn't know if he was gonna make it and get through high school, but did and is now tutoring younger students in math at the middle school. So, it's a great story to share and inspirational for other kids to see, too. Um, our current attendance, speaking of wellness, middle school's hovering around 90%, high school's a little lower, 89.5. We've had a couple rounds of flu and other stuff go through, so I think that had an impact. We'll continue to recognize students for demonstrating ROR's behavior and our global outcomes in both schools. And we recognize staff with our lateral pass trophies for our staff who modered the global outcomes. We recognized Diana Webster and Matt Syler at our last meeting for being amazing collaborators and for encouraging students to collaborate
059in their classrooms. And um we're getting excited about playground equipment. So we started looking at that today a little bit at leadership. So we want kids to play as well. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Miss B, you want to do the athletic report? >> Yeah, we have spring sports underway. Baseball had their first game of the season just before spring break with Liberty Common and the team will get back in action tomorrow night against Weld Central. The team is led by Isaac Hill and Matias Wesley. There's 20 players on the roster, so there's a junior varsity and a varsity schedule this year. The team is coached by Matt Bird, Justin Kierney, Aaron Tullley, Adam Tully, and Joseph Wasek. The boys swim and dive is into their season. They are competing against Mountain
060View tomorrow. The team is led by Evan Mark Antonio and Matv Ienicanin. There's four swimmers this year. The team is coached by Cassie Fischer and Jen Mey. Girls golf is practicing hard and gearing up for their first invite at Rain Dance in Windsor. It's March 31st. We will host an Estus Park invite this year on Wednesday, May 6th. The team's led by Amy Schwarz, Lexi Hanig, and Maddie Davis. There's 12 golfers this year. The team's coached by Tim Rashi. Girls soccer had their first games this season just before spring break. The team's playing tonight at Netherland and again Thursday and Friday at Campion in Dawson. Big week for this team. The team's led by Oled Avidia and Maya Breezy. There's 15 players in the roster and the team's coached by Kirby Hazelton, Satie Morgan, and
061and Greg Ruff. Track and field has their third meet of the season on Saturday at University. Teams led by Brinley Betts and Kobe O'Brien. There's 36 athletes on the track and field team and the team's coached by John Gratenheis, Melissa George, Brent Lmer, and Tom George. Girls for middle school sports update, girls soccer is in season, and they well they're they're not in season. They kick off their season April 6 at Frontier Academy. They are led by Lene Schmidt and Story Adams. There's going to be 28 players on the middle school roster this year. The team's coached by Alyssa Mattingley, Alex Jizba, and Tyler Schmidt. And track and field will start their season with their first meet on Thursday at Plat Valley. The team is led by Nate Shoemaker and Olly Riffle. There are 52
062track and field middle school athletes. The team is coached by Mark Pritchard, Ryan Lang, Buck Heath, Madison Lang, and Brandon Boris. In other info, on March 26th, this week, there's a backers meeting at 5:45. April 8th is the spring sports photo day and on Sunday, May 17th is the Essis Park High School spring sports award night at 5:30 p.m. Thank you, Ruby. I do have a question about um supporting students who go to state events. Is that something that the schools do financially or how does that look? Yeah, some of that comes up from from the general budget, but the teams also are asked to fund raise to support if they go to state some of the meals and other things. But the hotel rooms are typically covered for any overnight trip, even during season.
063Some of our athletic teams travel overnight more often. And uh we have guidelines for like the travel time and when we'll cover overnight and when we won't when teams need to leave in the morning. It all kind of depends on how far they're traveling and how early they would need to leave. Mhm. >> And is that consistent like through the middle school and the um the middle school and the high school and then also like with sporting events and then we were hearing that one student was going to state for band and you know so is it consistent through activities? >> To my knowledge it is. Yes. Um but not middle school. Middle school doesn't have state competitions. So if middle schoolers are going to like a state or national competition for sports that would
064need to be funded outside of our league or anything if there's those like I know when I coached cross country there was a state cross country for middle school but it wasn't really you didn't qualify just anybody who wanted to go would go and compete so that was on us as a team to raise money for that or parents to take them. It wasn't organized with the school at all. I thought there were some middle schoolers who went to wrestling. So, was that like a private event then? Like a state? >> It wouldn't have been organized through our league or athletics. Yeah, just high school has state meets. Many of our our kids, I would say they they compete on club teams and so it could have been something with a club team as well.
065And we have the Essis Park Club sports now supports a bunch of our club teams and they may be going to different competitions. That could be what it was. Um, just to comment, I think it's really exciting to see the participation at the middle school. Like you say, the the number of students all throughout all the seasons has been high, which is fantastic. And then, like you said, there's actually club sports happening in addition to all this. So, we have a lot of our students doing the academics and the athletics at the same time, >> which is great. >> I will say I'm thrilled about the club sports partnership that we have to use our facilities for that. I think it's largely contributing to some of these big numbers we see with our younger students
066and arts, sports, academics and arts. Yes, thank you. And truly a shout out to the middle schools uh students for continuing that participation consistently. It's awesome to see. Moving on to agenda item 44, board reports. Dr. Shin, >> um I think all of my items have already been discussed, but I went to the finance meeting. Um I went to parent teacher conferences. Uh I, you know, uh shout out to all the teachers who are staying late all of those nights. And then I also noticed that at the middle school it was again great participation. There was lines in front of each teacher and that's really exciting to see. So, thank you to the teachers, the staff to support it and then also the parents to uh to come out and support your your child. Um
067and then the last one was the master planning. As was already mentioned, the meeting with the larger group has been delayed, but there was several planning meetings in the interim as the team was getting ready for that um detailed kind of finance conversation that'll happen later this week. >> Director Morski. Yeah, I also went to the financial meeting. Then I volunteered for the robotics that whole day and that was really fun. So I enjoyed that how they got got the robotics working and stuff and work as a team. It was really something to see. Director Wes, I have nothing to report. >> All right. And as Ruby mentioned, um, I was part of the DAC meeting where Brian Lun participated in presenting the budget and getting feedback on items moving forward for the district. Appreciated
068the parent input on that. They were very vocal, so I appreciate that. Moving on to agenda item five, consent agenda. There are four items on the consent agenda this evening. 51, meeting minutes, February 3rd, 2026, February 10th, 2026, and February 23rd, 2026. 52 March 2026 personnel list. 53 EL3 development of admin policy. 54 EL human relations. Are there any items a board member would like to pull from the consent agenda pri for discussion prior to approval of the consent agenda? Seeing none, is there a motion and second to approve the consent agenda? >> I move to approve the consent agenda. >> I second it. We have a motion and second. Chris, please conduct a board roll call. >> Director Fere, >> I. >> Director Shake, >> I. >> Director Rodiski, >> I. >> Director Wis
069I. >> Ice car. The vote. Consent agenda is approved. Moving on to agenda item six, action items. 61, resolution to declare a vacancy. Um this is the resolution for director um in response to director Kendall's resignation last month at the meeting and I'm going to start by reading the resolution so everyone is aware of that. It's a resolution to declare a vacancy be resolved that the board of education of Essis Park School District accepts the resignation of Ava Kindle from the board of education effective February 24th, 2026. And be it further resolved that on March 23rd, 2026, in accordance with state law, the board declares a vacancy in the school director's office that will be filled by appointment by the board within 60 days in accordance with the following procedures. Number one, interested persons are
070invited to send a letter with a statement of interest and qualifications and an affidavit of school director candidate for appointment on qualifications for office to Chris Douglas, secretary to the board of education at 1605 Brody Avenue, Estus Park by May 1, 2026 at 3 p.m. The letter and affidavit must be submitted together. A confirmation receipt will be issued upon receipt of the letter and affidavit. Number two, the board will interview prospective candidates on May 7th, 2026 at a public meeting. Three, to be eligible for appointment, a candidate must be a registered elector of the school district for at least 12 consecutive months prior to the date of appointment. Four, the appointee will serve until the next regular school bienial election in November of 2027, at which time an election will be held for a successor
071to fill the remainder of the unexpired term. Is there a motion? >> I move to approve the resolation resolution to declare a vacancy as presented. >> A second. >> Um we can open up the floor for board discussion at this point. I think I can clarify a couple other items before um asking more board information. Uh number one, it's pretty standard on the process. So there's not a lot of deviation from it. I think important is from working with district council is 60 days. Make sure we make complete everything in 60 days. The other um item emphasized was making sure the public has a awareness. So that would con u consist of putting information on the district website and two making sure that the public has plenty of time to submit an affidavit and a
072letter of interest. The reason why um there's a suggestion to do that in person is because the affidavit is a notorized document that needs to be handed in. Um and I think the dates came up with is all within the 60 days and allows the May 7th was the thought is long enough that it does allow the public to ample time to submit a letter of interest. Um I think that's all the initial comments I have. Is there other questions? Will there be other outreach besides the district website like such as a social media outreach or the newspapers or things like that? A broader call? Yes, we can do that. Are there comments, questions? None. See none. All right. Chris, please conduct a board roll call. >> Director Farie, >> I. >> Director Shock, >>
073I. >> Director Rurski, >> I. >> Director Wis >> I carry the vote and the motion passes. Next up is a executive session for the board. But question to the board. Do you want a break before or just keep going? Keep going. >> All right. So moving on to agenda item seven, the board of education may proceed in executive session pursuant to CRS section 24642 4G to discuss documents made confidential by the Colorado Opens Records Act. And that particular matter for discussion is the content of applications and supporting records for superintendent candidates who are not yet named finalists as defined by CRS section 24722043A1A. Do we have a motion to go into executive session for the previously stated purpose? >> I move that we go into executive session for the previously stated purpose. I second.
074>> Any discussion? >> Chris, please conduct a board roll call. >> Director Fere >> I. >> Director Shocket >> I. >> Director Reerski >> I. >> Director Wis I. >> The motion passes. Joining the board this evening executive session will be representatives from HYA Brian Eert and David Ba. At this moment, I'm going to ask all members of the public and district employees to exit the room. You may return once the executive session is completed. And that is now at 6:20. The board has exited executive session is reconvening in public meeting. It is now 8:02 p.m. Moving on to agenda item 8, upcoming meetings. The board's work session is April 14th, 2026, 3:30 p.m. at the admin building. Agenda item 9, adjournment. Would a board member make a motion to adjurnn? >> I move to
075adjurnn. >> I second. >> Excellent. Thank you, everyone. That's quick. >> Yeah, I know, right? >> Officially ended. Thank you guys. Hey, thank you all.