001reading glasses all right welcome whoops welcome to the uh September 12th uh meeting of the Pooter School District pooter School District Board of Education appreciate you all being there we're going to call this meeting to meeting to order at at least according my uh electronics 6 30 although that that clock says 6 33 so you can take your pick um if you all could uh join me in muting your cell phone so that we don't have uh interruptions during the meeting that would be much appreciated and with that we will go to our first agenda item which is to recite together the Pledge of Allegiance indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much would any members of the board like to make changes to tonight's agenda it looks like not in which
002case we will go to our next agenda item which is recognitions and reports and I believe our superintendent will lead us in that good evening everybody it's great to see so many people with us tonight we're honored to recognize tonight musical theater students and teachers from across the district as well as some of our community business partners leading our celebration as our Chief Information officer Miss Madeline noblet Madeline welcome thank you superintendent Kingsley members of the board cabinet and the very large wonderful crowd gathered here this evening we are so excited that you are here um so that I do not steal the spotlight from a very deserving group we are going to open our recognitions this evening with something that's a little bit different and so for those who were not able to enjoy
003uh the amazing production of Mamma Mia earlier this year members of our Communications Department my colleagues Matt and Philip who is behind the wall there so you know I pointed to a non-human but he's there I promise and he's wonderful they have put together just a brief video that will take you behind the scenes of the production and then knowing that there is a longer video that will be out here soon to allow you to see even more of the joy and talent so with that we'll go ahead and watch this brief video [Music] in three weeks we built rehearsed and created a production of malamia using students in the cast in the pit Orchestra and the technical crew and in the front of house staff from all across the district and created something that
004we haven't done before and something that no one school I think could do to showcase the talents of our students district-wide [Music] foreign so can I just say how amazing it was to watch your faces as you got to see all of your friends and colleagues through your work it was just incredible with that I would like to invite my colleagues up to be able to speak in more depth to your success so with that I'd like to invite each of you up and then if we could have all members of the company of Mamma Mia we're going to have everyone do their best we'll Pretend This is a small stage and have you all try to fit here so that we can celebrate you up here together if that sounds good so go ahead
005and come on up squeeze in [Applause] so um my name is Melissa flail and I am the Performing Arts curriculum facilitator for the school district and I sort of served as a coordinator for this project which we've been dreaming up as a group of staff for almost eight years now we had to pause because of the pandemic we were set to do this in 2020 and we finally made it happen this summer so I want to just thank all of our students this is a representative Group which we do have Representatives who attended all five of the schools that were in the production which was our four comprehensive high schools and Timnath middle high school and then our staff which has been totally amazing and of course our district leadership and our community for your
006support of the Arts and we've appreciated it for so long and we will continue to appreciate and rely on that support of the Arts and we're working really hard to make access to the Arts opportunities more available to all students so I'd want to just really use the words of some of these students some of you will recognize your quotations about what this experience did for them so as a slight just a short overview of what the production was we had auditions on the teacher work day in May and cast the show had people sign up for the crew cast The Pit Orchestra who you did see were on the stage which was an amazing experience and we had a student leadership team that was really amazing as well stage managers crew leads assistant conductor
007for the Pitt Orchestra so um that production was really put together basically in three weeks worth of rehearsal and shows and we're so grateful to the community for coming out giving us a sold out run and I see that Kelly from The Coloradoan is here he was a big help too in giving us some publicity in that regard so thank you yeah so what you see when you see a production or this video or these students standing here is obviously connected to the Excellence that we want to promote here in pooter school district and I'm just going to mention some of the connections to our district ends and our district priorities so what you see really fits with the district end of going above and beyond right these students did such an amazing job it
008felt like a professional production it's how a company would rehearse for a professional production in that short of a time frame and so here's just an example of what a student had responded on one of our follow-up surveys it was such a great experience to be surrounded by so much talent and passion for musicals I definitely walked away from this with higher standards for myself as a musician so these students are inspiring each other to go above and beyond what you might not see when you look at the show is the connection to our district priority of literacy some of the students recognize that the things that helped them were an occasion called first score where they could rehearse on their own using their music literacy dance literacy because our amazing choreography choreographer Amy Tyler
009an assistant choreographer Malia schoenfeld had put together Dance videos so that the students could come prepared knowing all of the dances knowing all of their lines knowing all of their music ahead of time it wouldn't have happened without that so excellent job all of you and here are some of the comments that students made about what helped learning my lyrics practicing the necessary songs and probably the biggest literary skills of all this program will help with my thinking and communication skills so that's pretty awesome graduating with options and success in a changing world are both District ends here's some quotes that apply to that Mamma Mia gave me an opportunity to learn lots of new skills and discover more of my capabilities within theater it was an amazing experience that let me learn more about
010theater the other schools and my goals in life it was so much fun and was very beneficial and someone even mentioned it help with time management because it was a huge time commitment and how to effectively collaborate with others and it will help prepare me to work in the world so these are the words from our students themselves foundations for Success including transitions we at we accepted incoming freshmen as well as outgoing seniors and those some of those incoming freshmen really had a lot to say about that it helped me adjust to going to high school I learned a lot during this program that will help me Excel during the school year it will help me because I will know a few people going to my school before I start high school as an incoming
011freshman I met lots of people that I can go to for help and have friends I have created a super big support system to help me this year and someone else mentioned it helped them with socialization skills but the biggest thing aside from just the amazing experience and the amazing product that I think we were able to share with the community is connections and mental health and belonging if any of you were here when these students walked in and teachers you saw them joyously greet each other because they go to all different schools and it was a really amazing experience to have that camaraderie I wasn't even there all the time and I feel so connected to all these students and and all of our staff so it was really really a special thing [Laughter]
012I am so grateful for the connections this musical has made between our theater programs this experience was amazing it connected all different people who might not have been friends to work together for this opportunity this was the first musical I'd ever been part of and it was amazing to see how in a couple of weeks with all the collaboration energy and connection between each other we had the chance to make this show possible it was a wonderful experience I loved the sense of community that fostered friendships between schools and the positive atmosphere that made the entire production time well spent as someone who has participated in the pit Orchestra for musicals at my school in the past this was unlike those shows in the best way us musicians were included in everything even so far
013as us being on the stage instead of under it making this experience even more impactful everyone involved truly wanted to be there dedicating their talent to make an excellent show and then I'll end with this one this was such an inspiring and impactful experience because of how collaborative it was between people who don't usually get the chance to work together learning from peers and teachers who had different perspectives and backgrounds was so meaningful and rewarding so I think I just want to say thank you to everyone thank you to those of you who came to the show thank you to those of you who helped spread the word and above all thank you to the parents who got the students there the students who dedicated basically three entire weeks solid of their summer and our
014staff who worked so hard over the years to get this planned and then also did such an amazing awesome job I love you all you are so amazing thank you and if I could I just want to step it in and say thank you so much I was privileged enough to get one of the last tickets to be sold at your shows and I am so glad that I got that um it was just so much fun the energy in the building was amazing kind of like the energy here tonight it's really great so thank you for all that you do thank you for being a part of theater theater will always be a part of you um and um just thank you so much for what you all do as well thank you one
015very large photo [Laughter] I don't know how we're gonna do this yeah yeah and just be careful sweet [Music] IE yeah if I can control the stupid Mouse oh all right all right sorry and uh if you are interested we do have a couple of costumes on display in the lobby so feel free to take a look at those at the any break or when you leave thank you sorry forgot [Music] I'm not sure if it came through on the mic but Melissa said they have some costumes out in the lobby for anyone who might like to see them on your way out all right so we'll segue to our next recognition for the evening those of you who may have seen and experienced these before we love to be able to shine a spotlight
016on our Community Partners and businesses organizations that come together and help support our students and staff to experience the best experiences in the classroom in school and experience tremendous student outcomes as well so with that I would like to go ahead and hand the mic over to my colleague Nick Peterson who oversees Partnerships and volunteers connected to our career in Innovation team to go ahead and Spotlight many of the partners that are here as well as some who were unable to join us this evening for their support through our teacher externship program so with that I'll go ahead and welcome Mick and then we'll have each of our partners I think come up in turn and then if I may propose that at the end if we could do one big group photo with everyone
017who was part of the externship program that would be wonderful so Nick thank you all right thank you so much um this summer 15 Educators representing a variety of roles and levels across PSD were able to enrich their practice by spending 40 hours working as an extern in a local business the intention of the program is to build Bridges between education and our community and business partners and for educators to bring what they learned to benefit students the externs you would see on screen but you can see them on the website were chosen out of a record number of applicants by our participating business partners for their compelling ideas for how they would use the experience to help students graduate with options several of our externs and partners are able to join us tonight and
018a few of them would like to introduce themselves and share more about their role in the program and their own experience I am way too tall I'm gonna have to hold this up so my name is Yvonne Meyers I'm a work at the Fort Collins area Chamber of Commerce and prior to that I worked for Columbine Health Systems and this program was actually a brainchild of the foundation of PSD so at Columbine we participated and sometimes in the summer we'd have four externs and it was amazing because the teachers who come teachers are self-reliant strong people who aren't afraid who are creative and when they show up for 40 hours you get about 80 hours of work out of them thank you Vanessa and they also come and say I didn't know you had more
019jobs than nurses or doctors or that you had graphic designers or that you had arborists things that work at your business that they didn't know about and many teachers have not worked except for being a teacher right and so they've been very faithful to that work but don't know what's happening in the business world that's changing all the time so that connection is super super great so when I got to the chamber and I met Nick and come to find out he plays the euphonium and I play the string bass if you don't know what those are then you better look them up and we found out we knew each other really well and I said we need to bring the teacher externship program back and he said yes because he was one so it's
020super helpful so we said maybe by next year and by hooker by crook last year we did it with about a three-month notice so I attribute everything that's happening to Nick for sure we took a teacher extern at the chamber our extern last year wanted to come back for this year but we said you're amazing and great but we want to plant more seeds and have more flowers go out into the world so we didn't pick her so we had Vanessa this summer who was amazing who came to us from Centennial High School and my whole purpose and picking a Centennial High School is so that she could learn about the work based learning that we're doing and can impact those students that she participates with the side effect is that she learned about what
021Chambers do because many of you in the room probably don't know either and so she can tell you you can watch her video so we are super grateful to all the businesses who stepped up the non-profits who stepped up and the Pooter school district for pulling this together Nick and I also helped bring some legislation forward to sort of embed this so teachers can get CTE credit and Foundations can accept money to pay for this program so we're grateful to be here and on behalf of all the folks who are here and there's others that are going to speak thank you thank you for letting teachers do this and thank you for the business Community for stepping up and we get to learn that teachers are amazing as well and their students get to learn
022what how amazing business is so thank you [Applause] well in keeping with the height I'll follow your lead Yvonne but uh so Yvonne mentioned the PSD Foundation somewhere in my journey a few years back I was privileged to be a part of the PSD foundation and one of the opportunities that I learned in that experience is how important it is for educators to understand the outside world if students are going to understand the outside world if you think about it teachers are really good at school they go to school and they're in a school and they don't often have the opportunity to go out and really experience changes that are incurring all around us in Industries so just that exposure when you put a teacher in it and Yvonne talked a little bit about how
023they're hard-working amazing people but for my lens there's also one more thing I want to add to it they're very entrepreneurial and they're very caring and involved and passionate with their students and what and so when you put that all together what you have are when teachers are able to experience something and learn about what goes out on an industry and better understand what they're preparing students for the transformation starts to be integrated and happen in their classrooms and so At Otter cares we're the corporate foundation for OtterBox we hosted four externs this year Jason Cunningham from Fort Collins High School Sarah Cress counselor at the mountain schools Emily Pipkin was at tinmouth but now a part of tsd's staff and then Jenny Bose from Dunn Elementary and with those four Educators one of our
024goals is to say we want teachers to see that jobs are out there and oftentimes we go to businesses like OtterBox and we don't think about the non-profit world and it's full of jobs and it's also representative of an ecosystem that really makes our community thrives it serves so many of our students it serves so many of our teachers and families and communities and so what we wanted to do is we'll put a little twist on the externship program and allow Educators not only to see into our business and why having a corporate Foundation is so important and why we want to give back in our community but also to give them an opportunity to really understand how the non-profit World benefits us as Citizens in our community so what can they do with that
025information take it back to their students and create that next generation of makers and givers and doers and so we were so blessed with the externs that we had they were really engaged they were involved in our company closed to open volunteering day which was really fun they got their hands dirty and did lots of good volunteering for eight hours in the day they also were able to learn a lot about the jobs in our company but they also got to see how non-profits work they spent a day at the food bank they spent a day at animal friends Alliance and they got to see what's out there and what opportunities exist for students and our hope is that they can take that experience and go back and really bring something a little different into
026what they're doing in their classrooms and integrate that idea of how being generous and empathetic and kind fits right into the skills they have so thank you for that opportunity to host some of your teachers it's a privilege on our respect and we're appreciative [Applause] hi I'm Mike esthergard I represent csu's energy Institute I picked up the job okay good we're following the trend um I work for um education Outreach for the energy Institute which is a kind of a organization that connects all the different colleges of CSU under the idea of um making renewable resources useful for everybody one of their big pushes is for educational Outreach and so I had taken the job June 1st and then about 10 days later I met Charisse so um but my boss was at the time
027said you know are you okay taking on um this extern I mean we we've got some plenty of places to put in it's like no no I want a teacher with me as I'm learning how to do this job so um everything at that building that's just quiet little building on Top of Old Town there is amazing and you just open it with your big eyes but everyone who works there doesn't seem to realize how great it is so we spent a whole seven days looking at these massive engines that everyone's like yeah that's the big engine it's from Caterpillar it's you're like no it's really big and it really makes a lot of noise and everything and then we went um we saw the College of Engineering as well and all the things that
028they were up to Cherise and I then started working on well how can we connect what's going on here to everything that we see out in the teacher world and so our connection was really about finding that that way of taking what's out in the business world and connecting it back to the educational world and I she was fantastic and she didn't come back anytime she wants just a plug we're also and in the me in the midst of creating a stem truck which we're going to be um moving around as a mobile classroom throughout Booter district and Charisse and I have actually been working on a couple modules I'm going with that thank you for reminding me oh my gosh my boss would kill me if I didn't say something um thank you so
029much [Applause] so I I just wanted to say how appreciative I am as a doctoral student at CSU this was an amazing opportunity and I now get to plant that seed in my middle school students they're excited we have several field trips lined up so all of my classes get to go to CSU labs and they get to sit in those labs and do Hands-On work with the ambassadors at CSU engineering lab and I'm so excited and so I just want to say thank you foreign and I am the behavioral health pathway lead at the Futures lab over the summer I had the absolute privilege of completing an externship with Summit Stone Health Partners here in Larimer County during my time I gained valuable experience and insight into the field of Behavioral Health working alongside
030dedicated professionals who are committed to making a positive impact on the lives of individuals who have mental health needs and challenges within our community as we all know those needs are great and we continue to be witness to the demand for Behavioral Health Services and support Summit stone is definitely leading the way and this externship provided boots on the ground experience that I know will be foundational as if you put her or pooter School District launches Behavioral Health as a pathway opportunity for students in the spring and I'm excited about these future Behavioral Health techs and social workers and co-responders and therapists and countless other important careers that will that we'll get to have these students learn those trades and start to serve in our community I can't wait for the partnership to continue and
031engage our students in this ever involving ever evolving and dynamic field where every day presents an opportunity for the best government of our community and our Behavioral Health needs so thank you so much for the opportunity [Applause] hi I'm Jill Alexander I'm a mental health specialist and this is Ashley neufeld and this is Joyce Sullivan my externship was a collaboration with United Way with Alliance For Suicide Prevention and without Boulder County learning about lgbtqia youth leadership I got to receive training through Alliance For Suicide Prevention I also got to help Lee plan a youth Leadership Retreat for high school students my externship overall furthered my ability to support all students in pooter School District so thanks for this opportunity [Applause] I want to thank you all or I want to thank all of you that
032made this externship possible and particularly to you Jill it was truly a pleasure as you may have guessed based on three separate organizations coming together to share an extern collaboration is essential to this work of improving the mental health of all students you're hopeful to collaborate with PSD more moving forward and we are eager to see how Community organizations can come together with the district to support our youth [Applause] hello my name is Amy Snyder and I have a coffee shop cups Community Coffee so our externship focused on continuing to grow our high school student involvement with the shop and we're a family business our kids went to bowder Lincoln pooter we still have one at pooter and so we saw firsthand how important it was we really threw them in they were like my
033first staff so we threw them into it and we just saw how important and enriching that was to have teenage kids learning how to work and so we began hosting pace and a students through the district and what stands out most to me is the support and structure that is in place to host and facilitate teachers and students from the district with businesses I think one I'm one of a handful of small businesses that's a partner but it's so important and it just makes it really easy to put your energy into programs when the people that you're working with also are working as hard as you are to make a difference so I really appreciate and thank everybody that supported us through the district and all of you guys for supporting this program thank you
034okay thank you to all of you for coming if you want to find out more about the program you can just Google externships PSD and it'll be the first thing that comes up where you can browse your way through the Partnerships website on the PSD site all of our externs from this year and previous years have really cool stories to tell about how what they're doing impacts students and impacts psd's priorities so encourage you to look into that and if you or your business if you're out there listening and you want to participate please reach out to me my information is on the website so thank you very much for listening tonight [Applause] School District I'd like to thank all of our Community Partners for partnering up with us and providing opportunity for our children
035and Nick I'd like to especially thank you for taking this from what was really small to what has become a really deep bench in our Community Partnerships with uh over all across the Fort Collins area so I'm so grateful for that and I'm grateful for our Partnerships thank you today if I can address our guests just really briefly before we come down for a photo opportunity uh for those of you that might not know I'm Brian Kingsley I'm the superintendent of schools here and I'm just so proud to be a part of this joint venture with you whether you're part of the chamber one of the individual organizations that became a part of this or one of the PSD staffers who leaned into these opportunities it's really transformative work you know as Educators when we
036go into classrooms we focus on looking at three things with compassion one is the teachers knowledge and skill the other is the content that's at the center of the lesson and the last thing is the Brilliance that our students are bringing into their classroom experiences your externship opportunities are having direct influence on pulling on all three of those levers to ensure that they're relevant that they're centered on compassion and empathy and most importantly future Focus knowing that our world is changing that the problems that our society is grappling with are continuing to be more complex and evolving and because of your partnership we as a system are simply more prepared to ensure our students graduate with options so I couldn't be more proud with our Collective team to be a part of this with you
037and just want to say thank you so so much for everything that you've done sorry does that mean we're okay so we're finished with that action thanks or that uh portion of the agenda so our next portion of the agenda are some action items uh with resolutions and support uh in this case the first one is resolution in support of Hispanic uh heritage month and can I get a motion with respect to this resolution go ahead Kristen I move that the board approved a resolution in support of Hispanic Heritage Month September 15th through October 15 2023. excellent can I get a second from DJ and could I have a volunteer to read the resolution go ahead Kristen whereas Hispanic heritage weekly started in 1968 under President Lyndon Johnson and was extended to Hispanic Heritage Month
038by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 starting on September 15 and ending on October 15th and whereas September 15 is significant as it is the independence anniversary for the Latin American countries of El Salvador Guatemala Costa Rica Nicaragua and Honduras the independence days of Mexico and Chile fall on September 16th and September 18th respectively and whereas countless people of Hispanic and latinx origin have contributed to the economic and cultural growth and strength of pooter School District in many recorded in unrecorded ways and our system is better for those contributions and whereas the latinx and Hispanic communities face cultural and systemic barriers to an inclusive and Equitable education Buddha school district and its Community Partners strive to close the equity and opportunity gaps for Hispanic and latinx students and Promises to create and uphold Equitable inclusive and
039rigorous educational opportunities experiences and outcomes and whereas the Pooter School District Board of Education Administration and staff are committed to making pooter School District an equitable and inclusive community for students families and staff of latinx and Hispanic origin and we recognize there is more work ahead of us diversity equity and inclusion are fundamental values in pooter school district and we are committed to ensuring that Hispanic and latinx students families and staff are valued seen and heard and empowered in our system now therefore be it resolved the Pooter School District board of education does hereby Proclaim September 15 through October 15 2023 Hispanic Heritage Month in pooter school district and encourages students staff and the community to celebrate this year's theme of power prosperity and progress and the Excellence and enriching contributions made from our latinx
040and Hispanic community of the past and present excellent thanks very much Brian I believe we have some staff here to address us on this topic yes thank you joining us this evening to speak to Hispanic Heritage Month is our principle of CLP Middle School Miss Alicia Bono welcome Alicia and I believe there are no oh I'm sorry yeah we'll tell you welcome we're glad that you hear you are here it's our Dei coordinator Miss Delia mahaney thank you sorry for the confusion there it's all good um hi oh there's I just set my glasses down thank you superintendent Kingsley and Board of Education it is hard to believe it has been a year since we began the tradition of amplifying student Voice by asking students to speak to the importance of specific resolutions one of
041the reasons I love this is because it's anecdotal evidence that helps us always strive to progress in our Equitable practices we use the videos of students speaking to resolutions in our meetings and during professional development to look for things that affirm Challenge and leave room for growth in PSD to demonstrate we hear these Brave Young Folks and are taking action based on their words I am happy to share that since the last time we were here talking about Hispanic Heritage Month we have done a couple of well more than a couple things but just some things I wanted to highlight in honor of our Hispanic and latinx or to support our Hispanic and latinx Community we've added two Spanish-speaking mental health providers so that students who speaks are multi-language Learners and speak Spanish can access
042services in the language we should they choose and we have also with um the support of the city of Fort Collins who is funding this added a digital Equity liaison to support families who are from culturally linguistically diverse backgrounds to access technology in a more Equitable way so those are two things that we've done since last time so to show that we are taking what our students say and and using what they express to us to do better when we know better we do better so now to our esteemed guests I'm especially attached to these two young men because they attend Cash laputer middle school which is where I began my career at pooter School District I've had the honor of watching them grow from sixth graders just figuring things out to amazing High School
043ready 8th graders first is going to be Henry Fuentes thank you Henry [Applause] in Spanish Espanol is not disqualified no this is Escuela cuando Las classes apart is gracias in English thank you superintendent Kingsley and board of education for the opportunity to be here tonight my name is Henry Fuentes and I'm an 8th grader at Casa pooter IB Middle School I was born in Chile and I'm proud of my roots and the fact that I'm able to speak both English and Spanish recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month isn't important to me so we can learn to not Overlook the contributions of people who identify as Hispanic all over the world I enjoy when I get to learn about my Heritage in school and I appreciate it when it happens in classes other than Spanish and social studies
044we need to we need more of that in PSD I'm also proud to have gone to Harris bilingual where I was able to speak Spanish freely in my opinion spotlighting Hispanic Heritage Month is important but is even more important that we that we recognize the historical and ongoing contributions made by Hispanics from many many countries all year long thank you thank you and our next guest is Mateo Vega can everyone hear me okay uh good evening and thank you to superintendent Kingsley and board of education for giving me this opportunity to speak this evening my name is Matteo Vega and I am an 8th grader at castleputer IB Middle School my dad is from Celia Guanajuato Mexico my family and I traveled to Mexico as often as you can to visit family and experience the
045beautiful culture I also want to thank Mrs Bono and Mrs mahaney for continuing Affinity groups at CLP because it gives my peers and me the opportunity to talk openly about what we need to feel connected to our school sorry um all right that is also why Hispanic Heritage Month is important when we recognize this many culture it helps students who are Hispanic feel included it also helps people who aren't Hispanic to learn more about our culture traditions and history and that it is about people from countries all over the world I am also proud that I speak Spanish and English because it gives me opportunities to make friends and will open doors for me later in life being bilingual is a skill that is needed to communicate with people in the US and around the
046world Hispanic heritage needs to be part of our learning all year long and and in our schools so have a long way to go but recognizing this is part of getting us to that place unlike Henry I did not have teachers who are Hispanic and I wish I did so I could feel more of a connection especially when learning about my culture thank you for listening and I hope that PSD can provide opportunities to make sure all teachers and students get to learn about Hispanic heritage so it can be part of everyone's learning all year long now in Spanish superintendent Kingsley Yale board of education for Domino's Cultura foreign Atlantis is foreign thank you [Applause] yes if first of all I think Brian you'd like to say something yes Henry and Mateo I I you
047started both of your speeches off by thanking me and the Board of Education I want to take a direct moment to thank both of you you talked about the importance of recognizing the historical contributions of your culture of your heritage tonight on September 12 2023 it will forever be in our records that the two of you Mateo and Henry honored your history honored your identity honored your culture not just on behalf of your family and behalf of your school but on behalf of yourselves so please know that who you are what you stand for is your superpower and you make us stronger as a school system and we couldn't be more proud to celebrate with you tonight so thank you for being here [Applause] Jill if you would please call a vote on the resolution
048DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish aye Nate Donovan hi Kristin Draper aye Rob Peterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thank you Jill and now if we could go have a photograph that's okay thank you he had something tonight all right so our next item on the agenda is a resolution in support of National Suicide Prevention month can I get a motion with respect to this resolution all right Kristen go ahead I move that the board's approve a resolution in support of National Suicide Prevention month can I get a second looks like Carolyn would somebody like to read the motion looks like Jim would like to do that go ahead yeah I'd be happy to in support of National Suicide Prevention month September 2023 whereas suicide is the 10th leading cause of
049death in the in the United States and the second leading cause of death among individuals between 10 and 24 years of age and whereas according to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention one addition one individual in the United States dies by suicide every 11 minutes resulting in around 48 000 deaths each year in the United States and whereas it's estimated there are approximately one million four hundred thousand suicide attempts each year in the United States and whereas reducing the stigma associated with mental health needs and suicidal thoughts and behaviors can encourage individuals who are experiencing these issues to seek life-saving help and whereas schools are an important setting for supporting suicide prevention Educators Mental Health Providers and all other school staff play a key role in keeping students safe and whereas according to the
050morbidity and mortality weekly report for the Centers for Disease Control and prevention risk factors for suicide such as anxiety and depression have increased considerably since the onset of restrictions to help slow the spread of covid-19 and whereas September is an appropriate month to designate as National Suicide Prevention month because September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day a day recognized internationally and supported by the World Health Organization now therefore be it resolved that we the Pooter School District Board of Education support National Suicide Prevention month September 2023. thank you pardon me thank you Jim and I believe we have someone here to speak in support of this resolution is that correct Brian yes uh joining us this evening to speak to National Suicide Prevention month our mental health and prevention coordinator Miss Sarah mowder Wilkins and
051Lead school psychologist Brittany Hudson welcome both of you thank you board members of cabinet and superintendent Kingsley it is a privilege to have time to talk to you about this important topic tonight I am Sarah matter Wilkins mental health and prevention coordinator in PSD and I'm Brittany Hudson lead school psychologist as you are probably aware suicide among Children and adolescents is an issue that touches the lives of far too many of our PSD students families and schools despite disheartening statistics however we know that there are some circumstances we can directly impact to reduce suicide risk every day our school-based mental health teams work together to identify and Implement strategies to reduce the risk of suicide in our school communities individually our staff support development of effective coping and problem solving skills Foster attitudes of acceptance
052promote connected healthy relationships with peers family and trusted adults and reduce access to Legal means well we've discussed some sombering statistics today we also want to take a moment to highlight hope we are excited to share and celebrate what psd's mental health special service providers consisting of counselors Mental Health Specialists School psychologists and social workers have collaborated closely on to support Suicide Prevention and PSD in the past year our school-based mental health teams have provided required trainings for all new employees in QPR an evidence-based program that helps all staff recognize warning signs of suicide risk and informs them of who to go to for support we're training new staff at higher rates than ever before through our new monthly new employee orientation we have provided opportunities for bilingual staff members to become certified QPR trainers
053in order to make that material accessible to students and families in their native language and from folks with whom they identify with culturally we have partnered with the Alliance For Suicide Prevention to provide community and parent Guardian trainings in QPR as well as Suicide Prevention trainings for students we have trained 185 counselors Mental Health Specialists social workers and psychologists in an aligned research-based suicide risk screening practice our new model of suicide risk screening allows for increased collaboration between mental health professionals working together and more trained Professionals in our schools than ever before to support students and families in moments of need through grant funding we were able to distribute 250 lock boxes to mental health ssps family Liaisons Early Childhood staff and school resource officers to give to families to reduce access to potentially dangerous
054items in their home we've partnered with the juvenile gun safety coalition to distribute materials on safe gun ownership we also supported a com campaign where student voices were helped helped to destigmatize mental health struggles and encourage seeking support ing students mental health and well-being truly takes us all we have highlighted some of the more visible interventions and collaboration among our mental health professionals to keep students safe from suicide but everyday actions like the hello in the hallway the coach checking in with the athlete a club meeting a student looks forward to all week the parent asking their child how they're doing the social emotional Learning lesson on problem-solving skills and many more small but powerful and meaningful acts increases connection mitigates risk and builds Upstream suicide prevention all of this work within the PSD Community
055paired with the dedication of our school-based mental health professionals is critical in continuing the journey towards positive mental health outcomes for our students we appreciate the supports of these efforts by our board and our district leadership and families thank you thank you Jill if we could have a vote on this resolution that would be great I'm brokish Kristen Draper aye Rob Peterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thank you very much Jill now if we'd like to get a picture that would be great thank you all right thank you Madeline uh our next section of the agenda is uh uh superintendent Kingsley will now make remarks to the board of education and to the community welcome Brian thank you thank you president Patterson members of the board members of the community
056it's an honor and a pleasure uh to be here with you tonight I know that our celebrations and resolutions took a little bit of time but I'm hopeful we all recognize how worthwhile it is to celebrate the incredible work that's happening and the people who make this system what it is uh as usual I've had an opportunity to be out and about connecting with members of our community just yesterday was at Spring Creek Park to recognize the memorial that's being built there in honor of 9 11. it was a somber moment but it was also a moment for members of our community to connect with each other as there's a groundbreaking that took place as a mem as a piece of the one of the towers a piece of Steel will actually be placed there
057as a member as a an opportunity as a memorial for us to reflect on that experience and what we've learned since then so I was an honor to represent our districts alongside Madeline at that event there's a lot of great things that are happening in our schools every day and it's just a pleasure and a joy to connect with the human beings who are making those things go I spent last week up in our Wellington schools this week in many of our schools in Timnath had a chance to go to Rice Elementary School when I went into one of our first year teachers classrooms Ashley Lawson and she had a chance to introduce me to one of her new students his name is John Young and John is a twin his brother Samuel who I
058didn't get a chance to meet but John has very intensive needs both cognitively and with his mobility and what was great as I had an opportunity on the way to my next school is I called John and Samuel's parents Eric and Derek and they had just moved to Fort Collins from Oregon and they moved to Fort Collins specifically because of the quality of our schools they recognized that the quality of our hospital care in Colorado the quality of the opportunities for parents to be engaged in their children's education was noteworthy and as they scanned all of the school systems across our state they chose the Pooter School District as a result of what we're providing now there's work still to be done but the partnership and the excitement that allows families from across the different
059states to engage in our community thoughtfully and want to be a part of something bigger than themselves really stands out I think that extends to an event that I went with Kristen Draper and many other members of our staff and working in partnership with Colorado State University and their OT Department to create a new program called campus and I want to make sure I read this correctly because it's important that we get it right but the campus program stands for collaboration among many promotes Universal success and this program on Colorado State's campus is designed for many of our students who are receiving integrated services and they have various transition needs that they want to explore what interacting with a college into our University setting looks like they've had to have earned some high school credits
060but the opportunity to be on csu's campus is two days a week and it also in partnership with their Ram scholar program that's been in place for quite some time which is another two days a week many of our students who are having transition needs and opportunities being met are having an opportunity to be at our prestigious Landmark University right down the street getting some really quality care and job skill training and opportunities to connect with college students and professors and just really really proud of the emerging partnership that exists with CSU went to Wellington Middle School High School the academic program is continuing to get stronger and stronger there every day but there's a lot of enthusiasm around the big football game coming up on Friday evening against their Arts rival Timnath I think
061I want to wish good luck to both schools but it'll be exciting I look forward to attending that game this Friday had a chance if you remember at the end of the year we met with many of our teachers from istone elementary school and it was a challenging moment because at that time when they came to talk to us they were concerned about the expansion efforts of reopening the old Wilmington Wellington Middle School to becoming a Pre-K Center and what their classrooms were going to look like and they weren't necessarily closing out last school year settled I'm really proud to report that not only did student achievement grow at istone elementary school last year in the midst of all of that change but having a chance to go back to the remodeled version of the
062old Wellington Middle School and see the joy and the laughter and the collaborative spirit that is on those those teachers faces as a result of the hard work that our operations team the principal ship Dr guile worked together to be really super responsive to make sure that those teachers had everything that they needed to support students with everything that they needed on day one and I'm proud to report that we've worked together in collaboration with them to make that happen uh had a great conversation yesterday at Timnath middle school high school with their leadership team around their mtss processes to think about how they're meeting the needs doing some data informed leadership exercises and trying to figure out while they're a new school and they're doing well how do we continue to meet the very
063needs of differentiated Learners and not just Timnath but in all schools and was really proud of the you know the intentional effort that that school is making to make processes and interventions and mentorship uh opportunities available for many of their students and then I ended my day yesterday at Bethke Elementary School and I know I've said this before I'll say it again that school is a machine and not in a robotic sense but the way that those teachers are synergetic in working around their collaboration and and impact teams and making sure that their attention to detail and their literacy efforts their writing efforts it is an incredibly sound school we have so many sound schools amongst our 54. Beth he stands pretty high above the rest not only because of their leadership but their teachers
064have really bought into collaborating with each other in meaningful ways and the the consistency that exists across grade levels while still respecting the Artistry of each individual teacher is just a pleasure and a joy to see in person you know we had an opportunity tonight to see our strategic plan come to life not just in language but in talking about the Arts we talked about music literacy and dance literacy I feel like we're starting to make it in some ways and I'm pretty excited about it uh and I you know we have to continue to focus on the both end of ensuring that all people feel a sense of belonging and that is the way to ensure that all people experience academic success We are continuing to learn and educate ourselves the team that just
065spoke Sarah and Brittany in partnership with their teams put together professional development for every single employee in this District this year on suicide awareness beyond the efforts that they're doing to engage the community every single employee in the system is becoming more aware of what actually is playing out in each of our classrooms if you look right now just the number of people that are in this room it's almost an average number of people that are reflect a classroom in high school and one of the pieces of learning that still resonates with me that according to the CDC if you think about a average high school classroom of 30 students five of those students will seriously consider suicide in an average high school classroom according to the CDC today four of those students in every
066classroom not in a school in every classroom four of those 30 students will make a plan to die by Suicide in every one of those classrooms average of 30 high school students there will be two students who actually attempt to commit suicide I say that not to bring down the room but to recognize and just reinvigorate our efforts in this space to ensure that our business is much more than teaching Reading Writing and arithmetic it's ensuring that people feel seen feel heard and have the supports and resources that are necessary to thrive and I'm really proud that we're making a concerted effort in partnership with our community to move that work forward speaking of Partnerships a little bit later this evening we're going to hear an update about our District's work very important work with
067our school resource officers for the three contracted law enforcement agencies I couldn't be more proud to be a part of those Partnerships with each of those agencies we're also excited tonight to welcome our new team member Frederick Smith Frederick hello and welcome to you Frederick is a former school resource officer and a newly hired director of security and PSD he brings incredible energy I say look out for that and a wealth of experiences and he makes our school system stronger our team is also in the process in partnership with with our sros and with our security team expanding mental health specialist supports to ensure that we develop a co-responder model in partnership with our school resource officers so I'm super excited about that work moving forward you know we talk about the great things that
068we're seeing in our classrooms we talk about the things that we need to focus that sometimes play a role in our classrooms and outside of our classrooms and Partnerships certainly comes to mind but all of that leads to Great results I want to thank The Coloradoan for continuing to share the great story of the improved outcomes that our district is showcasing for this community our children deserve the very best we are one of the strongest school systems in America I stand by that every single one of our high schools according to the new world the news report is in the top 20th percentile every single high school in this district is in the top 19 percent there are 648 high schools in the state of Colorado I feel really proud to be a superintendent in
069a school system that has such strength things we have schools like Zach Elementary School and their County or state school performance framework scored a 100 out of 100. we have schools like trout Elementary School 99 out of 100. we have schools like McGraw Elementary School and I would tell you that I would speak to this and I shared this with the principal Amy they're defying the odds 96 points out of 100. I don't share that data point to chase points I share that with you that when we focus on these other things and focus on improved adult practices results take place as a result of that and it's one of the reasons why this school system is performing or outperforming state and National peers by double digits there's a lot to be proud of there's
070a lot of work to be done we have to continue to ensure that we reflect and do some significant work on areas and Target populations that are still not having their needs met but we're committed to doing that work and I'm honored to be in Partnership with you while doing that work with this incredible team and community so thank you thanks very much Brian for those remarks who appreciate it very much now we have our section for Community comment I want to remind us all of our hopes for this section for the agenda the board desires to hear the viewpoints of all stakeholders including students employees parents and Guardians and community members input that is most helpful to the board of education and District staff is that which celebrates successes that support the educational and
071social emotional experiences of our students or which identifies a problem and proposes a solution for us to consider that ultimately we'll improve the educational and social emotional experiences of our students public comment is designed to address issues not personalities or Personnel matters it is important to note that the board does not generally respond to remarks made during Community comment our lack of response should not be construed to mean that we agree or disagree with what is said or with the description or interpretation of events as presented by any speaker further we recognize that some although by no means all of the remarks that have been made are factually inaccurate we generally choose not to respond or correct the record here because formal board meetings are not the time or place for a back and forth
072dialogue although we may disagree on some things I know that we all want the best educational experience for our students and as we participate together in this community comment session we should model for our students how to listen how to interact respectfully even with those with whom we disagree and generally how to show up each day this opportunity for public comment is for members of the community who registered to speak by the designated deadline these people will be called on to make remarks in the order that they signed up each speaker will be allowed three minutes to address the board and I will ask you to end your remarks once the red light starts blinking our first Speaker this evening is Kelsey Bishop welcome good evening my name is Kelsey and I teach kindergarten at
073Timnath Elementary in 2021 all k-3 teachers were required to complete a 40-plus hour science of reading training our new literacy curriculum skills block contradicts the science of reading trading we completed and lacked systematic explicit instruction and decoding skills if we teach this with Fidelity as the district is asking us to do with no exceptions our students will not develop the foundational skills they need to become proficient readers in addition teachers have yet to be trained on this portion of the curriculum the adoption of this curriculum has been poorly planned and rushed with very little effective training or planned time to implement the trading we did receive was not beneficial in my case the kindergarten teachers were shown a video clip of a fourth grade lesson and the trainer had never taught the curriculum it is
074proven to be extremely prep heavy and the resource is very difficult to navigate I am arriving well before my contract time and leaving one to two hours past every day it is taking time away from my family we do not have all the required materials we need to teach the lessons in my case I'm still missing anchor text for the modules some teachers are having to spend their own money to buy materials needed for the curriculum because they were not provided we are overwhelmed and exhausted and this is not sustainable I care for my students and this is not what is best for them I come to you this evening representing many other teachers and I ask you to ensure that we receive better training on the curriculum and that it is differentiated by grade
075level and led by trainers who have actually taught the curriculum I ask you to give teachers the autonomy to adjust lessons so that they match the needs of our students curriculum cannot and should not be a one-size-fits-all I ask you to trust the Educators who have training in the science of reading we urge you to allow us to eliminate the skills module of the curriculum and in turn Implement hegarty phonemic awareness and structured explicit phonics instructions such as you fly or Orton Gillingham which are research based in the science of reading in addition we ask you to give elementary teachers the plan time we need to prepare for the lessons in the module components lastly we ask you to compensate us for the time we have lost and the money we have had to spend
076in order to teach this new curriculum please do what is best for our students we deserve better thank you thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Sabrina Herrick welcome during the last school board meeting you voted on a resolution for casby to Lobby to increase the cost of a core request the resolution cited misuse of quora for political agendas and generating Discord first off I've heard Republicans discuss school shootings enough to know what political agenda means second let's talk about what people are requesting I've seen the list the top requester from January to June of this year wanted stuff about LGBT education and the second top requester wanted various budget information and your meeting calendars well why would so many people have questions now when they didn't a few years ago well let's see we
077have Federal complaints about failure to provide equal opportunity for disabled students we have a lawsuit about the LGBT club we have Robert Denise we have Patterson saying we can't afford air conditioning two months after my daughter's esy teacher called 9-1-1 fearing my daughter got heat stroke during recess we have you guys dodging questions about the name Lions Gaddis and last I checked their findings still aren't public and of course we have Tyler zanella the man who is allowed to abuse multiple children for months so where is the political agenda in Discord where is the super divisive opinion is it divisive to say why doesn't a half billion dollar budget have money to buy air conditioning what about don't abuse kids or don't rape kids possibly all kids deserve an education I know you all want
078me to believe it's the LGBT lawsuit but have you even talked to those people I've got a lady telling me her tween niece was learning sexual positions in that club whether you believe that happened or not that's the kind of accusation that should raise questions should be investigated and deserves publicly released answers expecting that response is not political agenda or generating Discord but if my story in Danny's story or any indication no you wouldn't want that investigated no you wouldn't release that report even if you were forced to make it no you haven't reached out to them know you haven't asked them what has them so upset and there's about a 50 percent chance you'd have them chased out of a public event so you don't have to listen to them what I see before
079me is a group of people who have shown time and time again they don't like being questioned I don't see political agenda and Discord I see bruised eagle and blatant corruption prove me wrong revoke your resolution and tell casby to lobby for quora fees to come from a tax fund our taxes fund your actions they should fund our Quest questions about your actions as well and a side note a big congratulations to DJ Anderson for the news you got last week I'm absolutely thrilled for you thank you for your remarks our next speaker is Jeff afterheide welcome my name is Jeff Foster Heidi from Wellington Colorado tonight I want to discuss the matter a matter of trust involving the Pooter School District board of directors in relationship with the Colorado Association of school boards known
080as casby casby is a non-pro is a non-pro profit that PSD pays an undisclosed amount to be a member of and they Lobby on behalf of the school district for favorable favorable laws casby's code of conduct requires their board of directors to represent casby's best interest superseding any conflict conflicting loyalty to other boards meanwhile psd's code of conduct mandates aboard a director maintaining loyalty to Citizens unconflicted by other organizations one may ask if one belongs to both organizations who are their loyalties too this conflict arises as two PST board members DJ Anderson and a Donovan also casby directors participated in a vote last board meeting to increase citizen fees to access public records despite a disclosed conflict of interest per their elected positions and annual disclosures neither should have participated in the discussion or vote
081moreover the Lions Gaddis Law Firm is assigned as a neutral third party in the Tyler zanella Case by psd's insurance company it's also listed as a PSD vendor but why am I bringing this up more importantly Lyons Gaddis has two lawyers on Cosby's legislative committee with DJ Anderson and Nate Donovan parents in the district should be alarmed that the same Law Firm assisting PSD with the Tyler zanella case may also be a party to an effort restricting citizens access to District records the reason DJ Anderson and Donovan's relationship to casby is important is because as I mentioned before this board used the rationale to increase fees for core requests based on 54 requests most likely coming from me however the district does not engage me once in any meaningful way to discern the surge in
082core request and as I've communicated recently to the district if the district had approached me for a discussion I anticipate that 50 to 70 percent of my usual quests might become unnecessary finally if you look at the personal action report for tonight I find it incredibly disturbing in light of the Tyler zanella case that the district is approving an administrative employee for an assistant principal position that is known to destroy the records of IEP students what so I have a few questions for you that remain unanswered one What mechanisms do the PSD board have in place to ensure transparency and accountability given the increasing number of core requests from the public number two how is the PSD board planning to proactively address concerns surrounding its financial decisions leadership choices and relationships with external organizations such
083as casby to build trust within the community and three given the significant expenditure decisions made by the board what justifications can the board provide to the public to ensure responsible use of District funds thank you our next speaker is Aaron Greene welcome good evening a racist School Board in Topeka Kansas fought for two years to keep schools segregated and lost in Brown versus Board of Education just like this school board is fighting to discriminate against disabled for another two years when you all voted to fight against house bill 21-1110 this bill simply takes Federal protections that already exist and establishes them in state law making it easier to pursue actions in local Courts for Rural communities you you voted to force the disabled from Cortez from Rangeley and from La Junta to only be able
084to pursue action in federal court in Denver substantially raising the financial bar for individuals facing discrimination across the state shame on you and your myopic arrogance if you had done any due diligence before you voted to abandon the district's mission of every child every day you might have discovered that in 1998 update of section 508 of The Rehabilitation Act requires agencies that receive federal funding to provide individuals with disabilities equal access to a law electronic information pooter school district has had a federal legal obligation for website accessibility for over 25 years the standard that has been recognized by the U.S justice department is web content accessibility guideline 2.1 or wcag 2.1 one of the most common violations by the way is a lack of audio descriptions for videos if you have administrators claiming that there's
085any other standard or that wcag 2.1 is not clear you are being lied to Simply put it you found it easier to discriminate against disabled children and abandon the district's Mission then hold a superintendent accountable for compliance with federal law your ignorance and your voting is clear first the consequences in House Bill 21 1110 of 3500 is nothing compared to the pen penalties that are established in Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act your vote and the justification demonstrates willful intent and with the continued problems with the district's website that you acknowledge in your rationale combined combined with the video that the superintendent himself showed at the last meeting and at the start of this meeting all puts your federal funding in Jeopardy second despite the lies in your kasby resolution the Colorado office of information
086technology did in fact update its standards in September of 2021 shocker their update they recognize the National Standard of wcag 2.1 as the Colorado standard there is perfect clarity in what the federal and state standard is just as there is perfect clarity in this board's willingness to discriminate against disabled children just as there's perfect clarity in this board's inability to hold this Administration accountable Miss Draper I expected more from someone who claims that this district is for everyone in 1958 after the Supreme Court decisions there were still battles excuse me your remarks are finished to be forced to take down the whites only signs excuse me I asked you to finish your remarks our next speaker is Danny Lawrence welcome recently I attended the re-election kickoff party for Mr Anderson I thought I would be
087the only opportunity I might ever be given to speak with you in our conversation you conveyed that you had personally been involved in the Braille signage accessibility issue at my son's school so tonight I wanted to let you all know what your efforts have amounted to seven months after our complaint PSC finally brought the visually impaired individuals from the Colorado Center to The Blind part to our school site in psc's legal response to Colorado civil rights division your attorney indicates that an audit was conducted on May 1st and that quote CCB found six signs either with either an incorrect room number or title end quote while no audit report was used for that legal exhibit in the response we made a quora request to see uh the report and reached out to the center for
088the blind in an email exchange we received from the director of CCB quote what members of our training center conducted on May 1st was in no way an official Ada audit so for it to be marketed as is such as a mischaracterization of what was carried out bottom line is is that ccb's involvement is looking at Braille signage that was not per and was not performed in any official sense our organization was present at the school for 15 to 20 minutes only signage that the organization was directed to examine was was examined and I cannot say if all signs were examined end quote according to PSC staff and assistant principal of Rocky Mountain High School who attended the fake audit in an email response to miss Aspen quote there were four or five rooms that
089needed to be updated as well as the majority of our restrooms however the center for blind did Express that there has been an update to the United English braille code in 2016. all of our Braille signs are out of date for those most recent update another area of concern for the center of the blind shared its location of our signs the best the best practice is to have signed locations in the same spot on walls and common proximity across the building currently some of our signage is on brick some on glass some at eye level some lower we have several large directional signs that are located in unique areas that may be a challenge to access we initially drove what initially drove our complaint guys was that the bathroom sign is like 10 feet high
090at Rocky Mountain High School my son would have to be Shaquille O'Neal to touch it since the initial complaint my son now accesses two high school campuses instead of one because a Futures lab and the district has failed to serve orientation Mobility requirements of its IEP for three years in a row so Mr Anderson approaching a year later with no audit no signs no IEP compliance and More Lies delivered I hope you understand why I don't have any appreciation to give this board has done nothing to help my family and you've actively worked to make our life harder for my child who when you voted against accessibility last month the two-year extension means that Sora will graduate from this District without accessibility for his entire educational career congratulations on making it personal it hurt and
091I think you guys relish that make sure to stick it to the parent who asked for their kid to be included the best the best thing to happen for disabled children in our district in 20 years will take place with at least three votes for apathy get off this board thank you Mr Anderson if you could complete your remarks thank you for your remarks um our next segment of the agenda is board topics and committee reports would anybody on the board like to make any remarks seeing none I will move to the consent agenda would anybody like would any on the board members like to remove any items from the consent agenda it looks like not in which case can I get a motion for the uh Nate I move that the board approve and
092adopt the recommended actions for the items on the consent agenda can I get a second looks like Kristen Jill if you would call a vote on the consent agenda I'd appreciate it DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan all right Kristen Draper aye Rob Peterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thank you very much Jill the next item on our agenda is the uh report on school resource officers that Brian alluded to earlier and if you'd like to introduce that that would be great yes thank you very much providing our school resource officer presentation this evening our chief operations officer Jeff Connell and our director of Safety and Security Frederick Smith welcome to both of you and I also want to say thank you to Sergeant Andy Ferraro who is
093here representing Fort Collins Police Services really appreciate your partnership thank you we're good you say that but thank you superintendent Kingsley and members of the board for having us I'm I'm here to present the SRO data that we've collected from the last school year with me and I want to do introductions is Sergeant Andy Ferraro our supervising SRO from Fort Collins Police Department and our new security director I'll stop saying that eventually Frederick Smith right and they'll they'll help me with any missing components or certainly any questions that you might have but otherwise you know before I dive into the data um and so I'm happy to do so I guess I want to just at least give a little bit of context the data is good this year and we're down in all categories
094but more than that is what it represents I want us to step back from the minutia just before we jump in to to see how this data is the culmination of a wonderful partnership between us and our local law enforcement agencies including Larimer County Sheriff's Office timothb and of course Fort Collins Police Department but also just as you heard earlier about all the good work that's going on in our schools in terms of mental health support Administration support even the standard operating procedures that we have worked out with are SRO Partners have really helped enhance the responses that we have to what I will kind of view from Mr Lee refer to as just bad student Behavior right on occasion things happen and and what's important is our response to that and how we address
095it so thanks for that um and I'll jump in so some acronyms just to ground us a little bit um we do use SRO and sop school resource officer and standard operating procedures a lot those are important Concepts to us as we go through if you have any questions about them as I go certainly please interrupt but here's the big picture right we are down we have done historically very well but just looking at last year compared to this year you know the number of events that are referred to law enforcement for follow-up and we'll look at that much more closely is down and down is where we want to be right the number can always be lower zero would be ideal right but we're realistic and we're a big system and we have a
096lot going on every day in our schools and this is really nice so when we say 0.81 the only context I can provide outside of the slide is the last full year we had pre-covered 2018-19 we were at 4.28 percent and so really we have continued to make real strides in this area and again even though I will forget a group on occasion to name this really is a combined effort that is making this data as good as it is drilling down a little bit looking specifically at Hispanic students again what we're looking for here is just you know the the equity of how you know disciplinary actions are being handled and taken across our system and here we see again the numbers are down and they're fairly consistent with a ratio of the number
097of Hispanic students to the number of our overall students and that's really what we want to see here and then one last area that we're going to look at is students that are supported with an IEP again the same thing the number is down down is good and we're also looking at the overall percentage of those students as a representative of the whole to make sure that that's consistent and we're comfortable at this point that it is one of the key aspects of this though is our work with the Center for Family Outreach right restorative justice practices are really important and so what we're pleased to show is the number of referrals is going up the number of students that are successfully completing the program is going up and you know while there is always
098a certain number of students where that program is not going to work for them it Still Remains a significant opportunity for us to address the consequences of bad student Behavior with a restorative approach and we're really pleased to keep this partnership going and to continue to work on it the one thing I was going to note is that the just if you're doing the math as we go here the numbers on the left hand side they add up the ones in the right don't because there are still students in the program okay just to make that highlight that okay now jumping in right so we get you know as we will see in this presentation we get the most in in-depth data from Fort Collins they make a they make a significant effort for us
099to capture all of these data points of how they come to get their information what they do with it how it's you know disposed of and and how they do what they do so we're going to focus on that data for a moment looking at how do they come to be involved in a an issue or a situation with a student um what what we want to know it on this right is again overall the numbers are down so the the blue from last year is always from two years ago is always going to be slightly higher but still showing you know staff reported is one of the key ways in which SRO has become aware of an issue with a student and as it shows by that number being as high as it is
100well over 600 they engage right and they get involved in those situations and they help find a resolution and we'll look at what that data is next the other one is dispatched and just to kind of note what that means is that means there was an issue or a call to 9-1-1 not during school hours that involved a student that once it came into the law enforcement agency found its way to the SRO for follow-up and they record that data as well correct okay so looking you know at what what are the categories of the calls and assists that come in that sros are getting so it's a long list and I'm only going to highlight a couple of things for you all of these things happen in our schools and one thing we should
101reflect on is overall we only had 47 incidences that required follow-up and disposition buy an SRO so all of these things are happening in terms of our students behaviors and their needs but the disposition of these things happening are including the Center for Family Outreach and such things as just follow-up um or even other situations where just support and so our sros are not only following up a course on all of these incidences much of what they're doing is continuing to work and develop those relationships with students and track them after the issue is over and that's really important and and we see when we look at this data that's how we're getting the benefit that the data is showing us is because that effort is really what we want to focus on so when
102we look at you know what happens from all of those incidences and all of those different categories and what you know we've we've made read and wanted to highlight the top three ones bless you the the top three categories are mentoring no charge referral to school and that's exactly how we would like to see our data in that exact order mentoring has gone up substantially even as the number overall of major disciplinary actions has gone down and that's really amazing to see no charge means they've looked into the situation and no charges are going to come from it and then referral to school one of the things the standard operating procedures gave us was the ability of the sros and School administration to be able to have kind of a structure to be able to
103communicate and work together so we as a district get the benefit of this partnership where we're not dumping on the sros and saying hey fix this and they're not dumping on us it's a collaboration where they're looking at what's best for that student based on the circumstances of what happened and what makes the most sense in terms of you know restitution or disposition of that issue and we see that as a benefit as a win-win-win for us and we're really happy with that can I speak to a little piece of that yeah please do so in that piece that Jeff is talking about with the collaboration over these last two years of data points PSD employees admins staff their referrals to our sros went down over 200 I think it was 214. um likewise incidents
104referred to sros back to teachers and admin and staff also went down by about 174 give or take I see that as positive movement because that means that admin teachers and sros are having that open communication and dialogue they're referring to the Sops as their as their balance between what they need to be involved with and what sros need to be involved with so to me that data point was very positive and also in these last two years SRO contacts went down a little over 500. from the first year which is pretty substantial so I see that as a win as well thank you so looking at citations and tickets in particular we see again that the numbers are down one of the things couple of things about this slide in particular is you look
105at it totals do not represent unique students we could have one student who got in trouble in multiple areas right so that the number 39 doesn't mean 39 unique students um when we speak of victim-related crimes we are speaking of only two categories in particular assault and sex related offenses and then as you see in the bottom eight of the 39 were students supported by an IEP so overall that number is much better than the previous year and really again not to keep hammering on the same thing but to be happy because this is the case right is that these numbers are going down because we're finding dispositions for these issues that students are having that don't involve a citation or further law enforcement follow-up it's been really important to me in my career and
106and what I bring here and find in pooter as well that we don't have a school-to-prison pipeline we're very conscientious about working with our partners and our sros to get the best that we want out of that relationship and do not criminalize bad student Behavior and I think our data strongly shows that is what our partnership is all about we had three felonies three well again I would like that number to be zero there is a lot of moving Parts in our system There is close to thirty thousand students there's a lot of opportunity for things to go wrong um and I think that you know as we continue to work on this partnership and the standard operating procedures that kind of gives us guidance we hope to continue to make that number get to
107zero quickly looking at you know again we have less detail but we did get data from Larimer County Sheriff's Office as well and without going into quite as much detail because it's not broken down in as many different ways for us what is important to us is kind of looking at our system and how it's changed in the last years right we opened Wellington Middle High School so we still have CLP middle and we now have Wellington Middle closed moved to the high school and we brought in a high school component where we didn't have it before so we do expect those numbers to go up a little simply based on the population there and yet they're staying very low and they're staying consistent with the ratios that we're finding in Fort Collins and we're
108not seeing anything that looks like it's outstanding if we look even at disposition we see that by and large we don't have a lot of citations we have warnings we have referrals to school we have referrals to Community Partners and we have mentoring and these are the big categories that we like to see and so even though they're not represented here tonight and they weren't able to make it really our relationship with our sros when I say it that way of course I'm in Fort Collins but I also mean with the Sheriff's Office and with Timnath as well and then looking at timnatha's you know as well they also gained a middle high school and so they have data now that they didn't have before in terms of their SRO follow-up and so what's important
109to us again is the ratios are good the numbers are very low there were two citations lots of no actions referrals to restorative justice these are the things that we want to see and we will continue to work with our partners to get these numbers even lower the last piece is just a reminder that you know we we have created since March of last year a form in which if if students staff or the community who have had an interaction within our SRO have any concerns or would like to provide us any feedback we try to allow that in an anonymous way and in a way in which they can feel comfortable providing it to us we have not had anybody take advantage of that yet but it's important for us to make that part
110of this relationship um I think it's to all of you know the sros and our staff's credit that this hasn't been used yet but we we remain committed to this kind of feedback so with that we'll take any questions that you might have thank you Professor by all means yeah definitely hey first I I definitely I definitely want to pull this mud down I'm kind of short but I was okay it's okay though but Hey listen I I definitely want to say um I'm humbled and honored to be here I think uh when you're given an opportunity to make a difference in young scholars lives that's that's Paramount and Jeff says some unique things over here we're not here to arrest we are here to grow and grow Scholars so they can go out here
111and do great things in this world and impact this world and that's what we're here for I'm happy about the Partnerships that we have here with Fort Collins PD and other PDS that we have here we have threat assessments Mental Health Services we all play a vital role and there's no way we can keep our campuses safe and secure without everybody working together as a team effort it takes our campus I always say is community collaboration engagement inclusion and soul Paramount when you're trying to keep any Community safe and secure so having a Campus Community outside Partners I'm very very happy that we're all working together as a team to make sure that we are producing Scholars that go out here and do fantastic things in this world thank you all right thanks very much
112and welcome again um are there members of the board who have questions or comments that they'd like to make Kristen well first off just a huge thank you this is um it's absolutely going in the direction we want to see it the trend is substantial I love that there are a couple of things that I actually wanted to pull out because it to me they're just it's a great sign we were talking on uh what slide was that how how sros were notified and I noticed that two places went up and that was self-initiated and student reported and to me that is such a positive sign what that tells me is that students feel comfortable talking to the sros to say you know what I see something and I need to say something now and
113self-reported I need help and I can trust you to give that to me and so when I see those two things and that the staff reporting has gone down that the parent reporting has gone down that the dispatch has gone down but the self-reporting and student initiated has gone up I I look at that as a a wonderful sign of what y'all are doing in the building so thank you so much thank you very much I appreciate that other comments or questions from the board go ahead a couple of uh was there a question looks like jazz has something she wants to say I just thought you advocates for themselves and so the fact that I love that you brought that up Kristen because it really tells me that you're supporting kids to start doing
114that for themselves and you're becoming safe people for them to talk to and to participate with and so I just we're going to have great adults because of the work you're doing thanks so much I have a just a couple of since I have the time a couple of goals that our leadership team Corporal sergeant and Corporal Weiss and I came up with for the year I just want to share the first one is traffic safety around elementary schools we are really going to renorm our expectations with the community around those areas obviously Unfortunate Events have happened in the past and I feel it's it's very important especially on those shoulders of holidays the start of the school year the end of the school year we need to keep a pulse on traffic safety around
115our schools especially where little kids go the second focal focal point we'll have is corporal Sergeant is um his goal for the year is to really increase community outreach um amongst the students outside of school so we're going to have some events and some engagements across the community throughout the year and lastly Corporal Weiss is working on formulating essentially a data tracker to focus on how many hours our sros teach a year is set benchmarks because we do a lot of teaching over a variety of topics so we want to be able to tell the story of what we teach kids what we teach admin teachers and parents and what those topics are and how many people are teaching at each of one of those events and for how long so next year I'll really
116have some good data for that and we really want to focus on that education piece of the SRO Triad so couple quick updates thanks really appreciate you taking the time to share that with us that's those are all good things that you're doing and it's it's great that you get those out into the public Arena so that so that we and the public who's watching and staff who's watching know that so thank you I have only one other thing can you go back to the Fort Collins Police slide on not that one not that one not that one okay maybe I'm I'm not remembering which one it is but I the one that talks about victim related that one right so I I heard thanks for the clarification on what constitutes a victim related crime
117with respect to this uh the uh the calls and whatnot I I'll just call out for folks that there are other things that that that um lay people anyway would probably consider victim-related crimes theft harassment come to mind for example that are also significant numbers in there uh as it relates to uh the this position or the the calls and whatnot so again thanks for the clarification because it to me it was confusing and I'm not asking you to change anything I just think it's worth bringing it out other comments or questions it looks like not we want to thank you very much for your work for your partnership uh and we look forward to continuing to hear updates and the great work you're doing thank you very much thank you [Applause] all right so
118the last item on our agenda tonight is executive session uh we have uh can I get a motion with respect to our executive session go ahead Kristen I move that the board enter executive session for the following purposes one to develop the strategy of the school district for negotiations relating to the 2024-2025 collective bargaining agreement or employee contracts as authorized by CRS 24-6-402 subsection 4e3 and two to receive legal advice on specific legal questions relating to possible litigation regarding a former bus fire professional attendant as authorized by CRS 24-6-402 subsection 4B individuals invited to join the board in executive session our superintendent Brian Kingsley Chief officers Lauren Hooten Eric Von Savage Dave Montoya and Madeline noblett and general counsel Autumn Aspen thank you can I get a second looks like from Jess Jill will you
119please call a vote on this motion DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish aye Nate Donovan all right Kristen Draper aye Rob Peterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 all right thank you very much Jill uh we're now going to go into uh closed session this is the last agenda item before adjournment at the conclusion of the executive session the only thing I'm going to do is come out here and pound this gavel on this uh on this mat here and adjourn the meeting uh you're certainly welcome to stick around if you're in the room to do that we're not going to televise that though so for those of you watching uh and for those of you choose to leave thank you for joining us and we'll look forward to seeing you in
120a couple of weeks thank you we will convene for executive session at half past the hour right so 8 30.