001foreign all right welcome everybody to a new school year the 23 24 school year it's exciting to be here again and to be with you all and to get the school year off rolling I know that superintendent Kingsley will have some great remarks about that but I just want to thank everybody who in the system who worked tirelessly over the summer to prepare uh our buildings and our instruction and our food and our buses and all of the things that go into making uh School possible for our students so thank you all for that and we look forward to seeing the fruits of your labor as school opens uh in the next week or so so that's great um welcome you all in the room and folks who are watching online uh to this meeting
002it's August 8th at approximately 6 31 or 32 p.m calling this meeting to order if you would take a moment to mute your cell phones which I will do here also so that they don't interrupt the flow of the meeting that would be terrific and if you would join me in the Pledge of Allegiance as our first action item that'll be terrific also thank you pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much and now uh as we get further into the agenda would anybody on the board like to make any changes to the agenda this evening it looks like the answer is no in which case we will move
003on to our next item which is recognitions and reports we have some important folks to recognize here this evening and I'll let uh Brian kick that off thank you good evening everybody it's great to be with you to start another school year this evening we're honored to recognize three incredible groups that have been fundamental to the implementation of a successful start of this school year members of our Outdoor Services Department who work incredibly hard to prepare school grounds to open our kitchen managers who have worked diligently to prepare for the implementation of universal meals for all students and our partners at OtterBox who generously gifted staff with fun items to start off the school year leading tonight's celebration is our Chief Information officer Miss Madeline noblet welcome Madeline it's good to see you all right
004thank you thank you superintendent Kingsley directors of the board cabinet and everyone gathered here this evening we are as you know always excited to be able to recognize some of our incredible students staff and Community Partners each and every one of our board meetings or every other rather and be able to celebrate our Collective success with that we would like to open the evening's recognitions by recognizing our colleagues from The Outdoor Services Department if I could invite all of my colleagues up you can go ahead and stand here in front of the screen and then Palmer Withrow our PSD facility services manager we'll say some kind words and we will be able to thank you for all that you do for our system great thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak
005with you a little bit about our Outdoor Services team this group last year alone closed 5600 work orders in a department of about 15 employees they manage extreme temperatures they're out there at two o'clock in the morning plowing the snow and out there mowing the grass at 100 degree weather working on hard surfaces working on the playgrounds they just cover such a wide scope of of work they do so we wanted to honor them and and congratulate them Earl Bernard is has been with the district for 26 years he's our supervisor Jim Lauer has been with the district for 17 years he's an outdoor Services lead tech Luke askland has been with the district for 10 years and he's a our outdoor services manager and Damon fitzger has been with the district for nine years
006so again we just want to recognize them and all the great work they do every single day appreciate it foreign thank you for everything that you do um for keeping the buildings the grounds the um parking lots everything is always looking Tip-Top and I know that doing that in the variety of buildings in the variety of spaces that we have in the variety of outdoors and that you get to do everything from mountains to down here thank you very much [Applause] take a photo with you and celebrate your contribution thanks so much oops sorry all right you guys you guys are the celebration celebrates whatever Honore thank you all right thank you very much all right for our next group I would like to welcome my wonderful colleagues from Child Nutrition to come join us
007up here and Craig Schneider our director of PSG Child Nutrition we'll be able to celebrate and speak to your amazing work as well Thank you Madeline we were just uh appreciate the opportunity for recognizing the kitchen staff that we have out May and Deanna are representing our 51 kitchen managers that we've had May has been with us for seven years Deanna's been with us for nine and so they have been instrumental in helping us get through all the craziness of covet and making sure that students got fed meals then then regular and then looking forward to this school year next week Universal free meals starts in Colorado and we're so excited about that and like I said having May Indiana here to just represent all the work that's done and if you ever want to
008see a happy face when you're at McGraw um or powder you need to go to the kitchen they will always be smiling and they're always up for for a good smile so uh thank you and we appreciate all the support thank you thank you so much for what you guys do I have only spent one day in the kitchen and it was incredibly hard I was incredibly exhausted but the amount of joy that you bring to kids is unparalleled thank you so much for your work thank you so much thank you [Applause] thank you all right for our last recognition of the evening certainly not least I would like to welcome Linda Crum the executive director of the otter cares Foundation we are so thankful to OtterBox and Otter cares foundation for their gifts of
009tumblers and soft coolers to our licensed and our classified staff I know from being able to see some of the folks unwrap their gifts there was just such excitement and appreciation and above and beyond that OtterBox connects and supports our schools and our community in so many different ways through the program to be able to provide backpacks and school supplies to students and through giving back in volunteerism there's just so many ways that you all support our school system and we are so appreciative of all of the the work that you and your team put into us and our kids so thank you very much thank you all right I believe that's the end of our recognitions for this evening we'll look forward to another round of them in a month or so thanks for
010leading that Madeline um our next item on the agenda is our remarks report from our superintendent and he will now make remarks to the Board of Education in the community welcome Brian thank you so much um I'm so excited for this school year um before I jump into my remarks I just couldn't reiterate how important it is to celebrate people who are doing really hard work in our community my first day in this community an outdoor service person named David Murphy who recently retired drove me around and had given me a chance to visit a bunch of our schools and on that first day he told me how important it was for us to recognize their work I drive by so many schools on the way to this office each and every day and they
011always look pristine as a result of their Collective effort and I couldn't be more proud I had an opportunity with Miss Baker who's sitting in the back throw up my sleeves with other staff and serve in the kitchen last year with Miss algemal who kindly gave me a hug there to when I had a chance to see her they are going to serve 1.2 million additional meals this year honoring that work in preparation to be able to serve that were probably the largest restaurant industry in Larimer County I'm not mistaken and then they have Community Partners in philanthropic efforts like OtterBox who recognize the importance of what our teachers and classified staff members do by taking their local products and gifting them to those people our teachers and classified staff the things that they're doing
012above and beyond just those token gestures but to actually show up in our community and mobilize people into action I want to sincerely and personally thank the Richardson family uh and all of the other employees at OtterBox for everything that they do you know this week our teachers came back we had a red carpet event just the other day for our brand new teachers it's like Paparazzi all of our principals and assistant principals come out and have running an opportunity to welcome all of our new people I can tell you that there is a general sense of enthusiasm and motivation in the air and I'm hopeful that that's contagious throughout the evening tonight and throughout the entire school year I want to reiterate to the entire general public that academics is our Core Business it's
013what we do every day it's what our first and foremost priority is and that is never going to change and through that lens we are going to continue to stay focused on all of our system priorities which are three things improving literacy efforts all teachers are literacy teachers it's not just about our ability to read it's about to solve complex ability to solve complex problems to think critically we want to make sure that all of our students have access to literacy practices to help them achieve at higher levels not just at proficiency levels we're also going to continue to prioritize mental health and belonging as well as ensuring that our students have every possible opportunity to not just graduate but walk across that stage shake their principles hand receive a diploma and have multiple options
014on what they want to do next I also want to make sure that we recognize that this community what makes this community strong and I'm hopeful that this will always continue is that we have high expectations not just for this school district but for each other we remain committed to academic Excellence here and it's what makes this school district one of the strongest school districts in the entire United States you know as we talk about our teachers returning this week and our students returning next week many of our teachers if not all of them are returning to multiple opportunities for professional development we're helping teachers engage with new literacy curriculum at the elementary level we're helping other teachers engage in specialized areas that are focused on their curriculum their content and our district priorities and
015I want to take a special moment to say thank you to Kate canine our director of professional learning and the entire professional development team and John passantino our director of curriculum and all of our curriculum Specialists as well as all of our school principals and leaders in central office staff who have been working throughout the summer to ensure that all of our employees are greeted with the first class experience prior to our board meeting tonight it was a little scary for some but I had an opportunity to cold call a couple new employees to our district just to see how their first two days on the job have been I was proud that Madison Johnson picked up the phone she didn't know who I was outside of meeting for a really brief keynote the other
016day but she's a first year teacher at Rocky Mountain High School and she was so thankful that I reached out her highlights over the last couple days was recognizing well there's so much information to digest being a new teacher for the first time in a school Community like ours that she had so much fun getting a chance to meet her peers both at the school and across the district where she feels like she's part of a bigger Community Beyond her Rocky family she also appreciated being oriented to suicide prevention training on her first and second day on the job to feel equipped to know how to navigate complex scenarios in our classrooms I was really grateful that Tyler Arco a Tim nith middle school high school English teacher picked up the call picked up my
017call he's a ninth year educator first time ever in PSD and his words were that he was not only super appreciative of my call but he felt that our district is incredibly friendly it's focused on ensuring all people feel welcome and he referred to it as now another home for himself and his family and I had a chance lastly to speak to brazon Hayes a new teacher from Polaris Expeditionary Learning School virgin is a sixth year teacher and is teaching science in our schools and is navigating Teaching Standards that are different in this state compared to standards in another state but he knew that that wasn't the district's issue it was an issue that just required some time for him to navigate the complexities of that with his peers but what stood out to him
018is not only does he feel super happy and excited to be here but he was ecstatic that we stood behind the inclusivity that we really wanted to make sure that all people regardless of who they are feel welcome when they walk through their doors and he felt that both on day one and day two I share those things with you because we have work to do and at our next meeting we're going to officially launch our district strategic plan which is super exciting there's been a lot of build up for this and the Strategic plan is what helps teachers like Bergeron and Madison and others have focus on what are key areas of work because we cannot do everything well we have to identify key areas of work and double down on that we'll have
019an opportunity to send out Communications to our entire Community about our strategic plan so you can see where we're focusing our efforts in the years to come I also want to invite members of our community and I want to thank all of you who came out tonight your presence matters to us that our next board meeting we will also talk about our District's unified Improvement plan this is a plan it's a fancy name for our District's plan around how we're continuing to make changes in our classrooms and in our school practices to help make our strategic plan come to life I share those things with you because it's important not just in this school district and every one of its schools but in our community I think we need to always lead from a place
020of strength but we also need to continue to build upon what we're doing well in our district but recognize that there are things in this school system like every other organization that need to be improved more important than recognition though is taking action making tangible changes to better serve our students and our families this evening I want to provide an update about how our district is taking action following the arrest of a former bus paraprofessional charged with felony child abuse we know that this topic is important to many across our community if not all it is to us as well that individual is accused of committing crimes their actions are theirs and theirs alone and don't represent who we are in this District my heart our Collective heart hurt for our students and their families
021who are directly impacted I know that we cannot take away their pain and I can't take away their pain and that's unsettling but we have and will continue working as a team to mitigate the risk of this ever happening again in the most respectful way possible and I want to reiterate that in the most respectful way possible this is an opportunity for us to be accountable to being a stronger school system before I get into the details of what that looks like I want to acknowledge that everyone's feelings whether you're here or watching online is different in this space and that's okay some may feel like we're taking the right steps and others may feel like that it's not enough and it's not fast enough we have made strides in the right direction but our
022work is not done it will be ongoing since May our team has been focused on changes in the areas of human resources and transportation as it intersects with integrated services in the days immediately following the former paraprofessionals arrest PSD began working with an outside Law Firm Lions Gaddis which reviewed the situation this firm was assigned to us by our District's insurance carrier as part of our insurance firm standard process but what I can tell you is that our staff quickly determined that additional expertise was needed to do this work right and our district is ultimately working with multiple external third parties to have objective perspective on what happened and how we could become stronger on the human resources front our HR team is actively working with employers Council employers Council specializes in employment law compliance
023and HR practices they work with thousands of employers Across the Western United States including many other public entities all PSD employees all every single PSD employee are mandatory reporters under Colorado law without exception new PSD staff are required to take online training as soon as possible after they are hired current PSD staff are required to take the training to know what the obligations of mandatory reporting are annually thereafter employers council is reviewing our District's training and we will see if the organization has any recommended adjustments and will make them accordingly employers council is also reviewing existing policies on nepotism staff conduct and conflicts of interest in working with our team on including a self-reporting requirements it will be brought to the board for approval after which all current staff would be required to notify the
024district when they are charged with a criminal offense at any point after their hire date following state law Federal requirements and HR best practices I want you to know that PSD cannot bar access to employment solely on the basis of some misdemeanor charges that said PSD is moving forward in two ways that is important for you to pay attention to our District's board of education has started talks already with Colorado legislators about whether and how the law can be changed we will see whether where this goes and are hopeful that we can work together for possible change in near term within our locus of control as a school district we have employers Council reviewing and hiring and background checking reviewing excuse me reviewing a hiring and background check proposal as a part of this proposal
025an individual with certain misdemeanor charges that involve a child victim would be ineligible to work in certain positions particularly those with direct student contact unless the employee would always be with other adults while in contact with students I must stress that this proposal is still under review to determine whether it is within the bounds of the state and federal employment laws and not yet in effect in PSD the last part I want to cover tonight is about transportation and integrated Services both of those teams have been working closely together to make positive changes this week and next all drivers every single driver and every one of our bus aides will go through training that focuses on supporting every student as an individual as well as building connections with those students members of the integrated services
026department and other staff will teach courses about supporting students with medical conditions like seizures and diabetes early childhood education support focusing on students who are pre and non-verbal individualized education plans IEPs and individualized transportation plans itps and also work with each other to help understand better ways to enhance and incentivize positive behavior reinforcement the department is also focused on communication and relationships and staff will be attending back to school events drivers on our buses with students with special needs this is new will also contact parents and Guardians to talk with them to create a connection hopefully a relationship to better understand their children's unique needs and how best to make sure that they feel safe that their students and children feel safe and supported on their bus D previously had and will keep its policy
027of maintaining a minimum of three days of video footage from our bus cameras but to add to that our District's Transportation supervisors are now required to review a minimum of one hour of footage weekly with an emphasis on routes any of our bus routes that have new staff members and that serve students with special needs particularly those who are pre and non-verbal reporting changes have also been made with the goals of ensuring timely investigations and Communications parents and Guardians students and community members should report Transportation concerns to our District's Customer Support Center CSC the number to reach them is at 970-490-33333 I'll repeat that 970-490-3333 this line is monitored 24 hours a day seven days a week and reports will go directly to the director of Transportation supervisors will be required to investigate and communicate
028with all families that make a report to further build a culture and climate of continuous Improvement in PSD QR codes are also being posted in bathrooms and common workspaces within our transportation department so staff may anonymously report concerns to the director of Transportation I want to be clear that anonymously reporting does not remove somebody's obligation to also be a mandatory reporter this reporting tool again as I shared does not take place of mandatory reporting but all staff who have a reasonable cause to know or suspect child abuse or neglect they must report as required by law if there are family members staff members outside of Transportation community members or students that want to report something that they are concerned about I want to orient you to the see something say something link on link link
029on our School Districts psdschools.org website where you can report either through safe to tell anonymously or also report any incident or concern through our PSD incident reporting tool as you've heard so far this is all work that we as a staff have already started and will be doing ongoing to complement that work and bring in an impartial third party perspective we have also as a district issued a request for a proposal above and beyond the actions that I just outlined for transportation to hire a firm or organization to review those actions as well as all other districts Transportation processes policies and protocols once a firm is selected we will share that publicly it is very rare if impossible to find one firm that has expertise in all of these areas sharing this information in this
030space is important and we plan to communicate directly with others such as our parents and guardians of students who will ride the school bus the school year and parents and guardians of students with special needs we will also have information on our district website so anyone anyone at all in our community can learn about the accent action steps that we have taken and will continue to take moving forward again we are all working to mitigate the risk of this ever happening again we are holding ourselves to a high standard and accountable nothing is more important nothing than the safety of our students and staff and I want I want to thank you Board of Directors for allowing me the time I know I was lengthy but I think important to share this important information with
031our community this evening thank you thank you Brian thanks for both things thanks for the important update on the steps that the district is taking to address to make us stronger in the area of safety for our students so thanks very much for that update and we'll obviously all continue to look forward to additional communication and steps in that area but also thank you for your remarks in terms of helping to start the school year notwithstanding the difficult topic of the the former bus paraprofessional and the steps we need to take there are a tremendous number of thousands of employees in the state district who are working hard for the benefit of our students and uh they as I said earlier they've done a lot of work over the summer and we're looking forward to
032the tremendous amount of work and support that they're going to give to our students as we move into the school year so thank you for both aspects of your remarks um this evening uh we are now on to our community comment uh section um I will I want to remind us all for our hopes of this section for the sorry for this section of the agenda the board desires to hear the input 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 social emotional experiences of our students or which identifies a problem and proposes a solution for us to consider that ultimately improves the educational and social emotional experiences of
033our students public comment is designed to address issues not personalities or Personnel matters please keep your concerns and comments focused upon the district it is important to note that the board does not generally respond to remarks made during Community comment or lack of response should not be construed to mean that we agree or disagree with what is said or with a description or interpretation of events as presented by any speaker 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 the opportunity for public comment is for members
034of the community who registered to speak by the designated deadline those people will be called on to make remarks in the order that they signed up and each speaker will be allowed three minutes to address the board I will say as I did at the end of last year that I'll be fairly strict on the three minutes so as the red lights start coming on you need to finish right up with that I will invite our first Speaker this evening Sabrina Herrick welcome hello for those who aren't familiar with me I'm the parent of one of the victims of Tyler zanella Brian we've had two private meetings on the topic of policy change I walked away from those feeling like whether anyone else in this room is genuine or not you are but I have
035trouble maintaining that perception when I find out that my good friend can't speak tonight because of a website error and that you and Mr Patterson were fist bumping about Not Giving that friend an exception to allow them to speak anyway as for the rest of you any shred of hope I had that y'all care went out the window when I found out at least one of you Carolyn Reed didn't watch the footage of what your employee did to my daughter until after the first time I turned up and laid into you about your policies as for your policies and the logic behind them on June 3rd The Coloradoan published an article it quoted Madeleine noblet as saying in following applicable laws and standard Employment Practices there was no reason to deny Mr Tyler's Anella employment
036yesterday Madeline told me the same thing Brian said tonight about federal and state laws about criminal history I've been con I've spent the night contemplating this part of our conversation and how different we were totally allowed to hire him is from we legally had to hire him I have two questions one what part of Colorado law federal law or best HR practices states that a school must not only hire a known child predator when they apply but must provide them a job working with at-risk non-verbal Elementary age children two if the district's actions were not only permissible but required under Colorado and federal law why did the school board accept the resignation quote unquote of their two HR directors at the end of June 20 20 20 excuse me 2023 Brian you went on to
037say both yesterday and today that the district is advocating with uh with legislators for changes to the law I agree we need that my family and at least four other families are living with the direct consequences of Tyler abusing children on the school's dime consequences that range from trauma therapy pants sweating and sleep deprivation to sedated exams to check for permanent brain damage and broken bones consequences that wouldn't have happened had this District done updates to their policies back when Danny started raising concerns back in 2021 just like Tyler's actions were his own this board's in action is your stone what the law ought to say is any District that hires a known child predator will have to choose between immediately replacing their superintendent an entire school board or lose state and federal funding that's
038the exact consequence you all deserve to face over this thank you respect our second speaker this evening is Aaron Rose welcome thank you according to puder school district's posted jet demographic special education students make up 9.5 the students and I think we can all agree one of the biggest topics of conversation today is related to the abuse of the special education students on the bus allegedly committed by Mr visinella whom PSD knowingly hired as a convicted child abuser at the when he was hired yet where is Dennis grastetter the executive director of integrated Services where is Jody Rommel the new hired director of integrated Services where are any of the assistant directors of integrated Services nearly 10 percent of pooter School District students are under the special education umbrella and there is zero leadership from
039that department in this meeting I have yet to see any representation from the Integrated Service Department in any of these meetings why is that nearly 10 percent of PSD students are under the special excuse me sorry there are these are some of your most at risk students at risk of not being able to graduate at risk of abuse at risk of being left behind many have limited communication skills or are completely non-verbal and the department set to take care of them see their needs and represent and support them can't be bothered to come to these meetings particularly in light of these extreme concerns is there any question why we as parents of these students don't feel heard don't feel like the district cares about our students and their education don't feel like our children's lives
040and safety are of concern to you you aren't answering questions regarding the abuse of special needs students within the district you are not being transparent with the case in the district and you're not even bothered to have District level of representation of the special needs Department in these educational meetings particularly maybe these things should have been taken into account as you face the rest of the parents of the special needs students in the district maybe then you might understand why we're so angry and so disappointed with your complete lack of comprehension of what it means to be a special needs parent in this district and it's time for change in pooter School District I sincerely hope you think upon all these facts and while I have a few extra seconds my original conversation tonight was
041on mandatory reporting from talking to your own employees they don't know who to report to when to report how to report your mandatory Reporting System needs to be overhauled and looked at again if your own employees don't understand how and where and why to report and who to report to this is a failing I really hope that you guys will look at your system and you guys got to be responsible if your own employees don't understand how to make a mandatory report or who to make it to that's on you guys you're in charge of the trainings thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Jeff afterheide welcome my name is Jeff hofterheide from Wellington Colorado tonight I stand before you with a matter of grave concern an issue that reaches Into the
042Heart of our community and that is the tellers and Ella case the handling of the situation is more than a simple oversight my son was on the bus with zanella and the Pooter School District administration failed to notify me when I requested footage the district flatly communicated that none existed the board was aware of this fact and I had to unearth this troubling truth myself this negligence is unacceptable and it reveals something far deeper and concerning about our school district let's consider some of the facts the Colorado safe schools act emphasizes the school's duty of care yet psd's policy has been stagnating since 2001. zanella was charged with the DUI on August 18 2022 yet he was allowed to work at PSD barely 11 days later in the transportation department no less it demonstrates a
043shocking disregard for the law how did our systems fail us and what are we doing to rectify it internal disarray in January two bus drivers had reported that the transportation department is in disarray and operated by a dysfunctional management team resignations among human resource directors and the director of security this past summer are more than mere coincidences they point to systemic issues we cannot ignore these Cries From Within leadership in legal troubles with numerous executive board members leading leaving and a record amount of OCR complaints and lawsuits in the past two years there's an undeniable pattern and still the superintendent's salary was raised a total of 19 percent in the last two years where's the logic where's the accountability and I present two District the district with two and direct and Urgent suggestions first make
044all reports from the legal firm Lions Gaddis and others immediately available not only to the general public but The Coloradoan sitting right up in front the public has a right to know and it's the duty of this board to engage in meaningful dialogue not just manage public relations second I call upon each and every board member to address the public especially the families and guardians of special needs children affected speak to us assure us take clear action this is not just a request it's a demand from the community that is supposed to trust you Additionally the board's recent decisions to raise the superintendent's base salary need to be explained the public deserves transparency not just in the Tyler zanella case but in all matters of governance and in conclusion we're at a Crossroads these issues
045we Face are not isolated incidents but symptoms of a broader problem it's time for Clear courageous leadership the community is watching you and we expect more from those who are tasked with caring for our children thank you our next speaker is Elaine Aaron ten Brink welcome good evening my name is Elaine Aaron tenbrink I use she her pronouns I serve as one of the ministers at Foothills Unitarian Church in Fort Collins and I'm also the parent of two students in PSD before I begin my comments I just want to acknowledge the pain and complexity in the space around the topic of keeping our students safe and I'm here tonight to offer deep and heartfelt gratitude to for all the policies and practices that make PSD a safer place for lgbtq plus students I know that
046upholding this commitment can be exhausting and it makes a lot of people uncomfortable and it also matters deeply it matters when teachers use the name and pronouns that a student requests it matters when the existence of queer trans and non-binary people is acknowledged and respected it matters that gsas enable students to find their people and to find themselves and it matters when hateful speech and bullying is not tolerated policies and practices that include and protect trans non-binary and queer students is not only the right thing to do and they not only create the kind of safety and acceptance that allows students to focus on school instead of self-protection but they literally save lives because we know that LBC lgbtq plus youth have at least who have at least one accepting adult in their lives are
04740 percent less likely to attempt suicide and often this adult is someone who's connected with school I know you hear from many voices from a religious perspective in this space and I'm here as a reminder of The Many religious people in our community who affirm the beautiful wholeness of lgbtq plus people and who are very grateful to you and to all the staff and teachers of PSD who uphold policies and practices that protect and honor them even and especially when it is hard thank you thank you our next speaker this evening is Jim weinbrenner welcome who runs this district and that's not a rhetorical question I suggest there are two answers to this question the first answer on paper is the Colorado Constitution provides for private individuals to be elected by their fellow citizens to
048form the Pooter Board of Education the board then establishes District policy sets The District budget and oversees the curriculum the Boe stands at the top of the organizational chart for pooter schools employees are expected to perform their duties in accord with policies set by the board this is the way any school district should function the second answer I believe more accurately accurately reflects reality from Google in the last 10 years the Colorado Education Association has endorsed over 90 percent of the candidates who have been elected to school boards in Colorado greater than 90 percent that's selection not election and from the Colorado Education Association website the cea endorses candidates for school board who support its platform if you have a life-changing experience and could no longer support the cea platform in the next election you
049can expect to be changed from endorsed to a regular candidate according to Google your chance of reelection would drop like a rock from over 90 percent to less than 10 percent so here is what I see as reality teacher Union endorsement essential intentionally essentially guarantees your election and re-election as long as you support the union platform the question I proposed to this Board of Education do you essentially serve at the pleasure of the Colorado Education Association as the fall election approaches I urge you to run for re-election without teacher Union endorsement eliminate your dependency on the professional educator Union for election compete in the marketplace of educational ideals on a Level Playing Field field with other candidates if you win let it be on your own merits become a truly independent Board of Education thank
050you our next speaker this evening is John Meyer welcome respected school board members you carry so many responsibilities and I appreciate all this laid at your feet like everyone else I come with my own singular issue I just want to share my heart I ask you to listen to that I'm guessing most of us here remember being 13 I certainly do I hated eighth grade I hated the weirdness of going through puberty I dreaded gym class showers and all the stuff other guys seemed to know but I didn't That season for me was about two years of insecurity and awkwardness and doubt the craziest thing anyone could have done to me was to tell me that what I thought about myself in that particular time was absolute truth about me I've talked to many others
051who are so thankful they're not given the option at 12 or 13 or 14 of seeing themselves as something other than the boy or the girl that they were because they sure didn't feel like they fit the mold then nearly any other option seemed more like who they really were but today our culture is telling people like that 13 year old me that there's a spectrum of what they might be and the confusion they feel naturally is only Amplified by the message that they're given and as a consequence the rise in young females claiming to be transgender has risen one thousand to forty four hundred percent depending on which surveys you look at in the last 10 years and the number of gender clinics in the U.S existing to medicalize those young people with bodily
052changes that cannot be undone has gone from zero to over 100 clinics in the last 15 years I deeply care about young people and this is why I'm concerned there are 49 000 D transitioners on Reddit right now who are drowning in a sense of regret for many of them it's too late to have a voice that sounds like the voice they were biologically given for many of them it's too late to have a body that looks like the body that they were biologically intended to have and many of them will never have biological children of their own go and read those posts it will change you and the average time for detransitioning is 8 to 11 years which makes perfect sense because all of us here know life looks different at 26. then it
053looks at 15. these are real lives real people real Futures that are being shaped here please be careful with your influence as their educational institution remember your own years and don't make 13 year olds responsible for decisions that 13 year olds cannot responsibly make I need you to I need you to end your remarks thank you sir thank you thank you um our final speaker this evening is Danny Lawrence welcome thank you for the opportunity in my profession I'm required to take an annual training on protected classes in the United States and in that training if I'm questioning whether something is discriminatory or not I'm being taught to Interchange those protected classes in the case of a paraprofessional abusing children on a bus please insert this headline white PSC employee physically assaults six black children
054on a school bus and ask yourself would your reaction be different would you each personally be doing more to help support that community and help to regain its trust How about if those six children were transgender and pick specifically by zanella for for that abuse for that reason because that's what happened to these non-verbal autistic children disability is a protected class let me say that again because I don't think you understand it disability is a protected class recently I met with Miss Draper it was lovely thank you for your time and I ask that this District began working on an investigation policy when students are being harassed and bullied by your staff and tonight I am requesting that you of you Mr Kingsley and the rest of the board in January when my child reported
055that he felt unsafe with a new teachers in the district on the sea something say something app he was refused in investigation which is why I have a civil rights complaint pending with the school district I heard that same scenario happened at Rice Elementary and Rocky Mountain High School in this past school year to other families in February I asked that policy jbb and jidce be amended to include staff on student harassment and at the time you told me one or more of those might go before the board next fall 130 counts of child abuse from a district employee later and at least six children's lives changed forever do you think you could find some time to amend a policy please the child abuse manual for this school district is 22 years old and the
056fillable form for the staff reporting abuse violates state law please direct your staff immediately to report child abuse to DHS before they are required to report it to their supervisor because that's the law this summer I had the honor of meeting with these families and sitting with them in court while the D.A read in zanella's statements that he that if he had an autistic child he would have killed them himself it doesn't take much to offer these folks some kindness being present at a hearing holding a door for them offering some teach a tissue to a crying parent I haven't seen any of you do a single thing other than celebrating your successful school year at a summer barbecue while families and children with just with disabilities are left behind again we exist in your
057school district and deserve to be treated with some respect and dignity the way you have handled this crisis is reprehensible cruel and makes me ashamed to be a part of the PSD Community if PSC had to hire Mr sunella which I think is a load of BS then you probably should have hired him to mow the lawn instead of being with children who couldn't speak it's time for the community to hear the complication that zanella's spouse was a PSD bus dispatcher when all of this violence occurred and it's time to hear what other Secrets the district is hiding thank you thank you that concludes the community comment portion of our agenda now we're on to the board remarks and comments would anybody on the board like to make a report or otherwise comment go ahead
058Nate yes I wanted to comment on Mr kingsley's remarks um one of the things that I think is important uh in this training of Transportation Personnel is making drivers aware of particular issues that stand out especially the general education drivers with students um who might have issues I know that it's hard to decide what Rises to the level of of making the drivers aware but as I understand it the Special Ed drivers are made aware and that's appropriate but the General Ed drivers are in my experience of eight years of driving and two in this District the general education drivers are not necessarily made aware of significant issues with students on their bus should they occur and in the case that I was involved in 10 years ago driving in this district there was a
059student on my bus who had significant issues in the only way I found out about it was when the student had a incident that got them suspended from the bus and I know that there are reasons why general education drivers don't necessarily aren't necessarily allowed to have access to things that are documented in IEPs but at least I think they ought to be made aware of highlights of those documents when they're uh pretty significant and so I just wanted to put that out there and I appreciate that the transportation department is undergoing having their drivers undergo more training um I've also been a person that's had to uh do the annual child abuse training and I think it is appropriate and sufficient and it's clear to me at least who I'm supposed to report to
060as a mandatory reporter so I appreciate your comments and appreciate the community comments about these issues and uh I hope that we can be a better district and get past this incident that none of us wish on anyone so thank you other remarks are reports from members of the board looks like not you want to say anything else Brian okay in which case we are on to the consent agenda would any board members like to remove anything from the consent agenda looks like not in which case can I have a motion in support of the consent agenda go ahead Nate I move that the board approve and adopt the recommended actions for the items on the consent agenda do I have a second looks like jazz Jill could you call a vote on the consent
061agenda please 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 our next item is an action item around the internal monitoring and policy review with respect to Executive limitation 2.5 which is associated with the emergency superintendent and executive assistant succession can I get a motion with respect to this go ahead Kristin I need have that I knew that the board determined that the superintendent has reasonably interpreted Board of Education policy El 2.5 in its internal monitoring report dated August 8 2023 and that the evidence presented supports the superintendent's conclusion stated in the internal monitoring report do I have a second on that looks like Jess again is there any discussion with respect to this
062monitoring report go ahead Nate yes I support the uh policy and I think the internal monitoring report lays things out as and in a way that makes good sense um one of the things that I questioned though is whether and this doesn't have anything to do with the current incumbents in these jobs but I do question whether as As a matter of positional Authority whether the succession to the job of superintendent should be primarily the assistant superintendents because they've risen to a level where through education and experience they would be qualified after a period of time to be hired as a superintendent and in this case I think the current chief of staff is wonderfully qualified to be able to do that I just think as a matter of um positional Authority that the assistant
063superintendents are more suited to be in the line of succession and I think it's also maybe unclear in the policy because it doesn't state positions it's unclear who would be the person chosen because it just says two or more administrators so I think that's a little unclear so maybe maybe I'll back up and say I think the policy isn't clear enough on that issue but I will support it for now thank you other comments yeah I'll say that I think that this well I know this policy comes before the board every year and so as as circumstances people change we can certainly change the policy the superintendent can propose changes the policy the board can force changes to the policy that reflect the uh people and circumstances involved I think with respect to the the
064fact that there are now basically four people named in this uh in this executive limitation I think at some level uh should the really unfortunate circumstance happen where Brian is out of pocket incapacitated otherwise unable to discharge his duties I think at some level it'll be up to the board to identify who is the individual involved right who will lead the district at that point I think the statement here is that all of these people are potentially qualified to do so and certainly I'll also say that this is an emergency succession thing it has nothing to do with who would be an interim superintendent to the extent that Brian was permanently incapacitated or otherwise unavailable to continue his UH responsibilities and that falls entirely on the board to identify who that is whether it's one
065of these people or whether it's somebody else as in the past you know other people have been brought in from the outside would be the decision of that board at the time so that's my thing so I think this is fine the way it is gives us a sense of who's capable in the estimation of the superintendent and I intend to support it as is yeah I guess I'm even more uncomfortable with it as written because to me that could mean any member of the superintendent's cabinet it's it's it just says shall not have fewer than two administrators who are sufficiently familiar to me most are all the members of the cabinet are familiar and it's not really specific as to who who would be eligible or who the decision maker would be in the
066case of an emergency succession okay and so I don't think just having statements in the internal monitoring report is sufficient so okay thanks so that so okay that's fair I I would suggest then that we uh uh I would like to uh support the motion on the table at this time and if you or others would like to work with Autumn and the superintendent to talk about how we should change this policy going forward I think that's fine I think I think you're right in the sense that if there are two even two people named let alone four people uh positions named right who is that person that's always been a question it's always the policy has always been written this way so if we want to change it to be more specific about who
067the decision maker is uh in particular then I think that's certainly something we can do I wouldn't hold up tonight's approval for that though I guess is what I would say other comments or thoughts Jill if you call a vote on this motion please DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan no Kristen Draper aye Rob Patterson aye Carolyn Reed no Jessica Zamora aye motion passes five two thank you very much Jill our next uh item is an informational item and we've been waiting for this for a while which is the feasibility study with respect to solar energy and Brian I'll turn it over to you to introduce the speakers on the topic yes thank you excuse me thank you president Patterson in the board president okay presenting the solar feasibility study tonight Are mckinstry's
068teams members Martin Beggs Tim DeLeo Jordan Worthington and Lauren Bridgers I want to welcome you I also want to welcome Trudy trimbath our energy and sustainable manager a sustainability manager who has been Mission critical in navigating the complexities and the opportunities of this work so thank you for being here as well Trudy I thank you for having us tonight member of the board members of the cabinets I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you about the solar PV feasibility study that we've been working on for the last few months so just a quick round of introductions I'm Martin Beggs I'm a program manager with our renewable energy Development Group asked me is Tim DeLeo who's a renewable energy engineer for the left Lauren Bridgers who's our project director and Jordan Worthington who's our account executive
069and so throughout the presentation tonight we'll be handing off the Baton from one to the next I've got about five or six slides and then we'll hand it off to Tim who has a few slides on Project site examples handed off to Jordan who will have a few slides on financial mechanisms and then Lauren will take us home so sword great so we presented not too many months ago and I think there are a number of folks that are familiar with mckinstry um you know mckinstry was founded in 1960 we have about 2200 employees our golden office or our regional office is in Golden Colorado we do design build operate and retrofit services and we primarily work in the public sector so with K-12 local government municipalities and universities and the solar PV study is
070actually just one of four studies that mckinstry is currently working on for PSD we also have an air conditioning study a facility condition assessment study and a retro commissioning study all currently being worked on the first study that you're hearing the results on is a solar PB study but just a heads up that there are three more coming your way in the future and so this slide is really it's pretty busy but it speaks to our development process so the solar feasibility study was really focusing on the phase one of our full development process and so we've done the learn audit analyze and Report portions of the overall process there has been quite a bit of interaction with the school district throughout the process we've met regularly to check in and we've delivered a final
071report which I think many of you have seen and tonight we're here to present on that report and its findings and answer any questions that you may have um you know mckinstry would love the opportunity to move into the phase two process whereby we would continue working on the development of a technically feasible and financially feasible portfolio of projects from there we would you know during that development process we would run competitive rfps we would provide design and engineering and ultimately construct and commission the projects I knew we were asked for some acronyms and some definitions of of those you know solar photovoltaics and battery energy storage are not alone and having their host of in this case three to six letter acronyms and so uh in the report I think every time we've mentioned
072an acronym we've stated the full version before we start using the acronym but this is here just as a reference point because there are a number of them in in the industry and now here's the high level uh executive summary of the results from the study we did look at 61 buildings and on the right side of the slide we broke those 61 into three categories so there are six sites that we have considered as financially and technically feasible 14 that are not financially feasible but are technically feasible and 41 that were not technically feasible because of issues like roof age or structural capacity that was not adequate for a new solar PV system land availability or rather lack thereof and small parking lot sizes that would not have fit a parking structure we also
073looked at four sites for consideration of battery storage technology and that six site financially and technically feasible portfolio is broken down in the bottom left and so we have a roughly two megawatt or 1950 kilowatt DC portfolio project spread out over the six sites the cost including the IRA reduction or the IRA credit would be about 4.6 million dollars offset of the building consumption would be about 90 percent and year one production was going to be about 2.9 gigawatt hours I think we had kilowatt hours there originally so just a difference of a million or so or a factor of a million but we've corrected that since so thank you forever who noticed that typo and from there I will hand this off to Tim to go into a couple of site-specific examples thanks Mark
074is it sure sure we'll go ahead and bring it Kristen you have a question or a comment yeah I just had a question about um so out of the 41 technical um that were not technically feasible you mentioned that some of them were like roofs if the roof were to be replaced are we then going to go back and take a look at that um in that in a timely fashion say if the roof is replaced in the next 10 years go ahead and say okay we can reevaluate it then I know the parking lots and the um you know the other things that you had mentioned um the available land you know that may not change but the roofing could or is it that a structural aspect of the building that it would not
075support something in the roofing when you replace it it's not going to support it regardless sure so you know the in the case the ideal circumstances that a new solar PV system lifespan you know 25 to 30 years would be uh paired with a brand new roof um that you know has a similar lifespan so that's really uh the best opportunity to to put renewable energy uh on a school roof absolutely so as those roofs are scheduled for replacement then we would absolutely recommend that they be evaluated for for solar we looked at roofs that were coming up for replacement uh in the in the near future but just without visibility on you know medium term you know what those roofs might be it was it was hard to parse that out so absolutely yeah
076if there are roofs you know five years from now 10 years from now that are coming up for replacement we would absolutely recommend and would love to look at those roofs again so yeah hang on Nate so do you have no sense about whether any of those roof structures forget about the material on the roof would support a reasonable solar array or not most will in my experience you know most there are some that are just not adequate you tend to need some available capacity um the most flat roof solar PB systems are hybrid ballasted and mechanically attached and the more cost effective you get the more ballast you use because it's concrete blocks that are holding versus you know roof attachments that are being put on by a roofer the the what we really
077look for is in the realm of you know four to eight maybe more pounds per square foot of available capacity and have a have a structural engineer evaluate each and every roof that we look at taking to a later stage of development so the the roofs the schools where you ruled out the roofs because they need to be replaced or not a value we're not evaluated for structural ability to handle a PV is that correct some were so we did have roofs that had the that had roof ages so the first filter was roof ages and if the roof made it past that roof age filter then we evaluated the structural and so there were some that were viable from an age perspective but not viable from a structural perspective okay but the age so
078what was the age cutoff you used it depends on the roof type really so you know a membrane roof we look at five to seven years typical lifespan of that would be in the realm of 20 to 25 years if it's a metal roof it's much longer typically so you look at that in the range of 35 to 50 years depending on the roof manufacturer if it's a built up roof tar and gravel type of roof then you know those can last longer than membrane roots and even the membranes themselves have different lifespans so it can get pretty complicated pretty quickly but yeah membranes generally five to seven years if it's a built up roof we might look at seven to ten if it's a metal type of roof then we'd look at you know
079as depending on the type of roof we'd look at as old as 20 years I see Nate you had something yeah I was just going to add that the transportation center that was recently constructed was mentioned in here is not having the structural capacity and that's a new roof so doesn't necessarily mean that newer ones are suitable no I know yeah no I appreciate that clarification I I'm just concerned that to the extent that we that one of these grooves that was deemed out of the study we find money next year two years from now to replace we have to then I assume recontract with mckinstry or somebody else to do the analysis on it when the fundamental analysis about whether the roof structure would support it could have been done in this time frame
080it seems to be I think those are the comments from the board of the minute if you want to go ahead everyone so I'm going to take you through some examples of each portfolio that we have this site here was one of the best timmouth Middle High School um it's supplied by Excel which we've been finding that Excel has been pretty much the best economics for these solar projects largely in part due to their performance-based incentives which we can see here that thirty six thousand eight hundred dollars as a year one incentive and as well as Excel allows rate switches if you add PV and you qualify for this raid switch which my assessment of the utility bills that this building would qualify for that rate switch to an spvtou rate which is a time
081of use rates so the electricity charges throughout the day vary depending on what time you use it and that as you can see greatly help out system paybacks so for the technically feasible and not financially feasible we picked Warehouse five this is kind of Representative of what we've seen for every site in the Fort Collins Utility District um Fort Collins utilities just doesn't have the same incentives that Excel does and you can see these paybacks getting pushed out past the 20-year threshold for not feasible pick the north Transportation Center after Contracting jva it was Structural Engineers and giving them the measurements of the building and these structural components there they were able to find that it would not support the additional weight of the solar system so with if I yeah why don't you go
082ahead and eat first this time I'll ask after um I have a question that picture looks like it's the roof over the buses is that the case yes yeah we were asked by PSD to assess that building specifically oh I was thinking it was the it was the building before I was thinking it was the building that houses the terminal and was that one evaluated the new one that was dropped from the study due to roof age and roof size if I remember correctly um in the full report there's a table that goes through each site each of the 61 sites and gives reasoning for why it was either assessed or not assessed okay thanks so I wanted to explore a little bit the financial uh decision making I understand uh uh I I guess
083I got yeah I want to understand the distinction a little more clearly between what Fort Collins utilities offers with respect that that makes it less financially viable to to get payback on these systems and frankly whether there's anything to be done about that sure yeah Fort Collins utility offers a one-time payment incentive of 50 cents per watt up to five fifty thousand dollars and they would allow Pruder School District to interconnect two of those sites per year so that fifty thousand dollars and it isn't a huge dent in that funding and without a performance-based incentive like Excel has where they give you you know x amount of sense for each kilowatt hour that you generate um without that it's just kind of tanking so I have a solar array on my roof and I'm in
084Fort Collins right so I have some sense about what that is for residences I don't know how it applies to commercial or or industrial whatever classification we can fall under as a district um so are you saying that Excel not only um not only doesn't charge you for your own electricity that you that you generate right which presumably which is certainly the case of Fort Collins utilities as well but also in addition if you generate a kilowatt hour that you also happen to use that they're going to give you some additional money on top of that to have generated that correct between three and a half and three and three quarter cents per kwh so for their solar rewards medium program and then and then for kilowatt hours that you actually sell back to the
085network they pay you some percentage of the full price of that right so when you get it on both sides of it the things you use and the things you sell back you get some differing amounts but some amount for each of those kilowatt hours yep so it's a performance-based incentive and so for every kilowatt hour you generate via and and those are recorded by a solar production shooter at the site for every kilowatt hour you generate you would get a performance-based incentive whether you whether you use it you use it or whether you give it back to the network okay all right yeah because at least for residents Fort Collins for 20 yeah for 20 years um in the case of the program that applies to uh commercial and Industrial Systems so I mean
086I think the the other Factor really is that you know it's the it's the cost of electricity so you know the Fort Collins utility customers you know benefit from relatively inexpensive electricity and so the as a as a result of that the value of solar energy is also relatively low and so the when you start putting the cost of those systems and pair that with the value that you're going to get out of each individual kilowatt hour produced the economics just don't work out to pencil within the lifespan of the PB system all right that clarifies it for me thank you so much did you have something Carolyn yeah so um I noticed that we have Tim the middle school high school in there and the Wellington Middle School High School is is the same
087exact building so I'm getting that it's probably going to be technically feasible there but tell me why it's not financially feasible is that because that's pooter Valley Rea and if I believe that's pooter Valley if I remember right Wellington was in the technically and financially feasible portfolio as well if I remember correct okay um supplied by pvra all right and then so are the so there were good incentives with with the Buddha Valley Rea then so pdrea has slightly higher rates um so like Martin was saying the value to offset that energy so the value of the solar energy is greater for pvrea okay all right thanks I suppose yeah just to answer the other question that uh you had um about uh you know is there anything that could be done and you know
088mckinstry's uh you know a contractor for a feasibility study and and um you know we were set up with a meeting with uh Fort Collins utility they were you know very professional provided us with a lot of information about the school district building consumption uh we spoke about rates and about incentives so they they were really helpful I think the you know the advocacy I suppose that I think there is an opportunity from you know a large customer of a local utility uh to you know to do something that provides more incentive for for renewable energy projects thank you anything else from the board right now all right we'll let you get on with your presentation sorry about the interruptions but those are those were key points that I think the board was concerned about
089no appreciate the questions um I'll turn it over to Jordan from here um yep good evening good evening everyone I think we've spoken a lot about the um the what of the report and I think there were some questions previously in other board meetings on the the how you know how can this be done how can this be funded how have other school districts implemented solar and so um I think the the first step there is obviously you know we being mckinstry are an Energy Services Company we work through the Colorado energy offices EPC program I would say a majority of school districts in Colorado that are deploying solar at scale are likely working through the energy offices program to use um you know the the Energy savings guarantee Behind these projects to pay for
090them so you know if the district were to decide to move forward with the implementation of these systems um you know mckinstry as part of our process and our development process look at the the funding of these projects you know how can this actually get done you know the first step obviously is looking at rebates our team's already talked about you know uh each utility at each specific facility you know what incentives are available and then in combination looking at you know best in dollar a couple state level grants that you know could be used in in this application I think to your previous question uh Mr Peterson about the uh the roof age right if a roof is the the sole factor in solar PV not being feasible then that's certainly something that we
091could look at as far as going on applying for a grant to replace that roof and that's something that we would do during that that process um dollar Department of local Affairs also provides funding for solar PV systems typically school districts are not considered a priority under their program but depending on the technology application that exists are we you know looking at EV Fleet charging as well microgrids battery storage that kind of thing Dola would also you know consider an application from pooter for for some of these systems um there's also a lot of federal stimulus and grants that are available for school districts a a big one is the inflation reduction act I have a slide following this has a little bit more detail around it but new over the last basically year and
092a half the federal government now allows non-taxable entities to take advantage of what is called an investment tax credit almost treated as a rebate for the project at around the 30 level of total project cost which is really awesome for these projects and then there's also a a grant program federally called renew America schools a lot more Grant applications going into that one a little bit smaller a pot of money for that but it is something that we could look at as part of the process as well and then obviously you know how how does this get paid for um I would say again most districts that are working through the energy offices program are taking out some type of third-party financing to pay for these projects where the Energy savings from the solar PV
093are covering those Finance payments over time so you at the district are not responsible for using bond funds or other Capital that can go towards other priority projects of the district and so you know atelp a cop or a couple different financing mechanisms that school districts around Colorado use to implement these types of projects um with that again kind of more of a reference slide but the IRA is a really really powerful tool for us to use in solar PV here in Colorado again generally thinking about it it's around a 30 credit there are bonus adders for this type of work they can be a little bit more difficult to to hit and they're they're location dependent as well like an example is a low income Community or an energy community and so as we
094move through the process of of kind of final development of these sites we can help bring along a Tax Advisor that would really like analyze each facility in each system and say yes this does qualify for these additional bonus adders or no and kind of really round out what that Financial Financial picture looks like for the IRA with that I'm going to turn it over to Lauren Jordan right so um again I know kind of like Jordan mentioned there's been a lot of how and kind of this slide is going to go into when or what could that look like if you guys would like to move forward with implementing any of these sites that we've recommended um so that could look like fall winter we could go into an investment grade audit which is
095that first step into that energy performance contract that Jordan mentioned on the last slide from that audit it's really going to be that second phase that Martin referenced on Slide Five where it's the final development and then into construction um well I say final development construction comes kind of after we do our gmax proposal which is our guaranteed maximum pricing so that could happen in summer 2024 again that's flexible that really is going to depend on kind of the other studies that we're presenting what could come out of those what your interests are it could definitely be accelerated but we kind of put it at that summer 2024 for just kind of having all the studies and being able to look at holistically um that could go to who fall 2024 board approval and then
096we could start construction fall winter of 2024 as well then substantial completion again this could be pulled forward depending on what Scopes are implemented but it could go through spring of 2026 but again that again very much on what's decided to be implemented and then this last step here is spring of 2029 which is our completion of our measurement and verification so if you enter in into an energy performance contract that's included in there that through the Colorado energy office as Jordan mentioned they make sure or we make sure with them that all of the savings that we say that you guys are going to get get through the project is actually realized so we do that for three years once the project is substantially complete any questions on that I'm sorry Nate go ahead
097yeah um my sense is that we don't have the money to invest in this right now and then we need to go to voters to get authority to invest in some of this or most of it and so what is the financial commitment under this schedule what is the financial commitment before we start talking about contracts for actual work great question um so kind of as Jordan mentioned yes we agree going to the voters for Bond or other means is one way to do it the telp and cop is actually another option where you would not necessarily have to get approval through the board because as we mentioned with an energy performance contract the savings is guaranteed and so that is kind of what funds the project is the savings so to answer your question
098on you know how is that implemented into this schedule and what does that upfront cost look like with an energy performance contract doing that final that Sage or sorry step four which is that develop we can sign and an IGA and don't have to do any upfront costs that cost can be rolled into the construction portion of the energy performance contract so it could be zero would be The Upfront cost if that's the way the district uses go you know pile on real quick I think we built this schedule around the idea that maybe there's a oh sorry good point sorry we built this schedule around the idea that you know a fall 2024 you know vote for Bond or a debt-free mill Levy may occur if if that is not the direction that the
099district chooses to fund this project if it is a third party financing mechanism then this can become a little bit more fluid and it would really just depend on you know how quickly do we arrive on those final sites we would work with your District's Finance team to really nail down what are your financial parameters for this project what what goals do you have and I mean really that that project or that process moves as quickly as you would like right and you know we want to make sure that we're doing the right thing and looking at the right scope and part of that is kind of the financial picture as well I I would like to call on Jim to ask his question sorry I just needed clarification is an energy performance contract the
100same as a PPA a power performance okay yeah so tell me more no they're not from his contract as I mentioned is through the Colorado Energy Office it can actually be used for multiple things outside of solar can be used for mechanical can be used for anything that you could generate Energy savings for and use that savings to fund it ppas I'll let Martin kind of jump in but I believe they're solar specific yeah PPA is a power purchase agreement and so that is you know typically it's a third party owner of a system and then the owner of that system would sell the energy to the off taker or to the site host okay thank you so I think I heard something in the middle of this presentation that there are potentially funds available
101to actually replace roofs so that solar could then be applied quickly is that did I understand that correctly yes so building excellent schools today is a Colorado Department of Education the best Grant yes okay fine yeah I know what that is okay yep but that's what you were talking about yes okay thank you yep yeah so there is a um there is a component match obviously there uh in any way so yeah it is something that we would look at as part of that program I think the larger piece there that we're also looking at is the utility utility territory for each school so again you know we do go through that filter process of saying okay yes if this roof is replaced but the the financially feasible part is still going to be dependent
102on the utility part as well understood Nate and the district has received a couple or a few best grants but largely those go to districts that are less financially well off than we are so wouldn't I wouldn't hold that out as necessarily a particularly good Prospect Fair Point Nate thanks for vocalizing that other uh yes Jess kind of walk me through what happens in those three years once the Project's complete that you're kind of holding your hand and making sure it works out yeah sure yep so um obviously we we go through construction as part of that I guess we'll rewind a little bit when we're going through the audit process we lay out each measure that we're moving forward in this case solar PV we work with the energy office they look at our
103calculations and what we've said is hey what are the Energy savings for this opportunity they verify those savings along with our team so we agree with the district we agree with the Colorado energy office and that is part of the contract that moves towards so entering in construction that is the understanding that is like this is the outcome of that project right we're held financially liable for the performance of that project and so uh upon completion we have I believe six months after completion of the project we go through and post install report where it's kind of an initial view of hey here's how the system's performing solar PV is a little bit more straightforward often like there's a more complex uh scope right sometimes there's like hey you guys are running your mechanical systems
104a little bit longer than we talked about during this it can get you know a little bit of a discussion period there but with solar PV it really is just kind of a monitoring and saying hey yes this is producing uh if not why not right is there is a material fail a failure is there equipment that's you know something isn't working correctly and then it's up to us in that process once we've identified say hey there is a shortfall occurring it's up to us to fix that is there an inverter that's whatever it might be right panels are cracked or not producing whatever it might be um so that that is kind of the six months process and then there's an official year one mmv report that we go through and that is also
105with the energy office that we meet with your team we review hey here are our findings for the year the energy office then again checks our math says yep that makes sense you guys are producing as per the contract and it's just kind of that that repeat uh process again for years two and three and so I think the state really kind of the intent there for three years is to say hopefully by year three right every system that we've put into place is functioning as intended and so it's not there is a cost to M and V measurement verification right we have Engineers on site we're doing a lot of work so it's kind of the best financial payback for the district to say yes these systems are working no you don't have to
106keep writing you know checks to verify that that is occurring so yep other comments or questions from the board more slide planning and construction website and as we kind of mentioned earlier solar is just one piece of our mckinstry studies and we are going to be doing an AC study report presenting you got two guys on September 26th any other questions for our team yes Nate and then I have one too unless I was just going to point out on the previous slide with the potential implementation timeline that's a picture I believe of Harris bilingual Elementary School which was the first school in the nation to score a perfect 100 on its energy star audit after the completion of uh installation of Windows and some other things and maybe after this renovation and I asked
107the Architects at the time could we run some conduit up to the roof for future installation of solar and they were like get out of my face thanks well that wasn't my comment so I think I think I my question is you're going to be providing more information on AC on the 26th or whatever that is and and eventually on the General State of our buildings and and the need for work which presumably will include roofs um is there any way that all of this is going to wind up tying together right because you know the if we were to get enough money uh through whatever means bonds or other means to put ACS in all the schools for example or in even some of the schools does that change any of the financial viability
108picture for example if your recommendation when you look at the state of our buildings is the roof at school X needs to be replaced yesterday find a find a way to do that right now that gets to the question earlier about if that happens to be in a Zone where it's financially viable if it has the right structure then that changes that so is all this somehow going to be tied together are they going to be an update to this based on that what's how is that all going to come together uh certainly uh yes as part of that process right we can take a look at if AC is going to be implemented at a school we can use energy models to say hey this is kind of what that future use might look
109like and we can size systems to help offset that that is certainly something that we could do and again like like you mentioned the roofing is another component of our FCA that will also take into you know into account as part of that investment grade audit so yes I'm not sure about the specifically updating the report but yeah I think absolutely we can update the report based off of if there are schools that are uh become technically feasible from a roof age perspective then I think it would absolutely make sense to to take the next step and and sort out you know the rest of the feasibility question there good I appreciate that thank you and I guess the other question I have that just occurred to me is you said one of the reasons
110that the Fort Collins utilities uh based schools are not financially viable is that the cost of electricity is relatively inexpensive uh is there a Tipping Point I don't of course have any knowledge at all about what Fort Collins utility rates are going to do over the next whatever but is there a Tipping Point where it it becomes uh appropriate to or more makes more sense to look at this again yeah I think if I remember correctly the uh Fort Collins utility was maybe the the Blended rate it was around five or six cents per kwh and so you know we start to see solar PV systems penciling over the lifespan of the system you know in the realm of you know seven or eight cents um per kwh so that's the that's the Gap that
111we're seeing and you know incentives can make up that Gap there are you know there could be rate changes there could be uh you know an offering whereby uh you know a facility might qualify for a rate switch to a time of use rate and that may change the economic picture so I think there are different Avenues but if the Blended rate would go up to seven or eight or nine cents and the solar costs remain roughly the same then that would make a lot more sense to consider the Fort Collins possibilities as well right yep yep you know there has been a lot of construction uh labor inflation over the last of course 18 months and in the Solar industry we call it the solar coaster because things are always changing so there's policy
112changes there's cost changes there's supply chain issues all that kind of stuff so you know you know three months from now a year from now the picture will look a little bit different but you know there are unfortunately the the industry is maturing and will continue to do so thank you so much anything else from the board go ahead Carolyn this really isn't for mckinstry I guess this is for the district as a whole and all of this that the district probably should start to think about adopting a climate action plan because that would help guide our decisions not just based on return on investment or our financials but on a climate action plan I know that other school districts in the state have adopted a climate action plan to help guide their work and
113I think that if if we don't have a policy or a plan it's it's really hard to pick at this you know piece by piece only looking at the financial aspect so I I'm still interested in us maybe taking a look at a climate action plan and maybe involving our students in that as well thank you other comments all right I think that's a wrap we appreciate very much the work that you've done thank you and for your presentation and we look forward to part two of four we're coming up thanks again all right uh that uh that concludes our informational reports now we have two executive sessions can I get a motion with respect to the executive sessions we're looking for the right motion language gotta do this we got to do this legally
114sorry go ahead Kristen I move that the board enter executive session for the purposes of one discussing potential real estate transactions relating to the kitchen Estates development as authorized by CRS 24-6-402 subsection 4A and two to determine positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations developing strategy for negotiations and instructing negotiators relating to a possible intergovernmental agreement relating to the Southeast Community Recreation Center as authorized by CRS 24-6-402 subsection 4E individuals invited to join the board in all part of the executive session are superintendent Brian Kingsley Chief officers Jeff Connell Lauren Hooten and Dave Montoya and general counsel Adam Aspen thank you do I have a second looks like jam um cannot get a vote and you can say what you need to say can I get a vote on this Jill DJ
115Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan all right Kristen Draper aye Rob Henderson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thank you very much Joe uh Kristen I believe you have something you want to say Yes um I would just like to recuse myself from these uh number two to determine positions relative to matters that May subject to negotiations [Laughter] with respect to the southeast Recreation Center thank you thank you very much for sharing that with our public and uh I will just point out that we're going to convene an executive session there's nothing else that's going to happen in public other than that I'm going to come out here and pound this gavel if you want to if if you want to wait an hour or whatever it's going to take
116to watch me pound this you can certainly stay uh we're not going to have it on television though so thank you all very much for joining us this evening uh for this first meeting of the school year we look forward to the next meeting in two weeks and uh we wish you a good evening thank you foreign