2021-05-26 Board of Education Regular Meeting

001Welcome to the St. Rain Valley Schools Board of Education meeting. Please join us in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and the city republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Hi Barb. Can you please call the roll this evening? Mr. Ahrens, absent. Mr. Berthold. Here. Mr. Garcia. Here. Dr. Marder. Present. Mrs. Ragland, absent. Ms. Segrist. Here. Thanks, Barb. Appreciate it. Were there any addendums or changes to the agenda this evening? The only change, it sounds like we're going to do our students first instead of audience participation. That is correct. In the interest, we know that some of our students, we're going to say all of our students, are anxious to get home and study.

002And so it is, yes, we like to honor that and not have them wait too long. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and jump to agenda item four, 4.1 to be exact, which is the Longmont High School Medical and Bioscience Academy. Looks great. Oh yeah, move around. Absolutely. So you can see. Please do. Looks good, David. Good job. Well, good evening. Well, good evening, everyone. It is my honor to be principal of Longmont High School. My name is Jeff McMurray, and I'm going to give you a little bit of background on some of the great things that are happening at Longmont High School, and they have been for many, many years. And we have some amazing students to share tonight, and we're just so thankful that we have the opportunity to do so

003in person and just share a little bit about the hard work and the great things that are happening at LHS. This is the Medical and Bioscience Academy, and just a few of our students from a program that just continues to grow. It was started in 2013, and that originated as a vision from Dr. Marder, who thankfully sits on our board, and Jackie Bylan, who is a retired Longmont High School science teacher, and current Longmont High School science teacher Chris Chow. They brought this vision of creating a focus and an experience for all of our students in the sciences to really dive deep into what does it mean to be in the sciences and what does a career look like in the health sciences. And that first cohort was 43 students, and we are currently over

004200 students, and the work just continues to grow, and the experiences are just amazing to listen to and how well they are received not only by the students but our community. And we're so thankful that Longmont High School has roughly 50% of our students open and enrolled, and the MBSA program is one of the guiding lights, the shining lights for that purpose, and so without further ado, I'll turn it over to Erica Haddon, and she's one of our coordinators, and she will share not only the MBSA, but an extension known as the SMARP team, and their fantastic work going on there as well. So thank you for your time tonight. We appreciate you. Thank you, Jeff. Appreciate it. All right. As Jeff said, I'm Erica Haddon. I'm one of the coordinators of the Medical and

005Bioscience Academy, and I'd like to begin just by thanking you all for having us here and for your continued support of our program, and that's on behalf of myself and my co-coordinators, Chris Chow and Elizabeth Burnison. So the Medical and Bioscience Academy is a rigorous four-year program for students who are interested in medicine, healthcare, or any field within the biosciences, and they begin their journey as freshmen in the Introduction to Healthcare Foundations course, where they learn a lot of skills, including CPR, first-aid certification, they learn to suture. They participate in a bioengineering lab hosted by Medtronic. They tour Longmont United Hospital, just to give you an idea of some of the experiences that they have. They also hear from many medical professionals who come into the classroom as guest speakers. So that kicks off their

006journey in the program. And between that time and their senior year, they are required to take two additional MBSA Pathway courses, and they get to choose from a menu of options. We offer Nutrition and Wellness, Anatomy and Physiology, Biotechnology, Forensic Science, just to name a two, so students really start to see which courses align with their personal interests and pursue their own paths. In their senior year, students are able to apply, and hopefully all of our students make it to that milestone for their senior internship projects. And that is a 40-hour commitment with a medical or bioscience professional in a field of their choosing. And they take that experience, learn from it, and then do a 20-hour research project based on what they learned there, and develop the poster presentations that you see before you.

007I think the best way is for you guys to hear from the students themselves about their experience. And so it's my pleasure to introduce David Murphy, Amanda Ingwin, Ariana Arriola, and Jackson Whitted. David, do you want to kick us off? Oh, David, let me bring this over to you. Can you guys hear me? Okay. So as she said, my name is David Murphy. I'm a graduating senior at Longmont High School. And some of the classes that I took in the MBSA program were Intro to Healthcare Foundations my freshman year, which really exposed me to medical practices and bioscience in general. And I totally loved it. And I didn't take Nutrition, Wellness, Anatomy, and Physiology, some of those classes. I was lucky enough to be the first class of biotechnology with Ms. Chow. And that class

008totally opened my eyes to what I want to do, not specifically, but I was able to use a lot of the skills I learned there and take forward with that. Take your time. We feel the same way, too. Getting to me a little bit. Sorry about that. But with those classes that I took, it totally opened my eyes to the biomedical field. And I was able to have this virtual internship with my mentor, Christy Bylin, daughter of the teacher, Ms. Bylin, who started the program. And I learned about the complaint, evaluate, and remediate process at Medtronic that they use by quality engineers in the post-product industry. One of the basic roles that they do is they look at statistical analysis of products that have been sent out into the medical field and have been tested,

009have been proven faulty in some way. And so they take it back and they first look at, okay, was it broken because of wear and tear or statistical error? Or is it because the product is actually, there's something wrong with it? And if there's something wrong with it, then it will pose a patient harm or patient risk. So then they will look at it more scrutinously and they will try and fix the product so that it does not pose patient risk or harm and promotes patient health. And that was, I looked at some case studies from Ms. Bylin and her team and what they worked on, some of the three most prominent and most definitive for her career, which is the S8 monitor, which is just a monitor for surgical navigation, the spinal clamp, which

010is exactly as it sounds, clamps down onto the spine for spinal surgeries, and the biopsy needle, which retracts brain tissue during brain surgeries. So, yeah. Thank you, David. I'd like to now introduce Amanda Nguyen. Hello, my name is Amanda Nguyen and I had a great experience in the MBSA program. Overall, I would say I would summarize my experience as a journey to discovering my self-interest and continuously learning about the various fields within medicine. As a student who's still trying to pinpoint a career that's perfect for me, MBSA was an amazing opportunity to branch out and discover what excites me. My internship was focused in the field of pharmacy. To be honest, I was disappointed that our internship was virtual this year as I wasn't able to get the full-on experience to understand truly what the

011field of pharmacy is like. However, I was lucky enough to attend a virtual presentation from a clinical pharmacist. It was really cool to see how a clinical pharmacist's role is different from a retail pharmacist that we often see in our lives. The virtual aspect also made it difficult for me to communicate with my mentor and keep in touch throughout my final poster project. My poster is on 3D printing of pharmaceuticals. 3D printing pharmaceuticals is a relatively new idea and my project focuses on its benefits and big milestones. 3D printing is a technology that gives advantage to design and develop medicines that are suited to each individual's needs. One of its pros includes drugs are personalized. That means the medication that ensures that the medication being provided for our patients are in correct dosages. One of

012their cons, however, would be 3D printing would have a difficult time competing with traditional drug manufacturing as it's less efficient. The 3D method produces 10,000 pills a day, while the traditional method produces 1.6 million an hour. The typical drug production, their goal is to efficiently produce the highest quality drugs and control cost. So basically producing enough product for our consumers. If we're looking at the types of 3D printed drugs, I first have Spritum, which was our first 3D printed drug approved by the FDA. It was developed in 2015 and produced to treat epilepsy. Its powder active ingredients is deposited in layers which allows it to dissolve in seconds with little water. This characteristic is extremely beneficial as it allows patients to take 1,000 milligrams of the drug during a seizure. If we're looking at polypills,

013there hasn't been a 3D printed polypill that's been FDA approved. However, the advantages behind this idea is extremely beneficial. One of its benefits includes reducing the number of tablets a person must take. As you know, in our elderly population, they're taking so many pills a day it's hard to keep track and see progress. So the idea of 3D printing polypills will help increase adherence and solve this problem. Besides helping the elderly population, 3D printing pharmaceuticals could also benefit children, which is what my case study focuses on. My case study is about a 13-year-old boy who was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis and he was prescribed hydrocortisone. However, there was complications that came along with it as children required smaller dosages than what the medicine was given. This led to their parents cutting the medication into smaller

014pieces, which led to under dosage and affecting the overall performance of the drug. This led the hospital to undergo a research trial where they determined the appropriate size tablets for each age group, and they concluded if medication could be printed according to children's preferences, it will help them control their illnesses and take their medication. So that's basically my overall poster, and I'm going to attend CU Boulder next year, this fall, I guess. Thanks, Amanda. All right. Up next is Ariana Arriola in the field of dentistry. All righty. It is an honor to be presenting on behalf of the MBSA program today. Across my four years, I have gotten so many new opportunities and so many eye-opening experiences that I wouldn't have been able to have or find if I really wasn't in it. So thankfully,

015it led me to the path of dentistry, which I have found that I really enjoy. When I first started MBSA, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I had a broad idea that I wanted to go into the medical field, that I wanted to go into something science-y. Ever since I was a kid, I was always playing with my toys and doing play operations on them, like being a veterinarian. So I always knew that I wanted to go into a field of this, but I just didn't know what yet. I didn't have any experience. I didn't have any knowledge on what I would have to do to get here and exactly what I would like. So through that, I've done several shadowing experiences with a multitude of different fields, one of them being

016dentistry. Another one was through a physical therapist. Another one was through a nurse at one of the hospitals, just a general nurse. And through that, I've also been given many TED Talks about different fields that I thought I was interested in. And then once I heard about them more, I thought, maybe not for me. So through all of that, it has really opened me up to experiencing new things such as dentistry. A lot of people don't really want to go into this field because they feel a little icky about teeth. And a lot of people are frankly afraid of dentists, which is why I made my poster. So my poster discusses the different types of tooth extractions as well as the implants and then the procedure, everything that goes on through it. And I created

017this in order to mitigate people's fears of going to the dentist. So in a person's lifetime, a lot of people will have to get an extraction. And with that, they'll probably as well get an implant because it completes the whole smile. And a lot of people are afraid to do that. But the problem with that is they need it. An abscess tooth I found in one of my studies is that an abscess tooth, once the bacteria from it reaches your bloodstream, it can go into different parts of your body systems. And that can create bigger infections that a lot of doctors don't really know where the source is. A lot of the times, the source is in your teeth. And they don't think about the teeth first. There's a huge disconnect between the two fields.

018And that's another thing that I found through this program. So I created my project in order to try and mitigate the fears of going to the dentist and getting your tooth extracted, getting an implant, and to more inform the public on exactly what happens, the different options that you have, everything that they do. Lucky enough, I was able for my internship to go in person for a little bit of shadowing experience. So I did see some extractions and implants through both of my mentors. So that was a great experience for me. And it made me fall in love with it even more, seeing their passion and seeing how excited they were to just take people's teeth out and tell them exactly what was going on. To me, it was so inspirational. And just seeing people's

019smiles once they were done, seeing how they were so appreciative and so happy to finally feel whole again, it made me feel that I found my path. So thank you. Thank you, Ariana. Up next, we have Jackson Whitted talking about the HIV vaccine. I don't want to have to walk that wonderful poster, but... As Basant said, hello, my name is Jackson Whitted. It's been a great opportunity not only to be here to present on behalf of the MBC program, but also going through the program itself. I've really enjoyed all of the great experiences that I've gotten to have throughout the program. I think it's a great program that kind of does something that we always talk about what we want high school to do. We want to help get kids to a point where they

020can figure out what they want to do or maybe get an idea of what they want to study in college. And the MBC program has definitely helped me personally to that. I know it's helped a great deal of other people explore unique career opportunities and kind of figure out what they want to do. More specifically, in regards to my project, I got to work with Kelly DeBee, who's a contact tracer for the Tri-County Health Department. So she's working right as the pandemic set in, working on that contact tracing and all that really important frontline work. And she was a great mentor to me, even virtually. I unfortunately didn't get to go in there and maybe be right on the front lines, but she provided a lot of great support and come, excuse me, feedback on

021my poster. So I really enjoyed the internship still, even if it wasn't maybe the most ideal set of circumstances. I think it was still a really great experience with my mentor. I can also kind of talk about maybe the process that I just went through to reach my poster really quickly. So living through the pandemic, like everybody else, I started to think about what different ways we could prevent something like the COVID-19 pandemic from happening again. And with that, the talk of the viruses and epidemiology all around me, I really wanted to dig into and look into epidemiology and how that field works and what kind of aspects in that field are really important. And the one that definitely stuck out the most to me was vaccine. Vaccines are one of our most important tools

022that we use to prevent future pandemics and outbreaks or just outbreaks of known viruses. But the big question that kind of hit me then was, oh, why aren't there vaccines for some things? We have vaccines for the flu or measles, but where are the vaccines for something like HIV? HIV is a super impactful, takes a super large toll on people who are sickened with it. We definitely want to immunize against this. So why isn't there a vaccine? So I kind of broke it down looking into what HIV is, what the vaccines are, why the two don't work together very well, what's the big challenges in developing an HIV vaccine, and then a little bit about the current research and projects that are going on. Thank you. Thank you, Jackson. I would be happy to take

023any questions any of you have about the program before introducing the smart team. Great. Dick, did you have any comments? It seems like the most logical place to go. Yes. I wanted to say, David, Christy Byland was a student of mine. And so along with her mother and Chris Chow, when we formed the program, we had a dream of what it might become. But you, through these projects you've presented, are really showing that our dreams were too modest, that you are achieving at a much higher level than we had envisioned to begin with. And that just goes to show that when we provide these sorts of opportunities to stretch beyond our current vision of what school can be, that students and each of you rise to that challenge and beyond. So I am so thankful

024to your teachers and to you, of course, as students, for the work that you're doing and blazing the pathway for others. And it's exciting to see that you've found areas that you think you might pursue in the future. This is really college-level work. So thank you for that, and thank you for being an example to your fellow students and to your teachers and administrators as well, that there's no challenge too great for our students to rise to and overcome. So thank you. Thank you, Dick. I appreciate it. I know as I was sitting up here, I could ask each of you multiple questions, and we could sit down and talk for a few hours, I'm certain. I know that I was feeling very proud of the work that you're doing, and so I'm wondering if

025any of you might have any friends or loved ones in the office, or in the office, I'm not in the office this evening, in the audience that might be here that you would want to introduce, because I'm certain they're very proud of you as well. You all might drive, and therefore you might be here on your own. Great. Shelly, right? Hi, Shelly. Fantastic, David. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Well, thank you very much for taking the time to be here. Your projects are truly remarkable. Thank you. Great. So the MVSA program is just one of the great science programs we have at Longmont High School, and it's my pleasure to introduce one of our crossover or partner programs, the Smart Team. Can you guys just raise your hand if you are on both MVSA

026and Smart Team, so they can kind of see the links? Yeah, a whole handful of them. So, Kelly Lubkman, who's right behind me. Go ahead and take it away. Thank you, Erica. Hi, I'm Kelly Lubkman. I am a primarily chemistry teacher at Longmont High School, and I am one of the Smart Team mentors, along with Dr. Marder and Chris Chow. Our Smart Team this year, if you don't know the program, the program is a group of students who they study proteins, 3D model them. I'm holding one right now. And they this year have studied proteins involved in the coronavirus. And so they have we have three different projects that we would like to share with you. And then we'll introduce our seniors that have been with us for a while now. And we're sad to

027say goodbye to. So we'll go ahead and have we have three different groups. The first group is going to be talking about the ACE2 receptor on our cells. Our second group will be talking about primarily the spike protein on the surface of the coronavirus. And the third group will be talking about nanobodies as a potential treatment for COVID-19. So let's go ahead. Group one with. Hi, my name is Greta Weedle. I'm a sophomore. I'm Caleb All and I am a junior. Hi, I'm Rose Adler and I'm a senior. My name is Lauren Roberts and I'm a junior this year. Our research focused primarily on the ACE2 receptor, which is a protein receptor that's like a whole bunch of our cells, but mainly it's in our nasal cavity and on the linings of our blood vessels.

028Oftentimes, when people you know or people that you've heard of will get COVID-19, you'll hear that they have lost their smell or that they have really high blood pressure. Those are some of the two major symptoms that you'll hear about. And those are largely attributed to the ACE2 receptor. So when the ACE2 receptor attaches to the COVID spike protein, it inhibits significantly the role of ACE2 in our bodies, which is to regulate our blood pressure and to regulate some of the nervous system cells around our nose and our lungs, which is what is causing a nausea or a loss of smell. So for our project, we actually had a really fun opportunity to choose whatever we wanted to do about our project. And we were able to fit as much information as we could into

029about 60 minutes, although in about a couple of videos. And we were able to actually consolidate all of our information into TikTok videos, which has about 65 million people on the app, meaning that not only is our information public, we had the challenge of making sure that it was concise in 60 minutes and also able to be digested by 60 seconds. You're right. It's not 60 minutes. I couldn't talk for 60 minutes. But it's not only in 60 seconds, but it needs to be easily digestible to people of all ages. TikTok is used by people from ages 10 to ages 60 plus. So ultimately, we were able to consolidate information about the ACE2 receptor and about COVID-19 into about four videos under 60 seconds. Hello, it's me again, Jackson Witted. Being in both programs, you

030know, I can tell I really enjoy working on these kinds of things. So I'm happy to also be presenting on behalf of the smart team. So my group studied the COVID spike protein, the protein that's actually present on the outside of the virus you can see here. So it binds to ACE2, which is the receptor that the first group was originally discussing. A little bit about the spike protein, kind of the process that it goes through. So it begins in this kind of closed state where all of these structures are folded in and it's in a non binding state. It's not ready to bind yet. But once the virus is going to attempt to bind to ACE2 or bind to a cell, it opens up and folds out. You can kind of see how it's

031opened up a little bit here. This is in its open state. And so it splits into an S1 and an S2 sub regions. And the S1 sub region will actually interact with the ACE2 receptor and lock into it. And then the S2 sub region will then begin to interact and fuse with the membrane and then open up the membrane, so to speak, so that the virus can enter through the membrane into the cell. So thinking about maybe possible treatments, thinking about how we could maybe inhibit that process from occurring so that we would be able to not allow the virus or make it like kind of innate, most unable to properly undergo that process of binding to the receptors so that it could actually affect cells. Thank you. I just want to add one little

032thing. Can you hold up that spike protein again? So for all of us who've been inoculated with the coronavirus vaccine, it contains the mRNA or DNA that codes for this specific protein. So that's what's being generated by ourselves to elicit that antibody response. My name is Graham Olmsted, and I'm a senior. My name is Erin Skaggs, and I'm a senior. I'm Jorge, and I'm also a senior. And I'm Grayson Hubbell. I'm a junior. So we focused on a solution, really, to the last two problems. And my peers here have some pamphlets for you that we – this was a project that we created. And so we explored a solution, really, to COVID and its spread in the form of these actually llama nanobodies. So these are little tiny bits of antibodies that are produced in

033llamas and were replicated in the lab in order to work as a kind of deterrent or something to work against COVID. So what it does is it locks COVID into its closed formation. So as the first and second group, they both did open form spike proteins. So their proteins were able to bind with ACE2. In this formation, with the nanobodies bound on these three sites, the spike protein is no longer able to bind, meaning that this could be a cheap and effective solution to neutralizing COVID in the body. Whether you have COVID or as a preventative measure, if COVID tries to enter the body, it can neutralize its ability to bind to the ACE2 cells, which means it can no longer get into cells, infect human cells, and reproduce. And so that's all I have.

034We'll next just have each of our seniors come up, just introduce themselves, and then some of them will tell you about their experience with the SMART team and what they're doing next year. Man, third time's a charm, huh? No. Yeah, you know me already, Jackson, but I'm a senior, obviously. My plan next year is to attend Colorado State University to major in biochemistry. I plan to also do some research fellowships and begin kind of going down a path to someday work in a lab and do research. Thank you. So my name is Rose Adler. I was a senior this year. I was also on MBSA. And I think that SMART team was a super valuable experience for me because I was able to work with students that had a similar passion for science. I've also

035been on the team since I was a freshman. So I was really introduced to scientific and professional research at a really young age. And I've been able to continue studying that throughout high school. I was super inspired by the student projects that I saw at the 2019 Experimental Biology Conference that I actually attended with SMART team in Orlando, Florida. And I think that that experience really pushed me to go into an area in STEM, especially as a woman. And so next year, I'll be studying molecular, cellular and developmental biology and neuroscience at the University of Michigan. Thank you. Hi, my name is Erin Skaggs. I'm a senior and I will be studying neuroscience at Regis University. I'm Jorge Arroyo. So one of the good things about SMART team is that even though some of the

036content that you're reading, so like it's college level stuff, even though sometimes you don't understand what you're reading, you slowly figure out what you're reading and you just get more accustomed to it so you can read more and more complicated stuff. And then although I'm not involved in biochemistry in my pursuit of college, I'm going into cybersecurity at front range instead. The skills gained from SMART team will help me along the way. My name is Grant Olmsted. I'll be studying bioscience at Tantau University. And my time here at SMART team has been spectacular, in my opinion, getting to talk with like minded people, getting to analyze research papers. It's all been very fun. And yes, I quite enjoyed the program. Thank you so much for your time. We were excited to come and present and

037share what we've learned with you. Thank you. Are you ready? One, two, three. Right. Yeah, that was that. Yes. And that was absolutely incredible. And I know, Dick, that you serve as as a mentor. Is that the right word for the smart team? Yeah, I wanted the well, I'm not a mentor. I'm an advisor and advisor. I knew that used a different term. So we we meet with the students every Tuesday night for two hours during the school year after from six to eight. And so these students were not only doing their full day of classwork, but were regularly attending those two hour sessions every Tuesday. It's an extraordinary program that it allows the MBA students to take it to the college level for opportunities. And I wanted to express my appreciation on behalf of

038the team to Don Haddad for funding this special program through a long, high and making possible these life changing experiences of attending the international conference that was in Orlando last American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology to meet with 15000 scientists from around the world and graduate students as well as undergrads and really see themselves in the see people like them in at different stages of their professional career. So, Don, it's a tremendous program and we are very thankful for your support. Thank you, Dick. And thank you, Don. All right. That brings us to we're going to jump around just a little bit and stick with our theme of students here. Agent Chase agenda item six point one is a season C athletics report. Welcome. Welcome, Madam President, Dr. Dad board. Thank you for having

039us tonight. I just want to go through a little bit of celebrations from from our department. First, we'll start with some fine arts. We had all but one of our high schools was able to execute a musical in some form or format. Some of them were virtual you got to watch part of them there and then you watch the other part in person and some were all in person you took breaks and then some were all virtual. But we made it work at almost every place. Every high school did end up having some sort of performance via maybe not a musical. A large portion of our middle schools and some of our elementary is even we're able to execute a concert as well, which in the times was was extremely difficult and taxing. You know,

040but one thing that certainly happened this year is because of the virtual setting, we were able to have have feeder concerts. So we started with the elementary and then the middle school and then the high schools of the same theater. So it's kind of a neat concept that hopefully we can figure out how to weave that into the future. Specifically, Skyline and their VPA program. They they constructed their musical themselves from they originated it. They wrote it. They produced it and they did all of their performances outside on their hill and they brought families in to watch from from outside and they did it up on the hill. And I talked with Heidi, their principal this afternoon. And she said they are they are some so gung ho about it and so excited about it

041that next year they already have plans to to bring food trucks and to move it down to the football field. And they want more people there. And so, you know, maybe we maybe we've started something new there. So that that's been a fun experience as well. Second, middle school, middle school sports. They kind of got the the the short end of the stick this year and they weren't able to participate in a lot of things. But we were we were able to execute eighth grade track this year. We had a culminating event this last weekend. So that was a lot of fun. In addition to that, our unified population, we certainly were unable to provide them with with their normal opportunities. So this year we we did our first annual Day of Champions where we

042had every school in addition to Main Street attend the high school or attend Everly, Montgomery. And we set up different events for the day. We had Bojo's pizza, donate thirty five pizzas for us. We had a dunk tank for all the principals. So it was it was a lot of fun. And it was it was it was the nice day that was mixed right into, you know, a tough year. And it was it was one of my favorite days for sure. Moving on to season C, this was boys soccer, volleyball and gymnastics. It was certainly one of our more challenging seasons with with quarantines, but we we made it through it. And, you know, Brian and his team certainly had a different type of challenge as well playing soccer in a normal dormant grass season.

043So we've added a different kind of challenge to our facilities as well. So so thank you, Brian, for you and your team for their work with our soccer. We had Niwet High School made the final four. We had three teams make the make the state playoffs. So that was great volleyball. Half of our schools made the state tournament and meet high school. They put a put a run at the state title and they lost in the finals. Dr. Capuchin joined me in Colorado Springs for was the eight o'clock start time. We made it back on Thursday, but we made it back. And they they had a great season. It was fun watching them. And then lastly, we have a special guest here with us tonight. But I want to bring up Joe Brown from Niwet

044High School to to talk about his crew. And certainly Joe continues to excel in his leadership at Niwet. And I'll bring him up to introduce his crew. Thanks, Chase. Thanks, members of the board. Dr. Haddad for having us here again. Thanks, Chase, to his leadership. He's been fantastic day or night. Anytime we need to call and talk about something or the changes and guidance as they come through. He's been awesome. So so thank you, Chase, for your leadership. And it gives us the opportunity to have an amazing gymnastics team as well. And one thing that's unique with gymnastics is there's not many teams in the state. So there's not a whole lot of people that you call and say, how do you do this in a pandemic? So fortunately, we got the best coach in

045the state that tells us how we're going to do it in a pandemic. So Coach Marisa Purcell has been here for a number of years now and she does an outstanding job. I just cannot say enough about the great things that she does. And some of us in the district know that have outside teams like lacrosse at Erie. It's tough to bring in kids from every different school and make a culture and an environment that's accepting of everybody and also demands excellence. And Marisa does a great job with that. And the perfect example of that is Mia. Mia Curry is the defending all around champion and she was able to defend her title this year as a junior. And the leadership that she shows to her teammates is nothing short of just unbelievable. She truly

046cares about each one of her teammates and and what's going on in their lives personally. So it's just been an honor to see the great things they continue to do. So how further ado, I'll introduce Coach Purcell. Thank you. Thank you guys for having me and having me here tonight. First and foremost, we're just honored to be here. I wasn't able to be with her here last year, so I'm glad that I can make it this year. Chase, thanks for all you do. When I first started at NYWAT, he was my AD, so really kind of showed me how to get in there and do that as a head coach. And then now with Joe, I really can't say enough about him. He's been so supportive. This has definitely been quite the year. And because

047gymnastics has to be done without a mask, we jumped through serious hoops in order to have a season. And it didn't matter. It was all day or night. I could call him and let him know that something changed in a matter of minutes. And he was in the gym measuring for some of you that don't. He had to be 25 feet away from each equipment because the girls didn't have a mask on. 25 feet per four events is a lot. And so Joe was in there and measuring and had taped for me long before I got in and did all that. So I can't even. He cleaned everything at our home meets. He had the sanitizing spray backpack on. But a lot of the other teams noticed that because they weren't able to have that.

048And I said, oh, my athletic director comes in and he does it for me so I can focus on the girls and try to keep them where they needed to be. And the other teams and and try to keep posting as many meets as we could have. So I appreciate them. They were all there for me at the state meet in support just to be there. So I truly appreciate it. Thank you guys for everything in doing that. Now, I really want to have the time for Mia, for her to shine and have her moment. She we had no seniors this year on our team, a couple with COVID with COVID situations and different things going on. And so she was our captain this year and had to lead a team and and doing all

049that in this kind of a year. And the things that I had to call on her for to do, she did wonderfully. She never questioned anything. She went above and beyond anything we asked. And even when I didn't ask, she did other things. So she did all of that without not once in this entire season. Did I ever hear her or her and I talk about her being the defending state or the state champion from the year before. A lot of we had a lot of media people and newspapers. And she just kind of dealt with it and kept saying team, team, team is all I heard her say in her interviews. And it wasn't until the night before that we had a it was about three minute moment of what we're going to go

050in and do tomorrow and for herself and to kind of take a deep breath and and go from there and and and take it all on. She got sick and that was covered, but was in the hospital two days before state. And so to take have to kind of deal with that and shift and still lead a team and not let anybody know. She probably doesn't want me to tell anyone that. But I want I want her to really know that it takes a lot to do that and to have that on your plate, push it to the side and take a team on Friday morning to compete and do the best that we can. And then in the end, come out of it as as a all around state champion back to back is

051a really big deal. And I'm so proud of her, so proud to be her coach and to go and we're going to go far to get next year. Here, let me let me come over and talk. Thank you for having me. First of all, I would love to thank the staff at Niowat High School, especially Mr. Brown and Mr. Roshkob. It's hard coming from a high school that barely knows what you do. I don't think I've ever talked to my A.D. or my principal about my accomplishments in gymnastics. So I think that it's really awesome that Niowat has such a support for me and my other teammates who also come from different schools. I think we only have one or two that were on this team from Niowat. So I'm so thankful to have the

052support from Niowat High School. I would also love to say thank you to Marisa. She is genuinely one of the best coaches that I've ever had in my 14 years of gymnastics now, I think. She took me in as a freshman. I had no clue what I was doing because high school gymnastics is such a different. You're doing the same skills, but it's a different sport from my club gymnastics team. The mentality is different. Club gymnastics is a very individualistic sport. You're competing for yourself and yourself only. Your team score doesn't really matter where high school is the exact opposite. You're competing for your team and not for yourself until the last day that you compete. So that was a huge adjustment to try to fit into and Marisa was there for every step of

053the way. And she's also been there for me for everything else in my life. As she said earlier, like two days before state, I was in the hospital and she told me that it was fine, that I didn't have to compete at state, that she just wanted me to be okay. She wanted me to be able to take a deep breath and step back and take care of myself. But of course, me being me, I was like, no, I'm competing at state. I have to. But she has always been there for me, always cared about me. And I think our bond and trust in each other has just grown since my freshman year, especially this year, her making me the team captain was huge because that is something that I've wanted to be since my

054freshman year, since I saw the first seniors my freshman year be team captains. So I think that was really the point where I knew that we had a bond that was unlike any other bond that I've had with my coaches. Thank you. Do you have the parents? What? Any parents? No, they might be at home. They're watching. All right. That brings us back to agenda item three, which is audience participation. I find my list here. Dan, are you here? Hi, Dan. I'm well. It's nice to see you again. Thanks. You know, Dan, I realize I don't know the proper way to say your last name. Most people don't. So it's OK. It's Maloite with Maloite with the T. With the T. Great. Thank you for that. Looks one way. It's pronounced another. Great. And so,

055Dan, you know that there's three minutes for public comments. Absolutely. And please state your name and address at the beginning. Absolutely. Thank you. Dan Maloite, 365 Poppy View Lane, Erie. And the timer's going. So Alexander Solzhenitsyn says that we do not err because the truth is difficult to see for it's all around us. We err because it's comfortable. And right now, the truth that we all know and the data supports is that we have less than two tenths of one percent intraschool student to student spread. And yet we still go on and put these students into disruptive and harmful quarantines instead of pushing back uncomfortably against officials in state positions of authority and county and state departments of health. These departments of health issue their guidelines with the best of intentions to protect themselves and

056to do anything they can to avoid having a disease spread. But they abdicate all responsibility for the side effects of those decisions in those guidelines. And they push it down to the next level, which is the district, and ask you to enforce it. When we put these guidelines in with such a low intraschool spread, they become performative. And we're asking children to perform and suffer for adults to feel safe and protect their careers. When asked the governor if he would stand up and say that he will accept all responsibility should districts choose to reopen, instead of following Harry Truman's maxim that the buck stops here, he pushed it down a few levels and left the responsibility with you. That's not right. That's not your responsibility to implement state guidelines when they're wrong. Right now it

057is shameful to ask somebody with less authority than yourself to implement guidelines and expect them to just say, I'm just following orders. As a species, we've moved past that for the last 70 years. You are no longer allowed to intentionally inflict moral wrongs on people just because you're following orders from somebody else. Today we all share a responsibility to ignore morally wrong decisions that performatively harm children and protect the careers of feckless politicians in Denver. It's time that we all stand up and say that we will not follow these and we will allow our children to stay in school. We will not ask them to perform for all of us so that we feel safer. And it will actually protect their educations, their mental health, well-being and their physical health. So they can get the

058education that they need to move forward into society. I appreciate your time. Thank you guys for your patience and have a good day. Thank you, Dan. Appreciate you being here. Next on the list of public speakers, I have Nora McCloy. Hello, Nora. Welcome. I'm glad that you're here this evening. And just like Mr. Malloy, with the T, three minutes is what you'll have for your public comments. We won't start timing until you state your name and your address, please. So hello. My name is Nora McCloy, 3569 Larkspur Circle. And I'm here to discuss the addition of pads and tampons in the women's and gender neutral bathrooms in our schools. When I was in seventh grade, I got my period in the middle of math class. I hadn't been expecting it at all. I was still

059very new to it, and it was very hard for me to predict when I was going to get it. Praying that there wasn't a blood stain on my clothes, I stood up to go to my teacher. There were no pads or tampons in the dispensers in the bathroom. And I had to stop working and interrupt my teacher's private conference with a student to ask her what I should do. She told me to go to the health clerk and ask for a pad and a change of clothes. The five minutes to the health clerk's office felt like the longest of my life. Now, I'm a confident person. I have no problem standing up for myself or asking for what I need. But to this day, no social situation has made my heart hammer as much as

060this did. I was mortified. Now, imagine all the young people who are still building their confidence having to go through this. In addition to embarrassing us unnecessarily, having to walk to the nurse to get a pad or a tampon disrupts our education and amplifies gender inequality in our schools. One in five teens cannot afford menstrual products. Twenty-five percent of teens have missed school because they don't have products. St. Vrain prides itself on its attendance, but students are skipping school because they are unable to provide themselves with menstrual products, and St. Vrain won't. And often, people just forget their products. If a person goes to the health clerk during passing period, they will likely be late to class. A group of friends and I timed ourselves and saw how long it took to walk from the

061bathrooms in each wing of Altona Middle School to the health clerk's office. Four out of five tests took longer than five minutes, the standard passing period time, and this is not factoring in time spent in the bathroom and time spent getting what they need from the health clerk. If there are products in the bathroom, they would be saved this walk. This is not a new issue. We have been pushing for the addition of period products since 2019, but have been refused by our middle school principal, our school health clerk, our district nurse, and the assistant superintendent. A group of wonderful young women and I met with Assistant Superintendent Dina Perfetti-Dini in March of 2020. When asked for a straightforward reason as to why St. Vrain had turned us down so many times, the answer was,

062quote, because it's unnecessary, end quote. But pads and tampons are necessary in people's everyday lives. Boys get toilet paper, which is all they require. Girls require menstrual products just as much as they require toilet paper. To deny them this is unfair and unjust. We should be promoting gender equality in all areas of our school, not just in academics. St. Vrain is a school district I am proud of. We have incredible attendance rates, incredible test scores, and incredible technology, and I am lucky to be learning here. But there's one race we are losing, the race for gender equality, because while we promote women's education and empowerment, school districts like Boulder Valley and Denver public schools are pulling ahead by taking a simple action. Our school districts have already added other school districts have already added menstrual

063products to the women's and gender neutral bathrooms. And so I ask you, why not us? Thank you, Nora. Appreciate you. Thank you. Next up for public comment is Trista Gage. Hello, Trista. I'm sorry. I'm a little out of practice with having everyone in the same room. I'm sure you heard me give the three minutes already and the name and address. So I won't I won't repeat myself again. My name is Trista Gage and I live on Sunset Street in Longmont. I'm here as a parent in the district. I've been part of St. Vrain for 14 years. My partner's kids have been through K through high school at St. Vrain and we have a 10 year old also now in St. Vrain. But I'm also here speaking for surge families of Boulder County and surge stands

064for showing up for racial justice. We have had the pleasure of meeting this year, often with Dr. Haddad and other members of Student Services. But we are, you know, we're moved to tonight to just bring a little bit more immediate attention to the need for a more more action by the district in regards to racist incidents in our district. And obviously, particularly at Mead High School, we were happy that or was happy to see that there was a strong response from the district with the acknowledgement of an email form. But I think that the problem is that we need more proactive steps to prove a commitment to anti-racism in our district. One incident isn't really the problem. It's it's that we need bigger institutional change. And so we just want to implore the school board

065to really take a look at, you know, having a strategic plan to have a clear commitment to prioritize anti-racist training for staff and teachers to have professional development that is mandated and to have measurable goals to work toward. You know, at the end of the year, we always get these emails about the success and achievements of SBBSD. And it would be great to see some of those achievements be about our inclusivity and how we're making our district a safer space for all students and in particular, students of color and black and brown students in our community. You know, in some of our goals, a strategic plan should outline, you know, and have specific equity and inclusive goals, a timeline to achieve those goals and measurable frame for us to measure the success. We need curriculum

066changes that are standard across all schools and not up to the whims of a particular school or principal. And we need to have a lot more cultural sensitivity. I think there should be a space for advocacy advocacy groups within the schools for BIPOC families to have a voice and to feel listened to and supported. And there should be clear consequences that all students and parents understand for bias based actions and hate crimes. There should be a safe space for reporting bias related incidents, and there should be absolutely accountability for principals who fail to live up to these steps. I don't think we should wait for the NAACP to bring our failures to our attention. Thank you, Trista. We appreciate your comments. Thank you. Thank you. Next up this evening is Michelle Morrissey. Is Michelle here.

067All right, Julie. And Julie, if you could help me with the saying of your last name also please. Benoit. Okay. You are the opposite of Mr Maloite. Exactly. I have a silent T. All right. Welcome, Julie. Thanks for having me. I'm at 2229 Jules Street in Longmont. So I moved here five years ago from Baltimore, Maryland. And one of my biggest hesitations in coming to this area was the lack of diversity while leaving a city so rich in diversity. And I still worry about raising my two kids in such a place where the community and the school system are not doing the necessary work around racism that I'm aware of in our community and in our country. I remember moving here and seeing that sign Longmont. You belong here all over town. And I witnessed

068a few things that made me ask the question. But do I. Anyway, I wasn't quite sure over the past five years. I've really invested a ton in the community. My kids go to school in Longmont and I've opened a business on Main Street. So yeah, I am pretty invested in this community and I do feel like I belong here. But when I heard of the incident that happened at Meade, I found myself asking the question again, do I belong here? Is this how I want to raise my family? I want to thank Dr Haddad for emailing the school district and bringing the attention to the community about that racist event that took place at Meade High School. It's disgusting to see these teenagers act in these horrendous ways and there really needs to be change.

069I'm glad this is being acknowledged and talked about now, but we need more than this. We need more than talking. We need action and we need change. I'd like to know how these teenagers have been held accountable for their for their racist actions and what does that accountability look like? I've heard rumors here and there, but nothing certain. The school district needs to be transparent here and with the community and the community needs to know that these students have been held accountable for their actions and how so. Accountability needs to be a priority to ensure that there is an understanding as to why this is unacceptable behavior. The St. Brain Valley School District compared to Baltimore does lack diversity and that's something that we as a community have no control over, but we can do

070is change things. Could there be some sort of equity, inclusion, anti-racism, fact-based history of America and its history of racism and the systemic racism curriculum implemented throughout the entire school system that's mandatory for all students? The students need a safe place to talk about racism and ask questions while receiving information from experts on the issue and school seems to be the best place for that. As far as I know, the school system isn't doing a ton of work on this and it needs to be done immediately to mitigate these racist actions from happening again. We have to start somewhere. I understand it's a hard topic to talk about, but to be honest, it doesn't seem any harder than teaching kids sex education and our kids are learning that in school. Clearly, students are not receiving

071accurate anti-racist education at home or this wouldn't be happening. Some parents may not agree to curriculum changes, but this shouldn't be a deterrent for doing what's right for these kids. These same kids will one day be adults, maybe raising their own kids, and if we want them to be the change, we have to start now with the change so they can be properly educated to educate others. And then circling back to accountability, how is the principal of Meade High School being held accountable for this incident that took place on school property? As a leader and a role model, she too needs to be held to account. With that said, maybe SVVSD employees need mandatory anti-racism and equity training led by experts. Is this something you've considered and what would this look like? I've heard again

072there are plans to do this, but it would be great to see these plans in writing. I'm asking for a town hall type of meeting that would be accessible to everybody, so maybe a virtual hybrid type of situation. Thank you. Thank you, Julie. Appreciate it. All right. Our final public speaker this evening is Alicia Graves. And Don, I believe that you are reading the comment from Alicia. Is that correct? Yes. Yes, I am going to read it. And I want to thank Alicia for sharing this with me. I have appreciated the opportunity to visit with her and others from the NAACP in partnership to support St. Rain Valley schools in this work and our community. Dear St. Rain Valley, and this is the letter that she shared with me. Dear St. Rain Valley school board

073members, we write to you today to express thanks to Superintendent Don Haddad for his recent email addressing the disgusting and racist enactment of the murder of George Floyd by three Meade high school students and to discuss further the actions the district can take to address this matter. His condemnation of these students behavior was appropriate and his support for our black students and families well-being was much needed. Unfortunately, Superintendent Haddad's words are not enough to address the epidemic of racism that has existed in our schools for decades. We ask that the district take bold and rapid action to protect families such as mine from harm in our schools. Racist actions traumatize black students and their families and contribute to post-traumatic responses that are misrepresented as behavior that warrants discipline rather than support. School administrators who do

074not address those actions with the swiftness and seriousness that they warrant add to the trauma and teach white students that such actions are a normal part of their school environment. We recommend that St. Rain Valley school district ensure these students are held accountable for their actions and take proactive steps to prevent similar incidents in the future. In addition, formal structures should be put in place to support students and their families when discriminatory events do occur. These proactive and systemic changes are crucial as this event was not an isolated incident of racism, but one of many. There is no shortage of racism in our schools and principals should be held accountable for racist incidents, especially since our district's mission is to be an exemplary school district which inspires and promotes high standards of learning and student

075well-being. Below we detail the steps that should be taken to begin to repair the harm done to the black community and protect us from racism moving forward. Number one, the students in the photo should be dealt with in the most serious manner possible and we recommend that amends are made. In addition to any other consequences deemed appropriate by the district, the students should not be allowed to return to SVVSD unless they have made a public apology and made reparations for their actions. To protect other students from their racist attitudes, the offending students should be required to participate in anti-racism training and restorative justice workshops prior to re-enrollment. While some in the community have discussed the idea of charges of disorderly conduct and while we recognize that students of color have been charged for incidents less

076severe than this, we do not wish to introduce more policing into our schools. Instead, we would like this incident to be addressed through our school discipline methods and for black and brown students to be shown the same courtesy going forward. The code of conduct should be updated to include a clear definition of what constitutes a bias-related incident and what disciplinary actions should be taken in response to a bias-related incident. While we understand that the district cannot publicly state the disciplinary actions taken in this case due to privacy concerns, there should be a zero-tolerance stance on bias-related incidents on or off school grounds. Bias-related incidents refer to any act or behavior that is a violation of the student code of conduct and reasonably believed to be motivated by consideration of race, color, creed, religion, age, sex,

077gender, national origin, marital or prenatal or parental status, sexual orientation, citizenship status, veteran status, disability or any other basis prohibited by law. St. Rain Valley Schools should create a publicly accessible document with the partnership of the BIPOC community that clearly defines all disciplinary infractions, including bias-related incidents and disciplinary actions that will be taken. Clear, appropriate and consistent consequences will help to eliminate discrimination and bias that fuel the disproportionate harassment and punishment of BIPOC students. Mead High's handling of this incident behavior and broader racial climate should be reviewed. All bias-motivated incidents should be reported to the superintendent immediately and treated with the utmost seriousness. Because the incident was so egregious, we recommend a further review of the culture at Mead High that goes beyond this incident to facilitate a greater understanding of why the students involved

078thought this behavior was acceptable. Number four, the district should provide mandated anti-racism training for all staff each year and staff performance evaluations should include assessment measures on racial equity. Teachers and administrators in St. Rain Valley School have not received anti-racism training in over a year and there is no system in place to evaluate their performance on matters of equity. We would like to continue partnering with the district to develop a formal procedure to hold educators accountable for their responses to racist actions in their schools. Furthermore, we recommend that SVVSD create anti-racism standards for principals and schools and consequences for when they fail to meet these standards and protect students and families and teachers and staff of color. The district should support Dr. Haddad's agreement to partner with the NAACP Boulder County to create formal affinity

079groups to support parents and students of color. Currently, concerns about students' experiences of racism are often directed to outside organizations and community groups because there is no dedicated entity inside the district to address their concerns, hear their voices, and offer support. The lack of affinity groups within our district leaves families feeling unsupported and leaves the district unaware of festering issues. The district should also avail itself of the lived experiences of these affinity groups' members and allow them to advise on how to handle matters of equity. Furthermore, these groups should be empowered to connect students and parents to culturally responsive mental health resources provided by the district when they experience racial trauma in our schools. The district should create a system for tracking bias-related incidents that occur in our schools. We would like to see a

080standardized reporting system for families to make the district aware of these issues when they arise. Currently, because no such system exists, parents and guardians should expend a significant amount of energy and emotional labor to ensure their concerns are addressed. It is unfair that the burden of educating teachers and administrators about racism and other biases currently falls to parents and students who are experiencing the stress and trauma in their everyday lives. A transparent system for reporting bias that results in action that all parents are made aware of would minimize the additional trauma caused to families who are experiencing racism and other biases in our schools. Allowing racism to persist fails our students, minimizes their learning, harms the well-being of students of color through disproportionate harassment, bullying, and mistreatment of students of color. The Meade High School

081students who reenacted the murder of George Floyd need to be held accountable for their deplorable behavior as do any adults who enable these students to progress this far in their education without teaching them to be respectful, anti-racist citizens. We look forward to hearing what steps you will take in holding schools, principals, and students accountable for racist or otherwise biased actions and what proactive steps you will take to protect communities of color in the St. Brain Valley schools. Please share your response with Alicia Graves, Chair, Education Committee, NAACP, Boulder County. Sincerely, Alicia Graves, Education Committee. And she has this letter has been signed by Surge Families, El Comite, El Paso, YWCA of Boulder County, St. Brain Valley Safe School Coalition, 100 Black Men of Denver Incorporated, Being Better Neighbors, and Colorado Immigrant Rights Organization. And again,

082Alicia requested to do this virtually, which we did not have the setup. And so we read this on her behalf. Thank you. Thank you, Don. All right. Don, if you don't mind, I would like to ask Todd to introduce a couple of special guests and then do your superintendent report after that. Todd. Thank you. Good evening, President Segrist, members of the board, Superintendent Haddad. Let me remove this for a sec. It's fogging my glasses and I can't read. Sorry. I'd like to introduce tonight the recommendation or to introduce to you. Sorry, Crystal Trinkler, as the dean of students for Sorin Heights, PK 8 and with her joining her is her husband, Ryan and her principal now, Cyrus Ryan Burger. Miss Trinkler has graduated from California State University, Stanislaus with a bachelor's degree in psychology. She

083continued her education at Cal State University, Stanislaus, where she received her master's degree in education. Miss Trinkler also received another master's degree from the University of Colorado, Denver, in educational leadership with the principal licensure. For the past six and a half years, Miss Trinkler has been a counselor in the St. Vrain Valley Schools, where she provides prevention support to all students. Over the past five months, she has also worked as the project launch director, where she has been responsible for hiring and training all project staff for project launch. From 2011 to 2013, Miss Trinkler served as a post-secondary options coach at Mapleton Public Schools. And prior to that, she served as an elementary school counselor at Weaver Unified School District in California from 2007 to 2011. So I'm going to let Miss Trinkler say a

084word. Hi, everyone. It's an honor to be here and an honor to be selected as the dean of students for Soaring Heights PK 8. I have been with St. Vrain since 2014 and I'm really inspired by all of you to take my next step into leadership. And I'm excited to keep serving the Erie community. I've been at Red Hawk Elementary in Erie since 2014 and now will continue to serve Erie as the dean of students at Soaring Heights. So thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you. I'd also like to introduce to you Matt Romig as the dean of students for Soaring Heights PK 8 and Erie High School. And joining Matt tonight is his wife, Heather, and then his principals, Cyrus Ornberger

085and Matt Buckler. Sorry, I got it. Mr. Romig graduated from Moody Bible Institute with a bachelor's degree in music. He continued his education at the University of Northern Colorado, where he received his master's degree in music education with a K-12 music licensure. Mr. Romig also received his EDS degree in educational leadership from the University of Northern Colorado. For the past nine years, Mr. Romig has been the vocal music teacher at Coleridge Middle School, where he guided large numbers of students to perform concerts and musicals and work collaboratively with teachers and parents to help students be successful. From 2011 to 2012, Mr. Romig served as the choir and drama teacher at Lyons Middle Senior High School, where he overhauled and reshaped the culture of the choral program into one of positivity, inclusivity, and excellence. Mr. Romig.

086Good evening. Thank you so much for having me. I decided I'd write down what I'd like to say. I'm incredibly excited and humbled by the opportunity to be a dean of students at Soaring Heights Pre-K-8 and Erie High School. I just finished my 10th year of teaching all in St. Vrain, and my first teaching, as I said, was at Lyons Middle Senior. In my time as a choir teacher, I have had the opportunity to work with students from a wide variety of backgrounds. One aspect of teaching that I love is putting my students in a position to take risks and be successful. I love supporting and helping people grow. I am looking forward to bringing those same skills to the dean position at both of these schools. The Erie feeder is growing at an incredible

087rate, and I'm excited to stand behind students and teachers in support of them and help them be successful. I am thrilled to learn from the admin teams at both Soaring Heights and Erie High School, and specifically from Principal Weinberger and Principal Buckler. Thank you, Dr. Haddad, Dr. Kavushin, Mr. Kraus, Principal Weinberger, and Principal Buckler for this opportunity. I would also like to thank my Coleridge Middle School current admin team and specifically Principal Liza Nybo and my former principal, Dr. Brian Young, who's at Frederick High School, for their relief in me and the mentorship. Thank you again for this opportunity, and I'm really excited to get to work. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Don, that brings us to agenda item five and your superintendent report. Okay. You know, just going to

088share a couple things. We are, I guess, one day away from the last day of school. And then we will start our project launch programs and some of our other summer programming. We also have graduation coming up this weekend that we're all very excited about and looking forward to. So that should be a wonderful experience for our graduating seniors. I also will, I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time because we'll eventually be putting forward a report to our community and then also following up with our routine town hall meetings that we have every year. This year was disrupted pretty well because of COVID to have in person. We did do some of the virtual meetings, but they were primarily focused on COVID information. But we will continue those in various schools throughout

089next year. Currently, there are numerous activities and projects that are underway. And again, I'm not going to get into all of them, but related to inclusion and equity. Looking at curriculum, which Cale Charles and his team have been doing for quite some time now and will continue that process. We had planned this year to go through training. We had agreed with our teachers through the negotiations process to go through training for all of our teachers and staff. And unfortunately, because we couldn't meet in person, that got postponed. But we will be reconvening that in the fall. And so our teams are working on the preparation of that. We also have a national equity summer Institute plan for this summer here in St. Brain. And so we're looking forward to having conversations there. Always reviewing our

090code of conduct policies and procedures, something we do on a regular basis. And we'll just do it with that lens around making sure that it doesn't put any student at disadvantage. We're also intensifying and expanding our recruitment and retention efforts for teachers and staff. And our new teacher induction program helping new teachers as they come in with their induction program include that element to it. Parent advisory group. We have several of them in the district right now. But we're looking at creating an additional parent advisory group with students that would meet with me with parents of our students that would meet with me. Share with me some of their personal experiences and their children's personal experiences in our schools so that we can make sure that all of our children are receiving the support necessary.

091We're hoping to continue the speaker series that we've begun. We had a really exceptional one done in Erie, and we hope to continue to expand that as we move forward. And we will be sharing more of this with our community as we always do through various means. Through superintendents updates, through brochures, through personal meetings, in-person meetings, and then we'll look forward. Our meetings this fall will include conversation around equity and then other things of importance to our system, school safety and finances and some of the other things. So and again, I won't spend any more time on that because there's a whole host of things. And one thing that I would say to people who have asked, will you start doing these things? As was indicated, a lot of these things are underway and they're

092intensifying and growing broader and deeper. And so we'll continue to look forward to partnering with all of our students and continuing to support everyone in this effort. So thank you. Thank you, Don. All right. If I forget something this evening, we've gone out of order. Somebody please jump in. I believe we're at 6.2, which is district financial statements for April 2021. And Greg, we met the board and you met at 530 with Dr. Haddad to discuss those financial statements. Yeah. Thank you. So we did cover the financials at 530. We will post them out to the website. Again, we have an executive dashboard, executive summary dashboard where people can look at that. Everything is going well. We continue to monitor the community schools and the nutrition services programs as they are basically self-supporting in typical

093times. But because their participation is down, we need to just make sure that they're getting the support they need. Great. Thanks, Greg. And that is due to covid. Yes. To be clear. All right. Thank you very much. Agenda item 6.3 is the introduction of superintendent's fiscal year 2022 proposed budget, all funds. Hi, Tony. The board had a very informative study session last week with Tony and Greg. And we dove very deep into into this proposed budget. And so once again, just want to thank you for that, Tony. You're welcome. My pleasure. So good evening, members of the board. Tonight, I have the privilege of introducing the superintendent's proposed budget for St. Rain Valley Schools for the 2021 22 fiscal year. As you know, this budget is the comprehensive spending plan tracking all resources and expenditures

094for all funds used to educate our students and support the vision and mission of the district for the date spanning July 1st, 2021 through June 30th, 2022. I want to thank all of the individuals who are involved in the development of this budget as it truly is a team effort and includes the cooperation of a large contingent of individuals, including the Finance and Audit Committee board members and a broad swath of district personnel, including members of HR and finance, area assistant superintendents, department heads and their secretaries, building principals and their secretaries. Sandy Tams, our budget analyst and other finance personnel. And of course, Greg Feath, our CFO, Dr. Capuchin and Dr. Haddad. Before I start with the details, I want to emphasize that due to the pandemic, this proposed budget contains a few more estimates

095than it would normally. The state legislature is still working on passing the School Finance Act. And while we anticipate increases in our total program formula funding, we do not have final numbers at this point, as we would in a normal year. Also, as a consequence of that, compensation agreements have only just very recently been finalized. And so expenditures for salaries and benefits have not fully been adjusted to reflect such in the general fund budget. Even in the normal year, the proposed budget is based on some conservative and preliminary estimates available at the time. But these additional variables have exacerbated this situation. Now, per state statute, we are required to introduce proposed budget by the end of May, beginning our public comment period. We are then scheduled to conduct a public hearing on the budget on

096June 9th and finally adopt the budget on June 23rd. In a normal year, there are very few, if any, adjustments from when the proposed budget is introduced to when it gets adopted at the end of June. However, this year, as we get more information over the next few weeks on state formula funding and are able to finalize or include our final finalized compensation agreements, I will work to incorporate those changes and bring forward revisions to the board at these subsequent meetings. Finally, in January of 2022, in the normal course of business, I will bring forward a midyear amended budget proposal that will contain adjustments to this budget based on actual changes to assess valuation, state funding, student counts and other revenues and expenditures. Now on to provide a few details surrounding next year's proposed general

097fund budget changes compared to the current fiscal year 2020-2021 budget. This current document hasn't changed since we reviewed it at the board study session last week. It contains a budgeted spend down of general fund fund balance of approximately 16.3 million dollars. This compares to a budgeted spend down of 19.9 in the current FY21 budget, and this is a change as a result of increased revenues over increased expenditures. Compared to FY21, this FY22 proposed budget reflects an increase of revenue in the amount of 12 million dollars. This is mostly due to a large increase in total program funding revenue offset by estimated reductions for MLO, specific ownership taxes and certain federal COVID relief revenues. This budget also currently contains an increase in expenditures of 8.4 million dollars compared to the FY21 expenditure budget. This is primarily

098a result of some preliminary estimates to compensation, as I mentioned earlier, and restoration of the budget for the iPad lease offset by savings from lower participation in the LaunchEd program. The expenditure budget for compensation for teachers and staff, as I mentioned, will be revised and presented at the public hearing in two weeks as we incorporate those recent changes as a result of the agreement with the Education Association. As for now, however, these current changes mean the district's proposed budget will see a budgeted reduction in fund balance of 16.3 million. The current projected ending fund balance for this year is about 141 million dollars. That's our general fund reserve. This 16.3 budgeted spend down would then bring that amount to 124.7 million or about 33 percent of budgeted expenditures, and that's before any outperformance. We will

099make this proposed budget document available on our website at svvst.org and a printed copy available for public inspection here at the district offices. The public input and comment period begins today, and we will have a public hearing and bring updates to the board at the next board meeting on June 9. Pending any further changes after that, this budget will then be brought forward to the June 23 board meeting for formal adoption. It would be my pleasure to address any questions about the general fund or, of course, any of the other funds at this time. Any board member questions or comments? Thanks, Tony. I just want to thank you all for all the work. It's always is always a big lift to put together these very complex budgets. But this year in particular, for obvious reasons,

100for, you know, the different funding mechanisms that were coming in through the feds and then the rescission from the state, and then they gave some money back and just trying to track all of that and to put it all on paper and make sense out of it. It's huge. It was it's really been incredible work that you guys have done. And also, I'll just share with the board, the finance and audit committee met on Monday and went through this as we went through it at our board meeting, and they were all very supportive, very supportive of it. That's it. Thank you. Great. Appreciate it, Paula. And so, Tony, this begins the beginning of the public comment period, correct? If the public has a question about the proposed budget, who should they reach out to? They

101could reach out to the main phone line number, which is listed on the website. I'd encourage anyone to visit SVVSD.org and scroll down to the very bottom and click on financial transparency. They can see all the information and including this budget as well as a lot of other information there available on our website. And there's also some contact information listed there as well. Perfect. Thank you. Appreciate it. We'll look forward to seeing you back on the 9th then. Thank you. Thank you. Agenda items 7.1 is the beginning of our consent agenda this evening. Do board members wish to pull any of the consent agenda items? All right. With that then, I would entertain a motion for approval of 7.1 staff termination sleeves, 7.2 staff appointments, 7.3 approval of amendment to design build contract for Erie

102High School Modular Project, 7.4 change order one to construction manager general contractor CMGC contract for Lyons Middle Senior, 7.5 purchase of Kubota tractors, 7.6 purchase of annual maintenance smart net for Cisco network products, 7.7 recommendation to hire Dean of Students for Erie High School Soaring Heights PK8 and 7.8 recommendation to hire Dean of Students for Soaring Heights PK8, 7.9 approval of administrator contracts for 2021-2022. So moved. By Jim and a second. Second. By Chico. Barb? Mr. Aaron's absent. Mr. Berthold? Yes. Mr. Garcia? Yes. Dr. Marder? Yes. Ms. Pierce? Aye. Mrs. Ragland absent and Ms. Segrist? Aye. We have three action items this evening, the first of which is action item 8.1, which is a recommendation for the approval of the intergovernmental agreement with the town of Erie. Hello, Scott. Hello. Good evening, board. Good to

103see you again. I may talk about 8.1 and 8.2 together. They're the Erie and Frederick IGAs. I've been in a process of meeting with city planners there and their town attorneys to implement these again. They've come to their kind of end of their 10-year period where we have to renew them. So just to refresh your memory on these types of IGAs, they are for setting up the parameters for the dedication of land or the cash in lieu of land. So they're really an important piece of our long range planning process, and it kind of gets us in the front door of negotiating with developers and with towns to identify school sites. So over the years that I've been involved with these agreements, we've dedicated over or received over 590 acres of school sites that we

104didn't have to pay for. Currently, we have over 7 million in our account for cash in lieu. And we track that by feeder by town and are able to use that for infrastructure acquisition of land and the development of land. So there's a few nuances in each of the two agreements. In the first one, the town of Erie, we kind of partnered with Boulder Valley School District, who is also implementing an IGA at the same time. And we started looking at land values in Erie and saw some increases there. And we were able to work with our town planners and increase the value of the land components. So you'll see within the town of Erie IGA, there's an increased cash in lieu fee for each type of dwelling unit. There were a few other little

105modifications. One was in their agreement. The town wanted the ability to purchase back sites that we didn't end up using. So we have this in other agreements where they have a first right or refusal to acquire sites that we've identified that we don't need any longer. But that's probably not the case in Erie that we'll run into that. We've also increased the timeline of being able to hold on to the funds from 15 to 20 years in Erie before we would have to make those available for refund. If a develop if we didn't end up using it. But again, that's not a likely scenario in any of our ideas. We end up using the funds within five to 10 years, typically. So they are reviewing this at their June 8th board meeting for final approval.

106So you may want to take action on that first. The only difference in Frederick is they're maintaining the current fees. Part of that's connected with the Tri-Towns are similar fees to Kono and Firestone. And to get one of those out in front of the other, it probably is going to take a group or a conjoined effort between the three towns to raise the fee all at once. So that'll be a project that we bring forward at a later time to all three. But so their fee remains the same. And otherwise, their agreement is identical to the one that was approved in 2011. So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Scott. So then you're entertaining questions for agenda item action items. Correct. Right. Any other any board member comments or questions

107this evening on either agenda item deck? Thank you, Scott. I just have a question about we negotiated or sorry, you negotiated the idea with both with the town of Erie and Boulder Valley School District. So is the idea is that agreement the same for Boulder Valley as it is for us? Right. So we ended up with identical ideas. There was kind of a back and forth where they had some more important items. And we weren't one of them was the 20 year period, which they may not spend the funds as quickly as we would because of the growth. But so it ended up in our agreement as well, the 20 year. So it was it was fine for us. Thank you. And then just one follow up question. You talked about the idea for the

108having being unchanged for Frederick and then but alluded to a renegotiation of those prices at the at the trike trike towns level. And what do you have a time frame for that? Yeah, we hope to maybe do that summer project, start looking at land values there. They are different than Erie, the Weld County, as opposed to, you know, some of Boulder County in Erie. So it would be involved evaluating land prices throughout the entire tri town and then reaching out to the planners in each of those three towns to see what the political will is for for a fee increase there. And those town planners are aware that that's our intent. Yeah. So we talked about that a little bit in Frederick and I shared our methodology with Erie. So they they're aware of it.

109And actually, I was presenting at Frederick last night and alluded to that topic coming forward. And their planner mentioned it also. So Frederick's aware. And it's a project that we mentioned when we updated Firestone maybe four or five years ago that to be alert for that kind of thing coming up. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Barb, can we vote on both of those at the same time? Or would you prefer I do them individually? I'd prefer individual if you don't mind. No, I don't mind at all. That's why I asked eight point one. Then I would entertain a motion for would entertain a motion for approval of eight point one, which is the intergovernmental agreement with the town of Erie. So moved by Dick and a second by Paula. Mr. Aaron's absent. Mr. Berthold.

110Yes. Mr. Garcia. Yes. Dr. Martyr. Yes. Ms. Pierce. I Mrs. Ragland absent. Ms. Seeger's. I would also entertain a motion for approval of action item eight point two, which is the intergovernmental agreement with the town of Frederick. So moved by Chico and Jim. Mr. Aaron's absent. Mr. Berthold. Yes. Mr. Garcia. Yes. Dr. Martyr. Yes. Ms. Pierce. I Mrs. Ragland absent. Ms. Seeger's. I thank you, Scott. It was great to see you again this evening. Our final agenda item this evening is eight point three, and it is the approval of the twenty two, twenty three and twenty three, twenty four school district calendars. Diane, that seems pretty strange to say. And I don't know how you must. I feel like we're reviewing the count. I think we just did the calendar. And so I can't imagine

111you must work on the calendar all year long. President secrets, you are not the only person who have noticed that I've had lots of comments about the calendar. And, you know, we traditionally have a two year calendar, but this year we had a number of them because of covid. And so I just want to thank all the people who've worked on the various calendars. Looking at this level of detail is quite comprehensive and starting up this committee this year to review the next two years of calendar is was really rewarding experience. It was the first time we had a virtual committee and I think we'll follow through with that. It was really great not to have to drive. We were able to have a more varied committee, lots of greater participation because people didn't need

112to physically come together. So there were some benefits to the process. And so you'll see the calendar here before you. And it is kind of strange to see twenty, twenty four on on the list. But we typically took it through a process that we have in the past. We we look first of all through the lens of what is instructionally most critical for our students. We look at dates where we think that we will maximize their attendance. We look at various opportunities for athletics and attendance. This year we looked critically, especially around music concerts. Some of the parent conversations that came up was the compaction of winter concert concerts alongside high school finals. And so that was a real kind of lens that we used along with other neighboring district calendars and just kind of

113looking at what's critical for our families and our community. And what you see before you are the calendars for the twenty two, twenty three and the twenty three, twenty four calendar. Thanks, Diane. You know, I think the calendar, the creation of the calendar is one of those things that from the outside looking in might appear very straightforward, but in practice is incredibly complex. And I appreciate that you're taking it to the level of detail that you really are thinking about what's convenient for parents maximizing attendance. How can you best support students during finals? And then, as you said, comparing it to a variety of other other measures. So thank you. Board members, comments or questions? No. All right. Great. Thanks, Diane. All right. I would entertain a motion for approval then of action item eight

114point three. So moved by Jim. Second. And Chico Barb. Mr. Aaron's absent. Mr. Berthold. Yes. Mr. Garcia. Yes. Dr. Marder. Yes. Ms. Pierce. Aye. Ms. Ragland absent and Ms. Segrist. Aye. I suppose, Barb, you're here and you don't need me to call out who is actually making a motion. I appreciate it because the voices sound alike with masks on. So I appreciate that. My virtual my virtual habits will take a while to break. We do not have any discussion items this evening. Our next meeting is going to be June 9th, which will be a regular meeting at 6 p.m. here in the Board of Education room. I do want to wish all of the students a happy last day of school and congratulations to all of our graduating seniors this weekend. I know that the

115board members and several members of Don's team are excited to attend those graduations and celebrate those accomplishments. If there's nothing else, I would entertain a motion for adjournment, please. By Jim and a second by Chico. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Good night, everyone. Thank you.