001Please I was justing the um All righty. I think we will uh go ahead and get started. So um we will uh call the meeting to order. So if you can stand with us, we will do the pledge of allegiance and then after that we just take a moment uh for a short moment of silence. Dr. Jones to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All righty. We can go ahead and do roll call. Okay. Mrs. Heights here. Mr. Jones here. Miss Lima here. Mr. Dr. Levenson here. Dr. Schultis here. All right. Do I have a motion to approve this evening's agenda? Mr. President, before we uh I'd like to make a motion to amend the
002agenda to add the additional business item to be labeled as J2. The resolution is for the purpose of selling a property where the house is built by the career center students. uh the house is placed on the market by the district and received at least one offer for a price greater than listing price but still unsure if the buyer is qualified for the loan. So we want to rep we want to present the resolution to give the district the right to accept the offer in a timely manner. Right. Do we have a motion to approve the amended agenda? So moved. Have a second. Second. Second. Okay. No discussion. We can take the vote. Mrs. Heights. Yes. Mr. Jones, yes. Miss Lima, yes. Mr. Levenson, yes. Dr. Schultis, yes. Right. Do I have a motion to
003approve the meeting minutes um from July 4th, 2023 from the board special meeting? So moved. Second. Mrs. Heights? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Miss Lima? Yes. Mr. Levenson? Yes. Dr. Schulties? Yes. All right. Now, we're going to move into our recognitions. Director Jones is going to do our recognitions for our future business leaders of America. All right. The board of the board would like to invite Palisade High School students Bailey Edwards and Trevor Rudd to join us. run, run, sorry, to join us in the front of the room. At the end of June, nearly 12,000 students, educators, and volunteers headed to Atlanta, Georgia for the Future Business Leaders of America, FBLA, National Leadership Conference. The annual event brought together middle and high school students for competitive competitive events with cash prizes, learning workshops, and career development
004opportunities. FBLA is an organization that inspires and prepares students to become community-minded business leaders and global society through relevant career preparation and leadership experiences. This year, the board is excited to recognize the remarkable achievement of two district 51 Palisate High School seniors who placed in the top 10 in the national competition. Bailey Edwards placed ninth in accounting one and Trevor Rund placed 10th in help desk roleplay. Their dedication, hard work, and commitment have paid off, showc showcasing their exceptional skills and talents on a national platform. Not only have they represented district 51 incredibly well, but they have also raised the bar for our excellence within our district FBLA program. The board of education and superintendent Hill are proud to recognize these students for their hard work and accomplishments at the Future Business Leaders of America
005competition and wish them the very best of luck in their future endeavors. [Applause] I just wanted to also thank I know we've got some Paliside High School admin here as well. So, thanks for being here in support. So, appreciate you all. Should we make them stand up? Thank you. Yes. Give them an app. Yes. [Applause] have great great staff and um educators that support our students. So well done students. Um all right, we um at this time too, you don't have to stay for the rest of the board meeting unless you really want to. So if you would like to get up and leave um you might as well right now. We'll give you a couple minutes. Thank you. Thanks. Well done. All right, we are going to go into board reports. So, um just
006kind of recapping what our schools do with our capturing kids hearts. One of the four things that they do with their kiddos is um ask what good things that um they have had I don't know that day, that week, that weekend. And so the board is emulating that. So board, do you have any good things that you'd like to share? We did a bus tour on Monday. Guess just yesterday. It was only yesterday. Um we visited Palisade High School, West Middle School, and Pear Park. And the kids at P Park are excellent dancers. Those who missed it, uh Dr. Hill busted out the chaa slide and uh showed us all how to work and not run the dance floor. So I have video. Chaa chaa slide. They were good. They were getting it. It was
007nice. We gonna do that in the superintendent report. I have proof. Yeah. I'm sure there's a video somewhere. No, it was great. We got to Yeah, just see Yeah, that was fun. I I love that we've done the the bus tour the last couple of years. It's a great opportunity to see uh different aspects of each school. Um last year we went to Central and got to see part of their STEM program. Um we got to see the fish hatchery at Palisade um which was really cool. And then we got to hear from several of their students. And then um at West Middle School, I thought it was spectacular. They took their student leaders, student council, and um had each one of them break off into little groups and they led each one of us
008adults around between board members and staff. And I have to tell you, young those young people, the eye contact they made and how articulate they were and the disfluencies that they didn't have. You know, we all we all like to say like and some and o um a lot, but they were really well spoken and it was really fun to see that. And then the jazz band did a really great job with the little amount of time they had to get prepared. Uh but they did a really good job. So, um I just I think it's great that our staff is really working with our students to um help them become actual true leaders um which and put them in those situations and they did a really good job. So, um so that was fun.
009Those were some good some good things. So, and Cali, thank you for and uh Sier putting the putting the tour together. You guys did a great job. So, thank you for that. Any other good things? Any good vacation summer stuff? I mean, I kind of want to thank uh Bookliff Middle School and uh also West. Uh we went out and kind of set up the Watchdog program and talked to a lot of parents and teachers out there, see what kind of interest we get going, get things going in school to we see if we can uh get some help for our counselors and youth kids out there. And it was met fairly fairly well out there. So, I'm kind of excited to see we can get those programs going in those two schools. So, do
010you want to um explain a little bit what the So, what watch is Dads of Great Students is what it's called. Um it's just trying to you know trying to get our dads or our parent grandparents or uncles or you know involved in school to help out walk through the hallways and you know trying to help out you know our resource officers our teachers our counselors just to have a male presence in the school building. Um anybody who wants to volunteer is also put through a screening process so we just don't have anybody roaming through there. So it's just a safe place for our kids and make our you know trying to create create a better atmosphere for those those kids and take some of that pressure off the teachers and and resource guys. So,
011it's a really good program and you know it was good to be on there and uh I'm going to try to do some volunteer days these days in some of the schools and we got a lot a lot of interest in it. So, if we can get it going it'll I'm sure we'll see a lot of uh you know happier days in our schools. Awesome. Thanks for sharing. So, yeah. Thanks. Yeah, that's been something you've wanted to do, I know, from the beginning. And so they've nationally had really good results of um you know, decreased bullying and um I think more acceptance with students and um so I think it can complement a lot of what um our staff is doing with our strategic plan. So awesome. That's great to hear. Any committee or activity
012updates? I know we're kind of getting into the swing with our committees. Nope. Okay. All right. Well, that's all for board reports. So, now we're going to move into the D-51 happenings and celebrations. Hello. All righty. So, this is August uh district 51 happenings and celebrations. We started this or in July since we didn't meet in that month. Each month, KEX District 51 and community members nominate an outstanding D51 staff member. In July, we recognized Ron Kovich. Ron works in D51's warehouse. There's so many moving parts within our district, and Ron is one of those pieces that keeps everything running smoothly while our DIS um sorry, while serving our schools. Thank you, Ron, for dedicating your time to ensure that all of our 20,000 students and over 2,600 employees get the supplies they need. We
013couldn't do this without you. In August, we recognize Corenya Mononttoya, director of regional migrant services. Corenya works yearround to serve District 51's diverse population to help provide education, clothing, health care, housing, food, and other community services. As a district 51 graduate herself, we're so lucky to have Kenya as part of our family, providing equal opportunities to our wonderful community. Thank you, Kenya. In July, our nutrition services team launched healthy meals for all, a voter approved initiative that allows district 51 to provide free breakfast and lunch to each and every student. Additional funds that are granted from district 51 families completing the my school app form will go directly to schools to cover the cost of meals support afterchool programs and other nutritional programs for students. Banners and yard signs were distributed throughout the district to
014encourage our families to complete the form. Our East Middle School student Geron Dunham honored his former school with a memorabilia display at the Museum of the West. Beginning his project in the spring and completing it in July, Giron wanted to show the community and his classmates the impact EMS had on him and as a way to help understand the consolidation. Thank you, Jeron. You can view the exhibit at the Museum of the West. Now, July 28th, we celebrated system admin appreciation day. Our system admins ensure that our computers, network, servers, and security are up and running. So teachers can teach, students can learn, and the whole school communi can can communicate effectively. Recently, we had stuff the bus in July. Town Square Media and District 51 in collaboration with Mesa Mall and the District 51
015Foundation hosted our annual Stuff the Bus uh school supplies donation drive, which provides District 51 schools with muchneeded school supplies. In August, we unsted the bus and put together boxes that went to elementary schools and middle schools across the district. Alpine Bank also hosted the annual back- to-school home run game supporting the Grand Junction Jackalopes where another bus was stuffed with more school supplies. Today, District 51 Foundation had a big check presentation in front of R5 High School with a total of $3,435. Each of the five district high schools will receive um $687 to buy supplies needed for their students. Our community continues to come to together year after year to donate these items to those in need. Thank you to everyone in our community who donated to help our schools out. The Rotary Club
016of Grand Junction also had a hand in donating school supplies to all of our schools. Over $16,000 worth of school supplies were sorted and taken to schools throughout the district. With help from our neighborhood Walmart employees, the D-51 security team, the Rotarians, and community volunteers, we packed up cars and drove the supplies to each school. Thank you, Rotary Club, for your support to D51 schools. Every year, Rocky Mountain PBS Kids hosts KidsFest in Grand Junction. Rocky Mountain PBS has been connecting Mesa County families since 1996 for fun activities and providing community resources. Over 3,000 students came out to participate and take their shot at district 51's infamous dunk tank where five of our own staff participated. Thank you to principal Corey Hayy of Appleton, Greg Berley, SSO, Jessica Berley, teacher at Thunder Mountain, Lindseay Martin,
017our central office secretary, and Carter Ness our HR specialist. Lunch Lunch Lizard also made an appearance and served muffins and cookies as a snack in between all the fun. I do. We had a Spanish speaking registration day thanks to our access opportunity and family partnership CLLD and our IT departments. We were able to provide the support families need while navigating the registration process. These departments continue to work hard to provide access, resources, and clear communication to all of our families in their native languages. Days before the 2023 2024 school year began, Chatfield and Rocky Mountain Elementary School went to Taylor Elementary to spread messages of encouragement and inspiration to welcome back teachers for the new academic year. This leads me to our red carpet event. Nothing says welcome back to District 51 like a red
018carpet event, welcoming in new teachers to the district. Our teacher induction team didn't just plan new teacher training. They went above and and beyond to ensure that our new teachers were excited about the new year with a red carpet, gift bags with snacks, water bottles, and inspirational poems written by Orchard Mason Middle School Secretary Lindseay Wiser. To all of our district 51 returning teachers and new teachers, we welcome you and welcome back to D51. We're so grateful for your service and the two 2023 2024 school year is going to be wonderful. And to start off, um the first day of school for middle school and high schoolers, the first day was Wednesday, August 9th. Elementary was Friday, August 11th. Elementary schools started two days later this year to introduce a new ELA curricular resource for
019elementary schools across the district. K through5 staff spent two days learning the resource to get curriculum started on day one. Training took place on Colorado Mesa's University's campus where they graciously donated classroom space from Houston Hall and Dominguez. Thank you CMU. We're lucky to have community partners like you to ensure that even our teachers are lifelong learners. To kick off the 2023 school year, uh, Rocky Mountain Elementary and Fruitville Fruit Veil Elementary put together welcome back tunnels for their students. Parents and teachers worked together to make the first day of school unforgettable. Scenic Elementary also debuted its new permanent logo, the foxes, to salute the new mascot. New principal Chris Biggs had a back to school bash completed with games like splish splish splash, bouncy houses, and face painting. And last but not least, um,
020our board of education went on a bus tour and senior leadership also went as well. Uh, we went to West Palisade, Pear Park. They had their cheer team, their web leaders, jazz band. Palisade have their FBLA, student council, fish hatchery, diploma program, and IB program to speak to. And then Pear Park, we join them in performing the cha slide. Thank you West Palisade and Pear Park for welcoming us. and kicking off the 2023 2024 school year in the best way. And then we'd like to take a moment to um share our Grand Junction High School constru construction update. The new Grand Junction High School is more than just bricks and mortar. It's a symbol of progress and innovation. It's a beacon of hope for the future of education in our community. The biggest aspect of
021being a part of a project like this is knowing that I've had a part in helping to create a learning environment that's going to create positive outcomes for our students for decades to come. community has has recognized that there's been an investment made in our students through public education and we're grateful for the fact that they've said yes to Grand Junction High School. I've been with District 51 schools for 8 years and I'm so excited to be part of this school, to be part of this community, all the great traditions that have been part of Grand Junction for so many years. To be able to be part of that as we're building this new facility, it's it's just shattering. It's awesome. We're really looking forward to just what the new building will bring for us
022in terms of not only opportunity for our students futures, but also the safety and security of our school. As I talk to my staff, to students, to community members about this new school, they're so excited. This building is the best that we could imagine. It allows our kids to collaborate in a lot of different ways with each other, with our local community, and they're able to do it in a big state-of-the-art facility, but in a way that's so connected that it's really going to increase what the world needs right now, which is effective teamwork, collaboration, and individual intentional work. That's what this building will bring to us. So, I think Grand Junction High School really gives our community picture of what it looks like when we say yes to our community and when we say
023yes to our kids and we say yes to the future of Grand Junction. Grand Junction High School is just going to be a beacon of what that collaboration looks like between private partners and public partners and and uh what it can look like moving forward for the school district and for the rest of Grand Junction in the whole valley. The mission of this school is 21st century learning. So, thank you, Grand Junction, for supporting our students, faculty, and staff in voting yes to Grand Junction High School. Because of your unwavering support, together we can ensure a bright future and endless possibilities for our student success. On our YouTube channel, you can also find our 2023 strategic plan update and back to school videos. We and we invite you to watch them in the coming weeks.
024Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Um, I forgot to mention earlier that if anybody's new, um, the signup sheet for public comment is up here. Oh, it's in the back. Oh, it's under the TV. Okay. All right. Scratch all that. It's over there. Um so if you are wanting to sign up for public comment um the signup sheet is over there and thank you and then we will move into our superintendent report. Dr. Hill. All right. Thank you. So we have uh two items this evening. The first one is a uh short update on the work that's been happening around uh the Fruta area reconfiguration of the the grades out there. So I'm going to have uh Clint come up and um looks like Ari's coming too to share a little bit about the work that's
025been happening so far. Hello everybody. Thanks for giving us an opportunity to share a little bit about what's going on with uh our fritter reconfiguration. So let me get to the right slide here because I think we're Here we go. Looks like we're missing a piece there. Um, so I'll just talk it the best that I can remember it. Um, back in February of this year, um, we did a Shannon, are you on? Let me make sure he's on as well. Shannon, can you hear me? I can. I'm here. Awesome. Great. So, back in February, we uh did a survey of the Fruda community and uh at that time we had um we went out to the community and asked them if they were in favor of us doing a reconfiguration of uh the Fruda
026area and we had a 70% um uh approval for us to move forward with uh doing some work in the Fruda area. And so as a result of that um and I don't think your some of your stuff got in there Dr. Hill unfortunately uh the board resolution I'll I'll talk through that one. So um it was yeah the survey that was sent out February remember we did surveys to fruit area families and then we also did um surveys into the Redlands area I think as well. Um and so yeah, the the data that came back, we had about 1,400 um folks respond uh to that survey in the fruit area and as Clint mentioned um 70% uh supported the question was asked, do you support a grade configuration that's essentially norm normalized to the
027rest of the district, which would have a the K5s, you'd have a 68, and then you'd have a 912. And so again, um 70% said that they supported having for a lack of better term normalized grade structure out there. So that's what kickstarted what is up there as the first bullet which was coming to the board for resolution. And so in April of this year uh the board resolution uh reads as follows. The board of education hereby wishes to address programming and staffing issues caused by declining enrollment in food and middle school and to transition the secondary schools to a to a traditional grade configuration. The board of education hereby directs uh Dr. Hill to begin work with district staff to make the recommended and necessary changes needed to transition the secondary schools in the
028Fuda area to a traditional grade configuration of grades 6 through 8 and 9 through 12. So as you know this year we have already started that process uh in the Appleton and Windgate area with our sixth graders. We've made the boundary changes starting to shift that flow from Fruda to Grand Junction High School. In fall of 2024, we plan to do the same with uh making that shift again for our 9th graders from the uh Appleton and Windgate areas, moving them from the Fruda area to Grand Junction High School. And we have already started and planned, and Shannon will talk about this here in a little bit, but we've already put our uh town hall meetings together. So, we're uh in October, we will have a couple of uh in-person meetings and a virtual meeting
029as well, just to get the community involved in that process. Um with that, uh the fall of 2025 would be our our timeline would be our completion of this transition from Fruda to Grand Junction High School. So again um in that initial proposal we plan to phase out uh transition and transition identifi sorry the initial proposal was to phase out transition students identified for boundary changes one grade per year to consolidate a school and to reconfigure three schools into a single middle school 68 and a single high school 912 for the 2526 school year. So that was the original plan and the timeline. But one of the things that we uh noticed was that um by doing that we would be um operating and funding two uh small middle schools at lower enrollment for two
030years. And so with that understanding that two years we would be trying to subsidize those schools, we uh did a little bit of research and are working on um what it might look like to push that timeline forward a little bit. So if we uh if all shifts and adjustments are made in the 2425 school year, the district would create a Fruda Middle School 68 and a Fruda Monument High School 912 by moving from three secondary schools in Fruda to two. This would increase student enrollment at both schools while minimizing any staff reductions. Small operation, small school operation would only last for one year, which would be this next year coming up. So, I want to be very clear here that while we're doing some of this work, no decisions have been made at this
031point. We haven't decided uh to push anything forward uh at all uh until we know what we're dealing with. And so, we're gathering additional data to try to see if making this uh leap forward uh is is good for the district and it's feasible. So, with that, I will turn it over to Shannon to kind of give us a little bit more detail on what we're doing right now. And you're on, Shannon. Well, thanks. Thanks, Clint. Uh, it's a privilege to be here. Uh, good evening, everyone. Um, so we've been working on um confirming our enrollment numbers. Uh, we're trying to get uh accurate count data for the current uh school year to make sure that um all of our uh statistical guidance is in order. And if we can get that to a really
032high quality, we could make a decision regarding uh when we actually implement the final tra um the final transition of the ninth grade uh into Fruit of Monument and the transition to a single middle school. So what we're concerned about is just operating very small um at one of the schools. So, we're trying to um make sure that we can provide the same level of service and the historical robustness of our elective programs that we've always provided. The town halls will be um very interactive. Um, I think we will probably uh possibly start with a little bit of Sage on the stage and then revert to an open house setting where people can ask uh their individualized questions uh as much as they can. We want people to understand that we want to start the
0339th grade transition next school year. uh but the um with with the Windgate and the Appleton students moving at that time but the entire transition of the students that live in the Shel area, the Rimrock area and the Monument View area would um either happen simultaneously or it would happen in the following year. And our original planning was that that would be a 24-month uh event so that we would have a good balance between the two schools from an enrollment standpoint. Um so what we're trying to do is get really fine grain data at these open houses. We'll have an opportunity to get an idea um of the extent to which families might want to go ahead and move. Now, um we might get a good idea of how many families will want their siblings
034um to make sure that they have the same experience that an older high school child had. And then it'll be another opportunity for us to u make the community the the neighborhoods that will be most affected by the change aware of how everything would transpire um in the event that we um stay on the trajectory that we're on. Um, so basically we have the two in-person events. One's at the 89, one's at uh Redlands Middle School, and then the online meeting will be um virtual. So basically, we are um reaching out to current eighth graders very strongly because they would be the students most affected. And um we know that it will take three to four years for this transition to be fully realized. During that time, we'll go one grade a year and the
035enrollments in the two buildings will have an opportunity to settle out. And once these transitions are made, we will be able to return to our historic pattern of offering open enrollment activi uh options to families across the valley. uh but during this um transition we'll need to be very careful to make sure that we can accommodate uh the students in the in the affected areas with the end goal of normalizing uh Fruda to a 68 912 secondary structure at the end of the process. Um I'm open to offering another survey opportunity at these um events just to see um how people are feeling about what we're proposing and um we haven't discussed that at the staff level yet but um um at this point I think we're mostly intending these to be informational meetings. I'd
036be delighted to respond to everybody's questions um over the course of the next two weeks. will know more as actual enrollment counts are collected and we get more of a headcount statistic as opposed to a count of students that are in synergy. So, thanks so much for your attention and I'm delighted to answer any questions. Thanks. I have a question. Um, so it sounds like I'm just trying to wrap my head around the data that you're collecting and your decision-making metrics. So it sounds like what you're saying is that so we have all these eighth graders and they if they have siblings obviously at Fruda we are asking them but we assume that it's possible that they might want to continue to go to Fra to stay where their siblings are. So we have to
037really just dig into how many students that is and then we're currently having those discussions with them. So what is that? I'm just curious what that looks like. He um we said we're reaching out heavily to those students. What is that? Can you walk me through that? Well, that's the reason we're hosting the meetings at the 89 and at Redlands Middle School. So, we're trying to um conduct the meetings at the venues that they're most concerned with. Um, but during those meetings, we'll we'll do some polling to try to ascertain how many families, even though they may be in a sibling continuity situation, would want to go to the new school to be part of the new school experience and to stay with other friends from Redlands Middle School because right now there is a
038there's a break for the Windgate neighborhood for students that go to Redlands Middle School. Uh, twothirds of them go to Junction and the other third go to Fruit of Monument High School. But I was anticipating that if we did some sort of a of a poll or a QR code driven survey that we would try to ask what their election would be. Um do do they plan to go to Grand Junction High School um proactively? Um will they participate in the grandfathered phase out? Do they have a sibling? Uh do they intend for that sibling to apply to the for the district's grandfathering? uh rights for those students to finish at Fruit of Monument High School or would they like to be part of the new school experience? Right now, I've been using a guesstimate
039of about um uh 60% or so of those siblings would want to continue on at Fruit of Monument. And we have a pretty high participation rate of uh from the last boundary changes that we did that affected scenic and Broadway where a lot of those students their siblings um went that direction. And also our data managers are looking at the current sibling participation rate um over at Fra Monument High School because we can actually track uh what did the siblings do uh from the last uh change. And so I think they're looking at that a bit. So over the course of the next couple of weeks, we'll start um accumulating all of that data and then looking at actual enrollment values as opposed to um le less accurate data of who's in our student database
040right now. And remember at the high school level that when you delete a child's schedule who may or may not have shown up, um you have to start from scratch with getting them scheduled again. So, it's standard behavior among high schools to try to not dump schedules of students who have not shown up um until you're sure they're not going to reappear. So, we don't know exactly what that uh what effect that's having on our databases, but we want the high schools to have an opportunity to be comfortable uh to um execute those last minute drops. And then we'll look at exactly what our numbers are. After the um town halls, we'll have an idea of what sibling behavior might be because there's going to be a lot of excitement associated with Grand Junction High
041School and we're already really beginning to see that. Um so we think that there will be some proactive um uh application or um drive toward that school uh from the Fruit of Monument area in general and from Redlands and Appleton specifically. And I think these events will give us an opportunity to kind of gauge what that level of interest might be and how those metrics should um kind of infuse what our estimates might be. Um so the question is so what ways are we re reaching out to them? So the meetings at the schools that's great. I think that for a lot of parents who work or work multiple jobs they cannot go to the meetings and we got a lot of feedback um for the Appleton meetings about you know just how hard that
042is. So I wonder if there I'm talking to Clint right now. I wonder if there are any other ways that we've thought to reach those parents and get feedback from them since it will directly impact that that decision. It sounds like That's a good question. I I think part of that was the virtual meetings. We were hoping that that would be able to to bridge some of that gap um and and get some more parent participation. I would add to what Shannon just said uh with regard to uh families anticipating this move. We haven't even really done anything with the ninth grade piece this year and we've already started to see some families anticipate the move and are already flowing in that direction. We've seen a few of those already take place. So to Shannon's
043point, I think that's starting to happen with just families anticipating the move coming, but the virtual meetings I think will will help with that. And I hear that from like the high information people, but for the folks who like have multiple jobs, you know, I'm curious. I wonder if we if we um if we have the town halls and the virtual one and we don't get a lot of participation, maybe that triggers phone calls or something different. So, it'd be interesting to see what we actually get out of it. But I hear what you're saying. If we don't get enough data, then we may need to go a different route. So, well, that is a good point, too. We did on the last we did learn on the last round that we did have to
044make some phone calls. we had to get into the weeds a little bit and actually there were a few of us on the phone trying to to contact parents. I agree. I think it's just going to be really important that we do everything we can to reach every single family that is impacted and make sure that their voice is heard. Agreed. And then um at what is the decision making point? So at you know is it 38.2% to a person, you know, like do we have an idea of what that number is when we make the decision to go or no go? Yeah. Um I think Shannon, you can correct me if I'm wrong here, but we do need to get some data on on building count and student count that's accurate. That's going to
045help us uh drive the decision. I would also add that there's there's some factors uh within Fra High School that's going to drive the the decision- making as well. If we have some high numbers, if we have to add classrooms or mod uh modulars, that'll help us decide whether or not it's a good decision or not. I mean, we don't want to spend a lot of money in that direction if we can use it someplace else for FTE for for example, if we wait and and backfill that that gap that we have with um low enrollment. So So obviously if just trying to synthesize what you said. So obviously if our enrollment projection for next year for 2024 or 2425 if that exceeds the capacity of Fruda then it would likely make sense to delay
046it a year so we can figure out how to meet that capacity or what else we might need to do right but if it's below that that might be our indication that we could move forward. And could I throw something out? I'm I'm one that says, "Let's not worry about step 20 when we haven't done step one." But I'm gonna throw step 20 in there. And that is Thanks, Doug. You're welcome. I don't know what step 20 is, but you know, as I I'm looking ahead, and I won't be on the board. Some of us may not be on the board, but we're looking ahead to the bond mill renewal possibly, right? I mean, those were still up in that it it would seem to make sense to me we're at a very timely place
047to begin looking because that was a great segue because it's true to have the capacity because I remember was in in past uh discussions we had looked at adding classroom space at Palisade at at central and certainly out at Fruda. Again, now different things have changed, but I guess that I could see how these should melt together, right? These discussions plus what are what what are we looking ahead to to with the current bond and mill, what are we keeping, what are we not, what are we, you know, what are we adding, if any um are good questions and this would fit right with that. Does that make sense? Absolutely. So that I don't know if so that's step 20 and I know we haven't talked about at least I haven't been privy that to
048that discussion but that probably would be something because we're remember we had talked or at least I had talked that we don't want to wait till 2027 for that measure because if it fails then we're you know we or our kids and community are it's not a good situation. So my guess is we'd want to do that 2025 at the latest. Sure. Don't Does that make sense? So within two years, we're looking at So and it comes quicker than you realize. Does that make sense? I think the Yeah, it does make sense. I think a lot of the discussions we've been having is is there a way to do it that uh in a in a way that doesn't cost the district dollars that we don't necessarily have right now. And so that's like what
049Clint mentioned, if we are going to push for it to happen for next school year, which would be the pros for that is that then we're not having um underenrolled fruit of middle school and fruit 89 out there where we're having to make staffing reductions like we've been having to do. So that um so doing it next year would help with that. But if we if it means that we're going to have to bring modulars in for a temporary period, you know, we've had the discussion, well, how much is that going to cost? And at that point, how much would it be just to not reduce those FTE for another year? Is it almost a wash? So, um, so we've been trying to go at it from that angle of not adding cost to this
050process, but it's a it's a good point if it ends up being that we're going to have to do some sort of addition there. Is it something that we want more longterm um versus I mean modulars are never great. So, um, it could be a conversation that would be tied to a future bond. Um, and like you said, that was in the plans before. Angela had said once back when I can't remember the context, but it was that kind of thing of looking at where we are status quo with the current bond and mill and are those still viable? do we my guess is we want to continue right the the added days the technology the maintenance um those kinds of things but are there other things we want to add or not and and
051this maybe among other things central high school right was in there still is in there I gather I hope um so anyway it's that discussion that that's going to be honest and we don't want to work in isolation of that coming up sooner factors to consider that's right because there's a lot of planning to go in for that if if if you So 2024 or 2025, you almost have to start sometime this year those discussions and prep the community with why that may or may not happen. Are you adding more work to our plate? No, I'm trying to reduce. I think it's already there with I'm not trying to go from 1 to 20. I'm trying to I hear you look ahead so you don't get to that point say why didn't we think the
052facilities master plan. I mean that that's going to shed a lot of light on on what our needs are are really going to and they need to work in parallel or conjunction with this this is huge. Um this this uh it's a big year. We've got a lot a lot working this year. Yeah. Just historically I can tell you you know in in my 40 years in there have been many times we work not in in in sync with each other and we end up with different outcomes that not not bad but this this is a great opportunity to have everything sync together and there's time to do it right we don't have to do it yesterday. Speaking of that synchronization, um I also I'm curious what how we're formalizing our lessons learned from East
053um and closing East because even though this is a slightly different situation, it's still, you know, our hiring practices and how we are timing of everything and how we support teachers and how we support students. Um I'm I'm curious how we are formalizing or how how we're g getting our lessons learned and how we are formalizing that into you know actions like this. It's a good point. We've we've had some discussions around that already for and I want to be clear if people are watching from Fruda area that like no decisions been made on this because on this topic because I know there's staff that are wondering which building is it going to be and what does that mean for me um in my uh employment. So um want to be clear that there hasn't
054there haven't been any decisions made around this. Um but yeah, we've had that discussion about how do we is there something we do differently this time around um with the staffing at those buildings. I I think we've collected a lot of information through um the process um with the closure of East from the staff that were on the ground and working with the staff there. But um like I saw your email today. I I think there's an opportunity for us to even um go directly and hear more from um staff that were in that building and and we were talking today even about um pulling in some of the families and talking about um how could we better support uh in the future with that as well. So, we don't have like a formalized report
055or anything, but we do have a lot of pieces of data already, but I think there's an opportunity to gather even more data from the folks that were directly impacted by that with the ultimate goal that we we do it better if we have to go down that route again next time. Um, and then obviously the work of um with the committee trying to get feedback last time um not last night's meeting, but the meeting before, a lot of good ideas were generated there as well. Um, but I do want to hear directly from folks that were impacted by that. So, so are are you saying that that is a plan to meet with staff and families? I'd love to hear an update about how that goes. Like I I know that that's there's probably
056a couple of meetings to have. Um but I think and I would also add that um over the last few weeks in in discussing whether or not we move the timeline uh up, we've had already had meetings and talked about some of the things that have that happened with the east move and and whether moving the timeline up is is feasible for all of those things. Everything that you just talked about staff and um you know how it impacts students, all of it has been discussed. Great. Any other questions on the Appreciate your efforts on that. It's huge and it's proactive. You know, it's looking ahead. Awesome. Thanks, Shannon. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next, we have our staffing and school opening report. Thanks, Shannon. Yeah. So, I'll um I'll start things off. I
057think we have a presentation that'll go up and I'll try to control it. No, not that one. That one. Um, so I just want to give an overview of uh work that's happened um since the end of last school year to get us ready for this school year. Um, and then also uh we'll get an update from uh Nikki on where we are with hiring and staffing in our buildings. Um, so there we go. That's a lot of things on that list, but um this is just trying to capture a few things that um have happened over the summer to get us ready for this school year. I think a lot of folks don't realize how much work actually does happen um for our year- round employees to try to get our schools um set
058up for success as we head into the new school year. So, I want to talk a little bit about um some of the professional learning opportunities that we did over the summer. Um some of the inservices um and then also uh some of the work that's been happening at some of our at our buildings to make sure that they're ready for the start of school. Um so, first one was summer institute and we actually have a summer institute at the end of the school year and then we have a summer institute uh closer to the beginning of the school year and so um that was held this summer. Uh we had sessions uh at that summer institute that were geared towards the new K5 literacy um adoption which um I know Sierra shared a little
059bit about earlier and so we had training sessions geared towards that and also for uh secondary science teachers um that shift in science sequence and uh the new resource for biology uh focus for 9th and 10th grade that was an opportunity for those folks to get um additional professional learning as well. and then a math intervention um training also. And then we had our culturally and linguistically diverse education staff uh received additional training this summer through the summer institute. Um we also had summer school. Um we had 639 elementary school students registered with 545 consistently attending. Um and then for middle school we had 110 registered with 89 consistently attending. And then high school 550 students attended. 663.5 credits earned and then we had one summer graduate. Um and then uh just to note that
060summer assessment data will be available after we um close the BOI window. So we'll get some data back on the success of um of summer school for our students. Um we also have our ESY um summer program and that was held from uh June 12th to the 22nd and then July 10th through the 20th. We had 165 of our 278 eligible students attended the uh extended school year. And just a couple the next three bullet points are really just data on um what qualifies students to attend extended school year. So um and this is from CDE. So the services um are defined as special education and related services that are provided beyond the normal school year um in accordance with the child's IEP at no cost to the families. Um and these are necessary component
061of FAPE um for some but not all students with um disabilities. And then um it's for a subset of students. And so not every student qualifies for ESY, but we try to get as many students as we can um to be a part of that uh program so we can try and curb um any learning loss that happens over the summer. Um and actually got to attend uh some of it this summer and it was really cool to see the kids at um we had multiple sites that were hosting ESY and so the staff did a really great job with our students there. Um, I'm not going to go through all of these, but we a lot of work was done over the summer by um Dan Burke and his team for the technology updates
062and and I can send this out to the board later, but um updates for operating systems and machines, um the um the servers and data centers, uh the network infrastructure, and then the software and automation. A lot of work from his team went in this summer to get our schools ready for uh any of the technology uh needs we'd have for the school year. So, thanks to Dan and his team for that. Um we also held leadership academy. So that happened on July 19th. Um all district and building leadership w attended this. Um and the four main areas that uh Jen and her team uh took the leaders through was a review of the strategic plan. Um a overview of professional learning for the year at each level. uh we looked over data um from
063the end of the year which that was presented to the board as well um through our strategic plan updates and then preparation for those uh Nick days for um leadership institute that was that happened right after that. So thanks to that team as well for all the work they put into leadership academy. And then on the 24th we had leadership institute. So that's where schools brought um their their teams. It was it's admin teams and then also teacher leader teams at the campus. So we had 48 teams with 340 staff. Um and again they went through um these targets that are up here on the on the screen setting goals for their campuses preparing the um professional learning they were going to do at their buildings when they had staff in service. And so that
064way it's um driven by not only admin but the um staff in the buildings as well, the Nick teams. Um and then on the 18th uh we had new admin orientation. So we had um a number of new administrators at the building level and then also at the district level um filling uh positions that were open. And so um we had those folks attend and also receive um uh new admin orientation training. Some um new to the district but some just moving into to new positions. Uh and so that was held on the 18th. And then we also had our new teacher orientation and I believe these numbers are at the time of the orientation at the end of July, but they had I think six or six or seven days um that they spent
065with our um our teacher induction team um to go through all the things that they would need to be uh trained on to be successful for the start of the school year. And that's new teachers to the district um like brand new teachers, but also teachers that are just joining us from maybe another area. And so you can see the breakdown of um the folks that attended that. So thankful to the um the ad or excuse me the teacher induction team uh for all the work they did with that as well. And I know we had some board members attend um some of those trainings as well and welcome our new teachers. Um we also had admin assistant in service. Um I didn't put the date on here for that but we had 150 clerical
066staff attend that. Um and then you can see the bulleted list of the different trainings um that our folks went through um at our admin assistant in service. So thanks to um everybody put that on. We also got to give away some fun prizes and I got to feel like a game show host and that was fun. Um, special education training. So, if you remember from um, our negotiated agreement last year, we had uh, August 1st was slated to have the 3-hour training uh, in the morning for our special education educators. So, we had 210 of our special education teachers participate. Again, that's not new teachers. That's just um, all of our special education teachers. And these are some of the um topics that were um discussed or excuse me were um shared at that
067uh training um with around law uh updates around the law and then compliance around our IEPs. And then I think we also have a process in place based on the negotiated agreement to get feedback on how well that worked and do we need to make changes for next year. And so we'll get some data on that as well so we can make sure that those three hours are as meaningful as as possible. Um we also had back to school inservice. Um so this was August 4th and 7th. Um on the 4th you can see that we had our um secondary folks receive their inservice training um in these different areas. Um and then on the 7th um we had our high school in the morning and then we had our um elementary folks in the
068afternoon and you can see the different um content areas and the different um interventions and curriculum that they received uh inservice training on as well. So again, a lot of work from uh Jen's teams and and a lot of folks that that goes into putting on these trainings and just want to show appreciation to them for that and also for our our teachers who attended these um inservice trainings. Um we also had some additional elementary training. So was mentioned earlier, elementary school started 2 days later. We did get some questions from folks asking why is that the case? That's that's not what we would normally want to have happen. If you remember last year, we had to start um secondary uh high school started later and that was for the um capturing kids hearts training.
069This year there was a a two-day later start for elementary um mainly for our K5 um literacy adoption and we wanted to make sure that we gave um our elementary folks a leg up on the start of the school year by having that additional training they needed to um to dive into the new curriculum. Um again appreciative to CMU. They donated space to us. We didn't have to pay for that. So, we really appreciate them um letting us use all their um lecture halls uh for those trainings. So, they they basically had um different grade levels split out. So, there was a room for first grade, a room for second grade, third grade, and they were there for 2 days um receiving this training from our coaches uh and our folks at HMH that also
070helped um facilitate that. So, you can see the stats on there for the amount of folks that attended that. And then for the folks who did not need to receive that training, you can see the rest of the bulleted list that that was it basically provided an opportunity for the rest of our elementary educators to get additional two days of professional learning. So um just just because you weren't a K5 reading teacher didn't mean we didn't have something for you. We had things for um all the rest of the elementary staff as well. So very coordinated effort um by again Jyn and Jackie and all their teams for putting on that training for two days. got to visit that as well and it was great to see the the staff um participating. Just some other
071things to note. Um so there we also had our three-day ILT retreat and planning this summer that uh Jyn led and so that was bringing all the different departments together and the department leads to plan for um how to best serve schools this year and how to uh ensure that we are uh breaking down silos between departments and making sure that we are um again doing a better job of serving our campuses. Um there was a lot of training this summer for our safety and security folks. Um we also had a custo a custodial in service. So all of our custodians came together and we had a a full day training for them. Um and then uh Clint has also taken his um support side leadership folks through some leadership training, some intentional leadership training
072and so they started that work or continue that work this summer as well. um our access opportunity family partnership department also did uh multiple trainings and remember they're going through the work right now to do our to create our family partnership roadmap and so we had multiple meetings with um staff um families um and and folks this summer to to try to help create that roadmap for um how do we best serve our families and how do we create better partnerships for our families and how do we create benchmarks um along the way. It's basically a strategic plan for family partnerships. I think we actually have a meeting tomorrow um again with that group. So that work happened as well. Um additional uh trainings for our migrant department. Um maintenance and operations did a lot
073of updates in our buildings. We always always have a lot of summer projects that they have to take on at our schools. And they also um completed uh 1,515 work orders um this summer, which is great. I don't I don't think we got to 100% but that's a lot um of work orders that they completed uh in addition to the other work that they're doing to get our schools ready. Um and then just the work that our custodians uh put in over the summer to get our schools ready um and prepped for the start of the school year. Want to show appreciation to them as well um for all their hard work. We also remember we implemented a new salary schedule um this year and so a lot of work went in last year from
074our HR and our finance department to make sure that we were capturing the continuing education credits that our staff have been receiving over the years so that we could best place them where they belonged on the salary schedule. Um and then they also worked through the summer to try to help with uh any staff that felt like maybe we were placed in the in the wrong area of the salary schedule. How do we um accommodate them as well? So, a lot of work went into that um so that we could be ready for that new salary schedule this school year. And again, depending on how many continuing education credits a staff member got, they could have seen a a a sizable increase um uh to their salary for this starting this school year, which is
075great because we're honoring those continuing education opportunities that they had. Um and then we've also continued to meet with CI for our strategic plan work. We will um bring that first update at the next work session. So, we'll have an update from um one of our focus areas, our priority areas at the next um board meeting. Um and then the long range facility planning process has started as well. Um if you remember, we put out an RFP and we um uh have an or a company that's working with us to complete that. Um and we'll have an update at the next work session on that as well. So, the folks that we are contracting with will actually um join us virtually and they'll share all the work that they've been doing so far. We meet
076weekly with them um for just to get updates, but they wanted to give the board an update on where we are with that as well. Okay. Um so really the first few slides was just to highlight a lot of work from our year- round staff and our um campus level staff um just to get the uh get us ready to start the school year. Just um the dates again we August 8th we started off with uh our Mesa Valley Community School started their uh school days. Then the 9th we had our secondary students start. Uh August 11th, all of our elementary school students started. Um this past Monday, some of our 4-day option schools, uh including Independence Academy and District Charter started school. And then kindergarten started today, um for our district, and then Juniper
077Ridge, uh will start tomorrow. So I think after tomorrow, all of our buildings, our in district buildings will be um will have started. Um, and so with that, I'm actually gonna turn over to Nikki because she has um a few slides that she wants to share with you around um the hiring work that's happened over the summer. And I think you can click unless you need to. All right. Good evening. Um so first before we get started, um I want to shout out the HR department and also finance and payroll because the month of August is crazy. We have people exiting our organization and people coming on and especially to get that August payroll right. It's a huge lift. So thanks for everybody all their hard work. So with this presentation we want to start
078with how it started versus how it's going. So here's a little recap how it started. Um as you all remember we posted positions pretty late in the year. March 27th, we posted posted our principal positions. Middle of April, we posted our certified positions to internal staff and then we didn't post um certified positions to external staff until May 1st. So, I just want to remind us that our ideal time to post administrator positions is in January and our ideal time to post teaching positions is late February or early March. And this is really important to our buildings. Not only does it help us compete for labor, but it really helps our buildings hire early and get folks ready for the new school year. So, that's what we want to shoot for for this year. And
079uh that I'm going to push our system a little bit to make sure that we can do that. But that will be really helpful for our buildings. One thing that we wanted to look at was, you know, what did our overall number of separations look like at the end of last year? compared to other school years. And what we found is that it's about the same. Um although we did have 15 fewer separations at the end of last school year compared to the 2122 school year. But if we take a look at the last three years, our number of resignations are about the same. So we didn't see a big increase in separations. So, this is a reminder about some of our annual efforts, what we do to recruit every year. Um, we want to
080make sure that we're in HR, we're constantly evaluating our hiring process because we want to make sure that those job offers get to candidates quickly and we have done a great job in improving that time um that it takes to get job offers out. We have two recruiters in the HR department, one for support staff and one for support um sorry licensed staff and that's a big lift to get um a lot of folks hired all at once and they do a great job. So thanks to Carter Ness and Becca Nlanic. Um the other things that we've done annually will continue to do is we um partner with CMU who is a great partner for us really helps us develop our pipelines for teachers. So Carter and team meet with students throughout the year to
081start building those relationships early. And our induction team also plays a big role in that about really trying to establish connections with those folks so when they're student teaching with us they want to continue with us when they graduate. Um, we also have worked with CMU that our student teachers can sub in the second and the fourth quarter of their student teaching experience and that's helped fill um some of our fill rates. So, that's been um a great opportunity both for them and for us because they get a little extra pay and some great experience. So, of course, we attend job fairs both in and out of state. We'll continue to promote our grow your own program. That is a program where both substitutes and pair professionals who have a bachelor's degree can be awarded
082$5,000 to get their teaching certificate. And we allow up to 10 folks go through that program. It was originally designed to target diverse staff or hard to fill positions like special ed. Um we are doing a better job with utilizing social media to make connections. Of course, we want to continue to advertise on targeted job boards and we have our local advertisements as well. So, here's some things that are new that we're trying. Um, we have started to pursue and hire outofcountry candidates. That's where we work with an agency and bring in teachers from other countries on a J1 visa. So, that's new to us this year. Um, we'll see how that goes, but I hope that that will not only increase our diverse workforce, but also help us fill some of those hardtofill positions.
083Um, Carter has done a great job of partnering with CDE to develop a job board for the state. Um, and he he and Becca also partner with the Mesa County Workforce. um we have a lot of candidates that are going through the alternative licensing program and so if we can help them fund that either through grants or through some scholarships um that's uh helpful certainly. Um another thing that we did this year the whole team spent a great deal of time um researching and trying to figure out how we can send some mass recruiting blasts and we were able to do that. sent over 2500 um emails to special education leaders and also educational leaders throughout this state and nation and got some good feedback on those. We'll continue to do those. Um you may
084have seen our wrapped vehicles around town. Uh that was new this year and then we had a bigger emphasis on recruiting some of our retirees. So, how it's going, here's where we are now. Um, just to give you some context, in the last two weeks, we've received 88 employment applications. So, people are still applying. Recruiting is a yearround task force. So, just because school has started doesn't mean that we've stopped recruiting. Um, in terms of support staff, our highest areas of need are of no surprise to me. They are typically in the areas of special education pair of professionals, um other support staff, we've lumped them together. So that's general ed pair of professionals, office staff, health assistants, um early childhood, we have 14 openings and then nutritional services is looking for nine folks. So
085those are our highest areas of need right now. Um I we did put the starting salaries, we're making progress on our starting salaries. Two years ago, the starting salary for special ed pair professionals was around 1470. So, we're making some ground there and that has helped. Um, talk a little bit about substitutes. Right now, we have 385 substitutes. Um, since the middle of July, we've had over 70 people apply to be a substitute. So, we're interviewing. Um, typically at the end of the school year, we typically have around 500 substitutes. So that number grows throughout the year. And then what's new this year is we have a different incentive program for our substitutes. Um it's a two-part incentive program. The first is if you have uh a teaching substitute license and you sub for one
086of our special education teachers, you get an extra $20 a day. We hope that that will help increase our fill rate for special education teachers. The other part of that incentive program is we've identified 12 locations that are difficult to fill with subs. And so if you work at those identified locations, you would also get an extra $20 a day. And so um the the the two former years where we had a sub incentive program, I do believe it's made a difference and it has increased our fill rate. So, I'll be excited to track this information and to see if it's helped us fill um for special education teachers and for those um certain locations. So, this slide is really interesting. I'm going to take a little bit of time and walk you through this.
087I wanted to give you some context because you may have been hearing about our uh our teacher shortage, whether that's in Colorado or across the nation. So, we took a look at our comparable districts. We took a look at their openings as of August 1st and of as of August 10th. So on August 10th, the average number of openings, these are for certified openings, was 34. You can see we had 32. We're actually down to 30 now. So we're we're making progress. And you can see some of those districts, um, some have a lot fewer openings than we do. If you look at 27J, that's in Brighton. One of the reasons I can summize maybe that they have fewer openings is they're on a 4-day work week and their starting salary is 52,000. And so
088we did look at start dates of when the first day of school was. We looked at pay. We looked at number of teacher contract days. Weren't really able to find a theme. Um, if you look at Adam's 12, they have a pretty high number of openings, their contract days are similar to ours and their starting salary is 58,000. They're also competing with those districts around them. Some of the salaries start at 60 or above. So, they have a lot of competition in that in that area. But again, this just gives you some context. This is a little bit higher than what we've seen in years past. Um but we're again we're still making progress in recruiting. So this breaks it down by level. We have on the left what is open and what on the
089right what has been filled. So at elementary we filled 89 general ed teachers, 20 sped teachers, four counselors and 10 administrators. 20 special educators at elementary. That's a big lift. So we we feel good about that. At middle school, we filled 59 general ed teachers, 13 sped teachers, six counselors, and 10 administrators. And in middle school, that's where we have our largest number of openings. We have five general ed openings, five specialed teachers, and one counselor. At high school, we hired 43 general ed teachers, 16 special education teachers, 12 counselors, which is a big lift. Counselors are hard to find. Um, so we're proud of that. And then seven administrators at the high school level. And we have six openings right now at high school. and our uh alternative campuses. This is GRA Gateway R5
090uh those folks. Um we hired eight general ed teachers, three special education teachers, and one administrator. So, um this is the last slide. I wanted to talk a little bit about what we're doing to cover those vacancies right now. So, as of today, we have 38 long-term substitutes in place. 13 of those are general education vacancies, 10 are special education vacancies, 11 are for support staff, and five are for those that are on FMLA or other leaves. A huge shout out to our teachers on special assignment, that's a TOSA, and SPED specialists. We have six of them temporarily covering classrooms right now and that is a huge lift for them and we're so appreciative of their hard work and everything that they're doing to try to step in and make sure that our classrooms and
091our kids are supported. But it also takes them away from their job uh that they were so excited to do this year. Um and so um we hope through our continued hiring efforts that that number will decrease as we take a look at just what our staffing needs are. And then of course as I mentioned we're utilizing uh more para retirees and we're so thankful that when somebody retires and then we call them two weeks later and ask them to come back that they say yes. So we appreciate our par retirees. With that I'm happy to answer any questions. I have a couple questions. Thank you for that. Um I had three kind of areas that I wanted to ask about. One, um I'll start with the incentives for subs. Kind of seems like an
092interesting pilot to see um how that adjusts our fill rates. Are we having the discussion about the potential for that to um so it was both the um incentives for sped and then the incentives for those 12 schools that we have a harder time filling subs or placing subs in. Do we see that as any sort of a pilot or model for adjusting any salaries relative to those same categories? I think it's a great conversation starter because if we can get some data that shows this sort of program helped with our sub rates, we might be able to make a correlation that it could help in other positions as well. So, I'm excited to see that data and then see where that conversation may take us. Yeah, I'm excited to see that too. Yeah, I'll
093look forward to an update of that, you know, probably next year. Um, and then another question is, you know, just thinking about as we're as we're looking at efficiencies and efficacy of all of our practices, have we done an audit of our hiring practices? So, I was, you know, specifically wondering about those outofstate job fairs, you know, do we know I you don't have to answer this question and I'd be shocked if you know it off the top of your head, but, you know, do we know how many applicants come out of that? Do we know what our return on investment is? I know that you're piloting some new programs. Do we have a plan for ongoing auditing of those especially the innovative practices to see if like yes, we need to invest more here
094or maybe not. Yep. We um we do track that data. So we know when we go to job fairs how many people show interest, how many people are hired. With job fairs, it gets a little challenging because you may not have any interest that year, but developing that relationship, you may see them a year later or they may come back to your table a year later. So, that's the thing about job fairs. The other thing about job fairs, I think they are becoming a little obsolete. Yeah. Um, and so I don't know and and they're pricey and so I don't know if that is going to continue to be an effective strategy for us, but we do track that data. Um, we also, you know, I I we're always taking a look at, you know,
095what works and what hasn't. Last year, we did some billboards. It didn't work. And we know it didn't work because on our website, people will track how did you learn of this job? And so, we know where our people are seeing openings. We know that word of mouth, some specific sites like our site, Indeed, depending on the specific job, um those bring in a lot. We had some targeted advertising this year, especially for math and science. Didn't work that well. And it's one of those things that I and I'm glad we track the data because then at least we can say, okay, we tried this and we know it doesn't work, so we know not to do it again. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, I'll be curious as we move forward with um you
096know the the ongoing um auditing of our programs to understand our return on investment. I'll be curious kind of how we formalize. It sounds like you you are doing it, but I'll be curious how kind of it's formalized into a more you know like when do we decide again like go no go when is this working is this not working and again it sounds like you're tracking it but I'm curious about a system in the long term but um okay and then my last question for you was exit surveys from the separations so I'm glad to see that our separations haven't really decreased or increased. Um but I'm curious how we collect data from them to design solutions for retaining folks. Yeah. So um a couple of years ago we started really collecting or are
097starting to initiate exit interviews and have tweaked the process over a few years where now and at some point um I'm happy to come back and show you some exit interview data because um Rachel Tally has built us this great exit interview dashboard and so we can see based on here's here's here's how we are as a district. here's how we are as at each individual school and or maybe department or we can pull out special education teachers and things like that. And so we're honing in on on really making sure that that data is there and then our next step is okay now that we've got the data and it's easily accessible um it's easy for people leaving the system to fill out the exit interview because it's voluntary. um now how can we
098identify trends now what do we do with the data so that's our next step so we've done a great job of gathering the data and now we got to bring it to that point where we can figure out what are our themes and what can we do differently great yeah I know we can I jump in on that one um I know we've talked a lot in the past about those exit interviews are obviously voluntary and how difficult it's been to get some of that information back. Have you seen an increase? We have seen an increase just by changing the format. Yes. And in fact, um, if I could I I can't pull up the dashboard now, but we, um, I want to say we've sent out maybe 480 or so exit interviews and have
099received over 200. Um, so that's half. I It's It's still not great. we would want more, but before when we would send out exit interviews, we would get, you know, maybe 40 or 50 back. So, by making it a little bit easier, we send them multiple reminders to fill out the exit interview. Um, certainly that has helped. And so, we're starting, I think, to get some really good data. Yeah. I'm also curious about things like housing, you know, and like to to understand what at a district level, you know, not not just everything within your purview. Yeah. Right. Like what else do we need to be doing? Yeah. And I I can't remember what board meeting it was, but you all had requested that we add that to the exit interview survey, and we have.
100So, over time, we don't have a lot of data on it yet, but over time, we'll be able to identify the reasons. Um and specifically if housing is playing an issue. Yeah. Um I just want to re reiterate again how grateful we are to the HR department because I know a lot of work went into trying to fill the positions. Like you said, we're not done. Um I was looking the other day at the um the state puts out a report every year on um how many positions go unfilled the prior year and I think it was it's like 16% of the pair of professional positions were never filled last year and I think teaching was somewhere around like eight or nine%. So you you're always going to have positions that never get filled unfortunately,
101but we obviously want to get that number as low as we can. And so I appreciate all the work that y'all are putting in um to try to help with that and our school principles that are doing the interviewing and their teams at the schools as well. So um we appreciate that. And um and really just the last thing for this presentation is again thankful to the folks, the year- round employees that put in a lot of work over the summer to get our schools ready to be opened. and then um and then our campus folks um for the amount of professional learning and training they put in this summer um to be ready for our students to arrive um these past couple weeks. So, thank you. Good job. I just have one I have
102one last comment. I um got to attend um one of the days of the new teacher training and so you guys they did a fabulous job. It was great to see all the the new teachers there. I was encouraged. I just want to give you guys kudos for finding solutions and alternatives, you know, growing our own, working with our student teachers to help be substitutes. I think looking for those alternative ways to get people to be to to stay with the district, but that we also are utilizing people who we know already can do it um to to be a part of the district. And so I really commend you guys for thinking outside the box in finding those solutions that help our community and keep people in our community. So so well done. Yeah.
103Thank you. Can I ask one more question of of maybe the curriculum folks? How is the adoption of the new reading curriculum going for the elementary schools? Well, it just started. So, um, Friday would have been the first day and it was an early release day. But, um, then Monday would have been the first day for our 1 through five. And today then would be the first day for our kindergarten. I'll let Jackie talk a little bit more about how it's going. I just want to go back a moment to to make a big deal. I know it's already been mentioned about what those two days that Wednesday and Thursday um before school started. We've never had that opportunity to have that full time with our elementary educators and our administrators that focused on just
104an implementation. Literacy is kind of a big deal. All of our contents are important, but literacy is foundational. And here was an opportunity that we had that all of our teachers got to be in one room together. All of our first grade teachers, second grade teachers, third grade teachers. We have never had an opportunity like that for our teachers to learn together at the same time in the same room from facilitators from the um the the publisher that we purchased this resource to. It was a day that was full of course some um of our folks had already attended some training but this was an opportunity for them to train together to unpack understand really what was in this resource and then there was plan time built in and then they had that opportunity to
105visit with peers from across the district to practice and plan together. Now, so I I just want to make a huge deal and a huge shout out for all of our teachers that attended and our administrators that attended as well. Now, I'm going to leave it to Jackie to tell you how is it going. This you can have this one. Yeah. Thank you, Jen, for lifting those things. We ran the two-day PL three times and so we have data from each of the three iterations. Oh, two years ago, nearly two years ago, Jen and I went to each building when he we announced this change and asked, "What do you need in support and what would effective professional learning look like?" And teachers were really clear, we need multiple opportunities to attend. Um, if those
106are optional, then we need it again when it's not optional. When it is on contract, we want it embedded in our contract. We want it to be consistent. So, we've spent the last couple of years designing that professional learning and getting support from uh the vendor HMH with inter reading and really they don't offer a two-day training. So, equipping our instructional coaches to lead it who did a phenomenal job. We asked the same questions after each iteration and asked about facilitation, asked about the content, did it help you understand how it's organized, how to assess students, how to use the digital components, were your facilitators knowledgeable, were they effective? And every single question, the rates of agree and strongly agree were over 90%. In those iterations, it was pretty incredible really to see that sort
107of data from PL. We don't typically see results that are that strong, that unanimous. I don't think it aired. KREX came and interviewed a number of our teachers on campus at CMU, but I wish you could have heard their testimonials about the power of that professional learning, uh, the opportunity that they had to work as one large grade level team. Dr. Hill already mentioned that it's not often if ever that we've been able to put all of kinder in one room together to work to plan together really for the first few days of school. And so teachers found it quite powerful and we're grateful that we had that opportunity at CMU. So we're excited to hear more from the field about how it's going. We're already planning our next few events of professional learning. We
108have a Nick convening um in only a couple of weeks. We have district Friday where our strive consultants are going to tell us more about how to really support all of those components of literacy in the context now of our new resource. So, um I don't think I could be happier with really how things are going for our system and the feedback that we're hearing. Yeah, I even I was out at dinner with my family one night and I ran into a bunch of teachers and they said, "I felt like I was drinking from a fire hose, but I'm glad I had the opportunity was what I heard." So, it was a lot of information, but if they hadn't had those two days to try to digest it, it would have been um difficult. I
109think, you know, another thing that we kind of we didn't get to highlight as much at the end of last school year because there was a lot going on. Um but the fact that we already at the end of last school year, we had 80% of our kindergarten students reading on grade level or above u or above and then 70% of our K3, which again are are highs for us. But even having but having this um approved curriculum from the state um and having the training that's necessary for our teachers to be able to utilize it, I'm optimistic that we're going to ideally see even higher numbers um of our students at that foundational level reading on or above grade level. So that is a testament to our teachers and our principles and everybody who
110have already been doing really hard work with the curriculum that we've had and then with having this new adoption, I'm I'm optimistic that's going to be even better. So again, a lot of effort went into that and I appreciate all the work y'all did. And to your point about data, you know, we measured and we're monitoring again this year all three of the ELG grant goals. We adopted those as our own as a district. The state says these are rigorous. This is what you should strive for. Even though we weren't awarded the ELG grant, we took the goals as our own and we as a district met all three goals without the support of the grant last year just with early access and before the adoption of the resources as well. pretty incredible what educators
111in our system have done. We met all three goals. Um not even in year one. So that's getting ready for this year. I I can't believe it's been two years. It's like a year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. It'll be two years in October when we were given the the directive to change our resource by the state. Good job. Yeah. It's exciting. Thanks for the Y. All right. Well, before public comment, the board needs to take a break. Um, again, just a reminder if you are new and haven't signed up for public comment before, the sheet is over there under the television. Um, we will pull that here shortly and then we'll be back for public comment here in just a moment. Thank you so much. There you go. Are you fine? Listen, just drink a
112doll of tequila. That's all I heard. All right, I'm going to give a 60se second warning to wrap up conversation so we can keep going. We have some bets on how long the meeting's going to go. So, no, I'm told we need the Bronco horn. All righty. All right. Well, thank you everyone. Um, it's nice that we all get a chance to chat a little bit and socialize during that time. Uh we are now going to move into our um audience comment portion for the evening. So um just like to remind everyone at this time that we do dedicate this to hearing the public comment and we encourage everyone to speak. We just ask um that we want to hear everybody speak. So if you're having any side conversations um please just excuse yourself out
113into the lobby just so you're not disturbing your neighbor in case they're wanting to hear what the speakers are saying. Um, and then, uh, I guess just be be polite and be civil. So, uh, Director Jones is going to, uh, call the name and then who is on deck? Um, you'll have three minutes. Um, you'll hear a little tone when you have 30 seconds left so you can wrap up your thoughts and then a longer tone uh, when your time is up. Take it away. All righty. So, this year I wanted to try something a little different. Um, but we don't have any students in the room, so we're So, I want to try and uh make sure our students get to be heard, too. So, if we have any students that want to speak,
114I'm going to try and get them up first, but we don't have any students in the building today, so we're good. So, we're going to start out with Mr. Bruce Low Miller, and on deck's going to be Miss Ricky Howey. Right there. Good evening, school board. I am producer Edward Lom Miller, and I have a great deal of material to go through this evening. So, I will do my level best to organize my brain to convey it upon you. Now we had a gentleman uh this is this is in concern to your comprehensive ed class sex ed class and violences and I have a whole series of other policies here I'd like to go over very briefly if I can but this is about Major Garrett he's from CBS news and if there were questions
115about post pursuit syndrome that's another thing I was telling you about that you might well be involved in that you're not supposed to be involved in okay post pursuit syndrome CBS News feature 1996 and there is also the Fox News normal sex report feature from 1999. We have asked him nicely several times to please verify the reports so that we can use them to implement them into a a class. Okay. Uh Henry Stppel, he he's with the Mesa County Sheriff's Department. He has the case folder and uh what this means is we're going to have a zero tolerance for violence. I thought we had a zero tolerance for violence policy, but I don't know whether we actually do. Uh 241 stop is a telephone number you can call and uh we we do make a
116report and we do have such a thing as M1 holes for people in situations they should not be in. Okay. Uh shooting events. I am I am amazed at shooting events. This is where you uh have manifest dosage people uh say what they're going to do and you're supposed to put them on a watch list and then if they actually uh obtain supplies you are supposed to do a welfare check and that is to prevent the incident from occurring. Okay, that and the fact that uh yeah welfare checks and also media hype please contain the media's enthusiasm for bloodshed and prevent further bloodshed. We're going to have a whole another blur about the BD in here. Peter Hansinger, you ever heard of him? He commits slander. The gentleman is now with your US attorney general's
117office, I believe. And I wanted to mention it because uh Mr. Mr. Higgins from uh the partners program was witnessed one of his episodes one day at the county courthouse and I believe that should be noted as well. Okay. Now, where was I? Come on. Come on. Come on. Okay. Uh uh normal sex Fox News Sundance Film also has a sex report out and a Facebook clip called Free Will. Uh a young lady named Mary Peterson from was working at Sunset St with my mother and she she is partial a partial witness to an event that occurred there is supposed to be not only sane but laughable. Oh, I'm I'm not quick enough. Huh? Okay. Now, now no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, John Shaver and Tammy Erit have the actual statute to
118review. Uh, please Mr. Shaver said polygraph. They're having any issues with these people. Uh, a polygraph. If they refuse to take a polygraph, it brings the documentation in whatever cases they're involved in into question. Okay. Uh, oh, my estate. I love how they they just liberated my m my estate by not reporting not submitting reports to the Okay, Bruce, I'm I'm a gone puppy. Done. You're done, buddy. Thank you. Up next we have Miss Ricky Howey. And on deck, Tom Sharon. real real quick. Um, is this light supposed to be facing me or is it supposed to be facing the audience so that they can see the the not No, it's this little um square right here. The square thing right here. No, that's the timer, right? I thought the light used to be over.
119Is the light for us now? Okay, it's okay. I just wanted Do you want this closed? No, you're good. No, you're good. Sorry. I'm just So, your your time is here. Sorry. Normally I know we have the light sometimes too. So I just wanted to We're good. The light should be over here. Okay. Do we want Are you talking? No, the light is right there. Here. Yes. And it's facing me. So I think it needs to be facing me. Yeah. Well, I'm just I'm going to have tech take care of it. Dan knows what I'm talking about. Thank you. Just some sometimes if you hear the tone also a visual is helpful for people to know with the Yeah, it's I think right there works. Then green then yellow then red. So thank you. Thank
120you for waiting. Oh, now I'm confused. Um so tonight um I want to talk about your library selection policy. couple of uh meetings ago, a policy was introduced and it was pulled before the meeting because the statutory references were wrong. Two of the four were totally wrong. And so I imagine it's going to be reintroduced. And I wanted to let you know that there's more wrong to that policy than just those references. Unless it is a blatant political move, the process described is over arching or too short or cumbersome. It's just wrong. uh it authorizes the principal of each school or the designate to be a gatekeeper on what books stay or go in the library based on complaints. So if someone complains about a book that on page 10 has two men hugging and
121that's the reason for the complaint. Hopefully that gatekeeper, the principal or the designate would take a look at the context surrounding the f the picture, the drawing. Uh, and if it's talking about two brothers meeting after a 10-year separation, I mean, you can understand that context explains that picture. If that gatekeeper does decide that it's still not suitable for a third grader to see, then that book is pulled from the school library. But if say it's a Newberry awardwinning book, that book might be say in every other elementary school in the district. So pulling it from the shelves at one school will not pull it from the shelves of the other schools. Jefferson County Jeffco schools has a committee um that includes librarians and teachers uh who are acquainted with this kind of material and
122they're the ones who decide rather than a single gatekeeper. Thank you. Thank you. Up next we have Mr. Tom Sheeran and on deck we have Jason Marsh. All right. Well, first I wanted to start out with a thank you to Will. You one of the things you first started out with when you became schoolboard member was you really were pushing that dad's on duty and now it's the watchdog dads and the fact that you're showing it or starting it this year just I think that's fantastic. you know, and just I appreciate your commitment for the kids and and what you're doing there and I just that just says so much for I just can't appreciate you enough for that. Second thing is for Dr. Hill, I know you've been on seat now for about a
123year, but what I've seen in the last year is just your leadership has just been tremendous. I mean, honestly, it's a hands-on type leadership and you see that with the teamwork between you and the administration and so just kudos for you on that. just really appreciate what you're doing and I think we are so fortunate to have you here. Uh I also wanted to touch on on the school books and library policies and things like that. About three or four months ago, I did some core requests trying to understand what the D-51 library policies were and uh a lot of information came back but nothing that I could really sink my teeth into. Uh you know and I was looking for standards or you know specific language and I just didn't find a whole lot.
124But uh one of the things that I did find on the on the criteria that was in place at the time and I guess you're updating this though is that the ultimate legal responsibility for selection of library materials is vested with the school board of education. So ultimately you all are the ones responsible for the booksto you delegate it out to principles. They may delegate out to the librarians underneath them but ultimately you all are the ones responsible for it. Um, you know, when I did my core requests, there wasn't a lot of meat to to specific standards that you could really follow. And, you know, I just thought that it's something with as big of a district as D51 is, it's something that we could put a little effort into and and, you know,
125get some traction on. Interestingly, I did an experiment today. I went to chat GPT and I just I typed some questions for chat GPT just to see what they came up with. You know, it's like what are some age inappropriate reading materials for K through five. Did the same thing for 6 through 8. Did the same thing for high school just to see what chat GPT would say. And that's a artificial intelligence database that pulls the whole web just to see and it's general information but it it gives you something to go by that is kind of more along the lines of what I was thinking it a school district would have instead of leaving it up to a and uh just for an example for 11th grade they had a comment for 11th grade
126what would be age inappropriate would be books with explicit and gratuitous sexual content or themes so that's something I understand. And I know we've sent you all something before. I'm not showing everybody this, but this is called Jack of Hearts. It's in Grand Junction High School. And if you want to talk about gratuitous sex scenes, it's in there from page one all the way through page 215. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Up next, we have Mr. Jason Marsh. And on deck, we have Miss Anna Elliot. Good evening. Um, I want to uh to begin just by saying that I have a couple students in Fruit of Monument High School and um for the sake of brevity, I I want to say thank you to you guys, but I want to get right to the point. Um,
127I have an 11th grader in a complit class and on the first day um there were decorations in the room that were decidedly pro-gay and gender affirming and and quite frankly that doesn't bother me. Um, but I just want to acknowledge that decorations communicate something. But then, uh, yesterday or the day before, my student came home with a picture of a survey that they were asked to take. And in that survey, um, there were a couple questions that centered around a question of which pronoun the child would like to use. And since my time here is limited, I'm going to focus not on that question, but on the second one that went with it, which was, and I quote, "Where do you want me to not use these pronouns? The classroom? anywhere in school or
128in communication with your family. So, if I could reword that last question, it would sound similar to, "Do you want me to lie to your parents with you? Do you want me to help you hide something from your parents?" And I think if nothing else, it communicates the idea that you can trust me more than you trust your parents. So, on the first day of class, she also told her students that they were not allowed to take pictures or videos in her classroom in particular. So, we're less than a week in and she has already communicated through these things that she's on a particular side of a controversial political topic, that she knows better than your parents do, and that she doesn't want to be held accountable. So, here's my problem. I think a teacher
129has a certain amount of influence and and we need them to have that influence to teach their subject with authority, but then are they allowed to use that same influence to sway political and sexual ideologies of children or not? because it appears to me like this teacher is trying to do just that. Makes me nervous for any kids in the class that might not line up with the way that she thinks. So, here's my question for you. Did she go against any policy? I'm asking if you guys would create a policy or policies around the topics of sex and gender and politics that put boundaries on when and where these topics are acceptable. And I think a policy would do two things. It would give teachers guidance on what can be used for for planning
130sake, but then also for discipline, but it would also give parents the chance to decide based on that policy whether or not we're comfortable keeping our kids in the district. And we would not have to have these oneoff instances where uh a teacher and a parent disagree about a topic for the kids. I think that a policy would solve a lot of the problems and it would give a lot of clarity to everybody on both sides. And so I'm asking if you guys would create a guiding policy both for the teachers and the parents so that we would know what to do going forward. Thank you. You up next we have Miss Anna Elliott and the final one would be Miss Sarah Fletcher. Welcome back Kyla. I want to talk about the panorama survey. Um,
131I went ahead and pulled the survey so I could have a look and there's three sections to the K through three um, p the panorama mental health and well-being. The survey is not anonymous and it's able to be accessed um by school admin and designated 51 school service staff. Uh, it's broke down into three sections. Safety and security, your feelings and feelings in general. And I went through and noticed that section one and section three begin with an affirmative answering yes, no, yes, no. But section two was switched up and it begins with a no on your feelings. So, I'm just going to read uh through the question. Safety and security, which I think could be appropriate and very helpful with dealing with our school population, the underserved. Does your family have enough food at
132home to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, even if it's not your favorite food? Do you currently live in a tent, a camp, or a hotel, or a homeless shelter? Do you currently live in someone else's house with friends or another family? Do you have an adult at school you can talk to that you trust? Yes or no? So, and if so, who? So, the second section, your feelings, they switch it up where you begin with a no in your first response given. Your questions about how you're feeling, how you've been feeling recently, please respond honestly. There's no right or wrong answers and you don't have to answer if you want to. So, have you been happy? Are you safe? Are you sad? Are you afraid? And you have days, no days or one
133day, same day, most days, every day. This last survey question section bothers me. The last two questions, it's about the feelings in general. Number 11 is, do you need to talk to your school counselor or principal principal about your safety or the safety of someone else? And knowing an eight-year-old myself, I know that something something about safety for someone else would be in his um wheelhouse. He's concerned for others. And if he came forward and mentioned that, does the parent know um who knows first? Does they go to a counselor? Are they questioned or investigated there? When does a parent get to become involved if a child is contacted further after the answer to the survey? And then the second one is, do you need to talk to your school counselor about a big problem
134or something you're worried about? Again, following back on my eight-year-old, a big problem could be like sister is taking my Lego toys, but I know a big problem from other children could be that someone's been molesting them or they're not having food to eat or someone's got a gun in the house or the cops came to my house. At what point, and I know the district would call and bring a a counselor in and talk to that student, when does the parent get involved? How do they know? How do they know what's happening? And is um is a um someone there to take the child right from the house determined on what the school feels? I feel that some of this is important, but it needs to be addressed further. Thank you, Mr. Miss Elliot.
135And our final parent of the evening is Miss Sarah Fletcher. Good evening. I actually hadn't planned on speaking tonight, but um something Mr. Hill was talking about, Dr. Hill prompted me to um finish the night on a positive. So, um, your discussion about the summer programs that really impacts our family. My son is that kid who kind of rides on the fence. He's always at risk for falling behind. And um, between the move here and co, he's had some issues cuz he doesn't really hasn't had his heart captured for the love of reading. And so, you know, like what um Jyn said, literacy being a big deal, I just wanted to give some positive kudos to his experience at the summer program this year. And um they had a big ice cream social afterwards, which
136there were a lot of parents there, I'll report. And um one of his teachers came up to me and just expressed to me what a pleasure it was for her to work with my son. And then later afterwards, um, I got a follow-up email and his reading grade improved by 24 points over the summer program. And that's a really big deal because he does not love reading to the point his aunt is bribing him to read more. Um, so I just wanted to give a positive reinforcement because he because he is that kid on the IEP and um, he really enjoyed the program and it was a positive experience and I can tell you he wasn't real thrilled when I told him I had signed him up that he had to do this this summer.
137So, thank you so much for all the hard work. That concludes our audience comments for the evening. All right, thank you for your comments this evening. All right, we are now going to move into our consent agenda. Um, the consent agenda contains personnel actions 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. board. Is everybody fine with what's on the consent agenda? All right. Um I will state that we had a total of gifts of $9,046.50. Um thank you very much for those who do donate to district 51. So do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Second. Second. We can take
138the vote. Mrs. Heights? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Miss Lima? Yes. Mr. Dr. Levenson. Yes. Dr. Schulties. Yes. Right now, moving into our business items, we have item J1, which is a resolution supporting a grant from Mesa County Federal Mineral Lease District for improvement to the baseball and softball facilities at Palisade High School. Do I have a motion to approve this item? So moved. Second. Any discussion? I have I think we had some folks um from Palisade to come and explain that. Sure, we can do that during discussion time right now. They had approached um I know I talked to coach Porter. He's a baseball coach and I thought it would be a good idea for him to explain what this is going what what we would we're asked to approve. So he brought his team
139up here. Yeah. Right on to that mic so everybody can hear you. Yeah. Just speak. Do I have three minutes? Do I No, no, no, no. You limit it. Yes. Only if we have to limit you. That's it. I'll start the timer right now. All right. Uh so the overall summary is that we're uh applying for a grant in order to do astro turf on the infield and uh put a hitting facility into the softball program, which will also be used by the baseball program in the winter. Uh and then build a clubhouse for the girls softball. They don't have their own clubhouse. Boys do, girls don't. So, we're going to donate that as part of the grant. So, pretty cut and dry. Great. You're looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars perhaps with this
140grant. Yeah. 291,000 is what we're requesting from the the grant. Uh, and the overall project's I think 49. Is that right in there? 419675. So, we've got a lot of inkind donations. Uh, and then some of our own cash we're inserting. Who's out of curiosity, who's writing the grant? Uh, well, the who's requesting the grant? So, we have to write the grant. Yeah, they they make it pretty easy for us because we're athletic coaches. So, um, they give us a questionnaire and we answer the question and then they do a they do a a vote, they do a point system on it. Um, you might be able to answer. It's in education. So, so there there's six questions that they uh that they request us to answer and then we'll make a presentation to them
141and they score those six questions on a 1 to 10 point scale. Um and then they decide on how they're they're if they're going to award the award the grant. So, I would just add to we normally we would try to bring this earlier but there's a deadline and so that's why it was on the agenda. So, you know, I I'd just like to make a comment and and coach Porter, Coach Howard, um Mr. Ballinger and and Paul Kane, the the enormous amount of effort that goes into forget the grant just to coach a baseball team or a football team, soccer, whatever it may be. And we've talked in years past and and and most recently, you know, what we we talk about interventions. the summer programs mean there isn't any any more of an
142intervention than having kids involved in extracurricular activities like sports or debate or whatever it may be and it's enormous amount of time and effort put into this uh essentially on a volunteer basis our coaches get paid you know minimal and it's a it's really a passion and I know coach Porter is a is a business owner here in town is donating you might talk about a lot of donating ating for to the high school as well. You were talking about a $70,000 building or something like that. Yeah. U Mr. Kane asked me to mention that. So the hitting facility that we are donating uh it belongs it belongs to me and we're putting that into the overall project and it is for the softball program because they don't have a hitting facility and we have
143batting cages on our field and so I think to meet some title N requirements we inserted that into the grant. Nice. Yeah. And projects like this not only benefit you know the high school kids but you have a lot of community people who use these are as you know are fields in general if it's uh you know at Fruda or Palisad or Central. So it's uh I just commend you for your efforts and and I'm glad you had a chance to come up and talk a little bit. We hope you get the grant. When when do you find out? September 8th is when we um go before the board and then they vote on it. I think they let us know pretty quick from what it sounds like in the paperwork. I read two dates.
144September 20th on one date and then September 8th on the other. September 3rd is when we have to have it fully submitted uh by 3 p.m. and then September 8th is when I believe they vote on it. Any feel for, you know, chances of getting it good, bad, 5050? Just call it good. Call good. Yeah. We got to be think positive. It's exciting. It's exciting. Yeah. Does the board have any other questions or discussion? Thank you gentlemen for sharing that with us and for staying for the meeting. Appreciate hanging out for the whole board meeting too. Yes. Thank you. All right. Well, if there's no further discussion, we can go ahead and take the vote on item J1. Mrs. Heights? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Ms. Lima? Yes. Mr. Levenson? Yes. Dr. Schulties? Yes. All right.
145We added item J2. um to the agenda. So, I am going to go ahead and read the resolution just because it was not included in the packet. Um so, and then after I read the resolution, I'll ask for the motion for the vote. So, this is for the approval to sell the career center project property. So, whereas the career center, a Mesa County 51 um school has a construction program designed to allow students to learn and practice the skills necessary to build a house. And whereas on June 20th, 2017, the board approved resolution 16-17101 to purchase property located at 311 Fallwater Court, Grand Junction, Colorado 81504 for the purpose of constructing a home under the career center construction program. Whereas the house located at 311 Fallwater Court in Grand Junction 81504 was recently completed and
146the home and property was listed for SA sale with River City Real Estate LLC. And whereas the district is anticipating receiving a contract for an amount equal to or greater than the listing price and whereas the district wishes to accept a contract offer greater than the listing and/or appraised value. Now therefore, be it resolved, the board of education declares the parcel located at 311 Fallwater Court, Grand Junction 81504 to be surplus property not needed within the foreseeable future for any purpose authorized by law. and further resolve that the board is in agreeance with the district to accept a contract to buy and sell real estate in an amount greater than the listing and or appraised value upon review of the approval from district legal counsel and further resolved upon review and approval from district legal
147counsel and the board authorizes and directs the superintendent or his designate to execute said contract on behalf of the board and further resolved that the superintendent or his designate is authorized to take such further steps and execute such other documents as and when required to complete the transaction. Do I have a motion to approve this resolution to sell the career center property project? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Yeah, let's let's hear about kind of the program and how this came to be. That's a good opportunity to highlight the program. So, um we there is the um career center construction program where the students actually um work with their instructor and with local contractors to we we purchase a piece of land. Um they build the house ground up and then that's why it's coming to
148you all uh this evening so that we can actually it's listed for sale. We can sell the property and then we can use the um proceeds for them to then go buy another piece of property or piece of land um that the students can then build another house. And so, um, I'm not doing it justice. We do have a video on our, uh, YouTube page if you go search for it, um, where we did a spotlight on this program, I think a year or two ago. And it's just a really great program at Career Center where students are getting hand hands-on experience, um, designing and building, uh, these homes. And, um, and so that's the reason why it's coming to the board, though, is because it is technically district property, and we have to come
149to you um, to for y'all to authorize the sale of it. But I do want to be clear that the money uh goes towards them continuing this program at Career Center and it's I think it's over kind of near 30 road and um I don't know. I'm not good with directions still, but it's really nice. I went to it. I'm sure if you want to put the address in online, you could probably see what it looks like. So on Zillow. Yeah. Yeah. So awesome. Um all right. Any other discussion? All right. Do we'll go ahead and call for the vote. Mrs. Heights? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Miss Lima? Yes. Mr. Levenson? Yes. Dr. Schulties? Yes. All right. Um, we're now at board open discussion. Does the board have anything they'd like to I just do
150real quick. Um, as much as I want to take credit for the the Watchdog Doug, I know it's a program that I I really meant to to have started when I first got on. Um, Miss Kirby Richardson and uh, a couple of the fellow board members really helped out with that process of getting it going. I know we kind of met with some resistance for a little while there, but uh, this year it's really stepped up. So, I want to thank Miss Richardson and my fellow board members for helping up and going to the open houses and getting things going. So, I just want to put it out there. Yeah. I wanted to also say yeah that's great. Thank you. I also want to say that I really appreciated Will you saying when the um
151audience comments started um I appreciated your organization for allowing students to go first. That's awesome. We're here for students. I love that. Um I also wanted to say when we were talking about the grant um the FM the federal mineral lease grant um and you know I think that this is a good opportunity. I mean, that's so cool and I'm glad that we highlighted it. I think it's also a great opportunity to highlight the need for grant writer. And I was going to ask specifically, I would love to know what a general return on investment is for a school district grant writer. So, something like that, you know, it'd be so easy for a grant writer to I have full faith that they are going to do an excellent job. It also would be, you
152know, a grant writer could be going after things like that all the time and could help them polish it and improve their chances from good to more than good or something along those lines. But I um and you and to be clear, anything you have to say now, I'd love to hear. But also, you don't have to answer that now. I'd be curious for, you know, for for us to do some work into understanding what it would take, what benefit we would get from having a grant writer because my understanding is it's usually about a five-fold return on investment for a public school district grant writer. Yeah. And I I appreciate that. We um you know, it originally the intent was to have the assistant superintendent that would be part of their role. Um and
153then not filling it, we just haven't really had a lot of discussion. We we're trying to be obviously mindful of any positions we add, but I hear what you're saying. You may make back more than um five times what you would actually pay that person anyway. So, I have had some conversations with some folks in the community about even maybe starting small with um contracting out with because there's folks that you don't necess have to hire on staff, but you can contract out with them and maybe we can do an experimental phase of seeing how much does that return for us. Um and then it's something that we could um have a discussion about maybe adding that position. But so it's it's twofold trying to be mindful of adding positions, but there is a need.
154And you know, we were having a discussion today. I'm looking at Tammy um just about um you know, when um schools want to go out and ask for funds from different entities, um that could also potentially turn into this individual being a point person for organizing that so that we don't have 25 different ent folks trying to go ask the same company for the for money. And so I think there it's a great it'd be a great opportunity. I think it'd be a great thing for the district to have. I think it is weird that a district this size doesn't have a grant writer. Um, but I don't maybe we had one a long time ago, but what we've had over the last since I've been here at least it's been like we have staff
155members that are really good at it and so that they ended up just doing it but it's not really their job and so it is something that we should explore. I agree that was my longwood way of saying I agree with you. I think I think one of the problems you run into you talked about could be a role for an assistant superintendent. things like that get watered down then because they have a dozen other things to work on. But if you have someone dedicated to that, you you probably get better return than say here here's a task you're going to have among have a dozen other tasks you have. So, um, but you're right. There's, it gets back to the thing we've talked before about positions and the value they bring to the organization.
156And if you have, yes, you're going to have a cost with that, but you're going to gain value for our kids and our community, then then it's kind of a no-brainer. Why not make that investment? If it's for a grant writer or, you know, other things that that get put off because we don't have somebody doing those those important jobs yet. I'm also curious, how many school districts have an assistant superintendent doing it? That sounds like a very expensive grant writer. Are they typically in a financial department? Yeah. So, that was again with the intent of not adding pos. It was going to be adding more duties to that individual's plate. So, um they would not be the assistant super just doing grant writing, but to your point, they would be doing that in addition
157to their other duties. So, um, but again, that was that was to try to be mindful of not adding new positions, but I we've had a lot of discussion actually about this over the last year or so. Um, and so I we can look into it. I we can look into too how many districts actually have them um already, but and I can try to figure out how to get data on um what does that return on investment look like traditionally? Yeah. Because ultimately they pay for themselves. It's a new position, but they bring in five times on average what they what we pay them. So, while it is a new position, it they on average they just bring in so much more money and so they they pay for themselves. You know that I
158don't have to tell you. Um okay, I have one other question. Um I am curious when we will get an update on the savings um from closing east, the class sizes and the course offerings. Is that going to happen at the next meeting or do we talk about it now? When what was when are we going to do that? So, we've sent information to the board. Are you wanting a you wanting an actual agenda item on the on an agenda around that? Um, yeah. Well, I mean, I don't know that I need an agenda item on it. I just am wondering when that update is going to happen. And I did ask for that update to the public. Um, but Okay. Yeah, we can do that. And actually, we'll have um we'll also have some
159numbers back um in the next couple weeks that are more real numbers as far as how enrollment looks at schools. So maybe we can couch those two things together and give an update on that. So I know we have agenda setting tomorrow. So we can add that. Great. Well, that would be a good followup because at the end of the last meeting, I think it was captured the three questions and it was followed up, I know, in the daily sentinel about what those questions are. So I would suspect there's community interest in okay how and I know it's still early but you're right Dr. Hill in early September it won't be I know it's not the October count but we'll have couple weeks trend of where we are with our numbers and how how everything's
160panning out at the at the with the middle school programming. Yeah, I'm um yeah, because our next work session will be in a couple weeks. That would be good. I because we've looked at preliminary numbers, you know, first couple days of school. It's not great. Um so, we're hopeful that they're it'll get better. So, yeah. So, I'd rather bring data back when we feel like it's more um uh it's actually capturing students in the seats. As Shannon mentioned earlier, even some schools, they may be hesitant to remove students from rosters until um they make sure they're definitely not coming. So, we get better data after the first couple weeks of school on enrollment. So, we can bring that back. If if I could just throw one more thing before we adjourn, and this is more
161for you guys because I'm, you know, have a few more meetings and then done, but it struck me tonight. There were a couple things that that happened um with Nikki's presentation and we talked about exit interviews and we're interviewing people when they're exiting which sometimes seems to me it always has that little too late to do that right um and then in listening to Jackie and Jennifer's presentation um the really robust to to get it right with their clientele, with their customers, okay? How we're gonna do our uh our inservice training, make sure we're because the time is so valuable and and so sparse that that we want to hit it right. And and you could tell not just tonight, but in other times they've shared with us about the uh professional learning, how targeted
162it is. It's based on input from staff and all all that business. Um and and I just want to throw something out to the board. We we used to have and I and as a building principal and it was valuable. It was it was immediate feedback. Every year we did something called OI. It was organizational health inventory and some of you who have been here in the district remember that and it was a survey basically it was a customer service survey of of our customers which are our teachers and our support staff about how how are we doing as an organization and then every year we would get together with our supervisors and develop plans about how to address the different issues. So it's real time data to to help the organization get better. What
163happened over time with it and why we don't have it now is the ball was dropped at the administrative level in in certain situations and that follow-through never happened and so people were asked to do surveys and give give their feelings and nothing happened right there was no so why do it and I and I bring this up not not to indict past administration or whatever but I think we have talked since I've been on board eight years now it has been recurring request of the district to do real customer service data. And when I say customer service, the people, you know, our staff, our parents about how are we doing and how can we adjust and not wait till they're exiting to find that information out because then it's too late, right? We want
164to keep them on board or attract them. And I don't know, OI is the right answer if it's even in business any longer. It was a outfit from Texas that we contracted with as a system. on any outfits from Texas. Pardon me, Kitty. I agree with whatever you said. I'm sure no outfits from Texas. That's right. Well, I maybe that was it. We put a ban on that after that or should have, but my point was irregardless who who performs that it it gives the organization and I know we do surveys and whatever, but something that was this was researchbased and it was third-party administered and there was a cost with it. There was no doubt. But it gets back to Dr. Schulty's thing. Is there a value to it? And you weigh cost worth
165value. And if we can demonstrate this, yes, it's going to cost, but it's going to help us in the long run long run to retain staff, to retain parents and families to stay in our system, it it could be a good investment. Again, it's it's just if not, I think we're going to be hemorrhaging and bleeding off staff and people from our from our system. and uh and unless we have some some type of organi organized data gathering other than waiting till people have exited and that would be something that you all may want to look at as the year continues and and uh um we've talked about this in the past. I know Mr. Parish brought that up many many times before you were even superintendent about how do we get that feedback before
166people say I've had enough and I'm out. We've heard that in public comments, you know, why people people suspect why people are leaving our district or why staff are and there are all different reasons. Not that that's going to stop at doing an OI thing, but um but it's it's something I think we we we you all may want to look at in the future. It would be interesting to see what um just natural attrition or or average attrition looks like over maybe a little bit longer period of time. Maybe we have a problem that would justify the extra cost and and a better outcome. Um and may maybe not. I mean, I think it would be really interesting to see I know, Nikki, that you showed some of those numbers about where we are
167in comparison with other districts um in Colorado. And that would be that'll be interesting to see a little bit longer term if that if that data is available. And it it just validates, I think, if we're going to ask people questions that in an exit interview or if they're a third-year teacher, you know, that that they can have confidence when they're asked questions that something's going to be done with that information. And what happened with the OI that died, right? Nothing was done with the information. And so it just why are we gathering it? Exit interviews. Do people ask okay what do is is that going to uh be a catalyst to changes that need to happen down the road that will enhance the organization. So, it's just something I don't know, consider, not consider,
168but I I think that uh to be customer centered is is important, which is what we're about, I think. Anyway, thanks. Just it's 7:30. I was trying to make sure I beat that. I got actually I went over by 15 seconds, so forgive. I maybe it would be helpful to I remember it was a couple years ago. I feel like it was Heather O'Brien was up here presenting at one point on when O when oi went away because that went away I think before I even got here. um what what tools we have now um and then how is it utilized because we have tel survey and panorama survey but maybe a big uh good opportunity for us to kind of do a refresher on that and then have a conversation about how that that
169data is used so we can make sure is it actually being utilized effectively because like you said OHI is an avenue and I didn't I wouldn't hear yell and you know it's impressive when you listen to Jackie and Jennifer it they're they're being proactive and I'm not meaning to pick on them it's a positive thing to find out, okay, get this information. So when we we have targeted professional learning because we know that's what people want as opposed to just scattershooting and hope hopefully it sticks, right? And and it's it's taking what they've done right in in their little world to the whole organization um is is the best way I can describe that. I don't know if that makes sense. It does me, but well, it seems like it would um dovetail and and
170maybe our strategic plan group is already kind of working on it with our you know staff wellness and you know so maybe we can just see if that team is already working on something. I do like the extra thing that you or the extra group that you mentioned which was parents and I don't know how we end up kind of you know because our our clients are our students, teachers and our families. So, it'd be nice to kind of get some, but I think we can leave that in the hands of the strategic Sure. plan team because I'm sure those are things that they're working on. So, we get an update at a later time. Oh, and do you have something? Okay. If now this overages does not go on me. Yes, we actually do
171collect data. I was part of OI when I was a building leader, when I was a teacher and a building leader and we now um and we use our this data a great deal and we now use Panorama. Panorama um identifies perception from our students from our teachers and we're going to put in our families this year. The thing by using Panorama is it is nationally normed and we have an opportunity to work with one c company that looks at all of these different perception through these perception lenses. They provide and I know and I remember at OI they provided coaching and how best to meet the um the responses that we received and so does Panorama but we most certainly we use it in our strategic plan. If you guys remember, we talk about
172Panorama and we use Panorama for belonging for both our teachers and our students. And now we're going to use it with our families and I think we're going to do that in October. So, we're using one company that essentially is asking about that customer service. How do you feel? and um what are the strategies that you can use to improve um the perceptions that and how do we compare to the to our schools to schools and our school to the nation or individuals to the nation. So we do it's just under a different name and it's one that does all three. Well, it's all under the umbrella as well that there's an expectation that that the data gathered with whoseever it's from is going to be utilized to to enhance to better what we're trying
173to do as opposed to just gathering it. You and that was with and again I'm not trying to sell OI or whatever it but there was always an expectation you got this issue going you better better deal with it and come up with a plan if if we're doing that then we are we are we are doing that and that data is part of our strategic plan. Perfect data. That was just I I just didn't want you guys to think that Yeah. OI is not here, but we do have something in um in its in its space and its place and we use it for exactly that. Perfect. Great. Thanks, Jen. Thank you. All right. Sorry about that. Nope. That's that's I if people were wondering, it's great to get clarification and I think also
174just um things that you also saw when you were building principal that you thought worked really well. So, it's beneficial. All right. Um we have future meetings. So, um September 5th, we're back here for our work session. Um September 9th is our first board coffee at Chatfield Elementary at 9:00 a.m. We go 9 to 11:00. And then September 19th um is our next board business meeting. Um and then we've already got our agenda items. So, all right. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. All right. Thank you everyone. Thank you.