001Welcome to the Eagle County School District Board of Education meeting for Wednesday, November 12th, 2025. Please join us for the pledge of allegiance. >> [clears throat] >> All right. Um, welcome. Thank you to everyone that's here tonight. We're going to start with the consent agenda. This is items of a routine and non-controversial nature. An item may be removed from the consent agenda by any member on the board of education and considered separately. Uh this is an action item. Would anyone like to make a motion? >> I move to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> Thank you. Lou and Juan Natalia. Miss Alter. >> I. >> Miss Colin. >> I. >> Miss Glowaki. >> I. Miss Hobie >> I >> Mr. McQueeny >> I >> Mr. Pñena >> I >> Mr. Wunes >> I thank
002you. The motion carries unanimously. >> Thank you. Um next on the agenda we have the report of the superintendent. >> Thank you Madame President. All right let's get the presentation up here on the on the screens and I'll jump in. All right. Thank you very much. Hey, look at that. I wanted to show you a picture of Eagle Valley Middle School last night. Aurora Borealis from Melissa. Thank you. She left the room, but she sent me that picture last night. Pretty incredible to to to see such beautiful northern lights over over our community. Pretty unusual, but uh I wanted to to start with that because it's pretty pretty amazing. All right, some celebrations. Uh I know it's not Veterans Day, but we're not far away. So, I did want to take a moment to to
003acknowledge uh the veterans in our community, those who have served served our country. Appreciate their their service. Uh I know that many of our schools have hosted veterans uh in this week and and last week who came in and spoke about their their their service and duty to country. So, happy Veterans Day. We have a lot of fall sports to celebrate in our high schools. We still have uh volleyball teams from Battle Mountain and Eagle Valley High School football that are entering the playoffs. Um Eagle Valley is going to host a a football playoff game this Friday at 7 o'clock. So pretty excited for that. That's an unusual opportunity in our community to host football playoffs. So good to see that. Uh we almost we almost had Battle Mountain versus Eagle Valley boys soccer playoff
004game. One point away from making that happen. that would have been uh outstanding. Uh but Battle Mountain Soccer did advance to quarterfinals and that was the end of their run. Uh we had some some golfers and some cross country runners in the top 10 in the state. So tremendous outcome from our athletes this fall. Very excited to to see those successes. Want to champion the the athletes and their coaches. I want to say congratulations to our new board of education officers. Uh you may notice people sitting in some different different chairs up here. So, uh, congratulations to Lilia for taking the gavl. Uh, I think you're gonna enjoy this this chair and, uh, we all have faith in you. Lucila Lucila Tarunis will will take over as vice president in your absence. And, uh, Harry,
005I believe, has taken over as secretary treasurer. So, we got some some new new uh, new roles. Uh, and want to welcome uh, Rachel Golak. I know this is not your first meeting. Uh, you had a meeting last week, but this is the first one at the at the DAS in front of the the big group. So happy to have you on the team as well. >> Thank you. >> Uh this weekend we are hosting uh a speech and debate tournament and it's uh going to be co-hosted actually between Battle Mountain and Eagle Valley. One day at Battle Mountain, one day at Eagle Valley. Those teams uh travel together and are cooperating on a home tournament. If you are interested in judging any rounds of of speech and debate, it is an incredible experience. They
006could use the judges. And if you want to see some of our best and brightest really demonstrate to you that our our country and our community are in good hands, come and watch a speech and debate tournament. These kids are amazing. If you are interested in in coaching, email me and I'll connect you with the coaches and and get you uh the right information about when and where to show up uh to assist with the speech and debate tournament. So, [clears throat] let's move on to updates. Hiring has begun for Gypsum Elementary or excuse me uh Gypsum Early Learning Center. Uh so if you've watched the construction uh down there on Valley Road, the building is is taking shape and we hope to have have classrooms open uh late winter. So already working on on
007hiring for for GEC uh which we're we're looking forward to. Uh we did uh since our last meeting, we have seen a proposed budget from from the governor uh of of all the elements of of state expenditures. Um everything was cut with the exception of K12. So, in that regard, we came out looking pretty good, but the state budget is in such bad condition that we're not coming out with with a whole lot of new money. So, uh, because of that and because of declining enrollment, um, we have implemented a a staffing freeze on the vacancies that that we have right now, um, we will still hire, uh, some positions, but we're reviewing each one, uh, with the principles or with the department chairs to to really determine, uh, the need and and to make
008sure that it's an essential position. So, just increased scrutiny on any of the vacancies that we have through the remainder of the year uh to try to tighten up um our spending because we are anticipating a pretty pretty tough budget cycle next year as enrollment continues to decline um around the state. And finally, under updates, um you may have heard we have uh some new student clubs forming at a couple of our high schools. The introduction of TurningPoint USA clubs has been a hot topic in our community in the last few weeks. First and foremost, let me be clear. Uh these clubs were initiated by students. They followed the established process, submitted appropriate applications, and articulated missions that align with the expectations we have for any studentled organization. They are a reflection of exactly what
009we hope to cultivate in our schools, which is young people who think critically, who are engaged in their communities, and who are willing to take initiative and lead. Our goal is to help students become thoughtful citizens and courageous leaders. That goal applies equally to students of every faith, political belief, gender, and ethnicity. When we say we we prepare students for life beyond high school, we mean we prepare them to participate in the real world. A world that values or or should value open dialogue, civic engagement, and the ability to engage respectfully across differences. I [clears throat] think it's also important to acknowledge the legal framework that supports this decision. Under the Equal Access Act of 1984, public schools that accept federal dollars like ours and allow any non-curricular student clubs cannot discriminate based on the
010content of a group's faith or political beliefs. Not to mention the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which protects the right of individuals to free speech and peaceful assembly, says the former civics teacher. As a public institution, we're bound and proud to uphold those rights. But I want to be equally clear on this point. We would make the same decision even if the law didn't require it. Supporting student initiative, protecting expression, and encouraging civil discourse are core to who we are as educators. Our goal is not to tell students what to think. It's to teach them how to think. and to do so with courage, curiosity, and respect. At the end of the day, these are students, and we will have adults in the room to monitor. Each of these clubs will operate under
011the supervision of an adult sponsor, a staff member employed at the respective high school. The sponsors will not receive stipens for these roles because these are voluntary, non-curricular clubs. Those sponsors are there to help guide, support, and ensure that all activities remain consistent with district rules and policies. Let me also address what happens if those standards aren't met. Any discussions that promote violence or disruption to the learning environment will not be tolerated. Engaging in speech or behavior that insults or threatens others in the school or the community will not be tolerated. Specifically, any discussions that demean immigrants, people of color, or any member of the queer community will not be tolerated. Those types of incidents will prompt an immediate process of reflection and coaching. We're educators and always treat mistakes as an opportunity to learn
012and grow, or as we call it in Eagle County Schools, a culture of revision. And if a club cannot or will not operate within school and district expectations, it'll lose the privilege of meeting on campus. That's the same standard we hold for all student organizations without exception. Ultimately, what these students are asking for is a chance, a chance to demonstrate a more productive and [clears throat] civil way to have public discourse than what society has modeled for them. They have said they want to engage in conversation, not confrontation. That's what we teach. That's what we expect. And that's the opportunity we'll provide. So, let's allow them to show us what they can do. Let us model the same openness and respect that we ask of our students every day. Because if we truly believe in
013preparing them to lead, we must also be willing to let them practice leadership. even if it challenges our comfort. >> Thank you, Madam President. That's it for my comments. >> Thank you, Superintendent Qualman. Um, next up on the agenda is board reports. Mr. McQueeny, would you like to start us off? >> Sure. Little busy over the past uh few weeks since we met last. Had a safety committee with Tad uh Degan. Uh, unbelievable the work that he's been doing in our district and keeping our schools and everything safe. It's just amazing all the little or how much he's done with such little money. Um, we do have bond money that can pay for things, but he's been very frugal and uh radio's in all the schools and all the teachers hands. Um, one of the
014things he wanted to just remind everybody is, uh, about safe to tell. Um, use that. You know, you hear something, you're worried about something, talk to somebody. If you're not going to talk to a principal or a teacher or someone of authority, you can always go to Safe to Tell and be anonymous. The other committee I went to was the LRC committee and learned a lot about all the holdings we have as a district, which is really cool. Um it's amazing how much land we do own and um what we can do with that land. Um so it's going to be interesting learning more about that. Did go to the Veterans Day assembly over at Freedom Park. We had uh Battle Mountain uh had their drum line and their chorus there. Holy cow. Two unbelievable
015I mean there were probably 15 to 20 students in each. uh some doubled up, but man, they they were really impressive. That was fun to watch. Um finally, the in our notes from uh just things that we approved earlier in the um [clears throat] consent agenda. I just wanted to point out a couple things that uh tech insurance. You saved us a whole bunch of money there, Jack. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. And it looks like we have a new logo for the uh Gypsum Early Learning Center. Thanks, Matt. So that's all I have. >> Thanks, Harry. Miss T. Varunis, >> thank you. Um, I actually don't have much of a report, but I just want to take the chance to welcome Rachel to our board. Uh, and I want to say I'm
016looking forward to getting the work done with you. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Lou. Mr. Hello. Can you hear me now? All right. Let's see here. So, I too went to the meeting with uh with Harry and the safety council meeting. It was good and got to see a lot of the progress that um Tad has done for us which is awesome. Um so thank you a lot for that. Um I was able to attend a field trip with uh with the Red Hill Elementary at the AR Center. It was pretty cool. Uh I don't know if you guys remember the magic school bus, but the magic school bus was lost in space and the kids loved it. >> It was awesome. Um, so we did get to do that. Um, you know, I
017I was sitting at home the other day and my wife goes, "What's that in the backyard?" I go, "I don't know." And I go, "What do you think it is?" "I don't know. I just can't tell what it is." I go, "By golly, I think the playground's going up at the uh at the early learning center." And she goes, "No way." And I go, "Well, it looks like swings to me in a in a playground." And she's like, "Oh, wow. It is." So, it's coming along. It's pretty cool. Um, you know, and see the playgrounds coming up. You you see the employee housing coming up and you know, you see there's uh there's always work going on and it's it's moving pretty quick. It's it's pretty amazing to see. Um, thank you for getting the
018bike path open before school started. That was a huge uh issue with that neighborhood and uh we're able to walk uh to school now. um you know so that's good. Um I did get to see some of the kids finish their last uh high school sports as you know in volleyball and uh I did get a miss that uh Eagle Valley game which was sad cuz it went out to a shootout and I was looking for the rivalry that was going to happen. Um but the last I want to say is yesterday was Veterans Day so thank you to all the veterans. um you know without you guys we wouldn't be able here doing what we need to do. Thank you very much. >> Thank you Juan Miss Hovie. Um you all have given excellent
019board reports. So actually I'm not going to take up too much time but I yes also want to say Rachel so excited to have you here. Um, and also to Lilia and Lou and Harry, thank you for stepping into This is really loud. Thank you for stepping into um, leadership roles. I I greatly appreciate it. So, I know it's a extra time on top of an already demanding position. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Gretchen. Miss Alter, >> I too will try to be brief. I talk quick. Um, couple things. Apple nominations are live. So, uh, nominate your teachers. First awards are going to be going out, I think, starting tomorrow, um, for October's, um, award. Um, so I had a finance committee last night with, uh, Bryson Beaver. Uh, and yeah, the budget is,
020uh, like Superintendent Coleman said, uh, the budget is tight. Things are not great at the state level. Um, and we were, you know, looking at the budget, um, early childhood takes quite a bit of money out of the general fund. Um, obviously we all think early childhood is incredibly important. Um, and our community really needs it. And I guess I'm sort of shouting out to the Eagle County Commissioners because I know that that's a big initiative of theirs. And I think that, um, early childhood is a community effort that should not necessarily fall um, exclusively on the school district. Um, it takes about $3 million out of our general fund and um, things are really, really tight. So, I'm just just shaking a call to those county commissioners to uh, help us out a little
021bit. I know it's really important to them. Um, so yeah, [clears throat] email your your county commissioner. Sorry, Harry. [laughter] And with that, I'll move on. >> I'll email her. Don't worry. >> Thank you, Kelly. Miss Glowwacki. >> Well, hello. I just want to say thank you for the warm welcome. I do not have a board report yet, but um I am going to be going to the duck meeting next week, so maybe next month I'll have a report for y'all. Thank you, Rachel. Um, I have a few quick things. Um, I attended the land resource committee meeting and the finance committee meeting. And, um, I wanted to say thank you to all the community members that are involved in both of those committees and then the many committees that we have. Um there's so
022much um knowledge in this community and I'm so grateful that so many of the community members um use their time and energy to help out the school district. Um the next thing is um everyone kind of mentioned this but election day was last week um and with it came a lot of exciting changes to our board. Uh first I want to thank each and every one of you for being here. Um, I'm honored to serve with all of you. Um, Gretchen and Juan, thank you for, um, running for another term and, um, continuing your dedication to the district. Um, we're thrilled to welcome Rachel. Um, you'll be representing District G, so you have some big shoes to fill. We're all going to miss Dan. Um, but thank you for stepping up to serve your community.
023Um, we're really excited to have you here with us. Uh, I also, um, want to recognize our new board officers. Harry, thank you for serving as secretary treasurer and Lou, thank you for taking on the role of vice president. Um, I'm happy and proud to serve alongside all of you. Um, and along with the district leadership team, I want to say um, thank you. I appreciate all the time and effort and heart each of you brings to your role. And I know it's not always easy and it often requires the support and understanding of your family, friends, and neighbors to be at all these meetings and to um, do all the things that you need to do to help our district. So, thank you to everyone um, that makes it that makes all this possible.
024Um, finally, I want to extend my thanks to um, McFersonson and Jacobson for being here during work session to begin coordinating the upcoming superintendent search. Um, and thanks to everyone in our community who took the time to take the online survey about the hiring process. We're really fortunate to have an engaged and thoughtful community that takes an active role in shaping the future of our district. Um so thank you all for your support of our students, staff and community. And with that we are on to public participation. Um let's see. Do we have blue cards tonight? >> We do. We have two blue cards. And just a reminder that the [clears throat] >> one more coming. [cough] You have three minutes to state whatever you need to state. Uh we'll I just mix them up
025and call one person up at a time. There is one of these mics up there and on the right hand side there's a little person looks like they're talking. Make sure you press that and it's red so everybody can hear you. Otherwise, let's have Christa Kaiser from Battle Mountain in EVA chess. Okay. Well, first of all, thanks Mr. Qualman for uh sharing your ideas and the thoughts and the law about the clubs. But I am here this evening to commend the district for sharing the school policy about clubs and want to say thank you for announcing by law the turning point chapters at both Eagle Valley and Battle Mountain have been approved. This truly is exciting for the young people that chose to come together as like-minded students. To have a club to go to
026to share openly, to think critically, to discuss thoroughly, and debate ideas and values is a wonderful opportunity for these high schoolers. I also would like to stand here tonight and thank the staff members that chose to listen and stand up for the young people that came and requested an adult to be the advisor of these clubs. These adult club these adults took on an extra responsibility only to get ridiculed by many in the community before the clubs were even approved and met. To be honest, there was a certain amount of bullying by adults and hatred swirling around on the internet on veil moms classifies of all places. The visceral response from those whose beliefs align differently are quite shocking and to be honest are rather disturbing. Sadly, in case the board is unaware, the discussion
027proceeded to take a turn for the worse when a colleague of Mr. Bueno, the Battle Mountain Club adviser, felt it was appropriate to call out her fellow teacher by name online in a way that one side does not want to be treated. And yet she felt privileged to spew her opinions and beliefs all while tearing Christopher down and now placed a certain amount of fear in the students that came forward to request such a club. Don't get me wrong, everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, a professional taking an attack on social media while the other was simply trying to explain and actually diffuse the misinformation and calm those with misplaced fear without having to do so. He did not he need to do that was somewhat defamed online by this other teacher. Not sure
028about the policy for this incident in the district, but it does make me wonder. I do not know Christopher Bueno. I do not know the other adviser for the Eagle Valley High School, but a big thank you to supporting the minority in this valley as it is hard to stand up against the louder voices. For example, the louder voice spoke clearly with what I would consider hate speech and stepped on many of my personal values in life. We can agree to disagree, but please listen to the list of descriptive words, phrases I acquired from the Veil Daily article post on Facebook about the Turning Point chapters starting legally. This is words that were for supporters. Bigoted, misogynist, racist, bigot, racist, fake, a joke. You're the problem, twisted mirror. >> We have to stay to our
029three time. I appreciate that. There's only three speakers, but you should see the comments. >> You can give the >> you you can uh give us a note and it will be distributed to all the members of the >> Thank you. And I really appreciate how you talked about clubs don't do hate speech. This is adults. >> Thank you, Miss Kaiser. >> I also have a great article. I don't know if I'm allowed to give you things, but that was Voice. Thank you. >> Our next person will be Lisa or Linda Beckett from Gypsum. >> Good evening everybody. Um I just want to say the same thing to the board. Thank you so much for upholding the Equal Access Act which defends students rights to form clubs and is the law. So appreciate that. with
030this example that's happened with uh the Turning Point USA chapters. Um I I'm thankful for teachers like Christopher Bru, I don't know how to say his last name, Bruno Buo Bruno, uh who understands that his role as an educator is to encourage the growth and learning of students. Um I just want to kind of point out I I think the way I saw and I'm not really on Facebook except for just to kind of examine these sort of things. is I think Facebook can be crazy like it it turned out to be but it just seemed like it started that parents were just proud of their schools that their children were going to. They were posting happiness about hey this is what my kid's doing like you would you know they went to prom and
031here's the picture or just kicked a great field goal and look at what you know look at what my kid just did. Um and then it came became something that was just described very well from um the last speaker. Um so yeah, I hated to see that happen. Um the last time I was at a meeting, we were talking about a teacher at VSSSA and that was very unfortunate what that person said in the presence of students. And I just um I guess it's it's teachers like this that kind of give you guys a hard job. And I'm assuming that the the female teacher who was on Facebook stating these things um that this person is involved in some kind of HR help of rehabilitating um that conduct. So that is my hope that that's
032being worked out. Um, and then I just want to say for the record, you know, I'd like I'd like to point out for anyone who isn't here that might be watching this at a later time, there's a difference between school sponsored clubs and student sponsored clubs. Um, and so there's many types of clubs, academic, art, hobbies, sports, and I want to just take a moment to share some school sponsored clubs that exist across our nation and even in this school district. These are more special interest groups, but I think it's interesting to point out there's Students Against Climate Change, Black Student Association, Hispanic and Latino Student Association, Pride Club, Gender and Sexuality Alliance. So, I want to point those out because those are school sponsored, but I want to say the difference is that Turning
033Point USA is a student sponsored club, not a school sponsored club. Um, and I also just want to point out that TurningPoint USA stands for limited government, individual freedom, and free markets and has expressed these values with very open-minded and peaceful discussion. >> Thank you. Have a good night. >> And unless anybody else has a blue card out there, our last one will be Tim the Chicken Man. Nice to see you, Tim. I need a small computer. Uh Tim McMahon, Avon, thanks for allowing me to speak tonight. Uh just a few things to bring up. Um what do we have to do so that in the spring we can have voter registration drives the high schools. Um maybe you guys can get me in contact with the high school deputy registars at the high schools.
034Um I just learned about that. Apparently at a very high school there's already a person there that's supposed to be certified to do voter registration at any time when the school's open. Um so you know anything I can do with that. Um, also let's see. In the last few weeks, a bunch of students, parents, and a few teachers have reached out about Turning Point coming to the schools. Um, as much as I disagree with a lot of what they say, this is America and they write free speech. The reason I bring this up is that, sorry, in the time I've been coming to these meetings, I've noticed some things. Most of the time, I'm the only parent here, even though my son doesn't go to the school district. There's a lack of parents attending these
035meetings and actively participating in their child's education. I'm not saying to go to all of them, but maybe have one person in your group of friends go and they can rep report back to the rest. This brings me to my next point. Staying for the whole meeting. Majority information related to your child's education is not in public comment, but later on in the few meetings where there are other parents or students present after they get up and say what's wrong going wrong in the schools or how the district is messing up during public comment, they leave. I've attended over 200 meetings in the last three years. Town council, court transit, county commissioners, and the school board. And besides when I'm doing a hat-tick with Avon at 5, Eagle at 6, and Gypsson at 7:00, I
036stay for the whole meeting. I'm not saying to follow my lead. Budget meetings definitely suck. But when it comes to your child's education, I would think you would want to be as involved as possible. That's just to my my two cents, which I guess would now be a nickel since they stopped making pennies. So >> that's it for public comment. >> Thank you, Harry. And thank you to everyone that came to speak to us tonight. We appreciate the input. Um, next on the agenda is new and old business. Um, so we have uh some tentative topics included in the agenda for next board meeting. um board self assessment, ballot measure discussion, budget work session. Um Bryson and Shellyley will both be here. Habitat for Humanity. Um does anyone have anything else they would like to
037propose? >> No. >> We usually do like 15 minutes debrief about our CASBY. um sessions and you know what I mean we we usually take some time to talk about that. I don't know if you guys feel like that's necessary but I I always enjoy just hearing what other pe what everybody thinks about it. >> Yeah, that's that's a great idea. Okay. Um, if there are no additional topics, um, there is a change to the December board meeting date, um, the board of education's December meeting has changed from Tuesday, December 9th, um, and shifted to the usual Wednesday, December 17th. So, that's just a notice for everybody. And then we will move on to policy revisions and adoptions. A special policy update by Mr. Qualman and Dr. Jarno. All of these policies fall under um
038the instruction world. So Dr. Dr. J is going to cover these. Good evening. Um so yes, we have several policy revisions and adoptions in the instructional category which is the I series of policies. And um basically these are all just updates um to things that we had previously, clarifications, simplifications. Um and so they're all listed for you. J instructional resources and materials. Uh the changes to this basically just strengthens the uh board of education input and clarifies the role of the board um in um selecting instructional resources and materials. uh policy JL, library resource selection, adoption and reconsideration. And basically um this the changes here separate it from curricular materials. So curricular materials and library materials used to sort of be lumped together and they're two very different things especially in the ways in which
039our libraries are um evolving um and not the necessarily hardback uh book brickandmortar libraries that we always used to love and know. um IKF graduation requirements. Um it really didn't change our credits from 24 to 25. There was a typo. Um so uh that change was made back in 2020 and uh there was just a typo in the policy. So we needed to clarify that. Um we still have two tracks. We have a a regular diploma and then we do have in our policy a college prep diploma. Um our counselors have talked about wanting to do something on the actual diploma to differentiate those. Um it's it's really kind of irrelevant. If if kids are planning to go to college, they need to take the foreign language and the extra credits that are in the
040college prep diploma anyway. Um, and so we really haven't um had a big push to differentiate those on the actual diploma. Um, let's see, sorry. Uh, IKF graduation requirements. Um, so the change here was including um the capstone uh information and making sure that we update the cut scores. So this is that menu of options that we have that in addition to our uh graduation requirements, it's the college and career ready requirements. So it's the ACT, SAT, ASVAB, work keys, all of those things. And then as part of that, we also have capstone projects. And so in our district, our capstones really focus on um our special education students and um our EL students. And then finally, uh, KEC is public concerns about instructional materials. And it really just updated that, um, and clarified some
041of the language. Um, just made it much easier to to look at and understand. Um, some of our policies in the past have been a little bit convoluted and wordy. And so, um, we get all of our our input from CASBY, as you know, and so they have, uh, gone to some effort to make sure things are a little more clarified and a little simpler to understand for, um, our public. Any questions? >> Thank you, Dr. Jarno. Um, this is an action item. So, if there are no further questions, would anyone like to make a motion? >> Move to approve the renovations to the following policies as presented. J, instructional resources and materials. I KF, graduation requirements, and KEC, public concern about instructional materials. I think we have to do them both separately. >> Second.
042>> Miss Halter. >> Hi, >> Miss Colin. >> I >> Miss Glowaki. >> I >> Miss Hovie. >> I >> Mr. McQueeny. >> I >> Mr. Pena. >> I >> Mr. Varunes. >> Hi. >> The motion passes unanimously. I also move to adopt the following new policies as exhibits as presented is JL library resource selection adoption and reconsideration and IKF-E graduation requirements chart of approved measures and cut scores by graduation. >> Second. >> Thank you again Harry and Gretchen. Natalia >> Miss Alter. Miss Conland, >> I >> Miss Glowaki, >> I >> Miss Hovie, >> hi. >> Mr. McQueeny, >> I >> Mr. Pena, >> I >> miss Verunos. >> I >> The motion passes unanimously. >> Thank you everybody. And I'll add there were two different motions there. Um, one is revisions to existing
043policies and the other was new policies. So that's why there were two. Uh, next we have parent engagement stock take from Matt and Eric and Eric. Thanks for being here. >> They were here anyway. >> I just want to say that I disagree with Tim. Everybody loves budget meetings and when we're done here, Bryson has a few things. We're going to turn it over to him. But first, the uh parent engagement stock take. So, we do this presentation pretty much every year. It feels like um and a lot of times it feels a little recycled. So, we wanted to focus uh on some updates and some changes actually. Uh can I open the Am I controlling this? All right. Just go to slide four if you could, Natala. I just want to show our basically
044our goal uh is really to uh utilize technology uh to increase engagement across our community. I know earlier uh the elementary schools were here and Mitch was talking about his parent engagement. I always think it's very different at the school level to engage with parents than it is for us at the district level. Uh and so it's just a slightly different, you know, arena. So we've been embracing technology. Uh, one new thing that we have been using and I guess Natalia if you want to slip to uh switch to the other tab, the Wordly tab. You guys have probably noticed uh on this back screen uh for the last three, four, five months. Uh we've been showing uh translation in Spanish uh for our visitors and and the public. Uh I'm going to let Eric
045talk a little bit about this as well and then do a little de demonstration uh to show you guys how it works. Uh there's a lot of areas where we can continue to grow this technology as well. Uh since we've started, we've limited it to the board meetings, but in the superintendent discussion today, we were talking about having different parent meetings and stuff. Uh there are one-on-one applications. Uh so it's something we're growing with and learning as we go. Uh, but with that, I'm going to let Eric kind of show you how it works. >> All right. Thank you, Matt. And yeah, just like Matt said, we have been mindful of language justice and language equality. So, these um AI software has provided us the ability to provide live interpretation for anybody that comes to
046our board meetings, not only in Spanish, but in other languages. for [clears throat] baseballat. Valley High School. Okay. Yeah. >> So hopefully that TV's on, right? So it's pretty cool, right? I mean, it's really neat how how good this does. And we uh when we went through the process of testing all these different softwares, we work with technology. Uh we went through three or four different platforms. Wordly was by far the most accurate. Uh there are some other things that like I said, we're continuing to grow with it. Um we've got headsets that we can give out to folks. Uh, and Eric has set up a QR code so that people can sit and listen. Admittedly, we tested that yesterday and we were going to give you all headphones. Still a work in progress, so
047we're working through it. Uh, but it is really, really cool and and like Eric said and like we talked about earlier in that uh meeting with the superintendent search, I mean, we want to make that, you know, language equality across the board for everyone uh and really hopefully increase parent engagement. Uh, which leads me to our second piece. Natalia, if you want to switch back. I don't know if I if you guys got a chance to see this or not, but on the final slide, I linked just four of our new social media reels. Uh, over the summer, we purchased some new equipment uh, and have started to create reels because I guess that's what everyone on social media likes. I kind of agree that Facebook isn't all that great, but uh, you can engage
048with families in the community. And so that is really cool. Uh so we have done I made a quick list. We have done a uh video on Tad Degan and our security measures. Uh I think that might be our most watched. Uh we had a mariachi band show up at Avon Elementary School a month or two ago. So we went up there and did a reel on that. We did three different videos on Dia de Muertos uh two weeks ago. I guess it was. We did a video on Mr. Kyle, our sign language interpreter at Eagle Valley Elementary School. Uh, and it's first of all, they're just cool. I mean, they're fun to watch, but the engagement has increased on social media tremendously, and I'm going to let Eric talk to that. >> Yeah. Um,
049the videos, we've always noticed that posts that contain pictures are very engaging. Actually, our number one post it's for for the custodian uh appreciation day where we have the picture of custodians receive over 11,000 views. But now we have reels these um 30 second 40 second reels where we're telling the story with images and with sound and with music and with voiceovers. So, um, yeah, here's a an example of the ones that we have that we have produced. >> And I I'm not sure that that request access was not there earlier. So, uh, if you haven't gotten a chance, go back, check them out. If anyone in the room is a social media influencer, possibly in yellow, wearing yellow, and wants to share our videos on social media. Boy, wouldn't that increase our engagement. Oh,
050there's the one. So, so this is actually our security one uh highlighting TAD. Uh and again, I mean we are seeing exponential growth in the viewership uh through these social media posts. Well over 10,000 video uh views on a number of these videos and it just continues to increase the viral nature of all of our uh social media. So, um just another way that we can increase that engagement. Um and I believe emergency services >> that oh the other thing that I wanted to talk about uh we just also added some software to make our website more accessible uh as far as documents go. So uh we're meeting later this week uh to get that plugged into our website and it will make every PDF on our website uh accessible for an e-reader. So for
051folks that are hearing or reading a pair that need to listen to can't necessarily read the PDF, it'll be accessible and it's that's the new law that went into effect uh over the summer and we're just taking that next step to increase that accessibility uh and again hopefully increase engagement. So uh with that we open it to any questions. >> I do have a question. Um was [clears throat] that part of the color board of education takeover on their social? That was so that was kind of random. They reached out to us over the summer, but what we did when we took over their media. Uh we did a post every hour on the hour and we did one like static post and then one reel and flip-flop back and forth. And so Tad left,
052according to Tad, his video was the most viewed video ever on the CDE's website. I cannot confirm nor deny that. Uh but but to answer your question, yes, we uh they basically gave us uh the keys to the car for a day. Uh and we basically had the run of their social media platforms and shared a lot of these videos. >> Yeah, that's cool. I knew they were allowing we were going to do a takeover on one day and and I seen them keep coming and >> Yeah, we've just been developing that relationship with them. Uh we had Kendall as a teacher of the year finalist and so that kind of helped you know that conversation and it's just kind of grown from there. So they've been great to work with. >> Very cool. Thanks.
053>> If there's nothing else, I'll leave it to Beaver. >> Thank you, Matt and Eric. >> You know, that was a great intro. That was an awesome intro. >> So, Bryson's going to start with approval of student fees. >> Oh, I'll just put that on the floor. You guys better buckle up. We got an hour budget of this and I'm going to try to get through it faster than that for all of our sakes. All right. Student fees. So, I have a proposed change. Uh, this would be effective immediately. be for the current year fee schedule. Uh this kind of popped up in the last few weeks. Uh Battle Mountain hockey team has been notified that they will not have a local referee assigner for the upcoming season. So they'll have to be hiring in
054their referees from the front range, which is more costly. Um so the Battle Mountain High School AD and hockey coach have approached me requesting that hockey fees be increased from 850 to 900 for the upcoming season so they can assess those um in the next few weeks. So, I'm here to request that that would be approved. >> Does anybody have any questions on that? >> Thanks. >> Are there any other sports that are looking at that same thing of because I know officials are hard to find, but >> yeah, I haven't I haven't heard that from any ads at this point, but we appreciate when the schools are taking initiative um so that the schools aren't bearing even more cost uh on top of what we already bear. So >> for for those uh unfamiliar
055with with hockey and why that fee is so much higher than all the other sports, I think it's important to recognize that we do not own ice facility in the school district. So anytime our our team practices or plays, we have to rent ice from various facilities in the county. So that's why it's one of our most expensive activities. Yeah. Also, Harry, that um the issue with the refiner is specific to hockey. So, I don't anticipate seeing that in other sports. >> Well, if anyone wants to start hockey refining in the community, [laughter] now's the time. Um, okay. This is an action item. If there are no more questions for Bryson on this one, um, would anyone like to make a motion? >> I move to approve student fees as presented. >> Second. >> Thank
056you. Lou and Harry, Natalia, Miss Alter, >> I, >> Miss Conland, I, >> Miss Glowaki, I, >> Miss Hovie, I, >> Mr. McQueeny, Hi, >> Mr. Pena. Hi, >> Mr. Vuunes. I thank you. The motion passes unanimously. >> Thank you, Natalia. Thank you, Bryson. Um, next, approval of monitoring report for governance policy EL8 fiscal management. >> This is everybody's favorite segment, the quarterly reports. So, this will be uh the first quarter. So, that'll cover July through uh September. And so, they're a little less exciting than normal because we only have three months of data. So, I would remind the board and the public as we're looking at these particularly early in the year, we're pretty much exclusively just looking at the pacing. So, that will be the percent columns. So, we want to make sure
057that the revenue that we're bringing in is about where we were last year um as a percentage of our budget and then that the expenditures aren't we're not spending, you know, 30% of our budget through the first three months when last year we spent 20%. So this is kind of just a general health check on our budget to make sure that our spending and our revenue gathering is going well. On the first page, we have our general fund, which is the primary fund in which we operate. Um, you can see that revenue is pacing really well. We're at 11% this year through September 30th, and last year we were at 12%. Um this slight decrease is attributable mostly to lower interest income as rates have gone down and we have less reserves sitting um in
058our bank accounts. So we've earned a little bit less interest income as well as um this year we will be collecting through the school finance act more property taxes and less state funding. Um that's just kind of a function of how the school finance act works um and how they fund it. they pretty much we raise the maximum amount of property tax that we can by law and then the state fills in the gap. Um, and so as as cess values have gone up, we're able to collect more tax and the state subsidizes us less. Um, and the timing on that is that the state pays us monthly and taxes usually come in at the end of the year. So since we're bringing in more taxes, the timing on that a little bit behind. >>
059So can you just say that one more time for the community? We're bringing in more taxes locally through property taxes, but because it goes to the state and then comes back, that means that the school district does not have additional funds. >> Correct. >> Is that correct? >> Correct. So, if the school finance formula say would would give us a cap and say, hey, you're allowed to between taxes in the state, you're allowed to bring in 80 million for the year. If assessed values goes up and we can bring in 65 this year versus 60 last year, we don't get to keep the extra five million. The state just contributes five million less. We're still capped at the 80 million. So revenues are looking great. Um expenses are also looking great. We're uh last year
060at this time we were at 16% of our budget. We are also at 16%. Salaries and benefits have been just a smidge lower. um and some of our other areas have been a bit higher, but um everything looks healthy from that standpoint. Um if you do look at the bottom of this page, you will see that based on our beginning fund balance, which was a little bit lower than we were hoping for. It shows that our ending fund balance for the year will be $5.5 million. The district is actively working through um hiring freezes to revise the budget in January, which is allowed by Colorado law, and to restore the ending fund balance for this year to between 6.5 and 7 million, which was what the board approved at the end of last year. So,
061we're in the process of doing that. Natalia, next fund, UPK, preschool fund revenue is um at 16% through the first three months versus 19% last year. Not really a cause for concern here. There's a couple factors at play. Um we at this time last year, just based on the timing of when our UPK payments come in from the state of Colorado, we had received one additional. So that should come in, that should catch up um from a timing perspective. And then tuition, we are about $100,000 over where we were last year due to uh a lot more offerings for infant, toddler, and preschool. But overall for this year, our revenue budgets a lot larger with the opening of GC in the spring. So we will catch up uh very quickly in the spring once that
062opens up. Expenditure- wise, um we are also spending a little bit less than we had uh at this point last year. Um that's due to a few classrooms at ELC having a little bit of a delayed opening and then again it'll kind of be the same impact uh in the spring with GEC opening that we budgeted for all those positions in the spring. So we will quickly catch that up um once GLC opens um in January. So everything's looking good for preschool fund. Next nutrition service fund. We received the majority of our nutrition service fund revenue later in the year. So, we've only received 1% of our budgeted amount and that was the same as last year. Um, I did want to address we've had a few questions from the community about SNAP disruptions with
063the federal government. Um, none of our pre our nutrition service fund funding comes from SNAP. So, we don't expect any impact to revenue this year from those disruptions. um as all of our funding or the majority of our funding comes from healthy school meals for all which was recently renewed by voters in the state of Colorado. So which is a good thing for us. Um so revenue no concerns there. Um expenditure wise we're 1% behind where we were last year which is a good thing. Um, we've seen salaries and benefits come in right around the same amount. And then, um, we've seen a slight reduction in purchase services, but I'd expect that our pacing overall is about the same. Grant fund, we've received 3 million of the roughly 9.3 that we've budgeted and we'll continue
064to receive that as the year goes along. And then of the 3 million we've received, we've spent about 1.1 million of that. Um, some of that also just comes down to uh the grant accounting that we still have to do in our department. Um, so everything is moving along great in the grant fund, student activity fund. As a reminder to the board and to the public, the student activity fund is where any fundraising dollars for clubs and sports go. Uh through the first three months, the student activity fund has brought in 180 grand. Uh which is about 40 grand higher than we had brought in last year, which is good. Means fundraising efforts are going well for our clubs and for our athletic teams. Uh on the expenditure side, we've spent about five grand more
065than we had at this point last year, but we've brought in a good bit more. So everything's looking fine there, and we'll continue to see clubs and teams spin those down as the year goes along. transportation fund uh looks pretty much identical to last year. Um the only area revenue-wise that we are a bit higher is in local revenue and that's due to um our internal trip billing um being a bit higher this year. Um I'd have to uh reach out to the transportation folks to see what exactly is going on there because we've left our rates the same. But maybe there's just uh more trips being used internally than than last year. So that's how how that how that mechanism works here is the transportation fund bills a school. Say a school uses our
066buses for a field trip or for athletic event. The transportation fund is just internally billing them um for that trip and that's just how we account for it. So it's all still a district expense but we account for it um in that manner. Uh on the expenditure side we're right on track. Spent 17% of our budget thus far. Last year we were at 18%. Um, and we've seen pretty good bit of savings on repairs on our buses. So, I think that contributes slightly to having um newer buses, newer vehicles in our fleet. Um, we've only spent about half on repairs as we had done at this point last year. >> Didn't we change fuel too? Would that >> We've converted the majority of our buses to liquid natural gas. So, that is providing some savings
067there as well. >> Where would we see that? That would be in supplies and equipment. Um, so that that particular line item is probably a little bit lower, but it's also it's $19,000 higher than last year. So there's probably some other supplies and equipment that have been a little bit higher than we were expecting. All right, Natalia, you can move to the next fund. All right, bond redemption fund. Pretty boring fund. We've brought in 2% of our tax revenue and then we haven't spent anything. Our first bond payment will be December 1st. So, we have that coming up for us. Building fund. Uh we've brought in about half the amount of interest revenue uh that we did last year. And that's again due to lower rates and having less funds, interestbearing funds in our account
068because we've been spending those down actively over the last year. Uh construction projects is our main expenditure in this fund for GEC, ELC, and Malloy Park infrastructure. And thus far, we've only spent 900,000 versus 2.1 million last year. And this is purely timing October. We had some really large bills come in. So when I present this next time, it will look very different. But that the difference there is purely timing. So everything's looking good there. And as you can see, we um have about 70 million left in that fund. Capital reserve fund. Uh revenue that we have other lo local revenue there from when we sell some of our used equipment or vehicles, things like that. So we've done some nominal revenue in that front. And if you could scroll down a little bit more,
069Natalya. We've spent uh $650,000 thus far through the first three months on capital reserve projects. Uh we had spent about 550,000 through this point last year. So right in the same ballpark. Um we've boughten some maintenance equipment and let me see Battle Mountain High School. We did some concrete work there, some flooring at Brush Creek. So um those are the main projects that we've had going on this far and we'll continue to see those come in as the year goes along. Lastly, our housing fund. So, don't be alarmed by the pacing numbers here. You see, oh, we've only brought in 1% and last year we had brought in 21%. Um, that's kind of a misnomer there because we have a big contri contribution of building coming in, which when GC is finished, we contribute the
070asset value of that building into the fund. It's just the way we account for it. It's not actual money that we can spend. It's just because you have to depreciate that asset. You you add it in. So that 23 million will be added in in the spring once we finish the housing development there. Um as far as on the expense side, um we're significantly lower than we were last year from a percentage standpoint, but we're about $30,000 higher uh on a gross spending standpoint. And most of that is due to higher master lease expense expense because we have more master lease units this year than we did at uh than last year. So everything's looking good there. And with that, that was a little quick master class there on all of our funds. But with
071that, I'll open it up to questions. >> Thank you, Bryson. I wanted to um say that this is a very detailed report on um the budget and there's um always a lot of talk about financial transparency and this is is as transparent as I feel like you can get. So, um, thank you so much for putting in the time and the effort to, um, present this to us and the community. Um, does anyone if anyone has any more questions? This is an action item. Um, and we need a motion. Thanks for dumbing it down for me. Um, with that [laughter] I move to approve the monitoring report for governance policy EL8 fiscal management and the quarterly report. >> Second. >> Thank you. Juan and Harry Natalia. >> Miss Alter. >> Hi. >> Miss Conlin >>
072I. >> Miss Gowaki >> I. >> Miss Hovie. >> I. >> Mr. McQueeny. >> I. >> Mr. Pena. >> Hi. >> Mr. Aunes. >> I. Thank you. The motion passes unanimously. All right, Bryson, there's more. >> There's more. Wait, there's more. >> Update on Eagle County School District fiscal health analysis 2022 to 2024. >> Perfect. Yeah. So, this fiscal health analysis is performed by the office of the state auditor. You can kind of consider this a fiscal scorecard for the district and they compare us against other districts. Um, and they use a three-year rolling period so that we can kind of see as a trend how we've been doing as a district. So, we're going to work through some of these. So, they've established six financial indicators to kind of compare us against and they
073help us see how fiscally healthy we are. So, you can go to the next one, Natala. So, try I'll try to break this down and not get too in the math and and try to make it understandable. So, but this is this is a little dry. Okay. So, our first ratio is the asset sufficiency ratio. Um it's this measures the adequacy of our assets as a district to cover our obligations and our liabilities. So this is really saying do we have enough assets to pay our bills to cover our debts. Um if you go to the next slide Natalia. So this ratio has two different criteria that the state has chose. They said that one the ratio should not consistently decrease over time and it shouldn't go below 1.0. Uh and it should not consistently
074remain below 1.0 if you do go below 1.0. So you can see from 2022 to 2024 we have seen a decreasing ratio which is uh part of the spin down of our fund balance. So our assets have been decreasing as we've spent our fund balance down to recruit and retain staff. So but we've met this criteria. All of our years have been above 1.0 which means we have more than enough assets to cover our liabilities. Um the warning here would be that we are consistently decreasing. So, it's something as a district that we do need to be paying attention to and be, you know, considerate of that we as we draw our fund balance down, we do get closer to 1.0. >> The next formula is the debt burden. >> Quick question. Yeah. So, if
075we push our fund balance back to where we want, like up at the 10 million, would this rise back up to the 2 Correct >> two or correct? It should. >> Yeah. Yeah, fund balance is going to be the main driver of that number. So the second formula we have here is the debt burden ratio. This indicates whether our revenues are enough to pay our debt payments for the year. If you go to the next slide. So the two criteria that the state sets is that the ratio should remain constant or increase over a three-year period and it should not go below zero or remain below zero. So this isn't looking at all of our revenue as a district. This is only looking at the revenue we raise in our bond fund, our bond redemption
076fund. Um, so this number will always be close to one because we're always only raising enough money to make our bond payments and we try to do that to lessen the burden on the taxpayer. So we're only setting our mills high enough that if our bond payment is 25 million, we want to raise 25 million and 100,000, you know. So this number will be close to one and we've been a little bit over one over the last three years, which is a good thing. So no concerns there. Our third ratio is the operating reserve ratio. And this looks at how much of our reserve, how much reserves we have. And if revenue were to stop today and we got no more money, how long we'd be able to cover our costs in the future. [laughter]
077So the two different criteria pretty much the state wants us to have at least one month of expenditures if our revenue were to dry up which is 8.3% of a year 0083. So they want us to be higher than that. Um over the last three years the lowest we've had was this last year we had 11% versus 8%. So again, this is a ratio that we've met our benchmarks, but it's constantly decreasing and as we spend more of our fund balance down, it gets concerning. So it's another ratio that we need to continue to look at and be diligent with. Next ratio is OMR, operating margin ratio. And this looks at um for every dollar that we bring in in revenue, how much of that goes to our fund balance? like how much are we
078saving? So if we uh if we brought in a dollar, are we saving two cents of that to the fund balance? Are we saving negative two cents of that to the fund balance? The ratio here and the criteria the state has set is they they kind of give us a caveat that it can fluctuate based on our budget decisions and it it does because we've been spinning our fund balance down. But they give the guidance that it should never it shouldn't be consistently below zero. You can see over the last two years, we did have one year where our ratio was positive, but overall we've been spinning our fund balance down. So, this number would be consistently negative as we aren't saving really any of our revenue uh to and putting that towards fund balance.
079So again, it's um they don't really grade you on this one quite as much because there is a lot of fluctuation based on a district's budgetary priorities, but it's again one that as we look at it uh we need to be cognizant that uh kind of indicates that we don't have a a sustainable funding model if we continue to spend that down. The next one, deficit fund balance ratio. We don't have any of our funds that are at a deficit fund balance. So this one doesn't apply to us. So you can go on to the sixth one. Last one. Everybody stay awake for one more minute. Um change in fund balance ratio formula. So this looks at the increase or decrease in the general fund ending fund balance. So the criteria the state sets for
080this one is pretty much it's letting us know that if it's consistently negative and we're continuing continuously spending our fund balance down that that's not sustainable because money is running out. So you can see every year for the last three years we've been spending our fund balance down. So um they don't again kind of like grade you on this. They're not like oh you failed this one but they're kind of letting you know like hey you need to like turn it around. So um I'll put this caveat in here that as a district this is more for the public because we've talked about this aboard but moving forward we're working towards balanced budget for this next budget cycle. And so that would be a a key part of making this ratio look better in the
081coming years. So, as a summary, we met all of our benchmarks, which is a good thing, but there are several benchmarks that point to um declining fiscal health and and that really for the board means that we need to take the steps to balance the budget going forward and to begin to up build rebuild the fund balance and I think we're all on the right track of of doing that. So, does anybody have any questions on that? So, in one of your next one, you're going to give us the answer to that, right? [laughter] How do we balance that, right? >> Yeah, we're working on it. >> Or God, that's so loud. >> Um, how I know we need to in good faith have an we need to change the trajectory and start going up.
082How many years until we get red flagged by them? And and like isn't that what happens is they they're sort of like you are going in a downroar spiral and you can no longer sustain red flag. >> Yeah. They they the next if we were to get to that point we would show up in their report over the next couple years. As far as h how long I would have to run the numbers myself, but I mean if we continue to go in the route that we're going certainly, you know, this year or next year, we'll probably end up in the report, but we won't get there because we're going to add to our balance, right? Isn't that our whole goal is to >> Yeah, we're going to make wise fiscal choices so that we
083don't end up on the report. Correct. I think we have a budget work session planned for next meeting. >> Yep. >> And there's going to be some great ideas. >> For sure. For sure. >> Uh this was informational. So um no motion on this one. Um thank you so much. Um and then you have one one more >> last one. the October student count update. >> Okay, so with the caveat that all these numbers are best estimates and haven't been finalized with CDE yet. We'll have like final final numbers in January and so these numbers are subject to change, but these are our closest estimates as of November 1st. So the district's estimating that Eagle County enrollment will come in approximately 19 uh 90 students down to budget and down approximately 250 students to last
084school year. So, our overall enrollment declined approximately 3.8% this year compared to 2.2% the prior year. Um, after you account for state averaging, this leads to a decline in funded pupil count of approximately 47 students. And this decline in funded pupil count would result in approximately $500,000 reduction in revenue for the current school year. And that reduction we will have to account for in our revised budget in January. and we're addressing that uh partially through a hiring freeze as superintendent mentioned during his statement. Um if you look at the kind of the breakdown that I've attached here, uh we saw if you compare it to last year, we saw 83 fewer students at the elementary level for the current year, four fewer at the middle school and 162 fewer at the high schools. Um and
085we are working with any school. So, so the district policy is that any school that's outside of a plus or minus 20 studentto budget range, we work with that staff on making FTE adjustments in the current year. So, we've already started conversations with several schools on um what can be done in the current year to uh make small adjustments to FTE uh to get them more in line with budget. Does anybody have any questions on that? All right. Thank you so much, Bryson. There was a lot of information and uh that was our agenda. Are there any feedback or evaluation comments before we end the meeting? >> No, I um first of all, congratulations on your first uh meeting, Madame President, as our deer. You did a very good job. >> So, props to you,
086Lou, Harry. You guys did well. >> Thank you. >> You know, your support roles. Um welcome to your first meeting. Um, and then the other thing too is Bryce and I really like the way you break it down and um, so we can actually go in to the report and read it, but then you actually put the talking points on the side. Um, actually makes it a little easier to follow and and I don't have to take as much notes. So that's awesome. Um, I do like that. Um, I do not have anything else. So back to you, Madam President. Anyone else? That's it.