001e e e all right we're going to go ahead and call this meeting to order um so thank you for joining us at the Board of Education this evening go ahead and please mute your cell phone or anything else that beeps or buzzes um today is Tuesday August 13th 2024 and this meeting is now called to order at 6:36 p.m. um and if you would all join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance all right thank you would any board members like to make changes to the agenda today yeah I Mo board amend the agenda to remove consent agenda item 8.3 assistant board secretary appointment resolution can I get a second Jim seconds all right and Jo we need to call the vote on that hi CHR Draper hi Connor Duffy hi Kevin Hava hi
002Scott shanower hi Jessica Zamora hi motion passes 60 thank you so much all right um and then you're going to uh move on wow that was quick um it's the new year the new us you know we're quick and lean I love it um so we're going to move on to recognitions and reports so um would you like to go ahead and thank you and happy New Year everybody it's great to be back with all of you getting in the swing of things as a governance team and I would love uh to take this brief moment uh regarding recognitions and reports and use it as an opportunity for celebration while we haven't yet started uh new school year formally our students been a lot of really incredible collaboration that's happening with our employee groups and
003I want to reflect around all of the things that we accomplished just year uh a year ago right so I think it's important to ground ourselves in that as we get ready to start again um as we all know we've continued celebrate through the lens our strategic plan that we've had three and maintain three District core priorities focused on our Core Business of improving learning and teaching and I'm so happy to say that whether it's literacy mental health and belonging or graduating with options we continue to see historic Improvement in each of those respective areas not only did our teachers and families work with new literacy curricula in last year across the system in our elementary schools but they figured out ways to defy the odds of implementation science which suggests that in your first
004year of implementation you have a dip um we actually achieved as a result of our incredible Educators and partnership with our district leaders and school-based leaders too a 21% 21.6% increase in the number of students who were on grade level in our testing by the end of the school year so we need about that like you're that's not just about literacy scores that's a movement towards economic Mobility for students as having an opportunity uh to be literate our graduation rates while we don't have our graduation rates from last school year but over the last two years preious we continued uh to see some of the highest graduation rates in over a decade and they're maintaining at a flat rate of 87% and we're going to work really hard together to strive to getting that over
00590% and closer to 100% in the year ahead I'm confident that we can do it we know that we're continuing to expand our career in technical education offerings and I really want to also say a shout out that this is not necessarily uh instructional update but a huge shout out to our operations staff who has been working tirelessly across the summer to make sure all of our Lawns are well manicured to make sure our systems we're going to be the largest restaurant business in larer County uh in a couple of days and getting everything ready to be fired up and deal with all of the repairs and Renovations necessary for our teachers our principes and our students to experience Joy uh on the first day of school um is nothing short of incredible and I
006just continue Amazed by our employees dedication to their own learning uh I know all of our staff have been participating in two days of professional development uh I know it's been hot and it's been difficult to kind of navigate that but our focus on ourselves and our own development has been critical to continue to take District to new so I just want to say that and honor the people who make this magic happen I also want to say thank you to all of our families for your trust who are about to send their children uh in through our doors in the next day or so so thank you everybody and thank you for allowing me to celebrate those recognitions all right and I Echo those um you know as we move into a new year
007um before we jump into the superintendent report I just want to say extend my gratitude my thank you to everyone who has been um working tirelessly over the summer um whether on contract or not um and we just want to make sure that U families and um kiddos when they come back on Thursday um are feeling welcomed and are feeling um that they are coming into their their schools um loved and um cherished and that they belong and they're ready to go and ready to learn I know that everyone who is here has been doing that this summer getting their kiddos ready to go getting their classrooms ready to go getting their schools ready to go um and I just want to thank you for that so yeah and then if you wanted to go
008into your superintendent report sure well I some of that I you know I won't repeat myself but uh you know we have great traditions in this district and one of the things at going on starting my fourth year as the proud superintendent one of the greatest events that I've had a pleasure of participating and speaking at since I've been here is our new educator orientation this year just a week or so ago we had the opportunity to celebrate 180 new teachers into our Core Business into our organization and you know I think this is an opportunity to build trust and Inspire the people that we work with so I want to turn it over to our Communications team uh who's able to kind of take a small shot of what happened that day that we
009can celebrate together [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I have to say that this by far has been the most interactive experience that I've into and I love how individualized everything is and I've never really had that besides at [Music] PSD so cool so cool 27 years ago this week I started my career as a teacher teacher and I thrown athetic keys and told where my classroom was and I stumbled trying to figure out where to go to know that this system honors employees by rolling out our red carpet and celebrating and individualizing those experiences is nothing short of incredible so I just want us to continue to build off of those experiences and set a tone of joy of togetherness uh and inspiration so uh I've had an opportunity to talk about recognitions through the
010reporting opportunity tonight I want to talk a little bit about signaling some changes that we're working on too uh first and for foremost if you happen to be here present with us tonight welcome we're really glad that all of you are here you may notice that one of our television screens uh behind the deas to the right here has live close captioning um we are going to have that at every one of our board meetings moving forward it's an opportunity for us to improve accessibility We are continuing to strive in those areas to figure out how to make our model of governance more accessible to the general public and what's really neat about this technology and I want to say a huge shout out to our technology and Communications team who have worked tirelessly trying
011to not only install this but to make sure that it works properly is that you can see that there's a QR code in the bottom right hand corner of that screen so anybody who is here in person that may want to actually have uh what you hear transpiring tonight translated in real time in a different language you can just take your phone capture that QR code and that technology allows you to pick the language of your choice uh and still be here participating in live present time so I just I think that's a huge step forward and I just want to say thank you to all of the staff members who have worked across the around the summer to make sure that these opportunities are available to ensure more people can stay engaged uh in
012democracy right so I think that's really really exciting I know there's been a lot of Buzz as a result of an email that we sent out to all of our community members uh yesterday signaling a change um in cell phone usage in our elementary schools and our middle schools it's really kind of an out of sight out of mind uh position we know that families are going to want their children to possess cell phones in cases of emergencies but we're also learning from research that having access to social media networks at those particular ages uh according to our surgeon uh General is detrimental to their mental health uh and we've had robust conversations as a governance team I want to thank you members of the board for initiating that conversation that led into our principles
013and other schol school and District leaders having robust conversations since then around how can we be more aligned and consistent across all of our schools around how we think and talk about these particular policies um I think that's a huge step forward I did get some emails over the last 24 hours of like what does this mean for high schools and what why did we not ex you know include high schools I want us to know that there are policies in place in all of our respective high schools today regarding cell phone usage um but we have work and Runway that's needed in order to establish greater consistency across those spaces and we also want to engage uh our high school age students in that conversation uh we recognize that you know technology is an
014amplifier of good behaviors when we use them well uh but they can also be an amplifier and a distractor of poor behaviors if we don't have the right context in how we're using them so we're hopeful that this is a positive uh first step in that conversation uh the majority of the feedback of members of the board that I received over the last 24 hours has been overwhelmingly positive uh and shown with gratitude around really prioritizing the well-being of our kids and being courageous in that space I know not all members of our community especially some of our students might feel that way um but this is a stepping stone to have further conversation around what we want that to look like to ensure our learning environments are focused on connection um when we were
015all in school we were probably all talking too much um and now when we visit our classrooms we May realize I know I was I'm not going to speak for anybody else uh but now in scenarios with technology we're not necessarily communicating in the same way we're isolating in a lot of instances and so we want to get back to promoting civil discourse and promoting collaboration and communication in robust ways and when you think about our priorities around literacy and mental health and belonging I think this checks all of those respective boxes so just super appreciative of the collaboration and the support from the community in taking this initial first step and we'll continue to to explore uh what that looks like in the future as we learn more uh regarding this particular process uh
016the last thing that I want to talk about in terms of change and every time I use the term change in my position it signals an emotion um but this is a an emotion that has persisted uh across this community for decades especially as a result of climate change and we continue to Grapple with increased heat and temperatures like we're right now in the dog days of summer and I'm spending the majority of my time dreaming about cool breezes and even cooler temperatures uh but we don't know if that's what's really on the horizon as we bring our students and our staff members back into our schools and I think it's really important that as we continue to educate our community on the realities of our infrastructure challenges we have 49 traditional public schools in
017PSD and they're all amazing incredible employees incredible students but 32 of those facilities do not have air conditioning and as we think about what that means for a learning environment and the health of a learning environment and the working conditions that are presented in that learning environment uh I'm encouraged that through collaboration with the larer uh Department of Health and environment as well as our Representatives who are here from pea and our other associations representing our administrative and classified staff that we have been working in Partnership trying to figure out what can we do differently to mitigate these scenarios because the Mantra of just kind of suck it up uh is not is not is not going to be efficient Andor sufficient um for what we need to do with the heat that's happening and
018persisting in our classrooms so I want to be really really clear about that I also want to recognize that this presents having any kind of courageous action in this space um presents another side of challenges for families who are not just dependent upon us producing in partnership with him strong out comes for their children they are also Reliant in many instances for us to provide child care as they all go off to work and continue to serve their families and support their families and so trying to figure out a balance I wanted to introduce that we're going to have a new protocol this year formal Communications will go out in uh through various translated languages tomorrow uh and I also filmed a video message today that will go out later next week there will be
019repeated messaging needed in this space But as we looked and worked together and I want to say thank you to members of the Board of Education who were really helpful um in pushing my thinking and in pushing our you know way of work because we're not trying to prioritize one stakeholder over another but we recognize that the experiences that many of our students and staff are feeling in some of our classrooms across the district in high levels of heat I'll be honest are unsafe and school districts across the globe not just the America are no longer in the luxury of propping our doors open during the day like you the public is dependent upon us to keep things secure creating almost like a fortress-like environment with all of our doors and we do the very
020best that we can to cool our buildings in the evenings in the early mornings but some of the classrooms still persist in have heat scenarios where it's actually more comfortable to go outside during that those levels of heat and so in partnership with the lmer county of Health uh an environment in partnership with our various employee groups I want to signal to the community that there are going to be three Criterion and it's not all three it's one any of these three Criterion if they are met um throughout the course of the year it will signal a decision that needs to be made at the district around how best to keep children and staff safe um and I want to name what those three Criterion are one the Center for Disease Control has created a
021health heat index that the nation uses to determine when extreme heat is uh centering on a particular region it's a colorcoded index that in the event that that reaches its top two Criterion which is red Andor magenta those Criterion suggest that it's not only an extreme heat risk to your community but it's even more unsafe if you are persisting for long extended periods of time in areas that are not air conditioned so at any time that those areas are indicators and we'll Orient the community tomorrow through various messaging of how to see that tool it actually forecasts out I think a week in advance so we can try to be predictive in some way we know weather changes um but we also think that the most important thing and I want to say thank you
022to Jess is predictability right if if we can let families know early and often what to anticipate and what data sources we're using to make a decision people then can make plans and so Our intention tonight is to talk about that as early as possible and then repeat some of these conversations but that is one of those tools and the two Criterion that would signal either a two-hour early release day or in an extreme instance if it was at magenta would probably promote and prompt a heat day uh similar to like a snow day um that would be a decision-making point for our district to communicate out to the community that we need to do something it is my greatest intent to communicate as soon as possible and make it decision that's informed and do
023that as soon as possible and the goal that I've set in partnership with staff is at a minimum of 12 to 24 hours notice so people can do everything that they can to make changes we also recognize and again I didn't I never went to school to be a meteorologist I'm a fledgling meteorologist uh as as I've heard from one of our fellow board members um and I believe that statement to be very true by the way uh but we realized that even with that Criterion without having air conditioning in 32 of our 49 schools those Criterion they may not be appropriate for our climate and for our district and we thought it was really important in collaboration with our various employee groups that we think Beyond just those Criterion as a starting point the
024other two Criterion that we want to introduce to the community tonight is that at any time the National Weather Service signals a forecast for a temperature at 95 degrees Fahrenheit or higher in zip code 80521 that will signal a decision- making point to most likely move to an early release day okay 955 degrees Fahrenheit or higher we were intentional about using the ZIP code 80521 not only because it's where this office is but it's also the ZIP code that has the highest concentration of our most marginalized students in schools and we want to prioritize all students and all staff's well-being while recognizing disproportionately schools that don't have air conditioning are impacting some of our most marginalized communities and we need to think about that and prioritize them so that would be the second Criterion the
02595 degrees or higher for a single day forecast we also know that we have challenges with cooling buildings down and if we have persistent heat over the course of several days uh that can also present a real challenge to our ability to provide provide a healthy safe learning environment for students and staff so the third Criterion would be that when the National Weather Service and I want to emphasize the National Weather Service because that is the source so if you're watching one of our local media Outlets or if you're looking at one of your favorite apps the district decisionmaking points are going to be utilized based on the National Weather Services forecast for the zip code 80521 and the third Criterion is if there are three or more consecutive days in the 90s at 90
026Dees Fahrenheit or higher it will prompt a decision making point now I want to be clear as the superintendent that does not necessarily mean that there will be I'll just use hypothetical example that there's three consecutive days at 90 degrees that that would signal that we may do an early release in all three of those days we know that there may need to be relief on the back end of those days we also know that we're going to need to monitor what the low temperatures are in the evenings to see what our ability is to cool but I see this as an appropriate starting point that we will need to study the implications for students staff and families and we also and I want to acknowledge this we realize that and this will not be
027taken lightly that these decisions will have implications on child care we are working with our local child care provider alphab best to try to offer as many Child Care spaces for families and for employees to participate in I can say with certainty we have one child care site that I know that will stay open in these spaces that's currently at bacon elementary school but I also know that's a starting point and insufficient knowing the range of how wide and sparse our district boundaries are so we and I plan to engage the community our nonprofit sector to think outside of the box in this particular area uh but we are going to need to think about that as a starting point but any of our families who will be having their students participate in alphab best
028I do ask them and encourage them to reach out to them directly so we can figure out creative ways of expanding those particular Services I also want to share a caveat to this is that these decision making points will not impact all of our schools in the same way it's really hard but important that we model stewardship good stewardship great stewardship of our resources we have schools right now 17 schools that have air conditioning systems if I figure out a way to keep all 17 of those schools open in the event that we have extreme heat I would do that but what's getting in the way of that decision making point is our tiered busing system that we do a great job of being efficient with our busing system so it's not a transportation problem
029it's our ability or inability to actually Circle back to all those 17 schools and be able to make sure all of those students are transported home uh safely but we have figured out a creative solution for all of our Comprehensive High Schools our middle school high schools in Tim and Wellington as well as PGA and we will have our three Mountain schools uh holding to the same level of standard but also recognizing that the temperatures in the mountains are different than down here across the Front Range and we have a different standard for them during snoow and in Clement weather in the winter we're going to keep that same level of flexibility in our Mountain schools but this these early release days or potential heat days uh would directly impact uh our elementary schools in
030middle schools with the exception of the schools that I named earlier I know that there may present challenges and feelings that are associated with that uh but especially at the high schools where you know we have lots of after school activities I thought it was incredibly important to make sure that if we're sending people home in our high schools two hours early we weren't sending them back to do marching band cheerleading and football practice uh I just think that would not be the right message or the right tone uh but this is nuanced and we will have to study the implications also recognizing that many of our employees are parents too and we'll have to be creative with how we figure these things out so I'm encouraged by our partnership I want to thank the
031Pea leadership team who not only brought a problem but brought Solutions and brought data and research your due diligence uh in getting this kick started was incredibly compelling and I want to say thank you to our administrative and classified staff who was a pleasure to work in partnership with knowing that this doesn't uh just impact one employee group this impacts everybody I also want to be clear that when we make these particular decisions this office and our central office divisions will stay open for the entire day uh so that's important for us to be aware of as well uh our transportation systems in the event that there is an early release day will function as normal we will just adjust bell times by two hours all of our students across the system on an early
032release day will receive a nutritious breakfast as well as a nutritious lunch knowing our families in many instances are dependent upon uh supporting them in that particular way and I'm really proud that we're able to secure and deliver on those particular promises so there's more information coming out through the community tomorrow I know that was an extended uh update but I thought it was important to Signal this change as soon as possible knowing that amilies are going to want to know when this is a very different stance than previous years uh but it has not been an uncommon practice where we have dealt with this heat issue um but we haven't necessarily dealt with it in a consistent way um and I really wanted in partnership with all of the great people that we serve
033to start creating something in partnership with everybody to get us to that starting point I feel like we're there so that concludes my remarks tonight uh and I look forward to hearing commentary from all of you and from our community in the days that ahead so thank you thank you so much Brian you know if I can just add to that um one or two small things actually not small things at all um but one I just want to extend my gratitude to you all for working so hard and diligently on this um and for staff members too who are working so hard and diligently with this I also want to let people know that this is not this isn't it this isn't the fix um what this is in conjunction with we are still
034looking at calendar we are still looking at the possibility of asking for money for HVAC so this is in addition to this is in conjunction with and I just want to make sure that people understand that that this is um you know it's it's not a oneandone that this is going to be something that you're going to hear about um throughout the fall um and probably into um the the new year of 2025 um and that it can't get done without all of your help it can't get done with all the help that has been here um and I just want to thank everybody for doing that so thank you I tried to do all of that off script and I hit about 98% of it but for to make sure people really know who's
035who and who's being impacted I think it's important for me to go back to my notes so um these changes uh in the event that we have an early release day will impact our K8 schools um that will also include Centennial high school PCA high school and Polaris Expeditionary Learning school which all of those facilities lack proper air conditioning units um the schools that would not be impacted by these decision-making points include all of our Comprehensive High Schools Tim nith Middle High School Wellington Middle High School pter Global Academy all of our transitions programs that are under our integrated Services un as well as our Mountain schools that I referenced earlier so I just thought it was important to go back and be explicit about that thank you right I'll save my praise and comments
036for the collaborative nature after but one quick technical question because it may be burning because I had it and I you didn't answer it but I think it's important um what does this du to our um if it's an early release dat that's not a full day that we have to make up correct yes thank you so much for asking that question in the event that we move to a two-hour early release day that has no direct implications on our overall instructional minutes and we get full credit for that being an instructional day that would not be the case if we had a full heat day um and it's the same standard for inclement weather during the winter months too so thank you again for uh asking that clarifying question all right well that's moving
037us on to the community commity comment portion um of the meeting so welcome to the community comment section the board desires to hear the viewpoints of all stakeholders including students employees parents Guardians and community members public comment is designed to address issues not personalities or Personnel matter matters please keep your concerns and comments focused upon the district and appropriate for a K12 audience please note that the board does not generally respond remarks made during Community comments our lack of response should not be construed to mean that we agree or disagree with what is said or with description or interpretation of events is presented by any speaker further even if some remarks may be factually inaccurate we generally choose not to respond or correct the record here because formal board meetings are not the time or
038place for back and forth dialogue as we begin this community comment section let us model for our entire Community how to listen and how to interact respectfully even with those with whom we disagree for we all have the students best interests at heart so this opportunity for public comment is for members who uh of the community who registered to speak by the designated deadline those people will be called on to make remarks in the order that they signed up and each speaker will be allowed 3 minutes to address the board and so to start off we have Taylor Unwin welcome good evening if I can be real I was supposed to be a statistic seriously neither one of my parents are high school educated I grew up in the rustveld of New York where the
039best paying jobs are serving jobs my mother was as a single parent to two children she worked three jobs at times we struggled and I'll spare you the nitty-gritty of the more personal but trust me when I say that although we didn't have much money my grandmother spent the money she made as a home healthcare aid to pay for my private violin lessons she exposed me to Real Cinema and literature one book was on etiquette in which I was tested on including play settings I spent hours on her floor reading the world section of the newspaper while she corrected me my family was determined for me to succeed there was really no other opt option and I stand before you today aware of my privilege not just in my skin color or my able-bodiedness but
040also in my status I was the first one to graduate from high school and college in my family I paid away from my younger brother who is now a public school educator I became the youngest director of compliance in my industry and I live in an affluent neighborhood and one of the most desirable places to live in the country my life affords flexibility and my partner is the most supportive person I have ever met if I can be honest though I'm tired exhausted in every form as I've shared before my son has profound autism and is non-verbal he has been struggling with sleep last night I spent 5 hours post bedtime negotiating him to sleep I check on him throughout the night too as his first seizure in which he went into status epilepticus happened
041while we were sleeping in bed still I know not everyone has the Privileges that I do that is why I show up here for the people who can't don't know how to or afraid to that is why I asked for a camera requirement on transportation and changes to video retention policies that is why I encourage the board to create a more representative Equity committee that is why I'm requesting the board consider inequity in sending the children of banford which houses the only intensive autism program east of I25 across I25 even further away from their Community than they already are the kids that often have already been taken out of their neighborhood school for placement the kids that need integration most in their communities I am determined for them to succeed I hope you are too
042thank you thank you next up we have Sabrina herck welcome I'd like to start by thanking whoever convinced Jeff Connell to resign our children deserve leadership who think blatant and rampant abuse of minors should result in policy change and you've done this community a great service but I mostly want to talk about the meeting that recently happened with Community leaders about the M Levy override I listened to the presentation but didn't get to share my questions or comments so I'll share them now first the presentation once again ignored the actual criticism about cabinet raises the question was never why equal pay it has always been why are you doing this now while discussing shutting down schools second the value slide which I think would have been more aptly named problems missed an important detail about
043School of Choice which is that many Parents Choice their kids out of school with Children of color and disabled children bigotry is a driving factor for one of those problems that this District faces the first step to fixing a problem is acknowledging it exists third per brokish student shifting back and forth between charter schools and Public Schools is roughly equal so why during listening sessions with parents has Kingsley blamed students moving from charter schools to PSD for Budget problems fourth last year you requested legislation change because so many new students need IEPs that preschools can't have true gen Ed classes unless they turn away children on IEPs IEP students get extra Government funding for their extra needs and yet many PA professionals report firings and hour Cuts due to budget Kingsley reports $66 million in
044pay cuts to be exact this combination of facts raises the question in my mind where is that extra funding for all these new IEP students going if not towards IEP services but it also raises an additional question you stated intent to request rural funding for Mountain schools can we trust that that funding would be allocated correctly and last Summit Stone just got told they only get Medicaid money for services rendered rather than getting a lump sum with a pinky promise they'll use it to provide services in response they fired 100 employees in a week and threw the therapy Community into chaos in a move that many consider unethical our Boe shares a member with Summit Stones board of directors Carol and Reed not only does this overlap compound the question I have about point4 it
045also leaves me questioning if this board learned its lesson last year about keeping secrets from the community and dumping Chaos on it I want this District funded properly and I want this District to succeed but I do worry that putting more money in the hands of the current board is the same as lighting it on fire but since I have a few seconds left I also want to say Draper keep up the good work for drag queen Story Hour our kids deserve joy as well as safety thank you next up we have Jeff aridi welcome my name is Jeff ofid from Wellington Colorado one of the original pillars of superintendent kingsley's strategic plan was security yet this Focus was quietly removed after the Tyler Zella case my son was on the same bus as zanella
046and I only discovered the details after submitting cor requests recently PSD has been involved in efforts to amend core laws seemingly to limit transparency this raises significant concerns especially when these efforts aimed at silencing parents seeking answers about District's leadership and ethical practices let me give you an examp example on August 12th 2024 The Coloradoan quoted Mr Kingsley discussing his involvement with Chiefs for change expressing curiosity about the criticism he's faced I do not have concerns about how Kingsley personally benefit from the Obama administration's communication team but rather the lack of transparency regarding the $166,000 grant PSD received from Chiefs for change a fact that to my knowledge has never been discussed or disclosed publicly to the by the district why here's what I understand based on core documents and research Mr Kingsley you previously
047worked under former Broward County Public School Superintendent Robert runy this matters because on November 18 2021 your calendar and Communications indicate you held a virtual meeting with Robert runy the current CEO of chiefs for change to discuss a case study sponsored by the organization also present at this meeting allegedly was an individual who reported directly to Mr run uh runy at Broward Public Schools this individual started a floor based company in July 2021 the same month you assumed the role of Superintendent at PSD so what well several months later on March TW March 1st 2022 a letter from Chiefs for change awarded PSD a grant totaling $166,000 then on April 26 2022 it's my understanding that a purchase order was made to transfer These funds from pter school district to the Florida based company established
048by Run's former direct report the sequence of events pieced together from core documents raises serous questions what specific deliverables were expected from this Grant and how was success measured was a district able to meet its reporting requirements for this grant if not why what criteria were used to determine that this particular company was the best choice for PSD and can you explain the vetting process for this Florida based company especially given the personal connections involved did this company have any influence on the hiring or interviewing practices of security Personnel or other others at uh pter School District district and most importantly how does this Arrangement align with psd's commitment to transparency and ethical practices these are critical issues that deserve clear and honest answers particularly given their potential implications for the district's leadership and public
049trust as you consider asking for more taxpayer dollars thank you thank you up next we have Kate Bedford welcome hello again everyone um I'll just jump in Time magazine's online platform published an article on July 23rd titled project 202's plan to eliminate public schools has already started the article Chronicles an eily familiar phenomenon taking place in dozens of school districts Across America board of directors superintendent Kingsley an assistant superintendent you all have a copy of this article on your desks if you wouldn't mind pulling it out so starting at the bottom of page one here's how it works concerned about shrinking enrollments in budget crisis District leaders conclude that they must close schools often without any evidence or analysis that it would save money and indeed it has been shown to save money it hasn't
050been shown to save money unless coupled with mass layoffs they hire Consultants who come up with utilization rates and then recommend closing schools with the lowest rates to right siiz the district their euphan ISM for this misguided belief that school facility uses should be guided by arbitrary numbers instead of meeting communities where they are the article continues by explaining how history coupled with these current day actions create a perfect storm of inequity in our communities as this article circulated in Fort Collins Tim Wellington leport and across our district words used to characterize these reactions I heard were troubling startling disturbing and scary the article clearly links how these actions are part of a larger plan to eradicate Public Schools I'm deeply concerned that our community our PSD board of directors elected to represent us were
051misguided seared into this approach to solve a budget issue by haphazardly closing schools it's as if there are individuals with influence in our community ultimately calling the shots pulling our strings as if we were puppets through Community engagement in our districts over the last year our leaders undeniably understand our community's values our love for public schools our directors voted un unanimously to show us that in June however in light of this article Aral our leaders must Now set out to find these steering our district in the wrong direction a Direction so clearly against our value to preserve public education the charge to you board of directors is to write the ship to eradicate those voices complacency and silence avoiding confronting what is going on is concession it's the vote against public school in America against
052racially and financially disadvantaged families and against equity against the right to education for all the children in our country thank you thank you and next up we have James Campbell welcome well hello everyone it's nice to hear that all uh my prior speakers are acing the same sentiments that I'm about to good evening my name is James I'm a concerned Community member and I'm also involved with uh coaching uh football in the school district um I'm a PhD graduate I'm a graduate from the University of Colorado at Boulder with dual degrees in business marketing and Ops management where I also sit on the board at the lead School of Business at CU so I know what power a board position holds right and I know that because just like you I know business I know
053that there is no room for no there's only room for a solution right I attended Lincoln where I firsth handedly saw the many inequities across the school district right most of my classmates were brown right I was you know the minority there as a white child right I went to college I came back and I see no improvement I only see decline in the school I went to that I left in right when you get a new hire in it superintendent you're very excited for positive change as I still am I'm not trying to throw the book at anybody here I just want to make these points made right I think that I'm using Lincoln as an example but there are many schools that have the sentiment right Lincoln has had weight racks donated to
054them they don't have a weight room every other middle school has a weight room has some kind of facilities we got RS donated we didn't even get funding out ocated to get our kids into those facilities and you guys still won't even let us put us put them up right we have the only I say the only east west facing football field in America right our kids are the only ones looking into the sun right you teach kids North and South we can't even do that at Lincoln right last year I took over 30 pictures and emailed them to athletic director carluchi and after calling his office 15 times of how bad the field was and how many holes were in it I was left with nothing but ghost I couldn't even get through his
055secretary Lincoln doesn't even have a full second gym like every other Middle School in the district they're told the boys and girls club works as an alternative which is something that we don't have domain over right but that's just another excuse that we're told that our kids don't have that opportunity right another reason I'm here is because there's no accessibility out to Lincoln's football field where I coach and I've been able to figure it out but I've watched parents and siblings unable to get to a field that I can get to that took me a lot of work that they shouldn't have to right I'm here to speak for those kids right as the people told me before a famous person called The Lorax once said I speak for the trees which you seem to
056be chopping so fast as you please and like him I speak for those who have no voice families working multiple jobs and those who sent Generations through these neglected schools and like the LX story you know how that went when he was neglected let this be a cautionary tale you highlight the success of your school district by middle high schools like I'm going to to ask you to wrap it up thank you the focus and resources that you have given to other schools show great success right but the success of your district is not the opportunities and experiences available to your most fortunate students but rather those same opportunities and experiences are available to all I may not know that this is the first time or the 50th time you've heard this about the inequities
057and especially in sports but make sure it's the last time you heard it thank you all right thank you all for U for speaking tonight um we now have board topics and committee reports um this agenda is an opportunity for board members to provide an update on committee work or speak to board topics do any board members have any anything they would like to report and for those of you who are leaving thank you so much yes Kevin um at our Retreat last week was it last week last week um I said I want to start making a plug for this section to discuss where the whereabouts of my fellow directors to see where they've been the last week what they've been up to what schools they visited um since we're starting school we'll dispense
058with that but I've got three quick things that I'd like to raise to the Public's attention we talked about this a little bit at the retreat uh the first of which and we've heard some of this tonight um in community comment but I I think we owe it to ourselves to acknowledge that the important work can't get drowned out by the Urgent all the time and what I mean by that is um one of the recommendations from the long-term steering committee was to uh announce a permanent long-term steering committee and I want to continue that charge um and say that I think it would also be prudent to have a board liaison on that as a permanent fixture as we're heading into November we're contemplating asking our community for um a large sum of money
059to to continue to offer robust education be remiss if we put all our eggs in that particular basket and so I think we need to continue the hard work of exploring long-term planning that includes Equity that includes uh a lot of things that we we we we discussed last year that we haven't gotten a formal plan on um and so I think we need to be doing that in conjunction I think we need to be looking at alternatives for if things don't go the way they do if enrollment trends go the way that we think they might um we can't be ill prepared and try to do a snap decision again so I I think I'd like to continue making those efforts it may not be popular but it's also really necessary important work uh
060so I look forward to leadership and trying to figure out how we can uh cement this and make it a permanent fixture um the other thing I want I said I did want to praise there's a lot of praise to go um around some of the people left the room that I was going to personally praise but um the decision and the the announcement by superintendent Kingsley was a brave one it was uh a compassionate one and it's one that I think really tries to rec reconcile where we are in the moment that we don't have facilities that we that we would like to offer safe learning conditions and the truth is when when our classrooms are that hot no one's learning and we are in the business of educating our kids I understand it's
061going to it's going to pose a significant challenge to child care myself included I'm going to be including those as a kid that goes to a non-air conditioned school um but I think you have to reconcile the teachers and the the environment we're sending our children into that is unsafe and there's no learning going on so I want to credit The Bravery of superintendent Kingsley the partnership and cooperation of of many of our stakeholders including those that left the room including parents and teachers who have year after year given us data and said this is the temperature in my classroom it's not okay it's not safe and so we're listening to that and we're making decisions that is I think compassionate meeting with where we are it's I think you said it well superintendent Kingsley
062it's a starting point we don't want to box ourselves in let's do what we do with any other problem let's look at the data after this year and see where we are and uh make some modifications for next year but I just want to credit all the hard work especially director Zamora too because I know she was instrumental in a lot of these key decision making so thank you for that um and I think that was it yeah I just had two anyone else Scott go ahead yeah I'd just like to Echo Uh Kevin and appraising the uh the heat day decision I think that was a a really big deal and and Brian thank you for taking a lead on that and and reaching out to other communities sources to to get feedback on
063that I do want to let the community know that your comments are heard I know all the uh the teachers uh the parents and the students I remember one particular student who came and talked about heat days that really stuck with me and um and that does make a difference that that helped along that conversation also wanted to thank uh Brian and your team for the cell phone policy that's been a passion of mine it's let it be known that's why I got involved with uh the dab that was one of the main things uh purely because I thought it was crazy that my daughter was texting me in the middle of the day asking for advice on her fantasy football team so I am uh thrilled that uh after five years we are finally
064on our way to a a policy that'll get rid of those distractions and um and all the Articles I've sent you I have a whole slew more about high school so we'll uh we'll continue this discussion um but I'm very very excited about the the progress we're making on that so thank you very much for doing that anyone else did you want no okay I just want to take a just a moment to thank everybody here um who has spent their summer working um and making sure that our the heat policy has been vetted and been looked at that um the calendar committee has continued to um have some goals um you know and this it's not we're it's a reset but it's not a restart and so you know just letting people know that
065people have been here throughout the summer making sure that as we are um starting up a new school year um that it is something that people here have been doing throughout the summer and I just want to say thank you for uh for that um I want to say thank you to everybody in the back Nicole um so just yeah everybody back there um thank you we're looking forward to meeting with you um um and um yeah I think it's going to be a great year so thanks all right uh moving on to the consent agenda would any board members like to pull an item from consent did you want to good I need to figure out which number it is pres Draper sorry oh sorry it is um 8.4 um superintendent Kingsley point of
066order do we have anyone that could give a very brief overview of item 8.4 which is the intergovernmental agreement for 2024 I don't want to put anyone on the spot that was I just thought if it could if we could give like a 20 second to 30 second High Lev overview of what its implications are what we're actually doing tonight I think would be helpful this was President Draper's idea it wasn't mine I'm just the Fall Guy for this particular duly noted this is true I'll turn it over to our general counsel autom maspin and our Chief Financial Officer Dave Montoya to weigh in on that can I can I do we need to pull it first technically and then yeah sorry yeah so then I move to pull uh .4 do I we don't
067need to move do we just yeah I think we just I'll just pull 8.4 please thank you okay and so we can let's vote on the the rest of the consent agenda then so um um Jill if you want to call the vote anybody would likes to make a motion for the rest of the consent agenda I move that the board approved and adopt the recommended actions for the items on the rest of the consent agenda do we have a second Jim thank you I'm sorry now we can call the vote absolutely thank you Jim broish hi Kristen Draper hi Conor Duffy hi Kevin havalda hi Scott shanower hi Jessica Zamora hi motion passes 60 all right thank you and I think just the reason for um pulling that 8.4 into governmental agreement for the
068coordinated election there was some concern from um some members of the public that this was um putting something on a ballot and we want to just be clear as to what this is um the way that I understand this um and I'm going to let Autumn I think yeah have you explain what this is this is just essentially a placeholder should we decide to do something um correct the the IGA is basically an agreement between the school district and the county because the county is the one who runs the election for November for this jurisdiction so the agreement does go through the obligations and responsibilities between entities if there is an election and if the the district does decide to place something on the ballot um so it goes through things like the the cost
069for the election um submitting the ballot certification all the other requirements that both the county would have and the school district would have there's also a provision in there regarding the ability to cancel an election prior to a certain date which I believe is October 11th um but but yes it it this is not the board in any way declaring an election at this point it's just the agreement um given timelines uh between the election and the school district this agreement would have to be entered into by August 27th so um just with board schedules it's a a reason why it came to this meeting anything I map any other questions with that any thank you thank thanks for that clarification we just wanted to make sure that the public understood what it was that
070was um being voted on there in consent so um all right so now the IG now becomes action item 9.2 so yes so we will first then head on to action items 9.1 internal monitoring and policy review El 2.5 emergency superintendent and executive session can I get a motion succession sorry not executive can I get a motion yeah go ahead I move that the board determined that super intendent has reasonably interpreted Board of Education policy El 2.5 in his internal monitoring report dated August 13th 2024 and that the evidence presented supports the superintendent's conclusions stated in the internal monitoring report can I get a second all right Connor Thank you any disc on this item all right looks like we can call the vote Jim broish hi Kristen Draper hi Connor Duffy hi Kevin havelda
071hi Scott shanower hi Jessica Zamora I motion passes 60 all right and now moving into um action item 9.2 um the intergovernmental agreement for 2024 coordinated election can I get a motion Kevin I sufficiently complicated this earlier I think I'll take the first crack at a um motion I move that the board approve uh item 9.2 which is the intergovernmental agreement for the 2024 coordinated election do I have a second Scott all right and do for the vote y Jim brokish hi Kristen Draper hi Connor Duffy hi Kevin havelda hi Scott Shen Bower hi Jessica Zamora hi motion passes 60 all right thank you and now we'll move on to on 10.1 update on the Tim nith boundaries um so superintendent Kingsley would you like to yes thank you so much joining us this evening
072to provide an update on the Timnath boundaries is one of our assistant superintendents Dr Julie Chaplan welcome Julie good evening thank you so much I'm glad to be with you this evening uh directors Madame President Madame vice president inant Kingsley uh so uh as we were um charged uh as of June 11th at the end of last school year um the Board of Education gave a charge to continue discussions related to east of I25 changes um to present information to community members east of I25 to present a additional recommendations and I would then recommend that we look at a possible board vote um no later than September 24th in order to make appropriate arrangements for the School of Choice process that would unfold in November um so moving into those pieces just to review our
073current policy um for boundary and attendance areas um a policy JC says the superintendent andent or the committee will provide recommendations on modifications to the boundaries for board consideration um Community feedback will be gathered um to inform recommended modifications and per the policy the board is responsible for approving changes to boundary areas and therefore must vote on the proposed changes so to start with we are going to talk about timn middle high potential changes and impacts let's talk about the current state So currently uh the enrollment tith middle high as of 85 was 1481 and actually uh as of this week um it's 10 higher it's 1491 their projected enrollment in 2526 as you can see is 1538 and their National Standard capacity which we use um for the capacity index of how many students
074we would like to see in a building is 1424 on the other side of I25 however we have a different story that we're looking at Preston Middle High School currently enrolled at 579 as of this week um when this packet was uh presented to you all it was a little bit less on 85 um the projected enrollment in 2025 is 493 but the National Standard capacity is much higher almost double in fact over double almost so 1193 uh similarly Fossil Ridge High School uh has a current enrollment uh they have declined a little bit they're at 1884 this week um their 2526 projected enrollment is 1591 with a National Standard capacity of 2195 so we have a situation where Tim nith Middle High School enrollment and capacity um are reaching a a a Tipping Point
075um and we have Middle School and High School across the Interstate that are below capacity and enrollment of what we could potentially see so the potential recommendations that we're bringing forward are a change to those families who live in the Bamford attendance area and for those families to go back to the Fossil Ridge feeder high school system so students in grades 6 through 10 in the 25 26 school year we propose that they would attend Preston and fossil rdge high school pter stool District would provide transportation for those students however for students current for students attending Timnath Middle High School in 2526 for the grades 11 and 12 we would allow them to stay at Timnath Middle High School through graduation and PSD would continue to provide transportation we also recommend considering implementing options for
076families who would like their students to stay at Tim nith Middle High School and we have two different categories of families the first would be students who are currently enrolled this school year 2024-25 at Timnath Middle High School those families would be able to submit an intent to enroll form directly to Timnath Middle High they would not need to wait an approval process and they would not need to complete a School of Choice application also for students who would be entering sixth grade in 2526 those would be the current fifth grade students at Bamford Elementary if they have an older sibling who will be attending Timnath Middle High in 2526 those families could submit an intent to enroll for those sixth grade students with siblings at Timnath Middle High in 2526 to attend this would
077be a onetime intent to enroll option for these families however the families of these students would need to provide their transportation to and from school at Tim nith Middle High School moving uh looking at Tim nith Bethy and Bamford Elementary as we were asked to consider Timnath Elementary uh currently is uh looking at enrollment actually um of 418 and as of this week that has not changed um their projected enrollment for 2526 is 459 and their National Standard capacity is 380 they are currently over capacity however we do know there's 18 classrooms at with a capacity of at the capacity of 25 if we were to put 25 in each classroom that would be 450 students so uh knowing that the enrollment projections have come in under so far in past um enrollment scenarios we
078feel like um there's not the same impetus to make an IM immediate change right now uh for the 2526 school year however we do want to note Bethy Elementary currently um for this year they have one more student as of this week at 500 actually 13 their projected enrollment is um 464 for next year however they they generally have higher enrollment than what they're projected for from year to year and their National Standard capacity is 640 with their um all their facilities Bamford Elementary uh which is our newest of the schools uh currently is sitting actually at 294 as of this week and their projected enrollment is 311 for the 24 or 25 26 school year with a much higher capacity of 620 so because of all of these things we uh because of the
079fact that we do believe Tim nith can accommodate 450 students for the 2526 school year we would recommend that the um board consider taking more time to explore boundary changes to Timnath Elementary Bamford Beth key through a more collaborative process as ever however they would desire we did present this information to two Community sessions uh at Bamford Elementary and invited the families in the Bamford boundary area to attend we collected information from those participants and I analyzed those themes and really they came out to five general themes of feedback the first were of course transportation and busing concerns specifically noting that those students with a an intent to enroll would not be provided busing um the other theme was enrollment and school choice and that really was focusing on um the enrollment of a student
080that would start this year in sixth grade and ninth grade at Tim nith and then next year make a second transition um um and some of the families debating whether they should choice now uh into Preston and Fossil Ridge to avoid a double uh transition year the second theme was just asking for commun communication and transparency and not specifically with what will be the timeline when will forms be due what will be the process when will decisions be made and making sure we're very articulate in those pieces uh the fourth uh major theme was just general impacts on families and students again keeping in mind that the current ninth grade class uh of this year at Timnath middle high is the same class that made the transition in sixth grade um that would have gone
081to Preston but came over to the Tim nith feeder and so those students uh were in the fossil feeder moved over here and now would be moving back and that definitely has an impact on students and families and we'll need to be mindful in a lot of the transition activities if the board were to approve um this proposal to make sure that Preston and Fossil Ridge High School administration and their counseling staff are doing uh Outreach to students at Timnath Middle High this school year as early as possible and throughout the end of the year in addition to the standard transition um processes that they have in place for all students coming into their schools in sixth grade and nth grade and then the last was just uh overall General ask for planning and long-term
082strategy in the district which I think would also align with that other recommendation as we look at Tim nith Elementary to take more time to be more thoughtful about those changes so that we're not making any proposed adjustments that may um come back later and not be the best thinking that we put forth so that's the information I have for you and I'm happy to take questions from any of the board members oh I also do want to say we had we did send out a survey to all of the families it went out K8 and I have collected that the 910 survey is going out um and so once we get all of the survey feedback from the families who live in the Bamford attendance area I will resmar that and provide that to
083you so far with what I've analyzed from the K8 feedback which is the majority of the families there were approximately 70 respons responses and nothing was out of line with the top five themes from what the um participants of the Community Information sessions also shared so questions thoughts go ahead Conor just some some more detail um the following Friday there was also an information session in Timnath um it was lightly attended um however there were a few Bamford families there they brought up a couple of the concerns that were here Number One Transportation um also I think one of the things that they were concerned with was having their kids have to switch schools multiple times um and last but not least ensuring that right now we're not proposing to move any kids out of
084Tim nith schools into the Preston feeder there so that would be timoth Elementary and uh Beth key okay thank you uh yeah I went to one of your sessions at banford and thought you did a really good job answering questions there were a lot of a lot of similar questions uh um one thing that I took away from it was kind of along that long-term planning idea was uh people were asking if there could be some type of guarantee that there won't be another change within the next five years because there's a whiplash effect I think that has happened to these families um that have gone across I25 and back and um so that was a concern there was um some confusion I think this is just a communication thing um I don't know if
085you remember the the one lady was saying you know we moved to this area our kid could go to Fossil for athletics and now he's going to Timnath so she was confused as what she could do I I'm assuming mean she can choice in to Fossil right so she she could fill a current um School of Choice application for the 25 26 school year if she would like I'm not sure where Fossil Ridge is on their acceptance list or if they're at a weight list at this point um as we're a couple days away from the start of the year but absolutely if they don't and um any athlete participates at Timnath Middle High School this year and moves to Fossil Ridge next year there is no impact on their eligibility it is not an
086athletically related transfer it is something that is a school district change and so there's no implication for in terms of eligibility from chassa or an impact on students and yes you're correct in terms of feedback from um some of the participants there um one of the points of clarification that I think is important um aligned with that is it was asked why can't we just start with maybe the sixth grade and slowly roll into that and one of the one of the biggest contributing factors is the urgency around the capacity and the enrollment and so looking at a 6 through 10 looking knowing that we're going to have some families already complete and intent to enroll um there's about 50 in each grade level so you're looking at 300 families we do need a significant
087chunk of students to move out of um timoth Middle High School in order to manage the capacity um also Al keeping in mind that next year just simply the fact that the graduating class of this year is 100 students smaller than all classes behind um so they're without any movein or changes they're already going to have a hundred more students on the books um than they do this year and so that need um sense of urgency and need for students uh to have a significant enrollment change in the number of students to move out of Timnath Middle High um is really why we're looking at um such a large um cohort of students across multiple grade levels for the recommendation of change however um given that that recommendation um if that was approved um based
088upon um work from the longrange steering committee and looking at projections um they did feel like it was you know several years out in terms of maybe six seven um in terms of um when Tim nith Middle High then would be looking potentially at another capacity issue so we would be buying um several years of time and wouldn't we don't see on the horizon um outside of any building we're unaware of um the need for a change in the next two years um again when we're looking at Tim nith middle high school so that um I would answer to those families that want some sort of a commitment is right now um if we feel we have enough students moving out it will buy us some years to be able to think again more long
089term um quick question and request uh can you go into a little bit more detail about how the survey was conducted and the request is that we be in all of our sort of big systemic changes that would be over inclusive and that were being thoughtful that surveys also include folks that may be impacted but may not be impacted immediately with a discret change if that makes sense sure we um provided the survey to to families in Spanish and in English it was an electronic survey it was a six question survey it asked them to identify their grade level and then asked um if you're a middle school student do you think you would stay at Timnath or Preston because we wanted to gauge if and if and they they could say yes no or
090I'm not sure then there was a follow-up if you're not sure what information would you need so we have some information there there was a similar question for fossil Bridge would you want to go to high school where would you want to go if you're not sure why and then the final question um asked families about necessary transition supports that they would like to make sure in place um if this decision is approved and students are moving um to sixth grade and ninth grade at Preston and fossil in 2526 that was distributed only to the families who live in the Bamford attendance area we did not go outside of that it did go to students in grades um that this that will be in grades fifth grade this year um through uh through nth grade
091so um so excuse me through 10th grade so that we're capturing the cohort of fifth grade families that would be impacted all the way through the high school piece there yep other questions Jess go ahead can you give me a sense of what we anticipate the community engagement looking like going forward for the east of I25 Elementary School while we're not doing anything right now just a some idea of a Cadence of what that should look like well I would actually um maybe put that back to the board to be quite honest to you know we would recommend a longer term um process um I think looking at more collaborative um measures on how we look at all of the issues within our district regarding growth regarding decline um I I would I hate to
092offer my own recommendation but I think the community um would be asking for something to be an ongoing and not something that we just do when we have an issue there are other districts that um are around us that have these committees that look at their enrollments every single year and they call them all sorts of different um you know names um you know but they're they're really looking at um really their long-term enrollment and their strategies um throughout um and on a long-term basis and so I think that would be the Cadence that this wouldn't be just a committee that meets to resolve just Tim middle or Tim Elementary Bamford Beth key but take the initiative to think what do we need to really keep thinking about year after year with all of our
093facilities and with all of the challenges that we may be seeing it is exactly like somebody recommended that earlier does sound like that yes that is the that's the thinking in the alignment that I believe should be taken for the health of long-term District needs go ahead Bri if I can just make a brief comment I want to say thank you for that question and for your thoughtful response I do think your recommendation earlier in the board reports will resurface at our next board meeting where we bring back the ecosystem of all of our committee structures and you will see that there's an absence of a longstanding comprehensive planning committee uh in this system and so I think your feedback at that next board meeting sets a charge to staff to either establish that create
094a Cadence in partnership with the board so I just I I look forward to a robust conversation at our next board meeting I'm not trying to punt on the issue I'm actually just trying to Signal we're going to stay on this topic um in the meetings ahead so thanks again for asking you and I just no I think that's going to be something that absolutely comes up again and again and that um as we go into um our next board meeting on the 27th that'll definitely come up again because I you know what I'm hearing right now um is that this is going to buy us maybe between 5 and seven years of time that we can slowly methodically and with purpose make sure that we are making good decisions um as far for Tim
095nith Middle High School yes yes um I don't know that I would say it's that long for Tim nith Elementary but we certainly are in a a need to make a decision this school year for 25 26 at all yeah so it just again it's buying us that time so three three to sorry um you said 5 to 7 for timmith Middle High high school probably what two to four for um timmith Elementary maybe something be pretty close yeah something that we'll need to be um aware of as we are talking about this uh next next board meeting um the two questions that I had actually were um we heard a lot about busing for current ninth graders um so that they could have a four-year um steady High School experience um so if they're
096going into ninth grade currently and then in 10th Grade would have to change is there a possibility of um one doing that at all and I think we you know you had mentioned um the um School of Choice options I just want to reiterate that but also the busing options if there are any and if there's Fe if it's um feasible sure and can I just clarify you're referring to families that have choiced for this school year to ninth grade and sixth grade at Preston and fossil or who may want to after a decision choice this year as a ninth grade and sixth grade student knowing that next year as sophomores and seventh graders they would be getting Transportation correct correct yeah so there's that you know that initial Gap year if you will Bridge
097year yeah said so we have looked at that um it uh it would require the addition these routes do not exist so that would need to be created um currently the trans transportation department is in the second round of routing families so uh Transportation requests are asked for in a first round those have all been routed for the first day of school um and now transportation is working on requests that came after that deadline those are being routed for September 2nd and so really we need time to make sure that we route current students that haven't choiced anywhere um into their transportation needs to be able to really look at impacts and possible implications um I think we would really want to also consult with Preston and Fossil Ridge as to their capacity to take
098more sixth grade and ninth grade students given that they're already over their projections for this year in their entire school so I believe those are going to be considerations that would impact that decision okay thank you yeah and Conor did you have something you wanted to follow up on that okay because the um another question that I had was you know we were talking a lot about um in that survey you had asked parents and students what do they need to feel supported to make this transition do we have a good idea of what that is and how that will be put into place yes so from the K8 um it really is transparency it's communication they would love to ask for transportation for this you know this school year if it was if it
099was allowed those were the main pieces um but I'd like to get the ninth and I'd like to get the rest of the survey results which will be conducted this week and then I will provide you um General themes and the survey results and certainly if you want access to just all the open-ended responses that aren't summarized glad to allow you access to those too great thank you yeah good so I'm not sure if it's Brian um or staff in general time frame and process on this is the board going to have another public review of this prior to voting or is the next time we see this we're going to vote on it it would be staff's recommendation the next time that we bring this that we ask you uh to vote on this
100I think there's a sense of urgency around Clarity so families can make appropriate decisions I think that's what makes uh president Draper's question around Transportation tricky of to consider offering any of these Solutions when a decision hasn't yet been made uh would set a unfortunate precedent and you know I also know that you all have a shared Vision around providing more robust transportation to all of our choice schools and so kind of singling out this as a a a solution without us taking into effect how that has impacts or implications on other choice schools I think is mind we just need to be mindful of that but I uh I think Julie or Dr Chaplan excuse me did a nice job of saying like we would want to bring this no later than the last
101board meeting in September to ensure that families can make informed decisions around school of choice but based on the will of the board I mean we can bring this back as soon as you direct us to um so yeah Dr Chaplan great presentation in general I am supportive of this because I know the the objective is to reduce the amount of students at Tim Middle High School the situation there is unsustainable where I'm at right now if I don't see Transportation options prior to a vote where it keeps kids in their high school together I'm a no vote the other thing that did come up in the meeting that I have to see before voting for this is we have to see at least a slide how we are addressing students on IEPs those students
102are the most important I don't want to see anybody who is thriving right now in their current situation be moved somewhere else just because we have over enrollment at one school those two things are a must for my vote if we want to bring that up next time we can if it doesn't have to be public I'll say publicly right now if you and I follow up together and I'm comfortable for it I'm all for this thank you director Duffy can I clarify when you say Transportation options are you you saying that you would want Transportation options for every student who filled an intent to enroll in grades 6 through 10 yes okay thank you other questions can you give me just a little more Conor you lost me just a little bit on every
103every student has transportation to high school your first requirement give me just a little more on that so as we discussed at the meetings and as you see on the slide where you have the three different options there yep what ends up happening is if we go forward with this there are some students that will be pulled from Timnath middle school and Timnath High School halfway through their journey in education at that institution to another school those students who prefer to stay and we can make an estimate of that those students who prefer to stay should be offered Transportation I how you drive people out kind of how you have people move to their Zone school is by limiting the transportation options I think that if we offer them Transportation options they may stay they
104may not there may be some students and families who say I'm going to Cho voice out now because I don't want to be in the situation where I've gone to Tim nith Middle High School for one year and then because I'm zoned out and don't have transportation then I have to move across the highway over to Preston yeah my understanding was that that's why we did that was to sort of incentivize a little bit for families to make the move so that's is is that why we were doing that yeah if I can just put a little data so the survey responses currently about 50% of the middle school and high school families that responded have said they would intend to stay at Timnath Middle High School knowing Transportation wasn't there the others have indicated
105they would need to go because there was no Transportation so just um just putting into your thinking that if we did offer busing for all students that wanted to stay at Timnath Middle High School in grades six through 10 I'm not sure we will see enough families make that change to Preston and Fossil Ridge to relieve the enrollment capacity issue and that would be the concern that I'm sure Jesse would share um from Tim nith middle high school and that I share as well um there wouldn't be much of an incentive for those students not that an incentive is a terrible word because there is no incentive but if we're going to provide transportation then I don't know why they would want to why they would leave but and that's why I brought up the
106issue Connor because if if you're saying nope I'm GNA vote no unless everyone gets Transportation but it sounds like that scenario doesn't really meet our needs to reduce attendance at Tim middle high school so I'm just trying trying to make all this work right currently um in process that happens now if there's a family that is in need of Transportation but there is um space available on a bus that's in a neighborhood by um that's an individual thing that that Transportation does try to accommodate now so I could say you know we would be able to continue that to say on a space available basis could students in grade six through 10 be able to provide transportation but I know that's not what you're asking for um but that would be we discussed that at
107the kind of at the open house a couple of times and that's that's another thing that is kind of going against it that bus for the 11th and 12th graders is going to be running over to Tim middle high school anyway and if there's a seat open available on that bus and you say you filed the form the intent to stay and there's a seat available you can get that I understand Jim I'm I'm in total agreement I think one of the ways that we reduce capacity at Tim Middle High School is by restricting busing options I'm completely on board with that I don't see the tradeoff between taking kids out of their home institution where they've plan to have their four years of high school in that institution I don't see that tradeoff being
108worth it if those parents are selecting to have their kids in the overc capacity school maybe I don't agree with it but that's their choice and I think that we should be providing them the transportation option and Julie I just want to clarify that what the busting that I'm asking um for you to look into um is those who wish to change now currently um there's no obviously if and when we vote on this um it is not effective this year it's for the 2025 2026 school year um but there may be some families who are looking currently and saying my kid's about to go into sixth grade or about to go into nth grade and I would like for them to be in the same in Institution for three years or same or for
109four years depending on middle school or high school so that they can have those four consecutive years um and for that I would love to see if if we do have that ability to bust them um to make sure that that is a smooth transition for them I would also say that um you know what you're asking for Connor I think is if there is room because the bus is going by um then we could offer and say you know as them as you're saying in September we're doing that second round of busing if there's room after that September 2nd uh that sorry that second round of busing um that they're looking at and there there happens to be room for um a person to go to Tim nith even though it's not um their
110home their homeschool um can we get them on that bus so a little bit to I think Connor's talking about for the 25 26 school year and I get you talking about this school year so I think there's two different pieces that sorry that that I'm that I'm that I'm looking at trying Sor I completed yes you're right I completed that so yes so ninth and sixth and nth for this year Y for the following year if it's possible for requests would be all six or 10 but not as a not as a blanket you get busing if you want to stay a if there is room available then we can put you on a bus and note that that would be only for two years because as those 11th and 12th graders M matriculate
111out there will not be bus in yes so that however could probably be a self um fulfilling Prophecy in the sense of by that time the kids are driving themselves or um you know that that may be able to work so that is an accurate statement that currently busing would happen for two years um so yes um to say um guaranteed sixth graders get it all the way through 12th grade if that's what um if you're looking for director Duffy um that maybe we let put on the table back to my process question of next time we're going to see this we're going to vote on it so let's have the vote no later than that September 24th meeting but myself and transportation maybe Kristen you seem to have some Transportation issue take it upon
112ourselves as directors is to really flesh out what we're talking about all right and the different options circulate that to the board um with ample time prior to that meeting so that we're all on the same page because I'm I'm not on the same page right now we can certainly do that yeah go ahead Kevin precipitate another question I I also feel like there's a big step that I would like to see which is more survey because between a decision and information comes feedback from our community and I don't want to skip over that step again so is there a possibility to have another survey between now and then or continue the surve or we just living with the survey that we already did I'm happy to get more clarification as to would you like
113different questions in the survey would you like us to send just the same survey out for more information what was your sense of the response rate again um we had 70 for the K8 of those these are just families that currently live in the Bamford boundary area I don't have off the top of my head how many families that is in total I can get that information yeah no I appreciate it and again I'm not you on the spot chap what I'm trying to say too is that I to make an informed decision this is not my area of town I'm going to rely a lot on my director Duffy here who's representing that part of town um but I also I I need some sense of what the context is that we're talking about
114for for affected folks and what they want and again this isn't just always going to be a show of hands but I I can't make an informed decision without asking people who are directly impacted by this or have confidence if we're only doing 80 families that speaks for the volume of people that are impacted okay can I clarify that still keeping the survey within those of FID which are the families that live in the Bamford feeder is the correct population to survey or Bamford attendant not the Bamford feeder the Bamford boundary area those are the families who would be impacted by these changes it wouldn't be anybody in Beth key or Timnath um Elementary I'm comfortable w w with with Bamford um just but knowing that those people who are making those decisions that they
115also have the um they also have an impact on the objective which is Timnath Middle High School's declining capacity um and I also say that because I don't want I wouldn't want a survey to go out pertaining to specifically to to an impact of Bamford to Tim residents to kind of think or lay the groundwork or have people start thinking hey this is just the first step for us to change other other School boundaries which that's not the objective of this of this change so I'm okay with Bamford families if we can sorry I was just gonna make sure that we could add current Bamford students along in that so if there are current Bamford students who have choiced into Bamford who would not be in that boundary I want would like them to be
116surveyed as well we did fifth grade current students would you like it to go beyond that do we need to go beyond I don't think so yeah intent to enroll is good for one year so it really only impacts that fifth grade family cohort okay and we can definitely open that survey up um we can send it out to the K8 again and open it for another per time period before we come back maybe it go ahead Jim it seemed to me like you had enough data like you got 70% response rate which to me seems pretty good so that I don't know feels like you've done your job I appreciate it I thank you for stating that I think it's important that when you hear an end sizee of 7075 it seems low but
117I think it's important to reground ourselves that the number of school a children in the Bamford boundary is low um and so when you think about just even I know it went beyond the school enrollment but you know we only have about 280 students in the entire school so the fact that we had 70 to 80 families engaged in that process and I know the community engagement sessions that we had to and it seemed to be another one from the community they were lightly attended but I think our end size may not increase much uh with another round of survey it doesn't mean that we don't do it the thing that I want to get clarity from the board is the two different suggestions or asks that director Duffy and president Draper have asked our
118competing tensions so to me it in good faith we could not as a staff provide Bridge Transportation without the board formally making a decision on this issue right so I just think that's really really important to me and please give me feedback if you see that differently um because otherwise that sets a precedent around how we provide Choice busting across the entire system and picking and choosing how we approach That Matters to all of us I know that um but I don't believe that you know with school starting this week and families wanting to make an informed decision so they have a succession of whatever years they're going to have in a specific building that totally makes sense but I to me if we want to go back out and re-engage the community is competing
119with our ability to help those families now um and so I just want us to be mindful of that doesn't mean that the desire to help them is not there but to offer them that level of Transportation without there being a formal decision I don't think would be appropriate I just want to say that I just needed the anchor that you provided as far as the context of what that 80 70 80 families was I think you provided that appreciate it um I don't want to belabor and make it more difficult and I may refine my requests for additional surveys I'll just I may have to do a deep dive in myself so suspend that with the other competing asss that are being charged right now no problem we did also have 40 families or
12040 approximately participants between the two nights held at Bamford um and then again we we do do anticipate grades um 8 through 10 to complete the survey so we will be getting more and when were those when were the 8 through 10 sorry n nine and 10 um I believe Communications was going to maybe send it out today but if not hopefully tomorrow okay but we we would have those um by September yes yes I can provide those prior to the board yeah yeah and I think that that should that gives us enough time to flush it out and I think so yeah sorry I I think I had forgotten about the um problem ninth and 10th graders yep yes go ahead just to belabor it some more um you said that if we only
121move six or fifth current fifth graders or upcoming fifth graders to Preston that wouldn't be enough of a move in one time did we look at Sixth and Ninth Grade because theoretically that would be about a 100 Kids it still wouldn't be the 610 but it would be substantially smaller but it would be larger than just one grade so you're saying um this Year's current fifth graders and current eighth graders right okay I don't know that we've looked at um I think we can look at numbers on that I can get with Jesse and um Dr hooton as well all right other questions all right did you uh did you all get what you needed I I think so I think we're going to need to debrief and go back and watch the tape to
122make sure that we got all the questions uh capture but I think you know these decisions matter to families and matter to this district and its future and I think we don't want to have families experience Whiplash we want them to be brought along and engaged in the process um but the timing is is unfortunate right just and we just need to name that and empathize and be compassionate with our families who would want to made the decision a couple of months ago we just were not in the position to do that right and so we just we'll do our very best to support them answer your questions and come back and at that point in time we'll see if there's a level of Readiness to take a vote if not we'll reevaluate great great
123thank you thank you all right thanks thank you so much and with that that is our uh last uh report and so we will adjourn and it is we will adjourn at 8:17 on August 13th 2024 president Draper real quick this feels weird adjourning this early I I I agree and we're gonna I was hoping we could get like a presentation from Dave or Dwayne about the wonders of pivot tables in Excel all right I'm here thank you all so much have a great night e e