001All right, we will call our meeting to order. Thank you for joining the board of education this evening. Please m mute your cell phones as we begin the meeting. Today is Tuesday, February 24th, 2026. And this meeting is now called to order at 5:49 PM. For those attending this meeting in person, live captions are available on a TV in the boardroom 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 on
002demand on YouTube. All right. Next, we're going to go to our approval of agenda. Would any board members like to make any changes to our agenda? Yes, Kevin. >> Um, I would like to move to uh push item 10.0 no executive session or to pull it from our agenda. Uh pursuant to advice from our superintendent Kingsley in the dinner session that it is not needed at this time. >> All right. Do we need do we have a second? Thank you, Connor. All right. Jill, can you call the vote? >> Carla Ba, >> I. >> Connor Duffy, >> hi. >> Kevin Havda, >> hi. >> Scott Shoenbower, >> hi. >> Dr. Andrew Spain, >> hi. Jessica Zamora. >> I, >> Dr. Karanda Ziggler, >> I. >> Motion passes 70. >> All right. Thank you. Next, we'll
003move on to our superintendent report. Superintendent Kinsley will now make her remarks to the board of education and to the community. >> Thank you, President Zamor. Good evening, everybody. It's a pleasure to be with all of you this evening and look forward to having a very productive meeting with all involved. Uh, one of our agenda items tonight, we'll hear our second part of our district ends DE 1.0's annual report. The focus of this report will be on student connections and how our students continue to go above and beyond each and every day. Uh before we get to that report later this evening, I again want to just take a moment to thank from the bottom of our collective hearts Dr. Dwayne Schmidz for your incredible just tenure of service in this district in this community
004and making the PSD promise real for so many people involved. Uh you most certainly will be missed and I just want to say thank you again for your leadership. YEAH. I ALSO WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE district community is navigating a very difficult period right now uh with budget reductions on top of everyone's mind. But I do want to highlight just how important it is to continue to celebrate the incredible successes of our young people, our students, and our staff who support them as evidenced by our DE 1.0 report that you'll hear about tonight. Uh our highlight video of the week is going to be uh illuminating one of our digital tools named Zello that actually helps foster human connection between our students and their passions and interests. It's an outstanding tool that's been used
005uh by our students, by our teachers, and I'd love for everybody to tune in to this incredible video to tell you a little bit more about what that is. >> Hi, I'm Brley and this is mom. >> Hi, I'm Miss Sherks, Bridley's mom. >> This is my IAP story. IAP stands for individual career and academic plan. Zello is the platform that we used that like kind of holds our IAP and like takes us through it. >> And that's a great scroll word. >> She just to walk in. >> So I started learning about and being super fascinated about my eye in sixth grade. And what really draw me drew me in was the like career quiz where I could figure out like what I wanted to do. >> Yeah. I would say back in my
006day I knew about eight jobs. And I remember one time you even took the quiz. I like gave her my computer and she was like what should I do? And I was like here you go and she was like she got her job. She had like doctor like four things but then her like fifth option was her actual job. So >> which was dating but also I wanted a new idea. >> I know that I want to be a teacher but it's been really helpful to see like the tons of types of teachers that I could um be so I'm not confined to just one area. she's been able to access um some scholarships and pathways for paying for school, which is a common barrier for all of us. >> We've been able to talk
007a lot about the future and like what that could look like in ways that I don't think I would have been able to otherwise if I didn't know of like all the different options that I had or different school options and like and I think it's just super interesting like the more I put into the more I get out with it me just like feel super confident in like knowing that I'm on the right path. I do get the emails and it'll tell me, hey, your kid's been poking around Zello or IAP and and so that's been kind of fun to have um just those reminders to check in with her. >> I would recommend definitely um starting it and it's not that scary and it's really really like helpful. >> Zello gives you an
008opportunity to explore your students interests, talk with them about their goals, and support their plans for the future. Stay connected by getting a Zello family account. To get started and link your child's account, visit psdfuturere ready.org/zello. Thank you so much. A huge shout out to our communications team as well as our career and innovation folks who work together on a daily basis to make just things magic happen for young people who want to become teachers uh in our classrooms. And you may remember that young adult was in our boardroom being honored by this very same board in community not too long ago. So, it's great to see her again. Uh later on this evening, the board will consider several action items, including the possible reduction in force, which was presented at the last meeting. I
009want to emphasize that authorizing a riff does not mean that one will occur. I just want to be very clear with the community about what the action tonight would mean if the board approves it. I also want to reassure the community that the district continues to monitor developments in the budget at the state level and their possible implications for our school district at PSD. We will continue to do so diligently through the legislative session this spring and will bring updates by the to the community as soon as they are available. We anticipate that our next budget update coming to the board and community at the second March board meeting. However, if new information is available sooner, we will share with the board and the community at the first March meeting. We are committed to being
010communicative and transparent through this entire process. Thank you for allowing me a brief couple of moments to address the community this evening. I'm grateful for that. >> Of course. All right. Next on our agenda, we have community comment. This 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 three minutes each to address the board. All right. First up, we have Jeff Afterhe. No, we do not. Uh Danny Lawrence, I believe also. Okay. And ML Johnson. >> Nope. >> Uh all right. Next we have >> Okay. Just wanted to make sure. Thank you. Uh Sabrina Heric, welcome. Tonight, I'm doing a bit of a followup on
011a comment I gave last meeting. Shortly before Zanella got sentenced, Colorado schools got a Zanella 2.0 scandal. Same scenario, new names. Kiara Jones abused autistic children on Littleton Public Schools buses. Due to our similar circumstances, I become friends with one of the parents in that case, Jess Vestl. Jess has given her blessing for me to invite you all to insert yourselves into her business next month when Kiara Jones is being sentenced for her crimes. Jess and other parents will be giving victim impact statements describing how Jones's actions have impacted their families. Most of you weren't in charge when Zanella committed his crimes. Most of you had no motivation to attend his sentencing. But all of you are stuck cleaning up the messes left by your predecessors, and you need to have a clear picture of
012the situation as you set up your priorities. I invite all of you to attend Jones's sentencing and listen carefully to the consequences that come from not prioritizing student safety as you move forward. Sentencing is March 18th at 2 p.m. at 7325 South PTOAC Street in Centennial, Colorado. Save the date. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh next we have Reggie Johnson. Welcome. >> All right. She didn't use her 12 minutes either. So, my name is Reggie Johnson. My pronouns are she, her. I am the proud mom and grandmom of LGBTQ individuals. I'm also the president of P Flag in Fort Collins, whose mission it is to create a caring, just, and affirming world for LGBTQ students and those who love them. I'd like to start off tonight by asking you all to ponder a question and
013come up with a number. How many people do you think are actively working to terminate your basic human rights? Now, let's limit it to the state of Colorado. How many people do you think in Colorado are working to basically eliminate your rights? If you're a transgender person, transgender or non-binary youth, that number is 124,283 people are actively working to terminate your basic human rights. Last Friday, there were two citizen initiated ballot initiatives turned in for with signatures to be on the ballot in November. The minimum number of signatures they have to have 124,283. Now imagine you are that transgender student and you know that there are that many people out there working against you. It's unconscionable. These students are trying to go to school to get an education. My kids went to King Supers in
014the last couple of weeks. Many ma maybe many of you did also and came to face to face with these individuals and then try to get on with your life. My kids were literally shaking when they came home from trying to buy groceries. I was at lobby day yesterday down in Denver at the Capitol talking face-tof face with representatives who have voted against my kids and these students. We had one person with us who could not make it through the rest of the day. She had to go up to the museum on the fourth floor in order to make it through the day. Please keep that in mind as you move forward through the rest of this year. These students are carrying a heavy load. I also wanted to say when you'd make decisions regarding
015the declining enrollment, keep in mind these students are not the same as their peers. Polaris, other schools that provide this specific community that you've just recently talked about. These kids need that community. It is literally life and death. I appreciate all the support that you've given us and we just want to keep in front of you. Please remember they have 124,283 people who already don't like them. Thank you. >> Thank you. Last we have Anna Leetta. Welcome. During last meeting's monitoring report, the idea was presented that PSD provides a buffet of options and that students that show up to the buffet 95% of the time or more reap the most from the buffet. And it was implied that if the kids who are attending less than 95% of the time would just show up, then
016they could reap the benefits, too. Since you guys started it, I'm going to run with it. When my oldest, who is now in seventh grade and prone to school avoidance, was starting school, I couldn't wait for her to partake of PSD's highly rated neighborhood buffet. However, shortly after starting kindergarten, it was apparent that something from the buffet wasn't working for my child. She soon started to fight us every morning ongoing. It was intense and exasperating as a parent, but I would still manage to get her there. I started asking questions and trying not to figure out why school was so difficult. The one thing I had noticed was that she had not made any progress on learning to read, which impacted her writing and had a cascading effect. Despite doing everything we were told to
017do, she still had not progressed by the end of the year. So, I inquired as to whether or not maybe she needed something else that wasn't on the buffet. But I was told that wasn't an option and that we couldn't even know if she needed something different until she was in third grade. And that everything we were seeing was totally normal. By third grade, her educational nutritional deficits were deeply impacting her mental health and belief in self. She was displaying deeply concerning sights of educational malnutrition and failure to thrive. Despite regular attendance and a schedule that included all the specials, she had developed strong aversions to most anything on the PSD buffet. Even the sight of the buffet made her anxious. And it wasn't because she wasn't going to the buffet. It was because the
018buffet didn't provide the nutrition for what she needed as a student with dyslexia. So, she couldn't metabolize what the buffet offered, which made her miserable. No amount of showing up will teach a child to read or write if the buffet doesn't serve the opportunity to students with certain needs. There's a well-known saying that kids do well when they can. I bet the kids who show up 95% or more of the time do so because they can show up and be successful. I wonder how many of our chronically absent or truent kids are English language learners or students on IEPs whose families also qualify for free and reduced lunches and lack the resources to pay for outside tutoring. I suspect there's a lot of overlapping on your monitoring charts. As the board contemplates guiding criteria for
019moving forward with consolidation, please set a strong expectation that the foundational educational needs of students who are known to experience disproportionality will be actively and strategically prioritized and pursued in the restructuring. I'm talking about a plan to provide nutritionally dense and effective evidence-based foundational reading, writing, and math instruction for students with lagging skills regardless of grade level. something impossible to accomplish without intentionality. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. All right, that concludes our apologies. That concludes community comment and now we will move on to 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 members have something to report? Yeah, that couple uh that I wanted to bring up. I got the great opportunity to
020go to my first meeting at the PSD Foundation. Uh Connor had been a long-erving board leaison there and uh so I have big shoes to fill. Um very impressive group. I'm very excited about the work they do. Uh, I see them as a um, we talked a lot about this as a way for more community outreach from PSD. I always talk about marketing and I think um, the foundation is in a unique position to kind of bridge that gap between uh, the district and the community. So, I'm very excited about to be serving on that um, board. Um, I also uh had a really unique uh chance to meet with some community leaders via Zoom this this weekend on on a Saturday Zoom call. Uh it's a group of um it's an impressive group of
021of people from the forcon community who've been here a long time. And I was invited to hear a um discussion of from a recent grad of uh of PSD about her experience with the performing arts and uh just how important that was for her. a a woman, young woman named Naomi, who is at a fine arts school right now pursuing her career in music. And she talked about how talking to other um kids in Colorado and in in other parts of the country, just how unique her experience was in terms of all the opportunities to perform that our high schools and middle schools give our kids. a lot of places don't don't have multiple chances to be in different plays and musicals and things like that. And she was saying there's often four four to
022six times that they can perform and and she talked a lot about the um the summer musical theater and what a big deal that was a collaboration of all the high schools. Uh they pulled off lay miz last uh uh last summer which I've heard rave reviews about. I'm really bummed I didn't go. Um and she actually performed a song for us on Zoom which is always fun um from lay miz and it was awesome. So I was really happy to be uh part of that. So we just need to remember that as we're doing our discussions. The performing arts is a robust part of our uh of PSD. Something we should be really proud of. We have a long history of putting out some pretty great uh talent. Uh last thing I always have
023to talk about sports. We have playoff season right now. So, our basketball teams are performing tonight. Uh, and later this week, Rocky and Fort Collins High are playing tonight. Uh, and we have a good chance of a potential state championship with Fossil. Uh, they're playing on Thursday. So, let's keep both our boys and girls in mind in our competition. That's all. >> Thank you, Scott. Anyone else? Go ahead, Kevin. I have two. Uh, first I'm going to do this in reverse order from what I I originally planned. Um, we attended a board of engagement session at TLI. We being Andrew and Carla and I last week. Um, a reminder that there are two more that are scheduled for our community. If you couldn't make the ones at Tveli and where were you guys? >> We
024were at Laurel. >> Laurel, right? Um, so March 5th at 5:30 will be hosted at Bouter and Zach. Bouter and Zach March 5th. And then April 16th, 5:30 at Bamford and Rice. Um, our topics uh were were interesting. We um we spent a majority of our time with our group talking and please Carl and Andrew type in if I've missed any notes. I'm doing very high level. Um we had a very sort of um high level discussions about budgeting issues, potential for consolidation, um district financial health. Um but one of the the harder conversations which we started with was um a gentleman who is a veteran teacher who uh came to express his concerns and his his feedback concerning the recent um uh messages that have gone out uh concerning RIFF, which I know we're
025going to be voting on tonight. Um, and so I think it was really important to have one a very candid and respectful conversation with a veteran teacher who served this district with honor for 31 years, I think is what he said. Um, and just to let our our teachers know that um, we do see you and we value you and we value the input and the work that you've done for all of our students and our district. Um, regardless of the tougher conversations that we had for the rest of the evening. Um, so I wanted to thank him personally for his bravery and for his his cander um and his his requests I thought were very appropriate and we had a very what I felt like was a good conversation with the entire group. So
026I want to thank him and all of our teachers who have put in such a long tenure to our to our district to make it what it is. Um, shifting to something uh uh that really warmed my heart. Um, Brian and Julie and I, assistant superintendent doc Dr. chaplain got to attend a naturalization ceremony um last week at Dunn Elementary and Dunn is one of our international IB schools. They've been hosting this event for 20 years, 25 years, or a quarter of a century. Um I got to be one of the many speakers that grace the stage, but importantly, there were 28 new citizens that were welcomed from 15 different countries represented. Um to set the stage for th those of you to try to understand, Scott was also there. appreciated Scott being there. This
027is a packed gymnasium. There are fourth graders witnessing this event. Um there are teachers there, there are staff there, there are the candidates there kind of front and center. Um you know, there's a there's the American flag. We're were presented with the guard of colors with by students. Um and so there were some very moving words that were expressed. Superintendent Kingsley and uh Dr. Chaplain among many others. We had uh Council Member Hovind and representatives from Senator Bennett's office as well as Congressman Noo. So, it was just a really wonderful experience all around. But what really stole the show for me was the keynote speaker was a fifth grader who had uh written an essay about what it means to be a citizen. Um, and I'm not going to paraphrase or give you the spark
028notes, but some of the key takeaways for me that really moved me that day, I think very poignant. She asked us, "What does it mean to be a citizen?" And she spoke eloquently, this fifth grader, in her wisdom about freedom and access to markets and liberties. But then she probed deeper and clarified, "That's what we get by being a citizen. That's not what it means to be a citizen." And so she dug a lot deeper and she spoke of inclusion and being welcoming and being a good neighbor. Then at the end of the cere I'm going to try not to steer at the at the end of the ceremony um which we appreciated a a warning from from the principal at the end of this ceremony the fifth graders who are there um at the
029they're they're facing the candidates on uh on the bleachers and they sing uh my country tis and they so they were front and center. the fifth graders were the first to to walk across the gymnasium and physically welcome the candidates to being new citizens. And so it's it's kind of alarming at first. You got these fifth graders are just marching at you. Um but I thought this was such a wonderful reminder, especially where we are in this moment as adults when we see the world falling apart and we see the fracture lines in this country between immigration. What a beautiful reminder that in that one room, in a gymnasium, in a school, kids reminded us what it means to be citizens. is what it means to be Americans and it it means to be inclusive
030and to be good neighbors and to care about people that are across the room from you. And I thought that was a helpful reminder. And for any of those of you who are um who needed the reminder like myself, um I would say to take a visit to one of our schools and as you watch our students interact with each other and interact with strers and interact with um new people, uh I am left optimistic that um our odds are very good for the future. Thank you for that. Any others? Please. I'm >> just going to say and then uh they could tell me about afterwards. Um I just wanted for me what's on my mind and topic and I think in conversations that's happening with the board and stuff as we talk about I
031love what Kevin just shared about citizenship and about participation and engagement and what that means and whatnot. And so I want to highlight those upcoming community sessions and things and stuff like that. Um and encourage people to come to those and to speak and to know that regardless of what school that we have those sessions that anyone in the district is welcome. So if it's an event at Rice and you don't have a kid that goes to Rice, you can still come. I know for myself um sometimes the sessions where I live closest to me don't always work in my schedule. So, I go to one across town um despite having to drive that 30 minutes in the same community. Okay, that's just wild stuff. Okay, but um no jokes right now. It's tense. Okay.
032Um but really what I'm trying to say to everybody is just attend and be there and share your thoughts. And we really want to hear from folks. Um you know, the more information that we have from the community, the better decisions that we make. And I know sometimes we can feel as if our voice does not matter, as if um the decisions already been made. Um or who am I? And I just want to say to all of the folks within our district and community, you are someone important and you are matter. You do matter and that you are enough. And most importantly, we want to hear your voice. So, please make sure that you engage and participate in this process because as um Kevin has shared and Scott at the different sessions they've been
033in, I too think that I am a better person and better board member as a result of engaging with our community. So, um I hope that you will attend. >> Thank you for that. I think that's a great reminder for all of us and I would agree we all be we do have votes that we have to take. we do have things that need to happen and those decisions will be better the more voices that we have um that we hear undering that everyone has a slightly different lens and different perspective and that's really helpful. So I really appreciate you saying that and Kevin I want to also reiterate I whenever I am around our students or any students I am often grateful for the future that we will be ahead of us. I am
034encouraged. I am excited. Um, we have an some really amazing young people who can teach us a lot. Um, on that note, I'm gonna also go through our community engagement session. Just a couple of highlights. I'm not going to hit everything. We had some asks for answers to common questions, which we actually now have on our website, which is lovely because I feel like that came up very organically in our community engagement session. And now our website does have at least some of those FAQs and giving the ability to have some common understanding and for us to all kind of have a starting point where we're on the same page and then we can move forward together. Uh, another thing that came up pretty consistently was this idea and desire for a really collaborative approach.
035I think at this point we have a lot of community members who are feeling that this is a very different approach than we've taken in the past. They're cautiously optimistic that we will keep going with that path. But I think the more that we say we do want to collaborate, we show up in a collaboration um method, the more trust and honestly more encouragement we will have and get to a final uh decision. Also wanting to reinforce that many of our students in schools, we want if we're going to have to do a consolidation process, we also want to make sure that we're infusing them and making them resourceheavy. So not some of our students are maybe not receiving everything that we would hope for them to have because we just have to spread it
036a little bit thinner than is ideal. So if we're going to continue to have those resources that we make sure our schools are resource heavy in that process. Um and then lastly there's a lot of encouragement around what comes next. So I think there's some concern for if there's an understanding that we have to do something they can there's a lot of community members who can understand and wrap their head around that but also wanting to understand what will happen to our sites what will happen to our community what is the educational outcomes who are we in the next phase so I think that's a lot of our what we can contribute to this process and as we're engaging with folks as people are talking to us both about their current feelings how they felt
037in the past how they're feeling right now but also also wanting to understand how we can support them into the future. Um that was I wasn't prepared to do all the things so it wasn't as clean as I would have liked it to be but I just wanted to share that out. Does anyone have anything else they would like to share at this time? >> All right, seeing none, we'll keep on rolling. Uh next we have our consent agenda. Would any board members like to pull anything from consent? >> Yeah, I move to uh move items 6.2 2 and 6.3 uh to be discussed I guess is item 8.5 and 8.6 on the agenda. >> Great. Do we vote on moving them? Can you remind me, Jill? No, there's pulled. Okay. Thank you. All right.
038So, those are now moved to 8.5 and 8.6. And then can I get a motion for the remainder of the consent agenda? >> Personnel is left. >> 6.1. I move that the board approve and adopt the recommended items remaining on the consent agenda 6.1. >> A second. Thank you. Andrew and Jill, will you please call the vote? >> Carla Ba. >> I Connor Duffy. >> Hi. >> Kevin Havda. >> Hi. >> Scott Shoenbower. >> Hi. >> Dr. Andrew Spain. >> Hi. >> Jessica Zamora. >> Hi. >> Dr. Karanda Ziggler. >> Hi. Motion passes. 70. >> Oh, thank you. All right. Next on our agenda, we do have a community comment uh for the resolution for possible reduction in force. This opportunity was for public comment for members of the community who registered to speak. However,
039we don't have any. So, we simply move on. Okay. Thank you. It's never happened in or maybe it's happened once in my tenure. Um so, moving right along, we now have action items. We have 8.1, a resolution for the board of education to authorize the reduction in force for licensed staff per article 14 of the employee agreement. Can I get a motion? I move that the board approve and adopt a resolution indicating the board's authorization for a reduction in force process to be carried out pursuant to article 14 of the employee agreement. >> Thank you, Connor, and thank you for the second, Kevin. Uh, would any board members like to speak to this item? >> I'm going to read because um I don't want to sounding all silly. So, I just wanted to simply state
040to the moment um that before any votes is cast, I want to just directly speak to our staff, our families, and our community. Um I think this is one of the hardest votes that um we as board members would have to make in support of this resolution. I want to highlight that a reduction in force is not a line item and it's not a spreadsheet adjustment that it represents people educators support staff counselors and specialists individuals who show up every day for students. It represents classrooms, relationships, routines, and stability. I want to say clearly that I do not approach this vote lightly, and I think I can speak for my fellow board members, and we do not approach it without the understanding that real people will feel its impact. And I think over the past
041few weeks, we've gotten emails from people about these resolution. um we've read them, we've set with them and that there's actual fear, frustration and me and these messages are real and for me I believe they are justified. No community wants to lose educators and I don't know that no board member or district staff wants to be in this position and yet the financial reality facing our district is not hypothetical. Declining enrollment reduces revenue. Rising costs increased expenditures and state and federal uncertainties compound that pressure. When over 85% of our budget is tied to staffing, reductions of this magnitude cannot occur without affecting personnel. And the choice between for us tonight is not between cuts and no cuts. is actually about acting to align staffing with revenue and I believe delaying action and risking deeper instability
042later including the possibility of more abrupt and more disruptive reductions. That the support of this resolution does not mean that any of us are comfortable with it. It means that we believe failing to act would be less responsible. As board directors, our roles are stewardship. And that means ensuring that the district remains financially solvent, sustainable, and able to serve students not just this year, but in the years ahead. And it means facing difficult math with honesty rather than deferring it. And at the same time, stewardship also means compassion. that if we carry out these reductions, which I hope is the last thing we consider, and that we explore all possible avenues prior to that decision, that we do so with care, transparency, and respect, that we give our district employees dignity, that we owe our
043students stability whenever possible, and we owe our community ongoing communication about how we move towards from here. I also want to acknowledge this as well that reduction in force is not simply about numbers that they affect morale. They affect trust and they affect how safe people feel in their work and we cannot pretend otherwise. If this resolution passes tonight, our work does not end with this vote. It shifts. It's just asking how do we support those who are impacted? How do we protect our core student services? and how do we prevent avoidable disruption and how do we ensure that future financial planning anticipate trends rather than reacts to them. These are not rhetorical questions. These are responsibilities to our educators and staff. I simply want to say you are not invisible in this decision that
044your work matters deeply and that this vote for the resolution does not diminish your value to our families. Your advocacy matters and your engagement strengthens our district and I ask that you continue to hold us accountable. And to the board, I ask that we continue to approach decisions like this with humility, clarity, and shared responsibility. And lastly, acknowledge that tonight's vote is difficult. It's serious and most importantly, it's not inconsequential. Thank you. I'd just like to reiterate that this is just the start of the process. Um, and I myself and I think my other board members here reserve the right to stop the process if we get more clarity um, going forward with the budget. >> Any other comments leading into our vote? All right, Karanda, I simply want to say thank you for humanizing
045this challenge and this vote that we're taking tonight. Thank you very much. Jill, can you please call the vote? Carla Ba, >> I. >> Connor Duffy, >> hi. >> Kevin Havda, >> I >> Scott Shoenbower. >> Hi, >> Dr. Andrew Spain. Hi, >> Jessica Zamora. I >> Dr. Kuronda Ziggler >> I >> motion passes 70. >> Thank you. All right. I'm going to make a short statement on behalf of our board tonight. The board approved a resolution giving the district the authority to implement a resolution in force if needed. This was not an easy vote, but it was a responsible one. This does not mean layoffs will occur. It ensures the district has the flexibility to make the staffing decisions necessary to balance a budget that could be reduced by as much as $17 million
046next year. We expect the district to exhaust every alternative before a riff is implemented and to follow the school district's employee agreement at every step. Our focus remains on students and on supporting the staff who serve them every day. Thank you. We will continue. We will continue. All right. Next, we have our 8.2 monitoring policy review EL2.4 financial planning and budgeting. Can I get a motion? >> I move that the board determine that the superintendent has recently interpreted board of education follows the EL2.4 four in his internal monitoring report dated February 24th, 2026 and that the evidence presented supports the superintendent's conclusions stated in the internal monitoring report. >> Thank you, Andrew. Can I get a second? >> Thank you, Kiranda. All right, Jill, can you please call the vote? >> Can I say one
047thing? >> Yes. I think this is an important could be not a throwaway item but something that seems maybe prefuncter but I want to at least just so we've all done this before we vote uh is uh listen to what EL 2.4 requires and it speaks to the stewardship I believe that Dr. Ziegler just addressed uh 2.4 for financial planning or budgeting for any fiscal year or part thereof shall not deviate materially from the district ends priorities or risk fiscal jeopardy and shall not fail to be derived from a multi-year plan among other things the superintendent shall not one fail to include conservative projections of revenues expenses and carryover funds separation of funds capital and operational items cash flow and significant balance sheet items and disclosure of planning assumptions two shall not plan or budget
048in a manner that risks incur erring those conditions set forth in the board's policy on financial condition and activities. And three, superintendent shall not failed to provide the board prerogatives during the year as is set forth in the investment and the governance policy. Um I we've studied the report, we reviewed the report which informs the vote that we're about to have, but I think it's important that at least our community knows that those are the things that we are considering in monitoring whether our superintendent has reasonably interpreted those executive limitation policies. Thank you for that. I also agree that's an important piece of this picture. Are we any other comments this time? All right, Jill, can you please now call the vote? >> Carla Baze, >> I Connor Duffy, >> I. >> Kevin Havda, >>
049I. >> Scott Shelenbower, >> I. >> Dr. Andrew Spain, I >> Jessica Zamora, >> hi. >> Dr. Karanda Ziggler. Hi. Motion passes 70. >> Okay. 8.3. We now have our monitoring report uh policy review for DE 1.0. Can I get a motion? I move that the board determine that the superintendent has reasonably interpreted board of education policy DE1.0 zero in his internal monitoring report dated February 24th, 2026, and that the evidence presented supports the superintendent's conclusions stated in the internal monitoring report. >> Thank you. Can I get a second? Thank you, Kevin. All right. I believe we have a presentation, Brian. >> Yes. Thank you. Uh, tonight we look forward to hearing part two of our DE 1.0 general district ends. Joining us for his final presentation before he retires is Dr. Dr. Dwayne Schmidz,
050our chief institutional effectiveness officer. Dwayne, welcome. >> Before you begin, can I make two comments, two observations, Dr. Schmidz, if you permit? >> Um, as Brian Alpoint said, this will be your last of these presentations for the foreseeable future. The first point I'd like to to note is that as our collective gift to you, you are beginning at 6:29 p.m. and not past 11:30 p.m. at night. And I think that this is probably the 1% time that that's ever happened. Um, and the second thing I was going to say, since this is your last one, do you have any chalk or something you'd like to throw up in the air? Do you need a walk up song? >> You're ready to go? >> I'm good. Thanks. >> All right, board president Zamora, directors, and Superintendent
051Kingsley. Um, so proud, again, I want to start by just mentioning so proud to be here to be able to give voice to this report that represents the work of just so many people in our system. Trying not to get emotional. just want to say really appreciate the way you all approach your work and the seriousness with which you just displayed those heavy decisions that you have to make which is your duty to make the decisions to help our district move forward. So, thank you for that. I think that your care of our staff is evident and we all appreciate that and I know that that speaks to the feelings of our cabinet and the all the different leadership teams that operate in this system. So, thank you. Okay. So, um, just a quick reminder,
052this is, uh, DE 1.0. It's, uh, aligned to the unified improvement plan and the strategic plan as far as the what we do. That's the means. And this is really the the outcomes, right? It's it's about um how we're doing. And so, we're going to stay very focused on that. And this presentation will be a little shorter than the last one because even though the last one was just over one of the ends, foundations for success, there's a lot of pieces to unpack in foundations for success. And this tonight we're going to talk about connections, success in a changing world and above and beyond. Okay. Okay. I want to um start off by thanking a colleague uh Dana Hudson had taken over the connection survey about two years ago and uh came on. She's our
053um data analytics and assessment coordinator. She's done such a good job and so she's the one that carries this work forward and quite a bit of other work. So our district's in good hands. We have a lot of strength in our IT department, in our assessment department, our professional development department, our curriculum instruction department. and we have a lot of people who will keep all this work moving along. I want to echo something that I heard um President Zamora say earlier in her in one of the points she was making which is the importance as we as this district walks forward into uncertain times things we don't control politics budgets just things u we'll navigate it nonetheless right um and as we do that the importance of having stable measures having a focus on our
054core business and uh that's really what this whole process of de and these monitor reports and these um pieces are about and a lot of those dashboards that we've built the connections being one of them and the systems that we've put in place those kind of annual you know we have a semianual family engagement survey we have a connection survey those are at the direction of the boards before this board were the ones that said we need those things make it so uh we put those in place and I want to give a sinc thanks to this board and the prior board so we have some members still sitting here tonight from for holding consistent on certain things because we can see some amazing facts. Okay, there's a I'm going to draw a parallel um
055tonight to the nor easter, believe it or not, that's going on off to the northeast. Okay, and that is that the noraster has massive accumulations of snow. Now, in Colorado, we know that's a good thing because we like to ski, right? But there's an accumulation going on. They're breaking records. Well, PSD is breaking records. Um, they've got all-time depths of snow gone out on in the Northeast. We have all-time highs on multiple measures. Our K5 literacy we talked about last time, our graduation rates, we're going to see tonight the number of students we have participating and can earn in dual enrollment. The number of students that we have getting uh different types of certifications, all these things are accumulating. They're getting deeper. They're better. And so there is a parallel there. So with this connection
056survey, this year is another record year just like the northeast setting records back east. So 85.6% is our composite score which is up from 84.8 which was up from 84.2 which was up from 83.8. And so the importance of what um director Zamora was saying just having consistent measures so that we know internally are we making progress or not in certain spaces. This is important. Well, with regard to student connections overall, we are making those types of um improvements. Okay, so this um slide shows the so what what travels with student connections like why why does that matter matters a lot, right? In fact, well, I won't go off on that tangent. So, when we see that graph right there, you can see the data I was just kind of walking through where that 85.6
057six is the all-time high in that graph, but it's actually the all-time high since we've been doing this survey. Um, we see that we have um data that's in our dashboard uh to back all this up that when student connections go up for those students, attendance is higher, achievement is higher, and discipline rates are lower. And so, we track minor discipline events, we track major discipline events, they go down as student connections go up. Everything moves in the right direction when students show up to school and know that it's a warm, caring place that people see them. You know, PSD is a place where every individual kid matters. All right? And so we work toward that every day in all of our schools and that's what students connections is fundamentally representing to us, which I
058was thankful to the board when they pushed us on that and said we need a measure other than attendance, discipline, achievement, growth. We wanted this other piece which felt kind of nebulous like how do you get your hands on that at the time but I think we've done a pretty good job and then we stuck with our me our measure. Okay. So student connections you saw this on the foundations for success slideshow too and you see it in the morning report where we're kind of comparing and contrasting off that one really awesome item um of when we asked 6th through 12th graders do you think you're going to graduate? Yes or no? Like I'm not sure or yes, I'm going to. Right. Once again, when we split the connections data by the answer to that
059question, yes, I think I'll graduate. That's the answers on the left column. Or I'm um uncertain is the answers in the right column. You can see that there's a real big difference on things. We talked a little bit last time specifically about the food security, but when you when your eyeball goes down that safe at school, connected to adults at school, listened to, cared about, there's these gaps in every single one of those lines, right? Interesting. The largest gap, if you do the math on each one of those, is 33% and it's the connected to students at sorry, connected to adults at school. So, isn't that interesting? The biggest gap between kids who say, "Yeah, I'm going to graduate." versus the ones that say, "I'm not certain." Biggest gap we see is how connected they
060feel to adults in the building. Tells you how important it is when kids show up to school. And when we say adults, we say that on purpose. And I didn't say teachers. I said adults because it's bus drivers, it's food workers, it's paras, it's all the adults that are working with our kids in our school system. Very, very critical. Okay. Okay. the increases that we've seen. So, I just mentioned that the connections overall composite score has gone up year after year for the past five years in a row and we're we're at an all-time high. When you look at the subscales, we always have the student to connections is the highest rated of the three subscales. And then the students to their interest and passions and students to their peers are always below that a
061bit. Okay. But the growth, the change has happened most evidently in the students connected to their interest and passions and to their peers. Okay. And the connected to adults has remained relatively high. Okay. So, zeroing in a little bit on connections to interest and passions. And this makes sense. We saw a little video tonight in this boardroom on Zello, right? And IAP. Zello and IAP are connected. And Zello and IAP are all about students being connected to their interest and passions while at school. It's what it's about. I want to throw in a quick plug. My wife Karen and I recently got on Zello again with our son who's we have three kids, one's still in the house, and we were walking through it's a beautiful tool. And as a result of that conversation we
062had with him and walking through that tool, he he goes into Rocky this week and checks into the wildland fire program they've got going on and the EMT program. That's just my own personal experience in my house. Parents are important partners in this work of student connections to their interest and passions while at school. Those conversations matter. But this little graph right here we're looking at shows pretty clearly that we've gone up about five percentage points I think from 73% in 2021 to 78%. And that's the percentage of students that are indicating that they're um connected to their interest and passions at school. That number needs to go higher, right? We're not patting ourselves in the back. We're not there, but it's moving in the right direction. And all that work we're talking about with
063IAP and Zello and so many other things. By the way, um I think Scott, you brought up tonight, Dr. or I'm sorry, Director Shenbower, you brought up um performing arts, you brought up athletics, you brought up competitions, and I bet there's more than one parent out there listening to this who knows like their kid when they get involved in a competition that kicks them into training and discipline and all kinds of things. Kids love to not all kids probably, but many kids love to compete. And so yeah, these things are all the stuff that's tied into this what we're looking at in this little blue line. So we're going to continue that work to push that higher. Okay, this graph's a little bit complicated maybe. Um, so let me just walk us through it real
064quick. So this is connections to the interests and passions. The same blue line, light baby blue we were looking at a minute ago. But now again, it's split out. I've got a theme going here between students who say I will graduate and students who said 6th through 12th I'm not sure if I will graduate right look at the difference between those and look at how it's like railroad tracks like it it's you know chance events don't replicate often so that's not happen stance that's real like there's a signal in the data and it's saying basically those kids that are not sure if they're going to graduate they are not as connected to their interest and passions while school. That seems like a kind of a duh moment, right? But it's nice when data bears it
065out. You can measure it. You can see it. Um it would be I think it indicates to us, it does to me that it is worth us working on this interest to passions connection because I believe if we can improve that, target it for kids who are not sure if they're going to graduate, help them find their interest in passions, right? then they're they'll start to be more um sure that they are going to graduate. They'll know what they're working toward. So, I think there's just an important signal for us to stay um diligent about that work of making sure kids feel connected, welcome, and that they're pursuing their interests and passions while at school. Okay. We do have increasing percentages of students um find IAP and Zello useful. Now, this has been this has
066been part of the connection survey for since its inception, and it used to be a lot lower, and it's consistently climbed up. At any rate, there's been a 28% increase in the percentage of students who say, "Yes, I find this tool useful." That's pretty good. It's a 28% increase over the last five years, and it's been a continuous march up. That's again, we're moving in the right direction. We're not, we haven't arrived. We would re like for all kids and families to find relevance in this tool. Um work was mentioned earlier by um Tanya Alcarez and her team in career and innovation. Um there's lots of other counselors are working on this. We have a lot of different pieces we've put in place to try to connect with our community, our parents, our staff. So
067everybody's becoming more and more aware of the presence and the existence of Zello and IAP and what it's really all about. I want to mention to the board real quick a heads up you know um the state has changed something that'll take place for the uh next year 2627 where the funding model is changing a little bit and the postsecondary workforce readiness indicator on those school performance and district performance indicators for high school is going to be focused on what they call the three the big three which are post-secary credits that kids earn like college credits while in high school industry recognized credentials like how How many kids earn them? Not not pursue them, but earn them. And how many students have a work-based learning experience like an apprenticeship or an internship? And funding from
068the state is shifting to that. School performance, district performance frameworks, accountability pieces are shifting to that. We have a growth rating opportunity that we can find evidence of effectiveness as required by the state for our licensed educators through those types of measures. I'm telling you all this because it's all in alignment with the importance of connections, student connections, interest and passions, parent conversations with their kids about what they're doing, where they're going, what they're excited about. It's all connected. Okay. So, we've we've mentioned this a few times now. IAP and Zello. Just real quick, mostly for the viewing public, the Zello platform, super easy to find on our website. The video gave a a link to this as well. Um, it helps students build resumes, create the four-year high school course plan. It's incredible as
069a parent. You can open it up and you can see exactly which courses your kids have, which grades they've um gotten in those courses, but maybe most importantly, which courses they still or which categories of courses they still need and how many credits in order to graduate. So, our family found a lot of value in that. Students take career uh skills and personality assessments. We heard the folks talking on the video speak to that a little bit. Um you can research and apply for colleges, identify good in- demand careers, uh connect with local scholarships, and you can find those opportunities we're talking about under work-based learning like internships, apprenticeships. So, very powerful. So a lot just keep your eyes open for more and more work I think in this district trying to connect with our
070community in that space. Okay, success in a changing world. So all everything we just talked about was under connections, but you can see how it just directly flows right into success in a changing world, right? Um so concurrent enrollment, we're going to highlight in this presentation real quick. concurrent enrollment in career teched. Two different things uh that both really help prepare our kids for success in a changing world. Okay. We have PSD has increasing percentages of students that engage in post-secary and career connected learning opportunities. That is a celebration. That percentage has gone consistently up year after year and it continues. I'm going to give you a couple numbers. Um the PSD concurrent enrollment has gone up by 17% in the last four years. Okay? And that's from 2021-22 to the school year 202425 that
071I'm talking about. CTE enrollment has gone up by 9% during that same um four years. So they both increased and they've and they continue to increase and we're working toward that. Okay. Okay, opportunities abound. I did refer to PSD as having a tremendous buffet table last time I spoke to you and I stand by that. And it's especially strong, it feels to me. Well, it's really all levels of our school. But, um, I feel like we have a little bit of a high school focus because we're talking about work-based learning and concurrent enrollment and stuff like that. But yes, there is an amazing buffet of opportunity in PSD and we do have to continue to do our diligent work towards making sure that every student and every family is aware of what those opportunities are,
072encouraged to take on some of those challenges, supported to be successful when they do take on those challenges. That is the work in front of us and that's not going to change. And even in the face of budget reductions and changes and political landscapes and whatever, this work is critical. So last time I was up here, the board members asked, you know, what what is mission critical? This work is mission critical, right? IAP, Zello, interests, connections, passions, and helping kids find their way to college credits if that's the direction they're going. Work-based learning, internships, these things matter a lot. Um, okay. We always uh measure PSD students attaining their personal above and beyond. So, we're switching into that end, you know, above and beyond. The whole spirit of above and beyond was kind of like
073bringing home the gold, right? Like students that go off and that's kind of where the thoughts I think started. Bringing home the gold, winning state championships, right? Individual students going off um and just doing amazing things and bringing back different types of accolades. I want to mention that it strikes me that everyone in this room is probably aware of students that not only um had accolades and won competitions and have amazing stories while they were in PSD, but that those things continue when our students leave PSD and they go out into the world. I run into people all the time that are telling me about their kid did this, their kid did that. So PSD students thrive and they thrive while they're with us and they thrive while they're out there. students who aren't um
074connecting to the um their interest and passions are the ones in danger of not thriving which is why that prior part was just so important right um at any rate I want to say that all of the every other year we do the family engagement survey and so we didn't do one this year we did one last school year and we'll do one next school year but from the 2223 family engagement survey to the 2425 so the most recent two, there was an increase in each one of the levels at the elementary level, the middle, the high school, and combined there was an increase in the percentage of parents and families that indicated that their students attained their above and beyond in part due to PSD. So that I'm just indicating that the parents that
075we do that every other year, we get feedback and that feedback is shown an increase. Okay, so there's the evidence we offer in that space from that survey. And this is a quick highlight um of just the actual one of the key item actually that asks has PSD andor this school provided one or more opportunities for your children to strive toward their personal above and beyond as described above. So was described uh right above this in the survey and you notice um there's a yes for some of my children and there's a yes for all of my children. The com combination of those two is what as I'm referring to as a yes, but there is a no and that's 14%. Right? And so that's a number to track over time. Like we'd like to
076see that no and it has decreased but that is a good number for us to actively work toward decreasing consistently over time. So, back to President Zamorta's um mentioning of the value of consistent measurement on big needles and just taking action, which we do, but tracking that over time consistently. And I want to pretty much close I think with um a heartfelt thank you to the board because it was uh not too far in the distant past that we had been shifting around on an almost yearly basis what the measures are, what the targets are, what this is. This goes back a little while but it was it was like trying to chase a cat, you know. And then at one point the board locked in and said, "These are the ends. These are the
077metrics. This is how we're going to track it." And and at that time I said to the board, if we do this, if we can just lock in on that, it'll allow the system to organize itself toward those actual outcomes, but it takes time because this is a system, right? What we've seen in the last four years especially, but we've seen over time is we've seen increasing metrics. Like I said, K5 reading, the graduation rate, um these um concurrent enrollment, there's so many uh examples of this. I don't think that just happens by chance. And the board played an important part of that. Locking in on the ends, locking in on the metrics, having an annual report process like this, giving the leadership the charge to make it happen, to make show improvement, and we
078still have a long way to go. So, I'll close with that. Yeah. Okay, >> we have a lot less further to go than we used to, I think, broadly because you're able to put data to the nuance of our student experiences. So, I really appreciate the work you've done. We wouldn't be where we are. We wouldn't be as successful as we are without you being able to tell the story of our data. I I can't possibly thank you enough for how much you've been able to move our system in such a positive way. >> Thank you. >> Sorry. Other comments or questions? >> I know. I was just sitting here like genius. Um as you know, like it's hard to take these, you know, abstract concepts like uh President Zamora just said and turn them
079into things. So super amazing and you're awesome. uh I won't get to work with you, but I'm thankful that uh what you put in place continues to stay and support our district. So, thank you for all your hard work as well as your team. I know no one persons by themselves. >> That's right. Thank you, Dr. Ziggler. I I regret that we didn't get to interact over more time. I really like a lot of stuff you said in this boardroom and I really wish we could have had a longer experience together, but we do have a great team. I want to finish with that too. I started with that at the beginning of this presentation. We have a lot of talented people in this district. So these things go on and that's the beauty of
080um the board was a big part of this. We we collectively changed the fabric of like how this district measures, monitors and does. And so thank you. You know that's it is going to continue. >> I've expressed my thanks multiple times, but I want to say one thing specifically that I've always appreciated about your work and how you show up is that in your world, you know that numbers don't always tell the truth. In fact, numbers lie all the time, but they also do sometimes tell the truth. And so, what I really appreciate about your presentations is you've allowed us to wrestle organically with some of those multiple things being true at the same time, allowing us to push back where we see some fractures in the system and where we think we could have
081opportunities. And you're you're you're >> the person that you are doesn't shy away from those. and you don't offer a deflection or a defensive or hey look at this other shiny thing that we have buried in this report as well. It's you've been very honest and consistent and candid with where we can do better. And it's not our job always just to look for the fraction points and expose those. And we do need to celebrate the district's wins and the district's upward trajectory, which I think you you're doing and you've done it in a very compelling way, which gives me the pep in my step that we need to continue the work. But I also want to just say thank you so much for being honest with where we can improve because this work that
082you're pointing out this 14% some of the deviiances between those I will graduate and I think I might graduate that's the work that we've got to undertake. And so I guess this leads into a bigger question the last big question I'll ever ask you. What do you believe is the single greatest impediment to this district truly achieving greatness? >> Focus. And and I say focus so quickly because I I we have proven we can achieve what we set out to achieve. Like we've set some things some marks that we're like we want to change that and we've done it. So we can do it. The challenge is as you all have gotten well aware of there's so much coming at a district like I have so much respect for my fellow leaders including the board
083members. There's so much coming at us right and and the sand is changing under our feet all the time with resources and political environments and stuff. It is hard to focus when you're navigating that, but that is what it takes. So like when we did the K5 literacy adoption and implementation, that was a space of focus. When we noticed that our graduation rates were not just low, they were low when our SAT all all the learning metrics were higher, but our graduation rate was lower. That made us focus on that. And you can only focus on so many things at a time. And that's I think the number one thing that holds PSD back is it's not our fault. It's kind of it's kind of natural and normal, but there's an awful lot of things
084we have to tend to. It's very hard to focus. >> Dwayne, thanks for another great presentation. Really appreciate it. Um I really liked what you had to say about the um the connections to those interests and passions and things like that. I think we all know this from our own experience and with our own kids that um when they're pursuing passions and excellence and see success at a young age, it becomes a habit and and like you were saying after school, they just keep doing it because this is just their normal. And so I think that's something we really want to emphasize is is getting kids started having that experience as early as possible. So in and you may not be the person to answer this question, but what needs do you see at the
085elementary level? Like the CTE program is a great program at the high school level, even dipping a little bit into middle school. U but at the elementary school level, how can we besides the music program, which is amazing, and those get a lot of kids fired up and and passionate, but what other things can we look at? Is there are there any needs that you've heard about that great unfulfilled? So, one thing I want to mention is we've known for several years, uh, high school enrollment has been a strength for us, right? >> Yeah. >> Elementary enrollment has been the biggest challenge area as far as levels go. And when we think about why that is, like what what's going on there? One piece um ties into what you're asking the question around is how
086does a district tie together the high school experience to the middle school experience to the elementary experience so they have a natural like feeding up through the system. So there's a real benefit for parents to choose the public education system at the elementary level knowing that there's these very clear articulated pathways and connections. Right. So I think that's in alignment with what you're asking. Knowing that in part and just because she does great work, Tanya Alcarez and her team have brought the Zello process and I cap down into the fifth grade at in some way. Okay. Like it's kind of IAP light, Zello light, but they've brought down that type of thinking down into fifth grade and they're kind of exploring that and working in that space. That's one piece. Another piece is there's things
087like Lego robotics, right? Some of you have probably experienced that there's a couple um many actually different things that elementary schools actually do do that are really quite in alignment that you think are Lego robotics. It's kind of the beginning of PEK the advanced you know manufacturing and stuff. It's kind of it's interesting. Uh COVID was a hit, right? We had a lot of parent volunteers, a lot of like parent programming and community support. It wasn't just PSD making great programming happening in our elementarymentaries. COVID kind of hit and shook things up a little bit and I think we're still building back in that space to make sure that our elementarymentaries have this kind of awesome menu of um buffet of options in alignment with what you're asking about. But I think that's the answer
088there. There are pieces >> in the in between space. How how long have we been doing the connection survey? you know, I don't know, but I think it's like 11 years or something like that. >> That sounds right because I want to say when I started on the board, it had been like eight years. I was like, geez. >> Yeah. >> I had a technical question. Do we only do we uh give that survey once a year or twice a year? >> So, we Okay, so Dana being awesome. Dana, she piloted about a year ago doing a post survey as well as this one. Okay. So, initially we rolled this out. We said, let's this was our thinking. We're only going to do it once a year, but we t we timed it intentionally. So
089about two months into school is when we give the connection survey. We don't we don't wait till semester 2. And the reason we did that from day from the first year and we still do that is so that we can have results back in the hands of our schools by Thanksgiving. So when they come back from Thanksgiving, they've got information from that semester. Those kids are still with them for the remainder of the school year. Right? So that was our answer to like pre-post. We tried to time it so it's actionable like formative if you will information you can do something with it in that very year when Dana came on board in TIS over about two years ago she piloted a post survey and and it was just for those schools that wanted to
090opt in that pilot didn't prove to be fruitful enough I believe I'm speaking correctly to like continue it so I don't think this year or last year that was piloted so we've played with that idea of like a pre-post, but it is a fairly big effort to have all the students in the system because you got to think about instructional time versus all the other things that try to get in the way of instructional time. So, it's a it's a big ask when we do a systemwide survey like this. So, for the time being, and I'll defer to Dana on this because she's the new leader in this space, but um for the time being, I think we're sticking with or planning to stick with this once a year, but timed intentionally so we're getting
091formative information. >> Thanks. >> On that note though, I also would like to bring in part of these questions are, do students think they're going to graduate? And a shift a few years ago was to capture those students actually go be intentional. >> That's right. >> Can you walk through what that looks like? >> So, initially everyone in the district was worried about kids won't respond honestly or they won't respond. Your response rates will be low if it's not anonymous. And I was a big proponent of I disagree. Kids love to tell us their thoughts. They just do. They really do. They're not nearly as concerned about that as adults are, it turns out. So the the downside of um collecting it anonymous was that you couldn't respond back which is terrible. Now for the
092first year or maybe two it was anonymous and it had the benefit of we could see differences school to school and things like that. So there were signals in the data that were useful as a district and even as schools but not nearly as useful as is today because today the way we deliver it it's not anonymous and in fact our schools are very much able our school leadership teams are able to see students their responses and it's just like taking an algebra quiz. I mean we we test kids in algebra. It's not anonymous. Why? Because we got to give feedback. So kids can learn, right? So when you ask this the cell, there's five dimensions of cell in this thing. Safety questions, connection questions, am I going to graduate questions, you very much want
093your staff to be able to follow up. And so yes, presidents and more, we started that quite a while back and we've stuck with that. So all of our high schools in particular and middle schools have their processes of how they respond back. We've recently had conversations and this is probably next level whoops sorry next level work for again Dana Hudson to lead with cabinet and such around how do we systematize that? How do we organize that more? So it's a journey. >> Absolutely. It's not a we're never finished. Yeah. >> This is just random but um it's funny you say that about students wanting to complete the survey. So, this is for my own household, but my um kids like appreciate that survey and get excited. Like often I'll like because you know you
094send it to parents, I'll be like, "Well, did you fill that out?" And they're like, "Oh, absolutely. I had to complete that." And so I just kind of want to share that anecdote in terms of in my home, they appreciate it. And um my Otis often talks about just how it's kind of been a part of his experience within the district and just kind of knowing that that's being shared and put out there. So, I know I'm just one person, but um if other folks in the district have that same experience, feel free to share. >> Thank you. >> Other questions or comments? >> Yeah, please. >> Dr. Schmidz, I want to thank you so much. Um I think this data is so important, particularly as we move through these really um challenging times. I
095think that uh what you've been able to illustrate with um focus on interest and passions as a mean as a means to earning student success um and grown-up attention. It's a lot like uh hiding vegetables in the lasagna. >> Yeah. >> I I think that uh we need to really have a focus on how we kids um to come to school and be interested and sneak in all the good stuff in the back end. So that I think that's where that data becomes really important. Um when we start to have these really hard con conversations, I'd like to encourage our community to remember what leads to this student success and how we get there. Um to piggyback on what Dr. Ziggler said, we're asking so much more of our educators. And part of our empathetic
096response to these budget limitations is ensuring that our educators are not overburdened and to limit their stress. We're looking closely at things like burnout and absenteeism and the costs of that as well. So, I think that holistically um your data just shows a really clear story. Um and I just Yeah, I want to thank you. That's that's kind of all I have. Thanks. >> Thanks, Director Bes. >> Thank you. All right. If there's no other comments, we will call the vote. Carla Bave. >> Hi, >> Connor Duffy. >> Hi, >> Kevin Havda. >> Hi, >> Scott Shoenbower. >> Hi, >> Dr. Andrew Spain. >> Hi, >> Jessica Zamora. >> I >> Dr. Kanda Ziggler, >> hi. Motion passes. 70. >> We're okay with embarrassing you. >> We appreciate you. >> Stood on the desk >>
097too far. All right. Uh, we'll move on to our resolution of the board of education seeking to recover exclusive chartering authority. Can I please get a motion? Yes, Kevin. >> I move that the board adopt the resolution indicating the board's intent to recover exclusive authority to authorize charter schools. >> And I get a second. Thank you, Carla. All right, Brian. This evening, we're joined by our general counsel, Autumn Aspen, who will present the exclusive chartering authority item. Welcome, Autumn. >> All right. Good evening. Uh the resolution before the board tonight is uh a resolution seeking to recover exclusive chartering authority for the Pter School District. Before the board deliberates and votes on this resolution, I want to just provide a few um slides of context for what exclusive chartering authority is. So in Colorado, charter
098schools are authorized by uh two different types of entities. The first is the local school district and the second entity that could authorize charter schools is the charter school institute. If a charter school applicant uh applies to and is approved by a local school district, then they are considered a district authorized charter school and the the school district is the one that is the authorizer and the one that provides the oversight. charter schools. Uh applicants that apply to the charter school institute and are approved by the charter school institute would be considered institute charter schools and they are not affiliated with the school district and oversight is provided by the charter school institute. So as far as as far as exclusive chartering authority goes uh basically this is uh something that would allow a school
099district to have the exclusive authority to authorize charter schools within the geographic boundaries of a school district. And this basically means that the school district will be the sole decision maker on whether a new charter school applicant can exist within the district's geographic boundaries. If a school district does not have exclusive chartering authority, then there's a concurrent jurisdiction basically between uh whether if it's a charter school that is with the charter school institute, they would have the authority for those schools and then the school district would retain the authority for any charter school applicants applying to be a district authorized charter school. If a school district does have the exclusive chartering authority, um a charter applicant seeking to be authorized by the charter school institute would first need to seek permission from the local school
100district board of education and that board would then decide whether or not to allow that charter school applicant to uh be authorized or seek authorization from the charter school institute. So if PSD recovered exclusive chartering authority, it would not impact any currently existing charter school institute schools that are currently within PSD's boundaries. And it also would not impact any of the district authorized charters that are within the school district. It would impact any future applicants to be either a district a CSI authorized charter school. So, as far as uh next steps, if the board does uh seek to uh recover the exclusive chartering authority tonight, the first step is to approve the resolution which is included in the board packet for the board consideration. And the resolution includes supporting documentation to show that the district
101has a recent pattern of providing fair and equitable treatment to its charter schools by showing it's in full compliance with the charter schools act and also the other criteria that's outlined more specifically within the charter schools law. The resolution then would be provided to the district authorized charter schools and after that the the resolution with the supporting materials is submitted to the state board of education. Once the state board of education receives those materials, the the state board will set a hearing to consider the request to recover the exclusive chartering authority. If exclusive chartering authority is granted, the district then retain exclusive chartering authority until either the school board relinquishes that authority or if the state board subsequently revokes the authority. If the school district uh does not receive exclusive chartering authority and that a
102request is denied, then the district could still reapply as soon as the board determines that it has recovered or resolved any issues basis of the denial from the state board. So that was just a very brief overview, but if there any questions, I'm happy to answer them. >> Does anyone have any questions, >> please? When is it due to the state for the application? >> Uh no later than March 1st of any year to then apply for the next school year. So uh in a few days uh but the the next steps are something that would be completed tomorrow. The the district would provide the notice till the district authorized chart. The board approves the resolution tonight and then directly after that we would provide the materials to the state board of education to meet
103that March 1 deadline. Um, Autumn, what's the purpose in providing that to the district charters when this wouldn't affect them? It sounds like they're grandfathered into a different system. >> Uh, the state law requires that as part of the process, uh, just so that the district authorized charters are informed and if they want to provide any sort of statement to the state board as part of the hearing process that gives them notice that the district is seeking it and can provide that notice if they want to. >> Any other questions? Okay, I just want to make a brief comment. I really appreciate the work you've done on this process. It's no small thing for anyone who's seen this document. It is rather long and impressive. Um, and I'll just speak in my own opinion. I
104think that our community deserves to have the ability to weigh in on charter school options. Our community has the greatest access to us as their local elected body and therefore um they look to us for their their educational options. I think for our local community to actually be able to understand those options, weigh in and make sure that the the options within their uh locality actually meet the needs of our community. It's really important that we have this authority. So, I really appreciate the work you've put in for this. Are there any other comments before we vote? All right, seeing none, Jill, can you please call the vote? >> Thank you, Leah. >> Carla Ba >> I. >> Connor Duffy, >> I. Kevin Havda >> I >> Scott Shoenbower >> hi >> Dr. Andrew Spain
105>> hi >> Jessica Zamora >> I >> Dr. Corona Ziggler >> I motion passes 7 to zero. >> All right. Thank you. Uh next we will move on to 8.5 which is now the air conditioning and other building improvements at Weber Middle School. I move that the board authorize staff to execute the guaranteed maximum price amendment with Fronzen and Pitman at Weber Middle School to install air conditioning, lighting upgrade, and other building improvements for a total cost of 11,165,632 over two years. >> Can I get a second? Thank you, Andrew. And then I believe we have short presentations. No, no presentation, just discussion. I'm sorry. Uh, questions. Yes. >> Yeah. I I figure I owe everybody an explanation as to why I uh I pulled this from consent. I think it's important in the interest
106of transparency and and building trust, especially with such a difficult decision that we are uh that we voted on tonight about the riff and the budget challenges and things like that. um when we have such a large expenditure designated at the same time I think it's uh only in everyone's interest to talk about it um explain it and um you know make sure that we're you know being good stewards of our uh our taxpayers funds and so I want to give Dave and his team the opportunity to uh to talk about this they've talked about it in the past, but I think given the current situation, I think it's good to to bring it up again and uh kind of know exactly, you know, how this aligns with um you know, the Mck Mckin Street
107study, um the recommendations they had, the projected costs, and then um what confirmations do we have about getting competitive bids for these kind of contracts? >> Great. Um thank you for having uh having us to discuss this. Uh before I get started, I'd like to introduce the team if that's possible. Um so that way you know who you're who we're talking to, who's prepared this uh guaranteed maximum price amendment. So I'm going to start with our external um folks. I'm joined with Sergio Ortiz. He's the senior project manager for Saunders. Give a wave, please. Um we've got Gabe Dunar, senior project manager of Franen and Pitman. Thank you. We got Chad Hayes, principal project manager, PEC Engineering. We've got Dan Pennington, electrical lead and project manager. Thanks, Dan. Got Sean Christensen, architect, DA modeling. Thank
108you, Sean. And we've got in the audience our own staff, Jason Lee, project manager. Jason Lee's been with us for a long time. Many of you have seen projects that Jason Lee has completed like the futures lab, the partnership center. Um T Brockheimimer, um he is he has joined us now and he's been with us for over a year now and a great project manager. and Alex Alex Hendricks, the construction manager. So, what you're seeing tonight is the the team that has been assembled to um to prepare the guaranteed maximum prices. Um we uh I'll give you a brief introduction as to what we're doing tonight. Um, what we are asking the board to do is to approve a guaranteed maximum price amendment for both Weber and Leer Middle Schools providing mechanical cooling aka air
109conditioning, electrical service upgrades and lighting upgrades for both sites and boiler and plant replacement, entryway improvements and building envelope upgrades for Leer. Um, the total cost of the for the air conditioning on its own is about $21.6 6 million um for both schools and that is over a two-year period. So you're talking about two schools two years. So total of four four periods. That doesn't make sense, but you know what I'm trying to say. Um in addition uh in addition uh to the air conditioning projects, um we heard loud and clear from the board that they want us also to be looking at deferred maintenance when possible when working on these projects. So, we've also included some of those other things that I mentioned like lighting upgrades, uh, secure in in a ways, building envelope.
110Um, that totals about 3.5 million of the the total asked tonight. Um, and so, so that's basically what we're here to uh to ask for. Uh, just so that people can some of those questions you asked uh earlier. Um the the pro this project and I'm going back to a presentation that I gave uh it was back in October I think it was around air conditioning. The project will be funded through a combination of debtree mill levy plus inflationary increases that are coming from there and some bond reserves. And so if you need to go back and look at that presentation it's available went through a lot of detail as to how the numbers would work and how that works. Um so so tonight uh I've got the whole team here. Um we have we've
111assembled the entire team so that the board members can ask any questions that they have, raise any concerns that they have. Um these are the people that can answer them. This is the team that has put this together. They've worked countless hours since we approved the base agreement back in I think it was November um in trying to get this ready. Um we've also um moved very fast on getting equipment purchases and other things so that we can actually be poised well this summer to do these projects. So um it's an amazing team. Um they they I I just appreciate them a lot. They they've worked really really hard and um and it's it's nice to be have a complete package in front of you to say this is how we're going to air condition
112two two large metal schools over the next two years. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, I would say the the first question is I kind of alluded to it is how do some of these projects match up with what McKinstry was uh projecting? Are we higher or lower than those projected cost? Um, and then the other question is how do we ensure we're getting competitive bids on on these kinds of projects? >> Yeah, sure. I'll I'll go ahead and answer those and then if there's more probing questions around how uh the subcont or the contractors are actually getting subcontractor bids, I have them come up and describe their process to you. Um so let's hit the first one, the uh the Mckenry study comparisons. So back uh I think the the reports were dated uh uh
113year 2023, so that means they were based on 22 prices. Um, we had Mckin Street come and do a thorough evaluation of all of our schools to see which schools what the feasibility of air conditioning was and some projected costs that might be incurred based on what they were seeing in their preliminary assessment. Um, I want to emphasize that that was a preliminary assessment. It was based on their ideas, their approaches. Um, and as we saw with Batty and ODA, some of those can change and we can have cost savings from those. Just because McKinstry said they're doing like this doesn't mean we have to do it like that. But it's a good reference point as you pointed out. Um so one of the important things is anytime you're dealing with numbers in time, you
114have to adjust for time value of money, right? So one of the first things I need to do is inflate the um the ranges that Mckin Street produced in their reports for the inflation that's happened. And typically this probably wouldn't be as big of a deal, but we've been going through so many years of high inflation that it's critical that we factor this in because material costs have gone up, labor costs have gone up. That's just undeniable. Um so once you inflate these uh the the Mckinry numbers for both projects, um the ranges that they did per square foot, um it turns out that our air conditioning projects are falling very close to the middle of the ranges. Um one is run is about 64% into that range. The other one is about 45% into
115that range. So I I feel that feel fairly confident that um looking at what McKinstry did um adjusting for time value of money and then comparing to our costs in the GMP um I feel very confident that that's a that's a good check. Um another check that I think is important is um that our contractors and the design build teams that we have were competitively selected. We went through a competitive process. they were selected competitively and we talked about that in November when we when we actually approve the base agreements that this amendment is attaching. Um, and then another check that I that I also think is important for the board to understand and and uh I don't think everybody intended that this was what we were doing, but because we have two contractors working
116on two middle schools at the same time, we have two different ideas, different approaches, different thoughts, and there's some nice healthy competition amongst that. So, because we're also not doing it in isolation, um the the the general contractors from both both schools are actually coming together at times to talk about what they're doing. Um so, it's I I feel like we have probably more checks and balances in this situation than probably most of the other things that we do because because it goes well beyond just a a sourcing and looking at the sourcing. Yes, we did that in November. Um yes, we have a great team that's doing this. We um we can compare to the McKinstry study. Um I know during the planning they also compared to things that are called like RS means
117um there other square foot industry standards that you can look at. Um so so there's been double checks along the way and uh and again I don't want to underemphasize that you know our vendors want our business and they do right by us and that healthy competition I think has been really exciting to see and I think we're getting better products for it. Go ahead. >> I want to thank our guests for being here at a unusual hour from your normal workday. Um, I thought that's important for me to at least begin some my comments, my questions by saying that it's an unusual hour. We're an unusual client. Um, raise your hand, gentlemen, if you have kids. Keep them raised. Do you have Do any of you have kids in this district? Okay, thank you
118for that. Um, the reason I bring that up is that because we are an atypical client for a number of reasons, as you know. Um, I've got I represent clients that are in the public space that submit bids and they have to uh go against folks that take shortcuts and that do things with public money that are that are not great. So, the only thing I'd like to ask other than the fact that it's nice to know somebody have kids in this district is that um to make us a promise as we undertake this process is that you'll perform your work safely, competently, and with our students in mind. This is not a typical project. The room for error is minimal because of what's at stake. Um, and I just want to ask that as
119you're partnering with us, uh, I remember mentioning this last time when you presented that you may feel an additional sense of scrutiny. And I think that's may feel unfair, but I think it might be helpful to you to know what happened in this room before you arrived is that the board also had to make a very difficult decision to greenlight a riff resolution in the event that we have to make a reduction in force among our own numbers. So at the time when we are you know we have abundance from for and I think thank again our our community who's investing in our schools investing in our school district we have to balance that with the acute need to reduce our budgetary uh constraints in other places that are very real and have human faces
120at the end of it and in fact maybe some of the folks that see your kids in those schools and so I say this not to scare you off not to ward you off but to invite you into the severity and the importance of the work that you're doing inside our schools. And so I echo Director Shawn Bower's comments about the weight of this and the expertise that you're bringing. A lot is riding on your shoulders and I uh look forward to working with you in the future. >> Any other questions or comments at the moment? I will simply make one. I do remember that Mckit Street study. I remember Leer being the most expensive place to put air conditioning in at the time and I want to say it was either in range or
121above the projection that you're presenting now which is impressive given all of the inflation and given that was four years of inflation ago. So I I feel confident in the work that has been done. I appreciate the work that you've done. Um and I look forward to our children being just a little less hot. Thank you. Yes, please. >> I I think the only thing I would add is I see this as a partnership with with you all and and uh I think it's when when we look at the finances that we're bringing up. We know that doing things through the summers only can create significant challenges and barriers and we've got to be able to work with you all to identify those early and make sure we're resourcing things appropriately so we get the
122outcomes that we're all looking for. Uh so just a sort of a baseline let let's work well together on this and help us do really well. So we're using uh the funds that the the community has given us in the best way possible uh transparently openly and effectively of course and as Kevin mentioned safely probably has to come first before we even worry about a lot of those other things. So I just you know looking forward to working with you all and and having success. Please. >> I just had a couple other questions. So, um, when, and we've talked about this, Dave, we have a firm, I believe they're called Answer. Is that how you say it? >> Accenture. They've changed names a couple times. >> They have. Do we still use them to kind
123of >> We do use them. We do use them at times when we need to. Um, we don't use them all the time. Um, in the past we had a uh we had some work we were doing to make some improvements and we we definitely brought Accenture in to do some training around payout reviews, things like that. We've talked about that in the audit committee quite a bit. Um, and so they are they are pulled into the team as needed. Um, yeah. So we do work with them still. >> For the public, what what service do they provide? So they they they provide multiple services, but for for the thing that you're talking about, it's owner it's an owner's rep service type thing. So it's that's what they call owner's representations. >> So an owner's
124rep is that that's kind of like providing expertise. >> Yeah. Like if if we have questions about like internal staff has questions that we need to get some more expertise on, um that is always a place that we can go to. >> Okay. We don't use them for uh for everything. We didn't use them for this then. Is that >> these contracts? >> I I don't know that we've used them directly in this because we didn't have a lot of technical questions as we went through this. >> Okay. >> Um but we can always invite them in as we need them. >> Okay. Um the other question I had and actually I will because these guys took the time to come. Um if people want to give us a little background again this is for
125the public information. That's the only reason I'm asking these questions is I want to get this out and be transparent. Um, how do you select your subcontractors and and that type of thing if anybody wants to speak to that? >> I can start. Um, Gabe Dunar with Saunders Construction project manager. Um we we have a a prequalified list of subcontractors that we work with throughout the front range. Um they're qualified with us based on insurance um meeting our standards, financial strength of the company. Um we in most divisions of the work in this case we invited six to 10 subcontractors in each division. Flooring, mechanical, lighting, um that sort of thing. Um in some instances we got uh back four plus bids in some instances not you know three in some instances. Um selected the
126low bidder the low responsible bidder. We level the the biders against each other to make sure that they're carrying the same scope. Um and then ultimately select the the low bidder. >> Thanks Gabe. Uh Sergio Ortiz France and Pitman. Uh very similarly uh we use a software called building connected that has a repository of close to 1.5 million different subcontractors. Uh through that we also track pre-qualification. So when we do our selections off of multiple bids we go off of the lowqualified. So um there's always the low number that's very enticing but the qualified piece is deliver exactly what you were saying. How do we deliver safety quality and maintain schedule and make those all marry the way that they need to? Um so we always use the term boat qualified in that because that's
127how we go through our process with it. But very similarly um we have multiple bids per all divisions. Um we had a very good extensive interview process for what I consider the bigger dollars on this project and the mechanical electrical plumbing scopes and have a trusted community partner um selected for the project that we have full confidence in. >> I'm going to go ahead and continue on that. So, they're they're getting bids and they're putting those together. And I I give you a sample of the summary bids in an email earlier. Um, so they're doing their work, but where's the check and balance to make sure that they're abiding by our procurement rules because that's really what the expectation is to do what we would do or better. And so what we do is we
128bring our sourcing team in once the GMP is ready. And you remember we were we met and we kind of they went through here's the bids. Our sourcing people that are kind of a little bit more of an arms length from this can ask some very tedale questions make sure that it is above board for what we would expect. Um and and in this case it was so um there were some questions as we were going through that. Can we get more clarity on this bit? Can we understand that? Uh but for the most part it was a very clean process because both contractors know how to do this and they do it all the time. um sourcing is in that sense it's also acting as a internal control too. Thank you for all this
129information. I think it's really helpful for everybody to hear this. Uh last question. This is not related directly with uh this project. It kind of is because of the funding in terms from the community's perspective. People have asked about the the 4A money, the accountability committee that we have for that. I'm just curious and just I should know this. I'm on the board. Uh but when are we supposed to be hearing from the 4A accountability committee? They they're supposed to report to us once a year. Is that right? >> Okay. Thanks. Uh >> per their charter, they are reporting to the board once annually and that will occur in June. It's scheduled for the June 9th meeting. Thank you guys. I appreciate uh the time for this. >> Thank you. >> Can I just make
130one quick comment? Um I just want to say one of the reasons I'm on this day is is because of my friends in the community that will have kids in Pter School District in the future. Gabe and um just to make a comment to the community, Gabe and Chad have become really good friends of mine and I value them and their character and I can speak to um just what incredible people they are. >> So, thank you. And they were hired before I was here. >> Yeah. >> So, thank you so much. >> I I would add this entire team that's in front of you is amazing. Um we have such a wealth of knowledge within this district. um the two project managers and construction manager I mentioned here, but also our trades were involved
131in all of this work too. And we have five trade leads and I asked them the other day, how how long have you been doing this work? And most of them said more than 30 years and the majority of it was mostly at PSD. Um so, you know, when you're just talking about five people doing page turns with this team, making sure that we understand how this is going, um there's almost 150 years of experience right there around that table. Um, so thank you. >> Yes, please. >> Dave, quick question. Like in your experiences in PSD's history, how often have we approached projects like this from a design build way of work? >> Um, we've done it every once in a while. So it usually you do design build or a CMGC kind of a
132process when you know that scope is going to be very challenging. And when we're doing these retrofits, it is very challenging. You have to understand everything that you're doing. So, we kind of lean into those when we can't necessarily go out and have a very clean, sharp scope that says you're going to put pipe here, you're going to do this because it hasn't been designed yet. We need to do it together. And so, there's a lot of value in doing projects like that when you have that challenge when you're trying to figure out how are you going to do this complicated remodel. Um, for example, like when we get over to Boltz, we're not doing that project yet, but when you get over there, the structure of that building is going to make that an
133extremely complicated project. And so, it's not just as simple as taking a rooftop unit off and putting another one on. It's there's a there's a lot involved in it. You're moving piping, you're moving electrical, you're you're dealing with a wooden structure over in bolts. Um, that is going to create challenges. So, so we often lean into a CMGC or a a design build kind of a process when we want to do it together and um if you if you do do some searching on the internet, there's a lot of information out there about design build process. In my five years, members of the board, members of the community, in my five years of being the superintendent of our school district, I have seen this level of collaboration from our project nurse trades with external partners
134who are thoughtfully engaging not just on a singular project, but trying to learn across projects in a competitive non-competitive way so we can continue to figure out ways to be more efficient as a school system. I just want to say I attribute that to your leadership. So, I want to say thank you, Dave. >> Thank you, Superintendent Kingsley. One final thought, and again, my my comments were not meant to be overly harsh. I hope they weren't received that way. Um, we're an odd client, but I think that I think I spoke to this the last time you guys were here, that the opportunity for this incumbency value, right? So because you're some of the first that are stepping up to do this important work and to collaborate, that relationship we appreciate and we value and
135especially if you honor those commitments that I asked for safety, competency with our students first, we can make some really beautiful music together while holding us accountable and holding you accountable for the work ahead and and letting us know the pitfalls and where you think we ought to do things differently. So that was my invitation. If it got rustled with some of my more harsh comments, I apologize. >> Thank you very much for that comment. Perfect. Please. I I just don't know if you left out. Um, no. Sorry. Okay. It's going to be a long four years. Um, I just simply wanted to just wish you all luck and good luck. I I know with any kind of build and project and stuff, you always have unknowns, right? There's a lot of safety features. Um,
136things shift adjust and change. And so um just want to send good vibes to you all as this come um and wish you all well in terms of the work that you have to do. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. I will always take a wish of luck. Um but um luck's not going to do it for us. Planning is and this is the team that is going to make that work. So So thank you for the luck. We'll take that as well. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. I think on that note we're ready for a vote. >> Carla Baz >> I >> Connor Duffy >> I >> Kevin Havda >> I >> Scott Shenbower >> I >> Dr. Andrew Spain >> I >> Jessica Zamora >> I >> Dr. Kurand Ziggler >>
137I >> motion passes 70. >> Thank you very much and thank you. >> That's for one. So, we need to do the same thing for the second one, but I don't think we're going to have as many comments if I had to guess. Can I get a motion for 26? >> I move that the board authorized staff to execute the guaranteed maximum price amendment with Saunders at Leer Middle School to install air conditioning, lighting upgrade, and other building improvements for a total cost of 13,966,289 over two years. >> Thank you, Connor. Can I get a second? Thank you, Carla. And are there any comments? >> Just a >> Yeah, >> it was $298, not 289 at the end. >> All right, I'm hopeful our second holds. Are there any other comments? All right, seeing none,
138can we please get the vote? >> Carla Ba, I >> Connor Duffy, >> hi. >> Kevin Hilda, >> hi. >> Scott Shoenbower. Hi. Dr. Andrew Spain. >> Hi, >> Jessica Zamora. >> Hi, >> Dr. Crown Ziggler. >> I motion passes 70. >> Thank you. And thank you all for being here. It wasn't too late, but definitely after working hours. All right. The Yeah. Yeah. All right. Last item on our agenda before joining. Uh we have board forecasting. This agenda item is an opportunity for board members to discuss topics of interest for future board meetings. Would any board member like to start the discussion? >> Please. >> Go for it. If you have an idea. >> Yeah. Um I like making lists and I like even more crossing lists off. So a couple months ago we
139sat in this room and we talked about some of the priorities. One of them being uh one of the resolutions we passed tonight 84 for exclusive charter authorizing. So I'm going to scratch that off and move on to the next couple. I've got three topics priorities I'd like to kind of we talked a bit about uh engagement sessions with our community at dinner session. So I want to continue to chip away at that and what that looks like in the next three months in the next six months. um not just venue questions asked, but um uh folks in our community, how are we going to engage them? Um where should we be spending our time as it as it pertains to some of the work that the covers of planning committee is doing? Um one
140thing I'd like to just get maybe Brian if you if you have an update if you don't I'll just put this on your radar. Maybe we get it for next time. Um I think we towards the end of last year we talked about some pretty big topics. um among them uh bell schedule changes, instructional minutes as well as transportation and there was sort of a hybrid of all those three things that kind of coalesed. Um just so we kind of know in the in the background what work is being done. Um it's it's something that I still think and I think we we lean on as a board at least some of those were still priorities for the board for but we I think the timing is a little bit dynamic to say the very
141least based on what we're dealing with. So, um, do you can you speak to that or do you want to give us a report back? Not to put you on the spot, but I'm going to do it anyway. >> Yeah, it's okay. It's part of the job. Um, I appreciate the question. I know that there is deep work happening amongst our transportation department to look at ways regardless of any changes on bell schedules or instructional minutes. We've learned in this boardroom that there are efficiencies that need to happen in order for our transportation division to operate with some form of organizational health and they are working around the clock to identify whether there are any efficiencies to be had there. Um because we're not in an environment where we have the opportunity to make deep
142financial investments. Uh because of the financial scenarios that we're continuing to grapple with and learn from the state. We are temporarily pausing the bell schedule instructional minutes conversation, not forever, it's a pause to continue to move forward with reconciling our budget and balancing that budget going into next year. So I would say the staff is not going to be making to this board unless directed to any recommendations around changes for bell times or instructional minutes for the 2627 school year. We've said that publicly previously. I just want to clarify that as a result of you helping me tee that up. I do think and I know it's a shared value of the district as well as this board to bring that conversation back. Um but I do want to signal that I believe that that
143will be a separate conversation from any conversation that our governance team has regarding consolidation. Um if you see that differently based upon the will of uh the work coming out of the comprehensive planning committee, please send those signals to me directly uh or offline. U but if you think about the charter of the comprehensive planning committee, this would not fit under their purview. Um so it doesn't mean that we can't do it in parallel tracks. Uh but I do just going back to want to reiterate one of the things that amongst many things that Dr. Schmidz had said to us in terms of the question that you teed up that what we need now more than ever is focus. Um, and where we are wrestling with our challenges with our budget realities as well as
144going into this uh very important conversation with our broader community around potential consolidation that is taking the full capacity of it's all hands on deck right now. I appreciate that's why I asked. That's a very healthy update and I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Okay, I'm going to take the moment because I think the riff has sat sits heavy on all of us. And I think one thing that we can do to set up our district and our future boards, our future staff for success is making sure that after this process unfolds and concludes in June or by June 1st that we also look back and we reflect on the process. I want to make sure that after reading the employee agreement, reading through the process, I feel confident that the process will unfold as
145it's supposed to and there were past folks who set us up for that level of success in a really hard time. And I want to make sure that we do the same for those going forward. So, I'm just going to put that on our priority list. Does anyone else have anything else they would like to add or other priorities they'd like to consider for the future? All right, seeing none, we'll keep rolling. Uh, last thing on our agenda since we did remove that executive session is adjournment. So this meeting is now adjourned at