10/15/24 Board Meeting

001head and get started. Um, we'll call the meeting to order. Um, we'll do the pledge of allegiance and then after the pledge of allegiance, we sit down and have just a brief moment of silence. Uh, and so we will go ahead and stand with us and see. Director Lima, can you kick us off with the pledge of America? [Music] All right. Thank you. Um, we can go ahead and do roll call. Mr. Chavez here. Mrs. Evansson here. Mrs. Heights here. Mr. Jones here. Miss Lima here. Right. Do I have a motion to approve uh the meeting agenda? Motion. Go ahead. Motion to approve. Second. Mr. Chavez, approve. Mrs. Evansson, yes. Mrs. Heights, yes. Mr. Jones, yes. Miss Lima, yes. Do I have a motion to approve the meeting minutes from September 3rd, 2024 board work

002session and September 17th, 2024 board business meeting? Motion to approve the minutes. Second, Mr. Chavez. Yes, Mrs. Evansson. Yes, Mrs. Heights. Yes, Mr. Jones. Yes, Miss Lima. Yes. All right, we have a couple of recognitions this evening. So, first up, we will have the National Blue Ribbon School recognition that uh Director Evston is going to do for us. Could I have the Mesa View principal and any Mesa View staff that are present come up to the front, please? We have Mesa View Kids. All right, guys. This evening, the board would like to No, I'm going to skip that. I already did that part, so I'm not going to read that again. Just a little redundant. Um, Mesa View Elementary was recently honored with the prestigious National Blue Ribbon School Award. A reflection of the dedication

003and excellence of its staff, students, and families. This award is given to schools that demonstrate exceptional growth in academic performance and make significant strides in closing achievement gaps among diverse student groups. Mesa View is one of only four schools in Colorado and among just 316 public schools nationwide to receive this award. Their unwavering commitment to serve each and every student each and every day has had a significant impact particularly among students who qualify for free and reduced lunch minority students and even those in special education groups that have met or exceed growth expectations making this award even more meaningful. This achievement is a direct result of the hard work and dedication of Mesa View's teachers, staff, and administrators who have worked hard. Come on up to the front. who have worked hard to foster a

004culture of belonging and have continuously challenged their students to reach their full potential. We would be remiss not to recognize the vital role of families and the broader community whose support have been essential to the school's accomplishments and highlights our shared belief that together we thrive. The board of education and superintendent Dr. Hill proudly recognize Principal Cohen, her team, and the entire Mesa View community for this well-deserved achievement. Congratulations, guys. You're amazing. All right, next up we have Director Chavez to do the McGuffrey Award for us this evening. And I just want to mention before that I mean I just want to highlight how difficult that is to get a blue ribbon school award. It is not easy to get that. Um I think we one other school that I know of in our district

005has received it before. Maybe there's been others but I know two. Okay. You have the history. Um but it it is super difficult to get this award. I when we looked online, I think there's over 90,000 public schools in our nation and for 316 of them to be recognized and one of them to be Mesa View. Um that's a testament to the leadership and everything that's going on on that campus. And I just want to make sure that we really highlight just how hard that is, how difficult it is, how important it is. And um we're excited to um celebrate y'all now, celebrate y'all. I know you're going to get to go to DC. They're going to fly you out there and and celebrate you there. Um and just want to really highlight uh the

006importance of leadership and a whole community supporting a school. and thank you for um all that y'all have done and this is huge for your school. So [Applause] congratulations Samuel Limi. Would you join me up front please? The McGuffrey The McGuffy Award, a a prestigious honor given by the Colorado Association of School Board, recognizes outstanding schoolboard members who demonstrates exceptional leadership, dedication, and a strong commitment to serving students, schools, and communities. We are proud to announce that Angela Lima, the secretary of the district 51 Board of Education, has been selected as a the recipient of this year's McGuffy Award. This award acknowledged her many contributions to education and her lasting impact on the lives of students in our district. During her time on the board, Director Lima has been a strong advocate for policies and

007initiatives that support academic excellence and provides access and equal opportunities for all students. She works hard to keep this district's vision to engage, equipped, and empower each and every student each and every day at the heart of the board's decision. Director Lima is committed to being transparent, accountable, and thoughtful in her decision- making, always keeping the best interests of the district in mind. The board of education and superintendent Dr. Hill would like to thank Director Lima for her tireless service, leadership, and commitment to District 51. We're proud to congratulate her on a well-deserved recognition as she continues to embody the dedication and the spirit that defines the McGuffy Award. all their stuff up here. [Applause] And I I think that much like Mesa View being recognized in DC, you're you're going to be recognized at

008the state convention, which is pretty cool, too. So, congratulations on that, and we all look forward to embarrassing you uh on stage as you get recognized. You guys never disappoint. Thank you. Well, it's great that um that somebody from the western side of the state was uh considered and chosen. So, congratulations. Um, so we can give y'all a couple minutes to leave if you'd like, unless you are just, you know, chomping at the bit to stay for the rest of our board meeting. So, if you'd like, go ahead and take a couple minutes. And thank you all for coming tonight. We really appreciate it. And congratulations and well done. Yes. And I will remind while people are exiting um we do have our signup sheet for public comment over here on this table over here.

009So that is open up until the time of public comment. So uh if you are wanting to speak this evening just make sure you sign up on the sheet over there. All right. So um now we'll move into uh board reports. So, um, we have some good things that happened this last week for board members or a couple weeks, I guess, since, well, I guess we did meet last week for a special meeting, but this, um, this weekend we had an opportunity, um, Director Chavez and I to attend the Wreck fundraising event and Wreck always does an amazing job. Um, they raised a very significant amount of money. We had some people that were there that did some fun matching for Wreck and uh the kids like that I think was the the best part

010of it. Like they brought in a lot of kids and they were there, you know, um waiting tables and they were there talking with people and interacting and just learning how to be in this social environment that they otherwise wouldn't be involved in. And they were just fabulous. Like some of these kids were just so quiet in the beginning, but by the end they were like, "Whatever you need, whatever I could do." It was just like the best interaction with the students. I think that Wreck just does a really good job of getting our kids out there and just showing them you can be you could be whatever you want. I mean, people say that, but some of these kids just they don't have those opportunities otherwise. And without the WCK program, they wouldn't. So,

011we're very thankful for that. And Wreck did a fabulous job and look forward to continuing to support Wreck in however we can. Yes. And they named their new executive director, so that's exciting. Yeah. Well, good things. Director Lima got an award, so that's fun. I know you won't say it, so we'll have to say it for you. So, um, any other uh good things this last week? Uh, I think Dr. and I uh attended the uh CASBY coffee or c not CASBY, I'm sorry, coffee with the PTO's and things like that. Different PTO's got together and talked about how to make things more successful and was, you know, Dr. Hill got up and gave his his well-known speech and we did a lot of talking and and it was good it was good it was

012a good time. So I would thank the uh D51 Foundation and all the PTOs got together for that and then director Travis and I uh met at central with uh Mr. worth and had some great conversation over our coffee at Central and uh it was meant for community coffee, but it was a party of three and so it was a good time though, good conversation and and a lot of things I think we got a chance to figure out and got to know each other a little better and and looking forward to, you know, many other things what we can do for our district and our teachers. Awesome. Then on October 1st, I was able to meet with the first advisory group at Central High School. Uh I met with uh six students. Uh we

013started off with trying to discuss uh why we were meeting because they had no idea why they were there. Uh so we started off discussing the reasons why and also did a little discussion about uh the Mueller report and one of parts of the Mueller report says about mental health. One of the one of the recommendations was to have a an advisory board to a student advisory to the school board. So they were they really liked that idea and they like that we were there I was there to listen to to their voice of what they were what they felt. And so what we discussed um if we start off with talking about the phone policy I asked them how was it going and what they thought about it. They said uh last year when

014they heard about it they thought that was it was not going to work. They didn't say how it could even possibly work and there was going to be fights with it. Uh they said but then when they started this year and they found out that they could carry their phones in their backpacks that made a big difference for them. Uh they also said that they they are finding that they are now talking to each other as students a lot more and they don't really miss their phones as much as they thought they were going to be missing which I was really pleased to hear. So they were supportive of the phone policy and so I thought that was that was really nice for them to be able to say. uh they said that they feel

015that the teachers are willing to support them. However, students need to ask for help and if the students do not ask for help then the teachers are not aware and they're unable to support them. Uh they said they do feel that sometimes administration only cares about football and that's all the announcements are is about the football players and the football team. Uh they would like to see more credit given to other activities such as the cross country team, uh band, track, wrestling, especially the girls wrestling team. Uh all the all the theater that they that they'll be having plays on, they would like to see that uh be announced a little bit more so that more of the students would end up attending. They said most of the students have no idea what's what the

016other activities are going on. Uh they spoke about how Central High School had for homecoming they did have a powderpuff football game. However, it was held during school time so all the kids could not attend. And one gentleman said he went to the food powder puff and it was like at six o'clock at night and he was like all the students were there. He goes that was so cool. Why can't we have the same thing? So we discussed if they were strong enough to go to their to their admin and say we would like to have this next year after school and this then we could all be we all could engaged in it and participate and and they felt good about that. They also would like to have um a little bit more time

017on their uh passes from class to class. And uh I looked at them. I go, "So, you have five minutes?" They go, "Yeah." I go, "So, what time? How long do you want?" They go, "Maybe just an add like a minute or two, six, seven minutes." And so I asked them the reasons why. And they go, "Because when they go from one end to the from the second floor to the outside buildings, uh they're they're rushed to be able to make it. And there's also they don't have time to go to the bathroom because everybody's in the bathroom, so it's full. And so sometimes they walk in and just as the bell rings, they're walking in, they get a tardy slip." And they go, "But we're in class. were just well half of us half

018of my body's inside the classroom. I shouldn't get a tardy slip. Yeah. So that's they so they wanted to get a little bit more more time on that. Uh and they said part of the reason is that when they also go to classroom when they go to class the first 50 minutes they're unable to leave the classroom because and then the last 15 minutes they're unable to leave. and they said so the fif first 15 minutes that would be the best time for us to go go to the bathroom and come back because no instructions really going on. So what happens is that the when the when the teacher is giving instructions that's when we have to ask to be able to leave. So then that hurts us because we're we're missing the instruction of

019what the teacher is saying. So, we would like to figure out a way that we could be able to leave within that first 15 minutes to go to the bathroom and come back and be able to get all of the instruction that we really need from the from the teacher. And they said that once again they'd be willing to talk to administration about that and figure out. And I go, part of it is you don't you're not are you telling the administration why? And they go, no. I go, "So maybe you need to start discussing the reasons why you're going, why you want changes." Uh, they discussed the block schedule versus the short schedule. Um, they like the block schedule because then they had time to do homework within the block schedule. Uh, so I

020asked them, "So, how many of you are going planning to advance your education?" They all raised up their hand, all planning to go to college. And I go, you know, when I went to college, um, whether I had an hour and a half class or an hour class, professors do not let you work in your classroom. You have to figure out how to organize your own stuff and figure out how how you going to do your homework after class. How are you going to find work and work? How are you going to attend activities that you're going to be doing and also be able to sleep and eat? I go, that's college life. I go, you have to be organized. You can't procrastinate any of your work because you're going to be behind. And so

021they looked and they go, "So us going to a smaller block only for 45 minutes, then that's going to help us get trained to be able to go to college." I go, "Correct." They go, "Because we we're struggling with it at times." And I go, "Because we don't have it." And then there was a gentleman uh that's in band that plays clarinet. He said, "My parents taught me how to do that in elementary school." He goes, "I don't have that issue." I go, "I'm very organized and the kids that the students that have trouble is that they're not organized and that's where the trouble comes into." And he goes goes, "Hopefully by the end of this year, everybody will be used to that and they'll be they will understand that they have to they can't

022procrastinate. They got to get the work done and they have to figure out how they're going to do all the other activities that they need to do." So, I thought they were very nice young people. Um, and they were willing to speak and they were really like the idea that just that their voices being heard more than anything. And we talked about coming to the school board and they and we I discussed let them know that if you're a student and you sign for public comment, you get to come in first. And they like that idea. They go, "We didn't know that." I go, "So, you're able to come? If you have an issue, please come and let the school board know." I go, uh, then everybody also knows in the community, so something will

023probably happen at that time. So, they were excited about that. I don't know if they'll ever show up, but it was nice to hear them. So, yeah, I I really enjoyed my time at Central High School. It was a good time. Thank you for that update. What are those are those students like from freshman to seniors or just juniors and seniors or what's kind of students that Dr. Hill is is seeing? Right. Yeah. I would like to see um a more diverse student population, okay, thing, because I would like to talk to kids that are not doing well in school, okay, necessarily to see how what we could do to get them to be able to stay in school and get them to be successful. So, I think that that was a part that I

024was sort of missing, but I think we can we can work that out. But they're very bright young young people with really good ideas. Okay. I was just curious if it was kind of from 9th to 12th. So, well, great. Thanks for that update, Jose. Appreciate it. Barb, did you you met, right? Okay, go for it. So, on the 11th, I had an opportunity to meet with some students from Grand River Academy. Grand River is a unique um school within our district. It can be primarily online. It can be a mixture of online and in person. Um the kids that I met with, there were seven kids that were present and it was actually like I commend them. They didn't even have to be there that day, but they all logged in because they didn't

025have school on Friday, but they all logged in and chatted with me. I had two sophomores, four juniors, and one senior. Um, there were two other kids that were ninth graders that weren't able to attend due to other things going on. Um, but we had a great conversation. We they kind of start off and they're I got to know a little bit about every single one of them. I had a kid that attended Gateway Orchard Mesa Middle School, Mount Garfield Middle School, Fruit of Monument High School, Grand Junction High School, one that left and went to Grand River from Fra Elementary. So, it's been there for a long time and is a 10th grader now, and then um Grand Mason Middle School. So, kids from all over the district are attending um Grand River Academy

026right now. So, they have a perspective from all over. Um, these kids started off, one of the things that they were concerned about is they were having a conversation about curriculum. One of the students, um, stated that he was concerned about the lack of art and music options. He said something about having to attend three different schools over the next two years, two and a half years, in order to obtain his art um, uh, credits in order to be able to graduate. So, he was struggling with that a little bit. and some of the other kids um were talking about the difficulty of them being primarily online school or students and there not being an online Spanish class. So, they would like to see more opportunities for language available through Grand River. Um they were

027also well yeah we were talking about the art class. We kind of moved on to technology. So I guess you know with them being primarily an online learning platform they spend the majority of their time on their Chromebooks and they had said that they had started having issues using their Chromebooks at home. I think that there were three of the seven that were primarily online. So they don't walk into the school unless there's something going on and um like testing or something like that where they have to be proctored. They can't update their um Chromebooks from their home Wi-Fi. So, that's difficult with them. And then they can't uh they can't use some of the the apps or resources that are on there if the phone doesn't or if the app doesn't I'm sorry, if

028the Chromebook doesn't update. So, they were struggling with that and they were hoping to maybe have a conversation or maybe somebody with it might reach out and have a conversation with them about how to remedy that. Um, they were talking about having frequent frequent crashes and that they've been taught how to clear their cash so that they don't have that problem, but sometimes they'll lose things that they didn't intend on losing. They said they are using the Google Drive, but sometimes they just mess up because they're kids. So, um, we have some other Well, let's just move on. We did have a conversation about the cell phone policy. You know, something always pops up, but they're kind of in a unique situation. Sometimes they'll use their computers, sometimes they'll use their phones, but they said

029that if they are actually in tune with the teacher and they're doing they're doing class online that they've, you know, they've made an obl they've told their teacher, I will put my phone down. I won't touch it. I won't mess with it. Unless the teacher asks them to use it. So, they haven't had a problem with that. Um there was one of the students that actually attends the career center and he said that he found that when he gets there in the morning like everybody's kind of in like a common area and they're messing around on their phone but the moment that they go into class everybody secures their phone. He said the first week was a bit of an issue and people were kind of you know rebelling against it but the administration and

030the staff really stuck to the policy and they were like there's not going to be any one way or another. we're going to we're going to hold you to this. And so once the kids realized that they weren't going to get away with it, they started getting sent to the office with their phones or their phones went and they didn't see him for the rest of the day, he said there's absolutely no problems anymore. So he said he was glad to see that. Um, another student was uh brought up concerns about, you know, people that have medical conditions. So I did bring up to her attention. I was like, "Hey, look, you know, there is a little caveat in there about kids that have 504s or IEPs. if there's a kid that absolutely needs it,

031they can always request, you know, to have an amendment on that, have a conversation and see where it goes. I can't guarantee you it's going to be granted, but there's always that opportunity for that. So, she felt better after that after we had that conversation. Um, they have some upcoming events. Uh, well, they did recently attend another school's homecoming. They said that that was fabulous. They have an upcoming career day. They're going to send some information to me so that we know the actual days on these because they want to have some speakers come in. um they have a pumpkin patch day that they have coming up they're super excited about and they said that Grand River does the best when it comes to testing because they do this thing called tacos and testing and

032I don't know how better to get somebody to take a test but to give them some tasty food. So they're doing a pretty good job with that. Um they also have a project coming up called the kindness project. They're going to feature a bake sale, craft sale, they're going to have food trucks, date to be confirmed. They're going to send all that information over, but it's um they're going to be donating that money. If I can remember what the young lady said, there was a there was a community program. I just I did not write it down. So, I'll have to get confirmation on that so I can tell you guys at a later date. Um I had one gentleman like he was super interested in budget, policies, procedures, safety. He one of the kids

033I I worked with at Gateway and I knew his mother and so he knew me and he mentioned it. So this kid started hammering me on safety and security stuff and um he started asking about budget. How's this new budget finance formula going to work for us? So he was super he Yeah. He's like how's this going to work? So I explained him the home the hold harmless and how it really just depends on you know which one is more beneficial for us for the next couple of years. And then we talked about how if we have students that are English learning language or if we have kids that are special education in needs, how we're going to receive more funding in order to help support the resources that are needed for those students. And

034he was super thrilled to hear that. And um he's very concerned about declining enrollment. So we did have a conversation about the importance of the month of October being attendance month because this is the month that our students are counted and that has a lot to do with as far as you know what our per pupil funding is going to be. So he was like, "I'll have a talk with, you know, the the kids." I'm not sure how we do that at GR though because if they're online, like do they just have to be online that day? Gotcha. So um he was he was very interested in safety and security. I guess that he has spent some time over at um some of our schools on the eastern side of the district and he has

035seen he made mention that he's been in some classrooms um where he didn't feel like the staff were taking the situation seriously and I told him that you know you need to speak up. Don't be afraid to have a conversation with someone about that. If you need to go to your administrator and bring it up, tell them what classroom you're in, you know, let them know what happened. And then he started talking about some of the security measures which Dr. Hill and I have had a conversation more recently about some things that are out east and um he's willing to advocate for barricade boxes up one side and down the other. He's like, "I will do whatever I have to do. I'll take time in the afternoons. I'll help you guys find money." So, this

036kid was on top of it. So, we had good conversations about safety and security. Um we uh he also I also had some students that were concerned about like locations of students in classrooms. And so I had a kid, she went all the way back to elementary school. She's like, "When I was in elementary school, we didn't have a good place to hide." And I was like, "Well, there's been some changes made to those classrooms and specifically the school that you're talking about." And we encourage our safety and security officers and our school resource officers to have conversations with the staff that are in their school to make sure that the staff members are comfortable. They know how the policy works, how the procedure works for lockdown, shelters in place, that they know where the

037safest place is for them to hide in the schools. And so they were really comfortable with that. They were like, "Let's get into the conversations they're having with staff because we as students, we just do what the teachers tell us to do." So, but really great conversations, bright kids kind of all over the board on what their interests were. I had a student afterwards asked if I could hold on and she and I had a conversation because she had a staff member that she wanted to find a way to recognize and she's like, "This person has just touched my life and has done so much for me and I would not I would not be where I'm at today if it wasn't for this staff member." and so she wants to find a way to

038publicly recognize this district one step. So, great kids. Awesome. Thank you both for those um updates. I know we have um some more uh meet student advisory meetings coming up with us other board members. Looking forward to that. So, uh thanks for those reports and wow, we have some really great engaged students asking some really uh great thoughtful questions. So, um, yes, there's also I want to mention that another good thing that's going to be coming up on the 23rd of Junction High School, the naturalization ceremony. I think that is the most exciting ceremony that we have all year round. I just I appreciate that uh Junction is holding it again this year and for those individuals to come in and tell their story and uh they are so excited. I would invite anybody to

039show up and see that. If you want to know what it feels like to be uh your new citizen and what it feels like, go to that ceremony and just feel that excitement. It is the most wonderful ceremony ever. It is there's usually not a dry eye in the house by the time you're finished with it. It is absolutely moving. And if if anybody in our community has not experienced that or experienced it yourself with a friend, bring bring your friends and your family and come and join everybody for that because it is very it's very moving. Yeah, it's a great ceremony. Um really touching stories and just a great appreciation of becoming an American citizen. Um so we're doing that in the new auditorium, right? Oh, so there you that that'll be fun. I

040know last year Junction did one and Fruta, so that was it was exciting to see too last year. So, um yeah, looking forward to that on the 23rd. All right, thank you board. That was really great. So, we're ready for our D-51 happenings and celebrations. So, Sierra's gonna come on up and tell us some fun stuff that's been going on. board. I'm Sierra Coulson, marketing and communication specialist for D51 schools. Here to share with you the D-51 happenings and celebrations. Starting with our golden apple, a par profofessional at Lincoln Orchard Mesa Elementary, Mrs. Daisy Sanchez, nominated for her exceptional support, Daisy combines knowledge with kindness, nurturing both academics and personal growth. It's no surprise that every kindergarten student exclaims, "Mrs. Daisy when asked who their favorite adult is. She is a vital asset to the

041LOM community. Daisy truly deserves this award for being one of the kindest people around. Thank you, Daisy, for your commitment and positive impact you have on all your students and colleagues at LOM. Monument Ridge Elementary fifth graders received a special visit from Colorado Mesa University's cycling team. Students were able to tour the CMU Tech's mobile learning lab and explore career and technical education programs. They even got a surprise visit from Olympian Olivia Cumins. Thank you to CMU and CMU Tech for being invaluable, engaged, and supportive community partners highlighting the importance of higher education and dreaming big. Thunder Mountain Elementary partnered with Allure Beauty Bar to provide free haircuts for their students. Four stylists generously donated their time and resources to help ensure that students felt confident for their school pictures scheduled for the following day.

042A big shout out to principal Stephanie Williams and her team for recognizing the needs of their students. This collaboration reflects the spirit of community support and engagement at Thunder Mountain. The Western Colorado Research Center in Grand Junction elevates hands-on learning. Recently, Pomona's elementary students visited to discover where their food comes from and learned that local food banks and D51 schools received fresh produce from the center. Fourth graders picked bell peppers and even made homemade granola. Thank you to our nutritional services team for collaborating with partners like the CSU Research Center. With more schools planning field trips with CSU, these experience will continue to inspire students to explore new hobbies like gardening and cooking. Lincoln Orchard Mesa Elementary second and third graders visited their neighbors at Grand Junction Fire Department Station 4, where they had an

043incredible learning experience. The students explored important topics like fire safety and prevention, built their own first aid kits, and even got to hang out with rescue dogs. Thank you to Grand Junction Fire Department for being engaged and supportive community partners and providing exciting and interactive ways for students to learn about safety and essential life skills. The first ever D51 adapted soccer tournament at Fra Monument High School brought together students with and without disabilities in a supportive soccer environment. Thank you to adaptive physical education teacher Katie Hmel and her team along with everyone involved for organizing another successful tournament that fosters inclusive opportunities for all students to engage and thrive. Recently, thousands of students across the United States walked, biked, and rolled to school for their 13th annual Walk and Roll to School Day. Events like

044this highlight the fun and healthy habits we can develop around active travel while also emphasizing the importance of ensuring safe and accessible routes for our students. Thank you to Mesa County Safe Routes to Schools for providing an amazing resource to our students and helping them navigate the safest way to get to and from school. And finally, thank you Rocky Mountain PBS Kidsfest for another fantastic year. This time we replaced the dunk tank with paint and lotia. a cultural culturally rich bingo style game. Kids express their creativity by adding handprints to vibrant murals reflecting this year's theme, Together We Thrive. Families also explored various community resources. Each year, we celebrate creativity, community, and the joys of childhood. A special shout out to our access, opportunity, and family partnership department for making this event even better this

045year. And that's all we have for October. Be sure to keep up with all the latest D51 happenings by following us on social media at D51 schools. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up, Dr. Hill, we have our superintendence report. All right. Well, thank you. Um, so first up, uh, we're gonna have Shannon actually present, so it's not that presentation. Um, and I think Shannon's virtual. Are you there, Shannon? I'm here. Good evening, everyone. Hey, is it easier for you to present your slides on your end? I think it uh it would be easier for me to see what I'm doing if I did that. Let me see if I have any presenter. Okay. Um privileges here. All right. Are you seeing that in full screen? Yes. Yes. Well, good evening everyone. Um, thank

046you for hearing my presentation virtually. It's a privilege to be here. Um, I continue to uh monitor our enrollment circumstances and have uh generated a draft report based on our most recent October count and have kind of some summary level slides to show you and would be delighted to respond to any questions that you may have. Um, this year we were down about 200 students. Um, so we had an improvement. we were expecting to be down uh 400 and which was our three-year average. Um in the 23 school year we were down 632. So we had a good year. Um I believe that we have uh some kids that have come back to our high school programs especially the new Grand Junction High School which resulted in some higher enrollment numbers uh in the high

047school grades. But we continue to have um declining birth counts and declining enrollment in our elementary schools. Um but we were very delighted to see that we were not down um as much as we were expecting to be. Uh you can see our kindergarten uh continues to decline. We're down to 1252 from 1270 last year. And the difference in size between our kindergarten and 12th grade is 398 students. So every year we have more students leave our system uh than come to us. So we have a bit of uh built-in growth as a result of our grade distribution that um doesn't really have anything to do with the um various dynamics at work with growth and decline. It's more of how uh many students we have in those individual grades. Uh we actually bumped up

048a little bit uh in our birth rate this year. We improved by 43 uh babies born in the geographic area of the district. But you can see that our decline from our high point over 2,000 um babies born in 2008 to the 1433 that were born in 2023. that our incoming uh child count is affected very much by the number of zero through four year olds that are just out there and available to come to any school. So um we are going to continue to be a declining district for a while. Eventually this is going to normalize and bottom out and the um generations of young adults having children now are going to um stabilize a little bit in the size of their families and we will level off. But um in the short term

049uh we expect to continue to decline. Um total population is growing all over the district. Uh we are building dozens and dozens of new homes every year. Uh both Grand Junction and Fruda have dozens of square miles of future residential area that is planned for future growth all around the district. Our general contractors continue to put highquality homes online that um district families can enjoy. Our grade distribution as you can see it differs uh from K to 12. Um the lower axis of this is at 1,200. So um the 252 uh kindergarteners that we had uh this year is down from 1535 that we had in 2019. So right there you can see that the uh the structure of the community within the existing housing stock is changing and the um children that come to

050us from new housing continue to um affect the district's enrollment. we continue to grow as a result of new housing. It's just that in any given year, that's less than 1% of total the total housing stock and the other 99% are existing homes. And so we're seeing this change uh in the social makeup of the community where um young folks are having fewer children than they've had in the past. You can see the two grades that we did grow are the 11th and the 12th. And we believe that as a result of some of our high school construction successes, we have students coming back to um in-person neighborhood education, especially at Grand Junction High School uh from the charter school and the non-public school category because a lot of those children were not in our

051database last year in any grade and we are seeing them uh popping up um in our schools. Here's a little bit more reasonable view of our history and enrollment outlook. I'm forecasting that we're probably going to continue to lose about 400 students a year. Um, if we have another great year like we did this year as far as not losing as many children, I could see that changing a little bit. But you can see that we um have uh dropped below 20,000 students uh and we're sitting at uh 1997 including PK and then we would continue to lose about 400 students a year if the current trajectories um continue. uh my enrollment forecast by level shows that at the elementary level that would be where we would you lose the majority of those students because

052of that uh declining count in the babies being born in the geographic area of the district. Um middle school would also decline a little bit over that five-year period and then high school would be um relatively stable. I'm showing preschool as being flat right now because we just don't have um enough information to forecast that just yet. But you can see that over that five-year period, my average decline would be about 400 students per year. Um, this is the forecast for next fall. Um, I have provided this to the administration to um, use for staffing as they see fit. Uh, but this helps us understand uh, what our percentage utilization is um, at our various elementary schools. And then here's the same data for our high schools. I might note that well over 300 students

053at Grand Junction High School are involved in some sort of concurrent uh education experience. And so even though we have a significantly overutilized situation there, not all of those students are in the building at the same time. So, um we have um a little bit of relief due to the uh growing trend statewide of concurrency where students are outside of the building in a uh CTE experience or they're in a university program where they're taking classes off campus. Uh forecasting our elementarymentaries by year. This is showing our expectations 2025 through 2032. And then there are utilization observations for uh the 202526 school year and the 2029 2030 school year. And you can see that some of our elementary schools that have historically been small relative to the size of their buildings continue to have a

054lower utilization rates. And you can explore this as you see fit. at the secondary level. Eventually, Grand Junction High School will settle out, but I think we're looking at um probably four years of it being uh roughly the size that it is now. And then as some of these smaller grades that are entering the system due to the smaller elementary school sizes and the diminishing uh student count throughout the district, if those trends continue would uh provide some relief there. Uh we have other places where we are a little over capacity but for the most part um space availability in the district is um more or less acceptable. So that's my presentation for the evening. I'd be delighted to respond to any questions that you may have. So Shannon, can you go back to the

055um I think it was like your second slide. Yeah, that one. So, I just want to clarify um because I think it's important. So, I know yours is showing 222 student loss and um I think the reason for that compared to what we've been sharing is and it's different. those are different numbers is because your 2019 through 2023 numbers are actual October count numbers from CDE and our 2024 number that you're using there is our current October count number for attendance but it's not actually necessarily going to be the October count number that we're that we're staffed for or funded for. So when I show um Casser and uh Mel's department sends us a weekly report and it shows time and time comparison. So October one of last year to October one of this year,

056we're down 325 students. So my assumption would be, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, Shannon, that 222 student difference that you're showing right now is probably going to grow once we get the actual October count numbers. Um because her point in time comparisons are showing about a 100 student difference. Is that accurate? Yes. Yes, sir. That's correct. I'm using post audit numbers from uh CDE based on headcount and actually year to year sometimes CDE goes back and they revise prior counts. So, um, I'm trying to use the most official post audit, more like a November count, if you will. And right now, we're using our best count as of September 30. And especially at secondary schools where it's frustrating to delete schedules and then children show up and we have to rebuild their

057schedule and then there are ripple effects on other students who have and teachers who have a certain class loading in a certain class that that kind of upsets the apple cart. So at the secondary level, we tend to um delay a little bit in um deleting students some at times, but um I expect us to continue to go down a little bit as we did last year prior to that um official um October count. And then um the uh post audit uh number uh tends to be a little bit lower as well. and that is um all districts in the state of Colorado and elsewhere in the western US have the same experience and phenomenon as um numbers are revised. Okay, thanks. I just it sounds silly to say we got our hopes up for

058losing 222, but I know it's like oh it's not as much as in the past, but I just don't want us to get too excited because we asked you to do some analysis kind of earlier um so that this could help guide some of the other conversations we're having around school closures and things like that. So, you're not using in 2024. I just want to be clear with folks that are watching that these are not October count numbers for 2024. It's just the current count numbers we have right now. So, um and like I said with with um um Sarah's numbers that she sends us, we're down about 325 compared to last year. So, and then the other one I was just going to point out is um on your so folks that want to

059look at this later on the um the projection sheets that show utilization um there's there's two different uh utilization percentages there. Um one of them is um and I want to make sure I get the the wording right on these. So, one of them is using um schedule capacity, which is if they took all the classrooms within the school building and then just did a 26 to1 ratio. Classes never end up that way. But if they just applied 26 to1 ratio, that's how many students could fit in the building. And then the permanent capacity is that's why it says comfortable fit in parenthesis is CDE has an actual standard for how many square feet per student you should have in a classroom. So that number could fluctuate because you could have a classroom that actually

06026 to1 in there. There's still a lot of room in the classroom. So they could still comfortably fit more students if they had to. So that's why you're seeing two numbers there. There's capacity, schedule capacity, which is a 26 to1 hard number. And then there's comfortable fit, which is how many kids you could fit in those classrooms using that CDE standard. Um, and then we also have another one that looks at uh temporary uh seating as well. So, we've got some modulars and stuff at schools. Um, and I'll talk about that in my presentation in the next one. So, I just wanted to clarify that if anybody looks at it later, like why are there two capacity numbers? That's why. And those numbers came from the uh long range facility plan with HCM. And I

061would hope that if we are successful with our bond, then the upgrades that are planned for Central and Fra will maybe also ease that number a little bit because those schools will have those nice upgrades, maybe drawing a few more students into those schools. It's a it's a great point. And I mean I think you know Shannon pointed out like there's the assumption would be that with a brand new school you're going to attract you know students back or attracting students from other schools. Palisate is super high too. I mean capacities. Um and so with you know if the bond were to pass the 68 million we'll put into central you know that would be an exciting thing. It' be a renovated facility and ideally it'll attract um folks to stay there. It'll also maybe

062attract students in not school of choice out um because you know the numbers are the numbers. I think Central's down about 100 kids this year compared to last year. And so we want to um we want to curb that. But also just Junction's going to have to be really mindful moving forward about you know school of choice and things like that. Not not accepting as many students because of um where they're at right now. So yeah. Do we know um this might be getting a little into the weeds so just it can be emailed to the board later but the the families at school of choice in Junction this year I mean I know they've been doing themies model but I I'm wondering do do they do they capture why a family is school of

063choicing like you know because I know all of our our high schools have like niche programs excuse me and so I kind of wonder sometimes is it is it just sometimes they like the location or do they like what the schooler is offering? You know, Central has STEM and so I'm just kind of wondering what I don't know that um and I don't want to misspeak. I don't know that just a general school of choice is going to show you a reason for attending. If a student is going on a programmatic transfer, so like if you're an IB student and you're going to Palisade for IB, we can track that. Um or if you went to central STEM program, but I don't know because Grand Junction High School's academy model is the entire school. I

064don't know that we captured anything that said I'm I'm school of choice in there for the academy model. Um but I can I can find out if that is the case, but I have a feeling we don't. Yeah, I can get you school choice numbers. I can tell you like how many kids are actually there that don't reside within the attendance area, but I don't know that we track for reasons other than programmatic. Well, and I know the academy model is a little different obviously than like IB and STEM and the A program at Pruda Monument. So, um, I was just curious because if I don't know if like more people realize they have an academyy's model, so they wanted a choice over there or if it was the new building. I don't know, maybe

065maybe admin there could if they do an end ofear survey, they could get a little bit of information from those school of choice families. But I'm not I don't want to put more work on anybody's plate. I'm just I think from the board standpoint, it's I'm curious um because I do, you know, we've had a lot of great feedback that the newer building students are taking a lot of pride um in keeping up with it. They're not even like putting holes in the wall, you know, with like pins and hanging things up. So, you know, I just wonder if like as we improve our buildings, especially like at those high school levels, you know, with science labs and things like that, if that just kind of helps retain and attract students to those schools. I

066was gonna make a joke because I thought Dr. Wiper was still there. I was gonna say they all wanted to go to his class. Um but I don't see him out there. Um all kinds of holes in the mall. So, uh yeah, and I think you know, you think with central that we have such great teachers there and such great programs there. Um we need a building to match that. And so, you know, it is exciting to think about the possibilities of this bond passing and then um being able to do the work there that that needs to be done. So, especially what we could provide for a STEM program there. Yeah. Can you also remind me what the date is? We should have our final October count. I don't think we get a October

067count numbers. Look at me. Is it like January? No. Okay. November. No, like November business meeting or middle of November. What do you think? Something like that. Okay. Thank you. Just so final finals December, but we'll probably have a good idea by November. Okay. Good. Any other questions for Shannon or All right. Thank you, Shannon, for the information. Thank you. You're most welcome. All right. So, piggybacking off of that, and the reason why we asked Shannon to um to present was because obviously some of the information and data that um he's presenting to us and we're using is feeding into um this conversation around declining enrollment. So, I don't know who's going to be able to hit slideshow on that. There it is. Okay. Um, so I just wanted to walk the board um through

068an update on where we are with uh the elementary declining enrollment uh process. And so um I've got a clicker. We're good. I just couldn't hit slideshow. Thank you, Cali. It's very She is a servant leader. She I was looking at Burke actually, but we all appreciate you. Um, okay. So, uh, part of this is I just want to kind of walk us through, um, some history because we've been talking about this for a while now and then talk about where we are and then where we're headed. So, if you remember from the EDC process, which if anybody's new to uh, tuning into this, it's that was the elementary declining enrollment committee that was created. um the the uh folks on that committee which was made up of uh teachers, principles, community members, families, staff

069um came up with a problem statement and that was that current declining student enrollment negatively impacts D-51 resources and infrastructure. The impact limits D51's ability to assemble the critical resources and infrastructure to adequately support and implement the strategic plan and we desire to reallocate resources to create safe, successful classrooms for students and staff. So that was the problem statement and the and the goal that we were trying to solve. Um so walking us through a little bit of history here and obviously there's a lot that happened between these lines on this timeline, but these are some of the major things. So back in November of 2022, so almost two years ago um was when Shannon brought um the the latest uh enrollment data and projections for for that coming school year. Um and so Shannon

070presented that to the D-51 leadership. Um and then the projections were showing a continued decline. I think we were all hoping that maybe we were going to see a a spike in the other direction, right? We had come through COVID. We lost a lot of students through that process, but he was showing at that time that we were still declining and you saw that in his previous presentation. Um and then he was showing projections that it was going to continue to happen. So we we knew that we needed to do something different. Um and so we started having a conversation about solutions, one of those being um school closures. Um and then in December, Shannon presented that information to um the board. Um and the board members agreed to um the district exploring um school

071closures, looking into the the idea of school closures. And then of course we know in March um there was a recommendation made for um East Middle School to be closed and then two elementary schools to be closed. Uh East Middle School was uh the vote did happen to close East Middle School in March of 23. Um and then the board charges the district staff to create a committee to address declining enrollment at the elementary level and that's where the E deck was created. Okay. So we paused elementary closures. Um but we um we moved ahead with the east closure. Uh and at that same time simultaneously we were having a discussion about the Fruit um grade configuration and the issues that was creating as well. So that was going on. So then fast forward to

072October of last uh year um the board voted 50 to approve a resolution to explore the pathways that were presented by the EDC. So the um the the EDC came up with these five pathways. We presented that to the board. Um, of course that was uh two of our members weren't on the board at that time but uh presented to the board and then the board voted 50 to say move forward with all these pathways. And then um that December uh we made the decision to uh close Fra 89 to address the um the enrollment issues out in the Fruda area. Um and then uh this past February um I made the decision to delay um the elementary school closures. Um and that's because of timing. Um we we've learned that doing this in the

073spring makes it really difficult. It throws off a lot of things. Um but also needing um we talked about developing some policy and other things. So we I I um I asked the board for a pause on that. Um and um and said that we would make that decision this fall. Um and then in March of this year u we began engaging uh with&m a group u an outside group to develop decision model that's based on the closure criteria recommended by EDC. I'll talk about that in the presentation later, but the EDC came up with these six criteria, but then we had the challenge of how do we actually apply those criteria and come up with numbers um for that? And so, um we worked with some experts on how to do that and started

074engaging with them in March throughout um the summer and even into this fall. Um and then this past September, of course, the board adopted the policy FCB, which is a policy for closing schools. And then now where we are now is that we've been um taking the decision model uh that was created with&m based off the criteria from EDC. Um also looking at enrollment numbers with Shannon and then trying to run scenarios um of what what this could look like um before any recommendations have will be made. And so that's that's where we are right now and that's why I haven't made any recommendations because we're still running through those different scenarios before I bring something forward to the board. Um so keep uh continue to go through history. So Shannon already presented this while

075ago, but I want to reiterate it. So we have um seen a decline um of over 2,000 students since 2019, and that's close to um that's a little over 9% of our student body that has um that has declined. Um and he's talked about the factors over and over again, right? Birth, low birth rates, affordability, housing, school options, all those things have contributed to this. Um but it's where we find ourselves. I think it's also important to point out um because we talked about this through the EDC process, the amount of school buildings that we do have um and the amount of students that we have uh when the students are spread out throughout that many buildings, you start to have underutilization of those spaces. Um some of that is um just due to the

076fact of how spread out we are in certain places, but some of it's not. Some of it's just the fact that we've had declines in certain areas and it's impacted utilization. So, you know, based on the um the utilization numbers that we had from uh HCM and then looking at our current enrollment numbers, um we are utilizing only about 65% of our seats in elementary schools. Um we are utilizing about 74% of our middle school seats um or our buildings. And then we are um utilizing close to 100% of our high school, which is great. But you heard Shannon say a while ago, as these smaller cohorts move through um that's going to change as well. And so we're utilizing about 71% of our available seats um in our district as a whole. And kind

077of an industry standard or what you're looking for is about 85% or above to you to actually get the most out of your buildings. It also impacts staffing and programs and things like that, but we're well below that 85% um goal or or or low number that you're looking for. Um so that's just something to point out. And these are the declines that we've seen over time. You know, I think it's it's pretty um uh I don't know what the right word is. Seeing it under 20,000 is not fun. Okay. Um but it is where we are at right now. Um we have dropped below 20,000 for the first time. Um so why is this important? We've talked about this as well. It impacts our our financial situation, right? Um school districts are funded on

078a per pupil basis. So we receive money from the state based on the number of students that we have. So, that's why that October count's so important because the October count number is used to determine how much money we're going to receive because we're funded per pupil. Um, and so when you lose students or you decline in students, it means you're going to decline in funding um because you're not receiving as much um funding for the amount of students that you were receiving in the past. So, just to put that in perspective, um I mentioned before that we're down a little over 2,000 students. If you were to uh multiply that number times the amount we receive per pupil today, if we had just stayed steady with our enrollment since 2019, that would be like

079having 22 million more dollars to work with right now. So, you think about the things we could do with that. All these work we've been trying to do on getting our our teacher salaries up and and all these other things like having 22 million more dollars to work with would be huge for us. Um and so that's just the impact that, you know, has happened over the last four or five years is we don't have that student enrollment anymore. And so we're we don't have the dollars that we could have had if it had stayed steady at least. Um and then just to kind of throw this in there, I've talked about it a lot, but our state is one of the lower states when it comes to per people funding. So or or uh

080K12 funding. Um so that's not great. And we rank 174th out of 178 school districts when it comes to a per pupil funding basis. So, uh, the declines plus, um, uh, having one of the lowest per people pupil funded, uh, amounts, uh, and being one of the states that's one of the lowest is just a compounding issue that we find ourselves in. So, I know you can't read that on the right, but it's supposed to be a visual showing you where that little line way down at the bottom. Okay. I I joke about maybe it's like feels so tense right now. Uh, we joke that we jumped to 173 last year and we got excited and then we're back to 174. So, I guess that's not really a joke. That's also sad. Um, so financial

081implications, as I mentioned, it also impacts staffing. So, um, just a reminder to the board and folks paying attention online and in person, we staff our buildings based on the number of students that we have. And so, staffing allocations are assigned based on that student count. And so, schools um, you know, they we set parameters, but they're able to staff their buildings within um, the parameters that we set on the amount of students they have. And so systemic staffing equivalents um are what we use to staff these buildings. And so as a school declines in enrollment, it means that we have to pull staffing from that building, which can also impact um programs in the school. So I'm going to go back a little bit in time and talk about the middle school situation, right?

082Because this was I guess almost uh it was like a year and a half ago when we had to make the decision around the east closure. Um so at that time uh we found ourselves in a situation where we were overstaffing or um staffing unfunded positions to the tune of almost 23 FTE. So um 23 positions right um and if you're it's a whole formula but that's essentially like 23 teaching positions um at that time right and then we had projections that were showing that was going to get worse over time like as we decline in enrollment that number was going to grow. Okay. And you think about the average classroom, SSSE, okay, per middle school is around 26.5. So we were essentially overstaffing by almost an entire middle school's worth of of staff at

083the time. Um, and it wasn't sustainable. Seven out of eight of our middle schools, because we had eight at the time, were overstaffed based on the projected student counts, ranging from anywhere from being 2% over staffed to 23% overstaffed. Um and then due to prior reductions in use of temporary funding um addressing this level of overage while maintaining all buildings would have required cuts in academic programs and student support. So this is old numbers on the right but these were the numbers we were dealing with at the time um for projections for um this past school year if we didn't do something we were going to have to um cut that many staff from our schools. Okay. Um so what happened when we closed East was well one um almost 15 uh FT from the

084middle school staffing overages were addressed through that closure. The closure resulted in a total recurring annual savings of $1.3 million. And then we also found some additional savings um uh to those east middle school savings for SSSE were reduced at schools not directly impacted by the closure which was about $300,000 at that time. So in total we recouped about 83% of the middle school unfunded positions um for 2324 budget year. So last year um that's 1.6 million of the 1.9 million in unfunded. So it didn't close the gap completely but it it did free up those $1.6 million that we could put towards other needs in the district. And obviously we're talking about numbers and this is people as well and I want to be mindful of that. But um it's the reality we find

085ourselves in with the financial situation. Um and so the remainder of this was going to be addressed through the Fruda uh reconfiguration. Um those remaining dollars that we needed to recoup. Um and then the ESSER dollars were used to help with that. But remember ESSER funding uh ran out this past fall. So we knew that was coming as well. Um this is really blurry because it was a screenshot that I used in the past, but this was trying to give us an idea of um what was going to happen to these schools if we didn't close a middle school and then what happened because of the fact that we did close a middle school. So these were the projections at the time. So, I realize this is an older um chart, but you can understand

086uh what I what I'm trying to um convey here. So, let's just take Booklift for example. Um they were originally going to have to lose 6.1 FTE, right? If we didn't do something, they were we were going to have to cut 6 FTE over 6 FTE from their building because we closed the middle school and students were um re rebounded to other schools. instead of losing six FTE, they actually gained five FTE um which was a a change of um 11 FTE in the end. So because we closed the school and then students were rebounded into surrounding schools instead of pulling FTE we were actually giving FTE because they had an increase in student enrollment because of the closure. Um Fruda um we didn't actually do anything with Fruta because remember we were still we

087hadn't made a decision um on the 89 closure and so there wasn't really a change there. Grand Mesa would have lost 6.7 FTE. Instead, it was only a threeft FTE cut because they did receive some students through this um closure. Um and then um Orchard Mesa was going to lose 1.3. They ended up gaining five because we uh had the challenge program there. And then if you look at West, they were going to lose staff as well and instead they gained six. So this is just a visual of what happens when uh we're overstaffing buildings and we're we're getting in a situation where we have to potentially cut staff from the building. But if we if you have a decision where you close a school and then redistribute the students or reboundry the students other

088schools instead of having to go and uh cut from those buildings, you're actually um adding staff to them because you've increased their student enrollment. Okay. Um so that's just a visual of what um happens when when you do make that decision. And then obviously this past year we um we made the decision around closing Fra 89 and and just some historical perspective on that again. So since 2019 when we started seeing these declines as a district um Frutta Middle School had declined by 150 students and it's important to remember this was at a time when Fra Middle School was only two grades. Okay so this wasn't a traditional middle school configuration. This is only two grades of kids and they were already down 150 students. Um and then Fra A9 had declined by 212 students

089and then Fra uh Monument High School had declined by 61 students. So each of those schools were all declining and we were um overstaffing them by 9 FTE. Okay. Um so again those are unfunded positions. Um the subsidizing of the staff occurred in order to not staff the fruit of secondary schools in a way that would cut programming. Um and even with that we still were having to cut programs. I mean we heard from principles out there that were saying I have to cut my teched program or these other things because I don't have the staff for it anymore. So we were heading in a direction that wasn't good for kids in the end. Um and at that time the average teacher salary with benefits was around 90,000. Um, so if you multiply that out,

0909FTTE is like um over staffing to the tune of around $800,000. Um, and so again, we used ESR funds to do some subsidies there. Um, but with it expiring, that wasn't sustainable either. So we had to make some decisions there. Um, and so based on the projections, if we had kept the three schools, secondary schools in Fra intact for this school year, the one that we're in right now, okay, they were projected to decline by uh the middle schools are projected decline by another 44 students. Um the 89 was was projected to decline by another hundred students, excuse me, the 89 and the high school. So another decline. Um and then based on that um not including school of choice. If we delayed a reconfiguration move, um we would have been overstaffing Fra Middle School

091by 4.2 FTE. Fruit 89 would have been overstaffed by almost six and then the high school would have been overstaffed by 3.4. So again, not sustainable. and we're pulling funding that we could use to prioritize other needs in our district um if we're if we're not making some decisions. So, uh subsidizing all that would have cost about 1.2 million to the district and unfunded positions. So, after the closure um and the move to traditional 6 through eight um at the Frum Middle School and then the traditional 9 through 12 at the high school, we actually recouped about $2.1 million in unfunded um positions. So, you add that to the 1.6 six um from the east that becomes a dollar amount that we can then prioritize those dollars towards better staffing our other schools um and

092also prioritizing um things like trying to be competitive with salaries and other needs in the district. So um prioritizing staff has been a focus of this board and and of our uh and of our district administration. I know we had a shared interest with um the association this past year like how do we get to $50,000 for a starting teacher salary? How do we make sure we go back to steps and lanes and get salaries up across the district? And so, um, when you're prioritizing those things, you have to find dollars to be able to do that, right? They it doesn't just magically appear. And we're not going to get a ton of money from the state. And we have not passed, um, any mill levy overrides since 2017. So, we're not receiving any new

093dollars, um, because of anything like a from a local tax like that. So, um, so through these closures, we were able to better staff schools, receiving students from closed schools versus having to reduce staff across the district, which would have meant programmatic cuts. Okay. Um 82% of our general fund is spent on salary and benefits. So every little bit helps to be able to put towards our people by not spending money on subsidizing unfunded positions at the middle and high school levels. And we had really smart use of those onetime ESSER funds. We've got a great finance department that was really smart about not putting all that money into ongoing things um that would have set us up for failure now. And then also we reduced $1.3 million with central office staffing over that time

094plus the application of new dollars from the state towards better teacher pay. we've been able to prioritize that competitive starting teacher salary that we talked about and increased um salaries for teachers and other staff across the district. So to put that in perspective, getting our starting teacher salary up above $50,000, that is a 33% increase um since 2019 um excuse me, since 2020. Um which is great. It is still not where it needs to be, right? If we're being honest, like there it's still low compared to many other districts in the state, but it's a lot better than where it was. Um, and we couldn't do that unless we, you know, made some tough decisions here. We also moved to steps and lanes, um, which has helped helped staff across the district. So, we're we're

095um we're paying teachers who go and get continuing education credits and we're honoring that. And so, um, through the process with finance and with HR, finding out where staff uh, fit on that new salary schedule, um, we were able to boost salaries for teachers because of them going and getting continue education, um, which is great. And so over that time period since 2020, we've seen an average uh teacher increase by close to 40%. Okay. Um so our our average teacher salary um is now closer to 71,000 um versus where it was, which was 50,000 just a few years ago, which is now our starting teacher salary. So you see these these bumps are helping us not only recruit um new teachers, but they're helping us to um retain our great staff that we already have.

096Okay. Um and then we've also been able to prioritize as a district our reserves. I know we've talked about this at the board level before, but our reserves were a were a very low level, which is not okay. It's not okay for an organization our size. Um it was u about 5% just a few years ago. And so we've now met the objective of maintaining at least three months uh of payroll expenses, which is great. We we've gotten there, which is awesome. Um and our current and reserves are more in line with with um districts across the state and the state's benchmark. Okay. So that's another thing we've been able to prioritize through this um process as well. So, let's talk about where we are currently. Um, you know, sh Shannon just shared his numbers.

097Let me talk about what that actually means for us. So, we're currently overstaffed and this is these are real numbers. This is today. Um, 30.5 FTE in the district. Okay. Um, 26.7 of those FTE are at the elementary school level. And remember that is we knew coming into the school year because I asked for a delay on the elementary closures. We knew we were going to be overstaffing at the elementary level and we knew that we were going to be using um some reserve dollars. That's why you have reserves built up when you need to do a one-time thing like that. Can I ask um can you just remind us again what the average FTE number is for um elementary schools? So an elementary school the average is about 23. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Um

098so so yeah, good question. And so an an average elementary size in our district at least would have about 23 FTE. And so we're overstaffed right now by 26.7 FTE. And that's in today's numbers. And then based on the projections that Shannon just shared, we're projected a decline again this next year um by around 482 kids. But that 277 of those students coming from the elementary level. And these are projections. Um but I when we talked to him leading up to this, he said he was being very conservative with those numbers. And so um you know maybe it's not the exact number but even another 200 kid loss is going to be an impact to our district. Um so if we're going off the projections and again a loss of enrollment as I've mentioned before

099uh means a loss of per pup people funding from the state um for those students which means we're reducing staff at the at um at the school level and our staffing projections for next year. Um and these are projections okay so these aren't definite numbers but these are projections based on his or staffing projections based on his enrollment projections. Um we would need to cut approximately 43 FTE from elementary schools alone next year. Okay. Um, so if you're going to multiply that out now, because our average teacher salary with benefits has gone up, which is great. We've been able to prioritize that. It's it's 979 at the elementary level. If you multiply that out using the average teacher cost, we are currently subsidizing um about $2.6 million worth of staffing at the elementary level. If

100we go off the projections for next year, that number would grow to about 4.2 million. Okay, we don't have $4.2 million in our general fund to be able to put towards that. Um, and then we can't just keep eating away at our reserves that we've just built up. Um, because as Shannon mentioned, at some point maybe we get to a point where it flattens out, but that's not that's not next year and it's not the year after because even with that little bump in birth rates, the trend is still going down. And it and even if we started to trend upwards, it's going to take you five years before you start to see that impact from students in our schools. So, we have to plan um for for the outy years. Um and and Elizabeth

101from uh the state is going to provide us some information in November on what she's seeing at the state level. Um but if you remember back with her presentation last year, she was saying maybe by 2035 we can get back to prepandemic numbers. So this is not something that's going to change overnight. So anyways, I'm I'm I'm rambling on this one, but the right side shows you current overages and then projected overages for next year um as well. So let's multiply that out again. Um as I mentioned, 43 FTE over comes out to about $4.2 $2 million of unfunded positions at the middle school level, which we're not talking about middle school closures. We're not talking about high school closures, but it's just important to note. Um we're going to have to subsidize 500,000 there,

102783,000 there, or make some staffing reductions because of declines in enrollment. But um all in all, that comes out to about $5.5 million um worth of unfunded positions for next year based on those projections. Okay, so back to EDC. Um through that process um we came up with five pathways right pathway number one which was the most viable pathway identified by the committee was was closures and consolidations. Okay. Um and then the other pathways were things like mill levies which we're trying to secure um what we have right now by doing a no tax rate increase mill levy override in November. Um but then we're going to have to have some discussions moving forward about do we do we go out for something later that actually is an increase. But right now we're just asking

103taxpayers let us keep what we already have. If we lose that, that's losing six and a half more million dollars if that goes away. So really important this November. Um and then pathway three um we the um strategic planning groups have been doing work around trying to increase more options um for our families um and strengthening those pipelines for elementary through middle through high school onto college um so we can engage more families um into the school district. Um the pathway for the subsidizing providing flexible support through possible increases. We we've been doing that. we have been subsidizing um but we're running out of options there and so that's not sustainable either. Um and then pathway five um I presented back in um in May uh the work that we've been doing to try to

104make reductions at the central office level with staffing um and then also some things that we can prioritize moving forward. So we've been moving forward with these five pathways but the one obviously that we haven't made a decision on is the elementary um closure uh piece. you know, going back to when we were going through the EDC process, um that committee was committed to creating um safe and uh and successful classrooms for our students. And we talked about this engaged and equipped um elementary school, right? Uh should be equipped and empowered elementary school. It's a school that has um it's fully staffed um that has opportunities for um three to four teachers per grade level. Um they can have planning time together. They can u collaborate with one another. It's more students or more teachers

105to be able to to monitor and supervise during duties. Um it it all the things that are listed up there um were things that through this process we said we want to be able to offer in our schools and it's getting harder and harder to do that as we continue to decline at the elementary level because we can't staff those buildings. Um principles expressed through that process that enrollment closer to 400 students would be ideal. Right. kind of a sweet spot we identified was having around 380 to 400 students in a school allows you to to really staff that building well. Um, and unfortunately, we're not there with our schools. And and I just want to be on even through the closure process, we're not going to get all of our schools to that level.

106Um, but it's getting worse and worse for our schools if we don't take any action. So, um, based on the, uh, projections for next year, we'll have three schools, elementary schools that are above 400. Um, we'll have 14 that are between 300 and 400. and many of those are in the lower 300s. Um, six elementary schools will be be between 200 and 300 students and then two elementary schools will have an enrollment below 200 students. Okay. Um, and so some of the other things that came out of this process, principles really emphasize the importance of consistent staffing in their buildings um for hiring and retention success. And so as we have these fluctuations of having to cut staff and and add staff, it it really is hard for them to to keep um their staff

107intact there. Um and then also effectively staffing schools is um is a challenge and has been over the last few years due to limited resources with declining enrollment as I mentioned making that a compounding issue. Um so in order to consistently staff um all of our schools as equipped and empowered schools regardless of student enrollment um changes have to happen um for us to be able to do that. Okay. Um, and so that not only involves the closure process, but also some conversations around potentially having to prioritize some dollars towards other needs within the buildings um instead of being able to prioritize them um towards some other things we've been able to do in the past. And so we're having those discussions as well. Um so the criteria that was um decided upon by the

108EDC committee um were these six criteria, right? Building adequacy and it was weighted at 45.3 out of 100. Transportation and proximity was weighted at 20.6. None of this is new, right? We shared this in the past. And if anybody wants to read the report, it's all on our website. Low uh low enrollment was uh weighted at 11.6. Logic future boundaries was weighted at 8.7. School performance was weighted at 7.6. And then geographic future growth was weighted at 6.4. Um this uh chart shows you working with&m the the data sources that they used um and then the methodology that they used to come up with basically a point system to um to apply to our elementary schools and then and then come out with a score that you can then rank to say okay these are

109the schools um that most closely fit the criteria that was set by the EDC. Um and so now you can have some conversations because you start with that list. Okay. Um and so um this is the process that they went through with us data collection. um they talked to subject matter experts and did interviews with them on on uh this issue. Um they propose proposed some preliminary metrics um integrated and normalized those metric results uh presented a summary results to um the subject matter experts and our leadership um and then they updated that integrated analysis and finalized school scores and rankings. So this was the process we went through with&m and I do want to point out at the bottom there throughout this process they maintained independence from district or subject matter experts biases by

110only presenting analysis methodology um with uh notional outputs ensuring methodology was understood embedded but not allowing modifications based on the results of preliminary analysis. So, um, to put that in different terms, they talked about the numbers and the metrics. They didn't talk about individual schools. So, there wasn't any opportunity to be like, well, I really like that school, so I want you to change a metric because of that. Um, they didn't they didn't do that through this process. Okay. Um, so the first one with building adequacy, again, that received 45.3% of the weight based on EDC. And so, um, the great thing is we just went through a facility master plan process. And so, we have data to be able to use for that. So, um, building conditions and building adequacy, um, scores were were

111used for, um, coming up with the building adequacy, um, score, um, for all of our schools. And again, we'll put this on the website, but, um, but that's the methodology they use to come up with a score for that criteria, transportation and proximity. So, 50% of this was weighted on average mile increase by a student. And so, you think about this, this is additional miles traveled by the average student to the closest alternative school. So that if you were to close school A, you kind of see the the drawing here, school A, if the closest um um I'm sorry, students home, if they're clo if the original school was two miles away and you close it, alternative school one is now and I'm having a hard time reading that on the screen because I'm getting

112I'm getting old. There we go. Four miles, right? That adds um to the factor. If the um alternative school two is um 10 miles or eight miles away, um that adds to it as well. And then so on and so forth. So 50% of it was around additional miles traveled by average student to closest alternative school and then 50% of it was the percentage increase in distance by average student to closest alternative school. So this is the methodology um that was used um to come up with a score for transportation and proximity. So this compares average student distance from the original school versus the next closest school measuring average distance change and percent distance change by students and schools with a larger magnitude of increase scored more points u per this factor. Okay. Um the

113third criteria was low enrollment. That's pretty simple um to to analyze, right? So it's the current utilization of a school building compared to the enrollment comparing enrollment to capacity. And so again, we have these updated numbers um from Shannon and also from um uh from the uh long-range facility planning process for um capacity numbers. And so that was applied in that way. Um and so just over there on the right. So the sample a school is operating with less than 60% of students it was designed for. This makes it difficult for the school to provide adequate services to students as designed. So that impacts um the score on this one. Okay. Um logic of feature boundaries. So this was split up into two areas. So 75% of the weight for this um was current enrollment

114versus current open seats. So as of today, the number of seats open within two miles of each school versus school enrollment. Okay? Because if you're going to close a school, you're going to have to change boundaries. Um and so you're trying to figure out uh where would those students go and are there available seats for them to actually go into. Um and then the 25% of it was in the next five years based on projections, the number of seats that would be open within two mile two miles of each school versus the school enrollment. So you're looking at now and then you're looking at projections as well. Okay. So a good example down there, school a um open seats within two two miles 500 um the number of students is 200. So you have a

115good opportunity to be able to take 200 students and move them into those the other school because they have 500 available seats versus school B they only have 150 open seats within two miles and they have 450 students. So you're going to have a harder time moving students into that neighborhood school. So then you you're going to have to move students even further. So um that's how they weighted um these to get to that 8.7 uh weight from the EDC. And then last but not least is school performance. This was um EDC gave us 7.6 uh points of weight. And then we went with what um CDE basically does for our schools for our SPFs. 60% of it is around growth. 40% of it is around academic achievement. Um and so they used um those

116academic u ratings uh to be able to come up with numbers for the schools there as well. Okay. So, um I'm sorry that wasn't the last one. That was the fifth one. Um the sixth one is geographic future growth. And again, this was demographic projections of five-year change in in student population by school. Okay. Um so you can see two examples there. School A shows no decline in students over the next five years. School B is estimated decline in enrollment by a third over the next five years. And so that um changes the the weight that that would be provide uh or uh provided for those schools. Okay. So uh the EDC analysis produced consolidated scores um for elementary campuses considered by EDC. Um results of each metric were normalized against pure schools to allow

117metrics u of different magnitude and measure to be compared equally. And so it comes out with a ranking the schools with the highest total rating um were scored highly on the criteria established by EDC um and are the least likely candidates for consolidation while schools with a lower score identified as priorities for school consolidation. So all this work with&m this whole process was to try to come up with a a list applying these criteria um that you could start to work off of basically. Okay. Um so now we talk about scenario planning because it's not just here's the list make a decision. We have to actually run scenarios to make sure this makes sense in real in real time. So um we combine the financial analysis and school health perspectives to un understand scale of

118consolidation needed understanding the impact of enrollment for forecast on the future state identifying floors for savings andor school size. We considered the network of impacts so feeder patterns transportation things like that. We developed um we developed se several consolidation scenarios based on those factors that needed fur further analysis which is what we're doing now. Reviewing those proposed scenarios for schools uh included a boundary phasing option. Okay. Uh understanding financial uh enrollment and community impacts of each scenario. Um understanding a SWAT for each proposed scenario and then ranking the scenarios based on impacts. That's the work we've been going through um right now as a team um working with um&m and with Shannon. Okay. So, I want to go back to this for a second. Um, why are we still talking about this? Well, as I

119mentioned, we're still declining. Okay, we're still going through this as a district. We're going to continue to decline in enrollment. Um, we cannot ignore this issue. Um, and and we or excuse me, we can ignore the issue. Um, but I just shared with you what's probably going to happen if we do that, right? We're going to continue to cut FTE from schools. The projections show 43 at the elementary levels uh for next year. Um, or if we try to subsidize that, that means we're pulling about $4.2 $2 million out of reserves again, which isn't sustainable. Um, so or so we can do that or we can make, you know, the right decision, which is to actually rightsize our district um by closing some schools, which I know is tough, but that now we we can

120better utilize and staff the buildings that that continue to exist after that. So, this is just a model. Again, it can shift, but these are Shannon's projections over the the coming years, and we're going to continue to to deal with this issue. The last thing I want to talk about is just some some themes that we tried to stick with through this process. One of them is putting kids first. um every decision that we're making is around how do we make sure that we're um maximizing opportunities for kids in our schools um the programs that we offer them, the resources that we offer them. So, we have to keep that in mind in everything we're doing. Also looking at national trends, right? This is not just a a D-51 problem. This is happening across the

121country. It's happening across our state. Okay. Um and so we're trying to respond to a n a larger trend um that is happening and we're trying to be more proactive to be honest with you and that's the leading from the front. We're trying to take uh significant actions to not only just look at closures, but that's why we've made reductions at the central office and other things as well. Um and so we're we're trying to maintain that efficiency and put that money back in the classrooms. Um but as we consider school consolidations, we are also taking the following steps um for around consolidation. So we're trying to we don't want to wait too long, right? We've heard from other districts that waited a really long time on this um and the negative impact that's had

122on their communities. um prioritizing sources of savings. So coming from building costs, reduction in front office positions, improved people to teacher ratios um and then also looking at the total number of employees um needing to decrease across a district based on vacancy rates, attrition, etc. Um we'll talk about that at a different time, but you know thinking through um whatever decisions we make, how is that going to impact staff because we want to prioritize um the staff that we do have and finding um positions for them like we did through the um east and the 89 closures. Um I think a theme for us has been objective an objective approach as well. So this was a community involved process to identify criteria and we've been try we tried to be objective in our analysis as

123well. Okay not picking favorites but saying here's the criteria that were developed over that I can't remember how many months it was five months four months I can't remember what it was um and and saying we're going to stick with these criteria that we've developed and not veer from that. Um, and then I think the last one is just the cost of waiting, right? Delaying this means spending more money for longer on underutilized schools in disrepair which are not currently serving kids as well as schools with healthier facilities and strong enrollment. Um, and then the cost of waiting is not providing the best possible learning environment for our kids um while throwing good money after uh bad to keep the building safe. Okay, so those are themes that we tried to keep at the forefront

124throughout this process for us. So, moving forward, um, where we are now is we're we're trying to finalize these scenarios and recommendations. Okay? We've been trying to work through this so that we can make sure that what I bring forward to the board is is I'm 100% behind. Um, early November, we want to share um because the policy states that I need to deliver a report to the board with recommendations. So, um, being able to do that early November, um, sharing those recommendations with staff at the impacted schools, um, and then releasing that report. Um we want to obviously talk to staff before we release anything to the public uh to be mindful of them. Um and then having that public presentation um the next time we'll have a board meeting won't be until November

12512th. So having a presentation there. Um and then also in November the board voting on the closures for next school year and then we spend the the November and December month. The rest of the time leading into the spring um engaging with families at those impacted schools to share what options and steps uh come next, right? Prioritizing the transition um process moving forward. Okay. So that's that's uh um what we have coming up next. Um and so I'm going to stop there and ask if there's any questions about where we are uh and where we're headed. Question first. Thank you for the report. It's wonderful. You put it in detail, so I really appreciate it for myself. on your timeline. Um it looks like on your timeline that staff and community will know which clo

126which schools you're recommending to close at the same time. I would recommend that staff find out way before public. So yes sort of Yeah, I I and that's a mistake on my end for the wording. Yes, you're right. That's the plan is um we want to obviously talk to staff first and let them know um the decisions before we would then go out and release anything. And that's why I mentioned there too that once this is once it's shared with staff, it's going to be out in the community. And so once we have an opportunity to be able to share that with staff, um then I think putting out the report and and um so folks can understand the why behind it uh would be important. So but yes, I I should have worded that

127better, but the plan is to talk to staff first. Any other questions about this? No, I just um on one of your earlier slides just want to highlight and um and just show appreciation that we well prior to our two newest board members joining us is that we felt compelled as a board to make sure that we were sort of tightening our belt across the district. So, um I feel like you kind of go past it really quickly. Um but we have you guys have tightened the belt to the tune of 1.3 million at the central office which means you know it's not just the burden of the school closure or the whole burden is not just on the school closure that we've been trying to work districtwide on trying to find ways to help

128consolidate funds basically so that we can spend those you know more in to our people. So, um, I just I just want our public and our community to realize that because I think a lot of times they they think we're only going to have to make the tough decisions around the schools and that we're not looking elsewhere to make, you know, those tough decisions as well. And it's been tough on also our central admin. Um, I think everybody wishes that they could have they could clone themselves at least two or three times because everybody here is doing a lot of work. And so, um, I just really appreciate everyone across the board that is, um, either taken on more or we've kind of rec-alibrated positions to make sure, uh, those things are getting filled and,

129um, we haven't backfilled positions. So, I just, I just want the public to know that you guys have been working across the board on this, which again, it was a pathway that was identified and you guys have been looking into that and tackling it. Well, and and I I like to write down my thoughts sometimes. So, I'll just end with this. So, I thinking through this because it is tough. This nobody wants to do this, right? Um but um we are where we are. It is what it is. Um the declining enrollment problem is not going away. I think we've made that pretty clear and we've been talking about this for two years. Okay? We've done everything the board and the community has asked for through those two years. Um even though that has been

130tough, we've been on this journey for years and it hasn't been perfect. Um, but while moving forward, if we sit back and wait for every light to turn green and for a perfect path to be made, we're never going to move. I'm more interested in taking u it traffic light by traffic light, even if it means red lights along the way, because at least we're moving forward. Inaction is an action and it's a decision, and inaction is not what is right for our district. We need to make some decisions, as tough as they may be, and move forward as a community. We can spend our time thinking about the past, wondering why we have declined, holding on to something that isn't our current reality, or we can spend our time focusing on how we can

131best educate the 20,000 students that we do have in D-51. And I'm more interested in the latter. I love our district and our community, and I know the board does, too. My job and our job is to do what's best for the district as a whole, not what feels best for one individual school over another. and what's best for our district as a whole will 99% of the time align with what feels best for individual schools. But the only way I can take action and take care of our district and prioritize each individual school is by always putting our district's needs first. There are decisions that will ultimately have a positive impact on the entire district and we need to prioritize those and we need to make some decisions and then we need to move

132on as a community. Not move on, we need to move forward as a community. And so, um, I look forward to in November bringing a report to the board and, um, us making a decision and then we can move forward and then we don't have to continue to talk about school closures and and the impacts it's having on our school district. Well, and I and I think it's important because while um while some may have forgotten that we t, you know, we started a committee and we t the committee with all this work, um is that I think a lot in our community have sort of been waiting for this other shoe to drop, you know, the proverbial shoe to drop. And I think it's time for us to um make the decisions now that

133we have the committee, we have the long range facilities plan, we're going to have the information. Um, like you said, it's not going to it's not the the one solution for all things. It's just part of part of the solution. And I think at least, you know, from the board standpoint, my recommendation or my request from you and your team is that we don't have to do this again. Um, I would hope that your recommendation would be what this board could make a decision so that our our community truly can move forward and there's not another year where we're anticipating looking at that. And again, I know other things can change, but that would be my hope that we could kind of finalize the at least the consolidation process because it is it wears I

134know it wears on you and your team. It wears on the board. It obviously waivers on the communities that are waiting to hear about things and then once they know it wears on them to to figure it out. But I will if it's a silver lining at all some of the feedback because we do follow up with staff and students that have moved on from these school consolidations. And I will say that there have been some some silver linings um with some feedback that we have gotten um from those consolidations around just resilience of change. um sometimes a different working environment. And so I think we sometimes lose that that while change is always inevitable um I think it's like what you're saying Dr. Hill is let's let's make the best out of this opportunity

135and not try to dwell too much on you know what we're going to have to go through but let's look forward and and move forward in that. Well, and I I appreciate that and I appreciate you bringing up the idea around the numbers of schools because that has been part of this process as well is trying to figure out, you know, you don't want to you don't want to do too much to where um it could have a a negative impact in another way. Um and so we want to make sure that we're not only taking care of, you know, budget and um and enrollment numbers and and um programs within our buildings, but also taking care of our people within our schools. And so, you know, working with HR, we've been having that conversation

136as well. And so that's why, you know, that's where we are right now is trying to figure out what again what's that right number. I don't think there's a right number, but what's the best option? Um, and then which schools might be the best option um within that number and then that will be the recommendation moving forward. And and we'll talk about that in it'll be in the report, but also in November as well as like how we came to that conclusion around a certain number of schools. So, but I appreciate you bringing that up. Board, any other thoughts or questions? All right. Well, thank you. That was a really uh well done report. Uh really well organized. So, thank you for that. And um and you said we are putting this out for the

137public to see on our website. Yeah. Well, um uh I always send the PDF to Amy and then she uploads it um on the website under the board meeting. So, people can go and find that under the um uh items listed under the board agenda. This is kind of a great culmination of what's been transpiring over the last two years. And I think the timelines are going to be really helpful for people to kind of understand where we were and and where we're going. So, all right. Um, what do we have next? President, go ahead. Can we take it back? Oh, yeah. Do we need Yes. All right. We're going to take a quick um let's see. 64. Let's come back at 10 till. So, thank you. All right, I think we're we're ready to

138resume. So, Dr. Hill is Mel and her team coming up next. Yeah, sorry. Take a pause between the superintendent report. Yeah. Yeah. So, Mel will come up and give us an update on end of year and first quarter financials and business investment report. from the award-winning finance department. Good evening, board. Um, so you have two full packets of financials um in your materials tonight. The first is for fourth quarter end of year. Um, and then the second is for the first quarter, which is activity through September 30th of the current 2425 fiscal year. So, just as a reminder, these are prepared quarterly. Um they're reviewed by our fiscal oversight committee um who also include a memo to the board highlighting some of this information that I'll be sharing tonight. Um there's three years of budget

139and financial documents also housed on our financial transparency web page. Um you should be able to go to any Colorado school district and see that icon for financial transparency and see the same set of documents that we have available on ours. So the first packet on G3 is for last fiscal year, fourth quarter 2324. Uh for the close of the 2324 fiscal year in any budget year, there's a lot of things that can go right and a lot of things that can go wrong. Um and really we close the year with some things going right. Um local revenues remain strong in specific ownership tax collections and interest earnings remained high. Uh revenues came in at 101.8%. 8% of budget. And on the expense side, as the co esser grants wrapped up, the district was able

140to continue its strategy of moving current costs into the grant to re temporarily relieve pressure from the general fund. Um, an instance of that was that we were able to take $3.7 million in staffing costs into the ESSER grant at the end of last fiscal year, freeing up onetime dollars, which as Dr. Hill presented, are helping to maintain elementary staffing levels in the current year. Uh the district was also awarded about $400,000 in additional ESSER funds from the state. Um those were funds that were unspent by other school districts and so they were reallocated through rapid requests or late liquidation. And so some of their uh qualifiers would were that they had to already be expended. That way the state was ensuring that they wouldn't have to give back those dollars in the end. And

141so we were able to get that those funds for some interventions. Again, those were costs that are were already incurred as the state was closing out their dollars. Um, our ESSER funds are now closed out as well as of September 30th. Um, an efficiency that's been presented through some of our strategic plan work last year was around utility cost savings and just more closely managing those the usage of buildings when buildings are in use, when they're not, and controlling the heating and cooling costs associated with that. And so one thing I just wanted to point out was that we actually had a total dollar amount lower in utility costs last year by about $350,000 less than the prior year. So in that specific line item, that meant only using about 92.8% of the budget. And

142so when you put together all of these factors, um, our expenses ended the year at 98% of budget. Um, as Dr. Hill mentioned we're on track to meet the board approved minimum reserve of 20% of expenditures in this current fiscal year 2425. So finding efficiencies, maximizing grant dollars and getting reserves to sustainable levels even within our tight financial constraints have been concerted efforts in recent years and those efforts though challenging are working. Um Esser dollars certainly provided a unique opportunity for us to shore up reserves without impacting ongoing needs. But now with the ESR grant closed out, the general fund still on track to meet that reserve requirement. So I wanted just to highlight a couple of our other major funds for how they ended 2324. The first is the nutrition services which is on

143page 15 in G3. Uh last year was the first year of Colorado's healthy school meals for all. um that that our nutrition services team was serving over 4,000 breakfast and 10,000 lunches per day, which was about a 20% increase over the previous year before that program. Um so great participation locally and across the state from students and families. Um but as the district was adjusting to the increase in meals and staffing that that required um as well as the changes to how the reimbursements were flowing, that fund did need to utilize about $880,000 of their reserves. Again, that's why we have reserves. Um, labor costs and inflationary food costs increases impacted the fund. And so, something that our nutrition services department is doing this year is they're really proactively looking at controlling overtime and additional

144hours, those costs add up, um, reducing disposable tray use. So, anywhere that they can find some efficiencies, they're looking at. But they also had an assessment um from the healthy school food pathway, which is a state program that specifically looked at food efficiencies. And so, they were able to make some recommendations of helping to simplify some menu options, thereby limiting food waste. Um there's still about $1.5 million held in reserves in that fund for emergencies. Um but their goal is to get back to having a balanced budget by the end of the current year. Our capital projects fund is another one that I want to just um highlight. So that's on page 22. Um that fund received a dispersement of school land dedication fees that the district requested to reimburse some of the costs previously

145paid from that fund actually for this building, the R5 Summit building. Um this contributed to our revenues exceeding budget um just due to timing really. Those funds were received in the spring which was after our budget readdoption had happened in January. Um and then lastly the district self-insured medical fund is on page 23. Um happy to be able to say that we returned to the recommended reserve level in that fund um after some of the cost controls and the general fund support um that's been implemented there in recent years. um really trying to get away from some of the very large increases that have been required on the district's part and out of employees paychecks. And so open enrollment is now underway. Um the plan is holding steady as far as participation and claim costs.

146Um and there's a 2.6% increase to premiums both on the district side and on the employee side. Um but the district is continuing to pay 100% of full-time employee premium cost. And then turning to the current year through September 30. Um that's in G3B of your packets. Um the fiscal year is still really getting underway. Um a lot of unknowns without having a finalized October count. Um some of those things that ultimately will impact how this year goes. Um but so far not really any ma major changes to revenues or expenditures. They're tracking as we would expect. Um, one thing to note in the general fund, if you're looking at our revenues that have been received through the first quarter this year compared to prior years, is that we're about three almost 4% ahead of

147where we were in prior years. And that's because of a Senate bill that was passed last year, SB 2417, which just smooths the dispersements. So, we normally get a large portion of our local property tax dollars in the spring. Um, and before the state share was just spread evenly over the 12 months, but now instead it shifts that we'll receive some of our state revenue early in order to provide more equal payments throughout the year until those local property taxes come in. So, it doesn't change the overall dollar amount that we'll be receiving, just kind of the cash flow piece of it. Um, if we're looking ahead, there are four things that will be upcoming. In a couple weeks, our governor will release his budget proposal for 2526. So, even as we're still wrapping up

148our last year financial, we're already looking ahead to next school year as well. And this his proposal is really kind of a first glimpse at what we could expect. Um, we've already had Amy Atwood present to the board just last month, I believe it was. and all indications are that it's going to be a tight budget year at the state level. Still hearing that um inflation is coming down which in general is good for costs. Um but it is a factor to our funding levels. And so for example in previous years the inflation component has been 8% and 5.2% and this year this next year it's um estimated to be 2.7%. So this number coupled with our continued declining enrollment um would suggest an even tighter budget for us in district 51. And so something

149we'll of course be monitoring very closely and looking forward to the November 1 budget proposal and then just as the year progresses. Um beginning of December, like we mentioned before, we'll have our official October funded pupil count finalized. And then also our independent auditor will be coming to give a presentation to the board about how our audit went for last fiscal year. Um they've been in our offices a couple of times now and then are still continuing to wrap up the audit, but it's going well so far. Um then in the January business meeting, as we normally do, we'll plan to read our budget. And that just gives us kind of a mid-year check-in, another quarter's worth of activity, being able to true up to any expenses or revenues that have changed since last May

150and what are we're anticipating. Um looking at our student count revenue, and then those beginning fund balances. Any questions? Does the board have any questions? Can I add something because you didn't talk about the good news you got to so Mel will never brag about herself. Um, so we um, so I'm just going to read from the email, but um, we have just got the financial info um, back that she mentioned while ago and this report is put out each year by the office of the state auditor and shows that we are meeting all financial benchmarks and improving in several ratios. Um, this goes against the trend of an increasing number of districts missing benchmarks and showing signs of financial stresses. uh we have specifically improved in the areas of um asset sufficiency ratio and

151operating reserves ratio and should continue to once uh to once last year's audited data uh is in included. This also helps us when we go out um for bonds um this will be a report we can highlight uh for the credit rating call. So just more good work by our finance department and and Mel's team. Yeah. So that was exciting that came out today. Um it's a very financially rich document and some pages but it goes through different ratios that the office of the state auditor uses to benchmark financial performance and specifically any concerns. So if districts are missing benchmarks that might be a early indicator that they they have some issues or are going to in the future. And so it's exciting that we're kind of going against what other districts are experiencing because

152of some of the things that we're doing. It's exciting. Well done. Thank you to you and your team. All right. Thank you. All right. That concludes my report. Okay. Um we are ready for audience comments. So, um, just if you've not given comments before, um, Director Jones will call who's on deck or excuse me, who's up and then who's on deck. Um, we have a little light here, so it'll go from green, yellow, red. We also have a tone. Um, so when you have about 30 seconds left, it'll be a a shorter tone and then when your time is up, it'll be a longer tone. And um, so you have three minutes to speak. You don't have to take the full three minutes, but I will remind you that three minutes goes by a lot

153faster than you think once you're up there. And um board would love to hear from you. So, um you ready to go? Okay, take it away, Director Jones. Uh good evening, everyone. Uh if for some reason you don't finish your three minutes and you'd like to send us an email of it that we'd love to finish hearing it, but we do have to stop it at three minutes. So, first up would be Miss Allison Dory and on deck would be George Sharouch. Thank you for allowing me this time to speak about something that is very important to me and my students access. My name is Allison Dohy. I am a Central High School graduate and my partner is a Central High School graduate and one day my son may be as well. Now, there are

154a number of reasons why Central High School is in desperate need of a rebuild, but today I will be speaking as one of the three severe special needs teachers at the school and the lack of safety and accessibility we deal with daily. Inclusion is a priority with our students, but the current state of Central High School makes that very difficult, if not impossible at times. There are four levels to the main building. and not one ramp. The second floor classrooms are completely inaccessible due to Central not having an elevator. Even the old Grand Junction High School had an elevator in the twof floor school. That still leaves three of the four levels mentioned. There are flea three flights of stairs from the front of the building to the back down the main hallway. Not a

155ramp. For those unable to climb stairs due to injury or disability or in use of a wheelchair, the only way to access or move from one end to the hallway to the other is to go outside and around the buildings. This means for these students to get breakfast, lunch, for students to get from class to the nurse's office or from lunch to any number of classes, they first need to go outside. Rain, snow, heat, or lightning. This poses a risk to all, but specifically the health and safety of our most medically fragile students, those with seizure disorders, high dollar medical equipment, and/or wheelchairs. No student should ever be forced into the rain and lightning to get to their class that was just down the hall, especially our most impacted student population. Every student should have

156access to every classroom in the school, including the track, which is no access. In order to build the strong inclusive community, we need a school building and campus that allows that. Accessibility is many reasons Central High School needs to be rebuilt. And this is all for the bond and levy. Thank you. Up next we have George George. What's your last name? George. And on deck we have Justin Wford. Thank you, sir. Hi, my name is George Jerish. I'm here today to speak about student parking permit fees. District 51 policy has a list of reasons why there would be a fee. Nothing pertains to why there would be a student parking permit fee. But since there is a fee, which gives nothing in return for that fee, resolution 222376 adopted March 28, 23 states a detailed

157description on fee purpose and how it was derived. In the parking permit fee section, it states to cover a portion of the cost of providing parking for students. This fee is mandatory for students choosing to park at school. Policy JQ-R adopted June 1372 states any fee collected shall be used for the purpose set forth in the resolution and shall not be expended for any other purpose. Doing so results in a policy violation. This means this fee money can only be used of providing parking for students. I have spoken with several district District 51 staff members and received no satisfactory answers. Every answer I received is a policy violation. I was told it's a privilege for students to park on campus and a benefit for staff. That's 100% backwards. All district 51 buildings and parking lots

158were built for the benefit of the student, not the staff. All district 51 staff are privileged to be allowed to benefit the students. For the safety of the students, all students should park on campus. No students should pay to park where they attend school. These policy violations need to be corrected for the benefit of the student. These unjustifiable parking permit fees need to end as they do not benefit the students. I have a list of questions that all students and parents deserve answers to. I have made several requests to have a sit-down meeting with Superintendent Dr. Brian Hill to discuss his answers to my questions. Superintendent response was a sitdown meeting won't be happening. Since Superintendent Hill is unwilling to have a meeting, I am requesting a sitdown meeting with the board of directors. Is

159the board willing to have a meeting with me? Thank you. You Thank you, George. The board, we don't respond um at during public comment, so send an email to the board, please. You just to the board. Yep. All righty. Up next, we have Mr. Wifford. And on deck we have Caleb Hicks. Thank you. Thank you very much. My name is Justin Whiteford from Grand Junction High School and um I'm here in support of 4A and 4B. First of all, thank you for in accepting the invitation for our naturalization ceremony next week. We appreciate that. We look forward to seeing you. Um, I'm here to support our fellow high schools and other other buildings that will benefit from this. When you're in a brand new building and you feel safe and secure as the public supported

160us, we're here junctions here to support Central Fra and the other buildings because you know when you reduce 75 doors down to a handful and you feel comfortable in one building and safe, you can actually teach. You can teach without anxiety. you can teach without uh the pressure and the the overwhelming feeling that something might happen. Just it's just second nature now in education that something might happen and kids can actually learn. So we feel for these high schools that are saying as you heard tonight when your heart goes out you want to cry when you hear this idea that you have to go outside and you're in these fragmented buildings and module. It's just not right. And so I'm preaching the choir here. So I would address the people online. If you're for it,

161reach out tonight. Text five people. Let's not just be complacent and say, "Yeah, it'll pass." We have to be active. And so, teachers, uh, people out there, just text five people and say, "Hey, just quick reminder, vote from the back to the front. It's the last two issues, 4 A, 4 B." Yes. Text five people, vote yes. If you're on the fence, then you go to central and if you're okay with these kids in wheelchairs and it's not ADA compliant and they can't get to the second floor where the science rooms are and you're okay with that, that's on you. And if you're okay to go to Fruda and see those modulars outside and okay with them getting an entire new grade level in and they're trying to manage that and kids around modulars and

162you're okay with that. Safety should be number one. There's other issues. Fine. We can vote on that. But we can't we can't debate safety and we feel safe at Junction. We want them to feel what we feel. And so I'm here to just beg people like go see it for yourself. Don't be lazy and vote. No. Go see Central, go see Fruda, and realize that every school actually gets something from this. If you vote yes on 4 A and 4B, every school gets something. So even if you don't go to those schools, we're going to finally get up to where we need. When you're, and I'll leave on this note, when you're dead last almost in the state for funding, and then Colorado's dead last in the country, we're up against this monumental task to

163try and solve. You have facilities where these people don't feel safe. It's just not right. and you gave us the safety and freedom. Now give it to those schools because they deserve it. Up next we have Mr. Caleb Hicks and on deck uh Rob is Pism. Good evening. My name is Caleb Hicks. I'm a physics teacher and student council adviser at FMHS. Um, I'm here to support the bond and mill as well. Today I uh talked to my student council and asked them what they knew about the bond um in the mill and presented them the slides that Dr. Hill has put out and uh just kind of just kind of wanted to hear from them and first of all they didn't they didn't really understand what what a bond or a mill was. So

164we had that discussion that was pretty cool and their comments after were were pretty interesting. Um they told me that the their school setting really matters to them. Um environment promotes learning was another thing they said. Uh pride in their school and um increasing school spirit comes comes a lot from setting. Um they also said that uh learning is directly affected by by what's around them. Um they also mentioned safety, school safety, which you know coming from teenagers and not just from the adults, I thought that was interesting that they brought that up. And they they were kind of competitive. They said we need to compete with the other school districts. they travel to other school districts and see um different schools and and they brought that up as well. I thought that was pretty

165cool. Um talking specifically about uh science um we are we are held nowadays to really having robust labbased science classes. And to do this well um we need counter space, electrical outlets um for new tech. uh we need sinks, we in general need just bigger spaces and that's part of what uh Fruit of Monument um would get as part of this as part of this uh this bond. Um I think kind of my overall comment to the public is that we're not really asking for anything flashy. We are not these are very basic needs. um safety. Uh getting rid of the modulars at Fra Monument is a big one that's been mentioned already tonight. And um uh yeah, we're we're we're not asking for brand new everything. We are we are these are very basic

166needs and I think that that's that's something that um the public needs to know. So uh thanks for the chance to speak tonight. Appreciate it. You all righty. Up next we have Mr. Rob Pism and on deck Carla Hos. Thanks everybody. I just wanted to go ahead and speak on the bond and milligan um for it and uh I teach over at Central High School math and engineering and teched. These are those hands-on courses that uh our courses or sorry our students really thrive in. Um, but the biggest thing about why the bond uh and mill need to go ahead and get passed is because pride goes a long way. Um, if you've ever uh walked into a room wearing a poor set of clothes, walking into a room with duct tape on your shoes,

167walking into a room, unshaven, and uncared for, that's what it kind of feels like when you walk to Central. And that's not fair. It's hard to go ahead and set the um level and try to level up when you're already down near the bottom. And um this mill levy is going to go ahead and sorry the mill and bond is going to go ahead and truly support the community, truly give the learners an opportunity to feel pride, truly go ahead and level things up as the Grand Junction High School has for the rest of the community. So, I just want to thank you guys for honoring that. I want you guys to think about pride of the community. I want you to think about pride for those that are walking down the street next to

168you. And take care of one another. This is an opportunity for us to take care of one another. Thanks. All righty. Up next, we have Miss Carla Hass. And after that, we have new Good evening. My name is Carla Hass. I'm a math teacher and a STEM leader at Central High School. This is my 32nd year of teaching and my 20th year at Central. I continue to teach because I'm passionate about finding innovative ways to teach mathematics and committed to our students and this community. I'm excited about the possibilities that 4A and 4B bring to our students. As public school teachers, we are used to making the most of the facilities and supplies that are available to us. Great things are happening in district 51 and at Central High School. So, just imagine what we

169can do with highquality facilities. We've seen the community pride that comes from a new school with R5, Orchard Mesa Middle, and recently Grand Junction High School. While Central would not be receiving a completely brand new school, we would be addressing some of our greatest needs. Our need, one need is improved safety. Our current layout of our campus gives free access to anyone to enter our campus at any time of day. We do our best to direct people to the office, wear badges, keep our doors locked. However, those can't address all of the open entries to our campus. As a STEM leader, I encourage students with strong interests in STEM to attend Central. Our science classrooms are innovative but small, antiquated, and located on the second floor, which is difficult for students with physical disabilities or

170injuries to access. Due to the asbestous in the building, because of its age, no elevator can simply be installed to solve that problem. As we develop our STEM program, we have added some innovative math classes such as Amped, algebra 1 and manufacturing processes, entrepreneurialship and design. We apply math we are learning and running a t-shirt pressing business. In order to run our four t-shirt presses at one time, we must run extension cords across the room to another breaker, turn off the swamp coolers, the projector, and the printer. and heat them up one at a time. Since we are an outside building in the modular, our exits are outside entrances and must be closed and locked at all times. So, you can imagine how toasty it get can get. As always, we find ways to make

171work. It's not an ideal situation. And we're so grateful to have the modular. There was no classroom that could hold our class until Orchard Mesa got their new school and we got their modular. So, I know you're already aware of some of these needs as you've received facility reports. So, thank you for listening to the perspective of a teacher who sees the needs firsthand every day. And keep in mind that our facilities um are good, but they have not been able to keep up with the innovation in the classroom. Thank you, Miss S. Up next we have Mr. N. And lastly, Miss Ricky Howey. You're on deck. My name is N Klu and I'm privileged to be the principal of Fra Monument High School. This evening, I'd like to take a few moments to share

172how the upcoming bond and mill would have a positive impact on the FMHS community. To begin with, the bond measure would address capacity, safety, and educational needs at Fruit of Monument. This year, we welcomed 9th graders onto our campus for the first time in 18 years. As a result, we have over 200 additional students and 20 additional staff members in our building. The original Fra Monument was built in the early 1970s to accommodate a far smaller number of students and staff. To prepare for our new students this summer, FMHS added two temporary modulars to the south end of the building. This provided us with four new classrooms for learning. Additionally, six teachers now share classrooms, and every nook, cranny, and office space is currently spoken for. If passed, the bond measure would connect our south

173building to our west building, adding classrooms to address our capacity needs. Safety is also a main concern when it comes to the needs of our building. Like I said, Fruit of Monument has been added on to over the years with the bulk of these additions happening prior to our current reality of lockdown drills and internet swatting. The previously mentioned major improvement included in this measure to connect the south end of our building to the west end would make FHS safer for its students. The building is current currently secured with a fence, which is good, but brick and mortar is far better for our students safety. And when students feel safe, they learn at higher rates. One of my favorite parts of being the principal of FMHS is giving tours of the building to previous graduating

174classes. I usually let the group know where we are in the timeline of the building as we walk through it. Unfortunately, when we go into our science classes and technical education shops, these look the same to the graduates of 1984, 94, and 2004 because they are. As educators, our goal is to prepare students for their future, not our past. Upgrading our antiquated science and tech labs will ensure students are prepared for their future. Additionally, the proposed mill on this year's ballot will also benefit FMHS. This year, Fra Monument earned the highest SPF score since 2016, scoring a 73.5, which was the highest of the high schools by the monies from the mill levy would allow for the curriculum started in the past couple of years to continue to the benefit of all students. But more

175importantly, ask any educator and they'll tell you that initiatives, trainings, and learning campaigns are helpful, but the greatest gift to student learning is time. And that's just what this mill levy allows for. five additional days with our learners to get them to where they need to be. Thank you for this time this evening. More importantly, every school will benefit from these initiatives, not just Frontman. Thank you. And lastly, we have Mr. Kihawi. I know that the district celebrates all learners, whatever they're learning. And I wanted to take tonight to remind you that on Saturday out in a the Red Fox um winery, there will be a car show, a classic car show. And the star of this show will be a vehicle that was built from the ground up by five students over five months

176at the Acme Chop Shop. Uh the owner has a program. He does this all the time. Um one of my classic cars is there right now. It's a 1953 Packard Clipper touring sedan and she is getting a paint job and she will be gorgeous when she comes out. But these guys, these students do everything from work on the suspension, suspensions to the gauges, uh prepping for paint, rust repair, all the wires, the seals, the um and so this will be um a special event in the community for students. Uh Saturday, Red Fox Winery, 9:30 to 2. It's a wonderful show. Thank you. I believe also this Saturday we have a tour of Central High School starting at 900 a.m. So maybe you can hit the tour of Central High School and then make your way

177out to Palisade and see the classic cars and the cars. So that we're just giving our community an opportunity to actually see firsthand um what Central High School looks like. Um I am a graduate of Central High School, so I actually did not get to experience the fun new gym. I think that actually came like a year or two after I graduated. So I was super jealous that they got the uh super nice gym at the time, which is now what 25 or more years like um old. So, I'm probably shaving off a few years just for the fun of it. So, um, so for anybody in the community, if you are kind of wavering on 4 A and 4B, um, I know it was powerful for our community to see Grand Junction Heist. Oh,

178hey, you did that. My bad. I just got punked, I think. So, and obviously um new is is if you call the office, right? Can if they if if our community calls and wants to be able to take a look through the schools, I know our principles would accommodate as well. So, um I do also want to remind our community that this is a no tax rate increase bond and mill. So, when the board sat down and really looked at this, we wanted to try to find a win-win between um an ask that we knew that we needed for our schools, but also something that would not put an additional burden on our communities. So, we feel this is a really great way for us to get at least a start of the dollars that

179we need um towards our facilities and then keep the mill, which we feel we've proven has um produced academic outcomes and is something that's ongoing. So anyways, vote yes for 4 A and 4B because as board members we can say that. So thank you all for your time this evening and like uh Director Jones said, if you didn't have a chance to speak tonight or whatever, you always welcome to email the board. The three things I wrote down, you said one of them. So yeah, Saturday at 9, you're right. Uh come tour central. Um I'm also glad that um Miss Hass uh mentioned her the print t-shirt printing. They also print banners which is really cool. Actually, the t-shirt I wore last year at the state of the district address was printed by um their

180kiddos. So, they have a lot of cool stuff going on over there. And I just wanted to mention uh way to go N for fitting in there that you had the highest SPF rating in the of the high schools. It's like a total frud thing to do to throw that jab in there. But thanks for sharing that this evening. The board might have to get like board t-shirts from Central. We've been trying to think that we need to have something that uh we could do as a board. So, maybe we'll have to have a You guys do design too, right? Okay. Maybe we'll have to next whoever is doing the student advisory next time at central go by the department and create some board shirts for us. So yeah, there we go. That's right. All

181right. Um thank you everyone and if uh thank you for staying. So we're going to go through the rest of our meeting, but if you would like to um make your way home, thank you. We know you've had a long day already, so thank you for coming this evening. Um, all right. And Miss Ricky, I'll have to talk to you about cars because I like cars, too. So, um, all right. Let's see. So, we have our consent agenda. So, the consent agenda contains personnel actions, um, and acceptance of gifts and items 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. uh board. Is anyone requesting any items to be removed? Okay, seeing

182none, um I will say that we the total amount of gifts we had uh for this this period was 14,470. So, thank you to all of the individuals and businesses that donate to the district. And those are listed um on our forms. So, if you want to see um the generous donors that we get every time um it's we're very thankful for that. So, do I have a motion to approve the items on the consent agenda? Motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. Mr. Chavez, Mrs. Evansson. Yes. Mrs. Heights? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Miss Lima? Yes. All right. Uh, we have no business items to vote on this evening. Um, is there any open board discussion? And I know we already I have one thing. Go for it. I think we just missed something on

183uh celebrations and D150 happenings and celebrations. I think we forgot to congratulate Sierra for for in October being engaged. Oh, her engagement. Yes. Oh, yes. Yes. Sierra Sierra got engaged. So, congratulations. Yes. Yes, we do. Thank you, Jose Luis for for pointing that out. So, um yes, we have to celebrate all the things we are we are individuals outside of all of this work as well, right? We do have lives some days, right? Um, all right. So, our next meeting, so um, just a reminder to our community, the board usually only has one meeting in November and one meeting in December, unless there is a lot of information or some for some reason we have to do an extra meeting. So, we don't do our workshop meetings. We will just have business meetings those two

184months. So, um, so our next meeting will be November 12th, um, five o'clock here. Unfortunately, I think it's going to be dark by the time that we start the meeting instead of getting out because of the time change. So, um, anything else? Um, I do real quick. Uh, just for our middle school kids, elementary kids, um, the little kid, if you like football, next weekend is Super Bowl for the all the little kiddos. We have flag football. We have a 10U, 12U, and a 14U. And I know some of our district employees are coaches out there. So, if they make it, they'll be out there in the Super Bowls. And so it'll be a great day. We'll be we'll be at Stoker all day Saturday uh starting at 8 a.m. and the last game is

185at uh I believe is at 6. So all right, thanks for the update. So yes, and uh just a reminder to any of our schools, the board always loves invitations. We try to make as much as we can um for the invites and we appreciate uh being notified of those. So thank you. All right. Well, thank you everybody for your evening and be safe driving home tonight. Motion to adjurnn. Oh, do I have a motion to Yeah. Motion to adjurnn. Motion. Okay, we're Thanks.