001Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming. I'd like to call the Canyon City School Board meeting to order. It's Monday, March 23rd, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. Let's begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Roll call. Mr. Alexander. >> Mr. Albbright is excused. Mr. Alexander present. Miss Patty >> present. >> Mr. Miley >> present. >> Miss Reer >> here. Next we have approval of the agenda. Mr. Hartman. Are there any changes this evening? >> No changes this evening. >> Boy, that's different. >> I know we have all these people. I was so excited to announce we had change. You have something to say. We're fortunate.
002No changes tonight. Thank you for asking. >> It's a very special evening, everyone. >> Special evening. Yeah. >> All right. May I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> I'll move to approve the agenda as submitted. >> I'll second. >> Motion and a second. Further discussion hearing? None. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Alexander votes I. Miss Brady, >> I. >> Mr. Miley, >> I. >> Miss Reer, >> I. Next, we have the consent agenda. Would any director like to approve an item? Would any director like to remove an item for separate consideration? Hearing none. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> I motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I'll second. >> I have a motion and a second. Further discussion hearing none. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Alexander votes
003I. Miss Brady >> I. >> Mr. Miley. >> I. >> Miss Reer. >> I. Next we have the board members report. What have you all been up to? >> I'll start. Um, last week was spring break, so nothing school related. Uh, but the week before, um, we were finishing up, um, teacher appreciation going into every every building that we hadn't, um, the middle school, Lincoln, Washington, um, the administration building. Uh, and I think they went to Harrison. I didn't go to that one. So that was always fun to go in there and uh see staff and uh offer them donuts. Um was really kind of interesting at uh Washington, I think it was. Yeah, Washington in their uh in their staff lounge there. They were having uh kind of a health food kick going with
004healthy alternatives and we brought donuts. So we we were a little off market with that one, but oh well. Um, also did the instructional review, the last one of the year at uh the high school. Always a pleasure to do those. Um, it's always a pleasure when they're all done, right, Adam? Uh, but it went really well. Uh, it's always good to go into the schools and see what they do. Um, and be a part of that. Talk to students and and staff as well. Um, so I think that's it. I was on the principal interview committee for the high school as well, but um that went well. >> Um yeah, a lot of the same stuff for me. Um Kenyon City High School IPR process. Um that was great. Um donuts everywhere. Um it
005was it was enjoyable at Washington for a brief moment. And I know we're going to highlight all the schools are great, but um they were talking about their they were doing this colonial stuff with the Revolutionary War and they were talking about the lords and the ladies and they were doing tea parties and so the teachers were talking about how they were talking in a British accent with the students and the kids were just loving it and some of them didn't pay their rent so they lost their desk and it was just a it was such a hands-on experience that the students absolutely loved it. Um, so that was really awesome. And then just the IPR process for me. >> So I was actually out of the country um during a lot of this and
006I had the opportunity to go down to Mexico and do some volunteering in Porttoarda. And I had the chance to go with my uh taxi driver to pick up his children from school. And especially since there's so many students out there um today, they get out of school at 12:30 and there's someone who meets them outside to give each of them an ice cream bar when they get out of school. And I thought, boy, how can we figure out a way to do that? So, I'm looking forward to uh getting back into the groove here. >> All right. I did much the same things. The only thing I did differently was uh and Mr. Albbright would have covered this, however, he's not here. We did a little pre-bargaining kind of session, one evening. All right,
007awards and kudos, which is what we've all been waiting for. Uh in the event, we're honoring multiple recipients, and clearly that's the case. We encourage audience members to stay throughout all of the awards and kudos section of the meeting in order to honor and celebrate those individuals. So, first this evening, we have poetry out loud. state finals. Kada Farmer, I apologize if I mess up your name. >> Keta Keta Farmer. I'm so sorry. I'm I'm name impaired. The board and CCHS would like to recognize Keta Farmer for representing Canyon City Schools in the state finals for poetry out loud for three consecutive years. This year, she competed against 14 students from across the state, and we are very proud of her accomplishments. Kata also completed her capstone this year which focused on her experiences with
008poetry out loud and how words matter. And by the way, I was there for that. In addition, she has had a highly successful year in speech and debate. Her primary event, program oral interpretation, earned her placements at several tournaments this season, including sixth place at the Mile High Tournament at Denver East, third place at the Scorpion Showdown at Sand Creek, and sixth place at Sun Thunder Invitational at Discovery Canyon. Kata is also an alternate to nationals this year, placing sixth in congressional debate and she was recognized as the superior speaker at Halloween Congress. She further expanded her skill set by competing in exemporaneous and impromptu events this season. I can't even hardly say that. Ketta, currently she holds the highest ranking at our school with 641 points through the National Speech and Debate Association. Congratulations,
009Keter. Would you please come up to the center? >> Yes. take pictures, too. >> You come on up. >> Yes. Congratulations. All right. Next we have gate student achievement. So students will be recognized for their outstanding math skills in noetic learning math contest. The Noetic Learning Math Contest is one of the largest math contests in the US for elementary and middle school students. Each year, more than 30,000 students participate in the contest to compete against each other. The goal of the contest is to encourage students to excel in math by mastering their problemsolving skills. During the contest, students applied their problem-solving skills along with math concepts learned in the classroom to solve 20 non-rine math problems that call for creativity, originality, and thinking skills. During the middle of November this year, gifted and talented students
010in grades 3 through 8 participated in this math contest. This evening, we want to recognize students that scored in the top 50% in their in their grade level nationwide. These students will receive an honorable mention award. We also would like to recognize the student with the highest score in their grade level districtwide. This student or team winner will receive a medal. Students also competed in the district spelling be at the middle school level. I'm going to turn it over now to Miss Shila. >> Awesome. Well, we want to say thank you for letting us be here tonight. >> Yeah. Thank you, Dan. >> Is it on? Okay. Thank you for letting us be here. We do appreciate um you taking the time to honor these students and their incredible potential, their curiosity, their creativity. It
011is such an honor to be recognized by the school board. So, thank you. Um just in case you don't know our staff, I want to introduce everybody. This is Steven Carter. He's our gifted specialist at the high school. This is Greg Smith. He is at Mckenley Lincoln and also CES. And this is Trisha Ki. She's at Harrison and also Washington this year. And Nikki Laughlin is at CCFs. So, we want to tell parents, thank you for being here and for acknowledging that this is an important award. Your kids worked really, really hard. I don't know if they brought home any sample questions to you. Um, if they did, I'm sure you were quite challenged. They are very difficult. So, we always threaten every year that we're going to bring a question for you. They're terribly
012hard. Um anyway, we're very, very proud of the students. So, I'm going to turn this over and um let them start announcing students. So, students, when your name is called, if you could quickly come up here, we would appreciate it. >> May I interrupt just a moment? We would like pictures. And I don't know how you want to group the grade levels so the the group isn't exceptionally large. Okay, perfect. Thank you. And additionally, once I call a student's name, if we could just do a tiger clap for them, and then we can do a one uh applause when I call all the names. All right, for third grade noetic math, we have Luke Wiggins, team winner and honorroll mention. Zas Gunfett, honorroll mention. Logan Wiggins, honorable mention. Matthew France, honorable mention. Felicity Green, honorable
013mention. Boaz Medin, honorable mention. Len Foss, honorable mention. And Sean Hamilton, honorable mention. And that's our third grade award winners. >> All right, guys. Congratulations. >> Make sure you smile. family. If your child is up there, you're welcome to come right up here. We now have our fourth grade um noetic math winners. Julio Martinez, team winner and honorable mention. Oliver Wiggins, honorable mention. Jaden Love Blackwell, honorable mention. Alia Coreo, honorable mention. Jackson Miller, honorable mention. Jacob Carrick, honorable mention. And Keegan Crane, honorable mention. That's our fourth grade award winners. All right. Now we have our fourth grade or excuse me, our fifth grade award winners. We have Jasper Van Aker, team winner and honorable mention. Callen Green, honorable mention. Isaac Carter, honorable mention, and Lane Taylor, honorable mention. That's our fifth grade winners. Here we
014go. Just trying to get us all Okay, we now have our sixth and seventh grade award winners. Colton Schlutoter, team winner and honorable mention. Alex Padzmi, honorable mention. Adrien Carney, honorable mention. Cole Heler, honorable mention. And then we're into seventh grade here. Oliver Corals, team winner, an honorable mention. And Ben Tuttle, honorable mention. And that's that's it for sixth and seventh. >> Do we do >> is that it? >> Yeah. But yeah, that's it for Maybe move the tall guy. >> Very good. All right, last but not least, we're going to recognize this year's spelling bee champions. Every year, the gate department hosts the middle school spelling bee. And this year was the 100th anniversary of the scripts national spelling bee. We brought together 20 participants from the four middle schools. And before I tell
015you the runner up and the champion, I'd like to say thank you to our host teachers. So, our own Trisha Harrison, Trisha Harrison, Trisha Ki from Harrison, uh Sher Davidson from CCMS, Britney Wilcox from Mountain View, Coronal, No, Toby Swisser from Mountain View, and Britney Wilcox from CES. All right, this is fun. Uh, we have a runner up and a champion and both of their names are Adeline. The only difference is in the spelling. Our runner up, uh, it took me all day to come up with that one. Uh, our runner up is Adeline Miner, seventh grader from Harrison. If she's here, please come on up. And our champion is Adeline Wooden Addie, seventh grader from Mountain View Core Knowledge. If she's here, come on up. We can give her a round of applause. No
016tiger clap necessary. So, Adeline went on to participate in a virtual state spelling bee. And I did see I think it might have been over spring break beginning of spring break but they named the uh Colorado state champion earlier about a week or two ago. Do you remember his name? >> No. I didn't see it on the news though as I said and at our spelling be earlier back in February we presented her with the certificate and all that stuff. But now we have some nice spelling bee pins that you can wear proudly. So there you go. Can do you remember the word that you won on? Uh, I'm pretty sure I was swaggering. >> Swaggering. You walked up here with a lot of swagger. Well done. All right. Congratulations. >> All right. You want
017to get a picture? >> There we go. >> Thanks. You all, you all are leaving, but I want to thank you for everything you do for our gate kiddos. Thank you. All right, you all don't have to stay for the very exciting remainder of our schoolboard meeting. If you would like to go home to your families, we appreciate you coming this evening. I mean, you can stay. I just promise it's not very riveting. >> Thank you. >> Let's see if anybody stays. >> Thank you for coming. And then there was one. >> Everybody ready to move on? >> All right. Next, we have a director presentation by Mr. Dan Copa. Do we need to help you move the >> SOP? >> Oh, I'm sorry. You get a break, Dan. >> File SOP CHCA handbooks and
018directives presented to the board for information. It's a new standard operating procedure from Superintendent Adam Hartman to ensure that all student and family handbooks are accurate, up-to-date, and consistent with board policies and district regulations, and that they are maintained, published, and made readily available to students, families, and staff. Are you ready now? >> Thank you, Dan. >> All right. I always make this joke when I get ready to do presentations about IT stuff. I hope you guys are comfortable because the next hour can get a bit dry. No. Uh thank you guys. I appreciate the the opportunity to just kind of give you guys an update on the IT department here. Uh there's a lot of really great things happening. Uh but I want to make sure that I I cover some things that we've
019been doing as a department to allow you guys to um allow our our students to learn and our teachers to teach. So uh without any further ado, I'll just kind of jump in. IT department, uh in case you're not aware, made up of nine individuals plus myself, so 10 total. Um these are the the real powerhouse workers. Uh I give all of the credit of everything that's happening within the IT department to these folks. They they do it all. Um, I I just provide them the opportunities to be awesome and so they do it. So that that's my my my goal is to help them uh do the best that they can, but I've got a fantastic team. I love working with every single one of these people. Um, they're they're great individuals and our
020school district is better because of them. So, uh, what do we do? Uh, just general overview of the IT department. Uh, we handle all the infrastructure and network management across the school district, which is in a school district our size. Yes, we are a small to medium-ish size school district. Our network infrastructure is absolutely robust. Um it it it is uh makes up a lot of of different uh it's it's very comprehensive. I'll just leave it at that. There's a lot that goes into it. Uh we do device and hardware management. Uh we'll get into device management here in just a little bit. Um it is becoming more challenging uh in in our realms in today's day and age. And so I'm going to kind of cover that just uh a little bit here. We
021do user support and customer service. That's one of our biggest focuses in the IT department is customers first uh and making sure that we're able to provide solutions to issues that pop up. Um that that's what we do. Um our our goal is to find a way to make things work. We may not always have the the answer to everything, but we're going to do what we can to allow the learning to happen. That that's our number one goal. And our students are our number one uh customers. So, we're going to make sure that their experience is top-notch, whatever we can do. Um, security and compliance is becoming more and more of my day-to-day because there's a lot that is starting to happen in the world of security and compliance. Um, we'll we'll touch on
022that a little bit here in just uh a little bit as well. And then software and system management. Um, because of how things have progressed in just the the world of education in K12 and just the world in general, everything relies on software and system management. And so we are uh we have our fingers in and hands in everything uh when it comes to curriculum resources to uh resources that provide back-end support for uh the things that we do on on the admin office. Everything that that happens on the day-to-day flows through the IT department in some way, shape or form. Uh networks and maintenance upgrades. Uh so we do this often as as much as we're we're able to. Um, we want to make sure that we have the best infrastructure available for our
023staff and students to be able to provide the most robust network and and internet access as we can. Uh, so we have over 5,000 individual network connections. Those are the actual individual ports throughout the school district. We've actually just added several hundred more with the um uh creation of the new the new portions of the high school. So, we actually increased our overall plug load when it comes to what we're servicing throughout our buildings. Um, server management, uh, making sure that we're patching, backing up, security updates, uh, internet and bandwidth monitoring. This is something that we're doing more and more on a day-to-day basis, making sure that we have, uh, as close to a 99.999% uptime as possible, meaning that the end users always have access to the resources that they need whenever they need
024them. Um, there's obviously hurdles that get thrown into that. Um and and we have to do the best that we can to make sure that we're providing as much uptime as possible. Um and then configuring HA. HA stands for high availability, which means our backup systems. So if our primary systems fail, it automatically backs up to the secondaries with no interruption in service for the end user. And then uh this is the one that's becoming the most challenging part of our work uh is our cyber security measures. uh making sure that we're maintaining our firewalls. Um making sure our configurations are correct. Uh threat detection, fishing prevention, uh training and awareness. Uh I never thought I would be the one to say, "Hey, we need to do less fishing or we need to prevent fishing."
025It's fishing with a PH, not a fishing with an F. I love the fishing with the F. Right. So, uh device and hardware management. Uh we uh do a lot of device deployments. Uh we have over 5,000 devices that are in circulation for our school district. Uh we do break and fix uh repairs inhouse which is really important to us. We want to make sure that uh we can sustain that as much as possible but we try to take care of all of our repairs inhouse to reduce the overall cost of sending devices off to another company and then waiting several weeks before they get they come back. Uh we want to try to have quick turnaround on repairs. Um it is again a challenging environment with uh things that are happening in the world
026today and I'll get into that here in just a little bit. Uh and then peripheral support. So things like printers, projectors, scanners, phones, so handset phones, screens uh have become a part of our life as well. Um and so trying to find the balance between making sure everything works and making sure that we have the the best resources available um is is a constant for us. Uh just on the user support side of things, I thought that this was kind of interesting data. Um this this actually makes me pretty happy. Uh so uh currently, this this was as of last week, uh there's about 3,000 tickets that have been entered into our um ticketing system for this school year compared to the same time last year, there was about 2,500 tickets. So we've had an
027uptick of about 500 tickets this school year, which at face value seems like that that seems like there's more problems. And really what it is is there's more people using the ticketing system and and and so what we're we're trying to get out there is is please put in a ticket for everything so that we can track everything. Um, and so we're seeing users use the ticketing system more reliably uh for any of their issues, which helps us make sure that we're able to service the the need as quickly as possible and make sure that we're tracking it so that if it's an issue that continues to reoccur that we can then focus in on what is causing the the problem to continue to to happen. So, um, that's it's actually a really positive thing.
028So, I'm I'm happy to see that increase. You'll notice on the chart on the right that at the very beginning of the school year, the number of tickets that we receive is a lot. So, we uh we relieve uh receive roughly 700 new tickets at the very beginning of the school year right off the bat. It's to be expected. It's our busy time of year making sure that everybody's uh getting the stuff that they need. A lot of them are revolving around, hey, I don't have access to this curriculum resource or hey, my phone says it's somebody else's name on it, right? So, we can change those things fairly easy, but as long as they're putting in the tickets, we're made aware of those. We're able to then get those fixed very quickly. Uh, break
029uh and fix repairs. Uh, so we, like I said, we take care of all of those inhouse. Um, we we've had roughly 270 Chromebook repairs this year compared to 275 this time last year, which is good. We're still seeing way more breakage than we would like. Um, and unfortunately, the the cost for repair parts is going up. And so, uh, one of the problems that we're starting to see is just more severe damage than than accidental damage, which, um, is is causing more, uh, of a need for us to address the culture of taking care of devices within our buildings. So, that's something that I'm working on with our tech advisory committee as well as building leaders to help reinforce taking care of our devices because we're at a point now where we have to
030make the devices last as long as we can because we don't have the luxury of being able to replace them every single year. And so, um, one of the things that we want to make sure that we do is maintain good care of the devices, um, and reduce the blatant intentional damage as much as possible. um as well as reduce the the accidental damage and try to find ways to be able to reduce the the overall breakage that's taking place on the devices. Yeah. Matt, >> question on that real quick. Out of that 270 275 is predominantly student Chromebooks then or is it a >> correct that that's about 98% student Chromebook? Yep. Yep. 98. And I would say of that I would say a good 85% are at the secondary levels. So we're not
031seeing as much breakage at the elementary level. We're seeing more of it at the middle school, high school level. Yep. Uh interactive boards and classroom tech support. Uh so we have new line boards in every one of our instructional spaces. Um we're we're excited to have the ability to to use the the new line boards, the interactive boards. Um we're working with staff to provide more hands-on training. Um so New Line is a fantastic company. They provide free on-site training whenever we want. And so we have to take advantage of that. Um time is always the enemy. So trying to find time to be able to bring somebody in from the outside is challenging, but we're going to do what we can to make sure that our staff have the the training to be uh
032successful with utilizing all of the functionality of the boards instead of just using them as a projector. I want them to be able to to use them to their full extent. And I want students to be using them. That's the whole purpose of of the interactive boards is having hands-on interactive experiences for our students. So that's the goal moving forward is to to provide better support um and and training opportunities for our staff so that they feel more confident in the use of the boards. Uh and then peripheral support uh we have roughly 100 printers uh projectors, scanners, uh roughly 350 phones that are out there. Uh we we maintain all of those. Um and uh interestingly enough, we're we're at the end of our contract for our printers and copers. We own all of
033our printers and copiers at the end of this contract. It's a good place for us to be. Um, we do will we they're at a point with a good number of them that they've they've reached kind of midlife towards the end of their life. Um, we're going to try to use them as much as we can. Uh, we're going to have a maintenance contract in place that will allow us to still maintain the devices. Um, maintain the toners. Um, but printing is is an area where I can I can help support reducing costs for the school district. Um, and that that's a plan for me moving forward to try to do that as well. When it comes to our Chromebook fleet, this is where it gets kind of tricky for us. And so, uh, our
034our Chromebooks can be used as long as they receive security updates from Google. Google has stipulated that depending on the device manufacturer date and and the manufacturer type, um, they they will last and they'll provide security updates up to a certain date. And so, as you can see up on the board here, uh, we have a fleet of about 427 units of our Dell 5192in-1 devices that are no longer going to be receiving security updates starting in 2027, which means that we have to phase them out this summer because we can't have them in circulation and then drop the security updates halfway through the school year. So, we're going to be phasing those out this year. Um, so that's one of our our summer projects is to phase those devices out. Um, you'll notice that
035we also have uh the majority of our devices, our Dell 3100s, whether they're the twoin- one model or just the the the base clam shell model. Um, those units are going to be kind of our emergency fleet in order allowing us to replace devices as needed um if there's a device that fails um without having to purchase more. My whole goal is to extend the overall life of our fleet without having to purchase more every single year. Um because that does become very expensive. Um we've been fortunate enough to have the mill levy uh that has allowed us to have the funding to be able to support our 1:1 initiative. Um and so what we're going to do moving forward is making sure that we're being the best stewards of the of the money as
036we can, making the devices last as long as possible. The problem we run into with Chromebooks is they're made to last about four to five years physically. They will receive security updates for up to eight years, but getting a device to last that long in a school environment is difficult, right? So, we're going to do what we can as best we can to sustain those devices um as long as we can um and then replace as needed. So, that's that's the plan for our our replacement of those devices. Um, we've tried a couple of different uh products. You'll see up there. We do have some Lenovo 300E yoga devices. Um, was able to receive a very good price on those when we purchased those last year. Um, those will last us until 2033, which is
037great for us. Um, one of the problems we ran into with Lenovos is they're more difficult to repair. And so we're shifting back to the Dell 3100 line, uh, because they're just easier to repair, easier to get repair parts for. Um, and so, um, we're going to be shifting back to those. We will have, uh, those 549 units that we'll cycle through. Um, we'll be able to maintain those, but, um, just didn't think that it was feasible for us to continue down that pathway for those devices. So, um, staff uses usage of devices. Um, this is where we we kind of shift. The Lenovos work much better for staff devices. They're much more reliable. They have higher processing power for our staff members, and we really wanted to be able to provide that for for
038all of our teaching staff. Um, and so moving forward, those are going to be the models that we're going to be looking at for all of our staff devices. But we still have a good number of our our staff devices that will sustain us through um the 2031 school year. So um we're in good shape when it comes to staff devices. We replace those as needed. We do have um several of the Lenovo devices on hand in our IT department that we can use to replace any failing devices um which reduces the need to actually go out and purchase additional devices. So, um, we're in good shape when it comes to the the the Chromebook fleet, but that is ongoing work and trying to figure out the dates of when does this one end and
039when does this one start has been a challenge for us, but we finally got it figured out and we're going to make sure that we're sustaining those to the best of our abilities. Next big one, uh, cyber security is a huge thing in our our day and age. Um the reality of this 82% of K12 schools experience some type of threat or some type of action against them um between 2023 and 2025. I mean Ku uh K12 schooling is the second most targeted industry when it comes to cyber security. A lot of people would say, well, why are they attacking schools? Schools don't have a ton of money. That's true. We don't have a ton of money, but we have something that's probably more valuable than just straight cash, and that's going to be student
040data. Student data and information is very very um desired on the the darknet and the and and and people are trying to get their hands on that student data to trade it. Um it's it's not a good thing. And so we do everything within our power to protect our student data um and make sure that nobody has access to that except for us. Um one of the the reasons that K12 is is targeted the most is because we offer a lot of different services for our families. We offer education meal programs. We we offer safe spaces for our students, uh extracurriculars, social services. We we provide all of those for our kiddos and our families. And they know that if they can take those down, we're more more likely to act in a quick knee-jerk
041reaction to try to get it back up and running. That's why they target K12 schools and say, "All right, pay us three Bitcoin or four Bitcoin or 10 Bitcoin and we'll give you your data back." They almost never do. Um, so it's it's one of those things that that um protecting our data and preventing access to it in the first place is one of our priorities. Um some key things to consider when it comes to cyber security. Um AI tools are now being leveraged by our bad actors. Um they're using it to recon exploit any vulnerabilities and they move laterally which means device to device instead of through the network uh at machine speed. And one of the most recent attacks that took place there was a um large cloud service organization. So think think
042Amazon AWS. It was not Amazon AWS, but think a company like that. Um, it was breached and it took about 7 minutes to fully compromise the entire company. It's way faster than any humans can ever act and um it's it's terrifying to to think the capabilities that these these thread actors have. Uh, so gen a uh so generative AI and advanced social engineering is also being used. So what they're doing is they're creating deep fakes. I'm sure you guys have heard of deep fakes before, but videos um audio uh that sound just like a loved one. Uh you can you can't distinguish whether it's me talking to you or if it's somebody else. Um with just a few prompts, those attackers can impersonate their targets, try to gain access to those highle individuals. So they're
043trying to get to the top of the chain, right? Um I I was uh fortunate enough to to be at a cyber security conference here recently, the last couple of weeks. Um, and at that conference it was a uni unanimous agreement across all of the cyber experts. You can only fight AI with AI because AI is the only thing fast enough to think at machine speed, right? And so what we're starting to see now in all of our tools and resources that we have access to like our firewalls, like our switches, all of those different things. Um, they're starting to have AI uh capabilities built into them with the existing so you don't have to buy new materials in order to gain access to it. um that will allow for quicker, faster detection of any
044type of irregular activity on your networks, which allows us to respond quicker and prevent the bad things from happening. So, um that's just the world in which we live. Uh we're learning new stuff every day. We're doing what we can in our capacity uh as a small school district to protect ourselves, but just because we are a small school school district does not mean that we are out of the crosshairs. um anybody can be targeted. It's just the unfortunate truth here. Um along with this, we're we're taking measures to physically secure our areas as as best we can as well. Uh to pro to add to that security. Um it's one thing to secure your your digital footprint, but you also have to secure your um uh physical footprint as well. And so, um, access
045control, making sure that we have authorized personnel who who have access to our data rooms. Uh, we're adding, um, lockable cabinets in shared spaces. So, any in in our buildings, if there's a shared space that is also used for storage for the building, um, we're going to, uh, install lockable cabinets in there for our network equipment so that nobody can accidentally bump a wire and and and take the building down, right? That's that's kind of the goal is is just to better physically secure our spaces. um to make sure that we are preventing unauthorized or accidental access to our systems. We had an event uh several weeks ago where there was a contractor that was led into one of our our uh switch rooms without us knowing. Um that's kind of a red flag. It's
046like no, nobody gets access to our rooms unless we're there with them type of thing. So, um we're we're getting there. We're learning. We're training. We're getting people uh in a space where they understand the importance of and the why behind. Yes, we we did change the locks because we have to secure the area uh that that has sensitive data that is located there. So, uh we're doing those things to the best of our ability just to to best protect what's most valuable to us, which is our student data. Uh Scott mentioned this in his um report to you guys. Uh this is something that's really personal and and and I I really enjoy this. It it's the optics. It this is the the the combination of forces between the IT department, the operations department.
047Um we are like a welloiled machine. U even just recently last week we were able to um uh acquire the services of our uh outstanding electrician Jeff B. Miller and he allowed us to uh supported us in installing new battery backups for some of our switch rooms that had to be hardwired in. Right. And so being able to coordinate that with Scott is has been great. Um and our teams work really well together. Um anytime you say you ask them, they'll say, "Well, we probably need to go bowling a little bit more and just show how much we we we really just don't like those guys, right?" But, uh, it it's it's a it's a great area of camaraderie for us to be able to, uh, um, bring the teams together and have a common
048goal of making sure that our facilities and and what we're providing for our staff and students is top-notch. So, uh, very uh, happy to to have that relationship there. And then finally, uh, one of the things that I want to bring up, um, so Deanna Pedalion is our instructional technology coordinator for the school district. She has been doing phenomenal work with our staff members in just the training on the use of technology tools within the classroom for instructional purposes. One of her big goals this second semester has been doing an evaluation of three main AI tools that are focused specifically towards use in the classroom with students. We do have an AI guidance document that we sent out to all staff that just kind of outlined this is what we believe as Canyon City Schools
049about AI and what we can do to best support the staff, the students and families around the use of AI. But we also recognize that there needs to be some guard rails in there. It's not going to be just wild west. Use whatever you want. We want to make sure that whatever tool is going to be used is something that's going to be useful for our staff members. um allow our students to increase their ability to interact with tools to enhance their learning. Um and also um safe, you know, that that's the biggest thing. Something that's going to be safe, that's going to be protected, that's not going to allow them to access things that we don't want them to access, right? And so we started a pilot program with three different tools um to
050uh all of this was was funded through our um we have a grant that we received through the Colorado Education Initiative um that allows us to to go through this. Um they've been fantastic to work with. Um Indiana has been spearheading this this movement for the school district. Um we we looked at three different tools, Magic School, School AI, and Brisk Teaching. Uh we've we've had a a large um uh cadre of of staff across the school district in all different categories um that have been helping us with this pilot to determine what's the one that we want to go with. We know that we you know in a perfect world we'd be able to use all three, right? But we also know that we're restricted by funding. We're restricted by uh what we can
051uh realistically use on a day-to-day basis. So let's narrow it down to one, right? what what's the one that we want to move forward with with with staff? And so, um, you can see the goals here was to identify the tool that genuinely supports teaching and learning, evaluate the safety, usability, and equity across grade levels. We want to gather real classroom evidence. So, teachers have been using this in the classroom with students, and then providing feedback to Deanna so can get a a full holistic picture of how these these tools are being used and and what that impact is on the staff and the students. Um, and then, uh, we want to build that staff confidence and share that AI literacy. We know that AI is not going away. We want to make sure that
052we are providing clear guidance for our students and and making sure that we're we're teaching them how to access and use the tools in a safe and responsible way. Okay. So, like I said, we have seven schools that are represented inside of this. Um, so we have primary, intermediate, middle school, high school, core classes, CTE, specials, and admin that are all taking part in this pilot. So, we're trying to get a a wide swath of the school district to give us good data on this. It's been good work. It's been a lot of work. We're still in the process of the pilot. Um, and so we'll be able to provide um more clear guidance for staff at the end of the pilot on where we're going to be moving forward with this. And at that,
053that is my report for the board. If you guys have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. >> Thank you all very much. I appreciate the opportunity. Well, thank you. And like >> Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Uh the compliments all go to the team. They they are the ones who who make it all happen. So >> I do I do have a curious question because I was reading an article this week specifically regarding Iran and AI. Yep. And is that is something that could pose an increased risk over the next while? >> Absolutely. Anytime that there's any type of geopolitical uh activity that takes place, we can expect an increase in outside attacks. Um I could pull up our active attack map right now and I can show you all the places around
054the world that are trying to access our firewall. Um it's a constant barrage that happens 24/7, 365. Um, it's kind of a fun little map to watch because they look like little bombs that come in to Canyon City, Colorado. And then then anytime that that we're sending information out, it can see that as well. But yes, anytime that there's a geopolitical event that takes place around the world, regardless, we can see we we can anticipate an uptick in um fishing attempts and, you know, those those types of things. The biggest thing for us is making sure that staff are aware um that you know that that the staff awareness. We've we've had an increase in fishing attempts on staff members um that that that take place. Uh one of them very recently, uh there was
055an email that was sent to the HR department that says, "Hi, Kim. I'm looking to uh change my banking information. Please uh tell me what I need to do." Signed, yours truly, Daniel Copa. >> Yep. So they they they knew that I was the director of technology, so they they sent this email to Kim and Kim's like, "This doesn't seem right, does it?" I was like, "No, it doesn't. Thank you for asking." So, so they're they're starting to recognize when things look off. The hard thing about this now is because of the use of AI, it's harder to detect when things are off. So, um, we're just going to have to continue to do our due diligence. And if you have that gut feeling like I'm not sure about this, I always tell people if
056you're not sure, delete the email, go talk to the person, you know, face to face, see if it was legitimate. If it was, then they can just send the information again and and no harm, no foul. but um making sure that we're we're protecting those types of things as well. So um it's a great question. It's it's unfortunate, but yes, we we do anticipate whenever there's something happening around the world that probably going to see an uptick in in unauthorized access. Yeah. >> Yeah. So the War Games board. Um so I don't have my my big TV that that shows it. We used to have a big TV that showed it. Um, it's just it's it's an uh a portal that's accessible through our firewall. And so I can I can load that on any
057screen and and be able to show you that. So if you're interested in seeing that, I'm happy to show you. It's kind of an interesting thing. Um, we've done a lot of work and and kudos go to Sean Cole as well because he did a lot of work of blacklisting the majority of countries around the world that were on the kind of questionable list. you know, there there's a list that goes out of here's qu you know, countries that are questionable to do dealings with. So, he he did a lot of the the ground work of going through and blocking a lot of those countries from being able to do anything with our system. Um, our system is is very robust and and we're we're very proud of how we have things built up. We're
058not invincible, you know, so we're we're going to do what we can to detect and stop any threats before they become too big. >> Yeah. Thank you all. >> Thank you. Everyone ready to proceed? >> All right. Next is the request to address the board of education. Miss Solano, do we have anyone this evening? >> No. >> Thank you, Mr. Hartman. >> I'll be brief. Um, last week was spring break and I think it's important that I mention that it's not a break for everyone. It's a break for our students. Um, it's a break for their families from their kids needing to go to school. It creates an opportunity for families to spend time together if they have the means, an opportunity to maybe travel. It's a joyous celebration. The weather was nice, etc., etc.
059Um, for lots of our staff, it's also well-deserved break. And I think it's important to mention that not everyone takes that time off. Um, whether it's because they've decided to be around employee and actually it's a very meaningful time for them to get a lot done. I heard a report this morning from Scott, Director Morton from operations, just how much was accomplished last week. Blew me away. Many things that I thought were actually on the docket for the summer are done. And that's because um not only our people but also the subcontractors and otherwise really leverage those breaks to get a lot done on behalf of Canyon City Schools. So thank you to those of them that are in this room who did did some work last week certainly for the folks that support us
060in this building but also operations custodial and otherwise. So it's a spring annual event but not necessarily a break for everyone. So thanks to all those folks. Um I too have was a little bit away. I took a little bit of time off. Um and I appreciated that you gave me a little bit of a break. Um in so far as my communication uh in the last two weeks I was part of that CCHS IPR CCHS IPR. I agree with Brett. Um wonderful opportunity and also really nice to have them done. I look forward to presenting the results um of those to our compass committee on 6th of April. That's coming up pretty quickly. Uh that's the first time we will have convened our compass committee through accountability um since January actually. Um I saw
061and I shared this in your board notes that last week we received certificates of occupancy on our work workforce housing development, our additional three units. I went over to access today and looked at those as well as the fire lane that's in place. Yes, we have a little bit of work to do in terms of beautifification for that, but it's a heck of an accomplishment. I feel good about having been here during that time. I feel good about the board, the support of that work, the way that we've leveraged some dollars. Um there's five units there and when we were meeting with those teachers that I told you about a couple weeks ago during board meeting that were at that Colorado education recruitment fair, um that's very attractive to folks and I think that that
062makes us a more attractive potential employer. So excitement around workforce housing. Um there was a construction meeting, not last week because that was the week off, but the week prior. two of you were actually part of that. And it's really cool to actually be at a point now where we are past almost all of the risk on a lot of these things and really being able to assign our final dollars to make sure our projects are um are getting tied out. I complimented Scott's work earlier on there, but I want to compliment the work of all of our construction partners that have been doing that too because we continue to be on task, I'm sorry, on time and under budget, which is wonderful, good for the community. Um, we respect you, we're certainly thankful of
063getting all of those dollars and we respectfully are using them appropriately. That's exciting. Look forward to touring actually construction site on the day of your visioning retreat which I feel like is Friday, April 3rd. Does that sound about right? Okay. And then the last thing I just wanted to mention, Brett alluded it to leadership change is inevitable. Um, leadership change represents, you know, a lot of emotions. Sometimes there's an opportunity for some anxiety around that. There's sadness if you're losing someone you care for deeply. Um but there's also excitement and we convened week ago Friday which was on 13 of March to hire a new leader for Canyon City High School. CC CCHS is our largest school. Obviously it's a really big deal and it's a really big job. So was excited to have a
064double panel that day. All told, we had 22 representatives on the hiring panel. That included folks from the administration as well as teachers as well as our associations as well as parents and students actually on two mirrored panels. They were 11 a piece. We conducted our interviews and at the end of the day, the recommendation was that we hire current assistant principal Shane Thornton into the role of principal for CCHS. I called him that afternoon and then on Monday he was able to work with HR to get kind of some final questions of his answered and he accepted to the position on that day. So, it's a big deal. Um, as I noted, it's a really big job. I'm excited for Shane to have that opportunity. Um, we were right in working with Mr. Summers
065to think about our timeline aggressively. Um, I appreciate Gunnison also thinking that way so that it created some dominoes that are going to allow us to find a great person to lead the school and now an opportunity to find a replacement for Mr. Thornton. So, that's about it board. Uh, that week off as far as my job made for a little bit less to report on, but thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Hartman. All right. Next, we have some policies. They're just for information this evening, so I'll get through those rather quickly. We have file JB, equal educational opportunities, presented to the board for information. It's an update to current policy from Caspby to conform with title 9 regulations. File JF, admission and denial of admission, presented to the board for information. Also, an update
066to current policy from CASBY to conform with Title 9 regulations. File JFBA, Intra District Choice/Open Enrollment, presented to the board for information. Update the current policy from Cassby to conform with title nine regulations. A lot of title nine stuff. Filed JICD, violent and aggressive behavior presented to the board for information. Also an update to current policy from Casby to conform with title 9 regulations. And lastly, file JI student concerns, complaints, and grievances presented to the board for information. Update the current policy from CASBY to conform with Title 9 regulations. So, we have no old business. We do have some new business. Have to look at my new little script on how to do these. So, the next item of business is proposed district calendar for 2026 2027 school year. Would a director please make a
067motion to introduce the item? >> I excuse me. I motion that we approve proposed district calendar for 2026 2027 school year. It is recommended that the board approve the proposed Kenya City School calendar for the 2627 academic year. >> I will second that motion. >> I have a motion in a second regarding the proposed district calendar for 2026 27 school year. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Alexander votes I. Miss Brady, >> I. >> Mr. Miley, >> I. >> Miss Reer >> I. Motion passes for the district calendar. We have no miscellaneous business. So, may I have a motion to adjurnn this evening? >> I move that we adjourn. >> I'll second. >> I doubt that there's any discussion, but is there any discussion? Roll call, please. >> Mr. Alexander
068votes I for adjournment. Miss Brady, >> I. >> Mr. Miley, >> I. >> Miss Reer. Enthusiastically I or a journey.