Board of Education Meeting: September 23, 2025 (Spanish Captions)

001All right. Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining the board of education. Um, please mute your cell phones or anything else that might beep for buzz as we begin this meeting. Today is Tuesday, September 23rd, 2025, and the meeting is now called to order at 5:30 p.m. For those attending this meeting in person, live captions are available on the TV boardroom and in the lobby. To access the live captions in a language other than English on your own device, please scan the QR code on the screen or on the table near the entrance and select the language of your choice. The live stream of this meeting is also available in English and Spanish on YouTube. For links to these live streams, please visit the board of education page of the PSD website or PSDTV on

002demand on YouTube. Okay. Um, moving to approval of agenda. Would any board members like to make changes to this agenda? Okay. Seeing none, we'll move over to the superintendent report. So, Superintendent Kingsley will now make remarks to the board of education and to the community. Welcome. >> Thank you, President Schraper. Good evening, everybody. It's an honor to be with you all tonight. Uh I want to start off our evening and our board meeting by wishing all of our Jewish friends, uh colleagues and community members a happy Rasha Shana. Uh I also want to start off, as you know, historically for the last year or so, we've been starting off our board meetings with my superintendent update with a quick win video. Uh we had an incredible opportunity to have a ribbon cutting ceremony up the

003hill here at our career tech center to uh really kick off our advanced manufacturing lab. Our students stole the show alongside of our partners and our communications team did a great job of highlighting that event. I'd love to start there tonight. >> Good morning and welcome to the grand opening of your PS manufacturing lab. [Music] students have the curiosity and now the skills, the ability, and the courage to take a more active role in a rapidly changing world. At the Cter School District, embedded in our strategic plan is the belief that every single student should graduate options. This new advanced manufacturing lab is a gamecher. It blurs the lines between industry, the workforce, and our classrooms. It is the result of strong partnerships and a shared community vision, a regional vision. >> We are celebrating

004a shared belief in what's possible when we invest in our youth. This space will not only equip students but also is an opportunity for businesses to continue to play key role in partnering to offer industry specific work-basing opportunities. When I think about innovative programming, when I think about what the future of high school looks like, this is it right here. And now, we'd like to proudly open your PSD manufacturing lab. Cut that ribbon to our students. This is for you. This is only the beginning. I want to thank the comm's team for just once again putting together an incredible video to highlight our exceptional work. Uh what you saw there was uh the result of tremendous regional collaboration. I think it's really important to send another special shout out to the Bohemian Foundation, Lammer County

005who contributed $2 million towards that effort. Also put $2 million in the coffers of Thompson School District where their students can also benefit uh from that advanced manufacturing lab. and our students will also be able to benefit from their financial investments and their expansion of different work-based learning opportunities uh down in Loveland, which is just fantastic. Uh this is one example of many of different types of pathway programs that are available to our students at the Career Tech Center. And if you are a member of our community or a student who's aspiring to attend, like our students will offer tours almost on a daily basis and they do such a great job. Uh, and I just again I want to thank our local media as well for just elevating the stories of our students and

006our teachers. If you know Josh, the teacher up there of that lab. Um, he's pretty passionate guy. Um, and I wasn't sure if he was getting ready for a a Denver Broncos football game or or opening a an advanced manufacturing lab, but nonetheless, his students love him as a result of what he brings to the table. So, I want to just give a special thank you to him as well as the entire career and innovation uh department. uh as I shared with you know you saw in the video I talked about that particular effort being aligned to one of our three district priorities which is ensuring that all of our students not just graduate but they graduate with options and as I shared with you in our dinner session I would also say that effort

007aligns very much to our mental health and belonging priority because the more that we have students continuing to be engaged in their passions and their interests working with their hands being around teachers like Josh uh who make them feel seen and motivated to do something that's bigger than themselves. I just want to say like those are things that we need to continue to think about the both end. Uh, and not only did we recently have a ribbon cutting ceremony up at the CTC, but I had the pleasure and the honor uh to attend uh in partnership with Lar Lmer County the opening of the adolescent care unit at the Long View campus uh which was a grand opening that provides around the clock 247 365 days a year mental health care uh to all members

008of our community but now especially to our adolescence which has been a gap uh in our community. And I just for anybody who's watching and listening in tonight, we need to continue to be hypervigilant about checking in on our children and on our young adults. We can't do enough parenting, teaching, mentoring, counseling, guiding, just seeing how they are, how they're experiencing life, how they're experiencing school, how they're experiencing the world, how they're experiencing technology and social media and the various aspects of content that is available to them. There has been some sobering statistics that have been recently published across our state. While Lurmer County is continuing to trend in a positive direction while reducing our suicide rates as a community, it seems that adolescent uh care, especially in our emergency rooms, is really experiencing an

009uptick. Uh and we need to be really vigilant about why that is. Um, Children's Hospital in the state of Colorado experienced a 22% uptick this past summer on children entering their emergency rooms uh for mental health supports. That's sobering. And so, while we're continuing to prioritize this, we also need to be honest that many of the supports and services that are being provided to children and young adults in this space are grant-f funded. And many of those grants have been at risk. Some of them have been eliminated. And as we have this changing landscape, we need to continue to be vulnerable, continue to be honest, but also try to be creative in trying to find solutions to just being touched, you know, to checking in with our children. I just think that's really important. And

010that's not just the job of our teachers and our counselors and our principles. That's every member of this community has a role and responsibility to continue to look out for each other. And I'm really proud for the work that we're doing here tonight uh in in this in in this district. Uh tonight I think we have a really great meeting. Once again you're going to have an opportunity to hear from our director of early childhood who's going to share our ECE annual report. I know that's always a highlight for us. Um and so I'm really looking forward to hearing that and we're going to continue to have ongoing conversations over the next month about other important topics that have potentially implications around how we do business in our districts. Uh at our next meeting, we

011will be talking about instructional minutes and what that looks like across our school district in terms of how we can continue to not only be in compliance uh with state regulations, but how can we continue to optimize how we do our business to make sure not only our students benefit, but we've talked about a lot of different things from instructional minutes, bell times, calendar changes, and there's a lot of people around our district who are doing really great work to think thoughtfully around all of the interdependencies. of those spaces to try to figure out if there are ways for us to take a step forward to be responsive to the general public and many of the things that you all are hearing from members of the community. So, I look forward to a series of

012really thoughtful conversations over the next couple months, but let's start here tonight by having a great meeting. So, thank you for allowing me a few minutes to address the community. >> Of course. Thank you. All right. And we'll move on to our community comments portion. 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 comment. Our lack of response should not be construed to mean that we agree or disagree with what is said or with

013the description or interpretation of events as presented by any speaker. Further, even if some remarks may be factually inaccurate, 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. And so this opportunity for public comment is for members of the community who registered to speak by the designated deadline. Those people will be called on to make remarks in the order that they signed up and each speaker will be allowed three minutes to address the board. So, first up, we're going to

014welcome Tom Griggs. Welcome. Good evening to the board, those present in the boardroom today, and to those tuning in from a distance. My name is Tom Griggs and I'm a candidate for the district D seat on the Pter school district board. I have a confession to make. I am a clown school dropout. It's true. I really am. I guess I just wasn't funny enough to get my clown license. But if you see me fooling around in Fort Collins, I suggest you run the other way. Maybe it was a good thing I didn't make it as a clown because my failure at it meant I had to finally get serious. Next thing I knew, I became a teacher and I earned my PhD so I could become a scholar of schooling and a teacher of teachers

015at the University of Northern Colorado in Gley. I retired from UNCC during the pandemic after winning a fullbrite distinguished teaching award and teaching at a university in Brazil for a full academic year. During the last few years of my career at UNC, I also chaired and helped start a state level education policy advocacy group, which is now known as Advocates for Public Education Policy. Since then, and for the last five years, I have been working as a substitute in Pter and Thompson school districts. This range and depth of experience matters a great deal and in my humble opinion makes me uniquely qualified to serve on the Pter School District Board of Education. Experience really does matter. I firmly believe I understand schools almost inside out. Teachers, classified staff, parents, and our kids will notice how

016much these experiences affect decisions I help the board make if I am elected. Since I started my campaign this past spring, excuse me, I have marveled at the 11 years of volunteer time and energy committed to by Carolyn Reed and the eight years of the current president of the board, Kristen Draper, not to mention all the rest of you. I believe the current challenges we are facing as a district will demand even more of us. But I know I'm up to up to the challenge. As a semi-retiree, I am in what I suppose is the enviable position of being able to work as hard as any volunteer can to support our community through my work as a board member. And I promise to do this with a sense of humor because I believe a sense

017of humor is necessary to create a healthy, balanced approach to doing the important work we do for our kids and their families in such work. Please check out my website at tomgriggsforpsd.org and I think you will see that I mean business because my depth and range of experience really does matter. Thank you. >> Thank you. Excuse me. Next up we have Ron Shakowski. Welcome. Hello. Uh, thank you for having me tonight. Uh, I would like to share my family's experience with the Pter School District special education program. Uh, to illustrate the impact this has on our families. Uh, we moved to Colorado in 2016 when my oldest daughter was entering sixth grade. She is on the autism spectrum and has had an IEP since kindergarten. During her first IEP evaluation at Pter School District, Maline

018Carter served as our team lead. Meline finally took the time to fully assess our daughter's reading skills, which we knew were accelerated, but never had any proof. It was a delight to finally see that what we suspected was actually proven. Uh Meline also held our daughter to the standards we all knew she could meet while giving her the grace when she was struggling. Our daughter's middle school experience was nothing less than phenomenal. When she transitioned to Fort Collins High School, Troy Toler became a her team lead and continued the amazing tradition of ensuring she was supported but also held accountable. Jessica Gilman was particularly exceptional as her math teacher, helping our daughter succeed in a subject that was difficult for her to conceptualize. Our daughter graduated in 2023 and is now in her final year

019with PSD Transitions Academy, attending her second year at Cooper Home. Dustin Noden and all of the staff at Cooper Home have been outstanding, continuing to challenge our daughter and support her growth. We are deeply appreciative of the special education program at Pter School District. Whether it is the inclusion of our daughter in the general education curriculum with supports as needed, the unified sports program that allowed her to feel connected to both her middle and high schools along with the diverse group of students who participated and attended those games. And finally, the transition programs that are helping her move into adulthood. With the support of Pter School District, our daughter has excelled and we are sincerely grateful. Uh, I do have to dine and dash because I have another commitment, but thank you so much. >>

020Thank you. Thank you so much. Next up, we have Nicole Alvarado. Welcome. I am here speaking on behalf of the Pter Education Association Executive Board, an organization that I am proud to serve. I'd first like to thank those members of the board who were bold enough to vote against the initial recommendation by the board president and members of PSD's cabinet to limit community comment. I'm also here to continue to advocate for educator voices in all spaces of decision-making. I feel it is important to highlight the ways that educator voice and community voice are being suppressed by members of this board and cabinet leaders. I'm disappointed that this community community continues to be gaslit in hearing that our feedback is important yet our feedback is neglected. Thank goodness we have five sensible directors who realize that

021our voices matter and voted to preserve this community's freedom of speech. Essentially, I am here because there are now multiple occasions where decisions made by our superintendent and his cabinet exclude the vital voice of educators. PA represents over,200 licensed employees in addition to a number of classified staff members. And the same conversation is had over and over again. Listen to us. Trust us. We are professionals. After seeing this pattern time after time, I now believe you are intentionally trying to cut out the voice of our union and our members. Let me share a couple of examples of ways that educators have been excluded from decision-making that directly affects their roles and experience. One, a cabinet a cabinet level decision was made to pause the calendar committee for this year based on hearing that the state

022changed how districts must report instructional minutes. However, we as a union learned it would now be looked at by an instructional minutes action team. PA was not asked to provide any feedback or participants for this group. In fact, when we asked about the participants of this action team, we were told this selection was at the discretion of the superintendent. We also had that heard that this board has no desire to count elementary recess as part of instructional minutes. Is that correct? Or are decisions about the calendar and instructional minutes being made at the behest of cabinet members claiming to speak for the board while continuing to shut out stakeholder feedback? Two, in the 2425 school year, a member of our bargaining team directly asked members of cabinet if there was a small schools committee meeting

023designed to look at 4A funding. Our union was then gaslit into thinking this was not true. However, weeks later, it was discovered in a March 25 meeting that this committee was in fact meeting and was actively making decisions without any licensed employee on the committee. Why are puer educators and I am talking about students facing staff being excluded from decisions that affect us? This is not a new issue. This is an issue that we continue to bring forward because we are seeing and feeling that our voice does not matter and that only those in this room know what's best. If there is a committee being formed, a licensed educator should be there and our elected union leadership should have input into the process. If a committee is meeting anywhere in this district where decisions are

024being made about educators, I want to share this. No decisions about us without us. I certainly hope our experience, opinions, and commitment to standing up for our students and professions still matters. >> Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you. Um, next up we have Jamie Richway. Welcome. Good evening and thank you for taking my comments. My name is Jamie Rididgeway and I want to speak as a parent of a queer student. I am a proud parent of two current PSD students actually, a seventh grader at Leer and a junior at Collins. As I was preparing, I kept coming back to the phrase just let kids be kids. Okay, that's not exactly controversial. We all want kids to be kids. We all want the best for our kids. But today, I want to consider the whole kid,

025not just the parts we as parents want to focus on. And that whole kid can include being queer. Colorado law aims to provide a safe environment for an LGBTQ plus student while at school and school sponsored activities. A safe place for a queer kid to learn and learn about themselves. Excuse me. For example, uh the Colorado state statutes, title 22, article 1, sections 143, 145, and 147 protect queer kids from harassment, transgender kids right to be addressed by their chosen name, and free menstrual products to all who need them at school. The Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act addresses harassment and safeguards equitable bathroom and facility access based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. These laws are bolstered with the Fort Collins anti-discrimination ordinance in city code chapter 13 section 16 as well as other state

026statutes. Colorado, Fort Collins, and PSD together make a safe place for LGBTQ plus students to learn and grow. But let's not kid ourselves. Any school board staying their ground under pressure from the whole of the federal government is profoundly difficult. Today, you may even think supporting and protecting your transgender students is a great liability to the Pter School District. But please remember, you do not report directly to the federal government. You answer to the state school board, state statues, and the local community. Of course, you know that your job is to focus on the students in your charge. And they, these students, include queer and transgender students in all grades, preK through 12. Today, queer kids in PSD schools don't have to care about the politics. Today, they can care about common stuff like friends,

027navigating the halls at the school. My youngest has crutches right now. Uh homework, the tennis team, school dance, the next field trip, you know, kids being kids today, that's in large part thanks to the oversight of this board, you all. But today and tomorrow, let kids and queer kids and transgender kids be their own whole kid, not some mirror of our own childhoods and definitely not some political pawn. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next up, we have Eliza Dinsky. Welcome. >> Good evening, everyone. Thanks for having me here. My name is Elisa and I'm a career and teched teacher at Rocky Mountain High School specializing in metal and machining fabrication, engineering, and manufacturing. I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of myself and my colleagues who teach in CTE pathways across this district. Um, to

028give you some context, my teaching partner and I offer more than 13 different classes to students in grades 9 through 12, including metals and woods levels 1 through 4, architecture, geometry and construction, drafting, engineering, and front-range community welding courses. These are not only highskll, high demand courses, but they require significant funding to run successfully. Um, as you stated, Mr. Kingsley, one of the key goals in this district's strategic plan is for students to graduate with options. So, by providing them more academic pathways aligned to their future goals and increasing awareness of those opportunities to earn free college credit, cert certifications, um, industry certifications, things like that while they're still in high school. At Rocky, our CTE program directly supports this goal by offering nine college credits in front- range welding and industry recognized certifications in

029drafting, welding, and construction. Unfortunately, this year we've been hit hard by significant budget cuts. When the district eliminated student fees to make classes more equitable and accessible, it also committed to continuing to fund that lost revenue. That funding is critical with consumable materials being the lifeblood of our CTE programs. For years, we've carefully tracked spending so the district knows what it takes to run these programs. Yet a few weeks into this school year, we were informed that the code 29 budget allocations were being eliminated entirely with no plan to cover that lost fund those lost funds. This has forced us to operate with 10 to$15,000 less than in previous years, which is already short of what student free were bringing in. Meanwhile, materials costs like lumber and steel have surged and demand for our courses

030has grown, as you all saw in the video as well, um as we've added more course offerings. In other words, we're expected to do more for more students with significantly less. CTE teachers are expected to teach just as many students as other content areas while also managing and maintaining a shop full of large, complex, and often dangerous equipment. Equipment that should be maintained by trained technicians. The district provides no budget or support for this, so teachers are left to troubleshoot, order parts, and make repairs on their own time. On top of that, CTE teachers are required to demonstrate thousands of hours of industry experience just to be qualified to teach our content. It's deeply demoralizing to be told that we need to start writing grants and fund raise just to keep our programs running. After

03114 years in education, I find it disheartening to watch programs that directly align with the district's goals be left underfunded and unsustainable. I'm not interested in watching my program fail because the district cannot uphold its side of the bargain. If you believe in your strategic plan, please fund it. If fees are not returning, restore the $15,000 in loss funding. Otherwise, we risk losing more experienced, highly qualified teachers, and more importantly, we risk failing our students. I understand the economic and political pressures we're all facing, but we cannot let budget constraints become roadblocks to student opportunity. CTE programs prepare students for real careers and real futures. We're not asking for extras. We're asking for the basic support required to keep these programs alive. The decisions you choose to make or not make. Please have to ask

032you to wrap up. Can I finish the lessons? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, the lasting impact on the success of our programs, but the lives and the futures of the students we're all here to serve. Thank you. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. And sorry, Elisa, correct? Yes. Thank you. Uh, next up we have Anna. Welcome. >> Good evening. Um, I'm going to go off script a little bit because it's pretty pretty all over the place. So, we'll just go and add this. Part of it is because I can't type and I'm struggling. I feel like I've gotten a good um dose of there's a a simulation that I did several years ago for dyslexia and one of the things they had us do was write with our non-dominant hand at a pace that everyone

033else was expected to keep up with because dyslexics dyslexic learners tend to take five times as long to process the information coming in and to try to get that on the paper. I'm just living that. I'm living that life right now and it's rough. So, I'm here to ask you guys to do something about that. Um, okay. So, up until this school year, we haven't really started a school year saying dyslexia. And last year, we didn't. We weren't in that position. And this year, we are. And so, this year, the risk of sounding like Groundhog Day, I'm going to come back to you guys again and ask, would you please consider a dyslexia specific task force? SEAK does not fit that bill. Um, and I think this is the year that we need to do

034this. It's a three-year roll out for how we are addressing um, professional development. Last year was elementary school. This year is secondary school. From my understanding, a lot of the secondary people, it's optional whether they do it or not. This really drags out the process and we need more hands very specifically doing the work that needs to happen. And so my proposal is that we have the board initiate a task force of diverse stakeholders that would be PSD people. Yes, but community experts on dyslexia, families who have dyslexic learners, actual dyslexic learners that are students in the district. And I think we need to really wrap our mind around what the issues are that we need like where we need to feel the relief in the district. And as everyone knows things take time. Everyone's

035like it takes time. Change takes time. So if we need the change to start happening after professional development is over, we need to start addressing what we are looking for after professional development ends. So things that come to mind would be like adding American Sign Language as a graduation credit as a foreign language credit for students who would need structured literacy to learn a foreign language. This cuts this is a huge obstacle for kids who need to learn a foreign language. Um we have great music programs over the summer. like how about some really fun literacy camps for kids that they look forward to going to that are district programs that families can find as a district resource. These are things that could be planned starting now like looking at next year like we need

036resources that families can feel for relief. Right now the professional development is not reaching families yet. I have friends in elementary and middle school and high school that are all struggling. So all right, have a good night. Thank you. Thank you so much. And last up, we have Eric Sutherland. Welcome. >> Eric Southerntherland. Got a few comments this evening about action item 7.1 on your agenda. But first, a question. Is it possible? Is it legal for the school district to use revenues derived from a bond levy for general fund purposes? The answer to that is no. And that's for the same reason it's unlawful for urban renewal authorities to use monies diverted from property taxes for general fund purposes. It's specific to debt service only. That's a requirement of statute in both circumstances. Now Dave

037Mononttoya of course knows this perfectly well. He's known it for 15 years since I explained it to him. But despite the obvious illegality that is uh harming taxpayers and the school district and public education throughout the entire state of Colorado continues to run interference, continues to uh misinform board members, etc. Now, action item 7.1 on your agenda gives you four options to detail whether or not the administration is somehow uh dealing properly with the community stakeholders. Well, there's one group of stakeholders whose interest in the school district eclipses all others by several orders of magnitude, and that would be the people who are paying taxes to make this whole enterprise work. in concert with a social contract that their sacrifice produces public benefits as it goes through. Now, the fact that this board would even

038contemplate the resolution before it is just hilarious. Why? Because this is a culture of zero up here. zero accomplishment, zero initiative, zero legislative, administrative purview over the operations of this school district. Anybody up here standing behind this podium is very likely just wasting their time because even though you have this large framework of policy governance, which of course somehow some has some sort of nexus with 7.1, there's nothing in your policy governance statement or anywhere else that allows you provides for you a mechanism to exercise legislative or administrative purview. And indeed, you never do. It's zero, guys. So, my question this evening as to whether or not school district can use bond funds, it's moot. As would be anything else anybody ever says up here, it is absolutely a culture of zero. It has been

039this way for nearly a decade, probably more. I have to go back to Ross Kif to find somebody who actively participated in engaging with the community and resolving problem solving their issues. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Okay. So, thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts during community comment tonight. Um, we appreciate your engagement and the feedback that you provide and look forward to our further discussions at our next engagement session which is going to be on somebody help me out here. October 2nd. Thursday, October 2nd, 5:30 to 7. Um, one will be at Warner and one will be at Oander. So, we hope to see you there. So, thank you all for speaking tonight. Moving on to board topics and committee reports. This agenda item is a opportunity

040for board members to provide an update on committee work on sorry on committee work um or speak to board topics. Do any board members have something that they would like to report? Go ahead, Scott. >> I just wanted to uh first off um congratulate everybody who's involved in opening up the uh the new advanced tech lab uh over here at Pter High School. It's an amazing place. I encourage everybody to go check it out. It's um really impressive. It's it's awesome to see the equipment that was donated uh by very generous uh uh companies um for that and for the funding that we got from Bohemian and and the county. Um another thing I did want to bring up, you know, near and dear to my heart are the is the cell phone policy. I'm

041very excited to uh announce that we not announced, this has already been out there, but we're going to have an airing of a um a great uh movie called Screen Aers. It's a documentary about um growing up in the digital age, the uh challenges kids are going through with cell phones and how parents can help them manage that. Um that is the first airing of it is going to be on October 8th at uh Fossil Ridge in the performance performing arts center. Uh and uh we're advertising that on Facebook uh Instagram and you'll see it in other communication from the uh um from the district. So it's really designed we we'll have it for each um group of high schools. This is going to be for Fossil and Timnith uh path kids. um Preston Canard,

042PGA, uh those those schools will be hearing about this. So, it runs from 6:00 to 8:30. There'll be an airing of the movie. It's about an hour long and then we'll have a panel discussion afterwards with uh experts and sounds like a student will be there as well to give their opinion. So, very excited about that and I thank the district for uh for putting this together. >> Thank you so much. Anyone else? Okay, Kevin. Okay. Yeah, that's better. Um, I had two committee assignments uh that took place last week. Uh, the first of which we had our um first SEAK meeting of a calendar year. Um, this is at the new transition pathways center and the rest of them will be there. So, I finally get to see the new uh I didn't get

043to be there for the grand opening, but it's just it's so great to be physically in that building first. Um I'm not going to go through the whole thing. It was a very dense meeting. We covered a lot of ground. It was a very I'll say a very ambitious agenda. I'm not putting anyone on the bus bar, but it was very ambitious. Um we didn't get through everything, but we definitely got to welcome in some new members, which was one of the highlights. we got to um uh reconnect with some uh existing members, one of whom was here tonight. Um the first order of business we talked about and this has kind of been an ongoing discussion point for SEAK is this idea of trying to get more community engagement with SEAK directly and sort

044of they're navigating understanding their role as an advisory board and not an advocacy board. But still there is a a push to try to have more community engagement so that more bringing in more parents and families into the fold. And so some of the things that were discussed without any kind of decisions being made is potentially having a special meeting. This was a carryover from an idea that was brought forward last school year. Um and then perhaps doing a special session that is open to the public but a virtual one. So it' be a little bit more accessible to to folks that want to come. It would also provide for some anonymity of members that maybe don't want to have their names in minutes or things like that. Um, so again, more food for thought

045and there was some good discussion around that. Um, the other we got a great update and I'm I'm not going to steal any of your thunder, Dr. RML, because I know we're going to get an update on November 4th, but we got a an incredibly thorough update um from the director um uh Jody Raml. Uh, one of the stats, and if I butcher any of these, please correct me, but um, there were 80% of our students served in IEP, uh, made year or more worth of growth in reading and math last calendar year. Is that correct? Okay. So, I'd like to celebrate that and have, you know, there is some accomplishments that's that that that's done in this district. Um, uh, Dr. RML also, uh, talked about some of the priorities for setting, um, for

046the next, uh, calendar year and some others. We also did a very uh what I appreciate a very thorough deep dive into the gradu graduation rates uh with our students that have IEPs. We've we've heard about this a bit more. We seem to be lagging beyond um behind some of our other peer districts, but um I really appreciated the thoroughess of that discussion and and again more of the probing nature of the questions that are being asked. Um I I think I've said this up here before, I'll say it again, is that my dad always said excellence, those who truly seek excellence are never threatened by it when they see it in others. Rather, they are excited. So I think we've got we've got this examination period, which is what I'll call it, not investigation,

047but examination as to why our numbers are doing what they're doing. Um I think we're asking the right questions. I think I've still got some more questions. Um and so I'm going to be really excited to hear the um the a follow-up presentation on November 4th. And I'll kind of leave it at that. Um and there are some there are some very interesting data points as to to answer that question as to why that may be the case. Um I also wanted to leave on that note and say there is a really happy point that I thought about is that you know some if some of the numbers are due to our um transition pathways and some of those numbers being captured in a population of our students that has uh that requires additional needs.

048I'm proud to be in a district that actually can support that and we have dedicated unbelievable staff and admin and educators that are that are providing that resource to our students and to our community. Um it's incredible and I don't I don't know if we're singular in that when it comes to Colorado, but I I I'm very proud to be a district that that offers those supports. Um so hopefully that we can balance the graduation rate examination without eroding some of those support structures. Um finally on CX, sorry again it was it was a it was a long meeting. We also got an update from the MEL multicategorical program evaluation from Nora Love integrated services assistant director of teaching and learning. Again, this was a very dense presentation, but some of the touch points I

049thought were interesting. Um, again, one one big stat is that 84% of our students with IEPs are in the multicategorical category. So, I thought it was a pretty robust group. Um, we talked about ratios. Um there were certain components of the survey as far as you know how folks are feeling about the resources and the services they're receiving and there were staff participants, there were student participants and there were community member participants and I'll highlight some of the some of the things that I pulled out from that report is that our educators are reporting that they have a somewhat unmanageable workload um when it comes to both um addressing IEPs um uh updating IPS, doing IEP compliance work. um it just it just seems like a lot. So, one of the priorities that we've set

050forward as a district is to address the workload challenges that we're hearing. We're not just hearing it from educators, we're hearing it from uh admin as well is that they feel like the workload to some of their staff is is unmanageable and that will threaten some retention issues if we don't address it. So, again, I like that we're being forward thinking in that regard. um some of the fun some of the fun feedback we got from students from our students that were pulled um they you know they were asked about what they understood about the IP meetings of which they were the subject and they were also asked if you ever attended any and one student report I think it was an eighth grader said there's a lot of talking and so that that sounds

051familiar um the other one which I really like and I'll leave on this one as far as my CK update is that one student encouraged his other students that were on IEPs to participate in his IEP and to be a self- advocate. And I thought that was a really strong place. So, I'll leave it there. Uh the other thing, and I'm sorry, but the the other important work that's going on in the district is our uh policy review committee had its other had an update uh last week. I'm just going to touch on the policies that were addressed. It was JLDAC, screening testing of students. JLCDC, medically medically necessary treatment in school setting. JLCDB, administrating medical marijuana to qualified students on district property. And then JLCD, administering medicine to students with asthma, food and allergy

052uh and ailics health management. Um so as we're doing this work, I want to again credit Autumn for um her role in getting us on a schedule so that we're looking at these policies in a cadence that makes sense where all the updates that we're talking about would make it updated with consistent with with current law, which is important. Um we're also getting a lot of feedback from different various interest groups that are going to be affected in all these and so you end up learning a lot from people's touch points. So um credit the work to Ottoman her team and um that's all I got but that was a busy week. Definitely lots going on. Anyone else? >> Go ahead Jess. So Early Childhood Policy Council kicked off last week which is always amazing.

053It's just so much fun and you're going to hear a lot of the amazing work as well tonight. But one thing I want to make sure everyone's aware of is one, parents are dedicating their time not only to coming to those meetings, but also um to sharing out what their kids are learning. And every single time I'm impressed by the amount of learning a that's happening, but it's happening through play and that teachers are assessing their kids, but the kids don't know they're being assessed. And then they're going to their parents and they're sharing, I learned all these amazing things about the weather or about animals and food. And it's like you could not possibly ask for a bigger bucket filler than these meetings. Um, and it's so important because the parents are really influencing

054the work that early childhood does. So, it's this just unbelievable community gathering of amazingness. So, I'm really excited that Becca's going to share tonight. Um, and I'm really excited they kicked off because it's again one of the best things that I do every month. So much fun. Yeah, I'm jealous. Um if I can I'm actually gonna just share a little bit. Um so I was also able to go to the um the celebration of um a manufacturing and it was absolutely amazing. Um one of the things that I actually got to do is talk to um three students, Ava, L, and Jade. um and they talked to me about um being women in STEM and they were just absolutely thrilled to be there. They loved their teachers. It could not say um enough good things

055about um the the teachers, the um just the whole program and they supported each other. It was just um it was such a a wonderful way to start that day. and Ava L and Jade, you guys, you're going places and I just I have to say, okay, women in STEM, you are gonna you're going to lead the way. Um I also was able to go to um the Lammer County um uh sorry Long View Long View campus. I couldn't remember. Thank you. Um and got to get a tour of the um it's going to be five beds to start with for um adolescence. They're going to move it up to eight. Um which is fantastic. Um, you know, five doesn't seem like a lot. Eight doesn't seem like that much more, but it's certainly more

056than we've got now, which is zero. So, it's fantastic that we've got that. Um, and we also, you know, just to remind you, um, just last year, we opened up the Matthews House. Um, so we've got a homeless, um, youth shelter. Um, so, so that is something that is done through the community, by the community, for the community. And that's what all of this is. This is what what working together does for us. So when PSD works with Lar County, who works with Thompson, who works with um the city of Fort Collins, who works with the city of Loveland, this is what happens is we have these beautiful places now for students to be and safe places for them to uh to go when they need it and just wonderful places for them to learn.

057And so we need to keep doing more of this um keep doing more of our working together um and figuring out how we can celebrate that. Um I just want to point out as far as working together, we've got CSU this uh Friday night is the Canvas Classic. So that's a beautiful thing working together if you can get out there and see that those football games starting at 4:30 if I'm correct. Um so come on out and see that. Um fantastic. And then um again to all of our Jewish friends, happy new year. Anything else? All right, let's go ahead and move on to the consent agenda. Would any members like to pull anything from consent? Go ahead, Kevin. >> Uh I'd like to pull 6.2, please. >> Okay. Can we make that 7.3? Okay.

058Anything else? All right. Seeing none, can I get a motion? I move that the board approve and adopt the recommended actions for the items remaining on the consent agenda. >> Thank you, Connor. Can I get a second? All right, Jess. Thank you for the second. >> All right, Joel, can you please call the vote? >> Jim Bro, >> hi. >> Kristen Draper, >> I. >> Connor Duffy, >> hi. >> Kevin Havda, >> hi. Scott Shoenbower >> I >> Andrew Spain >> I >> Jessica Zamora >> I >> motion passes 70. >> All right. Thank you. And we'll move on to action items now. 7.1 monitoring policy review EL 2.9 working with the Pter school district community. Can I get a motion? I move that the board determine that the superintendent has reasonably interpreted board of

059education policy EL2.9 in his internal monitoring report dated 92325 and that the evidence presented supports the superintendent's conclusions stated in the internal monitoring report. Can I get a second? Thank you, Jim. And any uh questions, any statements? Go ahead, Kevin. I also like to highlight some of the evidence that was uh in the contributing report from Superintendent Kingsley. It's small or may seem small. It's a bullet. It's a you know bullet in this report, but he visited all PSD schools during the 2024 2025 school year. That's impressive. You know, not sure which one is yelling at me. Sorry. I think I think it's impressive and I think it's really important that our students and our educators and our um admin get to see the leader of this district in its halls and um being in

060front of kids and I think that's so there's plenty of other evidence to support. But I saw that and I thought that's an incredible achievement. It's a big district. There's a lot of schools. It's a busy day. There's a lot that gets in it. But having you physically in schools and I'd like to join you two more. Um that's my commitment to you. But I just want to say I thought that was really a really impressive step. >> Anyone else? Go ahead, Jim. >> I just want to say I think there are many many areas that Superintendent Kingsley absolutely rocks, but this getting out into the community and getting out into schools and getting out of his office is definitely one of them. So, thank you, Brian. >> Anyone else? >> And I'll just echo

061that. I think what we just talked about or what I just mentioned between the Canvas Classic and the um Matthews House Youth Shelter and um the manufacturing lab, all of that, it's just it shows the power of community and you're harnessing that and leading that. So, thank you. Appreciate that. >> All right. Uh with that, Jill, can you call the vote? >> Jim Brokish. >> Hi, >> Kristen Draper. >> I >> Connor Duffy. >> Hi, >> Kevin Halda. I >> Scott Shoenbower. >> Hi, >> Andrew. >> Hi, >> Jessica Zamora. >> I motion passes 70. >> Thank you so much. All right. Now, we're going to move on to 7.2, approval of the 202425 Head Start and Early Head Start annual report. Can I get a motion? >> I move that the board approve the

0622024 2025 Head Start and Early Head Start annual report. >> Thank you, Connor. Can I get a second? All right. Thank you, Jess. >> All right. And we have a special guest. >> Yeah. Thank you. So, joining us this evening to present the 2024 2025 Head Start in Early Head Start annual report is our director of early childhood, Rebecca Benedict. Welcome, Becca. So glad to see you. >> How about now? Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, good evening. Thanks for having me. Um, I am honored to be able to share some of the early childhood work with you guys. Um, as a federal Head Start grantee, the board of education has is responsible for oversight and approval of our Head Start and Early Head Start grants. And so you'll see me at least twice a year. Uh,

063once for our annual report, which will tell you all of the things that we are up to, and the other is for the full grant review, which will come in April or May. Um, but you are also welcome to send any questions with Jess to our policy council meetings. We meet once a month um or contact um myself or any member of the district cabinet if you have questions about early childhood. We are happy happy happy to share what's happening. So um in terms of federal requirements, there's lots of rules and report guidelines. The picture in the top is just to help you orient in your packet where the annual report is. And the bullets on this list just tell you um some of the things that we're required to have in the report. I

064do not have everything in the report in the presentation, but you are welcome to ask questions about anything in the report. Um our Head Start fiscal year is November 1st through October 31st, which is a weird year. It doesn't line up with any school years, but our annual report highlights the work from the 2425 school year. the school year we just completed. All right, so let's start with the children that we serve. Um, while the Head Start and Early Head Start report is specifically for our Head Start funded students, you'll hear me talk about all of our students because Head Start represents about a third of our funded slots in early childhood. So if you're looking at the number of preK students that we served last year, it's 874. 292 of them were Head Start

065funded and 153 were Early Head Start. And the biggest difference between Head Start and Early Hear Start is the age of the student. So Early Head Start is students aged zero to three. That's primarily our home visiting program and our center-based program. And then our Head Start students blend right in with those preK kiddos. Um there are three to five year olds. So we have less turnover in our Head Start. We have 275 slots. And one of the requirements for the program is if we have a vacancy, we have to fill it within 30 days. So we cannot have um seats that stay open. Um so as you can see, we throughout the school year, we have done just fine um keeping our Head Start seats full. Our early Head Start program has a little

066bit more turnover. So we have 108 slots and that that 153 is counts for those that drop and then new families come in. In terms of financial information, um this will give you a good snapshot of our whole program. Our federal funds, that's our Head Start and Early Head Start funds are in the $6 million range. and our state and local funds, also known around here as UPK. Um, our 4,700,000ish. Our private funds would be slots that are funded by tuition. And, um, that would bring our total early childhood budget at 11,500,000 approximately. So, our federal funds make up the majority of our budget, but a third of our seats. Um, it also has experienced the same ups and downs as our federal budget has over the court over the last year. And so we've

067been watching this fairly carefully. We are paying attention to the new federal fiscal budget that's hopefully going to be passed this month. Um, but so far our federal funds have remained stable. Um although there have been political ups and downs with the federal the changing landscape um of federal money. Uh Head Start lives in the Health and Human Services Department, not the Department of Education and so it often is is listed separately when we're thinking about education funding. The results of our most recent financial audit um were great. no findings were reported and our next audit is um going to be completed in 2025. And the reason why we're um waiting until December to do that one is the fiscal year for some of our budgets ended in June. So they're just now closing up

068the books for those and then they'll they'll do the audit for that. So we have uh we actually have three different fiscal years in early childhood depending on the funding. So this is my favorite part. I'll spend a little bit of time on this slide. Um I've been listening in this meeting and and talking about listening to people talk about the partnerships that are occurring in the community and um one of the very best things that early childhood is all about is the partnering with families. And so, um, our work is really to come alongside a family and, um, welcome them into school districts, welcome them into their child's education and support them in whatever areas the families need. So, one of the things that we do with our family mentor program is home visiting.

069It's 90 minutes a week um, in the 0ero to3 program and it's six visits a year in the 3 to 5 program. And during that time, the family specialists and family mentors get to know families. They co-create goals and then the mentor or the specialist and the families work on those goals together. Um, this results in a lot of visits. So, you can see our early Head Start home visits were in the 3,000 range. Um, our prenatal visits, so visits to families that are expecting and planning their families, 711. our Head Start home visits, 1300 a year. We're not talking about a small commitment of time and it is so worth it. Um, another way that our family specialists and our family mentors really connect um families to the community is through referrals. And so

070we um connected families 2,821 times last year to different um community referrals. The top areas that we're referring to are housing services and mental health referrals. Um top agencies are things like the food bank, Vindicate. Um Early Head Start also participates in Mckin Vento food bag and food distribution serve 6.8. So basic needs like clothing and food insecurity are very much important to not just our school age children but also those that will become our school age children. Um, we have partnered with Rotary Clubs, the library to help families connect with resources for literacy. So, at our back to school bash, we helped all of our families sign up for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library where they get a book mailed to their home every month. Um, but in addition to that, we also give

071away books every month. Um, in early Head Start home visits, once a month, the child gets a book. And in um the Head Start home visits six times a year they get a book to keep at home. We are looking for books in multiple languages including Arabic, Vietnamese, Poshtu and Udu. We have over 40 languages represented in our program. So what we're trying to foster is that connection with the family, the um herit heritage languages and also the ability to bridge into English as well. So, um, our parent involvement numbers have grown considerably. We had, um, 478 families attend at least one engagement event. And, um, one of the things that I'd like to celebrate from our, um, fatherhood involvement numbers. They doubled last year. And, um, part of that is an interest. We have,

072um, a male family specialist who really wanted to see more fathers at events. and they've created a prenatal dad's group that meets and are talking about what it means to them to become dads and um creating that peer connection, that community group. It's so neat. Um and I am really excited to watch all of these things grow in our program. Um our back- toschool bash hosted more than 600 people and so our our program, our families are engaged. They want to be there. We are so excited to work alongside them and we have so many members of the community that come alongside us um to help families build networks which is really exciting. We also offer hygiene and diaper products distribution throughout our home visiting program and we've done cooking matter classes, cooking matters classes

073where they virtually cook at home together. So, we deliver the food bag, the families cook virtually in their own homes, and then they all eat with their families um based on the healthy nutrition um cooking matters classes. We offer circle of security parenting classes. We've had more parents participate this year and last year than we have in previous years. We offer both in person and virtual in English and in Spanish. So, we're we're just we just love our families. We love our kids. Um, another requirement of our um, annual report is to review any uh, review or audit. And one of the things that I need to share with you is that an area of concern was identified this summer um, in the area of transportation. So, um, just take you a quick walk through

074of the incident. We had a little bitty that was let off the bus without a parent present. And so that is um definitely a violation of safety. And so um immediately we had HR investigate. We reviewed the footage, tried to figure out what happened. What ended up happening is we had um personnel that were doing everything right. Early childhood requires a lot more to ride a bus. Um the parent has to come with a driver's license. They have to um be on the contact list and pick up an adult to adult handoff. What happened in this particular case is the driver was one by one calling kids off the bus when he reached the the last parent. He he turned to the parah who was a substitute, not a regular um employee and said that's

075all of them. And instead of unbuckling one at the end when he heard that's all of them, he unbuckled the two. And the two were very good friends and they trotted off the bus together to the one um parent. So they weren't alone. They weren't without adults. Um but then the little bitty saw his sister playing on the playground and he just went over to the to the sister and um was alone with his sister for about a minute. So um that is something we do not want to occur. Um what is issued at that point? The office of Head Start would review all of the um video footage and all of the information. They issued what's called a deficiency. And a deficiency is something that the program must correct within 30 days. We got

076the deficiency July 7th. The problem with trying to correct something July 7th within 30 days is nobody's on contract. So, the bus drivers aren't on contract, the teachers aren't on contract. So, we did ask for an extension and we should be able to share with them all of the things that we've done to um resolve this problem on October 1st. So, after October 1st, we should be released of that deficiency. We're hoping. Um but what we did to uh really ensure that this does not happen again is we looked at all levels from kid to parent to adult to bus driver all of us to say what could we do in order to make this a little safer. So the kids get Buster the bus presentation. So if you see Buster the bus is in

077this video. It's an animatronic bus. There is a friend of Buster on the bus with a microphone so he can actually interact with the children um back and forth when they ask him questions. It's adorable. Um so he will be training all of the kids about bus safety. We have created um partnering with communications a bus video for parents so they understand the um requirements for identification. They understand the requirements for being to the bus on time otherwise the child is returned to school. So that's called a bus return. So we did some parent education. We updated all of our forms. We also worked with our um teachers, admin, and bus staff to retrain the expectations. Um using these great examples of this is how easy it is to have one little thing go wrong

078and and our little bitties are our most vulnerable. So we really want to make sure that we're following all of those procedures. We meet monthly with the transportation team to continually visit and revisit. And then we have also um started to join the monthly um bus operator meetings to use these teachable moments as opportunities to just get better and better every day. Our kids love riding the bus. We have approximately 150 kids on a bus on any given day. Um so if I can tell you, let's do some quick math in our heads. 50 kids times 142 days times one bus incident. We're still doing pretty well. I would also just say that there's we we don't mess around with safety. It is utmost importance and we're going to be um continuing to work on

079this. So, um I'm hoping after October 1st we'll be all um back to back to normal, but if not, they'll give us additional guidance on what's needed. All right. And that kiddo still rides the bus. He loves the bus. Um, another area that we have been working on is our health information for Head Start and Early Head Start. I don't know if you remember from last year, but our previous audit had um really flagged our health information as an area of interest because we postcoid we've really struggled getting back to a normal set of health routines. Um our numbers had dipped into the 70%. And so if you look at our numbers, I'm so proud of our teams. Um we are at 98 and 99% of every one of our students having a vision and

080hearing screening. Um developmental screeners at time of application 98 and 99 also they will tell you the the at least on the 99% the one was because they had a more thorough evaluation before they came in. So they didn't give the screener because they had already been evaluated but it still counts. Um, and then dental exams. We had 100% of our early head starts current on their dental exams and 96% of our head starts. So, we do dental exams in the classroom for students who haven't had them. And then we are charged to help families find a dental home, find a medical home, get connected with their regular um, providers and visits. Um, I will say for Early Head Start, we are exempt. we do not have to follow as this requirement until the children

081have teeth. So, um we do have a third of our early head start population that don't have those yet um but are working on them. Um another trend we have noticed postcoid is an increase in early childhood mental health referrals. So last year we had 90 the previous year we had 90 and we had 119. um last school year. We are trending up in this area. Our August and September numbers nearly doubled from last year to this year. In terms of the number of families seeking support um in the area of mental health referrals, it's something that is very important to us. They are trusting us early and often, which is great. oftentimes our mental health providers, we have two mental health specialists. One that works with Early Head Start, one that works with preschool

082that partners with the school resources or outside community resources. Sometimes our gap fillers while families are waiting to get appointments. They're helping them organize and get resources that they need. Sometimes it's an emergency basis, other times it's a maintenance basis. And um they're just really connected to our families. So, I really appreciate that. And just as a call out, our our health team is mighty. It's it's um one full-time person and one 80% person. And together they did 3,467 events recorded in child plus. So what that means it child plus is our student information system. What that means is phone call. Your child's physical just expired. Can you go get one? Okay, thank you. They go on to the next. So 3,000 contacts with families. We're tracking vaccinations. We're tracking physicals. We're tracking dental appointments.

083We really are looking at that whole child and trying to help families get a schedule and a uh routine for quality care. So very proud of this team. Also very proud of our student outcomes. Um so on the left hand of this screen is our student outcomes. We have um domains of of development and then we have um the Spanish language and Spanish literacy are tracked at Harris only because that is the only site that does class in Spanish. Um the rest are um tracking native language and English but all the instruction is in English. Our goal for the spring is that 85% or better um will meet and be within it's called widely held expectations. So, we have multi-age kiddos. The three-year-olds are trying to be within widely held expectations for three-year-olds. The four-year-olds

084are trying to be within widely held expectations for four-year-olds. That bar moves as they age. Uh, but our goal is to prepare them for kindergarten by sending them in their developmental stages where they should be. If we see that a child is behind in their developmental stages and we start collecting um data on students at age zero on up um if we see that there's a delay early intervention as possible. So we see oh gosh we're seeing this delay we're going to make a plan and we start to build in interventions for families and for kids right away. Um, ideally that means as they're coming into kindergarten more prepared, we're also more prepared for um providing interventions and continuing ongoing support for student needs that we've already identified. On the right hand side of the

085screen is class coding scores. And one of the things that Head Start does is requires programs to evaluate the teacher or well it's not just teacher staff adult interaction and child interaction within a classroom. There are three domains that are tracked emotional support, classroom organization and instructional support. So the first column you'll see the Head Start averages. Um that's our national average. Uh in 2324 we had a Head Start reviewer, federal reviewer come in and those were our scores from the previous year and as you can see from last year our scores went up in every area. Um we still exceed national averages. Well, we exceed national averages in all three areas. So I'm very proud of our teachers. I'm very proud of the environments um that we are creating for students and we're seeing

086some really big jumps particularly in the area of instructional support. It is our lower score, but if you think about the rigor and um academic language available for three-year-olds, it's there. They will tell you about architecture and um excavators and like we're not just talking about trucks here. Um, but we are charged to really help them raise to that next level, whatever that next level is. And so that's what that instructional support category is for. And last, but certainly not least, uh, one of our major jobs is to help families transition to kindergarten. Surprisingly, we're doing that now for next year. So, the kindergarten registration opens up the beginning of November, which means our family mentors are now meeting with families to help them think about what is the school choice process, what what is

087your neighborhood school, what are your thoughts or your ideas about kindergarten, and they help families prepare for that kindergarten registration. prior to that enrollment window opening, EC also sends every elementary school the the ageeligible children within each area. So if if I have say um Trout Elementary, well that's not Trout's not a neighborhood school. If I have McGra Elementary and I know that this many students would be in McGra's neighborhood, I will send McGra all of those lists of names so that they can be looking for them to support them in that kindergarten registration process. We also have mentor follow-up for any families that haven't registered throughout the spring. And then we start thinking about closer into the spring the transition meetings and that would be between the early childhood staff and the receiving school

088for that case manager whoever will take over the care and support of students for with special needs. Uh about 30% it's about 33% right now of our uh students have IEPs. So many of our students have this transition meeting so that we have a gentle and warm handoff from one team supporting that student to the next team supporting that student. Um we also share student data and anecdotal information around our priority objectives. We build a PowerBI and share that with receiving schools so that when they're building classrooms for kindergarten, they have a good idea of which students are within widely held expectations in our priority measures and which students are going to need some support. Um and and we also share information with our mental health specialists and our mentors as they connect with family

089liaison that will receive them in kindergarten in the schools where they will be going. So, we love kindergarten. About um about twothirds of our students exit the pro program every year. So, in preschool of that 874, we send about we send more than 500 each year to kindergarten. So, um the rest are with us for another year. We're very excited about that. And then, um we are constantly uh doing reenrollment. I will tell you our enrollment is very healthy right now. In fact, it we're bursting at the seams. Um we had reached our the numbers where we were in December by the end of August. So last year's December numbers were our end of August numbers this year. So we are ahead of schedule in terms of enrollment. We are required throughout the year to

090continually serve any student on an IEP that comes in and ages in at three. So, we do have to keep some seats open because we know some kiddos are going to turn three in February and they'll need a seat to come into. Um, but we largely are um are full and uh just really happy and um our teachers and our um classroom staff make a really wonderful place for students to be and our family specialists and family mentors really help families connect. So, I'm very proud of them and uh glad to have be able to share their work with you. So, are there any questions about our Head Start and Early Head Start annual report? >> Becca, thank you so much. This is always a highlight um of the year to to see what's happening.

091And I just have to say um I do recall um last year from from the year before about the um the vision hearing and the dental in particular was particularly low and that's just amazing that you got it up to 100% and 98 99. That's fantastic. So nice work and 3,000 phone calls from 1.8 people. That's >> that's a lot of phone calls. >> That's a lot. So hats off to y'all. >> Thank you. Yeah. Um, any questions? I'm gonna open it up. Connor, go ahead. >> Thanks, Becky. Just a quick question on that last part that you're talking about. So, there's roughly children that age out of the program every year. >> Do you have any data on how many of those 500 stay within PSD? >> The majority of them. Um in fact

092the data that we have trends towards wherever they go to EC is where they want to go to kindergarten. So even if um they are not going not attending their neighborhood school um they often will stay at the school where they were assigned in EC because they've fallen in love with the staff, they've connected with the community and they found their place there. Um that works really really well. Um, sometimes there's confusion about center-based programming because they can't always attend the school where they attended early childhood if the child has specialized programming. Um, but we work with families as they're transitioning through those transition meetings to help with that. >> Other questions? >> I have a followup to that one, so I'm hoping he needs a minute if he has more questions. So, one, I

093don't know that this part of the question is for you, but we've heard that 30% of our families choice. I would be curious how much the early childhood 500 kiddos, if they're trying to stay in their early childhood school, how many of them end up like that's why they're making that choice. That would be one I have a wondering. I don't expect that today, but that triggers. And then I guess the other piece of that is if they're staying in their neighborhood school, do we have an idea of what early childhood's capacity is for expansion or how many kids we could actually serve or are available to serve in our community. Sorry for putting you on the spot. These are the fine. >> Um so right now we have just over 900 seats available. So

094925 about are available seats in our program right now. Um, every time we convert a half-day program to a full day program, which is the overwhelming majority of families want a full day, um, we lose 16 seats because you can't have a morning and an afternoon. You can only have the the full day. So, we converted three classrooms last year to full day classrooms. Every one of those schools is full. That converted to a full day, but we also lost seats. So, if we want to add seats, we're going to have to add classrooms. In order to add a classroom, it's not like we can just say, "Oh, school A has an empty room." We can't really do that immediately for early childhood because it requires capital and revenue. So, in order to have an

095early childhood classroom, a certain amount of flooring has to be hard surface because we do family style meals and we eat in the classroom. So, anything under the tables has to be and the diaper changing station has to be um hard flooring. So, sometimes we're putting in tile. Um the bathroom is also a a big challenge because we have multi-age classrooms with three and four year olds. Um ideally we need a bathroom in every classroom. So, licensing requires toddler classrooms to have bathrooms. Um and so we we bridge that toddler prek line. um those are very costly to add in and don't happen overnight. Um so the classrooms that converted last year either already had bathrooms in them or they moved into a vacated kindergarten classroom that had a bathroom in it. So we were

096able to move into those classrooms. Um basically we're we have more EC sites in in buildings that are less full um with elementary students. So, um, we in in lower enrolled buildings, we often have higher enrolled EC classrooms. Um, we're in 20 elementary schools if that helps you. Um, it is not all of the I think we have 30 elementary schools. So, um, we do have, uh, we do have principles that are just really ready for that list of early childhood students if they don't have an early childhood classroom so that they can reach out to families to invite them to register um, for kindergarten. Uh, but we are in every feeder system throughout the the school district. It just really depends on where we can add. Another challenge that we run into is like

097the state system universal prek requires us to update our seats and have it ready. The window for enroll for changing our classrooms is October 15th through November 8th this year. So, I need a commitment from people now if we're going to do a classroom for next year or they don't get in that first matching round and they don't get an opportunity to get p additional members of the public until about May, March, April, May depending on the UPK system and how well it's flowing. So, um we are operating under federal guidelines, state guidelines, childcare licensing rules. There's lots of layers. Um, but overwhelmingly we have schools that are very supportive of early childhood programs. Um, they are a value ad in elementary schools. Space and the construction required for classrooms tend to be our barriers.

098>> Go ahead, Kevin. >> What can we do to help? >> Well, send any early childhood kiddo our way. Um we enroll year round and so we do um hope that any family with any kind of early childhood needs could come see us on a Tuesday in February just as much as they could see us now and we would try to find them a place in within the system um for children to have access to programming. Um I would also hope that as we're thinking about long-term planning, we're thinking about what do we want our early childhood footprint to look like. um we are not in competition with um child carees in the community because UPK is accessible to both community um child carees as well as school districts. So families can choose uh families

099often choose the school district because we have the ability to put them on the bus with their brother and their sister and families can stay together in the same location. Um we are doing some very exciting things partnering uh with a pilot program with Alphabest to try to get some wrap care. Uh we're we're working towards providing some I get so excited. We're working towards providing um just some of those same kind of um benefits that other students have. Uh but there are child care licensing um opportunities. And I think anytime we have an opportunity to add a full day classroom, that's what parents um communicate that that's what they need and that's what they want. So >> I do I have a quick question to follow up on on that. Um >> does the

1001B Lur County vote um affect you at all? >> It will in a positive way. >> Yes. >> Okay. So I think that might be something that people can look into um as far as helping. So that would be um help lmer kids thrive.org would be the place to go for that. >> Thank you. Um sorry, were there other questions? I just wanted to throw that in there. Yes, Andrew. >> Do you have an estimate for how many more children could take advantage of this program if we somehow magically had a wand? >> Well, I am a big fan of magic wands. Um I I really believe in them. I would say let's look at the numbers of kids in the community and um we like I said our seats are are nearing capacity at

101the moment. Um we have been able to fill every full day we've put with the exception of Wellington where we do reach a capac like a threshold of how many kids are in that area. So we can only go to a certain number up there. Um but we do have six classrooms up there. Um the in terms of the numbers I think we we watch birth rates. we watch the numbers of students that are in the area and know that child care providers would have um seats available as well. What I will say what the district offers that child care providers don't offer is special education services and services for students with special needs. Um, and so sometimes kids find that they aren't successful at a neighborhood um, provider because they don't have the staffing

102or the skills for their special needs and then they land with us as well. Now, in terms of do I know if the neighborhood providers are full, there's mixed reviews. Some are really full and some are not. Um, but the Early Childhood Council of Lur County has a place where you can see how many seats are available in the 0ero to five range. Lur County does not have the same amount of child care seats as children. We're still lagging behind. So, um, could we add? Yes. Could we add thousands? Maybe not. But we could add a classroom a year, two classrooms a year, um, to continue that growth. We will reach a threshold at some point. We couldn't just say, "Oh, we're going to do 10 school full schools worth um if there aren't that

103many early childhood kiddos." But the district does offer many things like transportation that will help families access these seats that um neighborhood childcare providers just don't have the resources for. So, I do think that we have a responsibility to really think about those kids that can't access a neighborhood provider and try to get as many seats open and available for them as we can. I I really didn't give you a number, but I do have places that we could go to find that number. >> Kids count data and early childhood council would help us with that. How robust is a written plan that if you're looking at those numbers more detailed and say we have to go sooner rather than later and everything you presented feels like we need to be prepared for that growth

104and I Tracy I think this is you've been working on this collectively long term I'm just wondering if if they're written plans that when we're ready we will be able to see them and therefore be able to vote on them move on them >> I think our biggest barrier right now is finance cial. So if if we're looking at the infrastructure required for early childhood classrooms, for example, the last time we built classrooms or built bathrooms in a classroom, it was about 65,000. I'm sure it's up since then. Um so if we're talking about like let's build eight classrooms, that's not a small price tag. Um so our large problem right now in uh budget situation that we're living in um we have not had cost of living increases um from Head Start in the

105last two years where that's our federal money. Our state money's cost of living increases I believe were 0.25 of 1%. Um, so the cost of living increases does not keep up with the cost of staffing increases and 95% of our um our budget is spent on people. And so when we're looking at the wage costs rising and our grant-f funded um slots have reached kind of a ceiling or or a really flatlined basically we're going to have to find some new revenue sources in order to be able to come up with an expansion. Um Kristen uh asked about 1B that would be one avenue that we might be able to tap into that would be available to the whole community not just us. um that would provide tuition assistance and um some facility uh dollars,

106but that can't be the only thing that we rely on. So, we would always be looking for more opportunities to expand our Head Start. Hopefully, our federal um picture kind of levels out or continues to grow. Um but we are going to face a funding crisis where our labor wages and our cost of the services don't line up anymore. I think >> so is I don't know if that answered all of the question. I don't think it did but >> yeah I I think to um so for early childhood it's it really the input source that we use for trying to project like how to accommodate the number of seats. One we look at demand so as Becca talked about the demand is for full day care right so half day sessions are not filling.

107So our strategy that Becca and I have aligned on is we're going to add as many full days as we can to align with where we've got weight lists. So we want to keep those weight list clear as much as possible. And so that's kind of the first thing that and also looking at the geographical regions like do we have the entire geographical region of the district represented in terms of access to early childhood. So that's kind of the first approach. As far as getting the input of like a projection, there's really no mechanism for getting a good projection of early childhood um seats that need to be made available. So really we what we have are birth rates, right? And so birth rates in Lammer County translate to a certain number of people accessing

108child care, but it's not a predictable pattern and it's not one that our IT projections team studies. It really is very much about who is coming in um and pursuing a spot in our program by their choice and their desire to come to our early childhood um program. The Early Childhood Council of Lmer County is probably more so in the space of monitoring like where we have a need within the system for access to early childhood. And as Becca talked about, like we know one of the the pieces that we have to continue to explore is the wrap care, which is that before and after school care, right? Because our elementary day is six hours, six and a half hours. Most people need an eight hour um window of care. And so that's an avenue

109that we have to keep exploring that is putting um potentially maybe a private provider better positioned to provide an 8hour or more care than we're currently able to. But we also have other assets like transportation for example. So yeah, we continue to study what our parents are asking for in services for early childhood and respond to what they're saying they need. I I just remember you said that you were working collectively on the I'm assuming I get my memory is right. So I was just excited to see where we might be leaning into that over the years. >> And then one other question related to your um bus uh incident. Mhm. >> How confident are you with your communications scripting and methodology for persontoperson transfer? You know, starting in the school, going onto the bus,

110working with the parro and the bus and the bus driver, then back to the parents and things like that. Are you pretty confident that you've identified some possible evolution to your scripting? because it what when you described what was said, >> I could see why the error would occur communication wise and I just wonder if that was part of your >> that was part of the training. Absolutely. Um and so we do a name toace match and so all of the teachers provide the bus drivers. So if we know on bus route 1076 we have these five early childhood kiddos. The teachers have made them a chart with their picture um as well as their um their names and things like that. As kids scan onto the bus, they have a badge. It now has

111a sticker that says ID required so that the bus driver can see right away, hey, this is an early childhood kiddo because not all early childhood kiddos look like they're early childhood kiddos. They can be mistaken for eight-year-olds or it depends on the child. So um that is another way that we have built in more communication. Um they are using the scan system, the zoom system in transportation and we are using really ongoing communication to say hey this one this occurred let's talk about it and then getting in front of those bus operators every month um to just practice practice practice practice practice practice practice. Um so I do feel confident we do we have um in the last month we have also created IDs for families. So sometimes the barrier is that the family

112doesn't have access to a photo ID. They don't have a driver's license or they don't have a passport. And so um we have we are able to make them an early childhood. This is for the purpose of releasing on the bus that they can have in their wallet so that that isn't a barrier for them picking up their child as well. So, we're we're trying to figure out what those barriers are and address them, but really it's about knowing the kiddos on the route. Um, knowing the families and then knowing that substitutes will happen and do we have those procedures in place so that even if they don't know the kiddo by name and by face, they have um a cheat sheet, if you will, um to help them with um communication with that kiddo.

113With early childhood as well, not all of our kiddos are verbal yet. And so, um, being able to say to the child, you know, what's your name? You might get a blink blink blink blink deer in the headlights. Um, who's your teacher? What school do you I don't know. So, they're not at a place where you can ask them a lot of questions. And so, um, we do have like an afterchool call tree. If there's a problem with a bus, we can meet the bus. We can meet back at schools with families. Um, so we do try, we're very hands-on in early childhood. In fact, um my operations manager rides the bus frequently to help kids who are struggling with transitions to get on the bus and they cry the whole way. She'll ride with

114them and create a plan to help them get engaged. So, we really are in that back and forth communication with transportation all the time, which has has really helped. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Go ahead, Scott. >> I'll be I'll be quick. I just wanted to know um how are you getting the word out to the community about the availability of of our early childhood program like marketing wise and is that an area that you could use some help? >> Um we are primarily filled with word of mouth. So um families that have participated in our program talk about our program, talk about the impacts. Um schools will talk about us during their back to school night, things like that. Um, we are not, like I said, we are not struggling for enrollment. So, it's

115not something I'm broadcasting everywhere because I don't want to be turning families away either. However, I will put anybody on a wait list and wait until their perfect seat um becomes open and then we'll constantly fill and refill. Um, some of the things that we have, if if you've seen any of the early childhood logo wear that the staff wears, it all has a QR code. you can scan an early childhood staff member and it takes you right to the application. So if you see us in our sweatshirts, you can scan us and you can apply. Um the early childhood website is where they start for us, but we also get people that start on the universal prek website and we learn about them through that system and then we call and engage and get

116them to fill out our application as well. So there's a lot of different avenues that we're exploring with that. Um, you can always, always, always talk about early childhood. So, um, that is the best method for us, just knowing that it exists. We serve about a thousand kids a year, so we're not a small group of people. We're the size of a high school, and so we're just spread out and tiny. Um, and super cute, arguably the cutest kids in the in the schools. But, um, just being able to to communicate, hey, this is an option. um families get a a chance to say, "Okay, full day is what works for me or afternoon's work or morning's work because we're still napping every afternoon." Things like that. We will talk with families and try to

117help them um get in to whatever seat makes the most sense. But it's about starting the conversation and oftentimes that just comes from I met somebody who knows somebody in the district and they told me to show up here. Come on in. Let's sit down and talk. and then we we figure out what they're looking for. Thanks for asking that question. >> Awesome. Thank you. All right. Sorry, I've got two I got two more. That's it. Okay. So, one on I don't know what slide this is. Three. Um there's an asterisk for extended year only in session. Can you tell me what that means? It's like June. What year is your calendar year? So, our calendar year matches the school district year primarily. Um, but in the past, we've had a summer session that is

118about three weeks long. Um, the summer session was designed to help us get the rest of the hours required for Head Start. Uh, because Head Start requires more hours for early childhood than elementary school does. And so, we had to have a summer session. Unfortunately, this will be the first year we don't have a summer session because of budget cuts. And so we have had to um summer session costs over a hundred,000 to over $100,000 to run and we are not able to uh fund that this year. So um what what we are now doing with Head Start is a waiver that allows us to match first grade. So the instructional minutes conversation is important for us because early fitting an early childhood day in an elementary school day doesn't work because our numbers required

119are are more than the elementary. Okay, I lied. I have two more questions now. How many hours do you require? So, Head Start requires 1,020 for a full-time full-day student. And um UPK requires 30 hours a week and 900 hours over the course of the school year. That used to be 1,080 hours, but it changed August 1st this year to match kindergarten, which is awesome. Um, but that then still puts Head Start still needing 1,020. >> Becca, would you mind just restating that? That's just a really important set of data points for the board to >> Sure. >> have as other context for additional conversations. >> Okay. For instructional minutes, that instructional minutes conversation matters for us right now because we are in every elementary school and elementary minutes require less instructional time than early

120childhood minutes require. So for Head Start, our federal money, which is the biggest pot in our budget, it requires 1,020 minutes per year. And then for UPK, it's 30 hours per week for a full-time student or sorry, not or and 30 hours per week and 900 hours over the course of the school year. So we have to have both. So, for example, right now our our full day sessions, we operate four days a week because Head Start also requires home visiting and things like that, which we do on Fridays. Our 4 day a week sessions only get to 28 hours. So, we're not able to access the 30-hour a week funding because we cannot add 30 minutes a day to every elementary day and still get on buses. So, those are the the numbers that

121we're wrestling with in the instructional minutes conversation. Um, and the the more minutes the better for us. Um, because right now we extend the elementary days based on the bus window. So, when that first bus can get there is when we can start an early childhood day and then we also extend at the end of the day just to so we can get on those buses at the very end and get as many minutes as we can. We also want to protect employee rights with a mandatory break in between. If you have an AM and a PM session, they need at least 40 minutes to eat, 30 minutes to eat, and five minutes for dismissal of one class and arrival of the other. So, trying to fit all of those pieces into an elementary school

122date is difficult right now. It doesn't fit right now. Okay. Lots to consider. And then I have a totally other somewhat separate question. So, we had six heat days this year. Can you tell me how that impacted your program? >> Yes. So, um the the first heat days, the first week, we were doing center visits. So, our teachers were able to reorganize their schedules and calendars to make sure the center visits happened earlier during the day rather than through the heat window. But the second week of school, we missed four instructional days for all of our afternoon sessions. So, um, the full days were able to go, the mornings were able to go, but if there was an afternoon session, those sessions were cancelled. Unfortunately, Universal PreK is requiring us to make up those minutes.

123Head Start is not requiring us to make up those minutes. So, then we have to look sight by sight. Is it a Head Start session or a UPK session, which then creates different things for different schools. So, some schools have had to add five minutes per day for the rest of the year. um to make up those that time. While other schools were not impacted because they either had full day sessions that didn't need to make up the time or they had the head start session which was longer and we have enough buffer. We planned for weather days in our calendar. We just don't plan for four of them. Um, so we did what we could and found out that they wanted us to make it up and then made the adjustments as needed for

124the schools that needed. All right. Anything else? Fantastic. All right. With that, um, thank you so much. Um, this is as usual an excellent presentation. Um, very meaty and also very fun. So, thank you. >> Well done, Becca. And Jill, can you call the vote? >> Jim Brokish. >> Hi. >> Kristen Draper. >> Hi. >> Connor Duffy. >> Hi. >> Kevin Havda. >> Hi. >> Scott Shoenbower. >> Hi. >> Andrew Spain. >> Hi. >> Jessica Zamora. >> I. >> Motion passes. 70. >> All right. Thank you. And we're going to go ahead and move on to 7.3, which is now building automation controls contracts for um FRHS, which we pulled from consent. Um can I get a motion? Go ahead, Kevin. >> I'll do the honor since the poll. I move that the board approve

125expenditures in excess of $250,000 authorizing staff to execute a contract with Long Building Technology to provide the construction services. >> Can I get a second? Thank you, Jim. All right. And um let's see. Did we >> I'll Can I tee it up? >> Yeah, go ahead. Te it up. Thank you. >> And some other board directors. The reason I pulled this from consent wasn't any way to signal its controversial nature or that I disagree with it. I just think that it it it struck me that an item where we're um approving a contract in excess $4 million appears on our our consent. It's going to get normal at some point, but it still doesn't feel quite normal to me in the sense that it's remarkable that we're able to do this on consent. And Dave's

126going to give us just a very very brief update about what exactly these these dollars are getting us. But yet again, this is directly the consequence of our community's support and investment into um our facilities and the improvement of our district in the 4A dollar. So I didn't want to miss an opportunity to say thank you again to our community for making this possibility that this appears on our consent. And at some point it will feel normal, but it still doesn't. So I wanted to take a moment to say that this is a remarkable thing. Thank thank you for that introduction and I'll echo what you said. Um I I want to take every opportunity to thank our voters for these opportunities because in the past we were not talking about these things and and

127it's just through the support of our voters that we're actually able to get some of this done. Um so I'm just I threw a couple slides together just briefly to to kind of walk through building automation controls and I was trying to think about how do you how do you talk about building automation controls because they're not the most glamorous thing. You don't see them. um they're important. And so when I started thinking about it over there, I started thinking about biology and I think about our humans and we have brains and we have nervous systems. Um and that's very similar to what this building automation system is going to do. It's it's the thinking. It takes stimulus from the building takes that it processes it and then it makes changes at a very high

128level. So that's that's why these are important and just like in our lives our brains and our nervous systems are important. can't function without them. Um very similar analogy is the best I could come up with. So um why a building automation system? Uh our our large buildings need control and automation um for us to actually manage them effectively. And so when we think about building automation systems, we're talking about operational efficiency and cost savings. Um these systems integrate with our HVAC units, our lighting, um and multiple other building systems. And they again are the ones the brains that are deciding where things run, what times they run, what set points, when does heat kick on, when does air conditioning kick on. All of that, all of that is is handled in that process. Um

129life cycle management is also something that we're thinking about in these control projects and and I would expect that we're going to have control projects for a while now as we're trying to get um things caught up, but some of the controls that we have in our system are just obsolete or unsupported anymore. So this is another opportunity for us to to stay modernized with those. And then and then another uh another uh plus of a building automation system is it does help with risk management. Um there's multiple times where I'll talk with Trudy Trimbath and she'll talk about hey I'm getting an alert from the system and then we need to send a technician out to go look at that and sometimes there's a problem and if we can get there early enough and

130we can resolve the problem it doesn't turn into a costly problem. So so these are all good things and why we do the building automation system. Um just some quick uh just some quick bullet points for this project. Uh this this is uh for Fossil Ridge High School. Um the project will last over potentially over two years is what we're envisioning. Um the total cost is about $4.5 million. Um and the scope of the work is replace all the control panels, sensors, actuators, transmitters, control wiring, all of those sensor, all those things that are on the other side of the nervous system and the nervous system itself is going to be changed. Um there's going to be an upgrade to the graphics and in the on the existing automation server and and really what we're

131talking about is the controls the graphical controls that um give us timely information so that we can make changes in a timely way. So these are all upgrades with these new systems. Um the project goal for this is um our project goals really for just all of these is to um to continue to be able to control our our buildings. Um we have 60 plus sites across the across the district and our goal is at some point to be on one platform and we're doing that slowly over time right and this started way back in like 2000 before I was even doing this we started on these building control systems um and so there there have been multiple retrofits um since the building uh since the actually the the one that we're doing here Fossil

132Ridge has been uh constructed since the early 2000s and so all those retrofits um this building control automation will kind of bring all of that up to speed and and working collectively together. Um yeah, and then contribute to updated controls and strategies. Uh these things like what do people feel? Um we're able to change air out better. We're able to uh control the air. I know that I heard from Fort Collins High School. We just did a very similar project to that that um I mean maybe the the news is we weren't getting a lot of complaints about the air moving and things like we normally do because we just did a controls upgrade and seems to be helping and working. So this is also about comfort and occupancy. Um but there so it's all

133it's all bundled together and again it's not the most glamorous thing that you see. Um but it is very important to our buildings to function. >> Take any questions. >> Go ahead. >> I think I've seen this vendor before in contracts. Is this the same vendor that we use for the for project? >> Yeah. Yeah. And in fact we um a number of years ago we did an RFP to and it was part of that work I talked about that was happening way back when. We actually did an RFP to um standardize to long building technology and BTS. So we have two that we standardize to. Um we're really our controls expert is really trying to move into the long system. Um and so that's that's really where we're kind of putting all of our

134where where we're going for that. So I would expect you would see long building technology on any building control system coming forward unless the BTS system made more sense for that building. >> Thanks. I was just saying I remember one of the re one of the reports you gave previously a couple board meetings ago and we were in a work session was that we're going to start getting into a cadence with certain vendors that kind of work well with us. I like that. Some of the things again just from the contract that I saw that I like. Um and I don't know if this is fairly standard with some of our vendors. I don't think it has been typically I don't know if this is negotiated but there's a prevailing party provision. So there's an

135attorney's fees recovery in the event litigation ensues. There's also the governing law and venue is right here in home in L County. That's huge, especially for a project this magnitude. >> Exactly. >> Um to have what I consider, you know, better venue selection also indicates a willingness from the vendor that they're going to play ball and they're going to >> come forward um in good faith effort. So I anyway, I just want to credit this again and say I like this project. I like what I appreciate the update and the presentation, but this is worth celebrating. >> Thank you. I appreciate you pointing out the contract because it is our standard form and and you're really I'm I mean it's a big contract in there obviously but um we took their document and then we

136strike out the things that aren't acceptable to us and then our general conditions are added in the back which we have very lengthy general conditions about 85 pages long and that's really where we're saying what is our expectation as the district too. So um so it's a good example where we don't just blanketly take agreements from vendors. We look at them. We redline them. We make them so that they're advantageous to not only us but the vendor maybe is if that works. But we're the primary focus on that. >> Awesome. Thank you. Anybody else have any questions? Go ahead Andrew. just um I see like the lower energy consumption >> unless I just kind of wanted to get an idea of what we probably get back with each system that we upgrade like this over

137either annually or the another 20-y year lifespan, whatever. >> Yeah, that's that's not an answer I have prepared tonight. I will take it back to the team and see what we can do to um to look at that. I I think it's always worthwhile to um to consider that. And in fact, when we're working with our designs and our engineers, um, they should be also calling that out as we're putting the do designs together. Um, so it's yeah, I can get some more information. >> I mean, part of the reason I'm asking, I feel like it's it's a nice thing to show that, you know, we we do have to upgrade systems and there are benefits to it. And even such things as how how many times have these upgraded systems actually prevented a massive

138failure? It's just the electronic board that had to be replaced, not the whole boiler or whatever. And that obviously is a huge impact financially and disruption to services, etc. So, >> just just curious. >> Yeah. Well, I I'll see what I can pull together. >> Okay. Anything else? All right. Going to call it. All right. So, um with that, did we call the motion first? >> I did. >> Okay. We did. Yes. All right. Just making sure. So, Jill, can you call the vote? >> Jim Brokish. >> Hi. Kristen Draper. >> Hi, >> Connor Duffy. >> Hi, >> Kevin Hava. >> Hi, >> Scott Shoenbower. >> Hi, >> Andrew Spain. >> Hi, >> Jessica Zamora. >> Hi. >> Motion passes 70. >> All right. Thank you so much. Um, all right. And we'll move on

139to 8.0 executive session. Executive session pursuant to CRS uh 24-6-424E3 to develop strategy to the school district for negotiations re relating to the 2526 collective bargaining agreement or employment contracts. Can I get a motion? >> There you go. >> All right. Thanks. I move that the board enter into executive session for the purpose of developing the strategy of the school district for negotiations relating to the 2025 20226 collective bargaining agreement or employee contracts as authorized by CRS 24-642 subsection 4E3. Individuals invited to join the board in executive session are superintendent Brian Kingsley, chief of staff Lauren Hooton, lead assistant superintendent Tracy Guile, chief finance officer Dave Mononttoya, chief technology officer Bud Hunt, and general counsel Autumn Aspen. >> All right. Can I get a second? Thank you, Andrew. And Jill, can you call the vote?

140>> Jim Brokish. >> Hi. >> Kristen Draper. Hi. >> Connor Duffy. Hi. Kevin Havda. >> Hi. >> Scott Shoenbower. >> Hi. >> Andrew Spain. >> Hi. >> Jessica Zamora. >> Hi. >> Motion passes. 70. >> Thank you. We will now convene in a closed session. This is the last agenda item before adjournment. At the conclusion of the executive session, we will adjourn the meeting and the adjournment will be recorded. So, thank you so much and um have a good night.