001Hello, and welcome to the St. Mary Valley Schools Board of Education meeting of February 25th, 2026 Please stand if you are able and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Okay, thank you and Christy would you please call the roll sure mrs. Baps present mr. Berthold present mrs. Gilligan Present mrs. Horanek here. Mr. Lechuga here. Mrs. Solomon here. Mrs. Weiss here Thank you. And are you aware of any changes to the agenda this evening? No, I am not Okay, this meeting is being streamed on our website where a recording will also be available If our live audience would please be sure device notifications are silenced. We would greatly appreciate it The meeting is being translated into Spanish and headsets are available for anyone in our audience that would like them I'll begin tonight's meeting with
002our district's mission statement to educate each student in a safe learning environment So that they may develop to their highest potential and become contributing citizens This mission provides clarity of our purpose and our focus leaders make all decisions within its context This evening we are welcoming Andrew Torres from Erie Middle School Andrew. Oh, you're eight. Sorry high school Andrew, would you mind introducing yourself and telling us a little bit about you? I'd love to I'm Andrew Torres. I said I go to Erie High School. I'm a senior there I Am involved in many of our programs there whether it be link leaders NHS. I last year I was on our education foundation And our superintendents Advisory Council, you might recognize my face as last year I was on our CASB I went to the CASB
003conference, which was amazing and next year, I'm going to be attending the University of Denver and Hopefully getting a degree in international affairs Well, thank you. Welcome and it's a pleasure to have someone so involved join us this evening Feel free to participate ask questions And then at the end of the meeting I'll circle back and ask you to share a little bit about your experience Okay Next up we have audience participation. I didn't see anyone on the sign-up list Do we have members of our audience that would like to sign up and address the board this evening? No, okay. So next up is our superintendent report. Thank you. Good evening. I'm sorry I have a little bit of a cold so I hope my voice holds out this evening I would like to first
004Congratulate some of our team who was represented in the Colorado Tech Association event last week They won an apex award for project of the year for our strategy of integrating safe and effective Tools to utilize AI and our daily work in st. Vrain last weekend. We hosted an AI summit at Skyline High School for a number of our educators and it was Incredibly well done and helpful for our educators who are really excited to know more and for those who also have a little bit of anxiety about using AI in the classroom Educating ourselves instead of avoiding the topic is working well and supporting a careful measured approach to its benefits While also avoiding any missteps as we learn more about the use of AI I'd like to congratulate Courtney Groskin Matthew Moulton and Jason
005Kelsall for being leaders and innovators for st. Vrain Valley schools And they were the ones recognized last week at the event We're gonna bring them forward to the board at some point in the near future so that you can also congratulate them I'd also like to invite our public to a future ready festival at Silver Creek High School next Saturday, March 7th This event is designed to highlight all of the innovative programs and pathways that define the st. Vrain advantage It will take place from 2 to 6 p.m And we'll have many different stations and activities from our schools our career and tech ed center our innovation center And it's just a really great opportunity to celebrate all of the opportunities Provided by the public schools in st. Vrain and I know that some of
006you are planning to attend as well So our community can interact with our board as well on that day Our team is incredibly busy with planning for the summer and for next year working through the hiring processes and budget priorities during a tight Fiscal year. I'm very thankful for our team They manage a lot of the day-to-day things that were That are happening right now While continuing to look ahead and engage in all of the processes for planning for the summer and for next year as well I think I hit the jackpot when I Started working with this team and I get the privilege to work with them every day and they're just so smart and we're figuring it Out as we go And then finally I look forward to seeing all of you on
007Saturday evening for the Education Foundation Gala as we raise funds to support students and Accessing new opportunities that ensure they graduate with a strong competitive advantage So put on all your sparkly clothes and let's raise some money for our students It should be a really fun evening and I look forward to seeing all of you there. Great. Thanks Jackie. Yeah, we're looking forward to it. So Next up we have reports six point one fiscal year 26 January district financial statements Tony Welcome back Good evening members of the board nice to see you again I'm pleased to present tonight to the board and our community the district's monthly financial statements for fiscal year 2026 through January of 2026 these financial statements can be found in the board packet tonight and Alongside all of our periodic financial
008statements will be available within the next few days online at sdvst org So we had the opportunity to go through these financial statements a little more in-depth at the board study session earlier tonight at 515 and In addition these financial statements were presented to our finance and audit committee last Monday where we had some pretty robust discussions The district maintains an executive summary dashboard and a green yellow red Scheme to highlight any major concerns And while we do have a yellow triangle for this quarterly financial report related to our nutrition services fund We're all greens for all of our other funds To summarize some of our discussion points. We discussed our lower cash balances Investment balances this year compared to last year as a result of some heightened unusual amounts from last year's the land
009sale iPad purchases and some amounts on deposit that didn't occur this year as well as our increased budgeted spend down of our of our reserves We touched on the progress of our bond projects and the associated use of building fund resources And resulting in our unexpected timeline for the second issuance of our 2024 bond authorization And then finally we spent some time talking about the nutrition services fund It's spent on the reserves and the limitations on revenue due to the prescribed amounts per meal that we can receive from the federal government And healthy school meals for all program and then alongside some strategies that we have That Brian and his team worked on with with them to help address the spend down in interest and services fund Including savings through direct purchasing rather than using
010a distributor Some increased revenue that's coming from the state government for local food purchases They can go towards some local food purchases that they're already I'm taking advantage of and then some vending and a la carte sales. And so with that they're going to be Addressing some of that and be able to right-size that ship I'd like to thank our top-notch accounting and reporting team for the aggregation and preparation of this report Which again is available in the board packet and will be available at SVV SD org in the coming days And I'm happy to answer any questions at this time. Thank you Thank you, Tony. Do board members have any questions? No, thank you. Well, thank you. We appreciate your thorough reporting It was nice going through some of the discussion at the finance
011and audit committee earlier this week and earlier this evening as well So thanks for this report. My pleasure Okay, next up we have a 6.2 building the st. Rain advantage through community partnerships Hillary Good evening president Gilligan superintendent capuchin and members of the board My name is Hillary Sontag and I serve as our executive director of advancement and strategic partnerships It is my pleasure to share the work of our incredible team including our leadership team our principles our teachers and our staff in the area of strategic partnerships I would like to begin by sharing this graphic that you may have seen before Which helps us to explain the why behind our partnership work This image shows an iceberg with the areas under the water demonstrating everything that modern k-12 school districts are expected to provide
012things like a technology plan safety and security special education professional development a comprehensive K through 12 curriculum and so much more Above the line are all the things that we talk about when we speak about the st. Rain advantage These are the kinds of programs that make our students learning experiences truly one of a kind things like our p-tech programs our advanced Manufacturing Academy our many focus programs and our mobile innovation lab This graphic was originally made to demonstrate the balance between foundation and innovation in our system But as I looked at it again and again, I recognize that it also is a great demonstration of how important partnerships are Very few of these transformative learning experiences that make up the st. Rain advantage are possible without our partners This is our why our partners
013support work-based learning experiences summer and other extended learning opportunities and curriculum development They serve on our industry advisory boards and meet regularly with members of our leadership team to provide expert guidance They also donate generously allowing us to expand programs faster Pilot program sooner and protect our general fund for all of those core needs that we saw in the last slide In the past eight years st. Rain Valley schools has partnered with more than 650 corporate philanthropic non-profit government and higher education organizations to advance our mission Through those partnerships. We have raised more than 55 million dollars in external grant and major gift funding Funding that would otherwise have been unavailable come from our general fund or have been pulled from our reserves Just as importantly 100% of those partnerships and grants are strongly aligned
014with the strategic priorities of our foundation When it comes to restricted grants and partnerships, we say no as often as we say yes this ensures that our grant funded programs are sustainable and That are they are well aligned across all of our schools programs and stakeholder groups in st. Rain we have many different partners across all sectors of our economy Business and corporate partners play a key role in our p-tech programs or CTE programs work-based learning and developing other industry aligned learning opportunities Individual philanthropists and community leaders drive investment in programs, which are important important to our local community and leaders Philanthropic organizations like grant making foundations are interested in advancing programs that are aligned with their missions For example, a health foundation may have interest in our health care professional pathway programs Finally our
015government agency partners help us scale innovation and test strategies that may be ready for statewide or national adoption we maintain strategic relationships across this ecosystem in an effort to maximize investment in our students and the learning opportunities that come from these partnerships I Wanted to speak briefly about where private philanthropic investment generally comes from across the country because this is a common point of Misconception unless this is something you do every day You'll see that a combined 74% of all private philanthropy in this data is from 2024 But it remains very stable over the years You'll see that 74% of private philanthropy comes from generous individuals like you and me 66% from individuals who are living and 8% from wills and bequests from people who have made those gifts when they pass on Another 19%
016comes from foundations. This is places like the Gates Foundation the Carnegie Foundation Large foundations that you hear about and then small community foundations like we have here in Longmont and then finally the balance 7% comes from corporations this data from 2024. That's actually the highest percent I've ever seen it that typically is somewhere between four and five percent of all contributions come from corporations Within that individual giving number, which is the largest amount given to 501 c3 and other related organizations We have seen a concentration coming among the highest level of donors Over time this number you used to be approximately 80% of all resources were donated by the top 20% of donors We've seen that further concentrate and that trend continues now It is about 90% of all resources come from 10% of donors
017leading smart organizations to concentrate on major gifts In great news for education for subsectors saw their highest giving ever in 2024 and that includes education This is largely driven by higher education giving but we also benefit from those higher investments This chart represents where grant and major gift funding comes from in st. Vrain. This is data compiled over the past eight years You'll notice that the large majority comes from competitive government grants, which is typical of an agency like ours We have many competitive government grant opportunities in Colorado more so than in other states and Whenever those grant opportunities are aligned with our work in st. Vrain we take advantage of them and you'll see that the second highest category of our Revenues from partnerships comes from grant making foundations a total of 7 million
018over the past several years It is very important not only that we pursue resources only that are aligned with our strategic priorities But also that we use them well and that we are efficient in our fundraising and fund management efforts This chart represents the average amount that we raised annually in different periods I roughly call this pre-covid, COVID and post-covid because giving patterns change during those periods During the COVID period there were significantly more sources of funding primarily competitive and formula government funding But also other types this only represents competitive funding We raised an average of four point six million dollars annually during the pre-covid years Seven point eight million dollars annually during the COVID period and six point seven million dollars annually in the post-covid years We pay very close attention to how efficiently
019we do our partnership work. How much does it cost us to raise these revenues? Fundraising efficiency is typically measured as the amount it costs your organization to raise a dollar For example an average special event costs 50 cents for every dollar that you might raise Charity Navigator our country's major vetting organization for charity considers anything less than ten cents per dollar as highly efficient Which is their highest efficiency rating and as you can see we average a cost of three to four cents for every dollar that we raise Even factoring in the specific costs that we incur to manage funds So for example grant accountants and things of that nature grant manager We spend less than ten cents for every for every dollar that we raise. So we're highly efficient in this work Well, this
020slide shows just a very small fraction of our partners As I mentioned there are 650 of them You can see the diversity in this selection of partners in the types of organization in the areas of focus Ranging from health care to technology to transportation You can also see the importance of different types of partners ranging from local family-owned businesses to fortune 100 companies These are all groups who have contributed Six in the six or seven figure range over the past several year in st Brain and I actually cannot fit everyone who falls into that category on one slide So it just demonstrates how many generous organizations and people we have who are drawn to the work that our teachers and our staff do Every day. I wanted to share some very recent examples of our
021partners and how their generosity impacts our students One of our largest foundation donors the Weld Trust recently made a major investment in stem and arts activities at our Weld County schools Resulting in student fee waivers equipment investments coaching stipends tournament travel funds for students and more Planning this grant was a collaborative effort led by our Weld County area assistant superintendents the principals that our Weld County schools teachers and the relevant programs our Assistant superintendent of athletics and activities our director of athletics and activities and a robotics coordinator This is an example and I share those details to show how we approach partnership work in st Brain we are highly coordinated and avoid silos whenever possible All of our partners have close relationships with our program leaders our principals our area Superintendents so that they can
022stay as close to the work and the people who are really most passionate about their area of expertise as much as possible Another example is a recent grant from a new partner the WW Reynolds foundation This grant will support dr. Lauer and her team's work to build design thinking technology literacy Personal financial literacy and durable skills throughout our pk8 curriculum using design challenges This grant builds on our district's expertise and design thinking and creates a scalable Student-centered and really fun way to embed durable skills in student learning in those grades In closing I would like to highlight first how truly generous our partners are across the community the state and the nation and we are very fortunate to have such an incredible group of partners supporting our mission in our work and Second, I would
023like to highlight that st Brain's success in partnership development is the result of a very team oriented approach in this work Starting with our superintendent and all of our leadership team at this time. I would be happy to answer any questions For members have any questions Well, thank you, Hillary. We are very grateful for the partnerships that we have And the opportunities that are granted to our students. I also really appreciated the slide about the efficiency It's pretty incredible that work you guys do and how much gets done at such low cost So thank you so much for your dedication to this and for all that you do to bring in these partnerships I think there is an event Coming up Next week at the Innovation Center to celebrate some of these partnerships, so I'm
024hoping to attend that but yeah Thank you so much. Did you have something you wanted to say? I want to thank you so much. I know when I'm out in the community or with other colleagues around the state talking about what we do in our district one of the questions comes up for st. Brain is the you know, the amount of money that we bring in from our partners and To fund our programs and one of those things I try to tell them and I always say I have a great person for you to talk To so so poor Hillary's like me. I should don't get anybody else to me but I want to say that some of the things that you you've done is Very foundational and it's things that others other districts can
025start doing as well to help fund their districts It's I mean we think outside the box when we talk about Funding a lot of times and I try to tell them when you look at that graph and most people think the big Corporations are who give all the money and I usually say no, they're really not So thank you so much for explaining that and letting us see and the community see Where a lot of that funding comes from so that we are more educated on how we receive our funding for our programs Thank you miss Gilligan. Can I just say something Hillary? Is very humble and talks about how fortunate we are to have the Nonprofits and the businesses and the partners that we have as well as she gives a lot of credit
026to our team who? develop really exciting programs that funders want to support and all of that is true and None of this work happens. You do not garner this kind of work These kind of dollars or the kind of efficiency without somebody championing that work and that is Hillary She is the money lady and people are happy to see her coming But beyond the dollars it really is the trust that she builds in our part in our partners who come back to us Again, and again, they're excited to be part of our mission part of our work and Hillary single-handedly Cultivates that trust and those relationships with many many partners across the state and the nation and that efficiency doesn't happen Really by default it happens by design Because she handles just a lot of
027the the day-to-day work that it takes to manage grants to monitor grants to Give grant reports to cultivate those partnerships to send thank-you letters to make phone calls I mean it it is the work is endless in order to have what we have in in this work in st Brain, so I'd like to thank you Hillary for the work that you do Um, it's it's pretty remarkable and people on our team just adore you. So, thank you. Thank you Okay, next up we have 6.3 annual transportation report Thank you President Gilligan, dr. Kaputian and members of the school board. My name is Lance the oximer I have the privilege of serving as executive director of transportation and I wanted to open the night by just saying thank you Thank you for supporting the yellow bus
028I've been in pupil transportation for 25 years Ten years of that I've served with st Brain and one thing that is has become core to my value system is the acknowledgement that With a strong transportation network, we can provide access to our students so they can gain So that they can gain Insight to the academic programming that they need. So I'm gonna go through a few things tonight I want to talk about some of the the the transportation things that you may already know and I want to talk about some of The exciting things that folks may not realize Yep, except that I would I would love to share them tonight So so as far as our transportation system goes We travel just a little over 2 million miles a year We transport on average
029about 6,000 riders a day So that's 6,000 kids getting on and off the bus and in addition to those school miles We also travel almost a quarter of a million miles each year Supporting activities and athletics Through field trips. So as I was preparing for tonight's presentation, I started thinking about you know What what what would happen if we took all of those field trips in one year and did one amazing? One amazing adventure as one team and what we could do with with almost a quarter of a million miles Is we could make it to the moon. It'd be a one-way trip. We couldn't make it back But we could get there So so it just kind of it just kind of shows the the the magnitude of the work that we do So
030so we have our home to school and school to home Transportation what I'd like to talk about now are some of those other Transportation things that are taking place each day that folks may not realize so in pupil transportation Especially in st. Vrain. We have an ecosystem System That is that is humming along each and every day in between those bookends of the traditional school day We have 50 daily runs that are supporting around 900 daily riders We have 1700 that are registered to ride the bus during the middle of the day and about Depending on an a day or a B day other specific academic needs We have 1700 students that have access to these programs Buildings like the Innovation Center, they have buses that support the Niwa IB program So if we have
031students throughout the district that that aligns with their academic programming We can get them to and from that school each day interestingly, we also have some p-tech programs like Silver Creek High School, they're accessing programming at Front Range Community College and Frederick High School going over to Ames We have middle school STEM programs and and the the the support that we provide it goes on and you can see that in The slide what I really wanted to highlight there is that each day You know as the academic day goes on the yellow school bus is still out there Supporting those students and their programmatic needs. It's something that we take great pride in and I think that's something that gives our Students that st. Vrain advantage. So it's really important to us We also have
032a very strong partnership with our student services department and they help us in aligning Students who have additional needs with their programming So we have more than 30 schools with programs that we transport special needs riders to each day We have 10 out-of-district programs. So each learning day, we're also transporting students down to Denver We have a run that actually goes once a week to Colorado Springs So wherever these program needs are at we will make sure that our students find a way to access those programs In addition to the bus itself I wanted to talk for just a minute about the training that the transportation staff receive Because in st. Vrain we don't elevate our folks just to that lowest common denominator We actually go above and beyond with with some very specific and
033very Intentional training that really give our folks access to a large toolkit Depending on the needs of the children that they're supporting So so I just wanted to make sure that folks knew tonight that the transportation staff Especially those supporting students with special needs are well equipped and well prepared to provide the support that those students need and We are transporting about 500 of those special needs riders each day So every year I get phone calls from parents and members of the community who want to talk about What we do in st. Vrain to make sure that their riders are getting to and from school safely when you think about 6,000 of these on-and-off events. It's a lot of opportunity to get it wrong and We know in st. Vrain and in our transportation department.
034We can't get it wrong once So we're doing six thousand of these every day and each time it has to be perfect I wanted to share a few of the innovative things that we've come up with to help support our students And the first one is kind of a fun thing But about ten years ago, we came up with a unique animal color identification system for our buses We knew that or we learned really over time that route 238 may not be very easy to remember But if you're on the blue kangaroo or the red alligator It really does help our students recognize which bus to get on especially when there are eight or ten lined up in a bus loop We thought that would be extremely advantageous for our younger riders our elementary age
035Interestingly enough. We also have seen great benefit with our high school riders who a lot of times identify as the blue kangaroo Each of our students in st. Vrain are required to utilize a bus pass so every bus Has their unique animal identification and then on the front we also print their picture The students scan this to get on and off the bus and what I'm going to share in a minute is some of the most Exciting technology that we've ever That in my 25 years this will be one of the capstones of my career If you can imagine a school bus driver coming into work at 5 a.m Not being very familiar with where they're going and then we hand them a book With paper instructions and we ask them to go drive That's
036that's what we have done up until this year And that's not uncommon to what a lot of school districts still do today Now the thing that we a lot of times struggle with is for for years We've always I couldn't imagine going anywhere without programming programming an address into my phone The challenge that we've learned over time is that whenever you're developing routes in a computer system And then trying to push that technology to a tablet. It's a lot more complicated So we've been slow to move to this technology But we finally partnered with what we believe is going to be an extremely stable and well-suited system So this year I'm excited to announce that we are now equipping our drivers with tablets It has the route with turn-by-turn instructions now what I want to
037do is I want to pivot back to student safety because this is one of the most exciting things our student scans on the bus When they scan on the bus the tablet will pop up with their picture and their information You'll notice on this screen that there's a green background That's because these riders are at the correct stop on the correct bus It has has given our drivers Access to tremendous information to make sure they know where these riders are supposed to get on and off So coincidentally if they go to the wrong stop or if they're not supposed to be on that bus There's a red background that pops up and that just means timeout. Hold on. There's something that's not right in our system Now the driver can still allow that rider on
038the bus But it gives them the information to know that there may be something going on So we're extremely excited about this technology and what it will provide for our families as far as that assurance that we really Have their children's best interests at heart This is one of the the more exciting things that I wanted to share as well so most of us have called up an uber and One of the nicest things about an uber ride is you can actually see when that vehicle is going to arrive Brian Lamar my my executive director or assistant superintendent my boss Challenged me ten years ago To come up with a solution because he could not understand why we couldn't let the parents know when the bus was going to arrive We actually with this new
039program have that technology So in real time each week we are rolling out right now to our families the ability the end It's called an invitation to sign up for this app So they go in they download the app and then with their students unique information they can actually sign in get bus stop information and Preselect if they're interested in an ETA arrival So they can pick a ten minute or a five minute until the bus arrives and we are so excited that that will equip our families With the ability to get prepared and get their riders out to the bus on time In addition to that whenever their student scans on and off the bus, they'll have that information as well So each year I talked to folks in the community and really around
040the country about what we're doing With clean energy and I love talking about this because st Vrain has made a commitment to the environment for for over a decade and I'm gonna share a little bit about that You know the the electric school bus there was a lot of talk around the electric school bus and it's it's been going on For maybe five years and we did a comprehensive review of what we had and whether or not we could support it at the time And what we learned is, you know We need to work a little bit more in our infrastructure to build these charging stations Before we could before we could move towards that as an option But that's not not to not to dissuade folks from recognizing that we've been investing in clean
041fuel for over a decade 40% of our school bus fleet are now propane powered Propane actually has a lower cost to operate than diesel fuel. It's about 23 cents per mile Less than then conventional diesel fuel. It has significant emission reduction benefits. So depending on what tailpipe Carbon you're you're measuring anywhere from 30 to 90 percent reduction. So it really is it is a much cleaner fuel And it also provides less noise pollution as you can imagine with our school buses Whenever you have a noisy diesel engine and a driver's trying to support students in the back of the bus Anything we can do to lower that ambient noise is going to help us And then finally one of the neatest things about our propane fuel is it's locally Harvested in Fort Lupton and and
042a little bit out of Greeley. That's a product that's coming from Northern, Colorado In addition to our propane buses, we've invested in EV fleet charging stations and vehicles We have 37 stations across the district and you may have seen those whenever you're out in the schools Those are available to our staff for vehicles as well as our community members to use as they need So in closing what I'd like to share is that we have 207 Dedicated transportation employees that get up each and every day to make sure that our students have a safe ride to and from school So on behalf of the transportation department, I just want to say thank you for your ongoing support and for your commitment to education I'll be happy to take any questions that you have at this
043time or I'll stick around at the end of the day, too Do you know yeah, you know, I just wanted to clap for you. Yeah, that was that was really great You know Brian Lance that good stuff. I I've had the pleasure of being a coach for a while and we play teams all over the state and it's really common for those kids to have to drive to us when they play us and You know, I kind of put myself in the parents shoes and think I Wouldn't want my son or daughter to drive 50 miles 9 o'clock at night And so I'm just super thankful for what you guys do and and that technology real talk is that is legit I remember when I was a first grader I got on the wrong bus
044and man I still have nightmares about that. So, you know now now these kids don't have to worry about that. So Thank you for all you guys do that was great presentation. Thank you very much We have a strong partnership with our athletics department and they we work hand-in-hand to make sure that we can arrange and make these Field trips while still covering the routes each day, but thank you very much Yeah, thank you so much. The presentation was really great. So thank you and I'm excited about that technology I sometimes wonder okay, when is my daughter gonna be home? So it would be nice to be able to see that in real time So that's really exciting Also, I just have such an appreciation for the complexity of the logistics involved in this work.
045I As a parent of four I have a lot of logistics I have to deal with in transporting my children to all the things that they do So I just you know I have so much appreciation for what goes into making sure that kids are making it everywhere they need to every single day And so thank you so much for this work and to all of the bus drivers and everyone involved everyone on your team So, thank you Question As Brian knows you do too probably 11 years ago I was Still participating in the transportation. I spent 11 years there and it's amazing how the technology has advanced I mean I fought for Five years when I started in 2004 to get bus passes for students and we finally did that And that was just
046the starting and we ended up with Zonar when I left They were putting Zonar in and we had gone through two iterations of the routing programs and they all had their ups and their downs But we always had the students on the wrong buses no matter what it seemed and it was headaches for everybody and When you went on the wrong bus just didn't scare you it scared a whole bunch of people back here in the office and people on the bus Because they were out looking for you for a long time. I can guarantee that because it's always been that and I'm just amazed at the progress. I'm so glad it's happening Because it is it's about child safety and making sure We know where those students are going and when they get home
047and the parents can this is phenomenal Be able to find out when the bus is coming, you know Especially on bad mornings when all of a sudden one goes off the road and you have to send another bus out to Pick up the students. I mean, it's a it's critical to the confidence that everybody has in Our district and in particularly our transportation for their students and how many calls are to get every year when somebody was moving in from California or somewhere and wonder how much it costs to ride a bus in St. Vain Valley The answer is nothing because we transport still our students without charging And I hope that we're able to do that for the rest of the time that we have a school district here so thanks again for all
048you do Brian and you go in and Those 200 plus bus drivers to all of them. I said hi And still will come a couple of them left, but not many and I really enjoyed being there with them Okay, and thank you for the presentation tonight. Thank you. I think this is on Thank you so much for really all the work you do I have kids who rode the bus to middle school and I have four also and it was the greatest solution for our family and but it leads me to kind of a Question that I always wonder about because I know a lot of people who don't use the bus Do you have utilization numbers on what percentage of kids who are eligible for buses are actually using them? Yeah, that's a great
049question we and it depends it depends on grade level and programming needs but From a from an eligibility standpoint. It's about 40 to 50 percent Generally depending on some some specifics and areas but but there is certainly capacity that we build in So so one thing that's that's interesting is we have a lot of folks that sign up for the bus that never use it After kovat we had to go to a system because of Accounting for who was on the bus where we had to basically reserve a seat And so we still do that today where we have seats reserved for each rider that registers And then what we have to do is we basically overbook the bus knowing that not everybody will ride But but we definitely have folks in the community who
050don't access Transportation, but we certainly still make that available So I guess that leads to my next question is have we ever done historically campaigns to Encourage bus riding and I say that also as a community member in niwat where we have a lot of people driving in from outside the border and it causes great congestion and You know stresses some of the community members who might not Be able to get to where they need to go during drop-off and pick up and bus usage, you know reduces some of that So, I don't know if we tried anything like that in the past or do we ever think about doing that in the future? It's a wonderful question What we try to do a lot of times is whenever schools have community nights We always
051try to extend at least our willingness to participate We love going out and helping families learn more about the bus get signed up We usually set up little kiosks so they can sign up for the bus right there But that's a great that's a great question and a wonderful suggestion that that maybe we could do Do some more to to try to press into the community if you need a champion I'm happy to speak up about that at any point. Thank you A couple comments and a question. I thank you so much Lance for your presentation and it's always the excitement there We've we've been doing this for a little while now, and I truly appreciate your excitement and I'm expect especially Excited to hear the technology that you're using. I know that bus pass
052System started probably what maybe almost seven ten years ago And I thought that was a brilliant idea to make sure that you can at least keep up with the students and making sure they're You know they're they're on a bus and now it looks like we've advanced that to be able to know where they are I know sometimes little ones get on the wrong bus or They may not know exactly their stop so that turn-by-turn System that you have now will help I believe parents not only be on time Kind of like an uber but be on time But also make sure that they're that they can be there for their their student at pickup or someone can so I appreciate that One of the things I was thinking about and it's kind of in
053line with what? Hey Hadley was saying The campaigns for transportation I'd love to see I know we put out a lot of videos about what our schools are doing and things Like that I'd love to see that for transportation to be able to to market if you will What you know the transportation we have why we have it those types of things just so that our community can see How it's used and what we're using it for and then maybe that will bolster some of the use in the transportation So if we could do something like that that would be most I think it would be very beneficial to our students in the community So thank you so much wonderful. Yeah, we'll certainly work on that We'll certainly work on that and and take that
054under Advisement that's great feedback. Yeah, I think we absolutely could look at a strategy in some kind of campaign to support Better use of transportation, especially given some of the new tools that we have for any parent who might have anxiety about having their child stand out at a bus stop or Getting on the right right bus versus the wrong bus I'm not sure our Greater public knows all of those advanced tools that we we now use so that may that may be very helpful in a camp campaign to bolster our bus riding The number of bus riders. I also would like to thank you Lance. You really are the epitome of showing your team how They support our overarching mission in st. Brain of Ensuring that we educate students and give them a quality
055experience and you always come with that same level of enthusiasm for everything So I just really appreciate it and I just just thank you You know for your disposition and how you pass that that along to your team as well. Thank you. Thank you I have one more question. Pardon me. I didn't mean to Be the last but and I forgot and I started thinking about it as dr Kaput you was talking on our buses and I don't remember do we have cameras where our buses we do Okay, I just wanted to ask I couldn't remember off the top of my head But yeah, all of our buses are equipped with with audio and video recording Even in that the technology has come quite a long way so so we can store a fair amount
056of data You know many you know many multiple weeks depending on the number of cameras But most of our buses have three can at least three cameras. The newest thing now is we're working on getting forward-facing cameras Just because it helps us to kind of to get us a picture of what's happening outside of the bus But yeah, they do all have cameras Thank you. Thank you Lance Okay, next up we have consent items would any board members like to pull any of our consent items this evening I don't have a poll but I do have some questions at the question at the end. Just understanding Okay, let's vote first and then we can come back to that I'll ask for a motion to approve all consent items as they're listed in our agenda So
057moved by Jim second and Jackie mrs. Babs. Yes, mr. Berthold. Yes, mrs. Gilligan Yes, mrs. Horanek. Yes, mr. Lechuga. Yes, mrs. Solomon mrs. Vice Yes, okay, you should and it was just I'm being presumptuous And you probably know the one I'm gonna ask about seven point three I just wanted a little better understanding of that relocation agreement I read through it and and I just want to make sure I understood is it basically saying that Help me understand what it says So we obviously we bought the property and on the property there was an existing agreement To where they moved Water from the Sutherland ditch and I am if this is on your your screen You can see this is the Sutherland ditch. They moved water down here Across onto now our property to irrigate
058this piece of property down here We obviously we purchased the property. We don't need to irrigate that any longer. And so we just want that irrigation Agreement to go away So does that does that have any impact? Maybe further down the line for us if we cut cut not necessarily the agreement But the irrigation itself like does there is there any implication down the line it? And no if if it turns out that we do need water and we can get it out of the Sutherland ditch We can just tap right into the Sutherland ditch, which is right against our property So we don't need that that big long Irrigation ditch basically, okay, and is that because it's along those lines. Is it on our property or the The this this portion right here is
059on our property and that's the only piece that we are vacating Okay. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that. Okay It it's confusing. I got to admit I get it. Yeah Thank you Next up we have board reports Does anybody want to go first or have anything to share? Do you know? Yeah, sure. I'll go first you know as We're just started playoffs for the winter winter sports and you know, one thing I'd like to do is just is Really just thank the coaches Part of the staff here at at our district are the coaches and you know They don't sign those multi-million dollar contracts or anything like that and they work a lot of hours and so I just wanted to point them out as a huge part of our district and then I
060think dr. Capuchin mentioned it earlier. I'm looking forward to the gala this year seeing hopefully all you guys there and and Should be a lot of fun. Thanks guys So I was able to attend the Middle school all-state choir and I think this is probably my third fourth year something like that Fourth year because I'm in fifth nothing and it was amazing as always the students we had quite the number I think our district puts out a lot of students when it comes to the all-state choir, but they sound sounded amazing and It just for middle schoolers. It's you know, the voices that they have it's just It baffles me the amount of Time that they take I don't know if you know about how they rehearse they do everything virtually throughout I think it's
061like over like six months or something like that everything is virtual and then they come together for like two days and they rehearse with a conductor that's usually from somewhere else around the country and I think we have one from Dallas and another from Another staff forgot where she was from exactly but the amount of Time it takes for them and the you know The coordination that it takes for a middle school you think about they're still developing and growing and they did amazing And I I'd have to say the coordination was definitely there. They sound Way better than I could in the shower. So I appreciate that if you ever get an opportunity to to attend I recommended you attend because you will be wowed and amazed of what our young people are doing
062So we always are one that supports the arts. That's a big thing in our district and I appreciate that Dr. Kaputian and everybody on the board because we have students not only in those STEM fields But we also have students in the steam feel the steam feel so We want to make sure that we are doing everything that we can to support those students and the arts fine arts I think it's definitely something that's good for their academic careers as well as well as their future careers as well So, thank you Sarah. Did you want to say something? No, okay I just also wanted to say I'm looking forward to the gala this weekend And I wanted to extend a thank you. I know a lot of our PTO is put together the gift baskets
063that are auctioned off They always are filled with such amazing things. So thank you so much to All of the PTOs that are involved in organizing that and getting those ready for the gala So I'm looking forward to seeing all of you there and it's a really fun event. If you haven't ever been before Find a way to attend one. I invited some friends to join us this this time. So I'll have some familiar faces So it'll be really fun And then I'm also looking forward to the future ready festival coming up on the 7th. I think yeah, so Yeah, anything else? No, okay With that I will turn it back over to you Andrew Would you like to share anything about your experience this evening? Do you have any questions for the board you
064have? The eyes and the ears of the superintendent the board as well as a bunch of our administrative staff Well in regards to questions, I can't say that I have much I feel like everything that was presented today was very clear and concise and I felt like it was pretty digestible One thing I can say and take note of is I As an advantage that I've had coming here to this meeting is that I was not always a st. Frank's student. I started my freshman year in North Carolina and then ended up moving here. So I Would like to say it's really interesting to see the inner workings that happened in these meetings seeing the board reports and Such because I did not always get that st. Frank advantage. So It does truly help me
065appreciate what goes on here at st. Frank Other than that, I don't have much else for you. So thank you. Okay. Well, thanks and we're grateful to have you as a student you are very articulate and You know a set of really good example for your peers. So thank you for joining us this evening And I hope this was beneficial for you Let's see We don't have anything left. So our next meeting is Wednesday, March 11th from 6 to 8 It's a regular board meeting followed by March 25th. We have a study session in a regular board meeting as well With that I will ask for a motion to adjourn By Hadley and me OSHA all in favor. Hi