Board of Education Study Session and Regular Meeting: 5.27.2026

001better late than never. Good evening. Let's w start the uh Wednesday, May 27th meeting of the board of education for 27J schools to order. Uh first notice is all matters on this agenda in any category may be considered for action as listed. Any item not so noticed may not be considered and items listed on this agenda may be considered in any order at the discretion of the chairperson. Next up would be the pledge of allegiance. Melinda, will you lead us in that? Thank you very much. Do you want to do a roll call for attendance? >> Um, director Ramon Alvarado >> here. >> Director Tracy Alvarado >> here. >> Director Melinda Carbajal >> present. >> Ashley Khan. Director Tom Green. >> I'm here. >> Director Star Trujillo. Director Rachel Wilhelm >> here. Mr. President, you

002do have quorum. >> Thank you very much, Madam Secretary. Our next up would be our commitment to governing styles. The board will govern lawfully, observing policy governance principles with an emphasis on outward vision rather than internal preoccupation, encouragement of diversity and viewpoints, strategic leadership more than administrative detail, a clear distinction of board and chief executive roles, collective rather than individual decisions, future rather than past or present, and governing proactively rather than reactively. Next up would be approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion? >> I'll move to approve the agenda dated May 27th, 2026 as presented. >> I'll second. >> I have a motion from Director Carbajal, a second from Director Wilhelm. Roll call vote. >> I think we're going to make one adjustment by removing the CFF recognitions because we don't have anyone

003from that group. So if we want to revise >> So do uh do you accept that amendment or remove item five? I'll accept the amendment and then move to approve the agenda with that amendment for May 27th, 2026. >> Director Wilhelm. >> I second still. >> Very good. Now I'll do the roll call vote as amended. >> I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Director Raone Alvarado. >> Yes. >> Director Tracy Alvarado. >> Yes. >> Director Melinda Carbajal. >> Yes. >> Director Tom Green. >> Yes. >> Director Rachel Wilhelm. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. Thank you for the change. >> Thank you. Moving right into our student advisory council monthly report. Step on up. You're the next victim. >> Finally, we missed you guys, you know, and it's going to be like our last time to

004see you. >> No, we've missed you, too. >> Very good. >> Finally, we have information for you guys. >> Oh, so are we. This is Scout for anyone that's not aware. I think we know everyone else on the board, though. >> Okay, let's go down the line. Um, Izzy. I'm 17 years old and I'm from Prairie View High School. >> Ivan, 15 and I go to Brighton High School. >> Um, I'm Rachel. I'm a senior at Brighton. >> I'm Wait. I'm Elelliana and I'm a junior at Riverdale High School. >> I'm Scout and I'm a junior at Eagle Ridge. So, uh, the past month we've been You can go to the next slide. Sorry. Oh, you can go keep going. Uh, so this past month, we've been collecting survey results. So, this is our second

005survey based off of safety. And so, it's based off of our first survey that went out in January that I believe we presented in March, maybe. Um, so the biggest topics we found from that were mental health, weapons access, buildings access, and bullying and threats. So we collected some more in-depth data to find out which topics were important to our students. And so we had 271 responses in total. And our goal was 250 because that's about 5% of our student population, which is the, you know, the statistical amount. So then we divided it up by school based off of um the responses just because we believe that gives a more in-depth look at that. So I'll present the Brighton uh results. So uh social exhaustion was the biggest category that affected mental health the most.

006And um we only had or I believe we had 43 responses in total from Brighton. I didn't put that one there. And we had an almost 50/50 split between undergraduates and or sorry under upper classmen and lowerassmen. Is that what it's called? Underassman. Thank you. Um so yeah, basically social exhaustion was the biggest category for mental health, which makes sense cuz you know teenagers care a lot about um people around people around them. And then the next was classroom expectations. So with that um we had kind of what am I trying to say? People were able to add in other and a lot of the other also went into classroom expectations. So the expectation to excel in their classes um having lots of homework that was a huge topic for people. Um and then there

007were only about five responses that put nothing and there were only two responses that for all five questions said they didn't find anything of note. Could you tell me just the social exhaustion? What did you define that as? I'm just curious. >> Yeah, so a lot of that was just um interacting with peers and then also things happening at home, family life. That was also a big um thing that was mentioned. So kind of just interacting with others and all of that that comes along. And then for weapons access, the biggest category was threats. And that was a category that we saw a lot of people select threats and then nothing else. So that's big on people's minds. So that's pretty much and then the other two questions was um about building access and what

008concerns them the most. The biggest category for Brighton was non- studentents entering and I think a lot of that can be attributed to our schools are putting a big emphasis on that right now especially with new ID policies where you have to show every time you enter. So I think that's just a topic that's on a lot of students minds. Um, and then door access, that also makes sense. That also aligns with new district policy. Um, and then, um, the biggest thing when it came to bullying, threats, it's more of that social part of it. Um, that was stalking and repeated harassment. And then it looks like gossip. So, again, the struggles that come with friendships. But speaking to the stalking and repeated harassment, I know that at Brighton we've had a few very minor

009incidents across the past, you know, 5 years that I've been, four years that I've been there. Um, just about like people feeling like they're not being listened to by their teachers when they have an issue. So yeah, I think that's what that category is. >> Did the uh emphasis on ID stop the non- studentents entering? >> Yeah, I think definitely. I why is that such a concern if if >> I think it's >> you've got door access. It's also a concern, you know, I know you say this false sense of security, but it really is a security measure, >> right? Yeah. I think that it's more just that students are still not feeling safe in their schools because of what's happening around them. And so when when the policies come to the schools, that makes

010students think about, oh, that could have been an issue. And now that it's fixed, they're worried about it still because they didn't even think of it before and now they're thinking about it, but it's already been fixed. So I I don't know. It's kind of a a cycle thing, you know. Yeah. So that's that's it from Brighton. >> Okay. I will be presenting Riverdale's data. Um, our biggest one was social social exhaustion for what affects your mental health the most. Um, same thing Rachel said, but also I noticed that that tied in a lot with classroom expectations and school responsiveness. I think that like kids really struggle with having to be present and like their school is not responding to that. Um, I believe we had 111 responses from Riverdale. I'm sorry if that is

011incorrect. Um, a lot of freshmen did do that. And when it comes to weapons access and what concerned you the most, um, people were very concerned with threats and pure weapon access. I know at Riverdale we've had a lot of kids getting saved told from having weapons in the car and like in backpacks. Not it's not very frequent, but I know that is a big concern. >> What's a lot? >> Well, I mean >> Well, as a I don't really know. Like last year, I think we had it happen twice, which is two times more than it should be happening. >> Two times more than it should. Correct. But, you know, the these are terms we're using where we're saying a lot. >> We've got hundreds of kids there. >> Yeah. >> Two. >> But

012that was publicly, too. So whether that's more than that, I don't know. >> That's perceptions. I know we're all talking about perceptions here. It's okay. Carry on. >> You go to the next slide. Um when it comes to building access and what concerns Riverdale students most in our school is non- studentents entering, um door access and parking lot safety. I know that at Riverdale we like our main entrance we don't ID check. So, that's a very big concern. And there have been students before that come in without ID tags that are either prior students or have friends that are in the school and it's a big concern. Uh yeah, just today I overheard one of my friends talking about another student coming in. I don't know where they were from, but they weren't one of

013our students entering our building and walking around the halls. So that is something that I don't see often, but I did even see it today, which was weird. Um, so yeah, our school does an ID check. And so I can see how that is a big issue for our school. Um, when it comes to bullying and threats, what concerns you the most? Um, gossip and then stalking repeated and repeated like um, unwanted attention and verbal harassment. As a student firsthand walking through the hallways, I know that there is a lot of like verbal misuse of words and people are very disrespectful to their peers. Also, gossip. Gossip spreads like wildfire within Riverdale and I know it can very negatively impact others. >> How do you think they would respond if you implemented it? ID check

014at the door positively or do you think it would make them more concerned? >> Um, I believe it would cause a lot of anger within the schools. Um, just because a lot of times kids don't know why things are happening. I think they deserve the to be told why they're doing it checks. Not a lot of kids think about that. They just go through their daily life going to school and they don't think that, oh, someone's gonna come in here and they don't belong here. You know, anyone can walk in without a backpack and look like a student. But I believe that if they were told why this is happening and presented with actual factual evidence of proof that it's happened before, I believe it will respond positively and maybe they will still be concerned

015because now they know about it, but they'll be safer. Do you think that message would be better heard from student council in an assembly or from leadership? Like have you ever thought that through? >> I believe it would be better heard by administration because they are the people that are supposed to be leading our schools. We are supposed to be listening to them and they're supposed to have our best interests at heart and so that coming from them would prove that. That's all. if you have any more questions. >> I can do it. Yeah, sure. Hi, this is my first meeting, so I'm a little bit nervous, but um I'm from PBHS and we had mostly juniors fill out this form. Um so, whatever information or whatever that serves for you guys. I think our

016biggest concern when it came to mental health from the survey results was social exhaustion. similar to the other schools and classroom expectation. I think those can go hand inand um with you know feeling feeling exhaustion, feeling burnout. We see a lot of you know the managing social skills, managing social relationships alongside classroom expectations can be difficult. So I think that makes sense and I think that's a commonality um among a lot of our data between the schools. Um when it comes to weapon access, there was a lot of concern about peer weapon access. Our school also does an ID and there's very honestly minimal safety procedures. So I think that it makes a lot of sense that people are concerned about students bringing things in and out. Um same with classroom safety threats. There was

017concerns about almost all of these categories concerning how our school has responded because we have had like poor responses to I think like threats previously and the administration doesn't seem to be in touch with students about our procedures um about past like um instances other things like that. So I think that it's um another commonality another common concern that administration isn't in contact with students about these concerns that students are obviously having. Um, next slide. Thank you. Um, so when it comes to building access, what concerns you the most in school was our next question. Um, again, we see a lot of answers here. Door access, um, parking lot safety, and non- studentents entering. I think again this has to do with IDs. I think parking lot, um, sort of adult supervision kind of ties

018into that. sort of like it's very unmanaged. Um same with door access that can go in with IDs that can go in with, you know, um a lot of different entrances, things like that. I think that that's a very common and in my personal experience, people are really concerned about the um especially our CTE building that we have multiple buildings are really concerned about the gaps between buildings and how the security looks like in that aspect. Um for the question, when it comes to bullying and threats, what concerns you the most? We had a very even spread of answers here and I think that is you know very expectable. I think like we have definitely had a lot of social media issues, physical violence, all of these things are pretty common in our school and

019I think that you know we need to address each of these individually because based on our number of responses um clearly students are feeling impacted by each of these categories. And then we decided to combine Eagle Ridge, the online academy and INO just because the amount of responses we have for them was about the same as we have for the other schools and their their responses between each other were pretty similar. So >> do you want to present it? >> I mean I try. Okay. This is also my first meeting. So I'll try my best. So uh looks like we had a pretty even spread between classes freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. That's good enough to or that's good to get enough information and opinions from each class. Looks like INO and online academy had

020the most responses and Stead and ERA had less responses. >> Yes. I will say though, we did get good response from Ste on the first survey though because when we included Ste in the responses versus not including STE in the responses, concern over um building access and like just overall security was way higher at STE compared to the other high schools just because they have the more open campus and they have a lot of the buildings. So, >> and I will say me and Marin at RRA are the only two members on this council and we did just join in like April. So, we're still gaining traction from that and we're going to be focusing more on um advertising like surveys and stuff next year. So, yeah. Next slide. >> Okay. Looks like um what

021affects the mental health the most is social exhaustion. Is that what that says? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um yeah, I think this is pretty similar to other schools. It's a lot to be around students and teachers and socializing all day. Um looks like that was a pretty big margin. It looks like social media was next. Again, that is a big in schools and that has a lot of effect on mental health. When it comes to weapon access, um classroom safety and threats were the highest. So that just um I will say pure weapon access is lower for this survey which um contradicts to the other schools. I think the other schools with a more larger population had a higher concern for peer weapon access. So classroom safety just prioritizing that in schools and um focusing

022on that. Um coming to building access non- studentents entering this is interesting for erra because we do have the ID policy. All of us are required to wear our IDs all day long. We don't check IDs at the door, which I think could be a big thing. And we have a smaller school population. So, I don't really see why we couldn't, but that also is a concern because a lot of seniors and upper classmen have first and second periods off. So, doing ID checks in the morning would be harder for upper classmen. I would say non- studentents entering is also interesting as our doors are always locked, offices are always looking at people who are coming in. Um, as far as IDs go, I will say throughout the year, I have noticed less and less

023kids wearing their IDs and less teachers giving um like repercussions for that or lunch detentions for not wearing IDs. So, that is interesting. When it comes to bullying and threats, gossip is obviously the highest. Um, I think this is especially for RA instead since we're in person schools, not much for online school. But yeah, gossip is a lot and that also contributes to social exhaustion and hearing about yourself in the hallways isn't easy. So yeah, >> next slide >> here. Hold on. Can we stay on that one for a second? I do want to speak to um for all of the schools what was lowest because we're focusing on what's highest, but I think it's interesting to focus on what's lowest so that we know how to, you know, combat these is these issues. I

024think it's interesting that lack of resources and um I think bullying on the other one was also a little bit lower. I think that that's interesting because it means that people um feel like there are a lot of resources in their school, but they're still not feeling reassured in certain areas. And so I'm I'm not sure what the best course of access or course of action would be to um make people feel safer because it seems like they're um aware of the resources and they don't think that there's a lack of resources. It just feels like there's still the the threat of safety. So yeah, and I think um I I will speak to Brighton real quick again because looking at the other schools, I saw our school responsiveness was um higher compared to the

025other ones. So, I think that that also it maybe feels like we're not being listened to by our admin. And um I I can say from experience that feels a little bit more accurate at Brighton just because sometimes you go to to the admin with um worries about like, oh, this person did this to me or um I don't feel safe being in this environment and our school is not always the most receptive to that. So, yeah, >> I could speak on that as well. At RA, we have a really great admin in my personal opinion. And I've had multiple experiences with our deans having to go to them about students and them being very resp responsive with that and respecting their student body. So um but I also think that has to do with

026a smaller student population having a lot less issues to deal with. We rarely have any physical violence as it shows in the data. So yeah. >> Yeah. So that's pretty much it for our data. So, if you have questions about that, you can ask now or >> Yeah, I I don't know, but I have lots of questions. But I should tell you at 275 responses is really really good. Tom and I sit on some other places and there's 55,000 people that live in Brighton and we get 271 responses. So, like you should be proud of your data collection. That'd be number one. The second thing that I would talk about is the social exhaustion thing is like something that I hear often. So, I have five kids um three of which are in middle school

027and high school and um Tom's up here saying, "What is social exhaustion?" And I really believe that postco the idea that you now have to engage and be around people all the time is something that they're speaking to. So like seeing this on here wasn't that big of a surprise to me. Um, I am concerned and I'd have questions for you, Will, um, around safety and the non- studentent entry and those type of things because as the initiative went out and we got all the money to save FAA safety and then we went with the weapons detections and now we're saying there's zero >> Well, that's what the perception is. The perception is that we're not checking IDs and that the doors are unmandated. Like, how did we transfer? And would you guys say that

028there was a transfer of when that happened? um as the year progressed or has it always been like that? I think those would be my questions for you. >> You know, I can only speak to Brighton obviously, but I'll I'll say they've really stuck with the ID checking in the past. I know it's been kind of uh you know, they do it for a week and then they stop doing it. But I mean, pretty much every single time I go in, they check my Yeah. Every single time I go in, they check my ID. And I think what's helped with that is we have a closed campus for freshmen. And I believe that's starting for freshman and sophomores next year as well. And so they have to check it to make sure that freshmen aren't

029um entering and exiting the building. And so um because because they check for freshmen entering and exiting, they check for everyone. And so that just makes everyone feel safer. So I don't me personally, I don't agree with, you know, the data the data. I don't feel like I I'm worried that someone's not going to be a student at Brighton. But I can see how other people if they're not um I I don't know. I can see how other people might be worried about that, especially if with the new ID policies that's making you think about it more and you're like, "Oh my gosh, are there people around me that don't go here? I don't know." So, yeah. >> Well, and I think part of it uh that these guys their their goal at the end

030in beginning of the year was to to collect the data, do some analysis, work with our departments, understand where the deficiencies were with what we said we're doing, and then give us a report about how we fix it. So, we're getting the problems a little bit. We we even haven't talked about what all this data means yet. And so Rachel's going to Dartmouth. Congratulations. We should be celebrating Rachel. The rest of these kids I'm really excited for because they they're really interested in doing the work and making change. And so we've got data that says we would like to know more about it. But but this is the first time I've even seen the data. So what does that mean? We see social exhaustion. We see these things. I I I don't know if we've

031done enough work to to to really validate and verify what are the exact problems at every school. And so that's that's the standard of what we want from these guys. And we just didn't quite hit it this year. >> Um I I love that. And honestly like I'm just like impressed about your presentation. So I know it was your first time but you did a great job just so you know. And to answer to ask the question you just said they're going to go to closed campus for juniors and or for sophomores also next year. >> That's right. Was that was there a campus space issue this year around freshmen not leaving? So, it'll be fine. Sorry, you sent me down a rabbit hole. >> What I'd like to see uh and again, keep drilling.

032Uh let's drill into social exhaustion. Let's let's have them define it so that we don't just let them you you gave them a a set of categories to pick and they just said, "Oh, yeah. Social exhaustion. What does social exhaustion mean?" you know, because how how are we going to solve the problem if we don't necessarily know what the problem is? Uh what does non- students entering mean? Why is that such a concern for you if we have all these things in place? Uh you know, and and again, this is great work. I really appreciate what you did here, but uh you know, any good data analyst will say, "All right, let's drill down and let's let's figure out what this means now because uh we've got some great categories. We've got some great windows

033that we need to open up and say, "Okay, let's see what's inside." What this really a high one that social exhaustion is across every one of those schools. Okay, we need to know what that is. You know, because clearly that's that's something affecting everybody. Same with non students >> door access, you know, where I've got a different policy at Brighton than I do at some of these other ones. Well, what are they gonna what are they gonna feel about if we say, "Okay, everybody has to badge in." you know, is it going to be a hassle or are they going to be less concerned about it or is it going to be I'm mad about it so no that it bugs me because I have to do it. Uh so again, this is great a

034great start. I really appreciate the data you did and again like um Linda was saying this is significant data. You you've got some really good numbers here. Uh and so uh yeah, run with them. Keep doing it well. We appreciate what you did. >> Uh thank you Tom. Um this might be an uncomfortable question and you might not do know the answer to this but um so we celebrate our diversity uh that's an asset in in our school in all our schools but can you talk the about how that interacts when you live it every single day if that is true something you're actually seeing that we are sort of getting along as a device group and we might not know the answer to that but I'm just kind of curious about if you have

035seen that some of your surveys or or what you're sort um encountering >> answer um you know I feel like I I agree that diversity is such a big strength and I I see that in a lot of committees that I'm in where we have a lot of diversity on our committees but I'll say day-to-day from my perception people really keep to people that are like themselves you know I mean that's I feel like that's just kind of normal you gravitate to people that you see yourself in so I think when there's the the force like okay well I I'll join this and people from this group will join this people from this group will join this and we all work together I I see diversity in that aspect but just dayto-day who people gravitate

036towards who um who they talk to the most I feel like there's there's very distinct groups just based off of you know theirs I don't know >> thank you >> um speaking to Perry View I would say that we have a very like great integrated diverse group of people I think that people hang out with people that are different from them and we have very diverse um interests. So, not to say that there isn't clicks, but I think they surround like hobbies, interests, um what motivates people more than they surround any other factor. So, I think in my school, I think that's something that I really admire and I'm proud to say about my school is that I don't feel like there are any large social groups that are combatant with each other. Um, and

037I think that's a really good thing. Um, I'll go next. For diversity for me in and out of my school, it's a lot um based on not only the social groups that you're in, but the classes that you're in. Um, like my engineering class, I'm one of two girls in that class. So, it's not very diverse in that way. And so if we got more girl enrollment in that class, we could open up more diversity into that class. But it's the fact that some students want to all enroll in some classes versus some students want to enroll in different classes. And I do see that bridge versus um girls are more likely to take like the cooking and home classes versus a lot more men will take the engineering and welding classes. And so I

038see that bridge there that um there's a strong line where I don't see as much diversity in those classes. Yeah. >> Can I say thank you for being a girl in engineering? I appreciate that. Okay, I want to speak for Eagle Ridge real fast. I actually agree with Ivy. We have like a really great diverse group of people at our school. I think everyone is friends with everyone. We have such a small school population. It's hard to hate people cuz you see them every single day. I know most of the people at my school, our admin knows most of the kids at our school. And we really try to interact with each other and have fun with each other. I mean, I'm in drama and I see boys from the soccer team come and see

039our shows. we go and see their games. It's just a nice diverse group. But at Eagle Ridge, we do have a smaller school population. So, I think that makes that easier. >> Can I ask a question? What inspired your your question for diversity? >> Yeah, thanks um for the question. So, growing up in a diverse group myself, I learned the value of being able to work with a lot of different people and respecting different cultures. uh being able to be open-minded to many things that has helped me personally grow as a professional where I manage different types of people from different ethnicities from women and and uh and and men. So that inspired me because I think I don't want this district to lose that opportunity. I want you to live it now and sort

040of be open-minded in terms of how that is going to sort of help you in the future. And I that's just because I know that's what I've experienced and I don't believe I haven't gone that far if I have not had that sort of diverse populace in my school where I went to. And I think that sort of is an asset for us. And I just want us to lean into that and leverage that because I think it together I think it's going to be much we're going to be much better district for that. So that's the reason I asked for that is I don't want to lose an opportunity here as perhaps we're we're just going our own way and then when you get into the real world you don't know how to interact

041or how to uh work together just because you're looking at people from a different perspective. So >> hope that helps. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Any else? Boy, guys, thank you a lot. Uh you know, again, I live in fear of the admin knowing my name. Um but um it's good that it could happen in those smaller schools. But uh I I and some of these we have hundreds of students. It's it's tough for even people to even get recognized. So I I appreciate you guys dubbing in there and getting their opinions and talking to them and uh keep up this work and uh we're anxious to hear more. Now you guys got another announcement. Let's hear it. >> I just wanted to uh at our last meeting we did elect our new leadership team.

042So I wanted to introduce them real quick. So, our president for next year is Elelliana. And then our vice president is Kieran, who you all are familiar with. And then our secretary is Ivy. So, yeah. And then we have Topgolf on June 17th from 5:00 to 7:00. And we invite you all to join us. >> Yeah, that's it from us now. For real. >> Thank you. >> Great job. Thank you very much. >> Oh yeah, we're definitely excited to watch stage. We're going to be there. >> And cheer for my speech, please. >> Oh, yeah. >> You got you. >> We'll cheer so loud. >> It'll be >> okay. I never talk, but Rachel Whitney reached out to me. She's in our safety and security department. And she saw the posters around all the schools

043and with the QR codes and the surveys. And she was very excited that this group was surveying students and gathering that information. and she was wanting to know about, you know, the the statistics and the data that they have. So, working with them as well as what does next steps look like? So, our staff recognize the work this group did in the schools together. So, and we're going to use it to be better. So, >> Oh, yeah. And I wanted to shout out the communications department for helping us get this out. So, yeah, shout out to them. >> So shouted. >> Thank you very much. We'll see you on the stage or on the 17th and look forward to seeing you next year. Have a great summer. >> Uh, next up would be the superintendent

044report. Super, are you ready? >> I don't know. >> All right. Uh, thank you, uh, Mr. President. Uh, lots of happenings. Uh you may have noticed uh last week uh the boundary change was were official. Uh I just want to thank everybody uh that came out. We had over 300 parents community throughout the process join us uh their involvement, their perspectives um social media direct contact with us uh and and and FPAC for all of their work in helping make that recommendations. Um and and for those who don't know, we still have work to do. So you have the open enrollment process or the boundaries are done but we still have processes for how we'll open enroll how kids will be able to if the kids are grandfather how we'll still make that role and

045we wanted to we tried to see if we could get it to release all at the same time but we couldn't meet that bar so we said let's just do it as transparent on us as fast as we can and give information as we need it but I know that people are still wanting to know all the specific details and uh those will still continue to be forthcoming so um exciting exciting stuff there. Thank you to to uh Greg and all of his work, all of our team and Epac, all of our community. So for that, um I always have so many things to celebrate and I'm not sure I'm going to get get them all. I'm already thinking like three things right here while I'm talking that we missed out. But if you didn't

046know, Henderson Elementary was a Governor's Distinguished Improvement School last year and South Elementary received a center of excellence award. And so that's pretty that's pretty fun fun deal. We got to go down and spend some time um down at award ceremony and and celebrate the both of our principles there and and recognize both of those schools for for their their good improvements. Um we also had uh we get different awards for different things. I wasn't even aware that this was an award until I got it in the mail, but I thought that was pretty cool. We do have Colorado asthma friendly schools. And what we realize is that those nurses, Aaron Bluth and Holland Foley really work hard to make sure that um that they demonstrate comprehensive evidence-based asthma management. And so it's fun that

047we we are taking care of kids with asthma. And I just think that that was a cool thing to know. Uh we also had uh our communications team, if you didn't know, they said shout out to communications team, but they they were a state medallion award winner. And you can read that that's the highest honor the state bestows on upon school districts. And uh they they not only got that award um but they also had uh nine campaigns um that also uh got awards or honorable mentions or uh digital media excellence. So it's just just fun. We we they Janelle always throws her their name in the hat for some of those awards and we continue to continue to prove prove to do pretty good work. So, congratulations to Janelle and her team. And then

048while we're on awards, uh you know the NJOTC at Prairie View, we are really proud of that unit. They got voted the most improved unit in Colorado this year. So, that is really exciting stuff for the 2025. They did during their end of the year awards. We didn't know they were going to get it and then I got a got an email from them. So, a special thanks to that group for doing great work and giving those kids that opportunity and and and and doing the work. So important. Lots of stuff happening this month. It's the It's the 100 days of May. Uh somebody called it uh what did you call it? Uh Rachel, you called it Maycember. Maycember, but there's no Christmas gifts at the end of it. No presents. Lots of cool stuff.

049Uh Director Alvarado was out and about doing some stuff uh with doing interviews for Marittown at Second Creek. Thanks for doing that. District art show was amazing this year. Um I I I walked through that place. I don't know if anybody else if you guys had a chance to go to the district art show, but it was it was just incredible the art and the different mediums are our kids are getting better and better and better at art. It is absolutely incredible the things that they do. So that that was happening. Uh we had internship fair. I'm I'm so excited about this. We had we had 233 students get interns. Uh Melinda and I went to the first one and we're like there was 76 interns and everybody's proud and I was like that's got

050to be the worst we'll ever do. And I was just teasing because I was really proud that we had 76. We have 2330 but 233 students but that's only possible with that next number 118 industry partners businesses that are willing to take on interns, right? And so if you if you we can't do we can do more interns but we have to have more businesses and to have 118 businesses our own departments. Thank you uh for taking on interns because that is that is a really cool event. And I know Melinda was saying we should get more parents here. And it's like, man, we'll have to get a different venue. We're going to have to go to see you or something to celebrate the internship fair. So, >> get a exciting exciting stuff for sure.

051Uh we in 27J, I'm really proud of our safety group. We we practice and drill a whole bunch of things. This practice, we did a reunification practice. It's something we hope we never have to do, but we never want to be unprepared. um at Padilla a couple Mondays ago, we had the what you're seeing in the lefthand corner is the students. They were actually administrators and people were at the training, but they acted as students. And then we had parents going to get the students and every card you got had a different kid in a different circumstance. And this kid's lost and parents found that their kids wasn't findable. So, they threw wrinkles in there. I mean, it was a good drill. The the police were present. Um Sam and his team were there. Uh

052just it was a cool thing. So many people practice reunification and I hope we never need to do it. Um, but we're we're better prepared for for drilling and so you even go you even practice reunification drills. Yeah, we practice at all and I think that was it was a really cool event just to to watch uh that happen uh give up many people gave up a Monday morning to go practice in case we ever need it. So and hopefully we don't. Last month was the retirement dinner or was it last month or was that the beginning of this month? Sometime between last board meeting and this we had a retirement dinner. Uh 829 years of combined service retiring this year and so uh I think it's one of that's always one of my favorite

053events and this group is absolutely incredible group of human beings to celebrate. Among them you'll see Carla Ryder which we will deeply miss. Um but but but a great great night, a great great group. When you think 829 years committed to kids and many of them have spent almost their entire career or their entire career all in 27J. So thank you. Special shout out to them and and and director Alvarado, you did a really good job. Director Tracy Alvarado did a really good job of of speaking at the start of that event. So well done. Uh Talon Ridge, uh key turning turnover ceremony. So, I think the worst pomp and circumstances because we're not going to open that school right away. We uh but to celebrate the construction crew for their their incredible efforts. Terry

054and his team for their incredible efforts. You know, another project that we did on time on budget uh we will start beginning giving tours and having meetings and we already did that with the bond oversight. And you walk in the building, it's as amazing as you can. because it will be probably the last project that he closes out. Uh a special thanks to Kevin Barton who project manages this the these things and he's just done an incredible job for us for a number of years. So um grateful for that ceremony. So to all those that went and then there's just tons and tons of little award ceremonies. I took this one because you recognize the two Jasmine's. They couldn't be here tonight probably because they've graduated and they've got fun or they're going they're they're

055out of school and they got fun things to do. But it was really fun to watch both of them going. You know, Jasmine on the left, Newman is was one of our Daniel Scholars and Jasmine Yol on the right. Great night to meet their families and see them and have them speak about uh being top 15 and and just just incredible the number of of kids that we have that are great. You know, Brighton had over 30 30 kids that were sumukumlady, which means you have a 42 4.2 or higher. I mean, just incredible, incredible stuff. So excited for that. And then graduation season, I I've got one check box up there. May 15th, Stead Colorado School of Minds, that one is checked off. Uh was a great ceremony. Um Bill did did great and

056the kids at Stead were awesome. I should have got one of Resa, but I I didn't think about it till afterwards. And we have more coming. And so you can see there's the list of of the next graduations coming beginning tomorrow morning, Eagle Ridge. And then June 1st, we have a whole bunch at the FC our blue FCU Arena. They the schools would like us to be there. Uh if we can an hour early, so that's that's an early morning. I'm interested in car pooling. If you care to text, I will be leaving the ESC at 7 o'clock. If anybody wants to meet me at the ESC parking lot, I'm happy to drive as many that fit in my my car. And that'll be a long day of fun and and festivities. And then back

057to June 4th, we'll go back to to the school of minds to do OA and and INO. So exciting stuff. And so with that, that that includes uh oh, dress for graduation. Thank you for the reminder. Uh uh we will wear gowns for Prairie View High School and the rest of them will just be wearing um your normal business attire, nice dress clothes. Um if you don't have a gown, we'll have some in the back of my truck so people can have one. But I think many of you got one last year to wear. So >> if you have them, >> you will have them all. >> I will have them. If you if you don't, I will have them. >> I have eight of them. >> I have eight. >> Questions about any of

058that? If not, >> do you have our parking passes? Um, your names will be on a list. Okay. So, that's why we needed an RSVP. And we will have a lunch around that lunch time. And then we will also have a snack for you if you're >> provided by their drinks. Any more questions for our superintendent? >> Thank you, Will. >> And I'm sure I always apologize. These are terrible reports because I just there's so many cool right now. It's there's so many cool things. There's a concert couple nights ago. There was another honor and there was just so much. It's just it's amazing stuff. Perfect. Next up would be our matters of public comment. The board will now hear public comments on the following topics that have been indicated on the sign-in sheet. A

059reminder that this is a board meeting that is a business meeting held in public, not a public meeting. The board hears public comments to learn about the preferences and concerns of our community. Therefore, tonight we will listen. We are prohibited by state law to take any actions on the items because law requires formal public notice prior to any action on an agenda item. During our next meeting, if appropriate, we will consider your comments in our discussion and we will ask that the superintendent attempt to find an answer for any of your questions by that time. The board welcomes the comments of our community members, but to ensure that everyone will have the opportunity to participate, we have a few ground rules. Anyone intending to address the board should sign the speaker sign-in sheet. We'll call

060you in the order in which they're signed in. Your comments are limited to three minutes. Uh, and we ask that you refrain from making complaints or negative comments against individual students or district employees. However, we cannot prevent you from doing so. Such complaints and comments should be addressed first at the classroom or school level and then if still unre unresolved to the superintendent. uh disturbing good order by inappropriate language or gestures is grounds for removal from the meeting and we thank you advance for your participation tonight. First up would be David Pockington speaking on the bathroom and title 9 policies. >> Am I on? uh superintendent must follow federal law for title nine is a federal civil rights statute title nine of the education amendments of 1972 that makes compliance a condition of receiving federal

061funding to retain federal dollars the superintendent must comply with federal regulations even if it conflicts with local or state level requirements even if it conflicts with state or Colorado requirements. your policy. Title 9 sexual harassment grievance process. The district is committed to maintaining a learning environment free from sexual harassment and conforms to legal requirements under Title 9 of the education requirements of 1972, Title 9. This is your policy. How can you have a policy stand that you follow Title 9 when you really follow Colorado law that allows boys into into girls facilities? Another policy you guys have staff responsibilities 27J serves as a role model for all our students and within our community. 27J personnel shall demonstrate and uphold high professional ethical and moral standards. Again, by allowing boys into girls bathrooms, how can you

062say we uh provide professional, ethical, and moral standards? Does this sound like 27J? I see on May 5th your bond did not pass. Maybe it's because the people and the parents of 27J are tired of it when you guys don't follow your own laws. 27J is not above the law. You have a moral obligation to protect kids, especially females. If 27J shows that they are or they can disobey Title 9, then we really are not better than Denver and Jeffco. Superintendent, you once told me that you actually disagree with having boys and girls bathrooms, but here we are having this policy. You have armed security here because you took uh in case something happens, you took the time to be proactive because you matter. The people in this room matter. What about the girls of

06327J? You have a a board that are betting on something that hopefully nothing happens. You're being reactive instead of proactive. Even in your right here at the commitment to governing style, you're going to govern proactive rather than reactive. 27J also has a policy that states every employee are required to report any incident. All employees who witness, experience, or receive information regarding a potential Title 9 incident is mandated to report it. The only person up here is Mr. Pierce, who is a 27J employee. Have you reported this incident to for for Title 9? You're following Colorado law, you have to report it. It's an incident. Last Tracy, you uh you said about building communications. Do you mind if I finish? >> Oh, how much you got left? Just just couple sentence. >> Okay. >> Tracy, you

064were talking about building communications, getting to know each other. I've been coming here for a year and a half. You talk about building communications, nobody's reached out to me. A year and a half, nobody's reached out to me. Are we just about words or are we actually going to do something about it? Thank you. >> Thank you. Next up would be Janine Renfol who's going to talk about technology and learning. Welcome, Janine. You know the drill. Both these were from in district. Um, hi, I'm Janine. I'm in the district. Um, I want to speak tonight about the balance between technology and effective learning practices in our schools. First, I want to say that I support the district's focus on creating thinking classrooms. The district states that the thinking classroom's primary responsibility is to empower our

065students as thinkers, learners, and problem solvers. I believe that is an important goal and I appreciate the work being done and support student learning. I also want to be clear that I'm not against technology in education. As someone who taught before every student had a Chromebook, I understand how useful technology can be and how uh sharing notes instantly um integrating visuals and diagrams, organizing assessments effectively and providing student access materials any time. The science classrooms especially technology can enhance instruction far beyond what can we can do years ago with textbooks and overhead projectors. I also understand the practical benefits for teachers. Electronic grading and digital assessments are faster and easier to manage. But I believe we need to ask the important question. Are our instructional methods fully aligned with how students think, process, retain, and

066demonstrate learning most effectively? Research in cognitive science and neuroscience increasingly shows that handwriting and paperbased learning activate the brain differently than types of typing on screenbased work. In 2024, a neuroscience study published in Frontiers in Psychology found handwriting creates significant greater brain connectivity than typing, especially in regions associated with learning and significant memory formation. Research also suggests students retain information from better when they write because they are requires deeper cognitive processing, spelling retrieval, motor engagement, and active recall. Our district has recognized the impact of technology can have by limiting phone use during school hours. At the same time, students also spend significant time using districtisssued Chromebooks and screenbased instructional platforms such as Lexia and EXL both inside and outside the classroom. I believe these programs can be useful in supplemental tools, but I'm also concerned

067that digital digital learning expands. Students may be spending less time engaged in the kind of active paper and writing problem solving strength strengthens memory retention, literacy development, and deeper learning. Last summer, I had my daughter complete a math workbook during the summer to help maintain her skills. And I noticed she had no idea how to show work because they do every thing in math on a computer. Um, it matters because math's not just about getting the correct answer, but students need to actively see the process to demonstrate their thinking. When students work on papers, teachers can see where the student became confused, if they went step to step, if they skipped a step, um they can see where that misunderstanding is and they can help uh redirect learning. I believe Chromebooks absolutely have a place

068in education. Students benefit from digital access to notes, assignments, visuals, instructional materials, but students may also benefit from completing more of their actual learning work on paper through handwritten notes, written responses, and math. and uh math solving, lab reports, and writing. Especially in district operating on a 4-day school week, we should prioritize instructional methods that maximize retention, literacy development, conceptual understanding, and long-term learning. I'm not bringing this concern forward as a criticism of teachers in the district. I know educators are working incredibly hard and understand the real pressures surrounding time, staffing, grading, and instructional demands. I'm bringing this forward as a parent who deeply cares about the quality of our education that our students are receiving and long-term success of the children who will become our future workforce leaders, problem solvers, and community members. I

069want to work collaboratively collaboratively with the district to help examine whether there may be opportunities to better better balance technology with instructional practices that strengthen learning, memory retention, literacy, and critical thinking. Sometimes parents can help provide perspectives on what students are experiencing day-to-day outside of the classroom. And I hope this can be part of a constructive conversation on how we can improve student learning altogether. Thank you. >> Thank you, Janine. And I appreciate the article. Uh next up would be now item eight, our consent agenda. Uh all matters listed under the consent agenda are operational matters about which the board has governing policies implementation of which is delegated to the superintendent. They will be enacted in one motion by category in the order listed below. There will be no discussion of these items prior to

070the time of the board of directors vote on the motion. uh any member of the public has not uh noted they want to speak on the consent agenda. So we will move forward. Uh the items are A approval of the board of education minutes dated April 22nd 2026 study session and regular meeting and May 13 2026 linkage meeting. Item B, approval of personnel items on the memorand memorandum dated May 21st, 2026 and resolution number 1025 2025-2026 non-renewal of staff members. And item C, res, approval of resolution number 11, 2022-2026, requesting the conveyance of property owned by the city of Commerce City as described in the Legato West tract F East 93rd Place, Commerce City, Colorado. Uh, further description of the property and purposes are described in the attached documentation. Do I have a motion? >>

071I'll move to approve the consent agenda as presented. I'll second. >> Um, a motion from Director Tracy Alvarado and a second from Director Carbajal. We have four. Is that still enough? Go ahead with a roll call vote and note that. Uh, thank you. >> Director Raone Alvarado. >> Yes. >> Director Tracy Alvarado. >> Yes. >> Director Melinda Carbajal. >> Yes. >> Director Tom Green. >> Uh, yes. noted that director Wilhelm stepped out for a moment and uh motion carries because you guys still do have quorum. Thank you. >> Moving on, our next uh item would be item nine now which is the governance process that supports our global goals. First up would be ownership linkage directors Carbajal and Alvarado. I don't know. We didn't formally meet. Um, we were talking a bit about the combination

072between the two committees. I don't know if this is where we >> formalize that of ownership linkage and board education committees A and B moving together into be one committee instead of two separate committees. And I don't know if this is where we talk about who's going to sit on that committee and make that assignment or how does that work? Uh I think we'll have to wait until Director Trill is here before we decide be since I know that there's uh one member that's in on both and then two members that are on one of each. So we'll have to decide. There can only be two on each. >> Yeah. >> So we'll have to decide. But yes, we the board uh has uh formed a consensus around combining our ownership linkage and board education

073committees to be one committee. That's fine. >> Very good. Moving on. Our uh facility planning and advisory committee as uh the superintendent mentioned uh we have finalized and sent our recommendation for the uh boundary changes. Uh and he has accepted those and approved them. Uh next up we are working through how we want to do uh the ability to uh open enroll. We're still working through that and how we want to handle that and also how those legacy students will be handled too. Uh, next up would be the Capital Facility Feeoundation. Director Alvarado, do you have anything you want to add? >> Um, no. So, I think we we met um virtually. Um the uh the committee went through a presentation that shows just the financials um the most recent financials and also the uh

074presentation on some of the the growth that we're experiencing in the district. Um but overall that was sort of what we talked about. And uh this would be the foundation's 25th anniversary and we were hoping to recognize uh all those uh organizations and members that have had an impact and uh bringing together approximately $21 million that has been contributed to the foundation. So we hope to do that next month. uh they we didn't have enough here to really make it the worthwhile celebration that they needed to be because we really appreciate the money that the capital facility fee foundation has brought into our schools and uh saved our taxpayers money. Uh next up would be Rocky Mountain Risk. Director Alvarado. >> Sure. So this is my first inerson meeting with the rest of the team

075from Rocky Mountain Risk since joining and it was interesting. Um, I was the only newbie, so asked lots and lots of questions. Whether they really appreciated that or not, I felt like they were answers that I wanted to have to fully understand the impact of what that risk pool is like and how that works in tandem with our district. And then, um, Stacey and I have talked about continuing conversations um, just to to fully understand the impact that that has on our district and um, make sure it's functioning the way we want. Perfect. Thank you very much. Anything on the 27J believers award? Director Wilhelm. >> Uh, no update currently. >> The Commerce City and 27J school use tax. >> We have not met yet. >> Very good. The 2021 bond oversight committee. >> I'll

076jump in and if you want to add anything, we our last meeting was at Talon Rich. So, it was really cool to get to go walk around the school and get a really in-depth tour. We had a smaller crew which um out of 14 people there, three of them were named Kevin. So, we had a good Kevin to non- Kevin ratio, which I was told was important. So, that was great. Um and then just on a personal note, I brought my kids to that meeting and they got to run around and and play in the gym and I think break it in. So, got to be some of the first kids running around in the school, but it was really great to hear um from one of the Kevin about all of the the things

077that went into building the school and just see um what a great home that's going to be for so many students and for that neighborhood. So, really, really proud of what we've done there. >> And that will open for the 2027 school year. So excited to have that. Uh how about the mill levy oversight committee? We have a meeting coming up uh next month in June, early June. So, >> very good. Uh the Brighton Youth Commission uh I understand they had a very successful speak and week uh and I'm sure director Dill will give us all the lowdown on it next month when she's here. Uh the excellence in education award uh we did have that celebration at the last meeting and I thought that was very well received and again appreciate uh could not

078have been done without the principles. uh of our schools submitting those nominations. Uh is there any other matters of information for the board for future agenda items? Uh again, >> go ahead. >> I was just curious if this is when we talk about for future agenda items, getting that number B, that committee um voted on. Do we look at doing that next month or when do we move to that? I think it still needs some more discussion, but that that could be a recommendation to be part of the next study session. I think there's still more discussion to be had on that unless you want to you you can uh recommend it. >> I recommend a vote. >> Very good. We'll make a note of that and we'll put it on the agenda for June.

079>> You can study session and then vote. >> Fine and Danny, >> thank you. Uh and again we will combine the ownership linkage and board education once we have all those directors present and they can decide how they want to uh shape that out. Uh next up would be item 10 expectations of the board. Uh there is uh no reports that were going to be accepted or rejected due submitted last meeting but uh we do want to look over our policy review schedule on June 10th. we will talk about this treatment of students/public and financial budget planning and budgeting. Uh that's basically we'll look at the adopted budget. So that treatment of students public was moved from this meeting because they weren't quite ready for that report. Uh next up the school charter school re

080renewal contract. The board will consider approval of resolution number 12, 2022-2026, approving the Stee School Charter School Renewal Contract for the term June 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2031. The proposed charter school renewal contract incorporates the conditions outlined in the board's resolution number 7, 2025-2026 authorizing the renewal of the school charter. If there are no uh further questions, I would accept a motion. Otherwise, if there are any finalizing questions, we would accept them now. I move to move that the board approve the resolution number 122025-2026 approving the Stee School charter school renewal contract for the term June 1st 2026 through June 30th 2031. >> I'll second >> motion from Director Wilhelm. Second from Dr. Tracy Alvarado. Roll call vote. >> Director Raone Alvarado. No. >> Director Tracy Alvarado. >> I. >> Director Melinda Carbajal. >>

081Yes. >> Director Ashley Khan. Oh, sorry. Director Tom Green. >> Yes. >> Director Rachel Wilhelm. >> Yes. >> Did I get everybody? Sorry. Motion carries by majority. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, next up would be item 12. Now, the intergo intergovernmental agreement conveying certain district property to the city of Brighton. The board will consider approving an intergovernmental agreement and a storm waters facilities maintenance agreement with the city of Brighton conveying certain properties and temporary construction easements as described in the attached documents. When completed, the project will run from Bridge Street on the south to Garcia Avenue on the north. This portion of North 40th Avenue will front the educational service center and the north transmission terminal on their western boundaries. Uh Terry, would you like to give us a little bit of background on

082Are there any additional questions on this? Thank you very much. Yeah, go ahead. >> So, sorry, I know you answered a lot of the questions. I just want to make sure that uh there's with the existing pond that we have now, that's going to be quote unquote the commission, right? eventually. Is there any cost associated with that going forward? >> Not to the district. Okay. So, there's an existing >> right. >> It has to tie into the >> That's one of the things the new agreement requires. >> Okay. The only costm is some agreements about routine >> we have some agreements about routine maintenance mowing and those kind of things and and in the event that a dredging would happen and I used uh the what's the name of the subdivision here right off of

083Bridge Street uh >> Fezant Ridge >> uh they have a detention pond just just north of of Fezant Ridge. Feezan Ridge has been there I don't know a couple decades and and they finally had to had to dredge it this past summer. So the likelihood that that'll happen is somewhere way down the road. Uh this puts us in compliance with all the storm water deals at no uh storm water regulations without any financial burden to the district. >> Okay. And then the uh the dredging cost 8614 split that's based on the usage between parties. Correct. And the other thing that it does, if we were ever to to add more development, we would have to expand that pond even larger. It's sized for the 100red-year event based on the flows coming off the impervious surfaces

084of the roadway and our parking lots of those things associated with the north terminal. >> Great. Thank you. >> Do I have a motion? I'll move to approve the aforementioned intergovernmental agreement and storm water facilities maintenance agreement with the city of Brighton conveying certain property and temporary construction easements as described therein and authorizing the superintendent of schools or his designate to conduct any required negotiations and to execute all required documents. I'll second >> motion for director Wilhelm. Second from Director Raone Alvarado. Roll call vote. >> Director Raone Alvarado. >> Yes. >> Director Tracy Alvarado. >> Yes. >> Director Melinda Carbajal. >> Yes. >> Director Tom Green. >> Yes. >> Director Rachel Wilhelm. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. Thank you. >> Uh next up would be item 13. This is my favorite thing of the year

085almost, but you know it is 8:30. Uh, Chief Financial Officer Stacy Yashimoto will present the information concerning the 2026 2027 proposed budget. Thank you for patiently waiting and for being here. The floor is yours. >> It's really low. I feel like I could stand and be just fine. >> I don't know if you can see me over the thing. We're good now. We're all right. >> Try to push this down. >> Yeah, maybe that'll help. >> Oh, thank you so much. >> I know. It was so high. I was like, "Sorry." >> That's much better. Oh, and hold. It's the hold that I get. Thank you. >> All right, I think we're good to go. Thank you. Sorry about that. All set. Um, so good evening. Thank you uh for letting us present your the

086our proposed budget to you tonight. Um, I have my great budget team with me, um, who really does they do the leg work of all of the the information that's going to be presented tonight. So, I have Myra Ramirez, who is my budget manager, and then Lavar Cypress, who is our budget analyst. Um, these guys put the work together, but it really is a a very collaborative effort with the entire district. um starting with the exec team behind us, we we start meeting on a weekly basis in February, January, February to start thinking about um budget requests, budget asks. We're following legislation like a hawk all all through the the those months leading up to now. And it really is a joint effort. Um these guys have worked with the schools, with departments, Carla's team,

087uh Terry's team. Um, so it really was I felt like it was a very collaborative effort this year. Um, I'm very excited to present it to you because with every year, with every budget, we seem to get a little bit better and a little bit better. Um, so yeah, with that being said, we will continue on. So just a quick outline of the presentation tonight. Obviously, we'll start with the budget climate, kind of what happened with legislation, give some enrollment and PPR updates, revenue projections, expenditure allocations, an overview of what our key investments were for this budget year, and then looking forward of what's to come. Um, so our budget climate this year is kind of sounds like a broken record, right? We had continued budget uncertainty at the state level. um depending on which

088projections you were looking at. The state was facing a one one to one and a half billion dollar shortfall yet again. Um there were there are fun things that kind of got thrown on last minute too. There was a lot of uh commotion regarding specific ownership tax this year. As Ken Lenn alluded to, there was a lot of commotion uh around homeschool enrichment funding. Um and then the the the la the the last thing that happened maybe the beginning of May um there were school finance act runs that got released um that adjusted the cost of living and inflation rates that really impacted a lot of school districts. So that was a fun it was a fun legislative year this year. Um but ultimately the outcome of Senate Bill 26023 which is the school finance

089act. Um so prior year with the new funding formula in fiscal year 2526 they settled with a 15% implementation with 4-year averaging um we are in the lucky end of the averaging where it doesn't really affect us because we've always had increasing um enrollment over the past I don't know probably 10 years with the exception of the co year um but so the averaging does not impact us so we're really lucky in that sense so for fiscal year 2627 they settled on 30% implementation of the new funding formula with three-year averaging. Um and at the end they're going to continue. >> Is that locked in stone? >> That's locked in stone. >> So that 30% even next year they can't change it their mind. >> Yeah. They could do a recision. They could Yeah. So

090>> Okay. >> I with the item that's on the ballot for November. I'm curious if that passes or if it doesn't, what will happen? So, um, for now, it's locked in at 30% implementation with three-year averaging. They're going to continue to include, um, a percentage of SOT tax as local share. Um, as I alluded up there, they were talking about taking 100% of our SOT tax and and concerning it as local share to reduce the amount that the state had to backfill. Um, they're going to leave it as is right now. They're going to continue to fund homechool enrichment at 0.5 FTE like Bill said with the intentions of revisiting it. Um and they actually came to the conclusion within a few days um that they're going to pause the cost of living adjustments for

091this fiscal year knowing that next year um those adjustments are going to impact certain districts. And the biggest thing is that uh the old um finance formula if your cost of living went down your um your total program funding wasn't adjusted. It would it didn't decrease. But with the new finance formula, this is the first year because they do cost of living every two years. So this is the first year that cost of living got released and the adjustments down took effect and because of the CDE gave us runs in January. They said, "These are the runs. These are the runs. We're not going to update. These are the runs." And then May 5th or something, they said, "Oh, here's the new runs with the the cost of living adjustments." So, um, with the help

092of Case, with the help of school a Colorado finance project, um, yeah, they were able to pause those cost of living adjustments. Again, we were on the the better side of that in our cost of living increased in our area. So, um, we did not have the impact the negative impacts that some districts did. >> Stacy, can I ask a question really quick about the, um, homeschool enrichment? Yeah. >> I know it was it plays a big part at Ste. Does it play a big part in any of our district managed schools at all? >> No, we don't offer homeschool enrichment. >> Okay. >> Currently, um, so I just kind of wanted to go into a little bit about I know Terry asked this in budget committee a few weeks ago. what what does we

093will receive 30% what does that mean what does that mean for us and so just a little breakdown for 27J how they calculate that 30% so they take what our total program funding would be if 100% of the new formula was implemented then they take the old formula so those are those first two numbers so the 304 is what we would get if the new formula was 100% our old formula calculation is 286 million Um the hold harmless is the prior year. So our total program funding for 2526 was the 280 million. Um but the difference between the top two numbers is 17.6 million. So then the 30% we get 30% of that 17.6 million added on to the old formula amount to get to the 292.2 million. So it's a it's a it's a

094complicated way to get to it. it it seems very easy to say yes it's 30% implementation um but there is a lot of I have found there's a lot of number checking that we have to do with CDE um prior to this year there was one person basically doing the runs for 178 school districts and it's on this giant spreadsheet and obviously there's going to be some human error so um I found that yeah we really need to I need to be checking the old formula numbers and new formula numbers there's a couple things I've caught already. Our hold harmless number wasn't accurate. It doesn't affect us because our our new total program funding is higher. Um but just going forward, those are absolutely things that we need to be looking out for. So going

095on um talking about the our enrollment and PPR projections um for 2627, our projected pupil count as of right now for budget was 23,772, which is an increase of 335 students. But that is 335 students um districtwide. So not just district managed schools. So that's charter um Colorado connections academy everything. Um our per pupil revenue based on the new formula increased from 16,000 or 11,628 to 12,0008 which is an increase of $380 per student. So that was another good number for us. And we were able to maintain our studenttoteer ratio targets at the ele elementary, middle, and high schools. Um uh yeah. >> Yeah. Is the elementary just across a little bit? >> Yes. >> But a slight increase in 27 from 26. >> No, you're good. And a lot of that is because if

096you see the the the charter school right when Capstone opened the blue and green on that one went up for 26 27. Yeah. >> Yep. Um so looking at the revenue side of everything, our total resource projections uh is is that right? Is this 390 290? That might be a typo. No, that's right. including fund balance $390 million. Um so we have a beginning fund balance of 68.7 million projected to end this fiscal year and state equalization of 183 property taxes of 124 and that does include our malevy override as well. Um state categorical at 10 million and then other miscellaneous income at 3.6. It's just local interests that kind of stuff. Um, and this is just kind of a fun um, percentage that we like to keep track of just to see. Um, our

097total program funding, state share versus local share. So, our property taxes um, comprise 33% of our total program funding. So, of that $292 that I was talking about earlier, and the state backfills about 67% of that. Um, so obviously a district like Boulder Valley that those numbers are probably flip-flopped a little bit. the state probably backfills about 30% of theirs and or even less and their local assessed value property taxes can uh fund a lot of their total program. Um on the expenditure side since we do Ramon asked this question we do zerobased budgeting our total allocations including transfers um and reserves is 390 million we allocate 100% of our our revenues and our available resources. So that equates to 256 257 million in expenditures, 25 million to other funds, um 85 million to our

098charter partners, and then that saves leaves us 22 and a.5 million in our reserves or board reserves, um Taber reserves and that kind of thing. So then the expenditure breakdown of that 257 million um employee salaries and benefits 164 and 56 million purchase services there's the breakdown and I think um the highlight of this one is that um salaries and benefits if you look at this breakdown of just this number equates to about 80 86% of our expenditures. So, it's pretty in line with where we've been at over the past few years um in this breakdown. So, looking at overall our key investments, so we continue to um have employee compensation be one of our our major drivers, um we were able to do our steps and lanes, which was 2.4% and then give an

099additional 1% on top of that increase to all employees. It's about a $6 million investment overall salaries and benefits. Um, and that brought our starting teacher salary to 56692. Um, another investment that we had this year was student support in more specifically in our sped and transportation growth. Um, talking with Carla and Kristen Hansen Hoffman, our director of sped, um, we're seeing a higher need. um and the the severity of needs for students. Um so I think Will has talked to you guys about this. What we're going to do is we're going to pilot a kind of like a center program at Sakata this year for those really high need students that we typically send out to other facilities um to try to see if we can save some costs there and start our own

100program within. Um another one of our key investments is still classroom technology. do it about a million dollar um budget for Chromebook refresh and then another 1.9 to maintain our digital curriculum as well as the increase in licenses for all of our technology and then operations about a $3.1 million increase for utilities, building maintenance and etc. Um as you all know that cost of living is outgrowing um revenue coming in so um have to budget for that. Are there any value to the Chromebooks when when we uh refresh them? What are we doing with the uh the old stock or whatever? Is it? >> So they most the students get to keep them. So high school students, middle school students get to keep them. Yep. >> It's just it's a wash. >> Yep. >> It's

101just replacing basically. >> Yep. Um so in summary as we talked about earlier we have a balanced approach uh maintaining our services trying to continue the services that we are supporting right now um and being strategic with our revenues because as you saw our revenues are not growing at the same rate as our expenditures are. Um our targets are investment in people growth and technology and we are continuing to save. We have uh still have a healthy fund balance, but part of that is intentional because we are opening three new schools in the upcoming years and we don't have an overflowing enrollment coming in to support those schools. So, we have that in mind and we're trying to trying to keep some reserves held back for that. Um we're knowingly budgeting in a deficit spending.

102Uh but like I said, we're backed by that strong fund balance with a multi-year spendown plan which you guys have seen. Um at the end of this year, we're still estimated to be having a fund balance of about 30% of our expenditures, which is in my mind really healthy still. Uh but this allows us to time to make any kind of methodical calculated decisions for the future years before the analogy of the airplane crashing. So um so just looking forward, continuing to >> Yep. Sorry, Stacy. You >> good? >> Uh, yeah. Going back to the the fund balance. >> The 3% that's the uh the total fund balance, correct? >> Yeah, that's the total fund balance. So, that's the $69 million as a percentage of our expenditures. >> Okay. For liquidity purposes, what would be

103the unassigned? Do we know? So that would be so when you see it in the budget the reserves that $33 million those are the reserves that we basically can't touch on the unassigned there's another little portion that I would say we can't touch but legally we it is considered unassigned. Um so in my mind at the end of this year there's probably this is probably just me looking at my numbers in my head um 18 to 20 million of unassigned right now. >> Okay. So that's between two million. So I'm just trying to figure like how many months of liquidity we would have there. Is that >> maybe a month, two months? >> I'm I'm just trying to figure out like in the >> month >> about a month. So yeah. So it kind of

104like a >> push come to shove we would have about a month of sort of liquidity >> um of liquidity but that doesn't include the any other like the board reserve the table reserve >> right yeah got it okay >> just wanted okay thanks >> I have a question too based on what you told us that 86% for staff is that on like average like across districts I know our budget significantly less than other digits is that percentage similar >> um So, it's around 80%. For most districts, we're on the high side of that. >> Okay. >> Yeah. But we try to maintain our competitors are the metro area. >> Oh, yeah. Of course. >> So, we we our competitors are the metro area. We are 12th in the last year's budget. We were 12th

105in the salary competition with the metro area, right? But we spent 86% of our budget to get to 12th. And many school districts can spend 80% of their budgets and they're beyond us. And it's just it's just part of the that's that's the pinch, right? You're we're funded as uh 135th funded in in the state. And so you you take the 1534th funded school district and it's Yuma. Well, that's the same budget per student we get as Yuma. Well, we're human doesn't compete with the metro area for so so that that that that causes a lot of our inflationary cost on salary the competition up. >> Yeah, that's that's kind of why I was why I was asking because like how do we stay competitive and then we take up all this budget and then

106we have this much left. Like that's kind of a good story to tell. I think just picking out that fact like hey we're 12th and we're spending 6% more budget. like >> it was good in negotiations to say we value you considerably more, >> right? I mean, >> um, so looking forward in the next few years, obviously the inflationary pressures continue. Um, future state funding, like we already talked about, is still uncertain. Um, our competitive compensation remains critical. I know uh Kathy and her group are really hoping to get to that 57,000, but we we got close got closer. Um and long-term sustainability requires recoccurring revenue growth. Um so coming up next, this is a proposed budget. We don't vote on this or anything. It's just a review. We're we're giving it to you guys.

107Um our adoption, the actual board action is is scheduled for the next board meeting on June 10th. So I do I know Ramon had reached out with some questions. I I welcome the questions. Um yeah, and now as well too. >> Um two targeted questions and maybe one overall question. On page 16 of the actual book on the general fund student achievement, >> we have the improvement of instruction going down from the amended to the proposed >> quite significantly. >> Yeah. >> And it seems like that part of that budget is for >> equitable access to highquality high school education for low income and student of color. uh does that affect our performance and for this group by reducing that budget? >> So this was just a shift in budget um with do you want

108to speak to it? Go ahead. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Okay, hopefully you can hear me. Um so the shift that we made was um in collaboration with our learning services team. Um Carlo's team were the one who actually requested the change. Um what they wanted is that they wanted an operational budget in um learning services, but they wanted it separate from um curriculum. So they wanted to make that curriculum and um assessment. So that budget really just we picked it up and just moved it over. >> Okay. So it's a more like a shift. >> Yeah, it's just part of the shift. So what they wanted was like a operational budget versus um >> because operation and curriculum were together. >> Yeah. Were two Yeah, they were together and they wanted to see it separate

109because um they're budgeting very nicely now. Um our team um in learning services now has a multi-year plan for curriculum and that's part of the reason why they wanted to make that shift is for it to just look a little bit cleaner. Okay. Um, same page the student assessment. So, the big increase is that part of the shift as well, the 3.5 million. >> Yes. >> We basically just picked it up and just dropped it in a different department. >> Okay. Um, and then trying to understand so when we I think you talked about zerobased budgeting. Uh so when we talk about each particular school and the way Steuart is sitting right now, did we sort of look at the needs to make sure that we are to ensure that we're going to reach performance

110or how do we ensure that they have sufficient funding or should we be sort of supporting more financially? I'm just trying to get a sense of if that was taken into consideration. I think the the I can speak to the financial side. The um budget that the school gets >> is pretty much equal is the same calculated in the same way for every single middle school across the board. So the budget they get with services and supply dollars for FTEES for their teachers um it's it's the same that everyone gets even in the same in even in the situation that they are in. Um, I can say that I and Carla can maybe speak to this too, but that other support services are offered to that school and so that monetarily may go towards Stuart,

111but it's not like here we're going to give you an extra $10,000 to help um >> uh when you when you are in in um a turnaround situation, you are you are eligible for uh different grant monies. So many of the things outside of the the realm that things that we've never funded before, um they were given two days this summer to come in and plan. They were given I'm trying to think of some of the the additional resources. They got uh free consultation from an outside group. They got right so they got some of those resources in our middle school study and and I I can share some of the results of that. We did look at middle school funding across the thing and actually even with a critical eye of the choices that

112we make even within the funding right so you know within our 86% of salaries right like how many of that is administrators what's the administrator ratio we could do the same thing for schools right like how many how much TE are we spending on resources and supports outside of the classroom how many are we putting in the classroom so we did both with Stuart. Does that make sense? But but no additional resources from the general fund were were were allocated to Stuart for that. But we looked at it holistically across the district. How are our middle school how are we funding our middle schools compared to other across the state and across the nation. We looked at uh how are we using our resources because there's differences is that school has a AP and a

113dean and another dean and this school just has one AP. What are you using your how are you using even internally? We looked at both of those things, but but Stuart was eligible for additional resources just outside of our outside of our our funding stream. >> Yeah, I think that's kind of >> and we got an applause at the end of the meeting which is great, right? So I think everybody's pulling for Stewart and I just want to make sure that we are strategically thinking about the resource that's required u for for Steuart in particular. So just wanted to sort of point that out. >> Is there a time when we're going to have an opportunity for a study session around the middle school findings >> if the education committee would like one? And sorry,

114just my >> go ahead. >> Sorry, just my last question. Um, have we ever reviewed or looked at if it makes sense to sort of in create more work, but I think it's sort of important is create a fund balance policy. So, as I'm looking at this the proposed budget, I know there's still some missing pieces and we're not going to see this again till December, but is it makes sense to create a fund balance policy where we feel comfortable what that number should be like the range. I'm just throwing that out there for discussion. I I for me as sort of in this position, I feel as if maybe that as I look at this proposed budget, I don't know where we're going to land or what we're proposing to achieve. But I will

115know that what the range of the fund balance balance if we create a policy I know what the fund balance policy is kind of tell us like what range we are striving to to achieve. So it's just something that maybe I don't know I would recommend something like that. >> And is that something that you would want beyond the board reserves? >> I mean I think we could have more discussion around it. I mean I really want to get the board's feedback as well. I'm just looking at from a sort of oversight and some due diligence and from that perspective uh it makes sense to sort of look at something where we are and I have great confidence and and your guys' abilities all right and so staff but sel guys have those guard rails

116around what >> the fund balance as we enter into negotiations with certain contracts or things >> we know what >> what range we could work around >> but absolutely and whatever I think everybody might have a different perspective of what that fund balance percentage or number should be, but >> I just be happy to have that discussion sometime. >> Yeah, I think the fund balance discussion is interesting when we look at reserves. Um, wow. We just had conversations about reserves on a different board that we sit on and um, there was mixed reviews on where how much money we should be keeping for the public and what does that look like and what can we see coming and what can't we and are we negligent if we're sitting on too much money right at some

117point because then public starts to wonder like why are you sitting on too much money? So, I think any type of clarity that we can stand on is um, never a bad idea. I don't know that much about finance so I don't know how that would operate. Um, but I'd be open to having that conversation for the sake of clarity and us never getting to a position, which is unlikely, where we have like this massive amount of fund balance that everyone wonders where we got this slush fund, right? Even though it's not like it's a safety net, but based on operational standards that we've set forth and I don't I don't know what that looks like or if you need that from us. Um, but some sort of safety net, I could concur. And just

118speaking of liquidity, I'm just thinking out loud, there are things that in some of the the monitoring reports that we do that has to say, you know, the superintendent will not let the cash balance drop below X amount. So, there are certain guardrails that we can look in tandem with fund balance that are already set in place. But absolutely, >> no. And it's a conversation uh we've we've been having with the executive leadership as well, right? The the nature of property taxes, right? the the revenue of what's your liquidity, how long would you survive, right? If you're a a company, depending on sales tax, that that that running money, you know, the industry standards, you've always have to have so many months of running money. If you're collecting property tax, that money is more assured,

119right? So, what do you what do you what are you not going to collect property taxes one day? You you think about those things. Uh what what how fun how big should a fund balance be? Well, if you're Ben and you're trying to get uh ratings or or or Stacy and you're trying to get your ratings as high as you can, save as much money as you can so that you can get the best loans and the best interest on your on your savings. If you're a a school district that's broke, you shouldn't have any savings. But what are we having a rainy day for? Isn't it raining outside? Right? Our kids get less than those are tough tough questions. And so I appreciate the the interest in the dialogue and I know executive leadership

120we've been doing that for the better part of two years ever since we started creating that model to to really have these conversations. So >> I think to go with that it's not a question of will we go out for bonds or mills. It's a question of when I would say like if that's part of it and what does this story say like how do we ensure that this tells the story of need or how do we entail that this like how do we ensure that that's in alignment with us going to ask the public for that in a transparent manner. I I just find it I I I'm a weird nerd where if you do the uh you know we talk about how much each student costs if you divide the number of students

121at VCON versus the total budget you get 8,694 but if you divide the total number of students at South Creek you get 7,472 it just are we giving $1,200 more per student to VCON than we are. And I know it's just a function of of how these all come together. But I worry the public will do that too. If you do that, if you compare the high schools, Brighton gets more per student than Riverdale Rich when you when you do the math like that. So sometimes when you just present these numbers to people that there there runs a danger of just doing math that doesn't necessarily make sense to you but it makes sense to them. >> No absolutely I appreciate that perspective. >> No part of the way it's it's organized in the in

122the categorical so they can submit it easily easy easy to state but the sped funding I've thought that for years it'll be like student achievement is you know whatever that number was big number and it's like that department's out of control. It's like no sped is in there and that's all the services for all of our kids across the district, right? It's like that that department's not that big financially, but it would appear that way, right? >> That's good feedback. >> Thank you again. We'll see you next month again. It's my favorite book. I I have a whole collection of them and I really appreciate it. >> And that's why I just watch these numbers rise and I feel free for you. Oh, wow. I I didn't believe it was going to be possible. Uh,

123our next meeting is June 10th with a 5:30 p.m. study session and a 7 p.m. regular meeting. And then we get it the rest of the summer off and we'll come back August 12th. Don't forget June 17th, we're going to be with those student uh council folks and that would be great. uh June 10th. Uh Ashley, I wish she was here so we could remind her that she's going to be doing the board meeting evaluation. Are there any closing comments or future agenda items? Hearing none, I will adjourn this meeting at 8:58. Thank you.