001Well, thank you all for being here. Appreciate it. Uh, you want to do a call, a roll call, please? >> Mr. Chavez, >> present. >> Mrs. Cole, >> here. >> Mrs. Evansson >> here. >> Mrs. Heights >> here. >> Mrs. Woods is absent. >> The next uh could I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda? >> Motion to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Mr. Chavez, >> approved. >> Mrs. Cole, >> yes. >> Mrs. Evansson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Heights, >> yes. Then we will uh executive session pursuant to section 24-642 4B Colorado Revised Statute for conference with legal counsel for the purpose of receiving legal advice on a Pacific legal question specific to the discussion of the property of Fruda Middle School. The individuals that will be present is Jose Luis
002Chavez, board president, Andre Heights, board secretary and treasure. Vicki Woods, vice president. Barb Evansson, board director. Casey Cole, board director. Dr. Brian Hill, D-51 Superintendent. Uh, Miss Tammy Ever, D51, legal counsel. Mr. Clint Garcia, chief operations officer. And Miss Melanie Thorillo, chief financial officer. I have a motion and second to go into executive session. >> Motion to go into executive session. Yeah. >> Scratch Vicki. Scratch Melanie. >> With the exception of Melanie Trio and Director Woods. >> I don't know if Director Woods is going to be online or not. >> I don't think she is. >> No, Director Woods will not be online. >> Motion to go into executive session. >> Second approved. >> Thank you. approved. >> Mrs. Cole, >> yes. >> Mrs. Evansson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Heights. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >>
003Correct. >> Back into the second. >> Correct. We're good. Uh, we need to pursuant to section 24-6424H, Colorado Revised Statute regarding the matter of individual student for expulsion appeal purposes where public disclosure would adversarily affect the person or persons involved. Motion to move into executive session. >> Second. >> The individuals who will be at the executive sessions is Jose Lu Chavez, board president, Andre Height, secretary, treasurer. Barbara Everson, board director. Tamry Everett, legal counsel. Can we have a vote? >> Mr. Chavis, >> pre uh approved. >> Mrs. Evansson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Heights, yes. Mrs. Woods or Miss Woods is absent. Okay. >> [music] >> Evening everybody. Thank you for being here. Uh first thing we have is a budget hearing called to order. Uh I'd like to ask if anybody would like to come
004forward to speak uh regarding the budget. No. Uh so could I have a motion to adjourn the state budget hearing? >> Motion. Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Chavez, >> approved. >> Mrs. Cole, >> yes. Mrs. Evansson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Heights? >> Yes. >> Uh, Mrs. Heights, would you please do the pledge of allegiance in the pledge of allegiance? >> Please stand with us to the flag of the United States of America. to the stands nation. >> Director Cole, would you please read the car the Caribbean American Heritage Month statement? >> Pleasure. Thank you. Um whereas Caribbean American Heritage Month celebrates the celebrates the rich history, vibrant culture and enduring contributions of the Caribbean-Americans whose leadership, resilience, and achievements continue to strengthen communities across the United States. And whereas Caribbean-Americans
005have played influential roles in shaping our society, making significant contributions in education, business, science, healthcare, public service, the arts, and many other fields. And whereas June is nationally recognized as Caribbean-American Heritage Month, pro providing an opportunity to honor the diverse heritage and lasting impact of Caribbean Americans. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Mesa County Valley School District 51 Board of Directors recognizes June 2026 as Caribbean-American Heritage Month and encourages our district and broader community to celebrate the history, culture, and contributions of Caribbean-Americans to our schools, state, and nation. The next thing is we have bond projects and allocation of additional funds. Mr. Garcia, good evening board. Thanks for having us this evening. My name is Clint Garcia. I'm the chief operations officer for D-51. Tonight we have Eddie Mort, our facilities director, and Mr.
006Micah Adams with Dynamic Project Management. And we're going to talk to you tonight just an update on Central High School and the the progress of that project and just give you a um uh bond program financial position and where we're at financially. So, we'll go ahead and get started. >> Great. Um hello everybody. It's good to see you again. Uh once again, Micah Adams with Dynamic Program Management. Uh DPM being the owners rep for the school district on these bond projects. Um so as always, keep this slide at the front of these. Um just to get give an overview of the $190 million bond program, how it's getting split up between the different projects. Uh so no changes. Um overview of the Central High School project. Over there on the left you'll see um schedule.
007Everything's tracking well. Um there at the bottom you'll see the bar charts kind of showing how progress is going both as a percent complete of days and a percent complete of the the budget. Um you know dates uh getting close to 10% on both of those. uh that's expected to start accelerating here pretty quickly as uh work is is well underway and moving fast. So budget over there on the the right side um nothing has changed uh since last time we presented that there. Um so recently completed uh as you see in the picture there groundbreaking ceremony was about two weeks ago now. I think I saw most of you guys out there. It was a really exciting day. I think that everything went really well. Um it's just exciting to see things moving. So
008here uh we are on the south side of the building in that picture. Um the level area there is where the admin modulars are going to go for the next about two years. Um and then over in the left you can see um the construction fencing. That's where the athletic edition is currently underway. They've got deep foundations in place and are working on um the rest of the um foundation walls, underground MEP, everything like that. Um move out was completed of Feder Hall. That building is completely cleared out and um gutted. Um the abatement has been completed. Uh and I believe here as soon as the demolition permit is received back from the state, the south side of the building will uh get demolished. Um and you know by the end of July, the inside
009of the building is going to be put back in its uh final state so that um students can move in and and have classes there starting here um this fall. And we're not talking about Freedom Monument High School tonight, but I just want to add that we also had a groundbreaking for Freedom Monument High School. Uh both of these were were great. There was a good attendance for each of them. So, pretty exciting stuff. [snorts] >> Yeah, I couldn't have asked for better weather and um attendance was good. >> Oh, uh I did want to mention uh furniture procurement has also uh gone underway for Feder Hall. Um, just threw that in there. In progress. This is kind of a fun picture. Uh, if you know Central High School, well, this skylight may look familiar
010to you. It's in the old library there in Feder Hall. And so, you can kind of see uh everything torn out and um starting to get put back together. Um, design things in progress. you know, there's uh Verizon is continuing to work on their design for the new cell tower location. Um there's a roof replacement, HVAC replacement designs ongoing. Um and then constructionwise, I think I've hit on most everything there. The the big pushes are getting Feder Hall ready for students this fall and getting that athletic edition um ready for a dis a December uh turnover. Um, I think it's going to be ready right there in time for the Warrior Classic is what we're being told at the moment. And then getting those admin modulars ready out front. Upcoming things uh if modular admin
011modular delivery uh library construction here. These are some fun photos actually. You can see the old wrestling room top center uh has been cleaned out and that's where the temporary library is going to be. uh until the new um twotory edition is complete and then the library moves into there and then uh that area turns into uh the ROC classrooms. Um bottom left over there you'll see the foundations ongoing for the athletic edition. Bottom center you'll see the two what used to be the twostory locker room area completely completely gutted as well. Um, and that will be uh turned into restrooms. There's like a the MDF for it will be in there. A number of different things. And then on the right over there, some some pictures of deep foundations. Um, upcoming work. I think
012I I kind of hit on most all that stuff, so I won't read it line by line. Once again, uh just like to keep this in front of everybody, a floor plan of the first floor of the project. Um so you can kind of visualize what's going on. Um and then with this, uh Clint, is this where you want to take over? >> Okay, I'll turn it over to Clint. So, as we've worked through design and as we've worked through the early construction part of the process, um we've had an opportunity to kind of dig a little deeper into um what uh Central really needs and systems and infrastructure. And uh some of the items that I want to talk to you all about tonight are are items that we in um initially did not
013plan on doing work on um but have identified some areas that could really use um some uh some TLC and some repair. And um we have the opportunity right now through some savings through our phase 2 projects. We've already had um our GMPS um already done with our current um contractors. And so we know and have a a really good idea that we will be saving um $9.3 million in these phase 2 projects along with some additional bond proceeds that we'll be able to use to do some additional work um at Central High School. And so I just want to talk to you about those items and what those are. So um additional abatement is one of the areas that we want to to do some work on. This is something that really isn't uh
014uh an ad necessarily. These are things that we have to do. With the increased scope that we've uh had with this building, there is going to be some additional abatement work that has to be done. And so we're working towards getting that completed on the main building itself. There's a a a section of roof that needs to be replaced. Our intent was to put that off until later when we thought we had the money to do that. um with the funding that we currently have, we'd be able to take care of this now rather than come back later and make that happen. Boiler plant replacement. This is a a meeting that uh kind of caught my ear when we had a conversation about it. This is uh you'll remember Dr. Hills talked about Central High
015School being about the same age as Grand Junction High School, built in the mid to late 50s, both of these schools. And um this I could be wrong here, but this boiler plant is probably original to that building and is probably been repaired multiple times and the infrastructure surrounding it is probably been repaired a few times. And so this is an opportunity for us to take care of uh those fixes as well without having to come back. HVAC replacement. Again, these are uh HVAC units that we were thinking we were going to leave on the building, come back later, and then do replacements later. This is an opportunity for us to take care of those now. And then of course um with any new projects that you do, there's soft costs with architectural engineering fees,
016consulting fees, and then the contingency associated with that that would have to be added onto this project. And that's what that uh $16 million is. >> And maybe to add to that real quick, uh these were items that were all identified in the master plan as high priority needs in the building. um they just didn't fall into the scope of the project. If we look back maybe two slides, if you'll recall rec recall in the master plan, the idea was to had a two-story edition that was separate away from everything um and not really touch the existing buildings very much. Um and as Clint has said that this is an opportunity to really address some some high priorities that were identified there in the master plan that just originally weren't within the budget. Thanks, Micah.
017Yeah. >> All right. So, why now? Again, um the opportunity today is construction is already underway. We're already doing the work. Um this would just be an ad to the work that's already happening. Contractors are already mobilized. They're on site. They're ready to do the work. Um we'd have to do some design work, additional design work, but again, that's just comes with the territory. And then, um as always been mentioned, this is deferred maintenance. It's already been identified. We know it had to be done. we just have an opportunity to do it now. And then work again can be coordinated with the current project that's that's already underway. And then the benefits to the district are lower overall cost than future standalone work. If we have to come back and do this again, we're going
018to be paying mobilization fees, uh escalated costs on the project itself. Um those are things that we won't have to do um if we do it now. This reduces the reduct the disruption to students and staff. It's getting done all at one time. we don't have to come back again and try to make this work happen again. Then it protects long-term district assets, maximizes the value of the bond program overall getting the work done now. And separate to that, that's additional work. Um we uh you know, Dr. Hill has talked about uh adding athletic fields and improvements to the rest of our high schools. Grand Junction High School a couple years ago was fortunate enough to get artificial turf and track a new track on the on site and we also have an opportunity now
019to do that with the rest of our schools. So Central High School again we would start that project in tandem with the work that's already being done along with Palisade High School um also and Fra Monument High School would be receiving a new track and field um th that work would you know happen over the next couple years but we plan to to start the design and the work moving forward. Our estimated cost for those is about 3 to four million. We're not sure there's some additional um items that haven't been truly vetted out yet. So there's things like tying into storm sewer lines. This isn't a track that has water just to drain in the ground. We'd have to have water drain off to into a storm drain and we'd have to tie all
020of that in. Um and then just some other things. We've talked about infrastructure for the potential for lighting on some of these fields. So that's additional cost as well. So those are um costs that are unknown to us at this point. And I just jump in real quick. Moving forward, addressing Central High School's deferred maintenance needs now rather than later. And then moving forward with district athletic field improvements and then utilizing available bond capacity strategically now uh to get that work done and completed today. And then really preserving our interest earnings for any future unanticipated uh costs or cost escalations. Um we we feel like this is just a great opportunity to take care of it now and and um the timing is just perfect for us to be able to do that. All right.
021Any questions on that or the presentation with Central High School specifically? >> Hey Clint, can y'all hear me? >> Yes, sir. >> Hey, just real quick too on the on the track and field. I know I've talked to board members about this individually, but just want to remind folks that this is a you know, it's a topic that we've been discussing for uh actually for multiple years about needing these at the high schools. Um and as you mentioned earlier with the central high school needs, these are things that were identified in the facility master plan as well. We just didn't know that we'd have the funds to do it right away. Um and the reason why it's important to have those um all-w weather tracks in the in a turf field at all the high
022schools is you know we've heard from coaches ads students families just um for multiple reasons why we'd want this one being a safety issue. We have students having to get on the highway and drive to um Lincoln Park um field to be able to be at practices so they'd be able to hold practices and competitions there at their high schools. Um you mentioned already we were able to do junctions. This provides you know some equity opportunities for being able to have the tracks and the fields at all the high schools. Um and then also with our we hear a lot about our fall sports um with the grass fields. They they tear up the fields and then we don't have the opportunity to use those fields later in the year. So we can be able
023to provide the space throughout the year with the all weather or excuse me the turf fields. And then also we're having more and more um it's becoming challenging sometimes to be able to use space from our external partners just because you know field use is at a premium. So we can actually use the fields um at our at our high schools if we have those in the tracks at our high schools um instead of having to rely on some of those outside partners as much. Um we're hoping that maybe we'd be able to fit into I know we've talked about maybe putting lights at one of the fields just so we could be able to host some night games as well. So, I just again we're not looking for this isn't like a a vote
024from the board. We just want to be transparent about the UC's funds like the timing is right um with the other projects coming in under budget and so you know again shout out to Clint and everybody's worked on these projects to keep them under budget so that we can utilize these funds and stretch them further um it's a good problem to have and so we want to be able to do that now um while we can um with those available funds. So, just wanted to throw that in there. This isn't just this didn't just come out of nowhere. These are things we've talked about for years and now we actually have the funds to be able to do it. >> Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Hill. I I this is just a side note. I
025was just thinking about this as you're talking, but um with our water restrictions as well and some of the things that we're going through with with droughts. Um this is this aligns with some of the work that we're doing also with um doing some um zeroscaping as well and not having to water fields or grass. Um this is just that's just a bonus I think. So, any questions? >> I have a question. Um, when when you talk about uh doing the drainage for for the football, is there a a certain grade that you have to put in so that it doesn't uh so that like in 10 years it'll it'll still drain. >> Yeah, that's that's a good question. Micah might be able to give some more detail, but it is crested at the top.
026>> Yeah. And I believe that the field that we put in at Grand Junction High School has like an underfield drainage system. Um, and so you don't have to get a a real crazy crown on it, but that drainage system happens underneath the field. Um, and they almost build it's almost kind of like a bathtub in a little uh where it drains to uh per perforated pipes and takes it out into the storm system. >> Okay, great. Thank you. The other question I had is since you're not going to have it done like at Central 2028, couple years, how do you work uh with all the construction and students in the building coming and going? Just curious >> for the field or for the construction? >> No, ju just to go into Central High School.
027Uh if it if it's taking you till 2028 to be able to get it done and you're going to have construction work there. I just was wondering how students are going to be going to class and being inside the building. How is that going to be worked out? >> Yeah. >> I'm just curious. >> That is a good question. Is this a laser pointer? Potentially. Um maybe not. If you can Oh, here. This works well. So, um, over here at the athletic edition side, FCI will build, um, temporary partition right along here, um, running down this main corridor that separates students from the construction activity. So, this side over here will be fenced in and walled off so they can continue to work over here while students continue to ma uh maintain access through this
028central corridor. Uh going directly past the new admin modulars out front. Um and they'll be able to access most of the building as normal. um you know this work up here it's it's really phased and so it's hard to tell completely from this um map itself but a lot of this area will maintain um its normal access students will have to come through uh Feder Hall um to access the 300 building uh for the moment if that makes sense. Um, so FCI's got a really good phased plan that I can send you if that helps. It shows where routing um for the students will go uh partitions, fences to make sure students are safe while construction is happening. >> And I would say in addition to that, just the the plan, the phasing plan is
029pretty complex. This was a complex project for them. Um, and the last thing I wanted to say, I want to I think it's really a good idea that you guys are going to do the additional work now instead of having to go back and then tear down some other things and do it at additional cost. I think that's really good of you guys thinking and planning that out and and and and then going to make it work. I appreciate that greatly. >> Any other questions or comments? I just want to add real quick that also um Clint and the team have done a really good job with continuing to work with the administration at Central High School. So, Principal Hayward and all them have been a part of these conversations so they understand the plan
030for you know the construction that's going on. It's not ideal but um they're part of that process as well so we can make sure that we're keeping kids safe but we're getting the work done. So, I just wanted to shout out the admin team there too. I had one question about the um athletic facility improvements. So would that once those are completed because it's clear that we're going to be moving forward with that is how much would we save would that or would that change our contract with >> the field that we're using currently >> with Stoker Stadium? >> Yes. Would we save more off of that? Would that change our contract? How would that affect >> That's a good question and I'm not sure that would it it would affect us too much. What
031would it will give us the opportunity to do is allow for practice on those fields. We'll have uh it will reduce the time that we spend at Stoker for practices. Um but I'm not sure it'll reduce the cost overall for the usage. That's something that we'd have to have a conversation with the city of Grand Junction parks and wreck folks. >> Yeah, we we we use the we would not So that's a great question. we would not be able to host football games at the individual high schools just because we wouldn't have the bleacher space and also you know lights become an issue as well. So um we if competitions would be more of like maybe soccer games, lacrosse games, things like that. So I think we'd probably have more interaction with like CMU um
032because we use Unity Field a lot for some of those activities and now maybe we wouldn't have to utilize that as much. >> Yeah. Um, and but we'd still need to use Stoker for the football games and the band competitions and we've continued to have conversations with them to say that we still need to utilize that space for that even though I know CMU's um going [clears throat] to be taking over usage of of a lot of that. So, it's a good question. As much as we can though, we we would like to try to bring more and more sports and activities to the high schools instead of having to utilize the outside spaces. >> And the secondary gym is going to be used as a library. Did I hear that correctly? >> Yeah. >>
033The the former wrestling area right here >> will be uh used as a library until the twotory area is complete and this is where the the final library space will be. >> So I was just wondering then are you looking at you said uh for the Warrior Classic then are you going to consider moving that to CMU? So that will be >> more room >> the new athletic athletic edition down here. This new wrestling room should be done by then. So it should be able to accommodate. Um and I think the Warrior Classic actually uses these these gyms as well. Um but uh we're being told that we'll be able to have everything up and running to be able to use >> Thank you. >> those spaces. I would I would just um echo what
034President Chavez said, which is um I know a lot of times when you're already into the construction project, sometimes it's cheaper just to go ahead and get those things done. So, one, I'm glad we have the funds. So, thank you for um all the work that you guys' teams have done to save those dollars on all those projects. I know it's been a lot of work on the front end. Um and excited to see that roofs are a big deal because they can cause lots of problems if they don't work well. Um, so excited to see that we can just get the roof done and out of the way um while everybody's there and and um to President Chavez's point, we don't have to bring people back out, start another project, bring you know, we
035can just start doing it as we're as we're going along. And then I too think um to um Dr. Hills point, the more things that we can start to do on our campuses. Um I know sometimes we we do rent or lease space. But I think in in some ways um that's just going to help offset, you know, some of those monies too >> um for us to utilize our our campuses. >> And Eddie will be glad that it's not affecting his budget later. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Especially on the roofs and HVAC. >> Yeah. No. And I think just to streamline that. And so, um, you know, like I said, then we know all of our tracks are ADA compliant. They work with our special needs. Um, great for all of all of our
036sports for boys and girls. So, I think it's really exciting to see that. And then and then just the school itself to kind of I've got to see we well, we got to see some of the renderings at the the groundbreaking. So, it really exciting to see what is going to be there for the students. So, that's awesome. >> We're excited. Thank you. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you guys. >> And real quick, I just want to remind folks that how grateful we are of the voters who passed the 2024 bond because we would not be able to do any of this without voters passing that bond. So, thank you to our community. >> Definitely. Thank you, Brian. Next, we have Healthy Kids Colorado survey results. >> Good evening. Um, my name is Amy
037Zortman. I am the district wellness coordinator and with me is Dan Benell. >> Dan Benell, executive director of student services. >> We are here tonight to um to share uh some exciting um data that we have from our healthy kids Colorado survey. Uh with us tonight is Fran Taffer. She is with the Colorado School of Public Health and she will be presenting our data. So >> wonderful. Good evening. Can you hear me and see the slides? Okay. [music] >> Yep, we can see you. >> Excellent. Thank you. Um, well, good evening everyone. I am really thrilled to be here tonight presenting on the results of the D-51 Healthy Kids Colorado survey. Um, my name is Fran Taffer and I work for the Colorado School of Public Health. And my role at the university is to
038help school districts across the state participate in the Healthy Kids Colorado survey and also help them review and analyze the data. And D51 has so many fantastic data celebrations to share. So, um, this will be a really positive presentation. All right, here is our agenda. I'm going to briefly discuss kind of an overview of the Healthy Kids Colorado survey and the data and reports. And then we're going to look at four main areas. So, some protective factor data, well-being behaviors, which are behaviors like sleep and screens and exercise. We'll look at mental health, and we'll look at substance use data. Um, in each of these sections, I'm going to share the 2025 data and then I'll also share how this data compares to the 2023 data. All right. And a brief overview of the survey.
039Um, for those not familiar with the survey, the Healthy Kids Colorado survey is a statewide survey of 6th to 12th graders from uh public schools across the state of Colorado. The survey happens every other year in odd years, hence 2023 and now 2025. Um, the survey takes place online during one class period. The survey is completely anonymous as students enter no identifying information and we use very strict suppression criteria for any of our data reporting. The survey is voluntary at the family level, meaning that families and guardians can opt their students out. And it's also totally voluntary for students. Um so students do not have to participate in the survey. Um they can answer some of the questions, none of the questions, all of the questions. Um it's completely voluntary. Um Colorado School of Public
040Health selects a random sample of schools and districts to get a representative state sample. We'll talk about that in a moment. And in D51, your team has asked all secondary schools to participate, which is fabulous and leads to the really robust data set that we can review this evening. Um, a little bit more about the data. Um, students take the survey in the fall as I mentioned and then schools and districts receive their reports back um in the winter and the reports show um aggregated and anonymous data. So it's impossible to trace any student data back to the student themselves. The reports really focus on risk and protective factors for youth. Um and in this as as I mentioned D51 had a really robust data set in 2023 and now in 2025. So we'll be
041doing some comparison. Um and in this presentation when I'm sharing data that shows a statistically significant difference I'm going to use that asterisk there. um or also a blue bar chart and I'll let you know when we're seeing some of those differences. And a statistically significant difference means that the difference is unlikely due to random variation and likely reflects a true difference between the groups or years. Okay. And this is the participation from your school district in 2025. Um, so we can see that all the schools participated including a virtual school and we had really great response rates. So 70% response rate for high school and 90 90% response rate for middle school. And in addition to Colorado School of Public Health giving reports back to schools and districts, um we also produce regional reports
042and state reports using the same survey indicators. So D51 is part of health statistic region 19. Um and this data dashboard shows regional and state data, not school or district data as that's always private for the school district. Um, next week is a very exciting week for us as the 2025 regional and state data should be released. At least it'll be released soon, hopefully next week. Um, and at that point, we can really look at the D-51 data compared to the state data. So, if you go to the data dashboard now, it just has 2013 to 2023, but soon it'll have 2025 there as well. Um, and then at that point it'll be really great for um, D51 to be able to look at their data compared to the state data. All right. And then
043a little bit more about the data um, on the Healthy Kids Colorado survey and reports. And in this presentation, we're going to look at some data that's disagregated by demographic groups. Um, so when students complete the survey, they complete demographic information sections having to do with their grade level, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity. It's important to know that middle school students in D51 do not um see or answer at all questions around sexual orientation and gender identity. Um, for students who do complete this part of the survey, students who do not answer that their race and ethnicity is white, they are put into the bipac subgroup, which is black, indigenous, people of color. And for students who do answer about their sexual orientation and gender identity, if they students who do not
044select cisgender or straight, they are put into the LGBTQ subgroup. And I always believe that when we're reviewing disagregated data, it's really important to use an equity lens. It's important to remember that differences between student groups should not be viewed only as a result of individual choice. Rather, they often reflect broader systemic factors that shape opportunities, experiences, and health outcomes. Okay, all that said, we are going to jump into our first section of data this evening where we will be looking at protective factors and well-being behaviors. Um, and this is the first time we can say there's so many celebrations. Um, so excited to dig in. Protective factors are very strong for middle and high school students in D51 and many of them improved from 2023 to 2025. um well-being behaviors like sleep and exercise
045and screens as I mentioned before um are less commonly reported than protective factors and remained more unchanged from 2023 to 2025. So we'll dig into what that looks like. Um we're going to see many um charts that look like this. Um, so here's our protective factor indicators on the left and then we have middle school data in the middle and high school data on the right. All of this data is from the 2025 survey. Um, and these are really great celebrations. So we can see in terms of students feeling safe in their neighborhood that 96% of students in middle school and high school feel safe in their neighborhood. feelings of safety at school. 93% of middle schoolers, 95% of high schoolers. And we know how important it is for students to have a sense of
046belonging at school. And 72 and 73% respectively of middle school and high school students feel they belong at school. Um, one more protective factor here. We know it's important that students have an adult they can go to with a problem. And it shows here that most middle school and high school students have can go to a parent or guardian for help as well as feel like overall they have an adult to go to with a problem. Those were two different questions on the survey. All right. And now we're going to look at some changes for the first time. So this graph is those same protective factors, but we're looking at the differences between 2023 and 2025 just at the middle school level. Um and we can see that um all the indicators increased. Feelings of
047safety at school, adult to go to with the problem, feelings of belonging, all increased. And this is the first time that we're seeing a statistically significant difference. So, the feelings of safety at school showed a statistically significant increase from 88% to 93.1%. And now looking at high school, um once again from 2023 to 2025, um this is a major celebration and success as every protective factor indicator showed a statistically significant increase from 2023 to 2025. Um it's really incredible. All right. And then next, um this is the first time we're looking at some disagregated data. Um and this is data showing, um the percent of high school students who report having an adult to go to with a problem. Um access to a supportive adult is strong overall among high school students. We can see
048that's the dark gray bar. It's 82.4% as as I showed in the previous slide, but there are some important disparities. So, our BIPO(ox) students and the LGBTQ students are statistically significantly less likely than their peers to report having an adult to go to with a problem. Okay, we're going to move on to those well-being behaviors that I described. And this is all 2025 data middle school and high school. So the first indicator is um ask students if they get an hour of physical activity on most days. So 61% of middle school students and high school students report that they do. Students are asked if they have 3 hours or more of screen time not related to school. And 48% of middle schoolers said yes and 59% of high schoolers said yes. And the students are
049also asked if they get eight hours of sleep on most school nights. 59% of middle schoolers said they did and 40% of high schoolers said they did. Um this was this 40% um was actually a statistically significant increase from the 2023 survey where it was uh 34%. So although I'm sure we would like more high schoolers getting sleep, it's great to see that that number is um increasing in a meaningful way. And here we can look again at exercise and how the levels of exercise differ across student groups. Um overall 61% of high school students get an hour of exercise most days. And here we can see that male students report higher levels of exercise while female students and LGBTQ students report significantly lower levels of exercise. All right, we're going to move on to
050our next segment of data, which is mental health. The survey asks a lot of questions about mental health, including some questions about suicide. And there's some many great celebrations here, too. Many of the middle and high school mental health indicators improved from 2023 to 2025. Um, so this is all 2025 data with the indicators on the left and then middle school and high school. So, most students do report positive mental health. Students are asked um if their stress is unmanageable. 40% of middle schoolers said yes and 37% of high schoolers said yes. Students are asked if they have poor mental health most days in the past month. 18% of middle schoolers said yes. 23% of high schoolers. Students are asked if over the past year they felt persistent sadness or hopelessness. 18% of middle schoolers
051said yes, 20% of high schoolers. And students are asked about suicide. As I mentioned, middle school students are asked if they've ever thought about suicide, and that's the 13%. High schoolers are asked if they've seriously considered suicide in the last year, and that's the 10% number there. Um we have really great celebration as every um mental health indicator showed a statistically significant decrease in poor mental health in middle school. So this is middle school from 2023 to 2025 and all of these indicators decreased at a stat statistically significant level. And looking at this same data across high school, this again is um a wonderful celebration. Every protective factor indicator showed a statistically significant decrease in poor mental health. Um, looking at the indicator around high school students reporting poor mental health most days in the
052past month, we can see overall that 22.8% of high school students report that they um did have poor mental health most days. Female students and LGBTQ students report significantly higher levels of poor mental health than the high school average and male students report significantly lower levels of poor mental health. The survey asks a lot about bullying and this is the 2025 bullying information. It's very common to see middle school students reporting higher um rates of bullying than high school. And it's also very common to see that the classroom is the place where students report that the most bullying um at school occurs. So here we can see that 21% of middle school students reported being bullied on school property in the last year, 10% of high school students, and then this middle row is among
053the students who were bullied at school. Um 56 of 56% of them report bullying in the classroom at middle school and 54% of them report bullying in the classroom at high school. um a great celebration with electronic bullying. Um the data shows a stat statistically significant decrease in electronic bullying for both middle school and high school. Um and here we can see bullying data disagregated. Um LGBTQ students report significantly higher rates of bullying than the high school average. All right. And moving on to our last group um of data for the evening is substance use. The survey asks a lot of questions on substance use with a real focus on kind of the risk and protective factors associated with use substance use. Um there are some wonderful celebrations here, especially with middle school substance use
054um declining and the associated risk factors really declining from 2023 to 2025. Um high school substance use remained very similar to the 2023 levels. Um this survey asked students about their current substance use which is their past 30-day substance use. So here we can see on the first row um students who report alcohol use in the past 30 days, 3% of middle schoolers, 13% of high schoolers. Vapor product use in the past 30 days, 3% for middle school, 9% for high school. Marijuana use in the past 30 days, 1% for middle school, and 8% for high school. Um now I'm going to look at some of the changes I talked about um particularly at the middle school level. So middle school alcohol use and a lot of the related risk factors all declined from 2023
055to 2025. Um this is a major success as all of these indicators declined at a statist statistically significant decrease. Um so less students are reporting that they've ever had a drink of alcohol. they feel it would be harder to get alcohol. Less students are reporting um early initiation to drinking alcohol as well as having alcohol in the past 30 days. And we see um very similar results with vapor product use as well. So middle school vapor product use and the related risk factors all declined. Um a statistically significant decrease from 2023 to 2025. Um, this last row here, um, is the students are asked if they think it's wrong to use a vapor product. And that number did go up, but we want it to be trending upwards. So, in 2023, 92% of middle schoolers
056thought it was wrong for their peers to use a vapor product. And now it's 95%. Which is a very strong high number of students. Um, another fabulous celebration, uh, middle school marijuana use and the related risk factors declined, a statistically significant decrease, um, from 2023 to 2025. So, we can see ever using marijuana, marijuana in the past 30 days, feel it would be easy to get marijuana all declining, and then once again, an increase in the youth who think it is wrong for their peers to use marijuana. Um, as I mentioned, high school substance use really remains pretty consistent from 2023 to 2025. Um, I did share before the current use, that 30-day use for high school. Um, here is a slide with um, students reporting that they've ever used these substances. So, 42% of
057students report that they've ever used alcohol. 29% report ever using a vapor product. 21% report ever using marijuana and 7% um report ever using a prescription drug that's not prescribed to them. Um the one place in high school where we did where you did see a really promising change is um more student more high school students reporting that it's wrong for youth to use substances. And we know that this is a really important protective factor. Um and so youth thinking that alcohol use is wrong, vapor product use use is wrong, and marijuana use is wrong all rose. Um a statistically significant increase from 2023 to 2025. So we saw that a lot in those middle school indicators. Um and it was also across the board um for high school substance use as well. So, those
058are all of the indicators I put together for the slides tonight. There certainly are so many other indicators on the survey. Um, a little bit about what um, Colorado School of Public Health helps school districts do and what I encourage you all to continue to do with the data. Um, you can continue to share the district and school level data internally. um sharing data with community partners. Um and like I said, the state of Colorado um the state healthy kids Colorado survey data will be coming out very soon. Um and it would be great to look at some of these great celebrations in D51. Um how similar the similar are these to patterns across the state or how unique are they to D51? Um and I'd love to to help with some of that um
059data analysis. triangulating with other surveys is really important. Um, our team can always do additional analysis and help with data-driven decision making. Um, on behalf of all of the Colorado School of Public Health, we are so grateful for D51's participation in the survey, gathering this incredibly robust and really positive data set. and I continue to um I look forward to continuing to work together as well as answer any questions you have now and you can see this is my email and this slide um and happy to to keep in touch about the data. >> Thank you Fran. Are there any questions? >> Any questions comments? So during the slide, it says that middle school students in our district did not receive questions about sexual orientation nor gender identity. However, on the District 51 web page,
060page two of the Healthy Kids Colorado survey, question three, four, and five are specific to that. Are you saying that those were removed? >> Yeah, there on the district website, there's a high school and a middle school version. The middle school version should not have those listed. >> It does. We will look at that. So, do we know if this that would that's on the website was presented or >> because this is what families would have seen if they would have logged in. >> Right. The when I looked and verified it when it went out, they weren't on there. Um, and we we sent out in all the communication that those were not on there and parents had a link to the survey um that showed that they were not on there. So, I'm I
061will look into that. Yeah. Okay. >> And we can look into the reports and see that it's it's not listed in like the report demographics. >> Yeah, I think that would be helpful to know because it says that. But then as soon as I pulled up the middle school link, those three questions are on page two. So that's contradictory, I suppose. So that's why I'm concerned about that. Um, as far as the results, and I guess this is more of a question for you guys, what factors concerned you the most despite the like overall positive trends and what findings surprised you? >> Do you want to go first or you? >> I'll go. >> Yeah. Um obviously I I think um the surprising piece is the the parallels that we saw um with our panorama
062data um looking at the belonging piece and you know how we've worked so hard in the last few years to increase the belonging to see the belonging number for our middle school and high school uh barb uh to see it actually higher in the healthy kids Colorado survey than it showed up in our panorama data. Um obviously always looking for those connections and through lines between so we can triangulate the data to say um is what we see or what we're seeing in the panorama you know accurate and to see an outside survey come in and measure some of the very similar things. Um I think that was very promising. Uh obviously uh just like you looking at where we were in 23 to 25 and see the growth that we did. I mean I
063can't tell you how just happy we were when we first looked at the data. Um but then there's some obviously some gaps that that show up when you look at the disagregated uh bar graphs. Um and those are gaps that we needed, you know, we had a high number of students who who took the survey in 23. And I thank those of you that were on the board that that made that decision to take it from a sampling to take it to uh all secondary schools. um knowing that the data there one can help us um and continue to drive uh programming and and drive supports for students in our district but also support the community partners who rely on this survey. Um that it is exciting that this is coming out next week and
064that's why we brought Fran in. Now I wanted the board of education to see the data before it's released to the rest of the state and and Grand Junction and our our health uh partners out there. Our health partners um are excited about this. They're waiting for it. It drives a lot of the programming that our adolescent um health partners are providing for students. Uh pediatricians um um health agencies across Mesa County rely on this data to to look at their programming and what they're offering. um in the disagregated areas. Um obviously I I think some numbers there they're there's certainly um looking at between in our high schools this specifically um just some of the numbers that we see the LGBTQ plus group um indicating um maybe some of the lack of support um
065really that trusted adult. We've we've worked the trusted adult throughout our system over the last few years as well. And uh looking at I think I was shocked mostly at um are we supporting a particular group of kids as we support all students in our schools. That is one that that kind of jumped out I think across the board in thinking about wow we have a significant gap there in in in some of that. um it's very hard to to to identify. Obviously, this is an anonymous survey and it's also something um within um our registration system. Those are not questions that particularly are asked as far as uh the gender identity goes or or what their sexual orientation or preference is. So this is the one time that it shows up in our data.
066And it it was really kind of shocking from 23 to 25 that we have some significant gaps in those areas in a group of kids that that we need to figure out how do we support and and really looking at our community partners and partnering up to say how do we support kids uh in that area too. That was that was one that really jumped out at me. Amy, >> one of mine is um on the suicide questions. >> We have gone down significantly, but it's not zero. Um we still have percentage of kids that are struggling and um we've made significant gains in what we're doing to help them, but they're not zero yet. So that's one of mine um that I kind of have a tender spot for. Um the others I celebrate
067on the um on the vaping and the tobacco use and the alcohol use that it's all going down. >> Yeah. >> Again, it's not zero, but it is going down. And so we have work to do in that. and our Pathways program and the work that our Pathways person does um is phenomenal and showing that those areas are going down and our kids are making healthier choices is a huge huge success even though some of them aren't z excuse me zero yet. Um that's my goal that those hard things are at a zero but there's it's life you know and and some not everything is in our control. um kind of a followup with the disagregated um data. Uh I had two questions in relation to that. So um if I understood correctly, if someone
068didn't mark or they weren't very specific, then they were put into um the BIPO category or the LGBTQ plus category. Is that correct? >> Did you want me to answer that? if you could answer that one. >> Yeah. Um, no. I think it's um kind of the opposite of what you're seeing. So, all So, if if um if a student selects any other race and ethnicity besides white, then they are in the BIPAC, >> okay, >> subgroup. And students do not have to complete the demographic section just as they don't have to complete any other section of the survey as well. >> So if they didn't complete that section, where would they where would their data fall then? >> Um that's a really good question. I believe that the um they're let let me ask
069my data team that I believe that a certain amount of the demographic information needs to be completed to kind of be put into the reports in terms of grade level and some other groupings. Um but that's an that's an excellent question. Um let me get that answer to you in the next few days via Dan and Amy. And my follow-up question that was kind of like what safeguards exist if a subgroup ends up being really small. >> Yeah, that's a great question. Um, and so as I mentioned, we have really great um, suppression criteria. And so nothing, no data ever appears on any reports, school reports, district reports, any sort of database if there's a really small N for that subgroup. So if there's less than 30 students who are answering the question um within
070that subgroup, if there's less than 30, then um on the reports there's just a little asterisk and it explains that that group is that that answer is suppressed. So in very small school districts um even if they're collecting this demographic information, they're LGBTQ um plus um etc. most of that data is all suppressed. Um, and so that's why it is really great in a large school district um, to be able to have that data. Um, but a lot of school districts around the state don't have that data because of the suppression criteria. >> I have one more, but I'll shut up after this. Is it is it possible for us because I would like to see the data surrounding um, relationship things, domestic violence things. I would like to see that kind of data. Um,
071and I know that it probably gets pushed out to, you know, different entities depending on who, but I think >> can send that to you. >> Yeah, I would love to see that kind of data and then maybe even in the future if it were part of this just so we would know what our kids are dealing with. Sure, you know. >> Thank you guys. Appreciate it. >> Yeah. Do you have >> Okay. um kind of to go along you you sparked a question in in me Barb is I'm kind of curious if if you are able to tell us the ratios of students in these um this aggregated data. So out of um like I'm just looking at a graph uh for like the bullying one um the total is the 10.4% 4% yet
072our LGBTQ and our female and even our and our white population they're a little bit higher. I'm curious of the the ratios of those like how many of our students are are identifying into these. I know that the I know that the it's very strict with the anonymity, but I'm I'm sure there's still some >> percentages. And so, we have a spreadsheet that has >> it's a big spreadsheet. And so, every tab has by um there's a tab with all the questions um arranged by gender, by grade, by race, by all all the things. And so, I we can share that spreadsheet so you can go through and and look at those things. >> Okay. I mean, it would be just >> totally dive into it. >> Okay. It just I mean, it'd even be
073nice to have like a broader >> a broader view of some of this, too. Um, just to kind of know where we are as as a whole and of the students who took this. It'd be just be nice to know 19.6% of LGBTQ uh folks are reporting bullying and how many how where what is that in relation to the entirety of our of our system, I think, is kind of my question. And >> it's important. I'm sorry to interrupt. It's important to know that. So, take the bullying question. If um this uses skip technology, so if >> um it says, "Have you been bullied in the past 30 days?" If a student says no, they don't see any other bullying question. >> Okay? >> If they say yes, then they go into the other one.
074So, when we see the bullying and it said, I think it said 20% said yes. And then it had um an additional question. And so it was just of that 20% that next percentage answered that. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. And that's helpful for me to just know in my head my head too. Um if you'll indulge me I have one other question and then Andrea I'll pass it off. Um is there any this kind of goes to Fran and to to and to you all. Is there research that has actionable steps behind the difference in um some of these subgroups here um that we can take or other districts have taken to close this gap? Um we talk about the achievement gap a lot and they're very similar populations. I'm curious if there is
075any research behind belonging and mental health because those are the two that stood out to me as pretty large um differences. And so I'm just kind of curious if we have those um that research and or action steps that we can look into. >> I can go first if you wanted to and then Fran can jump in. Um I'll be honest with you, Casey, I do believe um with the adoption of the SEAL curriculum, I do believe there are going to be pieces within that when we talk about um explicit instruction, tier one instruction around um some of those topics, you know, some of the things that would link back to that belonging piece. Um, obviously we feel like we've that number continues to grow and our our kids are continuing to feel like they're
076belonging more and more, right? And so just thinking about what lessons um you know within the curriculum within what's being taught explicitly to help support that um the mental health piece when we talk about social emotional learning u understanding which curricular items or which programming within um the lessons the things that are you know I I think we do a lot of you know you wouldn't soal you know call it out as a mental health something or a belonging something but when you think about um how kids interact. We talk about morning circle, the conversations they're having, the topics that they're having. I think um that that in itself can can lend itself. Um and obviously I'm going to go back to the trusted adult piece and and having those connections and and you know,
077teachers having connections with kids and kids having connections back to the adults. Um, and I think we we have reduced the stigmatism around suicide over the last two or three years with just some of the training that we've been doing and and allowing, you know, teachers um to to identify or help identify kids that are struggling and being able to ask the questions and the knowing where those resources are. So, I think it it it's continuing to to educate uh reduce stigmatism is big across all of it. um and just thinking about how how are we going to you know explicitly teach and support kids. So yeah absolutely and I think when you see the gaps that we see now it will give us a chance to then sit down uh within our task force
078within our groups and come up with you know what are what are potential researchbased action steps that we can we can go and and really try to address it between now and the next two years because I think that's really what we focused on. Not all these topics did we focus on two years ago when we set out to to to put the language we did and the action steps and goals within our strategic plan. But now I think we have an opportunity to see now what can we do in the next two years to improve um some of these numbers like we see uh we've improved in the last two years. >> Okay. >> And and are we tracking some of those steps that we're taking? So like I would love to say that
079and Dr. Hill don't kill me. um like the screen usage. I mean it that was a very large decrease. I would love to say that the own um policy is probably causational for that. There's no way to like truly like prove that it's not just correlational too, right? So I'm I'm wondering if we're tracking all of those different little pieces that we are putting into place to prove that it's causational, not just correlational. And even if it goes into like our community partners like pediatricians and health officials that are out there that are pushing um not necessarily pushing but also educating about substance use and those kinds of things because I know my pediatrician is and it would be interesting to make sure that we have a a like a tick on that to know
080that if we start to see an increase we can go and find where where that may have fallen off like if pediatricians stop doing something or if community supports stop doing this type of outreach, then we know that that's that's a point that is now being missed. Yeah. >> Um I'm hoping that that thinking out loud came out in a very succinct way, but I don't know if it did. Um and that's just kind of what I'm I'm hoping that we are trying to kind of keep track of as a whole unit within our community also. >> Absolutely. And and the safety and she's been working on this the screen safety piece. Um but but really as a whole, we use this data set that you see here. It was part of some of the
081data that was brought to the table a couple of weeks ago when when general rolled, you know, here's the data when when it's tied to cell phone usage, here's the data with discipline, all of that. This this was a piece that we were able to lift out to say, wow, look, we've got another survey that has an indicator in it, that screen time, the hours of sleep, how do you link that back? So whether it's causational or not, we still have enough data points to start to put it together to say what are we is what we are what we doing in our schools when it comes to screen time, screen safety, uh the messaging out to parents, um the policy itself, um can that be linking itself back to what we're seeing in our
082data here? Absolutely. And then Amy can talk about some of the screen safety explicit things that that she's been doing um this past spring. we go um for this we'll we can get into that another but we do talk about in the questions in the panorama survey there are specific questions around um more social less media and so when we like was talking about triangulate all the things that we have then we can see you know what we're doing we're doing good work right what we're we're getting um kids off of screens and things are improving mental health is improving um screen time is imp improveving improving um kids are getting out and doing the things. So, we do have data and we can come back and do a whole whole tech thing. Um but
083yeah, uh Fran, did you have anything to add on um resources from the day? >> Yeah, thank you for asking. I thought the answer around just really digging into the castle standards and the self the self framework I think is um really the best practice that I know of. I was also thinking I don't know how much D51 does in getting some LGBTQ student voice um involved in the conversation. Is there like a GSA or other ways to just add some qualitative um experience um and hear kind of the lived experience of those students as well. Um I think that that's always a best practice um in addition to collecting the quantitative data. >> Okay, thank you. And that's all for me. >> Dr. Hill, do you have a you want to go first and
084then I'll go? >> Oh, yeah. Sorry, I forgot my hand was up. I uh I [laughter] It was >> Are you awake? >> Yeah. No, I This is a lot. Uh my my It was back to um Barb's question. I the one that actually stood out to me the most I mean look there's there's a lot of great data here and and it's great to see progress. The one that concerns me I think still and it's one that's obviously we have less control over but the fact that the sleep um data is really concerning. Um the fact that I think it was barely above a third of our high school kids say they get eight hours and I think it was around 50% of middle schoolers saying they get at least eight hours. Like that's
085it's not good. Um, and so that's concerning. Again, what things are outside of our control or what things can we influence through messaging? I know our prek folks have been doing some work around trying to um get messaging out to families uh and even just having conversations with kids about the importance of sleep, but that's concerning. And then also the the exercise piece. Um, you know, how how many uh get at least an hour a day of physical exercise. Um so um again what can we control and not control but can we help with some messaging around the importance of those things would be really good because the sleep piece is is huge. >> Well that's a great leadin to what I was actually going to um actually talk about because recently just in some
086conversations around absenteeism um sleep was actually one of the highest indicators of why kids don't come to school is because they're too tired. And so I am again from a district standpoint um I mean we're [snorts] not we're not their families, we're not their parents, but you know what can we do to help support them too um and and that sleep comes from unmonitored screen time. Um I I don't know if you guys Barb I don't well and and director Chavez I don't know if you guys were on the board when we got the survey a few years ago from was it Indiana University >> the social worlds and wellbeing report >> and one of the indicators um one of those those start indicators for suicidality is was lack of sleep. um it's kind of
087starts that downward spiral. Um that's probably one of those that was one of the things from that study that really stood out to me was I mean you just you realize that when you start to get into a cycle of of really just not not resting well um like over and over and over again just the mental state it can put you in. And so I do wonder how we can better support, you know, our students and families um around just the disruptions of either a device being, you know, in your room continuing to go off all hours of the night. Um we we also know the blue the blue light affects your, you know, your serotonin levels and just what your brain is thinking at night. Um and so I I do wonder about
088that as well. So maybe there's some things that we can >> that for a second. Yeah. So, there's a book called 10 rules for raising kids in a high-tech world. And um Elizabeth Clark and I when we talk to families, we use some of those 10 rules. And one of the rules is no electronic devices in bedrooms overnight. You take them great um put them away an hour before bed, no screens during meal time. Um and so there's some practical ways to do. And then with the tech grant, um we're writing lessons, uh K12 and the first month for August is all around, um sleep, tech and sleep. And so there's lessons for K2, 35, middle school, and high school. And um the way I'm writing it is that there's also um there's a theme
089for every month. And then there's um there's family newsletters that go home that correlate with the topic for the month. And so August is all around sleep um and the importance of of getting a good night's sleep, taking the phones out of the bedrooms, um blue light, all the things. So >> there's there's >> Do you think we could have maybe like a little um one pager like on back to school nights that we could give families on like the best tips for um you like being being your best at school? I mean, you know, kind of like what we all do when we do like get ready for your job, like, you know, like eat well, make sure you get a good enough rest, you know. Um, I just I just kind of wonder
090if there's like, you know, just some different things that we could provide to our families. Um, not always necessarily. I know we we send out a lot of stuff electronically, but since we have, you know, back to school nights coming up, maybe something where we are actually interacting with families right then and there, like on campuses, we could then even have really great conversations where they could ask more questions because I think that's where then it starts looks like Cali maybe has already got something in the works. So, this is great. I I love that we're already thinking about these things which is great. So, um sounds like we might have something in the works. Great. Perfect. Um then my second thing was um just you know with the LGBTQ students looking at their numbers
091being a little bit lower. I think generally what my thought would be is since we don't obviously ask qualifying questions, you know, about students, what could we do more just to help students advocate for themselves, right? like no matter how they identify or who they are like what what could we do um that just helps empower students to advocate for themselves because I think that's where if we don't necessarily know where a student is um we could provide the stools the tools for them to just say I need to advocate for myself like I need to go and tell someone I need some help or I need someone to talk to. So, um I I was just kind of wondering like generally that would that would help all of our students. Um you know, kind
092of thinking if we can't really hone in on specific students. >> I think one of the more effective um strategies that we've done over the last few years and and Dr. Hill, you know, um is is a person who utilizes the student voice and that is our student focus groups is is having the ability to set up focus groups um within all levels to be able to hear kids um outside of a survey, right? Just to be able to to provide a space for kids to come in and talk about, you know, um these issues when we talk about the bullying piece, we talk about the mental health side. Um, so I think that's that's what excites us about having the data that we do now is yes, we can't particularly go out and identify
093who the students were that answered what on this survey, but we can provide space potentially and time so we could ask ask the students, right? And uh in a way where we can it's a safe place to just have a conversation. And I know uh Dr. Hill gleans a lot from student voice and I think we have many um of our groups around uh district 51 that that leans on the student voice and we just had students come in you know two weeks ago to share their voice about the cell phone policy right just to to be able to listen to them I think is going to be important so yeah and we're going to get in we're going to dig in obviously to the data because that's what we do um and I do
094believe it is a service that that we we we owe kids when you think about all students um we want to make sure they all feel, you know, that they belong, that they're connected, they have trusted adults, they're not being treated like this or that. I think that's that's an important charge for us. So, as a whole, >> do you guys do um like a drill down or root cause analysis of this data? So if you have 17% of middle school students that say that they feel suicidal, do you then go back to those specific middle school student questionnaires and do a root cause analysis? So what is it that the this these 17% have in common? >> Right? >> Or is there something that's leading to this? Is there something you know it >>
095because we always we always try to treat it's kind of like medicine you know they try to treat the symptoms but what's the root cause? >> Yeah. >> So do you guys do that with this data? >> You want to talk about the individual school data because there is individual school data. there is individual school data and um and the schools have access to that that they can get in and dig in with their teams. Um whoever is on the their building leadership teams and however they choose to do that. Um we have not done that yet. Um >> this was our first step right was to we didn't do this in 23 when when we got our healthy kids data back in 23. And that's the change, you know, as we have become more
096and more really um data driven or or data informed. That was why I felt like it was important or we felt like it was important. Um you you as a board have continued to support us in our work uh around mental health and and suicide prevention and all the things that that we we ask your support for. This was one area that you said it's important that we get the voice of as many of our secondary kids as possible and we feel like we owed you first the opportunity to look at the data and then second we'll be prepared to go in and how are we going to one figure the root cause analysis by school by question we will I will say the reports are rather hefty we're going to need Fran's help and
097and really the state to do that for us and they have teams that can can break that down pretty well but but I think yeah when we come back in the fall will have some pretty clear uh possible action steps to to be able to I want the schools to be able to get into their own data and dig their data like they do their achievement data like they do um their AIM2 data their social emotional data the climate and culture I want this to be a part of let's get in and and if it's important which it is because it's a great indicator there's there is incredible celebration in here of growth now let's go find out what did we actually do to influence it and what are we doing not to to to
098see the growth in the areas that we need to. So yes, we'll do it. >> I'll add on to that. So our schools also um complete what's called the smart source data and that is a bank of best practices um and it's all around the 10 components of the whisk model. And so it when you take um then they have what's called a paired indicator. So we have our smart source best practices that the adults in the building. So your counselor, your principal, your PE teacher, your uh culinary manager um all complete the best practices of the smart source. And then we have our students in secondary and that's K12. So element so smart source is elementary, middle, and high school. And then for our secondary, they also have the student voice of the healthy
099kids. And then um Colorado School of Public Health puts together um what's called the paired indicator. And so they take the smart source survey and what the best practices are and they put it next to the student data. So then we can say and I use bowling for the example because that's always the first one in the page. Um, but if we say that we are doing all these best practices for bullying and our bullying in our school is very low, then we know that we're doing a good job and we're and what we're doing is working. If we say we're doing all these great things for bullying, but our bullying is very high at our school. We know that something's not working and we need to change it. So that document um is very
100powerful for schools as well because that goes through um the mental health piece, uh physical activity piece, nutrition, all for the whole child. And so that's an amazing document that we can share with you as well. Um that shows that comparison between best practices and what our kids are saying. And that'll show a perceptual gap, right, between what adults are saying and what kids are saying, just like we do when we do our panorama data. We do the adult and we do the student. And oftentimes there's a gap there between them. And we want them to get as close as possible where the kids are saying this and the adults are saying it and it matches. That's what we want to be able to do with this. It's good to hear that because I know
101that each school has their own MTSS and like tier two, tier three when it gets into those smaller groups, >> they have a better idea of what they need to be doing at >> their level at their building specifically >> um with the data that they have and then they can reach out for support as needed. So >> cool. Thank you. >> Okay. >> The comment that I have is uh regarding the bullying. It's real concerning to me. And then you look at the suicide and the LGBTQ is at 19.6. Uh my concern was my my question is I would guess I'd like to know how much of the suicide uh percent is LGBTQ community of that 19.6. And then I also would like to know what are we doing to uh decrease the amount
102of bullying that's going on. And that's a long question. I may take your time to think about that and and then send it to me later on. But that was those are those are my thoughts. >> We can have Fran help us um break down the percentages on on the building pieces across the demographics. >> Okay. >> And I would Oh, go ahead, Dr. Hill. >> I just wanted to ask a clarifier on that one. Maybe Fran if she's still on can help. when the student takes the um survey, does it define what bullying is? Because I'm just curious of the and I agree. I don't want the percentage to be high at all. Um I'd like it to be zero, but I also I know we run into that a lot of times of
103students not being able to differentiate between [clears throat] what's technically bullying and what is not bullying, but you know, so I is that clarified in the survey or is it just asked the question? >> Yeah, that's a great question. um it is defined in the survey. So like each section um [clears throat] kind of has any definition at the top of it that the students might need to know. Um and bullying is one of those sections. Um I'd be happy to get that exact language to you. Um yeah, it's a great question. >> I I can read it out for you if you want really quick. need it. It does say it says bullying is when one or more students tease, threaten, spread rumors about, hit, shove, or hurt another student over and over again.
104It is not bullying when two students of about the same strength or power argue, fight, or tease each other in a friendly way. Referring to peer conflict. It doesn't say referring to. I just added that in answer. >> If there's no more comment, thank you. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Fran. >> Thank you all so much. I will get back to you on those follow-up questions and I look forward to continuing to work together. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, ma'am. >> Bye-bye. >> Is charter school application update, Miss Marsh? Good evening board. Jennifer Marsh, the chief academic officer and I am also the facilitator of charter school applications and the process that we follow with these charter school applications. So this evening I'm going to go through my deck tonight is
105just to update you all. Um if you remember exactly a month ago, the first um Tuesday of last month, we had CAXA, the um Charter School Authorization, Colorado Association of Charter School Authorizers with um McKenzie come and Alex, they came and gave you guys a brief board training on all of um the processes and the things that go along with charter school applications with the board. Now I'm going to share the process that we follow here with the district. So this first slide just talks about the overview of the charter school application process. Charter schools apply to operate under D51's authorization. Applications must meet legal, academic, and operational and financial standards per state statute. In a structured timeline and process guide, the application review and decision-making. Final approval or denial is determined by you the
106board and it must be done um by a formal resolution. The key phases you can see here first is the interest interview. I have in anybody who reaches out and says that they are interested in um considering applying or with a charter school application. I meet with the folks that are um have reached out for an interest. I share um the the standards that we follow. I share board policy and then I actually meet and chat and talk with them to find out exactly what are they thinking and and what are um their thoughts. I've done that with both applications that we'll that [clears throat] I'll share or applicants. There is a letter of intent that must be submitted. Um both of our charter applications did do that. And then there's a full application window.
107Again, this is defined by state statute. It opens on February 1st and then it closes April 1st. And these applications then are um for not the beginning of this next school year, but 18 months. So it's the following year. So the application submitted this year would be for an opening of fall 2027. Then with that I they're in and again part of state statute um the DAC committee evaluates and provides feedback. D51 leadership reviews the application and evaluates as well. We hold community meetings. All of you were at the the community meeting that we held and that was on May 2nd. Um then we have capacity interviews with the applicants. It's an opportunity for um district staff after they have reviewed and evaluated for the first round [clears throat] the application. It's an opportunity to
108ask clarifying questions with the applicants and that was done on May 14th. It was recorded and I know that every one of you have received it and I believe many of you have already watched the video. Then um there will be a district recommendation that will come. It will not be tonight. And then there will be again a board final decision by resolution. It does say in state statute that that has to be done by June 30th, but we have it scheduled to be done in the the next board meeting on June 16th. So how do we what tools do we use for evaluation and training? Um, we use the charter school application and evaluation standards. It's aligned to the state statute and of course our board policy. Then we have the school charter evaluation
109rubric. Again, that's aligned to state statute. And then we have capacity interviewers. [clears throat] All evaluators, D-51 staff, DAC, and the board are trained on how to evaluate a charter school application um within that in within their role. So when it comes to the rubric, the rubric has each section and then each section we would need to the evaluator needs to define if it's fully developed, mostly developed or partially developed or not developed. I'm not going to read those, but you can see each one of those rating descriptions. And each section of the evaluation rubric uses these rating descriptions. And each evaluator must mark the section they were evaluating as fully, mostly, partially developed, or not developed. In the rubric, there are um certain sections that are considered essential. And this rubric identifies the sections
110of the application that are considered essential to opening a quality school and expected to be mostly or fully developed. And you can see here it's C section C, D, F, G, H, N, Q, and S. In the capacity interviews when we started um the questions with our um applicants, we started with those essential questions first. So you might have noticed that when you've watched the video or when you watch the video you will see we want to make sure the capacity interviews are 90 minutes and we wanted to u make sure that we started with those sections first. Here is a DAC um overview. I know that Jose Jose Luis and Casey um representative member Cole and our president uh Chavez were a part of the DAC training and that training happened on February 5th.
111We reviewed board policies, what the application and evaluation standards um were. We looked at the evaluation rubric and again it was a process overview. So you guys have been uh trained twice because then uh CAXA came back in uh last month. Then um the DAC reviewed the appendence I'm sorry independence academy um their application first and that was done on April 2nd. You can see there while every um individual is expected to who is providing an evaluation must read the entire um application or review it but they only evaluate certain sections. Those sections that you see listed there are for both um applications and those were the sections that the DAC individually um provided an evaluation for along with the train and then bridgeoint was on April 14th and again the board training was done
112on um May 5th. Along with training, a conflict of interest screener is also administered administered to each reviewer and at the each DAC meeting um members read provided feedback and evaluated these listed sections that are here on the screen. So district admin team um steps I provided um an administrative team training on April 9th. again similar policies, application evaluation standards, evaluation rubric and process overview. I will give a a bit of um a nod. CXA helps with that training. I follow their training and um then we had uh as I've already reviewed the application evaluations by the district admin team was done um right before we made sure we were done before we had capacity interviews because we wanted to make sure that we had our questions ready to go for those capacity interviews. Um
113but that same day of capacity interviews on the 14th there was another training on what it looks like to conduct and hold a um a capacity interview. So I also trained um and then at that time in addition I've already mentioned this but the district has contracted with an external evaluator Dr. Mackenzie Khan from CAXA, the Colorado Association of School Authorizers to ensure that charter application. The process is transparent, thorough, and aligned to best practice in charter school authorizing. Dr. [clears throat] Khan helped um the team stay objective and eliminate any biases through a review process. So, I'm only going to give a brief overview of each of the applica applicants that we have reviewed. The first is Independence Academy Charter School. Independence Academy is a current um charter school. It's a K8 charter school.
114Um Independence Academy is seeking approval to expand its existing K8 charter programming by adding a high school program beginning with 9th grade and then growing one level at a time. The proposed high school would build upon the school's established educational model. Independence Academy aims to provide students and families with a seamless continuation of the educational experience currently offered through the K8 program. Independence Academy is located um 67529 Road and it has been a charter school since 2004. So again, the anticipated opening is the fall of 2027. While they do plan to do all grades, it's a high school. It would be rolling 9 10 11 12. The educational program model is arts integrated exp exhibitionary and experiential high school learning. They do not have a charter management organization. Some of our applicants have aligned with
115a charter management organization and independence um is not they just want they would like to continue enrollment projections. This is directly from the application. Um, interestingly, Independence did not provide a five-year enrollment projection. They mere they used some survey numbers for current staff. They used um and they shared that 21 of this year's current seventh graders would be interested in attending Independence Academy from as 9th graders. However, when Mel reviewed the budget and really dug into the budget, she could tell by the budget that they had um they anticipate 52. That's what they budgeted their um their enrollment on. Bridgeoint, excuse me. Bridgepoint Colorado Health Career Institute, CHCI, is a proposed public charter high school designated or I'm sorry, designed to provide students with personalized relationship centered learning environment focused on health career pathways. The
116school's model emphasizes academic achievement, workforce readiness, concurrent enrollment opportunities, industry credentials, internship, internships, and mentorship experiences intended to prepare students for success in post-secary education in and careers in the health field, healthc care field. Um, and they again plan they would open in the fall of 2027. Similarly, while they want to start a high school, it's rolling. They would start with nine um then roll 10, 11, and 12. Their model is CTE programming for the health science and early college because of the concurrent enrollment. They too do not plan um to use a charter management organization. And you can see those enrollment projections right there. They projected year 1 75, year 2 137, year 3 199, year four and five 255. So the application is the foundation for the charter school contract. So should there
117be an approval, the charter school contract becomes that legal foundation for the school's operations. Um it formalizes the commitments made in the application and def the contract and defines the expectations, responsibilities and accountability between charter school and the board. Um approval requires confidence and execution not just vision and applicants must demonstrate feasibility, capacity and systems for accountability. Um the application outlines rights and responsibilities for them and then what they with the contract how the board um both parties and ensures that a school is has held accountable for the commitments made in its application. A strong contract is essential to protecting the interest of district 51 students, families, and our taxpayers and becomes the basis for ongoing monitoring and renewal decisions over time. So the board your responsibilities under again state statute the board is responsible
118for receiving reviewing and charter school um applications to determine whether approval is in the best interest of district 51's students the district and the broader community. So following tonight, um again, I'm not providing any FE findings this evening, but it is your responsibility to consider all evidence presented in alignment with statute and board policy. And then um as scheduled next um meeting on the 16th, you would vote to approve or deny the application via via a formal resolution. The decision must be based on the totality of evidence and the charter's applications. um applicants demonstrated capacity to meet legal, academic, financial and operational standards required by law. And that is my presentation for tonight. >> Thank you, ma'am. Any comments or anything? >> I think I just have one clarifying question. Um, so just because we
119have two board members on DAC, I just want to clarify that they're not influencing what's happening on DAC because obviously we I right I just wanted even though they got training just having been on DAC myself, I just wanted to clarify for our community that that we participate but then once it gets too far into the process, we don't participate the board. So wanted to clarify that point. >> Correct. That is right. Thank you for that distinction. >> But they were trained. Absolutely. Yeah, it's great to be trained. Um I just want them I just want to make sure that everybody knows that we stop at a certain point when those applications come. >> There's no other comments. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> The next item is a business meeting. We have an
120administrator new hires. Uh it appears that assistant vice principal of Fra Monument High School, Miss Kathleen Herrera, has uh been selected to become the Fruda Middle School principal. I can have a motion in a second to to vote that in. I would appreciate it. >> Motion to approve the administrative new hire. Second, >> I would just say I think this is a fantastic hire. I think she's done a great job at Fra Monument and excited to see what she'll do um in this new role. >> I would agree. And it seems like she has abundance of experience and skills. >> Yeah, I usually uh make the comments after y'all vote, but when we hire a new principal, but I will. So, I'll just jump in. Kate's uh she knocked the interview out of the park.
121um she's a great leader. She's done great stuff throughout our district, but obviously at Fruit of Monument High School as well. And then I always ask our new principles, what they're most excited about. And she said um so I'll just read what she said. She said, "While I have truly loved my time at the high school level, I'm especially excited to return to middle school where my passion for education really began. I look forward to building strong relationships with Fruit of Middle School students, staff, and families while creating systems and experiences that help all students thrive. I'm humbled and grateful for this opportunity and I can't wait to continue supporting the incredible Fruta community in this new role. So, assuming it gets approved in a second, uh we're super excited for um new new principal
122Herrera at Fruit Middle School and what she's going to do for the community. So, thank you'all. >> Mr. Chavez >> approved. >> Mrs. Cole, >> yes. >> Mrs. Evansson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Heights. Yes. >> The next item is we have an expulsion appeal. Uh need a motion in a second if we're going to uphold the appeal. >> A motion motion to uphold the expulsion. >> Second. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Approved. >> Mrs. Cole. >> She abstained. >> Abstain. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Mrs. Evansson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Heights. >> The board has voted to uphold the expulsion. Our legal department will prepare a written summary of the decision and distribute it to the appropriate parties. Our future meetings is June 6. It's a board business meeting. Uh we do have an executive session at
1234 pm at that date. And then our next one is we get a July off. We have next one is after that one is August 4th. Uh could I have a motion for adjournment? >> Motion to adjourn. >> Need a second. >> All right. Second. >> Thank you all. You have a good day and drive drive home safely.