001Republic for which one nation underlies. Thank you. Christy, can you call the roll? Sure. Mrs. Babs? Present. Mr. Berthold? Present. Mrs. Gilligan? Present. Mrs. Horanek? Here. Mr. LeChuga? Here. Mrs. Solomon? Absent. Mrs. Weiss? Here. And thank you. 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 is also available. If our live audience would please be sure that 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 our 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
002of our purpose and our focused leaders make all decisions within this context. I would like to introduce our student advisory council representative, Tammy Vo. You are from Silver Creek High School, is that right? That is correct. Would you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you? Of course. My name is Tammy Vo. I am a junior at Silver Creek High School. I am an AP student as well as the clarinet section leader for our school's competitive marching band and a varsity track athlete. Well, welcome. Please feel free to participate in this evening's meeting and don't hesitate to ask questions. We'll turn the meeting back over to you at the end to share some of your experience. We also have a special guest this evening. My daughter Eloise Gilligan is here. She is a
003student at Westview Middle School and she's here to support her mother since this is my first board meeting. So thank you for joining us, Eloise. We're gonna start reports with our fall athletics presentation with Chase. Good evening, President Gilligan, Dr. Capuchin, board. Thank you for having us tonight. I'll express my appreciation again at the end, but just immense gratitude for all of your support in our department and all that you do for our student athletes. We do have a few fall state champions here with us tonight that we'd like to celebrate. First, I'm gonna call up Chad Idenstrauger, the athletic director and assistant principal from Meade High School. Madam President, Dr. Capuchin, board, thank you guys so much for the opportunity once again to showcase the great things that are happening at Meade High School.
004Behind me is the three golfers and the head coach who this year won the 2025 4A class championship for men's golf and principal Dustin Cady is here as well. I'm just gonna speak quickly on behalf of coach and who these boys are and I'll let coach Ward talk a little bit about the season itself and the state tournament as well. What's great about these three is they all kind of have their unique path to becoming golfers here at Meade High School. Booth came in as a freshman, he was our first freshman to ever qualify for the state championships and he qualified all four years. Stryker came into Meade High School, he's a three-sport athlete, kind of chose which one was gonna be his. Baseball was his track for a long time until this summer he
005put in a ton of work, he had qualified his junior year for the state championship and then this year you'll hear about the success that he had this year in the state championship and then how he started his career as a Meade athlete with the men's football team, suffered an injury and turned to golf and the three of them combined with their unique stories led to I don't want to say an improbable state championship because we knew they were good all season going into the state tournament but I think for everybody outside of Meade in the St. Vrain Valley nobody expected Meade High School to win a state championship in early October and it makes it super special and then I'll introduce coach Ward, he is the 4A coach of the year this year. Nine
006years ago when we decided to start the program my first year I remember talking to potential coaches and I had to beg Mike Ward to just come interview for this position of which he now proclaims to be the greatest job he's ever had so but I couldn't be prouder of coach Ward the rest of the golf team and these three gentlemen and with that like I said I'll introduce the 4A coach of the year Mr. Mike Ward. Thank you for having us here tonight yeah that is a true story it took some took some talking from him to be for me to take this job but more thankful now and through the course of the nine years how thankful I am that I did take that job and to be able to eventually culminate in
007you know working with these three young gentlemen right here throughout the course of the year yeah they they made it special and it didn't start off special it was we were competitive we were competitive we won one league tournament all year we were third fourth throughout the course of the year and you know we talk about peaking and we actually peaked at the exact perfect time that we needed to and so and kind of that perfect storm came together everybody played really well over two days you know eventually becoming the state champions and which again was pretty nerve-racking because if you've ever been to golf it's not a lot of places you hoot and holler and scream and do this you intact and doing my job to try to keep their emotions intact as well
008because after day one we were down seven strokes and knowing we had a chance felt like it'd be good if we could finish in the top three four that'd be an awesome year but they had other ideas they they figured we might as well just go win the thing and ended up winning by ten strokes after day two so it was it was a great run it was awesome striker finished second overall individually booth was ninth and how he was 17th and so you know these guys were awesome to work with work for you know they deserve all the credit I just got them to where they needed to be safe and sound so thank you very much for having us and having me and I'll let these guys say a few words if they
009would like to thank you I board thank you very much for having us I think I just want to start by saying thank you for the opportunity that you guys have given us I really don't think you know looking back I could have had the up some of the opportunities that I've had other than in this district I want to thank you for giving me amazing coaches like coach Ward and my amazing athletic director like mr. Chad Eisenberger looking back on this season it really was you know something to be proud of like like he said being able to win or being able to come back from that seven stroke deficit and win by 10th definitely you know without coach Ward with that without that support I don't think that would have been possible so
010I just want to say thank you guys and thank you to you guys as well for the amazing support thank you guys for having us up here this is an opportunity of a lifetime to have come to this school won a state tournament it's like a dream come true that you think is unrealistic until it's actually happening can't thank anybody enough except for the good Lord above and then of course Mike Ward he helped us through everything he was always there for us never had a doubt that we couldn't do it so just want to say thank you to all you guys and our board thank you for having us tonight on this wonderful Wednesday night I just want to say thank you for providing the school district and everything all the support you guys
011give us in sports especially mr. McBride correct special thanks to him setting everything up going through mr. Eisenberger and then ultimately going through mr. Ward who gets us there in the SUVs getting us there happily getting us food ice cream after that was my favorite part but yeah thank you guys in general thank you thanks everybody for being here supporting us and everything thank you guys thank you and congratulations on an incredible accomplishment winning by ten strokes is quite an achievement do board members have anything to say I do how's it going guys I man striker booth knowing you guys for a long time booze we've won some championships together you know I wanted to see you know can you guys explain to me coach Ward had had described how day two was what really
012got you guys over the hump what do you think it was what do you what do you think inside you that brought that out what what can you point anything to it I would say how he teed off an hour and ten minutes before me so I was he was done with almost nine holes before I got but how he started the whole day he was playing really well I think he was either even to over through the front yeah he's either even to over for the front and I saw that on the leaderboard I was like yeah how he's playing good saw booth is through like six holes I think he was even we were all playing good and then I was like oh my turn try to bring this home for me and
013I finished the day at one over par or even par actually and I was pretty happy with it but yeah it all started with how he teed off early that morning and brought it with me team off to the second group to the last well done fellas well done how we for creating that domino effect and coach all those miles you drove on the on the SUV boost and striker you your folks here tonight they are okay make sure I say hi to him before you guys leave yeah I just want to add real quick you know as far as golf is about the most mental game you'll ever play and mentally after day one they weren't excited of where they were and they knew that the next day that their mental toughness had to
014show up regardless of how they played and they had to keep their emotions in check throughout the throughout that 18 holes and like I said yeah we're individuals but we're a team as well as a striker alluded to it just one player built off of the next the next the next and everything just flowed beautifully after that so their mental toughness stood out in those last 18 holes which led them to where they needed to get to which is the state championship so thank you thank you skill again can I do any other board members want to speak first okay well I want to congratulate you that mental toughness and mental discipline will serve you a lifetime and to be that poised going in with that kind of deficit and to come out on the
015other side with a state championship my first state championship as a new superintendent I will say is just something that's very beautiful I'm pretty sure it will be one of the best memories of your life there are very few state champions in the world and now you're all one of them so congratulations to all of you as we make our transition here Brian stepped out but I would be remiss to not think Brian and his team for for all the work that they do for our for our system we we do a lot of wear and tear on our facilities and and I call Brian often sometimes he sometimes he answers more happy than others but he always answers so thank you for all you do next I'd like to introduce Joe Brown from Niwata
016High School the athletic director and assistant principal madam president Dr. Kaputia members of the board thanks for the opportunity to be here tonight we have a lot of celebrations at Niwata and would love to highlight them again today we did go ahead and have our gymnastics team come up we did kind of to chase his point and thinking Brian and his team we had a little unexpected water situation with some gymnastics mats that laid the start of our season but because of the passion for our kids they did everything that they possibly could as a system to make sure that our girls had whatever they needed as soon as they did so from to Tony and his team and finance and Brian and his team it was an interesting situation there for a while but
017they they did every resource that we possibly could imagine to make sure that that was available for our kids and fortunately we have the best coach in the state to make sure that we got everything that we needed to have our girls successful so we're honored to highlight them again tonight back-to-back team state championships back-to-back all-around individual state champions so I'll introduce Marisa our head coach thank you thank you everyone for having us this evening I know Joe kind of said a little bit but we really do appreciate I appreciate the support that I had there was nothing like open up a connex box with moldy and rusted mats and two weeks to start a season and it was just kind of a lot to deal with and so chase and Joe just took it
018on and really helped and dr. Capuchin thank you because I know that took everybody I know a lot of you were there with me multiple meetings and hazmat crews so you know I learned a lot through that process and I prefer not to do it again the girls were great they had to kind of go with it and we've learned that brand-new mats as wonderful and perfect as that is it's also brand-new mats and so they had a lot of conditioning in breaking in mats specifically jumping on them for fun so you know we did what we needed to do in order to start this season out and we were lucky and blessed to be able to come out on top and not only doing this as a team and showing up and going back-to-back
019we also were able to break our school record with a new one from last year and we were able to last year we hit a 181.95 this year it was a 184.04 and we went as an undefeated season up against 4A and all of 4A and 518 so every meet we were in every invitational up against the top in the state we we were able to come out on top all the way to the very end even at state even even though we only go against 4A we were able to have the top score so it was very fun it was a fulfilling year for me these girls are amazing they are friends they come together they support me they've supported each other I have two great assistants Maddie York who's been with me for
020nine years and then my daughter who was on the team went to school at Wyoming is now back and so I was able to have her help be an assistant coach this year as well who she was a part of I think our 2015 year when we won state that year so it's been it was a great year so we would like to let you if you guys have any questions or anything you would like to or you want me to introduce them I can so whatever you want. If you would like to introduce yourselves that would be great. Maybe just your name and what year you are. My name is Kylie Schlepp and I'm a senior this year. My name is Lily O'Neill and I'm also a senior this year. I'm Izzy Foster and
021I'm also a senior. I'm Kylie Wilson and I'm a junior. I'm Isabel Hanks and I'm a senior. I'm Sienna Wood and I'm a sophomore. I'm Charlotte O'Neill and I'm a sophomore. I'm Charlotte Bronski and I'm a sophomore. I'm Alexis Walker and I'm a senior. I'm Genevieve Saunders and I'm a junior. Evie, I know she was at the end so I do want to formally introduce Evie. Genevieve Saunders she is our back-to-back all-around state champion so two years in a row. Her and Sienna are currently diving so they raced here tonight so that they could be apart and being here so the wet hair and all that is dedication for we have multiple of them doing swimming and track so they are all over the place but came together and we want to make sure that
022Evie's recognized for the success that she had this year. Do board members have anything to add? Coach, welcome back. Thank you. You know there's got to be a secret sauce right? Well what's your secret sauce? Can you share it with us? Oh you can't put me on the spot Gino, thank you. No I you know what I coach more than just gymnastics. These girls mean so much to me and that's what I come back for it's not you know when we're in the gym it's not it just about what skill they can do there's so many things we do before that and the relationships that that I have with them and that I build with them on to being the best person that they can be so when they leave the gym that I hope
023that someday they can look back and go oh I learned this from coach Maurice or someone or if I need to you know or there's a struggle that you reach that they can reach out so being a mom of four three that have graduated here at Frederick High School you know that there are so many important people in their lives that it takes more than just a mom or just a dad excuse me to do that and so for me that's why I didn't know that I guess when I started coaching and I've learned a lot in doing that I'm gonna kind of credit chase in here as far as starting with I'm not in the building and so he did 6 a.m. the first Wednesday of every month 6 a.m. breakfasts which to me
024all the other coaches and to learn about how other sports do things and as he moved on to the district and Joe took over we now do a book study and you know it's really just for me it's been a lot to see how other coaches coach and read the books and hear that and kind of transform into what's important and it there's a lot more to it than that and so I hope that that's I don't know if there's a secret I just show up knowing that there's more to these girls than just a skill that they can do or a jump or whatever and then empower them to be the best person they can be and it show them that they can do hard things and that happens in gymnastics and we have
025injuries and all those things and tough days at school but there's a bigger purpose in why I love that answer you'd said you know we can do hard things right and one one last question if the board doesn't mind what was it like to coach with Lily I mean I've known Lily since she was three tell Lily where you at she's hiding oh she's hiding back she didn't want to come up what was that like coaching with your daughter um you know well I coached her since she was little and I coach her and I want and I should probably say it was probably one of her hardest years because I didn't ever want her to be the one that got the special treatment so she got the worst treatment probably so to come back
026she coached cheer up at Wyoming for two years and so kind of had I was an assistant coach there and so bring her back it was it was easy and brought her in and the girls and just learning them and you what's better than having your kid with you and having to coach alongside with them and the passion for the sport and the same passion that I shared can be transferred to her and and watch that so it's wonderful thank you thank you I'm sort of curious for the seniors do you mind stepping up to the mic again and telling us if you have plans or if you have offers or scholarships or what's what's your future look like thank you so I think I'm gonna plan on going to the University of Tennessee Knoxville
027to study biology on a pre-med track so that's my plan for right now but yeah right now I'm planning to attend CSU but I'm not sure what I want to study or anything like that right now I'm thinking Montana State in nursing my top school as of right now is Michigan and I'm going to study neuroscience and I'm also in the semi-finalist for the better scholarship I don't really know for sure my plans for next for the next four years but I think I'm gonna go to Mizzou and do pre-law so I would like to congratulate all of you for your hard work again a state championship is just an amazing win for all of you individually and for your whole team and Marisa I want to say to you that I think your recipe
028is exactly right you have to love kids first and then transfer the things that you know to help them build their potential and so thank you for loving kids first we appreciate your work and all of the wins that you've brought to the lives of lots of kids so thanks so much for all that you do in st. Brian that's gonna be hard to top also want to thank mr. McBride and mr. Roshkov you couldn't ask for two people that care more about kids and sports and programs and support as an athletic director I hear other athletic directors talk about the lack of support they sometimes get in buildings outside of our system and it makes it really nice when you have the best district athletic director and the best principal to work with every
029day too so huge kudos to the work that they do every day to help support these young people as well all right so next up we have our girls cross-country team so they've been here quite a few times and this year they were able to win their first ever 5a state championship so last year we made the move up to 5a and weren't able to win the state championship but all of our other six or seven were at the 4a classification they did an incredible job at the state meet and it was down to the wire but what's most exciting about is how much they care about each other I had the opportunity to be down on the floor when they were coming in and and Addie was our repeat state champion and as she
030came through and we started seeing all the runners come through one of the first things that she ran over and asked me wasn't her celebration of her winning her third straight state championship but was mr. Brown do you think we wanted the team and of course we're all trying to refresh the results and Kelly I don't remember how many points it was the difference four points and if you don't know much about cross-country that's really close so it was incredible what they were able to do they later went on to Nike cross nationals in Portland Oregon and went from probably being the ninth or tenth team coming in to being the national runner-up which is pretty incredible that makes the the third time that the girls have been the runner-up and they also won the
031national championship a few years ago as well so I'll introduce our coach Kelly Christensen and our amazing girls yeah thanks for having us my dad served on the school board Moffitt County School District way back in the day so I was drugged into these meetings and saw the time that he gave the community and my mom was a teacher so you're all doing amazing things for our community and we appreciate that but yeah I don't want to talk too much it was a very fun year after a year of disappointment last year so the girls went in a state title and then getting an at-large bid to go run at nationals was definitely the way we had hoped it would go but I'm gonna let them introduce themselves really quick seniors can maybe give you
032guys an update on what they got planned or what they're hoping happens next year so as always though we like to have them introduce what middle school they went to that way we we know which Boulder Valley School District kids we got to sneak over here into st. brain yeah and then girls if you could just say first last name and grade and where you're from and where you're going let's start with that my name is Adi Ritz and I went to Sunset Middle School and I'm going to NAU which is northern Arizona next year my name is Anna Prock I'm a senior I went to Flagstaff and I'm going to Boston College to run next year my name is Avalon Beltran I'm also a senior I'm from Flagstaff Academy and I'm planning to run
033at the collegiate level but I'm not sure yet where I'm Teresa Kodelka I'm a freshman and I went to Centennial and Sunset Middle School and I'm not going to college yet so I'm a freshman and I went to Westlake Middle School I'm Siona Kelly I'm a freshman and I went to Summit Middle School yeah so these girls are amazing I think one thing that I wish we could have is the actual representation of the rest of the team we had a hundred and forty athletes out on the team this year I think every race for the girls we had a different varsity lineup it felt like so our our regional team to qualify for state was different than our state team our regional team at Arizona was different a little different than the previous two
034teams and then our lineup at Nationals was different and those girls just supported each other and pushed each other the whole way so I don't know if you guys have any questions or want to know but I know you guys are pressed for time and we appreciate you having us here so you can ask them some questions too if you want I'll say it we're never pressed for time when even we're celebrating the success of our students that's what we're about opportunity and growth and magnificent community that you guys have built and the constant winning and it's like well who's this said with do we ever get tired of winning you know huh and so do you good example of that and to all you girls thank you so much for all the effort you
035put in I know there's a lot of hours running and a lot of time at school to keep up be able to on the team and grades and your success is gonna flow from this into your future life you always remember what you did and how hard you worked and you know just keep working hard for whatever you whatever you choose in your life you'll be successful as long as you keep pushing forward and and going for a more what is it's one one guy I heard say don't set set goals make a system and which ones we have as they're here as a system and the success for my district because of our system and then just just a little idea so thank you Kelly I think I don't want to jinx you but
036I think you have a dynasty now is that right I think Niwa has a dynasty yeah I think so I think one thing I didn't mention is that this is our first five a state title on the girls side in it it was a choice to I mean we're a four a by student enrollment and it's a choice that me and the administration made to move up to that five a challenge and it was honestly not not necessarily the confidence I had in the guys team that we would make that jump it was actually the confidence we had in our girls program and the success that they had and and now our guys have matched that so yeah there is a dynasty at Niwa and we owe it to our great leadership our parents and
037and most importantly the athletes behind me that's outstanding and girls congratulations to you as state champions and national runners-up we're very proud chase was texting me on that day and we were we were keeping track of points and had our eyes on on you on that day so thank you you need to know behind the scenes we're all rooting and we're pulling for you so thank you we appreciate it congratulations thank you all right next we'll introduce our boys cross-country team have them go ahead and come on up so our boys had the opportunity to be the back-to-back 5a state champions so last year was their first year at 5a when they won the state championship we came back this year and won it again also had the opportunity to win the national championship last
038year and went and repeated as a national champion again this year what's incredible about that is just a quick story is back when the girls won it in 21 that right Kelly in 21 there was a group out of California Newbury Park and they were the hottest team there was and they said well this is the best team ever this is the best team ever and Kelly told me when we were out there that our boys team someday will be better than this team and thought he was crazy but he was exactly right because our boys finished with the lowest score ever recorded at Nike Cross Nationals which is incredible so they're a great group of young men that I could not be more proud of and of course grateful for their leader in Kelly
039Christiansen so I'll introduce him again all right I'm back up here um yeah before I dive into the boys here it's it is like one thing I as I'm thinking about this is just how special the Niwok community continues to to be and grow and and it does obviously start with our student-athletes but the support we have from parents and our administration and you all for us we couldn't do what we're doing without that support and the autonomy and the empowerment that not only our athletes feel they have but that I feel I have and yeah I mean these boys I think three years ago the current state champions in Colorado and also the the best team in our state who had coached national champions referred to them as little rascals because when they were
040all 14-15 years old that's what they were they they didn't look like they belonged running in the big boy race in terms of the way their physical appearance looked but they had a lot of fun running in the mud and they were constantly beating people that they shouldn't be beating just because of their mental fortitude and their competitive drive and it's something I say you only get every 10-15 years is a group of athletes that supports each other unconditionally and just loves to compete even on their worst day they give everything that they have on that day for each other but I'm gonna have them introduce themselves same thing boys where you went to middle school what grade you're in if you're going to college where you're going and don't forget to say your name
041I'm Garrett I went to Sunset and I'm a junior my name is Ryder Keaton I'm a senior I went to Sunset middle school and I'm planning to go to the United States Air Force Academy I'm Jude Ritson I'm a freshman and I went to Sunset middle school I'm Gabriel Marshall I went to Twin Peaks and I'm not sure where I'm gonna get to college but I'm gonna run I'm Rocco Culpepper I went to Southern Hills middle school I'm a senior and I'm going to Wake Forest next year I'm Hunter I'm a senior I went to Dawson middle school and I'm going to Duke next year my name is Quinn Sullivan I went to Lake Travis middle school and I'm a junior Lake Travis is in Austin Texas right Quinn yeah I don't know how he
042ended up here but we're glad he did Gabe also got his congressional nomination and he is on the next probably list of Air Force Academy we also have a student athlete that's not here that also got a congressional nomination for West Point and Quinn just got back from Stanford and he's getting on a plane to go check out NAU and he's going to go to North Carolina Duke and a couple other places to go on a visit not that that's the most important thing but it's pretty impressive and some of those schools you can't go to unless you have the education to fill out the application so that speaks loudly for our school district and what we're doing for these kids so yeah this group again they're in the record record books as being the
043best to ever run so Niwot High School until someone takes them down is the best ever in the in the sport across country for boys high school athletics and it's pretty cool so thanks for having us here today and if you guys want to ask them questions or have anything else to say just go ahead I was just gonna say thank you coach you know the last four years I've seen you come up here and you're always rooting for the kids it's all it's always about the kids so just like the previous coach said it's the passion for the kids first so the students the mental capacity that it takes for you to be able to do what you do because you're not just the normal student you're an athlete a student athlete and that
044is something distinguished from everything else because not only do you have to think about your academics you also have to think about the sport and what you need to do in the sport the the strategy the competitiveness and and like you were saying you know the the people who look at you and say oh they're not they're not they're not supposed to be here because they don't look like they should be here but you prove everybody wrong and it's not so much about proving wrong it's about proving to yourself first and foremost and so I want to just congratulate you all for your hard work your tenacity your you just you know just making sure that you stay in your element all the time so thank you so much for being here and we truly
045truly are excited about the things you'll do in the future thank you oh I'm I'm a runner I don't run at this level but I just have so much appreciation for what you said about teamwork and the students showing up for each other I think the skills that you're learning in this team will take you really far I think Jackie mentioned that earlier to one of the other teams that was up here but these are real life skills and I hope you take the team work mentality to all of the things that you do in the future and yeah congratulations what an honor so thank you truly and I will just also congratulate all of you to be national champions is just incredible you know there are very few state champions but then to be
046a national champion I don't know that we'll meet other national champions in our life so congratulations for doing something incredibly special in your lives and boy you all are winners all the way around because even your plans for post-graduation are just incredible we really could not be more proud so good for you keep going and thank you to the parents that support these children and get them to and from sports right a lot of driving for families so again just thank you for for your support I you know and just my just my my appreciation for all of you um when I talk to to colleagues that have my position in other districts they don't even know they're board members and many of you I hang out with at a number of events whether it's
047fifth grade field day or music concerts or art shows or sporting events whatever it may be you're you're always there and you're always present and you're always supporting us so thank you for all you do and this is a great place to be and we certainly enjoy your leadership dr capuchin thank you for your leadership as well and a great start chase um thank you for texting me at 5 45 this morning it was 45 minutes after I wanted to and I was I was up and ready and I want to thank chase and all of our athletic directors people have no idea what it takes to run an athletic and activities and all of the music programs they have no idea the scheduling the logistics the materials the equipment the fields and he gets
048tremendous amount of support from our operations team in that space but truly the time away from their families I mean their spouses get a hot dog at a football game as date night dinner and they are in your families are incredibly patient in that space you sign up for that lifestyle and it is hours and hours in the evenings and on weekends and truly chase you set the standard for all of the other athletic directors but as an entire group you are just the most committed people that some of the most committed I've seen in public education so thank you for your work that's our pleasure thank you thank you chase okay next up we have a congressional service award I think Diane Lauer is going to introduce this so I'm going to ask some
049of my colleagues to come forward Chris Dr. Marder Dr. McMurray Madam President Dr. Capuchin it is with great enthusiasm that we celebrate Chris Chow tonight as you mentioned she recently was recognized as educator of the year for 2026 for the second congressional district here in Colorado Miss Chow is a science teacher and the co-coordinator of the medical and bioscience academy at Longmont high school she is an exceptional educator whose impact across our district has been profound and truly transformative her brilliance shines not only in her classroom for the things that she does and brings to her students but truly her transformative trailblazing approach of providing students opportunities to engage in rigorous collegiate level scientific research present their findings to top researchers on a national stage and to carefully and intentionally match students with interns who
050are top-notch in the field here in our community giving those students a truly competitive advantage for their future and so I'd like to ask Mr. McMurray principal of Longmont high school and Dr. Richard Marder former colleague of Chris from Longmont high school and former board member to come and speak a few words on Chris's behalf thank you Dr. Lauer good evening board thank you so much for having us Dr. Capuchin thank you so much I'd like to just start by echoing all of the sentiments from the groups prior you know without your support as a board we would not have these opportunities and as you know educators can be absolute visionaries and we have one standing behind me now and her name is Chris Chow this is her 18th year at Longmont high school and
051with the support of Dr. Marder and our science department they had a vision of creating an opportunity that was really unique to st brain and I do believe it is right up there with the best programs and in the entire country and it's called the the medical and bioscience academy and this provides opportunities for students to take on really rigorous AP and honors courses but with a real deep focus in the allied and health sciences and it culminates with a 40-hour internship and as Dr. Lauer said we have an amazing community that thrives with working with our students and the experiences that they gain gives them incredible insight as to this is this if this is the path that they are looking to pursue post-secondary and as a career and the students just do an
052incredible job of articulating what that experience was and it is not just words it is absolute incredible opportunities for them to experience those in addition to that that wasn't enough they took that opportunity a step further and created what's called the smart team and that is students modeling a research topic and that's what Dr. Lauer alluded to and they research a protein and the depth that they go in it goes flying way over my head but it's amazing to understand how much knowledge and experience they are learning alongside graduate students at CU Boulder many of which are former Longmont High students who went through the MBSA program so you could just see a direct thread from our community of young people to high schoolers to college students to career and readiness within my within Longmont
053High's medical and bioscience academy and so much of that has to do with Chris's leadership on a national stage she is an AP mentor she helps write curriculum across the country she helps making sure that the AP test assessment is aligned with where students need to be for post-secondary readiness so you can just imagine how much of a lifelong learner she is how dedicated she is to the profession and without further ado we'll introduce her okay next I'd like to just ask Dr. Motter to say a few words too but thank you again for all your support for it thank you good evening uh president Gilligan superintendent uh completion I've this is the first time I've actually been here at the podium rather than uh sitting among you so ah yes um in my time
054in I would say I always wanted to be a teacher because I had an opportunity to have as my teachers teachers like Chris my professional life spanned a lot of opportunities to travel and to work in New York City and Washington DC uh there I saw uh people striving for excellence people who um were at the very tops of their field and when when uh Chris joined the staff of the Longmont High science department I recognized those traits in Chris she's been my colleague for over 20 years we uh she was instrumental in helping to form as uh principal uh sorry McMurray uh mentioned the medical and bioscience committee um medical and bioscience academy good grief and in doing that she really helped us uh in the science department establish a culture of excellence and
055one that is committed to progressive improvement and she's done that consistently throughout her time putting students first one of the things that I noticed about her was that she is able to reach out and connect with students whose first love is science and not everyone's first love is science but when you're in Chris's class uh your first love if it's uh can become science and in addition for those whose first love is not science she created a a classroom environment that was engaging and supporting and connected them with connected the course and the topics with their own interests so she was able to make science relevant to the things that were near and dear to their students her students desires in addition for any any teachers certainly for St. Brian's teachers they invest countless hours
056beyond the classroom and in terms of being available to students and being there and in order to ensure that every students have what they need to succeed and I I would just say that um she epitomizes the very best in terms of uh what a professional teacher can be and also the kind of teachers that St. Brian attracts to uh our classrooms by virtue of the culture she helps establish and the commitment shared commitment among those who uh become uh fellow teachers uh I'd I will uh end by saying that um I had a chance to talk with Chris a couple of months ago and we talked about uh what her mission was uh and her mission she said was to uh create a um a love of science to share a love of science
057with her students in a way that equipped them to become accomplished critical thinkers also to be kind humans and finally to be become productive uh citizens of our country and that's the mission I would say of the many excellent teachers we have throughout St. Brian and your recognition of her this evening uh is certainly for her but also recognition of the culture that she's been part of helping to establish in our high school as well as throughout the district and the teachers we have tracked to share her same characteristics so it's with great pleasure that I uh give you thank you wow it's hard to follow that um thank you to the board madam president and dr capuchin for inviting me here tonight I'm really grateful to be able to work for this district and
058this is my uh 21st year and um I actually I was telling dr laura about my origin story and that originally I had applied to the open science uh position at longmont high school for fun um I was a stay-at-home mom with preschoolers and I really needed adult conversation so I found this job post and thought well I'll practice interviewing and so I went with no stress at all and when they offered me the job originally I turned it down and said well thank you very much for the opportunity but I actually have two little kids at home and have child care issues um but uh mr rick olson who is the principal at the time and dick martyr who is our uh the science department chair um made some uh choices uh to kind
059of switch some schedules around to make it possible for me to just uh teach one class a day find child care and that um applying for a job for fun turned into uh you know this permanent position 21 years later so I never expected that and I'm really grateful for that opportunity to work for a school district that has been really supportive of teachers and equipping them and empowering them and really being uh open to new ideas I think this district is in the forefront of education implementing um instructional strategies and innovation and really when I talk to teachers across the nation it's really apparent to me how lucky I am and blessed I am to be working for a really supportive school district so I want to thank you all um I also want
060to thank you thank um my principals uh rick olson and jeff mcmurray who um whenever I go to them with an idea of hey how about let's start this new class or what if we offered this they're really open and are great to work with and so I appreciate jeff's leadership and his open door policy at longmont high school and I also appreciate mentors like dick whose wisdom has guided me through my teaching years um but I also want to thank my husband who is here in the audience um I like to joke that my husband is a school widower from August to May because he patiently endures me being gone for the evening smart team meetings the chaos of taking students across the country for science conferences and my obsessive late night lesson planning
061so um I I really am blessed to be teaching here in this district my daughter had the opportunity both of my daughters graduated from st rain and one of them through dr lauer's p teach program she was in the first cohort so my daughter debbie is a first grade teacher not in this state and I'm trying to convince her that um st rain is the highest paid starting teacher salary here in Colorado and so she's really looking to move soon um but I'm so grateful that this district gives students so many different opportunities and empowers teachers like me who dream big to be able to carry those out to fruition so thank you well thank you um I think we're really fortunate to have someone as special as you are in our school district um
062it's really apparent we got to see a presentation from your smart team not that long ago um and like jeff said a lot of it was totally over my head but it was really clear how amazing those opportunities are for those students to practice some real world you know just to have a real world experience before they've even gotten to college I think it just sets them up for success and um thank you so much for everything that you give it's very clear that this is such a passion for you so we're grateful that we have teachers like you in our district so thank you thank you and do other board members have anything to say Chris I also want to thank you for choosing to serve in public education and in St. Maureen you
063truly are a blessing and an asset to our district and to all of the kids whose lives that you touch so thank you for the work that you do here and we would like to take a picture with you fantastic thanks oh and I did want to give a shout out to Maddie over there because she's one of my former students and I uh working for the school district for so long I love seeing former students come back to this community and serve the community so I just want to shout out to her and I know she's doing amazing things at Frederick High School so um yeah I love being a part of this community as a whole look at that one so one two three next we have the 2026 Colorado Principal of the
064Year recognition Tina thanks hi all right good evening Dr. Capuchin President Ragland and members of our board tonight I have the privilege of recognizing one of our outstanding school leaders Tony Joe Nikolai Tony Joe is the principal of New Meridian High School and the Career Elevation and Technology Center and she has been named the 2026 Colorado High School Principal of the Year by the Colorado Association of Secondary School Principals which is a department of case as a state winner Tony Joe will now represent Colorado at the national level and is being considered for the national principal of the year Tony Joe is someone whose work exemplifies what is possible when belief persistence and purpose come together on behalf of students this recognition is significant and even more powerful is why she earned it under Tony
065Joe's leadership New Meridian High School has experienced extraordinary outcomes the on-time graduation rate has increased from 12.5 percent to nearly 90 percent the dropout rate has decreased from over 25 percent to below three percent students are not only graduating they are now graduating with college credits and industry certifications prepared for both college and career and these results did not happen by accident Tony Joe worked closely with her staff to redesign their master schedule so that they could embed credit recovery and academic intervention into the school day she helped create a free to students summer program which now serves nearly 30 percent of students in her school this ensures access and opportunities for students are not limited by finances she also launched operation graduation an initiative that pairs every student with a personal graduation coach someone
066who knows them supports them and holds them accountable every step of the way at the career elevation and technology center a record number of students are engaged in internships and in early earning valuable certifications those give them a competitive advantage when they pursue a career or continue their education after high school students in these programs are competing and winning at the national level we know that systems and programs only work when they are grounded in strong leadership and Tony Joe is a deeply mission-driven leader she sees potential for success in every single student she is clear and consistent in her message with to her students education matters and it is a key to improving your life and achieving your goals she talks with students often she listens to them even more and she challenges them
067to believe in themselves and pursue their goals equally important Tony Joe believes profoundly in her staff she knows the power of a teacher who believes in students and she works alongside her team to support them her expectations are high and she is a driver someone who pushes for excellence she also celebrates staff and students she recognizes their effort all of their innovation and all of their progress and she brings a lot of fun to the workplace because of that staff are all in and they can see very concretely how their work makes a difference for every single student this year new meridian high school is on track to exceed 90 percent graduation rate that means 90 of the students who are seniors will walk across that graduation stage a moment that represents years of persistence
068belief in collective effort Tony Joe your leadership has transformed the futures of countless countless students on behalf of st brain valley schools thank you for your vision your heart and your unwavering commitment to our students please join me in congratulating colorado's 2026 high school principal of the year Tony Joe Nikolai I feel like the celebration just keeps continuing because I got to see a lot of you last week so um I just want to first say thank you so much for those kind words and well I'm much more comfortable celebrating my students and staff please know that I'm deeply grateful for this honor and know that this recognition doesn't just belong to me it lives with our students and staff at will see etc and new meridian so instead of talking more about my school
069I'm actually going to take this time I wrote out some thank yous and I just want to publicly thank everyone who is a contributor of this success and this award so first I want to say thank you to dr caputian for your vision and your unwavering belief that every child can learn and they deserve the best of the best so it's because of you our campus thrives and I'm deeply grateful thank you to our board of education just for your partnership and your investment in students across our multiple communities thank you to dr perfetti deanie for your guidance and for coaching me in into the leader I am today my high school colleagues our high school principals are in the room because they're going to be recognized and celebrated later but I want to give
070them a special shout out because they have just been instrumental in championing and just being champions of our campus both cetc and new meridian so the beauty of our campus is we serve students from all across st brain that's 10 different schools so it truly takes a village and without them we wouldn't have kids on our campus so I view this one as a team and district win and I just want to thank them for their encouragement I also want to thank our admin team who they are just partners in my leadership buck weber's in the back of the room so if he can stand up this award lives with him too so I'd like him to be celebrated for a second and nates up and mr greenie nathan greenie our other admin he's up
071in winter coaching his kids with hockey right now so just their leadership is instrumental into our in towards our everyday success and lastly I just want to thank our staff and our students I truly believe our campus is the best place to be it's filled with love and compassion and joy but it's also filled with accountability and we can do all of that while having a lot of fun I think music Fridays are my favorite and I think I'm fun and I have the best dance moves but if you ask our students they might say it's their punishment so maybe don't so I do I have the best job in the world I'm so proud to be a public educator we get to be difference makers every day and when the world feels crazy I
072just rest easy knowing that our children walk through the door and into the arms of our staff who just love them through and through so it's great to be a difference maker and I'm very honored to represent Colorado and our profession so thank you it's so interesting whenever educators get up to the podium because you stand up there and you say thank you to everyone but yourself and I just really hope in all of this that you're taking in every moment because this is such a well-deserved honor for you and I know that it takes a team and a village but you've worked so hard and poured yourself into this profession and all that you give to our students and they were so proud last week to stand up there and take those photos with
073you and it that kind of that just speaks volumes so congratulations and know that our whole community is so so proud of you thank you thank you I said it many times since I've heard the news just congratulations uh the work you did there is phenomenal I've been in the district since 1993 and I've been involved with people whose students were going there at different times and it's just a totally different atmosphere that you've created and just like Jackie said you know you thank everybody who's under you but thanks go to you too and it's hard to accept that I understand that but you need to take pride and enjoy this time and wish you luck in the national competition I don't know who could beat you but you know those national things are difficult
074so thanks again for everything you do thank you you are a difference maker our teachers and public educators they hold a special place in many people's hearts I think when we started out this year with Dr. Capuchin and she talked about the educator that changed her life there are so many people who have done that and you are doing that to your students I too was there to witness the students and just the love that they have for you and that can be very it can it can bring you to tears but it also is a joyous moment because a lot of students sometimes don't have that either at home or they just don't have it within themselves so for you to be able to be that you and your staff and your administrators to
075be that to those students we are so grateful for that we're so grateful for you and again like everybody said enjoy the moment we know your staff and administrators are part of this as well but as the leader you are you're the forefront and just take it and as my mom would tell me receive it receive it receive it receive it thank you congratulations thank you I would also just like to one more time tell you congratulations we're so very proud to have the Colorado principal of the year among us I love seeing a humble leader honored and I have had to remind Tony Joe the same thing that you said Neosha is that when you are presented with flowers you have to receive them and it's going to be so fun this whole year
076watching you make the pageant tour and having to receive that kind of recognition over and over and I expect you to get really good at it I will just take a bow and say thank you and then if we give you a crown you'll have to wear that too my husband may not like that okay we're very proud and we'd like to take a picture with you Tony Joe I appreciate it thanks again okay next up I think we have audience participation I didn't see anybody on the sign-up sheet but do we have any members of our audience that would like to address the board this evening then Jackie our superintendent report is next yes thank you Jocelyn how amazing is it that we spent an hour and 10 minutes recognizing the success of our
077schools and the students and the staff who work in our schools we've had so many incredible wins this last semester and just lately and I just want to name a few of those as well all eight of our comprehensive high schools were just named by college board to the advanced placement honor roll and this recognition really is about the number of students that we are pushing into advanced coursework as well as the rise in their AP test scores and so as we challenge students to take that risk and to take their next advanced AP class you might expect that those scores would not pan out because some don't always have the confidence to take that that coursework and yet the more we push on students and kind of pull out that potential the more we
078see them achieve and so we're just incredibly proud of that recognition a few years back we decided to do an AP for all push and to not decide as adults whether students were ready for an AP course but to to plant that seed in each of our students and let them decide that they were going to take that jump and they have and we've increased the number of students participating in advanced coursework and they just keep achieving so we're proud of that it's the first time all eight of our comprehensive high schools have achieved that honor so congratulations I know our high school principals are in the room so I would like for you all to stand up please so that we can recognize also we had our drone team just do a drone presentation
079at the future of ed technology conference in Orlando so they have taken their show on the road actually on an airplane they've taken their show on an airplane so I got to figure how I'm not sure how they got the drones there I likely somebody had to drive them I think I don't know I need to find out the logistics behind all of that but truly they they just continue to inspire not just with the beauty of a drone show but with all that it takes to manage the drones and to to code the drones and to get that that whole thing off the ground so I'm incredibly proud of that student group as well as Danny Hernandez and Joe McBrain's team at the Innovation Center we will hear a little bit about our grad
080rates in a presentation coming up and we'll be able to do some more recognition related to our graduation rates but they are solid and they were just formalized by the state and we are the highest graduation rate in the Denver Denver metro area and among all of the top 10 largest school districts in the state and they continue to climb and not just for all students but as we look at specific sub-populations of students like our Hispanics students they are also achieving at a very high rate of over 93 percent so we're proud of that to Chris and to Tony Joe always such a pleasure you know we get a lot of district recognition for district programs but what I love about the awards that we have this evening is it is all about our
081schools all about our students and all about our teachers and our principals and truly that is where the vision of the school we can talk about a vision but the magic and the vision comes alive in every one of our classrooms and in every one of our schools and so it it just warms my heart to be able to provide those recognitions to our our schools and our school staff I will stop there because we have more to come we have a lot on our agenda this evening we'll get to do some more recognitions but a lot of amazing things happening happy new year to everyone it's really fun to be back and to have some structure in my life again and not to be washing towels and managing a puppy and doing my kids
082laundry they forget they're adults when they come home so good to be back and to start this new semester thank you Jackie I know this is a little out of order but I'm going to have Amanda come up and introduce a couple of our new staff appointments although neither of them are new to St. Bring good evening President Gilligan Dr. Capuchin and members of the board of education it's my pleasure to introduce two individuals in their respective new roles first of all it's my honor to introduce Dr. Russ Fox as executive director of human resources effective July 1 of this coming year Dr. Fox a little bit about him graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor of arts degree in English literature and secondary education he continued his education at the University
083of Colorado and he earned his master's of arts degree in curriculum and instruction and also obtained his principal licensure additionally he holds a doctorate in education from the University of Colorado at Denver not only was Dr. Fox a graduate of St. Brim Valley School District he has been a long-standing employee with us since 2011 he's in his fifth year serving as principal of Frederick High School and also served as assistant principal there as well and he served as dean of students at Coleridge Middle School and was an English teacher and coach at Erie High Dr. Fox serves as mentor to principals new to our district as a facilitator for our new administrator induction program and volunteers with local organizations that have supported positive community partnerships such as the Carbon Valley Rotary Club and now it
084is my pleasure to give you the opportunity to speak and we're very excited to have you join HR me too thank you thank you Amanda Madam President Board Dr. Capuchin thank you very much for this opportunity and and more broadly thank you for all the work that you do day in and day out to support our students and our staff my whole family is a St. Brim family my wife is assistant principal at Erie High School and my kids are elementary students at Black Rock Elementary so we have a very full and very fulfilling life and so I understand acutely the work that all of you do and how it impacts my family but families across our community so thank you Dr. Capuchin thank you so much for your continued faith in me I have
085learned so much from you I'm excited to keep learning every chance I get Amanda I'm excited to work alongside you with your team and HR and supporting our districts and just more broadly public education is the best work it's the most important work that we do and and having a chance to do that work that work that I love in this new new role is something that I'm humbled by and super excited for so thank you all very much and it's with excitement that I introduce you to in her new role Miss Kelly Kinsman as the executive director of building services Miss Kinsman holds two undergraduate degrees a bachelor of science degree in natural resources with an emphasis in environmental science law and policy from Michigan State a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering
086from Colorado State University she's also working towards a master's in business administration in energy economics from Michigan State University and her background and work history is so so very deep and with lots of experience she has been an employee in our district since 2021 and is in her fourth year serving as manager of environmental health and safety and has also served as energy and sustainability manager prior to our district her professional background includes over 18 years serving in executive leadership roles for various companies and governmental agencies in the areas of environmental compliance regulatory strategy in both state and federal rule development air and quality data analysis emissions control design and implementation and emergency response planning and management and much more we are so grateful to have her serving in this role and serving in our
087district it's my pleasure to have Kelly share a few words thank you thanks Amanda I appreciate it madam president members of the board dr capuchin thank you thank you for the opportunity to to help advance st brain's mission it is important to me my family is full of educators and administrators and it's nice to stand up here as one of them today so thank you for the opportunity this I guess I have a couple notes so I'm just going to make sure I stay on track this opportunity combines the environmental health and safety energy sustainability and also the custodial department under one umbrella so I am grateful for the opportunity but I'm excited for the potential for our department as the leader of executive director of building services and I just want to reach out
088and say thank you for your leadership dr capuchin thank you for believing in this mission and thank you for your leadership throughout the district board of education we couldn't do it without you so thank you for your oversight your leadership and your unwavering support of everybody so thank you very much appreciate it I just would like to say thank you and congratulations to both of you I think you're we're excited to see you bring your deep experience and knowledge to our district and these leadership roles and we look forward to it so thank you oh yeah I just want to say you know dr fox I've I consider you a friend of mine and thank you for everything that you've done for many many families including mine he's had my kids since middle school really
089so we're going to miss you at Frederick but thank you for staying in St. Vrain and thank you for all you do congratulations we'll move on to reports first up is 6.1 board of education recognition month Carrie good evening members of the board I'm so excited to kick off tonight's recognition of the work that all of you do to support our students in our community with all of the celebrations and achievements that we've seen tonight none of that would be possible without the foundation that you all create and I'm just so grateful for the care commitment and service that you give to our students and to our community and so it's an honor tonight to read our national school board recognition month proclamation whereas these are challenging times for public education and for the work
090of local school board members and whereas school boards are responsible for putting into place a system for students to learn and achieve at the highest level possible and whereas excellence in the classroom begins with excellence in the boardroom and whereas the key work of school boards includes taking action to create a vision for what students should know and be able to do to establish clear standards for student performance to ensure that student assessments are tied to establish standards to be accountable to the community for operating schools that support student achievement to align school district resources to ensure that students meet standards to create a climate assuring safe and orderly classrooms to build collaborative relationships to solve common problems and to ensure continuous improvement and whereas we are proud of the work school boards do and
091the role school board members play in creating a quality public education system that is fundamental to the strong to a strong democratic society now therefore we the st. brain valley school district do hereby declare our appreciation to the members of the st. brain valley school district board of education and proclaim the month of january 2026 to be school board recognition month we urge all citizens to join us in recognizing the dedication and hard work of our board of education members and empowering students to learn challenging empowering our students to learn challenging students to achieve and inspiring students to excel i'd like to just say a few words jocelyn if that's okay school board members are the unsung heroes of their communities and i know this to be true in our community you have very big
092responsibilities you receive no pay limited training to carry the weight of such important decisions what i know about each of you is that you spend many hours reading information and board packets to gain enough background knowledge to ask thoughtful questions and to give helpful feedback you care deeply about our teachers and staff and have an unwavering commitment to each child's success many may not know the hours and hours that you spend each month listening to the concerns of parents and the community ensuring the responsible use of public funds monitoring student achievement data and helping to establish a vision for saint brain based on the values of this community each of you brings unique talents and expertise that brings strong and comprehensive leadership to our district you are all stable consistent selfless and highly engaged in
093this work i could not have asked for a better board during my first year as a superintendent i deeply appreciate your kindness and your support as well as your curiosity and introspection about the areas in which we we show in in which we need to show improvement during board appreciation week i want to extend my sincere thank you to each of you and to let you know that i have a tremendous amount of respect for you for managing your board roles along with your full-time jobs your own children and families and all of the other responsibilities you have in your lives i will leave you with this sentiment our light shines brightest when we are working on something bigger than ourselves thank you for shining your light on the 33 000 students in the schools
094in saint brain i appreciate you and others may have some words that they would like to share as well so we'll take just a minute for that to happen if i can ride jackie's shirt tails just a little bit so i've been with the district now for 18 years and i work for three other school districts and what i can say is i am extremely proud of what we have accomplished and on behalf of our operations department thank you for for building such a great foundation for us to be wildly successful thank you i'd like to add to that over the years i have had the privilege of attending casby which is the conference for school boards but we've brought student leaders to that and year over year i see the board members interacting with
095our student leaders at that conference and your genuine interest in our students wanting to know from them what is their lived experience in our classrooms and how they may want to improve on what is already a great school system i'm just always really proud that you keep the kids at the heart of all of the decisions and the work and i think that that reflects very well on our entire community so i just want to show my appreciation to you for all of that i'll go this is tony over here just wanted to um again i made myself a few notes so i'm not coming up with this on the fly i just wanted to make sure um you know you knew that you know as both a parent in this community and a member
096of the staff i really appreciate your thoughtful engagement your advocacy for our students you guys represent the best of our community really do you step up and set an example for the how a contributing member of the society should act and provide for for everyone's best interests it's you guys are saints honestly you subject yourselves to public scrutiny and criticism but you stay above the fray and i'm so impressed that you provide that stability for us and for our students and you give of yourself lending your expertise expertise efforts time and energy and i can't thank you more so thank you all i would also just like to add that i get to see kind of what issues you struggle with um kind of the the feedback that you get from the public how you
097uh how you handle all the issues that come before this board with a great deal of thought uh and without ever taking your eye off the ball which is making sure that the students here have every opportunity to succeed and as an advisor to this body it makes my life a lot easier when you do that so thank you much like another member shared recently having worked in other school districts i am just in awe of the thoughtful manner and the intentionality of your service and support to our employees and to our students and that laser focus on our our mission and vision um just so grateful for all that you do for for everyone including and supporting our parents and community and and it really starts right at the very top with our board
098of education and with our amazing superintendent so thank you so very much and um i can proudly continue to to share that saint brain is truly a very very special place and and you are all a very very special and talented group of individuals thank you and i would also like to add um you know whenever i see you out in public when you are so visible um i see other people in our community approach you and that approachability shines from your genuineness you're caring for our community and our children and all of us and it is a wonderful thing that you are doing for our community and to see our residents and families be able to connect with you ask questions and know that you are honest and forthright and true in your heart
099being in service for our community they sense that in you and it is just a wonderful thing so thank you so much for being a true shining light for all of us here in the saint brain valley uh like tony joe it's hard to receive recognition but thank you for all of your kind words um it means a lot so um i'm actually going to switch up the order and go with 6.3 next um our graduation report um carrie are you oh no dina all right i'll get started while my team of area assistant superintendents joins me up here um good evening everyone again this evening our area assistant superintendent team is proud to share with you the results of one of our major achievement benchmarks in saint rain our graduation rate we will also
100highlight the system-wide strategies that are producing consistent year-over-year gains in our graduation rates and strengthening the readiness for life after high school for our students in saint rain we have built a culture of high expectations built with paired with individualized support graduation success is a shared responsibility across all of our roles in departments from campus supervisors and office staff to teachers to school principals to district administrators each of us is committed to ensuring that students have what they need to graduate on time tonight we have invited each high school principal to attend with a counselor to represent their schools so we can recognize their collective efforts at the end of our presentation at its core innovation is about solving problems and while some innovations are transformative and sparkly others are incremental focused on approaching persistent
101challenges in new ways this is true of our work to improve graduation rates our strategies reflect anticipating future needs and global shifts in the workforce and advancing new ideas through continuous improvements this strategic foresight paired with disciplined implementation guides our work our objectives related to graduation and dropout rates remain steady our goal is 100 percent of our students graduate on time with a strong competitive advantage we call this the saint rain advantage we are committed to strong partnerships between parents students and schools and we know that our third goal is critical to seeing results we incorporate a consistent system of monitoring student performance and we provide early responsive intervention tonight we will focus on our high schools however we also want to pause and honor our preschool elementary and middle school educators and leaders their
102work is incredible and it is foundational to each student's success every diploma represents someone's child and at years of effort that begins well before high school in classrooms led by our amazing staff we just received our official graduation rate from the department of education and we have reached as dr capuchin said a historical high of 96.8 percent and you can see that just under that gold star let me orient everyone to the line graph the blue trend line at the top is the saint rain four-year graduation rate for all students and by comparison the green trend line represent represents the state of colorado's four-year graduation rate the red trend line is the graduation rate for our hispanic students and by comparison the purple trend line is the state's data for our hispanic students so 96.8
103percent graduation rate is 11 over the state average and the highest graduation rate among the 10 largest districts in colorado further st brain's hispanic graduation rate now at a record 93.4 percent is up over 38 over the last 15 years and it's 12.7 higher 12.7 higher than the state average for our hispanic students we are beyond proud of our students and staff in that table under the picture is our three-year historical data for dropout rate compared to the state of colorado our dropout rate is 0.4 percent and our hispanic dropout rate has improved to 0.7 percent keep in mind the graduation rates reflect a four-year graduation rate and a number of our students will go on to graduate in four and a half or five years which also helps to lower that dropout rate this
104chart shows the state's 10 largest school districts which were the largest school districts last year this data is all from last school year it includes demographic data also st brain as you can see outperformed everyone among the 10 largest districts in the state the free and reduced lunch data for each of these districts is in the last column and we include this because we know that poverty negative poverty negatively interact impacts achievement without strong interventions and notably st brain performs better than each of the other nine largest districts including the four with lower poverty rates another big celebration for us is that our hispanic graduation rate of 93.4 percent is higher than the total graduation rate of eight of those comparison districts including boulder and cherry creek meanwhile that is just amazing these results are
105happening with some of the most rigorous graduation requirements in the state st brain requires 24.5 credit hours to graduate and that includes three years of math algebra one or higher and three years of lab-based science further many of st brain's eighth grade students take algebra one or geometry in that would be middle school and so a number of them will go on to complete four to five higher level math courses before they graduate thank you dina everything we do in st brain from preschool preschool through high school as dina noted is intentionally designed to ensure students graduate on time and leave prepared for what comes next in their journey whether that's the workforce military service community college or a four-year degree tonight i'll highlight a few of the system wide strategies that directly impact graduation
106rates and importantly these are happening at every st brain high school one of our most powerful tools is grad tracker grad tracker is a real-time data system developed by our dts team in partnership with our assessment department and our high school principals this system allows administrators and counselors with just a few clicks to see current grades attendance patterns and assessment data for all students once students are identified schools can respond quickly triple a as an example is after school support that operates two to three days per week teachers are paid to provide targeted instruction help students complete missing work and reteach essential standards it's not just homework help it's focused intentional academic intervention finally engagement matters our career pathways p-tech programs and co-curricular opportunities help students to see relevance in their learning when students are
107connected to meaningful career possibilities and feel a sense of belonging at school we see stronger attendance engagement and persistence toward graduation another key strategy is e-credit which gives students flexible opportunities to recover credit and stay on track during the first semester alone as an example from the school year 564 students accessed e-credit options 688 courses were recovered out of 844 that were attempted and that's an 81.5 completion rate e-credit is a significant safety net that exists for our students we also have unit recovery where students can recover a grade for courses they almost passed students work with the teacher on what assignments and assessments can be attempted again to improve their learning as well as their grade our educators also focus heavily on early transition to high school rather than waiting until the end of
108middle school our high school and middle school teams begin working together early in eighth grade to prepare students and families for the expectations of high school that work continues into the summer through transition programming for incoming ninth graders students spend several days on campus before school begins learning expectations navigating the building connecting with peers and building rapport with adults this year we also added digital citizenship lessons to support responsible technologies from day one programs like jump start allows students to begin math and english coursework early this builds confidence before the school year even begins throughout ninth grade students continue developing executive functioning skills things like time management organization and effective study habits in their classes in their advisory classes and in their intervention periods as well and of course family partnerships are also essential counselors
109meet with at-risk eighth grade students and their parents before high school begins and many schools schedule individual meetings over the summer for students with prior attendance academic or behavior concerns these meetings ensure students start high school with a clear plan and trusted adult connections as students move closer to graduation our support becomes even more intentional counselors conduct senior interviews with every senior and with parents when a student is off track to review graduation plans and connect students to final interventions and supports study halls mentoring and targeted support remain in place through senior year to ensure students finish strong what's important to note is that saint brain's approach is tiered by design some supports like jump start are somewhat preventative others activate immediately when students begin to struggle and when students do fail of course we
110have recovery options like unit recovery and e-credit to help them get back on track quickly graduation success in saint brain is not left to chance it is the result of intentional systems strong rapport between students families and parents and a shared commitment across our high schools to ensure every student crosses the finish line thank you matt a hallmark of our system-wide efforts to improve graduation rates is our high school credit check process twice each year assist area assistant superintendents meet with high school principals assistant principals and counseling teams at every school to review each student's progress in grades 9 through 12 as well as review the intervention strategies and supports in place to help students recover credits and to intervene early when students begin to struggle in a course through this process area assistant superintendents
111are better able to hear about the strategies and supports that are helping students achieve academic success and to allocate resources to replicate effective interventions across all high schools this ensures consistent support for students throughout the system this slide shows the template that provides structure for our credit check meetings with each school team we begin by looking at overall progress and who is successfully staying on track for graduation and then move into a review of individual student plans we start with seniors reviewing each student status and the specific interventions in place to support their path to graduation school teams share their schedules and processes for monitoring grades and determining appropriate interventions and we then follow a similar process for students in grades 9 10 and 11 the area assistant superintendent team attends all 11 high school
112credit check meetings each november and then we have principals share any new or promising practices at the secondary principal meeting in january similar credit check meetings also take place twice per year at the middle school level ensuring students receive timely intervention and a strong academic preparation for high school while each high school tailors its intervention strategies to meet the unique needs of its students there are foundational practices that are consistent across every school and we would next like to highlight some of those for you the first common practice is that every high school uses a shared spreadsheet as an individual student monitoring system for all students in grades 9 through 12 school teams use this tool to track total credits earned current grades and other key indicators of school success such as attendance these spreadsheets
113make it easy to identify students who may be at risk of failing a course schools review student grades and progress every two weeks this is when the grad tracker data is critical as it helps to efficiently pull real-time grades directly into these spreadsheets making analysis timely and actionable many schools also document interventions they are implementing for specific students on these spreadsheets and often a designated staff champion is identified for each student who will be responsible for monitoring progress and ensuring follow-up in the example shown here you can see multiple tabs along the bottom of the spreadsheet there is a tab for each school team made up of made up of an administrator and a counselor each team reviews their students regularly using this tool to quickly determine who is on track and who may be
114falling off track for passing the class or earning credits these are living documents that are referenced frequently thank you garla the second critical strategy is that all high school teams have a system in place where counselors and teachers have individual check-ins with students where they meet one-on-one about the student's graduation plan this occurs twice a year for seniors but more often for seniors who are struggling with grades on top of that all of our schools conduct individual student interviews and goal setting sessions with those students who need additional support starting in ninth grade continuing all the way through the 12th grade at the top of this slide you'll see the front and back of one school's goal setting sheet students review their grades during an advisory class and with their advisory teacher and they set
115goals and priorities for improving their performance in courses there are different iterations of this strategy throughout our schools the third critical strategy is specific to ninth grade and involves closely monitoring student success in the freshman year there's a strong body of research showing that keeping that first f off their high school transcript during their freshman year is critical to staying on track and graduating on time so we use this strategy during the second semester with our freshmen at the bottom of the slide you can see a snapshot of how one high school supports freshmen during advisory period you can see that the freshman advisory teachers assist students in checking their grades making plans to improve grades and to prepare for finals this example demonstrates a culture of support and focused effort to help students succeed
116in this example of a monitoring in this example of a monitoring system for freshmen this high school has a comprehensive spreadsheet with vital information that helps us closely watch students who are at risk of failing courses or becoming disengaged with school as we scroll across in columns h and i you'll see that in addition to current grades the team has assigned a staff champion to each student each staff champion conducts an interview with the student and records information on the spreadsheet you also see the interventions assigned to students in column k are personalized to each student finally as we scroll to the end the information under the blue heading shows that by the time our team meets with the school for our credit check meetings in mid-november staff in the school have already formally met
117three times with students and adjusted the interventions as needed each school has a flexibility to build their system in a way that makes sense for them what is not flexible is that we are monitoring student progress closely and responding quickly when we see signs of someone struggling the fourth major strategy we want to highlight tonight is our unit recovery efforts unit recovery is offered at all high schools and aims to help students pass their classes rather than to take a replacement class like e-credit if students have attended their classes and earned a grade close to passing students can work out a plan with their teachers to recover those units of study they did not pass and improve their grades the importance of unit recovery is that students are passing our classes that saint rain teachers
118curate and teach this is the most rigorous option for them and best prepares them for the next level of courses there are many skills required to manage a full-time high school schedule including time management focused effort knowledge of the content communication skills and awareness of how grade point average is calculated if we can teach students to manage their coursework successfully in a full-time schedule they're gaining the durable skills needed to be successful in life as well as learning the content knowledge being taught pictured here is one example of a high school schedule showing how they rotate students through unit recovery during the day you can see that students who earned 45 to 59 percent in a course are eligible and then there are some other logistics on this slide other high schools have very similar
119systems and guidelines and we encourage each school to tailor this strategy to their particular needs we want to close by emphasizing that every school and every school leader does exceptional work to ensure student success it has always been true that individuals and schools excel in different ways we often refer to this as islands of brilliance and we love our islands of brilliance what sets us apart in saint brain and is especially powerful is that innovation happens not only at the individual school level but across the system our credit check meetings are key to that success they allow us to focus on the strategies that matter the most they allow us to learn from innovative and promising practices and to share them so they can be replicated they also give us space to identify challenges and
120work together to address them because of this work families do not need to hope that their student lands in a school that's doing everything possible to ensure graduation in saint brain we are certain that every school is that school for our students tonight we've invited each high school principal and a counselor to represent their school i'd like to ask them to join us up here to at the podium and just kind of line up behind me together so that we can recognize and support your work there were so many celebrations you should have brought your sleeping bags okay what we shared tonight reflects the collective efforts of teachers counselors administrators and staff across our high schools systems only work when people bring them to life when they are implemented adapted and shaped to meet the
121needs of students our graduation rate results speak to that commitment more students than ever before are graduating prepared to be successful beyond high school our high school principals counselors and staffs are innovative determined and deeply committed to our students we are so grateful for your work and we are proud of this accomplishment could you help me congratulate them i would like to recognize them by saying who's here tonight and just give a wave when i when i and i hope i i hope i get everybody um this is who um i was told would be here tonight so tony joe and tony joe nicolai the principal of new meridian and her counselor unfortunately could not be here delaine pecoris from eerie high we have principal griffin and tanya senesak the counselor from silver creek we
122have principal finnestead and his counselor michael sardinia from lions middle senior we have principal frank and amy brown the counselor from skyline we have the principal anthony borella and jenna machado who is the counselor representing the staff from naiwat we have principal rosh kalb and counselor mickey doherty from frederick we have principal fox and counselor maddie prec from mead high school we have principal katie and counselor mary gibson from longmont high we have principal mcmurray and counselor jose soto marquez from launch ed we have assistant principal nanette mcmurtry and julie mitchell counselor and from saint brian virtual high school we have becky olson counselor and stacy strussell couldn't be with us here tonight so at this time we'd be happy to have we'd be happy to have answer any questions and i know that um
123the people who are here with us today really making making the magic happen as jackie says they would be happy to answer any questions you have as well i just want to say wow um i i appreciate so much the presentation you put together i'm a data person so it's always interesting to see what actually happens behind the scenes to make these graduations happen um thank you so much for your incredible work um our graduation rate is really a testament of the success of our students and you know we couldn't be more proud of all of you standing here representing us and getting every student we can across the finish line so thank you for your hard work and your dedication to our students and i just like to say that the as a data
124person as well the the number is astonishing but it's more than just the number it's the work that goes behind the number because that work are the strategies all of the the information that you all pull together to help these students and the innovation i just want to i want to say that i mean as an engineer i always think innovation and the innovation that goes behind it when i say innovation not necessarily something you're building but it's the product you're building and those products are the the the key elements that you're helping use to ensure that students are successful and not only you know for our students who are failing but those students who need just an extra push when sometimes the going gets rough a little bit for them and so i want
125to thank each and every one of you i mean i know i've worked with some of you personally across the across the district but for those who i haven't directly i still appreciate all the hard work that you put in for our students and the staff that you you just make sure that our students are well taken care of so thank you so much for all the hard work that you've done over the years it's uh it's one thing when you're not working with kids directly to say you believe in kids but everyone standing before us right now you see kids every day you see them at their best and sometimes at their worst and your belief in them does not waver and it really takes a special type of person to be able to
126do that and it is something that astounds me about our district is that i think every board meeting comes down to everyone's collective belief in kids but you guys really set the tone so thank you so much i feel honored to be here in front of you all you're incredible and i know it's been said a couple times this evening but the hours that you put in inside of the school outside of the school you wake up thinking about something a student an unresolved you know something that's not on the spreadsheet yet right and how to get it on there um there aren't words to really thank you for that i just know that you know there's been a lot of praise passed around this evening i hope you know that i know that you're
127a team of people in your buildings and i am in awe every evening i'm in here i am so grateful to come in here i learned something about you all about the students about the programs that are offered that are just endless please don't quiz me on them but one thing that really speaks loudly to me in the presentation and thank you for putting that all together are the layers that are built in there for each and every student because we don't know which program they'll attach to we don't know which program they'll decide well i know what i don't want to do when i grow up or i now do know what i want to do and we also don't know which person in those layers or staff member that they'll attach to because
128they're dealing with things sometimes that we can't walk into their homes and solve for them but the layers that you're building in there are just so commendable it's truly an honor to be here in front of you all and thank you for staying late tonight with us we really appreciate all that you do uh real quick i just from the bottom of my heart thank you for all that you do for the students for the communities for the families thank you really appreciate you guys and i will just say that this data point is a collective data point for our entire system and that it begins in preschool and it works through elementary through strong literacy instruction and numeracy instruction into our middle years where we're really trying to help students understand that advanced math
129work that will prepare them for all of the opportunities you offer in high school and then of course all of the work that you all do to track on students from the day they walk through your doors and in many cases that's late july early august because we start all that jumpstart programming for our freshmen so that we can let them start high school in a really confident way i want you to know that we know that this work is so special and so unprecedented that we nominated you all for a national award and um i was able to attend the conference it's the district administration leadership institute they received 75 applications for projects from across the nation and our project won and we were named as a district of distinction because of your work
130so i would like for all of you to come up and take a picture with the board this is your award this award belongs to all of you we would like to get a picture with all of you and i would like to thank you again for all of this is roll up your sleeves i'm surprised you're not in your sweats and sweat span sweat bands wiping your foreheads from all of the exhausting uh amount of work that it takes to chase some of those kids down the hallway and to get from them what they know that you are looking for so um thank you for your hard work and come on up let's let's get a picture tammy did you did you want to say something if i may say a few words real
131quick um as a student it's really nice to know that there are adult staff that are committed to actually working with us and helping us improve and fulfill our potential my parents moved to longmont because of the school district they moved here because they knew they wanted a family and they knew that they wanted their students to grow up in a place where they would get a good education and i'm so glad that they did because the opportunity that i have here in st rain is amazing and incredibly rare not just in colorado or in the united states but in the entire world and i think that it's just amazing what this district has done and what all of the adults and staff members here have done for all of the students so thank you
132i'm well we're just gonna um we are beyond eight o'clock um so um by policy we need to vote to extend the meeting by 30 minutes can i get a motion to extend the meeting by 30 minutes so moved christy will you take the vote yes mrs babs yes mr berthold yes mrs gilligan yes mrs harannick yes mr lechuga yes mrs solomon absent mrs weiss yes sorry next up we have 6.2 school efficiency report carry all right good evening again president gilligan dr capuchin members of the board the purpose of this report is to give the board an update on school building facility efficiency planning to ensure the continued delivery of a high quality robust educational experience for every st brain valley student alongside recommendations to ensure long-term fiscal stewardship and sustainability of programming at
133the december 17th board of education study session leaders from our operations department and financial services presented an update regarding enrollment trends and funded pupil count while the district is experiencing growth in many areas the data demonstrates that not all geographic areas of the district are growing with some experiencing larger enrollment declines recognizing and following these trends very closely leadership from our superintendent's office our operations team our finance team and our learning services team have met extensively over the past year to review short and long-term enrollment product projections school boundaries transportation impacts special education considerations school programming and curricular considerations financial impacts and other important areas around the district tonight we will share the outcomes of that planning work and our recommendations moving forward and i don't know if my in the tech booth if the
134slides are just not so i'll pause just for a second and try to unplug there we go when in doubt unplug it and replug it in all right throughout this entire process two guiding principles have been at the forefront of every conversation and every recommendation first and foremost doing what is best for students every child in st brain valley schools deserves access to a high quality educational experience that includes appropriate class sizes full access to special instruction like art music and physical education robust co-curricular opportunities and expanded opportunities for student engagement and growth second is our responsibility as stewards of our community's fiscal investment our taxpayers entrust us with significant resources to educate our children we have an obligation to use those resources wisely efficiently and in ways that maximize the educational benefit to students
135these two principles student-centered decision making and fiscal responsibility have guided every aspect of this planning process and the recommendation we bring forward tonight let me briefly recap some of the enrollment data that was presented last month our current k-12 enrollment stands at 31,040 students which is a decline of 119 students from last year while that represents less than half a percent decline and we remain relatively stable compared to many districts across the state the trends tell an important story when we look at specific geographic areas and again while many pockets of the district are growing particularly in our mead carbon valley and eerie communities the longmont feeder area in particular has experienced a larger decline and this is driven by several factors declining birth rates across the region and state housing patterns showing fewer families
136with school-aged children per household student yield data in the longmont high school bound boundary showing only 0.29 students per housing unit compared to the district average of 0.42 these demographic realities mean that some of our schools are serving significantly fewer students than they were designed to serve which directly impacts our ability to provide the full range of programming and opportunities that our students deserve after comprehensive analysis of enrollment trends building utilization educational programming capacity and fiscal implications we have determined that sanborn elementary currently the smallest elementary school community in saint rain valley school district can no longer sustainably provide the full range of educational opportunities that our students deserve accordingly at a future board meeting we will be bringing forward a formal recommendation to consolidate sanborn elementary with northridge elementary effective for the 2027-2028 school
137year so not this upcoming school year but the following school year this plan will keep sanborn open for one more year to give families time to make decisions and will also give the district time to invest in upgrades at northridge elementary including the potential addition of new classrooms improvements to the front entry and upgraded playground equipment another important part of this recommendation is the consideration of how we will effectively use the sanborn facility after next school year our apex homeschool program currently leases a space on sunset street for 750 000 a year apex has moved numerous times since its inception through different lease spaces in the community it will be our recommendation to move the apex program to the sanborn facility to give the program a more permanent home that provides a traditional school facility
138and saves the district money on an annual lease so we may be wondering why sanborn let me walk you through the data that informed this recommendation sanborn elementary has experienced a significant and sustained decline in enrollment over the past decade the school's enrollment has decreased from 413 students in 2016 to just 170 students today a reduction of approximately 59 percent the sanborn elementary boundary specifically shows only 0.28 students per housing unit and with 97 percent of the area already built out there's very limited opportunity for new housing development to reverse these trends projections indicate enrollment will continue to decline to an estimated 135 students by 2029 additionally sanborn elementary currently operates at 39 percent building utilization which is the lowest in the district with a building capacity of 441 students and a current enrollment of
139170 students the facility is significantly underutilized projections indicate utilization will fall to approximately 31 percent by 2029 in contrast northridge elementary operates at 57 utilization with capacity to accommodate the consolidated student population and has stabilized enrollment projections when enrollment reaches critically low levels like we see at sanborn students can face significant educational disadvantages such as loss of staffing for specials programming which means reduced access to art music physical education and other enrichment programs multi-grade combination classes become necessary when class sizes are too small potentially impacting instructional quality and peer interaction and limited student opportunities constrain extracurricular activities collaborative learning experiences and social development our administration evaluated multiple consolidation options across the district smaller elementary school communities sanborn was identified because it is currently our smallest elementary school community with enrollment projected to continue to significantly
140decline consolidation would impact the fewest number of families and staff while achieving the necessary educational and fiscal objectives additionally geographic proximity to northridge elementary allows for a clean boundary development with minimal transportation impact and northridge has stabilized enrollment and operates at 57 utilization with a capacity of 490 students which is room to welcome the sanborn community here's a look at what the proposed boundary changes would look like these changes have no impact on the feeder middle or high school for these communities for families living in the sanborn area we would add bus stops as you can see on the proposed map to provide transportation for those students to their new home school of northridge i want to pause here and acknowledge something really important and that's that we love our schools all of them and
141sanborn elementary has served the longmont community with distinction generations of families have passed through those hallways teachers have dedicated their careers there we know that friendships have been formed lessons have been learned and many memories have been made and that this type of significant change is never easy it is not a decision that was made lightly and it is not one we make with anything other than the deepest respect for the sanborn community but ultimately our responsibility is to ensure that every student including every sanborn student receives the highest quality education possible and the data tells us clearly that with declining enrollment we cannot continue to provide the full range of programming appropriate class sizes and the robust opportunities that our students deserve i also want to emphasize that no staff members will lose their
142position with the district as a result of consolidation sanborn staff will be redistributed into open positions they will be taken care of throughout the district ensuring continuity of employment while allowing the district to benefit from their experience and their expertise this decision while difficult is made in the best interest of students and in service of our long-term responsibility to the entire st ring community so i want to talk a little bit about the fiscal impact this consolidation will generate a substantial ongoing cost savings while allowing for strategic reinvestment in facility improvements the projected annual savings is approximately 2.32 million in the first 2027-2028 school year breaking that down staffing consolidation will save approximately 1.2 million annually this comes from eliminating duplicative administrative positions and achieving staffing efficiencies not from reducing educational services to students these
143reductions won't come from terminating staff or a reduction in force but from offering open positions to sanborn staff as the district opens new schools where we're experiencing growth experiences retirements and has natural attrition additionally the apex lease termination will save approximately 750 000 annually apex currently operates in a lease space at an annual cost of 750 000 so moving apex to the sanborn building eliminates this ongoing lease obligation and provides apex families with a permanent district-owned facility we will also have additional operational savings of approximately seven three hundred and seventy thousand dollars annually this includes custodial nutrition services and community schools efficiencies these are recurring annual costs that can be reinvested into educational programming facility improvements and ensuring all students across the district have access to the resources that they need transportation is projected to
144be cost neutral with the ability to add transportation options for families within the new boundary and when we look at a five-year potential cost savings that 2.3 million with simple estimates for salary increases and other efficiencies would now be approximately 12.8 million over five years as part of this consolidation we are committed to ensuring that northridge elementary provides an optimal learning environment for all students both current northridge families and incoming sanborn families currently the mead pk bond project is under budget and outperforming expectations so using savings from that project we will undertake facility improvements at northridge elementary including potential classroom additions to accommodate projected enrollment a front entry remodel to improve the welcoming environment and security and playground equipment upgrades and importantly students from both school communities will have input on playground equipment selection this
145is one small but meaningful way we can bring both communities together and give students a voice in shaping their new shared school now we recognize that a change of this magnitude requires meaningful engagement with our community we are committed to a transparent process that gives families students and staff multiple opportunities to ask questions share feedback and have their voices heard for staff staff meetings and parent community it was important to dr compucian that the sanborn staff and families hear the information about this recommendation first and from her as opposed to on social media or in the news she met earlier today with sanborn staff to provide an update and to answer their questions we have also sent a letter to the sanborn parent community providing them with information about the recommendation and inviting them to
146our upcoming community meetings this afternoon and evening northridge and apex staff and families were also updated beginning tomorrow evening we will host community meetings for sanborn families to walk through the plan in detail answer questions and introduce them to the northridge principal we will hold additional meetings as needed throughout the coming weeks we will also launch a community survey to gather input and feedback from families this will help us understand concerns answer questions and identify ways we can make this transition as smooth as possible and in february we will host an open house and community meeting at northridge elementary where sanborn families can tour the facility you potential design ideas for the planned improvements and get a firsthand look at where their students will be learning we also want our students to fill ownership in
147their new school students from both sanborn and northridge will have the opportunity to provide input on the new playground equipment selection and then for any sanborn family who may wish to explore other options we will reopen a special open enrollment process this spring this gives those families flexibility to select an alternative school if they choose to do so before the 2027 2028 school year and throughout this entire process we will maintain open lines of communication through letters emails and direct outreach our principals and district leadership will be available to meet with families who have individual questions or concerns and as i shared previously we are committed to walking alongside our sanborn families every step of the way through this transition and so as i close i want to leave you with the most important takeaways
148from tonight's presentation that this is about doing what is best for students every decision in this process has been guided by ensuring our students receive the highest quality educational experience including appropriate class sizes full access to specials instruction and expanded opportunities for engagement and growth the sanborn consolidation has the smallest impact on students while providing the largest benefit of the consolidation options we evaluated sanborn affects the fewest numbers of families and staff at the same time the students who will transition to northridge will gain access to enhanced programming a larger peer community and a new renovated facility we will experience significant fiscal savings which will be reinvested in students the approximately 12.8 million dollars in savings over the next five years allows us to be responsible stewards of taxpayer resources while continuing to invest in
149the programs and facilities that serve all saint rain students the sanborn facility and history will be maintained the building will continue to serve saint rain families as the permanent home of the apex homeschool program and the history and legacy of sanborn elementary will continue to be honored through the facility name and archived history and memorabilia displays in the library and importantly no teachers or staff will lose their jobs sanborn staff will be redistributed into open positions throughout the district and we will have many opportunities across the system and we value the experience and expertise that these educators and staff bring there will be many opportunities for engagement over the coming weeks and months including community meetings surveys and open house input on the playground selection special open enrollment process for sanborn families so members of
150the board we recognize that tonight's information will bring questions and emotions from our community that is understandable and we're prepared to walk alongside our families through this transition again tomorrow evening dr caputian will host our first community meeting with sanborn families our team from operations finance and learning services will be there to listen to answer questions and to provide support and we are committed to a transparent process to honoring the legacy of sanborn elementary and most importantly to ensuring that every student affected by this change continues to receive the exceptional education that they deserve and so with that i'm happy to answer any questions that the board may have i will let you know that i met with the staff this afternoon for about 90 minutes kate slick from human resources attended with me because
151we have a process for how they might be able to be matched with the next position that they'd like to have in saint brain and so we walked through all the details of that process we will need several staff members to go over to northridge and some were very interested in following families to their new schools the survey that we administer in february to sanborn families will be very helpful in our planning it will help us know which number of staff need to go over to northridge and what other schools may be absorbing some staff because of open enrollment and the numbers that may increase at other schools this plan will keep some of the other schools in that longmont feeder more viable and stable in terms of their enrollment and you know i will
152tell you that i have a tremendous amount of empathy for the sanborn community i love schools i love everything about schools and it is never a top priority of a superintendent to have to to close a school in a neighborhood i believe neighborhoods deserve to have schools and they bring a lot of tradition a lot of pride but the other responsibility that i hold and we all hold is the fiscal management of the school district as we look at the bigger landscape in colorado around both population growth and at what other schools districts are dealing with in terms of enrollment there are many many districts that have kind of kicked the can down the road and they are now in crisis because they are having to close eight ten fifteen schools which creates a lot
153of chaos and instability i don't want to have to do that in saint brian i want to make these decisions when we're not in crisis i want to keep our schools and our our budget fiscally sound and i want to make these decisions carefully and take care of schools and individual students and families a little bit at a time so that they get our best attention our staff at sanborn was incredibly professional this this this afternoon sad but understanding and i give them a lot of credit for taking the news the way that they did they will have a lot to do with helping us manage this change they you know families trust their teachers and so their voices their reassurance their confidence in this change will be very helpful along the way so i
154give the sanborn staff and the principal lori pebbles a lot of credit for their leadership in this change and tim i am not sure whether we have to have the board vote we won't vote this evening we'll certainly wait for some feedback and allow our board to digest the information but i will look to you to help us determine whether we need to vote on this change or not right at this time we just have information for the board to consider and i think if there's any action item that the board need to take down the road we'll bring that to them in a form of a recommendation so if you all have questions along the way or need any support in answering parent questions just reach out to staff and we're we're happy to
155help with that we're getting pretty close to 8 30 so by policy we need to do another vote to extend the meeting by 30 minutes can i get a motion to extend the meeting by 30 minutes so move by missus babs yes mr berthold yes mrs gilligan yes mrs harannick mr lechuga yes mrs solomon absent mrs weiss yes thank you for that information um next up we have consent items would board members like to pull any of our consent items this evening okay well then i will ask for a motion to approve all consent items as listed in our agenda so moved second and gino mrs babs yes mr berthold yes mrs gilligan yes mrs harannick mr lechuga yes mrs solomon absent mrs weiss yes next up we have items recommendation acceptance of 2025 single
156audit report good evening members of the board i'll be brief this is just a sort of housekeeping item related to last year's fiscal audit if you recall the audit work had to be broken into two because of some federal guidance that our auditors were waiting on to be completed and so we let you know at that time that this was going to be forthcoming there's no additional work or disclosures that need to be made to the board that's why cla isn't here tonight there was no findings or question costs and and so we didn't ask them to come up and and and present you present to you tonight i want to make sure that i answered any questions that you had but again this is simply just an item acknowledging acceptance of the single audit
157that again in a normal year would be combined with our regular audit of our other items but this is the federal portion of that the final thing i was going to mention was that this has been submitted to the federal government through data collection mechanism and if you have any questions i'm happy to answer them this time thank you okay thank you tony thank you i appreciate it last up we have board reports would any members like to can we vote on that oh sorry we have to vote haha i knew i would make a mistake this evening but thank you can i get a motion to approve uh 8.1 recommendation acceptance of 2025 single audit report madam president so moved second jackie mrs babs yes mr berthold yes mrs gilligan yes mrs harannick mr
158lechuga yes mrs solomon absent mrs weiss yes okay now our final final item board reports um would any board members like to speak i just i just have just something uh i know we had a lot of information today and a lot of praise reports and that is so amazing um just for public information a lot of our research and details come and take place behind the scenes so a lot of times when you see uh we're kind of going through information or just voting and i won't say just voting but when we vote on information and whatever the votes are uh a lot of that information a lot of that research and data pulling uh takes place behind the scene it helps to reduce the amount of time we spend in here because if
159we we did all of that while we're here we'd be here all night and i don't think anybody wants that but this is just something i like to reiterate to the community as they listen to these these uh meeting notices that when you see uh the the way we interact here when as it relates to information a lot of that information is behind the scenes so please understand that we do a lot of our research we have study sessions on a lot of this information before we even come here so uh if you ever have questions you can definitely come to any of the board members talk to the superintendent uh and she'll connect you with whomever she needs to uh as it relates to any of the information we present at the meetings thanks
160me i have a report tonight a little one but it's really important and um i appreciate you all in the room that are still here i have new glasses on so i can't quite see but i'm trying um uh there's been a lot of recognitions tonight but we're not done i have one that's been on my mind and i know some fellow um board members as well so last some history last month we were at casby which i know um dr profetti dini brought up earlier and um casby is the colorado association of school boards and we get to geek out about how to do our job better right all things finance and legal and getting to network with other school board members around the state but tonight i'd like to and i know next
161month we have the students coming that were mentioned earlier to report on their time but i don't want another month to go um before i bring up miyoshi's work there so um it's in just for a minute you have to accept the flowers um i'm pleased to share that our colleague miyoshi babs was recently re-elected to serve a second term as the region four representative on the colorado association of school boards board of directors that's a mouthful um casby plays a vital role in advocating for public education across our entire state and serving on its 22-member board requires significant time dedication and a deep commitment to students beyond our own district in this role miyoshi helps shape casby policies advocates for critical legislative priorities like school finance reform and local control and brings varied perspectives
162from districts across colorado back to our work here at home miyoshi your willingness to serve at the state level on behalf of all colorado students reflects your dedication to public education and your belief that every child deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential we're fortunate to have a board member who not only serves our community but also lends her voice to strengthen public education statewide congratulations on your reelection and thank you for your continued leadership it's been a long night okay um i guess in honor of board appreciation week i also would just like to acknowledge my colleagues up here i know a lot of work goes into what we do um and i know each one of us brings something special to the table um and i just really appreciate getting to know
163you and collaborate with you and i just want to thank you for your dedication to st brain and to public education with that i'm going to turn it back over to our student advisory council member tammy would you um or do you have any thoughts you would like to share about this evening um yeah first first i would like to say that everyone who has been recognized and honored in this meeting both students and staff members alike have done an amazing job and have been incredibly committed to their personal effort and also to the effort of their school and the district as a whole in representing them and i think that's really amazing i want to share that in addition to our athletics and our education that in at least for silver creek our music
164department has also been doing very well our marching band at silver creek went competitive for the first year and we placed fourth at our first ever competition out of over i believe 15 different schools i encourage you to keep watching us as we progress and hopefully improving and thank you so much for your continued support of our programs yeah thank you so much and thanks for spending the evening with us this was a long one thing you weren't usually this long so we really appreciate um you sharing you know your knowledge your experience and helping us continue to be the institution that we are so thanks for joining us this evening um our next meeting is wednesday november 12th from six to eight p.m. it's a regular board meeting and then the following one will
165be a regular or a study session on the 19th with that i ask for a motion to adjourn second all in favor