001Yeah. >> All right, we're gonna get started here in just a second. No, go ahead, please. Thank you so much. Okay. Uh thank you for joining the board of education this evening. Please mute your cell phones as we begin this meeting. Today is Tuesday, January 13th, 2026. And this meeting is now called to order at 5:40m. 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 stream of this meeting is also available in English and Spanish on YouTube. For links to these live streams, please
002visit the board of education page of the PSD website or PSD TV on demand on YouTube. All right, please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. Right. Thank you. Moving right along. Would any board members like to make any changes to our agenda? Okay. Seeing none, we um Sorry. Thank you. All right. Next, we have recognitions and reports. Brian, I believe you have some introductions. >> Yes. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Uh this evening we're excited to recognize community partners as well as student athletes. Leading the celebration is John Cop, our executive director of communications. Welcome John. Good evening, President Zamora, Superintendent Kingsley, board directors, and everyone joining us tonight. This evening, we're proud to celebrate an incredible group of students and an outstanding partnership. Our first recognition is for the partnership between the
003United Way of Lmer County and PSD for the work to make the district's teen parenting program a longtime success. Here to introduce representatives from the United Way is Melissa Schaefer, leader of our teen parenting program. Good evening, Mr. Kingsley and board. My name is Melissa Schaefer and I run the Pter School District teen parent program with support from our mental health specialist Jennis Fuentes and student services. Our program just celebrated its 50th anniversary serving and supporting teen parents in our district. We're located at Rocky Mountain High School along with our on-site child care, the Alliance program, a branch of young people's learning center. Child care is the number one barrier teen parents face when trying to stay in school and have access to their education. In February of 2024, we were notified that our funding
004source to cover childcare tuition for teen parents through the Colorado Childcare Assistance Program was on an immediate freeze, leaving no funding for child care for our teen parents. Jenny and I immediately reached out to basically everyone we knew and tried to secure funding. The United Way was the top of our list. Through ongoing conversations and dedicated staff at the United Way, we are proud to formally report to the board of education on the successful completion of a recent initiative to support the district's teen parents and their children. This started with a generous family foundation donation of $75,000 and a match request to the community. Within a short period of time, the community rallied for another $75,000 to bring the total raised by the United Way to $150,000 to go directly towards childcare tuition for teen
005parents. A huge success. We are deeply grateful for the United Way and their commitment to our partnership. It is my pleasure to introduce Kelsey and Cecilia. Hi everyone. Thank you for having us and thank you for that kind introduction, Melissa. My name is Kelsey Diastra. I use she her pronouns and I'm the acting CEO of United Way of Lmer County. And I'm Cecilia Reynolds. She her. I'm the director of community impact at United Way of Lammer County. >> At United Way of Lammer County, we have one powerful priority, a future where each and every local child has the opportunity to thrive. And we advanced that priority by investing in four building blocks of lifelong success. Family financial stability, kindergarten readiness, reading at grade level, and high school graduation. So, you can imagine when we got
006the call that there were teen parents who couldn't attend school for lack of child care. We knew we had to act. This touched all of our priorities from high school graduation for the teen parents to kindergarten readiness for their babies to the future financial stability of the whole family. And the community really stepped up. As Melissa said, a generous private family foundation offered a $75,000 match and in less than four weeks, we were able to secure the full $150,000. And I'm excited to share that many teen parents are back in the classroom now. We are so grateful for our partnership with PSD. Um, and I know many people in this room also spread the word, maybe contributed themselves to this effort. So, thank you so much. Together, we really can build a future where each
007and every child has the opportunity to thrive. Thank you. if you wouldn't mind staying towards the end of our recognitions. We just have a couple so we can take a group picture. >> Thank you again to the United Way of Lmer County. Our final recognition of the night is our very own Wellington High School football team for winning the 2-way state football title. Here to introduce the team and speak to this amazing accomplishment is Hillary Bartling, athletic director at Wellington Middle High School. Good evening. Thank you so much for having us tonight. Like he said, my name is Hillary Bartling, athletic director at Wellington Middle High School. In December of 2021, we hired Coach Travis Peoples to be the head football coach at a school that did not yet exist. He immediately started hiring as
008assistant coaches and started hosting workouts at what was formerly Wellington Middle School. We had no weight room to speak of and it was challenging to say the least. The group of young men before you were in elementary and middle school at that time and they were not able to participate in those workouts until the end of May, their eighth grade year. Coach Peoples made a bold statement in his first introductory meeting with students and parents claiming that we would make run at the state title. Over the next four years, this team and their coaches putting countless hours practicing and perfecting their craft. Last year, we came up a little short and ended the season as runner-ups. But this year, all that hard work came to fruition with a state championship coming home to Wellington for
009the first time since 1954. Thank you so much to the school board, our superintendent, cabinet members for their support on this journey. Thank you so much to the players and coaches for all of their hard work. We are so proud of our Wellington Eagles. I'm going to hand it over to Coach Peoples. I think four years ago it was a corn field or some kind of a crop and I appreciate you guys building the school. It was easier for me to come in with this group of kids here. Hard work and blood, sweat, and tears. The amount of work that these kids put in over at Wellington. I'm sure it happens all across Pter School District has been unreal. They've been leaders in the community. They're leaders in the classroom. Our administration all the way
010down to our custodians support us. We support them. We're a great small town. I know you know where we're at. And uh I'm just really proud of these kids of what we've accomplished. A year ago, you saw maybe uh we didn't win it. Maybe in a fashion that we could have just uh you know, drug our heels a little bit and been pissed off that, you know, we didn't win it. But they went back to work for 12 months with a great attitude. Um and every single one of these kids I love. Every single one of these kids I think has a great future no matter what they do. Military, go and get a job. A lot of them are going off to college. Um we have a great graduating class, uh about 11 or
01112. And um really the younger group has another goal next year to win the state championship again. But I want to recognize all these kids right here. Matter of fact, every kid in our program for the amount of work they put in. It's not easy. We go 12 months out of the year. Um they play other sports. They do other things. They're required to do homework, sit in the front of the class, do great in school, but they also excel in the weight room. They also excel in summers that you don't see five to eight every night running in the heat going and playing other teams. We go away to camp and we buy the things that's above and beyond. And I think that's what propelled where we are to our excellence. If they take
012what they learned in football and they use that the rest of their life, this group of kids right here will make Pter school districts very, very proud. But I'm proud of them. And thank you guys for supporting us. And we hope to be back another time. And Tanner say he's not speaking. He's not. Step up Tanner. Everybody knows Tanner Gray. That's Tanner Gray. He's known all around. And I don't mean to point just one guy out, but uh he was our captain, our leader. He's heading off to uh Nevada football on a full scholarship and we have other guys going on to do great things, but uh he was our captain leader and I I like to embarrass him a little bit, but all these kids are great and appreciate you guys and thank you
013for uh letting me come up here and talk. >> Thanks, COACH. >> Congratulations once again to our honores. We're proud to celebrate you as you represent the very best of Hooter School District. At this time, I'd like to invite our honores, board directors, and superintendent Kingsley to the front for a group photo. All right, we'll continue on with our agenda. Thank you so much for being here, y'all. Uh, next we have our action items and we have a resolution in support of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Can I get a motion? >> I move that the board approve a resolution in support of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day, January 19th, 2026. >> Thank you, Connor. Can I get a second? Thank you, Kevin. And Brian, I believe we have a guest. >> Yes, we
014do. Joining us this evening to speak to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is John Miller IV, our director of the Black African-American Cultural Center at Colorado State University. Welcome, John. Yeah. Okay. Is this better? All right. Okay. So, one more time and now that we have the mics, good afternoon everybody. >> Um, like they said, I am John Miller IV. I am the director of the Black African Cultural Center at at Colorado CO State University. I'm excited to be here tonight. Thank you so much for the time. Thank you so much for the intention. Thank you so much for the effort. Um I'm here to to speak to you a couple of minutes about our celebration on Monday. Um as we honor the life and legacy of of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
015Um we will be joined in Lorie Student Center from 10 to from 10:00 a.m. to 1. We are doing things slightly different this year. Um for folks that may know, we have been snowed out for the last two years. So, so this year we're going to do a little bit of experimenting and our entire uh program is inside. So, we are going from we're have about 45 minutes of a program really short really sweet kind of get to the point really get us a good foundational education really hear some performances from the community and then we will move into a little bit o a little bit over two hours of exploration of everything. Um, so you can sign up, you can do a little capera if you want to, which is like a Brazilian martial
016art. Has this like liberation component to it, this kind of spiritual component to it. Really kind of move your body. Um, we have a day of service. Um, thinking with uh, Hardward Bound, we have our our libraries. We have um, the historic preservation uh, department is really going to do a popup and we've also created a a virtual tour. So in place of the tour, in place of the actual march, we are doing a virtual tour in which you you can follow you can engage in a couple ways. Either one, you can do it completely virtually. We have about 18 lions across Fort Collins that deal with civil rights education. So you can do it right there on your phone, your computer, your laptop. We've also designated about a mile long tour or a mile
017long march that you can do. And we've we've chosen a mile because it is it is about the same length of the MMA march. So feel free you can find that on our website. We have everything from letterw writing rooms to literary rooms to another mural project to a quiet space exploring the power of storytelling. As you can tell we have a lot of different options for you for for different ages um for different people who are at different levels of wanting to explore Dr. King's legacy. Um, so I just say this to welcome you, welcome you to the space. Um, and again, if you would like to learn more information, feel free to reach out or I um or you know, websites, emails. Sorry, it's been a long day, y'all. But yeah, thank you
018for your time. >> Thank you so much for being here. And that was like a I'm really excited now. Like I'm like I can bring the kids and they can pick choose their adventure. It's awesome. Um, do we have any other comments or from the board? >> No. All right. Oh, please. >> John, I just want to say thank you for representing not just the university uh but everything uh that represents Dr. Martin Luther King in celebration of this really, really important day and work. U members of the board, members of the community, I'm so honored to be participating in the event at CSU on Monday and will be speaking at the event at 10:00 a.m. and couldn't be more honored to not only be our superintendent, but to be in partnership with so many
019leaders in our community celebrating uh such an incredible human being. So, I just again want to say thank you for being here and representing all of us. >> Thank you for those remarks and Jill, I think we can call the vote. Carla Bass I >> Connor Duffy >> I >> Kevin Havda >> I >> Jessica Zamora >> I >> Karanda Ziggler >> I >> motion passes 5-0. >> Thank you very much. All right next we will have the superintendent report. Superintendent Kingsley will now make remarks to the board of education and to the community. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here. Welcome back to the start of a second semester and we hope everybody had a restful break as we continue to have these incredible celebrations. I just so honored to be
020associated not just with this school district but with all of its partners. uh the significance the United Way made just two to three years ago of completely realigning their entire mission and vision to focusing solely on youth services was transformational for the children in our school system and really prioritizing place-based investments to make sure that dollars and resources from our community are going to exactly where the need is and I think tonight's celebration of that work uh is bigger than our teen parents but just want to just celebrate the work of the United Way uh Joyce Sullivan uh who is sailing at sea uh right now with many other members of the CSU faculty uh is the leader of the United Way in partnership with Kelsey and Siccilia and many others. And I just want
021to thank our staff for all the work that we're doing behind the scenes to continue to provide resources from our community to students who need them most. Uh over the break it was interesting. thing. I had an opportunity to go to the barber shop and as I was listening to the conversation in the barber shop, they were all talking about the quarterback of Wellington Middle High, Tanner, who you saw here tonight was the tallest guy in the room. And Tanner's got a full rat, I believe, to the University of Nevada to play football there. Uh, but just hearing the buzz and the energy that has sparked across not just the town of Wellington, but all of Fort Collins and our broader PSD community about the work that they're doing, I really think that is significant
022in terms of the leadership you saw from the coach as well as their principal and all the faculty and staff members. And I remember speaking to the then mayor of the town of Wellington when we opened that school. His entire speech when we did the ribbon cutting was about Friday night lights. And so to see that vision come full circle uh is really really uh puts a smile on my face. You know, over the holiday I'm going to share something that I normally don't do. It's kind of out of protocol, but I just think it's really important that over the holidays, uh, PSD lost a superhero. And I want to just take a brief moment to pay respects and a tribute to one of our bus drivers for 27 years, Daniel Abraham Raren, who his
023students at Stove Prairie Elementary School know him as Dan Dan the bus driver. man lost the battle u with cancer but served this community, his family, our students, the people in our mountain communities for 27 years. And I've seen Dan around. I didn't know him well, but I will tell you one thing that I learned about him over the holidays that just stuck with me as I'm in my 28th year in education is for the first 26 years as a proud employee of PSD, he never missed one day of work. not one day of work. And so to his devoted wife Sharon and extended family and the entire Mountain School community who's continuing to figure out creative ways, there is an incredible memorial service for Dan at Timberline Church on Monday that unfortunately conflicts with
024the same ceremony that's at CSU to honor Dr. Martin Luther King. But I know that there will be many members of the PSD community. They're expecting over a thousand people. And when you think about some of the things that happen in this school system on a daily basis, many instances starts with a smile on a face like Dan Dan the bus driver man. And today at the state level they released a new data point. It's embargoed. It was embargoed for quite some time that for the second consecutive year PSD has its highest graduation rate in its district district history. It's now at 89%. I believe that yeah, we should give now. We still have work to do and that work is still in front of us and we're and we're dialed in from our strategic
025plan to the work that's happening in our schools. But let's not get lost that it's it's it's our teachers, it's our bus drivers, it's our cafeteria workers, it's our principles who are holding the line and trying to fill create, you know, just creative solutions to make sure that we're meeting the needs of all students as partnership with our parents and our nonprofit community. So just special tribute to Dan, but also a celebration of a lot of our success. Um each and every one of the opportunities that I have to address the community at our board meetings, we show a quick win video. Um and I want to pivot to that uh right now because we have an exciting launch to tell help tell our story as a district in a new u and unique way.
026We're starting our own podcast um called the district. And so pay special attention to this incredible highlight video that invites everybody to know what's happening and what to expect in the months and weeks to come. Thanks, John. That's a large piece of why this podcast exists, to answer culture war questions. Yeah, we give kids some content, but we want them to know how to apply it and to think for themselves and to think critically about it, not tell them what to think. >> You know, I think having a general curiosity of what's happening in our schools means people are invested in what is happening with their children. >> Literacy is the key to the kingdom. That's what gives our students the choices. helping to realize that because there is a laptop involved in education does
027not mean all of education should come through the laptop. >> Pretty excited about it. I know all the board members are going to want to be a part of it. There's we're only one couch, so we'll be figuring out different ways to compete for different topics and discussions. But I really want to thank the creativity of our communications team for thinking of just unique ways for us to take over Spotify in the next six months. Um I'm just really really excited about that. Um, you know, there's something that's not on our agenda tonight that I just want to briefly acknowledge as I sent out a message to the entire PSD community earlier today about our decline in enrollment. I want to thank our partners at the Colorado and for also publishing an article uh Monday
028of last week to continue to educate our community around some of the challenges that we're facing as a result of there just simply being fewer children of school age in our respective community. Um, we anticipate that while our enrollment this current school year has declined by approximately 500 students again, as we've recently heard from our state demographers, we know that they're not projecting any rebound in the near future. And so, we're going to continue to need to wrestle with that work and what that means and what are the implications for our school system together. And that was the the purpose and the importance of my communications to the community today. Uh this we know will impact our budget as well as our services that we can provide and we're going to continue to keep our
029community updated around how to stay involved to better understand and have voice in what these impacts look like throughout the spring and the years to come. We know that we have a comprehensive planning committee already in place and I'm excited that at our next board meeting they will have the opportunity to provide their first formal update to the board of education. Uh so I'm asking everybody in the community to please stay tuned for that upcoming presentation and the discussion that will be equally as important uh to focus on following that. This evening the main topic on our agenda as everyone knows is the review of policy changes which will be presented by our general counsel. I really want to sincerely thank our general counsel's office in partnership with the board of education to build a
030firstofits-kind system to ensure that we're reviewing all of our district policies within a four-year span. Um, and tonight is the start of implementing that process. So, we are going deep on policy tonight. Um, we will not be doing that every meeting, but we have a cadence that's now in place over the year, the next several years where we will continue to make sure that every single one of our policies are fresh, that they respect the interests, the mindsets, and the values of this community and our school system and our board of education. And as our community continues to engage, and I want to say again, we have a vehicle for community members to provide us feedback on that process prior to coming to community comment. And I think even through some of the discussion tonight,
031you will see how some of uh that feedback we've already been able to be responsive to in real time in service of the conversation tonight. So everybody, please know that your collective input makes us better, makes us stronger, and I'm really glad to see you for another year. So thank you everybody. >> Thank you so much for that, uh, Superintendent Kingsley. Next, we have community comment. This is a opportunity for public comment or the opportunity for public comment is for members of the community who registered to speak by the designated dead deadline. Those people will be called on to make remarks in the order that they signed up. Each speaker will be allowed three minutes to address the board. Little hot. There we go. >> Ready? Thank you. All right. First up, we have Amanda
032Kramer. Thank you and welcome. Today I dropped my seven-year-old son off at school late again. Don't worry, we were just participating in our um one of seven therapies that we do outside of school every week. I loaded him into his wheelchair and I brought him into the classroom. Two students in the in the hallway said, "Hi, James." And as we walked in, his home classroom teacher said, "Hi, James. Glad you're here. Please join us in the circle." The students had not made quite enough room in the circle for him. and the and the teacher kindly reminded them that everyone needs to space in the circle and the students immediately made space for James to feel included. This is what inclusion looks like at Warner Elementary in first grade. As you can see by this short
033snippet of James's day, he is a joy most of the time to have in class. But this joy is not only shared by James, but it is all the other students and staff in the building. On the rare occasion when James does arrive on at school on time, the kids fight over who gets to play with James. This warms my mama heart so much. You can see James wants to be like every other seven-year-old boy. You bet he, if he was able, he would be rolling running around on the playground playing chase with all the other kids. You bet he would be making fart jokes in the cafeteria with everyone else. However, the staff that he has is able to make these re these wishes a reality for James. Maybe not the fart jokes. Not
034sure. Um, this is James's fourth school in the district. Um, as a former base camp manager, I understand that every school has its own personality, but I can I can honestly say that the delight in his presence and the willingness to accommodate James has been shared by every staff member that we have engaged with. As a mom, there are days that I wake up and I say, "Here we go again, James." But when I bring James to school, the staff always say, "Hi, James. How are you? So glad you're here." While in preschool, there was no response from James, but he w is non-verbal at the time. But now, when staff greet him, James says, "Good. How are you?" As you can see, James wants to be just like every other seven-year-old. But oftentimes, he
035is more polite. Last year, we had to make a difficult medical decision. Before we made this decision for James, he would go to school angry, in pain, and oftent times bleeding. The staff at the school never once questioned us to as to why we were bringing him to school. They were always glad to see him, and they were always there to support us. Yesterday, James made it a point to tell his ILS teacher, Miss Russell, that she was better than mom. Miss Russell's response was that we are all a team and we are all working together, including you, James. The support that we receive is overwhelming. We are thankful for I have three lines. Can I finish? Okay. We are thankful for the support that we receive from PSD, but I cannot wait to see
036James walk across the graduation stage in 2034 with the help and support of the amazing work that is done in PSD every day. Thank you very much. Next, we have Arthur Lamin. Good evening. Um, my name is Arthur. I'm a senior at Fossil Ridge High School. I use he pronouns. I was here uh sometime last year. I recognize some of you and it's nice to see some new faces. I spoke in support of the um resolution to support transgender day of visibility and now I'm back and I just wanted to say thank you. You passed that resolution unanimously and I have felt that support at every turn as a student in as an LGBTQ plus student in Pter school district. I know um as politicians and polic makers, you all get criticized quite often and
037that's very important for the uh civic process, but I I don't know how often you get praised and I am just here to remind you that even though you're doing a very good job and I am very grateful for the supportive environment that I've been in as um a queer student in this particular school district because there are so many thousands of kids all across the country who just really do not get that and suffer as a result of it. Please don't let it slip your mind. Please be thinking of the LGBTQ plus kids and teenagers in your district and include them in your policies and stand up for them when an incident does arise because homophobia and transphobia haven't gone away even if they are not as much of a problem necessarily in Pter
038school district as they are in other places. So, please continue to keep supporting us. And I'm here with P Flag, and we and many other organizations are more than happy to provide education, resources, and support if you have any questions or need any kind of guidance. You are not in this alone. So, thank you very much, and good night. >> Thank you. >> It's okay. All good. >> All right. Next, we have Laura McWaters. Welcome. Thank you. There we go. >> Okay. Can we excuse me? My name is Laura McWaters. I'm a Fort Collins resident of 40 years and I've been aware of my being transgender ever since I was 10 in fifth grade. And after struggling through so much that was wrong in the best encyclopedias of my of the day, 10 years old
039and I was not in any library or textbook. There was no GSAs, no supportive teachers, no counselors, no school policies, no safe spaces, no shelters, no P flag yet. Without the slightest mention in school and only cruel whispers elsewhere, LGBTQ and transgender students were there. I was there. Each of us alone and suffering as quietly as we could to escape notice. Each and every one of us considered if we could withstand the hate and bullying until life someday might get better. Some of us didn't make it and all of us who are still here have scars, some physical and some mental. Our being visibly represented, included, and supported means transgender and LGBTQ youth are harassed and assaulted less. We uh we experience less anxiety and depression. We have higher attendance rates. We learn and test
040better. We are happier and safer. We experience much lower rates of suicide ideiation and attempts. For some of us, our schools become our only safe space, a counterpoint to our homeless rates of being several times higher. In a paper, I'd site studies for all that. But tonight, tonight, I'm going to simply say that supporting transgender and LGBTQ students is recognizing we exist. We always have and we are part of the range of human experience and we are not only just as deserving as every other student, we are also just as vulnerable and fragile. Support and inclusion starts and lives and dies right here with you. This board pter school district school school district has done so much and it but it must continue and there is yet much to do. Thank you for the trans
041day of visibility proclamations. Your support needs to come early and not in just the later grades. It needs to be outgoing and in these days of terrifying headlines, your support must be loud and visible to all of our students. None of that happened for me or so many like me in any school. There was no support for any transgender LGBTQ student then and in too many places that's still the way it is now. So I'm here tonight to fight here now for every inch of respect and rights and support our students have earned and deserve. And I'm here to make sure no transgender or LGBTU student has to fight to simply live through these years as the generations before them did, as my generation did. I ask this board and this community to do so
042much better now. We need you. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Next, we have Danny Lawrence. Welcome. I had originally signed up to speak about the lack of transparency with your legislative committee, but I saw the assault on disabled students in the redline changes of the bullying policy of JCE and I decided that was more important tonight. By rem removing language to seat an IEP team to ensure that FAPE wasn't impacted following the report of bullying for a student with a disability, you're hurting a population your statistics show is already hurting. And you aren't doing your job protecting these students by allowing this change. In Colorado, we have codified many of the protected classes in state statutes. So when national rights dissolve, there's this assurance that state law might uphold civil rights. But that
043is not the case with disability. Transgender students got an extra level of protection with House Bill 251312 last year, but students with disabilities haven't received that level of protection yet. In real time, the Department of Education is offloading special education to who knows where at this hour. The Office of Civil Rights is done. It's cooked. I have two open Office of Civil Rights investigations with the district for bullying, specifically the oldest open from March of 2023. And my son graduates in 127 days and will never see the validation or the justice he deserved for their ruling. The bullying continues today and we've received no resolution in the district for three years. There is nowhere to go if you have a 504. The state doesn't handle 504 complaints. If you have an IEP, you might be
044able to use the state complaint system, but they find in favor of school districts 89% of the time, and parents don't win due process complaints in this state. Those are just the facts. So, please educate yourself. If you were exit surveying families in the district, you might learn how many students with disabilities leave because of bullying, but PSD chooses to intentionally ignore those statistics. On November 4th, you had a lengthy presentation about declining graduation rates for students with disabilities, and no conclusion was reached. And part two is supposedly coming sometime. Yet, we take actions like this to diminish the current district protections under th for those same underidentified students whose outcomes suck. And we have no idea why. So, this makes no sense to me. And if I'm being honest with you, the district isn't
045meeting the current policy anyway, which might contribute to your declining outcomes and is likely why you're proposing to eliminate the language. I dare you to go back and ask how many of the 11 Zanella victims got an IEP meeting following his arrest in May of 2023, because I know the answer is none. In my civil rights complaint, the district never sat the team to discuss the impact my son to my son, but should have. So, this policy change, as I see it, is about covering the district's butt and further hurting disabled children. Nothing else explains why the board mid inquiry into the integrated services department would make a change to wound the very kids you vow to help. You didn't give the SEAK committee a chance to review this policy and get their feedback, although
046your policy committee reviewed it months ago. This is shameful work in my opinion, and it lacks integrity, and it's a blow to a community that felt after November that maybe we were starting to get somewhere with the board. This is a real-time example of why people don't trust you. They don't believe what you say because your actions speak louder than words. Thank you. Right. Thank you. We now have Bridget Asoff. Is that >> Oh, I'm so sorry, Sabrina. You're next. I missed it. Thank you. Every new appointment to this board makes standing here easier. It's been less than six months that this board is no longer primarily made up of members who were mismanaging this district when my daughter was being abused. Today, only one of those board members has left, and I've heard repeatedly
047that that board member wants change. I welcome and applaud that. Tonight, I want to give you a history lesson and some advice that I don't think that your predecessors ever got. In the 1800s, there was a doctor named Semlvvice. He spent years studying ways to protect women from deadly postpartum infections. In 1847, he told doctors his radical solution. They should wash their hands and change their clothes between patients. Now, to us, that's obvious, but this was 1847. They didn't have germ theory yet. Back then, people thought infections were from bad air and that dirty surgical gowns showed you were good at keeping busy. So he couldn't explain why that would work, but he knew midwives did those things and fewer women died in their care. But this offended his co-workers. They were doctors after all,
048professionals, rich people, important people. The only thing more offensive than the suggestion that maternal mortality rate was their fault was the idea that it was because they were dirty. And even though under his new standards, maternal mortality fell from 18% to 2%, they pushed back, laughed at him, called him a crackpot. And in 1865, Suml Vice was committed to an asylum where he goes he got abused by staff, got an infection, and died. That same year, Joseph Listister, inspired by some vice's work, demonstrated that bacteria cause infections and started working on what evolved into modern aseptic surgical technique. And yes, that is the guy that Lististerine is named after. On to why I'm telling you this. Speaking from my own experiences on this side of the room, you will hear private responses to public comments,
049condemnations, retaliations, arguably slanders. You will hear that public commenters are univilized liars, radicals, harassers, troublemakers trying to burn this district to the ground. And when you hear these things, my advice is three-fold. One, remember that people don't come here and broadcast their condemnations of this district on YouTube because it sounds like a fun way to spend a Tuesday night. They come here because something matters to them. Two, remember that even if the laws of the universe were different and some vice had been wrong about handwashing, his goal was to do right by the people in his care. And that motivation deserved respect. So when you disagree with someone's solutions, at least show the respect that is due to their motives. Three, remember that some vice got called a crackpot by professionals whose heads were too
050far up their own butts to see that he had a point. So when your adviserss condemn public commenters, you have a responsibility to step back from the egos, demand the data, and use it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Sabrina. And again, I'm apologize for missing your name. All right. Now, we have Bridget Asaf. Is that how you pronounce it? Thank you, Hello, my name is Bridget. I'm a parent at Liberty Common School. I first want to start acknowledging this board's commitment to educational excellence. Having the special education advisory council demonstrates your de dedication to ensuring all students receive appropriate support. The expertise matters. Tonight I'd like to share some thoughts on special education using three principles. Common knowledge, common virtue, and common sense. Common knowledge teaches us that we that when independent valuations identify deficits
051and foundational skills, investigation is warranted. This establishes this is established best practice in the field. Common virtue teaches us that civil rights protect individuals. Federal law requires individual assessment, evaluating each child's unique needs rather than applying blanket policies about who qualifies for services. Common sense helps us understand what threshold really means. If a student answered only 12% of questions correctly on a test, what grade would they receive? They'd fail. Yet, we're told children performing in the 12th percentile. Answering correctly less often than 88% of their peers are performing adequately enough not to warrant investigation. IDA requires that schools document parent input and a prior in a prior written notice. It it requires that evaluation decisions come after considering all data, not before. These aren't suggestions. They're legal requirements designed to protect children's civil rights. Your
052special education advis advisory council members are specifically charged with ensuring IDA compliance across all district schools including authorized charter schools. That's a very important oversight function. I appreciate the board's expertise and commitment to all the students. Thank you for your time tonight. Thank you. Next we have Stephanie Watson Lewis. Welcome. Good evening board. Good evening uh Mr. Kingsley and good evening to everyone else. Uh my name is Stephanie Watson Lewis. I have three children in the PSD school district. two go to Liberty and one goes to Weber. Um we have been challenged with a lot with Liberty Common School. Um my son, the eldest, he's actually graduating this year. Um last year, actually, or was it this year, received um the President of the United States Excellence Award for Academic Achievement. Um, and this is
053a child who initially came into Liberty with a severe dyslexia diagnosis. Um, we are super proud of the success um, of the support of the AS team at Liberty to get him to where he needs to be. Um, I am absolutely um excited to say that my middle child, who has not been accepted to Liberty because he has a disability, um, is actually fairing very well at Weber this year. Um, he's enjoying his teachers. He's enjoying the community. He's navigating a very large school on his own without support from anyone. He is taking all um gened classes with appropriate supports to support him. As well as he's being pulled for speech and he's being pulled for math and for reading um supports uh which he's doing phenomenal as well. Um that being said, we have
054asked Liberty to accommodate our child with a disability and their response was that one, they couldn't afford um a parah and then the second response was that they have never in their 25 plus years um modified their education, which to me is an IDA issue that I think the board needs to be looking into um to say that you've never modified a child's education is to say that you were cherrypicking kids um to choose whatever child um you choose to pick to be a student. Um my son, my eldest son snuck in. We got lucky. Um my middle kid, not so much. Four years ago, they didn't even stop to have a meeting with us. They sent Aaron. Well, they sent someone to come to us to tell us that he would not fit because
055he had a disability. And here we are again in the same situation. I believe that Liberty can accommodate my child. I believe that they need to stop the discrimination and I believe it needs to stop now. >> Thank you. Right. Next, we have Eric Southerntherland. Welcome. Eric Sland, citizen Fort Collins. Just a reminder to you and perhaps even a reminder to myself, the allegations of overcolction of taxation in the tens of millions of dollars that I've leveled at the district came only after my attempts to address the obnoxious, nauseating fraud associated with the diversion again of tens of millions of dollars by municipalities here in Fort Collins timoth unlawful wrongful and all one has to do is tune in to public comment here in the district which I do on a weekly basis to hear
056what my neighbors have to say always interests me to understand the monumental task of educating young people in our community the difficulty of doing the same and the resources required if there's people out out there that do not see the wisdom of applying our tax dollars taken voluntary or otherwise to support this work. They need to be called out in our community and this district just wouldn't do it. Quite the opposite. Those people like myself who have come forward saying this is just isn't right. It requires action have been villainized. And so what are you going to do now? You've got this enormous allegation against you and it's too late to cut it back. I've already circulated it to enough people in the community that it's going to go someplace. You got to sue me
057again. Liel and slander the way Sandra Spiser, Dave Mononttoya did 10 years ago. What you're going to do is go into a secret session to discuss it. I don't think that's the right idea. Everything here is public. How much taxes I and everybody else paid? My allegation, everything's public. So why not make the district's response to that allegation part of a public process? Cowardice. That's the reason. Only explanation I can come up with. You know, you're asking students to follow the policies that you're setting down. Why don't you guys follow the policies that have been prescribed for you? It's as easy to understand Taber subsection 3 as it is to understand any line item in the policies that you're reviewing that you ask students to follow. That allegation wouldn't be here if you had stepped
058up and done the right thing. Thanks. Thank you. Now we have Alyssa Brown. Welcome. >> Hi, my name is Alyssa Brown. I will um >> happened in seventh grade when my son was physically pinned between a door by staff members after >> sorry >> I am standing before you today to address the serious wrongdoings that certain individuals within the Pter school district allowed to occur to my son. The most recent and severe trauma happened in seventh grade when my son was physically pinned between a door by staff members. After that incident, his arms and legs had visible bruises. This was not an isolated incident. >> Sorry, my >> It was one of multiple traumatic experiences my son endured while attending schools within PSD. Since that incident, my son has been unable to attend school. He
059is now in 8th grade and still does not have a safe or appropriate educational placement. The individual Sorry, >> responsible within PSD did not provide an environment where my son could learn without fear of physical or emotional harm. Numerous medical providers, mental health professionals, and educational specialists have evaluated my son. All of them independently concluded that he requires a residential school setting in order to receive an education safely and appropriately. These recommendations are documented and they are consistent. Despite this, certain individuals within PSD continue to assert control over where my son attends school and are asking me to trust the same system in which he was harmed. PSD schools have stated that they are unable to meet my son's needs, but they are still fighting us on what the team surrounding Connor and myself feels
060is best for him. one specific residential program has been identified and recommended as appropriate for my son's needs. I cannot do that. The pattern of decisions made by those individuals shows that my son's safety, his needs, and his right to an appropriate education have not been adequately protected. Trust cannot be requested without accountability. My son deserves access to an education that does not retraumatize him. He deserves to be placed in a setting recommended by professionals, not one chosen for administrative convenience or cost. I am asking this body to acknowledge the harm that has occurred, to recognize the professional recommendations that have been made and to ensure that my son is placed in a residential setting where his safety, dignity, and right to an education are respected. If you want I can also >> thank you
061guys. >> Thank you. >> Next we have Jim Brokish. Welcome. Good evening. I'm Jim Brokish. I'm a citizen. Uh f first I just want to say thanks to the school board for being our friends and our neighbors. And you're our neighbors because just because of the way the election process works, right? You come from all over the district. And you're our friends because you volunteer for an extremely difficult, sometimes impossible job. and that is ensuring that PSD provides an awesome education for our kids today and also way into the future. And that is tough. My daughter and son-in-law live outside of PSD. But even so, um they're choicing my granddaughter into one of our PSD neighborhood schools. And that was not a choice that they made lightly. Uh they made that choice because of PSD
062excellence. This is an amazing board. The voters chose wisely in November and there's nobody that I would trust more with the tough decisions that are coming than this group. You're smart, you're committed, and really you're some of the finest people in Fort Collins, Timnath, and Wellington. So, I'm deeply grateful for your service, and I just want to say thanks again for being such good neighbors. Thanks again for being such good friends. Thank you, Jen. All right, that concludes our community comment for the evening. Next, 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 they would like to report? >> Go ahead. >> Briefly, um I want to
063thank all the schools who have recently invited uh board directors to come visit. Um, I've had the opportunity to visit a couple schools. Um, uh, I visited Ridge View back in the fall. Um, and President Zmore and I visited Liberty Comm and the Plato, uh, campus, uh, last week as I kicked off their second semester. So, I wanted to thank the leadership. Um, looking forward to continued collaboration and partnership in years to come. Um, and also just a a request to send more invitations from schools. Um just a a a practical tip which I find helpful is if uh principles or leaders want to reach out to us with days that would work for them and times um and give a couple that's really helpful so that we're not scrambling in our own calendars to
064try to reach out to you. So if you can make the first attempt it'd be helpful because there's a lot more of you than there are of us. Um we want to get inside every school. And the last plug I'll make is that it is I think let's make an eye statement. It's my favorite part of this job is when we get to go into a school and to a random classroom and see the magic happen. Um I miss that from my days teaching, but it's it's it's really good reminder of why we do this work and the work that's ahead of us. So please keep those invitations coming. Um we've got a busy school year. So um the more frequent you can you can get in front of us and ask us to come
065in, we'd I'd really appreciate it. So make the first move, please. Are there any others? Yeah, go ahead. >> Uh just update for legislative committee. Um as we all know, this week we'll kick off the state legislative session. Um that will reach into sometime into May. Um we're going to be hosting the same format of calls that we have um in January and February. We're going to do it twice a month. um if something comes up that is very pressing, we can always schedule a a quick meeting. Um those are open to the public as well um as as they've always been. And um if you have any questions, comments pertaining to legislation that you've heard from your local representatives or heard in the news, please email us and and we can run those down
066for you. Thank you. >> Great. Uh, I'm trying to look up the listening sessions that are upcoming. Does anyone have those readily available in their heads or I can look it up? Right. I should have done this before. I apologize. I just wanted to remind folks and usually someone's really good about making sure we do it. That's a good call out also. very much. Lauren, February 17th, what school? >> Laurel. Tveli and Laurel. I think I did. We already do ice, I think. Yeah. So, TV and Laurel, they start at 5:30 and go to about 7. Um, we've had a really good turnout so far and we'd love to see anybody who would love to come chat with us and bring a topic. Is there anything else that anyone would like to share? Okay. Seeing
067none, we'll keep moving on. >> Oh, sorry. >> Oh, go ahead. >> If Scott were here, he'd probably want me to remind everyone that the final showing of Screen Aers is scheduled for Wednesday, January 28th at 6 PM at Rocky Mountain High School. Um, so please put that on your calendars. Final screening of screenagers. Bring your own pop. >> Thank you, Kevin. That's also a good call out. All right. Now, we'll move on to our consent agendas. What agenda only one. Uh, would any board members like to pull anything from consent? Okay, seeing none, uh, can I get a motion? >> I move the board approve and adopt the recommended actions for the items on the consent agenda. >> A second. Thank you, Connor and Jill. >> Carla, I Connor Duffy, >> I >> Kevin
068Havda, >> I. >> Jessica Zamora, >> I >> Kanda Ziggler, >> I. Motion passes 5-0. >> Thank you very much. And next we move on to ourformational reports and discussion items. And I believe we have an introduction. >> Yeah. Tonight we look forward to hearing about policy revisions from our general counsel, Autumn Aspen. Welcome, Autumn. All right. Good evening everyone. Um, tonight I'll be presenting seven policies for a first reading. And I think this is probably the most I presented in one meeting. So, we'll try to get through it all in a good amount of time. And then just for reference, the policies will come back to the board on January 27th for a second reading. As I've done in the past, the policies that I go through tonight, um I'll highlight a few of
069the proposed changes for each policy, but the full policy red lines with all the proposed changes are in the board packet for anyone to review. And what is uh different this year than in past the updates I've done, as was referenced before in Superintendent Kingsley's remarks tonight, is this year the legal department has implemented with support of the board through the board um policy review committee, a new process to review all the district policies on a four-year cycle. And this won't just happen once, but the intent is to continue this on every policy will not go more than four years without being reviewed. So once we get through the first four years, we'll just start right back at the beginning again. So I wanted to spend the first part of this presentation to go over
070that process a little bit because it is new this year. So for the agenda tonight, um like I mentioned, I'll first go through the policy review process and then highlight the work done with the policy review committee, which is a part of the process. And then we'll go through the first reading of the policies and highlight some of the changes within each policy. And then there's room for conversation, discussion, and a feedback from the board on any additional changes you'd like to see that come back for the second reading. And then I'll also just forecast the next round of policy updates that should come to the board sometime in the spring. So, as far as the policy review process, uh the legal department this year has started that process, as I mentioned, to do uh
071all the policies on a four-year cycle. And this applies to all of the district policies, which I think there's over 180 policies, so it's about 45 policies a year. So, it's a a lot of policy work that we'll be seeing with the board, but I think it's really good work to do. This does not include the policies that are the board policies like the district ends or uh the board governance policies. that has a different review process. This one is just focusing on those district policies. And then the policies that come to the board for review are the ones that are specifically reviewed and approved by the board. Under the policy governance process that the district has, some of the district policies are reviewed and approved by the superintendent and those will not be the
072ones that are brought to the board. Um, but I think that there's around 113 policies that are ones that were reviewed and approved by the board. So over half of them will be coming to the board as part of this process. With this process, the legal departments, which includes me and then the assistant legal counsel and parallegal, will review the policies first, do some initial red lines based on any changes to state law. And then we're also working to standardize our policies for consistency and also to make the policies uh a little bit clearer, easier to read, as well as making it more of a similar format so that somebody can look at a policy and know where to find either definitions or other parts to make them a little bit more consistent throughout all
073the policies. As part of this initial red line, we also uh seek some feedback from our district staff who are the ones who work most regularly with those policies and then take that initial redline and present those to the policy review committee for feedback. And that committee I'll talk about in the next slide. After that, the policies go to cabinet for review and then are posted on the district website for community feedback and then are presented to the board for two readings. The part about the community feedback is also new this year. So, I want to just highlight that for a minute. Uh, as part of this process, we're ensuring that all of our policies with the the red lines are posted on the district web page on the policies web page of the the
074main district website with a place for anyone in the public to submit um a response via survey if they have any feedback on any or all of the policies that are up for review. So, right now we have all seven of our policies that are before the board for consideration on the district website. And that survey will be open and available for feedback through January 19th, which then also leaves time for any of those changes based on additional feedback received from the community to be brought to the board in a second reading. And I'll make sure to highlight any changes between what we're presenting now and any changes that come back to the January 27th meeting. So another part of the policy review process is the policy review committee. This committee is um newly formed
075this year and they meet about once a month and review three to five policies each meeting. This is an advisory committee. So they aren't making any of the decisions on policy changes but through their feedback that is then brought to these policy updates for the board to review and then make the final determinations on any policy updates. And like I mentioned, the the policy review committee will review all the district policies that go to the board for review and approval. And they'll do this on the same four-year cycle. I also wanted to note that we'll have some policies that are reviewed out of cycle and those could be based on any changes to district practice or if there are any changes to the law that would require a policy to be changed sooner out of
076the cycle that is the four-year cycle. The membership within the committee is um on the the PowerPoint, but it includes two board members, general counsel, assistant legal counsel, parallegal, and then representatives from ACE, PACE, and PEA, the senior executive director of student services, and the assistant director of student services, the lead assistant superintendent, and then a representative from DABC and CCE. As I had mentioned, it's a four-year timeline. And because this is the first year, I just wanted to put this slide uh for review for everyone to see of the the timeline we have anticipated for reviewing all the district policies. So this year, we are reviewing all of the student policies. Those are the J policies in our policy um outlook or book. And then next school year, we're reviewing the staff policies, community
077policies, and entities policies. Then for the 2728 school year, we'll review the instruction policies, foundations policies, and general policies. And then the last year of the cycle, we'll be reviewing the finance policy, support services policies, and the facilities policies. And then once that year is over, the intent is for the 2930 school year to start back with the student policies. So we're keeping a fresh look at all the policies and moving forward. So tonight, as I mentioned, we're reviewing seven policies, and these are the policies we're reviewing. And as I go through each policy, feel free to ask questions as I'm going or you can also ask questions or provide feedback at the end as well. And before getting into the specific feedback for each and and changes for each policy, I wanted to provide
078a little bit of the feedback we saw from the committee and elevate some of the common themes and and feedback that was um more than just one of the policies, but kind of just that could be used throughout all of our policies. And uh some of those there's a lot of great feedback from the community, but some of those include um looking into whether we could do a standalone definitions policy for terms that are used in a lot of our policies as a way to not only make sure that all the definitions are consistent throughout our policies and if a term is defined then it is the same in other policies as well, but also if a definition does change, we're not having to go change it in several different policies or having conflicting definitions.
079So we're looking into the feasibility of doing that. And similarly, the committee has also recommended if we have an index that would have common terms that are used in policies and be able to cross reference where those terms are in all of our policies. So, for example, if somebody did want to see whether all the policies that contain bullying, there would be an index that would have that as a key term and then that would cross reference to all the policies that contain that or describe bullying in there. So, we're looking into getting that done. some other feedback that is more um for all the policies. As part of the work with the committee, we've noticed that there's not this consistent reference to whether it's either a parent, parent, guardian, parent, guardian, caregiver. And we'd
080like to standardize that in our policies. So the recommendation through the committee work is to refer throughout as parent caregiver and then also define that consistently so that it would encompass all the different roles that somebody could play and act as a as a parent for a student whether that's also guardian and legal guardian. Uh some of the other feedback was to also just kind of generally provide clarity and be more explicit in our policies wherever we can. Some of that is including being more specific on responsibilities for enforcement. So trying to move away where we can from language that um may state more aspirational statements that the district will endeavor to and if possible identify either a specific role or specific department who is in charge of enforcing that part of the policy or
081that section. And then also to remove language for um potential bias and enforcement. So if there is language that isn't clear, it could be interpreted other ways, trying to get as clear and explicit as we can with that language so there isn't enforcement that's different at different sites or departments or schools. And then another piece of feedback is whenever we can with our policies, if we're able to organize policies to include sections identifying specific rights or obligations based on whether it's student, parent, staff, community members, caregivers to make sure that somebody is looking for like where their rights are, if they want to identify the part of policy that applies most to them, be able to have a more consistent pattern and that they could find that part of the policy. First policy I'll go
082through is the JICA student dress policy and this is essentially our dress code that says what a student either can and cannot wear at school or at school district activities and events. So just to highlight a few of the changes in there and if there's any questions throughout just please interrupt me as well. Uh we revised the section on what is mandatory and unallowable dress. And the intent behind this change is to um attempt to remove any potential bias that's in there now related to enforcement and gender, ensuring that it is as inclusive as we can make the dress code policy. Also based on a change in Colorado law that occurred recently, we've added a section on graduation attire. Uh the new law states that students are permitted to wear recognized objects of cultural or
083religious significance at graduation. So make sure that that language is included in our dress code policy. also with the guidance for how that'll be implemented at school graduations. And finally, on this policy, we revised the enforcement section both to include uh a process of what may happen if a student potentially violates the dress code policy during a graduation ceremony and then also the enforcement section for violating the dress code policy um at any other times as well. The next policy is JICDD on threat assessments. This policy covers a district's authority to conduct behavioral threat assessments. So, one of the main changes we've done in this policy and this policy is also, I should note, not very old. It was um adopted in 2023. So, it's pretty new policy. But one of the changes that was
084recommended and that we've put in here as proposed revision is to revise it from threat assessments to behavioral threat assessments to make it clear that the policy is really focused on those on the threat assessments done based on student behavior or conduct and it's not um relating to any of the other potential threat assessments or reviews that are done. The changes also clarify the purpose of behavioral threat assessments and also the attempt was to be more explicit and clear with the the role of parents or caregivers in the threat assess process. Next policy um we'll go through and address is the JICD bullying prevention and education policy. This policy addresses prevention, intervention and response to bullying in alignment with the state's model policy. One thing I'll note just context is in 2022 the state the
085CDE developed a model policy and then that policy has been updated most recently in 2025 and the law requires that our district policy incorporates approaches policies and practices outlined in the model policy. We still do have discretion to make the policy our own and make it fit for how our district addresses bullying prevention and education. But just note that there's some things in there that we have to make sure we're still aligned with the state. Some of the proposed changes in this policy is a revised definition of bullying and cyber bullying which is to better align with the state model policy definition. And also based on some feedback, we added a definition for teasing. And part of the the reason for adding this is the committee had some feedback that it's not always clear if
086it's if it's bullying, if it's teasing, conflict, harassment, discrimination. So to the extent we can, the policy tries to distinguish between those. And it's not to say that any one of those categories would not be reviewed or investigated, but it is just good to name and explicitly define what each of those categories means in our policies. The section on prevention and intervention has also been reorganized. Uh that list is mostly taken from the model policy. So we didn't make a lot of changes to the actual list in there, but those goals and priorities were reorganized so that it does show more clearly which ones are most applicable or relevant to students, uh staff, and then also parents or families. So for example that there's a goal in there on training and that would be under
087the employee category. Another change is that we revised the investigation section to align with our process in ACR1 which is the um policy that defines the process for investigating harassment or discrimination allegations. And one thing I also did want to raise for this policy is that uh the original red line did propose removing language from the investigation response section that was specific to steps taken if a student is supported with an IEP or 504. Um part of the reason for that I think is because it is in federal law, but we did receive some good feedback both prior to the meeting and at the meeting about the importance of keeping that language in. So I would say that for the the second reading I propose to bring the policy back to the board with changes
088to make sure that that language stays in there and also review it for clarity and make sure it is clear and understandable so that employees know what that language means and what the process is to follow it. The next policy is JICF on secret societies and gang activity. This policy prohibits secret societies and gangs in schools and at school and district activities and events. Some of the feedback from the committee originally um questioned whether this is a policy that the district needs to have. So I just wanted to also highlight that this is a policy that the law requires we have under Colorado law. School districts have to have a policy related to gang related activities as part of a school safety plan. So it is a policy we need to have. But some of
089the changes we made in this policy as a recommendation is to add a definition for secret societies. The policy as it currently is defined only includes a definition for gangs but not secret society. So I want to make sure that we define both of those. And then also we added a statement in the policy that district employees must not infer that a student is a member of a secret society or a gang solely because of ethnic background, race, color, religion, socioeconomic status, or other protected classes. some of the feedback from the policy review committee um said that the policy could be perceived in a a biased way because first of all because the one the gang was defined by not secret society and then also a concern with how the policy could be enforced. So
090provided both of those edits in there as a way to um address those concerns. Then policy JIC, this is the policy on student conduct involving weapons and prohibits weapons on school grounds and at school or district activities, events, and lays out the protocol if a weapon is used or threatened to be used. One of the main changes here is in our policy as it currently sits, there's a little bit of I think confusion in the language because the policy addresses knives that have a blade length of three and a half inches or longer and also addresses knives of any length. So to revise that policy and provide some more clarity, the policy now just refers to a knife of any length as a potential grounds for suspension or expulsion. I think also considering the other
091facts that are involved in that student's possession or threatened use of that knife. Also, under Colorado law, there is a requirement that a policy addresses a section for the process if a student is requesting uh to possess a firearm faximile on school grounds. So, we did add that section in there to make sure that it is clear what that process is. And uh we also and one new section that has been added is a section about surrendering weapons if they're accidentally brought by a student. This uh section would not apply to a student who accidentally brings a firearm because under law that is a mandatory one-year expulsion. But if a student accidentally brought like a pocketk knife or something to school, the policy then allows for a process to surrender that once they're aware of
092it to an administrator in a way to not then receive a disciplinary consequence to ensure that then they have a way to make sure that that knife or other weapon is not on school grounds and in the student's possession. policy JLie is the policy that covers responsibilities and obligations for students who park and drive vehicles on district property. This policy we didn't do a lot of substantive changes to it. More of the changes were really for clarity and to make sure that the policy was updated just with language because the policy was last updated I think in 2004. So it was due for a review. But I will also elevate that uh we did receive some comments from members of the public on a request to add in there if a student is uh driving
093irresponsibly or dangerously in a school parking lot that that could also result in the privilege of having a park pass being able to park on school grounds. So wanted to bring that feedback here because it's not yet included in the policy and for consider it either here and I can bring some language back and review that as well for the second reading. And then on to the last policy. This is policy JT on youth student suicide prevention. And this lays out groundwork for policies and procedures around student suicide prevention, including requirements of district staff and mental health school service providers. Some of the feedback here and the changes that we proposed is to add a specific reference to the district protocols on suicide prevention and suicide risk screening. So that has been added to the
094policy and we've also moved the resources up to the beginning so it's easier to have anybody who's reading that policy to see those um sooner because it's at the top of the policy. We've also added a reference specific to suicide risk screenings and then also clarified the section about sharing mental health resources within the community. So just to forecast before we go to any other questions or feedback, the next round of policies we anticipate bringing to the board are on the screen here. They're all student policies aside from there's one out of cycle policy that we're probably bringing back in the next one and that's would be a new policy KB on family engagement and then there could be some other policies brought back as well but I think that'll happen in sometime in the
095spring for a board meeting. And then with that I'll turn it over for any questions or feedback from the board. >> Thank you Autumn. Are there any initial questions? >> Go ahead. >> First of all I want to say thank you for the I know you gave a lot of credit to a lot of other people and certainly they were involved but this believe is your brainchild and your unbelievable undertaking to do this task which is tedious, thorough and uh well done. So I just want to say thank you for undertaking this and for doing this. Um my question was with the last one. Um the only the question out about the youth suicide prevention and not so much the policy of the red lines, but are you aware or or can anyone speak to
096the kind of training that PSD employees receive in suicidal prevention? Now if that's not a fair question, I can circle back, but I would like an answer the next meeting. >> I don't have the I don't know if I got a turn. I have the specifics. So we can get that. Okay. Um so annually we provide um QPR training for all staff. So QPR is a protocol for recognizing and responding to um warning signs indicating that someone might be at risk for suicidal ideiation. And then there's a protocol and a process that is part of that training as well about then how to respond and how to um do a warm handoff to our mental health specialist in the system. Are there initial questions? >> Just quickly on the on the parking update. Um I
097know that since it's last been updated, we've had an expansion of schools. Um do we have specific language in there pertaining to specific schools? I just know that it's harder to park at some schools than others. and was wondering if we're getting to that level of detail in our district-wide policy or if you just if your intent is to keep it still high level. >> The policy currently doesn't go into any detail about specific schools. If that's something we could always look into, but right now it is more higher level just to make sure it applies the same to any of the schools in there without calling out some that could then also have changes in the future. on that same policy. Do we have any other policies that would address dangerous driving now? I
098mean, that seems like something that would be endangering other students that it would live in multiple places if we're adding it. >> Um, I I don't know off hand if there's specific language on like driving dangerously. I think it that conduct could fall under grounds for um disciplin discipline consequence just based on risking safety or other concerns for staff or other students. So, it could fall under other policies, but I don't know if it's specifically referenced as dangerous driving in any other policy, >> like just when we're looking for like clarity or maybe pointing to those other policies >> when we outline um that dangerous driving could cause >> another policy to be triggered. Okay, thank you. Um I'm going to give these guys a minute to think because I have one other question. Is
099there a place for the board to see the feedback that's submitted online just so we get a sense of what you're seeing before we attend these as well? >> Um yeah, I think um that's something that we can share. I've got I've got the feedback so I can find a way to get that to the board so you can see it. And then I'm also just for reference in the board packet. I did include a summary in there with proposed changes and also for each policy the feedback that was provided by the committee and then whether we weren't able to take some of that feedback. So that's in the board packet for the committee work, but I can find a way to get that to the board for the public feedback as well. >> Yeah,
100I just think that would be valuable. I mean, one thing for folks to send us emails, which is another great method, but not duplicating would be nice and making sure that we're aware of the same things that you're reading and so we understand where that some of those changes or last minute changes may be coming from would be helpful. But thank you very much. Um, let's see. And then I think the one other thing I just wanted to kind of touch base with everyone since you did mention keeping that IEP 504 piece and just saying if anyone had any thoughts or opinions on that specifically since you called it out. I will just start with I would be in favor of keeping it. I'm always in favor of name of naming things if this is
101going to be a districtwide policy. um being of interpretation at the individual site level and whatnot. So I think where we can at this overall level specifically would be most ideal across all of our policies. >> Thank you. That's all. Okay. Are there any other questions generally outside of that? All right. I don't see any at the moment, but we will have a second reading. If you have questions between now and then, please make sure you bring them up to Autumn um and bring them to our next meeting so that we can make sure we have all of the information on the table before we take a vote. Thank you very much, Autumn. >> Thank you. And then also just to uh remind everyone for anyone who's watching, maybe listening in, that the the survey
102for the policies before they go to second reading is open on our website until January 19th. So, please um provide your feedback there so we can take a look at it and make any other changes before they're final. >> Thank you very much. All right. Uh, with that we our next Oh, next item is 11.0 board for forecasting. Um, this will be an ongoing item on our agendas. We are not actually going to take on new uh items at this time, but we just kind of wanted to throw it out there and start describing it so we could keep it in our minds as we go forward through the rest of our meetings for the year. We do have a retreat coming up on the 22nd where the board will be going through a process
103of prioritizing the things that we've already named in um one of our dinner sessions last year now. And but this will be a placeholder for as you're going out into the community, as you're hearing things, if there is a topic that comes up that you believe we should discuss in the future, we have basically a parking lot for that information to be considered at a later date. So the uh Kevin, myself, and you were at that one too, right? Yes. Um all went to a session at CASBY where Boulder uh Boulder School Boulder Valerie >> I don't know why I can't get things straight today. >> I know. I just not quite there yet. Um, but we went to their session and they really described this process of n of having board directors name the
104things that are percolating in the community, making a long list of all of those items and then every six months having a retreat where they dedicate time to really hone in on what are the most pressing needs of our community for the short term, long term, getting a sense of how much time and effort those items may take to address. Um, and then as a collective grappling with where do we want to put our resources and attention because we all h we know that when we go out to the community, everyone has a really great idea. We'd like to do all of the things, but we know we also don't have the time or resources to do all of the things and especially not all of them well. So, trying to really focus our attention
105and resources to doing those things well. So, again, this will be something that in the future for ongoing board meetings, this will be a a place to name those ideas so that the public knows what we're thinking. uh we know what we're thinking and is percolating as well as our staff. So, and then Kevin, I think you had an idea for our retreat as well that you want to share. >> Sure. Um so, I appreciate the tea up and the session we we went to at CASBY was really um illuminating in a lot of ways because I think we're as a district we're kind of scratching the surface of a lot of that as it is. Um, but those who have been on the board and those who are newer to the board will appreciate
106that things come up that we have to deal with, that we have to address, that are emergent in nature, that are urgent. And a lot of times that urgent work will drown out the important work. And so, um, what Boulder Valley's process is, which I think we all really appreciate, is that it not only gives the governance team an opportunity to dive into these priorities, um, you know, that we're thinking about that are informed by what we're hearing from our community members, from our schools, from our leaders, um, you know, from each other. But also then we have to do the important work of prioritizing when we're going to do things. And so the the other benefit to that is one um district staff that also I did some I did the math um there
107are 8,760 hours in a calendar year and 8,784 in a leap year which equates to 525,600 minutes. So the point is is that we all the same amount of time. How we're going to spend that time is really important that we can give them some direction as to what they're going to do. And then if we have a lofty pie in the sky idea and we need to have staff kind of push us back and say how much of their energy and effort that's going to take and how much resource allocation that's going to take. That's a good time to have that conversation instead of everyone just spinning their wheels ideulating about all the things we would love. So the task and I think this is the long leadup to the work we're going to
108do at our retreat is we're going to wrestle with these items that we've all sort of come up with that we've all identified and there's nothing but important things on this list. Right? So what I like to kind of frame this as is zoom out as far as you know how I'm trying to view the work of what we're doing. Um and and it's also the best gift we can give to Brian as well as our superintendent to call the play and execute. So imagine for a moment, we don't have the answer right now, but one way of framing it is imagine you are designing an ideal school in our district. You don't know the the age of the child that's going to go to that school. So it could be transferring in from a
109different district, could be uh coming from Denver or somewhere else. It could be a prek person rolling into our kindergartens. We don't know the socioeconomic background of that student. We don't know the language spoken at home with that student. We don't know the gender identity of that student. We don't know the skin color of that student. We don't know anything about this student. Now, plot them into any one of our neighborhood schools and design a system where they have an equitable chance of success regardless of any of those factors. For me, that's how I frame the work ahead of us as far as how we're going to prioritize the system of schools that we really ought to be striving for. So with that, you know, I I'm I'm looking forward to really good robust conversations
110at our retreat to talk about what we think that system of schools ought to look like, what where we are, where we're falling short, what we can achieve, and you know, the next six months ahead of us, um, is going to be really critical to getting the ball moved down the field on some of those. >> Thank you very much. So, we'll invite your ideas next time. All right. Uh at this point we are going to move on to executive session. So can I get a motion? >> I move the board enter executive session for the following top purposes. one to confer with an attorney for the board to receive legal advice on specific legal questions relating to CRS section 395128, CRS section 3125107, Colorado Constitution Article 10, Section 20, and related statutes as authorized
111by CRS section 246424B and two to develop the strategy of the school district for negotiations relating to the 2026 2027 collective bargaining agreement or employment contracts as authorized by CRS section 246. 6424E3. Individuals invited to join the board in executive session are superintendent Brian Kingsley, chief of staff Dr. Lauren Hooton, lead assistant superintendent Dr. Tracy G, chief financial chief finance officer Dave Mononttoya, attorney Kim Crawford, and general counsel Autumn As. >> Can I get a second? Thank you, Connor. All right, Jill, can you please call the vote? >> Carla Ba, >> I. >> Connor Duffy, >> I. Kevin Havda. >> Hi. >> Jessica Zamora. >> I >> Dr. Kuronda Ziggler. >> Hi. >> Can you also call Scott? >> Scott Shoenbower. >> I motion passes 6. >> Thank you, Jill. Sorry, you had a plan.
112All right. We will now convene in a close session. Uh this is the last agenda item before adjoinment. At this con at the conclusion of the executive session, we will adjourn the I cannot speak. Adorn the meeting and the adornment will be recorded.