8/1/23 Board Meeting

001Hey, Mr. Unprepared here. Does somebody have a pen? So sour. So sour. Sorry. How's your little guy? How's your little guy? Is he good? All righty. Well, good evening everyone. Welcome back to um our 2023 start of the school year. Can't believe it's already that time again. So, we are into this into the mix of things. So, all right, we will go ahead and um call the meeting to order here at 502. And if you will go ahead and stand with us, we will do the pledge of allegiance. Director Jones, you want to kick us off? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Someone changed [Music] thought we added some new words to the pledge

002of allegiance. I was like oh Well, I think there is an an etiquette for the way the flags. Okay. Well, I don't I'm sure there's a Colorado pledge, but we meant to pledge to the United States flag. So, we have the right I was kind of wondering why you All righty. Um All right. We will um Dr. Schulties is uh remote tonight just so everybody knows the full board is here. So um Dr. Hill, you want to kick us off on our staffing update? All right. So um and this will be a a short update. It's really just an update on um staffing around our org chart. We'll have a more comprehensive staffing update um at the meeting on the 15th from HR. So, um, so real quick, just because we've had, um, some hires

003that happened in the spring and into the summer, um, with central office staff, I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew, um, where everyone landed and what roles they'll be taking on, um, coming into the new school year. And we are excited for a new school year soon. So, um, the first slide, if this works, there it goes. um is this is um the 23 24 org chart for director positions and up which essentially when folks talk about um central administration that's what we're talking about. So we have a lot of folks that work in in central office um grounds crew custodial um things of that nature that are not central administrators um but these are our central administrators that are um director level and up. So um on the next slide this is

004um I've just highlighted senior leadership team. So when we talk about our senior leadership team, we don't have any changes there. Um so some consistency at our senior leadership. We have uh Clint Garcia uh continuing to serve as our chief operations officer. Um Nikki Jo as our chief human resources officer. Um Jen Marsh as our chief academic officer. Uh Mel Trujillo as our chief financial officer. And then um Tammy Erit as our um general counsel who serves um both the district and the board. Um so no changes at our um senior level. Um, as far as executive directors go, um, we have one returning executive director and that's Mr. Dan Burke. Um, and so he'll, uh, continue as our executive director of technology services. Um, and then we have two, again, these are not new

005positions, but folks that have moved into new roles. Um, and so we know that, uh, Miss Jackie Anderson is moving into the executive director, um, of actually that should be, uh, teaching and learning. This is that's an old title. Um and so and that is a a role that was vacated um prior and we didn't backfill it and we said we would backfill it when we reduced in another um area and so um that role has been filled for this coming year and then um Dan Banella is going to be serving as our executive director of student services and I'll talk about um each of those departments in a second. Um and then as far as directors go so again returning directors and then new directors. So you can see um I won't go through

006all of them right this second but our new directors uh in positions we have uh Sharon Callus will be uh director of site leadership remember that we went um down to three um site directors and so um Sharon is uh going to be our third site director and then um underneath uh Jackie we have uh Miss Nikki Johnson who will be our director of secondary curriculum and professional learning. If you remember, uh we condensed um the director of professional learning position. Um and so professional learning has moved underneath the curriculum um and teaching and learning department. And then over on the right, you can see we have two new directors with um Miss Anmarie Tennyson as our director of special education uh joining us from Steamboat. Uh and then I learned today before that joining

007us from Oregon and Wyoming. I think I got that right. um and she she helped lead the uh as a side note, she helped lead the um special education inservice we had today. Um and and they did a great job with that. So, she's joining us as our sped director. And then uh over on the far right, Amy Frasier uh will be our new director of uh SEAL and behavioral support. Um remember she was our principal at um Thunder Mountain Elementary prior to that. So um just kind of giving an overview of these different departments. So on the far left again, chief operations officer um and that's uh Clint Garcia. He oversees the major um departments that he oversees with directors are nutrition services um which Dan Sharp um is overseeing that department. Uh director

008of maintenance operations is Eddie Mort. So all things facilities and making sure that our facilities are running smooth. Um Lisa Sharp who oversees all of our um contracts purchasing in the warehouse. And then Tim Leon um our director of safety. And then obviously like I said underneath those we have folks that are supporting those departments as well. Um I feel bad as I highlight just the square that has Nikki's name because there's she doesn't have any directors underneath her. So it may look like Nikki's on her own. Um they're supporting HR. Um but she has a team underneath her but they're not um director level and up. So uh Nikki oversees all things um human resources um hiring um retaining staff, benefits um and and all those different departments. And so um we're happy to

009have her support as well. Um I had to highlight a lot of things under Jyn um because she oversees a lot of um different departments. So chief academic officer again oversees our site leadership um our site directors and we have three of them as I mentioned before. We've gone from four to three. Um and so we have Ari Goldberg, Paul JB, and then Sharon Callus is our new site director. And they have um divvied up their schools this year for who they're supporting um now that we've gone down to three. And then also, I know at some point we'll give an update on this, but working with student services. Um Dan's team has aligned um how they're supporting schools as well. So you have almost like a vertical alignment between site directors, folks from student

010services that are supporting the same campuses so that there's um some overlap there. uh and can help with collaboration. And then um moving over to the right again, Jackie Anderson's our executive director of teaching and learning. And then underneath her, she oversees um we have um curriculum and professional learning. Um and then we also have Curry Newton returning as our director of assessment. So all things testing um and assessment. And then Sherry Taylor overseeing our um college and career readiness uh department. And then I already mentioned Mr. Burke with technology. And then over on the right, um Dan is overseeing our um gifted and talented. So we have Heather returning there. Um I mentioned Amy Frasier before, our director of behavioral support. Uh Chrissy Donathan overseeing our early childhood. Um Tracy overseeing um access and

011opportunity, but also we've added um family partnerships uh to his role. Uh and he'll also be um absorbing some other departments to help support having better family partnerships in our district, which is not only a strategic plan goal, but we have some grant money coming in to help us support that as well. So, he'll be uh still supporting all of our um equity inclusion work, but also uh rolling in the family partnership piece as well. And then I mentioned Amarie over special education. And then um Karina Mononttoya oversees our migrant uh services department, which is a statewide um position that we get funding from the state, but she not only supports D51, but she supports other districts in our region as well. So um that's all I had on that one. I just wanted to

012make sure that folks kind of knew where people landed as far as um um central office uh administration and who will be s supporting what departments. Um, and like I said, next uh two weeks from now, we'll come and bring a comprehensive staffing update as far as where we are with hiring um from from Nikki and our HR team. Okay. All right. Um so, the next item is an update on our elementary declining enrollment. Um we haven't had an update on this since um June because remember our goal is to update the board at every work session and we didn't have any work sessions in July. Um, so I'm just going to give an overview of um what we've covered in the committee meetings since uh the June work session. Um, and then talk about

013where we're headed next uh with the committee because the committee is not done doing their work. Um, so just a reminder, uh, the resolution that was passed back in March, uh, the board charged us to create a committee to try to address, um, declining enrollment at the elementary level and to put together a committee. Um, and so that's the resolution. And then our charge has been to continue the work that we already started um prior to that resolution, review that data that was already presented. Um acquire additional data if necessary, which we definitely have. Um study all options including benefits and ramifications of closing elementary schools, better educate the community on the issues surrounding um the enrollment declines and the effects enrollment decline has on the district, and then develop a set of recommendations to

014address declining uh student enrollment to bring back to the board. And remember the resolution said that that need to be brought back to the board no later than um the September business meeting which would be the 19th. And so we're planning on still doing that. I know I've already shared this with the board before, but our membership, so um teachers um administrators, we have folks from different um entities in the community. We have parents that serve on there from DAC and uh parent special education committee. Um folks that served on our strategic plan priority um action teams. um folks have served on our minority advisory committee. Um and then we have some of our senior leadership um and other leaders in the district to be there um to provide information and guidance on where we're

015heading. Um I've already gone on this before, but again, we send out updates to the community after our meetings, try to update them on the work that happened at the committee meetings. Um, and then we plan uh myself and um Paul JB uh and Cali plan weekly on what we're going to um discuss at the next committee meeting. Uh and then we put out those updates uh to the community and then also update the board at our work sessions. Um so just to refresh where where we've been um the first few meetings um that we had back in April and May were really to try to bring this committee together and ground them in the data um that we've been presented but also bring in new data. So we um we looked at research uh

016we also brought in our demographer and the state demographer uh and looked at the data uh and then we also um studied some different models for trying to address um declining enrollment but also looking at um what other districts have done around consolidation to try to learn from that process as well. Um and then in meeting four um we started looking at different pathways. What are all the pathways that we could try to explore to address this problem u because what we've been discussing through this process is that just um one one path is not going to solve the problem for us. We have to look at multiple things. Um and then the meetings that we've had since I gave the last update. So on the 27th we had another um committee meeting. So I'll

017go over what we talked about there. We had uh three town halls. two were in person, one was virtual, and I'll talk a little bit about that in a second. And then we had a meeting on the 11th um to continue to talk about criteria. And then we'll have a meeting at the um I'm sorry. Yeah, we had a meeting on the 11th. We'll have a meeting um Oh, we already had the meeting on the 25th. Gosh, I'm like really turned around. We're already in August, aren't we? Um we had the meeting on the 25th as well. We have our meeting set for August and then we have um the plan to bring the recommendation back to the board in September. Um, so just a reminder of our the problem statement that um the committee

018came up with uh and developed. Current declining student enrollment negatively impacts D-51 resources and infrastructure. The impact limits D51's ability to assemble the critical resources and infrastructure to adequately support and implement the strategic plan. We desire to reallocate resources to create safe, successful classrooms for students and staff. Um we try to ground ourselves in the strategic plan whenever we meet. Um with the question around how do we make sure that we're resourcing and staffing and configuring our schools so that we can reach um the goals and well equip the schools to be able to reach the goals within our strategic plan. So we have our graduate profile. How do we make sure that we um have culturally connected creative problem solvers and ready for career and life students? um and how do we make sure

019that we're providing the right resources to our buildings to be able to do that. Um I won't go through the full strategic plan, but you'll know our first prior our focus area is around having prepared and supported students. How do we make sure that we are um properly resourcing our buildings to be able to meet these goals? How do we make sure that we have prepared and supported staff um through this process? And then how do we make sure we're also reaching the goals around having uh engaged and supportive community partners um reaching these goals as well um especially the middle um priority area around having transparent effective resource allocation for our district. We've also we've shared this with y'all before but um really trying to focus on how do we make sure that we

020are um what we're calling equip provide equipped and empowered elementary schools. So, how do we make sure that our schools are staffed um adequately? Um, and how do we make sure that we our staff feel our schools feel like they have the staffing they need to be able to again reach the goals of of the strategic plan, but support our students and our families um throughout the district and that it doesn't matter which elementary school your kid goes to, that they're going to have the resources that they need at that school um whether they're a large school or a small school. So, we've talked a lot about how do we make sure we have strong teams of teachers in the buildings? How do we make sure that we have a lot of supports for our

021students and how do we make sure that we focus on quality facilities through that out that as well. I only share this again because I just think it's important to remind ourselves as we look at comparing ourselves to other districts, which we do for a lot of things. Um when we're talking about resources and how we allocate resources, um it's a good reminder that while we're very appreciative of the um the mill and uh bonds that we have passed here, um when you compare ourselves to other districts in the state um that we use to compare ourselves to um we are one of the lowest funded districts in the state when it comes to state per pupil funding. And then when you throw on top of that the um the mill levy overrides, we are

022um behind on that as well. So, the importance of this to me is that we are um not only are we declining in student enrollment, which impacts funding, but we also already are underfunded compared to other districts um in the state. And so, that puts us behind the eightball. And that's a breakdown of all the data behind it that Mel put together. Um big one there at the bottom is just if you start averaging those things out, um those districts have about an average of $9,266 per student. And you can see um where we are right above that. So we're below this the average for those districts. And then when you throw in the per pupil mill levy override, we're behind by about $1,000 per student. Um and then you can see we're um when

023you put those two together, we're behind over $1,000 per kid when you throw that funding in there. Okay, so couple updates. One, we did have town hall meetings. The only things I want to mention about that is we had again an inerson meeting on the 29th of June. Um we had about 50 people show up to that meeting. Um, and then we had a Facebook live meeting on the 5th. Um, and then and I think that's been viewed by I don't know a couple thousand people. Um, and it lives on our Facebook. So, if folks want to go back and watch that, it's the same presentation that we gave at at all three of them. Um, so that lives on the page if you want to go watch that. Um, and then we, this is

024an old slide that I pulled in, but we had that last Inerson meeting already um with in July. Um the plan was for us to have an opportunity to discuss the data um for folks to be able to provide feedback through they had note cards um they had a survey we did at the end um tried to provide some time for some table discussions um but it was a lot of data as well as very data richch um and the intended audience again was families and staff and community who maybe haven't been as engaged in this process. going back to our our original charge from the board was to try to find a way to better educate the community on the issues that we're dealing with. So that was the target audience for these meetings

025was if you don't know what's going on around declining enrollment. Um it was an opportunity to provide that data and then to talk about the work of the committee. Um and then we we shared that fe we compiled all the feedback from the surveys and from the note cards and we provided that information to the committee for them to be able to um review. Um so meetings five, six, and seven have really all been focused on um talking about criteria. If we were to move forward with any sort of consolidation or closure, um what criteria does this committee feel like would need to be used to identify schools that would be candidates for uh closure or consol consolidation? I thought we would potentially be through this on like meeting five or six. We didn't and

026that's okay. um because it's such an important topic, we felt like we needed more time to make sure we had enough time for the committee to discuss it um and that everybody felt comfortable with whatever criteria we come out with in the end um that would be recommended. So, we still are not there yet with the finalized set of criteria, but we're we're getting closer. Um and so, a lot of the update I'm going to give you is that that's been the main topic of the last few meetings because we have continued to grapple with that topic and and have discussions around it. So, the first time we talked about it, um, oh, I should say this, too. So, I want to be very clear with the committee, um, and I'll reiterate with the board

027and the public, the the role of the committee when it comes to the topic of consolidations and closures is not to go pick schools and come up with a list and bring it forward. And I wanted to be very clear with the committee on that because I know um there was a lot of um maybe stress or worry about I don't want to be the person who has to make the recommended school cuz I'm a teacher at this school and I don't want that to be you know on my shoulders or I'm a principal or I'm what and so try to be very clear with the committee that your role is not to come up with a list. Your role is to help us um identify what's on the bulleted list up here. What are

028the pros and cons of if we have to go forward with consolidation of closure? what are the pros and the cons of that? What is the rationale for closure and consolidation being a viable pathway? Um, and then help us finalize criteria. Um, and then Paul JB will talk a little about this in a second, but also coming up with some recommendations for some guiding principles on if we do have to move forward with any more closures or consolidations, what are some ways that we can best support um, the community that's impacted by that uh, this time around. So, that's where this committee stops when it comes to consolidation closure. They're not going to be coming up with a a list and there is no list. I talked about that with the um town halls there.

029Um the way we interpreted the charge from the board was that we're going to evaluate elementary schools and so there is no list of elementary schools that are um deemed for closure consolidation. We're we've gone back to having that initial discussion around the data and then coming up with criteria and if it's a if it's approved by the board then we would then apply that criteria as a district and we would bring forward um data around that uh in the future. Okay. Do you have any ideas that are out there? I know you have finaliz Sorry. I know you haven't finalized anything yet, but just a flavor of what what and how many. So, I have some um this this is 300 slides I got to get through. I'm joking. Um here uh I do

030have some slides that talk a little bit about that. I don't want to list specific ones because they haven't finalized anything. So, if I say they like this one and then two weeks from now all of a sudden that one's not working. No, I understand. But I but I can give kind of like a flavor of Okay, this is we've been discussing. Yeah. Um so, just a reminder, we wanted to make sure that um when we're going through this process that we have accurate data um that this process is reliable and that it's also defendable um as we move forward. um these are the uh criteria um that came from research that were recommended criteria that we could look at. So we did start with um this list of criteria along with criteria that um

031additional criteria that Shannon uh may have used the first time around and so we started with this kind of longer list of 10. Um and then we've been working with the committee on are these do we use all 10? Do we only use one? Do we use two? Um and so that's kind of where we're at now. These are some of the ones that um that Shannon used and there's some overlap there too with um the criteria he used and then some of the criteria that was in research. So, the first time we presented it to the committee, we talked about um we we've been going a lot um we spent a lot of time going back and looking at Jeffco's um uh process because not only is it newer and fresher, but they also

032have an a afteraction report that's been really helpful for us to they they talk about where they made mistakes and and where they did things well. I actually was able to hear the superintendent from Jeffco present last week on this exact topic and it was very interesting hearing from her. Um they had her her board president was there as well. Um they had principles from schools that closed and schools that were accepting kids share kind of their journey that they went through which was interesting as well. But a lot of that data is in that afteraction report. And then again we reviewed some other data as well. Um and the question we asked to the committee was what criteria seems most subjective? What criteria seems appropriate for our community? Um and then what unintended consequences

033might a certain criteria entail? And we walked them through a process of um green, yellow, and red dots. Basically putting that criteria up on the wall and saying which ones do you think are most viable? Which ones do you think could possibly work? And then which ones do you feel like no, there's no way this is a good criteria for us to use. And then folks were able to um provide feedback and comments as well from the uh from the committee um so we could look at it. We took that initial um uh feedback that we got through this process and we brought it back to the committee. Um and the way it kind of it came out the first time around was there were tiers to it. So there was a tier one, a

034tier two and a tier three. And tier one was um essentially the way we were looking at applying it was take all your take all your elementary schools, apply the tier one criteria, and if it comes out to the amount of schools that we're going to consolidate or close, then then go with that. But if you end up with 12 schools, then you go to tier two criteria and you apply that criteria to those 12 and then if you need to use tier three. So we were at first we were looking at it as a tiered system in that way that you may not apply all of them but you're applying them um as you need to. That has shifted and I'll talk about that in a second um through some of the conversations we

035had with the with the committee. Um oh I started talking about things I already put on the slide. So criteria again were tiered based on the results of that priorit prioritization activity. Um we then sent a survey out to the committee after that initial meeting and we um asked them if they agreed with the tiers of consolidation criteria that was presented and if a particular criteria should be moved from a different tier and why. So we got a lot of feedback from the committee then too saying well even though this one may have seemed like from the amount of green dots um the amount of comments that it should be tier one I actually think it should be tier two and here's why. So we gathered more data from the committee on what tier they

036felt like criteria should fall in. Um the results of that survey were reviewed at our six or meeting number six. Um and the committee members had time to discuss the results of that survey and the comments. So we com and that again was a um a Google survey. We compiled the results and all the comments that everybody put and we had um some facilitated discussions at their tables around um what are you seeing in the results from that survey and what your fellow committee members are mentioning. So um we presented them at that meeting also with a draft of those tiered criteria based on that second that survey that we sent out and asked if they agreed with the tiers. discussion was then had at that meeting around whether we should be doing a tiered

037system or a weighted system. Um and so um versus instead of doing what I mentioned before where you apply tier one and then if you need to apply tier two then you do it and if you need to apply tier three you do it. There was a discussion about should we not just apply um if it's five criteria, should we just apply them all but give different weights to them so that still would all be all those criteria would still be applied to every school but one criteria might hold more weight than another one. So we sent out another survey um to the committee. They're I think they're tired of me surveying them. Um and we asked them those questions. Should it be tiered or should it be a weighted system? um if it's a

038tiered system, what criteria belongs in what tier? If it's a weighted system, what weight would you give to it? Rank rank these criteria in order. Um and so, um that's what this talks about. So, um survey was sent out following meeting six. We asked them those questions. I will say that 100% preferred a weighted system. So, that before when we were talking about tiers, um the committee actually is more in favor of a weighted system. So whatever that finalized criteria is, they want them all applied, but they want them applied in a in a weighted system. Um, so one one piece of criteria might matter more than another piece of criteria, but they're all still applied in the determine that and that's what we've been discussing with them. So we asked the committee members to

039apply weights to the 10 criteria by ranking them uh in order of importance and they also were um they also could say I don't I don't think this criteria should be applied at all. So, I might think um building adequacy should be number one. Like, I care a lot about the the how that facility functions, but I don't like this other criteria, so I'm not even going to give it a weight. And so, some folks waited all of them. Some people only waited five, and the other five they didn't think should be belong at all. And so, um we took that from the um the results. And what I brought back to them at the last meeting is that fourth bullet, seven of the 10 criteria received over half of the committee's support for using

040it. So over 50% of the committee members said, "I think this criteria should it belongs and it should it deserves a weight." They may have given it different weights, but they at least thought it should belong. Three of the 10 criteria, less than half the committee members gave it a weight. So over 50% said, um, I don't think this should be included at all as a criteria. Um and the results of that survey, we did discuss them at meeting seven which was last week. Um and we are sending out a survey again um this week to the group to try to get an idea of are we saying that these are the seven and this is how you they should be weighted. And um the way we applied that was I took their um the

041way that they ranked them and came up with averages to try to figure out how um how they should be weighted. And so we're sending all that out to the committee asking them to say, "Yeah, I think these seven should be the criteria and these are the weights. I agree with it. Yes. No, I don't. And here's why." And then we're going to bring it back to the meeting, the next meeting and and talk about it. So that's why I don't have actual criteria, but I will say um we've had a lot of discussion around those 10. Um, and I would say right now, again, I'm trying to be careful because I don't want to speak for the the committee and we haven't made anything final, but there's at least seven of those 10 that

042are getting majority support from the committee to to use and so we'll we'll have that discussion um forward. Just have one question earlier on one of your earlier slides you were talking about Jeffco and they had what they learned from what they did to help guide them in the future. Is is there and this was brought up in one of our earlier board meetings back in the spring. Is there some weight that we would look at what goes what's been going on or what will go on with the east closure and and the kids going to the various schools and using that to help this process too or I know the timelines are don't jive but is that that would seem to be good information we could gather before we set sail if that's what

043they did in Jeffco it sounds like they pulled from what they did and how they learned from it and moved on. Are are we accounting for that or Yeah. So I would um does that make sense? Yeah. My initial response to that would be we have learned a lot through that process. Um you know I I think even when we trying to support the school through the closure we've learned some things that we um did well and some things we did not do well. Um and I'm not that's not putting blame on anybody. We've got departments that have worked really hard to try to support the school through that closure. But I think if they were all sitting up here too, they'd say, "Yeah, through that process, we've we've learned some things that we would

044want to do differently next time." Um, that's part of the um activity that Paul's going to share a little bit about in a second that we're also charging this committee with is um based on what you've heard from the community, our community, based on what you've read in in the research afteraction reports um and then based on just the um the knowledge that you bring to the committee. what are some things that you'd like us to see like to see us do maybe differently next time? And we've um I'm kind of getting into Paul's section, but we broke it up into four categories of um how do we best support our students through a transition? How do we best support our staff? How do we best support our families? And then how do we support

045the community surrounding that um that school and or schools? And so, um, so to answer your question, yeah, I think we we learned a lot from the east closure, um, through, um, just going through that process ourselves. And we don't have a, um, we we didn't hire anybody like Jeffco did to go write a report. Um, but we definitely, um, have a lot of information that we've learned from that process that we will um, take into account when we're moving forward if we do move forward with another closure and consolidation. And again, we're trying to lean on the committee members to give us feedback on what they'd like to see done differently as well. Can I ask a follow-up question about that? Um, so that's a great question, Doug. I think my question, the way

046that I heard that question was slightly different. I think for me our understanding of why we closed East and what we accomplished in closing East. You know, I went back through every one of our of the meetings that preceded um the vote to close East and I, you know, took notes about what we said we would accomplish when we closed East. So specifically there was you know couple very long presentations um depicting our staffing model and how we would if we closed a school the school the receiving schools would have smaller class sizes and more course offerings and the the numerical monetary value that we would save. And so my one of my big questions and we can get to kind of the bigger bigger questions at the end of this, but one of my

047big questions is all right. So we um that's so funny. I'm watching the thing and I saw it just switch over to my name tag. But um it, you know, our our main points were, you know, the money we would save and then the impacts to students again, smaller class sizes specifically and more program offerings. And so I'm curious about those learnings and and when we look at East, you know, before we closed it and now all the receiving schools, I'm curious specifically about exactly how much money we have saved. Ex, you know, exactly how much smaller are the classes and exactly how many more course offerings have we um provided and I and I obviously have a lot of information about that, but I think those are my questions. What have been our lessons

048learned in terms of what have we actually accomplished? And you know and then that gets to the bigger question. So two questions again. What exactly is our goal? What does success even look like? And did we achieve that success when we closed East? And what exactly did that look like? So I it's a good question. I think I need some clarity though or from the board because smaller class sizes. So, um, when we that was, um, in, let me just say really quick, in two different meetings, specifically the February 27th meeting, there was 10 minutes dedicated to it, starting at um, minute 29 discussing the staffing model, how we would end up with smaller class sizes. So, I I was just reiterating what we were told. Okay. So, I'll have to go back and review

049that then because I we actually I remember when we looked at our numbers, especially at the elementary level, we were having conversations around some schools have 13 kids in a class um and have really small classes and how that's not sustainable for a district um to be able to have classes that size. So, um, so we had conversations about sometimes through this process, you're going to end up actually, um, having class sizes that are more I I don't want to say normal, um, through potentially going through a avenue of this. So, the goal of having smaller class sizes, again, I'll go back and watch that meeting, but um, I don't know that that was something that we had discussed, and if we did and and or there's confusion around that, then I definitely want to

050clarify that. But um you know that would be like right now when we're looking at uh elementary schools, we have some elementary schools that have really small classes. I don't think we're talking about closures and consolidations in order to make those even smaller um than they already are. Um so I I guess yeah, I guess so the the staffing model that we looked at was specifically elementary schools. Okay. And it was specifically a situation where, you know, here's our current staffing model, here's our current student population, and if we close schools, what around that school would be impacted. So, it was elementary schools, and that was and you know, and literally 10 minutes was spent on how that would happen. So, I hear what you're saying, but that that wasn't what was brought to us.

051So, what I'm understanding you to be saying is that we do not we expect larger class sizes when we close schools. No, I I wouldn't say larger. There's a the other piece of that as I recall was in the schools that um would have larger class sizes because maybe there were only um you know two third grade teachers um that we could staff in those schools. So their class sizes were on the larger size. Whereas if we rightsized the entire school a bit more, then that would allow possibly for a third teacher in that grade to come in. And now you've downsized the size of the classes. Yeah, that is that was exactly what was So and that's I'm glad you clarified that. So yes, you you are accurate that that that could also be

052something that happens. You could have um schools that have abnormally small classes um not have abnormally small classes, which again it impacts staffing because then you're um staffing really small classes. But yes, you're right. We did have that discussion about um if you have a really small number of rounds at a school uh at a grade level that this could potentially um uh provide an opportunity to be able to more evenly um spread the kids out across more classes um and make those classes not as large, which it's harder to do when you have um a smaller uh student enrollment and less teachers. So So yes, I I'm glad y'all clarified that because um that is something that we discussed. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think my question is I'm so curious to

053find out. So and and just a little bit of of background here is I have been asking this question now for a couple of months and um and what I believe to be the case based on the information we have available is that for all the surrounding middle schools around East all of the class sizes across the board increased. And so and again we don't actually have the final numbers. I'm waiting for the final numbers but that was an estimate and so not my estimate. Um, and so my question is, so these goals again that we had that that were articulated in these meetings that I went back and verified today that have we achieved any of those goals? You know, where are we at in achieving those goals? And so again, if we if

054we anticipated slower smaller class sizes and we got only larger class sizes, that goal seems to maybe not to have been achieved. if we anticipated additional programming and we know that there were no more course offerings at any of those middle schools that goal was not achieved. Um I'm still curious about the final numbers and how much money we saved compared to what we were initially projected to save in those initial meetings. You know so again it gets back to this question of what are we tr what exactly are we trying to accomplish? What are our metrics and how did East Closing East accomplish those metrics? So as you as we move forward with the potential for closing more schools, what what was accomplished, what was not accomplished, and as we're tailoring more solutions, you

055know, if if our goals were not accomplished, then we need to radically reconsider what we're doing here in accomplishing our goals or or reconsider how to accomplish those goals. I I personally I think that I mean those are good good questions but it's one of those things that you really can't judge in a month. I mean we just closed school what finished school May June July and we're in August. So I think it's something that we look at you know later down the road to see where we're at. We won't know what kind of goals we accomplished if we haven't given it a chance to. So we just closed schools. They just finished up. They just had their summer. You can't look and say well that was successful because we don't know. So all these

056Yeah that's my question. What are the data? What you know? So, we said these were the goals we would accomplish and we do have data. So, like where exactly are we at relative to those benchmarks? But you're right, Will. I think that's a great point. You know, what else will be achieved over time? We don't know. But we can and we should and we must ask those questions right now before we make any additional question um decisions. The other thing I just want to um state is that in addition to the upside being those things, we were also um the goal was to not have to cut staff any further and and make these schools any more lean staff-wise than they already were. plus um the possibility of having to look at, you know, maybe

057we haven't added additional programs, but we've been able to sustain the programs that we've had and keep those strong and viable. Yeah. And I and these are all really good conversations. I think um so what I'm hearing too is that we want to make sure that if we do have to go this route again um that we uh make sure that we feel like we're doing we're we're making decisions that the full board supports and that the community can get behind. But also, I think this may lead to some discussions around um like when we say small class or we're going to make a small class, a class smaller or larger, we don't really have as a district cuts. Like we don't we don't have anything in policy that says a middle school class should

058be this size, an elementary class should be this size. So, that may be something we want to have a discussion in the future uh about as well is are there um are there goals that we're trying to meet around class sizes as a district because we we don't have those currently. Um we have what we try to keep them around um but that's not actually something that's a policy or or necessarily um on paper procedure for the district. So, um, so yeah, if we say we're going to make classes smaller, but smaller because we're trying to get to a certain number per class or, uh, or not, because right now we don't actually have those, um, benchmarks. So, that that may be something we want to discuss moving forward as well. Um, I Oh, yeah.

059Um, so in summary, it sounds like Okay, so so you're meeting with the committee, you you're you're coming up with criteria. See if I've got this right. I'm just making sure I understand. So if someone asked me, I could say this, what's going on? So this committee is coming up with criteria. They're not making a decision or recommendation on particular schools. They're just saying if we go this route, here are the criteria you all the board needs to look at. Correct? So my so my question is so we have this tool so to speak in the toolbox ready to use when needed. So, is there a discussion in the committee or someplace else that triggers us going to that toolbox to to okay, we we have a plan. We've had a committee work on this

060for months. Here's what we're going to use. Is there a trigger that unlocks that door or that cabinet? So, we pull that out that says when this happens, Defcon 6, right? We we got to go use this tool because what happened this time last year or last fall or or this past winter, situations change, right? They'll probably change in the next six months. Either we'll find out with student enrollment numbers this fall where we are. So my question is um has that been thought about too or we we haven't really ever talked about that as a board and I know the new board will want to talk about that. What when when do we jump that cliff to make that decision? Does that make sense? No, it does. And and um it's a good discussion

061to have. Uh so we have behind the scenes um been working on trying to project out if we were to well two things. one, if we were to actually staff our elementary schools where we think they should be staffed appropriately, what does that mean for all 25 schools and what financially would that mean? How much ad would that be to the budget to do that? So, um I know Paul and Mel have been working on that. And then also projecting out based on projections, um if they're accurate, um how much longer how many potentially schools would you need to consolidate in order to um help us reach those goals that we have around staffing with the finances that we do have, the budget that we do have? Um so, we have been having those discussions.

062That's something we would want to bring forward to the board to say when we're running these numbers, this is what we're looking at. We're not there yet. We also aren't even through the committee and so and I know you understand that I just um so much attention has been focused on how do we make sure that we have something to bring back to the board in September. Um that's part of the reason why we've shifted to having it presented in the form of a report because not only do we want to give the background information on how we got here, we also want to explain why these five pathways that the committee has been discussing are viable options to look at. Um and then also um are these things that the board can get behind

063and support. So for consolidations and closures um I envision that what's being brought in September um is really the first step is to see are these even criteria that the board can support if we have to move forward with that because we don't want to go apply those and start having that discussion if the board's like no I don't I don't like those criteria. Um it's it's a little it's different than how Jeffco did theirs. So Jeffco actually passed a policy around this. They created a policy on school closures and consolidations and so it's in writing and then they actually they have a yearly review that they do every year. They have to do it by June 30th I think and they have to come to the board and say here's here's the state of

064our enrollment as a district and then they have um criteria and things laid out that they can use. So, I'm not sure that we're necessarily going to go down the route of a policy, but I at least want to be able to make sure that in September, um, if the board feels like they can support the findings of this committee, um, so that if we do have to move forward with those things that, um, that we have criteria set and then, um, we can do the work on the back end to try to, um, investigate that further. Well, it just seems to me, I mean, the work is outstanding and lots of effort. There's no doubt um, lots of questions. you know, you answer one question and five more come up. I know that. Um,

065it sounds like a good foundational piece, but in and of itself, it's not a whole answer. I think the broader questions like you talked about, we don't have a policy. I think we used to years ago on class sizes, you know, what should it be for K2? We used to have I think was if I remember correctly was 20 or under K2 and then 345 was 24 and then middle school I I wasn't in the middle school realm but it was 25 or whatever it may be but the point was there was some guiding guidance there on on what we were shooting for and as you said it's not a policy that we have maybe we should um maybe we shouldn't I don't know but this type of thing could be the same thing is

066what triggers us us the board whatever that board may be two years from now or five years from now to use these tools that we've already done the work on on on how we will go about choosing schools for consolidation or closure or whatever. So my my my broader point is I think Carrie and everybody else has brought up some good questions that you know ultimately what what what are we trying to achieve in anything we're doing right but in in this case if you're closing a school or consolidating what is it we're trying to achieve is it again you mentioned just a moment ago you know is it a financial issue is it is it a delivery system are we providing the best uh for our kids and teachers that kind of thing and

067again you know all this I'm not telling anything you don't already know, but it just seems we're we're the the effort you're putting through with your committee is great, slow and steady, and I would just recommend that same process. If if there is anything urgent ahead, we we have some good time to spend to answer these questions before a trigger has to be pulled. Well, and and I mentioned earlier learning experiences through all this. And um you know even back when we got the recommendations from Shannon I've I've learned a lot about how to make sure that the board is provided with things and and we have more time to talk to the community about um the implications with that. So I agree with everything you're saying. Um we we've learned a lot through this

068first process. The other thing that we're um having a conversation around is once we finalize this criteria and it's something that ideally the board will support um we have to make sure that we have the data to apply the criteria and um and do we have reliable accurate data that we can stand behind um to make sure that we bring something forward to the board um whenever that is to say um we we can stand behind these things and and we we believe applying it this way comes up with these schools And we've also looked at um trying to run the numbers on is it one school, is it sure three schools. So that's all still work that we're we're um looking into. So and I'm glad you mentioned um the work of the committee

069because I didn't mention that at the beginning. There's a lot of folks have dedicated a lot of time and effort and hours into this. Um and so I am really appreciative of all the folks that have um been able to make it to the meetings. Well, I tell you just said something that was really just the clearest thing is that you agree with everything that I say and that's really for the record. I did not say that. All right, next slide. Well, so wait, you got that before. Just teasing. Before I move on, I just want to say that I I you know, we've we've kind of danced around this for a while, but but I want to know when we will know what exactly our goals are here. So again, like are we trying

070to meet some budgetary requirement? Are we trying to meet a staffing requirement for next year? Are we trying to look out a couple of years? Like what exactly are we trying to accomplish in in this discussion of declining enrollment? What is our exact metric? So we can go back and say yes, we did or didn't accomplish that. And then also what did we think our metric was for East and did we accomplish it? I I want to know I want to know when we will know those two things. Yeah. And I think the other thing that we have to um so yes um and I think the information that Mel and Paul have been putting together is something we can bring back to the board and and discuss that I think will help shine some

071light on that. The other thing we have to keep in mind here is that we're not making a plan um to try to just uh fix a problem for next school year. We're actually trying to make a plan that's going to help us over the next however long um we continue to see a decline in enrollment. and even the state demographer um said that it's going to take at least 12 years to get back to prepandemic numbers. So um what not only what impact is it having immediately but what impact do we think it's going to have down the road for us and how are we planning for the next 12 years because again we're already down 1,200 kids. Um those are real numbers and the projections are showing that we're going to continue to

072decline at least for the next um well Shannon's number said the next seven years. um state demographer showed a trough that we would hit in the next couple years around birth rates and then it's going to um gradually go up. But that's again, I know you all already know this, but she she's talking about in migration. We're talking about what else might happen in our community in that time period. Are there going to be other uh competing schools that open up that will pull kids from the district? So, those are all factors that we have to think about. And so we're trying to come up with a plan that ideally um yes it can help us in the immediate but also is going to help us down the road because I I don't really want

073to bring this back to the board you know four or five years down the road and have to do this all over again. Ideally we wouldn't have to do that. Um so what where's the sweet spot that does allow us to make sure that we are good in a good financial place where we can continue to fund priorities that we have set as a district. Um, one of those main ones being around paying our staff better. Um, but then also how do we make sure that we are staffing our buildings? Um, and I keep saying adequately, but how do we make sure that we actually staff our buildings properly? Um, and it doesn't matter what school that your kid goes to, they're going to have um, robust staff that they need at that building and

074we're not short changing schools based on the number of kids that they have in those buildings. So um, so yeah, those are all they're good questions. I I think some more um I guess definitive goals written down would be good for us. Um and again that's stuff that you know looking at other models, other boards put that out clearly to say these are the things that we expect our schools to have and we have not done that here. Um and so I think that needs to be part of the discussion moving forward. Yeah. And to be clear, I agree. I've asked I asked for a policy to be developed months ago about this. So yes, I also think that that makes a lot of sense and I look forward to that as well. Okay. I

075just I I just want to I guess my take on it is I I feel like it's been clear about what we've been trying to achieve which is and some of it is a little bit of a moving target because we've been talking about our staffing model which even prior to declining enrollment we've we've had struggles with staffing not just adequately but we've had trouble staffing. two is we've the the funding that we have had the issue with is esser dollars are stopping those will not return our 5-year funding average is coming to an end and you know we may or may not get more monies from the state that's the one that I guess could be a variable but I would think that if we were faced with just some of those things those

076would be triggers for us to justify looking at all of these things that we've got the committee set forth looking at. And so I guess my thought, you know, Doug, and to kind of I get what you're saying is what's the precipice? What's that first domino that has to fall that gets the the the rest of this going? I kind of feel like that's already kind of started. And so what we wanted to do was take a pause to see what criteria we wanted to establish so that we weren't put in the situation with East again where we had to find almost 18 FTE to cut, you know, this next year. So I I guess I I view it a little differently in that it'd be nice if we could find something super exact. I

077I don't know that this demography is not exact. Birth rates aren't exact. I mean, people move in and out of communities. It's not exact, but I think that we've already got some large indicators that are showing that we've got to move forward with something in order to make sure that our district isn't just, you know, surviving, but that we can be thriving. And I think that's something we can all agree on is that we're looking to pay our staff well. We're looking to provide programming and resources for our students that aren't just adequate, but like Dr. Hill said like we're that are stellar and so in order to do those types of things um a lot of that takes money. So I guess I I kind of viewed it a little differently. I feel like

078those things have already been in place and we got to keep now we're just trying to find the guidelines of how we want to implement what that that process is going to look like in a maybe more cleaner way than what has happened prior to. That's all I'm suggest. I'm not saying there hasn't been great thought in in all these things and there haven't been concerns and issues that prompted us to get where we passed the resolution. What I'm trying to say is for future boards and future super whoever has a foundational document or or guidelines or recommendations that trigger I hate to always use but we know what we're talking about to to to put things in action that we can say it doesn't mean they can't be modified or adjusted. Um and you

079just reeled off a whole lot of things of consideration, right, that that were looked at and probably should be looked at in the future and there may be some other things too. That's that's all I would say. And on the flip side, you know, wi with having some kind of a a system to guide us as in into the future, there may be, you know, hopefully a day where we're growing and what would also trigger those events that we would need to or you know triggering events that would cause us to look at do we need to there additional school or something like that. And there just haven't been guidelines I think when we came into the I especially when Dr. Hill came into this. Um, the problem was already there and had been living

080there for a while. It's just that there were none of those triggering events possibly that caused people to take a look at it until we were up against running out of Esser funds and our five-year average funding changing. But that's a that that's a fantastic point because it is looking at the flip side and I go no further than where I down the road where I live out in Fruda. you know, we built a $25 million school right at the time. And I was on the board that let's we needed that three days ago and now we have a $25 million school we built that is well under capacity. That's no one's fault. It was good thinking, but again to your point, what are those triggers that that prompted us to make that decision at

081the time and we and we did consider a lot of things, but maybe there were other things we should have looked at too. Maybe even if we did, maybe we would have come up with the same decision as a school board back then. But it's those kinds of things. Your your point is just spot on. It's looking at both sides of that. Uh if things are just I think anything any work that we can do now since we're in the middle of it and going through it right now, anything that we can do to alleviate the pain that happens when you have to move quickly. That's right. um that that would I'd be willing to do that work now so that somebody didn't come up against that. Well, and to that point, you know, in

0822014, the district consolidated um Lincoln Park Elementary and was it Columbus or what was the other Coline? It was it was it was Coline and Lincoln Park. Yeah. Right. And then that became the new Chapida. And so you know and again I think the work of this committee and what we're doing here is really good criteria for to and again for us to establish in knowing like what do we need to do when when that happens again. And so I think you know co good or bad I think has taught us all a lot that there can obviously something can come out of left field and kind of whack us all over the head and and we're not prepared for it. So I think what we're doing now is just really looking forward like you

083said both to either growth or decline of what we can do and we can just have a better prepared plan moving forward. And so I think the work I appreciate this committee I know our staff is not getting paid any extra to be here the extra hours and for the board members that are you know liaison to the committee and our community members that are volunteering their time. Um I I think this work will be very impactful for you know years to come for the district to now have kind of a guiding um light or or a standard um when it comes to these tough decisions in the future. And I hope nothing I said took absolutely not that because I think I think that's the kind of work unfortunately we we should have been

084doing years and years and years you know go because it's really foundational just like the strategic plan is that's a foundational document that we can you know anchor to and the same thing here this is our anchor to make decisions in the future being part of that committee and and being at all of those meetings I I do believe that that work is being done and it and it will be I mean they really dig in dig deep and have come up with some great ideas and and just some perspective on all of those different you know criteria that we're considering. So I skipped past some slides because I already started talking about them. So sorry Paul um you're probably okay not having to come up here. Um so just the ending of the last

085meeting, Paul walked the committee through a um an activity where what I me where I mentioned earlier coming up with some uh input and ideas around if we have to move forward with um a closure or consolidation in a community. Um what are some things that the committee wants to make sure that we keep in mind when we're supporting students through that transition, staff, families, and community um surrounding um the the schools. And so um uh committee members gave input on that and we'll bring that back to the next meeting as well and have discussions around it. The other thing I just want to mention um closing this out is just the way I mentioned earlier that we're going to present a in a report. I know we're spending a lot of time talking about

086closures consolidations. There are four other pathways that the um committee has said they feel like are viable pathways to also explore. And so I want to make sure that we don't lose sight of those. The reason why so much time is being spent on the uh closure and um consolidation criteria is because we don't have that already established. We don't have a committee that already exists in the district that tackles that. And so we're really leaning on this committee to help us um come up with those criteria. But there are other four other pathways that will also be recommended to the board um moving forward. And those are um well this again this is the format of the report would be an executive summary um how we're connecting all this work to the strategic plan

087what the challenge was what our charge was um or what the challenge is I should say what the charge is um this idea of equipped and empowered schools and then what are those pathways that the committee has asked us to further explore um the pathways um these five pathways that we've been talking about and we're going to spend more time with the committee in the upcoming meetings on pathways two through five we just haven't been able to give them as much attention. Um, but consolidation is obviously one of them, but there was also um an appetite for exploring mill levy um to or a milly override to to try to address some of these needs. Um, we also have had conversations around how do we make sure that we take stock not only of the

088um, innovative programs and options we already have, but is there something else that maybe we should be exploring that could not only attract families and students, but but retain um, any students or families that might be thinking about leaving the district. So, how do we make sure that we are um, being competitive um, and make sure that we are offering the things that our our families want in our school district so they don't have to feel like they look they can go look or they need to look somewhere else. Um the fourth pathway was um further analysis on if we were to um receive additional per people funding from the state. Do we need to use some of that um to help uh address this problem? We're not going to get into that discussion tonight

089obviously, but there's pros and cons with that and that'll come out in the report. um you know, if you get additional funding, do you put it towards other priorities in the district or is this something that the board um would want to put that money towards or maybe some of it towards teacher raises and some towards um this problem? So, that's another pathway. And then the last one is just a um this ongoing evaluation of um of our central office staffing, our programs that we essentially where we put our dollars um outside of the school buildings. Some of these these things are obviously to support schools, but are there other areas that we might need to look um to potentially find some savings? Um and we've had that conversation before about uh and I know

090the priority area um looking at um resource allocation has talked about like a program audit um or program evaluation, costbenefit analysis of where we're spending dollars in the district. So that is another of the five pathways that the committee has talked about exploring. So, um, just to close us off, um, we have one more meeting or excuse me, we have another meeting on the 14th. Um, ideally, but I said this at the last two meetings, but ideally we'll be able to come to some sort of a resolution around criteria so that we can move into um, talking about uh, those four other pathways a little bit more. Um, and then have some time for the committee to be able to review um, a draft of the recommendation report and provide any feedback. And then ideally

091we can bring um that report to the board uh in September to be able to um have a discussion around it. Um and then uh ideally the board would uh take a vote to support the findings from that um committee report. But again I we still have a lot of work to do and we are running out of time on this but um but we've got some time still and we're we're working through this and so we're looking forward to bringing something to y'all in um September. Okay. So that's the end of that one. Sorry, Paul, again, that I made you sit there and you didn't have to say anything. Thank you for that update. I just can I just say one thing? I was really trying to digest um you know, trying to understand

092what people's thoughts were about our goals. And President Heights, I really appreciate you kind of taking a step back and ticking through your understanding. That also was my understanding. And so presumably if you know when we first when this first came to our attention we thought that we might have about like $1.9 million in savings by closing east once we got Shannon's recommendation. And so, you know, so my and if we have a, you know, $3 million shortfall, if that if our goal is shoring up that shortfall specifically, then, you know, then we it makes sense that we would be able to like piece these little pieces of the budget together to all build up to that. And so then the first question must be exactly how much money did we save in closing East

093or approximately how much money do we think we saved in closing East? and then you know how does that translate to that that strategy creating success for us. So yes that is also my understanding among many other things that were articulated and my goal my question is like how exactly did we do against all of those goals. So thank you for clarifying that. Hey Carrie do you are you um firm on that number because I thought it was 1.3 um I looked through the slides today and it was 1.875 875 or something and it was 17 FTE from East and then five other FTE from other schools and I'm not I don't recall what that additional five was but yes that number was presented to us in three different meetings and I've um I know

094Mel's uh sent me some information that I'll send out to the board and a board response around um trying to answer that question in particular. Thank you. and and any other goals that we had. So So yes, that question in particular and then the class sizes, the additional programs, those were the goals that I really um those are the three goals that I pulled out of all of listening relisting to all of those meetings again. But maybe there were other goals that you know folks had that weren't articulated. But the point is that was my understanding. I want to know how we did against them and if those are still our goals and how do we tailor solutions to that. Yeah, sounds good. I think it'd be great to know too like um you know

095maybe some outcomes we'll see that would were positive and maybe some other things that were challenges as we kind of go through this next year as well. I think things that we just weren't even aware of would be and I'm sure you've got your staff on that Dr. Hill just to kind of know positives and challenges that we may have faced too. That's a great point because through this there could have been some outcomes that no one anticipate great and certainly ones we focus on the ones that didn't. But you know that's a good good point. All right. Um move into our Grand Junction High School construction update if that team wants to come forward. I I need Okay, we're going to take a quick five minute break. Yeah. Breather while they come up and

096get the slides set up. Yeah. our five minute time for a break. So, we'll go ahead and get started. Oh yeah, there was that really interesting. Maybe it was existing. Okay. All righty. We are going to hear from our Grand Junction High School um team, I guess, on our progress update. So, if you guys wouldn't mind just introducing yourselves again so people at home or in the audience can just remember who's who, that'd be great. So, take it away. Is it on or? Uh, is the light on? There you go. Okay. All right. Hello, board. I'm Colleen Canedo with Dynamic Program Management. We're the owner's representative for the Grand Junction High School uh construction project. And with uh me today we have Eddie Mort with the facilities and Micah Adams with DPM also. And then

097here in the crowd we have Peter Iceogle with BG and co Ray Scott with DPM and Mark Liten with FCI Constructors in case you have any questions for the team. Uh we are here to do our progress update on the project. Um the high level here with some of these u metrics are that we've uh just kind of hit over the 40% mark in expenditure and uh in schedule and we've expended just over 62 million out of the 144.5 million budget. Something to note here is that 42.9% of that is uh has been here uh spent here locally within district boundaries which is just over 68% I believe of all the dollars spent and we are still working towards opening school for students about a year from now when they'll be coming back. Uh we

098have some photos here uh continuing on the vertical construction and um we have a flyby so that'll be probably a better uh image for you when we get to that slide. We have recently uh completed the furniture procurement and uh we have three contracts in progress for three different vendors to supply the furniture. Uh two of which are local companies and we are currently bidding the asbestous abatement uh for the larger school building. We did a little bit of abatement that we could get to this summer. Uh but the bigger package for abatement is out to bid right now uh for that work to be completed next summer. Um, if you at the the top of your screen there on the left, that's the classroom wing, which is the twotory wing. There's a lot of

099uh mostly all drywalled. They're working from the first floor to the third. And the third floor is starting some drywall now. And then on the first floor, they've actually been doing interior painting and some cabinets are being installed on that side. And then kind of working towards the uh right side of your screen uh with the gymnasium and performing arts areas. uh will be following the completion of the finishes in the uh classroom area. We have a few other photos. Uh if you have not yet uh taken a tour lately, please feel free to reach out to anyone on the team probably through Eddie. Uh we can get you out there for a tour. We're going to start doing staff tours for the Grand Junction High School staff on Thursday afternoons again once um school

100is back in session. or Thursday five o'clock. There's some uh metrics here. I think that having, you know, somewhere between 250 to 300 workers on site each day getting work in place, uh, is pretty significant. And, uh, we've had, uh, quite, again, quite a few of those are local workers here. and they've been working really hard through some pretty brutal heat um out there and still, you know, doing a lot of uh getting productivity uh in place and and I mean just definitely respect for all those workers who are out there working in uh especially this summer. And I think we're ready for the uh drone video link. [Music] Micah chose the music. [Music] You got one on there. [Music] I had three. Oh, that one. Next. [Music] No [Music] mc does the dr [Music]

101Okay. [Music] I don't know if you may have missed it, but there was a fading transition between the two videos. Yeah. I think Micah is gonna stay in project management, not video production. Um, so with that, what uh what questions can we answer for the board today? These meetings have been this fun, so have a little fun isn't a bad thing. Uh, now I just want to say that um, every time I go through this project, it's more it's just impressive. It's it's amazing. Our community, I think, is going to be really excited to start seeing some of those finished products. And, um, just the amount of work. I've been going to the OAC meetings every week, every Tuesday since the beginning of the project. Um, Andrea's gone the last couple of times because I

102had some conflict with my schedule. um the amount of just attention to detail and and really being good stewards of our community's dollars and how they're being spent. Um staying in budget in this particular time is not an easy feat. So, I just want to shout out to everybody that that works so hard making sure that we're making good choices and um making sure that we continue to be good stewards of our community's dollars. Awesome. Board members have any other questions? I I'm not a board member, but I um the So, I'm breaking protocol that you said that we can do tours. Remind me again when did I know we at one point we want to get like folks that worked on the campaign and other folks in there. Was there a timeline of when

103y'all thought that would be good for them to be able to come in and see it? I know right now it's it's hard to imagine everything that's inside the building, but when would be a good time we could start setting those up? Uh, you know, I I think there's a lot to see right now to kind of visualize all the volumes of the spaces. I think FCI is preferring that some of them happen around five o'clock just so that we're not um interfering too much with the work that's getting done. So I think if uh maybe just reach out to Eddie and we can coordinate uh some groups and some times and remind everybody uh what they should be wearing. I was looking at Dr. Christensen too because I'm like we got to schedule this.

104Okay. Awesome. Good job. Great. Thank you guys so much. It looks great. Thank you. Hey, M. I'll be I'll be looking at you for the next video, bro. What's I guess I should give sort of a premise of why we were laughing so hard. I don't know if those at home could hear what was going on, but Micah was um touting his videography skills between the fade between the videos and it was humorous and music and and his choice of music for the video. So, we're not going to spend our budget on music license rights for some sort of popular song. So, we'll take we'll take what we can get. So, thank you guys for that. It was awesome. Yeah. And for the community, if you if you drive by there, obviously you've seen it

105um you've seen the progress. If not, drive by there. It's um probably do that before school starts this next week. Um but um it's pretty cool to see the progress over there. So, um all right. So now we have open board discussion. I do have one item. We are going to be resuming with our board coffees. So board um is there a particular day or Saturday um of the month that works for us? Um Bridget and Amy were wanting to be able to get some of those on the calendar. So, I'm kind of open to whatever. Do we want to keep them on? Saturdays, Saturday mornings. Okay. Is a second Saturday of the month. Third Saturday of the month. Good. What? The second Saturday. Oh, right. Okay. Okay. And good to still try to meet

106like in some of our schools. I think that's worked really well. I think that's um given people some opportunity to see our buildings well and it allows us to reach different parts of the community. So can't go all the way across town, but they can Bridget and Amy, if you guys can kind of look at where we were like last year, we'll just kind of keep making our our way around and see what buildings or places we have availability for. So let's just plan the second Saturday for each month. Um, we'll see what those Saturdays look like and go up through April because starting in September. Yes, thank you. Because August, we've all got to get our bearings underneath us to get going and everybody's getting ready for school. So, we'll start those board coffees

107again um in September, second Saturday, usually in the morning. Start goes from 9 to 11:00 and that's just a great time for conversation with the board. uh because at our business meeting we do take public comment but we don't typically respond to the public at that time. So this is just a nice time to for the board to converse with the the public. So and something I I kind of um want the board to kind of kick around a little bit or maybe just have an idea. Um I thought that you know our our coffees are good for you know the adults and everything. So maybe we can kind of figure out something to add for, you know, for our students or something or or just our youth. Maybe donuts with the board or something

108just to get their perspective on things and see how things are going in the district and different things to kick around to maybe, you know, just because sometimes they don't want to speak at a meeting where they they feel intimidated to speak at a meeting or something. So maybe something a little more personal, a little more, you know. Well, I would always encourage students on our regular board coffees, it's not just for the adults in the community. It's for the entire community, right? So, they are more than welcome to also come to the regular board coffees and and talk about whatever it is they want to talk about. Well, I was going to throw out too, I you know, I don't I don't know what if kids want to go to coffees on Saturdays, but

109you know, maybe we can talk to I have my superintendent student advisory groups that I meet with quarterly. So, maybe there's an opportunity for a board member to wants to come to one of those. And um because they're usually for about an hour or so, and if there's topics we want them to share with the board, y'all could come join me at one of those. And I was doing them last year at the four comprehensives and and R5. So, um, if you don't have kids showing up, that might be another avenue to come along with me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's Yeah, I was just think the other thought I had was maybe we could just try to coordinate with the five the five larger high schools and, you know, and if any of the district

110charters or anybody else wants to invite the board out if some students want to have a conversation, I mean, those invitations are always open. I know we can at least get a couple of us out um, you know, to those. So, as long as we post them, we just want to make sure that the public knows that, you know, two or more board members could potentially be there, but that they would be open. So, I think it's great to be able to chat with the students. So, maybe we could start with Dr. Hill's student group, but if but I would say if any schools are wanting to have board members come and and listen to students, just reach out to us. Okay, great idea. Great idea. Yeah, I love all of any other things for

111board coming up all of those ideas. I think that um Okay. having I can't think of anything. All right. Well, uh Dr. Schulties, we hope you uh feel better. Uh and uh we'll do have a I guess I don't have a motion to adjurnn because it's work session. So, we are adjourned. Thank you everyone. Thank you.