001It is Tuesday, June 9th, 2026, and I called this special meeting of the Elizabeth School District to order at 6:00 pm. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher >> here. >> Director Hunt >> here. >> Director Olsen >> here. >> And Director Pal >> here. Okay, let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stand. >> Okay. I move that the board approve the meeting agenda for this June 9th, 2026 meeting as presented. Can I get a second? >> Second. Any discussion? Okay. Can we get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >> I. >> Director Olsen. >> Hi. >> Director Pal. >> I. >> Okay. I move that the board approve
002the minutes from the board of education meeting on May 26, 2026 as presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion on those? Okay. Can we get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher. >> I. >> Director Hunt. >> I. >> Director Olsen. >> I. >> Director Pal. >> Hi. Okay, we have a very important [laughter] recognition tonight. We have Corey Corey Gelrock. And this is a certificate of appreciation for all of your years of service to the Elizabeth School District. And it says, so everybody out there can know what this says, in grateful recognition of your dedicated service and outstanding leadership as the head mechanic for the transportation department. Your exceptional technical expertise, unwavering commitment to safety, and tireless efforts in keeping our fleet moving have been vital to the success of our operations. And we honor you
003for your loyalty, your hard work, and the longlasting standard of excellence you have set for our team. >> Well, thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you. >> Just a small token of our appreciation. >> Yeah, I appreciate that. It's been a journey. [laughter] >> Literally, right? >> Almost 29. >> That's what I I was I knew it was close to 30. >> It was so many no one could keep counting. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. Thank you very >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Almost as long as we've been here. [laughter] >> Awesome. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, next up, um, we have a couple of action items to get out of the way. First one is approval of superintendent selection. And I move that the board appoint Dr. Ted Knight as
004the superintendent of schools for the Elizabeth School District. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> All right. Any discussion on this one? Okay. One thing I want to throw out there, one thing I want to say is um I made a few notes. So, our district has spent the last several years working hard to identify what was holding us back. We had approved new curriculum. We had adopted innovative teaching methodologies. We implemented classroom management systems and supported many outstanding teachers. Yet, despite these efforts, student achievement scores continue to decline, mirroring a troubling trend we've seen across this country. And this is why I am so excited to welcome Ted as our new superintendent. uh his leadership, his vision and proven track record give me great confidence, great confidence that he will help us focus
005on what truly drives student success while recruiting, developing, and retaining highquality educators. I believe Ted has the experience and determination to help steer this district in the right direction and create the positive outcomes that our students deserve. So, welcome aboard, Ted. We're we're really excited for the journey. Okay. >> All right. Can I get a roll call? I suppose that's pretty important. >> Director Fletcher, >> I. >> Director Hunt, >> I. >> Director Olsen, >> I. >> Director Pal, >> I. >> Okay. So, [clears throat] next up, I move that the board appoint Dr. Ted Knight as acting superintendent effective immediately through June 30th, 2026 when his contract goes into effect. >> Second. Any discussion on this one? >> Okay. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >>
006Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> Hi. >> Director Pal. >> Hi. >> Welcome to the hot seat. >> Okay. So, next up we have communications. Uh, first up we have board member reports. Um, I mean, I don't think I have too much to report. Just been working on, you know, looking at reviewing the budget and I appreciate all the work that Ted put into it as we're getting ready to have a discussion about that here tonight. Um, it's going to be a really important discussion, but I think we are on the right track. So, there's been a lot of behind the-scenes work. I just want folks to know that there's been a significant amount of work all around the district to make sure that what we're presenting tonight is accurate and has a great path forward.
007and I'm grateful to have leadership who will walk us through that. >> I was at the town hall on uh last Wednesday or Thursday. >> It was one of those. >> Yeah, one of those days. >> Tuesday. >> The uh [laughter] >> It wasn't one of those. >> It was a day last week. Um and uh that I was I was grateful for the amount of people that they really care about this district. they care about its future and they were very interested in you and had lots I mean it just kept going lots of questions um and uh they they want to see us succeed and um so I was I was very grateful for that it you know reminds us why we're here what we're trying to do and uh I think that
008bringing you on board and the changes we're making now I think we're making a lot of changes I think that's going to pay off huge as we try to move out on the budget and the new uh things we're doing at Running Creek and I think I think this is all going to pay off huge division. So, >> it's very exciting. Yeah, people had good questions. There was a lot of >> passion >> and you did a great job explaining explaining [laughter] >> explaining your vision and your experience. Um, there was also the uh parade this the stampede the parade this weekend and I want to thank all of the staff, everybody that worked the booth. I got there late. Um, missed most of the action, but I think you got to meet a lot
009of people. So, that's it's it's it's exciting to have people be to meet the new superintendent, talk to you one more. So, thanks to all the crew that were there and helped out with that. All right. Oh, Mary, I'm sorry. >> Um, I was just gonna say that I was I was quote in attendance also at town hall. I sort of got to see it through a link. Um, I was not able to be there in person, but I appreciated Ted's cander and his responsiveness to all the questions also and was very glad to see the number of people there. So, um I think he did a great job and I'm I'm excited for this new um this new phase for Elizabeth school district and I think uh everything is is all for the best
010for our school district that's going on. So, thank you. It was it was a great thing. I had nothing but good good uh expectations for going forward. Uh first of all, just want to thank the board for uh their vote of confidence and their support. I share your optimism. Um this is a a great district and and I have nothing but great feelings about our ability to move forward and do great things for students. Uh, I did enjoy uh, not only taking questions in the town hall, but got to stay afterwards for quite a bit and talk to some individual parents and community members. Uh, meet me on Main Street. I probably talked to a dozen parents and um, great conversations. I was able to reassure one mom of three or four boys that the
011the plan we're putting in place at Running Creek is going to be great for her students. um got to talk to some other community members who just had questions about finances or how we do things. And so I look forward to being able to continue to be visible at at events like that. We also had our kind of end of year staff barbecue. So it was great. I got an opportunity to see a lot of staff as they headed out for summer um and just kind of feel I think the positive momentum that we've had. Although I've been here for a few months, um, feels a little different now and we've had an opportunity to have some really good, honest, transparent conversations about where we've been and where we're going. Um, yes, a lot of
012work on the budget, but also, uh, just a lot of work on reassuring our staff that we are headed in the right direction. And so I look forward um continuing to dig deep into everything that we're doing and make sure that when our staff and students return in August that we've done everything we can this summer to get them ready to go. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So next up we have public comments. >> Just one. Okay. >> Thank you. And I think the lights on. Do you see numbers? >> Good. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Hello, I'm Lisa Beachch. I have two children attending Elizabeth School District. I noticed on the agenda tonight that there's an item titled termination of legal services. I came to you with concerns about Brad Miller on March 24th. So,
013I appreciate you taking those concerns seriously. I also appreciate your willingness to put what's best for kids over politics with these very impactful decisions you're making tonight. Thank you for encouraging the community to share thoughts on the budget. In the past two school years, the district has paid over a half a million dollars to law firms. That equates to about five teaching positions a year. We can't fund because our tax dollars are going to fight your legal battles. Admittedly, Brad Miller put you at risk for these lawsuits because you were given legal legal advice each time that you followed, which turned out to put you on the end of lawsuits that lead to a very long and up hard uphill battle paved with our tax dollars. I came to you to I come to you
014tonight to ask you to please put your mission of putting students first and your goals for mathematical excellence at the forefront of your financial decisions. In order to do this to attract and develop top-notch teachers of mathematics and interventionists, it's imperative that you drop out of the book banning ACLU lawsuit and put our money towards what matters, educating students. It's obvious when you walk into any of our buildings that we don't have money to spare. We're at the mercy of your financial decisions. While I understand the majority of you do not have family members depending on these budget choices, we all do. If we were not involved in a high profile lawsuit, could we avoid the riff you are asked to approve tonight? I know the A ship has sailed, but with every student that
015goes to ICA, we lose out on 50% of per pupil funding, which will impact neighborhood schools. There's no way around that. Many st students will lose out on opportunities by moving forward with this school. It has been a whirlwind of influence and politics over the last few years. Tonight's agenda shows that you're ready to move on from that era and start making decisions that stand up for our students to get an academic experience you can all be proud of playing a part in. Thank you. [snorts] So, next up we have our consent agenda. I move that the board approve consent item 10.1 as presented. >> I second. >> Okay. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher. >> I. >> Director Hunt. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> Hi. >> Director Pal. >> Hi.
016>> Okay. Um, next up we have uh quite a few action items. First up is the acceptance of board resignation and a declaration of board vacancy. I move that the board accept the resignation of board member Mike Callahan and declare a board vacancy. >> Second. >> Any discussion on this one? Okay. Um you are going to be posting instructions on the website for applying. We're going to take applications um up until our next meeting. >> Yep. I put 5 p.m. the next meeting. >> Okay. >> And so you can send your letters of interest and I um I use the same format we used last time that includes the three questions. It'll be posted to include in your letter of interest and then email to me and I'll make sure the board has access to
017view any applications. Okay. >> Is that going to be under the board section of the website or Okay. >> And I'm working with Jeff to get that done. So you'll find a good spot. >> All right. So uh there's no further discussion. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >> I. >> Director Olsen. >> I. >> Director Pal. >> Hi. >> Okay. So, um, next up we have our 2026 2027 budget adoption and appropriation topic here, our resolution. So, um, this is basically just for conversation and feedback. So we have it. Yeah, we have that it posted in uh public posting. >> Yeah. So as you guys know, it's uh every school board's responsibility to adopt a budget prior to June 30 and then appropriate those those funds
018into the the various places where we will spend them. So you might remember at the last meeting uh prior leadership put forward a budget. Um that budget is still the one that you see because that's the one that we posted and the one that you received public comment on. Uh we are and have been continually revising that budget. Um continually looking through staffing, looking through department spends. I've met with every principal to talk through what their goals and their staffing are. I've met with every department to talk about their budgets. um and looking to make sure we are spending money on what our focus is, which is academic achievement. So on the 23rd, I will be bringing forth what is, I guess, a revised budget, but technically will just be the adopted budget when I
019ask for you to adopt it on the 23rd, but it will be an updated version that has current staffing, uh, current department spend, and is more in line with where we, um, want to move in our future. when you look at that current budget, it still has a lot of um prior decisions that were made that are just not sustainable. Um and so we've got to make some difficult decisions about how we meet our our charge moving forward. So you will see those and I'll have some more information about those decisions and why those decisions were made on our meeting on the 23rd. So, tonight is more about the hearing, gives the community a chance to give you guys information, gives you guys a chance to talk through. I would hope that as you've had
020a chance to look through that budget, you already have some questions for me. And then we'll probably have some more on the 23rd as well. But this is really your opportunity to make sure the budget that we put forth is one that reflects the community that you were elected to serve moving forward through next year. And that a budget really signifies the values that we say we believe in as a district. So basic like when we're looking at the capital reserve, we're looking at the end of this year with no projected fund balance. >> Correct. The capital reserve fund is at zero. Um what you're seeing for next year's budget is an initial funding. So basically there's a projection of the impact fees that we would take in over the course of next year and
021a determination that those go straight into that capital reserve fund. So there's no money now and I want to make sure we're clear that that doesn't mean we'll have that amount on August 1st or September 1st. That is based on um kind of past practice the amount that we think we'll bring in. I can tell you at least over the past two or three years that I've looked at the budget, we have not used that. We have not funded the capital reserve fund. We have used the capital reserve fund to basically transfer to the general fund to continue the deficit spending that we've been in. Um and so we need to be disciplined in making sure that we bring in that money that it sits in the capital reserve or in the capital reserve fund
022and that we build a budget in the general fund that we can actually sustain so we don't have to transfer money out of that. Um as you know we don't we get general fund money right if we don't pass a bond we're not necessarily getting money from the state for facilities. So those impact fees that we bring in um unless we want to take money from the classroom for facilities, that's the money we have. So when we transfer that to the general fund because we've over spent the general fund, we do that at the expense of our buildings. >> And as we've discussed, we have a number of capital needs projects that need to be funded. >> Yeah. >> So it's important that we make that a priority. Set that money aside. >> Yeah. We
023have got to create a general fund budget and live within those means or we're going to continue this cycle that we've been on. >> You mentioned that ugly word bond. Just to make sure I'm tracking here with these financial challenges, you you don't see yourself recommending uh any upcoming tax increases or anything trying to get some to fund anything >> to do that? Yeah. the the two ways we would increase funding for the district is either a mill levy override which gives us operational dollars or a bond which would give us capital dollars. Um and that is going out to the voters and asking asking for a tax increase. I cannot in good conscience dare ask our community to trust us with money based on the way I've seen us spend the past couple years.
024We are going to have to spend the next couple years showing that we can live within our means, showing that we can balance a budget and earn that trust back. I would not say we're a good ROI based on our past couple years. We have to earn that back at some point down the road if we were to need additional money. I would hope that we have by then proven that we are good stewards of taxpayer dollars. Unfortunately, I can't make that claim now. So, I could not look our community straight in the face and ask them for more money. >> I agree. Well, and we have to make sure that we're giving them a product worth spending extra for. >> Absolutely. >> Got to get those academics. >> Yeah. And that's Yeah. When I
025say we're not a good return on investment, the money we're taking in and the academic achievement that we're getting, we need to do better before we ask for anything. I think one of the concerns that I've had about looking at this budget is that even though our student enrollment has dropped, our spending has not dropped accordingly. And that is what has led us to this place where we're now having to consider other alternatives to try to right right side the situation. So for me, I think going forward making sure that we're living within our means. If our number of enrollment enrolled students drop, then our budget has to adjust accordingly. >> Yeah, absolutely. When you look at the past few years, I mean, three years ago, we had a fund balance and every year we've
026spent into that fund balance, which means we're spending more than we're taking in. Just like your home budget, if you have $1,000 a month on your paycheck and you spend 1,200, you're either putting 200 on a credit card or taking 200 out of your savings account. and at some point that savings account hits zero or the credit card maxes out. So that is in in essence what I believe we've done the past two or three years. Um when you look at the actual adopted budget, we've overspent that adopted budget by about $2 million every year. Our fund balance went from about $1.5 million to I about think about 800,000 to negative 131,000 last year. When you look at what I think matters, the unassigned reserve, that's the actual money you have. Assigned reserves is not
027liquid. It's not money you can use. And so we have deficits spent as we've lost students. We have not cut. Um, you know, if you start losing 20, 25, 30 students, you've got to look at a full-time FTE because we can't continue to lose kids and in continue to increase staff. And I know we've done some things that were probably thought to be good ideas at the time, but when you increase compensation in a way that's not sustainable, then you get to the cliff we're at today. It was probably a good idea at the time of we need to pay people more, but when you don't have the budget to do it, you just end up at the fiscal cliff we're at now. So, um, we're in the business of educating kids. That's how you
028get revenue. um we don't get revenue from really anywhere else but per pupil funding. So when academic achievement drops, when trust from our community drops, kids leave. And every time one of those kids leaves, it's about $12,000. So if we want to raise teacher pay, if we want to invest in our schools, we need to raise academic achievement. We need to increase trust in the community. So every one of those kids that comes back brings their $12,000 with them. That's how you get the money you need to raise teacher pay. so you don't hit a fiscal cliff like we're at now. Um, unfortunately, I think we did the exact opposite. We lost kids because academic achievement was faltering and instead of then focusing on academic achievement to bring that money back, tried a lot of
029other things that we thought would increase revenue and it didn't. And now we have the position we're in now. >> Well, and I would say moving forward, one of the most important things to me is making sure we meet Taber >> next year. >> Yeah. So >> absolutely it is a >> priority. [laughter] >> It is in the Colorado Constitution. Um you do have to do that. Um as the board knows, although I don't think it was made transparently clear to you, we did not meet taper last year. We did not have at least $800,000 left at the end of the year. Um the budget that I've inherited in these last couple weeks, it's going to be very difficult to do that this year as well. And it is absolutely job number one for next
030year is to make sure we at least hit taper. We have to live within our means and hit tab. And it'd be nice to start building just a little bit of a savings account in case a rainy day happens. Maybe get a month of payroll in the bank in case something happens. Um we're not going to be able to do that overnight, but we absolutely have to start moving towards that. >> Well, and I just I think that's something our community appreciates living within our means. >> Absolutely. So I think that's something that our community would support us in making sure that this budget is a budget that reflects what we can afford. >> What we can afford. Absolutely. >> I think some people are going to read between the lines and well they should
031that this is going to there's going to be some pain here and some suffering that's going to have to take place. And I, you know, I worry about our our staff. Um, and I'm sure they're worrying about their job. So, how how long do you see the communication for the riff taking? Because I worry, you know, I want them to, you know, let's let's not drag this out. >> Absolutely. Yeah. We do not want our staff wondering, you know, when they're going to get the call >> um about their position. So, I am committed to working on this and making sure we bring recommendations back at the next board meeting on the 23rd. So, that way people know when we're done, we're done. We're looking at each of these positions very, very carefully. Um, I've
032been in, you know, other places where sometimes riffs are pretty significant. I don't think our reduction in force has to be as significant here as it is in other places because we don't have thousands of staff members. However, even if it's just one person, um that's a colleague and that's someone who has a family and needs to put food on the table. So, it's not something that we take lightly. At the same time, we have to make sure that we keep our cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. We've said we're going to focus on literacy and math. We said we're going to really get back to basics and get back to just doing the things that schools are supposed to do and stay out of some of the other chaos and our
033budget needs to reflect that. So, as we look at what cuts need to be made, they are all going to be difficult, but they are going to be based on the values and principles that we've set moving forward about increasing academic achievement. Um, I do think we can do that without um doing any major program cuts, right? Sometimes school districts will do this and they'll cut art or they'll cut athletics or something like that. We're not going to have to cut that deep into the bone. Um, but we're going to have to make some individual cuts that make sense. What happens, as Director Hunt stated, when you have decrease in enrollment, you don't decrease staff, you get things like you might have classes at at at a high school or a middle school where you
034have electives that have six to eight kids in them, you know. So, one of the structural changes you can make is, you know, classes with less than 12 kids don't go. Things like that. We I think we've allowed and I've been in some of those classes where we've had six kids sitting in a class. Now, that's great if you can do it. Think of the personal attention those students get. But in a situation like this where we're facing financial troubles, those might be some of those decisions is um looking at classes that don't have as many students. Um looking at at some services that are important but not absolutely necessary to what we're doing. Um, we don't want to cut literacy, language arts, math, uh, intervention type classes because we've said that's what we're focusing
035on. Um, it could mean a little higher class sizes in some areas. Um, our class sizes are really, really reasonable in most of our schools. Very reasonable. So, we could probably raise class size just a little bit and still impact student achievement, right? the low class sizes aren't equaling student achievement right now anyways. Um so we might be able to do that where you're not cutting as many people. We're going to try and do things through attrition as we've had people retire. You might not refill those positions as we have people leave. You might move somebody from one building to another, reclassify folks, things like that. Um those are all things that we can do to try to lessen the impact, but it's absolutely going to be painful and we want to do it as
036quick as possible. I appreciate you um Director Fletcher looking out for our staff because we don't want them waiting week after week wondering if it's coming for them. We need to do this as quickly as possible and be very compassionate about doing so. >> Thank you. >> And Dr. Knight, I don't know if this would be the right time if we have questions or just want to probe further about the fiscal exigency since we're talking about the budget. Is this the right time to go ahead and do that? All three of these next action items kind of all go together. Absolutely. >> So, I guess one question I have is just knowing where we are now, what kind of controls or check checks do you have in place to make sure that we don't get
037into this situation again? >> Sure. Um, let me just start from the beginning. Creating a budget that is accurate, valid, and reasonable. If we know something's going to cost $500,000, that's what we need to put in the budget. we need to put it in the right line item. We don't need to move things around. We need to be honest about what things are going to cost and see if we can afford it. So, the budget we're creating right now um is accurate and it needs to be uploaded to our system and people need to be able to look at that budget um throughout the year and see what their spending rate is. Um we need to actually look at how people are spending money. I think we've become a little loose on things like reimbursements
038on PECards and um getting some of those things under control. I know there was uh that was brought forward at the last board meeting. Do we need as many pecards out there as we have? Um so just making sure people understand we're in a tight budget situation. Um, we didn't do ourselves any favors over the last several months continually telling our staff and our community that our financial position was okay because when we're not transparent and we don't do that, people just keep on thinking that they should live the way they've been living and that didn't help. So part of the reason that we're having to be as severe as we are is it would have been nice to slow some things down months or a year ago and kind of stop this culture that
039we have of spending. Um we've got to be clear with our budget when we look at things. Part of that is and you heard me talk about this in my interview having a vision of where we're going so that departments can make decisions about what they want to spend money on. Right? There's a lot of great ideas that happen in education and it's really easy to say yes if you have the money. But if we know what our vision is, it makes it really easy to say no to something, right? There's a lot of squirrels and some of those are expensive. And I think we've said yes to a lot of them because we didn't necessarily know where we were going or what we were trying to achieve. So being very clear with departments and
040very clear with our principles about what we're trying to achieve will allow them to set a budget and then live within those means. Um, we also have to monitor that and we have to be honest. Um, I would expect that as a board you're going to ask me for a monthly update. That should just be a standing agenda item of we've now had to declare two fiscal exigencies in a row and we need to verify this every month. We want to know where we're at. We we want to know how things are going. Um, and I should be able to bring that to you and we should be able to look at data and we should be able to know our spend. Um, you know, and then we need to make some tough decisions and
041we need to be able to tell people no. Um, we have a lot of lot of things that we've spent money on where I don't know that we've negotiated the best deal. We've been really good partners and sometimes I think we've been a little too good because things are costing us money that should be shared whether that's with our charter schools, whether that's with community partners. I I want to be the best community partner there is, but not at the expense of my staff and my students. So, we really need to start making sure that we're negotiating good deals that are fair and where everybody shares the load for our students. Um, I think things like that will help. Um, really it's just being mindful, setting standards, holding people accountable, being transparent. Like I said,
042I think if we had just told people where we really were, everybody would have slowed down. I've had great conversations with staff since I started talking about this, and every one of them's literally been like, "What do I need to do? What can I do to help?" Had we done that a year ago, I don't think we'd be in this position where we're having to ask for an exigency and look at a reduction in force. So, you have my commitment that I will be transparent and tell the truth um of where we are actually at and we're going to know where we're at and not guess or not rely on other people to tell us where we're at. Um you're going to hear it directly from me every month. >> Great. Thank you. >> I
043know this has been something that's kind of It's been pretty glaring uh lately is, you know, when there's it's everyone wants a raise. It's nice to have a raise, right? >> Yeah. >> And that's cool, but there should be some other part of the budget where we say, "Okay, well, we're >> if we're going to raise here, then we need to lower here." Um, and we got to find out, you know, find a place for that. because I think that we were just giving raises that we didn't have. >> Yeah. Not only raises, but also new positions, right? If you're just going to keep adding new positions and never take any away, um you know where you're going to end up. And again, if we're offering people raises, if we're offering people stipens, if we're
044offering special deals and we don't budget that and we don't have an actual pot of money to pull that from, where's it coming from? It's coming out of some other line item and then we're transferring things like the capital reserve fund to pay for things like that. And I get it, right? a teacher comes to you, they've got a better offer from another district, you want to be able to meet it, but you cannot throw off the salary schedule for the entire system for one person at the expense of what is now the entire budget. Um, we have to be disciplined and tell people no, we have to be compassionate and listen, but we have to let people know we we can't do this. It's not financially feasible and we have to have the courage
045to have those conversations. >> And when they don't fit our our goals, then that's even more okay. Well, that doesn't even fit with our goal, so why would we do that anymore? >> Why? Absolutely. Yeah. So, that that just takes a level of discipline and it takes everyone in the system understanding that. um people would most likely not come forward and ask for that if they knew the situation that we were in. Principles, directors would not send employees to this office for that if they knew the position that we were in. And so being transparent, I think, is going to be our first friend in fixing this problem. Um because nobody in education or probably any other sector wants a reduction in force. And this is ultimately like the worst thing that can happen as
046a result of irresponsible budgeting. And so we've got to do better moving forward. And I think if people know this is the end result of some of the behaviors we've had, those behaviors will stop. And since we're talking about >> question related to um I mean all of this is is um very important and I think this transparency that you're talking about and the communication levels is very important but I know from past experience that we're going to have employees, we're going to have community members, we're going to have parents in panic mode. And so I guess I would like to ask you um you know how how are we going to try to prevent that panic and and help everybody realize yes we need to tighten our belts. Yes we need to be transparent
047but we are we are not in panic mode. How could you address that please? >> Sure. So, we have a letter ready to go to both staff and community tonight. Um, because we have a fairly small crowd here and I'm not sure how many watching at home, but we want to make sure all of our staff understand where we're at and that our community understands where we're at. Um, and part of that is a message that I probably won't say this the right way, but the district may be in trouble, but our children are not. we have the resources we need to educate our students and do it well. We have to stop some of the practices that have put us in this position. So, I'm certainly not in a panic mode. I am in
048a a sorrowful mode because we have to do a reduction in force. That is not something anyone wants to do, but we certainly have a path forward. We're certainly still able um to do the things that we know we need to do to increase academic achievement. We need to make better decisions moving forward. We need to be more disciplined moving forward. And my guess is we can get oursel out of this in in a timely way. Um but it's certainly not a time to panic. I think you panic when you don't have a plan. And we have a plan. I think the panic comes from we've been told everything is fine and now we're being told it's not. Um that I apologize for. Um but the plan moving forward I feel very confident um that
049we can absolutely meet the needs of all of our students moving forward. And I think I just wanted to maybe piggyback on what Mary said because it's very similar, but I just wanted you to speak to the fact that while we're looking at serious assessment of our budget, what priority students and classrooms and quality teachers where they fall as we prioritize our spending? >> Absolutely. Right at the top. I mean, that's how you do this. You you sit down and you prioritize. Almost any organization can afford anything they want. they just can't afford everything they want. And so we've got to have a strategy and a focus moving forward where we say we're not going to touch those literacy, those math classrooms, we're not going to touch intervention. We are going to create a tiered
050system of support. Um we are going to put things in place that long-term will create a more sustainable opportunity. A perfect example is special education in this district. We spend about $5 million a year in special education because we have almost 20% of our kids staffed into special education. If those kids truly have disabilities to the level where they're affecting their education, I have no problem spending that much money on our students. However, when we don't have a guaranteed viable curriculum, when we don't have tier one instruction to the level that we need it, when we don't have a system that intervenes with kids when they're struggling, we fall back to just putting every kid in special education and it costs twice as much. Tier one is a lot cheaper than tier three, educationally speaking.
051So when you think of long-term how we fix some of these things, the costs of meeting kids needs in their general ed classroom versus having to intervene, having to staff them into special education, which this then means more psychologists and more social workers and all those folks who have to be contract workers because school districts can't afford them on staff. Those things compound so quickly. So, we focus on those things that matter that will not only allow us to spend money where we need to, but we're going to save money in some of these other areas where we've been spending it on literally band-aids that are very, very expensive versus fixing the foundation of our system. You've heard me talk a lot about systems, right? A lot of the the academic achievement failures that we
052have in this district, they have nothing to do with the people. We have great people. We have passionate people. We have highly skilled people. We have not had a system or a culture that allows them to do that work. Uh so we fix those things which cost nothing and allow us to increase academic achievement and save some of our money or maybe transfer that money um to different areas. And I think this is why I have optimism for why we're going to be just fine. Um, we just have to get out of this reactive cycle where we wait for a problem to happen and then it gets very expensive and put in place a more proactive system to where if our, for example, special education numbers were more in line with national and state averages,
053we'd have a million extra dollars we could probably put somewhere else. Um, and so those are the types of things that will allow us to focus moving forward. um and will allow us to retain the right people because if our culture is where it needs to be, we have an academic system where people can be successful, they're not going to leave. Some might leave for money, most are not going to leave a great culture. Um so we are going to work a lot on improving that um so that we can retain those teachers. And then after we've increased our academic achievement and everything's going great, we start looking for ways to increase that compensation um so that it matches their effort. But right now, we've got to really back up and shore up that foundation
054as you've heard my house analogy a few times. >> Yeah. And I really appreciate that um just explicit uh characterization of how it's going to be prioritized because I want parents to know that's a number one priority for us. And I think what you're saying too about when kids fall through the cracks and they require the extra help that is so much more costly, the kind of systems that you're going to have in place and that you've already started to develop at all of the schools, it's going to help catch those kids so they don't fall behind and they don't lag behind for as long. So I feel really positive about the kind of systems and checks we're going to have in place to keep the students a priority, to keep their education a priority.
055And then I I honestly do believe as students improve and the culture improves and the teachers want to stay, it's going to attract more students, which is going to help us overall to be able to achieve, you know, some of these capital projects, some of the other things that we want to see the improvements that we want to see all over the district in the long run. But in the short run, I really do want to prioritize. It's got to be student achievement first and it's got to be a great place to work, a great classroom to be a part of because that's what's going to set the stage for growth. >> Absolutely. And to your point, that will keep the students that we have and bring some of those back. I think the easiest
056way to look at this is assume you have a class size of 16 and you bring four kids back. Those four kids, let's say they're all fourth graders, right? That's $50,000 and you don't have to buy another teacher >> because those class sizes are so small. We have so many pockets of that across the district. We could bring in so many students back. That money could go to compensation. It could go to capital reserve projects. It could go to any number of resources. The smaller you are, the harder it is to scale some of this stuff, right? A principal is going to cost you the same whether you have a school of 170 or 400 kids, right? That that custodian, that art teacher, all of those things cost the same. Um, and we have a
057lot of class sizes where again we could easily take two, three, four or more kids without impacting achievement. And that's literally just cash in the bank because we don't have to hire more staff. Um, and again, every four of those kids that then leave, it's $50,000 out the door. And we don't lose anything because you're not going to cut a teacher if you're going from, you know, 22 kids down to 18. So, I I am very glad to hear that this board understands that academic achievement is our way to keep and return kids, which is our answer to financial solveny. It's it's not complicated. I mean, it is a very simple math problem for us. >> It's why we're here. >> Absolutely. And it is why we're here. as you were talking about the special
058ed um information and how um some some of the students have been have looks like they have been put into kind of a higher level of of program than they actually need and we are working to work on that. that seems like that fits right in with the the academic achievement because it seems like it's it's not doing those students it's doing them a disservice to put them into a care level that they don't necessarily need. Um, does that make sense? And is that would you agree with that? >> Yeah, you're absolutely right. I always use the medical analogy, right? If you have a a headache, you would rather get an X-ray rather than exploratory brain surgery, right? We should with students, we should start with like the least invasive intervention possible. They should be
059in their tier one classroom. And if 80% of your kids are achieving there, only 20% of your kids need intervention. If you look at our scores, if only 40% of your kids are achieving, more kids are needing intervention than not. That's a tier one problem. Um, and so as all of those kids need intervention, it is more invasive than students need. They're being pulled into groups that they don't need to be in, possibly missing classes that they don't need to miss. Um, so we've got some work to do and as I said, I absolutely know that we have the staff that can do it. They just haven't had the supportive system that they need to do this work. Um, so putting this system in place is going to make all the difference in the world
060as well as aligning the curriculum so they know exactly what kids have to know and be able to do. And then supporting them uh in the instruction of those students is going to solve a lot of that issue because you're exactly right, Mary. Um, putting students in a class that they don't necessarily need or belong in is is a waste of resources for us, but it's really not good for that student. um that that student deserves to have a tier one classroom where we can meet a majority of their needs. >> I had a couple questions just about monitoring where we are budget-wise and then knowing we've gotten to where we wanted to be. What would you say are some of the key indicators that we should be monitoring as we go to make sure
061that our budget is on track and that we're not veering off? >> Sure. Well, there's a couple things that you look at. I mean, number one's cash flow, right? That's why a lot of districts like ours do the zero interest loan because you need cash flow to make payroll and and pay your accounts payable. But we get most of our money at the end of the year. So, you do an interest free loan early and pay that off later because we need cash flow. You guys should be asking what our cash flow is. Do we have enough money each month to make payroll, to pay benefits, those types of things. Um, I also think percentage of spend and understanding, especially in some of our larger ticket departments, if we're halfway through the year and we've
062spent 70 or 80% of the budget, is that okay? For some departments, maybe maybe all of your, you know, your ordering or your materials come early. But looking at staffing, what percentage of staffing are we spending? If we're halfway through the year and we're overspending our budget, again, it's why getting an accurate budget matters. when I look at the budget now, if it's not accurate, it doesn't do me any good to see where we're at. Um, and so we're spending a lot of time, myself, um, our directors of finance, HR, um, all of our ladies in the finance department. I mean, everybody is going above and beyond and working very hard to get accurate information. Um, it's just like student achievement and anything else. You need accurate data if you're going to make decisions. And
063so looking at data on where we're at with spend, again, cash flow I think is important. When you're looking at end of the year, I I've I've always felt unassigned reserves is what you should ask for when we say we have $2 million at the end of the year. Well, if 800,000 of that is in Taber and another million of that is reserved for something else, that's not money we can spend. we really need to know how much money we have over at the end of the year that's that's liquid that we actually is not assigned to something else. And I think that's where we've been even less transparent um in sharing how much money we have. It's not sharing how much money you have. Um if you have $249,000 in a 401k and $1,000
064in your checking account, you don't tell people you have $250,000. You tell people you have $1,000. We've been telling people we have $250,000. That other money is not available to us. It's assigned for other things. Unfortunately, we've spent it. It's why we didn't make Taber. Taber is an assigned reserve that we've spent. Um we need to really be disciplined and you guys I again I I would ask that you verify that for me and my staff each month so this community feels that trust that they have in this board and in this administration. um that we are going to show that data every month and show where we're at. >> And that's what I I would really say that again. >> I moving forward, I I would like to be able to walk into this
065office at any time and say, "Hey, we're halfway through the year, what how much money we got left or how much money we spent and you tell me we've spent 60% and we're 50% through." Like, okay, well, we got a problem, right? And I want to be able to have that um immediately like not not that somebody has to go update 12 spreadsheets or whatever. >> Yeah. And our >> and our principles at our department leaders need that. They need they need to know am I overspending my budget? Do I need to go tell my teachers to slow down or do I need to hold off on this bus purchase or whatever. If we don't know where we're at, >> we're just going to keep going because that's been our culture. >> Crayons, we can't
066buy more crayons. >> Yes. Exactly. Yep. Yeah. But when we don't know, again, I think we've had a uh more of a loose culture than I would like when it comes to spending because we don't have the data. I really believe that our staff will live within their means if we can show them what their means are. >> Absolutely. >> And we do as well. >> Yes. >> Um Yes. Okay. So then what kind of specific outcomes should we be looking for and the community expect to see that's going to demonstrate that we're on strong financial footing at the end of the year next year? So when you look at the end of the year, if if you want to talk specifically next year, first is the floor has to be meeting Taber, right? We
067we meet all of our obligations, our accounts payable, all of that, and we've met Taber. Moving forward, we need to set some goals, I believe, in rebuilding that reserve. It I feel very uneasy not having at least a year a month of payroll in reserves, and even that's slim. Um, so I think really setting some benchmarks. Now, I don't believe we want to kind of choke off the budget so tight that to fix this in say a year and then we can do nothing and students and staff suffer, but maybe set some reasonable one, two, three year goals um of where we expect to be. Um, I think that's important, but I I in order to get there, right, if you said outcomes, but I think part of it is in order to get to
068those outcomes, there's things you have to monitor. One of them should be what are the structural cuts we've made. Um, you don't cut without cutting structure, right? You change your um student teacher ratio. You change um I don't know your your busing parameters, right? Maybe we bus if you're two miles away from the school. Now we bus if you're three miles away from the school. Or, you know, we expect purchases to be approved if they're over $5,000. Now we're going to move it to a thousand. Right? You make structural changes to ensure this stuff doesn't happen. And there's a lot of things that we could brainstorm to do. And again, those would be things I would hope you would check up on throughout the year so that you can meet that outcome at the end.
069I wouldn't be satisfied with just saying you better bring me a balanced budget in June and I want Taber at the end of the year. That's giving too much faith to to the administration, right? You're a check and balance to me and my staff. You're going to want those benchmarks throughout the year to make sure you don't want to find out next year in June that we have the same problem, right? you you need to be able to see that coming and be able to hold me accountable if it doesn't look like we're on track. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yeah. I was I was told at one point by previous leadership that if we had $5 million in the bank that we were uh shortch changing our children. I I I just I don't
070believe that. That's we need to have some some fund that that we can pull from in case, you know, the well goes dry or whatever. Um and uh and we have to go drill a new well or whatever it is. Um >> Yeah, we're shortch changing our children if the heat goes out and we have absolutely nothing in the savings account to fix it and have to cancel school. Um, there is probably an area where as a taxpayer, I think there's too many reserves, right? Because if I'm paying taxes for my kid, I want you to actually use that money while my kid's still in school. So, I have actually been in positions before where I've asked my board, we might want to spend down some of this. Um, but we have to have a
071savings account. We have to have an extra month of payroll and benefits. We are way too tight. No one when you look at our budget, no one would run their home budget like this. No one would run this thin of a margin. You would somehow cut your expenditures. You would do without cable. You would, you know, eat at home more. Like you would do something. Um because we literally have zero, and I mean zero, wiggle room on stuff right now. Um and that didn't happen overnight, right? That has been building because we have not lived within our means. And so we're going to have to tighten up a little more now and get those reserves built back up and then find what's reasonable. Um I would I don't think $5 million in a $30 million
072budget is unreasonable. Um I much money. >> No. And we have and we have tight times, right? I I can remember years back when we had the negative factor, the budget stabilization factor, whatever you want to call it, where we weren't even funded at the constitutionally required amount, you need to have res many districts got through that without cutting staff by spending down their reserves. Um, if we were to have a mid-year recision next year, right? The legislature passed a school finance bill that we are probably not going to be able to afford if some of the things the legislature has put forward for us to vote on in November. There's a chance they come back and pull some of our money back. If you have nothing in a savings account, we're back here riffing
073again >> um along with many other districts. But if you have that savings account, you can ride that wave. So, um, I believe we shortch change students and staff when we don't have a safety net because, again, we're not a business. We can't raise our prices when things get tough. Um, we've got to live within our means. There's no Superman coming to bring us more money. We have to be fiscally responsible enough to have that in the bank. Yeah. And I don't think that number is unreasonable. I think that's a good long-term goal. So now I've been told that if you that if you have too much reserves then you will not get the excuse me the interest free >> if you have those reserves you don't need it >> okay >> because you could
074use the res so for example you know to make July and August payroll you've usually have reserves from this year moving forward you start getting money coming in if [clears throat] we had $2 million in reserves we would live off that while waiting for those property taxes to come in later in the year. Um, so it wouldn't matter. Really, the only time you don't want reserves is if you're going to go out to your if you're going to go out to your taxpayers and say, "I need $2 million for capital reserve projects and you've got $7 million in the bank." They're going to say, "Spend your money first." But other than that, and I think even then, you can have a reasonable reserve and still ask your community for more. Um, but there's no downside
075to having a savings account for a school district, just like there's no downside in having a savings account for your own personal finances. Um, which is sometimes the problem we have. You guys have heard me talk about that in public education. We don't always spend other people's money the way we spend our own money. And we need to make sure we're doing that. >> Absolutely. >> It's refreshing, you know. Not everything is sunshine and roses, but I would rather have facts >> so we know what we're dealing with and we can deal with it. >> Yeah. I'm optimistic we can do this, but we have to tell the truth to get there. >> Yeah. >> I can't do anything if I don't know how big the the pile of trash is. >> Absolutely. Yep. >>
076Facts in a plan. >> So, we need >> We do have that. We do have that. Yeah. >> Okay. So, Okay. Next up, we have the consideration and adoption of a resolution authorizing a declaration of fiscal exigency. Ah, all right. So, I move that the board declare a condition of fiscal exigency within the district effective June 9th, 2026. And this declaration reflects the board's finding that the district faces immediate and serious financial conditions that threaten our ability to fulfill our educational mission. So with that, can I get a second? >> I'll second and discussion on this one. just did that >> anymore. [laughter] >> I I think just to clarify for the the community who may be watching, this is the board's way of very transparently saying, we have a fiscal emergency here and we
077are going to have to take steps, which is the next one, 11.4. We're going to have to take steps to um to get out of this hole. Um, but it's really a way of of this board being transparent with the community about where we're really at. And I appreciate you answering all the questions that we had about what this looks like moving forward and of course >> and what our priorities are as we do this and >> make sure that again transparency and we're all rolling in the same direction >> that we will >> in facts even if they're so all right so with that >> yeah to just make a clarifying statement for the community because when we've done this before people so I guess my my question is this fiscal exigency. This is
078a moment in time versus this is sort of an ongoing problem. We need to clarify that for the community because I think we've had some incorrect thoughts going on in the community in the past and we need to just have everybody understand what this is exactly now. >> Yes, it is a moment in time. Um and it's it's really the precipice of the next action item which is we believe we are going to need some reduction in force um to write this ship and so stating an exigency is the first way to do that. I believe once we do this rightsize our staff to the actual enrollment that we have put in place some of the things we've talked about tonight. I do not foresee us coming forward with this again. I know we had
079one last year. Um I'm not sure behavior changed um after the last exigency. You have my commitment. Behavior is going to change after this one. So we're not back here again next year asking for the same thing. Um Director Pal, I think that's a great great statement for our community. This is this is what we need to do today so that we don't have an ongoing problem. Thank you. I just I just know that there was continual comments that, you know, we're in this f physical exency and it was like eight months later. It's like, no, we're not anymore. So, I just wanted that to be clear to our community, to our parents, that this is a moment in time. We are taking action with the the riff and riding the ship, so to speak,
080and then moving forward. >> Absolutely. Okay. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> Hi. >> Director Pal. >> Hi. >> Okay. And you mentioned the next thing coming up here. Um, approval of the superintendent's recommendations for instructional staff reduction in force or a riff. So we have a policy that we will refer to GCQA and basically I'll just read you the action that needs to take place. So within 30 days after receiving the board statement which we just made the superintendent shall submit to the board recommendations for the cancellation of employment of particular teachers in making these recommendations. The superintendent shall not be limited to considering only the teachers in the areas or programs designated by the board in its adopted statement.
081And you know, again, we're focusing on if we're going to make cuts furthest away from the classroom as possible, the least the impact on the students as possible. >> Correct. Yes, that's our goal. And as uh Director Fletcher asked a great question, um I'm committed to notifying and having those conversations before the next board meeting. So, the next board meeting um we'll be able to act on that and then I think to director Pal's um comment then we'll be done and we move forward with the plan. Um this isn't something that is ongoing that we'll we'll you know have to continue to do every month. We'll put the plan in place and then you guys will hold me accountable to that plan every month by asking those difficult questions about where we're really at. Um
082but yeah, it'll be a tough 10 days or so having some conversations and as I said earlier, um compared to some district reduction in forces, especially some we've seen in the news recently, we have a smaller staff, so this isn't going to be, you know, dozens and dozens of people, but even one person is is impactful to our community. So, um this is again something that we want to make sure never happens again. We need to and this is really it's about right sizing our district. um we can't continue to spend and staff at the same size we have been when we're losing students >> and you have um I believe that you have you know made some very you have tried everything you can to kind of work things around so that it is
083the least impact on the people as possible moving them into open positions from a position that we may not be able to keep itself anymore etc. But could you just sort of briefly and I think you've alluded to it a few times here but just one more time for clarity in this section. >> Yes. >> The things that you have done to to make the impact the people impact so to speak of this riff be as low as possible. >> Absolutely. Yeah. We've so we've done a few things. one, we've gone through both school and department budgets and cut stuff first um before people, right? Things that maybe we've traditionally spent money on that it's like, can we hold off on a year uh on this? Can we cut back on this supply, that supply?
084So, we're doing some of those things. Um we're looking at any ongoing costs that we've been spending that maybe we don't need anymore. Um and we're working with those entities to cut back on those ongoing costs. Um having different conversations like that, reooking at some of theus and agreements that we haven't negotiated very well um to make sure we're kind of getting a fair dollar amount for some of the partnerships that we're in. And then yes, specifically to people um we've looked at attrition. So if people are retiring, we're not rehiring them. if we have an opening at one school um and you know maybe an extra staff member now that we're looking at at staffing differently. We're moving people around um having people share positions sometimes between multiple schools. So we've done everything we
085can to find every single dollar that we can cut before we've had to move to actually um reducing our staff. Because if we think about think about it, a reduction in force, the reason why we have to legally do this is these are teachers that have contracts. So they are expecting a job next year. So the fact that we are not going to have a job for them because we don't have the money um is very significant. We want to make sure we have literally looked in every corner for every dime we can. I had a conversation with uh with a director today and I mean we're literally like we could cut a $100 here, we could cut $1,000 here. I mean we are going line by line through our budget. Um you know sometimes
086when you budget you may say that's going to cost $10,000. We're actually looking at it and going nope that was 9,500. Like let's put that actual number in there um so we don't cut any deeper than we have to. And again, I don't think the budget has been done to that level of detail for a while now. Um, at least not the last few years. And so, we are getting as precise as possible so we don't cut in places we don't need to. So, I feel very confident that we have done every single thing we can before we brought this to you. Um, but at this point, not only do I need to present a balanced budget next year, but if this current year that we're in, if we end up in the red, I
087also have to make sure that I have enough next year to cover that and taper. So, the cuts are are deeper than I want them to be because we didn't get on um this crisis early enough. and simultaneously not as deep as they could be if we were being super aggressive in trying to put money away in a rainy day fund. So, we're trying to be strategic in exactly how how deep the cut is. >> Yes. If we can just get back to like a base level and then build that fund in in future years, absolutely. We're trying to to thread that needle. I I just appreciate the transparency violent to be honest. >> Bit of mushroom living under a mushroom thanks to the numbers. >> So we will have at our next meeting we
088will have the actual list that we will approve then. Is that correct? >> Correct. So there there will be a couple things coming to you that I think will help with this. Next uh next meal on the 23rd, you'll have a more defined budget um revised from the one you have now. But again, since you haven't adopted it, it'll just be the 2026 27 budget and that will help you see some of the other things we've cut, operational costs, things like that. And then you'll have a list of the employees um that we've reduced um due to the riff. >> Right. Because the next budget shouldn't have like bunch of red on. >> Correct. Those there. Yes, we will. The the next budget you see will absolutely be balanced one way or the other. >>
089Great. >> Okay. Any further discussion on that? All right. Next up, we have um ESA general asurances form. So, I [clears throat] move that the board approve the submission of the ESA general asurances form. >> Second. >> And I have some notes here I made. So this the purpose of the form is to collect the requisite general asurances for the administration of the ESA title programs in a single location. So the ESA general asurances form replaces the single asurances form previously collected for the administration of all federal programs. And the ESA general asurances form includes the general asurances outlined in the Every Student Succeeds Act as well as the asurances required of all recipients of federal funds. So with that, uh, any discussion on that? Okay. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher.
090>> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> Hi. >> Director Pal. >> Hi. And I've also in your notes included um some notes from Franciscoca who puts the title thing together. >> All right. Next up we have the Elizabeth Middle School title one schoolwide waiver. I move that the board approve the application for the Edlex Title One schoolwide waiver for the Elizabeth Middle School. Can I get a second? >> Second. And this, from what I understand, is basically so we're not restricting all of our title one programs into one school. This will allow us to spread it through the district. >> Yeah. So, we get uh title one funds from from the federal government. The waiver for Elizabeth Middle School and Singing Hills Elementary allow us to spend that money to supplement
091programming at those schools in addition to uh Running Creek Elementary where we already um are a title one school. So just allows us to supplement um across all three. All three need support academically. So it makes sense to to use it across all three schools. >> Okay. Further discussion on that. >> All right. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Fledge. >> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> Hi. >> Director Pal. >> Hi. >> Okay. And this is kind of a duplicate here. the uh Singing Hills Elementary title one schoolwide waiver. So I move that the board approve the application for the Edflex Title One schoolwide waiver for the Singing Hills Elementary School. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Any further discussion? All right. Can I get a
092roll call? >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> I >> Okay. And our last action item is a resolution to withdraw from the reinvisioned um Boseies. I move that the board approve the resolution rescending membership and education reinvisioned Boseies. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Okay. I made some notes on this one. I hope you don't mind. Um so our decision to withdraw from the arbosis and pursue a different direction for legal representation. These decisions were not made lightly. It's a matter that has been carefully considered and over an extended period of time and our board has a responsibility to continually evaluate whether memberships, partnerships, and services are providing value to the district and the community we serve. So after thoughtful review, we've concluded that our
093membership in the Arabosis was not providing sufficient benefit to justify continued participation. And as a result, we determined that it is time for a fresh start and a new approach. This decision was based solely on what we believe is in the best interest of the district and not on social media commentary, political pressure, or outside influence. I just wanted to be very clear on that. Um, so with that, any further discussion? Okay. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher, >> I. >> Director Hunt, >> I. >> Director Olsen, >> I. >> Director Pal. >> Hi. >> Okay. So, uh, board planning new business. Our next board of education meeting is going to be scheduled for Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026 here in the district office. And our next item is um we're going to
094go into executive session. And just a note that um Colorado Revised Statute um there was a typo. So it is 24-6-424B, not AB. Just a simple typo. So I move that the board proceed into executive session pursuant to Colorado Revised Statute 24-6-424B conferences with an attorney for the purpose of receiving legal advice on specific legal questions regarding our current lawsuit with the ACLU. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Can I get a roll call? >> Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> Hi. >> Director Pal. >> Hi. >> Okay. So, with that, we'll go into the other room and go into executive session. Who's Karen? Mary. [laughter] >> Mary. I'm sorry. I'm very happy. Okay, we are out of executive session and I adjourn this meeting at
0958:58 p.m. Thank you.