ESD Board Meeting: Business Meeting for Tuesday, March 24, 2026

001Okay. I call to order this Elizabeth School District business meeting on Tuesday, March 24th, 2026 at 6:00 pm. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Callingham >> here. Director Fletcher >> here, >> Director Hunt >> here, >> Director Olsen >> here, >> and Director P >> here. >> Okay, >> can I uh everybody stand for the pledge of allegiance? >> I change sides. 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. >> Okay. I move that the board approve the meeting agenda for this March 24th, 2026 business meeting as presented. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Okay. Roll call. >> Director Kelling. >> I. Dr. Fletcher, >> I. >> Dr. Hunt,

002>> I. >> Dr. Olsen, >> I. >> Dr. Pal, >> I. >> Okay. Um, I move that the board approved the business session minutes from February 24th, 2026. >> Second. >> Any discussion on those? Okay. Can I get a roll call? >> Director. >> Hi. >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> Hi. >> Dr. Pal. >> Hi. >> All right. Uh, next up we have communications and we have Tyler um who's director of our safety and security here to give us an update. >> Good evening. >> Thanks for the opportunity uh once again to be able to come forth and talk to you guys about the things that we've been able to do so far this year. there's still plenty of time throughout the rest of the school

003year to to accomplish a lot of great things. Um, first and foremost, I missed a little bit of the first portion of our school year for having a kid. So, unfortunately, I didn't get to be a part of some of the fun stuff that we were doing at the very beginning, but very grateful to to be a part of the family. So, um, >> congratulations. >> Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Um so at the beginning of the year we started our um we started the year with doing some training with Faster Colorado. It's the same thing we've done in the past couple years. Um we spent three years or three not three years three days a long time. Three days with them. Uh the first two days were livefire. The in that second day we

004did uh simulation training things like that um with a simulator. So we got kind of thrown in uh to different situations that we had to resolve either through uh verbal deescalation or through lethal force. Um so that that created um some anxiety for some of the team because those situations are uh very real um where you're having to act on it. So uh that was good for the team to go through. Uh the third day we actually got to utilize the Elizabeth Middle School where we did um some building clearing, kind of got to understand what what movement looked like, start to be on the same page as far as what that language uh was as well as um basically a emergency response. So an active killer in the building, what that looked like, how

005was the movement going to change, what obstacles or challenges were we going to face? So, it really started to get us to understand the challenges of how our building layouts are um and the different things that we need to think about, not only as a single uh security personnel, but if you're if you're partnered up with school resource officer or somebody else. So, um that was very enlightening and and very appreciative that uh Faster was able to to work with us on that. Um after I returned or just shortly before and after, uh our department was able to successfully complete three K9 sniffs. Uh two at the Elizabeth High School, one of the Elizabeth Middle School. Um that was initiated after, uh there was a concerned parent who reported uh possible fentanyl uh in the

006in in the high school. um their their kid uh reported to them later on that night that while they were in the restroom, they overheard a conversation between two other students uh that they were either or somebody was in possession of fentanyl. And so that's what initiated that and we took that very serious and wanted to be proactive and get in front of that because obviously fentel, as you all probably know, is extremely deadly. Um and the last thing we want is an incident with with that in our schools. I think that's important just if I can hear it like because I think there was some indication from within the community that we're just like running off halfcock doing these things you for no reason >> and I I think it's no it's very real

007and it's >> you shouldn't take any indication lightly like you need to go in there get that make sure we we know what's going on >> it was actually that happened a couple weeks after the Elizabeth Police Department seized a vehicle that actually had fentanyl in it here in Gold Creek, uh the neighborhood here in town. So, um there was obvious concern that there could be some uh illegal narcotics or drugs within our our community. So, we wanted to be proactive and and take a further look into that, make sure it wasn't on our campus. >> Um thank you for doing that. So, uh, we we partnered with the Elizabeth Police Department, um, Elbert County Sheriff's Office and the Blood Hound Man Trackers Group, who is a nonprofit organization that the Elizabeth Police Department uses

008for K9 sniffs and whatnot, um, if Elbert County is not available. So, um, appreciate them for all that they did. Um the other thing that was really big that we were able to accomplish this so far this year was back in January of this p of this previous year, not this year. Um we went with a visitor management system uh called DriftNet. We were thinking and and very hopeful that Driftet was going to be the solution for replacing Raptor Technologies. Um unfortunately that was not the case. We went about six months of me trying to communicate with them and and getting zero communication in return to the point where it was around June or July I got a letter saying that they went out of business. And so I kind of had to scramble and

009start to identify a new visitor management system that was going to be um a good replacement for that. Um so I ended up actually looking into Raptor Technologies again. I looked through another company called Facility OS who had the potential of integrating into our current uh security uh technology a vigilon services. However, it wasn't going to be a smooth transition and the other uh ended up being vericotta. And so we ultimately found through the pricing and and what those capabilities were uh how userfriendly those those that interface was um and just overall simplicity that Vicata was going to be the better solution for us. So, we ended up implementing BRCATA and haven't looked back. They've been an outstanding uh system for us to use. Um, it's customizable to meet the needs of the district. So,

010I can put in um basically if you're a guest of the school district, you can check in that way. So, a parent, guardian can check in one way, contractors another way. Um, because I don't work at a specific school as my permanent um location, I too sign in under the Elizabeth School District. um uh staff. Thank you. Um and and we can even expand that for substitute teachers and things like that. So um what's really nice about that is we can even add messaging to that that's customized to that uh to that profile. So if it's a parent, I can provide some kind of messaging that gets sent out via text message and uh by text or email or both. And it could be something about a reminder not to sign out. It could be

011a safety reminder. It could say, "Hey, no weapons or anything like that on school grounds." I can really gear that to what we need. Um, same thing with with substitutes, which I'm looking into now, is when we have subs who aren't typically in our buildings all the time, unless they're a long-term sub, what what kind of information is is essential for them when they sign in. So, um it could be uh the SRPs and just as a a quick reminder that they have it in their email and a text. This is what you do in in these situations. So, for lockdown locks lights out of sight as a reminder what that what that is and so that way they understand what the procedures are in our district. So, that's really cool. I have to say

012that um I I didn't know what that system was called, but since that has been in there. It's just so nice and convenient to sign into a place and you get this little text and then if you forget it says, "Dude, are you still here?" And then you just say bye and then you're all done. >> Yep. And so I set the the reminder uh to get a text update or reminder that after an hour of you being signed in to sign back out. So you can just text it and say bye and it signs you out of the system or we can do it manually. So um that's nice. We do have any parent or guardian who signs in who's not affiliated with the district besides having a child um with you know being

013enrolled they do go to the security office and sign out so that way we are always aware of who's in the building and doing what. So um that's awesome for emergency purposes because then we know who's in our building and where. Um and good segue. You know I know we've talked about Minga a little bit. I just want to reiterate, you know, for the that kind of technology for emergency purposes, that accountability piece has been really big for us, just knowing kind of where people are in the building and and how we need to adapt and and adjust with each given situation. So, as I mentioned before, if there's a fire, I need to be able to communicate to the fire department very quickly if they're going to go or if if we're all accounted

014for or if they need to go fight a fire or search and rescue, right? So the last thing we want to do is put firefighters in danger at risk or or any first responder at that. So that's that's been huge. Um and it's also kind of helped us reduce hallway activity, you know, loitering, things like that in the halls that have kind of pulled the security staff to go escort students back to class. So it's been it's been nice that they've been able to focus on overall security and campus campus safety rather than just tracking down students. So, um, another cool thing, we ultimately, uh, we we applied for a grant through the firehouse subs, uh, organization last year, and through the summer, uh, July or August, we ended up getting approved for the Firehouse

015Subs grant. And with that, we were able to procure 12 new AEDs, and those were the Zul 3 uh, Z3. So, those come with adult and pediat pediatric pads. We didn't have those before. The old devices we had were right around six, eight years, so kind of nearing or at end of life and they only had adult pads, right? And so it's really been nice to have a device that can save a kid's life put in areas that we haven't had it before, such as now uh right now in our toddler infant care for at least the toddler building, we have an AED that is adequate for that age. So, it's it's been awesome to be able to have those things tactfully placed and we're even putting one in the auto shop, too, just because

016of the proximity to the building. Last thing we want to do is have someone trekking through snow or mud or whatever that looks like just to get, you know, an ad and trying to bring it back. I mean, the time between it takes for someone to go from the auto shop and and get it from the health office and come back, that's that's a lot of time lost, and that's that's not what we want to deal with. So, we're trying to be proactive there. um training and preparedness. I mentioned already the faster Colorado stuff. Um we we also completed our annual CPR first aid AED uh in partnership with the Elizabeth Police Department. Sergeant Bigler over there has the past couple years helped us out and he's been our uh American Heart Association trainer. Um

017which came in handy because we ultimately had one of our security specialists uh provide um abdominal thrust and ultimately um got u a piece of candy to shift just enough where it allowed the child to breathe again. So that was that was huge. Um so that training is is is coming in handy. Um, in addition to that, we've worked with or we've been working with our district health team. So, Ashley Keith and we have gotten our entire team to become uh designated um trying to think of the correct terms, medically delegated um individuals or personnel. So that way when the health techs are are tied down or they're not there, our team can step in and we can provide necessary medication for emergencies and and do EpiPens and do a lot of the other things

018that typically they're only allowed to do because of they've been through the training, they've been certified to do that. So we've taken that step to be a part of that process to make sure that we can also be, you know, a team with that. Um yesterday we completed a stop the bleed training. Uh this was provided to us for free by uh the Adventist Health uh hospitals. We had a representative come out to us um provided the training and through that training we're actually getting more stop kits for free based off of our enrollment numbers. Um they're also willing to come out and help out our community in in many different uh aspects. So they they can do training for uh safe driving and kind of why that looks that way because their number the

019number two reason why they see uh patients in the hospitals is due to car accidents. And so they're trying to do a lot of those things to combat that. And so they're offering a lot of free services to us. So we'll work with them in order to try and implement some of those things to create more of a safety culture out here and be proactive. So um Franktown Firearms, we were there last night. um very long night. We were there till about 10:00. Uh started at 5:30. That's a new partnership with uh with them and our our department. Um they've been great. We've been extremely grateful to Sean Steven over there who reached out to us and said, "Do you want to use our facility?" Um just as we allow or offer that to our

020first responders and we said, "Absolutely. What is that going to take?" And at a very small fee, at an annual cost, we basically get their entire facility um to us to, you know, that's the shoot house. That's the that's the range. So, we now get a lot more range time, a lot more opportunities to train and do things like that to to work on our our skills. So, that's been that's been awesome. Uh lockdown drills. So, as you as you guys know, we utilize Lifespot. I've made a slight adjustment with our lockdown drills in order to be um a little bit more engaged with with our staff. There's been some hesitancy to utilizing the app. It's a little scary because it initiates a lockdown and it notifies first responders and it gets the calvary coming

021very quickly. Um the last thing you want to do is most people are scared of being the one who accidentally sets it off and then everyone's pointing the finger, well who did it, right? Right. And so to completely understand that, but we're trying to break through some of that um by implementing smallcale scenarios and and not only are we getting more engagement with our teachers and our staff because they're actually utilizing the app to its full potential rather than the old mundane process of going through a phase one, phase two, phase three um kind of process. We're going through a small scale scenario. So teachers know, specific teachers know what to communicate. Every teacher knows that they need to communicate their room number, who they are, how many adults, how many kids, and if there's

022injuries. And that information goes straight to law enforcement. So, at a unified command level, they can start to um plan, you know, if they if there's injuries, they need to start establishing a triage, a warm zone, all of those things that um the standard operating guideline is has kind of put together for us. And we've been even more grateful that Chief Engel has been a big part of that and he actually helped write the the SOG for out here. So, we're getting kind of firsthand uh guidance on on what we should be doing and how to do that. And so since we've made this change, we we've actually had more law enforcement or first responder engagement with with some of this uh Running Creek, we actually had um kind of a very quick beginning to

023finish where we actually got fired to come in and go into an empty room and take out a CPR dummy and and act like they were trying to get somebody out and get into a warm zone and do things like that. So, we're actually able to get training not only for our staff, but we're starting to get training for all levels of this all the way up to the chief of police and and the under sheriff and anybody else who comes out. They're all part of this process now, which is awesome in the preparedness. >> Oh, yeah. >> Um the last big thing that we've been able to to work on, um big props to to our security specialist at Roing Creek, Jeff Tobach. He's been working very hard at getting the safety tell program

024going. He is our uh one of our trainers. So, he went through the train the trainer uh course through them um and is able to provide a lot of uh good material to our district um through that. The focus is on increasing student awareness and respons and and and how to use that responsibly, right? Not not a tattletail program, things like that. So, our hopes are the more we start to implement this and and get him involved in the schools with with staff, with students, and provide that education, we're going to hopefully get kids and and staff to have that integrity and how to use it appropriately. So, we're not wasting people's times, and we're not we're not wasting resources, too. A lot of times when those stuff when those tips come across, we're utilizing

025law enforcement and things like that to go out to the houses when there's nothing really going on, it's just someone was upset that someone called him a bad name, right? And so they're coming out and they're saying something off the off the wall and it's inaccurate and now we're wasting people's time. We're we're unnecessarily worrying parents that their kid did something. So, we're trying our best to implement a culture that is able to utilize this tool the right way. Um, and with that, he's almost there. He's got, I think, one more school uh in our entire district will be close to achieving the gold standard. And there's not many districts in our in Colorado that have been able to successfully achieve that. So, our goal is to achieve that and then hopefully in the coming

026years reach that platinum level. So when when people look at our district, they can say, "Well, what is Elizabeth School District doing and what how are they making sure that our kids are safe?" Well, they're doing XYZ and they've taken the safe to tell stuff and they've they've taken it to another level where they're getting engagement from from all levels that there's more um there's there's better reports that are coming in that we can actually work off of and whatnot. But >> does that minimize a little bit the because I I recall one time somebody said, you know, with all these safe to tell tips, it takes a lot of research to >> to see, you know, obviously if it's something really escalated, then you're not going to spend hours researching to see if it's

027true. But some things you don't want to pull everybody in right away. So, does this new situation help >> to uh to get to the the truth faster? Initially, it's it's raised the amount of tips we've gotten just because once people learn about something that they maybe weren't previously aware of or they're just reminded of it, you typically get an in an influx in those in those number of tips. Um, so that kind of has taken away from that in in the wrong way, but ultimately it's our way to it's it's the start, right? Right. And so as we continue to talk about this, we're hoping that the the tips that come in are true like truly concerning tips, not not just um >> I'm mad at somebody. >> Yeah. Not just not just that.

028So um the time it takes to investigate it is probably probably going to be the exact same. And the reason behind that is because we're going to take every tip uh serious because the moment we don't and something does happen >> Yeah. then then we're the bad guys because we didn't take something serious. And so I mean our our department is definitely stepping up in order to help pro um take some of that off of our administrators. So the searches and things like that where admin have typically had to get very involved with that and they're there for each process. We have a witness and we can have part someone part of the safety and security department especially if it pertains to a weapon. Um we can have them get involved. they can do the

029search, complete the JIH uh e exhibit form and then hand all information over to the admin so that way they can make the right decision or I mean if it's to that if if it's a real concern admins involved from the very beginning but there's there's constant communication um from the very beginning just so everyone's on the same page. So >> yeah, but that's uh that's all I've got for you. I tried to make it pretty quick because I know tonight's going to be a little long, but again, I appreciate the time to come up and share a little bit about what we've been able to do this year. >> Yeah. It's a great job everything that you're doing. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, next up we have um board reports. So,

030I'll go ahead and um kick it off um just kind of follow up with Tyler. So, I was at the job fair, which was great. I loved seeing the collaboration and the participation with that. Um, while I was there, I took the opportunity to um meet with uh uh Corey and with Tyler and we sat down and they showed me all all aspects of this Minga system. And it is so far beyond just a a hall pass, you know, bathroom monitoring system, which I think it's got a stigma. Um there it there is so many wonderful things that it can do and again it it contributes to you guys not spending your time chasing down students who are you know lingering around in the hallways instead of being in class where they're supposed to be.

031But um you know it's let me give you an example and I hope you don't mind me sharing this. So, you know, you have students who, you know, you've got your clicks and you know, you've got them all who every class or at a certain time of day, they all go and check out the hall pass to go to the bathroom so they can go hang out in the hallways and stuff at the same time. You can set this system up to say, you know what, these students, you know, they have a tendency to get in trouble when they're all out in the hall unattended at the same time and so they can't check out at the same time. or you can limit that. >> So, I mean, you know, the tracking there's just there's,

032you know, um having a way for students to check in when they when they first get in versus, you know, the old way, you know, just go sign in. You can track, okay, they signed in, five minutes to get to your class. So, there's there's just so much more to the system. It is so robust and I'm very very impressed with it. So, as with any new technology, it's, you know, it's scary, but, you know, we've got to get away from the old past system and and, you know, get with the get with the times. So, it's, it was really, really impressive. And I would suggest that anybody, if you have the chance to go talk to Corey and take a look at this system, it'll blow your mind. >> I was just like my

033jaw just dropped when I saw everything that this does. >> Yes. >> So, for everybody out there who thinks it's just a glorified bathroom pass system, it's not. >> It's not. So, >> I'm just gonna real quick I'm gonna jump in because just because of what you just said. So, I I actually got to see a demonstration of it also from Corey um a month ago or so. And it it is a very uh robust system and it's kind of two pieces. It's the check-in when you're late system and it's the whole pass system. And I know that Corey has been working on actually pulling the data. I mean they had it's brand new uh just I think at the first of this year uh this calendar year and so you know they were first

034seeing how it worked and then he started pulling data and he I think he will present that to us uh at some point in time here hopefully soon but um it does it does do a good job at pointing out number one how much class time students are missing >> because of all these things and it keeps it controlled >> and um yes there is you know three three at a time, but it's a rolling three number one. And the three comes from the fact that there are three stalls in the bathrooms. So, you don't want, you know, people lined up for a stall and um and it's it's a rolling three. So, you know, as soon as some somebody comes back, it opens up another slot. So, um you know, it it is a

035really good system and it is quite good. And um I briefly saw some of the data which I'm not going to be able to like you know regurgitate because I don't remember it exactly but I was pretty stunned at the uh the numbers of uh the amount of time class time that students are missing. Um and uh and so it's it's going to be a good control over over that >> well and the distraction that it causes for the teachers. I know one thing Corey brought up, you know, you're a teacher, you get in your groove and you're teaching, then all of a sudden someone comes up a lot. >> Yeah. >> When they can just go and it's controlled systems, you know, it's design. >> Exactly. >> So, it it it helps with minimizing

036distractions as well. >> But there's always, you know, >> if there's an emergency, >> certainly they just need to come up and talk to and, you know, go outside that. So, >> you know, I I think it's a good system. I think it's, you know, nothing's perfect, but >> I think it's a good system. working out the kinks, working out the bugs, but it's it's got a lot of lot of potential. >> Yes. >> Nothing to report here. >> The uh I I just um I've been doing a lot of research this month. I I did a lot of math research and then Ted's just taking that over and he's just doing a great job. But uh the I've been doing a lot of research this month on AI and education and what that is

037doing to uh our students and the ways that it's being used it teachers and students and uh I just uh the cognitive offloading that is happening um and just the ways in which we've thought about education in the past like what's the purpose purp of of education well is to get good grades. Well, if that's the objective, well then in a child's mind, the AI is the perfect tool because that will help me get the grade. >> Never mind the fact that even you know as studies have been looking at you know not just the use in education but use in the office. um you know at at uh companies they they've done a lot of studies on how the how the how this is affecting business as well like that people are just offloading

038analytical thinking onto chat GBT or whatever it is pick your model and it's uh it's really um it's really this is dangerous Um, and our our kids are they're just not thinking anymore. They're just they're just letting the the model do the thinking for them. Um, and the papers they're writing, the the essays, the these things, they're missing the point. And I we really I'm trying to to put together something that's you know maybe some steps that we can look at and maybe I'll I'll once I have something I can come to UTE and we'll look at like how we can start trying to incorporate this into our schools and how just because this is how we do assessments everything I mean it comes down to like how we are doing school like we're going

039to have that if we want our children to leave here and actually know anything and be able to to think critically about anything, we're going to have to consider this and how we um there's a way you can you can talk about AI with children and you can help them understand, but in the end like we we're the adults in the room. We have to how are we going to um you can organize the homework. You can organize the essays to in a way that makes sure that if they use AI that they use it software only that we use that recognizes it. >> Well, it's supposed to be we've identified where it has accused kids of using AI and it hasn't. Yes. So, I mean that we have to be cautious because there are

040false positives. I think it airs on the side of positive instead of negative. And so we we we've talked with our staff about be careful. I mean certainly >> use it, bring it to the attention, have the conversation, but don't assume it. So >> well, even kids that are So even kids that are trying to get good grades and who aren't using AI, they look around and there are kids using AI and so they it's an arms race, right? It's like, well, well, if they're going to use AI, I'm gonna I can't get a C. I >> I stay up all night. >> That's right. I stayed up all night writing my paper and they they were out, you know, whatever. Um and the even the there are ways to get so it's pretty easy

041sometimes to spot if the paper has been written by AI but you can then put into the next prompt you can tell it to fix those problems and it will it'll go back and it'll fix it and now and then you so you ran the first uh paper through uh the whatever model you're using to spot AI and it says this is 100% written by AI and then the next prompt you tell it fix these problems and then you run it back through again and it's like this is 100% written by a human. >> That's not unless you forget to take the emojis out. >> So So it it's uh >> it's here to stay. It's it's it's not going anywhere. >> But we have to figure out how to to use it in a

042way that it or >> have to teach our kids and the parents and the teachers everybody needs to be educated on this and how we can use this responsibly. I mean even kids who are like well I learned how to do the thing and you know whatever the concept was math science whatever and then I just use it for the busy work. Well, the purpose of the busy work was to reinforce and get it into your brain how to do the topic or whatever it was. It wasn't that wasn't just busy work. >> Yeah. >> And so, yeah. So, um at any rate, that's I was I I spent a lot of time just watching YouTube videos and TED talks and um that's what I've been doing. My >> Well, David, I'm excited to hear

043you're doing that. Um, just so you know, I I don't know if you kind of heard that with our curriculum review committee, but now that we've kind of got the math thing sort of, you know, in a in a place where we think we're going to go with that, um, AI was our next is our next priority. >> And so, you're still on, you still have to come now. You just committed yourself to still coming to the, uh, curriculum review committee. So, just so you know, pay attention to those meetings. We are actually, I think, going to try to have a subcommittee. We're going to try to do a subcommittee to kind of work on because we we want to have we we believe that we need a policy um which we have to have

044broad enough that we don't have to change every 12 seconds you know >> because AI is changing. >> Exactly. But we need to have, as you said, Rhonda, the ethical use of it, the appropriate use of it, and um our on the curriculum review committee, we have a student representative. She's a senior, and she got together a group of students, and they had a a uh with Brett and Kim Moore, they had a a discussion of their thoughts on AI, and actually all of them pretty much came up with. Now I will grant you that these were all you know some of the some honor students and you know student council and things like that. So, but most of them were not in favor of of huge use of AI. >> And one of them

045was like, no, not at all as I understand it. But it was a very interesting thing and very useful. And uh so anyway, um you know, that is that is something we hope to work on this summer with the curriculum review committee and hopefully have, you know, the beginnings of of an AI policy to talk about next year. Yeah. And >> the Brookings Institute just finished a study and I I watched the person who did the study. I watched the talk from her, but I just need to get a hold of the actual study, but they had some recommendations for how school districts, superintendent, and boards can start thinking and teachers can start thinking about this in in a more helpful manner. Um because there's you can't just say, "Well, you can't use it." Well,

046you're not with the child all day long. They could literally get it on their phone. It's like uh so um but at any rate that's >> one of the discussions we had at at the curriculum review committee was kind of interesting. It was kind of like you know we need to teach we not don't just say use it responsibly but we need to teach it and so um you know having things like you know an assignment okay the first your first assignment is write you know on XYZ topic write a paragraph on whatever you think about it but it has to be your writing then next put a prompt into chat GBT and see what it says and then see if you want to tweak what you're saying or put in you know a prompt

047to say give me some top points that I need to do but you know it doesn't write it for you just gives you the bullet points and then you take it from there. So the different levels and knowing when to do that and when it is not ethical to do that that you you know you don't end up with a fully AI written thing because we do need to engage the brain and AI is sort of disengaging the brain >> and and a safeguard may be how do you test how do you test the knowledge >> so yeah you may have brought this paper forward but you know give me a give me another example. >> Yeah. Oh boy. Where's my phone? No, sorry. >> Not to mention, in-class essays are always a good way

048to get around concerns about AI essays. >> Have them write it in class. >> Yeah. >> And and and one thing one thing that we have to keep in mind, but again, we're we're K through 12. >> Um is at some point employers are going to expect you to know AI some in some way. >> Yeah. I mean, that's just that's the wave of the future. >> Yeah. >> And it's, you know, again, how how do you learn to use it ethically, responsibly, and productively, >> but still be able to do it yourself if you have to. >> Yeah. Exactly. Know what you're putting in and and and and so you can critique what it's spitting. >> Exactly. Exactly. >> Yes. So, anyway, just so you know, more to come on that and you are

049recruited now. You are on the subcommittee. >> All right. Mike, did you have anything you want to bring up? >> I don't. >> Cool. >> Oh, come on, Mike. >> It's amazing. >> April 15th. That's on his mind. >> Is it the 15th? >> Exactly. It's coming, Mike. >> Thanks for the reminder. >> Um, just a couple of things. First of all, welcome back to our parents and students from spring break. Hopefully everyone had a restful and safe spring break. We haven't heard anything otherwise, so that's good. um wanted to address a couple of things that hit social media during spring break and it's always hard when things hit social media and of course people run with stories and obviously those stories aren't always accurate. So um wanted to talk real quickly about what are

050what's the difference between schools and homeschool enrichment programs. Um there's about 13% of public schools or or students who are homeschoolers. If you look at just our current school population, that's about 338 students in our community that just by statistics could be homeschoolers. Um there are homeschool programs designed to service those students. Some are publicly funded, some are privately funded. Schools that are publicly funded are funded either through a school district, through boseis, through a variety of different sources. And they have to meet certain criteria. Number one, they have to be secular. They can't be Christian. that we don't fund Christian education. We do fund things for children who are Christian, meaning if they're getting PE, art, and music, they they they can access enrichment funding. And in some cases, that enrichment program is being

051provided by an entity that might also provide religious education separate from the homeschool enrichment program. But public funding for homeschool education is is has been in law since the the late 90s. Um students who are are in a homeschool enrichment program that's authorized either through a school district or uh actually are funded to participate in non fullday school programs. They have to meet a minimum of 90 hours during a semester. They have to meet all of the attendance requirements. They have to meet all of the registration requirements of any other other public school student and then they're funded. There's a lot of conversations in the legislature about the amount of money that homeschoolers are funed at. That's a whole different conversation. But over break, we had lots of people conflating homeschool enrichment programs with schools

052and thinking, "Oh my gosh, all these schools are coming into Elizabeth." Um, homeschool enrichment programs operate typically one day a week or two half days a week. Um, they used to only be enrichment, meaning they'd be PE, art, music, outdoor learning, river studies, whatever it may be. In the last two or three years, there are a number of homeschool programs that have have have sprung up that are now partnering with parents and delivering an educational program. We have a couple in our community who work with parents. They deliver two days of math and reading instruction and then work with parents to deliver the rest of it as a homeschool parent. And so there's a variety of different things, but needless to say, social media went wild with, "Oh my god, all these schools and and

053and and Boseies is adding schools to our community without our permission and blah blah blah." So I want to be very clear, there are schools, full-time schools that have to meet requirements, have to have licensed teachers, have to do all of those things that are required, and then there are homeschool enrichment programs. And and so our community has a number of homeschool enrichment programs. Many of them started because they had a site in Castle Rock and our families sought them out driving to that program and as numbers justified they began offer offering a site out here. Two programs um Castlewood uh is a program that's starting out here next year. It's been at Cornerstone Church in in Castle Rock in the Founders Village area um and Summit Homeschool Academy which is operating at Creekide Church.

054And so they they started out here because children from Elizabeth were in their Castle Rock program and they thought, well, there's interest out there. Let's let's start a program out there. Um, so it's really important that people understand just because it's a classical homechool doesn't mean it's a it's a it's a school. And so that's really important for the community to understand the difference. We did have a school application come in right before spring break. um we were a little tied up with some things that were going on in the district. So that was an application that came in from one of the current homeschool providers that was proposing a 4 day a week classical school that would meet teacher lure that would offer the required number of instructional minutes would offer students a full-time

055education program and they submitted that application as they have a right to. The board has not had a chance to even look at that. It came in again right before spring break. Something that would plan to come to the board um to actually consider because obviously we have to consider it. We can't just deny it. We have to actually look at it. Um ultimately through conversations with that school which was going to be called Elizabeth Classical Academy, they withdrew that application yesterday because as they looked at the landscape and realized, wait, Independence Classical Academy ismy's opening. you know, we've got these other homeschool programs that are classical that might be oversaturation. And so, they actually withdrew their application that's now on their website that they've withdrawn their application. A lot of of this was implicated

056to erosce, which our district joined in January as a district member. So, as a district member, we are now a part of oversight of the programs that the EROS does. This board will eventually appoint a representative to sit on that board. I know there people are saying, "Where's a contract between the district and them?" Actually, no. We're part of their their governing board now. Um, just like a school district, we have a member on their governing board. Um, that hasn't been seated yet. We have a an a temporary service person who has served on that board until this board has a chance to actually take up that issue. But the Arbosis did not start any programs in our community intentionally. They didn't say, "Oh, let's go find people in Elizabeth." The programs that are in

057Elizabeth have actually been long-standing programs. Castlewood uh classical homeschool academy is has operated in Castle Rock this year. Again, families from Elizabeth were interested and participated in that program and they feel they have enough interest to now serve at Harvest Bible um which is right next door. either homeschool children whose parents have taken the responsibility of being the first educators of their children and partnering with Castlewood with their program that they're offering. They do two half days a week of math, reading, and PE. They also have a one-day complete enrichment, PE, art, music type options. Um, so parents have a choice there. Summit homeschool academy also started in Castle Rock. Um and again because of interest of families who are homeschooling in Elizabeth to drive to Castle Rock, they decided, hey, we've got actually enough

058families out there. Let's offer let's help them save them having to drive in every day. Um and let's offer it in Elizabeth. So I know there was a lot of chatter on, oh my gosh, the district joined the Arbosis and now they're putting all of these schools in. Not true. The Boseis has approved some of those programs, but they've approved them long time ago and and they're in started in other areas and have grown into our area because of interest. I'm a personal believer that homeschool families have a right to get some academic and educational support. They pay taxes just like everyone else in the community. And so a publicly funded homeschool program is a to me a right of those parents to have that support. They've chosen to be the first primary educators, but

059why don't they get support like everyone else? And so, I'm a believer that a parent who chooses to homeschool should have every right to a program that's being offered to support them. Um, and and and that's something that occurs in our community. It's something we sponsor homeschool enrichment programs not only in our district, but outside of our district in aeronautics. That's something we offer families in and outside of our district. And so, homeschool enrichment programs are to serve that 13% of children who have chosen not to be traditional public education students. So really important that we we not spin out of control um because again homeschool homeschool families typically have chosen homeschool for a reason and that's their right and we want to support them. We want them to feel like we care about them

060too and that's why we would consider sponsoring homeschool programs because if a family needs that support why should they not get it? So just to be very clear, erosis is a is a group of school districts that have come together to look at innovative educational options in the state of Colorado. We've chosen to join their board and this board will have a representative seat on that board. So when options come to that table, our board members will have a vote on whether that's a good choice or not for families in Colorado. And I think it aligns with our our vision of choice is good. Providing families an option, especially if they've chosen not to come to a traditional public school, um have chosen to do that. ICA I want to touch on because there's there's

061a lot of people who think somehow charter schools take away from public schools. Charter schools are public schools. We as a as a community, unless our community is willing to pass a bond and to to to contribute $700 a year to cover the cost of that bond, this district will not be able to build another school. We've seen Kya try three times for a bond and it's failed every time. The likelihood of of our community, remember 14,000 voters and 2600 kids. There's a little anomaly off number there. the likelihood of our voters saying yes, we're going to contribute $700 to build a traditional school is very unlikely. And I think this board has wrestled with that and come to that conclusion. The only way we're going to add seats as this community grows is through

062charter schools. And that's why Independence Classical Academy came to the table. That's why we approved them. It's why they're opening. At some point, they will build out in Independence and they will be a school at a location that we need uh to deal with the growth that's occurring. So, um, this district will need to look at charter schools in the future as all of the developments that are attempting to come into our community as and if they are approved. We have to have seats for children who want to come to traditional public schools. And it's not going to happen with us passing a bond. Um, we we could ask for a bond and it will fail and all we do is aggravate our voters. So, the reality is and it costs us to put a

063bond on the ballot when we know it's going to fail. And I think we all know right now we're trying to use our money as wisely as possible. So, um hopefully that helps clarify um all of this halu about oh my god all these schools are popping up and Elizabeth allows is allowing it. There is one school opening next year full-time school and that's ICA and that's at Frontier um for next year and as they grow they will grow to the point that they can actually construct their school out with independence and we're excited about that. We're excited about that option coming to the table. So, um, homeschool enrichment is is something that parents need to understand. Every homeschool program is not publicly funded. There are programs in our community that are privately funded that

064parents pay for. That's an option for parents, too. Some parents don't want any taxpayer money and that's their right. That's their right to choose programs. So, really important that people understand the difference in what programs are and what programs aren't. So, >> one thing I think that would be good to clarify because yeah, it was, you know, I I'm not on social media, but people send me stuff. And this last week was like, wow. Wow. What's you know >> what the hell? >> And and this stuff was already in motion. >> So the timing the timing. >> So it wasn't we join the Boseies and then boom. >> This stuff was already in motion. Number one. >> And number two >> is um they can approve homeschool enrichment programs regardless of whether we're a member

065or not. Right. And three, they c they cannot any brickandmortar school would still have to come to this board to approve. >> So really us joining the Boseies or not joining the Boseies regardless we still control brick and mortar schools and homeschool enrichment programs. They can authorize those anywhere anywhere without us. Castle Castlewood Classical Academy was approved initially in their program that was approved three years ago. It's not new. The site out here is new because the interest made them think, hey, let's open a site in in Elizabeth. Summit Academy was approved four years ago by by the erosce and and was approved to operate in in Castle Rock. And again, the interest was out here and the market drove them to say, "Hey, let's offer a a site out in Elizabeth." So these were

066not new programs. These are not programs that were authorized in the last six weeks since we joined the Arbosis. These are programs I've known about. I I know they're there and I again I support them. Um the uh the Elizabeth Classical Academy was a an additional program that Summit Homeschool Academy thought we have parents who are saying we'd like a 4 day a week program and we actually meet all of the requirements of a full-time school. So, let's talk to our local school district and see if that's something that would be a synergy to consider. They they have admitted they got ahead of their themselves. They they posted, "Hey, we're doing this." Obviously, it hadn't even come to the board. And so, they certainly recognized that they got over their skis. They were very excited

067about what they wanted to do. And when they actually sat down and realized, "Oh my gosh, you've already got a classical school opening. Yeah, there's that's oversaturation." Um, and so they went through. And if we hadn't already made the commitment to ICA, I'd have been all over it. >> Yeah. Yeah. But >> I think it would have been an awesome option. But but again, we have a classical school and and they certainly don't want to step on that school either. They want to make sure that that school is successful because a classical school is important in this community. It's a great interest. It's why we sought Liberty Commons to say we want to replicate that because that was the community that was community feedback this board received early on is we want a classical school

068in the community. So, >> well, I wanted to I wanted to kind of reiterate, you know, thank you for for that explanation because I have to say that um I I think number one there was like this perfect storm, >> you know, uh the fact that in January we voted to become a member of erosce and then all of a sudden we see these this you know this application um and then we see all of a sudden we see Castlewood. is kind of like what is going on and we were we we are concerned for ICA that we don't you know compete it out uh business so to speak and so um because we are excited about that school and we want it to succeed and we are excited about it and so um I

069um I have to admit that I didn't understand a lot of this. I mean, I've understood bits and pieces of the whole homeschool enrichment program thing and the erosce thing, but not in combination. And so I I personally want to apologize to erosce because I kind of had a comment or something in a couple of emails that I was concerned that I felt that we had been uh you know that they kind of went ahead of what we were expecting and and I have realized that that is not true. So, I want to personally apologize for my piece in that, but um but I've learned a lot in this last few days, I'll tell you. But I am excited about um I I appreciated Summit uh who was who was kind of filing as Elizabeth

070Classical Academy. I appreciated their understanding that this would be competitive and it wouldn't be the appropriate thing to do. I appreciated their their realization of that and I I really did appreciate that. And um and then I I I'm excited and I understand better. I'm not going to say I fully still understand everything about the whole uh enrichment program thing, but I do understand it much much better than I did. And so those enrichment programs are important. And because we are a school district that is all about choice for our students, for our parents, for what's right for their students, um we need to support those things. And we that's our that's always been our goal. That's always been our plan. And so I think that we seriously need to to think about these things

071and and support them where we can. So I just wanted to say that that um um you know I I I feel much better than you know the perfect storm that happened with with everything uh last week. Um and so I I hope the community understands and and listens to this because um the community uh did also get out over their skis I think about the whole thing. >> The social media warriors. >> Yes. Yes. And I I mean I only see bits and pieces of that. I don't see a lot of it, but um you know, it was it was kind of like >> what's the deal? And u you know, so but now we understand it and >> you know, we've communicated with people and so that was quite refreshing and quite good

072and um you know, some some good conversations have been had. So, so >> for sure. Last thing I want to say is we do have state testing coming up in a couple of weeks and as we've continued to try to get the message out, um, this district had encouraged families to opt out in the past. It's was very open effort on the part of this district to say that's not important. We need to change that message because frankly we want to continue to improve our academic performance. And when we only get data on a portion of our students, it it really makes it hard for us to know where's our program successful and where where can we improve. And so um again, we've seen a drastic increase in participations over the last three years since

073this board took over. I want to discontinue that messaging of, you know, opting your child out of a test. You can't opt them out of a medical exam and you can't opt them out of a bar exam. You know, a an assessment is one more way of showing what I know. And we as a school district need to lower the anxiety. It can't be a stressful day. Kids need to come to school and know that, hey, I'm going to show what I know in reading and I'm gonna show what I know in math and I'm going to be excited about that. So, um, anyways, um, we want to continue to encourage parents who are watching, please consider not opting your child out. Let them have the experience. There is test anxiety. If you have concerns,

074talk to our counselors. There's ways we can support your child in overcoming that. Maybe this isn't the year, maybe it's next year, but let's address those issues. But, um, opting out is harmful to the district because we then don't have full data to know we're missing on critical skills that kids need to know and be able to do. maybe is our curriculum lack when all we have is I mean literally there was a period of time when this district had 30% of kids testing. How can you assess the entire performance of the district with only 30% of your students actually testing? >> So we we've done great work but I want to take advantage of once again encouraging parents consider letting your child take the test. It's not the end of the world and it's

075one it's one measure. Um, it's not the only measure, but it's an important measure. >> And it's a teaching tool for the kids, too, to learn how to take a test because life is all about tests. >> I was just going to say life is full of tests and things we don't want to do, but we have to do anyway. So, thank you. I appreciate it. That was helpful. >> Okay. So, next up, we have public comment and we have um Lisa Beach. And I don't know if it's on. If you see numbers, it's on. >> Okay. No light, just numbers. >> Um, if you see numbers, it's working. >> Yeah. >> All right. Hello. I um have three children in the district. Um, two at the middle school and one at the high school.

076I'm here tonight to ask the board to analyze its relationship with the district's attorney, Brad Miller. The school district's legal council is supposed to protect the district legally, financially, and reputationally. When the attorney becomes the source of controversy instead of protection, we need to consider other options. Right now, Brad Miller brings a significant amount of baggage and negative attention to the Elizabeth School District. His name has been tied to multiple districts around the state that are facing controversy lawsuits and public conflict. Elizabeth is not alone here. Districts like Woodland Park and PBLO County School D70 have seen major disputes, investigations, and community backlash connected to decisions made while working with Miller. In several of these cases, his legal strategy appears to escalate conflict rather than resolve it. Right here in Elizabeth, he's given inaccurate advice

077twice in public on open meetings issues, one costing the districts tens of thousand dollars in court and attorney fees when we lost that lawsuit. You all were trusting that advice that he was giving you was true and you should be able to. It's my understanding that Miller is not handling special education issues. Rather, a second law firm handles those issues. If Brad Miller isn't handling special education issues, the most common and most costly legal issues school districts face, then why is he costing us more than the attorneys handling the special education issues? What is he actually doing that costs over $100,000 per year? It appears he's making more work for himself while we all pay for it. Our district spends enormous time, energy, and taxpayers taxpayer resources defending decisions that have drawn national attention in

078lawsuits. Regardless of how people feel about the underlying issues, it's fair to ask whether the legal strategy behind being used is actually protecting Elizabeth or exploiting and exposing it. A good district attorney should reduce risk, not increase it. They should help boards solve problems quietly, not put districts on the front page for the wrong reasons. It has become difficult to tell who is advising whom. An attorney should be there for consultation, not driving policies. Miller has author authorized several of ESD's policies. And we know this because the same policies show up verbatim in other districts he represents. School boards are elected to represent the community. Attorneys are hired to serve the board, not the other way around. This is a simply This is simply a practical question about what's best for Elizabeth School District going

079forward. Our district deserves legal counsel that focuses on stability, collaboration, and protecting the district from unnecessary risk. Right now, the ongoing controversy surrounding Brad Miller is doing the opposite. It continues to draw negative attention to our schools and dis distract from the real work of educating students. For the sake of this district, its reputation, and the taxpayers who fund it, I urge the board to sever ties with Brad Miller and seek legal counsel that better reflects the values and long-term interests of this community. Thank you for your time. Okay, so next up we have um consent agenda. So I move that the board approve consent agenda items 8.1 through 8 8.3 as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Callahan. >> Hi. >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director

080Hunt. Hi, >> Dr. Olsen. >> Hi, >> Director Pal. >> Hi. >> Okay. And next up, we have discussion. First item is monthly financials. >> So, you have your monthly financials in your in your packet. Um, they are posted for the public as well. Um, just want to and I I want to number one commend Justin for the work that he's done. Um, as we all have known as we've implemented the new financial system, um, reporting continues to be something that we have worked hard to make sure that we have a instant snapshot, um, of where we are, um, within regard to our budget and and that unfortunately isn't just intuitive to that software that was selected a few years ago. And so this report is something that Justin has created that allows him to

081do almost an immediate monthly financial report. And so we've used to do quarterly, we're doing monthly now just because we want to make sure as we all have this financial goal of the 10% fund balance that we can monitor literally month by month on are we on track or are we off track. And so thank you Justin for your work on this. Um needless to say one of the biggest challenges I'll just say publicly is we are funded by more than uh 50% of local property taxes. those come in uh beginning in March, April, and May. That's the bulk of our money. How many businesses can operate getting the bulk of their money the last three or four months of their fiscal year. Um our teachers want to be paid all year for some reason.

082And so, um we do use as many districts in our position who are heavily funded by local tax dollars or by property tax dollars utilize a no interest loan fund. want to draw the board's attention to um the bottom line uh where we do access the state loan. You see that we access the state loan in October, November, December. Um we did not need to access the state loan in January. We access the state loan last month and our plan is to pay it all back um by the by the end of May. And so that's really important the community I know there's many keyboard warriors out there who all the district borrowing money they're financially broke. we have to cover the fact that our cash comes in the last three months of of the

083school year. And so that state low loan no interest loan program will not loan us money if we don't pay it back. And we use it every year as as many districts across the state who again are heavily funded by local property taxes utilize it. So, um, what I really want to draw attention to in in this particular, um, uh, report, it was our February one when we were going to meet in February and we ended up not meeting in February. So, um, uh, or meeting March, early first meeting in March, right? Sorry. Um, so, um, obviously, um, March, uh, numbers is what we're looking at right now. If you look total at the end of the year, um if you flip over to the back of that page, you'll see that at the end

084of the year, uh we anticipate a a net month monthly cash. Um Justin, you may need to help me on this. On that net monthly cash line, is that for the month or is that a cumulative number? >> So, the net cash is your monthly cash flow. Okay. Excess or deficit. >> Okay. >> Um liquidity at the just shy of the five million. So yeah, but that is that is monthly inflows and outs. >> So the liquidity is how much money is actually available in the bank at the end of the year. And we we we have cut expenses drastically this year. And I want to be public about why. We know that this year we need to do a cost of living increase for all of our employees. Um we still lag behind our

085our neighboring districts. their neighboring districts have indicated at least through conversations behind the scenes that pay raises are unlikely with the fiscal situation that looks like is on the state horizon. Um we're hoping to actually move our employees this year that we have to add to the base and and give a cost of living increase uh to all of our staff. So why are we trying to cut expenses? Because we want to invest in our employees. So, at the end of the year, um, and again, he's tracking it monthly, um, we anticipate having five $5 million, almost five million and liquidity, meaning that's what's in the bank. Be aware that that's not the ending fund balance for the year because our employees get paid in July charged back this year. This reflects what we paid

086them in last July. So, it's not completely off. There is some difference in what we paid last year and what we pay this year because people got pay raises. So um as you look at this, needless to say, this tracking of it month by month has been really critical to know that we are on track um to actually achieving the fund balance that we have set as a board policy that by 2728 we will have no less than a 10% fund balance. And so that's an important goal of ours. It's something Justin has his eyes on and something he's working really hard uh to help us achieve. Keep in mind that there are multiple funds a district retains. We have a food service fund, we have a student activity fund, we have a capital construction

087fund, we have a variety of funds. Um, as we looked at fund balance at the end of last year, there's actually some disagreement between the state and our auditors. Our auditors said that that Taber only applies to our general fund when technically we had more than our Taber reserve when you looked at all of our funds together. And so there was a little disagreement between the state and our auditors on whether we have Taber or not. Um last year we did have a couple of expenses that our prior CFO had not recorded uh correctly and and we had to deal with that through the audit. They they were they were our energy audit um that needed to be capitalized and our bus purchase that needed to be capitalized and that had not been done last

088year and that's what needed to change at the end of last year. So while it wasn't necessarily a a a position change, it was a it was a recording change and therefore the Audrey pointed that out to us. Um we we are confident with what we're seeing here. The key is we have to stay on track and so it's easy to take your eye off the ball and that's what I appreciate about Justin is it's not a quarterly look, it's a monthly look. And so Justin has a number of times this month gone to departments to say, "Okay, your expenses just jumped $100,000. What's going on?" And so he can get answers right then. It might be an anomaly. It might be something that was planned, but at least he's looking every month to say,

089"Okay, are we on track?" And that gives me great confidence knowing that my head's on the line ultimately uh for our district financial status. And so um this gives you a breakdown of each department, each um uh each school as to what we're spending on salaries and benefits, what we're spending on expenses. It's important to note that our salaries and benefits exceed 80% of our budget. So, I know everyone thinks, "Oh my god, you're spending all this money on other things." 80% of our budget is is people. And so, this board has made a conscious effort up till now to invest $6,000 more into our staff. That had to come out of a budget that didn't grow. It only grew by cost of living over the last three years. So with with the work that

090you've done as a board to increase teacher salaries and classified salaries that had to come out of other expenses that had to be cut and so this community needs to understand that we have a fixed pie and we can only take so much out of that pie and sometimes we have to decide what are we not taking out of that pie so we can use that pie for something else. And that's really the the the juggling uh game that that Justin as our CFO is constantly looking at is okay, we we want to increase salaries, we got to cut somewhere else. And so again, this this approach that that Justin's brought to us as our new CFO um starting last year um is is really gives me that confidence that we're on top of it

091and we're seeing we're seeing the progress that we need to get across the finish line and be where we want to be. Any specific questions or anything? >> One big change since the printing of that is we payaid the state loan in full. So that state loan as of right now is 100% paid back um as of a couple weeks ago. And as I've said a couple times, this is truly a living document. I update it no less than one or two times a day. I will update this with best knowledge. But the loan is 100% paid back. us in a very tight forecast in April, but that one >> people don't understand. >> Good job. >> Yeah, >> for that purpose at least. >> We've been doing this loan for years. >> I mean,

092since way before I mean, districts do honestly. Another fascinating >> don't think I've been in a district that hasn't had to use a loan because most of the districts I've been in have a higher property tax portion of their funding than state tax. >> So our our property tax resolution as approved was 3.7 million. So how does that compare to the other 177 districts in the state? Denver County borrows every year $550 million. So >> we are truly dust in the wind compared to Douglas County. >> Douglas County is 30 to 90 million a year on the state. >> So us at 3.7 we're about a half billion. I and I appreciate not just that we're trying to stay within our pie, but that you're also trying to grow the pie, bring in more. >>

093Oh, we have mandatory blood drives. >> Nobody's getting out of here. >> Donald, >> yeah, I I appreciate you trying to bring in dollars. Actually, I know Nicole, too. >> I We saw transportation. We don't get funded by the state. We get reimbursed a portion of what we spend on transportation. Justin in his first year in in accounting for the expenses that truly run the the transportation department increased that revenue by almost $100,000 I think it was. So again, just just really being cognizant of what are we spending and what are we eligible to get reimbursed on. Everyone thinks transportation is required in the state of Colorado. It's not. We could close our transportation department tomorrow. We'd have a lot of kids not come to school. We're not going to do that. We believe very

094strongly our kids need to get to school and our transportation department does a great job. But we don't get every dollar we spend on transportation back. We have districts who have done away with transportation. That money gets reinvested into other things in the district. We spend money on transportation that we don't get back. But that's a conscious choice we make and I think our parents appreciate that because obviously we have a very large area and some kids travel quite a ways to get to school. So again, I'm proud of the work we're doing. Unfortunately, again, you get keyboard warriors who try to seize on, oh, this looks bad and and they'll spend that out in the community without factual information. And if only I got an email asking about it first, that would be great.

095So, >> well, and you have you have um you know, all of the critiques of well, you you can't get teachers, you can't do this, you can't do that. You know, spend the money in the classroom. Okay, number one, quit suing. >> Quit core requesting, quit, you're complaining about our legal fees, but yet you are driving up the cost of legal. >> Um, >> and and again, this is an example. All of the chaos you create online in this misinformation world of social media that affects teachers wanting to come to our district. So the chaos you creating in your intent to heal is hurting. >> Yeah. >> So just throwing it out there. >> Yeah. Anybody suing the school district obviously hates children and so >> next item. >> Okay. Next item. That any other

096questions? >> Next item, federal funds. The board has has talked and we actually had a requirement that had had originally been placed on school districts who accept federal funds this year that really was going to throw quite a monkey wrench into it. Um this the federal law or federal regulations from the Department of Education uh indicated early this year that any pair professional, any any instructional support staff needed to have a um uh at least an associates degree um before we could hire them. That would that would impact massively in in the district because we have pair professionals who work with special ed kids. We have pair professionals who work in lunchroom. we have pair professional and not many of them have associates degrees. So our fear at the beginning of the year when that

097came down was oh my gosh we are going to need to decide is federal money worth taking if we're going to have to lose half of our staff and then not be able to fill those positions either. Um, we got clarification actually two months ago and I think I I brought that to the board, but I wanted to close this conversation out um about the fact that no, that only applies to any para profofessional you hire that's going to do direct instruction with students. Of course, we want them to be highly educated. We don't want someone who's doesn't have a high school education to teach kids to read. It's not not what we want them to do. Um, so when we got that clarification, we we we clearly feel a little better about, you know,

098there are federal funds that we're taking and and and they actually play an important role. So you have in your packet a breakdown. We have $140,000 in the title programs, title one, title two, title three, and title four. Uh Fran is here. If you have any questions, she can address them. But these are positions that are added to our district because we take those federal funds. If we didn't take the federal funds, those positions we'd have to then figure out how to take them out of our already stretched pie. Um, as we just discussed, um, the other challenge is that these positions have been funded since we began taking federal funds. And if we stop taking federal funds, these positions, many of them, we want to absorb into the district budget. And if we ever

099decided to take federal funds, we couldn't fund these positions again because that would be supplanting. The federal dollars cannot take the place of local dollars for a position. So everything funded in in federal dollars has to be on top. Has to be additional benefits that students are getting. So just in Title One alone, the $82,000 is getting us literacy interventionists both their their salaries and benefits. Um we're getting um supplies for those interventionists. The district does take indirect costs from federal funds which goes into general funds. So it offsets all of the accounting that um Justin's department has to does help support the funding of those staff members. Um title two, we only get $41,000. That's that's professional development money. Um these are the expenses that the district has chosen. the CHAMPS training we did

100this year that teachers loved, the teachers arrived on, was paid for by federal dollars. Um, title three is our um, ELLL funding for students with second language learners. We actually can't get that funding directly because it's less than $10,000. We partner with Douglas County. They receive that money on our behalf. We work with them. We create a plan and ultimately they reimburse us as we spend this money. So um so title three is a very small amount but but it does have benefit as you can see here and then title four um we we've done a number of things safe and civil schools the champs training books we were able to buy with with title four money this year. So my recommendation would be and that's why it's not on as an action item is

101that we continue uh we continue to accept this federal money at this time. It doesn't have the string that we were concerned about attached. Um and all of these are important things that I think are enhancing our district. Um, and so I just wanted to make sure the board had no disagreement with that. Obviously, it can be placed on as an action item in the future. Um, but we felt like we wanted to close out that conversation. I think we've had it here and community members might be wondering what's that decision. So, any questions or disagreements on that position? So the administr that is coupled with the reporting or anything else of this is we're saying that that's not overwhelming to the point where it overpowers the 140,000 that we're getting. >> No. And the

102indirect costs actually help offset salaries and people who are are helping us do that. So when we take indirect costs, those are actually helping to pay for the people whose job it is now to check the boxes and make sure that we're Fran does an amazing job with grants and make sure that we're always in compliance and um that our that our requests meet meet the law, meet requirements and so so obviously this funding helps offset part of Fran's time that's spent on this project. So >> I appreciate you doing the deep dive into it so we could see that the numbers pan out. So that's great. Thank you. Now, this doesn't include special education money. They obviously are funded for special education through IDEIDA, part B and part C. That's a lot more money

103than this. That was never on the table to not accept because obviously that would make a huge impact on what we're able to do for students with disabilities. So, that's why it's not here, but if you'd like a breakdown of that, we're happy to give that to you. >> Okay. Well, thank you for such appreciate it. Next up, we have our math project. >> Do you want to do you want to display that or do you want to go off of your paper copies? It is posted online. So, yeah. So, anyone anyone at home can certainly follow along as well. >> Okay. >> Are you okay with that or do you want it? >> I'm your confidence monitor there. Before Ted gets started, he he went through this with me and I I really appreciate

104his efforts to put this together. >> I think we're all >> I think he has a plan and that's a lot of times this is all naval game, right? We oh, we we have a problem and then there's no plan to fix it. But I think there's some solid measures in here to start and we'll fix it as we go. But yeah, no, I I appreciate I appreciate you sitting down with me and talk taught me through this. >> Absolutely. No, and I appreciate the work you started before I got here on your white paper. Gave me um a lot of good information to start from. But no, thank you again for the opportunity to I think I've spent the better part of my seven or eight weeks here really focusing in on this project.

105Um, and I want to thank the board for kind of allowing us to do this the right way. Many boards enjoy knee-jerk reactions and let's just switch the program or let's just let's just do this one thing and we think that'll fix it and it doesn't. And so I appreciate the grace that you've given to take the time to sit back and actually dig in, do a root cause analysis, get input from students, from staff, from parents, um, and make sure that we roll this out in a way where it's not my plan, but it's the district's plan. So our students, staff, parents all have agency in it and this continues to um to grow. But I I have shared with you guys on the side the actual full plan. Tonight I'm just going to

106go through kind of a quick PowerPoint that hits the highlights. Um, and then feel free to to just interrupt and ask questions. But I wanted to start with again kind of our current state. Anytime we do a project, I want to start with what problem are we trying to solve. Um, and the 11th grade SAT is obviously not the end all beall of mathematics proficiency, but it is the measure that we have. And it's the measure that research will tell us demonstrates whether or not a kid is college ready. And I don't believe that every kid needs to go to college. I don't believe that every kid has to go to college, but I believe that as a district, we have a responsibility to make sure every kid has that opportunity. So, we need to

107make sure every kid um is college ready when they leave. Even if they choose not to go to college and they're in a trade that doesn't have college, having college level readiness math skills is going to help them immensely. Um I can't think of a job where that wouldn't help. And maybe they don't go to college, but maybe they want to be the manager at at that place one day, or maybe they do want to go to college at some point. We need to make sure we've provided them that opportunity. Um, right now, as you know, our current scale score is 475. College readiness is 530. Um, to kind of piggyback on what Dan was saying earlier, we also had a pretty large opt out last year. So, of the 173 11th graders, only 117

108took the test. We know of that 117, only 23.9 were proficient. Given the students that opted out, we only have actual data. So statistical state data that 6.2% of our current seniors are college ready. So that's not good enough, right? That's you line up a hundred kids, right? 94 of them aren't making it. And chances are those might be some of our kids. So we need to get that number up. We need to do that in a couple ways. One, we need more kids to take the test so we have that data. If they don't have that data, they're going to have to take a college placement test. They might have to they're not scoring well enough. they might have to take remedial math. And if you're only scoring a 475, even if you go

109straight out of high school into the workforce and you're working an hourly job, you probably don't have the basic math skills to be as successful as you would like. So that to me is the challenge we face. That's the current state. If anyone were to ask why are we even doing this project plan, because that's not good enough for our students. It's not good enough for our community. We need to do better. >> Can I just interject here and before And there's the inevitable, well, your numbers are skewed. You only have 68% participation rate or whatever. Show me better numbers. Anyone produce metrics that show me that we are being affected. If if it's out there, we I haven't seen it. Ted hasn't seen it. So, show me where we're being affected. That's that's what

110I I just I hate that that you know I hear well well that's not that's not an accurate number. Well well show me the accurate number then >> but if I can chime in the state graduation requirement isn't isn't college ready. >> The state has lowered their graduation requirements and math and reading to points that are not even proficient for students on the SAT. We've chosen SAT as that's the test we're going to benchmark our kids against. And then we said our required score for graduation is less than proficient. And so we have a statewide issue. This isn't an Elizabeth issue. I I challenge any district to do this analysis this way and they're going to find very similar data. >> So we as a district have to not go with, oh, we we we

111beat the stage because we've done that for years. We've done that for years in Elizabeth. There's a banner that I that was in my office when I got here from the prior superintendent. Is that fourth highest in the in the metro area? Fourth highest of what? I mean, is that is that what we celebrate? We want our kids to be proficient and and and that's not acceptable. >> Yeah. And when you look at the SAT, and you're exactly right, of the I don't know 60some kids who didn't take the test, I have to assume they're not proficient. Um I love the quote, and Dan probably remembers this. We used to use this back in the day that when it comes to learning, you are innocent until proven guilty by a prepoundonderance of evidence. Like I

112have to assume you don't know it until I have the evidence that shows me that you do. We only have evidence that of the 173 11th graders we had at the end of last year, we have evidence that 28 of them are are college ready. >> It's not good enough. And so, uh, quantity, >> but I have heard from parents and educators that we're, well, you're not measuring it right. Well, produce the data. That's what I say. Produce it. And I will look at it and we will take it into account, but you don't have it. >> Yeah. And whether or not the SAT is a good measure or not, I think is a moot point. It's what we use. I could argue if I failed my driver's license test that that's the worst test

113ever. Doesn't matter. If I want to drive, I have to pass it. And so I mean it is used by nearly every you know state in the country and most colleges even those that went away from meritocracy have gone back to using SAT scores is they've realized without them we have kids all over the place >> and um >> you have to have some it it is and that's what we have and I would I would say if you lined it up with other data it is pretty accurate right these 28 kids probably are the 28 kids who are passing their finals who are getting 100%s on their homework and the kids who didn't pass are probably the ones who are struggling. So I guarantee you SAT is correlated with any other valid math measurement.

114Um and it just is really it it's futile to argue whether or not that data is right or not. It's and speaking of so this is the quantitative data. If you move to the qualitative data it supports it. um our staff for the most part um think that they're doing a great job, but the system is not working. And that's what we found. The system is not working. We don't have intervention. As a kid falls further and further behind, we have nothing else we can do except the teacher can continue to try to intervene in that class. When we talk to students, they're not real confident in in themselves in terms of math. they're not confident that their math class is going to get them caught up. Um, and when we talked to parents, um,

115they're when I when I looked at the data, 86% of the par of the parent data is negative. Um, they in general do not believe that our math program is working for their kids. And why would they when our scores are where they are? So whether you look at this qualitatively or quantitatively, the data shows that that we're not getting it done. Um so when you look at those gaps because there's a disconnect there's a disconnect between what staff is doing and how that's being perceived by students and parents. So in that in that disconnect when you look at this parents are telling us the curriculum is confusing. There's insufficient direct instruction and we lack the practical application of those math skills. I can tell you that absolutely fits with my visitations to math classrooms.

116Um, and so no matter how we slice the data, no matter how we look at it, um, we have work to do qualitatively, quantitatively, what we've seen um, going through classrooms, um, we've got work to do. When I go back and look at what um, the root cause of why I think we we are where we're at, it is again, and you've heard me say this several times, it's systemic issues. This isn't a person problem. This isn't a resource problem. Um, it is a systemic problem. And I met with the the high school teachers yesterday and reminded them again, this is not a high school math teacher problem. They just happen to be the exit exam. Um, this we start to lose kids in kindergarten and they just continue to lose more and more ground.

117Um, and they never catch up. So, >> this is a national problem. >> Yeah. And it's a national problem. >> It's not just a Elizabeth. Yeah. And so what we've got to do is is through this root cause hypothesis figure out what isn't working for us so we can fix it. And I think number one we have a lack of a coherent and aligned K12 um mathematics system. Whether that's the curriculum, whether that's resources, whether that's intervention, um there's no coherence and there's no alignment. So um we have you'll see there a very fragmented approach. So I think improvement efforts have efforts have been reactive. They've been somewhat peacemail. And that's why again I thank you for giving me the time to step back and say let's look at the whole thing versus just react

118and and throw you know throw something at it and hope it works. Um but when you prioritize those programs over the basics, this is what you get. Um we have to go back and fix the basics. Do we know what kids have to know and be able to do? Um how will we measure it? What do we do if they don't know it? These are very common questions in education that we haven't been answering here. Um, weak core instruction. So, that tier one instruction, the math class that students go to, it's not aligned. If you know, we worked um a little bit on better instructional strategies, but working on better instructional strategies to teach the wrong thing um doesn't work. We've got to make sure we are very clear about what students have to know

119at each grade level. Um, and then assume that they don't know it until we have the evidence that proves they do and then we move them on. Um, without that, we just continue to widen these gaps. And unfortunately, there is not the level of math math expertise, there's not the level of assessments, and there's not the level of interventions in math anywhere in this country that there is in reading. So we have to be even even more detailed about this reading. If I said a kid's behind, there's 50 programs I can go and buy and hand to a parah and say just follow this script and you'll catch this kid up. That is not true for math. There are very few um when we look at assessment data, there are very few really good diagnostic

120assessments for math where there's tons for reading. So that that weak core instruction with those widening gaps is something that we have to be precise on and that leads to that instructional inconsistency. I should be able to walk into one third grade math class, walk into another, walk into the another and the what should be the same. Maybe not the how because we have to differentiate for kids. We should be um you know fine-tuning that for the students I have in the class, but the what the outcome should be the same. If I'm teaching a a group of kids who are behind, I don't lower the bar. They still need to get here. Um, and if I just decide on my own as a teacher, well, today I feel like teaching fractions. I'll teach decimals

121next week. Like, that doesn't work. We we can't have that. So, we just have this inconsistency from one classroom to another. And as a parent or a student, it ends up being the lottery, right? right? If I'm lucky enough to have this teacher who maybe follows an aligned curriculum or maybe brought something with them from another district or they just happen to be really talented and have a lot great instructional strategies, I win the lotto. If I'm over here maybe with a new teacher who then doesn't have a a scope and sequence to follow, doesn't have great command of math and they're not getting the support they need, I lost the lotto. And so we need that consistency. It shouldn't matter what classroom you're in. itch that that what should be the same. Um, and

122again, research just consistently shows that most of this struggle comes from a lack of alignment, unclear expectations, and then a lack of focus. And I think we've had all of those. Um, which is what most school districts struggle with. Um, those things are very difficult um to do with life in a school. And so, we've got to be very purposeful. you'll see coming up when I get to my recommendations. We have to be crystal clear about what we're doing. Um, my five-year targets, I I shared with Mary and the the uh curriculum review board, these take a while and but they are very ambitious. If we do everything right, these are going to be tough to meet, but our kids deserve us to shoot for the moon. And so by next year, spring of 2027,

123I think an average score in that 11th grade SAT of 500 is reasonable. It's a 25 point jump. You've got to remember by the time they're in 11th grade, even if we fix everything else, they've had 10 years of unaligned instruction. We're not going to fix that in a year. But if we can get 40% of our kids to be college ready and 10% to have strong readiness, I think that sets a good foundation. Year three, that average score going up to 530. So now at least 50% of our kids are college ready, 20% have that strong readiness. And then by spring of 2031, average uh score of 560, 75% of our kids are college ready. Um 40% have strong readiness and 10% are advanced. This is what we should expect out of a traditional

124comprehensive middle-class American high school. These are not crazy. Nobody's reaching them, but we should be able to do this. This is not um not unattainable. It will be very difficult to get there. We need to stay focused. We need to make sure this is the work that we're doing and that we don't wait till spring of 2031 to go, "Oh, we missed it." We need to be following that data along the way and if something's not happening, we make adjustments. Um, so the way we'll do that, the four key drivers of improvement is that high quality core instruction. So we will align our curriculum. That work is already kind of begun and will really get um kicked up this this summer. We'll be bringing in staff to work on that and then work on professional

125development. So those job embedded instructional strategies, not just paying $10,000 to bring in an expert in July and then hey, good luck. hope that works, but actually continuing that week in and week out. Um, making sure that that happens. Um, one of the things we talked about, I joke with Tam Smith at the middle school, he's like, "Can we align curriculum this summer?" And I said, "Well, if we're going to pay teachers to align curriculum this summer, you have to create a schedule where your math teachers have joint planning every week so we can continue to talk about it." Something very difficult to do. He called me a couple days later and said, "Done." So we now we now have that. So we have that ability now to align that curriculum this summer and then

126every week when those math teachers they'll meet every day but as a principal you probably take I don't know say Tuesdays say Tuesdays you're going to meet in here. We're going to bring the math coordinator in and we're going to talk about okay this is what you taught last week. How'd we do? Where's the data? Do kids need intervention? Um maybe we planned three days to teach this topic and we needed four. Let's jot that down so we can change it year after year. So, we're putting in place those structures to make sure this works. We can do PD in there. If we've got, hey, we've got a unit coming up on X. Let's talk real quick about what the best instructional strategies are to use that. Um, and then ensuring that we have high

127quality instructional materials. We'll put in place coherent math pathways. Um, that starts with a shift um from integrated math to the AGA sequence. for those of you that might not know the acronym algebra geometry algebra 2. Um, and I talked with the high school math department about this because this affects them um, you know, from a change perspective the most. There isn't a lot of research that says integrated math versus AGA one is better than the other. But there is a lot of research that says Aga is easier to teach. And so if we already have kids who are behind, if we know we have to provide alignment and you know professional development for our teachers, why not make that easier to teach? We also know the data that says that students passing eth grade

128algebra is the number one predictor of college readiness for math. Then we should be teaching algebra in 8th grade, not eighth grade math. And so having that clear pathway and when I think of this from a backwards design, what I would like to see from an instructional model is that output is some type of concurrent enrollment math class where kids are getting dual credit high school and college credit. So if you think about the average kid, you're taking elementary math, right? You go into sixth grade, you kind of get a a good overview, make sure all of that solid. pre-alggebra as a seventh grader, eighth grade algebra, ninth grade geometry, 10th grade algebra 2. That opens up 11th grade to be maybe college algebra. If you're not going into a math field, it could be

129um math for the liberal arts. If you want to go more of a traditional, you know, pre-calc, calc, but those this sets us up to where those last two years are concurrent enrollment. I Yes. So since we are already doing integrated math in high school, >> how will Aga be transitioned in? >> Yeah, it's a good point. So what has to happen is the first two years there is almost like a little mini unit that has to be taught. So, if you're an integrated one this year and we ass we assume you're going to then go into geometry, you might not have gotten enough um >> algebra to get you there. So, the first two years the alignment will be an in addition to once we get past those first two years it doesn't matter

130because everyone will have gone through that sequence but you will have missed some prerequisites for some of those classes. Um, the good news is so many districts have done this that that data is out there. Like here's the here's the skills most kids struggle with if they've gone from integrated. The other thing we're working on right now um and I've talked with um Brett actually emailed this today and asked a great question and I talked with Tam about it is entrance exams. We really are going to need to look at all at probably sixth grade, maybe seventh grade and up and give an entrance exam and see are you ready for algebra? Are you ready for pre-alggebra? Then at the high school, should you go into algebra 2? Should you go into geometry? So, and

131again, those are out there. We can tweak them to make sense for us. But this spring, we need to do an entrance exam. And then that needs to become the norm, right? when when sixth graders at the end of sixth grade or at the end of seventh grade, we're going to need to test and see, are you ready for algebra or are you ready for pre-alggebra? Um, and get them in that right track because that's going to line up. If you if you have to take pre-alggebra in eighth grade, that's fine. But then that AGA sequence that happens in high school, that's only leaving you with your senior year to get a college credit. I think we should get to the point where your junior and senior year for most kids, most of those are

132concurrent enrollment. There's no reason why you should take a junior or senior level high school class that doesn't also give you dual college credit. They're so similar and we can create these pathways. Even if you're not a collegegoing math kid, there's nothing wrong with then taking um you know, college algebra or math for the liberal arts, getting that three credit all create three credit hour college class, even if you go straight into the workforce, that probably is going to look pretty good on your resume and might give you a step above the other kid who's not going to college. If you're both applying for, you know, a job in the trades or an hourly job in customer service, I got a three credit hour math class. I can count change like those things are those

133yeah those things are going to matter. So putting those pathways in place, yes, for the first two years there's going to have to be kind of a little pre-unit to get kids ready and the rest will be scrunched down, >> but they'll also have to be some prerequisite math added at the high school because we have kids who may not be even ready >> for algebra. And so we will need to as we start this this plan also think about potentially a pre-alggebra class at the high school. Kids who are just that deficient on some of those critical skills because we can't put them in in the classroom. So that will make us short. >> Good thing the middle school is right next to the high school. >> Yeah. Well, and a and a good

134example is as Tam and I were talking about today, you take that eighth grade algebra class, that's a high school credit. We can make that to where that's a high school credit. And that's one frees you up to take even yet another higher level math class. The other thing that that we've looked at just to kind of give you an idea of how that would look, so think of next year, the eighth grade math teacher might have five sessions, right? They have seven period day, they teach five. That eighth grade math teacher might just have one algebra class next year and four eighth grade math. Then the next year maybe two algebra and then three or maybe three. We're because depending that this is going to take some time to ramp up because next year

135we're gonna do work to get sixth and seventh graders caught up. But the current seventh graders, we might only have 20 25 of them who pass that algebra um readiness test. So each year the number of sections will grow. And yes, so this next year at the high school we might need pre-alggebra, algebra, and geometry. But hopefully after a couple years, we don't need pre-alggebra anymore at the high school. But until we get these gaps filled, there will be a bit of a a transition. So that's a very good question. >> In that transition time, do you foresee using summer school as a way to kind of help kids who are close to being there but not quite there or haven't mastered all the concepts? >> You could, I mean, you can do summer school,

136you can do before and after school tutoring. We could do intervention in um in the high school. It's not common, but there's a lot of extra ways to kind of double you up so you have the ability to learn more in the same amount of time. >> Um I part of this is I think we're going to have to see how much work we have to do. Like how close are kids? If integrated math was taught really well and kids retained it really well, that unit might be really small. if that alignment they missed chunks of information and again we'll know that data once we look at those placement tests. >> Okay. >> Um once those placement >> so all all high school students will be taking a placement test >> and and middle school.

137Yeah. Because and those placement tests you'll you test math in my opinion in a way where it's also diagnostic. So not only we know you missed this but we know why you missed it. So then we can look at those skills and say, "All right, a majority of these ninth graders who took integrated one all missed, I don't know, this this part of algebra and so and that's a big part of of this class." So we'll do some mini units and stuff like that. But yeah, I think if we feel the need to somehow add extended time, we have that opportunity. >> And that's something that'll happen at the beginning of the school year or >> the placement test? No, that'll happen this spring. >> At the end of this school year. Well, sooner than

138that because we've got to schedule kids now. >> So, I think we'll probably get through CAMASS and go straight into that because I mean, if you ever built like a high school schedule and you got to figure out what math class do I put these 600 kids in, that needs to happen now. Okay. And same thing with the the middle school's a little easier, but yeah. Um, at the middle school for the most part, sixth graders take sixth grade, seventh graders, seventh and eighth. the high school you could have tons of mixed classes. So they need >> but with placement we'll have the opportunity that if there are a lot of kids who are able to do algebra as a seventh grader or eighth grader then we can place them into those absolutely >> classes.

139Yeah, that's great. >> Yeah. And that'll just grow over time. >> Perfect. One good thing about doing, you know, geometry and algebra and algebra 2 in high school and then with a math whatever elective next. Usually, if you're not going into a STEM field, you don't take four years of of math. So, you may take three years of math and then you got a year where you didn't you took no math and then you arrive at college and now you got to take this college algebra course and you remember none of that. And so now you'll finish algebra 2, take your college algebra, and you it won't be like this massive shock to you. >> Yeah. >> Well, and for some of our students who choose to go to college and aren't going in a

140math heavy field, getting that college algebra done in high school, they might not have to take math at the university. Or if they go to community college, all the, hey, my math's done, so if I forget it two years from now, it it's okay. I'm not I I know enough to use for my field. Um so that that math pathway progression I think is is going to be huge bang for our buck. Um the another driver is protecting that instructional time. So ensuring math time is held just as sacred as reading. Um when I was a principal like the whole community know knew like do not check your kid out for a dentist appointment from 8 to 10. That was literacy block. you you were not getting your kid out, do not show up late.

141Like we protected that time. If we want math scores to be the we need to do the same. And so we need to make sure, you know, if for example, and this isn't true, but if, for example, Running Creek was doing an hour of math a day and Singing Hills was doing 50 minutes, that's a problem. So we want to make sure that we have protected that instructional time and that includes access to intervention um at K through8. And then finally, the systemwide capacity, the structure. So, hiring a math coordinator, hiring um the content leads, and when I say hiring, it's really selecting. We're not adding new employees, but selecting content leads at each of the elementarymentaries, department heads at the middle and high. Um adding those math interventionists at the middle and the two

142elementaryaries. That's going to give us a team of about 12 math experts who when we have to make decisions, when we want to talk data, I mean, imagine if I had 12 people I could have met with every week to help build this. Um, we don't have that structure. And so to just tell people we want to change, but we don't change the structure is not going to work. So building more systemwide capacity, using our resources a little more strategically, um, is going to be a huge driver. Um when you look at the next slide, the major strategies and tactics. So we have four strategies and I want to explain a little bit why I built it this way. So strategies to me um these are more long-term. You can say we're going to work

143on this strategy for five years. Some of the tactics, some of the actions are need to be quicker, right? Because we need to be agile. We need to be able to move. So when you look at the four strategies of building that coherent system, establishing those pathways, protecting instructional time and systemwide capacity, those are are strategies that we're going to need to work on for the next five years. What you guys see in the plan is those tactics, the curriculum alignment, um instructional strategies, those types of things. I have those in the plan. You probably saw broke down into a firstear implementation. It really doesn't do any good to build out actions, success criteria, timelines for implementation year two, year three because they're going to change. As we get to next spring, we'll be looking

144at what did we accomplish? Then we'll build year two implementation at the towards the end of year two, we'll build year three. Just doesn't make sense to work on actions three years from now because we could be way further along. We might not be where we need to be and you need to be agile. the strategy should stay the same, right? Those pathways, I am fine saying for the next five years, we're going to work on those pathways. Right now, that's initiating AGA. That's not a year two or year three implementation. That is done this year. Um so, in the plan, you'll see a further breakdown of of those year one um items. And again, it's anything from aligning curriculum like I talked about to um how do we recruit and retain high quality math

145personnel? Um we are at a disadvantage if we don't in some way understand that we might have to pay more for positions that are hard to fill. Right? I mean, in any organization, if I have a hundred people apply for this job and two apply for that, I probably need to do something different. And where our pay scale is, we're already at a disadvantage to some of our larger neighbors. Um, so if I'm a math teacher and I'm really high quality and I got a chance to work here or, you know, somewhere up the hill and there's a $10,000 difference, where are most people going to go? the the culture that we've created here. Um, you know, I think the the value of working in a small community, that's worth something. And I think it's

146worth a lot. It's probably not worth $1,000 a month to people. So, um, we're going to have to do something to recruit and something to retain. And when I say recruit and retain, recruit and retain our high quality people. If we have current teachers who are really high quality, we might need to do something to retain them. And if we want to recruit the best, we might have to look at something creative, whether it's signing bonuses, whether it's um you know um some type of hard to fill stipen, whatever. Um if this is our focus, right, we have the money to to afford to do a couple things really well. We can't do everything well. We don't have the money for that. Um and when I say well, I mean financially. Um, but we can

147definitely prioritize a few things and put some resources to it. Um, if we want to compete and we want to grow. So, um, you'll notice those strategies, like I said, they're anything from things in the classroom to structural things like how we use our resources, um, how we recruit and retain. Um, how we'll measure progress and success. Again, SAT is is that big thing, but we're not going to wait till every summer. So, um, we also will have district benchmarks. Um, I've been looking through what we currently use. You guys have seen Kim come in and make presentations with I Ready. If you looked at the projections that I made for this year, I went through and I correlated I Ready to Cass for 3 through 8. It's a pretty rough correlation for math. It's

148only about a point40. They're positively correlated, which means as one goes up, the other goes up. But a point 4 is not great. Reading's about a 6. So we need to look at whether or not we have the best benchmark. Those are those tests we give fall, winter, and spring. If I need to find out why they're not more highly correlated, it could just be because we're not teaching aligned curriculum. Um it could be that the test is really good. We just aren't teaching the things that are are measured. Um, but we're going to need that data because again, if I say we're going to be at a 500 by spring of next year, I need to know along the way, are we on track? Because if not, again, we need to be agile enough

149to switch. Just like a kid, if a kid is going like this and he needs to go like that, I need more intervention. I've got to increase the time, the intensity of instruction. Um, we'll also look at things like algebra path uh pass rates, um, math pathway completion. How many kids do we have earning college credits in math? And then again, I think we'll want to set some goals for the recruitment and retention of high-quality math teachers, right? I would assume we would want to retain 100% of the math teachers that we find high quality. We want to probably set a goal that 100% of the teachers we recruit in math are high quality. Um, >> we also need a way to measure a high quality. >> Absolutely. Yep. And so those are things when

150you look at well what are we going to what what's that implementation plan going to look like year two year three those are things that after we get this foundation built we can really start to hone in on um and those things will come but we're going to have to measure and these are things where I would expect you as a board to hold me accountable to say where are we at you said this is where we're going to be I'm not waiting till August like we want periodic updates we're putting resources into this we want proof that this is working. So, um measuring that progress. So, again, the implementation roadmap this spring analysis, planning, and creation. I've done the analysis, I've done the planning. Now, um we can spend the rest of the spring

151creating. Um phase two, which is next year, is we start implementing those tactics. So, we implement the year one, I think it's like 12 tactics. And then phase three is monitoring, adjusting, and part of that is implementation plans for year two and year three. Depending on where we're at, let's say we don't hit the mark on instructional strategies. Our PD is still not where it needs to be. That might be a tactic for year two as well where we really dig into actions and you know kind of take that to the next step. But um one of the things as I also want to mention um and I've Dan and I have talked a lot about this in my experience and you'll see at the the bottom the greatest risk factor to this not working

152because I think anytime you do a plan as you do a risk analysis is initiative overload or scope creep right there's a hundred things that we need to do and there's probably a hundred things that you as board members hear about from constituents that we want to do if this is the main thing we as a team have to keep this the main thing and make sure we don't let other things creep into it because if all of a sudden it's like well now we're hearing this needs to get better or now I'm hearing we need to do this my question to you is going to be is that more important than math right you got $100 to spend you're spending 75 on math you got 25 bucks left you choose it wisely because these

153things in most schools never work out because as a team we as the leaders and the board. It's just too hard to stay focused. There's too many other things that, you know, Doug the squirrel, too many other things that that come by and I'm like, "Oo, that's shiny and pretty. Let's let's do that." We are going to, if we want this to work, have to be disciplined and we have to be focused. And I I told Dan, my suggestion is like we do in PD, um, we put up a parking lot on the wall and if someone's like, "Hey, we need to fix this." Great. Let's write that down and when it makes sense and when it's time to re-evaluate what we're going to do, let's do that. But if >> next week all of

154a sudden I'm getting a phone call going, you know, Ted, we've got to fix science. I' I've heard science is a mess. My question is going to be, are we shutting down the math plan? Because if we're putting all these resources into math, I can't also put them into science and social studies and whatever, you know, a new soccer field. I don't care what it is. Like, um, this is what happens in districts. We have competing interests and we all have our pet projects, right? There's things Dan would love to improve. There's things you would love to improve. We as a team >> Yeah. Yeah. You got lucky. He just won the lottery. He won. Yeah, you won the lottery. Um, and it's not that those other things aren't important, but will water down our

155ability. And that is what frustrates staff. That's what frustrates leaders. And it will end up frustrating you because in a couple years from now, you'll be like, "Why didn't we meet the mark?" And the answer you're not going to want to hear is because you asked us to do 15 other things. Um, we can do a few things really well. And the reason why I said this cost you 75 bucks is you got to leave 25 bucks because things will come up. things will come up that we absolutely have to do, but we need to be cognizant constantly of we said this was a really big thing and we really needed to fix it and the data would suggest that we do. We have to stay focused and we have to hold each other accountable

156to like so are we shutting that down because the as you saw in that implementation plan that's a lot of work for staff that's a lot of work for our leaders. It's a lot of work for Dan. Um, a lot of work for me. None of us mind working hard, but there's only so many hours in the day. And nine out of 10 times in my almost 30-year career, these never last because not because the plan isn't good, not because the implementation is poor, but we as adults can't stay focused. Um, there's just too many am I am I wrong, Dan? There's there's so many competing priorities. So, I just want you to hear from me that kind of God's honest truth of this only works if the team stays focused. Um, I think this

157is the right plan. It is about as researchbased as you can get. We will get there if we stick to this. Um, but we have to stay focused. Um, >> now that doesn't mean we stop the things we've done in reading. So, >> correct, that's already rolling. >> We have our reading initiative. We've got our dyslexia therapy. We've got those things. We have some tweaks we're doing to that. um >> it's new initiatives >> focused on instruction and making sure that we get kids in dyslexia therapy that need that level of intensity. Those are things we're going to work on. But so don't hear us say, "Well, we're going to shift off every focus." >> This is secondary main focus. >> Yeah. >> Primary focus continues. >> Yeah, we can do this and everything we've

158already been doing. It's the new initiatives that end up crushing this stuff. Now you get two or three years down the road and we're humming on this. out might only be 50 bucks and it's like hey we can start something else but especially early on it it's incumbent upon us to stay focused. Um so again which goes to the the last slide execution which is where it usually always falls apart. Um and that's because it's doesn't just hinge on a robust plan but the quality of the execution um has to happen and we can't execute when we're doing 8,000 things. It just doesn't work. So, we we've clearly outlined what we're going to do. As you saw with each of those actions, there's ownership, there's timelines, there's success criteria. We will have to monitor those.

159I Dan and I can monitor those internally. I think you guys should monitor those from the board. Um, and then you'll see at the end, again, those break down really the what, the how, the why, the when. If we stick to that, there's absolutely no reason why we can't um, you know, really turn this around. And as Dan was saying earlier, you know, goal is to have the best academic achievement there is. And I think we'll have other places asking how we did it. Um, and then you get to answer because we stay focused. >> So I have a vague question that you know, but I was just thinking as you are sorting through this and helping the teachers to understand how to do the correct scope and sequence basically to meet with the CMS,

160you know, testing and all that stuff. Um I was just it just occurred to me it seems like they would then say you know I could do this for science too or the the other te the science teachers would come up and say you know how does this work and so they might start taking it on even if you >> even if you don't uh you know have this specific plan like that for them would that does that make sense >> absolutely yeah and each time not only with like doing science instead of math but any project once we start showing how you implement well everything we do will start being implemented this >> we will have content collaborators department chairs in science and social studies so it's not as if those departments are going

161to be looking at how do they improve and hearing wow this is working in math let's try to be doing and I want to do this too >> so there there will be things that will improve beyond this >> but district resources have to be >> right oh yeah absolutely >> yeah and that's the big part because then if science comes and goes well can we get a science coordinator and science interventionists and all that too that's where it's like We probably can't afford to do all of that at once, but absolutely that work will happen. The work will happen. We've already started that in in English language arts at the high school because you start at the high school and work your way down. We've already had those opening conversations because literacy is something.

162Again, it's not a big poll because districts are already working on it. Dan already had a ton of stuff already going with Cindy. And so there are other things we can do but when you think of if someone asks you what are you working on this year math >> yeah the science we will have an articulated curriculum before we begin the plan >> before we start because they're going to do that while every other department's doing the same. So that's going to be critical. All that work's going to be happening. District resources time people >> are going to have to be devoted to this plan. Absolutely. our current science team is going to systematically approach their work moving forward, which is going to make a huge difference for them. >> But with our reading interventions

163and with the math interventions, those are going to feed into the science. They're going to improve those and they're going to improve the ELA and and writing and all those things. I mean, they're going to improve by focusing on these two basic skills >> that we absolutely >> Well, absolutely. Because if you can't read, you're probably not accessing social studies really well. And I we've science teachers have said I have to spend a little bit of time remediating math >> that they're going to need for this science experiment. So yes that will rise all ships. >> I can tell you as an engineer that you absolutely if we can improve reading comprehension >> and we improve math science will go up. >> Absolutely. >> It just it can't not go up. I mean Yeah. >>

164Yeah. So, this is exciting. This is where we need to be. >> Yeah. So, again, the last one from STR the philosophy and I've um shared this a little bit with the curriculum board committee is that genius of and right you get in a lot of arguments. Well, is it you know is it fact fluency or is it problem solving? It's both. So, our philosophy has to be that we develop a conceptual understanding in addition to procedural fluency. Right? you don't know your multiplication facts, you're going to use all your cognition trying to figure out multiplication and not you're going to be tired by the time it's time to solve the problem. So, um you know, yes, we're going to have to set kids down directly, instruct, model, teach them, give them the chance to

165practice, then problem solve. Like it we're not necessarily changing the outcomes of what we're doing. We're changing the order because the way we've been doing it in some of our classrooms, it's just not researchbased. The research is very clear. You teach, you practice, then you let them go. It's that gradual release. You guys have probably heard I do, we do, you do. Um, so we're flipping that back a little bit to what's worked for years. Um, so my comm >> years, you're talking like, you know, millennia. >> Yeah. Yeah. Years could be hundreds of years. Um, so my commitment to you is that we'll build that K12 coherent system. We'll develop deep understanding and strong computational skills. And again, that long-term goal is that 560 overall SAT with 75% of our kids being college ready

166by 2031. Um, again, I that's have borders on an unrealistic goal just because nobody's doing it, but I think we can and I absolutely know our kids um deserve us to shoot for that. So, >> and I just want to assure the board that dead has present I mean this is more fleshed out than he presented obviously to the curriculum review committee but the last couple of meetings at least um this has all been presented to the curriculum uh review committee and at the last meeting the CRC did indeed approve this being forwarded to the board and it was a it was a unanimous vote to to forward it to us for approval and acceptance. So it's uh CRC is >> has been followed. >> Yes. Yes. Exactly. >> So any questions, comments, concerns, anything

167you're afraid we're missing, any worries? >> I'm excited. >> Just to say thank you. This is exciting to see that there's a plan for success. >> Yes. >> And we're glad you love it. >> I'm telling you, it's going to be fun work. >> All right. Thank you. >> Your passion. Thank you. >> Yes. >> I'm excited. I'm impressed. I would like to once y'all start with the curriculum alignment. I'd like to just kind of know how that's going. >> Definitely. >> It seems like that's the the most important step. It's like I mean if you have to know 50 things and you're only teaching 25 of them like >> yeah that that what the researchers would call the guaranteed viable person. is by far the number that's indicated efficiency. It's why it's the first

168>> here's what I love. We just spent about 45 minutes talking about learning. >> Yes. >> Unfortunately, I think we need to do that more. So, >> I think so, too. >> I think that's we just want to celebrate that >> like the point of being a school, right? So, we're moving on to action items and we're going to we're going to um switch the order a little bit because um we have someone who's been waiting to present and we don't want to make you wait any longer. >> So, we're going to we're going to look at um action items 10.8 and 10.9. So, um the first one 10.8 is um approval of community schoolyard grants program. So, um, say with that, I'm going to go ahead and kick it off with I move that

169the board approved the application for the community schoolyards grant program. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Okay. And, uh, discussion. We're going to let you elaborate on >> just give a quick overview and then you can ask any questions you have. So, this is a new grant program Dola has. It'll probably just be a one-time grant program. They were saying um they have about $3 million total set aside for this and it's specific to a school district can apply in collaboration with either town or EPR for in our case it's going to be EPR. They actually approached us at the same time we reached out to them about this and it's going to be at Running Creek. Um you've all visited Running Creek at some time or another, I'm sure. So you're aware

170of the playground's not in great shape. The preschool playground got redone with a previous grant. So that's looking great, but the K5 one is very old. Um, and then we have that lower field. We have these stairs going down to that lower field which are completely nonADA accessible. And um the idea will be to redo the not only the upper playground but then also make an ADA accessible path to go down to the lower field recede you know make a nice open area where where you can have PE outside of field day and all those activities they like to have there. Um and also create an access to the path the town trail that goes right alongside there. And then the plague there will an agreement will be in place where the EPR will be

171in charge of the upkeep um off the of that whole area meaning you know mowing and any landscaping that needs to be done. Um and outside of school hours and during breaks the community can just use the playground and the park um as they would like but during the school day it's obviously reserved for for the school. Um and there is a um 25% match requirement and we will split that with EPR and the Running Creek um PTCO is also willing to fund raise towards that as well. So um kind of and the whole grant runs until 2029. So we have time and you know Justin and I talked about the spreading out our piece of the match and by doing that it's very doable. Um since it doesn't have to be all spent in

172in the first year. Um it'll be a kind of a communitydriven process in terms of the design. We want to make sure that everybody you know Running Creek families have a chance to give their input of what they would like. But some of the things the staff there has already mentioned and that also the grant is looking for is outdoor classroom space >> which is also going to be great um climate wise because when it's really hot inside Colorado climate in the shade outside is still pleasant. So then the kids can you know have that as an option to get out of the hot classrooms during those times. And they would also like to have a space where they can eat lunch outside um since the cafeteria sometimes gets very crowded. So that would be

173some shaded outdoor classroom spaces would will definitely be something that we will want to include there too. >> So that's kind of the over the broad overview for that for this one. >> So is that 3 million all available to us or is that among other >> 850,000 is the max we can apply for and then plus the match. um there's a chance that they might lower the you know if if we were to get awarded it could be that they say you know we just give you 500,000 or or you know depending on how many other projects apply um and are eligible. So don't just at this point we don't know who else is all applying and >> um but we met with Todd from Dola and he felt very confident that this is

174a very good fit our project. We'll see. >> I think it's great. >> So, just to clarify because I was looking at one of the documents I think from the metro district um that said that the estimated cost of the project was around a million, >> right? >> And then the grant funding hoping for the 850, >> right? >> And then but it but it has the balance being 250. >> So 250 is the match that we're splitting. Okay. between. >> So it'll be a little bit over a million dollar project or >> well oh if they if we get 850 >> okay yeah >> okay and then I had a question I was looking at um let's see the community use agreement >> and the question I had at at the end uh for

175the term and the termination under termination it talked about that either party can terminate the agreement for convenience upon providing at least one year's written notice. But it does say any termination shall not relieve the school district of its obligation to maintain the schoolyard as a public resource for the duration of the required time in the DOA grant agreement which it seems like is it a period of 10 years or do you know what that agreement? Okay. And that's just let's say if we were to say um we're just now selling the whole playground to some developer or something like actually get rid of the land then we would have to pay a portion back to Dola. >> I see. >> So we would have to just keep it going as a you know >>

176as Yes, I see that. But my question actually where where I just wanted to clarify that I understood that correctly was it was saying any termination shall not relieve the school district of its obligation to maintain that schoolyard as a public resource. And I was just looking, you know, kind of above at what like the responsibilities are of the metro district, right? And you talked about maintenance being a huge aspect of yes that in the long run. If there was some reason that the the district had to well decided to terminate um would all of their then responsibilities fall to us? >> Well, in in that paragraph they maintain is more about it has to be available as a community schoolyard. So meaning it just has to be open for that purpose. Now if the

177grass isn't getting mowed for a few months because EPR decided they want it out of this piece of the of that service that me that that's not the maintain in that piece. That just means it's going to have to still you know the gate is going to have to be open that the public can >> we can't lock it out. We can't. >> Well, I guess and my point is just if that were to happen, if things were to terminate and then all of a sudden we had all of the responsibilities of the district upon us, is that something that we could handle? >> I mean, we would have the responsibility because it's our property. I mean, I know currently we have at Running Creek they the PTCO usually ends up mowing it that lower

178field, you know, just because they they like to use it for field day. So, they have the PTC. Do you don't think that the maintenance of it would be that costly of a burden or something beyond? >> So the the big maintenance on these items are annual replenishment of materials i.e. mulch, sand, rock. So let's say there's a 100 ton that go into this project. Every year five ton need to go back in from natural erosion. Um, in addition to this, there's drainage that goes through that. The drainage has to be maintained and then eventually the wood will just deteriorate. So the woods that we're looking at, the ponderosas, Douglas spurs are a 10 to 20 year lifespan before that wood needs to be replaced. So then we would be responsible for sealing it, maintaining

179it and then eventually disposing and replacing it once the wood deteriorates. So the ongoing monthly costs or annual costs are very very minimal that the district would absolutely absor >> well what I'm talking about is like what's laid out in the contract the long-term maintenance as I think you were discussing the this these are things that the responsibility of the district or not this not the school district but the um EPR um the security the operation of the schoolyard during the non-school hours and um trash removal groundskeeping which would include the mowing but snow removal as well and safety inspections for community use. So just that being the question is okay if hopefully that won't happen with EPR but as an attorney I always have to look at what is the worst case scenario and

180then could the school district continue to do it. Um is that something that we could >> do? Okay. All right. Any further discussions? Okay. Okay. So, with that, can I get a roll call? >> Director Callahan, >> I. >> Dr. Fletcher, >> I. >> Dr. Hunt, >> I. >> Dr. Olsen, >> hi. >> Okay. And next up, we have approval of school health professionals grant. So, I motion um that the board move, excuse me, I move that the board approve the application for the school health professionals grant. >> Can I get a second? Second >> and discussion. >> So this one is a grant that comes up every about every three years. Um and it's open right now for application and in discussion with Dan and Len from special services. Um it became evident that

181this would be a good opportunity for us to increase our licensed nursing staff um for the district because there is really a strong need at the middle school to have like a full-time licensed nurse there. Um so that would be the purpose of it. If we can also include funding for professional development, not just for that one staff member that's funded through here, but for all of our um health services provided in the district, all our even the counselors, the psychologists, social workers, all of that staff can receive professional development through those grants. So we can look at that as well. And then I know there's also been discussion for um like anti-bullying. I know legacy uses um capturing kids hearts. So I don't know if that's something that you know the district would want

182to look into something like that for the middle school. Um obviously that would be a discussion once if we if we were to receive the the grant then what exactly that would look like. >> So the money is we we have the ability of >> changing. So in the application we would just say you know something like this um as an anti-bullying curriculum or um and then to be determined you know >> as hard as an >> it's actually not many many people say it is but yeah I mean it's a program we want to look at make sure you're comfortable with this but again I think I think the nurse is the key this is this is a massive amount of Yeah, >> the nurse and the professional development. And then if down the

183road we thought gosh we do need some type of prevention program or some type of a a program we could look for that time. That would be curriculum and therefore I would say curriculum would be >> right then look at that and see. >> So our focus would be on nursing staff and professional development. We wouldn't be increasing the number of psychologists because we don't do that kind of transformation. >> Yeah. We we actually right now we've looked at the number of psychologists. we are over assessing students. Every child is getting a psychological exam when they're special tested. That's not required. One is really looking at how do we get that under control. So, so I don't know that we need psychologist staff and I think that's something >> well and and one of the

184reasons the the nurse at the middle school would be a great addition as well is they have they have athletics but they don't have a trainer or so when it comes to uh concussion protocols and all of that. They really don't have anybody there that is is qualified. >> So that's why that that position was kind of the one that >> we honed in on. And I I would be completely comfortable with with this if that's our focus. >> Yes. Yes. Yeah. That would be the salary and benefits for the nurse is the you know >> is the main focus. >> I'm good with a nurse but you know more list those others. >> Okay. >> So any any further discussion? >> I was just going to ask how how much is this grant? So,

185it's a three-year grant >> and it's, you know, I mean, we can ask for up to $500,000, but obviously that >> that would be a lot of nurses. >> A nurse with a nurse with benefits is going to be >> I'm going to apply for that. So, I think it would probably be over $100,00 I mean, you were able to get that, but I mean that kind of professional development for our staff. >> Yes, exactly. That would be something. Yeah. >> So, we'll probably I mean I would I would recommend that we put a good amount in there for professional development because you know it this can extend yes to the security department. Um there is it would be great to have every single person in the in the district, every staff member trained for,

186you know, trauma-informed care so they know how to respond to a student that's has some behavior incident instead of, you know, so um so there's there's there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of opportunity for professional development that we currently don't have funding for. So >> yep. And then it can also whatever professional development we decide on the first year then when you apply for year two you can you know you can change if you want something different then yeah >> so you apply each of the >> so you you get the grant awarded for all three years but then you kind of do a it's a continuation application for year two and year three and you you again you kind of build a new budget. you say, "Okay, obviously you're keeping your

187nurse on staff, but then you know, you're probably changing some of the other programming you're doing." >> So, okay. Any further discussion? All right. So, with that, can I get a roll call? >> Director Callahan. >> Hi. >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> Hi. >> Director Pal. >> Hi. >> All right. Well, thank you for sticking around and thank you for all your hard work. So, we we have our attorney standing by for an executive session. Um I I don't know on these policies. Um many of these are first readings. So, >> um they're not policies. I think there's one or two that we could adopt. So, just looking at time, I want to make sure we don't miss our window attorney for that executive session. That's

188important. So, >> okay. Um well, I think we can I think we can get to these pretty Is there a first reading? >> I just felt like if we if we took it with that approach, I think >> and you're welcome to email any changes that way I have them for the second reading. Happy to correct them in between. >> Thank you, J. >> Okay. So, with that, um we've got uh item 10.1, which is our 2026 2027 board of education meeting schedule. I move that the board approve the um board of education meeting schedule for the 2627 uh year as presented >> academic year. >> Okay. >> Second. >> Okay. And any discussion on that? >> Um the only question I had was the one working session that we're doing on a off week.

189Um I sometimes have conflicts with that first Tuesday of the month. I know in last month in February when we had to change the day, we moved it to a Wednesday rather than um moving it to a Monday. I don't know if that's a possibility. If not, I just might have a conflict. Okay. >> On that that particular day. >> And when we get closer to that, we can we can decide if we want to just >> res. I know it's a working session, so >> Yeah. Okay. >> All right. >> Any further discussion? All right. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Callahan. >> Hi. >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> Hi. >> Director Pal. >> Hi. >> Okay. Next up, we have action item

19010.2. Our first reading of revised policy GBG staff paid leave. I move that the board approve the first reading of revised policy GB GGGG's staff paid. >> Any discussion on this one? So just to be clear, this is shifting the responsibility of the only person authorized to approve a staff member going into unpaid leave is the superintendent. We we really want to make it very clear that you have a certain number of discretionary days. If you get to the point where you're saying, "Oh, just dock me." >> We no longer have our eyes on our plan. We now have teachers saying, "No, I'll just be done." No, that's not a permit. It's got to be rare and unusual. It's got to be, you know, a critical situation. I'd rather have the yard stick of I'll

191be the one to ensure that it's always consistent. So, we we've asked to change that. That's something that we've talked um with um TAC about and and I think they're they're very open to let's be consistent because we are concerned that sometimes we had a staff member in January that had already exceeded her read time and had been on dock leave for a week and a half and so that's not acceptable if if you can't come to work resign we'll find someone who will and so we really felt like that led us to say we got a policy. >> Well, don't teachers have short-term disability. >> They do, but it wasn't it wasn't something that would have activated that. >> Yeah. It it this this just allows us to be very consistent that if you

192if you are out of lead, you're going to have to call me and make a make a case >> and then I may direct you know, you must be at work and then if you're not, then you're insulting. So, >> I like it. Otherwise, it's just like not showing up for work and showing up a week later going, "Hey, I'm here." >> Yeah. >> I was thinking that um I don't know if we can I I also see that you and we talked about last time I think at the working session uh in the on page four and five and and I see that those changes were made for sick the word sick change it to discretionary because they're different. So, I see those changes were made and I'm wondering if we could just finalize

193this one. Personally, >> it could be first. Yeah, it could be first official. We've looked at it once. It wasn't an official because it was over session. Yeah. >> So, we could do first and final, >> but >> do you want to amend the motion? >> Does everybody Well, I guess we can vote on that. >> So, I move to amend the motion to make this a first and final reading of uh GBG. >> Okay. Second. >> All right. Can I get a roll call? >> Dr. Kellyan. Hi, >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi, >> Director Hunt. >> Hi, >> Director Olsen. >> Hi, >> Director Pal. >> Hi, >> John. >> Might as well get one check mark off today. >> I think everything was handled that we talked about last time. >> So, next

194up, we have our um first reading of revised policy, EGA, EA, electronic communication. And I move that the board approve the first reading of revised policy EGAEA electronic communication. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> All of the policies that we're about to look at are from our policy audit that was done by Casby and we have a list of policies that have to be updated. This simply adds the requirement that anything sent over electronic communications must be preserved. Um, so it's really just ensuring that we don't have people that are just trying to get rid of their emails because they don't want someone else to get them. We have a requirement and a duty to the public to preserve because of course. So that's all that's added to this policy. It's pretty basic.

195I'd say unless you have concerns, it could be brought back on consent and approved at the next meeting. >> I thought the FBI told us that we could just delete it wherever we wanted. That's what they do. >> Bleach bleach. What do you mean? Okay. >> Sorry. Sorry. I mean, I just tried to, you know, keep up with the policies. >> So, can I with that? Can I get a roll call? >> Director Callahan. >> Hi, >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi, >> Director H. >> Hi, >> Director Olsen. >> Hi, >> Director Pal. >> Hi. >> Okay, now I got the giggles. >> We have attorneys waiting. All right. So, um, next up, 10.4, our first reading of revised policy GCO, evaluation of licensed person. I move that the board approve the first reading of

196revised policy GCO. >> You got the evaluation of licensed personnel. I'm sorry, we're getting delirious. It's late. >> Can I get a second? So, second. >> Okay. >> So, this particular policy, um, Mary had a good question. I'll go ahead and publicly let everyone know. The license personnel, these changes are from the CASBY policy to ensure that we're complying with all of the legal requirements. Licensed personnel includes anyone that has a CDE license. Not every licensed personnel has tenure, the non-probationary probationary status. Teachers do, and that's because of the Teacher Employment Compensation and Dismissal Act, TETA. It's a law. Um, but there are licensed personnel, psychologists, social workers, counselors, administrators who don't have probation. So, every other licensed employee except those required by contractor law are at will. And that's what this is just clarifying.

197Yeah. >> Um, in that segment. So, >> yeah. And I um I like Dan said, I did ask him about this earlier and I um you know, first reading I think is great, but I would like to see an insert maybe of some kind to define what you just said basically. Okay. That you know, the licensed personnel does not include the people under that tech tech thing. >> Tech. >> Yeah. >> Um >> for which tech applies. >> Yeah. For which something like that. So that uh and that those are the teachers who you know have a contract provision otherwise. So um I I just think that would be good for >> our board for you know HR people are going to fully understand this but for us to understand it fully I think it's

198just better to qualify that a little bit better. So >> the last segment that's added here is simply what we already do. we report to the state department of education um the employee evaluation final performance ratings by October. So it's just clarifying that policy that that's what we've always done. It's required by state reporting rules. So it's just adding that policy. Cool. >> Okay. One little comment. You'll notice a lot of these policies look very similar across districts because they are all advocates. >> Yeah. So >> there you go. >> Colorado Association of School Boards. Okay. So, um, with that, any further discussion or roll call? Okay. Can I get a roll call? >> I say Mary, you were the second on this one. >> Um, I think so. >> She was. >> What did

199I write? >> Sorry. Director Kellingham, >> hi. >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi, >> Director Hunt. >> Hi, >> Director Olsen. >> Hi, >> Dr. P. >> Hi. Okay. So, next up we have 10.5, our first reading of revised policy JFBB, Interdist Choice Open Enrollment. I move that the board approve the first reading of revised policy JFBB interdist choice open enrollment. >> Second. >> This particular really has just minor edits um where we used to use the word admission. It's open enrollment. Open enrollment is when anyone from outside the district wants to come to go through a process. Um we have a right to consider whether we have space and things like that. So it's really technical updates. Um there is um some family composition, ancestry, all of those things that we've seen in other policies

200that have had to be added. And then special education had some technical edits. It used to be that if a child had special education needs um and they required significant support needs and they live in a different district, we would be able to say no. We can't deny a child's open enrollment application. However, once we know they have an IED, we can then consider is serving that child a burden to the district and if so, we can then unenroll them and say parent, you're going to need to go back to your home district. So, it just changes the process. It used to be charter schools used to ask do you have an IEP and then they deny enrollment. >> Um that's they they've changed the law to say you can't ask that. Once you know

201they're special ed you can convene an IEP meeting to say can you meet their needs and if you can't then you can through an IEP process say no you should go back to your own school that is required to meet your needs. So um that's the technical change in the special education section. Well, thank you for explaining that because that was one question I had because I was looking and it seemed like, well, if you're they're already admitted, aren't they? >> The accusation was to charter schools who would ask, "Do you have an ID?" And the minute you said yes, they'd say, "Oh, sorry, we don't have room." >> Um, and so that law changed to to make sure that you weren't just denied because you were disabled, but that you really considered what services

202do you need and can I provide them before you determine if you choose not to serve that student. >> There is some updating of statute as well. Um, and adding the AC policy as a cross reference which is a non-discrimination policy. So I think they're pretty minor edits. Um I would recommend again we probably put on consent unless there's anything in particular you want. >> I just have a little bit of nitpicky on wording in the transportation thing. So, I don't know what you think about this, but the way it's currently worded with the change from will to must, and I think it even, you know, kind of implied this otherwise, it's transportation must be furnished um by the parents uh to a designated stop. I get that within the district. Um but it's almost

203like the parents are being forced to have to get busing once you get to a stop. Here's here's the reason. Um the law changed that our buses are not permitted to leave our district. >> And I get that. I get that. I'm just saying that it seems like it's saying >> I mean it's almost saying if a parent wanted to drive their kid all the way to school, they couldn't. >> Yeah. Oh, they they if they want transportation. So maybe should be clarified. >> Yeah. If we want >> if you wish a parent that's what I >> So you have to come to the nearest stop right in the district. >> That makes total sense. Yeah. But maybe if we can just say >> we'll work on CL. >> So >> yeah, I get that.

204>> We're not forcing you into it if you don't want it. >> See what you're saying. >> So yes, perfect. >> Okay. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Kelly. >> Hi. >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> Hi. >> Director Pal. >> Hi. >> Okay. Next up, our first reading of revised regulation JFBB-R, Interdist Choice Open Enrollment. I move that the board approve the first reading of revised regulation JFBB-R interd district choice open enrollment. >> Second. >> So this is the regulation for the policy you just looked at. Again, it changes admission to open enrollment. There's a couple that have double open enrollment. We'll have to look at that >> and I've already corrected it. I got it, but it wasn't on. >> Um and so again, there's just some technical

205edits. Um none of them concern me. Um, this might be one we want to bring back because there are so many edits is to have a public discussion so you have a chance to review it and then we can make any suggested changes unless you want to email them to Jamie in advance which would be great. >> I did have one thing again on the the appeal procedure on page four. So it says um that if there's open enrollment is denied appeal by contacting the superintendent is what it says. Then it says the principal sh submit the reason for denial and the parent request to the administrator considering the appeal. The administrator will review the parent guardian and then if if um then the superintendent will review the decision of the administrator. So I think

206there's a lot of too there's one too many administration >> superintendent or design is probably what should be there because if in a large district the superintendent is not going to take the responsibility reviewing open enrollment applications that were denied there'll be somebody he assigns or she assigns >> right >> um so I think we can clarify that language because >> so just it seems like the administrator is a is an interim level between superintendent like a not just a >> I designated someone but >> yeah but that's >> so anyway just a little clarity on that I think would be Okay. >> Thank you, Mary. >> Can I get a roll call? >> Director Callahan. >> Hi. >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> I. >> Director

207Pal. >> Hi. >> And our last one is not a motion, just a review. It's a review of policy BEAA, electronic participation in schoolboard meetings. >> Yeah. Didn't see any real changes in it. I thought Just have to update every now and then. >> Mhm. >> Practice if you have changes that >> see how this is >> really is exactly what we've been doing. >> Yeah. It's just the revised the review. Okay. >> Okay. Did Did we have a motion then a >> No, it's just a review. Well, I would motion for the review and then it just means it's final because I'll put that at the top. It could have been under consent, but I didn't. >> Okay. Okay. So, I motion that we approve um the review of BEAA, electronic participation in schoolboard

208meetings. >> Second. >> Okay. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Callahan. >> Hi. >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> Hi. Director, >> can we go back and >> vote on the amended policy for GBGG? I don't know that we've always done it correctly. >> So, I just want to make >> amended >> because we didn't ever do the final vote on the original motion, but maybe we should. >> You voted yes to a motion. >> Oh, oh. Okay. >> Back me up on this, director. Good catch, but she cut it and I think we've always done it that way out of habit and not really known. So, thank you. >> But if we don't vote on it, just table. >> My worry since it's a

209staffing policies technically not in effect. >> Okay. >> So, the original motion, >> no, the new amended motion, >> you would read Barry's amended motion and ask for a vote on it. And I think that's what we actually voted on. >> I thought we did, but maybe I didn't. >> Um, so, >> um, I move to accept, uh, let me see here. Um, Mary's motion for a first and final reading of revised policy GBG staff pages. >> so we need a second. Second. >> Okay. Can I get a roll call? Who seconded? >> Good job, everybody. >> Sorry, when I look down, I don't always um Okay, director Callahan. >> Hi, >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi, >> Director Hunt. >> Hi, >> Director Olsen. >> Hi, >> Director Pal. >> Hi. >> Okay, thank you

210for the save. >> All right, >> I think I've always done it that way and it's obviously not >> okay. >> Y >> All right, so um with that, um next up is um we're going into executive session. So, I move that the board go into executive session under Colorado Revised Statute 24-6-424B, conferences with an attorney for the purpose of receiving legal advice on specific legal questions involving current litigation. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> All right. Can I get a roll call? >> Director Callahan. >> Hi. >> Director Fletcher. >> Hi. >> Director Hunt. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> Hi. >> Director Pal. >> Hi. And for those watching at home, um there will be no action after this executive session. We will come back in and gavvel it closed. Um

211but just for those watching so that you're not sitting there thinking there's more action coming, um there's no action planned after this executive session. session. >> Okay, we are back from executive session. It is 10:18 p.m. and I adjourn this meeting.