001all right good evening it is may 11th 2021 it is 5 31 pm and i will call this meeting to order the meeting tonight is being conducted in person and electronically board members and some staff are meeting in person while members of the public and other staff are watching the meeting remotely community comments as most the board knows will take place in person for those who registered to make remarks this evening and with that let's get rolling for this this evening so let's move on to the pledge of allegiance if you would thank you item three on the agenda is approval of the agenda would any board member board members like to make any changes to the agenda this evening okay seeing none none will proceed and that takes us straight up to community comments
002uh just so board members know as of right now we have about 25 people signed up it could be up to 26 27 28 something like that so let me read this for everybody this opportunity for public comment is for members of the community who registered to speak by the designated deadline out of respect for everyone's time we appreciate remarks being made efficiently and without redundancy this evening we have a large number of people registered to speak to allow for each person to have time to address the board each speaker will be given two minutes tonight anyone who removes their mask exceeds the time limit or makes personal attacks uses profanity or identifies any student by name may be asked to immediately end their remarks and leave the building okay with that i'm going to
003call up our first speaker and that would be mr bill timson if you'd like to get him to join us welcome thank you my time is running thank you all for taking this arm is a complex issue i'm bill timson meredith professor from csu school of ed done a lot of work internationally in conflict areas i want to tell you four quick stories i taught inner city cleveland 1968 king had been killed there were riots burnings killings and as an educator we wanted to keep the school safe and i keep coming back to that issue of fear that when fear gets loose people some people retreat and want to arm up and others look for creative examples fast forward 2006 i've got a fulbright in northern ireland and they've gone through 400 years of conflict
004civil war violence the integrated schools attempted to bridge the difference between the warring groups and do some innovative things and one thing they just think about this at the one school i visited the rule was students should the expectation was that students talk to their teachers using their first names in my life that was never possible the idea was this to counter the fear in the streets they wanted to reframe the paradigm of control away from authority to personal communication mediation negotiation those those skills so that was interesting very interesting fast forward south korea spent a semester there at the graduate institute of peace studies the missiles are flying american headlines are are crazed with fear my students some of them were in the military wanted to talk about reunification not the fear of the
005missiles they talked they wanted to talk about germany how could germany do that last one i'm in burundi now teaching peace studies in schools to help that country find ways of moving forward coming out of civil war et cetera so there are other ways forward so i'm in support of the committee report and it's a complex issue but i would rather move to have educators professionals in the field in the schools itself so thank you very much thank you for joining us next up we'll have mr charles young welcome good morning my name is charles young my sons are both graduates of the pooter school system and we had a really good experience with it one just graduated last week from cu boulder with a degree in mathematics about halfway through his master's program the
006others in his second year at the naval academy so poodle's been pretty darn good to my family i was on the cac and i am the dissenter i suppose the ringer perhaps actually one of six dissenters because there were two who quit and discussed before we got to the end of the program but nonetheless the 11-4 that you saw reported those of us who were dissenters joined the cac with the intent of looking at the school-to-prison pipeline which was the initial recommend the initial charge here and then when this when it was changed that's when we started getting a little upset because suddenly the issue was sros i will say i'm very strongly in support of the existing sro system if anything i would recommend to be expanded so the schools who have to share
007an sro now don't have to do so in the future i'd encourage the board to look at how this process started how did one psd employee get to choose from 100 plus applicants and hand pick those he wanted to serve on the committee secondly how is it that five of those individuals were people that that psd employee had had worked with in the past and how is it that civic canopy was chosen as quote unquote facilitators they have never ruled in favor of an sro program so thank you thank you for joining us okay next we will have mr john berg join us okay welcome thank you my name is john berg i'm the assistant principal at zac elementary school and i appreciate the work that you're all doing during this challenging year when i
008was in elementary school i had a close friend whose father was a police officer in our community this officer regularly visited our school to have lunch with his son daughter and their friends including me he also read books to students played with us at recess and talked to us about a variety of things the positive memories i have of those visits with this man helped me develop an overall positive view of police officers he was not just a cop he was a father spouse friend supporting member of our school learning community advocate for students and families and mentor to young children our sros work daily to develop these type of relationships with students much like my friend's dad did with me and others many years ago it's crucial that our sros are allowed to continue
009creating and building these positive relations with our students from a young age both the student and the sro are better prepared to work with on one another at the middle and high school levels when given the opportunity to create a foundational relationship in elementary school the trust between students and police officers improves when these relationships are initiated and developed from a young age additionally with the mental health crisis in this country every time we turn around there's an incident of mass violence many of which have occurred on school campuses we can best deter an act of violence by having an sro regularly in the building one who knows the students staff and layout of the building parents tell me they feel safer when they see the sro's car parked in the bus lane mass shooters
010don't go to the police station to commit an act of violence they go to locations where they know they're likely to encounter minimal resistance in the four years i've been at zack the supports that sro eric and sro keith have provided for students families and staff are immeasurable they're available at any time to talk with the student to provide support to a family in crisis and they work non-stop to ensure students families and staff are safe while on campus should you vote to eliminate the sro program you're making a mistake that may result in grave consequences for the social emotional and physical safety of students families and staff thank you for your time i appreciate your work thank you for joining us okay and next up we will have this aaron lee welcome hi good
011evening i know tonight is all about sros but i hope that my issue will still be heard my name is aaron lee let me start by emphasizing that i'm a progressive person and an ally of the lgbtq community i recognize how sensitive and charged this subject is but i'm also a mother who must stand up for my children when they've been wronged including the mental and emotional trauma sustained by my child from the splash youth of northern colorado program and its director my impressionable child is barely 12. she sleeps with the stuffed animal and orders from the kids menu last tuesday she was recruited into a splash meeting at her school where a completely unqualified stranger who knows absolutely nothing about my daughter admittedly not even her name discussed my child's sexuality and gender identity
012with her and i was not notified in any way she came home from this meeting confused and we were completely caught off guard and ill-equipped to help her we raised our daughter in a way that's protected her innocence and she was completely robbed of that i had no idea this was happening to my child until it was too late if you give parents notice about sex ed and suicide prevention programs why are we left in the dark about this adult who is not a licensed medical professional not a therapist not even a full-time district teacher coming into the classroom to discuss social sexual issues with our children how is it up to this person or the school district to determine when how and who will discuss these sensitive things with my child without any communication
013to parents how was this approved again i support a safe space but i am also a parent experiencing hurt confusion and damage that the splash program and its director have caused my child i know that standing up here opens me up to unfair judgment and mistaken labels but please put yourself in my shoes i thought i was sending my kid to a safe space in her public school but she came home in distress she was let down please don't put other children and families through this we deserve transparency there must be a way for a program like this to exist for our teens without hurting our children thank you for your time consideration and your service thank you for joining us okay and next up we'll have sandra rogers joining us welcome thank you my
014name is andrea rogers and i am here a parent of two children middle school and high school and psd school district thank you board members for your service i'm here this evening because it's come to my attention that the board is considering removing sros from our schools i see this as a grave mistake in which our children's lives are at stake i feel this for the following reasons seconds count in the case of an emergency every second counts lives are on the line according to the city of fort collins the duty of an sro is to provide a safe learning environment and reduce school violence officers are trained to protect and defend the safety of our children the definition of a teacher is a person who teaches our teachers are there to teach and our
015sros are there to help and protect maintain a safe learning environment may 7th marked the second year since the life of kendra castillo was taken on highlands ranch do you think if you asked kendrick's parents is it necessary to have one more person there to help defend their child is it necessary may 16 2018 an sro in illinois saved the life of countless children lives are on the line i will trust that you will see the immense duty that we have to prac protect our children thank you thank you for joining us okay next up we will have miss jennifer cramer welcome thank you hello my name is jennifer kramer um i'm actually a 1997 graduate from pooter high school still a psd alumni myself um i think the sro program actually started while i
016was in high school i still have fond memories of officer sanchez who was my sro i currently have three girls a fourth grader a ninth grader and a 12th grader in school and i come here tonight more to share a report that my now 12th grader wrote last year when asked to write about an influential figure historical figure which you might not think of that as a sro but i was just going to share portions of what she said um she said although the prompt was to state one influential figure from history or present that has made a huge impact on the world i felt this with this whole system of individuals has made a huge impact on the world resource officers have had a big impact on a lot of students other than me
017my experience is one of the many good ones officer keith menard middle school resource officer mr menard was has shaped my perspective of life and has made me think more deeply about everything that has happened he was my first friend in sixth grade at canard middle school he was always there i always knew i'd get along with my teachers i loved them and i loved being more in the student when i walked into sixth grade lunchroom i met mr keith she called him mr keith urban but he's keith monarch little did i know he would have such a huge impact on me for the rest of my life there are other students just like me have become close with the school officers over the years officer keith was my very first friend in middle school
018i was shy and didn't want to make new friends so i started to eat on the lunch ramp on the ramp in the lunch room soon i realized mr keith earphone stood there too eventually he'd asked me how my day was and i would tell him all about the drama that was going on we formed a friendship he was like my counselor because i didn't feel comfortable going to the counselor at the time he helped me realize that none of this stuff lasts throughout my whole life if only he could see me now and hear all the stuff that has happened i saw mr keith even after eighth grade i always remember how much i'll always remember him no matter what that is how much of an impact he had of my life she goes
019on to say how he played a big role in our mental health and to help her feel com to get through that in middle school so my time's up but i really encourage you to look at that survey i think that represents our community and it represents what our children want to so thank you thank you for joining us okay and next up we will have ms sarah coleman join us welcome hi my name is sarah coleman i have two kids in psd one's elementary one's middle school a few weeks ago psd sent an email stating that they're planning on five day a week education for next year in that same email they stated that they possibly will continue contact tracing next year this is very concerning for me as a parent contact tracing in
020middle school has meant hybrid learning staying six feet apart then three feet apart but still six feet for quarantine no lockers no riding buses assigned seats at lunch assigned seats in the classroom no assemblies no music concerts physical distancing interactions with teachers and staff based on if the students are following the rules not true interpersonal interactions and communications i would like psd to look into the data regarding contact tracing how many kids who've been quarantined due to exposure have remained healthy during their quarantine is the data justifying keeping all students home that have been exposed both of my kids have been quarantined due to exposure and they both remained healthy why are we making healthy students stay home and fall behind on their education why are we making healthy students miss out on extracurricular activities
021why are we making healthy students experience isolation and loneliness why are we making healthy students stay home for two three four quarantines in a row who is helping these kids catch up when they return to school since last march our main concern has been promoting the absence of disease and not on promoting the overall health well-being and education of our students it's time to start taking into consideration what is in the best interest of the students thank you thank you for joining us okay and next up we'll have miss vanessa morton join us welcome for having me my name is vanessa morton i have two kids within psd a second grader and a sophomore in high school does a community advisory council's recommendation accurately reflect the sentiments of the broader psd community no the legitimacy
022of the cac as a whole has to be brought into question given the disparity between their recommendations and the majority opinion how can these recommendations be so out of touch with the community let's look at the selection process three individuals who are openly and supportive and actively campaigning to remove sros minority opinion within psd were hand selected to serve on the cac and choose additional members the cac from inception was filled with bias and personal agendas as evidenced by circumstances that led one member to resigning absence of law enforcement on the committee their unwillingness to substantiate survey results and the selection of the civic canopy facilitator this explains why their recommendation to remove sros is not in line with the recent survey greater than eighty percent of the eleven thousand respondents said they feel sros
023in schools are necessary for safety and this increases slightly when filtered by responses from the bipod community a stark contrast to only 36 percent of the cac members who voted in favor for keeping sros this was a survey created and approved by the cac that is until they received the results some then questioned its authenticity and felt that perhaps some were afraid to give their honest opinions this is true more in relation to psd staff who have quietly voiced concerns about openly supporting sros for fear and retaliation and falling victim to council culture so what does real justice for psd look like listening to the voice of the people who live work and are educated within psd undeniably the people have spoken keep our sros our community our teachers and worst most importantly our kids
024are counting on you to make the right decision thank you thank you for joining us thank you okay next up we will have miss jessica o'brien join us my name is jessica o'brien thank you so much for this opportunity to speak to such an important issue i certainly do not envy the decision the board has to make and appreciate the board listening to all opinions on the matter i want to start with a question do sros have a place in mental health advocacy and psd yes let me explain i don't believe that the sros are always necessary and handling a mental health crisis and i understand that if used improperly it can be traumatizing to an individual but when resources are used improperly we need to do better training and education it doesn't make sense
025to get rid of an entire resource that so many students teachers counselors and administrators benefit from mental health is serious but unpredictable and it should be handled with specific protocols and training but when an individual is a threat to themselves or others such as physical aggression violence etc and sro is imperative for example how would members of the board feel tonight if they did not have their officer here as part of their team we all know that mental health has affected our community because of the events of this past year and it takes a team of teachers counselors administrators parents and law enforcement to manage at the school level proper training for all parties is absolutely necessary to manage a mental health crisis especially for worst-case scenario however for the sro to be involved in
026any given situation they must be solicited first by an employee or student at the school after reviewing the cic report there are a list of recommendations that address how law enforcement and schools should be utilized such as law enforcement should be used only in specific situations should be used as a last resort and mental health support should be increased as the go-to for response in schools i agree with all of these points however i do not agree with their overall recommendation not to renew the sro contracts to conclude i am in favor of keeping that psd contract with the student resource officers if the board gets rid of the sros who will the students and staff have to call in the event of an emergency and what happens in those precious minutes now added to
027the response time because emergencies are inevitable it is irresponsible not to be prepared thank you thank you for joining us up we'll have miss natalie niemeyer welcome thank you my name is natalie niemeyer i had a speech prepared for this meeting with a high amount of data in support of keeping sros rather than overwhelm the board with more stats that you have probably been hearing all day today and wanted to speak to a real life scenario here is a story i was asked to share by a worker from the restorative justice services that works directly with sros and students going through tragic situations since the board will not allow names of real-life people their decision could impact i will use acronyms z a former student at pooter high school zee was the betcher scholarship winner
028and a spokesperson for the criminal justice in larimer county series zee was a victim of rape sroj and z met her junior year in school after the horrific incident occurred in zee's words sroj allowed her to sit and cry in his office as much as she wanted to reassured her that she was safe at school since her rapist was going to school with her every day and was instrumental in the support through a miscarriage that was associated with the incident months months later about a year later when zee was ready to come forward and press charges sroj played an invaluable role between her and what felt like the entire criminal justice system he was able to translate all these big scary words roles and hearings into a language and concept that zee and her family
029could understand zee was proud to say that she was able to pursue justice against her rapist and was successful in holding him accountable within the court system with sergeant jay's help she was brought justice the role of sergeant jay and the role of other sros in their community is their ability to talk to teenagers in these types of tragic situations and be there for the victims in the end z and sroj formed such a strong bond that z chose him to hand her her diploma on graduation day that powerful story moved me to fight for these unheard victims that your decision could impact not a poisonous group that was cherry-picked to push through their tainted agenda thank you for your time thank you for joining us okay next up we have miss wendy martin joining
030us welcome my name is wendy martin on january 20th 1983 8th grader david lawler brought to school a blue duffle bag containing two 22-calibre pistols and a murder-suicide note that outlined his intention to kill the next person heard speaking ill of his brother kenny he did just that killing one shooting another during the shooting the study hall teacher unsuccessfully attempted to intervene and calm david with all of his classmates my classmates hiding under and behind their desks lawler placed one of the pistols to the temple of his head and uttered no one will ever call my brother a again then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head david was a good friend of mine an eagle scout a community volunteer and no one saw this coming although i did not witness the tragedy directly
031it affected me deeply as a twelve-year-old years of counseling have not taken away the memories and pain that resurfaced every time there is a school shooting reported in the news we grew up in a time where we did not have school resource officers but i can't help wonder what the outcome might have been had we had them in our school maybe david would have made a different choice with the kids in the study hall have been evacuated my lives have been saved i've scared you i've spared you the gory details but my question to you is this if it's your goal to reduce the likelihood of potentially traumatic experiences for all students what will you do to ensure that none of our students will have to deal with this kind of trauma because the effects
032of it are long and far-reaching thank you thank you for joining us next up we'll have miss katie cook welcome i'm katie cook thank you so much for your service and for giving us time to speak on matters that are important to us i love peter school district my kids love pooter school district i just have a few comments and questions have you all given up on teaching our kids how to form positive relationships with role models who could change the trajectory of their lives growing up i thought that police officers in my community were people to be feared i thought they arrest bad guys i was never aware of how much they could help those who get lost or have car trouble or have other needs until i learned through my school the many
033ways the police are able to help in our community as a whole i learned that there was no need to be afraid of the police officer in your neighborhood maybe unless i break the law when children teens and young adults have the opportunity to learn the same lessons i did by having police present in their school positive and lasting relationships can be formed if students experience fear and anxiety related to sro presence let's do some work with everyone to help change those feelings and make them better they are needed in our schools to form and maintain positive relationships with our kids if we cut the sros from schools because a small number have negative experiences what are we teaching our children in this current climate where people work to cancel what they don't like let's
034work together and do the work required to make it better for everyone thank you so much for your time thank you for joining us next up we'll have miss bria strong welcome thank you hi my name is bria strong i am a former middle school teacher of 15 years i strongly believe that sro should remain in the schools for the protection of the students teachers and any community member that enters the school resource officers are valuable members of the school community and should remain in place in all schools many parents feel strongly about keeping the sros in schools and i just want to share with you one parent's email concerning this issue i'm writing this as a highly involved parent a volunteer and as a substitute it alarms me to hear that psd is thinking
035about jumping in on the bandwagon and cutting ties with fcps the sro officers offer such a valuable relationship with kids and staff that i've been so lucky to see firsthand i have been in classes with eighth graders watching as they were being educated about drug use and the effects of short-term and long-term wishing i had this sort of education as i entered high school i was in total awe i've walked the hallways introducing kindergarteners to at first what they thought was a scary looking man in uniform just seeing them smiling so big in admiration and love i have seen many connections of trust in all age ranges that can go beyond words having someone on the sidelines cheering them on at football games and wrestling clubs if this is taken away i fear that kids
036will lose the human connection with police officers and see them as someone scary that they can't trust there is such an important bond between sros kids and staff i am so grateful for the opportunity to see this and be a part of it if i were just a parent i don't think i would have any idea how truly important it is for an sro to be a part of schools that they are so much more than a disciplinarian figure thank you for taking the time and listening and making this careful just those careful and important decisions that affect many thank you for joining us and next up we'll have heather gerard joining us welcome hi thank you my name is heather gerard and i want to thank you for your time i have a fifth
037grader and a seventh grader from my understanding sros were placed in schools to keep the students and staff safe when i drop my daughter off at preston and see the officer's car parked out front i feel more confident in her safety here is an example of why an sro in the school is import important december 2019 in an email the principal stated just after 9 a.m a student in a classroom became verbally argumentative the student ultimately became physical and assaulted a teacher using objects found in the classroom the teacher sustained minor injuries no students were injured and the school resource officer responded and was able to safely contact the student my daughter was outside the classroom when this happened and was concerned hearing the loud noises and voices thankfully there was an sro in the
038school for these reasons after getting the call to go to the classroom the sro was there in seconds the location of the room was known from being in the building regularly the sro's goal was to keep the upset student other students and staff safe the sro knew the student in distress the family history and was able to have a compassionate interaction with the student to calm the situation there was already a level of trust between the student and the officer additional reasons to have them in the school they worked together with the mental health counselor and school administration they provide proper resources for students and their families they work to establish trusting relationships with the students they genuinely care and would do anything to keep students and staff safe the sro at the schools become
039their officer the students are more vocal real and open about anything going on and willing to share with their sro it also may ultimately hold students to a higher level of personal responsibility in today's climate i believe their presence is even more crucial in promoting safety and continuing to create a substantial level of trust among students in the school community thank you for your time thank you for joining us okay and next up we'll have miss cammy larson welcome thank you my name is cami larson i've lived in fort collins for about 20 years and i have a son who's come up through putter school district and graduated from rocky i wanted to tell you all thank you first of all for serving our community i'd also like to say thank you so much for
040listening to the concerns of those that you serve and also providing the opportunity for those who will be affected by your decision to have a voice that would be your students your teachers and your parents while i am certain this is not an easy decision for this board it is clear that this community supports sros in our school and i would urge you to keep sros in our school thank you thank you for joining us and next up we have caleb larson mr caleb larson joining us welcome uh hello uh my name is caleb larson i'm 22 years old i'm a recent graduate of pooter school district first i'll start off with my background i attended johnson elementary in my elementary years uh moved up to weber middle school um and then i graduated from
041rocky in 2017. i would say that at the end of the day nearly a decade of my education had an sro present and in those 10 years i never really had or saw a negative experience for sros they were always full of kindness they cared about the safety of students at the end of the day they were there to be role models for what it looks like to be a leader in your community and to protect those around you no matter who they are whether they're a person of color whether they're a man or a woman they were there to protect every student and i think that's an attribute that this district stands for at the end of the day also i think you can see how many moms are here moms are protectors of
042their kids they're there to protect them and they want to see their best interests and i think the overwhelming support you see from the community as well as students former and current is really important in your decision so here's why i strongly encourage this board to keep sros instead of making a sweeping decision that we haven't really seen the side effects of we don't know what's going to happen five years ten years down the road if you make this decision so instead i'd ask that you guys take a pause and maybe look at other programs implement and wait to see what other districts in this state are going to be like and as well as those around the nation so at the end of the day i just encourage us to listen to this overwhelming
043support to keep students that want sros to stay as well as just to look at other options that we can implement in the meantime i really appreciate your time and god bless you all thank you for joining us next we have miss kristen hypno joining us welcome my name is kristen heitner and i'm reading on behalf of annie elise fleming who couldn't be here tonight greetings board member board of education members my name is annie leese and i'm a part of sgsjpsd school justice psd i'm also currently a student at csu and would like to discuss some guidelines and concerns i have as a community member sros have to and should be removed because the students always come first police disproportionately impact minoritized and disabled children and young adults with only having approximately 25 percent
044of students of color going to psd schools but nearly 50 percent of the students referred to law enforcement officers being those minoritized students i think this points to a problem within the system that we currently operate in i'm not comfortable with knowing that there are children being abused and traumatized in a space that is supposed to be the exact opposite for them there are better alternatives the cac as you know was set up by the psd to address these concerns that i am bringing to you today removing this harm of the sros from the students would largely benefit the children and the school district financially with other alternatives in place social workers counselors and therapists are just a few names of licensed professionals that would be better be a better use of your time and
045money the hundreds of thousands of dollars that was spent on the seven sros that were paid while schools were closed due to covet 19 could have been used for way better investments like the students the population you should be caring about and thinking of first since that's why you're in this position as a board of education member finances i understand are a huge part of this decision but school safety should always be top priority and having police officers in these schools does the opposite what does increase school safety or mental health services which could be funded appropriately and efficiently if you take the comments and concerns seriously and vote to remove sros out of psd thank you thank you for joining us okay and next up we'll have miss cheryl distasso join us welcome good
046evening my name is cheryl destasso i'll be reading comments from marcia bitshorn tonight this past year i have followed the psd process for making a decision about renewing the sro contracts for another year it seems that a lot of good faith effort went into the work with administration staff law enforcement and community members having been on the initial commun community team back in 2000 and 2002 creating guidelines for the sros i'm familiar with the perspectives on all sides and these viewpoints do not appear to have changed over much over the last 20 years we know that children benefit from having positive interactions with adults in their lives the sro program has always been defined has always defined itself as a way to improve relationships in my opinion the question about continuing the sro program is
047not one of relationships it comes down to whether or not you are getting the best bang for your million buck law enforcement is already to respond within minutes to any school for safety concerns as was demonstrated by a recent event however the work of preventing harm to students both emotionally and physically is best done by licensed mental health professionals i went every time i hear that the sro provides social work and mental health type services there is a reason that licenses for these clinical professions take master's level education and years of supervision there's an obvious reason you would never hear of an officer providing engineering or electrician type services as a help to the community so please choose to use the scarce resources we have in psd in the most effective manner by upgrading our
048social work and mental health services to the nationally recommended staffing levels for our children and allow law enforcement to do their job without the pretense that a two-week training course creates someone capable of providing mental health type services this is a way to get more bang for your million bucks thank you thank you for joining us okay next up we have miss brittany fryer joining us welcome hi my name is brittany and i was born and raised in fort collins i went through all three schools here graduated from rocky and i want to tell you that i support the sros in the schools a good friend of mine is a counselor here at one of the junior highs and i was trying to understand the need for removing the sros and she thought that the
049counselors would do a better job of providing de-escalation services to students and my question was when there's an active shooter who is going to be running to stop these people and she said that it's proven that they usually kill themselves police officers do not engage and shoot them and that's true because somebody is coming at them so if you remove the sro officers i want to know who are you going to have in the schools running at active shooters to stop them and i also want to point out the bias of the cac committee i know that those people were hand chosen out of 100 people you have one person on that committee who is a registered republican now this community is purple it's not blue it's not red it's purple so i advise you
050to listen to your people listen to your community and quit playing games because us parents you have ignited a fire and we are paying attention now and we are gathering and we're getting stronger than ever and we're not going to stand by and allow you guys to ruin our schools thanks thank you for joining us okay and i we have next uh clara asbury and i understand she's actually having her student joiner to speak to us so welcome thank you my name is macy innis and i'm a fourth grader at dunn elementary my topic is taking the masks off our children um we breathe in oxygen and excel carbon dioxide and plants do it the other way around but when we are wearing masks we are breathing back in the carbon dioxide we just breathed
051out and we are not getting enough oxygen to our brain to think properly one very common way children learn is by reading facial expressions and i can't see my teacher's face or my friends faces when we are wearing masks i think it is child abuse and it needs to stop to all the teachers they should stand up for the children or else no one will thank you thank you so much for joining us i think it was macy right thank you very much appreciate it okay next up is miss kelly holdridge we have about five or six more people just so everybody knows welcome so i this is not my document i was asked to take over for somebody who had a family emergency and you guys graciously let her substitute so here i am
052i'm just going to read this straight down i don't know exactly hello i appreciate the time to speak with you tonight i do not believe i will need the entire time as my points are brief i contend that voting tonight to renew the role of sros within the pooter school district is an easy and logical choice and here is why given that pooter school district states that safety for students and staff is a top priority given that reasonable concerns about the bias and lack of diversity of the community engagement process exist given that the community engagement process was influenced by an outside organization given that the district develop reasonable rso standard operating procedures and should provide the opportunity to evaluate them given that removing rsos likely places the district at risk of legal liability given
053that psd's sros routinely rescue children through the value valuable safe to tell program given that sac survey demonstrated overwhelming support for the sro program from staff students and parents given that the civic canopy stated in the report that over a quarter of the cac membership felt strongly that sros remain embedded in the schools given that every adult in this room knows that removing sros from our campuses inherently increases the risk that our children and school staff can be killed by a criminal mass shooter given that fort collins community is capable is fully capable of addressing the concerns of various groups by working together to develop solutions that do not risk the lives of valued staff and precious students given these reasoned and respectful points it is manifest that sros remain a vital part of psd's
054safety strategy don't you believe my children deserve to be safe at school don't you believe psd parents children deserve to be safe at school don't you believe your colleagues children's deserve to be safe at school thanks guys have a good night thank you for joining us okay next up will be miss ann sutherland welcome good evening i am ann sutherland a new resident in fort worth in my long educational career i've been a teacher a policy and budget analyst and for the last 10 years of my career i served on the fort worth school board i also had a doctorate in educational policy and finance i appreciate this opportunity to comment with you i am firmly opposed to the policy that you are considering to get rid of the sros i think it is very
055dangerous for you for the children and for the community your fundamental obligation as board members and representatives of the community is to protect the children and you you cannot protect the children if the sros are not in the buildings i i don't need to go into detail i know i'm about the 27 students i want to point out that the procedure that your staff has used to put this policy together it seems to me is has been sort of like alice in wonderland right you've looked at the data that you wanted but you haven't compared the iteration of the situation with having these sros and not having the sros as far as i can tell i'll share a small statement with my uh but i go on the fort collins the fort worth school district
056has sros and all the schools it is so popular with the residents of fort worth that they pay a penny on the sales tax to keep those sros into schools this policy was just renewed in the last couple years so you are going to be in very hot water with the voters if you vote to get these sros out of the schools i'm sorry i'm so hoarse i've been waiting a long time i appreciate the opportunity to uh speak to you and i wish you luck it's not easy being a board member and you're doing a good job and serving your community i hope you'll keep these people okay thanks thank you for joining us okay next i believe we have mr milo woodward welcome all right um hello my name is milo woodward and
057i'm here as a psd alumni to speak in favor of the removal of sros from our schools in 1963 a gallup poll found that 60 of white americans felt that mlk's march on washington would cause violence and not accomplish anything in 1964 a new york times poll found that 54 of white americans thought the civil rights movement was quote going too fast a recent usa today poll the most pertinent example found that in june 60 of americans described george floyd's death as a murder but by march of 2021 that percentage had dropped to 36 percent make of that what you will but it's clear to me that especially in the case of racial justice the public consensus is rarely in favor of what's right at least until after the fact the issue of sros does
058not affect all of us in the community equally in fact as stated in the committee's report the presence of sros has such polar opposite impacts on the subjective experiences of students families and staff that it's laughable to attempt to make a decision based solely on majority opinion so let's look at the facts despite ever-growing budgets student resource officers continue to discipline and arrest bipac and neurodivergent students at grossly disproportionate rates many of which for subjective crimes such as disorderly conduct this is studied and proven both nationally and in our local schools nearby patrol officers are certainly a viable alternative greatly lessening the frequency of negative interactions with students while still retaining a fast response time in case of emergencies to me it seems like an obvious choice now i ask you to please see through
059the reactionary noise of those who speak over marginalized voices do not clutch to normalcy and fear and do not hold back progress for me and my peers because for every year police officers remain in our hallways dozens or hundreds of children in our community in pst schools are criminalized and traumatized long before adulthood so please let this be your legacy as if every single one of those children where you're on thank you thank you for joining us okay and next up is miss deidre queen johnson welcome my name is deidra queen johnson good evening the issue of school resource offices in pooter school district public schools has always been a sensitive subject in my black community and in my home here in fort collins it is too many of our children that we are lining
060up for juvenile detention by way of systemic racism and microaggressive environments led by both staff and students alike the fact that i as a parent of several children in your schools the i a person in this community that engages multiple boards and committees some designated to our school district i a human being could not be seen you've already heard our community and its youth say no thank you but to no avail i pray that as the killing of black youth and persons by the hands of police officers continue we think about the small and vital black community here that will be affected by any decision to support school resource officers black youth are not shooting inside of our schools we do not need police but it would be nice to implement black indigenous and persons
061of color professional therapists and psychologists all youth need that support don't set the police on us please black mental health matters be blessed thank you for joining us okay and next we have mr owen geiss to join us welcome greetings my name is owen guys i am currently a sophomore at rocky mountain high school i'm here today to discuss you guys's potential decision to remove sros from our schools this is the wrong i this is the wrong choice every day we have to go to school with a thought in their mind that we could be next we could be the next school shooting and we would have to live through that the sros are there to remind us we are in a safe place and taking that away will essentially take our safety away having
062a sro nearby not an sro an officer nearby will take extra time in response to an emergency this is not acceptable it is our lives at stake and i do not want you guys to play with our lives as if we did not matter just outside this room you guys have an officer standing by protecting you if he's here to protect you who's there to protect us certain the sros and our schools protect us and are a vital member of our community and we all and frankly i asked a bunch of my classmates before i came before i came to this meeting and most of them said were surprised and scared that at the concept of removing our sros from our schools and i want you guys to consider this that when ours when our
063officers are gone who's here to protect us the students and our futures thank you thank you for joining us and tess i believe that stan young is the last person okay so last but not least mr stan young welcome hi my name is stanley young i'm a former police officer and also served in the military i love this great land and most of the people in it but i am sick and tired of people politicians race hustlers and cowards attacking and demonizing these great men and women in law enforcement i'm sick of it in a just in a just society these officers would have due process before they're condemned who are the students that are afraid who are the officers that cause those students to be afraid what are the stats on blacks choosing not
064to call the police when there are when they are in harm's way accepting great quality bodily injury and death because they were afraid to call the police who how many of them are there zero not one because when there's trouble they're calling the police this is a false fake made-up situation what you're doing with these officers one simple question would be to ask or to answer before you uh suggest these officers segregate from the students my suggestion if this if there's an issue with the students and blacks or any other student in this city pull them together put them in a room like this so they can talk it out because segregation doesn't work ever it's never worked 2019 fatal police shootings 14 unarmed blacks were killed 25 unarmed whites were killed in 2019. now
065you might say 14 that's a lot um because 13 of us 13 13 are black but of that 13 percent they cause over 50 percent of all violent crimes in this country mr young i'm going to have to ask you to wrap up your comments please yeah approximately 7 500 blacks killed were killed in 2019 most of which were killed by other blacks who should we fear the police based on your standards you are considering today you may be setting a destructive precedence for example 245 white perpetrators were child abusers in 2019. mr young please wrap up your comments 10 of that 10 of that were sexual assaults so should all the white people be removed from the schools to protect the students from white child abusers is that what we're doing with this we
066are being played by race hustlers who are trying to control us who are trying to divide us by race they want me and they want you to dislike each other they're going to use me as a black man as a victim to make you appear to be a racist mr young thank you please we appreciate your comments thank you for joining us 295 thank you for joining us mr young in the line of duty last year okay thank you very much god bless america yeah thanks for joining us okay so uh thank you to everybody who joined us tonight and a lot of good comments item 5.0 on on the agenda are board topics and committee reports um opportunity for board members to chime in with any reports you have and before you get going
067i'm just going to use briefly the opportunity to say thank you to teachers i think there will be a resolution coming this has been a year that keeps on giving but the people who've given the most have really been the teachers in the system um and i just want to kick off our board comments by launching a heartfelt thank you to the teachers in the system uh wow what a year and and uh they are the ones that ultimately are making the difference to all our children so thank you to the teachers with that i'll turn it over to you naomi thank you dj and i are have wrapped up our meetings with the student advisory council this year and we are working with building principals to gather students who are interested in being a
068part of the student advisory council for next year we currently have 17 applicants we don't have any applicants yet from liberty common high school compass collaborative ridgeview or pooter high school so if you attend one of those schools please consider applying to be a part of the student advisory council the information has been shared on the district's social media pages as well as probably your own school's social media pages and newsletters you're certainly welcome to reach out to me or dj if you would like to have the link for that applications are due by next friday may 21st and then we look forward to letting you all know who has been selected and what we are planning for the following year on the may 25th meeting thank you all right kristen thanks yeah i just
069wanted to um do a couple follow-ups on your thanking the teachers i was able to um visit rocky mountain high school polaris and riffenburg this last week and the teachers were just doing such a tremendous job really it's hard to tell the difference sometimes except for the masks of last year to this year at this point that and as i was watching rocky mountain high school practice there they're singing for their graduation ceremony and they're all standing six feet apart singing but it was beautiful they had it in the and the center there it was just it was absolutely gorgeous so i just want to say a heartfelt thank you to all the teachers who yeah i don't know what else you say but what a year um so um also i just wanted to
070um in addition to teacher appreciation week um wanted to point out that it is asian american and pacific islander heritage month and my apologies i missed the deadline for getting a resolution on that as well so you'll find a resolution for that next time as well as for mental health awareness month so we had a few things going this past week and i missed the deadline to get resolutions in to the board meeting so i will get those in next time thanks thank you kristin rob yeah following up on our uh my report of last time uh dj and i met with our new superintendent brian kingsley to discuss the superintendent evaluation process and instrument and it was a very good meeting and we're we're he is in agreement with us about that instrument and
071that process as it was sent to him and shared with you previously so i think that's a good that's a good sign and we'll and we'll uh assuming that we do have the retreat with him in june which i think we're going to do uh we'll have an opportunity then to talk about it all as a group but as i say i think we're pretty much in sync on what uh needs to be done so just wanted to let everybody know that so he's still planning on coming yeah yeah we didn't scare him off if that's what you're asking yeah no no yeah he's still planning on coming okay i think i think around the time of june 14th give or take i don't know the exact dates so i'm sure he'll share those with
072us when he's got them sorted out excellent glad to hear it any other board members want to comment during this opportunity okay moving right along maybe there's just enough time for everybody to speak later that okay all right next on the agenda is item 6.0 that is the consent agenda would any board members like to pull anything from consent this evening okay seeing none i take a motion nate i move that the board approve and adopt the recommended actions for the items on the consent agenda thank you do i have a second from kristin draper and jill i'd take a roll call vote please dj anderson aye nate donovan aye kristin draper aye christoph feb aye naomi johnson aye rob patterson aye carolyn reed aye motion passes 7-0 fantastic okay that takes us right up
073to the oh a five-minute break okay sure okay wonderful we'll we'll adjourn for five minutes and come back the partying okay uh let's get the meeting going again at 6 46 p.m that's enough stalling on the part of the board let's let's face the issues tonight um let's see i have a message from our supreme our future superintendent says i'm still coming and can't wait to get there so that's from yeah so he he was hearing uh rob's comments and decided to or nate or whatever so just so you're aware of that okay let's move right on with action items uh 7.1 tonight is a resolution in support of national school nurse week do i have somebody ready to go ahead kristen with the motion oh wait i have to do the motion too um
074i what am i put you on the spot yeah five more seconds yes it's after the resolution in support of national school nurse week i move sorry i moved to adopt the resolution in support that's what happens when you put me on the spot i thought i was reading it would you mind repeating that i actually [Laughter] i knew that we adopt the resolution in support of national school nurse week thank you i have a second for naomi johnson and kristen would you like to read the resolution yes that's what i thought it was okay thank you for the first place so no worries a resolution in support of national school nurse week may 5th through the 12th 2021 whereas students are the future and by investing them today we are ensuring our world for
075tomorrow and whereas families deserve to feel confident that their children will be cared for when they are at school and whereas all students have a right to have their physical and mental health needs safely met while in the school setting and whereas students today face more complex and life-threatening health problems requiring care in school and whereas the coven 19 pandemic has emphasized the essential role school nurses play in student health and academic success and whereas school nurses have served in a critical role in improving public health and ensuring students academic success for more than 100 years and whereas school nurses address the home and community factors examples social determinants that impact students health and whereas school nurses act as a liaison to the school community families and health care providers on behalf of children's health
076by promoting wellness and improving health outcomes for our nation's children and whereas school nurses support the health and educational success of children and youth by providing access to care when children's cognitive development is at its peak and whereas school nurses are members of the school-based teams like school health services 504 iep disaster emergency planning to address the school population and whereas school nurses understand the link between health and learning and are positioned to make positive difference for children every day therefore the pruner school district board of education declares our everlasting appreciation to school nurses of the pooter school district who regardless of the situation age race or creed step forward to help thus widening horizons for others as well as themselves pudder school district celebrates and acknowledges the accomplishments of school nurses everywhere and their
077effects of meeting the needs of today's students by improving the delivery of health care in our schools and offers gratitude for the nation school nurses who contribute to our local communities by helping students stay healthy in school and ready to learn and keeping parents and guardians at work not just on this national school nurse week but at every opportunity throughout the year now therefore it be resolved we the poudre school district board of education do hereby support national school nurse week may 5th through the 12th 2021 and we urge all community members to join us in recognizing the dedication and hard work of school nurses in preparing today's students for tomorrow's world thank you well read do i have a second or no we guess we got that sorry um any other comments go ahead
078dj oh no no comments okay any further comments on this one sure i'll just throw one in there because again you know it's been quite a year um so you know i think we often think of school nurses as um you know where you can go our kids would go to when they got you know hit with the dodge ball or fell and scraped their knee and this year they're if you could see the protocols when you go into an elementary school of what happens when somebody gets sick and you know you have to make sure that the little shower curtains are separated out for the little beds that they would sit on while they get their their band-aid or whatever it is quite the um quite the setup and quite the the way the
079what they have to do is just it's phenomenal and yet they do it with a smile on their face and making the kid feel better every single time so thank you nate i do like the idea and i support this resolution but i do like the idea that i've seen in at least some schools where you have a office manager school secretary who's also the health tech because the way some schools are set up they they see all the kids coming through in the morning and so it really gives them a way to gauge uh what the mood is of a particular student and so they can be better prepared to serve the students in that way so i think that's a good good thing that we have going thank you nate okay and uh
080go right ahead i just want to take the time because we're on this topic this is our last year for our lead nurse nancy weber and i just want to publicly acknowledge nancy's contributions she has been so uh incredibly professional through the coveted work dating all the way back to march of 20. she is an instrumental part of our coveted response teams makes important decisions and she is retiring this year and i just want to give her her moment in the in the sun so to speak and thank her for all her years of service for us so nancy weber job well done for us great recognition okay and i would just say i was uh listening to the resolution and reflecting back uh on our former board president kathy kipp who always uh when
081we talk about social emotional supports would point out the studies that show that students need at least five adult contacts in their lives and it points to success so i know that nurses are one of those among their many jobs they're just one of those support adults in kids lives that make up that complete envelope for the children going through the system so i truly do support this as well are there any other final comments okay seeing none i'll take a roll call vote for this please chill aye nate donovan aye kristin draper aye christopher aye naomi johnson aye rob patterson aye carolyn reed aye motion passes seven zero very good okay that brings us to item 7.2 long-awaited action related to the school resource officers in pooter school district and i'm going to take
082the unusual step of first reading a bit of a statement and allowing board members who might want to chime in with some thoughts to do the same before we go ahead with the motion and i'll just jump right in so first i'd like to express how much i appreciate the community voices that have spoken up this entire year to express thoughts and opinions that pertain to the safety and well-being of students these voices of our community have come in many forms with many ideas but i feel strongly that everyone involved has had the most positive intentions with regards to kids in the system and that's what's happening this evening so let me just remind us of that next i want to say thank you starting last late last spring with students and community members marching
083in town to support black lives matter the black lives matter movement advocacy formed around demanding an accounting of the disciplined procedures and policing of our students board members felt it was important to give time to address these important questions thoughtfully and to use this energy and momentum to build around the questions built around the questions to review the system with penetrating focus uh and uh that have been of interest also to this board for many many years so it was a bit of momentum um one outcome of this energy was the development of the community advisory council or the cac a committee of community members with deep interest in this particular question to all those of you involved in the cac it is hard to thank you enough for the efforts and the positive energy
084you all put into reviewing discipline in psd the survey that the cac developed that the board asked them to do this that survey around the question of sros in the schools received an incredible response not only did 11 000 psd community members respond to the survey but an extraordinary number of respondents wrote comments and i think many board members spent a lot of time essentially reading books that were sent in so it engaged the community it got an incredible amount of thoughtful response from all walks of life so that engagement was incredible it was vital the cac also studied discipline data policing data and various data that exposes exposed types of bias in the psd system that need to be reviewed discussed and improved upon members spent many arduous hours speaking and engaging and seeking
085consensus around difficult subjects from this work the group came up with consensus on i think something on the order of 50 items something that most cac members did not think would have been imaginable at the beginning of the process so this to this group of dedicated psd and student advocates i say a heartfelt thank you and so that includes naomi and kristen as well you provided board members and staff with penetrating and vigorous thoughts and ideas to work with excellent finally as the board discusses how to proceed with the sro contracts and we're going to do that with a clear vote at the end of this i would like to express one more important thought this year has challenged the school district and this board in ways that i just simply could not have anticipated
086however through it all and through every discussion one thing has stood out on this school board we have worked incredibly together as a community and as a board we simply do not always agree on everything this particular group of board members treasures and honors our differences our board members have maintained a sense of unity through difficult decisions and through every vote as a board we have supported one another at all times no matter how different our opinions are and tonight will be no different i would like to thank to ask that the community understands and appreciates this and i would like to ask that all those of you who are passionate about this issue take heed please undertake to engage with us productively and positively as we work towards the common vision of educating every
087kid safely and equitably having said that i'd like to begin this agenda item by first opening up a few comments from other board members prior to fully uh delving into emotion so with that i would ask for comments and i'll turn it over to you naomi thank you i'd like to clarify some of the misunderstandings that have been floating around about how this issue came to be discussed today at psd it seems like there are members of the community who believe that the discussion of law enforcement in public schools is somehow connected to the civil rights movement that have gripped our country for the past year and certainly the voices of our community have been amplified during this time the questions about what it means to involve policing in schools have been around for as
088long as there have been police in schools a june 2018 article by the urban institute suggests quote proponents of police in schools argue that police create safe spaces for students to learn and deter students from crime and other problematic behavior critics argue that police in schools do little to deter crime and can criminalize students for behavioral issues that police are ill-equipped to address it's also important to ensure that the community understands that this is not an anti-police movement we all acknowledge that there are times when schools and citizens would need law enforcement intervention and support the question before the school district is do we need the presence of law enforcement in our school buildings the rationale for school resource officers tends to center around the desire for safe and secure schools security is always something
089that i and the board take very seriously i could use this time to share with you the facts from all the studies that have been done over the last several decades that demonstrate the rarity of school shootings the fallacy of police stopping school shooters or the research that has been done around preventing school shooting by providing adequate mental health access and support but i know that none of these facts and statistics will erase the way you felt on the day you got the news alert about sandy hook i was actually teaching that day and i was on my planning block when i read that report like most teachers my mind immediately began to run through the steps i would take to protect my students from an active shooter up to and including using my own
090body as a shield my thoughts then shifted to my own young children and how to make sure that they would always be safe i understand that fear and i acknowledge that voice coming through in the survey completed by members of our community this spring that showed our community feels like sros are important to school security the cac also heard and acknowledged that concern and wanted to ensure that the public could continue to feel safe by proposing the liaison model for psd's interaction with police services this type of partnership would allow law enforcement to respond to emergencies quickly while not embedding police officers in schools the recommendation that law enforcement not be embedded in public schools came together with the realization that there are unintentional negative consequence associated with policing students the board has received many
091emails with varying opinions on this matter one email asked me to consider who i would call if someone was trying to break into my house the police or a teacher and certainly in this scenario i would call the police because the situation rises to the level of needing law enforcement intervention however if my children were yelling at me or yelling at each other i would not call the police to come to my home because it would not be appropriate to involve law enforcement in that interaction according to a justice policy institute report published in february of 2015 quote when a school allows a school resource officer to arrest a student or less drastically and more commonly refers a student to law enforcement or juvenile court as a form of discipline they're turning that student over
092to the juvenile justice system this makes it much easier for a student to get a juvenile record so even if punishment for the first offense is light punishment for the second offense is likely to be much harsher one of the things we learned this year is that situations like this are happening to children in our schools these are primarily low level offenses that can and should be dealt with by school staff and not police officers the reality of embedding police officers in schools is that children who act out are being exposed to criminal punishment where school discipline would have been more appropriate this is not just my personal opinion the cac had members of law enforcement present at one of their meetings and the officers agreed that sros are involved in many disciplined situations where
093they should not be this is not a criticism of the sros sros are not security guards or teachers or counselors or principals they are police officers so they are doing the job of a police officer a june 2020 npr article states quote still research doesn't definitively show sros are effective at improving school safety the good news is that there are evidence-based alternatives these include restorative justice programs a program called positive behavioral interventions and supports and having mental health counselors and other support staff available when students are acting out research by the u.s secret service shows these interventions designed to build trust between students and adults can also prevent gun violence and mass shootings by making bystander students more likely to speak up if a classmate is making threats to others or is suicidal i do
094not accept that the best we can do is for most people feeling safe while some children are victimized i encourage the board to consider alternate forms of contracting with law enforcement to deploy restorative justice practices district-wide and to commit to stopping the criminalization of children in pooter schools thank you thank you naomi nate go right ahead well naomi's statement causes me to reflect on when i was a young lawyer working for a judge in kodiak alaska and i drafted an opinion for him to consider and he said i agree with your analysis but not your conclusion so i agree with much of what naomi said and now i'll read my statement thank you president feb and members of the board we know from the work and thought and sincerely held rationale that has come from
095the community students parents cac members law enforcement and importantly to me teachers staff and administrators in our schools that this is an important issue it's a sensitive subject as ms johnson stated earlier tonight and it's one that despite some strong words in a decidedly uncivil and disrespectful discourse from some folks just might not have one right answer this is how it works though in this messy experiment called representative government the people have continued to have their say reasonable minds can differ i counted 33 emails on this subject today as of about one just today as of about one o'clock p.m we had 23 community comments on this subject tonight and about an equal number two weeks ago and many more many thanks to the cac members for their hard work and what was a tough
096assignment all of the input has been very helpful i think the central question to be answered excuse me is how do we best provide adequate safety and security in our schools at this point in time evaluating all the information my view is that the public interest is best served by the presence of law enforcement in schools several of the recommendations in the cac report can be reflected in the contracts and the standard operating procedures governing the sro program i think that the roles and purpose of sros can and should be clarified and improved i think we can make the program better and i think that the school district should have a role in hiring an sro at each location where where they will serve and if the fit is not right the district should have
097the ability to remove any particular sro i think that should be written into the contracts and if not agreed to in the negotiations with any law enforcement agency then the district should provide csos the non-post-certified officers at those sites instead of contracting with that agency i think the presence of full standard issue police uniforms is not necessary in schools a service belt vest but not a tactical vest and polo type shirt could be more conducive to the educational environment in which sros serve i think blue lives matter regalia and face masks are not appropriate in the schools some think they're like a poke in the eye and some think they're downright intimidating we do need mental health supports in our schools which we recently increased as a result of the voter approved mill levy 4a
098in 2019 but more mental health supports is no good substitute for school safety and security in my mind we need both we also need to continue to look with a critical lens at the outcomes of our school discipline system and potential biases that affect it contrary to one of the conclusions in the cac report i think security is improved by sros being visible to and building relationships with students and staff sros can play a role in presenting to student groups about safety and agreed upon topics effective communication is key especially between the sro and staff in the buildings it's part of the concept of community policing building good relationships helps keep our campuses as safe as reasonably possible all of that is not to discount the perspectives of our community members who are black indigenous
099and people of color we hear of incidents where public interactions with law enforcement did not go well we might have experienced such an incident ourselves we might have opinions on other incidents we hear of a close relative of mine recently opined to me in a very vigorous manner their perspective on the officer chauvin trial up in minneapolis and stated that they thought that the officer was not at fault and should not have been convicted and that the evidence presented was all wrong and i don't know how they can conclude that but i just have to say reasonable people can differ and we don't have all the facts but we can do better and demonstrate on a daily basis that we each have a role to play in educating each of our children every day keep
100us sros in schools improve on the roles that they serve for our community thank you for listening thank you nate other board members want to speak now i can also get a motion but all right go ahead dj okay first off i want to make it clear that this is not a simple issue there is no one great answer to this situation it is not as easy as shall sros be in the building or not there are changes that must be made no matter what the disciplined data that is mentioned many times in people's arguments about this subject is a great example of something that is internal that psd must look internally at its processes policies and procedures when disciplining students and improve we must have those tough individual conversations to root out biases unconscious
101or not i i wish there was a decision i could make that all 100 percent of the students in psd felt safe in our school buildings with that not being a possibility i feel that i must make a decision that will make a majority of the students parents staff students parents and staff feel safe which is to keep sros in the building as long as psd and the law enforcement agencies are able to agree on a contract and standard operating procedures for improvement i just want to make a quick touch on a few topics that have been widely discussed with the sro issue there was a lot of talk about using money for mental health services while i have continually pushed for more mental health services in the district even before i was on the
102school board i have thought this argument a little silly if we did not partner with law enforcement agencies for the safety and security we would need to spend more money in some way for safety and security on a side note we do spend about over 15 million dollars on mental health counselors already in psd we take it seriously and we do want to keep improving on that i've said many times i don't want our students to feel like prisoners i don't want to see 10 foot fences with barbed wire metal detectors or multiple armed guards i believe it's important that we have a balanced approach to safety and security i believe we have done a good job with our building entrances cameras and procedures to secure the safety of our students i feel the partnership
103that we have with law enforcement agencies has been a good financial fit for us to be able to to be able to have trained security in our buildings the data shared by groups wanting to remove sros that sros really do not make the school safer is forgetting one important factor the human factor as humans we think of the what-if situation a lot what if a gunman came into my child's school what if what would you as a parent feel would you as a parent feel a tad bit better knowing that a police officer was in the building i relate this also to just the powerball why do so many people play the powerball that the numbers tell us that we're not going to win but what if until we find another way to address safety
104and security concerns i feel the sros are the logical answer i feel like it gets lost many times during our discussion of sros is that we're talking about people and i i want to take a moment to acknowledge that most these individuals that sign up for a job in law enforcement are doing the job for the right reasons they're doing a good job and they're doing it for the right reasons they want to serve our community that being said i do believe law enforcement agencies need to change some of their policies procedures and training this is something as a community we need to work together to change want to take i want to thank the cac for their many hours that they spent doing diving into this tough subject while i do not agree with
105all their conclusions i appreciate their thoughts and debates that the group went through to get to their conclusions and i do encourage everyone to take the time to read through this report so you have a better understanding of of the many issues of having sros in our buildings creates besides safety and i asked i'm gonna go off script here a little bit but i also have been really disappointed a little bit on people staying in their bubbles too much and listening only to their their bubble of influence uh these people they volunteer their time they they took the energy to dive into this and i don't think it's fair for some of the criticism that they have received i appreciate the time and the thought that they put into these things and i think if
106you can step back a moment and at least see what their issues are i think that can help us go forward i also appreciate the no more srr group that started off this conversation over a year ago they brought important information to the board attention and i think there has been some good change that psd and law enforcement agencies made to the standard operating procedures last year and i hope that we can continue to build on that some of the expectations for moving forward some of my expectations is a better defined role for law enforcement in schools continued improvement of data collections so that we have a clearer picture of what they're are involved with broader training district-wide so they we have a more consistent usage of our sros throughout the district improved accountability system
107i also believe that's important that the district has more of a say in the hiring and placement of officers i think it's important that we are looking for the right characteristics for these officers to be in our buildings i feel okay with most of the cacs law enforcement should not have a role in ideas except for the ones that i mentioned last meeting building relationship with students and responding to suicide threats are two that i do see a role for police officers being in lastly i want to to say that this is not a done deal after this decision we want beta better data so that we can track continually and i i plan to be on the board for a few more years and so i guarantee you i will keep an eye on
108this and i hope that we can continue to get better thank you thank you dj all right who'd like to go next kristen go ahead okay thanks um firstly i would like to say thank you to everyone who participated um by filling out the surveys um sending in comments um by email coming and speaking in person um and especially to the cac who donated so much of their time two hours every thursday night from about mid-november until about two weeks ago and this was not an easy topic so i just want to say a heartfelt thank you to everybody in the cac this is a difficult and complex topic and i appreciate those of you that have had the civil and productive conversations while we may not always agree it is important to have these
109difficult conversations in our community and to make sure that we hear and to listen to the voices that make us see different perspectives we are all thinking of safety of our students including sros and members of the cac what i discovered while reading the surveys and the cac report is a lot of common ground many of the recommendations the cac made were reflected in the survey results as well and there are many recommendations that psd can and should improve upon along with the cac the family student and staff surveys the focus group of sros themselves found that there were areas the sros didn't want to or need to be involved in such as discipline matters code of conduct matters mental health matters and mental holds mental health holds the sro cac and survey results when
110asked also supported working against the school-to-prison pipeline connecting students to needed resources such as restorative justice or diversion programs instead of getting involved in the criminal justice system sros fully supported the new standard operating procedures and a transparency of discipline data much of the disparate discipline data that has been cited is a problem psd must look at and solve to that end here are the changes i am asking for based on the survey and the cac report psd can no longer tolerate discipline behaviors being elevated to quote referral to law enforcement esro should never be used as a disciplinarian sro should not be administrating administering formal school disciplines such as detention suspensions or expulsions these decisions are solely the responsibility of the school personnel psd must show accountability for our discipline data including referrals to
111law enforcement restorative justice and diversion programs and present the data to the public at the board of education meetings psd must look inward to our own biases as it is currently doing with its equity diversity inclusiveness work and make those necessary changes the relationships between sros and psd staff and students needs to be improved by clarifying our own sops what's in them what accountability they require and how staff and students know and understand them psd needs to be consistent and clear and transparent to staff and to students where sros are to be involved and where they are not in regard to drug offenses psd needs to look towards restorative justice and diversion type programs with administration before using sros all psd deans and administration must be trained in this psd should look for help with
112the fort collins police department when it comes to where the line is on something like intent to distribute versus personal use and that sort of thing and then we can insert those into our sops sro training needs to happen in conjunction with psd administration not in isolation and must include anti-bias training students should be allowed to opt out of a class if and when an sro or police officer is teaching it as long as they get the appropriate material to cover what they missed psd needs to do a complete review of the code of conduct psd needs to be involved in the hiring evaluation and removal process of sros based on school fit and accountability psds sro and psd and sros need to continue to work with the 10 of staff and students who don't
113feel safe in a school with an sro we need to continue this conversation work towards making everyone feel safe estero should be used as a last resort as suggested by the cac and the sros themselves from mental health matters including mental health holds there is also a narrative of mental health versus sros which i feel is a false dichotomy even if we were to remove sros from buildings we would still have to pay for some sort of security what is clear is that we need to have more mental health and wellness opportunities for our students regardless of the sro decision social workers school counselors school psychologists partnerships etc unfortunately we live in a society where we need to have law enforcement provide an emergency response to violence inside or outside of our schools and or
114to investigate crimes with a victim such as sexual assault i would prefer these law enforcement officers know and understand our sops know the school administration and the expectations of the school in the district learn from the school the child or family's specific needs and work with the school as a team to find the best solution for the child or family sros are not just trained in adolescent behavior and mental health they specifically ask to work with children and need to have a background in it they receive training in the adolescent brain mental health and intervention restorative justice training at risk youth and trauma threat assessment training school law and juvenile justice system juvenile sex assault training juvenile sex trafficking cyber crimes and sexting truancy and juvenile delinquency concerns briefings at columbine otherwise known as mass
115shooting debris mass shooting debriefs single officer tactics training ferpa iep and 504 training basic 40-hour sro training well i believe all officers should have these trainings this is beyond the control of the board of ed what is in our control is having officers with this training and who understand what is expected of them how to treat students and having an opportunity to review and hold them accountable in conclusion this is a complex issue what i am looking for is a reworking of the sops to include accountability not only for the sros for psd as well it is our job to make sure the sops are being followed then look at the data and make changes as necessary again i want to share a huge thank you to the csu members who put in so much
116time and effort into that cac report you've shown us that there is much work to be done at psd concerning equity in discipline curriculum school culture and climate and more your work will continue to make psd a better place for all students thanks also to the students the parents the staff for filling out those surveys writing emails and again coming to speak tonight thank you thank you kristen carolyn yeah and so that i don't be redundant i think i'm going to keep my um comments short because a lot of um of the things that have been said um i do agree with i agree with you um that that we can do a bet a better job and um so i'd just like to start my remarks tonight by thanking the community for the many
117emails you have sent to the board regarding sros and schools and and to the cac for the report to the board i was also like to thank dwayne schmitz for the community survey presentation which was very helpful to the board i feel a diversity of viewpoints were presented to the board and i appreciate every i appreciate everyone's work and efforts after considering the many viewpoints and data presented to the board i have decided to support keeping sros in our school with continued monitoring and adjustments as the board sees necessary there were many compelling stories and data to consider and this was not an easy decision for me however i do believe this is the right decision currently and some factors i have considered but not just exclusively were the timeliness of law response the timeliness
118of response by law enforcement having an sro is a partner who knows the children and the staff they are serving feedback from principals and staff in schools sro responses to hundreds of calls each year during and after school hours which will not be going away the ability to improve our partnership going forward with the sros the ongoing need for security regardless of whether it is a trained officer or hired security guards in which case i prefer a trained officer the identified need for school staff to receive training on when it's appropriate to refer students to law enforcement i think we have a lot of room for improvement there i think kristen said it best that that we can improve that we do see that a lot of our problems might be self-made and that we
119do need to look inward finally i want to share that i found the arguments against keeping sros and schools compelling even though i have decided to keep sros and i too heard one concern that that if we did not have sros we could have we could use the money spent on sros to get much needed mental health services for our students unfortunately if we do not have sros we will need some sort of security and that money would likely go to hiring some sort of private security which i have already indicated i do not support i feel we need mental health supports and security not one or the other i am encouraging the board members the superintendent and the staff to reach out to our community partners in new and robust ways to create new
120and diverse access to mental health supports for our students and our families and so that's thank you thank you carolyn go ahead rob all right uh to begin my remarks i need to acknowledge the national situation in which we have found ourselves over the past year from the appalling murder of george floyd through some inspiring and thought-provoking work by the black lives matter movement and others this has been a difficult but necessary year of reflection for some and a year of hope for change for others this national situation has led to local self-analysis and conversations in many churches civic groups and neighborhoods and of course in psd about institutional racism and bias as it relates to psd some have concluded from all of this analysis and discussion that we should remove sros from schools and
121have clearly and articulately advocated for their conclusion it is equally clear that there are many including many in the bypoc community who believe passionately that sro should remain in our schools and have advocated for their position both by expressing safety concerns over their removal and by describing positive and in some cases life-changing for the better interactions with sros in fact based on what i have seen from the cac survey our emails and the connection survey we do annually a majority of our parents students and educators including majorities of our bipoc community believe sros should remain in schools or at least are comfortable with them there the cac survey indicates support again including among the bypak community for their positive work in school safety and school climate i would be lying if i said that this
122did not factor into my thinking however the fundamental basis for my thinking and decision is my analysis of our discipline data which has been so often cited as a reason to remove sros when i look at that data i see some significant disparities by race in all types of discipline not just referral to law enforcement or sros and importantly i see that there is significant variation in these disparities from year to year by socioeconomic status and most significantly by school bottom line i do not conclude that we have a problem with sros i see we have a problem with how we that is psd administer discipline including but not at all limited to referrals to sros that is on us and it is up to us to change it given all of that here is
123where i come down on the questions that face us today i support keeping school resource officers at the current levels inside the schools the work of this year and of the cac has yielded some important insights however that must also be part of our next steps the contracts with law enforcement going forward must give psd the final say on who gets to be an sro in one of our buildings and must allow psd to remove an officer from the sro role and request a replacement if after consult consultation with law enforcement agency psd determines he or she is not a good fit for such duty in our schools we must have a clearer understanding with our administrators and staff about what is legitimate to refer to an sro and what is not and we must
124have strict accountability for those decisions i would look for there to be a discipline matrix where some things clearly must be referred to law enforcement some are not allowed to be referred and must be handled by administration and some are a matter of discretion that discretion will however be monitored to understand whether it is being abused and whether the categories need to be changed there must be co-training annually at least with sros and administrators together so that all parties are clear hear the same thing and thereby can help hold each other accountable the clearest change to me and how psd handles discipline is that minor code of conduct violations should never involve an sro that is the job of administration and we must handle it next when we look at what infractions students are referred
125to law enforcement we find that around half of them regardless of race are for drug and alcohol violations that is very concerning and i'm not sure serves our students well the cac has recommended that we stop referring minor drug violations to law enforcement this seems like a pretty complicated topic involving questions of what drugs in what quantities constitute minor violations and whether and how often a student is a repeat offender my preference here would be to get student users help and to use restorative justice practices rather than send them to law enforcement vaping not including drugs should be treated as a tobacco offense i am asking the administration working with law enforcement to come back with a plan for how to better address the issue of drug use in the standard operating procedures in the
126area of mental health issues including suicidal ideation i believe that we should lead with our mental health professionals and our community mental health resources sros should generally not be involved unless absolutely necessary again however this is complicated and involves for example questions of imminent harm to self or others further i do not understand all the legalities of mental health issues including for example mental health holds and again therefore i am asking the administration working with our mental health teams to come back with a plan for how to better address mental health issues and limit or eliminate the involvement of sros in this area also i agree conceptually with a couple of other key recommendations the cac made namely that risk assessments should be done initially by psd staff and sros called in only if necessary
127and that minors should not be questioned in the presence of law enforcement unless a parent or legal guardian is present i would be open to the idea of an annual presentation of student rights in their interaction with law enforcement but only if it is a joint presentation with psd administration a rights group and law enforcement we must also have a reporting mechanism for students staff and sros to let psd know when something is not right with an interaction with an sro and psd administration needs to commit to following up on these reports you may be surprised that i would say that sros should be able to report into this mechanism but we have had informal communications from some sros that they have been concerned about being asked by administrators to do things that are outside
128the scope of their responsibilities as outlined in the current standard operating procedures those kinds of concerns just reinforce my view that removing sros is not the solution to our discipline disparities more broadly it is my firm belief that in all matters of discipline whether involving sros or not we should be leading with and striving for restorative justice practices whenever possible psd must ensure that all administrators in our schools are trained asap in these practices and that we hold the team accountable for using them one other point i need to address here is that i believe that given we would already have sros in our schools for safety and security having them build positive relationships with students and staff within the parameters we are describing is a good thing and helps break down stereotypes and create
129understanding and respect between law enforcement and the people they serve these relationships and the accompanying inside knowledge are also critical when law enforcement does need to be involved in an emergency or in any other situation as a small piece of that relationship building i have no problem with sros being invited to give safety talks in classes with the proviso that parents can opt out their students to conclude i acknowledge that my views and eventually my vote will be a disappointment to those who believe sro should be removed from schools i hope also that you will see that we are making some important changes in policy and practice in response to the concerns that have been raised you should also know that we will be transparent about and accountable for those changes having put those changes
130in place we will see how they affect the disparities and other concerns that have been raised and we will respond to what we learn as necessary and appropriate finally i want to say that there are many other aspects of equity beyond discipline and sros these are captured in our equity promises outlined earlier this year as part of those promises and coming out of this year of covid and sro study we must refocus our attention on the broader questions of teaching and learning which is after all why we exist there are important disparities there which require our energy and devotion our students and families are counting on us to address them and thereby help to lift all students to greater success thank you thank you rob with that um there be a board member we'd like
131to make a motion at this time nate i move that based on all of the direction given by board members that the board directs staff to negotiate contracts with the three law enforcement agencies and bring them back to us to be effective for the 2021-2022 school year and i also have something else i was going to add but we'll get that motion on the table i have a second for that motion okay i have a second from dj anderson are there any questions or comments amendments anything like that and i'm going to warn you i'll read a little bit of a statement as to how i'm going to position myself before i launch it to a vote so are any other board members wanting to comment or alter the motion as it's been stated nate
132i did want to say that in my view public opinion is instructive and informative but in not in my mind determinative i think if we wanted to just base this decision on public opinion yes or no on sros in schools we could have sent out that survey and just acted based on that survey but i don't think that's the right approach we heard a lot of nuance in what board members stated and considered and there's a there's a theory in political science that an elected official might be a delegate which is who is elected just to carry out the will of the majority opinion or a trustee who's elected to exercise independent judgment or somewhere in between often referred to as a politico and i think it's a blend of both of those things i
133don't think that the public elects us to necessarily always follow the majority opinion because the majority opinion may not be in the public interest and they don't necessarily elect us to be a trustee and exercise independent judgment uh without considering public opinion so it's one factor that we considered but it did not determine my views on the subject and i think we heard some of that tonight both in the public comment and in the comments by board members so thank you thanks nate that's great comments actually i think um speaking of the fact that the current motion is as it is but the the year that we've all put in uh i in my time which is now over eight years on the board i've never spent so much energy thinking about an issue and
134the the deep nuances that there are around the the discipline question and bias and equity so it's been a really important fruitful year thank you uh other comments go ahead carolyn and i would just like to remind everybody that tonight when we vote there are going to be some people that are not going to be happy with the vote and i would just like to encourage the community to be civil in their disagreements and their responses um i think that we all have been called every name in the book and been gotten letters laced and emails laced with the f-bomb and been called the c-word and that is never helpful for public discourse and i'd like to see that that this conversation continue even after this vote tonight in a civil manner and i think
135that's what's most helpful for the community is civil discourse and that like nate said you know people can disagree it's so it's okay but um it's how we disagree and how we move forward that's important as a community nate and i i reflected when we got called the c word in a email that i haven't been called the c word since junior high dj i just want to remind people again too that this is an ongoing subject and and as much as maybe even us would like to say that we can just put it to bed it will not be it's something that we'll continue to watch and continue to try to get better and try to make this a better place for all students so i just i think it's important to look at
136the long range aspect of it too so thanks okay kristen yeah and just to throw out there i mean we are a learning organization that is what we do and so we are learning about these things um as we go and we'll make adjustments as we learn um and as we need to and i just want to um reiterate with carol instead of you know there are going to be people who are disappointed with the vote tonight and there are people who are very happy and they're here's going to be everything in between and what we need to do is still have that civil discourse and to learn from what is out there and just keep keep making it better we're here to make this better for students that is our job so everything that
137we are talking about will make psd better for our students excellent maybe i should uh stake my position i i tucked it in at this point because i was kind of thinking of the organization and the meaning so i'll just go ahead uh for uh one last time read a written statement so based on about 11 000 responses as we've all talked about from a survey prepared by the district cac data is pointing to a community that feels very strongly in favor of the sro program very importantly to me in this question the responses from the respondents who identify as bipoc were at least as positive in their stated positivity so this was important in my decision to vote in favor of proceeding with the negotiations with the three law enforcement officers tonight my vote
138with my vote i'm being very careful not to make decisions for the bipac community that does not reflect the data we have from the bipod community that was important i'm being very very careful in considering a program that has been built up by our community over the course of a couple decades or more and including uh decisions and dollars that were added to the program in just the last few years as many of us on the board recall 70 to 80 percent of people who responded to this survey expressed a desire to see the program continue while fewer than 15 percent expressed any sense that the sro program is not needed at this time while i personally do remain very open to a future in which the district would have no sros in the schools
139i would expect changes to such a well-received community developed program to be part of a clearly stated vision for the future with the solid plan for convincing the broad community that is the right thing to do and that there are appropriate safety measures in place to replace the current program so i that's been one of my concerns is we need a vision that we should lead to with tonight's vote i would like to begin the process as many of you stated to solve problems that can be discerned in the system and the data clearly points to needing work extensive data tells us that there are kids in need of support unfortunately clear data also tells us that there is bias in the system not just in learning outcomes but in discipline there are discipline outcomes
140for students that are simply unacceptable to me these need to be addressed and this here has provided the board and the staff with the momentum to make changes we need to continue building the supports in the community around our families with the greatest need we need to provide the supports for our students who most need them and when they show up in our buildings we need to train ourselves all adults in the system to see kids as kids and kids as students and to eliminate the barriers that bias creates we need to turn from punitive and detrimental discipline to restorative practices that teach kids and help students learn we need to work with the community and the many community partners to build a better environment from inside our buildings to the world outside our buildings
141in short we need to work together towards a cohesive and productive environment where every kid feels safe and secure in their learning journey i very much appreciated the fort collins police chief swabota's comments to the board at our last meeting i feel that every voice counts when we're talking about safety and security and he made that point we must actively and aggressively aim to be a school district where every kid and adult feel safe in the buildings nobody not even three percent of respondents should feel that they are not safe and secure in our buildings or that an sro is making them feel so so we need to work on that today's vote is coming with the statement of values from board members that we will expect to see expressed in the uh contract in
142the sop with our three uh police departments i certainly hope that fort collins police chief subota larimer county sheriff smith and timnith police chief jones are fully committed to a common vision that includes security for all a kid focus restorative practices and full accountability that being said from the negotiations i would like to see the school district as the organization with the singular mission of educating children and the deepest understanding of children to maintain the last measure of which adults are in our buildings it's been stated several times by more board members moving forward and looking first inwards into the district i would like to see vigorous and continuous improvement on discipline programs that includes restorative practices i would like to see a rapid improvement on the data that shows bias in the system and
143i would like to see a growing sense of urgency and building more social and emotional supports for our students from our community i would like to ask for a continuing and well-nurtured partnership around educating students supporting their needs and building further towards a truly equitable education and society for all i do view this is much more than just a school district problem we're working on it's something we need to partner with in our in our full community please help this board and staff build towards this vision and that will conclude my comments and hopefully that makes my vote clear any final comments before i ask for a roll call vote okay dj okay uh jill would you please proceed with the roll call vote dj anderson aye nate donovan hi kristin draper aye christoph fev
144hi naomi johnson no rob patterson aye carolyn reed aye motion passes 6-1 excellent so uh to conclude thank you board members thank you staff uh there was a lot of work that went in so thank you to you scott john mckay matt bryant all the others who helped with the cac i know there and i may be missing some names but thanks for all that work and thank you to the cac members and again thanks to the community for all the voices that came out i mean those emails the people outside tonight the voices we've heard throughout the community comments incredible well done and and the subject is is not concluded it's just proceeding on to the negotiations all right so that concludes item 7.2 this evening and brings us to item 7.3 oh sorry
1458.0 informational reports and discussion items first up is 8.1 a budget update for today and i will turn this over to you dr lambert president feb thank you and thank you to all for that uh the comments and everything else i know those were a lot of months coming with all those discussions and i think everybody did a great job tonight so just from a staff perspective thanks for your candor the vulnerability it's much appreciated i think everybody heard loud and clear we have a lot of responsibilities to respond and take action be looking forward to beginning that work starting tomorrow morning so thanks again brett is back seems like brett never left uh for tonight's budget update budget director brett parsons will give the board up-to-date information and answer questions the board may have
146brett welcome we're glad you're here it's all yours thank you glad to be back so the update tonight will be very brief in comparison to what we've discussed the last several weeks and then brief compared to what we'll be discussing here in the next several weeks as we bring the proposed budget forward basically we're waiting on the the final pieces of school finance and everything from the capital to go to the process be approved etc and then finish up the rest of the expenditure pieces of the budget so looking at our first slide and talking about revenue the big the big piece of revenue outstanding is going to be school finance so we've talked in detail previously about the long bill it was passed it went back to conference committee which in this case is
147the joint budget committee for the long bill they hashed out the differences between the house version the senate version and it was sent to the governor for signature on may the 7th as of this evening it had not been signed yet but it has the information that our multi-year projections and preliminary budget are built upon which includes the two percent uh ppr increase tied to inflation the 480 million dollar buy done in the negative factor as well as the 10 million dollars additional that was appropriated for special education categorical which is outside of school finance but it is a categorical resource so those things are built into longville they are in our projections so we we expect those to happen and we feel good about that the third bullet point school finance this year is
148a little bit different as we discussed before just due to the break the legislature took and how long they have before they actually have to finish everything here in the last several weeks the jbc put excuse me not the jbc the general assembly website put out a full calendar for the remaining portion of the session and they're calling for school finance to be approved no later than may 26th and as of the last uh several hours ago they actually finally released it so it is the the school finance act it's senate bill 21 268 it was put on the general assembly website a couple hours ago and it mimics everything that we're already talking about so it talks about the two percent uh ppr increase for inflation yes that's minimum statewide total program the number
149is very large next year and remember the bill's statewide stuff none of this is district specific but it is 7.9 billion dollars statewide total program so pretty pretty sizable uh you know number and especially in comparison to the current year much more in line with where we were at two years ago looking at all the details i think there's 20 or so different sections and adjustments they're talking about in school finance itself the main items are some of it is just administration changing report deadlines for items like our annual transportation report minor changes and alternative count days for october account those are things that don't have financial implication they're just administrative in nature in regards to things that could have a financial impact a little bit of state grant change or changes to state grant
150appropriation like at a high level i saw two 2 million i think for the counseling corps grant as an increase so some of this stuff could benefit us outside the general fund some of it not so much so the big thing that's going to that's going to impact school finance within the general fund across the state and probably the number one difference i would say in this version of school finance than the normal version is traditionally in colorado at risk is defined as free lunch counts in some states in the nation use free and reduced and some issues free the school finance act includes language to also include reduced price in the at risk count as well as english language learners so there will be three items included in the at-risk definition now instead of
151just one that it was historically so where we're at so this mimics everything that we've done and talked about there's no detail run out at this time for us to actually compare rppr to what we're using but the real question whenever they do the full run is do those numbers and changes and at risk do anything to the statewide average how do we continue to compare to the statewide average and in the long term really do we continue to be a floor-funded district or does this here just increase the statewide average and we just continue to have the same conversation that we historically have about where we fall on the school finance spectrum as far as ppr goes um so that's really where we're at on that so we'll typically once it goes to this
152phase cde does an actual run it is no longer like in the legislative council will house it actually goes to cde they'll do a run here in the next couple of days we'll be able to compare that and that'll really kind of put the finishing touches on the revenue picture for the budget next year then additionally i just put a note in here too so we don't forget the para direct distribution payment is returning in the 22 22-23 fiscal year so that will return in our budget documents as we as we get a year out from now so looking at the next slide talk about expenditures briefly the main item pending in regards to planning for 2122 at this time is negotiations so hopefully we can get that wrapped up fairly quickly as soon as
153that's done we will turn turn the focus to basically converting the budget documents from the preliminary status to the proposed status for the second meeting in may and then prepare for adoption at the beginning of june so at this point you know we've talked a whole lot about next year and what it means and how we do that going forward i think a lot of our conversation this past summer are still relevant as far as we still don't know what the future holds we this year is a bad year for data in the financial sense because it's not a normal year we weren't in school all the time so a lot we've talked previously a lot of the changes we made this past year we still don't know the ultimate outcome yet so as we
154go forward next year i would anticipate more you know budget monitoring and probably hearing from us semi semi often just in regards to for the first half of the year specifically making sure we're on track for what 2122 brings and then before we know it we'll already be having this conversation for 22-23 so it mean you guys know how it works it happens pretty quickly um and then that leads into you know fiscal year 22-23 preparation it seems a long way away but it'll be it'll be november before we know it and that's when the governor's budget proposal comes out so we're only i guess six months away from really starting that conversation at the high level before we go into the detail uh going forward the last slide is just the timeline i mentioned
155the upcoming dates we have may 25th we plan to bring the proposed budget and then the budget for adoption on june 8th which mimics our historical adoption timeline so that's where we're at and uh looking forward to getting the the finishing touches put on the budget and working towards those deadlines shortly thank you brett questions go ahead kristen i just want to thank brett for getting us through that summer so quickly and right into the november so yeah good job can we please enjoy a little bit of summer i yes i encourage it but thank you thank you for keeping us up to date on this yeah okay carolyn yeah um brett i noticed that they you said the state had a lot of an extra 10 million dollars for and it's really if you
156think about it statewide it's not that much but i'm happy to see it for um children with special education do you know what the intent is of that money is there are there like do they have it like is it going to be really focused on something or is it just for the district to spend on special ed it'll be broad the the so i just use the rough math if we're three percent of the state you're exactly right 10 million dollars is a lot but when you really see what our portion will be it'd probably be 300 000 or so it'll come to us via the us but the state special education categorical revenue which is broad revenue that funds special education services within the district so it will it won't be highly targeted
157or it won't be like grant based to that high level of detail like you're referencing okay thank you dj with the new at-risk change is that going to be purely the october numbers or do they do any averaging because we're still worried about forms being filled out and stuff like that happening did that come across question no this is still based upon october account data so it is still a snapshot in time and you're exactly right it's great that their increasing the definition of that risk the the reality is reduced count comes off a form same as free count comes off of a form so the challenges in the struggle that we've already mentioned i believe are still going to be in play for that ell identification i would probably need to do a little
158more research on because that's not something we've been funded on historically in regard to school finance we probably need to see how that will play out in action and then uh secondly which i guess this probably doesn't matter since of your timeline but i did hear that they were going to try to extend when we had to make our budgets done did they not do that yeah it is one of the 20 some odd changes they have in the act so same as they did last summer um they we now have until the end of june to i think it's around june 20th somewhere around there we have that long to propose a budget and then you have to still adopt your budget by june 30th so we would have flexibility in regards to the
159actual adoption timeline if we did the proposal timeline if we needed to yeah but you're right on top of it so we don't have to worry about that i i aspire to not go to the end of june again yes i wondered if you could uh talk to us about the process for the school finance act um from now until it must be adopted and you said something about a cde run what is that and do the house education committee and senate education committees consider this or is it more of a jbc thing and then goes to the full house in the full senate no it is not in the jbc when school finance is introduced i forgot if the general assembly website said it was introduced and oh it's a senate bill so it
160was introduced in the senate it was assigned to send in education so from my memory don't quote me but from memory it goes through like first second third reading in the senate once they approve it will go to the house education same thing and then it goes to um i think it's like a floor vote of the the full the full chamber for both sides respectively okay in regards to the run what that means is for all modeling purposes for jvc purposes and for long bill development the legislative council does the runs there and they're a little more broad and not exact once it gets to this stage and it's actually in writing cde will take over and they will do an actual run based on the language in this document with the numbers that
161are in the document itself and that will be a full detail like i can come to you and say our ppr will be eight thousand four hundred eleven dollars and some odd cents so that's the level of detail we'll get to as soon as cde does a run and you said that's expected when or do we know not neces the timeline for it but typically i would say within two three days of the governor's proposed budget or school finance being introduced cde has a run on their website so it's a pretty quick turnaround okay thanks questions comments okay thank you very much for that report i think you're sticking around for this next one if i'm not mistaken so item 8.2 is a review of the board of education budget um i don't know if
162that's going up on the screen or not but board members have have that information in the packet i think this is just really there for questions if there are any go ahead naomi thank you so as i mentioned earlier dj and i are ecstatic about starting the student advisory council and we're going to need some financial support from the board of education budget in order to make this the best it can be we are thinking we'll need approximately twenty five hundred dollars to cover the cost of feeding the students once a month and having the linkage dinners that we've talked about with district personnel principals um area stakeholders and approximately twenty five hundred dollars to invite a subset of our group to attend the casby conference um it looks like it's gonna cost approximately four
163hundred dollars per student to attend the conference that should cover both the hotel and sharing a room with another student so we're looking at about five thousand dollars from somewhere naomi given that this year we went forty thousand dollars over budget i don't think we need to include it you can just all right are there any questions or comments regarding that uh ask from a board member go ahead dj yeah i just i remembered what the other thing i was going to say about that earlier was my one wondering was if we should because it seems like it would make sense to have a light item a line item for the student advisory council uh if if we're all agreement on that and but the the linkage dinner i wonder if that should be pulled
164out and put somewhere else depending it was the only thing so that's that's what i was thinking that i could remember earlier what's your thinking on that dj well because i about number wise yeah i didn't i didn't have that i mean when we did the 2500 at first we were figuring we did some pizza calculations and stuff we um averaged it out to approximately two and a half pieces of pizza per person in attendance plus we rounded up so i think we did like yes that this is brett's uh forte here and i i learned my lesson in front of you right now as embarrassing as this is that i did not reach out to the person who would have helped me with this the most um so we're we but we are thinking
165it would be around five thousand dollars for this for the uh the entire year to cover all the different parts yeah nate uh it's on a different aspect of the budget not that um yeah i general thumbs up from board members yeah do anything with motion or do we need that i don't don't think we would need a motion dave says no yeah i think we can just kind of find that okay um all right so i think you got a general thumbs up on that so we'll proceed with that and then go ahead nate looking at the discussion draft i see the need for all of these things i am wondering what the eight thousand dollars for transcription [Music] is is that uh salary salary and benefit for the transcription services is that transcription
166of like board minutes that would be jill that's true okay yeah i just it's a value if she's still right there behind me just wondering if there's any i wonder if there's any transcription other than sitting in board meetings and taking all these goofy notes and transcribing them is there are there other transcription services or is there nothing i'm aware of okay thanks yeah just board secretary work for the board meetings okay thanks rob so i don't have the budget in front of me because you know i can't use my face to open my ipad but wow thanks very much there you go all right all right so so what i what i wanted to understand was in travel as i thank you dj by the way uh traveling conferences shows up from budgeted last
167year ten thousand dollars is that what's the what's the basis for that is that because we down budgeted last year because correct so the historical budget for the board has been 138 000 we cut it to 128 000 in the budget cuts this last year we took that balance out of traveling conferences and the primary question i had for the board that director johnson already talked about is i'm assuming everybody's going back to casb casby's going to be normal travel and that will happen again so we thought it'd be appropriate to increase the board budget back to that amount and make sure the resource was there for the for the conference thank you for that clarification nate and we did a question that rob posed to me whether the casbie conference will be in person
168in december and i expect it to be there's some pressure because caspia has a contract with broadmoor that's more than one year and so as long as the public health people allow an in-person conference in el paso county it'll probably be in person so that's a yes okay um i had a question oh go ahead okay so um we do have the 5 000 boardroom technology budget is there anything that's in plan for that okay not that any chance we could get a larger screen there that would cost under five thousand dollars okay go ahead carolyn i know i've asked this question before and so how often do we go out and do an rfp for our like novus are we due for that we'll probably need to talk about that among staff we it
169sounds like we did that last time in 2008 um so we could we can we can talk about that amongst ourselves figure out what we need to do okay all right thanks dj and for i was wondering about the legislative coalition line what's what was falling under that line besides our lobbyist that's all that's in that line okay anything else so so if i understood correctly we're we're asking for that number to go up to 143 is that correct yes that's correct okay any other comments on the board budget okay thank you perfect thank you have a good evening that brings us to item 8.3 which is the 2021 or 2020 2021 school year update and i turn it over to you dr lambert thank you president fed providing tonight's update on the current school
170year our assistant superintendent of secondary schools mr scott nielsen and assistant superintendent of elementary schools dr tracy gow who's going first tonight guys i think tracy went first last time so i'll get i'll get out of the way first and hand it to tracy as we think about uh this is our last meeting during the school year next time i guess next time we come we'll have a half a day after that uh after our meeting so we're we're closing down my celebration or my uh sharing tonight will be about some of the close to normal events happening kristen i loved your statement to start tonight where you talked about it's almost hard to see some of the differences the kids are resilient and so are the teachers right they're really getting after it and
171so some of the things going on in the district over the last few weeks of school things like a games and simulation lock-in where they have protocols but they're doing some of the same activities they were doing prior to covid last spring end of the year awards are are beginning to happen there's plans at many sites to do those theater productions with limited seating eighth grade awards that many of our schools have plans some inside most of them outside um and it's changed dramatically just in the last couple of weeks with the new guidance we're gonna have lots of parents in many cases we'll have a couple of parents for each eighth grade moving on that will be able to do that we didn't see that as clearly just a few weeks back senior picnic
172at one of our high schools an eighth grade dance done the same way as our proms were done outside a film festival spring showcase of visual arts vocal music performances and student council end of the year banquets and we have some scholarship breakfast breakfasts coming up they'll be done differently than they have in the past but they'll be closer in moving us back toward some of the normal work and then as you all know we'll be spending some time together next week with several graduations um two on saturday two on friday um a couple of ceremonies two plus the ib convocation on thursday and so on so we'll spend some time next week all of those looking a little more um normal than they did last year all of them a little bigger ceremonies than
173they were a year ago and that feels a lot like progress albeit as naomi talked about cross fingers that we're able to get those in we're excited we think the weather is going to be fantastic so that's my update good evening dr lambert president femi members of the board similar experience at elementary just so um grateful for the joy and the creative experiences that staff are providing for students this spring particularly got to experience a couple of different eco-week experiences for our fifth graders and how they have really creatively used the community for some of those eco experiences took nature walks to spring creek gardens or twin silas park depending on the proximity of those locations to the school and then in partnership with laura grissom and the curriculum department as well as csu mountain
174campus there are some resources provided to teachers that they could design activities that students could participate in the classroom in one classroom at trout they were making pinecone bird feeders and talking about how to attract wildlife in their home to their homes not in their home oh my goodness but to their homes and to their backyards and so having some of those eco-week experiences right in your own backyard right and so those really innovative things you know out of necessity comes creativity and our staff has really um been committed to providing those experiences to kids this spring as well as some of the family events and laurel had a family event where they had food trucks and activity stations and all this was held outdoors and families were so grateful that they were crying that
175they finally got to meet you know tommy's mother and arrange a play date for their kids you know over the summer so all of those experiences are starting to feel like a very you know joyful positive ending to the school year and we appreciate all the staff for putting those together and seeing those through to end the school year on such an uplifting note great thank you are there any comments or questions go ahead naomi thank you so in the vein of some new and exciting openings of restrictions i was able to live stream fossil ridge high school's musical performance of the audrey little shop of horrors i'm having a night little shop of horrors and it was amazing i know that they were able to have a small group of um in-person audience members
176and i think that it was just awesome that they were able to live stream it for additional people who would not be able to attend i was also able to attend parts of the elementary district track meet at the district stadium and to whomever is responsible for putting that together it was run like a well-oiled machine so that all of the fourth and fifth graders from all of the district schools would be able to come and compete but it was in staggered times they had the entrances and exits organized they had spaces for families to sit and watch their students enjoy this great outdoor experience and i think that it is going to be just as great when we are able to have graduation there with just as beautiful weather thank you cool thank you
177other comments or questions okay thanks for the updates uh so that brings us to item nine which are the executive sessions for members of the public and if at least at one point it sounds like there were you know 200 people watching this meeting virtually that concludes the public portion of the meeting other than coming back out at the end to adjourn the meetings so with that i would take a motion for the first executive session go ahead naomi i moved that the board entered executive session for the purpose of developing the strategy of the school district for negotiations relating to the 2021-2022 collective bargaining agreement or employment contracts as authorized by colorado revised statute section 24-6-402 subsection 4e3 individuals invited to join the board and interim superintendent in executive session are assistant superintendents scott
178nielsen and tracy geil executive directors vicki thompson and dave montoya legal and policy council autumn aspen and board assistant secretary jill bruner thank you very much i have a second from nate donovan jill could you do a roll call vote please aye nate donovan aye kristin draper aye christophe aye naomi johnson aye rob patterson aye carolyn reed aye motion passes seven zero thank you very much okay we'll uh reconvene in executive sessions so uh nate are we gonna do the motion for the second one or are we not having a second one we'll come back we're we're gonna remain in this room so we'll be able to come back out come back out and do it then okay thanks okay okay it is 8 58 p.m and we are out of the first executive session
179and back into the regular meeting and i'm looking for a motion for item 9.2 which is conference with the school board's attorney for the purpose of receiving legal advice on specific legal questions a motion from nate please i move that the board enter executive session to confer with the attorney for the board for the purpose of receiving most excellent legal advice on potential litigation relating to a colorado open records act request as authorized by colorado revised statutes section 24-6-4 sub-paragraph 4-b and individuals invited to join the board and interim superintendent in executive session or legal and policy counsel autumn aspen and board assistant secretary joe bruner i think the rest of you can leave second from uh kristen draper and take a roll call vote please dj anderson i nate donovan hi kristin draper aye
180christophe aye naomi johnson aye rob patterson aye carolyn reed aye motion passes 7-0 excellent thank you we'll reconvene in executive session no i paused it [Music] i'm learning okay it is 9 21 p.m and we're back into the regular meeting and uh out of the executive session the last item this evening is adjournment we are adjourned at 9 21 pm you