001Education meeting. Please join us in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Hi, Christie. Hello. Hi, can you call the roll please? Yes. Mr. Ahrens. Here. Mr. Berthold. Here. Mr. Garcia. Here. Dr. Martyr. Present. Ms. Peairs. Here. Mrs. Ragland. Here. Ms. Siegrist. Here. Thank you, Christie, appreciate it. Were there any addendums or changes to the agenda this evening? No, there were not. Great. Thank you. Sure. I would like to welcome all of our visitors this evening. I appreciate you joining us. I hope everyone across the district had an opportunity to enjoy friends and family this summer. A couple housekeeping items before we begin. If you
002can really quick, just check your cell phones, make sure they're not gonna ring. I say that from personal experience. I do also want to remind everybody that this meeting is recorded and streamed live. If you wanna go back and watch the recording, you can certainly access that via the District website. The start of school is right around the corner. Next week on Tuesday, our kindergarten students, sixth graders and ninth graders will be kicking off the school year. And then on Wednesday the 18th, the entire school district will go back to school. As the Board reconvenes, we did not meet in July. I do want to remind everybody that the District's mission statement is this Board of Education's and Dr. Haddad's Northstar. We make all decisions within the context of educating each student in a safe
003learning environment so that they may develop to their highest potential and become contributing citizens. We do not take that mission lightly. Our focus is on each and every student having access to the very best opportunities in an environment that is inclusive of every child. I do also want to take a moment to express gratitude this evening. I'm sure that you all can remember back to last school year and last school year started in a hybrid, pardon me, in an at home online environment. So, I am grateful this year that kids are going to be in the buildings. They'll be in the buildings five days a week, and they also have access to activities, athletics, co and extracurricular activities. I'm very fortunate that that it's going to look different. Also wanna note that since March of
0042020, Dr. Haddad and the Board of Education have followed the recommendations and mandates set forth by CDPHE and our local health departments. We are going to continue that practice this school year. While all of our communities and individuals, we know this, don't agree on all issues, I do believe that we all agree on the importance of children being in school. And again, I'm grateful that that is going to happen next week. One other item to note that the district's statement regarding CRT is posted on the district website. The Board of Education and Dr. Haddad, we have no intention or plans of changing the fact that a CRT is not part of our curriculum. All right, we don't have any visitors this evening. So that... Pardon me. I'm a little bit out of order. We don't
005have visitors this evening but we are going to begin audience participation here shortly. I do wanna recognize all of the individuals. The Board of Education and Dr. Haddad have received many, many emails. And I just wanna let you know that we do read all of those emails and we appreciate you sharing your concerns, your perspectives, and your thoughts with us. We do welcome and value that public comment on district matters. By Board policy, we do allot 30 minutes for non agenda items and 30 minutes for agenda items. That is the amount of time that we designate for public comment. When we get to public comment, I will call your name and ask you to come to the podium. You have three minutes to comment. At the end of your three minutes, I will politely interrupt
006you so that we can move on to the next speaker. When I call your name, if you can please come up to the podium, please state your name and your address for the record and then we'll begin timing your comments. Comments on individuals or personnel matters are not appropriate topics for public comment. If you have a concern about an individual or a personnel matter, please reach out to anybody on the Board of Education, Dr. Haddad or the HR Department, and we'll speak with you directly. All right. Two categories for public comment. If you're here to speak on an agenda item, so that means an item that is on our agenda, can you please raise your hand? (parents chattering faintly) All right. Christie, can you please note that there will be no public comment for agenda
007items? Yes. Thank you. All righty. We are good. So, I'm just gonna review everything. You guys, I just wanna make sure that we're all on track. All right. Non-agenda items. This is where I hope I don't confuse everybody. If you're here to speak on a non-agenda item and you signed up via the district website, can you please raise your hand for me? Great. Thank you. Anybody show up this evening, who would like to comment on a non agenda item that did not sign up on the district website? Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Did you sign up on the signup sheet? I didn't know there was one. There is. We'll find it and we'll get it to you, how's that? All right. Thank you. Okay. Perfect. All right, I think we're ready to begin then. Thank
008you for your patience. Our first public speaker this evening is Kimberly, I'm gonna apologize in advance if I pronounce your name incorrectly, please correct me, Kimberly Mouat. Is Kimberly here this evening? Hello, Kimberly. Welcome. Lower. That it? We can go down. That's all right, I don't need it. That's why I'm short. All right. (laughs) Everybody will be my height this evening, is basically what that means. (man speaking faintly) Oh, I'm okay, I think I can handle it. You're okay? Yeah. Do I need to state my address still? Pardon me? You need my address? If you could please state your address for the record, yes. Kimberly Mouat, 1131 Petra Street in Eerie. Thank you for having me tonight. I have four kids that attend St. Vrain Schools from preschool to seventh grade. Three of my children
009attend on IEP's. To say that the last year and a half have been a struggle is an understatement. I know a lot of speakers here tonight are about the mask mandate. For our family, we were gonna wear masks anyways due to my youngest child's asthma issues, but I do believe it should be our parents' right to choose. I don't ask that other people wear a mask, I ask that you let us choose. My kids have not complained once about any protocol in the last year, except the quarantine protocol. And I do understand that that has changed now since the Health Department's mandate, but I do also understand there's still a risk for quarantine in the lunch room or anywhere where you're unmasked and we have experienced many quarantines in the last year and a half,
010and they were extremely traumatic for my children. My 10-year-old especially spent hours at night crying for fear a quarantine was coming, and he wasn't quarantined until April. So he went the entire school year, but for three months he cried every night till 12, one, two o'clock in the morning because he was terrified to wake up in the morning and school would be taken from him again. He is seeing a therapist now to try and work through that. We have spent the summer working with a therapist to undo all the damage that has been done over the past year and a half. So, I'm asking that you've tried to find a way if there's quarantine cases to let the children go to school. Even if you find a quarantine classroom, find a way to let them
011attend the school, but separate from everybody else. I mean, that's what it has to be, but there's got to be a way around locking our children at home. If they don't show any symptoms, they shouldn't be locked at home. My child thrives off of routine and environment. He's a different child at school because that is there. If it hadn't been for his principal, his teacher, his counselor for the past year and a half, I don't know where we would be. His principal would check in with me at 10 o'clock at night to see how he was. His teacher would text how he was doing. When this quarantine happened, they didn't push school because they knew that it was better off to let him go at his pace so that we didn't do further damage and
012that he could go as he needed to instead of irreversible damage. I also ask that you only quarantine children for confirmed positive cases. I believe that all of my children's quarantines last year were for probable cases, not a one of them was a positive confirmed case. And some of them were cases of family members. So the kid didn't even have any symptoms, but a family member of the kid did and my children were quarantined. My husband had COVID. We kept our children home from school while we awaited the testing. We didn't enact the quarantine because we were careful and kept everybody home. My 10-year-old also asked me to ask tonight, when are you gonna bring back snow days? So he said, "Snow days are rare in Colorado. You took 'em from us last year because
013we now have online school." Haven't our children lost enough? Kimberly, thank you. Thank you. That's your three minutes. Thank you. (audience applauding) And Brian, just so that I, I wasn't paying- No. So, the buzzer's not working? Okay. We've got technical difficulties. Great, just wave your arms. I can see. We're flexible. Next public comment is Emily Evans. Hi, Emily. Hi. My name is Emily Evans. My address is 6432 Saratoga Trail in Frederick. Thank you for the chance to speak tonight. My four children have all gone to schools in the St. Vrain School District. Three have already graduated, and my fourth is in middle school. I'm worried about the mandate for masks for all. This mandate forces my daughter to wear a mask. My daughter has a physical health challenge that is made worse by the mask
014that resulted in two hospitalizations last year. Yes, I know I can file the exemption, but with this exemption comes the risk of quarantine. Many will tell me, "Then keep her home if the mask is a problem." As mine and other families learned over the previous school year, the quarantines and online learning created extreme mental health challenges. The exemption form leaves the risk of quarantines and me fearing further mental health challenges for my daughter. So now as a mother, I'm left to choose between which is worse, the mental health challenges my daughter will face if quarantined because she cannot wear a mask full-time, or risk her physical health to wear a mask full-time. You are asking us to choose between these two options. Neither were result in my child or anyone else's with success in their
015physical or mental health, not to mention the continued impact of the kids' education. You say multiple mask breaks, outside learning and other things to reduce time in masks. If masks are not damaging, why are these needed? How much more time and learning must our kids lose because of these mandates? If we don't remove the mandate now, when will we? When and how will you determine that parents can be trusted again? Masking cannot be forever and we need to see a clear and consistent metric put in place to allow parents back in the role of masks of making the better choices for their children. If this is not up to you, it is up to you to push the Board of Health to be transparent with us on this information. Our district maintains a world-class standard
016of education, and I continue to be amazed by the quality and effort of the educators and staff in this district. Questioning the choices and good intentions of moms and dads will erode the trust between families and the district damaging overnight the safe environment the district has built over many years. You all hold a position of public trust, and will hear the opinions of many groups and individuals. Please do not bow to pressure from one group that will create divisions between all groups. Respect parents, respect science and trust the community. Allow us as parents to make these health-related decisions individually as we need for our children. Thank you. (audience applauding) (woman cheering) Next up this evening is Melissa Martyr. Hi, Melissa. Hi. Melissa Martyr, Firestone. Over the last several weeks our Superintendent Don, and our school
017board have really come through for our children and community. First, they removed sponsorship and funding from the A Queer Endeavor event once they realized what the content of the session was. Secondly, they have offered an exemption form for those households who do not want their children to wear masks in school. I consider these two specific occurrences victories, and I thank all of you. If parents have never heard about this A Queer Endeavor event, I urge you to do your own research. I will be happy to discuss the sessions in-person if you are concerned about your children learning life lessons and sensitive subjects in the classroom. Just the session names alone are very troublesome. You'll hear more about them tonight. Some teachers in our school district attended this event. Were they there for content specifically? Were
018they there for the few legitimate sessions available? Were they spies like I was, wanting to gain information from behind the scenes? My advice to parents is to learn about your kids' teachers. Find out who they are, vet them, set up meetings with them, audit your kids' classes, look through your classroom materials and the books your kids bring home, listen to the words and questions your kids say and ask. I do ask parents to keep an open mind when speaking with the teachers, because I know firsthand, a lot of teachers do not want these teachings in their classroom. I understand my views on these subjects, including the COVID vaccine is not shared with everyone in this room, outside or those who will watch this now and watch this later. Differences on these subjects have been on
019the forefront for the last 18 months in everyone's minds, on social media, mainstream media, commercials, coercion ads, pressured propaganda, and on signs, banners, vehicle bumpers, and in newspaper articles and podcasts. Every breath we take is saturated with all of this, but at the end of the day, who are we here for? We're here for our children and our children alone. Quoting my friend from this morning, "This constant back and forth is like the longest tug of war game in the history of all the world." This has truly been the longest two weeks to slow the spread we have been faced with. It's amazing how in the dead of summer, we can have all-star game and a surge of tourists and have no required mask mandates, but when it comes to discussions about our children being
020in school, we all of a sudden have to be concerned with political setbacks such as these (exhales), such as these variants and masking our kids for nearly 30 hours a week. Our children are feeling the effects of this with the largest targets on their back. Have we forgotten that the America we know and love was created and founded by normal citizens who were tired of tyranny? I would encourage those in our community, (audience applauding) (audience cheering) to really think about what is best for their own household and do that. Take your head out of the sand, do your own bipartisan research, use your eyes to look around, use your ears to listen and your brains to put together a logical plan for your own children. Thank you. (audience applauding) Next this evening is Melanie Bimson.
021Hello, Melanie. Hi. My name is Melanie Bimson. I live at 1628 Naples Lane in Longmont. I was actually nervous to speak here, but I've thought about addressing the school board many times over the past year. I've even had second thoughts last night, and then I saw a few videos of some of my colleagues in the real estate industry and decided they were done being silent and so was I. To be honest with you, I prefer no one knowing where I stand on any issue. And in fact, some of my former clients in here have heard me say, "I have no opinion on that," which definitely means I have an opinion. (audience laughs) Many times doing nothing has been the best course of action and things work themselves out, but I don't think this is one
022of those times. I do have friends on both sides of this mask issue, and hopefully they'll all be my friends tomorrow, but if they don't, I think it says more about who they are then who I am. Yeah. I have a child who is a cancer survivor. I know what it's like to send your kid to school in a highly unvaccinated county. I know what it's like to have people tell you to stay home if you're worried, and it is those same people who have that lack of empathy that are now telling me I need to protect their children. I have lived with a severely immunocompromised child during a pandemic. The scariest one to me was H1N1 when I had a child actively taking chemo and there were no mask requirements and nobody was making
023concessions for us. I'm not an anti masker, I'm not an anti vaccinator. I am for advocating for your family and doing what is right for your family. There are plenty of studies that show harmful side effects and impacts when wearing a mask all day. Can our children do it? Sure. Should they? I'm not convinced and neither is Dr. Fauci who recently said, "Hopefully this will be a temporary thing that doesn't have lasting negative impacts." Last summer, the CDC said, "Cloth masks do not catch small harmful particles in smoke that can harm your health." The U.S. Surgeon General warned people to stop buying masks, and Johns Hopkins had said that the final and least effective control strategy is personal protective equipment because of it relies on adequate supplies and proper and continuous use, and I really
024struggled to believe kids have proper and continuous use. [Audience Members] Yeah. (audience applauding) The question of whether or not it increases carbon dioxide inhaled is crucial. Germany has many studies if you're interested in that. And no matter what you decide, there will be unintended consequences. During the time period when schools were open and students were allowed to attend in-person last year, one of my kids fully masked, very distanced, was greeted with a question from a teacher, "How does it feel knowing your parents don't care if you live or die, because they are sending you to school in the middle of a pandemic?" I have shared this experience with a few people in your administration and I have also said I will not tell anyone who said this to my child. I have no interest in
025seeing people disciplined for this because I'm reasonable, and I understand people were and are under stress. People were scared. And heck, sometimes we all say things that we wish we could retract. I've been guilty more than once myself. Please do not mandate masks, and if you decide to and you selectively force masks based on some random criteria, it will lead to children and teens being treated differently based on my experience. Oh, sorry. Thank you. I saw you. (audience applauding) Thanks, John. Larissa Barton. Hi, Larissa. Hi. I'm Larissa Barton, 2596 County Road 10, Erie. Good evening. I'm a parent of two in your district. Thank you for taking every effort to maximize in school learning and trusting parents to balance risk. I stand strong in support of personal choice and privacy for families. I appreciate the
026olive branch of medical exemption. Parents are primarily responsible for their child's health. Some parents feel a sense of safety when their children are wearing a mask and that's fine. Those who are uncomfortable with the risk are welcome to wear a mask. My son with asthma found it harder to breathe throughout the school day, and my daughter experienced increased anxiety with a mask. I'm not fighting against a vaccine or against masks. I'm fighting for the right to choose what's best for my children. I ask that you continue to fight- (audience applauding) (woman cheering) I ask that you continue fighting to put the decision back into the hands of parents. When Boulder Health had their meeting two nights ago, they quoted a large percentage of ICU beds being filled. However, they left out the fact that only
02710 people in Good Sam Medical Center were there due to COVID. [Audience Members] Right. (audience applauding) It's hard to support, it's really hard to support requirements on an incomplete picture. Children are not at high risk for COVID. Our kids are not the primary vectors for transmission, yet they're the ones bearing the burden of protecting adults from this illness. With children under the age of 18 being in the smallest percentage of people contracting COVID, the risk of spread inside school from them is minimal. Please allow parents to research and decide what is the best avenue for keeping their children safe. These are our children, and we should be allowed to assess the risks and decide what is best for our family. Thank you for the options you've given us and trust and thank you for your
028time. (audience applauding) Melissa Pop. I gave my time to Anne Green. Okay, Melissa Pop. You're, Anne Green you said? I can't see you, Melissa. Where are you? I'm right here. She's right there. Oh there! You're right in the front. (Joie laughs) I was looking behind you. Thank you very much. (Anne speaking faintly) Okay, Anne, if you could please, you heard me, go ahead. Thank. So, yeah. I live in Erie, Colorado, or I live in Erie, and thank you for letting me speak. I'm here tonight because I'm concerned about the future of our schools and of our country as we move away from valuing truth and academic integrity, and instead embrace social justice ideology. You say our district is 100% in favor of diversity, equity and inclusion, but what evidence justifies this commitment? Schools have never
029shied away from teaching the ugly aspects of our history, but it's equally important to teach what's beautiful and unique about it. Our children should understand why people who protest against authoritarian regimes from Hong Kong to Cuba wave the American flag as a symbol of freedom. I love that we're in the most ethnically diverse country in the world, and I've looked for cross cultural experiences in my own life, which include working in a remote West African village as a Peace Corps volunteer, learning foreign languages and adopting children from Asia. But to paraphrase Dr. Thomas Sowell, "Diversity is not our strength. It's our ability to overcome the problems inherent in diversity and act together as Americans that has been our strength." If schools continue to sow division, our ability to act together is threatened. More than half
030of the books on the Diversify our Narrative recommended book list focus on racism toward black Americans. Most of them... Sorry. Most of them are by authors who present moral assertions as if they're facts and advocate for political and social policy changes that include defunding the police, restricting free speech and remedying past discrimination with current discrimination. I don't care what words you use to describe this kind of teaching. It doesn't belong in our schools and certainly not under the pretense of diversity. Equity is defined on the district website as, "All students having access to what they need to graduate prepared for success." We can look to schools in California and the D.C. area where they've been engaging with this ideology longer than we have to know what the next steps will be. Their AP classes and
031higher level math courses are being eliminated over concern concerns of perpetuating inequities and teachers are being advised to connect math to social justice concepts. Inclusion in social justice parlance doesn't mean just treating others with dignity and respect, but restricting our speech and policing the speech of others with the impossible goal of never offending anyone. I was appalled when my son described the microaggression training to which his class was subjected in the seventh grade in this district. If we continue down this path, next steps will include segregating people into affinity groups, demoralizing those with supposed privilege and instilling a victim mentality in those deemed oppressed and maintaining lists of bias incidences to shame anyone who dares step out of bounds or question the dominant moral orthodoxy. Thank you for pulling our tax dollars from the aptly
032named Twisted Foundation when some of their more egregious professional development content was brought to your attention. Many from our district attended anyway and participated in sessions that included the following, Social Justice in the Elementary Mathematics Classroom, an Intersectional Approach. Thanks, Brian. (timer chiming) Thank you, Anne. Okay. We appreciate you being here this evening. All right, thank you. Yes. I would love to- (audience applauding) (audience cheering) Dan Malloyt? (Dan speaking faintly) Hi, Dan. (Dan speaking faintly) I caught you off guard. It happens from time to time. (Joie chuckles) Is the timer gonna work tonight? It is. Sweet. Dan Malloyt from Erie, Colorado. I live on Poppy View Lane, and I appreciate you guys havin' me again tonight. We've heard tonight from people with speaking about masks, personal choice, full-time in-person learning, critical race theory, and keeping
033our district as one of the forefront, not just in the country, but in the world. And I think that all of that matters. What this district has done over the last several decades to build what we have is unparalleled. It's amazing what we have here. The policies that we've put in trying to work around what Boulder County Health has said to give parents some choices, to allow our kids to have the freedom to get back to full-time in person learning is important as well, and I appreciate what everybody has done here for that. The community has come together. There are different aspects to our community that are sometimes disagreeing with each other, but we can all agree that we should stop having to say full-time in person learning and just say, school starts next week.
034(audience laughs) Thankfully, it is. (audience applauding) Something that I've learned this year as well, I might be a fairly decent instructor at some things, I am not an elementary school teacher and I've had to try it as much as I can at home. That's why it matters that we have a district that grows its own teachers, that believes teachers should be well-paid, well-funded, well-educated and professional, that we have an education that's focused on academics, literacy, math, the scientific method, and learning our history, the good and the bad. I've been to other parts of the world where our flag stands for something. I've cried like a baby when I saw it get raised at one point in my life for a very good reason. I was very hungry and hadn't slept in about four days and
035it matters and saying that we are a terrible country takes away from that. Teaching little ideas takes away from that. If we wanna build a community that believes in itself and believes in each other and actually overcomes the hate and division that is out there, that is real, we need to move past that. We need to start looking at an academic, non-dogmatic education again, looking all the way back to the beginning of public education in this country. What Horace Mann said, what the initial founders of public education said so that we could get towards a point in our country where everybody can read, everybody can think for themself and everybody can work through a problem. And that's how we start to overcome any sort of issues that we have with equality, with equity and with
036the inability to push back on propaganda as it comes out. Right now, as we say, we need to have full masking. We need to keep quarantines draconian in hurt kids and send them home. And the only acceptable vaccination rate is 100%. The only thing that I can think is a well-educated population from a district such as this will look at them and say check your Boulder privilege and walk back over county line (audience applause drowns out speech). All right, so we have three other individuals who signed up to speak via the district website sign up at the last minute. They're unable to attend and so, John, Mr. Ahrens is going to read their comments for them. Brian, can you still please time those? Yes. Great. Thank you. John, why don't you go ahead and read
037the comments first from Sarah Sokie? Sarah Wilson Sokie I believe is the name. Sarah Wilson Sokie. Yes. Thank you. She states, "Dear St. Vrain School Board Members and Superintendent Haddad, thank you for following the guidance of Boulder County Public Health and requiring masks for all students and teachers, regardless of vaccination status. I'm very reassured by the School Board's diligent adherence to the guidelines from BCPH. I want to address two important points about the school district's approach to COVID safety, mask exemptions and eating lunch outside. First, mask exemption should require medical documentation to prevent the abuse of the rule. The current SVVSD policy does not appear to be incompliant with the updated BCPH guidance. BCPH says the medical exemption is not a personal exemption or a religious exemption, and schools, childcare's and facilities are expected to
038implement adequate process to evaluate the applicability of the exemption to each individual as provided by law. Some children have genuine medical conditions, which warrant a mask exemption. These vulnerable children should not be put at further risk by frivolous requests for mask exemptions that are not based on medical conditions. (audience booing) (John chuckles) It is already apparent that parents opposed to masks are coordinating sharing on social media about obtaining exemptions (audience cheering) for non-medical reasons. The School Board should send along a strong message that requests for mask exemptions without medical documentation will not be approved. If students are granted a mask exemption, it would be wise to consider asking these students to regularly test for COVID as they are more likely"- (audience booing) John, excuse me. We were all very respectful when you made your comments.
039Please be respectful. John is reading a parent's comment. Please be quiet and listen. Yes. Thank you. We're booing the parent, not John. I understand. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, but if we can just, we're just taking up time now. Thank you. "If students are granted a mask exemption, it would be wise to consider asking these students to be regularly tested for COVID as they were more likely to spread it or to consider alternate accommodations. BCPH states that an application for medical exemption is not a guarantee that an individual be permitted to enter a building without the mask. Particularly if other accommodations such as remote learning, alternative activities, substituting equipment or other options are available. Second, eating lunch outside whenever possible should be a priority. Research from November, 2020 in the "Journal of Infectious Disease" has
040shown that transmission of COVID is as much as 18 times lower outdoor. This means that lunch may be the highest risk daily event for K-6 students who are unmasked to eat. The CDC says eating meals outside is best for lowering transmission risk." [Audience Members] Time. Thanks, John. Is that time? Okay. Thanks, Brian. I have lots of time helpers this evening. All right, John, can you please read from Lindsay Diamond? The second one is from Lindsay Diamond. "Dear Board of Education Members, thank you for the opportunity to address the Board this evening. I am Dr. Lindsay Diamond and as I am a parent of incoming second grader in the District, I am grateful that SVVSD will be following the recent approval approved public health order, 2021-07 regarding facial coverings. However, I am greatly concerned by the
041wholly inadequate form and process currently in place for requesting a medical exemption. The medical exemption process should be rigorous and limit to families with students who have legitimate health circumstances that make them medically unable to tolerate a face covering. Boulder County Health Public Health makes it very clear that the medical examination is not a personal exemption nor a religious exemption and schools, childcare's and facilities are expected to implement an adequate process to evaluate the application of the exemption of each individual as provided by law. I want to emphasize that the evaluation piece as this was not addressed in the letter we received on Monday evening. I understand that introducing additional evaluation and implementation strategy adds undue burden on schools administrations. However, if families are permitted to send their children to school without a mask under
042the guise of medical exemptions because they're inconvenienced by a mask or because they do not understand the science underlying mask wearing you endanger the lives of most vulnerable among us. Per Boulder county health guidelines, masks provide an replaceable reduction in the respiratory droplets and aerosols exposure. School's sports clubs must strongly consider what accommodations are possible, which would not place an undue burden on excess disease risk by other participants in the activity. There may be circumstances in which a school- (timer beeps) That's it, John. Thank you. Wow. And then- I've been readin' 'em fast, too. All right, John, if you could read Amanda Dean now, please. Amanda Dean? Yes. (audience members chattering) Take another side? You keep taking sides. Okay, this is Amanda Dean, another SVVS parent. "Hello, first I wanna thank everyone for allowing me
043to submit my concerns in writing. I'm uncomfortable in person due to being immune compromised. I know others share my concerns below, and I'm hoping this letter will voice of several parents, not just myself. My understanding of the Boulder County Health Public Health passed the mask mandate for schools of the meeting on 8/9. In the communication sent out by Don Haddad following the meeting, he indicated that there was an option for families to apply for mask exemptions if their students has medical reasons that would make wearing a mask difficult or harmful to the student. Can the Board please explain why the exemption being allowed now when it was not allowed last year? Based on the information presented by BCPH meeting, there is much more evidence of the new variants affecting children's health more this year than
044the previous year. (audience members booing) Allowing an exemption now seems to be an indirect conflict of the data presented by the BCPH meeting, by the CDC and by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other health agencies. As for BCPH schools, childcare's and other facilities must be responsible for establishing a process that accepts evaluating, implementing, and reasonable accommodations for medical exemptions. What's the process and who's overseeing it? In addition, BCPH says the medical exemption is not a personal exemption nor a religious exemption. Schools, childcare's and facilities are expected to implement adequate procedures and evaluate the application by the exemption to each individual as provided by law. Can the Board clarify what that means? In the BCH guidelines medical exemptions allows individuals to seek a reasonable accommodation for their schools, childcare and other facilities if they are
045not medically able to tolerate a face covering. We do have the launch ed options available. Will schools be encouraging families with mask exemptions to enroll online as a combination is already in place and will not affect quarantining? After all, one of the reasons given for masking was the prevention of classes from having quarantine frequencies, especially when a hybrid option will not be available. If there are mask free children in the class, how will this affect quarantine? What will be done for class children that need to be quarantined to ensure their educational needs are met? Thank you for continued work, parents, teachers, students and administrators to ensure we as a community can safely get as many kids back in-person learning as possible. This has been a rough time for all. Your dedication to health and education
046of our children is greatly appreciated. Kind regards, Amanda Dean." Sorry about that. Thank you, John, appreciate it. Brian, thanks for, go ahead. There was one more person that wanted to put their name on, it's a little unorthodox, but is there a room for that? We've actually just exceeded our 30 minutes for public comment. So, I do have some other people that have signed up to speak this evening. We have exceeded our 30 minutes. If you weren't able to make a comment this evening, you're welcome to sign up on the District website to speak at our next regular meeting, or you may email the Board of Education. We also had several people who wanted to speak and opted to send an email instead. Those individuals have sent those emails and those emails will be part of
047the permanent public record that will be attached to the Board of Education minutes if you have a desire to read those. I do wanna thank everyone that showed up this evening to speak. We appreciate your input, and we appreciate your advocacy for the children of St. Vrain. Thank you very much. (audience applauding) Don, Superintendent's report, please. Thank you. All right, thank you. Well, first of all, thank you for being here tonight. I appreciate it. One of the things that I have really understood about this particular issue is that sometimes there are solutions that we can find where across the board, you get some type of consensus. In this situation, it's one of those things where regardless of a decision that's made, we know that it's not going to be a decision that everyone agrees with
048and we've come to terms with that, but we're gonna continue to try to at least listen to everyone. Anybody who has any interest in having a conversation, we will always make ourselves available. As long as it's in 30 minutes. So, yeah. So, let me go over some of the questions that have been asked 'cause I wanna make sure and then if there are questions after that, I'll be glad to stick around and answer them. The first thing that Joie had mentioned earlier that I wanna talk about, when we were in this space last year, some of the differences are the five day a week, and I agree with what you said, Dan. We need to stop talking about that. The reality in Colorado, which I have expressed extreme concern over to the Colorado Department of
049Education and to the Governor directly, is that the majority of school districts in Colorado are on a four day school week and that was before COVID and I am completely opposed to that. I think it begins to erode the opportunities for our children, and so one thing that hopefully will come from this is an awareness that over time, our education system has been and continues to be eroded by policies that are being made in the legislature. And so, (audience applauding) I think it's important and I wanna, one thing that has really evolved from this is I've had some really good conversations with members of our community that I hadn't really had the opportunity, and I've been able to listen and I've been able to share. And I appreciate that. And I will always make myself
050available to any parent or community member in this community, but there are a lot of things about our education system that I think need to be looked at. And so, we'll have those conversations as we move on. Our athletics programs are moving forward. Our HVAC system is in place and ready to go. The air handlers will open every 15 minutes, so it's a very safe environment. Our custodial staff will be cleaning during the days, in the evenings. We have all of the protective gear that we need. We have our hand sanitizers, our hand washing stations. We have familiarity with this because we've been through it. This is actually the third school year, the third school year that we will be dealing with. I remember when we first started and it was around spring break and
051we were hoping that it would evolve and come to an end around summer, but it didn't. And then we were geared up in that summer and we were all ready to come back and at the last minute, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment put forward new restrictions that caused us to have to shift to online. And then it was back and forth throughout the year. And we went through all of last year and now we're starting another year. And it was a surprise to me because as some of you have said, I too have watched throughout the summer where restaurants and churches and malls and the rec center where people exercise, everywhere you go, there are people, and some are wearing masks, many are not wearing masks. And one of the concerns that
052we have expressed, and I will get into this part a little bit later is some of the incongruence that we see in the application of policies. And so, I'm gonna talk a little bit about that as well. I also believe that we will see a significant decrease in quarantining. And that's an issue I'm gonna share again in just a few minutes, because it's a critical one for me, and I know for all of you. I wanna share with you my conversations with Boulder County Health, and I have had conversations with Weld County Health. We also serve Broomfield County and Larimer County. My conversations last week, we had three consecutive days of meetings without break with the Executive Director and her team, and then also our team. And I wanna share with you the content of
053that communication that took place. The first thing that I wanted to understand was what data they were looking at. They shared with me that the data from zero to nine year old, they saw increasing rates of COVID, 10 to 14 they saw flat line and 15 to 19 years of age was dropping. And so, that was helpful for me to understand. They shared with me that the vaccination rate in Boulder County was approximately at 80% for those eligible. Some are on, don't, I mean, this is always moving, but these are general numbers. 64% total rate for everyone. The 80% was for those eligible. And we had about 62 plus percent of kids, 12 to 19, who have received a vaccination. There's no judgment there. I'm not saying that's good or that's bad. I'm just giving
054facts. I also asked about the hospitalization rates and the death rates, and I learned that there were 20 hospitalizations and seven death rates over a period of time. I also asked questions, are you paying as close attention to the mental health issues and the needs of children as you are to the physical health? And- (audience applauding) And the reason I asked that question is because when we were quarantining students last year, we were very clear about our opposition to doing so, not because we were wanting to create an unsafe environment, but because we weren't seeing that students who were being quarantined were coming down with COVID. And so, we were wanting to know then, and what shifted is we then began to get a lot of communication from our health departments that what are you
055going to do as a school district? And I am not trying to criticize anybody here or throw anybody, I am just speaking factually. When we started to hear from them, what are you doing about students who are struggling with anxiety and depression, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera? My response was we have been trying to talk to you about that for a long time, and that's why we were opposed to the quarantining process. So that was the other conversation we had. The other thing that I wanted to understand clearly was the congruence or lack thereof with other policies. So, when I asked the question about how do I reconcile when I go into a grocery store and people aren't wearing masks, and there are children in there and they have a sign, but there's nobody
056enforcing that, and then when I go on the weekends to the rec center, or when I go to the mall, or when I go to a restaurant with my family, I'm not seeing the same application of policy as I'm seeing in our schools. And what I wanna make sure of is that our schools aren't being asked to do things that others aren't because we will simply comply. And I asked that question, when will you be making a decision? And it was also asked if you go back and listen to the recording from the recent meeting that the Board had for Boulder County, one of their board members said, "When does this end? What is the benchmark?" And the, the response was, "We don't know, and we will address that and be having a conversation with
057that next week." That was also our request as a team, that can we have some idea of what those benchmarks, and we understand that they're gonna tip this way and then back this way, and so we're not gonna move people back and forth, but can we at least have something to look at, something to track? The other thing that, I talked about a little bit, because I had recently seen that a mask creates 99.9% protection against serious illness. I saw that out of the CDC. And then I saw that I saw that also you have the option to get vaccinated. So I asked the question, if that's the case is a high school student and/or a student at 12 years older at risk if someone is not wearing a mask, if they have the option
058themselves to wear a mask and get vaccinated? And the question was met with some ambiguity. We don't know enough about it, but we're still going to be gathering data. These are the answers that I have been given and the conversations while they're always respectful and professional, they become heated because I am asking for specificity in writing what benchmarks? The other thing that we talked about was the inconsistent application from school district to school district. And if I think about it and I, if I get any of this wrong, I want you to just bear with me, but Denver is requiring masks, Jefferson County is requiring masks for elementary, but not for 12 and older. Then you have Douglas County as optional. Then you have a Greeley as optional, Brighton is optional, Cherry Creek is optional.
059Then you have, Thompson is optional. Then you have Poudre is required. And then you have now Boulder and St. Vrain required because of the recent order. And Adams 12 is optional. And my response to them was we are all neighboring districts and we cross over boundaries. And we interact with each other on the weekends and stuff. So, can you explain to me why that is? And the response was it's the authority was delegated by CDPHE and the Governor to local county health departments. I said, I understand that, but I need an answer to that question because we have an extremely involved, intelligent community and I need to be able to tell them something besides it's just county by county. I need to understand that. So that was the other conversation that we had. And then
060I'm gonna shift now and get into the quarantining protocols. If you followed the process last year, you'll know that I had been publicly pretty clear about my position on quarantining. I never wanted to put anybody at risk. And so I wasn't going to step out in front of the Health Department. The quarantine is 100% the jurisdiction of the Health Department. We as a school district do not have any authority to decide who gets quarantined and who doesn't and we haven't since this process began, but we were very clear that we were concerned about literally, as I was tracking on our own website and when I get a call, Johnny Tarrel, our Assistant Superintendent would notify me every single time a group of students was quarantined and it was a daily contact. And so, my conversations
061were over and over and over. We had athletic teams that were poised and ready to go to state tournaments and entirely quarantined, and I kept asking, and we kept as a board asking, we need to understand this, but at the same time, and this is important, at the same time, I have no interest in jeopardizing a child. I won't do it. And if you're the Health Department, I cannot step outside of that. I don't have the expertise to say to the Health Department, I'm going to take other people's children and make decisions that supersede yours, because I don't have that kind of knowledge nor do I have that kind of authority. So that's- (parents clamoring) I know but, I know but let me finish and then I will absolutely stay as long as people wanna
062stay to have these conversations because I think they're really important. The other thing that I talked about with them was we need a commitment that we can stay in school for five days a week. We need that commitment. (audience applauding) And so, I requested a meeting with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, because oftentimes I was told that this is the Colorado Department. And so I said, I wanna speak to them. And the first month went by, I didn't hear anything back. I called again, I called again, and I called again, and I finally had a meeting with the head of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. And I said, I would like in writing that you will be quarantining kids in classroom exposure because of this mask rule because what
063I'm hearing is the mask rule will decrease significantly the quarantining, and that is my top priority to keep our kids in school. And they assured me that they would provide that in writing and in that conversation was also the leadership of the County Health Department who heard that. And we pressed, and we were given, and we have been given assurance that this type of quarantining will be very different than what we have experienced in the past. And that was a non-negotiable at least in terms of our advocacy. At the end of the day, it is their decision. They have that authority. We do not have that authority. So that's the part about quarantining and that's the part we are going to track very closely to keep our children in school. I wanna talk a little
064bit about the exemptions for the mask process. I always start with the premise that I can trust parents. When we say a medical reason, you fill out the form, I am going to start from the premise that you are telling me the truth. I'm not going to start from the premise that you are going to make something up. That's always been my practice. I have never known this community not to be truthful with me. And so, that's why we're not asking for a doctor's note. I also checked with our legal counsel. I also checked with Boulder County Public Health to get assurance that the process is the jurisdiction of the school district in terms of that waiver. And here is the process. You access a form from the principal's office or from online. The principal
065will call you and talk to you about your request, not as an inquisition or any kind of, just simply to say, I got your request. I wanna acknowledge that. I wanna check and see if there's anything that your son, your daughter needs. Is there anything you need to tell me? Now, if there's something in there where somebody writes, "I'm not doin' it just because," well, then we'll have the conversation. And the Assistant Superintendents will know and be there. We also have many nurses that are assigned to our schools and we have health clerks in every school. So that is a confidential conversation that can take place between a parent and our staff. It's not something that needs to be a conversation with everyone else. It's between the parent and our staff. And I have also
066gotten from our Human Resources Department and from legal counsel, the definition of what would constitute a medical reason. And so, we feel very comfortable about that. And we will implement that with fidelity, keeping our kids safety in mind first, that's safety from COVID and that's safety mentally and emotionally. Those are the things that we're looking at. We have many other school districts in this state because of their county health orders are not requiring masks. And so, our requirement is more rigorous than many others. There are others who are, but I think that gives our latitude to look at a child and see, is there a medical reason why they are being adversely affected in a way that could even be more harmful? And we need to be able to have that conversation without people assuming
067that someone is not going to be forthright. We are always gonna operate from the perception and the premise that we're having an honest conversation until somebody demonstrates different. So- Where will the forms be stored and shared? Pardon me? Where will the forms be stored and shared? Yeah, Mark, I will, yeah. Yeah, no, I will get to all that details and stuff. We will be storing those, but they will be completely confidential, but I will stay after, Mark, and visit with you and share all of that with you. The other thing, we have numerous mitigating strategies in place. I mean, we have a really high functioning HVAC system. We have double duty cleaning with our custodial staff. We have the majority of our staff has been vaccinated. Overwhelming majority. We have all- (parents clamoring) It depends
068on the situation. You guys, please let me just finish and then again, I will stay as long as you wanna stay and have these conversations. These are the things- (woman speaking indistinctly) No, these are the things that we are doing. My point is if a student is exempt, it does not mean that the environment will then become unsafe. So, the next thing that I want to share with you is the no ask on the vaccination and the no ask on why you're not wearing a mask, et cetera. I have provided in writing to all of our staff that it is not acceptable to inquire about another individual's vaccination status, nor is it acceptable, (audience applauding) nor is it acceptable to ask about why are you wearing a mask or why aren't you wearing a mask
069and have stated very clearly, and if you know teachers and they feel comfortable sharing with you my communication, it's certainly open for you to read what I gave to them. It's their choice to share that with you, that we are gonna have zero tolerance for people making fun, bullying, harassing, asking questions, causing discomfort, and our teachers and our principals understand clearly that they will need to monitor that, that we are not going to allow for environments to become divided. Our children's education is gonna be focused on the learning, and it's not gonna be distracted because we have kids that are questioning each other's beliefs or ideas, or the science here, the science there. The thing that I would share with you, and these are tough conversations, because I know as soon as I'm done speaking,
070people will parse my words and they will take some things in context and take some things out of context. And so when I repeat things, I wanna be clear that I am in no way shape or form would I ever knowingly compromise the safety and wellbeing of a child or of a teacher or of an adult. Never, never would I do that. But my point in saying these things to you is our children need to be able to get to school now. And our parents are the best vehicle for making sure that that happens, that they are not coming to school and carrying out the same divide that we are seeing across our state and our country. They need to come to school and be happy and they need to come to school and learn,
071and they need to not be bogged down and stressed with the divide that is happening. And that is absolutely- (audience applauding) I want them to be able to go to school with peace of mind. And I understand that people have different definitions of that, but we as a community, we can still have differences of opinion and we can still get along. A difference of opinion does not mean that we have to not like each other or that we have to assume that somebody is coming from a place of bad intent. It's just that people see things differently. Science even says things differently. And so, we have to rise above that and be willing and that's why I'm glad you're here tonight, we have to be willing to have these conversations. You know if you call
072me, I'm gonna call you back. Yes, you will. You know, if you email me, I'm gonna email you back. Yes, you will. And I will tell you what I think, whether we agree or not, you will always have my respect and my time. And you can count on that. And sometimes getting more information is helpful for me and sometimes I think it can be helpful for others. So that's the thing that I wanted to say about creating the safe environment, doing all the things and you guys, every year I get really excited about school. I love to go out into the schools. I love to see our kids when, I follow Twitter and I see the accomplishments and I sometimes, my wife will say, "Put that thing down," my iPhone because I see it and
073then I tweet St. Vrain Storm because I'm excited to see what the kids are doing, and you know what? The kids are hitting it outta the park in so many ways. We're seeing our graduation rate go, and I'm gonna share with you some of these things. And I wrote 'em down because first of all, we're opening up new schools, Highlands. It's a beautiful school, I just toured it. We just opened up a new school at Mead. We're getting ready to open up our first swimming pool. We're starting to talk about plans to open one up in the Weld County schools. We have all kinds of great renovation. Frederick High School's adding a brand new, beautiful wing. The programming is stellar and second to none in this district. You will get an education second to none.
074Our graduation rate is going to breech 90% for the first time ever, and probably be around 91 plus percent with among the highest graduation requirements in the state. And that means, and that's a four year rate. When you go to four and a half years and five years and five and a half years, you will see that get closer because our dropout rate is less than 1%. That means our kids are gonna finish school and they're gonna have options. Our SAT scores have gone up again this year, and once they become public, you will see that. And that's after a year of a pandemic. That's the kind of work our teachers did, that's the kind of work your children did, and that's the kind of work you did as parents. That's the kind of thing
075I'm... We won more state championships as a district, individual and team than all the other school districts, any other individual school districts, and not only in athletics, but in music. We were winning national awards. Our kids are flourishing. They are knocking it out of the park. Our mobile lab traveled all around the district all summer, focused on literacy and math and technology. We had project launch where our kids K through 8, we had thousands of kids, thousands of kids enrolled in school for four days a week throughout the entire month of June, and we started school two weeks early with our jumpstart. I was over at Longmont High School the other day eating lunch with the incoming freshmen. And they're excited getting their extra work around math and language arts and all of these things.
076And we had E recovery for high school kids and the normal summer school programs and all of the stem camps and all of the athletic camps and all of the music camps. All of these things are powerful for our children. This year, we have our AAA program, Advancing Academic Achievement. After school, in-person, our kids can stay at the elementary level with their teachers and get extra help throughout the entire year. So they're not only gonna get their five days, but they can get help after school. Our enrollment is we're seeing it peak again. Kids are coming back in the droves. We lost about a thousand kids last year. The enrollment is coming back hard. Dr. Capuchin just allocated another set of FTE. That's a teacher full-time equivalent. Our schools are getting packed and we love
077that. That's exciting to me and our hiring pools are plentiful. We're having hundreds of people apply for the jobs and that's not the case everywhere. I know that this issue of masks has been hard because we're talking about our children. I get that, you guys. I get it. I don't have all the answers, but I'm gonna stay in the conversation with you until we find them. The thing I know about it is no matter what we decide, there will be someone who disagrees. And right now it is right down the middle. It is right down the middle. I was watching Cherry Creek. People said they were optional, how come you're not optional? Well, then I watched their board meeting. It went till, well, I didn't watch it, I heard about it from someone who has
078a family member. I listened to. They went till like midnight and then a hundred doctors wrote in to say they want masks required. And so, the back and forth begins and it's impossible to be caught in the middle because no matter what you decide, you're going to get pushback, and so we have to bring the temperature down and be able to just refocus on our children and let parents have that say as to what they know about their child. If a parent tells me their child is experiencing extreme anxiety, I am not going to ask them for proof. I'm not gonna do that. Unless I find out that somebody is not being truthful. And in this case, I haven't seen that in this community. Now, I also wanna share with you some data that I've
079collected in regards to the exemptions. We have less than one 10th of 1% who have requested an exemption. So, while I am receiving emails from a number of people saying, "Your exemption process is flawed," I respect that and I will have a conversation with you about that. But I also want them to know there is a process. It's not as simple as just filling out a form and turning it in. The conversation will happen with the principal. The conversation will happen with the nurse if need be, and a conversation will happen with the assistant superintendent and I have vetted this process with Boulder County Public Health, and I have vetted this process with our legal counsel and I understand very clearly the difference between a medical reason and somebody's preference. And we will implement this
080with fidelity, but we have less than one 10th of 1% of our teachers and students who are requesting this. Now, there will be more because I know there are more students who have medical reasons because we already know lot of our children that have medical reasons. And so, I'm not saying that this is the final number, but what I am saying is I believe that parents are looking at this with a sincere eye and letting us know if there is a reason to take a look at this. So, I guess what I'm asking for from all of you is to know that whether you like the approach or whether you like what I say or you don't like what I say, or you agree with what I say or you don't agree with what I
081say, that you will stay in the conversation, and the conversation can stay civil and decent because I respect you. I've been in this community for 21 years and I love this community. And I know this is hard on you. I understand that. It is extremely hard on you and your children. And it has at times broken our hearts, but we are gonna stay in the fight and we are gonna make this a great year for our children. And we're gonna disagree on some things, but we're gonna agree on more because we have the same common objective and you guys, it's important that we come together. I respect people who believe everyone should be masked, I respect people who believe it should be a parent's choice. I am not going to block out conversations from either
082perspective. I'm going to stay in the conversation with you as long as it takes to make sure you feel your child is safe physically and emotionally. But it has to be focused on that. It cannot be, "I didn't like what you said," or "When you said this, that made me mad," or "I don't believe this." I am not perfect, our board is not perfect, our teachers are not perfect and neither is our community, but we are all working very hard for our children. And the fact that you're here gives me hope that you are opening the door for the conversations, and there are several of you that I see in the audience who I've had conversations with and I have learned from you. Yes. I will continue to learn from you. I have no ego
083in this at all. My focus is on our children and doing what's best for this community. And sometimes we'll make a decision that you don't agree with, but I hope that we can stay in that place where we can always communicate. I am going to stay afterwards, as long as you would like for me to, to have whatever conversation you want to have. And if you feel like, "Well, I just wanna go home to my family," you pick up the phone, you call me tomorrow, you email me and you will get a call. You will get a call within 24 hours and we will sit down. If you want to sit down and talk on the phone, we'll do that. You wanna sit down in my office, we'll do that. You wanna go to lunch,
084we'll do that. We will have the conversations until we get to a place where you feel comfortable. And this is to the people that are here and also to the people who are in the audience. So, I'm gonna stop. I appreciate you listening. And again, whatever you would like to talk about afterwards, I will enjoy that conversation and we'll continue it as long as it takes. Thank you, Don, appreciate it. (audience applauding) Did Board members have any clarifying questions or are we good to move on to the business of the meeting? All right. Don, the Board will join you in staying after the meeting as well for anybody who would like to have a conversation. All right. Where are we? So, Superintendent's report. Before we- Fourth quarters gifts. Thank you. Actually, before we do the
085fourth quarter gifts, Don, I'm going to go ahead and jump if Todd is available. Todd, are you there? We'll give him a second. If not, we'll go ahead and move forward. I see Tony is there. (parents chattering) All right, Tony, if you're there, why don't we go ahead and do fourth quarter gifts to schools please? Sure. Yes, I am here. Great. Thanks Tony, welcome. It's nice to see you. You too, you too. Sorry, Greg was unable to attend tonight, so I'm here instead and I'm happy to provide this report to the Board. As per our Board policy KCD, which addresses public gifts to schools, the Finance Department compiles the attached listing of donations to provide a quarterly report on the outstanding support of our community, be it cash and other in kind donations to the
086district. This is the report for the final quarter of the last school year. And I'm happy to acknowledge and thank the community for donations worth more than $100,000 in that quarter, bringing the total for the year, the 2020/2021 year to over three quarters of a million dollars in donations and support. Donors this quarter included some businesses and foundations such as the education foundation for the St. Vrain Valley, Corporate Simmons, Culver's, and the Element Investment Group, as well as a wide variety of school peer groups, and individual donors as listed in the board packet, aside from cash donations, we've received instruments, pianos, vehicles, books, supplies, food, and other resources that are put to great use in helping better support the education and wellbeing of our students. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions that the
087board might have at this time. Thank you, Tony. Board member questions, comments? No. No? All right. Tony, thank you. You're welcome. Appreciate it. All right. That brings us to our consent items this evening, which is agenda item number seven. Do Board members wish to pull any of the consent items? Joie? Hi, Dick. Yes? Sure. May we pull 7.14? 7.14. Yes, absolutely. So Dick, we'll go ahead and vote on the remainder and then we'll, you may ask any questions that you have. Thank you. All right. Thank you. I would entertain a motion then for approval for agenda item 7.1, staff terminations/leaves, 7.2, staff appointments, 7.3, approval of minutes for the June 9, 2021 regular meeting, June 23, 2021 regular meeting executive session, the June 24, 2021 special meeting executive session and the July 20, 2021 special
088meeting executive session. 7.4, approval of recommendation to hire dean for Alpine Elementary School, 7.5, approval of recommendation to hire dean for Erie Middle School, 7.6, approval of recommendation to hire dean for Frederick High School, 7.7, approval of recommendation to hire dean for Mead High School, 7.8, approval of recommendation to hire special education area coordinator, 7.9, approval of amendment GMP to construction manager general contractor, CMGC contract for the Everly Montgomery Field House renovation project, 7.10 approval of joint use agreement with city of Longmont, 7.11, approval of contract award for asphalt repair at Westview Middle School, 7.12, approval of contract award for asphalt repair at Erie Elementary School, and 7.13, approval of city of Longmont, inter-governmental agreement connecting Colorado students, CCS grant for Del Camino region. So moved. By Jim and a second? Do you have a
08914? Dick pulled 14, so we'll approve everything but that, thanks for the reminder though, Don. Second. And John with a second. Christie, if you could please call for the vote? Mr. Ahrens. I. Mr. Berthold. Yes. Mr. Garcia. Yes. Dr. Martyr. Yes. Ms. Peairs. I. Mrs. Ragland. I. Ms. Siegrist. I. Thanks, Christie. I would like to take just a brief second and recognize and welcome all of the new hires that were just approved. Congratulations on your positions. Dick, 7.14. I don't know, Michelle is here in person actually. So, I'll let you take the floor. It's all yours. Thank you, President Siegrist. Yes. I just have a point of clarification, Michelle, with regard to the proposal, I noted on page 80 of the packet or page 10 of the specific proposal that there's no reference to area
090seven. You're gonna- So, area seven is the site close to Silver Creek High School. And I just wanted to confirm it appears on the map, but it doesn't appear in the table and I just wanted to confirm that the enhancement of access for our students to high-speed internet also includes area seven. That's a good question, Dr. Martyr, and one of the reasons that you won't see that one in the build out of the wireless mesh network, but you will see it in the larger project is because what we learned is we work with the city of Longmont is that the city of Longmont actually has fiber connecting the households of the students who live in that area, and so rather than build a wireless mesh network, we're you're instead actually building directly into those students'
091homes with a fiber connection, that the city of Longmont will support for them. Thank you very much. Even better, even better. That answers my question. I would like to then move adoption of item 7.14, approval of the city of Longmont inter-governmental agreement, connecting Colorado students grant. Thanks, Dick. Is there a second? Second. Chico? That second was by Chico, Christie. If you could call for the vote please. Mr. Ahrens. I. Mr. Berthold. Yes. Mr. Garcia. Yes. Dr. Martyr. Yes. Ms. Peairs. I. Mrs. Ragland. I. Ms. Siegrist. I. All right, our action items this evening are next. We have two. The first one is 8.1. And that is an approval for an intergovernmental agreement with the counties of Boulder, Weld, Larimer, in the city and county of Broomfield for the 2021 coordinated election. Tony, I believe you're
092back at it. Yes, you bet. Yeah, so again, to clarify, this is for the approval of the intergovernmental agreements with the four counties in which we reside to coordinate the coordinated elections for each of those and authorized Greg Fieth, our CFO and designated election official to sign, execute these agreements and address the various logistics regarding the coordinated election with those county clerks. Great. Thank you. And this is something we see each year that we have an election. Nothing significant has changed. No, nothing significant and then we wanted to emphasize that these were reviewed by our legal team. Great. Thank you. Any board member questions or comments? Dick? Oh, thank you, President Siegrist. Just a question, Tony. Do we have an estimate of the overall cost of running these elections? So we do. Being the Budget
093Director, I do happen to have the estimated cost that we budget for each year when the election takes place and that is between 100 and $120,000 per year, but that does go away if there is no election due to appointments of Board members rather than requiring an election. Excuse me. Thank you very much. That's exactly what I was asking about. All right, thanks, Dick. All right, then I would entertain a motion please, for approval of action item 8.1. So moved. By Karen. Second. And by second by Jim. Christie? Mr. Ahrens. I. Mr. Berthold. Yes. Mr. Garcia. Yes. Dr. Martyr. Yes. Ms. Peairs. I. Mrs. Ragland. I. Ms. Siegrist. I. Action item 8.2 is approval of request to grant an exception to board policy GBEA, staff ethics conflict of interest for Mike Herman. So as you
094know, GBEA states, no school district employee or firm owned by a school district employee shall be allowed to sell to the school district or it's schools or staff goods or services of any kind without the express prior written consent of the Board of Education. So again, this is to prevent conflicts of interest, favoritism, et cetera. And so, these need to be disclosed and approved by the Board. So, this gentlemen is Mike Herman. He's the husband of Lisa Herman, who was a teacher and librarian at Westview Middle School. He has been selected to provide services, pond service, installation, and maintenance of the greenhouse pond at Burlington Elementary School. Because he's a husband we are requesting a waiver for this board policy so that he can provide those services. This total amount for services would not exceed
095$10,000, if in a circumstance where that amount was changed to be exceeded, we would come back to the Board of Education for additional approval. Thanks, Tony. Comments or questions from the Board this evening on this agenda item? Dick? President Siegrist, my last question (chuckles). Tony, I noticed that the amount of this request is $10,000 in one year, rather than the more typical $5,000. So, my question is really, is this a reasonable fair market value for the work we expect to be done in this next 12 months? Yeah, so these are essentially what you call it from economics terms, an arm's length transaction. So, the services I do believe would be between five and $10,000 as quoted. I can get more information for you if you'd like at this time or later on, but I'm happy
096to do a little more digging for you. But yeah, these aren't specific rates that are favorable due to the relationship between Mr. Herman and his wife. So, our assumption is that it will be because of the services provided, it will likely exceed 5,000, but be less than 10? Yeah, that's my understanding. I don't have the quote in front of me, but yeah, because we are here and have a number that's below 10, but not below the five that you're used to seeing that would indicate it. Yeah, it's in between five and 10. Thank you. Thanks, Dick. All right. I would entertain a motion then for approval of action item 8.2. So moved. By Dick. Second. By Karen. Mr. Ahrens. I. Mr. Berthold. Yes. Mr. Garcia. Yes. Dr. Martyr. Yes. Ms. Peairs. I. Mrs. Ragland. I.
097Ms. Siegrist. I. Thank you, Christie. That brings us to the end of our agenda this evening. We will reconvene next Wednesday, the 18th. That will be a study session here in the Board of Education room. You can look at that agenda online. We'll be discussing some various legislative issues as well as some levy education funding information as well. I do wanna once again, thank everyone for attending this evening. Dr. Haddad and the Board of Education will remain if you would like to talk with us, or if you didn't have an opportunity to speak earlier. With that, I will wish all of the students a fantastic first day of school and all the staff as well. And thank everyone that plays a role in making public education possible. So entertain a motion please for adjournment. So
098moved. By Jim. And a second? Second. By John. All in favor? I. Thank you, everyone. Be safe. (all chattering)