Board of Education Meeting: August 12, 2025 Spanish Captions

001I think mine is going to be a little shorter and I probably won't run out of time, but I'd agree that uh I think all of you know I could stand up here all day long and three minutes is really not even enough as it is. Um, good evening. My name is Taylor Unwin. I've been in this boardroom many times to give public comment over the years. You might have noticed that I've been absent recently. Part of it is because honestly I gave up in trying to work with the board on solutions for my family and others like us. So, I actually decided to work with the district directly instead and Julie has been a great partner in that and I appreciate her time and helping us. Um, I have been the last member of

002the public in the room with you here at the very end of the night before and even then I appreciate that you stayed until the conversation was done. Tonight, I'm concerned about any suggestion to limit public comment. Many districts around the state have actually taken initiative to strengthen public comment, including not only allowing but encouraging public comment in a variety of ways. Telephonic and Zoom comments are a popular form of doing this. Littleton Public School District, for example, allows this. Allowing more forms of public comment promotes accessibility and allows a more diverse body of speakers to escalate issues or concerns to the SP board. And I thought that diversity meant something to us here. Time and time again, I've asked this board to work toward building trust with the community instead of dismantling it. If

003you remove and limit public comment, you will be doing just that. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Jeff Arfidi. Welcome. Good evening. Tonight's first reading on policy 3.13 to limit comment, public comment to one meeting a month is being presented as if it's a new decision. Well, it's not. A core request uncovered a June 13th internal message from your chief of staff directing employees to implement this change before the public ever heard about it. By July 14th, the staff newsletter presented it as if it were already policy. This isn't governance in the sunlight. It's choreography. Meanwhile, a formal complaint has been in your hands for over 100 days. That complaint concerns the February 14th, 2025 legislative subcommittee meeting where a quorum met behind a digital access barrier violating Colorado's open meetings law. Board

004board policy 3.12 requires that this board to refer any written complaint to the superintendent for investigation and report back. However, in this specific case for me complaints directed at the board members themselves, the chief of staff again stated that PSD staff cannot receive complaints about board members, which means the complaint and enforcement of it is entirely in your hands. Why does this matter so much? Because it fits a pattern. On August 14th, 2023, a quorum of the legislative subcommittee met in an online meeting and developed fishing expedition language aimed at restricting public records. working with former PSD director and now state legislator Kathy Kip, lobbyist Anne Barkcus and Casby to which you currently don't have any contract for services. That same language later appeared in Kip's bills HB 1296 and SB77. One failed and the

005other was vetoed by none other than Governor Polus for its chilling effect on transparency. The pattern is clear. Hold barrier meetings. Coordinate the political allies and lobbyists. turn those discussions into policy at the state level or when that fails here at home at PSD. That's exactly what we see now. Failed ideas for limiting access to records, limiting when the public can speak, and they're being implemented locally piece by piece without honest public debate. The sequence matters. Rules for public participation go to the heart of the community's ability to speak on record. When decisions are made out of sight and then rolled out before a public vote for the first reading, it becomes symbolic and not substantive. So, if this board really wants to rebuild trust, start with process. How about you refer and investigate the

006February 14th complaint under policy 3.12 and report it back to the public? That's what you should be amending tonight, not restricting public comment. Here's the reality. When it's about taking something away from the public, like their chance to speak, it happens in weeks. When it's about holding the board accountable for breaking open meeting laws and using closed meetings to coordinate anti-transparency language, it drags on for months or doesn't happen at all. That's not transparency. That's control. And control is not the same as trust. >> Thank you. Next up, we have Danny Lawrence. Welcome. Thank you for the opportunity. Following my comments in May and the fallout from Fort Collins High School, I've been aware that community members have written to you requesting the sessation of my constitutional rights to free speech in these public meetings.

007So, when I heard the board was looking to reduce public comment for time preservation, I did an examination of past public comments. Last school year, there were a 100 speeches given in 18 school board meetings, totaling 306 minutes, roughly five hours of talk time. Of the comments that were given, 42% were related to the services of disabled students in our school district. 16 staff members spoke up. 50% of them for paraprofessional working conditions serving those same disabled students. Students with disabilities also spoke up about their experiences as well. In over 50% of those meetings, public comment took 15 minutes or less. Is saving 15 minutes of meeting worth the continued isolation of a community that's been crying loudly for help for years? Later in tonight's agenda item 10.1, staff again demonstrates statistically the slide in

008graduation outcomes by another 4% for this population, even further below state average. Are we okay with the problem or just unwilling to hear about it? If the parents who are repeatedly coming here and commenting are causing the problem, why not just work with them from an action committee, you form an action committee and hear them out, wouldn't working with them be a better solution than degrading public trust for everyone else because you feel bad after we speak? If I am honest, I would rather be working with you privately so I wasn't exposed or exposing others because your staff and superintendent refused to engage with me. This past year, I watched our district trespass crime victims for protesting. So, parents can't speak up now. They can't protest. They can't get help. What do you want us

009to do as a board? You are the accountability partner here. I'm sorry. It sucks. I sympathize with you. But you asked to be elected and we voted for you. Voting to reduce public comments is voting to silence a specific protected class that was just gaining some long overdue awareness. Board policy 3.5 indicates that you owe the community loyalty. And I'm asking you to show it. Please. Please vote no on the proposed amendments for policy 3.13 later tonight. As a side note, the district's resolutions also took the same 302 minutes. And I'm talking resolutions, not recognitions. Five hours, five hours with 27 of them passed. If CASBY recommended their removal in March, why are we paying $25,000 annually to ignore their advice? Couldn't you guys just save some valuable meeting time by considering that as an

010option? In your email tonight is the district's OCR resolution agreement for the violation of my son's civil rights. I included it so that you can understand the process and the outcome. There is nothing latigious here. I have no axe to grind. There is no money to be made. We only sought training for your staff and it's clearly needed. In closing, I wanted to say thank you, Mr. Kingsley, for taking an ask. Sorry for an investigation seriously. I appreciate you. It's the first sign of hope that I felt in four years of making public comments here that somebody cared about kids with disabilities. I know it wasn't and it still isn't easy and that I heard many students for asking and I am truly sorry for that. But I do thank you for respecting the ask

011and so thank you all for listening. Thank you. Next up we have Jess Vestal. Welcome. Tough act to follow, Danny. Um, thank you guys for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Jess Festl. Um, I'm actually from Littleton School District. Um, I wanted to try and give a little context for why the recent issue within the special education that, um, was investigated was as upsetting as it is. Um, it is an issue that goes beyond policy and speaks more to the culture. You can't write a policy or train someone not to be a bad person. Um, but as far as the students go, the absence of their awareness does not erase the moral weight of the action. Harm is not solely measured by the child's comprehension in the moment. It is measured by the

012breach of dignity, violation of trust, and the morality of the act itself. To use a person's image for ridicule, especially someone in your care who may not be able to fully understand or object, is to strip them of their agency and reduce them to an object for amusement. This is wrong not because the individual consciously suffers in the moment, but because it disregards their inherent worth as a human being. These children exist in a position of heightened vulnerability. Exploiting that vulnerability for mockery is not neutralized by their lack of awareness. In fact, it reveals a deeper level of moral failure because the staff's objective to mock solely relies on the child's inability to defend themselves or self- advocate. Awareness is not the prerequisite for harm. The offense in the action itself because it violates the

013principle that all people, regardless of ability, deserve to be treated with respect, protection, and dignity, especially while they're in a classroom. Furthermore, people who advocate for children deserve protection, too. This board has a duty to protect those who champion students rights. I think we can all agree that that's what we all should be doing. When you fail to defend the voices speaking up for your most vulnerable students, you are not just turning your back on the advocates. You are turning your back to the children themselves. If you all recall recall quite some time ago, I offered a free staff training to your district which is still available. And I wonder had this training been available in the spring to your staff if it would have positively affected the culture. I can't imagine that you all

014enjoy the exhausted parents coming in here time after time pleading for the bare minimum on a very regular basis. So much so that the little time that they have been granted is being fractured. Solutions are out there and I'm asking you to seek them out. >> Thank you. Thank you. Next up we have Deborah James. Welcome. >> Hi, my name is Deborah James. I'm 66 Oops, sorry. I'm 66 years old. I'm currently a sub in the district. I have been for the last two years. I work all ages K through 12. I've recently been hired into the homebound program as needed for this new school year. Before subbing, I was a pair professional for 14 years. I again worked K through 12, mostly in special ed, not exclusively. Um, both of my adult children went

015K through 12. Uh, Pter School District, I volunteered regularly and um, when they were in elementary school, I've done a PSD after three program. I've done summer school three times. And I'm just going to go out on a limb and say I have literally been in hundreds of Pter school district classrooms. On 104 2023, I subbed as a parah in the ILS program at Fort Collins High School. I would not be here at all talking about or sticking up for any other program that I have subbed or worked in over these years. When I went into their classroom for the first time, I observed energy and interactions that were positive and caring. The teacher Amy was calm, capable, had a light nature to her, and just had a natural ability with the staff and the

016children. There was a particular parent named Chris, a man whose smile I just I always think about that bright smile throughout the day. >> I'm actually going to ask you to go ahead and not we're not names. >> Oh, >> you're too close to the mic for one thing, but also names and Okay. >> Uh we also want to make sure that that um we are respecting people's privacy. Okay. >> Um and we also want to make sure that we are not talking about personnel matters. Personnel matters cannot be brought to the to the board. Personnel matters need to be um discussed. So uh with with uh staff, sorry. >> Can I talk about what I observed in this classroom? >> If if you do it without names, we can go ahead and >> Okay.

017I will say that Paris in the room. >> You're still a little close to the mic. Sorry. >> There were paras in the room that were recent graduates that had been graduates um in May that were now hired as paras in the classroom. And it was really lovely to see. Um there I went to two unified classes where the regular average student whatever where we wanted typical were in there with the ILS students. They were paired up in PE. They were having more fun than anyone else any adult could have with them. I went to art touched my heart. what I saw between who two high school young men and the interactions um and um I I hear what the person in front of me said is that the students are unaware of what's going

018on going on right now which is true but they will be aware that when they get off the bus on Thursday that the people that I saw taking care of them in a lovely way won't be there waiting for them when they get off the bus. Um, I can imagine there's going to be disappointment, there's going to be fear, and um, there's a whole body of knowledge about these highly individualized students. Oh, I got to go. I guess it's over. >> Okay. >> I'm sorry. We're >> It says one second. It says I'm done. >> There you go. Okay. So, sorry about that. Yeah. Um, if you want to take a second just to wrap up. Well, I just had suggestions about, you know, bringing more people in, parents actively being brought in, you know,

019and encouraged to volunteer in the classroom, specifically with non-verbals. I thought from being in that classroom, I thought we should foster peer professionals in the high school. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> You only heard that. Okay. >> No, no. I It's just >> the time is up. I I do realize I took some time explaining things so was giving you a little bit more there. Uh so thank you. Uh next up we have Wendy Bergman. Welcome. >> Thank you. Um I am a proud social studies teacher at Rocky Mountain High School and I want to speak tonight about the loss of the mental health services professionals grant. When I started in 2020, the biggest issue I faced with students stemmed from their lack of mental health support in a time of

020chaos and social division. They lacked the skills to work through their emotions, and we didn't have enough qualified staff to help them process and to give them support. As a classroom teacher, it is not my role to um it is not my role to support my students mental health in this way. I'm not a social worker. I'm not a counselor. I'm pretty great at building relationships with my students and they know that I genuinely care about how they're doing. I should not be the one attempting to teach them these regulation skills as I am not trained or qualified. Things have changed for the better since 2020 because we have increased the number of mental health professionals in our schools. Most of this increased capacity has come from the grant program. At Rocky, our fellow sees

021hundreds of students in individual and group settings and provides the appropriate support um for these students. This is replicated at at least 23 other schools in our district. And the loss of the social work fellows and interns on this grant is a devastating blow not only to our district's ability to meet students mental health needs, but our community's capacity for mental health care. There are people these are people who significantly impact our students. Last year, I met a student in March who was in two of my fourth quarter classes. On like day three, our fellow came to talk to me um to let me know that they would be working with the student during class because they were supporting him uh they were supporting my student through a possible expulsion process. Because of the work

022of our fellow um and the ability to connect that student with the mental health supports, the expulsion was deferred. With the fellow's continued support, my student not only attended regularly, but passed two required for graduation classes with A's. When our social worker leaves in January, our students won't get that support. When this social worker leaves in January, our students won't get that support. We are pushing qualified and dedicated people out of our school district. And our students are starting school on Thursday with less social workers in the system as many of the fellows have already left the district to find other work or moved into full-time roles. This is increasing the workload for the other mental health professionals in our schools and will lead to higher case loads and more burnout among those who remain.

023I wish the district would have fought harder to keep the grant or pushed state leadership to include it in the lawsuits that have already resulted in releasing already promised federal funds. I understand that we're preparing for the loss of federal funds. And I know more than most the impact our chronically inadequate state funding has. But we need these social workers in our schools. We need more mental health professionals, not less. And I look forward to seeing the district's proposal for permanent increases in mental health uh positions because our students deserve it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next up, we have Candace Moer. Welcome. Good evening, board directors and superintendent Kingsley. My name is Candace Moer. I am the proud parent of a recent Pter High School graduate and a tomorrow incoming Pter freshman. Um

024I'm a veteran elementary education teacher and the proud president of the Pter Education Association. Um I'm here tonight to welcome all educators back to school. What our union does for you is work alongside the district to ensure the educators voices are included in decisions that impact our teaching and learning environments and beyond. Our union members are advocating for professional development and to be excuse me for professional development to be relevant to all educators and streamlined so we can be dedicated to lesson planning and instruction. In the past, our union has worked with colle or your colleagues to advocate for more planning time for elementary educators, integrated services teachers, for increased extra duty pay for elementary and secondary education, and most recently, we established and modified heat protocols that are being implemented as we speak. What

025our union will do going forward, this is just the beginning. We want you to know that your best interests and the well-being of educators and thereby our students drive every decision that we make. Your educator union siblings are fighting to ensure that we have a sustainable funding structure across the state. And we will continue to ask district leadership to stand alongside us to work towards growing a thriving community. At a time when the people's voices feel like it is being suppressed across the nation and even at a local level, know that your union pea will do everything in its power to ensure your voice is heard. PA is strong because of our members. To learn more about pea or to get involved in matters that affect educators and students, please follow us on social media

026or talk to your building ars because your voice matters. >> Thank you. And last but not least, we have Sarah von. Welcome, last and least. Okay. Um, good evening, Mr. Kingsley, board, cabinet members. Uh, first of all, thank you for calling the early release days on Thursdays and Fridays, uh, or Thursday and Friday. Um, those of us in non-airconditioned buildings are very, very grateful. As some of you know, uh, my name is Sarah Vaughn. I'm a middle school math teacher in the district. I'm also on the pter education association heat committee, PA heat committee. Being able to give public comment at the board meetings actually allowed me to connect with you and with our union in order to be part of this committee. One thing I've learned from being part of this amazing committee is

027how important it is to have multiple voices in the room when decisions are being made for the district. Our heat committee, for example, includes teachers from elementary, middle, and high school levels, as well as district leadership. We have been working together to create the district heat policy, and we were able to provide swamp coolers for buildings without air conditioning for temporary relief from the extreme heat in our buildings. This work would not have been possible without the collaboration of our team and the district leadership. All voices were heard. In addition to these committees, I along with my fellow committee member Kim, who is here, testified remotely to the Colorado State House and State Senate for a bill that will provide federal funding to help install and maintain HVAC systems for all schools in the state.

028Kim and I were told that our testimonies helped influence the passing of this bill. Without the opportunity to have public comment, we cannot say for sure if this bill would have passed in both the House and Senate. But because we were able to testify during the public comment time, this bill passed and the governor signed it this June. So, thank you. And I hope you keep public comment time during each board meeting. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you all so much who came to speak today. Um, next up we are on to board topics and committee reports. This agenda item is an opportunity for board members to provide Oh, look at this. That would be much easier, wouldn't it? To provide an update on committee work or speak to board topics.

029Do any board members have anything that they would like to report? Go ahead, Jess. Uh, so Kristen and I had the opportunity to go to the admin kickoff and I also attended the new teacher kickoff. And I just got to say, if you want to feel energized for a new school year, that is the place to be. The red carpet, like I didn't know how I was going to feel about it, not going to lie, socializing is not always my favorite thing to do, but some but I knew and it was super early in the morning and I knew if I went I was going to feel good and I did and it did not disappoint. And then I stayed and I wasn't going to. And then I stayed for like I think two hours

030of the new teacher stuff and If I were going to be a new teacher, that's where I'd want to be. It was It made me feel good about the year I have ahead of me. It made me feel good about what we're doing and the progress we're making. And yeah, I just can't say enough. And the admin one was also amazing. Like there was some rock paper scissors action. I can't remember who won, but like just the camaraderie in the rooms before the schools are even open is just phenomenal. So we I just want to shout out to the district. Thank you guys for putting that on. It was amazing. I I felt energized, so I can only imagine how all of our schools are feeling that tr that what is it? Metriculates out. It's

031good stuff. So, thank you so much. And please go next year. It's the place you want to be. Anyone else? Scott, did you Oh, did you have anything? Okay. Yeah, I'll just No, you're good. You're good. I'll just uh Yeah, I got to go to the the admin kickoff and that was it was just so much fun. um just the hard work that gets put into um getting ready uh the the buildings ready, the um the teachers, you know, getting ready for for you all to come into the buildings. Um it's just it's a lot of work um behind the scenes. I know you know that. Um and I know you are doing the same thing for your students. Um so I just wanted to say thank you for all of that. Um and I

032I do believe I said I was going to start off this meeting uh all meetings now with the Rocky Mountain uh cheer. Wasn't that what we were going to do? >> Yeah. Yeah. So, next time we'll do it next time. So, yeah. >> Next time. So, all right. Anyone else? All right. Go ahead. >> Um, a brief update for from legislative committee. Um, I spoke with Ann Barkcus pertaining to the special session that is coming up. Um, I think they start on the 21st. Um, as you know, um, some of the federal, um, legislation that has passed recently will have an impact on state budgets, um, somewhat drastically, um, and in conjunction with CASBY is going to be monitoring and representing us at that. Um, also over the weekend, uh, had the pleasure of going

033to the legislators town hall at the library, which was very interesting to say the least. There was great um community participation and actually a lot of questions pertaining to school funding. Um it looks um going forward in this special session that we are not going to be having any drastic material impacts. Um however going forward um in the preceding years it may be difficult. Um met with uh Andrew Basenecker who is the house district representative for district 53 I believe. um he will be down at the Capitol. Um if I've on all of your behalf, I pledged our support. If he needs any help, um during the special session, we said that we will volunteer and if they need public comment, we will um go down there and take care of it. Uh last but

034not least, um definitely uh the summer musical was wonderful, and I'd just like to say specifically Summer Schaefer um and Tracy Catz did a wonderful job for the PSD Foundation. and they really deserve credit for their uh commitment to to that project. It it was wonderful. Thank you. >> Go ahead, Scott. >> I collected my thoughts. No, I'm just kidding. I just wanted to welcome Andrew Spain, our newest uh board member. This is his first meeting, so he's the new kid. So, everybody be nice to Andrew. Say hi to Andrew. >> Andrew. >> There we go. Thank you. Okay. I just wanted to say we're very excited to have you join us and um thank you for being here. >> Glad to be here. But if it's a Rocky Mountain High School cheer, I'm not

035sure I can participate as a a graduate of FCHS. Just throwing that out there. >> All right. We'll we'll arm wrestle later. We'll figure it out. >> Opposite ends. >> So, yes, please go ahead. >> You know, uh thank you for just allowing me just a brief moment to speak. I wanted to take a quick second to tee up a conversation that we'll have um in a minute or two regarding emergency superintendent planning. Don't be scared. Um but we have an executive cabinet team in this district that are all stars. You are all stars. And when I think about all of the work that you continue to pull off, not just in the summer, but each and every year, and we talk about it tonight through the lens of the UIP and the strategic plan,

036also elevating all these various capital projects. I can proudly say to all of you that any of these people can sit in this chair and this district will be okay. I am so grateful. We are so grateful and lucky to have talented leadership who not only have a shared vision but are consistently working together to make sure we have deep sense of belonging for every employee for every student in this district that we continue to figure out ways to have and drive more consistency in this system and be a more coherent system. And I am inspired by all of you and Dr. Hooton I see you over there but that goes to you as well. So, I just wanted to take a moment because all of the things that are happening, whether it's our results,

037whether it's executing on new air conditioning projects, whether it's making sure that schools are open on the first day of school, many of these people were at Batty Elementary School cleaning kitchens, scrubbing floors this weekend. And those things don't go in the newspaper, but I just think it's really important to publicly acknowledge how incredible all of you are. So, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for that. I know that so much work gets done behind the scenes that just it would not this district would not work the way it does without the heart, the care, um, and the hard work that people put in. Not so that they can be seen doing it, but because they know it's the right thing to do. They know it's what's best for their students. They

038know it's what's best for their staff. Um, and I just want to say thank you for that. It just makes me so proud to to work with y'all. So, thank you. Okay. Anybody else have anything after that? All right. We will move on to 7.0 consent agenda. Would any board members like to pull anything from consent? Seeing none, can I get a motion? >> I'll go. I move the board approve and adopt the recommended actions for the items on the consent agenda. >> Okay. And I get a second. Thank you, Jess. Angel, can you call the vote, please? >> Jim Brokish, >> I. >> Kristen Draper, >> I. >> Connor Duffy, >> I. >> Kevin Havda, >> I. >> Scott Shoenbower, >> I. >> Andrew Spain, >> I. >> Jessica Zamora, >> I. >> Motion

039passes. 70. >> Thank you. Now move on to action items 8.1 EL2.5 emergency superintendent in executive succession. Can I get a motion please? Good Jim if you'd like to. Yeah. I move that the board determine that the superintendent has reasonably interpreted it the board of education policy EL2.5 in his internal monitoring report dated August 12th, 2025 and that the evidence presented supports the superintendent's conclusions stated in the internal monitoring report. >> Can I get a second? All right. Thank you, Connor. And Jill, can you Oh, sorry. Is there any discussion on this? Okay. Jim, did you have something? Nope. Okay. Um, Rachel, can you please call the vote? >> Jim Brokish. >> Hi. >> Kristen Draper, >> I. >> Connor Duffy. >> Hi. >> Kevin Havda. >> I. >> Scott Shoenbower. >> I. >> Andrew

040Spain. >> I. >> Jessica Zamora. >> I. >> Motion passes. 70. >> All right. Thank you. Moving on to 9.0. Informational reports and discussion items. 9.1. board consideration of reviews to board policy GP 3.13 public participation at schoolboard meetings. Uh so this will give us an opportunity to go ahead and discuss um board policy GP3.13 and wondering if there was anybody who would like to kick off this discussion. >> Can we get the policy language up on the screen so we can look at it? Is that possible? >> Thank you. Okay. All right. As we're bringing that up, um so just um for people who both have made comments or people who are at home watching um G.13 the general um sorry public participation at schoolboard meetings. One of the um general changes that we

041are looking possibly to make is to limit um the public comment on the second uh work session of the month and also we be increasing our um our I'm sorry I'm having trouble with words today. be increasing our community engagement. And by increasing our community engagement to once a month, two hours a piece, and being able to have that back and forth dialogue, that is what we're really interested in. We want to be able to talk to people. Um, we again, I understand the value of the three minutes of speaking to us, but it's also very difficult sometimes to have that conversation, to get that nuance, to get that understanding. And so, what we're really looking forward to doing is having more of those two-way dialogues. um back and forth discussions and being able to

042have that um more nuanced approach to this. And you know, one of the things that I think is is important to keep in mind is that this is a volunteer position. And so the time that we are spending here, this would be an additional evening. This would be an additional two hours that we are doing. Um and it's also an additional time for, you know, parents, uh community members to be able to come in. um and be able to stay and have that full-on conversation with board members. So, that is the intent of that. Um I don't know if there's anybody who would like to expand on that or make a comment regarding that. Go ahead, Jess. So, first I want to say I appreciate the protection of our time because I don't think we

043do that very often. uh we are in public service and so we strive to do just that and have meetings with folks as much as humanly possible. One of the reasons that I want us to seriously consider this is we have considered having a student adviser come and talk to us. I want to use their time as effectively as possible. At our work sessions, we invite other folks to influence and give us information to consider before we take votes. And oftent times they come at the very end of our meeting. Sometimes they don't even start speaking until 10 PM or 11 PM. And some of those folks, like last year when we had transportation come, they started, I want to say, at 10 or 11 p.m. and they start their job at 4 4:30 in

044the morning and they're dedicating their time. And I want to respect that as much as I also want to respect our time. Um, I I understand the want for having community comment twice and there's a part of me that in my heart wants to be able to give all the things and I also know to your point of having those community engagement sessions, we've heard folks come to our podium podium crying out of fear because speaking in public and on camera is terrifying and wanting to gave them an alternative space for that voice. I've also heard folks who have concerns because it won't uh the the public record isn't the same. We're not posting those community engagement sessions. They are recorded. So, they are on record. They're just not posted the same way. They're not

045videoed like these are. So, I on the one hand, I understand that it's not as easily accessible as these meetings. At the same time, it is available. And so I'm trying to grapple with I want to respect the the desire for community comment and I also want to appreciate the people who come and give us information that we need in addition to the folks who come to community comment. I want to respect that if we our intention is to have a student help us make decisions. I want to make sure that we're using their time as effectively as possible. Um, you know, we're essentially sacrificing, if our community commenter is correct, and we have 300 minutes or five hours of community comment time that we would potentially be saving, and we're giving back a minimum

046of uh 12 hours. So, it's still a trade-off, but I think the conversational piece is really important. my first two years on the board, there was a person who came to every single meeting wanting back and forth dialogue and we're finally getting to a space where we have a plan for some consistent back and forth dialogue. I'm really proud of that. So, that's my two cents at the moment. I think the other part to consider with um sorry to jump in, but I think the other part to consider too with the um the community engagement sessions is not only are we talking about um dialogue between people so that we can have that better understanding. Um but we're also talking about doing it in the schools um and doing it within the feeder systems. So

047it's a place that parents feel comfortable. um they they know their school, they know their um their their building. Um and by doing it at two different schools on the same night, we are giving multiple opportunities for uh parents and community members to be able to come in and speak to us where they are at. So they don't have to come here. So it's it's our effort to go to to you, which is what um people have been asking for. So there's, you know, we do understand that there is some um hesitancy on this um and we just want to explain the reasoning there. So other thoughts? >> Um first of all, I had a question. So would it be similar what we were doing last year with the community sessions where we would split

048the board three and three or three and four? >> Yeah. go into those. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Um Okay. I I have a lot of thoughts on this. I've shared them with uh everybody here uh on the board. Um to me, public comment is about transparency, accessibility, u to get for us to also to hear um what the community has to say, what they're concerned about. Um, somebody earlier said that this is the one chance for the entire board, the superintendent and the cabinet to hear those points and I think the fact that, you know, we're doing community outreach and those community sessions, that's great. And I thought those were fantastic last year and that I I get very frustrated here because I want to have the back and forth. So, I love having those

049sessions. Um, I am in favor of both and keeping both uh um community comments uh because a month, a full month is a long time to be able to assert uh an issue. Uh especially if that issue is about to come up for vote. If we're going to hear a community comment and then vote that same night, that's just going to be a useless community comment because we've already decided by then. So, I really like the idea of having um having both. Um I get the idea that we're pressed for time. Um and we're all volunteers, but this is what we signed up for. This is the gig. This is the gig. You're running for it, man. And it's it's part of the deal. I was told early on, some of these meetings go six

050hours, and that was not wrong. Um and I prepared my family for that. and it sucks sometimes, but guess what? So does some of the issues that everybody else is dealing with. We owe it. This is public service. Um, I want to hear all the time. And emails get lost. We've seen it with the school closures. We got hundreds of emails and we try to read them all, but you can't get to them all in email. There's nothing more powerful than a a person talking a kid talking about the heat in their school or an important issue to them. Um I have a couple quotes here. Thomas Jefferson said, "Government closest to the people serves the people best." This is exactly that. Um, I think I looked at some of the old uh the videos

051that are on. I think there's it's great to have access to that. I think people who have kids at home, young kids at home, they can't come to these meetings. They can't come to a community session even even they have to watch these uh YouTube videos to see what's going on at the schoolboard meeting. Um, and I think it's really important uh to look at that and see how we're using our time. Resolutions and recognitions can take over an hour. Sometimes our community commenters sit for an hour and a half out there just waiting and they're told they have to get here right at the beginning of the meeting or they're, you know, the actual rules say if you're not here at a certain time, you're not going to get up on on the podium.

052So, I think that's a disservice. I think we should change it so that they're able to get up here quicker. If they're taking their time out of their night to come here, we should honor that. And I love the recognitions and the resolutions. I think it's great. But an hour and a half sometimes, like it's too much. That's where we can cut back. Casby told us that's where we should cut back. They were surprised that we did that. So, uh, but I did I looked at at some of these. Some of the comments only lasted I think the one in May lasted 12 minutes. It was the total of community comment. That's not a burden. That's fine. 20 to 30 minutes that's that's about the average because we get about six or seven um commenters

053each time. Sometimes tonight we had 14 sign up but only 10 spoke. That's 30 minutes. Not a big deal. So I think that's the most important thing. Um, I have no doubt about the intentions of this policy. I don't think uh they're bad intentions, but I think the perception is that it violates the spirit of rebuilding trust that we talked about when in 23 24 we were talking about closing schools and we said we have to rebuild that trust. Um I think it's one thing that has been stated in some of the um information that was provided before this meeting was that hey the school board has the right to determine how their meetings are run. Um we can choose to public comment's not required. Um so we don't have to have it but we

054ought to. Uh it's the right thing to do to show the community that we respect them as partners. Um, and we want need to hear their opinions, both positive and negative. And so the resolutions make us all feel good. And the comments also can make us feel good, but also can make us feel bad. But guess what? I've got a list. Community comment has been essential for changing policies from teachers and students advocating for heat days. That really worked. That's a big deal. It's happening right now. School closures. That discussion was monumental to the future of this district in more ways than one. Um getting awareness about dyslexia, integrated services issues, um solar panels, we've been talking about that for quite a while. Uh beautiful thing happened. A student came here and talked about the

055ease how easy it would be to bring scoliosis screenings back to schools. It's not expensive, but it's really a powerful thing that needs to be done and we're doing it. It worked. We got we got that implemented right away. People might remember James Campbell. He's an assistant coach at Lincoln Middle School football. He came in and talked about the accessibility issues for his um his own handicap and and uh grandparents trying to come and see a game at Lincoln Middle School. We're working on solving that problem. Public comment made that happen. made that work. Last thing I'll say and talk this is about tough things that need to happen. You have to speak truth to power and that's what the public comment does. Frederick Douglas said power conceds nothing without a demand. It never did

056and it never will. So please keep those words in mind when you're thinking about changing these policies. >> Thank you, Jim. Yeah, I'll go. I had a I had a big sheet of prepared and I'm gonna throw all that away. Um I want everyone to know be clear. We're not voting on this tonight. We're voting on this next round. Okay. So that's just everyone's clear on that. I think what might be best for me rather than go over some of these things is just to talk about a personal experience I had with community comment. Okay. I think that would be worthwhile. It was about a year ago. Scott were pushing 4A. Okay. We want to get 4A passed and Scott and I decided to have a coffee section. Okay. And we we go to a

057coffee shop and invite anyone that wants to come. Okay. It was kind of disappointing because really the only person that showed initially was Nate, a former board member. So, not what we were looking for. But eventually Anna's husband came and then Anna came. Okay. And so instead of talking about 4A, we talked about dyslexia, which was awesome. Okay, this was the first time for me that I'd really spent time with Anna, although I'd listen to her three minute snippets for a long time, right? But like Anna said, it's hard to pack that into that little bit of time. Okay, so we had a great discussion. Okay, and I left kind of feeling energized and like, wow, I really understand now where Anna's coming from. So that's great. And then as we were we had stood

058up I think and I and I had to say because the purpose of this meeting was to talk about 5A right 4A whatever it was was to talk about that you know getting the bond done and um I said you realize that if this doesn't get passed because what what Anna wants is a lot more resources put toward dyslexia and that kind of thing. You realize if this doesn't get passed we're not in ad mode we're in cut mode. I mean, that was just a fact. Okay, that that's where the district was. Okay, so and Anna seemed to understand that and then we all went home and Okay, so I come into the next board meeting and uh Danny um went ahead and she said, "Mr. Brokish, director Brokish, how dare you bully Anna with

059fora?" And Taylor, you did something similar. You said, "How dare you bully Anna with 4A?" Now, I've been called many things, but anyone that knows me knows that I am not a bully. In fact, in high school, I think I'd have been voted the guy least likely to bully anyone. Okay? That's just not who I am. Okay. Um to make the situation worse, while Danny and Well, the two of them were presenting, um Sabrina had her cell phone out and she had it focused on me and why why would you do that, Sabrina? I think it was to see what my reaction would be to this community comment. Okay. And the whole thing, it just made me sick. I went home that night. I I didn't sleep. It was a terrible night. So, I don't

060know which way I'm going to vote on this yet. Actually, your comments and Scott's comments put me a little on the fence here. So, I may vote against this proposal, but what I expect from you is respect. And respect does not look like this. And in addition, I took the high road and went back to Anna and said, "Anna, wow, if you felt bullied at all because of anything I said, I am sorry." So, this community comment thing goes both ways. Think about your behavior and think about your tone. I'm done. >> Go ahead, Kevin. I had some thoughts on this subject. Um, my own thinking has evolved since we and I remember our discussions being somewhat informal about it. Um, being the uh former classroom teacher and me, I tend to be sometimes I

061know I'm type A. I know this about myself. I'm I'm self-aware. I tend to be a little more militant about efficiencies and how we use our time. So, it was in sort of that vein that I was thinking this um this issue. And then since then, um, like any issue, talk to other people, talk to people who are going to be affected by it, talk to neighbors, talk to people who have read it, and just get a general sense of how people are reacting to it as I'm forming my own thoughts. Um, so the first thing I want to do, and this is why I wanted to have the policy up. Is it Dr. Hon, is it possible to zoom in on the first paragraph so people can read it a little bit easier? My

062old eyes, I can't see it from back. I've got at my screen, but yeah, I just want to look at the first paragraph for now. Yeah, that's perfect. Um, so I thought it'd be helpful to read some of it since we're talking about it. So, the board policy begins, all regular and special meetings of the board of education shall be open to the public except in certain circumstances, the board is not required to provide an opportunity for community comment. However, because the board desires to hear the viewpoints of all community members through the district while balancing the need to conduct its business in an orderly and respectful manner that assures the regular agenda of the board is completed in a timely fashion. The board will generally schedule time during the the change being the first

063regular board meeting of the months for brief comments from community members. And then down below it says that it's I believe it's typically allotted 45 minutes. So I think it's helpful to ground both in the the language of the policy. I agree with a lot of what's been said on both sides. One, this is again as we're as we're being trained in how to do effective policy governance. It's a public meeting, but it's the board's meeting that's done in public. And so I think it's that's kind of a helpful grounding, too. And the the lawyer nerd to me wants to remind folks that first amendment principles have modifi there's different caveats to different fora, right? So we are not right now on a public street or public um parking lot or a sidewalk. And so

064there are restrictions. We we have a designated limited public forum is what this is means that the restrictions on communication need to be contentneutral. Um and we can't designate or endorse one view over another. Right? So those are basically the structures what we're playing with. But apart from that, the bigger picture here, and I'm I'm going to kind of echo a little bit of what director Shonau said, is that my my leaning towards this is that it's important. Um it's it's important to get input from the community, lest we be con, you know, confused about our role here. We serve our community. We serve our kids first and foremost. I think there's not a single person in this room that would show up tonight for any reason if that wasn't the northstar of why you're

065actually physically in this room. So, I want to give some some grace and respect to that. and however you're coming into the room, you're coming here because of that word on the wall up there. Um, so I think that, you know, keeping through the lens of it's a business meeting and we're conducting the business of the of the district carried out through the board of directors. It's an essential part of that business. Um, recently we've explored other avenues to elicit public input and director uh President Draper, you you talked about these BOE engagement sessions and I was a big champion of those. I still am. Um, I think that it's a different dynamic and that the community comment is a one-way street. It's input this way and you have no idea how we're thinking. You

066know, our policy says we we ought not really engage directly in the moment. I think that's prudent. But the the engagement sessions, what I what I really appreciated was the dynamic nature of having a conversation with folks, a completely unscripted, informal agenda. You come to us with what you need. So it's it's it's very similar to a community comment in the sense that you come with your own agenda and then you talk to us about it and in so doing in through those limited engagement sessions we've already had my thinking has evolved on several subjects but it's also allowed me to push back on certain community members in a different way when I you know someone was coming at an issue this way and then I said let's let's look through an equity lens and

067see what that let's unpack what that means for kids on this side of town. That's when we got some real honest conversation which I think is very valuable. Um, so I I think that said, this is I think I also want to honor something I heard director uh Draper talk about, which is this is very much a working board. We carry multiple hats. And I'm not asking for pity or sympathy. We chose this. We jumped through 15 hoops to to to do this because I I will say this is I usually make eye statements. I'll speak collectively because I think I'm in safe water here. That this is the most important work I think I'll ever do in my life. And I think that the people that are up here with me would agree with

068that. Um, so but it's it's a it's a third full-time job for me. It goes parent, attorney, board member, not always in that order, and I got to I got to shuffle a lot of those things. So I hear what you're saying, Jim, about the respect going both way because we're people, too, at the end of the day. And I think sometimes that it's easy to forget that. I think cabinet are people, too. And so it's easy sometimes to be too informal or to be too sly with our comments both ways. And so I want to remind everyone that that we are also modeling and demonstrating for our students how to have an exchange of ideas and how to advocate and then people standing behind that podium have moved me before. I agree. They've also

069challenged how I think. The way I the way I I phrase community comment often is it's the agenda item that's the tough look in the mirror. And there's a lot of things in there that that are hard to hear. There's a lot of things that I learn for the first time. And I don't for one second think I need less of that. I think I need more of that. The challenge being though is that we've got a lot of business to do. And it's not just that portion. The I think the the the point that was made, which is a good one, is that I I remember in June I had a trial starting the next day and we had three board meetings. And so someone's got to give there. and that's either a disservice

070to my clients or a disservice to my health or a disservice to the amount of energy that I'm going to show up in this room with. So, my thoughts and this is my own sort of tweaking of this language. I'm in the camp now. I've I've come a full 360 and where I I think it should be a fixture at every board meeting, especially when we're going to be discussing action items or things that involve people's lives that are going to have that are going to feel a consequence of the decisions that we make up here and that have been made prior to that. I do propose restricting it to a set time of 30 minutes with the understanding that if we have more than 10 speakers sign up, if it's 12 to 15, we

071can always have discretion to allow more. I think that's that's appropriate, too. If we get 60 people signing up for a community comment, then we need to rethink that. We need to probably allocate more time. But I think that's fair. I think the other fair thing that I've been pushing for that I'd like to see in our agendas is timestamps of when things are going to happen for multiple reasons. One, to be transparent. if community comment and some people have other obligations and they want to show up just for this or they want to show up just for an information session and they they care about the other things but they need to be in the room to hear the discussion on those things. I think we owe it to our community to say that's

072going to happen from 610 to 620 and that we hold ourselves accountable to that as best we can. And I know I'm talking a long time so I'm violating that rule and I'm usually the biggest culprit. I may culpa. But what I can say is that when we have timestamps for things that is one transparent, it holds us accountable. It also is respectful of our own time as well, but also allows the public to understand when things are going to be happening. So I think that's a more efficient way of doing it. I like the ideas too if again if if we're looking for efficiency gains, we're looking for time savers, which I think is I think is how this conversation started. One idea, and I'm not going to take credit for it, but I

073really endorse is I really believe that the resolutions and recognitions have a very important place in this room as well. I don't want to say if that then the other. I what I'd like to do is both and but I think there's some efficient ways we can go about that as well. So, one idea is for the recognitions component and I think about the families and the people who come into this room with their Sunday best on and they're being honored by their schoolboard by their local government and there's cameras rolling and it's they're they get to share it with their family. That's a huge important moment and we need to not forget about that part of our small experiment of this American democracy at the expense of what's happening nationally because that's really important

074and it's really important to me and it's moved me to tears a couple times too. So what I'd suggest is for recognitions to happen once a month and I would I would flip the script as far as the policy for community comment and have resolution or excuse me recognitions and honors from a five to a 5:30 time slot where we can do a lot of recognitions at once to a limited audience. And so those that are wanting to come for community comment or other business uh they know that ahead of time they can participate or not. But we reserve we hold that space for the families and the community members and our staff and the people who are being honored. And then there's a brief intermission for 10 15 minutes and then we can conduct

075the the normal business at at 5:45 or 6 o'clock. I like that. That's also efficient. It dispenses with those in an efficient manner but also still hold space more. I think the same can be accomplished through resolutions. Although um I I have been a proponent of thinking that resolutions need to be more and I'm not saying they're just performative, but I think there needs to be more than a performative aspect of it being read once and then we don't hear about it. At least from up here. We don't what I'd like to see and this is going to take a lot more cooperation with uh our district leaders and and principles and teachers is that we have a we have a reading resolutions similar at a 5:00. Um we we may not have presenters for

076those but then I would like to see that we incorporate those either principles hold space on a PA for for an opening uh uh uh morning announcements. This is the resolution that the board passed. As you're going about your day, hold space for this. What does that mean as you interact with your fellow students on a day-to-day? What does this mean as you interact with someone that you don't know as much about? What can you learn from that person as you go through the hallways? Similarly, teachers, at the beginning of a of a a home room period, or I'm thinking of a beginning of a first period class, we pass this resolution. Let's do a think pair share. What do you think this means? Turn and talk to a neighbor. How can you incorporate that

077into our classroom today? How we can make that our values in our day-to-day? How can we live up to that as a school? And then share out what we've learned. And then check in with that a couple a couple class. that that's that's the meat of what we're trying to do, right? That's that cascading effect that we're talking about with the with the uh with the unified improvement plan that we're going to talk about. So, those are a lot of my thoughts. Um I think that so I'd like those changes. I I think a reasonable compromise here at least to alleviate some of the time constraints you're talking about it would be uh setting it for 30 minutes and if there if there are additional requests, we don't just knock them off. we can we

078can have some discretion um because I think it's in the the board president's purview as far as the discretion of some of those things is my read of the policy but that that way we we understand that it's business it's 30 minutes um you know and and I think too if we're going to hold space for 30 minutes let's say we have three speakers then we can also have the discretion to say all right well you're going to get four minutes today because we only have four speakers and we have that we'll still save time but you're gonna have a little bit more time to the extent you would appreciate it I think that's a respect that we can offer to our community that have come up here and has been brave and stood behind

079that podium and said things that are maybe unpopular that that we you know they thought that they didn't that we didn't want to hear etc. So um I also like the time stamps on our agenda. I think that's important and my my vote would be to tweak other portions of our agenda to be a little bit more efficient and with that I will um avail myself of the pulpit. >> Thank you Kevin. And just to speak to the time stamps we are working on that as well. So that's going to be a both and um for this as well. So we are trying to make sure that we this is not the only way in which we are trying to make sure that we are efficient. This is just one of many ways in which

080we are trying to do that. Um because as as I like to say no good decisions get made after 10 p.m. Um and that's you know what's been happening. So um the this is just a small part but it is a part that is in uh our policy that we need to change publicly. The you know the aspect of putting in a a time stamp is not something that we have to change a policy for. the aspect of doing resolutions is not something we have to change a policy for. This is Yeah. So it it's a just to keep that in mind that it is a comb in combination with many other things that we are trying to do um to be more efficient for not only those who are sitting here and sitting there

081but for you all because this is just something that um you know not too many people will sit and watch a three-hour YouTube board meeting. It's really not that exciting. Um I can't understand. Um so what we are trying to do is make sure that we get to the meat uh very quickly, have those really good uh discussions like we're having right now and then make sure that we come to a you know either if it's a vote or a resolution of some sort. Uh then we we do that. But we have that good discussion and we're not doing that when people are tired and um not maybe in thinking in their best at their best. So that is the that is the crux of this. >> Go ahead. >> I think Oh, I just

082I think >> I mean I was just going to piggy back one thing off of what you just said was I mean we're starting at five and then meeting actually at 5:30. Like we've sacrificed the dinner session in part to get this to be more efficient and timely. And my next question, actually, you're gonna lead right into it because I wanted to know what you thought and Connor, what you thought. >> I I guess I'm going to get have fun playing the rookie card a little bit here and and and being in a very different situation than the rest of you all. So, one of the first things that Carolyn suggested that I do was to read all of the board policies. And um in doing so, in first line in 3.2, two item number

083one. So presumptively that's the most important one. Don't know but given that it's number one create the link between the ownership those in the room and the operational organization which obviously then routes through through the superintendent. I think about organizational behavior and performance and the way to create links when we're in this role fundamentally comes down to listening when I think about it. Um, and and and I love how that jives with who I am as a person because as I've shared with many of you, there's no single person that's in in the room who's as smart as everyone put together. And so the only way to find out what others are thinking is through, of course, listening to them. Am I personally a fan of the community comment? I think I'm in the same

084boat as some of you. I I hate the one-way nature of it because I don't feel like we get that, but we're adding in the two-way nature. I can go and enjoy a good cup of coffee as well. I'm going to be doing that probably the entire time I'm I'm on the board. And so I think especially when we've heard as others have said about building trust, this feels like the season when we need to be listening in as many ways as possible. Will we change it in the future? Well, let's have a discussion with the ownership once we've added different things and see how those things are working. That's what it feels like to me right now because I'm hearing uh different things uh from the community about if we don't have that or

085there other ways to put in uh input electronically. We heard tonight about is there Zoom meetings and some of those things like that. The fact that the PEA actually put out a statement on this I thought was actually really important as well because I don't recall having seen that routinely. Okay. Again, rookie card. You guys have way more experience about whether they have weighed in on different pieces as well over the years, but it nonetheless strikes me as very important that one of the biggest organizations within the district that works for the district obviously is saying we don't like this. And so, I'm very cautious about wanting to make a change to that. And if we do make a change that's being about more open and more aware of what our ownership is saying so

086we can become a better district and what we all want it to be. >> Thank you. And who have we haven't heard from you? So, before I become Debbie Downer again, um um and I'll volunteer more of your time because I already did that earlier, but the expanded community engagement sessions were probably the highlight for me last year, right? Because there was the two-way dialogue with everybody. Um it's that's quality engagement, right? And I mean, we could have community comment for three hours. We need, you know, to have that actual conversation with the community in the community um at the schools because not everybody can get here, right? I I think that's really important to say. And those were well attended, the ones that I were at. I think that, you know, there was always

087over six people there. Um and I I think that's maybe that's a low bar, but I think that's pretty good turnout. Um so I'd like to see us do irrespective of how we come down on this. Um, more of those. Um, on the Debbie Downer side, I think I've probably been privately the most vocal about reforming kind of what our I consider our work sessions when we have the big circle. Um, we're falling way short on that. Um, a work session is actually where your director should be sitting around and having engaging conversations about where they are, not where we're running through business, where we're doing consent agenda, where we're doing rewards and recognitions. Um, extended community comment is not the only reason why we're running late. Um, it's definitely not. Um, one of the

088reasons why I think we need a broader reform package of what we're doing at those work sessions is we should model our session off of other places that are doing it well. City of Fort Collins, their work sessions are very efficient. Lammer County Planning Commission that I'm on, really efficient. two discussion items and sometimes they do go really really long but it's the directors hashing it out where the whole public can hear and see what you're doing. Um there's never there's never binding votes in those right and then that's kind of acts as the first reading. then it comes up in front of the board where there would be community comment later on so that people can listen to those online or in person and then provide community comment about what was coming onto the

089agenda. I think um we can package this in a way to where we become more efficient in our work sessions, but it really does hinge upon us spending more time with our constituents in the community. Um I'm, you know, I'm I'm for changing it. If we can get that broad package, if we're just going to ask community comment, then then no, right? like that's that and I I think that's kind of how the optics of this is looking right now and I I'm not I'm not comfortable with that. So it has to be in a much broader package of reform to that specific working session that we have. Um I think last but not least um for for everybody who's provided community comment um we appreciate it. I think sometimes we come across as dis

090disingenuous because we sit here and we can't engage and I don't like that barrier. I much prefer the community engagement sessions where we where we've seen a lot of the people who have serious issues engage with us and we have good discussions there. I'd like to see more of that because then we can make better informed decisions in general on that. Um, so if we can get that all together um in and I don't know what do you guys thinking time frame on this um two two or three meetings out. I'm I'm not exactly sure. >> It's something that you know we can come back and and discuss in leadership um uh for this week as far as some of the some of the suggested changes. Um and again it's these you know these are

091just some of the changes that we are looking to make. It just happens to be that this is the one that's written in policy. >> Yeah, >> exactly. This one we we do have to vote on. The other ones we control the schedule on, right? >> Um I'd also say that again it's not set in stone. If it doesn't work and we start seeing two people show up at community engagements and we're not getting that dialogue, we can always change back. And I think it's important to note too that you know the engagement sessions that we were doing um two different schools were happening on the same evening and you know I think the I I'm trying to think of what the average was the ones that I went to was about I think about

09235. So I mean it was really nice to be able to have um that that conversation in um one of the schools we sat around in a big circle and were able to you know talk about what our biggest concerns were and then we kind of went from there. Okay, the majority of the group said biggest concern was X, Y, or Z. We'll discuss that. And then the next one came up and then the next one and the next one. So, um I felt like those were efficient but engaging and you know it's it's a it's a bothand for that. What we want is to make sure that we are hearing and having that discussion with you and making sure that we're understanding again all of those nuances that are coming up with that all

093of those um details that we can't pack into a threeminut session and that we might not get somewhere else. So I just want to it it is a both and uh as far as making changes to the way we are uh conducting our meetings the way that we are continuing and expanding upon our engagement sessions and you know is this something that we want to continue as well. So yeah Kevin did you have a >> I I learned something through the course of this and talking to folks and partners in our community. Um, again, and part of this, you're not you're never done learning on the board just because, you know, you've been on it for a year or so. Um, so again, I I don't think this is naive of me, but I really

094thought that the the BO engagement sessions would be better attended or better received than, you know, the exchange at community comment. And I think as someone pointed out tonight, they're different. They serve kind of different purposes. And one one thing that that struck me was that and this is also um for everyone's uh information is that the the BO engagement sessions are recorded meetings. So we have a recorder there. They're public meetings. So there is a public record which I appreciate. Um but it's different because there isn't a video component to them. This room is well equipped and we have someone behind we have people behind the doors that are making sure the the acoustics are good that the the video is is is locked on to people. that makes it more accessible for those

095that can't physically be here that want to participate. So, one idea is maybe we can try out I personally love having the the engagement sessions at schools, especially schools that I wouldn't otherwise go to. It's it's a really nice kind of feel. It's it's it's you know, it's formal. It's informal, but it feels nice. I wonder if it would be prudent to try to have one of these here and if we have a bigger attendance that could be um streamed and it would be more of a back and forth. It would be a true BOE engagement session. We have a public meeting that we could do here that could be recorded so that people that couldn't participate that might want to at least see how that that goes, they can engage with that on YouTube

096and they can say, "Hey, look at this clip right here. We were talking about this." Um, I don't know. It's just an idea and I don't want to put more people at work, but I mean we've the other thing with BO engagements, it'd be nice to think that it's just us committing time. John Cop has been there multiple occasions. We've had AV and equipment folks show up on their extra time to make sure that those things run. I've had Dr. Hootin. I've seen assistant superintendents. have seen staff there dedicating more of their own time as well. So, it's not just a it's not just us that we need to consider. It's the staff and the resources that we're expending. But that was my big question is maybe we could do one here. >> It's definitely

097a thought. Other other thoughts? >> Yeah. Go ahead, Justin. >> Well, I'm more want to get like a temperature check on So, Director Havlla, you put in the room doing 30 minute max. was at both meetings or just at the work sessions that you were thinking >> for community comment. >> I was thinking we could do 30 minutes as an agenda item for each. >> And the next question is then how does that land with everyone else? >> I think that's that's fair. I I like the idea um of uh having the option to expand it if there's like a um you know heavy interest in a certain subject where lots of people have asked to be a part of it then we can adjust it but the goal of 30 minutes or less would

098be a good one I think. >> Sorry one point of clarification and I'm not being draconian or being arbitrary with that 30 minutes. So I I've also been kind of keeping an a informal time stamp of agenda items for the last couple of meetings to figure out how long things take. Um and so I actually before I I reimmer myself with the policy. I thought it was 30 minutes for community comment. I learned that it was typically I think the language was typically 45. So 30 felt right based on the percentage of time we were spending on information sessions on action items on information on uh recognitions and honors and resolutions. that felt about in parody with other agenda items. So, it wasn't just an arbitrary, I'm saying 30 minutes and I'm done. There was

099some thought behind that. So, >> I think you have to be a little careful too with the 30 minutes or optionally more because you can get into conspiracy theories about, oh, they drove the cut line here because they didn't want to hear from that person. And I I don't know. I don't like that part of this. So, I'd prefer either 30 minutes or 45 or some fixed amount and just deal with that. >> Andrew, you had something. >> I I think I I get nervous about time limits because things eb and flow when just a year and a half ago you're having to limit to two minutes per person because so many people wanted to talk. That was a huge issue. Maybe it's a one-off. We I'm sure you probably who live through it prefer

100it to be a one-off and and not be in that situation again. But I I would like to see I I guess on on my first reaction, it seems sensible to sort of say, look, we're going to have a structured meeting. They talk about meetings that have time limits are well-run meetings. I totally get that. But somewhere back to the temperature taking for if something comes up and it becomes that big an issue, where do we have flexibility to adjust that time within the agenda for the individual meeting? I I I it just feels like that that's back to good meeting principles that we probably want to have those mechanisms internally and if we're just not able to do it, figure out how to have a separate meeting if it's that big an issue or

101whatever is necessary. I just think that's appropriate and a little bit back to probably what Connor you're talking about with the package to have some of that flexibility to meet the needs of our ownership uh to serve the community. >> Scott, go ahead. >> Yeah, one one thing I didn't want to kind of blow past was the point about the student representative because I think that that is an important point. We have to respect their time. um they it's school night so we don't want them having to be here for a long time. So I would I would also suggest that with community comment on those nights we could move that back. Community comment could be later in the evening. But we also need to make sure we inform the community commenters that it's okay

102not to show up till 8:00. They don't have to sit through the first two hours. and that way the student can be here for the information sessions, that type of thing. So, I would because I really value that voice. Um, and that's a whole new thing that we're adding. Um, but I think it would be we need to respect that. So, >> 45 >> Oh, sorry. Going back to 30 or 45. Sorry. I I'm good on the 30. I think that's that's fair. Um, and I think we're kind of falling in that most most times, most meetings. Connor, go ahead. >> Um, yeah, all or nothing, right? If we don't have it, if we're not running an efficient work session, as I was stating earlier, then uh whether it's the 30 or 40 doesn't make

103a big difference to me. I don't think we've really bumped up to that 45 um limit many times. Um, I know that some of those meetings during consolidation we did, but I I also think that was kind of warranted. So, if we're not going to um look at the big picture here and do a larger patch p the package of reform, then I would suggest not changing the policy and staying at 45. >> Go ahead. Sorry. All of this conversation has made me also want to remind ourselves as well as our community that while the policy is deciding is it one meeting, is it two meetings, is it 30 minutes or 45 minutes as a board and granted I I also want to keep myself aware that the board may change over the years and

104so I don't I don't want to change the policy in such a way that allows a future board to not honor its community the way that I think we collectively have um but when we've had the consolidation conversation we added community comment sessions right we added a massive session where we had I think it was 140 people come talk to us um we also added at the end of that year opportunities to have small group discussions and we all sat in classrooms at Rocky Mountain High and had groups of people talk to us throughout the day. So, I think part of where with this particular policy, the reason I'm okay with changing is because I know that the people here would honor our community. We would do what we needed to do to make sure

105we were hearing what we needed to hear. However, if we're also having concerns about future shifts, that's I guess where I can understand a qualm of have we always honored folks? not perfectly, but I think we have strived to earn back trust. I think we have done our due diligence. Are we perfect? No, we're human. Um, but it's not like I I don't want us to get stuck in a corner where we tell ourselves this narrative that we haven't done our due diligence. We haven't put the effort out there because we consistently have. We haven't done it perfectly, but we we've tried to show up really well. And I think I'll add on to that as just a a last part of again this is an addition. I know that um you know people are

106seeing it as a subtraction. But honestly what it is it's an addition of seven hours over the course of the year um because we will be doing two-hour sessions that we can have dialogue. And I'll tell you none of the two-hour sessions that I went to lasted two hours. they were all three to four hours because people just once we get talking that's what happened is we were able to engage and say oh and and then how this connects to this and so they were not I mean they started at 5:30 and if I got home by 9 it was that was an early night usually I was home by 9:30 10:00 um so those were really important for us and I want to make sure that we leave space for that so that we

107have the ability and the wherewithal to to make sure that when an important topic does come up, it's not that we want to hear, you know, 15 extra people speaking to us about the same thing. I want to hear the reasons why. I want to hear the the purpose of it. I want to hear their solutions. I want to hear what it is that they don't find um inclusive or working for them or whatever it is. And I can't do that in a three minute session. I can't do that when somebody's talking for three minutes and then I get to say, "Okay, thank you. Welcome next person and then write down in my notes, you know, two or three words as they're um as they're speaking." That's not to me it's not necessarily a productive

108way to to work. And it's not that the voice isn't important, it's very important. And we still need to have that time to then dig into that because it's it's you know bringing it to bringing whatever it is that that people want to bring to us and then to say okay at our next uh conversational meeting please come please talk to us about this because I want to know more. I want to so much more than you can possibly say in three minutes and it sounds like you might even have some solutions on this. And so let's talk about what we can do together to make those solutions work. So it's not again I I don't want to think of it as an elimination. I know that that's what it's been um discussed as. It's

109a gain of seven hours over the course of the year. um you know and s actually more than that when we're talking about the right now we limit it to 45 minutes if you you know do talk about it that way and significantly more when you talk about it's a two-hour meeting but never runs you know less than three so I I just want us to be aware of that be aware of our um abilities here and let people know that this is a package deal this is not something that we are like we are not going to do this and that is all we are doing we are doing many other things to make sure that we are running efficiently and smoothly and making sure that we have um what we need to make

110sure that we have a an efficiently run board meeting. So with that, if there's any Go ahead, Kevin. If there's and and then we we're going to go ahead and wrap it up to the next one because we're trying to be efficient. >> I agree. I and what I was going to say too is is this is both directed at um folks that want to participate in community comment but also think people that are presenting on information. sessions. I It's you I forget who said it, but you said it was hard to, you know, not engage with people. I work for judges all the time and so they're stoic and they don't respond to me. They have hundreds of cases. They don't care about mine. My job is to get the information to rise to

111the top of what I want them to do. Get in, get out. And so, strangely, I've started to feel a little bit like that up here when we have such an incredible amount of information. So my my rule of thumb would be if you're doing an information session, keep in mind it's something that people have worked on in a specific subgroup for a year. It's a it's the penultimate apotheiois of a year's worth of work they're presenting to the decision maker for a first read or something. That's one of seven that we may have that night. 10 PowerPoint point slides is my rule of thumb, please. It's think about the audience that you're presenting for. And you know, it is it is a little bit of an art and a science of staying behind that

112podium. So, I I I still want to give grace to that, but I think to your point though, there there are ways that we need to and I like how director Duffy said it was that the the total repackage is that I get it's an important thing for that, but then those people that present, they're in and they're out and then we're moving on to the next thing. There is so much information overload. So, be respectful of the time that you're asking for. So, I think there's information sessions we could say, let's keep those to 45 minutes, 30 minutes for the presentation, 15 minutes for Q&A on certain topics like the one that's going to come next that deserves more time. And I think the the end I'll I'll leave this because I did read

113the policy. Again, discretion remains with the board's presiding officer to interpret the rules and determine the scope of this policy. So, structure is important. Flexibility is the name of the game. And with that, I will yield. >> Okay. Can we go ahead and So, we're not gonna >> Madame President, point of order. Point of order, please. >> Thank you. >> We have the attorney please review the decorum in the boardroom, please. >> I think we don't need that anymore. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So, with that, um I think there's a lot to think about here, a lot to chew on. Um and we have some discussion to do at our next leadership meeting that we will um we will go ahead and discuss that and we will take a vote next at our

114next meeting. Sound okay? Yeah. You want to take five? Let's take five. So we will be back here at it is 7:15 so 7:20. Thank you. All right, I'm going to start calling people back. We're going to go through the unified employment improvement plan next. Are we ready for video? Just want to get a thumbs up from We Good. Awesome. Thank you. Okay, welcome back. And it is now 7:27 p.m. and we will be back in action to action items 10.1 uh Poodle District Unified Improvement Plan 2025 2026 school year. Can I get a motion, please? >> Point of order. Madam President, I I was a little confused by this too. It looks like >> um >> we have an action item that follows the information. Correct. >> Oh, yes. Thank you. We are on

1159.2. >> I appreciate that. Like I do still have a point of clarification on that though. It's like what is what is the the reason for that? Typically if we're going to build on something we'll get the information at the >> at the motion. Can someone explain that because I was confused. >> Yeah, >> it's a it's a wonderful question. As I shared with you and the community in my opening the presentation that that you're about to hear that'sformational in nature is helping understand how our district unified improvement plan aligns to our district strategic plan. So our vision and our mission cascades from this boardroom to our classroom. So it's a little bit above and beyond added context be beyond the UIP. And so we thought that context was important both for you to be

116able to hear but also ask questions prior to feeling comfortable uh voting specifically on the UIP. >> Yeah, you bet. >> No, it's okay. >> No, I and I appreciate that. Yeah, because that that is the normal order of operations as we will take a vote, get the information. I mean it get a motion, get the information. >> What I lack in us. >> Well, I appreciate you pointing it out because I just skipped right to 10.0. So, we are at actually at 9.2 school district unified improvement plan and strategic plan 2025 2026 school year. And Brian is going to do the introductions. >> Yeah, thank you. So, thanks for the break. We were able to narrow down our slides from 15 to 10. Um, we got a secret shot clock on Dr. Schmidt's here.

117uh he's taking the lead uh on this presentation, but is joined by a great supporting cast that includes lots of leaders across the system. So, I'm going to turn it over to you, Dr. Schmidz, to talk a little bit around our district strategic plan, where we are, where we're headed, and how that aligns to our district UIP. Thanks so much for being here. >> Thank you, Superintendent Kingsley. Welcome, school board president Draper, director, Superintendent Kingsley, and members of our community. Tonight we will be discussing updates regarding the PSD strategic plan and present the district 2526 unified improvement plan for board approval. Uh the PSD DAC district accountability committee did vote and is recommending the UIP as written to the board of education. Okay. I'll be joined later by some colleagues. Assistant superintendent Dr. Tracy Guile,

118Dr. INS Olsson, Dr. Julie Chaplan, uh Liz Davis will be joining me this evening to uh help out with this uh presentation, but I'll kick us off in the beginning. Um I before I really kick off, I want to tell you it's a real pleasure to be here tonight. This is important work. Um the team that's worked on this is large. Uh there's 30 plus leaders in our system that know this plan as well as we do because they were that involved in it. So we're just the voices of the planite and I'm really uh pleased to be here with you. Okay, so PSD staff in our community have made progress in some key areas. Okay, we'll start our presentation by reviewing some specific actions PSD engaged in during the 2425 school year and we'll

119highlight some associated outcome data. Um following up on that that illustrates movement toward the district ends. uh then we'll we will uh shift gears and we'll highlight some of the important steps and the key components of the 2526 unified improvement plan. So we're going to start by looking back what did we do and how did it land and then we're going to look forward on what are we planning to do next. Okay, we'll finish our presentation just by engaging the board with questions and answers and we have a whole team here that'll be joining me for that. Okay, so the um I'm going to flip this real quick. the strategic plan and the UIP, they kind of do a dance together, right? And they move together, they develop together. And truly in PSD, a lot

120of districts say, you know, it's not going to be a checkbox and a con uh compliance thing and that we're going to do the thing, put it, you know, submit it to the state and then we'll look at it again next year. But we actually are living that. We really aren't just writing a document and putting it aside until the following year. It's a true improvement cycle that we're engaged in. And we have the strategic plan and the UIP. The UIP is required, the unified improvement plan. I'm just going to be saying UIP a lot tonight. I'm sure we all will. It's required by the state of Colorado. It has some parameters to it. Um the strategic plan is a document we choose to do in Pter school district and they definitely are tied together

121and in they work together basically right so they're not for our staff and our community it's not like we have these two different plans with two different sets of action items okay so that's that's an important piece to be aware of um throughout the UIP you see action steps and you see deliverables so we are very explicit about what we're working on and when we want to get it done and how we intend to get those types of outcomes that we're sharing. Okay. And that explicitness and staying with the three priorities that uh Superintendent Kings I think mentioned earlier tonight of literacy, graduating with options and mental health and belonging. That focus and that stability on those three high priorities has really allowed the system to organize itself towards making headway, making gains in that

122space. So, I want to publicly acknowledge and thank the board of education, Superintendent Kingsley and my colleagues and leadership as well as our system of schools and principles, school leaders, teachers and everybody on holding to those priorities so that we can organize ourselves and see measurable progress. So, just a note of gratitude. Okay. Okay. So, as we move on into this process and outcomes highlights, there's an awful lot that PSD has to be proud of. I'm going to highlight a few key areas. This is not the monitoring report, right? So, we'll do the monitoring report in a couple months and it'll go into much more depth on many more indicators that are important to monitoring our district ends and how we're making progress. But we will tonight pick a few highlights of some data that

123are tied very directly to those three priorities in our strategic plan and UIP and illustrate how we are in fact making progress in those spaces and we're doing that through a collective action of our whole system which we'll we'll talk about throughout the evening. Okay. So I'm going to start with the data side of the slide and then move to the highlighted action side. Okay. Whenever I hear presentations, I love to hear first, what are the outcomes? Like, are you actually moving needles? Once you show me that, now you've got my interest. I'm curious how are you doing that? What would you say some of the key components are? I'm I'm generally not as interested in conversations that go the other direction because the outcomes, there's a lot of systems that actually can't show you

124the outcomes to back up the long laundry list of things that they're doing, which I'm sure is all important and great work, but it's nice to start with outcomes. So, we're just going to do one slide for each one of these priority areas. Okay. So, literacy, we picked Dibbles K through three, Dibbles 8, K through three data for the last five years. And the the numbers you're seeing on that line graph are the percentage of students that are meeting or exceeding what they call the benchmark expectations, right? Like grade level expectations. When you see that slide and you see the direction of that line graph, that story is pretty clear. This is this is data gathered for all of our K3 students. So that's quite a few students. And you can see that we've got

125a consistent increasing trend in that data, which is what we want. Obviously, I'm not showing you the slide, but I'm verbally going to tell you that when we pull that exact slide for the CAMASS data on literacy, that's grades three through eight. So it's a different grade range. It's a different test. We see a similar consistent increasing trend. So it kind of validates this data. Dibbles 8, CAMASS. When we pull the data on PAT 9 and we pull it on SAT 10 and SAT 11, that data also shows this increasing trend. I'm just using the dibbles to kind of uh make it visible on the bottom half of that graph. And before I move on, I just have to say that outcome is something we should be super proud of of as a system. And

126it's only due to the work, the collective work of our teachers, our students, our families, our principles. Like so many people are involved in this story over these years to get our data to move in the direction it's moving. And as you know, we're like a high achievement, high growth district. And we're moving in the right direction. When you look at the bottom bar charts there, what you notice I think pretty quickly is that the lowest category that's called well below benchmark is decreasing year after year. So the percentage of students K3 that are in that lowest category is decreasing. Meanwhile, collectively the top two categories above benchmark and at benchmark are increasing over that same set of years. And you can notice that the below benchmark set of bar graphs there is staying pretty

127consistent at about 10%. Can everyone see that? So that where is the shift happening? Where is the shift happening for the kids that were well below? They're shifting up to higher categories, right? And we've got students moving in the right direction. Um when we go through the monitor report, we'll go through that in more depth. Okay. On the highlighted action side, I'd start off with the bottom two bullets because I know the board's super familiar with that. We made a big investment. I say we, you boldly made a big investment at a time when it was hard to make big investments in literacy, which matters to our community, right? And what you did is you invested in the science of reading and we did the K5 literacy curriculum adoption and then we did the 910

128and then we have other work going on in the system that's really targeted with staff training and you got a board presentation I think it was back in February around our work around learning um challenges in reading specifically dyslexia right and so we've been investing in staff training in various aspects of targeted support for the kids that need us most when it comes to learning to read. But we've also invested heavily as a district in our what we call our universal tier one reading instruction because we believe in that approach that when you provide good science of reading instruction, tier one for all students, you're going to minimize the number of students who need that targeted support. But our strategy is at the same time we're increasing our our ability to support meaningfully the kids

129that are struggling. So we're doing both, right? So there you go. That's basically what those three bullets are running through. And again, we can go into more depth down the road, but that's a good high level coverage of that. Okay. Graduating with options, the second big priority. You've seen graphs like this. Some of you have been on the board longer than others. in the past prior to four years ago and I'm going to name it okay just and I realize that graduation rates are a lagging indicator because it's a culmination of a long journey but it really starts in the nth grade whether students are kind of earning those credits or not right but over these last you can see these last three classes of 22 23 and 24 we had a dramatic jump almost

130more importantly in my opinion is the stability of those three years compared to the instability of the prior years that we're just showing here. And if we showed more years than that, I think a lot of board members would remember it was quite like a bouncing ball like what that graduation rate was coming in at. So two things happened around the class of 2022. We got stability which means our process became more consistent in our system and we moved the bar up quite a bit on what the graduation rate is. This data we're looking at this line graph for these six years of data or is that seven years of data um is representing all of the PSD student body. We have additional data that shows by various groups of students for instance English language

131learners that their graduation rates have also shown dramatic improvements over this last couple of years same last like let's say four to five years right not to sidestep this we have other groups of students like students that receive support with an IEP that have not had these types of graduation rate increases right and a statement was made earlier in the boardroom room. That's correct that our graduation rate for that important group of students is below the state's graduation rate. So, I'm being honest with you in celebrating that we see some data that definitely indicates improvements that have been sustained and are systemwide. Some of those improvements are showing up for various subgroups that we care a lot about. We track and we try to monitor and support and in places we're not where we need

132to be yet. And there's still an opportunity obviously there, right? But that's the nature of a strategic plan. Continuous improvement in UIPs. You're not just looking for where you know, you're looking for what I just described actually. Are the needles moving for the things you said you were going to impact? And if it's still one of your priorities, where is it that it's not there yet that you're still working on? I'm just trying to express those components exist in these data. Okay. the highlighted um actions. This increase the availability of post-secary artic articulated programs and increase student family awareness of interest aligned college career credit degree certification opportunities in PSD. We have data on that that shows that we've had about a 20% increase in the number of students that are enrolled in career teched

133um you know pathways and those pathways lead to the opportunity for a nationally recognized credential. So we've had about a 20% increase in the number of CTE pathway enrollments have occurred over these last two years. That's been intentional. In fact, Superintendent Kingsley, you said in your opening remarks earlier, I loved it. Something to the effect of the results that we see aren't at aren't random. They're by design. So, when we see those kind of numbers moving in the direction we expect and we know we can point back to specific things. And by the way, we could go into more depth, but I'm keeping I have to go kind of high level with this tonight. But, um, but yeah, that those are the big actions we're taking that are kind of yielding some results. Okay, we

134move on to mental health and belonging. Again, there's a line graph. This time it's only three years of it appears to be three years. It's really over a six-year span, right? Because the data I'm showing you to start off with is the Healthy Kids Colorado survey data. Super important data set for PSD. We're one of the districts that has all of our middle schools and all of our high schools participate in that, which makes us a little unusual, but that's because how much we value that data to get that information, right? And so the top line graph is colored blue and it's it's it's the percentage of students who um indicated that they purposely hurt themselves in the past 12 months. Those percentages are scary high for all three years, right? Hence the we've got

135more work to do. We we have not landed. We have not arrived. and I don't know when we will, but clearly those numbers are shocking and too high for all of us as adults in this community. The lower graph, a line graph, which is colored orange, is the percentage of students who self-identified in the high school data set that they were considering suicide. And again, those are shockingly high numbers. We have a lot. We have to attend to this, which we are. And you'll see through our strategic plan and our UIP reading it and hearing the presentation tonight that we are um directly attending to that we do see the increases right from 26.4% to 15.3 which is a decrease which is a good thing. So less students are reporting that they're purposely hurting themselves

136and we see a decrease on the bottom line graph in the la between the last two uh occasions of that survey from 21.4% 4% to 11.1. So again, that's a pretty substantial decrease, but that 15.3 and that 11.1, those are shocking numbers. So we have more work to do. What have we been doing? Well, things have changed. Policy and um process has changed at the state and federal level during the last couple years and Pter School District has made sure that we're in alignment with those changes and getting in front of them. So, we've done a lot of work with our policies and our practices to make sure that we're aligned with and in front of the best thinking on how to decrease harassment and discrimination in our school setting. We've done that through training

137of staff specifically, and there's people in the room, Liz Davis, who can speak more specifically to that than I can during the Q&A time if you're interested about how many staff and where are we at because it's a journey and we are well under underway. We've trained a lot of staff and again that work is going to continue. That's not over next year or the year after that. We've also really focused on and I think a lot of the board members know that and having read through the UIP not just this year but last year that we focused on middle school a little bit with fourth and sixth grade. And one of the reasons is the data that we get back indicates that that's a fruitful place for PSD to kind of focus some effort.

138And again, there's people in the room that can speak even more specifically to to that point. Okay. So, we're so to kind of summarize policy and pra you guys said tonight, which was great. Um, somebody commented in the boardroom tonight, you know, policy is just written word basically. It's really the practice. How do we live that policy? The policy kind of signals the intention and such but how do we live it right? So we are working on both policy and practice. We are doing it through staff training and we are doing it through direct contact with students in a targeted fashion because we do have many resources. So we can't do everybody all at once. Okay. So all the data I just ran through just one slide on each one of those priority areas and

139I just picked one good chunk of data that's really a like a robust data view to indicate we are moving needles in the right direction and more work is needed. That's the theme right. This slide is about this concept of disproportionality. As you've listened to everybody on this um administrative team speak over the last year and a half to two years I would say and especially the last year you're hearing that word more and more frequently I think disproportionality. What do we mean by that? We mean that when we look at students let's say students supported with an IEP and we see that their graduation rate is less than the overall PSD population's graduation rate. That's a disproportionality. Why does that exist? How do we intervene on that? How do we disrupt that? Right? If

140we see a difference between outcomes and achievement for those students who are eligible for free or reduced lunch like on the slide, the line graphs on my left hand on the left hand side for that dibbles 8 K3 data. That's a disproportionality. So knowing a student is eligible for free or reduced lunch shouldn't shouldn't predict where their achievements levels are going to land, right? If it does, that's a disproportionality. That's what it means. So at any rate, we're showing a couple examples here and there's a couple pieces I want to point out real quick. The Dibbles 8 data on the left is the same exact picture that I just showed you in the Dibbles 8 data for the whole PSD population K3. It's just separated out for those students eligible for free lunch or free

141meals or reduced meals or not not eligible for either. Right? And what you see are a couple things I think. One, those increases in literacy are happening in fact for all three of those groups. Like they're all trending in the correct direction up. I I can see as well as you can there's a little bit of drop on that most recent 2425, but that overall trend for all three groups is up. The other thing I want to point out when we say disrupting disproportionality, what would the evidence of that look like? It would look like the change in the distance between the black line and the yellow line. on the left in 202021 there was a much bigger gap 51% to 77% between the achievement levels the percentage of students that are meeting benchmark on

142dibbles 8 um um between the students who were eligible for reduced lunch and those that weren't. That's a huge gap. When you look off to the right that gap has shrunk. It's still too big, but to about 12%, right? Instead of what is that 26%. 26 down to 12. That I would say is evidence at a high level of disrupting disproportionality. The goal would be for that yellow line to keep on climbing, not for the black line to come down until they touch. Right? And we want to see the same thing with the red line. Now, the red line has also likewise we have shrunk those gaps. That's disrupting disproportionate. That's what the evidence would look like. We want to see that in graduation rates. We want to see that in our mental health data.

143We want to see it in our achievement data. We want to see it in the data regarding how many kids are engaging in CTE, you know, nationally recognized credential type opportunities. How many are getting post-secary college credits while they're here with us? How many students are getting work-based learning experiences and so on. That's disrupting disproportionality. the graph on the right with graduation rates that is um we I just took our two biggest ethnic groups just by counts okay as example and again what I'm trying to show is that Hispanic students as a group have also enjoyed or produced that same type of graduation rate jump for those same years. So that that graph parallels the one I showed you for the full PSD population. And I'm I'm just showing how it also shows up for

144Hispanic students, not just overall. And once again, it's a good example because those gaps have actually shrunk a little bit. So, we're moving in the right direction in terms of disrupting disproportionality. as my colleagues talk up here tonight, all the work we're doing and everything we're talking about, what we've written and what we're trying to, you know, breathe life into in a collaborative way with our system, it's all about these types of big outcome pictures. And that's why I want to tell you thank you tonight. Thank you to the board. Thank you, Superintendent Kingsley. I I believe that we could switch out every strategy we have with another good strategy that's evidence-based and we might still be looking at these kind of outcome improvements because what I think I believe is it was it's the

145focus and staying focused on the same priorities so that everybody in this room is elevating those priorities in their language every day and our colleagues out there in the schools the principal APs the teachers the bus drivers Everybody is able to name those, know what they are, so that it guides their decisions. They make a hundred decisions a day, we can never micromanage, right? But if we have a clear vision, which you've given us, if we have their vision, everyone line to that. And that's how I think you get results like what we're looking at tonight. And they're not perfect. We have more work to do. So I'm not up here saying to the whole PSD community, we've arrived. We haven't arrived. But we definitely have evidence that we're on the right track in my

146opinion. That's what I think we're looking at. So I will now turn it over to my colleague, Dr. Tracy Guile. And thank you. >> Thanks, Tracy. >> Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Schmidz. the the pleasure of getting to talk about the impact that we have on children is is incredibly rewarding and I can't thank this team and community enough for being aligned in the goals and vision that we have for students in our community. They deserve our very best and so we're hoping tonight that you see um the work that we put into the outcomes that every child deserves. So in thinking about the 2526 vision, goals, strategies and deliverables, Dr. Schmidtz um teed this up beautifully in terms of talking about the direction. So setting direction remains the same for us. The board has

147given us the district ends which then have operationalized um wildly important goals within them. We've also picked out these three wildly important goals that drive the actualization of the outcomes that we seek for students in Pter School District. And so our big ambitious um vision is to live our mission every day that we every we educate every child every day. And we don't truly actualize that vision until we can say with 100% that all students have reached that benchmark. And so these three goals really leverage going after that all means all and really centering our work on addressing our disproportionate outcomes for students. And so those three wildly important goals that we've been centering on for the last two years have been students with disabilities, multilingual learners, and historically underserved identities exceed a year's growth

148in a year's time. So the only way to close that gap is to accelerate the growth for the students who need us most. And so that's what that metric represents is that acceleration and being very intentional about that. The second goal is increasing our overall graduation rates. The board advised us to increase our metric from 85% had been our goal to elevate that to 90% and also to close the gaps for students with disabilities, multilingual learners and those with historically underserved identities. Also that third bullet is to decrease the number of incidences of harassment and bullying due to ethnicity or race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, physical and other protected classes by 10%. And so in pursuit of that, we really have data from the Healthy Kids Colorado survey as well as our connections

149um data that that is an area of concern for our students that is affecting their mental health and feelings of belonging. So that is a very important goal that we seek to improve upon through the course of our strategic plan and our district unified improvement plan. So in talking about this slide, this slide is really capturing a theory of action that we have with our strategies and deliverables. And so the theory of action really starts with the work of Dr. Richard Elmore who um codified this idea of these three points of content, student instruction and then task at being the center. So if you think about the student experience and really changing outcomes for kids, the adaptive work happens in the classroom, right? And so throughout our strategic plan, we have been really seeking to

150try and remove barriers to access. So last year you heard us talk about developing coherence, also seeking to improve access for all students to elevate the rigor and then create environments that were conducive for learning and spaces of belonging for all. And so all of that is leading us now to this space of theory of action of really paying close attention to what's called the instructional core that content student and instruction and then how the task designs. This is really important deep work that we do with our teachers in partnership with them to really talk about the influence of all of these things to create a really high quality learning experience every single day in every single classroom. So part of that coherence is that students should not have the educational lottery of getting different

151experiences in different classes. That when we do this in partnership, which is why you see that kind of team component, that's how we create a space of equity where everybody has a high quality experience. And so the three points of this is that student outcomes improve when we really pay attention to all three points of this triangle as well as the task in the middle. And so for example, as Dr. Schmidtz talked about the high quality instructional materials, that's an example of content. So, we have to pay attention to the types of content that we're putting in front of students, that it's rich, that it's complex, that it's aligned to the standards, and that there's space to accelerate within those standards. So, students continue to experience challenge in their classroom. Also, within that content, students

152have to be able to experience access to it and have entry points no matter where they're at in their learning journey. So, that content has to be accessible to everyone in different ways. And so that is one of the core functions of our strategic plan is paying attention to content. How are we elevating content? On the other side of the triangle is that instruction and that's the knowledge and skill of the educator in the room to be able to take that content and then create experiences, questions, groupings, strategies for how kids experience that content in the room and in a manner that all have access to that high quality rigorous content. And then that student component is really considering now that we've elevated those two things, how do we elevate the engagement and relevance for

153each child so that they can continue to do the heavy lifting in the room. We don't want a sage on the stage of a teacher delivers and imparts knowledge. Students have to experience, embrace, and create meaning out of what's happening in their classroom. So that's what this represents as far as our theory of action as we move forward into the strategies and goals of our strategic plan of this year is that we have to do all three parts of the triangle at the same time and pay attention to the task that students are experiencing to demonstrate their learning. So as Dr. Schmidz eloquently described, we as an academic cabinet and principal leadership and other stakeholders in um our community have been engaged in a cycle of inquiry around our strategic plan, our district improvement plan.

154We look at results and then we make adjustments to our strategies. That's essentially a cycle of inquiry, right? So we look at how those three parts of the triangle intersect and then we analyze what is it telling us so that we make an adjustment here or make an adjustment there. And so what you'll see is a continuation of many of the strategies that we've started with those fine adjustments in content instruction and student engagement. Okay. So the other piece that you'll hear in the subsequent parts of the presentation that this focus on in 2526 is really about the universal level and that's that core experience that every student if we're doing our work right has access to on a day-to-day basis. So as you see these next series of slides, think about that as being

155what every student would would receive in their experience. And so I'd like to invite um Dr. Insunels and talk about our literacy strategy. >> Thank you, Dr. Guile. Um it is my honor to talk about our one of our priorities this year, which is literacy, which you've heard several times, and we believe repetition is great um in education. And so you will hear things over and over, but that means we're focused, we're centered, and we're all speaking the same language, which is a good thing. And so, um, con I'm going to start with content, which is on the left side of the screen. And so, what Dr. Guile talked about that we want to guarantee a high quality instructional environment every day. And so, for that to take place, we need to ensure that we

156have high quality instructional materials, which you have been a part of and and voted on. and gave us an opportunity to really think about not only how are we embracing evidence-based research, but then how are we implementing it? Because we can adopt things all we want, but we also need to make sure we have a good plan of how we implement them. And so we believe that if all teachers have access to highquality instructional materials, then every student has access to the grade level content that they are being afforded in their classroom. Every teacher in one way or another is a literacy teacher. I am a former high school science teacher and initially I thought I get to just teach science. Wrong. Um I get to teach highquality science through quality reading strategies. And so

157we will work with all of our staff as we have started that journey around discipline literacy which is the ability to understand and analyze and produce communication within a specific academic area. So, we're talking well beyond English language arts when we talk about highquality instructional materials. And please remember that when we talk about materials, we're talking about the physical books, novels, but also the digital which now is a part of our world and we also need to ensure that we implement effectively and provide supports with that as well. So moving on to the instructional component um of making sure that we're using the high quality instructional materials, we also have to understand at depth what our Colorado academic standards are asking of us. And as you know, various subjects have been updated over the past,

158I'd say five to six years. And we are now ready to really emphasize and starting with the middle school level due to high schools and elementary already having some adoptions in place and working through some of their um content expectations. Um we will be working with our middle level leaders and teachers this year around leading a coherent instruction and grading and that starts with the standard conversation. Um and so while educators are working through those two components, it is also really important that our students have evidence-based practices and supports within their classroom. And so we also want to ensure that the scaffolds, and if you think about it, it works just as well in engineering as it does in education. Scaffolds are not permanent. They are to help build you up to be able to

159access the content that you need to access, but they should also start being removed so that you learn your own skill set and that you uh move through your own educational learning as you need to. And so we will continue to work with our staff on the approaches on prevention as well as ensuring that any gaps that we look in the data helps drive some of those decisions versus just how maybe we just feel about it or maybe what we might think in that moment. It is really important that our teacher teams get together with our leaders and discuss the evidence that students are providing so that they can provide the appropriate supports and interventions as they move forward. And so, um, we do have some adoptions, um, coming to you. So, I'm going to

160give you a little bit of a prequel. Um, we have a very important K5 math um, adoption getting ready to start. We are also looking at world language level one, so first year in French, Spanish, and German. We are looking at an ELD K12 newcomer program which also means students who are served um in their first two years in the United States. And then ELD secondary and instead of giving you acronyms, I'm going to spell it out. So non-English proficient and limited English proficient according to our state state classifications. We'll be looking at a secondary program for them. And then for middle level we are beginning the process of a social emotional learning program. So that is a huge endeavor. We are also continuing the implementation plans that we have already started and so these

161are new adoptions coming um around it that we have budgeted for so far and we will provide more information in the future. I just wanted to make sure you were aware that we're still moving forward and making sure that we are hitting those marks around our high quality instructional curriculum adoptions and implementation cycles. So, next I'm going to introduce uh Julie, Dr. Julie Chaplan, and she will go over our next strategy. Okay. All right. Are you with us? Are we hanging in? All right. Well, it's my favorite topic, graduating with options, getting our students and and the great work that we do prek through 12 um and preparing them for what's after um Pter School District, which is um really exciting. And so, um again, this really is replicated in the same three areas. So

162when we are looking at content for students graduating with options, um we really are looking at those courses, those programs, um the scheduling opportunities, the ways that student access those opportunities um and really ensuring that all students have access to grade level curriculum and above. We have many advanced courses. we continue to expand th expand those programs um and whether that's through concurrent enrollment um AP IB um many other of the advanced levels um in all of our subject areas and then in the workbased learning side of it we absolutely are continuing in that concurrent enrollment piece but in work-based learning experiences such as internships and apprenticeships um we have several career technical education pathways that have course alignments that really have we have articulated four-year plans for students from their freshman year to their

163senior year that helps them plan with their families um all of their courses that they may take that align within one of those areas. And it's really important to highlight that all of these pathway areas are very much prioritized in terms of the current community workforce needs. So we have a career technical education advisory committee and then we have subadvisory committees on all of the different pathways. But all of those are in a collaboration and a and a really a a consultant process with our neighboring districts in northern Colorado and many of our industry partners that help us determine what should we be prioritizing on and what are the needs of our local workforce community and the gaps that they're seeing that we can help prepare our students for future jobs to fill. And so

164the instruction piece of that really dovetales with the programming. We have these great opportunities and how do we how do we make sure we have educators that are qualified to provide all those opportunities whether it be from work-based industry areas that we're bringing on board to get teacher certifications or again in those advanced curricular um curricular areas as well. And the big piece of that is how we also work with our educators, counselors, teachers, support staff to be knowledgeable about what the components um are and the requirements are of individualized career and academic plans. These are required by the state. They have been revamped. And in Pter school school district, we go above and beyond again and we not only um provide IAP planning and opportunities for students at the required levels, but we actually

165start these lesson plans in a structured um progressive way from fifth grade all through their 12th grade. There are articulated lessons. There are spec we have specific um we have specific indicators of when they must be taught throughout the year. Um and then who's responsible for that whether it is a universal approach or whether some of the milestones require some additional targeted small groupoup supports or even individualized supports. And so our educators and and that are multiple providers all need to have continual training and and acknowledgement on how they help support that and how they help if they're a math content provider, how do they help students connect that content to their future plans and to their IAPS. And then of course the most important part of this is the student. And so how do

166we then help ensure that students are the center of that individual career and academic plan um process along with their families? And so that is something that we have continued to focus on um throughout all the years since the IAAP. Um and that's one of the questions that comes on our connection survey. Um it's always asking students, do they understand what this is? Um and we we get mixed results. So we are constantly double we are constantly doubling down trying to think of different ways to embed this to be very meaningful and practical and applicable for students. And so really embedding everything from um what they're doing just to understand their skills and how that might pair with careers but then being really thoughtful about their course planning process specifically when they start nth grade

167and how that aligns and dovetales into their future future careers. As we think about content and some of the access and and the work that we're doing to expand pathways, um we have several areas and I'm sure there'll be questions I'm happy to answer at the end, but I just want to do a highlevel overview of some of our really big workforce area needs um and some of the pathway expansions. The first is in the healthc care pathway um that is a huge need in our area and um we have a several schools that are adding additional front range courses for medical terminology. We have a whole new health care certification option for students in patient tech healthcare. We have medical assistant pathways um at the career tech center here housed at pter school or

168pter pter school district pter high school up the road. And then we have new internships that are available for students to participate in at UC Health in radiology and lab techs. Those are both really um needed and and widely um sought after um employment opportunities for students. And then internships at Coline and um for medical assistants and students. So a lot of these students will take time as the medical assistants as they're working through some of them associates degrees and then in college as they're maybe preparing for other medical careers. The second is the manufacturing pathway. Um we're excited we're going to be able to showcase the new the new digs up here at Pter High School um of our manufacturing advanced manufacturing facilities. Um and uh we'll be promoting all of that in an

169open house. But we've also been um partnering with Ames Community College. We started that partnership last year and continuing to expand courses and credits um for that for the PEK program and the career tech center program. And then the CTE advisory committee is is is looking to um implement extend ex extended industry certifications in this manufacturing um area. We have a construction pathway, another big need um as we see the housing uh building uh continues here in northern Colorado as around the state. Um but we have schools adding in more of the geometry and construction programs. Um Pter High School just built two houses. they partner with our um you know local Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Community um program. And then uh we also have adopted a new curriculum that is um from the

170Homebuilders Institute that really aligns with industry certifications in in construction. And finally, I'd be remiss if I did not highlight um our alternative cooperative education program expansions. And that program, those opportunities are for our students with disabilities. Some of them are in high school. Um most of these are outside of um the high school setting. So they're in their transition programs from 18 to 21 years old and they're expanding. Um we have new project search opportunities for students to work within Pter Valley Hospital. Um and then within our high school programs, we've expanded to a couple other locations that did not have these ACE programs. And so those are some really great um opportunities for expansion that really dovetail with the needs of workforce in our community. So look forward to any questions you have

171at the end. And I'm going to now bring up our senior director of senior executive director of student services, Miss Liz Davis, um as she carries us home into the mental health and belonging. >> Thanks, Julie. Thank you. So how are we all doing? We regulated? Are we connected? Are we engaged? You good? >> Anyone need a break? We You're good. Okay. No breaks. Let's go. Okay. So, you're going to hear some language in this space that's very similar to language that you already heard um around alignment and you'll hear some of the repetition of the tears um and the focus on the universal instruction. So the content in mental health and belonging our focus is really focusing on the evidence-based social emotional learning aligned to castle standards and those are provided at every level

172with an emphasis starting you heard at the middle school level and I'm going to share a little bit about why middle school in just a minute but castle is a collaborative for academic social and emotional learning and they've been leaders in this seal space for years and um they're a leading organization that promotes in schools and communities but really they look to integrate right that social emotional social emotional skills alongside academic instruction right recognizing that these competencies work together to support student success and well-being and the way we in the schools conceptualize castle and adopt that a bit is we call it the castle five though. So I thought I'd share a does anyone know the castle five? Okay, we're going to learn new instruction tonight. So bear with me. So we So when you

173think of the castle five, we think about self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. And the beauty about castle is that they really span all developmental levels. When you think about the castle five, you can think about that for high school. You can also think about that say at the preschool level a bit, right? And into elementary. So it spans every level. Um so our focus and I'll you know our focus on middle school there's a reason for that and we think about our data. So in student services, our seventh grade, so for behavioral referrals, seventh grade is the highest for us. And when you think about suicide risk screeners that do in our district and in fact we've done about last year we did over 1,300 as a district. 70% of

174those screeners occur in grades five through nine. We want to focus on middle school and we're so grateful that we're in a space to do that at PSD. Um so sixth and seventh grade as well pop as our highest suicide risk screeners and we can get you the numbers on that. So when we move along and think about instruction staff, our PSD staff will use those PBIS systems. I'm going to tell you what that is in a minute. Right, Brian? That's right. No more acronyms. We'll spell them out. Um, staff will use PBIS systems and practices that are traumainformed, restorative, and culturally affirming which create connection and belonging, communicating to students that they are an asset not only in the classroom, in the school, in their schools, and in our community. So, PBIS is called

175positive behavior interventions and supports. If you didn't know that, many of our staff and teachers do know this and utilize that language, but it's a prevention-based framework for organizing evidence-based behavioral supports into an integrated continuum that enhances academic and the social emotional outcomes for students. PBIS is a framework used in schools to create positive school climates and improve student behavior through proactive evidence-based strategies. Some of us have been following the folks. I remember going to trainings um a long time ago. Um Rob her and George Sugai, we kind of geek out about PBIS a little bit. However, we love this work. We're excited to engage in our universal systems. Um, so the also the framework typically involves multiple tiers of support from schoolwide positive behavior programs to more intensive interventions for individual students who need

176extra assistance. So we're excited about this work. So when you think about our student experience and what they will experience, they will be re experiencing those evidence-based supports. Think again about the castle five and those systems climate and culture in their buildings. Um so making sure those supports are provided to students to regulate their emotions, develop positive relationships and experience a sense of belonging throughout their day. prevention-based frameworks are critical in not only creating a sense of connectedness and belonging, but also, as we know, disrupting those incidents of bullying and harassment that were that we're trying to do, too. So, we're excited about the work ahead. Am I changing the slides? Oh, okay. Thanks. Okay. Okay. So you've heard us talk about the tiers, but before I talk about some of these tiers, I want

177to remind us about MTSS. It was named in the UIP and intentionally um so multi-tered system of supports is our umbrella framework. We talk a lot about that in the UIP. It's our comprehensive approach that integrates multiple components to support all students including academics, behavior, social, emotional learning, and attendance all organized in the same three tiered structure. There's no other structure. We're using this structure. We're excited for that. So, you'll see kind of a triangle on, you know, this on his side a little bit. And we call these and just a reminder for us, tier one is our universal expectations and supports for all students. It's that universal instruction and we'll provide that to a 100% of our students. We know 80 to 85% of our students will have success in that space and that's

178wonderful. And we will layer on additional support as needed in the targeted and tier 2 area. And 10 to 15% of our students will access supports in that area. We know well more students that need more individualized instruction. 1 to 5% of our students will access support in tier three. We know this and our systems are built to support all of our students in this space. Yes, I'm Yes. So, how they all work together, we can think about our academic interventions, PBIS, SEAL programming, addressing social emotional needs. We all use the same three- tiered structure, use datadriven systems as well as lean into prevention and early intervention and this framework helps support that for us. So the big picture when we think of MTSS we think of it we think of it as this complete

179support system for students. So when schools implement MTSS, well, they're addressing again the whole child, academic, and I'm saying this again for a reason, academic, behavioral, and social emotional needs using that coordinated tiered support system rather than rather than addressing it separately. So going to talk about some of our deliverables next. So for 2526, our MTSS deliverables um include building again you're hearing similar language universal tier one instruction for both academic and SEB social emotional behavioral including attendance and social emotional learning. um supporting database problem solving and decision- making and focusing on our coaching systems with our school-based teams uh to identify systems, practices and data for prevention and response. So when we support schools in creating a solid foundation for instruction that reaches every student in academics, behavior, attendance, and social emotional learning. And

180as we build our coaching s for teams to use data and solve problems and guide school teams in building systems and practices, um we do prevent we will prevent issues um and respond and to to support the success for all of our students. So, we're excited about this work ahead and Tracy, you want to close us out here? >> Yeah. So, um just I've got the quick wrap and summary. I so much appreciate the enthusiasm of our team and the really intentional focus and alignment that we strive to do in our 2526 strategic plan as well as our district improvement plan. And it that's what it will take for us to disrupt disproportionality and serve the students and families who need us most as well as all students in our system is to center our

181work on that and to maintain a focus on those priority areas and that small set of objectives that we strive to implement with coherence across the system. So with that, that um concludes our presentation and open it to questions or comments from the board. >> Thank you so much. That was incredible. Um I just appreciate the in-depth um that you went into the um the cohesiveness that was just um I I do have to and I'm just a point of privilege here. I'm just going to say um you know this is my last time I get to hear the UIP and never before in the eight years that I've been on the board have I heard it be so cohesive, so intertwined and so um watching everybody work together and knowing that this is is

182about the whole child and I like it feels like it it feels like we've arrived at that and it it's such a wonderful feeling. I just have to tell you, I know we haven't arrived at the results of that, but we have arrived at the the way we're going to go about it and it's just it's phenomenal. Um, so I I just want to say thank you to you all for that. Um, thank you to the teachers and the teams that have been implementing this on the go. Um, when you look at the numbers, uh, Dwayne, it phenomenal numbers that we've got. Um, again, we are not there yet. I am not saying that we have closed the gaps, >> but we've identified the gaps and we've starting to close them now. And that what

183a what an exciting feeling to be able to say not only do we know what's going on, but we're actually making progress in changing it. So just fantastic. Uh with that, Connor, would you like to jump in? >> Just a couple of quick questions sticking with mental health and belonging. Liz, um we've heard multiple times um pertaining to a grant that has been cancelled for us um losing I believe seven um social workers within our bu with within our buildings. I'm not sure if that number is at >> up to 29 over the full program life. >> Um >> what plans do we have to mitigate some of that disadvantage that we're facing? Yeah, it's um Gosh, thanks for asking about the mental health grant. Where are the tissues? No, I just um I'm upset

184our stu, you know, we're it's a hard it was really devastating to learn that the feds had cut these grants. Um, we were part of a cohort that had maybe a hundred of us across the nation and it was like a third co we we were maybe second cohort. The department of ed got another layer their own funding in the third cohort and it's a significant um hit to Colorado and in Lur County and here in our community. So, we are part of a federal reduction recision. They eliminated the grants. Um, we do have this fall and um we are hopeful leaning into um we're hopeful to collaborate with our local community quite frankly with the reductions federally and with our state. We are really hoping to partner and maybe see some supports. Who knows?

185But what I will say is that we were able to unlike other grantees, for instance, CDE was awarded the grant in the spring. They have to get rid of some of the funds by December 31st. We have had the benefit of three and a half, I think three and a half years. We have um we this fall we will have you know close to funding about 30 people in the mental health space. It's addition I think we're at 22 schools. That's significant. We have 10 interns from the university. We are still moving forward. We will have our interns all school year. We have them paid as classified staff um this fall through the grant. We are hopeful that maybe with some community partnerships, I don't know, some local supports that maybe we could continue to

186pay them. Um but they're doing that they can continue their internship here at PSD. We'll have 10 students uh for the full year. And there's no other internship to fellowship program in Colorado period. We extended the internship experience and frankly we built it off of the psychiatric residency um from ants shoots. So I kind of when we were writing the grant we kind of looked at that as a model. Gosh, I wonder if we could support more mental health supports, more students here at PSD if we could extend that internship. No one else has done that here in Colorado and that's a value ad and a benefit here at PSD. So, we're very upset and um grateful that we have had this opportunity. So, thank you for asking and I'm a little passionate about it

187if you can't tell. Other questions? >> Go ahead, Andrew. >> Okay, this is where you're going to get the data nerd part of me and also where you tell me whether it's in my lane or not. Um so there's a couple things when looking at the data uh that come came to mind and um wanted some of it is just to get a sense of how comfortable you are with some of what could probably only be described as the gaps in the data or the challenges in the data and depends on which data we're looking at as to whether there's gaps and so forth. So uh I'll phrase a couple of different things and then I'll have one other item right at the end there. um not expecting answers right now because it's they're very

188broad sorts of things. So when we go through and look at each of the data, there's there's some things that I certainly have questions about. So looking and each one sort of has different things. Um most data has an unknown, didn't respond to the survey, weren't able to assess, couldn't participate, some of those things like that. And so one of my overall questions is do we have a good sense of the estimates of of the groups that participate in one way shape or form where appropriate? Uh and then for the nonparticipants or the difficult areas uh do we have some sense of the striation of the groupings? Uh so for instance I I look at the the dibbles data we have this is everything that's there. How many didn't participate in that? For example, um

189the graduating with with options. Okay, so we have um actually let me go on to the next one. Where's the graduation data? The graduation rates. How do we have the non-graduates for instance striated into different groups? Uh it' be very easy to think like ESL uh would be one of the groups that might have most challenges or maybe it's perhaps based on culture or any number of other factors. And so just trying to get a a sense for for those sorts of things you're seeing, you know, data by data grouping and then how that informs the third part of it which is how are we because we've done great work with the data we're seeing that are that's going after probably more like the tier one type students is a lot of where our success

190I'm hearing is is achieving and now we're getting into the difficult groups and so just wanted to get a feel for not expecting a detailed plan just wanting to get feel get a feel for are you starting to get uh more of a sense of that type of thing. We've heard from the community about sometimes people can't access surveys because of visual issues or ESL and some of those pieces like that. Um did have a question about when the 2025 data is going to be added to some of them because I saw some of them were through 23 and 24. And then for the national harm one, I I'm very to see if or is there a national benchmark for the harm one? Recognizing one student trying to harm themselves is enough already, but how

191do we compare nationally? And then I think the only other thing that I didn't see was um when we're thinking about actually starting the dyslexia screening, recognizing we don't have all the tools in place with all the training to address it within the system, but at least start getting that screening broad scale. And that may be another a rookie thing because I think you're well into it somewhat. I just want I'd love to see us get to that 100%. >> So maybe loads of loads of details there. >> So we won't go into the weeds like you've asked us not to, but I'd like to take a shot at just answering a few of the thoughts that I just heard expressed that are on the data side of things. And then I want to turn

192over to Tracy maybe to talk real quickly to give an update about where we're at with this for dyslexia because that's an important topic. So let me start with the data one. I heard a couple themes in there. First one I want to make sure we're all aware of. PSD does in fact demonst you know we have all of our data visualization tools online that absolutely allow drill down by all the different kind of classical groups you would look at including things that you typically don't see out there like students that are um uh candidates and get uh services with McKenna Vento like homeless students we we show groupings of students that lots of districts actually don't. So one one point I want to make is we are very very transparent drill down by school

193by subgroup by grade level by assessment by all these things and we have that for the connections data we have it for achievement and growth we have it for graduation we have it for attendance we have it for dropout data I mean we just went to town this was a about a fiveyear process I wanted the IT department and lots of other players who have made that happen okay so there's that part I also heard in your question wondering about things like we do our connection survey for example and we have other surveys we use like healthy kids and all these surveys like those two biggies there's other ones we do family engagement and others but let's focus on those two um your concern which is a really valid concern that we're well aware of

194too is how do we ensure we're getting the voices from as many people as possible even those people for whom maybe the standard protocol doesn't work well right so for as an example in the connection survey we have family liaison distributed throughout our system who really are super helpful and the schools uh have a pretty good idea because they're working with the kids and the families which students which families may need some additional assistance to be able to access that type of an instrument like a survey right and so um Davidre who's sitting right here is one of our directors he he kind of oversees that group but they're tremendously helping that so we do what we can at space the state of Colorado really runs the um, Healthy Kids Colorado survey and they likewise

195have some procedures in place to try to help people access their survey. Okay. Um, I also want to mention that when you asked a really good question about drilling in like you and I are going to be good friends, I can tell for the for the time that I'm going to be left here because you you're asking good questions like many board members do. You see data and like you see one good display and it it raises five more questions, right? We have all the data you're asking about when when you when you bring up do we have data on the students who didn't graduate. Can we slice and dice that data and can we learn from it? Absolutely. The answer is yes. Do we know which students didn't complete both let's say the pre

196and the post on the dibbles 8? We absolutely know exactly which students. So are there um disproportionalities in different uh subgroup categories on who's accessing and who's not? I hear your question is asking can we track that? Can we explore that? Can we work with that? The answer is yes. So without getting in the weeds, the answer is yes. Um we we have strategies to get as much student community voice as we can whenever we do these things, assessments, surveys and so on. We absolutely have the motherload of data on the back end so that can and in fact one of the reasons we deliver surveys the way we do is because we can tie together data often with our vast data sets behind the scenes for these good reasons so we're aware of what

197voices aren't we capturing right and a classic technique real quick that some institutions will use is uh focus groups like you follow up and you create purposeful focus groups centered on those voices that you think from a part of the community you may not have gotten right. That's just a different avenue. So, I'll probably stop there on the data questions. I can tell we're going to be good friends and we're going to have a few coffee chats with your blessing, which I'll look forward to. And I'm going to turn over to Tracy Guile, Dr. Guile, if you want to let them know where we're at with the universal screening. >> Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, um just to follow up with, um one of the data sets. So our dibbles data um is probably the data

198that has the highest participation because we um are compelled to by the state. So the state pays for the dibbles assessment for us. In turn we give you know the results to them. And so there are very few exceptions for students who would not be expected to take the dibbles assessment that have to be in alignment with the state um guidelines. So we can't excuse a student from taking that test that it is part of a a requirement and obligation that we have so that the state can also monitor their high priority which is foundational literacy and science of reading. So they have a high um investment for us in in capturing that data. And so that's sort of the one data set that has the greatest participation whereas you'll see um participation rates for

199some of other assessments like CMASS would not be quite as high. Um as far as the dyslexia screener, so yes, the um uh house um the legislature and house passed the screening bill which is fantastic and we were already on that path of exploring what our screening assessment would be. And so um we intend to pilot one of the subtests that is available to us from amplify. So, we have to coordinate with Amplify who um produces the dibbles assessment for us to um access the subtest that we're going to pilot in four of our schools this year as a possible screener. The state right now is lagging in terms of identifying what they would recommend for screeners, but we're going to take a step forward in this space this year to pilot at four of

200our schools a dyslexia screener. >> Thank you. And again, just trying to get a sense for your understanding of of the various points of the data and things like that. And I appreciate your insight because it sounds like there's a lot of things going on and we're on the good path is is what I'm hearing. So, I like that. >> Thank you. Yeah. Go ahead, Kevin. >> Um, if we could go to slide eight. >> I don't know which one. >> Keep going. I'll tell you. >> That one. Yeah, and I like the theme of disrupting disproportionality, so I'm gonna stick with that for a moment. Um, uh, when Dwayne presented this several board meetings ago, um, please don't take my comments as cherry-picking negatives. Uh, that's not my intention at all. Um, but like

201Dwayne and like everyone in this room, I'm interested in a big question which I don't want to answer right now, but one thing that I think should guide us to is it's the first one I wrote down. what are the major areas of growth we face as a district in each of these three ends that we can be and should be addressing in 2025 2026 I know that's work that's embedded in what you're doing so I think that may be an ongoing conversation but I'm very interested in your thoughts but given the hour I've got a specific question that I want to draw attention to >> um so the first it's more of an observation than a question but first part of slide eight the outcome data on dibbles 8 K through three it's something

202I think we've all known and live. But it's it's nice to have numbers that illustrate this. One, I do credit the upward trajectory of those three classifications to dispel the notion that there's no such thing as an achievement gap in 2025 2026 that's socioeconomic based. I think we've got numbers that disprove that. So there's more work to be done and I'm mindful of that as we're again thinking big picture policy governance about some of the other things that we that we'll need to be discussing. And I'm I'm I'm thinking specifically about uh free meals for all and some of the legislative efforts and what we need to spend some of our money on. Just a comment. Uh the second part of that, the graduation rates. This is a hyperspecific question, but um I'm encouraged to

203see um again more of an upward trajectory among our Hispanic students graduation rates. My question though is do we anticipate any drops in that in that um graduation rate for our Hispanic students in 2025 2026 with what we're seeing with immigration um nationally? Do we have data where we can start pulling attendance rates now uh and start um analyzing that? And if so, what can we do proactively as a governance team, as a board, as a district to help support um that population of our students? >> Really appreciate you. Let me let me >> Yeah. No, I like the eagerness that we all this is this a really important conversation. Um and I I want to be in my thoughts to not stoke fear, but I think it's important that we're honest. Our at risk,

204marginalized communities have always been at risk. They have always been marginalized historically in our country. And that is amplified right now. And I think we would be kidding ourselves if we were sticking our head in the sand and say that they are not being psychologically, cognitively, all sorts of different financially impacted everything that is happening in our society today. And as we are brave and courageous and proud of the results that we've had, all of the legislative changes that are happening, and I'm not trying to be political here. >> Yeah. Yeah. I I I know that, but I I just I want to be measured. I'm just say it out loud. Um it rubs up and creates a lot of inertia with what we're saying matters most, which is disrupting disproportionality. You could look at

205any community in this country today and disproportionality exists where you can predict outcomes based upon people's race, their sexual orientation, their gender identity, their abilities, and we are trying to be really courageous in a community that has a white dominant culture. And so we are measured and worried um and we are positioned in some ways to be responsive. I'm really really proud that uh we measured in January whether we were going to lose a lot of students last January of 2025. And I really believe because of the work of David and Liz and our family liaison and the trust the trusted adults that are in our schools, our teachers, our principles, families kept sending our children, their children to our schools. Now whether that's going to change at the start of the school year will

206remain to be seen, but we will be heavily monitoring that for sure. and we have systems and structures and human resources right now that are dedicated to go out to families to make sure that we're building trust with them and trying to figure out ways to get them back and re-engaged with our school. Um, and that's really really important. You know, our school system today on average receives approximately $30 million a year in federal funding. the grants that we talked about earlier uh that supported the 29 social work positions, they're supplemental on top of that, right? So, we lost $6.1 million remaining dollars in that $9.2 million grant. There's no way that we can remove $6.1 million and we don't think that that's going to have an impact. One of our community commenters who talked

207about the the impact of that fellow, she was speaking truth. It is going to have an impact. We are all going to have to do more. It's not just teachers. It's our mental health team. It's our principles, our parents. We're all going to have to try to figure out how to do more with less. And that's going to be really difficult in our community where we've come to deserve and expect a certain level of service. And as leaders, myself in partnership with the leadership at CSU, the city of Fort Collins, the county, uh, UC Health, we're all going out and having shared presentations to have some level of shared awareness with our community about these changes while also leading us to some form of acceptance that there's no cavalry coming. We don't see a support

208structure that's going to help replenish some of these things, and we need to be honest about that. We want like we Liz Davis is a human money machine. If there's anybody that can find a grant, it's her and her team, but grants are not long-term dollars, right? So, we're in that space where we're wrestling with these different things. And and and make no mistake about it, the $30 million that we do have, they are traditionally dedicated to supporting our most marginalized communities. Those four areas of investment are special education, IDEID dollars. you as a board have already lobbyed and know that that's significantly underfunded. Now, I believe that's probably the most stable of all of our federal dollars. That's it represents about six to seven million. Head Start programming. We support 400 plus children ages

2090 to four years old in about 76 classrooms in this district. Um there was signals from the federal government that Head Start would go away and then there were changes. Well, we'll bring it back, but we're going to change the registration processes to make sure people identify potentially themselves in terms of their immigration status. That has yet to be play out, but we're we're monitoring that closely. Child Nutrition Services. Director Havlli, you appropriately brought up meals, the Healthy Meals for All Act in Colorado that was passed two years ago, significantly underfunded, and we anticipate there may be one or even two ballot measures uh on this coming ballot in November to fully fund that particular program. But what many Coloradoans and many people in our local community don't know is that we get $7 million

210in federal funding to support child nutrition services. in everyone's dollars goes to paying for food. So, if that money is at risk, where do we take that money to make sure all of our kids get the meals that we're saying that they deserve and should get? And then the last piece is our entitlement grants, um, which are traditionally supporting students, uh, migrant students, students with, um, multilingual learners. It's supporting five of our elementary schools where they're located with where our highest concentrations of poverty are in our community and they withheld dollars in the amount of almost 1.8 and then they released them. So this the changing landscape is shifting by the moment and it's incredibly destabilizing not just from a financial standpoint from but from just a human psychological standpoint. the level of uncertainty not

211just for the families that we serve but even our employees on whether jobs will be there is creating people having to look to see if there's potentially something else available and we heard again about those social worker positions so the reality is significant in a community that in difficult economic times previously and I've only lived in I love living here it's just such a wonderful place but the story goes that our community once was recession proof and I think we're learning learning based upon the major employers. I mean, we're the third largest employer in our community. Those times are shifting right now. We're going to have to use this as an opportunity to have an entrepreneurial mindset and think differently about our businesses and not do it in isolation of our city, of our county,

212of UC Health, um, CSU. We need to figure out ways to come together to leverage shared resources and do things differently. um because I do believe there are no signals that we are going to experience a rebound in this space anytime soon and that is only further exacerbated by the loss of declining enrollment in our community in our school district. We are anticipating losing about 500 students this year compared to a year ago. That represents the fifth largest elementary school in this district. I sat on this day a year ago and said we are anticipating losing 500 students from 23 24 and we did. We're losing an entire school worth of children a year which is only further accelerating these various challenges. I am really proud that we have extraordinary leadership. We have a lot

213of resource in this system. 4A was transformative on the capital side of the house. We have family liaison like systems no I've never seen the the army of family liaison. And I say that, you know, just a that might not be the right term, but they they're mobilized and they're trusted amongst our families. Um the mental health team that we have here, there are other districts that surround us in the front range that would just do anything to be able to have those types of resources. So, we are very blessed in a lot of different ways. So, I'm not trying to plead as the superintendent that our cupboards are bare, but we are experiencing pain points that are very real. that are very new and they're all happening at one time and they're all happening

214to all of the different organizations in our community because we have a lot of government agencies here, education and healthcare. And that's something that we're all spending a lot of time as executive leaders trying to learn from each other, be measured. Um it but we need to be real and honest about how we educate our populace about these changes because it's the way that we're all receiving content right now is just really difficult for people to make sense of what's what. So I just I really appreciate the question. I'm sorry for the long-winded answer, but I think it's important for us to educate people on the changing landscape and the cost of that. >> Thank you for that. And if I could just um say to I think what you have stated um only amplifies

215the need for what uh you are doing here. It only amplifies when I look at the slide that says our big ambitious vision and that's what this is. This is a big ambitious vision that we have and it's for all kids to succeed. And it's not just to succeed academically, but to succeed as a whole child. And what you articulated are the things that families and children are going through on a daily basis that can affect attendance. It can affect um academic, it can uh abilities, it can affect uh concentration. All of those things do not happen separately. And so what makes me so proud of of the work that you all are doing is the fact that you realize that you you see that and to continue to disrupt this dis disproportionality even under

216the circumstances that we are under now. Um this is what we'll have to do. We will have to make sure that our big ambitious vision continues and that we are looking at the entire child making sure that if they're not there why are they not there? Is there something we can do to help them to get to the school? Once they're at the school, have they been fed? Let's make sure that they have something in their belly so before they go and start to learn. If they're struggling learning, what is it that's distracting them? Is it something that is organic? Is it something that is um that we can help change? Um if it's a stress related or a um you know, we don't know something's something from outside is is is in uh working

217its way in. There's so many ways in which a child can be um disregulated and what you're doing here is making sure that they are regulated to make to be able to learn and that is huge and I think it only like I said I think it's only amplified this work is only amplified by the fact that we are in such times that it is this is so needed and so again I I just want to say thank you for that. Go ahead, Kevin. >> Sorry. I appreciate all of that. I promise you I do and I don't want to move beyond and it's it's getting a little late so my brain is a little foggy, but does do we have an answer at least for the attendance inquiry for our Hispanic students? Are we

218going to are we monitoring that? Is there anything that we can do other than beyond what we're doing? >> Yes, I I think we have to start school, right? So to get our first baseline of where we are compared to a year ago, I was really uh encouraged by not seeing any dips in our attendance rates for that population. Now I will tell you I have concerns about our system absenteeism rate as a district. So we like we need people to be in school. So please don't like but that's really really important. Um we want people all students in school every single day. That's the core message here. Um but once school starts we can see if we're seeing any changes in that data and we absenteeism chronic absenteeism is a part of our strategic

219plan and so it's things that we would monitor anyway. >> Appreciate I didn't want to minimize the importance of the conversation you had and there was a reason I was asking that question too. So I appreciate you both addressing that and thank you for the work that you're doing. Let's focus on what we can control >> and we we do monitor. So right now we're in this period of monitoring um enrollment. So there's the projection and then there's, you know, current state of what we're seeing enrollment wise. And so that day-to-day enrollment, the first benchmark, as Superintendent Kingsley said, is that first week of school to be able to reconcile like who told us they were coming to school at the next grade level in the spring and who actually showed up. So that period

220of reconciling, those couple of things will take some time over the next two weeks and that will start to give us a clearer picture of who moved and that we know where their location is and then who do we not know. And so really centering on that group of students that we don't have a record of where they went, right? And so that's going to start that level of inquiry around what there might be a root cause that is a theme for why certain groups of students or individual students did not attend our schools when they had planned to. And so that's going to take us a little bit of time to get that data. >> If I can just add one thing for saying that, Dr. Gy, I really really appreciate that. I do

221think we are going to need to continue to be curious around what our early enrollment data tells us simply because of the extreme heat that we're dealing with and this is I mean we've had that protocol in place now for at least a year not have to use it because mother nature was cooperative a year ago. Um, but I would anticipate that this extreme heat is going to have some it's going to rub up against our daily attendance for lots of different reasons, whether it's child care needs, whether it's Yeah. So, we'll just need to continue to unpack that. But I the team provides weekly reports around school enrollment. Um, and so we're something that we it is very important to us. >> All right. Other questions? Okay. Well, then seeing none, may I get

222a motion? Go ahead, Kevin. >> I move the board approved the 2025 20226 unified improvement plan, UIP, as presented. >> Can I get a second? Thank you, Scott. All right. And Joe, can you please call the vote? >> Jim Brokish. >> Hi. >> Kristen Draper. >> Hi. >> Connor Duffy. >> Hi. >> Kevin Havda. >> Hi. >> Scott Shoenbower. >> Hi. Andrew Spain >> I >> Jessica Zamora >> I >> motion passes 70. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you all for the great presentation. >> Thank you team. >> All right. And believe it or not, uh this meeting is now adjourned at 8:59 p.m. Have a good night, y'all. >> Fired up. Ready to go.