001We're good. Okay. All righty. Well, good evening everyone. Thank you for uh joining our meeting uh this March 25th. We'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. There we go. All right. Uh we're we're going to go ahead and do the pledge of allegiance and then after the pledge of allegiance, we sit down and have a brief moment of silence. Uh so if you can stand with us and gentlemen remove your hats. Uh Director Evston, would you like to kick us off for the pledge? I aliance 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. All right. Thank you very much. Uh we Amy, we can go ahead and do roll call. Mr. Chavis here.
002Mrs. Evansson here. Mrs. Heights here. Mr. Jones here. Miss Lima here. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda for this evening? Motion to approve the agenda. Second. Mr. Chavez. Approved. Mrs. Evansson. Yes. Mrs. Heights? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Miss Lima? Yes. Do I have a motion to approve the meeting minutes from February 4th, 2025 and February 18th, 2025? Motion to approve the meeting minutes from the 4th and the 18th. Second. Mr. Chavez, approved. Mrs. Evansson, yes. Mrs. Heights, yes. Mr. Jones, yes. Miss Lima, yes. All right, we'll move into our recognitions. So, just a reminder, um, when you come up to the front, uh, Miss Callie will like to take a picture of you. Uh, so please stay at the front. First off, we have our girls state wrestling team. And
003so, Director Jones is going to, uh, take care of that recognition for us. Good evening. Will the girls wrestling team and coaches please join me at the front of the room? [Applause] The D-51 Phoenix girls wrestling team achieved a historic milestone last month, competing in the 2025 class 5A Colorado State Wrestling Championship and bringing home the state title. Under the strong leadership of head coach Chad Deair, the D51 Phoenix girls wrestling team hit the mats with depth, determination, and impressive talent. They clinched the state title despite not having an individual champion. A true testament of the team's overall strength and consistency. Eight wrestlers placed in the top five of their weight class, including standout performances by Shily Tuzon, Clarice McCoy, who finished who both finished as state runner-ups at 155 and 170, and Violet Gray,
004who secured third place at 130 pounds. This marks the first ever state wrestling title for the program, a well-earned award for their hard work, perseverance, and grit. These students athletes have shown over the past few seasons. Their success reflects not only growth of girls wrestling in Colorado, but also a high bar for the team to set in the future. The board of education and superintendent Dr. Hill would like to congratulate our D51 Phoenix girls athletes and coaches on these tremendous achievements. We look forward to watching your continued growth and success of the seasons to come. [Applause] Also, uh, Coach Chad Dear was the Chasha two-time coach of the year. [Applause] recognized ClariS McCoy, Shil Tucson, Violet Gray, Clara Denton, Ballsenna, Rya Burke, Malina Diaz, Kylie Keiel, Vanessa Milton, Cheyenne Paige, Harley Prader, Marissa Martinez Wazada
005and Kendaly Stewart. Congratulations [Applause] And then real super fast, the coaches were Chad Dear, Dan Burke, Jolen Harris, Lupe Quazada, and Mario Balenna. Would Mr. Tatum Williams come up front with [Applause] me? In February, Tatum Williams, a senior at Fuda Monument High School, closed out his high school wrestling career by bringing home the five 5A state championship title in the boys wrestling and earning his 100th high school career win. Give it up for him. 150th win. Wow. In competing in the 2025 Colorado State Wrestling Championship, Tatum demonstrated outstanding skills, focus, mental toughness, and determination, earning the top spot in his weight class and ending a championship drought for both District 51 and Fra Monument. His victory highlighted the years of hard work and long hours. He poured into the sport and the strength of Fuda
006Monument wrestling program. Supported by dedicated coaches, teammates, and a proud Wildcat community, the board of education and superintendent Dr. Hill are proud to celebrate Tatum's success and congratulate him on his achievement. We look forward to seeing what's next for this talented Wildcat both on and off the mat. Congratulations. [Applause] I just like that he politely corrected you when he could have like taken you down and into and to a hold. So, good job. You could have taken him down, right? You wouldn't, but you could have. Would Abigail Martinez please join me at the front of the room? Abby, a senior at Grand River Academy and a dedicated member of D51's HOSA team, has received the Barbara James Service Award, a national recognition honoring students who volunteer their time to support health related causes and serve
007their communities. This award created in memory of Barbara James, a former HOSA leader who wholeheartedly believed in the power of service, highlights students who go above and beyond to help others in their communities, especially in healthcare settings. Abby has gone above and beyond in her commitment to our community, valing volunteering more than 100 hours at St. Mary's Hospital. Her time and dedication have made a meaningful impact on the local healthc care community, showing what it truly means to care for others. Her compassion, leadership, and service embody the values of HOSA and the spirit of the Barbara James Service Award. The board of education and superintendent Dr. Hill are proud to recognize Aby's achievement and celebrate her hard work, heart, and the service that earned her this reward award. Congratulations, [Applause] We're on. She was trying
008to mess me up. She turned it off on me. Sorry. Will Olivia Campbell and coach Jeff Johnson please join me at the front of the room. [Applause] Olivia, a senior at Fruit Monument High School, was named the 2025 Southwest League girls basketball player of the year after an outstanding season. As a 5'9 point and shooting guard, Olivia has been a key player for the Wildcats throughout her high school career. She hit a major milestone this season by scoring her thousandth career point during a win over Denver North where she put up 19 points. Over 95 varsity games, she averaged nearly 13 points, four rebounds, two assists, and three steals per game. Her leadership, hustle, and consistent play have made a significant impact on the team's success and reflect the core beliefs we celebrate here in
009D51. Since taking over as head coach in June of 2022, Jeff Johnson has made a big impact on the Fra Monument High School girls basketball team. In the 24-25 season, he led the Wildcats to a strong 17-7 overall record, and an undefeated 10 to zero run in league play, earning them the top spot in the standings. Coach Johnson is known for his steady leadership, sharp game strategy, and focus on player development. He builds his team around fundamentals, teamwork, and a strong work ethic, fostering a culture where athletes know, sorry, grow both on and off the court. Under his guidance, the Wildcats have proven they are not just skilled shooters with solid technique. They're tough, competitive, and able to rise to any challenge, which they showed throughout this season. The board of education and superintendent Dr.
010Hill congratulate Olivia and Coach Johnson on their incredible season and being named the 2025 Southwest League Player and Coach of the Year. We look forward to watching you and your continued success. [Applause] All right. Well, thank you everyone for those things. Um, so unless you're just dying to stay for the rest of the board meeting, we can get I'll give you guys a couple of minutes to make your way out. Um, the large group, uh, please stay in the lobby so Callie can get a group picture of you, please. So, thank you all for coming and congratulations. [Applause] So, Stanley doesn't have a car. How is he supposed to sub? I mean, You're just like, come on. This is getting It just gets worse and they always I think it's He just rolls with it.
011He's like good with it. All right. Sound sounds good. All right. We are going to move into our board reports. Uh so board um gosh it's been three weeks um because we had spring break so we obviously bumped this meeting. So any good things since we last met? Have a good good spring break. Did we have a good break last week? Had a good break. Um and a couple of us we went to uh couple of schools Junction and Central for their uh with their council kids and it was a good time and learned some good valuable things and uh other than that spring break was good. quick but good. Yeah. Yeah. We've been one of the board goals was to uh meet with the student groups. So, those have been good meetings. Yeah. We
012had an opportunity to meet with uh Palisade and then I had um one with Grand River Academy online. Those kids are fine. Good stuff. I need to send out a email to everybody just given they don't know that. Um just for good things. I went to Brooklift Middle School and went to uh Simbra uh event that they had there. Those young individuals spoke about what what it is to be in their DA program and how wonderful is to have to be able to have bilingual education in in their school. uh they actually asked if there was a way that some of the students were asking can we ever present to the board of education of what we do and and the gratitude that we have and the benefits of going to the DIA program for
013middle school. That's neat. Yeah. But it was it was really enjoyable to listen to them. They presented well. They had data. They had everything in PowerPoint. It was really nice to say. I think they have presented before. It's probably time for them to do that again. Yeah, it's been a while. Yeah. So, Director Jones and I met with Central High School. I'll make sure at our work session next week that I'll put some notes together. Yeah. Uh any committee or activity updates? We haven't had much going on since then. Okay. Did our strategic plan meeting Oh, yeah. a week and a half ago. So, that was the first one I've had an opportunity to uh to sit in on. And there was some good work like just I really appreciate the community members that have
014that are taking the time to be a part of that. Um they took a lot of time to go out to a lot of our schools and you know have conversations with administration and teachers and even students and uh just get some ideas on things that would be you know beneficial as a whole. And then they brought that information back and presented it to the committee as a whole. And then there was just a lot of like movement around and a lot of opportunity for conversation and uh thoughtprovoking points that were brought up in the last meeting. So there was a lot of good work. I think it was a good one for me to attend. I really really appreciate the work that committee is doing. I did the first three and I would agree
015Barb. Um the number of people that showed up for that was really impressive and really a a wide swath of um people and personalities and backgrounds that that all came together to make sure that our strategic plan moving forward is is on target for our community. We got to read it elementary. How about that? That's great. Yes. Yeah. Got to read I read I read the Sour Grape book. That was a good book. Book with no pictures. I got to speedread Dr. Seuss at Fruit Villa Elementary and the kids were It was great. I was told I read Too Fast and Too Slow by the same class. So, I don't know which they were like, "Read it as fast as you can." It was great. It was a good book. Those are fun. Those are
016I appreciate our principles thinking of us when there's different events um that we get to go and have fun like that. So, that was a that was a good time. All right. Uh, yeah, thanks for reminding. We've done a lot. I guess I forgot. So, all right. Is Amy online for our legislative update? All right. So, Amy Atwood is our lobbyist for D51. So there has been a lot going on um at the capitol and um so while they have been in session we have been trying to get on a regular um update with her for uh legislative updates. So she is going to update us on some state bills. Um so Amy, if you're ready go right ahead. Sure. Good afternoon evening. Amy Atwood, contract lobbyist with the district. I'll I think tonight I'll
017start with um an overview of the session and then we'll talk about the budget and then we can talk about any bills that I had sent through. So overview of the legisla legislature it's we are six weeks in so we're um over halfway or I'm sorry we only have six weeks left so we are over halfway. May 7th is the last day and just as a reminder in Colorado we're in session for 120 days and there is a hard stop May 7th. So bills either pass or are defeated come May 7th. Um it it's it's been an interesting session because of the state budget and that the budget is is very tight. We went into the year uh the state budget went into this budget planning cycle over a billion dollars in the hole in
018the red. So the joint budget committee has had to find places to cut. Um I don't think any department has gotten away without any cuts. I know that department of education has been cut. Medicaid will be cut. Higher ed will be public safety, corrections. Um, everyone has been cut. However, we do have a commitment from joint budget committee members. They're the ones that put the budget together to hold education flat or even increase it by $150 million. So, while I'm sitting here right now, um, Representative Tagert is texting me because they're in the middle of um those negotiations right now. We've been working on it for weeks, but it's coming down to the wire. I bring up the budget because there are a lot of bills, 500, just over 500 bills, and many, many of
019them take money. And so those bills are sitting in appropriations committee because until the budget passes then then the legislature knows how much money it has for new programs or any bills that are in the queue. So let's let's transition that then into K12. Like I said we have a commitment from joint budget committee members to hold flat. I there has also been discussion of increasing by 150 million and if you remember last year the board took a position to support support the new school finance formula. There is a lot of discussion. It's culminating today on whether or not that new formula goes into place or not. And um I've been working with Mel and with Dr. Hill. We've been going back and forth, back and forth on the different um scenarios for the school
020district. It still does look like D51 will come out better if the new school finance formula is implemented. They've made some changes to it from what was passed last year, but D51 comes out better than if we had if we stay on the the current formula. So, and I have to say, Representative Tagger has he really cares what the district thinks and he and I have been in communication all session and like I said, um it's I he's texting right now. So, that's that's great. He really cares about the district. Um, the budget in every year that I've been at the legislature, which is 15 years, has always been introduced the last week of March, which would have been Monday. And the joint budget committee said at the earliest, Amy, we lost audio on you.
021Yeah, just How about that? There you go. Okay. I must have touched something. Sorry. Um I don't know where I was. The introduction of the budget being last week of March. So, usually it's the last week of March and because there are so many cuts and so many big decisions to be made, it's not going to be introduced until next week. And this impacts your budgets because it it takes two full weeks for the state budget to pass. So, it'll be at the earliest uh the 14th or 15th of April before the state budget passes. And once the budget passes, then the school finance act can pass. Um, the school finance act this year might run in tandem with the budget. It may not come out after the budget like it usually does. I think
022I think they're ready to introduce it before the end of this week. So hopefully we even know by by the 15th of April what what school finance is going to look like. and be finished with that. Um, so just just as you're looking towards your budgets, and I know Mel and Dr. Hill are right on top of all of this. It has been a low session for education bills and actually it's been a low session for bills, period. Usually, we have 700 to 750 pieces of legislation that are introduced. And this year we are just over 500 and they're not going to introduce 250 more bills and and it's because of the budget situation. So the report that I sent you yesterday has a number of those education bills on it. I think it has
023seven. These are bills that are still in play. Um, and Andrea, you and I went through many of these last week just as so we could talk through, but I wanted to talk through with the board these bills because you may be hearing about them and they do have local control implications. Um, so I don't know. Do you want me to just start going through? Yeah, Amy, I think it would be great for you to just um uh go through these like you did with me and then uh just just like you did just explain through those. I've um as I the last week just been trying to kind of give as I've ran into board members just kind of give them a little bit of an update on this as I've also sat sit
024on the legislative resolutions committee with Casby. But um you did such a good job going into this. So if you can just go through that then the board members can ask you questions um just as I did. So sure. Okay. Well great. If we start with the first one it's House Bill 1135 communication devices in schools. This um really is dealing with uh cell phones in schools. It is a bipartisan bill and it is well supported actually by school districts because it is it's not it's not telling us what we have to do. It's it's allowing us to set our own policy. So, I guess it is telling you that you have to have a cell phone policy, but that it's not so restrictive as as the bills that we've seen the last two years
025that just straight up prohibited cell phones in schools. So, this was worked on with with districts throughout the interim and appears to be a pretty good bill. The second one, 1178. This one is is really interesting because there are two this is ban student seclusion. There are two of these bills um on student seclusion. This first one on 1178 bans prohibits any type of student seclusion. And so that that has been that has been a problem for districts and CASBY and case because the way seclusion is defined when schools have sensory rooms when a student needs to take a break in a sensory room a sensory room would be um would be banned. So, it the bill needs the bill as written just isn't it it's just not good for districts. It just it tells
026you that you can't do this and what you what you're already doing by following state law you can't continue to do. And if we let me see okay so that's banned student seclusion. The next one is 1192 financial literacy graduation requirements. So this is another interesting one when it comes to local control. It is saying that for graduation as a graduation uh requirement of graduation that a student must pass um a course in financial literacy as a graduation requirement. So the bill requires successful completion of a course in financial literacy. The other portion of the bill is it requires submission of a free a FAFSA application for state financial aid as a condition of high school graduation unless um a student falls under one of the exceptions. So it's mandating that as a graduation requirement
027you have to have a course in financial literacy which you may already have. But then it also requires that students fill out a FASA. There's been a lot of push back on this bill from the state board of education to school districts that it really is encroaching on on local control. And most districts have a financial most high schools have a financial literacy um course that they offer to their high school students. and just stop me if you have questions as we're going along. I don't have any questions, Amy, but I'd be curious to know um what the federal government who processes FAFSA's thinks about that requirement and what kind of workload increase they would incur. Um that's a really good question. So there are a number of states that have this requirement for graduation
028and they do see higher uh rates of students going into college university their first year on in the states that have this as a requirement for graduation. So the argument is this is showing students that they can uh they can qualify for money and that and that going to college is an option for them. So it doesn't I I don't think nobody has talked about what the workload would be for the feds. Well, and I I more important than those that went for any initial length of time, a semester, maybe a year. I would be more interested to see an outcome that shows completion and graduation. And it's very hard to track those students once they you know, it's it's an issue we have whether whether a student goes into a trade or goes to
029college. We can't track them once they leave once they leave the district. Well, and the so case opposed this one um the association that represents superintendents, administrators, and I think a couple of their arguments too were one because they have to look at large and small districts and not every small district in the state can find someone that can teach a financial literacy course independently. So now you're requiring districts to have to go find somebody to teach that. What if they can't? Um, as Amy mentioned, we do teach financial literacy through our standards already. So, there already are opportunities that exist in school districts for St. we we already have these things in place. Um, and then with the financial aid piece, you know, if if folks are choosing a different different path, um, they
030shouldn't be required to fill out, but also then they're sharing, you know, personal information that maybe they don't want to be forced to share. So, there were a lot of reasons why Case opposed this one, uh, as well. Well, and Casby opposed it as well for those very same reasons. Okay. Um, the next one I think you'll feel is a relief even though the title is is I think a little bit deceiving. So, this is House Bill 1210, data reporting requirements for kindergarten through 12th grade schools. So, what this does, it does not require you to do any more data reporting. It tells the CDE and sets up sets up um the CDE to look at all of the reporting that districts do and to look through that reporting and see what is duplicative and
031what what isn't relevant anymore that is needing that is still being reported. So it it looks at data that local education providers are required to report to comply with state and federal laws. So it it will look at how much time local education providers spend reporting to the B department, whether there are more efficient ways to report the data. Um an evaluation of the reporting protocols for local education providers. So, you know, we know reporting is so burdensome on a district. It there is information that is definitely needed. Um there is data that is needed that needs to be needs to be pushed up to CDE, but it it's time to just look at everything and and how is it working. Um the CDE had a budget request that has been approved to upgrade their
032data reporting system and their school finance system, their their software. And so even amongst all the cuts in education um CDE that that decision was made on March 20th that they are going to get the money to continue to roll out that system which which should help at least after after we get this report will help with the data reporting. House Bill 1278. This is the education accountability system bill. So if you remember I have talked for months um really two years it's been two years that thea education accountability task force was meeting and they met for two years they produced a report in November. There were 30 recommendations that came out of that task force and this bill has all 30 recommendations in it. Um there are about a dozen uh amendments that will
033be coming. I think it's back in committee I think. Um let me look. I think it's back in committee this week. And so through those amendments they have been listening to districts that it wasn't the re the way the recommendation was written in the bill was not actually what the intent of the task force. So, there's been some reworking on that. This bill has a fairly heavy fiscal note, and I'm just I just want to pull up that fiscal note. Yeah, the fiscal note is $5.7 million for 2526 and it increases to over six million. So, there isn't the money um to implement the entire bill. They wanted to make sure that it was written all of the recommendations were written correctly and with consensus so that when they come back with another bill there
034there's at least consensus with how this was written. There are uh there are recommendations in the bill that are going to pass that do not take any money to implement and so it's going to be way paired back with no fiscal note. But just getting it on paper where everybody agrees it is the springboard for when there is money and it's time to implement some of these other um these other recommendations. D51 has been a part has has seen every iteration of of the recommendations. I've gotten feedback uh from staff on all of the recommendations. So, the district's been aware of of how this how the bill has been drafted throughout the process. Okay. 1300. This is what we wouldn't typically think of as an education bill. It's workers compensation benefits. proof of entitlement. This
035is a bill that will impact it will absolutely impact the district and um your workman's comp. So the there are two big provisions in the bill. The bill provides injured workers control over the selection of their primary treating physician and workers comp cases. So right now it's it's four physicians. um they can choose any physician that they want that has a level one or level two accreditation. Um and let me there the second portion of it is it changes the burden of proof of um an injury. So instead of the employee needing to prove that they have an injury, the employer has to prove they don't have an injury. So this is a big shift in how workman's comp um how the policies would work and how the um and and that proof of burden.
036It's it is a really big deal. It is a very expensive bill. It's even expensive for the state. There is discussion that the state would be uh exempt from the bill and not live by these by these parameters. Um and looking at who's opposing, school districts are opposing. I don't believe Case has had [Music] um has quite had the opportunity hasn't had the opportunity yet to um take a position. So, it's I'm putting it on the radar because it it is one that will impact your budget. Um I just want to check and see if case has taken a position yet. I I looked this morning. I don't think that they have. I think you're right. Okay. Yeah. And um Casby, we have our legislative resolutions committee meeting this Friday. So my guess is we'll
037go over it then, but okay. They'll likely oppose it. There's no way I think they'd support that. Yeah. And local governments um are are opposed. Um, I mean, I'm I'm just going through the list and I'm trying to see who who is actually supporting it. I'm not sure what AFSCME is. Um, but they are in support and they are the first one listed in support. So, likely helped um helped write the bill. And the last one on the list is Senate Bill 153. This is an interesting one because it does require more data reporting where if you think the other one that we talked about which was 1210 which is to go study and see what um you know what what are we reporting? This one actually does require you to do more and different
038reporting. There was a bill last year that was only targeting charter schools and charter school institute schools and this year Senator Kulker broadened it to everyone. um districts would and the way the bill is written, it goes all the way down to the school level. Requires a school district or school to report all information for itself and for each each of its traditional public schools. Um and this is all the financial information including what is spent on marketing, what is spent on student recruitment, lobbying, contractors, education management provider expenditures and all sources of revenue. So the his intent originally last year was to find out how much private money charter schools are getting and that didn't pass. And so this year he's brided out to all school districts. So any revenue to that you're getting
039in um that you know through PTA and other private donations would have to be reported and that brings us to the end of the list. Anybody have any questions? Okay. Um Amy, on the uh let's see the on 1210, should we would your recommendation be to just monitor that one or or be in support of that one? I think support okay sends a great message. Okay. That there is a data reporting problem and thank you for looking at it. And then for 1278 um you I know you said that obviously it has a large fiscal note and that you've obviously like you said it's more of a springboard. Um do we need to take a position on that one or what is your thought on that? I I or just watch that one? I think
040I think we can just watch that one because it's going to get paired back so much. Okay. And then the last one on 153. It seems a little I mean, gosh, we'd have to ask all of our schools to monitor all their PTA money. Um I don't know. I mean, it seems like Mel does a good job on breaking down all the monies that we get. Does it just seem a little invasive? like we have a lot of our just local people that just tend to give very generously to each individual school for a lot of various reasons. I don't I don't understand the the backing behind this. A and so if you if you think of the intent the intent last year was to find out where charter schools are getting their money from
041because there is a perception whether it's real or not that charter schools make a lot of money through private donations and sponsorships and that's not reported at all. So that was the impetus for the bill but because it was only targeting charter schools um it didn't pass. So he came back and said, "Okay, well, we should do this for all schools." But really, his in his intent is to find out what's going on in charter schools, but we get we get wrapped up in it, but what does it matter what a private citizen wants to donate to any school? I mean, we need to be transparent with taxpayer dollars. What any individual wants to do with their own dollars doesn't matter. I just I find that a little too invasive in my opinion. Whether you
042want to donate to a charter school, a private school, monastery school, whatever. I just find this is going to be really difficult. Now, we're going to add one more thing onto our individual school level of having to monitor all the PTA individual and even maybe like kind donations like if they donate equipment or somebody at the school level is going to have to monitor all of that now. And and it's actually it's not just that. It also is how much time is being spent on say student recruitment. And that that one it it's really vague because what does each school do to recruit kindergarteners? You know what what and and how much time does that take to do that? To say it's time for kindergarten enrollment. That is recruitment. Yeah, I think uh I think
043Case case opposed this one too. And I think it was around just it's putting an extra burden on school district for something that doesn't seem to we're not really sure what exactly what they're trying to I just don't I just find this to be out of the purview of taxpayer dollars of if this is what I mean yeah I I don't need to get into it. I just I think I think it's petty in my opinion. Okay. Uh board, did you guys have any other questions on just what Amy's opinion of is what you you know kind of we're this is her expertise. I mean she's she's kind of digs into these and what she thinks would be best for you know our area. Oh, Amy, did you have something more to say? I was
044just gonna say I think as a as a fourth bill to look at taking a position on um 1300 the workers comp bill. Yeah. I think that that that is one to definitely definitely put um with an opposed position. Well, yeah. I personally what I think is um the seclusion I would oppose because um I I would like to send a statement that well these these in my personal opinion violate local control because they don't they don't know what our teachers and what we need to do over here. I've I mean after I chat chatted with you, Amy, I chatted with some um of our department heads on what these would mean in our district. And so um yeah, I just there's some others here that I when we get to that point um in
045the business section, we can have some discussion because I have some thoughts on positions that the board could take. But yeah, so you said 1300. Yeah, I was definitely wanting to take a position of opposition on the on that as well. And I I think um case the reason why they're opposing the seclusion bill was last year, House Bill 1248 um was put in place which um they got input from that consortium of special education directors and they came up with parameters and training and all sorts of things around seclusion already. So they just felt like this is just it's overreach now to say that you can't it can't be done ever. they've already got things in place from last year's bill, so they strongly opposed that one. Yeah. And then we talked about the
046financial literacy earlier. I think just um again like Dr. Hill said, um small districts don't necessarily have the means to do that and not every family wants to fill out a FAFSA. I just I think that's getting the state doesn't I wish they would come and talk to school districts and boards more because we already take care of a lot of these things at the local level and then if we wanted to take a position on 1135 of support obviously Dr. Hill was um very involved in in that you know just having a policy um of you know devices in schools but but board we can get into that into the business section but if you have anything you want to ask Amy right now she's online um otherwise we'll we can decide as a
047board if we want to take positions because she will file these positions at the state and it will send a a message to the state on our behalf. And I'll also lobby on your behalf with these positions. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you for your time, Amy. We'll um we'll get we'll get this information back over to you after um our business portion and uh thanks for your time tonight. Sounds great. Thank you. Thank you, Amy. All right, next up we have our D-51 happenings and celebrations. Hi board. I'm Sierra Coulson, marketing and communication specialist for D51. Here to share with you the district 51 happenings and celebrations. Congratulations to you Caldwell, our March golden apple winner from Chatfield Elementary. As a dedicated paraprofessional, I bet goes above and beyond to create a safe, engaging,
048and joyful environment for students. Her creative lessons and festive spirit inspire curiosity and excitement in the classroom. Ivette's commitment extends beyond the school day, volunteering her time to make learning truly special. Thank you, Ivet, for the incredible impact you make every day. In March, D51 celebrated several outstanding members of our school community whose dedication makes a lasting impact. We recognize our incredible maintenance staff on National School Maintenance Worker Appreciation Day, thanking them for their tireless work behind the scenes to keep our schools clean, safe, and welcoming. During National School Breakfast Week, we celebrated our nutrition services teams for ensuring students start each day with a nutritious meal that fuels their learning. We also took time to honor the vital work of our school's social workers who provide support, resources, and advocacy to help students and
049families thrive. Whether it's maintaining our buildings, nourishing young minds, or offering compassionate care, each of these individuals helped create a strong foundation for student success. We are so grateful for your commitment to our D51 community. Nearly 60 high school students from across D51 participated in this year's healthcare career day at Community Hospital. Through interactive stations and realistic patient scenarios, they explored careers in emergency response, surgery, radiology, and more, gaining real insight into the healthcare field. The event supports D-51's commitment to preparing students for life beyond graduation. A big thank you to Community Hospital for hosting this event each year, continuing to help grow our students through being an engaged and supportive community partner and helping inspire the next generation of healthc care professionals. But Cliff Middle School students are getting a fun introduction to golf
050this month thanks to a partnership with the city of Grand Junction Golf Division. PGA professionals are leading golf themed PE classes each week in March, helping students learn the basics while highlighting values like honesty, sportsmanship, and perseverance. The program also ties in with D-51's more social, less media initiative by getting students moving and encouraging them to try something new. Big thanks to the city of Grand Junction and PGA intern professional Braden Kelly for making non-traditional sports more accessible to our students. Read Across America Day turned into a week-long celebration across D-51, filled with creative activities that made reading fun and engaging. From guest readers at Taylor Elementary, including board of education members and local first responders to readathons at LMA and family events at New Emerson, schools embraced the joy of reading in unique ways.
051Thunder Mountain also welcomed Tony the Rapper who shared how building reads how reading builds success and Nley's students connected with future teachers through shared stories. Thank you to our teachers, librarians, board members, and volunteers for inspiring a love of reading and supporting early literacy across the district. The Mesa County Safety Fair brought together public safety teams from across the valley to connect with DA D51 students and share important safety tips. Hosted at Mesa Mall, the event included hands-on demos that made learning real life skills both fun and engaging. D51 crisis coordinator Jason Thally was also there talking with students about Safe to Tell, an anonymous tool they can use to report safety concerns, threats, or bullying. We're thankful our students get to take part in this event each year and appreciate Mesa Mall and the
052Mesa County Safety Fair for creating such a valuable learning experience. Grand Junction High School recently celebrated 50 years of girls basketball by welcoming back nearly 70 former players for a weekend full of memories and Tiger pride. The celebration honored five decades of dedication recognizing former head coaches Ken Kurther's Max Krakol Wilder, Sam Provenza, and current coach Mary Dwan. Alumni tooured the new school caught up caught up during a meet and greet and were recognized at a special varsity game with coaches honored at halftime. Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate this incredible legacy of teamwork and excellence. That's all we have for March happenings and celebrations. Be sure to keep up with all the latest D51 happenings by following us on social media at D51 schools. Thank [Applause] you. All right. Thank you.
053All right, Dr. Hill, we have your superintendent report. All right. So, we have uh two presentations this evening. I'll have uh the first team come up to talk about early release. um the board members we we've been having this discussion actually for years um we discussed it I don't know two or three years ago um and gather a lot of feedback and then we tabled it um for a little bit um but it's it's still been something we've been working on so we wanted to give an opportunity to refresh memories on the topic why we're even discussing it um what the benefits would be and then also to hear from um folks in the schools to see how it would actually impact them. So, we're not asking for any decisions or anything tonight or or
054we're not making any decisions, but we just wanted to make sure that y'all and the public um got an update on where we are with early release. So, I'll turn it over to Jen and the team. Good evening. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to visit with you guys. I have a large number of friends here. I'm going to Let's just do introductions right now. I'm going to start left. Ari, you want to start and then uh name and title? Oh, we're gonna need and I gave the microphone. Need the microphone. Please. Well, I have one. Yes. I'm Ari Goldberg and I'm the secondary director of site leadership. I'm Dan Bowlinger. I'm principal at Palisade. Nikki Johnston, secondary director of curriculum and professional learning. Danny Medvid, principal Orchard Mason Middle School. Randy Foster, principal,
055Grand Mesa Middle School. Um, in the spring of 2023, clear and comprehensive early release plans were developed to support secondary schools. However, these plans were put on hold due to pressing challenges, including declining enrollment, school closure, and the need to establish a sustainable response through committees such as EDC. As we continue to address budget and enrollment concerns, the need for consistent and structured professional learning at the secondary level remains a priority. Early release provides essential time for curriculum implementation, resource learning application, and ongoing professional learning. With weekly early release and aligned learning communities, educators engage in structured development through multi-year PL plans and design like with consultants like Strive. By investing in teacher growth, we strengthen instructional practices and ultimately enhance student outcomes. Here's some data I just want to share. I've got a couple
056slides of data that I want to share with you all tonight. This is elementary data. As you can see, our K3 um at or above grade level has been increasing. We celebrate our data a lot here with you and with the district as a whole. The improvement over time can be in attributed to intentional, consistent, and coherent professional learning designs that have in recent years also been linked to the implementation of evidence-based resources and partnership with the resultsoriented and CDE approved partners such as Strive. You can see here a steady increase in students who establish a strong literacy foundation in the early years is only going to continue um positive outcomes for our students after this time. Steady steady gains can be seen across the upper elementary gains grades as well. With this I know
057this is a a busy slide. What's really important is that you need to focus on the grade levels on the bottom, the percent um at or above on the left on proficiency on the left. The gray is state and the green is the district. Focus on the those the gray and the green. While we see improvements in middle school, the pattern has not consistent. nor is the dedicated time for staff to learn evidence-based practices alongside colleagues and to plan for supporting students. I'm going to pass to Randy. He already has it to share about the impact and difference of having and not having this consistent time and coherent model at all school levels. I want to give a little bit of background to why you're the one to talk about it. So, thank you very
058much for the opportunity to speak to you this evening. Um, I asked you in the fall when you asked me what I needed to help my school move along. My response was more time. Um, that need for time hasn't lessened in the six months since I last spoke with you. Um, and in fact, given more time to think about it, I'd like to share that one of the messages when I was at Lincoln Orchard Mesa that I shared with my staff and that we um strove for was this idea that students don't come to school for six one-year journeys, they come for one six-year journey at the elementary level. And so the need for coherent instruction, kindergarten through fifth grade, was was ever present. Um the idea that what you learn in kindergarten builds to
059what you learn in first grade all the way through fifth grade um was crucial for us and and and helped us to see the successes that we saw while I was the principal at that building. Um the other component of that is when we have students who are struggling, the ability to have a conversation with teachers at all grade levels, a fourth grade student who's struggling but has been a part of the school for several years. A conversation with all of those teachers who had successes and failures with that student built a better picture for for how who that student was as a learner. Um at the middle school level, those needs are not any different. The idea that we need one coherent three-year journey through middle school is no different than that need for
060one six-year journey at the elementary. But at the middle school, we don't simply don't have the time for our teachers to sit down and plan that pathway for instruction for our learners. Um, and when we talk about students who are struggling, students struggle at middle school just like they did at the elementary level. Um, and so the ability for our teachers to sit down, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, and have a conversation to help a student feel more successful, um, is imperative. Uh, at present, that time simply doesn't exist in our day. But, but with the, um, with the opportunity for early release, we can begin to have those conversations on a monthly basis. Um, and as Miss Marsh was referring to, professional learning at the elementary happened on a monthly basis. And so we
061learned small bites and then we went back and practiced in the classrooms. Um, district level professional learning, it was the same opportunity. We took a small portion, the teachers got to practice it and then they got to use it for a month and come back and revisit that. Middle school is the same way. Um, Strive is a is a fantastic resource for us. the ability to have a con a consistent instructional model um is fantastic, but because we only have inservice opportunities every quarter, the teachers learn it, they go back and practice it, but the ability to reflect on that professional learning isn't as ready or or present as if we had a chance to do it monthly um on an early release day. So, uh, I strongly support the idea of early release and
062I hope if you have any questions about that at the end, you'll feel free to ask those. Early release provides an opportunity to focus on student academic and behavioral success while allowing educators dedicated time for collaboration, skill building, and deeper implementation with process like MTSS. For high school students, early release can foster robust learning experiences and stronger business and community connection opportunities. Prioritizing this time ensures that support systems become an integral part of school culture which benefits students. We envision each school developing a plan that focuses on three key areas. student behavioral support, student academics, and staff collaboration. This approach ensures that each building's plan is tailored to its unique needs while aligning with our broader strategic goals. By prioritizing these areas during early release, we aim to create supportive academically enriching and collaborative environment
063for both staff and students. Early release aligns directly with our strategic plan supporting both prepared and supported students as well as prepared and supported staff. This design will continue into our upcoming strategic plan. While the next strategic plan is still in draft form, it will emphasize intentionally and continuity focusing on key areas for growth while re reinforcing existing strengths and belonging coherence and consistency. Now, I'd like for Danny to share a little bit about the work that we've that was done in the past and what we're looking forward in the future. Okay. Yeah. So, it's exciting to be back here. It's been almost two years ago since we shelved this conversation because there were urgent needs. But if you recall when we pulled together all whatever it is 161 17 middle and high school leaders
064two years ago we started with this idea of each and every student realizing the graduate profile and we asked our building leaders to answer this question. How might a systemwide early release advance our strategic plan priorities and students realization of the graduate profiles in unique ways based on each school's context. So it's not a one-sizefititall, but it is also that balance of what's the district trying to move? do we have time? How does that look different at each school? And so continuing to build on that, what we know about quality professional learning um is that it's focused on ultimately helping our students get where they got to go. Like that's the end product. Did this help kids? Um but that you got to support our staff to get there. And so it's sustained with regular
065and a frequent cadence. Um waiting every quarter like uh um Mr. Foster talked about is too infrequent. You're not going to make changes. think about sports. It's relevant um to our educator practices and our school goals. It involves feedback um and those precision moves. And then it it needs to be characterized by collaboration, ongoing collaboration. Um when we think about what this is going to entail, these three big ideas is that we it shouldn't be random acts. And that was something that um oversight matters. It can't just be folks leaving. um there needs to be a shared vision and there are outcomes aligned to our strap plan that we're going to look at models of what do this well we're not just going to be willy-nilly with time and that we're going to consider logistical
066elements um because this is it is a it is a change that needs to be planned for this is probably pretty relevant to y'all when you think well what would this time be if any community member were to ask this is an ask on time these are those must haves each school must have an explicit focus on MTSS which is really who are those kids that aren't getting it. You should be able to talk to any building leader or any any participant and say, "How are you supporting through those tiered supports which kids aren't getting it and what are we going to do different?" If there is learning community time, it's guided and it's outcome based. It's not just here's some planning time. It's not in place of existing planning times that there's a monthly
067ongoing cadence that actually lowers the stress load of things is like, you know, we got a consistent rhythm here. And then what you see new, and this is I think what makes this better now than two years ago, is that there's this idea of a district Friday. That's been a secret sauce for elementary for years. Um, but this idea that we would be at our secondary schools, we'd be acting on district develop PL from strive. Um, Strive has given us great learning. We meet in Nick teams. What we don't have is the time to apply that learning with staff. So, we're not able to move that as quick as perhaps we could if we met more frequently. You might wonder about how does this play out across the state. So, we did a study as
068we first started looking at this of districts across Colorado and you'll see that um well Josh who supported us from relay said early release would be a huge game changer for you all in D51. And if you look at systems um many districts across Colorado have early release there's variability in the frequency and format. Often it does link to the district priorities. Sometimes it's school directed. Um, many smaller districts utilize even our charter schools here in town utilize a 4-day week. And then when you look at some of the highest performing networks of schools across the state, it's almost always a keystone of them having a weekly early release. It's how they bring the team together to say, "How are we doing? What do we got to do next?" And so, um, just as we
069get ready to pass this off, what would this look like? We asked building leaders to talk about what would this look like at your school to move your the school goals. what flexibilities do you need? And then we want to keep thinking about what does that look like to integrate the strive work. So here's a prototype. Um imagine each week really being mapped out so it's predictable. Um predictability lowers stress with kids with adults. Um so you'd really have two components usually and this would look different each school. This is just a model. Week one of each month would be something like district Friday. Here's the strive learning we've had. Maybe it's the um the the behavior and student support department. There's some learning from them. Um this idea of staff wellness is a part
070of our strategic plan. There can be space for school business. Right now we have a staff meeting once a month for 30 minutes from 3:30 to 4. When you try to take time to connect, celebrate, and talk about learning or updates, it's just too much to put into there, right? That frequency is not there. Um and then looking at the curricular work, the blue is how are you moving? That's the work of those professional learning communities. How do we know kids are learning? What are we going to do about it when they're not? You see MTSS kid talks. That's that idea of who are that 10 to 15% of learners that are really struggling in sixth, 7th, 8th grade, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th. Um, and then this would actually link to those building in services.
071So, this isn't competing with, but really complementing. It's getting those bite-sized goals. And so, um, this was a model that Fruta developed two years ago. Uh, Principal Johnson's um in the audience right now. His team developed this collaboratively as a committee. So, it just shows you each school. These would probably look different. And I think Dan is going to take some time to tell us what Palisade thought about this. Hi, thanks for uh having me up here as well. Um, yeah, this is something that we had developed with our leadership team as well. Um, and like I said, it's it's um, nothing is set in stone and I think the idea creates a lot of some flexibility for us. But I think this is really what what came to my mind. First quarter we did
072the professional development. We modeled what a data cycle looks like. We watched videos and we modeled what that looks like. Um, you give the common assessments, you grade norm, you grade the assessments, you create the data, you look over the data to see what you notice and then how do you adjust after that? how do you retach? How do you um and that's just one data cycle. Um and doing that, we we modeled that. I think teachers were excited about that. And then after a couple weeks and the amount of time and effort they put into that, it kind of uh goes away. And kind of like as Randy had, and I wouldn't say goes away, but it doesn't stay on top of their u mind because they're teaching kids. And kind of as Randy
073Randy said, um the reflection isn't as prevalent if you're not doing it each week. Second quarter, we modeled what rigor looks like through critical thinking and giving students a lot of versus giving students a lot of work. I mean, a lot of teachers will say, you know, I have them do 70 problems a night. That's rigorous. It's not rigorous. That's a lot of work, right? And so, the first level we had them evaluating facts, second level exploring structures, the third level analyzing context, and the fourth level was evaluating concepts and transferring that knowledge. And we had the the teachers all go through this looking at a uh at a uh um a historical picture. They went back, they were excited about it, they they did it for a little while and then they were like,
074uh but we've still got to teach and the reflection wasn't there. The third quarter, we we talked about structures and routines and we we modeled some of the um um instructional practices that they that they show. And again, teachers were excited about it. And then they there wasn't time to reflect on it. And fourth quarter, we did the same kind of thing and we talked about what does a bell ringer look like? What does proximity in your classroom look like? And teachers go back and they're changing their proximity. And they don't have time uh during their PLC's as they're looking at their uh assessments, as they're looking at their common assessments, as they're looking at their unit plans to talk about how did proximity adjust or or change their practice. there's just not time to
075reflect as if we were doing it weekly. I think it um would give us a lot more time. And kind of the analogy I use is and and I know Will coaches football, but imagine if you came in on Saturday and you had an eight hour practice, but then you don't practice until the game on Friday. The game on Friday you play and you're like, "What? You didn't get what we practiced last Saturday for eight hours." And you think, "What's more effective? an eight hour practice on Saturday or four two-hour practices throughout the week. And so that's kind of the way I look at it is we have once a quarter we've got professional development, but we don't look through it as well as we could if we were able to do this for chunks
076of time every Friday. So um the second slide they they asked you know how did this look when my my accountability committee I went through each one of the expectations of our staff with learning communities and instructional leadership team and operational leadership team and all of our staff are on different teams with no time to do it. So we're asking staff to come in at seven o'clock. We're asking staff to stay late. We're asking staff to eat their lunch during these meetings. We're asking staff to do a lot of things and I think to a I I think at Palisad a fairly um successful level or level of success, but I think about how much better we could be doing if we designated some some real time for this stuff. And so, um, when I
077explain this to my accountability community, to my parents, and I'll have somewhere sometimes 10, sometimes 15 parents, not a ton, but, um, they they looked and said, "This is a no-brainer." So, for those few parents, it was a no-brainer that we would have an early release Friday, and they were very supportive of it. And so, yeah. Thank you, Dan. Mhm. So, building off um that input and what a number of our principles um were asked to and did last year speak with their school accountability committee. Surveys have been conducted to gather input and measure support for early release, including feedback from families. We did that in 2023, building administrators in um December of 2024, and teachers and staff in February of 2025. This ongoing input helps shape a plan that meets the needs of our
078students, educators, and our community. In 2023, we surveyed parents and the community to engage support for a secondary early release. The response was overwhelmingly positive, nearly 77% expressing favorability to the idea. This strong endorsement highlights the community's recognition of the value of dedicated time for professional learning and student support. In December of 2024, a survey was conducted with our building administrators to assess support for the secondary early release. An overwhelming 91% responded favorably, reinforcing the need for a dedicated time to enhance professional learning, collaboration, and student success. I am off. Hey Jen, on that can you are these the numbers of respondents that you had? Yes. So, which I wanted to add a little bit right now like turn around. I can't get it all in one place. I can see it. So, do you
079want me to go back or are you looking on yours? No, I'm just curious. Um, so it looks like six, seven, eight, nine, maybe 1,00. Yes, we had a large number of people respond. Yes. Out of what was the total number? No, this is parent and community. How many did we send out total? I I can't tell you that. Or how how many because I don't are there that I'm just curious. So, it's a good question. So, um we don't have that hard number, but you have 20,000ish kids and we only sent it out to secondary. So, you're talking half of that. So, it's a a pretty good representation of this the families who have kids in secondary schools in the district. So, yeah, we had over a thousand. We were actually were pretty darn
080impressed. A thousand people responded, parents and community members. So that's parents and community members. So out of somewhere around 10,000 we ended up correct. Okay. We're going to ballpark those numbers. Um this one is for our building administrators. We did this at a level meeting and I do want to um highlight while we're a number of us are here up at the podium this evening. We have a number of principles that um are attending this evening to show their support for early release and they overwhelmingly said obviously it was favorable favorable and then to what extent do you expect weekly early release to be beneficial? You can see that it was well over 90%. We've got a couple. This is a little more busy um than the rest, but this district-wide survey collected input from
081secondary, middle school, and high school teachers across multiple campuses regarding the potential um shift to an early release on Fridays. 572 respondents essentially with a super majority support implementing early release across middle school and high school levels particularly for its potential to improve teacher collaboration allow time for backwards planning and and MTSS meetings increase student outcomes through better prepared instruction. There was an additional survey sent out only to middle school teachers indicating that the proposed early release change would reduce individual planning time just on Fridays um in exchange for a focused professional learning time on Friday um and to include structured meetings, data discussions and again more MTSS collaborations. 71% of the 210 responding teachers across all middle schools support an early release, highlighting the benefits such as structured time, content team time, and relief
082from before and after school meetings. So, this is the board's part. In support of early release, I would like to propose a modification to the D-51 school calendar for next year for middle school that I believe would benefit both students and educators. Specifically, I would like to request that the board consider exchanging two existing middle school inservice days for two additional instructional days for students. By replacing two inservice days with full instructional days, students would gain additional time for that in-depth learning, structured classroom activities, and better preparation for assessments. While I recognize the importance of professional development for educators, I believe that maintaining a balance between teacher inservice and direct student instruction is essential for maximizing student achievement. So those days you see in that with those yellow arrows, those green days right now in
083the calendar that we've adopted, you've adopted and approved. Um those days are elementary planning which would remain middle school in service and high schools are in session. My proposal is that middle school and high school would be in session on those days. Now I'm gonna pass it on to Nikki. Flip it. As Jennifer mentioned earlier, we envision each school developing a plan that focuses on three key areas. Student behavior support, student academics, and staff collaboration. This approach ensures that each building's plan is tailored to its unique needs while aligning to our broader strategic goals. By prioritizing these areas, we aim to create a supportive, academically enriching, and collaborative environment for both students and staff. Additionally, each building team will develop its own plan, ensuring opportunities for teacher input in the process. Our timeline for early
084release viability is structured to ensure thorough planning, stakeholder engagement, and seamless implementation for early release. From 2023 to February 2025, we focused on developing models and engaging key stakeholders. In March and April, we will finalize essential logistics, confirm the calendar, and secure necessary support. Beginning in May and beyond, site leadership teams will take the lead in developing professional learning plans and logistical frameworks, ensuring a smooth and effective transition. Our next steps for early release focus on collaborative work groups that will refine key areas of implementation to en ensure alignment with our strategic plan priorities. These efforts will include developing operational logistics, designing learning experience for students and staff, and ensuring compliance with policies and scheduling requirements. Middle and high school teams will explore models that best support their unique needs, while leadership will provide guidance
085across all levels. Through this structured approach, we will create a sustainable early release model that enhances student learning, staff collaboration, and overall operational efficiency. The next steps of early release focus on finalizing decisions, organizing workg groupoups, and ensuring school specific planning. Senior leadership will need to make a final decision based on a board calendar vote. We're hoping all this will happen by April 1st. Following this, early release workg groups will organize for action addressing key areas such as policy, curriculum, professional learning, and logistics. Principles will develop those school specific schedules to ensure all required elements are incorporated into their plan. And in quarter 4, principles will share these plans with their school accountability committees to provide context, rationale, and gather parent input, ensuring well-informed and communityupported implementation. So when will teachers and and staff be
086ready to roll with this? Like plans are made. We know what we're doing. Today we start correct our principles while they're here. They've been working on this with an anticipation that this was going to happen. There were some other additional background um pieces that we needed to work on. We need to Clint and I and Ari, we worked with STA to ensure that transportation because we all know buses run our schedules, right? And so ensuring that all um schedules could be with our buses could be met with transportation and they can. So our we asked our like I said that survey with our principles um back in December, our principles have not forgotten and Dr. Hill can attest that this idea of early release um and they have just been waiting for that right time.
087They're really the ones that resurrected early release and they've been planning it and they'll be ready to go once we make that decision or once that decision has been made. They'll be ready to go. They'll be ready to go. I'm sure they'll answer. So the the request is this fall is correct. That's what we're hearing. This fall correctly. Right. So they'll continue to plan and and get their ducks in a row. So get their ducks in a row through the rest of this year. Correct. And be ready to go when we start this new schedule in the fall. Things will be in place to start this actually happening. There won't be just more planning for another extended period of time. Absolutely. Okay. I don't know how to answer. Absolutely not to half that question. Be
088ready. understand what what I'm getting. Well, I think the board is just looking for clarity on what we're needing, I think, to just make a decision on. I think the So, to Jen's point, she's being very nice. Um I' I've been one of the barriers in this. Um but, uh so the schools are they're they could do this tomorrow probably if they had to. So, um and some many of our secondary schools are already doing Yeah, they're all doing this when I said I was the barrier. It's great. Um so, uh Yeah, I did too. Yeah. Um I some of them are already doing a modified version of of a different release anyways. And remember our our elementary schools have been doing this for a very long time. So it's not new for our district.
089It would be new for secondary as a uniformed plan. Like I said, we already have some schools that have already been doing um late starts um things of that nature. So it would have some uniformity which would help with transportation. It would help with families that maybe have kids um in multiple grade levels. Um so really what the board the board's responsibility in this is not to make a decision on whether or not to to implement early release. It's really we would need to change that the ask is around changing the calendar and the reason why the calendar um idea was brought up uh was because one of the pieces of feedback we got was well we we don't want to lose instructional time with kids. Um and so Jen and her team went back
090worked with the principles and talked about how could we gain back some of that instructional time and that's where those inservice days came back. So that was based on some feedback we got from and that's even I should say that's even with 70 plus% of families saying we already support this the the way it was presented to begin with. But some of the feedback we got was we don't want to lose instructional time. And so they they gained some of that back through that. And I you know I would just say kind of a pitch for this too is that um anytime you talk about losing something then that that there may be fear there but you know sometimes there's addition through subtraction. And so if you're if you're just constantly pushing but you're not
091giving folks time to actually plan around what they're pushing for then are you really getting high quality or the highest quality um product in the end. And so I think that this would obviously we're hearing directly from folks at the schools that they would benefit from this and I think we would see the impact on students in the end. Um but that was some of the delays was me and then um STA making sure we could get the transportation in place and then trying to get back some of that instructional time for um for students and that's where the board would come in. It'd be a modification to the calendar for next year. That is on Fridays, right Jen? Okay. Same as said you guys answered and asked all my questions. Okay. So, I know
092with a lot of schools that have four day weeks, they tend to start earlier in the year. So, would that that wouldn't be a change to our calendar? No. And you're going to vote on those calendars, a number of those calendars this afternoon. They're elementary calendars. They're not secondary schedules. And it's not it's an early release. It's not a 4 day week. It's on a less week week. Yeah. Day or week. Mhm. There all of our um school they will just have shorter um periods every Friday. So they'll still have their full schedule. They'll meet with all of their teachers, but they will just meet less than their schedule time during the week. Okay. I I think I had heard somewhere where maybe it was the comparative um districts that some of them had four
093day weeks. So I think I sorry I was mixing the two together. So okay. Yeah. The other thing I just want to reiterate that was already said, but this is time for um teachers and admin and staff to have PL. It's planning um professional learning, but it's also really having conversations around students that may be struggling and how do we provide more support. So, I don't want people to hear this and think, well, it's just everyone's just going to have a two-hour kind of hangout on Fridays. Like, there's actually structure to this. Um, and the issue we ran into years ago with this is as we've been going through declining enrollment and it's been harder and harder to um, staff secondary schools in a way where it allows them to have some of that common
094planning time during the day or time for their, you know, whether it be grade levels or content areas to meet together. That's become more of more of a challenge and I think it will continue to be a challenge for us. This provides, you know, some relief there to be able to say you have this dedicated um, two hours to be able to have some of this planning on on a Friday. So, just to be clear, it's it's the teachers will be doing that work on those Fridays. Um, and we're trying to keep it within their their hours, right? Because otherwise then you're staying after for hours and it's and it's outside your contract time. And so, it's putting extra demand on on folks if we don't do something like that. So, this gives them those
095two hours on Fridays to be able to have that structured time um for their kids. But at the end of the day, the goal is better outcomes for kids, whether that be academically or or student well-being is having that time to actually have those discussions. Um, and we've seen success, as Jen mentioned, at the elementary level. Um, this is a request around secondary being able to do that as well. I think maybe it would be helpful because as I was going through this, I haven't been able to be in all the meetings when you all been having these conversations. Overwhelmingly, there was support in the surveys. But why would why would a teacher say I don't want this? I I don't know if there's a reason why somebody might say, "I don't I don't think
096this is a good thing." Um the few teachers that we spoke to uh that were unsure hadn't seen the the layout of it and they thought it was just going to be two hours of free time. And so when they saw that every school already has a structure like this that's dedicated to specific tasks, it's not just two hours, a lot of them said, "Well, if I would have known that, I wouldn't have voted that way." But we did follow up with some of the teachers who said no. And most of them uh wanted a a a very good structure for those Fridays. Yeah, I think that was last time when this came around. I think that was some of the feedback I got was they felt like they were losing instructional time. However, I
097think when some of you then spoke to them about what they would get in exchange for that, I think that made more sense to them. So that uh because I also heard that the newer teachers wanted to be able to have time to collaborate with more seasoned teachers because our newer teachers were feeling like they were not getting time to have sort of that mentorship with the seasoned teachers of like, hey, how do you do this and how do you do that when I think we were walking through some of the middle schools at the time. And so um they were either having to come in early or stay late. And that can be really hard, especially when you have two different schedules that may not accommodate times to do that. So, um, yeah, that
098was I I recall that being some of the feedback we got last time when we were talking about this. Okay. Well, and and to piggyback on that, yeah, that feedback from family saying if I have a younger kid on Fridays, they go home and there's nobody there. It's not for every family, but if you have an older sibling now, they have somebody that's also out on Fridays as well. I think there's there's other benefits as well. I mean, around athletics and and other things too that don't apply to every single kid, but there are other benefits as well around this. So, um but yeah, to to the question really for the board, it's more around um and we're not taking any votes tonight, but thinking about giving back those inservice days next year as instructional
099days, and that would just be a modification to the calendar. And I haven't modified that calendar yet, so I can do that. And um we can put it on the agenda next Tuesday, next week. All righty. Next next week. I was talking to a parent um today after school. And they said, "My kid's a three sport athlete and we require all sophomores to do an internship um for their career." And I said, "Well, what if they had that early release Friday and they had that two hours to do that internship?" And they were like, "Oh my gosh, that'd be amazing." So that's not why we're doing it, but it's a a possible consequence or kind of like what Dr. Hill was talking about about babysitting. We're not doing it because of that, but it's a
100it's it's a pro to it. Well, the other thing that we wanted to make sure and and Jyn and and uh Clinton and all their teams have been working really hard on this to try to cross all the tees and dot the eyes is around concurrent enrollment, career center, things like that. So just making sure that we don't pull back on opportunities for kids because you don't have something on a Friday anymore. I know they've worked through all all that as well. Um career center was one of our concerns because we have three mods every day and so what would that mod um schedule and structure look like for our career center and um Todd is here. Um all of our principles were invited to speak at public comment. I don't know how many of
101them will other than you can see them talking with their body language behind me. Correct. And um I know Todd and his team came together to identify what would that schedule look like and STA was able to accommodate their schedule. Sherry has been working with um CMU Tech to ensure that our students aren't losing opportunities. And then of course we have our concurrent students who are taking classes. Um, and Ari actually took some time to dig in to our students who are taking concurrent classes at the college, not early I mean early scholars, not students who are taking college courses at the high school. And many of those they don't if they take so many classes, they're not taking any classes at the high school. So they're not um their day isn't being jeopardized at
102the college or at their high school. So, we really did, you know, the the dotting the eyes and the crossing the tees truly tried to make sure that we were trying to um ensure all students, no student would be left behind or left out because of early release on Friday. um they are they have an abbreviated schedule already and so yes but they are able to accommodate and the the last thing I'll say and I'll quit talking is um it we're this is it may feel somewhat reactionary if nobody somebody hasn't been paying attention this whole time but really this is an over two-year conversation we've been having and really even before that um this was a request from schools prior to that um but also this is something we would want monitor. Um, so
103if we put this in place next year, we want to kind of monitor it, see if it's actually effective, see if we need to make any adjustments along the way. Um, so that would be something that we would do as well as a district. Maybe you'll hear more. No pressure, principles. All right. Thank you very much. All right. And then the the last presentation um is uh we've got Dan Burke coming up to give a a quick overview of um board book which we've switched to for um where we store and share uh documents and information for our board meetings. One second here. All right. Do you need a lower? Hello board. And uh thank you for uh having me come up and explain a little bit about board book. I'm going to make this
104brief. It is a very simple product. It is really about media consumption for the public and really trying to uh trying to make sure our strategic plan and transparency and things like that out to the community, make it more um easier to stomach and and find that information. So, we're going to get into it. Um, I've kind of told you a little bit about about the presentation. Uh, board book, um, it's going to be our main platform for board meetings. Essentially, it is a cloud-based program that houses our meeting agenda, um, PDF forms that we that we use in the uh, meetings and anything else like reports or something like that that the board would see, um, the public will have access to it. um kind of kind of went over I'm just giving you
105a kind of a good book or kind of look here. But um the big things about this is going to be our meeting management. Um being able to create the agenda with you guys, not having to be in the room and be able to um just, you know, approve them, find different things, bring something else that needs to be talked about. Um document access and transparency. Like I said, it should be a lot better for the board to be able to access the documents, but really and truly, it's going to be nice to be able to give those or make them available to the public in a PDF form. A very easy way to find it and and and consume the the information. Um, we're going to go into here and like I said, the
106public access website, we've published it on a couple places here. Um, we have it under our menu under our board of education. We have it there under board book and we also have it if you go into the board of education website it'll be right there on the left called board book. This will take you now now so I make sure that I'm clear on this. This is not the site that you guys will go in to log into right. This is for public. So public will come into this and be able to find our meeting March 25th and you can click on agenda here. But let me show you the part that's really kind of neat and that's you can subscribe to this site. So when you rescri when you subscribe you can put
107any email in. You don't have to sign up. It doesn't create you account. All it does is create a mailing list that gives you access uh anytime anything changes on the site or anything new gets added. So, um I just wanted to show that real fast for you because like I said, that's going to be a huge engagement for our uh community. As you look at the agenda, you can kind of follow it. Um you can look over here. There's a couple things that you can either show or not. I like to have all of those selected. Kind of a neat thing is you can download all of this uh by one button and it'll download the whole pamphlet for you and you'll have it. If you follow along in the board meeting, you can
108come in here and click on the recognation or I'm sorry, the recognitions, read the documents, follow along. The neat thing about these um and this isn't a gigantic document, but it has a search feature, right? So, if you really wanted to get back in here and say, "Hey, my daughter was recognized today. Um, can I find it?" Right? There it is. Right at B highlights it down here. And so it makes it a little bit easier to find and process information. Um, let's see here. Let me go back and so like I said, the agenda, like I said, is all here. Um, and I just want to show you just a couple of the other um kind of just just the the files. And like I said, it makes it very easy to view them.
109Um, I' I've looked at this on a phone. Um, it has a built-in PDF viewer, so very very um mobile friendly. And so, like I said, having the ability to uh go in there and um search documents. Um, we will be able to link videos um on the same place where the agenda is. So the streaming um and we hope to be able to archive our videos to be able to search for certain things. Now that is something that said so that you can do but we are we we're working on that and so I'm sorry let me get that slideshow finish here. So the public so I did our live demonstration. So our big things right appliance and governance is the transparency um historical records and centralized documentation that's where they stay that's where
110they live. um going further in the program. I mean, I think we have some, you know, we we have a chance to to enhance it. Um we've got to take a look at new things coming out with it. Um I think questioning you guys and making sure that we're talking with the public and see what things are working good for them and what is not and make sure that we can strengthen that. And then exploring additional features every week, every month um that they may come out. it may be um viable for us to use that but then again it may like I said we want to keep it as simple as we can for our public. So just to recap meeting management being able to make meetings and agree with them document access and
111transparency we have improved efficiency and the big one for me was the notification of subscription features for our community. I'd like to open the door for any questions. Like I said, it's very simple, but if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. I just have um one question. I'm not sure that you answered it fully. Can we do a link just for the video? Yeah, absolutely. Meetings. Um yes. In fact, we've got one I'm working with them right now to be able to because we host from Facebook. Um it's got a link to that and then it's got to do a handshake through. So, we're trying to get that handshake to work. Got it. But, uh, I I feel very very confident that we'll have that fixed recently, right? That looks good. I
112had not seen the public facing side yet. I do know on our side it has been much more manageable for me to find the agendas. Um, I know just the search feature alone has been helpful because I'll I'll I'll think about a meeting from some time ago and think like, oh gosh, what was that thing we were talking about? And then the search feature and I'm sure our community as well, they're like, what meeting did we talk about such and such? And then or like you said, a recognition and they can go in and find it. And so, um, I'm I'm really excited that this will be much more user friendly for our community and future boards to be able to use both on the back end and also on the front end for our
113community. And as and if it gets better and stuff like that, we have we do have the uh the ability to do some training videos and stuff like that. So, if there's something that gets more complicated, we'll definitely create some stuff out to our public to make sure that they understand how to use it. Yeah, this is great. I like that it's all in one place. Yeah. Yeah. If you remember how it was before it was um individual links on our website and to President Height's point, it was you like I we couldn't even find when did we talk about that five years ago. Um what meeting was that? So that'll be beneficial. And um and Burke mentioned this, but the the main goal here was um tying it back to the strategic plan on
114how we how do we provide better communication and transparency for our community? And um this is one way to be able to do that. So, and then because this is a organization that works with a lot of school districts in the state, I know um they work with CASBY and other organizations as well. It's uh tailored to and catered to um school districts. So, that's another benefit of as well. So, thanks to Burke and his team for um and Amy and everybody who's been working on getting board book up and running. So, we really appreciate it. Amy is the true all-star. Yeah. Well, thank you. And I think it makes it a little easier for Amy to honestly help take minutes and roll call and stuff as well. So it just creates better efficiency and
115it's just a much user friendly for like I said future our board future boards and for the community. So um this is it's just fantastic. So thanks Dan for presenting and thanks Amy for learning the whole program and um anything future that will so thanks for presenting on it Dan. So, absolutely, guys. Thank you. All right. Does the board need a break or I guess we'll see how many I don't know. Amy, how many public comments do we have? One. Okay. We can a 30 minute break. Go for it, Will. All righty. So, for our one and only audience comment, uh, Miss Deborah Settler, nobody's on deck. Nobody's on the hole. You still only get three minutes. [Laughter] Good evening board members and uh Dr. Hill. My name is Deborah Stettler. I'm a 12-year resident
116of Grand Junction, a big supporter of public schools, and a member of the League of Women Voters of Mesa County's education advocacy team. Thanks for the opportunity to speak with you and for the dedication, diligence, and professionalism that you bring to D51. The League of Women Voters believes that an equitable, quality public education is critical to developing informed, engaged citizens. Students must learn to think critically about important current events, and classroom discussion is essential to this learning. Teaching must reflect the perspectives and experiences of all people, including marginalized groups. I'm speaking to you tonight on behalf of the league to follow up on the student comments made at the February 18th meeting. At that meeting, some students expressed concerns that some teachers did not feel free to teach or discuss some topics. One student referred
117to quote recent conversations surrounding avoiding of research papers regarding sexuality, gender or race unquote and to teachers quote expressing concerns revolving around executive orders, immigration and social issues unquote. Students also expressed concerns about such actions as swastikas being drawn on whiteboards and students telling other students that they were glad they might be deported. We realize that these comments do not represent a formal survey of students or teachers. Nonetheless, we are concerned about the possibility of the learning environment being compromised by student behavior or teacher hesitancy to teach certain topics. We are very much in favor of D51's vision to engage, equip, and empower each and every student each and every day. To that end, we hope that there will be an attempt to learn whether students at other schools have similar concerns and that teachers
118are surveyed anonymously about the extent to which they may feel obliged to censor the teaching of comprehensive factbased history or discussion of current events. We hope that any decisions made or actions taken will be shared with the community. Again, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you and for everything you do for our community and for our learners. Thank you. Thanks, Todd. Thanks, buddy. Yeah. All right. I'm just here to support. Thank you. All right, board. Thank you. Thanks for all the work you do. Um, it's an enormous amount and I know I speak for the community when I say that we appreciate all the hard work you give to our our faculty, our staff, our students, and our overall community. Um, just in regard to the the possibility of of an of a
119unified early release, um, I want to share that a junction and I'm, by the way, I'm Jory Sornson. Grand Junction principal. Um I want to share that we currently have a 40minute early release and it's Mondays and this this Monday so yesterday we spent that time um talking about our upcoming testing. So our comprehensive testing around PAT, SAT and 11th grade CMASS and we we talked to our teachers about what their role is during that about all the logistics around it about some different online training and onboarding as well as all the logistics and the moving of kids. So this is just one example. Um and in that 40 minutes we it's really just directional information and the what we expect of them and that and there's four different roles my faculty has during that
120depending on what it is their job is. So, we're expecting them to take that information and then go out and and operationalize it um in a way that puts our students in the best possible situation to prove their knowledge, to prove their content understanding, and to perform their best for their future. Um, if we had more time, we would have given our teachers time to go through that uh together in their group in their group of four, whichever of the four groups they were in, and say, "Okay, what does this look like? How will I make sure I'm preparing my room, preparing my students?" Um, and it's really a big thing for us. It's, you know, our aim, one of our big goals is around SAT improvement. Um, it's around CMass improvement. really um doing
121our best with everything we do and in in at Grand Junction High School with 98 teachers in order for us to move consistently and with coherence from grade to grade um just as Mr. Foster was discussing uh it's very important that our teachers have time to collaborate. The other context of Junction High School, which you know about, is we built this school for maximum utility. And I'm proud to say we're doing that. We're using it we're using just about every room, just about every period. Um, what that what that means is we our master schedule doesn't allow like 9th grade comp teachers to meet together during their day. We provide that during that early release time. So unified early release time would help that for for really guided planning. So I think I'm out of
122time. You get another three minutes. All right. All right. I'll follow whatever protocol swearing in whatever. Okay, I'll switch. No. Hi guys. Todd McCclassy, principal at Kur Center. Um, you know, I have always been kind of uh opposed to any kind of early release. Um, I feel it's a huge responsibility and letting kids go. I've always I've always struggled with that. So, at FEA, we experimented with a lot of ways. You know, collaborating, getting teachers together, um, providing professional development, moving our goals forward. Our vision is really difficult. So, we tried a lot of um ideas to be we tried to be really innovative at Fra to hold our kids but free up some staff and it was yeah it was difficult. Um so I'll say that um at the cur center you know I
123was nervous about this because I didn't want to go from three mods down to two. we would would eliminate about 175 kids from CTE programming and that's an obstacle we've been able to avert you know going from 110 minutes we'll go to 70 minutes on Fridays still you know over an hour I think that's adequate the the benefit to the career center is um the uniformity of the early release struggle with all the high schools being on they have early releases now three of the for do. So it poses a struggle. It's a struggle for us to accommodate all the different schedules and the uniformity of a early release Friday will be a big benefit to the career center in terms of consistency and having students um all the students there at the same time.
124You know, right now we have some students from various schools that are gone on different days due to their schedules of the the current schedules of the existing high schools. So, that'll be a big win, I believe, for the career center. Another positive, as I've wrapped my brain around an early release, another positive for our staff is we do a lot of work with industry partners. Uh, our construction program works with local electricians, plumbers. Um this would embed some time on Fridays for us to work with industry partners whether it's with the bet science or the health science or the construction program or our culinary uh program. It will allow our teachers to also with their advisory boards. Uh typically they they try to jam those in during a a lunch. Um, now we can
125embed those into some Fridays where our advisory boards come in, those are our industry partners, can come in on those Fridays and work with our teachers to make sure our kids are getting the skills they need in that industry. So, those are some benefits that I see. Yeah. Okay. Thank you guys. It's marked. Today is the day that two of our principles broke protocol and took over public comment. Thank you. All right. Well, um All right. So, normally um we don't always have a response um to public comment, but um Miss Stettler uh we do actually have some updates um since the uh student comment from the 19th. So, um, we did get some information back from the school. So, they had not received any reports of swastikas being drawn on whiteboards. Um, it was
126looked into. Um, there was a swastika that was found in a bathroom that was drawn in soap on a mirror. Um, but when situations like that arise, um, the school does their best to look at cameras to determine who may have drawn the image. oftentimes um they do come up empty-handed and they cannot pinpoint who committed the vandalism, but the schools definitely do look into it and make sure that if they can pinpoint who it is that they take care of those things. Um they have um not reprimanded any teachers for any of the reasons stated um by the students. Um, two weeks ago, um, there was a parent phone call with questions about how some of the topics, including immigration and segregation, were being handled, um, in an American government class. Um, the principal
127met with the teacher to learn the teacher's side of it and then followed up with the parent and both parties were pleased um, with where things landed and no disciplinary action um, or reprimand was taken. So um so these the principles has worked very hard over the last few years to address belonging in the school and particularly with different subgroups um and it remains the central focus especially at Fruit and Monument High School since that's where the students um that had made public comment and they want to ensure that every student feels like they belong there. Um, so the principal did meet with the concerned students and um at that point and obviously wanted to make sure that they felt heard. And so um I will also um state that we do have a controversial
128um materials policy so that anytime a teacher feels that they want to bring up any kind of controversial topic um we do have a policy that they can follow um if they want to bring up something like that. And so it really just is uh revolves around making sure that parents are notified. And so if a parent either feels comfortable leaving their student in the classroom or not. Um and so we uh we definitely want to make sure it obviously aligns with curriculum and it's not necessarily something out in left field because it needs to align with what we're doing in coursework. So, um, so anyways, it kind of came a shock as to the board because we definitely have policy that allows our teachers to, um, definitely teach to certain things and those, uh,
129those, uh, concerns were brought up to the principal and he obviously went and addressed those. So, I hope that answers at least most of your concerns and if not, some things are still being looked into. So, uh, quickly, yes, I I may not be able to respond back to you. So, Oh, no, no, no, no. I we did not take it that that anybody was asking for a teacher to be reprimanded. Um what we were and we would what and that students were not asking for a teach what we wanted to make clear was that um the board also didn't want a teacher to feel like they were being reprimanded um in that they felt like if they could or could not teach on a certain subject. And I did not take your comments as
130that you're asking for anybody to be reprimanded. My I took your comments is that you want to make sure that a teacher is um obviously looking at what they could or could not do and I want to let you know that we have policy um as far as what teachers can do. So no, I did not take your comments that you're looking for someone to be reprimanded. So thank you for the clarity. So, um, normally we don't always have a quick follow-up like that, but I wanted to let you know that, um, our superintendent was was very, um, expeditious in being able to get back to the board on those things in working, uh, in tandem with the principal. So, um, but we're thankful for the students to be able to come and voice those
131concerns. Um, but we do take those things very seriously. Um and we do want to make sure our teachers um also are aware of the policies um in which they can operate in to do those types of things. All right. I do think our board needers board members do you need a quick five minute? Okay. Because we just we have executive session. Well, we have consent agenda and then we do have the business items to vote on. So just let's make it quick five minutes because then we have we do have executive session after this. Okay. Quick five minute biological break. Well, I was going to They're and resume because we just have our consent agenda and business items. Um, all right. So, the consent agenda contains personnel actions and the acceptance of gifts and
132items that are routine and can be approved by a single motion. Items on the consent agenda will not be discussed individually by the board unless an item is removed for individual consideration. Um, I will say the total for the amount of gifts is $31,846.96. So, we're thankful to our community for um the amount of gifts. So, um is anyone requesting for any items to be removed for individual consideration? Okay, seeing none, um do I have a motion to approve the items on the consent agenda? Motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. Mr. Chavez, yes. Mrs. Evansson, yes. Mrs. Heights, yes. Mr. Jones, yes. Miss Lima, yes. All right. So, next up, we have our business items. So, um, our first one up is J1, which is our fee schedule adoption. Do I have a motion
133to move forward with our fee schedule adoption for this year? Motion to move on the fee schedule adoption. Any Oh, sorry. Sec. Okay. Director Jones seconded. Any discussion? I think we we had went over fees little well a few meetings ago. So, I don't think anything else had been updated since then. Okay. All right. Seeing no discussion, we can go ahead and call the vote. Mr. Chavez. Yes. Mrs. Evans. Yes, Mrs. Heights. Yes, Mr. Jones. Yes, Miss Lima. Yes. All right. Uh, next business item J2, we have the school calendar adoptions for dual immersion academy, Independence Academy, Charter School, Juniper Ridge Charter School, Mesa Valley Community Charter School, and New Emerson. Do I have a motion to approve um those following school calendars? Motion to approve the school calendars. Second. Okay. Any discussion? Okay. Seeing
134none, we can call the vote. Mr. Chavez, approved. Mrs. Evansson, yes. Mrs. Heights, yes. Mr. Jones, yes. Miss Lima, yes. All right. And then next up, um, J3. Um, so we have the positions on the state house bills. Um, so she had seven that she presented. um and obviously gave her recommendation. So probably look at these individually or unless you I can't make the motion. So if somebody else would like to make a motion, I'd make the motion to um take them all at once, all seven. Okay, that's her recommendation. Okay, so how how would you like So how would that read? Motion to approve the recommended positions on the bills that were presented by Amy. Okay. So, what would how would you I would clarify that. I would almost do them individually because do
135individual. Yeah. Because if we have because we're not in support of all of them. I I I don't think there's ones that there's ones that I have issues with. So, well, I think what I think what Director Lima is saying is is approving the recommended positions that uh Amy said, but what I would put in the motion is um if you want to clarify is what I what I would recommend is I would say on say for instance 11:35 a position of support, 1178 a position of opposition just so that every board member understands what position we're taking. if if we're going to do all of them at the same time. Does that make sense? Yes. Unless you want to do them individually. Wait. Do you want to clarify clarify the motion? I think we
136can do it at one in one, please. Okay. Okay. So, please why don't uh let's clarify um just read the last four letters of the bill and and the position because I know on 1278 she said there was no position. It would be a monitor. Would it? Oh, or Yeah. Yeah. Monitor. That's right. Do you have one, Director Jones? Yeah. So, on bill 1135, support. And you mind just motion in each one or just We'll just state state just state it. Okay. Just state it. Bill 1178, oppose it. Bill 1192, I'm sorry, oppose it. Bill 1210 support. Bill 11 or 12, excuse me, 1278 would be a monitor. Bill 1300 opposed and bill 13 153 153. Yes, those were her recommendations. Yes. Okay. So, the motion on the floor is to adopt all seven positions
137and as the positions were read by Director Jones, um the motion was made by Director Lima. Do we have a second? Second. Okay. And any discussion? She did a great job explaining these and yeah, I'm in agreement with those positions. Just think about 1178. I mean, you know, I worked in the schools and I saw how this could be detrimental to everyone involved. You know, I mean, we have kids that have special needs and requirements and assistance. And if we're taking a hard stance that we are not going to give them an area where they can calm down and cool down, you know, out of the viewpoint of other students, you know, that puts them just in just in a really bad situation. I mean, the the kids themselves and then if there's a situation
138where they're, you know, being destructive or something of that nature, it puts other students at harm. So, I just I absolutely adamantly oppose 1178. Yeah, that was the ban on student seclusion. Yeah, I agree. That one is um that one's very difficult for I think districts. Yeah. Um any other discussion? Yeah, I think going from the top down the communication devices in schools, I mean I think Dr. Hill and and our board has um I think, you know, created a great process for implementing um communication devices in schools, you know, with our policy. So, I I think having a policy in place is good. I do agree that they don't need to tell us what the policy needs to look like, but having a policy in place is good. So, I don't think that violates
139too much local control. Um but having a policy in place is good. I agree with Director Evansson what you said about student seclusion. Um the financial literacy we talked about that earlier. Um I just I don't think you don't need to fill out a FASA if you're not going to go to college and not everybody will do that and I don't think some parents want to uh share that information if they don't need to. And then yeah, the data reporting I think we need to support that um kind of help get that cleaned up. And then the worker compensation, that one seems very um ownorous on top of employers and obviously school districts included on that one. Um and then the uh school financial reporting requirements that just seemed petty if uh for them to
140ask about private monies being donated to schools. So, right. Anything else? Okay, we can go ahead and take um the vote for those positions. Mr. Chavis, Mrs. Evansson, yes. Mrs. Heights, yes. Mr. Jones, yes. Miss Lima, yes. All right. Okay. Um, any other board discussion? Okay. Uh we have future meetings. Um so we have one next week because it's the 1 of April on our first Tuesday. So we have our work session coming up. Um we have a board coffee um Saturday, April 5th. That'll be at Pair Park Elementary in the cafeteria. Um and then we have our next board business meeting um on April 15th. Um so that's it. Anything else? Dr. Dr. Hill and I myself are April 27th. Oh, and we're going to get beat in basketball. Yeah, we're playing basketball against
141the Harlem Goat Trotters at uh Orchard Mesa Middle School. Yes. If you want to come see us get dunked on, come hang out at Orchard Mesa. Okay. All righty. So, we are not going to adjourn yet because the board um does have an executive session after this. So, so pursuant to section 24-6-424B, Colorado revised statute for the purpose of receiving legal advice on specific legal questions and pursuant to 24-6-424E Colorado Revised Statutes for the purpose of determining positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations, developing strategy for negotiations, and or instructing negotiators regarding negotiations with Mesa Valley Education association. So the following um I will state who will be in the following sessions or our first session. Um uh myself um Andrea Heights, uh Director Lima, Director Jones, um uh Director Evansson, Director
142Chavez, Dr. Hill, Miss Tammy Erit, uh Miss Jennifer Marsh, Miss Nikki Jo, Miss Melanie Trillo, um Mr. Andy Means, and Miss Clint or Miss, excuse me, Mr. Clint Garcia will be in our first um executive session. And then the second one um will be uh myself, um Andrea Heights, Miss uh Angela Lima, Mr. Will Jones, Dr. Brian Hill, Miss Tammy Eritt, Mr. Um, Chavez, Miss Barb Evansson, Mrs. Marsh, Mrs. Jo, and Mr. uh, Melanie Trillo will be in our second session. So, do I have a motion to move into executive session? Motion to move. Second. Okay. Mr. Chavez, yes. Mrs. Evansson, yes. Mrs. Heights? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Miss Lima? Yep. All right. And then we will come out and uh finish our meeting and adjourn. So,