001Right. Good evening everybody. We will go ahead and uh well this is a work session so I don't know if I have to call we don't have any board we don't have anything to vote on this evening. So I guess I can call the meeting to order but we don't have any to do anything official. So, um, if you don't mind, uh, go ahead and stand with us and we will do the pledge of allegiance. Uh, Director Chavez, do you want to kick us off? All right, thank you. All right, we have um a couple proclamations for the month of February. My glasses here. All right. So, first off, for the month of February, we are recognizing and honoring Black History Month. So whereas Black History Month traces its roots to 1915, marking half a
002century since the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, what begun as Negro History Week was later expanded into a month-long recognition in 1976 to honor the profound impact of black Americans on US history. And whereas African-Americans have played played a pivotal role in every aspect of American life from science, education, and the arts to business and politics, enriching our national culture and history. And whereas Black History Month serves as both a reflection on our past and a guide for our future. It provides an opportunity for our schools and community to engage in educational discussions, promote mutual respect, and ensure that historical lessons shape our society where all contributions are recognized. And now therefore, be it resolved that the Mesa County Valley School District Board of Education recognizes February 2025 as Black History Month
003and encourages students, staff, and the community to participate in activities that celebrate and honor Black History, not just this month, but year [Applause] round. All right. And then next for the month of February, we recognize National School Counseling Week. So this week, February 3rd through the 7th, 2025, we celebrate National School Counseling Week, recognizing the invaluable contributions of school counselors and highlighting their dedication to supporting students and schools across the US education system. This year's theme, school counseling, helping students thrive, perfectly align with District 51's year-long focus, Together We Thrive. Our school counselors are the heart of this mission, guiding students to discover their strengths, build confidence, and find success in school and beyond. Through their continuous support, our counselors empower students to navigate challenges, build meaningful connections, and reach their fullest potential. Their collaboration
004with families, teachers, and staff creates a learning environment where every student has the opportunity to thrive. Because in D51, we grow, learn, and succeed together. The board of education and superintendent Dr. Hill want to take this opportunity to recognize and thank all our D51 school counselors. You are an intricral part to our student success and are not thanked nearly enough for all you do. Do we have any school counselors in the audience tonight? Wave or stand up if you're brave enough. No. All right. Well, if you're watching online, thank you. Um and we're we're thankful for all that you do. All right. Next up, we have our strategic plan update with our communications. And while they're coming up, um, uh, Alex and the folks from CI will be here. I think they may be virtual,
005but at the, um, next month's meeting to give an update on the current strategic plan process, just so you'all know. Evening everybody. How you doing? Uh my name is Tracy Gyos and I'm the director of access opportunity and family partnerships. And tonight Cali Estraa and I will be um giving our final update for the communication and connection with families priority area. Our strategic plan uh has been vital in keeping our system aligned over the past three years. It's been rewarding to celebrate recent academic gains and the rising graduation g um rate. Tonight, we're also excited to add our work to this growing list of achievements. We've been revisiting the D-51 graduate profile and our monthly updates to stay focused on turning this vision into reality for every student. More than just a framework, the profile
006represents a shared promise to ensure um every student graduates academically prepared and equipped with skills and resilience needed for their future. One thing is clear, the success of this um profile depends not just on our schools, but also on strong partnerships with families and with the community. When students graduate as creative problem solvers and resilient thinkers, it's because they've been supported by a powerful network of schools, families, and community partners. Today, we'll explore how communication and connection play a critical role in fulfilling the graduate profile's promise. By strengthening these relationships, we can better support students and bring this vision to life. We are dedicated to clear, accessible communication for all D-51 families. Building strong family partnerships requires intentional action, strategic investment, and ensuring every family can actively engage in their child's education. With our diverse
007community in mind, we prioritize strategies like multilingual communication to meet the needs of all families. This work goes beyond sharing information. It's about fostering genuine partnerships that empower families to participate fully. Guided by data, we've identified barriers, measured progress, and adapted to community needs. Input from family task forces and surveys has kept our efforts focused and impactful. Tonight, we're going to share um updates on our threeyear goals, including investment in technology, the family partnership roadmap, and bilingual leadership structures that amplify every voice. I'll now hand it over to Cali for the communication. All right. So, in order to engage, equip, and empower each and every student, we need to reach and engage each and every family. Over the last year, we've made significant progress in connecting with our families and ensuring everyone in our district
008feels informed and engaged. One of our top priorities this year has been ensuring all families across the district have access to timely, accurate, and accessible communication. While we're not done, we've made some big improvements on this front through the imple implementation of new tools and platforms. We launched our new district website in May. This redesign wasn't just about aesthetics. It was about functionality and accessibility. The new website features easier navigation, a cleaner design, and simplified access to the information our families rely on. It's also more mobile friendly, which is how most of our families access this information, and it follows our state ADA regulations. While still a work in progress, it's been a huge improvement. In addition to the website, we launched the new D-51 mobile app just over two weeks ago, and we're really
009excited about the early results. In just those few weeks, we've already had more than 400 downloads, and we expect that number to keep climbing. The mobile app is a huge step forward in creating a seamless, more accessible, and user-friendly experience for our families, especially our families on the go. We hope to see more and more families take advantage of this new resource. And building on our efforts to ensure clear and accessible communication for all D-51 families, we're also focusing on a more targeted approach to growing D-51 advocates. With that, I'll turn it over to Estrella to share how we're deepening those connections. Thank you, Kelly. This way. I don't like microphones. So, um, yeah, thank you. So, our journey to the road map. Our work began with a clear need. Families express concerns about understanding
010school systems, policies, and communications. Through surveys and collaborative efforts, we develop the road map to ensure that every family is engaged, informed, and empowered. We currently have a team of 30 supporting this ongoing work and ensuring accountability. This team consists of parents, staff, and community partners. So the way we're strengthening communication and outreach to ensure open and effective communication, we've implemented several key initiatives. These efforts create more accessible communication channels for families and staff. As Cali shared, effective communication is essential for meaningful partnerships. We're expanding access to information through digital platforms and launching new initiatives to enhance two-way communication between families and schools. We have also restructured our interpretation and translation department to ensure language justice. Community partnerships and family engagement. Family and community engagement is at the heart of our strategy. We've collaborated with
011local and statewide organizations to provide valuable resources, training, and support through family literacy programs, cultural relevance training, and community conversations. We're creating inclusive spaces where all families feel welcomed and empowered. To strengthen family engagement, we're providing targeted training for educators, staff, and community partners. Educators and staff play a critical role in family engagement. We provide targeted training to help them build relationships with families, improve communication, and support student access, sorry, student success and access. We're committed to bringing schools and families closer together through direct engagement. We're strengthening connections between schools and families through home visits, designated family partnership roles in schools and expanding interpretation and translation services to ensure language is never a barrier to engagement. Empowering families means providing ongoing learning opportunities. Here's what we've been offering. 14 programs in Spanish, 10 in English,
012eight for staff, and community partners. We want every family to feel confident in navigating the school system and supporting their child's success. Our next steps. As we continue to work, we remain committed to fostering meaningful partnerships and ensuring equitable access for all families. Our next steps include expanding opportunities to empower families and providing professional development for both the community and our staff. We also invite all of you to join us in strengthening the connections between schools, families, and communities. And another focus this year in doing that has been building advocates and leadership within our D-51 and broader community. We are now in our third year of the leadership D51 program. For those of you who are not familiar with leadership D51, it is designed to educate and empower community members about our district's operations, challenges,
013and successes. This year, we're proud to share that we have had our largest cohort yet with 24 active participants. Our goal is to continue growing Leadership D51 so more community members become informed advocates for public education and engaged leaders in our district schools. In this class, participants explore and interact with our strategic plan, hear directly from focus area leads and engage in hands-on activities related to each of those focus areas. Leadership D51 helps us build a network that understands what we do, why we do it, and how they can support the su success of our students, staff, and district. So, we've made significant progress in many areas, but there's still much more work to be done. I'd like to share our goals for year three and the key initiatives that we'll continue focusing on for
014the rest of the year. So, our first year three goal centers around data from our annual communication survey. If you recall, last year's survey data showed that just under 70% of our families felt that they always or almost always had access to adequate communication from the district. Our year three strategic plan goal was to increase that number to at least 75%. I'm excited to share that while the survey is still open for a few more days, our preliminary data shows that we have surpassed that goal. With the data we've collected so far, 76% of our families now say that they always or almost always feel adequately informed by the district. That's a 6% improvement over last year. In addition, of those who completed the survey and have students in our district, 82% of respondents said
015that they always or almost always have access to adequate information from their students schools. So, while we know we're not done, this is certainly something to celebrate and a testament to the hard work of all of our teams and all of our schools working together to refine and enhance our communication processes. And then our second year three goal is to ensure that our district leadership committees, our school accountability committees, and similar groups across the district reflect the demographics of the students that we serve. We are currently working with school principles to gather data on the demographic makeup of the school accountability committees and district level leadership committees. Once we have a clear picture of that current situation, we will use that baseline data to develop a recruiting and a resource toolkit for our staff. This
016toolkit will help schools effectively communicate with families and community members about the importance of diverse representation on these committees. It will also provide them with the resources to recruit those members who will bring various perspectives and voices to the table. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that the experience and viewpoints of the families and the students we serve inform district decision-making processes because again in order to engage, equip and empower each and every student each and every day, we need to reach and engage with each and every family. So inspired by leadership D-51, our goal is to empower families by equipping them with the knowledge, confidence, and skills needed to take on leadership roles in our schools. Through family leadership training, we will prepare families to actively participate in district committees, advocate for equitable policies,
017and strengthen school community partnerships. By fostering capable and confident family leaders, we can create an all-encompassing, collaborative, and effective education system that benefits all of our students. I hope tonight's presentation highlighted the importance of communication and connection with families. It showed the steps we've taken to build trust, strengthen partnerships, and ensure every D-51 family feels seen, heard, and empowered. Over the past three years, we've laid a strong foundation for family partnerships thanks to the hard work and creativity of our action team and our community task forces. What makes this work so meaningful to me is that it proves our community, excuse me, it pro it proves our commitment to meeting the needs of our all families. We're not just making promises. We're taking action to ensure every family feels valued and included in their children's
018education. I'm proud of what we've accomplished and remain fully committed to this work. Moving forward, we'll focus on strengthening this foundation to ensure every family has a voice and knows how to support their children's learning. With your continued support, together we will keep creating opportunities for connection, partnership, and shared successes. We invite you to ask us any questions or does anybody have any questions? Yeah, I'm just curious um how many of our students do you know the numbers? How many of them are Spanish speaking completely or mostly? Um and then What other languages are are you contending with? I don't know if I have I don't have a data. Yeah, I don't know exactly how many um speak Spanish up on the top of my head. And I'm not so concerned about just that they
019speak Spanish, but that's their primary language and and there's that. Um um as far as the other languages that we have um including Spanish, we have our second most common language right now is Dari, but we also have um Chinese Mandarin and Vietnamese and um the top three. the top three. Then we have like some Russian and we have some u dialogue dialog there's there's about 26 different languages that we provide services for. And I was going to say in um school messenger which is our mass communication program. So there's about 13 languages that are translated through that program and those are native languages that our families speak. So when you register your student in Synergy, um you pick your native language. And so right now we're translating about 13 and there's about a thousand
020a little over a thousand families who have chosen Spanish as their native language. But that doesn't necessarily mean that their student is primarily speaking Spanish. We provide interpretation and translation for families of all those languages when when asked. We do contract out. So, it's pretty cool contracting company that we have that we can offer on demand. I think it's just great with the communication because I think you know during well even precoid and during COVID I think families just sort of felt disconnected and I think you guys have done a great job kind of bringing you know I always see it as a three-legged stool right it's students kind of the district and teachers and then and then families right like everyone's there to help for this with the success of the students and so
021um I just commend you guys for that communication piece so that families feel involved and know what's going on with their students um and they can participate in helping their students be successful. So, sounds like we're seeing some good numbers come out of those um surveys that you guys have sent out. Thank you so much. Great. Thank you guys. All right. Next up, we have an update um with the school consolidation closure process. Yeah. So, um, and as I mentioned before with the last group, we'll give an update next month on the current strategic plan process. And then this item is on the agenda, um, because the board had requested an update with the community on kind of the process that we've been going through on supporting schools and students through the closure um, this
022transition. So, this won't be the only update we give, but it's an update on kind of where we're at so far and then what's to come. So, um, we've got some of the team up here and, um, I know Clint was under the weather, so he's, um, I think he's online. Oh, is he online? Clint, I am online. Okay, we'll try to not bug you, but um, he is there if we have questions. So, I'll turn it over to to Jen and the team. Good evening. Yes. Um, we are here to update on the elementary school closure um, process that we are going through. So this evening we're going to talk about the transition process and the timeline for closing and receiving schools. You'll get an update regarding academics and student support services, operations, human
023resources and finance as a group as for a district and we've been working which I will tell you a little bit more about as we move on with our closing and receiving schools and we have um a mission and a purpose for this closure process that we all um had a part in creating and it's grounds us in every time we meet together. We are committed to addressing the adaptive challenges of school closure of the school closure process with empathy, collaboration, and student centered focus. By fostering unity and transparent communication, we will guide our community through the lost learning and reinvention necessary to ensure a transition that prioritizes what's best for students. We have broken um this um process into four phases with the first phase and then you can see the months in which
024these phases will be moving through. So the first phase building empathy and understanding in what um this closer closing process needs to look like that is happening started in January. Now we've moved into February. the second phase planning and implementation. We look to do that more in March and April. And then we have summer moving or projects that um will go throughout the summer. That's during May, June, and July. And then phase four is a strong start and um a launch to the 24 I'm sorry, 25 26 school year. So tonight we're going to talk about phase one and phase two. And when we come back, we can talk about the additional phases. So phase one for January and February, continuing or I'm sorry, building empathy and understanding. What does that look like? Um, three
025big buckets. Defining success for both closing and receiving communities, finalizing enrollment and SOC for staffing and hiring. And lastly, the big bucket of student and staff transition planning. We'll move into phase two March and April. We continue with planning and implementation. So um continue to build on welcoming and culture building um activities. Positions will be posted and hiring will start to take place and those initial steps towards moving and organizing physical spaces. And I'll talk a little bit more about that as well. And now that I'm looking at it, when you go back, I I should have said this yesterday, but it and it almost makes it seem like y'all haven't been planning. You're planning now. So really, the implementation is starting March and April for a lot of the things that you've been planning
026this whole time. So I just don't want people to think like we've been sitting on our hands this whole time and there's no been no planning. There's been a lot of planning that's been going on with the teams. So in a little bit more background and context for that, yes, we certainly have. um we have had the opportunity or we have already had the experience and knowledge of closing some additional schools. So there are definitely some processes that are in place that we have lessons learned from other closures and moving. So it's not from closing Grand Junction High School and moving to the new high school, moving Fra 89. So we have that experience and knowledge. So we certainly like Dr. Hill had said, "We've been planning, but here is the opportunity now that we
027have been co-planning and co-creating with our closing in or receiving schools and really spending time in that complex change with that level um with those. We have 10, which we'll talk about a little bit or I will in a few moments. Um we have 10 schools that are affected by three closures and so um we've been working with them and then they have had teams that they've been working with as well. So district supports I'm going to go big and then we'll go down um small a little bit just so that you and our community know and understand what we're doing behind the scenes. First and foremost um we have weekly meetings with our closing or receiving schools. And when I say or, it's alternating. One week is a closing. We meet every week. One
028week's a closing, the next week is a receiving with district um folks um each and every week. Weekly um senior leadership meetings to discuss closure updates and logistics. Weekly meetings with our teaching and learning folks and our student services leadership to align supports for all 10 of our schools or our system. and then weekly meetings with operations and teaching and learning staff for logistics um planning and weekly meetings with site directors and each of those principles. So, I'm going to start first um with academics and student services and then my friends to the left and the right of me and then Clint online will go into more details when it comes to operations, HR and finance. First and foremost, um, academics and student services. We're supporting our schools in continuing teaching and learning for the
02924 25 school year. Regardless of what next year brings, we have got to finish strong this year. Our third graders have one third grade year. The same for our K12 and our four and five. We've got to finish strong. So on top of that we have those closing and receiving schools have created building based transition teams to oversee and support each school's transition process. We meet with the leaders. Each of those leaders have their own team that they co-plan and co-create um their their um transition process as well. Supporting schools with inventory and transferring curriculum, title one funded items and other classroom materials. One of the things um that I really want to highlight that we have learned with some of our skills and knowledge from previous closures and moving. You might be shocked and
030think when it comes to moving that most of the things that need to be moved are done through the operation. It's furniture. It's not. 90% of what needs to be inventoried, packaged, and moved or packed and moved is curriculum based. So, our curriculum department is spending a lot of time ensuring that we are inventorying and packing and purging things that need to be and keeping and organizing and moving the things that we need to keep track of. Student support services are identifying and planning for students who are on plans, IEP plans, ALPS, 504s, multilingual learner plans, making plans um for an early childhood center to be located at Nisley Elementary for the 2526 school year. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. And then we have an early dismissal um for
031for all of our receiving this um well it is is not right but I'll clarify. So it's early dismissal for all of our um the 10 schools involved in this closure. Three closing schools and seven um receiving schools. And I'll talk a little bit more about that as well. So, we're going to have a two-day early dismissal. So, May 19th will be the last day for students um in these these 10 schools, Nizzley, Clifton, and Scenic for closure. Then our receiving schools, Windgate, Broadway, Orchard, Chatfield, and Rocky. and for reconfiguration there is a significant amount of movement that is going to and need to needs to happen in our receiving schools. Um while we you all are very familiar with the um facilities report and we definitely have room, some of that room needs to
032be reconfigured within each of those buildings and it's going to take a significant amount of time and energy um with for our teachers. And so we are going to have an early dismissal for all of our schools. Um, Fruit Veil and Fruit Veil and Taylor are also receiving some additional bond work for abatement specifically. Um, and it's pretty detailed and what needs to happen in these buildings. If you have um, additional questions, I'm sure Clint will be happy to answer how extensive abatement is and what a classroom or a school will go through and needs to look like for that work to happen. with our closing schools. We had um preschools in Nisley and in Clifton and those school um those classrooms need to be relocated. Nisley since we're going to turn um Nisley into
033an early childhood center. Obviously, those two preschools will stay at Nisley, but we will be moving to Clifton preschools there. Fruit Veil, Chatfield, um, each had preschools in their building. A number of our schools have preschools and modulars outside of their building. So, our receiving schools that had preschools inside their building, they need those classrooms. They need that space for the incoming classes um, and students that they have. So, we'll be moving Fruit Veil. There's one preschool and Chatfield. There are two. They'll be relocating to Nisley Orchard Avenue. That um while that preschool is not in Orchard Avenue, it's about five blocks away from Orchard Avenue. And we're going to um take that preschool and locate it into Nisley Elementary. Taylor um is not losing its preschool, but it is needs to move out because
034there's going to be some abatement in Taylor. And then Broadway does have a preschool. There are two preschools and we're going to um consolidate go from one classroom to two. I'm sorry. Two to one. Okay, Clint, it's your turn. All right. Thanks everybody. I appreciate letting me join virtually. Um, Jen just spoke about each of the receiving schools that were affected by the three school closures. She did touch a little bit on those that are receiving some bond work and really it's because of that bond work that's being done that quite a bit of additional coordination is going to take place to make sure that we're um on time and on task. uh specifically the three schools that are uh on the east end of the valley, Taylor, Chatfield, Fruitale, and Rocky are not only
035receiving students, but they'll be receiving sign significant bond work. So, um you know, she talked a little bit about some of the meetings that we have each week and most of those I'm attending. Um myself and Eddie and Tony are also um having additional meetings with our contractors and with our architects and engineers to talk through what this um this work is going to entail as well because it's not just the bond work um that's happening there but planning and removing everything out of there and planning for the receiving students as well. So additional coordination is taking place with that. We're also uh working on making sure that Nisley is ready for pre preK programming early childhood center beginning of the next school year. Uh we've also been planning and coordinating how each of u
036these moves is going to take place. The operations team meets regularly with Jackie and the team to make sure that we're identifying identifying every item in each building and where each of those items is going to be stored, packed, and moved to. Uh not a small feat for sure. And you know, Jen's right. We've had some practice already. Um, we keep upping the game though and and additional work needs to happen. So, um, we're refining the process. We've already started our abatement design and working on the preliminary scope of work uh for that as well. So, next slide. We've scheduled uh the delivery of boxes, rolloffs, and packing materials uh to each of the schools starting at spring break. And our team is also working on a system that tracks the storage of all of
037these items placed into each of the conx boxes and their destinations. Uh we of course will have uh not that we won't have the bandwidth to move all that furniture. So Eddie and his team have already started working on outsourcing uh other companies to help us with some of these moves. And our team is also working with uh it with Dan and his uh departments to make sure that all the equipment is uh removed and reinstalled in some of those buildings that are having full abatement done. And finally, we've scheduled our planning material uh planning meetings with building principles on the 12th and 13th uh to talk about educational adequacy needs in those buildings which will uh uh help with uh our schematic design and the uh planning moving forward. Thanks. Okay. Uh good evening.
038Uh my name is Nikki. I work in human resources and so I wanted to review some information. Um, a lot of this you have already known about, but there are some updates as well. So, our team completed school visits with closing schools. Um, both our recruiters for licensed staff and support staff have done a great job of making some time and carving out some time to do one-on-one sessions. And right now, we have about 30 completed. So, if someone is interested in meeting one-on-one with recruiters, they just reach out and we send them reminders um about, you know, here's that process for that. And then that way they can really get connected with those recruiters um um before we open positions. And so, our hope and our goal right now is um still to open
039positions um midFebruary. And once positions open, we'll be sending out week weekly emails to all closing schools. And for the first three weeks, our positions will be posted internally only. Um, also to remind you all of just some ways in which we want to support staff members from closing schools. Um each staff member at a closing school will receive one extra subday and that's to take care of any uh personal needs that they have or just to prep their resumeumés um or to prep for interviews. Um we condensed our employment application so it's shorter than um what it's been in the past. And we also have some extra sessions available through our employee assistance program if that's needed. And that's really just for staff to help um with um um any counseling or any um
040help that they may need um in in moving through this process. Um and then as an update, we did offer the early entire retirement incentive to all school-based elementary schools. We received 18 letters, which we felt like it was a great response. We were expecting about 12 or 13, but we have 18 so far. And in terms of resignations and retirements across the entire system, we have about 33 at this point, which is great to have so many so early. So again, we anticipate um opening positions midFebruary. And we just want to remind everybody that not all positions are going to open up in midFebruary. There'll be more in March, there'll be more in April, there'll be more in May and more in June. And so non-probationary teachers and support staff are guaranteed a position
041for next year. Probationary teachers, if they don't find a mutual consent position, will be non-renewed in May. Um, but they're still eligible to apply after they're non-renewed. And again, I just want to remind everybody that our hiring continues throughout the summer. Um, and then the last thing I want to talk about is um, how we can help the interview process. So support staff, teachers, and counselors from closing schools will be guaranteed some interviews at their students receiving schools. So for example, if I'm a teacher at Scenic and I teach in grades kindergarten, first grade, or second grade, I'm guaranteed interviews in kindergarten, first grade, or second grade at Broadway in Windgate. Um and then so the bands primary K through two and intermediate grades three for five. Um so we hope that that increases the
042number of interviews that staff uh will go on and then specials are guaranteed interviews in their special area. All right, good evening. Uh mine is short tonight. So uh we're continuing to work on the staffing for all of the schools. um staffing sheets is kind of a multi-layered process that we build on as information comes in from October counts, January counts, free and reduced lunch counts, projections, and lastly, school of choice. And so we're to that point now where uh site directors have been able to share their preschool of choice enrollment numbers for next year based on students currently in our system and where they will be rolling to next year. Um so those have been shared with principles. um they've work working closely with principles to understand what each of their grades is looking
043like for next year to help them make those school of choice decisions and then staffing will be finalized next week. We'll have those post school of choice numbers for each of the schools which will drive their ultimate staffing levels. We'll be meeting to go over those together as a team as well so that the posting of those positions can be begin um after that in midFebruary. Thank you, board. Um, does anybody have any questions? Go for it. Questions? Uh, first off, with the teachers that are uh P1, P2, and P3, the probationaries, and they don't get renewed. Uh if they do get hired the following year, do they have to start all over? They were a three, go back to a one. No. Okay, that's if they're a three and they get rehired for next
044year, they gain that non-probationary status. Okay, good. Then the other question I had is uh the teachers that are from the closing schools, do they get first shot at the interviews? So, in the agreement, it says that displaced uh teachers and counselors, so those are our non-probationary staff um have and will be interviewed first. Um and so we have a training coming up with um principles and hiring supervisors to talk about how we're going to manage that process to ensure that those non-propationary teachers and counselors are interviewed first. like teachers that have been around for like something years is if there's an opening at Broadway, will the Broadway principal be able to talk to the staff and say scenic staff, this is what we look for in a teacher so that they could they sort
045of could know and then what is their uh focus within their school so they could also sort of know those things so they can get ready for the interview. You know, I think each principal has a different process about how they prep for interviews. Um, but depending on what the teams need, whether it's a kindergarten team or a first grade team, they'll always um have some common understanding about what they're looking for. Um, and I would also say that our re um closing school principles have done a great job of writing reference letters for staff, helping them practice interviews if they need to, if they haven't interviewed in a while. And of course, that's what some of those one-on-one sessions with our recruiters can cover as well. And have they looked at hiring teachers that
046are teams already? Say you had a fifth grade uh fifth grade math teacher and fifth grade social studies teacher that are really they work together. Have they looked at principles that they would hire them and hire them as a team? I think it depends on the number of openings positions and the positions, right? What they're qualified for. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, I did have I did have one question in reference to the abatement work. Um, so the abatement work, is that something that was kind of already into consideration when we went out for our bond and these are things that were going to have to be done to the building anyway or is this an excess to what we were looking at then? This was work that was going to be done anyway. This was
047already planned uh with in the master planning process. It has it has um some additional planning that's going to happen with all of that and the moves, but you know, at the end of the day, we're going to have those buildings complete. Um so, Taylor and Fruit Veil, for example, are going to receive some extensive abatement work. Um but it'll be all finished and we'll be out of there this year. So, I'm pretty excited about that. Thank you. Any other questions? Just on regarding preschool, uh you know when you're going to be notifying the parents that they're going to be moving either this evening or for first thing in the morning, first thing tomorrow morning. Thank you, Dr. Hill. Yeah, I was just going to um say one, you know, I'm thankful to the principles
048and staff at the schools because it's been a lot of work, but also the district staff. We don't have a department for closures, right? So, this is all and this is just a glimpse of all the work that they've been doing and will continue to do. And so, I just excuse me appreciate the staff that are doing this on top of the work that they're already having to do and the amount of meetings that you saw on the screen. um like Jen said, we're we're learning as we go along with this, but we're trying to make the transition as smooth as possible. And so, just appreciative to all the folks that are involved in this and um and all the work that's going into it because it is a lot of work on top of
049continuing to make sure that kids are learning and that our grad rates are going up and all the other things that are happening in the district. So, um just appreciate um all the different teams and the and the schoolbased staff as well for all the work that they're doing. I did want to add um and Dr. Dr. Hill, if there's anything else you wanted to say, we just recently um were we were awarded some easy dollars um through CDE and there was um one grant or one line item in there for transitions for school closures and we have had um we just got notification that we were awarded some money. So, we're going to work with CI. this these funds are helping pay for those trans building building based transition teams. We're because it's above
050and beyond their time and so we've got a stipend that is going to go to those teams but then we're partnering again with CI who help us with that family partnership and making sure that we know and understand and give our families voice. What is it that they want? What how do they define success? What do they want to see in this transition of closing and receiving? And how will our receiving school one, how will our closing schools, what is a a memory maker? How are they making memories? And then how are our receiving schools um welcoming and bringing in these new families and staff? Yeah, I think to piggyback off that, it just shows you how much of this closure topic is happening across our state because easy grant dollars, as you all know,
051those are dollars we've gotten in the past and they're usually for school turnaround, things like like that uh to support instructional practices at the school. But they I think the state recognized that this is happening so much right now. They put an opportunity in there for us to request money to help with closures and transition. And um through the team that wrote the grant, we are getting that money. And then I would just say, you know, appreciative to CI because this is not a normal thing they probably would want to sign on for like, you know, nobody wants to be tagged on with school closures, but um they recognize that, you know, we have such a great partnership with them and they know our schools really well that they agreed to do it for us.
052I don't know that they're doing it for anybody else, but um I don't know. They were hesitant when I was like, "No, you can do this. This will be great." The other piece on top of helping us with it was definitely family focused. CDE really wanted a family focus in this line item or this grant opportunity, but they're also going to write of um an afteraction report for us. Well, I think this is, you know, as the board requested this update, um you know, just knowing, you know, hindsight's always 2020, right? And now that we've kind of had some different experiences going through all of this, um, you know, being able to update our community on going through this process and learning from it and then communicating it and keeping everybody up to date with,
053you know, you guys being in the receiving schools and the closing schools and and what we're doing and how we're partnering and Yeah. Yeah, because even when what three years ago when we, you know, were um consolidating east, I mean there were not easy dollars then, you know, this was just kind of I think the tip of when this stuff was starting to happen. And so it's amazing to see again the resources and how a lot of this has changed just in a short amount of time. So appreciate the update because I think this helps our community understand that there's a lot of work going into this and a lot of people and resources that um are behind it. So thank you. Yeah, we have really been focusing on with our leaders both our receiving
054and closing you can make checklists. We know understand I think now from the experience that we've had we know what those checklists are. Those are the tactical, right? The logistical, but then there's that part of leadership, but then there's the adaptive and how do you navigate the logistics and the tactical and to make sure that we're leading with compassion and that we're um leading and allowing for voice for our teachers, our students, and our staff. Great. Thank you, board. Any other? Great. Thank you. Thanks, Clint. I hope you feel better. Thanks. Good. See what you do. I know. All right, board. Uh, next up on the work session is just board open discussion. So, anything that got coming up or on the agenda? Any agenda is coming up? Nothing particular. Things are just getting busy.
055Springtime is happening. It's it's upon us. So things will start getting a lot more busy. Yep. Be back in committees and those kind of things here in another week. Just want to wish all the wrestlers good luck at state this weekend. So that's great. All right. Um what New Emerson's pancake uh fundraiser is this Saturday morning. So if you want some good pancakes, um what 8 to 11? Yeah. So go check out that. We went last year. That was it was really good. So all right. Um you can check the district website too for all the different happenings with the schools and I know that individual school websites obviously share um their different events. Uh but we also have those on the district website. So yes. Oh, go for it. Okay. Counselor appreciation breakfast at
056CMU tomorrow at 8 a.m. Thank you for the update. So, well, not Oh, okay. Not open to the public, but he's letting us board members know. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for for letting the board know. All right. Well, I'm just reiterating it so that as people watching online are wondering. Yeah, sorry. Okay. Just the board, just an invitation for the board. Thank you. All right. I would I would also like to thank Brian for representing us at the state capital regarding our uh phone policy. Appreciate that. You did really well. Yeah, last week was really good. So, thank you, Dr. Hill. There was a lot of news last week um around the cell phone policy. Uh if you didn't get to see it, what was it? Denver 7 had the news clip and uh there
057was also some other news with Dr. Hill being able to speak on the uh the cell phone policy that D51 rolled out. So that was awesome. And congratulations board. It was a team team effort, too. So, all right. Well, one more thing. Oh, go for it. Um Angela Christen and D51 Foundation, you guys put on a great shindig this weekend and Oh, yeah. the white ice celebration. White ice was a lot of fun and a lot of people there and I was over at the car dealership this afternoon to watch That's right. the um teachers get their keys in their new cars and get a lesson on those cars because they're all electric and so they needed a little lesson I think to get moving on those not just like jumping into your other car
058to go. There's no engine. So anyway, they were they were super excited, their kids and their families and everybody was there to celebrate that with them. It was it was really fun. So for those of you that are watching online, so the D-51 Foundation, if you don't know, puts on a white iced um like Gayla as a a huge fundraiser um every year. You're part of the decorations obviously wearing white or gold or silver. Um it's a really fun event. Um if you haven't gone, it's it's it's at CMU. there's um uh goodies and a silent auction. Uh prior to that, uh the foundation recognizes um schools and um educators and staff um uh they you they're nominated um by different individuals. And this year, Red Rock Nissan um decided to up the ante and
059they gave away um Nissan Leafs to the educators that were recognized um six of them. Um one was um in nutrition services, so they're not all teachers um and educators. Um so they're support staff as well. And um so they got a 2-year prepaid lease for on a Nissan Leaf. Um, and so today at 4 they had a a little media event. Um, they had to bring the fob because they got to keep the fob and then went over there and they got to pick up um the car. So it was sort of an Oprah moment like at the uh at the event on um Saturday. So, um, they they were called up to the front and they got handed a box and people weren't quite sure what was going to happen and they opened
060it and then they had a a car fob inside which was which was was pretty cool. So, um, so that was exciting. So, it's probably on our website or the D-51 website the individuals that were recognized um from all across the um the district tonight. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. actually the video. You'll get to probably see the video of them getting in their cars. So, anyways, thank you to Red Rock Nissan and foundation and everything. So, that'll just give you a little backstory of what happened uh with with all of that. So, any other anything else? Yes. Thank you guys for all those reminders. There's always so much going on that sometimes I forget. All right. Thank you all. Have a great evening and rest of week.