Board of Education Meeting: October 7, 2025 (Spanish Captions)

001Check. ready. >> We got this. All right. Good evening and thank you for joining the board of education. Um please mute your cell phones or anything else that beeps or buzzes um so we can begin this meeting. Today is Tuesday, October 7th, 2025, and this meeting is now called to order at 5:35 p.m. So, if you would please join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, that would be great. >> All right. Thank you. Would any board members like to make changes to the agenda? Okay. Uh seeing none, um we will go ahead and um >> Oh, did we? Didn't know that we needed to walk one on. Did we? language. >> Uh, I got you. So, if somebody could do 3.0. Thank you. I move that the board amend the agenda to include an

002executive session after 11.1 pursuant to CRS 24-6-402E to determine positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations. develop strategy for negotiations and instruct negotiators regarding a proposed change to the intergovernmental agreement related to the Southeast Community Center dated February 20th, 2024. >> Thanks Kevin for the second. Um, and then could I call the vote on that? >> Jim Brokish. >> Hi, >> Kristen Draper. >> I >> Connor Duffy. >> Hi, >> Kevin Halda. >> Hi, >> Scott Shoenbower. >> Hi, >> Andrew Spain. >> Hi, >> Jessica Zamora. I motion passes 70. >> Okay. Thank you. And just um to note, I will recuse myself from that discussion um as I am a um employee of the library and the SECCC um has the library involved in that. So I will not be joining

003in that discussion. Okay. We'll now move on to recognitions and reports. Um so we will we do not have any recognitions. So we will be moving on to resolutions. I'm so sorry. Um, so we'll move on to 5.1 resolution in support of LGBTQIA plus History Month. Can I get a motion? Go ahead. Thanks, Kevin. >> I move the board approve the resolution in support of LGBTQI plus History Month October 2025. >> And can I get a second? Thank you, Andrew. All right. And I believe we have a special guest for this. >> Yeah. Joining us this evening to speak to LGBTQIA+ history month is Aaron Knobck, Rocky Mountain High School teacher and GSA sponsor. Welcome, Aaron. We're really glad you're here. [Applause] Hello. Uh these moments of recognition are important for a number of reasons.

004You see, when I teach about these various celebrations, whether LGBTQIA+ history or Black History Month, I think of them as birthday parties. Sure, we should be recognizing people every single day, and hopefully that's happening to a degree. However, isn't it just spectacular whenever we can stop and just celebrate who you are and celebrate who we are. LGBTQIA+ history month is a way to honor the past while speaking to the future. When we see people within these contexts, we help create and preserve a sense of belonging. Speaking of future generations, while we didn't feel it safe to bring students up here, I asked our local Rocky Mountain High School GSA this question. What do you want the school board to know about how this resolution impacts you or makes you feel? Some student responses. It feels

005way better to have people in power being supportive, actively. So any announcement or recognition is important because even if not everyone takes it in or understands it, it's important for our community to be seen in spaces like this. It's important to have these factual conversations around people in history so that we have factual information to give out to the community about us speaking from their point of view. Recognition within last one recognition within the school system helps us the students feel empowered when we don't feel that always during the day or even within school systems. Students deserve not only to be seen but encouraged to show their identities and learn with their authentic selves. They have spaces where they can push the boundaries of our society and help us all grow into the future. Furthermore,

006they build up the people and communities that make our schools and our city strong. Thank you so much to the Rocky GSA for helping me grow into the advocate I am today and trusting me as a spirit of your positive messaging. Thanks for sh inviting me to speak PSD always supporting us within these areas and also by the way when you support me you support the students and that oftentimes is left out and thank you also to the board for upholding these really important tasks that are seen by students. Thank you. Thank you very much, Erin, for coming and speaking to this important occasion. Um, board members, do you have anything to say? >> Go ahead, Jess. >> First, just thank you for being an advocate for students and for being their voice when they

007can't be here. Really appreciate that. And I also really appreciate that you asked them what they wanted us to know and what they wanted us to hear about because every time we have students come tell us anything, I think those are often the most meaningful comments. Um, so I really appreciate you bringing that in and just thank you for being here. >> Anyone else? Go ahead, Kevin. >> Um, I was thinking about some remarks for tonight. I was actually reading through the resolution which is displayed around us, but it's a little hard to see. So, I thought there are two uh clauses I think are very uh eloquent and probably far more eloquent than anything I could render. So, with your permission, I'd just like to read those for our community. Part of the resolution

008says, "Whereas Pter School District is committed to providing a safe and welcoming learning environment where all students, employees, families, and community members are recognized, supported, included, and celebrated." I just got an email. Excuse me. Regardless of their gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation. And whereas the Pter School District Board of Education wholeheartedly embraces our LGBTQI plus students, employees, families, and community members for their perspectives, experiences, and contributions they bring to our schools and workplaces. And the board strives to ensure that they are seen, accepted, valued, and celebrated for who they fully are. I thought that was important to read. >> Thank you for that. Anyone else? Andrew, do you wanna >> I think a number of you probably are bringing out that I love me my history and I just want to add on

009to what Kevin was saying about there's this tiny little document that pro promises life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all. So, let's add that on as well. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> I just want to take a moment to say thank you um to everyone who is supporting this um LGBTQIA plus history month. Um, I also want to point out that it's banned books week. Um, and so that's one of the things that you'll see a lot is that the LGBTQIA um books that get banned. Um, that's one of the more um popular uh reasons to try and ban a book um is because of the LGBTQIA content. And I just thought I wanted I would just wanted to share with you a little piece of history. Um, so guess who which

010authors are queer? And it's probably some classics that you didn't know. Frog and Toad. Who knew? Where the Wild Things Are. Good Night Moon, George and Martha, Straanona, right? Um Harriet the Spy, Miss Nelson is Missing Little Women, right? The Runaway Bunny. things that we think of as classic love stories were written by queer authors because they are love stories. So I just want to share that in history today in the LGBTQI history month. This is about love. Always has been, always will be. Thank you. And now can we call the call the vote? >> Jim Brokish. >> Hi. >> Kristen Draper. >> I >> Connor Duffy. >> Hi. Kevin Havda. >> I >> Scott Shelenbower. >> Hi. >> Andrew Spain. >> Hi. >> Jessica Zamora. >> I. >> Motion passes. 70. >> Thank you.

011[Applause] >> And moving on to resolution in support of National Bullying Prevention Month. Can I get a motion? I move that the board approve the resolution in support of National Bullying Prevention Month, October 2025. >> Can I get a second? Thank you, Jim. All right. And we have a special guest for this as well. >> Yes, we do. Speaking to National Bullying Prevention Month resolution is Kirsten Espinosa, compliance prevention and response coordinator. Welcome, Kirsten. >> Thank you so much. Good evening. Like I they said, I'm Kirsten Espinosa. Um I use she her pronouns. Um I want to thank Superintendent Kingsley, the members of the board of education, PSD cabinet, and Pter school district uh for this opportunity to share the resources and the work that we're doing around prevention of bullying and harassment um in

012our district. You know, the hope is that every single student that walks through a Pter school district door has a safe environment um and that they have a space and a learning environment where they feel that they can share their thoughts and their needs. Tonight, I will share three ways that our district is disrupting bullying and harassment um and working towards prevention. The first way is really in um putting a lot of effort into our student education. And so in our strategic plan, we have our four and sixth grade lessons around being upstanders. These lessons really focus on helping students speak up at school to have tools and resources and language in order to support them in disrupting bullying um and harassment. The second way we're committed to offering recurring and practical professional development. All

013staff are required by state law, the prevention, harassment and discrimination act to get training on being upstanders to make sure that they are supporting our students, that they're intervening and interrupting and that they're reporting. Um and then finally, anyone, students, family, staff, community members can report incidents of bullying or harassment um to a trusted adult at school, but also we have a website that you can get on. Anyone can get on and report um bullying, discrimination, or harassment um to help us make good database decisions and respond appropriately to these incidents. I have to say that in my work as compliance prevention response, I had the opportunity and honor of attending these lessons last year and participating in them, watching our students have a safe space where they can talk and share their fears, share

014their experiences, but also see that they have support around those things and experience what it's like to be able to talk about these things and not be bystanders and to truly see that they have a supportive environment to be upstanders. Um, we talk in our meetings about the four six lessons and we often talk with about it like what's a story arc. This is so much bigger. Preventing bullying and harassment is part of a multi-tered system of support. It's part of the work that we do every single day in our PPIs to create a culture and environment where our students feel safe where they feel like they can come to us. It's a bigger part. it's a part of a big story of creating a climate and culture for our students um that that they

015need in order to come to us when they're having these experiences. And then finally, one of the parts of my job is I receive those reports on the other end. And for a lot of people, you would think, whoa, that would be a really intense part of your job. But there's a little piece of me that has some gratitude. And I know harm was caused when I received those reports, but I also know we weren't being bystanders. that someone was being an upstander in that moment, that we have an opportunity to provide prevention and support to our students in that moment, that we paid attention, that we heard them, and that we're responding to them. So, I feel like the message is clear. The safety and belonging of students is shared endeavor. The PSD community

016is called to prevent bullying and harassment. Staff will be the stu the the people who change that moment for our students. and our students are assured that we see you, we hear you, and we are here to support you. Thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you so much, Kristen, is speaking to this. It's um always so important to know that our students are able to talk to um our trusted adults and make a difference. And we do know statistically that it makes a huge difference. It's about a 40% reduction in suicide or attempted suicide. So having that one safe person to speak to is an amazing thing. So thank you. Other board members, would you like to speak to that? Go ahead, Scott. >> I just think it's important. Can we share the website? >> Absolutely.

017Kirsten, do you want to share the website >> or just just the use the microphone, please? So the see something in the corner of when we pull up our our I'm going to show you because it's pretty cool. So in on every page in our district there's a see something say something icon right here. You click on that you and scroll down and you hit right here in the middle. This will take you straight right there. any community member has access to this. Any staff member, every student, anybody can report into this website by going to that see something, say something icon. So, >> thank you so much for sharing that. >> Go ahead, Jim. >> I especially love the student education piece of this that you discussed. I think that's great. The tools, the

018resources, the language, that's training not just for school, but training for life. So, thanks for that. >> Absolutely. Yeah. >> Anyone else? >> All right, Jill, can we call the vote? Jim Brokish. >> Hi, >> Kristen Draper. >> Hi, >> Connor Duffy. >> Hi, >> Kevin Havda. >> Hi, >> Scott Shaen. >> Hi, >> Andrew Spain. >> I >> Jessica Zamora, >> I. >> Motion passes 70. >> All right, moving to 5.3. Resolution in support of Indigenous People's Day. Can I get a motion? I move that the board approve and the resolution in support of Indigenous People's Day, October 13, 2025. >> And can I get a second? Thank you, Andrew. All right. And we have a special guest for this as well. >> For this one, we actually have two special guests. Uh joining

019us this evening to speak to Indigenous People's Day, our father and son, Philip and Miguel Chavez. Welcome both of you. So glad you're here. All right. Good evening everybody. My name is Philip Chavis. I am a fifth generation here in Fort Collins. Uh, and I want to hand it over to my son to present a speech. >> Okay. Mria Di Miguel Coois Chavez Biken Aako Kora Taga. What I shared with you is to say welcome. My name is Miguel Cotis Chavis. My father's side is indig indigenous to what is now known as the San Louis Valley, northern New Mexico. And they have lived here in Fort Collins for many generations. My mother's side is indigenous to what is now known as the US Caribbean. And our island Arawak or Tyino native language that I shared

020with you is from the island of Buriken, also known as Puerto Rico. You might know us as the first tribe to discover Columbus. However, instead of severing celebrating the genocide that came with Columbus and our community, we choose to learn and celebrate our indigenous language, culture, and the ways that we help our community. So, we remember these things which I am excited though a little nervous to share with you all today. First, I want to say hi home or as we gather here for the resolution to acknowledge Indigenous People's Day. First, I want to say hi home, which means thank you in my native language to Jenna for making this resolution possible. And a home to Alicia, my teacher, who has taught us the real histories of native peoples and also taught us about what

021native leaders are doing today to help our communities thrive. and also home to all of the community gathered here today to make the pass to make history with the passing of this resolution. So we remember when I grass dance at our local pow house. The dance represents when we tamp down the grass to prepare the camp for the people. All of the dances in their unique ways teach us how to care for ourselves and our communities. With over 500 tribal nations in just the US alone, pow bring together people from many cultures as well as sharing with non-native people in the celebration. So we remember some native youth at their schools don't get to learn about their cultures and have to and are taught stereotypes. However, when I attend our native youth program at the

022Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, which stands for indigenous science, technology, arts, and resilience, I get to connect with other native youth, learn about different cultures, and our languages. So, we remember. One last thing I've gotten to be part of is the return of the buffalo. For thousands and thousands of years, buffalo have been special to many native nations because they give us food, shelter, clothes, and more. Colonization made people try to forget about native culture. And one of the ways they did this was by killing millions of buffalo to destroy our lifeways. I'm proud of my dad, Philip Chavis, and his work at Treeswater People and my uncle, Jason Baldez, who leads the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative, for the ways they are working to support the return of the buffalo. So, we remember there

023are a lot more stories and local leaders and things to celebrate about indigenous peoples if I had more time to share. For now though, I will end with saying, "Hah, thank you for letting me have a voice." So we remember and I just want to make a few comments just to understand the significance of this uh motion for indigenous people. Um for so long our history, they've tried to erase a lot of our our our culture, our language. And so this is very uh bringing back to that uh re reconciling sorry. Um and to understand too that we native people didn't get freedom of religion till 1978. So under our ceremonies weren't allowed till up till 1978. Put that in context. My father who graduated from pter high school in 1977 you know. So that

024kind of gives you context that those people and that still exists and it's not that far. So what this mean is significant to our community. So thank you. [Applause] Miguel, I have a I have a request for you. Can you teach me how to say thank you in your native language? >> Hom so we remember. Thank you. That was amazing. And Phillip, you should be so proud. Yeah, absolutely. So thank you so much for sharing a homemate for letting us sharing him with us. Thank you. Anyone else Miguel? As you have learned and I expect are still learning, perhaps you can help us to learn about all your culture, about your family. I would love to come and see you grass dance. And I know that that that has to be only in special circumstances,

025but please invite us because I know that can be amazing. >> Anyone else? >> All right, Joel, can you please call the vote? >> Jim Brokish, >> hi. >> Kristen Draper, >> I. >> Connor Duffy, >> hi. >> Kevin Havda, >> hi. >> Scott Shoenbower, >> hi. >> Andrew Spain, >> I. >> Jessica Zamora, >> I. Motion passes 70. [Applause] Did we want to go ahead and do a picture? >> I think that would be great. If we could all meet in the front here, that would be fantastic. [Applause] All right. Thank you all for coming tonight. truly appreciate you joining us and sharing these special resolutions. We're going to move on to 6.0 superintendent report. Superintendent Kingsley will now make remarks to the board of education and to the community. Welcome. >> Good evening.

026Thank you so much, President Draper, members of the board, members of the community. Uh it is great to be with all of you tonight. I like many of you, if not all of you, I'm a little overwhelmed with emotion after going through that incredible symbolic um important moment. Um and it reminds me of many of the reasons why I'm really proud to be the superintendent of the Pter School District because our mission is really clear. It's educate every child every day. Not some ch children, not most of your children, but the mission is clear that it's every child every day. And I can't thank Aaron, Kirsten, Phillip, and Miguel for just reminding us of who we are and helping us hold a mirror and a window to ourselves around what we want to be. Um

027because as Kirsten talked about, while many of our children and young adults and employees have the opportunity today to share their fears and share their experiences, for many it's not getting easier, it's getting harder. Uh and it shouldn't be lost on us that today marks the very first time that this school board has celebrated Indigenous People's Day. It should be Yeah. It also should not be lost on us the dissonance that's created as we celebrate the importance of LGBTQIA plus history month while also recognizing that it's national bullying prevention. And there's probably not a group on this planet of people who are full of love who are not experiencing bullying and national levels of harassment on a daily basis. And so I just want to take a moment to just like for us to sit

028in that discomfort while also celebrating that our district stands out as somebody that stands up for all people. And I want to say thank you for allowing me to be a part of that journey with all of you. Uh we have an incredible meeting here tonight. Um, we have a lot of other employee groups that we want to celebrate and I want to ask our communications team to ceue up our quick win video because last week uh our district uh our country school systems across and other organizations across the world celebrated National Custodian Appreciation Day and we have some of the very best custodians in the business. Uh when you think about our 49 traditional public schools, uh as well as each of our buildings like the one that we're sitting in, um they're meticulous

029in terms of the upkeep and level of care. And I just want to say thank you to all of them for being an incredibly important part of this school system. And hopefully this video can tell a little bit about their personal stories and journey in PSD. >> I'm Forest Ambrose. I'm the head custodian at Trout Elementary. I'm Norma Rodriguez Ramos. I am the head custodian here at Centennial High School. I like being a custodian here at Trout because it gives me a platform uh to do the right thing and you know I work with good people and good kids. >> I love my job. I feel like I give a lot from my heart to my building. I look at the building as my second home, so I take good care of it. I also

030look at my staff as family and I look at my students as my kids. >> I'd like people to know that we're not like the custodians you see on TV falling asleep on a mop or uh taking a nap in the back room. If you're a good custodian, you're on the ball and you have to be on the ball all day. The job really never ends. We we take pride in our work and um we make sure that everybody's well taken care of. >> You know, custodian plays a special role cuz I'm not a teacher. Um and I don't directly instruct kids or anything, but it's it's a really pivotal part. You can't operate without it. >> I love it here. Can we give a round of applause to our custodians? I I watched that

031video for the first time maybe an hour and a half ago and I got choked up because uh my not because you know Forest and Norma are amazing. Um Norma was actually selected at Centennial High School's graduation to hand out diplomas because of the incredible relationship that she has with our students. But they remind me of my grandfather. My grandfather was the head custodian of my local high school. And I was the second still am second oldest of 26 grandchildren on my mom's side of the family. And I remember the first time that my grandfather took me to my very first high school football game. And there was not one person in that stands that didn't know him by name, that wasn't waiting for a moment of a quick joke, a handshake, all because he

032knew how to treat people right. And he had juice. He had power. In fact, when I was six years old, I thought my grandfather was the principal. True story. And so, I want to thank people like Forest and Norma who help kind of reassure uh all of us, not just people like me who grew up in a family with a custodian as the patriarch of the family, but what we do matters. And as I shared that my grandfather, I thought he was the principal. This is also National Principles Month. And we have incredible principles, incredible leaders. They're not just our principles, they're our custodians. They're our classified. There are licensed staff. But our principles make things go in our schools each and every day. And without them empowering the people that look up to them

033and making them feel joy, making them feel seen, making them feel heard, inspired, and gently and professionally pushed to do more. We wouldn't have the results that we have in this system. So, I want to take a moment on the behalf of our entire governance team's minds and hearts to thank all of our principles for the exceptional work that you do each and every day in our buildings. If we give them a round of applause, I'd really appreciate it. Lots of thanks to go around. Since we've last met, I've been in eight schools and met with incredible principles and custodians and teachers. And I can go on and on, but I want to pivot uh to the business of the day and talk about a little bit about some of the conversations and important collaboration

034that we're going to have tonight. Uh members of our board, as you already know, we're going to hear recommendations related to instructional minutes and the length of the PSD school day that was prepared by the instructional minutes action team. Uh, as the superintendent, I want to just give my sincere thanks to the many members of the action team who work across all of PSD's departments and schools for their work on this project. I know that was incredibly complex and challenging, but I think they had some really robust ideas and conversations and I look forward to learning about a lot of them tonight. Uh, members of the community, I think it's important for you to know that the instructional minutes moment of tonight's meeting is a conversation. We're having this conversation tonight related to other work

035that we're doing as a district, including work related to bell times and the installation of air conditioning. You're going to hear more about these topics at the second meeting in October. So, this is the start of a conversation. We are not asking our members of our board to vote on anything this evening. It's the it's the start of a dialogue and an engagement process that we know that will be incredibly robust for weeks to months to come. Our purpose tonight is to ground the board and our community in an instructional minutes requirements to prepare for the further discussions that we must have as a system about bell schedules, our district's calendar, as well as air conditioning installation in the future. So, I look forward to having that conversation starting tonight and the conversations that are

036on the horizon. Thanks for allowing me to address the community. I'm grateful. >> Thank you very much. All right, we're going to move on to community comment. So, welcome to the community comment section of the board meeting. The board desires to hear the viewpoints of all stakeholders, including students, employees, parents, guardians, and community members. Public comment is designed to address issues, not personalities, or personnel matters. Please keep your concerns and comments focused upon the district and appropriate for a K12 audience. Please note that the board does not generally respond to remarks made during community comments. Our lack of response should not be construed to mean that we agree or disagree with what is said or with the description or interpretation of events as presented by any speaker. Further, even if some remarks may be factually

037inaccurate, we generally choose not to respond or correct the record here because formal board meetings are not the time or place for back and forth dialogue. As we begin this community comment session, let us model for our entire community how to listen and how to interact respectfully, even with those with whom we disagree. For we all have the students best interests at heart. So, the opportunity for public comment is for members of the community who registered to speak by the designated deadline. Those people will be called upon to make remarks in the order they signed up and each speaker will be allowed three minutes to address the board. And first up, we have Kristen Stolte. Welcome. >> That was fancy. >> Thanks. Uh, good evening, President Draper, members of the board, Superintendent Kingsley, and our

038community members. My name is Kristen Stolty, she her pronouns. I'm the principal at Linton Elementary and the president of the Administrative and Administrative Professionals Association here in PSD. Tonight, I'm honored to recognize National Principles Month. Our principles um are leaders who help set the tone in our schools, ensuring that every student feels safe, supported, and challenged and that every uh staff member and um all students reach their full potential. We guide and support teachers, our classified colleagues, and build strong relationships with our families. We create safe school communities where learning is a priority and students can thrive. The role of the principal and assistant principles requires vision, resilience, and an unwavering commitment to our children. Their leadership touches every corner of the district, shaping not only academic success, but also the mental health and belonging

039for all of our students and our staff. So, I'm honored to uh recognize principal month for the month of October. On a different note, I'd like to also recognize the opportunities that the district has embedded this year to increase input from our associations. Association presidents have been included in a recent RFP for communications. We now sit on a policy review committee with Autumn Aspen and a large group of people to give our input on some policy changes. We've been asked to provide feedback on some new protocols in issues resolution which is uh every other week uh meeting to try to solve problems at the first level. And we've had two department leaders uh join our issues resolution meeting to request our feedback. All very positive choices uh a positive step forward and I wanted to

040share how much it's appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Tom Griggs. Welcome. Good evening, board members, Superintendent Kingsley, and fellow community members, both here in person and watching from your homes and offices. I'm Tom Griggs. As many of you will know by now, I'm a candidate for the district DC seed on the Pter school district school board in the upcoming election. And I just wanted to say as a way of expressing my support of the LGBTQA community, I'd like people to know that about a week ago, I received an endorsement of my candidacy by the Rocky Mountain Equality Action Fund, an organization whose mission is focused on advocacy on behalf of the LGBTQA community. I came here though to urge voters in PSD to get to know the individual candidates as well

041as the stories of those who are running in the November 4th election. It is in everyone's interest that you do sis. The only thing as important as the right to vote is the responsibility to become as informed as possible about what and whom you vote for. I can't speak for the other four candidates, but I know that I spent a considerable amount of time composing the text on my website this past summer because I want voters to know as precisely as possible what I would bring to the schoolboard if I'm elected. I included information at Tom Griggsforps.org org about my 25 years of volunteer work in our community, my 35-y year career in the field of education, and my extensive list of endorsements, which includes former state senator Bob Bacon, former state senator Joanne Janal,

042several former PSD school board members, and many others. I am grateful and humbled by their support. I'm also very keen on transparency and on being as honest as I can about what I stand for. Whatever you do, don't just vote for the candidates on some slate you may have seen or received or may receive in the mail. The other four candidates and I all represent varying backgrounds in history. And it's in your interest and indeed the district's interest to know what the differences are. With due respect to the current members of the board, I believe my background as a classroom volunteer and on numerous district committees. My 24 years as an educator of teachers, including 20 in the school of teacher education at UNC, preceding my retirement from there in 2020 and five years since

043then as a substitute teacher in Puer and Thompson school districts gives me a unique uh understanding of what makes our schools tick. It has been my career path and my obligation as a scholar in the field of education to have learned about our schools from the top to the bottom and from the inside out as well as from the outside in. Please have a look at that website, compare it to the others and rest assured this will help you make the wisest possible choice that fits your values and supports your schools. Thank you very much. I'm Dr. Tom Griggs. My website address is once again tomgriggsforpsd.org. Thank you. Next up, we have Ben Kramer. Welcome. Thank you everyone. Um, for those who don't know me, um, this summer my wife, my child, and I, we

044all moved from, uh, Texas to Colorado to give our LGBTQ teenager a better life. Life in our sleepy suburb of in Texas had gotten very political, especially on the school board, and it had made things much harder for the community. And unfortunately, life for my child had gotten very dark. Um, my child cannot help who she is. This is not a choice for her and she is who she is. So, just like we all are, the contrast between Texas and Colorado is night and day. Um, in my f child's former peer group in Texas this year alone, there have been three suicide attempts that we're aware of. Um, in addition, things that Texas has done for the school district have made things very hard for the teachers, let alone the students. I don't believe that

045those are always in well I don't believe they're in any of the children's best interests. Um my wife watched the pter school board meetings on YouTube u before we moved out here. She's better about this than I am. She was vetting the whole area for our family. Um she saw Kristen Draper's laptop stickers so she knew. She watched you approve transgender j the transgender day of visibility for the district. She researched the schools, talked to many of the people, including emailing many of you on the board. We chose this community based on the atmosphere that you've created. And we know Fort Collins isn't district, but we know nowhere is. But it is much better for our child. Our child has transformed from never leaving the house and only talking to people on Discord to having

046an active, very involved group of friends, all within three months. Um um our child attends a school that has pride stickers indicating that hate will not be tolerated here. Her teachers are kind and address her by her pronouns and her name. She's having the time of her life and she is having the time of her like a best high school experience that I believe she's ever had. Please don't stop fighting for the LGBTQ kids. Um as parents, we're worried about what our child's life will be like and it is much much better here for her. we need the community to accept her and we really appreciate it. I'm I'm blown away by this meeting tonight. Just to ramble on and on, but um this and not to badmouth where I was from that badly, but

047the love in this room and the initiatives that you guys have put forth, I mean, are are touching. Very, very touching. Thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you. Next up, we have Britney Conant. Welcome. My name is Britney Conant. I have lived in Fort Collins for nearly 25 years and raised two kids, both of whom attended the amazing public schools in this district and both of whom are part of the LGBTQ plus community. My youngest is transgender. She's a young woman now and she is an extremely quiet kid. She always has been. But only two days after she told her family this news, um she walked into school and told each and every one of her teachers um too. She she shared this news with them. Her authenticity and transparency in sharing this extremely personal update

048with her teachers and classmates was made possible um by the shared values and culture in Pter School District. Last night, I reread um PSD's principles of community, one of the cornerstones on which this district's culture is built. These values, as they are expressed in the behaviors, attitudes, and actions of P of the PSD schoolboard members, teachers, staff, and students are what create the open-minded, compassionate, and empathetic culture of PSD. Here are just a few of the statements that I find particularly resonant and meaningful at this moment. We embrace the values, strengths, points of views, and differences of all individuals. We actively include all voices and ideas in pursuit of positive outcomes for all individuals. We actively listen with open minds and receptive hearts. We recognize that vulnerability and openness make us stronger and we believe

049in making a difference. I see these principles in action in PSD. It took courage for my daughter to open her heart to her teachers and classmates to trust them with this new knowledge. and they embraced her with receptive hearts, showing empathy, compassion, and kindness. The values of PSD are alive and well in the classrooms and hallways of our schools. Your actions as a school board make a difference in keeping them intact and in practice. Some members in our community and beyond may want to exclude different points of views and may want to reject the idea that there is strength in listening to all voices. PSD is proof that a culture of respect, inclusion, courage, and action works. PSD continues to be in the top 10 districts in Colorado for math and top 15 for English

050language arts. While culture is not the only thing responsible for the students academic success, it is a vital element that helps PSD's success endure over time. I want to thank you for upholding these principles which create an environment in which my child and every child can thrive. And I want to urge you to continue to take action to protect and nurture these principles. Please keep up the good work. It matters more than you know. Thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Reggie Johnson. Welcome. Hello, my name is Reggie Johnson and my pronouns are she, her. I'm the president of P Flag Fort Collins, whose mission is to create a caring, just, and affirming world for LGBTQ people and those who love them. I was at the September 9th board meeting

051to speak on behalf of transgender and non-binary students and to thank PSD for your policies, procedures, and direct actions taken which allow the students to pursue a quality education unfettered by the roadblocks based on who they are. Since September 9th, an unbelievable amount of anti-trans activity has transpired. In case you do not follow these activities, the federal government and the Supreme Court are considering lifting bans on conversion therapy, creating uh barriers on gender affirming health care for transgender people of all ages, um enforcing restrictions on transgender participation in sports, interfering in the ability of transgender individuals to update their passports, and prohibiting public display of support of the LGBTQ plus community. And all of this in the last 28 days. A majority of these provisions are hidden in the current negotiations to reopen the federal

052government. They are however overshadowed by the concerns over ending the Affordable Care Act. transgender individuals are likely going to be thrown under the bus as political pawns in order to find that common ground. And on top of all of this, the FBI is considering classifying transgender people and their supporters as domestic terrorists. I mention all this to highlight the massive burden being carried on the shoulders of transgender individuals students at PSD. Their human rights and their very existence are under attack and they feel it. Malcolm X's cited education is an important sorry statement in the struggle between the human rights. It is a means to help our children rediscover their identity and thereby increase their self-respect. This is the charge to you as the board and the district in general. LGBTQ students are depending on

053support at school, especially students who do not have that support at home. I know this is a frightening time, but you are not alone. Gene Manford, the founder of P Flag, stood up for her gay sin and consistently had bricks thrown through her window with death threats. That was 1973. P Flag is still going strong. Parents, families, and allies of the LGBTQ plus folks are here for you as you are here for our students. This is an intense and scary work, but if we don't do it together, who will? >> Thank you. Next up, we have Janet Wright. Welcome. Good evening and thank you for the time to speak. My name is Janet. I use she her pronouns. I have three kids in the Pter School District and I'm on the board of directors for

054P Flag of Northern Colorado. On our P Flag website, we have our board director's names, pronouns, and their favorite saints. We used to have photos and a little personal information about ourselves, but we removed those due to the current administration's obsession and vitriol focused on the LGBTQ plus community with an emphasis on transgender people. Now more than ever, it's easy for people to make threats and doxing attempts even to children and to try to intimidate family and supportive community members. And sadly, our school board members are not exempt. But back to the quote, uh mine is attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And it is darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. I have it on my desk where I can

055see it on a regular basis cuz I really need to see it. I need that reminder. Um it's hard. It's hard knowing that there are people out there, possibly in this very room, who think they know better than the medical community, to think they want to harm someone or take away their rights simply because they don't understand or know a transgender person. It's incredible to me. Very sad and frightening to say the least. Transgender people don't bite. Well, mine did, but she was a toddler and she doesn't anymore, so it didn't last long. But through it all, the LGBTQ plus community is still standing. We're here. We're not going anywhere. Thank you to Pter School District for standing with all of the students. As you heard from other parents, PSD made the difference in their

056lives with their acceptance, leadership, and kindness. I am grateful every day to be here, to be in Colorado, to be in Fort Collins, and to have my kids in the Pter School District. So, thank you to the board and every supportive employee in the district for being a light in dark times. [Applause] Thank you. Next up, we have Wendy Bergman. Welcome. Hello. Good evening, everyone. My name is Wendy. I'm a proud PSD employee and a social studies teacher at Rocky. I've had the privilege to speak to educators across Colorado and the nation while they're at work. I've heard about what's going on in our buses, in kitchens, in classrooms, and in integrated services departments. I've heard directly from those providing this vital public service. Two things stood out to me in that year of my

057life. One, that our schools are working so hard to meet the needs, although they are criminally and chronically underfunded. And that most of the critical staff are often not consulted in decisions that shape their working conditions and our students learning conditions. Collective bargaining is a powerful tool in creating a school district where students and staff and families needs are met. It creates a level playing field between district administration and bargaining unit staff. It fosters an environment where everyone knows what is expected and knows what to do when something goes wrong. Collective bargaining and strong democratic employee unions ensure that working and learning conditions where staff stay and students are supported. We are blessed in this district to have a strong union of educators committed to creating thriving schools with the board and community. Educators are

058critical in finding workable solutions to the issues our families and staff pay face. We may not be paid six figures, but we are more than capable of addressing the complicated road ahead. I'm asking the board and district leadership to to include the collective voice of educators in all decision-making spaces and to bring the issues of our working conditions through the public process of collective bargaining and respect our voice. I'd like to publicly invite all members of the board to attend our negotiation sessions this year and see how the process works and how your negotiators and ours are representing this school district. Public education and collective bargaining are under attack in Colorado. No one is coming to save us. It's up to us to come together and to fight for our schools. Our students are short

059$4,500 per pupil in per pupil funding per year according to the state's adequacy studies. and four districts have ended their collective bargaining agreements with educators over the last few years in Colorado Springs District 11. This has led to the turnover of more than 400 teachers, a health textbook arriving to high schools with a chapter cut out, and the removal of Frederick Douglas's writing from the ELA curriculum. The educators in D11 are going on a historic one-day strike tomorrow to save their public schools. The leaders in D11 and many running for schoolboard director positions across the state do not wish to create thriving public schools. They want nothing more than to destroy this vital public service and sell it back to the community while privatizers profit off our children. I hope in this district we can

060work together to pro protect public education. So listen to us. Whether it's a high school science teacher telling you to move the calendar back, a shop teacher telling you they need more resources, or elementary educators asking for increased planning time, please stop leaving us out of decisions till it is convenient to you. We are committed to this district, and we'd like to see your commitment to us. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next up, we have Aaron Green. Welcome. Good evening. Uh, I attended the Olander listening session based on a promise of back and forth discussion. After waiting patiently, it became clear that the topic of outcomes for children with special needs would be ignored, just as the disparit outcomes for students within IEPs have been ignored for the past 5 years. The claim that these

061sessions might be a better way to engage public comments proved false as several community concerns were not discussed. Although there were willing parents and community members looking to have those discussions. At least tonight, I have three minutes to advocate for the thousands of children in this community who are having their future potential crippled by this board and this administration. When Mr. Kingsley says disparit outcomes. What he means is that he and his cabinet are failing to meet the district's mission of every child every day. Please evaluate him not on the successes of the middle and upper class white students, but on the outcomes of children who are poor, bipac, or disabled. Four years into his tenure, IEP graduation rates are among the lowest in the state, 20% below similar districts and currently declining. Law enforcement

062referrals for IEP students are 40% higher than neighboring communities and 16 of 17 open federal civil rights investigations involve discrimination against disabled students. Last night at the DAB meeting, Mr. Kingsley insisted that the outcomes aren't due to teaching quality. So, are the community's children to blame, Mr. Kingsley? Or is it you, your cabinet, and your administration? The truth is this district underidentifies four to 5% of its population for IEP services. That's over a thousand students denied their federal rights. The multicat review showed teachers and paras overwhelmed with case loads, gened teachers failing to provide accommodations, IEPs not being fully implemented, and paras needed more training and more pay. Teachers and special education staff are forced to triage and deny FAPE because they are overworked and undertrained. graduation rates, the 84% multicad percentage, CAMS scores are

063all a symptom of a larger problem that we refuse to acknowledge and that's the underification of children with special needs in this district. Is directors blaming annually coding issues that does not affect other districts or blaming parents for scamming respit care is simply a disgrace. Expecting those who built this problem to solve it when they won't even acknowledge it does this community no good. I join the many voices calling for an independent third-party audit of the is programming of Pter School District. And please consider the optics of sending a representative who publicly identifies disabled children's rights as a luxury instead of a right and violates the civil rights of parents advocating for disabled children as a representative of this board seak. Thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you. Next up we have Danny Lawrence. Welcome. Tonight,

064I'm going to share some vulnerability on behalf of my son in response to what I heard was said about me recently by a board member. My family moved here in January of 2021, and it was an automatic fight to have my son accepted with his disability in the general education environment. He needs some accommodations and accessing educational materials by providing online documents that are screen readable. Now, imagine that he's at the finish line of his senior year and the independence and hard work work it took for him to achieve the 3.9 GPA and being the only student in his high school who is in the National Technical Honor Society member as an agg in agricultural sciences. He's also one of the first students in PSC to have earned the seal of climate literacy as a

065junior. He accomplished all of these things without his parents. He is super independent and highly motivated. And then he brings home his graduation paperwork. All of it on paper. Every bit of it in font sizes smaller than he can see. A violation of his 504 and his civil rights. Again, the transcript paperwork for PSC is on a hot pink paper in 8oint italicized font. Can you possibly grasp how disrespected and infantile he felt the moment that his mom had to complete his college transcript paperwork? Last year, he didn't even want to apply for college, accepting that the world was just this inaccessible place because everything here at PSD has been such a bizarre fight. Following the NHS pledge on a post-it note, he spiraled into a deep depression and it took a year so that

066he could actualize that it wasn't the world itself that was non-inclusive, just this place. So, I've heard that you all find me impatient, that change takes time, and that the wheels grind here slower because four years, 56 months, three lawyers, 60 public comments made, two states complaints, and several Office of Civil Rights investigations didn't exhibit enough patience on my part. Will I find you all unwilling to learn and abbleists? How many civil rights investigations for the same offense at the same school do you need to see before you realize there's a problem because I can write them every week while I patiently watch my son work 10 times harder than his peers challenging his disability daily because you simply won't provide him with the online access to documents. There isn't a single year in this

067district that you've given him a student handbook in an accessible manner either. And we've asked, but students shouldn't have to ask to be included here because no other students have to ask to be included here. It's assumptive. It's their civil right. So every child, every day, I'm just not living it, you guys. It I think it's BS. I think it's an outright lie. How many years can you tell people that they just don't belong in your community? There are 225 days left before my gloves come off because you won't be able to retaliate against my son anymore. 225 days until you see what impatience and anger and yelling truly looks like. You have 225 days to start to do something meaningful for disabled students before my patience runs out. I don't go away. I plan

068to be unrelenting for PSD for years to come based on how you've treated my child. So, start learning about inclusion now or be embarrassed into it later on. And Mr. Kingsley, I do feel like you owe my son the respect of an apology, sir. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. All right. Thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts during community comment tonight. We appreciate your engagement and feedback you provide and look forward to further discussions at our next engagement session on October 16th um which will be at Linton Elementary School and Estone Elementary School. Um so we hope to see you there. Moving on, we will do to the consent agenda. Would any board members like to pull an item from consent? Isn't it board topics and committee? >> Oh, I'm

069sorry, my mistake. I skipped that. Yes, board topics and committee meetings. 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 anything they would like to report? Thank you for catching that. >> Um, just briefly, um, we will be meeting for the comprehensive planning commission. Um, and that will be on Monday at 7:30 a.m. here at the office. Um, we just got the agenda today and we'll once again be looking over our enrollment numbers. We had a discussion on that, I believe, last meeting briefly. This is where we are actually going to get um deeper into the weeds on that. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> Andrew's gonna go. I had the opportunity to be at a fundraising event

070for the Wellington Community Center over the weekend uh and the food bank that's coming up and it was actually went really well which is of course great news. Uh but I wanted to point out a couple of groups that were there which I wasn't aware that were going to be there and just make sure I get language right. The Wellington Middle High School Student Council and FCCLA helped the catering team at at the gala and the Wellington string quartet which is a student initiated in our group volunteered to play as well. The student council has been partnering with the Wellington food pantry both volunteering at the current pantry and running the pantry through the school every other week. And I just wanted to share that with everyone because it's for me it's it's going to

071be really great to see all the things that our students do as as I serve my term. and I thought this was a great opportunity to highlight a group that went above and beyond and they did an amazing job. >> Thank you. Go ahead, Scott. >> Um, I'll be very brief. Uh I just wanted to uh reiterate uh we have a uh exciting thing u for those of you interested in PSD cell phone and technology policy along with the research behind uh what we're learning uh recently about about how those things affect our kids. Um there is a uh screening of the documentary called Screen Aagers: Growing Up in the Digital Age. It'll be tomorrow night at Fossil Ridge High School from 6:00 to 8:30. I encourage you to bring your uh student with you

072because it's a great way to start the dialogue about how to set boundaries. Um the movie itself is about an hour long. There'll be a a group discussion afterwards and Q&A with the audience as well. Um and uh I think it's make sure you guys all know it's free. Um, and uh, for anybody who's seen it in the past, this movie's been out for probably about 10 plus years that this version has just been updated for 2025. So, it is the most recent uh, relevant version. So, I saw it those many years ago. Uh, and it's an excellent uh, documentary. So, I encourage everybody to come out and uh, and check that out. Thanks. >> Thank you. Go ahead, Kevin. >> Let's keep the waterfall going. Um, I will not be brief and I make

073no apologies for that. I am who I am and some of you pulled the lever for me regardless. So, um, okay. Uh, first thing I want to do, I do want to echo Superintendent Kingsley's comments concerning October 2nd, National Custodian Day of Appreciation. We were kind of exchanging some personal stories of growing up with some of our interactions with some of our custodial staff in the dinner session. Um, so just I want to echo those comments and say to all the people that work in our schools, outside our schools, behind the scenes cleaning the floors, serving nutritious foods, bus drivers, helpers, to all those that work on our playgrounds. Um, and they're often in our facilities before kids get there, after long after kids get there. You are the engine that drives this school district,

074too. And the the purpose and pride that you take in your work is seen and it's valued. I've had the the blessing to serve alongside you on two different occasions serving lunch both with Superintendent Kingsley and President Draper. And the immediiacy of the smiles that you see from the kids that interact with our custodial staff and with our our our food workers. It's it's incredible. That is such an important part of our kids day every single day. And that could be some of the most positive interactions that they get. And so I want to say honor you and thank you for that. Um secondly for principles uh month uh to zoom out a bit the the leaders, the experts, the gurus of our schools, thank you for your tireless work and everything you do every

075single day that will be unseen and the things that you are scrutinized and criticized for. We see you and thank you for for leading our schools. Uh third topic I want to talk about, we did have a board of engagement session uh engagement session at Olander on October 2nd, 2025. Uh we had approximately 25 to 30ish people. Some came late and some left early. Um I'm thankful for PSD staff for making that a possibility. Um uh for our security officers who were there um outside of working hours or normal hours, I should say. So I want to thank you for your time. Um so I hadn't thought about this, but I think it's probably an important point to do this is to at least address the format that we adopted in Olander. And again, this

076is all very organic and I'm open to suggestions, but it's, you know, and I said this as as sort of the master ceremonies at that one that it's the former teacher in me. I can't help myself but keep the trains to try to run on track as best I can. So, this is what we tried and we've had some success at previous times, but again, with a group that's a little bit bigger and a sort of compressed time constraints, we do the best we can. Um, so I what I find helpful is that we um introduce or we have people to the extent they're comfortable introduce themselves. um what their connection to PSD is, if they've got kids in the district, if they don't, if they've had, you know, if they teach in the district,

077etc., what their connection sort of is a PSD. And then the important one for us to know is why are you there? So, if there's an issue that you want to talk about that gets discussed, if there's um an update you're looking for, if there's or if there's just, you know, no topic whatsoever, it's helpful to know that. And so then we the directors in real time try to you know cobble together some topics cluster them together figure out as best democratically as we can to um address those or at least have the conversation start there and again understanding we've got about an hour and a half to get all that done. So the topics and these are I think these were mostly sequential order and when they were raised and I'll give just the

078quick touch points um uh of what we discussed more or less. So, there were a lot of folks that showed up that were still looking for updates from the board directly about consolidation from last year, next steps, um, and what we're doing with 4A and the sort of clustered those together. Um there was a a subset of conversation regarding 4A dollars and how they're being allocated, how they're being sp spent. And then there was a conversation underneath that about um the the bucket of money, the $4 million for small neighborhood school fund, how that was decided, what we can do. Um I relayed that from our discussion last time that that was a start, not the end of that discussion, which is what I recall. Um I do I am very interested in continuing that

079discussion. Um and and as we have more time to approach uh who ought to be included in that. Um another subtopic for was the ongoing support for schools that were named on the consolidation list and what we're doing as a district and collectively to address declining enrollment. Um we we talked about some of the new marketing initiatives that we've undertaken thanks to John Cop and his amazing staff. Um again talked anecdotally about some word of mouth uh marketing that is very pervasive and very important in our school district. Um what the district is now doing to support um individual school websites. There were some some concerns expressed over uh choice schools within our district. So PSD choice schools being able to solicit families of neighborhood schools and sort of what we're going to do to

080address that. Didn't have an answer but I thought it was an important point. Um the next topic that was discussed was integrated services. Um there was uh some concerns expressed from graduation rates uh among our students with special needs being alarming uh and what are we doing to address that. Um some of the comments were that we need to start asking the right questions about why this is happening and not offering excuses as a district really wrestling with the numbers. Um, we will be receiving a more wholesome report from Director Raml as I understand on November 4th at the board of education meeting and I do look forward to a more thorough discussion about this challenge and what we're actually doing to address it. Um, we also asked and this was out of sequence but

081some people didn't know what exactly a board of education is or does. So, it was a little bit of an existential question for us all to somewhat address. I think we fumbled through as best we could. Um, it's important to note though that some of the composition of our listening session included both former board of education directors who had served two full terms who still showed up for that engagement session as well as three candidates for um some of the upcoming seats. Um, I personally am very um appreciative and thankful of their time that they both from a longevity standpoint are still vested in what is happening in our district and making sure that you know it continues on its ascent. Um, and also the three folks that showed up to get a pulse of

082the room and see what our community is discussing and what's important. I think I think that was great. Uh, we spent a lot of time talking about calendar and heat. Um, one of the comments I thought were really resonated with me personally was to push for more equitable considerations around our communication. Um, so to get granular, when we had our early release that started this school year, um, and we I think we all know this, but it put a considerable strain on working families, um, especially single working families that had to shuffle for for child care. Again, this was, I think, Friday afternoon that this was announced. Um, and there there's certain things we can't do. We can't control the weather, obviously. But I do think one of the things that was suggested that was

083interesting to me was if we're not going to move the calendar, which is another subject we we'll return to in a moment, is to maybe pre-plan an early release for the first week or two because the other the other good data point there was that kids actually that were going back to school had a easier re-entry because of the shortened days. And so it was it tended to be good for students which by this parent but having the communication being able to plan even a week more in advance would be a huge reprieve for working families. Um and then we also talked about what are the impacts of trading a longer school day for a shorter calendar year. I know we're going to talk address this in instructional minutes information session. Um again resoundingly we

084kept hearing move the calendar now. Don't wait. Don't don't poke and prod and wait two more years, three more years. Give give families, give our community some reprieve now, even if it's a matter of weeks, which also precipitated some of that conversation about maybe we lengthen the school day if we're going to have uh if we're going to move it in the fall semester. So, I'll just kind of leave that for now. Um dovetailed nicely into instructional minutes conversation. there was a lot of support um in the room that I saw and correct me if you saw something different Jim and Scott about lengthening the school day especially for elementary schools. Um I know it's a it's a it's going to be a big conversation that we need to have. Uh but there was uh

085support from I'm trying to remember the the the room. There was a a teacher advocate uh family member that had kiddos in the school and then some others that in unison seemed to be very um interested in lengthening the school day to address some of those issues. Um, it may also offer better planning time, uh, better for working families, uh, and parents as well. Um, there was also general appreciation for the district's commitment to rolling out the new cell phone policy. Um, resoundingly that was a there was a lot of praise for implementing that policy, uh, parents and teachers alike. And then to wrap up, um, again, this is we're learning as we go, so more feedback about format is helpful. Um, we're trying not to make it the Socratic wonder of just Q&A with

086board directors, but part of it is we're trying to read the room. We're trying to give people what they came or they showed up for, and it's going to be impossible to hit every expectation. But, um, you know, I was I was surprised at the amount of folks that truly wanted an update or wanted some sort of report formally or informally from the board about what's happening. So, um, one thing that I I took away was to use this time to give updates, especially on topics that we're going to be talking about. So, I thought that was important. Um, again, I express thanks for everyone for coming. Uh, I believe that these are these engagement sessions are crucial, uh, for the work we do for the district. They're not perfect, but they're again really important

087data points for our community. Um, and in fact, to prove that point, at the very end, um, even though we ended, you know, close to seven on the dot, uh, several clusters of people were still hanging out and having breakout conversations and that followed into the parking lot as well when I tried to kick people out so that people could go home. Um, so I think that's it's wonderful, especially some of the things that we heard tonight in community comment. It's wonderful to see that organically, but also that to fulfill that need that we have in our community for that democratic exchange um to give people genuine discussion opportunities uh and you know, and connection that we badly need right now. So, I'm a I'm a huge fan of it. I know we can improve

088on it, but I really appreciate those that showed up. Uh, my last point on that is to stay engaged. If you're not able to make the engagement sessions, please show up to other engagement sessions uh with that the district offers. Email the directors, email cabinet, call us, tell us what you think. Uh and especially important given recent events that we continue to discuss things with one another. We have to keep talking to one another to make this the best district for our students. And so I'm thankful for those that continue to be engaged and provide us with your insights and thoughts on the business of making this the strongest district possible. And with that, I yield. Go ahead, Jess. >> Sorry, I was waiting patiently. No. Um, most a lot of that was also covered

089at ours. I think what I would like to build on are a couple of things. Uh, one, ours was predominantly Wernern families or Wernern parents, Wernner teachers. And so, I just also want to encourage folks from across the district. You don't have to just attend the one that's closest to you. You can attend any of them. Um the words that came up I think with every topic was wanting transparency and accountability and some of the topics like bell times or comprehensive planning or a calendar. They were topics that we have had extensive conversations about in this room but parents were still e unaware or um they didn't get the update. They maybe they missed an email or I'm sure these the most exciting parts of everyone's Tuesday. So they weren't aware that we had even

090had the conversations even though it's obviously floating out there in the community. So they know something is happening or some conversation is happening just not that they could watch it. So I would encourage us to figure out and I liked your idea about having them be a feedback loop too. So if people are coming to our engagement sessions, we're actually giving them a little bit information as well. Um I don't know how we want to format that or if we want to kind of think about it, but that seemed like they really just wanted information and was like it's out there. How do you want to get it? And I'm not sure how to answer that question by myself. Um, let's see. Mill levy came up. Bill times. One idea around mill times, there was

091a thought that it could be a feeder start time instead of a level start time. So, I don't know if that's something that has been explored or interested in, but I wanted to put it in the room. And then the comprehensive planning, I think that was the main topic that took up the bulk of our time and energy, which was great. A lot of people wanting an update. and um Connor being our leazison to that committee was great and did a nice job of updating, but I'm really looking forward to the update that we'll get here eventually and then figuring out how we can share that out effectively. So, uh and last but not least, sorry, I don't want to forget. I I loved the custodial video and Norma makes me feel like it's home

092just being in there. So, thank you to all of our custodians for making our schools feel like home every time we walk into them. I don't even go to the school every day and I feel like it's home. So, I can only imagine how our teachers, our staff, and our students and families feel as well. So, thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Go ahead, Andrew. >> Sorry. >> Oh, I was looking this way. >> All right. Anyhow, I uh just wanted to add on to Kevin gave a great summary of what we saw. Uh, one idea that came up, uh, based off what you were saying in the community comment tonight, um, it would be helpful, I think, if you're planning to come to the community comment, email us ahead of time with subjects that

093you're interested in. Then we can make sure we're prepared to talk about them and uh, that might make things go a little quicker and uh, and get you the best information. >> Can I just interrupt for a second? Community engagement session. >> Sorry, community engagement sessions. Yes. Yes. Thank you very much. Good point. Just That's what I was going to say. So, it's it's kind of tough because again, we're doing this in a very informal way. We're kind of learning this. So, um again, not taking upon them myself as master ceremonies, but what we tried to do is say that there clusters of topics. We're going to try to dedicate 20 minutes or so, but I don't want to be the traffic cop all the time as far as, you know, there was there was

094a lot of organic conversations that were happening, which is good. We don't want to stifle that, and I don't want to just keep sticking to schedule. So what we what I did, prudent or not, was I would interrupt a couple times and say, "Look, we can keep talking about this topic. It looks like there's a lot more to say, but just everyone know that we've got 20 minutes left and then kind of leave it to the room and we're all adults and they can figure it out." So I think I like the idea of, you know, not screening, but if you want to give us things and we can kind of do that ahead of time, but um yeah, open to suggestions. >> Just want to be clear that there was sending about the engagement

095sessions so that we have an an actual chance to engage and discuss. So that's all. Andrew, >> I hear what Ben shared about his small community from where he came from having an increase in suicide attempts. And that one hits me personally. Um, many of you know that I come from a paramedic background. And I'm going to ask you all to help keep paramedics bored by being there and being the hope for people who might be considering that. And we know we have done a tremendous job with keeping our students from making that horrible choice. But I'm looking at two of our resolutions and there's two groups right off the bat that are under duress. whether they're being bullied or whether they're part of a community. I'm just asking you all to consider being that

096hope because that was the one consistent theme I saw decade after decade. When people lose hope, that's when they make the poor decision. And I'm asking you to be that hope for everyone. >> Thank you. Anything else? Okay. I just want to give one quick shout out to Brandon and the community classic um if any of you were able to go um last Friday um to the football games that were held at Canvas Stadium. Fantastic. Um and I hear Wellington won. So it was great. Uh so thank you all so much. Okay, next up oops going to lose that is the consent agenda. Would any board members like to pull an item from consent? Okay, seeing none, can we get a motion? >> I move that the board approve and adopt the recommended actions for

097the items on the consent agenda. >> Can I get a second? Thank you, Jessica. All right, gentlemen. Can you call the vote? >> Jim Brokish. >> Hi, >> Kristen Draper. >> Hi, >> Connor Duffy. >> Hi, >> Kevin Havda. >> Hi, >> Scott Shaower. >> Hi, >> Andrew Spain. I >> Jessica Zamora >> I >> motion passes 70. >> Thank you. All right. Moving on toformational re uh reports and discussion items. Uh 10.1 Irish Elementary performance improvement plan. And I believe we have guests for this. >> Yes. Presenting the Irish Elementary performance improvement plan is their principal Lindseay Moer. Welcome Lindsay. [Applause] Good evening. Um, thank you Mr. Kingsley, President Draper, board directors, and the Peters PSD leadership community. I would also like to acknowledge um my gratitude for members of the Irish community that

098are here as well um showing their support. We have teachers, parents, leaders, and one student over there who is staying up late and uh delaying his dinner so that he can show his support as well. Um what I'm going to present to you tonight is um uh the yearly uh school performance framework process that we go through. All schools go through this and um how we use this to design our unified improvement plan at our schools. Um, you're also going to see what uh what our current plan is and then what our unified improvement process has been um to create a a plan for improvement for our school. Um, if you have questions, feel free to ask me as I'm going along. Um, I've received feedback that sometimes I can get a little technical and

099so I want to make sure that that I'm making our our case clear and uh but there will be time at the end um that we can do that together. So um wh how do I do it? There we go. Um so I'll I'll start with a little bit of over you overview of what the school performance framework is. And so we um each year each school is um designated a school performance framework based on a percentage of points that they earn um through um through a couple of measures um at the elementary level. It is through CASS um both growth and achievement and also through our access scores. access is the annual assessment that we use to um uh to assess our students um English language acquisition. Um so those are where the the

100main sources of data that we um receive our points and so um every year uh the state analyzes um how we did and both of our growth and achievement and then designate a plan to us. So um at the top level if you receive um 53% or more um of the designated points from those two measures you are um receive a performance plan. Um and then going down from there between 42 and 53% of the points that's designated of improvement plan. between 34 and 41% of performance points is um priority improvement and anything below 34% of points um is a turnaround plan. And so when schools are designated um either in priority or priority improvement or turnaround um what they receive is extra requirements from the state of how they need to plan their school

101improvement plans and also um have the opportunity from extra support from the state to make sure that we are meeting the needs of all kids um through our school improvement processes. So this past year um um Irish is has a new plan um and we were identified with a priority improvement plan which is uh part of the reason why I am sharing with you today. Um, one of the requirements that the state asks us to do is to have a community meeting to share our processes and our major improvement plan um for community feedback which is what we are um relying on you the board directors to give us um after my presentation today. So um as you can see uh we earned 41.6% 6% of total points possible. To give you an idea how

102much that is overall the last um few years um Irish has earned um between 53 54% of points would push us on a priority improvement plan. So you can see from last year to this year that was a pretty significant drop. What you should need what you need to know is um how they calculate those percentage points. Um it there's a weighted point on student growth and what that measures is how much kids grew between really third to fourth grade and fourth to fifth grade um both in l English language um English language arts and math and also in um the growth that they showed in their English language acquisition. Um the two points that they look for there is how many what percentage of kids are on on track to proficiency. So that means

103are they growing enough um to become proficient in English over time. And also um they also measure with a median growth percentile for their English lang language acquisition. You can see Irish in the last year um for both our achievement and academic growth we were approaching state expectations um on that but um which is which is a positive sign in our growth and of achievement and you'll see that in the data here that I'm going to show you. Um however um the the amount uh the percentage of points um did not um meet us to the where we wanted to be which was a performance plan like we have in the last few years. So that is our current status and I'm going to show you a little bit next about um what data that

104um that that we use to to to show this um performance plan. So this right here um this all this data is available on the CDE website. Um so I pulled this directly off of that if you look under the school performance frameworks on that website. So what you're seeing um is our uh English language arts achievement data over time. Um you'll notice the first year if you can see that clearly is 2020 and there's no data there because in 2020 um the that was the pandemic we did not use CAMASS during that year. Um the other things you'll notice u on that data is there are three lines. There's a red line um and then there's a yellow line and a green line up top. And those are the cut off points that the

105state um has set to um to designate whether schools are not meeting um state expectations for achievement and growth. Um whether they're approaching those state expectations or they're meeting them. So as you can see over time we've got um a couple different subgroups that you're looking at. Um the first one is all students and then free and reduced eligible compared to non-f free and reduced eligible and mult multilingual learners compared to non-multilingual learners. What you'll also see is um our student achievement data. So that is their one-year performance how they're doing. Um you can see from 20 to 21 there was a big growth um coming out of the pandemic. And what we did um uh from the previous years is we rose in achievement and and became quite steady in our achievement um in

106approaching expectations for all students um and and and across our subgroups. Um I'm sorry I did I click on that? So that was math um achievement as well. Um this is our access group. um access growth, remember that is our English language acquisition. Um again, you can see our um post-pandemic level uh right at 2021 um which was uh in the 30th percentile. Um over the years it has come up to meeting expectations for um for our English language uh for our multilingual learners. In the past three years, the median growth percentile um for their growth in English language acquisition has um declined slightly. However, still is um over the state line of meeting expectations for what we want to see for growth um for our multilingual learners in their English language development. So um

107you may remember what I said before which is the the percentage points um based on growth and actually now I'm not sure I said this but the percentage points based on growth is weighted heavily. So it is 60% of our percentage points is is coming from our growth and um and so then what you'll also need to recall is that's coming from um basically two data points and that's our fourth and fifth grade um on CAMS. So so that's a pretty focused point. And so what I hope you'll hear me say in our processes here is we're not evaluating our our major improvement strategies around just those two data points because they're not going to tell us the whole picture of what's actually happening in the school. So here's what did happen with those two

108data points. As you can see, this is our growth over time. What you're looking at is growth percentiles. um post pandemic we were we um jumped up to um approaching and almost meeting expectations for growth. You can see in 2024 we were meeting expectations for growth but there was a significant drop last year in our growth for English language arts in Camass. So remember that is our fourth and fifth graders and that drop was consistent across all subgroups. Math um the growth drop was even more significant um and and that drop was also consistent across all subgroups. So when we um when we see data like this, that is um that is a concern and that is a concern that that we as the Irish community felt together. Um I can tell you uh talking

109with our parent community, our teachers, um and we all feel the same thing like this is not what we wanted for our kids. And so we took a lot of time to do a lot of um searching of why that may be. So um what we did is um we compiled a uh a team of teachers across teams and grade levels coming from different background and we took a day and we um looked at every piece of achievement and growth data that we had in the building. So, not just CAMASS and access, but we were analyzing our um NWA MAP data, which is an assessment that students take in um MAP and English language arts. Some of our students take it in Spanish language arts as well, um three times a year. So, those are

110it's it's a CAMASS indicator that that assessment. We also at Irish um evaluate um early literacy um growth and achievement through dibbles and uh a program called lectura. And so we're measuring for all students both their growth in early literacy in English and in Spanish. Um we looked at our connection student data. We looked at our discipline data and we looked at trends over time in all of these areas. And what we what we just what we decided as a team is the trends that we were looking on if we were to focus on those trends and reverse them would make the biggest impact for our students growth and achievement um in math and English and in Spanish. Um as you know and I don't know some of the some of the board directors I

111haven't met yet. Um Irish is a dual language school. um over over 60% of our student population um are multilingual learners in Spanish. The rest are multiling or I'm sorry multilingual lingual learners in English. The rest are multilingual learners in Spanish. Um and so the expectation as Irish is that we all become bilingual um and biliterate um by the time that they leave. So um the three uh priority performance challenges that we wanted that we agreed that if we focused on not just for those key grade levels for growth but for all grade levels. Um the top one was the achievement in growth in math. Um the second one what you'll notice is it says uh increased growth for English language arts. um that is it's one of our state requirements as a priority improvement

112plan that that we must acknowledge in that. However, what I want the board to to understand is what that also means for us is growth in all language arts. So this is something that we are going to be not only monitoring but are explicitly planning for is we would like to see um increased growth for Spanish um English or Spanish language acquisition um and and literacy as well. And the way that we would like to do that is when we were looking at our data, and this is both in our formative assessment data and in our early literacy data as well as our CMASS data, is that we were noticing that um there were trends in student output. um especially in writing and orally um and this was both an access and our formative assessment

113processes um that that the student output um was was quite low um for their oral written rural written and output. And so what we wanted to focus on is if we can get more from our students no matter the language that they are speaking um both in math and in their literacy situations that we would be able to see growth and achievement in all areas. So that was a main focus that the team um wanted to review. >> Can I interrupt you for just one moment? I'm just I'm just curious when you say output what what does that look like? Yeah. So that that looks like um basically what what we are expecting students to say um based on their language level and I'm going to go into that a little bit when we talk

114about our major improvement strategies. So what so not only what they we expect them to say but all also what we expect them to write. So, not just in the writing process, but anytime we're expecting them to write in their sci in their science experiments, in their math explanations, all of these things. Um, we really wanted to look that that they are um showing us grade level thinking and work um no matter what language environment that they're in. So the team um the team did a what's what we call a root cause analysis protocol and and basically is when once once we identify those performance areas um we dig deep and and um ask the question why until we get to a place where we can all agree that if we addressed these two root

115causes that that would make the biggest impact on our growth. So the first one that they that we um discovered and that we agreed upon is that we had not yet aligned our expectations on what that student output should look like based on their language level. So what we know is what we're given is is the state standards um for communications and also for how students should be showing their thinking and reasoning in math and also in science. um what does that what those stand so that is the the grade level expectation for all what we also need to take to take into account at Irish because at any given point in time in the lesson um 50% of your students are not using their first language and so what we need needed to come

116to an alignment in is what grade level expectation must look like for a student that is working on increasing their language acquisition. So that is that is the focus area that that we wanted to come together as a staff to and say what does grade level look like for a language learner. The second is is that we're able to give kids um consistent feedback on what is expected of them and also monitoring with each other um how we are are how we know that we are successful for for getting this kind of stupid student output out of students. And so what we wanted to do is align the process amongst not just the grade level teams but also with our integrated services teachers with our interventionists with our ELD teachers and and you'll see in

117our plan even with our parents what what our parents and families are expecting from their own kids when it comes to producing grade level work. So we decided um in a committee um that we were going to really focus and undress these these two items um to get the best results for our students. So um so to that end we um we designed three major improvement strategies that to address those things. You'll notice some language that you have seen before. Um that is because um what we know from research um that the district's um strategic plans around consistent consistency, coherence and belonging um are all are all the best way to make uh to close opportunity gaps that we have in our schools. And so we wanted to focus on those researchbased ways um so

118that we can do that at Irish as well. So the first of major improvement strategy um will be uh aligning our expectations for student output. The second is to align our systems of monitoring of progress. And the third is belonging. And when we're talking about belonging at Irish, what we're really focusing on is um what our academic belonging looks like. Um not just with our students, but with our families as well. So, at Irish, what um any of you that have been there, and and many of you have, um the first thing that folks notice about our school is there's there is a deep feeling of belonging there. Um the the families um are comfortable. They can they can talk with anyone. um our uh our comm our connection survey data shows that our students

119feel belonging um just as well as any other student um in in in our or any other school in our district. And so when we're talking about belonging as a major improvement strategy, what we're really talking about is does every student know that all of their adults um number one know what they're supposed to be learning, two know how well they're doing in it, and three that they know how they can help. And so that's really the the focus areas that we were looking for for that third major improvement strategies. So here's how we're going to do it. Um the first uh strategy is what we're going to do is we are going to create aligned standardsbased expectations for student output differentiated by the WEDA standards. So that's not something I've mentioned before. Um WEDA

120is an organization that um has um standardized what we can expect for student growth in language acquisition design. So, they have different levels. Um, one being non-English-speaking all the way up to six being a proficient English speaker and all of those levels in between. And what they've done with those standards is they have said, "Here is what the grade level expectation should be for that student if they're moving from a one to a two or a two to a three." And so what we do in um at Irish is when we are planning our instruction based on standard, we um we separate what is the language demand of the standard um to the content demand of the standard. And then we come up with agreed student outcomes based on what we're expecting students to show

121us that they know based on the content um at the level that they are that we're expecting them to be at their language. So we're not actually planning that student output based on the level that they are but the level that they we want them to be so that they are able to show that growth. So to that end um we are aligning the way that we um process those standards in our planning um through what we call our dual language planning template. So that allows teachers to come to an agreement of one like I said what is the language demand of the standard and also then what is the content demand of the standard and then creating a process that is research proven um to help kids get there so that they we're make

122sure we're including um comprehensible input. We are including building their background knowledge. We are including accountable talk and feedback from teachers. So we have worked uh so we have planned our professional de um de development cycles around that. Um every other week teachers are meeting um meeting together to create um collaboratively create task output that they want to see from their students for the next week. And that's both for reading and math. So again, we analyze the content and the language demand. We say we create an exemplar of what we're all expecting from them and and then we go and we teach it. We bring it back the very next week and analyze and say and say did the did the kids do what we thought they were going to do? Why or why not?

123And how are we going to adjust our instruction? So what's different about that is we used to do that every six to eight weeks and now we're doing it every other week. So by that consistency of planning that we can really can create that aligned thinking about what we're expecting from our students. And the way we're going to be monitoring progress of that is is through frequent walkthroughs and feedback not only from me and our assistant principal but also with our leadership team and instructional coaches so that we can all consistently see that we're on the same page um for what we're expecting for that student output. Next, um, we are looking for coherence and creating frequent opportunities for data analysis, feedback, and instructional adjustments. So, what you just heard me say is that um,

124through our collaborative teaming, we're going to be doing that every other week, but we're also talking about um, making instructional adjustments and analyzing data in the moment in the class with the child. So, um, one of the, uh, action steps we're going to be taking is that the students have, um, uh, or the teachers have had professional development on a protocol that we're calling active monitoring classrooms. So setting the expectations for what we want to see the students to do and then giving the teachers the tools to be able to um give feedback and take data in the moment so that they know what they need to do for their instruction either right then or um in the near future to to be highly respons responsive to what the students are showing us. >> Can

125I ask a quick question on that? >> Yeah. When you say active monitoring, are you also including like teachers going in other teachers classrooms and giving feedback or is this more from admin? >> Um the so the academic no the active monitoring what I'm what I'm specifically talking about here is how teachers are h how teachers in their own classroom are giving feedback to their students. So um so that might be a strategy within our professional development. In fact, we've already done it. um our instructional coach who's sitting right here um put herself in the classroom and practiced this protocol, videoed herself and um shared it with others and had them analyze like what did you hear me saying and saying and doing? How were the kids responding to the feedback that they were getting

126there? And um part of our professional development process is then to like you said get teachers to look into each other's classrooms videoing themselves to see how that they can all um align and improve how they are giving feedback. Um we're also um including these impact cycles for interventionists and is teachers. So based on what the teachers are seeing in their um classrooms that they can also be targeting their interventions and their feedback to kids to help them build their capacity to be able to meet the expectations that we're looking for in their classrooms. Um, and then like I said, our shortened evidence analysis and action protocols like I was talking about to be every two weeks rather than every six to eight weeks so that we can be a lot quicker and more responsive

127to what our students are showing us that they need. So lastly, and um the oh I wanted to say one last thing about the last one. So for that um strategy um we we really have gotten a lot of support from our district partners on this. So um Kim Timkowitch is I believe with our I I think her title is the director of educator effectiveness. She's already been working with us. She's already met with us three times um and working side by side because um in her experience she knows this is what works um for schools um that are are wanting to make good improvement very quickly. Um uh I've also been collaborating with obviously with Dr. Julie Chaplain with um Susan Thomas um with um the directors of LCE. And so this has really

128been um in designing this plan and implementing it a a big team effort. So I wanted to give a quick shout out to our partners there at the district as well. The last thing um what made me think of this is because when I was sharing this with our parent group um they were they were excited and they were they were really really passionate about about helping. The first thing that our parents, our parent group always tells us is how can we help? What do you need us to do? And so we really wanted to leverage that in our plan to to make sure that that all adults that um that are that love our students um are are on the same page on on what we're looking for from them. So we've always had

129Irish um student portfolios that we use to um show student progress over time. Um, but what we would like, what we wanted to do is refine how we use those proto portfolios to better have good conversations with parents about those three questions that I told you about. What is my child supposed to be learning? How are they doing on it? And how can I help? So, one of the things we're going to do is add um some parent education during our conferences which are coming up next week. So teachers will have talking points on on here's how to talk with your child about it. Here's what to look for in their portfolios. Here's how to um check your child's progress using those portfolios. Um all teachers at our school have committed to have individual conferences

130with their students using their portfolios so that students are constantly thinking about where I am where I am where am I in my learning where do I want to be and what kind of steps do I need to take to get there. So teachers are having regular meeting and so in that we've already had several um sessions to align how we're using our portfolios in those conferences. Um the other thing that we're adding is what we want to do is make sure that all of we have we have a really robust family school community partnerships team. Um and so we do a lot of things. We do a lot of parent outreach for literacy and taking parents to the library and our annual literacy events and our two annual um community events that we have

131every year. Um and so we we we give our parents a lot of information. Um but the only opportunities that we have to get information from them have been conferences. And so what we've been doing, what our team has been doing is sending out short surveys after every parent event asking those three questions so that we can actually see are those events effective for them and how might we ingest them so so that they can be because that's those are the three important things that we want to see from them as well. Our kitchen table conferences um come between our conference time and that's when we send our portfolios home and teach the kids how to be able to talk about them on their own. And the other thing that we are adding for our

132portfolios is that the students can talk about how they're doing in their social emotional learning and their academic behavior. So, do they know how to get started? Do they know how to problem solve? Do they know how to keep going when they get frustrated? Do they know where to go for help? And can they talk about what they know and what they don't know? So, those are things that we want them to be able to explain to their parents. So, we're going to be doing some professional development for staff on how to teach them that and um and then how to communicate that with their parents. So, um so that is my pres presentation, but um I I wanted to just say in closing that um I've had a lot of conversations with people about

133this in the last month um mostly with our teachers and with our parents about it. And um what I wanted to share with you is while while this data is is not what we wanted to see um everybody that I have talked to and and in all the teams um that we have been working on this and problem solving um everybody sees this as an opportunity and we see it as an opportunity to be able to really be leaders in what we do here at Irish. um in in elevating our students, their what they know, what the hope that they bring for our community um and and showing everybody what they can do and we're we're highly motivated on that. We also come to this um situation with a lot of strengths. Um, a lot

134of schools in our position, um, have have much more work than we have to do in, like I said, building that sense of belonging. Um, but at our school, everybody is on board. Everybody believes the same thing. And we believe that our students are worth it and they're going to show everybody else that they that they can do it as well. So, that is that is my um presentation. Do you have any questions further for me? Um, anything else I can clarify? >> Thank you so much. I, you know, I do have one question and then I'll, um, let other people jump in, but um, you know, you're you're looking at an increase in um, professional development and then collaboration every two weeks instead of every six to eight weeks. I'm just asking about the

135time on that like there's >> how do we do it? >> Yes. Where does it go? >> Ah, okay. So um so what we do for the the collaboration this was something that we've we have done for actually several years. Um teachers have always met every week during planning time to collaborate around student data. Um the the data analysis point just has been spread out further because between those two points what we have been doing is doing a lot of let us lesson study design. Since we've been doing that for years, we we've we now are using that dual language planning template saying this is what we're going to stick with and we are going to just increase that. So the way we're able to do that um is that we we provide teachers extra

136planning time once a week. So they are above and beyond what's required from the employee agreement so that we can take that time to be able to use it for that purpose. So that's one way. Um we the rest of the time we do in two other ways. What at Irish what we we have our budget which um I use partially from studentbased budgeting. Sometimes it's from donations, sometimes it's from grants we write, but every team gets um what we gets a half-day collaboration day um through substitutes. And we do that once a semester depending on the team if they're a new team or um if they they're really wanting needing some more time to do that. Um that is another way that we do it. We also do it during our afterchool meetings, but

137we're we're um which is are roughly twice a month. um but us usually only once. So that's how we do that. And then we also use our um building collaboration days that have been built into our calendar. Um but as you can imagine, time is tight. And so every minute of those professional development days um are already planned out for the rest of the year. So if you want to visit, you can come and see, but I probably won't give you much time to talk. >> Great. Thank you. >> Go ahead, Kevin. Thank you for the presentation and thank you and the staff for being here. Um, one question I had which is more of a maybe open-ended but in your examination of root cause analysis I'd like to turn if you could go back

138to slide four >> possible this was the trends over time Cas English language arts achievement one. Yep. Mhm. >> Um, so looking at the subcategories, the first thing that jumped out to me was if ever there was a visible demonstration or demonstrative of the achievement gap, this might be it. >> Um, I'm looking at the free and reduced lunch eligible categorization over time versus the not. >> Um, and it does look to me at least that those again this subcategory for this subset of data, >> it seems to be a flatline. So this is the bigger question I've got which is maybe a systemic question which is what can we do to support this trend upwards to get this this category to stop flatlining. What resources would the district supply you >> for free and

139red free and reduced lunch algebra? >> Um well I can you're right it's a little bit of an open-ended question. Um I can tell you what you're already doing. um what you're already doing is is supporting the district in in those uh in that strategic plan um around consistency, coherence, and belonging because that is the way that we show that students that um who have been traditionally underserved um students in poverty, multilingual learners or um students of color. Um those are the strategies that that work for students. So supporting the district work in that I I believe is going to work. Um the other work that you're already doing is um is through your your your comprehensive planning uh around and and I believe around boundaries, transportation, all of those and and busing all that's

140coming up is looking for um looking for things in the district that are um that are in inequitable as a system and addressing that through those things and and I know you're already working on those as as well. Um I think that that's going to make a big impact if we can um address that things that are already we can see right in front of us are not equitable um for those kids that that need services the most. Um I think that I think that that'll make a big difference over time, but yeah, it's a longer conversation. >> Connor, >> close-ended question for your multilingual learners. Mhm. >> Um how has attendance been in the last year? Has it fallen off? >> Um not not that I have seen but what I have noticed is

141two things. One is that um we we at Irish get a lot of newcomers, a lot of migrants. one year we had uh like 46 um which is way more than any other school in the district and even really in the area. Um and that has really dwindled a lot. So what we've noticed is as as you all know there's a the enrollment decline for everyone but that particular piece of enrollment has impacted Irish differently. The other thing is that we've noticed this year is um several of our families who um were multilingual families um they were choicing into Irish um based on their um because we have the dual language program for them. Um and we had f five families that went back to their neighborhood schools. And the reason for that is is

142because they were driving their kids across town. And what we learned is that there's there was a rumor that if the more they're driving, the more likely they're going to get stopped, right? And so they wanted to eliminate driving um on that. So um that's just kind of another area where busing um because we're a specialized pros program might address that as well. >> And Scott, >> thanks for uh putting this presentation together. Um, looking at looking at the data, um, there's obviously a big drop. I think it's spring of 25. >> What what changed? What happened? It seems like you guys were trucking along. You said 53, 54 were your scores in previous years. >> Was it a staff change? Was there attendance issues? Was there your your root cause as you talk about

143alignment of instructional processes and expectations for student output? I I would assume that was happening in those good years. >> So, do you have a feel for anything specific that changed or was it just kind of I mean it sounds like if that's one of the root causes maybe there was more independent planning by teachers rather than coordination and it just kind of >> drifted a little bit. I don't know. I'm just curious. >> Well, so I I hate to sound cliche. However, um I the what I can say if if I had to put my finger on one thing, um it it it would be a perfect storm of events. Um so to answer your question, all of those things, there was staffing changes, there was new staff, there was sign significant needs in

144in um a certain cohort of kids, there was um so so all of those things together. Um because you're right, you wouldn't usually see a drop like that for no good reason, especially if we've got years of data to show that that we're meeting that. Um and so that's really why um we are taking it as a I think that um we I think that sometimes we can take things for granted about how well we're doing. And so um when when a perfect storm hits, it shouldn't hit us like that. And so we are taking this year as an opportunity to make sure that it doesn't anymore other questions. No. >> All right. Well, thank you so much. >> Really appreciate the presentation and all the work that you're doing to >> get us going

145in the right direction. >> Thank you. And I would like to just put an open invitation. Please reach out to me if you want to come see. >> Appreciate. >> Okay, we are going to take a five minute break um and then we will be back here at let's see do 7:45. Thanks. Okay, welcome back. We are going to move on to ourformational reports. Uh 10.2 instructional minutes action team recommendations. And I know we have a a lot of guests for this one. So, >> yeah, we have a few. So, tonight we look forward to hearing recommendations from the instructional minutes action team. Presenting this item are Dr. Tracy Guile, our lead assistant superintendent, and Bud Hunt, our chief technology officer. Welcome to both of you. >> Thank you, Superintendent Kingsley, board cabinet and public.

146When you said we had a lot of guests, and I looked around and I thought, well, these are the these are the real folks right here. I mean, the the gallery is great. Um I'm I want to get up and and say that first of all uh you might be wondering why the chief technology officer is starting this presentation about instructional minutes and Dr. G will will join us as we move towards the discussion but I wanted to name that uh the reason that I'm standing here and representing the work of of some of our team is is a lot of folks in the IT department that both count and report to the state many of these things and then work with our sites. So our data analysts have been heavily involved in this work

147on the counting and the reporting side and then our application support team works with sites and schools and leadership teams and their configuration matrices to build schedules and allocate minutes and do those sorts of things. So a lot of those things pass through it but I stand here tonight representing some very smart folks on our team as well as on behalf of Dr. G and myself the members of our instructional minutes action team which I I'll tell you about more in a second. I thought a nice way into the work though would be to read to you uh the 32-page work report that is in the board packet tonight. So, uh if we'll all settle in and I think we've got some warm be No, I'm just kidding. Um what we are going to do

148tonight is as Brian or sorry, Superintendent Kingsley said earlier is we are going to reframe uh uh and and launch a little bit of this work at a very high level. Uh certainly we want folks to read uh the work report, but this is the start of a conversation. And this is intended as an opportunity to inform the system around uh a problem that that happened uh in some ways over several years of yeses and opportunities and transportation challenges and things and in some other ways very suddenly as the state uh started work on a new data collection which we'll talk more about in a second and led us to where we are here. Um th this is the problem statement that the action team has been working around since they started meeting in July.

149Uh their first meeting was on July 31st, which is everybody's favorite way to come back from from summer uh and join an action team, which sounds a lot more exciting uh than it really is. Uh our our accessories were not very cool at all. But um the the group has been working towards addressing and looking at and really trying to better understand this problem of practice related to the conflation of some law, some practice, and some reporting and all of those yeses that we've talked about historically to make sure that we can say with integrity that that we uh can uh meet this collection and report our instructional requirements uh as they are. Uh but before we get into the the details of the requirements and some some potential ways forward, just want to sort

150of frame how we got to here. Uh in the spring of 2024, uh the state legislature passed a law that that we think is very important around how to make sure that we don't as school districts uh compromise federal plan requirements, IEPs, 504s, in the context of an abbreviated school day. and they they provided some very specific language that became law and policy as of July 1st this year. And on page seven of that very lengthy law was a requirement to the state department of education to begin a new data collection. Some of the folks on my team get very excited with a new data collection. It's a new opportunity for uh brushing off and dusting off a fresh spreadsheet uh talking about data elements and getting into uh some things. This one had some

151some interesting pieces to it, but the data collection is what ultimately brought us here. As we started to look at in the IT department, what that data collection required, the old methodology for reporting our instructional uh calculations was to attest that we thought they were good. Can you affirm that they're uh that they're good? And we could say yes. The state is now asking a series of data questions that uh changed the way we look at that and required us to do some calculations differently. So, we took a look at those. Uh, this happened late in the spring after configuration packets, which are the tools that we use to build schedules and think about the year, were already put to bed. Many of the staff who were involved in that work at sites were were

152already on their way or already off on off contract. And so, the the timing suggested a temporary policy change. And so, uh, Dr. G came to the board in July in June and said, "Hey, here's where we are. We we we would ask a temporary policy change." And at that time we understood the board to say sure but this is a short-term uh fix which gave us the time to do a couple of additional things which was to pause the work of our calendar committee as we knew that we needed to have conversations around the length of the day. And of course if you think about the number of days and the length of days those things add up fairly quickly. They they they rely on each other like many system things when you touch

153a piece you touch a lot of stuff. Uh and so we started the instructional minutes action team to begin to look at this issue and to do what we're doing tonight, which is to provide some information around what the problem is and some potential ways forward so that we can have a robust conversation. When I was a writing teacher, this is what I would call a response draft. You have to put something into the room so that people can respond to it. And so that's what we're doing with the uh document and the and the presentation and the conversation tonight. um the action team report that you have in your board packet and that was distributed to leadership. Every school principal has one. It's available on our diligent website right now. You can take a

154look. Uh that was published on the second. This is our discussion. It's not a decision tonight uh around this. And then the feedback that y'all provide tonight will ultimately likely lead to some direction from the superintendent which will suggest how our feedback will continue to go as we move forward. Um, the questions that we'll end the presentation with, I want to just name right now so that your subconscious brains can sort of be chewing on them as we work through. And it's the questions are these. Is the board in alignment with the action team's recommendation of a longer instructional day, a consistent length of day for the system? Those are two separate questions. You'll see what they mean a little more in a second. If you share the values of the of the team's recommendations,

155how quickly would you like to move to get there? That is a easy thing to say and it might have a complicated uh set of uh dependencies as we as we move there. Uh the action team proposals assume a calendar with the same number of days to the 2526 calendar. As we talk a little bit about the length of the day and how the two law of a different requirements play against each other. There were a lot of variables on the table when this work started. pausing the calendar, not touching the calendar and only thinking about instructional length of day is what gave us the ability to figure out some ways forward. Um that said, the calendar and instructional days are are part of a system issue. So uh what feedback on the calendar itself

156would you like to provide uh for consideration and conversation tonight? Feeling good on the questions? Great. We'll get into uh the overview then. Um, I mentioned this law at the start of the presentation, but the bill HB 241063 is the law that changed or set some new rules and required us to set some new policy around abbreviated school days uh and their um impact on instruction. Also required that collection I mentioned earlier. That collection is being put together by CDE right now and it's in active development in terms of it's in the field. They're asking questions. They're providing some guidance uh and working towards the first collection this December. Uh there is a the law uh CRS 2232109 requires Colorado schools to be in session for no fewer than 160 days and that schools are

157scheduled for a particular number of instructional hours independent of the number of days. We'll talk more about the intersection of those things in a minute. But if somebody had said to you at the start of the year, did a heat day, a shortened school day count? The answer is yes. It was a day of school 160 that was one. It also because it was abbreviated represented a decrease in the budgeted amount of instructional hours for the district to the tune of roughly two hours per day or 14 hours for the schools that had an abbreviated heat day. So a heat day counts, but we still have to count each and every instructional minute that occurs in the district and make sure throughout the year that we are in compliance with what we scheduled and what

158actually happened. And the law does require us to do both things. Schedule a certain number of hours, ensure a smaller number of those hours was met. The difference between the two is what provides for a school district with a normal schedule to have some weather related or emergency closures without causing us to have to have a conversation about either asking the state for extra permission uh to not meet the requirement or to consider things like longer school year or an extra day or as some school districts do in weatherprone areas they schedule some days that maybe don't get used but they make sure they're on the calendar in the event you need them for for weather. Um, under that law that governs the two things that we count, the hours and the days, there's also

159some provisions about what can count and recess and passing time we'll talk about tonight. And the law does provide in Colorado through CDE provides some guidance on how a local district because Colorado obviously is a local control state may make some further determinations about what counts or doesn't count. And we'll talk about that as well. the policy that you uh amended uh for last year that provisioned recess as non-instructional is an example of a local rule that a district can create. Uh passing time also lives in that space and those are the two sorts of things we'll talk about that some local control options exist on. Uh you uh as the board historically have considered via ICICA uh recess to be non-instructional. You're currently operating under that one-year waiver of that policy. uh these are

160the hours requirements for K12. I should articulate too that problem statement you saw earlier did not say preK12 or early childhood through 12. Uh it was specifically focused on the composition of the K12 day because that's the collection that the state is now asking for. Early childhood does have some requirements. They are handled slightly differently than CDE. Some of the hours requirements of EC overlap and some of them do not. Excuse me. One of the things that I love about the team that I get to uh brag on tonight is that in the course of this conversation, they noticed that some of the guidance that CDE was providing about early childhood hours requirements didn't match our understanding of the law. And so they communicated that to CDE and CDE has changed some guidance as a

161result because there are a lot of things that move in this space. And CDEC, the Colorado Division of Early Childhood, changed some of their rules in August. So that's kind of breaking news in the world of data guidance. I I'll pause for the No, that's it. Okay, that's fine. I thought it was a pretty cool thing. Uh anyway, our secondary schools we schedule at 10 uh 1080. Uh elementary schools at 990. However, at kindergarten we schedule at 900 for full day and 450 for half day. Each of those breaks down to a roughly three-day period above the required attendance. So 1056 is the secondary uh required hours to meet which is uh 24 hours which is roughly three eight hour days or eight hours of instruction across say uh several heat days and you can

162do the math and figure out how many heat days would get you 24 hours. Um it's about 12 if you want me to do the math for you. um the instructional hours collection that is now required under the law and that CDE is working on instead of asking that attestation question. Do you feel good that you've met this requirement? Yes or no? Asks for these data elements today. And I say today because this is an active collection under development. It may change, but they ask for total school day hours, total instructional hours, total student contact days, total teacher contract days. In PSD, that's 188 on a standard contract. total recess hours, total passing hours, estimated hours planned for emergency uh closure, which is a math problem using some of the data in this uh in

163these elements. And then they also ask some things like when did your school board approve the calendar? We approve our calendar based on a policy that says we do it roughly by the end of the calendar year. Um and other districts do it differently. Um there's another law that I I want to mention because it keeps coming up in this conversation. Uh and that's a law around the state physical activity requirements for elementary school students. Uh the state of Colorado does require that we have a policy. Ours is IHAM which requires uh 600 minutes per month for a full day student or 300 minutes per month for a half day student. That's factored into the things we talk about when we're talking about instructional and non-instructional time. And it was a question that came up

164a bunch of times. Well, what are the requirements? And the requirements are that we have some time uh budgeted in these ways. Uh throughout this conversation, you're going to hear me say instructional and non-instructional. And I just want to name here, you'll see it in slides. That isn't a value statement about whether or not something is important. These are technically non-instructional hours. Sometimes if they are in a recess in a in a place that has that or in a physical education class, which is could is instructional. There's a teacher, there's a course of study, there's a grade awarded, right? But that doesn't mean that reset or physical activity in a classroom is good. and after lunch is bad. So I I don't want you to hear and the action team spent a lot of time

165on this too. Instructional non-instructional is a classification that helps us fill out a spreadsheet. It's not a statement about values. And we'll we'll say a little bit more about that as we keep going. Um this is the ICICA policy that the board has written. It defines actively engaged in the educational process as time when students are working towards achieving educational objectives under the supervision of a licensed teacher including but not limited to and we don't currently name passing time. I just want to name that passing time is a thing that we could have uh made a determination on. Passing time by the way is a fun uh variable in this equation. If you're passing from an instructional thing to another under state guidance counts unless your board has said something special. If you're passing from

166something non-instructional to uh something instructional like lunch to fifth period doesn't count. We had some high schools this year that we had to change their bell schedules to get them in compliance. The way we were able to do it is we moved a passing period after lunch to before lunch. It's it's it was a trick. It worked. I I don't think it changed the integrity of the school day, but it did meet the requirements. And so when I say instructional and non-instructional, I I want you to also hear again uh these are these are classifications. They're not value statements. Okay? In our policy, we currently do name that once uh time students spend before school, recess time and teacher preparation time don't count as instructional except that you changed in June. You took the word

167recess out of the policy. You told us at that time it was a one-year thing. Um as we looked at the requirement we for the first time took a deeper look at our elementary school schedules. Uh as we looked at that review we realized under the reporting many and the slide says most uh elementary schools do not meet the retired instructional times without recess. Uh there's a rollup in the uh present or in the sorry excuse me in the work report that is a school by school grade bygrade spreadsheet that shows you exactly what that looks like. But at a very high level 19 of our schools and you have to calculate for every grade in a school uh were out of compliance five out of six grades. Three were four of six non-compliant. One

168were three of six. Four were two of six. one only had or was had five of six we're sorry one of six grades was out of compliance and we had five elementary schools that were completely in compliance. That by itself suggests some difference in our system. Uh the you're going to see several bucket pictures like this. I would love to tell you that this is a technical term. It's just the word I like to use when I describe this rectangle. What constitutes a school day is three or four things, right? It's the instructional stuff and it's the non-instructional stuff. The really big variables or components here are the classroom time, testing time, assembly time, that's instructional. The recess at elementary or the passing at secondary schools non-instructional and lunchtime non-instructional. Um the they're all I'm

169going to name again not a value statement, just a way that we have to classify the time. People need breaks. People need lunches. People need uh time to to play and be outdoors and experience all the things that you want to experience uh in a day. The state or our board depending on which thing we're talking about has named those are instructional or not. Um as we put this team together and we're going to look at their work in a second, just wanted to name that a big piece of this work was thinking about all the groups of uh staff and all the folks who are essential to building out a school day. And so this was a representative group of folks in the district to help us have a conversation to get us started

170not to finish. Uh and you can see that we have representatives from IT, transportation, nutrition, uh services, early childhood directors there, human resources, the co-chairs of our calendar committee were involved in this work because they will get to pick up a piece of it next. Uh we had some uh secondary schedulers involved, some elementary school teachers, uh some integrated services staff and curriculum and instruction staff as well because that instructional non-instructional is bigger than just the blocks of time. We want to make sure it's high value time uh throughout the day. And as the team worked and you can read a lot more about that in the report, they named several values that that bubbled up in our work and that we validated with various feedback uh loops that we'll talk about uh a little

171later because again while we were starting a conversation, we wanted that conversation to be informed by others throughout the district. Uh consistency within and across levels was a value that kept coming up in this conversation. Uh instructional time and non-instructional time are both very important. the the group said that again and again and it took us a while to name that. It was slippery. There was a sense that non-instructional meant bad or not good. We we really had to tease that out and that's why I've tried to say it as many times as I have tonight. Uh you know, people need breaks. People need time to play. Recess serves a bunch of purposes throughout a school day. Uh it is both breaks for people, but it is also for some children part of their IEP

172time. They really are doing some of the work of being at school when they're not in a classroom structure. they're doing some some different things. Uh passing periods in a in a very large building and uh you know that that's a real need. You got to get from point A to point B and if you've just done that during a 90-minute break, you need you need or a 90-minute class, you need a couple minutes of break. So those are the logistical pieces there. But we we talked a lot about how those are all important. Just some of them are instructional and some of them aren't. Uh and then the group as they continued to talk about and we experienced seven heat days throughout the course of the action team which is a lot more heat

173days than we had forecasted experiencing before we put that team together. Uh we we had some questions as a group and the team named in a bunch of ways. Uh future considerations for recess and passing time because of weather issues and how we account for weather. How might we think about those pieces of time that are non-instructional in a way that we didn't count on them to get to an instructional finish line? As I named earlier, that movement of the passing period felt like a a really lucky thing to do, but it wasn't necessarily something we should be building our uh our schedules around. Uh and we we as a district should be considering the difference. When is it a district consistency move and when is it a site autonomy move? Both are important. And

174so how might we propose some ways forward that talked about both what is the floor and ceiling that helps us stay consistent but also give sites and teams and leadership teams at sites some flexibility to make the moves that make sense for their students their programmatic needs and the uh uniqueness that makes up their programmatic work uh day which is important. Um as we were working together and the team met four times over the course of about six eight weeks uh we started very immediately trying to engage every group that we could to talk about where we were what we were thinking and to articulate a lot of the questions about the law because if you recall we were experiencing heat days. Does the day count? Well yes it does. Here's this 160 and here's

175the hours but we're now 14 hours in the hole for some schools but not other schools and we have some time and well where's the time? There's a lot in this particular conversation. So, uh, we started meeting very quickly with association leaders and I'm I'm pleased that they're here tonight to continue this conversation. Uh, we've been doing a lot of the work of the action team was to go and talk to the people that they worked with and that who they represented and make sure they were making sense and representing the the views that uh they thought they were. Uh and then we started to talk to PAG so our principal advisory group our small cabinet and DAB uh academic cabinet IR uh I think and thank you President Salty for naming the opportunity to

176use IR with each other. It was great to be with y'all and to have some of that conversation both formally and informally to talk through some of these items. Uh we spent the 18th with our elementary and secondary principal groups getting a lot of feedback there. Uh, and then on the 25th, our final action team meeting was reviewing all of that feedback. And then I spent some time with our association reps at PA last Monday night, which was great. And then the post uh recommendation feedback is something we'll get to as we hear uh how you'd like for us to move forward uh in this conversation. I need to define two terms and then we'll get to the recommendations and then we will get uh to the finish line of this presentation. I promise. Um,

177as we talked about consistently and what consistency and what that meant, we looked at a universe of possibilities and then we moved into a galaxy and then we started to move into a solar system and two concepts emerged for the team and that was the concept of a system aligned day. Does everybody have the same length of day? Uh, and the other concept was the level aligned day. Do all of our elementary schools have the same length of day? Do all of our middle schools have the same length of day? Our high schools. So when we talk system aligned or level aligned, that's what we mean uh by that. Uh and we we eventually got to the recommendations that you're going to see and you saw in the report tonight. And if you look at

178the bottom of this slide as I orient you to the table, the current length of day in our elementary schools varies from 6 hours and 35 minutes to 6 hours and 45 minutes. there are four if not five and it depends on if you count some of our K12 schools as elementary schools or not lengths of elementary school day. Uh that's for a variety of reasons. Transportation programmatic requests again I said earlier a bunch of yeses over a long period of time uh have led to some of these differences. Uh our middle schools have uh roughly a 6 hour and 50 to 6 hour and 55 minute day. There's only a couple of variations there but there are variations. And then we do have two comprehensive high school lengths uh of 7 hours and 7

179hours and five minutes currently. Uh so the recommendations that we were starting to put together and really get some feedback on in those loops were a level align day which would take us to uh that was the calculation that gave us what we needed to get a little bit more buffer. And that was a 6 hour and 54 minute day for elementary uh a 7 hour and 22minut day for middle and a 7 hour and 25 minute high school day. Uh the system aligned day was an attempt to see could we get everybody's needs met in a common length of day and that's the seven hours and 15 minutes that you see and then it came up enough times in the group and part of this work was to put out ideas that we thought

180were needed further conversation. We didn't have alignment on whether or not the system should do a late start, but it came up enough that we said we probably should talk about do we want a common and consistent late start methodology. And we use the term late start here, but an early release that for the construct that we put together. We weren't defining when it needed to happen. It's just could we build a day that allowed us the transportation infrastructure to provide one day or a period a period of time per week that allowed our buses to run at a different variable so that uh as many districts in Colorado do. We have four days a week where the buses show up at this time and one day a week it shows up at a slightly

181later time or arrives at a slightly earlier time if it's an early release to provide and provision an opportunity for some staff uh uh collaboration uh training meetings. many of the things that our teachers who never met a teacher who isn't good at working throughout the day, right? That day continues and continues and continues, but we have heard frequently could some of those things happen during the day and at some schools right now they do and at other schools they don't and that was a consistency question. Uh so we wanted to put that idea forward and that's what you'll see uh in the report as we moved into our final feedback as a group. You'll see that we struck out the level aligned day length. It didn't actually seem to solve many of the consistency

182questions that the team was curious about. It didn't have advantages in terms of efficiency for transportation, which is one of the things that we were exploring and curious about. And it didn't really provide us much in the way of a weather buffer. It just sort of it just sort of got us right to the edge of feeling like we could say yes, we're we're in a compliance space. So, as a group, uh the group the group named we want to share this recommendation with you. we want to share the background and the information so that we can continue to talk about it. But the group didn't feel comfortable saying this was a recommendation of the team. Uh and that's reflected in the report. The team landed their recommendations on saying these are probably the two

183models we should look the most uh closely at. And so uh that's that's where the final report uh aligned. I'm not going to go into great detail here. I just want to highlight on this slide how you can read the uh rest of the report which articulates uh both the day length itself. So how long is the instructional day it's 7 hours and 15 minutes in the system align day model the instructional time floor. If you recall, I said earlier that autonomy for sites was something we we wanted to articulate. What we would guarantee as a district is does every day of school have for elementary schools 5 hours and 45 minutes of time classified as instructional at the middle it's slightly more and at the high school it's it's slightly more and less. And

184then that would give the rest of the day uh for lunch, recess or passing time, however a school wanted to use it. because we saw that some elementary schools did uh recess one way, other schools did it a different way and there was a lot of variation there. We didn't want to constrain that beyond the point of how much of the day a site might choose to use because there are some schools who use their recess as a they do some cool stuff. I just let me just say it that way. We wanted cool stuff to continue to happen and certainly where we were seeing programmatic innovation making sense. We didn't want to say your recess must be 27 and a half minutes, no more, no less. We wanted to say here's how much time

185in the day you can budget for non-instructional things. Uh budget it as it makes sense to do. Uh and so that's what the uh ceiling is there. So an instructional floor, a non-instructional ceiling, and then that gives you the total annuals floor and then a little bit of buffer above the requirement in that model. You'll see a similar calculation for the system aligned and the levels aligned. and you'll probably reach the same conclusion that the action team did that the levels aligned as Superintendent Kingsley says from time to time that that juice probably wasn't worth the squeeze, right? Um but we we wanted to put that out because we we didn't want you to take our word for it as Livar Burton uh frequently says, although he says it slightly differently and better. Um this

186is just a visual representation of that idea, right? That daily bucket has a block of time that's instructional and a block of time that's not. uh and you can see that it's slightly different in terms of the way the day is put together uh middle and high but the the length of the day remains the same for all sites. Uh and then that dedicated late start the only variable there is we have to show you two different days of school. We show you a 4 day a week day and a one day a week day to account for the fact that there would be a different arrival time for children or a different departure time for children but the calculation remains the same and the transportation impact is uh the same as well because they

187just shift their operations. We currently have some schools running a late starts many of our comprehensive high schools they run them. There's no transportation support for that. So schools have to manage children in that space. They do it a few different ways. Um this was an attempt to see if we could build the infrastructure that uh as I mentioned earlier several several other metro area schools do this some don't and it really is a something we should talk more about. Um so few other ways to look at that again that same bucketed calculation just have to show you two versions this time because you can see that one day a week you have a different calculation you have to run uh as opposed to the other four. And uh now we can get to the

188discussion part which is is I think more interesting than hearing me talk about time buckets. But uh the final recommendation of the committee did come out on October the 2nd. We're here tonight on October 7th. So the future timeline is some other things that we think we're going to talk about that relate to this but are not this. Uh bell times is a topic of discussion on October 21st. By the way, when I frame what other things we're going to talk about at different days, I'm also framing what I'm probably going to ask you to defer talking about in great detail tonight. So, we probably won't talk a ton about transportation changes for bell times tonight, but it's probably going to come up. Uh, and then just so you can be grounded in how we're

189thinking about some other things that have to happen this year, our school choice window opens around November 3rd, or not around, it opens on November 3rd. uh and we need to and have tenatively scheduled our calendar readings so that they can land before our uh policy deadline of the end of the calendar year on November 18th and December 9th. That said, of course, all of those things are subject to change at the will of the board in this group. Uh with that, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Guile who will frame uh a couple of ways forward and return us to the discussion and we'll then be in conversation with you. >> Thank you. Thank you, V. Appreciate it. So um this slide together is our best attempt to summarize the 32page report

190as far as potential paths and implications. So the really in-depth quality work of the action team is in narrative form in the report that's in front of you and this one slide attempts to summarize many of those complexities that are in front of us tonight to discuss. And so, as Bud named, it's not just tonight. It's a series of points of discussion to move through how all of these pieces intersect. So, the first column that you'll see on this slide talks about what it would be a potential path and implication if we did nothing. No changes to current lengths of day, didn't um revisit that policy change about counting recess. And so some of the things that the action team identified is it maintains the variability and inequitable lengths of the day that currently exist

191in the system. And there was definitely feelings in the group that that doesn't quite seem right like we're really trying to become more consistent and more coherent as a system and we maintain this level of inconsistency. It also maintains one of the shorter elementary days along the front range that that is some of the research and behind the scenes work that the incredible IT team was doing is like how do we compare as far as other Front Range districts like are other people experiencing the same conversation that we're experiencing and we're experiencing at a greater degree because we do have one of those shorter elementary days along the Front Range is what we discovered. And so also a no change would be um there's no gains for students who might benefit from additional instruction. So

192as you saw on that committee makeup, we had different staff from integrated services, our curriculum and instruction team who really started to explore the possibilities of what might be possible with additional minutes in the day. And so that came up as something of like that could be really exciting to explore what that could mean. Um the other important partner in that conversation was our early childhood team and with maintaining status quo they do not gain access to a 15 hour or 30-hour week for UPK dollars. So with UPK, there are certain levels of funding that we experience depending on the length of an early childhood student students day and right now we're not able to access that 15-hour level um for an early childhood student which also equates to revenue for that department as well

193as access to highquality preschool programming and PSD by maintaining the status quo. Um the other thing that we talked a lot about in the action team and there is high high value on recess as a system which is one of the reasons why we came to you all in June to say we don't want to have to make a drastic decision and cut recess in June when nobody's on contract and then have this really difficult start to the year of like what happened where where' recess go? And so we wanted that pause to really take the time to study and say what should we do and really looked at the definition of that ICICA and really thinking about what does it mean to be actively engaged in the educational process and the intention of that

194policy. And so really considering like should recess be part of the intention of that policy? the action team really didn't feel like it should be and we shouldn't be relying on a policy waiver um to address really being in compliance with what CD is asking for. Um the other things that we also were paying attention to while it's not currently being um dictated by CDE, they're starting to signal that passing time in the future may not count toward instructional minutes. Um and it could also be something that's in our local control. So that's something that we are noticing and paying attention to but was part of our conversation as well as the weather events. Right. So we did experience weather events relating to a compression of our instructional minutes and the compliance toward the instructional

195minutes. So that was something that was um very timely as we started meeting as an action team that those weather events were occurring. And then this particular lane was not aligned to the proposals from the action team. and the action team did ultimately recommend that we should do something um with what we were being asked to study. And so the middle column is sort of an opportunity to think about what could be possible for next year and what would be some implications. So if we were to ultimately make a change for next year and implement a longer instructional day and also a bell time change. So there's a couple of things that we should be thoughtful about and consider. They're not insurmountable, but we need to be paying attention to how we map out the

196next series of steps. So, we need to be very mindful about all of the necessary feedback loops and engagement that needs to happen to actually implement a longer day and a new bell schedule. So, there's many, many moving parts that are attached to how our school day is structured. And so we need to start working on this as quickly as possible if we intend to make a change for 2627. So one of the pieces that we do not feel like we would successfully be able to implement for next year would be a system aligned late start that we feel is going to require a great deal of community engagement about the impacts of that because that would be a significant shift for our community. Um the other piece that would really be important to think

197about as far as the timeline at which we would have in order to be able to actualize that change, we really need to have all of our um solutions and schedules and things developed by about February of 26 to implement for next year because a lot of the changes in like schedules rely on us um then putting personnel and resources toward those things. So when we start building um school-based budgets as well as budgets for the coming year, we really start to do that January and February. And so we need to know the implications on those um revenue streams that we have by February. And so that's that middle column is if we were to make a change for next year, if we were to consider a longer instructional day and bell time change in

1982728, some of the implications that we talked about is there would be um also that schedule becomes less variable and more consistent for staff and then has a comparable length of day to our district charters and other schools on the front range. So lengthening our day puts us more in alignment and consistent with other schools along the front range as well as in our local community. Um we also do see that there are gains for students who might benefit from additional instruction. So the action team did discuss what are those possibilities. Um we do have the ability for early childhood to gain access to a 15-hour um level of service as well as 15 hours of reimbursement from um UPK funding and possibly a 30hour week. we'd have to add just a little bit more

199um to that 7 hour and 25 minute proposal, but that's the one that gets us closest to a 30-hour week and that creates some future funding possibilities for our early childhood program. Um the other thing that feels like an implication also is we would maintain the intention of the policy language and community values while also allowing our sites to have autonomy to make a lot of decisions about how they use their instructional time as well as their recess time. And so as Bud described, you've got an instructional minutes floor and then you've got the autonomy to decide how you're going to be leveraging some of those recess minutes within there. And so there will be a lot of site involvement in maintaining those floors and those minimums while be able being able to create schedules

200that best serve staff and students. And then also in that final column, we did talk about that we would have the opportunity to address some of those weather events that we know will continue to be part of the future for PSD as well as potential changes that CDE might implement with regarding um passing time and whether that will count as instructional or not. And then the other thing that is possible and potential is that a single bell time schedule change. So we really don't want to do a change in next year and then another one the year after. Like we really want to provide consistency to our families. And so ultimately the intersection of all of these decisions would hopefully be just one change for this system and for families as well. So there aren't

201multiple disruptions um year after year. Okay. And so that is back to our questions for discussion. And so starting with review um to discuss where we have alignment with the action team's recommendation as far as a longer instructional day and a consistent length of day and then if you you know share those viewpoints how quickly would you like to move to get there and then also anything that you want to forecast or feedback for the upcoming calendar discussions and with that I'll turn it over to the board for discussion. >> Fantastic. Thank you so much for the presentation. Um really great way to summarize what was in that report. Um and the if you could switch back to um just one slide up potential paths and their implications maybe just leave that up there for

202us to use as a discussion um starting point and um I think is just point of privilege I will go ahead as um and start off answering those questions. So for me um to to discuss that longer instructional day and a consistent day um for the length of the system uh for the system. Yes. Um for me I absolutely um think that this is a fantastic idea. Um it for all of the reasons that you have listed on that third um bar there. More consistent and equitable schedule for all students and staff. uh comparable uh length of day um to others on the front range. Um gains of gains for students who um might benefit from additional instruction is huge. Early childhood gains huge. Um you know um as far as you know recess um

203I just want to say recess is an important part of our school day. Extremely important. it is not instructional. Um, and if we were to make recess instructional, that would mean that we would have um standards, assessments, objectives, and simply by doing that, it no longer would be recess, and it would no longer be the value that it is, which is free play, right? So, to me, that I just wanted to share that value with you as well. Um, question number two of how quickly um, wow, 20 February of 26 to make all of these decisions like gives me hives like I just can't even my stomach hurts thinking about it. Um, you know, trying we we learned I I hope from our last goound that slow is smooth and smooth is fast and we

204can engage our community and find out do we want to do these things? how do we want to do them? How do we incorporate bell times? How do we incorporate all of these other things that need to be incorporated into them? Um, and do it once and do it right. And so, um, you know, to me, February 26 is too soon. So, I would implement the change 2728. Um and then the last question about the calendar um is, you know, is there a possibility of us moving the calendar back um even by a few days in August? Um because we do seem to have a um if I'm not mistaken, we're looking at starting at an August 13th date. Um, and so, you know, again, we just with the heat and all of that, if

205we can avoid some of the heat days and that sort of thing, if there's that possibility, if there's any play in that at all, um, I would love to see that. Um, I just I really do think that, you know, the mantra of slow is smooth and smooth is fast, um, is the way to go on this. Um, you know, we need to discuss the what the problem is with the community. Um, because this is hard to wrap your brains around about instructional minutes and belt times and potential other things and how is this school different than that school? I mean, it's there's a lot there. And I think what we learned last time is that um it takes a long time for us to grapple with the problem before we ever start going towards

206solutions. So, that's my two cents. Um, and I will now pass it along to the rest of the board. Who would like to speak next? Go ahead, Connor. >> I'll just go really quickly. Um, I'm apprehensive of making a decision on any of these without cost. There's going to be cost occurred with each one of these alternatives. We haven't seen that. And, you know, something's going to be $10 million, then we're not going to be able to entertain that option. Um, the second thing, um, I understand that CDE has put these requirements in, but I'd be apprehensive of making any decision prior to knowing exactly what the guidance is because if we make a change now and then they change guidance again, I think that's kind of disingenuous to the community. Um, when I believe,

207and correct me if I'm wrong, um, due to the lack of consistency or communication from CD, we could ask for another waiver. Is that correct? >> We think that's possible that we do have the ability to say we're working on this and so give us some time to work on this and we will gain compliance. >> Yeah, those two pieces of information then I think it it's better it better informs me on the decision that we need to make. >> Who would like to go next? Go ahead, Andrew. I I guess what I see a lot of work being done already. So, thank you for all that. I see a lot of work still to come, especially with all of our partners. I'm looking, of course, starting with the three in the back and and

208the groups you represent. Um there and then we can go to the parents and and layer upon layer. So, I would share with with the concern about moving too far too quickly and again without cost as well. I think that's going to be a critical piece of it. I do have one tangible question from slide 20. Uh that was the sort of the the 7 hour 15 minute day. Uh just what happens if we have one snow day because that feels like we're suddenly out of compliance with elementary automatically again. So I just wanted to make that I it may just be a process thing I don't understand. That's why I'm asking. >> No, it's a great question. >> I I appreciate the question. the the requirement if as I said earlier the requirement itself

209does include some time. So I'm going to use the secondary example. 1080 is the scheduled requirement. 1056 is the actual did it happen which is that 3-day buffer that's built into the scheduling. And then that hours above requirement tab here represents the additional hours above the 24 hours that we would have sort of in the bank if we needed them. So instead of 24 hours at an elementary school, we would be and I got it wrong. We'd have an extra four hours above the 990 for elementary and we'd have 5.3 above the 1080 for the middle and 1112 for the high school. Does that make sense? >> So, it's an additional buffer. I'm sorry. I Yeah, I know. >> I I lost track of some of the numbers there. So, I guess let's rephrase the

210question a different way. At what point, how many snow days does it take for presumably the elementary since that's got the lowest buffer listed? So, I'll just ask it that way. >> So, we have three three days and then we're in trouble. >> Yeah. And I'm I'm saying three because it depends on how long the day is and the instructional hours in the day, right? So an instructional day of 5 hours and 45 or an instructional time floor of 5 hours and 45 minutes. Now it's just math. You take the 24 hours that are baked into it plus the four hours and 44 minutes. So that's what 28 or so hours >> and then each day of lost instruction is roughly 5 hours and 45 minutes of loss, right? And so you'd have uh five.

211Scott's doing the math for me, which is awesome. I appreciate it. >> So that that hours that hours above is an extra buffer. >> So it's it's extra compliance if that makes sense. >> What is the average number of snow days that we have? >> I don't have the answer for that question right now. >> But just >> so my history, it's varied every year that I've been here. So that's not been a constant. But I think a part of the story is not just snow, it's heat, >> right? So when you think about the I think you represented 14 hours earlier this year with seven early releases. >> I think both of those combined having a little bit of flexibility built in the calendar certainly would be advantageous above and beyond what we currently

212have which I think is three days. So this would be an increase in two. >> Yes. >> Yeah. I guess I just and when we're building the calendar, it feels like five is even five is a little tight >> um personally and again without having the averages and the ranges and things like that for snow and heat and some of those things like that that at least would be a consideration it would seem. >> Okay, go ahead Jess. Sorry, just since we're in this slide range, um I had a question about slide 18, so two ahead before this. So for the system aligned day, we landed on 7 hours and 15 minutes. Um I just want to understand how we got to 7 hours and 15 minutes. When I look at the one before that

213and I have 654, 7:22, and 725. So what you what you have in the composition is the team worked backwards from a day that worked in the level aligned which weirdly is slightly shorter to see could we get something that would work across all levels and so as and they've had to explain it to me multiple times but the way that the passing periods were configured the calculations there and then I didn't name this earlier but it's important to note our elementary uh calendar has three fewer school days is in it than our secondary calendar. That's by the composition of the calendar that's in our master agreement and some negotiation elements over time to address you heard tonight somebody mentioning some some plan disequity in the system which is real. Um so you have to

214take into account different numbers of days across the system. So you end up with basically an average of that 715 is what bridges the slightly fewer days in elementary and the longer days in high school and that floor and ceiling. I I >> I hope that's answering your question. >> It'll it'll get there. Okay. >> Um and then I did have a question on slide 19. So right next to it, uh for the system aligned day there were wait was it 19? Let me make sure I'm on the right one. Yeah. Uh, there was 11 hours and 12 minutes. So, yeah, I'm on the right one. Sorry. >> There you go. >> Because the high schools do have that late start right now. Does that still allow them to do late start even if the

215rest of the system doesn't? Yeah, the current all all of these recommendations didn't eliminate anything that's an existing practice in the system with the exception of some of the higherend um recess blocks and and but most most if not all and certainly all of the high school late start schedules as they're currently configured would not be impacted. The autonomy for a site would remain. The thing I would say that I don't think is is as clear is the ability of other schools to look at something like that under this flexible model would our team could help design some of those customizations as well and this would give us a mechanism to do that. Um it would not necessarily provide the transportation infrastructure to do that and that's something that's a I think both eyes need

216to be open when we talk about that because that's another one of the system elements that is not necessarily in agreement. I've heard from principles, "Yeah, that's fine. We'll figure it out." Oh my goodness, that that's never doable. And and I've heard both things uh multiple times. >> Other question? Yeah, go ahead, Scott. >> Um I'll be quick for Kevin's sake. Um, what staff implications in terms of what percent of of our staff is hourly versus salary? And is salary the right way to say that? That's one question. I have a couple more, but >> there there are three and I'm not an HR expert, but there are three different uh conversations to have in that space. We have employees that are contracted by the day. We we have staff who are overtime exempt hourly

217which means they are hourly employees but who are ineligible for overtime and we have hourly nonovertime exempt employees. So hourly employees who would be subject to overtime after an 8hour day. So those are the those are the three pieces of calculation. >> Sorry. >> It's not just eight hours. >> Yes. Excuse me. Yes. Yeah. And >> do you have an idea of like like the contract by day employees like how many of those like a percentage of our workforce would fall into that category or >> I don't have a percentage. No. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> We can get back >> get back on that. Okay. um the late start discussion my understanding that if we were to say hey let's go forward with doing this for the 2026 year that's not an option for

2182026 but if we waited until 2027 that could still be an option to keep late start in there >> really the primary um discussion point with the system align late start was the ability to engage our families amilies and community. We feel like that's going to need quite a robust community engagement session as well as connecting with um some of our partners who provide before and after school care um Boys and Girls Club, some of those other um groups who would um be important for us in provisioning services for families who needed um child care coverage either for an early release or a late start. like we wouldn't want to rush into that without having some of that information um developed and planned for our community so that that would be a smooth transition um

219as possible. We're not sure we could get that done by February of 26. >> One last question. I I would say the calendar is a big deal for me. Like I would I'm impatient on all this stuff, but if we waited till 27 on the bell times and these um extra minutes and that type of thing, I would want to see if we could get the calendar addressed for 2026. Um it would be great if we could go multiple days. The 13th is crazy in my mind, but I understand there's a lot of problems. Um, I really want to explore flexibility with concurrent enrolled kids. I probably am thinking of this too simplistically, but we have a lot of kids coming to school events prior to the start of school, even athletics, football teams, things

220like that. Those concurrent enrolled kids, I'm thinking they might be able to go before school starts. They can start going to Front Range and that type of thing. I know there's been push back on that, but that's something that I think greatest good for the greatest amount of people that might be a worthwhile thing to look at. So, I definitely would like to encourage that we we look for a later start to the year on our calendar if we can find a way to do that. That's all I have. >> Can I can I say something? So, thank you for that feedback along with everybody else who's weighed in so far. I just think one point, this is not me pushing back, it's just context. uh director showbar to one of the requests is that

221it's important to note that the majority of our concurrent enrolled students are receiving instruction from PSD teachers who are certified to teach college courses and that the majority over 90% of that instruction is happening within our comprehensive high schools not at one of the campuses of either Ames or Front Range Community College. It's it's over 90% of the concurrent enrolled students are taking those courses within like actually within the brickandmortar facility of our comprehensive high schools by high school teachers who are certified to teach college courses. >> Yeah, just over about 90% sorry >> the 90% represents um of what figure this is important one for our graduation >> high school students. How many of those participate in >> I'd have to get back to you, but that number has increased by almost a thousand

222in the last two years. We we've through our graduation with options prioritization, we've continued to accelerate >> the number was 40%. Julie, is that close? Sorry to put you on the spot on the fly. I I just want to contextualize I get point I'm glad we're talking about >> because this comes up a lot and I'd like to be able to >> so um just concurrent enrollment uh was uh close to 400 a little bit over into the last year numbers >> of our high school students >> out of how many total high school students? >> It's about 50%. >> That's about 50%. It's it's it's about half of maybe even it might even be creeping a little more than half. >> No, I think that's really important. I as a former math teacher, I

223don't like doing it on the fly on camera. So that's Thank you, Dr. Chaplain for for saving me there. I think another part of this story just as context is our teachers who are teaching a case load of concurrent enrolled courses are not just teaching concurrent enrolled courses. they're teaching courses that are traditional part of our graduation requirements. So, it's it's a hybrid in many many instances. And then there are some cases where teachers are only teaching those types of courses. So, to be able to flex that calendar is not free. So, I just want to say it doesn't mean we don't do it, but it would require those teachers working in extended calendar. Um, and I would think that may have some other implications regarding our existing employee agreement because I do think the

224number of days within the school year is explicitly outlined in the employee agreement if I'm not mistaken. >> That's correct. >> So, if we were to extend that, that would require a different timeline. Uh, we would need to bring that into the big circle process and without really knowing what that outcome would be until the very end of this year. Uh, so I just wanted to just level set expectations around that particular piece of feedback. Thanks, >> Brian. Can I give in one more because I found my numbers. Um, and so of all of last year, 4562 students participated in concurrent enrollment. Only 237 of them attend those courses on a college campus. The rest are the 237 of the 4,562. So all the rest of those are on our campuses. Thanks. Thank you for

225that. Okay, who wants to go next? Okay, go ahead, Kevin. >> Waterfall tonight or Jim, do you want to go ahead? >> I'm I'm pretty much aligned with what Kristen said. Is the board aligned with the action team's recommendation? the longer instruction play I am a consistent length of a day for the system. Yes. Uh how quickly would I like to move to get there? Uh it feels like we're just too late for this year and and uh going to 2627 or 2720. It's actually out to right what you said Kristen. So, I I just think that's about the only option and I don't have any specific feedback on the calendar beyond what's already been addressed. We would all like to start later, but it's complicated. So, we're relying on the administration, I think, to

226get back with us with some options there. >> Thank you. All right. Go ahead, Kevin. >> Anybody else? >> Uh, okay. Yeah, I'd like to address the questions in order presented. So to get to one is the is the board of education and alignment with the action team's recommendation of a longer instructional day. I'd like to back up because I think and I read the report. I appreciate the report. It's very thorough. It's exactly what I had expected. I think there are some built-in biases already in the report that because you've looked at it so closely with all these people and gone on a hyper quick feedback loop, there may have been some things maybe missed to get to recommendations. So, let's back up for a second and just say there there is an option

227to do nothing which is which would cure the jam as far as how the district got itself in here. So, let me zoom back one more because in a discussion that we've had recently about changing bell times, which is also very near and dear to my heart and very near and dear to heart of our community, um we had to do a fix on that a year ago with the promise of it being only one year. Okay. Then the problem expanded and it got more difficult because logistics wise changing the bell schedule was going to it was not going to be costneutral. It was going to cost us money. we weren't ready or in a position to take on that expense and to mess with the system in a lightning fast pace because it didn't

228feel right because we needed engagement. Okay. So, I set the stage there because we decided essentially that we needed more time to address spell schedules and then we got into calendar committee and we're we're trying to change the calendar but that we need more time to roll out which makes sense district size. We need to pull this lever to pull this to go through feedbacks. The problem with all that, and I wouldn't say kicking the can down the road, but delaying some systematic changes is that the unforeseen happens. I didn't foresee the CDE dropping this ball on us at the end of the school year. I don't think anyone in this room did. I don't think we'd be having this discussion had we not had we seen that coming. So my my where I come

229out as far as is the BOE in alignment, this kind of dubtales in the very last question about timing. I may be in the minority, but I think if we duck yet another challenge, we're going to find another variable to confront us with that's going to make some of these system changes even more stressful and difficult to achieve if we keep delaying. So, first and foremost, I think how it was presented to us was look, we've got this issue. There's a board policy that dictates that recess is not included in instructional time. if we don't do something to that board policy, we will be out of compliance period by the start of this next school year. None of us, we all agreed that unacceptable. So, we said, let's give ourselves a year to figure this

230out to to buy some time, which we did. Hence, this complete very thorough study. So, there is one decision before we can go on to a recommendation of the next, you know, iterations of this is that do we want to do nothing or do we want to have discussion about what the value of recess time being in structural versus not? I've come full circle and I'll just explain my thinking a bit and that as a former teacher I think recess is invaluable to student growth so development true free play adults need a break and kids need a break too but they learn so much in those free play exchanges so I would be very cautious to do anything policy-wise either for it or against it that would tempt a school or leadership under the constraints

231of what counts as instructional time to do away with recess. Okay. So that's that's a big value for me at least. So I'm of the camp and you know I've listened to some smart people too that say if it's truly instructional time how are we assessing it? What are the requirements that what are the metrices by which we're measuring student growth in that area that's going to put an additional burden on our instructional staff to either monitor to assess to give us the data points that we would expect of a district of our caliber. So I don't think recess falls into instructional. I think we revert back to the board policy on that. I don't think that I can lend a good vote to say that recess should count for instructional for those two reasons.

232So that gets us to what do we do with it? Do we give ourselves another waiver for a year or do we try to confront this now? I'm also of the opinion that if we confront it, we need to address um bell schedules or calendar at the same time because I think we're going to be doing this one way or another. And to to pick from the report which really convinced me there were two things as far as the this is from the report and this is not from the the slide deck. So on page seven, the report said transportation logistics are significantly influenced by the length of the school day with equal day lengths across levels representing the single greatest factor in route efficiency which is something that we've been discussing Dave in 2

233by twos and in this boardroom at Nauseium for about a year which will also save us some money. Um when considering alternative schedules such as a late start days or equivalent collaboration time it is important to determine whether buses would operate according to the regular schedule or follow the adjusted start and release times. These decisions directly impact route planning, staffing, and coordination across schools. It must be carefully evaluated to maintain efficiency and minimize disruptions. So, back to, you know, if so, how quickly. So, I think I'm on board to give you direct feedback. I'm on board with uh increasing instructional day. Um again, this is one data set, but even in the board of education engagement session, there were three different individuals that in unison said that would solve a lot of our problems. both

234from a parent standpoint of having at the elementary level and um teachers of saying I need more planning time etc. I don't think we've closed the iterative feedback loop on that by any means but I think there is enough generation of interest for me to say I can get behind it. Um the other big point for me is the child nutrition which is also in the report. Um consistency in lunch times across grade levels supports both equity and operational efficiency. There must be enough time in lunch sessions to serve all children and allow for sufficient time for meals to be eaten prior to the end of lunch session. Again, I think about the conversation we had with Irish just now and talking about our free and reduced lunch kids. Maslo's hierarchy of needs before Bloom's

235taxonomy. If we're not taking care of our kids and figuring that part out, we're not going to see the increase. We're going to see continued flatline. So, anything we can do to increase child nutrition, to increase time to guarantee that kids that may have an off schedule, may get to school late, may get to school at strange times, I'm I'm all for. So, I'm wrapping up. But, um, how quickly could we get there? One thing resoundingly that we've heard, and I I see in the chart, too, and this is back in the PowerPoint towards the end, page 29. So if we implement longer instructional day and bell time change in 26 27 so for the next calendar year and I get the break neck pace at which it feels right now in October 7th 2025

236it says it limits community engagement around the changes including a system align late start. I respectfully disagree. I think if anything it's going to honor the engagement of community that we keep hearing change the calendar change the calendar move it back move it back move it back. So I I'm of the opinion I'm not trying to sell anybody but I you ask for my opinion. So my opinion is we try to to do both those things. And even if it's a small recognizable change for the calendar, if it's moving by two weeks or a week to give some sort of reprieve, then I'm all for that. And if we can park this by next year, then I say we do it. Um what feedback on the calendar itself kind of went there. Um, so again,

237I understand, but I I'm more of the opinion that we need to be we can do both at one time if we're thoughtful and we we go about it in a smart way. We kind of know at least where the community stands on the calendar. So, let's back in the instructional time to maybe address that. Um, and if we don't, I don't know what curveball we're going to get next year from the CDE or from the federal government in funding and what crisis we're going to be addressing that's going to create this to say, let's pause it and let's duck this one, too. So, that's what I recommend. Yeah, go ahead. So, >> Director Havlla, thank you for that. I just want to restate back what I think I heard you say just to make

238sure that I'm clear. Um, I think you were clear on everything. I just want to make sure my understanding was clear. Uh, consistently with many of the other board members of looking for some type of reprieve with the calendar as early as next year, knowing that you are hearing from many constituents that August 13th is too early. I don't think you said anything different than what some of our other colleagues on the governance team. I think where there was a healthy push was that if we do see a window of opportunity to push with the bell time efficiencies that will be discussed at the meeting in October alongside lengthening the instructional day to have par across our level. So it would be a systemal aligned change to consider doing all of that in 2627 if

239we can afford it and we can figure out a way to do that in a way that also can engage the community because many of you are hearing from the community already. Is that fair? >> Okay. Thank you. One last thing too, I'll say that I think director Duffy hit the nail on the head too because again cost that that may militate in the other direction. If he's if we can't get accurate numbers or or estimates within the school year with some precision so that we're at least making this decision not blindly then I think that would push back too. But if we can, if we feel like we can get estimates of, you know, it's it's really going to be L & costs, labor employment costs, I think, of the overtime calculation that we're

240going to need to consider. Um, and all that goes into that. I the one thing I did want to say though is um I I appreciate the the push for the 26 27 and I agree with that if that does not include a late start because of the fact that a late start will just I I I think even just putting it out there to the community of a late start for elementary school or an early release for an elementary school once a week is gonna just blow this all up. And um we don't have like it's it's the timing for all of those um after school activities that are not associated with the schools even the ones that are um so you know Alphabest and Boys and Girls Club and those things they need

241sufficient timing to figure this out um of how they would staff that because I don't know how you would staff once a you know once a week a Wednesday um from you know 1:00 in the afternoon until 5:00 p.m. or something. um every every week. That's that would be a trick to try and figure out. And I think the um the the companies and the um other you know, gymnastics and soccer and you know, I'm just thinking about all the other things that have to then be rearranged um you know, if you were to have your kids um going to something like that on a you know, on those shortened days. So that's you know, those those are my concerns. And so if we didn't do if we didn't look at um late starts for

242the elementary or early releases for the elementarymentaries then I can see pushing to 26 27 if there's even discussion about doing that. I just don't want to I want to do the 27 28. So that's just my thoughts on that. >> Yeah. Absolutely. >> I would say I'm not a fan of the late start model. I'm sorry. I I think that it's going to create way too much of a tax on working parents to find yet again child care for one day of the week and they may have employers that don't see eye to eye with that etc. So I again continuity consistency if we're to Connor's point from earlier in the bill uh change conversation if we're going to do it once if we're going to change it change it once and let it

243be consistent. And so I'm not a fan of the the delayed late start. I for me the system align sort of the middle option to me is ideal. So, if you wanted feedback on that, that's where I stand on it. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Andrew, >> I need to get a feel for two dates from you and your team, Brian. Date one. When does decisions on length of day, bell schedule, and start date need to be made to support reasonable planning for the 2627 school year? And then the second date, when would all the fiduciary elements be completed? uh specifically thinking about again impacts on contracts with our unions and things like that that if we make any decisions that likely will have a possible impact. Um, I I think

244things like what it would look like for the buses and things like that probably comes faster, but I'm I'm looking at the two dates and my brain is thinking we could do all kinds of public engagement over the next few months, but there's the one for planning feels like it has to come much earlier than the fiduciary one because of the sequencing of time based on what I understand at this point. So, I'm just wondering if you have a sense for those two dates because I'm going to get really nervous to say we're going to do something without knowing the dollar numbers and if the dollar numbers come out a few months later and they're horrid, we can't go back. And so, I'm very concerned about that potential mismatch. >> It's a great question. Like

245my staff's looking at me like what's he gonna say? >> I It's It's a fair question. I think you know we have some high level estimates of what some of those costs would be. Now I wouldn't feel comfortable presenting them here. I would want to go back to the team. Uh we have a sense of how many classified staff um that are working at an hourly rate that if we extended their day, how many people times whatever that rate would be. And then obviously then we'd have to take into consideration whatever impact the compensation packages happen through negotiations. But I think we can kind of get a sense of what that might look like. I think at our next board meeting, you'll have a better sense of what are some of the efficiencies that we'll

246glean in transportation in the event that we move to a systemic consistent day. Um that has uh cost savings as a result of that. So you're kind of looking at some addition, some subtraction, and we'd have to kind of work through that in real time. it would be really important that us as a team not make any recommendations that are formal without knowing that we have the means to afford it. So I just think that's really really important. Some of the things that we're discussing here tonight bump up against the employee agreement and some of them do not. And so I think that's really important too uh that we have to obviously have this more robust conversations with our associations their executive leadership teams and we as a staff and I know as a governance

247team are continue are committed to doing that. Um, but there are trade-offs with that. But I think ideally for families, um, for 2627 with the choice application window opening up in November, families are going to want to know as they're making choice ranks through that process what potential start and end times will be so they can do that in their best interest. As I've shared with the community on multiple instances, one out of every three families that are attending one of our 49 traditional public schools is making a choice outside of the school that they're bounded to. And I do think start and end times play a role in that. We've had a recent conversation around movement analysis uh that Bell Times plays a role in that as well as other academic programming. I think

248to me we would want to not act hastily uh but to me we would want to make a recommendation to the board uh no later than November otherwise we have to take a look at looking at our calendar policy which requires us to shift no later than December and we can move that if we need to. It's just not ideal from a planning standpoint as Dr. Kyle mentioned earlier having everything in place by I think you said February uh was midFebruary I think right to make sure that all of our planning and again in prior years we've bumped up against that timeline too. So I just want to like be really honest things aren't impossible but they're not ideal in a state where we're dealing with a lot of levels of uncertainty. I think a

249part of this and director Duffy has been very consistent in various meetings with all of us. You've all been consistent, but just around the financing standpoint, what's really difficult to predict is the financial uncertainty at the state. We don't know what our budget's going to look like from the state next year. So, we would have to achieve any costs in this uh area by really looking at reductions within the system in order to achieve it. And I think it's really important that we're transparent about that. um not knowing what new money if there's any new money and that's not even including the uncertainty at with our federal dollars. I just think that's really really important. So any type of messaging that you as a collective especially if there's a a board majority suggesting that we

250move faster um what that is signaling to me and this team is we have to go find the money. So I just want to be really clear about that and that's going to come at the expense of some other tradeoffs and we we've done that before. It's not easy and it's a very painful process. And I think we're in many instances, if not close to all, we're not just into bone in terms of the cuts that we've made over several years. We've made over $12 million in reductions just in the last two years. So, we're cutting into kind of marrow, but I think some of the things I'll close on this that this board and prior boards have asked is for efficiencies in a lot of different things that some of the things uh that

251Dr. Guile Bud and other members of the team this somewhat achieves, right? like that. Can we gain? We just heard from our early childhood director that looking at a longer instructional day optimizes our Head Start programming and allows for potential expansion. You have pushed really hard over the last two years around optimizing our bell times. And one of parts of that story that we learned last year that was a a hindrance to optimizing them further was we have these hectic start and end times that don't allow for these efficiencies. So this proposal creates a lot of efficiencies that you're going to learn more deeply about in the next meeting. Um transportation I want to keep talking not just about bell times um but it's very rare when we have an employee that has a CDL

252and they're not all hands on deck right now. And that's not saying like we're having a really difficult time finding bus drivers and our supervisors of bus drivers are driving buses. Our director of transportation is driving buses and that creates a lot of compression within the system when they're not able to do their day-to-day jobs because they're pitching in. And that's just a reality that if we can figure out ways to reduce the number of routes that we need, we would be much healthier as a system. I would also say that this board has continued to press around being more competitive with our competitors and thinking about our instructional day and knowing especially at the elementary level right now it's one of the shortest instructional days across the front range. It is shorter than many

253of our local charter schools and other private school options creating more competition in that space is also providing relief for many of our families from a child care standpoint. Now, I know our primary business is to teach and we do an incredible job of that, but we also function as a child care provider to many working families in our community. So, I think there's something offsets there. I think as our strategic plan continues to be more focused around disrupting disproportionality, having more time with our students, especially our most marginalized students, helps. It helps we can provide more instructional planning time for employees while also providing more interventions and enrichment opportunities for our students. So, I think that's really really important. Uh, many of you have heard, all of you have heard some of our um

254classified staff members and they're not representing all of them. Um, but just talking about wanting to make more money within our system and trying to figure out opportunities that they can have a better wage and have more hours that they would take advantage of that. I would also say there's a flip side of that where some of our employees may have other opportunities that they're taking advantage of. And so I don't want to say that's a onesizefits-all solution, but I think anytime we're paying our employees more, we have opportunities to retain and recruit them in a better way. So that's something to think about, too. So, and all of these things, too. And it, you know, I still consider myself not just a teaching superintendent, but an educator and a teacher at heart. Um, and

255there's not a teacher in this district that works a 40-hour work week. We're looking within parameters to make sure that we're kind of coming in around 40 hours or under, but knowing that teachers plan uh instruction. These aren't gigs. These are this is a career. Um and so we want to be committed to that particular work, but just making sure that we're also staying within um a 40hour work week on, you know, just in terms of that, like we're not going over that. Um, but I also know that teachers and paraprofessionals and principles are spending a lot of time making sure that the uh experience that we're providing for our students is first class. So I think all of those things is what you're wrestling with like if we can fix all of that go

256now. Um, but I would tell you just the last thing I'll say is that like if we want to go 2627 I would say that from a change management standpoint you're speaking with a lot of constituents. I think our community expects a lot of engagement and so we would need to think thoughtfully of what that looks like over the next couple of months. Um, but you would be signaling to us to go find the money and it would be finding it from somewhere that we currently have it and that would mean redirecting funds away from something. And I'm not saying that to scare you away. I'm saying that to realize that these efficiencies that we can potentially glean as a result of what you've charged and asked us to do over the last two years

257is worthy in my opinion. So, Go ahead me. >> Yeah. >> Follow up, Brian, because this is I really appreciate the way you contextualize that. Um, and one thing that I'm pulling out, which I think we can address and should address in the next board meeting, I'm looking at Dave, sorry, is I'm also hearing, correct me if I'm wrong, an urgency in our transportation department, too, because the way I'm framing it too, and the reason my push for 26 27 is I think there's a cost to inaction altogether. I think there's a cost to delay and I what I mean is the number cost too. Can our system handle another year like we've had in transportation. I know it's been better, but I'd be Dave's shaking his head now. And so this is why I'm

258saying what I'd like to see if to the extent possible. I know you said you're going to have to find the money, Brian. I wonder if we if we one of two things. we don't do something now for transportation, how much more money we're going to have to find to go recruit, train, and pull people in from from central administration to to run those bus routes. And two, if we were to run fewer routes, how much more money would that save us? And would those cost savings offset for whatever we're trying to do on the employee backside? Because I'd much rather spend our money in a smart way that's not going to exacerbate a problem with our transportation folks. Maybe that diverts more money or just shuffles money into the pockets of other folks that

259are working different hours now that need it. So if there's an efficiency slide there, that's my urgency. It's the cost of inaction to a system that I think is fraught with it. It's just it Yeah. And it's not just my preference of bell schedules and timing. It's real human lives and the system may not be able to maintain that for another year or two. >> Yep. Yeah. I would like to say just add a little context to that. Um we are currently 15 drivers short right now. And so to your question of is this sustainable? Um we're sustaining it, but the answer is it's not sustainable. Um we we are if we were able to reduce the routes that lets us live within the drivers we have. So that's very important to transportation. Another cost

260that has not been mentioned is when we have 15 drivers that are out, that means people are working a lot more overtime. And so there's overtime costs that you can actually look at too that um that are a drag on the budget because of because of that. And so so I think you need to take all that into consideration. But if um if the transportation department was sitting here and they had their their way about it, they would want to reduce routes because that's what actually gets the department functioning in a in a healthy environment. >> And Dave clarif excuse me clarifying question on that. Is a reduction of routes a reduction in service visav there would be less kids on our bus? >> I don't know that's not what we're after. We would still

261route students that are qualified for transportation. And what it does is it allows us to route more efficiently. And like we talked a lot about it last year where the way the the bells get out, we have elementarymentaries kind of getting out at the same time as other levels in the afternoon and that causes some real inefficiency. So as we standardize that length of day, we do see those efficiencies that we were talking about last year. And I'm excited to share that with you next time. >> I just had one more. Can you just tell us how many drivers we have? Just to put the 15 short in context roughly I >> um we have I would say we have 118 routes budgeted so that'll give you a good ballpark there. >> Andrew, do you

262have a question? >> Go ahead. I guess date number three that is up there with the November 3rd. Um that that essentially is the date we have promised to parents as I see it. And if we are going to make a rapid decision, it seems like that's the date we should be targeting to say go or no go in my opinion. Don't know what everyone else feels like, but if we're going to say that they're going to make a decision on the next school year and what that looks like, bell time, length of day, start date, those three primary things right off the bat. That means there's an awful lot of work to do in four weeks because we essentially have to I mean and I certainly can commit to going and talking to every

263single member of the our community that I possibly can between now and November 4th to to be part of that. That's fast for the community. I get that. But are we prepared to have a reasonable estimate of financial impact? Are we prepared to have all the models run so we're we make those fully informed decisions starting probably next week or next meeting, excuse me, in two month two weeks because we need sort of the first thing for discussion, feedback and everything like that before we then go to turning around and making a vote is that >> that's that's how I understand process and and that's I guess if we're going to engage in a 26 27year decision, it feels like that would be the ask and I I it feels doable if if the staff

264is willing to work a ridiculous number of hours. That's the only way I see it happening. And I don't know that that's a reasonable request accordingly. So that's kind of where I'm coming from right now. And if we had more time than November 4th because we maybe we can wait till the calendar for the end of the year. That's I mean I'm no stranger to very difficult decisions in a short period of time, but this is an awful lot that of load it feels like. to move that quickly and I >> it is I so I don't I don't want to underestimate that. I think a couple highlights I want to really commend the work of the transportation division that their modeling around this honestly could be turned on tomorrow if we wanted to. So

265it's not just hypotheticals. They've actually rerouted all of the students in these models. So the work that they have done around the clock in the last month to get to where we are and be prepared for the next board presentation is just exceptional. I would say I would hate for our engagement with the excuse me um I would hate for our engagement with the community to get overly assertive prior to you hearing what's possible with the Bell Times in a much more detailed concrete way because that may change your opinion on how you answered those questions right now. And so I think to me we need to have our next meeting still continue to engage with people around what we're talking about here tonight as much as possible and then revisit this conversation around do

266we want to be as aggressive as some of you are suggesting as early as next year. I think a piece that I may need to lean on staff bless you uh in this journey is what type of locus of control do we have around the choice window knowing we are going to reconvene as a governance team on the 18th how long is that window open and do we have in the event that our board signals that they don't want anybody to make a poor choice decision right around like the information changed while you already made your suggestions do we have any leniency there to think differently or is is that pretty firm? >> Yeah, so our choice window opens. So, first round school choice is a a lottery. Okay. So, it really doesn't matter when

267you get your application in as far as when you get offered a seat. So, that is the one round that's different then from the subsequent round. And so, um that window opens until December 15th. So, it's a it's a pretty good size window that if um a family wanted to make a different choice within that time frame, they could. And because it's a lottery, the time at which they enter their application wouldn't matter. They would have just as much chance as anybody else. >> So, they could, if we told them a decision's coming, they could at least wait until I I guess you were saying at least mid November for an additional >> Okay. Right. >> Thank you. And after that first round, so second round then be is a time stamp. Okay. So then

268once we move into into a time stamp as far as when you get your application in. >> Go ahead, Scott. >> So that I just was going to pass a note, but I just asked the question. Um, so does the window have to start November 3rd? I know our communication has probably said that, but but could we say I mean I get the December 15th. I just don't know if we can move it a little bit um just so we can explore this a little a little deeper. >> So that's one of those system implications that Andrew is naming. So the processing of applications um is largely done by our front office staff. And so we line up the choice windows to provide the optimal amount of time for front office staff to process those

269applications. And so the it it's a the reason it ends on December 15th is because of the ability to process all of those applications before the seat offers go out and to allow the an opportunity and ample time to run that lottery. So we can't compress the length of that window. We can move the window but then there are other implications by moving the window to later. Okay. So one of the things that um school of choice affords us is that early window then that feeds into projections right so we get a better more accurate projection for what we need to account for for student-based budget and and the IT team who runs those projections for each school they're able to better accurately predict like you're going to have this many students and so therefore

270you need this much in your studentbased budget. So the further we back that up, all of those systems and processes get backed up and then that inability to have that good solid projection will back up school schedules and their ability to do um course scheduling and know how many how many students they should expect and how many students they expect in a course schedule. So there are limitations to how far out we can push it. >> Go ahead. I'm just going to be mindful of the time that it's 9:25. We have two executive sessions. I would love to talk about this for the rest of the night, but and I know we're not calling the question because it'sformational, but >> before we do that, Jess has not had a chance to speak >> and so

271I want to make >> asking if everyone had had gotten >> so I want to make sure that she's allowed to speak. Um, yeah. >> I just thought it was funny that he asked me that question. And I was like, "Yep, me." Um, I mean, I did ask a couple of questions early on to >> for your benefit. >> No, no, no. You're great. Um, I I think in spirit, Kevin, I'm with you in wishing that this could realistically happen. And listening to all the discussion, I had some of the same comments like what does it cost us to stay the same? Is there a benefit to moving faster? and remembering some of the hard decisions that we've had to make. They are easier. They are done robustly when we have community buyin. And I

272don't think we have time. Um, and that makes me sad because I would love for next year to have a calendar that goes later, uh, bell times that have more system alignment, have a school day that's longer. Um, and I think to do that robustly, it's probably not realistic for next year. Now, if we get a if we get at the second meeting this month and the bell schedules are like the most amazing thing ever and the calendar is the most amazing thing ever and you guys have all these meetings the next couple weeks that like everyone's super happy and stoked, great. I don't see that happening, but it would be a dream come true. Um, now I think another piece of that would be even when we're going out to the community to ask

273about the options. I kind of want to know are we are we seriously considering the late start or as a board is that something like the system aligned late start or are we really focused on that system aligned because I think those conversations will become very different and the level of robust outreach for a system aligned late start will require a different level of community engagement a different level of community partnership versus if we have just a systemal aligned day I think that is a different conversation. Um, so I think that also has implications on the time frame. The other thing I just want to make sure that we get in the room because I think it's been stated in passing, but whatever is decided there are because the employee agreement's called out explicitly in

274the um longer report that you provide, not as much in the um presentation since this is more anformational thing, but making sure that whatever time if we do decide to add to our day, it gets thoroughly vetted by our associations. it gets negotiated for maybe it's plan time, maybe it adjusts the before and after time because for some of these schedules, if we continue to require that 30 minutes before and after, we are requiring our staff to work longer than an eight hour day. And I think that's going to be a non-starter for a lot of folks. So, just making sure that whatever decisions are made, we are understanding that we're not negotiating ourselves how that time is spent. we are pulling in all of our partners and making sure that everyone is on board

275with the same plan and everyone's in agreement and we and I think that's also something that will take a lot of time and if we make a decision for how this works by November 18th and then negotiations gets kicked off by the end of the year and we end up in a bad spot because we didn't do take the time to do it um is not a future I want to see either. So, I think did I answer Oh, I think I answered the calendar piece of this as well, but um I would love to start later. I think my opinion is well known. Um but I just wanted to restate it again. >> Yeah. And yes, go ahead. Um, I resonated with what Kevin said and Jess about um being sure that I'm sorry

276I'm spacing my uh thing for next um No, it's not late start. It's um just this Yeah, it's around the I apologize brain. Yeah, it's late. Um it's it's around the system aligned late start and does it help the district at all for us to decide tonight whether we want to say no late start we will does it make your life better for the next two weeks in the analysis you're doing if we say that tonight and then should we discuss that quickly because I'd like to make your life easier for the next two weeks. >> I appreciate that. Do you have an opinion? >> From the transportation standpoint, the late start isn't as big of a deal for us because we're shifting time. >> Okay. >> Um, so but that's that's just a transportation

277view. >> Any other areas? >> I have an opinion, I'm sure. Dr. So, I think the um this community's not ever had a late start early release and so just some of the awareness and engagement and like I think we have to do our due diligence to line up those community partners to um see if we can provision the child care that we believe would be necessary in order to um make a late start work. Because the benefit of having a late start for um our staff is that they get some of that collaboration time and that job embedded professional learning that we are very very limited with in our current allocation of those non- studentent contact days. And so we would want to make sure that it's a win-win both for the community as

278well as for the staff. And so that's going to take some time to process and evaluate how to best do that. Is it possible and feasible? Yes, I think it could be. And I don't know yet the capacity of those community partners to provision child care. That's probably the biggest lingering question that I have. >> Okay. So, I'm hearing yes. It makes your life easier. The the the only thing I would add to that because I agree with everything she said is that if this really was an opportunity for the community to have the conversation about whether or not it was a value of the community, I'd hate to close a door >> and and sort of contradict what we've been saying all evening, which is that we do want some feedback. And one of

279the reasons the team put it in here is that we aren't in lock. It was not as clearly a consistent in much the same way I've heard it on the DAS tonight. And so continuing to have that conversation, I think makes sense. That said, a a move like that could be stepped into after a longer period of discussion and debate. So, I I I don't think it closes a door. I don't think it makes our life much harder to continue to wonder what that could look like. Uh but I would feel disingenuous to the process if we left the room tonight feeling like, nah, never mind. Um I I know that wasn't the cleanest and clearest answer that you've gotten from me. Oh, >> well, maybe it is. Then I'll stick with I'll stick with

280my pushing out to 2728. Okay, quick. >> Um, yeah, I I don't feel comfortable frivolously just deciding no more late start without getting feedback from the people that know the most about it, our principles, our staff at the high schools especially. Um, and then also what that would look like to the elementary schools and middle schools if it was added in there. So, I would definitely want to hear there's a reason we did it years ago and I've seen it with my own kids the benefit of it um and heard from the staff the benefit of late start in the high schools. So, I would want to hear that feedback. I don't feel like I'm qualified to make that decision right now. >> And if I could complicate that further, the I think the decision

281that Jim was was trying to do was to take the system aligned late start off the board. the there's no option on the table right now that would prevent a school from continuing a practice of late start that they already have. I want to say that like a couple of times. The goal here was autonomy at the site level to make those type oops sorry make those types of decisions. So, even if there were a clear message tonight that said we don't think the system should move in the way of a system aligned late start, that wouldn't uh in my estimation, unless I heard it very differently and and uh Superintendent Kingsley said it, um we wouldn't be saying we're going to break up with that practice where it exists already in our system. >>

282Okay, quick. >> I'm the one that said it, so I get it. So, my only my only caution, I hear everything everyone's saying and I appreciate it because I I'm of the camp too that community engagement is incredibly important, but I drew I drew something that that hopefully you can kind of see. It's a chart. Can you see this little part right here that's colored in and the rest of the chart that's not from a recent discussion we had uh with Dr. Schmidtz? That's your response rate for our community when we're going to put a poll out to the crowd. Okay. So th this engagement right here, if we're going to put a poll out to parents and busy people and busy professionals and others, that's going to be our data point. So my caution

283is this. We can ask our community any number of questions about what they feel about certain things, but if you at a certain point, their heads are going to explode because mine is because if we give them four different calendar scenarios on top of layering on six different bell schedules of this versus, oh, and by the way, the choice calendars coming, their heads are going to explode at a certain point. this is what we're elected to do is to make difficult system changes because we are in the weeds and I we're going to have to get comfortable with uncomfortable because I think if we if we if our if our only refuge is that the community is going to tell us resoundingly and with clarity what it is the value statements are. I think we're

284setting ourselves up for disappointment has been my experience. That's not a reason not to do it but to be smart about how we do it. >> Go ahead Jess. I don't think the community engagement piece is just about getting like people to say yes, I want that or no, I want that or which option do I want most. I think what we get most out of our community engagement is the things that we didn't consider that we want to put into it or if we find out, oh man, that was a really good idea that somehow the super smart people in the room didn't consider because for whatever reason, right? Their paradigms. Um then we have the time and the bandwidth to actually consider it and how we can we can how we can implement

285it. So it's more than just like oh do you like this or not? And that's where having going to smaller groups like DAB or DAC is really helpful in addition to any survey we might do. >> I agree with that. I think the discussions are the biggest part of the the engagement sessions. It's not a survey, it's a discussion. We need to have that feedback. We need to know um for parents, is a late start viable? Would they be happy with that? Maybe an early release is more what they would be looking for. Maybe they don't want it at all. Maybe it's something that um staff doesn't want. There are so many unknowns. I would hate to take that choice away from people. That is what we were talking about what we what we had

286done previously. We came with a solution rather than a statement of the problem. And that did not go well. And so I will once again um just state the slow is smooth, smooth is fast. And so as if we want this to be quick, let's make sure it is smooth. and a smooth process means that we're going to engage everyone. So, um I will go ahead and end with that and uh thank you so much. Um it was great presentation and wonderful discussion and thank you. >> Thank you all and thanks to the folks on the instructional minutes action team as I I will close this the same way we try to close each meeting. May all your minutes be instructional minutes. >> I love that. Okay. Yes. >> But but I'd like to I'd

287like to have you do all the presentations. >> All right. Um we have an an executive session. Can I get a motion? >> I move that the board enter an executive session as authorized by CRS24-6-42E for the following reasons. Number one, to determine positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiation. developed a strategy for negotiation and instruct negotiators regarding a potential fifth amendment to the real estate exchange agreement between Pter School District and Montava Partners LLC. And two, to determine positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations, develop the strategy for negotiations and instruct negotiators regarding a proposed change to the intergovernmental agreement related to the Southwest Community Center dated February 20th, 2024. Individuals invited to join the board in all or part of the accession executive session are superintendent Brian

288Kingsley, chief of staff Dr. Lauren Hooton, lead assistant superintendent Dr. Tracy Guile, chief financial officer Dave Mononttoya, chief technology officer Bud Hunt, director of athletics and activities Brandon Carluchcci, and general counsel Autumn Aspen. >> Can I get a second? Thank you, Andrew. And Jill, can you please call the vote? >> Jim Brokish. >> Hi. >> Kristen Draper. >> Hi. >> Connor Duffy. >> Hi. >> Kevin Havda. >> Hi. >> Scott Shoenbower. >> Hi. >> Andrew Spain. >> I. >> Jessica Zamora. >> Hi. >> Motion passes 70. >> Thank you so much, Jill. Um, just as a a reiteration, I will be recusing myself from um part two of this executive session. Uh, we will now convene in a closed session. This is the last agenda item before adjournment and at the conclusion of the executive

289session will return the meeting. The adjournment will be recorded.