001Welcome people. All righty. Good evening everyone. Thank you for um allowing us a couple of minutes. We had a couple board members and staff coming directly from another meeting. Um, we'll go ahead and um call the meeting to order. Um, I think we'll go ahead and do the pledge and then we um let's do that. So, Director Jones, since you're in such a great mood, do you want to kick us off? All right. Thank you. All right. So, the first um item we have on our meeting tonight is the um budget hearing. So, this would be the time uh that if anybody has any comments on the upcoming budget that we will give a couple of minutes. We will also have time at our next meeting as well. Okay, seeing no comments, um we have
002gotten through our first budget hearing. Um, is the board good if we just leave this open and we adjourn at the end because then we'd have to come back into a meeting at the end and with the business items. I can call us back into order or we can just move into the work session items. Amy, is there any issue with us doing it that way? No, just um we can strike the first adjourn. Yeah. Oh, I guess we Okay. I guess yes. Thank you. You're right. All right. You do have a motion to adjurnn in the budget hearing. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All right. So, we're done with that. Um but we will go ahead and um call to order uh to move into our business items. Thank you for that clarification, Dr. Hill.
003I forgot we had to do that for the budget hearing. Um so, we can go ahead and do roll call. Mr. Chavez. Mrs. Mrs. Evansson here. Mrs. Heights here. Mr. Jones here. Ms. Lima here. And Mr. Chavez let us know that he had some family um things this evening that he was not uh that he did take care of. So, we knew that he would be gone this evening. Do I have a motion to um approve the agenda for this evening? Motion to approve the agenda. Second. Mrs. Evansson. Yes. Mrs. Heights. Yes, Mr. Jones. Yes, Miss Lima. Yes. All right. And in June, we recognize the Caribbean American Heritage Month. Um, as a board, we like to recognize the different heritages um that live in our community. So whereas Caribbean American Heritage Month is a
004time to celebrate the achievements and aspirations of millions of individuals of Caribbean origin living in the United States and to honor the shared history of resilience that has united and enriched our region for centuries. And whereas Caribbean Americans have made significant contributions to our community, enriching fields such as arts, business, education, journalism, technology, government, and beyond. Their pivotal roles in various social and political movements have helped shape American history, culture, and governance. And whereas June has been nationally designated as Caribbean American Heritage Month, providing an opportunity for all communities to celebrate and honor the enduring heritage and rich history of Caribbean Americans and to reflect on their experiences, traditions, and accomplishments. And now, therefore, let it be resolved that the Mesa County Valley School District Board of Education recognizes June 2024 as Caribbean-American Heritage Month
005and encourages our community to celebrate the history and contributions of Caribbean-Americans to our city, state, and nation. All right. Yes. Yes, we can clap. Yes. Um All right. So, next up in our work session, we have the Colorado Department of Housing Affordable Housing Toolkit. So, um I know JJ is online and um his presentation really goes over everything, so I don't need to do much of an introduction. There he is. Um can you hear us, JJ? I can. Thank you, Dr. Hill. Okay. And then I couldn't remember. Are you going to share the slides on your end? Yes, I am. Cool. Well, with that, I'll just I'll turn it over to you and you can uh walk us through the slides. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Pardon the delay here. Always something. Let's see. There
006we go. All right. Can everybody hear me? Okay. Yes, we can. Okay. Great. Thank you very much. So, um, thank you, Dr. Hill, for the introduction. I'm also here, uh, with my colleague, Brook Murphy. Uh we're from an organization called Community Builders. We are a small nonprofit organization. Um we work throughout Colorado. Brooke and I are in the Denver metro area, but we also have um our executive director is in uh closer to your region in uh in Glenwood Springs. Um we let me just start for a second. So, we were we have partnered with Enterprise Community Partners um who is also they're a national nonprofit that focuses on affordable housing. Um they work on all aspects of affordable housing nationwide. We were uh our team was contracted by the Colorado Department of Housing to
007provide a variety of uh local official trainings across the state as well as taking a deeper dive um for some communities that that are that wanted to apply for uh technical assistance. So that's why we're here this evening. So last year um the Mesa County Valley School District applied for technical assistance from Colorado DO uh at the beginning of the summer and were awarded um this technical assistance. So generally I'll just give a brief overview of what the scope of work is for this technical assistance. So we assisted the school district with an employee survey um that was launched in January of this year. Uh we also provided a document of best practices and precedents for employer assisted housing particularly focused on schools but there are some other examples in that document. A variety of
008opportunities and strategies and frameworks to help serve the housing needs of employees. We'll give a very brief summary of that. It's a a pretty comprehensive document that uh will be shared uh with the board and um tonight is just a brief overview of that. We've also identified a variety of partnership opportunities. Our internal team that we met uh just about monthly um almost for the for the last year um included Dr. Hill, Clint Garcia, Rachel Tally, Nikki Jo, and Emily Powell from from the Housing Resources of Western Colorado, and then Brooke and myself, as I mentioned. So, uh, I'm just going to give a brief overview of the survey. So, as I previously mentioned, those responses were collected, um, right after the holiday break at the beginning of this year in January. Uh we had
009a great response rate as far as you know statistical data is concerned. Um over about 40% of all your employees at the time our understanding was about two uh just over 2,800 employees. We know you've grown since then. Uh but 40% of those employees filled out the survey which was fabulous. And just a a real brief overview of that survey. So, across all the respondents of the survey, um ownership is the primary housing status, which is good news for those that own houses, um and this is for the age group of 35 to 54. And what we learned on that is that a lot of folks that have been in the region for a while, um have been able to afford their home. Uh 82% own. And then at the even older um demographic 55
010to 65 87% um own their homes. Yet the desired owner ownership rate not surprisingly most people want to own homes is is 90%. In this slide this show this takes a finer grain detail and looks at the 25 to 34 year old segment. The numbers are very different as you can see here. 52% own and 48% rent. almost almost a 50/50 split and and again the desired um housing status is 95% you know wish that they that they owned. Um so we asked a lot of questions about what are some of the barriers uh that people are currently experiencing and you know the good news is 60% of folks uh said there no no housing barriers experienced. The bad news is 40% of the respondents said yes, there are we are experiencing some barriers. So
011I'll just go over a few of those here. So almost one in four folks um employees said they're unable to afford their rent or mortgage. Um 20% unable to afford a down payment for those that are wanting to buy homes. And then 12% just lack of available housing in general when when looking for a place to live. Um, another o an open-ended question was, "Have you had trouble making housing payments while working for the school district?" Again, one just under one in three folks uh said yes. And some of the responses included salary and wages have not kept up with rising costs of living. um employees that are living alone on a sole income without supplementary income are having a hard time affording their home um or rental payment. And and then we saw in
012the previous slide a lot of homeowners, many of those homeowners are actually having difficulty paying for upkeep and needed home repairs and maintenance. U particularly those, you know, living in older homes. Some of the older respondents expressed concern about their ability of being able to retire or some have some even said that they're delaying their retirement due to um the financial insecurity uh which results in their in their housing costs. Um and in general higher cost of living um just everywhere you know you're not alone in in Mesa County, you know, statewide, nationwide. um inadequate pay, housing affordability challenges um have forced some employees to consider relocating geographically or looking for employment outside the school district altogether. So, not only moving from to a different town, but some are just realizing they can't afford to
013live in the community at all or or in the region. Um this is just a little bit more data describing um what I mentioned about sole income earners. So, uh, over 50% of your employees earn a salary between 30 and $60,000, which, um, is consistent nationwide that I'll show, or statewide, I'll show in a second. But the total household household income that skews higher, um, with households earning um, more than 70,000, and that's folks with a significant other or a roommate or or family member that is also helping them uh, pay the rent or the mortgage. Uh, and that's basically what that next statement says. You know, people would a lot of people said I think 30% said they wouldn't be able to afford to live in their home without that supplemental income. So, this
014is consistent. Um, the Mesa Mesa Valley Mesa County Valley School District, sorry, that's a mouthful. Uh, is consistent with Mesa County as a whole. So average individual incomes are uh just over 36,000 and average household incomes are just under 70,000. So as you saw from the previous slide uh and your median home prices um and again this this data is a little outdated now. It's uh almost a year old. So from July 2023 um median home price 378,000 and median gross rent just over a,000 almost $1,100 a month. So, um, I'll stop. Should I stop there, Dr. Hill, and and take questions or go through the entire presentation till the end? Just wanted to see if there were questions about the survey itself. Yeah, that's a great question. Does the board have any questions about
015the results of the survey or do you want them to keep going? Okay. Yeah, you're good. Okay, great. Thank you. So, what can the school district do? So, this is a outline of what I'm going to talk about pretty quickly here. Um, just, you know, a dozen slides or so. positioning for public private partnerships. You're going to hear me say the word partnership a lot because school districts are in the business of educating uh students, not not not historically not in the business of anything else, particularly housing. Um so we'll be talking about land opportunities, direct subsidies and cost reductions um as well as programs. So, homeowner and renter assistance programs, um, preserving and attaining affordable housing, and master lease programs. Those are a few things we'll we'll talk about how the district might be
016able to help out. So, why partnerships matter? Um, I basically just stated that to to state the obvious. School districts need assistance from other partners that understand housing and work in in that in the housing realm. Um, it's not school district's business. um attracting outside organizations. So, a great organization that you're currently starting to work with is Housing Resources of Western Colorado. They're lo um in Grand Junction and they're able to connect your employees to uh many programs. I I can't see on the screen or see the list of who's is Emily um is Emily here? Yes, she's joining us in the audience. Okay, great. Um, I have a couple slides from her. I don't know if she's uh able to to discuss what Housing Resources of Western Colorado does or I can easily um
017give an overview of these. Yeah, she's coming up now. So, okay, great. Thank you. Hi. I'm so sorry. I I had this on my calendar for 5:30. Um Oh, that's my bad. Uh, hi everybody. I am I'm Emily Powell from Housing Resources of Western Colorado. Nice to see you all again. It's been really fun to work on this project. Um very briefly, as the slide shows, we have um services really intended to cover the whole housing need spectrum. So, we have services for renters um for people who are trying to buy a home and for people who are already a homeowner and need to fix up their home or make energy improvements. We serve 15 counties on the western slope, but we have uh we were started here in Junction and we're headquartered here in
018Junction. And this is really where we have the vast majority of our services. I don't want to interrupt the flow of JJ's presentation here. So, I'll I'll hand it back to him and take his cues on where he'd like me to add in, but I'm also very happy to answer questions once JJ's completed his presentation. Great. Thank you, Emily. So, just briefly, I'll go over some renter and buyer assistance programs. And again, these uh many of these programs are are programs that that Emily's group in Housing Resources um is already doing and and can help out the school district. So, down payment assistance program, it's exactly what it sounds like. This is a program that helps um employees that are wanting to buy a home, but as as those of you that are homeowners know
019that that's one of the hardest hurdles um to getting to getting home ownership is coming up with that down payment. So providing assistance uh either through grants or loans um for for the down payment. These uh also include uh closing costs needed to to buy homes. You'll see in in many of these slides or almost all of the remaining slides, we are providing um hyperlinks to a variety of precedents and case studies across across the state. Many of them not far from you uh down in Eagle County and they're doing a lot of really great programs um for affordable housing and particularly uh the school district u with with employee housing as well as um some in in the front range too. So you'll also see on each of these remaining slides I' I've put
020um constraints of constraints for the school district for this particular program this con the constraint for down payment assistance and closing cost assistance. It requires staff time and partnerships um with housing authorities or nonprofit organizations like MLA Group. Um and again you'll hear me say that a lot uh partnerships uh rental deposit assistance. So again, very similar to down payment, coming up with first and last month's rent, uh very challenging for for most folks. Um so there's assistance to provide either financing, short-term financing for a deposit, um for first and last month's rent um or forgivable depending on, you know, if there's a a a term for that for that rental unit. um it can be based on on that length of term so that that down uh rental deposit may not have to be
021paid back um under uh if somebody stays in that unit for a given period of time. And that that goes with all of these. These are all sort of blanket examples and with under each one of these has numerous um ways that that you can can structure it. Um the the constraint here again requires direct direct funding. So where does that money actually come from? Uh master lease program. So we've talked a lot about this one. This is where um an employer, so the school district and an apartment complex negotiate a set number of units. So just to use round numbers, let's say there's an apartment complex of a 100 units and the school district signs a master lease with them saying we will take 20% of your units. 20 20 p 20 units and
022guarantee that those units will be rented. Um the Eagle County School District is doing this as as well as I believe Aspen uh as well. Um very they're ve very very have been very successful. Um the constraint it it does lock the school district into leases but um the counter of that is there's such high demand for housing that it's most likely not a constraint. So, if if the school district signs a lease for 20 units, most likely you'll you'll never have a problem renting those units out because typically in in other school districts or other employers, there's a waiting list for these um other programs is working with preferred lenders. So because the district is so large, um they have the opportunity working with local banks that can establish more favorable loans and rates
023uh specifically for uh district employees. Other other type of employers have have taken advantage of this working with lenders. Really no constraint on that if you have those existing relationships with with some of your local banks. Um although not a huge expense, uh it certainly helps a lot of folks that are having trouble with housing. Moving expenses, relocation assistance, um just a one-time, you know, cash payment to to help employees move to the area and and get into housing. Again, the constraint requires direct funding. Um some of the most relevant school district and partner funding options. Going to talk uh briefly about some of those. So, here's one that we've we've discussed with this group um a fair amount. District owned land. So, we're seeing school districts generally across the state and across the country
024um typically own a land own a lot of land and sometimes unused land. So selling uh or donating that land and or unused buildings either to local government entities or other nonprofit organizations that actually build housing is an opportunity uh for the school district. It le leverages that property you own. There's also opportunity if you if the school district owns more desirable land. you'll we'll say like we we used one example or we discussed one example of land adjacent to a ri to the river. I'm not sure which river but maybe Colorado River. Um that land could actually be sold at market rate and then the proceeds could be used to to underwrite affordability um to to partner with somebody to build uh school school district housing um employee housing. um case study on that
025one. Habitat for Humanity in the Veil Valley. Um they've they've been utilizing a lot of their land. We're seeing a lot of this in the Front Range, too, with Denver Public Schools, also one of the major land owners in the Denver metro area. Um the constraint there, as I mentioned, not really a constraint. uh it's one of the best opportunities for the school district as as the district owns a lot of viable properties that could either be sold and or developed by a development partner. Um just some details on some case studies. So in the Veil Valley, Habitat for Humanity is is doing a lot of great work up there. They've completed just recently a dozen homes for educators as well as um public service uh workers for the county and the land was donated
026uh by the school district. So the school district is a is a partner in that development and they're looking at doing more um in that region which is great. Um, also some smaller school districts across the state, Kuster County, they've converted an old building uh that was formerly a preschool into four affordable apartments. Um, and really cool program that they the the renovation was done by a high school program um as well as volunteers to to learn learn trades and learn how to convert um older buildings into housing. Um, in the Salida school district, uh, Habitat for Humanity in in that region built 10 new housing unit units, uh, for sale units, sold them to district employees, uh, below market rate, and they also used, uh, building trades students for that construction. So, really, really
027cool program that's worth looking into. Um, other part potential partners are your higher education institutions. So, Colorado Mesa University Tech, seeking partnerships with them. Uh, Colorado Mountain College, they're they're doing a lot of great things across the state. Um, uh, again, over in Eagle, I'm using using Eagle, uh, for a lot of these examples. They actually are developing 72 units of housing, uh, for faculty and staff, um, on on college, uh, property. So, in summary here, um, as I mentioned on the partnerships, there are, this is probably not a comprehensive list of all the potential partners that the school district could work with. Grand Junction, of course, the city of Grand Junction, the county, um, your health systems, again, uh, major major employees um, in in your region. So, partnering with with the health institutions
028as well as your h your local housing authority, the Grand Junction Housing Authority. Um and as I just mentioned the the university as well as Habitat for Humanity and these are partnerships in addition to um your your current partner with the Western Housing Resources Colorado with Emily. So I believe that's it um for the presentation. So now we'd like to open it up to any questions or conversation or discussion for us and and Emily as well. uh as she mentioned if you have questions for her about her program. Does the board have any questions that you can think of right now? Is there um I don't know if any of these communities did they start maybe with one thing like down payment assistance and then maybe move into something else as they saw like is
029there sort of like kind of a frame of reference that maybe some of these communities started like smaller and then kind of grew into something as they saw the need or anything like that? Yeah, that's a great question and you know, yes. So, most communities generally start small like the lowhanging fruit. So, let's let's as you mentioned the example of down payment assistance or uh rental assistance. Um, another another one is on the on the partnership front is working with your local partners. So you heard me say Habitat for Humanity a lot, reaching out to them um with Emily in the in the room. So Housing Resources of Western Colorado is is one of your best partners um which you're already working with to help you with um helping employees understand and know what programs
030are available. A lot of it a lot of this work is just getting the information out there. the pro programs exist. Um, assistance is is already out there in your region with with with her group. Um, and it's it's really just help helping your employees find the resources is is a a great starting point. And if I could add to that, um, that's exactly what the group has talked about. So your administrative leadership team has been really genuinely engaged in these conversations. and where we thought the starting point would be that just as JJ said, the lowhanging fruit. What could we connect people to today without the school district having to come up with a whole different pot of money. So, we've been talking with your leadership team about our partners in home ownership program
031and how could we do some really targeted outreach to your employees to connect them to uh programs that already exist. And then I think, you know, as the the district considers the success of that and the ongoing needs, you can consider some of these other maybe smaller things that you could start with. It's no coincidence that the examples that JJ and Brooke found were in these markets that are a little more hyperinflated where this has become a true business need. Like they just cannot staff their schools unless they do something about housing. Fortunately, Mesa County is not quite there yet, but the hope is to not let it get there, right? To get ahead of things. Um, so we're really pleased to have the the district as a potential partner in our partners in home
032ownership program. Um, we have a down payment assistance program. We have rental units. We have our self-help program. So, and and you have fantastic nonprofits um in Mesa County in addition to housing resources. So, that seems to be the best place to start. No, that's good to hear. So, I think if we can just get it out to the especially the age range or the survey range where they were saying that they they'd like a path to home ownership, you know, first connecting them with you and then as we continue to visit with you, you could say maybe here's some of the barriers we're we're seeing and then see if that's something the district could step in and help with or not. So, absolutely. Any other questions? Well, great. Well, Emily and JJ, thank you
033guys for that. Dr. Hill, did you have Yeah, I was just exactly what you were saying. And I wanted to make sure to thank um JJ and Emily and then the other folks that were on that list on the slide for all the meetings because remember this was a continuation of some of the work that was done prior when there was a committee that was together that was looking at this uh issue and then the grant was written um and then it allowed us to get this um this study going. So I am appreciative of the data. It's good data. We have a great starting point. Um, and then we do have some other options that we want to continue to explore. Um, like you said, viable options around if we have land and things
034like that that we want to look into. So, but it's good to have a good starting point and I know Nikki and Emily have already been connecting and working on that. So, it it's a long-winded way of saying thank you. Thank you all. Awesome. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Well, um, we now have up next our Grand Junction High School construction update. So, thanks Emily for your time. Appreciate you coming. Thank you all very much. We really appreciate it. Have a good evening. It's been a great project. Yeah, you too. Thank you. Bye. Bye. We got the whole crew here. It's great. Do we have a video to round this out this evening? Oh, just your weight. Oh, yes. Good one. Yes. Uh, how do I get over that? Let's see. Actually, I
035got it right here. Thankfully, I was able to figure it out. Um, well, it's great seeing everybody. Uh, once again, um, I'm Mike Adams with Dynamic Program Management, uh, the owners rep on the project. With me up here, I've got Colleen Caneda, uh, principal for DPM, Eddie Moore, director of facilities for the school district, and Peter Eisenogal, um, owner of the BLE group. So, with that, we'll go ahead and get started. As always, a quick overview of the schedule and budgets. Um, as you can see, we are rapidly approaching that little gold star there in that middle bar. Um, you know, start of school is starting. um beginning of August. So just a couple months away from that. Um things are going really great. Uh you know, everything in the budget is tracking and as
036you'll see here in just a couple slides, um you know, progress is coming along great as well. uh with furniture installation um pretty far along. One of the three contractors is 100% done and the other two contractors are finishing up this week. So, furniture is almost done. Fitness equipment is installed, shop equipment's installed, bleachers, you know, we're expecting to have uh the CO in hand here this week. So um you know right now there's still a lot of parts moving um between abatement uh we have two different abatement contractors on site. One is handling the outuildings on the east side of the site and the other is handling the the main building starting on the north side and working their way south. Uh we've got the mover in there um a ahead of the abatement
037contractors uh getting rooms cleared out um so that they can do their work. There's still a lot of site work going on as uh school got out. Um they took over that old parking lot there in between the existing building and the football field and uh started you know tearing that out getting the earthwork ready for the new parking lot that's going back there. Um commissioning is wrapping up this week and like I mentioned we are expecting the certificate of occupancy this week. What we have here is uh just a site diagram to show you guys, you know, there is still quite a bit of work left on this project. Um close to a year um left of site work. So, um that yellow right there you see on the screen, that is what I
038just mentioned FCI is working on right now. The green is complete. Um blue is where the existing school is sitting. As soon as that uh abatement is done, that will get uh torn down and they'll work on um the rest of that parking lot. You'll notice there they are uh doing everything they can to try to get that paved before uh winter sets in, but it it will be close. Um there will be adequate parking for the school um here by the time school opens. There's a little bit of work there on the north side as well. Um right now there's a giant dirt pile out there and that's what they're going to be using to back fill a lot of the the building and use under the parking lot. So uh that will be
039wrapped up uh this winter as well. And then the south side of the site, you know, soccer field, baseball field, tennis courts, everything like that, uh, will go into, um, you know, late spring, early summer this next year. Uh, here's just a couple metrics, couple fun pictures of a move out, abatement. Um, like I said, still quite a few things going on. Um, but I'll I'll let you read those metrics. um here on your own. With that, uh what everybody's been looking forward to, we have a video like it's jock jams. Yeah. All right. All right. Here we go. Last time we sing the fight song and we do it together. The band's going to play it first without us. The second time through is when we join. All right. On you. [Applause] might praise.
040Heat. Heat. Mother Boom. Um, yeah. So, that that I think is kind of a good overview of the project. Um, I hope you guys get out there to see it sometime soon. Uh, it's beautiful building. Um I uh you know do want to mention last kind of part to the building that is uh currently being wrapped up is the auditorium. So the the co I mentioned that we're expecting this week um the auditorium is kind of an exception. That area of the building will be uh sectioned off. They're you know not far away from finishing it up. They're just waiting on the the seats to come in which I believe are this Friday. Um so they'll get the seats in and then all the final touches. I believe it's um end of June, I think,
041is when that is scheduled to be wrapped up. So, any questions? All right. Need to get out and do a tour for sure, like soon. I It's been It's been actually a few months, so be good to go see with all the furniture and stuff in now. Yeah. I just um want to say, you know, it's cool seeing those pictures. It's like kind of emotional. Um, so thanks to the voters for approving that bond in 21. Um, because this is going to be huge for our kids and um, and thanks to the folks up here, but you know, Clinton, his team, the GJHS staff, everybody who's been working to on the project, but then also over the last few weeks to get all the stuff moved and get out of that old building. It's a
042lot of work to get ready um, for this fall. And so appreciate all the work that you all do. And I should also mention we've had staff at um, Fra Middle School and and 89 as well um, working on the transitions there. there and so thanks all the staff working there. So just a lot of gratitude for everyone who's been working on this. Um and it's a you know it's a project that's on time and under budget and we're really excited about that. Um I will say um the August 3rd date that's up there because this will be the last time you'll give an update before um we get into the fall. So we do hope the community will come out August 3rd um 10 to 2. We'll have um a ceremony at 10 to
043do the ribbon cutting and then tours um right after that. So, we hope the whole community will come out and um and see a school that our students deserve. So, thank you all for all the work you've been doing. Thank you guys. I don't know if anybody else feels like it, but I feel like the time has flown by since moment we we got on the board in 21, which I know there was a lot of prep before that, but to see how much has happened in that amount of time is uh no small thing. It is. I've been attending the OAC meetings every week. I haven't been there in person for a while, but I I get on virtually when I can't get over there or when I wear white pants. I told Mike
044I'd be there earlier today and I looked down and I thought, I'm not going in that trailer in these white pants. Um, but it it has it has when you get, I guess, to the back end of the the completion of a project like this, it feels very quick. There was a time about a year ago that it probably didn't feel very quick to anybody that was working on the project. But um also hats off to u principal Sornson and his team. They have according to the meeting today the move out everything has just gone as smoothly as I think anybody could have hoped. And to have everything just everybody really working together. It's so inspirational when you walk into that building and you and you walk around and see the brilliant facility that we're
045going to be able to provide for a group of students. It's it's really inspiring and I think everybody was just so happy about it that they did what they needed to do. Um they were all a little bit amazed that literally they said the door didn't close behind the last person out and work was beginning uh on the abatement and and to the next phase which is taking down the old building and celebrating the new one. So, thank you to everybody it's been and thanks for um being so welcoming and and um patient with someone that doesn't come from the construction world to come into it and and bother you with all kinds of crazy questions and and um issues through the last almost three years. So, appreciate that and thanks for everything. And happy
046birthday, Eddie. Yeah, I snuck it in there. All right. You thought you were going to get by, but you didn't. All right. Well, thank you everybody. That's a job well done and well planned and executed. Um and like Dr. Hill said, we're excited that it's on time and um like very very very likely under budget. So, we're super excited about that. Um so, now we have the board book discussion. So, this has been something that the board has um been looking at for a while. Um there's different platforms that different districts use to help make the um interface with the public easier for look searching for policies um and just a lot user friendly website. And now that our website has been updated, um we the board has been looking at a couple of different
047um uh I guess platform, thank you, platforms. Um and board book is um definitely a more affordable version. And so we were just going to look at having a discussion around that. I know when I go back to look for certain meetings or certain policies, um it's a little bit of a a digging. Yes. That you have to do to try to find things and then um Right. And if it's that hard for us, it's got to be really difficult for our community. Usually I can estimate when we talked about something by a certain meeting. Um and then even then I have to be like, well, which which one was it? So for our community to go back and say, "Hey, I wanted to go back to this meeting where they talked about such and
048such thing." Um, and we want to make it a lot easier because we know to commit time to during the week to come to a board meeting. We know a lot of people view online, but sometimes people want to go back and reference it or if they just wanted to watch a certain portion of it. We're just looking at trying to streamline that and make it a lot easier for our community. and it would also be a benefit to our staff and this board and future boards uh just as a usability. So, um do we have do we have information that we wanted to bring to the board on this or we're just kind of um so I know Amy sent out information to the board just to preview it. I to add to that
049um you're correct. I most districts I would say have moved to something that is a little bit more user friendly um that is searchable. I mean, that's a huge thing, right? If you want to go to another school district's site and search for a keyword for something that was brought up in a previous meeting, it it pulls up all the documents that that was mentioned in. So, um, but just being more user friendly right now, if you want to go back and find a document, you have to, like you said, remember what month was that and then go back and find the PDF and it's just not as user friendly. Um, and so it would be, I think it would be wise for us to move to a better platform. Um we did have meetings
050uh with we looked at some other um companies as well that were more expensive um that could provide really the same thing that board book provides but board book would do it for a lot um smaller price. We also had um Amy a part of those conversations because obviously Amy would be interfacing with it a lot to make sure that um that made sense for her. We had uh Dan Burke, our head of technology, as part of those conversations for could things be um shifted over from our old it's not really a platform, but our our website. Um and then also Cali would be uh interfacing with a lot as well with communication. So they've all been a part of the process too. Um we can get uh like I said a really it's a
051really small price, especially through um Colorado and CASBY have a deal with them so that districts can actually get a discounted price on this. So, um it would be a pretty minimal amount that we could pull out of the board's budget for, um for something like this that I think it'd be it'd be good for the board. It'd be good for the community, and it and it actually matches one of our strategic plan priority areas of being more transparent with communication and with our community. So, I I would I would advise we we move towards it. But, yeah, if there's specific questions that board members have beyond the information was sent out, we can also set up a time um for the folks to do a demo like they did with us as well. So,
052and if we did want to go towards this, we're not asking for a vote or anything, but if the board wanted to move forward with this, we can uh we've talked about working over the summer to get it hopefully implemented for the new school year. So, I So, CASBY uses um the the board books, so I've actually used it and interfaced with it. I know we originally looked at board docs. Um that one is significantly more expensive and they were kind of shifting um some of the stuff that they were doing. And I I personally didn't feel like it really met the needs that we were looking for in the district. And then board books was presented that CASBY can offer it like Dr. Hill said to um the participating districts in CASBY for like
053a like a fraction of the cost of what Board Docs is. And yeah, I think it comes out to like 200 bucks a month or something for you to have. It was only a few thousand a year where Board Docs was like thousands and thousands of dollars a year. So, um, kind of a commitment. Do we have like a yearly? Is it just an annual? I think when we it said it was annual when we talked to them. Yeah. Yeah. So, I again I personally interface with board books when I go to my CASBY meetings and I feel like it's a much easier way to um find bookmarks like on your meeting agenda items. Um, so if you want to skip right to uh something in that meeting, it's it's much easier to to jump
054to once you're on the website. And then we would use that as a board too. Like our agendas would be housed there. So right now we have to get into, you know, our Google Drive and go to our agendas. Um, now we would all just log into um board books and everything would be right there with the links that we need. So it's it's just a lot more. And then that was that also be what the public would be able to um utilize as well. So do we have an estimate on what kind of time and labor it's going to take to get this thing loaded and running? I'm kind of looking at Cali likely have it ready to go. And Amy, you think you can I mean how far back can you have that?
055Are we are we going into rears or are we just starting from today? start like so everything we're going to have to look for that's already happened we're still going to have it'll take like a month for me to you know do all the training and then start like fresh with it yeah but and that's right and then but all the old documents we would work with them to get that uploaded into the system so you would still be able to go back and find old documents right so Amy will just start it from let's just say August on and then they'll work on getting all of our old information um on the platform And how far back do we think we'll go? Couple of years all the way back to the handwritten notes. I
056guess as much as we have of 18. I think we just take it year by year and go back as you know we can go 23 22 21 and just kind of see how far we need to go and then I think really getting all the policies on there is going to be really helpful and and then just knowing that our meetings moving forward and along with video is going to be much easier for the board and the community to use. So is that going to be the primary location where our policies are going to be housed? Well, I think there might still be a spot on the website. It's a good question. These are all things that, you know, as we implement it, we'd have to figure out. I would assume you'd keep both
057running at least until the transition happens. And then my understanding is that it's a lot more user friendly to even search policies within that platform. So, if we find that that is better utilized, then we could pull off from the website the the page with the policies right now and then have that be where they're housed. Yeah. All right. Well, if you all have any other questions about it, I would say get with, you know, Amy or Dr. Hill. Um, I I think it's something that um is is worth us moving forward on. I think we have this really nice new website and interface and I think the board stuff is just a little archaic in my not archaic, but we're just kind of all over the place. And I think if we can have
058it all housed in one spot and I think the price is really good. I think the main thing for me is it's just so difficult for for it's difficult for us to search. It's more difficult for our community to search and for the sake of transparency I think it would really benefit everyone to go ahead. Yeah. So unless we know folks have questions we'll give it, you know, week or so if board members have any questions or anything, but otherwise we'll we'll plan on moving forward with um trying to get it going so that that gives us time to be ready for the fall. So, and that would be the goal like I said, but we'll see how it goes. Our goal with the website, too, like sometimes things take a little while, but then
059when they're done, they're perfect. Oh, that was nice. That was No pressure. Make make up for the other week. So, all right. Well, thank you. So, all right. Um, now moving into business items. We do have a resolution this evening um for the displacements due to grant funding reductions. So this is just something where with the esser funds that we had um some of these um positions are coming to an end. Um the board has asked that um there's plenty of positions open and available for all of these individuals to apply um to positions. So um I'll just read the resolution because um it is uh shorter. So it just says um whereas the board if the board of education excuse me if the board determines a drop in enrollment turnaround phase out reduction in
060program or reduction in building necessities necessitates action that may require the displacement of one or more teachers. It shall adopt a resolution that identifies the action and the reasons for this action. So the district is experiencing a reduction in the funding through the title one and the esser grant. Um due to these funding reductions, the district may potentially displace one or more teachers. Um to the extent possible, the board shall establish the actual number of teacher positions to be displaced consistent with the board's authority to establish educational programs within the district. So, you know, therefore be resolved these funding reductions may potentially displace three non-probationary teachers for the 2425 school year. Um, and so again, uh, we we do know that we have, um, positions available. So, we just have that resolution this morning. So,
061or this morning. Gosh, I'm already I'm way off here this evening. So, um, do do I have a motion to approve this resolution? Motion to approve the resolution. Second. Any other discussion? No. Okay. Seeing none, we can go ahead and take the vote. Mrs. Evansson, yes. Mrs. Heights. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Miss Lima. Yes. All right. That passes. Uh 4 Z. And is there any board open discussion? Um I don't really have any discussion, but I just want to kind of give a shout out because it is start of pride month. So just give a shout out to you know everybody out there. Okay. Any other and I just add to um that last resolution. So, I do want to say a shout out to our HR team because um you know looking at the
062numbers of available positions like you mentioned there are positions still available so these individuals could still apply for them but it's also great to see the number of available positions being smaller at this point in the year. Um and that's because I think we were able to post positions earlier but then also uh hard work of our HR team and our um school staff for doing all the hiring. So, that's a that's a good thing. And um thanks to them for all their work to try to get our schools fully staffed before the start of the school year. That's great. Thank you. Good job. All right. Any other discussion? Okay. Well, if you think of anything um or anything that you want on the agenda, let myself or Director Jones know or Dr. Hill as
063we have our agenda meetings. All right. I would take a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. All right. Thank you everyone. Have a good evening. Look at that. Before six o'clock just magical.