001Good evening and welcome to the Eagle County School District Board of Education meeting September 10th, 2025. Please join us for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] >> All right. Thank you so much. And um I appreciate the the principles that showed up during our work session this afternoon for their school improvement plan presentations. We had our first two uh presentations of the year from Homestake Peak and ECC ECC ECCA. So super job. Thank you so much for being here and and for all of your enthusiasm with what you do. Uh we also learned and got an update on our school performance frameworks and assessment
002data review from Melissa. Um great things happening there too. So excellent job everyone. Appreciate you. We are going to start our regular session portion of the meeting tonight with approval of the consent agenda. This is an opportunity to approve items of a more routine nature. Uh any item can be removed and considered separately. On the consent agenda tonight is approval of minutes from the August 20th meeting, approval of a personnel list. We've got a statewide internet portable authority grant to support digital accessibil accessibility initiatives. Another grant uh for capital support to complete crucial finishes for the newly constructed Gypsum Early Learning Center. And another grant uh to enhance K through2 digital security and access. All sound like great things. Uh again any item can be removed and considered separately otherwise this is an action item.
003>> I move to approve the consent agenda and second. >> Excellent. Thank you Kelly. Thank you Lou. Natalia. >> Miss Alter. >> I miss Conlin. I >> Miss Hobie. >> I >> Mr. McQueeny. >> I >> Mr. Pena. >> Hi, >> Mr. Reynolds. >> I >> Mr. Vunas. >> It's good to have all seven of us back and together. Motion passes 70. Next up on the agenda is the report of our superintendent. >> Thanks, Mr. President. [clears throat] Before I get into my prepared notes, I think we need to acknowledge what's happened at Evergreen High School today. not far down the road. Uh school shooting there today. Anytime these things happen, it affects all of us, not just in in K12 [clears throat] and schools, but in all of our communities where we have kids
004attending school every day. It makes us all anxious, makes us all sad, um makes us all disappointed that this is the the state of our of our country right now. It reminds us why we keep our schools safe and keep security as a top priority. And I'd like to take this opportunity to once again thank Tad Degan and his work as a as a newly appointed director of safety and security for the school district. Newly appointed in that it's a new position for us as of last year and uh I think it was a wise investment. I think that the analysis that we've done on our schools uh to do a comprehensive safety and security check from a third party consultant was a courageous action on our part. Uh it it put us in a
005vulnerable position to open up our schools to scrutiny. Uh but I think that we learned from that um that Tad has done tremendous work. Uh our community provided funding for him through the last bond measure in 2023. So a lot of the upgrades that we've done in the last year came from those dollars. Uh so I think we have to remember when something like this happens that we can never ever be complacent about school safety. We have to be vigilant every day, 100% of the time. And to our friends in Evergreen, our friends in Jeffco, um [clears throat] we're with you in spirit, and we hope for a a speedy recovery for everybody, both physically and emotionally, so you can get your school back on track. So, I think I need to just take a
006moment um of silence here before I move on. Natalia, could you move to the next slide, please? Thank you. All right, those will be an abrupt segue into some celebrations, but we are starting a school year here in Eagle County, and we've got some positive things that I think we need to put on the on the radar for everybody in our community. Um, we need to talk about our school performance and district performance frameworks that were just released this week. Um, the district uh went up three and a half% moved us into the accredited zone on district performance framework. We had several schools that performed the best they have since uh the days of of COVID in 2020. So, some big kudos go out to some of our schools for their tremendous progress. I think
007the statistic that I'm most excited about in in the growth is among our elementary students. Um their growth measure was 15 points higher than last year for our elementary kiddos. That is aggregate across the whole district and I think really speaks to what the future holds uh for our district when those kids metriculate through middle and high school. So we're doing the right things. Uh I wish we had more time and more money to do it. Uh but I think we're moving in the right direction and I'm very excited to report to our community and to our board uh that progress and that we are in the performance zone on district performance frameworks. Uh some other uh important things of note, Kendall Vanvulenberg, a teacher right here at Red Canyon High School, is a finalist
008for teacher of the year in the state of Colorado. So very excited for Kendall to to reach that level. Uh we had state people here from Denver last week and uh took some pictures and awarded her with uh a check for $1,500. And we'll find out later in the year if she is the winner of that. But to be a finalist among uh over a thousand uh nomin nominations is is a pretty incredible feat. So very very proud to have Kendall in the running for for teacher of the year. Uh two more awards among our staff members. Dana Harrison, principal at Avon Elementary School, uh was awarded the business partnership award from the Eagle County Safety Council, and that's for her work with the town of Avon Police. So, speaking of school safety, uh Avon
009uh works closely with the Avon Police Department, and the chief of police there, Chief Dailyaly, recommended her for that award. So very excited for for Dana and her school uh to receive that award in a couple of weeks at the safety council award dinner along with Tad Degan who I just mentioned. Uh Tad will win the leadership award for taking over a position that that never existed and really running with it and providing an a new level of safety and security for our students and our staff and our schools. So excited about all these these [clears throat] elements of celebration. Let's move on to updates. Special legislative session summary. Oh, this is where it gets really fun. Nothing says [clears throat] fun like a special legislative session. Uh, typically the legislature meets January to May,
010but we got to have a special one uh this August and into September. Uh, because the state had a $750 million budget deficit they needed to resolve. That budget deficit was not our doing. uh that was the result of the one big beautiful bill act passed in Washington that pushed that debt onto the state. So the way they addressed that in that 6day special session, they raised 2 million two, excuse me, $200 million by changing some tax laws that will primarily impact uh the wealthiest among us and businesses. They cut $300 million via executive order and K12 was not among those departments that received that budget cuts. there will be uh $250 million used from reserves. So we we managed to get out of that special session without any cuts to K12, but the legislative
011session will begin a new in January and we will need to be vigilant uh because I don't know that we will escape that session unscathed. So we need to keep an eye on that. Um work groups have commenced. Last [clears throat] spring we finalized negotiations with an agreement to put together two work groups. this fall. Uh, one of those work groups is to evaluate the teacher leader program. I want to thank Dr. Katie Jarno and Dr. Ashley Winn for running that program review. Uh, so far they've had one meeting and off to the races to to figure out how to make our teacher leadership program as effective as possible. I think that uh it's important to note that that's something that we do well. We have done it for a long time in this district
012and we believe that everybody deserves coaching. Everybody gets better with coaching and we have funded a teacher leader model uh meaning that we have teacher leaders who who spend some of their time in the classroom and some of their time coaching their peers. Uh it's an effective model. Could it be better? Absolutely. It's time to review it and that's what we're doing to make sure that that we [clears throat] have a strong teacher leader program in the district. The second work group that has assembled is the salary schedule workg group. Um there are some um anomalies in our salary schedule that we need to really bring into uh more of the the the mean of what we see among salary schedules in the rest of the state. We've got a very difficult time uh increasing
013our base salary because our our step increases are are larger much larger than than average. So that's one piece that we need to fix. Uh but we're going to take a look at that with the salary schedule workg groupoup a subcommittee of negotiations. We'll meet again in in October twice. Uh so we have six meeting five meetings scheduled total and hope to have some resolution from that group such that we can bring a salary schedule to the negotiations team for adoption early in the budgeting process. Meaning we're not going to wait until April or May after we see what the legislature does with finance. We're going to try to see if we can move towards a salary schedule early so we can incorporate that into our budgeting process uh in the fall and winter. And
014finally, uh, last update is on the Derby fire, which is nearly over. So, I want to give a a big thank you to, uh, our emergency responders and our fire crews who have been on site in the last few weeks, uh, making sure that that fire did not spread anymore up Sweetwater and up the Colorado River Road. We had some family and staff displaced from that. Lots of anxiety as those smoke plumes rose over our community. We had to cancel some outdoor practices and recesses because of smoke, but those guys and gals got that all straightened out up there. So, I really appreciate their effort. Our community is is very grateful. That is it for my report, Mr. President. Back to you. >> Thank you, Superintendent Coleman. Moving on to board reports. Harry, will you
015get us going? >> Sure. It's been a couple weeks to start a school. I was lucky enough to uh go to Eagle Valley Middle School. They do a barbecue at the beginning of the year. Usually it's around now, but seeing how it was a full week, the first week of school, um he thought it was good to uh have a little break on Thursday and feed all the kids uh hamburgers and hot dogs. So, I got to go over there and get that. Got a new t-shirt from them, which had their code on it, which was really cool that they're just promoting safety and uh engagement in uh with all their kids. Um, the other fun thing I saw was uh that just the team building that uh the teachers and the teams and the
016kids out there all seemed to be just having a great time even though it was just within the first week. Um, and they were starting to get into all their routines. [clears throat and snorts] So, it was a great start of the year. I had fun cooking for him. Look forward to do it again in the future. >> Thanks, Eric Lou. Yeah, I did not go to that barbecue and I'm sure my sixth grader was very excited that I didn't. Um, so yeah, it's been a good couple of weeks. Crazy summer. I'm sure Dan will make fun of me for missing the last two meets. So, go ahead, Dan. [laughter] >> Their meetings. >> Uh, so yeah, excited to be back and uh looking forward to a great school year. >> Thanks, Lyn. >> Yep.
017What? >> My mic's been on the whole thing. Um, let's see. So, just a couple shout outs. Today, speak out, speak up, reach out, is the red ribbon day or yellow ribbon day. Um, I don't have a ribbon, but I did have this really big shirt that was I was going to wear. Um, [clears throat] I did go to the Casby Delegate Assembly in Lovelin. Um, it was pretty cool. Um, and what it is, it's the recommendations of the Kazbe board that they would like to forward to the legislation. So, it's cool. Um, it was awesome. I learned a lot. Um, they actually met a teacher that was actually inducted into the teacher hall of fame and just talking to her, it was super cool. um my daughter and some other updates. My daughter took
018her second practice test. So, pretty soon she'll be [clears throat] teaching here again hopefully. And I think that's all I got. >> Nice. Thanks. Thanks for doing that, Juan. >> Gretchen. Um yeah, I was gonna I won't mention it, but just uh today being suicide awareness day and wanted to take a minute and really thank uh your hope squad, my hope squad and um Speak Up Reach Out for all of their work that they do around mental health in the schools and um yeah, that's about it for me. >> Thanks, Gretchen. Kelly, >> first can I just say I really enjoyed our new format for our school improvement plans. Um, so thank you to Homesake Peak and Eagle County Charter Academy and Steph and Tiffany and Molly and Joey for coming and presenting. It was
019great to hear that and just I'm always blown away by the quality of our administrators, our principles and their dedication. Um, and it was great news from Melissa today with some of our results. Um, so good news there. Uh, riding with the cycle effect girls were in our last session. Um, we have a lot of really young girls, fourth and fifth graders from Edwards and Homesake Peak and Avon and St. Claire's and all over the valley and they've all really bonded and are learning to ride bikes. We've got girls that literally cannot ride bikes that are now like riding on trails, did not know how to ride two wheelers. So, that's been super fun. Um, and I'm hoping to hear a little bit maybe an update from the Lamb Resource Committee, which I'm now no
020longer a part of because other people wanted that position. So, I'm hoping maybe get an update tonight on what happened in last Thursday's meeting. That's all I got. Thanks. >> Thanks, Kelly. Lilia, >> um I just wanted to say um thanks to all the staff and families and kids for starting off the new year with so much like energy and enthusiasm. This year seems like it's off to a great start. So, thanks. >> Thanks, Lilia. I did go to the land resource committee meeting. Well, virtually. They moved it. >> Yeah. >> I don't think I'm part of that. Uh, I don't know. Um, but it was great. It was one of the best meetings ever. Yeah, actually. Lots of donuts. >> Uh, I did also attend two open houses, [laughter] one at Battle Mountain High
021School and one at the ski academy. And those are those are always so fun and enlightening because you're in the teachers environment and they are telling you and they're so excited about what they're doing. um in their classrooms for the semester. So, I just love the energy at those uh open houses. You may have also noticed that I shaved my playoff beard or mustache really, and that's because we [clears throat] won the Thursday night beer league softball championships of the world again last Thursday. So, shout out to BBOS, Bros Boys of Summer, or Bob's Boys of Summer, or maybe Bad Boys of Summer. We actually don't even know. What we do know is that we've won 13 championships in the last 18 years. I'll say that again. [clears throat and cough] 13 championships in the
022last 18 years. Just think about that. >> Mean to >> I don't know. I don't you can't you can't even clap cuz it's incomprehensible how many championships that is >> you go award >> oh thanks for bringing that up one all right um we moving on to public participation do we have any blue cards doesn't look like it anybody from the public want to provide their input to the board now would be a great time to do that we love hearing from the public ah Ah, [sighs] I'll wait. We'll wait. Okay. Uh, we'll move on to new and old business. Tenative topics for the September 24th board meeting include ah more school improvement plan presentations from Berry Creek Middle, Eagle Valley Middle, Gypsum Creek Middle, and the World Academy. and some MTSS data updates. Regular
023session, we have approval of the DAC membership list, which I believe Rachel is going to be part of that, right? And student count, preliminary data, early childhood fall update, and head start. So, that's great. and some other stuff, early childhood items, which we love. And then approval of some well-deserved resolutions uh and honors for next meeting. So, that's great. Are there any other any other items that board members would like to add to the upcoming I see your microphones on, Harry. >> I do. Yeah. In one of our last meetings, uh, Bryce talked about, uh, how different counties and cities put on a sales tax and funded education. And I'd like to hear more information about that when we look at our state and everything else in its disarray and the nation. Um, that it
024looks like we'll need to do things locally. So, I if we could get more information on what they did. I think Steamboat was another uh little city. >> Steamboat and Aspen both have sales tax uh revenue that supports their schools. Um we are going to be meeting with some county officials, we Bryson and I, uh on the 24th, which wouldn't allow us time to speak to that on the meeting of the 24th, but we can try to bring you back some more information in October after we've talked to them about the sales tax idea. >> Super. Anyone else? Okay. Well, let's move on to our public interest items for discussion. And one of our favorite presentations of the year every year is from Tim Moffett and our swap school to work alliance program update. Are
025you ready, Tim? We're ready for you. Come on up here to our lectern. >> Yes. Yes, please. Yep. Yeah, bring everybody or whoever you want >> and just make sure you push that little person icon and the your microphone will light up and you're ready to go. >> There we go. Is that better? Okay. Um hello everyone. Thank you for uh giving us the time tonight. Um, just wanted to tonight is the annual check-in with how things are going with the swap program. Um, everyone in this room has been incredibly supportive and well-wishing and I'm I'm psyched to be here. I'm really excited to bring my friend Franco who is new in the program and he's going to be helping me with my presentation tonight. Um, and so are you ready to go? >> Yes.
026>> I'll tell you when. I'll tell you when. Okay. All right. Um, so the the I want to go through a few things. Uh, my ca my colleague Kathy Mahill her has epic car problems and she could not join us tonight. She wanted to be here so that she could comment on her part and I can kind of fill in for her a little bit. Most of you know that the swap program works with young people uh generally who are on an IEP or a 504 plan with the school. They are between the ages of 15 and 24. I work with I've got right now I have a couple kids who are 15 and I've got b a lot of kids who are out of school already. Um and so that's kind of that's we
027focus on work skills, not so much life skills. We focus on developing resumes, exploring careers, u what do you do you want to do something after high school? And I want to talk about that in a minute. Um there's been some really really good news on that front. Um and just be just all the employment opportunities I kind of go by a mantra um of is it achievable, is it attainable, and is it local? And because I have a lot I have some young young kids in the program who want to do stuff that isn't a fit for the county, but they need to get some some uh entry level work under their belts before they start doing some other stuff. So that's what the program does. kind of figure out where they are and
028let's let's work with what they've got. Um DVR, the division of vocational rehabilitation. That's my colleague Kathy. Um and so DVR helps all kinds of people with all different kinds of skills and helps them maintain employment, thrive in employment, continue to grow into their 80s. I work with Kathy sort of as the youth person and I'm the person in the buildings more than she is. she has a more administrative role, but she supports me with keeping me on track and in my lane and checking boxes and all of that, right? So, um, but she she makes a determination as to who is a good fit for the program. And generally, if a if a young person has an IEP or had an IEP or a 504, it's going to be a fit. So, we we
029we we sign well we there's some paperwork to do and then we figure out what they need. I've got one young man who joined last spring who's already working two jobs, but he's interested in going to tech school and that's what he needs focus on. He's already employed. He's doing great. I'm like, dude, we he's he's great, but he's got other needs. And I might have somebody else who's who's 16 and has never worked before or 19, has never worked before. So, that person has different focus on different things with that person. Now is the part where I'm going to brag on brag on a lot of kids. Um this young man, his name is Jaden. He graduated from Eagle Valley High um in the spring. He is the recipient among he's among eight boys.
030I think it's all boys um who received the career pathways scholarship at CMU Tech. And Jaden is in the welding program there. And it's a two-year program that he's on a two-year path there. And this other picture that's hard to understand what it is that he sent me this over the weekend. That is his first weld ever. Um, but I'm super excited for him because he's the first person in the swap program to receive a scholarship like this. So he's and yeah, he's I'm very excited for him. That was a that was a that was a biggie. This young lady did a internship with Youth Power over the summer. Um she is also a participant in the climb program and if just to remind you the climb program is for young people. Franco is in
031it as well. Um who are 18 to 21 and it focuses more on life skills and community activities. So this young lady did an internship with youth power this summer and she was working at Avon Elementary School. She was a camp counselor and all of that were those responsibilities, but she was focused mainly on helping little bitty kids get started with reading. And she crushed it. They they loved her. And one of the things that's exciting is finding out where where this young lady wasn't sure what she wanted to do with herself. She worked with kids over the summer and she's like, "This is what I want to do." And we need her help. She's she has an application in with us at the school district right now to be an assistant at hopefully at
032the EELC or maybe Homestake Peak. So, we're we're hoping for a hoping for a for a for an interview for her. Uh this young man, uh he's great. He struggles with school, but he works his butt off. He is tangled up with the two biggest employers in the valley. Um uh Joe is very familiar with this young man. He works for the school district in the summer and the landscaping crew and he does he's up at the lifts in Centennial. So, he's working with Veil Resorts seasonally. There's the boys out doing their deal. Uh the young man in the daylow, he has graduated successfully from the program and they're out making Joe, what is it? 17 campuses. Yeah, 17 campuses look beautiful. So, I'm super proud of him. Um, the benefits of the program, uh,
033like I talked about, I talked about some of this. Um, I've got a lot of kids, like I mentioned, I kind of covered all this that have graduated or they're out of school already, that kind of thing. Um, and I'm working on recruiting some more younger people into the program. This young man in the cowboy hat had a very bumpy ride joining the Marines. He had to do boot twice because he got sick in the first one, and they made him do it again. >> Yeah. I just I couldn't believe it. I [snorts] was like, "What?" Yeah. So, right now he's uh he's crushing it. Look at his mom. He's um he is repairing artillery. So, it's a very hands-on, very technical line of work where if if if he that's what he does in
034the Marines. He repairs and fixes stuff that other people use. So, he has a behind-the-scenes job and he's doing great. Very very pleased with him. That's like a $1,600 cowboy hat. Uh Juan, you're in this picture. That's you. >> Yep. There you [laughter] That's it. So, services while the young while the kids are still in school or job exploring, of course, counseling, things like that. Um work-based learning stuff, I'm going to be talking about a little bit more. Post-secary counseling, talking about that a little bit more as well. Workplace readiness stuff, Franco's going to talk about that a little bit. Um, self- advocacy is an ongoing thing. Some kids really struggle with it. Some kids are really good at it. I sat in an IEP meeting last week and I couldn't believe how articulate this
035young man was about what he didn't want to do. I was like, "Okay, go ahead." It was awesome. So, we do site visits like this picture. I love this picture. This is with Juan and a young man. Uh we went up to visit one at the Beaver Creek M vehicle maintenance uh center and he put this boy into a million-dollar snowcat and couldn't get him out. It was it was a very very cool afternoon. Uh this young man is working at Valvvelene which is a great company. He is stepping up a tiered in a tiered training program that they have. Uh it's super structured and they just continue to build on skills. He's full-time. He's he's full-time, full benefits, and he graduated from Battle Mountain last spring or no, a year ago, a little little
036over a year ago. This young man is a unique story. I'm super proud of him. [gasps] He is an inventory tech at Veil Health along with his brother who also just graduated from the program. Uh they both have different roles in inventory. Um he is in the career-wise PL program. So this is an internship that he's working. He has a few he's got another eight or so months on it. Um he's basically if you blow an ACL, he's the one behind the scenes pulling the kit together for the surgeons and placing them in the surgical suite. So you've got a double bypass over here. That's a whole other set of things. But he's the one and he his his unique way of learning and thinking is superb for a job that's this exacting and precise
037and he's killing it. So hopefully we're going to maybe get a job offer out of that as well when he's done with his internship. This is [clears throat] Franco. There you go. That's you. >> Yep. >> It's your turn. It's your turn. Are you ready to go? >> Yes. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You go ahead and read that. Just right here. Talk into this. This is my friend Franco Sto. Uh Franco's new in the program. And I'm going to let you talk about what you what you want. You read that and anything else you want to say. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> Hello. Hello, my name is Rango Sto. I joined the swap program right before I finished high school at Battle Mountain High School last spring. Last month, I started participating in the client
038transitious program at CMC. Since joining swap, Mr. Moffet and I have worked together to get my resume put together building a model VA engine in volunteer with youth power serving lunch to summer campers. Next week, I will go to the emergency services fair with climb class and Mr. Moffett. My long-term goal is to work in the fire service someday. For now, I am focusing on employment skills. Since joining the SWAT program, I have stretched my communication and organizational skills, gain power confidence, supported other kids, and just powered 365, volunteer in a commercial kitchen, and had a lot of fun. I am preparing for the ACUPPLAR test in the client program, learning life skills like volunteering at the community market. Swap has helped me with time management, exposed me to new experiences, real world pre-employment skills,
039the confidence to do things on my own, and helps me explore a career path where I can help others in my community. >> Talk about that a sec. What is it you want to do? What would you like to do down the road? >> Down the road? >> Yeah. Like what you got to tell them? >> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Tell them what your Tell them what you what you what your big goal is. My big goal is I would love to become a firefighter once I grow up by helping a lot of people. >> And you would? Firefighters are a big part of our community. That's awesome. Is there anything else you want to talk about? >> Nope. You're good. >> I'm good. >> You just crushed it. You want to stay up to date?
040[applause] >> Awesome job, buddy. Do you want to stay up here with me for the rest of it? >> I think I'm okay. >> Do you want to go sit down? >> Yes. >> You did an awesome job, buddy. Thank you. Go >> Franco. >> And Franco's family. [applause] >> Super excited to have Franco, his family here with us tonight. Um because Franco just started the program in the spring. So he's had we're um the the the some of the things that you see here. We served lunch with at uh Berry Creek for some of the campers in the youth at the youth uh mountain youth youth power 365 summer camp. And that's Franco. We're building a I have discovered a cool thing. You can buy model kits of V8 engines and build them and
041learn how they work and they have batteries and they light up and they Yeah. So anyway, that was really cool. This was a This was fun this summer. This is another young man who helped me build an engine. So, um, this week coming up, I'm going to do my first ever we're going to try doing some salon services with some of the young ladies who are interested in spa services. So, I have an acrylic nail clinic that we're doing next week at Eagle Valley High. I have all the stuff you Okay. Anyway, human got jewels and all of it. Anyway, yeah, I've got No, I've got the fake hands. They You buy the fake hands and the fake fingernails and it's like it's Yeah. So, I have all that. We're going to do that next
042week and see how that goes. We do some car detailing. Um I've got eyelashes. I got the rubber face. And you put the I got all of it. Anyway, so we're gonna it's so anyway, this is this is some of the stuff and and it's good. It gives the kids a chance to do hands-on stuff and see if they like it, see if they don't like it. So that's coming. Those things are coming up. That's that's the clinic for next week. Some nitty-gritty numbers, contractual outcomes for this past year, there are 44 kids were served by the program. Uh 110% of the target was hit with uh for re kids receiving services. um 443% above target on kids in an employment plan. That's something that Kathy puts together. Closed rehabilitated is sort of the brass
043ring. That is the kids who have been successfully exited out of the program and that number got hit. Percentage of kids I'm very proud of this one personally. Um as of August 75% of the kids in the swap program were employed in some way or another. I'm very happy about that. And I mentioned earlier about kids going to college or a trade program. I was frankly un unprepared for how many kids really wanted to go after high school and do stuff like the young man at the top of the presentation, Jaden, in his welding program. I've got one young lady in Steamboat at CMC, one in Breenidge doing the EMT program, and I've got several other kids here in Edwards at CMC. So, I was thrilled with that. Um, that's that's awesome. Um, this year
044the target case load uh from the state team for me is 50 kids. My current case load is 30. Um, so I have some work to do on recruiting to get my case numbers case load numbers that high. Um, collaborating with the sped teams has been amazing. They include me, they think of me, they loop me in on things, they refer, which is super, super really appreciated. I am now on the swap task force. We're doing the workbased learning, ongoing workshops in the schools. Yesterday was a day at Battle Mountain. We focused on adult communications and not snapping, not texting, but how to communicate in an adult setting. So that was a day at Battle Mountain yesterday. you know that the program is year- round community- based. Um, one of the big parts of the
045job that I really love is developing relationships with different employers who are inclined and lean in uh on certain populations and really I it's very cool. It's I've had much better luck with that than not. Um, if a kid has exited out of the program and they want to come back, they can until they're 24. Otherwise, my my colleague Kathy works with them into adulthood. the community partnerships I can't say enough about um working with career-wise working with my future pathways uh and if you are not familiar with that organization I encourage you to look into it what they are doing is incredible work uh mountain youth of course three youth power 365 CMC has just been fantastic they also have adaptive they also have counselors for adapt um what am I trying to say
046for to support kids who need a little extra to support in college. So, that's been great. Um, Mavericks has been great. That's the right boss. Does anyone have any questions for me? >> No questions, Tim. I just want to say thank you. I appreciate the work that you do. Um, it's really um >> I I think it's a a great extension of what's happening in our in our schools. I think that the way you weave together all these different organizations, all these different educational opportunities is is really creating some some pretty cool opportunities for for our students. So, >> it's it's a lot of fun. >> Thanks for what you do. >> Absolutely. Thank you. It's a lot of fun. And like I said, I I am grateful to everybody in this room um who
047has been super supportive and and uh it's I think I have the coolest job in the district. [laughter] Anyway, thank you so much. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you, Tim. Leave this here, Matt. >> Leave everything as it is. >> Not my department. >> Okay, good. Okay. >> Yeah, I do. >> Tim. Tim. >> Tim. Hold on. Oh, yeah. >> Lose. >> Well, I just wanted to thank you. I was thinking to myself, we should see you more often because you're just like you bring all [laughter] good news and I love seeing everything you're doing uh with our students. I actually personally wanted to congratulate Franco. you you know it's not easy to come and speak in front of so many strangers and so you were so brave for doing that and you did
048amazing. So thank you so much for coming and talking to us. You were awesome. You >> did a great job. That's awesome. >> Thank you. >> So on that note, thanks Tim. Um I think first time I met you, you were at Gypsson Creek Middle School and in four years you've taken this program and just blown it away. Um it's awesome to see. Um even when they see you away from here, you're you're still doing it and you're you you know just bringing the kids out to my shop and and even you know we have our rules and to keep them safe and safety and we walked them through it and they enjoyed it and it's it's a good great good program that you got going. So thank you for doing everything you've done. >>
049I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Um I know that Mr. Moffett loves to brag on his students, but I don't think he brags enough on himself. Um, the amount of work and time and effort that goes into making all this happen is extraordinary. He is a a swap party of one um and does the work that in other districts would be done by four or five people. So, he's an absolutely amazing human being. Absolutely in the right job and we are so lucky to have you. So, thank you so much for everything you do. >> I appreciate it. Thank you, Katie. Thank you. >> Thank you, Tim. >> All right. Thank you so much. Have a good night. >> You too. All right. Moving along. We've got our EVES International Balorate Statement of Acceptance. Christa
050and Aaron. Hi guys, I am um Christani Edson. I am a teacher and the international bal laorate coordinator at Eagle Valley Elementary School and also a parent there. And I am Aaron Street. I am the new principal at Eagle Valley Elementary. And Mr. Moffet, I feel like I have the best job in the district. So, um you're in competition there. [laughter] Um, I truly feel like this district is so special and whenever I come to a board meeting, which isn't often, um, I'm reminded of how unique of a place we live in. Um, so thank you all of you for being here and I really did enjoy Franco speaking. Congratulations. Um so tonight we are here to um submit a statement of acceptance which is a formal process that the IB requires us to go
051through. Um, I used IB and I will say that um, a lot of times acronyms get thrown out in education, right? We have our SIPs and our this and that. And, um, the IB program is more than just alphabet soup at Eagle Valley Elementary School. And we've got a team of teachers here that came to support us in our formal process of submitting a statement of acceptance. Um, the IB program at Eagle Valley Elementary School offers a holistic framework to really foster inquiry, international mindedness, and growth within students within the curriculum that we are using provided by Eagle County School District. Um recently I sat on the bus um the eco bus with uh it was a jam-packed bus and I was sitting down and I was next to a student who recently had graduated
052from um our district and we got to talking and he said, "Oh yeah, like I I went through the school system here." And I said, "Oh, well tell me about it. What was your experience like?" And he was like, "Well, my family moved a lot." And I said, "Oh, okay." Okay. And he said, "But I went to elementary school here and then there and then I went to Eagle Valley Elementary School and they they have some sort of special program there. I can't remember the name of it. I international baloria. It's it's a mouthful." And um he went on to tell me about how through inquiry in his exhibition project um that he studied in fifth grade that he decided that that was his career path and he now was enrolled in Colorado Mountain College
053to become a substance abuse counselor. Um as a teacher I didn't tell him that I taught there. I kind of, you know, I didn't even tell him I was a teacher. I just wanted to hear his perspective. But it's always refreshing to hear from an outsider that the work he does matter. And so, um, all of our schools bring such a unique perspective in this county and we are very lucky to be a part of this school district. And I hope that with this statement of acceptance, we can continue our work at Eagle Valley Elementary School as an international balorate. So this year um we will be participating in a self-evaluation study which allows us to do reflection on our current work and look forward to setting some goals. So it really does align with
054our school improvement um except it's a little bit of a deep dive. Um as someone who's new to the school, I'm excited about the process. So tonight we're just asking for acceptance that we complete this process. um when we complete it at the end of the year um we will be presenting our findings back to the board. >> Thank you so much for your time tonight. We look forward to um seeing your acceptance and if you have any questions we're prepared to answer them. [snorts] >> Thank you. We might. And this is an action item board members. So any questions? If not, I move to approve the statement to of acceptance for EBES international baloria as presented. >> Thank you guys. >> Second. >> Thank you. Juan, thank you Lou Natalia. >> Miss Alter. >>
055Hi, >> Miss Conlin. >> Hi, >> Miss Hovie. >> Hi, >> Mr. McQueeny. >> Hi, >> Mr. Pena. >> Hi, >> Mr. Reynolds. >> I >> Miss Tarunus. >> Hi. >> Keep up the good work. >> Thank you guys so much. Thank you. >> Motion passes 70. Next up, alignment of curricular resources with Dr. J and Matt Jones. >> Yeah. >> Dive in. Um, so you may have noticed in the past it was uh Renee Westonfelder who I usually stood here with. Uh, she is now of course the principal at Red Hill Elementary School. Um, and so Matt Jones who was our curriculum specialist has stepped into the director role. Um, and his job was not refilled. So we are back to curriculum party of one and uh, Matt is now doing his job and
056Rene's job for the year. and I must say absolutely crushing it. Um, so my job is is really just to stand here and and support him and I'm gonna let him tell you about all the things that he's really doing. I I'm I'm not my name is on here, but really all of this work is work that Matt's doing. Um, and I just cheer him on. Great. >> Cool. Um, hi, I'm Matt. Uh, thank you so much for having me. Um, I'm really glad that Tim is gone so that he doesn't have to watch this. Um, because that's a tough act to follow. So, I promise a lot less inspiration in my in my presentation here. So, um, yeah, department of curriculum, party of one. Um, so this is kind of our overview of what
057we've done, uh, what the role continues to be. Um we support standardsbased grading um through proficiency scales through course standard selection. Um when teachers want to start a new course or change the standards that are in their existing courses um we have a process where they go through us um me and uh edtech before we make any changes to those um we or I arrange the professional development for our resources. So for our teachers who are working with different curriculums um we arrange that and that that training generally happens in the fall um August 7th and 8th this year. Um >> could I interject one thing about that though? Um we we do have a um we piloted it with um the middle schools last year. It's called Incidence Plus. It's a discipline and behavior
058tracking system. And um I just had to butt in here because we are piloting it with uh or or starting it with our high schools. And so on Monday, all of the high school administrators um were to be on a training, a virtual training. And um I will admit I I I messed up. They uh were supposed to have used a Zoom link provided by Educators Handbook, but because I had sent them a calendar invite um with a Google Meet on it, they all got on that Google Meet and then by the time they figured out they weren't in the right place, they couldn't get on the other meeting. Um, and it it's like as a teacher, if everybody in your class fails a test, then it's your fault as the teacher. If everybody didn't
059follow the directions, it's my fault. So, I called Matt and was like, "Hey, you went through this training. Can you hop on and train these guys?" And like that, he was on the Google Meet and trained them up, got them all excited about it. Um, it was absolutely amazing. So when he says that he organizes and provides professional development, it's not just bringing in outsiders, it's at the last minute jumping on a training and crushing it. So just had to throw that out there. >> I'll I'll be quiet. >> Thank you. No, that's great. Um, so we have we maintain our curriculum cycle. So we have kind of a vision of three groupings. So we have language arts, social studies, math, and science, and then our technical subjects um on a rotation. So right now
060we're in our technical subjects, our specials year um where our other teams are in different places um along those cycles. So this would be the year for piloting any new programs with our specials. So um we I kind of keep track and organize the teams for those uh cycles and then um I'm working closely with Dr. win in this year to uh plan content Wednesdays. And then hopefully as those teachers um come to our Wednesday um content collaboration, they get really excited and they want to have future meetings and they schedule curriculum teams with me afterwards. So that was the case today. Um we had middle school math meeting and by the end of the meeting they were okay, when can we come back and and get together? So, they'll be meeting after hours um
061with me at the curriculum office and we'll be working on kind of building out some of the resources and some of the unit plans that they've um they feel like are a little lacking right now. Uh work from 2425. So, last year was math review year. Um huge relief. We were going to go it was possibly we were going to change all the math curriculum at every level. Um and every level said, "You know what? we like what we're doing. Um, elementary uh met all throughout the year. Um, we had a strong team of teachers and principles um who came in and gave their feedback on how the program was going. Um, any changes that they wanted to make. Uh, we did decide to upgrade or update to the latest edition of Bridges. So, we
062are using the bridges third edition. Um, they met throughout the year. They discussed um teacher support um how they can support elementary teachers in uh just better math instruction and a lot of that work came from Eagle Valley Elementary with some of their uh teachers um some of their veterans who were at that team. Um middle and high school also decided to keep with their current resources. So middle school stuck with Desmos Math um which is now being run by the Amplify company. We've had some hiccups this year with that transition, but we [clears throat] are working through it. And then high school, uh, for the algebra, geometry, algebra 2 courses, um, they decided to stick with the envision math. Um, science review, uh, we were really excited. Uh, elementary was really excited to get
063a science resource this year. They were really hoping to use, um, the mystery science resource. We've been just abusing free pro like um free loginins for a couple years. Teachers will say like, "Oh, I made a new email so that I could get it again." Um so we were really excited to purchase it, but with the budget being what it is, um we said nothing new. So we're holding off on that. Um and that's definitely on the list of like priorities for future. Um middle and high school. Uh middle school is middle school science is knocking out of the park. they really uh enjoy using the lab aids resource. Um they did not need to meet. They said we we know what we're doing and so there was there was nothing really to talk about
064there. Uh at the high school level, Red Canyon High School, Greg uh Anderson here piloted some materials uh from McGraill. He ended up not we ended up not purchasing them. they were just looking for something uh just kind of like a basic science resource that they could hand a kid um who just needed some science background before they could go off on all the different ways that they learn science here in all the different courses that they plan. So there's not really a curricular resource that um is out there that we know of that supports alternative um high schools like like we would need. So, um, curriculum teams, um, middle school and ELA met throughout last year. Uh, they're still, we're in our third year of using, um, those programs that we adopted, uh, a
065few years ago. So, they were updating the course frameworks. They were updating the proficiency scales for those courses. Um, so they're really strong teams that I meet with often. World language, uh, the high school world language teachers in this district really deserve a shout out. They love to get together and talk. Um they're big they were really excited. Um last last winter they decided to change what was Spanish for native speakers to a Spanish language arts course. Um, so they met throughout the spring to kind of make that shift um and to make that that course a little bit more literature focused and also to open it up to not just um native Spanish speakers but all students who who would be interested in that. Uh we continued to support standardsbased grading. So we change
066we had standards changes for courses throughout the year. Um we were working with some teachers to revise proficiency scales. So, um, some of the proficiency scales are now that we've kind of been in the system for a couple years, they were seeing, oh, this one's not really meeting it or the language isn't there or we would like to, you know, just make some updates. So, um, we had our curriculum institute meet uh, this summer in June. So, over three days, we had 82 teachers and staff. Uh, you can see we had a really strong elementary showing this year. uh we had all but one school represented and teachers this year we kind of opened it up in the past it's been very um district resource focused working on frameworks working on proficiency scales and we
067opened it up to hey what would you as a team like to work on are there unit plans that you're really excited about building are there assessments you really want to work on and teachers met and did exactly that they um prepared for their year and the the energy is always really great those days. Um it's amazing that teachers want to show up the first three days of summer to work. So that was a great time and and kudos to everybody who showed up. Uh so current work um this fall like as I mentioned before this year is our focus on technical subjects. So, I'll be getting ready in the next few weeks to start reaching out to world language PE teachers, STEM teachers, um, to who want to get together and start looking at,
068uh, our resources as we have them and what we might want to what changes we may want to make. Um, some of our teams from last year are going to continue to meet. So, elementary and middle school math were really eager to to continue their work. So, we'll have them in throughout the year. Uh, middle school language arts just has a little bit more to wrap up on their um on their frameworks um to make sure that those unit plans are really tight and we will see what else develops from content Wednesday. So, as those teams are come together and get excited, hopefully um they'll want to follow up and and meet. Um next year will be an ELA and social studies focus. So really, we should be reviewing our middle school, our ELA and
069social studies, uh, resources. Um, middle school, uh, ELA and social studies just piloted and adopted programs in 22 23. So, I'm not expecting much change there. Um, springboard was the program that we adopted at middle school ELA and it was sold to McGra Hill. So, I'm already emailing with McGraill to talk about what that transition is going to look like. Um, if our teachers just give us the go-ahhead to to switch over. Um, I'm actually really excited. McGraill is an enormous company. They have a lot of supports. Um, their online features are pretty solid. So, I think that it's going to be an improvement overall. Um, but it was it was quite the shock when we found out the year that we adopted Springboard that they were ending the program and fired half their team.
070So, really excited to that they're continuing it because it is a it is a great program. So, um, next year we'll talk about how we can support um, high school ELA and social studies. Um, our high school ELA and social studies teachers, if you've ever met one of them, are fiercely independent kind of people and they don't usually get really excited about packaged uh, curricula. So, um, they want to study novels and, um, you know, primary text. So, we will get together hopefully and see how um, what they would like to work on and how they might want to come together in alignment um, between our schools. Um and then just a review of our professional learning from the fall. Um our math teachers were all updated on the new transition um to bridges. Um
071our elementary and middle school teachers um were trained on all of the HMH programs. So into reading, Ariba lectura, discovery ed, desmos math, um read 180 and math 180 are on there uh as well. Those are programs that are kind of expanding. We've seen a lot of um great results come from those students um who are involved who are getting those programs. Um and then we also had trainings in gizmo science and seven mindsets as well. So um also really exciting our middle school teachers lead our training in springboard and lab aid. So we have a team of ELA teachers who are ready to go. There's um five of them who each year just kind of rotate right now. And so they deliver that training to teachers. So that's great. That's one person we don't
072have to fly in and have uh deliver that training. And it puts those teachers in a position where they are, you know, helping others and coaching. Um and lab aids. Um one of our middle school science teachers at Berry Creek who's just excited about how to use that program, delivers that training every fall. and he yeah it's great. I'm really happy to have him. So um really excited about that. Um yeah celebrations um Bridges Math is a teachers were saying in the past that one of the big failures of it or one of the big faults they saw in it was that it didn't have Spanish teacher guides. So for our teachers whose uh first language is Spanish, um reading a teacher guide um in English can be challenging. So um especially if they're teaching
073um math in Spanish. So those those guides are available in the new program. So we printed those guides off and delivered those to teachers because um Bridges does not does not actually sell them printed. So we had to print them ourselves. Um there was a lot of toner used. Uh uh middle school ELA and social studies are in their third year. Um those programs seem to be going great. Elementary um just continuing to do more and more in their programs and refine. Um and then I really want to highlight the use of Read 180 and Math 180 at our middle schools. Um we saw some awesome growth at Berry Creek Middle School and Eagle Valley Middle School um among those students who were in Read 180 and Math 180. So achieving more than a years
074of grow more than a year of growth um for most of those students for the majority of them. Um yeah and then here's our our goals for the year. We want to continue to support our staff um and using resources with fidelity so we don't you know when we have a whole pantry of items and we're just dabbling that's great but how can we how can we really take something and leverage it so that we're getting our best results? um if because these things are are not always cheap. Um how can we engage our teachers in curriculum teams through content collaboration Wednesdays? So really excited about this these new Wednesdays. Um and having these teachers in small groups because I feel like once they get a taste of oh collaborating with people across the district
075can be really great. Um I'm learning new things. Um how can I continue this work? So really excited for those teams. Um, we have some work to wrap up on district frameworks for elementary math, uh, middle school, ELA, and social studies. So, I'm excited to have those in their final draft and get those published to the district site. And then we are looking for new funds for the book bus. Um, turns out there's not a lot of motorcycle clubs around who want to donate money. So, uh, it would be it would be great to get this book bus reloaded so that we can, um, deliver books to kids up and down the valley. Yeah, that's all. If any questions, >> I actually thought that was super inspirational. >> Oh, thanks, Dan. >> You You gave
076Tim a run for his money. [laughter] Uh, any questions for Mr. Jones. >> Thanks, man. >> I I find that hard to believe, Dan, because uh Franco literally brought a tear to my eye, and >> I don't see anybody in here crying over curriculums. >> No. So um but I did want to mention that um in terms of fidelity, we had talked about that a little bit earlier um when Melissa was presenting that um that part is really important. Uh so Melissa coined a great phrase. It's WTF with total fidelity. So that's what we're we're pushing in our schools this year is with total fidelity. Um and again I just I can't thank Matt enough. he's done an amazing job just stepping up and and and taking over and and doing it all alone. And
077so I've I've made sure to let him know if you feel that you're going to run screaming from the building, please come find me first so that I can help you out. Um but so far he's not there. So far he's he's still showing up every day. So we're very very lucky to have this guy. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. All right, moving along to the district uh direct. I don't know what that says, but we're approving superintendent search firm with Adele. >> Hello. Hello. It's me again. Hello. I could break into song for y'all. [laughter] Um we visited earlier this evening. Well, earlier this afternoon about um three search firms that we received um proposals from and then I am leaving it to you guys to make a decision so that we can
078move forward with signing a contract and beginning the search to um replace Mr. Qualman when he retires at the end of this school year. Do you have any questions from the material earlier? Thank you for your presentation earlier. If there's no questions, uh I move to select McFersonson and Jacobson as a superintendent search firm and authorize Adele Wilson, chief human resources officer, to enter into a contract with them to conduct the search process for the 2026 2027 vacancy. >> Second. Thank you. Lilia and Juan Natalia. >> Miss Alter. >> Hi. >> Miss Conlin. >> Hi. >> Miss Hovie. >> Hi. >> Mr. McQueeny. >> Hi. >> Mr. Pena. >> I. >> Mr. Reynolds. >> I. >> Mr. Tunos. >> Hi. >> Thank you, Adele. Motion passes. 70. >> Welcome. >> All right. Mr. Beaver, you're
079going to end the night and we're excited. You're doing a great job. >> Hopefully the most electric part, [snorts and laughter] >> the most electric part of the night [laughter] for anybody who couldn't hear. Uh we got some early enrollment projections for you guys. So if you don't know, our current process is that through the first seven to 10 days of the school year, we look at the schools, compare where they are on enrollment basis against their budget. If you're plus or minus 20 students, you're call it eligible for staffing impacts. Um, luckily the only school that is outside of that range right now is Red Canyon High School. However, Red Canyon's numbers frequently fluctuate a lot um throughout the school year as they pick up some students from Battle Mountain and Eagle Valley. So,
080it's very unlikely that we'll make any staffing changes based on that. Um in total, our current enrollment numbers as of September 3rd are about 150 down to budget. Um and about 220 students down to last school year. Um you can see that that impacts about 60 down to budget at the elementary level, including Homestake Peak. uh about three down to budget at middle school and about 87 down to budget at the high school levels. Um thankfully the school finance formula does allow averaging over the last four years. So, while we're down 150 to budget, um that only translates to about a 36 student reduction in uh funded pupil count compared to our budget, um which has the potential, if things don't change, to impact our school finance formula funding by $375,000. So, that's not nothing,
081but it's also right now it's a half of a percent of our overall school finance funding. So, not the end of the world at this point. Um ultimately in October we'll file our final numbers with CDE and that will determine our what we actually receive. Do you guys have any questions for me on that? >> Can you remind me um they're still letting us average how many years? >> Four years right now. >> Four. And that's like an ongoing thing or are they do they keep >> They're trying to ratchet down, aren't they, Phil? Like to three? >> Yeah, at this point they're holding on four. uh waiting to see what happens with school finance in the coming legislative session. If they can meet the expectations of the new funding finance formula, then they will
082reduce averaging to three years and start to taper it down. But it's all contingent on whether they can 100% meet the the school finance formula, which I skeptical about. Any other questions on that point? Okay, on to the next thing. Approval of student fees. I know you guys have just approved student fees like two meetings ago. We're just adding something to the student fees for transparency. So, historically, the district has covered the tuition and the course fees for concurrent enrollment classes. Um, moving forward, the district plans to co continue to cover tuition for all the courses for students. Um, but we will start collecting the course fees from students in the same way that we do for AP tests and other special courses. Um, the fees will qualify for free and reduced lunch and will
083be charged through powers school. Um, and this change is necessary as the district can't afford to continue to cover the supply fees for these courses for all students. So, um, these course fees have are around between $40 to $100 per class per student, and they've been added to the student fees page for your review. >> What's the timing on this? Is it are kids taking the classes now going to have to pay or are we waiting until next semester? >> No, it'll be it'll be charged on the kids that are currently enrolled. What is their timing for uh FRL applications? Are they still I know there's a deadline for that. There is a deadline but um for these fees we would go under um what we had from last year as well. So we have
084like a grace period at the high schools. >> Just more encouragement too for families to fill that out. So that's why Were families told when they signed up for the class that we would be changing these fees and that there would be fees? >> Hey Katie, >> for this semester? >> I was being distracted. What was the question? >> Were if we're enacting this immediately retroactively for this semester, were families told that they'd be paying a fee for the class that their kids >> at registration? They were. >> They were. Okay. Thanks. >> Not as much heads up as I would prefer, but >> and not all classes have a fee though. >> No, they don't. There are only certain ones that have fees, just like there are only certain regular high school classes that
085have fees. Some do and some don't. >> Okay. Do you have a >> I move to approve student fees as presented. >> Second. >> Thank you. Harry Lou. [clears throat] >> Uh Natalia, please. >> Miss Alter. >> Hi. >> Miss Conlin. >> Hi. >> Miss Hovie. >> I. >> Mr. McQueeny. >> I >> Mr. Pena. >> Hi. >> Mr. Reynolds. >> Hi. >> Miss Tiverponus. >> I. >> Thank you Bryson. Motion passes 70. Thanks guys. Thank you. >> And that leads us to our final agenda item, feedback and evaluation of the meeting. Kelly, this is your time to shine. >> Great to kick off with school improvement presentations. Um, I think we had some great uh work session information on where we are as a district. Uh and I think that we are trending in
086a great direction uh in a tough and challenging environment, low unfunds and uh challenging to find teachers. So I think we're doing pretty well trying at least. >> Well said, Kelly. And with that, we will adjourn. See you in two weeks.