001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down [Music] down Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Down. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat.
002Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down [Music] down Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Down down down down down [Music] down. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Okay, it is now 4:33 p.m. we will resume our public session. Um and uh director Applegate has joined us at our Apple at our April 10th, 2025 meeting. We studied the following topics. Monitoring report 1.4. Every student will develop life skills and a continuous learning mindset to succeed in life after graduation and an FY2526 April budget development update. The public can watch the recording from the April
00310th, 2025 meeting to learn more about this content. 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. As we get started this evening, I want to acknowledge that it is teacher appreciation week and I wish to extend on behalf of the board a huge thank you to our incredible educators in Jeffco. May 1st was also National School Principal Day and I also want to express our gratitude to our amazing school leaders. You may notice that Dr. Kim Leblanc Kasparza is with us at the table this afternoon. Superintendent Dorland is representing Jeffco on the College Board Superintendent Advisory Council today. She's attending their national meeting in New York City. She will rejoin us here
004on Friday, May 9th for our next study session. Now we will proceed with today's agenda. Um we have time set aside for um public comments from our associations. There is currently no one here from them. So we will continue on now uh to the first agenda item which is an update on the Jeffco student leadership board which is a diverse group of high school students representing every high school in Jeffco. The purpose of this update is to provide the board a year in review of the JSLB and a summary of conference reflections as well as future plans in looking ahead for JSLB. Before I turn it over to the presenters, is there anything you'd like to say? Deputy Superintendent Dr. LBL Esparza. We got doctors on both. I said just Kim work. So it's it's
005an awful long name, right? No, I'm actually looking forward to hearing the year-end review from our students. This is one of our highlights of the year. Okay. Thank you. Please proceed. Good evening board. It's always an honor to spend time with you. I'm Tara Pena, chief of family community partnerships and a district sponsor of Jeffco Student Leadership Board. Um before we get started though, um the students did come and bring gifts. And so, as you know, and you're going to hear about this evening, we did host the second annual Jeffco student leadership board. excited for you to hear about the success of that event, but would like to um present you with um some swag from the conference. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. All right. So, tonight we're excited to share highlights
006from the Jeffco Students Leadership Board's year, reflect on the successes of our second annual student leadership conference, and look ahead to what's in store for next year. The JSLB was created to empower students from across the district to take on active leadership roles, collaborate with district leaders, and influence meaningful decisions that impact their schools and communities. To kick things off, I'd like to introduce some of the incredible student leaders who have been instrumental in shaping JSLB's success. Our students will introduce themselves by sharing their name, their school, their grade, and a fun fact about themselves. Hi board. Um, my name is Tom Wallace. So, I go to Rosson Valley High School. I'm a senior. And a fun fact about me, I do not like the cold weather even though I live in Colorado. And he
007has two days of school left. Another fun fact, two days of school. Well, hi board. I'm Alexa Himenez Jakon and I'm a junior at Waitress High School. And a fun fact about me is I really like tomatoes. Like, I really like them. So, yeah. We are going to start um with a year in review looking at um our student leadership and action. It's safe to say that this year has been packed. We had so many different opportunities to put leadership into action and honestly we try to say yes to as much as we could. From working with district leaders to get feedback on the real effects of social media on mental health to attending a statewide student leadership conference that left us inspired and urgentized is being non-stop learning and growing. One of her biggest
008highlights was her winter service project. We organized a district-wide clothing drive and collected a huge amount of donations from almost all high schools and even two middle schools. It felt amazing not only to donate to Jeffco serving kids, but also to volunteer alongside them and really see the impact firsthand. Other notable opportunities include some of us participating in the good news breakfast touring different parts of the departments of IT, transportation, and school safety. that just really changes my perspective on how things are done. A lot goes into making sure a district this size is able to run smoothly. Every experience this year made leadership feel more real and personal for us and we are so excited to keep building on that. This year at a conference was another huge milestone for us. We are welcomed
009nearly 200 students from all across Jeffco back to our west high school for the day around the theme act think globally act locally. One of one of the things we really focused on was breakout sessions more interactive. Some students asked us for that last year and we are truly proud to improve upon that to say we are definitely delivered. Our session focused on three areas colleges and career path mental health and we and while students well-being advocacy every session student gave real tools they could go back to their own schools and use right away. My favorite part of the day was the session we the GSLB leaders facilitated our self calls or halls or hopes from conversation to action. Students from different schools came together to talk about challenges they're seeing and brainstorm small actions
010they could make a difference. The whole day was about showing students that leadership isn't just a title. It's something you practice every day through real world impact. During our open ceremony at our conference, we had a little fun. We asked students to answer a few questions. A mentter questions include if you were a favorite if you could be a Disney character, who would you be? And I picked Sebastian from the learn of mermaid by the way. But the one but we also got more serious. We asked students to submit two words about the biggest issue that they see impacting their peers. The responses were powerful and tonight we want to take a moment to share them with you because they're not just words to us. They represent a real challenge students face every day. So
011just real quick Tom. So if you're all familiar with menty meter, right? the more times a word um is submitted, the bigger the word. And so we asked students, we talked about, you know, thinking leaning into the conference of think globally, act locally. We wanted students to think about local change that they could impact starting from their classroom, from their school, from their community. And so one of the questions that was presented was what's one issue students are facing that you want to help solve? and you'll see the many number of issues that our students um one want to name and begin to advocate for but also issues that they're naming that they're really grappling with. And so we just felt like this is a really powerful reflection of student lived experience right now and
012the things that are on the hearts and our minds of students. So up there you'll see things like mental health, bullying, burnout, substance abuse, anxiety, attendance, loneliness, isolation, connection, climate change, um time management, transphobia, politics, drug abuse, sexism. Um all things that are, I think, very real topics and issues that I've seen the board lean into this year. And um I think it really gives us a really important launch point as we think about the work and the impact of JSLB for next year as well. And also to add on to that, we believe uh our work is connected to help solve these issues and we're communic committed to continue the conversation and take action. Looking ahead to next year, we are so excited for what's coming. One of our biggest goals is to expand
013our student led subcommittees. This year, our committees focus on things like mental health, school culture, academic stress, and college and career pathways. And next year, we want to invite even more student voices into the process. We will continue working on leadership and dual school development through monthly workshop and experiences designed to build real world skills. And of course, we are already thinking about how to grow and strength our student leader conference next year, bringing even more students, working closely with district leaders and community partners, and making sure the day is full of opportunities that m that feel real, meaningful, and inspiring. We are so proud of the momentum we have built, and we're so excited for what's ahead. On behalf of all of us, I just want to take a moment to say thank you
014board directors for two incredible years. Through JSOB, I met lifelong friends and provided the learning opportunity to use my voice to create real change. While I won't be here to continue the great work next year, I am confident that Alexa will and the rest of the JSON members will make continuously big impact in Jeffco. Before we officially close, we also want to give a huge thank you to Tara Pñena for also and all the district sponsors who make GSUB possible. Their support, encouragement, and guidance have meant so much to us. And none of the work we shared tonight would have been possible without them. Thank you for believing in student voice and for always being there to help us grow as leaders. We're so grateful. All right. Thank you, board. At this time, you have
015any questions for our student leaders? I have a quick one. Alexa, what school are you from again? I didn't catch it. I go to Wheatbridgeidge High School. We thank you. Yeah, of course. Board, uh, other questions? Yep. Thanks for being here tonight. Um, I just got an email today from a student who's interested in JSLB. How do our students get involved and what's the timeline for that? Absolutely. That's an excellent question. And so, we do have quite a few seniors. And so just thinking about how we um operate as a student leadership board, it's really similar to what you see at like a student council at a school level where we have returning students and we have new students. So one to create some continuity but also to bring fresh perspective um to the leadership
016board. And so we do have quite a number of seniors and a few other students that um are choosing to um create opportunity for somebody else on their place. And so we are working with comms um that to create a toolkit to begin to push out um the application. And so it is an application process and an interview process. So students will submit an application and then our members of the of the JSLB actually interview students. They have a a rating rubric, if you will, and and they help select their peer leaders that will serve on these committees with them. And as a really cool reminder, JSLB is a paid internship for students. And so it's a really meaningful opportunity. So, please send that information um my way and we'll make sure that students get
017the application and then also be looking for information in Peach Jar and in other district communications as we push out the application process. What was the timeline? Sorry. Um honestly until we get every seat filled that we have vacancies and so um I do believe that we have or will really soon I'll look to Joa um begin um promoting those seats and we have followed up with students that attended the conference and have pushed out the application to them as well um and or you know if they can they can you know nominate a classmate or anything like that. And um really just kudos to Joa Corell, manager of community engagement on my team. She's been working really closely with Molly Jordan, um our assistant director of athletics and activities. Just met recently with our
018activities directors and they're also working to help promote um not only um JSLB but youth leadership Jeffco in partnership with the EDC as well. So a lot of student leadership opportunities that we have. I have a couple more things. Um one I wanted to just say your your presence at the Good News Breakfast was amazing. I think everybody in that room really appreciates um having a panel discussion and hearing from our students. Uh so thank you. Both of you spoke at that. Is that right? No. No. Alex, Tom was there. Yeah, Tom was there. And then we had a few of our seniors that were there. Yeah. Yep. Um and then I am curious a little bit about um some of the feedback you got in that breakout session, our halls, our hopes, if you
019have any highlights to share with us. Um, and then I also wanted to offer up that if you're going to do face painting again at the back to school bash, I would love to help. Yes, Joa, write that down right now. Got me. All right, cool. We will take it. Yes. Do you want to share about all our hope? Well, I it was my first time going to the conference and I really loved it. Especially again the one we leaders were like leading. Um, we got a lot of good feedback from all the schools. I'll say the engagement especially in the workshops were really good. I learned a lot of stuff. I definitely made connections. So I really really recommend for everybody to really to attend to the conference. Again it was just like a
020really good experience for my part. Uh one of the most impactful thing for me to witness was like how much students feel like there's a lack in engagement. Uh it was really surprising. So it's like it's almost like if you ever heard of the saying like follow the crowd. If one person goes to that that engagement like literally everybody in that room m for the majority like gravitated towards that section. I'm like oh wow that's uh absolutely eye opening but it's informing as well. So part of the activity that JSLB students led is we brought um different high schools together which their students that represented at the conference came together. So I was actually in the room with Tom. We had um Rston Valley, Arvvada West, um Stanley Lake, and Golden all in this in
021the same room. We were in the auditorium at Arvvada West. And um the first activity was a four corners activity. And so we put um safety, engagement, belonging, and student voice in four corners of the room in a big sign. And then we asked students to move and kind of vote, if you will. Um one it was where do you believe that your school is um really strong? And so we had a lot of students gravitate towards um safety and belonging, student voice, maybe we had some sprinkling of engagement. And then um it was, you know, where is is the area where your school needs, you know, the most work? You know, all students went to engagement. No, it was the inverse. It's no students went to engage. What's doing well? No students went to
022engagement. And so we were left like it. I mean, it was such a data point. Even the kids in the room noticed that, oh my gosh, engagement is something that we really need to begin to address. And as as you know, and as you'll hear in a monitoring report that I'm actually presenting in a couple weeks, 3.1, 3.3, where we'll talk about our student perception survey data, we're seeing that in our student perception survey data. And while we have seen um um significant growth in engagement of of our students, we still have a long ways to go. And so that was the issue that then students wanted to lean into to begin to do like a one-on-one protocol where it's one thing that they're excited about, one action that they can take and and one
023thing that they need to help, you know, bring, you know, their idea to fruition. And so they got a lot of synergy. Um, but they named it, you know, with their feet that engagement continues to be an issue that we need to address. And it that really was a recurring theme in many of the rooms that that were facilitated. When you're talking about engagement, do you mean like in the classroom or out of school activities? What do you mean with it? Yep. So, um really students named that for themselves and it was um engagement in the classroom and creating relevance um and work that feels really meaningful. Some students are really familiar with some of the high school reimagine work or were able to name how their their engagement in a high school reimagined like
024experience has really helped strengthen their engagement and other students when we talk about that extraordinary student experience have named that it doesn't feel like a relevant learning experiences. We're doing a lot of um um you know drill and kill type drill and skill and kill and all the things where it's just really the rudimentary of repetition of you know we heard a lot about worksheets a lot of lecture um a lot of sit and get um and and and um and really a trend right like so many individual students can talk about um really powerful experiences or like that might be experience I have in this classroom but let me tell you about this teacher in this classroom and this experience. And so just please know it's not an overgeneralization, but it's something they really
025feel like this is something that I feel like we can have influence and something that we can take action on. Um because we also wanted them to feel like what within your sphere of influence do you feel that you can affect change and engagement was something that that they uplifted. And so they really stayed from a strength-based approach around engagement, which I think also speaks to um the leadership of, you know, the kiddos in the room. Well, first of all, thank you for coming. It's always so fun to see you both um and see this group and hear what's going on. Um, I had a a thought and then maybe a question recognizing that we likely want students to self-identify roles in this. I also wonder if it's something that should be included in like
026an across the board or like how much do parents know about this program? And so I I will throw that out into the ether because um I just wonder how much knowledge there is of parents that this exists and and maybe that could help spur kids to think about it in some ways. So, I throw that out for thoughts. Um, and then I'm really excited. It's going to sound super geeky that you guys are diving into subcommittees because I think you can get work done. You know, I look at our subcommittees from our board and how much work gets done and how you can pull in people that aren't us and like really affect change through others who may not be on the JSLB. And so, in your committees, are you thinking about pulling in
027folks that aren't necessarily on JSLB? That's also a way to get kids knowledgeable and interested and and you went through it and I might have missed it. What are the topics for your subcommittees that There we go. Um because I was curious if engagement is built in somewhere in there. Oh, absolutely. And so um I you know I think one of the greatest problems to have um right now is we have more students um that want to be involved than we have spaces for. And so um you know two things at present. So JSLB in its structure as the student leadership board we have one student represented from every in every school both comprehensive option you know we have a couple of charters um and that doesn't mean there's not opportunity for for leadership and
028so one thing and and really a lesson learned is that um you know we we've created a lot of opportunity for JSLB to lead and it it creates strain because not only are they leading here but they're leading in their communities ities. They're leading in their homes. They have jobs. They play sports. And so, um, you know, they're they're learning a lot of of skills about work life balance that we all are navigating. Um, and we want to be able to build capacity of student voice. And so, the the long line of kids after the conference that said, "Please, I just want to be involved." And while their school might not have a vacancy, we really came up with the idea of the studentled subcommittees. that one, building the capacity of this team to lead
029the subcommittees around some of those issues that students named were really important. Um, and and getting more student voice to the table so that y'all have a large cross-section of students to engage with next year. Some of them serving on the board, others represented on our subcommittees. And so, yeah, we we've definitely been leaning into that for sure. That's fantastic. I also want to thank you for all the stuff that you've done and how far you've come. I had the pleasure of being part of uh um I I forgot what you call the day. Oh, our cabinet for a day and and and spending time with the board. So, I loved the conversation that I had with the students there, but I was um uh surprised one of the students uh wasn't aware that our
030schoolboard meetings uh were um livereamed that she could watch them. And um so that's one thing that I think would be helpful and tying that together with the students who come to speak at our schoolboard meetings. So last month we had quite a few speak about sustainability and the environment and I noticed the climate change is listed in your word cloud and um I think that it would be great if uh going forward and so Alexa if you're you're here again next year too to um look for those active students who have picked a um you know yeah passions an issue and they want to find out what they can do and um and so I do think if nothing else you could uh see who signs up for public comment in our schoolboard meetings
031and just watch that part of it. Um and see how you can reach out to those students as well. Yeah, that's an excellent suggestion. Thank you. Um Director Parker, we love that. Other questions? Yeah, I don't so much have a question as I just want to tell you how proud I am of the work that you do and it just is it's so wonderful and you guys are an example of the leaders the leadership that is coming out of Jeffco with our students and every single time I hear you guys talk whether it's at a board meeting or we're getting together and we're having conversation that way or you're presenting to the community at the Good News Breakfast or wherever it is, I'm just always so impressed and so proud of you. And thank you
032so much for your service in in your time that you've been here. And um Tom, good luck to you for your future. And thank you so much for all that you've done. And for all of the folks that are staying on, I hope that next year is wonderful and it goes exactly as you hope. Thank you. Well, thank you for your time and investment um in our students and honoring their voices and their perspectives. your engagement with them all year long is so important and um I I've had different interactions with with each of you this year in which you're helping to promote and celebrate um the JECO student leadership board and um so just really appreciate the partnership and your belief um and support of of these students and they probably know more about
033policy governance than many of the educators in our system and so we've done a really good job of trying to make sure that they understand what it means to serve on a board and the different roles and functions that we way um as we work to affect change. And so um it's been a meaningful experience and and we continue to strengthen and grow. So always open to ideas and suggestions and anytime you want to spend time with us um you're more than welcome. So thank you. Yeah. I want to make a request. Um when we were campaigning, the best forum that we went to was the JSLB forum, hands down. And I just we have another election cycle coming up this fall and my hope is that you would do that again because I that
034was it was outstanding. Um and yeah, I just please Absolutely. Great suggestion. Absolutely. We can absolutely commit to that. I ditto that big time. Yeah. Thank you. Okay board. Any other questions, comments with that? Thank you very much. Um happy summer. Good luck. Yes. And uh Stay in touch. Stay in touch. Yes. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Have a good evening. Thank you. So, we are a little ahead of schedule since we didn't have the public comment portion. So, if we have everyone from DAC here, we Okay, good. Then we will hear an endofear update from the district accountability committee and engage in dialogue about any interests of the DAC as we plan for next year. Before I turn it over to the presenters who are coming up to the table, is
035there anything you'd like to add? Deputy Superintendent Dr. Leblanc Esparza. just gratitude for we have lots of families or lots of parents who are involved in this process and their engagement with our staff really does benefit all of our community. So, I'm grateful for the time and the energy that you all put in. Thank you for your work. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. Really appreciate that. So once you get yourself um settled, we'll let you start at your convenience. Uh, board of education, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate this. My name is Theres Rednor. I'm the chairperson, current chairperson of the district accountability committee. So, what we see here, and does this just Tara, do you click through on this or she's going to drive. She's going to drive
036quickly, but basically the structure is going to be, you know, what did we accomplish this year? What did we learn from this year? And what do we need going into next year? And of course, we certainly want to create um a dialogue with everyone here. This is not just going to be a big formal presentation. I think we all operate a little bit better when we were in conversation. So, my name is Theres Redner. This is Crystal Marie and she is the um chairperson of our budget subcommittee. We also have Elizabeth Armstrong, the vice chair of DAC. Of course, you know, Tara Pñena, our amazing district leaison. Thank you so much for your service. And really an incredible So, thank you board. I can't say this enough, an incredible addition to the district accountability committee.
037Um, our facilitator with Trace Faustst. So, thanks Trace. Absolutely. All right. I'm going to kind of uh jump right in and then we're going to sort of jump around with the topics. So, um, we told you what we want to do. That's our objectives. We'll move on from that. You know what this format's going to be, what we did, what we learned, what we accomp or what we need. I'm going to start out mainly around the engagement that we really tried to create this year. And what I've discovered, possibly what we've all discovered, is people really seem to crave connection. And yet we trip and we fumble and we have a hard time really creating that connection. So that is something that DAC um as the executive committee and I think and also with the
038help of trace and our liaison that we've really focused on this year and and one way that we've done that is in structure right we've had to structure times to connect uh and that's okay. Um so we always host and we always we've started this this was our second year we hosted both um a DAC two DAC executive retreats where we meet over the summer as an executive committee uh to really try and set up a strong DAC for uh the the coming school year and then we also ho hosted a DAC retreat kind of to level set because I think sometimes when DAC members especially new members come in they're not really quite sure like apparently we run the district maybe, but we actually don't run the district. Um the the title's a little
039loaded, right? District accountability committee. It's a pretty loaded title um to have. So, we level set with really where we operate. And then also to not only set some of our priorities, but also to make sure that every person feels like they have value being a part of this organization. So, I think that's another way that we can create connection is to make sure that people feel like we know what we're doing. We have our priorities and we're also valued. We're a valued voice in the community for the district and for the board of education. We always have to remember we're actually a board advisory committee. We're not really the district advisory committee. We're the board advisory committee. We might want to think about changing our name. That might require a state statute. I'm not
040sure. um also in uh creating connection and this is something that we've done you know that DAX have done is we facilitated of course our sack kickoff and I will tell you and and I just want to um amplify this it is so I'm so thankful and so welcome and I want this to continue that the district really does lean in to the school leaders to really say this is an important time to come together and I will say it is an incredibly important time for sac um principal, you know, school leaders, sack leaders to come together to that sack kickoff because it's really the one time that we've created where we can all try and meet face to face and kind of level set as well within our articulation areas. So that those are
041two things that we have done as a DAC to really try to foster create and build connection. So the next person I'm turning this over to is um to Crystal to talk about the SAC survey. Got it. Hello. Um, so one of the things that I'm most proud of for this year is how we improved the SACK survey process. We worked to make it more tailored um to bring forward the priorities that matter the most to our school communities. But most importantly, we didn't just collect the information. We followed through. We followed through. We made sure schools saw how their feedback shaped our conversations and our presentation to the board earlier this year in February. That kind of full circle communication is something that we've really been intentional about improving. Looking ahead, one of our
042big goals is to provide better, more accessible training for Sachs, not just about what the budget looks like, but how the whole process works. The more we can break it down in simple and accessible ways, the more we can invite new diverse voices into these conversations. And those diverse voices are crucial to building stronger, more inclusive solutions. We also heard loud and clear the concerns around equitable funding and opportunities for student success. Next year, we want to take that to the next level. Not just continuing to surface those ideas or those issues, but starting to bring some real actionable ideas forward. There's a quote that I love by Jean Door that says, "Ideas are easy. Execution is everything." And that's really going to be our focus, putting our ideas into action. Another priority for us
043is strengthening our collaboration with other board committees like the financial advisory committee. so we're better aligned and create a more connected experience for our community. There's always room for improvement. So, we're also going to keep improving this act survey to make sure that we're capturing both what matters and what might be lower on the priority list. That will help us better understand where reductions might be possible, where funds can be shifted to make a bigger difference. And finally, we know we need to build stronger relationships with our charter schools and option schools and other unique learning communities. Their perspect perspectives are critical and we're committed to listening and learning so we can better support every student in Jeffco. We've made great progress and we're excited to keep moving forward with clarity, collaboration, and a lot
044of heart. Good crystal. Um also in the spirit of connection and in the spirit of um creating stronger connection uh during our midyear we uh explained that we changed how our um ARS. So we have you know ideally what approximately I got to do the math really fast 35 like 39 ARS to service with in all of the different articulation areas and charter and option. So instead of insisting that our AARs try to attend every SAC meeting with at every school within their articulation area, we encouraged and and set up a format where the um ARS would host a virtual meeting um three times per year with their individual articulation areas so that they could actually and principles being invited but optional. It seemed to that that really fostered a lot more communication. Sort of
045took that workload or that workload expectation, that volunteer workload expectation off of the um shoulders of the of the AARS because the last thing that we want to do is anyone who volunteers to feel as though that it becomes an impossible task. So, we really created a more intentional structure around coming together, um, building bridges for communication, and I feel like that is a structure that we're definitely going to continue with for next year. Um, and then we're going to turn this over to now Trace, our facilitator, to talk about uh, what we accomplished around our special project and also with um, a special subcommittee that we had. Thanks, Theres. Good evening to the board. Thanks for the opportunity to be here. Trey Fouse, Keystone Policy Center, acting as facilitator this year for DACK and
046also for TDPAC. So, looking forward to talking to you more on Friday about those committees. Um, I'll talk a little bit about um the chronic absenteeism. So, when working with the district, it was like, you know, the board would really love to see a focus from each committee on just something specific and obviously DACK has a number of charges and they know that, but is there something that they would be interested in that kind of falls outside that specific purview? So, we did a a number of or like a a little bit of an exercise around like what are you interested in? What do you care about? What's top of mind for you? Uh whether you're a parent, a community member, etc. And it came down to two and you could probably guess one of
047them which well you can definitely guess both of them. Chronic absenteeism which is up there. The other one was cell phone policy. Um we know that the district is doing uh a lot of work around cell phone policy and there's just a lot of research and things happening out there. So, we felt it best in the DAX's interest to go with chronic absenteeism because there's a lot of personal experience to really drive that topic. Um, I'll just name on the outright DAC had a challenging year, right? There were a few meetings where we really were off course and understandably so as far as uh what we needed to spend that time talking about and uh sharing about and spending time with. So, um there were probably about two meetings I think that we were not
048able to devote to, you know, some time to chronic absenteeism. Otherwise, every meeting we had between one and two hours of dialogue. Uh, first we had a lot of listening and learning from the district. What is chronic absenteeism? That continues to be a question like how do you define chronic absenteeism? What is the challenge that the district is seeing? Where are those problems? What is unique to Jeffco? Um, and doing a lot of learning around the data that exists, the data that doesn't exist. Um, and then it uh resulted in a number of recommendations that you will be receiving uh via email. Well, there's a there's a final DAC meeting in May um to kind of shore up a number of those recommendations, but I'll just I'll give you a headline real quick uh that
049the that the um that the members have already agreed feels representative of their overall view on chronic absenteeism in the district's perspective. So, chronic absenteeism we understand is a symptom of deeper systemic and community-based issues. There is no one-sizefits-all solution. Our approach must be multi-layered, equitydriven, and student centered. DAC urges a shift or clarification from the district of mindset away from any punitive measures and toward a culture of belonging, flexibility and engagement. Um, that's something that just came through strong, loud and clear from all DAC members and uh, you know, my point to them was I uh, with the efforts that we heard from the district. I do feel like that is the mindset of the district and so that's why we put that language in there around clarity of mindset um for that to
050be a continued communication with families continued communication at the school level as well. So uh excited to send these to you. They did a lot of work uh diving into these recommendations and a lot of it really does center around data that they would love to see and encourage you all to also do some digging in on around you know some of the data might not be possible right we understand from a privacy perspective but are there continued ways that we can look at data to better understand the unique situations of families and students the second thing I'm up here for well yeah second thing I'm up here for um is the code of conduct subcommittee uh So just for framing there and then I'll let Elizabeth share as well because she was on the
051committee. So there was a a member that uh kind of stood up during a meeting and gave a what you call it like a pro a yeah kind of a proclamation of just like um a a need and a desire to come together uh with a subcommittee and focus on what it look like what it looks like to really have a code of conduct that speaks to um I think psychological safety. I think like what is the purpose of the deck? What is not the purpose of the deck? Uh how can we continue to work together across lines of difference? Um and how can we actually have that written into policy in a way that reflects like what we hoped how we hope folks show up in this space. Uh so we convened that I
052be I believe starting in I was looking back and I was like yeah it was October, November that we started. Um and nearly every month met as a subcommittee uh and they actually asked me to facilitate that. Um it's a it was a sticky it was a sticky topic and so not being a member and being a neutral facilitator felt like an appropriate place for me to step in. Um and so the result of that is an updated code of conduct. I will say that we got unanimous support on where we landed with that language which felt really good. I think there was um a lot of tough conversations around what people would like to see in a code of conduct but also recognizing that this is a space where we have differences and that's
053okay. And so that was um how do how do we do that in a way and just call people to a higher place as far as dialogue and um coming together around the fact that we all are here because we care about kids. Um so I'll hand it over to Elizabeth if you want to share a little bit. Elizabeth was one of the members of the subcommittee. Um but if you want to share a little bit more about that process or any reflections on kind of where we landed. Yeah, absolutely. Um and I I really want to express my appreciation for uh Trace leading that work. I I feel like it went really well. Um we had just anyone who wanted to participate was invited to participate in that process. We had several meetings and
054we adjusted the times um to make sure that uh everyone who wanted to participate was able to attend um as many meetings as as possible. Uh we did all end up unanimously agreeing on the um on the verbiage and well done on that. Um that's that is a that's a sticky wicket. Um but we ended up in a place where uh we have a new code of conduct that'll be um put before the deck that uh is respectful and encouraging of inclusivity and and also does not um shut down or dissuade hard conversations that that we have to have. Um but it it helps to create a space where everyone feels like they can use their voice um and be respected in that. So, I really want to commend Trace for that effort and everybody
055who participated in the subcommittee. I think we ended up in a good place. Um, also wanted to go back a little bit to the AAR led sack engagement sessions. It's it's not only um more helpful for AARS and and how we spend our time, but we also found that it was really helpful um for encouraging dialogue among the SAC chairs as well that they got to riff off each other a little bit. Oh yeah, we're seeing that here too or here's how we solve that problem and really collaborate um between different schools, which was wonderful. Um and I think I had mentioned this previously, but but one of the comments we got was this is great for um especially elementary school where they got to collaborate and middle schools where there are a couple per
056articulation area. um and they got it didn't translate as well for high schools where they felt like, you know, they would like some time to be able to talk to other high school sack chairs as well. But but I think it was good all around um and definitely something we're going to continue next year. Before we transition to the next slide, I just wanted to take a moment um to just celebrate the accomplishments and to publicly extend gratitude to our DAC executive committee. I don't think people realize a couple of things. One is this is a volunteer committee and so we talk a lot about in DAC this is time away from your family and we want to make it really meaningful with the systems and structures and the supports that we place we we
057put in place but also the climate and culture that we create within DAC and DAC's willingness to really lean into those conversations um but also with the the leadership of the executive committee. It has not been as as as trace uplifted not been without its challenges this year and yet the group has stayed really focused on keeping the main thing the main thing in um in keeping the priorities of DAC at the forefront. Um what people don't I think always know is our executive committee meets for two and a half hours once a month to plan the DAC agenda and then it's then going out and helping to solicit the content for the agenda, posting minutes um and providing follow-up. each of them also leads and or is actively engaged in a subcommittee as part
058of DAC and many of them are also a ars um and so it's a significant time investment and it's an investment in Jeffco and so just really grateful for their time um and their leadership in helping to um be leaders building a community of leaders um of of the collective DAC but also the ways in which they lean in with with vulnerability asking really hard questions and bringing solutions um has has really allowed of the DAC to accomplish some really important things and so just really grateful for their leadership. Thank you, Tara. Um the last one just going back really quickly about the charter school renewals and new applications. So also speaking about some you know this is a subcommittee that um really only is active when it's necessary, right? And that's not always going
059to be every year. Um and renewals look a little bit different than applications. And I will tell you that that subcommittee although you know sort of only has to come together when it's necessary man do they put in work and they put in hours. I sat in being the DAC chair I I get the honor of sitting in on subcommittees if I want to. Um and I was just really curious about the work that they did and I was astounded and quite grateful that I never signed up for that subcommittee quite frankly. um the amount of work and intention and focus and effort that they put into that work is I think something that the board I would really like to uplift to the board because I know that they want to continue there's a
060lot of passion around that and they want to make sure that they are a valuable voice and that they are a partner with the board and a partner with the district in really reviewing this and not just not just being another voice but but being a really um elevated leaned into voice like an elevated voice. So I do know that there's some questions and some uh my understanding is some confu not confusion but sort of frustration maybe around the review document. Somebody said please don't call it a rubric. I'm like okay. So I just did because I'm not on the subcommittee. Um but the review document and that subcommittee would really appreciate being a partner in with the board to look over that type of review document to make sure that it is maybe the
061best that it can be. So I think that's an area that um that particular subcommittee would really appreciate some partnership and collaboration with the board on. So, I just really wanted to elevate that because I did, you know, you kind of think, oh, that review, it's only going to take, you know, 10 minutes, hours, hours of of work. So, just really want to kind of focus on that small but important subcommittee that we have. So, I guess we can go on to what we learned. Um, I'll just kind of open this up and then of course I want this to, you know, just jump in, right? Um, I think what I would like to highlight is the importance of knowing our why. Uh, I think that's just kind of important for everybody, right? When you
062especially when you're in a committee, but that really helps us focus um our efforts and it helps focus our conversation and it helps u focus our actual execution on certain things like what is our why? Why are we talking about this? What is important? So that is something be in addition to closing feedback loops because that's so important. that's just been a common theme, right? We said something, how did you hear it? How did how how was the response? What did we do with it, if anything? Um, it's also understanding why are we talking about this? Why are we putting our effort into this? So, that's something that I think not only do we continue to learn, but it's something that we as an executive committee, but also as a greater DAC and with our
063facilitator as well and our district leadership and our le layers on that we're constantly leaning back into that the importance of the why. Why are we doing this work? Why are we talking about this? Anybody else want to jump in on something else? Yeah. Um I will just lean into um the continuation of you know sacks are constantly coming to us for support around resources training um and that's I think something that we're really focusing and trying to look into how do we provide better better options for that um and consistent messaging across that platform too for next year so that they they can pro they can be more incl we can be more inclusive we're bringing those diverse voices so how do we you know bring people that aren't necessarily English speakers into the
064SAC meetings and um participating in these processes um and you know the socioeconomic status of of you know working parents and those kinds of things. We really want their opinions because it's really important. They're the heart of our communities too. So one of the other things that we're planning to implement for next year is um just a one-page document each month that says here's what we talked about in DAC this month. Uh here's what we're going to be talking about next month. So, if you've got something you want to let us know about that we should bring up during this discussion that that we can do so to better connect the Sachs with the DAX so that they know what we're doing um and what we have done and can weigh in as necessary and
065we can help to to push some of that feedback down to them and and also receive it from them and elevate that um in turn. So, moving on to what we need. We need more people to apply to be on DAC. There it is. Um, we're going through the application process right now. And what I do really appreciate is that we have formalized that a little bit more. Uh so that right this is the so that so that future DAXs um you know so that we can build that momentum where more and more people are applying for DAC and and and um becoming part of DACK and having that variety of voices. Another thing that we need that I looked at in the application is we really do need to better explain like what DAC
066does. That's a pretty good explanation, but also like what I mean if you live in Arapjo County and you don't have a student in Jefferson County, you can't qualify to be on DAC, right? So, they just took their time to apply for something that they they can't even be a part of. So, maybe if we can better explain like um what your qualifica, you know, the very broad qualifications that you need to have in order to uh be included in DACK, I think would be helpful. So I don't know who does that but I'm ask so I'm posing the question to you. So we need that. Um let's see. Oh we absolutely uh would like to maintain the leadership of our specific trace fast district um facilitator. So I'll just say that just loud and
067proud right there. Um yeah. Oh yeah. Wait what? I'm sorry. I thought you wanted to say something about um recruitment. Recruitment? Yeah. Did you want to lean in on recruitment at all? What we need for recruitment? No. Okay. I mean I Well, would you like for me would you like for me to say something? Okay. No, I'll just say I appreciate the efforts of the board to also uh lay out, you know, the importance of the makeup of the DAC both with like what is clear in statute, but also in addition to wanting representation across the district. And I do think we we we've got a broad swath of that, but also because of the specific um and we'll talk about this on Friday more is why I was I'm not going to say too
068much, but um there uh there remains to be vacancies and they're those specific vacancies, right? We have a lot of folks that just don't specifically qualify for the spots that we have open. So, uh we'll talk more about that on Friday, but thanks Elizabeth. Preview. That's a good preview. That's fantastic. Uh we also would like to um continue with with either this special project or a special project next year. I think DAC I think our members of DAC really that really made members of DAC feel very like the voice was very valued. Um we know the the four I'm going to say it Elizabeth the four lanes that we operate in. Um, we know that we have to have a budget subcommittee and we know that we have to have a DUIP subcommittee and we
069know that we have to have a charter school subcommittee. We know we have to have an FCP subcommittee. Those are fantastic and really important and that's important work, but I think the special project brought brought more life to it. And also those special projects, you know, quite frankly cross over into a lot of those types of subcommittees. So, you're kind of, you know, double dipping on work, if you will. Um and we absolutely would like to elevate and continue to elevate and and thank you so much for um especially for the district kind of seeking us out the DACK as a voice when there's hey we have a question about this or we would like to you know when it when the school safety you know both school safety conversations right the one in that
070we had in November and then the one that we had in January um that DAC was a a relied upon uh voice of concerned um interested, committed community members, parents, but also, you know, teachers and administrators continue to look at the DAC. So, I'm just going to elevate this. Please continue to look at the DAC as um an opportunity to get feedback as um a very committed and and pretty large group of especially parent voices. And [Music] um yes, that's what we need. And of course, I think I already talked about the um the charter review and that and that document. So, is there anything else that we need that I may may have missed? I I think each one of our subcommittees would appreciate an area of focus if you um have one for
071them uh in their subcommittees. So, uh DUIP and budget um FCP Yeah. and charter kind of has Yeah. we kind of came to you with what we'd like to focus on for charter next year which is a new not rubric. I will jump in with one uh I'll share a little bit of gratitude Aaron as the as the board liaison really appreciate you taking the time to come and just be a face of the board and I think uh to the DAC members and I would just put this on the what we need. I think you and the board has the ability to give direction in a way that just resonates with DAC members. And so I think we saw it in the last meeting where I kind of was like, "Hey, like you know,
072I think it's a good time for you to jump. I remember what we were talking about." And you were like, "Okay, would that be helpful?" And I was like, "Yeah, for sure." And you jumped in and it just steered the room. Uh, and not in a way that uh steered what the content was, but in a way that really steered um like their clarity of direction. And so that's kind of what I hear from uh the exec team here and what we hear often which is just you know anytime that you all can clarify really what's important and just help us uh and I know we don't like the word lane but stay in those stay in those lanes even if the lanes are broad right around the around the special projects etc. But just
073to clarify yes you're on the right track. So I do think those monthly Mary and I talked about so Elizabeth I'm happy to hear that that the monthly kind of updates of more just like what folks are up to will help as well but just a more continued engaging conversation with you all around are folks on the right track of what's what's helpful because people want to feel like this time is is helpful to you all. Um so that's the thing I would just clarify there. Agreed. And I I'd like to to echo that and say it is helpful, very helpful to have a a a board liaison. That's not an official position. It's very helpful to have a board liaison in addition to our um wonderful district liaison. It's it's not exactly the same
074role. Um and it's it's very helpful to have both voices. I'll also just name really quick a little bit of kind of the inside joke around lanes and calling it the lanes is um you know respectfully that has been a little bit of a point of frustration for DAC at times where they have conveyed um an urgency of wanting to elevate other issues that are really important of things happening in their community. So something that we have talked about is how can we capture those concerns and those urgencies. You know, we've done a QR code where we're capturing feedback after at the end of every meeting, but there are other issues that are on the hearts and minds that are pressing within our community that they want to make sure that we hear. So, we're
075going to do a better job of trying to capture that and bring that to the board, but really trying to stay that help them stay focused with the time that we have around DUIP and FCP um budget and charter. Um and and but again sometimes what is received is stay in your lane but when we say those are the lanes it's heard stay in your lane and um really trying to you know um identify and name the loose and tights of DAC and staying really aligned a statute with this executive committee does really well and also empowering and honoring the voices and perspectives and the needs of what they're bringing um in service to that group. And so trying to thread that needle um I think is an opportunity for growth for us and something
076that we're we're going to lean into more for next year. Agreed. One of our focuses this year from the beginning of the year was to make sure that we were meeting our statutory requirements. Like we were really tight on what we were supposed to are supposed to be doing um as a statutoily required organization. And as Tara mentioned, I think that was sometimes received as that's the only thing we could do, but uh we wanted to make sure that we were definitely covering our bases there, but not not intending to limit it. Okay, thank you so much. Board members, comments, questions? Hi. Um thanks for being here and spending more time um on this. I do have a a couple of things. Um I am also interested in the charter review um updates and um
077want to be sure that there's really clear direction for the subcommittee. I have always said um I think charter renewals are one of the easiest things that we do because there are state laws that say whether you renew a charter or not. Um, and sometimes we have big feelings about that, but that's not really part of the charter renewal process. Um, so I'm just hoping that that's also true on our DAC subcommittee when you talked about how much time they spend. I I think that's um very admirable and I'm thinking is that necessary because we have pretty clear guidance on when a charter is to be renewed or not. So I guess Whoops. staying in their lane, I guess. Um, and not not not getting too um like reviewing too much of what we shouldn't
078be reviewing um in those cases as well. So, um I heard stories I think we've heard stories about this committee over time and um so I've just been interested in that as well. So, I think that's a great topic to be uh reviewed. Um, I did have a question about our um, having more people on the deck and then knowing that we have people who we don't accept because those spots are full. Um, but we have at large spots. Have you all thought about expanding? Is this even a thing? The atlarge spots to accommodate. Is it those people like is it more important to have more people or more representation to fill those vacancies? Does that make sense? Sure. I think it I I think I I think I understand what you mean. So I
079think it's more I think it's more important to make sure that we have representation from each articulation area. And so we have um like three articulation areas currently that have absolutely no representation. So our at large members so how we and of course you'll you'll be seeing you know what we're moving forward but we first try to make sure that we're filling the articulation areas because I think it's really important to have those voices filled first and then if there's more than one let's say there's three applicants for two AA positions in Lakewood and there the third applicant can move over into the um atlarge parent if there's a spot available. So I think the priority really is articulation area parents and then of course our administrative represent representatives um you know school leaders teachers
080Jespa PTA those madam president maybe I can help a little bit here we were revised GPO7 a couple of years ago to help resolve this problem the old two from each so all all it is now is up to 34 parent guardian representatives from from SAX and it just says to the extent possible should that it should include representation from each. So there's no like here's two from each area and then there's at large. There's no at large anymore. It's just 34 yeah reps because it is designed to add the flexibility where we don't get to say you don't get to serve because your spot is full and meanwhile we have vacancies over here. So I would yeah and and I would agree with that but I also would kind of maybe ask the board
081too because you do have and we maybe a more appropriate time to talk about this would be on Friday but so I'll just throw this out as a a question for now question you you know you do have uh with Julie appreciate that clarification of statute so then you do have a number of community members that are kind of standing by you know assuming that they would accept the spot that don't fit neatly into that but but because of the way the policy is written you could technically plug them in up to 34. So I would kind of put that back to you all of like is that something that you are interested in or do you you know that that's a question I would ask you all because I think um from a facilitation
082standpoint and like thinking about you know a DAC that is representative of the communities that you all look to serve and do serve through our schools of course you want broad representation and you also want you know as much engagement as you can get uh because it the work continues regardless of if those spots are filled. or not. So, I do think it's maybe a question to kind of wrestle with a little bit and talk maybe more about on Friday. Yeah. And one reason I ask is there are people who don't get in who really want to be in, but also maybe they could be on um in unless it gets filled by a rep in that area type of knowing they you know what you're taking. Absolutely. You could look at a priority structure
083like if that you know if there is an applicant for that articulation area then they get you know almost like a school choice priority where it's like you're in the neighborhood you get this priority but if there's no that seat is available and someone else is looking for a seat that you all could request that that DAC looks to fill those. So, thanks. And I just have one more thing. Last time when you asked about um some suggestions for the special topic, I forgot what we call it, but the special um topic, I will say the same thing that I said um last time is that I think one of the most pressing concerns we have as a district is our trust with our communities, especially around um communications. And I would love it if
084this wise group of engaged parents and community members would help us think about better ways to be better communicators with our um school communities and our um um public and and families. Um especially given some of the the challenges that we've had recently. And we've been you all are probably as familiar as we are. Sorry, I'm a little sick with um the uh public comment that we've had recently and you know we have hours of comment that have different topics but a resounding message that we're not doing a good job at getting community feedback that we're not trusting what people are telling us um that we're telling people things before engaging them um on solutions and I think this is one of the biggest problems that our district has right now and so um I
085think we of internal work to do, but I think getting as much advice from your group and if you all could make it a really um focused way that we could get recommendations that kind of take us out of our, you know, the district's way of doing things and giving us innovation and ideas and flexibility that could help us kind of be better at that. I think that would be really great for um our district. Thank you um very much appreciate that. And we had um as as Trace alluded to a couple of very engaged conversations um around that this year. Um one of those conversations was in January and and we heard a lot of feedback that um was surrounded timely communications um from the district and the board about what's going on. uh
086in the district and and I I guess I'll speak for myself and and you guys can echo it if that's what you heard too, but what I heard was basically we want to hear it from the district first that we want the the communication to come from the district first and be really open and transparent. That's that's what I heard. Um, I want to thank you again for your your work because this is a a very substantial committee that does a lot of heavy lifting and I'm really appreciate it. Um, as Trace said, um, Elizabeth, I'm really excited that you're talking about a one-pager because I have thought that, um, it's wonderful to interact with you and ask questions and get answers and whatever, but it's only once a quarter or once a semester for
087some um, committees. And if we could get that one page or that summary and especially if you come up with some um topics like communication timeliness or whatever that really uh took up sub substantial amount of your your meeting, let us know. And that's something that I want to know. Um I also was looking over we do have GPO7 which has an awful lot of description of um all our committees and what um the requirements are for membership. And one of the things we do mention under the DAC is um in addition to the um you know charter applications UUIP and so forth they mentioned school conduct code and I'm not sure if GPO7 came from state statute and that's what you're supposed to do but if if that is something that they expect the
088DAC to do um then maybe that's an area that you could use as a special project as well like the chronic absenteeism that you're doing work on. Um, and so then also you guys have a very extensive um, bylaws that you put together which hopefully is in sync with our GPO7 on the on the I would hope so. We put a lot of time into that. No, I believe I did. We checked it last year. Yeah. So, that was that was really great. I appreciate that hard work. Um, and I think that's it for questions that I had. [Music] Um, but I'm looking forward to hearing more about the chronic absenteeism because as my work um, with CASA, I have um, had some truency cases that were the most frustrating ones imaginable. And now even
089currently the one that the family I'm working with, the 16-year-old and 13-year-old are no longer going to school. and um they have extenduating circumstances, but um I'm just going to throw it out there right now. I do believe that cell phones and chronic absenteeism are connected because it used to be when I went to school, if you want to see your friends, you had to go to school. There was just no other way. And now you can sit in your bed and you can FaceTime them or do whatever you want. And um so anyway, I I do think we're going to find some of these hot topics merging into um overlapping. Any other questions, comments? Yeah. Um, well, thank you. Um, this is a labor of love and a lot of time and so just
090appreciate all the work that you guys do. Um, I similar to President Parker, I'm excited. I love the the idea of like here's what we talked about, here's what's coming up. Um, agendas are one of those weird but very powerful things. And so I'm I'm happy to hear that you're finding space to hear what's going on in the community. I think um you all are a lens into the community for us and I agree with with how director Dr. Varta, you know, posed it, right? you bring us great feedback and on things that we might have blind spots. And so I would just um I don't know that it's a special project or a special group, but I I do think that like what's going on in the community is really a spot that brings
091value. Um and you you all touch so many schools and all you know I look at some of the other committees and DAC is is everywhere because of the associations of the Sachs and so um for me what comes up is just really the power that you all have in bringing things that we might be blind to and so I would really encourage that if there's things that come up there's ways for us to know um that's valuable and we appreciate that. So thank you for all your service very much. Thank you. Yeah, I'll just um extend my appreciation as well and I'm very much looking forward to um the actionable recommendations in particular and so I'm looking forward to getting more information on that. Hey, hi my DAC people. I love being the DACA
092leaison. Um, I wanted to say I'm glad that the special assignment, special project helped to give some direction and and purpose to the gatherings. I want to say that the chronic absenteeism conversations that have happened that I was present for were outstanding. The questions, the critical thinking um, that was going on across that group was it was hours worth of work that happened in a small amount of time. Um, and I think that's really one of the reasons the DACK exists, especially with its diverse reach across our entire community. Um, and I wanted to also lift up, um, that there was a pilot in the Alama articulation area about attendance that I think that some of the DAC folks might be interested to hear about. I just heard about it earlier this week and um
093there's some really cool, you know, real time in our district um information there, especially about gathering um trajectories over like one week or two weeks so that you get sort of a window into when somebody's starting to walk down a road towards chronic absenteeism instead of seeing them go for a long time. Um, I just think that presentation um or some of that information would be uh a good addendum to the conversation that's already had at the deck. Um, uh, what else did I want to tell you? I really want to tell you how I how much I appreciate um that every year there are small structural changes to how the meeting operates that I think are just constantly improving the quality of experience for people who are serving on the deck. um the mentoring
094setup that you initiated this year I thought was um a really good idea and I know that that for new DAG members that provided a lot of value in onboarding and then um the dedicated time for a ars to share also incredibly important and valued by the folks who are getting to have those conversations. So um those two things did not exist when I joined the DAC initially and I just think they add a lot of value. So, I'm appreciative that there's con consistent like looking at our process and trying to improve and make it better for the people who are spending their time there. Thank you. Um I'm hearing you about moving away from punitive measures on attendance. Um, and I want to I just wanted to note that um, thank you for the
095feedback. And I think as we continue to have conversation about chronic absenteeism, that can be um, something we can focus in on almost like an actionable suggestion. Um, clearly you all have a good rapport with each other. It was fun to watch you present because there's a lot of give and take and back and forth. um which I think models how the rest of the group that you are governing is are going to continue to interact with each other. Um I would like to report back to the DAC occasionally about the ways that the board is using some of the work that you've been doing. And I know that last summer I was invited to executive retreat, but I didn't um pick that message up early enough to attend. So I'm ready for it this
096year if you are willing to extend that my way. Um, I'm ready for it this time so that we can begin to have some touch point um with between myself and the executive committee to guide some of the conversations and also collect some of the feedback um that I can bring back to you. I would like to be in conversation with y'all is what I'm saying. And um yeah, I I just appreciate I know that this is set up as a statutory requirement. Um but there's so much value in this particular subset of people coming together and discussing what's happening in our schools. And I really want to value um there's the theory, you know, of how it was going to work when they created this accountability system. Then there's the reality of how it
097actually functions. And I just see our district um trying to move towards that theory. We're trying to take a reality that actually was pretty messy when I first joined the DACK and there's just been constant improvement to move towards a plate towards work that is actionable and impactful for our community. So, thank you for taking that on and um I'm excited to see what we're going to do next year. Um but thank you for being here and thanks for all of your leadership and your work. Thank you. Um I just wanted to say one other thing I thought of. Uh I also appreciate Trace and uh Renee Renie also. Um this is something that's relatively new to have uh facilitators and um I did attend the DAC meetings before we had facilitators. Um I so
098appreciate I want to say Miss Pena I appreciate our our district liaison on the committees because I mean this is a lot of extra work too. this you you guys don't have a 9 toive job at all and you were just here with the the student leadership board as well. So I want to give a shout out to our liaison on all of our committees because that's they're so invaluable and they are the ones that bring the answers right away so you don't have to write it down and send it in in an email. Um so thank you for that. But I think that um we've come come a long way by having facilitators now because as you mentioned Theres you are a board advisory committee and if it's being perceived as being um directed
099by the district that's a that's a problem. So I'm really happy that we're using our facilitators now in our committees. Yeah. And did you have a final word or anything to say? Just just gratitude all the way around. Um, you know, I think um just a deep commitment to helping to um us actualize our values as an organization, but also committed to helping to strengthen um the student experience of partnership with families. I mean, we all know that um you know, student achievement and our communities benefit when families are active partners in decision-m and we um we share power with them and DAC is a beautiful example of that in action. And so just really grateful for the district, the board, and the family partnership that we see play out every week, every month. Um,
100you know, with the leadership of this team. And, um, and I also just want to publicly acknowledge, just as a quick aside, Grace, who's the executive assistant to DAC, oh my goodness. um you know she really we talk about some of the structural changes and things that have happened um over the last three years to really help strengthen um the experience and the supports much of that is because of her support and lean in and so um you know she's she's not here with us at the table but she really um owns much of the success and so grateful to her as well so thank you very very much really appreciate it. Okay, I'll be on the lookout for it this time. Cool. Thank you. Okay, our next item for study is an update on
101Jeff Co's employee assistance program. This item was of particular interest to board members. We asked that it be placed on the agenda and we're excited to hear from our EAP staff tonight. Before I turn it over to the presenters, is there anything you would like to say? Deputy Superintendent Dr. Leblanc Sparza. Thank you, President Parker. Um, I'm grateful to both Adam and Caitlyn for being here this evening. It has been an interest we know of our board and we've all heard a number of times um the value that so many of our employees have been able to share and and the experiences that um they've gotten. And these guys are going to talk not only about EAP but about employee wellness as well. um who is definitely a partner in their work. So, I'm looking
102forward to the information you guys are going to share tonight. So, thank you. Oh, there we go. Okay, we're on. Uh thank you, Dr. Kim, and thank you the to the board for um this presentation today. Um my name is Adam Barnett. I'm the executive director of Total Rewards and I'm here with Caitlyn Kaziki, the EAP manager and one of our licensed counselors that work directly with our employees. I do want to call out that May is mental health awareness month and National Women's Health Month. So, this presentation is very timely. So, that's good news. Our purpose today is to fulfill a board's request for an update on Jeffco's employee assistance program and provide an overview of planned updates for the program in 2025 and 2026. Just a little background about our EAP program. Uh
103we're uh unique for a school district in that we have an in-house EAP and we'll be going over that a bit. Um our EAP program has been here been at Jeffco for over 35 years. Um it our EAP program exists to deliver highquality counseling, consultation and crisis response services uh to help our employees and also our our children in the classroom as well. So um it really helps our whole organization. Um, EAP operates uh within a larger ecosystem of mental health supports and today we'll go over EAP and then we'll also talk about some of the other mental health resources that we have available to our employees as well. So, we do have a need uh we survey our employees every year uh on mental health. We do that through our Panorama survey um and
104hopefully that those results will be shared with you um if they haven't yet. Um our we we are assigned a mental health rating and our mental health rating is roughly 64%. Which aligns well with other school districts. We're right at the 50 50th percentile which means that we're not um you know we don't have our employees are not reporting you know more than normal mental health supports, but we're right along with other districts as far as that category. Um some of the things that our employees are saying is that they're um that they feel overwhelmed at work and they're stressed out. Um we also have a few other questions that we ask on the survey uh which comes up to that um that full score of 64%. We also had a uh a benefits survey
105that we released this year and uh what really came out of that survey is that our employees value the in-house EAP program as well as really value our behavioral um supports that we offer through our health insurance as well. Uh and we'll talk about that a little bit. Colorado uh you know we need this not only for the district but also the state of Colorado is um you know falling in our standings for um our ranking for mental health supports. So um this is not just a a Jeffco thing. It's across all Colorado. So I'm going to pass it to Caitlyn. Hello. Hello. Thank you. Um, so before we get started with the EAP information, I want to share there's a number of different models for EAPs that are out there. Um, one of the
106models is an internal EAP which we have here at Jeffco. Um, and so that's when the employees of the employee are also employees of the organization and they're inhouse. Um, another option that's out there is there's an internal EAP that also utilizes trained peer support. And so those are folks that are within they're trained they're within the organization as well and they're there to help notice when employees are not doing well and to identify them. Um it's also confidential and they get them to the right place whether that's EAP or other benefits that they're aware of within the organization or outside of. Um then we also have external EAP models where uh an organization is going to contract with an external outside organization to offer EAP services for their organization and then that external EAP
107also offers it to a number of others whether it is a regional whether it's a national or an international EAP. So all the providers for that are going to be outside of the or organization their network. Um and then we also have the option for a hybrid. So that's where some um very large organizations will have both internal and external and so they'll kind of combine both those models together. Um so for here at Jeffco we have an internal EAP. Some of the key things about our EAP and EAPs in general is that it is confidential. Um it is voluntary. So that's a really important people choose to come and access the services. Um other supportive services that we do offer are short-term solution focused counseling. We do assessment. We offer supportive follow-up services. Um
108we're there to respond to crisis response in our communities. Um we also offer support for our managers and also other um leaders in our community on helping them to identify when there are mental health concerns in the workplace or employees and really how to approach that, how to address it and what else do we need to put in place so that we can really support the wellness of our employees as well as when they're struggling. Um another piece of employee assistance programming is prevention. And so this is where we're going out. We're creating articles. We're collaborating with other programs within the district to see what is happening out there so that we can really align with what the needs are, what the initiatives are, um we really have worked hard to align with wellness. And
109so when they um with their dimensions of health so that we can align with that and so we're sending out um messaging that is consistent for all of our employees. We also um are part of the employee orientation because we want folks to see who we are and have a face so it's not this scary thing of who are these people? Um and so I think that's a really important thing to also highlight. It's a benefit for our staff. Um they get access to employee assistance program and we know folks are asking for mental health support and so this is one option that they can get it. Um, we also are bringing back professional development around mental health and prevention topics. And so with this, we do have a variety of different topics as you
110can see. And we also work with the different departments and schools to hear what are you struggling with, what are you seeing, what are you hearing? And then we can work with them and collaborate on okay, how do we serve them in the best way possible? um and give our feedback of we're hearing one thing and then what do we recommend that's going to be most supportive for their staff. Um and so that's another way that we're reaching many people that may not need counseling, but we can support them with different strategies that may prevent them from needing counseling down the road, but we're still serving their mental health needs. Um so this is taking a look at our utilization. Um so this is from July 1st through the end of March. Um in this
111time period we did have 681 new clients that did access services. Um within that um we had 1,434 direct counseling services that were offered. Um so that is going to be our intakes or counseling or crisis counseling and then 1230 followup. And so that is where we're doing some case management. Maybe we're helping them get into longer term counseling. We might be helping to get them some resources. We're following up with strategies, really kind of wrapping around as much as possible so that we can give them as much as possible within the time that they're with us. Um, within our system, we capture a lot of different data. And so one piece I thought was interesting is of the folks that are coming in that are employees, about 55 58% are our licensed educators, about
11221% are classified folks, about 10% are administrators, and then we have about 11% of family members or retirees or other folks accessing. Um, in this time period, we responded to 30 crisis responses and these are only ones that they wanted us to come out to. So there were other crisis respon crisises that were happening that we may have consulted on, but they said, "No, we've got this. We know how to get a hold of you. We'll reach out as needed." And so these are just the ones we went to. Um we also had about 92 uh management consultations around mental health or employee wellness support. Um organizational services, that's anytime we go out to do a presentation. Um so you can see 194. And then we have been able to start doing more employee mental
113health trainings which is very exciting. And so we were able to go out to 11 and served almost 500 people. Um so we do capture primary assessed um problems or issues that folks are coming in for. Um so the top one is mental health. Um it's about 38% followed by relationships or family. And that could be someone coming in individually saying I want to work on a relationship type of issue. Um workplace concerns was about 19%, medical physical 5% and then addiction was about 2%. Um as you can see here, this shows a little bit of our history as far as staffing goes. Um I'm going to highlight very excited going into this next year. Um we do have an increase of the equivalent to 1.25 FTE um that we are able to spread around
114to our current employees to increase hours as well as hire a part-time counselor who can also do the other functions within the EAP as well. Um, and then we will still keep some of our ad days so that we can go out for crisis response and not have to cancel our current um, clients that are already scheduled um, and be able to have some flexibility. And we're also going to be taking over employee wellness as of July 1st. Um, so we're working right now with Christina Kane and also Fran Taffer to help us with that transition. and we're going to be deciding kind of what are those uh strategic plans for next year. So, more to come on that. Um our demand that we have seen uh most of our appointments are for two to
115try and get them in sooner. Um this is just a sample and I think it is meant to just highlight we have a puzzle in our schedule and so we really try and puzzle together all of our hours because and make it so that it works. So we can get folks that need to come in early and need to come in late. So we have appointments starting on any given day starting as early as 7:30 and we have appointments that start as late as 700 p.m. and then everything in between and then we manage it when we get a crisis response to make sure that we can be there. So this is it's a puzzle. Um, in addition to the other things that you saw, we have a variety of other responsibilities that just go
116into our day-to-day that don't always get seen. And so this is just some of them. Um, so anything from um when our tech isn't there, we're answering calls, we're scheduling people, we're responding in and out of session. Um, we're making sure that we're staying up to date with um what's happening in the EA. Uh EAP is really a part of a larger ecosystem of mental health supports that we offer to our part of a larger ecosystem of mental health supports that we offer to our employees. So uh we'll talk a little bit about um our health insurance and what behavioral supports they offer our wellness program and then some additional resources that we have. Um yeah, we have Kaiser and Etna right now. That's changing to UHC as of 71. Um and all three of
117those companies do a great job with their mental health supports or behavioral health supports. um zeroocost behavioral health visit. This is a decision made by the district. We could charge $25. We could charge $50. As a district, we've decided to continue to offer zerocost behavioral health visits. Um personally, I have a therapist that I talk to every two weeks. I have a kid and that's not easy and a hard job. So, um I you know, my therapist really helps me through the day-to-day, through my mental health and um you know, my co-ay zero. I pay my premiums, but um you know, for each one of those sessions, it's a zero co-ay, which is great and a great offer for our employees on the HMO plan. They also offer apps. I don't know if you've seen
118Calm or Headspace, but really good apps to help our employees with sleep, u depression, and things like that. Um there's also kind of self-guided care through these through both companies as well. Uh you know, some things to point out, um EAP works very closely with uh these medical providers, kind of directing them if they need longer term care. Um and uh so that's really helpful to kind of continue people through the process. Some things to consider though, um our health insurance companies don't offer couples counseling. Uh and also only some of our employees are on the HMO. So those on the um the you know HTHPs, high deductible health plans, they have to pay their deductible uh before um those free, you know, before a co-ay. And so um the HMO is a really good
119opportunity for our employees for getting that behavioral health support. Um but not everyone's on it. Um so a little bit of our wellness uh wellness program. We have eight dimensions of wellness. Social, physical, occupational, um intellectual, financial, environmental, uh emotional and spiritual. As you can see, all of those relate very closely to healthy oh healthy healthy mental health. Is that a way to put it? Um but um you know, our focus has been um you know, laughter, uh gratitude, kindness, uh mindfulness. These are some of the areas that we're really working with our employees on to build that culture of wellness. Um, this program will move to EAP and so we're excited to integrate uh mental health into what we're doing in EAP as well. And then um I I won't go too much into
120depth here with our other supports, you know, uh but in Jeffco as a um you know, as a community member of Jeffco or as an educator, we have a lot of good supports here. Uh, one thing I would call out is the University of Colorado educator support, which um, just the University of Colorado does a really good job to help our teachers, not just Jeff Co, but teachers across um, this area um, with their mental health needs. They have one-on-one support, uh, Zoom meetings um, and and other self-guided support as well. So, that first one, uh, is really there for our teachers from the University of Colorado. So, it's a real gift for us. Um, all these are linked. I'm I'm thinking you guys have a copy of the presentation, but uh you can go
121deeper into all of the supports outside of EAP, outside of our health insurance uh that our employees have access to. Um I think you know the importance here and and I just like to call out, you know, the recognition for uh Superintendent Dorland and and uh Amanda, our chief HR officer, for advocating for our EAP program and getting an additional 1.25 FTE. um they've really recognized the importance of mental health at this district and uh we really um you know thank them for that and helping grow our program. Um as you can see I mean mental health is so important to our district. Um you know increased productivity, reduced absenteeism, cost savings. You guys know how important this is and how expensive it can be if we don't um you know really keep this as
122a as a real um a big piece of what we do here. So, um, really proud of the program and really proud of our leaders for, uh, supporting this program. So, with that, um, you know, EAP, uh, we have Caitlyn, um, our ben, we do have, uh, health insurance with, uh, you know, our benefits manager can answer some questions there. We still have Christina with us doing our wellness. Um, but we're happy to take any questions that you have now for us. Thank you, board members. Yes, Director Reid. I'm curious on slide eight about the professional development and how that gets delivered. Is this uh like is it something that you do on professional development days in schools? Is it a virtual thing? How is this delivered to our educator? I would say all of
123the above. Um so we have a variety of different ways that we can um provide it. So we have done virtual um in the past. We're doing in person right now. Um we've been out to the secretary training, counseling training. Um so really we just connect with the community and we've also gone out to specific schools. Um so we just look for the need and how we can support them. So does a school invite you out and ask for you to do a particular topic? Hey, would you come out and talk to like I'm looking at some of these in particular, grief and loss and that kind of thing. And do you get schools that reach out to you and say, "Hey, we need professional development on this area." Or do how does that work?
124Yeah. So, it could come from uh consultation. So, a principal, admin, um director might call us and say, "We're struggling with this in our department or we've had a lot of losses. How can you support?" And so, then we can determine, is this something where you need individual support for your employees or is it more of an educational presentation? Um or they'll call us directly and say, "Hey, we're looking for our our staff has been struggling. We need some self-care." And then we get more information about what does it look like in your department or your school. So we can then tailor the presentation for their staff. Okay, great. That sounds really cool. Um do we keep data on trends in terms of what the predominant stressors are for our employees? because you you had
125mentioned that um that stress was a huge um part of what you were responding to. And I'm and I'm wondering if we know what it is about their jobs that is stressing them out. Like I realize there's a lot of other pieces, but do we know what it is about their jobs that is trending? We do. Um we do collect that data. I can get that for you. Um if there's a specific thing you would like. Um we did just switch to a new HIPACO compliant platform. We're now one year in. Um so we can some of the data is not going to be apples to apples, but we do have that data. And while these are larger um categories, we do break it down. There's a lot of different presenting issues within each of
126these categories. I I often get frustrated because I hear from our associations, we're stressed out, we're stressed out, we're stressed out. And um it's very hard to know how to reduce the stress if you don't know exactly what it is that's causing it. And so very often when I ask teachers, sometimes they can tell me and they're very specific and that's helpful. And sometimes it's just stressful and I don't know how to reduce someone's stress if I don't know what's causing it. So, I think if we could get that information, you know, at least some idea of the trends, that might help us um figure out how to relieve some of the stress that our educators are going through. Um, and I and I do want to also really lift up how important EAP is
127for that. I I was a teacher when we had a school board that was super stressful for everybody and um and so I went to counseling at the EAP and they were just awesome and really did help just help me sort out what I had control over, what I didn't have control over, let go of the stuff I couldn't control. So, it was it was really important and really helpful. Um, let's see. No, I think that's it. Thank you very much. Um, well, I wanted to acknowledge our EAPs in the room, and I have qu I have questions about um staffing and and our change in FTEES. And I I wondered if you would come up and talk to us about your work at the board table up here. And while you're while you're coming
128not have come, we knew you didn't. I don't think anyone knows better um about what it's like to be an EAP than than you all. I would think I have to admit I know Karina from from a different life. So I think it's okay to put her on the spot. But I have a question first just about uh slide 11. Um so it's the reduction. So in 2023, I hear especially the unions refer to that as being fully staffed. I don't even know if that would have been enough then. And then when uh Superintendent Dorland decided to cut the program in 23 to the numbers that we see for the 2425, we were told it was because we didn't need them as much and also that our employees preferred people outside, not our internal EAPs.
129That was the justification given then. So now we're increasing again and it says a total increase in this next year to 1.25 FTE. And I wondered, I don't know if Amanda, this is something you would know, how much are we still lacking from our what was considered fully staffed 20 prior to numbers. It's hard because these are like, right, I had to do I had to do some quick math. Um, and Caitlyn's been talking a lot about this recently and doing some figures. So, Caitlyn, you might um want to answer I I can figure out the FTE math, but Excellent. You can do the math on the fly, right? Um yeah, so we we're going to see. So this is an increase over what we have had and we've wanted and see the need for
130supporting our staff from both a prevention perspective. So getting out there and reaching those that may not need counseling and also we know that we have been full for our afternoons, our daytimes like people do move around to get into the daytime appointments. We do know we need more. This is more. We're going to have to assess and see do what does more look like? Do we ask for more next year? I don't know. Um but we've got we're going to have to see. People need support right now. Can Can I jump in on that, Dr. Va? I just have a followup. Um with taking on the employee wellness program as well though, will that So, we're adding 1.25 25 FTE throughout the various ways, but we're also adding a new program. So my question
131was going to be how much how much is truly going to the FTEES of the EAP and how much is going to the program as well. So, our plan, we're going to have to see how this rolls out, is the part-time employees, so the 24-hour part-time person is going to be primarily, if not all, counseling. Um, they'll do some of the other prevention because that is part of EAP and how EAPs work. Um, but they will be primarily, they will be available in the afternoons. Um the other additions to the staff is going to have a little so Melissa, our technician, is going to have the majority of the wellness um work, if you will, and we're also going to be working as a team. Uh I'll I'll finish. Um well I I just I
132tried to do the FTE math and it's almost impossible because of the 35 and then the 205 and so forth. So I could not make it happen. That's why I asked. Um but I do get the sense that we're still understaffed. Um and I know the board has been advocating for filling this back up for years since it was cut. Um so I'm glad to see we are increasing. Um, but so I wondered if you could tell us a little bit about your work and um the demand that you see and where you see that the board could think about supporting um the this program with additional FTE or additional supports and um kind of how you know your team is doing in terms of keeping up. Turn the mic question. Okay. In one of
133the other slides, um, Caitlyn had given an example of how we have kind of constructed our schedule in order to make this work. Um, and so one of the things that I know that we miss a lot is that we don't get to be together as a team to do consultation, to collaborate, to um, bounce ideas off each other, even just like spend time because we are trying to meet the need um, as best we can on days. Um, and so that oftentimes means that we are alone in the office. And so then we're juggling clients in addition to answering the phones and returning phone calls. And if we get a crisis during that time, right, like we're just we just feel really spread thin. So, it'd be really nice to feel like we can
134do our jobs to the best of our ability by having that support of even just having each other, right? Oh, I had this really difficult situation. Can you I bounced this off you. What how would you have handled that? Or, you know, we have a crisis call and I have a client. Can you take that? um you know can we fit this person in those kind of situations that happen quite often but it's also hard to predict when that happens. So I know that's one thing one way to support the program that would feel better I think for our whole office. Um, and then, you know, I think Caitlyn um, also talked about the prevention work is something like I personally is like really near and dear to me that's been really exciting that we're
135getting out and getting those request comes in and then more requests come in to um, do those um, presentations on mental health topics, we're just able to reach a bigger crowd. And like you know was mentioned before, maybe people that have some stigma or stereotypes around counseling that wouldn't necessarily come in or call and make an appointment, but they're learning tools on how to manage stress or sleep better or nutrition or how physical, you know, fitness can help with their anxiety level, those kind of things. So getting that out to a bigger um a bigger audience is, I think, been really instrumental. And then from those presentations to seeing us and like getting to know us, we also then get um phone calls of people now feeling comfortable to um come into counseling because they
136met one of us at the um presentation. It doesn't seem so scary anymore to come in or they didn't realize how easy it was to access. Um so that's one of the benefits of the internal EAP is that it is extraordinarily easy to access services. Um and it you know as compared to having something that's contract yeah well and I would add to that too um we understand the school district right so we have clients coming in we're learning information in that manner we're out talking with managers and supervisors and principles so we're learning that so if you work with an outside organiza organization they don't understand schools they're going to come in with strategies and tips that have nothing to do with what our folks are needing so I think that is a really
137nice thing and like Karina just said, it's one call to come into the EAP, whereas in other places, you're making many calls. We do a lot of the heavy lifting for some folks on finding ongoing resources. So, we're making the calls, we're checking in with folks, and so um yeah, just in response to the FTE, so we went from 150 hours just counseling. So, I'm taking out the administrative um time that is filled by a technician who's phenomenal and will be gaining back hours um as well. We went from 150 to 80 and we're coming back up to 105 just in counseling services. And so, um we are doing our best to make sure that we are being responsive to the needs of our employees and that which they desire. Oh, I'm Deb Martin and
138uh so I've been here 14 years. So I was here when there was just two of us, myself and Kathleen. And somehow we managed but it got busier and busier and continues to increase. And it was really hard when the hours were cut and we have definitely we are such a good team that we make it work and sometimes we'll even call people on their day off because we need help and it would be nice to not have to do that and you don't have to come in but that's happened because somebody there's a crisis or I need to call somebody or Karina needs to call somebody. So we do that because we're such a tight team and we work so well together. So having more people would be very helpful. And I think the
139evenings are when most people come for the educators because they can't come before that and it's not as easy because to take time off they got to take sick time and then they have to find coverage and that's pretty tough to do. So that's why the evenings are so important. So thank you for listening to us. I just want to say I'm so 100% supportive of getting this back up to a full-time EAP um team. I just think what you all do is so important and everyone says so. Like we hear such great things and there is kind of no uh more obvious need than to support this team. So, thank you for what you do. Well, first I want to reiterate that I just want to say thank you. Um, as someone who co-parents
140with a teacher and has teachers as neighbors and who has been through some icky stuff, like I will just tell you I've seen firsthand how impactful I'm going to get emotional. I was trying not to. How impactful your services are. So truly truly thank you. Dang it. Um, I am curious. Going from the 150 to the 80 to the 105. Thank you for that, by the way. That's very helpful. Um, eight people on the wait list seems very scary to me. Um, especially knowing what I've personally been through in my family. Um, do we think that that's going to help with the weight list going back up? And do we know by how much? I don't know by how much, but yes, it will help with the weight list because we're going to have more
141openings. Um, so and to clarify, those folks all have appointments. They just would like to get in soon, get seen sooner. And a lot of times it's really difficult um because they can only come at certain times and certain days. So, you know, it we may have openings but it doesn't fit for their schedule. Um, and like I think Caitlyn said before, if anybody is in crisis or, you know, we typically ask the, you know, what they would like to talk about in counseling and we can kind of triage in that way to if we know we have a stable client that we can maybe move back and and put someone in. So, we do our best to meet the needs of people when they need us. Um, and so sometimes that weight list, it
142can look a little bit scary, but they all have appointments. It's just we're trying to get them in sooner because they would like to get in sooner. And I would say that Melissa, our technician, has spidey sense. So if she senses that someone is on the verge of tears or is crying, she's going to like one of the things we do is she'll knock on one of our doors if we're even if we're in session just to let us know. And what I found in those rare occasions where that happens, the person we're meeting with is an okay is in a good place and they're like, "No, go take care of whoever needs you, we'll reschedule." And so that I mean, yeah, I would be fascinated to see as we go into next year how
143it tracks. Like I would love to see the data um even if it's just in a board update quarterly, are we serving people? Are we not? Because I I agree. I think we live in a really fascinating time in history and there's a lot um and our teachers and our staff and our administrators are dealing with I think a lot and I hear it and I see it when I go in to do my school visits and so I just want to lift that up. I would love to understand what fully staffed means today. Um I mean I know three years ago I don't know if 150 hours was enough. Um it's something I'm incredibly passionate about as my colleagues up here know. Um and I also just want to lift up the professional development.
144Um I think that's really awesome. Also, as a mother who lost a child, I cannot tell you how many times I have to start the year off with a new teacher with I want to tell you my child may do some crazy things and here's why and here's what's happened. And it's the teachers have been incredible. And so I really just want to lift up that that matters and it makes a difference to the parents and to the siblings and to the kids in the class. So thrilled that we're doing that. Um, I appreciate Director Reed's question as to like if it's when they ask or not because I do think that that is kind of standard curriculum and I know you guys are this big and could be this big, but I think it's
145really powerful information and um it's not easy to talk about. So, I greatly appreciate it and I think having those skills before you get to the point of, "Oh my gosh, something's wrong. We really need you can be really powerful." So, I I will say to the masses, I truly support this. Please help us understand what you need. Um, and thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the work you do. Um, I want to thank you as well. And I also want to go back to slide 11. I'm u wondering what the 21 administrative ad days and then 64 administrative ad days and then 32. What is a administrative ad? So those are additional. So prior to 2023, those were days. So because we were all 205 so that we would cover the time when
146we would be off. So those six weeks, we would all work extra hours and use ad days so that we were year round or so that the program was year round. And so now we use those ad days and ad hours to be able to manage and go to crisis on um so say Deb's not working but she's on call for crisis rather than having to switch around her old schedule and cancel people to get her there, she can do ad hours to go and respond to that crisis. Um or if we have clients that we need to get in and it's beyond our regular hours that we're working, we can use those ad hours for um that. Um is it like overtime? No. Uh-uh. No. Okay. So, essentially, Mary, it's 256 additional hours that
147can be spread right now between the three of them. And then, of course, with an an additional counselor coming on, they too could use those AD hours. We um calculate it in days just so that we know how many days total to add, but um for next year, it'll be 256 hours throughout the entire year. Okay. And so then um when you see that it's a one year round counselor at 32 hours per week, is this an hourly job or is it a salaried job and you're you're only committed to the 32 hours but plus the admin hours is it? Yeah. So they are all um salaried positions. They're all in the JCAA bargaining unit. Um and they are just prrated instead of being a 40hour full-time. And so, um, they're actually not getting overtime.
148Administrators technically are exempt and not, um, overtime is not available to them, but what they're doing is, um, working additional hours within their 20hour, 32-hour, or 35 hour work week to often bring it up 240. Yeah. I I look at this slide and I think it's an incredibly complex slide. I mean, I would love to just say 5ft FTE, you know, and that's it. Um, I had um experience when I was working that I went into an agreed 75% work time. Well, my pay was cut to 75% and I never one week worked less than 100%. So, I'm just very concerned that we might be setting some people up. You know, this is your schedule and yet you're you're way over that and not getting compensated. So anyway, as we're thinking of full implementation, full
149coverage, getting back to 150 or whatever is appropriate, I'd love to see it not be so 32 hours, 25 hours, 21 admin days, whatever. Um, why don't we have even one 40hour a week employee? uh I trying to figure out how we can best serve the district with the hours that we have available to us. It was an option certainly with adding 20 hours of an additional counselor um to bring any one of them up to 40 hours and they all have families also and they all have responsibilities and I think they're very flexible human beings in general. um in that they are willing to take on these ad hours and and director Parker, you're not wrong um when you say they very likely work more than the hours that you see on the screen.
150Um and they're very generous with their time. Um and uh Caitlyn is very diligent at tracking and um encouraging them to document their time so that we are paying them and ensuring that they are being compensated for that extra time spent outside of their uh prated time. Um, a couple quick questions. Um, you mentioned the panorama survey stuff and I was trying to get in and see some of this recently and I don't know what board members need to get access to panorama data, but I would love to be able to just go in whenever to see it if that's something we could do. Um, couple other quick questions too. In the national rankings that we fell on down, um, how is that measured? Is that a survey or did they just look at mental
151health? uh resources in a state. Do you know? Not offhand. It might be from the Mental Health America um survey. So I I would have to look to see which one that specifically came from. Okay. Also, you um at one point we're talking about retirees getting the benefits too. So for how long? Forever do retirees get it? Do you get the benefit? I if I do I did not know that. That's how it is. That's how it has been since I've been here. So, Director Reed could take advantage of it. Did you officially retire? Um, okay. Well, and then um also you talked about the zero um you know, not having to pay for your therapy, but is there a limit on the number of um visits? No limit. Oh, I got a yes and
152a no. No, not for not for us. Oh, not for us. Sorry. Sorry. M yeah. What does that mean? Uh well, I think what Deb's referring to is, you know, we try to do the four sessions. Uh we so we look in the EAP office for roughly four one-on-one sessions. When you when we move more long term, um it is um you know, it is unlimited when it's it's four sessions per Yeah, we say fourish sessions per issue per year for EAP access. And then the zero cost for insurance that's going to be through insurance. So as as long as they're meeting criteria to be able to access that, they'll be able to access that. So So some of the insurance ones really do have unlimited sessions because I'm used to having limits on things,
153you know. That's be between the therapist who's billing and the client and the insurance company. Okay. All right. Um yeah, I think that is all my questions and I do think yes. Um thank you for all the information. I agree with the other directors that we want to fully fund and make sure that we're providing adequate coverage for um our workforce. And um I'm I just want to reflect back to you. They've heard a request for possibly an increase in having access to one another for some team work sharing um if that's at all possible. And I'm curious what it would take for for the board to advocate or support you having time where you can be together to have conversations about, you know, response or bouncing ideas off each other. just some kind of
154like team team teacher meetings um team counselor meetings I can understand might also be incredibly valuable um and sustaining so that you're having connection with the folks that you're working with to engage in this um supportive and sometimes challenging work that you're doing um and so I'm curious about how how do we support you in getting access to each other a little bit more yeah so I I mean I would say it is out hours and then also us scheduling out time that overlaps and protecting that. Thank you. You asked about panorama data. We just shared in our ELM monthly uh May monthly meeting with all of our leaders what our kind of global level, district level data looks like for our students, our staff, and our families. Um we have an expectation within our
155district that our leaders share that with their ALTS and OLTS and make sense of that as a part of their work um going into the following year and looking back to see what goals people set and what the data is telling us. Um, I'd be happy to put together something that is at that right altitude for you guys to take a look at and or get access at that district level trend data just so you can see what our staff data is, what our student data is, and what our our family data is. Great. Thank you. Um, and I do want to say um, in wrapping up too, I think you mentioned that we're kind of unique that we have an internal EAP and and I'm I'm happy that we do. It sounds really, you
156know, appropriate and wonderful that we can do that. So, I'm I'm supportive of that. Um, but also supportive of getting it up to speed and up to, you know, full support there. So, um, with that, thank you very much. Really appreciate what you do. Oh, and I think we can take about a 10-minute break. Quick break right now. Thank you. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] down down down down down down down down down down down down down. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music]
157N. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] down down down down down down down down down down down down down Heat. Heat. [Music] N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Down down down down down down down down [Music] down Heat. Heat. N. [Music] And we are back now. Um, next, the board will receive a progress update on the district's work related to long-term planning recommendations from the 2024 boundary study, specifically the Jefferson articulation area. Before I turn it over to the presenters, is there anything you'd like to add, Dr. Leblanc Sparza? I do not. Thank you. Go for it. Good evening, Board of Education. Thank you for having us here tonight. Um we promised that we would come back to uh the board after our initially scheduled set
158of engagements with the Jefferson area community. Um and we come back to you at a time in some ways that the work is just beginning. Um so um I want to honor that. Uh tonight we will recap where we have been so far and then uh we also have uh Mr. Joel Newton here from the Edgewater Collective who is going to speak speak more specifically about some of the planned next steps that are going to happen over this summer um and into August. So with that I'm going to uh hand this over to Miss Takar. Thank you. Um Claire Takar, executive director of strategic initiatives and tonight I'm going to uh as Miss Roo said take you through a report of the community engagement process. And so we're going to start with reggrounding in why
159we started this conversation with the community a couple of months ago, report out on the process, participation, and outcomes of community engagement, and then preview some next steps, and then I'll uh shortly after that hand it to Mr. Newton. And just to be very clear, there is no recommendation for board action tonight. So this is simply a report on uh where we've been and looking ahead. Uh but there is no recommendation for action. So to ground us in the challenge, about a year ago, in June of 2024, we published and presented alongside some external consultants at Flow Analytics the results of a boundary study. This was a massive effort during the 2324 school year to um understand our boundaries and start to look ahead. And so one of the recommendations that this group shared with
160us was monitoring our October count this year in one uh articulation area in particular, Jefferson, because what they were seeing in the data was quite concerning to them. And so their recommendation was look at your October count data. If it looks like it's trending in the direction that we expect it to based on this long-term data that we've been looking at, you should start a conversation with the community in January about starting to formulate a plan for long-term sustainability. And so that's what we did. Um in January, we started to speak to the community and did so with a context that the Jefferson area has a very long and proud history. So Jefferson High School itself is a school that is the result of consolidating two high schools and um they chose the name the
161Saints and they have proudly lived into that um culture and that identity ever since. Um there's a tremendous amount of pride and passion in the community and it is this articulation area is composed of Edgewater Elementary School, Lumbberg Elementary School and Jefferson Junior Senior High School. So what we see when we look at the Jefferson articulation area really guided by that boundary study is that there have been decades of declining enrollment and that this is now the smallest articulation area in uh Jeffco. So two external studies from different firms looking at demographic data came to the same conclusion which is that enrollment is not going to at any point rebound to where it was and it will continue to decline. And so that was a May 2023 study with the Colorado Future Center and then
162the boundary study that I just mentioned. Uh these data particularly the boundary study looked at Lmberg and Edgewater and based on the uh consolidation of Mullm Elementary School into Lumbberg assessed that the enrollments here were relatively stable. Um and so you can see on the screen the current enrollment and utilization at those schools. not seeing really significant concerns uh with the elementary schools. However, at Jefferson Junior Senior, uh this school now serves the fewest uh number of secondary students in Jeffco. One data point that in particular families have found helpful for comparison is that the only other school that serves students in grades 7 through 12 serves about a thousand students and that's Alama Junior Senior. So this year with about 601 students uh makes for a a very small uh secondary school in Jeffco.
163When we project enrollment out into the future, we do think that the enrollment will continue to decline and the school will continue to get smaller and this might continue to pose challenges for the offerings that the school can provide. On top of the demographic shifts and the decline in birth rates, which is really at the root of the declining enrollment, we also see that this is compounded by families choices. So in the 2324 school year, nearly half of families who live in the Jefferson Junior senior boundary choiced out of that boundary to attend other uh larger middle and high schools. Most often this was in the Wheat Ridge or the Lakewood areas. Another important piece of context is that this is not uh just a dynamic at Jefferson Junior Senior. There are many schools. There
164are six middle and high schools within 5 and a half miles of Jefferson Junior Senior. All with a pretty significant amount of capacity. So you can see the schools listed on the screen and their proximity to Jefferson Junior Senior. When we add up the middle school and high school seats in those building compared to the enrollment that they have, we see that there is 3,100 and more empty seats for middle and high school students within just 5 and a half miles of Jefferson Junior Senior. So, we have quite a lot of schools, quite a lot of seats, and our declining enrollment uh reality has meant that there's just not enough students to go around to fill all of those schools. So, that again was regrinding in the challenge. really what brought us to start this
165conversation with the community in January in January. So now I'm going to go through what we uh did in terms of engaging the community and um who participated and what the outcomes of that were. So on the screen now is our uh planned our initial community engagement timeline. So we planned five public meetings starting with an information session in January and then we thought that we would do three co-designes sessions uh tackling a series of topics one to um in February we were planning to explore the draft models right so when we went to the community we had a draft plan uh with a couple of ideas for how we could address this problem together so the first codeesign session uh we're going to look at those models and hear some new ideas from the
166community. The second codeesign session on March 3rd, we were thinking, okay, maybe we can start talking about programming, what types of content our families most interested in. And then the third codeesign session, uh, we wanted to build on that and explore if there was any other uses for the building that the community was interested in exploring. And then on the 30th, we could recap and work on next steps with the community. In addition, our initial plans included um the series of additional engagements you see in the box on the right. So, student focus groups providing responses to questions on uh through the web page and FAQ uh section on our web page providing ongoing support from our first team to make sure that we are answering questions and then uh opening and administering a communitywide
167survey. So now this slide everything in blue is an update that we made in response to feedback that we heard from the community as we started this this process. So on January 28th, we did uh hold an information session where we laid out the problem and previewed the next few steps. And on February 24th, uh as we started to have conversations with the community, it became clear that they wanted to be engaged in a different way. And so in real time in that meeting, we pivoted our plan and turned that into a listening session so that folks could um share their feedback, share their questions um in a in a format and in a way that was going to feel most respectful to them in that moment. We followed up on that by extending that
168design for the March 3rd meeting. That was a listening session as well. And then at the request of families who attend uh whose students attend Edgewater Elementary, we scheduled an additional and specific elementary listening session that we held on March 10th at Edgewater Elementary. On March 31st, we finished up the listening session. There had been a list of speakers who um wanted the opportunity to to share their feedback and ideas. So we heard those speakers. Um at that time the Edgewater Collective came forward with the proposal uh for the community to consider as well and the district recapped what we had heard at that point and shared a few next steps. In addition, at the request of the community, we uh held uh Spanish language cafes for Jefferson Junior senior families. Those were held in
169Spanish on April 4th and 18th. We also at the request of Lumbreg staff and families held specific Lmberg sessions because we had not been hearing as much of their voice throughout the other sessions. So we had a staff meeting for Lmberg on April 8th and then scheduled two Lmberg family meetings on April 9th and 17th. Those were scheduled around pickup and drop off times. And so we we got a couple of families um that we probably would not have heard from otherwise. And then on April 30th, um that scheduled time uh was uh led by Edgewater Collective um in a meeting to gather some feedback and start doing some thinking on on an alternative proposal that they're working on. And we did uh continue to do the additional engagement that you see in the box
170on the right. So that in terms of process uh you know we had an idea for how we would uh engage the community and then we made these updates uh based on what we were hearing from the community in an attempt to be responsive and to meet them where they were at in terms of how they wanted to share their feedback and how they would feel um best heard. So now I'm going to share a little bit about these different venues and uh what we heard in each one. So the first venue is really or the first uh slide here is really looking at these large public sessions the the five that we had scheduled. So we gathered RSVPs for this session. Certainly families did not need to fill out the RSVP form in order
171to attend but this form gives us some good data um for those who filled it out who who were there. So across all four sessions uh because we didn't gather this for the April 30th meeting, we had 364 total signups. 230 of those were unique, so you know in different individuals and 134 of those were repeats, so folks who came um to more than one session. And then you can see the chart on the right breaks down um of this of the signups we got, which again is only people who filled it out, not necessarily everyone who was there. Um but you can see that about a third of our signups were from parents, guardians, and family members. About a third were from staff members. We had 13% from community members, uh 5% from students,
172and 11% were in another category. All of these were self-identified categories. And so you can see at the bottom there are some folks who wrote in that they were alumni or they were from a collective bargaining unit um and and other categories like that. These are some of the themes that we heard across the community meetings and we've we've shared these uh both back with the community and in a couple of other venues. So, I'll move quickly through them. First and foremost was a clear desire to stay open from Jefferson Junior senior students, families, and staff. We also heard really significant concern about a planning year. In the draft plan that the district presented on January 28th, um the timeline we laid out would have included a year where the building would have been closed
173uh while we were planning doing maybe doing some renovation and um getting the program in place for the following year. We heard some concern about that uh from community. We heard requests for shared decision-making just to be clear that there was community voice represented in the plan and plans to move forward. We heard requests for more engagement which led to the um adjustments that I described a couple of slides ago. We heard from particularly parents of Edgewater students concern about the impact of um shifting sixth grade out of elementary schools, the impact that would have on their two-way dual language program. And we also heard as a desire for secondary dual language program in general. We heard a common concern over the a fear of losing Jefferson Junior Senior as a community hub and the
174impact that that would have to the fabric of the community as a whole. We heard a desire to prioritize students needs and ensure that no matter what um they're at the forefront of our decision-m and we heard that uh there was uh concern and fear over losing something that was providing stabil stability and familiarity and safety in a time uh of political turmoil particularly among families um who are experiencing fears related to changes uh in immigration policy. So moving to one of the other forms of engagement was how we uh responded to submitted questions through the RSVP form or through um what we were hearing in the community meetings. So through that RSVP form uh participants submitted a total of 131 questions. And so my team read every one of those um analyzed them grouped
175them and uh drafted responses every week. And so a total of 37 um FAQs were published and those covered the themes from the 131 questions and those are were published to our web page and are still available now. In addition, we facilitated student focus groups um and we did a total of six uh and the purpose of these was to explore what students at these schools loved about their schools and what they wanted to see more of. And so, uh, in general, students were selected by principles and staff, and all focus groups took place at school, um, in an environment that was familiar to students. So, I'm just going to share a couple of highlights from the Jefferson Junior senior student focus groups. Um, from the high school students, we heard this um, just very
176strong love for the sense of community that they experience at school, the support from staff that they feel every day. Uh, they expressed a very strong desire for Jefferson Jr. Senior to remain as it is. And they also expressed significant concern over um staff jobs and the fears that they had about, you know, what what would this plan mean for for their teachers and for the staff that support them. They also expressed a desire for more college and career preparation and increased access to advanced courses. For the middle school students that we spoke with, we heard that they loved the welcoming environment. They loved the electives. They loved the sports they had, and they loved the staff. Um they desired more break time um which who among us is surprised um that that would come
177through, more class options and better organized sports. And they shared that their high school goals are graduation. They want to get good grades and they want to feel like they're being prepared by their current middle school teachers and classes to help them succeed uh when they go into their high school grades. Moving along to our family survey. Um this is a 16 question survey. We had three quick demographic questions to help us understand uh is this a parent, is this a staff member, is this a student answering. Um we had seven multiple choice or multi- select questions and then six optional open response questions so that folks could share more about their opinions um or their perspective. And all of these questions were based on community suggestions that we gathered on March 31st. We opened
178the survey window on April 9th and we will close it on May 25th. So, it's still open now. The survey uh was translated into multiple languages, Spanish and Persian. And there's additional interpretation available and district staff including family liaison that have relationships with many families at Lumbberg Edgewater and Jefferson Junior Senior are calling families individually to make sure that they're aware of the survey and to support uh survey completion if helpful. And uh one thing I love about this is as soon as someone clicks submit, they are presented with a link to a live public summary. So they can immediately click on that and see um what others have said and some some trend data there. And that link is live, too. So anyone can and can see where we're at. So that's still open.
179We're gathering responses. We want to leave it open as long as possible so that we can get as much voice uh from families as we can. So, uh, for next steps from the district, one status update that we shared from the March 31st meeting is that it it's aligned with what I shared at the top of this meeting tonight. There's no recommendation from district staff under policy FCB. Based on all the community feedback that I've shared with you tonight, we're slowing down. So, pragmatically, what this means is that the school will remain open next year and the following year, 2627. In addition, that planning year pause that I mentioned where the school building would have been closed um while we were transitioning from um one school model to another school model, that is no longer
180being considered. So for us right now for district staff, uh we've worked with the Edgewater Collective on an agreement um that will guide us from May 1st through August 15th. We're continuing to administer that survey. we'll keep it open through the end of the school year and then um share that data and start to to look at it more closely. And most recently at um on April 30th uh we attended a meeting that Edward Collective led as listeners to um uh offer support and listen and answer questions as needed. So with that um I want to pass it over to Mr. Newton to talk about some of the next steps um that uh they're looking at for this summer. you can do the clicker. So, I just want to thank the district staff for being
181responsive and adaptive, having walked alongside the Molehome community and their closure that timeline. There wasn't a chance to do this well and I think it was hard on everyone involved with this. The district team has been very uh much a posture of listening, being adaptive, and I know it's been frustrating at times because I was involved in those planning meetings for those community listening sessions when you do a lot of hard work and you hope for an outcome and it doesn't go that way. The district staff really responded really well to that. So, I'm just thankful from a community perspective that the district has really been a co-partner in this process, which I know at times has been hard and frustrating. So, I just want to give you a quick idea of what we're doing
182this summer with this team from May until August 15th. The analogy I'm going to use, I've used it some of the community sessions I'm stealing from the governor of Minnesota. Jefferson is, you can envision it as a truck that has ran out of oil and the engine is dead. Once an engine has ran out of oil, there's no real way to get it back up and going. With enrollment declines, student academic growth not growing at what the rate our students deserve. The Jefferson engine is in need of a switch. So the analogy we use for students, the community, and families is that we want to retrofit Jefferson with a new electric engine. We're not doing things the way they've been done in the past. We want to do them in a new way that increases
183enrollment and student growth, but when students enter the school, it's going to feel the same. We're not getting rid of the interior. We're not getting rid of the truck. It's going to feel like Jefferson, but it's going to be a different engine. because we really need to do things differently to increase enrollment and student academic growth. So, give you an idea of kind of what we're hoping and this came out of those community listening sessions. We really want to keep sixth grade students at Edgewater and Lmberg and Jefferson remains a 7th to 12th grade neighborhood school. And part of that is really expanding bilingual, bicultural programs, elementary, junior high, and senior high. Really focusing on unique programming and focus for junior high students. The original Jefferson plan in 2015, we were promised a unique areas
184of the school for seventh and eighth graders. That didn't happen. So, our goal is to really work with leadership at Jefferson over the next couple years to create unique spaces and programming for junior high students. Seventh and eighth graders are different than high schoolers. And our goal is that there's at least one administrator wakes up every morning excited about working with seventh eighth graders and like the district terminology creates that magical experience for them. And then the last one is expanding and strengthening career pathways. And so what this steering team is doing, it's made up of 18 folks. It's set up in a lot of ways like a school accountability committee. There are more students and parents on the group than staff, but we have staff from all three schools. This team will have five
185meetings during the summer together and then have working groups because essentially what we're really having to work through is talking deeply about budget and staffing. As you all know, school finance is getting worse and worse and worse and worse. So, we don't have unlimited funds. And so, there's going to be a real hard conversations about what does the budget look like in Jefferson? What can we realistically do? And then talking about how do we really expand bilingual programs? What are the one or two career pathways that are unique to Jefferson and our students that we can really do those well and then our surrounding workforce really wants those career pathways built. And then the goal at the end of the summer is that based on those conversations, we have an actual Jefferson community plan. in
186a sense the building blocks of what we hope Jefferson can be. It's not going to be a highly developed 200page plan that folks are used to seeing with a school restructuring plan, but we really want to figure out what those building blocks are. In that conversation, it could involve a school structure change. By that, I mean it could involve a community school structure. It could involve an innovation school structure, but we don't have any idea of that yet because we first have to start with budgeting what programming and then look at what would need to happen in terms of school structure. And then the end goal is that at some point in the fall, September, October that we would be in conversation with the district about partnership agreements orus. Those are specific to a school
187structure change. Part of the reason why we want that to be part of the conversation is our community really wants a fiveyear bubble over the Jefferson area. We've seen a lot of plans come in, last for a year or two, and then change. To do this really well, we need five years to work it out. And so that's part of the reason why we're talking about partnership agreements or MRUs because we're really going to need time to do this well and see the enrollment outcomes and the student growth outcomes that our students and families deserve. Thank you board. Uh we happy to answer your questions. Board members questions. Dr. Reed, are we thinking that it is feasible? Cuz the one thing I have been wondering um a lot about is what happens if we remove
188sixth grade cuz we talk about how um those two elementary schools are stable and I am concerned that if we pull sixth grade out that takes away that stability and really drops their enrollment. So are we definitely thinking that we will not pull them out? That is correct. there would be we would not we are going to leave all the schools in Jefferson as is at least for the next two school years. Okay. Um and I'm curious do we know how many dual language students choose to stay at Jefferson for their high school experience or even their middle school experience because I know we focus on that a lot and I'm just wondering how many of them ultimately end up going to Lakewood or Wheatidge anyway. I have that information for Edgewater, but we'll need
189to look it up for Lumbberg. So, for both elementary schools each year, about 2thirds of the students who were in the elementary school the year prior metriculate to Jefferson Junior Senior for 7th grade. So, Edgewater is totally a two-way dual school at this point. And so, about 2/3 of those um students are metriculating into seventh grade. I would need to look at the data deeper for Lmberg to find out how many of the students in the one-way dual program that they run at Lmberg are also metriculating to Jefferson Junior Senior. And we're thinking then they might be more likely to stay at Jefferson if they got the dual language experience in middle school. It's the breakoff there that sort of maybe prevents them from going to Jefferson. I think that's something we need to look
190at more closely. So, our um teaching and learning team uh is preparing to do research on our dual language programs in Jeco um generally and so um just where are they? What are they offering the pro programming wise? Where are students coming from going to? Are we adequately supporting these programs from a financial standpoint? Um I do believe there was in talking with um chief academic officer uh Renee Necathodeses at one point in time there was some looking into the secondary um dual language uh or looking into that. And there were some um some complexities to that. And so we we would look to include that in the um in the research that we would be doing that would be made available to the community so everyone could see. Um and as well as I
191know some of the um research that folks would like to do on how these programs exist in other places. Yeah. I mean like I wonder I know we have dual language I want to say IBER. Is that correct? Iber lazley. Um yeah Foster. So I'm just you know if we Yeah. So if we had an option for secondary you know might might there be some choicing over that way? Okay. Um I'd like to um follow on to the idea of sixth grade staying or moving. I remember from a visit that I made to Lmberg that the principal then said that there was some attrition from fifth to sixth grade because people who are thinking we're not going to keep going to Jeffco junior senior we're going to get out at sixth grade. Is that still
192happening? Yes. And part of the reason is because Jefferson and Alama are our only two articulation areas that uh transition at after sixth grade into middle school instead of at sixth grade. And so one thing that can happen is families particularly if they've choiced into Lumbberg or Edgewater from another articulation area, our enrollment system will actually give them guaranteed enrollment out of middle school uh for sixth grade. And so you actually do see because of the unaligned um transition pattern. Sometimes families do move and some families um move students into middle schools proactively because you know they they um know that they want to go to another middle school rather than um to Jefferson Junior Senior or in Alama. I'm sure this happens as well. Um just families making the choice that they're making for
193middle school doing that at sixth grade at a natural transition point. I'd be interested to know how many um students are lost at that period because if we came up with a really great solution for Jefferson Junior Senior that may keep more sixth graders at those elementary schools and then they would thrive a little more too. Okay. Um, I have a number of questions. Um, so for the summer meetings, um, I've gone to most of the community meetings. I had to miss one for being out of town. And, um, one of the things that I've heard folks ask about the the summer meetings is how people who aren't on the committee get to be involved and have their voice heard. And I've even heard two people say they asked to come and were told no.
194Um, so how are we making sure that we're not just creating another kind of power structure that makes decisions and leaves people out? Great question. That actually was something we discussed. We had our steering team meeting last night. When we first started this process, I had the dream of having 16 people because as you all know was something where there's a lot of decisions that need to be made, a lot of hard work. If the room is too big, we can't get anything accomplished. So now the group is up to 18. We have a structure where there's kind of backups. So with staff, families or a lot of people go on vacation, people can step in. The other thing we're doing too is we have working groups around bilingual education, career pathways, and then systems
195and structures. All three of those working groups are going to be open to anyone. So, we're really working with our parents especially to figure out how do we continue to keep the trust of the community and how do we allow opportunities for people to be engaged throughout the summer while still keeping that steering team the right size. We can do some really hard work, make some really hard uh decisions and keep the work moving forward. Yeah, I would just encourage us to keep that in mind because it's so easy to get siloed into, you know, it's it's really a power differentiator of who gets to make decisions when we start to um do that. And it's been nice to see so many people at these meetings, especially parents um or other community members and the
196students. I've never seen students so engaged, but also it's obvious that they feel like they're they're valued um in these groups. And so at in these Jefferson particular meetings and I've been struck by that I I don't see students who come to these kinds of meetings with that kind of um I can't think of the right adjective, but like empowerment of of being involved. So I would never want to lose that. that it's been so nice. Um, I was wondering, um, on the survey, there's a whole section on the open-ended questions that we don't get to see. Um, how can we see those? There it just shows shows the last response. I keep clicking on those. So, like question 10, where's the link? Uh, right. So, I'm there. Yeah. The link is it to the
197open-ended question. I think I can answer. I think you're looking at the summary currently. And it sounds like director read you're you're pointing her to where the summary exists. I am at the summary. So the the autogenerated summary does show only the last three responses. It doesn't do um real time like like a word cloud or something that you might see from like a like a Qualrix survey. Um and so uh when the survey window closes at the end of May, we'll be able to do the qualitative analysis on those responses. Can you share the open-ended responses without being analyzed with the board at least? I would like to see those. I think yeah our intention is to share the data also with the steering team um just as it comes through the responses will
198need to be translated in many cases. That's okay. Yeah. So like so like um what I'm saying is like on question 12 there's 81 responses but you only see the last two. I would just add Dr. Verto we'll we'll apply our standard which is um taking out like any identifiable information. Um but then yeah absolutely our intent would be to publish the results on the website so folks can see them. I just love to see the raw data, not the interpreted data analysis um on those because I think that's otherwise I don't really know what we're learning in the survey. Pretty much all of the questions you can go to any one of these meetings and hear this the and know. So I feel like the usefulness of the survey is in those open-ended responses
199and that's why I'm particularly interested in them. Um for the looking at the middle school model, I would um suggest looking at Pomona. They we just opened the 612 there and it is a pretty separated 67 and then eight kind of starts to blend a little bit. Um and it's been a year with some learning and growing pains. Has it only been one year since we've had it open? And so probably a great place to go look for the steering committee to see how they've done that. And um and I I hear there are some like desires to merge more to not keep it so separated. So, you know, lots of things to learn from other things going on. Um, so I have two last questions, I think. Um, the, um, so just kind of
200like around the logistics of this. Um, another thing I've heard from being at these meetings is folks saying, well, you know, since day one, people have been saying, what's the budget for this? And now the message is the budget is the school's budget. I've been told that personally. Um, and I know that's what they're kind of getting. When we started this, there was talks about renovations, funding for new programming, differentiated programming, things like this. But now that the community has rejected the academy model and the tech model, now there's suddenly no budget. And I I really am having a hard time with that. Um, and I know the community are too. They feel like like what the district's message is is you're on your own. That's what I've heard several people say. Well, you're just
201if you want to figure this out, you're on your own. There's no budget for it. But when it was the district's idea, there was a budget or there was no one talked about the budget, but there was some assumption that we could make investments. And so, I'm wondering what happened and where our gaps are. Thank you for that, Dr. Vra. Um, so I want to clarify and we've provided this information um to the Edgewater Collective and I believe um posted it on the website as well. was our cost modeling for the um the programming the war and tech we were suggesting and then um the academy pathway. The the um idea around the small academy was um that we would be able to fund it at pretty much the budget um that would would be
202required per pupil. So you can see that there. the things that are unknown right now. For example, we asked um we've asked CDE for how they calculate funding for a community school. They have provided us that to us, but until we have more information about how the school will be staffed, we can't uh we we would need more information in order to create the budget. I would say we are we're open. Once we understand what the ideas are and can price them out, then we can then we can consider that as part of the budgeting process. Um the other piece in terms of the war in tech and and we had had talked about if if for example renovations needed to be made, we might consider that for a um a future uh local bond
203or mevy initiative and that there are program there are programs for example like you might have it um at the central campus that don't actually require a renovation at all or that we might be able to go find um specific specific funding for. So once we have an understanding of what is desired, then we can sort of start to understand what um the cost would be and where the money would come from because I think as um the funding for our our CTE programming sometimes comes from a different source. It doesn't always come from from SBB. There are other sources like Perkins funding um and other funding mechanisms from the state as well as grants that we utilize to uh for RCT programming. So we we I I don't want people to hear that we
204are closed or that they are alone. Part of what we have agreed to in this part in this partnership agreement is that we are here to run the ideas um through various various departments and do things like pricing Thanks. Um, so one more question and one comment. Um, so for the district, so based on how this has gone, I'd love to know what you feel like you've learned about a community engagement process of this kind. Yeah, I think we've learned we've learned a lot. I feel like we learned something every single time we met with people. And um it you know I think that we um haven't haven't yet quite found the right format um that and that right balance of making sure people feel heard. I think we were trying to be responsive to
205um some past feedback or we've got feedback we had gotten about past processes being potentially too open where people were allowed to um you know do the dream big but then the district never um the district wasn't making good on the things that people dreamed about. And so we had this idea that we could come forward with some things we knew we could do and we clearly did not find that right balance. Um and people did not um feel heard um and they felt um I think deceived um and not good about these preconceived ideas. And so, um, you know, I we're still processing and, you know, we've just come out of the engagement period, um, and thinking about how do we, um, how do we apply this to, um, and learnings to the to
206the future. And we're still we're still talking to folks um, and and getting information. And that will help shape, you know, our our thinking about um, this work in the future. But but certainly there was a lot to learn and we definitely didn't strike the right balance. Thanks. I I really do appreciate that and I think it sounds like the same feelings I had um about this. I know I say this at nauseium but there one of my favorite researchers on collaboration is Darren, Dr. Darren Hicks and one of his measures of authentic processes. There's a question that he asks groups and the question is um um was the process um oh my gosh I just lost it. Um did the process feel like it was authentic or just was the process just to confirm
207decisions already made? I'm saying it a little bit wrong, but um basically, you know, do people come and feel like their um voices are to make a decision or were decisions already made and just confirmed by the process and when people say yes to the decision was already made and just confirmed by the process is when you lose all kinds of authenticity. So, I think that's sometimes um what we do here. Um but then I just I want to just keep centering like these this community which is not only as as you mentioned Claire like particularly um sometimes fearful or or feeling um disenfranchised but like we close schools across the nation historically in places where people um don't have the resources to engage and be in processes like this. So I think it's really
208important. I'm glad that we are where we are here um with this particular community because it would have been very easy to decide for them what would have happened to them and then pushed everyone into that and just move on as though that's just the way it had to be. Um so I would en encourage us to to see that lesson in this too. Um that we need to make sure people who don't have voice get heard um without having to fight too hard for it. And the last thing I would say is I think something I'm super excited about is if I look ahead and I say like five years from now or 10 years from now if we could look back and say um yeah that process was really hard but look Jeff
209you know Jefferson Junior Senior is the top dual language um high school secondary school in the nation. you know, people all over the country want dual language for their kids and it's really hard. We see, you know, today how many barriers there are. But what if we look at the strengths that is coming forward here? I mean, to have to be a district that has a group, a community that is so excited about this option and what could be. I mean, I would say let's just like leverage it um every way we can put the resources into it and look back and say look what we built and you know like my goodness like it's it's you know better than we ever expected and so I think rather than always talking about like how it's
210all going to go wrong I think we need to really think about this from the strengthbased um perspective there's so many incredible resources and strengths that have been brought forward during in this process. Um, and I think if we're really smart and strategic about it, we ride that through all of the really really hard parts that are coming, especially focused on improved reading, you know, improved math skills for these kids. So, we're we're looked back as just the top school in the country that can do a dual language program and graduate kids at really high levels of academics. So, I'm excited about the the the way forward and I hope that we stay kind of in that mindset to get to that end. Um, yeah, I want to um follow up on Dr. Varda's comments
211by saying what I heard um from some of the families was an interest in a dual language pathway short of a program if there's if we're not able to completely fill out an entire program to have a pathway option and I just wanted to bring up the those two those are two different things. Um and um I also want to lift up what you showed us at the beginning of um additions to the timeline of cafes and other things to make sure that we're including um who is not at the table, who's not been able to participate in the conversation. And I think that's been incredibly valuable. And I just want to make sure that that effort will continue as we move forward to make sure that we're bringing people into the conversation who maybe
212have not had a chance yet or um might not be able to access it or, you know, if they're not part of the work group that there are inroads or ways that there's some um community networking and mapping that's happening. so that we're really being intentional intentional about including different voice um at the table in those conversations. Um I think that I think I'm going to stop there. I think that's everything. Thanks. I think most of my questions have been asked or comments made. So, thank you for your time. Thank you for coming to share the progress and we look forward to seeing it. Um and I just have two things. For some reason, something popped up on my computer today about IS Denver, International School Denver, and it is a private school and it's
213a IB program and it is dual language and it costs $34,000 just for 9th grade. So, anyway, it's pretty close. It's it's 12 miles away from Jefferson Junior High. But I thought that maybe somebody could go see what they're doing at least see, you know, how they're handling it. And I think the mention had been made earlier that there are a lot of privileged white people out there that would love their kids to um get dual language uh programming, you know, and and certificates and so forth. So, if we want to dream big in 10 years, you know, if we could get a free public school um that had something that was offering what some private school charges $34,000 a year for, that would be nice. Um, but the other thing I wanted to mention
214about um the the challenge of um offering some suggestions, things that we know can work versus start from scratch. don't come in with any predetermined, you know, ideas that that then are perceived to be just something that we want to push through. Um, I know it's been mentioned that we might want to make changes to FCB, the the um school closing policies, so that we would have maybe some thresholds in there, some intermediate steps that say if a school gets to this level or something happens, then um some preliminary steps happen um and those could be meetings that really are from scratch and that we that offer possible things that have happened in the past like the combining of um uh junior and senior high schools into to one school like what happened in Pomona
215or um Warren Tech or um just whatever. So instead of coming out with some kind of here's what we've designed, do you like it? We could just say here's some options if you want to go investigate them. So just you know cuz this is so so hard and um I guess the earlier we can identify steps to take the better before it gets critical. But other than that thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Yeah. Oh question. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So that now brings us to the next item on our agenda and the board will hear a preview of the May 29th action items including items that will be included on the consent agenda. Deputy Superintendent will also provide the board a preview of upcoming board agenda items in future
216meetings. So I'll now hand it over to Deputy Superintendent Dr. Lancas Farza. Thank you, President Parker. Um, I've got the document that is within your agenda. I'll walk through some of these and if folks have questions, we can certainly um engage in some of those. But we'll start with the May 7th um 2025 preview uh action consent agendas. You see the approval of minutes from board meetings from March 5th, March 13th, March 28th, April 2nd, April 10th, May 2nd, May 7th, and May 9th. Approval of the 2526 board meeting schedule, board committee appointments, and approval of free horizon monatory charter application. Um, also included is the approval of the supplemental appropriation for the building fund, which was the 2018 uh 2020 bond funds. There was a higher than anticipated beginning fund balance for 2425 in
217that building fund. So to utilize those funds, the supplemental appropriation is an increase of almost 2 million um needed to bring the total to 5.3 almost 5.4 million for the current fiscal year. um renewal of contract. Zero dropouts is a contract that we renew annually. It is an organization. We partner with Littleton Public Schools and we offer three different sites um in our district for GED programming and um and testing and this is just a renewal of that contract. Renewal of the Jefferson Center for Mental Health contract. We talked a lot about mental health this evening. Uh Jeffco also engages with Jeff Jefferson Center for Mental Health offering services and support to our schools throughout our district um to offer mental health prevention intervention services to schools. Um it can be therapy for individuals, family
218group, parent education, consultations with school staff, classroom teaching, staff education, training and/or crisis response. Um, this current school year we had approximately 42 schools utilize those services, but they are available to all our schools. Really quick, is that a per use? Like do we pay per instance of use or is that a blanket contract? It's a contract for the year that schools can can ut no matter what. Correct. And is that being used in lie of like school psychologists in schools or is it kind of like they can refer them there? How do how do families get access to it? It was an additional there's multi-layers of what we offer. I mean, you know, we have cells and we have counselors and we have Hazel Health and we have JCH. We have a number of
219different support services and depending on what works best for the school, whether it's availability, whether it's particular um need, whether it's um expertise, whatever that is, um JCH has been a partner to our mental health teams to provide supports above and beyond what our staff can offer. Got it. Thank you. Isn't there usually it would be a person assigned to the school? There are people that are assigned to the school. Absolutely. There are also they also bring in JCH people to work with those people if need be. Oh, I just at some schools I know they they're like this is where our JC person sits. That's correct. There is there is that. Sorry. Go ahead. I apologize. Oh, no. Um but in a $ 1.5 million contract there must be a limit. We can't we
220can't tell them we want a full-time JCM counselor in every school, right? There are schools that we have counselors from other funds, other grants that we have. Um, we have, like I said, and and then we have Hazel Health on top of that. We have counselors. We have social emotional learning specialists. And then there's certain criteria that a school would qualify for a JCH counselor um to provide support in their school as well. Okay. I know they're also struggling with staffing at so I don't know that they could fulfill much more. I'm not sure. But it's a great resource. I do wish there was one in every school. That's why when you said there could be, I thought, well, why don't we? No, there's support. Sorry, I didn't mean to say that. There's support for
221each school. We can certainly um access help and support from the different um programming that they offer. But in terms of staffing, there's only certain number. You're correct in that. Okay. Um, property liability and other insurance programs. Um, this is an annual contract as well. The district is estimating to save $175,000 in overall cost for our insurance and stop-loss programs. Um, this decrease can be attributed to competitive bidding um on insurance coverage as well as the overall market trends in property insurance lines. Uh, I know President Parker had had a question and I told her I was probably going to have to ask Miss Tolson because she had asked about specifically um the property liability and other insurance if this is something that protects us in terms of like legal or if this is more
222loss in terms of property loss and that hail damage, roof, etc. I promise to sort that out before we talk next week. I just don't know the answer as I sit here. Yeah. Okay. And do we know who the provider is on that? I do not know, but I'll find out as well. Thank you. I'm not sure. So then you'll see approval of the contract for Colorado West Equipment Macandless Truck Center. Um, and there's some more content information in your actual agenda, but the transportation department annually replaces about 5% of buses basically to keep cycling the fleet. um 5% are scheduled for disposal that at the end of their life um life cycle. The purchase of replacement buses will assist to reduce the fleet average. The fleet average current age is 11.25 years old for
223school buses. Um and on August 17th, 2021, the RFP um was posted on Bidnet um to more than 133 companies. In FY25, we did not purchase any full-size buses. We purchased non CDL vehicles if you'll remember um 10 14 P uh passenger vans um eight Toyota cars and four um electric vehicle vans um which are still on order. Um in TW FY24 we purchased 13 full-size buses and uh five Ford Expeditions. In FY23, we purchased 15 full-size buses. And the notes from um Mr. Gatlin say that this is that we typically purchase about we we typically spend about 2.5 million each year for vehicle replacement and this will actually cover the replacement of 10 new full-size buses. I'm sorry, I had one question on this one. So, was the the RFP we put out in
2242021, was that a multi-year RFP and that we are continuing each year with this company? I was just a little confused by the date of the RFP. That is my understanding. It says on August 17, 2021, RFP 25884, districtwide annual bus procurement was posted on bidet to more than 133 companies. Typically, that means that's out there and available until it hits an end date and then they put it back out again as a part of that bidet process. So even though it was posted four years ago, it's it's something that's just continuously it will stay available until, like I said, whatever the end date is that that bid net bulletin board goes out for a new bid. Got it. Thank you. Or we can go out for our own, but typically if it's a competitive
225price, we typically will access that. And then renewal of contract food and nutrition services annual ready to serve pizza. Um, food nutrition services, uh, seeks approval for renewal of the annual ready to serve, um, pizza with multiple vendors. Vendors include Hut America Group, um, T-MAC Pizza, uh, DFL Pizza, and these are all doing business as Domino's. Um, these contracts will provide food nutrition services with pizza that increases student participation in the national school lunch program and alleart sales. And uh President Parker asked the question about pizza and whether or not this is part of like school lunch or whether it's one of those where on Thursdays we bring in Pizza Hut people to to serve pizza and it's actually part of the school lunch program. Custo uh custodial supplies waxy uh sanitary supply 1.5 million.
226Um you can see the district staff worked with waxies um to select quality products and supplies that are safe, effective, provide the district best overall value, disinfectant, sanitizer, toilet paper, paper towels, all those things. And then transportation um transport gas agreement, Spark Energy, $4 million. This was an interesting read. I didn't realize that. Um United Energy provide market rate natural gas um and goes through all that. you would understand that a whole lot better than anybody. Um, but it's overall a contract for $4 million for um natural gas. And then Infinite Campus um the annual renewal of Infinite Campus is $83,975. You can see over time um CIO IBECK put together from 2019 all the way through 2025 what the progression of cost has been for Infinite Campus as we've upgraded it and as we've
227kind of gotten rid of some of the customization of it but um actually been able to utilize all of the different um components of of Infinite Campus. I have a question on that. Is this widely used in Colorado? Infinite Campus. It absolutely is widely used in Colorado. Thanks. Yeah. So then you'll see approval of your resolution for the uh Arvvada Aquatic Aquatic Center. Um depending on what board's direction is um and with funding source of capital reserve fund. Then in May, we'll start going through the preview of the agenda items. May 29th, regular meeting, executive session for the superintendent's midyear check-in, board committee appointments, TDPAC monitoring reports 3.1 and 3.3, which you heard um Tara talk about earlier this evening that she plans on bringing that forward. Um and she we listed the two ends
228there so you can see what the content of the that monitoring report will be in June. You have a study session on June the 4th um with plans at this point for board dialogue on current topics. FY26 budget development and budget for adoption monitoring report EL11 which is school safety uh monitoring report 2.2 and 2.6 six, which is district employees engaging uh community resources for the benefit of students. And the district will partner with students, families, and guardians and the community in a mutually respective, honest, straightforward, considerate manner. And then property conveyance uh regarding Vivian. And then finally, June 12th, your regular meeting. The plans thus far are a legislative recap, cell phone research report, Q3 financials adoption and appropriation of the budget, and the CAC engagement with the board. Any other questions from the
229board? No. Thank you. And that brings us to our last agenda item. We've set aside 30 minutes for the board to have the opportunity to discuss current topics of interest. And um the topics that board members had identified prior to this meeting include Jefferson Junior Senior High School, sustainability plans, budget control options, public comment policy revision, reflection on board legislative engagement, and the AEC process. So I'm just going to start out by saying I believe that we had a good discussion on Jefferson Junior Senior. So we can move on from that. Um and I did put them in order if I heard more than one person mention it. So these are these had two people at least. So sustainability plans. Does anyone want to make a comment on that or talk about that? President Barker,
230can I just add I just started a 30 minute timer. Oh thank you. Um, so this is something that our students have brought up in a variety of ways and over the course of the year. So I think it's really important to talk about it. And I was really impressed that our students um did their homework and found out that we are a policy governance board and that the way we do it is through policies and they gave us a suggested policy. And I would really like to see us look at that policy and um and have a serious discussion about adopting it. I agree uh wholeheartedly and in order to facilitate some of that um I know they came to speak with 10 minutes during public comment um and you know public comment we
231don't have the ability to have a back and forth conversation with them and so I am interested in trying to offer them some time to come and meet with the board so that we can have a conversation with those students students about their policy um and grant them more time um and and also the the ability to have us ask questions, they can ask us questions, we can give response. I just um think there needs to be a a second pass at that and more conversation. So, I would like to invite the students that presented to us during public comment at our last meeting about sustainability to come back and meet with us. And the one um thing about the students is they their school year is about to end now. So it would be
232next year. Um and also I think um the email went out that for our um August board retreat that's one of the topics that we do want to it has. It hasn't. Okay. It's coming. Um that we are uh potentially going to talk about sustainability and and next steps at the board retreat. So stay tuned for that. Um, I think that's great. I wonder if I'm trying to rapidly go back to the item we were just on, which is the consent agenda in the preview. I wonder if we couldn't sneak it on to the June 4th meeting or even the study session. Yeah, that's the study session. I know it's probably quite full. Um, but even though the school year is over, I I do think students might still be interested. I I think we'll
233lose some of them because it's summertime. They may be gone. I don't know if anyone's coming as a student to talk to the board of education. I don't know. I think it's I think it's worth exploring. Um and I I think this is an interesting opportunity. I know director Kenworthy has brought up this idea of when we get policy or suggested policies from the public, how do we handle that? Right? what is the process for it? And so I might suggest and I'm willing to help um with Director Kenworthy, but maybe that's something like this is a great test case to be like, do we need and have a process to receive suggested policy and what does it look like? Because now it's like, well, do we bring them to a meeting? How do we
234have the back and forth? And so I think this is a I know I'm way off topic now, but I think that's an excellent like opportunity to try something. Um, I would like to offer up perhaps if we could have district staff reach out to the presenters and see if it's possible for them to come to our June meeting. Um, I would make that offer and then or one of our study sessions and then if the majority of them are going to be out and about for summer vacation, then we would look at um the beginning of next year. So, let's just check in with them, please. And also pol the policy subcommittee is what you're mentioning. And yeah, we um we still need to have some conversation about how that would operate. Um and
235that yeah, I don't I don't know if that happens now at this time or if we work on that over the summer and then figure out moving forward for next year. I'm open to to working on it now, but we also have a lot of other things going on this month. For what it's worth, when we did a major overhaul of of policies, um Stephanie Skoolie and I worked on that and we did that over a summer and then came back and and there's a you know there a few policy things on here because the other one is the public comment policy. So you guys could do some work on that and then come back to the board with that work. That's a great suggestion. Ask a clarifying question. Would you like the um district
236sustainability manager involved in these conversations? And I know that um we got a notice that there's a group of students who are participating in a sustainability conference last weekend, for example, like do you want it limited to the students who came to speak to you? Do you want students who have also been engaged in the sustainability work that might not be those uh or in addition to those students? She would know who those who the students are. Yeah, I think I would cast a wider net so that there's more of a conversation and for students maybe who have not worked together to also meet other students who are also making efforts towards sustainability in our community. So yeah. Okay. So what I'm hearing is that we will have um the sustainability manager reach out to
237some of those students and we'll see if it's feasible if we could put it on. And then which um meeting would we like to um aim for? The 4th or the 12th? I would I would say the fourth, but I would also maybe want to put both of them out there and see how where we could get a critical mass if that's possible. I would agree. I was only thinking a study session just because I feel like we have more opportunity to have dialogue and it's it's like this. Um but I'm totally flexible to what the board agrees to. Okay. Um then if there are no ne no other suggestions on sustainability at this point then the next one was budget control options. Anyone want to start that? I can start. Um and I don't
238I don't know who else maybe threw this out there um or if nobody did. I just I'm feeling very um the budget's super complicated and there's a lot of moving parts and I'm struggling to feel like I understand what changes week to week understanding that the staff is like actively in it and I don't necessarily need to be in it. And so I'm just personally struggling with I'm really um con I'm sorry guys, I'm tired and it's been a long day. I'm I'm struggling with deficit spending and I know that's a that's the wrong word. Um but like going into fund balance and I'm trying to think about are there how are we creatively thinking about cuts and ways that we can save pennies now? Um, you know, it's it's not like a home budget,
239but my analogy is my home budget. And if my husband or I lost our job, the first thing we do, we sit down at the kitchen table and we'd say Disney Plus gone, violin lessons gone. You know, we would we would look at that. And I know this is a very amped up version of that, but I I get concerned. But I feel um uneasy saying, "Hey, we're going to spend into our savings without knowing like all the areas we've been able to make those like cuts." And so um that's what I meant when I when I mentioned to Mary that just this budget process and we're it's coming fast and I know we're getting better news from the state, but that's something I've struggled with how to just keep up on this frequently changing
240budget. That's just something I'm feeling. I'll also say that um I feel like if we don't start talking about it now that we run the risk of, you know, just going into fund balance quite a bit and then leaving it up to a new board to figure out how to fix it. So if we have the option to start identifying those Disney Plus places, it would be helpful. I guess I mean I think you all have seen my email questions now like I just am not feeling very confident where we have like a meeting where you know we're told there's a 60 potential $60 million deficit and then a few days later it's only 20 to 40 million and I'm like how are we fluctuating millions and I understand that the state budget just finalized
241but um sometimes I just expect to get a spreadsheet with numbers and instead we get these narratives of explanation. I've just never been a part of an organization that describes the budget in um so many words and not numbers. And so it's been difficult for me to know what we're voting on or what we are this this past month has been particularly up and down. So, I've um just had a really hard time following. I don't actually know how to fix that. Um and I don't know I don't know how concerned to be about what we are being presented with um and how secure to feel in our projections. But also something I've been thinking a lot about is um around controls. every part of our most parts of our district which are our schools
242work on this SBB budget where it's very bounded and if you need an extra teacher you don't get an extra teacher if you don't have the students but our admin our like our central office I don't I know has a budget but doesn't work that way if we need another consultant we can hire another consultant if we need someone else in finance we can hire a finance And I I think we might want to start thinking of our other budgets like we do our SBB budgets where when administration is faced with not having enough people, they also don't get to hire the people like our schools don't because in a school we're losing our music programs. But here at the admin office, we see new programs, we see new people like in the time that
243I've been here almost it feels like without many restrictions. So that's something I think as we go forward. I don't know if other districts do this, but I do understand we have a budget, but it seems quite flexible in the way that the budget is used at central office versus how we expect our schools to stay like rigidly within you cannot hire a.5 person to bring that choir program back. And yet here we can suddenly do a $200,000 contract on comparative analysis of other school district budgets. So why do we have $200,000 here to just bring into the budget of the to this expense to expenses, but our schools can't do the same? So I personally am very interested in putting boundaries around how our central office can fluctuate in its spending. I do think
244just um I do think um that the uh financial advisory committee has asked for some comparisons um of our budget priorities and admin and so forth to other districts which might be a good starting place for us to get an idea of do other districts have something in place or are they doing things different than us but that's exactly the example I used when when we want that study suddenly there's money to do that study. I can't even I I I don't even know. These studies are very expensive. So, I don't know how much this one is costing, but however much it's costing, do you know how much it's costing? Let's say it's $100,000 or $50,000. And yet, we are not letting our schools take that same liberty to suddenly need something and find the
245money to do it. And it's it seems like a double standard when we should be holding our central office to the same standard I think as we do our school communities. So I think one of the things that would be really helpful on that because I know that sometimes the way that that happens and I I don't know about all the time because it's there's so many of them, right? But I know sometimes like when we hire a new position here, it's because we cut a position somewhere else in central administration. Um or we combine two things or we repurposed something. And so, you know, it's all these little pieces that are a lot to keep track of, but I do think maybe we could get at least a a numerical summary, right, of yes,
246we spent x amount on these things that were not originally budgeted for and we cut x amount of other things so that we can sort of have a comparison at least. So because like um in elementary school you've got your or you've got in any of the schools you have your SBB budget but there's some flexibility in there right? So you can decide we're going to have this thing that has high student um interest and that means that we're not going to have this thing that doesn't have as high. And I think that some of that is going on at the central administration level, but we don't see it because it's huge and there's so many of them. But yeah, a like a numerical summary of sort of here are the here are the the
247things that we anticipated or that we've had in the past that we're not doing now to help pay for these other things so that we can show that there's some sort of balance going on there. And and if we can't do that, then we have an issue, right? It might also be helpful uh Dr. that you know our school leadership team the the team that is led by Todd Engles we have an enrollment reserve that has to be built into the budget every year and usually it's somewhere between 10 and 15 FTE that when a school hits a wall and their numbers aren't because kids don't come in packages of 30 or 22 and so when they are able to to map out like their master schedule and realize I'm three sections short of X
248or I need another.5 music teacher, whatever the case may be. We know that has to be done as a part of the budgeting process and it is built into a budget up here. So it might look like that school leadership has some additional like staffing funding, but it actually gets used and every bit of it goes out to schools. So, I can't say that that happens everywhere, but that's a really typical and normal practice in every district that I've been in because we do find ourselves in situations where I got to have one more section of biology and I don't have the FTE for it and you know, I have this many kids and so that's where each of the community superintendents meets with each principal and goes through all of their numbers, all of
249their budget and that enrollment reserve is designed specifically to make sure schools can do some of that. I don't know if that's helpful or not, but that would look like they have a bunch of FTE sitting over here in a pot, but it's really something that is designed specifically to go to schools because we know those things happen every year. Well, I think um if we can ask uh Brena or somebody in the in the district to start to identify the Disney Prime, whatever it is, something that um we've been able to do um because we had such a huge um fund balance for so long, but we know that that's something that would have to be gone if we when we get down. Yeah. I I mean I'd really love to see like what
250are the cons what are the special projects to your point, you know, director Reed, what are the like what consultants have we used that might might be nice to haves but in a in a tight budget might might have to wait and what are the ramifications of waiting because I I think there's that trade-off, right? Um but that that would be super helpful to understand. Okay. Um, I'm sure we will be talking about the budget a lot more. Um, the next one we have here, the public comment policy revision. That kind of goes along with what we talked about just policy revisions in in general. So, we can uh talk about that some more. Yeah. I'm just curious for um whoever was interested in this if if they want to just outline what their specific
251interest is just so that I know. I can do that. I don't I don't know if anybody else said this one. Was it just me? Um and that is because I I do firmly believe that you either have a policy and you stick to it or you don't have that policy. And so to just suddenly say, "Okay, well, tonight we're going to throw our policy out the window." Um, but next time maybe we won't do that is really not a good way to do that. Um, and I want to be thoughtful about it. And we may just decide, you know, like we're not going to have a policy. We're going to say people can we can we'll do it all up front and it'll go for as long as it goes. Um, but I want
252to be thoughtful about that because there are times like if we've got the student leadership board coming to present to us, are we really going to ask them to wait 4 hours if that's how long public comment is? And I mean, there were times during co and you know all of that that public comment went really long and we're asking people to wait hours and hours and hours beyond when they said we told them that they were going to present. And sometimes those are kids, too. So, um I'm not going to say that this is the policy that I want, but I do want us to think about that ahead of time and not be making that decision on the fly to sometimes stick to the policy and sometimes not. Yep. And oh, go ahead.
253I was just going to say thank you. That's um that's helpful for me to hear. And um this happened obviously in our recent meeting and director Kenworth I think that's when you were in the air which is why you missed but pol director Reed did say like you started with that right like that was one of your comments that you said and I thought it was really wise because policies shouldn't be chosen or not chosen. Um, I know how I would weigh in on that policy discussion and um, but I do think and I hear you. Um, I would also advocate for flexibility based on what's on the agenda and the timing. And that may not be wise policy. I'd have to really think about that because in that case when I had made that
254motion I looked at the agenda and had made I mean I think I did it on too short of a notice but I had reached out to to Lisa that day and I was like hey could we change the agenda? could we push the things that are less critical to make time for this? And we have that right to flex the agenda in real time. And so, um, totally in agreement with you on if we're not going to follow the policy, why are we having it? Um, that's and we've had different policies around this over time. So, like at one point it was um up front we did anything that was on the um any comment that was on the agenda and so that sort of controlled it a little bit and then any one
255that wanted to speak off the agenda came at the end of the meeting so that that didn't throw you off as far when it came to all of your other presenters. So, there are multiple options on that. Yeah. And the history of that would be fascinating to study in the development and that's something that director Kenworthy and I can look at but I'd be fascinated to understand the history and why we moved away from policies. I think that's also powerful too. I don't know if it's helpful, but I don't recall, and this is my 37th year in education, so I'm right up there with you, Paula, and I don't recall us having to govern time andor subjects until co really. I mean, we'd have a moment here and there that things would happen, but it
256really was. I mean, I know when you guys had different boards and and elections, you probably did, but I would say overall it it from a national or a state trend, I think everybody felt it in COVID in a very different way than any of us felt it before that. I'll just weigh in. I know that some of our municipalities fun do function in that way where they have specific agenda aligned public comment and then general public comment is held separately and done at a different time in their agenda. Um, so I think our action item for this is this is one of the ones that Director Kenworthy and I could work on over the summer and maybe bring back. I think that's the followup. Go ahead. If you're going to revise public comment, I
257would also like to include the issue of when someone at the table responds to the person or not because if there's a policy that we don't respond and then someone responds, why do we have a policy that no one responds? So, I'm quite bothered by that also. So, I'd like to address that if we're revising public comment in that same time. It's a great ad. Okay. Well, thank you for that offer. Um, Director Applegate and Dr. Kenworthy, you were offered. Um, okay. Um, I don't know how much time we have left. Six. All right. Yeah. Okay. So, reflection on the board legislative engagement. Um, any comments? want to start on that one? I can't remember who who mentioned it. That was me. Okay. Um yeah, I'm just um wanted to open up some space now
258that the session is essentially over. um if there's any reflection on how we engaged in our legislative conversations or wishes or hopes for how we would do it maybe differently next time and see if anybody had anything to say about it. Do you have anything? Do I? Um, yeah, I would like us to maybe schedule a little bit more time so that we can um adequately have a conversation about the things that we do and don't want to um endorse just because the initial conversation we had, I just threw it out there. I threw like six things out on the table just in an attempt to kind of start a conversation. Um but having just a small amount of dedicated time um not right at the beginning of the session but maybe two three weeks
259in when there's been some legislation that's been presented so that we have the ability we have to throw it in um kind of half-hazardly in in between other conversations we're having. So, just to make sure I'm clear, just essentially say, "Hey, we know legislation is going to impact us more and more um as we're looking at the calendar." And I don't know, Lisa, cuz I think we approve the board calendar next week, 29th. That's right. Um maybe we check that and just make sure that especially and we know the times, right? We know when it gets hot. Um that we build that discussion in. I'm supportive of that. Are you saying talk build a discussion in about legislative topics? Is that what you're suggesting? Yeah. Yeah. Just ensuring that there's time allocated for that because
260I think what director Kenworthy is referring to is when she provided like, hey, I want to support these bills and we were like, well, should we do it on consent? Should we not do it on consent? Can we put a time in? And so just being thoughtful about Yeah. I don't know if it needs to be added on to when um Mr. Badich comes to speak to us. It might be the right time when he comes to do legislative updates. Um that we be prepared to present some someone's, you know, each of the board members be ready to put out there items that they would like to consider or have the board consider supporting. Um just so that we have a way to catch that and we're not having to kind of grab a space.
261Um I it felt inadequate as far as us having conversation about legislation that we wanted to support. I was just thinking too that sometimes um in the very beginning we just did a thumbs up and that was it and Ed took that and went with it and then we decided put it on an agenda the consent agenda and then we had an official vote so it was more public and and uh archived. Um, but that would be another I think something we might want to have a policy on how we vote on legislation. Well, what I really struggled with was the superintendent having a separate voice from the board at the legislature this year and especially those statements or letters, whatever, going to our delegations before the board ever knew that those were going. And
262that's that to me is a lot more complicated than this. And I really like to know whose voice is like are we representing the district? If the board has a different or slightly different position than the superintendent, do we issue two different things that kind of happened this year? Because we saw the ramifications for that. Our legislators very confused with us and frustrated with us. um which means we're gonna lose um whatever gains we get by having a voice at all. So I I don't know what the right answers. I've asked other board members from other districts and past board members and I don't I don't know that there is a real clear understanding um who should be providing the direction and voice at the legislature the district the superintendent or the board. Um, I
263will say having tried to get the five board members um, opinions on things or input or know what the consensus is, it's been very hard. And I also think finding time for board members to go down or any a board member to go down to the legislature and be the voice of the board is probably more difficult than having a superintendent be part of the superintendent's group, um, the local case and so forth. But I do agree that we need to make sure that she knows our priorities and that um we are aware of what she's planning to say and especially if there's a letter that's going anywhere. So my feeling right now is the superintendent is probably going to be able to do it more effectively than the board. Um but we need to
264make sure that we're together. We're given the same message. President Parker, we have 20 seconds left. All right. You have any last thoughts? Um, well, yeah, I think we're done. Um, this is pretty amazing. We got past, you know, way more than one, which is all we've done in the past. So, all right. Um, thanks everybody. That brings us to the end of today's agenda. We will stand adjourned. Our next scheduled meeting of the board is an executive study session scheduled at 11:15 p.m. I do believe it is. Anybody want to show up here at 11:15 p.m. on Friday? 11:15 a.m. on May 9th, 2025 at the Ed Center. And I do believe that is yeah, the executive session will start that off. Thanks everybody. Bye. Thanks. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat.
265Heat. [Music] Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] down down down down down down down down down down down down [Music] Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, [Music] hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Down down [Music] down. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] N. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music]