001the flag the United States of America and to the for stands God sorry um let's see we are on item C so celebrations which we have first up is the science fair and I think this morning we're gonna get Linda f and Diana remik to come up and tell us about how well we did at the science fair and anybody else that wants to come up and talk to us about how well we did at the science fair I'm on up I'd like to call up my students so if they're here will they come on Upson no so this year we entered Eight Second grade students in the science fair and uh did really really well this is um parent driven some of these kids you'll recognize from last month when they came to do
002the math presentation um we were the youngest group there so in the K2 um area we took first place second place third place and we also got two special wordss and the coolest thing is is being the youngest group we also got B honor which is the uh Dr Dill gray a regional science fair um Champion award so we get to hang that in our school and so um eight years of doing science fair and I've never won this and it's it's super cool um because these kids did such a great job um lot of time with their families working on projects and kudos to the parents that did that and um everybody who came and practice judged with us U Mr bson was one of those that did that as well so um anything
003you all want to share did you enjoy it yes would you do it again yes absolutely what's your medal um my medal was for first place because um I had the best experiment a lot of kids that started at the primary school that they continue with that so very proud of all of them if you want to grab your board and C them you can if not I will take them to the prim H yes so um mine are along that wall over there there's up so all right good job everybody intermates intermediate a few of them you know a lot of them have basketball so um we were allowed 15 to sign up and we had 15 sign up oh je so we had Natasha and Zoe they did pin um erosion and chrn
004dur she did rocket how I made rock candy and she came back with the ooto chemistry Department outstanding project Taylor Fisher he did check that pressure and he won the Otero biology Department outstanding project Nolan ceros uh which ball goes higher for the third graders fourth graders we had Ryder Dell Lego zipline and the Otero engineering department outstanding project Conor Voit did water filtration the importance of Natural Resources in the process we had Adam watera the dirty project and he won third place in the third through fifth grade division for our fifth graders we had christiny Lee she did Ace Ace baby we had jinny Len Zamora she did color exploration and she won second place in the third through fifth grade division we had mea World War she did you scream ice cream we
005all scream for melted ice cream we did had aelia Owen did Long Live slime Melanie Guzman did the bullied plant Aaron Ortega did where does the water come from Coloradoan take the and he won the take the Pulse of the plant award and then for sixth grade we had Lany Glee and she did drip goes the rain and all of our science fair boards are on the back wall all right awesome thank youall so much what made you decide to do the ice because she likes ice what ice cream was it that took the but what was it the low fat what was it you remember strawberry took the longest and she said she had to watch it melt ever that must be as an hour and 40 minutes oh my and how much ice
006cream was it how many scoops one two o of ice cream two o of ice cream 1 hour and 40 minutes sounds long time is this just our schools or is it surrounding schools and districts there was L there was Rocky four Manzanola Crowley County um Trinidad a couple other schools that were there wow they did very very well thank youall again all right ready for the next one we're here to also celebrate the wrestling teams and so Joe where's Joe I'm on up and all the rest wrestling pches I'd say bring them all there are other way um I'm the head coach of the Lana women's wrestling team um this year we had 22 girls come out and uh wow we had a very successful season um the season before we didn't have any
007girls qualify for state which was our first year um this year we had four girls qualified for state and then we had two girls place at state one girl was a finalist which was the first in Lana school history um at regionals we had a girl when the regional so she was the regional champ and that was uh first time for Lana high school as well Jake here's been a big part of our strength and conditioning even before he got hired as the one of our assistant coaches he was there 5:30 in the morning with not only the girls with the boys too and then Joel Ortiz he's my assistant coach and he's been the the brains behind it so he's kind of the guy where we want to know who we're facing when we're
008facing so he's been a big help um I can't speak uh anym probably about these young women they've all done very good we have uh a high number of girls coming in next year as well and I big next year yep we're bringing every girl back so oh my y we're not graduating any seniors wow so next year they're going to they're going to beion I believe for state championship in the team hard they show up every day they have a great attitude they're more of a family than anything I would say that's awesome graduating mean you don't have any seniors there's no there's no girls leaving back for unless we can I'm just a huge supporter of this H program but I gotta tell coach listen little disappointed where's the Cod I didn't where
009the Jack I know I should come on I should so that's when it's our time to shine so that's why I wear that second so that make an appearance next year yes definitely definitely watch came to Regionals and watched everybody wrestle and I just thoroughly enjoyed it we just makes me very proud of of all y''s accomplishments and just keep it up I mean this is something that we can grow we can be proud of in L you know let's go to state next year and WN State we can do it all right thank you so much all right guys um so my name is Michael Andrews I'm the assistant coach for the L boys wrestling team Frank M this is the head coach we had we started out with 25 boys on the team
010after injuries and uh just the weeding out process some of them decided that wrestling wasn't for them we ended up at of the 18 boys of course there's 14 Varsity spots we filled 13 of those varsity spots we had five on our JB team of those 13 Varsity wrestlers we qualified eight of them for state that's the most l l boys wrestling or L wrestling is qualified for State since 1996 which was the year that L had last one state for wrestling wow of the eight boys that we qualified for State uh they all they all went out and wrestled and uh they wrestled multiple matches at State and they all won a match at state which is qualifying for state is a huge accomplishment winning a match at state is is an even greater
011accomplishment we had two placers the two brothers uh we start with we'll start with Joe Joe gz he's a junior he uh he's a two-time uh State Placer uh both times placed fourth at State um suffered an injury at state it wasn't a uh debilitating injury he was able to come back and finish wrestling but he did uh but it did hinder him a little bit in his wrestling which uh I think next year he's uh he's got a lot more to prove he's he's gonna make a lot more noise in State uh younger brother but bigger brother Jordan gamas he's a sophomore again another two-time state Placer but this time he was goad and say it Jordan what are you Colorado 3A state champion Colorado so not only did Jordan win win state he
012uh the previous week he had won regionals as well uh won his regionals match uh by pin or his Regional Championship Match by pin and what was it 26 seconds 26 second pin in the uh of the uh of the uh what is 18 boys that we have we're uh we have three of them graduating three boys graduating so we're going to be bringing back 15 boys plus the uh the upcoming uh junior highight class which we should probably bring in another I'd say maybe eight eight more wrestlers we're looking at uh we're looking at close to around about 25 wrestlers next year great uh as a team at regionals we had placed third at regionals we were uh uh handful of points behind second place and uh about another 30 or so points behind
013first place um at State we placed 13th as a team we scored uh 68 points I believe it was 68 points more than L scored at state in a long time I believe the winning team the team that won that took first place at State they uh they scored about 120 points 30 points so we were we're right behind them we um I mean we still had a ways to go but we uh we're we're just right the C making all right well thank youall so much that's pretty cool see you guys thank you so much kid s thanks for coming everybody go sorry so we're gonna move on with the audience portion I just want to remind folks that the guidelines to follow for public input at board meetings uh the chair will call
014speakers in order in which they signed up the speakers will adhere to the time limits five minutes and stop when directed by the chair we don't usually make people do that but um no speaker will speak in a disrespectful or inappropriate manner as determined by the chair speakers may offer such and programs as concern them but in public session the board will not hear personal complaints against any person connected with the school system if the speaker fails to adhere to the rule and direction of the chair he or she will not be allowed to continue speaking and if your she does not stand down he or she will be asked to leave the premises no one will be allowed to prer speaking time to someone else if you don't come up when your name is
015called you will forfeit your time speakers only get one opportunity to address the board on an issue and we don't have a microphone that is working so if you are up to speak project um I I do have one sign up uh Miss Christine Phillips to address concerns regarding school closures and delays um honored board members respected faculty and fellow citizens thank you for allowing me a moment of your time to address with you what I believe to be a matter of extreme importance my youngest son is currently a student at the Lun Junior Senior High School he walks seven blocks not that big of a deal unless the weather is below zero with active snow and several days of Frozen ice pack on key intersections sidewalks and major thorough Affairs of the city one
016of these days was February 12th 2025 at 6:00 a.m. it was 5 below with a wind chill of1 by that 6: a.m. deadline the following schools communities were on a two-hour time delay everyone except East ooto School District I have to wonder how many students in the school district actually attended school on that day how much effective learning was accomplished what was the payoff for the East Otero School District to remain open while every other school the Otero County off offices the area's largest employer and all other municipalities were on the delay or cancellation what did we gain February the 12th was not the first day I truly believed cancellation or delay should have been issued it was the third but this is the first one I called my son off kept him home my
017original complaint that I was going to bring was going to Cent her around just this I know we have a new superintendent and I was hoping that the board would be able to maybe Express a parents perspective on why it is so imperative to consider the unique health and safety concerns of our community as opposed to a more mountainous region of Dolores where he came from I wanted to understand though before I brought this up to you it's a pet peeve of mine when somebody comes with a full complaint and none of the pertinent information so I started looking around and I began with watching the board meetings from here the previous board meetings I found that this issue has already been addressed with the superintendent by the board the same reasons I wanted to
018explain the cumulative impact of the weather not just the snow and not just the temperature but the vehicles Readiness the children's awareness or you youth drivers in the area all of this has already been addressed by the board once and it was addressed in detail at the time it was stated that decisions would be made better but that didn't happen by the 12th and in an effort and fairness to the superintendent I thought maybe I'd look in on Dolores maybe they did things differently there I myself lived in the NCA Narita area it's a different Beast Al together so because it was a mountain town they had perhaps different standards or I don't know what I was looking for enlightenment understanding shanger law all of the above what I ended up finding was the notes
019for a regular board meeting from Dolores School District dated on December 8th 2018 during the citizen comments a teacher by the name of Michaela Johnson presented a letter to the superintendent Dr blinko and the board regarding a decision making for delayed start and cancellation for snow days she shared a personal account of the most recent snowstorm in which she slid off the road and total her car after this you can see I think why I'd be here today to speak with you about my concerns speaking of those concerns on the day of February 12th when I called the District offices I didn't know who was responsible for calling the delays or cancellations so I just pressed one at the voice prompts the woman that answers was very kind and offered to put me through to
020the superintendent's voicemail it never picked up it just rang and rang and rang it never kicked over to a voicemail never said it was full or anything so I didn't know what else to do other than to come here I'm not wanting to send emails with no intonation behind them because I don't want to come across as accusatory when I'm intending to be inquisitive and that's an easy fallacy to make without being in person I wanted a conversation as a person with people which brought me here I'm super glad that I did though because when I came in and I saw that the agenda was up here um I see that under six discussion there is Staff retention bonuses I'm surprised that this is an option in today's uncertain funding times what with all the
021government upheaval but more than that as I told you my son attends the high school I don't know how many you been up there recently but the high school is in desperate need of a new roof the roof leaks so bad that students are set out with buckets to find regular leaks and new ones that keep cropping up there's several missing tiles in the ceiling one of the tiles outside Mr Warner's class is stained dark brown with water marks and hanging like a teardrop not to mention one of my son's classes consists of him showing up being handed a print out for today's lesson and being told to sign into Ed genuity for his daily module there is no in-class instruction just an adult that sits at a desk and seares the internet while the
022kids work I seriously really hope that a half second impulse for bonuses might perhaps evolve into a more long-term option for better pay benefits and recruitment efforts for the awesome teachers and to keep the amazing ones that we already have thank you yes sorry okay uh item F approval of the agenda are you going to run through the agenda first or do you uh I just I recommend that we approve the agenda with the the changes that have been listed which is number seven we changed uh first reading second f u I'll make a motion to approve the agenda um as as published yes right making motion to approve the agenda as published in a state we can do a second okay so we have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as
023published with the change of changing number item s a unfinished business is second fin for this discuss can we move uh when we table the CBA CBC for hasby to consult us for services since it's in the middle of the year to or would we do that when we get to that item we we can do that when we get to that item okay um and then item D I know we have discussed the superintendent evaluation results yeah we we can postpone the that you and I discussed in the board to discuss postponing that to March so I think that would probably be best where we could all have time to uh to have on that particular yeah we have one person who is not here today in person and we feel like with it
024being new board members a new evaluation to a a new evaluation or new superintendent we want to make sure that everybody gets to be in person um so that's why we said it was okay I think okay I I just would like to appreciate superintendent willingness to accommodate the change and first contract the evaluation is due March one I appreciate the superintendent willingness to to help us out so we can get all of us together so I want thank you when we get to that agenda item we'll just table it as well until a special meeting well not really table it for a special meeting just that's right because it'll have to be at a different time otherwise it be later so that yeah so we don't need to remove hold on last please one
025so we don't have to remove um the policy and we don't have to remove the superation yeah we make those motions okay any further discuss okay roll call please Mrs Sia hi Mrs Hines hi Mr colit hi Mrs Lea hi item two consent agenda Madam president I'm going to recommend if we want to do it in one El swp that we approve the consent agenda which includes Personnel approvals uh there's a number of personnel approvals listed it'll also include approving the spring sports extra Duty assignments for 2425 season and the third thing it would include would be the approval of an additional uh two substitute teachers for 2425 so my recommendation again is to approve the consent agenda make a motion to approve the consent agenda second have a motion and a second to approve
026the consent agenda items as presented questions comments wel Mrs Sia hi Mrs Hines hi Mr Kitz hi Mrs Lea hi uh item three uh the minut of the previous meeting are item number three and M president I recommend that we approve the minutes of the regular meeting on January 27 2025 we have a motion and a second to approve the minutes from January 27 2025 questions comments or Corrections hearing none roll call please Mrs as I Mrs hi mrit hi Mrs Lea hi presentations Madam president we're gonna have Richie Romero come up and talk about school safety y'all be kind to him he's a little shy that's funny I tell dringo that my speech would be 45 minutes but I got it down to 40 all right usually I think you're familiar with me but
027usually I I start asking the same questions with ICS lockdown drills grants so I'm just going to let you roll with it all right then I appreciate let him talk the first item I have for you guys uh I came last year in June talking about the school security dispersement gr we weren't awarded anything at that time and then about a month later we got notification that we awarded $33,000 so we utilize that to upgrade our exterior access control which I'm happy to announce that we finished that project about two weeks ago uh Heather and I will visit with the grant committee probably the end of this week to finalize that project out and then going to start looking for that Grant again coming up here in the coming months and apply for it again
028to see what we can get on that so that's been a big bonus uh as far as I'm concerned on my end I do not have a budget for sa for me myself so I was going to talk to to Dr malinko and Heather about maybe getting a budget for me more specifically so that I can kind of fine-tune um you know cameras Access Control Access Control will be good right now since that's new currently we have 189 cameras in service in the district of those 189 28 of them have warranty left on De so we're kind of in a position right now although the cameras are working fine I want to get to the point where it's probably we should replace them not we need to be place them um the cameras I have
029throughout the district are simar strategically placed so that we don't have any bare areas throughout the district and so oftentimes if I do have a camera go down it's usually on the shop that I need to have so I'm being a little more proactive than reactive with that so that's what I would use some of that budet for that from the play uh sometime next month Dr B Jared chrisen and I will be walking each building for looking for just very saf concerns maybe M maintenance concerns for christen's part uh we did identify one issue at the high school right now that I think he going to have that remedy maybe this week but we're going to f tune all of the campuses here coming up in March I'm also going to reach out to
030Brad styles from the Colorado Department of Public Safety to see if he will actually come down and do a physical threat assessment on our campuses that could be anywhere from he you probably want to remove some of these blages in front of the building to you know we change out our erress routs or whatever it may be so it'll give us a good idea on what we need to to brush up on as far as safety and what not uh we do continue to do our drills monthly and quarterly so that's keep doing those I know you guys are all big on saf to tell so thus far this year we've only had two saf to tell reports one was back in September that was unfounded and then one was actually last night that had
031enough so we referred that off to law enforcement uh we continue our mandatory training for staff members that come come about we did have the big reunification training back in July which unfortunately I wasn't able to attend even though I had PL years to get that but I had a small in my health and didn't get to go with that but it was well attended and we got um pretty good attendance from surrounding districts on that as well so uh and then lastly I have been talking with local police department about another exercise to go one that some point that way we can get all of our local agencies involved to kind of give us some practice on some Mass incident with that not only we practice that but our surrounding government agencies please Fire
032EMS streets sa Patrol everybody do that it does take some time to put that together but I think it is a necessary thing that we need to do so awesome that's what I have for you I think I have about 42 minutes left um question on the reunification training is there something in place to where new hyers will get some sort of training on that yes I remember last issue that came up that was a huge thing was that we had so much turnover that all the stuff that intended the training wasn't actually working anymore and so there was pickups um and so I just I just want to know what we're doing for new hires um as long as we can't have a b so annually whether it's at the beginning of the year
033mid year throughout the year everybody has to do our mandatory training and that what we're mandated to do at the beginning of the school years I will go to each campus if they request and I will go and actually do the SRP presentation to that to includ reification mid year if we hire somebody new today we are still requiring them to do the mandatory training but I also in their videos and such on our SRP so that they are familiar with that and so he yes to know round about way they do get it whether they're here at the front of the Year mid or somewhere so they do get familiarized with that my question was we were talking about this at one of the were we still wanting to look into maybe um community
034members that like are wiers here that we would be willing to like collaborate with with building like a community uh like uh response Yeah well yeah like a response but like a a I don't know like a a collaboration that we would all come together and we could have it where we all did it so with that turnover it wouldn't be a big issue yeah the huge piece with that reunification training is we paid I think 17,000 to get that here and I'm hoping because literally two weeks after we paid for that posted here Colorado Department of Public Safety te up with I love you guys foundation and started offering that free throughout the St oh so I'm hoping that at some point they will maybe bring it back to L and then we can
035do that again and maybe open it up to more parents or community members then staff uh but yes I would love to do that when we did our exercise a few years back I had about a dozen or two parent volunteers involved in it and I think I had six show up and then before we even started three of them left and so I kind of was just stuck in a at that time but I need to do more just to say hey if you're going to sign up for this it's for whether it takes four hours or eight hours but it's good practice so yes that's that is something that I would like to that's a great Foundation that'd be a good help and I'm seeing a lot of partnership with the government of
036Public Safety they have thr a lot of resources our way and in terms some of it doesn't cost us anything and so I got a great resource Cal did used to work for the district she actually works for the balance so anytime something comes up she's shooting it my way and I'm like hey thanks for that information so so what what probably everything children where are we most vulnerable and what are you worry about and what can we do to stop you want well I think the worry is always going to be there whether it's in the hunted Colorado or Washington DC it's just a matter of everybody staying Vigilant and you see something say something that and I don't want it to our staff and students are living on the edge and you know
037freaking out every day but just understand that we do practiceing things and our staff do take it seriously and I'm fairly confident in the administration and all buildings that they really know what to do with they something Happ so but as far as what worries me at night yeah I'm worried that one of these alarm Builders go off and weak me up that's what I because it happen that's fair that's right I'm just I don't want to say we're perfect by any means but at the same time I'm word work and I mean I don't have the responsibility and the burden that you have but I'm just like what what where are we vulnerable and what can we do and that's part of why would I want to discover that in this physical threat assessment
038on Camp to see if we're going to see um it's all about education in the classroom and making sure our staff and students are up to be on stuff um but again I'm not saying we're taking that lightly but at the same time don't let it keep up long as we know what we're doing um I can tell you when we adopted the and the stuff that we were doing in this Valley a lot of areawide schools are calling us saying hey can we steal your platform well it's on our platform but here's where you can go look at what you do and so we collaborate with a lot of surrounding districts I I had ourselves on the back for taking the initiative to do this stuff because we were kind of one of the
039first pilate districts to Pilot that program and here we are so the good thing is the surrounding districts follow the same sup and so if we ever need help from them it's kind of like calling in the doctor for the next state over you already know what to do so rich tell us about that night um good board about the night I think it was a smoke or fired alarm went off but actually chrisen came up here and it was uh one of the boilers oh was that theight I had to have somebody go knock on your door uhhuh yeah so one night it was on a Sunday night about 12:30 I had a fire learned go off here in this building and discovered it was a smoke detector down in the boiler room while
040the smoke detector went off because it got steamy in there big five or six inch bike bust it started steaming everywhere in there so triggered the alarm well we were at a point to where I I didn't know how to isolate the deal we couldn't get people to answer phones and so B and I actually at 12:30 at night that Park lot over there making the decision to probably call a remote B and then luckily water department showed up but I show it off that the street that meant we had no water I kind of had to send some of my former buddies over stre people house to wake him up and say hey what do we do and so I W Dr bling up I W crisp enough and then we were able to
041isolate it save the day and we were able to get SCH gold for that next day but there's things like that that keep me up in we open man you know our our safety walks that we're going to be doing in March that Richie mentioned those are kind of what keeps us up during the day but we're trying to find the places you know the little hid areas and spots that maybe we can Shore up we've got I think our high school has the most areas where there's access where it doesn't need to be a have access so we're just going to do a slow thorough walk and just try to pinpoint some of these areas like he mentioned chrisen will be going with us to make a list of some things we want to
042fix and repair but we actually look forward to that we're going to start at the High School we're going to do TTA after that we think those were our top two priority schools that needed the most and then we'll eventually come back to this school Intermediate and primary as well just to make sure but these these buildings are a little bit more logical and laid out well those other two buildings are there's some issues you know so we're we're just going to see if we can Shore them up a little bit and just make a more safe environment during the day I think it was our first esap review um that when we all came back to debrief that was like the most common feedback was that high school isn't here I don't even know
043how you guys yeah control that so it is good to have a third party come in and then just assess it because we think good things but someone else is like hey this is and when you have to search the building for real life that is that's a very that report then when you come back and US yeah once I think he'll give me a summary of some sort or if not it may just be my not saying here's what we identified each account business so yeah and I can get that out to all of you and there may be something as we start budgeting he next year there may be something on there we need to budget for or just you know make a note that we'll fix it out of capital if we
044need to do that so I had my list of questions and I crossed off most of them so to picky back off of what director hind said about like new uh new hires and he do we also do an orientation for E3 does everybody have that that's also included so we have the vector train which is the manager reporing stuff y y y the SRP then we have the E3 E3 is our emergency app that it's utilized just internally internally and externally the First Responders that's it um so in event of the lock down secure hold evacuate it goes out similar to an amber amber alert to our stack and then from there we go to a chat feature and that's kind of where we communicate this was one thing that we got simply because
045we're able to put out information in real time to all the staff members at once rather than relying on a you know PRI text us out to this building and so on it's real time and so each time we put out an alert it's for building and so if you work in that building you'll get the alerts if you don't you won't so it's a pretty nifty uh we the only School District that you know of that use it right now in our area I believe so we were modeling again um you mentioned the lockdown what is that so for like people at home or the board members how often does that happen we generally do those orderly do those weather drills yeah Willers do those qu fire we do monthly try to do those
046monthly now we do semi monthly that's at the blessing of the fire I we typically need those part and then I didn't hear the word specifically you did say training but I ask every year are we compliant with IC and or NS I don't know what you call but either way are are we we are the last report we are but I have to get Dr blinki and Jared up on it at the same time I just assum get like Dakota and chisen Naomi all of our directors get on that simply just so they understand the IC and the N structure and that'll just help everybody really identify like what we have a big incident and we're working with other local agencies they kind of understand that structure yeah and then could you please because
047we have new board members and the people listening at home explain why I asked that what Senate bill that's from Senate Bill 181 which is the Colorado safe School act safe School act so we're just being complied so that's why I always ask you the same questions every time you give a report and I appreciate it and coincidentally I I was getting jded last week for it and then I took the time to remind those that haven't completed to to do it so it's it's easy but it's right cop we have to do that that's how much money you gonna try to ask for I'm just kidding I'm just that when the budget comes around yeah said youed 're give $500 I don't know I got to look at what camera replacement costs are going
048to be the ultimate goal for the cameras we got most of the cameras in service circuit 2018 and so I want to get all of them down to where they are five years or younger so of the 28 that I mentioned those are five years or younger the rest are going on eight nine years so I'd like to see still with um just any other questions have more follow what president said um in terms of just just work my thought are we in coordination or in contact with other area districts like if something went down are we are we like talking to SN sh Rocky for these other districts in terms of like if something went down so we what's what's our coordination plan I guess so I do so we have a group meeting
049um one I think it is and so we have a group chat um constantly with the superintendent and bosies and with oota so at any given time I can get on this group chat and it's on all superintendent phones for in the region and send out alerts it's typically used what was spoke about tonight for weather you know we right the night before in the morning of we we have a bigger check when weather's an issue so but it can be used for anything that goes the other way as well if we start hearing something's going down in Rocky for then usually will we check out what's going down there is it going to impact us or is it just local light up there so I think that like Regional communication and and thankfully nothing's
050happened like that but finding is better than not finding yeah and our partnership with law enforcement and Fire EMS and you know if they're dealing with us they're going to put the word out one to make sure yep you have a police scanner on you pretty much at all times I'm sure so you know what's going on with law enforcement as local B authorizes me to listen to their their top groups so typically if I hear something going on out then that's usually when you'll see me thr what it secure or something like that appreciate it thank you thank you Richie y thank you all all right question your walk are they going to be open to the public just you guys uh probably tag on a few others the ones that we're going to
051do in March we had officially thank you so moving on to superintendent report and recommendations all right on top of the written report that I've given youall I have a few other things to share with you um as y'all know I was at the uh winter superintendent conference last week and learned lots of good things um but I was able to visit with our new legal council for a few hours and um just talk to them about I gave them some history of our school district and what our school district's like we've been through where we where we're going and things like that um in our conversations uh they recommended a couple things to me first of all they said that they would love to come visit with y'all and get to know y'all and
052also maybe do a small training of of board training and a superintendent uh training so I think that would be a good idea even though we've got some other trainings coming with CDE that we got through the easy Grant so I may uh Madam president I'll work with you and see if we can come up with the time where we can get Kristen and and maybe cure down here as well uh the other thing that they just as we were just chatting and and talking about you know how do I one of them asked how do I communicate with the board and I told them about Friday mailings and I told them about my superintendent report and one of the things they recommended well I thought was a good idea that I'd like to implement
053was having set aside the Friday before the school board meeting where I give each of y'all an hour where and I prefer face to face or I can come to you or we can do Zoom or or just call on the phone but she said try to make it a point just to talk to each board member the Friday before the board meeting and answer any questions that might uh they might have seen in the agendas so I think that's a really good idea as well so i' I'd like to visit with yall about possibly setting aside some Fridays before the school board meetings um to go over the agendas or any other anything else you just like to talk about so I thought that was excellent recommendation by our counsel um in front of
054you each of you received a copy tonight of the anxious generation which is a book that I've also shared with our administrators that they're supposed to have already have read chapters 10 and 11 um so I would recommend that was some blank stair something I uh I'd like to ask you all the same uh it it's a great book I've read listened and read to the whole book but I would recommend that you if you want to cut to the chase go to chapters 10 and 11 because chapter 10 is the recommendations that he makes on what schools could do as far as cell phone policies and some other activities and then chapter 11 is recommendations that he makes to parents as to what he thinks is is some good ideas as far as uh
055technology screen time in your in your children so have a read and if y'all want to set aside some discuss time to talk about chapters 10 and 11 we can do that as well um besides that I think that's all I will answer any questions that you might have but that's all I'm was just going to bring up for tonight uh Jared is is at a escap in Burlington so he obviously won't be given a report tonight but he'll be back next month to be yeah to discussion yes well and if and this kind of goes our discussion out of made is the staff retention bonuses as yall know we keep we kicked this around in December it was actually on the agenda in September I mean excuse me in December and um and then
056we we're uncertain at the time because we hadn't finished our January uh Heather and I were just still working on the January balancing of the budget and the new budget did you bring those documents by chance I did I gave everyone everybody has one so um there's a document on your on your desk that we that Heather put together for us but as you're aware uh again we we brought this up in December and then we didn't have enough information to move forward so we stopped it at the time um you know we knew at the time we were trying to finish in December we were trying to finish our audit from 2223 and we knew the county owed owed us some money we did not know that the county was sitting on $2.4 million
057of our dollar of our tax dollars that we were able to get in when we finished the 2223 audit uh once we received these deposits and got these uh these balances uh it increased our fund balance from roughly 5 million to roughly 6.5 million because a lot of that money that came in first of all we made our bond payment which was $400,000 uh in December and then um but the amount of money that we have and this is showed on at the very bottom in yellow the funds available right now I just put roughly 6.5 it's actually 6,577 5556 you know roughly with teaching superintendent schools that you should try to keep at least three months of expenses on hand our our monthly expenses are roughly 1.1 million so a month a month sorry
058interrupt but month month it's that's our monthly that's our monthly yeah full monthly expenses including payroll electric bill water bill everything else so you know that's a rough rule of thumb that you should have 3.3 I think I feel a little bit better having 4 million in the bank but to have 6.5 is is a in excess for sure so also uh in my superintendent report it goes on to say last year the state created a new funding formula that all districts benefited from but as we go as long as they fully fund the State education program we will continue to benefit um from this this funding form Heather and I looked at this today next year for instance if they don't take out the the four-year average I think Heather said we would uh
059be up $250,000 uh of additional State funding for next year which is which is good that's that's nice um last year because of 5% inflation and the new funding formula most districts received a substantial addition to their amount of money they received and they were able to pass this log in nice races a lot of districts at at the time I was still on the other side of the state a lot of the districts tried to match the 5% inflation just to let their their employees keep up with the cost of inflation we at at East V Tera gave a the normal 2% step rate which again didn't keep up with inflation but and I would speculate that this was due to the fact that the county was sitting on the 2.4 million at the
060office so with that said you know and as y'all heard me as you heard us at the State Board testify you know we're trying to do all we can to attract and retain our top quality people and not only for our school district retain the best in our school district but recruit uh in this area and attract people to come to to L hunting so that's the basis of why I would like to give this U this bonus to our people I'd love it if we could roll it out at Spring break I think that would be a good time if not I think any bonus would be appreciated at any time um there are i' in speaking to some of the board members I think there's some legitimate issues uh with this plan so
061for instance and you'll see this in my board report you know everybody would get the same bonus whether they're a really good employee or whether they're not a very good employee and um and that is true and that is the fallacy with I mean a down point of of just giving everybody the same thousand everybody would get the same bonus whether they worked here one year or 10 years so some would say that's not fair and then um there was one I think oh the last one is people who make uh Less in our district would get a higher percentage than people who make more and again this is true but honestly done on purpose you know I I enjoy I think that we should always look out for some of people in our district
062that make less money and and and this would be a substantial bonus to them um this is a discussion item obviously we're in discussion and I as I think Greg called me today he had had a question about this particular item and I said you know Greg I said I'm I know what my intentions are I know where I want to go but I'm fully open to to what y'all would have to say in any ideas if y'all wanted to change this up uh in some form or fashion I'd certainly be open that but I think it's good that we can at least discuss it and see where we may want to go with this so had to start somewhere so we start here so my question you I did have a conversation about this
063and my understanding is it will be a bottom line deduction withraw whatever from our bank accounts of $250,000 is that correct yes sir other I don't mean to put you on the spot but you agree with that and we have the funds to substantiate that to do that I don't know how if that's even my place to say that but I mean I feel right now now and Dr glinko and I had this discussion this morning I said I felt that I wasn't quite comfortable with it for the fact that as of Janu or February 28th um our audit will not be done so in March they will hold our property tax again and so I feel at that point I I told Dr blinko I was nervous with it just for the five but
064I don't know how long it will take dmetri to do the audit um I'm hoping he'll have it done by the end of March but as in the past that wasn't always the case we went a little longer as we all know so um I I was thought was my opinion this morning when I had talked to Dr lend I really um that was hard for you to say and I appreciate that thank you yeah and he's right so we finished the 222 I I just I just want to I don't want to over that was trying to figure out a polite way to say it but that was ballsy insult thank you what I say it it's sorry that's quite right um and Heather's right we finished our 2223 audit in early December as
065we mentioned and we're trying to do 23 24 now and we need to have that finished by the end of March so we so the state doesn't tell the county to withhold funds again right now we get about 1.1 million a month I asked how this this morning from the state and what was our local money that we sorry 4 about 40 to 45,000 County from the county a month so it's possible I mean we'll still get our state money our 1.1 I believe but we just we wouldn't get our County money right we will get the state share every month Contin um I just with the audit not being done also and I told Dr Linko this this morning too with the audit not being done that really appreciate that thank um I'll let
066everybody I'll go last on my questions because like like with I have a list so I'm just gonna um thank you for that information um yeah the audit that big one for me but uh with everything up in the air too with everything um and then we're going to that legislative thing at the end of this week to find out more what's going on with our whole government and just that's a lot of information you have to absorb everything can I I like this information here but I need a lot more see what's going on it's it's very V to me I I like out of my stuff and it is it is out but itemizes what I go off of I mean I I did I did do stuff with de with stuff with
067the city with that other thing and I I like itemized so I mean they should just beg and you know what I mean you know what I'm talking about so it's like when I see this sunlight so yeah I yeah I make that good choice sorry I just put you back on you with this um this is good information to have but when I look at this I just see what our bank balances are and so that doesn't tell me like of our bank balances we have a bank balance of whatever but we have 3 million checks written are four budget items and so this doesn't really tell me what except we have because the what the bank balances are which that that doesn't mean anything um in my mind you know we have the
068budget put together based off of the expected income that we're going to get and we've allocated all those funds and so in my mind this money that we've gotten in isn't new money it's money that we were expecting and I know so you mentioned that we were only expect 400,000 and we got 2.4 million but this doesn't it doesn't show me how that 2 million is excess especially with you know things that we have done since and like the buses we're expecting to pay for our portion of the best Grant um if we get it and things like that um a future meeting to look at once we have all those list in place um let me when you get a chance let me answer some of these okay so these um these balances that
069you see have remained those same balances for a while because we the money get in which is roughly 1.1 40,000 1,1 140,000 a month pays our bills so the money we're getting from the state Cally pays all of our bills and we are we are on a 12month payment plan right now we will go possibly next year to a nine-month payment plan when you go to nine months you are going to have some months off where you're not getting money from the state you would have to put back money and have summon savings to utiliz for your payrolls in those three off months which would probably be the summer months if I had to guess where they're going to be off um and that's a system I've worked with before previously as well and that's
070how they paid us in my previous St that I went to so it's nice to be paid on a 12 month basis so right now these balances that you see are just monies that sit there they don't they don't get touched muchly you know unless we have a very large purchase then they would touched um the best Grant not only did we apply for the best Grant uh for the roof but we also appli for an exemption from because with best Grant people they calculate how much your portion is going to be and they calculated that our portion would be 35% so 35% of the 3.5 would roughly be 1.2 million that we would be on our portion well I filled out a waiver for that and asked them that could we please only pay
07118% um of of our total best Grant so both our best Grant and our waiver will be considered but we won't know about that until April or April I think mid April was when we did the presentation we got it or not and also if they approve the way so instead of 1.2 our our our percentage on the bestest rate will be about 650,000 right now in capital I think we're sitting on 1.1 and on an average I've been putting 500,000 a year and we would put another 500 allocated towards Capital uh for next year and we still have plenty of money to pay for the best so is that 1.1 included in that fund available sorry I didn't heard that question oh I was so he was saying you have 1.1 million in that
072capital account yes is that a part of 6 and half million yes the uh the capital allocation is allocated actually on paper but the but the but the money is sitting part of this 6.5 so that's kind of what I want to of the 6.5 what have we allocated already and I guess what is that bottom dollar of fund that's not allocated that would help to make a more more Precision um up to 6.5 roughly 1.1 is designated to Capital but it doesn't have a purpose right now if that makes sense so there's 1.1 sit in capital and it's not like we said oh we need this to pay this now we can I think we were going to take the buses out of the capital so of that 1.1 what's bus is 240 and
073we are taking those out of right 20 40 so really 240 of that so 900 it's just it's just no no particular use but you want you want that bumper there's no doubt I mean it Serv purpose I'm not talking against it you know like let's say the boiler went out you know and that we need a new boiler well it's it's like a rainy day that Capital fund is a big air conditioning me that goes out and it would cost us $100,000 to replace it we need to have that money in capital so we can go do that so you always want a little buffer in there but I think that buffer is too high right now it won't be too high if we get the best gr but we will need to put
074additional dollars in uh the capital for best gr allocation but I guess what I'm getting at is for me I I'm all for rewarding our teachers for their hard work because they they worked so hard throughout this year you know people take on extra duties they sometimes you do extra things without getting paid um so I I'm for rewarding our teachers but I don't te just fromit sheet that we have the money and so I guess that's what I'm struggling on making a decision is that I I need to be like yes this all this money is accounted for in these different things and the bottom line you've accounted for you know 5 million that we have your for things and we have you know the 1.5 million available whatever whatever it that feel better
075about making a decision on that um my other thing that I have with it is you know like you mentioned before said that staff who hasn't been to so you know teachers or staff that were just hired you know this month last month they're only going three months for the school year who's to say they get this bonus and come back next year so I I would be more willing to reward those students that do come back and say you guys came back this is awesome here's your here's your bonus back here you know we appreciate you a great and and work really hard Sarah I'm interr you but fan again so I think that the fan I think and I are kind of like I think I'm getting most of what you're saying but
076I don't mean to speak for you but you could speak for me then I'll correct you but it talking about like more incentive wise yeah the first part was that um teachers who have only been here a couple months will get this bonus and they come back you know they get this going and say all right I'm find a job over jend something um so I more open to teers that do come back for next year like hey guys back for the year what we were calling but I we kind that's that's it was it's been he brought this up to me and it's another way that's what I I told y all I wanted to stress when I finished my whatever it was my talk was I'm side this and one of the ones
077they brought up was okay so they turn what if they turn in their contract and when they turn in their contract to come back for next year then you they would earn this bonus you could give them the bonus at the end of the school year and that would be great too I'd certainly be up for that um and then I guess the last piece of that is what if they took the bonus and then in the summer they quit because theoretically you can quit for 30-day notice but we have a last paycheck so we could we could have them sign something that says you know if you if you take the bonus and then you quit during the summer we'll withhold that bonus out of your last paycheck because they get paychecks through August
078previous year employers employees excuse me so yeah there's there's a lot of ways to to skin this cat as far I know I really I really like that idea I mean that's I I really like that idea like like she's saying I want to itemize like this definitely because I want to know like if we have the funds because I'm I'm all for teachers that's that's my biggest thing like I I'm I'm definitely advocate for that because you know they do so much like yeah and I i' i' I've done this stuff so I'm like yeah so the whole point is is that uh I do wanted to incentivize because I see that all their hard work you know sometimes just goes unseen and especially the ones that have been here for so long they're
079just it just looks like to give it to the ones that just started it's not they're not appreciated yeah and what we're going to try to do also is all we can next year to give more than just step rights that's where we really need to focus and concentrate but I felt like it' have been nice had we've been able to pass along the greater race this past year and maybe this is almost a way to like catch up a little bit from that that's a point that that I I take anyhow but no I definitely want to focus on giving the B biggest races possible you know the thing I visit with great about you know I'll give y for instance um while I was at my conference I met with a group of
080people to look at our liability and property insurance and I took some documents that Heather prepared for me and shared with him and went over them just you know just right off the bat they think they can save us $100,000 in property and liability insurance so we're now sending in more documentation to let them dig a little bit deeper but for instance like jy's building we're we're ensuring a building that our our documents showed hadn't changed since 1963 the year the building was built and he said re surely y'all have done something to this building and I was like oh yeah we've done a lot of things there's four roofs sitting on it for instance and he's like well y'all sprinkled it at some point put sprinkler systems in I said of course he's like
081you're getting you're pain as if that building doesn't have sprinkers so there's there's those savings to be had the other thing that that Heather and I talked about today is our health insurance policy want to put together a teaching group and and interview Brokers to see if we can get a better health insurance we met with the group month ago you ever take um that came in did a little presentation to Heather and I about health insurance and how they could save us money we think we could save hundreds of thousands of dollars on health insurance but we'll be doing these things to the more we can save in areas like that the bigger the races we can get so I mean I want to be the leader in this Valley as far as having
082top pay for our teachers and our staff um and make it a place where people want to come teach and want to come work not just teach but or as so that's probably part of mind as well and here's another thing with incentivized ones too with people that are coming that are people that are in town that are wanting to become teachers the ones that are like okay I want to be a teacher here there don't have the qualifications but they're putting in that eff say and they're doing it they're new they start putting it in that you know they're working here going to school and they start picking up other things in the district what about that in like working towards being a teacher yeah but also doing other things with inside of the
083like like extra things that with we get that all the time you know all that Stu everything yeah and we do there's a lot of our teachers that pick up little extra dudes here and their coaching being the biggest one by far um so you know we definitely offer that but then even the teachers that are not certified teachers yet you know we incentivize them to try to get their teaching certification so we can pay them as teachers and not as is there a bonus once you get that c get a heck of a raise we still have a program withes for that for what I thought we had money allocated or [Music] not Alternative liip Program there's two or three different alternative license programs and of course tep is one of them through o
084so yeah but the biggest race they get is they come off being a par professional move to a teacher pay scale That's The Big Race so I've been around a lot of school districts and I've been around a lot of a lot of superintendant and whatnot and I've heard the phrase that school districts counties municipalities aren't Banks that's right and and the money is there for a purpose and I know I'm going to I think I'm going to swim way up stream with my fellow colleagues on this and hind I really hear you I like your idea about like if they sign up to come back and $50,000 for right now not trying to diminish what that money is but that's not a lot of money and let's do both my idea is let's do
085both let's pay them now give them a bonus now and if they sign up and they come back pay it again but how do you know because I believe and I trust what Heather's saying and I trust superintendent Heather's saying that makes nervous she I know it makes her nervous but I'm looking at the figures and so if we did what I just proposed that's $500,000 and I'm all I'm all for spending her budgets I agree with you but I just think and I know I'm sounding like a D Lial Democrat or something um $500,000 is not allowed me but we we don't know we5 million in bank but I I need to see what all that has been because I can have you know say I have $10,000 in my account right now but
086I've already said oh I'm going to buy Windows I'm going tol my roof I'm this I have 10,000 though I can keep spending so that's where I'm coming from doesn't gives me enough support documents to understand where that money is coming from and where this money has been allocated um so just more more documentation be helpful for me to make that the only allocation that I'm aware of and Heather correct me if I'm wrong is buses that that money we have said we will spend and that's roughly 240 250,000 and we have did allocate those and that was part of the budget resolution okay so everybody's had conversation back and forth any final thoughts on your own before I have my questions okay so from what I'm hearing is that everyone has we agree that
087these are good ideas and that our staff deserves the the bonuses and we do believe that they should get raises what I'm also hearing is that um there is a need for more information of what the funds available are already allocated for I hear that so I'm going to ask some questions whoever wants to answer but want to know these things because it Matt ver business public yeah Max yeah um that we should do this in public so I'm just going to recap things that I remember from previous meetings and then I just want to make sure that I am tracking the information correctly so number one our audit is not complete um yet we hope that it will be but we're not sure so it's possible that again because it's not complete and we
088might have to do an extension but we don't know for sure there is a possibility that the county will hold on to our funds again okay just going off of previous experience I don't think it's a good idea to roll the dice at time right now for for that then my next question which is going to follow along with like what Sarah St here saying was like it is to me the same thing of like okay fine we are showing six million here but I also see that part of it is the Colorado trust bond which I think that's the one you said before when you did explanations we can't touch that because that goes to our payment right right the blue ones that are highlighted are ones we the funds we can't touch because
089they're allocated to something else yes so the the Colorado trust bond is the one that pays for prior and then we have our property tax f uh cbnt bond that one so then the one that we have with Colorado the CDs is the 3.2 million and that's the CDs that we have well that's not cash debate that's sear I mean like that's supposed to build our interest yes okay so are we talking about cing them out to give no part of our and we could if we needed them we could cat them out when they matur if we needed them that was okay then the next question I have so when we have this these monies like it so just understanding that we have title funds and I know that some of it is us
090it or loser I want to know do we have $1.1 million I'm going off your sheet $1.1 million for a monthly average of income and then 40,000 from local T of that total what percentage of that pays for operations the salaries Keep The Fringe keep the lights on whatever it is probably close to a million a little over give it average yes but we can have you know the salaries can fluctuate they can be higher than that they can be lower than that okay along with bills too we can pay more can be less so then it's not I can't have a after to the penny but it's an after I don't know I'm but then um just from like because I do a lot of reading on my own can you explain what categorical
091funds are because there are some things that we have to pay for that are like you're trying to say like you want to see where it's like and I know you gave us the full budget but like again they're new and then people at home are watching and there are people that just don't fully understand so how much of it goes to gifted and tal how much of it is special end how much of it is yeah I see what you're saying okay to break it down um off the top of my head I don't know all of those and I but it's all budgeted it's all budgeted so then that means that it is already out correct well it's just part of our you know our monthly expenses that we average about a million
092you know a year so but our money coming in always offsets the money going out every so we have to touch these balances well here's sorry here's another concern or at least a question that I've been thinking is so some of these meetings together so there was one meeting we discussed um whether our CAO would get paid out of easy of easy Grant and we can't and that's because part of his um salary already comes from title funds and you cannot I don't know if you guys are already on the board or not during that time but you cannot you can supplement but you can't supplant so if you couldn't afford the position to begin with then title funds isn't going to continue it it's just for I think like to get you started like
093so let's say we already could afford a stay but then title funds is supposed to be like your meat and potatoes and the extra to supplement that is that Affairs yes because the position was new title would let us pay this year and next okay so then of it okay but then next year when we start doing the budget the next year will title still pay for part of that but then we still have to come up with the other part of that salary too yes okay because you can't okay okay and and then and I'm sorry I'm just I talk fast and I'm just trying to make sure that I'm trying to make sure I'm being sensible for other people's time but we also have again the the the easy grant that we talked
094about that was that was being applied for to pay for um TT yeah tntp and then boat well yeah we already have the board training and then strategic plan a easy gr heart Okay so so we have at the State Board of Education that they said that we can they approved the plan and so that we can go with tntp as our partial manager for the intermediate school but that's about how much money will that cost we pay for that or is that title or is that part of that brand or is it so we have received an allocated $100,000 on easy gr money and when I asked Sam this and we didn't get the other 100,000 that we wanted he said yes we can move some of the others dollars that youed uh to
095help pay for tmtp will we probably have to pay for some of tmtp next year we will will we go back and reapply for easy and uh not make the mistake we made this year absolutely and will we be awarded all of that money I feel like we will so but back to your point about personnel and and the CEO position we just as we add Personnel there's times when we take away Personnel you know there's there's many times that um that positions go unfill and those are savings too so we had to pay roughly we're paying roughly half of of the CAO position you know which is again a very small amount and has probably already been overcome by other positions that we didn't fill uh when people left people come and go all
096the time and and as we build next year's budget we're going to try to be as I've told y'all in in emails before even more lean you know and than we currently are now there's some things that you know we have so many teachers you know per student we try to keep a certain ratio administrators per certain amount of students ratio uh par professionals is one that we I've told all of our our principles that we need to work on we have a tremendous amount of pair of professionals but we have that because we have a tremendous amount of special Le students as yall heard the State Board here 20% extremely high 10% is more in line most districts run about 10% so this is something else that we're working with Poes on but it's
097not as if that we're just sitting around trying to add more money coming out of budget I'm also sitting around trying to take money you know not spam so these things come out in washes we sometimes say they work out wash as far as Personnel goes not only will now that Mr Wilson's been added to title it's not just this year next year we can forever add him to title because we're not where so once he's on title we can continue to ask for those dollars and allate those towards that salary 50% is the percentage that we getting that salary time what title is we we did this once before I don't think it was definitely so like title one can you off the top of your head can you tell us what each titles
098are for uh title one's salaries benefits um title two is mainly PD um title four is the well rounded so it's probably training supplies and see what else I have Title Five is the safety and health is and training supplies maybe PD on that too and only some of those I think you said that too right that title funds some of them are use it or lose it like not well we almost lost $500,000 because we didn't spend it but we we've got to spend it this year um or I think we are going to lose some of that yeah the the thing it it's not just title grants all grants spend them or you you may be you may have to send that money back so we do all we can to spend our
099title dollars before we spend our local dollarss um as far as supplementing these costs go and not supplanting yeah for the best for the for the when that's the application you're working on now last time we had to have a match do we have to have a match for this one yeah that's what I just talked about a minute ago right but what was the percent well there the state told us 35 I asked for a waiver B 18% okay and that 18% will be 655,000 something like that I all the exact bigger I have to except bigger but it's not 1.3 so and last year I mean I've done this is the third year in a row that I've done best GRS um be good at this thing but the waivers are always approved
100I mean because they vote on your waiver and your best Grant to move your best Grant forward at the exact same time and they're always voted yes typically now they're voted yes and now did you make the cut that's that's the hard part best Grant is so we're either going to get the waiver and the best Grant or we're not going to get the waiver the best Grant one of do you mind if I interrupt with the four layers of grop on that thing and it being a cement yeah yeah and how we were talking about the D me where we don't know what it looks like underneath there and we have a contingency but we don't know if that that so that's where well get a little tricky with this whole thing yeah with
101it's a concrete deck I mean it should be in just fine shape should be but you pull off more layers than then you see but yes not only is there a contingency that we build into all projects then we build an escalation for both the uh construction company and then we have an escalation as well a big part of that Grant is those three items the roof itself is not really 3.5 um you but when you start building in all these other soft cost is where they call those uh including the cost to pay for your uh consulted all of that's built in architectural all of that's built in think just Su up my perspective then um I don't think it's wise to to Grant this not not that they don't deserve more but we
102would be I feel physically irresponsible to make a commitment to something when we won don't have our audit back yet we don't know if this is a an actual windfall or if this is the if or if what's his name Demitri is going to come back after the audit and be like oh actually you need to pay whatever I I would be more comfortable knowing what the results are from the audit I also think that you know since we're not sure and if the county our funds and although you know we will get them eventually that still creates cash flow issue like you know the money's there but I can't be look for it you know I don't want to cause that kind of situation but then also you know within the change of administration
103there was at one time when we had the change of administration we lost $70,000 in Grant in title funds I don't know like Stacey or Sarah I it's uncertain and I do agree we're going to the legislative um conference and I'd like to hear what the um the report is and get a better understanding because we don't know yet what is going to happen with the governor's budget and his and the averaging um because that will hurt us and I think that if and I I I don't disagree that these are great ideas that for for we to want to implement but if we are too soon um I think that we're going to end up putting ourselves in hot water and then wishing that we hadn't and I I I just think that it'd
104be more responsible to wait till we have concrete I don't I don't want to kind of spend the paycheck before we have it kind of thing and then be overd no I'm not I don't I don't want us to be in that kind of I think that's relatable to some people um and I just want to make sure that we aren't doing that because this isn't our money this isn't the community's money and I just want to be responsible so that's where I sit on that um I will let everybody have one more turn of giving the final thoughts before we move on to the next item um I agree it's not a money and the school district is not a bank and you got the money either reward or people and I'm just telling
105you right now you're going to be very BL candid I think we and I think dor great idea I'm doubling down we pay now and we pay if de sign to come back we got the money this is the last thing I'd say is a lot of the things that y'all said you can say every year and we can sit around and uh and second guest these things I've been sitting on this money for a long long time it's not going anywhere it's going nowhere but up what about next year now we're sitting on 7.5 what about the year after that 8.5 at what point do we start paying the salary that we should start paying the bonuses that we should so and as far as the legislature they meet every year I've been this
106is my fourth legislative session and I've heard the same thing for four years and this is Gregory this is his wheelhouse this is where he works all we're broke oh we're broke oh we don't have the money everybody's going to have to cut and then mysteriously come May everything's fine so I think there's a little bit I think the legislature goes through a little bit of uh I don't know cat Mouse games I guess would be an easy way to put it um but we'll see but these we could say these things every single year every single year so at some point I I I don't mind um about the I think think the most um notable exception here is the is the audit you know I think that we could said and see what
107has said come March in the audit yeah that's this this taxpayers money but I also understand the teacher aspect of it because my daughter was recently a teacher and I understand the mess that this school district just went through with all this with the the taxes and everything and this is the first time we've used this auditor and I don't want this happening again what you guys went through with your taxes and stuff and I don't want this being a mistake that we make and that we we write a check we can't cash you know what I mean that we made a mistake and I just want a little more time and that's why I prefer to just wait and I you guys deserve you guys deserve a bonus you guys deserve it and I
108know that that is something I want to give you guys is just we need more information because I gotta make I got the the right information so I can make that judge that call that's like okay yeah I got the information it's there we can do it but at this time I don't feel that Pro um yeah I I definitely believe that our teachers supped um they work hard put up with a lot of stuff in schools and um they're they're the boots on the ground for for this District um for our students um I would like to wait the audit was complete and then said to just more clarifying information more informed on that so everything that I've already said but then also that I would like to wait till meet and confer because
109that is when the staff is allowed to address the board with their concerns and budget input and I think that we're missing that piece and we should at least hear from them as I give those reports yes okay Madam president can I ask one question I guess much sure who Heather when will the audit I do not have exact date um we're hoping moving forward it would be in March but we do not have that exact so would and would you anticipate by the April board meeting Hing I mean I'm not I was I I hear you I'm like I don't want to say March but I'm giving you some what word April for sure the last year we had deadlines and I would hope and say you know there'll be the next month and
110it didn't it just didn't turn out that way but I'm hoping that this one is sooner all right and I don't want to necessarily say April and then I'm not trying to it down to the exact date yeah based on the conversation the dialogue I'm just trying to think how we proceed we have a much better auditor now than what we and I'm hoping March I'm keeping my fingers crossed and I'm being positive that we can have it in March but I can't promise that I can't do thank you and but I will if once I hear from Demetri and he keeps me in up to date on timelines I will definitely pass it along moving on to hi seven unfinished business we have two PS and just to remind the audience this is the
111one that we uh and we changed it to the second uh second it yeah item i' like to move to table policy uh CBA Das or SL CBC for hasb to consult for services we have a we have a motion in a second to table policy CBA CBC to consult with casby services for services for services uh discussion yeah I I would just like to apologize for last time when meting for discussing this I was so confused and you know how passionate I am about policy and learning all this stuff D um it just it was so confusing and just I just want to apologize okay and then um I I have more information about that and they do provide services so we can do this and learn about it especially with me and her
112being new and then uh do it maybe with even the new board members you know so I think that would be a great opport should just able it and figure out what to do great time um speaking of the services we did have an audit it was a very high level audit just to see if we were in compliance there's where they just look at like put out of date or there something that's not compliant with our statutes and we did get that in 20 I'm checking it's been a minute 22 I want to say or 21 but it has been a and I do think that when did you say we're doing the tntp first visit or we're supposed to do strategic planning with them so it all goes together so our strategic planning
113should also include our our budget our financing there's even a tool if you go to the um website the Colorado school Finance project which is where uh Dr blinko gave us that information from last time that showed like our enrollement um from 93 you know um they have great information there but there's like a strategic planning tool there and a lot of things tied to budget as well and it would be best to set up this new board that um that they do it together I think it it would build board and superintendent relationships like you were bringing up before with like how with our new attorney that's something that um is created together um because it does need to be done we that was where we were trying to go with it but then
114we had Co and then it was just always in reactive instead of trying to be proactive and I would like to be able to can that off to you know there's two of us that are termed out and then another one that will run so there's three vacancies and November if anybody's interested um but I do think that it should be that starting there at least so I haven't decided if I'm R but still I do think that it all goes hand in hand and it should be built together um especially because this is like it it's just really a good time to do that so that we can go in a different or stronger direction that policy audit was July of 22 22 so and we're going to be seeing casby when we go
115up there yes so we can bring that up too and then uh have the bring that back to the board to report when we talk about like what we we did up there um so I agree with I agree with any part is that I think there's a lot of important policies obviously in our policy manual but as far as I'm concerned this is probably one of the most important policies in our policy manual because there's only one policy that's referen in my uh evaluation I mean not excuse me not evaluation in my contract V and it and what it says roughly is that the superintendent will form all duties say outlined in policy cbac CBC so of all the policies that you want to take your time on and get right this is it
116this as far as I'm concerned this is a big e um we're about to roll through some policies here in a minute we're going to probably roll through them really fast and there's a reason for that they're they're kind of Munday entitled nothing we can do about them kind of policies so it feels weird to say hey there's really important policies and then there's some that aren't as important but that's the truth you so anyhow um as far as casby policies go I've told some of y'all the last two years I was in Delores we went through um total revamp our policies and you can pay casby to do this and it's more than just a policy audit you go through every single policy you start at a and you go to J and over
117two years of special meeting I think we had made it about 34 the way through it's a lot it's it's very taxing but I learned a lot this is what I learned the most important thing I can tell you all tonight is that and I was sharing this with Joe today everything matters punctuation matters formatting matters you know a lot of the things we did they were taking out the cans and putting in the butts or taking out the shs putting in the wheels but a ton of it was format and when we finished a a policy and we had worked on a policy you sent it back to Cas that's kind of what you're alluding to Stacy and you say okay we made these changes to this policy is this okay and sometimes they
118say no and then sometimes they say yes that's just fine but part of this if you want to go through CBA and see BC correctly we'll make the changes that we want to make and then we'll send it back and why do they sometimes say no because some of this is state law and it's not highlighted anywhere of what is Law and what's not so you sometimes they'll write you back and they will say you can't change that so it is important that I I like your idea Stacy of getting casby involved and I would probably have done that anyhow where we would have made the changes that or we will someday make the changes to this policy but we need to send it back to them and say okay does this look okay and
119I like the policy it was I really liked it I really did it's just I was so confused on it like I was like wait a minute where it come from like how did we get here and I was just like yeah and I I just really I really wanted to get to that point and you have so much experience leaving with you and I'm like you know what I mean well I can actually confuse you more there's there's actually four versions of this that we can that we're were going to look at tonight four we're good yeah it's already almost yeah 8:30 yeah so good yeah it's it's it's complex there's no doubt this table it table it okay Mrs Sia hi Mrs hin hi Mr colitz no Mrs Lea it it uh this
120is our final second final reading Madame President of LBD uh LBD is deals with how we do with District Charter Schools again pretty basic uh policy my recommendation to the board is that we approve are we just talking right now no this doesn't finish our recommendation to the board I'm sorry uh is that we U approve uh LBD on the second final read make a motion to approve policy lb on second final reading second we have a motion and a second to approve revise policy LBD on second final reading any questions comments or additions hearing none roll call Mrs SI hi Mrs Hines hi Mr pitz hi Mrs Lea hi new business Madam President we have a number of policies in front of us as I referenced just a minute ago uh to approve a
121I will'll go ahead and read through them this is first reading for these policies AC gbaa jbb GC e GC GCF f g d gdf JB JF GB a j i c d d j i c d e jfb a jfbb j i c a j l l you know I can put my glasses on and this would go better I'm sorry j i GB and JS uh this is the first again first reading uh and all of the policies are because um recent Title 9 overturn of the 2024 Title 9 uh federal law and we are now back to the 2020 version of Title 9 federal laws um and so all of these excluding GBE and JS they are dealing with um artificial intelligent parameters right say those two again Jill I'm sorry the
122last the last two yeah GB and JS yeah so so yes and this again this a first me it' be my recommendation to pass these policies as outlined okay we have a motion and a second to approve the mentioned policies um but I I I do want to go through them real quick and say it's for non-discrimination discrimination equal employment sexual harassment uh professional staff recruiting hiring support staff recruiting and hiring equal education opportunities admission and denial of admission open hiring equal employment opportunity violent and aggressive behavior bullying prevention and Behavior Uh intradistrict Choice open enrollment inter District choice at this moment student dress code student concerns complaints and Grievances and then the last two of course is the uh staff use of technology and uh student use of technology to include artificial intelligence I
123just like for the record to reflect the superintendent and I had a conversation with te to I'm not sure which policy was the dress code um that's something I would would like to talk about at some some point in the future as well as the Technologies staff and M president can't see but any those last two those last two um items because that's something I think we're going to talk about in the near future technology and limiting access faulty and staff and pres for the the second reading thank you Mr about this I need to bring more information on this last two about the AI I think all the rest are we understand but I don't have a problem any of I just wanted to make everybody aware kind of like like those points of
124thought we probably just a little bit more information on those last two JBE and that's kind of a high topic that AI so let me before the second read next month let me bring back just a little bit more information I think I think it's fine and I think it's fine to pass them tonight on and and then we'll I'll see if I can get some more information back to you for a second Jill if you that please I will thank you any other discussion please MRSA hi Mrs hin hi Mr pman hi Mrs Le hi item Item B uh mam president is approved revised regulations ACR r 1 and acr3 this is the first revised final reading of those two policies these policies were revised again title n regulations uh and you have a
125little bit more if you'd like to cover some of those exact readings about my recommendation my recommendation come on my recommendation is that we uh pass these two policies M president motion to approve policy ac-1 and policy ac-3 second uh approve okay so I have a motion a second to approve revised regulations ac- R1 and ac- R3 and I have in the agenda on first their regulations they only requ one reading so regation is the first revised final reading so it's the combo and again for the the audience uh ac- R-1 is non-discrimination equal employment again we use revised for title line regulations and then policy ac- R-3 is sexual harassment investigation procedures revised due to title n Reg question and regulations give more specifics to the policy so hearing that Ro Mrs SI hi
126Mrs Hines hi Mr pit hi Mrs Lea hi item C Madam president item C is the staff attention bonuses uh I want to thank all the board members tonight for very healthy discussion and um because of our healthy discussion this afternoon excuse me earlier I would like to make the recommendation that we table this particular item until a later date make a motion to table bonus to later date second that have a motion and a second to table the staff retention bonus discussion I disagree I'll be a no vote um think we we got the money or there was some disagreement whether we have the money or we don't have the money in the scheme of things we're not talking about L money and I think we need to pay thank you Mr apprciate I
127don't disagree that we need to pay people but I also think that we need to make sure that we can and that it's sustainable else roll call please MRSA hi Mrs Hines hi Mr colitz no Mrs Lea hi madam president item Duty was a superintendent evaluation uh results U when I discussed and I appreciate the discussion with the board uh that we put this to a later time so that we can have time to have all of our board members here to go over the results of the evaluation so I don't know if we would just skip it or table it I don't know what the proper thing would be I just think we need to postp until lat today my recommendation is postp later day one last thing I'd like to say about this
128um I think it'd be if we could before spring break which is roughly 17th if we might want to call a special meeting in that time if we want to spend some time on this gu so I don't know so what I'm hearing is [Music] then we could entertain a motion to T U table this item until we can do a doti sure before I I would preer spring break I think that would be so mind is ready to go let me roll a recommendation iar a recommendation is that we table until a is that table until later date with the dle being sent out signs so we have a motion and a second to table item D to superintendent evaluation results until we can send out a doodle poll which is to ask the
129board to check our availability so we can schedule a special meeting for us to go over these results both for spring perfect I just would like to acknowledge the superint superintendent willingness to uh maneuver around that language in the contract we much appreciate it thank you thank you oh and then I just want to also add that by postponing this um because there is in the contract there is a deadline of March 1st and then it does do an automatic if nothing's done by April first however I don't know if you recall Dr Blingo has a three-year contract with this so this does not affect that so that's why he's allowing we have the time we have the time and we and like I said again it's new people new superintendent new tool we should
130take the time to do this the right way and make sure that we are being strategic that this is Sia hi Mrs hin hi Mr Coleman hi Mrs Lea hi Bo comments thank you guys for staying in I just I'm just like Jo talk so I do I do have a couple quick comments uh first of all want to give a huge shout out to Mrs aaka and her team Dr blinko and everybody for a phenomenal job at the State Board of Education I mean it was I mean I don't really know what I know what I was growing up there for and I was just so proud to be a member of this district and be part of the school build so you and you and your entire team so huge huge um shout
131out also see this is Fox openen um in the audience we have a b finalist in our school district that's big that's BFD yeah that is um and that didn't happen honestly it happened on her part but without the counselors and the support in the high school that wouldn't happened yeah that's a huge sh that went to St Board hearing um I apologize I could be there but I did watch um were doing it and you guys did really really good and the reaction from the state board members was was awesome they very they really took that was um I also attended the science fair and it was it was well attended there was a lot of projects there and it it was cool to see all the efforts and time that got set into
132the projects includ to all the stud who did that for sure that was fun to that was a good deal I agree with everything that they've said but also I did not realize that the Intermediate School had their students watched the proceeding uh the public hearing and I did get feedback from the students that I mean they didn't get everything but they wanted to make sure that they uh that our principles did a good job and it was very interesting to learn and that they're very excited because we have to get out of the red or orange or I don't remember what they said so um I I just want to commend you all for doing a great job and that we do have our Littles are watching us we are setting examples so I
133appreciate all of the hard work that you do and I hope that um I don't want to get emotional so I'm just going to say great job Bab yeah so and I agree and I'm sorry seems like sometimes I talk too much but um to your point Madam president maybe Dr blinko somebody is there a way I've had some Community people ask because I bragged about it I'm like it was so awesome is there a way even we even get that online or post that somehow I don't know we have it recorded need well because I've bragged about it and people have said can I see it can I watch it dakot let's see if we can find that I app so because it was phenomenal it was great that would i' like to um
134uh with the deck I no Au the representative of the board just want to say that that is mine and zek's little like uh yeah it's our date time as parents um but I just want to say uh I went to the state I went to the state hearing and uh I I I am very proud of our the team that we have udia and and uh and GRE and everybody um it was very emotional so I don't want to talk a lot about it it was you guys just traveling up there it was you know that was t g itself um we almost thought it was canceled it one too so you know that was that was scary too um we do have a pie meeting tomorrow right so the community parents it's everybody
135P Pi is a school accountability it's our school ACC facility but it has a education yeah always get it I also went school that great you learn a lot of information there also our accountability for the district you learn a lot that is that is you learn so much there I learned more there than I learn any place else so yeah get invol it's get yeah get involved that's a great place to start if you want to rent for board yeah it is it really is going on as well yeah yeah so when he said he wanted a two or two it's because he's he's he does a lot of that stuff with deck so it's not like he's just a random person being like hey I want to go what I mean yeah the
136displ yeah and thank you everybody that came today too with wrestling and and the scier too I love the science for so excited and I love that all the involvement so yeah and I'm tired so you know what's so cool about s only just one little thing is that it's competition and the and the kids are getting excited but we don't need to lose sight that we're actually learning and teaching science along the way and sometimes I think that they don't even realize what they're learning but they're having such a good time so so need that's the best part of realize your isn't it though it really is yeah a lot of te our house but I want shout out to Mrs room you know we weren't really involved for a lot of years and
137she came along and I mean we were it's hosted in Lana and our kids weren't involved and she sparked it up and it's look at look at all those I know it's amaz thank you so much for all I encourage you all to take a look if you before you leave sorry it's really the Eminem one that was crazy I I to extend our time so without any further