001[Music] down down down. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] down. Down you down down down down down down. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] I would like to call this meeting of June 12, 2025 to Thank you to the live simultaneous Spanish interpreters for joining us tonight. We're also live streaming our meeting. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. Miss Applegate, here. Miss Kenworthy, here. Miss Parker, here. Miss Reed, here. Dr. Varta, will you please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to
002the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Is there a motion to approve the June 12, 2025 meeting agenda? I move to approve today's agenda as presented in board docs. Is there a second? Second. Any objection? It has been moved and seconded to approve the agenda of June 12, 2025. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. Miss Applegate? Yes. Miss Kenworthy? Yes. Miss Parker? Yes. Miss Reed? Yes. Dr. Varta. The agenda is approved. We are beginning our meeting tonight with a study session on the FY 2024 2025 third quarter financial report. Brena Copelan, chief financial officer, will be presenting this review of the district-wide financial condition through the third quarter of 2024 2025 school year. And before I turn the time over to Miss Copeland, is there anything
003you'd like to add? Superintendent Dorland. Yes. Thank you very much. Um, President Parker, I would like to just announce um and make a point that um the third quarter, you know, sort of maybe the punchline before the presentation is that the third quarter shows we're on track to spend what we expect to spend and, you know, therefore using fund balance. And I know we've all been paying close attention to the quarterlys this year to to see how is the spending um going against act budget to actuals over the course of the year given that we have um we have made adjustments to our budgeting model. Right? we've sort of been tightening up over time on our assumptions which I appreciate that work that uh Brena Brena and her team have done and and I think
004this third quarter is a really important presentation for the board because it does it is a helpful indication of our expected budget to actuals for fiscal year fiscal year 25. Um, so I just want to preface that and sort of give the punchline before the presentation. And I want to thank Miss Rosario and Miss Copeland for their efforts to put this together for the board and the work you do to make sure that we are presenting it accurately and um I look forward to the board having the conversation. Thank you. Wonderful. Uh, good evening board of directors. It's good to see you this early in the afternoon. Um, okay. Couple general info points about the third quarter. It runs from July of last year to through March 31st of the current year. Um, this year
005new, not so new anymore because this is the third time we've done it. Um but for purposes of of clarification for the public, our benchmark figures for expense is set to how much had we spent in general of total expenditures as of this moment in time or as of March 31st in prior years, which is to say it's a benchmark grounded in actuals as opposed to just an approximate 25% 50% 75%. Does that make sense? So, um what that means is that it's hopefully a little bit more informative and helpful when we are below the benchmark for spending. Um that suggests something or should suggest something about whether or not we might spend the full amount if um and likewise for above whether we might spend more. Okay, so that is hopefully helpful context. We're
006trying to strengthen what you can um conclude and infer from these reports. Um, and as a reminder, our year-over-year comparisons are a little skewed um for a handful of funds, the general fund included, because we did consolidate technology, um, transportation, and the most significant portion of child care representing our uh, universal prek and prek programs. All those came into the general fund. So, a year-over-year comparison of Q3 this year to last year in the general fund, this year is going to look a lot bigger. And part of that bigger is because of that fund consolidation work. Um so finally the the quarterly report uh really is supposed to focus on actuals and it's not a moment of forecast. However uh because Mr. Sammons and I did present some forecasts last week. A couple of points
007in this presentation I'll refer back to last week's presentation where we did provide a forecast. Okay. So, let's start with everybody's favorite, the general fund. Um, orienting to the slide, um, and moving from left to right in the graph, the the large orange bar is always the fullear budget for either revenue or expense. Um, so there you can see in the general fund, our fullear revised budget for revenue was 983 million and for expense it was 1 billion20 million. The green bar represents actuals through that March 31st date. Um, we spend a lot of time talking in here about how revenue is much more lumpy than expense. Expense is pretty steady in a school district because we're mostly paying people and they're mostly employed all year. Um, our revenue is very lumpy and a lot
008of it waits until the end of the year, which is to say our local property taxes. So, I don't want anyone um in the public to be concerned by what appears to be like, hm, if you're all the way through nine out of 12 months, why isn't that green bar for revenue taller? Not to worry. Um the the March, April, May, June months or substantially bigger revenue months than the rest of the year. And so, we do still feel like revenue is on track. Um, and you can see the year-over-year comparison, but do remember that that fund consolidation did bring in some new revenue, which is to say we used to recognize revenue in the child care fund for UPK. Now, on the expense side, again, without this slide is not attempting to forecast through
009the end of the year, it is noting that we're pretty much right at the benchmark um for Q3. Now, last week, Mr. Sammons and I um did provide a forecast of spending in the general fund. Um anyone who wants to look at it, one version of it was on slide 17. Um and in that uh moment we noted that we do forecast to actually spend more than the budget in the general fund. So I want to be clear um we're on track and we expect to spend about four million more than the the budget you see here. So the at the end of the year and it's anybody's guess. I think that the green bar will be slightly taller than the orange one. So that was the forecast we shared last week. Now because there's
010also we think it's hard to know. We think there's a slight positive variance in revenue. The net impact of these these two forecasted elements, the revenue and the expense, is that we're currently forecasting to spend about 39ish million in fund balance, which is slightly higher than our revised budget figure of 38. Now, why does all this matter though? You know, the variance there is small. Um it it matters in part and I'm going to go to this next slide because in the context of approving the budget later this evening, one of the things I think you're probably looking for is okay within categories if we are going to spend more in general than our budget maybe by four million. um have we presented and talked about any budgetary adjustments to reflect actual spending and we
011have right um and in fact uh this slide which goes into a little bit more detail about again orange is budget green is actual um and this is a year-over-year comparison but by program it's showing you a couple of important things. The first one is right there, special education instruction. You can see that at this point or as of March 31st, we had spent 83% of our budget. That is an indication that the budget was too low, right? And we did talk this spring about the fact that they were on track to spend about 10 or 11 million over budget. Now, that whole amount did not become a net ad to their budget. And we talked through how we're going to use some onetime revenue, etc. But we did increase, you know, that's one of
012those handful of net ads that we talked through that is now reflected in next year's budget, and it is grounded in this data right in front of you, which shows that um they are absolutely trending. Now, why was that? We talked about how the fact that counts have gone up and services have gotten more expensive and vacancies are down. Vacancies in our own staffing, which is a great thing. We want to provide the services our students need. Um, our counts were up by about 300 students from 10,000. That's, you know, that's a chunk. That's like 3%. Um, maybe I hope I hope I did that math right in my head. Um, so and our out of district placements are up. So again, I just wanted to link back to that information. The one other area
013where I think we're seeing spending high enough that, you know, it gives me a little bit of like wonder is operation and and maintenance. Um, and that being at 78% suggests that they're likely to overspend. We did not adjust or do an ad to any operations or maintenance budget for next year. And so if this persists, it might be an area where we come back next fall or in January of next year and say, "Okay, well, by the time we finished the year and um got into the new year, we discovered that just doing the things that we had said we would do and that were we were approved to do cost more um and therefore we may need to change it." So that's one area where it it still needs to play out. Um,
014but it's not an area where we added any budget substantially for next year. So, I wanted to flag that. Um, I'm going to hand it off to Miss Rosario for to talk through some other funds. Any questions before I leave this slide. Okay, great. Thank you, Miss Copeland. So, cap reserve fund. Uh, currently our actual revenue is trending higher than budget. The primary source of revenue in this fund is our transfer from our general fund over to fund our capital renewal and investment projects. Additionally, we recognized more revenue this year by the sale of the Thompson and Glennon Height buildings earlier this year. So that is included in this revenue. And then looking at expense, the timing of expense within the CAP reserve fund is difficult to predict just based on which projects are being
015funded and which projects can be done while students are in the buildings and out of the buildings. So, at this point, we still expect that the actual expense is going to be less less than anticipated within the budget, but we we anticipate that to go up over the next couple months as students are out of the buildings and they can get to work on some of the capital projects within the buildings. And that's typical for the cap reserve fund in the fourth quarter. The grants fund both uh revenue and expense within the grants fund are trending less than what we anticipated through budget. This is due to um some anticipated grants that we hoped to get this year that we did not get. So we had budgeted for them, but those were not grants that
016we received. And we also are seeing a trend. If you compare to last year, you can see the gray bar for both revenue and expense was higher last year compared to this year. And that's really because last year we still had the ESSER funding. That was the last year of ESSER funding. We don't have that this year. Um so we're expecting that we will be less than what um what we saw last year in the grants fund. food services fund. The revenue and expense are on track, but note that um in January we came to the board with a revision to the expense budget for the food services um fund because we noted that it was off track on the expenses. We corrected that with the January revised budget. And then going into next year's
017budget for FY26, we have also made adjustments within this fund um to try to ensure that both revenue and expense are um that the net expense it will be less than revenue in uh next fiscal year. Campus activity fund. This is one that's funded through the schools and it is relatively uneventful. Both the revenue and expense are on track with the year's budget and comparable to prior year activity. and I'll turn it back over to Miss Copeland. Okay, Mr. Rosario is very efficient, so maybe I just talked too much. Okay. Um, actually, and before I talk about the insurance reserve fund, I'm going to talk about a fund that we don't have a slide on, but it is in the official report. And this is a good moment to um demonstrate that the full report
018is attached. Um, this is a many many page document with lots of great information, but the fund I want to talk about for a moment is the employee benefits fund which is very similar to the insurance reserve fund and that's why I'm going to talk about it here. Um, we haven't historically highlighted it in the deck. The deck we have stayed focused on places where um things might not wash through evenly year-over-year. Well, in the employee benefits fund, the intention and the budgeting and the planning is that it's almost an exact match of revenue and expense. And this is the fund that covers our self-insured medical programs. We have three of those. Um, in the current year, we have Etna for medical, we have IMED for I, and we have Delta for dental. Those are
019the primary things that flow through the employee benefits fund. And this is not the employee benefits fund up there. Um, the quote unquote revenue is all premiums. Premiums are primarily paid out of the Yes. Uh oh. Do you have a page number? Yeah. In the big in the big packet. In the big packet. Page 24. I just think it might help board members if you can go to that page in the actual attachment. That's what I'm trying to do right now so I can follow along. So, absolutely. That's a great suggestion. Thank you. Okay. Thanks, Brena. Um, the insurance premiums again are largely paid by the employer, but there are also employee contributions from their paychecks. Those all flow in as quote unquote revenue. And then what's supposed to flow out is um primarily claims.
020We call them claim losses, but I think I just I would refer to them as claims, which is to say those are the costs of the care provided. So whether it's the eye doctor cost or you know your regular physical exam, whatever it is, those are those that's what a claim is. I don't like to think of it as a loss. Um there's an administration expense. So because we are self-insured, you know, we're not paying the insurance company a set amount of money, but we what we are do is paying them to administer our plan. Okay? And that's just a fee. And it's based on subscribers. And that's true across all three of those things I just talked about. The reason I wanted to draw attention to this um is both that I know it
021is of interest and so I want to ensure there's transparency and also I do want to reiterate this year's premiums were set to low. You can see that claims are trending to exceed premiums. You know even on the budgetary basis we we corrected a little at revised budget. Um, we were thinking that claims would exceed by 2.4 million. Given that they have already exceeded by 2.2 million as of March, and I happen to know from our brokers, April was an expensive month. I think it's going to exceed by more. Um, it does not behoove the district or or our employees to underestimate the cost of claims and therefore underestimate or underpric premiums. It's not helpful. what it does do is create a shock in a year-over-year basis um to what everyone has to pay, right?
022And it was not intentional. I want to be clear about that, too. I think um the the folks um who were trying to put together all the pieces of the puzzle last spring when we set premiums and we set cost estimates and we did all the things for the current year um did so in in good faith. And um I want to say that for next year um having seen this trend emerge, I leaned into some of that heavily in January, February to make sure I believed that the projections we were making for claims costs really truly lined up with actuals, right? That's such an important like check and balance. And so I do want to say I think we've um we're more likely to have an accurate estimate for next year when we do
023self-insure. Um we can't run these negative balances. We need to eventually fix that. Right. Um so I I did want to draw your attention to that part of the quarterly even though it's not a slide. Now let's talk about the insurance reserve fund. um which is another fund where we do self-insure parts of our coverage. Um and you just approved in May the insurance renewal. Um we have insurance for property, we have insurance for liability. Even with those insurance programs, there's there's a deductible or a self-insured portion. Um, we talked a little bit in I can't remember which meeting it was I was presenting, please forgive me about how our deductible had increased a little bit for a portion of liability. it had gone from 750,000 to 2 million. And so I believe it was
024a budget presentation. And so therefore, one of the handful of adjustments we made between proposed budget and adopted budget was to ensure uh was an increase to the transfer to the insurance reserve fund to account for the fact that we're now on the hook for the first 2 million in certain cases of liability um instead of the first 750. Right? And if we're going to have to pay that amount, we have to pay for it from somewhere and it needs to come out of the fund balance of this reserve. So again, I'm just trying to piece together a little bit of the narratives from the past couple months on budget and here. Now, what are what are the actual showing us? They're showing us that um revenue is a little bit an excess of expense
025and effectively that's helping us build a little bit of cushion. Um, Miss Rosario, I think, was with us a year or two ago when we had a couple pretty severe hail storms. Our deductible on wind and hail is 2% of the replacement value of the building. So, in that year, just our share, even though we had insurance, um, meant that we spent more than we planned in this fund. And so, we're kind of building back up reserves a little bit from that year where we drew on them. Um so again, yes, uh revenue is higher than expense here. Um it was part of building back up and yes, next year we are doing that 1 million additional to make sure that we can cover the full um potential loss in that liability in in the
026event that um there's a claim we have to settle in liability. So um finally, I want to commit to Mr. Zario and I will be coming back in the fall um as some part of some budget presentation. I don't know which one yet. Um and talking more in depth about the actuarial forecast for losses so that you understand how it is the district in these self-insured components of our work. Um are planning for estimating. By the way, we don't do that. Um we hire smart actuarial people to do that. um who have these models of weather events and all types of other things. Um and it's actually not very expensive. They give us great forecasts and it it's a extremely good investment. Um and then we set targets for reserves accordingly. So we're not kind
027of picking these out of the sky. So we'll do a more in-depth presentation on that in the fall. And then the last um I think the last slide. Yes, I take so long. I'm so sorry. uh is child care and um at this moment and in this year child care is simply SAPE and you do see that um both bars are pretty close to the 75thish percent and so we are on track and um the expenses well they're not at the moment they're not showing as in excess of um revenue but this was a fund that we made a mid-year adjustment two and we put an additional 1.5 million and that's what pushed that that orange bar up to 8 and a half. It used to be at seven. Um, and as you know from
028the budget planning process for next year, we don't think we need that one and a half million. That was one of the things that we're going to stop doing for next year that kind of save us a little money in the general fund. Um, and that and the only way that's possible is by adjusting actual expenses and planned expenses for next year. So again trying to weave together the two parts of the narrative both true. Um okay questions I have a few. Do you want me to cruise through some of them now? Um just and a lot of them are just clarifications to make sure I understand. Um back to the benefits fund really quick which is the one that's not a slide. I've I was I have been told um I just want to
029be clear when we talk about the premiums we are setting the rates that the our employees are paying for when they go to the doctor. Is that right? When we say we're collecting premiums, help me understand. Is that the amount that they are paying per month for health care or is that kind of the like base level when they go to the doctor? Correct. It's the former. It is the equivalent of a premium, but because we're self-insured and because we pay the biggest portion of it, you know, it it's what we're paying too. Does that make sense? No, it does. I just want to make sure I was understanding where that stream was coming in and it and for next year we have adjusted accordingly is what I heard you say. Yes. Okay. Um on
030the food services fund on page seven you did note that we had made plans to adjust for spending next year. What can we do we know the I guess the level of savings or the kind of benefits that we're looking at from that? Yeah. So, um I So, we worked very closely with Miss Wallace and Mr. Gatlin to um they had an independent analysis done. So, I believed we talked a little bit more in depth back in April um on this um and an outside group came in and said, you know, here's a few areas where you might be able to spend less um by avoiding food waste and effectively ordering a little bit less. So, some of those some of the planned reductions and expenditures relate to food purchases um and changes to the
031meal menu. Um I think one of the ones that Miss Wallace I believe spoke to is we will no longer offer chocolate milk at breakfast, right? Because we we don't have to and we're losing money. We buy too much chocolate milk, whatever. So, some of this is just intuitive. Um and there but there were also some staffing recommendations and so um Miss Wallace is working over time next year um as vacancies occur to potentially not rehire every position um based on the recommendations that came out of that report. Perfect. Thank you. Um two quick ones on the child care fund. Is the is the change in structure also helping to level out the revenue for next year? I know they change structure and they change some of their costs. Yes. So, that will help us.
032Yes, it will. Okay. Thank you for noting that. And then on the operations and maintenance, I know we're looking to spend a little bit more than we thought this year. Um, and this may very well be an ignorant question. Can we not spend the overage? Um, in short, yes and no. Okay. um you know, so and I should say that's a big category. There's lots of things in there, including safety and security. Um and so I I did misspeak a tiny bit. We did do a net ad um for safety and security, but that net ad is for our SRO's, and we're not paying for our SRO's this year. So, it's one of those areas where I say one thing and it and then the truth is like half that and half this other thing.
033Um there is a net ad. It is for SRO's. SRO's are not part of this. They're not part of the overspend. There's not a net ad related to this overspend for operations and maintenance, which not only includes safe, safety, and security, it includes utilities, it includes custodial, it all these different component parts of the business. Um, and yeah, there are some things we need to tighten up. And so I think as we work through the next few months um we need to look at with all our business leads and partners and whomever um do we have to do that or is that a nice to have and and it's going to be a hard conversation. Um there's a service level that we all want to ensure um is met so that buildings are clean um
034buildings are warm and buildings are safe. It's, you know, devil in the details in terms of, okay, but what's more than the minimum or more than the service level expectation, right? What's the want versus the need? Understanding that the need might not be ideal. Okay. Thank you. Well, thank you for the update. Um I appreciate the u very frequent um presentations that you give us on our budget. So we are a little bit of ahead of schedule. Is there anything else you want to tell us? No, thank you. I already ate. Okay. Well, we will um wait a few minutes then until 5 o'clock because that's when most of the rest of the uh public is coming. Thank you very much. Do you want to go get something to eat? Yeah. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]
035Down down down down down down down down down down down down down Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Down. [Music] Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Down. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. Yeah, [Music] in [Music] All [Music] right. Yeah, [Music] down. Down [Music] your heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] You need [Music] to me. [Music] Down down down down down [Music] down down down. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] And we are back. Every month, the board of education has the pleasure of recognizing students, staff, schools, and community members for their achievements and contributions
036to our community. So, now we will move into honors and recognitions. For our first recognition of the evening, the board of education is pleased to honor Clarice Amler and Cheryl Murphy with the Jeffco Public Library. Clarice is unable to join us this evening. However, will Miss Murray please make her way up to the front of the boardroom. [Applause] The board is honoring Clarice Amler and Cheryl Murphy with je with Jeffco public library for their partnership with Jeffco public schools on the power on digital literacy classes. Jefferson County Public Libraryies firstofits-kind digital literacy program power on Jeffco was launched in January 2024 in partnership with Jeffco public schools and funded by the American Rescue Plan Act and Jefferson County. Qualified Power on Jeffco participants learn basic laptop and internet skills, participate in six one-hour class sessions
037in English or Spanish instruction, and earn a free computer and one free year of internet access. This collaborative effort has brought essential digital literacy education to families across numerous Jeep schools. As stated in our Jeffco Thrive strategic plan, we are focused on creating positive, mutually respectful, and trusting connections with Jeffco families and our community partners to support student success. On behalf of the board of education, we sincerely thank you for your partnership in supporting our students and families through the power on digital literacy program. [Applause] And for our next recognition of the evening, the board of education is pleased to honor Lillian Fenner. Will Miss Fenner please make her way to the front of the boardroom. [Applause] It doesn't look like she's here. Okay. But we will read about Lillian nonetheless. Um so Lillian Fenner
038um with the American Heart Association's Kid Heart Challenge. The board is honoring Lillian Fenner, a future fourth grader at Jeffco Open School for her incredible fundraising efforts with the American Heart Association's Kid Heart Challenge. To date, Lillian has raised over $6,525 for heart and stroke research. The American Heart Association is the nation's oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. A shared focus on cardiovascular health unites more than 35 million volunteers, one of which is Lillian. The Kids Heart Challenge and American Heart Challenge are service learning based fundraising programs that give students the opportunity to feel good while doing good. It's a way for students to better their lives all while changing someone else's. In Jeffco, we are proud to support extraordinary student experiences that recognize their strengths, challenge them to
039improve, and support them to succeed. On behalf of the board of education, we are proud to recognize Lillian for her efforts and the example she has set for all of us. Congratulations, Lillian. For our next recognition of the evening, the board of education is pleased to honor Dave Schlicking. Will Mr. Schlicking please make his way to the front of the boardroom. [Applause] The board is honored to recognize Dave Schlicking, a partner and coordinator between NASA's HUNCH program and Jeffco public schools. The HUNCH mission is to empower and inspire students through a project-based learning program where high school students learn 21st century skills through participation in the design and fabrication of realworld valued products for NASA. Earlier this year, NASA's human research program held their annual biomedical research workshop, a highly prestigious event with the top
040minds in the country in this field attending. Through partnership with NASA's HUNCH program, 25 teams nationwide presented their projects during the workshop. Nine of those 25 teams are from Colorado, and eight out of those nine teams are from Jeffco public schools, which included one team from Rston Valley High School, one team from Warren North Campus, one team from Manning Middle School, and five teams from Warren Main Campus. In Jeffco, all students experience a culture of instructional excellence which is evident by this unique opportunity. On behalf of the board of education, we are proud to recognize Mr. Schlicking and his exceptional leadership in supporting our students through NASA's HUNCH program. Thank you so much. And for our next recognition of the evening, the board of education is pleased to honor Diane Kushman Neil. Miss Kushman Neil
041will be joining us virtually this evening. I hope she's here. She's not here. Oh, okay. Okay. We will come back to Miss Kushman Neil and we will move on to our next recognition. Um, the board of education is pleased to honor Brooke Gothard. Will Miss Gothard, please make your way up to the front of the boardroom. [Applause] The board is honored to recognize Brooke Gothard from Wheat Ridge High School for winning the class 3A 100 meter breaststroke state championship. Brooke was unable to attend the May athletic recognition and her accomplishment deserves recognition. So we are pleased to honor her achievement this evening. Brooke won with a record time of whoa one hour. No, one minute. Holy moly, y'all. One minute, five seconds, and 9 hunds of a second, which sets a new class 3A state
042meet record. All Jeco students have extraordinary student experiences that recognize their strengths, challenge them to improve, and support them to succeed. Brooke has truly exemplified this goal in her exceptional athletic achievements. Congratulations to Brooke on this amazing victory. Congratulations. And for our next recognition of the evening, the board of education is pleased to honor the Rostston Valley High School girls tennis team. Will the Rostston Valley tennis team please make their way to the front of the board. [Applause] The board is honored to recognize the Rston Valley High School girls tennis team on winning the class 5A state championship backto back. The team was unable to attend the May athletic recognition and their accomplishment deserves recognition. So, we are pleased to honor their team achievement this evening. The top-seated and defending champion Mustangs won 4-2 in
043the dual tournament finals against number two Cherry Creek. It was Rston Valley's second straight title and second overall for the program's history. As noted on the Rston Valley Tennis web tennis website, their motto is working towards a common goal, excellence in the classroom and on the court. All Jeepco students have extraordinary student experiences that recognize their strengths, challenge them to improve, and support them to succeed. The Rston Valley girls tennis team has clearly recognized their strengths as demonstrated by their second class 5A state championship. Congratulations to all of you. [Applause] And while we're still waiting, I believe for Miss Uh, Kushman Neil, is she? She's on here. Oh, yay. Oh, all right. So, heading on back to that. Glad you're here. Can we see her? Oh, can you hear us, Miss Neil? Yes, I can.
044Thank you. We see you now. It's good to see you. Good to see you, too. Okay. All right. The board is honored to recognize Diane Kushman Neil, the founder and president of Justice Necessary, a Colorado nonprofit founded to fight hygiene and period poverty. Since in S since its inception, Justice Necessary has donated more than 5.1 million organic and sustainable period products. Justice Necessary has provided period products, dispensers, and supplies to every middle and high school in Jeff in Jeffco, helping ensure students had consistent access to period products throughout the school year. As part of period pulooa initiative, Justice Necessary is building on that support by preparing 10,000 one-month vacation bags to keep students covered through the summer. Most recently, Jeffco Public Schools has been the recipient of 257 of the one-month pad kits, 2500 of
045the one-mon tampon kits, 150 cases of AntFlow pads, 500 per case or a little over four pallets, 150 cases of AntFlow tampons, 50 per case or a little over four pallets with a grand retail value of $118,600. $00 as defined through Jeff Defco thrives. We are proud to build positive, mutually respectful, and trusting connections with our community partners to support student success and justice necessary is one of those trusted partners. Um I've known Diane for four years now I think and uh she has done incredible just about and she has done incredible work um to provide these um products for our students consistently supporting us. So thank you so much Diane. Um on behalf of the board of education we express our sincere gratitude to Diane Kushman Neil and her entire team at Justice Necessary
046for their consistent and unwavering support of our Jeffco students. Thank you. Thank you. And just as an aside um uh Dr. Varda and her girls and I were part of the um uh period pulooa. That was quite an event. It was it was wonderful. Very happy to be part of it. Thank you for joining us. Thank you so much. And for final recognition of the evening, the board of education is pleased to honor the award recipients of the annual equity and excellence art exhibit and the elementary, middle, and high school art exhibits. I'd now like to invite Tim Miller, art teacher at Golden High School and curator for Jefferson County School's art collection to present this year's art purchase awards. All right. I am presenting to the board of education this evening the district purchase
047awards from the annual ex equity and excellence art exhibit and the elementary, middle, and high school art exhibits. I would like to thank the art show coordinators and the individual art teachers from Jefferson County schools without whom these opp wonderful opportunities for the students would not exist. Also in attendance tonight is Jefferson County visual arts uh coordinator Shyra Rose. I want to thank her so very much for her hard work and her new innovative ideas in promoting these art exhibits and encouraging teachers and their visual arts programs. All of the pieces of artwork that you see up in the front of the room were selected for purchase by Jefferson County School Board President Mary Parker and Superintendent of Jefferson County Schools Tracy Doran. I would like now to read the names of the students who
048are the district award winners. And as I read your name, if you could first come up and pass by Miss Shyra Rose here, she will give you your certificate and your award. And then you can come up here and stand next to your artwork. Um, okay. So, let me go ahead and call those names up first. The first purchase award from the Equity and Excellence exhibit goes to Analia Alvarez Lucero, a student from Alama International School for their piece titled Untitled. Their art teacher is Nick Ruchi. Okay. The next purchase award from the equity and excellence exhibit goes to Georgia Graange, a student from Governor's Ranch Elementary, for their piece titled Henna Art. Their art teacher is Shannon Sage. Okay. The next purchase award from the Equity and Excellence exhibit goes to Maya Bril, a
049student from Golden High School for their piece titled The Raven. Their art teacher is me. Sorry. Um, the first purchase award from the elementary art exhibit goes to Jennifer Zoo, a student from Dennis Elementary for their artwork titled Panda. Their art teacher is Joe Aduchi. [Applause] The next purchase award from the elementary art exhibit goes to PCA Luna, a student from Schaefer Elementary for their artwork titled Dragon Eye. Their art teacher is Hannah Glacin. The next purchase award from the elementary art exhibit goes to Ashley Hofra, a student from Two Roads Charter School for their artwork titled Folk Art Fox in the Forest. Their art teacher is Adrien Popejoy. Okay. The next purchase award from the elementary art exhibit goes to Adonis Villa Lobus, a student from Fremont Elementary for their artwork titled Multimedia Self-Portrait.
050Their art teacher is Kathleen Jenny. [Applause] And final artwork from the elementary art exhibit goes to Harper Coats, a student from Little Elementary for their artwork titled Watercolor Seascape. Their art teacher is Linda Gamble. [Applause] The first purchase award from the middle school art exhibit goes to Evangelene Sassi, a student from Everett Middle School for their artwork titled George. Their art teacher is Kristen Woodbury. The next purchase award from the middle school art exhibit goes to Vivian Stannislovski, a student from Oberon Middle School for their artwork titled Junk Food. Their art teacher is Shannon May. The next purchase award from the middle school art exhibit goes to Abby Pal, a student from Everett, for their artwork titled Forget Me Not. Their art teacher is Kristen Woodbury. The next purchase award from the middle school art
051exhibit goes to Tiffany McDow, a student from Adenbrook Class Classical Academy for their artwork titled Bird in the Blue. Their art teacher is Jerry Stout. And the next purchase award from the middle school art exhibit goes to Donald Fam, a student from Wayne Carl Middle School for their artwork titled self-portrait. Their art teacher is Jesse Moray. The final purchase award from the middle school art exhibit goes to Cassidy Cord, a student from Summit Ridge Middle School for their artwork titled Roller Skates. Their art teacher is Shannon Walsh. The first purchase award from the high school art exhibit goes to Parker KD Letter, a student from Arvvada West High School for their artwork titled Cowboys in Blank Space. Their art teacher is Candace Shrader. The next purchase award from the high school art exhibit goes to
052Joshua Hughes, a student from Conifer High School for their artwork titled Evergreen Mornings. Their art teacher is Molly Snively. The next purchase award from the high school art exhibit goes to Addison Johnson, a student from Dakota Ridge High School for their artwork titled Archway of Serenity. Their art teacher is Micah Snder. The next purchase award from the high school art exhibit goes to Zoe Hudman, a student from Arvvada West High School for their artwork titled Sly Curiosity. Their art teacher is Anthony Picaro. The next purchase award from the high school art exhibit goes to Juliana Archer, a student from Pomona High School for their artwork titled Catfish. Their art teacher is Kim McGrath Anderson. The next purchase award from the high school art exhibit goes to Brigittita Niding House Schultz, a student from Golden High
053School for their artwork titled Choose Your Own Adventure. Their art teacher is Melissa Champion. And then the final purchase award from the high school art exhibit goes to Austin Roth, a student from Green Mountain High School for their artwork titled The Love for Cars. Their art teacher is Ellie Han Collins. Um, so first of all, I would like to give all these students a round of applause just for their incredible artwork. I would now like to allow just a few minutes for the family members and teachers to come up to the front of the room to take pictures of the with the board members and to personally get congratulated by the board members personally by themselves. Thank you. Good job. And next time you can even get them to raise the screen. I don't know.
054I I thought they were going to This is your art here. Not sure. I was assuming that they were Trying to get a reason screen. Two people are now going back to ask the same question. Oh, are they really? Okay, we're trying to get them to raise the screen. Okay, we'll see. Are you going to be using that full screen for the rest of the meeting? Oh, there we go. Yeah, there we go. I asked him and he said no. He just needed a lawyer. We need the attorney. That's right. Good job. Yeah. [Applause] Oh my goodness. celebrate and Yeah. So, yeah. So, she was over at Bonefish. Oh, yeah. Waiting like at 5. Yeah. I think I told her I was done at 5. I don't know that she realized I had to go
055over there. So, you have to transport yourself. Yeah. How many? I think she's got stand. It's fine. It's fine. Good job. You can live with that. I don't know how you guys pick. I know. Mary and I tried to We tried to control ourselves, but again, here we are. Like, we're supposed to be too. All of the artwork displayed here tonight will join the district's art collection, which now numbers over 347 pieces of artwork and is on display throughout the education center. I would like to end by saying that we know that the arts can generate enthusiasm and motivation for learning with their emphasis on creative discovery and the ability to stimulate a variety of learning styles. The arts teach discipline, the value of sustained effort to achieve excellence, and the concrete rewards of hard
056work. I speak for myself and every art teacher in the district in being so appreciative to the board of education for continuing the district art purchase awards and giving your time and continued support of art education in the Jefferson County School District. Thank you so much. [Applause] So, thank you to all of our award recipients this evening. Celebrating your contributions and achievements is always a highlight of our board meetings. In the month of June, we are commemorating Pride Month, National Gun Violence Awareness Day, which was June 6, 2025, and Junth Day, which is June 19th, 2025. We encourage you to read the Jeffco School Board's proclamations. Items 4.01 through 4.03 03 are presented in board docs as proposed proclamations for the month of June. Do I have a motion regarding the approval of the proclamations?
057I move to approve items 4.01 through 4.03 on the action proclamation section as published in board docs. Is there a second? Second. Any objection? It has been moved and seconded to approve the June proclamations as presented in board docs. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. Miss Applegate. Yes. Miss Kenworthy. Yes, Miss Parker. Yes, Miss Reed. Yes, Dr. Varta. Yes. And the proclamations are approved. Uh, now we'll move into public comment as part of a collaborative agreement we reached with JCA and Jespa during collective bargaining negotiations. The board reserves the first 20 minutes of public comment for our associations. 10 minutes each for JESPA and JCA to address the board regarding negotiations processes and interests. Additionally, tonight JCAA has also requested 10 minutes during the allotted time for association comment. We are notified this afternoon that JESPA
058will not be participating in public comment due to a scheduling conflict with a conference. So for this evening, we will begin with JCEA followed by by JCAA in that order. Following the associations, the board will listen to public comment on any topic. The total time allotted for public comment is one hour. This is an opportunity for the community to share their thoughts with the board. During public comment, the board does not engage in discussion with or respond to individuals. Um so we'll go first with the associations and then I'll pick it up with the um individual public members. So do we have JCEA here? Okay, I do not see anybody here from JCA. How about JCAA? Welcome. Please introduce yourself. Nice to see you all. One really good thing is that it's really getting near
059the end of the year, isn't it? So, I can't think of a year in which the whole district can really use a break. It's been a rough year. Um, in our effort, by the way, I'm speaking tonight on behalf of uh our president, Deianne Hoffman, who was scheduled to come, but she got hit with a really bad flu yesterday, and she's not passed it. Uh but on behalf of our entire association, I want to share these comments with you. In our effort to be sense makers and to gain a more in-depth understanding of what Jeffco administrators believe, we surveyed Jeffco administrators on June 9th, 2025. We have had an overwhelming response uh with as of noon today 375 administrators participating. And of those 375, 161 administrators cared enough to write some very thoughtful responses. We
060have shared all of them with the superintendent and the Jeff school board. I hope you got our packets uh either yesterday or today. Um because we believe it can help your work in bringing our district together. And we have some observations we would like to share with you. Um first um which is rather obvious, Jeffco administrators um want their voices to be heard of course. Uh second JCO administrators overwhelmingly support the direction in which our superintendent and administrators are leading the Jeep school district by 92%. 93% of our JECO administrators believe we are doing the right work for our children and Jeff administrators overwhelmingly want Tracy Dorland to remain their superintendent by 91.2%. But we wanted to thank the Jeffco board of education and Superintendent Dorland for listening to all our voices and really all
061the time and working together for the future of our schools. Um, what a challenging year 2025 has been so far, especially for the entire district, but especially for our superintendent and our school board as well. I know how hard it has been. I've been in that same position. Um, we want you to know that we believe you've done well. It's hard work and it's funny how it works out, but it's even different voices and different opinions help you get to your group decisions to doing the right representation for our people and for our schools. and we appreciate that. Um, most important, we want to thank you for working together for our schools, our community, and most important for our children. Um, I just want you to know that organizationally, we're proud of you. We understand
062the work you're doing and we understand your sincere efforts in bringing our district together and how important it is. Thank you. Thank you. Um, one more time. Is there anyone here from JCA who would like to um make public comment? Come on up. If you want, we can go ahead and get started. Yeah. You think that? Do you want to wait for them? I don't know. He hasn't responded. Yeah, they're just in the like in the elevator. Uh yeah, he's just down on the fourth floor. Um is there Anybody else? Was there anybody else ahead of us or behind us after? Yeah. Yeah. This is the last of the um All right. Just get started and he can join us. Um Oh, here he comes. Here he comes. Welcome. Uh please introduce yourselves and you
063have 10 minutes. All right. Great. Okay. Hi, I'm Heather Goodell, learning specialist at Foothills Elementary. Hi, I'm Michelle Mis, a Spanish teacher at Green Mountain High School. Coming to you straight from Kors Field. That's how come I'm like this. Uh Richard Sanchez. I teach sixth grade social studies at Bell Middle School. All right. Good evening, members of the board and Superintendent Doran. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about our JCA negotiations. I'd like to begin by talking about special education and article 18. Um 50% of special educators experience burnout and leave within 5 years and 75% leave the field within 10. Special ed teachers attribute burnout to increasingly heavy workloads, insufficient time to fulfill educational and legal duties and responsibilities, lack of adequate support resources, including ongoing training and collaboration, and
064the demands of working with students who have complex needs. These demands can be emotionally and physically taxing and contribute to the attrition rate for special educators being double that of general educators. The collaborative committee for the 24-25 school year facilitated by the director of special education was established with the intent of quote developing a case load workload model that would best serve students and prevent burnout end quote. Sadly, this did not happen and the recommendations that were made by the committee were largely struck from JCA proposals. We heard throughout bargaining how the district believes that special educators have some of the most difficult jobs in education. They understand that most of us consistently work well beyond our 40-hour work week and that they want to help alleviate this unreasonable workload. And yet the district after
065taking months to return our initial and second attempts at compromise and collaboration returned almost everything to its original language presenting no new attempts at problem solving the workload issue. This does not seem to be good faith bargaining. According to CDE this past school year 108 special education positions remained unfilled in Colorado. This is in contrast to the next highest category, elementary educators, in which only 35 positions remained unfilled. These numbers suggest that present and prospective special educators have options when they're looking at their careers. Jeffco has an opportunity to be a place where special educators seek to work or a place they run from. We must show that we value special educators and their students with a commitment to attracting and retaining highquality teachers through meaningful efforts to create manageable workloads and consistent collaboration and
066support. The communities of practice and the additional release days in our tenative agreement are a start and we're hopeful in the knowledge that the district sees these as valuable, but we must do more. We have heard the district's belief that the money isn't there to improve working conditions of special educators. We feel that it's time for the district to start prioritizing those who do this work as well as our most vulnerable students by committing to finding real viable and actionable solutions to the workload problems within the upcoming 2526 school year. We are call um including those that may have a financial impact. We are calling on the board to direct the district decision maker decision makers to agree to the strongou that JCA presented at bargaining in May. Together we can begin the work of
067creating manageable workloads that will attract and retain quality special education professionals so that our students may have the experienced engaged teachers that they deserve. Thank you. All right, moving on to compensation. The last board meeting, the 14 million increased cost given during bargaining for JCA salary and benefits has been drastically revised downward to a total cost of only 2 million for all JCA JESPA JCAA employees combined, including benefits. It should be noted that the district has a long history of overestimating costs ascribed to the JCA bargaining unit, frequently in the range of $10 to $30 million for differences between actual spending and original estimated value. In fact, the last year the district spent 17.6 million fewer dollars on general and special education instruction for the fiscal year um ending in June 30 of 2024 than
068originally budgeted. So based on these trends, the actual spending on the unit for the current and next fiscal years will end up being significantly less than ascribed. Furthermore, the district has repeatedly presented projections during bargaining uh speculating out a number of years in the future with a consistent message that within a few years unless cuts are made, the district will be broke and all reserves tapped. Once again, at the last board meeting, these were shared. Although it is not possible to see into the future, if past is precedent, these speculations are premature and likely overly pessimistic, JCA questions a simultaneous freezing of real dollar funds going to educators for the next fiscal years with the massive increases in money going to service accounts, materials, and supplies. With teachers uh looking at a substantial increase in
069healthcare costs over the next year as well as significant and persistent inflation, we question the continued diversion of money away from the JCA bargaining unit to other priorities. Another point of contention during bargaining has been how we were are repeatedly reminded that we did receive increases in compensation over the last several years. However, it should be noted that those increases were an effort to restore lost wages after years of freezes, pay cuts, and the loss of our salary schedule. Um, I consider these long overdue increases deferred compensation, even if the district has forgotten about the freezes and the pay reductions. I can assure you anyone who was here during that time has not. About a decade ago, there was also an unhealthy dynamic between educators and district leadership with a regard to a lack of
070trust and transparency. And we've been attempting to try to rebuild that trust, but it's been slowgoing. For example, interactions in this year's sessions, such as the sudden change in expected compensation estimates have threatened to derail any progress we've been working toward. We are asking the district to focus more energy on finding solutions than finding reasons to say no. This default no position harms the negotiation process, educators, and ultimately the students of Jefferson County. The last offer to both associations asked us to take a pay cut for the good of the district. But before making it harder to recruit and retain um quality uh staff, they should find ways to reduce spending on central admin costs and third-party contracts. If we are cutting spending to those working directly with students in classrooms, we need to put
071a moratorium on hiring at the ed center and spending money needlessly on more consultants. There has been discussion about placing a mily override in the next year's election, which Jeffco voters have a spotty track record of supporting. I have walked in most of these elections while employed here and the number one reason people give for voting no is concern that the money will stay up at the ed center and not go to classrooms where it is needed. If this MLO is to be successful, you'll need people to walk and talk to the community about how this money is going to be spent. This is could be a tough sale to the community that are concerned about fiscal transparency and accountability. U voters and educators alike need a guarantee that this money will actually benefit those
072working with students and the district has some work to do with their employees if we're going to work together on this. So, where does this put us? What is our why? Superintendent Tracy Doran and Dr. Kim, I want you both to hear what I have to say because it's directed at you. Right now, we are living in a time of division between all stakeholders of this beloved school district. But there is a simple remedy. Sit down, listen, and have the hard convers hard conversations with the people you say are your strength, your educators. That's not happening. Instead of engaging with us, it seems as though you surrounded yourselves with yes people. Listening to all constituents is important, but not just those you agree with. Listening to those you disagree with is even more important during
073moments like these. JCA has clearly shown that the district is receiving more money. It's shown that the last and best offer from the district would actually decrease the amount uh spent on the bargaining unit. It's shown that the district regularly underspends the amount it budgets for educators and re uh reallocates that money elsewhere. We wonder where is that money going. We wonder if next year's projected deficit mirrors this year's, what areas the district values more than its educators. We wonder if this is truly your last and best offer for both uh for both compensation and benefits. What does that say about how you value us when the numbers show that your values are placed elsewhere? If this is really your final offer, then I challenge you to get out and partner with us on a
074listening tour. I want you to look in the eyes of the secondy-ear teacher who still can't afford to live on their own and has and has to stay with roommates or their parents. I want you to explain to the educator preparing for retirement why their final year will lower their para eligibility. I want you to sit with the Jeffco educators who are married and raising their children in this district and explain to them why they'll have to pay $950 a month in benefits next year. This is our why. This is our purpose. We are here to ensure our people, your people, have the tools, the respect, and the funding to continue the strength of this district. Lately, there's been a lot of talk about running for a possible mill levy override. But here's the truth.
075The lack of accountability and transparency, especially in fiscal decisions, have eroded trust. Trust that the money will be spent where it is most needed. Trust that Jeffco will invest in recruiting and retaining high-quality educators. Trust that professionals um will have the voice and vote in the future of education in Jeffco. without trust. Why would they walk for a mill? Why would they support something when you when they feel ignored and undervalued? When we return to the bargaining table at the end of the summer, I strongly urge the district team to think outside the box. Find ways to compensate educators so they won't have to work for less money next year. Because I promise you, if you continue to treat us like we're disposable, we will remember and we will organize. Thank you. Thank you. And
076now we will move into the public comment um portion. Um the total time allotted for public comment is 1 hour. This is an opportunity for the community to share their thoughts with the board. During public comment, the board does not engage in discussion with or respond to individuals. Um the public comment um um speakers should have been given a number and the board invites you to come up in that order. When the person before you completes their comments, you may step step up to the podium. We listen with respect and ask those who address the board to do the same. So do we have a number one? Welcome. Please introduce yourself and you have three minutes. Uh, good evening. My name is Dustin Gonzalez. I'm from District 2. Um, I'm here today because I made
077a promise, a promise to hold this board accountable. You owe the parents of Jefferson County an apology, not just for silence, but for what you've allowed to happen under your watch. I submitted a 59page coral request, a record of conversations between a principal, a counselor, and my ex. 30 pages of accusations and life-changing decisions about my daughter. and not one single message to me, her father. But the most disturbing part, the line from the principal of Bear Creek K through8, we had a big meeting on this topic. I think everyone in Jeffco is on the same page regarding students and their preferred identities. What was that meeting about? Was it a training on how to step between two parents to help one get the other banned from school property because he asked for accountability? Was
078it how to label a child legally homeless so they could go live with their teacher like what happened at Coline? Or maybe it was how to teach children to keep secrets from their parents so a psychiatrist at Bear Creek High School could allegedly run a sex ring with these children undetected. Cuz that happened too. And now just yesterday, you guys announced that David Weiss, your former chief of schools, was act was found to be to be in possession of child pornography. That's your chief of schools. And your message to parents, don't worry. None of your kids were in it. What if he hadn't been caught? How long before it was one of our kids? Let's be clear. Your policies, the one that encouraged teachers to hide gender ideology from parents, have opened the door to
079predators to exploit. You didn't protect children. You protected a system. And now some of you want to lead the state. You need to apologize. You need to resign. And you need to return to private life. Because if you can't protect children, what else would we be willing to trust you with? And to any parents who are here or any for that are watching from home, we need leaders. We need people with the time, the backbone, and the clarity to step into this mess and clean it up. If you believe that parents have the right to raise their children with their values. If you believe no district should ever come between a child and their family, then now is the time. If you can serve, we need you to serve. Join Freedom First Colorado. Join Jeffco
080Kids First. And join the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network. We're going to take Jeffco back. Prove to our children that we love them enough to do what is hard. Prove to them that they are worth our sacrifice. And prove to them that when others looked away, we showed up. Because if we don't protect our children, obviously no one will. This is the line in the sand. And if we don't hold this line, what line is there? And what line won't they cross? Thanks for your time. Thank you. Do we have number two? Welcome. Please uh introduce yourself and you have three minutes. Tom Coin Lakewood talking about the budget. When I spoke to you last June, Jeffco was forecasting $118 million in deficits for the next three years. When one of you said it didn't make
081you anxious, um, I said you should be terrified. I also warned that the risks to the forecast were all on the downside because of ESSER rolling off an accelerating decline in enrollment if academic results didn't substantially improve. This year, the situation is much worse. Jeff is now forecasting $141 million in deficits over the next three years. Contrary to the story that some of you have been telling the public, the main cause of this enormous budget deficit are the reckless pay increases you've given to teachers. As Director Varta wrote on her Facebook page, quote, "Your school board puts compensation and benefits above all other priorities." And you have your board has increased teacher pay by 59% since 2019 before whatever increase you approved this year's after the shakeddown you just heard. That's more than twice the
08228.5% rate of inflation over the same period. How many voters in Jeffco got anything close to that? So what could justify these incredible pay increases? not substantially better academic results which have barely improved since 2019. Perhaps Jeffco teachers will leave if we don't pay them more. We hear that story from you a lot. But most other school districts give an incoming teacher salary credit for no more than eight years of previous experience. So for many Jeffgo teachers, leaving the district means taking a pay cut. That argument is disproved. Perhaps without higher pay, Jeffco teachers will leave K12 for the private sector. You hear that a lot. But in truth, research shows that only 1% of classroom teachers leave for the private sector each year. And that's getting harder and harder because the most popular private
083sector jobs for teachers like corporate training and communications are getting taken over by AI. So having eliminated the other justifications, the most logical explanation seems to be that huge teacher pay increases have created that have created Jeffo's budget crisis are related to JCA's support for your campaigns. If that's so, it would be a clear violation of fiduciary your fiduciary duty of loyalty to the voters of Jefferson County. If you were directors of a 1.4 billion public company, you'd face severe you'd face litigation for that. Unfortunately, you're directors of $ 1.4 billion public school district, so you can't be sued. But each of you can and will be shamed for failing the children of Jefferson County, and that will be your legacy. Thank you. Do we have a number three? Is there number three? So, is
084there anyone else in the audience who has signed up for public comment? Okay, then public comment is over. Um, and it is uh 5:52 right now, so we will take a 10-minute break. Thank you. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Down. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Down. [Music] Down. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] All right. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat.
085[Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Down. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] And we will now move on to our second study session of the evening. On June 4, 2025, the board held a study session that included the following topics. Student led discussion on sustainability monitoring report EL11 school safety um fiscal year 202526 adopted budget monitoring report 2.2 and 2.6 policy update to GP12 and a legislative update. I encourage you to watch the recording of the study session to learn more about these subjects. You can also visit our board page on the Jeffco public schools website. There you'll find a host of information and links to both board docs and our live stream platforms. In addition, the board met on June 11, 2025 to complete Superintendent Dorland's midyear check-in. The board looks forward to working with Superintendent Dorland
086to continue meeting the needs of the district. For this evening's study session, we will be studying two topics. First, the board will receive an update on the capital asset advisory committee from Jeff Gatlin, chief of operations, and Renie Fagan from the Keystone Policy Center, who facilitates the CAC group. He will be here representing CAC members, which is the capital asset advisory committee. Um, and he will represent the members voice. I also want to recognize that director Applegate is the board's liaison to the CAC. Before I turn it over to the presenters, is there anything you'd like to say, Superintendent Doran? Well, I was going to thank Miss Applegate for serving as the representative to the CAC. So, um it's nice that our board committees have board leaison. So, thank you for doing that, Director Applegate.
087Um and thank you to the members of CAC who provide expertise and input um into our capital strategy and work um and thank you also uh to our facilitator Renie who's here to to um speak to us this evening and represent the CAC as they send uh their message to the board. Thank you, Superintendent Dorland, President Parker and uh board directors. Uh wanted to introduce Mr. Renie Fagan who has already been introduced. That's a double introduction uh with the Keystone Policy Center uh for and and want to thank him for helping facilitate uh CAC. Uh he'll talk a little bit about some of the new approaches and new dynamics of the group that I feel like are contributing to uh you know very rich and meaningful uh conversations and input from the group as a
088whole. Uh in my notes I have to express my appreciation to director Applegate for serving on the CAC. That's the third time uh she's been shouted out for that. But thank you for all the time uh you spend with that group. Uh we certainly appreciate it. And so really the purpose uh of the update and this is a relatively quicker update just based on where we are in in the work right now. Uh is to talk about that the the focus of the CAC is is really shifting. Uh and we'll we'll talk a little bit about what that shift uh is from and what it's towards. Mr. Fagan will talk about uh just the facilitation method facilitation strategies. he's implemented with the group. And then we'll talk about a couple things that the CAC's going
089to be focusing on moving forward. Uh one of those being uh the strategic capital master plan. And so really the previous focus of the CAC uh really has been on the 2018 capital improvement program. Uh because the 2018 capital improve improvement program was such a comprehensive program, it was pretty natural that that was the main the main focus of that group. Uh the KAC also reviews budgets uh status of projects and monitors the overall progress uh of the CIP. And they also provide input to and preview upcoming capital mini program uh projects which really are our annual capital renewal investments that we make into our facilities. And so good evening uh directors of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to present. I'm Renie Fagan with the Keystone Policy Center. Uh it's been really uh
090an honor for Keystone to serve in the role of being a facilitator for the advisory committees and our our role as you know is really to keep the discussion moving, allow the the chiefs and the division directors and the staff there to be full participants and to make sure that all voices in the room are heard. Uh with regard to the CAC, I think the key thing that we've tried to do this year is involve the expertise of the group because there are construction managers, architects, owners of construction companies, uh former school superintendent. It's really a very knowledgeable group of people and uh so to get their expertise both in the short-term issues that are facing the district but also several members of the CAC have the perspective of history having been on the CAC
091and having been longtime Jeffco residents and so I think that's been a really good mix and so to uh accomplish that goal of in involving everyone we have often uh broken up into small groups where we've had uh different categories for people to give their feedback on working in teams around the room and then stand back to share what everyone has done. We use that approach on uh the safe and secure schools and on the Mossadam recommendations and uh partially with a meeting we just had on the strategic capital master plan. uh also as the facilitator I serve the role of trying to have their reflections of what are their takeaways for particular topics that they're hearing and what recommendations they want to bring to the board and try to organize those thoughts uh for
092um for the group and I think on the new build uh issue that was the new bill analysis that was also very in-depth and the committee actually had two meetings to really study that and think about it and again they're uh immediate observations of the district as well as the long-term knowing where the history of that bond issue and where things came from really I think resulted in good result for the committee and forwarding to the board. Thank you. And so so moving forward uh really really two two immediate focus areas for uh the CAC. The first being just the capital reserve fund in general. Uh certainly the CAC is involved in our capital mini programs and and how we progress through those. Uh and and there is a strong interest from this group to
093invest in m in maintenance projects and address our deferred maintenance. We hear that a lot. We hear that a lot. We did uh a lot of investment in our facilities with the 2018 CIP. Uh and there is uh tremendous urgency that we continue maintaining the condition of our facilities knowing that uh when we're done investing that that that those many that amount of resources into our facilities, we're going to start to see the needs uh creep up quicker. Uh and also uh we want to work in collaboration with the FAC, our financial advisory committee, uh to advise on sources and uses within the capital uh reserve fund. So that'll be something moving forward. The FAC takes a much broader view of all of the different funds in the budget, but really working in partnership and
094collaboration around uh the capital reserve fund in particular. So, uh, Miss Copeland and I have have some work to do around exactly what we want that interface and dynamic to look like, but we recognize that that that is something that we're going to want this group to engage in, especially as we're starting to engage in uh budget discussions uh that will that will be very meaningful and impactful for next year and beyond. And then the uh development imple implementation of the strategic capital master plan. And as the strategic capital master plan is developed uh CAC will have opportunities to engage bringing expertise, critical questions and input into the process. We had uh our CAC meeting yesterday actually and Perkins Eastman who is leading the development of our strategic capital master plan presented to the group.
095Um it was still pretty high level. It was at a higher elevation of information for the group. uh but really laid out the process, what to expect uh and most importantly talked about how the CAC will engage in the work and there was a real united sense of um of interest in that group really being part of developing that uh that plan and for that continued work. So, it was really neat to see uh to start to see that coming to life as it as it relates to integrating into uh that this particular advisory committee. And so, I know it's a pretty quick update, but that's just kind of where where we are right now. Our plan is to have uh the CAC report out during the first semester of next school year. And I
096would imagine at that point in time there will be uh some more meaningful updates as it relates to where we are with the strategic capital master plan and uh depending on where we are with the budget and the budget cycles and presenting information uh they'll be uh providing that as well. So certainly want to open up to any questions or comments and director Apple if there's any perspective that you wish to share love to love to hear that too. Thank you. Well, I'll start by saying thank you because the work um that the CAC does is really really fascinating and it's really impactful and it's kind of the behind-the-scenes work, right? Um we look at drawings and we look at plans and we see how far we we are to budget and when bids are
097coming in. Um, but I think it's really important that you highlighted, it's kind of highlighted that the this group had a really critical role in the bond money that came in and was really advising us through that and now their role is really transitioning into much more of a strategic opportunity and I think that is incredibly valuable. Also, um, I'm really excited for the the cross collaboration of our experts to get the FAC and the CAC together. I think um I think that's a really neat thing that we're going to be able to do um especially when we're looking at how to deploy funds in this space. Um so I've just it's it's been a pleasure to work with you all and I just truly appreciate because they really are just like in all of
098our committees experts in this type of work and the comments that they bring are I think really useful and really helpful and I I hope Mr. Gatlin agrees that their their advice is is really tact tactfully used. Any questions from the other board members? Yep. Can you talk to us a little bit about um what the CAC has been discussing discussing on the um the amounts on the reserve cap reserve transfers. Um I know that throughout the preparation of the budget we have um taken that down to 15 million. Um I know at FAC we're worried about that and um the what you're talking about um Mr. Gatlin with keeping the buildings in good shape. I just wonder what's the conversation like for the CAC? Yeah, the conversation from from the CAC and we actually
099we had uh Miss Rosario present at the meeting yesterday as well on the capital reserve funds. Similar similar presentations to what the board has seen and what the FAC has seen as well. I'd say the biggest interest uh from the CAC is knowing that we have uh critical needs in our facilities that are outpacing the amount of investments that we're able to make. And so uh there is advocacy from that group to transfer as much as we can to address those needs. And so it's been as much about uh the need as it has been a specific target. We know and we know that the need uh and and we've heard this in our financial presentations. You know, if we could if we could have it our way and wave a bit of a magic
100wand, we're looking at about hund00 million of investments annually into our facilities. Uh that's that's not our reality. And so by not doing that, we are deferring things. Uh and I believe in the last summary of findings document that we published in the we're getting ready to update and publish the new one soon. Uh you know, our priority one uh maintenance items were I I want to say we're around $28 million. We're we're anticipating that going up um significantly. And so that that it tends to be a little more focused on that, Dr. Varda around the needs of our facilities and are we keeping up? Um based starting with that though you might not have this here. Um our our CFO gave us um numbers on a little bit more like the I don't think
101we use these terms but need to have and nice to have. I think we use better words for that. Um, has the CAC talked about kind of that um, in a way that the board could learn from? Um, I know that it's a range that may not always be defined in the same way by all stakeholders. I think that's something we can maybe task the CAC to do a little more explicitly and bring that forward. And and I' I've also heard the board ask the question, what are the the nice to haves and what are the have to haves types things. Um, we're certainly living in the have to have space right now. Um, but we can we can be a little more explicit and bring that back to you. It sounds like that's an
102interest. Um, I want to say that I've enjoyed my times at the CAC meetings as well and I really liked um the last one I think I was at we did little breakouts on um bond language and um evaluating some of the successful ones that have been passed and ones that were not so successful. Um so I look forward to hearing more about that. Also, um, from my visits to schools, I've learned sometimes that, um, the principal will tell me about something. They're waiting for some fix, some improvement, some addition. And I felt like they weren't really sure where they stood in the in the list, you know, like if they were musthaves or what position. So, as we go forward and especially as we're facing budget crunches, I I think it's going to be
103important that all the the school leaders are aware of of where their request stands. Anybody else comments? I look forward to um continuing updates and especially for this strategic capital master plan and see what what we find out there. So, thank you very much. Thank you. And for our final study item of the evening, the board will hear about the district's cell phone research project presented by chief of staff Lisa Roo along with some guests who are here tonight. Under Colorado House Bill enacted in May 2025, school districts are required to adopt and implement a policy regarding student communication devices by July 1, 2026. The legislation mandates that each policy must at a minimum describe any prohibitions and exceptions concerning student possession and use of communication devices during the school day. However, the bill does
104not prescribe specific rules or restrictions that districts must adopt. Tonight will mark the start of a conversation on this topic that we expect will continue through the upcoming 202526 school year. Before turning this time over to the presenters, is there anything you'd like to say, Superintendent Dorland? Um, I'd like to acknowledge the state of Colorado for passing a law and appreciate that they are um holding districts accountable for addressing this really important issue across the state. I also want to appreciate the fact that this team, the way that our our team has decided to approach this issue is not just to immediately jump to a solution, one solution that fits all. And I'm proud that we are taking a minute or two to study it and to really talk to stakeholders, especially our students. I
105don't know if many of you were at the leadership launch last summer when we had a student panel. Um, one of the students on the panel actually said to us, you know, why do you ban everything that we, you know, that we like or want, especially our phones. Um, and I I do think across the nation, what you see are many districts that are banning, just straight up banning it. Um and that's one option, you know, but we have um really creative school leaders and school staffs who are coming together to think about um interesting ways uh to make sure that students are focused in class to make sure that content is engaging for students and that cell phones are not a distraction. And I think are also finding in some ways that cell phones
106can be supportive of the learning experience. And so being able to just take a minute, study this, and then come back to you um about a year from now or maybe a little less than a year from now before we um really put in policy what we believe is best across our schools is important and I think a unique way that most districts are not doing this work. So proud that we are taking that moment. Um and really proud to have our guests here today. I'm going to hand it over to Miss Ru and she's going to invite our our gu or she's going to welcome our guests and introduce them and then we're going to kick it off. Thank you board for having us here this evening. I do want to acknowledge that um
107Miss Beill is dealing with some family issues in Texas um and is not here with us tonight. She did share um a written document that I um is in your administrative content and I will be reading a little bit from that tonight so I can share her perspective and we will be happy to have her at a future future meeting as well. Uh very excited to have Tanya Bruce here is the principal at Three Creeks. Um gave us a very unique look at the K8 um experience and cell phone. Um I happen to attend the student focus group at K8 um with Miss Bruce um and we listen to the students together. And then um Anne Williams, I want to appreciate an um she is our she helped us with this qualitative research. Unfortunately um
108our internal research team um has a very uh big agenda for the year and as we embarked on this project they were not able to to lean in. So appreciate um her help. And then I also want to call out Gabby Sedano who you all might remember was on the student leadership board not this year but the year before and graduated from Bear Creek High School. She was an intern in the strategy um strategic initiatives team this past semester and she conducted all of our student focus groups for us. Um, so we had the opportunity to and an um coached her a lot. Um, and I had the opportunity and then we had a leader who joined her, but she uh really did lead all of the sessions. And I think that peer-topeer um that
109that opportunity was really helpful to this process. So I want to thank her. She is at Red Rocks Community College and is on summer vacation. So we wish her a happy summer vacation. Um, so we'll go ahead and get started. Um the purpose of our presentation today is to review the timeline and the purpose of the qualitative research that we did, report on the findings so far from our study, and discuss relevant next steps. Um late last fall, Jeffco launched a study of current school-based cell phone policies as a starting place for creating a district policy on cell phone use in schools. We um understood uh the moment in time we are all in um the as we call it here a cultural inflection point. a lot of chatter on this anxious generation um which
110um has driven a a lot of conversations about um cell phones, how they're impacting students uh physical and mental health and that um that writing in and of itself has been influencing a lot of policy um around the country. So you all might be familiar with um Angela Duckworth um who is um very prominent in the field. Um she is also doing a big study right now. Um this kind of emerged this spring as we were doing our work and for a brief moment when it was available online which it then became unavailable. We were able to see into the questions that she was asking um of students and educators. And so we modified our second survey to mirror some of those um those questions. And I think the work that she is doing if
111you follow her is really important um because it's based in asking the folks who are in schools in classrooms um every day about what the what's going on and um and help and starting to think about rooting the guidance on cell phones on the what we're seeing happening in in schools themselves instead of just um I think what we've seen sometimes um even even than the policies that have been enacted in our own own schools is just putting in a policy into place. Um and uh just based on the national research or things that are out there, but we're we've been excited to to take a look in this and at this and hear from people. So you can see um and I'm sure you know about the the just the amount of statewide um
112legislation. Um there's some notable district policies that have gone into into effect this year um or will be going into effect next year um on on uh cell phone use in schools. So just here's a quick research um or a timeline of our project. We started in October. We identified two um types of schools that Ann's going to talk to you a little bit about, but tier one and tier two. tier one um we asked principles for a little bit more of their time and then we also um interviewed teachers in those schools based on survey results. So we spent a lot more time getting to understand um the responses that we were receiving. We administered a survey in January in both tier one and tier 2 schools for teachers, students, and caregivers. We did
113focus groups in February and March and teacher interviews as well and Ann conducted those. Um we uh in then administered survey number two in April and May um to the same groups of folks. Um and we are presenting our findings to you all tonight. Um we will be working on policy development um alongside the board and hopefully the community as well starting in the fall of 2025. Uh we hope that the board will vote on a policy as required by um law for implementation on July 1st, 2026. So, we hope that um before maybe in May or June, you all would um approve a a policy and then we would work on the implementation of um the policy in accordance um with the policy we create in state law in the fall of 26. So,
114the purpose of our cell phone study was really to understand our our current landscape here in Jeffco. There are cell phone policies in many places in Jeffco. Um most in and in particular our secondary schools. These quote unquote policies and we say pol like quote unquote because they're not official. They're just like a policy a school has established. They vary significantly from school to school. We had 35 schools that shared their cell phone policies with us for their for for review. There may be more schools with policies, but th that's what we looked at. and um what we studied related to the current landscape is the intended and unintended conse uh outcomes of the the policies that are in place. How consistent um were the policies, rules or guidelines applied in schools? What are the
115perceptions of our students, staff and families around the rules that are in place? And we also um took a look a look at discipline data. So you guys are going to see some some things later in this presentation. In I think it was no December, early December, we implemented a code, a discipline code that could be used to track a quote unquote cell phone um violation and uh it's it was new to the system and we're going to talk a little bit more about what we've been seeing. And then of course as we're doing all of this, the um the House bill emerged and has since passed. So, I'm gonna hand it over to Ann. Can you hear me? Hello. Okay. Um, thank you so much for having me today. Um, it's been so lovely
116to work with this entire district with Lisa and her team and all these amazing principles and school leaders. Um, I just do want to echo the superintendent's uh point that since I started doing this in October, I've been like sort of very keen on talking to everyone I know and reading everything about cell phone policy. and I've yet to find another district actually who who's studying it. Um, everybody else has just been passing policies. So, I'm not saying there's not one out there, but I certainly haven't been able to find one. So, I just want to like really think it's great to have devoted time and energy to doing this work. So, thank you, Lisa, for that. Um, clicker. Oops, sorry. Um, so we, as Lisa said, we identified 11 schools um and we asked
117principles to be to participate because we know there's a lot of asks on schools. So, we're very thankful. You can see the schools that were in tier one and tier 2 on the slide. Again, we already said the tier one schools completed both surveys. Um the school leaders, I interviewed both of them twice throughout the study. We conducted a total of 17 interviews with um teachers across those schools and each of those schools had a student focus group and tier 2 just completed the surveys and as we said that school discipline data code became available on December 3rd and we did in the tier one schools talk to the school leaders about some of their data throughout the course of the project. Okay. So key findings. Um so these are the overall project themes that
118you will see throughout um all the different areas that we were able to look at. Um teachers are very strongly in favor of clear enforcable cell phone policies um across the board. Both teachers and students emphasize this need for constant enforcement um sorry consistent and constant enforcement across classrooms so that students feel that they have the same experience going from classroom to classroom in terms of how they are um asked to use or not use their cell phone. Uh there was a a strong ask for sustained communication from parents, teachers, and students um throughout the school year, not just at the beginning of the year, making sure students come back at different key points in the year. Reinforcing, redising uh the policies as well. Parents want more information on the purpose and expectations around what's
119behind the policies. And students, as the superintendent said, really want guidance and also they want their voice to be heard. they don't want just to be told what they can't do all the time um in terms of cell phones in schools. Um so survey one, these were the key research questions. These are in your board materials actually the full list that we asked each stakeholder. Um so I won't go through these but this was the general questions that we asked of our stakeholders. Uh the themes from parents in survey one was just the opportunity for stronger communication just really not necessarily everyone understanding the policy. Um and then 75% of parents believe their children know how to use their phones for academic success. You'll see this comes up a lot throughout the course of our
120um our study is this idea of like how students actually know how to use their phones in school. Not just turn them off and put them away, but what does it really mean to have a phone in school? Um 49% of parents feel policies are improving the the learning and we actually reframe this in survey two to ask about well-being because that was something that came up in the focus groups. The parents priorities again that emerged minimize distraction and social media harm. They maintain emergency contact access in a thoughtful way. Safety is obviously a concern for parents and foster a you know safe environment um where students feel supported both in terms of how to use their phones and when to put them away. Um students very strongly say that they know how to use
121their phones for learning. Um we you know some people sometime in the focus groups there was a little bit more of an ability to be nuanced about that. Uh you know there's a lot of we asked all the teachers about this. Some people said that they knew what they were as being asked for and so they knew what to report. But either way, you know, they feel like they actually can use their uh their their cell phones for that reason. Uh 56, so about half of half of them find the current policy rules effective. Uh and then enforcement. So only 66 say policies are consistently enforced. In survey 2, we broke that question up to ask them about uh we asked teachers both about enforcement in their own classroom as well as in other classrooms.
122Uh and then 50% agree that putting away phones improves focus and connection which a little bit goes against 0.1 but I think that you know also shows that there's just a little bit confusion about how to do all this. Uh staff are very aligned. Um they understand the policies at schools and feel that they know how to do them. They all agree that students are more focused and participate more in class when they're put away. they are were you know also split on in on the enforcement and then they about a quarter of the staff um said they use a lot or extreme effort to manage the cell phone use in their classroom which we actually will dive more into in the u in the teacher interviews that we did. So in that survey one
123we saw some areas of alignment and misalignment. Parents are divided on policies overall which I don't think is shocking to anyone here. Some believe cell phones need to be restricted while other really other other parents really view them as very safe crucial for safety. Parents and students differ from teachers on how uh cell phones support academic success. So parents and students believe that students do know how to use their phones for academic success. Teachers less are in less agreement on that. And teachers and students are aligned on enforcement that both both of them saw that there was inconsistent across classrooms. Survey 2 was administered in May 2025. We varied the questions. So this wasn't a kind of survey where we wanted to be doing necessarily a pre and post to compare results. We wanted to
124really use the information we got from the focus groups and the interviews to say what else do we need to ask? What else do we really want to know? Um so the questions did differ slightly and those are also in your materials. In survey two, um we asked parents, one of the differences is we asked them if they knew where to find their cell phone policy. Um and you'll see that only 23% of parents say they know exactly where to find it if they wanted to. So that was an interesting thing. Um 65% say having a clear policy is very important. Um showing support for general structures of having a policy. Um mixed beliefs on the impact. 41% believe that the policy has had a positive impact on student well-being and we still see safety
125again becomes a priority. We asked this specifically in survey 2 even more um like spec we wanted to get more into exactly how they felt about safety in survey 2 and 58% fel felt that their children are safer with their phone. Students um confidence was about the same a little bit less around if it's working. Um, also fewer students agree that putting cell phones away improves their learning, but not by a ton. And we also asked the safety question of students and 88% of students agreed or strongly agreed that they feel safer with their phone on them. We also decided to ask about earbuds in survey 2. This is something that came up a lot in our um, focus groups and actually our cabinet presentation as well. And 75% of students reported that their school
126has a policy and 68% believe that um the earbuds should be less strict than those with um less less strict than those policies for phones. In survey two, we asked the staff um about the consistency in their own classroom versus a consistency across their schools. Um 75% say POS policies are consistently enforced in their own classroom, but only 38% say that's um that there's consistency across their school. Um we still see a lot of effort. Lisa and I had predicted this may go down. Um that there would be less effort, but um 27% still report a lot or extreme effort being used to manage cell phones. Uh this was also a new question from survey one to two. We asked about the administrative support and um almost 100% say that consistent leadership is extremely important
127and we asked them as about earbuds as well and you can see over half of teachers call earbuds a moderate or significant distraction and 80% want the cell phone rules to apply to earbuds as well. And we do want to acknowledge we asked about earbuds. understand that technology is increasing very quickly and that when we think about these policies they have to be sort of comprehensive of digital devices and that's actually something that I'm seeing as I review policies across the country is just how sort of broad to be in how you talk about the the amount of devices that are included in the policy. Um so the alignment and misalignment in survey two teachers and students continue to be aligned on the enforcement. Students and teachers both see earbuds as a growing issue and
128parents and students agree that safety is a concern when we think about um sort of more heavily restricting phones. Um okay. So then we did teacher interviews which were um so thankful to the teachers that participated in this. Um and they again clarity, consistency, collaboration were the themes that really came up here. Uh they want strong policies that are enforceable. Teachers are very um eager for a district-wide policy. They would like it to be taken away from their schools. Uh they there was a lot of discussion in these interviews about teachers talking about like the individual choices that they make in a in an instructional moment between teaching and making a enforcing cell phones. Um so I'm in the middle of explaining a math problem to a student and they're about to get it and
129I see a kid misusing a phone. In that moment, what am I doing? Am I stopping that instructional moment? Am I moving to the cell phone? And just sort of I don't think that there was necessarily opinions. It was just acknowledgment that that that's out there now that they have to make different sort of minute-to-minute choices in their classroom. Um, many described the inconsistent effort again, uh, parent partnership. They really wanted more resources and and documents and places to talk with parents and to feel like they're on teams together around sort of how to approach digital devices in kids' entire lives, not just school, not just home, but how do we really view this as a partnership? and really were eager about the why behind and helping parents understand that. Um, and they really highlighted
130developmental needs. Middle school versus is high school. And not just middle school versus high school, but that a sixth grader is different than an eighth grader and a nth grader is different than a 12th grader in terms of how we think about, you know, what are appropriate uses and non-uses for phones in schools. Um, and they're, you know, increasingly focused on earbuds and wearables. There's trends of boys growing out their hair so that they can hide earbuds under it and you know different things that are making it you know harder to just than phones alone. Do you want to share and um gonna share that student focus groups? All right. So, I had the opportunity to sit with my students and Gabrielle, uh, the student from or graduate from Bear Creek High School, which they
131thought was very cool that she was near their age sort of, um, and asking them questions about cell phones, I think that although I had student focus groups and heard from them, give us our cell phones, give us our cell phones, um, her pointed questions really got to some of their needs and I think it was really important to hear their voices. They shared with us that they they thrive with having two devices. They have their onetoone Chromebook, but they also like having another device on the side that they are able to use it to look up vocabulary words and use it as a calculator and and watch a YouTube video on how to solve that math problem. And they gave us all these examples about how they use their phone and how they could
132use their phone if I allowed them to use their phone during school. Um they also shared that uh they are very good at multitasking and they can listen to music while they work. Hence they need their earbuds as well. Um they did also note that they understand phones can be very distracting to learning um and that they are here to learn when they are at school. And so they noted that there was a little bit of mix in the answers around lunch and recess because at Three Creeks we have them in their lockers from the time they arrive to the time they dismiss and so they don't get them at lunch and recess as well. Um and some students really wish they had them and others noted that they really like that they're socializing and
133engaging in recess and play and still being kids and not looking at their screens. And so there was a little bit of mix of feel about that. Um there was also the expression of them just feeling safer with them. And I've heard that from parents too of just like if if it is personally on them if something tragic happened and they needed to connect with somebody they could. Um, yeah. And they they also noted they really feel like our staff needs to be consistent and calm down sometimes, especially when we're walking into our lockers or walking out of school. Just calm down. Let us get in and out without taking our phones. I just wanted to I was reminded as Miss Bruce was talking I don't know if you remember the student who talked about
134how her parents text her during the day and they wonder why it takes her so long to get back to them. And so that's why I think it this is a really important partnership u issue because you know parents have expectations of their um kids as well and um and so I just thought that was really that was interesting. Oh yeah, sorry. Um, so some of the other um themes that emerge across the other five focus groups, um, you know, the consistency we've talked about, so we don't need to get into that one again. Um, there was sort of an acknowledgement that there is that there is an ability to focus more. Uh, I think that this thing really just came up a lot is this idea of trust and accountability, not just punishment. That
135it felt like there's just this is another thing that I can do wrong and it does and that feels like kind of the only thing in some places it felt like. And I think students really would value voice in the conversation. Um, and guidance. I think, you know, I've really this idea of like, well, what does it mean to use your cell phone? like to look up a vocabulary word or solve a math problem and when can you do that and when you can't. Um is is something that also you know teachers and principles noted in terms of like when we are you know kids graduate from high school and they go out into the world and they're going to have phones and there's not going to be restrictions and so what does it mean
136to really learn to use that device in a productive way? Uh was something that I think came up again. Uh and again I think there was mixed issues on um the earbuds and smart watches and I think there was also sort of a fairness thing like sometimes they can hide them and sometimes they can and when can you do that but I think again just like what consistent policies and expectations on that. Uh as Lisa said, so this uh on December 3rd, as we said, we added a code into Infinite Campus where um teachers, administrators, school secretaries could add in yes, there was a cell phone violation and yes, there was a consequence attached to that. Uh in the interviews, it showed there was a lot of variability in who was entering the code. So,
137we couldn't necessarily say like was there more infractions in one classroom than the other because in some places it actually wasn't being entered that way. uh but it was still interesting to see where there was more use and less use of it. The total incidents across all schools was 5,678. Um in the pilot schools or focus schools it was 895. Um only 66 schools actually used the system at all in this way. So obvious obviously there's you know potential opportunity to you know do more training with principles on the system and 29 schools um in addition to logging an incident also logged a consequence. Um, nine of the pilot schools recorded an incident ranging from two to 200 to 325. And five of the of those nine schools also logged consequences which actually ranged all
138the way from warnings to we did see some in and out of school suspensions that were used as consequences for cell phone infractions. So, Three Creeks did a little bit of another way of tracking data. We did a spreadsheet where we um we really noted from our staff that they wanted a consistent response across the board with cell phone infractions. Um so, we set up kind of a three- tiered system of, you know, the first violation, we're just going to take your cell phone, put it in the office in a locked safe, and you pick it up at the end of the day. Second infraction, you're going to have it in the office in a locked safe and your parent comes and picks it up at the end of the day. Um, and third infraction,
139your parent comes and picks it up and we go into a check-in checkout for 5 days. So, you check it in in the morning and you check it back out in the afternoon. Um, and so we started to kind of track some data about how many repeated infractions we had. And in our first semester, we had 70 students violate the policy one time. Of those 70, only 13 did it a second time. And of those 13, 12 of them tried it a third time. And of those 12, eight of them really needed to go into that check-in, check out and get a little bit more support in intervention. Then clean slate for semester 2, 61 students uh violated the policy one time and 22 of those were repeat from first semester. So, we had 39
140new students tried it out. Um, of those 61, only 11 did it a second time. Of those 11, only two did it the third time, and only one really needed that additional support by the end. So, it worked over time, but the consistency was the key. And it was all on administration. like we had to have a consistent response and a consistent tracking and followth through and connection with the parent and hold true to what we were saying our policy was and kids started to pick up that like oh okay this is working I don't want to keep violating okay so I'm going to just read a little bit from um what Miss Vhill provided us so um Bear Creek High School was unique um in the in the schools uh tier one schools, they
141were the one school that hadn't implemented any sort of policy yet um when we started this this study and they did implement one second semester as we as this uh research was going. So Bear Creek High School implemented a trial cell phone policy after spring break of this year. A significant positive outcome was a dramatic increase in classroom engagement, particularly in classrooms where phones phone use had previously been permitted. In fact, the surge in engagement was so notable that teachers were encouraged to plan more curriculum into their lessons. Our surveys indicated that staff consistently enforced the pol policy with over 94% of respondents reporting always or nearly always consistent enforcement. While in-class phone use was restricted, students largely continued to use their phones during passing periods, lunch, and off periods, all of which are permitted
142under the the Bear Creek High School policy. Although students acknowledged a dramatic drop in in-class cell phone use, 44% still felt the policy wasn't working as intended. Students also felt strongly that the policy was good for younger students, but seniors es especially felt like they needed to be given more autonomy to determine appropriate and inappropriate times for use. They want they want this to be part of their learning ex and and experience to help them transition to work andor college. We had a ter dramatic decrease in tobacco and marijuana use the last two months of school. Our deans felt strongly that this was due to students not texting each other to meet in bathrooms during class periods. Our student advisory panel also noted this decline in vaping in the bathrooms. Parent awareness of the policy
143and its location was high, but only 30% of survey respondents felt it was positively impacting their students well-being. Uh this divergence in perspective among students, parents, and staff suggests the need for continued dialogue and refinement. The trial implementation of the cell phone policy at Bear Creek High School has yielded promising results in terms of increased classroom engagement and a more consistent learning environment as evidenced by staff's observation and compliance rates. While teachers overwhelmingly support the policy's positive impact on student focus and interaction, students and parents perceive perspectives reveal areas for further understanding and potential adjustments. Moving forward, Bear Creek High School will continue to monitor the policy's effectiveness, address student and parent concerns, and ensure consistent application to foster a truly focused and engaging environment for all. And I I just read some of it,
144so I encourage you all to to read the rest. All right, we're at the towards the end here. We want to talk about guard rails and a policy timeline. So just once again, here's the uh state law and um we these are some guide rails, guardrails that we um are really important um to focus on as we go into the space of potentially making policy emphasis on school-based context and autonomy with foundational baseline district standards. So we know we're a huge district. our schools um vary in terms of their um you know that what's going on in their schools and and they need the flexibility um to adapt to those to make sure the policy would be successful. Exemptions for medical needs and special needs are going to be very important. Student access to communicate
145with employers, doctors, law enforcement. Um, we did hear from some folks that some of, you know, some of our students do need to check in um with law enforcement as part of um, you know, something they are required to do. And our older students, for example, those who are 18 um, their parents are no longer able to get their to deal with their doctors. They have to deal with their doctors themselves. And I'm sure as we've all experienced, our doctors work within certain hours. And so, um, the these and and employers like these all become real adulting things. differentiation for elementary, middle, and high school age students related to use restrictions. And then this ongoing balance, these balance issues, balancing digital literacy with cell phone use restrictions. So, how are we helping students learn know
146how to use them versus what are we just restricting time to monitor cell phone use versus time to focus on instruction? And that's something we clearly heard from our our um teachers in terms of some of the things that they're trying to figure out. student accountabil about student accountability versus student engagement. You know, part of what we hope through our high school reimagine work is when the content becomes more engaging and relevant to students that they want to be on their phones less and we can't lose sight of that alignment um among district teams and initiatives on the approach to cell phone digital literacy guidance. So as we were doing this work um our friends in IT were also doing some work on a social media um kind of blackout um pilot with some schools.
147None of our schools um ended up overlapping. But it is just really an interesting thing and things we have to keep an eye on in terms of this does not operate in its own silo. You know there's AI work going on in the district. There's um there's this stuff on social media. How do we make sure that everything works together so it feels very congruent and aligned for our schools? So we have a very high level engagement plan for district uh for district policymaking and we will definitely want the board's input on this and engagement. Um so we want to plan some opportunities in the fall and winter for stakeholders to help draft policy and regulation. This is as the CAC mentioned sort of a crossover between between CAC and FAC. We feel like there
148could be a great crossover between DAC and TDPAC uh for this work and that will probably be a very good place for us to start in the fall. Um and then we will want to revise the um policy and regulations based on feedback um from the larger community. So what other kind of outreach do we want to do? um this project will be ending but we can um c we we can certainly do some some more outreach and have some meetings or you all could hold some meetings so we can gather feedback from um the larger community and of course our students will need a role in this as well um as well as our educators and and community. So, we would hope to present uh proposed district policy or regulation for adoption in the
149spring and um according to the law adopted in the summer for implementation in the fall and then you know we really hope this this isn't going to be a policy we can just put on the books and forget the technology is evolving so rapidly. Um and you know we will need to to continue to check up on how it's going. Are there an unintended consequences that we didn't imagine that we need to we need to adjust for? And we would gladly take your questions. Thank you board members. Are there questions or comments? Thank you very much. This is a lot of work and um and I appreciate the work that it took and the thought that went into the questions because there there are subtleties and and so uh I appreciate that you caught those.
150Um one thing is not quite as related to cell phones per se, but as we look at tightening our budget, um one of the things that people are really scrutinizing is our use of consultants. And so um can you perhaps explain a little bit about why we went with a consultant on this project? Absolutely. I'd be happy to. So we did ask our um our internal research team which is um is is not very large um if they had the capacity to support us on this and they didn't. So um we decided to um to contract for um not with like a big firm but we found someone who could help us um and to get this work done. So that's that's why we did it. and also the timing. We felt it was really
151important that this work couldn't wait a year um because of just every the the speed at which we were being asked about this, the speed at which our schools were implementing their own policies and we really felt the need to to take a look at it this year. Okay. Um, and I'm hoping that as we as we talk about consultants that um that we're always clear about why we chose to do that in this particular case uh as opposed to going with and absolutely like not disparaging consultants. I think they guys do really important work but just it is something that our our constituents and our stakeholders are asking us about. Um, I think when it comes to the the consistency and enforcement piece and a lot I'm drawing a lot on my last years
152of teaching in my comments here. Um, the biggest thing is that whatever the policies are, you don't want to set up a power struggle because that's the thing that wastes time and that's where a teacher you can't afford to lose a power strug struggle and neither can a kid. So, as soon as you set one up, both of you, the stakes are high. And so, um, when I was teaching at the end, it was at the very end of my career that I was dealing with cell phones, I did tend to have sort of some flexibility and it did change depending on the ages. So, whereas my freshman and sophomores had to put their phones up and I took attendance that way. So, if your phone wasn't there, you weren't there. Um, and if you
153didn't have a phone, there was a card you could stick in there, but heaven help you if you said you didn't have a phone. And then I caught you with one. Um, so, and then by the time they got to be juniors and seniors, sort of lightened up on that, gave them the ability to just tell me, and even with freshman, if something is going on and you need your phone for a special reason today, let me know. We can work that out. So hopefully whatever policies we have will allow for that kind of flexibility. And it can be all kinds of things. It can be I have to check in with uh law enforcement or I have to take a call from my doctor or I've had students who um daycare was calling because
154their child was sick and needed to be picked up. Um and I had a student who just wanted to know how it went when their mom took their pet to the vet. and that's okay, too. Um, so I do think that that need for subtlety and and flexibility, but also being able to consistently enforce. So, like, you know, you have to tell me ahead of time that you have a special reason to have your phone. You don't tell me ahead of time we're going to have an issue. Um, I still can't believe that we have parents texting and expecting kids to text back. Your child is in class. Oh, for goodness sake. Before texting was a big thing, my son answered his phone when I called him in the middle of class. I expected it
155to be off and for him to let me leave a voice message. I was like, "Why are you answering your phone?" He goes, "It's okay, Mom. It's only debate." Excuse me. And if you don't know, I was a debate coach. So, I'm like, "Excuse me? What?" Um, the another thing though that I do want to talk about is the addictive quality of much of what goes on in phones. And so I do think that that when we look at the disparity between teachers who think kids know that they know how to use it, parents who think kids know, kids who think they know, sometimes it's kind of like asking an alcoholic, are you good at controlling your drinking? phones are they're phone apps are designed to be addictive especially to adolescent developing brains and and
156I think that we do need to take that into account as we look at policies and um and how much we trust that students accurately perceive their ability to manage their phone. Um, I think a tracking code would be a pain. As a teacher, I would look at that and go, one more thing, seriously. So, just that was it's just a side observation for me. Administrative backup would absolutely be key. Um, so I really appreciated your description and and I definitely found because I'm I was, as you could probably tell, a fairly rigid teacher and um and so I was really consistent and it did mean that I didn't have to fight cell phones very much. Um, that's easier for some teachers than others and that administration backing um helps. I have one more thing
157that I want to talk about in terms of research and understanding how brains work. Um, and that is what is the latest research on music and certain tasks. When when I was teaching, there were definitely things that I let kids listen to music. It kept them from talking to each other because I wanted them to focus on their individual task. It worked pretty nicely for that. I never ever let my kids listen to music that had words while they were reading. At that point the research was showing that having two sets of words in your head at the same time does not work. Is it possible that their brains have actually adapted to that as we have? Because they have increasingly studied this way. So it is very possible that that we have kids whose
158brains have adapted to that now. Um but it is something that I think that we need to think about and and look at what the research tells us because um I I know when I was teaching that it was generally not considered best practice. I would let them listen to instrumental but not anything with lyrics. So um just bits and pieces from my own experience and sort of what I hope that we look into. But thank you so much for all the work that you did. Hello and thank you. I want to say um first off that I'm glad to see exemptions for supportive technology use for medical and special needs included. Um and I also want to lift up the nuance that schools will face and addressing equity in access and use without disclosure
159of student IEPs or or special needs. And so that's that'll be something that we'll have to navigate. Um I will also say that this year I did two student town halls, one at Bear Creek High School before spring break before they had their policy in place and one in Evergreen. And both of those um the majority of our conversation was about proposed and possible cell phone policy. We spent a lot of time there and there was a lot of opinion from our students and um they were very curious what my perspective was as a board member. So I did not speak on behalf of the entire board. I spoke on behalf of myself. Um and so I do have some also informed interest in um what goes into our policy. But I'm not going to
160spend time talking about that now. We have a whole year to have those conversations. Um but I do want to say I'm grateful for student voice in policy implementation especially at Bear Creek because there was such um engagement from those students and then I think that principal vhill included them um in getting feedback and and hearing about how what was and was not landing for them. Um, I want to note that there are generational and cultural technological differentiations around usage, expectations, etiquette, and communication practices in general. And those are all um intersectional layers that will show up as we move through this conversation this year. Um, especially when we have we have educators who didn't have a cell phone until they were fully adults and parenting. We have educators who maybe got a cell phone
161in college. educators who grew up using technology from when they were in middle school and high school. And so that personal experience and having to navigate learning your own boundaries is very different across people who are still working in our school buildings. Um and that that has an impact on the conversation that we have moving forward around having one comprehensive policy for the entire district. Um, my question is, do we have any elementary schools that currently have a policy? I noticed in our our pilots we had middle schools and a K8 and high schools, but I'm just wondering if any of our elementary schools were in the conversation. You know, we didn't receive any um any policies from elementary schools and I'm not sure we asked. So, we it's an area that we need to
162look into further. Great. Um, I will lift up that there are second graders who have cell phones because of family situations and parents living in different locations. Um, and also we talked with students about sustainability and re and having, you know, sidewalks so that we can encourage people to walk or bike to school. And I know that at elementary school levels, parents will then start to use more wearables, trackers, um, in order to monitor their kids from point A to point B. Um, and so that will play into elementary school level um, usage because a lot of those watches and wearables also have games and and other functions that are more difficult to disable um because those are not as sophisticated. So I actually have a policy for my entire K8. So I can speak
163to a little bit of elementary. Um, so we don't have phones the entire K8. In the K5 they also don't have get to have their smartwatches on them. They have to be in their backpacks. In the six through eight, they can wear their smart watches, but they can be actively using them like texting on them and things like that. So, they can have them on them, but not in active use or it is confiscated as if it's a cell phone. So, there's a little differentiation from the two levels on the wearable. Yeah. And I and I see that listed in here as something that we're going to be looking at is tiered response based on age group and developmental um maturity. Um, so I just wanted to lift that up around elementary schools because I
164know my own second grader is asking for a watch right now. Um, and I have a 13-year-old in middle school with a cell phone. Um, so we have this conversation regularly, both about how it gets used in school and how it gets used at home. Um, I think that's all I'm going to share. I just grateful that the conversation is started and looking forward to what we develop together. Thank you, Director Kenworthy. I just want to also re um reinforce what you said. We heard from our students, please don't shame us as screenagers. Um that there is this generational issue and just um it it makes I think it makes them feel it doesn't make them uh feel good uh when when we do that. Thanks. Um I was just thinking about something while you
165were reporting um especially in the interviews um and I was trying to remember right now the question but there was a question where the kids were responding describing how the um technology was helping them learn and work. So sometimes you know the study the can be an intervention you know the actual and I feel like this can really do that. So it's like two benefits. We're learning from them, but like they were learning through the it sounds like through the interviews and focus groups kind of like what they needed, what the expectation was that we were asking them if they could meet and so they begin to learn that. So there is a real opportunity that in the learning process that we can um that that or in the learning from them the research process
166that they will learn from that and and even intentionally make this continued study of this an intervention to teach um them along the way. So um there's lots of examples of of doing that in research. So I thought this was naturally happening. Um, I'll just say I' I've I love technology. I love our kids getting the opportunity that um all the time that you know when we got I remember my first email um but I just and that just seemed like mindchanging you know at the time um I'm also an employer and I think a lot about what I expect from my employees and even you know my out of school employees who come and I I hope they have been taught how to use these things for work and when to put it on
167silent or um you when to just when to behave in which ways with your phone. Like if my employees showed up in a meeting with their earbuds on, I would that would be so unacceptable. But if they were sitting at their desk working with their earbuds on, no problem. So there's just ways of I think helping kids learn with the professional way of especially the seniors as they are about to go into the next um part of their life. that can be an asset, a strength, like a real if we think of it from the strengthbased perspective of how do we help kids use these technologies as an asset to them being even more marketable to an employer because they are professional and they they can say I learned in school the professional way to
168use my devices. I think that's really good for for a kid. So, um I appreciate all of the work. Certainly, um I do have a kid who when she walks home, I watch her going. So, um I am one of those parents. Sometimes I'm here watching her walk home from from school. Um and that's been just part of our life now. Um so, thanks for the work and I look forward to to where we go with this and I I love the collaboration with students on it. I'll I'll echo the gratitude. I know this is a lot and this is a very hot topic um with a lot of different opinions. So, thank you for all the time and effort and I know we have a ways to go, but this is a great first
169step. Um, I'm also really excited that there was teacher voice, student voice, and parent voice because I um I do think it is crucial when we are thinking about something this impactful to our students that they have a strong voice at that table. And quite frankly, as a parent who has gotten a really scary text message about what's going on at my kids's school, um I was glad I could text him and be like, "Where are you right now? So, um, that is real and that is part of the society that we live in. Um, now I don't text him and be like, "What do you want for dinner?" So, there's definitely a difference there. Um, I also really appreciate the guidance on wearables. I do think this is the next thing. um also have
170kids and there are some elementary schools that do have probably unspoken policies because I our kids go to one and so um I know if you ask but the the principal just lets us gently know like this is what they need to do with their wearables when they come into school and it is usually put it in a backpack you can't have it on put it on when you come in put it on when you leave um those type of things so I I was really happy to see that one of my questions and this might be for the next time we come together is I would I know all of our schools put different policies in place, right? Some was we you put it away from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Some are each
171classroom has a pocket. It goes in the pocket so they have it in passing periods. So I would be really curious to see can we correlate some of the data and feedback to like which policies may have been more successful recognizing success may look different in the eyes of all the stakeholders. Um but I think that would be really telling to understand what the students really liked versus maybe what the parents liked versus where the teachers felt a lot of support. Um because I know they were all different and so having some of that alignment um would be really informational. So, um I assume you don't have an answer to that now. Okay. Didn't think so. Um I also agree with Dr. Varta. Phones are a part of our lives outside of school and my
172oldest schedules work on his phone and does a lot of things through that. Um so I love the idea of how can we teach them literacy because I do think that's super important. Um, and even in my house, all of us use technology differently and interact with it differently, what we listen to while we're work, while we're doing things with words, without words. And so I I do think and I don't know if there's opportunity in study hall courses in high school or where there might be opportunity to incorporate that or if it's just through the act of teaching, you're teaching them these things, which is very may very well be the case. Um, I love the trust and accountability and I I think that's really important too because we do have to trust our
173kids. Um, and I'm be super fascinating to hear how the social media blackout went. It doesn't have to be now, but that's and the AI stuff because I do think and I think we've mentioned it from the dis before. I rely on my employees to use AI and so I want them to know how to use it but not to write their English paper. So, thank you, director Apple. We'll take that back to our colleague uh Miss Ibeck um and ask uh for her team to prepare uh to present to the board. Awesome. Thank you all so much. Yes, this is definitely a hot topic. So, thank you for doing that. Um just so I understand too, the schools that were in tier one and tier 2, they had different policies, right? They weren't all
174using the same one. And I know that there are a lot of other schools out there, as you mentioned, that have policies as well. Um, and I'm thinking that the survey results could very well be skewed based on how strict a policy is. And um, you know, if it's totally put it away from the beginning when you walk in the door and you don't get it to you, come back would be different than I can use it at lunchtime or in passing or whatever. So, I would be interested in that. and also finding out the survey could go to some of the other schools that weren't part of this. We could at least ask them if they want to take part of it. Um, also I I think it would be interesting to know what
175other districts are doing if we can just keep track of that. Um, and I I know that we have local control in Colorado, so that's why the legislature didn't just come down with a policy. But um I am anticipating um when school choice comes, you know, and the kids are choosing their high school, they might start saying, "Oh, I'm going to choose that high school because they don't have a strict cell phone policy." So, it's just something to start figuring out if that's going to happen. And um just a little piece of um anecdotal information, my daughter, who's the sped teacher in um high school said that she has become the cell phone police because the teachers are so busy, as you mentioned, giving a math lesson or doing something. So it is um expected
176that the sped teachers or any parah or somebody else is there would be the cell phone police and she personally does not appreciate that because then she's not the the friend that she used to be to her students. So um it's another consideration but I look forward to hearing more this week. Thank you President Parker. And I would just encourage all of you as you talk to your board colleagues across the state participate in things. If you learn of things, please let us know too. Um we, you know, or if there's opportunities, uh for you all to engage in together, I don't know if they'll have a session, for example, at CASBY. Um please do because I think that'll be helpful. Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. And the board will now formally consider
177the adoption and appropriation of the 2025 2026 budget. Is there a motion to approve the adoption and appropriation of the 20252026 budget? I move to approve the adoption appropriation of the 2526 budget. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Um, so I just wanted to make a couple of comments. um especially because I don't think it'll be a surprise to this board how I will vote tonight, but um I have um been uncomfortable with voting yes on this budget and I've expressed that a few times. I've let the superintendent know. Um, I did ask for scenarios to look at balancing the budget or we wouldn't get close to that, but some reductions or cost um cuts to expenses this year. Um, I did ask for a poll with the with the board and was told
178by President Parker I was the only one who did ask for that, so it's fair. Um, I know it's a later ask. Um, but I think we should have done some of that work. And so I don't think that we did enough to get to this place. Um, and I have said in our key initiatives meeting when Superintendent Dorland called during negotiations and at our study sessions that um, I really needed to have those public discussions. I do appreciate that we got balanced budget scenarios from our CFO for the outy years. Um, and I I as I think about when I was thinking about when we since we've been here on the board, the three of us, I don't know that we've not been presented with a budget that didn't have a a deficit or
179a use of reserves. Um, and every year, um, we actually didn't spend those. And this is the first year where we truly are. Um, and and I've heard, um, Miss Copelan say, you know, that, uh, she would like us to give her direction on balanced budget and probably a lot sooner than now. Um, and I do really want to support that and I wish that we could have done that sooner. Um and and and I I will say I I I wish we had learned better um the years before, but the learning uh the data showed us that we never spent as much. So this was a different experience from us. I want to learn from this year. Um and I I just think that we we we should have supported you sooner to do
180that work. Um, and I I I I'm just I just wish that we had as a board even came around that at the end. And I I I think that a lot of my thinking about this does come from being a business owner and running a budget and getting to a point where we couldn't afford the team we had and having to do reductions. Um, you care very deeply for those people, but your organization has to make payroll and there's usually no reserves. And so we make decisions um quickly which is very difficult in a system like this. Um but there is just a balance. We want to make sure the organization is solvent and that it can meet its payroll. And so I just think that we I I just don't know that we
181got to the right place this year um and didn't push ourselves hard enough for that expectation towards the end. Um, and as I think forward, I just want to reiterate that I hope um as we look on balancing the budget um that we're le leveraging every dollar for student success, that we're keeping the cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. Um, we have to identify more efficiencies. Um, I think our technology and AI gives us ample opportunity for that. look at office um or or look at reductions um in our central office that will be a step away from the direct um contact with students. And so I do look forward to the work to support you in this. Um and I I do I do care that community is a priority. I
182know I said that, you know, how far we go in that, but um I I do want the community to know that that our goal is to keep teachers well compensated inside classrooms so that they are doing really great jobs teaching our kids as our priority. So yes, their compensation is of highest priority um because they are our direct contact with our kids and they um ju just frontline and I I am not voting against compensation. I want to be really clear on that. What I'd like to vote on is how do we actually build efficiencies in our budget and to enable us to give better compensation offers. Um, and I just the the idea of giving a very low compensation offer with a huge debt attached to it or not debt, use of of
183reserves is um something I'm just not comfortable with right now. Um, I am also super concerned about the current fiscal state. Um, but I also recognize as director Vard mentioned, this is a shared responsibility and I think we all agree on that. This is something that we um the district brings us plans and information and we push back and we ask questions and we get information and as director Varda just mentioned and as we've heard throughout the night there's variances in the revenues and the expenses throughout the year and since we operate in that fiscal time frame we are now looking to approve a budget without really knowing what Q4 looks like even though we have a good idea because we get good information and we appreciate that. Um, you know, we've had a ton
184of discussions about this um in study sessions and at board meetings and it's it's been very clear and we've gotten in my opinion strong advice from the district that now is not the time to balance the budget, but that our time is in November. Um, and that I think we need to take incredibly seriously. And so to me, um, for all the the light comments about the needs and the wants, sometimes the things we really like are not needs. And so, um, I think it's imperative that we look at that when we get to November and we really think hard. And I know we have two board members who are going to think about the guidance to put those cuts as far from students as we can. And I'm really excited for that work. I
185think that's going to be incredibly helpful for us to have some guiding principles to work hand inand with the district with Miss Miss Copelan and her team and us to say okay we can't have the three-year outlook that continues on this trajectory. Um and I believe that um so I think I think that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. Um, I would just like to say too that I am also a small business owner. Um, and I don't have any statutory requirements as to a date when I have to sign um a document and send it to the state. So, I feel like we are in um in a crunch time right now. I don't think it's feasible for us to just not pass this budget right now. I don't know how we could
186comply with state laws and then figure out whose commitment what money we've we've told um principles and and other department heads this is your budget for next year. I don't know how we can just say no never mind. It would be like what the federal government's doing right now clawing back all the money from USAD and and uh NPR and whatever. So I feel like um our hands are tied right now. Um but as you mentioned, we are starting um director Reed and I are going to be starting on Monday to make sure we don't find ourselves in this situation next year and um start seeing where we can um do what needs to be done. There's no doubt that it needs to be done. So um that's why I will be voting for this
187uh vote right now or this uh budget right now. So, with that, um, it has been moved and seconded to approve the adoption and appropriation of the 2025 2026 budget. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. Miss Applelegate, yes. Miss Kenworthy, yes. Miss Parker, yes. Miss Reed, yes. Dr. Va, no. And the budget passes. And now we will go on uh to approve by resolution the use of fund balance and all necessary discrete funds towards the 2025 2026 adopted budget. Is there a motion to approve by resolution the use of fund balance and all necessary discrete funds towards the 2025 2026 adopted budget? I move to approve by resolution the use of fund balance and all necessary discrete funds towards the 2526 adopted budget. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Okay. Um, it has been moved
188and seconded to approve by resolution the use of fund balance and all necessary discrete funds towards the 2025 2026 adopted budget. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. Miss Applegate. Yes. Miss Kenworthy. Yes. Miss Parker. Yes. Miss Reed. Yes. Dr. Verda. No. And that um resolution passes. We will now move on to the consent agenda. Items 8.01 through 8.21 are presented in board docs as a proposed consent agenda. As a reminder to our listening public, the board received a preview of these items at our June 4th study session. Do I have a motion regarding the approval of the consent agenda as presented in board docs? I move to approve items 8.01 through 8.21 on the consent agenda as published in Board Docs. Is there a second? Second. Any comments? It has been moved and seconded to approve
189the consent agenda. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. Miss Applegate. Yes. Miss Kenworthy. Yes. Miss Parker? Yes. Miss Reed? Yes. Dr. Barta? Yes. And the consent agenda is passed. So for the final agenda item of the evening, it will be leadership reports. First, we have the opportunity to hear from Superintendent Dorland regarding updates on the work of the district since the previous regular business meeting. Thank you, President Parker. I want to start my superintendent remarks tonight, the last meeting of the year for our board, uh reaffirming my commitment to Jeffco Public Schools and to the students, staff, and families we serve. This year has, as uh we heard in public comment, brought both challenges um but it's also brought undeniable progress. Progress that I feel is worth recognizing and protecting. Uh we have seen meaningful gains
190this spring thanks to the collective effort of our dedicated staff. 82% of our kindergarteners finished the year at or above benchmark in early literacy compared to just 40% in the fall. Proud of that. It's a remarkable shift and a gamecher early literacy for students as they begin their um K12 journey with us in Jeffco. Expulsions dropped by 86% allowing more students to remain engaged in learning and student voice surveys showed improvement in nearly every grade level with more students reporting that they feel known, heard, and supported in our schools. These are not isolated wins. They reflect the hard work, commitment, and collaboration of everyone in Jeffco. Together, we're driving the district in the right direction. As we celebrate the progress, I want to acknowledge the serious concerns that have also been expressed about the culture
191of our district and the issues of trust. I hear the concerns being raised. There have been a sense that collaboration is lacking and that voices are being dismissed. These concerns matter. They cannot be ignored. It is clear that we must do better in creating a culture where all voices are heard, where we work together, not apart, and where we can acknowledge and learn together, how to continually improve. I am fully committed to addressing district culture, to creating opportunity for open, respectful dialogue, to working side by side with this board to build trust with our communities. We must do that now in order to face the significant challenges that lie ahead of us. Like many districts across the country, Jeffco is dealing with declining enrollment, longstanding academic disparities, rising costs, and a projected $60 million budget
192gap by fiscal year 27. This year has also brought painful events that have shaken all of us and our community. The work ahead won't be easy, but I firmly believe we can navigate these challenges with steady, thoughtful leadership together. We cannot afford to move forward in isolation or division. We must move forward in partnership with a shared commitment to the success of our students. I have always strived to lead with clarity, compassion, and transparency. Students have been at the center of every decision and I have made it a priority to communicate openly and take responsibility for difficult moments. But I also recognize that leadership is a two-way process, one that requires listening and responding to feedback. To the board of education, I want to emphasize the importance of our relationship. I believe that we agree
193that trust, shared purpose, and respect are essential for a board and superintendent to work together effectively. Our collective commitment to our students requires us to lead together. I deeply respect our educators and their right to advocate for what they believe is best for students. I have worked in good faith to build collaborative relationships with our associations and I remain committed to fostering those relationships. At this time, I believe that we all benefit when we engage in mutually respectful solutionoriented dialogue grounded in our shared mission to support students. I am proud that we have made meaningful strides in compensating our educators during my tenure and we are moving into a very different financial reality, one that will require difficult trade-offs. My role is to serve the entire Jeffco community to listen to all perspectives, hold the
194complexity of those voices, and lead with accountability and balance. And I will continue to do that. We are seeing momentum in our schools and in our classrooms. We are implementing a student- centered plan focused on instructional excellence and extraordinary student experiences. Through our re-imagined efforts at middle and high schools, we honor the complexity of adolescence and the diverse aspirations of our students. We include and listen to the voices of our students. Most importantly, we are beginning to rebuild a shared sense of direction in Jeffco, which has been missing for so long in the last decade. And I'm really proud of that work. Stability matters, leadership matters, and the future of Jeffco students depends on the choices that we make. I am making the choice to prioritize listening while also asking for a shared commitment to
195respect and collaboration. Jeffco is not just where I work. It's my home. It's my community. I have a lot left to give to ensure that Jeffco delivers on its promise to my children and to yours. Thank you, Superintendent Doran. Now, it's uh board members opportunity to share their thoughts, their reports. Who would like to go first? It's only been a couple of weeks since our last business meeting and it's been a pretty quiet time for school, so not a lot to review from my calendar. I want to acknowledge the conclusion of the criminal investigation into the conduct of our former chief of schools, Dave Weiss. The crime that set off the investigation is, of course, indefensible. I don't believe anyone with a conscience draws a distinction between the consumption of child sex abuse material and
196direct physical abuse of a child. The former cannot exist without the latter. Whether Dave's suicide was the ultimate accountability or the ultimate evasion of accountability is not for me to judge. But I know from experience that it is hard on everyone when the perpetrator of a crime removes themselves from the process of justice. It leaves us with the sense of no justice at all. Within that context, I appreciate the work of the Jeffco Sheriff's Department to continue the investigation after Dave's death in an effort to find possible victims in Jefferson County. And I am relieved that they came up empty. It is my deepest hope that federal law enforcement finds those who produced the material and they are caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law. I pray the victims are getting the
197support they need and all of the justice they can get. I appreciate the co cooperation between the district and the Jeffco Sheriff's Department. I believe the entire situation has allowed the district to engage ever more deeply in review of our practices and procedures. And though I am realistic enough to know that nothing will ever be perfect, every additional thing we learn to keep our children safer is a step in the right direction. I also want to acknowledge the challenges that the district and its employees have encountered in negotiations this year. I have faith that we will all find a way forward. What has been laid bare is a very real and significant lack of financial resources. I appreciate the desire of our employees and the community at large to cut deeply at first at the
198dis district level and I believe that will happen out of pure necessity. I do not believe it will be enough. There will or there are no doubt some Disney buses that the district can cut without impacting classrooms, but the central budget pays for a lot of things that directly and critically benefit students and families. We cannot cut these and leave schools, classrooms, and school personnel unscathed. When I was a teacher and we went through a severe economic downturn, our associations worked with the district to create the most fair outcome possible. I hope we can do that again. Nonetheless, and with full acknowledgement that everyone tried to be fair, the outcome was not great. And I can tell you it'll impact me for the rest of my life. Let me be very clear. No one wins
199when we don't adequately fund schools. Everyone loses. The problem is not that our employees are asking for more than they deserve. It is not that the central budget doesn't add anything of value to classrooms. The problem is a lack of funding. I will be leaving the board before the end of the year, but I will not stop adequate advocating for adequate school funding through mills and state budgets. None of us should. Finally, I want to thank my fellow board members and Tracy Dorland for being willing to engage in hard conversations about the need to address a lack of trust in the district. I will say again what I have said to countless students in my career. I have good news and bad news. The good news is I have unshakable faith in us. And the
200bad news is I have unshakable faith in us. I know that we can do the hard work ahead. And therefore I expect us to do the hard work ahead together. who would like to go next? Okay. Um, thank you for your comments and um, I just also wanted to uh, not as eloquently as you said, but acknowledge uh, the victims of um, child pornography. um often invisible victims who are revictimized throughout their uh whole lives and often forgotten in um some of the conversations about justice um and the ways we think about about these crimes. So I I appreciate the way that you brought that forward though much better in the words than I wanted to use. Um I don't have too many um things to add. One thing I I didn't say uh so
201kind of odd in the board update, but I had uh noticed on our um discussion on the budget there's the proposed maximum fees handout. And I went back this year and looked at the fees for my own family of three and we paid $1,155.50 in fees as a family. Um I we don't talk about that a lot. I didn't know that was coming as a parent. I didn't I didn't understand that. Um it does go up as the kids go into higher grades. Um but just wanted to to to acknowledge our families. This is part of our challenge. We would love to reduce fees, but that's actually a way that we're helping we can help to offset costs. So it's a real challenge um that I wanted to acknowledge. we we had on our agenda
202tonight. Um and then lastly, um I went to a training at the D'Angelus Center and it was amazing. I went to um the deescalation training. The Shauna Fitzler there running that center has put together an incredible program of training for community, our staff. When I was there, there wasn't actually anyone else from Jeffco. They were from Adams, I think Cherry Creek. So people are coming from all over. These are free. Um and I would recommend to anyone to look them up. Um there's conflict um thinking about divisiveness in communities. Just a lot of different topics that are really um relatable to today's climate and the tensions that we are experiencing um I think here and then also in our in our home lives. um and they are a nonprofit. So, uh I recommend to to
203anyone if you're considering a place to support our uh D'Angelus Center um offers those trainings because of um contributions that um they receive in addition to other kinds of funding. Um so, just um glad I found that and I will surely be using those again if if they continue to be offered. I know there's some risk to that. Um, and I just want to echo that I am glad we're finally saying out loud and having um real clear conversations about addressing trust in our district. Um, I feel it very deeply that we need to work on this. Um, and I am always I have been willing to talk about it and willing to work on it um with our board, with our superintendent, and with our community. Um, I think saying it out loud and
204trying to understand how deep um our mistrust might be that is impacting all the way to our most important uh uh stakeholders uh kids in our district. um it it's impacting um them um and that's where we need to find the source of this and and men mend this for them. That's it. Um, I'd like to echo my thanks to the board and to Superintendent Dorland for engaging in difficult and honest um, conversation um, especially following a challenging six months um, in regards to misconduct and mistrust in our district. Um, I want to lift up my support for collaboration, for listening, and for, um, embracing a growth mindset together as we face challenges. Um, I'd also like to lift up the foundational importance of preparing our students to advocate and activate their voice and agency
205and their own body, safety, and awareness. Not that we abandon them to be their only and sole protectors, but that we partner with them as adults to prepare them to to protect themselves. Um, and that is a partnership and that is an education that will transcend what happens in our institution, in our schools, but set our students on a um lifelong journey of being able to advocate for themselves. I think it's foundational that we teach our students um about bodies and boundaries and um that we engage in age appropriate conversations throughout their lifelong journeys. Um as we look towards budget priorities, I want to strongly request that the district and the board look toward models to keep impacts and cuts as far away from classrooms and students as possible, recognizing the challenges inherent in that
206request. Um, the other things I wanted to say are Miss Goth, Miss Gothard, who was one of our awardees earlier this evening. Clearly, you swam a truly incredible time of 1 minute, not an hour. As I erroneously stated, "One hour might be closer to my own 100yard race than to your own." And so, congratulations on truly an outstanding accomplishment. Um, I just wanted to correct that. And um finally, I'm going to ask I want two more things. One more. One is um farewell to our retirees and welcome to our new staff. Um truly we are every year going to turn over some phenomenal educators just as we are also welcoming into our district phenomenal educators who are joining us. And those transitions happen every year and I want to acknowledge that as we close out
207a school year. Um, and finally, I want to encourage everybody to read. I read a very interesting report regarding um, generational parenting practices regarding reading with with kids and students. Um, and I want to encourage all of our families to pick up a book and read. Adults, teachers, students, caregivers, pick up something and read. Model it. Read with a kid that you know. Go to the library. look at a picture book, take time to laugh at a silly book. Um, because that skill is so foundational to the success of our students and it has to happen from a very young age. Um, and so I just wanted to encourage folks as we go into summer, please, please read anything at all and um, and also rest. And anyway, thank you for this school year and
208for your continued collaboration. There's going to be some repetitiveness in mine. Bear with me. Um, I also want to acknowledge and thank Director Varda and Director Reid for their comments. Um, acknowledge the victims. Child pornography and abuse of any child is just inexcusable. And I also appreciate the Jeffco Sheriff's Office and the district's cooperation with their office. I think that's incredibly important. Um I want to say that I am grateful for this team up here on the dis and in the seats. Um, we've had some really productive meetings over the last couple weeks and the board is working together and on the same page with the superintendent and I think that is going to do a lot of good work for our district. Um, we do have a trust problem and we need to improve
209our culture so that we can do better for our students, our teachers, our staff, administrators, families and our communities. But these are shared responsibilities. Um, and we each have to be accountable to that. Um, and I agree with Director Reid. We can do the hard work and I expect us to do the hard work. Um, there's no other way. So, we're going to do it. Um, I'm also just grateful for the opportunity to serve in these seats. These are hard seats. Um and we are accountable to our communities and I'm grateful for those who have shared opinions with us good um upset frustrated um we are accountable to you as our community and there is a lot of work that we are starting now but I also want to wish our communities everyone in them
210just a restful summer um because it is it is time for a Um, I also want to appreciate um, Director Reed for her wonderful comments. Um, I'm glad you went first. Um, not after me. Um, and I also want to reiterate that um, I personally um, along with the rest of the board and the superintendent and everybody in the district uh, want to protect our students. It's not just that we uh have a duty to educate them, but we definitely have a duty to keep them safe. And as I've said before, I've worked uh for 18 years as a CASA volunteer for uh advocating for neglected and abused children. And every time I hear another um incident um that hits us, it breaks my heart. It breaks my heart. committed to working to fix any
211policies that need fixing to um improve anything that needs to be improved in that area. Also, I've said before um I am also heartbroken over the lack of trust and um especially uh between our associations. Um I think it's kind of understood when you're on the board there are going to be people who are not happy with what you're doing and we listen to public comment all the time. But when I hear public comments start to go sideways and um and uh you know go beyond just addressing the board, it it's really a problem. And as I said before, a house divided against itself cannot stand. We must work together to um keep our our structure strong. I also think that a lot of our problems, if not all, can be um brought down to
212the budget and the lack of funds. If you're not getting paid what you're worth, then any slight anything that just adds to your your discomfort and your frustration is is going to be um amplified. I want to um u apologize to the 150 or 200 um uh email senders in the last two weeks. I haven't gotten to respond to you yet. This has been an amazing two weeks and not in a good way. And then lastly, I just want to end this um school year with a thank you to everybody, everyone in the district, the schoolbased staff, the central office, the community. Um thank you for your care, for your your commitments, and um it was a tough last half of the year. Um we can and we will fix things for next year and
213for going back uh going forward. So that brings us to the end of today's agenda. We will stand adjourned. The board will be on summer hiatus for the remainder of June and July. And our next meeting is a board study session scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on August 21st at the ENT center. Happy summer. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Down down down down down down down down down down down down down. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] down. Down [Music] down down down down down. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] down. Down. Down. Down. Down. Down. Down. Down. Down. Down. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] behoo. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Down. [Music] Hey,
214hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat [Music] up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music]