001Yes. [Music] [Music] That's good. I don't know Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] I know. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] We have just a couple of minutes. I don't know if you have any questions that you're aware of. So high is a program. We're not traveling. Each school has [Music] They decided they I don't want you guys a little bit early. around [Music] [Music] high school. So that's a really exciting program that students are gener side. [Music] Small [Music] So, how do I Interesting. Usually there's Yeah. Okay. So, we're good. Thank you very much. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] start. Good afternoon. We'll call this uh we will call this regular board meeting for Wednesday, September 3rd, 2025 to order at 4:46 p.m. We do have executive session on top of
002the agenda today. Thank you for joining us um for the people in the audience and um uh but first roll call please. Miss Olson. Director Pinkis here. Director Kerry here. Director Hazley here. Director Jorgensson here. Director Malpa here. Director A here. All board members are present in person in the boardroom. Please join me as we observe a moment of silence. Thank you. Director Bankers, can you please make the motion to adopt the agenda? I move that the board of education adopts the agenda as presented with the modification that non-action items 1.3 policy KLG and regulation KLG-R and 1.4 Four policy JR A-R JRC student records release be moved to the action agenda as board action is required at this time in the light of recent Colorado legislation. Second. So just for um verification, Miss Olsson,
003that non-action item was I do3. Okay. I do three and I do 4. Thank you. Um roll call, please. Director. Hi. Dr. Kerry, hi. Dr. Haley, hi. Director Jensen. Hi. Director. Hi. Director. Hi. The eyes have it. The agenda has been adopted with the modification. We do have executive session scheduled for roughly 45 minutes. Uh, at this time, um, Director Kerry, can you please make the motion to move into executive session? I move that the board of education convenes into executive session to discuss legal advice per CRS24-6-424B. Particular matter litigation update regarding Colorado Civil Rights Division and Colorado High School Activities Association. Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call, please. Director. Hi. Director Kerry. Hi. Director. Hi. Hi. Director I the I have it. We will enter into executive session now and reconvene for a regularly
004scheduled board meeting at approximately 5:30 p.m. Thank you. [Music] [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] Oh yeah. Oh. Oh, [Music] hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Okay, good evening. [Music] Thank you for being here. We'll get the board meeting started momentarily. I'm waiting for the rest of the board members to join me up here on the board dis We'll see. At least I don't have to I forgot. Okay. Good evening to all of you. We are reconvening in public session. Um and earlier this afternoon, the board adopted the agenda with the modification that non-action item I3 policy KLG and regulation KLG-R and I.4 policy JRC student records release. Those two items are being moved from non-action to action agenda item as board action is required at this time.
005Um and there is a time constraint attached with that in uh light of uh recent Colorado legislative changes. Um we have returned from executive session and there is no need to modify the agenda further at this time. Um I want to before we start the meeting invite Miss Kim Kim Kim Kate um up here. She is our district 11 visual and performing arts facilitator and the VAPA team uh had a prelude uh at the top of the board meeting this morning. Is Miss Kincaid here? Can you still out there? I literally just saw her. Okay. Well, I do all I wanted to do was acknowledge her and thank her and her team for the work that they do across the uh school district with our students and um our staff. uh they are um uh
006involved day in and day out. Uh and uh to the community uh please attend the school events that come out. Uh our kids are awesome performers. So uh we look forward as board members to visit our schools as well and get invites to attend these events. So thank you for the work that they do with the VAPA program in district level. And I want to invite all of you in the audience this Wednesday, the first um Wednesday after Labor Day. Uh it's great to see several students. I was talking to some of them in the hallway and staff as well that are present in the audience today have our schools have been in session for roughly two weeks now. Um lot several of us have uh been at openhouse events, back to school events, lots
007of energy and excitement at the start of the new school year. So thanks to all the building staff and the district leadership as well. um all our teams for a smooth start uh to the school year. Um and as board members as we are out and about in our schools, feel free to engage with us and share with us your experiences, both the positive stories and concerns of feedback that you may have so we can address them. Um our focus this year is to ensure every child is engaged in our classrooms and receive the highest quality in instruction that unlocks their full potential. So, uh, it's good to see all of you back. And, uh, as I'm looking up there, I want to welcome Dr. Weiss back, uh, to our board meetings as well. Uh,
008uh, she was on maternity leave. Welcome back. Uh, uh, welcome to the new, I mean, congratulations on the new addition to your family as well. Uh, but it's good to have you back uh, supporting uh, the board and the districts and our communication efforts. So, thank you. And I'm going to have two students here. Uh, Miss Sylvia uh Pardau and Elina Moore, could you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you guys. I appreciate you leading us in the pledge of allegiance. Um and we have several students and uh staff members possibly to recognize for awards and celebrations. Superintendent Call, I'm going to hand that over to you.
009Uh yeah, I'm going to get up here in a second and start bringing everybody in, but I just want, you know, a lot of times people don't understand who all the students that are coming up. These are all our career and technical um student organizations. We call them CTSOs. These are the way that our kids get a chance to get real life, real learning experiences outside of just the classroom. And so we've had four different groups. I believe three of them are here tonight to be celebrated of their national level travel. So again, I want to make that relative that we get national level travel and awards for our students here inside of district 11. So with further without further ado, Melissa, FBLA, Future Business Leaders of America. FBLA helps students prepare for careers in
010business through academic competitions, leadership development, and networking opportunities with professionals across the country. Adviserss for FBLA include from DHY High School, Bruce Cole, retired, Charmin Newer, and Andrew Schaefer. FBLA National Conference was held in Anaheim, California on June 29th through July 2nd, 2025. Okay, raise your hand if you're with the FBA group. Okay, now let's read the next ones and we'll let them all talk. FCCLA, Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America. FCCLA provides students with opportunities for personal growth, leadership development, student agency, and career preparation in family and consumer sciences. Students engage in competitive competitive events that address real world issues and career readiness, including culinary, teaching, entrepreneurship, fashion, and construction. Advisers include Dr. Brittany Hardy, Karen Gay, Stephanie Ager, and Kelly Gawk. Stephanie Boon and Rachel Holm are unable to attend this evening.
011This past summer, from July 5th through 9th, 2025, the FCCLA National Leadership Conference was held in Orlando, Florida, where students built valuable connections and excelled in their competitive events. Over 30 District 11 students proudly represented the district, competing at the national level with the support of their dedicated teachers. Lastly, congratulations to Mrs. Kelly Gal, who was named the Colorado Association for Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year this past July. She will now advance as a region five teacher of the year nominee. Woohoo. So the FCCLA people raise your hand so everybody knows it's a little bit different. Great. Let's go ahead and do the life skills as well. Skills USA. Skills USA connects students with opportunities in both white and bluecollar career fields, offering competitions in areas like engineering, architecture, welding, construction, automotive,
012and various leadership related events. It promotes professionalism, technical skill, and leadership. We had six students win their state level competitions and were able to take all of them to nationals, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia from June 23rd through June 27th. Advisers include Taylor Bedau, Dawson Snipes, Jeff Newire, retired. Skills USA Nationals were held in Atlanta, Georgia from June 23rd through 27th, 2025. Okay, busy summer and let's get the uh Skills USA show people who you are. Awesome. So, let's go backwards. Uh I always like to hear from Miss X. Why don't you tell us what was the best part about the trip and how does it relate most to your learning at Dohy? Okay. Hi everybody. Um my name is Evelyn X and this summer I was able to go to the national conference
013for Skills USA in Atlanta, Georgia. First off I would like to say a big thank you to the board and everyone who got us here including our adviserss and even parents who let us go on the trip in the first place. That was amazing. Um um during my time at Skills USA, my partner Wyatt and I competed in additive manufacturing, which is a white collar job. It's um in the engineering field. What we do is we model in 3D software and we send it off to a 3D printer to be printed and from there we build our products. Uh this year we were able to build a car and that would carry a trailer with uh so we were able to use electronics as well during this print. And then for the state competition, we
014made a rubber band car. So, we were relying solely on the rubber band to power our car. Um, but all of our parts had to be 3D printed. We had eight hours to complete this project and we also had to take a test based off of additive manufacturing. Um, so that was our competition. Um, at Jordy High School, I have taken all of Mr. Bedau's engineering classes, design engineering, principles of engineering, uh, computer integrated manufacturing, and this year I'm actually honored to be working on my own personal project, which will be 3D printing and making using electronics a lightsaber of my own. Um, so that's pretty exciting. Um, so that's how it's kind of helped me learn. And so now I have that engineering background and I'm able to basically make anything I want with
015the 3D printing. All right, let's go over uh who from FBLA wants to tell us about their trip. You want to go ahead, introduce yourselves and tell us about your trip and how it relates to your learning every day and tell us what school you go to. Thank you. My name is Helena Lodge and I currently go to DHY High School. This year, me and my partner Sylvia, we were able to compete in broadcast journalism at nationals this year where we created a mock broadcast about a natural disaster. And this year, I'd really love to give a special thanks to our adviserss who helped us whenever we had a mistake or we were feeling unsure of ourselves. They really helped guide us to be able to make it to the finals round in top 15.
016And back at school, I've been able to apply what I've learned here to all of my projects in school. My presentation skills, my learning and research skills, and most importantly, talking with people that I don't know, doing interviews with people who are strangers or someone who thinks differently from me has let me be able to excel so much more in my classes. [Applause] Sophia had a few words. Oh, Sophie. Okay, great. I'll I'll hand it back. Miss Mel Packham, thank you. Um, okay. So, my event is just a little bit different than Evelyn's. I My team is Sylvia and Finn. We placed ninth nationally. We do innovative technology design. So, we designed our own product, which in this case, we designed a 3D printed lamp that we did all of the electronics in ourself along
017with like the base and all of the CAD modeling. And so like by using these like skills, I have the ability to go out into the engineering field and like be able to apply that which means a lot. And I want to become an engineer. And so like this year I'm also doing a senior capstone project with Mr. Bidau and I'm making rock climbing holds for City Rock. And so to be able to apply my skills into the real world is like invaluable. Thank you. Thanks. Okay. We love to hear from our students, but we don't often get national level recognized teachers. So, Miss Kelly, I'd love for you to sell to all these educators around El Paso County. How is it that District 11 has made investments that give these opportunities that's different than
018what you've seen in other schools? Hi everyone. Uh, like Doc said, I'm Kelly Gal. I've been teaching for 33 years. 22. 22 in D11. And the moment I came to D11, I was just in awe on with all the diversity that they had. And working at homes, we have so many dedicated teachers that make a difference in the lives of these students. And about 13 14 years ago, FCCLA said, "Hey, we're going to open up to middle school." And I said, "I'm not going to lose my program. I'm going to build FCCLA." And over the 13 years I've been taking students to nationals, probably about 102 students can say, "I'm a national qualifier. I got a gold or I got a silver in nationals." And to see these young people become so confident in their
019real successes. They're not fake. They have to do it in front of three judges and I'm not there holding their hands. And I love coaching them because the ones that listen and the ones that ask questions and the ones that are daring go big. And I just want to thank D11 first of all for all the support I've had. Annie Fzma and Dwayne Robersonson, incredible leaders that help children, young adults be ready for the career. And you know, I'm getting closer to retirement. Everybody keeps asking me when I'm going. I said, I'm still having fun. Yes. And you know, the last few years I got a brand new classroom and and you know, all these nice little trips and awards like, whoa, this is pretty cool. Anyway, I just tell you guys, keep striving, keep
020setting goals. Don't let people put you down because you're the leaders. And now I'm going to introduce to you one of my stars. Her name is Elelliana Moore. LA was mine for two years and got first in the nation both years with a 100%. 100%. If you've been around some of the schools and you see those yellow flashing lights in the school zones and the warning signals and pedestrian crosswalks and held signs and vests that I wear when I'm a crosswalk duty, it's all because of Ellie. Ellie did so much. She had a great partner, but Ellie did it. And I'm just so proud of her. And now she is Colorado FCCLA president as a sophomore. [Applause] Thank you, Miss Scout. My name is Elelliana. I am the Colorado FCCLA state president, which means that
021I represent at the local, city, and statewide region of Colorado FCCLA. This year, I'm not actually competing in one of these star events. And instead of state president, I lead meetings, help build initiatives, and also collaborate with chapters all across the state. FCCLA stands for Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America. Like the other CTSOs, it aims to create projects and also be able to compete. And through this, specifically in FCCLA, we aim to build careers and also build family homes and love for FCCLA. Um my name is Elelliana and through this as state officer I am able to lead meetings and on behalf of FCCLA and all the other CTSOs I would just like to especially thank me Mr. Gal, Mr. Robersonson, the school board and also our parents for being able to provide
022us the funds we need for national conferences, clubs, events and just being able to have these clubs. It's truly a privilege. This year as state officer, I am honored to lead our state and also run for national office this year. Thank you. All right, one last big round of applause as everybody walks their way out. Thank you so much. You're out. We're just No, we're getting Sorry. Sorry. No, sorry. So congratulations to all the students uh parents who brought the students here and supported the students at this journey and also the staff members. Uh thank you for working with the students amazing stories that they get to share. Moving on to the next item on the agenda. It's the spotlight. Um, and today, Superintendent Gaul is going to be sharing with the board and the
023community the academic actions and plans for this school year. Over to you, Superintendent Gaul. Thank you, Dr. Malpacam. It's just such a joy to have all those students. I feel terrible. I didn't realize there were more that wanted to speak. So, I'll make sure I get their information and we'll get them on social media to make sure that they can share their stories as well. Thank you to Dwayne and all of your team. I know that Annie was here, but there are so many other folks that represent that. There there's just a small piece of that that I'm not sure people really follow. The way that works is for years Dwayne and his team have been finding unused funds to make opportunities like that happen. We've crossed a bridge now as a school district where
024we preload those funds. These are things that we budget for. we're budgeting for our children to compete at the national level instead of hoping that we can find the money in fallout uh in between. So, I just want to get that public acknowledgement for the work that you helped build over years that now is really cornerstone to our budget. So, it's great to be able to have that. Uh normally we do a school spotlight or a program spotlight. Um I found some great irony as we were ending last year that I introduced a new academic structure that is really one of a kind. I haven't seen other districts do it. And we got some head nods around a work session table. Uh we talked about it for about 10 minutes and then we talked about
02590 minutes about uh capital improvements over the summer which are critically important for our community and our schools. But I wanted to spend this time now as we start our school year for the board and for the community to see, feel, and hear how we're making instructional investments differently, one than we've done in the past. to more quickly and in and and more succinct and focused response to the data in the area of needs that we still have to actually overcome the challenges that not just exist inside District 11, but that exist inside every school district in America. We think we're on to something here that's a little bit different than others have seen before. Can you advance the slide for me, Melissa? I only have a couple here. And the traditional model of how
026people have been doing this and we use kind of a anybody do a home project over the summertime where you pick up the color swatch at Home Depot and you say, "Well, I kind of like blues. Obviously, I like the color blue." Um, but sometimes the the the color diffuses over time or the number of levels that it has to touch before you can get there. That's kind of spreading your paint too thin. One more. Go ahead. Thank you. And this is the traditional way that schools go about trying to support student outcomes. We have a meeting. And that would be my meeting, the bottom one, the K12 meeting. The next layer, the area superintendent meet with the principles who meet with the coaches who meet with the teachers who get to the students. In
027today's day and age, thanks to our curricular resources, our interim and our formative assessments, we have classroom level data of what happens for every student nearly every day in our system. And what we can no longer do is have that many layers in response to when we see that our students aren't getting access to the highest quality instruction that we leave this idea to chance of is this the year that you learn or is this another year that you have lost learning. We are a district that are not unlike many other urban systems in America where the challenges that exist in parts of our community are greater than this traditional system can overcome. Next slide. So we are trying to propose or we're not proposing we are implementing what we call direct to teacher supports.
028This is not outside of the relationship of the principal. This is not outside of what the coach does every day. This is not outside of Randa and the two uh mandatory observation and feedbacks. This is in complement and in coherent alignment on the number one way to student achievement is access to high quality instruction. I have never met a student who said, "Please give me an underqualified, unqualified, long-term sub or change my staff member that I see four or five times over the year." And yet, not just District 11, in many classrooms in America, that is the best that we can do. There is no other profession in in our world that allows for that gap of where we have centralized supports to be able to deliver onsite direct corrections to items happening in real
029time to ensure that students are the ones that get what they need. We are asking for partnership. We are asking for collaboration. We are asking for multiple infinite numbers of touch points for these things to be able to happen. And what we bring to the board tonight is examples of how we have already changed this system that I won't introduce. I will let them introduce and talk about how that work is being realized differently in our district. Okay, over to the team. Hello, my name is Charlie Ryder and I'm the director of academics for the southeast region district and I'm really excited to zoom in and share a bit more about one of the lovers that Mr. has about and that is coaching. So our entire team is fully focused on the idea that we
030need to provide direct teacher support and the way to do that is to provide a really rigorous deep meaningful coaching cycles. And so the work of our teams for the past few weeks and for the rest of the year is very much centered on ensuring that we are guaranteeing the idea that everyone has a coach. And so I love this visual up here, the district 11 guarantee for new because it actually is a flyer that Mr. G signed and gave to every single new teacher at new teacher orientation. And I also love that we can say yes, we have made this come true. Every single new teacher in the district right now is engaged in a full cycle coaching session with either a school embedded coach or a district embedded coach. So the fact that
031we're able to make that statement with great confidence. I know personally I've been in many different school systems and that's something that is really rare and extremely special because I know as a teacher I went for many years where more often than not I didn't have a coach and I was never coached. I was maybe evaluated once a year but that was about it. And so I'm excited that we're providing this not only to new teachers but we also have a plan to make sure that all teachers get a coach and are making sure that those coaching cycles are rooted in what I see over there, improve student outcomes. Every single goal is tied to some sort of outcome or piece of data. And so, yeah, just very excited to share a little bit more
032about what our teams are really laser focused on right now. And thank you for the time. And as we transition, uh, when I hand wrote those notes, the most common name of our new staff members is a tie with seven Rebecca's and seven Olivia's. never would have thought that there would be seven Olivia that come into a school system in the same year. And you know what? I forgot quick transition to kind of illustrate what I was sharing about. Uh we have a new district 11 teacher to kind of help illustrate what we have here. So yeah. Hi there. My name is Jordan Lockett. I am a fifth grade teacher at Fremont Elementary. Um I'm an alternative licensing candidate. I don't know if you guys know what that is, but I am new to the
033field. Had never student taught before, but with our student embedded coach, with our school embedded coaching, with our district embedded coaching, with my principal's help, my assistant principal, um I feel so supported. I genuinely thought that this was going to be very overwhelming and it was. But but through their coaching, I can 100% say because what we're really working towards is improving student outcomes. Already through their coaching, I've seen marketked improvement in each and every one of my students potential. I'm able to really see the improvement that coach that coaching actually makes for my students. And that's what's really important. Um I came in with an open mind and because of that, my students are reaping the benefits of that. myself. I just want to thank district 11, my principal, my coach, and everyone else
034who has ever supported me in this journey. It has been very difficult, but it has been so rewarding because you guys make it so easy for me to succeed. So, thank you. In any case, and Jordan, what was your previous career? I was in cyber security and information assurance, actually. And before that, I was in the military. Awesome. What branch? Uh, army. Thank you for your service. Oh, anytime. Thank you. Well, in any case, I'd like to pass it off to Brent Urban. All right. [Applause] Thank you, Jordan. Um, my name is Brent Urban. I'm the embedded teacher uh coaching coordinator for secondary. And this is a new endeavor for us. And I I want to start just by saying thank you to district 11 because I've taught high school for 25 years. This is
035year 26 in district 11. And I've never had a coach. Uh and that changes this year. All of a sudden, we we are now able to put support systems in place uh where we have coaching uh systems um built in. The majority of our embedded teacher coaches are halftime teachers, halftime coaches. And so what I can what I can report to you is right now just in the month of August, those embedded teacher coaches have done over 125 mini coaching cycles with staff members in our secondary uh schools. um that that is a new start uh for us and so I'm extremely thankful and grateful to be able to just report out that we are just starting the good work but it's already changing the culture. Um I would love to tell you that all
036125 uh of those many cycles have been with brand new teachers. The high majority have but here's an added benefit. We have veteran teachers who are coming to us going can I do that? Can I get in on that? because they know there's a new day and a new process happening uh in in district 11 and I'm extremely thankful for it. I think the best way for me to show you that is to uh have you look at a few quotes from some of our teachers. Two of them are new and then one of them is a veteran teacher. I won't read them to you, but a couple things I just want to point out is these embedded teacher coaches literally teach right down the hall from them. So these coaches are there all the
037time. um their superior level of support, wisdom, encouragement. Uh they're prepared and they can immediately get support. We're not waiting until someone gets called in. Uh and so this new model for us at the secondary level is absolutely uh reaping rewards. If I can go to the next slide, I do want to just focus in on uh one veteran teacher from Tesla said, "I'm incredibly grateful to have Alicia both as my coach and my colleague. Her expertise, her guidance, unwavering support have been truly invaluable. It's a privilege to learn from someone who not only understands real challenges that arise in the classroom, but also take time to celebrate student success, big and small, because Alicia is right there teaching next door. Um, so I just want to say thank you. I want to say the
038model we thought would work and it is working. We have evidence that our new teachers feel supported right out of the gate. Brent, can you just uh remind people of what your role had been and now the answer that you're not just at a single high school anymore? Absolutely. So, um I taught Spanish for 25 years at Cornado High School. Uh and then I also uh started a nonprofit there 21 years ago. So, I still teach all of our embedded teacher coaches, including me, are still teaching. So, I still teach uh leadership for nonprofits at Cornado. And then I oversee coaches at uh DHY, Palmer, Coronado, Tesla, Beiju, and Odyssey. Awesome. Now, yeah. Okay, let me um let me bring Stephanie Leisure from North Middle School up. Thank you so much. Good evening. How are
039you all? Good to see you. Okay, so would like to talk with you about agency. So over the past couple of years, we've had some schools who have had more significant uh instruction in instructional empowerment or IE. Most of us have have called it IE at this point, but it's really implementing student agency. So there's multiple levers of agency. However, what we're ultimately looking for is more the student directed and teacher facilitated learning experiences. So if you've probably seen this this graphic before, uh the the far to the left would be that typical perhaps maybe you've heard it as a sage on the stage, right? It's teacherdirected only. It's given to students. Uh there's no student collaboration. Uh in the middle uh is facil teacher facilitated group work where it's still students. They're telling the
040students exactly what they should do in their groups. Um, but if you look far to the right, which you're not always going to see, there's there's it doesn't mean that an entire class will be this every single day at all times of the day, but the goal is is for us to engage students in this type of learning more often than what they have been, especially I would say in the course. So, what you're seeing there is that we would have student student directed groups and they're working with one another. or the teacher is the facilitator in the middle, but that students are really doing the work on the outsides and having the teacher as that kind of goto if they haven't been able to come to some sort of consensus within one another first.
041So that's the goal to engage students more in that. And the reason I say corores is because um if you could go to the next slide. Thank you missiles. So there's if you it does lend itself agency really lends itself easily to applied academics. I would say as a as an IB school or electives or specials uh what you saw up here the things that we engage it it really does work really well with those kind of tasks. However, we want to make sure that students are feeling that same ownership in their learning in our core classes as well as examples up up here. I have one of each. And actually, I shared I had a bunch of pictures, but evidently they would have been too small. So, of how we're already doing this at
042North um and I shared this with our families at our back to school night about how we really want to extend the agency experience to students, but we're also like it is not that big of a of a risk for us. like we are there and we are doing that. Uh our that that left picture that you see up there is is u my my sixth grade uh honors math students were doing an exercise in probability and they had to create carnival games. Uh so each carnival game had to represent some aspect of probability and they had students visit and elementary school students visit to play their games and then they had to explain what the aspect of probability was that they were illustrating. Uh this the middle picture there that that on the right
043is what you guys have heard about before. Our Meow Wolf um inspired exhibit that we create on a yearly basis. They're about to go our advanced design and drama students are about to go to Meow Wolf here in a week. Um and they will come back and be inspired in their own vision. I love that we have the ability to create a room that is inspired by their own vision. Um, and so that was our room last year, and we have a ton of pictures, but I love that students, our students have the ability to do that. So, we want to create that experience in our course. Uh, and one strategic investment that District 11 made this past this past summer is that we took a really significant amount of teachers and leaders to an
044instructional empowerment conference um, in Orlando. and a couple of my teachers, teacher leaders that I need to be on board because they do tend to perhaps live in that far-left area where they are directing student learning consistently. I needed them to be on board and so uh D11 gave us and you gave us the ability to take those teachers and help them learn. They really appreciated about agency. They appreciated learning from people who facilitated them the way they should be facilitating students. They appreciated that modeling. They appreciated the collaboration from people not only in district 11 but national people. They appreciated the emphasis on student ownership, on authentic problem solving. And then one really extra thing that I think was very beneficial that they specifically spoke to me about was we there was a lunch
045for all teachers with district 11 leadership and all of these people here were split among all the groups and they were able to ask questions of when we have Eureka when we have amplify and it's pretty scripted and you have to get to this and you have to do this how does agency fit and they needed to hear that they were trusted to make mistakes. and take risks and figure out how what the balance is. And so they really did appreciate that from our district 11 leadership. My teachers came back very excited. They felt heard that their concerns were heard and they felt like they could take risks and still be supported. Okay, like to hand it over to Arda Bunch, a parent at Freedom. [Applause] Hello. Um, I wrote a little speech, so you
046can pull the microphone. Is this okay? Here you go. There you go. All righty. Good evening, board members. My name is Artita Bunch, and I am the proud parent of Amelia, a fifth grader, and Theodore, a first grader at Freedom Elementary. Amelia has been a student at Freedom since kindergarten, and this is her sixth year at this amazing school. Um, I'm here because I want to share a quick story about uh what I've seen with student agency in the classroom and how it's making a difference for my children. Uh, when I visit, which is quite a bit, um, I noticed something very powerful. Students aren't just sitting and receiving information. They're actively leading their learning. Uh, they set goals, they check them, they check themselves and um against success criteria and they reflect. Uh it's
047not just sit down and get it. It's think, try and grow. I have an example from our child Amelia. Um one moment that really stood out when I was there and Amelia was working on her math worthy tasks. Instead of looking for the teacher to confirm her answers, she explained her reasoning to a partner uh listened to another student and his solution and said, "Um, I like how your way works, but mine also gets me the answer." Um I think we can do both right. Uh that competence is that competence in explaining her thinking while also honoring someone else's and students agency is an action. Um because of this focus Amelia comes home more independent, confident and motivated and she sometimes gets her chores done. Um she says things like I can figure this out
048and if I try it another way instead of I just can't do it. uh that shift in mindset is huge not just for academics but for her future life. Um thank you for supporting schools like uh freedom and putting student agency at the center of academics. Um as a parent I can't tell you enough how much this makes a difference for my children and of course all the other children's freedom. That's it. Thank you. Michael, do you have any questions? I I don't. Okay, good. All right. Uh, and I'm gonna hand out to Hannah from Mitchell. Thank you. [Applause] Hi, my name is Hannah Anderson. I am a teacher at Mitchell High School. I teach environmental science, astronomy, and I'm also the planetarium curator this year. excited to u step into that new role. I've
049been teaching for three years. This is my third year overall and third year at Mitchell. I am a diehard Marauder. Go Marauders. Um what I want to talk to you about today was that I had the opportunity to go to Florida to that IE conference and I learned so much. It was a wonderful experience and I'm starting to implement what I learned in my classroom. So, you know, we're we're in week three or four, so we're still working through it, but I'm already seeing huge differences in my classroom. So, some of these pictures you see right there are students working in really strongly cultivated and well-balanced teams. That's really key. And my coach, uh, Phil Hutcherson, helped me figure out how to balance those teams through academics and leadership qualities, personality, things like that. Once
050I got those teams down, I give them complicated tasks. In this particular example, they're working through a free response prompt and coming up with how they would answer that prompt and structure an outline to answer that prompt. It's a complex problem, but they're working collaboratively to solve it on their individual whiteboards given individual time to think, but then to share out together as a group. They're operating under teaming norms, which you see there's a poster in my classroom that gives those norms so that students are learning how to engage respectfully with each other even when they disagree. But most importantly is the results I am already seeing. Students are able to in these well- balanced groups leverage their strengths to help other students with their weaknesses right in their areas of growth and vice versa.
051They're getting helps in their areas of growth as well. So what I'm seeing is because they have the assistance that they want from their peers and they crave they are engaging in the learning in a way that I've never seen before. This learned helplessness that we're kind of used to seeing unfortunately as educators. Miss, I don't want to do this. like this is too hard, like I don't know what I'm doing. Instead, they are engaging in this productive level of struggle because they don't want to let their peers down and their teammates. They're more motivated to impress and help their peers than they have been to to impress me. Um, and I can admit that as an educator, that's okay. Um, so what I'm seeing them is tackling increased levels of rigor in the classroom.
052What I'm able to put in front of students is on a higher level of rigor because they're willing to tackle it together. So, what I've learned at IE has been phenomenal. I've seen kids uh implement social skills that they haven't before, especially my special needs students. I had a student today who struggles with social skills. He has autism. Really, finally, just stop asking me questions and ask his teammates some questions and that was huge for him. Um, shout out to that student. That was amazing to see today. So, the level of agency that we're giving our students, giving them a voice in their education is increasing their level of engagement. I am so excited to continue this in my classroom. I really do believe that this is a model. It's a system. It's not any
053one structure. And IE is really giving me the freedom to figure out how these structures going to fit in my classroom. So, thank you. And I want to pass the mic off to my colleague, superstar teacher, best friend at work, fellow Marauder, Brookie Stander. Hey, Brookie. So, one thing about Miss Anderson and I, we started at Mitchell at the same time. We went through the same new teacher orientation. We work across the hall from each other. It's been a learning progress journey for both of us. And it's fun for us to both buy into this and to see the changes as they are happening in real time. If you look at my slides for a second, very similar task here, slightly different though. I gave my students no background on the information that they were
054supposed to be working on. I gave them a prompt and I asked them to based off of certain angles in a diagram that they had to see if they could prove not just show but to prove that two lines were parallel based off of that. These students were initially slightly hesitant but as you can see by some of their boards multiple different ways of solving information of showing information to work together to prove that these lines were parallel. And it's an interesting journey seeing the student outcomes. That's what you see up here. That's what you see in the classroom. I wanted to touch briefly though on the teacher aspect of this and why things like student engagement is important to the teachers and how we present to the students. So one thing that we have
055shifted between I mean Miss Hannah and I miss Anderson and I have brought this into the classrooms. We work with it at our schools. Currently, I'm new to the department chair, but I am currently serving as a department chair for mathematics here at Mitchell High School. And so, we are bringing this to our entire team is this idea of that we are planning intentionally to bring these interdependent tasks to the classroom and this rigor to the classroom. And as students are buying in more and more, we are seeing that we can increase the rigor higher than it's ever been. And it is an enjoyable process to see. It's a I love the trifold or that that picture you showed Mr. Gaul earlier of like it's teachers, it's students, and it's coaches. It's a team. It's
056a team all around. I I can't bring this into my classroom without my coaches. My students don't get this without both of us. And more realistically, we're always here for the students. So, if we're not planning for our students, if we're not planning intentionally, we we're not bringing what we need to for our student engagement. So, um, with IE one, a concern I had when I was going to that conference is we're just going to be told how to teach in the classroom and it's going to be just do this, just do this, just do this. Pleasantly surprised to find it is just teaching practices that we should be implementing anyway. Standard target task alignment, uh, data analysis to plan for assessing and collaboration within the classroom. All those things that we can bring in
057to increase student engagement, student agency, and student learning. What I was afraid of is that I would lose my voice as a teacher. And I have found that through this process of teaching for the idea of student agency, I have a larger voice as a teacher than I have ever had before. And I love that. And it is great to see. So I'm going to leave you really quickly with this thought that like here as we are working on student agency as a team in our school, we are elevating our teacher practices, which the best outcome from that is that we are going to elevate student outcomes. and we we are seeing that in practice and it's amazing and we appreciate the opportunities to work for our students like this. So I'm gonna hand it
058off to Hannah Shaw there. So we started with coaching, we covered agency and now we're going to talk about curricular resources and then we'll be done. Um I'm Hannah Shaw. I this is my 15th year in the district. All of them um 18th year of teaching kindergarten. I've been in education for 20 years now. Um, I'm excited tonight to tell you about Sorry, my kindergarteners totally gave me a bug, so my voice isn't usually this low. Um, I I'm excited to tell you about CKLA. Um, last year I had the chance to pilot CKLA in my classroom. Um, and I was so encouraged by the growth that I got to see in my students. Um, part of my success over the past few years have been in the in my creation of different supplemental activities
059for my kids because I always felt like they could do more and go deeper than like the typical one letter a week. Maybe by March we'll get to Z. They're just ready to go and they want to learn and they want to use the skills that they're doing. And I feel like sometimes people don't give kindergarters the credit for the things that they can do and the things that they can learn. So, when I first heard about CKLA, I was a little bit hesitant because people have joked that I'm allergic to curriculum because I like I like the art of teaching. You know, I've got the science of teaching down, but I also like the art and I was worried that that was going to take that away, but it didn't. Um, CKLA is so
060strong in so many things and it goes at such a faster pace that I found myself really driving with it because um, whereas usually we don't learn segmenting until January, February about a wonders, now in September, they're already starting to do those skills and there's so much more ground work for them to um, jump off of. Um I thought a really neat data point that I was telling Miss Ammerb about was that um last year when we were doing or two years ago when we were doing wonders about 72% of them were below or well below in the middle of the year and you can see that the next year when we did CKLA only 22% of them were um at or below or well below um so I trusted the process even though I
061was a little bit worried about CLA because I just like to know my standards and I like to do it and I like to have fun with the way that my kids learn. Um, I trusted the process and it was it was outstanding. Um, my kiddos were starting to read words probably three to four months earlier than I saw in the past few years before Wonders. They were um, they had much more confidence because the way that CQLA teaches it, they teach sound first. And that's such a strong basis for kindergarteners because then they can stop sounding out words and words aren't scary because they're not just memorizing them, but they actually understand what they are. So, um, before Christmas, my kindergarters were already reading short phrases, comparing key vocabulary words, and confidently discussing their
062use. Um, because of this, I've become a very positive voice for CKLA and D11. I have lots of teachers that come into my classroom just to watch it, and their thoughts are always like, "Huh, it's not that boring." Like, it's actually pretty fun. So, I I take pride in that because I um I like to add I like to add group and I like to add agency and I try and find as many ways for my kindergarters to use their big voice because they can do much more than sometimes we give them credit. So, I'm very thankful for the the board and everyone that approves CKLA because it's meant a lot to my students and to my school. So, thank you guys so much. Do you remember the word that we were interchanging when we
063visited last year? Um well, dumpster was one of them. Dumpster and I love that one. Garbage and trash. But yes. Yeah. And you you had gone from uh dangerous to hazardous. Oh, right. Yes. Right. So, in kindergarten at Midland Elementary School, children were describing the difference between dangerous when they were thinking about recyclables and and and garbage and trash and replacing it with hazardous. And kindergarten is all about like that's a preschool word, now we use kindergarten words. And they're like, right. So, that's the big deal. Thank you so much, Sorry, it's okay. You did a great job. Uh Crystal Rasmmanson, chief of curriculum. Um good to see all of you. And so I think one of the things that I feel truly blessed um looking in our classrooms and our schools is all of
064the resources that you've adopted. Um very high quality, rigorous grade level, um and lots of assessment opportunities. And so as you can see, we have a lot of different things that are happening that are great. Um, two of the things I wanted to make sure and highlight is that this year we are making sure all of our course subjects have pacing guides with common summitive assessments and we're also adding common um, formative assessments and that includes even the curriculum you adopted in the spring. So, chemistry is already built out and being worked on for example and we're tweaking as we learn those resources. Um, another thing I wanted to point out, um, is as we're continuing to look at not only usage, but what does that actually look like for student learning and really wanting
065to make sure that we're intervening, um, at appropriate times so that all of our students are successful. And so, end of module assessments, those happen about every six to eight weeks. You'll notice, for example, on the left, the CKLA assessment, um, we have one coming up on the 19th. And so, our thinking is that last year some people did paper and pencil, some people did online. This year we're requiring everyone to do online assessments so that on the 19th they take it and on the 20th we can pull that assessment results and know exactly where we're at. Um so we can intervene much faster both with teachers and with students. Awesome. And I think uh just uh what I really want to end with here and we'll open up for a couple of quick questions
066is measuring what matters. Um I I have been now this is my fourth large school district that I've been in a senior leadership level. I have sold curriculum to hundreds of districts across America. It is really not the curriculum. It is your ability to implement the strategies of which you commit to. Our cycles are tighter. We have data down to the classroom level. We've never had that data before that gives us the ability to deploy this excellent set of team that is represented here. the hundreds uh if not we'll be in the thousands if not tens of thousands of visits uh overall by the end of this year which is as you heard from Mr. Urban not only new but needed and desired. I really appreciated the comments that came from our educators. None of
067this is about trying to strangle the art of teaching. This is putting the science underneath such that the artist can flourish the needs of our children, the gaps in our system. Please come visit our schools and acknowledge that too many of our children do not get access to the highest quality of instruction. That is why the data continues to stagnate. Not in District 11, but in most districts in America. We are on to something here that says we're turning that wedding cake upside down. The power of every person at central office exists solely for that student that was at the end of that p paint scheme. that comes first and foremost through our teachers and our staff that spend the time with our students. But we think that we're on to something and it's not
068we're going to report to you what happens at midyear. We are reporting we open every data meeting, our executive cabinets and our power of 11 meetings with data. We open every meeting with data for us to struggle with. And come join one of those meetings and you'll see it's a struggle. We get we get hot on each other. we get pointed and we make sure that not a single student, not a single staff member, not a single principal is left ill equipped to be able to deliver on your board priorities. I open the questions to the board. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate all of you being here and sharing some of the amazing work that is going on in our schools. Um uh coaching, agency, and curriculum. Those are the three areas that we covered both.
069Any comments or questions at this time? Director Jensen, hang on a minute. Director Jensen, thank you. Yeah, you just mentioned those pieces. Uh, and all those are going to lead to the accountability in the system. Uh, as we had a retreat last week, there was not very many in the public there, which is fine. You're welcome either way. Um, but I just mentioned, you know, we've I've been on the board six years and we're looking at academic data this month. It's not where we want it to be. It's not where we want our kids to be. And so, um, you know, I mentioned I'm tired of us waiting for the conditions to be right to finally tackle academics. So, we're we're putting our or drawn the line in the sand. Sounds like we've got all
070the supports you would ever need to be successful and we're going to have the accountability in the system to um to take you where you need to go in D11 or you need to go to somewhere else basically it sounds like. So, um we've got to take care of our kids here. Um, with the classroom level data, quick question is, will teachers learn of their specific results? Are they going to see where their SGP is at for their classroom so they can know, hey, I'm a 11-year teacher, but I actually do need some coaching here. Yes. Um, so I think this is one of the first years that we've been able to actually dig down to the classroom level. And so everyone will see it. Principles have seen it. We've already met um with principles
071and shared um some of that specific data. And then we're also planning our professional development and coaching around that already. Okay. Awesome. Uh Hannah, third year was my most fun year. So you just enjoy it. It's going to keep getting better. I promise you. And it looks like Jordan left because I was an alternative lenture teacher as well. And you really are I mean sink or swim, baby. Like that's what that's what it is. So having coaches makes all the difference. So that my first year was rough, but uh that was good that we have these supports for them. Uh that's all I got. Thank you very much. I'm eager to see the results here. Thank you. And director Hley. Hi everybody. It's good to see you all. Um I'm I'm especially grateful that D11
072provides uh coaching for teachers. Uh when I began in the classroom well over 30 years ago, this resource wasn't available. In fact, it was the exact opposite. If you asked for help, um you were looked at funny like what are you doing in teach? What do you mean you need help? what are you doing in teaching if if you need help? And boy, you better not be asking it because if you're asking for help, there's the door. That's how it was. And I'm grateful to see that that coin essentially has flipped and that teachers now feel supported and that they have what they need and in order to be able to to reach the kids that they're teaching. Um, so teachers, I would encourage you to take full advantage of this. And uh you guys
073that are new to the profession, God bless you and thank you for coming and and jumping into the deep end of what is definitely um probably the most difficult thing you'll ever do, but the most um I don't even somebody help me. I don't even have a word. It's just so fantastic, fulfilling. It's it's such a noble calling and and I I can't get over that. um these these youngsters. I never thought I'd be the age where I would be call saying these youngsters. Um you guys that are new to the the profession, you guys that are well younger than I am. Um that you've made this decision to jump in and and it's it's difficult. It's difficult at any level. I was in high I was a high school teacher for 30 years and
074and um when people would ask me, "What do you do for a living?" And I'd tell them, "I'm a high school teacher." It was always, "Oh, I'm sorry. What are you sorry about? I'm having the time of my life in this." Being on the board, though, I get to go to different schools and different levels and I see the middle schools now and I see the elementary schools and I think to myself when people say, "What did what did you do for a living?" And I tell them I was a high school teacher. Oh, I'm you know, again, I'm really sorry. No, no, you don't have any idea. My job was so much easier than elementary school teachers and middle school teachers. I mean, I'm I'm in those schools for a a portion of the
075day, sometimes a small portion of the day, and I'm exhausted when I leave. and and so the fact that y'all are are coming in and giving it everything you've got from the from the very beginning of the school day to the very end of the school day. Um so grateful for you and your expertise and what you bring to the kids of this district and the fact that D11 provides an opportunity to enrich that teaching experience for you and that there's not a um finger pointing at you when you do ask for help. I'm I'm particularly grateful to see that. So, thank you. Thank you. Any other comments or questions at this time? Okay. I don't see anything else. So, thank you. Um what I gather from this is the amazing work that is happening
076in our schools. Um uh some of the information that was shared by the teachers is they were reluctant to first adopt this new way of teaching or CKLA or uh the uh instructional empowerment. And there were always questions at this time, but once you buy into what we have out there collectively as the school district, you can see amazing results and you can see the difference that you make in uh the day-to-day learning uh that happens in the classroom for our students. So um uh like what superintendent Gaul was talking about uh it's not sometimes the curriculum it's implementing that curriculum with fidelity that uh ensures that the students are achieving what they need to achieve. So I'm glad uh to see all the u coaching that is happening. uh we have 200 plus new
077teachers and uh the guarantee that superintendent G signed in each one of those was to that teacher to get that personal coaching that is happening and uh from what Charlie was uh sharing with that we have this embedded coach that is going to provide that type of um uh support for every one of our teachers. So thank you for the work that is happening. Superintendent G, do you want to uh close this? Yeah, I'll bring us home and go straight into the superintendent's report. I uh I ask and I challenge the board when you visit our schools, please let our academic directors as well as your area superintendents know you're coming. So, you get to meet these incredible folks and see the work that they're doing and they'll give you the behind thescenes view of,
078hey, this is what's working really well. Here's where we still have challenges. We know that the need of the system is greater than we can scale in just one year. But we're going first and foremost after the places where we've seen that the data has had the most challenge in moving and with the people that are new to the system and then thirdly the people who raise their hand that says please come in and help me increase my quality to ensure that every student gets access to the highest quality instruction. So please, as as our structure is always dynamic and changing on your way into a school visit, if you reach out to myself or to Shauna and let us know or even to Melissa, we'll make sure that we let uh our requisite team
079know that you're going to be there. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you to the team at Great Brief. Okay, I said an hour and I'm at an hour and two minutes, but we started three minutes late, so I'm at 59 minutes, so I'm going to go through four slides pretty quickly, except Leilani does get one slide, so she gets an extra minute by herself. Uh, I wanted to start CAMasses out. We have some celebrations. I'll start with the rougher news first, which is our overall growth is flat. You'll see that at the bottom. We increased just the smallest amount in our achievement in both math and ELA. And the number of our schools that slipped is of concern. I've met over this last two weeks with each one of those principles and every one
080of them to a tea that has had a challenging year on data has said to me, I knew I had a problem in that class or that grade or that subject matter and I didn't move fast enough to deploy the resources that we just showed you right now to make sure that we could make those changes. But there is really great news to for us to share. First and foremost, I don't know how many years it's been, but I couldn't be prouder to say that the highest achieving school in all of El Paso County is a district 11 school. Thank you to the Gazette Telegraph for reporting the work of Chapida. All of the educators, all of the students, all the family members, anybody who's ever had anything due to Japa over the last 10
081years plus gets a pat on the back for over 75% of our students meeting or exceeding state expectations in math and ELA. That is not a number I think that that I thought we would be reporting this quickly even for the strength of schools like Chapa. It is with tremendous agency and focus that Chapida has been able to get to the top. We have promised an ice cream party to that uh community. I just don't remember what the actual date is. I think it's coming up in the next couple of weeks. We went up the day that that was announced and gave a slice of ice cream uh cake to each one of the teachers uh as symbolic for what we will celebrate for our students. But it is with great pride to say that
082district 11 has risen to the top and we will bring the rest of the district there. Galileo, Adams and Mitchell, which has been our primary focus area for the last year, all showed growth on their SPF. Mitchell moved from turnaround to priority improvement with almost five points on their SPF. Galileo had five points that rose them from priority improvement to improvement. and Adams, although a marginal SPF increase, grew the head of the students that were meeting or achieving in math and ELA by five percentage points. Again, as well, it is with great pride that we bring those strategies to bear. Do not be confused. This is the direction of this school district. If you do not believe in the way we are going, please come to me. We will find you the right places for
083you to go work. We believe in agency. We believe in CKLA. We believe in Eureka squared. We believe that teachers can actually make each one of those interactions better. And I appreciate both our educators from Mitchell for sharing that. We are not trying to strangulate the system. Our job is to resource the system so it can overwhelm opportunities for students. Okay. Leilani, you want to come forward and talk about the D1 promise a little bit? Yes. Thank you all. Yep. Um, my name is Leilani Mullins. I am one of the career and college access coordinators and I'm excited to talk to you about promise. We have some really exciting growth that has happened this year for the fall of 2025 cohort. We are looking at 315 total district 11 students with a 242 student persistence
084which leads us at about 75% persistence rate which is significantly higher than the college overall. um which is extremely exciting knowing that we are going into our third year of the promise. We know that more and more students, we continue to encourage almost all of our seniors to apply to Pikes Peak. We know that we had 654 applications to Pikes Peak last year with 192 enrolling specifically in the promise. So really exciting work there. In addition to the promise being a tuition assistance program, the piece that goes towards that persistence is each and every student gets individualized coaching and holistic support. So they meet with their promise coaches at the college. They attend workshops. They are in the in the community of Pikes Peak taking advantage of opportunities and and really being leaders. On the
085D11 side, we have some new things, new collaboration happening this year. We're really excited to have promise people from Pikes Peak coming into our future centers once a month where they will help our seniors through the cadence that is the college access process all the way from applications to FAFSA to registrate registering for the fall and just making sure that each student that's eligible is prepared to access promise if that's where they decide to go after their senior year. The other piece that I think is really excited is we we've committed to a greater data sharing with Pikes Peak so that we can at a glance immediately see our students who are eligible and interested so that not only our Pikes Peak folks know that our kiddos are coming in the fall, but we also
086can work with them in September to get their processes started, students will be able to also see their data of their eligibility early. And so they can actually start to say, "Hey, I'm advocating for this spot for myself and I'm going to take the steps needed and I'm going to show up when the promise coaches come to the future center so that I can get that targeted support." Um, in general, we know that as we continue to partner with Pikes Peak, the growth of our work in the future centers and then new this year with our future ready advisory in all high schools, we expect to see this number continue to grow and we know more and more students are interested in taking advantage of this amazing program because there's more access at Pikes Peak
087in the things that they're interested in. So, it's just creating those interest points, targeting, making sure they know what's available, and then getting them well on their way to the path. With that, I have last year's flyers if you would like to see them. We're going to print new, so I figured I would hand them out. We'll send them over. Thanks, Leilani. And thanks to uh Mr. Holiday, Mr. Bernie, and to the MLO oversight committee, of course, to the board as well for giving us that vote for us to continue. we have funds to go well into the future and look forward to bringing uh alternative sustainable options to the board in the foreseeable future. Thanks, Leilani. Okay, I'm going to end with our next peak experience. Uh please join us downtown for first art
088Friday on October 3rd. Our students will be setting up on October 2nd. All eighth graders are going to have a chalk festival in Chotober. We're going to take over downtown. We are partnered with the downtown business bureau and uh and our city to make sure that our kids are safe, secure, and they'll be answering a basic prompt of what does Liberty mean to you? If you've never been to a chalk festival, look them up online. And if you're not a fan of our downtown, just think about how amazing our downtown is going to look when it's overcome and overtaken by our students sharing what learning means to them in the heart of our city. So super excited for all of our team that's put this together to bring a peak experience to bear in October.
089That was just an idea in August. Tells you again what incredible work our team is capable of doing. Super excited for that. And so when it snows all February and March, it's because I am trading myself to mother nature to please let it be dry on October 2nd and 3rd and moderate in temperature. That concludes my uh superintendent. As long as we have snow days in February, March. Um thank you uh thank you for sharing some of the u growth that's happening with the D1 promise as well. Uh board any thoughts or comments on the super superintendence report? Okay seeing none. Do we have any public comments? Two of them. Okay. Okay. Thank you. We have two public comments uh going over the board protocol for public comments. As a reminder, the board welcomes and
090is very interested in listening to community feedback as it helps us better do our job. Please approach the podium. When your name is called and you have three minutes to deliver your remarks, please monitor the clock that is on display and complete your comments in that allotted time. Uh board meetings are primarily business meetings for orderly and efficient conduct of the business of the district. Keeping that in mind, the clear expectation is that your feedback is provided in a civil, professional, and courteous manner without resorting to disparaging or defamatory remarks. Students are often in attendance or watching our broadcast. Speakers remarks therefore should be suitable for an audience that includes minor students, including no use of profanities or obscinities. to adhere to the board policy and accomplish the work already on the agenda. The board
091will not respond to comments during this time, but I can assure you that your comments will be taken into consideration. Uh, and to maintain the flow of the meeting and not have prolonged interruptions, please refrain from clapping. If you want to show support to a speaker, please stand as the speaker is talking or use as silent applause. Lastly, the statements made by the public do not reflect the views of the board or the district. With that, the first comment is by Michon Simpson. Good evening, Mr. G, Dr. Malpac, and the members of the board. Excuse my voice. It's a little bit um weary. Oh yes, thank you. As a half century long resident of the district, an alumni and a D11 retiree, I appreciate the time to speak and your attention. I tell you, walking
092into the building, it was just amazing to smell the beautiful aromomas from the flowers and then to know that the entree into this meeting was about collaboration. I loved it and I'm delight I'm so sorry that you had negative experiences thinking I'm sorry I should probably say it wasn't my experience I saw it happen you saw it happen happened to me but okay because I was like that's a whole different experience than I had um yes and I think that yes having access to high quality instruction is important and at the base of that is what feeling secure feeling safe not just as a student to experiment but as a teacher to excuse me experiment and spread the wings and just encourage the students to be the very best that they can be. We have
093all seen and heard collaboration that wasn't true collaboration but was instead a well orchestrated directive to do things in this way. And you know, people who like their jobs, they they do that. They follow they follow what is needed. But hopefully, my hope for this district is that every individual on the staff from central AD on down feel completely empowered and safe to express themselves. Um, last year and the year before, people in CSEA really wanted to work collaboratively with you and they didn't get that. We heard from one member of the board in particular that nope, we cannot support an outside organization, a private organization. Yet PACE is being supported and that is unfortunate. CSEA still exists and CSEA still wants to collaborate with you. I hope that you will engage them. Thank you.
094Thank you, Miss Autumn. Real autumn real. Thank you. All right. My name is Autumn Real. I'm a recent graduate of Widefield High School and I'm going to all of the school districts in Colorado Springs to talk about reproductive health. We are actively abandoning the system that grows scholars. Not off of trees, but the determination to succeed. Not off of the soil we track dirt on, but the collective experiences from hundreds of people who yearn to seek a difference. Furthermore, our education is the foundation in which our society functions and grows. Which is why through the abandonment of teaching our youth something as crucial as their reproductive and sexual health, we deprive them of the right resources and confidence about their bodies. According to Colorado state law, it is not required for schools to provide sex
095or HIV instruction. However, it is referred to as a right of youth. To strengthen that point, it is a right of young people to have access of information about one's body. Yet, the schooling system still neglects to teach it to them. This is also considering the complexities of feminine care. 74% of female students still have remaining questions about their periods. This great majority of women left wondering about their own reproductive health is the direct cause of suffering for thousands due to the schooling systems disregard of its importance. As we continue to walk around eggshells regarding the topic of menration, nothing productive is done for the 55% of women who still feel embarrassed about the topic to this day. This is especially considering it's a normal way of life for over half our population. It is
096due to the lack of requirement to include sexual health in Colorado that generation after generation becomes less and less aware of what's going on in their own bodies. It is time that we make a change for the curriculum. As time passes on, the continuation of repeating cycles is no help to the advanced generation that is to come. We are single-handedly racing stronger doctors, service workers, and activists without giving another thought of what they take out of their own education. First, we need to examine the significance of biology and sexed in our classrooms today. What topics are being discussed now, and how are they making an impact? Major topics such as abortion, same-sex relationships, irregular periods, and pregnancy have profoundly affected our modern society, yet aren't discussed in the classroom today. Second, in the act to
097promote these teachings, we need to branch the spectrum of male and female sex as topics that are generally taught to everybody. By polarizing these topics to those who don't experience them, we can't effectively understand what one another is going through without feeling shame or guilt. As a strong advocate for both women's health and our education system, it is a need to voice these issues with you all today. We have barely scratched the surface of what health looks like for a community who isn't afraid to guide young people out of the dark. After all, it is the right of youth to learn about the complexities of health. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. That's the end of public comments. I appreciate all the community members that came and shared their feedback with the board. Uh
098we will certainly take that into consideration as we proceed with with our work today and into the future. Board member reports. The next uh topic, board member reports. board. I'm going to turn to you and see if uh there are any board members that want to share. And um Dr. Bankis, you are first. I just want to follow up on um the accolades that we had given to the young lady that was here on making sure that our schools had school zone markings, lights, and reduced speed limits. Um driving by Dohy High School today, I saw that in action. Somebody was getting a ticket on my way out of the neighborhood. somebody was getting a ticket on the way into the neighborhood. So, we know that CSPD is behind this effort. And uh thank you
099all for driving the speed limit and keeping our children safe. Thank you. I was at Dori this morning and I wish there were cops out there handing out tickets because there were some commuters that were traveling at a high rate of speed down that route. Uh director, thank you. Uh first a thank you to the staff who was here today to talk about the highlighted programs and also everyone who has welcomed um me and I'm guessing all of us into the open house opportunities and um all of the back to school events that are also happening. So I have two quick announcements. One is that the foundation for school district 11 is offering inspiring creativity educator grants for teachers in district 11. It's to bring innovative projects into their school uh and classrooms in particular
100to enrich and enhance educational experiences for students. The grants are small uh $100 to a maximum of 300 and they they might be considering larger grants as well. Um applications are taken continuously with grants awarded quarterly. So there's no wrong time to make a request and you can find more information under the grants tab on their website foundation4d11.com. The other opportunity that might be of interest is Saturday, September 20th. Dave Edwards, the author of Genderincclusive Schools, will speak about the ways we as a community can make our schools more inclusive and safer for gender diverse students. You can find more information on that on the event page at p flagcoladspr.org. And that is all for me. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Director Art. I don't see any other board member reports at this time. Um,
101Miss Olsson, if you can just pull up my report. Um, I just want to quickly follow up on what uh, Superintendent G has already shared uh, with the community out there. CES test results are out and the board will be deep diving into that data over the next three four weeks. Uh uh including some of the positive accomplishments and areas of concern that uh we are going to be um uh talking about uh as superintendent G shared we have a strategy in place. This is not the time to rework and uh question our strategies that are in place. Uh it is a time for buyin. So that what was accomplished at Chibita that's amazing results when you are talking about a school as a school district we are struggling to have 30% of our students
102at grade level reading and 35% of our students at math uh somewhere roughly around that numbers and that school has doubled the number of students at grade level proficiency both in English and math uh and the highest performing school in that capacity in um uh uh El Paso County. So kudos to the teachers and staff uh out there and also the parents. Uh the community parent engagement is critical whenever you look at schools that have high student achievement. Not just student growth but achievement as well. Parent are a critical component. So I strongly encourage parents in all our schools to be engaged in the education of our children. We are uh striving to replicate what's happening at Chapita in all our other schools as well. So we look, this was the celebration that uh Superintendent
103Gaul was talking about. It it's my understanding that uh teachers got got to celebrate with that slice of ice cream cake and we look forward to celebrating with that community as well. If you can move on to the next slide, there are several back to school open houses that uh I got to attend. The first couple of pictures that are on the left side uh this is the teacher supplies event that we had at the beginning of the school year. Uh and uh you can see at the bottom left picture uh teachers lining up um uh half hour 45 minutes in advance. Uh uh there was a long line of uh teachers that were uh lining up out there and taking advantage of all the free supplies that they were able to get at the
104beginning of the school year. So huge shout out to Miss Carol Fry and her team in putting this together. And this is going to be a constant um uh something that is going to continue in our uh school district uh uh through the year. From the feedback that we get from our teachers, this is being well appreciated. Um to the right, I got to visit McAlliff Elementary at their open house and their principal showed me their new STEM door and this is uh if uh you have an opportunity as a Mclliff parent or board members, you got to go and take a look at this wall. This is a learning opportunity for our students. Teachers use this new STEM wall. It used to be an open space. It used to walk into that learning common
105library area out there, but teachers use that to uh teach students about measurements, um, uh, conversion units, um, shapes, colors, so many interesting things out there. Uh, just a creative way and that happened just over the summer and lot of summer projects going on. And uh one of that is uh the uh artwork that you see at Colombia Elementary. Uh the mural there to reflect the art pathway school that Colombia is. Uh and I want to give a shout out to Miss Lawson at Carver Elementary. I was in her classroom. Um and she is one of our student teachers who student taught in our schools and now is a first year teacher in our uh school district at Carver. and getting the embedded coaching that was discussed uh earlier. Um it was amazing to walk
106into the classroom and see the engagement uh in our first grade classroom. Um and the moving on to the next slide. Yeah. And click one more time. Um I want to share with the uh community and the board as well this event that we are going to be doing through the course of this year which is called petals of appreciation. This kicked off yesterday at Stratton Elementary. And these are some of the pictures that I uh got from our amazing uh uh community engagement team. Um and this is our way to show um a small way in the board and uh superintendent call thanking our teachers for our amazing work. Last year it was the coffee bar and this year we are going to be uh visiting every school over the next five, six, seven
107months. uh and uh teachers get to uh teachers and staff at that school get to make their own uh petals and bouquet of appreciation. And Miss Maisie in the special education department got uh a shout out uh as uh one of the teachers that stood out out there. So, thank you for bringing that program up here and we look forward to visiting your schools and uh sharing some of our uh uh sharing some of your success stories with us as well and getting an opportunity to engage with you. That's my board member report. Thank you. Moving on to the next item on the agenda. We do have a brief legislative report. Um uh I was talking to our legislative lobbyist, Miss Amy Atwood, and she talked about uh the special session that took place, I
108think, uh last week, uh at uh the state uh legislature. Um and uh Miss Atwood is going to be joining us at this time to give us an update on what transpired at that um uh special session and if there is anything from the board level that we got to be um uh keeping our focus on. Miss Atwood, thanks for joining us. Great. Thank you. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Good evening. Amy Atwood, contract lobbyist for the district. Tonight, I want to provide an update on the special session that finished last week, as well as the governor's budget cuts that were announced last week. The good news is there are no cuts to K12 during the special session. K12 was protected and held harmless throughout the special session. There is one bill
109that does impact K12 and that changed the allowable uses for the healthy school meals for all program. So, if you remember, there was a bill passed two or three years ago that set up that program. Then earlier this year in the regular session, a bill passed that does two things. It allow it'll be a ballot measure this fall, Proposition MM. And what MM will do is it allows the state to keep the excess revenue above what the projections were in the blue book. So, that's one thing it does. The second is it changes the formula for collecting the revenue. So with the formula change, it will increase revenue that goes into the healthy school meals for all program. And then the third thing that changed which happened during special session was any excess in the
110fund once healthy school healthy meals for all program once that is fully funded if there is any excess it can be spent on SNAP and to backfill SNAP and that is from HR1 the one big beautiful bill and so with the decrease in SNAP to the state coming from the feds with this added allowable expenditure from the fund to SNAP. They're hoping that if that there may be excess that it can be used for SNAP. So that's what happened during special session. Then last week on Thursday, the governor came forward with his budget cuts. So during special session, the governor was given authority through legislation to make cuts and he does not have to get legislative permission to do so. He can do it. He just needs to present his ideas to the joint budget
111committee. The joint budget committee does not tell him yes or no up or down if they support those cuts or not. He just has to tell the joint budget committee what those cuts will be. So he did that on Thursday and again K12 education was held harmless. No no no cuts coming from the governor. It it it was surprising that there were no cuts because um every other big department say higher ed, Medicaid, healthc care, they all saw cuts, major cuts, but K12 was held harmless with the governor as well. So with the information that we have now coming out of special session, we know the budget gap that we will have to fulfill in the 2627 budget. So your 2526 budget, your current budget right now is not going to change. You will continue
112to get the same amount that you planned on for from the state. for 2627 we knew that there was going to be less revenue again we had I had talked about that all all last year and this year the dynamic is a little different now because of HR1 they're trying to determine how much more uh the state will be in the whole I am working with other education stakeholders K12 stakeholders as well as the governor's office looking at How do we protect K12? What are some other places that um can be looked at particularly so that we protect the roll out of the new school finance formula? That is what is most impactful to D11 and to keep that on the trajectory that it has had. If if there are discussions about declining enrollment and
113moving that from four years to two years, that won't impact E1. So what will impact D11 is if is if is if they put a pause on the roll out of the new formula. So I have my finger on the pulse on that. I'm right there in those conversations to make sure that I'm looking out for the district and then broader on the more broader scale the K12 community. So with that are there any questions? Board. Thank you. Thank you for um providing that update at this point in time. Uh board, any questions to Miss Atwood at this time? Director Jurgensson. Yeah, just a few, Miss Atwood. Where do I start? So, it sounds like HR1 was going to bring accountability to the SNAP program and have able-bodied people working, but the state's trying to
114just backfill in the current status quo. I would say that the state is looking at ways to fill fill the hole from HR1 for SNAP. Okay. Read between the lines on that one. Uh you mentioned Prop MM that's coming to the ballot in November. Is this just a tactic to keep our Taber money? You know, I'm I don't know that I can answer that question. It is a way to increase taxes though. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So, um along with the House Bill 25B10001, keeping those tax cuts on small businesses. I mean, I'm a small business owner. My wife is as well. that 4% fee that that we have to pay to collect payments and invoices through credit cards, that adds up. And I just I don't understand why we didn't see more significant cuts from
115the legislature and they pass the buck to the governor and they continue to tax small businesses and folks that are trying to survive and employ people in our state. It goes beyond D11. I'm great, so thankful that K12 education is is protected. But it is is harder and harder to live here in this state when we are not going to open our eyes to the fact that we've got to stop spending some money and stop killing oil and gas and allow businesses to thrive and and to use our natural resources. And I'm on a little bit of a soap box here. I apologize, but as a business owner, it's hard to want to keep doing business here when they come with these laws. and then to hear that we're still going to be in a
116deficit when we come back to the next legislative session. They didn't fix anything. They still have a mess to clean up when they come back together. So, I'll digress, but this was a horrible special session for taxpayers and business owners. Thank you. Any other comments or questions at this time from the board? I don't see any anything else. Thank you for the update uh especially pertaining to gatewell education and how it impacts us. Um as always uh keep engaged with you know us and let us know that um if there is anything uh that you need to present to the board. Okay. Thank you. Thank you Miss Atwood and truly appreciate because I called you I think she Yeah, she's still there. I called you earlier on Monday to add you to the agenda at
117the last minute. I appreciate your willingness to join us in the last minute. Thank you. Adoption of consent items. Director, can you please make the motion to adopt the consent items? Yes. I move that the board of education adopts all consent items as designated in the agenda. The consent items are personnel recommendations September 3rd, 2025, resolution 20263 authorized district staff legislative leaons and resolution 20266 Hispanic Heritage Month. Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call, please. Miss Olsson. Director Bankis. I. Director Kerry. I. Director Hayley. Hi. Director Jorgensson. Hi. Director Malpekum. Hi. Director I I the eyes have with the concentrators consent items have been adopted as presented. Um moving on to the action items on the agenda. The first is a resolution uh resolution of appreciation for Mr. Lauren Nelson. Um just providing some brief context
118and then I'm going to uh turn it over to Director Jurgensson who's going to read the resolution. Uh uh as we mentioned at the August board meeting, Director Nelson informed the board and superintendent Gaul of her intent to resign from her position as a district 11 board member. The board formally accepted a resignation at the August board meeting. Today we have an opportunity to thank u Director Nelson for her service on the district 11 school board. Uh uh so Director Jurgensson, can you please um read the resolution and make the motion for action action item H1? It would be my pleasure. Resolution 2026-07, appreciation of Lauren Nelson. Whereas for nearly four years, Lauren Nelson has aly served the board of education of school district 11, devoting boundless hours and selfless volunteer service for the betterment
119of district 11. Whereas her service has been marked by principal boldness, integrity, loyalty, devotion to duty, and a fiscally prudent approach to decision-making. Whereas Lauren Nelson has brought forth courageous ideas and suggestions for accountability and leadership, making a sincere difference on behalf of the staff, students, and and specifically emboldening parents and their involvement in the education of their students. And whereas Lauren Nelson has been deeply passionate about moving the district forward, goal focused on outcomes for kids and a consistent and strong voice on the board of education for promoting and focusing on the district's excellent offerings and commitment to student achievement. And whereas Lauren Nelson has been dedicated to the success of all children throughout the district. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Colorado Springs School District 11 Board of Education expresses its appreciation
120to Lauren Nelson for her years of service on the board of education for her strong support for the schools of our community and for her untiring efforts in promoting a better education for all students. And be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be included in the minutes of this meeting and made a part of the permanent records of the Colorado Springs School District 11. I move that the board of education endorses resolution 2026-07, resolution of appreciation for Lauren Nelson. Second. Okay, moved and seconded. I don't know if you got who seconded because there was multiple voices I heard out there. Um, Miss Olsson has also got a video that uh she wants to play at this time. Uh, and after the video plays, I will turn to the board for comments. Hi,
121Lauren Nelson. Hi, Laura. Good afternoon. You solemnly swear You solemnly swear that I will well and faithfully perform that I will well and faithfully perform the duties of school district director the school district director of Colorado Springs of Colorado Springs school district 11 school district 11 [Music] I am a graduate of Palmer myself and if you told me 20 years ago that I when I sat where you are today that I would be up here presenting a speech, I would never have believed you. This is an incredible honor. I enjoy volunteering on your District 11 school board and I'm grateful for the series of choices that have led me here today. I have to do it. Palmer, try again. Try again, guys. Palmer, [Applause] thank you. I was speaking with a friend earlier. She was
122asking, "Do I look forward to the board meetings?" And honestly, I said, I don't know if that's the word I would use. Um, but as I sat here and the MCOLA students walked us through the pledge and um the little straw ball thing, which I'm keeping, I'm going to show my kids later. Um, and then just them coming and speaking about their teachers. I have to say my heart just filled with so much joy and I feel so blessed by these kids. On behalf of the district 11 board of education, I am pleased to accept the class of 2025 for the conferring of the diplomas. You graduated. [Applause] [Music] So, thank you. I appreciate the uh media department putting that video together. Board members, I'm going to open it up for just give me a
123minute. Yeah, there you go. I'm going to open it up for your comments. Dr. I'm going to look right at you. Um, I can't begin to tell you uh how much I appreciate you. You have um I didn't I didn't know you from Adam. Uh what is this 2025? Uh four years ago. I had no idea. And yet you have brought uh an energy to the district that um is undeniable. I appreciate your your collegiality and your friendship and your unwavering dedication to this district and to the kids and to the parents and the taxpayers and I could go on and on and I I wish you the best in your your new the new chapter in your life. And um I'm going to underscore again, I appreciate your friendship and um I'll talk to
124you later. How's that? I'll finish it later. But but thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Director Manus. I have to lean over because the flowers are kind of there. We came on the board together. We didn't know anything and we really worked hard and I want to thank you for your diligence as uh the treasurer. I did step into that role with big shoes to fill and I will try to do my best but I'm sure that um all that you accomplish as our treasurer and when you came to the board to give your analysis of decisions that we were being asked to make I always trusted that you had done the homework that you were competent in the research that you had done and that your advice was really good because as you've heard
125your heart is always with the kids as I think it is with all of us. So, thank you and I've enjoyed serving on the board with you. Thank you, Director Kerry. It was an honor to serve with you for two years and I feel like I have learned so much from you and I am going to miss you over the next two years. Stay in touch. Dr. Thank you, uh, Director Nelson and now County Commissioner Nelson. Um, yes, thank you for your services. I'll echo what others have said and your collegiality and um I will miss your your interest here on the things we shared especially things like importance of food healthy food for our kiddos. Thank you. Dr. Jensen, I wrote your resolution so that speaks. So this was my words to you. I
126appreciate your no BS approach to finance, to policy revision, and to questioning why we keep doing things the way we do when we're not getting what we want to get for kids. So, um I so appreciate you and like Director Hayley, I will talk to you later. Okay. And I'll come to you uh Superintendent Call in a minute. Thank you, Director Nelson, for your years of service on the school board. when you stepped in and uh you stepped into to the role of uh treasurer. I was the previous treasurer at that time. You seamlessly stepped into that role and the amount of information that you were able to process. Sometimes it's uh uh drinking through a fire hose, but you did that seamlessly well and uh the focus that you put on students and making
127sure that resources come closest to the students in the classroom. Your legacy will live on over the next several years. Thank you for your um uh time on the school board, your service on the school board, and um uh I wish you the best in all your future endeavors. Superintendent Call. Uh Director Nelson, now County Commissioner Nelson, I it was with with a lot of sadness. I want to thank you for your courage to trust in myself and Dr. Comfort's vision on the budget. You have singlehandedly changed the way school districts will budget in the state of Colorado forever more. uh our legislative liaison was on there earlier. We are now the district that other districts are looking to of how do you get dollars closest to the classroom? How do you manage the structural
128deficiencies that are built into a constantly underfunded critical part of our infrastructure? Your courage and your ability to stand up here and defend the new ideas have helped us turn this district around literally overnight. It is my great hope and my great honor to know that you will now do that in a larger role to continue to insist that we have to stop accepting the status quo, not just in our school district 11, but in our great city of Colorado Springs, in our great county of El Paso County. You're a natural-b born leader that comes from you being a D1 graduate. So, Palmer, there we go. A terrorism return. Thank you for that. So, thank you. Uh before I call roll call. Okay, let me do the roll call first. And I do have um
129um some closing thoughts that I need to read out here. Roll call, please. Miss Olson on the resolution which was uh read by Director Jurgensson and seconded by I don't know who. Everybody. Multiple people. Okay. Roll call, please. Director Bankis. Hi. Director Kerry. Hi. Director Hayley. You bet. I. Director Jorgensson. Hi. Director Malpachham. I. Director. Hi. VI sav. So the resolution that was uh read by director Jurgensson was approved by the board. Um as a token of appreciation for Miss Mrs. Nelson's dedication, hard work and support of our student staff and the district 11 community, we have a few gifts to present this evening. The first is a traditional school bell. Uh and the school bell is given to each uh board member that served on the school board. um and uh may it serve
130as a lasting rem reminder of your years of service and the countless way you helped ring in the opportunities for our students. Um and I'll finish it and then we can the second there is a print a watercolor painting entitled the music of nature. Uh, and this was created by Emma Lee, an eighth grade uh, student at Holmes Middle School under the guidance of her art teacher, Jennifer Peterson. And this piece reflects the creativity and talent of the students you have championed throughout your time at the board. And Miss Olsson is showing the picture to the board and the audience. And uh finally we are honored to present you with your framed D11 picture and Miss Olson is also showing that including the including the district coins a tradition established under super superintendent call's leadership.
131Okay. These coins represent the values history and unity of district 11 and are a symbol of our gratitude for your service. Miss Olson. Uh, Miss Nef, you got to come up. We got pictures. Everybody down. Somebody hold the flowers. [Applause] I just turned them turned it on. Oh, you want Yeah, this is fine. Oh, I'll be brief. I just wanted to say thank you. I was not expecting this whatsoever and so it's so touching. I feel really overwhelmed. So, um grateful that you had all these kind words and these tokens of um things that I will cherish and I look forward to seeing the great things continue in District 11. And I know I've left it in really good hands and it has been such a blessing to serve alongside each of you. I um
132it was such a very pleasant surprise the relationships that have been built. So, thank you and thank you for your continued service. I look forward to serving with you in the future and as we all play our part in our community. Thanks. Thank you. [Applause] at least take the flowers. We can make sure that uh Mrs. Nilson gets those items um at a later point in time, but you may want to take the flowers with you. and you got your um Wednesday evenings back now, so you don't have to stay here. Um I'm just going to give it a minute before we move to the next item on the agenda. Perfect. We were able to Okay. So the uh following up on that um the next item on the agenda is appointment of the candidate
133to the vacant board position. Um so the position was as we just heard declared open due to director Nelson uh resigning from that position and um uh a couple of weeks back um the board uh uh declared the position open and also invited community members who uh met the necessary qualifications to apply for that uh position. So we received four applicants who interviewed at the public work session. And uh I want to personally thank each of those four applicants. Mr. Forest Forest X, he is in the audience today. Miss Lisa Salato, Miss Moren Madden, and Miss Amanda Huber. Um all of you kind of rang the bell. Thank you for uh your willingness to serve in this capacity. Between the four of you, you checked multiple boxes. uh several of you are not only parent
134community members, volunteers, served our uh on our district committees had leadership uh roles in our community as well. So um you brought uh enthusias enthusiasm, commitment and passion through your um uh engagement with the board and the community through this process. Uh on behalf of the board and district, I want to thank you sincerely for wanting to serve on the board. Uh today the board will have an opportunity to nominate an applicant and fill that vacancy. Um with that, um I'm going to go to Director Bankers. Can Director Bankis, can you please make the motion for action item H2? I move that the board of education appoint Amanda Huber to fill the vacant board director seat. Second. Moved and seconded. Uh and um this is the motion that is in front of the board that
135if Miss Huber receives the majority uh board vote at this time, she will be the newly appointed board director to fill the vacancy. Uh with that, I'm going to first open it up. The motion has been made and uh seconded uh by Director Jurgensson. Board uh any comments at this point in time? Okay, seeing none, roll call, please. Miss Olson, Director Bankis, Director Kerry, hi. Director Hayley, hi. Director Jorgensson, hi. Director Mount Pacham, I director Aunt, I the eyes have it. So, um, congratulations, Miss Huber. And Miss Huber is in the audience today. Uh, you have the uni unanimous support of this board. Um um so you will be uh filling this uh vacancy until the November 4th board elections and the subsequent board members that are elected and sworn in at that point in
136time. And now the next order of the business following that is going to be the formal oath of office. Um U Mrs. Huber, it's time for you to take the oath of office as prescribed by state laws. Um, uh, Miss Huber. Uh, and Miss Huber is going to be joined at, uh, the podium by her husband, um, Brad. And she's got her kids with her as well. Um, and, uh, let me get their names right. Uh, uh, Will is here, too. I thought Will wasn't going to be here. So, Will is here. So, uh, Will, Ari, um, as I read your names, do you want to lift your hands up so we know who you are? Ari. Okay. And then Isis, Neil, Callahan, uh, Leaf, uh, Braden. Did I miss anybody? Okay, thank you. Great.
137All of you are here to support Mrs. Huber and, uh, uh, it is my understanding that Braden is going to Braden and Isis, both of them collectively together are going to, uh, administer the oath of office. Uh, so, um, if you guys can get behind your mom out there, all of you guys can get behind your mom. So, no, no, no. Braden Disus, you stand on this side and the rest of you get behind the behind your mom up there. Great. Awesome. Miss Huper, you'll have to raise your right hand up and I will turn it over to Braden. Are you going to lead? Okay. Okay, Braden, go ahead. I state your name. I solemnly swear I, Eddie, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully perform the duties of the office that I will faithfully
138perform the duties of the office of school district director of Colorado Springs of school district director of Colorado Springs. School district 11 in the county of El Paso. School district 11 in the county of El Paso. To the best of my ability to the best of my ability, I do solemnly that I will hold confidence. I do solemnly swear I will hold in strict confidence. Information privilege and confidential information I will carefully keep investig and deliver the same to my lawful successor office to my local office. I will support that I will support the Constitution of the United States. I will support the Constitution of the United States the Colorado. Congratulations [Applause] Thank you, Miss Huper. I invite you to come and join us at the Bode Das. And uh uh kids and uh Brad,
139you can stay in the audience if you choose to. Oh, yes. Uh we got to take a group picture, so I'll pay something So we see a little more [Applause] Mrs. Huber. Congratulations again. And uh let me be the first one to uh address you by your title, Director Huber. And can you press the button up there? Bas can you help her? Okay. I don't want to ask. That's fine. There is no alava. There you go. Uh Miss Yuber, do you have any uh comments that you want to share at this time? I wanted to thank the board and the community for taking me in and I look forward to working with all of the rest of you um for the next three months. Very much appreciate it. Okay. Thank you. We look forward to
140working with you as well over the next several months. Thank you. So we jump right into it. So uh now we go on to the next item. The next item is the Milvie Override Oversight Committee membership in charge. Director Kerry, can you please uh make the motion for action action item H4? I move that the board of education approves the fiscal year 2025 2026 member names and charges for the mill levy override oversight committee as submitted. Second. Moved and seconded. Uh this information was presented as a non-action item at the August board meeting. Since then uh there has been one of the board committee meetings uh in August uh and the list of charges and um membership is there. Is there anything that uh you add? Nothing new to add. We have nothing new to
141add. Okay, great. So we have several membership committee membership um and charges that follows this uh evening. Uh I want to take this opportunity to thank everybody that uh worked on the membership uh and I know Miss Hartmer you put together a comprehensive uh uh communication to the community inviting them to fill out a form to be part of the uh various committees and uh at the August meeting the committee meeting that we had the monthly committee meeting now um there were several new faces that were at the audience so it was good to see some new faces. out there. Um um and I want to thank um uh and I see uh Spring League uh the uh committee chair for membership, vice president of the DAC and Miam Clawson as well the DAC chair
142here. I want to thank all of you for the work that you guys did as well. Um board do you have any the I do want to mention to the board the committee membership is uh there are still some vacancies in some of the committees as you look at the board agenda you will be able to identify where the vacancies are. So community this is uh an opportunity for you still to uh reach out to uh the uh district accountability committee chairs uh Miss uh Clawson or Miss Leak. Uh you can also reach the district support staff um uh and uh if you are interested in serving in one of these committees, reach out to them and see if there is a vacancy that you can help fill. Uh and so as the year progresses,
143there could be some new membership added and uh uh if there are new membership that is added, it'll be um uh it'll be uh shared with the board as to who are the new members that are being added to the committee at this point in time. Uh so the item that is on in front of the board is Milvy override oversight committee membership in charge and I see Mr. X too that who who's in the audience. Thank you for your service sir as the chair of this committee. I truly appreciate because there were a lot of new members in that committee um uh earlier this month uh in August when uh we uh had that committee meeting. Uh board any comments or questions on this particular item that is there? Okay, seeing none, roll call,
144please. Director Bankis, I. Director Kerry, I. Director Hayley, hi. Director Huber, I. Director Jorgensson, I. Director Malpachham, I. Director Aut. I. The eyes have it. The Millevy override oversight committee charges and membership was approved by the board. Um, uh, I'm going to move on through the next items. Next is the benefits insurance committee membership and annual charge. Um again, uh director Huber, this time can you please make your motion for the next action item? I move that the board of education approves the fiscal year 2025 2026 member names and charges for the benefits insurance committee as submitted. Second. Moved and seconded. Um uh again no information to add in this regard. Uh, any questions from the board on this committee membership? Seeing none, roll call, please. Director Bankis, I. Director Kerry, I. Director Hayley, I.
145Director Huber, I. Director Jorgensson, hi. Director Malpachham. Hi. Director Aut. Hi. The eyes have it. The committee membership and charges for the benefits insurance committee was approved by the both. The next is the district personal performance evaluation advisory council membership in charge. Director, can you please make the motion for action item H6? I move that the board of education approves the fiscal year 2025 2026 member names and charges for the district personnel performance evaluation advisory council as submitted. Second. Moved and seconded. Uh I'm assuming there is nothing in this as well. Uh, if there is no questions from the board, roll call, please. Director Bankis, I. Director Kerry, I. Director Hayley, I. Director Huber, I. Director Jorgensson, I. Director Mel Packham, I. Director Aut, I. The I have it. Uh, the membership committee and charges
146were approved by the board for the district personal performance evaluation advisory council. That's a mouthful. Um, moving on to the next item on the agenda. This is the district accountability committee, district uh accountability committee budget subcommittee and the and the accreditidation subcommittee. And uh uh Miss Leak and uh Miss Clawson are here as well. Um Director Hayley, can you please make the motion for action item H7? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I move that the board of education approves the member names of the fiscal year 2025 2026 District Accountability Committee or DAC the DAC budget subcommittee and DAC accreditation subcommittee as charge and charges as submitted. Second moved and seconded. Uh any information that you need to share? Thank you again for your services on both those things. Uh we will continue to work with
147you. I think um the uh sack training meet it's tomorrow. Tomorrow at 6:00 6:00 okay so I encourage all the uh school sacks uh to participate in it and uh um the information was shared with you Dr. Jurgensson you have Dr. are considered. Just a quick thank you for your proactive action on the USIPS. I know that that was kind of like we weren't hoping for that many and so you guys are tackling them right away and I just appreciate your communications on email getting everybody to get in there with those feedback forms. So, um you got good progress deadlines and we appreciate you guys doing that. Thank you so much. Thank you. You guys put in a lot of time and effort behind the scenes. So, thank you for your time and effort and
148your volunteer service. Um, thank you. I appreciate it. Um, seeing no further comments or questions, roll call, please. Director Bankis, Director Kerry, I. Director Hayley, I. Director Huber, I. Director Jorgensson, hi. Director Mel Packham, I. Director Aut, I. The eyes have it. The DAC and its subcommittee membership and charges have been approved by the board. And again uh uh an encouragement for the SAC committees to participate in the training session tomorrow at the Tesla um uh Tesla center uh tomorrow at 6:00. Uh we do have couple of policies that was moved from non-action into action policy KLG and regulation KLGR direction. Director Jurgensson, can you please make the motion for action H8? Yes. Yes, I move that the board adopts the revisions to policy KLG and regulation KLG-R. Second. Moved and seconded. As mentioned at
149the top of the meeting, uh this items were moved from non-action to action because there was a timeline constraint that was um attached with uh adopting this policy. I did talk to for the board's um um awareness I did talk to legal counsel Miss Deb Menkins and she strongly suggested that the board adopt this policy at this time as an action item because there are uh penalties that are attached if the board does not adopt this policy in a timely manner. Um superintendent call I'm going to go to Dr. X out here. Dr. X do you have anything to add? I do not. Okay. Uh board, any comments or questions at this time? Director Art, just a request. Um I know that the diligent community packaging is new for us, but if we could see
150even in the non-action items, a clean, non-redlined version of what the policy will look like without the redlinining, I would appreciate it. You know how picky I am. And I think in the next policy we're going to discuss there might be some typos and things which I'll gladly pass on but I can't be certain because of the red lining and the way it sets up. So just being nitpicky over here. Okay. Thank you. So what I hear from you director Art is that you have some format and uh typos and spelling whatever. Mostly on the next one. Um the these two in particular were easy enough to read. Um but just it's it's more of a anformational piece I guess a point of order really or point of information uh moving forward. Okay. Thank you.
151If you can share that information with the Dr. X he can make sure that those uh format changes that you are talking about this doesn't change in any way the substance of the policy. So roll call please. Director Bankis. Hi. Director Kerry. Hi. Director Hayley. Hi. Director Huber. Hi. Director Jorgensson. Hi. Director Mel Pekham. I. Director Aught. Hi. We submit the policies KLG and board doesn't have to adopt resolutions or uh regulations. So it's just a policy. Right. We'll adopt a regulation if there is a legal requirement to do so. In this case, in this case you do. Okay. Policy KLG and regulation KLGR were adopted by the board this evening. Moving on to the next item which are uh policies JRC student records release. Director Bankers, can you please make the motion for action
152item H9? I move that the board adopts the revisions to policy J-JRC. Second. uh moved and seconded. Again, the same explanation that I gave to the previous agenda item applies to this. This requires timely adoption by the board and that's why it was moved from non-action to action tonight. Uh um anything to add from your end? No, no additional comments. Okay, great. Uh any comments from the uh board other than what Director Art already shared? Uh seeing none, roll call, please. Director Bankis. Hi, Director Kerry. I Director Hayley. Hi. Director Huber. Hi. Director Jorgensson. Hi. Director Malpachham. I. Director. I. The eyes have the policy JRC was adopted by the board this evening. Thank you. Appreciate it. That concludes our action item for this evening. Moving on to non-action items that are on the board
153agenda this evening. We have uh a couple of uh URRA that's urban renewal authority u the tiff financing items that are in front of the board. Uh uh board members, I think most of us, Miss Huber, you are new to the board at this time and uh um we can certainly uh catch you up on this if necessary at a later point in time, but most other board members have gone through this process with other um projects uh in the past. Uh um with that I'm going to um uh uh there are two different projects and the first one that is going to be presented to the board this evening is going to be Odyssey at North Weber. Uh superintendent Gaul I'm going to turn it over to you to first to provide context. Uh
154Miss ODM. Okay. And uh we have um uh Janiah Walker from the urban renewal authority at this point in time. And so for the community's awareness as well, I serve on the urban renewal authority commissioner board as a representative of school districts in El Paso County. So uh with that, Miss I'll come to you. Thank you so much. Good evening, Board of Education and Superintendent Gaul. Before I turn it over to Mr. Walker to introduce his team, I just want to give a one minute overview for the viewing audience. Uh, Culver Springs Urban Renewal Authority has asked the district to approve a tax increment financing for Odyssey at North Weber project. It's in the Craigmore neighborhood and is approximately 4.4 acres. The district's general fund does not experience a financial impact under the guidelines of
155Colorado School Finance Act. any revenues not received from property taxes are backfilled by the state of Colorado. The district's bond and mill levy override funds do not receive a state revenue backfill. Um, tiff agreements are a common mechanism that allow government entities to assist developers with the cost of public infrastructure improvements by allowing the difference of the property tax at the current assessed valuation and the property taxes at the postimprovement assessed valuation to be moved from the district general fund to the urban renewal authority. So, that's my overview for what a TIFF agreement is. It's the same for the second presentation. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Jeriah Walker. He's the executive director for the Urban Renewal Authority, and he's going to introduce his team and give you a short
156presentation of what this project entails. And there is someone online, correct? Yep. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, good evening, uh, school board superintendent Gaul. Thank you so much for having me here. Again, for the record, Jeriah Walker, executive director to the Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority. Uh, this particular project we've been working on for about a year. Uh, and it lays within the you might have heard of some studies that have been taking place in that North Nevada corridor between Filillmore and Garden of the Gods. we had urban land institute come out and do a big study and this particular project is within the area of influence uh from the data that's come out of that report which should be released within the next week. Um with that being said I also want to mention
157that with these agreements there are required documents that we have to have in your packet. So the impact report the blight study the overall URRA plan the consultant that did that work is Andrew Kudson and Sarah with EPS. Uh Andrew is the one who's online. So if for some reason any board member has a question, I didn't I promised your board president that we would be efficient with our time. Uh so I didn't want to have him have to go through the whole presentation. But if there is a particular question that you have on this, please feel free to ask and he's online and would be happy to answer. Uh so with that being said, I want to go ahead and bring up the developer for this project, Mr. Drew Geyser uh with Blue Truck
158Capital and he's going to talk a little bit about this project, how it's helping meet the missing middle class as it comes to housing uh and what it ultimately means to the Crymore neighborhood. Thank you, Drew. Thank you guys very much for having me tonight. Uh my name is Drew Geyser. I'm with Blue Truck Capital. I'm one of the the partners on the development for this project and I'm just going to jump into it and I hope I can work this. There we go. All right. So, our development's a 4.4 acre site located in influence area, the renew north Nevada master plan that the uh city has out there. We're going to be building 120 new multifamily units for the leasing office work out. Um what we're targeting for is workforce housing. So, it's not
159affordable housing and it's not market rate housing. It's based in the 80 to 120% AMI. So, a lot of people want to know what that looks like. that looks like teachers, firefighters, police officers, um the people that make too much for assistance, but not enough that they um can live in the market rate of the more expensive housing. Uh that's pretty important to me. My background came from public service. I was a son of a teacher who worked 35 years up in Denver. So, as we look at that, that was kind of how we fell into this space. So right now some of the design aspects for it, it's on this triangular lot up there in the north Nevada, 12 dwelling units per building as opposed to the typical 24. We think that brings a
160little bit lighter density feel to the area, especially since we're transitioning from single family houses into where we are. This is from the Colorado Division of Housing just to show what we're talking about about the missing middle. Uh it's kind of that in between area where a lot of housing isn't developed right now just because the lack of programs outside of whatever is going on in the economy. Here's the location. You can see the arrow there. We're we're right on the border, the north zone to the the renewed Nevada plan. Uh one of the things that has come up with a lot of questions is the abundance of apartments in Colorado Springs right now. Um this was from one of our third party market studies for our financing with HUD. This shows that there's been
161about a 5.7year supply for three years worth of demand in Colorado Springs as a whole when this study was done. That's changed and the absorption's come back. But our primary area shows that we actually only have 1.8 years of supply for three years worth of demand. So where we are, we're actually in an area that that needs housing and hasn't had any housing delivered in a long time. This just goes over how we fit in with the the plan for North Nevada and the renewal. Uh this is some of the public infrastructure improvements that we'll be making. The Kramore area is going to be terminated into a culde-sac. Kind of eliminate that intersection. Uh having the four points there and making a little bit safer. We'll also widen North Weber Street as we go forward
162and work on the storm water crossing over. So the viability of it, we're currently working through a HUD 221D4 development loan. We're well into that process. We've completed all the third party reports. We're through per in permitting right now with regional and we've approved through the city with the development plan. Are you done? Yeah, I'm done. Thank you. Only thing I wanted to add for the board. Uh this project did get approved by the county commissioners uh just yesterday actually with Commissioner Nelson uh which was fun for us. Uh but we got through that on a 50 vote. Uh we plan on being at the library district next month and then ultimately we're trying to get this to city council before year end. Okay. Thank you board. Uh any questions or comments at this point
163in time? Uh just a quick question on the neighbors there. When will they be aware of this project or have they already been notified? So during the development plan with the city, they've all been posted, noticed, and approved already. Okay. With the city already. And do do those post like on the actual land? Is that where they post at or the part of the planning commission for the development plan that we have to put posters up? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Just because I know that there's been other, you know, we had an elementary school there that we turned into the West Edge Apartments and and there's another apartment complex in that same neighborhood. Um so was wondering on how we notified neighbors. So, thank you. You're welcome. So, help me uh recollect this. Just following up
164on Director Jurgensson's question, at this time there is no um occupant in that property itself. No, it's a vacant vacant lot. Vacant lots. Yeah. And part of urban renewal authority is to take blighted areas or areas that are identified as blighted areas and to bring about renovation to that area and also the surrounding neighborhood. Correct. And and they use a third party consultant for that. And I believe we hit five of the seven. Yep. Director, thank you. What um what is the timeline for your project? I'm I'm sorry if I missed it. I was just curious when do you expect it to be done? And I the re part of the reason I ask is if it's multifamily housing maybe we'll have some students that we can look forward to. Absolutely. Uh we are hoping
165and this is construction but hoping for first quarter next year we finalize this process and the financing but for finishing the construction start construction and then it would be 18 months. Okay. Thank you. So a couple of years from now we can expect Dr. Bankers. Yes. I wanted to be more specific on the average size of the apartments. It's I saw the slide that said on the average 932 square feet. So, can you give me an idea of the square footage for a three-bedroom apartment in this complex? Absolutely. And I'm going to go from memory, so I'm going to be approximate, but it's about a thou, 1100 square feet is where it is. And one of the things we did in this is you'll see it's called the unit mix. How many one bedrooms, two
166bedrooms, three bedrooms you have. We're heavy on the three bedrooms comparative to your typical development. So we have um two bedrooms are the primary and then three bedrooms and then one bedrooms as far as the number of units. I see. Thank you. I think all those information is in the packet too that you should I didn't see it. Yep. Just uh if you need all that information, you can also look at that at your convenience that the bank is whenever um any other comments or questions at this time. And this is a project when completed could benefit several of our families including teachers who are in the market for housing uh at this point in time. Um, seeing no other uh questions at this point in time, board, uh, this will come as an action
167item at the October board meeting. Okay? A month from now, it'll come uh, in the first week in October. In the meantime, between now and October, if you do have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. I can help answer you that questions or connect you with Jariah, especially Miss Huber. you are new to the board and we are happy to answer any of your questions myself or Jariah uh to get you caught up on what it is again to the community. Uh this is not going to impact our school districts because of the backfill that we get from the state. Um um and this is going to help uh renovate um uh our neighborhoods and u community out there as well. Thank you. Appreciate you being here, Mr. Giser. Um to you,
168Mr. Giser and to um the next um um developer that is going to come and present to us as well. We always look for opportunities that can benefit our students along the way if there are opportunities as this project goes along where students can be um use this as a learning opportunity for internships. Uh please contact us and let us know. It's uh something that we as a school district cherish that we can promote students. Yeah, absolutely. Any way we could cooperate in that. Yep. Please keep in touch with Mr. ODM and uh superintendent call as well and let us know. Thank you. The next is going to be an urbal uh again an urban renewal authority. It's a different um uh project. This is going to be the Marino and Cascade School District uh
169uh property tax increment revenue agreement. And this is going to be downtown area right by the um uh soccer stadium out there. uh right around that vicinity area and this is going to be for a hotel development that comes there uh along with uh potentially uh housing development as well further down the road. Uh Mr. Walker, I'm going to turn it over to you. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Malpacam. Um uh again for the record, Jeriah Walker, director of the Urban Renewal Authority. Uh I had mentioned that I we've been working on the last project for about a year. Uh I think uh my buddy Jeff Finn would agree that we've been working with Norwood on southwest downtown for probably about 10 years. Um this area has been a long uh long long scope of
170development. Uh we've had great partnerships with developers in this area. Everybody from Widner to Norwood along Marino Avenue. And really Marino Avenue has been a goal uh of the urban renewal authority to really extend the pedestrian experience and and what that looks like to Switchback Stadium. what that public plaza looks like all the way up through uh downtown in the trolley block area. Um this particular project the urban rule authority is excited about because it brings two unique features to this area. One of which is uh the Capird Hotel which I'll let Mr. Finn uh come up and speak to, but it also presents a unique opportunity for some added attainable housing in that area too. Um something that matches the Mill Street neighborhood which is just to the south of the property. Uh so
171with that being said again happy to answer any questions but I want to bring up Mr. Jeff Finn with Norwood Development uh and he'll be going through this project in detail. Thank you. Thank you uh board members and uh President Mal Pacham. Uh my name is Jeff Finn. I'm senior vice president at Norwood Development Group. We are a uh a family-owned real estate development company focused only here in the Pikes Peak region. Uh 96% of us is focused in the city of Colorado Springs and the other 4% of us is focused in the city of Fountain. So um happy to uh share for the next uh 60 minutes this presentation with you. Um I joked with your earlier you showed up at four o'clock today. Um I will fly through these slides. Um, but I
172do think it's worth the context uh for for you all to really understand uh the the overall project. Um, on the screen before you is a picture of what's called the new south end. Uh the new south end is uh as Da was saying is kind of situated on the southern end of downtown uh east of Widnerfield uh west of actually a lot of residential development um that is in and around kind of where the police headquarters is um along Rio Grand uh and um Weber and and Wasatch. Um, a little bit of history, which I always kind of find interesting, uh, which maybe some of you have history roots, um, is that, um, this area of downtown really, uh, uh, was part of the original annexation, uh, for the city of Colorado Springs. So
173it was uh it it you can see in the old maps from the uh the late um 19th century uh that the in in the outline of the urban area is that this was actually kind of predominantly for rail. Um we had a a trolley service and a and a and a train car service that ran throughout downtown. Some would like to bring that back. Um but you know really the the the history has really kind of expressed itself. You guys might be familiar with um the trolley block which is the revitalization uh not ours but certainly am a customer of many of the uh restaurants and um and establishments there. Um we did develop early in our um in our kind of um uh involvement in the area and in the neighborhood the Mayon
174Cascade which is 178 unit um uh uh luxury project not not not attainable uh like the previous um presenter was talking about but really started to establish this area these these two investments um and started to establish really a significant amount of investment in in around the neighborhood. Um, and I won't go into too much detail on here, but there are a lot of folks uh that have kind of worked on the revitalization efforts. A couple of those dots are ours. Um and um and you know I just I'd like to point out too that in this slide um all of the significant um investments that were and have been made in the area have either an urban renewal designation or an agreement with the sim similar tiff agreement with the downtown development authority. Um
175I serve as vice chair of the the downtown development authority. Um and and so um we are we are proud um as a fellow taxing entity uh in the DDA uh to partner um with our property tax increment to create such uh momentum over the last decade. Specifically, if you zoom in on the intersection of Cascade Avenue, South South Cascade Avenue and u and and West Mareno Avenue, the area that is outlined um which kind of looks uh like a jagged piano key um uh keyboard is the proposed urban area. I will tell you that it looks like that because we don't own the properties that are not shaded. So we are only um proposing to uh to place uh the urban designation on properties that we own and adjacent right of way that actually
176does need to be improved as part of part of the overall kind of development. Um Dry kind of talked about the definition of blight. Um it's not uh um even though this area has received a lot of investment, this happens to be the rightway in front of uh the Catbird Hotel and adjacent to the Catbird Hotel. Um and so uh it is grossly uh deficient with its infrastructure. So you think about what does your tax increment actually go to? It goes to um improving public improvements uh that are above and beyond uh the property lines of the project. And I have to put out make a make a note that yes, that is an active phone phone booth. I think uh the only one it's to call 911 in case there's an emergency at the
177Acorn Petroleum Station right next door. I don't know if it's going to stay or not. Um I think um I want to talk to you about two uh two projects. One is well on along the line and one is uh in formation right now. Um we had the the privilege to partner with Sage Hospitality. Um Sage, you may know some of some of their hotels in Denver um that uh that are kind of iconic and notable in in the downtown area. uh they they own and operate close to 100 hotels like this across across the country. And uh this uh this uh concept of Catbird, which is a um for lack of a better term, because I'm not one, a hipster extended stay um hotel, uh that uh if you think about a a um
178a residence in uh that has, you know, kind of a full living experience. um they do that and they do that in a much cooler presentation um for for um a segment of our population that um were kind of are your graduating students and um and their peers. And so this will be the second catbird. It's their it's Sage's plan to uh to roll out 15 cat birds across uh the country and they're starting uh their second cat bird here in Colorado Springs which is quite an honor. That's not how it usually happens. Um this is a image of catbird. So it's 181 keys. Your comment says or your commentary says 180. There is uh there is one kind of unique um living experience called the cle house which is in the lower leftand corner.
179Um but this is um this truly is a um a unique amenity to the neighborhood. Um I think most hotels there's uh are are for guest and four guest only. Um and this is actually um yes it's for guests but it's actually also the ground floor in in particular some of the rooftop experience is definitely for locals and wants to be known as local experience. I won't go into the floor plans uh very very specifically. Um but uh on site we do have public parking in a structured garage. Uh we we have a uh a courtyard as well as a number of kind of lobby experiences. This is actually kind of interesting too from the Mil Street neighborhoods perspective because this will offer grab-and-go options for the Mil Street neighborhood which don't actually exist right
180now um other than in the coffee exchange a block and a half are kind of around the corner. Uh seven stories in total. Um five of five of those stories seven. No, no, no, no, no, it's not 70. So we're stepping down from 27 stories to seven stories. Uh here sorry I had to take take a jab. Sorry. Um the uh and the um the the predominant mix really is a uh it's kind of like a micro unit. It's a 350 square foot um traditional guest room experience, but um the the room actually transforms as your living experience. And so um the the bed is elevated for storage. Uh there's a there's kind of a full kitchenet experience. Um and and then as you kind of go onto the ground floor spaces, the Cat Kitchen
181um kind of offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner plus uh late late night beverages um not for students, for for adults. Um but then also the um the the courtyard experience and and can answer any more questions specifically about the Catird Hotel. Um uh but are I'm really kind of also excited about the second opportunity here. So across the street just to the south of Mareno, we own uh like roughly six of six of the nine parcels and uh we have uh been working in partnership with the with the Mil Street neighborhood. If you know the Mil Street neighborhood, it's one of the most uh economically dis disadvantaged uh um neighborhoods in our community. They might be poor in income, but they are rich in love. and it has been really an honor to actually get
182to partner with them to really help um uh bring more housing into their their their neighborhood specifically. Um we we've been partnering um and working on the the really the foundation of a partnership and and looking at um uh I think seven or eight of those I can't count from where I'm standing of different land assemblages that can um uh house um the kinds of housing that they uh they are asking for. They're asking for senior housing. They're asking for affordable housing. They're asking for uh long long-term um agent agent place residencies uh residences. And so we're working with Elevation uh land uh community land trust out of Denver uh the Pikespeak Real Estate Foundation here locally um Habitat for Humanity in the neighborhood to really create a housing plan of which the um the
183neighborhood is a part of. Now a lot of people kind of say, you know, Norwood the for-profit side, how do you figure out how to do this? Um I I think we work on all spectrums of housing. I'm proud that we have one of the highest per square foot rents in uh with the May. Also proud that we have one of the lowest square foot rents in Greenway Flats on Springs Rescue Mission's campus. And so we need housing for all at every uh income level, not just uh those that can afford it, but also not just for those who um are are desperately in need for everyone. So, uh, I think my colleague here was talking about the missing middle. This is actually a diagram of the missing middle. Um, and and we're we're looking
184at, um, size and scale that's appropriate to the neighborhood. Um, and and in particular, what we have modeled, which we do not know what this project is actually going to be yet, and I think we would come back and talk to you and inform you of what the project would be once we do know. But we're on this process with the neighborhood to develop um you know the the site where it says resi can hold in a higher density uh through its zoning uh roughly uh 90ish units um that's in a uh five fivestory uh building does not mean that we're going to do that. It just means that that's what the zoning can help. So, talked a little about catbird, talked about the uh residential and do you have any questions? Thank you. I
185appreciate your presentation to the board at this time. Um, one of the things uh I do want to compliment you um serving on the URA board. Uh this Mil Street neighborhood was uh really active. they showed up at the uh URA meeting with uh banners posters, but uh it looks like they had that positive engagement with you and you've been working with them collaboratively in finding solutions that fit that neighborhood. So appreciate the collaborative conversation that you are having with the Mil Street residents board. Any questions on this project at this time? Director Jurgensson. So if you go to one of your top slides, the A1, is that where you're proposing the hotel? Yes. Sorry. You can answer that. Yeah. A couple and the B not. So the A1 is the hotel. A1 is the
186hotel site. And then B1, two, three, and four are the resi sites. And then we own B5. So we'll figure out something fun to do with that. Okay. So are you are is this proposing to close down the Mareno Avenue for those the sea people there that own homes there or that hotel is going to be right in A1 only? Um hotel is on A1 parcel. We fully own that parcel and Mareno Avenue um is closed to our west between the stadium and the experience at Epicenter. Okay. Um but it will remain open to cars and pedestrians. uh between Swatch which is to the street to the left and Cascade. Okay, that makes sense. So, it's not going to be closed. That street is not going to be closed, but it's part of the urban
187renewal designation. So, some of the dollars would go to the development of that road and the area around it, artwork or whatever it is that goes out there. And the soccer field is on this very far left bottom corner. That's west, I think. Right there. Yes. See that cursor? Okay. Right up there. Okay. It's that one. Okay. All right. And C1 and C2 are staying there. You're building just on A1. We do not own C1 C2 and so we can do nothing with C1 C2. I it's u the scale you have to kind of figure it out because like a hotel you think is a lot of property based on your renderings. And actually the site is actually too big for cat bird which is shocking I know but the the cat bird in rhino
188is on half the size of the site that we're building on. Wow. Okay. Thank you Dr. Thank you. I'm so glad Director Jorgensson asked those questions because that's exactly what I was wondering and and you touched on the fact that things are unknown. So, just to confirm, you don't yet know what you're doing with B5 in this picture either. Do not know what we're doing with B5. Okay. But presumably something where you are talking with that community. All right. Um the conversation with the community is about our property, but it's also about other people's property that we are going to be partnering with and help. So those dots that are kind of scatter were scattered throughout the neighborhood, those are consolidated um parcels, meaning people have already kind of bought a number of either homes
189or vacant land and and own those under the same ownership. And so we're actually working with those property owners, not necessarily as a developer, but as a kind of a community housing partner to help uh kind of bring about a variety of housing solutions. So, um, B5, I will just tell you, we we are we are thinking could be a Habitat for Humanity parcel, which Habitat has a certain scale that they do, which is different than, you know, kind of some of the other logos up there that were up there. Um, and so for our B1 through B4, we are looking at a higher density solution. the neighborhood in theory, and I say the in theory because they're not here, is in support of higher density solutions where zoning allows and the use um supports
190their plan. And so, um right um and and so um we we know that B1 through 4 will either be it will be a residential project. It will be either for rent or for sale. We're looking actually at a condo opportunity um that's an affordable condo um opportunity, but no promises just yet. We will come back with the plan um when it's time. Okay. Thank you. Can I ask a question? Go ahead. So, I just want to get clarity on that last sentence because every time the board has made a decision on Urra uh projects, they have been 99% in how they were presented. The A1 is very clear to the board, but the board will get an opportunity to opine on B1 through B4 and B5. And then if not, then why are they
191not separated into the board just voting on the A1 property at this time? Sure. So, we know that the B1 through B4 is going to be attainable housing. That much we know. It's just how we work with the neighborhood and how you know for instance, you know, Jeff had mentioned that they support a very very high density. Um I was actually frankly surprised at how high of a density that that neighborhood uh wanted and we still have to work with them on the scale of that, how big it becomes, etc. But we do know it's going to be attainable housing. We do know that that A1 piece will be the hotels. So the board would be the board would be approving the overarching UR boundary and UR plan with increment going to that area with
192the knowledge that it'll be attainable housing on those pieces. So the um that that would be the ask for the board when we come back to the next meeting. But that that part how how many of those units that's still being massaged with the neighborhood. But for time sake and and to capture that increment, we're that's why we're moving it forward now. But if but you'll notice in your in your packets, there's a um in the impact report, we outline the different phases of this project, phase one, phase two, um the increment that we project is going to be coming to both of those. All of that financial information, even though there is the back fill mechanism, is within your packets that that data is in there. And as was discussed with the previous project
193that was presented, this also went through the county commission and was approved. This one has not gone through the county commission yet. This is actually the first time that this project has been uh excluding the URA board out into the public. Uh we expect the county commissioner meeting, I believe, to be at the end of this month. Yeah, we'll be at the county by the end of this month and then possibly by the end of the year with city council. hoping for the end of the year with city council too. Yes, sir. Okay. Um, any other questions at this time from the board? I don't see any other questions at this time. So, this is going to follow the same timeline with this board. This will come at the October meeting as an action agenda
194item. Uh, board members, if you've got any questions after looking at your packet between now and October, please reach out to uh me and I can follow the questions to Mr. Walker and and I'll offer you with use my schedule, you know, and and coffees, whatever, conversations. I'll make myself available to any board members. Yep. Or the superintendent as well. Yep. And uh the same request that I made with the previous one uh with this one as well. There are plenty of opportunities here to partner with the school district in terms of uh student internships or um student beneficial uh opportunities out here. Uh and looks like Jeff wants to add something to that if there are opportunities that present uh itself, please uh reach out to our uh district administration and we can make
195that happen. Yeah, I wanted to say just on behalf of our ownership, we enjoy and uh are thankful for the partnership that we have with the 11. Um and we don't need an urban renewal project to, you know, kind of offer that um that partnership with students. I'm not a program manager um in the sense as you guys are and so um really any any time from uh construction I actually do want to point out that um catbird has a robust art program that I did not talk about um and uh uh more than 50% of the art will be curated locally within so that's paintings mixed media sculptures um and uh it was just on a call yesterday with our curator Narts um and uh they um they were uh actually thought it would
196be a great idea to uh maybe have a unique partnership um specifically with the Capert Hotel and Palmer's um art art program um and and not to single out other schools but um you know Palmer's our downtown school and so uh plus you can color in our sidewalks anytime. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. Our students are, as you saw, we presented one of our artwork earlier this evening. Our students are excellent artist. So, uh there are opportunities here for our students to benefit from. And you don't need to develop a program. The district can help you with that. Uh if there are opportunities to partner with Superintendent Colstein, thank you again for being here, both of you, Mr. Gser and Mr. Finn and uh Walker. Thank you. I appreciate it. Okay. Okay, that concludes the
197non-action uh agenda items for this evening. Um uh moving on to the future agenda items, tasks uh request from board members at this time. Dr. Kerry, you are up first. Uh this isn't really a request so much as just a update to the community. Um, one thing that the board has talked about on two consecutive retreats now is kind of this question of feedback loops between the board and high level district administration. We know, you know, the teachers of us on the board know that rapid feedback loops are really key to student learning. And we talked earlier in the meeting today about how feedback loops for teachers are part of, you know, developing their own talent and getting good at the job. And so we've been talking in board retreats about how do we provide
198more frequent feedback loops for administration to keep us updated on how strategy is progressing and how things are going. Um so I will be working to kind of develop a specific language to task administration with and you will see that at a future work session I believe. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that update. Uh so this is not a new agenda item that you are requesting more an update to the community when um that process is complete uh let me know about it then we can work it into the work session agenda. Rock, thank you. Just following up on the board retreat. Wanted to make sure that the energy project we discussed in June and August and from the audit that's been going on for two or three years that we have that on
199a future work session agenda. Just following up. Yeah. Uh thank you. And uh if I recall uh that was the feedback from the board that evening and I can certainly ask for a thumbs up on this uh subject matter that uh board members expressed that they would like a little further discussion. The discussion will be more focused on the uh finance mechanism that uh potentially could fund this project whether it is going to be through the um uh the loan EPC I think the energy performance contracting or defer until uh the bond which the board is seriously considering at this point in time. So that's your request at this time. Yes, correct. Yes. Okay. Uh uh that's both. Is this something that you would like to come as a discussion further? Yes, I see several
200thumbs up and this will come as a work session item uh at a work session um director Hayley and I meet with superintendent call tomorrow. So we will find a future work session for it to be scheduled. Thank you. I I appreciate that because I know that if we do decide to do the contract then we can start saving money and energy sooner rather than later. So I appreciate the the consideration. Thank you. That's the point of discussion at the work session. Okay. Thank you. Um seeing no further um future agenda item request. Uh so upcoming meetings, events, uh uh we are going to have work sessions on September 10th, 17th and 24th. A lot of that is going to be looking at um the work session agenda is going to be um filled with
201looking at um state testing CMAS data that became public uh this week. Uh was the embargo was lifted. uh but we will look at a deep dive on that data and also identify the schools that uh the board has to approve the school improvement plans for and that will come up in the following couple of weeks. Uh the DAC accreditation committee is already looking at those uh useps. So uh stay tuned as those information come to the board uh and then uh be prepared for those discussions uh the subsequent uh uh 10th 17th and 24th and on the 24th we'll also have a special meeting uh to put some of those useps as a non-action agenda item so it can be approved by the board in a timely manner for by October when it's due
202to um the Great. Okay. With that, seeing no further business, uh if there are no objections, this meeting will adjourn at 8:23 p.m. [Music]