001Mhm. >> We're going to call our meeting to order. Thank you for joining the Board of Education this evening. Please mute your cell phones as we begin this meeting. Today is Tuesday, April 14th, 2026 and this meeting is now called to order at 6:10 p.m. For those attending this meeting in person, live captions are available on a TV in the board room and in the lobby. To access the live captions in a language other than English on your own device, please scan the QR code on the screen or on the table near the entrance and select the language of your choice. The live stream of this meeting is also available in English and Spanish on YouTube. For links to these live streams, please visit the Board of Education page of the PSD website or PSDTV
002on demand and on YouTube. All right, next we're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance. Please join me in reciting. Thank you. Okay. Approval of agenda. Would any board members like to make changes to the agenda? Right, seeing none, we'll keep going along. Next we have recognitions and reports. Brian, I believe we have some introductions. >> Yes, thank you very much. Good evening, everybody. It's great to be in community with everyone tonight. We look forward to celebrating student excellence with our state spelling bee winner and our scholastic winners. We also look forward to celebrating our incredible partnership with the health district of Northern Larimer County. Leading tonight's celebration is John Cope, our executive director of communications. Welcome, John. >> Good evening, President Zamora, Superintendent Kingsley, board directors, and everyone joining us tonight. This evening, we're
003proud to celebrate our incredible school district. Our first recognition is for Nikhil Gauta for winning his fourth district spelling bee and becoming our state spelling bee champion. Here to introduce Nikhil and his accomplishments is Kaylin Nelson. >> Good evening, members of the board, superintendent, and guests. Tonight, we have the distinct honor of recognizing a student who has turned the art of spelling into a PSD legacy. Please join me in recognizing Nikhil Gauta, sixth grader from Kinard Core Knowledge Middle School. To say Nikhil is a champion is an understatement. This past January, he secured the PSD spelling bee title for a fourth consecutive year. But he didn't stop there. Earlier this month in a grueling test of endurance and intellect that lasted 55 rounds, Nikhil correctly spelled amaxophobia to be named the Colorado State Spelling Bee
004champion. An extraordinary achievement deserves extraordinary recognition. As Nikhil prepares to travel to Washington D.C. this May to to represent Colorado in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, we are thrilled to celebrate his hard work and dedication. Here is your district trophy, and please help me congratulate again as we have reached this amazing milestone. >> Congratulations again to Nikhil on his hard work. Our next recognition of the night is for our Scholastic Art Awards winners. These winners are from Fort Collins High School, Rocky Mountain High School, Fossil Ridge High School, and Poudre High School. Awards varied from gold to silver, and here to speak about the numerous award winners is Allison Alter. >> Good evening. I'm here tonight to recognize our state's Scholastics Art & Writing Award winners and their teachers. The National Scholastics Art & Writing
005Awards is our nation's longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for visual arts students, dating back to 1923. The awards have a notable history with previous winners including a teenaged Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Sylvia Plath, Stephen King, Amanda Gorman, Ken Burns, and Robert Redford, just to name a few. So, our winners are in good company. Tonight's winners are here with us, uh, will be recognized were recognized at the state-level ceremony in Denver and had their artwork displayed at the Denver Art Museum and galleries throughout the city throughout the month of March. We have both teachers and student artists to recognize tonight. So, if you could please join me at the podium if you're award winner or art teacher. PSD is consistently among the top award-winning districts in our state. This year's winners include two honorable mentions,
006five individual silver keys, and one silver portfolio, including Alta Clayton, who is here tonight. Seven individual gold keys and three gold key portfolios, including Wade Faulkner, who is here with us tonight. The best of 11th grade in the entire state of Colorado, Sierra Wheeler of Fort Collins High School, and the The Vision Award nominee, one of five, honored in the state, Megan Barber of Fort Collins High School. So, congratulations to all of our artists. And I'd also like to recognize the teachers who are with us here tonight. Uh John Michael Willert from Fort Collins High School, Missy Wolf from Rocky Mountain High School, and uh Chelsea Ermer from Fossil Ridge High School. These teachers instruct, and impact, and inspire our students to think critically, to challenge themselves creatively, and to put their unique perspectives out
007into the world. So, thank you for all you do. Thank you, and congratulations to our artist, and also thank you to the families who are who are here tonight, uh who continue to celebrate and support the visual arts in PSD. Thanks. Thank you. Congratulations. >> Our final recognition is for the health district of Northern Larimer County. I'd like to invite senior executive director of student services Liz Davis to share more information about this recognition. >> Great. Thank you, John. Great to be here. So, thank you, Superintendent Kingsley, uh PSD Board of Education. Good to see everybody. Um and PSD cabinet. Great to see everybody tonight. So, a little table setting and context um about 3 and 1/2 years ago, PSD made a commitment to work more closely alongside community partners, recognizing that our students and
008families are best supported when we work together towards shared goals. Around this time, PSD was also awarded a $9.75 million federal grant that launched a mental and behavioral health workforce development training program for interns and fellows to support students and families in our schools. When that funding was unexpectedly cut in 2025, we faced a gap in support not only for the interns and fellows, but also direct support for our students and our families at our schools. And that's where the health district of Northern Larimer County stepped up to help. Through our shared work and collaboration building a streamlined referral process, we discovered a natural alignment of our goals. Thanks to the health district staff and Board of Directors, we were able to secure $403,000 to fill the funding gaps and continue to support the innovative
009training program not only this spring but into next school year. Public schools, as we know, don't operate in silos. They are deeply woven into the fabric of our community. This partnership embodies the zeitgeist of our time, the growing recognition that the most pressing challenges facing our students and families are best solved when organizations align their goals, embrace resources together. From 2023 to December 2025, there were 2,500 referrals to our interns and fellows totaling 19,140 student contacts. Right, Holly? Yes, okay. So, today interns and fellows are active in 19 of our school sites and five fellows have been hired directly into our school programs. So, I know I'm reading, trying to talk fast, but um I do want to extend my sincere gratitude to Holly Roberts who coordinates and manages this program. So, thank you, Holly.
010Um So, I also want to say thank you to the entire health district staff and board and thanks to Allison Williams, vice president of strategy and impact, Rebecca Toll, senior partnerships director, Aaron Huttenstein, president of the board of directors, and Brian Ferrand, executive director of the health district of Northern Larimer County. So, I'll invite Aaron and Brian to say a few words and I just want to say thank you so much. Okay. >> Thank you, Liz. I just want to say I think incredible things are possible when we work together as a community and the synergy between the health district and the school district I think is a really special example of that and I hope to see even more of that going forward in the future and I am just really deeply grateful for
011the partnership and the impact that it's having on our kids and young adults. It's really meaningful to me and I'm so glad we're doing it. >> And I just want to reiterate say thank you again for the recognition. We're super grateful for the partnership. I inherited this partnership and can take no credit for it. I've been in my role for a month now but coming from Summit Stone Health Partners and being part of the Longview Crisis Facility and seeing the the high need in our community around adolescent services and in mental health care only affirms the need for these services and the expansion and sustainability of them. So we're super grateful to be a small piece of that for the district. So thanks again. >> Congratulations once again to our honorees. We're proud to celebrate
012you as you represent the very best of Futura School District. At this time I'd like to invite our honorees, board directors and Superintendent Kingsley to the front for a group photo. >> All right. We're going to move along to our action item. So, first we have a resolution support of the week of the exceptional child. Can I get a motion? >> Please. >> I move that the board approve the resolution in support of the week of the exceptional child, April 12th through 16th, 2026. >> Thank you, Kevin. Can I get a second? Thank you, Andrew. All right, Brian. >> Yeah. Is it Aren't we off to a great start tonight? Just wanted to just needed to say that out loud. I'm feeling pretty good. Adrenaline is flowing. Uh let's keep it let's keep it going
013here. Joining us this evening to introduce the students who will speak to the resolution are Ansley Garnett, IAS Multi-Cat teacher at Kennard Middle School, and Kathy Bowles, teacher of the deaf at McGraw Elementary School. Welcome both. >> Okay, good evening, and thank you so much for the invitation to be here tonight. I'm It's truly an honor to introduce one of our exceptional Kennard Mustangs. Um in my 18 years at Kennard, I've had the privilege of working with many students, but Gil is definitely a standout. He is funny, caring, deeply loyal, and he wears his heart on his sleeve. Whether he's being a musician, a big brother, a son, or a friend, he brings warmth and authenticity to every space that he enters. Um his smile is contagious, and he has a way to light up
014an entire room. Gil has made tremendous growth being with us at Kennard, but I would also say that he's made a huge impact on us. He um reminds us to be present, he reminds us to choose kindness, and he reminds us that um people might forget what you say or what you've done, but they never forget how you made them feel. So, our student, staff, and community are better because of Gil, and we are extremely fortunate to call him a Kennard Mustang. So, ladies and gentlemen, Gil Eden. >> Hi, everyone. My name is Gil Aiden and I want to share what life on the spectrum can feel like and what really helps at school. A few things that make me me are that I'm autistic, I'm Jewish, and I moved to the United States from
015Israel when I was five. I feel like I'm unique because I've been through a lot and I've learned more about who I am over time. For me, autism means my brain works in different ways. Sometimes I get stuck thinking about one thing and it can stay on my mind like it's on repeat. That can make school and social situations harder. Sometimes I feel like people ignore me or think I'm annoying so I mask. Masking means I try really hard to act in a way that makes people think I'm funny just so I won't stand out, but it doesn't always work and it can be exhausting. But autism is not only challenges. I'm successful with creativity. I play the drums, I rap, I build skyscrapers and mansions out with LEGO. I like to research things and
016go deep into topics. I feel proud of myself when I create something and it works like making a grilled cheese, cooking a novel, or building something that turns out the way I imagined. I also feel proud of myself when I'm loyal to my friends because being a good friend matters to me. I'm not doing this alone. There are people who help me and make school feel possible. My parents help me by supporting what I like and caring about me when I say I've had a bad day. Ms. Garnett supports me by telling me what she sees in me and pointing out the good things I do which helps me see myself more clearly. Mr. Letourneau helps me feel happier when times get hard. Ms. Bates supports me by creating an environment where I can calm
017down when I'm overwhelmed so I can so I can come back ready for um school services matter because they help students like me actually learn and belong, not just get through the day. When the school listens to kids on the spectrum and pays attention to what triggers us and what helps us, it becomes easier to stay calm, do our work, and be ourselves. The most important thing is feeling understood because when I feel understood, I don't need a mask as much and I can focus on learning building real connections. Thank you for listening. >> Good evening. Thank you so much for having us tonight. My name is Kathy Bowles. I teach her for the deaf and hard of hearing at McGraw. Uh this has been 33 years in the making, 28 of those in Poudre
018School District. So so grateful and honored to be here. Um obviously with many kids in my 33 years of teaching, many have made an impression on me. Few like this one here tonight. Um I've been lucky to have Kendall as a student for only 1 year. Soon she'll be a middle schooler and I'll be sad. Literacy for deaf and hard of hearing kids involve a lot of very important factors. Um early language exposure, lots of support from home, uh specific and explicit direct instruction in English and sometimes ASL like in her case. Um and so I'm just very happy to know that she has all these things in place for her. Thank you, Mom for your support and for using her language. Um I'm going to let her introduce herself and I'm so honored to
019be able to congratulate and recognize Kendall. So I'm going to voice a little bit over her signing so you know what she's saying. >> My name >> Hi. My name is Kendall Bump. I'm in fifth grade at McGraw IB World School and I am deaf. I am new this year. And we celebrate deaf awareness month in September. And in Miss Bull's class, she helps all the deaf and hard of hearing kids create a Google slideshow. About our hearing differences and what we need in the classroom. I work really hard on my speech with Miss Libby Cravens and and on my goals with Mrs. Bull's. My interpreter Mrs. Gomez gives me access to all of my learning in class. I have good friends who are deaf as well and hearing friends that sign with me. I
020love it here. >> My bucket's full. Oh man, you guys are amazing. Thank you so much for being here. Do any board members have something that they would like to share at the moment. Or is your bucket just full, too? Do you have something? Yeah? >> I'm just grateful for your courage, for both of you, for for doing things that that for most of us in this room probably were a lot easier, and I just am absolutely amazed by you. >> Well said. I appreciate how much joy you brought here. Like, you're sharing your story, you're sharing the things that make learning challenging, but also easier through what your teachers have done, and your classmates have done, and how you have shown up, and I just can't tell you how amazing it is that your
021positive attitude and the amount of learning that you're actually allowing everyone around you to do is amazing. Thank you for being part of PSD. Do you have anything that you would >> I No, I can't help it. Um Ansley and Kendall, first I wanted to say thank you both for being such great ambassadors for our school system and your respective school communities, especially our amazing students. Gil, I we are all impressed by your maturity, your multi-talented nature of who you are, but what resonated most with me about what you said is being a good friend matters to you. So, thank you for sharing as much about your character as much as as you did your intelligence. Um and Kendall, I want to say on behalf of all of us, thank you for coming to our
022school district, cuz you make it stronger because you're here. We're so proud of you. Welcome home. >> I just want to echo one thing and say thank you to the students, thank you to the teachers and the support, and thank you to the families for sharing your students with us. This is a perfect reflection, I believe, of who we are as PSD in that we are a very strong community together, but it takes a community for us to shine as bright as we do. So, thank you so much. >> All right. Please stick around. We'll want a photo. Uh Joel, can you please call the vote? Carla Béas. >> Aye. >> Connor Duffy. >> Aye. >> Kevin Hevelda. >> Aye. >> Scott Schwaller Carter. >> Aye. >> Dr. Andrew Smith. >> Aye. >> Jessica Zamora.
023>> Aye. >> Motion passes 6-0. All right. Can I get a motion for our next resolution, please? >> I move that the board approve a resolution in support of National Arab American Heritage Month, April 2026. >> Thank you, Connor. Kevin, thank you for the second. And Brian, I'll take Let you take it away. >> Thank you. Tonight we look forward to hearing about the National Arab American Heritage Month resolution from Muhammad Mahmoud, father of a Dunn Elementary School student. Welcome, Muhammad. >> Thank you, everyone. Thank you for having us here today. Good evening, everyone. My name is Muhammad. I'm the father of Anas. Uh when our family uh moved from Egypt to Fort Collins, uh so that like I and my wife could advance our studies at Colorado State University, Anas was only uh 3
024years old. Uh watching him growing up here uh really brings us joy as his parents. Uh we are deeply grateful to Buddha School District and wonderful staff at Dunn. Uh thank you for uh uh fostering an environment where children don't have to hide their roots, but instead they are encouraged to share them and ex- uh celebrate them. Uh and feel deeply proud of who they really are. Today, it's my honor to uh present uh to you uh a very special third grader who has worked very hard to share with you his story today. So, please welcome my son, Anas. >> As-salamu alaykum. That means peace be upon you in Arabic. Good evening, teachers, respected guests, and everyone here today. My name is Anas, and I'm in third grade, and I am so honored to stand
025before you today to celebrate Arab American Heritage Month. I was born in Egypt, but I have been growing up here in America since I was 3 years old. My family moved moved to Fort Collins, so my dad could get his PhD at Colorado State University. And now, my mom just started her PhD there, too. I'm so proud to be an Arab American Muslim. Egypt is an incredible place. When I visit, I get to see the Great Pyramids of Giza and the New Grand Egyptian Museum. Did you know it is the largest museum in the world dedicated to just one single civilization. I also love seeing the beautiful Nile River and the tall Cairo Tower. And looking at how the whole city of Cairo lights up at night. But honestly, the best parts about Egypt for
026me are eating my absolute favorite food, Kushari. And getting to spend time with my big family. Here at home, I'm also very proud of my Muslim community. My big memories are big Eid celebrations and all the fun gatherings we have at the Islamic Center. This year was actually a huge milestone for me. I fasted the entire month of Ramadan for the very first time. I want to say a very special thank you to my school, Dunn Elementary, for giving me the chance to share my to share my culture and traditions with my classmates every year. Whether I'm doing a presentation about Ramadan or just talking about my heritage. My friends and teachers at Dunn always make me feel happy and included. But outside of my heritage, I'm just a regular kid. I recently started playing
027flag football in an after-school program, and I love it. I also play tennis, and I'm a big fan of watching anime like Pokémon. And you can usually find me just running around and playing in my front yard. If there's one thing I want you to remember today, it is this. Being an Arab American Muslim kid feels like having a double superpower. My first superpower is being a kid who loves playing flag football, watching Pokémon, and hanging out with my friends. My second superpower is my rich heritage, my beautiful traditions, and the deep history of my family. Having both of these superpowers makes me exactly who I am. I believe that when all students are encouraged to share their own unique superpowers. It makes our schools better, stronger, and a lot more fun. I want to
028thank everyone in Poudre Poudre School District for recognizing Arab American Heritage Month. It makes students like me feel incredibly welcome and proud to belong here. And so, thank you so much for listening to my story, and happy Arab American Heritage Month. >> Wow. Yeah. I think there's like a collective hush of amazingness from just observing you. Thank you so much for being here. I feel like I just like learned so much about your heritage, so much about like that you're proud, you're so proud, and it's amazing, and I love that you feel like your identity is included, and I love that your family feels like they belong. And that's all we ever want in PSD is that you guys all feel collectively like you belong, and you do, and we're so much better for having
029you with us. Thank you for sharing, and I also agree. Thank you for sharing your superpowers. I'm going to lock that away. Does anyone else have anything they would like to share? Oh, please. >> Anas, I am so proud of you, and I'm so proud to be your superintendent. I remember meeting you last week on the playground >> Yeah. >> at Dunn Elementary School. You remember that, right? Well, you were so nice to me, and I was so proud of you for just the way that you showed up, not just as a Dunn Elementary School student, but how you represented your family, your broader school community. You made me feel like I had a superpower as a superintendent. So, thank you for representing all of everybody that you share identities with, as well as our
030broader district. We couldn't be more proud of you. Job well done tonight. >> All right. Jill, can you call the vote? >> Carla Baze. >> Aye. >> Connor Duffy. >> Aye. >> Kevin Havalda. >> Aye. >> Scott Showalter. >> Aye. >> Dr. Andrew Spain. >> Aye. >> Jessica Zamora. >> Aye. >> Motion passes 6-0. >> All right. We have another uh resolution. Can I get um a motion for 5.3? >> I move that the board approve a resolution in support of National Bilingual Multilingual Learner Advocacy Month, April 2026. >> Thank you very much, Andrew. Can I get a second? Thank you, Connor. >> All right. So, joining us this evening to introduce the students who will speak to the resolution is Rose Whitney, ELD teacher at Harris Bilingual. Welcome, Rose. >> All right. Good evening.
031My name is Rose Whitney. I teach English language development at Harris Bilingual Elementary School, where Spanish and English are rigorously taught in kindergarten through fifth grade. Tonight, you will hear from two of my amazing third-grade students, Eli Morris and Asucena Galvan Salbalsa. Um These students are fantastic examples of multilingualism. They can read, write, speak, and even be funny in two languages, which, if you've ever tried to speak another language, you know that's incredibly difficult. Um I'm incredibly proud of them and can't wait for you to hear what they've prepared. Eli will go first followed by Azucena. Hi, my name is I'm in the third grade and I like playing soccer. At home, I talk with my mom and my brother and sister in Spanish and with my dad in English. I also talk with my
032grandpa in Spanish. I like being in a bilingual school because I can learn in both my languages. I feel proud to speak two languages because I can speak with more people and make more friends. Hello, my name is Azucena. I'm in third grade at Harris Bilingual Immersion School. I speak both English and Spanish. And I really love being bilingual. Being bilingual is special because I can talk to more people. I can understand my way down when she tells me stories in Spanish. And I can help my friends who speak Spanish, too. I can help them translate or with sounds of words. Speaking two languages also helps my brain grow. It helps me think in new new ways, solve problems, and learn more. I also help my dad speak English too. Also, I think it's important
033for schools to help kids learn more than one language. It makes our school a place where everyone feels included and we can all share our culture and help each other. No one gets left out. Thank you for letting me share why bilingualism is important. I love being able to speak two languages and hope more kids can learn another language too. >> I love how both of you named that you got to grow your relationships with so many more people and grow your community because you're able to speak more than one language. I think that's an amazing asset that I wish I had. So, thank you for sharing that and letting us in on your experience. And thanks for being PSU students. Does anyone else have anything they would like to share in English or Spanish?
034See none. Yep, please. >> Uh just briefly, members of the board over in the last uh couple of weeks and in the next couple weeks into the future, you've been having numerous community engagement sessions about all things our district. And one piece of recurring feedback that many of you have shared with me is how many community advocates there are that are voicing their expression of the power of bilingualism in this district's history past, present, and future. And I think No Zana, Eli, and Rose are symbolic of the power of that and how you represented your school community, your family, and our entire district. So, congratulations to all of you. We're really, really proud of you. >> All right, Jill, can you call the vote, please? Carla Beas. Aye. Connor Duffy. >> Aye. >> Kevin Havelda.
035>> Aye. >> Scott Schonbauer. >> Aye. >> Dr. Andrew Spain. >> Aye. >> Jessica Zamora. >> Aye. >> Motion passes 6-0. >> Thank you. Can all of our resolution guests please come up and have a share a picture with us? Oh, we have one I'm so sorry. I almost missed. I did change the page already. Can I get a motion for the last resolution? >> I move the board approve a resolution in support of National Volunteer Appreciation Week, April 19th through the 25th, 2026. >> Thank you very much. Can I get a second? Thank you, Andrew. >> All right, thank you. Joining us this evening to speak to the resolution is Dawn Feit, Volunteer and Partnership Coordinator. Welcome, Dawn. >> Good evening, members of the board. Mr. Kinsley, thank you for having us here this
036evening. My name is Dawn Feit. I serve as the Volunteer and Partnership Coordinator for Poudre School District. Um next week is Volunteer Appreciation Week, so I want to welcome everyone in appreciating those volunteers as they come into the buildings. Celebrate the incredible volunteers that come in those buildings and make everything happen. Our volunteers are embedded into the fabric of PSD. They support everything from nursing, nutrition, athletics, early childhood, our language, culture, and equity departments, and that's just to name a few. This community members bring specialized expertise that enriches our entire classrooms. They provide opportunities for our students that simply would not be there if they were not there in those classrooms with them. To put their impact into perspective, we currently have 14,381 registered volunteers. This year alone, they have contributed over 91,000 hours, and
037that's just as of today, which is amazing. That represents thousands of moments where students felt supported and teachers felt like they were a little less overwhelmed because of these volunteers. That is staggering to me, and I deeply appreciate all of the investment that they put into our children. To speak more on this impact, I want to make sure that I invite Pam Murphy here. She is one of our registered volunteers that comes into not only the schools and volunteers, but she also volunteers at many events with that we hold within PSD. So, please welcome Pam Murphy. >> Thank you, everybody. Uh Superintendent Kingsley, board members, and Don, thank you so much for including me today. I thought I'd just share a couple quick reasons why I volunteer. As a retired educator, I knew that I
038would miss being around students and and my colleagues, and in general, just being part of a learning environment because learning doesn't stop. So, volunteering has allowed me to continue that and more. The good news, I get to see a lot of my old students and colleagues. The great news, I don't have to test or grade. Volunteering has also allowed me to engage in the bigger community at such things as STEM events, career fairs, and um like the high school hiring fair. Um the joy that I get from volunteering is seeing these students so engaged in a lot of community outreach, not just in the classroom, which I think is so important. So, I hope that I speak on behalf of most of the volunteers when I say that I really think it's a win-win for
039all of us because I think as volunteers we benefit as much as the school district. Thank you. >> All right, so one last thing I want to say as we lead into next week. Um, please join us in thanking these volunteers as you see them into our schools. Many of you that are sitting here tonight are volunteers. So, I personally thank you from PSD. We couldn't do this without you. Um, you're the backbone of support for our students and our staff. So, we greatly appreciate that in PSD. And thank you for your time having me this here this evening and God bless. >> Thanks for being here. My uh quick calculation says it's about 60 hours per volunteer and I know that's going to fluctuate a lot, but that's a week and a half of
040just pure love going into our schools. And I just want to say thank you so much for modeling it for our community and for our students how we do this together and how we make each other better and we're not actually even expecting anything from it. We just want to make it better. I so appreciate you continuing to give your time to us even though I I and I I like that you don't have to grade and you get the time off. Um, does anyone else have anything they would like to share? Our volunteers. Yeah, please. >> I do. This is going to be for you, but also a summary comment for all of our recognized uh guests and our resolutions. Sometimes I wish you could see what it looks like from our vantage up
041here. Um, when I came into the board meeting tonight, uh like many of you probably came with a lot of baggage from my work life, from turning on the news and constantly getting bad news after bad news and seeing the world fall apart. I really wish that in those moments I remembered this feeling and this view that I have. Um, because it really fills my cup. And what I mean by that is this. If you're ever doubting where we are as a country or that we're falling apart or that the world is falling apart, I'd invite you to come to a Poudre School District Board of Education meeting every other Tuesday night. I think there's more America in this room tonight than I'll ever see on TV or any news updates. Tonight, we got to
042celebrate our students' excellence. We got to celebrate our students' diversity. We got to celebrate volunteerism. We got to celebrate our partnerships with our community partners to make our district and our our community more healthy. And I just think that it's just an amazing thing to be able to celebrate all these things in one room in one night. And I wish we could go home after this. I know we have business to do. But I just want to say a personal thank you to everyone who's here. Even law enforcement. Sorry, you were in my comments and I forgot. You also, thank you for being here every board meeting keeping us safe. I appreciate your efforts. So, I just want to say thank you to everyone who came tonight for different reasons, but we're all here together
043in the celebrating this one moment and I think that's a really beautiful thing. So, from this volunteer board, thank you for your volunteerism. Thank you for the work that you do to make our district better. And thank you everyone for being here tonight and making this special. Thank you. >> Thank you for that sentiment, Kevin. Uh Jill, can you please call the vote? Carla Bayes. >> Aye. >> Connor Duffy. >> Aye. >> Kevin Havalda. >> Aye. >> Scott Showalter. >> Aye. >> Dr. Andrew Spain. >> Aye. >> Jessica Zamora. >> Aye. >> Motion passes 6-0. All right, now we'd love to take a picture with y'all. >> All right. We'll keep rolling, but thank you all so much for being here. We really appreciate coming. The next item on our agenda is our Superintendent report,
044where Superintendent Kingsley will now make remarks to the Board of Education and to the community. >> Thank you. I honestly not sure if I even need remarks tonight. I think just the recognitions and celebrations somewhat uh not so much they completely speak for themselves. I don't know if I've ever been more proud to be the superintendent of this incredible school district. Uh members of the community not only just good evening I just want to say thank you for being here. The energy in this room for the last 12 hours has been just unbelievable. At 7:00 a.m. this morning this room was filled with cabinet members, board leadership, mayors of Fort Collins, the town of Timnath, the town of Wellington, city managers, town managers, county commissioners all working thoughtfully together in partnership with our comprehensive planning
045committee to identify thoughtful ways of reimagining the next chapter in our district's history. So I want to thank members of the board not only for engaging the community but I want to also say thanks special thanks to our board leadership for engaging thoughtfully with other elected leaders across our community in service of building trust. I also want to say a huge thanks to Dr. Tracy Gyle, our lead assistant superintendent, and Brett Hansen for your work as co-chairs of our comprehensive planning committee. The work that you're doing in partnership with other cabinet members in navigating us through incredibly complex change is something that we're all collectively proud of. It is reducing the emotion in some ways to allow people to show up in a space to be authentically collaborative and ideate about what might come next.
046So I just want to say thank you for your incredible leadership. Um I've had an incredible 2 weeks of engaging the community. I've been across 11 schools. They've been in the midst of state testing over the past 2 weeks and I continue to be incredibly impressed with the focus on our humanity. Uh there have been many places where I visited across the country where testing feels like a very high-stakes environment. We take it seriously but in a very healthy way in partnership with our families and our students. So to see joy uh in the midst of celebration amongst many of our schools I just wanted you to know there's a lot of really, really good things that are happening and I know we'll see the rewards on those incredible student outcomes in the weeks and
047months ahead. I think we have an incredibly productive meeting scheduled here tonight. You will see our second finance update from the state as in how it ties into our district budget process. As we as we have recently shared with our broader community, we will continue to regularly share updates providing budget information that we are receiving from the state and how we are believing in real time it is impacting our school district and you will see that tonight. As a reminder, again, most of the upcoming board meetings you were going to continue to see a series of budget updates. So I would ask any members of the community who are either here in person or watching online, please stay tuned to the multi, you know, preliminary, proposed, and hopefully approved by the end of the year
048presentations that have to do with the really important work brought before our board regarding balancing our school district budget. Tonight will also the board will hear a brief update on a reduction in force process that was presented at a previous board meeting. As has already been shared with the board and licensed staff in our district, we have discontinued the riff process at this time. I'm so grateful collectively the HR department in partnership with the reduction in force committee was able to find creative solutions to achieve that incredibly hard effort and hard work. And I want to share that last week was assistant principals week across the country. And so I'll close by just sharing a brief video that was put together by our communications team by celebrating all of our assistant principals who are doing
049incredible work within the respective school communities across PSD. Congrats to all of our assistant principals. >> Oh, hi. Welcome in. Welcome to Lesher. Come on in. Hi, I'm Dina Coaches, assistant principal here at Lesher Middle School. >> Thank you so much for having us today, Dina. How long have you been in your role? >> I've been here for 4 years in this building and as an assistant principal. So, it's a great place to be. I'm glad you're here. Uh let me introduce you to some kids at Snack Shack. Let's get you something to eat. What can I get you? >> Let's just get some Skittles. >> All right, we'll take some Skittles. Thanks. >> Awesome. >> Yeah. >> Is there something students would be surprised to know about you? >> I think students are always
050surprised when they can find out that I play an instrument. I can play the piano, the guitar, and the accordion. Um but let's go say hi to percussion. I uh I don't play the drums, but these kids do. Hey, percussion. Good morning. Glad to see you guys. >> Yeah, say good morning. >> Good morning. >> Have a good Have a good day. >> Thanks, you too. >> Nice to see you, Dina. One step closer. >> Awesome. >> What's something students would think you do all day that's completely >> They probably think I just roam the hall all day long. Oh. I know, those hammers are heavy. >> Tell us about a proud moment you've had so far this year. >> I love this question. I am so proud to be a part of this community
051here at Lesher. This is an amazing place that our parents and our staff and our students have worked to build. And this year in particular is a really special proud moment both as a mom and as an administrator because I have a fifth grader who will be here next year. And so, as our middle schools do in the district, we do a lot of different things to prep our fifth graders to be ready. My own fifth grader has many opportunities to come and be here in the in the building. And so, seeing her embraced by this community has been just really rewarding and amazing. And so, that's a really proud moment for me. >> Tell us why you do what you do. >> I have just always wanted to make a difference. It's just something
052that I need in my life to have that sense of fulfillment. I found making a difference when I went into teaching. I then, as I furthered my career, I found that I can make even a bigger difference in administration where I can now expand that difference into activities and clubs and academics and I get to hang out with educators who also have the same passion of just wanting to make a difference in kids' lives and so I do this for that sense of fulfillment and um yeah, it's a pretty amazing job. I love it. Awesome. Oh, thank you. Awesome. Oh, I'm so glad you came in to visit us at Leasure. Hey, Imagene. But um I think I've got a job to do. So, thanks for coming to visit Leasure Middle School. Come see us
053anytime. Bye. That was amazing. All right. Uh next up, we have community comment. This is opportunity for public comment is for members of the community who registered to speak by the designated deadline. Those people will be called on to make remarks in the order that they signed up. Each speaker will be allowed 3 minutes to address the board. All right, welcome. First up, we have Chris Lindsey. Oh. Oh, we're going to have you on this one. Sorry. >> No, it's okay. >> No, you're great. >> Totally okay. >> Still a little pingy. There it is. Awesome. Thank you so much for setting this up for me. Um good evening, members of the board. Uh my name is Chris Lindsey and I'm a school counselor at Rocky Mountain High School. Um I want to start by
054saying thank you to director director Showalter for attending negotiations. Um I attended part of the day on March 31st and would just like to share my experience about shared decision-making and the lack of shared decision-making at the district level and the need for a change. Uh so I've seen shared decision-making fail in instances of curriculum, graduation requirements, class registration, concurrent enrollment, ICAP, and more. I'm happy to share specific examples, but in a different setting. These decisions come directly from the district at the district level and have had a negative impact on students and significantly increased school-based staff workload that could have been avoided. Educators who are in schools working directly with students are either not consulted at all or asked for feedback under the falsehood that it will be taken into account just to have
055it be discarded. While our admin at Rocky continue to respect us in decision-making, I have failed to see shared decisions from the district. It is crucial to have the voices of those educators working directly with students, those who understand what goes on in schools on a day-to-day basis when making decisions that directly impact those students. I ask that Poudre School District implement a robust and more comprehensive shared decision-making model such as the one proposed by PEA between district employees and those working in the schools so we may collaborate effectively and better serve our students. PSD is full of amazing staff and amazing people. Let's collaborate more. Thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you for being here. Um I just Okay, next up we have Cassandra Moore. Welcome. >> So, I'm here to
056respectfully request that Poudre School District reconsider its search and interrogation policies to afford Fort Collins youth the same rights that they would have in our neighboring districts. I urge the board to move forward towards a more collaborative approach with parents rather than the current approach. As it stands now, Poudre School District permits permits physical searches of students and allows law enforcement to interrogate students without parental notification. Neighboring districts including Thompson Valley, Weld Weld RE-4 in Windsor, Johnstown-Milliken, Greeley-Evans, and St. Vrain Valley all have written policies requiring parental notification as as reasonably possible when students are searched by district staff. They also require parents be present for law enforcement interviews or interrogations. Weld RE-4 in Windsor goes a step further and notifies parents prior to searching students whenever possible. We teach our children that consent must
057be free and voluntary, yet Poudre School District policy creates an environment where children are pressured, even coerced, by threats and intimidation to consent to searches including by having uniform law enforcement present and under threat of disciplinary action if they do not consent. Students with disabilities and those who have experienced trauma are no exception, even though these students often have difficulty advocating for themselves and have disabilities that mean that they may have significantly different responses to these searches and interrogations than typically developing children. Yet, the district actively prevents them from having the support and guidance of their parents. I'd like to share my experience with the board. My child was pulled out of class in the middle of the school day and questioned by the Dean of Students and a school resource officer. My child has
058documented disabilities including autism spectrum disorder as well as a history of trauma. They were asked for consent to search their body and their belongings by the Dean of Students while uniform law enforcement was in the room and informed that refusal to provide consent would result in disciplinary action. There was no attempt by the district to ascertain whether they were fully able to comprehend the significance of consenting to such a search. Poudre School District did not involve mental health providers to offer guidance or support given their autism diagnosis or their history of trauma. They were instructed to remove their sweatshirt, socks, and shoes, turn their pockets inside out, remove their belt, and lift their shirt. Then, the Dean of Students searched their backpack and sent them back to class. My child later informed me of the
059search, not the Dean, nor the nor the school resource officer. I attempted to obtain details of the situation by contacting my child's school by telephone, but calls went unanswered. I was only able to get details of what occurred after going to the school in person. At that point, the school day had ended and staff still had not made any attempt to notify me that my student had that my child had been searched. In loco parentis is the legal doctrine that permits schools to perform searches without probable cause as they are empowered to act in place of a parent. As a parent, the decisions that I make are based on what is in the best interest of my child. >> Your time has expired. Can you Are you able to wrap up? >> Yeah. I respectfully
060ask the district to consider how this policy is in the best interest of our children. Why are the children in our school district afforded fewer rights than in neighboring school districts? I implore PSD to consider the detriment of this policy to our children and embrace a united approach that involves working alongside parents to provide the best environment for our children. >> Thank you. Next we have You have to tell me how to pronounce it correctly. Say Say Wright? Sai. Thank you. Sai Wright. >> Hi. Um I'm just going to say that I'm going to be speaking French and I don't want to give you like language whiplash. So, this is just me, how I am, and then as an LGBTQIA+ student in PSD. Bonjour. Je m'appelle Sai. Je suis content d'être là. Mes pronoms sont
061elle elle. Je suis junior en l'école d'expédition Polaris. Je suis là ce soir pour vous parler en plus ou moins et pour partager mes expériences en tant que élève à Polaris et comment cela me très me très cher. I did say in French, "Hello, my name is Sai and I'm happy to be here. My pronouns are she/her. I'm a junior at Polaris Expeditionary School. I'm here tonight to tell you a little about myself and share my experiences as a queer student at Polaris and how it means to me that I and many others have a safe space at school." Because of my amazing French teacher, Shauna Anderson, I'm able to speak French at a proficient level and pursue my dreams as an interior designer studying in Paris. From my time as a high school student
062at Polaris, I've learned that my assumptions of people just aren't true. I formed my own first opinions of people that I wasn't so sure about, but once I get to know them, sit down and have lunch, I realize how alike we are. And those people turn out to be some of my closest friends today. Polaris is a safe space for me and many of my fellow LGBTQIA+ peers. I foster connections with every one of my teachers, counselors, parents, and administration. I wake up every morning excited to come to school and see my friends. Members of the board, I want to thank you for your display of of under of understanding and support to most of the students in Poudre School District. Thank you and have a good night. Thank you. All right. Next up we
063have Tom Greig. Welcome. >> Good evening, district directors, Superintendent Kingsley, PSD community members. I feel like I might as well almost throw this out. It's It's great, actually, that I can say that. I'm heartened to hear that there will be no reduction in force this year. But I did come to uh make a statement that's basically repetitious in some ways. Last I heard we were facing a potential budget cuts of somewhere between 6 and 17 million dollars. And uh Superintendent Kingsley's uh March 24th summary of the timeline at that point, and again tonight, I just want to emphasize that we must not panic in our budget decisions. This is not the time to make cuts we're going to regret later. Why aren't we turning this into an opportunity to build a structure that will enable
064the district to be responsive to uncertain circumstances like these? If not quickly enough to fully address the present situation to everyone's liking right now, at least for the period beyond it. If you ask me, this is more than a good idea. It's essential to a public school system in a small d democratic society. In my frequent attendance support meetings over the last year, I've observed that we each have our own perspectives on this matter. My own is quite diverse. I've been a parent, a scholar in the field of education who spent my career teaching teachers, an activist for strong public schools at the state level, and for the last 6 years as a substitute teacher in many different pre-K through 12 local settings, and a volunteer extensively in Poudre School District. One thing I've noticed
065throughout everything I have read, seen, and heard about schools and education policy is that everyone, each of us, including board members, educators, parents, all the while offering invaluable expertise and support, is also limited by these perspectives in various ways. It is not easy to adopt a system-wide approach and maintain a clear connection to the very human endeavor that is teaching and learning. Yet such an approach is critical, and all these perspectives are important. Focusing on some of the most important individual budget uh cuts that former PSD board member ML Johnson suggested at your March 24th meeting is an essential aspect of accomplishing this. We must hear from everybody that is affected. We must build a structure that ensures that that is the kind of communication we have both ways going into the future. Thank you
066very much. >> Thank you, Tom. Next we have Danny Lawrence. Welcome. Thank you for the opportunity. My comments tonight are directed to the members of the long-range planning committee and those in our PSD community continuing to seek information regarding equity data in our district. On October 31st, 2025, I met with Dr. Dwayne Schmits, PSD's previous chief effective officer officer in his office for nearly 2 hours. As a result of some data gathering and question asking I was doing around the graduation rates of disabled students in our district. Specifically, I was trying to learn if there were any correlations with students with IEPs and their ethnicity with regard to law enforcement referral. And Dwayne was insistent that this information was available on the district's website and I was struggling to locate it. He generously offered to
067show me how to find it. Upon engaging the website it on his computer in his office, he was able to find the data that I was unable to locate on the public-facing website. And so I asked him to log out and access it as I could see it as a member of the public. And the information was missing entirely. He couldn't find it. And the data was called uh the equity insights dashboard. And the light bulb came on for Dwayne in that moment. He told me that he had remembered that the district had intentionally removed the information during the George Floyd protests as the Board of Education was concerned how the public would use the information. And he allowed me one search uh in his access to the dashboard. We searched for how many students
068in the district had IEPs, had law enforcement referral, and were Hispanic and the percentage was 84%. And I was allowed no further searches that day for the data. So in case anyone is interested in requesting these interactions, Dr. Schmitz and I exchanged emails on October 31st and November 1st about the issue on election night, November 4th. In this Board of Education meeting, I made public comments regarding the missing dashboard and requested that the information be reinstated. On December 12th, I sent that information explaining the situation to our two new school board members who were elected and I received no reply. And again, on January 27th, 2026, I addressed the missing dashboard for equity information in my public comments in this boardroom. So, recently on social media, I learned that there will be an equity presentation
069in May for the long-range planning committee, and I wanted those members to know that this Board of Education has long been aware that the public is seeking more equity data and that those figures are intentionally being withheld from those who are asking. There is obviously something there worth being deceptive about, so I hope as a committee you would be willing to share with the rest of us what our Board of Elected Members might be failing to consider themselves or provide. In the most recent survey issued to the community about long-range planning, equity wasn't even a multiple-choice option. So, it's clear to me after asking for 6 months that equity as a concept isn't going to be a consideration when it comes to school consolidation. Equity is an afterthought in nearly everything we do here at
070PSD besides resolutions. And if we were ever given access to that information, I think the data would speak to that. I hope the Board and the Long-Range Planning Committee will insist on the transparency of the Equity Insights Dashboard being reinstated for everyone in the public, not just the selected few. Thank you for listening. >> Thank you. Last we have Anna Lovato. Welcome. >> Sorry. Okay, I usually use paper and I'm having to use my phone, so I'm about that. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to come before you this evening. I filled out a survey this afternoon for the comprehensive planning committee and I appreciate that it was concise, yet had some room to weigh in on personal priorities and gave room to write in priorities for criteria consideration. As we are striving to
071have thoughtful conversations around potential consolidation criteria, I want to say out loud and reiterate that prioritizing equitable considerations was a significant concern of many involved in the last round of consolidation talks. When considering equity, it can be an admittedly uncomfortable conversation, especially for those recognizing they are speaking from a place of privilege. However, I think there is a concern building that perhaps the community's idea of equity may not align with the district's idea of equity based on the types of questions being asked or the absence of questions we feel should be asked early and proactively this round of consolidation talks. If we aren't having the conversations out loud, I'm afraid we are at risk of finding ourselves in a similar situation to the last round. 11th hour shock or outrage of what is considered a
072viable solution. I want to make sure that I take this opportunity to voice my concerns about the various groups of students in PSD whom we know are more likely to struggle academically than peers than peers in contrast to those in our comparison districts and even more concerning in comparison to state averages. ELL students, free and reduced lunch students, IEP 504 students, secondary students on read plans, and that's not an exhaustive list. We have data. Many individual students check more than one box on that list. So, how can we take something like consolidation that by nature is disruptive and use it to bring relief to struggling students? When determining criteria, please include equity guardrails that will not set these students back even further. Please authorize creativity that will lead to thoughtful, efficient, and effective means to
073better outcomes. For example, intention intentionally preserving a handful of smaller schools that are resource-heavy and discoverable for students and families desperate to close learning gaps that have developed for any number of reasons. Your community needs to hear district leadership say out loud that reducing negative outcomes for struggling students is in fact important in these considerations. The academic outcomes do indeed matter if students graduate from PSD unable to read, write, or participate meaningfully with math to be able to function in the world around them. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next up, we have board topics and committee reports. This agenda item is an opportunity for board members to provide an update on committee work or speak to board topics. Do any board meet members have something that they would like to report? >> Quick recap from
074legislative session and it will tie in with the budget. Um the long-awaited long bill was introduced. Um I believe it um got through the house late Sunday night and has moved over to the Senate. Hopefully, that will be resolved by the end of the week. And then they will move on to um one that's even more important for us, that's the school finance act. Um that one was introduced very early on um and from our call on Friday, um it is anticipated that that should get through as well. Um and that will be very good news for us. Um after that, there are a myriad of other bills um that are stacked up that will impact us, but I would say not in a material way. >> Thank you. Others, please. >> Yeah, I just
075uh missed my chance, but I wanted to recognize the the student advisory committee uh >> Come back. >> representatives that that joined us for the first part of our meeting tonight. They got a good chance to witness um how things work here uh and get a feel for uh what we do in terms of our resolutions and then how our meetings work. We're really excited about the the committee. They're very engaged students from all around the district that are giving us a a valuable voice um as we consider a whole myriad of things. Uh the other thing I wanted to mention is um several of us were at the the Center for Family Outreach Breakfast last week. Uh it's one of our our really valuable community partners that help with um with kids that are
076struggling with addiction and other issues in their lives and it's really a um amazing partnership the center's led by Lori Cliff who is just a treasure for this community and and so it's great to be able to go there and support that. So, thank everybody who was able to join. Uh and that's it. Thanks. >> Uh thanks, Connor. Thanks, Scott for your updates. Um this is typically my plug for our Board of Engagement sessions. We have Uh Dr. Hooten, are you still over I can't see you. I'll just presume you're over there. >> Hi. Um if I get any dates wrong or locations, please just jump in and correct me. Um we do have one this Thursday uh at both Rice Elementary and Bampford Elementary, so on sort of different geographic vectors of PSD. Uh
077that's Thursday night 5:30 to 7:00 and that is what I'm going to call our regular Board of Engagement sessions, so that's sort of the unscripted, informal, come to us to have a dialogue about topics that are on your mind, etc. Then we have a series, we've already started these, but we've got our next several, what I'd call our specific Board of Engagement sessions. This is centered around the Comprehensive Planning Committee's work and some focused feedback loops. Our first one was at Rocky Mountain High School 2 weeks ago. It's almost a blur. 2 weeks ago. Um Right, that was April 2nd. Our next one is going to be this Saturday, April 18th from 10:00 a.m. to noon, and that will be at Fossil Ridge High School Media Center. All these will be in our our high
078school media centers, so April 18th, this Saturday, 10:00 to noon, Fossil Ridge. Next one will be April 22nd, 5:30 to 7:30 at Wellington uh Middle High School, excuse me, in the Commons or the Media Center. After that will be April 25th, 10:00 to noon, again that's a Saturday session at Timnath Middle High School Media Center, and then rounding out on April 30th from 5:30 to 7:30 at Fort Collins High School Media Center. Um Dr. Huner, are these on the website? I believe under the Board the Board of Education website portion of the PSD. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, if you missed any of those in my quick recitation, you can find them there. We really, really encourage the folks to attend one or many of those specific sessions to get really good feedback. Dr. Spain
079and I also attended CSU Engagement session this past Thursday night, which was great because it also included some of the students from the education schools and some faculty, as well as some other community members that came and discussed all things consolidation, budgetary, things like that. So, that was a great conversation. So, I guess my plug is there's plenty of opportunities. If you can't make it to a Board meeting to give community comment, if you if you can't send an email, there's plenty of times to sit down with the Board and with our district staff and have some really targeted engagement around some really important topics. Um I also want to thank uh uh President Zamora for her leadership this morning as well as Superintendent Kingsley, Tracy Gyle, and others. It was a very full room
080here uh 12 hours ago almost exactly on the dot. Uh a lot of our cabinet were here as well. So, thank you for being here early and being here late. Um this was a first, I think, of this kind of city-county-PSD Liaison Committee where it was such a a large assemblage of our of our city's uh planners, um dedicated professionals that were all kind of uh talking about our process that we're that we're undertaking here and we're going through. Uh and we're we're getting close to getting a recommendation on criteria from the Comprehensive Planning Committee. Um so, that work in earnest is picking up and then the process of sort of what to do in between them prior to a board resolution or board vote come October uh is going to need a lot of
081smart and dedicated people, and we had that in droves today. I was very encouraged by that conversation. Thanks again for uh President Zamora and her leadership. Um and I think we're picking up some steam and moving in the right direction about wrapping our arms around these problems as a community and not just as a board. And that feels um that feels good. >> Others? Okay. I can Oh, please. >> Um one last thing, I think a lot of people were really impressed with the some of the kids we recognized earlier. Um and John Cope has shared this with me. If anybody's interested in seeing the artwork uh that won the uh Merit of Oh Awards, uh go to psdschools.org/news/25statelevelawards. Um you can find that on our website, and uh I just was looking and there's
082a lot of images there plus a link to all of the uh the winning pieces of art. >> Thank you. Now, I will look that up. I appreciate it cuz I would want to. Um I don't have a ton to share. We just uh was recently at the comprehensive planning committee. They have shared out their uh criteria for folks. We've obviously been hearing a lot about that equity conversation, which is happening. It was slated to happen at their previous meeting, but they're they're really being a very thoughtful in their process and thoughtful with how they're talking about the criteria and the things they're considering and not wanting to rush that. So, it it did get pushed to their next meeting, um which I appreciated. It's I know it's a little challenging for our community because
083they want that information now, and I think that committee is incredibly intentional with wanting to make sure that information is they they collectively have buy-in from the committee. They have discussed it. They have truly vetted it as that committee before they put it out there. So, while I understand that some of our community would really like it now, I also appreciate the process that's taking place. Um and just one other shout-out cuz I really liked the um shout-outs for our Center for Family Outreach. We also had the chance to do the humanity uh Habitat for Humanity. Thank you. I was thinking Houses for Humanity. I was like, that's not it. Habitat for Humanity and getting to walk the houses that our students are building out at Poudre High School. So, it was really beautiful. Um
084it was a fun celebration cuz they built on the stage in the moment, which I feel like is a lot of pressure. Um so, they did amazing. They just went with it. They were very well planned. Um so, I really appreciate our engagement sessions as well. I think those are becoming really fruitful. I encourage people to come and talk to us. We are we are taking active notes, but we also do have um a survey in those meetings. We encourage you to come first before we share it out just because we think the community conversation is really important to make sure that we have a shared understanding of both the challenges and a shared understanding of what our community collectively needs. And so, we're not just siloing and spinning cuz I feel like last time
085around we 2 years ago, there was a just a lot of individual feelings and people working individually and working from their own framework. If we do this together, we truly need to do it together. Um so, that's what I have. Yes, please. >> Sorry, there was one more I forgot. Um because I probably won't get the chance to do this um presuming consent stays consent more or less, I did want to thank Headmaster Anderson, his colleagues, and Ridgeview for their thorough, timely application. Look forward to continued partnership for years to come, and thank you for providing such an excellent choice for our students. But, thank you especially for being here tonight. >> Just enough time to take a drink of water. All right, if are there any other things from our board? Okay, then we
086will move right along to our consent agenda. Would any board members like to pull an item from consent? >> I would like to pull the meeting minutes from March 10th, 2026 included in consent item 9.2. >> Okay. Would anyone else like to pull anything from consent? Okay, wait. I will reassign that 9.2 March 10, 2026 meeting to action item 10.2. Now, would anyone else like to pull anything else from consent? All right. Can I get a motion for the items remaining on consent? >> I move that the board approve and adopt the recommended actions for the items remaining on the consent agenda. >> Thank you, Andrew. Can I get a second? Thank you, Kevin. Jill, will you please call the vote? >> Carla Bayes. >> I. >> Connor Duffy. >> I. >> Kevin Havalda. >>
087I. >> Scott Showalter. >> I. >> Dr. Andrew Spain. >> I. >> Jessica Zamora. >> I. >> Motion passes 6-0. All right. We'll move along. So, next we'll have our action items. Uh our first action item is the Fort Con's High School tennis court replacement. Can I get a motion? >> I move that the board approve expenditures for the SCHS tennis tennis court replacement project in excess of 250,000 dollars and authorize staff to execute a contract for $549,541 with Renner to provide construction services. >> All right, can I get a second? Thank you, Connor. All right, Brian, if you would we have a presentation. >> Yeah, here to provide a brief update on the Fort Collins High School tennis court replacement is our CFO Dave Montoya. Welcome, Dave. Thank you. Um tonight we are um
088kind of following on the heels of the summer project report that we gave out at the last board meeting. So, got a handful of uh construction projects that are going to be creeping in towards the end here. Um tonight we are asking the board to approve the Fort Collins High School tennis court replacement. Um this tennis court was installed back in 1995. I believe that's when the building actually came online, Fort Collins High School. Um and typically what you would expect of a tennis court is a a typical life of anywhere from 20 to 25 years. Um obviously we're at 31 years if you do that math. Um about 2 years ago we we attempted to do some uh temporary repairs and this was prior to us having the debt-free mill levy. Um those repairs
089repairs went aways, but they are now failing and it is the recommendation of the outdoor services as well as the athletics department that this is one of the higher priority um projects that we would be doing in this arena. Um the other one that will be coming later is the French Field one that'll be coming at a future board meeting, but these are again just a handful of things that we're finishing up on here. Um really the uh the idea here is that we've tried to repair this multiple times. It's to the point where the repairs are no longer sticking. Um the most recent one was done 2 years ago and it's it's already starting to fail. So, it's time to replace this tennis court. Um we are planning on doing this work this summer.
090Um and uh the the project is uh awarded to uh Renner and uh we're asking for approval tonight. >> Thank you for that summary. Is there any discussion? Feeling good? Okay. Well, I really appreciate the short presentation. I really appreciate you taking the time uh knowing that we're trying to be very thoughtful with our money and appreciating to know how we're spending our Dr. Bremel. So, thank you very much. >> That's always appreciated from the CFO as well. >> Thank you. >> All right. Well, then if there's no discussion, then we'll call the vote. Thanks, Jill. >> Carla Baze. >> I. >> Connor Duffy. >> I. >> Kevin Havelda. >> I. >> Scott Schoenbauer. >> I. >> Dr. Andrew Spain. >> I. >> Jessica Zamora. >> I. >> Motion passes 6-0. >> Thanks. All right.
091Next we have the meeting minutes from March 10th, 2026. Can I get a motion? >> I move that the board approve the updated meeting minutes from March 10th, 2026 that were provided via email to the board and correct a typographical error in item 10.3, IFB 26-580-003, district firewall services renewal from a vote of 6-2 to vote of 6-1. >> Great. Can I get a second? Thank you, Kevin. And Jill, can you please call the vote? >> Carla Baze. >> I. >> Connor Duffy. >> I. >> Kevin Havelda. >> I. >> Scott Schoenbauer. >> I. >> Dr. Andrew Spain. >> I. >> Jessica Zamora. >> I. >> Motion passes 6-0. >> All right. Next we have our informational reports and discussion items. First up, we have the reduction in force update. >> Yes, thank you. Uh
092joining us this evening to provide the reduction in force update is our chief of staff, Dr. Lauren Hooten. Welcome, Lauren. >> Superintendent Kingsley, board directors, thank you for the opportunity to provide a very brief update on the reduction in force. As has already been mentioned this evening, the district has formally discontinued the reduction in force process that the board authorized in its February meetings. This means that we have successfully been able to find placements for all of our continuing contract teachers for the next school year. I do want to thank the HR team for all of their work, our principals and department leaders for their work to help find placements for all of these individuals and the riff committee as well, which had representation from PEA as well as pace. So, it was a group
093effort to land us where we are today. I also want to acknowledge that this outcome, while positive, is not necessarily positive for everyone in our system. There is significant job loss that is coming with the budget reductions that we are facing with approximately 250 individuals being impacted for next year. And I do want to acknowledge that that has a big impact in our schools, in our buildings, in our community, and for those individuals and their families as well. So, that is the update we have for this evening. >> Thank you very much, Lauren, and I appreciate the sentiment about the the happy that the riff does not have to take place, but also acknowledging that this is still a very hard time. It does not mean that it is all positive, but I very much
094appreciate that you guys were able to work so hard to place our continuing educators um for the betterment betterment of our system. Is there any other uh commentary from the board or questions? >> Just one quick question. I I I've mentioned it before. Um as we go forward with this, if there is an acute need for any of the teachers who were probationary that do need that we would like to have come back, do we have a process in place for that, or is that just like a open application process now? >> There is a process in place in the employee agreement, which we would follow. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. >> Okay. Seeing no other commentary or questions, we'll move on to our next informational report, budget update. >> Thank you. So, tonight we're
095looking forward to hearing the budget update from our budget director, Brian Gustafson, and our CFO, Dave Montoya. Welcome, Brian and Dave. >> Good evening. Thanks for having me again. >> Thanks. >> All right. Uh part two of our spring budget series. Last time, a few weeks ago, we talked about the economic forecast, and I'll build off of that a little bit and give you an idea of of where things stand right now in our planning as we prepare a preliminary budget at the end of this month. And as we as we get going here, I'll I'll um point out that tonight we're going to talk about some updates, some initial modeling, and I'll I'll just let you know right up front, I not much has changed as far as um the school finance act. It
096is It is proceeding as we thought it would, I guess, 3 weeks ago as it is written with one minor change, um but really it's it's going through as um Director Duffy mentioned earlier, it's going through the the process in the long bill, and then it's it's likely to be heard in front of um the Senate Education Committee next Monday, and we expect that uh those things will happen hopefully without changes, but we'll see, and I'll talk about what what some of those um items are in the school finance act. But, we anticipate that the numbers we have received so far are the numbers that we'll see at the end, and that's how we're we're building our preliminary budget plan. So, we'll talk a little bit about that here. I'll put uh some more detail
097behind that, and we'll prepare for the preliminary budget presentation in just a couple weeks. As we discussed last time, the school finance act, as it is designed or or was designed and then debated um and potentially altered is really coming in where we thought it would as the school finance act was developed. It's it's based on inflation, a 2.3% inflation rate and that's generating about $217 additional per pupil revenue to the base funding level, the foundation funding level for all districts. Now, we're going to be in a unique situation in that this per pupil rate seems to matter less to us as far as a a driver of the school finance act than the total program funding and I'll talk about that more. The the one difference that we're seeing for next year and we
098talked about this a few weeks ago in the the proposal that came with the economic forecast is that this will be over a six-year phase in as opposed to seven. Hey, we'll see another 15% implemented next year. This will be based for us on three years of funded pupil count averaging. This year, as a reminder, we're averaging off of four years of funded pupil counts. We were previously under five and next year we will be down to a three-year averaging. Again, as we expected to see in the 2024 school finance act. Uh one item that I will come back to a little bit later is that there will not be a change to the hold harmless provision in the school finance act next year and I'll explain that a little bit more. That was one
099of those items as we discussed previously that we thought could come and go. It could be it could be in, it could be out and there was maybe one of those mechanisms that would be utilized to help balance the budget at the state level, but that's not the case so far at least. And another one of those items, the specific ownership tax sweep that we've discussed previously, is not in the school finance act for next year as it stands right now. Uh again, that is now kind of looming on the horizon potentially in fiscal year '28, and uh the rumors are potential phase-in. We have a lot to learn there, uh but we've definitely got to keep that uh in mind as we're preparing not only for the future, but this budget for next year.
100So, refreshing on the budget planning challenges that that we're experiencing, even with a level of funding next year that will match this year's level of funding, we still are working to align the budget to declining enrollment. Uh we talked about this last time. We're still working to align the budget uh and address budget challenges of open seats within the district. Uh the third bullet there is is something we touched on last time as well. To balance this budget at the state level, the forecast that was selected by the uh joint budget committee has a lot of one-time solution money in the in the state budget. And and so items like um uh using reserves at the state level, uh those things are going to impact funding, obviously, for next year, but but the the curiosity
101is what future impacts do uh using reserves and one-time solutions, one-time dollars at the state level have on districts throughout the state. So, that's something we'll continue to monitor and and when uh when we see the actual numbers, we haven't seen any different numbers uh still than we got in January, but when we see different numbers, then hopefully we've seen uh all all the mechanisms that can be pulled this year and have some confidence in moving forward. The fourth bullet there i- is certainly a challenge as we're planning the budget. And that's this transition from the 1994 School Finance Act to the 2024 School Finance Act and this overlap. And as this moves to year two of implementation, we've got hold harmless provisions, we've got phase in dollars and and I'm going to try and
102highlight that a little bit here in a few minutes of what that looks like. But really it it's going to be interesting to navigate not only next year but but three years after that and and potentially beyond. Lastly, uh it's always important to note that there could be reductions to other programs throughout the state. And that might mean grant programs. We don't anticipate seeing a lot of those statewide grant programs that impact us right now, but we've got to keep our ears open for those kinds of things. Uh post Well, I guess um items like the T rep program, those those sort of programs are being hit with budget challenges and so all these potential sort of auxiliary programs are up for discussion at the state level and things that we'll keep our eyes on.
103So, some preliminary assumptions and we've touched on this. Uh but we do know that we're building a budget based on 654 fewer FTE. Okay, and and FTE means that's a reflection of the amount of time a student spends in an instructional setting. So, 654 fewer students in our schools next year. And as we deploy the student-based budgets to the schools in late February, early March, we built those budgets around 654 fewer students. Additionally, as we talked about averaging earlier, we're moving to a three-year average. We're losing the benefit of some of the averaging that's that's helped us navigate declining enrollment. And that really accelerates our pupil count loss. As we knock off a year in the average, we're actually going to have a funded pupil count projection of about 762 fewer funded pupils. So, we
104still have that in in the mechanism as well. And after fiscal year 27, that fund that averaging will move to a 2-year average and then be phased out officially. So, just illustrating that a little bit differently, I've got a couple couple charts here. On the left, the funded pupil count we've seen declining over a period of years, and then we see expected declines continue through fiscal year 26, 27, and beyond. As we update enrollment projections this spring, I will modify these these numbers and and get adjusted funded pupil count figures uh you know, make those available and work with those in our forecasting. Additionally, on the right side of the screen, we have a chart that illustrates the the inverse, the per pupil rate that continues to climb. Now, this is changing in that this
105used to be really tied to the rate of inflation. But now, we have the the dynamic of the rate of inflation impacting this, as well as a phase-in of a new school finance act. So, while we may hear a lot about changing funded or per pupil rates in a lot of districts, our rate might look entirely different because for a while here, we're going to be funded at a a set dollar amount. And then we'll back into that rate because we're a hold harmless district. That means the new formula wasn't as beneficial to us as the old formula at the start. So, we're funded at a a higher level as we implement the new formula. So, Uh again, I'm going to show you a little bit more of that. But, just know that we have
106some offset uh of declining enrollment with the per pupil rate, but not enough uh to to address not only fewer students, but the loss of averaging as well. So, an example, and this is an example with the exception of the the circle that's up there. So, I'll I'll talk about the chart that's on the screen. And we'll just we'll we'll go column by column. The first column uh we've got fiscal year '24 and '25 a funded pupil count. This is actual 28,849 students. In '24 '25, our per pupil rate was $10,778.26. That generated 310 million 310.9 million dollars of total program funding. That total program makes up 3/4 of our revenue. Hey, so we're focused heavily on the general fund and heavily on total program as we talk about the school finance act. In our
107next presentation as we get into the preliminary budget, we'll talk about additional revenue sources like where we see our mill levy overrides, other items, but right now we're focused primarily on this total program. Fast forward to the next column to the right there shaded fiscal year '25 '26, that's this year. Our funded pupil count down about a percent to 28,548.6 students. An increase of per pupil funding to 11,367. and 40 cents. However, that was not a set rate that generated our total program. Because of the overlap of school finance acts, a it was established in our formula for this year that our total program would be 324.5 million. A regardless of where the per pupil rate was falling for other districts. Okay, to implement the new the new act, that was the amount established and
108we won't go below approximately that amount. Okay, now there are some caveats to this hold harmless. The hold harmless includes all the schools in the district, an amount that encompasses all the schools, charter schools, charter school institute schools, our schools. But when you peel out the charter school institute schools, that 324.5 was the amount determined for our district. Okay, so when you divide that by the 28,548 students, that's where we get the per pupil rate. Okay, we used to work it the opposite direction, but now we're we're going backwards a little bit with this hold harmless. I'll jump over a couple columns to fiscal year '27 and I have circled the funded pupil count projection next year of 27,786. And again, the hold harmless provision says we're not going to drop below either our set
109hold harmless amount or the phased-in 2024 school finance act amount, whichever is greater. Okay, so in this example, I've just put in the exact same amount. Now, that could change based on charters again. Okay, cuz this does include district charters, but if we peel out a charter school institute making assumption that that that's the same withholding for those schools, just for this illustration, I put in a total program that matches this year cuz that's how we're planning right now. This total program matching this year. Okay, that would then back us into a PPR that's about 2.7% higher. And probably not coincidentally, it matches our drop in enrollment. All right, so that's the design of this overlap and implementation of the new school finance act. All right, is phase one out while we phase one in.
110Hey, what we see then is really no new revenue, but we don't see the loss of revenue um that would come with eliminating averaging right away. The The interesting part of this is that gets set, and then we look at our charter schools and their enrollments. Those schools are submitting their budgets actually this week. They're in the process of doing those uh and finalizing those right now, or at least preliminary budgets. So, we're getting starting to get an idea of those um enrollment projections. Right now, we're just looking at uh the the enrollment change that we've seen recently, about 2%. Hey, if uh in this example, if our in-district charters increased enrollment by 2%, hey, that would cost or remove from this total program amount of about $1.8 million. All right. Hey, so we're flat
111funded or hold harmless funding, but still potentially losing depending on what happens um with the charter schools. Hey, charters might be increasing, other in-district schools may be decreasing. So, we'll be learning more between now and our preliminary budget about those uh fund of pupil counts. I'm going to pause right there. That's a lot of information on one slide, and and uh see what questions you have just on the count and and the uh total program idea. >> Questions? Yeah, please, Scott. >> Um along those lines, uh with that reporting coming in from the charters, when will you be able to report to the board what their numbers are showing? >> I should have that by the next meeting. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Any other questions? It's a lot to take in. Sorry. Okay, thank you.
112>> Okay. So, we're just going to focus on one column here. And and uh don't don't be overwhelmed by by numbers. But what I want to illustrate with the chart that's on the screen is that over a sequence of years, we're moving from a funding allocation to a funding calculation plus hold harmless amounts that equal that funding allocation. All right. So, as we're phasing one finance act in, we've got additional layers to have to think about in our in our calculation. Now, these layers we're we're approaching right now as some one-time dollars supported by what what we believe is one-time funding now coming into the School Finance Act with what we're seeing so far in the legislative process. Some of the assumptions here again is we've got uh a hold harmless base amount that's established
113this year and next year's fiscal years 26 and 27. That starts with all public schools in the district, as I mentioned. A- In this example, and I'm going to show you a chart that also has the same same stuff to look at it a little differently next. All right. We are factoring in changes in the fund of pupil count averaging over the next few years to eliminate that. Just for now, uh building in 2% charter enrollment growth. And just for the sake of trying to make sure it's it's still on the the forefront of our minds is trying to estimate what would a specific ownership tax sweep look like if it came in starting in fiscal year 28. We bounced some of this information off our budget design team last week, and this was some
114of the feedback that seemed to come through as, you know, is that in there? Is this in there? And and so, we're trying to build some of these things in. The trouble with doing that is we have a lot of variables. There are so many moving parts and so these estimates will be wrong. All right, that's the the budget guy all right, disclaimer it's always right. All this stuff will change. But the these will be wrong but at least it we're starting to try and illustrate and think about how future planning our future thinking is going to impact our present day planning. So it let's just focus right in the middle of that table on fiscal year 27. We'll just look at that column. The funding allocation if it were the same next year which
115it should be close as it is this year that'd be just about 324.5 million dollars. Of that the actual formula to calculate pupils based on the pupils we have in the school finance act that's that's currently rolling that would calculate out to about 317 and a half million dollars. So there's a gap. And this hold harmless idea is what's filling that gap this current year and next year and a little bit beyond. Hey truly the gap is either the the the greater of the total phased in amount or the established amount but what I'm going to try and illustrate is sort of what part of it is kind of phased in and what part is truly hold harmless that's not in a formula when we look at this. Again we're just going to focus right
116in the middle fiscal year 27. We'll we'll stay just just uh locked in on that. We've got a that gold line up above that's our actual funding allocation for fiscal years 25, 26 and what we expect 27 and beyond to look like. Um so what that's that's what's we're we're going to be seeing in the the state share reports that we get monthly. Below that line we've got the columns that represent the actual formula formula calculations for each year. The dark portions of those, and we're just sticking to fiscal year '27, it comes up short of that gold line. So, the formula has to and then be modified with a hold harmless amount to bridge the gap. Part of that, as I'm trying to quantify here with a little bit of a lighter shaded amount,
117is the what if the new school finance act was being phased in for us at the rate the 30% rate. But, our gap ex- exceeds that. So, there are additional dollars that have to be funded to the district to get us to that gold line. It happened this year. It's going to happen next year. And then, potentially in various forms the following years until the old act is phased out and the new one is phased in. It the the formula the calculation changes in fiscal year '28. So, it's hard to to to really illustrate. And we also have to think about the specific ownership tax impacts. But, the the real the takeaway is there's a gap. And the the question that we posed to our budget design team and that we're working on now is
118what do we do with that revenue? How do we reflect that revenue as we build our budget for fiscal year '27? Um that's a good spot to to pause again as you're digesting some of that information and thinking about the visuals on the screen. >> Brian, thank you for your continued leadership in this space. Um I got a clarifying question regarding this particular graphic just to create clarity for members of the public. When you look at fiscal year 30, when that yellow line meets that bar graph, that is a full implementation of the school new school finance formula. That is not an indication visually that public education in the state of Colorado would be fully funded. Correct? >> Correct. And a caveat there would be that that year we're still not up to the full
119implementation, but with the current formula as it is, we would potentially be caught up to the formula by that time. But if if in in the the gold line above it is is wavy and inaccurate, that's still below um the current level of funding. And again, this does factor in averaging. It does have an estimate, a rough estimate for specific ownership tax sweeps. So, this could be wildly different, but it would not be a complete full funding situation. >> Other questions? >> So, to bring it back to where we talked about at the beginning, fiscal year '26 and fiscal year '27 should look very similar when it comes to our total revenue. Minus some variances in in charter funding and then changes that we look at with regards to our um our mill levies, uh
120uh other sources of revenue like investment income, those kinds of things, uh categorical funding. And those are the things that we'll put into our preliminary budget in a couple weeks for you all to review. In that preliminary budget, we will uh illustrate the gap between what will be our fiscal year '27 revenue projection versus our current year of expenditures with some of the big drivers that we may know. Hopefully by that time we have pretty good idea of like, what should we expect with utility cost increases and uh insurance premium increases, an estimate for fuel increases. Those those big drivers be represented there, but not a lot other than that. We won't rip reflect changes in compensation as the negotiations process uh would still be ongoing. Okay, but that's the next step here is to
121take the information talked about today, put it into a budget document to let you see that. As was mentioned earlier, uh the school finance act is moving, finally finally moving. We don't see any new details. Uh the advice we received last week is use the numbers from January and keep building your stuff. So, that's what we're doing and until we hear otherwise and or see otherwise. We know that um the preliminary budget will be in your hands by April 28th and the legislative session has to end May 13th and we should see um everything resolved by that time. Proposed budget will have to you May 26th and then a budget for adoption before June 30th. Just real quickly, some of the things that I like to reference as I'm going through these and trying to
122think about information and I highly recommend if you haven't already hit some of these resources, checking out. Especially the first one is the legislative school finance handbook. It's about 78 pages that's really cleanly written. It's pretty clear. Uh an example of what you find in that is below there with just illustrations of how the formula works. Okay, step-by-step. Foundation funding plus at risk and it really does a nice job of piecing things together, talking about hold harmless, all these things that we try and squeeze into a handful of minutes at uh the podium here, but um it could be really helpful to read through some of that. So, uh with that I'll take whatever other questions you have. >> Thanks, Brian. Just to take a quick step back um to last meeting, you presented two
123budget forecasts that were introduced and were going to be given over to the joint budget committee. One was legislative council, the other one was OSBP. Um those were vastly different. To my understanding, the joint budget committee took the OSBP budget. In there, and that one was I'll say it was more optimistic about the budget situation. In there, it had some large ticket reductions that they were counting on to come to fruition to be able to use in the school finance act. Now, your guess is as good as mine about whether or not those things come to fruition or not, but have we ever seen a point where they approve a school finance act and give us a budget number, but then things don't come to fruition? Have they ever clawed back money in a fiscal
124year um because we've already kind of started setting our budgets out here locally, and I'm wondering, you know, just hypothetically, December or January of next year, they say, "Hey, everybody, you got to cough up a couple million dollars back to the state because these big ticket items didn't come to fruition." >> While highly irregular, it has occurred previously. Not while I've been here. Dave has experienced that here. I experienced that at a different district uh where there was a mid-year recession uh based on a an incredibly different uh economic situation than what uh was presented in the springtime. Do you want to talk to that a little bit? >> For Peter Skou district that happened the one that stands out in my mind was during the great recession and I want to say if memory
125serves me right it was about a three or four million dollar hit in the middle of the year that we weren't expecting. Um of which is a real challenge and that was in those dollar terms back then much bigger terms now if you were to inflate that for the change of inflation and things like that. But it has happened and I I think there's a possibility it could happen again next year too. Um if as to your point Director Duffy if all the things that is are outlined in the governor's proposal and the OSBP forecast if they don't come to fruition we may have a situation where we're having to reduce budgets mid-year. It has happened. >> Other questions? Thank you Connor. Please. >> Uh I would dare say I'm probably struggling to formulate some
126of my questions and that tells me I've got a lot of self-education still to do because you go two slides back for instance or three. We've been telling everyone in the district expect a six million to 17 million dollar shortfall. 26 to 27 there maybe that graph is a million. So that graph doesn't help because it sends a very different message from what we've been saying. I understand that there's lots of nuances because of shifts and things like this but I that's what I'm not even sure what question to ask because it's visually very very different from what I would have expected. Um I've recognized I'm also hearing different terms in some of the phase out and phase in of different things that I'm I think I'm going to have to learn a lot more
127about to fully understand exactly what you're describing as well. Plus needing to understand things like where are we going to start putting funds back into our reserves, which we have already said, as I understand it, that they're very down towards the low end of things. Which is a very poor position for us to be be in especially when we have a state that has balanced its budget on short-term fixes. That that can's going to come back and hurt us if we're not ready for it. Um so I I think there's a lot of things that I need to learn for myself. Um and I Well, let's let's look at Let's look at the fiscal year '26 dive in time or something like that because of I'm I'm not sure where to ask ask all the
128questions because I'm I'm getting even terms thrown at me tonight that I don't think I've heard before, so it's difficult to know what to ask. Let's look at that fiscal year '26 bar. And and maybe this will help start that a little bit. Hey, we have a base level that's shaded dark. That would be our our funding level it without the intersection of two school finance acts. Hey, if um we Well, let's let's just stay with that. So, we've got a new school finance act coming on board that is being phased in at a various rate or a varied rate annually, about 15% annually. That's what the next little chunk the lighter shade of right above the dark represents. Above that a striped section is another hold harmless amount that gets us to it a
129amount that was established for us this year that we would not go below in the district because of the intersection of two school finance acts. Initially in the fall when there was uh talk about gosh, what's going to happen with the budget fiscal year 27, there was discussion of eliminating that hold harmless. Take that striped box out. Hey, so now we've got a little bit of a gap and that drops. Hey, moving from 26 to 27. There was additional talk of eliminating or modifying that next that middle shaded the light shaded box that phase in pausing the phase in or pausing the implementation. That goes out. Hey, then there was also talk about what is the state going to do to balance a billion-dollar budget shortfall. Uh, there could be a sweep of specific ownership
130tax. None Neither of those none of those have occurred, but those are all three levers that were really concerning in in October and November. Additionally, an item that was discussed was a re-implementation of a budget stabilization factor, a fourth mechanism that would have impacted funding from this year to next. So, the the initial thoughts were looking from 26 to 27, you take out those shaded and striped areas above the dark blue line and then we start to have a budget stabilization factor or other items and that's where we start to get into some of those thoughts about drastic reductions. Hey, fortunately those are still in. But the reality is is they're phasing out. They're going away and we start to see that in fiscal year 28 as the current act moves. I know that's it's
131complicated. It's a lot. But that's the the quick answer to your question. Mhm. >> I just want to add because I think Director Speer, what you said was pretty much on target is talking about the can that the state's kicking. To be focusing on that, but what I really want to add is just in my experience and you've been doing this for a long time, too, Brian. It doesn't get much more complicated than having two school finance acts running at the same time with all the levers that were being discussed at the legislature with a $1.4 billion shortfall that turned into an OSPI B forecast that isn't as as as terrible. Um and so it is a very complicated budget situation this year. Um I I was sitting here thinking, what could make it more
132complicated? Maybe if they threw a third finance formula in there, I don't know. Um I'm being ridiculous there. Um because there is so much going on in this formula right now that it it we're having a really hard time keeping track of it, but I think we're doing a really good job of trying to peel back the layers so you can understand the complexities as well as the changing dynamics that that that were happening at the state. I remember earlier in the phase, I remember talking about this cuz I've had the experience before that we're going to feel like budget cycle that's going to be up, it's going to be down, it's going to be up, it's going to be down, and I'm not quite sure where it's going to land this year. That's exactly
133what came to fruition. They They've taken a bunch of one-time money at the state level to try to balance the budget. We're seeing the impacts right here, and we're not taking the reductions that we were thinking about earlier, but those of us that are in this are also understanding that this isn't gone away and that may be coming back just as quickly next year. And that's a very hard puzzle to solve right now, but we are doing it. >> And and to the the question about reserves, so in the current year fiscal year '26, a significant portion of those items above the dark shaded column, we worked on last year and put into reserves and called it available for funding uncertainties, knowing that this challenge was coming. So, that some sort of similar strategy is
134probably what we will recommend going forward as well. Uh looking at fiscal year 27 and 28, these these items that span the gap between that gold line and then what the funding should actually be, we're we're looking at those as one-time dollars. And and it's really hard to build recurring compensation or recurring expenditures on on whatever on one-time dollars. And and so, uh we're going to have to work hard on making sure some of these gap dollars, these hold harmless dollars, uh are going towards uh reestablishing reserves. >> You made a comment that made me think that they are changing the phasing in funding formula year to year. Or is that something that is a consistent thing from the old one into the 2024 Act? What what are we looking at? >> The the phase-in
135from the '94 to '24 is going at a rate of 15% per year, but it was initially 6 years, then it was 7 years, and now it's back to 6 years. So, that percent has been altered. The the annual percent. And then there was discussion of it pausing that. That. So, making modifications to the act. And so, that that's what makes it extremely confusing as well. But right now, it's set to implement at 15% a year. However, that's still is not enough in that new finance act at that 15% additional um implementation to get us up to the hold harmless level that's been set for our district. >> Um for this dark blue, which formula is that? Because it wouldn't be the 1994 and it isn't the 2024 by itself. So, what is the dark
136blue actually representative of? >> That's representative of the per pupil rate times the number of pupils with averaging. >> And there's just too many questions in my head that I can't put together. So, Okay. >> We are doing these in series, definitely, and and we're having to do it in I think spoonful bites as we go through it. Um we're also very happy to sit down with people and go through this more detail as needed. It is very complicated. >> I think I would just like to make a comment on this particular slide cuz I think Andrew, I feel you. Um the old finance act when it was just it was the same year over year, even with the budget stabilization, it was complicated, but it was understandable. And now trying to do two at
137once is Thank you. I can't really quite imagine having to try and predict all of the pieces plus the extra budget challenges that are state and trying to fit that into this. But I think one theme that I I do think it's important to point out is our fiscal year 26 dollar amount pretty much matches our fiscal year 30, and we absolutely know, if nothing else, definitively that the costs today will not be the same as our costs 4 years from now. So, even with this shift, we still have a challenge coming once the new formula is fully implemented. And knowing that the last 2 years, and please correct me if I'm wrong, our state has balanced our budget with one-time dollars. Broadly, not entirely, perhaps, but broadly. >> Probably. >> Okay. And that is
138not sustainable. There's a point where our state will have to actually bud- balance our budget fully, and there won't be reserves to fill it in. And I'm I'm terrified, at the very least nervous, if not terrified, of what that means for next year or the year after. So, I feel like we're trying to or you're trying to and you're explaining it as well as you possibly can, have two formulas that are also shifting with a state budget that has also had unexpected challenges in the last couple of years and trying to predict as much as you possibly can so that we have a stable district into the future. Talk about building a plane while you're flying it. So, I really appreciate the work you're doing. Um I'm trying to wrap my head around it as
139best as I can as well and I it's incredibly hard and I'm not I see like, "Okay, for next year we're we're okay. It's not as bad as we anticipated." and that feels okay, but I'm not seeing the end in sight and I'm not seeing, you know, light at the end of the tunnel just yet. So, I I really appreciate that work and I think I would encourage any of us to have a sit-down and try to understand this as best we possibly could. Are there any other questions or comments though in the meantime? Yes, please. >> Um and for those who at the risk of people again who are watching online, um anybody who tries to follow this and wrap your head around it for you know, even next year, I'd say take a
140pause. And the reason why is because it's going to drastically change again. It has for the last 4 years um and those numbers you know, the 6 to uh 17 million dollars that we were projecting just 4 months ago has drastically changed. Some of those big ticket items that I was talking about in my earlier comment, those are going to drastically change next year. So, they won't be able to use those in the calculation. Um it is extremely complex um but as soon as you get a semblance of what's going to happen, it changes again. Um and I think one of the best things to know right now is that next year it seems barring some of this potential for recisions, we should be okay for next year. >> With the exception of the recisions,
141I think are the the piece, yeah. >> I was saying that I don't want this to come off as professional whining, but I don't really care for that answer. I mean, not not directed at you, but we'll wait and see and we may be okay next year. We got a budget for schools. We have to do that a year in advance, so I can't quite say I'm I'm glad or I have a feel good about it. sunny disposition with where we are and I'd like to get off this merry-go-round and I I again, this is maybe a bigger conversation for later, but I'm I'm also looking internally about maybe examining how we budget for our schools internally. Is there something we should be doing differently? Should we be doing a site-based budgeting model with the
142volatility that we're going to experience every single year or should we do something else? And I know that's that's not something we're going to solve this budget cycle, but I'm getting kind of tired of having the same conversation and blaming Denver and the the whims of change and never really proactively do anything and just reacting to it. That's my professional whining because I think it's very difficult for our principals and for our staff to understand when they're going to have jobs, when it's going to be dire straits and what are we doing as the student enrollment does an inhale and exhale and inhale not knowing how much money we're going to have next year. So, that's my whining. >> I I wish we could get clear direction from the state at times and it's frustrating.
143And yes, I agree with what you're saying. It doesn't feel good. >> I appreciate the conversation and and I think I'm trying to figure out how to process this, too, is I almost feel like this is intentionally confusing in terms of how this is playing out in terms of the landscape shifting locally at the state level and federal level, and that's not me trying to drive any kind of conspiracy theories. But using one-time dollars to address recurring needs, we all know is not modeling fiscal stewardship. And so as that is happening in the state, I think something to be mindful of the presentation that happened just previous to this, we are having to modify our current budget going into next year by over 250 positions as a result of declining enrollment. And so while we're
144monitoring instability at the state level, there's instability at the local level in terms of there simply just being fewer kids in our school district, and we're continuing to monitor changes that are constantly being projected, put in front of us, taken away at the federal level, too. So I just I want to huge kudos to our finance team for working thoughtfully with our labor groups, for working with our school and district-level leaders to help navigate this level of uncertainty. But the line of questioning that's coming from this dais is appropriate um because as people are borrowing from PARA and borrowing from reserves and moving money from affordable housing at the state to figure out ways, those are not long-term solutions. Those are solutions that other elected leaders are inheriting in a year. That will have to
145be solved, and local agencies, state agencies are signaling mid-year recisions. Um but as we continue to project worst-case scenarios, because we have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best, it becomes really difficult for local leaders like yourselves and us to explain this to the members of our general public as we're continuing to navigate the uncertainty that's happening at the state and federal level. So I just I share that with you as context to be kind and gentle with all of ourselves as we process these ever-changing kind of winds. There There are headwinds that are coming our way. I think we are really well prepared in terms of our agility to be right-sizing our system, to navigate really difficult decisions, but I you know, that's level of uncertainty this is going to be
146a new normal for a little bit. >> One last thing, I I don't like to assign tasks without taking some ownership of it. But, there are some things in the legislature that are winding its way and may have a drastic impact that can improve. So, it is not all doom and gloom and I think the task that we would probably well advised for the legislative committee to do a deeper dive on how that would impact and maybe audit committee can give some projections on that because there are some things out there that can move the needle and that I think everybody on this board and in our community would support. >> I'm not sure if this is what you're referencing, but I'm assuming there may be some alignment there, but I want to just shout
147out it's not there's a lot harder here. It's hard to understand, but I also do want to give some kudos to our state and our particularly our teachers for going after the cut the ropes. I mean, that's what I have it called for now and I know it's not doesn't have the official ballot title, but it there are people that are striving to solidify parts of our budget to reserve it specifically for education so that we can have some level of control. Will it fill our whole budget? Absolutely not. There's there's nothing that is going to be on a ballot for next year that would solve this entirely and would make it so that we're not dependent on the state legislature for giving us funding, but there are pieces that should be on there that
148can give us some stability or at least parts of stability. So, I really appreciate the work that's being done to get that on the ballot and to provide us as voters with the opportunity to provide ourselves with some level of stability. So, we would cut the ropes and the potential graduated income tax. Everyone can have their research it, educate yourselves, determine how you would prefer to engage in that space, but there are some options for how we can at least get some control. But, I really appreciate this and again, I do not envy the work ahead of you this year or next. Are there any other questions or comments at this time? Okay. Seeing none, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Right. Moving along into our agenda, we have board forecasting. This agenda
149item is for board members to make suggestions for something to be considered at a future prioritization meeting, which will be happening in June. So, there's anything that you guys would like to add as a for our consideration this time. Okay. Um yeah, please. >> I was waiting for others. Um Um So, we'd heard I've heard I'm going to start with a charge that I'm going to ask about numbers. Um there's been a pervasive theme. Um In our community engagement sessions, we've been asked and we've sort of um made an overt commitment to our community during this process for what we call brutal transparency. Our community can handle it. They expect it. We need to be able to equip people that are going to our schools and working in our schools to understand the numbers behind
150some of the decisions are being made. I think that again, credit to the comprehensive planning committee, that's what they're driving at. Um but, the request I heard it tonight in a community comment. Um I've heard a version of it in at the state board of directors hearing that we we attended on Thursday. Um but, I heard it this morning from our mayor and from council members about being honest with the numbers of compositions in our schools and making that publicly available. Um the more I I've learned about this equity index or the equity insight dashboard, um I I would like an update on that as far as is that something that we can um put on our schools? And I was thinking about this in the Choose PSD campaign that we have. Um I wonder
151if we can have a snapshot of our schools composition students that are for lack of better terms on free and reduced lunch or higher concentrations of poverty, what are those numbers? What are the numbers of of students with special ed per school? Um and I think our community ought to have a robust access point to all those. Um composition of of minority students uh per school. And I would I would include all PSD schools, all PSD schools in that. Um cuz I think those numbers are important. As we as people are trying to understand migratory patterns for school choice, as people are trying to understand the potential for consolidation and the the sort of breathing cycle of our life of our district that we're going through. I think we need to have numbers. And so
152I'd like to at least start with a conversation or a topic of conversation of what we can do as a district to post all of our numbers and if those breakdowns are even available. I know we get a lot of them from our DE 1.0 report, but I think that should be equally accessible to the um community. And then I had a a sort of pie in the sky one, I'm shifting gears a bit, but somewhat related. Um Superintendent Kingsley and I had a a uh a nice moment about a year and a half ago, 2 years ago, when we were talking about transportation transformation. I don't even know if you'll remember what I'm referring to. Um in the same spirit of equity and offering things to students based on what they need, not just
153what's, you know, fair and equal to everyone. Um as we're starting to talk about transformational ideas with our community partners and our our elected leaders about what our community is going to look like. I know transportation and bell schedule tweak seems it's next and it's kind of down the road. But I think we should start laying the seeds now, at least in some of our conversations, about what that would look like. And is it possible for us to reimagine transportation of school choice so that students that would like to avail themselves of school choice but can't otherwise afford it could somehow qualify for transportation to a school that is a a school choice. That's something that I'm very interested in. It was on my priority list that we talked about in our board meeting. Um
154again, a lot of times the urgent will drown out the important, but to me that is still very near and dear to my heart and very important. So, those are my two things. >> Thank you. Please come up. >> Yeah, second um Kevin's uh statement about the equity equity dashboard. Uh it's pretty concerning to me that what we heard tonight and um I'm pretty frustrated with that. I I understand it was a different time when the board the past board decided to do that, but they had 3 years between that board and us to uh to remedy that and they didn't. And so, I think it's up to us to really embrace the transparency we've talked about. I think uh this board in particular is focused on that, especially as we come up to these
155hard decisions. Uh we need to be as transparent to the community as possible, even the hard stuff, the stuff that doesn't make us look good. That will build trust in the process and I think it's super important that we that we do that. So, I I'd second that. Um transportation also a big passion for me. Um I understand the complexities of what Kevin's asking for, but I also understand what that could mean to a whole host of people. So, if we can find a an elegant solution on that, I would be all in favor. So, that's all I have. >> Thanks. Any other suggestions at this time? >> Um I'm going to suggest somewhere along the line we probably should have a very I'll be lengthy conversation about how we're going to achieve an improved
156local school control related to finances for us. Um speaking of like Kevin's comment it you know, we're constantly reacting to what what is happening elsewhere. You know, Connor brings us information that things may be get better, they may get worse. Those things are out of our control. What can we control fiscally with how we budget, how we project, how we watch our metrics, how we share those with the community so we have that ongoing conversation and prevent as much as possible the future cliffs. So we are consistently and proactively addressing our fiscal situation with what we can control and also recognizing that it can absorb the things that are beyond our control within reason. I mean, we can't have an infinite reserve, I understand that, but we have to be able to be there because
157I currently find myself very frustrated that I'm struggling to understand a one-year budget picture while simultaneously being asked to make decisions that are impacting almost 300 people so far with those who aren't coming back next year and potentially closing schools that could be a forever type of thing and that really stresses me out. And I think we really need to engage into that so it supports as best as possible our decision-making process. So we're doing the right thing at the right time with the right vision of the future in an imperfect world. >> Um I am encouraged and I don't know if you've seen this or heard about it yet, but um Dr. Ziegler shared with me that at the comprehensive planning committee that she did see the beginnings of a dashboard and that they
158would um have a more comprehensive explanation of how the budget was working. Um I hope that we keep that dashboard in perpetuity and keep our public informed of how our dollars are coming in and how they're being spent. Um and to piggyback on what Kevin and Scott were saying about um just I think how everything that we're dealing with right now is being framed. Um I'm not sure that the narrative is coming out the way that we all feel about it. I think what we're really talking about is um making sure that we have healthy schools and hearing that 250 jobs have been eliminated immediately says to me um well, it's unhealthy for our community at large and our educators and ace and pace um employees, but also our kids. I mean, that to me
159says that kids are now um they have less resources in the same amount of schools. And I think that we're not doing a good job of framing the the discussion that we're having that way. It always There's always a dollar sign instead of a kid with human beings around them. This is my diagram of each person being attached to a resource and a slash through the circles of those people as we eliminate jobs as we separate them um sending, you know, an art teacher to one school 20%, another 40, and another 20, and dividing their time and attention. I mean, I can't imagine as an integrated um um our our IS professionals and how challenging that must be to divide your attention and care for students if you're moving from school to school and um
160I just that all seems so challenging and and so um yeah, I just I ask that we maybe talk about how we talk about it. That's what I'm hearing too in our community listening sessions. People are really frustrated cuz the dollars aren't making sense. I think we need to start talking about what it means in the actual space and how kids are um not getting access to these things that we're having to take away. Because of dollars, but what that actually looks like and what it feels like because it's we're spreading ourselves so thin. Yeah. >> Is there anything else at the moment? Okay. I appreciate that. All right, we'll move right along. Uh next we have our executive session. Can I get a motion? >> I move the board enter into executive session to
161develop strategy with school district for negotiations relating to the 2026-2027 collective bargaining agreement or employment contracts as authorized by CRS section 24-6-402-4E3. Individuals invited to join the board in executive session are Superintendent Brian Kingsley, Chief of Staff Dr. Lauren Hooden, Lead Assistant Superintendent Dr. Tracy Gal, Chief Finance Officer Dave Montoya, and General Counsel Autumn Aspen. >> Thank you. Can I get a second? Thank you, Connor. Angela, will you please call the vote? >> Carla Base >> I. >> Connor Duffy >> I. >> Kevin Havalda >> I. >> Scott Showalter >> I. >> Dr. Andrew Spain. >> Aye. >> Jessica Zamora. >> Aye. >> Motion passes 6-0. All right. We will now convene in a closed session. This is the last agenda item before adjournment. At the conclusion of the executive session, we will adjourn the
162meeting. The adjournment adjournment will be recorded.