001all right welcome everybody to the April 18th uh board pooter School District Board of Education meeting we are convening our meeting at approximately 6 33 p.m this evening if you would uh those in the room welcome and if you would mute your cell phones if you haven't already I uh we'd all appreciate that so there's no interruptions to the meeting uh I'll also say that in addition to our normal activities Community comment addressed by our superintendent and whatnot tonight we're going to be focusing on our strategic plan which as you'll all recall has important academic elements in it with regard to literacy graduation with options and also a critical section on mental health and belonging so I hope uh I hope you'll all stay for that important information with that we'll move on to the
002approval of the agenda with anybody on the board like to make any changes to the agenda it looks like not in which case we have a couple of resolutions in our first section on action items tonight the first one is the resolution in support of national volunteer appreciation week and we definitely appreciate our volunteers we wouldn't be able to do the stuff we do in the school district without them can I get a motion with respect to that go ahead Nate yes I move that the Board of Education of the Pooter School District approve resolution in support of national volunteer appreciation week April 17th through the 21st 2023. excellent thank you very much so I have a second looks like Kristen is second there if we could have somebody read the resolution then we can
003go to a presentation I believe in support of the resolution who'd like to read it go ahead Nate okay whereas pooter School District volunteers contribute unselfishly to the success of our students teachers and staff and whereas volunteers contributed to over 64 631 hours thus far in the 2022 to 2023 school year not sounds like I'm shouting including programs with our partners such as United Way Matthew's house and others and whereas volunteers support students and staff in buildings and Beyond the classroom in a myriad of ways regardless of the hour and without monetary gain and whereas volunteers act dependably creatively and collaboratively to accomplish whatever tasks they are assigned or commit themselves to and whereas volunteers exhibit care model the best in community and create a climate that Fosters learning and a love of Education now
004therefore be it resolved that the Pooter School District Board of Education declares our Everlasting appreciation to public school volunteers of the Pooter School District who regardless of situation age race Creed or Creed step forward to help thus widening Horizons for others as well as themselves and be it further resolved that we the Pooter School District board of education do hereby support National volunteer appreciation week April 17th through 21st 29 23 and we urge all community members to join us in recognizing the dedication and hard work of local Volunteers in preparing today's students for tomorrow's world and if we vote Yes approved and adopted this 18th day of April 2023. thanks very much Nate Brian I believe we have uh someone here to speak in support of this yes thank you good evening everyone joining us
005this evening to speak to the resolution is our PSD volunteer and partnership coordinator Don fight welcome Don perfect I think it's perfect hello my name is Don Feit I'm Poudre School District volunteer and partnership coordinator tonight I want to say thank you to all of the volunteers in pooter School District our volunteers consist of parents grandparents Aunts Uncles brothers sisters friends numerous folks within the community volunteer opportunities consist of certain tasks such as delivering breakfast to thank our bus drivers nutrition staff Paras teachers admin pretty much any staff within PSD our volunteers are here to support those who organize and create events possibly someone who would staff a booth at back to school night perhaps a volunteer would be giving a child's hair a last minute comb before photos some participate in screenings vision and
006hearing screenings for an example or the lucky one who is to chaperone late into that Midnight Hour on Prom Night also it is known that our volunteers raise funds and use them to help improve our schools and provide extra opportunities for those students those are just a few examples of what our volunteers do in PSD I am blessed to work with them and honored to have these Volunteers in our schools Poudre School District volunteers possess an endless history of taking pride in our schools and as a PSD employee I am very thankful for that our volunteers provide educational opportunities to enrich our students learning and reinforce lessons taught within the classroom our students would not be able to participate in these experiences without the help of the volunteers in Porter School District I would like
007for you to join us in thanking those unsung heroes who linger behind the scenes and provide that backbone of support for our students your children at this time I would like to welcome Felicia klitsch and Nicole hirschfield to share some inspirational stories of volunteering and PSD good evening my name is Felicia klitsch I'm the mother to Carson klitsch a sixth grader at Letcher middle school and Carly klitsch a third grader at Riffenburgh Elementary School volunteering began for me when Carson started kindergarten at Linton Elementary School I started to dabble in volunteering then by helping at class parties I was so new to it I had no clue what I was doing we left Linton that year as we moved to a different area and our new school was Riffenburgh being at a new school with
008all new people I decided a way for Carson and I to meet people was to volunteer I started out by coming in weekly to his first grade class to pass out books to all the kids and really started to get to know them second grade I volunteered weekly reading with certain groups and working as a class parent I kept hearing more info about the PTO but it felt really intimidating to me at the time third grade is where it really took off for me as my baby also entered elementary school as a kindergartner I again volunteered weekly in reading groups and decided that was the year I was going to join PTO little did I know the position I was nominated for and accepted was the president of the PTO rufenberg as the rains are
009being handed to me as the rains were being handed to me the world was entering a territory none of us could have imagined covid I served as the president of the PTO in the 2020-2021 school year we had to figure out new ways to bring fun and exciting fundraising opportunities to our school even though riffenberg Prides themselves on our annual Fun Run that year it wasn't possible so we did a readathon knowing if we had to go virtual again we could do this from home the fundraiser was a success and we ended up raising close to thirty thousand dollars as Carson entered fourth grade in Carly first grade on a screen I wanted any way to help as it had become something that fulfilled me I not only with helping them do school work PTO
010president but I also helped do small groups virtually so the teacher could host her small groups virtually when we entered Carson's final year at Riffenburgh volunteers were unable to return to classrooms or parties I wanted to help in any way possible so I made copies for the fifth grade boy was there copies to make I would spend two to four hours a week making copies to help the team out I completed my term as president and my son's last year in elementary school I always say I stepped down because my heart would be in two different schools volunteering is so special to me it has fulfilled a passion in me that I didn't know I wanted or had I have made many lasting friendships with teachers parents and even students as Carson entered sixth grade
011I knew I wanted to still be a part of his journey and continue to volunteer after all the best way to still be around your kid is they are in school is to volunteer as you know middle schoolers typically don't want you around and I was really feeling the push from him I joined the PTO at Lesher as well as staying on as a member at large roofenberg I met a whole new team of passionate like-minded people who were eager to have volunteers I became the main parent contact for the lescher Middle School District championship wrestling team and set up snacks and assisted the coach in any way possible in the midst of being in the office at lescher I heard of a position open and lo and behold I am now an employee of
012pooter School District at the attendance secretary for lescher Middle School what I've learned through my volunteering is that wallet can be intimidating to try something new the opportunity to help others and work with so many great people has been beyond fulfilling I'm grateful for the privilege to volunteer in pooter schools district and encourage anyone considering volunteering in any capacity to do so hi I'm Nicole hirschfield I have been volunteering in the PSD school system for about seven years I went to college for elementary education but decided when my children were born to stay home with them I feel very blessed to be able to volunteer at their schools my favorite thing about volunteering is that it allows me to get to know not only their friends but their peers and the adults who spend many
013hours a day with them I love the sense of belonging that volunteering brings to my life I feel involved helpful and a sense of fulfillment when volunteering my children also show a sense of Pride when they see me helping at their schools it has helped and influence them to become leaders and Volunteers in the community as well this school year I have served on the PTO for both Riffenburgh and Lesher as well as the school accountability Council for both schools and the district accountability board for both schools I also do clerical volunteering and run The Snack Shack at lescher Middle School volunteering has brought so many great relationships into my life not only have I made some great friendships but riffenberg Elementary and Lesher Middle School feel like family to us and today was my
014first day as the substitute in PSD as well and I'm exhausted so thank you thank you ladies I appreciate that undoubtedly you're going to be hearing from volunteers as they continue their efforts so when you do whether you're able to chip in on that particular effort or not please remember to give them a big thank you for being Volunteers in pooter School District thank you oh yeah we're gonna Madeline we're gonna yeah we're gonna make sure [Music] thank you okay Jill if we could have a vote on this resolution I'd appreciate it hold on [Laughter] okay go ahead I wanted to thank uh volunteer coordinator and the two people that spoke and wow that's quite a place to have a recruiting base is our volunteers for employees uh it's also a way that many of
015us serve on the school board got engaged in uh school activities and so I very much appreciate volunteering at Harris bilingual and Lester middle school and as far as the wrestling team contact person I thought it was my my spouse thought it was tough watching our sons play football but then when you go to a wrestling match it's right in front of your face [Laughter] so thanks to all the volunteers we really appreciate them and look forward to honoring them thank you other comments from the board go ahead DJ yeah I I also kind of wanted to warn them that that's how I got started too and I really remember very clearly 17-ish years ago I can't believe it's that long ago getting in the helping out Miss Clark first grade and I said what
016do you want me to do and she goes here I need you to cut these out I said I I don't know if you want to see how I cut first uh but she said oh no you'll do fine so I cut a bunch of stuff out of laminate that was laminated and she said okay we'll give you a different task next time but it is a great opportunity and it is so uh filling to be around those kids that uh if you have a chance step up and do it because it is it is just great so thank you all volunteers other comments from the board yeah I'll ditto that that's how I started 22 years ago something like that so I I I'll say again what I said at the beginning that we
017couldn't have the district that we have without the volunteer base and we really appreciate it and our student more importantly our students do so that's that's uh a big thank you Jill if you would give us a vote on this please DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan all right Kristen Draper aye Rob Patterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 excellent thank you very much thanks Jill um we have another resolution this time in support of autism acceptance month can I get a motion in support of this resolution go ahead Nate I move that the Board of Education approve a resolution in support of autism acceptance month April 2023 and request that someone else read it do I have a second to the first part of that anyway go ahead
018Jim's a second on that who would like to read the resolution Jim would like to read all right resolution in support of autism acceptance month April 2023. whereas autism spectrum disorder is a complex lifelong development disorder that can impact an individual's social skills Communications and relationships and can vary in severity based on the individual and whereas autism is the fastest growing developmental disorder in the United States with one in 44 children being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and whereas there are over 5 million people in the United States with autism and as of 2019 over a hundred thousand coloradoans have been identified with autism and whereas autism disorders can affect all persons regardless of race religion socioeconomic status or geography and whereas there's a continued need for acceptance and awareness of those with autism through
019improving support and opportunities in education employment housing health care and long-term services and whereas April is now recognized as autism acceptance month to promote not just education about the differences of people with Autism but understanding and respecting those differences whereas during the month of April the aim of autism acceptance month is to emphasize the need for public awareness to promote acceptance celebrate the differences and be more inclusive towards individuals with autism around us now therefore be it resolved we the Pooter School District board of education do hereby support April 2023 as autism acceptance month thank you Jim Brian I believe we have someone to speak in support of this as well yes joining us this evening to speak to the resolution is our District's behavioral and Behavioral Analyst and autism coach Miss Lisa Hernandez welcome
020Lisa good evening can you can you hear me okay my name is Nora love I'm the assistant director of integrated services and I work with all of the schools in the Rocky Mountain feeder Zone I am very honored this evening to introduce Lisa Hernandez Lisa is our lead bcba and she works with all of our Pro autism programming with our schools in the district Lisa began working with PSD 25 years ago as a speech language pathologist at O'Day Elementary she says that her favorite thing about a better job is working with her students and seeing them progress along their path so thank you very much Lisa for all of your work I'm very happy to be able to introduce you um thank you for having me here tonight I'm really excited because we have moved
021away from just autism awareness and we are moving into autism acceptance which I think is a huge movement and one that the autism Community has been pushing for for the last few years so I'm so grateful that we are passing this resolution in accept in honor of autism acceptance and because of that I just wanted to share a few examples of what I see on a daily basis for autism Acceptance in pooter School District as Nora mentioned my primary work is with our center-based autism program so I get to spend most of my time with these individuals that have autism that I have come to love and adore and um so I'm just going to share a few of them I have to put on my old lady glasses because otherwise I can't see anything
022so I just want to say that in pooter School District acceptance is seen in our Unified sports teams at our secondary schools which are the highest attended sports events in pooter School District it's seen in our third grade period Partners at one of my schools in social studies and science where our students with autism are treated with true dignity and respect by what I am considering the future special education teachers of the world and it probably you're going to need to be paid pretty soon because they're doing a lot of work um it is seen when a school recognizes that not everybody can be quiet in an assembly or in the lunchroom or even walking down the hall and that's okay acceptance is seen at the snack card at bolts where there are long lines
023to purchase treats while our students in the autism program practice their money and their social skills and there's acceptance seen when people recognize that sometimes new and different places are really difficult to go into and so our staff members hold little special reinforcers and treats for those baby steps into the classroom that they've never been before to the office or to the nurse's office but I think sometimes the most important thing that I can share is a story and so I'm going to share a story of one of my students that joined us in our autism program in November he school has not always been easy for him he struggles behaviorally he struggles emotionally he struggles academically I think because of that he didn't get a lot of the educational components that he should have
024been able to have were the third school that he has been at and his educational career and he's coming a long way he's learning things recently he was in his general education classroom where his teacher was reading a story and the main character had autism and so they were discussing that and he bravely raised his hand and he said guess what everyone I have autism and they all kind of shook their head and nodded yes but then somebody else raised their hand and they said you know what my brother has autism and somebody else raised their hand and they said you know what my cousin has autism and somebody else raised their hand and said I don't know if you know this but this famous person has autism and it became a cohesive and authentic
025conversation in the classroom about the strengths of individuals with autism and the contributions that they make to our world into our society the best part about this story is as he was walking back to our special education classroom in this building there's a bulletin board that has everybody's picture on it all the students pictures are on it and his picture didn't start out being on the bulletin board because he joined us late so we didn't have on that piece but a picture was taken of him and the paraprofessional pointed out to him look you're on the bulletin board and he goes you know what none of my other schools could handle me but I fit here and to me that is the epitome of autism acceptance so thank you for passing this resolution thank you
026for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight thank you for my 25 years at PSD um thank you so I appreciate the the time tonight thank you very much Madeline Matt we'll we'll do the picture but I want to have the conversation and the vote first I think that makes more sense so does anybody else would like to speak to anybody from the board go ahead Nate thanks Lisa Lisa for that powerful story and uh we really appreciate uh being able to help all of our students succeed and it's particularly important to highlight uh this uh cut Cadre of students so thank you other comments from the board go ahead Kristen it's a powerful story and it just it really shows the the power of accepting everyone as they are so thank you other comments
027well Jill let's have a vote and then we'll have a picture DJ Anderson I Jim brokish aye Nate Donovan aye Kristen Draper aye Rob Peterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora hi motion passes 7-0 thanks Joe oh okay no in the middle yes all right that concludes this section of action items our next item on the agenda is a report from the superintendent superintendent Kingsley will make remarks to the board of education and to the community thank you president Patterson I really appreciate that I uh I'm so inspired by our people right I mean you just think about the lessons that Nora and Lisa just talked about moving from awareness to acceptance I just think that's so cool and then you know having students articulate firsthand that one place couldn't handle me but here I'm
028I fit in uh that's really what belonging is about I just really motivated by that and I think as Nicole and Felicia talked about their opportunities as volunteers they talked about volunteerism cultivating a sense of belonging and pride in the broader district and the broader Community which led to employment opportunities so I just I continue to be inspired by the great things that are happening in the district I want to thank all of the volunteers who are essential to making our everyday business better and more efficient and more joyful and taking things off of the plate for other employees and members of our team and also for the joyful experiences that they create for our students like many of you I've had the opportunity over the last couple of weeks to spend time visiting various
029school events last week I think it was Thursday evening and spent time at Fort Collins High School engaged in their Community engagement session focused on safety had an opportunity to go see their theater production SpongeBob SquarePants uh which was a lot of fun and had a beautiful storyline I have to be honest with you I wasn't sure what I was going to get out of that but it was so great the students and the and I really had a chance to now visit every one of the theater Productions since I've been here at all of our comprehensive high schools and continue to be inspired by all the great work uh as Nora or excuse me Nicole and Felicia were talking about their experiences volunteering at lescher I had an opportunity to visit Lester middle school
030last week you know all 55 schools that make up this District are special there's a lot of incredible things that are happening at Lesher they are very committed to their athletic program I met a lot of Championship wrestlers Nate you talked about your experiences as a parent about that and not just what it meant to be a good wrestler but to have good character uh their PE teacher who's their coach who's actually retiring at the end of this year not of teaching but of coaching has really left a incredible Legacy of developing young people who are High character people who know how to outwork their opponents as they were talking about their character they also talked about their stamina and their hard work and their effort and their resilience is what really made them be
031able to overcome obstacles and not quit in the face of adversity I had an opportunity to meet three of their middle school thespians I haven't been to a middle school play yet but that's going to be on my list as we go into the next year but they had an Annie production I met with some other teachers who were committed to moving high dosage tutoring and PBIS systems in place and if you remember way back when on the very first day of school last year Middle School was a place where I started my day and I talked in my video to the community that night of a student named Parker who was his first day of school not just at lecture but in the district and he came up to me and he said Mr
032Kingsley I don't know Lester very well but I want you to know you give me a couple of months and I'm going to tell you all about it well I had a chance to visit Parker last week and Parker talked to me about the significance of Lester Middle School being how Cooperative it is the collaboration and the spirit of collaboration runs through the veins of that school community and he talked about what was overwhelming is there's so many opportunities for students to get connected and engaged in extracurricular clubs and Parker's doing a great job in the Rock Climbing Club over at Leicester middle school so he's a true leader not just on day one but as we think about where we are in April he's doing incredible work in partnership with the school and I
033want to thank print I want to thank principal kotnick and the leadership team and the various faculty members for doing incredible work over there you know I'm a big believer as a superintendent that the Persona and the culture of a leader kind of transcends the culture of a school and I had an opportunity later that same day to visit Bennett Elementary School and Amy Smythe is not just an incredible instructional leader but she's just got a joyful Spirit about her and she is the first principal that I've ever met that shares an office with Angie her assistant principal they are in one office they can finish each other's sentences they're on the same page and the joyful spirit that they have with each other transcends into all of their classrooms had a chance to visit
034a first grade class Mrs Holcomb's Holcomb's classroom and their kids were her students were learning about phonemic awareness and I asked one of her first grade students can you please tell me what phonetic awareness is this is six-year-old six you know six years old and why is it important well they said you know this is about learning how to make words and make sounds and it's really important because if you don't know this you're going to get fired someday so it was a high-stakes environment but there was a lot of Joy at the center of it and we all laughed but it was really really great and those types of experiences exist in every one of our schools I was at Irish elementary school on Friday meeting with principal Moser and about four or five
035instructional leaders which also included one of their counselors the culture of care that exudes that building and the wraparound Services many of their teachers are volunteering on weekends and coach seeing uh youth soccer and doing different types of clubs and as I had an opportunity to just geek out around how they're engaging the community I can't tell you there's several of their teachers and I'm not asking any teacher to do this but several of their teachers couldn't stop ideating around ways to partner with this District to engage their community in thoughtful ways and we're just emailing me all weekend uh and again I'm not asking any teacher to do that but just the motivation and the spirit that existed amongst them just to continue to take that school to the next level uh was quite
036great and I'll share one last example of just greatness I went to Timnath Elementary School yesterday morning and Jill Burrell is a great leader and I saw one of the most I'm a former math teacher so I'm biased here but one of the most amazing math lessons that I've seen uh ever in the history of my career by Mrs Megna who is an interventionist working with students who are trying to get to grade level and her ability I've seen multi-sensory instruction through literacy her ability to use multi-sensory instruction to help with mathematics and create Joy her level of questioning and orientation to get students to get to that next level and build their confidence and be hopeful knowing that they were being challenged was just incredible that's what this district is about that's what our
037district strategic plan that we're going to be talking about tonight is about out and it's really about staying connected to our work and staying connected to each other as people people and processes lead to Performance if we prioritize people and we prioritize our processes in improving them performance will continue to improve in this district and I want to thank all of the people who are part of this system who have been working tirelessly over the past year in developing a strategic plan that is thoughtful that is purposeful and intentional in taking this District to new levels based upon what our data is telling us we want to continue to be even more thoughtful about this plan and members of the board I want to share with you that we want to be more aligned and
038we're also you know the charge that we collectively as a leadership team and I know you share this school of thought as a governance team it's really better to be simple and go deep than shallow and complex and so the conversation will have a little bit later tonight is how best to do that what's the right timeline what's the best strategic priorities to be able to get there and I'm really grateful for the team's work in setting up not just a great presentation tonight but I think we're going to have a very fruitful conversation these conversations and the various priorities whether it's literacy mental health and belonging graduation with options and school safety continue to reverberate in all spaces in this system last night at Rocky Mountain High School they had the mental health matters
039conference which I heard was well attended they had parent workshops they had a keynote uh that was inspiring to all of their families and staff members that assigned and it was a resource fair to allowed families to get connected to resources that exist in our community and it allowed people to be curious around what can we be doing as Leaders to connect more people with those resources we're going to continue to do that throughout the course of the time of our strategic plan and continue to make sure that we're putting a significant Dent into that data while also making quality improvements on the academic side of the house I want to close this evening by talking a little bit about graduation with options you know it's one thing to talk about our desire for every
040student to have options when they accept their high school diploma whether that's attempting a two or four-year University going directly into the workforce enlisting into the Armed Forces or taking a fifth year of high school for college credit through our Ascent program but it's another thing to show you what we mean and that's what we're here tonight through the power of student voice and storytelling with that I'd like to turn it over to our Chief Information officer Madeline noblet and video production manager Matt gole to take you behind the scenes of this year's grads at a glance series thank you to the entire Communications Department with the support from the career and Innovation team for showing our entire Community what it means to graduate with options Madeline and Matt take it away all right thank
041you superintendent Kingsley and everyone here this evening as Brian said what we want to do is really be able to show you what it means to graduate with options you know we talk a lot as a team here and out in our system about the many many options that are available to our students but we've also talked about how our community including our students and our parents may not be aware of everything that is there and so this series centers around that idea of making explicit and has for many years through Matt and the team's leadership making explicit what the student experience is here leading up to graduation and celebrating really what it is we do here as a system so I'll be brief I just want to say how proud I am of the
042team and um you know Matt and the group aligning to this strategic priority and really bringing it to life I think I've been amazed at some of the connections that they have been able to make for students with members of our business community and so we want to be able to bring you along on the series and some of the incredible experiences that they've been able to cultivate so thank you hey everybody so that's what this feels like huh up here um for those of you who don't know me um I'm Matt Golem the video production manager for the school district and uh Phil is behind the scenes tonight running the cameras for live broadcast but I told him to take a few minutes off and come up here and join me um so what
043we're going to do is we just kind of wanted to give you guys a little bit um like like Brian said like a little bit behind the scenes look of grads at a glance and just kind of the why behind it and then share with you uh our approach this year and hopefully get you guys a little bit excited about what what what's been coming out um so just a little bit of History what you see right here on this PowerPoint is a couple black and white images One image has a text on it that says grads at a glance and this is from back in 2015. this is kind of when we first really started this series as a consistent way to shine a light on our seniors there's another picture on this slide
044of a black and white um a picture of a student hand drawing something so we went from kind of this like black and white very artsy I was a younger man then I thought I was like this like super artist right um and then Phil came along and we started to get stuff like this um and let him talk about um kind of his why and maybe his kind of favorite part of this series um but a distinct crew member so Phil joined me in like late February 2018 and we usually start this series right around then and I told him like all right buckle up because it's it's busy time and he's like he just jumped right in remember we were talking about these these students and this particular year we had a state
045level swimmer who was going to Stanford from Fossil Ridge High School and I was like yeah like like where what kind of footage do we get of a swimmer at school and Phil's like well why don't we just go to the pool and I was like oh okay because because remember this was and so um I'm gonna let him kind of talk about this this approach this is kind of like phase two of grads at a glance and then his kind of why so um I came on board and I kind of pushed some buttons you know ask some questions about the series and what we could do to evolve it and change it and like Matt said I kind of asked like let's meet the students where they're at and where like where they
046do their thing that they're passionate about and so that year we met our student who was the the Olympic swimmer at the pool and we didn't know that when you take cold camera gear and you bring it inside a warm pool it fogs over so everything looked like this dreamy Escape um and so we were intentional for that very intentional but we learned a lot that year we learned a lot from the different students and I think we we covered a lot of subjects that we never thought we would be able to cover and so we had a LGBT qai Plus student and we had a student that went through depression but came out of it and so just a great way to elevate our students and tell their stories in a visual form and
047so that year we hit hit the ground running hard and we captured great stories of all these different students and various different backgrounds so um the next year after that this one um uh the laptop year was that was after covet well it was it was during it was like the half year after covid and then the next year um the start of the next year and so we were like how can we encapsulate what's going on with them with covid but then also being out of it and so what we did was we uh filmed the students in their home space they all described hey my home space is the art lab my home space is uh the music hallway and we we had them on the laptop saying their intro in their home
048space so it was kind of this uh you know kind of inception kind of look of hey I'm at home working remotely but I'm also in my I also love my home space and so the next year after that we were like Cove it's over Sweet let's celebrate um let's let's have these kids have a celebration so we coordinated with these students their support group and we actually uh had uh surprise parties for them where we filmed their support people gushing about them and then we showed them the video and then they were around the corner with balloons and poppers and they got to celebrate their graduation so it's it's definitely changed throughout the years as from the black and white you know very artsy look to now and this year we're definitely on the
049next step of our Evolution so I'm gonna hand it over that sure um and uh sorry I'm just going to go back here for a second so on this slide here when I switch from the black and white to the to the next slide there's they're very colorful images one is of a of a student walking down a trail that's full of beautiful green and another is a student who's just smiling um in the camera with a with a kind of maroon dress on and then the the pictures that Phil is just describing one is of a laptop basically in a this was in like the Dean's office at pooter High School shell knows shell knows this place um then the next one just a huge group of people surrounding a graduate and everybody's smiling
050and there's balloons and confetti so that's what's been going on on the slides um this next slide here says grads at a glance future connections um and it has these two chairs in it is this mysterious is this artsy um so basically as we were as we were talking about the the idea for this year it's like one of the things that we missed we felt like we missed last year with the celebration was like what are these students doing next year everybody wants to know what are you doing what are you doing what are you doing million dollar question right and so we're like well let's let's take that but let's let's kind of let's put a Twist on it so we brainstormed and um came up with the concept of let's find a
051student find out what they're passionate about whether they have like a solid plan for their life after graduation or not whatever that is let's find somebody in the community who's doing that thing at a high level and let's sit them down and have a conversation what advice do you have for me what would you tell your own yourself what was your path and so we've gotten so many Rich conversations um out of this I like to say that this is the time of year where we really do have some of the best jobs um in the in the district it just really brings us back to why we're here I remember I met with Brynn our student from Fort Collins High School she was the first student that I connected with and like I started
052like just getting emotional because she was just sharing her heart and who she was as a student and it's so easy to to forget and once we start connecting with these students and start telling these stories it changes us feeling our softies we cried a lot of things but we get to know these students really really well too and then we get to share their stories with our community um and uh president Patterson and vice president Draper super noon Kingsley thank you for letting us Elevate the series in this very public forum I also want to shout out obviously Madeline Chief Information officer and you guys should know this is a full multimedia Communications team effort um Phil and I just we just do the video piece um there's a web piece there's a whole
053like micro site which I'll show here in a second there's the District web presence there's portraits of a whole separate set of students there's graphic design obviously so literally everyone in the Communications Department touches this project and so I just want to elevate all of their work as well so we cut together something a little special for just for you guys tonight so this is just a quick little kind of teaser of what this series is about this year just because we can [Music] keep your passion keep it dry don't let anything get in your way just keep following your passion and taking advantage of all those opportunities like you have been and you're going to do awesome don't let anybody tell you that you you can't do it make sure that you show them
054that you're here to be here and don't let anybody tell you differently so like comment subscribe to our YouTube channel and um that's what everybody says right yeah um let's see so I did just want to show you guys this is accessible from the school district website this is the um the micro site that we have for the campaign this year so this is our trailer that we released and then these are this is a student from fossil this is his portrait and we did a q a with him as well and then here's our video student from Fossil Ridge High School Fort Collins High School and that's all we have out right now but this week we have um PSD Global Academy coming out and then pooter high school is going to be next
055week and uh Phil where are we going tomorrow where are we filming tomorrow yeah we have a student from Rocky Mountain High School and his passion is is that he wants to be an athletic trainer and he plays baseball and so we actually were able to get in contact with the Communications Department at Rocky's stadium and they allowed us to come out there and so we're going to film his interview on Rocky's field so we're pretty excited about that experience yeah so um and you guys kind of get the concept right it's the same Furniture but the background changes right and so um anyway we really appreciate the time and um yeah we'd love your help in sharing this uh campaign and celebrating these amazing students too so thank you everybody [Applause] thank you anything
056else Brian I just couldn't be prouder of that effort so thank you for allowing me to speak tonight absolutely and I'll just say that all of the time that I've been involved in the district and been aware of the work that Matt and Phil have done it's been just outstanding they do great work and we're very lucky to have them so thank you to both of them and the team that works with them so thanks um now we have our time for Community comment uh 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 guardian and community members input that is most helpful to the board of education and District staff is that which celebrates
057successes that support the educational and social emotional experiences of students or which identifies the problem and proposes a solution for us to consider that ultimately improves the educational or social emotional experiences of the students public comment is designed to address issues not personalities or Personnel matters please keep your concerns and comments focused upon the district it is important to note that the board does not generally respond to remarks made during Community comment our lack of response should not be construed to mean that we agree or disagree with what is said or with a description or interpretation of events as presented by any speaker although we may disagree on some things I know that we all want the best educational experience for our students and as we participate together in this community comment session we should
058model 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 just remind everybody 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 upon to make remarks in the order that they signed up each speaker will be allowed three minutes to address the board and I will remind you to wrap up as soon as the red light starts blinking so with that we will have our first speaker on the list is Ryan Kelly nope uh second personal list is Lauren Farley excellent welcome yeah I'll bend that down usually PSD students outgrow me about fifth grade so I'll adjust that one down hello
059my name is Lauren Farley and I am the parent of a fourth grader and a sixth grader in PSD schools and I also work as a religious educator at Foothills Unitarian Church here right here in Fort Collins and I'm here tonight because my faith calls me to joyously affirm the worth and dignity of all people and so for this for me this means that queer trans non-binary and gender expansive kids like all kids deserve to be loved and celebrated everywhere they are which is everywhere including PSD so tonight I'm here to thank PSD for all of your hard work and policies that create safety welcome and inclusion for lgbtq students and their families I know firsthand that this is exhausting work especially in the face of hate anger and misinformation sweeping the nation and Fort
060Collins I have the privilege of co-leading a group for Trans and non-binary kids and their families in our congregation and in our spaces full of trust care and fun they share their stories honestly with us so we hear about it when they feel safe at school and we also hear about it when they don't I see my most deeply held values in action when I see PSD protecting the rights and the privacy of its students using students chosen names and pronouns at school makes a huge impact on how safe they feel how ready to learn and Thrive they are especially if that student is coming from a home or a family where their chosen name or pronouns aren't safe to use lgbtq students and their families are sacred and belong in Fort Collins and in
061PSD safe welcome and loved thank you thank you our next speaker is Eleanor Van Dusen I hope I got the name pronunciation right excellent welcome good evening I'm Eleanor VanDusen and I'm a parent of three young adult children who all attended PSD schools and I am the director of family ministry at the Foothills Unitarian Church here in Fort Collins where I've served for the past 23 years and I'm also here to speak in support of PSD School Board policies that ensure that transgender and non-binary students are supported in an environment at school that's free from discrimination and harassment based on their gendered identity gender expression or sexual orientation it's been my life's work to work with Children and Youth and I love kids and I've had the great pleasure of serving in the church setting
062and also with several local Arts organizations since the mid 80s here in Fort Collins and in those settings I've had the great privilege of knowing many many children and youth who are queer non-binary and transgender and I've witnessed the very real suffering that young people experience when they're unable to express their chosen gender identity or their harassed or bullied for expressing their gender identity or sexual orientation and I've also seen kids flourish and succeed when they feel accepted and when they're allowed to express their own inner knowledge of who they are many times I've seen the relief that a child child feels when they discover that a space is safe for them and they can be themselves I've seen them Thrive and succeed when their identity is affirmed and honored and I want to avoice
063my support for the school board for your policies that protect and support these students and allow them to learn and Thrive thank you for supporting all of our children and youth here in pooter schools thank you our next speaker is Jeff afterheide it's Jeff here okay welcome hi my name is Jeff offterhadi from Wellington Colorado I'm here to follow up on my previous comments regarding the potential conflict of interest in puta school districts Mental Health Services and to raise additional concerns about the transparency of research studies conducted within the district because it is disappointing that I have not received the meaningful response to my concerns despite repeatedly raising them in public forms the lack of communication and transparency from the board is alarming and continues to erode public trust in the district's leadership as I
064mentioned before director Carolyn reads connection to some Stone Health Partners and the grant Award of over 1.5 million dollars for addressing mental health services within the district wants immediate attention the board's silence on this matter is deeply troubling and calls into question the Integrity of the decision-making process within the district I'm also concerned about the lack of transparency regarding research studies conducted within the district including an undisclosed study funded through a grant the district district has replied there are five studies they couldn't disclose to me because due to Colorado State revised Stat or revised Statute but I believe there might be more based on my research this further erodes public trust and raises questions about accountability I urge the board to take the following actions one provided detailed and timely public response to the concerns
065raised regarding the potential conflict of interest involving director Kailyn Reed and Summit Stone Partners too ensure that conflict of interest statements grant information and research studies are made publicly available on your website for inspection three establish a regular reporting mechanism that details the progress of the implementation of the mental health programs and research studies including the disclosure of Any Grant funded projects and the impact on our student outcomes the failure to address these issues not only undermines public trust in the board but also puts the well-being of our students at risk we must prioritize the mental health of our children and ensure that the services provided to them are the highest quality and free from potential conflicts of interest I respectfully request that the board treats this matter with the urgency it deserves and take
066immediate action to address the concerns I've raised the further the future of our students and our integrity of our district depend on it thank you for your attention and I look forward to receiving a response from the board thank you our next speaker is Andy Brunson Williams oh not here our next speaker then is Jim weinbrenner welcome Mr Peterson you sent me an email suggesting if I had attended the PSD Community engagement session on Mental Health I would have had the opportunity to ask questions directly to board members and staff you indicated it was an honest back and forth discussion I beg to differ the mental health session was limited to 30 registrations that's one slot for every thousand students in PSD those 30 slots were filled in 3 hours and 15 minutes and only
067seven people actually attended the session my observations first owning the few who found out about the session early had a chance to sign up before it was closed public interest was substantial and the district's response was minimal second 20 to 30 minutes was wasted at the start of the session to teach the seven people how to speak respectfully next there was a staff presentation about mental health health issues in PSD after the staff presentation the seven people played past the seashell if you hold the seashell you're permitted to speak otherwise you listen you were expected to respond to questions such as what was the most helpful mental health Insight you gained tonight questions were structured to elicit compliments that made PSD look good was there an opportunity to ask questions directly to the board members
068no any questions that evening were rhetorical like the questions I'm asking today questions for which no response is expected and no response is given Mr Peterson you promised back and forth discussion about the difficult lgbtq issues and how the district was approaching them critical issues because 8 000 PSD students identify as queer and non-binary plus five thousand are considering hurting themselves or committing suicide or contemplating suicide Mr Peterson it's been 11 months since your promise when are we going to have the back and forth dialogue thank you thank you our next speaker is Jamie Gilmore welcome as a PSD parent of an lgbtqia Plus student I'm here to commend PSD on their efforts and policies which are firm lgbtqia plus identifying students and staff in the district my family moved to Colorado several years ago
069specifically so my student could attend a school in an affirming and safe environment all children deserve to be seen and acknowledged for who they are at their core some people may not agree with the statement but their opposition of policies which will allow lgbtqia plus students to be open and affirmed in their identities is harmful research shows that lgbtqia plus youth are at a higher risk of suicide when they are not supported at home in school when these students are supported their risk of suicide drops to that of non-lgbtqia plus youth thank you to the PSD school board and administration for enacting policies to educate teachers and staff about the importance of using chosen name and names and pronouns thank you for supporting GSA GSA clubs which are entirely voluntarily let me back that up
070thank you for supporting GSA clubs which are entirely voluntary to attend and important to those that do thank you for creating and enforcing policies of non-discrimination for these students and thank you for taking harassment based on sexual orientation gender identity and gender expression seriously his policies and practices keep students safe and help teach all students tolerance of those that may be different than themselves lgbtqia plus people exist everywhere so children may as well learn to talk to learn tolerance and acceptance now continued support from PSD PSD is vital to families like mine and my family is just like your family we're working hard to provide and care for our children we have hobbies which include all the usual Colorado outdoor activities we have good days and we have bad days and we keep moving forward
071and my child deserves what all children deserve a safe and accepting environment in which to learn thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight thank you our next speaker is Jessica O'Brien welcome good evening my name is Jessica I have one child in PSD I appreciate your time this evening I would like to start off by saying a big thank you to the teachers and administration janitors and all the adults working for PSD thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to the children of Fort Collins also a thank you to the students of PSD for all of their hard work and dedication to becoming amazing successful young adults I am here tonight to call on the board to increase the number of sros and PSD schools specifically I am requesting for there
072to be an officer for every School in the district when I drop off my child at school and the SRO is present I breathe a little bit easier knowing that my there's a little bit of extra security that morning the school that my child attends follows all these security processes that they and they do their very best to protect our children during school hours but more security is needed at every school and it needs to be an armed officer according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs the second tier and Foundation of individuals basic needs indicates that they need to feel safe and secure in order to achieve self-actualization our children understand that if drills and locked doors are necessary then there must be a threat in the back of their minds they worry so do the
073children and Staff feel safer today in PSD I know that the members of the board also deal with a number of mean and threatening messages for the community at times and you don't have an easy job and what have you done to ensure your safety there's an armed officer here tonight and thank God he's here I have many concerns about relying on drills and locked doors to protect our children although I understand they're necessary but my child does not come home feeling safer after these Intruder drills my child has more anxiety and questions than I can give answers to these drills are only a Band-Aid to a much larger issue and I understand that the resources are finite but you need to know that a lot more parents feel the same way that I do
074please consider the request I am making today any deterrent to keep our children safer is a good idea I would also like to call on every parent listening tonight who agrees with me to send a message or let the board know that you feel the same thank you thank you our next speaker is Aaron Patchett welcome okay thanks everyone my name is EP she her pronouns I'm a parent of an elementary school child in the pooter school district and I have a lot to say in three minutes is tough but I'm a brutal follower so here I am with written notes um here's my message as I've distilled it down lgbtq kids and staff exist there is no room for debate on this topic and no more than us debating that we're all physically here
075in this room right now they are here and as other people commented tonight they're part of our community um they are wonderful they are real they deserve support and access to resources and unfortunately folks across the country and now in this state which is honestly devastating to hear these folks are starting to take actions against lgbtq youth debating their existence changing inclusive policies uh restricting health care and so on and those folks have been pretty vocal about their attempts so despite showing up to a school board meeting being the last thing I really want to do and it being well outside of my comfort zone um I'm here to be vocal in the opposite direction so that you know there are lots of parents and lots of families and lots of caregivers and lots of
076kids who believe that you all should continue to support the lgbtq kids in our school district I am grateful so let me be clear I am grateful for the work that's already being done in serving in centering queer and trans and non-binary students and if anything because of who I am I also respectfully and constructively challenge this District to keep going right I think we can be um doing some of this work deeper and more consistently across our schools across teachers Etc but my slight constructive criticism doesn't stop me from being so incredibly thankful for the work that's already being done in this school district and encourage momentum in that direction so that queer youth get the respect support and joy that they deserve without question serving and centering lgbtq kids helps them it helps
077them live and become lgbtq adults and it hurts nobody else in the process so PSD I honestly think you would struggle to continue to live by your principles if you weren't actively supporting and honoring lgbtq youth as a parent I'd like to ask you to continue to be advocates for them in times like now when the world is actively seeking to harm them harming kids should not be the business of any school district in particular not the school district thank you thank you our next speaker is Sherilyn Comer she's coming welcome foreign thank you for allowing me to speak tonight I'm here because I'm concerned about what I see and hear is going on in our pooter school systems and across the United States school systems it has come to my attention that some of
078the people who are in the school systems are apportionate agenda rather than teaching Basics people who are supposed to be working for us for whose salaries we are paying people who are supposed to care about children and their welfare people we are supposed to be able to trust trust is built on truth and honesty I've become aware that children are as young as kindergarten are being asked if they are comfortable with their birth sex if the answer in the negative they are encouraged to explore other options for their gender and as they are moved into their higher grade levels they are encouraged to change their names and pronouns to the opposite six even though the parents object there are more pornographic now pornographic books in grade schools and up through High School this sexualization of
079our school children is very disconcerting to me our kids are being told to attend after school meetings where they are being indoctrinated with sex change material being told it's okay to light a parents and such things deception never builds Trust our schools are allowed to give them puberty blockers a child going through puberty is already facing changes and emotional change body changes and emotional changes and trying to fit in with their peers they are told that they can change their gender by having surgery all of these mentioned is very overwhelming to young people add to that that surgery can you imagine as a teen looking in the mirror after the the first time after your body has been changed knowing they can never go back to the original Self to a person who is already
080self-conscious this is overwhelming children are not old enough to realize what they're doing to themselves until it is too late they will either lash out at themselves in suicide or at others no school no Adult School official parent or anyone else has the right to push anyone into an unnecessary surgery or life change in their body this is child abuse I I give you Chloe's story I don't know if you've heard of her but she did the whole nine yards the changing her Identity or sex and and getting the surgery and when she was 18 she realized what she'd done and she couldn't go back she's going across the United States speaking and asking you not to allow his surgery in the schools I feel like it's our children are being robbed of their innocence
081when these things are brought to them I'm sorry I need to ask you to finish it's three minutes okay that's that's basically it I am here to fight for the innocence of children thank you our final speaker this evening is Danny Lawrence welcome foreign good evening thank you for the opportunity tonight I wanted to come here and comment on the lack of interaction you all give the community and how that affects the culture in our district for two years I've been making public comments in this boardroom and I've attended many of your community chats a countless number of times I've watched different individuals in our community ask you all for a conversation in a town hall format something with dialogue and back and forth opportunities and I've never seen you give it instead you allow
082the narrative to be established by your staff who controls the question topics and format the community chats where you all play the past the shell game while PSD staff dictates the positive focused questions the public can answer is just a meaning for adults and I feel like you're leading in ignorance because you are unwilling to listen to those who elected you so I'm here tonight to ask how could you possibly represent my children our family and their needs as students if the only way I can communicate with you is through one-sided three-minute public comments how can I convey what we are experiencing in terms of civil rights abuses or possible solutions if this is the only format I've been given for communication you are not solution focused you'd have to to give people the respect
083of a conversation to achieve to achieve problem solving a couple of years ago I voted for four of you and I'll never make the mistake of choosing representation again from people unwilling to interact recently Mr Kingsley was generous enough to finally give me 30 minutes of its time after two open investigations with civil rights States complaint finding and several asks that were rejected that 30 minutes was spent trying to get him partially up to speed there was no opportunity to get my questions asked or answered but thank you for your time Mr Kingsley in February I was asked to participate in a restorative process in conversation with a district administrator it was a traumatic and painful experience and I'm here to ask that you make this treatment for the parents trying to advocate for disabled
084children stop imagine a marriage counseling scenario where your spouse hurls accusations at you giving you almost no opportunity to speak or ask questions for clarification or to seek understanding it's inappropriate to have district-led dialogue for two hours and a one-sided attack from your staff there was nothing restorative or remotely kind about that process there was no check-in or follow-up afterward it lacked professionalism and it was grossly unfair please stop this practice for integrated Services families who are just trying to enforce federal laws that PSD has to abide by anyway no parent needs to make your staff feel any way to get their children's needs met and I'll end tonight with a great quote from one of my favorite internet yellow yellers ijoma alohu quote to refuse to listen to someone's cries for justice and equality
085until that request comes in a language that you feel comfortable with is a way of a sermon asserting your dominance over them in this situation end quote you all play a part in the oppression and staff LED dominance over Community stakeholders because you allow it and I would ask that you do some deep soul searching on why you are serving and whether the narrative established by staff allows you to best serve the folks who elected you thank you for allowing me three minutes of your time thank you sorry and that concludes a community comment for this evening next we have a board committee reports would anybody like to uh take a moment to speak go ahead Nate sorry I didn't that's okay I just wanted to highlight a given Factor we were at the autism
086acceptance resolution um I wanted to take some of us have been on the board long enough to remember a student who was in elementary school and has a developmental disability and wanted to go to the feeder Middle School but uh the initial direction that the district was giving was to have that student go to a different School but he brought his friends here to the board meeting to Advocate that he'd be allowed to stay with his friends and go to Blevins Middle School and he's going to graduate next month and so he's had a great experience being mainstreamed and not taken away from his friends and the uh academic uh situation that he felt comfortable in and I just want to highlight that to make sure that we're being sensitive to the individual needs of
087students when we decide what their particular plan is for their education and so I congratulate him and his family and just want to hold that up as an example where the porter School District served this student and family well so thank you thanks Nate other comments sir or reports go ahead Kristen yeah I just want to say that um uh Jim and I was it last night uh that was the mental health oh my gosh um this feels like it was a week ago um we're able to go to the Rocky Mountain National uh that not National sorry let me start over Rocky Mountain High School's mental health program um and although I didn't get a chance to go and listen to the individual speakers because I was so engaged with the resources that were
088provided there it was truly an amazing and wonderful event and I was able to talk to just about everybody who was there and meet everybody and um one of the questions that I I asked everybody when I went through is how can we PSD be even more engaged and how can we how can as a board how can we help and and I just wanted to report back that most of the people said we're doing really really well we're doing really well as far as the engagement piece that partnership piece so I think things are changing um and I just I felt like I needed to share that with you all of yes we do we have we have work to do and we have ways to go but from the people that I talked
089to last night at the resource Fair it's there's a different perspective and I think people are willing to engage in wanting to engage and see an opportunity which is different than it used to be so thank you for that go ahead Jim just I want to just wanted to Second what Kristen said I spent most of time my time also at the resource fair and I was asking similar questions how can we do better where does your funding come from a lot of different questions about the different groups and and we just we're doing really well I I felt like from this group that was the feedback that I took away so um yeah it was a great night excellent other comments or reports from the board all right I'd I'd like to take a
090moment here to acknowledge that April is National deaf History Month I'm sure I speak for all my colleagues on the board when I say that we honor and celebrate the contributions of deaf and hearing impaired persons to our planet our nation our state and our region next April I fully expect that the board will put forward and pass a resolution proclaiming support for National deaf History Month this year I want to share that we are working on a plan to make our board meetings more accessible to our deaf and hearing impaired constituents the details will be announced as they are worked out and we intend to have this support in place on or before the start of next school year anything else all right uh our next item on the agenda is the consent agenda
091would somebody like to make them oh would anybody like to pull anything from the consent agenda all right seeing none would somebody like to make a motion Nate I move that the board approve and adopt the recommended actions for the items on the consent agenda second somewhere uh Kristen could we have a vote on the consensus agenda please Jill DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan hi Kristin Draper aye Rob Patterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 excellent thank you Jill and then we're on to the uh uh strategic plan work that both superintendent Kingsley and I have referenced already this evening so Brian if you'd like to go ahead with that yeah thank you uh really looking forward I'm really looking forward to this conversation uh as a governance
092team and we have several members of our cabinet that are here to join me as I shared earlier and everybody in the community we've been talking about our strategic plan for several months there's been a lot of really good work that is going to continue to go on post this evening but as I shared with you my opening remarks I think this is an opportunity for us to not just re-evaluate our strategy but think about the pace our capacity to do whatever we're setting forth to do well I've heard from many members of the board that you know when we launched this plan we should expect that it needs to be met with enthusiasm joy and excitement and there's a lot of pressures and stressors in the system in the community that compete with that
093every single day but I really feel as the team has listened to many Community stakeholders there's been so many system faculty members School leaders District leaders who have been apart put really hundreds of hours into development of this and have continued to go back and forth around what's the right toll and what's the right pace and so that's the spirit of the conversation we're having this evening can you go to the next slide please so we're as we're committed to ensuring that we're focused on our approach to this to the Strategic plan we want to make sure that we're engaging in our highest leverage opportunities to support our students and Achieve our district goals again it just challenge us to say and feel and think about and push the work to be simple but deep
094rather than shallow and complex so we're therefore going to suggest tonight that we're going to narrow our Focus for the Strategic plan to three priority areas literacy mental health and belonging and graduation with options now you remember that's where we started right in previous versions of our district strategic plan Safety and Security appeared as one of those four Focus areas that's one of those things that we've gone back and forth but I think you know Safety and Security can't be an initiative as we've continued to Grapple with our team it's not that we are de-prioritizing Safety and Security but it's something that needs to happen every day and everything that we do similar to our approach to long-range planning and thinking about how we provide the right mindsets values and beliefs and push up our
095mindsets values and beliefs don't value and honor diversity equity and inclusion so we're not just reshuffling words we're trying to level set around where we're prioritizing our resources where we're prioritizing our time and can we explicitly name what this means for students and stakeholders in the year ahead this is going to be a part of our ongoing work and if you can go to the next Lab please there's a visual that is streamlining our work for year one and the team is going to talk to you about these Box by box and take you a little bit deeper but here you'll see that there are three desired outcomes for each of the three priority areas in literacy mental health and belonging and graduation with options I'm not going to read that to you but we'll
096have an opportunity to go through that a little bit more deeply it's really important as we're setting out a course for this plan we don't believe we're positioned for a formal launch between now and the end of this year right there's not space and capacity in our opinions and we want to have a conversation about that for this plan in this moment in time to be reached with joy and enthusiasm we don't want this to be one more thing this is initiative overload we want to simplify in each of those three priority areas not just what we expect the outcomes to be in the next year for students but explicitly what are those strategies that have implications on our faculty on our school and District leaders and how do we partner with our parents and
097our families to make those particular things happen and as you see on the book ends on the top and the bottom of this particular Visual and again this is just a visual but it sets the tone that Safety and Security is ongoing work that we need to be intentional about every single day regardless of the existence of this strategic plan ten years from now if the system hopefully has different priorities based upon new data in our monitoring report Safety and Security is still going to be a day-to-day operation and function of this district and we wanted to make sure that our new representation outlines that similar to our ability to be very fiscally responsible and using our stewardship around our facilities and our long-term planning long-range planning in a similar mindset and again everything that
098we do in this system we have to provide not just a lens that honors diversity Equity inclusion but we got to identify and understand where it exists and where it doesn't we can't go disrupting things that we don't identify first as being an area for disruption so I'm really excited about the team walking us through each of these particular areas but we're expecting there to be some push and pull tonight so I really want to invite you as a board not just to accept what we're sharing as this is what we're doing moving forward but to invite you into a conversation around where we have agreements where you'd like for us to think a little bit differently and for us to have on the back end of tonight's presentation a robust conversation that you feel
099comfortable with the direction of the system and not just staff so we you know this conversation should be a partnership and I really want to invite you to push our thinking in the way that you feel best Teresa I'm going to turn over to you to outline kind of our way of work and what we're thinking is our best thinking right now around the role of lot literacy being a priority thanks Tracy so good evening president Pederson superintendent King Kingsley members of the board it's my pleasure to talk to you about the strategy under literacy so in working with the team leads in literacy we have elevated this particular strategy as a year one priority and this will be a very familiar strategy you recently heard about the literacy adoption from director of curriculum John
100pasentino this strategy is more all-encompassing than just the K5 literacy adoption this is a strategy that ensures that we Implement really high quality instruction materials across our system and that we have a process that can be replicated so that we do that with assurances every time that we have a standards aligned curriculum that really meets the needs of our students our staff and is very inclusive of our students so that they see themselves in the curriculum that has a Universal Design at its base so in thinking about this strategy um the objective is that you would see the result of this strategy that in all of our classrooms we would have high quality standards aligned materials including complex texts that represent multiple cultures identities and abilities leading to all students being College and Career ready
101feeling seen heard validated and connected to others while learning about multiple perspectives of the world and when we talk about all classes this is a particular strategy that applies to all subject areas language arts Math Science and the Arts and so through that process of having a rigorous evaluation tools we will ensure that students have an equity of experience in their classes across all of our buildings that we have a strong robust implementation plan so that students experience a similar level of rigorous education and access also inherent in this strategy is that equity and access for all students and all Learners that Universal Design component it really forces us to look at our curriculum through the lens of learner diversity and looking at curriculum that starts at that level rather than looking at it through
102something that's an add-on or an accommodation later on so part of this process is really being very thorough and vetting the curriculum that we're using in our classrooms so what you can expect next year that we will do the actions that will occur is we will go through the simultaneous process of both adopting and implementing so you're aware that we will be implementing a K5 literacy curriculum we will also be in the process of adopting materials at 9th and 10th grade in English and language arts that uses a standardized process that's built into this strategy where we use the imet rubric as well as culturally responsiveness evaluation tools to vet those materials through that implementation process next year for particularly the K-5 Elementary literacy materials we're really going to support our system to make the
103shift to a Fidelity of use of implementation that we've looked at our resources as being available and useful to teachers but we've never really given them the tools and steps to monitor Fidelity of implementation so we're defining and being more explicit about what we mean by implementation and what that looks like so alongside of the implementation of the materials there's also some explicit steps around D implementing different core materials and practices that are no longer aligned to how we've evaluated what is needed in our classrooms what our data is telling us our students need as well as what we know the science of reading is telling us about the best practices the other part of that implementation plan is the ongoing support for teachers that we can't just do a 1 time professional development where
104we help them learn to use the materials there has to be an ongoing ongoing and sustained approach to the professional development and implementation practices for our teaching staff so that's part of the implementation plan that's embedded within this strategy is to do a very robust approach to that and then additionally we want to add something that we really haven't had as part of a curriculum approach which is to monitor how students see themselves in the curriculum that this is particularly important as we adopt high quality materials that students need to feel seen heard and represented in the materials that they are exposed to in their classrooms and so seeking their feedback seeking engagement from our families about how their students are experiencing the curriculum as a part of this ongoing strategy for implementation as well
105within literacy and additionally I want to speak to a little bit of the Fidelity monitoring that will go into the implementation so the Fidelity of monitoring it's a it's a really important part of the process of not just adopting and selecting the materials but also naming the behaviors that will go along with the implementation and explicitly be able to describe here are the practices and approaches that will lead to the best results for our students if we do them in this way and so that Fidelity of use the first bullet talks about the implementation and de-implementation of different practices and curriculum so part of that strategy is to pay attention and name explicitly like here are the practices that we're going to develop that will be consistently across our classrooms and then here are the
106practices that we will start to de-implement that if you don't do both simultaneously what tends to happen is that it feels like it's more and more and we just layer on more and more if we haven't explicitly identified here's the things that we're going to stop doing and not engage in any further that second bullet is the Fidelity of use and that's the support for staff and so the other aspect of this is we want to ensure that all instructional staff participate in comprehensive curriculum-based professional development and so it's learning to use the curriculum from job embedded experts to have those experiences in collaboration with their colleagues but to really make sure that our support is there is explicit as planned and that it's provided for staff so that they feel successful with the curriculum
107and then additionally that Fidelity of use and Fidelity for implementation and support will be monitored regularly throughout the year and updates provided to the board as well as information and stakeholder feedback collected so that we can reflect on and continue to refine those implementation processes so that it's not a one-year implementation it's an ongoing cycle of revisiting what data are we getting what feedback are we getting from staff how can we further improve and refine our processes when we do these things successfully the results that we're going after with this particular strategy is in literacy we want to be able to reach that monitoring report Target of 85 percent or greater of our k-3 students are at grade level Benchmark and that if we do have high quality materials that if we have provided staff
108with the support that they need to implement those materials and those best practices that we would be able to achieve that Target we also have monitoring report targets for achievement and growth for all students K through 12. we also have targets for additional support students so students scoring below the 35th percentile that we have growth metrics that we want students to achieve there we believe that if we implement this strategy with the Fidelity that it's intended to be implemented with that we would reach those targets the other part that we will monitor is within the student connection survey data and so our student connections composite score Target is that ninety percent or greater composite score specifically we're looking at the student connections survey because of that belief that if we have materials that have representative
109identities and that students have experiences where they are looking at text Through The Eyes of a character that shares their identity that they're learning about experiences that their feelings of connectedness and engagement to their curriculum to their teacher to their classmates into their education will be a component that will support our student connections data as well and now I'd like to pass it to Liz Davis who will talk us through mental health and belonging thank you can you hear me okay so thank you superintendent Kingsley representative Peterson and the board for being here so when we talk about mental health and belonging and our work next year together mental health and belonging the mental health and belonging strategy really emerges with a focus of increasing student access to Mental Health Providers both inside and outside
110of the school district and you know we're really grateful for the time and effort and energy from our staff that all the time they put in two considering all these options so we're excited to talk about that um so what does this mean for us next year at PSD so our strategy has two parts looking at our work next year one is around refining and continuing to implement a comprehensive partnership strategy around Mental Health part of that is hiring and training additional mental health staff and trainees to support our students so when we execute this strategy for mental health we know that our Community Partners and our PSD Community will understand and use processes on how to become a partner with the school district around mental health and by hiring and training additional mental health
111professionals and trainees our students will see and be able to access an increased number of mental health professionals in schools so in in 2023 24 PSD will refine and continue implementing Community Partnership a Community Partnership process specific to mental health this process will be transparent and include procedures implementation guidelines and agreements for partnership and will hire and train will recruit and train additional mental health professionals in partnership with the PSD Human Resources Talent team and truly with a focus on diversifying our mental health Workforce so PSD will will have a structured opportunity to increase student access to mental health supports alongside Community Partners and within our hiring and training of new mental health employees and trainees so it's important to note here that we are engaging we hope to engage in this hiring and training
112process with multiple sources of funding next year yet some of that funding is often not sustainable and will need to continuously continuously monitor some of that funding that's not sustainable so as we talk about Fidelity monitoring we think about our touch points with students and monitoring we wonder and we think about things like how many referrals inside and outside our system students might be engaging in and have they been able to effectively access Services outside PSD and inside our schools that's something we can monitor and track and even have systems already doing some of that we can also monitor our diverse hiring practices along with HR and help support training and retaining new and future mental health employees so we look at that we look at our healthy kids Colorado survey data every two years
113and will continue to review our connection survey data annually and finally as we review results we can come back to our monitoring report targets of attendance and we hope to see that increase in attendance and with discipline we would hope to see that decrease in those discipline rates we continuously look at our social emotional learning composite scores our connection scores and our healthy kids Colorado subscale scores and monitor those results and you saw that presentation recently from Dwayne um we know that our mental health and wellness and feeling we know that our mental health and wellness and feelings of belonging needs have increased in our schools we know that we know that from students staff and families we have multiple measures and surveys to continue to review and monitor those results over time skipping ahead
114there we go um so when we execute the strategy for mental health we know that our Community Partners and our well there we go Okay so let me see where I'm at here yes I'm done [Laughter] one more thing one more thing um so we know that from our data that academic Excellence is connected with our mental health and belonging and this this too will be an area to monitor closely and we're grateful that we're committed to this strategic priority area okay there we go laughs thanks Liz um thanks president Pederson board members superintendent Kingsley for giving us an opportunity to talk about this tonight as we think about graduation with options the strategy we believe is the right one to focus on for 23.24 is the updating of high school graduation requirements and we
115believe that because it lays the foundations for some of the other work that's going to follow in the graduation with options as we think about this strategy and honoring students individual path building a pathway that fits inside of our 240 credit container but that builds in flexibility to center student needs to Center students individual Pathways or individual desires to Center Learners with diverse needs in general is critical if we want to continue to build on some of the successes we saw this year with closing some of our gaps when we execute on this strategy our graduation rates will increase um and we believe that will happen among our historically marginalized students in addition to the whole group we will see increased access to certifications apprenticeships internships other work-based learning experiences we believe that we will
116see students reporting self-reporting that they're leaving PSD with options which is ultimately what we're after as we look forward to 2023-24 what you can expect to see this is what we'll do currently as we think about this as a strategy that makes sense to look forward to next year we have a team a cross-functional team representing integrated Services English language Learners the rest of our student services team individuals from buildings working on a proposal for the board and cabinet to take a look at for us to get feedback on in the fall we'll gather stakeholder feedback that team that's putting that together as we speak the rest of spring um will bring forward that proposal to Cabinet early in the fall that will include the proposal for graduation requirements but it will also include the
117pathway or the process to crosswalk uh credits both for high school and college level courses but also the crosswalk that we'd like to do in a more robust fashion for CTE slash core credits but so that we can do it not just at Futures lab so but it's available the process is available for teachers across the district to look at how they crosswalk standards to make sure that as we go after that flexibility and credit it still meets the the standards that we're asking for in both courses that it's looking for As We Gather feedback the team leaders will come forward to Cabinet to share that in Fall they will also share with the board members right now targeting your retreat in September would be the opportunity to gather feedback from board members around that
118initial proposal that team would then take the feedback from cabinet and the board members update the proposal and go out to a mini Community engagement go out and find feedback from a broader set of stakeholders all of that would happen early fall of as we have gathered the feedback board cabinet and then ultimately from the larger stakeholders the proposals or the proposal would be revised utilizing the layers of feedback with a goal of having that done by the end of October so that the initial proposal could come in front of the board for that first meeting in November for reading number one and followed up shortly a month or so later for reading number two the desire would be from that team to have the proposal taken care of board approving it at your December
119meeting which then gives that team and the district the second semester December through early potentially late April to communicate with the community the stakeholders but also to talk with and train staff members that it's going to impact how they talk to students as we think about the proposal there are some questions yet to be determined which grade level are we thinking about this impacting that team right now is leaning toward the the requirements staying consistent enough so that you could be approving graduation requirements in December that would impact the class of 24 20 25 so not the group that's sitting seniors next year but the next year seniors could be impacted by this depending on the proposal and the feedback from this group and the broader stakeholders maybe the proposal is a little bit more
120drastic than that and the conversation might need to be we're not starting that until a later class so that we have time for that transition to happen but right now that team that's been working through the entire process is leaning toward um utilizing the container we have now but reorganizing it which allows us to have a more flexible rollout time period so that's the that will be part of the feedback that you receive from that group as you see it both in early fall but also when we come in front of you in November and December as we think about the monitoring of the graduation or the updating of the graduation requirements there are some things that we have begun to monitor that will help us to understand how this is rolling out one of
121the things that's critical when we think about a student's individual interests and Passions helping to drive the courses they take the career and academic plan continues to be important that gives us that information so we'll continue to monitor the completion of the Korean academic plan we'll monitor participation and completion in things like courses that that offer certifications and completers of certifications the number of apprenticeships we have in the district the number of internships in the district all of those we monitor today will continue to Monitor and we would expect that we would see as we continue to pay more attention that those numbers would increase we will also monitor the number of courses that count in multiple areas you heard me reference High School College we're monitoring that today but we also want to monitor
122the growth of those courses that you have asked us for a number of years to think about just at the high school level that count for potentially CTE and English creditors CTE in science all of that we'll Monitor and as we talk about on this slide we will continue to monitor that as we walk through the year so our schools can modify pay attention to that as we go not it's not just an autopsy at the end of the year as we think about graduation uh rates the results we're looking for obviously when we talk about graduating with options the overall graduation rates are the end goal that's the end goal for all that we do here in PSD um we believe we'll see increased of students on track as they move through our 912
123system again systems we monitor today but we can continue to Monitor and see uh growth of that as we move through the graduation rates above 85 percent not just for our whole group but as we look at subgroups that we will see an increase in the percentage of students reporting graduation with options on their senior exit surveys I think it's important for the board to know that we are receiving our first Baseline for that information this spring because we're asking seniors that question this spring so we'll have our first Baseline set of data this spring that we'll be able to measure against going forward what percentage this year is going will be good for us to see and then we also believe as we do this that we'll see an increase in the percentage of
124students that are identifying or indicating connections to their interests and passions have increased over what we see today as we continue to to pay attention and utilize their interests and passions to help Drive their pathway through their time in PSD thank you Scott so I'm going to talk us oh we already clicked it good job I'm going to talk through a little bit of the timeline and next steps before I go though I want to say so my three colleagues just gave some pretty specific information around three strategies aligned to three priority areas and so you know what's our timeline and before we jump into this I want to say thanks to any PSD staff that might be listening we have had I want to say hundreds it feels like hundreds it's a lot of
125people that have involved for months and months getting us to this point and so I just want to publicly say thank you to them for that their work so we're going to talk about now how we're going to move forward these three district with these three District priorities and what we're really focused on is alignment and sustain sustaining efforts right so that we actually improve system outcomes over time measurably we're going to talk about three stages we have a planning stage that's kind of encapsulated over the next seven months so we have three stages over the next seven months we're still in the planning stage through April and May and into June which includes tonight we have an action team meeting on the 25th of April we have a cabinet to retreat on June 6th
126and then we have a we're back with the board of education for more input on June 12th and we consider all of those points those touch points you know planning that we're still refining and planning then we move into the next stage which is launching the Strategic plan which is going to happen over a period of a couple months really and it maybe feels more like a few weeks but there's steps to that right so we have an admin Retreat that we usually do like a welcome back at the end of the summer toward the end of the summer and we're going to launch with our admin group the Strategic plan at that point then we have an opportunity on August 10th and 11th with some PD days some professional development days with all of
127our staff and so our staff are going to get we can consider that a launch with our staff and then with the Board of Education we'll be back together on August 22nd which is kind of launching it for the public as well as the board so that would be the launching component of this and then we move into implementation so now we're in the fall semester and all the great detail that my colleagues just provided you know we're going to put that into action our teams are going to be putting those things into place you should be able to as board members while you're out in schools physically and Visually see what is happening in each of these different areas and that works going to continue through the school year while that works going on
128the Strategic plan itself has more components to it as you know because it's really A Five-Year Plan and there's other components to the work that our teams put together what we're talking about tonight is what we're you know phasing in year one so some of those there's going to be work going on behind the scenes next year where we're kind of getting on Deck the next set of things and so we're not going into depth on that tonight just to mention that that works going on as well and then when we see the monitoring report in around January February we'll be reporting out in that process on some of these Fidelity measurements and any outcome measurements we have have but what I want to say is obviously we're not expecting the needles to Peg to
129100 miles an hour you know three months into implementation so the first mining report but what we will see is we'll have some Fidelity measures and then having that monitoring report cycle over time we'll see the impact of all this effort surely on some of those big metrics that we've tied in and my colleagues did a great job of specifically naming as they went through their sections okay so the next steps you know this is all about alignment system alignment is we believe how you get things done going narrow and deep instead of broad is another strategy that we we're believing in a theory of action and we're we're believing in sustained Focus so and I'm so happy that the board is driving in this direction that we're going to get sustained on a few
130things we're going to do it deep and we're going to do it well that's how we're going to see Improvement so the next steps really involve communicating to the action teams like I said we have a lot of staff that have put a lot of time and energy in getting us to where we are those teams still exist obviously as we go through this process they are not disbanded or anything we're really just getting going so there'll be this continuous cycle of meeting with those teams getting feedback getting input refining things and so on so like I had mentioned a moment ago April 25th is our next meeting for one of those touch points then we move into like we're re-envisioning our approach to this work and where we're strategically focusing on these high leverage
131opportunities what does that kind of mean these strategies are all aligned to priorities that we've identified them and talking about for a while right so there's like Improvement Cycles to this kind of work where we're doing work we're gathering information it's formative in nature because we're going to adjust our work based on what we're learning and we're going to keep on getting smarter and better as an organization but staying focused on these particular things and that's kind of a different cycle than I feel like PSD has honestly lived through in the past and so I'm excited about that and then we'll hit those cycles of the monitoring report and other metrics along the way in all of our dashboard systems so we can kind of track in that way too how we're doing I just
132mentioned a moment ago that that ongoing planning is going to be happening so it's not tonight we're really focused on the year one implementation because that's right in front of us but just to rest assured there's other work going on and that continues in the background getting the next pieces on deck and all of that's kind of fluid as we see how things are going so um and the last the last stage is really what we can call the launch so we are launching in Fall of 2023. if you had to pick a specific date I would pick the August 22nd with the Board of Education meeting okay so Brian Kingsley said earlier tonight that people and process lead to Performance and so you can see throughout this plan that's what our whole focus is
133on it's our people and it's our processes and how we're going to utilize those in in a kind of focused manner in a sustained manner to impact outcomes and that's what we're attempting to do so we're going to close with two questions for the board the first question is have we addressed the board's top priorities for the impr for in implementation next year okay have we addressed your top priorities the second question are there any changes the board would like to see made and with that we'll turn it over to the Board of Education go ahead Nate well before I became a school bus driver I was arguing for a living so I don't plan to answer the questions you posed but I I do appreciate that in this current iteration is straightforward and seems
134like it's more achievable than the dense presentations that we had leading up to this so that does address my priorities for implementation next year and I think it's good to start with one of them so that we can phase into this and I don't know if there are any changes that I would like to see made but I'll let you know at the retreat go ahead DJ um first I'll start off I agree that I think we were we were too broad before and so I do really appreciate us focusing in and going deeper um I'm going to start actually back to what Brian started with with the little uh graphic too is um you'd mentioned that you know you'd expect to see safety in Long Range all the way through well I really think
135we'd expect all that stuff that was in there especially literacy our safety of our kids and so I really think this is more of a uh a change culture you know a system of change is what we're doing here and we're trying to change different those three different Avenues and um I'm very excited about about that especially the literacy I really am excited to see what kind of changes we can do uh throughout our system but also uh with the PD and the and the uh the new books and stuff on there I will say though that my expectation for the Strategic plan and it kind of goes back to a a gripe I have a lot of times with the uip is um that we we used language like continue to implement higher in
136training okay you're high you want to hire what how many and when you know those are the kind of things that I would like to see in a plan I appreciate the graduation with options that it it kind of laid out different ones that when when that happens in November if it didn't happen like hey what happened and you can tell me that um but it started off with developing a graduation proposal well yeah no you're going to make a proposal to us is really what it was it wasn't I mean that's part of it down there I just really want us to set expectations for us and for the community for teachers and everyone else that's out there so that we aren't so it doesn't get misinterpreted and that we can really drive it
137home um I am I really like the three things that we're focusing on I would the mental health and safety one a little bit the one that I would really like us to get behind is finding a better way to address bullying and teasing in our schools and how it's how it's handled by different schools and different teachers and really have that as a focus because I we had our conversation with the principals a few meetings back and and they talked about how you know we've got to get kids off the phones and man that has stayed with in my head going around because that's not realistic and so we got to come up with mechanisms that we can help these children and deal with the craziness that unfortunately is in that social media but
138we've got to find a better system that we are helping our teachers and administrators know how to deal with it fairly equitably all the way through uh it's so frustrating at how many times we will hear about a kid that uh had been bullied and finally lost it and he's the one being punished and we got to have systems in place that that kid feels safe to come and talk to us and we can make changes um and I I think that's the same thing with with teachers too is that you know that if they're not feeling safe in their environment we got to have systems to make it safer and so I would throw that aspect in there on Mental Health that I really would love to see as a major Focus the other
139two I think make great sense and I think we can we can break it down to where we know where we're going with it and the whole group everybody knows um yeah so I think those covers mine thanks Kristen yeah thank you guys I think this really does um it brings it to what I had always termed the kiss term keep it simple silly um so you just want to you know and that's what it does oh yeah silly you know other things um but it really does it narrows it down it makes us Focus um I really like this um I do have a few questions um so on the graduation with options piece of it I would love to see if we could engage the students that we had today and the rest
140of this the student the rest of the stack and see what they would love to do for the buckets and how we talk about that because they were chomping at the bit to get to buckets and if we do this we were talking about doing that next year with stack I feel like if we sat down and had one two hour session with them y'all would probably have 90 of your answers right there the work would be done for you so if we could get that before the end of the school year to help it help um you all with that proposal and then bring it to us I think that would that would really be informative for everybody um and then maybe looking for specific student um interest too of those who are who
141are behind the the stat group does not have a lot of the kids they have a lot of the kids who are um very engaged and want to make changes and want to see how that um Can can be put forth and maybe there's some kids that we can access that are in that 9 through 12 who are not at uh where they need to be I mean we can engage them as well um and I don't know if there's a way to do that maybe for credit um but you know like if there's you know if there's a way for it to count towards a uh you know a government class or something to that effect anyway that's that was one thought that I had um question I had was on the completion of
142the career and academics plan what year do they complete that they we monitor it every year because they have actual uh lessons annually that they have to do so we pay attention to it sixth grade seventh grade eighth grade ninth grade all the way through 12th grade um it's completed when they take their exit survey as a 12th grader so which is part of what we talked about tonight but but we pay attention to it each year perfect I just wanted to make sure that it was not one of those that they filled it out in their 12th grade year and went whatever perfect so starting Sixth and all the way through 12th um is there a couple is it okay if I I think we're just rolling for each person so go ahead and
143then Carolyn's next okay so um for the for the mental health um I I love the idea of it I hope it works I know that everybody's struggling to hire and keep mental health professionals so that's that's going to be a struggle for us and I think we have to acknowledge that um but we need to also try as hard as we can to make it happen um what I am curious about is the Healthy Kids Club survey comes out every other year and I don't want to wait Ever every other year to see if we're making progress on that so what's what can we do um when we have the connection survey so we can use that but when you look like you're trying to pay you get an answer for me I'd like
144to speak to it if that's okay Liz just for a minute so we have a few sources it's true like it's they're kind of spread out so we have things that give the student voice teach your voice and parent voice on these things around mental health wellness and belonging and so in there and some of the surveys are offset so not all every year but the connections is that once every year as you know in the fall so that's great the family engagements every other year the tell survey is every other year and the family engagement I already say that one or healthy kids Colorado is every so those three of them are every other one of them's every year so collectively though we get a pretty consistent once a year kind of input from
145a couple different levels if you will you know students themselves families and then teachers I'm kind of where we're at in what levels we can monitor those okay within the connection survey there's a really interesting graph that Liz and her colleagues and I have been talking about that we'll be utilizing that really shows you where which students are kind of showing up low on both the connections and on the social emotional learning competencies and it's a real small subset of our overall set of students which makes that a real interesting group to specifically Monitor and we we know exactly which kids those kids are and we're not limited to waiting once a year for the connection survey because we have staff in our schools and our family Liaisons and all kinds of people so we
146can build some things which we're talking about doing to monitor that in a more formative kind of real-time aspect something we haven't had we haven't done in the past which is a possibility because as this is a priority and it's in the Strategic plan it'll show up in the uip and we're putting quite a bit of funding towards mental health and wellness obviously you know we can do this and then the budget design team the cabinet and the board have supported this type of like research evaluation capability and so this is one of the areas we'll point that capability and utilize it great thank you um I think that will help and I know that the their grant that we'll be getting is going to help a lot in this area as well so I'm
147very excited about that um and then I had one other thing let me see if I can find it now um and that was on the um yes on the on the literacy um question was that I had on that was when you said instructional staff um is that are those certified teachers or is that the parents that are helping the certified teachers as well it would be the instructional paraprofessionals as well so we've been working to build in professional development days into our classified staffs calendar particularly the instructional staff so that they can participate in literacy professional development awesome that's fantastic and I love the idea too of monitoring how the students see themselves that's one of those like again in in library world we refer to that as the mirrors windows and sliding
148glass doors and so I just love the ability to monitor that and see if if the kids are seeing more of themselves and how they can go ahead and go through that so thank you Carolyn so I wanted to just follow up a little bit on what Kristen was talking about about the career and academic plan so kids generally start that in eighth grade is that correct or is that about sixth grade sixth grade okay and then as I visited School I've realized that not all schools are um implementing the current academic plan the same like some schools have a more robust plan for the kids to do their career and academic plan I know that at Wellington Middle School that the kids spend some time every day on that and if I look at
149Lopez Elementary the leader in me really those kids are starting that even earlier right they they're they have a little planner right and they're they're working on that really early so are we thinking about um any kind of basic um ceiling or expectation we have about that career academic for the career and academic plan across all the schools so that it'll be fairly similar so right now Carolyn there is what we what I would say is a floor right what's the what's the expectation for all that's what we're monitoring to for completeness and it's a set of um lessons if you will that are by grade level that have been determined by counselors in conjunction with our career um and Innovation team so and they've done that in as part of the summer work the
150last several years and that's in place right now so when I ask and pull the data that Tanya helps me get that's what it's assessing have they taken a look and are they done with those lessons there are others that go broader that go beyond and you're right right now at Wellington that height those the middle school there is doing much of what our middle schools and other places are doing their their schedule at the high school level is the same as their middle school schedule so they have um that extra skinny period that our big high schools right now don't have so that is something I think the district will have to monitor and pay attention to going forward but that is definitely a master schedule conversation right is to take a look at
151what's the impact of that because master schedule we're more consistent across our our district right now than we've ever been with master schedule but our two new high schools have that skinny that the four bigs have never had so um it's it I think it's that's worth further look at to see how's that impacting things it'll be interesting to see yeah if that works out really well for them if we get better outcomes because of that yeah so I'm interested to see how that'll turn out and then I heard you say we were talking about historically marginalized students we'll have more access to graduation with options so that made me want to ask you what were those barriers and how will those barriers be improved well I I think just in general trying to talk
152about I mean our belief is that when we look at passion driven learning and when we build in flexibility into our um into our options if you are Pathways it may change the the opportunities right we've seen some barriers for students where they've had a support class that hasn't counted for English credit so I'm thinking actually of our ESL students being negatively impacted so so just describe for people a little bit of what that barrier was like and how that might be addressed so for our parents I think that might be listening with kids in the ESL program I think they'd like to know that yeah I I think taking a look at what is what what can count for say English credit which I think is what you're referring to I would also refer
153to conversation it was had in community comment in here about uh taking um what's I can't find it in my head right now ASL yeah so ASL is something we've already had conversations as a district and how can we count that as credit that historically we might not have so I think taking a look at what are those barriers that work is in process right now but I also think um an area like mathematics that this board helped us a few years ago take a look at computer science which has helped some students that might have struggled when they got to Algebra 2 that they were allowed to take a computer science course that might actually help them be more employable than the algebra 2 and that helps with math bucket so those kind of
154opportunities exist also for individuals that might not find their passion area in a traditional core class but might find it in geometry and construction for instance so I think those are opportunities in front of this District I love dad every Everything Scott said was great and I would add to like as we expand which we are working on Career Tech Ed options dual enrollment options you know concurrent enrollment all these options but on top of that we're working on the systems the families the students awareness of those options and and I think the board's aware of some of the work obviously going on down near the mall and stuff in a new center that's going to be opening up and stuff which a big part of that idea is that people become more aware of
155what is available well who's who's currently maybe less aware and who was and has been aware if you think about that and how that intersects with historically marginalized students I think we're talking about expanding those opportunities in that way and then you think about integrated services and IEPs and IEP driven diplomas that's on the table as part of this work as well and that hits a whole nother group that needs some support in that space and that the board is going to get to do some thinking about that so there's a lot to this that's going to address exactly I think what you're asking about go ahead Brian and then if you have more Carolyn after that thank you so I just I really appreciate the conversation I think for those members of the public
156that are listening into this that you may be curious around like the Integrity of our diploma may be wondering are we looking to kind of change the rules in order to just improve graduation rates I want to say in with emphatically know that is not what we are after here I want us to just reclaim that this district has its highest graduation rate in 16 years with their current standards we have not changed one thing I would also say as a point that's outlined in our monitoring report that there's tremendous Integrity of our data in terms of College and Career Readiness when you think about our students who graduate and go on to a two-year or four-year program their average GPA is above a 3.0 and it's been much higher than many of our comparable
157districts so this is about fine-tuning I like what Scott Nielsen shared about passion driven learning this is also about opening access to courses that students are locked out of so that's what this is about I really want to make sure I just want to reiterate that not just to the people here I know you get it but as we continue to engage the public in this particular conversation this is not a shell game and I just wanted to really make make sure that we're clear about that Carolyn did you have anything else you wanted to ask follow up on the icap go ahead um hey I I at last meeting on one of our consent agenda things there was something in in it it talks about uh about the icap completion and I thought it
158was great that you you defined it I thought really well this time that you know it's each grade has their own to complete and I really wonder if that is something you know it's almost on track you know to be able to again with graduation it's an on track thing I really wonder if that is something that we could monitor you know and is it's something that we talk about and and as us tries to help drive it too because I think it is something that is missed out on many missed out with opportunities for these kids and I think if if we also uh shine a light on a little bit more so I just wanted to bring that up because I had this thought last meeting and then when we talked about it
159again I just think it's something that we we are missing out on so just want to share that gmr Jess do you have anything go ahead Jess so I have a few first starter I met are we also planning to use the culturally responsive rubric again as well yes great um we talked a lot about us how students see themselves in monitoring do you have any anticipation on like how they might how we're going to monitor that how we'll get that feedback from them you know probably our best Avenue is for starters possibly through the connection survey so we have different questions about how students are connected to their interest I can see a pathway of a couple of questions within the connection survey that show um you know how students are experiencing their curriculum
160you know noticing about the materials that they have whether it reflects their identities what what might be their level of awareness about the curriculum that's in front of them I think there's also a level of family engagement and family survey that we do have a family engagement survey that it could potentially be a couple of items in that family engagement survey that also that we can gauge whether people are seeing a difference in the materials that their students are are experiencing in the classroom so just sort of a kind of trigger a thought so we heard tonight about a classroom with a student who saw themselves in a book and then the class really supported them now I know that's not quantitative data right but if there's any way to get more of like even
161those stories to be part of that data I know I would like to hear it because it's really feel good um all right so I'm gonna move on uh we're talking a lot about getting teachers professional development and we really want them to do have Fidelity do we have any ideas on how teachers will get support or be able to ask questions between their professional development days so I don't want to get too far out in front but you know we are as we talk to the board at our last meeting we are Contracting or working with rivet education to identify a professional development provider who can assist with that great that and my understanding is part of that provider's work is to provide that job embedded coaching that happens in between those district-led professional
162development sessions or provider-led professional development sessions there's also some on-demand components of the curriculum that are available and in support of one of the other aspects of the plan that the team is developing are different collaborative days for teams so grade level like teams to come together so creating that network of both the indistrict support of your teammates and colleagues across the district as well as to have a professional provider who can provide expertise and On Demand who knows the program more deeply than we do since we're new to it that can give us that instant sort of professional expertise that's great and I know we talked to some about that with the literacy adoption but I I appreciate it um and then I think I should have a couple more questions for mental health
163and belonging I think it kind of piggybacks on what Kirsten said earlier um do we have any idea how many people we will likely be able to hire for those mental health positions go ahead Brian so we have scenarios uh and we but we want and DJ thank you for your question about this too in terms of wanting to get to that level of explicit detail the who the what the where we have scenarios that we've worked on both that so let me slow down this is such an important conversation but I also want to be respectful of the processes that we have in our system whether it's our budget development process whether it's our big circle negotiations process and not put something here that we didn't bring other people along and have shared dialogue
164so that's the reason why you didn't see that level of detail here tonight what I will tell you is the team is taking a very aggressive approach to trying to figure out how do we leverage any new dollars that may be available through the school Finance Act but also recognize that that is not going to come close to meeting the total need so they're aggressively pursuing as many grant opportunities as Liz articulated earlier but we need to acknowledge they're not sustainable over time I mean we're going to continue to go after them aggressively and we believe there's incredible news on the near Horizon about that but it's a both end not an either or because even with the grant funded positions if we were to get them and or any dollars that we put together
165from our general fund it's still not meeting the total need that's outlined in the healthy kids Colorado survey and so I just I know that's sobering but we promise to bring that level of detail back to you as well as through the budget development process in the big circle so we're doing that in partnership with people and not two people so but I appreciate the level of questions and the push it's the right push we just want to make sure we're respectful of those other areas and vehicles okay for sure and I don't think it's just a question of dollars but even just are the people there to be able to hire is more of my question like do we do we feel confident that we will be able to fulfill the positions that we
166have them on need to afford and I don't necessarily know that you have an answer but a curiosity for whenever we do um go ahead I think more to come on that you know having spent the last eight years at the University and working with students who are eager to get into jobs and systems that are um functional and supportive of employees I think PSD would be a competitive place to be and and I've had conversations with students over the years on that so I don't have concerns and I want to be collaborative in our community with our partners on how we strategize that okay I appreciate that thank you what she said and I want I want to build something I want to build off of something that you've actually been incredibly educative to
167our system that you know nine months ago investment in this area I would have brought a level of professional ignorance that was said we just need to add more Mental Health Specialists and yes that's true but this is also about adding more psychologists this is also about more school counselors this is all also about nurses this is also more about other wraparound supports that are identity based so there's a lot of different ways of looking at this and so when we think about the spread and the hybrid approach that the system is thinking about and I promise the big reveal will be coming around how we're thinking it's a it's a lot of those positions where I think we're more able to attain some of them in each of those areas rather than putting all
168of our resources into one particular type of role thank you Carolyn looked like you wanted to add something to this conversation yeah I was going to say that I I toured Longview today and it was a beautiful big building finally we're going to have a mental health facility here in Fort Collins to serve our citizens but they do plan to open a 2024 that's a really big facility they're already hiring right now and so they plan to open in 2024 so about the time they are hiring we will be competing for the same applicants so that's probably something we need to think about but I think you're right Liz a lot of our applicants are looking for a place to work where they can be happy and Phil and be fulfilled and so I think
169that's um like the cachet maybe that we have to offer and so yeah but I think it is going to be a heavy lift hiring iron staff is going to be a heavy lift Jess back to you all right I just have one more overarching question I promise it's not a doozy um and it may not be one you'd answer tonight but maybe at a retreat or something in the future but you guys mentioned that we should be able to see the Strategic plan next year when we're going and visiting schools so I would like to know what we should be looking for to see it because I am not the expert so I'd love for you to tell me whenever you kind of figure that out can we just take a small crack at
170it and just go with each of the areas real quickly you want to kick us out Tracy yeah so with that Fidelity of implementation we will be identifying some really explicit look for so I think it would be beneficial for board members to be able to see that tool of what we as a group of admin will be looking for and coaching and engaging staff were those are the things and practices that we want to be able to see you know the the behaviors of the students how they're engaging with text how they're engaging with one another the level of collaborative conversation that they're having the engagement in written response and tasks that they're doing so those look fors is part of the the development there's some that are embedded in the curriculum but we
171have some that we've developed and have been working on and iterating on for the last year and a half that we would forecast as being part of that what you would see if there is Fidelity of implementation in a classroom is sure then I'm thinking about maybe you would see some mental health trainees in our buildings maybe you would see more of the collaboration we're talking about between thinking about mental health and belonging between counselors and nurses in school psychologists and Mental Health Specialists and integrated Services social workers really you know all working together alongside the rest of our staff and so in really all holding that piece it doesn't mental health and belonging doesn't fall in one area it falls with all of our work in all that we do every single day so
172I think you'll see lots more of that collaboration especially with Community Partnerships and we're excited about next steps with that you know Kristen talked about the resources Fair last night and it was exciting we had so many partners in the space supporting kids and I think we'll see more and more of that with some structures on how to partner together so we're excited about that yeah and I would say if you think back to the the things I talked about as some of the Fidelity monitors for graduated options right it's along the way but I think all the way six through 12 I think you could talk to kids about um what are their interests what are some of their passions do they feel connected to those in the schools that they're in there's learning
173to do just by talking to kids at any point about those now or next year I also think you're probably not gonna well you might see them working on their current academic plan but do they know about it are they aware of it and I would encourage us as we go forward and I won't be here to monitor this but as you go forward I would encourage you to talk about that career and academic plan do they know where they're headed do they know some of their interests I think sometimes we get connected to Zillow as a tool and I would encourage us to have conversations about do they have an idea of their career and academic plan and use that language with them and see if they can go with you on that and
174and have some idea of what it's telling them the other I think is asking about interests and and do they feel like we're connected to their interests they have opportunities to go after that in in our buildings anything else Jess Jim uh first I love the idea of moving safety to the Baseline I think that's something we just need to continue to do an excellent job on and that's that's where that needs to be looking at literacy mental health and graduation requirements another way I was trying to think about this is if I had to throw something off the boat what would it be I think that's a good exercise for us to go through and for me that would probably be number three the the multiple Pathways because I feel like literacy is so
175critical and we've got it well underway we need to do an excellent job on that with our teachers and mental health we're dealing with life and death situations so it's hard for me to split one and two but for me if I had to pitch one it would be three that's it Kristen you had something else and then I have some things yeah it just it just struck me as you were talking um the when do we let our students sorry when we let our students know and their families as well the multitude of options that they have because I think that's part of it too is is you know ever do we do that on the freshman year do we do it in sixth grade do we do it in eighth grade when they're
176thinking about transitioning because I feel like that needs to be a huge part of this as well yeah we we do it right now eighth to ninth grade I think what we've heard through the Strategic plan process is we can get better at that um I think when we talk to the team about updating the graduation requirements they felt like that was critical as we continue to think about what are we doing to tell people about the options to make sure we're telling them about the most current options instead of putting a ton of energy into to telling them about what may go away in a year so that was part of the staging with that being important was that that was that felt like groundwork to allow us to do the other work that
177that we feel like is important I think the other thing and maybe Jim this may help you as well when we as a team were talking about the three that were most important right one of the things we felt like was made the graduation requirements more doable was the group that is actually doing the work tends to be the leaders this one doesn't lean as much on the teachers initially the teachers focus on literacy across K-12 yes we're we're bringing on a new curriculum k-6 rk5 that's a blast from the past k6 K5 but we're talking literacy all the way through the system and that's not going to stop next year just as we think about continue energy there but the graduation requirements we felt like the cross-functional team is is creating the proposal right
178now that that we will present or the district will present to the these two groups in the fall and we felt like that didn't get down to the classroom level and influence that as much as some of the other things we've talked about in graduating with options I did wonder about that and I appreciate you covering it thanks yeah go ahead so I would thank you for the question about how we Market the various options that we have I think whether and as many of you were a part of the community engagement session on that topic you know our data suggests that a lot of people who are moving to our community have older students and they're not just moving when they're in the transition year and so this is really pushing our thinking we're
179getting a lot of feedback around how do we make sure that the options are attainable and accessible from a language standpoint for middle school students to see themselves in and aspire to attain how do we message and over communicate but keep it simple and I think many of you as you responded to a presentation on the various options like we're learning and we're we speak as you speak we're in the system so that's an area that we're targeting around reimagining how we communicate around that in the year ahead a question for that too because can we can we make sure that we're doing that within our various schools as well so um when students are going back and forth between um comprehensive yeah and and um and specialized schools so they understand what their options
180are as well that'd be great thank you yeah go ahead Nate yeah this is kind of a pretty specific thing but at the risk of being deterred in the punch bowl I wanted to bring it up um when we talk about Safety and Security and mental health um I was reminded with I went to the safety Community engagement last Thursday and two Sundays ago Denver Post had a front page article about expulsions in Denver and surrounding Metro districts and I at least for me I think it would be good for us at some point to evaluate our process for expulsions and see whether they're consistent as as consistent as they can be and that are at are at an appropriate level and that we're doing what we should be doing to make sure that our
181schools stay safe so I don't remember if we have a the presentation on this one is that twice a year do we have that in the fall as well we the last several years our presentation has really been focused on what we're doing with our SRO partnership yeah that has been a couple times a year in dinner session is when that's been last year I guess that dinner session's been this year last year was when we did it four times in here so yeah I just didn't know what the appropriate time was and I'm not saying that we should do it uh quickly but it seems to me that we should evaluate whether we're doing what we need to do in that space thanks all right so just quickly following up on you said there
182is also a bill currently in the legislature that would Institute additional procedures and expectations around expulsions and we've shared that with staff to get their feedback and are trying to work with our lawmakers on that but we may hear more about that from our legislature before things are done um so I have three areas two questions in each um starting with literacy I saw that the next the plan is to continue the adoption with 9 10. I'm I guess I'm surprised as a layperson that we wouldn't go next to Middle School so that we can continue the expectation you know the what we've the foundation we've built in K5 so if you could address that question yes my understanding is that the 9th and 10th grade curriculum is more than 20 years old it has
183been by far the most in need of um an adoption for both you know high quality as well as currency of materials and so that's my understanding is why the team elevated that one is to be next in line because it is the most dated adoption that we have currently in our literacy span K-12 well that's certainly Fair do we risk um for lack of a better term backsliding with the middle school then if we set up set all this great foundation in K5 and then they get to Middle School it's a fair question I think what we're resource constrained in terms of our capacity to implement new curriculum everywhere and support it with the same people so that's a that's a challenge there's no doubt that we have curricular challenges at the middle school
184level as well the adoption recency at the middle school level is more recent than the high school piece of Dr guile is absolutely correct why that's jumping up if you remember the data points from the quality review that we did with tntp a point that elevated in a in a good way at the middle school level was the quality and the complexity of the texts at the middle school level is quite sound where we have challenges is on the actual curriculum and the instructional activities in terms of actually building knowledge and having evidence-based questions wrapped into that there's work to make quality improvements the team is already trying to do that in-house I think that's a short-term solution not a long-term solution we will need to have an adoption process at the middle school level
185in short order but I do think that the team is pretty spot on with prioritizing high school and and really taking another look at English teachers I don't want to startle you but like re-analyzing in our adherence to the Canon you know we think about our perspective around identifying and honoring multiple perspectives and multiple identities there are new texts the Canon is not bad it is absolutely educationally appropriate so hear me but it it's not the only set of texts that we should be thinking about especially knowing that as our community and our society continues to diversify itself we need to begin to bring in those various representations not just in characters but also in authors so if that's the intent that's very thanks for that clarification so the second question in the in the
186literacy area you mentioned a couple of ways we can check on Fidelity you'll recall that one of the concerns that I raised when we talked about the literacy adoption was that we ensure that we still have social studies in science and specials and all the other things that we want to have in elementary school will there be um uh monitoring for lack of a better word of fidelity to that expectation as well yes yes for that question we're actually working as an elementary group of Administrators right now on Master scheduling best practices that re-commit to the what did our curriculum say is needed for Fidelity of implementation for what we've adopted in math and science and in social studies and that in collaboration with one another as schools we're building our master's schedule with those
187given parameters from the curriculum and what it names is needed for Fidelity so that we are not it absolutely is one of the parameters and values that we have is to not let go of of science and social studies and math instruction in service of a new Adoption excellent thanks I'm really glad to hear that I appreciate it so moving to the mental health area uh I would just say that I What DJ said about bullying resonates with me a lot um not sure you could maybe slip that under safety or whatever but I think there is a there is really a question of of uh bullying and harassment and those kind of things that is can affect kids for the rest of their lives frankly um and uh so I think what we can
188do to address that anything we can do to address that would be a good thing I will say as I mentioned about the expulsions thing there is as uh you know as I uh uh also possibly some legislation coming in the legislature that's going to try to address the at least the stuff that's associated with harassment and discrimination which is only a subset of bullying but it it uh so yeah look after that I know you giving comments in response to that but anyway so just sort of ditto to what he said about bullying the other question that I wanted to ask uh was I you know as superintendent Kingsley mentioned even if we even if we can hire all these people that that we are hoping to hire and bring in trainees or whatever
189other creative ideas we have to bring people under directly under our umbrella one thing that several of us have asked over time is is there a possibility of partnering with folks in the community to bring some of those resources into the school not to replace what we can do we've already said that we can't possibly meet all the need even if we had the money and the grants and all this and hire everybody we can hire we're still not going to meet and then eat so is there some kind of partnership that allows mental health professionals into the schools either during the day or as a community Hub kind of a thing so that so that students can access uh as many mental health folks as possible so I'd like to see that sort of
190work in its way into this as well if that's possible I don't know whether you want to say anything to address that or just take that as a value statement but entirely up to you no that's great feedback and you know I think we're thinking a lot about you know the edges of our PSD Community linking with our Community Partners and systems and what that looks like and how to operationalize that in a in a way that provides transparency and access and more support for our kids and families so we're excited about some of the things we've been thinking about and talking about and truly with conversations with our Community Partners already so more to come and that's the work of next year so we're excited okay I appreciate that go ahead Brian just to
191build off what Liz is saying maybe we need to as a staff need to go back and re-look at our language because I don't know if it's as explicit as we need to be around the partnership strategy but it's there and I know that you and Carolyn who had an opportunity to attend our state of Our Youth Event you know our providers in both the mental and Behavioral Health space have give me really clear feedback that they want it to be easier to partner and so part of our strategy is building not just a single point of contact but a system around defining what a partnership is and what it means and one of the things that we need to work through is are they paid for services because that may not be a partnership
192right that's that's a service and so thinking about how we look at that has implications on a few different things but the team has put some really good scenarios that we intend on moving forward in the year ahead that will it's going to come in short order but around trying to operationalize just making it easier to come and partner with us I feel really good about the things that are happening well and I'll and I'll just say Obviously we have health clinics in a couple of our schools which which is a which is a model that could maybe be expanded depending on resources and space okay so the last area is sort of the general area that no it's not it's not graduations options sorry Scott no so so I um I gather that focusing
193on these uh specific items under each of the three areas is a is a year one thing and what I think I heard you say Dwayne is that we should expect those things potentially to change as we move into year two and year three as the year one things are accomplished is that correct the key that you just said if and as year when things are accomplished so some of that work obviously like the literacy adoption that's not a year one thing that's going to continue like the support and the training for staff and so on that goes on year after year even as John pasantino and his department is really moving into the ninth tenth realm and all that but what I'm being clear about is there are things in that strategic plan you
194all have seen that are they're not they're not gone and we're being strategic about thinking well which ones do you start onboarding and I just want to say real quick what does onboarding really mean and look like if you think about our three priorities right now of literacy and mental health belonging and graduating with options we've been setting the stage for that work for multiple years quite frankly prior to today right so the system is not shocked by these are our three priorities in our case that we've made over time is really strong about why these are our three priorities and that same type of upfront thinking and work and preparation should go into anything that we're onboarding as like a next piece we might move into the system you kind of start now building
195system awareness and Readiness and capability it's not like all of a sudden we just pull a switch on something so that that onboarding business it's just a comment on those things aren't lost the work our staff did is important in those areas and the community feedback we got that there's stages to Rolling this stuff into in a thoughtful way into a plan that's actually can operationalize and impact the system so that's just a mouthful to say that's what I mean by onboarding basically that's fair and and I want to be clear that I wasn't talking about adding a different priority I was talking about the action plans underneath the priorities and I guess in answer to your question am I comfortable with uh top priorities for implementation next year yes and if those if those
196are the priorities for I mean if those are the action plans for two or three years running underneath those priorities I won't be here to address it except maybe in community comment about three minutes then I would be a little concerned right because there are other very important things that were that were identified by those action teams right that that you know maybe they bow in priority if you will to these three things we've identified but they can't be left for five years from now because as we're talking kids are moving through the system right and so we need to do what we can to address address those within the capacity of the system so I get that balance I'm just you know pushing over here and we'll have pushing over there and we'll get
197to the right middle place I'm sure so and the last thing I wanted to address was this question of expectations um I forget who mentioned it uh that you know what are the expectations that we can recently expect from this you you spoke you all spoke about um metrics that you want to use to monitor the the success of these action plans under these priority areas and I think that's terrific I am so excited to see that the data is going to be monitored I guess the question I have is what should the expectations of this board in the community be with respect to the time frame by which we're going to see meaning meaningful improvements let alone actually meeting all of those all of those targets but what expectations do you think we should
198have in that space I think it's conversational I mean we talked about just you as this a similar question maybe using a little bit different Framing and push me if I'm interpreting the questions as the same and maybe they're different um as you're going in schools I think there's different stakeholder groups that you should be looking for different things right so as you're engaging with students you know are they immersed in our new curriculum and is it a meaningful experience you can see that you can count it you can hear it right that's things that I would invite you to be curious about I think from a teacher perspective it's those same things too but also getting data around how is the support systems working you know have the professional development opportunities been sufficient for
199you to feel like you're able to do this and do it with Integrity what do you need more of what do you need less of those are questions that I think are fair game for us to make quality continuous improvements I think the highest lever though that we all have as system executive leaders in a governance team is to be asking school and District leadership what are the systems to ensure that this work is sustainable so when you think about the various things I'll just use graduation with options as an example you know you can look at whether somebody did an icap or not or you can be asking like what are the systems to make sure people are doing that and who are the people who are not doing it and what are we
200doing about it and what supports can we provide as a system to help that go the more systems level thinking that we can bring into this District the better we will catapult and accelerate this work and it's not it can't be a gotcha and you don't all none of you show up as a gotcha type person in any of these environments I fully you know ask you that you ask that you engage but also realize that leaders are doing things differently that they haven't been asked to do before so as we think about these systems level type questions give Grace as well recognizing this is a new expectation not just for those who are on the ground but those who are leading the effort both at the school and the district level and I think
201us having safe conversations around those things can be quite transformative okay so I agree 100 with everything you just said and I was asking a slightly different question which maybe Dwayne gets yeah yes I think I caught it so I would say this yes to everything superintendent Kingsley just said and I would mention in this room that yeah I am challenged to think about how improvements in any one of these areas would not affect all three of these areas right so if you improve literacy if you improve mental health and wellness you're going to impact graduation rates it's going to be a little bit of a lagging indicator down the road but you are going to impact it and sustainably which is important right the first two literacy and mental health those two are going
202to react a lot faster and they're going to be they're we have data on it we know that they move together actually mental health Wellness belonging and academic outcomes so these three things do move together now if we implement the plan and not if let me reword that when we implement the plan super successfully in 2324 you know and we do our monitoring report which is looking back at 2324 data the following year or yeah it's not it's not going to show up in my opinion opinion and a whole lot of metrics the implementation here I would be surprised I do think that we might start to see some needles move a little bit in the following year like the second year of implementation if we don't see any movement at all in the right
203direction on at least a couple indicators the third year out I'll be I'll be quite frankly surprised that's what I think rob you might be asking is like the timeline of when we start to see these things and what I what I do think we're going to see is it's going to cut across these things we're going to see connections self-reported connections going up we're going to see you know discipline rates going down we're going to see achievement which we measure quite well like at the elementary level in particular on literacy which we're targeting initially so in those early grades K3 especially we'll probably see those metrics start to move I think that's a reasonable expectation it's not the year of implementation maybe something the year or two definitely I would guess by year three
204okay that's that's the that's the that's the flavor I was trying to get at I guess the question becomes that we have this these targets of lit 95 or 90 or 85 depending on what we're talking about is it realistic to expect that we're gonna actually achieve those Targets in four years five years ten years what do we think I say yes I think there's no way yes I say yes because we we didn't set any Targets in the mining report that aren't based in some form of reality right I know they're absolutely they're they're rigorous but they're attainable and we know that existence proof right that we have evidence that if things have existed or occurred in other places so I want to say yes that our targets and keeping in mind we've always
205talked about this as a as a leadership group that the the real importance is not as much the exact target no it's the trend yes right and it's where are we moving are we improving things are things sliding down that is truly the most important as long as we're moving in the right direction wherever you set that Target eventually you would get there and in any way so there you go so we'll monitoring the trends I think is critical go ahead Brad so I did understand your question um and I'm not being defensive but no no no that's fair but I public education since its Inception has been really good at evaluating and monitoring student data and I didn't answer that question in that way because we can continue we're already doing that through the
206monitoring report there are well embedded systems in this District around being data informed around student outcomes this District's theory of action though has to shift to marrying those student outcomes to adult practices the highest leverage that we all have as Leaders is paying attention to the right adult practices and making people feel supported and helped in those particular areas your question is appropriate around when can we expect everybody wants to know that but the only way that we get there is by focusing on the adults and I just share that with you because I think what can get lost in translation is just monitoring the heck of the student piece we've already been doing that right so that's that's the shift that I think is fundamental that I just wanted to explicitly name well I'm
207I'm assuming yeah I appreciate that and I'm assuming that the adult practices will at the very least be monitored monitored in the unified Improvement plan uh in a quantitative way if not also in a qualitative like like what Jess was talking about so I think that's I think it's a both and it's not a it's not an either or and obviously the end result is we want the students to be successful so all right Nate go ahead well I wanted to illustrate what we talked about but also just pulled it up that all of this work that went into getting where we are today very much value it and thank everyone that participated in and the action teams and everyone um it's always been my concern that we don't we we hesitate to overemphasize graduation
208rate rather than trying to educate individuals so that they're solid and they can go out and do what they want to do in the world so the monitoring report and all the indicators are ways that we track that and but I think we want to we want to make sure that all of our systems are in place to try not to lose any student on their way to aging out of our system so just want to point that out well Nate thanks DJ um I I did also want to ask if if you've been able to come up with something that we can name that were were taking off the plate or that we're de-emphasizing we there was a mention for the literacy but I was wondering if if there's something that we can name
209or make our system feel better about that something else is going what I would share is as a step forward if you remember the last iteration of the plan that you saw tonight had about five to seven additional strategies on top of the ones you saw tonight per item yeah so that was our initial step of not adding more increased pressure into the system does it answer of taking away things that are currently potentially in place I think some of those things are in the de-implementation process at the elementary level I think that's going to have different implications in the graduation with options piece as we learn about that I think adding increased mental health supports takes things pressures off the you know shoulders and hearts and minds of current staff and structure so this
210is definitely you know the recalibration and the strengthening of the alignment is not just in response to feedback from you but it's been in response to feedback from system stakeholders who have been saying you know we need to have the systems to do this we're excited we share the vision and want to go in this direction but you know do we have the money to sustain it right do we have the capacity to train on it all at once and and I think it's we have really high expectations of each other so the dialogue that we are having around the push and pull I'm hopeful that through tonight's presentation it's a start it's not the end-all be-all uh but it's definitely in response to people saying let's take some things and simplify and I feel
211really great that the team did a great job on that so I appreciate the question Jim you had something just one final thing I just wanted to be realistic about things we're making a big change to our literacy curriculum my experience with changes sometimes things get worse you don't just automatically start firing on all cylinders right so there could even be a dip here speaking to your question Rob about what should our expectation be I hope not but you know we're making a big change here so so I think we're on the right path I think we're doing all the right things but I think we should be cautiously optimistic okay other comments all right I will just add pardon me add my thanks I hope nobody took my questions as as not uh not
212supporting the work that's done because it's been really good and important work that needs to be done and I I do appreciate the focus that that you all have brought to what we're going to try to do next year what we are going to do like what did you say spectacularly I forget the word but what we're going to do what we're going to do really well next year and you you should look to the board to support you in doing that uh both from a budgetary adoption point of view and any other way we can do that so thank you very much um we will now move to an executive session can I or actually two executive sessions can I have a motion to move us into those go ahead Kristin I move that
213the board enter executive session for the purpose of receiving legal advice on real estate transactions relating to the proposed montava development as authorized by CRS 24-6-402 subsection 4A and for the purpose of developing the strategy at school district for negotiations relating to the 2023-2024 collective bargaining agreement or employment contracts as authorized by CRS 24-6-402 subsection 4e3 individuals invited to join the board and executive session of superintendent Brian Kingsley Chief officers John Jeff Connell Lauren Hooten Dave Montoya Madeleine noblet and Eric Van Savage director of facilities and construction Earl Smith and general counsel Adam Aspen do I have a second looks like Nate has a second there can you get up can we get a vote on that motion please Jill DJ Anderson aye Jim broke it hi Nate Donovan hi Kristen Draper aye Rob Peterson
214aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thank you Jill for those watching still um you should be aware that this is the uh we'll be going into executive session and the only thing that's going to happen afterwards when we come out of executive session is for I'm going to pound this gavelen and uh adjourn the meeting so uh that won't be on television but if you want to come to the room you can thank you very much for joining us seriously we really appreciate it if you stay to listen to these important uh developments in our system uh we will convene an executive session in the superintendent's office at 20 minutes to 10 which is 10 minutes from now so people can do what they need to do