Board of Education May 5th, 2026 –Work Session

001Hello everyone. Thank you for being here tonight. >> Miss Amy, would you do roll call, please? >> Mr. Chavez, >> present. >> Mrs. Cole >> here. >> Mrs. Evansson >> here. >> Mrs. Heights >> here. >> Mrs. Woods >> here. >> And I need to ask you all to do, we're going to do a change in the agenda. We're going to move things around because of Jen's um out of town and she's online. We like to move the charter school process and evaluation step presentation uh first. So the bond it would go before the bond projects and gateway progress update and then after that then we'll be prepared and support staff. Is that okay with everyone? >> Yeah. Motion to amend the agenda. >> Second. >> Thank you. Mr. Chavis, >> approved. >> Mrs. Cole,

002>> yes. >> Mrs. Evansson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Heights, >> yes. >> Mrs. Woods, >> yes. >> Mrs. Evston, would you do the pledge of >> allegiance for us? >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Mrs. Wood, would you please read? Whereas the month of May is recognized nationwide as Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a time to honor and celebrate the history, culture, and contributions of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. And whereas AAPI Heritage Month highlights the many ways in which Asian-American and Pacific Islanders have shaped our nation and communities through contributions in science, technology, business, education, the arts, and beyond.

003And whereas Mesa County Valley School District 51 is committed to fostering an environment that promotes access, opportunity, and a sense of belonging for all. And we recognize and value the perspectives and experiences that our Asian-American and Pacific Islander students, staff, and families bring to our schools in the Grand Valley. And now therefore, be it resolved that the board of education of Mesa County School District 51 hereby proclaims May 2026 as Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and encourages our community to learn about, recognize, and celebrate the contributions of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders throughout history and today. It is also teacher appreciation month. Director Cole, would you please read it? >> It's my pleasure. Um, so whereas the board of education recognizes the vital role teachers play in shaping the minds, experiences, and futures of our

004students. And whereas teacher appreciation month provides an opportunity for our district and community to recognize and celebrate the dedication, care, and impact of our D-51 educators. And whereas each day our teachers create environments where curio curiosity is sparked, confidence is built and students are supported in reaching their full potential. And whereas in alignment with this year's theme, teachers create magic, our educators bring learning to life in ways that inspire, connect, and empower students, helping each and every student grow, discovered, and succeed. And now therefore, it be resolved that the board of education of Mesa County Valley School District 51 hereby proclaims the month of May 2026 as teacher appreciation month and encourages our entire community to recognize and thank our teachers for the difference they make in our make in the lives of our students

005across the district each and every day. >> Thank you. Now we will go to the charter school process and evaluation step presentation. Is Miss Marsh online? >> I am. Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can. Jen, thank you. >> All right. Thank you, board. Sorry I'm not there this evening, but it is my pleasure to introduce um two of our friends that are helping us out um with the charter school evaluation process. McKenzie Khan who is the executive director of CAXA or the Colorado Association of Charter School Authorizers and Mr. Alex Medler who is executive director of National Network for District Authorizing. They're going to take about the next 20 to 25 minutes to do a quick board um training and overview of the charter school process and essentially outline the responsibilities of the

006the authorizing process in general and then what are the board's role and roles and responsibilities and then what are staff roles and responsibilities. As a heads up, we have two charter school applications. The um window for submission was February 1st to April 1st and we um received two applications. One was from Independence Academy which is already our one of our charter schools. It's a K8 and they are asking through their application to expand programming to include a high school. And then we also have another charter school application. Bridge Point is the name of the school, but it's a Colorado Health Career Institute and this is a CTE programming um for health sciences and it's just high school, so just 9 through 12. As a reminder, these applications that are submitted um they're requesting um that

007we open in 2027. So, with that, I'm going to hand over the reigns. I believe McKenzie needs to share her screen and she and Alex will go through um the charter school authorizing training for the board and information for the public. So, thanks you both of you for being here. Take it away, McKenzie. >> Is your audio working? Mackenzie, >> I think I'm there now. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Awesome. Yes. >> Um, thank you. Thank you all for allowing us to come. My name is Mackenzie Khan. I'm the executive director of CAXa. Um, we are a statewide support organization that we had the pleasure of working with you last year in assisting with some of the uh new application process. Um but we are very excited to share uh really this preview

008um a shortened version of some of the content that we have been asked to um start delivering statewide on board roles within charter school authorizing. Um I'm joined here by my colleague Alex Medler. Um he is actually Alex go ahead and introduce yourself. >> Uh I'm the executive director of the National Network for District Authorizing where I help groups like Mackenzie's group CAXA nationally. I'm also for the purposes of this discussion, it's helpful to note I am the vice president of the Boulder Valley School District's board. Um although I'm not speaking on behalf of BB BBSD or the board today. >> Thank you, Alex. Um so the purpose of today is really we just wanted to be able to have some facetime with school boards to be able to talk about um board specific roles

009in the charter school authorizing process. authorizing is something that's uh there's it's very complex and not a lot is out there to provide definition and clarity around. So, we're hoping that um we can provide some support in better understanding charter application processes. We want to talk about um how to support fair evidence-based decision-m and understanding uh specifically appeals and just some of the legal implications of board actions. >> Okay, if I can just clarify, I'm going to go over this very quickly. I know we don't have much time but one important thing is to note that authorizing sometimes gets um conflated with just approving schools whereas as districts were authorizing throughout the life cycle everything from before they open to contracting to oversight uh through the renewal process and then once they're renewed it all

010starts again. So uh when we say authorizing we mean the whole cycle. Uh next slide. And when you're doing authorizing um rigorously, there's three things you're trying to balance. One is rigor. Uh the other is school autonomy. And finally, a key part for school district boards is to protect student and the public interests. And these things uh can all fit together well in strong authorizing, but they can also uh create challenges where that's up to the board members to decide how to rank those three different things. So, >> thanks, Alex. Do you think we can get a little pulse check just for context so we can understand where folks are um as we're delivering this? I know it's a short timeline. >> Yeah. And also, you know, if you if I could see you, I'd

011be asking how many people feel like on a scale of 1 to 10, where are they in terms of their knowledge about how charter school authorizing works? Um, if anybody'd like to offer a comment from the board, would love to hear. Uh this is Andrea Heights. I'm the board secretary. So um this is probably my fourth time doing this and I'm a previous charter school board member. >> All right. Anybody else want to weigh in? >> We have went through the charter school application last year. Uh besides Mrs. Heisters, uh Miss Evson and I, we also went through the charter school process last year. >> Great. All right. So we will assume you have some good basic knowledge as we go through this. All right. Uh one thing to know is that authorizing has been

012going on for a long time, 30 plus years, 46 states doing it. There's a national group called the National Association of Charter School Authorizers that has published standards for authorizing that have been around for about 18 20 years and that Colorado adopted a version of those. In a previous life, I was on the board of the Charter School Institute when it first started. I co-chared a task force that uh modified those national standards for Colorado. So, Colorado has embraced national standards for quality authorizing um that speak to all the things to do in a in a rigorous process uh that are part of state board rules that can become relevant if you ever have an appeal of something before the state board of education. >> All right, McKenzie. >> Yeah. So when we talk about

013board capacity, um, CAXA as an organization that I lead, we work with authorizers regularly. And when we say the word authorizers, we're really talking about the folks that are designated to do the work of authorizing, which is typically not a board member, right? And typically, sometimes not even a superintendent, but there are specifically um staff that have this as part of their responsibility. So we interact with folks um in that position a lot. But what we realized is that even if we can train and support our uh staff in various districts in this work um we get to decision- making and we have to uh also be be able to support the different type of authorizing that occurs within the board's capacity. So, um, we talk about this a lot as being important, but I

014think, um, we have here strong boards use quality authorizing to make sure, right? And these are part of the responsibilities of being an authorizer as a school board. Um, you want to make sure that your board actions are able to withstand appeals, legal challenges. You want to make sure you're doing your responsibility as a quality authorizers to protect student uh, students, taxpayer dollars, etc. And we also have a responsibility to make sure that the relationships that the district has with their charters remain stable um and obviously transparent so the processes can go well. So really the difference we've um pulled out of this right is there's a lot of decision making happening on the board side and a lot of doing on the authorizer staff side. Um I really quick clarification I believe we sent

015a handout as part of the materials for this agenda item. I just want to uh mention if you have it available um we'll be kind of talking through a little bit about the delineation between between schoolboard responsibilities versus staff in a typical um you know district operation for the authorizing side. Um do you all have a copy of that handout? And please if you don't let me >> they don't yet McKenzie they will. >> Okay perfect. So you will receive that and there's a chart that we've put together that kind of gives districts a better idea of how these roles responsibilities are delineated. But um just at a high level when we're talking about governance um and operations, we have our school board members, right? They're setting policies. They're looking at evidence. They're creating decisions

016um articulating findings and making sure at the end of the day right that the board is the uh ultimate uh party responsible for uh the authorizing functions and then at a high level district staff are doing reviews. They're um managing processes of reviewing application. They're doing summaries. They're analyzing data and they're providing uh recommendations where appropriate. Um, additionally, this is just another list. For the sake of time, I will save this um, and you can reference the handout that was provided and also this, but we think it's important sometimes to um, delineate these roles because it can get a little gray. >> Alex, you want to add anything here? >> Sure. Well, I just I do want to say that um the board this is one of those areas where the board wants to be

017well informed by their staff. The district council is really important too and that there are aspects of this during the appeals process that you know can be done in executive session. So you really do want to have council and staff and board sort of on the same page of how this process works and what the roles are at different times. And then that also protects the board from being particularly lobbyed about stuff that um may not be helpful or or may undermine your legal standing during an appeal. So you kind of want to buffer board members from some of the stuff the district does and you want to be working closely with your with your staff and your council through a lot of these high stakes decisions because they can be latigious or subject to

018appeal and that happens throughout the whole life cycle. Next slide. So, we were focusing today on applications. Um, we are available and happy to do long workshops on all sorts of topics throughout the life cycle, but I know you've had more applications lately and still in front of you. Um, one thing to know in that process is that really it's a multi-step uh part that starts with a letter of intent, goes through checking if it's complete. Have you done it? It's been reviewed by your staff and experts. That's what CAXA can help on that stuff too. Um, and that's reviewed against a consistent and comprehensive rubric that gives you a real base of evidence to make a decision. Your DAX's involved. Uh, you really want a strong capacity interview process to find out if the

019stuff that's on paper is reflected um by the expertise from the people. You're obliged to do a good public hearing for it. And then you've really got to make your decision. A key finding here for you that will come up later when we talk about appeals and stuff is that the findings of the final resolution that you vote on really have weight in both the contract negotiation which leads to how you oversee the school and in any potential appeal of either a denial or of something on the contract. Um so uh we don't need to go into too much detail here. you've been through processes recently, but you do really want to distinguish between what the board's role is um of reviewing the findings and making the decision versus um doing the whole review yourselves.

020Now, certainly board members are free to read the application and everything else, but ideally you have a strong summary from the DAC and from your leadership and staff that's telling you what they found and basing it on um a comprehensive rubric. Um McKenzie, do you want to take off from there? >> Yep, I'll take it from here. Um so when we talk about specifically board's roles within the application process is you are receiving right summaries usually recommendations sometimes recommendations um directly related to the charter school applications. Um you're also right responsible as a board to make sure the process was fair and uh transparent and rigorous. Um one of the things we promote you know as quality authorizing is making sure we have rigorous application process tied to statute um so that we can be

021you know that's the first decision right big decision of an authorizer and um sometimes when those decisions are not uh supported by fair rigorous process it can be difficult down the road. Um board's responsibility also is making sure that any decision that a board makes has uh you know support for justification for th for those actions. Um and then ultimately responsible for voting and approving uh or denying applications. Um I think Alex, is there anything that you would say as a board member that you've learned over the years um that would be helpful in this particular uh piece of the process for a board member? Yeah, I would say um just a couple things here as a fellow board member. Um one is that the process can get very political and charged in your community

022and there are things as a board member where you're your responsibility as an elected official, you five people need to figure out what's going on between these different decisions and sometimes the pressures in your community are part of your thing to wrestle with. But when you're making the final uh authorizing decision, you want to stick to the evidence that's there in front of you and figure out how to sort of incorporate your community big picture stuff into that process rather than the other way around. Um otherwise, you're going to have problems during contract negotiation or if you have a decision that's appealed. >> Thanks, Alex. And if you would, you can talk through the process. Uh yeah, number one is to understand if you do have an appeal and what things are thing a a

023denial can be appealed, a non-renewal or revocation can be appealed and provisions of your contract can all be appealed to the state board. And I will say often the districts um feel like the state board is super political and either procharter or anti-charter depending on who you talk to. I will say from having watched a lot of it pretty closely and knowing the details, I think they stick pretty close to the merits of each case and to the record that's in front of them. So, it's it's in your interest to do this right. When you get in front of the state board, the standard is if something was contrary to the best interests of the pupils, the school district, or the community, and you can clearly recognize that those are big vague concepts that you

024get to decide what you mean by it. And that's that can be used in a way that probably won't be supported by evidence or it can be used in a way that would be supported by evidence. This is a pretty key concept. Happy to discuss it more. Um a second piece is that the the what's up for appeal, the scope of it is only the grounds you made for your decision specified by the board. So basically when you pass a resolution and you have findings in that resolution uh for your action, those are the things that the appeal um is is going to ask about. So if you say a charter applicant's special ed plan is really weak um then the appeal will focus on the special ed plan of the charter applicant and not

025all sorts of other things. But if you don't specify something, then you don't know what the appeal will be heard about. Uh and it'll be more open-ended. or you can list many things and have a conflict about it. All right. And then finally, this is another key part for boards is that all the stuff that is brought up in the appeal, even though the scope is narrow, the record includes pretty much everything the district does. So all board discussions and correspondence um can be brought up uh by the charter applicant or the school during an appeal. And so, uh, all that goes together to say that the way the board members conduct themselves during the whole process can help or hinder your standing during an appeal. So, you've got to you want to link your

026consideration of the community and the students interests to evidence. You want to articulate findings that justify your decisions. And you want to be mindful of your conduct so that you're not introducing some red herrings that could be used to sort of undermine all the evidence and hard work that the authorizing process brought up. Um, and your council and your team can help you uh with all those decisions. When things get too political, that can uh that can go poorly. Anyway, the takeaways of this are, and this is something to talk about in more detail if we could, but really um your review is really important, the evidence that's used to make the decision against the rubric's really important, the findings you come up with that can be summarized by your staff that inform your decision,

027and then the way you conduct yourselves, all can support your district's authority. And if those things aren't lined up right, you can undermine a very important decision. I will say on appeal, if someone has a terrible charter application in Colorado, you're going to win on appeal. And if someone has the best application ever in the history of charters and all the families want it, um you're going to have a hard time turning it down. The stuff that is tricky is everything in between, which is where strong processes will be your friend. >> Next, Alex. >> Um so, uh just talking through process in kind of order. Um the next thing we uh would wanted to touch on really quickly is what would come next then after an approval. So the formation of the actual charter

028contract which is a super important um step in the process. Um that negotiation is between the school district and um the charter school operator. And a lot of the day-to-day work in getting that contract is done between you know staff typically and the school contact. Um but essentially at the end of the day the board then is responsible for voting to approve or not approve that contract. Um there are some strengths in the contracting process specifically in the uh in the context of being able to make sure that any uh potential conditions are included in there any expectations specifically around operations and um academics. Um, so contract is super key, especially to down the road as you work through renewal processes and ongoing oversight. Um, so from application to contract, really the application is what

029informs the contract, but it doesn't replace it. Um, so there are those are kind of two distinct things. And so during that contracting phase, um it's an opportunity for staff to be able to take some of those elements that the charter proposed and actually turn them into uh terms that hold. So if the charter schools promising X, Y, and Z, then that can be solidified in that contracting phase. Um and also it's an opportunity to align the contract to best practice and um the adopted authorizer standards um uh on the on the authorizer side as well. So again I think something that is sometimes misunderstood in this uh particular phase is that an approval of a charter school application doesn't mean that everything in that application is locked in. Um there are things that are

030still debated through that contracting phase. Um and the contract really should only um include the things that are enforcable, not just uh what the applicant proposed. So just a couple quick things, things that we see in strong contracts, making sure that the expectations are actually measurable and clear and there specific timelines and metrics for those. um when they are not defined it becomes really difficult to um sometimes find middle ground on what uh the belief of success is or um in the definition of success might look very different from one party to the other. Um specific record reporting requirements u make a good contract and that really also helps with transparency in the oversight process as a school continues their life cycle through the district. Um again author uh alignment to law and policy obviously

031um and making sure that uh boards note that during this process as well um it's really really hard to enforce uh things in um that a charter school may or may not be doing if it is not specifically defined or measurable in that contract. >> And I will add the clarity in the contract also builds a better relationship. If people don't know what they're accountable for, they can be anxious all the time. If they're anxious all the time, they won't be candid. If they're not candid, you lose trust. So really, the transparency of a strong contract builds better relationships uh for all parties. >> Yep. Agreed. Thanks, Alex. Um and quickly, just some pitfalls that we have seen in the field in this area, um is just again kind of the opposite of what I

032just shared, right? Having vague expectations listed in there. um carrying forward application language where you're just essentially referencing the application. They really need to be resolidified in that contract so that you can make appropriate changes down the road. Um inconsistent terms. So um we have seen where some districts will provide five-year terms or three-year terms or 30-year terms and there is some uh there are some concerns with that approach especially for expectations for schools. Um and then we also um just want to noted here for key implications for boards around the pitfalls is again like having not not having that strong contract makes your ability it's harder for you to be able to hold schools accountable in the first place which then can become just like a vicious cycle in a poorly written contract. Um

033we may not need to touch on this. I know we're really short on time. Um but we did just want to kind of close the loop in saying that after contracting then there is this interesting uh piece of time in the charter life cycle between the contract approval and the actual open of the doors. And there's a lot that happens within that period of time. And um obviously from every charter school operator I've ever worked with they've said it's the hardest year of their life because they're working to get all of these things up and going. But for the district, um, you know, making sure that there's really transparent, um, milestones that the school has to meet because this is the time in which you will see if there's a school that's going to fail

034to launch or they're not going to get the kids or they're not able to provide the programming they thought they would. It's super important that um, districts are on top of uh, just being monitoring this period and making sure that there are pretty strong milestones as well. Um, I am if it's Is there anything else you wanted to add quickly on on pre-opening, Alex, or can we move on? >> No, you're good. One more time. Go. >> Okay. Um, so just in summary, I know um there's a lot more content in here that we would love to share if we have the ability to do do so, but um these are really important. Um, we have worked uh personally, Alex and I, a lot um with charters over the years and we've seen schools that

035get approved and don't open or schools that close within those first couple years. Um, and a lot of times it's related to some of these challenges. Most of them are facility challenges or they're having some leadership gaps. Um, or they don't have systems or like the business support of the school. Um, so all of that can impact timelines and being able to function and open well in year one. Okay. I believe these are Yeah. key takeaways. Alex, I'll let you take this slide. >> Sure. Um, uh, if you'd like, we're available to go into more detail on any of this. We're also available to talk one-on-one. Um, and your team at the district are great to work with and involved with tax all the time. Number one, this is really an intense responsibility that covers

036the full life cycle. The charter contract is key for establishing really what to do once a school exists. So that comes back to the application which goes to the findings which goes to the contract which then sets the terms for how your relationship will be with the school. Um oversight and monitoring throughout the life cycle should really be designed to create a record that you use that informs renewals and that also lets schools know when they're hitting it out of the park that there's nothing to worry about. All of that should be documented by evidence and aligned with law and policy. And to the extent you can do that, then things become less political, they become less subjective, and people fight about it a lot less. So, um, and you can focus on the things

037that matter for kids where something's going wrong where you can actually intervene and say, "Hey, this school you could do better by your kids with disabilities or we think this program is not as strong as it could be." If the system's working, those things can be addressed. If you don't have the authorizing pieces in place, that's much harder. um and that that consistency helps across time and place and that uh all of it if you can't get it in place creates um some risk for your high stakes decisions. So I'll I'll close there and uh welcome any questions or feedback. >> Does anybody have any feedback? >> No. >> Um this is really good. Um, Jen, for what it's worth, I think that this should probably take place any time that we have um charters

038that come up um just or we have new board members. Um since we don't do it very often, it's also just a good refresher for authorizing. Um I just I mean even though I've done it a few times and also been on the other side of it, um I just I found this really helpful. I think it's really good. Thank you guys for doing this. >> Thank you. If I may, I'm sorry, Jen. >> No, go ahead and Mackenzie, I'll finish. I'll wrap it up when you're done. >> Um, it was just one thing I wanted to make sure that we noted about this um presentation tonight that we did for you. This um work is supported by the Colorado Schools Fund um for uh through CAXA for us to provide this to districts. And

039um this is our pilot year of being able to provide some of this uh training. And so we are um really looking for um the kind of feedback that you just shared so that we can make sure that our our materials and um the the information we share is relevant and helpful to you. Um we did this presentation uh a month ago and it took three and a half hours. So we we we would love some feedback on what uh school districts need and what you find helpful. So, um, thank you for the feedback and we hope that we can have some time in front of you, um, in the future to go over some other things in greater depth. >> That's great. Would it would it be helpful if I emailed that to you

040or is there somewhere that we could provide that feedback to you guys? That would be helpful. >> Yes, thank you. I'll be sending Jen I'll be sending you a it's a three question survey. Um, if you could provide your feedback, that would be great. >> Yes, we I'd be happy to do that. >> Thank you. So, I will send out that survey from McKenzie. I will also send out that handout that shows the explicit and it's essentially a checklist of the difference um and the roles and responsibilities of the board and then the staff. I just wanted to remind each and every one of you, you have um in our Google folder, you have um each of the applications. You also have the rubric that staff and DAC used um in evaluating each section of

041the applications and then you have those standards that both um that were identified between Alex and McKenzie. Just a a couple updates on dates. We just had our community meeting which you all were at. Thank you so much. this last Saturday and you heard um community um input and comment for each of the charter schools that we're reviewing. We have our our capacity interviews next Thursday, that's May 14th. These are closed um interviews, but they will be videotaped um and if or recorded. I don't think we use videotape anymore. They will be recorded um for the board's um review if you'd want to. And then I expect that um I will give a recommendation from the district to the board at the June 2nd um board meeting. And then you guys, it is um required

042by statute that um by resolution either to approve or deny is done by June 30th. right now. Um, I have it on the calendar that by resolution you guys would have that the last board meeting in June, which is June 16th. And I will send uh an email with all of those updates, survey, and um role and responsibility sheet. Any questions? >> Jen, I do like watching those capacity interviews. So >> then you won't see them until after after Yeah. Thursday. But of course we will share it with the board. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jen. Is there any >> Yeah, I did get feedback from um some folks that attended the community meeting and they were real appreciative, thought that it went really well and they were so um appreciative of the

043board, everybody being there and having that opportunity to share their thoughts and um feedback this last Saturday, Saturday morning at 8:30. Thanks to each and every one of you for being there. Anything else? No. Thank you, Jen. Appreciate you. >> Thanks for >> Thank you, Mackenzie and Alex. I appreciate you guys. >> Thank you all. >> Next item on the agenda is a uh bond projects and gateway progress update. Clint Garcia. Ha. check. Good evening board. Thanks for having us this evening. My name is Clint Garcia, chief operations officer. Uh here with Micah Adams with dynamic project management. just to give you an update on our priority improvement projects in phase two and an update on Fruit of Monument High School and the progress that we've made there and then a gateway update as well.

044We'll do that um here in a little bit. I wanted to just mention before we get started um how much I appreciate the work that's being done uh on this side of the house with um uh Eddie, Tony, and the team. Uh the amount of meetings that these guys attend and Micah too uh is incredible. and the work that's being done in the background just to make all of this happen. So, just a quick thank you to them. All right, with that, I will turn it over to Micah and we'll start the presentation. >> Sounds great. Um, once again, good to meet you guys or see you guys. Mike Adams with Dynamic Program Management. Uh, DPM being the owners rep for the school district bond projects. Um, I have set up a cot in Eddie's

045office. Uh, spend quite a bit of time in there in meetings. Um, but it's a great team to be working with. So, uh, to start things off, we've got our, uh, typical buckets, um, pie charts. Nothing's changed on this, uh, slide since last time, except we got the numbers to show up this go around. So, thank you to Amy and, uh, Clint and Debbie, uh, and getting that to uh, cross over into uh, this formatting correctly. So to start things off with the priority improvement projects phase two, just a brief overview. Uh the schedule, it's a quick one. Um you know, this summer we actually uh start things here in just about two weeks. Uh two weeks in a day is when move out begins. So it's coming up really quick. And then there's um

046I want to say just a little over eight weeks to get everything done. So, and as you can see there, total committed to date, 29 million, about just under 4 million spent to date. So, that means about 25 million to be spent in the in the next um 3 months about. So, it's going to be moving pretty quick. Um there on the left side, you'll see a brief uh recap of all the different uh things happening throughout the district. And on the right side, you'll see a brief overview of the schedule for the summer. Um, nothing has changed in either of those since the last time we presented. Um, so to give you a little bit of an update on what has happened recently, uh, furniture vendors were brought on board. Um, so for the

047priority improvement projects, three different furniture vendors. Um, one of those being local, they got the majority of the work on the priority improvement projects. We'll show them on the next slide. uh mover procurement. There's four movers on board for all the moving to happen this summer. Um all the GMP amendments uh went into place and uh thankfully those GMP estimates actually came in a little under what had been estimated previously. So we're looking good when it comes to the budget. Um in progress uh just lots of moveout meetings going on. Um Eddie and Tony um by the time school gets out, we'll have met with every school three separate times to discuss moveout plans um with teachers and and um principles. Um and so they're they're putting a lot of work into that. Jason uh

048with our team has put up what you can see there on the right side of the screen. um kind of a typical move out plan that's got different uh shaded areas showing what needs to be completely cleared. Uh what can have uh furniture left in place, lots of notes to try to help communicate to the team what's going to be happening in those moveouts. Um lots of sitewalks going on with the general contractors, baitman contractors. Uh currently purchasing of long lead items is ongoing. Um, and then as I mentioned earlier, the upcoming we've just about two weeks before everything really starts to to get going. So May 21st and 22nd will be move out. Um, and then directly following the holiday weekend, all the abatement and general contractors will mobilize on the on the 26th

049there and begin work. Here's uh just a brief list of everybody working on the project here this summer. figured we'd throw in here to kind of help communicate. There's a lot of uh different moving parts pieces, different team members on these projects. Um, so a quick little recap of all the abatement contractors on board, furniture vendors, general contractors, movers. Um, and as I mentioned, office outfitters, they were awarded um, three of those uh, furniture projects. OS schools is out of Denver and then I believe Lakeshore is out of Denver as well. Um, we did have uh some other local vendors uh get some work on some of the other projects going on this summer, just not the uh priority two projects. Um they're, you know, let alone just the priority improvement projects. We've got Central

050and Fruta going on this summer as well. So, it really had to kind of split up the work. Um that kind of covers uh property improvement projects. I should maybe mention real quick something that is ongoing right now as well is just kickoff meetings with phase three schools for summer 2027. Just trying to get some brief information from principles before they go out on summer break. Fruit of Monument High School brief overview. Um total project budget still sitting there at uh 24 million. Total committed to date you'll see is 19.4. We recently got the uh GMP estimate and are currently working through uh getting that um amendment signed to to square up the contract amount there. Um that I believe also came in maybe just a little bit under what had previously been estimated. So

051uh some more good news there. Um just under a million spent to date. >> The GMP is the guaranteed maximum price. Just >> Yes, correct. Sorry that earlier. >> It's all right. >> Um there on the left side of the screen, just want to mention as well, groundbreaking ceremonies, got two of them coming up. Uh centrals will be May 21st at 9:00 a.m. Uh Fruit of Monument High School will be May 26th at 9:00 a.m. So mark your calendars. Looking forward to uh seeing you all out there. And then uh at the bottom you can see some uh kind of bar charts as we're starting progress of uh where things are at. Recently completed. This was another one. Uh furniture vendor was recently awarded to office outfitters local vendor mover procurement. General hands was brought

052on to uh help with the moveout. Phase one abatement procurement. Orion environmental um was recently hired to do the um abatement. There's some sci existing science classrooms. Originally the plan was to abate those next summer. Um but found we could uh get some efficiencies by abating a couple of them this summer. So uh two classrooms in a hallway I believe. So Orion will be doing that. In progress, as I mentioned, the GMP amendment is currently um just getting uh uh finalized before it gets signed off. uh similar to the priority improvement projects, a lot of ordering of long lead materials, site coordination, utility coordination happening here before uh boots hit the ground in just a couple weeks. Um upcoming similar to the priority improvement projects, move out is the 21st and 22nd, general contractors mobilize

053the 26th. Um and then foundations for all three of the additions uh start here this summer. Um, as mentioned previously, phase one abatement happening this summer. They're in the science classrooms. And then the wait room relocation is expected to happen in July. So that will be relocated from a um modular into the building. Um, once again, one of the big goals with uh this project and central was try to get everything under one roof. Um, believe you guys saw this last time I presented. just a a reminder breakdown of what areas of the um project are happening when and that actually takes us to uh gateway stuff. So Clint, >> all right, so just a quick update on where we're at in the gateway project. Uh let me I'm going to start by saying we've

054done some work already and we're in progress with some stuff, but I want to make sure that we're clear on uh which building is being uh demoed and that is the main school building. And I'll have a slide that kind of shows that building one at the end of the presentation, but not the entire school is getting demoed. And I think there may be just some confusion about that. So just for some clarity, it's just one building. We still will have a building in Gateway. All right. So um what we've already completed is salvage and preparation work. We've gone through the building and gotten rid of um a lot of the materials that have been inside of that building, whether they're old desks or bookcases, those kinds of things. Um, asbestous sampling, abatement, and clearances

055have all been done. Demolition contractor process and selection has already been completed as well. And then we've removed propane tanks and and gotten um some utilities disconnected as well. In progress currently is our permit uh is work is underway. Electrical, water, and sewer terminations are being verified. That's happening right now. And then the current focus of of course is making sure that uh everything can be done safely. And then next up on the list things that are coming up is final safety and security runs. So all of the things that I just talked about with uh disconnecting all the utilities. Uh once those are done, uh Eddie, Tony, and the team will go through the building again to make sure that we've done everything that we need to to make sure everything's disconnected. And then

056we'll start building demolition backfill with uh decomposed granite are planned for June 2nd through July 1st. So we'll backfill once that building is gone. We'll backfill that entire area. There's a significant drop off when you pull into the building. Those of you that have been out there, the building where it's at, there will be a drop off. And so we're going to back fill some of that. Place some boulders at the top of the street there so you could pull in and not go over the edge. Right. And but we'll back fill some of that stuff. uh once that building is removed and then final inspection is targeted for July 1st. We'll have all of our inspections done in that and completely finished with that project by the end of um our fiscal year. So,

057I also thought it would be a good idea just to ground ourselves in why we're doing this. I know that some of this has already been presented and some of you have already gone through it. uh but just thought it would be good for us to to revisit it again and why we're doing what we're doing. In the 2023 facilities master plan uh that ended really in 2024 when we got the final plan. We identified several areas at Gateway that needed to be addressed several buildings and Gateway was one of them. It received an F uh because of its condition and um that was mostly because of the building that we're looking at currently to demo. There are some significant roofing structural deficiencies all around the building. Uh sagging overhangs. U uh insufficient insulation in

058the building. There's a a lack of ADA accessibility. There's no elevator between floors if we had any kind of um need for ADA accessibility. That building was not going to provide it. Um life safety and fire code violations throughout the building. Not compliant with uh exterior egress stairs. And then there's no fire sprinkler system in the building. You know, we've talked a little bit about the work that we're be doing right now with bond work. We're outfitting all of our buildings with fire sprinkler systems now. Uh to be to become compliant with all of the work that we're doing. This building doesn't have any of that. And to do that in this building would be incredibly expensive and I'm not sure it would be worth it in the with all the other work that we'd

059have to do to that building. Outdated mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. Um, most of them are are at their end of life. Uh, and they're not in really good shape. Exterior and exterior deterioration, including hazardous materials, failing finishes, and inefficient insulation and windows. So, there's a lot to do, and this is just the surface. Um, the full report uh shows a lot of other deficiencies in that building uh as well. And so, we also talked about what the costs would be. This is this is information that we shared with the community back in December um of the the cost that it would take to to bring that building and the adjacent building back to um where it should be. And so the total campus cost would be just a little over $7 million to get

060that entire campus to where it needed to be. Uh the main building, the one that we're talking about specifically, about $4 million to get that building uh to where it needs to be. and and then the remaining campus which is the the building that we're going to keep up about $3 million to do work to that. I'd like to note though that one of the things that I didn't mention um earlier is these are only hard cost numbers. These are only construction cost numbers. This doesn't include um any soft costs uh which would be design uh architect and engineering for for this building. So I thought it would be a good idea to to include those numbers in today's dollars. What we've seen um traditionally is that cost escalation year-toear is about 5%. And so

061I've done that from that point when we did the uh first assessment to today's numbers. And I also added soft costs in there at about 20%. So those architects and engineering costs, I've added those in there. So today's numbers to do the work on that building would be closer to the numbers on the right. So we're talking $9.6 $6 million for the total campus. Uh just a little over $5 million to do the building that we're talking about currently. And then of course the remaining campus um would cost about $4.2 million. So again, we're talking about a significant increase from 2024 from 7.2 to $9.6 million. And then here is the the overhead shot. And just again to be clear, just the building that's in the um circled area is the building that is um

062designated for demolition, not the entire building. We still have um classes that are being held in there. We have an online class. We also have a gymnasium that's uh that's still being used by the community as well. And then there's a cafeteria area um on site and offices. All right, with that, uh, are there any questions on any of those presentations with, uh, PIP's Freedom Monument High School and or Gateway? I >> think not so much a question as just a statement. Sure. So, you know, we've been receiving a lot of emails in reference to the gateway school and I know that there was a recent suggestion as to, you know, someone wanting to use it for a different a different purpose. And even looking at those different purposes, they're still mandated under ADA requirements.

063They're still mandated under fire suppression systems, you know, and all of these other things. So all of this would still have to happen to that building even if someone else came in to occupy it for a different purpose than a school. Correct. >> That is correct. >> Okay. So not only would it be, you know, the purchase of the land or the building or even if it was a nominal amount of money, there's still a significant amount of maintenance that has to go into that building in order for it to be inhabited for any purpose. >> Yes. >> Thank you. I think the only thing I wanted to just clarify to I think just in the public meeting and I don't I'm assuming Brian Dr. Hill is still with us. >> Yes. >> Okay. So

064just could could you Dr. Hill just clarify the schooling that is currently happening there? Um yeah, and I'll let Jen jump in and explain that, but I just want to be clear that that the school hasn't closed um so there's still a school in Gateway. It just looks different um than it was prior. And we were clear about that when we held the community meeting. I mean, I'm looking back at the slides right now. So um we shared all that information back then about um the facility condition. It it not only was it an F, it's it scored a 15 out of 100. So it wasn't um even close. And it does have a lot of issues. is the building that Clint's um talking about uh demoing. We also were clear in that meeting to

065say we weren't sure at that time what exactly it was going to look like, but we knew it couldn't remain the same way it had been functioning. And so something needed to be done. We shared the costs. Um we threw out options for um what educational program could look like um and then um and asked for some feedback and then there was even followup um from Jyn and her team. So, um, so a lot a lot happened in those meetings and it wasn't just I know it's been presented in some ways of like we just kind of caught everybody off guard and and made a decision and that's not accurate. Um, we were pretty clear uh along the way um that something was going to change and that we were not going to put $7

066million into the building um because we didn't have that. Um and and Clint was very clear um with the condition as well um out there. So um Jen, I don't know if you're still on. Do you want to share um based on you know we got feedback and and just um how y'all took that and created the programming that we have there now? >> Yeah, sure thing. So we had been out there two different times December of 24 and then again April in 25. One letting them know the conditions of the buildings and then how much would cost but then asking for their thoughts and feedback on what they wanted um educational programming to look like. And then after that last April meeting, I sent out a survey and the survey came back that um

067they really I had given options. Do they wanted did they want um students to be bust into a school um an elementary, middle, and high in town if that was the case? What were their preference in school selection? and um or we could look at Grand River Virtual Academy. What came back um and the the town was or the community was really passionate is the the littles and not being on um the road for close to an hour every day. So the option that we brought back was um actually they could have both. Um when it came to GR and school in town, but with elementary in particular, the school that is still open is elementary. So K through five, if you um it was just to the right of that the older building with

068the yellow circle right to the right. It used to be the library. Um Clint's team went in there, gutted it, um put new carpeting and new paint and freshened it up. One of the teachers that had been with Gateway for a while is a teacher there. We have another staff member who acts as a secretary and as a um the nurse and a parah and elementary students go in there. do receive um supplemental instruction from Grand River, Grand River, but they have a teacher. Um secondary are um there are buses. Clint worked with STA and there is a bus that goes to Palisade High School and Mount Garfield Middle School. And those were the two schools that the community chose. If they did not want their child to bus in to those two secondaries, a

069middle and a high, then they could choose Grand River Virtual Academy. Um, and interestingly, we had families that chose one or the other, and some that actually I think we had some students that did we have families that did um Grand River and um went to Palisade. So, we still have a school open. We are offering program. It's just not K12, but it is K5. >> And that's something that we'll have to Thanks, Jim. That's something we'll have to monitor, obviously, too. Like, um, because right now, I think last I looked, we had we have five elementary students. Um, one's a fifth grader. So, next year, unless a new family moves in or we have more kids come in, then we'll have four. And so that was something that the board had asked about previously

070as well is just kind of long term. And so those are numbers that we monitor every year to see um what the student numbers are. Um and then the other thing I'd say is just I do appreciate that the board has asked a lot of questions around this. Um and so I just want to be clear like with the community, the board hasn't just said, you know, do whatever. The board has asked a lot of questions. The board has made an offer um to some of the folks in the community to say if you want to purchase it. Um, and so I I just want to um be clear about that that um there have been efforts made by the board to try to um for lack of a better term be accommodating. Um and

071we've looked at every option and so um I I just appreciate the board um doing that. >> Thanks for that. The only um just clarifying question was um Miss Marsh when you talked about surveying whom would that be just the current students and families there? >> Yes. The families that um are choosing to attend Gateway Elementary School or the families that are choosing to come to a school in town then they we send a bus up there. Is that your question? >> Yes. And then will and will new families coming up continue to have that same those same options to the best of our ability or what we know at this point? >> Yes. >> Okay. Hey, thank you so much for uh presenting both the the campus, understanding that the issue is not just

072the building but also um what appears to be uh low student numbers and just trying to manage the costs of educating students in a rural area. So, I appreciate the update. >> I make one more point. This was brought up as well and I thought I'd just maybe provide some additional information. And one of the questions that was asked was about 2017 bond and whether or not we used some of those funds to take care of that building. And we did. There was uh $310,000 allocated to that project. We spent about $426,000. And part of that was on roofing, but it was on the main building where we felt like we needed it the most at that time. So when we did use the money for the the project at Gateway, it was allocated for

073that specifically just for clarity sake. >> Appreciate that. >> Yeah, I I appreciate the clarity too because I think um in just some of the conversations um the two things have sort of been getting conflated and I think it sounded like we were tearing down the school and closing the school and that we didn't have programming down there for our families. So, I appreciate just the clarity again with the two the two things going on. So, thank you all. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you guys. >> Next item in the agenda is prepare and support staff uh PL strategy plan update. Miss Johnson. Good evening everyone. Uh my name is Nikki Johnston and I am the secondary director of curriculum and professional learning and I wanted to thank you for the opportunity to share

074an update on early release Fridays and how we're leveraging that time to strengthen job embedded professional learning. I'd like to begin by having our team briefly introduce themselves. >> Hi, I'm Me McGordy. I'm an assistant principal at Central Middle School. >> Audrey Morales, assistant principal at Redlands Middle School. >> Kate Herrera, assistant principal at Fruda Monument High School. Casey Awasi, special education coordinator for high school. So we are actually members of the academic success task force for the strategic plan. Uh but tonight we are presenting for the prepared and supported staff priority area specifically on job embedded professional learning. This year, the task force uh for the secondary uh for the academic success prioritized secondary early release grounded in the belief that if this time is used intentionally and effectively, it can directly impact student

075achievement. Tonight, I will walk you through how this work aligns with our strategic plan, what we are seeing in the data, and how we are continuing to refine the model to better support both teachers and students. As we continue on our 2025 2030 strategic plan, what remains unchanged is our commitment to engage, equip, and empower both students and staff. Early release Fridays are one of the key structures that allows us to bring this vision to life, particularly how we equip and empower our educators to improve outcomes for students. This work directly sits with focus area three, prepared and supported staff. Specifically, it supports staff retention and job embedded professional learning. We know that when teachers feel supported and have meaningful opportunities to grow, it directly impacts both student achievement and staff retention. Our goal is

076clear. By 2030, 70% of teachers will report that professional learning is personalized and aligned to to their needs. Early release Fridays is one of our primary strategies to move this metric by shifting professional learning from something that is done to teachers to something embedded in their daily work. We're strengthening this work by aligning several systems. Walkthroughs that provide real- time insight into classroom practices. Learning communities where teams regularly analyze student data. Instructional coaching that offers consistent shoulderto-shoulder support to teachers as they implement new learning. and a focus on coherence, ensuring that professional learning, feedback, and instructional priorities are aligned across classrooms, schools, and the district. Together, these structures create more intentional, connected system of support that builds teacher capacity and ultimately drives improved student outcomes. At the secondary level, early release Fridays are designed for

077intentional collaborative professional learning focused on improving student outcomes. This includes vertical alignment meetings, datadriven instruction, MTSS, and effective use of standard align and board adopted resources. Just as important, this time is not for planning or routine tasks. It is protected time to strengthen instructional systems. So all students have access to grade level learning. At the elementary level, the purpose mirrors secondary focused on job embedded professional learning aligned to student outcomes. The emphasis on coherence across literacy, math, collaboration, and strengthening instructional practices that meet the needs of all learners. On a side note, elementary has two Fridays per month that are dedicated to teacher planning. To monitor the impact this year, we collected ongoing feedback from staff. This survey focuses on five key indicators. alignment to instructional priorities, opportunities to collaborate and apply learning, confidence in

078implementation, perceived impact on student outcomes, and preparedness to meet students needs. Together, these measures provide a clear picture of both perception and effectiveness. This survey went out to teachers after every district Friday. The survey captures school and content area data, allowing us to disagregate results and respond with more targeted support. This enabled us to share relevant insights with both school leaders and content specialists, ensuring that the next steps were focused, strategic, and responsive to specific needs. I'm going to take a minute and go over um each of the questions and how it went through. So, here is an overview of um general overall averages across elementary, middle school, and high school. We're seeing consistently favorable data over time. The scores remained above neutral and showed steady growth which indicated that our staff are increasingly finding

079this time valuable and relevant to their work. The first question that we asked um was one of the most important indicators was whether teachers see a connection between the learning and their instructional priorities. We've seen consistently favorable responses here, which tells us that we're moving in the right direction in making professional learning more targeted and relevant. We are also seeing strong results in opportunities for collaboration, reflection, and application. This is critical because professional learning only impacts students when their teachers have time to process, plan, and apply it together. Teacher confidence in implementing what they've learned continues to trend positively. This is a key lever. When teachers feel confident, we see stronger, more consistent instructional practices in the classroom. Importantly, teachers were reporting that the learning will have a positive impact on student outcomes. While perception

080is not the only measure, it is a strong indic leading indicator that the work is meaningful and connected to student learning. Teachers are consistently reporting a sense of preparedness to meet the variabilities of learners in their classroom. This aligns directly with our focus on ensuring that all students can access grade level content with the support they need. While the results on this measure remain positive, it's consistently the lowest across the year's average. This has signaled to us an importance in this area to continue focusing on it as we strengthen our approach to addressing learner variability. While the quant qualitative datative is positive, we also collected qualitative feedback which provided clear trends across the year to guide our continuous improvement. One of the early patterns we heard was that the schools were very excited to have

081this dedicated time on Fridays and in that excitement we overly planned and put too much into the Fridays. As a result, the teachers often feel felt rushed and the time began to feel overwhelming rather than impactful. We listened closely to that feedback and worked with school leaders and adjusted expectation, prioritizing depth over volume and creating more space for meaningful collaboration. We've been intentional about responding to feedback at this secondary level. We increased flexibilities for schools and created virtual collaboration opportunities for electives and some of our singleton teachers to meet. This ensures that the time is meaningful and accessible for all staff regardless of their role. Across this work, these two consistent tensions have emerged. Schools value the ability to tailor the time to meet their specific needs, while elective and singleton teachers need structured opportunities

082to collaborate across schools. Our ongoing focus is to balance both, maintaining relevance at the building level while ensuring connection and coherence across the district. To bring life to beyond the data, I'd like to turn it over to our principles to share how this time is impacting their schools and classrooms. Central, would you like to go first? >> Sure. Move this. Hi everybody. Um, so I think the opportunity that um I'm excited about tonight is to get to tell you a little bit about our our story and thinking about it. All three of us have very different stories and different contexts. Um so at Central um for those of you who may or may not be aware uh over the summer last summer five of the six of us on the administrative team were brought on.

083Um so we we were a new team. We knew going into our first year as a team and knowing that we had this new opportunity, this gift of time that we had to make sure to be really really intentional about the way we used it. Um and we had to build a culture. um they needed to get to know us, we needed to get to know know them and we needed to become a we um and so that it's not an us versus them. Um and so one of the the things that uh Zeb did a great job of uh sorry, Principal Hayward did a great job of coming in was listening to staff and one of the consistent pieces of feedback that we heard from staff was we don't know each other, right? We're

084in these departments and we're feeling feeling feeling very siloed and so to come together one of the things that we did is we were very intentional about planning cross depend departmental collaboration opportunities. Um we also heard um there was excitement but also some anxiety just like Nikki talked about around all of this time that we would have together. Um, and so we wanted to make sure that we weren't just adding one more meeting. Um, but rather that we were building a predictable structure for improvement work. Um, we needed to go through that plan, do, study, act, uh, process. Um, so that we knew that we were improving. Um, and we needed to spend time on data. And so we were able to do that. Um, cross-dep departmental time is now not just an occasional thing

085at Central. It's regularly built into what we do. Um, and it's something that we've consistently received increasing positive feedback about because I don't just get to talk to my English peeps. I get to talk to the PE teacher and they're using the same strategy as the band teacher and it looks a little bit different but gosh that this makes a lot of sense and now I have more people I can go to as a thought partner. Um we also were able to build in a number of short data cycles which has been absolutely lovely and has helped us keep our our focus on instruction. Um we've tracked that uh those instructional improvements through our walkthrough data and what has been um extremely exciting is that that was validated through our strive visits. It's not just

086hey we think that we see things are are improving, we feel like things are improving. We actually have data that shows, nope, we're seeing an improvement in instruction in the classroom. One of our biggest pieces of celebration um is around the work we've done with intentionally building a sense of belonging amongst our students. If not for this time that's dedicated, we would not have been able to go as deeply into our belonging data as we did in the fall. We looked at it. We put a plan together and then we were able to put that plan into place because we had week weekly touch points with our staff. We were really excited and we got to celebrate and have a lot of fun. And there might be some pictures of Principal Hayward out there um

087wearing a really interesting outfit um because we got to celebrate one of the largest increases um seen across the district in our belonging data. we had an 18 point increase um in our belonging data and we really do attribute the time that we had to be able to implement what we planned um through the this time that we've been given. Um the other piece that I'd like to celebrate before I turn it over to my colleagues is we've been able to focus on attendance um and our messaging around um testing and the importance of testing and the importance of showing up every single day. Um, and with those two indicators, we're super excited. Uh, we've seen an average daily attendance increase um by 2% this year, which is big, really big. Um, and we're super

088super excited because we feel like the this streamline messaging around testing and why it's important and preparing students for testing and making sure that they feel prepared when they walk into those exams um led to our anticipated achievement of our participation rate for testing this year, which is super super exciting for us. So, it's been wonderful. Um, and we have also seen that the feedback that we've gotten um from staff has become increasingly positive um throughout the year. Is it perfect? Do we still have bumps? Absolutely. But we'll continue to work through those um and we'll continue to take that feedback. Thank you. >> Hello again. Um I am at Redlands and in recent years we've done a really good job I think of leveraging our teacher leaders um and in keeping a really narrow

089focus on our school goals. What's been nice about early release uh is that it's increased our ability to create opportunities for intentional collaboration with teams that otherwise would have no time to meet. Um our the way our building operates is everyone's on different valve schedules and so there is no time to meet and collaborate across grade levels sometimes across contents and different teams. So this has allowed us to have for instance our sped teachers uh to join our content teams. We have cross-disciplinary collaboration time for our intervention and extension teachers that have different grade level schedules. Um and also our exploratory teachers can work not only with their own team but they can mix with teachers across the building that they typically don't get to work with. On Fridays we start and end in together

090with a focus on school culture. So much like central that's really been an intentional focus of ours. Uh we start with a we're Redlands team building activity. Um, and that's really just a warm-up for staff that increases relationship and deepens those um, connections. We also end with a culture-based activity that's for students. And I would say this is one of the kind of big wins for us this year. In December, our teacher leadership team decided that they really wanted to give more um, opportunities for students to feel seen or recognized in our building. And so they decided that as a staff that teachers would take the last five to 10 minutes of every Friday to write personal letters to all students in their advisory. And this was according to students and parents this was one

091of the highlights of the year. Um students feel seen and appreciated. Every single letter is unique and is handwritten and mailed and many of our students have never received a piece of mail in their life. Um, and so the impact of has been really incredible. And um, the response we've gotten from students and student panels and parents, I often have them stop me at the grocery store or on the soccer field on the weekend to tell me about the letters that their kids have received and how it's impacted them and how it feels to them as a parent to see that happen as well and how much they appreciate it. Um and we really have seen that impact over time with kids. But we loved it so much that we kept it. And so in

092third quarter we opened it up to um all students. So teachers can write any student in the building, not just our advisory, but we did advisory first because we wanted to make sure every kid got a letter. And then beyond that, teachers have continued that moving forward. We we've also seen a return in our Friday PL because it's given us time for establishing our new whole school intervention and extension program. This course is called Eagle Hour and every student gets a 50-minute class that rotates every quarter. The intention of the course is to allow students to participate in personalized intervention and extension. We have academic interventions like that provide ELA and math support interventions like our Y tri program based on resilience um and our attendance interventions like study hall where students have lessons on

093study skills and have time to uh catch up on their work with support. The extension classes include things like robotics, world travel, mythology, creative writing, biology, and public speaking. Friday learning and collaboration time gives us the ability to review and respond to student data and to plan hands-on learning in these crossgrade level or cross-disciplinary teams. Another focus for us this year was our peer observations between teachers. Each quarter, teachers go watch two other staff members teach during a plan period of their own. They complete an observation form and then we debre brief as a whole staff during our professional learning on Fridays. This allows us to align our strive work and focus on specific instructional strategies and it allows teachers an opportunity to try new things and to steal ideas from one another when they

094see things that their colleagues are doing that they want to borrow. Um when we debrief we have a discussion protocol and teachers mix with other contents and grade levels. Again, that seems to be a pattern for a reason. like we just love having that time together and to see the growth that can happen when we see that collaboration take place. They have really engaging and purposeful conversations about what they learned and where they want to grow in the future. Um there are a lot of things that I think have gotten better over the course of the year. We've had to adjust at the building level. Um, and at first I think district Fridays felt a little bit disjointed from building Fridays, but district leadership has been really responsive and has made adjustments that made it

095possible for us to align building PL more closely with district goals. They've given us more opportunity for administrators to have choice in the way PL is delivered. And they have shortened the content so there's more time for engagement, discussion, and collaboration. And next year, the intention is to have even more consistent themes and focus points that are repeated throughout the year from session to session. And that makes it even easier to ensure that Friday learning is purposeful and connected and that we see an impact on student outcomes. As I mentioned before, my name is Kate Herrera, assistant principal at Fra Monument High School. The addition of early release Friday this year has been a huge shift for our staff. Our teachers, above all else, value time they have with students. Sacrificing some of this precious

096time has led us to feel a sense of urgency to make the time meaningful and impactful. With this in mind, we set out to ensure the time was intentionally structured to benefit both staff and students. For years, we have focused on improving academic outcomes as well as culture and belonging through intentional goal setting and progress monitoring. The bulk of this work, however, was often limited to discussions with our instructional leadership teams and quarterly check-ins with our staff during inservice days. With the addition of early release Friday, we have been able to strengthen the collaborative focus on our goals in three key areas. First, our teachers have engaged in targeted and collaborative data cycles around standards mastery. This work has ensured that students understanding of key concepts is monitored frequently and real-time adjustments are made to

097instruction to help close gaps. Because of this work, Fruit of Monument students had the lowest percentage of FS at the end of the first semester that we've seen in 10 years. Second, we have been able to systematically support students through our revamped MTSS process. Early release has provided us with dedicated time for teamdriven databased problem-solving conversations that enable us to identify supports for students who struggle academically, behaviorally, or socially. The depth of this work is something that wasn't possible with the time constraints of our previous schedule. Finally, this time has allowed us to connect as a staff in a way that has helped us build a stronger sense of commu community. We intentionally built in time at the beginning of each early release session to come together as a whole group to share practices across

098departments, team build, and regground in our goals. This has been valuable as we navigate the challenges that come with change and has helped our staff deepen connections that make our collaborative work possible. It is also important to note that these successes did not come without challenges. It took time to fall into a routine and a structure that was predictable, responsive to teacher needs, and consistent. The urgency we felt as a system to make productive use of the time at the beginning of the year led to at times overloading our teams with new learning and outcomes. As Nikki mentioned, being responsible to feedback and flexible to the needs of our staff has been a critical part of the refinement process and we look forward to the opportunities that next year will bring. Thank you for your

099time and continued support of this work. Um, like I said before, my name is Casey Aasti and I'm special education coordinator for high school. On district Fridays, the special education department delivered targeted professional development for secondary special education teachers aligned to the courses they teach. Um, we were able to align much more than we have in the past um to the specific courses that teachers are teaching. Our resource teachers strengthened their instructional practices in reading and math while moderate needs teachers participated in ongoing training focused on executive functioning, social emotional learning and strategies for supporting students with autism spectrum disorder. Our life and rise teachers along with the PAR educators received support in implementing unique learning systems, the curriculum designed for students with the most significant needs. Our sore teachers engaged in training to support

100their implementation of the Boytown curriculum. In addition, we provided whole group sessions on IEP development, extended school year, and updates to district graduation requirements. These professional learning opportunities supported teacher growth and fostered increased collaboration across schools. as a task force group uh we decided we also wanted to collect some data on all Fridays not just district Fridays. So we took the same uh survey questions that we uh sent out on district Fridays and we opened it up to all teachers so that they could respond across all Fridays. The difference with this um survey is that we didn't collect any um identifiable data. So there was no school attached, no um areas attached. It was just the questions and then we had um four open-ended questions. So we looked at the same questions again and we

101just added throughout the year. This is a moderate connection between early release Friday learning and classroom instruction with slightly more favorable than unfavorable responses but a large neutral group group can suggesting inconsistency on impact. This is a clear strength. The majority of teachers reported that early release Friday provided meaningful opportunities to collaborate, reflect and apply learning. Teachers report strong confidence in their ability to implement what they learned, indicating that when the learning is relevant, it translates into practice. Perceived impact on student outcomes is a little bit more mixed with similar favorable and unfavorable responses suggesting that implementation is not yet consistently translating into measurable student impacts. We asked these four qualitative feedback questions and we got 229 responses. I took those 229 responses and ran it through AI to get a summary of what is

102working. Here you will see the top three themes, each with a positive alignment and something for us to think about in the future. Overall, the feedback shows that early release Fridays are having the greatest impact when teachers are able to collaborate in meaningful ways, particularly within their content and grade level teams. That time is strengthening alignment in instruction, assessment, and support for students. We also heard very clearly that relevance matters. When the work is closely connected to the classroom and tailored to the building level, teachers see much stronger impact. The biggest opportunity moving forward is not just adding more time, but refining how we use the time we already have, ensuring that it is focused, purposeful, and directly tied to improving student learning. In short, when early release Friday is used well, it works. And

103our next step is making that consistency a reality across all the schools. Here are the results of the 2026 TLCC survey. This is the goal of the task force and the goal is to increase favorable responses from 61% to 70%. While we did not see an increase this year, we did maintain our current level which is meaningful. Given that early release Friday represents a second order change, a significant change in practice, it's common to see an initial drop. Holding steady in the in year 1 indicates a strong foundation and we anticipate growth as it becomes more embedded K12. We've also seen an increase in staff reporting that they have time to analyze and respond to student data, which is a crucial shift. At the same time, we recognize the ongoing ongoing balance with workload, and

104that continues to be an area that we are monitoring and refining. Not only did we grow 9 percentage points on our own, but we also exceeded the state, which is 63%. Looking ahead, we are making targeted adjustments. At the secondary level, this includes additional virtual collaborations and more consistency in scheduling. At the elementary level, we're maintaining a strong district rhythm while increasing opportunities for schools to differentiate learning based on their own data. These adjustments reflect our commitment to continuous improvement. And more of the story about how we are addressing the personalized aspects of the goal. We know that we're we know where we are headed with this and how we're going to get better. identifying schools where there are bright spots and studying them next year. The PL calendar has been vetted by several groups,

105responding to the feedback, building leaders have clearly having it clearly made so that they can make plans for next year and plan coherence across the beginning of the year to the spring. Coherence is how we are intentionally planning across the year. difference between coherence across diff district Friday and empowering leaders to plan for coherence across building and district Fridays together. Acknowledging that our electives and paras at secondary are feeling disconnected. We're committed to supporting them and also understanding the importance of buildingwide consistency. That is the end of our presentation. What questions do you guys have for us? >> You have a question? Go. >> It's really just a comment. That was a lot of um really good information and I just want to acknowledge the challenge of how many teachers? 1400 teachers. >> A lot.

106>> Yeah. Um yeah, I just wanted to acknowledge listening especially for secondary. It's um for a teacher to um do variable instruction with many many students especially at secondary level um is a challenge and it's equally I think is challenging to ensure that we're individualizing teacher instruction and learning. So, I I just want to say kudos for having that be um a focus for the district. Um I know teachers really appreciate it and it's always hard to hit the mark. >> Um so I also appreciate, you know, one of the things that I sometimes notice with presentations is we don't always get the next steps. So, it's great to hear all the really good things, but it's also important to recognize the challenges. And I'm just kind of wondering um at the secondary level, I

107don't want to pick on high schools, but I wonder if especially in high schools, how staff um accepted not having having a a whole different look for their professional learning. And I just can imagine there's some growth, but but yeah, how has that been? Yeah, I I mean I would say there definitely were challenges and I think that you've kind of hit the nail on the head with the challenges. Um differentiating in a classroom of 30 kids is difficult. Differentiating across a staff of 71 um is equally difficult. Um and so trying to find that that relevance. Um I think one of the things that really helped is you know initially I know we weren't uh conducting a survey weekly to get feedback from teachers but fairly early on um we started seeing the relevance

108of the feedback we were getting from the district survey and so we went yep we need to put something in place and so we started collecting that that feedback um and it it was rough at times um I get overly excited you can probably tell my personality is like let's go um and so you know as we were designing Sometimes we would pack too much in um and then we get the feedback that was too much. We feel overwhelmed. We're drowning. Okay, we got to back it off. We we need to give more processing time. Um but because of the consistency of weekly, and I didn't mention this before, I've worked in multiple districts. I've never had this much dedicated time for professional learning for teachers ever. Um and so having that consistency in being

109able to go, okay, we thought our data cycle was going to take two weeks. Nope. the feedback that we're getting, we need more time on this. We need to refine this. So, we're going to take three weeks or we're going to take four weeks. Um, but being able to have that has been incredible because we can be responsive to it because we're not planning a once a quarter PD one and done and we're moving on. Yes, I can speak to that as well. At our school, it's the same sort of um theme that we're noticing. It is it is a shift, right? our teachers are being asked to do something new and structure their day differently. And not to mention, you know, they still have a full day with kids. It's just in a shorter

110amount of time. Um, and so that's been definitely weighing on our staff. And then we're asking them to engage in some very difficult and deep conversations around student supports and needs. I will say that our staff has taken that and have taken that challenge and they've really run with it. um we've had to make adjustments as administration to be responsive to the needs of the teachers and really listen to what works and what doesn't um throughout the year and that's definitely improved the overall outcomes that we're seeing during that time. Um but you certainly hit the nail on the head. It is difficult to differentiate and we have teachers in all different places with their LC work, with their data collection, with their ability to adjust instruction. And so really honoring that um while also

111building their capacity in other ways that maybe they weren't even thinking about has really been our focus that we all can improve. And that's been the the focus of our work. Our um vision at at Fer Monument High School is cultivating innovation, achievement and passion in a learner centered environment. And we have routinely um reminded ourselves and our staff that we are learner centered and we are the learners as well. So we've been focusing on that this year. Yeah, I just want to I want to make a comment that I I hear exactly what you're saying and I I too appreciate um sharing some of the challenges and the growing pains that come along with all of this. Um back when in elementary I know Dr. Medvet and I worked really close on like the

112elementary and it was very much similar to what you guys are talking about but that was years that was a years long multiple years long work the project. So, um I I hear it. Um I hear it in what you guys are doing and already the strategies for implementation to figure out different ways to meet the teachers needs are are really important. Um my second thought, my second I have a question and then like a follow-up comment thing. The um surveys that you did where you had both the district and the building surveys, >> uh was that just secondary or was that elementary also? Um for the >> it's on P it's slide >> this one. >> Yes. >> This was just secondary. >> Just secondary. Okay. That that clears that up a lot. Um

113I know Dr. Hill in the past has said something about having the number three having the three in there. And I was always like well I like to click three. >> Yeah. >> But now I'm now I'm kind I do. I do. And it's not because it's good or a bad, but this kind of this data set kind of shows that it's important to maybe see where those people in the three truly are because I would argue that there are people that they could be a four quite honestly. Um, they just chose three to be middle of the ground. And there are some people that are two that are just trying to, you know, say like things are they're okay. I can get by with it. But those people who are a two that are

114saying they're actually a three, those are the people we need to look at also and make sure we know who those people are. And I'm sure you and buildings do know, right? You know your staff pretty well, but it is helpful to have those data sets. So, I'd be interested to see if there's a possibility to remove the three against my heart because I am a chronic three clicker. Um, but I I think it's I think it's noticed here. um especially when you see those they're fairly similar and so you do rely on those threes to let you know really where you need to go. Um so it'd be important to have that information maybe not all surveys but maybe like once in a while just to give you a good idea. So that was

115my only comment and just wondering just thinking >> anything else I just have >> Go ahead. >> I'm just I'm just curious on something. Okay. um on your the learning will have a positive impact on student outcomes on those on those slides that you have in there. Uh there seems like there's always a peak in January 26 and then there's >> and then it falls in February. What happens in February? >> Um which one is it? >> It's it's it's almost all three of those top ones that you do. It's see there's there's like a peak in Jan January 1st 2026. There's a peak in the middle of that one and then then it drops in February, then it starts uh increasing again in March. I >> always feel like it's the holidays like that

116has a ton to do even when you're working in the schools like it's just >> those holidays seem to be they eb and flow and they really impact things. One of the um issues with this particular graph is that every this is just district Fridays. So these are Fridays that were um kind of brought up by me and we would I would sit with each one of the principles and we would talk through what they were. So they were pretty scripted. And so these district Fridays, each one of them had a different theme. So, two of them were specifically around belonging and so they were looking at their panorama data. Um, two of them were around a brand new backwards planning protocol that we were implementing um 612 and some of the teachers didn't like

117that. And then some of them were around specific learning strategies that we had learned during our Nick time. And so we were just re um bringing them back up and reteing them. So the dips in the and the high points and low points that you're seeing probably have more to do with the content of each Friday rather than an overall feeling. >> Right. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> The other question I uh could you explain what is a refined coherent equitable system of instruction? Explain that to me. >> Sure. Um we want to maintain we want to uh try and build across the system from Palisad to Fruda um a system of instruction where um if a student moves they're still getting the same um coherent and equitable instruction regardless of the school they're

118going through. And so that's one of the big shifts especially at high school. Um many years ago I was at a high school and I remember there was a time when at high schools we didn't share anything with each other. we were like very um closed off and what happened at Fra Monument we did not share that with central or junction and we have changed um that culture and now we share across and so we're still trying to build um the idea that what happens in uh Complet 9 at Palisade High School is the same that happens at Complet 9 at Central and Junction and Fruda and so we really want to get that coherent equity able instruction across all the schools. >> Does that also include like Valley School or Grand River? Those those

119schools also or just main schools? >> Yes. Um those schools are at a different pace than the rest of us. You know, we um the four high schools always get together to do ourorked improvement um communities and work with Strive. Strive works and brings all of those learning components to the alternative schools as well and then they make them their own. And so we all across the system have the same um look fors and expectations um but they feel different in different at the alternative schools. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. I just want to real quick um say congratulations to um Nikki on her appointment as the new secondary site director. So um didn't get a chance to do that last time, but as y'all know, she's done a lot in the

120district, but also um was the principal at Grand Mason Middle School leading that turnaround effort and then has been ahead of our secondary PL and now will be our um secondary site director. The committee selected her. So I just want to say congratulations on that that role. Thank you. Uhuh. Strive is a consultant that we have. Uh they're a group of people that do instructional consulting. And so they come in um both at elementary and high school. They help us teach the nicks, but then more importantly, they have site visits at each of the sites. And so they consult with the building administrators over what their goals are and how they can support them. And then we do walkthroughs where we can collect that instructional data with them. They help us build those. Um they

121help us make sure that th that coherence that we're all teaching the same thing across the buildings. So there are um consultants. >> Anything else? >> I just realized I said Graham Mason Middle School. You were the head of Mount Garfield Middle School. >> Yeah. My bad. >> Thanks. That that threw me force. I was like, when was she there? >> When was I there? >> We didn't want to correct you. >> Yeah. No, >> everyone does. Go ahead. >> I just want to say congrats to all the amazing data. Um, just belong 18 points in belonging. Um, and I just have to say the thank you notes. Um, it I got teareyed. I I think we've lost um the art of sending notes and um I've heard an amazing talk on it. just the

122power of of sending a written note is just so impactful and powerful and so I just commend you because it is quite special and so I just think that was such a neat thing that you guys are doing and then just um monitoring the data um and everything that we were doing and then just the impact on special education. So just each and every one of you um I know all of our principles are doing a lot of great work but thank you guys for sharing um the celebrations and putting yourself out there because you can only get you know good data and obviously the benefit of it when you're willing to kind of take the risk and put yourself out there um to kind of say what am I what do I need to

123improve on and so thank you for sharing that. So, it's really good >> and we know it's not perfect yet, but we're still, you know, working really hard and really taking the feedback and making changes. And that's really what this team has um looked at a lot this year is really trying to make make it valuable for everybody. >> And could I make one last thing? I went to the task force meeting and I sat down with the secondary teachers at the time and the conversation was really rich. So, um I can't remember all of the conversation, but I do remember that it was rich and and principles and leaders really digging into this kind of data and talking about um a lot of this and how they can make it work. >> I'm glad

124you said rich. I thought you were going to say intense because I remember when you were sitting there and I was like, "Okay, guys." >> Well, no, I appreciate it. Rich is intense. I mean, it is, but it was just it was good that to see a group of professionals coming together and not making excuses about data. Not that that's what people do, but it can happen, right? If you you guard your heart and you guard what you're trying to do, but that's not what was the case. There was a lot of people really working towards >> making something work. Um, so I I just wanted to shout that out. >> Thank you. >> And if I could say something just really quick, thank you Casey for bringing that up. um that work, those days.

125We meet as strategic um plan task forces uh four times a year. And part of negotiations this year, if you all will remember, we are going to add um two teachers to this task force to ensure that we have their voice. And so that was part of negotiations and um we talked about that was it two Thursdays ago. >> Thanks, Jen. I forgot that, but thanks. That's important. feel like I need to say something. Say something. >> We've been waiting. We've been waiting. >> Well, I want to say thank you. Thank you guys so much for even like listening to just listening to the feedback because I heard you say they told us it's too much, >> you know, because I guess one of the things that I learned in the military was don't fall

126in love with your own idea. >> You know, you think, oh, this is great and this is going to work and I know this is amazing and it may be and at some point you might be able to have that much rigor. you know, on those on those Fridays. But for now, the teachers are like, "This is new to us." So, like, give me a hot minute to get a grip on this and like, "Please just back off." So, thank you guys for listening to that because I think a lot of times we hear like they don't listen. They Well, yeah, they do. They are. And here's the data that they did listen. So, thank you for listening >> and realizing and even being humble to say, "Well, I thought it was great, but we're

127going to back off a little bit and make this work." because I think that that's all they really want, >> you know. >> It's true. >> Thank you guys so much. >> Thank you. >> Next item is business meetings. Uh I just want to say that we're going um discuss uh we're going to talk about the reading first reading of policy. In the back there's a QR code. If you go with your phone, you could click it. It'll bring you back up to uh school uh to board book and you could hit on you could click on today's date and you'll have everything that we have. Just to let you know uh the business meeting is first reading and policy JICJ student use of cell phones and other personal electronics device. Uh once again, if

128make sure if you have questions regarding that, please um let Tammy know because we'll be taking a vote in it in probably within the next two weeks. But I like a motion ex and a second regarding uh business meetings >> regarding >> we don't need that >> regard. I know, but I think we're going to have end up somebody wanted um Secretary Heis asked if we could do that and then have a discussion about it. >> Well, >> or we could just have a discussion. >> Yeah. No, I just I just wanted to say that um yeah, we don't with the first reading, we don't necessarily have to have a motion in a second, but I just wanted to make sure that we had a little bit of time to maybe have some comments on

129the first reading. So, um because I know that we've had some comments um just, you know, the board had discussed it. We had the presentation um what two weeks ago on the cell phone policy. So, I just I was just giving you a heads up. if I wanted to make some comments. So, that was all. >> Go ahead. Keep on going. >> Okay. Um, so I um and yeah, and I'll get with Tammy if I have any other questions, but I do like the changes that I've seen so far and and I'll get into these a little bit more in depth, but um you know, just kind of thinking through um Dr. Hill's presentation. Um, you know, and I think just even hearing, um, you know, just some different feedback and, um, things through the

130community. You know, I think, um, this is this is an interesting conversation, right? Because we don't um, I I've I've really been kind of thinking this through in my own head, right, as as what maybe Andrea likes versus like what's the role of the board? And you know we don't we don't provide cell phones to kids right parents provide cell phones to kids. So what's the role of the board when it comes to what our role is with students right our role is to provide a robust education to students and I and I think our role is also to mitigate interference with that education. And so when we wrote the policy the first time, it was to really give something back, right? And and again, cell phones are not going to go away. They're they're

131here to stay and all kinds of technology. And that's not to say that we don't um try to find a way to work with it. But our role as the board, you know, in kind of thinking this through is what do what is our job is to really give the time for students and teachers to connect so that our teachers again per per the previous conversation is so that they have the time to take obviously what they're doing in these early release Fridays to then go back and do with their students. And so if we're if we're seeing things, you know, that are is is dist that are distracting students and taking things away from that time, you know, then I feel it's incumbent upon us to to make decisions from a board level, at

132a policy level that um that gives the gift of time back and education back. So, I'm just I'm just kind of stating how I'm looking at this alongside the I think the there's obviously we can get into kind of a moral and philosophical, you know, discussion around what's on cell phones, but that I think is where then parents can decide to have those kinds of conversations. But, you know, we don't whether, you know, some kids will show up to schools with phones and some won't because some parents aren't giving, you know, their students phones. Um, so anyways, I just I I've always been a proponent of no phones from bell to bell at the beginning, but we knew that shifting the Overton window that fast wasn't going to work. And so you have to kind

133of, you know, warm people up to the idea. And now we're hearing from teachers and principles and, you know, even students and parents based off of the, you know, feedback that Dr. Hill went back and got from everyone that they're actually asking for this. um you know based off of the data from the last uh the the PowerPoint he gave us. So anyways, I just kind of wanted to share just sort of my thinking that as we were you know presented with it um kind of where I was coming from as we're you know it's an interesting conversation as I know that we're going to kind of hear a lot of different viewpoints. So I just I just wanted to share that in public as we're just all kind of probably processing this over the

134next couple of weeks. So, and if we have we need probably feedback from the community if they want to share it with us, too. So, >> good. >> No. >> Okay. Yeah. I just I also um I that was very articulate and I appreciate that. I'm not sure my head is wrapped around that in such a co cohesive way yet, but I just also have been thinking about this big shift. um just that we've had in technology when I think about my career in education and as a parent um and the choices we make um as families to try to shape and help our kids be learners. Um, but coming from the educational perspective, I feel like I just I hope that we continue as a board and as a district to really dig in

135and understand as an educational institution, meaning public education, how we utilize technology and media. Um, and and that's a big ask for our district to do that. And I really feel like it's a big ask as a community to really think about that. And in and what this feels like is that we're restricting and taking things away when our sole purpose as a public education institution is to educate and to increase academic outcomes. And I feel like we give up some of those learning opportunities when um technology is is too much is um and that's just not only from seeing my own children who are grown adults now, but also working with children and young adults in in classrooms is I I just think it's a tough balance, but I I very much appreciate this

136work and for us to be thinking about it and the bottom line is really I couldn't have said it better is it's about academic focus in classrooms and I really don't want teachers monitoring smartphones because that's what happens is we're constantly running that down. And that's not to say that our young adults, especially as they're reaching um graduation, can't monitor that. Um but our work in schools and classroom is the learning that teachers are providing. Dr. Hill, um you're still there. >> Yes. So, uh, I think in the previous meeting when you had initially presented this to us, um, one of the things that I had brought up was potentially seeing the data related to disciplinary measures that are specific to the cell phone, um, policy that we have in place currently. Uh, and just

137kind of seeing how that impacted our disciplinary um, uh, numbers, I guess, would be the best way to put it. If we could still potentially get that as a board, I think that that would be helpful for us as well. >> Yes, I apologize. Thanks for the reminder. I'll make sure we get that. >> No, I was just going to say in the last Whoops, there goes my name tag. Um, in the last meeting I had talked about the skills that our that our students may be offloading onto our technology and we spent so much time talking about work for workforce readiness and those soft skills and seal and it was really a moment for me to think back to what skills I had as a teenager who was not allowed a cell phone. um

138and how I how I managed the complexity of the world and teenage life. And while it is a very different life that I had back in, you know, the '9s and early 2000s, um than it is now, I I still think there are some overlap. And I just I really want to make sure that the skills that I had to have, executive functioning skills, are still available to our students to use. Um, and I think there can be a discourse of who is responsible for those skills. But I think when we think of education, it's a collaborative process between parents and and educators. So I do know that I had teachers who helped me with executive functioning skills and managing my life as well as my parents doing that. Um, and so that was really

139where my comment was coming from is that's those are the kinds of questions that come into my mind when I think about cell phones and our duty to educating our students. you know, my friend's dad says the three Rs, reading, writing, arithmetic, you know, um there's it's much more than that, but you know, I do think about that and how we navigate cell phones and technology without losing those kinds of skills. That was really my whole point in that conversation. So, I'm glad that you we asked we had some time to talk about that because it's been in my head. Thank you both all three of you. All four of you. Uh the next one is uh future meetings. We have next meeting is May 19th. It's a board business meeting. It'll be in this

140the Harry Butler boardroom at 5:00. We will have an executive session at 4. And then we have another one on June 2nd, 2026 board work session. It'll also be here at 5:00. Uh, next thing we have is an executive session pursuant to section 24-6-424B, Colorado Revised Statute for the purpose of conversing with attorney for the local public body for the purpose of receiving legal advice on board process and procedures. Individuals that will be attending will be uh Jose Luis Chavez, board president, Miss Andrea Heights, board secretary treasurer, Miss Vicky Woods, board's vice president, Barbara Evson, board's director, Casey Cole, board director, and Miss Tammy Everett, legal counsel. Do we have a motion? Second. >> Motion to enter executive session. >> Second, >> Mr. Chavez. approved. >> Mrs. Cole, yes. Mrs. Evansson, >> yes. >> Mrs.

141Heights, yes. Mrs. Woods, >> yes. >> Thank you all. Thank you, Dr. Hill and and Miss Marsh for uh for attending. Appreciate you. Take care. >> Yeah. Thank you all.