001Hello and welcome to the same Rain Valley Schools Board of Education meeting of January 28th, 2026 Please stand if you're able and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Thank you and Christy, can you please call the roll sure Mrs. Babs absent. Mr. Berthold present. Mrs. Gilligan present. Mrs. Franek absent. Mr Lechuga here. Mrs. Solomon absent. Mrs. Weiss here and are you aware of any changes? To the agenda this evening. No, I'm not This meeting is being streamed on our website where a recording will also be available If our live audience would please ensure 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 this tonight's meeting with our district's mission statement to educate
002each 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 focused leaders make all decisions within its context I would like to welcome Ava Reed this evening who is our student advisory council representative from Frederick High School Can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you? My name is Ava. I'm a senior at Frederick High School I am in our volleyball program I'm heavily involved with our unified basketball and I'm also in our biomed program I'm attending University of Mary Hardin Baylor next year to pursue my volleyball career and study neuroscience Well, thank you and welcome. Please feel free to participate in this evening's meeting And don't hesitate to ask any questions at the
003end of the meeting. We'll circle back And see what your experience was like. So thanks Next we have our student advisory council CASB presentation on Matt and Carla Good evening president Gilligan and members of the board this past December the area assistant superintendent team had the privilege of chaperoning six exceptional student leaders to Colorado Springs for the Colorado Association of School Boards Conference Also known as CASB to participate in the student leadership strand Before I introduce the group, I would like to highlight a significant first for our district Approximately a year ago Anna Johan took the initiative to apply for the student leadership strand planning and facilitation team She was selected and since then has been working diligently alongside student leaders from across the state To design and facilitate this year's program This was a
004first time this was the first time a st. Brain students served in this role But yet is another perfect example of st. Brain student leadership in action So now I'd like to introduce to you the students who are here to share their experiences and key takeaways from the conference We have Tucker Beasley from Silver Creek High School Nick Quintana from Silver Creek High School Ishaan Benoy, Niwot High School, Anna Johan from Lyons Middle Senior Daisy Vera from Skyline High School and Ava Reed from Frederick High School. Good evening I just wanted to briefly talk about my wonderful experience with the Colorado Association of School Boards this past December It's important to note that we met basically right across the street on December 11th, and we got down there around 2 p.m Traffic was surprisingly smooth,
005and I kind of think that that was a good omen setting us up for a good trip We got down made ourselves at home at the Hilton DoubleTree, and then we did what we did last year which We went to the Broadmoor which was absolutely wonderful to be able to experience ahead of the actual Association of School Boards meeting as You can see they have a wonderful library I didn't realize that I was the only one posing in the picture But it was a wonderful experience all the same and it set us up wonderfully to Last year we chose to call ourselves the Goose Club of 2025 st. Brain due to One of our fellow members who ended up going with us next year Taking a picture with the goose and very much appreciating that
006this year We decided to be called the Deer Club because There were a lot of deer on the golf course, and it was a wonderful sight And we got a lot of photos of it, so we thought it'd be a fitting name This also set us up for doing really well at the scavenger hunt since we had already walked through the entire campus So I'm happy to say that st. Brain Led the scavenger hunt and the team that won only won because of st. Brain So I'll pass it off to my friend Nick Yes, hi I'm Nick and this was my first time visiting the Broadmoor and it was a truly amazing sight to see it was so beautiful and well Decorated and since we were there around Christmas time It was truly amazing to
007see all the decorations they had and as Tucker previously mentioned we were able to compete in the scavenger hunt And as part of the student leadership strand and that was truly amazing getting to see the Broadmoor even more and learning pieces of history About the Broadmoor and getting to learn about who stayed there in the Hall of Fame But my favorite part of the Broadmoor was their gingerbread display now I'm a sucker for all the Food Network show so it was really cool to see something like that in real life And it was really cool. It was a tribute to the Olympic Games this year It had skiing snowboarding as well as curling and ice skating and it was completely made out of gingerbread and chocolate It was a truly amazing piece of art. It
008had 658 pounds of dark chocolate and 1,235 pounds of flour So it was truly amazing to get to see all that time spent in into that creation at the Broadmoor Then afterwards we went to Outback Steakhouse to have dinner with dr. Kaputian our area assistant as superintendents and different members of the board and it was truly amazing to be able to connect with all Them on a personal level. These aren't people we get to talk to you on a daily basis So having those personal conversations those one-on-ones where we were able to share life stories and talk about our futures and interests Was a truly amazing and unique experience Good evening. I'm Sean So another part of the agenda was the opportunity to meet student leaders and stood school board members from all across the
009state This really helped us see how different school districts approach school policy You know, we discussed topics like school security the use of AI in schools and even how often students got to see daylight during the day But one of the most valuable parts of this was meeting with our own school board members to discuss the you know The findings that we found from all the other school districts and Honestly, the best part of this was the ability to directly ask questions and just like that that direct Conversation with them to discuss like how decisions at the board level impact students directly as Mrs. Allen Bach Said earlier I was part of the student planning team for CASB and we met every other week for a few months Planning a work or three workshops for
010the students attending the CASB leadership strand My workshop was on accountability and I just wanted to make sure that mine was discussion-based because I remember last year that one of The best parts was connecting with the other students and learning how you can bring Certain leadership skills back to your school and also just how different it is across, Colorado They included a video of me speaking. I'm gonna try to play it So as you can see I was talking in front of Over 90 students just leading them through an accountability workshop, which was really cool And I honestly wasn't too scared for it, which was really surprising because that is something really intimidating and then oops And then on Friday evening We saw the drone show which Daisy is gonna talk more about and then
011we got went to Red Robin Which I've never been before which and it was really yummy But we got to connect with the students in the area superintendents again Which was just really fun and probably one of my favorite parts of the trip Another highlight of the conference was seeing our same-range students shine not just as participants, but as leaders and innovators Our p-teach program coordinator along with four outstanding p-teach students led a panel discussion for conference attendees They shared how the program is preparing them for future careers in education and it was powerful to hear their passion and clarity about becoming Teachers and on Friday night the same range on team performance team delivered an unforgettable show for hundreds of attendees Demonstrating the incredible innovation coming out of st. Rain together these experiences highlight
012the strength of our programs and the talent of our students who are not just preparing for the future already shaping it and You will also hear have the opportunity to hear from both the p-teach Students presenters and the drone performance team as well this evening on the last day of CASB Saturday morning started with a breakfast Alongside the school board area superintendents and our superintendent It was a really meaningful opportunity to have open and productive conversations about our school district We talked about how our district operates and also highlighted the strengths and opportunities that make st Rain stand out compared to other districts. We met Friday Beyond district topics we were able to connect and move or connect on a personal level sharing parts of our own lives and experiences At the table overall overall.
013It was a great chance to build relationships with the school board area superintendents and dr. Capuchin in a more relaxed setting After breakfast we moved into the next room and listened to our keynote speaker for this year's CASB conference Kim Becking She began her presentation by asking everyone to share some good news from their lives Which immediately engaged the audience and set a positive tone Her message focused on what she calls the unstoppable momentum movement Which emphasizes the importance of bouncing back bouncing forward instead of just bouncing back in a rapidly changing world One idea that stuck with me was the I was the concept of so muchness the feeling that being overwhelmed by constant change She encouraged redefining resilience by combining grit with grace and used Changing and used it as changing fuel for
014growth rather than something that just holds us back We are very grateful to represent st Rain at CASB and to have learned from such a powerful and inspiring keynote message We all greatly appreciate the opportunity to attend the conference. Thank you Thank you so much for having us We're so proud of these kids. I was just standing back there beaming Before we take questions I want to introduce Dana curtain who is an incredible leader in st Rain another innovative program, which is our p-teach and I'm gonna have her come up and tell you a little bit about it Thank you so much. I am here with two of our high school representatives from our p-teach pathways to teaching program Reagan Butte from Erie High School and Solana Rodriguez from apex We're part of our p-teach
015panel at CASB along with some of our p-teach graduates so skyline high school graduate and first-year teacher margarita gonzalez and Lyons high school graduate Giovanni Basil all joined us for this panel at CASB where we were able to Share about the p-teach program for school board members from all across the state to learn about what it means to have a future educator program within their district Our students were able to share about their journey in the p-teach program Including the p-teach classes that they had taken the work experience that they've had and then Really touching and successful stories of experiences that they've had in the classroom Already just as high school seniors so I would like to Recognize both of both Solana and Reagan and thank them for their time Presenting at CASB and their
016willingness to get up there and and speak in front of people and then joining us here tonight Thank you all so much So thank you for again for having us. We're really proud of this entire group They've shown a lot of leadership dedication and they've represented our school district really well And I have to say of course I'm biased that st. Raines leading the way again and CASB last December was no exception to that so We're gonna stop here and we'll be happy to answer any questions you have and we'll have the kids come on up So they can take those Thank you. I Think I probably speak for all of us when I say that spending the time with you students at CASB is the highlight of that event So we really appreciate you
017spending the time with us and sharing the things that you learned I also was able to attend the p-teach Session and it was really quite inspiring to see the impact that that program has had on your teaching careers So thank you so much and thanks for coming this evening it's always such a pleasure to see what you guys are up to and Anyway, yeah, it was a great event. So thanks Go ahead. I was wondering if maybe you guys wouldn't mind sharing what your plans are for next year Absolutely, I'm planning to attend Colorado School of Mines To study mechanical engineering and hopefully do a semester abroad Then I will be attending the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business to get a major in business I'm just gonna be a regular high school senior
018next year. I Want to attend a four-year college and study biomedical engineering Engineering Like I mentioned earlier, I'll be going to University of Mary Hart and Mailer in Texas. I'll be playing volleyball and setting neuroscience I will be attending the University of Northern Colorado and studying elementary education with an emphasis on special ed I'll add and my little two cents and hope and I don't lose my voice And I enjoy spending time with all of you. I think we always a board like said that that's a highlight of our of our CASB meetings and As I tell all you in the student advisory meetings that I attend and Wednesday mornings and down there You're my fountain of youth AIDS and to know that we are creating Phenomenal community members whether you stay here you move
019on to other parts of the country You're our model to our other students and I always ask hopefully if you stay around you come back and I'm recruiting future board members as I speak to you because I Mean it doesn't happen without people getting involved and supporting education and especially What your experiences were what you can share with the people coming behind you is nothing short of Phenomenal and exceptional so I wish you all luck in your futures and those of you be back next year I hope you still want student advisory and I'll see you regular singers Again later later in my life I have another year left, so I'll be here for that one and thank you again and especially Don't forget to be teach people and the people who present that I
020mean I was amazed when we had our initial first year's teachers at Lamont High School this year and There's like 36 of the 200 and some new teachers were from our district And it was their first year of teaching in our district, and that's what? That's what this community is about so Thank you again for the for to do on that and I know you're helping other districts Set up their PT programs. That's important because we want to make sure all all students in the state get educated Just not ours here, so thank you again, and I'll be quiet Yeah, I Couldn't put it better than my fellow board members already have I do think it's a very cool thing to recognize as well that Giovanni was on In a CASB group through the student
021advisory council in a previous year, so another great connection there You know every year we get to be around these incredible students and st Raines students are always among some of the most polished and well-spoken That we get to interact with at the conference And I think each group has its own Personality from year to year that we get to meet and I just wanted to compliment you guys as a group I as I reflected on what we spoke about at the board roundtable You guys are such advocates not only for each other but for other students And I really encourage you whether or not that was it something that's conscious On your minds or just a spirit that you have to continue on with that And I just found that really inspiring and just
022thank you guys for your time and your energy You make the work we do so easy and meaningful and we just really appreciate getting to know you I Know from all of us. I think we all just want to say thank you We all really appreciate the experience and this has been wonderful. Thank you Don't don't leave we want to get a picture with everybody It's our tradition here Next up we have our drone team presentation Good evening president Gilligan and members of the board 21 months ago, Danny Hernandez and two students went to Michigan With a very ambitious goal of becoming the world's first drone performance team at the high school level Completely unheard of and to say it was a moonshot is a true understatement If you were privy to the technical complexity
023the logistical requirements and really just the audacity of High schoolers doing drone performances I can't believe we're staying here almost 50 shows later and that's because of a leader like Danny Hernandez And that's the true side without any further ado. I'd like to introduce our fearless drone performance team leader Danny Hernandez Good evening, everyone. It's great to be back again I know that in the past I was able to enjoy this room and have the pleasure of speaking with everybody with robotics But yeah, like Joe said a couple years ago the new initiative to start a drone team They came to me and asked if I'd be willing to take on the challenge and here we are So one of the big things that I love that Axel says is our job is to put
024ourselves out of a job So I'm gonna turn it over to the team Okay. Thank you board members and dr. Cushion for inviting our team to be with you this evening My name is Brooke Bowman and I'm a senior at me high school and I'm a project manager for the team I'm a junior at Longmont High School and a project manager and UAS pilot for the team I'm Andrew and I'm a senior at Longmont High School and a junior pilot for the team before we go further We're gonna play a short video introducing our team and what we do My name is Brooke Bowman and I am a project manager on the Innovation Center's drone performance team We are at Silver Creek High School where we are flying a drone show for the Lyft Ed
025conference an event that showcases both leadership and innovation in education. As a team at the Innovation Center We are especially excited to be a part of the Lyft Ed conference because it represents exactly who we are both creatively Collaboratively and pushing what's possible in education. We hope you enjoy the show Well, our shows are the most visible part of our work. The impact of this team and the opportunities we've been fortunate enough to receive go far beyond performances. Our team is made up of 24 high school students representing seven of the eight core SPSD high schools and we're continuing to grow Students contribute across six key areas Piloting, animation, project management, music, film, and crew operations. In every role students earn meaningful real-world experience and gain valuable industry certifications. More than 12 team members have
026obtained their FAA part 107 Unmade aircraft systems pilot license and three of our animators have completed Python certifications. Since launching this program two summers ago We've completed 19,684 successful individual drone flights across 46 official shows. In addition to countless practice flights and training sessions Which we will continue this Saturday before the Lunar New Year drone show. These milestones reflect both our technical growth and our commitment to learning, safety, and innovation. One of our team's main goals is to provide students with real hands-on experience in growing drone show in other professional industries Our animators are using the same 3d software that the professional firefly drone show Company animators use and have gotten personal training from those animators themselves to further both the quality and skills of our animators we also have our film crew that is
027using Netflix quality camera and equipment and Presented recently to firefly drone shows and got funding from them to create a behind-the-scenes documentary about our team Our pilots are using the firefly system and learning how to pilot at firefly drone show company standards Some of the opportunities students have gotten from our team in further drone show and professional industries include that three of our former students are currently employed with firefly drone Show as firefly drone show pilots Seven of our design animators have been mentored by firefly drone shows and are being asked to animate for other drone show companies one of our current UAS pilots is employed with fly route sports and Ten of our former students are employed with right flight drone shows Which is a local drone show company in Colorado and one of
028our film crew students has her own production company Along with professional experiences and opportunities the opportunities that the school board provides to all project teams gives students Skills that directly correlate to their further education and other career paths not specifically following just into drone show industries For example three of our former students attend CU Boulder in the aerospace engineering program as well as one current student who plans to Follow in that path as well next year Opportunities like space symposium or just flying shows and fixing drones in general correlate directly to that and help them build skills along that Pathway, we also have students who want to attend flight school next year and learning how to read sectional aeronautical charts and learn FAA guidelines Which are two procedures that our team uses Frequently and regularly
029help them learn skills needed for that Personally, I'm going into marketing at CU Boulder next year So attending conferences and large events and gaining public speaking skills and also learning standard business procedures like client communication team organization and data help me gain skills for that Overall these opportunities aren't just applying to help us now but as students and people in the future As for the school team we continue to grow thanks to your support and the incredible teachers and mentors at the Innovation Center Two weeks ago seven students on our team including Brooke and myself had the opportunity to travel to Florida to fly for the future of education Technology conference we partnered with firefly the manufacturer of our drones and system and successfully piloted and animated a 500 drone show The largest our team
030has ever flown This marked our first out-of-state conference and we already have another scheduled in April in San Diego at the world's largest with the world's largest Ed tech community Along with several other exciting shows on the horizon including the world's largest aerospace conference in Colorado Springs Working with 500 drones truly opened our eyes to what we're capable of and highlighted the potential for our team's continued growth We want to take the time to say how much we truly appreciate and thank you all for allowing these opportunities To be possible. We wouldn't be able to do any of this without your continuous support and from our team and other project teams We say thank you Thank you recent brook as I mentioned while most of you have seen the finished product lighting up the sky
031You've likely only seen a small part of what it takes to make that happen Real work happens behind the scenes at our weekly Monday meetings. Just this past Monday I saw our team operating at full speed our animators were sketching Concepts for the Artemis 2 sequence our music crew was carefully syncing tracks for our next upcoming show And our film crew was fully focused on editing our upcoming documentary series It's a massive coordinated team effort and I hope I was able to give you a better look into that process today And thank you for your support Does the board have any questions or comments for the team? I will again Sorry, you guys Don at Casby when you did the show For the on that Friday night, it was phenomenal and the reception we get
032as board members from other boards is Like how in a heck did you do this stuff, you know? But I want to add one thing again My understanding is that you as a group or individuals with you are helping two other districts around the country Work at getting certified like you have gotten certified and I just wanted to say that it's just What life's about and it's phenomenal. You're not going to be the only one eventually You're gonna help other teams get certified and you're willing to give up that designation is the only Certified high school drone team in the country and I don't even know I thought it was in the world Maybe even but to give that That up to help other districts be able to With the support of their boards in
033their school district to be able to become achieved in an up-and-coming environment where You know the future is unlimited for you if you stay in the business and things like that so I want to thank you for that as well because I think that is Reflective of our spirit as a school district in helping other districts and other students Gain knowledges and Able to aspire to higher higher things. So thank you for what you do for us Thank you for what you're doing for other people and your drone shows are always phenomenal I've seen many of them And I get dizzy looking up in the sky sometimes. They're so amazing So like I try not to fall over so nobody has to pick me up. Hey, so okay. Thank you That's role models for not
034only For little ones but to your peers as well The professionalism you show up with and how you care yourselves and of course the product speaks for itself as well Just thank you for your time and for being willing to be the face of innovation for our district Yeah, I've had the pleasure of watching several of your shows and every time I walk away I'm just amazed at how awesome your shows are and you know, Danny and and Axel and Joe we were talking we were chopping it up at CASB and Thank you for what you guys do. I know the logistics behind getting 200 300 500 drones to one location is not easy and driving all over the state and all the country and just thank you guys for your drive and your vision
035and Students thank you for paving the way for tomorrow students. Good job guys Yes, thank you for bringing bringing innovation to life. It's just such a Pleasure to watch those shows like Jim mentioned Usually we just hear other board members at CASB say wow, how do we do this? So it's such a fun Experience it's such a great way to emphasize innovation in our district and just thank you so much for The time and effort that goes into putting these shows on and for all the learning that happens as part of it Yeah, and you mind I don't know how many seniors there are But would the seniors mind telling us what their plans are for the future? In the next year or so, I mean that we might appreciate that. I think we'd like
036to hear that Yeah, so I kind of mentioned this before but I'm going to see you Boulder to study In the leads business school in their marketing program I'm hopefully going to school in California. I have not fully decided but I want to go study marine biology I'm Willow Cahill. I'm our lead videographer and I'm hoping to continue with my production company But I'm also committed to going to Ames next year for EMT and paramedic school. I just want to highlight One more thing just to thank you to all of the people that have helped the team Including we have Paul. We have Danny. We have Joe. We have Axel we have so much support as a team and I just love how the The mentors that we've given support almost every person's ideas on
037the team and value everyone's ideas I'll mention a few more things real quick so you'll notice we have other members with us and we have like they said we have 24 members on the team and The amount of time that's happening behind the scenes and just the other night while they were typing everything up you know, we're sitting there they're what they're working through typing and I'm looking over at the board and I just said something along the lines of We have the only high school students designing a drone show for the Artemis to space mission right now on the planet That is such an amazing feeling and to be able to share that with all of these students and what they're doing And then our film crew, you know Willow's here Taryn is here
038They are continuously helping to make us look good I mean, that's the reality of it is is that what you're seeing on social media what you're seeing out there That's these guys. It is definitely not me with my iPhone. They've already fired me multiple times And then you know our animators, you know Isaac's not even driving and here he is drawing up and sketching what we're gonna be flying for the Space Symposium drone show So it's such an incredible group of students Joss is gonna start getting trained up on Saturday, so we're gonna be spending if anybody wants to swing by Silver Creek Just make sure that you're not walking up to us while the drones are in the air but we will be training our next group of pilots that are coming up and
039Talking with Firefly at FETC and I specifically asked how many pilots are you up to right now? They're just now about to hire six and seven and And it's like we are we're already matching the number of pilots that they have Given who we currently have and who we have access to at CU Boulder So definitely high demand positions that we're creating Another company out of Utah is now contacting us asking if our animation team wants some side work and You know talking with Firefly. They said absolutely your guys are already creating better than what they are so These guys are doing amazing All the music you're hearing That's Jay. He's making all the music for our videos And finally it does take a village and I just like to acknowledge Paul Hollingshead. He is
040a world-class mentor He spends at least 30 hours a week at the Innovation Center helping the drone team and other teams Yeah, it does take a village Picture time. Hope you all ready for that Thank you Thank you Okay, let's see next up. We have audience Participation I didn't see anyone on this sign-up sheet. Do we have members of our audience that would like to address the board tonight? Okay, it looks like none Jackie Capuchin is out of town this week She will not be giving us a superintendent report this evening She is at an educational research and leadership conference So we will skip over that part And move on to reports first up. We have six point one the twenty four twenty five high school scholarship awards Lark and Tammy good evening president Gilligan
041board members Thanks for having us tonight. I Always get nervous when I come over here and I've stood in the hall and listen to our amazing Students and they did this flawlessly and here I am feeling like I'm shaking I'm I'm always I've spent a lot of time in our high schools doing scholarship outreach And I'm just always so impressed with our students, but yeah, I walked in the room with my face is red So oh my goodness, but so proud of our students so each year as part of our efforts to support the district through Scholarships we put together the district scholarship report. So I'm happy to report that For the twenty twenty four twenty twenty five school year our students were awarded one million nine hundred Forty four thousand three hundred and five
042dollars in local scholarships. So those are scholarships from any local entity That supports our students and then in addition they were awarded sixty six million nine hundred seventy one thousand five hundred and four in Scholarships and awards from colleges universities and other entities outside of our local scholarships so I will mention that the Overall awards is a slight decrease from the previous year I will mention that the information used to compile this report is Self reported by students. So I very much feel that that number is higher Just maybe something that we had not we're not aware of that. It just wasn't reported by a student I would also just really like to give a huge shout out to our counselors in the district They really help us compile this information and then the records
043department that they go through the list to make sure that If we are publicizing a student's name that they have given that permission So just want to kind of thank those folks that help us with that report And from the district or sorry from the foundation standpoint We're excited that there's a lot of momentum behind our scholarship program and we've seen tremendous growth Much because of Tammy's leadership when she joined the organization We were awarding forty thousand dollars in scholarships and this year we expect to award more than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in scholarships So our program has grown significantly under her leadership this year will have a hundred and twenty five individual scholarships and That comes from 55 funds as well. So really tremendous growth And then I just want to say
044thank you to all of you for your support and we are very excited to see you at our Gala in a few weeks. Do you have any questions for us? Go ahead. Yeah, Laura. Hey guys and Tammy. It's good to see you guys I know how awesome you both are and I just want to say thank you for everything you guys do for the students and the community Having a son that's a senior this year. He he came home and he said hey dad I think I qualify for all these scholarships and I couldn't believe it there was a list of them, you know, and it was all through the foundation and so I didn't believe it at first. I said no son. I don't know, you know, we'll have to check Let me check
045that out. I called Tammy and she was And so I just I really appreciate what you guys do and keep doing your thing. It's so fun to watch Yeah, thank you so much for your work We know that scholarships can be life-changing for families, especially as college tuition continues to rise So, thank you and thank you to all of the organizations I saw that was like a very many page list of donors and it's just so Amazing and I feel really grateful to be part of such a generous community that really supports our students So thank you to all of the donors and for everyone that is involved in this to help make sure students get the support they need Thank you. Thanks. Have a great night Next up we have the fiscal 26 second
046quarter district financial statements Tony Good evening president Gilligan and members of the board. I'm pleased to present to the board and to our community the district's monthly financial statements and quarterly financial statements in this situation for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026 this is for the month's October to December of 2025 These financial statements can be found in the board packet tonight And alongside all of our periodic financial statements will be available online at SVV SD org We had the opportunity to go through these financial statements a little more in-depth at the board study session That occurred just earlier tonight at 5 15 p.m In addition these financial statements were presented to our finance and audit committee last Monday The district maintains an executive summary dashboard the green yellow and red to highlight any
047major concerns We do have a yellow triangle for this quarterly financial report related to our nutrition services fund To recap the the conversations that we had earlier We discussed our heightened cash and investment balances in the general fund Compared to this time last year and the accelerated equalization revenue due to the one-time cap reserve transfer pause that we've talked about We touched on changes to budgeted expenditures for a building fund Which reflects accelerated activity and progress on our new school buildings by our construction teams And then finally we spent some time talking about the nutrition services fund and its spend down of reserves and the limitations on revenue due to prescribed amounts per meal that we can receive reimbursement for From both the federal government's national school lunch program as well as the state's healthy
048school meals for all program we talked about some strategies and some things that we're working on in order to control costs and ensure that we don't Overspend in the nutrition services fund aside from that we were able to have some discussions and answer questions and At this point that entertain any questions that you have at this time. Thank you Okay, thank you Tony. Yes, we really appreciate The transparency in which you provide that information and we look forward to hearing more about the plan for the nutrition services fund Yeah, I know we went through this at length earlier in the study session and also in the finance and audit committee meeting earlier this week So thank you for sharing that and yeah, I think that's it. You're welcome. Thank you. Thanks Okay, next up. We
049have fiscal year 26 second quarter public gifts to schools. I think that's you as well. It is. Thank you All right So throughout the year the financial services department tracks gifts and donations to our schools by the community per board policy KCD Which is public gifts to schools in addition each quarter We bring forward a report of such gifts giving us the opportunity to acknowledge The generous contributions made to st. Vain Valley schools by individuals PTOs booster clubs foundations Local business and local businesses and we thank them for their support for the success of our students We received almost three hundred and seventy three thousand dollars in donations throughout the month of October to December 2025 this brings total donations for fiscal year 2026 to more than eight hundred and sixty five thousand dollars These
050are there are a huge number of donors that support our amazing students to highlight just a few items We received this quarter our community member Anna wing made a donation of five thousand dollars to support the theater program at sunset middle school The Colorado Avalanche hockey team donated sixteen hundred dollars to Mountain View Elementary to promote fitness and fun in hockey Michael and Melissa Edwards donated five thousand dollars to support the special needs programming at Frederick High School which facilitated community education community based education field trips and Finally the Rotary Club of me donated two thousand dollars to meet high school to support their interact club These are just a few examples. There are many more generous donations from PTOs booster clubs foundations Local businesses and community members and that list can be found in
051the board packet tonight The support from our community has been phenomenal and we are deeply grateful for their continued support in continuing Excuse me in contributing to the vision mission and the educational success and well-being of our students Thank you Thanks, Tony I'm always impressed and amazed at the generosity of our community Thank you to donors and to all those PTOs out there I know a lot of parents involved and you know This just creates a lot of enrichment opportunities for our students and it goes a long way So thank you so much for the generosity from our community Thank you. Thanks Tony Next up we have consent items would any board members like to pull any consent item this evening With that then I'll ask for a motion to approve all consent items as
052listed in our agenda so moved second Mrs. Babs absent mr. Berthold. Yes, mrs. Gilligan. Yes, mrs. Horanek absent. Mr. Lechuga Yes, mrs. Solomon absent mrs. Weiss. Yes Thank You Christy Next up we have action items eight point one recommendation adoption of amended budget for fiscal year 26 Justin Thank you. Thank you for bearing with me Okay. Good evening president Gilligan members of the board Tonight we have a recommendation to approve the fiscal year 2026 amended budget a full copy of which is included in your board packet this evening Our budget just as a reminder is a comprehensive spending plan to track all resources and all spending for all funds throughout the district And this budget amends the original budget that was approved by the board in June of 2025 Just prior to the start of
053this fiscal year But it now incorporates what were previously estimates for Excuse me fund October count for student enrollment net assessed value and then adjustments to additional revenues and additional expenditure throughout the district We're always happy to report but as you know the fiscal year 24 was the first year We received the award the meritorious budget award from ASBO And thanks to our team Tara Cowans and Justin Newman. We are happy to report that we received the award again in 2025 But it's not just an award So I did want to remind that really what this means is that we're not just meeting The baseline requirements within Colorado statute to generate and produce and have you approve a budget But it's a significant increase in the level of detail and schedules So that we're providing
054information that's consistent with industry standards and best practices specific to k-12 Both in Colorado and throughout the country and the goal of which is of course to provide you and our citizens the best information possible So just as I know we met with the board last week at study session and again at the finance and audit committee meeting to go Into this in greater detail, so I'm pleased that we'll go through a much more abbreviated version now But the information is the same there have been no changes and we'll just highlight some of the slides that we've previously gone through So as we always do we're going to kind of focus on the general fund or fund 10 And everything that we talk about will generally be in comparison to that adopted budget since the
055boards already approved that budget So we'll just focus on the changes since that time So as we start to look at the change, oh, excuse me. I'm sorry. I went one too quick So at the very highest level kind of a 30,000-foot view the adopted budget included a $28.9 million spend down and since that time we've experienced or we expect increases to revenue of 7.3 million Increasing and increases in expenditures of 7 million which brings down that projected fund balance just a bit to 28.6 But as we always like to reference this is before any amount of Out performance and so we would expect that this spend down would be significantly less than that So now as we get to a little bit greater detail of the budgeted revenue increases We have a total of
0567.3 the first two items on the list relate to our total program funding Which is the vast majority of our funding as a district? And really these are just two the first two lines are two minor changes to both the number of students that we anticipated And how those students came in we had about 28 more than what we projected back in June And then a slight decrease in the dollar amount per student, but I would categorize these as insignificant in the face of 352 million or so, so that's pretty spot-on. We're pretty happy about that things to our planning department The next item which is also the most significant is our it was an increase in the MLO revenue or a mill levy override five point seven million dollars Prior to the start of
057the year We work with our counties to do our best to estimate based on their projections and we included an increase in our net assessed Value of three percent that came in at nine percent, which is a significant increase and causing the majority of this increase The next item is one point seven million dollars for increases to it's a variety of items But it's basically some of our ura revenues specific ownership taxes and most notably Our abatement revenues are related to our abatement mill levy and this is where in the previous year counties Boulder and Weld granted Exceptions or forgiveness or abatements to property tax revenues that were ours And so this is a statutory mechanism for us to come back and collect them in the current year So just a little bit higher than
058we anticipated the remaining items are just kind of a conglomerate of Various adjustments to state revenues federal revenues We just keep track of all of them and adjust them accordingly to what we now know them to be so as we move from there to the expenditure side the first item relates to fiscal FTE for additions and changes in personnel This is kind of a host of things but it's predominantly some increases to our custodial staff to really kind of right-size and get back to where we knew we needed to be to meet the standards of our Building maintenance and upkeep as well as some special education staff to meet the needs of our students And then also course correcting in that fall timeline when we see students come back in We're always making various adjustments
059to meet the needs of students as they come into the buildings and which class sizes and things like that So we might be adding para educators or even teachers sometimes The next item it relates to benefits predominantly a couple of study sessions ago We discussed our renewal and our nice overview of the benefits program the last couple years have been a little challenging While inflation has been a problem at the state and federal level or national level I should say Health care costs have risen even more dramatically And so what this represents is basically an increase to the district's contribution to health care premiums And the goal of which is to really minimize the amount that we've have to ask Employees to increase their premiums, so we're taking on as much of that as we
060possibly could and this reflects that The last item I would note here is it's just referred to as one-time expenditures 2.3 million dollars This is really Predominantly just some some items that are really timing issues These are basically expenditures that we expected to receive or incur back in 2025 and just from an accounting Reasons and some timing those just got shifted to fiscal year 26 So now we're representing an increase in the budget to accommodate that We like to point out though, especially at this time where times are a little more difficult at the state level We like to keep track of these one-time items because then fortunately they're not going to be ones that repeat next year, right? We would not expect to have those next year. So we like to call those out
061as one-time items I'm just kind of bringing this back up to the 30,000 foot view when you take all of these changes into account We had a beginning fund balance for fiscal year 26 of 174 million And we would project an ending fund balance of 145 million at the end of the year Which remains over 28 percent of our total annual expenditures, which is a pretty pretty healthy reserve level And again, that's prior to any outperformance that we would expect to receive or incur All right. We've got everyone's favorite slide the Sankey chart We always joke but it's a nice visual representation Of the inflows and outflows So if you just kind of follow along you don't really have to focus too much on the words are a little hard to read On the left
062side, it shows our inflows or our resources. So we have property tax State equalization and then the nice big blue line for a mill levy override and then at the bottom Those are our beginning resources, which are our current resources that we have at our disposal That's our beginning fund balance as you move to the right. It's very easy to see that salaries and benefits dominate the expenditures As expected and then again on the bottom right you see the the projected ending fund balance of 145 million All right, the last couple slides really bring together all of the funds through the district So while we focus on the general fund as part of this process We review and work with folks around the district to look at all funds to make sure everything's on track
063adjust where we need The only couple that I might point out is the building fund you'll notice the significant Expenditures are significantly over revenues and that's just because as expected we're spending down those bond proceeds revenues From the past and then right above that is the bond redemption fund and this is where we collect and accumulate resources from property taxes That are designed specifically to repay those bonds related to the building fund And so you'll notice about a hundred and twenty four million dollars I believe Projected at the end of the year and that's kind of our high watermark Where we're we've just we will have just collected all of our property taxes or almost all of them for the year And those resources are necessary to pay this subsequent December principal and interest payments,
064which are quite large And the final slide is the appropriation which the board is asked to approve and this is just a reminder It's for all funds, but it is the appropriation represents all resources So all beginning fund balances as well as budgeted revenues and transfers in and it gets to that grand total of about 1.4 billion Talk about sometimes and with that I would be happy to answer any questions the board has with with approval We would post this amended budget on the district's website tomorrow. Okay. Thank you Do board members have any questions? Just want to congratulate you again your whole team on the meritorious budget award it really is remarkable and the transparency provided to our public it shouldn't Be forgotten it's really something that you know, you can look up Virtually
065anything you want to know about finance in st. Vrain on our website. So thank you for that your work on that And just to note We're in over just very thoroughly in the study session last week. We spent the whole evening on it and You know me first as we come along. So it's um, again, it's We love that we love them the beautiful colored slide because it shows stability very clearly and a lot of numbers, but when you see it like that it really highlights and hopefully the Community was interested. We'll make sure they focus on that slide because it shows we're surviving and That's good news for us. So thanks again. Great job Thanks, Justin May I have a motion to approve 8.1 recommendation adoption of amended budget for fiscal year 2026. So
066moved second Mrs. Babs absent. Mr. Berthold. Yes, mrs. Gilligan. Yes, mrs. Horanek absent. Mr. Lechuga Yes, mrs. Solomon absent mrs. Weiss. Yes Okay, next up nine point one board reports. Do any board members have anything to share this evening? No, I just did I Was fortunate enough to be able to get up and get over there to attend the topping off for the Innovation Center expansion Was a good turnout. I was amazed to see so many from the people from the construction company must have had 20 people there representing all phases of that Company and note that they're also involved in our High school and Out east and the building of the new tech center. So they got a lot of people doing a lot of work and Now it was a really good good
067occasion and then they had a drum show later on that night again, it's it it's just reflection on all the good stuff that goes on in our district and So it was a second topping off. We did pk8 in mead earlier in the school year and This was a good operation this time. So and thank everybody who attended Earlier when we had the students here we were remiss to Forget to say thank you to our area assistant supers for the work that goes into making the CASB conference run so smoothly with our students and While it is really a pleasure to be in such a beautiful Setting at the Broadmoor it's also a lot of work and a lot of steps I'd be curious if any of you have a step counter. It's a big
068campus But thank you for accompanying them and driving them and supervising them And also thank you Carrie for your time at the conference and then to Christy and Diane for Making it so effortless for us to just show up and do our job. That's all we have to worry about So I just wanted to make sure we we mentioned how grateful we are for all of you. I also want to highlight Everybody in the audience today Christy too, you know always helping me with my computer issues when I need it Tony answering those finance questions Tim I mean all you guys are thank you so much for everything you do and I just wanted to thank dr. Fox as well I he's always everywhere that guy I Think he sleeps at the school. So Thanks
069for coming tonight. Dr. Fox and supporting Ava and Ava. Thank you for coming really appreciate it. Thanks, Gino Yes, I was also at the topping out ceremony, which was a really fun way to celebrate the expansion Finance and audit committee on Monday. Thank you, Tony and also You know huge appreciation to all of our community members that spend their time at those meetings and really just help us go through and Ask really relevant questions They provide a lot of insight and so always appreciative of them Just a reminder. There is a Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday. I think there's also a robotics Competition at Eagle Crest for elementary level which is Exciting I'm gonna try to go to both but we'll see I am a solo parenting this weekend. So it may be a
070challenge with Children's athletics, but we'll see I Think that's it for me With that I will circle back to Ava You have the attention of the board our superintendent isn't here this evening, but I know she's listening Or she will follow up with us on this and the district leadership team Is there anything that you would like to share or you can share about your experience this evening or at the CASB event? I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to be here and just be on on the student advisory council It was so amazing just to be able to experience everything at CASB and I'm so grateful to be a part of such an amazing school district that supports us as students and Yes, I'm just very thankful to be a part
071of something like this Well, thank you. We're really grateful to be able to Learn through your eyes as well. It was really fun to spend time with you at CASB And thank you for joining us this evening and spending the night with all of us I Think let's see the next our next board meeting is Wednesday, February 11th As a regular board meeting from 6 to 8 followed by a February 18th, which is a study session At that I will ask for a motion to adjourn so moved Second all in favor