001all right welcome everybody to the June 3rd June 13th uh meeting of the putter School District Board of Education it's now 5 35 and I'll call this meeting to order um if you would make sure that your cell phones are muted which I will do also uh that would be great because then we don't have any strange noises coming during the meeting um I'll just acknowledge that sitting in for superintendent Kingsley tonight is assistant superintendent Scott Nielsen welcome thanks for joining us and with that we will uh go for our first item on the agenda which is the Pledge of Allegiance so if you'd stand to join me I'd appreciate it that's great thank you um our next item is approval of the agenda with any board members like to amend the agenda not the
002consent agenda the actual agenda looks like not um then we will go on to recognitions and reports I believe we have quite a few uh recognitions uh tonight I assume many of you in the audience are here for that and we welcome you so Scott if you'd like to leave that off that would be outstanding uh this evening we are excited uh we have lots of things to celebrate I think you can see we've got lots of people in the audience we have uh things like Odyssey of the mind and Science Olympiad and state champions for Esports National assistant principal of the year and many others will be celebrated as we go through the recognitions and celebrations this evening to kick things off leading or I guess I'd say leading tonight's celebration is Chief Information
003officer Madeline noblet welcome Madeline thanks for taking us through these celebrations yeah thank you assistant superintendent Nielsen members of the board cabinet and our wonderfully large audience here this evening thank you so much Mike is going in and out I will give it just a moment still not liking there we go all right well thank you I know that it is after school and so it may be an even more significant ask to have some of you join us this evening but we couldn't be more excited to have you here and celebrate our wonderful students and staff as we do all right so our first recognition of the evening I would like to welcome Angela Heckert to join me here along with any members of the Beatty Elementary Odyssey of the Mind team the fifth
004grade girls state champions qualified for World competition this year and we are so wonderfully proud of you thank you for joining us and with that I will turn it over to Angela to say some wonderful words about you all if that's okay and I'm Angela heckart I'm the site coordinator at Beatty Elementary and I would love for Chris Henry to say some words about his team so he is a very dedicated coach and we were very lucky to have him thank you Angela I didn't really prepare much I just want to say thank you to all these wonderful kids and all the kids throughout the district that participated noticing the mind and all the other activities they give their time and their effort and their creativity to do very special things and I want to
005say thank you specifically to U7 they're missing Leah but to U7 for having me along on your journey this was your journey and I got to I got to come along and I really appreciate that so thank you and what a wonderful job you guys did [Applause] certificates congratulations all right so right here okay thank you congratulations [Applause] okay and then as I share with any of our guests you are welcome to stay with us for as long as you would like this evening and watch the Democratic process unfold before your eyes or you may go ahead and head out and enjoy the rest of your evening it's entirely up to you but with that thank you very much thanks [Applause] hmm all right next thank you very much next we are going to recognize
006our chassa Esports state champions in Mario Kart and Smash Brothers um so with that I would like to welcome chance Matia am I saying that right along with any members of the Rocky Mountain High School Mario Kart and Smash Brothers team if you would go ahead and stand in front of the screen here and then if I may welcome chase our chance excuse me to join me to say a few kind words about your incredible accomplishments thank you uh to the board and to the district for all the support and having us here over the years Esports is something that we started at Rocky about four or five years ago when I first started there and we started with about 10 kids and this year we have about 60 and this is a really really
007special group there's some kids that have been with us for four years just been with us for one year there's freshmen all the way through seniors up here and they had a lot of fun together and they made um staying late with them after school every day just so much fun and it was just a really really awesome season and they're a very special group of kids and I just hope that Esports can continue and just keep being a spot for everybody tonight I have certificates it looks like um you've got not quite all the numbers who are from Smashbox all right Maya there you go congratulations and when I saw a Smash Brothers state competition I thought maybe it was UFC but that's different Oliver congratulations and Samuel okay okay and then the rest
008are you from Mario Kart yeah I've got Cooper congratulations Jack congratulations and James awesome [Applause] thank you [Music] any activities I think Esports is kind of a thing a lot of kids growing up I think it's kind of fun lame thing to do cool things to do you know you want to join soccer or sport but these sorts have been such a great opportunities where all of us so you've got the kids that are interested please encourage them for scholarship opportunities cool thanks again congratulations thank you all right next we are going to transition to recognizing a couple of our incredible colleagues um so as we talk about in this space and hopefully those of you in the room and others have had a chance to experience we are the district we are because of
009the people who work here supporting students every day in all of their respective roles whether it's on a bus if it's in finance and making sure that we are transparent and accountable or if it is taking on the significant task of making sure that our students have access to food so that they are fueled and ready to go so that they can learn and can grow every day and so with that it is my great pleasure to welcome my friend and colleague Mr Craig Schneider if you'd like to come join me he was recognized as director of the year for the state of Colorado and the mountain Plains region by the school nutrition Association I think I haven't been here long but I've known Craig for several years and being able to watch you lead
010such an incredible team of passionate dedicated detail-oriented people who make sure that our kids have food that's Source directly from farms in our region to navigating incredible Staffing shortages and challenges throughout our region and just the amazing concert that it is to coordinate meals at schools to make sure that our kids have what they need including my own son who loves School meals thank you for all you do and we appreciate the heck out of you so let's give Craig a round of applause and then we'll see if he'll have a few words to share all right I'll turn it over to you Craig well thank you I think this is just a recognition of the work that all of our kitchen teams do every day and getting recognition from a state and a national
011level being an industry leader in food service and Child Nutrition and we're excited this fall Universal free meals is coming to Colorado and we we're ready for it we're gonna be ready for it we're at the Forefront and so we're really excited for that new chapter and and really just appreciate the support we get in the district and the dedication of the teams that we have in the schools so thank you everybody thank you hey okay congratulations all right another group that will record Another colleague that will recognize this evening if I could welcome Amanda pawlowski and Tommy Sue Cox Amanda was recognized as the national assistant principal of the year and what an incredible recognition to know that we have staff and colleagues here who are recognized not just at a community level in
012the work that you do not just at the state level but also at the national level it's certainly a privilege to know that we have people of your caliber and talent and compassion here in the district so thank you so much for what you do and then Kristen yeah if you'd like um I just want to take a moment to thank the board as well as superintendent Kingsley for this recognition and I want to thank my husband and children for their support and sharing me with well over 400 families each year it's always been an honor to serve our public education system our community and most importantly our students I'm very grateful to have been welcomed and supported by our school community and for the opportunity to team up in productive growth and necessary conversation
013with families and Educators who all want what's best for our students everyone who enters Laurel Elementary School of Arts and Technology is embraced for the entirety of who they are seen for The Unique gifts each brings into our world and values valued as members of our Collective community every member of our team is in education for beautiful reasons and it is a true pleasure to work alongside them a few years ago I attended a session at the annual case conference over the summer in which it was shared that leaders must remember to tap others on the shoulder offer them a stepping stool and recognize their light so I would like to take this moment of Spotlight tonight to share a few other names with you who just completed their first year in PSD teaching at
014Laurel and did so with a level of dedication that deserves to be recognized so I'll just read their names Jenna Sloan Lori Coffey Tatiana Grogan Taylor bass Bailey Walter Megan Saunders Elizabeth Luker Sherry McGuire Tim O'Brien Morgan Barker and April Eisley the future of PSD is very bright and I'm humbled daily by the contributions of our Educators thank you to principal Cox for tapping my shoulder six years ago and thank you to the students and families of Laurel Elementary School of Arts and Technology and again to the PSD Board of Education thank you [Music] thank you congratulations all right thank you okay so for the last couple of recognitions this evening we have a couple more pretty outstanding students uh that we'd like to take a moment to celebrate here they were not able to
015join us this evening but I will go ahead and recognize them and if they're watching or watch later listening in then they can know that they were celebrated in this space as well as in others so the first is we have a couple of Colorado state champions in the concorso de de la Trio Colorado State Spanish spelling bee and so we are celebrating tonight Brielle Morrow and Thomas Tommy Rojas both students at Harris Elementary School and so this is an all Spanish spelling bee we've noted the state spelling bee in this space before but if we can let's go ahead and give a round of applause for Brielle and Tommy thank you all right the next group we'd like to recognize uh Preston middle schools first place winners in the state Science Olympiad competition and
016they also qualified for the national tournament so again just an incredible celebration of academic achievement above and beyond the classroom as well as belonging and we'd like to thank Elizabeth Lloyd who oversees the group as well as Amy their principal over there at Preston so if we could give them a round of applause as well all right last for this evening for recognitions we always take a few minutes around this time of year to be able to acknowledge some of our students who have done incredibly well in the area of scholarships right when it comes to looking at the trajectory of a student's path within PSD they not only have an incredible experience from the time that they are Littlest in our Early Childhood Program all the way through graduation but we talk about graduation
017with options right and students being able to go on and make sure that they have multiple options after they receive their high school diploma one of the ways that we know that's true is by looking at some of the incredible scholarships that our students have earned during their time and this is not a list comprehensive of all scholarships across all students so if you're worrying about how long I might be reading we have incredible students but it won't be that long we have taken a selection of some of the most prominent and special of scholarships that students have received and then there is a story on our website that has a longer list if you'd like to go and celebrate more of our students Beyond this so with that I will read through a list
018of some of those for our ROTC scholarships we have kitson Cole broadbelt from Fort Collins High School Alice canokio from Fossil Ridge High School Derek Luther Rocky Mountain High School and Robert Weber from Rocky Mountain High School next we have a Academy appointments for the U.S Air Force Academy which is incredible in and of itself from Fort Collins High School we have Bryson or Bryce Olson excuse me and Grant Samuelson so we thank them for their future service we have a better Foundation scholar Karem gherkin from Fossil Ridge High School so among them the most outstanding Scholarships in our country we also have a Daniels fund scholar Zane Kondra tubiev from Fossil Ridge High School so wonderful job to them we have an incredible growing list of scholarship winners for the national Hispanic scholar award
019which I think speaks to just our growing um uh just our growing amazing wonderful students being representative of of all that are in our community and so from Fossil Ridge High School we have Benjamin kosect we have Kylie Perez Liana Rodriguez Pietra kolacry arikita from pooter high school we have Anna muchevitz Roman Danielle Gutierrez Pablo kulicek Lopez Sophia Bennett and Sophia Rose Kirby and then from Rocky Mountain High School we have Colby Alonso Oneida Lepe Caleb Bischoff Grace collap Benito Timothy Fisher Robert Forte and Nica Torres David Dean tostes Ribeiro McLaughlin Jude O'Daniel and Laura Sanchez unda we also have in pooter School District a long list of National Merit Scholars as well and so we have Jack Carpenter and Raul gauche from Fort Collins High School representing pooter High we have Henry Johnston Anika
020beji Auden fremstad Theo Kun and Parker valeski and from Rocky we have Alden Vierra and then we have some other scholarships when we asked our schools who are some students or scholarships that you wanted to celebrate Beyond those that are in some of the most recognized at a national level and Centennial High School came forward to celebrate we have Amorous Fernandez who was awarded the Pooter Association of School Executives scholarships so a scholarship here in our district awarded to students we have Elizabeth Fuentes Zamora and Ramon Hernandez who are awarded the Pooter retired School Employees Association and pooter Association of school executive scholarship we have Christian Lopez who received the Pooter retired School Employees Association scholarship and Reagan Richardson who won the Elks vocational scholarship and then last but not least we're coming up we
021have the quest Bridge scholarship for Bryn Erickson from Fort Collins High School Sophie Wang was a Coca-Cola scholarship winner from fossil Bianca kodrick savedra was an Amazon future engineer scholar from pooter High School I hear her scholarship arrived in an Amazon package in a surprise delivery at pooter high school so that's pretty fantastic the national indigenous award went to Kira Osborne and Phoenix Wall and then last but not least thank you for hanging in to celebrate this incredible list of students Rocky Mountain High School full tuition scholarships for academics Arts leadership or service we have Owen Geist Zoe Glenn Morgan Roscoe Arya shaf and Riley Stone so again what I think is notable is that is a long list but it is not anywhere inclusive of every single student across the district we wanted to
022make an attempt to show just how incredible our kids are and what they go on to be able to earn to support their future careers and encourage you to take a look at the website to celebrate more of our kids so with that we will conclude recognitions for the evening and I will turn it back [Applause] that's great thank you very much um now we have a couple of early action items here uh with regard to resolutions first is a resolution in support of Juneteenth do we have a motion for that Nate I know that the Board of Education adopt a resolution in support of Juneteenth June 19 2023. do I have a second it's like DJ who would like to read the resolution go ahead Nate resolution of the Pooter School District Board of
023Education in support of Juneteenth June 19 2023 whereas news of the end of the enslavement of African Americans did not reach the frontier areas of the United States in particular the state of Texas until months after the conclusion of the Civil War more than two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st 1863 and whereas on June 19 1865 Union Soldiers led by Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston Texas with news that the Civil War had ended and the enslaved were free and whereas African Americans who had been enslaved in the southwest celebrated June 19th commonly known as Juneteenth Independence Day as inspiration and encouragement for future generations and whereas Juneteenth Independence Day began as a holiday in the state of Texas and became a Federal holiday
024on June 17 2021 and is now celebrating in all 50 states in the District of Columbia as a special day of observance and recognition the emancipation of all slaves in the United States and whereas Juneteenth Independence Day celebrations have been held to honor African-American Freedom while encouraging self-development and respect for all cultures and whereas pooter school district is committed to providing an inclusive representative culturally affirming safe and supportive learning environment where all students employees and community members see the historical celebrations as an integral part of our district Mission and values there now therefore be it resolved that the Pooter School District Board of Education is hereby proclaim the 19th day of June 2023 as Juneteenth in pooter school district and encourages students staff and the community to support honor and celebrate the independence of and
025the Excellence in enriching contributions made from our African-American communities of the past and present excellent thank you and Scott I believe we have someone to speak to us about this this evening thanks president Patterson joining us this evening to speak to the Juneteenth resolution is psd's director of language culture and Equity David ottenreith welcome David thank you assistant superintendent Nielsen and members of the board of education for having us here tonight as we recognize Juneteenth through the Board of Education resolution speaking to the resolution tonight is recent Fort Collins high school graduate Adriana Wesley and during her time here at Fort Collins High School Adriana was proud member of the black student union and she served as co-president her senior year as co-president Adriana really developed her natural leadership skills which she will no doubt
026carry with her and utilize utilize when she enters the workforce this summer and at Front Range Community College in the fall not only is she College and Career ready but she is community ready and she will be a force for change anywhere she goes thank you for being here tonight [Applause] hello superintendent Nelson and Board of Education I am Adriana Wesley and I am happy proud and honored to be here passing a resolution proclaiming June 19th as Juneteenth in PSD is important to me students who look like me and students who don't look like me it's important because the celebration of Juneteenth is not only a major part of African American history but American history as well Juneteenth is a celebration of the date which the last slave was informed that they were set free
027making it the first Independence Day for all people in America I personally was not taught about Juneteenth in a classroom I was in top I was taught by Juneteenth by my mother I repeat I was not taught about Juneteenth in a classroom my mom described it to me as the real Independence Day after her telling me that I knew it was I knew that I wanted to tell everyone but understood it was a sensitive topic along the fact that not every person would see it that way last year around this time my mom was a part of the committee that would plan and celebrate Juneteenth going into that weekend long celebration seeing all people of all Races nationalities and backgrounds come together to celebrate such an important holiday that other people just considered another day
028off gave me more joy and passion than I ever thought possible although I personally didn't learn more on Juneteenth I was happily I can happily say that my mother and the other people she was with worked help Enlighten people about Juneteenth even if some people didn't learn something new they put the topic of Juneteenth out there to start a conversation returning to school with my newfound passion enlightened people all things black culture and black black history some of my close friends and fellow black students were thinking of bringing back the African-American student Society but in a new way black student union initially I was this just the secretary in charge of collecting data and organizing information we brought up into the club with due time the other council members as we called it noticed my
029passion and drive for importance of Education of our new class of our classmates about Black Culture and suggested I'd be co-president as co-president I and BSU members proceeded to decorate one of the major halls in our high school for Black History Month and embedded in these decorations were short but sweet autobiographies about major people in black history we as a club decided to leave these posters for the remainder of the school year to remind people that black history is everyone's history in the month of April to Colorado State University students came to speak to our club about being involved in this year's Juneteenth celebration this was just the call I was looking for for following my mother's footsteps and to share the beauty and importance of Juneteenth thank you [Applause] thank you [Applause] keep doing
030this in different orders would anybody with anybody from the board like to make any additional remarks go ahead Kristen um I just want to thank Adriana for that awesome speech and also for Mom that was you are inspiring and you're inspiring an entire generation and thank you so much for doing that and Adriana I can tell you you're going to inspire the Next Generation so love it keep it up thank you thank you all right Jill if you call a vote on this resolution I'd appreciate it DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan aye Kristen Draper aye Rob Patterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thanks very much Jill [Applause] all right our next resolution is is a resolution in support of pride month can I get a motion with
031respect to that resolution go ahead Kristen I move that the board approved the resolution in support of pride month June 2023. can I get a second looks like Jim um yeah who would like to read the resolution go ahead Kristen whereas pride month is celebrated in June to commemorate The Stonewall riots that took place on June 28 1969 and their impact in being a galvanizing Force within the movement for the lgbtqia plus rights and whereas the following year and every year since cities around the world hold Pride marches and celebrations to continue the fight for equal rights for all lgbtqia plus individuals create a community of joy and acceptance and celebrate the history of the movement before during and after the Stonewall riots and whereas pooter school district is committed to providing a safe and
032supportive learning environment where all students employees and community members are welcome for who they are regardless of their sexual orientation gender identity and gender expression and whereas the Pooter School Board wholeheartedly Embraces psd's lgbtqia plus students employees and community members for the diversity they bring to our schools and workplaces and strives to ensure that they are seen accepted and celebrated for who they fully are now therefore it be resolved that the Pooter School District board of education does hereby proclaim the month of June 2023 as pride month in pooter school district and encourages students staff and the community to support honor and celebrate the Excellence and enriching contributions made from our lgbtqia plus communities of the past and presence and denounce discrimination and harassment of the lgbtqia plus community excellent thank you um all right
033I believe we have someone here to speak with us about this but just to be clear we're going to do the photo after the vote go ahead go ahead Scott again I want to welcome back David ottenreeth uh he's here to speak uh to the pride month resolution um again it's David attenreeth our psds director of language culture and Equity welcome back David thank you again assistant superintendent Nielsen and the board of education for having me back for and for introducing this resolution pride month gives us the annual opportunity to recognize and celebrate our lgbtqiaa plus Community for their strength resiliency advocacy and the progress they have deserved and earned since the 1969 Stonewall Uprising this year we cannot ignore the juxtaposition of this and the record high number of anti-lgbtqia plus bills that have
034been introduced and signed into law in our nation yet in the face of this our lgbtqia plus students staff and families continue to honor their authentic selves know their worth and grow their capacity to love themselves and others that is something to be proud of and in PSD we are proud of you we value you and you belong here tonight I'm honored to introduce our student speakers for the pride resolution the first one is from our futures lab and student Wren will come up and speak to us okay [Applause] okay hello everyone thank you for having me um I'm 17 a trans masculine person I use he him and they them pronouns I believe lgbtq plus students should get to be celebrated just like anyone else and at the very least they should have spaces
035to feel comfortable and safe and welcome to be themselves even going to school can be scary when you feel that people are going to look at you differently just for being yourself terrifying and uncomfortable to walk out in public and know there may be people who want to hurt you if they find out who you are and while we can't change the whole world we can do our part in education I'm thankful to have people who do respect me and if there's anything I've learned over the past few years it is that you can respect someone while not fully understanding or relating to them expression identity and preferences are only parts of who we are as human beings that being said extra support may be needed for lgbtq youth especially because we live in a
036world where harm comes the greatest to those who are different respecting titles like pronouns and preferred names are important to ensure that an individual feels comfortable my mouth is getting dry those preferred titles are up to that person even if they are children children are capable of having boundaries and preferences and I implore you to be open-minded and ready to learn with your child about these things so we can create safer spaces for everyone even if your child is not part of the lgbtq community often in our very polarizing Society instead of embracing and celebrating differences people use them as new reasons to divide each other battling biases and things you were taught growing up can be very difficult but it is never impossible there's always room for Change and thank you um you just
037need to allow yourself the room to do so it's okay to make mistakes the most important part is learning from them and while we have made great strides for the community there's always more to fight for especially this year with so many anti-lgbtq bills being proposed and approved and of course there's always more to learn I believe change begins with education how are you supposed to fight if you don't know what you're fighting for or why you are fighting for it to continue creating safer spaces we need to normalize these conversations not only talking civilly but normalizing curiosity being curious and asking questions for the sake of understanding further find more ways to connect build support and fight alongside your community your community needs you continue to learn and educate yourself and please remember to
038act with respect to open-mindedness and kindness toward all all right thank you red and now we are going to turn this over to Mazi who will speak to us also from Futures lab thank you for having me here today most Americans learn about lgbtq plus people through the media and typically what they learn is negative information this leads to misunderstanding and when we don't understand something it creates fear and fear can create hatred this is why it is so important to support lgbtq plus students and provide spaces for them to be heard when we learn different things that challenge our beliefs we expand our knowledge and grow as individuals as individuals we all have our own identities and wish to be seen and heard from the communities we are a part of when people aren't
039accepted for certain or multiple identities they hold it leads to feelings of depression loneliness anxiety and worthlessness 45 of lgbtq plus youth considered attempting suicide in 2022 school can be the only place students go to get support this is why the social aspect of gender affirming care which is honoring students names and pronouns providing support and inclusivity and allowing them to express themselves is so important at Futures lab I have always felt respected and I know that my identities mattered there when I changed my name this teachers at Futures lab all made an effort to call me that I would not be as confident in my identity if I wasn't a student at futureslab I enjoy being in class and learning much more than I did at my regular high school because of this to
040become to become more comfortable with lgbtq plus people we should be around them seek out resources for them and ourselves and most importantly not let our fear and misunderstandings control us we should want to learn more about people different from ourselves and grow to be better and I say we because even though I am a transgender person who is a part of the lgbtq plus Community I cannot represent every experience of the community because we are all different which is why we need to continue to provide voices and opportunities for everyone so that we can be heard and honor our differences that bring us together with any members of the board like to make remarks go ahead Nate wow those two speeches were very powerful thank you for being here and and speaking your truth
041and it can be a little uncomfortable for people that are well-meaning yet fairly ignorant about these issues and so I appreciate you highlighting uh what you did so that we can all try to be better thank you great other other remarks on the board questions or comments and go ahead question yeah um Rin and mozzie I just want to say thank you so much for sharing your stories sharing yourselves who sharing your authentic selves it's a beautiful thing to see and I just love it it makes my heart soar um and to the folks that came with you today I that I'm amazingly proud and and I want people to see the future Adriana Rin mozzie this is our future look how well we are set for our future it's beautiful and I just want
042to thank you for that so thank you oops sorry other comments from the board all right Jill if you would call a vote on this resolution I'd appreciate it DJ Anderson aye I'm brokish hi Nate Donovan aye Christian Draper aye Rob Pederson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thank you very much Jill now it's photo time [Applause] oops sorry you're good thank you can we go anywhere no we go anywhere to any family members that want to join us [Applause] all right excellent thank you very much there's one two and then water all right so now the next item on our agenda is the remarks from the superintendent in this case I'm inviting assistant superintendent Scott Nielsen to make remarks to the board of education and the community welcome again Scott
043thanks director Patterson and thanks board of education for having me tonight and as Rin and mozzie are walking out the door I just want to say thank you wise words and thanks for sharing them with us tonight I think director Draper said it well Futures in good hands so thanks for being here and thanks for pushing on us adults appreciate it yep thank you you know I think one of the things as I thought about the opportunity to speak tonight um that I that I wanted to touch on is we often hear people I think in our communities who are challenged by um how uh how we're not focused on academics we're not focused enough on the outcomes for students in our schools and over the past several weeks I think the board has had
044an opportunity to see through some outcomes that that we are seeing from our performance students this year that we're seeing good results and we're pushing on our students in the district and focused on the academic output of our students I think it's important that we recognize that I think over the past couple of months you've witnessed the emphasis we're putting on literacy and the curriculum we're bringing in for all of our elementary students going forward with the focus on educational output and so I I want to call that out tonight I think it's it's critical I also think in the past month or so we've watched the culmination of the experience students have from K-12 um as over 2 000 students walked across the stage and celebrated graduation from pooter school district and that's powerful
045as it opens the doors for students as they leave I think tonight we saw some examples of individuals who continue to work on their skills public speaking for all of us as adults may be challenging in some cases and we just saw several students who got up and um talked with us educated us enlightened Us in some cases and that's powerful that's that's educational output we recognize tonight Science Olympiad and Science Olympiad our Odyssey of the mind and Smash Brothers and Mario kartson things students are doing that that go above and beyond but enhance the opportunities that students have as they move through our system help with connections and as we think about the idea of graduating with options whether you're part of a robotics club or Science Olympiad I think there were call outs
046tonight of of humans who have helped students to find passions to find interests I think Adriana talked tonight about passion of hers being to help others to Enlighten others and she really found that when she was asked to to help educate as we think about the Juneteenth celebrate operation just before us all those things I think are opportunities for us to celebrate students and student outcomes tonight as we go through the meeting we're also going to have an opportunity for some other celebrations I think our board will take action tonight on the the newest SRO contract and we have Sergeant Ferraro and and Lieutenant uh Kingsman Kinsman here with us tonight and I just wanna from pooter school just acknowledge and recognize the willingness of Fort Collins Police our Larimer County Sheriffs to come to
047the table over the last several years and co-create what we have today I think when we go through the presentation tonight we really feel valued with the partnership I think you have pushed on us and I think we've pushed on you and because of that we're both better and so for that I just want to say thank you thanks for being here and thanks for your willingness to do that work with us um it really means a lot to us I also want to thank um are groups that have done our negotiations we'll also have a chance to to move forward with a new contract for our staff and it's due to lots and time and effort for those that represent our classified staff those individuals who who feed our students who make sure our
048buildings are ready to go who make sure our students get to and from school it also our teaching staff and those that actually are in front of students morning and it feels like to them noon and night our leaders all because of the time energy and and work that went through the negotiations process will average a little over a 10 percent increase this year and that's a testament to the work of the district the the work to be in a healthy place but also how we do the negotiating work in this District so I just want to do a call out to all that are part of that process I think it's important and I think um that's probably a good place for me to transition and to just say you know when we think
049about um the contract and celebrating the individuals that do all the work I just talked about that's what makes the magic happen in this district and with the mic tonight um I just want to say thank you I've been privileged to watch a lot of magic happen over the last 27 years in this District over the last seven years I've been in this role prior to that a principal in this district and a teacher before that and so I've had a lot of roles in this District I've had a chance to watch lots of individuals do lots of amazing things and work with a lot of tremendous human beings each day I get to work with a cabinet that pushes on me has made me better and I want to say thank you to you
050all I've had great leaders to work for during my time in PSD Dr Wilson if I was to pull a a talking point from earlier tap me on the shoulder and help me with my first principal job in this District some 17 years ago Dr smicer same thing tap me on the shoulder and helped me sit in this chair today I currently work for Mr Kingsley who was pushed and challenged me to be ready to take on the next role as I leave PSD and move a little bit further south to take on this role in one of our neighboring districts and I appreciate all of the leadership and then I'll close tonight as uh as I think about a thank you many people do dinner and a movie over the last seven years I
051consider myself very lucky that I have been able to do dinner and a meeting twice a month regularly on Tuesdays for several hours and uh to all of you um you give your time you give your expertise I've watched you build your expertise in the time I've been here and you've also build mine you've pushed on me you've challenged me you've given me a lot of Grace and you've been a tremendous support for me personally but in a bigger picture for this district and I can't tell you how excited I am to see I'm still a parent in this District so I still continue to watch the good work that's going on here and I can't tell you how excited I am about what's in front of this board and this District it's on a
052great path a great trajectory and I think there's great leaders in place here there's a great leader that sits here every two weeks and I'm super excited to walk out of here knowing I had a chance to enjoy a whole bunch of magic over the last 27 years and I can't say thank you enough to all the people that I've been able to learn lead and grow with over that time and with that yeah thank you I'm gonna yeah I'm gonna um I'm gonna take a point of privilege here and just take a moment to thank Scott for all your work that you've done with the district it's been it's been outstanding you've been a great partner I've I've known Scott and worked with him for many of them many of the years he was
053talking about long before I was on the board we uh we talked we challenged each other I learned a lot from you and most importantly the district has benefited from your service and your expertise so and the students therefore so thank you so much we really appreciate it and wish you the best of luck in your newest and your new role and I'm sure we're sure you'll be successful thank you very much [Applause] all right uh with that uh we're going on community comment here and I want to remind us all for our hopes for this section of 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 is that which celebrates successes that
054support the educational or social emotional experiences of our students or which identifies a problem and proposes a solution for us to consider that ultimately improves those educational and social emotional experiences for our 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 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 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
055for 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 assigned up and each speaker will be allowed three minutes to address the board I will uh once the red light starts blinking I'm going to ask you to finish I've been a little lenient about that in the past but I want to try to respect everybody's equal right to share their thoughts with that I will invite our first speaker to the podium and that is Aaron Rose welcome last meeting I think I spoke about the alleged abuse taking
056place at Rice Elementary with the victims being special needs children is my understanding there are a number of other incidents ongoing the district including the bus incident all with the alleged victims being special needs students these are your most at-risk students they have a wide array of disabilities and many have some level of difficulty with communication these are children that may not know how or simply may not be able to say no help someone is hurting me it is our job as parents and your job as administrators to protect these children and with all these ongoing incidents it's obvious We are failing children should never be subjected to the alleged abuse and it's clear these students who cannot ask for help need more assistance and protection than they are getting this is why I'm requesting
057pooter School District or install video and audio recording devices in every special education classroom in the district while it did not prevent the bus incident it may have helped prevent it from escalating further and it certainly helped identify more victims it should have helped an incidents such as the elected abuse against our own child at Rice Elementary had there been video and audio recording devices at Rice perhaps you would have acted on the reports of abuse made by school staff instead of subjecting the students to the continued presidents of their alleged abuser until the end of the school year because school staff did not have excuse me because staff could have quickly verified what was actually happening in the classroom and could have dealt with a perpetrator or the reporter accordingly I was also alerted
058there was an incident in the bathroom there was a special education classroom of Rice Elementary where my student my child supposedly started choking to the turn of pointing blue to the point of turning blue the lone staff member in the special education classroom was forced to stop working on cleaning clearing her Airway long enough to send a text and a text to staff member asking for them to come and help her anyone who's taking a CPR class knows these valuable seconds could have had dire consequences for my child and this occurred because the emergency pull cord was all the way across in the Next Room on the firewall there was no emergency pull cord than bathroom and the lack of the emergency pull cord and the special education bathroom puts Children at Risk especially in
059schools and towns where cell phone service is spotty at best what if the text had not made to the staff members who rushed in to help the what-ifs are harrowing to think about as a parent so I'm not sure next to me so while I'm sure you will hear from many people this evening regarding the accusations of school districts failure to predict special needs students rather than just pointing fingers and placing blame I'm here asking if you're too important but feasible steps to ensure the safety of some of your most at-risk students here are two possible solutions to your safety concerns add video and audio recording devices to all special needs classrooms and add emergency poll courts to all special needs bathrooms please do what is necessary to protect the students who are at the
060highest risk of abuse and health emergencies thank you for consenting my request thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Jeff afterheide welcome good evening my name is Jeff afterhadi I'm a resident of Wellington Colorado and the father of a special needs son I've consistently attended these meetings for over two years driven by my son's experiences in the pooter School District it's disheartening to recount that a PSD paraprofessional Tyler zanella now stands accused of assaulting six at-risk students all with disabilities with charges now amounted to nearly 130 including 30 felony counts these shocking findings were revealed after review of video surveillance by Fort Collins Police and District officials thank you as a father of an at-risk child who rode the bus to school daily these Revelations have deep implications specifically our trust and your capabilities as
061Leaders to successfully execute school policy in the past year many parents including myself voiced concerns about the district's policies and we disagreed with measures like social isolation and masking which we believe have adversely impacted our children's mental health now the district is expanding or expending Millions to address the Fallout of these very policies are criticisms criticisms were met with attempts to silence Us by filling public comment sessions with union members Ford directors present today suggested parents who voiced their concerns at this meeting should be investigated by law enforcement but we have preserved and many parents whose voices were too afraid to be heard in person have had their concerns vocalized by others and you promised and you made promises about the safety of our children under the umbrella of the safe to tell and incident
062reporting program yet the alarming reality is that six children suffered repeated abuse over two months and likely longer leading us to question the effectiveness of existing systems including Brian kingsley's Chiefs for change program and its mentorship and leadership style we are here tonight to hold the district accountable superintendent Kingsley is set well he's not here tonight but we're set to get an update on the treatment of students parents Guardians and the general public I encourage everyone here tonight to stick around and see how the board votes on this report the truth is is that this traumatic situation stands in stark contrast to everything we as parents stand for it's crucial that we take the necessary steps to ensure that such horrific incidents do not happen again thank you thank you our next speaker is Kelly
063notar Francesco welcome go ahead Kelly good evening board of directors District leaders and community members my name is Kelly Nutter Francesco I'm I am the parent of three PSD students I'd like to begin by thanking the board members for their service to our community serving on the board of directors for any public organization is difficult and I empathize with you you have a tremendous responsibility you seven elected directors are responsible for the education and well-being of about 25 000 students as well as you're responsible for appropriating nearly half a billion taxpayer dollars that's significant you're entrusted with the responsible care of our community's most vulnerable and precious members our children nearly 20 years ago when my family and I first moved here Fort Collins was consistently highlighted as a top place to live we would
064selfishly laugh and say quit printing that don't tell anybody else we want this secret to ourselves but it's not like that anymore here I don't think and I'm concerned I'm concerned for our community and local families and I'm particularly concerned about how the most vulnerable in our community are treated by PSD leadership under your leadership this district has lost students lost experience District leaders and experienced significant teacher turnover many expert teachers have retired or outright resigned after making continuous online posts about concerns about racism and District leadership a talk top District leader is suddenly gone and now we routinely read stories about how PSD teachers are arrested on sex abuse charges there are complaints against PSD filed in the office of civil rights and to this latest horrific scandal in which we learn that PSD
065has employed someone with a questionable background and provided him access to some of the students most vulnerable children I'm also concerned about the district's leadership's promotion of the national online site the Trevor Project to the district students in distress a brief interaction with Trevor Project reveals a site that contradicts all the best practices of experts who advocate for child's Online safety Trevor Project features a quick exit button designed for children to be able to hide the site from their parents Trevor Project also connects vulnerable kids to chat rooms chat rooms which promote children hiding information from their parents which teach children how to be witches chat rooms and which vulnerable and maybe mentally unstable children are encouraged to seek new online families I'm concerned that our district recommends a resource which violates any common sense
066or safe online activity guidance to students experiencing stress or mental health challenges at a recent board meeting the community was even notified of Wheels actually falling off a PSD bus I wonder if the proverbial Wheels have also fallen off the PSD bus I wonder if reasonable people in our community will begin asking reasonable questions about District leadership this I wonder if this type of leadership is what our community expects and I wonder if this leadership is what our most vulnerable students deserve I encourage reasonable people to ask reasonable questions thank you for your time thank you our next speaker is Taylor Unwin welcome hi everyone this is my first time making public comment before you all I'm happy to be here but not so happy under the circumstances first I'd like to thank the assistant
067superintendent board members and the community in advance for taking the time to not just hear but listen to my comments today I believe strongly in the merits of public education my brother is an elementary educator actually and I felt compelled to attend this meeting for many reasons my family lives in Fort Collins and my child attends pooter School District he's non-verbal and is part of a population of students placed in an intensive autism classroom he rides the bus to and from school with a paraprofessional and has a one-on-one paraprofessional at school in the classroom he's with the school district considers line of sight meaning you must always have direct supervision this is my kiddo he's Ollie he's the same age of the child that was initially discovered to have been assaulted on a PSD School
068Bus by a paraprofessional not just once but on multiple occasions the investigation regarding that child triggered the review of incidences reported by parents as well as further video which uncovered numerous assaults by the same party against different at-risk juveniles the charges and press release from Fort Collins Police Department call it what it was child abuse I'm here to ask you all to put yourself in my shoes and the shoes of others as a parent to a PSD student as a parent to a student with autism as a parent to a non-verbal student who is relying on PSD to keep their child safe please ask yourself the questions I have been asking myself how did we get here how does someone who pled guilty to a child abuse charge end up working with our most vulnerable
069students let alone in the district at all how does it take so long to discover a child is being abused on a school bus by a paraprofessional why are we just now reviewing the footage why do we only review when there's an identified incident why is there no regular random auditing of these videos taking place what controls exist what prevention methods are in place in my prior experience as an auditor other organizations businesses and Facilities that deal with far less important matters are required to perform more stringent auditing I know the argument for most against the suggestion will be that it's not financially feasible from a non-emotional standpoint it is more financially sound than taking actions or failing to take actions that leave the school district facing lawsuits over incidents like these I think we
070can all agree the emotional and qualitative costs of not taking action are already apparent policies and procedures are living documents that Kennen should be modified regularly the policies and procedures failed in this instance and is imperative that we change this in collaboration with family service by the integrated services department now now before it happens again to my child or yours I need for you to wrap up sorry it's okay I believe it was Gandhi that said the true measure of any society can be found and how it treats its most vulnerable members thank you thank you our next speaker is Priscilla Mueller welcome my name is Priscilla and I'm the mother of one of the assaulted students my son is eight years old a Disabled Student on on the autism spectrum he's non-verbal and attends
071school at bacon Elementary we had nothing but great experiences since preschool every teacher or paraprofessional he has has been in contact with has been extremely supportive with him being in school and with his IEP but as of recently known multiple victims including my son were exposed to assault and harassment as a parent I trust that the Pooter School District with the care of my son and to keep him safe at all times that trust is broken now our family will never be the same again this has impacted all of us I'm asking the puter School District board to rethink their hiring requirements and policies for any staff member at pooter School District sending my son back to school for the next year makes me uncomfortable because now I question everyone who's come in contact with
072as a parent that's supposed to trust we have to right to know if our children are in danger in order to repair that trust I demand that there should be no staff member allowed to be around our children with prior convictions put a school district has security footage in place and it should be periodically checked with new hires for the safety of our children to give us peace of mind I understand that everyone feels sorry and heartbroken about what happened to our children apologies won't change what happened um especially not the most vulnerable students the ones that are non-verbal and can speak up for themselves as a parent it's our duty to protect our kids going forward I do not want any other parents to have to sit down in a principal office and watch
073their kid being assaulted on a school bus because now I know where my son's behavioral changes came from where all the bruises came from and it should never happen in the first place and just please change your hiring policies thank you our next speaker is Stephen maltz oh Stephen has not joined us uh then our next speaker is Gina forcato welcome good evening it's been a while since um I've given public comment it's good to see everyone's faces last time I was here we were all masked so it's good to see everybody unmasked I stopped coming and commenting because I simply felt that no change would ever take place that our comments would be heard but then just passed on because it was different than what your personal beliefs were however I felt convicted by
074the fact that I still need to share truth so that even one of you might wake up to the reality of our current situation and be changed by what I have to share I'm here tonight to address you once more as a parent a former teacher and a shock citizen I'm sorry I'm getting emotional but a recent reports and allegations of abuse within PSD I'm a graduate of PSD and at one time wholeheartedly supported its education system our schools are supposed to be safe places for children to learn and grow not a place where they face harm ensuring our students safety and well-being should be our highest priority to prevent long-term emotional physical and mental well-being in accordance with Colorado's mandatory boarding laws in particular Colorado revised Statute 1930-30304 all School Personnel are required to
075report any suspicion of child abuse or neglect to law enforcement or CPS if these recent allegations have substance why weren't regulations adhered to if reports were indeed filed what action if any was taken these incidents require urgent inquiries about accountability and procedural failings it is our right to question and ask why these allegations weren't addressed immediately did the staff report the cases and if so why did not discernible action follow we demand Clarity on these issues because they reflect on the safety of our children and integrity of our educational institutions as Citizens we are not asking for these answers out of a desire for Retribution but rather from a necessity of accountability and a need to establish a precedent of zero tolerance for such heinous actions our trust and PSD by parents in the community
076hinges on these answers and the actions that follow I'm asking the board and all the relevant authorities for full transparency a timely investigation and a decisive action we owe it to our children to get this right thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Gretchen Haley welcome good evening I serve as the senior minister of the Foothills Unitarian Church and alongside my partner of 24 years I am the proud mom of two teenagers who have been PSD students for the past nine years I am here tonight bored to say thank you and to all staff thank you I know very well the challenges of public leadership and the difficulty of balancing the voices of a very diverse community what I know keeps me going though is believing that my work is making a difference especially to
077those who are more vulnerable or marginalized which is what I want to most of all affirm to each of you tonight that your work is making a difference and your leadership matters it matters to the lgbtq kids and youth who are right now hearing what politicians parents and pastors are saying across the country right now they are hearing the attacks the ignorance and the hatred so it matters immensely what they are hearing also from PSD I remember when I was first coming out I was so unsure who I could talk to when I first saw that first rainbow sticker on one of my teachers doors it felt like a huge exhale I know it might seem small these small signals of acceptance and safety but they matter it matters that PSD is a place that
078affirms all genders and sexual orientations that there are gsas that teachers use kids self-identified pronouns and it matters that psdfirms pride month and Juneteenth they aren't just resolutions on paper it matters and it actually doesn't just matter it saves lives studies show that lgbtq youth who have at least one accepting adult in their lives are 40 percent less likely to attempt suicide and for many of our kids that acceptance is only possible at school by the way it's not just queer kids that are hearing the hateful rhetoric it's also straight kids like mine whose parents or other family members are lgbtq and it's all of us in our community who are hearing it all of us wondering if this is who we are now if it's just normal to say horrible things about each other
079to treat each other like we are anything other than fellow human beings so thank you board and staff for answering a clear no to these questions and for modeling what all who want to be strong allies can do in this time to speak up courageously and steadfastly I need you to finish for all people and to Signal explicitly in small and big ways I will be a safe person for you it matters and it saves lives thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Jane everham welcome good evening and thank you for this opportunity to speak my name is Jane evram I have been a resident of Fort Collins for 49 years I worked as a school psychologist for 34 years 10 years commuting to Cheyenne Wyoming school district and 24 years here in pooter School
080District I worked primarily with students identified with special education needs but in all my schools I've had full access to observe all students as they learn and develop I'm speaking tonight to thank you all members of the board school board for your continued dedication to the vision and mission of pooter School District the PSC vision and mission statement says it all the vision to support and Inspire every child to think to learn to care and to graduate prepared to be successful in a changing world the mission educate every child every day and as our school board I know you will listen respectfully to the parents in Fort Collins who think they know what is best for their children and all our children I am here to support you to continue overseeing high quality education to
081all students I do not understand why some parents are calling for singling out trans and lgbtq students trans and LBT LBGTQ students have the same rights as all students as an employee I followed the PSD mission to educate all students every day so they could become successful in school and in their own lives we teach and nurture so all students develop to be all they can be but we cannot and should not divine define what that looks like for each child doing anything else will only contribute to the serious mental health crisis we are seeing in our youth and it is a serious crisis trans and LBT LBGTQ students just like all students are learning who they are meant to be the job of Educators and parents is to give them the opportunity to learn
082to respect and honor each other and themselves so they prepare for the world they will enter and create I am grateful for the education my now young adult son received in PSD my son is not transgender but I have friends with transgender children and young adults in each situation the transition started and ended with the child's determination to be who they were meant to be they are flourishing under the care they have received medically the support from loving parents and the acceptance from the community that surrounds them be at school church friends and neighborhood I will end by asking you on the school board to stay strong your job is to oversee the design and implementation of a school system for all students every last one of them please do not be swayed just follow
083the district's vision and Mission which I don't need to repeat because I know you all know it please stay the course and thank you our next speaker is Jim weinbrenner welcome Google offered me interesting information starting with an obvious statement quote the Colorado Education Association endorses candidates for school board who support its platform unquote board candidates most aligned with the liberal Progressive Democrat platform of the cea are endorsed endorsed candidates can receive thousands of dollars of campaign donations plus the union can provide a small army of campaign volunteers to distribute Flyers make phone calls and get out the vote the next detail from Google however really surprised me in the last 10 years quote the cea has endorsed over 90 percent of the candidates who have been elected to the school boards in Colorado I
084know Union endorsement provides an advantage but over 90 percent is breathtaking that's close to guaranteed over 90 percent is selecting not electing the question is do local board School Board elections reflect the will of the parents of our district or do the elections reflect the best interests of a political action committee for the Colorado Education Association in Denver to board members running for re-election do you truly believe a majority of the parents in PSD support your policies if you have the strength of your convictions decline teacher Union support in the upcoming election be willing to compete in the marketplace of ideas educational beliefs on your own merits however however if you feel the need to accept Union endorsement is that a tacit admission that you are leading against the will of the parents is that
085a tacit admission that you believe a political action committee from the Colorado Education Association makes better educational decisions and moral decisions for our children than the parents of our children the only way we can know the answers to these questions is an election on a Level Playing Field without Union influence will you submit to the will of the voters or will you embrace the over 90 percent Victory rate associated with teacher Union endorsement thank you thank you our next speaker is Gary Chevalier if I get it right okay welcome thank you for allowing me to speak for a moment um ten years ago PSD was was receiving National recognition for a student that they had um and even even sponsored or featured on Oprah for a student that was using a telepresence robot in order
086to to take part in her education this student had severe allergies and that was what was driving that um fast forward to today and my son's medically fragile he's non-communicative he's physically able to attend about half the school day and uh he has to have someone right there with him in order to access his education he's very susceptible to Medical situation to diseases sicknesses and so forth because of the tracheostomy um and we requested a telepresence robot from the district that they allow us to use one and they denied it because there was a policy against that when we asked them about the policy they said well it's not actually a policy it's just a practice and uh because my son has to have a nurse accompany him every day of the week to school
087and we've only been able to secure nursing for four out of five school days he in the upcoming year he has been missing 20 or will miss 20 percent of his school um also because you can only be there half the day and half the day he has different Therapies um that take that don't allow him to attend school in person he's without the telepresence robot he can't access in between his therapies he can't access any more of his education that he'll miss whole subjects for the entire year next year um I encourage you to change the practice and allow telepresence robot so they could not allow the access to those who are medically fragile or or handicapped in some way especially in light of the the different things that have happened with abuse and
088so forth I think it would be a great help to those families who are in the same type of situation as I am to be able to have their children have a better access to their education more full access while they deal with with coming back to school and I appreciate your consideration on that thank you thank you our next speaker is Sabrina Herrick welcome hi everyone for the crowd who isn't on the school board and therefore has no idea who I am my daughter is one of the students who is assaulted by Tyler zanella I work in medical research and thanks to that I'm familiar with how welfare concerns should be handled at my job every person in the building is empowered to report animal welfare concerns and every one of us is empowered
089to step in and say I'm not continuing work on this study until the Animal Welfare committee reevaluates it as for reporting concerns they can look at practically any wall and find a list of 11 different numbers they can call one of those numbers is an anonymous tip line this complaint results in an investigation by our Animal Welfare committee and we end up with a report that includes findings and changes made The Whistleblower is one of many people who gets a copy of that report and unlike this District who banned mention of Tyler from the sign up form for tonight's comments management encourages questions and comments from relevant people so let's look at how PSD has been handling complaints about Tyler over this school year a quote from a Facebook post about Tyler's arrest it's terrible
090he did the same thing to my little girl and when I reported it to the supervisor she told me he's a good guy I'm glad he's been arrested on top of that at least two School Employees despite not seeing Tyler's abuse did note that he needed more training but apparently despite their mandatory reporter status they did not know of a relevant person they could go to and say hey this guy needs to be removed from duty until he's been trained better I'm in one of the most criticized and reviled Industries in modern society and we take welfare complaints about rats more seriously than this District did when my child's future was on the line and I guarantee this we hire people with enough decorum that none of our workers are discussing what gun would be
091the most fun to retaliate Against The Whistleblower with which is exactly what Tyler did to the chairs of the bus driver who'd watched him smother a child with his own backpack I've heard more heartfelt apologies in the last few weeks than I have in the rest of my life combined apologies are useless to me especially since not one of them has come from a person with actual power to make systemic change to this District I don't want more apologies I definitely don't want a shallow declaration I want policy change and workplace culture change you know I know what doing better looks like and I will accept nothing less than that from this District you know my email address I'm waiting for your report and it'd better be above and beyond better than the one I
092would get if my child was a rat foreign thank you our next speaker is Deborah James welcome it's Deb James and I was a paraprofessional in pooter school district for 14 years until covid and I did not come back I mostly worked with special education students not always I've worked at three different schools I've worked with K-12 and I am here to suggest that we need to change the Paradigm from paraprofessional to professional Para I want to guess I want to give a perspective of what it's like to be that person who is not given the value the um the the the effectiveness on what happens in any child's life although we are there with them very closely just a few things that I would suggest is that um paraprofessionals are generally not on the
093IEP team they do not show up at the at the meetings when I first started that I was invited to meetings but that fell away after a while um there's no teacher training on how to effectively work with a paraprofessional I mean my first job my first moment was here's a piece of paper here's a pen go ahead and hang out with this one student in ninth grade biology and come on back when you're done I mean that was my first training there are no scheduled regular collaborations that happen between teachers and paraprofessionals it's on the fly like my first day it's generally even in front of the students because there is no place and there is no time for this to be done in a way that's effective or as effective it could be
094in special ed there's apparel one and there's a pair of two I believe there should be a pair of three and it should be a Continuum it should be especially for para threes those that work with those that have the most difficult behaviors it's just not anyone that can walk into that it's it's who you are as a person it's your personality and it's your experience and it's your training um I have to believe that um that the that the uh that the applicant poll must have been very shallow for that one application to not just be put away automatically and now we see we don't get a lot of accolades for how much we have but we can now see how much a parent can hurt and so again I would like to say
095let's turn that Paradigm from being a paraprofessional to professional para and I'm not just talking about money thank you thank you and our final speaker is sorry our final speaker this evening is Danny Lawrence welcome for over two years I have visited this boardroom every two weeks making public comments to express my concerns for disabled children and their families in our school district despite the persistence you all do nothing and truly it's been a colossal waste of my time the last meeting on the 23rd hit home for me completely and and taught me the total complete and total disconnectedness between this board and parents of disabled children I witnessed a mother stand before you all her voice shaking in her bravery expressing that her disabled child was being hurt in school my comments followed asking
096you for some oversight of a department that reports only to itself and only allows for and allows for zero public input our Collective comments were followed by you all expressing how touched you were about graduation what a special time it was and what a win that was for the school district and I sat there feeling like I was in the Twilight Zone maybe you all don't know it or maybe you don't care but graduation for families facing an uncertain future with a special needs child is one of the saddest times of the year it's a time where our community watches the rest of the world move on without us and that happened in this boardroom three weeks ago and it hurt within 24 hours of that meeting the community learned that a paraprofessional on a
097bus was abusing the most vulnerable children in our district and so tonight I ask how many voices do you need to hear before you do something about the integrated Services Department you were all elected to represent families in our community and in this District almost 3 000 children are represented under IEPs and 504s that number far exceeds any minority population within PSD the policies for harassment and bullying don't include adult on child violations I communicated that to you in February and asked you to make a change and you refused the see something say something Reporting System doesn't work for disabled students because the district refuses to investigate their complaints as was the case with my son and a newly hired teacher and PSC hires paraprofessionals with records of hurting children to assist children who can't
098speak or communicate I mean what could go wrong right can you all apply some common sense here please find a pulse amend a policy demand a task force require the integrated Services Department can convey who they train and what they're training for mandated reporting training was clearly a colossal failure in this horrific situation demand that the seat Committee involved the public and make them report to this board and make sure the community hears your findings of that third party investigation and I'm requesting that superintendent Kingsley hold immediately a session for is parents so that you could all can understand the challenges these families are facing and the overall lack of federal law compliance that they are experiencing and finally please take care of these traumatized children and their parents and the children especially who witness
099the violence on the bus I'm not hearing anything about what you're doing for those children as alumni I wanted to express how deeply ashamed I am at this moment of our district culture this isn't supporting the mission statement of every child every day something has to be done and you all are responsible thank you all right I'm gonna again go out a little order here and I believe that uh assistant superintendent Nielsen has some remarks he'd like to make foreign I just want to I want to take a moment uh to acknowledge uh the traumatizing events surrounding the arrest of Tyler zanella who's been arrested on 128 charges including felony child abuse as our superintendent Brian Kingsley has said before this situation is appalling heartbreaking infuriating it doesn't represent who we are in pooter school
100district and it doesn't represent who we are in public education and it doesn't represent who we are as a community an external party is conducted an independent review of this situation PSD and will assess possible changes that may be made in processes and policies both our staff also continue to work with members of the Fort Collins Police Services to support the agency's ongoing investigation and uh I just want to thank you president Patterson for letting me make a couple comments yeah it's it's a very difficult situation I appreciate that and I know the board looks forward to the to the report of the uh of the investigators so thank you who are the investigators you can send an email to the board and or to the the no it's excuse me this is not a
101discussion if you would like to get that information it is available our next segment of the agenda is board topics and committee reports does anybody from the board have remarks they'd like to make go ahead Nate yes I wanted to I'm not gonna I've got a few things one is I'm not going to pull the memorandum of agreement or the employee agreement from the consent agenda but I wanted to highlight the importance of those documents and um the memorandum of agreement is meant to deal with changes that have been negotiated to the last year's employment agreement and in particular I wanted to highlight that there's a new paragraph on evaluation process and that says evaluation of licensed employees will be based on elements and indicators of effective instruction and measures of student academic growth and
102we'll use multiple fair and valid strategies to determine overall effectiveness the district will ensure that student academic growth can be reliably estimated and statistically attributed to individual licensed staff members to support valid inferences regarding educator Effectiveness staff should clearly understand which students growth data will be attributed to them and I think that also for me highlights the importance of evaluations for classified staff and I don't want those to be overlooked those are important and they need to be done and I don't remember what the employment agreement says on evaluations of classified staff but when I was working as a bus driver in the school district those evaluations are classified staff only happened every other year and that may not be enough in my opinion um then there is the employee agreement and I wanted to
103read the article one that talks about shared decision making says we recognize that there are a number of decision-making processes any of which may be valid and effective in a given situation it is our belief that shared decision making should be the predominant process in pooter School District shared decision making is a process in which appropriate members of the school Community collaborate in making decisions each sharing the responsibility for the results pooter School District encourages site decisions and those decisions must support the vision and goals of pooter School District comply with Board of Education policies support the school pooter School District ends comply with negotiated agreements comply with local federal and state laws in addition the site must not Implement a decision which would result in site going into debt Implement a decision that would
104negatively impact other sites and so in addition to in my view the board making a decision on setting the property tax levy and adopting the budget these memorandums memoranda of understanding and employee agreements I think are some of the most important documents that the board approves so I just wanted to highlight that in addition um since I have the floor I wanted to comment on the process of uh District engagement with the community and I attended at least two of the Community engagement sessions that we held over the past year and I've long been an advocate of community engagement and dialogue and I was really concerned when I attended those because they were structured in a way that didn't allow dialogue and I think that that is one of our issues that we have as
105a school board with the community is that we're listening to community comment and I appreciate everyone that comes and talks and Community comment but there has not been for at least a couple of years and probably going back to before covid for the school board to engage in dialogue with members of the community about issues of concern in an unstructured way these Community engagement sessions that we had in the last year were so structured and we spent so much time on preliminary matters like the circle process that is one way to do a community engagement process but I don't think is very effective because it just allows people to give their testimony like they do here at the school board so I really urge this board to step up and return to the type of
106community engagement sessions that we had in the past where we could have true dialogue and I appreciate that and I also wanted to echo on another topic my thanks to assistant superintendent Scott Nielsen and hope he enjoyed his practice as superintendent for a night and appreciate your service to PSD and good luck in the future other comments from the board DJ this is more of a reminder about Cosby resolutions we will need to start looking at those here very shortly and that if we have some topics that we want to flush out we need to start working on that I have so far I've got a list of three different things that we probably need to sit down and talk about so I just want to put that on everyone's agenda and kind of think
107about a little bit so don't get carried away with July and forget about it all right thanks they ate something else uh just on that topic uh we're gonna need to submit those resolutions earlier than normal because the fall conference and delegate assembly is in October 6th and 7th and so uh we're probably going to need to adopt a policy agenda at the first meeting in August because those policy those resolutions are due shortly thereafter so thanks okay other comments from the board all right thank you our next agenda item is the consent agenda I made a mistake in uh requesting a motion to remove the one item that we're going to remove from that way I know we're going to remove from the consent agenda so I will take a motion now if we
108can to remove that Nate go ahead I moved to amend the consent agenda to remove consent agenda item 9.11 contractor selection for the CLP Middle School tennis court construction project do I have a second from Kristen could I have a vote on that please Jill DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan I thought it was I thought any board member could remove an item on yeah except we're removing it entirely from the the new the way we're approaching this now is if we're removing it entirely from the agenda we should vote on it okay so anyway Nate's voting yes Kristen Draper yes I Ocean passes 7-0 great thank you are there any other changes to the anything else that anybody wants to remove from the consent agenda looks like not in which case can
109I get a vote on the consent agenda please yes can I have a motion sorry yes I move that the board approve and adopt the recommended actions for the items remaining on the consent agenda thank you Nate can I have a second Kristen thank you I am brokish hi Nate Donovan aye Kristen Draper aye Rob Patterson aye Carolyn Reed hi Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thanks Joe and I appreciate uh your patients and uh willingness to stick with me as I work through some of these uh some of these procedural issues that I've had tonight uh so we're going on to our second set of action items uh starting with the monitoring policy and review 2.1 treatment of students parents Guardians and the general public can I get a motion with respect to this
110Nate notwithstanding my previous comments I moved that the board determined that the superintendent has reasonably interpreted Board of Education policy El 2.1 in his eternal monitoring report dated June 13 2023 and that the evidence presented supports the superintendent's conclusion stated in the internal monitoring report second looks like Kristen's got that second thing going here so thank you uh is there a discussion of this item go ahead Nate I just Echo what I said before we've got to get a better system for interacting with the community and the school board so um to the extent that that conflicts with the internal monitoring report that would be my comment yeah I'll just say that uh for the benefit of the public and also for your continued uh knowledge uh we are working with the with the administration
111and the staff to amend change whatever the the community engagement process for the coming school year to facilitate more of a dialogue and that will provide an opportunity for the dialogue that some of the folks here desired but that this meeting doesn't really lend itself to so stay tuned I think we'll see those early in the fall other comments go ahead DJ um I just wanted to kind of point out a change that we did make a couple years ago with making the student advisory Council and my gratitude to our superintendent and the cabinet for really listening to those students and it has shown in the meetings and not only in the meetings but after they're gone and we still talk about what they brought up so I really appreciate that I think that is
112a huge step the district has made forward and uh I'm really proud of that so thank you I guess I guess one other thing I want to share and I don't know whether anybody who made comments like this is is still listening uh this evening but when folks and this is a generalization but when folks make uh comments uh uh with constructive suggestions for change or things that we really need to attend to I know I and I'm pretty darn sure that most of the rest of the board members here are paying careful attention to those things and making notes to talk with the administration about how how we can effectively make changes to make things better for all of our students um doesn't always result in a big discussion on the board or some
113vote on something but there's there's work that goes on behind the scenes and we are we are listening to much of what is said and um appreciate your understanding and hopefully we'll see we'll yeah hopefully we'll see we'll you'll see the fruit of some of the some of the work uh as as time goes on Nate and I guess I would also say that it is a little frustrating as a board member to feel constrained to not be able to agree or disagree with some of what's said in community comment um for a variety of reasons it's just not a forum that facilitates a dialogue and so that I do feel constrained in that way and that's unfortunate other comments or questions from board members all right uh where are we we're gonna take a
114vote on this right Jill thank you DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan all right Kristen Draper aye Rob Patterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thank you Jill our next item yeah our next item is uh the 2023 2024 school resource officer contracts can I get a motion with respect to these contracts go ahead Nate I move that the board approved the agreements between pooter School District R1 and the following entities City of Fort Collins Larimer County Sheriff's Office and town of Timnath police for the school resource officer program and authorized the board president to sign the agreements attested by the board's secretary do I have a second aha I just got that one all right we have a presentation this evening right we do thanks president Patterson joining
115us this evening to provide an update on the SRO contracts his Chief Operating Officer Jeff Connell with support from assistant superintendent of secondary schools [Laughter] good evening I said good evening assistant superintendent members of the board thank you for taking this opportunity I just want to do a short presentation about you know what is the SRO contract maybe highlight a couple of the changes a little bit of data and then recognize our partners so thanks for giving me this opportunity um so this is this is what our SRO program is we have 14 school resource officers we work with three different organizations and organizations Larimer County Sheriff's Office Fort Collins PD and Timnath um we pay for 50 of the contract days so those are the days in which they're providing services to us just
116to kind of recognize the partnership extends of course much more than just working together there's a financial component to this as well um and then you see the the overall number the 1.2 million plus which is the contract amount that we spend as a district on our SRO services and then a small addition for overtime and some of that is of course event based some of that is like recent events when we need you know some extra Assistance or want police presence you know we are able to reach out to them and work quite cooperatively with finding some overtime opportunities and getting that services for the district um the the two big changes there are lots of little wording changes I think you have been provided with a redlined copy showing you some of the
117extensive cleanup that legal counsel Autumn Aspen did for this document but the two substantive ones were language has been added not to the contract itself but to a document referenced in the contract the standard operating procedures about searches right and yes some of this was in um in response to the tragedy that happened in Denver but we wanted to clarify a little bit um how we were going to provide for better communication between deans of students APS and the sros when it comes to some of the searches that are being done on the students that are identified as having that need we didn't make any what we consider to be substantive changes to the search policy right we we find the language of policy jih to be consistent and we merely wanted to reflect in
118the Sops better communication in terms of who's conducting the search and who can request the search and better training and and the sros were good with that language because really they would be the ones that would be doing the training of our staff and so we worked out this language together the other piece was kind of just more ensuring that we we laid a foundation language for what the Technology support from the district will be for our sros working in the schools so those those were the two biggest changes the other one we're working on is slightly aspirational at this point and good things are happening in the schools in mental health support for our students every day right students in need and students in crisis are finding more and more support more and more
119places to go to get help we would like to expand that right to something slightly more systematic and to develop a model and not just the Pooter model for our school district right but one that works with our law enforcement Partners on students in disciplinary situations students in crisis or students in other you know you know emergent situations and so we've been working on language and hopefully providing some staff support possibly even financial support to make this model come to fruition so at this point this is just kind of a keep it in front of you say it early say it often because we really plan on bringing more of this to you and it's been in large part driven by our law enforcement Partners they've they've done great work with some other school districts
120and we wanted to develop what we think will work best for us and so we're going to continue to move forward with that there's a little bit of data you asked where we were at and so assistant superintendent Nielsen thanks Jeff um so just this kind of a throwback uh to some data and I'll also reference how we landed with our Hispanic and IEP students we decided to just do one slide but as you recall when we talked uh probably six months ago now we were seeing our data continue to drop from what we had seen previously as we think about the number of referrals across the board and that's what you're seeing on this slide we had 9362 um options for students are for staff to get involved with some kind of Behavioral incident
121this year 49 of them were referred to law enforcement and if you juxtaposed to 2122 we had a little under 7 000 incidents and 60 of them last year it was close to 0.9 percent almost a little under one percent were referred to law enforcement this year it's about half a percent um and and I I just want to as I share that we appreciate the partnership to pull some of that off the communication and trying to be clear with all our leaders um I as we think about our Hispanic if you're looking at these same two graphs are Hispanics for 2223 were 0.53 percent so almost identical and our IEP students were 0.52 percent identical so we're seeing the disproportionality disappear that we were looking at three four and five years ago and we
122feel pretty confident that is um has a lot to do with being more on the same page and doing work in conjunction with each other rather than assuming that both sides know what the expectations are and and being inconsistent which is what we were three and four years ago so I would also like to take the opportunity to remind the board we're going to bring more data to you so we're going to do a deeper dive into the disciplinary events the law enforcement follow-up and the categories and and some of the other breakdowns that we have so this was not meant to be that it was just meant to be a snapshot of the bigger picture of the referrals that were made in the last year um but one thing before before I get to
123the last slide right is something slightly anecdotal one of the things that this partnership has really provided for us and you know Fort Collins PD certainly exemplifies this partnership you know so does Larimer County Sheriff's Office and the Timnath Police Services as well but sometimes on occasion a student or somebody in the community might post something that might be threatening to the district or to a school and we of course take all of those serious and we get safe details all the time and some of them are rather dire and one of the things that we you know makes us really uncertain nobody really wants to be the person to say you know this is a credible threat that was made against students and we should take appropriate action or this threat is incredible and
124we we follow up on all of them and when I say we I mean the greater we and that includes our law enforcement partners and I reminded them because I don't think they quite understood just how amazing and important some of their work is for us but you know sometimes it's 9 10 11 o'clock at night they've chased down where this post came from they've gone to a house they've knocked on doors they've spoken to students what did you do where did you hear this from why'd you do it and then we get something that's quite you know relieving at the end of the night we get a text from them saying we have investigated this threat and found it to be non-credible and we all just kind of be this huge sigh of relief
125right because then you know we're we're good right we're back in business we feel good about the decision we're making about you know holding school the next day we feel good about the level of security we're providing for our students and and that small effort on their part sometimes small sometimes not so small right is amazing to us and really for me in particular and also on you know in respect to the district that's really one of the things I want to thank them for and so part of their coming tonight is to say thanks for all that you do for us we know it's a partnership and and we really appreciate all the extra effort that you go to every day for us and our students and with that any questions comments questions Nate
126yes I wanted to highlight a couple things one is uh what Jeff had just referenced um I hope that and I and I based this off of my experience as a school bus driver in a neighboring District I hope that the communication on uh whether a threat is credible or non-credible is sound with respect to how the administration of the site handles it we had an incident in in Loveland where there was a threat made and it was deemed non-credible but the communication broke down and School ended up canceling school for that day because the staff was uncomfortable being in the school and as it as it applies to the uh co-responder model I've seen that work in the neighboring district and I I encourage that uh model and US implementing that and I also
127want to thank Fort Collins Police Services for committing to more contact days that includes more training and opportunities to engage with uh the administration and staff I think that's important and I encourage Larimer County sheriff and Timnath Police Services to commit to more than they currently do under this contract so thank you director Donovan I can address the the questions and comment I think you posed around Communications and then probably turn it back with regard to what you just shared around the co-responder model so in crisis Communications the really the mission that we follow and bring into our work here in the school district and how I've been trained is you need to get the right information to the right people at the right time so that they can make the right decisions and that
128concludes our colleagues all of our teams across the district as well as our families and our community members right in any crisis situation in the absence of information people will write their own stories they will come up with their own assumptions and that lack of information or disinformation will then fuel further the emotions that people are experiencing in an already heightened situation when we are talking about a possible threat that is one of the I would argue scarier things that we can collectively go through right now outside of an an actual current situation because it is so unknown but it feels like in some ways something that is unfortunately becoming more and more regular with the proliferation of of threats on social media something that our school colleagues go through regularly during the school year
129um what I would say is in huge thanks to Sergeant Ferrar and others at Fort Collins Police Services Larimer County Sheriff's Office we have incredibly strong Partnerships as you've heard here tonight not only on the SRO front but across the agencies and including Communications and so when there is a possible threat we are very cognizant of the need to be able to communicate clearly to the right people at the right time so they can make those right decisions and so that includes working with law enforcement to be able to use the most clear and accurate language so whether a threat is credible or not credible being able to help people understand what are some of the actions that have been taken to be able to arrive at that conclusion and then being able to provide
130consistent reminders around the importance of reporting things the that are of concern related to safety or otherwise on an ongoing basis so reinforcing those prevention and Reporting behaviors that have become so important in our world I would say in addition to doing this work on a on a very regular basis our team was fortunate to partner with our security department and again with our law enforcement partners and did five days of Crisis Communications training with all of our elementary and secondary schools it responds to school violence training at Kennard middle school last week so in addition to building the skills and the consistency of Communications on a day-to-day basis through the responses that we work through we're also able to bring on board new administrators new colleagues who may be less familiar with those processes
131and help them think through just how important Communications are in a situation like that so I was maybe more than you were anticipate eating but hopefully addressed some of what you were looking for director Donovan I want to add to all the good words Madeline just share just specifically on the incident that happened in our neighboring District that we along the way we try to do some tabletop activities and we had the luxury with partnership to do tabletops that included that as a scenario with our cabinet and try to decide or try to work through that scenario with some variables that would change timing of the day and those things and that was led by our partners at Fort Collins Police Services we also did those same table tops with a piece and so some
132of our administrators had a chance to do some of the the tabletop exercises as well and that was before the four-day training they went through that Madeleine just referenced so it's sort of ongoing as we think about how do we ready ourselves and some of it is practicing and looking at incidents that happen elsewhere to say okay what would we have done in that situation so and that's a testament to our partnership with all three of our law enforcement agencies they're all helping us to to be prepared at the local school level at the district level and those are just a couple examples I think go ahead yeah I appreciate that so thank you for those comments um I also wanted to as a side light uh highlight the development and evolution of the standard
133operating procedures uh I think those have gone a long way toward helping us have a better SRO program and use it more effectively so thanks for the continuing work on that other comments Kristen I just want to say um thank you to law enforcement and to the district for working together on something like this this is something that could be perceived as as uh you know pitted against each other almost um and the way that you have come together um Everybody Has Come Together and said this is what we're doing and we're doing it for the kids um is really impressive and um I am so looking forward to that co-responder model um the sooner we get that up and going the better as far as I'm concerned um and I just want to say
134thank you for being willing to do that for being willing to take a look at those Sops say you know yes we want to do this no we don't want to do this this one we're going to have to go ahead and and you know figure out how how we do co-respond with that with the PSD admin and law enforcement so just thank you for being able to be willing to to sit down and discuss that have that into the Sops and then enforcing that too I know that there have been times when um one or the other has said oh well I have that and it's actually nope there it is in the Sops you don't have that that's me and so to be willing to do that too is just really uh it's
135great and so thank you so much thanks DJ did you have something yeah it's a little bit of the same I guess too but uh I I am just I'm very proud of uh the law enforcement and our staff working together to get this the SOP done and and monitor it and improve it I really think that has been a huge key to better understanding better expectations um and so I I just thank you for the time and the service to do that for both sides so thank you anyone else all right then Jill would you call a vote on these contracts please DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish aye Nate Donovan aye Kristen Draper aye Rob Patterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 all right that's great thank you Jill our
136next item is an informational report on the proposed budget Scott good evening members of the board Mr assistant superintendent uh thank you again for the opportunity to come back and hopefully we're at that spot where we can wrap this up the budget planning for next year fiscal year 24. we've been able to to share a lot of the details that are into the preliminary an initial proposed budget and now it's in your packet this week is a sort of a finalized proposed budget if you will that details particularly one big gap that we had talked about a month ago and that Gap specifically set aside to address compensation changes in District budget priorities so I'm gonna I'm gonna hit on some of the celebrations really we've talked about the Dynamics of the school Finance act
137and some of the the intricacies of the budget but I want to point out some of these celebrations and then of course offer the opportunity to answer questions and and and go from there when talking about the proposed budget so we've already talked about the per pupil Revenue the funded pupil count none of those things have changed for the the proposed budget in your packets we're still working on that just over ten thousand dollars of per people revenue and just over 29 and 200 funded pupils for next year same numbers in our assumptions for this version of the proposed budget however the big the big difference and assistant superintendent Nielsen already hit on this earlier this evening is some of the celebration that came out of our negotiations process and I got to witness for
138my first time here really an extremely dedicated group of folks coming in together to to decide you know what are the things that we really need to to Value right now what are the things we need to think about in the future and how can we deploy these resources in our budget and we were talking about a pretty significant amount of money 25 and a half million dollars that really now has been distributed through that budget for compensation increases and and what that equates to and he already mentioned this earlier as well is that's a 10.28 percent salary compensation increase across the board now that that addresses all employee groups and when I get asked the question of well does that mean I hit 10.28 I have to answer with well your mileage may vary
139it depends where where you're at in the schedule and and a lot of factors there but that's a significant increase for all folks in the district and included in there is a new starting license salary of fifty two thousand dollars in our in our salary schedule and additional classified Market adjustments I know a lot of folks worked really hard to try and address the getting that classified schedule to market right and that's a really significant component of this budget as well as some considerations for stipends in integrated services for some bilingual staffing needs as well as career and tech ed industry experience really trying to address some of those things that you've heard about throughout the year that are important and priorities in our educational system here we have talked before about we do have
140some premium increases in health insurance and we'll see that in a three percent number here this next year and be able to use some reserves out of the our fundee our employee self-insurance fund to address some of those other costs so that's the big news that's part of the big celebration we're talking about big changes there increases that we're excited about across all employee groups what else is in there well in addition to that Compensation Plan there was a lot of talk and and work on some District budget priorities and we've detailed many of those previously talking about how to support the Strategic plan and its implementation and evaluation but the really big one I want to point on or point out is that almost two million dollars in addressing increased mental health Staffing and
141that's going to be a combination of what we call general fund and Medicaid funds Medicaid is part of the general fund but it's sort of a subset of funding and we're going to be able to use funds from Medicaid that that will be reimbursed to us in future years okay as well as general fund dollars to address over 20 ftes of increased mental health Staffing in the district that's a huge celebration right and you'll see that as you look through the budget you'll see that in student services location in the budget additionally you'll see additional curriculum support some classified professional development two extra days of classified development there for folks that get more PD more training get comfortable with their role whatever it is that's determined to help those folks out uh we'll also have
142some grow your own programming opportunities again to to have staff within the district be able to become licensed teachers and some support from District funds to do so okay accessibility we've talked about previously ongoing efforts to improve our accessibility and we've got recurring funds as well as some one-time funds in the budget to address those fees for expendable course materials that we've talked about previously going on to some of those one-time uses mentioned the fees for expendable course materials there's some safety improvements and upgrades in the budget there using one-time funds to address those things and we still don't have a lot of answers when it comes to the universal Pre-K and healthy meals for all and those financial needs so what we've decided to do is set aside some one-time dollars if necessary that's
143an if necessary caveat to address needs that come with the implementation of these pretty large programs right we know they're important we know there might be some additional support we really hope that those funding sources really come to fruition and we don't need to use those dollars and we can redistribute reallocate those dollars in fiscal year 25 but we've got those set aside for now and and we'll see how those those programs develop and additionally you've had discussions previously about Medicaid and as that program really gets rolling kind of setting aside some dollars in the need that if we have to front load some some getting started as we as we allocate Staffing to Medicaid and we start to generate some expenditures that will in turn lead to reimbursements hey we've got some dollars to
144do so and then that's going to turn into one of those sort of self self-generating Revenue sources as we move down the road other things continuing on into the budget is our literacy adoption and you know Mr pasentino has been here talking about that process with you and that's a huge process and and really rolling right now and we're going to have that transaction very large transaction and implementation crossing the fiscal years so it's still in the budget and then we'll start to see those expenditures Whittle away that 10 million dollars integrated Staffing ratios we've discussed before that infusion of of 3 million plus dollars to help with improving that integrated Staffing integrated Services Staffing system and throughout those locations in your budget okay we've distributed about two million dollars of increased costs for utilities
145and risk management hey the the utilities costs we know are going up we continue to get more information on the increasing cost of our insurance premiums so those are in the budget as well as we came toward the end of the the budget process that the cabinet group got together and was able to to put together a little over three hundred thousand dollars of budget reductions to help with the process of maybe moving some dollars elsewhere like the grow your own program all right and so there will be some Department adjustments there and some some adjustments that are helping grow our operation in other areas so what are the next steps well in your packets next week will be the proposed budget for adoption uh and then past two weeks we're rolling right into fiscal
146year 24 already starting July 1st and it's hard to believe it's already mid-june we're getting there and then we're right into monitoring the budget and I'm excited after going through this process now for a full year uh getting to monitor what I've seen develop and I'll have a much better understanding so I'm grateful for your your patience and your grace with my learning through this process as well but we'll be monitoring and then seeing where we need to adjust and be flexible right and adapt as we have up until January 31st to make make changes and revisions and there will be probably some things where we go okay yeah we need to move something from here to there we didn't quite get that but that's that's the nice part of the process is we have
147that opportunity to to really evaluate and we know that October is a big time when we get that pupil count and that that really will drive adjustments and Analysis and revision as well and we're already in the process of planning for fiscal year 24 25. when you think about the compensation agreements and and how we got there right we're having to think ahead down the road of how are we going to plan Beyond next year so that's pretty high level summary we've talked a lot about things but please offer up some questions and I'll see if I can answer them and if not I'll shoot them to my left over here that's great so I I will certainly open for comments from the board but I just want to say at the uh at the
148start of this that your articulateness if that's a word your presentations your information sharing throughout this process has been terrific and we really appreciate that and you have nothing to um caveat about your learning process you've done great with us and I I for one appreciate that I suspect the rest of the board does too so thank you other comments or questions Nate articulateness I think the quality of being articulate [Laughter] um ditto I have a question about the difference if you can explain the difference between the budgeted amount of 496 million and what was on the budget resolution is 406 million and it says for informational purposes only but includes reserves I didn't quite understand how uh what that difference includes and how you uh made those right yep okay so what we do
149is we let me get to my right page it's on page five of your budget document hey the grand total in that 2324 budget column including reserves is 496 million dollars so that resolution includes the appropriation of reserves so if during the year we need to shift some reserves from here to cover uh you know a facilities need or some sort of emergent issue hey that that resolution already approves that that change so the budgeted expenditures are the 406 million the remaining part is that Reserve appropriation so the 406 million is what we plan to spend okay thanks that answers it thank you DJ um you might have covered a little bit of this in your presentation but there are a couple um line items that really kind of jump out with double digit percentage
150changes and I was wondering if you uh knew the story on those that the two that Medicare of course was a huge one but I understand why that one changed but the uh Transportation one is that gas prices or is it something that we've expanded or yeah really really good question um and it's important to understand and for me to again articulate what we're comparing there we're comparing the the proposed budget versus the estimated actual expenditures and so let's look at Transportation which is line 31 31. um we're expecting to spend less in transportation this fiscal year than was budgeted primarily because of some open positions right we are spending money on some contracted Transportation things but we have some openings there where we're not we're not expected to spend maybe quite what we budgeted
151but we've also distributed some compensation increases through the budget as well as increases like for utilities costs those get distributed through the budget and we're budgeting with an assumption right now that we're going to fill positions right so that includes filled positions in the budgeted column so when you add those factors into the budget you get a little bit of a variance compared to the estimated actually okay this the second one was line 42 the risk related activities I wasn't really sure what that one covered completely either right so similarly we're Distributing compensation increases so any staff associated with risk management are going to be in there staff salaries benefits again when you have other increased costs like utilities it's that's going through all these locations but we also have premium increases and that's where
152those are also falling as in that risk related category thank you sure and uh just one other I'll point out because that's a that's a great observation when you see like 27 increase those those kinds of things it's good to to note those things and ask about them for instance that student services you see uh about a 1.8 million dollar increase well then if you reflect back to what did we just work through in negotiations and and come up with well 20 new staff members and and a redistribution of some Medicaid dollars but but really bolstering that student services side that's where you see those mental health professionals because in that that location other comments or questions from the board looks like not I'll just I'll just uh you know you asked about the 406
153million 496 million dollars a piece I it just brought home to me again you know the the amount of work and the responsibility that that the Professionals in this District have uh to Shepherd uh responsibly the taxpayer dollars and they do a great job of it and I really want to thank you for obviously the financial monitoring of it but also the expenditures and the and the choices the hard choices sometimes that need to be made about we're going to spend money on this and we're not going to spend money on that and of course I appreciate uh and we all do the uh the work of our associations in negotiating uh in the negotiation the big circle uh to uh get such a great uh raise for for our staff we know our staff
154need it and we really appreciate the fact that we work cooperatively to make that happen so thank you all for that and I guess like it would just emphasize that ultimately at some level we have responsibility for overlook overseeing this and approving it so it's something to keep in mind as we I mean you know we're heading toward half a billion dollars here billion B billion so you know a lot of responsibility and I think we try to exercise it responsibly so anyway enough pontificating is there any uh is there any other comment Nate yes I carry the weight of that responsibility with me every minute of every day so thanks for highlighting that anybody else DJ I'll just say thank you and you got a year under your belt now way to go awesome
155thank you thank you looking forward to next year have a good evening anybody else it looks like not in which case Jill would you never mind we're not doing a vote on this see I am like totally con we'll have another vote next week yeah we don't even need a motion to adjourn what I what I am going to do though is and this is really not I mean the public can hear this we'd like to do a photo at right after I had Jordan with celebrating uh Scott with the cabinet and the and the board and everybody so if we can do that hang around and do that I appreciate it in the meantime uh I will be adjourning this meeting shortly I just let everybody know or remind everybody I guess we do
156have a couple of meetings next week that are not going to be televised that our public meetings you're certainly welcome to attend and the next public meetings uh beyond that that will be televised that we anticipate will be in August I don't have the date right off top of my head but I believe it's the second I know it's the second Tuesday in August and we look forward to your continued uh engagement with the district and we wish you an excellent summer thank you this meeting is adjourned at 8 07 p.m still on July on June 13th thank you foreign