Board of Education Meeting: May 9, 2023

001that they have I think foreign services keep an eye on it hello everybody and welcome foreign progress sorry sorry before I left my house good stuff foreign thank you so much foreign yeah that scares me well that scares me I thought of you I'm sure I'm sure they'll have some spaces for you in the area so they only have so many books we got to talk about come looking with me real quick because you'll be really confident because I have oh yes yes that's it yeah I have this oh good thank you is that it okay yep yes um hey Autumn um can you hear me okay yeah I can hear you can you hear me yep we got you too thanks foreign you know chocolate um yesterday all right welcome everybody thanks for joining

002the Board of Education meeting this evening on May 9th we're going to start uh the meeting at approximately 6 30 P.M if you all could mute your cell phones so that we don't have interruptions during the meeting that'll be great I'll do that also and uh the first item on our agenda after that is the Pledge of Allegiance so I'd welcome you all to join me in that pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all great thank you all very much would any board members like to make changes to the agenda no this is the actual agenda thank you uh seeing none we will move on to our next item which is recognitions

003and reports and I believe our superintendent Brian Kingsley will lead us toward that we sure do yes so thank you good evening everybody it's great to be with you this evening our first uh recognition here will be to our cmea 2023 Colorado music educators Association Hall of Fame inductees attending in support of this item are Melissa flail our teaching learning facilitator for music in the Arts Sharon darland and Sherry Mecca fresh welcome Aid and our guests of honor are coming in now welcome everyone if you'd like to go ahead and come on up to the lectern I will turn it over to my colleague Melissa to be able to introduce our amazing colleagues this evening and then we'll get underway with recognitions and then we'll give just a moment for everyone to come in and

004squeeze along the back wall here if you would or take a seat if there are open seats you are also welcome hey all right I think we're in a good spot Melissa if you want to take it away good evening my name is Melissa flail and I am the music facilitator for pooter school district and we are here tonight to recognize two amazing retired music educators who taught for decades in pooter school district and have the distinct honor of having been inducted into the Colorado music educators Association Hall of Fame this year at the clinic conference in January so we were able earlier in the year to recognize the teachers who took performing ensembles to the conference but every year at the opening of the conference they induct two maybe three just a very small

005number of Hall of Fame new members and it's a significant honor so tonight we are recognizing those two teachers first I want to recognize Sherry mcelfresh who spent most of her career in pooter School District teaching largely at Beatty and then also at bolts as choir director musical theater also was integral integral in starting the Elementary Honor Choir for our district Sherry is an amazing music educator I have had the privilege to have her as a colleague when I taught at Lusher while she was at bolts I have also performed with her daughter at the carousel dinner theater years ago and Sherry has continued having a huge impact on Young Musicians in our town as the artistic director and director of two choirs at Centennial Children's Chorus so Sherry is an amazing music educator continues

006to do so even in retirement and so if you would join me in Recon Sherry mcelfresh congratulations and we also want to recognize our other pooter School District retired music teacher a choral director primarily at pooter high school but also spent a year at Irish Sharon darland she was at Peter high school for a long time I also was able to call her a colleague we served together on the board of the Colorado chapter of the American choral Directors Association I sang with her daughter in a choir in Denver so I'm so lucky to know these two both personally and professionally one of Sharon's crowning achievements at pooter High School along with great musicals and all kinds of other things was the Men's Choir which performed at cmea numerous times they came in before school

007to rehearse there was also a women's choir that rehearsed at lunch along with all of the curricular choirs so Sharon is an amazing music educator continues to Mentor music teachers to stay involved in the community and so if you would join me in congratulating Sharon darland and I know Sharon has just a couple of thank yous there's it takes a lot of people to help make other people successful and that's what pooter high school and pooter School District did for me and so this just a little bit of time to thank other pooter school district teachers that helps facilitate this whole award first of all thank you for having us tonight it's great to be able to come and be able to talk about all these other people in front of you I honored and

008humbled to receive the award from cmea Peggy rosenkrantz who was a educator quite a while ago here in the district she nominated me and everything that she did it was a lot of work and she's been retired like I said for a while and she enjoys doing all this Gathering the letters all the information it's a huge task so I said Peggy uh why did you do this and she said well I'm a Hall of Fame member and I wanted to pay it forward and that's the spirit of pooter School District when someone does well we want everybody else to do well too I have the privilege of being the third music educator from pooter High School to receive the Hall of Fame award Bill Funke I took his place in 1985. he recently passed

009away at 96 years old a lot of people were impacted by him and Glenn schull who's band director at pooter high school and they've preceded me also Sandra lunch retired principal from pooter high school was the first cmea honor administrator and because of her work and because of her diligence with scheduling and making sure every kid had an opportunity to do music at pooter she was recognized for that I have to mention Janet Von Farrell she was my accompanist for 30 years and daily with me for that long was definitely I know sometimes trying Janet was the constant her dedication to students her passion for music is really one of those things that says so much about having that extra person who's titled as a para or an assistant or an accompanist in your room

010all those years so Janet definitely one of the big successes of the program of course the students were the foundation those kids who work tirelessly all the time with rehearsals over and over again in everything and at pooter high school if you were in one group you usually were in more than more than one just to kind of get everything filled out it was a marvelous community and a great place to teach um the students of course and of course the parents that rode buses set up fundraisers parents were integral to everything my daughters were raised at Hooter High School my 35 year old at three years old I put her in the musical because I didn't have a babysitter so it was just go out and walk out on stage and you'll be fine

011and it just kind of happened for that for a while and then my second daughter who's now 41. she was also in that situation and pretty soon the high school kids after about three years of that said do we have to have kids in the musical anymore because we're babysitting backstage all the time it's like no we can get over that but my 35 year old said something profound she says yeah I was raised at pooter High School while my friends were at home watching Barney and Friends I was at pooter High School in the auditorium doing my homework watching rehearsals of Guys and Dolls like yes that is very very true um my daughter's love and knowledge of music is accredited to wonderful pooter school district teachers Sherry mcelfresh Karen DeVries Linda Hall Casey

012crop Corey Peterson Bennett Stuckey Larry Lashley Chris Leonard I was honored to work with these people over the years and yeah it was 35 years there when people ask me they go how did you do one job for 35 years and most of the time is it I don't know it just kind of happened but it was also to give kids an opportunity across the board to Excel and I was placed in a school where that was allowed to happen whether it was scheduling or whatever I I was given the ability to Excel and pooter High School choirs continue to grow David lanowski is a former student and he is also the current choir director um I've probably said too much but I need to tell you this one story in Sherry's article heard it

0132003 a time through there when seniors graduated they would make scrapbooks and it was really cool so I had this one young man that had been in Men's Choir in the choirs forever never showed one bit of expression in anything for four years so I'm looking through the book and there he has a quote and I thought oh this is so cool and it said Miss darling we love you well at least I do Miss darling we think all the music you pick is really wonderful well at least most of it so what I want to say to teachers and everyone who works in the school no matter what you do and when you feel like nobody cares nobody notices there's always going to be that one kid that says well I do thanks and

014as always thank you to our district leadership our school board our superintendent the cabinet for your support of the Arts it is very meaningful and really important so thank you I don't think I'm going to work in the back here thanks thank you so much [Applause] thank you all right so we have a group who will be coming in to the back here we'll give them a few minutes to get settled before we start come on in oh yeah go ahead and come right up here John do you mind waving so they know where to stand put you on the spot you just oh both both of you John squared please wave all right wow for those of you who have joined us for recognitions or watched at home before you may know that part

015of our tradition is being able to recognize some of our Community Partners who make the work and support of students possible and we have so many of them that we are appreciative of and built long relationships with and others are new tonight what we are doing is recognizing a few of many partners who have been part of what we call state of our youth efforts so as you may have heard in various District Communications or in this board space before we are facing a mental health crisis in our community in our nation many of us have experienced that ourselves in this room or have loved ones friends colleagues who are going through challenges it's a part of our life always and now and as part of state of our youth it was our commitment to

016be able to listen to what students told us they need in terms of support of their mental health increased access to spaces of belonging increased awareness of an access to mental health professionals and resources reduction of stigma and training in skills that they want specifically so that they can help manage their mental health and be advocates for one another and help those in need so with that in mind brought together literal hundreds of folks at the Museum of Discovery in January centered around those four ideas along with some of our incredible students to be able to say how can we start to take action around an issue that we know has long persisted in our community right not just talk about it but how do we move to action and so tonight we are recognizing

017again just a few of the many partners who have come to the table and helped us try to come up with Creative Solutions and think differently about how it is that we get to that action point and respond to student needs because they demand that of us and they deserve that so this evening we'd like to recognize those who have been part of what we would call our steering committee and helping to put these efforts together and guide the work now and in the years to come and so if you would as I call your name if you'd go ahead and line up here we'd love to recognize you and then we'll take a photo at the end if that sounds good all right so we have Cheryl zimlich from the Bohemian Foundation we have

018Lori stolen from Larimer County Behavioral Health we have Dr Erica bakulski she is a parent and Community member Laura Valdez from the Fort Collins Museum of discovery [Applause] from Colorado State University's marketing Communications Emily seams Tegan Camden from Summit Stone with Lisa youngblade from the College of Health and Human Sciences from Colorado State University and Rachel Olsen from Imagine zero in the alliance for suicide prevention and then if I could I'd also like to welcome my colleagues Dwayne Liz and Sarah mowder Wilkins to join the group there are many more people involved but certainly they have played a big part [Music] Perfect all right could we give the group one more round of applause [Applause] there we go you can tell they're used to working together oh [Music] there you go okay thank you all

019[Applause] so do these people are going to come later do you want to send us foreign all right thanks Madeline our next items on the agenda are action items various resolutions we have the first one is a resolution in support of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2023 can I get a motion with respect to this resolution Nate yes I moved at the Pooter School District Board of Education approval resolution in support of Asian Pacific American heritage month 2023. great can I have a second looks like DJ would somebody like to read the resolution please go ahead Nate whereas in 1992 Congress designated may as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7 1843 and to recognize and mark the

020anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad by a labor force that was comprised of a majority of Chinese immigrants on May 10 1869. and whereas the 2023 theme for the observance has established by the federal Asian Pacific American Council or fapac is advancing leaders through opportunity the fapac defines opportunity as quote a set of circumstances that make it possible to do something in quote and whereas stereotypes and continued dissemination of misinformation about the coronavirus and Association Associated false allegations of blame have impacted the well-being of Asian Americans Pacific Islanders and those perceived as such threatening their ability to advance leaders from our student ranks through opportunity and where is the Pooter School District Board of Education Administration and staff are committed to making pooter School District an equitable and inclusive community for students families

021and staff who identify as Asian-American and Pacific Islanders and we recognize there is more work ahead of us diversity equity and inclusion are fundamental values in pooter school district and we're committed to ensuring that Asian American and Pacific Islander students families and staff are valued seen and heard now therefore be it resolved by the Pooter School District Board of Education this hereby proclaim the month of May 2023 as Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month and pooter School District PSD recognizes the importance of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month as an opportunity to reflect and learn more about our diverse Asian American and Pacific Islander community and to ensure they are included in our curriculum and instructional programs the Board of Education encourages students staff in the community to celebrate the Excellence and enriching

022contributions made from our Asian American and Pacific Islander community members of the past and present and if we approve this it would be approved and adopted this ninth day of May 2023. thank you Nate Brian I believe we have some folks here to speak in support of this yes thank you joining us this evening to speak to Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month is our diversity equity and inclusion coordinator Miss Delia mahaney I want to say welcome to Delia and she is joined by Griffey Caro one of our students from Fort Collins High School welcome hi thank you superintendent Kingsley Board of Education and cabinet for having me again this evening I want to thank especially Dr guile for connecting me to this amazing young woman Miss Griffey Caro Griffey is a sophomore for

023Fort Collins High School Fort Collins High School she is a high drum jumper for track and a proud member of the Asian student organization at Collins I want to thank Griffey for sharing tonight Griffey these evenings are one of the best parts of my job that always bring me pride and joy in pooter School District's Future Leaders most importantly they serve as a stark reminder of the areas in which I and others in our system hold privilege privileges we often take for granted thank you for being here tonight foreign so good evening everyone and thank you for inviting me here to speak my name is Griffey Carroll and I am American but I'm also Asian I was born and raised in Colorado English is my first language and every year my family and I would

024go to big 4th of July celebrations with cornhole and watermelon I am also Filipino and Indian and I love that my nose is the same as my grandmas and that in the summer I would get to eat as much puto and pansy as I wanted I love that every time I went to Oregon I could snack on dates without you while listening to his childhood stories of growing up in Bangladesh I'm proud of both parts of myself but when I was younger when I was told that my spam smelled like dog food and that I was a dumb Indian I didn't feel as though I was allowed to be proud of my Heritage at least not all of my Heritage because in Colorado I'd only ever seen a celebration of my American heritage that is

025until now A couple of years ago I saw in the papers that there was a Filipino food truck my family and I were pretty excited since although Colorado is a lot of things it isn't the most diverse place on one late Saturday night just before the food truck closed we bought lumpia two dollars per roll we determined that it wasn't as good as Grandma's but honestly that didn't matter because it was awesome to see more people that looked like us it was around this time when I started to see more people embracing their culture their Asian culture as a child who lived in between a little bit of one a sprinkle some other and also another I never really had anyone recognize all three equally and celebrate the parts that made me different I want

026to thank the board of education for giving people like me recognition I want to thank them for making kids in elementary schools feel more comfortable with bringing their homemade lunches and that regardless if they are fully one or somewhere in between they can honor both the same I want to thank them for supporting us Asians who through covid dealt with increased amounts of hate and violence thank you and happy Asian American Pacific Islander month [Applause] Tracy you have to come Tracy is known griffy I think what all your life so I I can't not anymore thank you we're framing it up all right so Brian reminded me that the proper order for this is to have a vote first and then a picture so private room okay I thought about it somehow it came into

027my mind Jill if you would like to call a vote please on this resolution I'd appreciate it DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan hi Kristen Draper aye Rob Peterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thank you very much Jill great all right so our second resolution is the resolution in support of mental health awareness month can I get a motion with respect to this resolution go ahead Kristen I moved at the border for court of Mental Health Awareness Month May 2023. excellent can I have a second the DJ's on there with a second again can we have someone read the resolution it looks like Kristen would like to do that go ahead all right in support of Mental Health Awareness Month whereas Mental Health Awareness Month supports public awareness

028of mental health and dispels the stigma surrounding it mental health awareness month has been observed in the U.S since 1949 and whereas mental health is an essential part of overall health and mental health conditions are real common and treatable people experiencing mental health challenges deserve support compassion and care not stigma and shame and whereas our students mental health and well-being as well as social and emotional learning is just as vital to the long-term success as their academic experience and whereas one in six U.S youth experience and mental health condition each year only half of them receive treatment fifty percent of all lifetime mental health conditions Begin by age 14 and 75 percent by age 24. and whereas staff and schools are often the first to recognize changes in mental health mental and physical health among

029students staff need to feel empowered to recognize and take appropriate action when needed which typically includes partnership with families to support student well-being and whereas our staff and community's mental health and well-being is vital to the success of the students we educate in pooter school district and whereas one in five U.S adults experiences mental illness each year and less than half of them receive treatment and whereas 40 percent of coloradans are concerned about the stigma around mental illness and every day millions of people face stigma related to mental health and may feel isolated and alone going years before receiving any help and whereas a Continuum of support to meet student mental health needs including evidence-based prevention practices and trauma-informed culturally responsive Mental Health Care are needed to support social and emotional well-being and whereas access

030to support and ending the stigma are of Paramount importance now therefore be resolved that the Pooter school this pooter School District Board of Education hereby recognizes May 2023 as mental health awareness month to enhance public awareness of mental health to help end the stigma and to ensure that we are supporting and inspiring every child to think to learn to care and to graduate prepare to be successful in a changing world thank you very much Kristen and again Brian I believe we have some people here to speak to this sure do yeah thank you joining us this evening to speak to mental health awareness month is mental health and prevention coordinator Sarah Mauder welcomes what Wilkins excuse me Sarah I want to welcome you and I know that Sarah is also joined by one of our

031high school students from PCA pooter Community Academy Ms Taya Evans Taya welcome it's great to see both of you thank you superintendent Kingsley and members of the board I want to speak about the moments of mental health and belonging that happen in our schools every day our bus driver picks up a student and gives them their first Warm smile of the day the cafeteria worker gives them their free breakfast when they arrive at school and knows their name and says they're happy to see them the counselor Scoops that kid up as they're walking into class and checks in to see how their day has been going so far the teacher leads the classroom through a regulation activity and all the students feel settled and ready to learn the paraprofessional notices when the student is holding

032their stomach and looking uncomfortable and asks them if they want to see our school nurse our school nurse notices that there are some complexities going on underneath the stomach ache and brings them to the mental health specialist the mental health specialist meets with the student and the school psychologist and figures out that the student just started some new medication the family liaison calls the family in their language and has them sign a release of information for them to be able to speak with a psychiatrist and for us to give updates on how that medication is going as they enter into their school day the student has to go to their next class A little late but the teacher is very welcoming and welcomes them back into their learning the student gets on the bus to

033go to their competition and there's a little bit of conflict that happens on the bus but some of the students remember that SEL lesson that they had and find ways to communicate assertively through it the coach notices that the student hasn't had a snack and that they might need some fuel to compete and gets them what they need once they're home the student is looking at social media and they see a peer post about feeling suicidal the student makes an anonymous safe to tell report and the school administrator in SRO respond immediately to get life-saving Community Support to the peer the student sits with their family and the family asks how's your day at school today the student says no it was okay every day there are moments of mental health and belonging that we

034all as a district choose to support students in our students deserve safe and inclusive spaces that support their whole selves our students especially those from historically marginalized identities often have increased barriers to accessing this care outside of school our staff deserve to feel supported and have access to the remarkable EAS services offered through PSD thank you to our board and superintendent for making this a priority and thank you to all of our staff students and families that make this a priority and live this every day I don't want to take up any more time because we have an amazing and resilient student Taya Evans who that is about to speak to you so please welcome Taya thank you hello and thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about my experience with mental health

035in school I wanted to start by saying that I one of many I am one of many students who experience a lot of trauma and suffered through many wounds over the course of a few years in school all in which I was also expected to show up on time to hold conversations and to carry a masked smile uh myself along with many other students teachers and parents have this experience in common and understand well that there are moments when it feels like you're drowning in that seat alone I had gone to therapy I tried talking and writing things down doing things that made me happy in an attempt to make it through the exhaustion but nothing seemed to work I got to a point where I believe that progression and Improvement was not possible for

036me yet one day I decided it was not time to give up and I decided to give myself another chance and I enrolled in Peter Community Academy just about a month after transferring to PCA I was hit with a sudden loss of my brother and with that I struggled immensely I was absent more than I was present and I couldn't find the motivation to keep going but my school did not allow me to give up the staff at PCA heavily supported me they allowed me space when I needed it they checked up of me often and teachers would reach out and offer a safe space in their classrooms and offices I was given opportunities to make up for lost credits and assistance with getting back on track to graduate some of my teachers even spent

037their lunches helping me and took time to recognize my personal needs they believed in me when I felt hopeless I felt seen in my school I feel mental health is prioritized in PCA and I know I can speak for many others when I say that that is the only reason I'm here today and why I look forward to tomorrow and why I will graduate this year I realize it is important to feel supported in school it is important to have the ability to talk to peers and trusted teachers about silent battles that we are all individually fighting by talking amongst other students sharing different experiences and hardships and hearing different kinds of perspectives and stories I realized I share similar feelings and stresses with a lot more people around me than I was aware of

038and that made me feel the most validated and most heard I strongly believe that it is most important to be seen and to see and to recognize that you are not alone we are capable of finding motivation in each other and that begins with spreading awareness around mental health and to create an educated and encouraging Community thank you for this opportunity [Applause] I learned okay Jill would you please call a vote on this resolution DJ Anderson before I vote I just I really got to say wonderful job but please everyone remember to be kind because this is an invisible war that a lot of people have to fight on their own and you don't know what struggles they're going through and so awareness is great kindness and patience will go a long way so I

039wholeheartedly vote Yes Jim brokish yes yes Nate Donovan I Kristen Draper aye Rob Pederson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thank you very much Jill [Applause] [Laughter] thank you [Applause] all right our next resolution is the resolution in support of national teacher appreciation week can I get a motion with respect to this resolution please go ahead Nate yes I moved at the Pooter School District Board of Education approve a resolution in support of nature national teacher appreciation week can I get a second looks like Carolyn this time no sorry uh could would you like to read that the resolution DJ okay who would like to read the resolution go ahead Jess wow DJ all right in support of national teacher appreciation week whereas teachers build the foundation of our society in

040every Walk of Life every single successful person is where they are today thanks in part to their teachers none of us would be where we are today if a teacher along our journey didn't first teach us how to read how to resolve conflict or how to think critically and whereas teachers are really good at hiding all the work they do behind the scenes from a student's perspective everything is magically organized and ready to go at the beginning of the day classrooms are decorated name tags are laminated and carefully placed crafts are prepared supplies are organized class pets are fed and taken care of seating charts are strategically arranged lessons are planned tablets and laptops are charged tests are created and modified for students with a variety of needs essays are graded teachers are smiling and

041ready to tackle the day with our students and whereas our community realizes and appreciates all the formative work teachers do in making sure our community is equipped to handle life's challenges and celebrate our achievements we set aside this week for honoring teachers and recognizing the lasting contributions they make to our lives now therefore be it resolved by the Pooter School District Board of Education that pooter School District supports the week of May 8th through May 12 2023 as national teacher appreciation week the Board of Education strongly encourages all members of our community to join in it and join it in personally expressing appreciation to our teachers for their dedication and Devotion to their work in our community thank you very much Jess and Brian I know we have some speakers for this as well yes

042we do joining us this evening to speak to national teacher appreciation week is our pea President John Robinson John I want to welcome you and I believe you are supported at this time by three of your colleagues Allison coatman Jackie kinnick and Alex McNally welcome to all of you thank you good evening board of directors superintendent Kingsley cabinet and especially our Educators both here and watching remotely I'm John Robinson a career high school U.S history teacher from Rocky and president of the Pooter Education Association our teachers union with me are members of Pea's executive board our vice president Allison coatman from Cruise Elementary Jackie kinnick from Weber Middle School Alex mcinally from riffenberg elementary we are here on behalf of the Educators and pooter School District to thank you for the resolution highlighting Teacher Appreciation

043Week as we move from recovering and navigating the pandemic into a public educator and into public education in a post-pandemic world educators are shifting from the protocols that protected Us in the classroom to the work of navigating the social and emotional gaps our students acquired after two years of isolation as we renorm public Behavior reintroduce civil discourse and critical thinking our PSD educators are the Cornerstone of the PSD strategic plan we cannot be successful in our focus on literacy without Educators Elementary and secondary rolling up our sleeves and doing the hard work of Shifting to literacy in a 21st century digital landscape our students will graduate with options because our educators are tailoring their students educational experiences based on their needs and wants in the 21st century job market and finally our strategic initiative on

044mental health and belonging begins in the classroom with the relationship between the teacher and student the pressure on our students are immense and educators are there as nurturers in all aspects of what it means to be a productive member of our society as we help our students in our community learn and grow PSD educators are there every step of the way as the Bedrock of our community let's all take time to thank our teachers for going above and beyond for each and every one of our students making pooter School District the safe place for all of our students thank you and happy Teacher Appreciation Week all right Jill would you please call a vote on this resolution DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan aye Kristen Draper aye Rob Pederson aye Carolyn Reed aye

045Jessica Zamora aye mosha passes 7-0 thanks very much Joe really appreciate it yes pictures having fun excellent thank you thank you so much and our final resolution this evening is a resolution in support of national school nurse day can I get a motion with respect to this resolution oh okay go ahead Kristen all right I move that the board approved the resolution and support of national school nurse Day May 10 2023. oops excellent can I have a second looks like Jess this time who would like to read the who would like to read uh looks like Jim wants to read it go ahead in support of national school nurse day May 10 2023. whereas School nurses have served a critical role in improving public health and in ensuring students academic success for more than 120

046years and whereas School nurses are professional nurses that Advance the well-being academic success and lifelong achievements of all students by serving on the front lines and providing a critical safety net for our nation's most fragile children and whereas families deserve to feel confident that their children will be cared for when they're at school and whereas all students have the right to have their physical and mental health needs safely met while in the school setting and whereas students today face more complex and life-threatening health problems requiring care in school and whereas School nurses act as a liaison to the school Community families and health care providers on behalf of Children's Health and whereas School nurses are members of a school of school-based teams for example school health services 504 slash IEP disaster slash emergency planning providing

047health care coordination to address the school population and whereas School nurses understand the length between the link between health and learning and are in a position to make a positive difference for children every day now therefore be it resolved the Pooter School District Board of Education proclaims May 10 2023 as school nurse day and celebrates and acknowledges the accomplishments of School nurses who advocate for students and their needs the Board of Education offers gratitude for the District School nurses who contribute to our local community by supporting students to stay healthy in school safe and ready to learn not just on this national school nurse day but in every opportunity throughout the year thank you Jim we have another set of speakers for this one as well Brian yes thank you joining us this evening to

048speak about national school nurse day is health services coordinator Kim Granger and school nurse Barb Gomez welcome Kim and Barb we're really glad you're here thank you superintendent Kingsley and the Board of Education directors for this recognition of our School nurses I have been a health services coordinator for six years the last two here at Hooter School District and in that time I have seen increasing levels of support for the school nurse role across the district superintendent Kingsley Marlena gross Taylor Reuben Chacon and now Liz Davis are have come in person to our meetings to express their support for School nurses and have advocated for us behind the scenes invited me to the table which is a wonderful experience for all the School nurses to see for the first time since bowder Wellington Middle High

049School and Timnath Middle High School were built the budget design team has been in support of more FTE for nurses and have recognized our role in the mental health support of our students when I arrived two years ago PSD had 13.8 FTE for our 50-plus programs we now have 18 thanks to Grants and covet dollars while this funding ends this year I am anxiously awaiting word from both the Medicaid discussions tomorrow night and the negotiations process that happens on Friday hopefully ends on Friday this team of 18 has done great things even though seven of them were brand new School nurses this year and we are really hoping to not only maintain this level of Staffing but to grow to safer ratios in the future with your ongoing support our team of School nurses as

050well as our health techs are ready to support PSD students in schools well into the future now I'd like to introduce the epitome of a school nurse Barbara Gomez she's school nurse at pooter High School Dunn Elementary and olander Elementary I turn it over to Barb foreign members of the board thank you for your resolution and support of School nurses I started in PSD as a health Tech after taking a break from my nursing career and loved it so much I became a school nurse although my time in PSD has been fulfilling I've had many ups and downs as a health Tech it was wonderful to be part of a school I formed connections with both staff and students being a health Tech has many responsibilities including diabetes management emergency response to severe allergies and

051anaphylaxis and many other medical situations that require higher level thinking the school nurse I worked with spent a lot of time and effort training me to care for students in the school setting unfortunately the low paying hours of the health Tech job make it difficult to keep experienced people in this position after three years as a health Tech I decided to apply for a school nurse position we were required to manage or this was at the height of covid with in-person learning we were required to manage quarantine and isolation of staff and students in a complex political environment in addition to our regular duties we were extremely short staffed and overwhelmed by the magnitude of our responsibilities and worked many long hours including evenings and weekends Although our load as School nurses is heavy we

052believe that we are doing what we are doing is important we provide training and education to staff members so students with severe medical needs can participate in a public education we make sure students with medical conditions and medications have health plans to keep them safe while participating in sports activities and trips away from school we work as advocates for students and families that cannot advocate for themselves we make lasting connections with our students families and communities we do all of this with student case loads far above the national recommendation we thank you for your recognition of our important work and commitment we look forward to your support in the years to come and hope that you continue to recognize our contribution to the health mental health and well-being of students and pooter School District thank

053you Jill if you'd like to call a vote on this resolution I'd appreciate it DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan aye Christian Draper aye Rob Henderson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 great thank you very much Jill [Applause] thank you ladies [Laughter] thank you so much thank you so much thank you all right excellent so our that concludes our action items on resolutions we now move on to our next item on the agenda which is a report for our super from our superintendent superintendent Kingsley will now make remarks to the board of education and to the community members on the board and members of the community good evening thank you for the this the pleasure and the honor to address all of you this evening I continue to be

054inspired by the incredible things that are happening across the school district and honestly you shouldn't have to say much more than what we've already heard here tonight uh I think Sharon and Sherry too strong music educators are the first Hall of Fame teachers that I met in my first two years I think that's pretty special it reminded me of a recent school visit to timnitz middle school high school last week where I had an opportunity to go into Corey Patterson and Andrea Frost's classroom where they were learning how to play the school's brand new fight song it was so awesome I felt like I was in a college Stadium and then I walked next door and saw Will ecker's classroom and he was teaching a choir class and you can't walk into any of these

055teachers classrooms without being energized and I fed off that energy and he forced me to sing the alma mater um and I had to apologize to the other high school principals in case that was on camera but I was a base and he taught me how to sing as a in the bass tone I guess you could say and I needed a little extra tutoring but the love and the joy and the passion you know as we're talking about mental health mental health isn't just about School nurses and school counselors and Mental Health Specialists they are incredibly Mission critical to providing a high level of Continuum of Care and support and so I don't want to under estimate the significance that they play but we all have a role in that including our families and

056whether it's being a music teacher whether it's sending your your children to our schools whether it's cultivating a sense of belonging or listening to one of our young high school students like Griffey who said that she's unapologetically proud to just be accepting of both parts of herself but she also on acknowledged through her vulnerability that that wasn't always okay in our school system in our community the vulnerability talked about bataya After experiencing tragic loss and coping with multiple traumas to overcome those particular challenges as a result of teachers and other people including members of her family not giving up on her in spite of the odds are the reason that we get to smile and celebrate and clap and take pictures tonight so I'm really grateful to be a part of that our school system

057is doing a lot of great work in support of mental health awareness month and just mental health in general and I want to invite any member of our community to check out the various forms of content that we have available for families on all of our district platforms this month with stories and Key Resources many of them like you heard here this evening you know knowing the challenges that people are grappling with both visibly and DJ I really appreciated your comments earlier invisibly I'm grateful for our District's mental health professionals I'm grateful for everybody who's leaning in including our families to have a courageous conversation where there is a stigma at the center of it whether you're a counselor a mental health specialist a psychologist a social worker a behavioral interventionist and many more please

058know from your superintendent you're doing the right work to build systems and provide support to all students PSD is making strides in this work too I don't know if you saw in the news last night or last week it went viral I think it went viral in my mind we announced that we just received the 9.7 million dollar Federal grant that will train and incentivize the next generation of Social Work students right here in our local schools in partnership with Colorado State University this amazing news comes just after a few months after the state selected our district PSD to participate in Project aware which means advancing wellness and resiliency and education another multi-year Grant aimed at amplifying mental health work in our districts not only not only am I proud but if you think about

059that that's almost 12 million dollars in Grant dollars to extend this work moving forward to meet the growing demand that has to be discussed more frequently in our school system I'm so proud of the team for doing everything that they can not just in terms of applying with grants but applying them in partnership with many of the member uh partners that are in our community especially the higher ed institutions you know this is a great example of fiscal stewardship it further extends the budget dollars the limited budget dollars that we have to do really great work and tonight you will hear our District's preliminary budget you'll get more information on that tonight I'm so proud to work with Dave and Brian and our finance team they are incredible at what they do not just in

060terms of crunching numbers but sharing their story and partnering with our various labor associations in our community to make sure that story is well understood where we can grapple with those particular facts they're unwavering stewards of taxpayer dollars and they help us navigate the ever turbulent Waters of K-12 funding especially in the state of Colorado and I'm learning that the hard way as the state in our District budget picture comes into Focus there's one thing I want everyone to keep in mind is that our economic health today is better than it was at least over the last couple of years but Colorado has directed some of the funding to public schools and it's a tremendous important thing for us to acknowledge tonight but it's important to know and I'm not speaking from the place of

061being a victim we're still underfunded I'm very proud of the steps that we're taking both locally and the state level but there's still a lot more work to do to meet the growing needs and emerging needs of this community of our youth and of our families so there's more work to be done we'll talk about that tonight I'm also super proud that tonight we'll hear a follow-up from our curriculum director John pasentino and the team that we're doing great work around our elementary literacy curriculum I think it's transformative but our district has you know one of the things that I'm incredibly proud about is that our district has one of the highest literacy rates across the entire Front Range yet it's still a priority because not a hundred percent of our students yet are reading

062on grade level and so we're doubling down on that area which I think is a great thing and tonight our up in tonight's update our curriculum adoption we'll talk more about building cohesion in coherence and how we're supporting intentionally our teachers and our school-based leaders in this work educating families but I'm also telling you that we're going to Sunset some old things that no longer serve our children and teachers well and that has to be important part of the conversation so I'm really grateful that the board last year had the foresight to invest in this particular area instead aside 10 million dollars of last year's budget to make sure we can do the work that we're talking about tonight it's that foresight in partnership with people that I not only is exciting but it's worth

063worthy of Celebration but what really ignites my passion my love for this work are our people they're our students they're my colleagues our colleagues they're our families in our community I want you to know that you're the reason that this district is incredible and you're the reason why I consider this place my home last week we got to honor our principal some of the greatest instructional leaders I've ever met now we've got a chance to recognize our School nurses whose medical expertise and Care radiates throughout our schools and our school lunch Heroes recently too that makes your every child gets not only a great meal that's healthy nutritious but they're also greeted with a smile that's not easy but this week is national teacher appreciation week and I want to say thank you to our

064districts over 2 000 teachers and Educators who are in our classrooms supporting each other supporting our students to make sure that we give them everything that you can everything that they've got for our students to reach their full potential you are mentors you are coaches in many instances you're also a mental health provider as John talked about that belong that starts in our classroom at times too but as another speaker talked about earlier it starts on when you get on the bus too in the cafeterias but our students laugh and guide you know our are Guided by our teachers through some of the toughest days and I want to take a moment to launch a brief video to all of our Educators in the pooter School District thank you hi everyone it's national teacher appreciation

065week and I'd like to thank each of our 2133 teachers for everything that you do you know I'm so inspired by our people my colleagues in PSD continue to be inspired by you PSD is one of the strongest school districts in the state and Beyond because of your talent commitment and creativity teachers change the trajectory of my life Educators and coaches help to build my confidence and inspired me to want to be a part of something bigger than myself he's in that I found at home just like you in public education I share that not to make this about me but to illustrate the profound impact that every teacher is currently having on our children in our district and our young adults it's just that Prof you have the great responsibility of seeing really seeing

066each of your students and encouraging them to be their most authentic self connecting with them to lift up their talents and deeply understand what they what they learn grow and be happy in this world I just love visiting our schools and seeing you in action it excitement and engagement are present everywhere I go as much as I'd like to I won't be able to build and every teacher and I'll share a couple of stories that really stick out you know last night I saw Shannon Wick a teacher at Rocky Mountain High School who helped facilitate a give next student philanthropic effort to help her students identify ways to contributing to battling the mental health epidemic that we have across our society the way that her students were empowered to take leadership roles to engage in

067Community organizations to support them was truly eye-opening and heartwarming earlier today I had the opportunity to be a part of many of the presentations of learning for current our soon to be graduates at Polaris Expeditionary Learning School teachers like Joe and Randy and Shanda who had an opportunity to make visible not just their students learning two-way relationship that existed between an educator and a student for us to understand the power of being introspective compassionate empathetic and knowledgeable I'm so excited to continue to celebrate teachers like all of you across the district as we get closer to the end of this school year it's not about just this week it's really about honoring you always I've I'm currently and always wanting to truly be reflective of how Dynamic teachers are in PSD in the various roles

068that you play in the lives of our students challenge students to do more than they've ever expected of themselves you celebrate their strengths and you give them the confidence to try new and very difficult things you listen and you see people for who they are you are mentors your coaches and you create experiences that will serve them now and for the years to come PSD students look back on their educational experiences they likely won't remember their locker combinations was on their AP tests but they will remember you teachers can change their lives so from the bottom of my heart thank you for what you do and most importantly thank you for who you are it means a lot [Music] all right thank you very much for those remarks and for that video Brian it's inspiring

069as always um the next section of our agenda is time for Community comment I want to remind us all of 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 and District staff is that which celebrates successes that support the educational and social emotional experiences of students or which identifies a problem and proposes a solution for us to consider that ultimately improves the educational and social emotional experiences of 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

070comment our lack of response should not be construed to mean that we agree or disagree with what is said or with a description or interpretation of events as presented by any speaker although we may disagree on some things I know that we all want the best educational experience for our students as we participate together in this community comment session we should model for our students how to listen how to interact respectfully even with those with whom we disagree and generally how to show up each day with that I'll remind folks that this opportunity for public comment is for members of the community who registered to speak by the designated deadline those people will be called on to make remarks in the order that they signed up given that 19 people signed up today each speaker

071will be allowed two minutes to address the board our first Speaker this evening is Jeff afterheide welcome foreign from Wellington Colorado today I want to address the implementation of a biometric scanner in the cafeteria in its relevance to PSD strategic plan it is unclear how the Biometrics program fits into PSD strategic plan of literacy mental health graduating with options in school safety the biometric solution is provided by a company named identometrics additionally Brian kingsley's Mentor Peter Gorman is associated with the organization recommending this solution to schools as a concerned parent I'm disturbed by the introduction of this technology for the following reasons one biometric data is highly sensitive and it is crucial that PSD explains the measures in place to ensure our children's data remains secure and protected number two the use of Biometrics in

072schools raises questions about the balance between student safety efficiency and privacy rights the district should address these concerns and discuss the benefits and potential risks in a public forum number three and it is not unheard of for PSD to use personal data for discriminatory purposes if you recall the district previously decided to publish our children's health data on a dashboard and attempted to use the medical status in conjunction with the Larimer County Department of Health to restrict citizens access to local businesses during covid how can we trust that this information will not be shared with County or state governments during the next emergency it seems that superintendent Kingsley has a significant amount of discretion and the board appears weak in holding him accountable I urge puta School District board to audit number one audit the

073request for proposal process ensure procurement of Technologies is appropriately managed number two provide detailed information on the security measures and data protection protocols for students biometric data number three clarify the opt-out process and inform all parents about their rights and options introducing biometric technology into schools is a serious decision a dialogue with parents and Community is essential to address concerns and maintain public Trust thank you our next speaker is Lita Behrens welcome hello I am Reverend Leta aren't Behrens I was raised by PSD graduated from Fort Collins High School in 1993. I now serve specifically our savior's Lutheran Church faith community and am part of open and affirming wider Church Networks I'm here today to speak for policies that a firm include and protect lgbtqia students public education is a foundation of our community and

074crucial to the development of all children and youth and all of the Children and Youth have a right to this education in spaces that are safe healthy and affirming of who they are as we have heard attested to many times this evening already for too long the face of Christianity and public education has been one that has marginalized and undermined the basic right of education for marginalized persons however that's not the only face or voice in the of those in the Christian faith I represent those communities who do not believe that any discrimination comes from a holy place and that we are called to love and serve especially those most in need or harmed furthermore we find it imperative that the places our children are educated be places that not only have policies of equity

075and inclusion and diversity but they include policies and practices that protect and affirm their Humanity in a study by the Trevor Project in 2022 it was found that over half of lgbtqia students indicated they were not safe at school please do not allow this to be our children we know that students learn best in a positive and supportive environment and I encourage and implore this board to continue on your path of finding ways to make this a reality for the lgbtqia children and our youth in this District I urge you to stand strong and keep the good practices that are working and also look for the best supports available to continue thank you our next speaker is John Meyer welcome thanks for your care and your concern for our schools and and their mission especially

076for you are the board that do this as volunteers I've just come to have an incredible respect for all that you contribute in that schools face a huge challenge in supporting students and you guys work hard to address that here but nothing will outweigh these students family experience and especially the parental role in shaping them for success or failure in school the schools can't even with unlimited resources match the influence of the family so I'm asking you to be very mindful of the influence you can have positively or negatively and supportive parental involvement in the school's mission I raised four boys and led a youth group for years nearly all teens have moments where the idea that their parents don't understand them their parents are not supportive their parents are not safe people seems like

077the truest thing in the world I now have a close relationship with each one of my adult sons but the outcome of each relationship the course of their lives could have been different if an authoritative voice had been present at the wrong moment offering a solution to their challenges that labeled parents is the problem so in all the complexities of what you must manage please see supporting the parent Student Connection as a way to access your most influential resource I realize that not all parents are what they should be but that's true of teachers as well and school counselors and administrators we live in a broken world but we still believe and support the role of teachers we still believe in support school counselors we still believe in and support the role of school administrators

078please think through creative ways to make parents Partners in the process of carrying the weight that you have thank you our next speaker is Jennifer Wilkening I hope I got that nope looks like not okay then our next speaker is Cassie marinko no looks like not Patty how about pieter I apologize if I got the name wrong all the time okay well you can correct me welcome thank um I'm sort of approached this last minute so I didn't type anything up in advance so my apologies uh first of all I do want to thank the school district I work in joburg sorry nah I work in child protection as a social worker and um I get the sort of rub between power of parent power of school government et cetera but what I see every

079day are children who are neglected abused um don't have a place and all those sorts of things and I see the incredible impact the school district has I couldn't do the work I do without the school district there and these kids are so vulnerable and while I wish every child had Parents they could turn to who would listen to them and and be curious about the things that trouble them it's just not the case often it is but sometimes it's not and I wanted to speak up on behalf of those children because when they cross my plate at work so many of them are in Dire Straits when they could have really used assistance long before but nobody was there to listen and there was no position that they had they could share from so

080I asked that the school board considered these things with their decisions ahead because you're part of a system and we can't do without you and the great work that you do 24 seconds left thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Mary Beth Swanson welcome hello my name is Mary Beth Swanson and I'm a mental health professional and I work with kids and I've been doing that for about 25 plus years I'm also a parent of two PSD graduates currently I work with kids under the age of six and periodically I will have a parent come to me with concerns that their young child isn't quite complying with our culture's gender norms they are concerned because their son likes to nurture and play with dolls and likes to put on the sparkly necklace now and again

081can you imagine what it would be like for that tiny developing child if I were to advise the parents to snatch that away and hand them a car or a ball or a toy gun no I would never do that I would offer the advice that I give most often children all children need to know that their primary caregivers love them unconditionally not because of the toys they choose not because of their body size or shape not because of their athletic prowess or their grades because of Any Behavior they exhibit or don't exhibit children need to know they are loved simply because they exist about six years ago I was working at an agency where we were responsible for facilitating the child fatality review team this meant that we reviewed every child death in Larimer

082County that was preventable we applied for a small amount of funding to address the issue we saw as the most preventable and that was teen suicide lgbtq youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide as their peers and this is not because they are inherently more prone to suicidal ideation it is because of the ways that Society stigmatizes them during that period I met with PSD officials to talk about the need for gsas in the high schools and middle schools I was shocked to learn that the political will of some powerful extremist parents was actually of higher concern than children dying and this has to end children need unconditional love they need safety they need the freedom to become who they are going to become within safe spaces thank you our next

083speaker is MJ Jorgensen welcome good evening everyone my name is MJ Jorgensen and I just want to thank the board for allowing public comment tonight I'm here expressing my deep gratitude to the district for all the work and support they're giving to our lgbtq students this work is challenging uphill and critical I explicitly recall a conversation with my parents back in 2007. I had just come out we were all in our bed my bedroom and all in tears I remember feeling anxious overwhelmed and scared that day I was met with many questions for my mom and only one from my dad that still rings in my ears he asked why would you choose this life it's so hard and I said well it's not a choice and it's easier with you he went silent my

084parents followed this conversation with their way of care which was to surround me in church therapy and to keep me busy at home in activities I was no longer allowed to speak to many of the people I had come close to or spaces during this time I found it nearly impossible to talk to my parents about anything and the one thing I had was school and a specific teacher Miss Limoges I wrote her a letter recently telling her that she whether she knew it at or not at the time kept me alive during this part of my life and that I'm filled with gratitude every day looking back at that moment that she was part of my circle I thanked her for providing me space safety and Trust where I couldn't find it elsewhere so

085to the school board thank you for building capacity in the district for students like me to the parents thank you for caring for your children I'd encourage you to keep learning about them they might need more than what you're providing and to the students keep your head up you've got this find your people and love them hard and never forget the power of people in community thank you thank you thank you our next speaker is is sorry Ruth huffbauer welcome good evening everyone I'm Ruth huffbauer and I'm a mom in Fort Collins of two kids in the pooter School District currently and I'm also here to talk about the lgbtq issues and I understand that pewter policies allow and the teachers use the pronouns and gender identity of students as requested and the names of

086students as requested and this is wonderful this is wonderful this is as it should be and if I understand correctly there's also a lawsuit to um against this in part because teachers aren't required to reach out to parents and tell the parents what students are saying ask what they're being asked to be called and I just everything I've heard here tonight the support that you all are providing our students is absolutely wonderful most of your community is with you here and I would just implore you to not give in to a small group of special interests that are supported with outside funding and just stay strong and keep doing right by our students you've already heard some of the statistics I was going to provide so I'll um give you back your 37 seconds thank

087you our next speaker is Andy Brunson Williams welcome takes me a little bit to get here hello superintendent Kingsley and distinguished school board members and cabinet members I appreciate your time and your listening ear today when I was here previously I told you that my husband and I have three children who are in this district one of whom graduated last year from Polaris High School my husband and I are raising our children here knowing that they are getting one of the best educations in the country we have autistic children and we have trans children and we understand what difficulties they face in order to access their education I've been given permission from my oldest kiddo to share some of their story despite the support in their own family and the acceptance they received when they

088came out to us they struggled and continued to be bullied by adults children and also children whom those adults empowered they found respite in their family and with teachers in their school no matter what they face in the world whether it was when they were told to get out of the bathroom of their own assigned birth gender or when they were made fun of by their peers and classmates or kicked out of clubs for their own identity they knew their teachers had their back this is teacher appreciation week and I cannot tell you the good it does for the relationships between those students and teachers to empower your District's employees to serve those children first and to make sure those kids have access to an education in a supportive and safe environment I want to

089thank you for your gender inclusive policies on behalf of parents of trans kids in this District on behalf of teachers in this district and behalf of public education itself these policies are under attack and I want you to know that your community has your back in following the research and the data when you're writing these policies you continue to do right by your students despite facing attacks from Prejudice and propaganda and from frivolous lawsuits that are seeking to undermine the access to public education thank you for your work and your dedication this parent very much appreciates it thank you thank you our next speaker is Ryan Kelly welcome hi thank you for having me here my name is Ryan Kelly the love of my life is a beautiful woman and the most incredible commonality that

090we have is the fact that we're both mothers and so today hearing everything that's been talked about has filled my heart and soul I did want to point out that we all know that there is an attack against the current in place policies that you all have put in place to protect the LGBT qia plus community and these are beautiful policies that we need to stand behind so thank you thank you thank you when I think about being a mother I think about the important role that I have as a protector not a protector to like not have our kids experience the tough in life but a protector to be able to be part of creating safe inclusive spaces for our kids to just show up and be their truest most authentic selves and I

091agree I think it's a small loud group that sometimes we can get caught up in and think oh gosh man they're coming for us but what I've done recently is stop myself and realize because I've been through a lot of therapy that hate and anger are secondary emotions right and primary emotions most likely Come From Fear coming from Fear of the adults and fear of a lived experience that people don't know of so instead of talking about rolling back policies that support and protect and keep our children safe maybe as a school board we talk about how do we expand these policies how do we expand the education not necessarily for our children they get it my kids they know pronouns they're like oh Mom Mom they them I'm like thank you for checking me

092there right because we're all learning but adults and parents do need to learn more and I think that we should expand the education in that realm so we can continue to do the right kind of work thank you thank you our next speaker is Melissa Campbell welcome hi everybody I am not a public speaker so excuse me um my name is Melissa I'm a graduate from pooter School District I'm a parent in pooter school district and I currently work in pooter School District this district has been an excellent Ally for its students and in being an ally nothing has been taken away from the other students we have seen a rash of hate and ignorance flooding over other districts and states in my lifetime there has been panic over role-playing Games music and video games

093now I'm hearing it's time to panic over the lgbtqia community again clearly some people cannot learn from past mistakes that panic and banning simply lead to oppression and persecution I wanted to be here today to preemptively let you all know I appreciate the support an allyship so many medical boards and mental health Advocates have proven time and time again to be simple and massively effective education is about learning and growing and continuing to grow and learn I believe our community is one of support and caring I hope we can continue to provide support to all the students to thrive and be their best selves thank you for intentionally choosing to use energy towards inclusion of all students schools have been a deep impact on young lives thank you for seeing the students and allowing them

094to be authentic thank you our next speaker is Andy Cobb welcome hi so I initially in my little speech that I had it was going to talk about all the that there's like a small community of loud voices but I'm so happy to be in this room right now I've never felt safer and more like pride in my community than right now so thank you um so I just wanted to kind of echo everything that's been said I first of all I guess my name is Andy I am a teacher in pooter School District I got my five-year pin this week so thank y'all um I just wanted to say thank you um because you're doing the most important thing up there which is listening to student voices and listening to what they need and

095ignoring not ignoring addressing in the best possible way um what anybody opposing is saying um I was here last month when the two trans students were here and they were speaking on behalf of the um visibility day the transvisibility day and the reaction in the room was so lovely and it was so nice to see all that happen and you are just listening to those students so thank you um because at the end of the day we are just here to make a positive impact on those students and help them get through the year um and you know I don't know it means a lot also as a queer educator um speaking of which is my partner's birthday so I don't want to be rude I am leaving but thank you okay thank you our

096next speaker is Regina Johnson welcome thank you my name is really Reggie and my pronouns are she her I'm the president of P flag Fort Collins in Larimer County pflag's mission is to create a caring just and affirming world for lgbtq plus people and those who love them I'm also a proud mom and grandmom of kiddos who are part of the marginalized community Malcolm X has said that education is an important element in the struggle for human rights it is the means to help our children and our people ReDiscover their identity and thereby increase their self-respect education is more than learning reading writing and arithmetic it is about gaining the knowledge and the skills needed to become a better person and to create a better Society to live in 45 percent of lgbtq Youth seriously

097considered attempting suicide in 2022. as was previously said that's more than four times the amount of their non-lgbtq queers sorry that was funny and as was also said this is not because of who they are but how they are treated mistreated and stigmatized in our society this includes in the classroom and school environment but having at least one accepting adult can reduce the risk of a suicide attempt among these lgbtq kiddos by 40 percent this means that the work that pooter school district is doing to affirm each and every student is literally life-saving it's imperative that students all students exist in an environment where they are safe supported and even celebrated when a student doesn't have to worry constantly about being who they are they are able to focus on who they can become for

098students who are affirmed at school surviving becomes a reality and thriving becomes an option I need you to I need to ask you to finish up sure I'll just stop there thank you our next speaker is Richard Johnston welcome I am the proud father of a gay son you might not know it if you met him he loves swimming basketball football playing NBA 2K art and music he was comfortable enough to come out with us to us two years ago and brave enough to be comfortable with his sexuality to his classmates and the proud father of a gay son I want to banish the stigma that surrounds that declaration when I was in school derogatory terms for people of different sexualities and genders were tossed about like confetti on New Year's except this confetti was

099meant to shame embarrass cut I see some hope that we are banishing this harmful language students are starting to realize they cannot use it within your shot of a caring adult that does not mean that it is not whispered in class slicing like a knife in the hallways tossed like a grenade in locker rooms gender and sexuality alliances can Salve the wounds children such as mine receive daily I am the proud father of a gay son gsas provide a safe space a sense of community for those children who are all too often shunned they are a place where students can come together and speak about their hopes and fears without judgment they can teach all children empathy and not understanding that although we may be different we are all human and it is our Humanity

100that binds us I'm the proud father the gay son gsas can reduce prejudices in bigotry it is through organizations such as this that my son's generation beca can become more accepting more empathetic it is too late for my generation to rescind the cruelty that was lobbied in the halls of our schools but it is not too late to empower my son's generation to build empathy for someone that they might deem other I am the proud father of a gay son thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Jim weinburner welcome back and forth dialogue about important lgbtq issues and how the district is approaching them I would like to thank Jim brokus and Kristen Draper for making that dialogue a reality for me on a personal basis we had lengthy discussions on these important issues and

101how the district is approaching them all my questions were answered did we agree on all topics no do we expect to convert one another to our views no we discussed issues where we just agreed to disagree we sent I sensed our conversations valued clarity as much as agreement so what next Ms Draper and I discussed an updated version of the lgbtq Symposium proposal I sent you last year we talked about having a back and forth dialogue discussion right here in your boardroom with proper video equipment only people who signed up in advance would be allowed into the room for security purposes community community members would be allowed two minutes to ask a question or make a statement followed by two minutes for a board response the citizen would then have one minute for follow-up if

102desired the board would also have another minute to respond everyone on the same clock in two hours and six minutes are they should be in two hours at six minutes per question 20 District stakeholders could experience real back and forth dialogue let's work together to make effective communication happen thank you for listening thank you our next sorry our next speaker is Meredith modichek apparently not here this evening then our final speaker this evening is Danny Lawrence welcome tonight I came to give a voice to something that I think is being ignored in this discussion uh let me preface my comment by saying uh that I am a lifelong registered Democrat a psda alumni a super liberal person I have two children in the district and one who is gay and I think what happened in

103Wellington is appalling not because I don't support the lgbtq community but because I can't condone the dishonesty trusted adults don't tell children to lie to their families they just don't and there's no getting around that and trusted school districts don't support staff lying to families as a district I'm ashamed of the leadership decisions that allowed us to get to this lawsuit status I feel rampant frustration as a parent who was also lied to and now has an open civil rights investigation because of it is a culture of deception now acceptable in PSD there is a middle ground here and it's everyone's responsibility to try to find it as a community member I've seen no Town Hall no open discussion about gender identity education in this district and as a parent I've heard of no educational

104Series where you all could be the source of information there was a way to make this better and in my case personally there seems to be no motivation to seek Solutions so instead of standing up here asking for inclusion training again I'll ask instead that the cabinet level Administration superintendent and board participate in some resolution training with two family problem resolution training with two families now suing the district in federal court and two other families with open civil rights investigations in the past eight months we appear to need it a single lie discovered is enough to create doubt in every truth expressed parents are are a necessary and vital part of your success in any policy or practice that supports lying to them hinders our district-wide progress and we must go forward together we are

105in desperate need of peacemakers please Lead the Way by offering public exchanges for Meaningful conversation education and understanding it's overdue thank you and that concludes Community comment for this evening our next section on the agenda is uh board topics and Community reports we can give a moment for people who are planning to leave here so we don't have all right so is there anybody on the board who would like to make a report or a comment go ahead DJ uh yeah first of all I would also like to thank all the teachers out there and the work that they do um I was uh touring the mountain schools here just the other day and uh it reminded me of something that I also want to give a shout out with teacher appreciation week is is

106as a former uh president of a PTO thank you ptos and ptas for standing up and and getting in there and making a community to thank the teachers sometimes they're small But Mighty groups but it is wonderful to see that constantly still going on and thank you for any of the parents out there and community members to just drop a thank you to the teachers because it really does make a difference so thanks thanks CJ other comments or thoughts or reports go ahead Kristin I plug here for the student advisory Council yeah because we wrapped up our student advisory Council for this school year with some amazing students some amazing ideas that got put forth to cabinet and that are being looked at and evaluated and being taken quite seriously this is not just something

107that students are putting out there and it's sort of floating off into space this is something that students are making effective change here and so inviting all students if you're interested it's the student advisory Council to the board and so we'll be discussing topics that will really affect change hopefully in your school years and we'll be sending out an email and recruiting for that I believe it's coming out this week so be on the lookout for that thank you Kristen other reports or comments it looks like not in which case we'll go on to the next agenda item which is the consent agenda with any would any board members like to pull an item from the consent agenda Kristen I agree with that we pull item 9.5 from the consent agenda which is oh sorry

108now you have to okay hold on sorry nope it's good the contractor selection for the Wellington Middle High School excellent and uh I believe the deal is that we're not going to put that on the agenda for further discussion this evening right we're going to put that to a future meeting put it to a future meeting correct any does that would anybody else like to remove anything else from the consent agenda it looks like not in which case can I get a motion with respect to the consent agenda Nate I move that the board to prove and adopt the items the recommendation the recommendations for the items remaining on the consent agenda thank you can I get a second looks like Kristen can I get a vote please on the consent agenda jail DJ Anderson

109I hi hi Kristin Draper aye Rob Pederson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 excellent thank you so much appreciate that uh now I'm real sorry now we are moving on to our informational reports and discussion items the first of which is the board of education budget I don't believe there's any presentation with respect to this or is there Dave okay um do you want to make some remarks then or yeah I go ahead let's so there you go so this this is the time of year when we review the board of education budget this is a pretty small piece of the overall District budget but it is something that we do formally it's it's required by G GP whatever the I can't remember all the the policy that we have to

110do this on sorry I don't know all the GPS three seven three three seven three there you go um so so real quick here and this isn't uh there's not much change here from the the prior year uh let's just go through the categories that typically come out of the board's budget so the first one is software and I think we're all aware that we're changing software so we're going to see an increase in cost in the budget there um negotiations is something that we used to pay for facilitation out of the board's budget um the board maybe members that we are actually using a federal mediator this year so that cost has been reduced which is good because I needed to shuffle it up to cover the the software um piece okay um transcription

111is just where we have um varied our people working uh taking notes things like that that's what that is we do pay for our lobbyist out of here it's the legislative piece um casby dues are paid by the board the board does do travel and conferences so you can see that that budget has remained unchanged boardroom technology uh we we usually pencil in 5 000 here in case there's unless there's something we really know about what you're going to see is that since we didn't spend as much on the negotiations piece we are doing some technology upgrades mics I think that we just talked about the need to have mics that are charged all that stuff so so small small minor things there we do have supplies meals copies things that come out of the

112board's budget but again pretty small and then sometimes probably more last year uh we had a timing issue so we had to have that we're going to have the Cosby pieces in there twice sometimes we just get the bill sometimes different times of the year so it just depends on where it falls um so and and what we do is carry over the balance from the prior year to cover that when it comes in this year so so no big changes um the the so over on the right hand column you'll see what the the changes are what I'm recommending is that we would uh take ten thousand dollars from the negotiations that would still leave some money in there if there was like meals or anything like that notice some meals are coming out

113of there for negotiation so that there's some in there and again these are just placeholders doesn't mean that you have to spend it on this so took ten thousand dollars from that and added it to the software piece also was able to reduce the transcription budget looks like we're kind of normalizing where that looks like and was able to take about three thousand off of that to basically put 13 000 to the um software to bring it to twenty thousand so all in all you're still at the same budget um the the software is the big change there and I did confirm with folks before I got up here that the software project is moving forward so the the board the board agenda software so we'll just be moving forward with that I can take

114any questions it's pretty basic pretty simple and very probably very similar to what I did last year for you thanks Dave do we have uh questions or comments on this uh proposed budget for the board it looks like not thank you very much Dave appreciate it our next item is an update on the elementary literacy adoption implementation and I'll turn it over to you Brian thank you presenting the elementary literacy adoption implementation update is our director of curriculum John pasentino John welcome okay thank you happy to be here this evening um give update on the literacy adoption um first of all I always like to start all these presentations by talking about our district priority of literacy and how foundational this is towards students learning effective Reading Writing communication skills create Equitable access across disciplines

115and literacy is the key in in to building knowledge across the curriculum and engaging with the world what we're talking about with Elementary literacy adoption is foundational reading skills and those reading skills and the background knowledge built in those early years our foundation for future learning and open the door to Future learning and are essential to future success students read write and communicate in all subjects all the time and in a sense all teachers are literacy teachers and I think we've seen that in our district this year the work our curriculum facilitators have done across the curriculum and all subjects we see them centering literacy skills and the content and the quality of the materials we're putting in front of kids um literacy vision is something we've developed this year we got some feedback on

116this from teachers we'll probably be making some tweaks to it but all students have Equitable access to high quality literacy instruction engagement opportunities to develop and apply literacy skills across disciplines from Early Childhood through graduation and we look at the adoption goal here it really is completely aligned with fulfilling that vision and taking some big steps here as we transform our elementary literacy instruction when we talk about across the curriculum I know you've seen this graphic before but I think it's important because it shows how literacy exists throughout the curriculum from Early Childhood through graduation starting with the foundational literacy that learning to read through structured literacy then applying those skills across content media literacy we know is very important become more important all the time amount of information that's out there that students need

117to know how to engage with and make a difference in the world and then disciplinary literacy our secondary schools are doing a lot of quality work in this area as students apply their literacy skills in ways that are specific to a discipline and emphasizing their Reading Writing communicating in all areas and that we have a little graduate on the side there because that is leading our students to become prepared graduates ready to embrace the challenges in the world uh this is slightly new graphic this time around uh the one on the left is the structured literacy graphic which is the five components of structured literacy with that oral language development and that'll be a focus of our adoption and implementation and a lot of our training but I want to point out on the right

118side um top of that systematic and cumulative systematic instruction and cumulative learning lead to higher levels of learning and this is why it's really important that we have high quality materials and we have Fidelity with those materials so we we started emphasizing this wheel a bit as well the explicit stands for explicit instruction students need explicit teaching on the things they need to learn and the diagnostic piece means we're getting data to understand where students how students are doing and what we might do explicitly to help them overcome any challenges they're having in their learning so that right side is really speaking to the Fidelity and what we're looking for in the curriculum and then also these three common core shifts complex text evidence-based tasks and building knowledge we've been a lot of work in

119the last couple months in the district with our leadership around that building knowledge piece because if you know something about a topic you're going to do much better to learn more about the topic and to also comprehend materials that address that topic so we want to help kids build kids build their schema build their knowledge and be able to transfer that across the curriculum when we were last here shared that we had selected and you approved the Imagine Learning El education for all schools other than dual language and core knowledge and then also that we were going with wonders of maravillas with our dual language schools we did have amplify ckla as K2 skills with the promise that we're going to work with our principals to figure out what the next step for them was

120to build out that whole system of learning for the core knowledge schools well they took some time together our four principles got together and reviewed the amplify program itself and took a deep look at it and saw how it aligned with their curriculum and decided that that is the way they want to go and uh I thought that was a real positive development that happened pretty quickly allowed us to get the training and the implementation on timeline with the rest of our schools and it does answer the question what about those skills K-5 what about the knowledge within the literacy program with consistency and for the first time I think we have our core knowledge schools really together on this and wanting to to implement and it's a tight team there and it's really exciting

121um which is the the most exciting part is for next school year for the first time every PSD Elementary classroom will have instructional materials that align with structured literacy and are scientifically and evidence-based include the required instructional practices for teaching the skills effectively and meet expectations for text quality building knowledge and usability it's exciting time for our schools had this graphic I know it's a little busy but I want to help help explain what we're working on right now the left side of this the blue lines are the district work that we're doing worked on the implementation timeline things are going well there and I'll fill in a little more details we're planning for educator learning materials are in process of of getting ready to ship and we don't have we don't have actual delivery

122dates yet but we should be getting ship dates this week our technology integration Our IT team with bud and Sarah seipel are helping us to integrate these uh platforms with our systems and we're working on Fidelity in definition with our team but also with our elementary principals and assistant principals and then on the right side we're working on site Readiness we've had sessions with principals and assistant principals their roles are going to play in in working with us toward Fidelity of implementation and de-implementation the plans for educator learning and continuous learning at their schools implementing these materials and implementation feedback and remember it's adopted before adapt so we have to keep everybody online with figuring out how to do this well before we think we might need to adjust it and we're going to have

123this continuous learning loop we're constantly collecting feedback and um not adjusting right away but understanding how things are doing and supporting as needed and then down the road if there's some things we need to do we'll be uh well informed on how to do those in a timely manner April 21st kickoff was a very exciting day it was it was I probably had a tough time sleeping that week the whole week leading up to it but I will say um it was probably the most gratifying day in my career and it had to do with our Educators attitudes about this they are embracing this challenge positively a lot of positive feedback that day and positive energy uh we had a half day what we called the bridge to structured literacy session to set the stage

124and to preview materials so we had every Elementary educator two half day sessions who heard the same message work together with our team in the same way during there I shared the PSD story and the story is actually a 25-year long story going back to 1998 when the Colorado basic literacy act came in that was the state's first attempt to address Elementary literacy K3 and we've been on this journey for 25 years and that's why this is so exciting that we're at this point that we have those materials we have the teachers trained and and and we're excited to get moving on it we had breakout sessions there where teachers did get their hands on materials El education and amplify ckla and the Dual language schools got together and really worked through those materials to

125see how well they aligned with what our future goals are and set the stage for the work we'll be doing going forward and again there's overwhelmingly positive feedback and and it was gratifying and wonderful and the stage is set for Success one of the things we shared on the 21st and then with principles and as well is our D implementation strategies we want to make sure we understand what we're going to stop doing so down the left side of this slide you see materials reach for reading Treasures in open court are our last three comprehensive adoptions and believe it or not there are remnants of all of those in our classrooms right now and uh so they're coming out developmental reading assessment was our first literacy assessment for the state it's really on balanced literacy

126and not structured literacy it's time for that to go as well it lost approval from the state about eight years ago being used for that purpose also the Lucy Calkins unit study writing adoption our adoptions are Reading Writing and communicating so we're not going to have a separate block for writing it's going to be embedded with the knowledge building and the content and then fountas and panel leveled literacy intervention is a commonly used intervention and it's leveled literacy you can see right there in the name it does not really match the science of reading what we call structured literacy and then on the right side I shared this earlier in the year but leveled guided reading leveled libraries where books are assigned to kids based on their perceived reading level interventions that are based on

127that assessments that that feed that reading level piece and then also the three queuing where we don't have kids decode the words we have them try to figure out by using other cues and they avoid actually doing the sounding out so we've shared this with all of our teachers on the 21st all our administrators and for the most part everybody's along with us we have a few teachers so they're going to hide a few things but we're making sure our our principals are gonna watch for that John if I can just add value to this well I don't know if it's value to the community but you referenced earlier that the recent professional development for our teachers was a career highlight for you us launching this one slide is a career highlight for me is

128what public educators are historic for not doing well is strategically sunsetting practices that no longer serve US based on Research new learning and for us to be as explicit as you are right now in this particular space Not Just Around instructional materials but the practices that correspond with them I think is really really important for us to pay attention to I understand and recognize the people who are hearing this there's emotions that will be evoked as a result of us going through this but we will commit to partnering with you and coming alongside with you but this is a very very important slide and or message to kind of ring home because teachers every day all day ask us you know in heroic efforts of what can we take off of their plate this is

129a part of that it's not the full answer but it's a part of it to create coherence across our system instructionally so I just want to say thank you again John for your leadership with with our teachers well thank you and and I do I do believe the the part having the high quality materials in the process we went through and the learning that our teachers have done over the last few years this all makes a lot more sense for them now things are coming together at the right time and so I appreciate that Ryan and um and and we're going to keep working there's there's a lot of learning to do a lot of training to do a lot of a lot of Loops of learning loops to make sure we're doing these things

130well um so I'm not just saying this is all going to magically happen but that's where we're headed and our staff gets it um we worked with on scheduling workshops with our principals with the help Dr Tracy guile leading that work with our principals um this is a hard one there's not enough time in an elementary day for everything we want to do and I know you know some of the compromises that end up having to happen but there are two guiding principles that are important we develop these guiding principles along with our vision when we look at the schedule and it's basically a non-negotiable one is that all students do engage in the high quality literacy instruction and apply their skills across the curriculum when we mean engage we mean that Universal instruction everybody

131gets the best of what we have to offer we're not pulling kids out when the good stuff is happening so we that is the one commitment that we're trying to build into the schedule right now and that interventions are targeted when students need additional targeted support they're aligned with classroom instruction so we're not pulling in different programs we're using those core materials to provide that targeted instruction and again we don't remove students from that Universal instruction and a great collaboration across our departments with language culture and equity and integrated Services because we have some students who receive targeted services in English language development and and in special education and in Reading intervention and in some cases those students would be pulled three separate times and they were hardly in the classroom so we're working collaboratively

132like I've never seen before to integrate those Services as we call it integrated service but truly integrate those services so an English learner receiving special education they are also getting support for their English learning while getting their integrated Services support so that's very exciting and a big change for us um and then the other piece is social science and social studies time rotating throughout the year 45 minutes per day and integrated with the knowledge building literacy materials we know we're addressing a lot of science and social study standards within our curriculum but we also have to have a coherent science and social studies curriculum delivered we have work to do in that area the idea of rotating it throughout the year some schools would do a quarter and a quarter or a semester in a

133semester of science and social studies and sometimes it wasn't really happening much at all previously when we've done literacy adoptions often it is do this literacy adoption for two to three hours a day don't worry about science and social studies the messaging here is that knowledge building in those contents very important so we're working through that and again scheduling it's causing a lot of challenges for our principals are working through it they understand our guiding principles and we're going to have schedules that meet these needs um educator learning we've launched currently posted we have an RFP for professional learning for El education and amplify ckla that will be closing in the third week of this month and we're going to see what Partners we can have who can deliver us high quality professional learning for

134our teachers we do have two days set aside for educator administrator training on August 10th and September 22nd and then we have two grade level days for each grade level in fall and spring traditionally what we call grade level level days were opt-in we are working toward making those mandatory and having teachers you know attending and having our professional Partners there to facilitate that learning for our teachers and when teachers get PD after they've had some time with the materials it's tremendously powerful because they really know what their experience has been and and that Extended Learning can help address some of the issues they may be seeing in the curriculum and we're also requesting job embedded supports including synchronous asynchronous and in-person options possible coaching we'll see what is offered and what fits with our

135model that last bullet Imagine Learning Classroom is a separate digital platform every teacher who's doing El education will have a half day of training on August 14th those sessions are set up their virtual trainings more done as a zoom meeting with a cap of about 40 but there will be instructors for every group so we'll be fully Interactive um put these prior to learning goals in there because when we're thinking about what we want from our PD that we had many more in our RFP but I wanted to highlight these that our Educators become familiar with the content structure strategies and assessment methods of the curriculum the second bullet might seem a little like the first but they have the knowledge and skills needed to effectively plan and deliver that curriculum and leverage the strengths

136of it and then we want to build um open dialogue collaboration sharing of best practices this is a learning event for all of us this is complex curriculum any curriculum is hard when you're doing a whole District like this so you want to create a culture of professional learning so that as we as we move through this we're building our knowledge together and we do have materials on the way they are still scheduled to be delivered by the end of May maybe June 1st or 2nd on some pieces but where it's really amazing turnaround that we're able to have here we're working on digital access this week the systems will be tied into what we call clever which rosters are software along with our our class enrollments in Synergy but we're gonna we are working

137to get teachers digital access prior to that rostering so they have something to work on before the end of the school year and over the summer um and we're working on discards Tracy helped us get boxes for all of our schools there's a about 3 000 boxes we're sending out so that all those things we listed on the materials to de-implement our schools can pack them up by the end of the year we'll have them out of the school as well before August 10th so we're not going to have this mess of materials laying around when teachers when schools are trying to get ready for the new school year next steps as I mentioned we're going to select a professional Learning Partner and finalize our plan summer options we do have four days of el

138education training setup or Workshop set up during summer Institute so that'll serve about 200 teachers four one day sessions for 50 teachers where they can get into the planning get into the materials with the help of our team and we're also considering other options depending what our PD partner can support us with at summer Institute and we are still working on the implementation team to support schools with consistency we've worked with schools somewhat we're having us a meeting this week to focus on building our team and how we're going to align that work with our schools to support them we'll receive and distribute materials and we will get teachers digital platform access we have a work day next Monday and I can't tell you how many people would love to get a hold of this

139by Monday and we're trying not sure that'll happen but probably the greatest part is they're anxious to get going and excited and I know there are challenges out there but everything we're hearing is people are learn to go and not much resistance at all so it's it's I'm so happy to be standing here at this time considering what we had in front of us and our team has done tremendous work and our staff has received this very well timeline this is just an overview of pretty much everything I have covered there I'm a little more specificity you can see when the RFP closes on May 24th we expect materials literally about May 30th and then early June we're going to get everything solidified before our staff gets ready to go off and and we get

140heavily into committed to Summer Institute and then we'll have our summer Institute sessions and then you can see the rest of it there and then I want to keep putting that loop on in there because I want it to be understood this isn't just we get the materials out there and we move on we're really committed to staying in partnership with schools on the work going forward comments or questions from the board go ahead Kristen I actually have one and that that is um in most of the well I guess maybe it's been it's been a few years now but a lot of the libraries in the schools had AR um so Accelerated Reader and reading levels and that sort of thing um is this going to take away the The Accelerated Reader reading levels

141for those schools that still have those so Accelerated Reader is not a district adopted system schools that purchased it on their own what we have given guidance on schools it does not replace literacy instruction it should not be in the schedule as a scheduled time some want to continue to use it after school as a reading incentive program it's not something we support it's something that we're giving advice on we have schools pulling back on it it'll be an evolution moving away from it okay and in that sense too are you talking to some media Specialists about um pulling back on that AR perspective because I know that sometimes they were you know labeling each book what the level was and you know making sure that they had a certain number of books in every

142level and that sort of thing so I was wondering if this is going to be shared with the media Specialists as well it's been shared through our Glory Magic Lori Mazzio YouTuber our support um but probably not as explicit as it needs to as a systems change it's definitely she's aware but we probably need to get more in that lane so they can support the schools as they move away great thank you DJ um at the technical question came up when you were talking about the integration uh and getting the teachers access and stuff is for the teachers and for the students is this going to be able to be just part of their regular sign-on or is there going to be another process to I mentioned clever that's what clever is it's a single

143sign-on and so when a student or a staff signs on to clever they are they are presented with the applications that are available to them so single sign up thanks Jim yeah just briefly on your educated learning slide you had required educator and administrator training August 10th and September 22nd can you give me just a few sentences on what's a required educator how many of them are there per so it's those who work instructionally so it will be our classroom teachers our integrated Services teachers our English language development teachers are instructional paraprofessionals we're working on the logistics because they're not necessarily work they're the 10th is very separated from their start day so it's a little hard we're bringing them in like seven days ahead and so but that is what we're including um Elementary

144Educators who would be teaching or supporting literacy I heard the whole crew thank you okay other comments or questions from the board all right well I'll just I just have a couple one of them is I really appreciate the work that uh that you and Dr guile and the rest of the team have been able to do to work on the scheduling for this and uh the a priority of keeping science and social studies in the rotation I I certainly remember the days that you talked about where we had an adoption of this that or the other thing and and science and social studies or one or the other didn't get the attention that deserves so I absolutely acknowledge that the that the literacy is is foundational to this obviously kids won't be able to

145uh get the benefit of the science and social studies without the foundational literacy but it's an and not an or and I appreciate that your work and recognition on that the other thing I just want to do is say a great big thank you to you and the team that have been putting this together this is an amazingly complicated uh animal that you're that you're causing to work through the system I'm going to lose my metaphor here so forget it you're doing you're you're doing you're doing great work on a difficult job and we really appreciate that you and your team and I want to especially acknowledge the leadership that you've that you personally have demonstrated through all of this in in keeping this going so thank you so much really appreciate it thank you

146anything else looks like not okay thanks John I really appreciate it thank you uh we will move on now to the preliminary budget for next uh school year next yeah 23 24 and I believe Brian you have an introduction yes presenting the preliminary budget for our fiscal year 2023 2024 as our budget director Brian Gustafson uh welcome Brian glad you're here good evening how's everybody doing running running well tonight all right and I didn't clear out the room this time so we've got an audience that's right we did that for you sorry I appreciate it so I'm going to take a few minutes to talk through the preliminary budget uh high level but you have that in your board packets and I want to really emphasize some key points this is the preliminary also known

147as draft budget right so this is this is the start where we focus very heavily on the revenue side of things where we're looking uh particularly uh in depth at the general fund and what we expect in program funding from the state of Colorado as well as our other sources and really trying to dial in that Revenue side with the purpose being to ultimately establish what is the amount available to address District budget priorities and compensation changes for staff going into next year so that's really the focus here in the preliminary budget then we'll evolve into a proposed budget where we start to really address that expenditure side of things and we start to move in those budget priorities and compensation and we start to balance because you probably looked at that document and said

148well wait the revenues and the expenditures don't match well I believe it's line 56 it says budget available and that's that number that we're going to at least have in this preliminary budget to work with so I'll get to talking about what's gone into that and a lot of this is is review based on some of the the budget information we've discussed previously and it's and it's good to note that we finally do have a school Finance Act as of the seventh seventh of May and we do have a school Finance act it's on the governor's desk for Signature but we can confirm that that preliminary Revenue amount and our program funding for next year is a per pupil Revenue amount of ten thousand twenty four dollars and thirty three cents so that's a little

149bit higher than what we discussed last month the okay so we discussed last month there were a lot of changes in the works and and discussions and rebuild the whole school Finance formula and rebuild the at-risk measures and ultimately it came back to a lot of movement without a lot of movement and back to almost the original Governor's budget uh recommendation back in November with a slightly larger buy down of the budget stabilization Factor right so I'll get into more of that as we talk through we're now working with that ten thousand plus dollars per pupil and a funded pupil count of twenty nine thousand two hundred fourteen point two students that's the same that we discussed back in April so that's still based on the PSD projections that were generated a few months ago

150that we based our school-based budgets on and that we've started driving this process with that funded pupil count remember is an illustration of a reduction uh declining enrollment of about 179.6 students well we do also see and and we've received more information the past few weeks from our Charter Schools as they've submitted their adopted budgets for next year is that our Charters expect to increase in enrollment to the tune of about not quite 110 funded pupils all right so we've got those those Dynamics a lot of Dynamics at play as we're talking about our Revenue here a few more things on the school Finance act just some some things to be aware of and and maybe some things to think about as we move forward going down the road I talked about that budget stabilization

151Factor buy down okay for for PSD that's taken us from a little over 11 million dollars down to a little over five million dollars in BS Factor okay and and I think Statewide it was about 180 million dollar buy down in the school Finance act it's written in that July 1 2024 that budget stabilization Factor will be bought down completely Governor polis had recommended a buy down by 25-26 but it's in the school Finance act to come out in 24-25. of course we'll see things change things change but that that will you'll probably hear this since I know it was written in chalk beat in other places you'll probably hear the term fully funded well schools will be restored to fully funded and what will that mean we're not really sure because there are going

152to be some other moving Parts potentially at a changing School Finance act but that elimination that budget stabilization factor is something we'll certainly keep our eye on in the future we will still function on a five-year average as a declining enrollment District if in fact the the enrollment continues to decline that was debated at times three years four years it's going to stay at five years mentioned there was talk of an at-risk measure changing and that paused going into next year that really there's going to be a whole harmless at-risk measure in place whichever is greater you're at risk free free lunch count basically from 23.24 or from 2223 whichever is greater that's how the district will be measured and they're at risk um so we'll we'll await that data especially as we get into

153October count time and then another important note in that school Finance Act is there's the establishment of a school Finance task force okay a group that has been charged kind of a renewed charge to really evaluate the adequacy of the school Finance formula and that group has been assigned to really come back with a report I think in December kind of an initial evaluation and then a real a deep dive into examining adequacy by January of 2025. so what that makes me believe right now is we're probably still in this formula for at least another year but beyond 23.24 until we see some some other significant changes multiple Parts moving the negative factor the the school Finance task force so those are some things on the horizon all that to say as I mentioned we're

154about where we thought we might be and we'll get into a little bit more of kind of the history of this per pupil Revenue conversation so I mentioned we're getting up over that 10 000 Mark and yes it is it's it's the the highest level of per-pupil Revenue across the state that Colorado has seen the Pooter school district has seen and and what we've got on the screen here is an overlap of two two graphs okay a bar chart that demonstrates uh a change a trend if you will of increase per pupil uh revenue from the 10 previous fiscal years plus our current projected next year and over that is a illustration of the inflation rate the annual inflation rate year to year and I I saw this in a previous presentations that you've reviewed

155in previous years and I thought this is kind of interesting to look at because in previous years you see that inflation rate it may fluctuate it goes up and down but we saw some steady increases in per pupil rate and I think it's important to note that despite the the record increase in per-pupil revenue and program funding there's a big factor that impacts funding and that's the funded pupil count and in those years where we see maybe that per pupil rate bucking the trend of declining inflation Rising inflation there was growth in the district so this will be important for us to watch next year and going forward on is inflation really that big driver I think for next year it really is the Big Driver for our increase that and the reduction of the

156budget stabilization Factor but an eight percent inflation rate calculated for next year is really what's driving that increase in funding so that means that increase in funding is also coming with large increases as we've all been experiencing in spending and costs Beyond fiscal year 24 as we look at projections for inflation thinking into fiscal year 25. that projected inflation rates about 4.9 percent dropping to about 3.5 and 26 and 2.7 and 27. so again it'll be interesting to monitor this trend and what will our per pupil rates look like with declining hopefully inflation over a few years this table is the exact same as we've demonstrated and Illustrated for you before this shows our five years four years plus projected of student counts okay and calculates The Five-Year average and demonstrates what we believe will

157be that 29 214.2 funded pupils so we're taking a five-year average in a period of declining enrollment and calculating out that 29 214.2 this year's number 29 393.8 is about 179.6 students higher as I mentioned earlier as we dive into a little bit of that funded pupil count history again I saw this I thought well this is kind of interesting to track as well and what we've got is a horizontal bar chart on the screen where we start with fiscal year 14 down at the bottom and work our way up to the projected fiscal year 24 bar moving from left to right at the top and if you look from bottom up through about those first seven years you see a trend in pupil count growth just simply looking at the size of those bars

158and a pretty pretty consistent Trend as well of the the dark blue portion or the PSD schools population about 92 percent of the overall District population followed by a smaller Gray Bar worth about eight percent of the Charter School population and that's pretty consistent until you hit about fiscal year 21. right and then things start to change as we get towards the top of this illustration and we add in another little sliver a little sliver between that large Blue Bar and the charter school gray bar and that little sliver is the result of averaging so now we're into a spot where we're being funded on pupils that aren't here okay we're being funded on average pupils and that's what those small slivers of color represent that very top bar that's our projection for next year

159to get to 29 214.2 about 88 percent of those students would be in our non-charter PST schools I've talked about the charter school growth that'll be about nine and a half percent of the district population and then two and a half percent are those average pupils almost 770 of them okay that the formula is helping ease the the pain of a decline and that's happening throughout the state the state of Colorado in that school Finance act as I mentioned documents a record 10.2 I believe it is percent increase in in per pupil rate but the overall program funding increases only in the seven percent range because the Statewide decline projected decline in pupils of about two and a half percent so again important things to know and these are are factors driving that preliminary budget

160that's in your packets again this small table Compares our current fiscal year 23 basic program calculation of pupil count times per pupil revenue and then the updated 2324 numbers that 29 000 plus and that 10 000 and change dollars worth of funded pupils and the difference there now we see and are starting our talks with are 20 is about 26.4 million dollars so remember I said this preliminary budget is trying to identify the what's available here's the basis for the what's available so here's okay 26.4 million dollars change in revenue and we start to build from there we're getting a step closer to dialing in this budget hey and then we go ahead and we update this pretty pretty big overview chart or or table where now we plug in that school Finance act amount

161in the very top row of 26.4 million dollars talked previously about the special education categorical increases in funding the increase in Mill Levy override funding based on inflation the expenditures that are going to increase for Charter allocations and the one thing that we had is kind of a question mark a month ago is down towards the bottom of the table and that's utilities Insurance another as we started to dive into those dollars and we expected we'd see some increases we are we're we're seeing some increases we expect that our our utilities spend is going to go up not only because of increased cost of doing business but we've added two pretty significantly large facilities into the portfolio right and and it's going to take a period of adjustment to really dial in how those impact

162the budget from a utilities perspective additionally we know that insurance rates are expected to go up as well probably about a half million dollars in that room but we'll really know more on that as we get towards the end of May as we get renewal information so now we're able to factor that in and the the really important line here is at the very bottom and this ties to your budget as I mentioned that budget available line back in back in the budget and that's the projected amount available for compensation benefits and District budget priorities 24.6 million dollars so that's what's in the preliminary budget okay I mentioned District budget priorities again we've shared this right those those expenditures those needs those projects initiatives that align with the Strategic plan and and we've talked previously

163about implementation of integrated Services ratios and and we're still waiting to address what are the exact implications of universal Pre-K and the healthy meals for all initiatives uh and and we still don't have a lot of answers there but we have some strategies as far as addressing those as we get into the proposed budget and and we'll talk about that a little later on in May but the the big one is of course compensate compensation and benefits right and that driver uh I I believe we Illustrated this before but it's important to remind that when we're talking about cost of living adjustments in the compensation realm that are being negotiated each one percent of cost of living or Cola adjustment costs about two and a half million dollars across all of our employee groups any

164step costs about 5.1 million dollars all right we do know that we're going to see a health benefits increase and that general fund ongoing contribution should be about eight hundred thousand dollars okay we'll see three percent premium increases and our fundee that's a separate self and employee self-insurance fund we'll use some reserves to address the remaining increases because it's it's a Well reserved fund right now all right and then I did mention Charter School allocation and the utilities and insurance rate increases those are big drivers that are that are weighing in on that 24.6 million dollar amount available all right so where are we heading there's a lot still moving a lot still going on negotiations are still happening right the evaluation of District budget priorities is still happening and negotiations that next session is

165this coming Friday on May 12th uh right now we're scheduled to deliver a proposed budget talk about the proposed preliminary but actually proposed we start plugging in some of those expenditure estimates uh do that on May 23rd and the potential of an additional negotiation data I believe is on May 24th and hopefully with budget adopts and adoption on June 13th so that's what's ahead of us that's a overview of the preliminary budget what questions do you have for me thank you Brian go ahead Nate yeah a funded pupil count do we anticipate that going forward will still be able to use averaging or I thought that went away at some point and we had to use actual numbers there so a couple things there there's talk of potentially eliminating averaging somewhere in the formula in

166the future and that didn't pan out this time so it's sticking with that five-year average in the way it works right now is you get to October you measure your pupils you count them and you put it in that five-year average whichever is higher you're your fall 2023 count or the average that's the one you take for funding so it depends which situation we're in is that so it's up to the school Finance act or some other legislative act about whether you're actually you're able to use averaging correct okay right and and it is in the current act to continue on all right thanks yeah other comments or questions from the board Jess is it possible and I apologize I should have asked for it before but is it possible to get slide number five

167of um horizontal bars like in actual numbers just like a table of numbers sure we can do that thanks yeah for each of those years preferably if you can yeah you got it we'll come up with that I can give you the top bar right now if you want it I assume that's on the previous slide well uh sort of because it's all part of the averaging so the top bar the the non-charter PSD schools that's 25 660.5 the charter projected enrollment that's the gray portion of the bar is 2784.5 and that's again based on our Charter Schools budgets that they've submitted and then that average 769.2 and I'll come up with the numbers for the rest of those sure thank you other comments or questions from the board looks like not we appreciate all

168the work that you're doing I know this is a moving Target every year and we really appreciate the uh the diligence and integrity that the finance team puts into bringing this to us and to the negotiations big circle so thank you thank you our next and final informational item this evening is being beamed to us over the internet and that will be the student code of conduct revisions first reading Brian yes we are going to teleport our general counsel Autumn Aspen into the presentation right now Autumn welcome glad that you're here to present on our student code of conduct revisions and just for the Public's uh knowledge this is our first reading yes okay well good evening I'm sorry I can't be there in person tonight but hopefully we can still get through this um

169efficiently so as the board knows each year around this time District staff bring forward either proposed new policies or updates to existing policies that are within the student rights and code of conduct booklet so tonight uh this policy will come to the board for the first reading as Brian said and then we'll come to the board for the second reading at the next board meeting and uh this year we are bringing two new policies for the board's consideration and one regulation more so for the board's awareness and that one would be approved by the superintendent the uh the third regulation but it is related to the policies I want to bring it here for the board to be able to see what that regulation says in these three policies are policy jicd which is on

170threat assessments jlcdc automatically necessary treatment in school setting and jlcdc-r which is authorizing private Health Care Specialists provide medically necessary treatment in school settings and then I did want to note that there is another policy that is within the student rights and code of conduct that will not be brought forward now but there is some active work on this and that is our bullying prevention and education policy and uh currently we are working on simple post updates based on the cdc's model policy and best practices and the policy so far has been reviewed by Elementary principles I believe will be reviewed by secondary principles shortly and then has also been circulated to cabinet and there's some other feedback we're seeking as well so that policy will be brought back to the board at some point

171in the near future but won't be in the first and second reading for the May meetings next slide so the first policy that I wanted to discuss is on threat assessments and I wanted to note that as I go through these policies I wasn't planning on going through each one paragraph by paragraph because they are all new policies but I do have the policies in full in the board packet so members of the public or the board could reference the full policies there and then if there are any specific questions or edits then we can go through those I have the policies at the end of the slide deck if needed to go through those but I thought I could just provide a high level overview of what is in the policies and then open

172up for any sort of board feedback or questions the next slide this policy is not required by any changes in law but it is recommended that districts have such a policy so I've been working with our district threat assessment team on this policy I want to just make sure I give them credit that they've been a lot of work to this policy the intent of this policy is to add some more awareness to families is on the district's ability to conduct threat assessments and also supervise some information on the purpose of what a threat assessment is as well as some of the other requirements or other um things that we have within a threat assessments for example the policy also would cover the fact that the threat assessment is considered a confidential student record but

173that there are some circumstances mostly if there is a health or safety emergency where the record could be provided without criminal consent in in an emergency so are there any questions from the board on this policy or any proposed edits or feedback it looks like not go ahead autumn uh policy is policy jlc DC this is a medically necessary treatment in school settings next slide I wanted to give the board a little bit of context for this policy house bill 22-1260 was approved in June of 2022 and this bill requires school districts to adopt a policy by July 1st of this year that addresses how a student who has a prescription from a qualified health care provider for medically necessary treatment could receive such treatment in the school setting as required by the applicable state

174and federal laws and this policy and the proposed regulation are the ones that I'll now go over and they are drafted to comply with the new state law this next slide this policy describes that the provision of medically necessary treatment to students by private Health Care Specialists must be done in accordance with this policy and it also defines what is meant by medically necessary treatment and private Health Care Specialists both of which are defined in the statutes the definitions in the policy are taken from the state statute next slide the policy also contains a notification of rights which is to inform parents and or legal guardians of students with disabilities of their rights and protections to students to access these magically necessary treatments in a school setting and then also within this section there's also

175an added section on what would be potentially excluded from this policy and that would be because the definition of medical necessary treatment is fairly broad so there are circumstances that potentially could exist where it could fall under the medically necessary treatment definition but it would not be needed to access education and other potential treatments so there that difference is noted in the policy next slide so the bulk of this policy includes the process for determining whether medically necessary treatment must be provided on school premises and this is done by convening an IEP or 504 team meeting to review the information talk with the health care provider and then for the team to make a determination the policy also provides an explanation of the two types of access which could be either access to the school

176setting to provide those treatments or access to observed students or collaborate with school personnel for the state law the district must also provide for an appeal process so this policy also addresses what that appeal process would look like so parents would be able to appeal the decision from the IEP or 504 team if the recommendation is to deny those services on school grounds and finally the policy does note that there are some reporting requirements and then the policy addresses how schools would report either the the requests that are made and the outcome of those requests to the superintendent or superintendent's designee next slide so does the board have any questions or proposed edits on this policy it looks like not go ahead on them all right it's the next Slide the last policy up Fairview

177is the regulation jlcdcr and as I noted this is a regulation so it will be ultimately approved by our superintendent but I wanted to bring it here because it does correspond to the policies just for the board's awareness that this regulation would also be in the code of conduct next slide this regulation would outline the process and requirements for private Health Care Specialists to provide those services to students on school grounds if the private healthcare specialist is approved by the IEP or 504 team and just to give an example of some of the requirements some of those would include an approval of a written plan identifying the locations for treatment if for example a private space is needed for those services to occur or if there's any other specifics that the school and private Health

178Care Specialists would need to work out prior to those Services occurring on school grounds the healthcare specialist would also need to provide the district with their license and insurance and would also be subject to a background check additionally per the regulation the health care specialist would need to sign a confidentiality affidavit certified that they would comply with Federal privacy acts like the family educational rights and Privacy Act and to ensure student information is kept confidential and finally if some of the other aspects of the requirements in the regulation would be for the provider to sign an assumption of risk form and the parents would also sign a consent form so that the district is aware that the parent is consenting to the the services in the school setting next slide are there any questions on

179this regulation looks like we have one here DJ go ahead yeah can you clarify to me I I was I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around why that one is needed why is this needed in to go along with the the first one why is the resolution or not resolution regulation I mean it's not necessarily needed First State Statute the reason why we brought it forward as a proposed regulation is just to ensure that there is some consistency in what the expectations are for a healthcare specialist to come into the school setting and work just to make sure that we have it codified somewhere that you know hear the things that they would need to comply with or adopt prior to those settings just to make sure it's clear to both districts staff

180and staff at the school level that we have certain expectations before this occurs okay thank you other questions if there is anything that you'd like to see change in that regulation we're happy to also take a look at that as well it looks it looks like oh Nate has something go ahead I just want to say that I think these policies make good sense and so I appreciate all the work on them thanks thank you thanks Nate and thank you Autumn we really appreciate you bringing this forward for our attention and the first two will come on second reading next meeting is that correct yes that's correct excellent thank you so much thank you all right so our last uh items on the agenda are an executive session or two can I get a motion

181with respect to this executive session go ahead Nate I move that the board under enter executive session for the purpose of discussing potential real estate transactions relating to the kitchell Estates development as authorized by CRS 24-6-402 4A and for the purpose of developing the strategy of the school district for negotiations related to the 2023 to 2024 collective bargaining agreement or employment contracts as authorized by CRS 24-6-4024e3 individuals invited to join the board in executive session our superintendent Brian Kingsley Chief officers Jeff Connell Lauren Hooten Dave Montoya Madeleine noblett and Eric Bon Savage and general counsel Autumn Aspen do I have a second looks like DJ can I get a vote on this motion please Joe DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan all right Kristen Draper aye Rob Pederson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica

182Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thank you very much Jill I want to alert everybody who's watching that this is the last uh public uh part of the meeting of any substance the only thing that I'm going to do after we're done with our executive sessions is come out here and bang this gavel to close the formerly adjourned the meeting so we appreciate you joining us for the May 9th uh Board of Education meeting and we look forward to seeing you in two weeks thank you