001May 25th, 2025. And I call this Elizabeth School District business session to order at 6:00 p.m. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan here. Director Fletcher here. Director Olsen here. Director Powell here. And Director Waller here. Okay, let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Um, I move to amend the agenda and remove Jason Robinson's non-renew renewal letter from consent items and table it until our next meeting. Second. Can I ask for potential? Can you remove all separation? Can you just remove 9.3 completely then? We can. I think we should. Okay. Yeah. Instead of cherry picking, I think we should remove them all. Okay.
002All right. So, are you okay with that, David? Sounds like she's okay with removing 9.3. Do we need a motion? 9.3. Brad, can you just restate your Sure. Withdraw. Thank you. Okay. I withdraw my original amendment request and I move to agend amend the agenda to remove item 9.3 from our consent agenda. and table it for the next meeting. Second. Any discussion? I don't agree with it. That's my discussion. Okay. I originally was thinking the same thing, but I have I have reason to think that we should just proceed with it at this point. So I that's that's my discussion. Okay. So I guess at this point um if there's no further discussion going to get a roll call. Okay. Director Callahan I. Director Fletcher. Hi. Director Olsen. I. Director Pal. Nay. Director Waller. Nay.
003Okay. So the motion to amend the agenda and remove uh item 9.3 has been approved. Okay. So next up we have um executive session. Please amend script the agenda as amended. Okay. So another motion please. Oh okay. I move to approve the agenda the amended agenda as presented. Second. Yeah. Yeah. And roll call. Director Callahan. Hi. Director Fletcher. Hi. Olsson. Hi. Director Powell. Hi. Director Waller. Hi. Okay. Motion approved. Thanks, Brad. All right. Um, our first item on the agenda is executive session 5.1. I move to enter executive session for Colorado Revised Statute 24-6-424B regarding current legal cases with the districtes with an attorney for the purpose of receiving legal advice on specific legal questions and Colorado Revised Statute 24-6-424E regarding independence classical It's pretty. It's okay. I got it. Okay, we ready? All right.
004Next up, I move to approve the minutes from the April 7th and April 15th meetings as presented. Second. Any discussion? Okay. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi. Director Fletcher. Hi. Director Olsen. Hi. Director Pal. I. Director Waller. Hi. Okay. Motion approved. Uh, next up we have communication. First up, board member reports. I just wanted to say that I went to the awards banquet uh the awards ceremony I guess it wasn't really a banquet and so did David and um it was it was very nice we last time we talked about the stars awards so that was cool this one was academic awards there was a bunch of scholarships issued that were amazing and a bunch of department awards and all the four levels in high school of honor role and they were
005all recognized and so it was a it was a wonderful night to see all of those kids being um being celebrated. So, just wanted to mention that and looking forward to the graduation that's coming up here in a couple weeks. Yes. Yes. Going to be able to make that one. Yes. Family issues have come up. So, Oh. Um, okay. Anybody else have anything they want to talk about? Oh. Okay. All right. You're up, Dan. Okay. Um, first I want to draw your attention, board members, to the class size report. It's in your packet. Um, this is your policy. Um, IIB-R1 requires that this be provided to you twice a year. It outlines class sizes. It outlines the ratio across all of our schools. Um, I won't go into any specific detail on it. It does
006outline specific classes and what class sizes are. Our class sizes are actually quite sweet and 95% of our classrooms. So, um, even at the high school, our our class sizes are very low. So, um, again, that's being provided to you according to your policy. So, if you have any questions on that, please let me know. Do want to let you know, we had a great job fair on Saturday. Kim Moore led that for me. I was at my daughter's baby shower. Um, we had, I think we ended up with potentially six new employees, uh, teachers from that job fair event. Um, and so really appreciate all of our administrators who gave up their Saturday morning to do that pump fair. And then graduation, uh, you mentioned already, Saturday, May 24th at 10 a.m. um, at
007the high school. We're excited and look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible. So, I'll stop there. I know we've got a long agenda tonight. So, next up, we have public comment. Okay, first up we have Nancy Well. Um, yeah, you just push the button and the light comes on. Hold it down. Hold it down until it comes see numbers. Still not. So, my name is Nancy Wizwell. Hold the button down on that mic until you see numbers down here or up. No, down below. Do you see? I see numbers. Okay. All right. Sorry. So, my name is Nancy Wizwell and I've been a resident of Elbert County for 45 years. When I came here in 1980 with my family, there were no charter schools. There was no school choice. Independent Classical
008Academy is an excellent option for school choice in Elbert County and the surrounding areas that will offer a classical tuitionfree charter school in in our area. I am here to ask you to approve an extension to a to continue operating. The school needs more time to locate a good facility that will be sufficient for their educational needs. There are many families that have signed up to put their students in this excellent school offering back to basics curriculum. A will include teaching virtues including respect, responsibility, citizenship, self-control, integrity, cooperation, and perseverance, which supports values that parents teach at home and that I would want support for my my kids. This is just the type of school that I would have wanted to put my children in for their education and actually I would love to have
009my grandchildren here. This is um I cannot imagine the disappointment of the parents who have signed up for their kids. They say they are upset about their school choice not opening this year and I know I would be too. Their new headmaster, Mrs. Turner has everything ready to go for this next school year except for the facility. They just need more time to find the right one. Please approve the one-year extension for a to start up next fall and give them the chance to offer an excellent school choice for those students who have enrolled. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Lisa Beach. Yeah, give me just a minute. It doesn't like my distance. Apple Watch. Apple phone. Hold on. It's okay. Just watch me struggle. Okay, go ahead. Okay, I wanted to address
010the situation that unfolded last week with a newly hired principal at Running Creek Elementary. I do have a child that attends there. We saw the community turn on the candidate based on rumors and what they have dug up online. In the past few years, members of the board have supported and modeled hateful behavior towards people that do not fit the demographics of the majority of your voters. We have seen that in the selection of books you choose to ban, in how you talked about the content of books in board meetings, in book reviews, your emails, district-wide newsletters, and press interviews. We have also witnessed the support of bullying by how you either participated in or stood by while board members spread outright lies and misinformation about community members using their first and last names only
011to promote an attitude of hate against them. This has shown people that it's okay to behave in this manner as you are role models for our community. We have heard you refer to certain lifestyles as not belonging in any school, not wanting it out there at all, and as evil trans ideology. If you want our community to show respect to others, you have to be the ones modeling the behavior you wish to see. I don't know how anyone is surprised with what happened last week with a culture you actively promote. I would also like to encourage a no vote on ICA's extension tonight. We have seen that our community is not interested in this particular charter and that the district cannot afford the expenses it would take to get it up and running. I encourage
012you to revisit this when we have enrollment numbers that support the need of another school. Financially, it does not make sense. Not now or next year. We're supposed to be building our reserves right now, not taking away from them. only $300,000 is not the buffer we need for this amount of financial risk. As the woman before me spoke, the citizenship features that she discussed that an a classical school would teach, my kids have gotten for many, many years in Elizabeth school district by every single teacher in this district. That is nothing different than what we currently offer. Thank you. Okay, next up, Maggie Weatherbe. Are we going? Where's that? Okay. I'm going to talk about common sense because it's something we don't have in common in this world today. The pamphlet common sense was written
013by Thomas Payne and published in January of 1776. Payne wrote very persuasively about American independence. To him, it was simply common sense that the colonies strive for their independence. In our most recent schoolboard election and selection of a new superintendent, most Elizabeth residents voted for candidates that would bring back positive values and common sense to our school district. It just makes common sense to remove offensive books from school libraries. It just makes common sense to restrict the use of cell phones in our classrooms. And it also just makes sense to ensure that we have many educational choices for parents and students to choose from. The most recent addition being the Independence Classical Academy. And that just makes common sense to add classical education to our list of educational offerings in the Elizabeth School District. So,
014I would respectfully ask this board to vote for the extension for Independence Classical Academy and its opening in August of 2026. And per perhaps we should write our own 47page pamphlet explaining the benefits of a classical education. And one of us could be another Thomas Payne. Who knows? Thank you very much. Next up, we have Katie Kurico. Hopefully I pronounced that okay. Hi, I'm Katie. I emailed you all today. So now you got to put a a face to a name. Um I just wanted to share my heart with you. I am a mother of four kids. Um, I have two boys that have already graduated from high school, both from completely different, um, schools. Um, and I have a daughter at Elizabeth High School. And then my youngest is a fourth grader who I
015am homeschooling this year. She did her first three years at Running Creek. And gradually things just got worse and worse for her. And sadly um I just saw a lot of um kids who are really struggling and um have a lot of pain in their lives and it made it um just not a safe place for my daughter to be there and I had to pull her out. That's what a mother does. Um so this year has been hard because I am working and I am homeschooling and I really was looking forward to a new option. I was really looking forward to independence um opening up in the fall and I was very disappointed when that didn't work out. Um but I I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and um
016so we are looking for other options. Um and that's what I love. I love that we have options that we have the ability to choose whether it's public school or a charter school or private school. And um so my encouragement to you is that yes, there are parents that do want a classical education for their kids. That is very much the type of education we have been homeschooling my daughter with this year. And I would like for that to continue. And I know that it's such a big deal in the homeschool community to do a classical education. And honestly, parents when their kids get to high school, they're like, "Oh my gosh, I can't possibly homeschool my kid through high school. It's very intimidating." So, if we had a school here that was already a
017classical education, I bet you all of those homeschool parents are like, "That's where we're going to send our kids. That's what they're used to and that would um just be a natural fit for them." So, no script here. Just speaking from the heart. Please, please. Um, there are families that that really need another option. Um, I don't want to drive to Douglas County. I don't have the time to do that. I I need something that's here in Elizabeth that um can offer that. So, thanks. Thank you. Next up, Jason Gekk. Geek. Geek. Okay. I'm sorry. Uh, good evening. I um I'm a resident of of Elizabeth. U I'm having kids that are growing up in this community. Uh been in Elbert County most of my life and I have a a high schooler that just
018completed Longmont High School. Uh, I was so excited to hear that Elizabeth was going to be banning cell phones in the high school. I thought that was going to be the best thing from our kids. Um, I don't know one parent of any teenager that says, "Boy, I wish my kid had more time available on their cell phone." That that doesn't happen. It's very clear. We've run this experiment for a long time. We know that these things are designed to be addictive and that's that's what they um call their clients is users. They're they're users of their product because that's what they're designed to do is to get their kids to or get their clients or get their users to focus only on that screen. And us as adults, we should be able to recognize
019bad things for our kids and protect them as best as we can from it. in the uh Boulder County, they're they're implementing a similar program. Cell phone ban uh bellto bell. I know it's not going to be popular with the kids, but sometimes we have to do things that are unpopular with their kids to do what's best for them. They are there to get an education. They are there to focus on what the teacher is trying to get done. We want more out of our teachers. We got to give them uh attentive students to actually teach and for them to be a part of. So, um, I'm here tonight because I heard that you guys were considering not implementing the ban next year and I'm just asking you to keep that ban in place. I
020think we would as a community in general would benefit so much from it and I know like my teenager would have been so much better off in high school without her cell phone. Um, so please keep the van in place for next year. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, Angelie Jimenz. I'm sorry. Jimenez. Jimenez. Did I pronounce her first name right? Angelie. Yeah. Okay. Um, I just wanted to come talk to you guys about the phone band. I'm a junior at EHS. Um, I read this book, The Anxious Generation, and it really spoke to me personally. Um, as a high school student, it's really easily to get lost and be using your phone all the time. I mean, everybody's always using it. Everybody's that's the way we communicate. Social media, texting, that's all we ever
021do. Um, fortunately, this year I got the opportunity to get an internship as a Spanish teacher and at the elementary school. Um, if there's one thing that this has taught me is that phones are nothing but horrible. Uh, students cannot get off of them. They're the reason why students are failing the majority of the part because students are always just on their phone, social media, texting my friend. Oh, let me text my mom. Oh, let me text this. Let me text this. And it's like, well, you're supposed to be focusing. And they're like, well, it's cuz my parents are texting me. It's cuz this and this and this and this. Well, that's not what we came here to do. You come here to school to learn. You come here to school to open your mind
022and be creative. Except phones are doing quite the opposite. They tell you that phones will help you to be more creative, to make to be more social. But if you ask any student, including myself, I am extremely nervous to be here talking to you guys cuz I don't feel like I've had enough practice or I've had I'm always on my phone. So, I'm never out there actually socializing and talking to people. Um I reading this book, the statist sorry, the statistics uh from 2010 to 2019 have revealed that more than 50% increase in depression and anxiety among US teenagers. Simultaneously, the suicide rate experienced a significant uptick uh rising from 48% from those from ages 10 to 19 and 131% from girls from ages 10 to 14. I don't know how many of you guys
023are happy to hear that, but I don't think that we want to see phones being used the wrong way into comparing or they just damage mental health in general. I think the school could do a much greater job by banning them. I mean, personally, obviously it would suck not being able to be on my phone, but it feels great not being on your phone for a whole two hours and be like, "Wow, I got so much done and I have actually paid attention in class." So, I just personally think that you guys should take that into account and hopefully be on films next year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Angela got a career in. Um, next up we have Adam Payton. Hi everyone. Hi. Uh Dan has the full account of everything I had
024to say. I'm going to try to abbreviate as much as possible. I began teaching in 2011, which means that I am marking the end of the 14th year of my teaching career. I have never known a year of teaching without smartphones in my classroom. And once upon a time, I might have been the defender of cell phones in a class. There seemed to be endless potential to the technology, and each student eventually had one in their pocket, giving them constant access to a wealth of information the likes of which I could have only imagined having at my disposal when I was in high school. As a teacher, I imagined a world where cell phones were tools for research and education, and I tried to hold on to those beliefs and ideas for as long as
025I could. How naive I feel about my the younger version of myself now as I come before you and make the case for banning cell phones, earbuds, smartwatches, and other forms of personable wearable technology in my classroom and our schools. The potential of cell phones has not disappeared, but that potential is not what current students are using their phones for. They have grown up with the games, social media, instant gratification, and the distraction of the device in their pocket. Our students are targets of industries and businesses that are masters of manipulation, relying on the same techniques found in casinos to isolate and manipulate their customers to continue to swipe, listen, and tap. I could ban the use of phones in my class and I will be doing so next year. But I ask that our
026that the board and our community understand that this feeling is not a minority of teachers in our district. In a survey my colleagues and I sent to EMS and EHS LA teachers last week, 91% of teachers report cell phones being distraction in their classroom. 72% of teachers reported cell phones and wearable technology negatively affecting their students academic performance. 90% responded that wearable technology negatively impacted student engagement. 65% responded to having discipline issues related to student technology. And finally, 80% of our respondents supported banning cell phones next year. We want our students in our district to be successful, but our current cell phone policy creates obstacles to their success. Teachers that ban phones on their own face blowback from students and parents because it is seen as an individual teacher decision rather than a building or
027district policy. If we're going to improve our environments and our of our schools, we must show a united front to our students and our community. Let's do what is best for our students and help guide them away from these negative habits and connections that keep them from being the kids that we know they can be. Right on time. Thanks. [Laughter] Okay, next up we have Lindsay Cutter. I do not want to follow you. Hi, I'm Lindsay Cutter. Um, this is my 22nd year teaching. Uh, I have four kids also in the district, elementary, middle school, and high school. I'm here to talk about excuse me the cell phone policy what excuse me once we did implement it I saw a major shift in socialization from students during lunches in class I didn't have to worry
028about um managing the cell phone caddy kids in the middle school trying to steal each others and haha jokes um just so many different uh stressors that cell phones have. Um I do believe that we should allow students to carry them for emergency purposes like my elementary kids. I'm a single parent so I need to have my kids to be able to reach reach them on the buses um after school. Um, I I would suggest letting kids if there's a track meet canceled that they're able to get those cell phones out, text their parents, let them know. Um, so learning how to manage those phones properly. In the classroom, I don't think it's of use. Um, yes, I've used them. I'm a science teacher, so we go out and shoot off rockets. So, we uh
029videotape the rockets or watching my snakes eat. So managing uh appropriate use of it, but then letting students just put it away. They understand since that ban, it has completely changed. I haven't had so many kids getting in trouble for having cell phones out, not being on task. Yes, there's students that don't finish their work, that don't want to choose to do their work, but I don't have that headache with the cell phones. Um, I believe that giving kids at the high school time, maybe during lunch, um, just that independence as they get older to help them manage that. But I would say overall in classes specifically, I like the van of the cell phones just because it's it's we're there to learn and to help teach. Um, also modeling myself. I use my cell
030phone constantly whether I'm communicating with my teachers, I'm doing other work as they're working. So, I'm manag managing that as well, but letting them see the appropriate use of it, I think, is really important for for kids to learn as they become adults. So, that's where I would like the ban of cell phones, but within reason and with some caveats, some teacher discretion, um, just for safety purposes, that sort of thing. So, thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Megan Silverthornne. Good evening, directors. I just want to I actually came here tonight with the book and I I don't know Miss Menz. I never talked to her before in my life, but please read the book. I'm the only I'm not even halfway through and it's terrifying. So, that's not what I came to
031talk to you'all about, but I just thought it was too good to pass up an opportunity to plug that book. So, please read it. Thank you for doing that because I couldn't remember the name of the book. I'll I'll put it up so you guys can see it. I I uh I I'm a resident of Douglas County. Um and I So, I picked it up from the library. I had to wait weeks and weeks for it because everyone wants to read this book. It's amazing. Um so, what I do want to talk to you about is I'm on the board of directors for Independence Classical Academy. And I, some of you know, I previously served on the board of directors for Douglas County School District from 2009 to 2017. Uh, and during the last two
032years I was there, excuse me, I was board president and in all the time I was there, we had a number of schools, charter schools that came through that were approved, some that were not approved, and some that did have to have a delay. And so I want to talk about four of those schools briefly for you. Um, one is somewhat famous for different reasons and the STEM charter school and and that's unfortunately famous for a couple of reasons that are negative but um their beginnings were a bit inospicious. They came to us and they were not quite ready to open. So we approved them but we said you need to wait one year and you can see now that they are successful by many measures and they've um they want to replicate in fact.
033So that's a success story. There's another U school that you may recognize, the Leman School of Excellence. They also had to delay because they had a facility issue. They could not break ground on time and so we as board directors said, "You need to wait a year." There were two other schools, the Apex School and the Milestone Academy. They uh had continual issues meeting their enrollment targets. It was not a facility issue and they never got to the point where they could open. one asked us to withdraw, another one they actually just kind of left it up to us. It was sort of unfortunate, but we ended up saying, you know, we're sorry, you cannot continue either. And so there's um a number of paths forward, but providing that delay allows the school to chart
034its own destiny to say, you know, with more time available, we can solve our facility issues. we can encourage our folks in the community to choose us as an enrollment option. And we've heard from parents that they want that additional option. They even parents who don't intend or maybe may not intend to enroll their students with us, they like having that option and they would perhaps choose us. And so I'm just asking that you consider that for us, that you vote yes on our and our extension so that we can have that opportunity to build those continual relationships with our community and that we have an opportunity to show you all in the fall of 2026 that we can be a successful school. So thank you all so very much. I appreciate your time. Thank
035you. Okay, that's all that. Okay, so next up we have consent items. So, um I move to approve our amended consent items. Second. Any new discussion? Okay. Roll call, please. Director Callahan. Hi. Director Fletcher. Hi. Director Olsen. Hi. Director Pal. I. Director Waller. Hi. Okay. U. Next up, we're going to action items. So, our first action item is the repeal of policy DD, funding proposals, grants, and special projects. And I do you want Francisco to come up to answer any questions? Um Jason Yeah, that'd be great. You guys both Sorry, before you get there, I didn't know. Yeah. Let me also introduce uh Jason Henry. He is our new CFO in the district. And so welcome Jason. We're glad to have you. And introduce you just You've done that. He's going to have to change
036his name Jason because I can't I cannot. Yeah, he's getting used to my kids and my kids know whatever name I call them just respond. Oh, I totally get it. Sometimes they Sorry, Justin. My mom does it, too. Okay. Sorry. All right. Sorry. Thank you. Okay. So, um do we want to talk about them first or just answer questions as we ask questions? The first ones are appeals that are no longer needed. Uh the first five items. So, these are our attorneys looked at them. They're policies that this district at some point put into place. They're not required by law. They're not um recommended either by the Colorado Association of School Boards. So, we're recommending they be repealed. Okay. So, first up, I move to repeal policy DVD, funding proposals, grants, and special projects. Second.
037Okay. Discussion. My first question. So, um, you kind of addressed a little bit why we're repealing it, but this mentions like notification of the board of funding sources such as grants. Um, I think it's important that the board know Yeah. the the grants where they're coming from so we can research them before we approve them because a lot of times they come with strings. So, how how will if we repeal this policy, how is that notification going to happen? Um, this being my first day, sorry, fifth day in my my first long tenure, first time in the want to let Fran get into the details of that. I have reviewed all the the policies literally this morning. Um, and didn't have any major push back or legality concern from my point of view. Um, but
038the actual meat and potatoes of this, I'll have Fran. Yeah. when when we looked at that DD and DDR the process that's outlined in there is not how the district does it and you know as you can see by the dates like it hasn't been updated in many many years long time so so there was really and then when we compared it to um the policies the two different ones that you look at normally they didn't have anything so it was basically I mean obviously it could be completely rewritten if that's something you would like to look at but the way it is written there's nothing in there that we currently practice. So that's why and then you know we we verified with Brad to find out what he and he recommended to repeal. So
039that's where that came from. I think you bring up a good point. I mean certainly if you'd rather not repeal this, we can come back to you with modifications to make sure that that piece is still there or we can just um it's a process issue and when the when the um budget comes for you know, review and approval. We just have a list of the grants that are proposed as a part of that. Sure. And we can also look that was comparing to CASBY and class and we worked on that. But um I think we can also look at D49 or a school like that that might have a policy in place that we could I could pull and find some ideas for. I'm happy to. Another another thought would be too that sometimes
040some districts do that they don't have it as a policy, but they have it as a procedure. Okay. So, you know, that might be I don't know if that's something I mean, the grants page is part of your budget document that you ultimately approve. I think you have every right to say, I'd like to know what's included in there and what are we considering. So, um I'm happy to take the direction that you want a policy or practice to come back. Maybe it's amending another policy. We can certainly look at that between now and the next meeting and find if there's a existing policy where that language can be inserted. I think it's a good point. So, if you want to repeal this, I'm happy to take that direction and bring something back to you
041at the next meeting with that language. Yeah, I think that's important. I think it'd be good to just check and see what else is in there and just, you know, make sure there's something written somewhere. I mean, and this is I mean, the last time this was amended was in 1999. So, it's it's a couple of years old and we probably should update it regardless. So, let's I would say let's table it until next time or I I I would say let's not repeal it. Let's look next time and and just look at it next time and see if we can put the language into something else and then decide if we repeal this and amend another one or you want to pull that motion then um I'm happy to take that direction and come
042back to you either with this modified or another location where that can be inserted and then you can repeal it at that point in time. Is that okay? Yeah. So, do we need to formally So, I will withdraw my motion. And the next one kind of falls in line with that because it's a regulation DDR, funding proposals, grants, and special projects. But it looks like it Do you need to table and vote on that? You withdrew your motion to approve it. Yeah. If there's no motion, then we don't have no regulation. Yep. So, All right. Do you want to repeal DDR? This this actually gets into some pretty minute detail. Again, it's not been updated since 99. If you'd like to leave DD, we can come back and then try to find the appropriate place
043to outline that. Yeah, these are these are definitely outdated and haven't been followed. So, okay. They might give us ideas for language for Yeah. what we want to amend, right? But I mean, if you repeal it, we can use it as a kind of a basis for making sure that language is in is in a policy. It's up to you. If you want to table this one, that's fine, too. Do you want to table this one and and address it with the with the policy or do you want to repeal the regulation and then let's recreate it when we My personal preference is if we're going to have a regulation that goes with something, I would like to deal with them together. Together. Okay. Okay. So, there's no motion on this one. Okay. Okay. So
044the next one was the repeal of regulation DI-R1 expenditure review process. So I move to repeal regulation DI-R1 expenditure review process. Second. Okay. Any discussion? This one definitely has a lot of procedures that probably haven't been followed by the district for many, many years. So, you know, fax orders, y'all do a lot of those. Yeah. Break out the fax machine. So, any any further discussion on this one? Okay. All right. So, can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi. Director Fletcher. Hi. Director Olsen. Hi. Director Pal. Hi. Director Waller. Hi. Okay. And uh next up is repeal of regulation DI-R2, credit card and local vendor charge account usage. I move to repeal regulation DI-R and local vendor charge account usage. Second. Discussion. U Fran, we have we have district procedures. Yeah. We have a
045PE card policy so that every employee has to sign in order to use a PE card. And I'm I'm sure we can provide that for you guys to see what it says. But um Okay. It it has every, you know, every detail of what's allowed, what's not allowed, what you do, what the process is. So yeah, I was going to ask about that in um DJ DJA. So, I guess we can cover that a little bit more in that one. Yes, we're saying most of this stuff's covered under this card policy. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, um if there's no further discussion, can I get a roll call? Director Callahan, hi. Director Fletcher. Hi, Director Olsen. Hi, Director Powell. Hi. And Director Waller. Hi. Okay. Motion approved. Next up, we have regulation the repeal of regulation
046DI-R3 solo phone usage. So I move to repeal regulation DI-R3 cellular phone usage. Second and discussion. So this appears to be especially considering all the comments. Yeah, this is this is a 2003 policy for the district apparently providing phones to the staff. The district had phones that they would give to staff for field trips. That was before everybody else. Before every That's what I was going to say. So nowick, you know, it wasn't common for people to have it. So yeah. So um has nothing to do with using phones in class, right? So, we I think we obviously do not need a policy that, you know, regulates how we buy them for you because we don't. Sorry. Yeah, we ain't. They're all like bricks back then. I know. Here's big old honking thing. So, um
047I would I would vote to get rid of that one. Okay. And we'll be we'll be, you know, dealing with the other cell phone things later, but this one is obsolete. Okay. Well, with that, can I get a roll call? Director Callahan, hi. Director Fletcher, hi. Director Olsen, hi. Director Pal, hi. Director Waller, I. Motion approved. Okay. So, next up, it's the um first reading of revised policy DAC, federal fiscal compliance. So, when you have a moment, I'll just explain really quick why we started looking at that. So, go for it. But did you say no? So um the uniform grant guidance which is what the federal government uses for all things governing federal funds was updated last year and they made some kind of major changes that they haven't made in like 10 years
048that actually are truly an improvement for the end user meaning you know the recipients of the funds and in but in order to really be able to take advantage of those um easements that they put in place. We have to match our internal policies with the UGG because otherwise we have to adhere to our our policies even if theirs are more um uh lenient. So the main changes for that were first of all one thing that's positive is the audit threshold was increased from 750,000 to a million. So that means any funds we received that are below a million we don't have to have single audits on it which is great for small district especially. And then um the one the big one that basically kind of affected a lot of these updates. That's the
049main reference point is that the equipment is now defined as a single purchase with a unit cost of 10,000 or more. It used to be 5,000. So if we change our policy to also have that threshold at 10,000, it means we're not going to have to capitalize at anything that's uh below 10,000. we don't have to do all the inventory requirements that normally are necessary for anything that's capitalized and it would just be you know obviously help us a lot when we have to track and you know inventory or if there's supplies we bought that we end up not using anything below 10,000 you don't have to worry about selling and returning so um so that's that's behind these kind of changes and the reason we brought them now is because if we have this
050in place before July 1 we can use the new threshold for the whole next school year. If we don't change it before July 1, then we have to stick with the 5,000 and it just creates um a lot of extra paperwork. So, okay. Okay. So, um with that, I move to approve the first reading of revised policy DAC, federal fiscal compliance. Second. Do you want any of the Do you want all of these brought back? If there's any that you feel like just first and final, we just need to make sure that's in the If you want these brought back, we can. So, it's just your choice. If you do first and final, then it's approved. We amen. Let's go one at a time. But this one, the only change is from a title of
051director of finance to district financial leader. So, I'd say first and final on this one. Okay. Yeah. And that the thought was just then you're not constantly having to change it. Yeah. You know, if the title changes if the title changes. Yes, exactly. Because it's to change. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Complete sense. Okay. So, um I want to amend my motion to approve to read that um I move to approve the first and final reading of revised policy DAC federal fiscal compliance. Second. Okay. And any more discussion on that? Okay. All right. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi, Director Fletcher. Hi, Director Olsen. Hi, Director Pal. Hi, Director Waller. Hi. Okay, motion approved. Um, so next up we have the first reading of revised policy DID inventories. Um, and again this
052talks about the 5K considered, you know, the the capital threshold and extending that over to to 10. Um I'm debating should we just make this the first and final as well? Yes. Yeah. I don't I don't have an issue with Okay. So I want to um I I move to approve the first and final reading of revised policy did inventories. Second. Okay. Any further discussion on this one? All right. Can I get a roll call? Hey, just a quick just a point of order. What what is the difference between blue and red there? It's who edits it and when you track changes. So I've probably edited it based on Casper class and Rebecca and Francisca at the time edited it. So their color changes for it's just the track change. Okay. Yeah. Is it I
053mean usually red is red is fled, blue is new. That's red is just typically the first person's tracks. Got it. Okay. Okay. Um, so can I get a roll call? Director Callahan, I. Director Fletcher, hi. Director Olsen, hi. Director Pal, I. Director Waller, hi. Okay, motion approved. Um, any issues with making this a first and final? The next one. Mhm. Die. um DIIE audits and financial monitoring. We actually just went through the process of selecting an auditor and we actually followed this. Um we did an RFP, we interviewed, fact was involved in that process. Mike sat in as your representative. So this actually aligns now with the changes with the process that we've used. Are they first and final? Yeah. Um I just see minor verbiage changes. I don't see any issues with that. So
054Okay. So I move to approve the first and final reading of revised policy DIIE audits and financial audits financial monitoring. Second. Okay. Any further discussion on this one? All right. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi. Director Fletcher. Hi. Director Olsen. Hi. Director Pal. Hi. Director Waller. Hi. Okay. So, um I'm just going to go through these and ask if y'all want to make them a final because, um this next one, revised uh policy DJ, DJA, purchasing and purchasing authority. So, um I move to approve the first and final reading of revised policy DJ DJA purchasing purchasing authority. Second. Okay. Now, this is the one I had a question on. So, you mentioned we have a monthly process um a monthly reconciliation process for PE cards. So does that involve like you know
055I know where I work if you make a purchase you have to have a copy of your receipt you've got to have your reallocation folk all of that good stuff and then someone reviews it and signs off on it every so and anybody using the pec card has to have signed a pet of cardart agreement so that has to be in place and then a second level supervisor so it all it's an electronic process because it goes through skyward okay um and then when the pecard invoice comes to accounts payable um she goes in and uploads all of the invoices into Skyward and then each user that that is the account holder of that PE card um goes in and sees all their PECARD charges in there and then you have to go in upload
056the receipt that goes with it, put an explanation of what the purchase was um the account it will be charged to and then once that's all entered, it goes to that personal supervisor and then they give the final okay and then the very and then it goes goes back to accounts payable and that's kind of like the final you know she will make sure one more time that everything is in there that needs to be in there. So there's several spots where it gets caught if something is missing and it's itemized and then yes awesome. Okay. And departments who I supervise I then get to see the PCR transaction. the supervisor and then the supervisor supervisor I believe is the is the current and then there's there are limits too on the amount in a
057one time purchase is it 3500 I think it's 3500 and 5,000 aggregate for the whole month okay so if if somebody has to use the PC card for a larger purchase it first has to get um approved and raised okay to high amount so you just so the the language that's in this says purchasing card transactions cannot exceed 5,000 in a single transaction unless prior approval has been received. I think it is. Was that you just said something about 3500,000 that wrong? The 5,000 is what's but I thought there was another amount too but okay can't remember. The highest limit is 5,000 and so you can't Yeah. So you wouldn't have enough room on the PC card to purchase something over 5,000. It would actually reject it. It's kind of a limit on the card
058and some people have lower limits. I think it just depends. Yeah. For some for some departments it might get lowered because maybe they have you know, they have no reason to spend that much. Or it could also be if somebody was overspending, it might get lower, too. So, okay. All right. That answers my question. We do receive a rebate on purchasing cards. Um, and so there are times where we will authorize someone to use a PC card for purchase over 5,000. It just requires permission and then it requires Jason to actually change the limit on their card for that transaction. Justin, you need I was gonna say charge me a dollar for every time they do that. I'll be broke by the end of the meeting today. Sorry, Justin. So, if they need to buy
059a $50,000 server, it's not going to be unless they'll do like purchase orders for that. Yeah, purchase orders. there there there could be some occasions where it would be to our advantage, but again they'd have to call and get permission and it have to be researched as to why. So we do get a rebate on our use of PE cards. So we get a percentage kickback. So if something like that if that company will allow us to purchase it with a PC card, most of them won't because of the the charge fee that goes along with it. Um but where that can sometimes it's advantageous, but they just have to get permission first. Any further discussion? Okay. All right. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi. Director Fletcher. Hi. Director Olsen. Hi. Director
060Pal. Hi. Director Waller. Hi. And that's first and final too, right? Yep. First and final. So, next up is revised policy DJ, federal procurement. I move to approve the first and final reading of revised policy DJB federal procurement second. Okay. And this is the one I corrected for you, Mary. Yes. Great. Yeah. And this one. Yeah. I noted verbiage changes. It looks like the cost levels increased like 3500 from 3500 to 10,000. Yeah. It's quite some ranges. Yeah. But Okay. Now, and that doesn't mean that, you know, you wouldn't be part of that. Like anything that has to go to a bid. Yeah. Has to be signed by the board anyway. So, you know, it doesn't change our bid policy. Our bid policy remains. So, this all I mean this this one obviously has more
061changes than the others, but a whole blocks put out and then a whole new block put in. So this all came from from the you know changing it to 10,000 but yeah where the language from class the language came from yeah from well you can look I made a note here on the right so class policy did not include the federal requirements so they hadn't updated theirs yet and so we will not adopt their policy at this time we adopted CASBY's revisions I believe and Casby's aligned them with the Ukraine and there's We chose class instead of casby has a better in combination sometimes. Right. Okay. All right. Any further discussion on this one? Okay. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi. Director Fletcher. Hi. Director Olsen. Hi. Director Pal. Hi. Director Waller.
062Hi. Okay. So next up we have um the review of policy um DI fiscal accounting. So um with this one we have the opportunity to do a first and final as well. So um I move that the board approve the first and final reading of the policy DI fiscal accounting. It looks like random review. This was this is just updating the pallet because there's no changes on it. Yeah, we just we figured since we're looking at all of these, we might as well put the new date like that it was reviewed. So, you know, so then in future years, you know, they were all looked at at the same. So, that was the only reason. So, it's a review date. It's not a modification. Yeah. The next as well. Did you make the motion? Yeah.
063Second. Okay. Any further discussion on that one? All right. Can you get a roll call? Director Callahan, hi. Director Fletcher. Hi. Director Olsen. Hi. Director Pal. Hi. Director Waller. Hi. Okay. Next up is 1012. Um, which is the review of regulation DJB-R federal procurements. Um, so I move that the board approve the the first and final reading of the reviewed policy DJB- excuse me R federal procurement. Second. I had a question on this one. So when you look under the additional standards, is step one still required given recent actions by government? Is that still a CASBY or class recommendation? Well, these were compared to both. I don't remember off the top of my head if this was Casby's. I know. Whatever. My guess it is legally required. We compared it. Those were very similar, weren't
064they? Well, they would have been exact or we would have had red line. I was just curious. Yeah, I can double check it if you want. Well, and you know, if if that's the case, we could come back and do another revision. I was just curious. Yeah, I'm I don't remember if they all but if it's legally required. So, DJ Well, actually, the asterric. Yes. So, it's a CASBY policy because there's an asterct at the top. Otherwise, that just means it's not in the the government. I can't think of the name of the thing, but when it's just a CASBY policy, there's an asterct. Okay. All right. It's like the N you know what I'm talking about. I can't think of the acronym. Yeah. Okay. Well, we can. So, this would Yeah, this would have
065followed CASBY. Okay. Or I wouldn't have had it. And again, this is just review and the date review date. So, all right. So, any further discussion? Okay. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan, hi. Director Fletcher, hi. Director Olsen, I. Director Pal, I. Director Waller, hi. And next up, we have the first reading of replacement policy DJ bidding procedures. Um, do you want to make this a first and final or first? Looks like it's mainly just changing the numbers again. Looks like Okay. Making things a little more generic. So, yeah. Okay. So, I move to approve the first and final reading of replacement policy DJ bidding procedures. Second. Okay. And I had a question on this one. So, why are we removing all construction related items? It just look like everything was scratched out
066as far as construction. Yeah, I can't remember. I think that was just one thing we noticed. This is used in the event we want a separate threshold for construction, which we do not. And those were Rebecca's notes at the time. So, I don't she was on Zoom that day. I don't remember honestly why we did that. That we didn't want it to have if we have it in there, then we have to use a separate threshold and we didn't want that to be where and it maybe because of the auto shop and all the things we've done with that. So, construction just falls falls under. Yeah. It doesn't ex doesn't exempt it or change. It's not a separate category of and this was a replacement because after comparing to I'm not sure which policy um
067Casper class we had so many changes we adopted one of theirs and then made our own changes based on what our practice because it was basically redoing the whole thing. Okay. All right. Any further discussion? Okay. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi. Director Fletcher. Hi. Sorry. Director Olsen. Hi. Director Powell. Hi. Director Waller. Hi. Okay. Phew. So, next up we have our third quarter financials. Justin, take it away. Yeah. See, I said that right. So, these were prepared for through the uh middle of the month of March. So these are not a true accurate year month overmonth um picture. They don't include a lot of the revenue from the second part of March. Um so therefore it's not a a very good picture of that month just because of the timing on
068personnel changes. This this was done by Rebecca Burks, our prior CFO. Um I think key that I'll add is is we are still waiting for $7.8 8 million of local revenue which is collected through property taxes. And so when you look at the column and you look at the fund balance, obviously that's without $7 million um of expected revenue and and about 2 million of additional uh state revenue. So um third quarters are always a challenge because of when property taxes are are collected. Um and so we did look at these with um FAC as well. You do have all of the other funds as well. That shows kind of where they are at this point. Um, one thing I will point out on the pupil activity fund. We have not moved um the district
069funds into our athlet athletics. Um, we're actually waiting. They actually are doing very well this year. Um, and they actually not require the full transfer. So, right now they're at 353,000 of of uh expenses and um our budget called for a transfer of 550. So, we're actually in the positive unbalancing. All right. Well, thank you both for your hard work on this. We'll get you the updated end of April um financials by the next board meeting. We've been working on those today. Just did not get those finished before this meeting tonight. So, yeah. So, any question on the third quarter? Okay, you guys ready to move on to the 2526? Okay, I can jump in on the 2526 um budget proposal. Um Justin, I said that right this time. Justin Justin and I worked together.
070I handed this off to him. Mike and and FAC had a chance um early the week prior, right? It wasn't last week, it was the week prior to look at. So all of our budgets um sheets now have a backup tab for each of the items. So when you look at staff salaries and benefits for any of the schools or any of the departments, there is a backup page that actually shows who that is, what the current salary is, what the increase based upon the steps that are in our salary systems are. Um, and so this document is one that I've given Mike. I haven't given them the most recent, but I will pass on the most recent to Mike. So, you can see the backup documentation um, that's going into each of these. Um,
071the one thing I want to point out on this particular draft of next year's budget is um, you'll see that we're trying to be a little more granular in our departments and both staffing and expenses. Um, we have not broken out for this year to that degree. So you'll see the one large item that's in blue, that's $3 million of staff. Those actually will be spread out throughout all of those individual departments. We just have not gone through to say, okay, what staff is in that department this year. That's not how we budgeted this year. So we're trying to increase the granularity of our of our budgeting so that you can see by department staffing and expenses for those departments. Um in addition, we've asked um department heads to give more detail. We caught a
072couple of those in the fact meeting where they weren't detailed. So, we've sent those back to say give us some more detail on what's included in that. Um, and that certainly is available for any board member. I'm giving it to Mike as your treasurer. But if any board member prior to adoption of this budget in June wants to see that detail, it's there. It's there intentionally u because we really want to be very transparent about, you know, where dollars are being spent um and who's included in that budget. Um, so that that's available to you. um as we get closer. So is the Skyward thing is that helping with this? Skyward is helping um again as as Justin and I have begun to dig into Skyward. We are moving some things around and I think
073that's the other key thing about this is there were for instance copers um were in the utilities budget. Um the board treasur or the treasure collection fee from the county was in the utilities budget. the the the the collection fee for we pay the county to collect our taxes. That has always been a board expense in every department I've every district I've been in because the board obviously has that fiscal responsibility of ensuring we're collecting uh those taxes. And so we are are writing some of those assignments. Again, we had this big remember three years ago this district had this massive district-wide account and you didn't know what was in there. and trying to break that out. And through our analysis of looking at what's been in even that utilities and uh insurance account, there's
074things that aren't utilities and insurance. And so all school copiers are showing on their school page now because they're buying copier for Running Creek. It should be on Running Creek's page. Um and vice versa for departments who have copiers as well. So, um, that's really the key part of this budget is really increasing that granularity of of here's the department, here's what they're spending, here's what's included in that. Um, and I really think to some degree we're getting to that point where you as a board need to be able to look and say, why are we doing that? Um, and honestly, prior to doing this level of detail, you just saw a big number. And so, we're trying to to increase that. Um, if you remember, Rebecca brought a a package called clear gov to
075to fact and to the board. Um, I think in talking with Justin, we we don't see a need to move forward with that adoption. So, that will actually be an expense that comes out of the business services budget. That was a expense, if you remember, Mike, it was replacing another expense that was dropping off this year. We haven't taken that out yet. Um, but we just decided today that that software is not needed. I thought when we improved Skyward because Skyward has the ability to drill down, right? You you send it out to the the departments, they build their budget and but I thought when we approved that and it got implemented that the board members were going to get readon access so we can drill down in there and I don't think we have
076yet. No. And I think as we re because again what we're finding right now based on how it's been set up is we'll have the budget on one line and then we have the expenses on 12 other lines that's something that just doesn't make any sense to us. So we're trying to trying to clean that up through this process um so that when we enter the budget for next year it'll match this and you'll actually be able to say okay I want to see this department. There's a number for each department. You'll see it off to the side. um you know 610 as curriculum instruction, 620 is so you'll be able to using those numbers actually through a readonly access be able to say show me what curriculum instruction spending this month. Got it. Um
077so that's the piece that as we've kind of dug into the system and the way that our previous CFO set it up, we're having to hunt for expenses. So we have a budget line that shows the money there, but then we have expenses that have no budget and and and that's something we're just trying to rectify right now within the system. So, every department down to the staff level down to the supplies, I mean, we'll all roll up to the the macro line that you'll see, but to go back to every month, every line item there, there's no reason to to not have that. Here's the, for example, 100 teachers, their salary, their benefit, all that rolls up into one line per school. There there's absolutely no reason not to have that. So, so we're
078just trying to now take advantage of having Justin here kind of cleaning up how how we're entering things into Skyward. Um, that's been kind of an education that I've taken on since the departure of our CFO and and trying to look at where where our funds and what are we doing. One of the main things that I do want to point out here and something the board will need to ultimately authorize, we charge $8 per field trip. This made Justin's mind go. Um, we charge $8 for a field trip. Whether that field trip is up to the Stanley Hotel with 10 kids or with a full bus of 60, we charge $8 per kid. The amount of money right now that that is being sunk into field trips um by the district, meaning it's not
079being offset through fees um is just it's major. It's it's well under six figures. Yeah. So, so one of the proposals we're going to bring is that when a field trip is scheduled based on the number of kids and the number of buses and the number of drivers is we'll actually cost that out and say, "Okay, that that field trip is $17 per student because of it's going way down to PBLO versus to the fire station. Um, we charge the same to take a a group of kids to the fire station as we do to take kids to PBLO." And when you say charge, does that mean I mean there there's an $8 collection for a field trip? So every field trip is $8. It doesn't matter where you're going. Um and that just um
080as we started analyzing the field trips and the costs, I mean, you look at transportation and that that budget keeps mushrooming. It's because everything that anyone asks them to do is covered in their budget, whether it should be offset by fees. We've never shown even that eight dollars we collect per student in the revenue for transportation. So their budget continues to do this and and we really don't track the the revenue. So it's something that Justin unearthed last week and and so we'll be coming back to you. Obviously all fees you must approve. So if we're going to charge more than $8 that needs to come back to you for approval to to do that. Um, again, we don't want field trips to be costed out of out of line. And any student who who
081can't afford that, there is there is provisions in our policy that says no child is denied that experience because their parent can't afford. Thank you. We know that. So, yeah. Yeah. So, um, but still just $8 for any field trip anywhere regardless of a thousand miles or 100 miles saturating for effect. And how we're breaking this out is is same thing. uh allocate fuel driver allocation tires. I mean this is to the penny on on analysis rather I bucket that as to this trip is zone A, B, C or D level or $1722, $1387. I've yet to determine that, but but it is a humongous concern that we have to address. So when when you when you take more than 15 kids, you must take a big bus. So, if you have 16 kids going
082on a field trip, you're taking a big bus, you're taking a a bus driver who has to be CDL certified, the cost of that trip have just mushroomed. So, um, so again, we just feel like we need to go through the process of not just saying, "Oh, $8, great, we're going we're going down to Albuquerque." Yeah. Yeah. It it just has gone into general fund. And so, in all due fairness, even athletics, um, we have not broken that out yet, but all athletic trips, whether they're postseason play, all of that starts to transportation. So, transportation's budget. If we have a really good season where we have lots of postseason play, transportation's budget goes like this. They go over budget and it looks like shame on you for poor jud for poor planning instead of athletics
083really capturing the cost of what it costs us as a district to operate our athletics burden. And so our plan before this is approved is to actually pull out those trans those those trips for our sports teams and actually have show that in the athletics budget because obviously we should know what it costs to run our athletics program and and and they're important programs. But right now it looks like it doesn't cost us anything and it costs us a lot. We all know that doesn't work out right. worse in just salaries for the drivers than just in transportation. Now, even when everything's in because I went to a kid's track meet the other day and they had to be at school at 6:45 and we didn't get done there till 6 p.m. And I'm like,
084that driver is just sitting there getting paid that whole time. Uh they get paid. Yeah, they get paid the entire time they're away. If it's an overnight trip, they don't get paid the entire time. They get paid to the time they get there. Their lodging is paid for, but they're not paid overnight to sleep. That's a long time. It is a long time. And sometimes we have to send two drivers because drivers over hours and it's two drivers. Yeah. They can't. So when we go down to Pagosa for a football game or a soccer game, we have to send two drivers because a driver can only drive a certain amount of time. So Wow. So that analysis is coming. Well, good job finding that. So this is Jason. There's Paul. Just call him. We're just
085gonna call him Jay. that would be easier for me. Um so anyways, this is a first draft. Um next meeting uh we will publish uh probably a week in advance um the actual um current draft budget which will be more granular, more detailed than where we are right now. That will be a public budget hearing. So during your public input, it'll be advertised that anyone in the community that wants to comment on the district budget can do so. That'll be posted on the website. that's required by law that we do in public budget hearing so that citizens can respond to any of the budget expenditures. Obviously, we've got to get this out where people can see it so they can comment on it. Good. Okay. We are working on our fund balance. We are not
086as high as we want to be here, but we also believe there's probably still some expenses that are being reflected um that are funded through other sources. And so we are working right now on trying to actually it's been copyright. We're missing that page. We're missing the second page of of the general fund budget. Just realize that so this right now gets us up to um in between six and 7%. Um and so we want to be at 7% as our goal for next year. You were conservative with enrollment. Uh yeah. Yeah. We're showing no growth whatsoever in this in this year's budget. So we actually took actual numbers that we are now, which is less than October count. We're budgeting based on where we're sitting right now. Okay. Yeah. We we we have right
087now 40 uh new students registered at Singing Hills for next year. We actually haven't even included them yet because we again just want to we don't want to go through a fiscal exigency. We'd rather rather add that and then have those funds to to reallocate next year. Yeah. Okay. Any further questions for Jay? [Laughter] Follow me. All right. Well, you can leave the hot seat. Both of me. Thank you guys. Thank you. Okay. So, next up is the Independence Classical Academy Charter School Extension. Can I jump in? Yeah, sure. I I want to just share a little I know we've had lots of community input on all sides of this is issue. I think I want to make sure people understand why we started this whole charter initiative. This was not something that just came
088out of the blue. was something the district recognized that um we are not going to pass a bond in this community. Um I think we've been told clearly Kai was tried twice. It just the likelihood of of right now with the Financial Times to get voters um four-fifths of which don't have children in our district to vote for a $700 a year increase to their taxes is slum to none. And so we started this recognizing that right now the demographers are projecting a thousand new students in the next seven years. That's based upon obviously we've seen interest rates slow that down a little bit, but we know right now the number of home sites that are are ready to build on are are many in this community. And I met with another developer last week
089that's doing a 1900 home community um up near Sunount. So, in addition to Crescent, which is almost 3,000 homes. So, the reality is as a district, we either admire the problem and say, "Poor us, we can't build schools. Um, we're going to have 400 kids in a classroom." Exaggerating for a fact, but but we don't have the ability right now to build a school. Um, districts that I've run in the past have always looked at charters as two options. one is a great choice to bring additional choice and options which we've heard from some of our speakers tonight. Um, which we value. I think the board has demonstrated that through your through your actions. But that we also know that a charter school has the ability to do a conventional mortgage on on a construction
090project, which we don't. The only way we as a board can can impart uh a building project is to have a bond approved by the citizens. Um, a charter school can within the funds that they earn for students who attend their school um do a conventional mortgage, have a have a investor build a building, eventually lease it, and eventually buy it. Um, that building obviously if that charter school ever went defunct, that building reverts back to the school district, especially in this case where the land is our land. And so, just to be very clear to this community, this isn't just a choice charter. This is a charter needed for capacity. Um, we must have capacity in our district in the near future. Um, again, if 40 more students arrive at Singing Hills, we will
091be out of rooms at Singing Hills next year. And so, we don't have lots of rooms to just continue to add more kids in the so when we think about this, I know there's two options. There's choice. Some people are pro-choice, some people aren't pro-choice for school, school choice, I should say. Um but then there's the issue of capacity and as a district one of my greatest concerns has been making sure we don't end up with class sizes of 40 because we have no other building to put them in. And so we started this initiative to to to number one find out what what type of charter school our community was interested in. We heard loud and clear classical. Um then we started working to to work with a community group like we have here
092tonight to say okay now how can you do that for us and how can you ultimately be prepared to build on our land. We have 15 acre site at Independence. We have a 5acre site there as well um that we hope someday to do early childhood on. Um so all of this is really part of our plan to address future growth in the district. So, it's not just a choice option, it's a it's a necessity for us if we're going to meet the demands of population in our community. And so, we also have, just to be very clear, we've also said no family will be forced into a choice option. We we started this year transporting for legacy. We will transport for any charter in this district because we want parents who find that to
093be the right school to be able to take advantage of it regardless of where they live. And so that's really important to this effort that we started as as as a team here to say, you know, this is a necessity. Um, obviously opening a charter school is tough. I've done seven of them myself and it's sometimes you're successful the first year and sometimes you're not. And so our group has has certainly worked hard this year to try to find a solution. Um, and obviously that's what we're up against tonight is is not being able to have a site for this year. We've had lots of things work against us. Frontier facility having some unexpected roof failures, things like that. And so, we need a charter school. I'm going to say that out loud publicly. And
094anyone in the community who wants to talk about that, please schedule time with me. We need a charter school if we're not going to overload all of our schools in the district. Um, Legacy is looking at expanding their capacity, which takes care of this side of the district. Um, but we we have no more room at Singing Hills. And so that's really key as we talk about this, just to put that on the record. It's not just about do we want a charter school or not. It's do we want space for another thousand kids down the road or do we want to cram them into what exists? And I don't believe that's a good option. So, just wanted to make sure. Well, I I thank you for that because um I think we just need
095to remind our community that it was it was really our idea to start with because we need to do this. We have to have this and we can't, you know, all of a sudden have, you know, 300 extra students and we have no place to put them. This is something you have to plan ahead for. So, that is uh this is kind of what we're doing. But another thing that people seem to have been uh concerned about is well we're doing all this with our charter school and we're working you know with them and and we'll talk in a little bit about you know the various location options and um and and things that we have discussed with with y'all but um people seem to think that we are you know we need to concentrate
096on our own schools. We are I mean I last week there was a presentation at our middle school by our new principal there Tam Smith. Wonderful wonderful um person and wonderful ideas and he's calling it uh Elizabeth Middle Medical School. We got a medical school just so you all know that too. Wow. That's a whole other thing. We need some other policies. Elizabeth Middle School 2.0 is what he's calling it because we have had some concerns there. We've had some issues there. but he's got some amazing plans going forward. So, we are working on that. We are also have been working on policies that show um how we recognize the problem of so many kids not coming out of you know from elementary into middle school and beyond can't read. And we are we have
097policies that are now in place that are you know we are not going to um we are going to be looking seriously at holding back children who are not ready who are at least two years behind. are not going to promote them on because we're just setting them up for failure. So, we and those are just kind of, you know, some not small things. Those are big things that are working on. We've got the the direct instruction um uh consultant that's coming in and training our teachers uh and and kind of that and getting back to kind of real real direct um direct and explicit instruction, I guess, is what it's called. And so, that's an exciting thing. We are doing lots of things in our own schools and we want them to be the
098best. I mean that's what we are here for choices. Yeah. And we want like you said we the choices are each of the charter charter schools. We also support homeschoolers. Uh we we do that in our district but we want our local district schools to be an absolute best choice too. So we want it we want all of that. So, I I want people to hear that we are not neglecting our own schools because of this charter school application. So, I want everybody to recognize that. And um I don't know if you want to kind of get into the Let me just You know, everyone says, "But our parents want to build schools. Our parents are 26. We have 2600 students. We have 12,499 voters in this district." So, think about the disparity there. People
099who are are saying, "Am I going to give you $700 for another school?" The reality is is the number of voters far outweigh the number of parents. And so we often think, well, because our parents are excited about voting a school, somehow that bond is going to pass. Yeah. Even if every parent in our district voted for it, the likelihood of it passing. So, so it's really critical people understand that's where this started. the choice of Independence Classical Academy and the charter came from lots of visits to lots of charter schools in the in the state of Colorado and finding that that's the charter that is one of the highest performing schools in the state of Colorado that we're trying to replicate. So again, I think it's just important that people understand what started this
100that started because if we don't build a school, parents are going to be on our backs in a year or two when there's 40 kids in a class. Exactly. Um, and so we can either get ahead of this and begin to to support a charter option or we or we face overcrowding, right? And I've heard in two or three different versions tonight from people talking about, you know, how charter schools, it's not like, you know, snap your fingers and there it is. It takes a lot of work and you all have done a lot of amazing work. It takes a lot of coordination. And it takes a lot of of pulling stuff together and um there's you know many of them it sounds like that you know can't necessarily start the year that they had
101hoped to. So this is not unusual. This is not something to say oh told you it wasn't going to work. Um no this is this is not uncommon. And so um we got to remember that. Well and and one thing to consider too is that um it's not just we have another charter school. We have Legacy and this district helped Legacy get off the ground by supplying them with a location um behind Running Creek. So, um you know, they weren't in it alone. It's it's it's dang near impossible for a school to come in and do it without partnering with the district. And um I saw Go ahead. No, go ahead. I saw um a few emails and then potentially maybe one or two public comment about um the the district struggling financially. We don't
102need a charter school. I think we need to clear up that the district isn't building the charter school. We're not paying for any of that. the the only the only money the district is at is when the charter school's up and running, we give the the state and and local funds for the per pupil revenue to that charter school to operate with with with some withholding with some withholding for overhead cost. Correct. Or again, if they if they leave the district, we get nothing. So, you know, we're providing a choice. We're, you know, we're, you know, helping prevent overcrowding in the classrooms and I honestly think this is going to bring in homeschool students and I think it's going to bring in students from neighboring counties. Yeah. Which we wouldn't have had at all any.
103So, so it it could end up being a huge benefit. This isn't just a choice. It's an excellent choice. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. So, um, so I think ICA wanted to do a presentation. Yeah. Do you want to come up and speak for give you a couple minutes to address the board before we vote on it? Thank you for waiting so long. It's past my bedtime. I don't know about you. Yeah, I'm going to start to turn yellow here in a minute. Well, uh, good evening and thank you for this opportunity to address the Elizabeth School Board Superintendent and community members. My name is Candy Patch and I am the board chair and along with me is Ken Madson, the board treasurer of Independence Classical Academy. Unlike most charter schools, like Dan was just saying, uh,
104they have their beginning with parents and community members that want to bring a different school model to their area. Independence Classical Academy or ICA began as a district-led initiative. Since its inception, ICA has been a partnership between the Elizabeth School District and the Charter School. ICA appreciates the collaboration and support that we have and enjoy with the Elizabeth School District. Specifically, the Elizabeth board members as well as Superintendent Snowberger have been instrumental in this process by providing needed guidance and material support through the district leadership, communication, maintenance, safety, and security and technology teams. With the district's mandate to get a up and running, a significant amount of money, over a $100,000 has been invested in ICA, including $75,000 from a Daniels Fund startup grant, and over $35,000 invested from Academica, our educational service provider. The
105ICA board has accomplished branding, website, marketing, and administrative setup. Administrative setup, received bids for frontier building renovations, and hired a wonderful headmaster, Mrs. Jessica Turner. Mrs. Turner had lesson plans, has lesson plans located on onto the computer, curriculum desks, and materials ready to order, and staff training scheduled. Right after being hired, Mrs. Turner started interviewing for office and staff positions and was also ready to make offers of employment. In March, ICA was in the process of beginning renovations to the Frontier Center as a investors had approved over $150,000 in funds to ready the facility for use. With the roof under warranty and the Frontier building having received a couple of inspections, the roof was not even our concern. On March 25th, we received an email letting us know that there was a roofing problem and
106ICA was restricted from using the Frontier building instructed to return our access badges and remove all of our materials from the premises. Our recent request for an extension is as a result of a set of unforeseen circumstances beyond our control and an inadequate amount of time to assess the roof repair costs or to secure an alternative school location. If granted, the one-year time extension would allow the A board to receive and review the roof cost repair estimates as well as explore opportunities for alternative school locations such as commercial real estate options and temporarily using modulars at the Running Creek or independent site. Hello everybody. Um, my name is Ken Madson. Um, I'm one of the founding board members of Independence Classical Academy. Um, consistent since day one, um, all CCA board members have supported bringing
107on a highquality classical school option to the Elizabeth School District and the surrounded communities. A is modeling um, after Liberty Common School in Fort Collins. Last year, Liberty Common School was ranked number one in the state uh based on high school SAT scores. Uh their high school has over a 300 student waiting list. Uh their classical core knowledge, curriculum, and teaching techniques has time proven positive results. We have and we will continue to work closely with Liberty Common School to benefit from their experience in delivering a highquality education to students. We believe in addition to um you know obviously attracting some students from from the district, we also believe a will attract a significant number of students who live out of the district. students who live in the district but go to school out of
108the district and homeschoolers. As an example, uh we had a family with three children who lived in Castle Rock who were willing to drive their children uh to downtown Elizabeth uh to obtain the classical education offered by a um a fully and ready to open in the 202526 school year. We hired a headmaster who focused much of her career in classical education. We're very lucky to have Jessica Turner leading a just like we were ready to open in the 202526 school year until the unexpected roof issues were uncovered at the Frontier Center. We will be ready for the 2026 27 school year. We are working on multiple options for a temporary facility. One of the options is of particular interest because it would benefit both ICA and the Elizabeth School District. ICA has already been
109working uh with the Elizabeth School District on this proposal. Uh we are very excited to team up on this project. Uh the children in our community deserve a high-erforming classical school option. the A board along with ICA parents uh request a one-year extension so we can bring a high-erforming model to life in Elizabeth. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Well, um Dan and and I had a meeting with with Ken a week or so ago and um Ken alluded to the to the option a little bit, but um the the option for a location that most of us are that we're we're most excited about. But I think of both of both sides uh of the aisle are very excited about this is as Dan had talked about earlier are the um property
110at Independence where the charter school is going to be located. The charter school itself will be on the 15 acre plot but there's an additional 5 acre plot which we intend to eventually use as a as a infant toddler center uh for the independence area. And um the because Delbert Road has now been it's it's pretty close to being cut through. Uh now we know that it's a possibility to have that be the location that they are working toward. And um they would they we would um bring in two modulars that we have from the Elizabeth Middle School. um they would bring them in and then they would uh we would pay for uh bathrooms to be installed in them because we would eventually use them for the infant toddler ch child childhood center that
111we want to do. But then um other than that, that would be our basically only expense. You guys would be paying for the move. And um then also you've got you found some sources for some other modulars that are going to be uh very cost-effective, it sounds like. So you're working on arranging that as we speak, I think. And so bringing a couple of additional modulars over there. Um the developer is going to be bringing power kind of up to the site and then a will bring the power to the buildings to the modulars and then eventually of course it will be brought to the to the main school. Um so this this is a a wonderful solution. There's of course there's you know logistics and permitting here and there and different things but um
112it is it is an exciting um an exciting choice that I think uh is kind of the top choice that we are kind of looking at at this point. Um and ICA is doing most of the leg work. There's some stuff of course that the district has to do but ICA is doing most of the leg work and and working all that out. So we're very excited about that. Um then um if you know because because we don't know how long those modulars that you found will last so to speak. Um Dan has offered that either if if the property the five acres will allow us to bring them you to bring them there and store them for now until you're ready to install and actually kind of get the ball rolling. that is a
113possibility or we may store them on some of the back areas of some of our other other district properties so we can store them. So there's just a lot of of very wonderful progress that has been made in that regard if if that doesn't work somehow or the other. Um Running Creek is is probably the next best option. And so that because there as as uh I think you said it Rhonda that that property back there there's uh some area where there's some modulars back there and that was the area where legacy uh the district had supported legacy back there by having some modulars back there. So there's already utilities and stuff back there. So that would be the next best option. The other options are mostly pretty much off the table. Singing Hills is
114definitely off the table. frontier is not likely to really come through because there's just a lot of expense. That's, you know, how we're going to work that out. We're not, that's a whole other issue. But, um, so, um, there is no concern about taking any interior space from any of our schools anymore. That is off the table. Waited for three hours to hear. Hallelujah. You should have emailed me. too. Well, clearly I don't understand the process of how to talk because I've been sitting here for three hours like, "Oh my god, I'm glad we finally got there for you." Yeah. No, and I just want to read really fast since we're I'm talking reassure you Tyler don't pull me out of here. Um reassure you the community like I don't in my opinion I'm pretty
115well embedded into the community don't feel like it was they didn't want it. I think when it ultimately when Frontier became a not not available Yeah. for nobody's like hold on don't step on these toes and don't step on these toes and I mean I know immediately I was like I'll start we're not having other kids come into our lunchroom our you know in our campus like not only is that like kind of odd but it almost brings up a bullying thing too now we got like kids with uniforms and like I don't know there's all issues we're so in general the community don't really feel like so anyway so that is So, no. Let's get back to the topic. I'm sorry. Yeah. No internal no internal classrooms anywhere. So, um that is good. So,
116it's modulars hopefully on the 5acre property backup at RCA if necessary and behind RCA. So, where legacy where legacy was originally there's already hookups. Yeah, exactly. Thank you. So those uh those are, you know, the the things I think that really responds to most of the concerns, the issues that people have brought up. We're not abandoning our schools. We're taking care of them. Um we are we we have an absolute reason. We need this charter. We need to plan now for the future for this growth that we know is going to be here and we're going to have all those babies that are in independence. All the sterade people are going to be coming to school soon and um you know, no internal classrooms. the five acres hopefully rce as a backup. Um and no
117and as Mike said no no real cost to the district that won't be useful to us later at least like the bathroom in the in the modulars because we're going to use it eventually for um uh infant toddler. So um it's a win-win and it's an exciting thing. Dates involved discuss dates. So, um, well, she could do that when she makes the motion to amend. She'll amend that. Yeah. So, so, um, I I guess I don't have any other comments unless somebody else does. We're ready for the motion. Yeah, I'm good. Ready for the motion. If I have further discussion after that, I can chime in. So, um I well do I make the amendments to it first as and then move to amend to you might want to read the resolution just into the
118record. Okay. Then you've got you've got some changes. So why don't you read it if you don't mind? All right. So we have a resolution with regard to um this uh request for extension. So resolution regarding Independence Classical Academy. The board of education remains committed to serving the students of the district by continuing to support the opening of Independence Classical Academy as a charter school within the district whose focus is providing a rigorous classical education in the liberal liberal arts, math, and sciences with instruction in the 2024 and it executed a space lease with ICA on January 17, 2025 to allow it to use a portion of the Frontier Center located at 589 South Banner Street, Elizabeth, Colorado. And the board of education further acknowledges that unanticipated roof damage was recently discovered at the Frontier
119Center, which has caused questions about whether students can be safely educated in that building in the 2025 uh 26 school year. And given those questions, Independence Classical Academy requested a one-year extension on its charter planning to open now for the 2627 school year. Therefore, we the members of the board resolve to extend the charter of Independence Classical Academy for one year with a goal that it would open as a charter school serving students in gates grades K through eight in fall 2026 subject to the following conditions. ESD and a execute a charter contract by March 15, 2026. ICA provides evidence of a suitable temporary facility acquired via lease or purchase, including available square footage, estimated cost through the term of the agreement, and detail regarding any escalating costs no later than February 28th, 2026. If
120this is a kind of a an extra piece that we are gonna add. If no other suitable facility is available, the land behind Ren Creek Elementary where previous chart where the previous charter was housed will be made available to temporarily house ICA. ICA provides evidence by February 28th, 2026 that its temporary facility has met or will meet within a reasonable time frame all the requirements to receive its certificate of occupancy so that it can serve students for the for the fall of 2026. ICA provides evidence by 4:3026 that it will be financially viable. This evidence shall include documentation to show that ICA has been awarded the Colorado Charter School Program. CCSP grant or a suitable replacement and evidence of sufficient enrollment to ensure financial viability as reasonably determined by both the ESD BOE and the
121ICA board charter board of directors and a budget that demonstrates financial viability for ICA based upon reasonable and achievable assumptions for the school years 2026 27 and 20 27 through 28. Charter approval remains for grades K through eight. ESD will provide a streamlined application process so that ICA may apply to expand to also serve grades 9 through 12 once it is ready to do so. ESD and a both remain committed to a eventually establishing a long-term facility on the western side of the district by means of ESD leasing property to ICA at favorable rates. for example, $1 per year for a 30-year ground lease so that ICA can serve students in that part of the district. The ESD superintendent and the ICA school leader will be responsible for the continued implementation, oversight, monitoring, review, execution,
122and accountability of the ICA plan adopted and approved this 5th day of May, 2025. Will you point out what specific things were amended in that? So the amendments from the original draft that we received are um that addition of the u statement that if no other if if it doesn't work out the other suitable facility that the rce space behind will be available to you and then the other uh thing we made a a later out date on one of our things ICA provides evidence by 43026 that it will be financially viable. Originally, we had that same February 28th date in there, but we we thought that that was a little short. So, we wanted you to have a little bit more time on that. Good job. Now, we need a drink. Now, now we
123need a motion to approve the the resolution. So, I move that um we approve the resolution regarding Independence Classical Academy to extend their charter to open uh for the 202627 school year. Uh and the resolution is as just read into the record. Second. Second. All right. Any further discussion? Okay. I think the the backup is really I mean it kind of makes this a certain more of a certainty having that backup. All right. Well, with that, can we get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi. Director Fletcher. Hi. Director. Hi. Director Pal. Hi. Director Waller. Hi. Congratulations. Now get to work. No. Okay. Two more hours to midnight. All right. Well, with that, um, any planning new business? Okay. All right. Um, our next official board meeting should it'll be a special board meeting. Okay. Um
124May 19, 2025 in the boardroom district office and with that I journ this meeting at 9:08. Thank you. Thanks everybody.