001National Merit Scholarship Recognition, and I'd like Dina Perfetti-Dini to join us. President Ragland and members of the board, it is my pleasure to recognize our National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists tonight. The National Merit Scholarship Program is an annual academic competition among high school students for college undergraduate scholarships and recognition. High school students across the United States enter the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the preliminary SAT and MSQT test. About 1.3 million students across the United States participate every year. Students take this assessment in October of their junior year to be eligible for the honor. At the end of the application process, the scholarship recipients are chosen on the basis of scholastic achievement, extracurricular accomplishments, and their potential for future academic success. The students we are recognizing tonight are among only 16,000 students out of about
0021.3 million across the United States. Historically, there are just under 300 semi-finalists in the state of Colorado, and I'm very happy to report that all 11 of our semi-finalists in St. Rain are here with us tonight. And these 11 students represent the top 5.05 percent, top half a percent of their class of 2027 in St. Rain Valley School District. We are so very proud of them, and we know you are too, and we wanted to make sure that you have an opportunity to recognize them as well. At this time, I'll have the students introduce themselves, highlight some of the coursework and other activities that they may be involved in at their high school, and share their post-secondary plans. My name is Luke Potts. I go to Meade High School. For extracurriculars, I do tutoring, and
003I'm also a member of the National Honor Society. By the time I graduate, I'll have completed 18 AP courses, as well as a few college classes, such as calculus. And for my post-secondary plans, I intend to go to college and study computer science with a focus on AI. My dream school is Carnegie Mellon. So if anybody has any tips, I would love some advice. Thank you. My name is Jonathan Howard. I go to Longmont High School. By the time I graduate, I will have taken 16 AP classes, my favorites among those being Calc 1 and Calc 2. My extracurriculars include National Honor Society, VEX Robotics, the Cyber Patriot Cybersecurity Program, and Speech and Debate, which is my personal favorite. I plan to go to college once I graduate, and I plan to study computer science
004with a specialization in cybersecurity. Hi. My name is Lila Rupture. I go to Nihawatt High School. By the time I graduate, I will have done four AP classes, and I'll also graduate with my IB diploma, so I take IB classes as well. I'm on student council, which I take as a class. I also do Model UN, and I swim on the Varsity Swim and Dive. I plan to attend college to study political science, and then a future career in law. Yeah. My name is Phoebe Donovan. I go to Nihawatt High School. I'm an IB diploma candidate, so I'm taking all IB classes. I'm also a three-sport varsity athlete, so I'm climbing, swimming, and track and field, and I volunteer with the local radio station, and I'm planning on going to college, but I'm not sure
005where yet. Hello. My name is Justin. I go to Nihawatt High School, and I've taken around six AP classes, and then I'm also going to graduate with my IB diploma as well, extracurricular-wise. I'm on the mock trial team for Nihawatt. I'm also part of the orchestra, and I'm also on 1619 Upper Creek Robotics. And then for, as for post-secondary plans, I plan to also major in computer science and computer science. I love computer science. My name is Cole Sheppard. I'm a student of Silver Creek High School. I will have taken 24 AP classes by the time I graduate. I'm taking some college classes. I'm part of the math club. I tutor. I'm part of NHS. I'm thinking of going to Duke, like, if I get in. I'm probably going to major in physics. Hello, everyone.
006It's a pleasure to be here. My name is Max Vander Schaaf. I'm a student at Silver Creek High School. I have taken nine AP classes, and then Calc II at Front Range. I have a test right after this, so wish me luck. And then in school, I'm very involved in our band and music programs, so I'm in our marching band, our upper band, the district's indoor drum line, and then I also did this program with Drum Corps over the summer, which is all summer long, June 8th to August 10th for the whole summer, moving in, sleeping on the gym floor, all sorts of music. And in addition to that, I'm NHS co-president, president of our STLA program, as well as I founded a board, our district's board for our GT students as well. So that
007will be starting up here pretty soon. But for college, I plan to pursue a four-year degree at a university in mechanical engineering. Thanks for having us here tonight. My name is Ashley Berkowitz. I go to Skyline High School. I take, I've taken over the course of my career, I believe, 11 AP classes. My most proud extracurricular accomplishments, I am the secretary general of Skyline's Model UN program, and I have also been involved with theater and choir. With any luck, I will be in Colorado Allstate Choir. I'll be auditioning next month. And also, I take and have been teaching, I just came here from teaching karate. My post-secondary plans is I would like to go to a four-year university for international affairs. I have a whole laundry list of colleges, but hopefully my three dream schools
008would be Johns Hopkins, George Washington University, or Stanford University. Hello. My name is Graydon Rasmussen. I go to Silver Creek High School. I've taken some classes through concurrent enrollment at Front Range. My favorite was differential equations, and I'm doing NHS, math club, and math tutoring as well. I hope to go to the Air Force Academy and major in math. Hello. My name is Everett Antone. I go to Niwot High School. I've taken five AP classes so far, and I'm currently enrolled in three. Outside of school, I participate in technical theater, which is also a class inside school, but I spend a lot of time outside of school working on building our sets and doing rehearsals. And this year, I'll be stage managing for both of our productions, which I'm very excited about. I've also been
009participating in martial arts for almost 10 years, but more recently, I've also found passions in both photography and dance. After high school, I'm planning to attend a four-year university where I'm also planning to major in computer science. My name is Joe Barkley, and I go to Niwot High School. I've taken 10 AP and IB classes. My favorite is probably IB physics and probably also calculus. I've also taken two classes, two concurrent enrollment classes through the Ames Community College, which we're both focused on manufacturing. And I'm also a Boy Scout, and I play the piano a lot. And my plan for college is to study physics or mechanical engineering somewhere. I was just taking and writing some of the numbers down, and I was like, wow, this is a lot of AP classes. And I was
010thinking like, okay, there's like about eight classes per year, and what classes are they taking? You know, so I'm doing all the math in my head, right? This is a lot of AP classes. I'm so proud of all of you for whatever number of AP classes you've done. I know those are very strenuous and time-intensive classes, and of course, the IB program as well. So it's an honor. I'm just going to say it's an honor to stand amongst all of this talent and for you to be in our district because you are representing as well. I mean, I'd love to see any other district across this country with this many merit scholars. This is amazing, so amazing. You guys are so great. Thank you so much. Yeah, and many of you are also giving back
011to our community through coaching and volunteer work, and that speaks to who you are as people as well, not just scholars, but great contributors to our community. So thank you for that work as well. Hi. I think she's copying my notes over here. No, I'm kidding. That's exactly what I wrote down. No, I thank you for being here and sharing your time with us because I know that you probably have very limited free time after hearing all the things that you do. But what I really wanted to thank you for also is just leaving the world a better place from where you're at right now. We have teachers, tutors, starting a new board, and truly leaving something great behind is really what speaks to who you are as individuals. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah,
012as I tell all the other students who come to my fountain of views, you inspire me because at my age, I like to look back and understand that there are going to be a lot of great young people. Whether you stay in our community or not, that's what your career is going to decide. But you guys are impacting the world and the positive effects you're going to have. And always remember, you came from here. Don't forget to come back and inspire those younger students coming behind you on occasion if you have the time and the blessing to do that. So it's just amazing. There are not enough words to say congratulations. It just isn't a big enough word. Well, I can't say more that and I just ditto everything that my fellow board members said,
013but I just echo that the future is in very capable hands with people like you. And thank you for seeking out and taking advantage of all of the opportunities that the district has to offer. There's so many wonderful people that have put those programs together. And you are the students that they were hoping to see taking those courses and stepping out and doing it all, literally all of it. And also thank you for being such great role models for your peers. You're showing that being here tonight and all of it that you've done, it can be done. Do you have anybody with you tonight, your parents or supporters that you want to invite to give everyone a round of applause for? We can have the parents work here and support. Takes the village. Thank you
014so much. So I skipped right over as I was welcoming everyone, a very important member of our group tonight. We have a student advisory council member joining us today, Morgan McDonald. I would like to invite you to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you, the grades you're in and maybe plans for next year if you're a senior. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Morgan McDonald. I'm a senior at Mead High School. I do participate in varsity wrestling and cross country, and I could list off extracurriculars, but I think they outdid me a little bit. I am currently pursuing a nomination to the Naval Academy for next year. So that is my main priority and my goals for the next four years. I just got chills. That's amazing. Absolutely
015amazing. We're so glad you're with us tonight and appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to join us. And feel free to jump right in and interrupt us if you have any questions. And at the end of the meeting tonight, I'll go back to you and see if you have any insight you want to share or help us be better at what we do. I think we could take that kind of advice up here from all of you students. Absolutely an amazing group tonight. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, thank you. And next, another quick interjection. I'd like to invite Tony Whiteley up, our CFO, to invite a special member of our audience tonight. Thank you, President Ragland, members of the board. I appreciate the schedule adjustment here for my visitors
016so that she can move on with her evening when we're done here. Just to give you a little bit of context around around this. This is in reference to consent item seven point three regarding our finance and audit committee. Our finance and audit committee, as you know, is the primary charge is to assist the board in fulfilling its financial oversight responsibilities and comprises members of our community with some financial expertise and background where they can. We meet once a month and have as well some of the members of the board come and attend those meetings. This year, we were very fortunate to have three new members. And this is the official action to install them, appoint them as members of our finance and audit committee. Two of those new members were unable to attend tonight
017because of their schedules. They regret they were unable to get here. One is Narciso Garibay. He's a senior market leader at High Plains Bank and involved with advocacy with our Hispanic community. Another is Katrine Schwenning. She's a retired, certified public accountant. She's had a storied career, 20 years with the Big Four on international finance, and she has a daughter at Altoona. But Amelia tonight, she was able to come. She's a financial adviser at Morgan Stanley. She's on my left here. Excuse me. Amelia is a native of Boulder and a University of Colorado Leeds School of Business graduate. She brings to FAC a background in wealth strategy and financial advisory services. After launching her career in financial services in 2007, she joined Doug Benfield in 2003 to help build Team Benfield and Guidi as finance president
018and financial adviser. Amelia is now a key part of the practice's daily management portfolio strategy and training. She lives in Longmont with her family and is actively involved in her daughter's school communities. I just wanted to make sure I've said thank you so much to these individuals who have come and give a chance for the board to meet Amelia tonight and ask for the recommendation to approve the installation of the three members. Thank you. Thank you, Karen, for the nomination. I'm having so much fun and it's just a great opportunity to serve. Thank you so much, Amelia, and you are a wonderful addition to the Finance and Audit Committee. It's nice to see some some new folks there. And as you can see, you're going to be there for a long, long time. So clear
019your Monday nights. I was going to reiterate that our terms are for three years, but they are renew indefinitely. There's no term limits. So we're welcome to have them as long as as long as they'll stay with us. So, yeah, we again, we are so grateful they've already attended multiple meetings and just really been provided some insightful, thoughtful and bringing their expertise to some of the conversations we have at FAC. So, again, we're grateful. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. It's such a wonderful component to to all of the work that you that you do, Tony, just to have that perspective and also to ensure that we're doing our job and and bringing in outsiders. And and so that you can scrutinize our work to and and we can and we can ensure
020that we're doing the right thing for the public and all those tax dollars. Thank you so much. OK, next up, we have audience participation. Do we have any audience members that would like to address the board this evening? Seeing none, we'll move right along. Dr. Capuchin is at a conference this week and will not be able to join us. So we'll put off the report until next our next meeting. Which brings us to our reports and we'll begin with six point one twenty twenty five achievement data. And I'll invite Dr. Lauer and Jamie Ball. Good evening, President Ragland, members of the board. Really, I'm here this evening to give you the update that we administered approximately thirty thousand assessments this past spring in CMAS, SAT and PSAT. We did provide at the last study session
021the in-depth overview of the results, but I just want to share publicly a couple of the accomplishments and highlights that we saw within the report. Overall, our district performance framework increased by two point two points overall, which is a really strong increase of a steady five year increase that we've seen. St. Vrain has outscored the state and the percentage of students who've met or exceeded expectations on all of these CMAS assessments in both language arts and math in grades three through eight. As well as our high school PSAT, SAT students, the total score of those assessments outscores that of the state. We saw really strong growth across the system and we're really pleased. This was a really strong year for our students to show their academic achievement and growth. So there's any questions. Otherwise, it's
022just to go on note that we have covered the achievement report. Thank you so much. And I would invite anyone in the public to review the meeting of I think it was September 16th, the date. Oh, sorry, the study session last week, and it was it was just unbelievable to see the progress and there were some great questions and discussions about the achievement data and just credit you to your phenomenal work and your succinct reports that help us understand the information. Any comments or questions? Well, I impressive we talked about this report at the study session last week, but it's so impressive to see. I think we get in a little bit more preliminary numbers on our graduation rate at ninety six percent. That is I know there's a four percent difference there, but that's
023that's not to say that our students aren't doing well because ninety six percent. I don't think you can find that around the country that high and for it to be here in Colorado, specifically in our district, is a testament to the work that everybody in the district is doing. Our teachers, our staff and everybody is administration and everybody associated with that. Another thing that I just wanted to take away from that report that I saw were the employees. Forgive me if I always forget like the achievement, the levels that we are as the schools, how we are showing high achievement. In all of our schools, and I know we at one point we had a school that was on the line and we have gotten over the last two years. I think it was that
024we talked about we've gotten that school above that line. So that shows the work that we're putting in as a district. Our teachers, particularly our students are putting in and our in our staff and administration. So thank you so much for your team for doing all the hard work as well as everybody else that's associated with it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next up, Brian Lammer, if you would give us the twenty twenty four bond activity update. And I'm going to quickly hand it off to Brian Schisler, who's been running the bond program. Welcome, Brian. Thank you. Thank you. We can see it on our screens in front of us, too. So, OK, OK. I know, but as long as you can see it. You can see it. We're good. OK. All right. Sorry
025about that. Well, thank you, Brian. And ladies and gentlemen, the board, Madam President, thank you for the time this evening to present an update on the twenty twenty four bond program. And really, this is my first presentation since the bond was approved. And so I want to thank the Saint Rain Valley community for approving the twenty twenty four bond measure. It really showed an overwhelming amount of support for our mission to deliver excellent education to our community. So thank you. And really, the purpose of this update is to share what we've been up to since it passed and where we're going in terms of the bond program. So today, I'll just launch right in. We spent eighty six eighty four point six million dollars from bond funds. And really, we're going to present the detail
026of how that breaks out across the district. I'm just going to start in Erie. So in the Erie Theater, we've spent almost three million dollars. The money has been spent on the design of the new elementary school that's going in Colliers Hill. It also has been spent on the improvements at Erie High School for the asphalt and concrete that was complete this summer. And really, in a year's time, the new elementary is going to be under construction. And we're going to be starting the design on the Erie High School bond project. And what you're seeing right here is a rendering of the new elementary that opened in fall of twenty twenty seven. Moving on to Lions, we started on the design of the secure entrance in the interior remodel project at Lions Elementary School. This
027project will be under construction this time next year. And it's really this rendering shows the essence of it, where we will be replacing the current admin area with the STEM lab, which the admin will go out to the front to help create that. That secure entrance will also be started on the design of the Lions Middle Senior bond project as well this time next year. In the Frederick feeder, we have spent nearly two hundred thousand dollars to date. This has been used for the design of the Thunder Valley bond project, and it has been used on the work to improve the door access and security controls at Frederick High School that's complete earlier this year. This is a layout that shows the plan for the media center at Thunder Valley, just to show you where
028we were at in the process of the design. The project will focus on existing spaces such as this and the special education suite to increase space efficiencies in the school. In Mead, we spent twenty nine million, and this is really on the construction of the new PK8, but we also replaced the roof at Centennial Elementary this summer. Here's an aerial image of the new PK8 that shares the same site as Mead High School, and in the foreground you can see the elementary school wing and then works back to the main entrance and then the gym performing arts and the middle school wing. I think something to highlight with this is I think this project exemplifies the fiscal responsibility of the district. We're able to get going on this before the bond so that when the
029bond passed, we're able to hit the ground running with construction so that we can be ahead of other bond work in the state and really be effective in getting the best costs and the resources as soon as possible in order to relieve the Mead area. In the Niwot feeder, we spent approximately one point one million, and this was mainly on site work at Sunset Middle School to improve drainage site concrete and asphalt. We've also started on the design for the roof replacement at Niwot Elementary. In upcoming work in the Niwot feeder, we're going to start the design on the larger bond project at Sunset Middle School. We'll also be starting the design on the Burlington Elementary bond project. In Skyline, today we spent two point five million. That money has been spent on parking lot
030replacement at Fall River. We've repaired asphalt at Timberline K8. We also made improvements at Skyline Athletic. They had Skyline Athletic fields, and that happened all this summer. We've also started the design on the new stadium at Skyline High School, which is shown in this next rendering. In Silver Creek, we spent seven hundred thousand, and that was on asphalt work and playground design at Blue Mountain. We also did asphalt repairs at Silver Creek, and we've started the design on the Silver Creek Stadium. In the Longmont feeder, we spent around one point five million dollars. This has been around HVAC equipment replacement at Central Elementary, athletic field improvements at Longmont High School. We've also started the design on the Westview Middle School secure entrance and interior remodel project. We perform asphalt repairs at Longs Peak. We've also
031completed the second phase of the playground construction at Longs Peak. And this was really made possible. The school has been working on this for a long time, and they partnered with Hillary Sontag for grant dollars. And we came alongside the school and Hillary to help supplement the grant with bond dollars so that we can complete phase two. And it really just has allowed to provide multiple active play structures across the campus. I mean, over the next year, sorry, before I leave the Longmont feeder, we're going to engage a design team for the interior bond project at Longs Peak, as well as the bond project at Longmont Estates. And then moving on to our alternative district wide and Academy schools. We've completed forty six million dollars worth of construction. This includes construction of the new high
032school. And development of the new CTE facility that will share the site as the high school, same site as the high school. Construction of the St. Brain Community Montessori Schools underway. Construction of the Innovation Center expansion is taking place as well. We're also in the design phase for the warehouse expansion at Clover Basin to increase dry storage, cooler storage and freezer storage for when bringing these schools online. And we've also performed Main Street school bathroom remodel as well as completed asphalt improvements at Spark and Flagstaff Charter. In this next photo, this is before and after of Main Street. And it doesn't seem like much, but I think this is really indicative of what this bond program is going to do. It's going to take these spaces that might be outdated or inefficient and create a
033space that better support the needs of the building and the program. And so this is really, I know, just a bathroom, but this really supports their program. And I really think that it's a really big part of this bond that is exciting. It's not the big, big stuff, but I think this makes a big difference. Small in the grand scheme of things, but a big impact. Here is the Innovation Center expansion. You see foundation walls have been poured and work is progressing on the first phase of that expansion. And real quick, this is a flyover of the new high school site. So we're working from the north to the south. And you'll see we'll be flying over where the new CTE building will be going to the right hand side of the page. The left
034hand side is where you have the tennis courts, the baseball, softball and multi-use fields. And then parking lots that will go between the CTE building and the new high school. And then we're coming up on a two story classroom wing. And on to the west will be parking lot. And then the main entrance commons area, the athletic wing, and then the performing arts wing on the left. And then the athletic stadium on the very south side of the site. And here is renderings of what ultimately that's going to look at. There's the main entrance looking from the west, a rendering of the CTE center that will be to the north. And really, in a nutshell, that's what we've been up to. One takeaway I hope to give you is that, you know, like I was
035saying, the big projects, the new high school, the expansion, the PK8, those getting a lot of attention. But I guess what I really wanted to show tonight is that we've really hit the ground running to make sure that we're accomplishing these in all areas of the district. We want to make sure all communities show that we're diligently working to deliver the promise in their community right off the bat. And so I hope you guys see that we're not just working in one area, we're working in all areas. And again, really thank you for all the support and delivery in the bond program. Brian, really, he's been, you know, he's been the one that has gotten us to this point. So thank you. And thank you again to the community for trusting us to do so.
036With that, are there any questions? Probably generate some other. Great. Thank you. I will tell you that I have the pleasure of going past Long's Peak constantly because I live a block away. And both of those playgrounds are constantly being occupied all hours of the day and night and weekend and the people in that community were like it. And especially a smaller one with the help of the, I want to give them credit, the the new Common Spirit North Hospital Foundation's involvement and contributions that they made to help that come apart. And if I'm tired, I go stand there because it is the most pleasant place to stand. It is the softest ground that you go without sinking into it. It feels like quicksand. It doesn't grab you. It's beautiful. But I got a quick
037question. By the time we open in the fall of 26 with the Meade PK8 and the other much more progress made on all these others, what do you have an expected amount of what the bond expenditures will be by that time, roughly? In 2026? Yeah, by that time. You may not have it. I can get that for you. I have it. I'm just curious. Yeah, because I mean, we've got 85 million gone and that's a drop in the bucket with all the work that's already been done. I mean, it seems like it's being done. Like you say, being ahead of the curve and getting the bids before other people are asking for them. I know it means a lot. And that part of the process that you got, you know, you as us as a
038district, you as an operation, manage it so well. And financially, it's very reassuring to me and it should be reassuring to our community and especially to people who supported all this, that the money is being used very quickly. And financially, it's very reassuring to me and it should be reassuring to our community and especially to people who supported all this, that the money is being used very quickly and at the best expenses we could possibly get because I know everything's going up. I'm just glad the buildings are going up. That's all. Thank you. I feel like I have to say something. Being in the Meade community, not to echo what you're saying and yourself, Brian, having everything ready to go is like the best use of our taxpayer dollars, right? And that we're so grateful
039that the district's in a position to do that. And I know that in the Meade community, they're also very grateful that the PK8 is looking so wonderful and will be ready in a year. I don't understand how that's possible. And your flyover is so impressive. But to know that soon the numbers will be relieved is just amazing. So to all the taxpayers in the whole district, but also out there in that little community, we're very grateful. I have one question. So thank you so much for the presentation. And I know a lot of work has gone into making sure that we started early, which is always a good thing. I do want to ask since I know some of the projects started early, but do we anticipate any of the projects ending a little bit
040earlier? Not to say that that's going to possibly change the number of figures, but is there a possibility that that can as well? Well, on the PK8, it afforded us to, I mean, you're still opening for the fall of 26. It'll give you more room on the back end to get that stopped and ready. So you really utilize June and July. Now, otherwise, I can't say that that will help us save, except for that we did get in front of the rush and we utilize the resources that were available. Thank you very much. Brian, thank you. And Brian, thank you. And please share our appreciation for your teams. It's there was a significant amount of money in the last bond, you know, passed by our taxpayers at no expense to them further. And I think
041that was a really important part of our mutual work together. And you were able to work within those constraints to do the very best with all those dollars. And just to call out your proactive process for assessing needs and drawing plans and securing the land to meet the needs of our students well before we even go before our taxpayers. There's so much work years before these bonds are passed that goes into it. So thank you for that. Because typically, we don't see that until it passes. And just an extra thanks to our community, the hardworking taxpayers that approve the bond and work so hard to make the money so that they can see and take part in, in building these spaces for our students and investing in the future. So thank you again. Thank you.
042Next up, we have consent items. Are there any items that board members would like to pull? Then I would ask for a motion to approve all consent items as listed in our agenda. So moved. Second. Mrs. Babs? Yes. Mr. Berthold? Yes. Mrs. Gilligan? Absent. Mrs. Horanek? Yes. Mr. Lechuga? Absent. Mrs. Ragland? Aye. Mrs. Weiss? Yes. Great. And we have no action items this evening. So the next thing will be our discussion. And it was announced last week during our study session that we'll be bringing board reports back to our discussion. They're not mandatory. They're just for board members. It gives them an opportunity to report activities and engagement in the community and just to share and celebrate wins and, and, yeah, to hear from our board. So I will turn it over to our board.
043Whoever would like to start? I'll start. I normally don't have anything to say. Pretty busy this past week. On Monday, I attended the Finance and Audit Committee meeting, and so I was able to meet the three new members, which was really, you know, uplifting to be able to see and they were so grossly involved in paying, you know, really interested in what was going on. And that was great. And then last Wednesday, we didn't get a report, but I was able to attend the Student Advisory Council meeting. As you remember me, probably or probably not. But it was amazing. They went over the the cell phone policy that we created as a result of our discussions within our agreements with the Student Advisory Committee and asked if there was how they thought it was going.
044And if they have any ideas, you know, it's always where we live is in the in the recommendations and the the knowledge of the kids who are the really the rubber meeting the road. So that that was basically my most most of my activities other than meeting with Ed Foundation them all day today. So but yeah, that's my report. So thank you. Keeping busy as always. One of the things I did last week was, well, a couple of we tended a couple of the town halls. And then last week, I took part with CASB to record a launch pad session with them for a course that they're building for our membership. One of the things that the courses that they offer for our membership allows the members to get professional professional development from a variety
045of aspects, whether it's financial literacy, I'm sorry, financial literacy, I'm going to school, the school, school finance, all the way down to policy government policy. So it's it was really entertaining for me because I mean, I speak all the time. But to sit in front of the camera and kind of like wing it, but also have this teleprompter was pretty cool. I kind of felt like a newscaster type of thing. I mean, it's really hard to do that. I'm used to just kind of speaking and knowing what I'm going to talk about. But then you have your teleprompter and you have to make sure you do it so that it makes what you're doing look real and not that you're reading off of the screen. So that was pretty cool. But the biggest part of
046that was to ensure that our members are getting the education that they need. So when they sit in front of their boards, they're prepared and they also have the tools and resources to help them be effective on their board. So hopefully, what I added from our district to represent our district, I talked a lot about I told our data accountability committee folks some of the data that they pushed out. With respect to graduation rates, the programs that we offer, we talked a lot about that all the way down to what we're doing for the school of the students from accountability. So that was really good. And that was one of my biggest highlights, I think, for last week. Awesome. Thank you for doing that. Yeah. So I think many folks here but know about the
047way that the leadership cabinet and board members are recognizing people for their contributions to the Saint Rain Advantage with these really special coins that she had made and gave us the honor of being able to recognize people that we see really contributing. And so last Thursday, I got to go to Lyons Elementary to recognize a teacher there, Charlie Plahidi, who's the music teacher there, halftime and also at Westview, to recognize their contributions to the Saint Rain Advantage. And it's always fun to get in a music classroom for me. So that felt great. And then last Thursday was the Lions URA meeting. And Tony and I have touched base on that, but really nothing new to report there. And then also on Thursday night was the Lions homecoming game. And it's the Lions came up short,
048but there's a great crowd. And it's just it's eight man football. So it feels different, even though it's part of our bigger Saint Rain community. It's very tight knit and nice to see the whole community out to support. And then over the weekend in Lyons, we had the Saint Rain Invitational for middle school and high school. And initially, people were saying, man, where are all these leaf peepers coming from? But it was everyone coming to enjoy the cross country meet. And it was so cool to see people from all over, not just St. Vring, but all over the state, really, there to come cheer on their students. And cross country really has a special camaraderie to it. All the all the people spend quite a bit of time just hanging out. And it was yeah,
049it was really nice, especially to bring my little my little girl along and for her to see all the cool big kids running around. So that's what we got up to. All of my extra meetings start next week. So I'll have more to report later. We did enjoy homecoming though. I'm not sure if you were there too, Morgan. But no, it was a great night. There were so many people. I didn't even look to see if there was a seat. I just stood because there's so much activity. And really awesome to see the community out. Gino's absent tonight, but he asked if I would read something that he prepared about his for his board report. He said Frederick High School had a great homecoming week with wins from our football and volleyball teams and great
050school spirit activities all week. The Frederick High School faculty did an amazing job and worked very hard long hours to make homecoming special. Thank you for all they did. We had a great student athlete volunteer turnout for the basketball team, football team, cheer team and dance team for an event called Night to Shine. This is an event for people with disabilities where our volunteers help make the event special and memorable for the participants. Our Frederick High School students showed out and I was so proud to see them at the at that event. And that was from Gino. And then I'll wrap it up with just Nyawad High School's homecoming last week was a tremendous success, fun dress ups and surfs up theme. There was a phenomenal drone show on Thursday night. That team is just
051the way they're progressing and doing their work with the drones is absolutely phenomenal. Fun community parade and some great athletics games and wins and student performances throughout the week. So, so much fun. I didn't realize there were so many homecomings all at the same time. So big, big events this this this last week. So that's it with our meeting. Our next meetings in October are on the 8th and the 22nd and then we have a study session on the 15th. So at this time I would ask for a motion to adjourn. President Ragland. Oh, sorry. Yep. I knew I was going to do that. Even wrote it down. Turning it back to Morgan. I'm so sorry. Morgan McDonald. Please share. I don't really have any questions. I am really impressed with how you guys could
052acknowledge things going on in each of your communities. Going from cross country, which I actually was at, by the way, all the way to band and drone shows and things that I didn't know that were going on personally. Just send me in. I was also impressed with just the efficient reports, especially with the bond usage, because it's easy for me to see it because it's out the window at my school. And I also take glass at the Innovation Center. But it was nice to hear all the small improvements they're making from a kindergarten level at playgrounds all over the place. All the way to bathrooms. And that's kind of all I had written down. You guys did a really good job. Thank you. Join us again then. Please. Oh, and of course, I was really
053impressed by all of the National Merit semifinalists. That was very impressive. Well, you are very you are among one of the great leaders of our district. And thank you so much and good luck with the next year ahead and all your great work and with your plans next year. Sounds absolutely amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me, too. Yeah. Do board members have any questions for Morgan?