BOE Special Meeting/Work Session

001Yeah, I don't have this. Okay. Good afternoon. We'll call the special board meeting for Wednesday, May 28th, 2025 to order at 4:04 p.m. Roll call, please. Miss Olsen. Director Bus here. Director Kerry, here. Director Hayley here. Director Jorgensson here. Director Mal Pakam here. Director Nelson here. Director here. So we have six board members in attendance in person in the boardroom and director Jurgensson is joining us um online today. Please join me as we observe a moment of silence. Thank you. Director Nelson, can you please make the motion to adopt the agenda? I move that the board I move that the board of education adopt the agenda as presented. Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call, please. [Applause] Director Binkis, I. Director Kerry, I. Director Hayley, hi. Director Jorgensson, I. Director Malpachham, I. Director Nelson, I. Director,

002I. The agenda has been adopted as presented. Uh we're going to have uh the director of our security um uh David Allison who's going to who's also retired military um leaders in the pledge of allegiance today to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, sir. Thank you for your service as well. The next item on the agenda is superintendent report. Uh, superintendent call. Uh, good evening board. I think we've got some slides up here. I wanted to start with just a massive thank you to uh all our staff, all our family, all our students, all of the community that participated in this year's uh graduation. We did all graduations at Robeson Arena this

003year. Last year we had a couple of our opportunitymies over at Wson, but we've gone uh full in on Robeson and it was a grand success. So, I'm going to I think I was one slide too far forward. There we are. Uh I'm a little off uh my timing there. uh over five days uh Robisonson Arena was all district 11. Uh I've been working with uh downtown partnership and we hope next year to be able to introduce uh a series of discounts in our downtown corridor for our families that come down and celebrate. Uh 9:00 event ends at 11:00, great time for lunch and a 3:00 event ends at 5, great time for dinner. So what a great way for us to be able to come down. But thank you to everybody that participated in

004graduation. I think probably the the most heartwarming experience for me is to see and to hear our student speakers um of the events as I heard of the students. Each one of them completely demonstrated what we hope uh our our graduate profile produces. Uh none of them um uh are off that message even though they each have their own individual message. It's a great celebration of the work that everybody is committed to in District 11. Uh, I wanted to give a bit of a Jenkins update. This picture, it might look concerning to you all, but if you have seen the picture before, this is the crack that is now closed. So, this is uh one of the walls. Uh, the progress of what's happening at Jenkins is moving very quickly. This is the media center

005wall in that hallway that uh went to the seventh and eighth grade educational space. And although you still see some gaps there, that's just uh cosmetic at this point. They've lifted and leveled the wall. The crack is gone. I really appreciate the support of the board of education. I really have great thanks to our staff, to our families, and particularly our students who have been dislocated. I've bumped into many families that did 8th grade continuation ceremonies from Doherty to now go and stay at Doherty. And so we talked about how do we even bring those kids back to ribbon cutings as we uh continue to celebrate the great things that are happening at Jensen Jenkins. Lots of demo happening in the rest of the building. Uh I know several board members were able to walk

006uh the building I think last week. So uh just continue to communicate. We will be doing the same uh to share with people the great things that are happening at Jenkins. The only other thing I want to do with my superintendent report is bear with me. I'm going to read uh the letter that I wrote that opens our budget book. I know most uh folks don't even know that we have an entire budget book and they certainly might not know that there's a superintendent's message. What's that? 78 pages. Uh Director Nelson, our treasurer, certainly knows that we have a budget book. But I just want to say emphatically uh how strongly I support this budget and how it is uh a budget that will reflect a direction that District 11 will continue on. Uh and

007so I'll read this. I don't normally read. I usually speak more adlib, but uh appreciate the team for putting this together. Uh it is with great pride that I share with you the 2025 2026 budget for the Colorado Springs School District 11. Every page, 78 pages of this document reflects the core belief that drives our strategy. The number one factor in student achievement is access to highquality instruction. Nothing is more important to the future of our district, our city, or our country than the education of our children. That responsibility shapes every decision we make, and it is one we carry with humility and urgency. This year's budget continues to prioritize what matters most, compensation. Even as the state grapples with ongoing funding short halls shortfalls, we are putting dollars closest to students. With a 10%

008raise across the board and higher recurring increases for roles that directly support instruction, we're continuing a multi-year trend of investing in our staff, especially our educators. Facilities. We are making overdue capital investments in our schools, beginning with Palmer High School and Jenkins Middle School. These projects are powerful examples of what fiscal stewardship can achieve even within known budget limits and they pave the way for larger plans in the future. Learning that reflects the future. Teaching and learning in this country have remained largely unchanged for over a century. And too often that stagnation has left students disengaged and underprepared. We are working to change that. This budget reflects a bold shift investing in hands-on learning, student agency, and real world opportunities that activate each student to become the agent of their own success. From paid apprenticeships

009to study abroad, from rocket day to the D11 promise, we are aligning our resources to create meaningful modern learning experiences that help every student discover their purpose and their and pursue their future. This budget also reflects a shift in how we work. With sightbased budgeting, we are placing more decision-making power into the hands of those who know students best, our school leaders. We are holding ourselves accountable to the dollars our community entrusts us with and we are aligning our portfolio of schools to meet the diverse needs and aspirations of our families. Thank you to the staff, the community, the board of education for your commitment to this process for their vision and support. Together we remain focused on delivering excellence for all with pride and great purpose. Your superintendent that concludes my report. Thank you,

010Superintendent Gaul, for sharing that letter with the entire community. I know a lot of people don't get to read the budget book, so you sharing that uh in a public meeting, it gets the message out. Uh uh graduations, I do want to um thank your entire team um on a job well done. Um this is the second year we are doing the graduations at Ropes and Arena. We learned from some of the challenges that we faced the first year. I only heard positive feedback and accolades from parents who were there out there. Um so to uh I saw Chief Nicole Artmer uh Jessica Weiss and her team from media productions uh David Allison and his team uh for um all the security that they provided. So a big thank you for all that were involved

011in it including the area superintendent um and the weather cooperated as well uh unlike what it's going to be at the Air Force Academy graduations tomorrow. So, um, thank you to your whole team and the Jenkins, uh, I was there like 10 days back and that picture that you showed, that crack was still almost an inch apart. So, a lot of progress has been made since I got to visit Jenkins. So, it shows that we are moving really fast with intentionality and urgency. Okay. Thank you. Um um board uh do you have any comments on the superintendent's report? Okay. I don't see any at this point in time. Uh uh we have a public hearing scheduled at 4:15 for the fiscal year budget. Yeah. P. Okay. The public comments. Um do you have any Miss

012Olson? Do you have any public comments at this point in time? Okay, we do not have any public comments. So, um, and we do have a public hearing for the fiscal year 2526 budget. And do we have any public comments on that budget? One comment. Okay. So, that is scheduled to start at 4:15. We are at 4:14. So uh I will just go over the protocols. You will have 3 minutes uh to the person that is I'm going to call out your name. Um you will have 3 minutes for your public comment and um the item that you are going to address specifically is going to be regarding the budget. Please monitor the clock uh and um uh ensure that your uh comment is going to be civil, professional and courteous. Um and we are

013at 4:15. So, Miss Rebecca Asdo canine. I'm a little horse because my allergies, so bear with me. Good evening, school board members, superintendent, and community. My name is Rebecca Kenderdine, a teacher in district 11, and I'm here to address a critical issue impacting our students education. This past year, I participated in the district CKLA curriculum pilot, but I was unable to secure the materials needed to fully implement it for my ESL students. Despite my efforts speaking to multiple staff members and trekking across district offices, I received no resolution, only vague responses and word salad. At one point, security even questioned what I was doing. This lack of support hindered my ability to deliver the curriculum effectively toward changing my students learning. Now, I've learned through board docs that there's unspent money in last year's budget.

014Why then couldn't I access the resources my students needed? Will I receive the necessary supplies for the 2526 school year? I urge the board to investigate this disconnect, ensure accountability, and prioritize timely distribution of materials so our ESL students and all students can benefit from the curriculum as intended. Thank you. Thank you. That is the end of the public hearing for public comments. I don't have any other person signed up for public comments. Moving on to the action agenda items on today's agenda. The first one is a contract award uh elementary school new roof. Um, Dr. Bankers, can you please make the motion for action item D1? I move that the board of education approves contract C 2025-1019 to Weathercraft Company of Colorado Springs for 1,149,130 and allowed an additional 10% cost increase for any

015approved contract modifications without further board contract approval. This project's performance period will begin May 29th, 2025 and end July 31st, 2025. Second. Moved and seconded. Uh this is new information. Superintendent G. I'll turn it over to you and your team. Uh Chief B. Good evening, Board of Education. Thank you, Superintendent Gaul. I'll keep this very brief, but I would like to introduce some of the guests with us tonight. From Weathercraft, Mr. Matthew Woodworth. He is the project manager from Weathercraft. Um the contracting officer, Chris Sandaval, and from the capital program team, Jen Hotelelling, and I know I'm going to goof this up, Dan Rangus. Rangus. All right. Woohoo. He is our D11 project manager. Thank you very much for coming tonight. This construction contract is for a complete roof replacement at Autobon. The existing roof

016was installed in 1996 and districtwide we have about four other elementary roofs that have been installed within the last five years. We still have quite a few to that need attention. This construction contract was competed and evaluated using our best value source selection procedures and evaluating technical approach and a proposal safety schedule capacity and capabilities. Past performance and pricing. We received three responsive proposals and Weathercraft received the highest technical scoring and was the lowest overall price. We have used Weathercraft for other projects within the district which include Palmer, Bristol, and Grant. This project was put on hold for a short period of time while competing initiatives and was recently reinstated for contract award. If you approve tonight, work will begin tomorrow. Tomorrow. They are ready to rock and roll. If they start tomorrow, the completion

017date is July 31st. This contract has all of our standard terms and conditions. It does have liquidated damages at a daily assessed rate of $500. And this fourly builtup roof has a 20-year warranty. the total proposed project cost of $1,149,130 with the additional 10% allowance for any approved modifications uh without requiring further board approval. Potential unforeseen issues of similar projects may include the need for the roof drain replacements or sections of metal sheeting uh replacement once the existing roof is removed. This project is 100% um small business and at this time I'll turn it over to the board for any questions they might have. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that presentation. Thank you for all of uh the people in the audience that have joined us today. Board, any questions. Director Hayley, you said

018fully completed or substantially completed. July 30th. Fully complete. Okay. Thank you. A brand new roof for the start of the school year. Correct. Okay. Any other questions? Seeing none, roll call, please. Oh, I was just going to make a comment that that roof was put into place when I was at school at Ottabon 96. I would have been a student there. So, it's only six years old. Yeah. Director Bankis, I. Director Kerry, I. Director Hayley, hi. Director Jorgensson. Hi, Director Malpachham. Hi, Director Nelson. Hi, Director Aught. Hi, the is the contract for the roof at Autobond has been awarded to Weathercraft. Uh, best wishes and we look forward to a completed work in early August. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is um approving the purchase of uh the

019four properties, four real estate properties um located uh adjacent to Palmer High School. Um and this is uh this resolution is delegating authority to negotiate and sign contracts to the chief operating officer. Um Director Kerry, can you please make the motion for action item B2? Yes. I move that the board of education approves resolution 2025-45 to authorize Chris Odum, chief op chief operations officer to enter into and sign the purchase agreements and all documents necessary to effectuate the acquisition of four real estate properties located at 219 East St. Brain Street, 221 East St. Brain Street, 430 North Weber Street and 429 North Nevada Avenue, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80903 for a not to exceed sum of $4,175,000. Second. Moved and seconded. Um uh the board reviewed this information related to this agenda item during executive session

020on April 30, 2025. Superintendent Call. Any additional information to the board at this time? No. Okay. Discussion by the board. Bo, uh, you have any comments or questions before roll call, please? Director. Thank you. A constituent reached out to me today with some concerns about the properties and their historic value. Could you address that for us? Um she specifically said they all four had historic um they were registered as historic locations I believe and so I wanted to just check in on that and what if these are specifically to be torn down or if we would resell the actual buildings. Thank you. If I could get Dr. Weise to come up and address the historic question. Sure. Absolutely. Thank you. Um the properties are located within the historic Wasach Weber neighborhood. Properties themselves have not

021been deemed part of the historic register. Um nor are they in the historic preservation overlay. However, um we have had ample conversations with multiple historic societies. Just last week, I was on a Zoom call with representatives from the Old North End, from Patty Jwitt, from Shooks Run neighborhood, listening and learning about the importance of these properties and what they mean to the neighborhood. And the commitment that we've made to them is to continue to have conversations about what our best options for preserving history within that space of the neighborhood. um without knowing exactly spec what what is asked or needed just yet. It's hard to come up with an answer on in the sense of yes, they have historic value. Yes, we want to listen. Do we have a plan for will they be torn

022down tomorrow? No, not yet. Um what we want to do is continue listening and talking. We have a uh presentation to the historic preservation board on June 2nd that we'll be talking with city planning about um and continue to explore options. We've proposed things such as relocating the properties, incorporating historic attributes into our project as well as what else we can do to elevate the historic nature of the current Palmer building. So, those are all considerations that are still on the table and conversations we'll be having going forward. Thank you. You're good, director. Thank you. Thank you for that update. Uh Dr. Weiss and um u superintendent G if um based on the conversations you have with the historic preservation board if that could come as an update to the board in the Mars report.

023Thank you. If there is anything that the board should be aware of. Any further questions from the board on this topic? I don't see any other questions. And uh the uh funding for this is coming from the capital reserve. Okay. Thank you. Roll call, please. Director Bankis, I. Director Kerry, I. Director Hayley, I. Director Jorgensson, hi. Director Melpachham. Hi. Director Nelson I director I the eyes have it the board has approved resolution 2025-45 the next item on the agenda is uh resolution 2025-46 approval for the sale of real property and delegating authority to negotiate and sign a contract to the chief operations officer and this is related to the sale of Roosevelt Chartered Academy building. Dr. Rod, can you please make the motion for action item B3? Yes. I move that the board of education

024approves resolution 202546 granting authorization to Chris Odum, chief operations officer, to execute and finalize the sale agreement for the property located at 205 Byron Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80910. transferring ownership to Roosevelt Charter Academy at a sale price of $8,150,000. Second. Moved and seconded. Uh again, the board reviewed information related to this agenda item during an executive session on January 15th, 2025. Superintendent call. Um any additional information for the board's consideration? We do not. Okay. Uh board, any uh questions or discussions about this agenda item? Seeing none, roll call. Roll call, please. Director Bankis, hi. Director Kerry, I. Director Hayley. Hi. Director Jorgensson. Hi. Director Malpacham. I. Director Nelson. Hi. Director Aught. I. The I have it. Uh the um resolution 2025-46 has been approved by the board. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to

025the non-action item on the agenda. There are several um budget related items on the non action item uh today. Uh starting with um use of a portion of beginning fund balance. Um uh all these are coming as non-action and uh this these items will go as action in next uh week's board board meeting regular board meeting. Um superintendent Gaul I'll turn it over to you for the presentation of these items. Dr. Comfort has a brief, but I do want to get on the record my great thanks and support and appreciation for Laura Heronic and the work that she's provided for the district. Laura is taking over the chief financial officer position in district 8. Um and so although she's not here right now to be celebrated, we have uh done a lunchon for her already

026and just want to acknowledge the decades worth of um accounting that she has done to be able to allow us to present this year's budget as well. We are a better district for our time with Laura and I appreciate her. Dr. Comfort, good evening board. I will echo Superintendent Gaul's sentiments. uh obviously financial services uh will do the does the majority of the work that you'll see tonight and that's led by Laura Heronic so we're very grateful to uh her time for the district um I invited her tonight uh but she was afraid that you would give her too much credit so she she decided not to come um Melissa is pulling up uh some of the attachments that we'll go over some of these until we get to the larger budget disc is fun

027we carry large reserves you'll see this on on the sheet. Uh roughly hund00 million or a little of our 25%. Um and so this is us just uh clearly stating to the board and the community what the planned use of those reserves are. And so you will see obviously our largest fund balance is what we call our contingency. That's our um oh no money that we we save throughout the year. But then everything else is uh pretty connected to uh its its specific use. Um, and so you'll kind of see not only do we car carry general fund fund balances, but we carry fund balances for a variety of other programs, risk management, preschool, food services, capital uh, programs carries their own uh, contingency. MLO carries a fund balance. So when you add all of

028that up, uh, we carry a lot of fund balance. So that's why we do feel comfortable being pretty aggressive with our budget because we have lots of safety net money. um now if that gets uh in jeopardy in the future, we'll have to evaluate that. But we we carry a lot of reserves. And so this first resolution is just um kind of signifying that we are aware of those reserves and where they go. Do you want us to present all the resolutions and then we can That's what I was going to say. Yep. It's okay. Uh so this would be then 2, three, four, five. All of those are budget related items. if you can present all of those together and then I can open it up. Yep. The the second one that Miss Olsson

029is bringing up is a continuation of the first one, but this is our restricted uh fund balance. And so we do have mandatory set aides that we cannot decide not to do. And so you'll see those listed here. Taber reserves. Um we carry an incumbrance reserve for contracts. Um you'll see this instruction and non-instructional carryover. As the board is aware, our schools instructional and non-instructional accounts carry over yeartoear as do very specific uh departments. Um and then there's a few of other things there that you kind of see, but this is uh these are restricted fund balances. So these cannot be used for anything other than the the listed sources. This is the board authorizing inner fund borrowing. So what this means is you'll see two uh departments listed here basically our grants department and

030production printing. We we do have a time where we received a grant award letter but we haven't yet received the money and so instead of delaying the implementation of a grant program we allow the grant grants office to borrow from the general fund and then it gets repaid. Uh the same thing happens with production printing. They have some pretty heavy startup costs that sometimes we need to loan them some money. They pay us back. We used to have other departments. Food nutrition services used to be on here. Um preschool used to be on here. But because they're now carrying such large fund balances themselves, they can be borrowing from their own fund balance and don't need to come to the general fund. And so this is the board authorizing, if needed, the general fund to

031loan grants and production printing until they receive their revenue to pay us back. Okay. Now, we're going to talk about the the big budget. Uh, as Superintendent G stated, very proud of the um there's one number I'm going to be really excited to share and it's going to seem like a not exciting number, but I'm really excited about it. Uh, but before I get started, uh, as with tradition, I do want to invite our DAC budget subcommittee chair, uh, Mr. Carl Scheler up. He's going to kind of give his, um, words about our budget and our IBR process, and then I'll step back in and go through my presentation and then answer any questions on any of the items we presented. Hello, Board of Education. Carl Scheler, uh, chair of the budget subcommittee for this

032past year. Uh, I've got a couple of comments that'll be a little off script because there is no script. Uh first thing I wanted to do was indicate that I was a bridge essentially between Amanda Huber who was the chair last year had a lot of commitments and the person we are now uh recommending for the chair next year which is Rachel Johnson who comes with a lot of credibility a lot of tops in terms of her her experience. Uh so again appreciate the opportunity to be the chair uh once again for just a year. Wanted to quickly thank a few folks uh starting with director Nelson who sat over there at pretty much every one of our meetings and listened uh to us. Every once in a while she would raise her hand and

033she would clarify her position or clarify the board's position uh which was very helpful. Uh Dr. Comfort was also a big help to our committee, very responsive to us. Uh we started with the mandate that we not overt tax uh the most of the staff of D11 and he helped us bridge that. uh he was often the only person there from the staff at least for the full uh committee meeting uh but did a very good job of translating information to us so the rest of the staff didn't necessarily have to be there for the whole meeting you have our report it's part of the voluminous and comprehensive report that Marian Clawson gave you so I won't go into that in detail uh we did look at the midyear budget modifications we looked at the

034uh assumptions that went into the budget. Almost invariably we did a lot of critiquing, questioning, commenting, but ended up oftentimes almost invariably on the same page as the administration in terms of what was being recommended. There were a lot of thumbs up at the end of the day on what we did. Uh Vicky Mclofflin was our vice chair. really appreciate her help including putting together the report and Daniela uh Cade her uh listening to me all the various comments I made on the side on the agenda on the minutes that sort of thing uh was very helpful. Uh again that bridging piece uh we're looking forward really to having a parent uh member uh as the chair hopefully next year going forward. I've always said said it again and again that I you that perspective

035of have being an active parent uh is you just can't replace it. Uh, coincidentally, I just got back yesterday from uh, our youngest daughter's graduation with tons of academic honors from a college back east and that foundation was laid here and I learned a lot from her as I was her active parent, but it's different now. Um, again, we worked on the midyear modifications. We looked at the preliminary budget uh, uh, assumptions. We focus more I think than we have in the past on compensation even though that's a challenging timing issue policy issue for the board but we it is the number one uh budgetary function and at this point priority of the district so we appreciate the opportunity to be to participate in that. We also looked at the sitebased budgeting process uh had

036a very good task force process that we followed from that is something that will be important going forward and will shift more to the sack level uh because again uh with sitebased budgeting school-based budgeting there's a lot more higher dollar decisions that will be made prioritizations done at the school level. Uh going forward, uh involvement in proposed bond issue, which presumably will go forward, is something that we believe is important. Continuing to be aware of the and and participate in the sitebased budgeting process. And then finally, I do want to have one statement that I wanted to make as an individual. Uh and that is that uh we do a lot of work and we appreciate the opportunity to do that. And I do think it's going to be challenging to fit all of that

037into a single evening. Uh and I shared that with others and I will share it with you now. Uh it might be a bridge using the term bridge, a bridge too far for a pilot. Uh but again uh we appreciate the opportunity to serve as the budget committee. Like to thank all of our members. Uh and again ultimately we landed in the same place as the administration uh with a lot of comments and questions on most of uh what you see in front of you right now. Any questions of me? Um let Mr. Dr. Comfort finish it and then if you can just take a seat out there and if the board has questions in the end we can direct the questions to Dr. Comfort and all you. Thank you so much. Go ahead Dr.

038Yeah. I do want to acknowledge uh Mr. Scheler and his leadership of the deck as he as he mentioned um a more intensive process this year with uh task forces and all kinds of things but I think a really valuable process to make sure that they were influential in the budget that we bring to you today. Okay. Um obviously everything about our budget proposed budget is built on assumptions. As you know we really true up the budget in the midyear budget. Um right now we're making a lot of assumptions. So you'll see we're making assumptions on enrollment. Um, as well as funding, we uh are expecting a per pupil funding amount next year of 11,546. I will guarantee that will adjust to some degree at midyear. U most often that goes up a few dollars,

039which is always better for us. Um, and then you'll see total program and then also total program as a percent of all general fund revenue. When we look at our resources available, I just talked to you about those fund balances. So, uh, just north of hund00 million in fund balances, then you'll see the, uh, revenue from our school finance act called our total program transfers in and transfers out, um, from the MLO, as well as we do transfer out money to charters, uh, as you could imagine, because they get their per pupil as well as their fair share of MLO funding. And so, you'll see there our net general fund resources available is north of $400 million. It's a lot of money. Uh and then you'll see our uses and resources school-based expenditures at 287

040million. And then you'll you'll see um the remainder there. What I um well first of all this is uh our graph on where we're getting our funding. This is always a question from our tax base. Uh and so what you'll see is when you include our MLOS's we are basically a 50-50 funded system. Uh our community gives us half and the state backfills um just just under half. uh that is a variable that differs districtto district. What I would say is because of our MLO uh our community is substantially supporting our school district and so we want to make sure we're using those resources as effectively as possible. Okay, here's the number I'm really excited about. Uh you've seen this graph every year. Um what I want to draw your attention to is that instruction

041at 59.9%. Okay, last not last year, two years ago we were at 57%. I know that seems small to go from 57 to 59.9. You got to remember every single percent represents 1% of $353 million. So when we talk about the reduction in central office spending uh over two years, you'll see we have shifted the needle on spending in this district by north of $7 million focused on instruction. And the board has set a really ambitious goal to get from 60, we're still not even technically at 60, uh, to 70. So that means we still have lots of work ahead. Uh, but we're very proud of the work that we have done to move that needle. As I shared with you, that number of 57% was stationary for nearly two decades. And so in two

042years, we have started to creep that number forward. And we will continue to do so um, as we can in in the next couple of years. You guys aren't as excited about that number as I'm. I promise it's a big deal. Okay. Uh, significant new expenditures, you'll see compensation and benefits and then school discretionary funds. I want to be clear about something. School discretionary funds is really about, as we spoke in our work session last month, remember our title one money is now moved into the general fund. Uh, so it is not separate. It's still tracked separately, but it's in the general fund. And so that's largely title one money, discretionary money coming into the general fund. Okay? We didn't increase school discretionary accounts by nearly $5 million. We did increase them a little bit,

043but it's really uh title one money coming over across. I want to take the opportunity while I'm talking about title one to clarify. If you have read in the budget that it looks like we reduced title one or grant positions by 50 or 60 positions. If you read the budget narrative, it describes what we've talked about multiple times, which is they're just not in grants anymore. They are now actually in the general fund. H in fact uh our total FTE across schools is up 79 FTE from last year. So roughly 50 of those are title one positions but also in the autonomy that we've given schools schools did add positions uh through that budget build because they chose how to use their resources. So I just wanted to make sure and clarify that. And then

044everything else you'll see there is what uh Mr. Schuler was talking about about the IBR process. The board has seen that line item by line item. We did categorize just for brevity a little bit, but you'll see outside of uh election and um graduations. Uh it was a really focused budget build on academic programs for students. That's now what we're doing. We are focusing our money on um the experience of kids in schools. And so that's why you see all of those really related to that other funds. So these are the appropriations for all of those other funds that I talked about that all carry their own fund balance as well. Uh the only number here that looks dramatically different is that 198 million for capital programs. Remember that is because they have 130 million

045or 125 million in a COP. Uh if you do that math, 198 minus 120 is still more than our capital budget. That's because we're just crossing fiscal years for projects now that we'll spend down because we do most of the work in the summer. Questions? Okay. Thank you so much for the comprehensive presentation and superintendent Gaul also read that letter earlier in his superintendent report. I want to start by thanking the that budget uh chair call Schuler thank you for being here present the work done by your committee and you acting in that bridge role from last year to the next year. Thank you for the report that you provided to the board as well and please carry our appreciation to the rest of the committee members out there. Um and thank you for your

046report as well Dr. Comfort and um uh also the work by Missik. Um uh appreciation goes to her for all the time that she has spent in the district. Uh, I know that Director Nelson wants to make a comment. And, uh, Director Nelson, um, I have a question on I think it's the attachment to the second agenda item. It's the beginning fund balance authorizing use of the beginning fund balance. I don't know if we can get that pulled up. The attachment on the second agenda item, it's the uh, portion of beginning fund balance resolution. the first one 2025-33 and uh I'm I'm just curious how preschool fund is where it calls outation but our other categories like food service aren't calling that out and if I know you and I have been talking offline I've

047been asking lots of questions I still have another list and so if this is one you want to get back to me later that's fine but I just thought I would ask now yeah I will have to get back to you why we call it out specifically separately I'm not sure what I will say is uh so you drew a a comparison um they are a little different in the sense that food service is revenue generating so food service largely is their own independent business right they bring in revenue and then spend it so technically their compensation is their decision as well where preschool um even though it's it's not revenue generating so we kind of decide that but why we call out non-recurring compensation specifically I I'm not sure but I can find out

048yeah I would have thought it would be flipped that we would have to call out the compensation for food service because I know you've taught me that they um they provide their own pockets of money that food service is its own little bucket I believe the answer on preschools because it doesn't come to us from the same funding stream as the rest of our budget. If well, I don't want to go back, but the chart that showed 50% from the state than the local and the MLO, the state funds this out of um a a completely different mechanism. It's actually based upon a different tax that they collect. So, I think we're asked to account for it separately by line item um because of that reason, but we'll get a a final answer and share.

049I would have thought that would be the same for food service because it's similar. We we will absolutely find out. Uh I guarantee you, Mr. IC will have a wonderful answer that she's probably told me before. Um I will get that to you. Um, and then if you'll go back to the [Music] presentation just want to call out on uh, nope, previous slide. Previous next slide. Next slide. Sorry. Further down. Further down. One more. Okay, I just want to call out that the mill levy override here because I had this question that it's um stating 7,530,000. That's not the total amount of MLO dollars that we see we get at this point with the inflation rate that we're allowed to take in the 2017 MLO. It's closer to $81.5 million. And so this what you're

050seeing here is um unallocated, correct me if I'm wrong here, unallocated dollars that um have built up or that we intend to spend. For example, that we know we're going to be purchasing new ELA curriculum. And so it's the nonrecurring portion of those MLO dollars. And so um that's what this is. It's not the total amount of MLO. Yeah, that's correct. Thank you for that, Director Nelson. uh the the remainder of our MLO budget um is already appropriated to all of those accounts. So if you read through the entire budget book, which I know everybody has done, um you'll see that we've already appropriated $18 million of MLO to the capital budget because there's a PIP related to that. You'll see that we've already allocated $9 million towards compensation. So we've already appropriated that. This

051is just after we've spent all of the money. This is to Director Nelson's point the the non-recurring amount left over. Um and in the future if we want to I mean it's in the budget but if we want to more clearly higher in the budget uh more visibly demonstrate where that goes we absolutely can. Okay that is all I had. Thank you for all the hard work. Please pass on our thanks to the team and Laura. Thank you for serving the district for so long and we really appreciate the time and energy you've served. Thank you. Dr. Kerry, I don't really have any questions. I just want to grandstand for a moment. I'll try to be fast. Um, when I came onto the board, I have I saw what I called at the time the

052scariest graph in public education. I've referenced this probably a dozen times over the last year and a half. It's the graph that shows staffing going slightly up while enrollment falls off a cliff. And I said at the time that this is something that we have to, you know, get better at and we have to take a look at and we have to fix. And Dr. Comfort and his team received some clear priorities and directives from the board when building out this budget. Our superintendent's favorite saying is the number one way to student achievement is access to high quality instruction. We were clear that we want dollars spent as close to the classroom as possible. We were clear that we wanted all new state money to go to compensation. And you're when you presented the numbers

053that you were excited about, right? We're never going to jump up at the dis and and cheer, but I do want to try to share a little of my excitement here. Remember that school districts in Colorado right now are facing a very difficult combination of for many of them declining enrollment, state funding issues in general, uh, and from, you know, loss of esser funds and the like. So, what we're looking at here with this budget is again a what did you say? something on the order of $7 million right sizing in central administration shifting over to prioritizing instruction and you know with slightly different gradations 10% in compensation whether that's a combination of recurring non-recurring steps and lanes and I think that does not include benefits or that does include benefits do you it the

054the 10% does not include benefits okay so then you know covering increased costs and benefits over on our side as well. So, I would just like to say huge thanks and congratulations to Dr. Comfort and the team. I think you've done tremendous work here. I think this is a really good budget that corresponds to what the board is prioritizing, which is spend money close to the classroom that means instruction. Uh 60% I'm going to round to 60 generously. Uh is great and I'm excited to see us continue that work over the next few years that I'm here. Thank you. Patrick, thank you. Uh on the presentation slides, um page two, if we could look at the very bottom, this page two or two, sorry, one back, Melissa, one back. Sorry. Y at the very bottom

055there, total program as a percent of all general fund revenue. Uh can you address what's in parenthesis there about transfers in from MLO then? And maybe this was what director Nelson was speaking to earlier. Yeah. So it's it's similar to uh it's not a perfect representation but it is similar to this which is if we look at the total program as a percent of all general fund revenue and we don't take into account MLO it's 86% because we have a lot of money in reserves. Once we take into account MLO revenue, uh, then that amount drops obviously because there's an additional $70 million in MLO money. So other revenue sources being grants. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. So yeah, that there's I mean obviously the general fund is the largest part of our revenue, but there

056are a variety of other uh revenues that we bring in as well. Okay, maybe it'll make make more sense to me by the time I get the rest of the way through the budget, but I'm going to leave that one. The other question, so a couple of more pages in um the significant funds, I think it's page six. There we go. Good. Yeah. Significant new expenditures. Thank you. Um can you just address for us there's school discretionary funds in addition to um the school-based or sitebased budgeting implementation and the school support. Can you differentiate for us what those are or at least for me? Yes. So the school discretionary funds are as I mentioned that is the moving of what was discretionary funds in title one into the general fund. Okay. Uh so that's the

057majority of that. It's not all of that. We also because some schools are projected up in enrollment so their their discretionary accounts are higher. So that's a portion of that as well. Uh the school-based budgeting implementation if you remember um I requested and it went through the IVR process that that I have a contingency a one-time contingency for the implementation and the fall adjustment uh that will occur in SBB because I'm not quite yet certain how all of those numbers will play out. Uh and so that's that 700,000 for that. I will have to look at the specific IBR requests we categorize school support. There's some other requests that kind of culminate into $500,000. If you look in the budget, they're all detailed specifically, but I absolutely can send what we combined into that $500,000.

058Okay. Thank you. And I guess the other question I have, again, not having looked completely at the budget, career and tech education programming. Um, I appreciate that we continue to support that so significantly. Can can you address at all what those particular what that increase is addressing? Yeah. So, uh, we still have some of our apprentice programs and some of our work-based learning programs that as we continue to prioritize budget, haven't yet made themselves into the recurring budget. And so, we continue to fund them um in this way. And so, much like academics, if you remember, as an example, in fact, it's well, it's combined up there. Um, we uh created a budget of $750,000 for our VAPA programs across the district. The agreement was the district would give half and they would they would

059find and prioritize half of that in their recurring budget and then over time we'll stair step that down until where they're completely sufficient self-sufficient. So we're in the same place with career and teched. Um our leader uh Mr. Robersonson is working to prioritize his budget and kind of figure out what will be in recurring and as he works through that process we continue to fund him with some onetime money. Okay. So interesting that it's considered onetime money then that is the plan then you're saying yeah that yeah and we we continue to to fund a number of initiatives with uh with our non-recurring resources as we give them time to build that into their priority list and hopefully as we have time in the upcoming years to find recurring money to put into our academic

060programs as well. Okay. I I want to acknowledge the significance here for everyone that normally a line like that comes at a midyear or endofear fallout money. So, we're pre-planning for over half a million dollars for those programs. Nobody has been more um resourceful than Dwayne in finding that change in the uh in the laundry room. But we in the same way that you heard Dr. comfort talk about our visual and performing arts. We want to put we're starting at non-recurring dollars but into the budget. It is now budgeted that we expect this much at least to go towards this. Not how do we find the money? We want to be programmed the beginning of the year for what we expect to spend. Not having to find that money midway through the year and hoping

061that we can get it. I'll never forget thesbians asking me to be able to go to a national conference. Those are the types of things that should already be in a budget, not can we find money at the end of the year for kids to be able to um compete nationally for their uh CTSO or their CTE experience. Thank you. Um are we continuing to fund the apprenticeship program within D11 as well? We are. Okay. Uh now what we I don't remember this was discussed at at a recent DAC meeting. Um, our hope is over time, as an example, I have a apprentice in our grants program. If you haven't met him, Luke, he is a brilliant mind. I go down there and he's like, "Look what I did. I did a I did the

062ACER." And I'm like, "I don't even know what that is, man." Um, but we're hoping that because they're showing so much value, district departments will start to start to build in their pay into their budget. But because we want to incentivize that again, we're still paying for that separately with the bridge over time saying as this becomes a priority and a non-negotiable in the system that we will build that into our budget. All right. Thank you. The significant second significant part to apprenticeships is we're now trying to spin apprenticeships outside of the district. So then we're not carrying that 50% cost of that hourly wage that we pay. And so even in the state of the district conversation this morning, one of the asks to key influencers in our community is can you open your

063doors for paid apprenticeships? We will work with the state to get those apprenticeships built. We don't want to ask our local economy to have to carry that load of how do you build in what's approved and what's not approved. That's on us to be able to do. But then when we get that paid apprenticeship with uh Dr. for Mel Packham's uh engineering consultancy then that company is helping to cover that cost. We believe so much in apprenticeships that we ate that cost initially to make sure that we could control and design the the programs to know that they could work and land well outside of the district. But the goal is not only for our students to work inside district positions. It's for them to be embedded in the local economy for the 2,000 hours

064uh that makes the full apprenticeship. Okay. Thank you. I'll I'll join my colleagues in um saying please give Laura our best and I know that uh she's probably irreplaceable after her experience here. I hope you have hired someone with great education service accounting because that's what it's going to be desperately. We have hired I I would actually love for the board to meet him. We have hired a a great replacement for Laura. He and Laura have been spending significant amounts of time together uh to help with that transition because it's a tough transition. Um but we're really excited. We uh we think that um he's going to continue to help move our system forward. Great. Thank you. Dr. Nelson, you have something to add. I wanted to follow up on Director's question and help explain

065the school discretionary funds. That is more about a bookkeeping aspect. It's not necessarily a change in the amount of funding, but that the schools previously were saddled with a lot of paperwork with their title one uh accounting. And we have learned from other school districts that they do it a little bit differently. And so we're shifting over to mimic how other school districts allocate their Title One dollars. And so we're just having to show that in the books here. Is that all correct? That is correct. Uh this is a transition year for us. Um I appreciate the comment uh director Nelson. Uh we are very excited about this initiative because we want schools focused on the implementation and effectiveness of their title one initiatives, not on the bookkeeping. Um they still will have some bookkeeping,

066but like the burden of bookkeeping for for if you if you're a title one school, I think Mr. Smith is here, he can attest to this, especially at Mitchell where it's a high school and they get a large budget. I mean it's he probably his team probably spends more time on that than they do their general fund. And so what what Mr. Smith should be focused on is the initiatives and their effectiveness. And so this move is going to is going to free up the time at schools. We will carry a lot of that burden centrally will free up time in schools to uh focus on on what matters most. And then can you just speak to is it true that the graduation costs the 90,000 and then the compensation and benefits are truly the

067recurring dollars? That is correct on this list. So everything else here is the non-recurring. And I want to foot stomp what people have been saying. This is very intentional and strategic budget building. We are shifting the district away from, oh, we have this money left over that we're finding in the middle of the year. What can we do with it now? And kind of putting out a call to staff, what do you want this to this money to be spent on? And instead saying, we expect you to think through your school year and where you need to spend your resources. And so it is very exciting work and I am with you that that almost 60% is headed in the right direction and we're going to keep going uh because we are dedicated to aligning

068our resources to the mission of district 11 which is educating children and so uh thank you again for all that hard work to you and superintendent. Thank you. I see director Jurgensson's hand is up. Director Jurgensson. Yes. for for years um I don't know I didn't couldn't find it in the budget here so I'm asking this question for years we've been paying a portion of the union president's salary with the master agreement ending on June 30th does this budget reflect that um the ending of that supplementation for the m uh union's president salary you want to answer it Dr. I'm happy to uh thank you for the question, Director Jorgensson. Uh this budget has the continuation of the district's contribution to that and so if that were to be removed, that would be an adjustment

069between this week and next week. Oh, I'm glad I asked then. Yeah, I would assume that if the master room was ending that that uh continuation would have naturally ended as well. So yes, I would ask that we uh no longer fund that position as we no longer have a a binding agreement with them as of July 1st. Okay. Thank you, Director Jurgensson. Do you have any other questions at this time? Uh no, my other questions were asked by other directors, so thank you. Okay, so Director Jensen had a proposal in place. Um, is that something that the rest of the board is in line with? Um, by show of hands. Oh, direct director. Thank you. I appreciate the conversation um on the topic. Um, so that is being continued. There was presumably a reason

070for that whether it's easing the the transition or having the significant input of someone who is working with teachers who organized for a purpose. Can you maybe elaborate that on that for us? I would say our budget uh continued the current existence and support. Um I we have not had conversations with the board about that. So this would be the the the first um and I would absolutely defer to the board on on that direction. Obviously the board has line item budget authority and so any existing position anywhere in the budget the board has the uh ability to remove or add. Okay. So from what I understand what he's saying is currently the budget reflects the continuing practice from past years. uh at the board does have the authority by action. Does that answer your

071question, director? He was very clear. Okay. Director Bankers. Um I understand there's conversation going on about um others who are um leading our other employee groups. And so I would like to defer any decision until that conversation about how we're compensating the leaders of other employee groups. Sorry, my voice is just not right. Um until we get more conversation around how we're going to be equitable across all employee groups. Okay. If I heard you right, you talked about the uh uh leadership positions of all employee groups including ESP and Excel Pro and to have some clarity on that before we venture into that. Okay, Dr. Nelson. Yeah, I think that there is some follow-up conversation needed. We've spent a lot of time discussing the handbook, the employee handbook, but we have not as a board

072come back together to discuss things such as uh salary of the CSEA president or dues deductions or you know informing staff that the rules are changing that uh use of District 11 emails and facilities by union business is is no longer going to continue per what was in the contract that that is ending. So, um I think there is a need for some follow-up conversation on what operations uh should look like going forward. And I get it's a little foggy because some of this is operational, but because of it being a board contract in the past that dictated some of this. I do think it's uh important for the board to sort of give operations guidance and um so I don't know timing wise. I mean, we're supposed to vote on this budget next week

073if we could have an executive session um or if this is, you know, a work session topic prior to us voting on this budget. Uh because yes, we have another employee group that is an actual D11 position. they are support it is a D11 um supporting staff position and so does that move over into HR or do we um expect HR to pick up that role our current HR uh employees and then that individual move back to where he was previously working in the district and I have um a lot of respect for the individuals that we're speaking about here and I realize this could be a very personal issue and I want to um touch on it with sensitivity but we also the need to recognize that with the contract ending things are are

074going to change and so um I I just would like for us to have that conversation. Thank you. Thank you for that request. uh what uh if it is the board's will on this um I can reach out to legal counsel and um have legal counsel come and talk about the implications of the contract and moving away from the contract and what is it that the board can uh go about doing this uh u in response to director Jorgensson's um question out there and that could be scheduled next week uh before the board meeting we do have executive session already in uh place next week for other agent items and this could be added as legal advice that's coming up there. And in the meantime um uh one of the questions that was asked uh

075I think it was by director bankers was about what do we do about other employee group representation and maybe that is a conversation that the district can bring as a recommendation to the board as well. Okay. Um director Kerry. I'll also mention that I see Jason raising his hand again. I think just to focus the legal question, Dr. Comfort will probably know better than I, but there's there's state statute that basically mandates in some fashion that the way you treat your employee groups has to be similar. Correct. Correct. Okay. So I think that's probably where the legal question comes up where okay if we have a certain what was the phrasing that you use district specific position for one employee group do we is do we want to transition it for other employee groups I

076don't know off the top of my head what the specifics are but that seems like probably the thing we would need to tackle. Yeah. Um and we will get clarity. I don't want to speak um right now. Let's let legal answer that question because even right now we seem to be doing different things with the different employee groups because exit pro is being handled differently than ESP and CSCA. So let legal come and provide that clarity in that regard. Uh um director Jurgensson. Yeah, just to add, I don't know, I think Director Nelson mentioned it, but if we haven't, the dues deduction and all of that, um, making sure that that's all ending with the master agreement be a great conversation to make sure that we're doing. Okay, thank you. So, we will discuss this

077in executive session and the district will come prepared to provide some recommendations to the board and all these budget You want to take a thumbs do that? Yeah. Is the board okay with um executive session on this agenda item by show of thumbs? Okay. I've got four thumbs at least. I can see and I can see Jason's too. Um uh and then uh all these budget budget budget items will come as an action item next week in the regular board meeting and the board will have an opportunity to adopt the budget with revisions made if necessary to the budget going forth. Um uh superintendent I don't see any other discussion from the board on the budget at this time. Superintendent Gaul, you have some closing thoughts. Yeah, I just wanted to publicly acknowledge the work

078that Dr. Comfort has brought to Perry here. It's just about a year ago that we introduced a chief resource officer. Uh Brandon is now our deputy superintendent, but has really brought together this idea of realizing the value of every dollar and its intentionality for students. Um I appreciate the board echoing those pieces. I just want to remind as I said in the opening piece as I read the letter that this is the way the district is going. We cannot be in positions where we have tens of millions of dollars unaccounted for or unbudgeted at midyear. We have to program ourselves to change the outcomes for children. It will not happen without leaders like Dr. Comfort and his ability. I remind folks this is a um a former school leader who is now running the entirety

079of your budgeting process and not just how we spend our money but how we get our money and then how we hire our people with those money. So with great appreciation for the work that Dr. Comfort has provided in this seminal budget, I also offer him my chair for the rest of this evening, I am going to attend to my uh brand new second lieutenant of the United States Air Force Academy, class of 2025, who I just pinned on about two hours ago, and go attend to those family needs. And so with that transition, if Dr. Comfort can take the seat. Well, thank you and uh best wishes to you and your niece on the graduation and enjoy the Air Force Academy graduation. Hopefully, you don't get too wet tomorrow with the rains that are

080expected. Thunderbirds will dry us off. Well, Dr. Comfort, uh you are taking the official chair of authority out there. Hopefully, you've come prepared and uh you're not going to throw any curve balls at me which you were talking about behind there. So um um I think we are done with this discussion. Again, thank you for all the um work that has gone behind the scenes and also thank you to the board uh uh treasurer Nelson as well uh with the development of this budget uh and the focus has been I was going to ask you one question in your role uh you know the chief finance officer and the um chief resource officer and also uh the deputy superintendent you probably have uh contacts with other school district uh chief financial officers What are you

081hearing in those circles as far as compensation goes in other surrounding school districts or school districts in uh Colorado for this year? Yeah, I appreciate the question. I I don't think I've heard of a school district offering the the total comprehensive compensation package that we're offering. Um, and why that is, I'm not certain. But, uh, I do think that the board at the board's direction earlier in the year. I do want to I do want to foot stomp that. The board gave that direction back in November, well before good budget, bad budget, any of those things. Uh, and so, um, I haven't heard of a school district who is is able to to match what we're offering. Great. Which is similar to what I've been hearing in my circles as well. So this compensation package

082that is being proposed at this time in the uh budget that will be adopted by the board next week um uh it is a robust compensation package. It puts the money uh right in the middle directing it to the students in the classrooms and taking care of our teachers and staff. So thank you for all the work that that was done in this regard. Uh the next item on the uh uh agenda today is the Mitchell High School innovation plan. Um so Superintendent Gaul um administration presented uh Superintendent Gaul and his team presented the Mitchell High School Innovation Plan to the board during the April 16th special meeting and then this was also presented to the um state board uh and CDE earlier this month. Um uh Dr. Comfort uh do you have any additional

083information to the board at this time? I see plus call back up there as well. Uh I would just add if you haven't watched the state board presentation uh I would definitely encourage you to do so. Um they were definitely fanning over the plan and uh the presentation of Superintendent Gaul and and Mr. Smith. Uh and so it was a it was like a resounding I don't know how many board members there are 70. Um uh and so I think they were really excited about the plan. Uh and and a part of the plan is the continuation of the innovation plan at Mitchell High School. And so I'll turn it over to area superintendent callback. That's correct. Thank you. And good afternoon board members and deputy superintendent Comfort. Sorry, I had to slow myself down

084and think about what I wanted to say there. Um thank you for this opportunity to bring Mitchell's innovation plan back in front of you. Um, I was pleased to see that a few weeks ago several of you were able to make it up to Denver to see the presentation to the state board as well. As you know, the state board unanimously voted 90 uh to accept Mitchell's plan, which really is a two-pronged plan. The first is partial academic management um which we are are well in the development process for and the second was to maintain an innovation plan. Innovation plans by law are required to come back to you every three years for a review. We have made no changes to Mitchell's innovation plan from the initial innovation. Um and so a uh yes vote

085on this eventually would simply mean that the local board is aware of and in support of the innovation plan that the state board has also approved. And of course, we're happy to answer any questions that you may have. Okay. board. Any questions on this topic? Director, thank you. So, I guess I was a little dismayed that the innovation plan doesn't have any updates. Are you considering the pathway plan the update is I mean is that how we're to consider this? I think the biggest update is the addition of the external academic man partial academic manager. Um with the innovation plan being part of that pathway plan. It is referenced in the pathway plan linked in the pathway plan. Um you'll see that hung in your documents as well. Yes, I I I did see them,

086but since we also had about 500 other pages, I didn't get to everything as in the detail I'd hope to normally. So I the I get I guess what I'd like to have seen would have been more of an update to the innovation plan itself to so we know what is proving effective what hasn't been what is being dropped like the University of Chicago is we don't have an agreement with them anymore. We do not. So maybe a an update for us um and some of the community engagement are the calls home happening the positive calls home the voluntary visits etc. As I glanced through that material um so Mr. Smith is getting up maybe he'd like to address that I will have turn this over to him in just a moment but I think

087that the updates that you were looking for in terms of how a plan is being implemented would be better captured in the progress monitoring that we do several times a year with CDE. um those are publicly available documents and we'd be happy to provide those as well. They may get to that level of depth that you're looking for. The other thing that I would say is to this point we've really not utilized a number of the innovations contained within the innovation plan and so it may have been premature to make significant changes to those innovations at this point or to those waiverss. George, did you want to add on? Yeah, the only thing I would I would echo everything that um area superintendent Kback said, thank you for um hearing us tonight and and being

088here and Dr. Comfort, thank you for sitting in for Superintendent Gaul. Uh but what I would say is that what we heard from Andy Swanson, our liaison at the state is that the innovation plan does not have to have a uh revo at the site level per unless the waivers were changed. We are not looking to change the waivers as area super uh callback stated. Um the waiverss we know that we can exercise at a greater level moving forward. But I think to your point uh director is that we can at the site level make updates to the plan and get rid of some of the old language. We can do that at the site level. Okay. I think that would um whether or not they agree with me, I can certainly go find those

089updates from the CVE or that you're giving to the CVE online, but it might be something really nice to have a link um in the Mars report that happens once a month so that we could be aware of that at least once so we know what we're looking for. We're happy to provide that. Thank you. Nelson, could you share a little bit about the root cause? I tried to find it in that deck that's a thousand pages long and I am not finding that information. So, could you just speak to a little bit of what we cause per um like of what the issues are? I assume it's titled root cause analysis. It's number six on the table of contents and when I go to look for it I am not seeing it like so

090if you could just speak to what you believe the root causes for some of the uh concerns we have at Mitchell are because if we know what the causes are then we can address them. Yeah. I mean the root the root causes are the quality of instruction in the classroom every day. And I think based upon what we um presented to the state board for the 90 unanimous vote is bringing um higher quality instruction to the center of of the educational process which is putting putting that instruction right in front of the students every day. Um we were just listening about the budget right and putting dollars closest to the students. Um and what I am looking at here in terms of root causes is um it directly reflects on one of the surveys that

091we surveyed our community when we presented the pathway plan to the state. And the top three items are educational program, hiring and compensation and then talent development and evaluation of staff. And so once we get there's other waiverss in the innovation plan that address um different areas, but those are the three what I would say root causes about why um we are still struggling with performance at Mitchell High School. And we get that right, which is where dollars are being placed. That's where training is getting placed um and and where execution and planning are getting placed. You're you're going to see those three areas uh addressed very quickly. I remember when you were here previously that you mentioned the average grade level students are coming into Mitchell are was it fifth grade? Yeah, fifth and

092sixth grade levels for both evidence-based reading and writing and mathematics. Yeah, that that's the challenge when they're coming in so far behind. And so just uh recognizing we want quality education in the classroom, but then also meeting the students where they're at and and being able to bring them up to that level. So let us know how we can support you and thank you for the work you guys are continuing to Yeah, if I can just add, Director Nelson, and and you you mentioned exactly what I was going to mention. Um Mitchell teachers are are working their hearts out. Uh it's not like kids are showing up on grade level, right? And then they're losing years in in a year at Mitchell. The work is different. Um and yes, we are differentiating our resources to

093some degree. The question is, is it enough? We were happy to share data that our vacancy rate is lower at Mitchell. Um but are we getting everything or students getting everything they need at that school? I think the data would say that they're not. Uh and so um it's so interesting because typically in in improvement planning the root cause really matters. Uh and it still matters but like we got to go bigger. Uh and I think that's what that's why the state board loved this plan is because we're seeing progress with the innovation plan. Maybe not bold enough. Um but then with the addition of a an expert group coming in saying we got to regardless of how they're coming in because that's a long-term strategy that that we need to address. Uh right now

094we need to improve teaching. Um and we know that teachers improve teaching best when we get people in there helping them and that's what Mitchell teachers deserve. Uh and so I think that's why the state board and and the district as well is so excited about the plan for next year. Thank you. And as we think about that um vertical vertical alignment as well, the partner that we'll be using at Mitchell is the same one that we use at Galileo, the same one that we use at Adams. And so as students um metriculate through the system, they'll experience many of the same instructional techniques from K all the way through 12. And it's paying off in other schools. And so we hope to get the same results at Mitchell as well. Yeah, I remember we

095saw gains at Audabon using this um this contract work. So, and I just want to add on one thing, too, because oftentimes when we say that high quality instruction is going to be the the focal point to address those root causes, it kind of goes to Dr. Comfort's point that uh maybe there's a inference that staff are not working hard. That's absolutely not the case. Staff are working hard. What we are doing is we're putting supports around the staff. What uh Superintendent Gaul said after the unanimous vote at the state hearing was, "Please go back and tell the Marauders Nation, your staff, that we are investing back into the professional development of our educators, which um is highly necessary in public education across the country." Great. Thank you. Thank you. Uh appreciate your leadership at

096Mitchell High School and what you guys are doing. This is not anything new that I'm going to say. Um, uh, we've been in front of the state board several times and as superintendent call probably said in front of the state board, the options that we have in front of us are dwindling going forth the next time we go in front of the state board. U, if this is not to work and I'm optimistic that the plan that we have in place. So there is a sense of urgency at this point in time that we turn this around not only for Mitchell uh community but for district 11 as well. Uh and I see the challenges that are in place when you look at the schools that are on the priority improvement of the state watch

097list. Adams feeds into Galileo and Galileo feeds into uh Mitchell and Swigert has some of the same issues out there. So you are getting some challenges, but we still have to we are as a school board before the end of the school year going to talk about middle school accountability and emphasizing that going into the next school year. So hopefully that will ease up uh some of the problems that you are facing as well. Thank you again. appreciate your work that you are doing as well and we uh look forward to visiting your school more often uh next year and uh wish you the best and please carry our gratitude to your staff as well. Thank you. So moving on to the next item on the agenda, the proposed board meeting dates uh for fiscal

098year 2526. Um so the proposed board meeting dates for uh this school year for the next upcoming school year was uploaded into board docs uh and it's being pulled up out there. Um uh the proposed schedule for next year remains consistent with the format of the board followed this year with the exception of intentionally building in dates for board retreats. Uh this is as per as as per the board's request. Um so uh Chief Art is up here too but directors do you have any questions comments at this point in time on this uh document that is in front of you? Okay seeing none this item will come up as an action agenda item. Uh can the yeah can this be moved to consent? Is the board comfortable moving this to consent? Okay. So this

099item will move to consent next time. Um the next one is u the next agenda item is intent to participate in the 2025 coordinated election and appointment of the designated election official. This resolution is required by state statute to confirm the district participation in the 2025 uh coordinated school board elections. The resolution also designates board of education specialist uh Miss Melissa Olsen as the school's as the school designated election official. Um any other information from you Dr. Comfort on this item? No. Okay, great. Uh board, any discussion on this item? This is mandated and required. Director, thank you. I have all faith in our appointee, but I just want to make sure uh will there be backup as well? You have support. I'm the backup. You're the backup. Okay, then I think we're I think

100we're good. Thank you for the information. Thank you. Um is the vote um okay with moving this to consent next week? Okay. The next item on the uh agenda is the DAC chair and vice chair. And uh in order for the DAC to continue operation optimally prior to the start of fiscal year 2526, the board must review and approve this information annually in the spring. This is at this time the board is just approving the DAC chair and the vice chair positions. um the DAC uh uh internally uh at the last DAC meeting uh discussed this topic and uh Miss Marian Clawson who's the current chair and spring uh Bington uh if I said her name right as vice chair um she is uh new on the DAC and she is being both those names

101Marian Clawson as the DAC chair and spring Bington as the vice chair are the recommendations coming in front of the board at this time Miss Clawson, do you have anything to add to this? Okay, thank you. That was a unanimous vote from the TAC to recommend those two names in front of the board board. Any discussions on this topic at this time? Director, I just want to say thank you be to Marian and Spring for your service um and willingness to serve at least because it's incredibly important um and of course legally required that we have the DAC. So, thank you for um stepping up again in your case, Marian. Director Nelson, I've sent a couple emails requesting that the board have a conversation about membership and I haven't gotten a response back that that

102could be added to an agenda. So can we get that conversation to happen? Well, uh this is the first time it's coming in a public board meeting requesting that. So um unless I get a consensus from the board to discuss this, that's why I mean if it's coming from one board member as a private email, then I cannot add that as an agenda item. But we are going to discuss that later today during the committee composition conversation. as far as the uh membership for next year and the uh uh schedule of company meetings for next year. Okay. I understand that you've emailed other board members and you just never replied to me about um my request. So next year because that email that you directed was not directed towards me. The email that I received

103from a board member was directed towards me. I just wanted to follow the Kora request and public, you know, sunshine laws. It was directed to the whole board. The email, if it is specifically directed to me as a one-on-one board member, I'm happy to respond back. Okay. You're able to reply back to me as the president, letting me know, hey, if you would like to bring this as an agenda item, do it this way, not this way. So, okay. Thank you, Dr. Bankers. you had you I understood you correctly. We're going to talk about um membership on that DA committee. Uh if the email if the board has okay feedback on what that membership is going to look like. I'll wait. Okay. And again to the board if you have one-on-one conversation I want to

104respect the sunshine laws that are there. I'm always happy to address that if you have any concerns that you want to bring directly to me in a phone conversation or in an email that is directed at me. When it's directed at the whole board, I just want to ensure that I'm not violating any of the sunshine laws by replying back to the whole board on that topic. Um now this item the tag chair and the vice chair uh can the board move it to consent next week? Okay. Thank you. Moving on to there are a few policy items that is in front of the board as non- action item uh and policy GCKA uh several policies out there and I will defer to um Dr. uh comfort first you and through you to Dr. X

105Dr. X. Good evening President Malpacam, Dr. Comfort and members of the board. Uh this evening we have some um policies presented that are from the G series uh that we would uh ask for your um vote for adoption as uh these are policies that are required uh the first group that is presented for item number 10 uh teacher displacement instructional staff reduction and force the evaluation of license licensed personnel and support staff positions. These are all policies that are required by law. uh and we did a couple of things over the last couple of months with talent management to make sure that these practices were in line with uh their current practices when it came to these subjects. But one policy here GDA is we're just asked that that's being be revised to GDE uh

106and GDF to meet coding uh standards. Okay. Any questions from the board on this? So these are new policies. These are new policies. Yes. Okay. Any questions from the board on this topic? Okay. Seeing none, uh, director Nelson, sorry, there's uh several policies and I just remember it's this agenda item. Some of these policies reference at the end a regulation. Um, like it calls out uh I'm trying to find the wording. Anyways, I just wanted to understand what the process will be for not that we approve regulations, but that we can ensure regulation aligns to policy and when those will be developed. Yeah, we would um because we're asking that these policies be adopted with a July 1 date because of timelines, uh we would bring those regulations as we develop those specific steps. We

107would bring those back to the fall so that the board could see how those align. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. Uh for something like Okay, hopefully I've got this right. Um GDE GDF. So that is not a new policy according to this according to the policy write up. Yeah, GDA is uh is the current policy and we're just asking that it be recoded. Oh, okay. That's all we're asking for G for that one. Correct. You said GDA. GDA. Okay. And I'm I guess GDA isn't in here unless it's to Yes. Okay. Former GDA. Sorry. Seeing the specifics now. Um, I don't for this one. We're supposed to approve a statement of job requirements as recommended by the superintendent. I don't feel like we ever do anything like that. Is that But here we are

108saying that we do it. Is that something we should be seeing once in a while? I don't know that that level necessarily goes uh to to to you for a vote. Um I think that's rest with talent management but the overall um descriptions of those positions does rest publicly with the with uh the district. Okay. It might be something I bring up later to the board then since it does say and approve a statement of job requirements as recommended by the superintendent. And in general um when I know there is a lot of restructuring going on and and those positions never come before the board for our awareness until things are done. So that just seems like a question in general that of of us being informed and being responsive to items like this. So

109thank you. Thank you. All these items will move to action next week. Thank you. Uh you got to stay for the next agenda item as well which is uh policy GBDA GBDB HA and you have one more policy up there Dr. X. Yeah you President Malpacam GBDA GBDB HA and HH are being presented tonight for the board to consider for repeal uh so that they could align with uh previous board action. uh these policies speak to uh employee groups and negotiations. Okay. And since uh the board moved away from that process at this point in time, so it calls for a repeal of some of these policies. Dr. Thank you. I wondered if we could have an um just affirmation that all of the topics that are relevant to the handbook are covered in the

110handbook here. All right, I'm getting a nod from Miss Otmer, so that works for me. And the last item speaks to that more. So the reason we need to put those policies in place is because the new employee handbook refers to board policy several times throughout th those are statutoily required but that employee handbook will refer back to policy which is why we need to codify those into your policies. But these are specifically this this next section is for repeal. Exactly. These will all come out because they reference processes that you've already taken taken action on that will no longer exist or have a need for after July 1. Okay. But the the topics um I guess I was looking at GBDA which was about instructional something. I'll have to go find it because of

111course there are so many things here. Instructional staff conferences training and workshops. And I haven't memorized that employee handbook yet. So I wanted to make sure like items like this which are not specifically negotiating etc. Do we have um coverage for transportation requests for trainings and such things like that? Yeah. And I can get you the page references in the employee handbook if that's helpful. All right. I can probably go back and I was hoping you just had the yes or no answer and I can probably go back and find those. Okay. If need be. All right. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no further questions, all these items will come as an action for repeal of these policies next week. Um the next item on the agenda is again policy items and I'm going to turn

112it over to you Dr. X. Thank you, President Makam. Part of the board's uh vote uh and the alignment of our policy manual does require some significant revision to existing policies. Uh specifically cross references to uh for example uh employee handbooks in the CSEA master agreement. um asking that this evening the board consider uh giving a charge to uh the superintendent and his design to go in and clean up the policy manual uh removing those references to employee handbooks, meet and confer, CSEA master agreement um so that we do not have to present each and every policy as a simple revision uh at the dis back to. Thank you, Miss Upner and I had this conversation or touched on it at least. I am curious, not that we want to see every single policy back

113up here for approval given that will be a significant number of policies, but how would we be informed of the changes you have created? So, we have create we're going to create a document that will review each and every policy. uh will provide the content that um those items are mentioned. Um and then uh the action that was taken and if there was a a change to that um document, we would of course put what the new language represent. Uh or if a large section sentence for example would be removed, we would make note of that there. Uh if it was just a legal uh sorry, a cross reference to a document, we would have that recommended there. So, uh, after that cleanup is done, uh, and we're prepared to make those, um, revisions go

114live on July 1, uh, we would present that document as well, uh, to the board so they would know all of the action that was taken to the whole manual. So, basically by July 1st, you will have a link for us or a document itself for our reference. Correct. We're already through uh, series A, B, and C and taking a look at what needs to be good progress be changed. Thank you. And that could possibly come as a monthly Mars report to the board. Thank you. Again, this will come as an action item next week. This item will turn us return as a action item next week. Okay, we are at the end of non-action items. Um future agenda items for consideration at this time. I don't see any. So um we have uh two

115board meetings left um for this calendar year. So um Wednesday June 4th 2025 that will be next week. It'll be a regular board meeting with executive session. Uh there are several items for that executive session including another uh student expulsion appeal and uh there is a workman's comp claim discussion and now we have legal counsel uh coming and talking about uh um the topic that we discussed earlier today with uh employee group um uh employee group representation. uh uh tomorrow during the agenda meeting we will figure out how much time is necessary. Usually we start the executive session at 4 p.m. If it is necessary we may have to start that at 3:30. If that needs to happen I just need to know if the board is comfortable starting that executive session at 3:30 on

116that day by a show of thumbs. Okay, if necessary. um and you will be informed about it by Friday if it is necessary to have that earlier executive session. That will give us a two full 2 hours for executive session before the 5:30 regular uh meeting that uh evening on June 4th. That will be the last uh regular board meeting for this academic year. Wednesday, uh, June 11th would be a work session and we may need a special meeting that day to wrap up some of the, uh, board work approving, uh, some of the policies and there could be a couple of items that may come at a special meeting that evening. Uh, I will have a better idea after the agenda setting meeting tomorrow. Okay. Yep. As you just spoke about legal counsel in

117that executive session, could we request uh Suzanne Tihari to also be present as she helped guide us through this process up to date? Yeah, we can certainly reach out to her and check check on our availability to attend either uh in person or remote. Thank you. Okay. Um with that um if Okay, Director, thank you. Just because we have D1 on the the agenda here, I appreciate that that is included uh the request for new agenda items from board discussion and tasks as it has been left off in our special meetings. And that's understandable since it's a special meeting, but it does, I think, choke back some of the opportunities for us as board members to bring forward concerns or topics. And I would be interested in supporting uh Director Nelson's conversation about um membership

118and just how we can address any concerns whether that is executive session or under legal advice. Um and and maybe it's I'll just leave it at that. Thank you. Yeah. Uh we will discuss that at the work session. Yes. work session is also an opportunity for board members at the very end of the work session other items when they come up they can make a request for future agenda items all I'm looking for is four thumbs up at that point in time um all right thank you um and we will discuss that and what the future steps are regarding that director Nelson it is a sensitive nature uh as I referenced in my emails that maybe an executive session would be more appropriate place to have the conversation. Um, like if it were a staff

119member, it would be a personnel matter and that's where we would be having the conversation. So, I I'm not sure if the work session is appropriate. I maybe we can get to a resolution um without disrespecting the individual. And so, that's just my concern. Yeah. Um, based on the emails that came through, the couple of emails from you and the subsequent email I received from one other board member directly to me, I did talk to legal counsel to get their feedback on it. If the board wants to, since the board adopted the DAC membership in a public board meeting, removal of a DAC member would also require that process to go through a public meeting to remove the DAC member. Um, as far as having an executive session conversation on that topic, um, legal counsel,

120the initial feedback I got from legal counsel is it wouldn't fit any of those criterias for which you can call an executive session because it's not a personal staff matter. Dr. um just that with uh emailing back in January, it maybe at that time made sense for removal, but at this time with coming into summer, I don't think it makes sense to do an active removal of this current membership, but more it be a conversation about next year and what the membership would look like and this person's presence for next there. Yeah. Um, essentially what the board can have a discussion during the work session is not only what the DAC and the committee schedule is going to look like for next year, but also the expectations for the DAC membership for next year. Is

121there a code of conduct that the board would like to see the district come with a proposal for the expectations for uh membership to those TAC committees? And um even if it is necessary that uh people that are um recommended to serve on those uh committees sign some type of an agreement that this is the code of conduct that we need to follow. uh that's a discussion that the board can have and direct the district to come up with a recommendation to the board which the board can look at in August and um that requirements have to be satisfied by the committee membership going forth and we can talk about this at the work session but also just wanting to notify the individual now and also our DAC chairs so that they are aware that

122they will have a gap to fill potentially if the board decides to take action on um making a suggestion that this individual not that they've lost the privilege to serve on our committees. And so if that is the case, they will need time uh to find someone over the summer. Yep. Uh I think the hopefully the discussion that the board is going to have and the recommendation as far as the code of conduct that is going to come from the district that would eliminate some of those people that haven't lived up to those requirements. And the recommendation for the TAC membership that will come next year will not include those members that have violated that code of agreement this year. Okay. Okay. Um seeing no further business, if there are no objections, this meeting will

123adjourn officially at uh this meeting is adjourned at 5:52 p.m. Thank you. My buddy, my friend. I'll be back. Okay, we'll just start off and you can join us direct bankers and director Nelson. Okay, good afternoon. This is our second portion of today's meeting and the this is a work session more u a discussion uh and it's u uh much more uh conducive this arrangement for that type of discussion as opposed to say both um welcome the time is um 6:05 p.m. and in attendance are all six board directors in person and director Jurgensson is joining us um uh remotely. Uh the first item on the agenda is legislative report and we have Miss Inwood joining us in person this time because the legislative session is done for the year. So thank you for joining

124us in person. Um she sent the board the end of the uh session uh update which is posted on board docs for u the community to review as well. Hopefully the board members also had an opportunity to take a look at that. Uh with that I'll first turn it over to you to give us a brief um uh summary of what transpired in this legislative agenda. catch the board up on uh what transpired in the last couple of weeks um uh and then open it up for board discussion questions as well. Great. Sounds good. Thank you. Amy Atwood, Atwood Public Affairs contract body is with the district. And I hope you did see the end of session report that is also noted up here on the screen that I sent a couple weeks ago. The

125legislative session came to a close after 120 days, which is constitutional. It's always 120 days and it finished on May 7th. We thought with the budget situation being $1.3 billion in the red going into session, there would be fewer bills, but in the end, the average number of bills were introduced at 733. 562 of those passed. 171 of those failed and there are a handful so far that have been vetoed. The governor still has until the end of next week to veto bills, but there's only like two more that are really on the docket for veto and none of them in the education space. I went into this session with two main priorities for the district. First was school funding and finance and the second was the preservation of local control. We made substantial progress

126in responsibly implementing the new school finance formula, overcoming considerable opposition to ensure equitable funding for our schools. Mike and Dr. Comfort's engagement throughout that process ensured that what we were being told was good for D11 actually was good for D11. And I just want to thank both of them again that with the rapid texts and the emails and the can you look at these runs, can you please tell me is this what it actually is doing? And the testimony um made sure that D11 was at the table because we had up-to-date information as well as D11 is the only district that has taken care of its declining enrollment issue. And that puts you at the forefront and through testimony and through conversations, everyone knows that and they also know that it can be done. So

127good job. I want you to hear that not just from me but from legislators as well to know that it that it can be done. Second, we s we successfully advocated against measures that would limit local control over policies while preserving local values and educational focus. We continued our engagement with the accountability task force successfully advocating for the enactment of its recommendations into law while ensuring that none of the re recommendations would impede D11's path to success. If you remember there were 60 recommendations then it went down to four 30 recommendations and then there were about 20 recommendations that came through in that legislation. None of which would impede what you are doing with the district. And that was so important because some of the conversations and during the negotiations and discussions would really have

128have eroded that local control. The state budget drove most of the conversation at the capital this year. If you remember way back in October when I first presented, you know, forward looking into what the 25 20 25 session would look like, it was all about the budget. We were hit with some serious warnings about the state budget. The message was clear that funding for new programs was extremely tight and legislators were strongly discouraged from introducing bills that required additional resources. Despite that, by the end of the session, quite a few bills that needed additional funding did pass. Surprisingly, the 2526 budget actually grew compared to the 24-25 budget with increased allocations for Medicaid, K12, early childhood, courts, and corrections, and some other programs. So although we went in in the red with $1.3 billion, there

129was still more funding in the end um that could be spent. Rather than relying heavily on cuts, the joint budget committee and legislature took a strategic approach. They reallocated funds within the budget, scaling back certain programs to maintain or boost spending in others. When you look at the overall numbers, it's clear that cuts were not the primary tool this year for balancing the budget. Shifting resources was the real game changer. And looking ahead to the 26 27 budget cycle, because now of course we're like on to the next year, the impact of this year's resource shifting strategy remains uncertain. Did it work? And with reallocations, will those reallocations prove effective and helping for the 2627 budget? So, what did they do this year? Did it really help? And is are those tactics that they can

130use again or are they really going to have to look at cuts? They like to call it targeted reallocations. Some people call those cuts. So, we'll see if what they do to protect core programs. We do know that education and K12 funding is a core program. It is a top priority. It was not cut this year. There was more money put into K12 education. It wasn't just held flat. We were just hoping, if you remember, that we would be held flat. And we did see more money go into education. In the Senate, they added a provision that actually sweeps some money into the school finance act about $230 million. It's called the Kids Matter Kids Matter Fund and it's in statute so it can change, but that sweeps $230 million which really covers the budget

131stabilization factor. So the idea that would we need to have the BS factor again? They didn't that we didn't have it last year. We're not having it this year. Next year they feel that they've taken care of it with this automatic sweep. So we'll see how dire this situation is. But the joint budget committee structurally is really trying to look at how to keep K12 education um whole as well as with the implementation of the new school finance act. That the new school finance formula. That formula requires a lot of money over the next seven years. And this is also a way to backfill that um because it is it's about between 250 and $500 million needed more um than is currently allocated. So they are they are looking ahead to seeing how can we

132keep education whole. Um balancing future budgets like I was saying is definitely a discussion topic as well as exploring additional revenue raising measures at the state level. with voter approval. So, you'll start hearing discussions started, public discussions started happening last week. You might have heard some of those interviews with the Senate President and the Speaker of the House looking at additional revenue raising measures. One is in particular in K12 education because if they raise money for K12, it frees up money in the general fund. So, and K12 plays well politically. So you'll start hearing more about that in the next six months. We are anticipating a special session after Labor Day to deal with the implementation of a 2024 uh artificial intelligence bill. There was an AI bill that was passed in 24. That implementation

133is January 1 of 2026 and there's some real struggle with how that if that can even be implemented. So we are expecting a special session on that and what h depending on what happens at the federal level with whether it's K12 funding, Medicaid, any anything anywhere the state gets funds from the feds. We may end up going into a special session in the fall to deal with that if it can't be dealt with in January. So AI is one they feel that they can't wait because implementation is January 1 and 26. They can't wait till session starts on the 7th or 8th. But some of the federal things that could happen that that could wait until January. So that's a very high level quick overview of what was in the report. I'm wondering do you

134have any bill specific questions or questions about back to back funding for um preschool issue. Where are we with that? So preschool continues to be funded. Fully funded. Fully funded. It is a priority of Governor Polus. So it is continued to be funded. Um how long that will last depends because it it is eating into the general fund. Um so is another program healthy schools for all. That is something that um impacts your budget and healthy schools for all all has been funded to through December fully funded through December. There will be a ballot measure asking if the excess revenues can be kept. If those excess revenues can be kept, if the voters say yes, then it will be fully funded through the whole school year. So that'll be a tailoring tab. Yep. And so

135that is definitely on the ballot. That was something that the legislature put on. When it comes to preschool, it is pulling into it is eating into the general fund. So that's a legislature question. And Governor Polus, keep in mind, only has one more year left. That's true. Okay. Any further questions? Um, I thank you for getting back to me on the questions I had about the unfunded mandates and the dyslexic screening one and the impact potentially that could have on district and then the healthy school meals one. Um, Dr. for comfort and I had a conversation about can you just kind of help brief the board and what you shared with me that it's not a plot problem right now for us but down the road it is something the board is going to have

136to maybe take a look at the healthy schools for all that one and then also the dyslexia yeah so uh we've been tracking the healthy schools for all um proposal I've been in communication over the last couple of months with um our food nutrition services director uh basically we know it's going to be funded through the first semester uh if it fails voter approval, I will come to the good thing about the timing of it is that if it fails voter approval, it will be right in time with my mid-year budget. So depending on the will of the board, I could bring you um a funding initiative to continue that for the remainder of the year or tell us again the healthy food. I thought it was the being able to reuse not reuse. Um

137it doesn't matter what I thought. What is it? It's basically something that provides lunch for for all kids, free lunch for all kids. And so if if the ballot measure fails, it doesn't mean we now no longer have free uh meals. Obviously, free and reduced lunch still exists. It would impact a number of our schools, primarily our secondary schools. Um and so we're we're already strategizing funding it fully for the rest of the semester, funding it partially. We would bring that to the board when we know more about um how the how the vote turns out. Uh again, it would align with our our mid-year budget to um be able to potentially solve it for the year if the board decided to. So when the voters agreed that they wanted to support free meals for

138all children, was that always a time bound thing or is it they've run out of money? Actually, it is when the ballot measure came forward, there was a certain dollar amount. The revenues to pay for it have come in higher than that. And so the program itself is more expensive, but there are more revenues that have come in. And those excess revenues voters have to agree that the state can keep. So right now revenues are going back to voters that that revenue would stay in the program which would then cover what the general fund the state general fund portion would be covering. So then is the the board would if it fails this time around the board would have to decide is that something that B1 wants to continue supporting through our own general fund

139or modifying it. You know maybe it's we don't worry about high school because so many of them eat out and again free reduced lunch will still exist. So um just something for you all to be aware of that it will be a conversation in the future depending what happens. And then the dyslexia screening and redact requirements. Dr. Cumber and I just talked about that. Um that one is not uh having to take place. Amy, this is what you got back to be on until 2020 2027 2028. So we have time to figure out if there's going to be a cost impact to the district. if it means that how we currently are screening children reading levels um qualifies for what this act requires or if we would need to adjust in any potential but we

140have time on that one and there is rule making to go with that and the hope was that the way that it was written was that dibbles assessment would qualify. Okay. So hopefully through the rule making and it was written correctly that dibbles will qualify. Okay. So and not really an impact to us. Tibles will qualify as a screening tool for dyslexia. I need more information on that. Okay. I need more information on that. Couple of things uh I forgot to mention for people that may be uh watching the work session and didn't follow the uh uh special meeting that we had. Superintendent Gaul is attending to a family matter. he is uh with his niece uh for the air force graduation. So Dr. Comfort is in the hot seat for this work session is

141he and uh secondly we have several items on the work session agenda today. So we have a big ticking clock that is in front of us for the board members. So as best as possible let us follow that um timeline. So we are not here past 10:30 at night. With that, back to the board for the further conversations about the legislative agenda and questions. Uh to Miss A. Anything else at this point in time? Okay. I don't see director Jurgensson's hand up as well. Um truly appreciate the comprehensive report that you provided to the board which is on board dogs. You went into even uh future elections, who are running and things of that nature. Uh we just entered an election season last year but people are already looking into the future uh elections and

142thank you thank you for the work that you did with the board uh um providing periodic reports um um and appreciate you being here in person today to present the end of the year report. It's a real honor to represent the district and you are doing some amazing and fantastic things and it to be able to go into meetings and say I represent D11 really I mean people pay attention and and it's great and you have an awesome story and throughout the interim the joint budget committee will be meeting. There are other interim committees that meet. I follow the joint budget committee very closely because they that's what foreshadows what what the next session will be and so keep in mind that the work doesn't the work doesn't stop when session stops that just means

143the 25 session finishes and we are off and running into the 26th session okay thank you appreciate it the next item on the agenda we have uh uh three charter schools um uh uh discussion at this point in time. Um the first is Heath East Hills Academy. So uh people that are associ associated here with East Hills Academy, could you come and join us out here? And uh to the board uh we have uh about 45 minutes for this discussion today. Uh it will start off um and um souls just wait on the clock starting the ticking clock so that I can brief the board and then uh you can start the ticking clock on it. Um so um thank you all for being here. um uh to ensure that we are using this time

144protectively. Uh the uh Easts um uh the people that the leadership group out there, they already presented to the board uh a brief presentation. They also gave a comprehensive application report which hopefully the board got to review today. They are going to address certain specific items uh in the first 10 minutes or so. Um and then we will open it up for questions. Um from the board, uh the plan is that uh if you can prioritize your questions and each board member can limit your questions and uh discussion for about 5 minutes, then we can stay on schedule on this time. If you have additional follow-up questions following this 45 minutes discussion at this time, now some board members may not have any questions, so we can work within that time frame to get that

145all answered. Um um and if you have any follow-up questions then we can uh uh certainly have that answered that you can direct it to superintendent Gaul and his team. It will get answered uh uh before this comes as an action item in front of the board uh um next week. Uh with that I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Comfort first uh to set up the agenda item. Yeah. Uh first want to do a couple of thank yous. I won't take too much of your time. um three uh charter applications at the same time is something we're not used to. So, uh I appreciate the board reviewing all of that information. Obviously, I appreciate the applicants. We do want to call out um our director of choice and enrollment, Mr. Kilroy. He's kind

146of facilitated this. Um what you have been provided is obviously the applications. Um you've seen some brief presentations. They'll have a few minutes to give any additional color or context before we do Q&A. Um, we also have very comprehensive reviews from the district accountability committee. Miss Davonic is here. Um, and so I want to say thank you to that and also she's here with any specific questions. And then you also have a district application review. So we assemble our own team of district representatives. They go through their sections where they are content experts. Um, all of that has been shared with you. Uh, the East Hills team is um, oh, I'm sorry, one other thing. All three of the charters that will come tonight did go through an additional interview um yesterday with Mr. Kilroy

147and Tom Weston, our charter liaison. That was to answer any of those kind of remaining questions that that we had to see if there was additional information. We can provide um context on that if needed. Um but again, just want to say thank you to everybody for all of the time that that goes in and I'll turn it over to East Hills if they want to give any additional information. The board starts to ask questions. So especially thank you to the DAC Miss Steanak and all the people that served on this committee. The report that came out from you guys were comprehensive and for you to do three charter school applications review that was quite an undertaking. So thank you to you sir. All right well thank you. I'll continue with the thank yous. Um

148I'm very grateful to be here before you all today. um just growing up in D1 and going to Palmer, uh this is home. And so it's it's a real honor to come full circle and be before you and to be able to talk about this beautiful school. Um this wonderful team that I have with me. I have um I'm Dana Jen, by the way. I know I introduced myself. I have Cat Hendricks and Shane Moner with me today. They're both board members. Um so yeah, very grateful to be here. Um I know I presented uh last week um but just to give a very high level overview and then I'm opening up to questions um East Hills Academy is a school in the classical tradition. So that means we really focus on um classical art,

149music, literature, poetry um studying the greatest works of art uh history and science um over time and throughout the world. Um, we also have a huge focus on character. Um, but it doesn't end there. The reason we're opening East Hills Academy is because what I mentioned last I guess two weeks ago or three weeks ago um is that there are a lot of children who don't actually get to access school choice um because of scheduling or transportation barriers that their parents might have. I was fortunate that I had um a mom who could take me to a charter school and I loved that school so much that's why I spent my whole career in education. So, um, yeah, and so we're here presenting East Hills Academy because I think that it could bring a huge

150benefit to D11. Um, it could bring a huge benefit to the families that do want to be able to access school choice who can't access it. Um, I believe that, um, I know we've talked about D11, we were just talking about D11's enrollment going up. I believe that this would contribute to that. Um, I know that a lot of families do leave D11. You know, I was one of them when I was a child. Um, but I think having an option like East Hills Academy will keep a lot of families in D11 and help with the enrollment. Um, it will also attract families from outside of D11 as well. So, I'm I'm very grateful to be here and I'm just happy to answer any questions you all might have. If you can talk specifically about

151a location for your school, what the plans are regarding. Thank you. Uh so we have been looking at the southern half of district 11. Um I uh the I grew up between Memorial Park and the Citadel Mall. So um I was generally looking at that area, but uh real estate is hard to find there. So I have just been looking at the southern half of the 11. Ideally somewhere that's close to some major arteries so that the buses could go in different directions. We would just start with one bus. Um but then hoping to add uh one bus a year to be able to go to different parts of the district uh depending on where the demand is. We have looked at I guess to continue that we have looked at uh several buildings um

152over the last few months and continue to look um at different options. We haven't secured anything yet um and are continuing to look. Okay. uh projected enrollment if there is anything that you want to address in. Yes, good question. So, um when we collected the 600 signatures of support uh 300 of those signatures represented children or parents of children um and then 100 of those were parents of uh children who would be age eligible to be able to attend East Hills Academy. So, we have a couple different enrollment scenarios. you know, we could either just start with kindergarten, um, and as I've listed it was 88 students, or we could open up K3 with 22 students per class, you know, K1, 2, and three. Um, is it? Yeah, K1, two, and three. That's right. Um,

153and that also matches up with the signatures that we received. So, um, the hundred families that signed, um, it actually they actually fell pretty evenly between K 1, 2, and three. Um, and so we would be able to open with that. So, it all depends on where the enrollment falls through. We ideally would like to start small so that we can build a strong health culture and create a strong program. Um, but uh yeah, so that's what we're looking at those two different scenarios or something in between, right? Maybe two kindergarten classes, two first grade classes. Okay. Thank you. I will open it up for the board for questions to the other charters that are in the audience. when you are addressing the board in your initial presentation, if you can talk about the location

154and your projected enrollment uh so that we have that general information before opening it up for questions at this time. We have 38 minutes so try to prioritize the questions as best as possible. Um I know that some of you may have several questions but try to prioritize the one that is of most significance to you. And at the end of this, if we have any time left, I will return back to you. Uh if a board member has used up their allotted time with that, which board member would like to go first on this topic. I have a couple of questions. I I think the first one is you already referenced busing. Yes. So, are you going to bust to the district borders and then that's it? Well, are you planning it to go

155over which has already stopped one charter school from following through? Yes, I was aware. Um, I think you're referring to CILA. Um, yes, I was aware of that. I know that charter school institute schools can bust beyond borders. Um, but D11 or district schools can't. Um, you know, because I've been focusing on southern D11, um, it's not a problem that I can't go beyond the border. Um, if presented with the opportunity, I would welcome it. Um, but I think we would have to get permission from other districts. I'm not sure how that process works. Um, for me, uh, yes, a huge focus on the D1 kids, but if there are kids that want to access this model that can't because of transportation barriers, I'd love to be able to go to whichever, um, children want

156to be able to attend. I know at early colleges, um, where Cat went and I used to work, um, Keith King, uh, was very adamant about sending the buses wherever there was a demand. because they were a CSI school, they're all over the city. Um, but I would at least start that approach here in D11 and then if any of the other districts are are willing or whatever that process would be, um, I would be very open to that. So just to go back then, it's you're not planning on busting across border with other districts at this time. You correct hope to seek. Yes. Sorry. Yes, that's correct. No, that's all right. I just wanted to bring it back, make sure I understood. Um the I I reading the materials I want to tell you

157we do have a K through8 charter school. It's a You said we don't. We do. It's Academy for Advanced and Creative Learning. Okay. It's been around for over a decade. So, all right. My apologies. That's okay. I was founder of that school. One of one of many. And so, I'm like wrong person to write that to. So, um just what Why would people come to your school? You're you're talking about Well, it's a charter, but we have a lot of schools. West will be a K- through8 school. It's on the west southwest side. Um, but why? I mean, classical education, great teacher character. Ideally, we as a district are supporting those things anyway. So, to me, it's like what is what makes it different? What what's the niche or Yeah. just why answer? Yeah. No,

158that's a great question. Um so yes I I would say a big part of it is the curriculum. Um are are you familiar with the core knowledge curriculum? Okay, I don't know is everyone I I could just give a very high level that um the founder of core knowledge you know if we were to study everything in the world it would take us hundreds of years right and so he and a group of educators came together to decide what are those greatest works of art and music and literature and poetry and and scientific discoveries and historical events in the world and how do we put them together in a cohesive K through8 curriculum um that makes sense and it's integrated and So we're not just doing disconnected units here and there. Um but it's it's

159interconnected and it's global. So it's from across the world and across time. So just a very thorough and well-rounded education. Um that's the education I received at the charter school I went to. And um and that's that's just what I believe in. I I know um at my previous school that I worked at, we also had that curriculum and uh parents really enjoy that and I think it really produces well-rounded uh children. And so I think the curriculum is a huge part of it. Um and and I would say I I know you mentioned it as well, but character is a very big part of it as well because it's not just a box that we check. It's ingrained in everything that we do. I mean even every job posting that I post, you know,

160we talk about modeling character to students. Um it's in every, you know, it starts with the staff about with modeling it, but then we also have assemblies where we recognize students for their greatnesses and um it's just a central part of everything that we do. Um and so those those are I guess I would say those two. I would say the third thing is um also the program that we're using the direct instruction approach that we take um the rigor that will come with that we have just seen I mean I've personally seen the results myself but a lot of high performing schools use this core knowledge direct instruction combination to uh close achievement gaps. And so I think this would really benefit a lot of students um who who could use a different model.

161And then the very last thing is uh what really makes us stand out is it's specifically for those families. I wouldn't be opening this school if I didn't have blessing. Um I think there are a lot of great charter schools. Um but for a specifically classical school um I think that a lot of families could benefit from that and children can benefit from that but um they can't access it because of barriers to scheduling and transportation. So for me that's that's the big draw and then it draws them into this beautiful education model that we have. I'll come back to you director. Okay, just to keep us on schedule, Director Bankers, um you alluded to Hi, Dan. Hi. Good to see you. Good to see you. You've alluded to your background in education. I'd like

162to know the um skills and talents that your board of directors brings to this charter school. Okay, that's a great question. Um I could we could start off with you all introducing yourselves and then we could talk about the other board members. Yeah, I spent a decade in finance uh running a wealth management firm and before that I taught in public school public high school in uh D38 uh Palmer High School. So I taught math there and coach football and baseball during my time there. Thank you. So I am the program director for parents challenge which is an educational choice nonprofit here in Colorado Springs. We have several D11 families who are a part of our program um and benefiting from the resources we provide there. I've also been in the educational space for about

163school choice space for about 10 years now through parent challenge and then I also worked at a scholarships up in Denver. And then I am a product of school choice. I attended a public elementary uh I went to James Irwin Middle School and then Colorado early colleges and I've just been surrounded by education my entire life. My mom is Deborah Hendricks and so it just runs in the blood. So Oh yeah. Um I guess while we're at it, you since you know um uh Pastor Laura and Dr. Mingo, do you want to introduce them as well? And I'll talk about uh Andy Barton. Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, Patrick Laura also, uh, is she sits on the, uh, is the current sitting president for Colorado Early Colleges, which started out here in the Springs and then

164has expanded to, um, I believe six campuses across the state. And then, uh, so she's just been active in education throughout her entire career as well as being a pastor for a church on the southeast side. And then, uh, Dr. Mingo is she is a fantastic professor. She teaches at Pice Peak State College and she has also just been involved in the educational space. She's one of the speakers that we bring in for parents challenge to provide different resources to our families um and has just been an educ an an advocate for education over the last 20 plus years of her career. Thank you. And then our fifth one oh if yeah you know is Andy Barton. So he's the CEO of Catholic Charities of Southern Colorado. Um I actually originally met him because his

165children went to my school when I was where I was a principal. And so I've known him for many years, but we recently reconnected. Um the reason we connected over this project is because um Catholic Charities has a center um at at Hillside um where you know it's not too far from where I grew up, right? And so that's the area of town that we were looking at launching East Hills Academy. So, you know, we both wanted to serve an area that over overlapped and so we thought we would partner up and so he he um this has a lot of experience in nonprofits. Um he's been on boards uh he works directly with boards and so between him um Cat and Dr. or sorry, yeah, Dr. Domingo and Laura. Four of our four of

166our five board members have vocations that directly affect South Central or Southeast Colorado Springs. And so we really wanted to target folks who cared about this part of town um and wanted to see a new educational option there. Thank you. Dr. Bus, you have an additional question. Okay, awesome. Anybody else? Um Dr. Nelson. Um sure. I have just been re reminding myself of the numbers and you have several buckets of money that you're going to be tapping to sort of give you your startup costs and so um I guess I don't really have any questions. It looks it makes sense like the numbers that you say you're going to be gaining through donations or grants uh seem to add up to what it would cost for you to open, including transportation. That was the one

167that I was most curious about. Yes. Yeah, it's expensive. Uh I actually just let's see uh 90 minutes ago I finished uh submitting a $2 million grant um one of the grants that's in there um to be able to uh pay for a new bus that has a wheelchair lift and also um hopefully I can get some AC uh for our summer session classes. Um, so yeah, fingers crossed for that, but I should know by the end of the month. We've already received a quarter of a million dollars from the Colorado Schools Fund, and that is a renewable grant. And so, um, we expect to receive another half a million from them over the next three years. Okay. And I I was reading that some of them you're you're waiting to receive the funds until

168you gain the approvals, which makes sense. Um, but are you at risk of if any of these don't come through that you wouldn't have the funding to be able to open like to pay for your staffing for example? Yeah, that's a very good question. So, um, I I've probably done dozens of different scenarios with the budget. Uh, and my brain I probably dream about the budget, but um, me too. Yes. Uh, sometimes not in good ways. Um, and so yeah, there are contingency scenarios. Um and so and there are a couple contingency scenarios here in the appendix as well um for that. And so it all depends on which ones come through and which ones haven't. Um we have worked very hard to um be thorough in this application. And so we're we're hopeful. But

169yes, if it doesn't come through, there is still there are still scenarios where we would be able to move forward. But in those scenarios, uh we would say maybe we're not buying a bus, but we're leasing a bus. Um there's uh Durham School Services. They do the busing for Woodland Park and also Atlas Prep. Um, and so they have options to run our bus service either with our own buses or with their buses. So it costs more per year to use their buses, of course. Um, but there are contingency plans for us to, you know, maybe not have our dream furniture, but you know, have to look elsewhere. But yeah, there are ways um for us to be able to make it work as a contingency if those grant funds don't come through. That's all

170I have. He does. I pay for maybe you've already said this. Um having a uh the curriculum that you use um character curriculum. Yes. Where does that come from? Yeah, that's a great question. So uh there's uh um an organization called the Core Virtues Foundation. Um they have it's basically a threeyear cycle of core virtues. Um, and I've used that in a previous school, but the nice thing about it is, um, it gives a core virtue of the month. Um, and then it's a three-year cycle. So, if you're at East Hills Academy from K through 8, you get you go through that three-year cycle three times. And there are ones that pop up regularly. I believe each year begins with respect and responsibility in August. Uh, and so it's just again similar to core knowledge.

171It's a way that the core virtues are structured and intent and then build upon each other. And so, you know, when you're a kindergartener, respect and responsibility means something very different than when you're a fourth grader or when you're a seventh grader. Um, and so that's that's one of the foundations. I would say the other part of character as well is I don't know if you're all familiar with love and logic. Um, but that's a very uh natural consequ consequences uh way to deal with discipline. And so, um, you know, it's uh it's not punitive, but it still holds uh students to account. um in in a in a loving way, right? So, it finds that balance between um firmness and gentleness. Um but I've seen great results uh from that and I know many

172families use it for parenting as well. Um so that would be the second uh element for character. And then I you know I would say the last thing a big part of it is also in what we're reading in in core knowledge, right? We're reading stories about heroes or or people in history and did they do the right thing? Did they not do the right thing? Is it sometimes hard to, you know, tell because um I mean we do believe in right and wrong, but is it sometimes hard to tell when someone's in a dilemma or it's more gray area and then having those discussions with the students? Um just to yeah strengthen their character and how they look at the world and then how their conduct is. Um but I would say it really

173starts with the staff. If we're not modeling it, then everything that we're doing, you know, goes to waste. Thank you. Done. Director Jurgensson, do you have any questions if you're listening to this discussion at this time? I don't. Thank you. Okay. So, I've got a couple of questions and then director, you may have some time at the end. Um um one of the questions that was addressed in the DAC report um was how do you address or how do you take care of students with special needs whether they are going to be gifted talented students or students on an IEP? and that was not adequately addressed in your uh applicant application. So could you elaborate on that on what specific plans you have? Yes, absolutely. Um I so you know when I started making the

174budget the very first thing I committed to was I wanted I want East Hills Academyy's uh student body to mirror D1s. So the proportions, right? So 58% FRL, 13% SPAD, 7% GT, 6% ML, 5% 504s, right? Obviously, we can't we can't make that happen. Uh but if we're advertising broadly and we're very intentional to um market and do outreach to all sorts of families and communities in D11 and in southern D11, then I believe that we'll be able to get that student body that mirrors D11, you know, so that there's not the stereotypical cherry picking of charter schools. Um and so from there then I also um selected ratios for um like GT MLS sped etc. And I think those are all on p like they're anyway they're in the last section maybe like page

175115 or something like that. Um and so from that then I backwards designed that into the budget of okay how many special education teachers do we need? Um in the budget we have one in year one another in year three another in year five. um we hire special education pair of professionals and so um and then we also have stipended positions that will be licensed um for gifted and talented and for ML multilingual learners um and then the counselor and social worker will only see the 504s but we'll make sure all of those folks are trained um ideally we would hire them already trained but make sure that they're up on their certifications um but the way that I've written out the budget is they do match the ratios um for uh students with special

176needs. Um yeah, I I could get really into the weeds about that, but I think it's all on Yeah, in the last five pages of the the narrative itself. Okay, thank you. And the second question I had, you talked about projected enrollment and the people that have signed up for it uh and the uh commitments that you have as you go through this process. First, the school is scheduled to start in August of 2026. 26. That's correct. A year and 3 months from now approximately. Yes. Okay. So, if you do not have the enrollment that you anticipate, is there a threshold of students that you need to make this a financially viable project? And if so, could you share that with us? Yeah, that's a great question. So, yes, 88 is the ideal. Um, but

177I do I did develop a contingency budget with 48 students. So 88 would be four classes of 22, 48 would be two classes of 24. Um we would be able to make it work with that model. And so let's say we just started with K1, 24 kindergarten, 24 first grade. Um there's even I even made a scenario um in here in the appendex where uh it can go as low as 35. Um I mean that's bare bone. I mean we would just be right at taper and so we wouldn't want to get there. Um and then we also built in a very healthy contingency budget 10% for four of the first five years um to be able to deal with lower than anticipated enrollment. But yeah, that is a very big question. Um my approach

178and I'll learn from Keith King is just shoot really high and then um if it doesn't work out have a very strong contingency plan. Uh but the contingency budget is in here as well and again I can get into the weeds but I'm happy to answer any questions about that. Thank you for that information. I'm going to turn back to you, Director Art. You've got some time on the clock. Thank you. You Yeah, if you can give me three minutes to wrap up things in the end. You asked some of the questions I also had. I because there were the deck and the district shared concerns about the special education, the gifted uh talented student tiered services um and intervention pathways. when it came to budgets, the budget um items for like McKini Bento Act

179compliance and and supporting that, do you are you taking those into consideration? Are you going to I assume you're going to address them, but can you give us that feedback? Yeah, for sure. Um so, yeah, I will say um I did address a lot of uh the ratios for student populations in there. You did mention the tiered elements with uh gifted talented. I know that they just came out with new regulations I think in February on give the talented. Um I am not well verssed in those. So that is something that I will look into. Um I'll just say from my own um and then the other thing that is new to me is the Mckin Vento. Um I'll just say that um I'm not an expert in special education but at my previous school

180when I came in there were very very low percentages and proportions of special populations. And during my four years there, uh, each of those subgroups grew over those four years. And I can, um, it's in the CARS report for CSCA, we can look it up. Um, the only reason I'm saying that is because when students come to us with those needs, um, I have I will have people on my team who are experts in those and then and then we figure out the funding with it, right? And so we've already allotted a lot of funding for these programs. And so I think McKenna Vento was the only one that I hadn't. Um, but I will look into that and and that's why I build in a very healthy 10% contingency for unforeseen events like that

181um for us to be able to fund them. But yeah, I would be committed to that because I'm committed to serving the same proportion as the 11. If I might add, director uh um if the board approves the application, we will still go through a contract negotiation and part of that contract process will be a timeline with expectations. So there will be enrollment uh metrics that are a part of that. There will be things that weren't fully developed in the application because we're still uh 15 months away from opening that we will put in place to say by this date we should have a plan for McKenna Vento. Uh and so that's for any potential charter school, but we would have some follow-up expectation. Right. I well and because you all did a lot of

182work and Dak did a lot of work finding any concerns. I'm sure that that will be covered and so I appreciate that and I was just curious about general feedback and asurances that maybe from all of the um charters that you've looked at that and considered what you need to address and have confidence that she can and will. For sure. Yeah, that's fair. Um, and so this is really a question for you perhaps. Um, the they have down that they're going to have their independent auditor provide a financial audit by November 30th. That seems late to me. It is late. Uh, yeah, our our timeline and again that will be a contract uh component, a contract negotiation because our audit is obviously due before that and we would have to incorporate um any charter school

183in the district's audit into our audit. So that will be uh kind of a standard practice that we we negotiate with any either transfer or new charter application. Okay, I appreciate that. Yeah, just so you know, we're like October 30th or something. It's really early. Uh and then just you're all stuck up here. I'm just going to say for us as um with the resolutions, one of the items on every resolution because they're very duplicative. Uh whereas the school any school is a high-erforming school there is no performance that needs to get out. Um it aligns with D1's portfolio. Okay. And is an operationally strong program unproven. It can be a strong application if you want but I think we need to revisit our resolutions when it comes to what we're saying since we can't

184really make those claims. Sure. Understood. Not that you won't be a high performance. Okay. Sounds like you've got a great application uh welldeveloped and yay, but you're not there yet. So, all right, that's it. Thank you. Thank you for the feedback. And when this resolution comes in front of the board as an action agenda items, those will be addressed accordingly. Appreciate it. Um yeah, go ahead. Um I have two things. So, just as we're talking about contract negotiations and I think I mean I know a lot of schools use D1 food service. Are you planning to use D11 food service? You know, that's a great question. Uh, I we used D11 food service at my previous school, even though we weren't a D1 school. Um, and we were very happy with it. Um, you know,

185whenever there's an opportunity for a new school, I always like to consider different options. Um, and so I've met with SLA, the food service provider. Um, but yeah, I'm very open to different options, and I think that's the exciting part. if we were honored enough to be approved. Um, that's what the next 15 months will be. We'll be just looking uh to see what will best serve the needs of our kids and uh what's going to be the best option. Yeah, I don't care. Like you do what is best for you and your school and your students and your families. The only reason I bring it up is because I was thinking about as you're also going to be providing transportation. like is that something we could also then we have a bunch of buses

186just parked in our parking lot, you know, like I don't know. I'm just uh excited and I agree that sometimes choice is not attainable to families and so I am excited that you are offering transportation and if we can help be part of that solution as a district during our contract negotiation thing like just think about those sorts of things like we're already doing some of this can you tap into that then you purchase those services. So that's why I brought up food service. I don't care what you do. Um and then my second thing is just I would like to hear from staff. Um because we got this great report from the DAC and thank you again to everyone who was involved in that, but then our staff's take on this charter and their

187viability. Yeah. And and I think one of the things that that he didn't he didn't talk about that so I always look for the high leverage points. um some of the the intricacies of the finances I can't speak to as well, but one of the things that I like is is he has an extension of the year and the day um and he has the data support sort of why that kind of model uh produces a very different outcome um for kids. So, when I think about two things really, that being really important to me, a high leverage move like that, but also a willingness to to set up uh in an area of our city that's really impacted um with the expectation that those kids would not only attend the school um but benefit

188from the model um you know, and having looked at different schools with similar models and having similar impact, it's it's a it is something that's been done successfully. Um, so when I think about the school itself, I just those two high lever moves for me really stand out. Yeah, I would say it is a really comprehensive application. Obviously, we were very technical in our review. Um, and so part of that will be answered over time. I think uh in terms of questions and concerns, it's the same that will always be confronted by a new charter school, which is a great concept and idea. Can you afford it? Can you afford the bu building? um are you going to get the enrollment to make that all make sense. Uh so again we will have components that

189make that work but in terms of the quality of the application I think very strong. So just um uh for the community's uh awareness and the board's awareness there are two reports that have been attached to each one of the charter schools. One is the TAC report and one is the district review which is an executive summary and East Hills in both of those reports got a recommendation or a rating of fully developed. Um uh the district said that their application received an overall recommendation of fully developed and when you look at the DAC report as well predominantly your fully developed there was one in between out there the budget and the which are the questions I ended up asking you. So looks like it's a fully developed application. It's like a phone book uh

190from the APs out there. So um uh but thank you uh for coming and presenting it. Um um both if you have any additional follow-up questions if you can direct it to Superintendent G in the next couple of days uh so that they can get the district can get the answers in a timely manner and present it to the entire board probably by early next week. So you can be prepared to vote on it uh on Wednesday. Is there anything that was missing that you need from Eastils at this point in time to help you make the decision? Okay. So there is nothing at this time. Um, according to state statutes, there are only certain reasons where the district, in this case, district 11 can um reject a charter school application. And I'm uh I've

191got some of those reasons in front of me. I'm happy to share that with the board. So, you also know what is the background on and I'm looking at like it's got to have the application requirements were not adequately met. the they have an educational program that is unsound, financial instability, um lack of community support, um uh inadequate plan for serving all students. So there is a bunch of reasons for which we can as a board reject this application but it's got to be based on those rationale as opposed to arbitrary reasons that uh we don't like what Dan is wearing today. So we we reject the application. I'm just kidding. But thank you. Appreciate it. Um uh the comprehensive presentation and we got about 9 minutes on the clock here. Is there any closing

192thoughts from viewers? Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the board members that are present as well here. The next charter school application is Spruce Community School and um uh anyone associated with Spruce Community Spruce Community School, could you please join us? Thank you. By now you kind of know the process as we go. you can uh start by introducing yourself and then give a brief presentation or an update as to what you specifically focusing on some of those issues and then we'll open it up for board questions. Great. I want to start I'm Lauren Kazowski, founder of Spruce Community School. We so grateful to be here with you all and thank you to the DAC for just the comprehensive review. I mean, that's thousands of pages that in a very short period of time. I'm

193so grateful for the feedback to continue to improve and get better over time. Start by just allowing my board members and board chair to introduce themselves so you know who's at the table. Thank you. Hi, my name is Elizabeth Domain. I am president from the the founding board. Happy to be here tonight. I uh have background in public education. I was a teacher, started as a special education teacher. I was assistant principal, a principal, and superintendent. Now I'm in uh at UCCCs in the college of education and actually several of your your teachers have been in the principal lure program. So it's been great to to be a part of that as well. So thank you for the opportunity. Appreciate your review and the feedback questions. And you were the superintendent at Manito. That's correct.

194Yes. Okay. Previously. Yes. Previously. Uh good evening. I'm Peter Leuro, vice chair of the founding board. I grew up here in Colorado Springs. have two daughters who are both D11 students. I'm so proud D11 parent. I spent 16 years here in this committee doing initial nonprofit sector in the foundation nonprofits. Um I'm now in finance and leader support. Thanks for having us. And I can talk about our other board members later, but I first just want to say like why D11 and why specifically spruce. And so there are so many reasons why D11. Um, first is the district where I live. It's the district that we hope to raise our kids in. Um, D11 is really in the heart of our city. Uh, the district's focus on exceptional educators, pioneering innovative learning models, and offering

195unique, transformative educational experiences directly relates to Spruce's priorities. Spruce's educational model is focused on providing innovative project-based learning where students are connected to the incredible nonprofits and businesses of our town and they work with those businesses and nonprofits and experts in the field to create meaningful work for the cities that they live in. This type of community connected project-based learning is unique with not only within D11 but also just across the county. And so just as um the legislative session alluded to, we want to continue to increase the enrollment in this district and we think that this unique model will complement all that the district is offering and continue to increase enrollment. We believe it will be a destination school for families who are currently living in D11 but maybe have chosen another district or

196for families outside of this district that are craving this hands-on personalized type of learning for their students. The 11's emphasis on family engagement and student academic achievement also mirrors our accountability plan and initiative. This model has a proven track record, although new here, but across the nation, of increasing student achievement and attendance because of the amount of engagement that students feel every single day in the classrooms. This also is because families feel engaged as they feel part of their students learning and of course parts of the project planning process. Finally, D11's emphasis on providing high quality instruction through support and high-paying salaries is also what Spruce aims to achieve. Um, at my core, I'm a teacher. I spent seven years started in Harrison District 2 and then worked in grade levels from K through 8.

197And I have designed fully from that lens of what it means to be a teacher. Quality instruction is the single most important indicator for student achievement and family satisfaction. We invest heavily in prof professional development. Hi, good to see you. In professional development, training and coaching. Um, teaching is really a craft and it's honed over time through intentional effort. Our goal as a school is to is to honor that craft of teaching so that we can see the phenomenal outcomes that are already happening in D11 and continue that trajectory in terms of like where is the location that we've been looking again like Dan said commercial real estate is really tricky in Colorado Springs and across Colorado but we've been looking in the northeastern kind of part of the 11 um and then our projected

198enrollment is we hope to launch with between 64 and 72 students and grow mindfully one year at a time. We have been fortunate enough to receive significant startup funding. we have a 500,000 so half a million in just year zero um secured so that we can launch mindfully in that matter and then after that from years one through years three we have close to a million and that will support that staggered and stable launch so that we can grow with our families. Um one of those grants is the charter school growth fund grant and they chose 10 only leaders within the country. Spruce was one of those schools. They will also help support me as a leader. And it's a cohort-based learning model where I will receive facility support, finance support, and also a cohort-based

199style where other year zero founders will all be able to problem solve together. And so they have put kind of their backing on Spruce. Um, and that's what allows us to grow mindfully. I'm very great. excited to hear your questions and hopefully provide you with some answers. Okay, thank you. Dr. Rod, can I come to you first? Then we can circle back to you in the end if time allows. So, Oh, thanks. No pressure. Um I one of my takeaways from your school and the the feedback we received was um a lot of it technical items the CLLD compliance documents are in one of our systems and do you plan to integrate into that? um and that some of the concerns were that the narrative and the budget were not consistent and and that's just

200a couple of really picky t takeaways from the district review. Um so I guess m perhaps you could just address how much you plan to align with the district in services and our technology with that. I think our goal like we are hoping to use power school is hoping to be a healthy partnership with the district if we're so lucky to be authorized to have conversations of what could food services or transportation look like in partnership um looking at your discipline model mirroring that I think I start most of my career has been in traditional public school education and so um it is our hope to really partner with the district and to think through those when um during charter agreement conversations. That was it. Okay. Who wants to go next? Dr. Bankers. You mentioned

201your uh discipline model. What is your discipline model? Yeah, our discipline model is mirroring that of D11 and so I just looked at D11 and it's really rooted on high expectations. We have small class sizes. That's really one of our key kind of as Chris mentioned leverage points. Um, and so within small class sizes, teachers have the opportunity to really get to know both the families and the students that are within the classroom. And so with that, when teachers know that if there's really quality, high tier one instruction, and then family engagement and parent investment, discipline matters are very, very low. And so that is kind of what we start with first is clear expectations, a consistent kind of procedures so that students know when they come into the classroom what to expect and then

202they can meet those expectations by caring relationships and knowing their peers and their teachers very very well. That doesn't really answer my question. Yeah. So I know that so the district as large as it is with 54 schools uh we do have a district policy uh distance policy and you find variations amongst all those 54. So um I still don't have a feeling of how you're going to handle discipline in your building. Yeah. So I think in terms of each disciplinary we have a very structured matrix in the back that we'll go through with our teachers. So what does a certain behavior is that a tier one intervention? Is that a tier two? Is that a tier t tier three? But it always starts with a conversation of understanding what happened, why did this happen?

203And from all sides of it and then incorporating family within that and then having uh students go through an understanding and a processing of what happened and why does it matter, how and most importantly does it not happen again? And if there was harm done, how do we heal from that harm? Um and that can look like a lot of the important aspects of when we look at behaviors and interventions on that is how teachers model that for their kids. And so that is also coming back to our teachers of showing kids the process of how we regulate of how we take a deep breath when we're overwhelmed and then having students begin to practice that. And so a huge aspect of our model is in the whole child development because projects require group work

204and in group work every single day especially projects where there's no necessarily right answer. It's very complex and so what that means is every day we are tasked with solving very difficult problems and so conflict may happen. And so every single day we get to practice how do we resolve that conflict? How do we work together? How do we empathize? How do we work past across differences and begin to understand. And so I think our model is in direct service to building those social skills and emotional intelligence that students need to navigate um complex kind of problems and behaviors. Um and you might have answered this while I was out of the room. I apologize. So I did hear you were a teacher. What about the rest of your board? We have their background. We

205have lots of teachers. Yes, they give their background. If they can give it again for you, I'll let them introduce and then I'll tell the rest of the board. Sure. I was a teacher started as a special education teacher in Louisiana. I um have also been a principal of Panorama Middle School in Harrison School District 2. Lauren was actually a teacher and she contributed to the turnaround of the school. So moving from priority improvement to performance in one year and we sustained that. So she was one of the teachers. She included this model with some of our students. I became a director of curriculum instruction assessment in Harrison and then I was also the superintendent for Manitou Springs and now I'm currently at UCCCs in their educational leadership uh program supporting aspiring principles administrators. So

206long long background and also I serve on a couple of nonprofit boards including Crimestoppers and the Shy Mountain Zoo. Yes, I'm not a teacher. I am. Yes. Both of my parents are public school teachers and spent uh their entire careers here at El Paso County. Um I wasn't uh gifted with the uh the special gift of patience enough to be able to so I have uh more admiration and respect for it. Uh I I spent 16 years in the nonprofit sector working for Elamar Foundation and a variety of other organizations uh as a board member and I'm now in finance. Then there are other members who couldn't be here tonight. Katie Willark is our treasurer and she is the CFO of the Air Force Academy Foundation. She has a CPA. Um Derry Adams is a

207local attorney and she has also agreed to be on our board. Claudia de Santiago is the director of development at Peak Education. Um Tina Valtier is the chair of the education department at Colorado College and she also was a founding board member for a project based school in Denver, Highline Academy. And Jeffrey Hawthorne is our most recent addition and we're so thrilled to have him. But he is the market VP of workplace resource. So specializes in thinking about design of a building and design of a space so that students can access this type of group learning because we were feeling that that was the one aspect of our board we were missing in terms of knowledge and expertise um is understanding more of the building and structure um that support student. Thank you. Yeah, that's

208that takes care of it. One part of the the discipline. Yeah, if that's possible. And just to let you know, I used to run the gifted program at Panorama. Oh my gosh. I did gifted education at Panorama Circle. I was going to say that as as Lauren mentioned, when when there's high quality teaching, learning that first that first tier and then parents know the expectations, students know the expectations. So really fundamentally believe that that creates a culture and environment where schools are safe and then students are willing to say when something is not safe there is a object that shouldn't be in school right whatever that might be. So really creating that environment but absolutely will follow progressive actions that are appropriate to whatever may have happened. So, I think the goal of Spruce is

209create that environment where it is safe from the start. Thank you. I'm so glad you mentioned the panorama connection. That's awesome. Gver. That's awesome. Anyway, thank you. Back to you. Back to Hy. Um, as I read through this, I came ac and I can't find it now. Um, initially I came across character education. Can you tell me what that's based on for you? I think I touched on it a little bit, but I think a lot about our model is I do see this project based learning in whole child in concert with each other if they have to. It's intentional because of the world and the expectations of the careers that our students are going into. When employers when we look across sectors, what are employers hiring for? It doesn't matter if it's finance or

210law or medicine. They're hiring based on teamwork abilities, problem solving and those social skills rather than the technical skills which has changed. Um this model is in direct kind of service of that is to help our students from K through 8 every single day work in groups, work through um challenging concepts and figure out how is it that we can work together. We may disagree, but how can we come to a consensus on this? And so the character that's building is in the rigor of the projects that every single day kids are tasked with and then the opportunity to begin to in community build um their own capacity, their own self-efficacy of I can do these challenging things. Um I can meet them. And Dan mentioned this as well, but a lot of that comes

211from our values of kind, curious, and courageous. Those are the values that I live my life by. I'm a cancer survivor. And when I was going through treatment, I found that there was a simplicity to life when I had those three values. And I was like, you know, if our kids can be kind, curious, and courageous, that's that's the goal. And that's the goal of this education. So when our character is all about cultivating those values and that comes through who do we hire, who's on our board of everything that we expect our kids to do, we expect our teachers to do, we expect our leaders, we expect our board members to do. So um that values alignment is through the whole structure of our school. Um and so it's really leaning into those. And

212so we're really clear on our definitions because when I say kind, it may be different than other people's kindness. So what does it mean? What does it mean to be curious? And the hope is that every kid begins through we have like morning meeting time where kids meet every morning and then closing circles every day where they check in and they can see did this action today align with kindness and why. Um did that answer your question? Yeah, appreciate that. You already covered the finance questions. I would have asked just with that you said you already have the funding secured and to start essentially and that's very impressive that you received that grant. So congratulations. Thank you. Um I think I just want to come back to sort of I think a little bit what

213Director Bankus was touching on that we have so many schools in D11. We're up to like 56 now. And so I don't know that we have it quite figured out. Maybe that's weird to say, but some of our schools do a really good job, but we also still hear that some of our schools are having behavior issues or that children are coming back with lollipops after being at the principal. And so I think that is something we're still wanting to address as a board and looking at our policies and practices. So, I just encourage you to not fully embrace what we're doing at all of our schools because I'm not sure it's working at all of our schools. So, maybe tap into the ones that we do here that they've got it figured out. So,

214just I would just I would speak to I mean I think just to tie into what you're saying is that the the all the research is showing the these families want choices, right? So, they're they're looking for uh a product that appeals to their families. So when you look at our schools out of the 56, you look at Bristol, you look at North, you look at Freedom, you look at Martinez, you look at Colombia, these are all either pathway schools or they have a model, right? And so their their enrollment is stable or growing, right? So there's there's this there's this move towards really wanting options and you know, Dan and Lauren's models are very different, you know, for sure very different. Um, but the idea of a projectbased school, some of our schools do

215it some of the time fairly well, right? So, the idea of a of a product being offered out there, whether it's Dan's model or whether it's Lauren's model is just another choice because in the district, we're seeing that the stable or increasing enrollment is happening at those schools that either have a pathway or a very distinct model like IB. Um, so there's a lot to be said for that kind of uh diverse portfolio of choices. Uh, and I agree with you. There are schools that are trying to find their footing and they do have dropping enrollment and performance and some behavior issues. Yeah. So, I think it's a good point. I'm just going to add one to the discipline aspect of it of just I think a lot as a teacher of those proactive mindsets

216of what's causing the behavior to start and there are many reasons that it may happen before a child even comes to school right we're hungry or they're they had a bad car ride that happens to all of us and then sometimes it happens in class because they're not engaged and I have that when I'm bored I'll my I will wander or I won't be as present and so this whole model is built built on keeping students engaged based on work that they care about, work that they're passionate about, work that is directly pertaining to the world around them. And so that engagement is also another aspect that really matters in terms of behaviors in the classroom because when we're working on something, we're coding something, we're building something, that's where my focus and energy is

217as um and so that's I think one of the kind of before we even hopefully hit the matrix, that's one of the really important baked in aspects of this model. Okay, Dr. Jurgensson, I don't see your hand up. I'm going to take that as you don't have any questions to ask. If you do, please raise your hand up. I'm all good. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Uh I'll come to you. Uh couple of questions. Same thing uh that I asked previously. You have a clear plan to address gifted talented students or special needs students. How to identify them and provide the uh education that they need? Yes. Um so we can start with GT because we have some experts in the room. Um page 156 really clearly outlines like how identification works but this model

218is actually like when you look at gifted education guidance this is the model and that would best suit gifted education students is this projectbased learning. And so Spruce follows all of CDE's like evidence-based identification guidelines using D11's established NGAT screener for second grade and KOAP for sixth grade as our universal screeners. Um students scoring above the 95th percentile are automatically entered into gifted education programming um with ALP development happening 30 days and a family meeting um in 15 days from that. Beyond universal screeners, students can also qualify with a larger body of evidence um such as academic achievement scores on I Ready um observations from teachers or families or work samples. Uh and so then our model really supports students yes during project time but also could be in extension time of where they are

219getting specific subject acceleration um based on their ALP goals. And so that's kind of high level for gifted education. In terms of on the team, our head of K2 will receive gifted training. Um a stipen teacher position will serve as our gifted coordinator also with gifted training and our general classroom teachers are all a part of um the team that helps support our gifted students. Uh in terms of special education, there's a kind of robust plan within here in terms of how we hope to ensure that all children thrive at in our setting. And so our framework is intentionally designed to support all students through a multimodal learning um opportunity and so can aesthetically, auditory and visually um that can be personalized to each unique brilliance of every child. And so in alignment with ID

220IDA IDA, excuse me, um we believe that students benefit from spending the maximum amount of time in the general education setting with their peers. And so sped teachers work with general educator teachers in a co-eing type model to make modifications or accommodations for students. they have planning time together after so that they can collaborate on a daily basis to ensure that all um needs are met. And what we know is that accommodations and interventions interventions support all students, not just students um with individual education plans. And so do you want me to go through our identification process? Okay, it's in here if you want to see it. Thank you for our reference. And then the second question is regarding enrollment. I think you said 64 to 72 students. Your threshold that you need the minimum

221number of students for to be financially viable. There's lots of different also variations and permutations that we've tried to keep our model as um similar to what is in this application. 54 is kind of that minimal threshold without having to majorly increase our class sizes. We can go lower but then that changes um the class size structure. Okay. Thank you. So um for the board and also the community's uh um uh awareness uh the executive summary coming from the district after reviewing this you got a fully developed uh rating as well. I'm assuming that they looked at the report that came from the district. Dr. Comfort that I believe we sent it. I'm not sure if they were it but great. And then the DAC report as well and the DAC report also you got

222a fully developed rating in just about all the categories. Uh so that indicates that several people have had eyes on that and got to review it and um uh the feedback is that you put together a comprehensive report out there. Thank you. And you know, one of your questions about special education. You may have a very developed section, but the district report did have um some concerns about staffing ratios and elaboration on teacher training for compliance, etc. So, just as long as you're aware of that and we'll be addressing that and of course they're going to come to you and say, "If you want a contract, here's what you have to do anyway." Yeah. Um then the other one of the DAX area of concerns uh no there were they did not see apparently a

223draft board member agreement or conflict of interest statements. Have you developed those? Okay. So it just didn't make it maybe into the there are a lot of appendices. So there it's in our bylaws and then we also have a conflict of a separate conflict of interest policy that if they have to be approved all of our board members will individually review and sign that. Okay, sounds good. And is there employee handbook draft in there as well? Okay. If you don't have one, you can certainly come back to us. We've got some excellence in developing employ. We have both of those. Yes. Each of like you said there thousands of pages that had to be reviewed here to us from district. So appreciate the confirmation there. All right. No further questions. Okay. Thank you. And uh

224uh like what Dr. comfort said. Uh uh my understanding is that if the board decides to approve you, it could be a conditional approval based on a timeline and what they required to meet by each of those timelines. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Uh same thing as the previous one. Uh if you have any additional follow-up questions, please direct it to superintendent G in the next couple of days so that you can get that and uh um provide uh feedback in a timely manner to the board. Uh and this will come as an action item uh next week. Uh at this point uh I don't think there is any further questions from the board, but you may get additional questions in the next couple. Thank you so much for your time. Appreciate One more thing I

225want to mention. While I was talking to you, you said that you're getting married uh in the summer. So, congratulations. Your fiance is sitting in the He's the best. Always here to support. Yes. We're very excited. And like honestly with I would choose writing this over wedding planning. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. The next charter school application is um let me get the name right. Gree for success. Anybody related to Gree for success? Okay, great. Um by now you know the process and you listen. Yeah, that's great. The feedback and everything like that. Oh, you have people joining us remotely as well. Yeah, Chelsea and Abby are remote. Um, Abby was unable to be here through a travel snafu. Uh, you may know me. I've been around a bit. My

226name is Brad Miller. I'm a lawyer and u have I'm going to present sort of initially. I hope that's good. Um, my my story is not I don't have a hard story, but my parents were hippies and through a social justice impulse. I lived in Huntington Park, California, where my brother and I were the only blonde kids in my school. And I felt like the other, you know, sort of in a in a in a unique way. It wasn't hard. It was just a different sort of scenario. And I I struggled in school quite honestly through fifth grade. It it was just there was sort of aspects of bullying and just sort of being outside for the most part. I didn't get beat up or stuff, but it was just sort of that different that

227I was a different guy. And um Mr. Thompson, my fifth grade teacher, um identified me as unique. Um I ended up in what was sort of the then equivalent back in the early 70s of the um GT sort of designation and and that was a lifecher for me, right? You know, and so my cycle has been I've gone to law school and and done some things that are, you know, relatively successful. And ever since that, you if you if you recognize my career, I work with schools all over um all over the state of largely in El Paso County and the southern part of the state. And my um my driving instinct is to find opportunities for kids that don't fit elsewhere. And so I, you know, I'm I'm working with Dan School. Um I

228really appreciate what they're doing, the Classical Academy, and and I hope hope you say yes to that. And I assume you might. But um that school fits my kids and fits some people like me, but there's kids that aren't like me. And I ran into John Hall, who's the sort of the founder, originator, the ed of of Pathways Management Group, which is behind this organization. And John was a nonidentified dyslexic all the way through college. Struggled immensely. And when I heard his story three years ago, Abby maybe it was it was so resonant with me to see that he was on a mission. And so Pathways has been a program that successfully provides kids with credit recovery opportunities who have have fallen out of public schools for other reasons. And I recognize that um you

229had a number of questions arising out of the the last um uh presentation. Uh there was uh we maybe some unmet expectations in the terms of the way we described what our program was. But um I hearken back to to my world and the relationship I had with Mr. Thompson which it was just that sort of thing. It was like Jill a couple weeks ago you or whenever it was you talked about teacher appreciation week and and the story about how a teacher goes into this you know Walmart later and and kids just run to them right and and I was all in with that because that's my experience and and John wants to provide that experience to kids in in Colorado Springs. Uh Gateway would be in the northeast section of the of the

230district uh right adjacent to my friends in district 49. will probably steal some kids. Um, to an earlier question, I I suspect I know legal counsel over in D49, maybe we can make an arrangement for busing over and back if I I love how the the local districts have begun to work together in some really constructive ways on projects um to help all the kids in El Paso County. And I do recognize that there's not a lot of programs. I know we've got East Lake down here and schools like that down here, but programs up in that quadrant up towards adjacent to D20, adjacent to D49 where we've got Patriot all the way out in in Falcon, but nothing else really right in that area to serve those kids. I think it's really wisdom that

231they've chosen that location. This school is location in the northeast area. We don't have a spot. We're going to make sure we've got a place with sidewalks so that busing is is safe and and access is safe, but it's going to be in the northeast section of the district. Okay. Thank you. This school is more than anything built out of relationships. It's teacher relationships with the students that is the defining differentiating factor in this school. And I know we've got credit recovery pro programs within the district and as external partners in the charter schools that we've got. This is locationally different and it's designed different because it is about partnering with kids and small cohorts, little bit longer school year with a a real focus on they need to they need to hit 70% success

232rates every and I'm not I was a two-year teacher in in Southern California. I failed out just that wasn't going to be my gig. So I I don't speak education ease in the great elegant way that uh Dan did. But um they're going to focus on every 45 days you got to do a checkup and if you're not if you're not making progress we circle back around and start again. We're not going to be protective of our students. Uh we talked with um Michael Gaul and Brandon and that and Tom and Chris and those folks about the fact that we want kids to be successful enough that they can get back to Coronado and finish out their year in the in the coordinated high school if that's their dream. We we want to partner truly

233with the district and we we want to start modestly 120 kids grow to maybe 300 after the third fourth year. That's that's our apex. Um, we've got a fantastic board. Darcy sitting next to me here, and I'll let her introduce herself, but um, our other board members are, uh, Curtis, who's uh, well, Curtis was on the board, is is going to step down, I think. Is that correct? Yes. We've got Victoria Contrarus, mom with real personal experience with kids that struggle in education, dyslexia. Um, she's a board member for a organization called Colorado Hands and Voices. She's got a business management background. Wait, Colorado what? Hands and Voices. Is that correct, Abby? Thank you. What is it? Um it's a non yeah they help students and kids um specifically I don't want to speak for

234her but uh her she has personal experience with her own child being um dyslexic with some speech therapy issues and so she is very well involved and they want voice heard they want to be able to help other students and families that also go through this. We got Roberta who's an education professional. She was a teacher. Um she's now a director of teacher certification. Sean Harding has a business and finance background. I'm sorry I don't know these folks and so I'm just um going from the bios that I've got. Yeah, because I couldn't find these people. Um and then uh so Robera is a teacher was a teacher. She's she's now director of teacher certification and and so she's in higher ed. Okay. And then we've got Sean Harding with a business and finance background.

235He's he's volunteers for a number of boards and and nonprofits and that sort of thing. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Um I'm going to defer to the folks online for this, you know, the specifics. What's you know, do you use maps or whatever? Those sorts of questions. Um they'll be the experts there. Darcy, I don't know if you want to say a couple words, but I know most of you, but for those who don't know me, my name is Darcy Shening. I'm a mother. My kids are here with me tonight. I uh specialize in policy writing. My I previously served on the board at St. Peter um where my kids go to school. I um this school is really important to me because it's people from all walks of life that have come together to serve

236the underserved. And as somebody that in high school, you know, had multiple I didn't I wouldn't say I had issues like I graduated successfully, um I went on to college. I graduated from college, but that said, um there were times in high school where, you know, I acted out. I got in trouble. And um there were I wish that my classes were smaller. I graduated from a high school of 3,000 people. And so for somebody like me, and like I said, most of you know me by now, um that was a that was a a rough go in high school. And so when I was in college, I did find that I was intellectually equipped. Um but I wasn't yet emotionally equipped and as equipped as some of my peers were. there was not very

237much uh trauma intervention at that time which this our school focuses very heavily on what are the barriers to this child receiving an education and that's what's so important to me about this school and that's why I'm on this board so thank you for having us tonight the two of them online they are not part of the board uh they're part of our founding organization pathways management group okay thank So I think I've said what I need to say to start us. So yeah um and as we go around if some of the questions they are better qualified to answer that we will direct it to them and at that time um we will get those answered. Um um can I come to you? Um, well, I appreciate that you recognize that we already have

238two charter schools dealing with students that are at risk and we have a couple of our own schools that deal with students who are at risk. Um, including Achieve Online, so students don't they can be just about anywhere. Um, so I appreciate you addressing that. There seemed to be a number of programming and budgetary concerns with both the district review and the DAC review. Um, so I I'm going to hold off on a couple of those for just a moment and mention that when I I try to do a web search on maybe some board members as well. Um, but also like the name of the of the group and there is a gateway to success organization here in Colorado Springs. It's a behavioral health outpatient treatment facility serving Fremont, PBLO, and El Paso counties

239in Colorado. So it seems like you may want to reconsider. I'll have their lawyer look into um that that state filing for sure. Okay. Yeah. Yes. Absolutely. That that creates great confusion. There's also a gateway to success in like Michigan. Michigan. Yeah. That came up. So I didn't know if that was part of the management group or not. Um so could you give us maybe some details on the educational program and graduation plans and credits because those are like some of the top two that doesn't even begin to address budget. Nighttime is limited always. We'll come around to you. We'll come around. So, let's uh focus on the educational program graduation uh graduation. So, I'll start briefly and then I'll turn over to Abby. But, um to the point of the multiple schools, uh we

240still have not optimal graduation rates, you know, anywhere regionally and and and this is a program that aims to fix that and has had success in doing so. So, I don't think that having competitors, so to speak, is is in any way a hindrance to this model, particularly where we're looking geographically. We need more kids to graduate successfully, and and I think that's a big part of what's on the plate here. Abby, do you want to respond to the educational model? Uh, Chelsea, did you want to touch on that? I think you may be better equipped. Sure, I'm happy to. Um, hi everyone. Um my name is Chelsea um and I have experience with the model um as a former teacher instructional coach um assistant principal and now on manager of school implementation and so

241the model is a blended learning program and um to what Brad was saying it is based on that relationship between the teacher and the student that's where everything that is successful and effective with your program it lies with that um so it is really based on individualizing the learning program to what the students need. So when they come into our program and enroll, the teacher will look at their transcripts, look at their educational record, kind of see what um courses they need in order to graduate and whatever their post-secary plans are, kind of plan accordingly with that. And students have multiple options for how they will learn um and um be assessed for mastery. So we have our online program which is through Edmonton. Um and that is gonna that is California or not California

242Colorado aligned. Um and then we have our independent study curriculum which is essentially units um with workbooks and textbooks. Um similar to um you know a traditional school where you have like homework and textbooks but it is scaffolded with projects um multiple ways of assessing students through formative um and summitative assessments. And then we have our small group instruction which is direct instruction which um is run primarily for our higher level more challenging classes. So that students who are struggling you know with that algebra 2 or chemistry they have um that mentor teacher support for that. So it's a blend of every of those three different modalities. So if a student really, you know, likes that um paper to pencil, they um work better with note-taking, with highlighting, they would be primarily um that uh

243the is workbooks, independent study workbooks. If they really do well with um direct instruction, then they would take um a course with that and they can do a blending of both. One thing I love about um the pacing for the program is students go at a pace that they are successful at as long as it is meeting the minimum um to be able to catch up on those credits. So there is a minimum that we expect of students but if they want to go faster they they definitely can but we arrange it so that they're working on maybe two or three classes at a time. So it's not where they're, you know, juggling six, seven courses and possibly not being successful in any of them. We start them off with maybe two a core um

244for sure it's usually English and math and then maybe like a social studies something um to complement that and they will go back and forth and complete those units. Um and that is assessed at the end of every learning period or month and that's how we assess to make sure that students are progressing that that progress monitoring is happening. um every month um so that we are able to catch and intervene if we notice that a student is falling behind or um you know not being successful in terms of study habits, attendance, um learning, anything like that. Follow well. Yes, go ahead. I'll let somebody else have that. Okay. The question just to follow up though on on graduation. So what is the graduation since this school is this model has been created elsewhere. What

245is their graduation rate? Because you're talking about people seriously challenged in schools. So I'm curious. So they have the same graduation requirements um as our authorizers. So we don't kind of we don't dilute any of the requirements. They are still held um to those requirements. So, I believe in Colorado it's the um four um years of English, the three math, um the three science, three social studies, um the health, all of the all of those requirements are still embedded. Um and then we'll typically have a a college path if students are looking to go straight to a four-year. Um if they want to go to a community college or um workforce, then you know, they may not have like the um accelerated or AP kind of coursework. um foreign language requirements which some schools do

246require. So we have options but they do um they do all need to complete the high school requirements that they would in their home district graduation rate from from from this management group at other Gotcha. So, um I'm not sure if with the alternative framework we would have a one-year graduation weight rate, but our one-year graduation rate um in some of our other um states. So, um 80 I have 89% um for Louisiana, our um school model in Louisiana. Um we have 74 I believe in Illinois. um 72 I believe in Louisiana and then 81 for Arizona. So the one-year cohort is measuring the students who are a senior at the beginning of the school year and um tracking their progress towards graduation. Thank you. Dr. Um, one of the things I heard was that

247um kids would come to this school uh with the idea that they could go back into their comprehensive high school. How is your um curriculum aligned to what we have here? Did you want me to take that, Abby? So um so in terms of alignment um so students we uh students can come year round and because they are completing um units which are essentially like five units will translate to one semester of a course we would recommend that students complete um up to whatever they um whatever credit requirement is um asked of the district. So, in other schools, in our other schools, what we'll do is we'll work with the counselor, kind of um plan out what the student needs to have done before they are able to go back and plan accordingly to make

248sure that all those classes are completed. And once that happens, once they cleanly finish all of their coursework, then they go back. We do try to time it for that start of the school year, ideally, if not the semester. Um, and we typically will make sure that it is for their senior year since a lot of students that is their goal if they want to go back. We do, um, have, you know, a good handful of students that end up staying with us. Um, for the ones that do go back, they want to, you know, have prom, they want to really, um, graduate with their friends. Um, that is, you know, a really a really big motiv motivator for them, but it is going to be a lot of communication with the counselor. So, our

249um our counseling staff and teachers in conjunction with the district um counselors work together to make sure that we are um in alignment with what needs to happen. I still don't understand how it is that you made sure that you've aligned the curriculum expectations in uh English and math at the high school level that would be accepted by uh you're out of state so being accepted by uh state of Colorado or being accepted by what we teach in district 11. I I don't hear the alignment. So our curriculum um the charter management organization works with the curriculum provider and the curriculum provider um does state alignment. So all of that happens in um that startup year in terms of looking at the independent study curriculum that we have the activities the content and aligns it

250to state standards for that specific state. And that's how we've operated in um the states that I mentioned previously is it's taking um kind of our our model and making sure that the curriculum is aligned to the state standards. So if the student is you know leaving at English um 11 their junior year that it aligns with what the student needs in order to go back for their senior year. Let me also can I uh let me also ask so this is a very different format from the previous two that we've heard this evening. So you guys are out of state. How is it that we don't have other than Darcy who said very little uh presenting this um application to us? I don't understand if if the question is having local board members. Yeah.

251So we we had one who was unable to come. Garcia was able to come. Um the uh the truth of it is we're we're 15 months away. We're going to work on that board and that composition and and build that team. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. I I do want to share that all the board members do live in Colorado. The other two are about 30 minutes 40 minutes away. Um and one of them does work in Colorado Springs. And we do want to of course expand the board and and have more parents from Colorado Springs. Um I think the only the only push back I've received from parents that I did, you know, talk about with our school was uh the lack of trust uh with the district. They just weren't too sure if it

252would really matter. But of course, they do support us. We do have their names. I do have their contact. I have their testimonials. they're more than happy to support there. They just they just weren't sure about if the school, you know, was something that the district would want to also support because of the programs that they currently have aren't working. So, they just weren't sure if I I think there's just some communication there where they just want to ensure that we are approved and then they would like to join the board so that they know that this is something that the district also sees um with their vision. They want this model to happen. But I think from previous board meetings they've attended or uh schools that their students went to, they just weren't as

253um content. Um I I've spoken with a few parents and I have a few of their testimonials. I I think I've sent a few to Chris and had maybe one or two on the application, but not too much. And they are more than happy to speak with the district as well on the side. Okay, thank you. Um, just as far as consistency goes, uh, sharing what does it the district review said and also the DAC review and you are aware of it. The district review was this application was partially developed. Um, and the DAC was uh some areas fully developed, some areas mostly developed, other areas partially developed. Is there some noise in the background? if you can mute yourself. Thank you, Director Gary. Any questions? Yeah. Um, this was sort of addressed earlier, but

254I I just want to ask it in a slightly different way. We have a number of programs that focus on kind of rehabilitation and working with our most at risk students. What do you see as your comparative advantage for that niche? I'll speak to that because I, you know, I've observed them from afar as as um in their California niche and and and the and their expanse across the the different states. Uh this genuine um ethos of relationship being key to student success permeates everything they do. if you meet their staff across and it's a wonderfully diverse staff um located in in a a number of different places and the way they relate to one another, the way they relate to um uh external folks in in their schools in Louisiana and in Illinois for

255example um just a remarkable model. The kids thrive. It's just it's it's so warm and I think that's the distinctive. Okay. You good? Okay. Uh, so I been going back through your application and you have a cost estimate for startup of 200 23 $23,000. Is that even okay? Where do you already have those funds secured to start up? because you won't have the students yet to truly pay. So the other charters have grants or this is one of you've run into um charter management organizations in the past and the support systems behind them. Um I work with a lot of National Heritage Academy schools. They're out of Michigan. they have the resources to fund and and support the startup phase through a school and um and they'll you know they they play the long game

256and so they've got that sort of general resource and that's the same application here. Okay. So we could start tomorrow financially. Okay. So the management organization is fronting those costs. Okay. Yeah. um I've been working with their team on things like the CCSP and you know other opportunities as well and then I'm sure they'll seek to access those but fundamentally the organization can bear it. Okay. So it's really they're they're the ones that are um incurring the risk of opening and wanting to see the success of the school. Um, I think it's been touched on already, but I also am struggling that we have six schools that meet this need already in our system and just trying to rationalize uh, is there really a need for that? I mean, we've even wondered if we should

257be consolidating ourselves. And um, so I think those are just some of the things that I'm kind of playing out. I also am a big advocate of choice and if parents want your school to open and if they're going to attend then more power to you. There there's still Lauren a ton of students who access or programs like goal academy because there aren't enough resources locally inhouse. We've got some great ones here but going online second best and if we can do something that's real it's better. Have you guys uh researched some of the other schools in our portfolio like have you spent time looking at Tesla Beiju like just to really get an understanding of what is already offered in D11 and how you can pivot and do it differently. Yes. And we've met

258with them and I wouldn't so much say how we would do it differently but how we would complement them and where we would fit into D11. And as Brad talked about, given the location, you're also talking about, you know, some of those D49 students as well. And I know that's, you know, not within the purview of this district, but again, it's about choice. And when you have the projectbased learning and the trauma um intervention that's able to really help kids with those barriers. Um, plus we go longer. Our school year goes longer. um it's online and it's the traditional textbooks. So, it's all about meeting these students where they're at. And so, in that sense, it's a complimentary school in D11. It brings to the table a system where, as Brad mentioned, the staff and

259and student relationship is so key because it's it's not about, you know, what is so different about this school. It's about this school bringing the difference that the student needs in real time and that's why the other schools have been successful. I think that's all the questions I have for now. Okay. Thank you. And I don't see Director Jensen's hand up. Director Jensen, if you have questions, um um please uh raise your hand up. I've got a couple questions. Um Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, as far as enrollment numbers go, have you reached out into the community, um, gathered any feedback as far as commitment goes for this type of school? If there is a need for this type of school and projected enrollment that you anticipate for that first year, what's your commitment level

260from that? At least we've got 189 letters of interest. Okay. So it, you know, and that's defined in all sorts of ways, but we've had expressions of, you know, some con contact and some expression of interest. We're shooting to open at 120. Um, and again, we're a ways out from that time frame. Uh, to sort of generally respond to both you and Lauren, um, I was here with Abby and another teammate. We met with Brandon and Scott Mendlesburg when he was here and did some of these tours that Darcy was referring to, you know, a good year and a half ago, right? So, they've been pursuing and considering and trying to cement what works and that's how we got to the geographical decision and and so forth like that. There's been some thought behind this.

261Thank you for answering that. And the second question that I have is um you talked about goal academy that is already there as a online program for students to access in district 49. Fully aware of the drop-in centers at all. Yes, I get it. I'm their authorizer. So I know them. Yeah. Awesome. So why D11 at this point in time? Y1. Yeah. Why D11? What is the need for another school with this when we talked about the redundancy? Why D11? What specifically about D1 is attractive to you at this time? I I I'll just be really candid. It's it's you and your leadership and the remarkable surge that you've created in terms of choice and opportunity. I mean, I sat and I've been a part of a development of a portfolio of schools in a

262in a district and what you guys are doing is remarkable in terms of just opening the doors and making education fun again and and it's been really wonderful to watch. Okay, thank you. Thank you for your candidness. Director, you had some questions. Yep. I just wanted to follow up. It was mentioned that students would be taking two to three classes at once. So if this is this is about credit recovery really though that seems a slow way to catch up. So won't that increase the Chelsea will say this much I'm sorry to interrupt you I apologize you are done. Yeah so it just seems like it will increase the gap and slow graduation. So we're often time you know we can educate kids until they're a little bit older than the traditional graduation and what

263what pathways and now can you mute? Yeah. Pathways and now the, you know, and now gateway hopes to accomplish is making sure that the kids walk through each goal. And so they really circle back. It's I I talked about this 45day cycle. If you're not 70% achievement through what you're supposed to do, we get back over and we start back over. So we're just actually being successful. So we might graduate at 19, but we're going to graduate. And that's the goal here. We graduated 19 to 21 also. Understood. But but but that's why we condense and make sure we're focused and we have success at those levels. That's better than having, you know, five C minuses. We want we want 3B pluses, you know, that's what we're doing here. Okay. So, you're just willing Chelsea

264wants to speak to that. Okay. Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks. Yeah. And I'm sorry about any background music. I'm at um a hotel for one of our school's graduations and there is live music at the hotel. So I apologize if there's some background noise. Um I just wanted to clarify the two to three classes. So that's typically how we start a student off who's new to the program just because there is a higher level of independence and discipline and it's teaching them those study skills to be successful in the program. and eventually we'll add on so students can take up to six um six courses but we usually try to have them completely successfully do one or two at a time um just because they don't have to do everything concurrently. They can do those

265two classes over a period of two months and then start with another one. So they are still earning the minimum number of credits they would need to be successful in our school versus the traditional school. the same number of credits um if not more if they are keeping pace with doing five units each um learning period. It does translate to um what they would be completing at um their traditional school. And if they do want to go faster, that's when we add on those additional courses. But in my experience, like starting them off with too many courses, it's not setting them up to be successful. Dr. Nelson. Uh so your other schools that your management program has in in this system, are they this similar model of this credit recovery and that you if that

266student um you encourage them or support them going back to their home school? I'm just wondering about the financial viability of like I love the concept. as warm fuzzies, but financially viable. I just want to hear if you've actually seen this prove out that you can have kids be in place for a short amount of time and then they leave and you're not getting their funding anymore. Yeah, I think that's that's it's a double-edged sword as we call it, you know. Um if they stay with us, great. If not, I think it's I think it's still great that they are able to graduate with their peers, with their go to call, you know, go to prom and everything with them. Our main goal, and this is something that Darcy and and Brad kind of touched,

267but uh we are we're not here really to compete or anything like that. We really really do want to compliment and partner with all the schools and we want the students to be happy. I think that is one of the biggest things that I've heard from students and parents is that it's it's really just another option and choice for the students that fit them better. Whether it's just as Chelsea said like a restart and then they're able to actually excel and progress and then they're good and they get to go back to their traditional schools. It's it's a cost that the management company can eat. But because we've been so successful and and students have been so happy with us and teachers have been very happy with us, the retention is great and we've always

268had a great um kind of like family here where we we really really have more time with each other to trust each other. And um it's it's something that we know that it may take a cost now, but in the long run, it's a win-win for everyone, for the students, for the district, for us, for everybody. So, you do have a financially viable way to to have that model. The school will never be in a negative. Um we have a cash flow insurance that they're always in the positive. there there is a loan, but we don't even charge the school or have them pay that interest or anything until they're ready to because we don't want school to fall. We don't want them to have any any financial issues like that. We've se we've seen

269other schools go through that and we don't want them to go through that. So, it's really about helping the students and and the reason why is because we feel education nowadays a lot of students see it as a chore. Some people just don't care for it at it as much. And the the president, he was dyslexic as Brad mentioned and no one believed in him. Everyone thought he was going to fail. He was not going to go to college and he was able to go to college. He was able to be a successful businessman and he was able to help open schools. And we've seen students who have succeeded wanted to start their own businesses and they they've done that. and we were there to help them. So, I think when we see those little

270successes and the smiles and the families faces and the students like making it, I I think that's where our management company realized like this is worth it. Like we'll cry now maybe for some of the cost, but at the end of it, we're all crying in in happy tears and and so yes, we we are very aware of that. How many uh and to add on to Oh, go ahead. I was just going to add that I think starting with a really strong model and teachers to really implement it well and connect with students and carry out the model the way it was intended I think it creates a quality program where it kind of speaks for itself. So a lot of the students come to us through word of mouth. Um, and I think

271so even if we do have those situations where students return to their home school, it's not going to be where we were, you know, heavily dependent on that senior. Like ideally, if we are running our program well the way it's intended, then there will be other students who have that need for a program like ours and it won't be where we need to hold on to every senior because that that's part of educational choice is where they want to be. And if we are doing our job getting them to where they need to be to graduate and they choose to go back, then I think that's something like Abby mentioned, we 100 wholeheartedly support that. That's their goal. That's their dream. We're there to make make that happen. And there are other students that, you

272know, we are open to serving them. So I think that's kind of the the mentality that we have um across all of our schools. How many schools have you opened and are continuing to operate under this model and if you want to get back to us later that's fine. Okay, get back to us. To add to that, so many of the students that we're going to be actively reaching out to because that's also really key here, right? is finding those students that are at risk. And as somebody who's worked in the criminal justice system, so many people that go through the criminal justice system or um you know have a teen pregnancy or whatever might happen um they're not they are not seeking out schools and sometimes their parents aren't even you know actively thinking

273about getting them back into education. Sometimes just a brief stay in the criminal justice system is enough to just derail a child. So we want to actively reach out to those kids and that's why sometimes the cost is worth it if we're talking about so what if they leave the school and go back to their original school. For some of these kids the outreach of our organization saying hey we want to how do you want to learn? You know, how many of us know people that went through the criminal justice system that were actually brilliant people that just had not so great backgrounds or not so great issues? And so those are the people that we want to catch before it's too late, before they're in prison for 10 years. And this little this could

274make such a difference. And it doesn't matter if they stay with us or if they go back to their original school, but it's about catching those at risk kids and providing them with what they need. Thank you. We need to wrap it up in interest of time. So I at least gathered two questions. Uh Director Bank has asked about your current board members. It's still a a work in progress, but if you can provide some details about your current board members, a little bit more specificity on their background. Thank you. That was one. I can send their resumes. I have each of the resumes. Please uh forward it to us so that we can take a look at that. And then director Nelson's question about how many uh schools um uh you have under Go

275ahead. I can speak to that. So, we have um 11. I was going to say nine, but um because we added two more um campuses, so we have 11 total. We just opened um two in Arizona and we expanded in Idaho as well. Um so we have a total of four in um Illinois, two in Idaho, two in Louisiana, and three in Arizona. What's your longest running school? I believe that would be so our um one of our Illinois campuses and our um uh I believe it [Music] was 200 and was it six 2006 I want to say so roughly about 18 years or so okay it's it's been pretty long and I do want to share that that started as a one year and they've you know ever since they've loved the program. They

276expanded it. They've opened more centers to where they've even had over 1500 students and and they continue to expand and help because it's been very successful. So, okay. Thank you. Are there any other questions from the board at this time, even though we may not uh address it at this point in time, but get back to us in the next few days. Any outlying questions? And I'm going to, if um possible, turn over to Mr. Kilroy or Dr. Comfort to provide the board a little bit of background on your review itself because your review u rated this application as um partially met. Is that what uh you guys give partially developed? Can you give us a little bit of background on that? Yeah, I mean I you know first six years of my career were

277in alternative school. So, I I really do appreciate the model. Um, and I I like the fact that there's energy behind trying to capture these kids. Like, this is something that that I really believe in. Um, the the two areas of concern I would say kind of one is something I think that even as a district now that we wrestle with is is the school and I'm going to quote Dr. X over here. Is this the school a destination school or is it a treatment? And I think when those get confused, the school becomes very complicated. Like, are we working with kids long term or are we working them with for a six week window and then returning them? That gets complicated. Do I have the answer? I don't. Um, so that was one. And

278again, it goes just back to the redundancy with the number of alternative campuses that we have right now. Um, is this set apart enough and offering a a model that is so distinctly unique that it's value added or is it redundant? Right? Because we have Tesla, beu achieve digital, we have community prep, we have East Lake and so those are the reservations that I have when I reviewed it. Um so it's really kind of it's it's I'm giving you mixed feedback because I am a proponent of alternative education and this kind of intervention but I am also u wrestling with those two things. Is it treatment or is it destination and then is it redundant or is it value added? Okay. and the application itself as far as partially developed goes, were there areas in

279the application that was not meeting the district's expectations? Yeah, let me let me respond. I think I think the application I think Mr. Miller kind of mentioned this to begin with. It wasn't as robust as I think what we saw in the two other applications and maybe as we hoped. I think what we're seeing is a um a national organization that has success and then what's the local application of that. Um I don't think that there's areas in the application that couldn't be addressed over the next 15 months. Um but in terms of what was submitted uh it it was thin in some areas that led to I think both the DAC and the district reviews uh being kind of partially meeting expectations. Okay. Thank you. so much. Um, with that we will wrap up

280this conversation. Thank you so much for being present here, the two of you online and the two of you in person as as well. Um, if there are any additional questions um, uh, again board members uh, reach out to Superintendent Gaul and his team in the next couple of days and those questions will be answered and uh, Abby is going to send us the resume of the board members. Thank you so much. Good. Okay, thank you guys. Thank you. Don't get too eager there, Dr. Okay, we have a few more items on the agenda before we wrap up for the evening. Um, the next item on the agenda is the education committee meeting update. Um, uh, this was something that came out of, um, this was something that came out of one of our retreats.

281up and uh how do we address uh committee meetings um uh the schedule the um uh how it's being conducted um next year uh and this will also include the committee member composition as well but first I'm going to turn to um Chief Artmer um uh I know that you uh put together um group of people to discuss this along with some of the committee chairs, update the board as to where we are. Absolutely. So, I'll open with a bit of context about that meeting. We pulled together all of the committee chairs for the board committee. So, that included DAC and all the subcommittees, the MLO, um I'll not use abbreviations, the mill levy override oversight committee, it's a big one. Um the personnel advisory committee and the business insurance committee. We went through a

282process where we um put the board goals out there that are posted in the agenda item of um finding efficiency and getting down to less meetings a month, ideally to one meeting day a month. Um also making sure that we can have board members more involved and seek more community involvement. We know on several of those committees we have open chairs that have remained unfilled for a long time. So that's all in the interest of getting more people involved. Being able to commute communicate um committee meetings happening on a on a night and keeping that um specific will help we think draw attention and involvement. So the committee sat down, they produced proposals before the meeting, brought those and then we evaluated each proposal. Finally landing on the one that's in front of you here

283that does meet the board um ask of getting to one committee meeting night a month. We talked about that being Thursday evenings. I know there was an ask from the board in the retreat to see if that could potentially be a Wednesday meeting. Um the committee noted, the committee chairs all noted there are a lot of conflicts on Wednesday evenings for many people. So they felt like Thursday might be a better day to go to. We looked at the calendar for next year to see if the third Thursday a month would run into any breaks. Um and we found it didn't. You can see all of those dates listed in the proposal. The other thing we talked about was the amount of time the committees are currently spending um within their sessions. Um the mil

284levy override oversight committee in particular has been working on a lot of efficiencies this year. The chair of that committee is um Chip X and he talked about right now his committee runs about two hours but that's not always necessary. He thinks that he can work within a shorter time frame. So each committee kind of shared out how many times they're meeting um during the year right now. The DAC budget subcommittee shared that was five to six. The full DAC mentioned that they meet every month. DAC accreditation noted that when we put subcommittees in place, there's times during the year where they have a heavier workload and then a lighter workload. So DAC accreditation in particular, when we bring you school improvement plans in the fall and they bring reports with all of those, that's

285a heavier workload time for them where they may need more meeting time in August or September as they're reviewing those plans. And then at other times during the year where data is not back yet, they might be able to cancel a meeting. So we talked about all of those kind of structures and brought this proposal where if everyone's meeting on the same night in a month, we would be able to start some committees earlier. The benefits committee and the PAT committee in particular have a lot more staff members on them than community members. A 4:15 start would allow um for most committee members to be there on time. We did talk about if there's a teacher who might be teaching until that point in time that we need to put a sub in place where

286we could look at that. But the committee chairs are both um employees on those two. It's Tanya Nash runs the personnel advisory committee and um Jessica Bulock runs the um benefits insurance committee. They didn't think this would be a problem for their meetings to run concurrently or start at 4:15. And both of them said oftentimes they don't need an hour and 15 minutes. So they might even be able to start at 4:30 and just run an hour 4:30 to 5:30. The 5:30 to 6:00 time is kind of a welcome and district context um session that if you were on pack or benefits insurance, you could stay for that session if you wanted to to hear more. Oftentimes at all of these committee meetings, there's some redundancy in that they ask for district context that we

287represent at each of the meetings. And so this could be a way to welcome in. Also, if we're seeking input from other people who haven't joined a committee as a a voting member, but they're starting to want to sit in and audit the different committees and see what's that that's like and where they could get involved. This could be a place where we could welcome them in, explain the opportunities. We could have staff members present to be able to do that and help align personal interests to the volunteerism that people want to express and do. Then from 6:00 to 8:30, committee chairs would be in charge of kind of dividing that meeting time out. So for example, the DAC does have several subcommittees. They have that 2 and a half hour time period then to

288determine maybe one month they give more minutes to DAC accreditation because that subcommittee needs to do a larger workload lift than another subcommittee or the full DAC may take more of that agenda meeting time during another point um in the school year. that we would work with them in their agenda setting meetings to make sure that all presentations and all work that's there is aligned and directly connected to their charges to make sure they can deliver on those for you. Um, specifically with all of these committees, there's statute tied to it. So, we need to make sure that we're meeting that statute, but that there's also efficiency in the work that we're keeping honed on the decisions that are at hand and informing those through presentations, but also through committee conversation. Um several of you

289know that they went through redesign last year. Many of our committees they had new commitments that they put up front in those meetings. And what we're hearing from community members is they like to be at a meeting where they get to talk now or they just sit back and listen to a presentation the whole time. So we're working on fostering more um interaction in all of those committees which we can continue to do through facilitation in these as well. That's my summary. Okay. Thank you. It's impressive. a lot of work went into this. I'm u thankful for what you were able to do in coordination with all the uh so board you had an opportunity to take a look at this. Uh we've also had some feedback received from uh which were tag chairs uh

290or the tag budgets of committee chair as well earlier this evening. Um uh right now the proposal is to uh have one Thursday one day in a month that will encapsulate all meetings. Uh now it's not required that a committee member is going to be attending all of these meetings. So their presence is going to be from 4:15 to 8:13. There are going to be some of them that are only in a specific committee and may come at a later point in time. And then you said that that budget only requires about five to six meetings in a month. That's what they did this year. It may it may change next year. Meetings. Yeah. Around that. And then DAC accreditation varies depending on what the uh and they had more meetings than that this year,

291but they did say they found times where for example a spring data set wasn't available yet like the five E wasn't available yet. And so they needed to kind of wait on that data set to come in to do meaningful work. But there was I should name too there was especially from DAC and I think you heard a little bit of that tonight some concern that will this be enough time and we have structures to change too. So that's something that the committee is kind those committee chairs are kind of thinking about. They're having to reimagine what an agenda would look like right now. So they're unsure if this is going to be enough time or not. Okay. questions or comments from the board at this time? Dr. I'm still not convinced that um that

292this is viable for the volunteers that we have who come in and put their time into this. Um looks good on paper, but as a it I'm just not convinced. I'll stop there. Okay. Anybody else? Dr. as someone who has availed themselves of trying to attend many of these meetings because they give incredible background to the work we depend on and the decisions we make. I I I don't I I wanted to hear out the proposal. I want um the feedback on that, but for me it was exploratory and one meeting a month doesn't do it for me. and and it really I always suspected it wouldn't was just willing to explore it but and there was a criticism at one of the meetings recently about super maybe it wasn't criticism it was about super

293volunteers and I don't know if it was discouragement that we didn't need them or it was just an attitude of someone that um doesn't think there are people who want to be committed to understanding what's going on at many levels But for people who do want to be involved or be following all of the committees, this plainly just does not work. And so I again appreciate the exploration, but I cannot support that. Director Rod, if I may. Um, I I I think it's uh it's fair to appreciate super volunteers because they commit a lot of time and also acknowledge that our current structure doesn't get broader voice from the community. Um, we while we have more committees than most districts, if you look at membership and you look at the size of our organization and

294the amount of people, uh, we are not hearing from, uh, the majority of our district. And so maybe this isn't the solution for that, but that's fair. You know, that's the board's decision. But I think uh personally um for me it doesn't feel like we are hearing from the community in our current uh setup. And and while we have calls for membership and all of those things, we still sit where we sit. Um and so actually we're over reliant on super volunteers. We we basically right now are like please um do multiple things a month because we're not we're not getting to the larger community. I agree. But I don't think that going to one meeting one night where there are overlapping meetings is going to solve that membership problem. I mean if nothing else

295it makes it harder because if you cannot make it on this one night you are completely wiped out versus like accreditation right now meets on Mondays budget subcommittee meets on Tuesdays. So if I can't meet on Mondays but I still have an interest maybe I can come on Tuesdays or vice versa or Thursdays for the greater deck. Absolutely. We want to broaden the support but I don't think going to one meeting night is the answer for that either. So, I hear you. I agree with you on much of it. I just don't think it's going to help this super volunteer or not. Okay. Thanks for the feedback. Back to Hy. So, th this proposal meets the asks that we gave and with all due respect, we're not going to know until we try it. So,

296if if the only the only way to know if it's meeting our goals is if we try it. So if I would like to respectfully request we start with once a month with the amount of uh talent and intelligence and insight around the table. We're well positioned to figure out if this is the right step forward and if it isn't then we can reassess it semester. Nothing's written in stone but my goodness why not give it a try? Give it an opportunity to work. I think we're already going to see impacts or within within the next four months we will see an impact on people who disagree and they will be stepping down from some of these committees which will certainly broaden opportunity and not coming back. Right. So I I I respectfully disagree when

297talking to folks at whatever meeting that was and asked them and the questions came up that um were on some form of information that we all got. Would there be enough time for us to uh do all the work that we need to do? um then one of the u and I agree with the comment that um people will will be more engaged when they get a chance to talk. And if you can silo down the opportunity to be focused on whatever that agenda happens to be in an hour and a half, excuse me, in an hour and a half, it gives people the opportunity to give their their opinion and to think about it and not have to be distracted by the next meeting that they're going to. Um, and I agree with one

298night a week. You can't make it on that night, then you're out of all of the luck that there is. Um, but I I finally go back to the comments that I got from the people who were actually at the meeting and they were discussing this and I asked them, I'm a board member. It doesn't I'm adaptable, but you all have put your time and your energy into this and when you do, what do you think about this? Um, and I kept my thoughts to myself, I hope. Um, and the kind of things that Julie and I are, director, uh, Julie and I are talking about are the same things that we've heard from the people who actually attend the meetings and do the actual work where I'm an attendee. Um, so I don't have

299to be there. Um, I'm there in a capacity that gathers information. I want to hear what people have to say. people who actually go there want to learn more of what's going on. They want to be able to be ambassadors out into their neighborhoods. They the opportunity to give them more um chance to talk I think is going a long ways and I think we'd get better participation if that were to happen. But that comes with having u people feel comfortable with what's um on the table and the environment in which they are in. I'll stop there, Dr. Nelson. So, I fully support giving this a try and I just want to put it in context of that many of our committees do already meet once a month. We're just asking that it all be

300on the same day so that it is more accessible for the board members to attend and participate and to also continue to help focus the work and make sure that it is value added because we're really trying to do some great things in this district and let's make sure that our committees are um you know helping contribute in a positive and meaningful way. And so by shifting to this one day a month and I'll just remind everyone it was like two weeks ago that there were four nights that week that we would have been away from our families had we tried to attend all of them the meetings. Um we happened to not have a board meeting that night because staff were presenting in Denver. So that's like an unusual situation. But there was an

301accreditation meeting on Monday night, a budget committee meeting on a Tuesday night, normally Wednesday, and then a DAC meeting on a Thursday night. And I went to two of those. But it's just I mean I have used that phrase super volunteer and it being not as a derogatory way, but that it's we are having such high expectations of people and how they dedicate their time and energy to support this work. Can we make an adjustment that it is easier to ask someone to join a committee when you say it's the third Thursday of the month instead of it's this and this and this and this and um so I I I fully support this. I think at this point we're two two. Okay. Um Director Jurgensson or Director Kerry, you have any comments? I'll wait

302for Jason. He's got a thumbs up. And what do you have a thumbs up for director Jensen? I'm on the uh Hey Flee Nelson team here. Great. Uh that was short and succinct. Director Kerry, um I'm trying to remind myself kind as someone who has the least touch points to committees just because I have a full-time teaching job and five kids. I'm trying I'm looking back at the task timeline to just kind of refresh my memory as to the specific problem that we're trying to solve. And it's providing an mechanism for board members to be able to attend meetings more regularly, have better access to the voice of the community, try to, you know, have to maximize participation. I will just say it. I'll I'm going to respectfully disagree with you, Director Bankus. I I

303don't think running meetings to optimize for people talking is a good way to run meetings. And it's very difficult for me to imagine that our committees don't have some ability to kind of compress the workflow that they are doing and spend their time more efficiently. I have no idea as to the specifics because again I'm the board member with the least touch points here. If it turns out that one night a month is simply just not a reasonable ask and I'm definitely open to that possibility. Um there are protocols in the proposal for pivoting. Right? If you need to maximize as much time as possible on that Thursday, you can. If that's not viable, there's a second meeting outside of that that you can schedule. like there are provisions in here if one board if

304one meeting a month is not working and I we could expand those provisions I imagine if we say okay we're going to open it up for this option turns out that's not enough either I guess my my feeling is that I also kind of would like to heir on the side of trying things if the alternative to this is just doing things the way we have been doing I'm not really a fan of that if when we as a board kind consider all the different input we have and we say okay this was a good proposal we think it went too far can we meet in the middle like that's I'm content with that outcome as well but I don't want to revert to the way that we have been doing things okay thank you

305appreciate the feedback um uh to summarize my thoughts on this um uh the way this has been put together right now um the DAC chair chair and the subcommittee chairs have the option of using the time from 5:30 to 8:30 in any way they see fit to meet the needs of that committee. Would that be a fair assessment? That's fair. I do think DAC and their subcommittees will will coordinate on their agenda planning. Okay. Uh Jason, you have some thoughts. Go ahead. Yes, Director Kerry missed one point. The other point of why we asked for this was to keep all of our teaching staff central admin principles. We wanted to lighten their workload as well and try to consolidate their time that they would be spending outside of normal school hours as well. So this

306plan also delivers on that. Okay, great. Uh thank you for that feedback, Director Jurgensson. So um going back to what I was stating that 5:30 to 8:30 time is available if it is going to be a time where that needs to be for a longer period of time or one of the subcommittees has to break into not one and a half hours but they need to meet for the two hours they have the option of doing it. Where there is going to be some conflict is if you have a member who's serving on multiple committees now then they may have to select which committee they end up serving on. Okay. Uh and then there is an option that's built in in fine print that is out there at the bottom uh at a second meeting

307outside of the third Thursday of every month is uh provided if necessary as needed based on the agenda planning that happens that month. Could we possibly set that optional day as like a fixed day on the calendar? I'm just throwing out like a fourth Tuesday in every month so that if that second meeting has to take place that's also informed to the community then um they can circle that in a calendar that that is an additional day that they may have to keep open. Is the board open to that? I'm open to that. Okay, great. Um um he's raising his hand again. Oh, he just gave a thumbs up. Thank you. Um, so right now the board had a discussion about this topic and you got where uh we at least want to try this

308out. Okay. Uh, and probably a good uh point to um test if this has been effective would be at the end of the first semester. So we can try it out for the first four, five months, whatever it is. And then in December before we start the uh second semester we can uh evaluate at that point in time and see if we need to go in a different direction than what it is. What are our measures of success? Y that's something that even say just doing this is the success like that. So that's my definition if participation is going participation. Yeah. One of that is going to be that increased participation. Um um or if it is the other way around, if it is participation plummets, that may be another uh weight. I'm happy to

309reconvene all the committee chairs and dial in tighter metrics and bring those to you of here's how we'll know if we're meeting. But I do think that's one of them because it was one of the stated goals. And I think for me it's also uh like are they accomplishing their charges and then making sure that the agenda aligns to their charges because I've been to some of these committee meetings that that's a really hard connection of the presentation I'm seeing versus where's the charge of why they're getting this presentation. Was it interesting? Sure. But if it's only being given to like a room of 15 people out of 22,000 students, how is that benefiting the district? That's the disconnect I see sometimes. So, can I make a comment on that too? I think that sometimes

310they have an ask and the staff comes and present something that isn't quite aligned to the ask. And whether that's because they they didn't understand the ask or they had a pre presentation already ready that was meant for us was I'm not sure. Have you had that feedback this year? Yes. At least I assume it was. I'll check in on that. it was for this year. I think it could have been that it was previous but um I think yeah so I would so maybe the the chairs as they're connecting with staff like here is the charge we're trying to like you start with the charge and then you bring whatever presentation makes sense uh in a couple of weeks um uh the June 11th meeting I think we have a end of the year

311uh report coming from the DAC So the DAC uh chair would be present. I don't know if some teachers are going to be joining that at that time. That would provide the board an opportunity to have that discussion with the tax chair to set up some of those criteria for success uh and hear from them as well. One of the things uh that this is supposed to hopefully um result in is increased board member participation as well. So are we going to see more board members uh coming attending if it is going to be one day in a month and another measure of success is that we get to be with our families more because some of us do still attend but so we will have the discussion with the uh chair uh and uh

312provide some feedback at that point in time and listen to their feedback as well as to what is coming um or if there is anything else that they want to identify as criteria for success at that time and get board feedback. the uh no there is one more thing uh that we needed to talk about which was the uh committee membership um koda contact I think you attached a document I saw that which is the comm committee community agreements that was developed what and maybe I'll defer to director Nelson what her concerns were and what is it that you would like to see come out of that uh committee membership u uh agreements u the code of conduct what the expectations well you were the one that approached that idea. My ask was that we

313have an individual who has treated staff very disrespectfully and I feel that this person has lost their privilege to serve on our committees. It was unprofessional and disrespectful. there was cursing in the email and um so I'm I'm concerned about that could be a starting point that when you develop uh and this would be if the board is agreeing to direct the uh district admin to come together with a code of contact and what director Nelson reflected was that unprofessional attitude by committee members uh treating staff with disrespect uh use of uh foul language and obscinity ities either during the meeting itself or uh in subsequent email conversations that they had and it was not committee related. It was their own personal experience they have with the district that they sent a message. So, um

314I mean I think you could just add something to this slide that says we expect professionalism of our uh committee members in all walks of your interactions of the district whether it's just as a parent or whatever because um you like when I walk out of this boardroom I'm still a board member like I still am representing the district and those committee members are still representing um us the board And I just think it's highly uncalled for for someone to speak so disrespectfully to others and so you lose your privilege. Do committees have anything like this already or is this community comm community committee community agreements document the sum total of what they do? That's the sum total for most. That's I mean there's requirements that are logistical about how many meetings you have to

315attend to stay a voting member, things like that. Policy, right? Um but we put this in last year out of their work in the design lab and we can definitely add to and refine it. Um I think we could commit to bringing that back by June 11th too with those metrics just to take a look at it of what we've got refining right now, but then it obviously wouldn't need to be implemented until August. So we can kind of take a look at it and then make sure that it looks good by the time committees start meeting in August. Perhaps you could get some committee leadership feedback too. Yeah, maybe that's okay. Sorry. Yes, because they've had that this whole year to work with this and think about it. Thank you. So going back to

316what director Nelson was talking about, the committee members are a reflection of the board members as well because this is a boardappointed committee. So there is a um um there is a urge from the board at this time that they conduct themselves in a professional manner with respect and treating everybody with respect and not only inside that committee meetings but in their day-to-day interactions with staff members. Uh I'm not talking about outside of uh school settings. Uh that's their personal life and they've got freedom of speech to do what they want to. that when it's district related matters there is some expectations of professional contact out there um if that can be captured in what you are putting together if you need to interact with the committee chairs in developing that but they will also

317be there at the June 11th meeting so this could be presented to them and the expectation would be delivered to them that as they seek membership to each one of those u uh committees that this is the expectation that the committee members have to meet those check boxes, check those boxes. Absolutely. And if they don't, if they've already um exhibited uh conduct that doesn't align with that, then you have the answer. Okay. Okay. Anything you want to add? Director, what are we doing about this individual and their future membership? Do you want to bring this like are you talking about for this year or are you talking about future years for this coming school year? The DAC is currently asking their members who is interested in participating next year. This individual has expressed interest. Yeah.

318And I think I provided that answer for that that when that code of conduct is being developed. You're saying we can't enforce this until we have the code of conduct in place. the code of conduct is going to be there in two two weeks time. No, I'm saying based on this previous behaviors and it's, you know, one email explicitly, but there have been prior ones that also have been not crossing the line, but up to the line. So, what are you asking? Are you asking for the board to decide on this uh particular member at this point in time today? I'm requesting that we consider uh having a conversation with the individual letting them know that um based on the situation they've lost their privilege privilege to serve this coming school year because that person

319fills a gap in the DAC or fills a specific uh position in the DAC and so the DAC chair needs to be aware that she needs to find another individual like we have to Give them time. I don't see why we would wait until October for them to about October. I'm talking about June. That's when the membership. Yeah. I'm talking about June 11th. In two weeks time, Missur is going to develop a code of conduct and bring it to the board at that time and the board is going to approve that code of conduct maybe by thumbs up. Okay, that those are the expectations that committee members should meet and that is going to be delivered in that meeting in two weeks time to the D chair who's going to be present at that meeting

320that every member that he or she is going to put on that committee has to meet those expectations and if they've already demonstrated a behavior that doesn't align with that code of conduct, they are automatically out of it. Okay. Okay. That's I understand now. Okay. So, unless you know, I mean, that's going to be communicated unless Marian is filling out these committee memberships in the next two weeks, she's going to get the answer in two weeks time. I'll check in with her. Okay. Senator, clarification. What's the mechanism that a committee member will be removed? Uh oh, the mechanis Okay. If this had come, if this was going to be an item that the so in October September October time frame usually the TAC committee memberships is formally approved by the board of the BHIS. So

321after that if in December or January a committee member doesn't meet some of the requirements and the board wants to remove that committee member. So the DAP comes to the board to inform us the that can come to the board. That is one option. The board can also initiate that process but we would have to formally approve that person by name as being removed from the committee from the biz. That's what I'm asking. So it can either come from the committee chairperson y and it comes up to the board or the board can initiate. The board can initiate. Then it won't go on for 5 months. It won't go on for five months. The board can initiate it. The board can request that in a public meeting. I got it. for whatever reason because I

322don't want to put it on the deck chair. No, no, it is not. But sometimes, you know, it's got to be evidence-based. Yeah. One of the things that we talked about was the attendance of uh committee members to meet. That's easy. Yeah. If they don't attend two or three meetings in a row and they not responsive, then it should come from the D chair that this person has missed multiple meetings and be remotely. So, okay. Is the board good with it at this time? Y. Okay. Thank you. Okay, we have two policies that have been presented to the board. Um uh some of this came out of the discussion that took place at the board retreat and during that time uh uh and I'm trying to recall uh director Jurgensson was one of the board

323members and uh was it director Nelson you were also uh um assigned to uh look at those policies and two of the policies are being brought up at this time. One is going to be policy IMD which is observances, school ceremonies and display of flags. Uh uh Dr. X is here u and director Jurgensson is also present um um remotely. Um do you want to start off u Dr. X in providing what is it this policy is addressing at this point in time and then director Jurgensson can provide some context. Uh both policies this evening as you mentioned were introduced by Roger Jorgensson and the first one IM B is an existing policy that has some revision uh and it deals with uh observances uh at school as well as um displays of flags. Uh

324so um over to director Jurgensson so he can comment on the revisions that he's made. Okay. Director Jurgensson, uh could you comment on this policy IMD uh flag policy? What is it that you are bringing in front of the board at this point? Yeah, absolutely. A couple pretty simple edits. Um one stirred from the fact that I talked to a couple elementary schools around the district where the old policy stated that um schools were given the opportunity to say the pledge of allegiance daily. And that opportunity was um done during maybe cafeteria time or um you know open open recess time or and before school program. And uh it was frustrating to me to learn that not all of our schools gave the uh the daily pledge of allegiance in the mornings with their morning

325announcements. So that was one piece there. The other uh piece that drove the edits of this policy was what I've spoken on for a couple years now in retreats and otherwise in just creating neutral learning environments uh that are free from distractions. So uh what better way than to have government uh funded schools that only display government uh flags. So um there's the edits in here are corresponding with that uh to include you know military prisoner of war the state flag United States of America flag and then uh any branches of the military so keeping it focused on United States of America that's about it that edited to this I just helped proofread like grammar. Okay. So, but anything you want to add to this policy at this time? Okay. I don't think so. Okay.

326Boom. I guess I'll just Sorry, really quick. If there is like a specific lesson where a teacher would or a student would like to demonstrate a flag of some other sort, that's fine. But then it, you know, it's for that lesson and it's not to remain up for long periods of time. So that is covered in uh the bullet point three, right? A flag displayed temporarily. Okay. Okay. Dr. Bankers, I want to thank you for um putting in that um flags from um different branches of the service are allowed. I think that's important. I think that we are a military town with five bases and a lot of our children come from military families. And so I want to thank you for your acknowledgement of the benefit and the value added that our military families

327make to our community. Second. That's it. Okay. Um you just give you good. No, I'm fine. Okay. Anybody else any comments on this at this at this time? Director, thank you. Um, several concerns. First one, uh, First Amendment rights and academic freedoms. So, I guess that's two for one. Uh, just moving on from there, Colorado Springs has a flag. So, now we can't fly it anywhere. Not that anybody knows that we have a flag, but it does. And so we might want to add an exception for that too if we're busy adding exceptions. Um I don't know if any of our schools have flags. Doesn't Coronado have a flag? Didn't somebody Yes, they had at the graduation. Okay. Yeah, that's where we saw it at graduation. So we have confirmation that Coronado has a flag

328and now they can't fly that. Um, and I I realize I'm I'm being a little facicious here, but that's what this policy says. So, you know, we're going to have to make it just the list longer of exceptions. Uh, a number of our language classrooms where students are going to learn a world language probably have flags up year round to educate our students on the foreign countries that speak the languages. um like Spanish could be rep have flags a Spanish classroom could have flags for Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, on and on. Mexico and now they can't have them there unless they're occasionally or temporarily. So I I question our occasional and temporar temporarily references. Um, students heritage being honored can't be done except temporarily or occasionally. Flags on existing maps and books and murals and

329we're supposed to have people spending time to police these things would be a concern. Um, and I wonder who's supposed to do that. Is it is it the superintendent? Is it the teachers? The principles area superintendent? So, I have some concerns. Although you can get prior permission. So, that's number three. A flag displayed temporarily for a specific educational lesson or historical purposes with prior permission from the superintendent or designate. So, it's part of approved curriculum that is already uh approved maybe. I don't know. Which would be which would be flags or you know for an instructional lesson. I don't know how you'd fit, you know, the 30 different flags of South America in a classroom at the same time anyway. I I could do it. Don't work. Actually, I've seen it, too. And not be

330too busy or distracting. But that's Yeah, it is. And that's not the Excuse me. Keep going. Okay. Just the to include flags displayed as posters or stickers. I I think I just took a a World War One or two uh poster to a social studies instructor and it said something like join join the the French resistance and probably had a flag of France on it but it was you know it's a pro- US historical poster probably would not be allowed in this policy. So again, we go back to academic freedom there. Uh that that social studies teacher was really trying to make their classroom relevant and interesting. I don't know, maybe I have to go collect it. Um do college pennants count as flags, college flags, because you walk into some of our schools and

331that's there to inspire the students. So again, that was something that I left open um that I would consider adding in there. That that is kind of a gray area that we could be clear on. Well, what we Jason, what we've acted on before, if it's silent, then it's allowed. Um so I I don't see penance being an issue, college penance being an issue. We can happily add number four, you know, penance of higher institutions to however you want to word it, inspire students to further their education. Just to provide clarity, uh, if we are specific, I think there is some language in there, no other flags shall be present on district property to include flags displayed as posters and stickers. That's a statement that is there. So I would take that as anything that

332doesn't belong in what is described in this is not allowed including parents. So um if that is something that is a priority for the board and it is for me as well I have been in several schools where those are prominently displayed and those are for motivating kids to pursue that uh whether it's Harvard or ALE or uh whatever higher institution CSU um whatever that may be. So, um, uh, I don't I would personally like to see that as well. And personally, what I would like to see that exception being granted, but I think we could add that in. Okay. The the item on a poster just speak to director's question. If you have a poster of, you know, French revolutionaries fighting with the French flag and it's, you know, that's for up for your

333unit, that's not a poster of a flag. That's a poster of your curriculum. So, this this isn't referring to a poster of maybe you don't have a actual pirate flag, but you have a poster of a pirate flag. That'd be what we're talking about here. I I think that's very confusing. It says no other flag shall be present on district property to include flags displayed as posters or stickers. Flags displayed as posters or stickers. It's pretty clear to include. So to me it's clear that if they are displayed flags displayed as posters or stickers are included in no other flag shall be present on district property. So I think to your caveat is you're asking to include flags displayed in posters. I'm saying as posters. I I'm not sure what your issue is. What what

334the the policy says no other flag shall be present on district property to include flags displayed as posters or stickers. Got it. Right. So if the French flag or a Mexican flag or any other flag is displayed on a poster to me that says it is not allowed. Is that not how you read it? That's how I read it. That's how I read it, too. I mean, do you read it differently? Director Nelson. You I understand what I understand what Jason is saying. It's not like the actual cloth flag, but it's it's it's the poster. Yeah. So if how do we word that then that makes sense to you guys? Because if it is like if it's a lesson on Mexico and or the French Revolution and it's you know got words and there also

335happens to be a flag like that's part of the lesson and that's in here. So, I guess I'm not really to be clear, this is a a poster for display and just general interest, not something that would be up for curriculum. I mean, it was it's a recruitment poster to go fly in France on behalf of, you know, the allies, but it would become an artifact part of the lesson. It's not part of the lesson, though. I think he was going to keep it up year round. So, it's not occasional temporary. That's where I'm going with that particular example. Okay. So, I'm just going to leave that aside and come back to um concern for first amendment rights, concern for academic freedoms. How in the world does this increase our academic outcomes? How does this

336support students? And I will tell you that I think that based on what has been previously stated by Director Jorgensson and others, um I I'm thinking the real concern is about pride flags. And let's put out that elephant in the room and say if pride flags and other flags that are supportive of a certain group of our students, if you take them out because you you you think it's going to make things more neutral, which a pride flag is. It shouldn't be a question of neutrality. It is a question of showing that you care about these students who are often uh marginalized and sidelined. So, I just want to be have you all be really clear that that's I I think that's what this is aimed at. And it seems a shame that we are

337going to dictate to our staff that they cannot have pride flags in their rooms because somebody can't handle that. It's it's just But isn't that real? Like, aren't there students that they walk into a classroom and they feel uncomfortable because they have a different belief and like, "Oh, my teacher is promoting this and it's not relevant to why I'm in school." Like, can we recognize that we have students that that is the case? I think that the opportunity to show support for students who are bullied and discriminated against and have a conversation around that is probably the better outcome than pulling all of these flags out. And honestly, if um you know, so there are going to be so many ways around this anyway. I can take a rainbow and just put it across the

338room in a way. So I have just and that's going to mean something different. That's going to mean something different to other to certain people. Okay. Well, I'm going to start and the the point on bullying and harassment like that is not okay at all. So that's don't conflate the two because like no one is saying bullying and harassment is okay. And so by saying that we want neutral learning environments does not mean we're okay with that. And it it to you maybe means being supportive, but to other students it is not. It's the opposite cuz my guess is they're homophobic or something. So we're just looking. That's what it sounds like. To me, there's not it's not just views and beliefs. You just labeled them. It's not just the pride flag. There are lots

339of flags out there that and I can think of two others that um I don't want to see in my child's classroom. Uh the pride flag um is is not necessarily Okay, let me rephrase that. when I walk into a a classroom, and I did not witness it, but I have heard that when I walk into a classroom and there's a huge flag, one of the three that I'm thinking of, does that mean I have to um ascribe to that belief or else I'm not going to be accepted and that's not right. What I want to see have happen. And again, I'll go back to Thank you for putting in the uh flags for the u the military services. Um, I think that part of what we do is school in school is to give

340our kids the firm foundation of what it means to be an American. I think it's important for kids to um know their state. That's a big deal. And leave it at that. I've also seen if you go to another state, they don't talk about America at all. They only talk about their state. They only talk about their their original culture. I don't think that's the proper role for public education. Public school is a foundation of this and he put it right at the very beginning and I appreciate that as well. Principles of our constitutional republic. That's who that's what we're all about. And do we have um first amendment rights? We do. But we also have an opportunity to guide our kids in a way that says this is the only place you're going to

341learn these things. And what so I was in a crowd the other day and um we were all encouraged to sing America the Beautiful and I looked around to see how many people not educators but see general public how many people actually know America the Beautiful. It's a it's part of our heritage. I think we have a focus on where we live and we need to give our kids the opportunity to know that they are secure in the fact that we have the privileges that we do in this country. And I think that it's a distraction to have others. I have been in social studies classrooms where the social studies teacher had the little flags of all the countries around his room. Um does that serve any purpose? I don't know. Um but we we

342weren't in this day and age today. And if I want to help our kids to be fully functioning citizens of this country, then I think they need to understand that the flag stands for something. We don't make kids recite the uh pledge of allegiance. We don't make kids even stand up for the um pledge of allegiance. So, I think it's even more important that the flag stays there and that we do. Um, and it didn't even say everybody has to say it because in the state of Colorado, you can't do that. But I appreciate the schools who start their day by saying the pledge of allegiance. So now's the time for me to pull my flag out and just wave it because I strongly believe that the role of public education is to give the

343kids the foundation of what it means to live in this society, be productive, and to understand their rights as far as um what this country allows them to do. And I am surprised when um the superintendent at graduation said and how many of you are uh joining the military and there were maybe one or two or three or none and if we don't have kids who are going to go into the military and d if we don't have kids who are going into the military to stand up for what this country stands for then we're not going to keep a hold of our country. So, I believe that we need to have and I will vote um in favor of this because I think it's important for kids to see the flag of the United

344States and understand what that means because when you go into the high school classes and they they teach you about revolts in uh different societies, revolts against the government, I don't want them to be distracted and think that running out into the streets yelling and hollering and carrying signs is a way to affect change in the United States. The way in which we do that is we are system of laws and we as a school and a school district should have those guide rails in place so that kids can understand if they want to affect change they do things like come to the board because they have worked with their leadership group and they want snow days that that that'll be the example forever. That's how you affect change. Standing out uh yelling and hollering

345or walking out of a school that's not how you affect change. Okay. So, from what I gather, you are in support of this policy at this. Okay, great. I'll come back to you. You uh what's your question? You look like No, you look like you had something to talk at the time in response to direct. if you have anything to share. When I first started teaching lose many years ago, um, one of the teachers that I worked with had a big giant Confederate flag hanging in their room. Um, that teacher was um, pure of heart and had that flag up as a matter of historical reference, not as a matter of anything else. Now, in the early 90s, was it was it okay to do that? Uh, in comparison today, yes, but not in not

346today. And so these these kinds of flags, where'd she go, Sandra? Um that particular flag, the Confederate flag, while historically relevant, is historically relevant, not relevant today. But in a history teacher's class, should a history teacher today in 2025 hold up a big Confederate flag? No. Not in any shape or form. in order to have uh a neutral learning environment doesn't with an American flag and an American flag only, a Colorado state flag only um does not mean somebody's homophobic. It means that the classroom is neutral. The classroom is there for reading, writing, math, uh English, social studies. That's it. and a foundation and I'll reference this first paragraph again and a foundation of the constitutional republic, our constitutional republic. And that's it. Does not mean somebody's homophobic. So, I'm I'm I'm going to throw

347the word respectfully out there again and say I I respectfully disagree with you on that and I am for this policy. Can I Yes. Can I come back to you in one minute? I don't know if that could carry this topic. I mean, the real underlying question here I I think director is quite correct to kind of reference pride flags and the like is the elephant in the room here. We're not we're not really well I guess director rank. So I'll I'll just not say that part. Um, I think the real question is, you know, what messages do we want staff to be able to communicate in the context of a public school? And I I think the kind of first amendment question is interesting. I don't know the legal answer to that. You all

348may remember this wasn't a case of a staff member. This was a case of a student. Several years ago in district two, there was a court case with the Gazdon flag, right? and my just a couple of years back. Yeah, just a couple of years back. So that so that's not the same thing. That's a student that's not a staff member. So I I don't know what the actual legal answer to the first amendment question is. You know, for instance, I think it's anyone who knows the law better than me can correct me. If I wanted to put a cross in my classroom, I would not be able to do that, for instance. And I'm I'm again as a teacher myself, I am very used to there being constraints levied upon me as to what

349I am and am not allowed to talk about with students. When I first started teaching for the Air Force, it stuck in my mind very much. There was a presentation given jointly between a military chaplain and a JAG, a military lawyer, basically saying, "Here are the rules that you have to follow as an instructor. Here is where your freedom extends to and quite frankly here is where it ends. When you are teaching for the federal government, there are things that I am not permitted to talk to my students about. There are things that I might want to say to them that I cannot. There are points of views that I am not permitted to express. Uh this is, you know, things that federal employees deal with on a day-to-day basis. We're this is not a

350federal system. This is a state system. This is a local system. So, I don't know what the actual rules are. Uh, but at least speaking as one board member and a parent, matters of sexuality are not something that I would like public employees to talk to my children about without my say so. So, in that sense, I don't have any opposition to this policy. I don't know that this is quite the vehicle to kind of address the underlying concern, but that's kind of where I'm at. Okay. So one of the followup questions that came up was you referenced it and director art referenced it first amendment rights if the voters wants a legal review of this policy and a feedback from our legal counsel I can direct it to legal counsel and just give us

351a feedback on I mean my thought is and you can confirm this but like it specifically says on district property so a teacher's classroom is not their property like they are there to do a job in that space they don't own that wall or even the laptop they're working on. So if they want to wear a pin on themselves, that's fine, you know, like that's their that's their freedom of speech. Yep. Um good point. Yeah. I mean, it's a um this came up a year or so back when uh there was a uh vehicle that was parked in district property and um a complaint was received by legal uh and the vehicle had a prominent uh foul word uh on it and a politician's name attached with it. Um and um legal had a review

352that if it is not disrupting classroom instruction then that is allowed. So on this is their private property. It's their car. It's their car. So um I don't know what the legal implications are. If the board is comfortable with it, I will run this by legal counsel and see if there is any uh precedence in this matter. Legal can provide that feedback if the board is okay with that to address question about first amendment rights. Okay. And the uh and before I come to you, um I'm going to suggest that if the board is okay with it, add that language in there that allows college penance. And I want to uh get a thumbs up from the board on if that is okay with you guys to add the language. It's academically relevant. Yeah. Yeah.

353Okay. So you guys buy that language. Okay. Great. I've got thumbs up on that. Back to you, director. Thank you. Um I appreciate you commenting on running it by the attorney because yes, there's the question of what staff or families can have on their vehicles. I think that's relevant. it is sitting on district property but it is their personal property. So that is a good thing to double check. Um the just also the redline version I'm told is that in that last paragraph I'm told that that is um in state law. So, state or federal that when it's district employees and students? No, each school the the red at the very end before the legal references each school shall provide an opportunity that's in law. So, I imagine certainly we could take it out, but

354do we want to or need to? Um, I think he just tweaked the language and put it in the paragraph above it there to have it just double checked, make sure we're legally sound. And I don't understand or or think we need the the reason behind in that sec now well now the last paragraph. Um it may also include recognition of those individuals who through the years have made outstanding contributions to their country that I don't think belongs in this policy just on the policy side of things. It's why is it there? It's not related to the pledge specifically in that particular observance and it oh I thought it was talking about Veterans Day and Memorial Day and maybe it is me day and um schools have veterans Veterans Day assemblies and so that would

355be um where recognizing those people that have made outstanding contributions to their country as veterans or the field trip to the cemetery to put to explicitly like state that maybe not. Is it just I mean if it's it's curriculum it's probably already covered in our curriculum and or in our veterans day observances I it says appropriate patriotic experiences. So I think it's like at a Veterans Day assembly where they say all veterans will you please stand to be recognized? Like that's how I read it. But does it actually do we need to have that there? Maybe not. I don't I don't think we do, but that's just me. Um and while Deb or whoever is in her office that can check this as first amendment and academic freedom both. Okay. Okay. Any other discussion on

356this at this time? Looks like we had a comprehensive discussion. Dr. extra feedback is um uh add a fourth bullet point out there to include college penets uh out there and then uh run this by did you did you raise your hands? I thought I saw you raise no. Okay. Um I'll come back to you. Um college penance and then legal review on it. Just the academic freedom thing. I just would like to understand where that comes from. Is that in statute? Is that in policy? I just I don't know. So when when they come back to us on that, can they explain where they're referencing? Okay. Thank you. So we are good with this discussion. This will come back next week and subsequent weeks after that as non-action and action agenda items. Uh we

357have one more policy to consider and this was um brought forth uh again uh I think director Nelson asked for something and by Jason again. Okay. Um is this a new policy? This policy is not JDA. This is a new policy. Okay. Um Jason, Director Jurgensson, can you give us um context a little bit on this policy and the language that is contained with this policy? Sure. And if I have to pause to cough, I apologize. Okay. Um so this policy has a little bit of a backstory. So if you allow me just to to give you that, I think it'll help you understand where we're coming from with it. Both the CH CHSAA bylaws and the Kada C the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act require school districts right now to permit students to compete according to

358their expressed gender identity regardless of their biological sex. However, CHASA in bylaw 2830.1 acknowledges that allowing males to compete against females is severely limiting participation of female athletes. They confirmed that allowing boy athletes to compete in events restricted to girl participants, quote unquote, would destroy the intent of the association to promote and encourage the growth of female involvement in athletic programs. End quote. Because we believe that severely limiting limiting participation of girls and undermining the growth of female involvement in sports are both clear violations of Title 9. You remember I uh and a few other board members joined in a letter a while back that appealed to the Colorado High School activities association to align their bylaws with the requirements of title 9. Well, CHSAA declined. So, out of that, uh, D49, our neighboring district,

359approved a policy like ours, JBA. And so, just like we are considering tonight, knowing that the approved policy would generate opposition and potentially trigger legal challenges, D49 has filed a pre-inforcement action in the Colorado District of the federal court system seeking declaratory and injunctive relief in support of the district's commitments to all students. Now, they filed that lawsuit in a federal court uh because that's where it really needs to be sorted out. So, I would say that if we're going to adopt this policy, which is similar to what D49's has, we would be well served to join that lawsuit with them. So, this uh again, the main point of policy JBA here is a few central purposes. To prevent sex discrimination by ensuring fair athletic opportunities for female students as a father of four daughters

360now, I find that very important. to protect all students personal privacy rights affirmed by the 14th amendment and to shield the district from liability under federal equal protection principles and title nine. So this policy basically lines out the preserving fairness and safety in sports. It addresses critical issues surrounding athletic competition uh surrounding and acknowledging biological sex in sports. focuses on fairness, safety, ensuring that girls have equal opportunities to practice, improve, compete, win, and earn scholarships. And it establishes that all D11 sports must be classified as boys, girls, or co-ed. Only boys may participate in boys teams. Only girls may participate participate in girls teams. Either boys or girls may obviously try out and participate for co-ed teams. These classifications also apply to shared spaces including locker rooms and hotel rooms to protect the bodily privacy

361for both boys and girls. And that's about all this policy does. Okay. Thank you. Is this a policy the language is there Dr. X in CASBY? Um recommended not recommended but this lang this policy is the language is not from CASP. Okay, board discussion on this specific any thoughts on what? Well, I read this and I tried to look at it from uh two different u opposing lenses and um and it's difficult because we want to make sure that all of our kids feel comfortable, that all of our kids are respected, that all of our kids are treated equitably. And so I look at the one side that says I have chosen to um self-identify uh a different gender and I want to be recognized as such. And so when we looked at the name

362change policy, we said kids can do that. They need to bring their parents along with that, but they can do that. I look at this and because it is so private to be in a locker room, to be in a hotel room, to be in a shower, um I find that it um find that it does not allow um children because they still are even though they may be 17 turning 18 doesn't allow children to retain their privacy um that they've grown up with uh and boundaries that ensure their their security. And I'm not talking about whether you identify as a different gender or not. I'm talking about kids in general who are formative, who are growing. And um I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable, but obviously somebody's going to be uncomfortable. When you're

363in schools and you ask, "How do you do this? How do you handle this?" Because I mean, this is not new. This has been going on. Kids have been participating and taking showers and whatever. And each school that I've talked to, and I haven't talked to all four and taken notes and and dates and stuff, but what I've talked to and middle schools, um, is that it they deal with, uh, issues like this on a case-byase basis. Um, so when we look at this, we're going to make, no matter how we vote, we're going to make somebody unhappy. we're going to make some folks unhappy. Is it fair and equitable that um only boys can be with boys and girls can be with boys? Is it fair and equitable to put a boy in with

364girls and a girl in with boys? Uh especially when it's a a contained environment. They're in school. So where what other places are contained? and it's um hospitals, jails, and schools. Um you pretty much don't have a choice on where you're going to um be in a group. Schools have much more choice than anybody else. obviously. Um, so I appreciate the work that's gone into this because we have seen that our girls have been at a disadvantage and and um I've lived a long time. So there was a time when I couldn't get a credit card in my own name. There was a time when I went to go get car insurance. I left academy and Austin Bluffs. I told the guy I wanted in my name the my car insurance in my name. Drove

365to my house which was uh what seven minutes away and the guy had already called my husband and asked his permission in order for me to get uh car insurance. So fast forward to where we are today and I look at this and girls deserve to have their opportunities. They need to be able to stand up, develop skills and talents, whether it's on the athletic field, whether it's in the courtroom, whether it's in the corporate room, and not be disadvantaged by um by folks who um have made a choice or or maybe they haven't made a choice that they are convinced that this is the way they are. Um, and again, looking at this, somebody's going to be unhappy no matter what we do with it. If we don't do anything with it, people are

366still going to be unhappy. If we make a decision, people are going to be unhappy about one side or the other. So, I'm listening to folks who talk to me. I'm listening to um my own kids at home who are raising kids. And so I think that we need to take a stand. I think we need to let parents know the majority of our parents know that we um are going to protect the privacy of our boys and girls. I think we also need to be really clear that for kids who fall into the categories or have um identified as a different gender that we on an individual basis will make allowances and do what we can to protect their to protect their privacy as well. Okay. Thank you. So from what I gather you

367are supportive of the policy. I am. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I want to take a stab at trying to give some of the legal context for this. I am not a lawyer, so take everything I'm going to say here with an absolutely massive grain of salt. Um, my opinion on this personally is something that I was very clear about during campaigning. It came up in doornocking. It came up in surveys. It came up at a forum. Uh, which is that sports ought to be separated on the basis of biological sex. And the reason I want to try to give some of the legal context is because my read is this is actually the law of the land currently like already. So I want to just kind of try to take a step back

368and now this is the part that you have to take with a massive grain of salt because in the vast majority of other contexts in the country, right, you cannot legally discriminate on the basis of sex. If you are hiring for a job position or if you are, you know, trying to decide who to give an award to, you are not allowed to take into account whether someone is a man or a woman. That is illegal to do. And yet in sporting events, this is something that happens as a matter of course, right? Where I teach at the academy, there's a man's basketball team, there's a woman's basketball team. In any kind of track or field event, results are separated. Men's category, women's category. So why is that the case? Why are you allowed to

369do that? Why are you allowed to discriminate in this context on the basis of sex? Well, when you take a look at title 9, right? Because title 9 is what says in the educational context, you are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of sex in educational, you know, programs and activities. There is in regulation a explicit exception that is made for athletic events. And I'll I'll just read from the regulation here. Um, notwithstanding the requirements of paragraph A of this section, a recipient may operate or sponsor separate teams for members of each sex where selection for such teams is based upon competitive skill or the activity involved is a contact sport. So, for those of you keeping score, I'm going to try to give you the reference here if you want to look this

370up on your own. I don't know if I'm doing this right because again, I am not a lawyer. Um, but way I where I got this was 34 CFR 106.41 athletics. Uh, and then this is section B. So, it is explicitly part of title 9 that you are allowed two separate teams bas on the basis of sex. uh when selection for such teams is based upon competitive skill or the activity involved is a contact sport. So this is something that you are explicitly allowed to do as a matter of law and in practice like I've said uh sporting agencies and events you know the world over do this just as a matter of course. Um and the question then becomes okay uh well what does sex actually mean in the statute? So that's a part

371of kind of active dispute in the law uh for you know since kind of the 70s when this was first written it was understood to mean biological sex and then I believe first in the Obama administration uh I'm trying to remember the exact timing of I think the relevant court case is Bosch versus Clayton County. I don't remember when that was, but at some point there was a title 7 ruling from the Supreme Court that kind of said, "Okay, in these contexts we think sex can be meant to under be understood as gender identity." And I don't remember if that was in time for the Obama administration or that was them doing their own thing, but the Obama administration was one of the first people to say, "Okay, this statute in regulation in Title N,

372you can interpret this to mean gender identity." Trump administration walked that back. Biden administration said again, you got to interpret it this way. Trump administration walked that back again uh in an executive order a few months ago. So the current law of the land, as best I understand it, is that Title 9 is meant to be interpreted on the basis of biological sex. There has not, to my knowledge, been a Supreme Court case that has risen to that level, although there are a number of ones in the works. Um, but again, just to kind of take a step back because now I'm I'm starting to just ramble, which is what happens when I talk about legal stuff. Discriminating on the basis of sex is something that you are explicitly allowed to do by law. And

373I think if you just again, I'm not a lawyer. I'm not on the Supreme Court obviously. But if you take a step back and you ask yourself, okay, well, why would they have put that in regulation in the 1970s? you know, when we think about matters, let me just look at the statute again so I don't mess up the wording. Uh, selection of competitive skill or contact sports, why would they have thought that that was a useful thing to do to put a clause that says in this context you may separate on the basis of sex? I think the reason is pretty obvious because there are biological differences between men and women. Obviously, this is not in serious dispute by anybody. In fact, we if you even take a step back and you think about

374this, you know, in the context of, you know, transgender activists, what is one of the keystones of gender affirming care? Being on hormones. Because when you are on testosterone or when you are on estrogen, there are huge changes that happen to your biology, right? So there's to me if you say okay well why would the law allow you to separate your sports based on sex? Is it because of your perceived identity? I can't think of any reason why a a lawmaker would do that. If you think okay well they're separating based on sex because of biological realities. That makes much more sense to me. I've been talking long enough. It was my opinion while I was campaigning. It's still my opinion. I happen to believe this is actually the law of the land already. So

375I have no objection to this policy. Okay. Sorry for talking so long. Thank you. No. Um and again for what you provided I will also confirm with legal counsel if there is any precedence established in Supreme Court cases or things of that nature and also the current law of the land. Okay. So the board will get that feedback. Uh any other Oh sorry one very very quick thing just because I think you were mentioning locker rooms and changing rooms. That's another place where Title 9 explicitly calls out you are allowed to maintain separate living facilities for different sexes. So that's another place where it's explicitly allowed as a matter of law. Okay. Anybody else? Dr. Yes. I had to write it all down because there's so much I wanted to comment on. And there's federal

376law. Sure. But there's also Colorado state law and that's where you're going to run a ground I believe of your locker room issue. Um, so first of all, I'm going to point out that we probably have very few trans student athletes. And so we are making this policy for very few who have probably been counseledled through, you know, go into the common shower space. And I know I I know that I personally have shared a locker room with trans individuals and their desire is to be all by themselves in their own shower stall. They're not oving anyone. But that aside, so this policy, first of all, my my first concern with with it was it's reinforcing stereotypes that men and boys are stronger and better. And I get that you all have some some physical

377advantages over some, but the other side effect of that is girls and women are weak and in need of protection. And no thank you. I'm I'm preferring director bankus to be able to make some of my own decisions. And uh that includes anything from healthcare to just all of the things that we've been denied. I don't want necessarily the protection. Um I want equality. This uh policy invites criticism of our students and it's gender policing. If a woman looks too masculine or she's too good at her sport, this just invites the question of whether or not she's a real woman. I've sat in this general part of the boardroom before and commented on that that there are women who have been criticized and excluded from sports because they were considered too masculine. And yes, part

378of that's hormones, but they can be born biologically a woman and they're still criticized. It gets down to being invasive and disturbing that is so judgmental. Speaking of which, it goes against students privacy. It's none of our business to be determining if a student goes into the bathroom what gender they are. I if somebody wants to check that, I personally think that's very disturbing. And I'm going to come back to um something we haven't talked about a whole lot, but the athletic ability question. It varies in athletes of the same biological sex. It's going to vary in trans athletes. It doesn't come down to the reproductive anatomy for these things as as seems to be insinuated here. competitive trans athletes are rare and it's therefore it's rarely an issue. So if we have an amazing

379athlete who happens to be trans, I bet for some of these commercial teams, they'd probably be all in and having them play. Certainly our own teams could use the help. Um it's a myth that sex is binary and that it's always apparent at birth. So when we say that this is what you were born with, that is not necessarily the case for how someone identifies and that's not necessarily going to show up until later in their lives. So if they don't if the student doesn't align to some binary expectation that we have, we I think we need to respect that because there's no one way for a person's body to be if if we have so many different um biological characteristics and if you can be non non-binary or interex then I think we need

380to let people decide how they who who they are for themselves. And again, it comes back to I don't want someone policing my body. I don't want someone policing my students bodies. Um, if someone does decide that they are not the biological sex they were born with or appear to have been born with and they choose to transition because they believe they are different than how they've been identified, they're already transitioning and denying them the opportunity to participate in the support for the specific gender for which they identify then we are potentially denying them sports completely. They are transitioning potentially and some of them already have early enough that we are outing children who just want to be playing sports for fun and and but here we're denying them that. I'm going to ask do

381we want to risk a trans girl's safety in a boy's locker room? Are you comfortable with a student who appears to be male and lives as a boy and going into a girl's bathroom? Because that's what this policy is going to require. And to me, it comes down to encouraging all of our students to play sports, not excluding them. And if we're outing them or forcing them to play with a group that they don't identify with, that's harmful. So this policy I find is downright hostile to our transgender and our non-binary students. Is perpetuating myths and misconceptions and is discriminatory. And I'm going to make one more observation and that is yes our classrooms and our sports this is an extension of our classrooms to me. We can say that classrooms are about reading, writing,

382arithmetic, social studies, science, and that's it. But it's not. It's about making welcoming classrooms, at least to me, joyful learning. And yes, getting along with each other. And all of these things should be in our classrooms, not just topics that can be tested. And when it comes to the field and playtime and ath athletics, we should also be welcoming and inclusive. So, thanks for listening to that because this this policy, I think, is the wrong way to go about this. And there will be yes back and forth with administrations, but right now state law, this this could be a problem for us with state law as well and also with CHASSA. And I don't think we need to be spending our money on lawsuits that just regardless whether or not we win them. Would somebody

383else carry that burden? We have a better things to do. Thanks. Thank you, Director Jorgensson. Yeah, just a couple feedback points. Uh, this this policy does not challenge somebody uh about how they want to identify. This policy is not about being unwelcoming or exclusive. It is about protecting sports for those who have worked their entire educational career to go for something competitively. And while you may mention that there is not a competitive trans athlete right now, I've seen numerous films online of trans girls out high jumping other track athletes at state finals, outpacing 1600 meter runs and taking state championships, crushing PRs that no other biological female will ever be able to try for again. I've seen them outd drive a golf ball and wreck the rest of the competition in a golf state competition.

384These are not things that are like, well, they're not competitive or they're that's not what we're talking about here. We're protecting the sanctity of these athletes who at the high school level have worked a really hard uh career at doing what they do for scholarships, for accolades, for PRs, for state records. And to think that we're attacking the idea of not being welcoming or want to police the locker rooms is what this policy is about. You've missed the point, Director. were about taking care of girls in locker rooms. It's not about I I find it funny that you defend the one trans person in a locker room, but you don't think about the other dozen or more biological females who are awkwardly uncomfortable and have to just deal with it right now. I find it

385funny that you you protect the vast minority here when there are girls and boys whose innocence are being ruined at school whose parents or gardens were not ready for them to be uh ruined or wrecked yet. So, if this policy protects at least one girl in a locker room or protects at least a dozen volleyball kids at a middle school camp where they're safe in their own hotel room, that's why we're have this policy. And yes, you're right. It is not going to be against state law. It's why we are putting this forward. And then I would recommend that we sign on to the a lawsuit to make this have a decision at the federal level because I'm tired of the wishy-washiness of this state, especially after the recent legislative session with 1312 and 1309

386and last year's policies and all the things where we are continuing to just destroy the majority of students who just want to have a normal educational career and sports time. And I'll leave it at that. Okay. Any other comments on this at this time? Just um Jason, can you speak to the risk that first let me just say I fully support this policy uh protecting girls to have fair competition and access to fair competition and scholarships, setting records, that's what this is about. Um but Jason, can you speak to the risk that the district faces given that there could be state law and um if we adopt this policy, do we then need to like for certain join in a lawsuit knowing that like one would come anyways? Yeah, that that is to be very

387clear. If we adopt policy JBA in a couple weeks, we would have to for sure then uh be a part of the D49 lawsuit, which already has funding and is already taken care of uh in a bigger sense to protect girls sports. So, our legal cost to that is is minimal. So, if we're adopting policy JBA, we would be uh signing on to the lawsuit. um because to not sign on the lawsuit and to put this into the injunctive, you know, process would then um yes, have some legal consequences. So, if you're doing one, we're going to do the other. So, just to be clear on that. Well, um thanks Jason for that feedback. Um, Director Jurgensson, it's pretty late in the night, but I would defer to legal counsel on that. Um, and get

388the feedback from legal counsel if one automatically uh triggers the lawsuit having to join the lawsuit. Um, that would be my feedback and if the will of the board is to join the lawsuit, so be it. But let's get legal feedback on that. Um as far as whether it is necessary to join the law this sort of that's fine. But just so we understand at the if this is approved and stays at the state level then yes we would be exposed to you know state court cases and we would have a hard time defending it. Okay. Which is again why we need to join E49 in the lawsuit. Yeah. Let's, you know, leave it to legal on this time to figure that out. Um, there is legal risk on every side of this question. There

389are there are people who are there are transgender students who are suing because they're alleging violation of Title 9 in violation of equal protection act. There are people on the other side like uh Gaines versus NCAA who are suing for the other reason, for the other interpretation. There is legal risk either way and which is kind of what Director Bank has alluded to. you are going to make one side or the other uh upset or mad about this uh whichever way you end up moving on on this issue. Um uh to I just wanted to make sure that the board was aware that like we are taking a proactive step in adopting this policy and putting ourselves out there. I personally am okay with that. This is the right thing to do to protect girls

390sports and protect fair competition. Um, so that is the choice that I am making. I didn't I wanted to make sure the rest of the board understood that we are like if we didn't do anything then like we're not putting ourselves at at legal risk uh by just hoping that you know it's handled appropriately or or how we would want it to be directed in the district. But I think giving specific guidance is the better way to go. Yeah. And adding my viewpoint to it is that we may not have a specific instance uh of this happening right now, but it could happen couple of years down the road. And um for me uh creating a level playing field for our female athletes and our ma male athletes too. There was a well doumented case

391uh a couple of years back. I think that was at the college level of a swimmer uh going through that and u uh that affecting some of the female athletes who were not able to um compete at the same level. That's Riley Gains who has an ongoing lawsuit against NCAA. Okay, great. Okay. Um so um if there is no specific talk about changing any of the uh language in this policy the board is comfortable with the language of this policy this is what is going to be referred to legal just to get a feedback on some of the risks that are involved with it if there is any Dr. X. Yeah, I just have a couple of questions procedural. I don't don't want to go too much longer, but um if we take this to

392legal, we do have a Friday turnaround time to post the board docs to get it up for non-action next week and then for action the following week. So, how would you like to manage that short time? try to if you want. Yeah, we can post this policy um as non-action on Friday and provide legal a few days time if that is necessary over the weekend to provide that as uh even if it is going to be just a short summary as to what their take on this is and send it to the vote. um um uh that that's what we can do. If that summary comes to the board by Tuesday or even Wednesday morning, that should suffice, right? Since it's still coming as non-action to the board next week and action the following week

393and also provide um the board an opportunity to uh listen to community feedback as well. We want this to be an open transparent process as we go through this. Okay. Uh any other discussion on this topic? Okay. Sounds good. Okay. No. Yes, I do. Yeah. Oh, you do? I didn't know. I didn't see your hand raised up at all. No, I I Okay, I'm sorry. I know you were standing like this. I thought you wanted me to wrap up the conversation. No, no, it's fine. Um, in the interest of time, I will be very quick. in in my classroom. Uh right across my from my classroom were both the boys and the girls restrooms and which was not fun. But um there were instances where girls would go into their their restrooms and would be

394followed in by um transgender girls as well as boys who were gay who claimed right to the girls restroom. And the girls would uh come back out um because not only u were they uncomfortable being in there physically um they were also uncomfortable because these people brought in uh cell phones into the bathrooms with them. They can't do that any longer. I I'm not done. Yes, I know they're not they don't have them anymore. the the idea that that that we're discriminating against one in order to save another. I I fully reject that idea. Um I just want it on record. There's nothing else that I can say that nobody else has said already, but I just want it on record for for me personally in terms of this particular um potential policy. Uh I

395support it and I support it for the very reasons that uh director Nelson supports it as well. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. Um policies when we are at the uh at this level when we are talking about policies I just wanted to give the board the opportunity to provide their feedbacks. So that's why I didn't adhere to the time limits at this time. So thank you. Both those these policies will come with legal feedback um uh in the next couple of meetings. Uh with that if there is um no other uh items of interest that the board wants to address uh this meeting is officially adjourned at um 9:56 9:56 p.m. Thank you. Initially we thought it would