Board of Education Meeting: February 7, 2023

001thank you all right thank you everybody for joining the Board of Education meeting this evening please mute your cell phones as we begin the meeting uh today is uh February 7th the meeting is now called to order at approximately 6 33 P.M uh the first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance so if you'd join me in standing for that I'd appreciate it is thank you very much now uh the next order of businesses would anybody like to amend the agenda the answer is yes okay I can make a motion to move the agenda uh I move that we amend the agenda by removing the executive session 12.2 on cyber security update do I have a second okay is there any discussion okay Jill if you would call a roll call on that please

002I'd appreciate it DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan aye Kristen Draper aye Rob Patterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thanks very much I appreciate that sorry our next item is an exciting one and that's recognitions and reports and I'll turn that over to our superintendent to introduce thank you president Patterson this evening we're excited to recognize five PSD schools for excellence in theater and music leading tonight's celebration is our Chief Information officer Miss Madeline Noble at Madeline welcome thank you superintendent Kingsley director's cabinet and everyone gathered here and watching from home we've got a full house and we are so excited to be able to recognize all of you as superintendent Kingsley said tonight is all about music and theater and we could be not be more excited

003to celebrate all that our students have done in the past few weeks and months with regard to that so we're going to go ahead and kick it off I would like to welcome up my colleague Jason Tyler and we're going to recognize the Fort Collins High School theater group for their thescon main stage selection to perform Chicago so if you all would go ahead and come up line up in front of the screen and then Jason you can speak and then we'll have our superintendent and let's have a director Zamora come down and then after you speak we'll take some photos so we'll walk you through it welcome thanks thank you so much um I'm Jason Tyler I'm the director of theater at Fort Collins High School I've been there 18 years and thankfully tonight

004we have some great students here to represent our production of Chicago so I'm going from my left on down here this is Katie Hicks who's our lighting designer for the show and she's representing like 65 technicians who work Backstage on our production and next there is Aaron Dangerfield who's one of six of our pit musicians who played the entire show for us on stage every single night that we did it including all the way down in Denver and then the next two down the line are Eddie Tyler and Santa Massaro who are a part of our 14 person cast who performed a lot of shows and then on the end here is my wife and our choreographer Amy Tyler um don't judge um who was there with us every step of the way um for

005a show that's really like 75 dance or so so she had a huge role in this one um so just a tiny bit for me about the production We performed to um seven sold out shows in our Black Box in October um in the fall and then we found out we were selected as the only musical in the state of Colorado um to be asked to come down to Denver and perform at the thespian conference and because we knew about that we went ahead and moved the production for one night only into our larger McNeil performing arts space so we did one more sold out production for 700 plus audience members there and then lastly in December these students had a chance to go down to the Belco theater at the Colorado Convention Center and

006perform for 5 000 theater students and teachers from around the state the only again the only musical in the state this year to go down and do that it's the first time any school in PSD has been invited for that so it's a tremendous honor not just for Collins but for the entire District correct and they definitely did everyone very proud professional the whole time did a tremendous show and we're just really thankful that we could be here tonight and just give some of that honor to them for all the work they did so thanks [Applause] congratulations thanks yeah I'm really proud that you represent us so well with all these good people what's one word that would describe your experience that you just described learning experience life-changing impactful impactful energetic our choreographer amazing well

007said yeah you give me goosebumps I'm so proud to represent you yeah congratulations thank you very much that's a touch screen behind us thank you congratulations [Applause] all right thank you all I love that you are staying thank you to celebrate others tonight that's wonderful all right next for the evening we are going to celebrate pooter High School's thespians for their Superior rating for individual events and performance at fezcon and qualifying to present at the international thesbian Festival in June so with that I'd like to welcome my colleague Kathy McKay who will introduce Joel Smith and then welcome the students who are being recognized this evening up at this point as well go ahead and come on up and then if you'd like to come up in front of the screen I believe we have

008Nora Aaron and Shannon I hope I'm getting that right and we'll recognize each of you foreign good evening board president Patterson superintendent Kingsley Board of Ed directors thank you for celebrating these students and our extraordinary program and as well as Joel Smith our director and Carrie Armstrong our costume director just to tell you a little bit about the program and my relationship to it I was not a thespian growing up I knew nothing about theater and Mr Smith has spent the last decade challenging me to see the hidden lessons of theater and what it can teach us and so every year he tells me the new production and I'm always like why can't we just do the Little Mermaid like why and uh he reminds me that theater is meant to broaden our perspectives and

009to challenge our assumptions and to make us laugh and to make us rebel against the things that hold us back and so I have trusted his leadership and he has been right and just as I've thought about the last production of Matilda I was reminded that our world right now is very scary but our students are resilient and they're problem solving and they're hopeful and so again it was a great lesson that theater has taught us just about the world today and our strength in it so without further Ado I'd like to welcome Mr Smith to the podium to introduce our thespians and share a few words [Applause] thank you Miss McKay the international thespian society was established in 1929 to support honor and educate High School theater students in its nearly Hundred Year history

010the societies inducted almost 2.5 million thespians in addition to providing theater students with scholarships performance opportunities and Educational Tools the society sponsors State chapters and annual conferences around the world the Colorado thespian conference is held in Denver every December and offers interactive workshops College auditions performances from Fort Collins High School um does uh design and technical theater skills uh sorry uh master classes led by theater professionals and a chance for students to bring their performance design and technical theater skills to be critiqued and adjudicated by industry Specialists these adjudicators provide students with detailed feedback on their skills and advice on where to go next in their theater development about a dozen students from Peter High School's thespian troop 2808 participated in these adjudications and three of our students received the highest score of Superior and

011qualified to present their work at the international thespian Festival this summer at Indiana University I'd like to recognize these students for their excellence in theater Aaron hayhou for Scenic Design Nora banessa for costume design and Shannon Knudson for costume Construction I would oh that was a shout out to Fort Collins High School you heard about them um uh theater is a collaborative art form so I would be remiss in not acknowledging the work of the PHS staff who helped mentor and prepare these three students for uh the conference Carrie Armstrong who came to pooter almost 20 years ago as a parent volunteer and is now our costume director Miss Carey as the students know her has won the prestigious Bobby G award from the Denver Center for Performing Arts and the educational theater society's volunteer

012of the Year award Laura lindsicky who could not be here tonight herself a pooter theater Alum has returned to us as a chemistry teacher and our theater technical director both of these amazing teachers worked with all of our students to help them get ready for the conference and always do incredible work with our theater students um a couple of if I can beg the board's Indulgence a couple of other notes this summer after over five years of planning PSD will be offering the Barbara Lewis summer musical theater intensive an opportunity for high school students from the entire District to come together for a musical production students will audition for roles on stage Technical and design positions assistant choreographers stage managers costumers and pit Orchestra musicians in a district-wide production of Mamma Mia I know um

013so if there are parents or students in the uh who are here tonight or watching at home information can be found at psdsummermusical.com auditions uh and crew selection are happening in May the show will be at the end of July at Fossil Ridge High School Shameless plug here if you don't want to drive all the way to Fossil Ridge or if you have plans in July Hooter High School just up the hill here is producing clue in about two weeks tickets on sale now at pootertheater.org just just saying um one one last thing um finally uh Coursera the online college class website recently put out their list of fastest growing in-demand skills the workforce will need for 2023. there was a list of Technical and computer skills as you can imagine but they also published

014a top 10 list of what they call human skills this list includes storytelling change management organizational development influencing people management culture collaboration decision making communication and planning interestingly interestingly a high school theater program teaches and practices all 10 of those skills every single day they are skills that students will need to be successful everywhere not just in theater data going back 50 plus years shows that students in theater demonstrate high achievement in all academic subjects score higher on standardized tests graduate at higher rates and successfully transfer these skills to every post-secondary area college major and workplace these are the skills that these three students worked with as they analyze their scripts researched the cultural and historical context of their plays created their designs built their pieces and presented their work and their processes to their

015adjudicators so I'd like to thank the board and the District administration and this whole Community for supporting and seeing the educational value in theater programs across our district and for their continued commitment to Arts education to to human education and PSD thank you come on you're heck of a salesperson ation my daughter still talks about going down there and learning uh thank you congratulations no seriously big step [Applause] all right for this next recognition I'd like to invite my colleague Melissa flail up who will introduce Melissa coyce and celebrate the bolts Middle School chamber orchestra selection at the cmea performance for their ensemble thank you so my name is Melissa flail I am the teaching and learning facilitator for music theater and dance I also have the great privilege to teach halftime at cashley pooter

016Elementary I have a former student in the audience Aaron hey how hi Erin so it's always fun to have those connections and I have also the great pleasure of working with these amazing teachers music teachers also theater teachers who you've heard from tonight Joel and Jason and through dance Melissa we're going to call up soon who teaches dance as well as Orchestra and Amy who was our choreographer for Chicago so it's been really amazing to work with these awesome Professionals in our district so if Melissa and any of her Administration or students would come up cmea the Colorado music educators yes the Colorado music educators Association clinic conference every year has a number of professional development sessions clinicians who visit from around the world around the country and sessions delivered by some of our own

017staff as the board if you'll see in your program we have listed those demonstration groups which we had from Iraqi but the true high honor of being selected to perform at cmea is to be chosen as an honor performing Ensemble it's along the lines of maybe a state championship in sports similar to the Fort Collins High School theater production being chosen as the only musical to perform at the state conference and so these groups send in an audition recording the year before not knowing completely what students they will have the next year and they're chosen to perform and assigned a time in January and then they go and perform and I have to say the Boltz chamber orchestra gave an amazing performance it was an instant Standing Ovation packed house on Saturday morning at the

018end of the conference and so much of that is due to the dedication of Melissa clois who's the orchestra teacher there Melissa cloyce has been in the district for several years maybe 10. I'm on year 10. on year 10. and I was so I was able to meet her right when she came into the district and we've worked together really fondly ever since then so if you would join me in congratulating the Boltz chamber orchestra and Melissa clois thank you I work in sticky notes so apologize for my my pink sticky note but this is how I survive um so I see I saw you I saw you with your sticky notes um I just uh would like to thank the board first of all for um supporting the Arts and supporting music I'm here

019in PSD um if you go to cmea one thing you do need to know is that PSD every single year has a very strong showing and it makes me so proud to be able to be there and um someone told me just they're proud for us it's not I'm proud of you we're just we're so proud of each other and the support that the colleagues give to each other is is really quite outstanding today I brought with me uh Sydney Bronson she's my concert Mr she's our our head violinist in the orchestra so if you wouldn't mind recognizing her and then uh Brady Shockley is here as well and he plays the cello in the orchestra as well so um both of these two students represent 24 total students who performed at cmea and um

020it was a magical experience and so it's I think it's something that they'll remember forever I certainly will um I actually get a little emotional thinking about it even now it was just music is one of those things that's a very Timeless thing and it happens in the moment and you can never recreate that experience and so thank you so much for um supporting us in that endeavor and I also would like to give a shout out to all the music teachers across the district because um this is not something that happens on its own all the elementary school musics teachers who prep these kids before they got to me giving them that strong foundation and those musical skills so that they could carry it on with their love for Strings and um I just

021couldn't be more proud so thank you so much and we were very honored to represent PSD at cmea foreign on behalf of the board I just want to say we do support the Arts and Music and it is amazing to see how many groups uh perform at cmea every year we always appreciate seeing that so thank you [Applause] thank you yes thank you congratulations [Applause] sorry who's next okay so um as was mentioned we have three schools represented as cmea honor performing ensembles the next one is along the lines of the theater production from Fort Collins High being the first from our district to be represented at the state but this is a program that has never had representation at Colorado music Education Association before Jasmine Faulkner at Polaris runs a program with modern band

022and songwriting and one of my former students is with her there so I get to see that too that's always fun but this is um a contemporary type of program that hasn't had representation as a performing Ensemble at the conference in the past and they were really wanting to have that sort of representation and I know that Jasmine took a lot of care in presenting her audition to present something that would be that new and contemporary student voice with her singer-songwriters but that would also fit in the vein of a conference with a lot of performances going on at the same time not a lot of like loud rock music would be very welcome in that setting because it would disturb the other performances and so Jasmine was just brilliant in having six singer-songwriters create

023songs and then also describe their songwriting process as part of the performance and I know that the audience was really touched and moved by just the emotions and the expression that was coming out of these students and some of the amazing things that they were doing so without further Ado let's congratulate Jasmine Faulkner from Polaris um so I'm not Jasmine um that's Jasmine I'm here in a supporting role only but just wanted to again thank the board for supporting arts in our district we have a K-12 program but our elementary is also feed in and send middle schoolers and high schoolers to us with an incredible amount of talent and that is due to all of the music education that they're receiving in their middle elementary and middle schools all the way up and as

024you might imagine it takes a lot of Bravery for six of these high schoolers to be vulnerable and talk about their craft talk about what it takes for them to write music um and really talk about deep personal issues can be very cathartic for teenagers imagine that and so the way that they were able to present this in a professional fashion and also bring the world of modern singer-songwriter music to a conference like this it was an honor for us but it was also really special for those students so Jasmine has some people to thank as well so that was starhiller assistant principle so thank you for coming and talking about it so the students are I wanted to say their names just in case you're watching um Ellen Dougherty Jasper fedic Anniston forkner Thea

025Jurgensen Henry Lima zurier and Cadence terrine and so there were Juniors and seniors and one ninth grader they um they they each perform their original songs and then my ninth grader we were asked to do TalkBack talk back session right afterwards to talk about how I teach it and so I had my ninth grader actually explain how to do it so it was um some of the teachers would come and be like they just say oh yeah I do a little this and a little this and then they play this amazing song and I really loved just kind of taking the walls down of um I'm not a singer-songwriter I think if I had more time maybe I could but but just to realize we don't have to be experts in something to support students

026and their passions and so I think they did a wonderful job of illustrating that and um I'm really excited because like what Melissa said they weren't accustomed to our style and so I'm looking forward to I'm having conversations with cmea to make it more welcoming to modern music like how to set up the room what can we offer um in making sure that they're ready for that sort of thing because in my school I don't know if it's my little bit of theater background I have but my students are running sound they're stage managing they're doing the the music industry part in addition to creating music and Performing and so I want that to be brought into cmea as well and so I'm looking forward to Future years of getting more and more students not

027only at my school but helping other students have a voice at CB um so some of the things that Polaris that we do and that I'm very proud of we have a youth stage trailer and that actually was awarded by the PSD foundation so it was a grant to have a trailer with all the equipment and um that has allowed a um a student-led project where the students put on a show so where we do focal Max we go in Old Town to put on show and then we find Talent around PSD youth talent to perform on the stage and so that's a really cool thing we're also collaborating with Community Partners such as the Matthews House and um let's see what are some other ones blast and scrap cultural enrichment center for black youth

028some of these other programs I feel bad that I can't think of anybody we're gonna uplift Fort Collins there's so many more but we're collaborating together to offer monthly youth open mics and then and it's also a way to to really bring out vocal mix and Old Town stage so so we got a lot of cool things happening for PSD innovating music education and connecting it with the music industry and I wanted to recognize nice groups that have really supported that so music will used to be little kids rock so that was one that really ignited what we do 10 years ago and then Bohemian Foundation has been a big support in this type of funding and professional development as well as the PC foundation and the Kayla foundation so every time Kayla Foundation comes

029around we apply so the mic stands and things like that we use is from the Kayla foundation so thank you so much [Applause] thank you we're not cool enough thank you before I recognize our final school for their cmea performance I do want to take this moment to really thank our school board our superintendent cabinet all of our leadership for your support of the Arts and that's not just financially but that's in showing up at performances we see you there all the time it's in having conversations with us about what the Arts can do for our students you know we have such a great collaboration among all of our performing arts and our different levels of schools Fort Collins High School hosted the pre-cmea concert for these three ensembles and I understand from John Hermanson

030who's the orchestra teacher there that Jason Tyler went above and beyond to get that concert set up and going so another hand for Jason and also a thank you to our amazing Community for passing Mill levies which support the Arts um back from 1996 up until this day we still see that support um for having such a strong tradition of the Arts the summer Musical that Joel Smith mentioned is our re-envisioning of the try-high musicals from the 1980s and the 1990s and I think you can tell and now I'm going to get teary too from these teachers how passionate they are about their students and providing those opportunities and giving whatever they need to give to provide those opportunities so thank you to our community as well and thank you to our teachers and our

031parents and families and so um to introduce this third group is special for me because I'm also a parent in this school district and my child goes to Canard my child is in the band plays the trombone and tonight though we are recognizing the Canard Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leanne Griffey Canard has I think our longest Standing music team in the district so they've been together for a really long time and they have a teacher Scott wheeler who just was recognized for 25 years of service at cmea at their performance they do amazing musical things there I've been lucky enough to see you know the sixth grade band move into the seventh grade different ensembles that are available because they all perform at the same concert and they just grow by Leaps and

032Bounds every single time that I hear them and so that's a huge part of the work of the teachers Leanne come on up and your students and Lindsay if you want to just to speak a little bit about this group this Orchestra was phenomenal just played so many different styles performed works that you really wouldn't expect to hear from in middle school they have a lot of students in music at Canard it's a requirement in sixth and seventh grade and we'd love to see that and then many many of them opt to continue in eighth grade and I think you have that really on evidence in your Ensemble so I'll let them say a few words if they would like to but this will be the last you'll hear from me and so thank you

033again for your support and congratulations to Leanne and Canard thank you as has been well stated this evening we have a long tradition in history it's in pooter school district of support for the Arts and Music and I'm very privileged to have been a product of that as well my parents still live in the home that they chose here in Fort Collins largely because they wanted to ensure that I would have teachers and music such as Michael Schaefer at bolts where I went and then Steve McNeil at Fort Collins high school and I had the privilege of Performing myself at cmea and then at Carnegie Hall and of being part of the try High musical with Barbara lewick and now I have a huge honor and privilege of holding that the same experience and giving

034some of that same joy to my students that could not happen of course without the support of our community and our Administration I want to thank Miss matkin for being here tonight and also for everything our Administration does in everything from developing our master's schedule to support the education of our whole child including music and the Arts from their presence at our performances every time we have a concert to also just their encouraging enthusiasm words to our students in the halls and who better now to say what Orchestra means to them than our students so this is Eric and am I coming up student representatives and tell us a little bit well hello I um I would like to just uh start by saying that we began during the coveted year and I don't think

035that uh it's been stated quite a bit but it hasn't been stated enough how difficult it is to learn an instrument over Google meet it's pretty hard um but the thing is is that through that struggle we have learned how to be a larger community in the orchestra the people that are in Orchestra up to this date all know who each other are and we all uh we're all part of the bigger Orchestra community and uh who we have to think for that is Miss Griffey she uh she works really hard to um be able to apply for different things and it's not just cmea either it's quite a few other things that she has to fill out forms for and um I would like to say thanks and um thank you for your continued

036support of the Orchestra program because I enjoy it quite a bit hi um well as Eric said paperwork is very difficult I don't know how you guys do cursive so well but um it's a flex for sure um but I I have really enjoyed Orchestra as a sense that it's something that I had no idea what it was before I came to Canard I mean my dad singing Ariana Grande is not the same level of music as Orchestra um learn the difference really quick but um I just really appreciate always having a place to go to and no matter where we come from or where we go after that class we all are doing something together and it doesn't matter what happened before or after so I think all of you for making this happen

037because Ariana Grande is great but um Orchestra is pretty pretty cool so thank you thank you congratulations officer she's in charge of communications [Laughter] I went away I forgot something really important purchase program that some of you are looking at was designed by Brad Randall with the support of our Communications team so I really want to recognize them for that they do that for us each year and I think it represents our district really well so huge thank you to them as well foreign well thank you all so much for being here um go ahead if you'd like to you can stay the entire night with us or you can be on your way but thank you for coming we appreciate you all [Applause] I'm just going to wait a minute for folks to leave

038the room so that we don't don't have uh noise while we go on with the next important parts of our meeting all right then um our next set of items are a set of are the first action items for this evening and the first of those is a resolution in support of classified Employee Appreciation Week can I get a motion in support of that Nate I move that the Board of Education support resolution in support of classified Employee Appreciation Week can I have a second Carolyn uh would somebody please read the resolution I think we'll let Jim do it this time Nate if that's okay we got some more for you okay this is a resolution in support of classified Employee Appreciation Week whereas the education of our youth is imperative to our local communities

039to put her school district Colorado and to our nation and whereas pooter school districts classified school employees are an essential piece of our education system and whereas classified school employees are involved in nearly every aspect of Education including maintaining buildings and grounds preparing and serving meals keeping school facilities clean and orderly assisting in the classroom performing and conducting research activities and whereas classified school employees are involved in providing information technology and Media Services administrative support functions Safe Transportation a secure and healthy environment and many other specialized Services where students can learn and grow and whereas by supporting the learning environment classified school employees are crucial Partners in the education system alongside teachers parents administrators and the school board and whereas pooter School District recognizes the role of our classified School Employees and salutes those employees

040for the valuable Services they provide to our district our students and our communities now therefore be it resolved the Pooter School District board of education does hereby support classified employee appreciate appreciation week February 13th to 17th 2023. thank you very much Jim appreciate it and I believe uh Brian we have uh someone here to speak to us about this this evening all right joining us this evening to speak to our classified Employee Appreciation Week is Ace president Joni Baker welcome Joni pretty close on the microphone Madeline thank you felt the same um wow that's hard to follow with all those students that was wonderful what a great recognition but good evening superintendent Kingsley Board of Education and cabinet as superintendent Kingsley said my name is Joni Baker and I am the proud president of our

041associations of classified employees I would like to share a short video with you hi everyone my name is Joni Baker and I'm the president of the association of classified employees and on behalf of myself and our Ace board we're here to thank you for everything you do for our students and staff each and every day all year long you are an amazing group of people and we appreciate you so much thank you [Music] foreign classified staff so excited because I've got a marvelous group of people coming in to help me celebrate our office manager we are collectively as a leadership team incredibly grateful and we know that our schools couldn't do what they do and our departments couldn't do what they do without you we are here to celebrate all of you and all of

042your hard work that you do every single day foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I know that it's classified Employee Appreciation week but I want to just take a second to say thank you not just for all of the things that you've done this week with everything that you do every single day let me be clear I believe that you are the backbone of this District you are the reason why kids come to school every day you are the reason why they are fed each and every day you are the reason that they provide the additional supports they get the additional supports that they have in their classroom we simply couldn't do the hard work that we do and get the results that we get without you show up you're Dependable you're reliable and

043you make us stronger on behalf of this entire District I can't thank you enough for just simply being you you make us better I want to thank pardon me I want to thank Matt and Phil for helping me put together that video we had so much fun I want to tell you right now going around and surprising people and Consuelos loves Ace kept them um so and I also want to thank superintendent Kingsley and director Zamora for being with us through a lot of those it was a lot of fun people really appreciated it so um thank you both for being involved in that um I'm incredibly proud to represent such a diverse group of individuals we have over 1800 strong classified as employees that represent over 223 different job families we have an incredible

044group of Early Childhood employees that make sure our littlest of students are getting the best start to their school experience how fortunate students and parents are to have this opportunity to our front line workers our office staff our office managers our secretaries our registrars our health techs your work is Simply Amazing you support all students and staff and parents in times of need and you also make sure that our students and staff are taken care of every day thank you to our paraprofessionals and our behavioral specialists who work diligently with our students to ensure that they are successful academically and emotionally the encouragement you give them is extraordinary PSD also has an amazing group of family Liaisons are in sign interpreters are translators that help our students and staff and families understand what their students

045needs are to be successful to the I.T and professional development departments that offer continued support not only to our staff but they also offer it to students and to assure that we're that our equipment's all running properly so our students are ready to go for the day and they also offer classes to help us grow as individuals as well to our Child Nutrition staff who make sure that our students are fed a nutritious breakfast and lunch every day so far this year they've served 305 000 breakfasts and 1 million 12 207 lunches and it's only February folks so got a long ways to go yet um and they do this all short staffed to our transportation department who transports daily 816 students which covers ten thousand two hundred and sixty seven miles daily they do

046this and this does not include field trips extracurricular activities or athletic events this is just a day-to-day to school and from home basis um you transport our students safely every day and you do this all understaffed to our custodial Department who covers 4.5 million yes million square feet of building space which means each custodian is responsible for over 30 000 square feet of cleaning every day you work on weekends to assure that our buildings are clean and ready to go on Monday and again we do this understaffed to our operations Department that include our Outdoor Services facilities security you make sure that our locations are properly secured building maintenance and grounds of our buildings are taken care of you have two new middle and high schools that are taken that you have been added to

047your plate to take care of and let's not forget the mountain schools as well thank you your work does not go unnoticed classified where so many different hats in this district and this District would not operate without you I'm amazed each day what an extraordinary group of individuals you are I thank you for your dedication and I am so proud and honored to be part of this incredible group of employees thank you thank you foreign are there any comments or discussion from the board DJ thank you obviously um I have just been amazed at my time of being a parent in this District volunteer and now a board member of all the things that classified entails and you throw that out there and I think you did a great job of listing all so many

048things that touch all these students lives and help the teachers in the administration I really can't thank you enough I I often think of you guys as as the glue that holds everything together so thank you very much other comments from the Jess um so when I was reading this right this resolution the word that stuck out to me was essential we can't we cannot run as a school district without you we often talk about you guys as though schools don't run without you and it's so unbelievably true um but one thing I don't think that's stressed enough is that each and every one of you is another adult that chooses to show up for kids that chooses to serve kids that patiently answers their inquisitive questions and I just want to say thank you

049for choosing to stick with PSD thank you for choosing to stick with kids um we can't do it without you thank you Kristen okay that's a tough act to follow um but I do want to say thank you um to all of our stuff and what what strikes me is as you're talking Jess is how essential this all is we we just celebrated um five different schools who went to go got to go to CMA got to go to Denver to perform got to do um you know eight performances in their own schools that would not have happened without our classified staff there would have been no way to get down there there would have been no way to clean up after those performances there would have been no way to have those performances late

050in the buildings so those things they literally cannot happen without y'all in the building so um it's you know when we say essential we truly mean that it cannot happen without you so thank you other thoughts all right well I I don't feel like I can say more than has already been said by the folks who have said except to say thank you to every one of the 1800 plus classified employees who helped to make the education of our students a success thank you and and with that we have a vote if Jill if you will call the the roll call please DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan aye Christian Draper aye Rob Patterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 [Applause] excellent thank you very much our next action

051item is a resolution in support of Black History Month can I get a motion on this please Kristen I move at the board approve a resolution in support of Black History Month we have a second from Nate would somebody like to read the resolution Kristen will read this one all right resolution of the Pooter School District Board of Education in support of Black History Month whereas Black History Month was first established by Carter G Woodson in 1926 during the second week of February to Encompass the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln on the 12th and Frederick Douglass on the 14th Woodson's mission was to include African-American history in the curriculum where it was misrepresented neglected or even absent due to his advocacy and scholarship Black History Month became a national celebration in 1976 and whereas the 2023

052National theme for the observance as established by the Association for the study of African American life and history is black resistance the asalh states quote black resistance strategies have served as a model for every other social movement in the country thus the Legacy and importance of these actions cannot be understated and whereas the black community faces cultural and systemic barriers to an inclusive and Equitable education pooter school district and its Community Partners strive to close the equity and opportunity gaps for black students and promise to create and uphold Equitable inclusive and rigorous educational opportunities experiences and outcomes and whereas the Pooter School District Board of Education and administration and staff are committed to making pooter School District an equitable and inclusive community for students families and staff who identify as black and we recognize that

053there is more work ahead of us diversity equity and inclusion are fundamental values in pooter school district and we are committed to ensuring that black students families and staff are valued seen and hurt now therefore be it resolved the Pluto School District board of education does hereby proclaim the month of February 2023 as Black History Month in pooter School District we recognize the importance of Black History Month as an opportunity to reflect on our nation's complex history while remaining confident and hopeful about the future the Board of Education encourages students staff and the community to celebrate the Excellence and enriching contributions made from a black community of the past and present thank you very much Kristen I believe we also have some folks here to talk to us about this is that correct yeah I'm

054excited to introduce them to all of you so joining us this evening to speak to Black History Month is Jason Powell one of our incredible teachers and sponsor of cultural arms and black student union from Rocky Mountain High School I want to welcome Jason and I believe you have three students that are joining you today Olivia Shaban and Elijah I want to say welcome to all of you as well we're really glad that you're here foreign thank you everyone and I wanted to say that Elijah come on children Elijah is also starting a job at istone elementary tomorrow so he will be a classified employee of Hooter School District so I think that's pretty cool [Applause] before our speakers go I would just like to say thank you and acknowledge that this year's black history

055theme is Kristen mentioned is black resistance and often in education resistance has negative connotations I would like to shift that thinking and focus on all the ways black resistance has been positive and supportive of equity for all my new black favorite Black History Month quote is Black History isn't separate history this is all of our history this American history and we need to understand that it has such an impact on kids and their values and how they view black people so sharing their experiences and thoughts on Black History Month are Jason Powell Olivia Siobhan and Elijah thank you good evening everyone my name is Jason Powell and I get the pleasure of working at Rocky Mountain High School as the equity diversity inclusion specialist I'm also a social studies teacher and a former soccer coach

056at Fort Collins High School I stand in front of you today as a strong black educator I want to start off by saying thank you for amplifying our voices tonight to me the value of education for black Americans has been evident when education was illegal for black Americans they risked punishment when education was separate but equal they risked punishment when education was integrated they faced hardships our history is our history needs to be included so the students like the group Next to Me will feel able to value that education like those that be that those before them black history is American history from early exploration to Great Migration to mobile Refrigeration black history is American history for Minutemen in 54th from Hell Fighters and red tails to generals to presidencies black history is American history

057from slave hymns and Bluegrass to Jazz Rock and Hip-Hop black history is American history yesterday today tomorrow and forever some say one month I say why not all year so today we commit to we commit to celebrating and uplifting black history in February I would like to take it a step further I would like us all to commit to include black history all year thank you again for amplifying our voice we have the key to change behind us right next to us actually we must listen to those students we want to find we want them we want to listen to them we want to create change for them and we want to create a space of belonging for everyone thank you all [Applause] hi my name is Olivia bird and I am a current senior

058at Rocky Mountain High School I'd also like to say that I'm incredibly appreciative for having the opportunity to speak to you all tonight I am here today as a proud black student to talk to you about the importance of teaching black history and Black History Month especially the black history which talks about the power of African-American people and how they resisted and still resist inhumane treatment the black history which is taught in schools only tells you about the enslaved African-American in Chains or the horrendously incorrect story of how the white man came to our Aid to civilize us and show us how to be a proper person students especially black students need to hear about how African Americans fought back How African Americans resisted the inhumane treatment from those who called themselves Superior we need

059to hear about how our ancestors taught themselves to read or write even if it meant risking their own lives we need to hear most importantly about how we've faced mobs of ignorant white men and women when all we simply wanted was an education like everyone else we need to hear those stories the ones that give us hope and strength that no matter the challenge will be okay and we can face it because the ones who came before us cleared the path black history is about strength resistance pride in most of all the impact of African Americans and how they affected the US not just slavery thank you everybody can can you hi um I'm Siobhan Rwanda and I'm a senior at Rocky today I want to shed some light on the importance of Black History

060Month in a majority white school in town during Black History Month there isn't a lot of diversity in the stories and lessons taught in schools there's barely any in the schools and Community anyway being an outspoken black woman is isolating in the fact that 11 months out of the year my history and culture are capitalized and exploited in the media and school and among my white peers that one month isn't any different except how except now everyone is telling me happy Black History Month and how they never noticed how beautiful my hair is Black History Month is a reminder that our history is deeper than a 28-day celebration it's the backbone of America and bigger than what is rarely taught in classrooms I'm tired of learning about black history only in the negative I'm tired

061of my white peers staring at me during social studies like I'm have like I was on the front lines of the Civil War and I'm having more flashbacks I'm tired of white boys laughing in the corner of the room at the mention of the n-word I'm tired of being the angry black woman because I corrected my teacher I'm tired of having to educate my peers and Educators I'm tired of having to tell people the adults in the room what's wrong with the world and how to fix it why burning books enforces white supremacy why when I walk down the hallway and see an SRO I can feel the Target on my back these exhausting things are why black history month is important because it makes white people marinate in their racism and fake advocacy and

062it reminds them that there wouldn't be a them without us I want more from my peers my teachers my lessons my school and the district I want to learn about how Garrett Morgan invented the traffic light Erica Badu's African head wraps and Cicely Tyson's acting career I want to learn about black love wealth and happiness alongside everything we've overcome and are still fighting for because I'm going to have to do my teacher's job for them I expect to be financially compensated happy Black History Month thank you [Applause] yes [Music] for the record I'm not being forced um hello my name is Elijah Wilson I am a senior at Fort Collins High School and I'm a proud black student to take my stand here on my time real quick um The Learning of black history to

063the fullest and the importance of Black History Month not only within the district but of America I would like to take the time to thank you all for the opportunity to speak here tonight over the 18 years I've had the privilege of Living in America over the last seven years I've had the privilege living Colorado and learning the amazing sculpture that is the Poudre School District in this District I've come to learn a lot of black history and Black History Month well at least a good watered down version of it I've come to learn that the direct acknowledgment of like my people struggle and accomplish long forgotten we're bought forth into the lights of the world but truth be told I learned more about Black History Month from my friends and my history for my

064family but within the school district I learned nothing of the king and queens or the rich men I've learned nothing of the men and women who learned to harness the wind or the history we built all within one race split into an ethnicity let's go into a culture and split into a nation I've learned nothing of all those achievements and everything of Oppression and chains a women sorry and Men forcing subjugation of women work to the Bone for merely nickels and dimes men that were tossed from field to field Factory to factory and titles and names being shipped from the people I'm saddened by the fact that I will never get the chance to grow up being learning the pride of being a black student and a black male but if we were to learn

065about in school and not judge slavery but self-made talents artists revolutionaries The self-taught Pride that I have learned would come years ago and I would love for people to learn how to be unapologetically black and I will learn loved and I only hope that black students and not just black students but all students of all Races colors and backgrounds will grow up and they'll see my my race slowing down as my race as not just a growing struggle but as a people who self-made themselves in a home of diversity and Grace thank you [Applause] are there remarks from the board Kristen I just want to say thank you thank you for speaking your truth and thank you for speaking the truth that that is we still have a lot of work to do we still

066have a lot of work to do in our history in our social studies in our English classes in our art classes in our theater classes in our music classes we still have so much work to do so thank you for shining your light on that and um please keep shining that light because if we are not um taking what you have said here and doing something with it we need we need reminders to keep doing that and it's I not to put that on you but this is something that we have we have said that we would like to do we want to make sure that we are a much more inclusive school district and we want to make sure that we are held accountable for that so thank you so much well spoken Chris

067and DJ thank you for being brave and standing up and speaking um I so wish with you about sharing the beautiful history that is out there and the awesome things that have have happened and I actually I want to give a shout out to Carter Woodson who I didn't know what he brought to doing this and so I I took it upon myself to go and and learn about him and about how he made this possible uh that this is a celebrational month and I think it's it is a great testimony of it doesn't matter what color he was but that he saw a need and he went and he filled it and I and I appreciate you guys bringing that kind of stuff up and I hope that you continue it long after you're

068out of PSD and continue pushing because unfortunately uh Society has moved way too slow for too long and we got to keep pushing so thank you thank you DJ Jess I also want to say thank you for being brave because this is a room full of predominantly all white people and you spoke Your Truth just the same [Applause] I hope that within my lifetime this month is not just a reminder of what we have yet to do but it's a reminder of how far we've come and that's it that we'll be done with this work at some point in my lifetime I know that my education was what are the words misrepresented neglected and even abstinent times and it sounds like yours has been as well and I'm sorry I'm sorry as an adult that

069we have not fixed this for you but I promise you that we will continue to strive to do better and when we don't keep coming and talking to us and telling us how we're doing it wrong thank you so much thank you Jess other remarks go ahead Brian first I want to welcome and say thank you Miss mahaney Delia for being a part of this very important resolution I wasn't aware that you were speaking tonight and uh honoring you as a part of this incredible school system I'm really grateful for your presence here tonight you know earlier tonight prior to this particular resolution we heard a teacher talk about music in the Arts and the power of those two things to help broaden our perspectives and challenge our assumptions and what I think we're witnessing

070in real time is it's not just music and the Arts that do those things it's the voices of our students who are living the systems that they experience across our school district each and every day whether it's Olivia Shaban or Elijah I can't thank you enough for your voice your bravery your courage your candor Siobhan I heard you clearly when you said I want more for you deserve more I want to say thank you to Elijah for talking about learning more about oppression than the Brilliance of your community we have work to do these can't these asks and charges of us cannot fall on deaf ears they must result in Collective action of our team to build curricular experiences that you see yourself that you experience joy and wisdom and Brilliance and not just for

07128 days but all year long so I appreciate you challenging us respectfully professionally I'm eager to get to work so thank you other remarks no I will add my thanks for your candid remarks to the board I really appreciate that it helps to educate us it's sort of sad that we need to be educated in that way but there's truth to that and and we appreciate you sharing that with us thank you Jill if you would call a vote on the resolution DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan all right Kristen Draper aye Rob Henderson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 excellent thank you Jill foreign our next action item is a resolution in support of Career and Technical Education Month can I get a motion on this Kristen I

072move that the board approve of resolution and supportive Career and Technical education month do we have a second Jim would somebody like to read the resolution Nate would like to read it resolution of the Pooter School District Board of Education in support of Career and Technical Education Month whereas February 1st 28 2023 has been designated Career and Technical Education Month of the association for Career and Technical education and whereas Career and Technical education are CTE has a proven record of delivering applied technical skills and academic knowledge that directly connect to career and college readiness and whereas CTE partners with local community businesses for work-based learning opportunities including job shadowing student internships and apprenticeships that are integral to the successful skilled building and Workforce preparation of both secondary and post-secondary Career and Technical education or CTE

073program students and whereas certain industry sectors in the United States including Health Care Advanced manufacturing and information technology face challenges in finding properly skilled workers to fill open positions and whereas Career and Technical education prepares students for these and other fulfilling careers by operating offering integrated programs linking secondary and post-secondary education and support the attainment of Industry recognized credentials and whereas ensuring that employers have access to a qualified Workforce is a crucial step in ensuring productivity among business and industry communities as well as continued American economic growth and Global competitiveness now therefore be it resolved that we pooter School District Board of Education support Career and Technical Education Month and salute the efforts and successes of our students our community and our teachers thank you very much Nate and again I believe we have someone

074here to speak to us about this right yes joining us this evening to speak to Career and Technical Education Month is our District's director of career and Innovation Ms Tanya alcaraz welcome Tanya I think you have some guests that are with you yes I think I have uh Michael quijano our director of Transportation Jackie Caden and Nick uh Jackie is from newark's plumbing and Kaden and Nick are several of our students is that accurate all right wonderful welcome to all of you thank you superintendent Kingsley and the Board of Education I'm honored to represent over 130 Middle School and High School CTE teachers in recognition of CTE month this February in pooter School District we have 17 CTE Pathways that are aligned to our industry needs post-secondary partners and some of our newest Pathways include

075the expansion of Health Care manufacturing construction and cyber security tonight we have students and our industry Partners here joining us to highlight most specifically the apprenticeship model apprenticeships are a learn and earn model that allows students and Industry Partners to create CTE Pathways that are customized to the student and the employer these seniors spend half of their day at school and the other half of their day in their apprenticeship earning high school and college credit all while being paid our amazing industry Partners walk alongside us as Educators they ensure that these apprenticeship students not only graduate but graduate with options so first I'd like to introduce Kaden knable he's a senior at pooter high school and he is currently in a plumbing apprenticeship at new works and then Jackie lauscher is here representing new works

076to share her perspective as the employer I hate it hi well I'm Cayden I work for new works and at school I am through the work based learning program um through CTE and that's allowed me to go work and get money and credits and all that you know and that's allowed me to graduate early I've been able to graduate a semester early because of that and that's allowed me to start my 40 or I'm working 40 hour weeks now I have been for the past two weeks or whatever and I've got a future in this you know and I've been working with new works for more than a year and a half and I love everything I do and it's it's a great great pathway [Applause] and good evening I'm Jackie with newark's mechanical um

077Kaden has been with us and he has been just a great example of what the CTE staff does for our community it is statistically proven or not proven but it is a stat that for every five people in the construction industry that are retiring there's only one in train and that is that's a big concern you know we kind of the construction industry to build our communities to build our schools to build the foundation that we all call home and with working with the CTE coordinators they've really rallied around the students and the businesses to create that pathway to let students like Kaden have an opportunity to grow and succeed I want to give a shout out to Robert he has a great example as well he had a student four years ago four years

078ago who was really failing he didn't have much of a hopeful outcome and he got him in touch with us and he gave us a resume that was almost ineligible and we were like we'll give it a shot we'll see what happens and he has DeAndre who is who I'm talking about he has joined us he started at you know fifteen dollars an hour not knowing how to read a tape measure and now he has his own office he's a company vehicle he's our Bim manager and he is really he makes almost as much as I do like he he um he is really just proven how incredibly important the CTE world is to our not only our students but our entire community and so I could not be more proud to work with all

079of you guys and you know they set up all the tours to come to New works and other industry partners and they put in a lot of work to make sure these students succeed and I think it's a really incredible opportunity and program um yeah thank you guys yeah [Applause] sorry hold on I forgot to say one thing about Kaden um Kaden also like a when he started it was very very green and was it just this week he has installed water piping all by himself in two units in the apartment building that we're building in the north side of town no leaks and 100 percent 100 on his own so it's pretty amazing hi everybody I'm Tyler I'm Caden's father and um uh the work based learning program at pooter High School is a

080I wasn't really sure what he was getting into when he first came home and told me he was going to apply new works and I guess when he was a was a freshman he had gone on a field trip and learned how to solder and he told me about that I'm like hey that's great you know and you know he didn't really show much of an interest in or hasn't shown much of an interest in you know higher education and going to college or anything and you know as a parent kind of you know worries me a little bit or did um until he got involved with this program and now I'm you know pretty confident that he's got a he's going to graduate and he's got you know a good profession out in her

081in front of him and you know Wendy Thomas he's been you know rock solid as far as communication and you know keeping me confident and Kayden his confidence up and I gotta thank you guys new works for providing him the opportunity and you know I couldn't be more happy about it and actually I also wanted to point out we were picking up a car that he had to have some work on there are three other individuals in there and we were just chatting about it and each one of them had an apprentice working in their their different businesses and one guy even said I'd pay him 30 an hour but don't tell him that you know is that that's how good of a job it was and they were all of them you know had

082the same thing to say about you know everyone retiring and there's nobody to fill these spots and how important it was so it makes sense to me that they would go out there and you know pursue these young people and give them this opportunity I think it's you know it's excellent so thanks thank you and truly thank you to new works um Jackie has been a partner for over 10 years and her dedication to this program and being a champion for high school students and believing in themselves has been invaluable so thank you next I would like to introduce Nick shouts he's a senior at Rocky Mountain High School and pooter school district is one of the largest employers in in Northern Colorado and we have the opportunity not only to educate but also to

083employ and um Michael Keanu our director of Transportation stepped up and he was the first leader on the operations side of the house to say let's explore this let's see how we can get high school students into this apprenticeship model in pooter School District so I'd like to introduce Nick to come up and share about his experience as an automotive tech in pooter School District hi my name is Nick chance and I'm a senior at Rocky this year I first saw the apprenticeship program through the uh they called it the Throwback Thursdays it's this uh presentation they gave every other Thursday where they talk about college tours or career options and basically PSD was just offering a student to come and work on the school buses and all the district Vehicles I've been interested in

084cars my entire life and they just make sense to me so I applied and I got it and it's been one of the greatest learning experiences I've had in my life I have learned things that I never would have imagined how they work I work with some great people I have an amazing time every day I come to work um I work on the screen me how uh I guess an adult job would work um and so I'm really grateful for the opportunity and everything so [Applause] good evening um my name is Michael Keanu I'm the director of transportation and although he kind of undershadowed a lot of what was going on he was there's two things about Nick he's both professional and reliable and he's been a total asset in our shop Nick was

085one of seven applicants in a very competitive program to get in but his uh HIS Automotive knowledge and just his overall friendliness and and the way he held himself is why he was selected uh his the his receives a lot of on-the-job training from our we have uh four mechanics in the shop they're all uh season mechanics and he gets a lot of care um and uh Nick enjoys it a lot um it is a full-time it is a a job that gets paid he works four hours a day and he comes in after he finishes his schoolwork and he works until about 5 30. um our plans for him is right now he's doing once he Masters light duty which is what he was talking a lot of the White Fleet we're going to

086move him into the heavy duty which will be the school buses uh we're waiting on that a little bit because he needs to get his CDL to be able to move the buses around in the in the yard so uh that's one of his next big steps is he'll be getting his CDL license and we'll put him through a class and get them certified um the pro the program is is is great it's it's he's he's a great asset in the shop and like you said I hope at the end of this that there'll be a job for him and he'll stay with the district I think it's just so important for us to grow these in-house uh texts um right now they're just not out there they're not they're they're retiring they're not coming

087back all over the Front Range they're we're just short mechanics I even have a position that's been open for a year and we just can't get them in so I look forward to this program continuing and try to grow our own students inside to be a be employees for the district so thank you thank you and in closing I just want to recognize our work based learning coordinators who are the glue in connecting our businesses with our students so Robert Pat from Rocky Mountain and Wendy tomeshaw from pooter high school thank you thank you all very much are there remarks from the board DJ I want to thank our partners for stepping up and giving us the opportunity to help fill those spots I I'm a big fan of Hands-On learning and so it's so

088exciting that you guys have had that opportunity um thank you for coming and sharing your stories with us and helping talk about it and spread the word hopefully we can get even more Partners throughout our community to step up and you guys can help be our leaders to talk that up so thank you so much uh Kaden and Nick Kaden and I hope your team gets a quarterback and a coach soon so other than that good luck with the rest of the plumbing thanks other remarks from the board go ahead Carolyn and also I wanted to thank you Katie and Nick and for coming and telling us your story ever since um I was elected to the board I've been interested in seeing CTE expand and having you come here tonight and tell your stories

089and realizing that this that our wish or our desire for you guys to have access to to CTE is finally really becoming a reality is just so heartwarming I I just enjoyed both of your stories I appreciate our partners and I think Ryan we need more apprenticeships don't we yes we do we need more apprenticeships and so and then Tyler thank you for sharing your experience as a parent that meant a lot to me my son also uh when he left Hooter he also went on to become an auto mechanic and I myself have come out of the trades I am I'm so proud because uh you guys really are just like um going to be the backbone of our Community you really are going to be the ones like you talked about Tanya being

090the backbones of our community about building it for us so I really appreciate all the work you've done and also I want to thank you Kathy for all of your work around CTE over the years I really appreciate that too other comments Kristen yeah I just want to thank all the partners for working together with PSD and Kaden and Nick I think one of the things that I admired so much about what you were saying you spoke with such confidence and you had such a very specific um like Kayden you said I have a future in this and and Nick you said this makes sense to me like that that there that we can go ahead and um you know get you lined up with what you see as this is what I'm meant to

091do is fantastic and it just I can see the confidence that all these people around you have have given you and so thank you for that um and thank you for using that in our community any other comments go ahead Brian I just want to say thank you uh you know having a moment where we have a parent showing gratitude for the opportunities that are being provided to their children on top of work based coordinators who are working with local businesses to try to be creative around the opportunities that our young people can have and will have in our district to give them not just human skills that were discussed earlier but I heard you be described as professional reliable you are advocates for yourselves and for this district and for this community in really

092instrumental ways and to know that you're maybe the one who's helping make sure our plows are up and running uh that that's just incredible to me to kind of put a face with some of the work and the opportunity so I'm just really really proud of all of you the partnership uh thank you I look forward to continue to continuing to partner with you to figure out ways to expand these opportunities for other people excellent and I'll just add my congratulations to the students for taking advantage of these opportunities and and figuring out your future and thank you to the adults both inside and outside the district for making these opportunities possible so thank you all very much and with that Jill if you would call a roll call DJ Anderson aye aye Kristen Draper

093aye Rob Pederson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thank you very much Jill all right we have one more resolution uh picture of the group and then the first students that go to the Black History Month can you stand yeah foreign [Music] I'll find it foreign [Applause] all right so now we have our last resolution of the evening and this is a resolution in support of the National School counseling week can I get a motion on that Kristen I moved at the board approve a resolution in support of National School counseling week February 6th through 10th 2023. and do I have a second looks like DJ all right who would like to read the resolution Jazz will read it whereas school counselors are employed in public and private schools to help

094students reach their full potential and whereas school counselors are actively committed to helping students explore their abilities strengths interests and talents as these traits relate to Career awareness and development and whereas school counselors help parents focus on ways to further the educational personal and social growth of their children and whereas school counselors work with teachers and other Educators to help students explore their potential and set realistic goals for themselves and whereas school counselors seek to identify and utilize Community Resources that can enhance and complement comprehensive School counseling programs and help students become productive members of society and whereas School counseling programs are considered an integral part of the educational process which are culturally responsive trauma-informed and equity-based and enables all students to achieve success in school now therefore be it resolved we that we the

095Pooter School District Board of Education hereby supports National School counseling week February 6-10 2023 thank you Jess and and once again we have some folks here to speak to us about this Brian yes thank you joining us this evening to speak about National School counseling week is director of student services Liz Davis and I believe joining Liz is Beth green our counselor coordinator Nicole Alvarado one of our school counselors from Fossil Ridge High School who's also joined by Sophia who I believe is also a student at Fossil Ridge High School welcome to all of you thank you for being here thank you board superintendent Kingsley and cabinet for your support in honoring school counselors during National School counseling week special thank you to Marlena gross Taylor for attending some of our past meetings this semester

096we appreciate your acknowledgment of an advocacy for our work so our school counselors are an integral part of the educational system here at PSD and have a significant impact on the lives of students and Families Jill cook the American school counselor Association executive director says okay hello here we are school counselors work with all students to remove barriers to learning by addressing students academic concerns career options and social emotional skills further she says School counseling programs help to increase student achievement and provide a much needed resource for students parents teachers and administrators school counselors are an integral part of Student Success as a school counselor myself I often say it's the best job in the world counselors meet students where they are in the highs and the lows across all the tiers and support academic

097social emotional and College and Career readiness we are celebrating school counselor week this this week by thanking our school counselors for all their hard work and giving them a high five naming five ways that they've supported and impacted students so this is for Nicole and I'm beyond proud to work with such amazing counselor colleagues and I want to invite Nicole and her student Sophia to come and share [Applause] good evening thank you for having us um so the theme of this year's National school counselor week is helping students dream big and when I reflect on our profession the joy for many school counselors is seeing the growth within our students and as a high school counselor my colleagues and I are fortunate to see our students transform throughout their teenage years and in a couple

098of short months we will watch our seniors walk across that graduation stage and we work with these young people to help them see a future unique to their passions interests and goals so that they can go on to live in our changing world the sweetest reward for any K-12 counselor is to know our students will Thrive long after that tassel has moved from one side to the other so thank you for honoring our profession and the work that we do each and every day to help students dream big and now one of my favorite seniors is Sophia hi my name is Sophia carmosino I am a senior at Fossil Ridge High School and thinking back I've been at PSD since I've been in kindergarten and thinking back on my education I think there's a lot

099more value to our education beyond what we learn in classrooms and I think a lot of that comes from staff like counselors and especially Miss Alvarado whether it be a support system or an adult to advocate for me in the building or someone to provide me opportunities I could not be more grateful to have someone like Miss Alvarado on my team whether it's me freaking out because I accidentally opted out of the SAT the night before and I realized I didn't get a classroom assignment or her continued support and my dreams and providing me with opportunities that I can truly enrich myself beyond the classroom I think that part of what I think will be the key to my success is staff members like her so I just want to say thank you to her

100and thank you for all of the opportunities that counselors have given me at PSD over my years and I will forever be grateful thank you foreign s in honor of School counseling month week month all year first new thank you so much and Nicole thank you and back thank you for leading our counselors yes and if you see a school counselor this week make sure to give them a high five and tell them how much you appreciate them so with that one more high five for each of you yay and thanks for all you do [Applause] thank you all very much we'll get a picture after we do the vote it does does anybody want to say something looks like Jess wants to say something I really I don't even know where to start though

101because I honestly when I was looking at this resolution I'm like what don't you guys do you're at every stage of the education you're at every good thing bad thing hard neutral at the beginning at the end like you're at there at every moment of a kid's life and so I have nothing other than to say thank you for what you do thank you for all the things I don't even know that you do just thank you for for continuing to put kids first well spoken Jess any other remarks Kristen in the words of Nate ditto all right thank you all very much really appreciate uh the work that the counselors do and how you've represented that work here tonight thank you very much with that Jill would you call a roll call on this

102resolution DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan hi Kristin Draper aye Rob Pederson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thank you and now I believe it's picture time foreign [Laughter] thank you [Music] [Laughter] [Music] foreign thank you and that concludes the first part of our action items so now we are on to the item uh superintendent report and we invite superintendent Kingsley to make remarks to the board of education and to the community thank you uh on the heels of those incredible acknowledgments I'll try to be brief you know I'm reminded it just experiencing that type of Celebration acknowledgment uncomfortable truth telling at times reminds me of the mural that's painted up at Peter high school that I think that says Ubuntu that stands for I am who I am

103because we are and I'm centered on that because I think all of the different things that happen don't happen by accident they happen because people come together we challenge each other we push each other we lift each other up we cry together we celebrate each other and to see that holistic experience is nothing sort of incredible I had a similar experience with Jess and about five thousand fourth and fifth graders last week at Colorado State University in celebration of their education day in partnership with the Thompson School District they brought just about every fourth and fifth grader in town to a women's basketball game and it was electrifying you know taking the experiences of a university for many of those students is the first time that they stepped foot on a University campus the energy

104that was in that gymnasium in Moby Arena that night uh or that day I still feel it I'm actually still taking a leave every day as a result of the headache I that was created but to see those young female athletes stand up and have a great win but also stay after sign autographs for the students to think about the various teachers the principals who supervised and helped make that possible the incredible bus drivers who coordinate an incredible effort strategically in the middle of their routes in the middle of the day to make sure that that was even possible for our young people I mean that's what this district is about that's everybody coming together and you think about whether it's our school counselors It's Our classified staff it's recognizing not just our black students

105and black staff but the work that we may need to do that we not made that we do need to do in other cultures and other identities to support other students to think about the work that we're doing in Workforce Development I'm really encouraged and proud of the things that we're doing as well as the courage to challenge each other each other in this system to continue to be better that happened last week as well in our second convening of the state of our youth as we continue to listen to our students they want more they're being Unapologetic in terms of their ask for more support more services more opportunities to learn and see curricular experiences that they can see themselves in and I'm really really proud of the community-wide effort that had convened over

106two weeks in support of improving behavioral and mental health of our students it's going to take a community-wide effort to continue to see those improvements we have work to do but I'm encouraged by how many people showed up and had that really really great ideas and I look forward to keeping the board in the community engaged and energized around next steps moving forward our community has said to us over and over again they want opportunity for dialogue and I was also grateful in partnership with our district centered on our new strategic plan to have a thoughtful conversation earlier it was like late last week I think uh it's Tuesday all these days running together at Fossil Ridge High School where we had about 30 or 40 members of our community staff and parents and students

107all wanting to learn and know more about what do we mean when we say graduate with options and it was so fascinating to see so many of our families new families to our community who just moved and some of them from other countries who came into our system and are really proud to be a part of this school district but they pushed Us in saying you know you offer so many incredible opportunities it's incredible the number of opportunities the plethora and the sheer depth of opportunities that we offer our young people are incredibly significant but they pushed us to say hey can we make it easy to understand where our sixth graders can see themselves in it and know what that means and know how to achieve it know how to access it they also

108push this to say you know not every one of our students that are in ninth grade we're a part of our school system in eighth grade and so while we may be strategically targeting certain students and transition years fifth grade and the sixth grade eighth grade in the ninth grade realize that there's transient members of our community that are coming and going and we need to welcome them and equip them with the information for them to make more informed decisions on behalf of their young people and I was really grateful for that conversation and the healthy push in terms of how we can become better as a school district and I look forward to many of those opportunities to continue to happen if you happen if you're a member of our community or interested in

109getting plugged in uh to our next one please check out our district website we have two future Community engagement sessions on the near Horizon and we want to make sure people who want to be a part of that dialogue have an opportunity to do so that concludes my remarks tonight thank you okay thanks very much Brian appreciate that our next segment is community comment I want to remind us all for our hopes for this section of the agenda the board desires to hear the view viewpoints of all stakeholders including students employees parents and Guardians and community members input that is most helpful to the board of education and District staff is that which identifies a problem and proposes a solution for us to consider that ultimately improves the educational or social emotional experiences of our

110students public comment is designed to address issues not personalities or Personnel matters please keep your concerns and comments focused upon the district and we ask that you'd not directly call out an individual whether a student parent Guardian staff member or Community member it is important to note that the board does not generally respond to remarks made during Community comment our lack of response should not be construed to mean that we agree or disagree with what is said or with the description or interpretation of events as presented by any speaker although we may disagree on some things I know that we all want the best educational experience for the students as we participate together in this community comment session we should model for our students how to listen how to interact respectfully with each other even

111when we disagree and generally how to show up each day we ask that the attendees not interject or interrupt Community commenters or any presenters or board discussions if you have questions you may follow up with the staff or the board individually either after the board meeting or via phone or email in the board and staff strive to respond to questions in a timely manner with that I'll 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 on to make remarks in the order that they signed up each speaker will be allowed three minutes to address the board this evening and our first speaker is Jim weinbrenner welcome thank you it's nice to hear all the wonderful things going

112on in the district tonight and the wonderful people making it happen but there's an issue that's ongoing that I don't want to let feed into the background Mr Peterson I think back to the contentious board meeting on May 24th 222 where many parents objected to the sexualization of our students you promised back and forth dialogue specific to that evening here's your promise edit it for clarity for those watching for the first time if anyone just wishes to confirm this promise it starts at the two hour and 11 minute Mark of the board meeting from May 24th on YouTube for the record I have added clarifying text from your November 29th board meeting Mr prompt Peterson your promise from May 24th we are going to go forward with Community engagement activities you can be assured that

113there will be opportunities for us to have the kinds of dialogues that folks were talking about this evening dialogue about the startling lgbtq issues developing in Pluto schools dialogue about our 8 000 students who now identify as queer and non-binary dialogue about the terrifying Revelation that five thousands of our students are thinking about hurting themselves or contemplating suicide this will be a back and forth dialogue about these difficult issues and how we're approaching them so we look forward to those engagement sessions that was your promise eight months ago we haven't had those engagement sessions yet Mr Anderson I was surprised at the May 24th meeting that same meeting when you called out parents who passionately spoke up spoke out that evening do you remember your quote I hope these people that have spoken earlier this

114evening are honest and want to have those conversations because that's the only way we're going to move forward Mr Anderson Mr Anderson I challenge you to look in a mirror and answer that same question for yourself are you honest and do you want to have these conversations because that's the only way we're going to move forward thank you our next speaker is Fred Kirsch not here okay then our final speaker for this evening is Danny Lawrence welcome okay tonight I'm here as a concerned mother and stakeholder in the district I'm here to request of this board that you make 2023 the year that the school district does something substantial about its bullying prevention and harassment policies in June of last year we made a complaint to the HR deposit Department of PSD about the violation

115of policy gbedb by District staff at Blevins that internal investigation found no policy violation but 48 hours later the Colorado Department of Education disagreed and found in fact that the staff had violated federal law and which was a violation of the policy in December when we used the incident reporting system of see something say something to report what we still feel was harassment and bullying at the hands of a district employee PSD dismissed the report lying intentionally on the record about the investigation that never happened in a review of the two District policies regarding harassment and bullying both were violated in our situation because our student had an IEP and in accordance with PSC policies it was the responsibility of the district to determine if that allegation involved a denial of fape there is a

116bare minimum provable denial of at least 300 IEP service minutes because of this teacher and these incidents at PSD that are being refused to be investigated at this point in time which violates both jbb and jidc policies and federal law disturbingly the policy for bullying hasn't been reviewed in seven long years both policies assure a thorough and prompt investigation which was denied to our son all indications are that PSD cannot be entrusted with the responsibility of policing itself so I'm asking this board to please add both policies jbb and jidce to the agenda for public input and District Revision in 2000 since 2018 according to CDE PSD is collected over a half a million dollars toward bullying prevention efforts that have been implemented in just a handful of schools and no high schools have made

117that list of those Grant funds in our situation the school principal refused to investigate the claim saying it was the integrated Services Department responsibility while is felt that it was Rocky School site's responsibility and neither have investigated but have determined the incident is now resolved site-based policies that violate District policies expose parents to the unfair practice of enforcing your responsibilities which increases the likelihood of retaliation neither policy adequately addresses that employees can sometimes be the perpetrator this board has an obligation to protect children not just the staff who work here and the number one most important element to changing School culture is to support the mental health of children and give them an equitable voice especially when it involves their day-to-day safety if the see something sees something Reporting System doesn't work which was our

118experience then this board has an immediate responsibility to address that for all students the best way that the district to for it to address is Mental Health crisis is first to create safe schools and with all due respect we can't do that without a working monitoring system thank you thank you that concludes Community comment for this evening next on the agenda is board reports and remarks uh is anybody from the board have something they want to report on I will just take this opportunity to reinforce the remarks that uh one of the comments sorry that Brian made earlier that we have two Community engagement sessions coming up one on mental health and belonging which will be on March 2nd from 5 30 to 7 30 at Boltz middle school and another one on school safety

119which will be on April 13th from 5 30 to 7 30 at Fort Collins High School both of these we ask that you sign up for and the links to sign up for them are in the uh or on the website and we look forward to a good back and forth conversation at those uh at those meetings other comments from the board it looks like not in which case we will go to our second set of Acts oh no consent agenda sorry we'll get to the other action items in a minute uh the consent agenda would any board members like to pull anything from the consent agenda Nate yes I would like to remove the comprehensive 9.4 the comprehensive assessment of District facility needs from the consent agenda all right so removed we will add

120that as an action item uh 10 Dot uh sorry 10.2 yes 10.2 thank you Kristen uh any other things wish to be removed all right with that can I get a motion with respect to the remaining items Nate I move that the board approve and adopt the recommended actions for the items remaining on the consent agenda excellent can I get a second uh well I had lots of seconds so we'll go with DJ this time looks like it was first by a nose Jill would you please call a roll call on this aye paper aye Rob Pederson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 thank you so much Jill now we are on to our second Now set of action items the first one is a monitoring policy review of uh executive

121limitation 2.4 Financial Planning and budgeting can I get a motion with respect to this Nate I move that the board determined that the superintendent has not reasonably interpreted no I'm just kidding I I moved that the board determined that the superintendent has reasonably interpreted Board of Education policy El 2.4 and the internal monitoring report dated February 7 2023 and that the evidence presented supports the superintendent's conclusions stated in the internal monitoring report does anybody want a second the second thing that Nate said Jim does you're such a such a joke such a joker Nate all right so did anybody uh would like to discuss this uh uh executive limitation and the superintendent's Report with respect to it it looks like not and so therefore we will call a vote with respect to the motion DJ

122Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Nate Donovan aye Christian Draper aye Rob Patterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora hi motion passes 7-0 excellent again thank you Jill and now we're on to our new 10.2 which I believe is the facility study that Nate pulled can I get a motion with respect to that item go ahead Nate yes I move the Board of Education approve the contract with mckinstry Incorporated for two million three hundred and forty six thousand fifty three dollars to complete a comprehensive assessment of District facility needs thank you so much have we got a second looks like Kristen's a second on that Nate since you pulled it would you like to make some remarks regarding it yes I support this uh this contract and I just wanted to point out how important it

123is because I don't think we've had a comprehensive assessment of District facility needs for about seven years or so um in the lead up to our 2016 Bond and Mill and we still have a running list of things that need to be done but there are lots of Maintenance needs that we have in the district that we need to nail down in which they cost so that we can see whether that's something that we're going to move forward with and I also particularly wanted to highlight there's a in The Proposal from mckinstry their approach to the solar feasibility process um that they have done some initial reviews and have included 51 sites in their scope and revealed 10 sites where neither a rooftop ground mountain or canopy system appeared viable they estimate the 32 sites

124can host rooftop systems and then they're going to work on developing uh estimated cost for those uh and the 19 sites were deemed potentially appropriate for ground Mount and or carport systems only and I had remembered hearing uh at some point and I think I heard correctly that there was some thought that uh rooftop systems were not going to be favorably looked at in the district and I thought that that was a shortcoming and that I just want to see an analysis of um all different types of uh solar systems so that we can get a good picture of where they make economic sense for the district and the community so I just wanted to highlight those points on this contract and it is for a large amount so just wanted to make sure that

125the community is aware that we're doing this thanks thank you other remarks on the board Jim yeah as they mentioned solar is a key part of this comprehensive assessment and I'm a huge solar fan love all that but looking forward to when the study's done uh my time on the mckinstry site this morning there were lots of success stories and I guess what I want to see as we go through this is not only look at success stories around these but also look at failure stories because I'm really concerned that you know we we are stakeholders sorry we have fiduciary responsibility to kind of guard the district's money right we are that's an important part of the board's job and I want to be sure that when we take the jump which would be so

126easy to do easy for me to do my son works in solar I'm a huge fan yes let's go solar but I want to be sure that we're taking good care of the money and that we're really doing the hard analysis on this to make sure that when we decide to push the button we we know what we're getting into that's it sorry other remarks DJ I had a question Brian I don't know if we have someone to answer but it I just kind of wanted to bring up the idea of or have a better understanding of the um retro commissioning incentives that will reimburse the district by an estimated 1 million point one can do you have someone that could explain that a little bit I'll take a quick shot at it and then

127ask uh either our chief of staff Lauren Hooten or Dave Montoya our Chief Financial Officer he's in timeout so yeah we'll let you go last um there are a lot of Grant dollars that are available to move this work forward expeditiously and a part of the Retro commissioning study is not just looking at overall making our buildings more efficient how do we actually take a cost-effective lens and are we tapping in a certain dollars that are on the table or not and their scan of the system of what we are tapping into what we're not and helping us optimize those Grant processes to lower costs and be able to extend this project is my understanding of what that component of this overall study is is Lauren and Dave is there anything else that you might

128want to add as additional context there I think that's a good summary Brian the only thing I would add is that mckinstry will be joining us on March 7th and they can speak to their proposal in a lot more detail at that time as well yep excellent thanks for thanks for reminding us of that uh Lauren do we have any other remarkable yes uh Carolyn and then Nate so um when we're talking about solar and a lot of other plans to kind of retrofit the school I often wonder if we should have a climate policy I see that DPS adopted a climate policy that was initiated by their students and maybe if we had a climate policy that would help kind of Drive our work or direct it a little bit better than you know

129than just kind of picking at stuff you know maybe maybe a climate policy would help guide our work better so I just didn't know if anybody else had any interest in that I appreciate the feedback and I'm not familiar with their policy but we'll have staff and myself have a look at that tomorrow and see what we can do all right thank you yeah I think that'll be interesting we'll definitely talk about that I think I think if we go in that direction there's all kind of how do I want to say this we could a policy again I haven't seen their policy either but but uh a climate policy that talks not about not only about the direction of the district but about the role our students can play in in driving that forward

130and the opportunities that we can provide them in in that work uh might be interesting so yeah we'll talk some more about it Nate well along those lines I would point out that I think we kind of do that with our designing and building of high performance and energy efficient buildings so um I think we've done pretty well uh with this current round and the pretty round of buildings to efficient standards but on the reimbursement program that we were talking about before I just was interested in the source of that money so we can wait till mckinstry comes to answer that question unless we know it now a lot of the sources that they were acknowledging at the time were federal dollars but on the seventh they can give the specific funding source for each

131each Grant opportunity excellent we'll look forward to that it's a combination of perhaps different sources oh okay all right thanks any other comments all right in which case I believe we need a vote on this so Jill if you would call the roll call please DJ Anderson aye Jim brokish hi Donovan aye Kristen Draper aye Rob Patterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora hi motion passes 7-0 thank you again Jill now we'll move on to our uh Soul informational uh report really a discussion item rather than an informational report and that is at this time every year we consider whether there are changes or other a discussion which needs to happen around the board superintendent relationship policies sometimes abbreviated as BSR policies and so I wanted to know whether any members of the board had

132anything they wanted to bring up about these policies that we should consider or discuss Nate yes I think we should have one fortunately we already do so that's good uh and by the way uh all joking aside those policies are available for the public to see and review on our website I I hesitate to give you the exact path to it but if you go down to your District Board of Education I believe there's a click there for policies and the board superintendent policy should be there along with all the other board policies for that matter any other comments or or questions Kristen the only thing I'll point out is that these most of these have been revised in 2021 so they are very recent okay well we'll have another opportunity to discuss the next

133year and for that matter you know if somebody feels like we need to put them on the agenda before then we can certainly do that it looks like that's the end of this discussion in which case the next item is an executive session can I get a motion with respect to this executive session Nate I move that the board in her executive session for the purpose of receiving legal advice on the potential real estate transactions relating to the kitchell Estates development as authorized by CRS 24-6-402 4B individuals invited to join the board an executive session our superintendent Brian Kingsley Chief of Staff Lauren huden director of construction and Facilities Earl Smith attorney Daryl Farrington attorney Brent Bartlett and general counsel Autumn Aspen can I get a second Kristen has given us a second Jill would

134you please call a vote on this motion D.J Anderson aye aye Rob Patterson aye Carolyn Reed aye Jessica Zamora aye motion passes 7-0 excellent thanks again Jill I will just let folks in the uh uh viewing audience and anybody left in the room know that we're going to be convening in closed session that will be the last uh item of business that happens this evening the only other thing that's going to happen in public is that I'm going to come out here and slam this gavel down and adjourn the meeting so you're welcome to stay for that if you want but uh I appreciate your attendance and your attention and we look forward to seeing you again in a couple weeks thank you