001Okay. Oh no. 30. All right. Good evening, everybody. We're going to go ahead and get started. If you need to find a seat, the um the sign up list for public comment is over here, right? Is that where we put it? Okay. So, if you're new to our meetings, um you can sign up for public comment. You'll have three minutes. Um but we do need you to sign up on the list over here. And um we're going to go ahead and do the pledge of allegiance and then we do take a moment of silence and then we'll start our meeting. So, if you can stand with us. I aliance 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
002all. Okay, for this evening to start off, we do have our uh budget hearings that we've been having this time of year. So, this evening is our second budget hearing. So if anybody has any comments on the budget, they can come to the front now and make a comment and Elliot Grand Junction. I just wanted to make certain that our finance um Mel is aware that on June 15th, public service has increased rates and they're very specific about rates going on from 1:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. in the evening except for weekends and holidays. But I I am sure that Excel is a part of the budget that is a huge chunk and it should be aware that when electricity and gas is running between those hours, it's going to impact the budget. All right.
003Thank you. Any other public comments on the budget? Okay. Seeing none, we will move into our business meeting. We can go ahead and um call the meeting to order and do the roll call. Okay. Mrs. Heights here. Mr. Jones here. Miss Lima here. Mr. Levenson here. Dr. Schultis here. All right. Do I have a motion to approve this evening's agenda? So moved. Second. Mrs. Heights? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Yes. Miss Lima? Yes. Mr. Levenson? Yes. Dr. Schulties? Yes. All righty. Do I have a motion to approve the meeting minutes from May 2nd, May 5th, May 8th, and May 23rd, and May 25th, 2023 meetings? So moved. Second. Okay. Mrs. Heights? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Miss Lima? Yes. Mr. Levenson? Yes. Dr. Schulty? Yes. Are we adding the April 8th meeting as well? The special meeting
004that's on here. Um, that should have already been our I believe we approved the April 18th meeting last Okay. Sorry, this is not mine. I'm sorry. No, you're good. If All right. Uh, and we have board reports. So, we have good things. This is where the board um we're we're emulating what they're doing in the classrooms, which is sharing good things um that the teachers do with their students. So, the board has taken that on as well to share good things that we're seeing in the district or as we visit schools or other things that the board has been involved in. So, board, any good things that you want to share? Um, I would like to read a um, Pride Month. It's not a proclamation because it's not in that section, but just a statement
005about Pride Month. Okay. Mesa County Valley School District 51 is w is a welcoming and inclusive community, acknowledging and celebrating our diverse background of students. June has been globally recognized as Pride Month, a time to celebrate and support LGBTQ QIA plus individuals and honor their impact on our nation's history. School District 51 values the principles of fairness, respect, and equity, seeking to ensure that all students from diverse backgrounds have an equal access, and opportunity at D51. We recognize the importance of promoting awareness, education, and understanding of LGBTQIA plus issues, encouraging open dialogue, and fostering a climate of acceptance and inclusion. Pride Month offers an opportunity for D51 and school districts around the nation to come together in celebration and unity, reaffirming our commitment to create an environment that ensures all students are accepted, can live
006authentically, and feel a sense of belonging. Therefore, Mesa County Valley School District Board of Education does hereby recognize June 2023 as Pride Month and encourages our community to embrace diversity and work together to foster an inclusive and accepting environment for all students. [Applause] All right. Thank you, Dr. Schulties. All right. Um, then we have any other good things? So, I I just want to mention we've got a a new person at our table over here. So, um Miss Navaret, she is we mentioned at the last meeting we're we're losing Bridget. Um she's retiring. Um and so we're going to miss Bridget, but we've hired an amazing um replacement for Bridget, and that's Miss Navertt. So, she's joining us uh here to be at the meeting tonight. So, can we give Miss Net a round of
007applause? [Music] [Applause] um she comes to us uh from the state of Colorado, but uh with background supporting um school boards and um and superintendents and other districts. And so we're excited to have her uh join our team. And we also have um a new addition to our communications department. I mentioned last time that uh we went from a whopping two people down to one and Cali was supporting the whole district and so now we have um Sierra joining us as well. So if we can thank Sierra for joining our communications team. All right. Any other good things? If you haven't gone by the new Grand Junction High School, it's changed a lot in the last couple of weeks. So, everything is still on schedule and I think going well there. Do stop by and
008take a look because it it it's beautiful and it it's just going to keep getting better. So, it's very exciting to see that go up. Great. All right. Thank you. Um, do we have any committee or activity updates? I think it's been a little quiet since school's been out, but Oh, you you going? You got to go. Uh, no, I was just going to mention um uh really a thank you to uh Black Citizens and Friends for putting on the um Junth um block party last Saturday. Um that was a lot of fun. We um they had games and events for the kids. Um and they actually tried to tie it in with um with black history. So they had a section for Super Soers and that was because um an African-American individual invented the
009Super Soaker and then potato chips. And so um and so it was just a cool event. Um I we got to read part of a um joint proclamation with uh city of Fruda, city of um Palisade, uh City of Grand Junction and Mesa County um recognizing um Junth and so that was um um exciting as well. We also had one of our um staff members, Patty, got a um educator award um which was awesome and they recognized some different businesses in the community. So really just a a thank you to um all the folks who helped put that event on um to celebrate uh Junth in our community. So, [Applause] any committee or activity updates? No. Okay. All right. We have our D51 happenings and celebrations. I'm just going to be up here for more
010tonight. Okay. Okay. Okay. Hi everybody. I'm Sierra Coulson, the new uh marketing and communication specialist. Um so I'm going to go over the D-51 happenings and celebrations. So first is our lunch lizard program. Um this started from WCCF. um they provided a grant to district 51 uh back in 2015 to provide summer meal programs to our students. Um and then that's continued into today and we give 25,000 meals over the summer and it's a 9-week program. Uh and then last week we had our book giveaway. Our warehouse team put this event on. Um a lot of the books come from our schools, all of the schools from uh outdated curriculum to donated books from teachers. And um Thursday was a day for uh school district 51 teachers to come in kind of pick through and
011then we opened it up to the community on Friday and Saturday and they were able to Oh, sorry. We have some technical difficulties. Okay. Thank you. Um, so and then discussing with some of the attendees, a lot of the books went to smaller private schools in the community and they were gratefully received. And then next slide. Um, summer school started. Summer school lit lit camp has begun and these kids are most definitely happy campers. Our schools have added weekly spirit days to make coming to school during the summer more engaging and fun. This week was hat day. A lot of the sites have taken lit camp and turned it into an actual summer camp. Um at Dos Rios and Per Park, each classroom has named their camp. You can go to the next slide. Um
012so you can see their classrooms. They have the tents. They have campfires. um fake ones obviously, but you can see that all of them have camp counselors instead of teachers. So, just kind of adds a little bit more fun and exciting summer feel to school. And then here they're reading their books um and the dark kind of low lit classrooms and just kind of having that fun camping experience. And then you can go to the next slide. This is our district 51 security injured officer course. Uh Marv Dipolado, a D-51 security officer, provides training to our D-51 security team during the summer months. They conduct two training sessions each month, one of which focuses on shooting skills. During this particular training, they conducted a thorough review of an injured officer course. Thank you D51 security
013team for going above and beyond to keep our schools and students safe. Uh this is a fun little thing that Taupe Elementary is doing. Uh they have given the tote bag a whole new meaning the taupe bag. We have unofficially dubbed these shared pictures as where in the world is taupe or where is taupe. We love seeing our teachers go on exciting adventures and fill their summer breaks with new experiences. Grand Mason Middle School has also been traveling. So, our eighth graders traveled with EF Explore America to Washington DC and New York City. They visited the Arlington National Cemetery, Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, a ghost tour in Alexandria, the White House, the US Capital, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, the National Monument, the Vietnam Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, MLK Memorial,
014the Edge, Hudson Yards, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, Financial District, Time Square. They even went to a Broadway show, Central Park, Grand Central Station, and Rockefeller Center. Rockefeller Center. And then um we have our Golden Apple winner, Bridget Story. Um she's been with the district for 30 years, so this is welld deserved. Yes. Thank you for all that you've done and continue to do. We would hardly be the same district without you. So, and then District 51 Foundation has been hard at work for our students and staff. Recently, they accepted a large donation from one of our community partners. Life by Music donated new guitars to the students at Shel Elementary School. They also donated an additional $5,000 for 30 students in school district 51 to attend a summer music camp at CMU. Thank you,
015Life by Music, for your generous donation and for enriching our students lives with the love of music. In addition, District 51 Foundation has introduced the addition of a third funding priority, staff and student wellness. The foundation donated $35,000 to go toward engaging schools training that will impact over 10,000 D51 secondary students. In other districts where this has been implemented, students have impro improved academic achievement, healthier social and emotional development, increased post-secondary access and success, and more participation in communities. Thank you, D51 Foundation. Those are all the D51 happenings that I have. And thank you [Applause] Thank you. Good job. All right. All right. We'll move into our superintendence report. Dr. Hill. All right. So, um, we have two items tonight. The first one, I'm going to have uh Clint come up and and Micah. There
016we go. Um, they're just going to do a quick update with the board on where we are with the long range facility master plan um RFP uh that we've been going through. So, just a reminder, we um we've been talking about updating our long range facility master plan for a little while. And so, we are actually going through that process now um to hire the the right firm to be able to do that work for us to do a comprehensive review of our facilities and and also create a plan for us um for the future on how we um update facilities. So, with that, I'll stop talking because I'm probably saying what Clint's going to say um and I'll let him share where we are in the process. Thanks for doing the update, sir. I
017appreciate that. I thought I did. There we go. All right. Good evening, board. Thank you for having us tonight. Uh just a quick update on where we're at in the master planning process. We just want to briefly go over um the the process and and some of the things that we're we're doing right now. So um we have um started the process of uh looking for a firm uh to to represent us uh in the master planning process. Uh that started back in May. We uh put out an an RFPQ and um we got some candidates back uh some proposals back. I'm going to talk a little bit about each of these. And um Ble Group is uh the first one. We you probably know who they are. Ble Group. We've worked with them uh
018quite a bit. Uh them and DLR group. They um uh are capable of doing this project. Uh local which is good. Uh Horde Copeland and Mocktu firm out of Denver. Um again large enough to handle this project. RTA architects out of Colorado Springs um also capable of taking on this project. Um I will add uh that BLE is a local uh firm but Horde Copeland Mock and RTA are also using and utilizing local um engineers and u estimators. Is that right? Estimators. Okay. Uh so scope of work, we'll be doing a facilities assessment. Uh, so a facilities condition index, um, we've talked about that in the past. We want to make sure that we cover all of our buildings, um, from mechanical, electrical, plumbing, right, all of that to the structure, making sure we're getting,
019uh, all the information we need on all of our buildings. I'd also add here um, as well that in the 2018 2019 uh, master plan, we did go through the buildings, but only 11 of them did we go into in detail. So, we'll be able to utilize some of that information moving into this master plan, but our our goal is uh moving forward is to hit all of our buildings and to get all the information that we need uh in our buildings um moving forward. Also, uh an education adequ adequacy index uh will be performed as well and that really is how well our buildings are equipped uh to deliver the current instructional uh curriculum. So, those are things like our lighting, um, furniture, uh, do we have the right furniture in the classrooms? I
020don't know if we do rows of desks anymore, but, uh, you know, that's changed a little bit. Maybe their collaboration tables today. Things look a little bit different. We'll be conducting facility uh, faculty and staff interviews, making sure that we get input from from all of our staff and faculty. And then, uh, community uh, meetings and engagement. We want to make sure that our community is is being engaged through this entire process. And then our goals um again as I mentioned uh to assess uh our facility adequacy and prioritize our needs, which buildings need to be replaced. Um in our 2018 2019 master plan, we we addressed some of those and we looked at some of those. Um, Grand Junction High School was one that we decided to to replace and uh the community said
021yes to that and we're grateful for that and we're we've moved forward with that. So, that's a win. Um, what does that mean moving forward for the rest of the buildings? We'll be taking a look at that as well. And then of course creating a clear path to get there, identifying strategies and funding mechanisms to pay for uh what whatever it is that we find. And then just an overview on the timeline. Uh this is a little bit fluid. Um I've got some dates here, but we're not sure exactly what this looks like. Our intent is to start at the end of this month or early July and then in um summer into the fall, gather information in the fall time, assess all of that information at the end of this year in early 2024
022to develop the master plan and then of course uh back uh to present to you all uh in March uh or April uh that master plan. So with that uh very short presentation does anybody have any questions? I have a couple. Thanks so much Clint. Um so looking at the education adequacy index I have a kind of two questions there. So is that purely from a facilities standpoint and then paired with that if there's um existing programata programmatic inequities, you know, I guess that those would translate into the physical environment. How are we um how are you thinking about the differences between programmatic and facilities and kind of That's a great question and they are separate. I would I would um and you can add some words to this if you have anything. Yeah, sure.
023But I would say that the facilities condition index addresses our building needs uh from a facilities uh perspective and the education adequacy index will address those programmatic needs. Um we will definitely be looking at whether or not our buildings are adequate adequately um set up for where we're at today um with whatever and how we're teaching. that's, you know, a little bit more on the educational side that I'm not sure I can speak to specifically, but I just wonder I just think as we approach it, um, I think we'll have to be really sensitive to, you know, what comes first and if we if we aren't doing certain programming because we don't have the facilities for it, you know, how will we account for that as opposed to um, you know, is this classroom big
024enough or whatever. I'm just I just feel like there's a lot of nuance in there. Yeah, it's a good point. I, you know, I I only have to go off of what we did um in my previous district and they did um a similar process where you you come out with essentially scores for facilities. So, it's easy to look at it and say, "Okay, this building from a condition standpoint is ranks way lower than these other buildings." So, it helps us to prioritize. But yeah, to your point, I think that's part of the um maybe the engagement piece that we're having with faculty, staff, and community around um educational suitability is, you know, just even the basic needs of kids today, like are we even able to do that within the buildings that we currently
025have? So, some of the the work that came out of that in in Austin was it wasn't a maybe wasn't a tear down of a building, but it was renovations to a a building to be able to have flexible seating or flexible spaces within the building. So, um I I'm hoping that'll actually come out of the time we're going to put into the um engagement with school staff and um and community as well. Um and again the idea behind all this is that um we have a a clear plan um that can always be adjusted but we have somewhat of a clear plan that we can be transparent with the community to say um if we're going to value public education but also the facilities that our kids are in. Then these are the things
026that we're going to have to come back to the community and try to address um or are we going to let them continue to deteriorate? and um and that we heard that loud and clear through multiple town halls and things we've been a part of is like don't just come back to us every year or two and randomly ask us for things like actually come with a plan. So that's what this is trying to capture. And at the same time, not just saying this building's the worst condition, so we're going to go with that first. But also, yeah, to your point, is there a programmatic need for renovations in a in a building that we could address that doesn't require us to spend, you know, tens of millions of dollars to tear the building down
027completely, but we could actually address it that way? So hopefully, I don't know if that helps answer the question, but I think that'll come out through the engagement process. I think it will. Yeah. and specifically equity, you know, like what how are we um you know, are the sped do we have to shift sped students away from certain schools because we can't accommodate them, you know, and how are we going to be thinking about that on a district level um and a building level? I think they're good questions for us to ask, you know, definitely something for us to consider. Yeah. Forward. And then I definitely see this aligning, you know, potentially aligning with the declining enrollment committee because this is information we have to have as we move forward there too. So I wonder
028how we're going to think about the timing and the interaction between those two. Yeah. And we've had we've actually had that discussion this week with the core team um around how do we update the committee on this work that's happening and then have that conversation within the committee. So that's a good point. How is that going to go? We will see with the committee. I don't want to Well, no. Yeah, but just what is the plan? Just to Well, the plan would be to let them know that we're actually going through this process. We haven't actually had a chance to to do that with them. You know, I think there's there's two paths. If we end up um moving down the path of saying consolidations is an option and it's something that we're looking at
029doing for next school year, then um do we need to prioritize assessments on those buildings ASAP? Um and they take priority over others. Um but it also would be a question for whoever we go with because we haven't selected a a firm yet. So we would need to have that conversation with the firm around is that even doable um and if not um is there a way to get adequate data for the committee and if not then that's a thing we got to consider I think with the committee. I I'm worried that the timing is not perfect. Um, obviously it would have been better to have some of this information earlier on for us to utilize that data for decision making with where we're at with declining enrollment. Yeah. And definitely keeps the fire lit
030that we need to get it. Understood. Yeah. I think um on one and I know you're aware of this but uh Director Jones and I were asked to go out to Central High School earlier this year because the speech and debate team wanted to host I think a regional event out there. I I I don't quite remember and obviously lots of challenges there um with handicap accessibility. So and that's just even for our students who go there as well besides hosting an event. So, I think, you know, not I mean, we don't want our students having to go outside of a building all the way around to get to where they need to. So, I know if you I know you guys are looking at that and we need to prioritize looking at making sure
031that those environments are safe for our students and they're accessible. I know some of those are going to be difficult because Central's older and we've got bigger issues that we have to look at is there as well. So, um, but I know that there's probably things in every building that people are thinking of and so I appreciate you guys looking at how you prioritize that and sift through all that information. Yeah, the in the 2019 bond, the the other high schools besides Grand Junction were all marked for some kind of improvements and I think ADA was probably one of those that didn't some of those just didn't we didn't get to. Those will definitely be on the radar moving forward. um because they're they're critical for our students. The other thing that this helps us
032with is um when we go out for best grants um this information is going to be helpful when we apply for those to have a better chance at getting them. Um you know, I I think that's always a misconception that we try to clarify with folks is that um the the marijuana money from the state, we don't just go and ask for, you know, Grand Junction's $145 million project. We couldn't go ask for $145 million from the state and they gave it to us. So, everyone in the district in the state's competing for this really small amount of dollars. Um, and you've got to make a really strong case for why you need it. And so, you know, with Grand Junction, it was 145. We got a $10 million best grant thanks to a lot
033of work um from, you know, folks that are up here like Micah. And then um and then we had the additional 19 whatever million that was left over from previous bond projects coming in under budget to bring that down to a closer 115 $150 million ask for the community, which is great. It'd be great to be able to do that in the future, too, if we're going to come back for bonds for either um scrape and replace or renovations to be able to say, "Hey, community, we need this help, but we also were able to go out and get for Central. We were able to get a best grant to cover part of it." And having a really um thorough and clear um master plan is going to help us with the application process on
034that. Could you remind the community what best means? Just building God, building something. Excellent. equals I know what it is. I Oh, good. Go ahead. Yeah. Building excellent schools today. Yes. And that money is only designated for school structures. Correct. Like for for building or for security systems or things like that. Correct. Yeah. So, okay. So, I I will add um there will be a number of committees formed through this process. one being a a steering committee really kind of guiding the whole master planning process and it'd be great to have a a board member on that and so I guess amongst yourselves start to kind of figure out who wants to be the the volunteer for that. So I was looking just looking around. I would happily volunteer for that and and I and
035thanks to Will too for um serving on we do have a board member serving on the selection committee for um the firms too. So thanks to Will for dedicating that time. What is our time frame for you guys to I know you want to start soon and then how long do you um anticipate the whole process taking? So we should be done in March, April of of 24. We should have something back to you by that time. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Thank you all. Um and so our second item tonight is our topic around schoolbased uh health center update. And so I've got a couple folks that are going to come up and help present with me. Uh we've got a presentation for the board tonight. So I'm
036going to ask Katie McHugh as our head of nursing services. Um and then Rosa Gardner and Steven Martinez who support um the Warrior Wellness Center at um Central High School. So, we'll get the slides pulled up. So, we just wanted to take a little bit of time because I know this is on the agenda for discussion tonight um for the board. Um one to to accomplish a couple of different things. One, to give um some historical background on how we got here um because we obviously there's a lot more focus and attention on this topic now. So, it's a good opportunity to educate um the community on that. also to help um folks clarify a little bit about what services actually are provided at um the Warrior Wellness Center um and what goes into a
037schoolbased health center um and then have an opportunity for board members to ask any questions that they might have um of the individuals who are are doing the work um every day. So um with that I think y'all are going to have to control with the down arrow for me because I can't control from over here. Um, so the history of need. Um, and if you've been paying attention to this, um, at our previous board meetings, you've probably seen a lot of this, but um, in December of 2017, there was an advisory committee that was developed, uh, to determine the feasibility of opening a school-based healthcare center, um, in the district. And this is just a a list of organizations and groups that um, that had representatives on that uh, advisory committee back in 2017.
038Um and if you'll go to the next slide. Um so a needs assessment was conducted um of student health needs and community resources. Uh in March of 2018 that advisory council was given approval for further study on the concept. Uh and the board approved that study. Um 2018 they did surveys and interviews that were conducted assessing the level of need and desire for having a school-based um health center in the district. Um, and then in January of 2019, uh, the board was presented with benefits and background information on, uh, a school-based health center. Um, the results of that assessment, and I'll go through a couple of the slides that we pulled out from it, the results of that assessment showed that there definitely was a need, um, for services from a school-based health center, and
039the committee recommended moving forward on a cost, impact, and next steps. Um, and the recommendation was to include both Central and Grand Junction. Um and actually um my understanding is Grand Junction High School showed the highest need at that time. I think I mentioned it later in the presentation, but because there was always a talk around replacement of the school, um Central bubbled up to the the top priority and that's why Central was the first focus. So the next couple slides are from that presentation back in 2019. So we'll go through those. Um this is just kind of an overview of what schoolbased health health centers provide. Um, so it's a healthcare facility located uh inside a school or on school grounds staffed by a multiddisciplinary team of medical and behavioral health providers and sometimes
040dental professionals, health educators, and or health insurance enrollment specialists. And then just a fact over here on the side, this is this is more recent um from uh the Youth Healthcare Alliance website. There's currently 70 schoolbased health centers in Colorado serving um 35,000 uh students or approximately 37 5,000 students. Um on the next slide um so who does a school-based um health center um serve? Um it's usually serving primarily students who have barriers or challenges to accessing care um or that care is limited. Um and then the services are designed to identify problems early, provide uh continuity of care and then improve academic participation or goals for schoolbased health centers. Um, the next slide, I apologize because this is a PDF that I pulled from an old board meeting, so it cut off part of
041the right side and I can't fix a PDF like that. So, um, but this is really just a slide to try to show the difference because we've had this question before like why don't nurses just do um what they do in a schoolbased health center? And there are services that our nurses can provide that um or that schoolbased health center um professionals can provide that our nurses can't. And so it's just an overview of um some of the benefits of um having that within the school setting um versus having to go outside of the school setting. And we were trying to decipher I'm looking at Katie what the last bull on the right probably said responsible for health related elements of educational record. I think it probably says immunization record checks. I'm looking at her
042because I don't know. Is this on? Yes. Um I'm guessing immunization records and follow-up individual health plans. And the last one maybe emergency care or contact would be my guess or emergency. There you go. Yeah. Um so the next slide um talks about um basically the outcomes you're looking for when you have a schoolbased health center. So, increased uh immunization rates, decreased use of emergency rooms, uh improved screening and identification of students at risk for depression and or anxiety, uh improved screening and early intervention, um decreased teen pregnancy, improved identification and screening of overweight and obese students, and then improved education outcomes under these three uh bullet points um for um uh yeah, sorry, better school performance, grade promotion, and then high school completion. Um and so the needs assessment that they did in 20
0432017 um 2018. Um these were the objectives at that time was to understand the needs of students in Mesa County with specifically within our school district. Um to assess the potential utilization of a schoolbased health center and then to understand um the existing resources that we have in the community including healthcare facilities that serve low-income children and youth and identify any barriers there might be to receiving those services. So the next slide just talks about who all participated in the um in the um the analysis that they did at that time. So you can see the number of students, families and staff that participated through surveys, through focus groups, um different uh community partner organizations that were interviewed um and then existing data that they um reviewed. Um and so I think on the right
044it really just talks about that the the analysis focused on students enrolled at those two schools and their feeder middle schools. Um and they they assess these different um factors. Um and then the next slide is just an it's just a a chart showing the percentage of stakeholders who um uh replied to the the surveys. Okay. The next slide um these were at that time the top five student health concerns. Um, and so you can see from students, from families who filled it out, and also from staff. Um, and with mental health being the most critical student health concern. Um, and you can see where those um, survey results came out in um, 2018. I know we've had discussions um, even at the board level around um, whether these still exist and whether or not
045they've actually potentially gotten worse um, especially since um, with the pandemic. Um the next slide uh more data from the surveys um and focus groups. So the top five health complaints or chronic conditions that affected student attendance and academic achievement. Um so emotional issues, sore throat, colds, fever, um earachches and coughing, behavior issues, stomach aches, and then headaches. Um and then this slide was all about um essentially what kind of health insurance coverage does did our county um offer or did families have at that time? um in in 2018. And so you can see, I'm not going to go through all these bullets, but um the data on um the our county compared to the state at that time. Um so we'll leave that for a second so you can see it. Okay. Um and
046then again, these were the recommendations from that 2018 um audit or um or or survey. uh community input indicated support to pursue um the schoolbased health center in the district. Mental health and substance use were the clear priority areas. Um and then they recommended developing a communication plan to reach stakeholders. Um and then schoolbased health center operational policies and procedures address feedback from staff, students and parents um to address any potential concerns that there might have that may have um risen from the interviews that they did. Um so the next slide back to um our presentation. So um again we there was only funding for one school um and a future bond planned for Grand Junction High School at that time. So the committee chose to proceed with putting a schoolbased health center at Central
047with the understanding that the new um Grand Junction High School would house um a schoolbased health center as well. Um in January of 2019 there was a presentation to the board in support of that schoolbased health center at central um and the board passed that resolution to support it. And I just this is the language on the next slide from the resolution. Um that was this again this was January of 2019. Um and I mean the main part it goes through all the the rationale but the main part the last um section uh the board supporting um the establishment of schoolbased health clinics uh in one or more schools. So that was um the resolution adopted in 2019 that the the district was working under um since then. Um so going back to the history
048so again through 2019 the advisory council worked on site planning budgeting capital funding students were also involved in the design naming and how the clinic would be promoted. September grant funds were awarded um by Colorado Health Foundation and D51 provided space and minimal in-house uh PM services. And then between November of 2019 and March of 2020 um the renovations were done at Central for that new space um because they took an existing space within the building and renovated it. Um and then to clarify here, so in March of 2020, um the schoolbased health center opened at Central, but it was mainly for student walkthroughs. Um and with of course we all know what happened in spring of 2020. So it kind of delayed the the grand opening of it. Um and then so in August
049of 2020 was when it officially um went live um at central. Um and then this is just some information from a this was from a presentation. I can't remember if this was the one from 2019 or the one that was given in 2021, but for questions around um how is how is the Warrior Wellness Center funded at um at central um you can see the um where the percentages of funding come from um and the different entities that um help support um having that program there. Okay. Um, so the next section, so for services provided, and I think this is just to help clarify because we've gotten a lot of questions about what exactly happens at the Warrior Wellness Center at Central. Um, do they do X, Y, and Z? And so that's why we
050asked, um, Rosa and Steven to come and share a little bit about the work that they're doing. Um, and then Katie also will share a little bit about the benefits that they're seeing for the um, staff at the school. So I'm actually going to turn it over to uh, Rosa and Stephen to take the next slides. Thank you. Um, so my name is Rosa. I'm a PA. Um, I'm the primary care provider at the wellness center. And this is Stephen. He's with me tonight. Um, Stephen's a licensed clinical social worker and licensed addiction counselor and he provides our behavioral health services at the wellness center. Um, we do also have a dental hygienist that um, is with us periodically. Um, her name is May and she's lovely. She's a registered dental hygienist. So we also
051kind of have our own like you guys as a district have goals for what a schoolbased health center is for. Um we as healthcare providers also have objectives that we are kind of aiming towards. So the the first one always as in healthcare is improving baseline health and health outcomes for the people that we interact with. So um we think that increasing access and ease um does improve that baseline health and health outcomes for the young people. Um, we want to improve school attendance, participation, and outcomes. So, we think that, um, having us there makes it easier for kids to be in school, to return to school quickly, um, to be healthy at school. We want to improve young people's health literacy. Um, as you guys all know, health literacy is a skill that you
052develop over time. Figuring out how to make appointments, how to speak with a healthcare provider doesn't happen overnight. And so having practice in the school setting and familiar faces um can really improve health literacy for young people. Um we want to improve young people's conflict resolution skills. So a lot not as much what I do but Steven will talk about this. A lot of what he does is um anger management, brief interventions for stress, um doing practice conversations between um well, it's in the next po bullet point between students and teachers, students and parents, and students and their friends. So, we want to help kids learn how to communicate in a non-escalated way um in all of those scenarios. And that's a big part of what Steven does as a behavioral health provider. Um, from
053the medical perspective, what I do most of my day is um, things that you're going to see falling under parental consent. So, what parental consent means is that we get signed consent from a parent in order to see a student for some of those services. That's not um, the list is not all-inclusive because we see all kinds of different things under parental consent. But well, child checks and sports physicals are high up on the list of things that we see as is acute illnesses. So during COVID, we were doing tons of COVID tests, but we do lots of strep, flu, those kinds of tests, looking at ear infections, that kind of thing. Um, minor injuries, spinting and stitches, um, immunizations. We have the age appropriate re recommended vaccines at the clinic. Um, and then medication
054management for routine mental health disorders. And so again, all of those things fall under parental consent where the um, the parent signs a form for us. Now, Colorado has a state law that specifically defines minor consent. And in the in the purposes of the medical realm, there is no minimum age for these things. Um, this is sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, substance use counseling and treatment, and reproductive health education and services. Um, and so again, no minimum age for that. And what minor consent means is that the young person consents for their own treatment for that. That doesn't mean that parents aren't involved. Um, but it means that the minor is in charge of where that information goes. So if they if they are talking to their parents about it, great. So are we.
055Um and just to clarify in the reproductive health and education, health education and services. Um education is like we talk to young people about how their bodies work. A lot of people don't know. So we spend a lot of time doing that. Um reproductive health services falls more into the contraceptive realm and we'll talk about that a little bit more. Um, and just for behavioral health, um, interventions and ongoing therapy for conditions that include I see a lot of anxiety and depression, uh, stress. Um, like Rosa said, we do a lot of anger management and substance use. Um, usually we we give a screening tool, uh, that identifies substance use that ends up becoming IMR referral source as a licensed addictions counselor, but that's not limited to me. So if we feel like they need
056to see a higher level of care or a different person, we're always looking for referral sources. Um and so when it comes to stress, when we see we see stress, um we're usually or I'm usually managing a lot of communication between parents, adults, uh with COVID, it almost seems like kids lost the ability to talk to adults or just even have a voice. And so a lot of that is roleplaying that a lot of a lot of those hard difficult conversations. Um, and so all those all those mental health services, they fall under a minor consent under the CRS's. Uh, but it doesn't mean that we are sitting here saying don't have a conversation with your parent, don't talk to any adult. In fact, we are encouraging that those students that come in under minor
057consent, please talk to your parent, talk to your guardian about what is being done here. Um, the worst feeling in the world is to have a student that we're actually doing some really good therapy with and then they come back and their parent finds out because they don't believe in mental health treatment and they feel like they've done something wrong. Um, so we really really are encouraging students to make sure that they are talking to those guardians. We're not just saying please don't say nothing. We don't we we are very upfront. I am very upfront in every session first session that that is being talked about. So yeah. And then um the last point here is just that we are mandi mandated reporters. So if a young person is at risk to themselves or other
058people or if someone's hurting them, we do have to report that. Um you know, so I think there's some concern that that students are um being seen for really serious mental health conditions and that's not the case. We have to involve their parents if there's any risk to the young person. Um, and just like Stephen said, you know, I spend a lot of my time talking to young people about how to talk to their parents about birth control, how to talk to their parents about scary things that happened to them or that they see online. You know, we do so much of like how to talk to your families about this stuff because there's a lot of scary stuff out there as young people and we just want to help support them. Um, for dental,
059all of these services fall under parental consent. So again, that's the signed consent form. Um, we do dental screenings and dental education. Um, our hygienist actually has all the tools and supplies to do cleaning. So, she can do a full cleaning at the school. She also has this really cool like handheld X-ray that she can take X-rays with that gets sent to our pediatric dentist at the main clinic. And then if needed, like if there's cavities or some other situation where the um the student needs an actual procedure, we can connect them to the pediatric dentist at our main clinic for those procedures. Um, we've gotten some really awesome funding to help with dental hardship if the students don't have dental um insurance. So that's been a really great support. And the dental services that
060we have are offered one day a week. Um our so we're employed by Marilac Health and Marillac did have a period of time this winter where we had very very limited staffing for our dental hygienists. So we were on about a six week hiatus with dental services at the school. But if things came up as needed, we were able to get the student seen by the hygienist and then we resumed our services after six weeks. So, um, I know that came up as a concern in the last meeting and and that is something that just working as an organization in the community, you know, the limitations of staffing do impact our clinic occasionally here and there. We try to limit that, but it did happen. Um, so there's obviously a lot of things that we
061don't do at the um at the Warrior Wellness Center. I'm not a surgeon. You know, there's Stephen is not a psychiatrist. um we we don't do everything, but there I I think are some um there's some misconceptions about things that might happen um at the Warrior Wellness Center or could happen at the Warrior Wellness Center. And so I just want to be really clear, we do not do any um hormone therapy or procedures related to transgender medical care. Um we do not provide abortions at the Warrior Wellness Center and we don't provide any complex psychiatric or psychological care there. So, if there are patients that are outside of our scope from a um psychological or psychiatric standpoint, we have a referral source in the community that we get them to. I'm not a psychiatrist. Neither
062is Steven. And I want to be clear too on the last slide, we we were trying to be really mindful of not feeling like we're targeting any group of students, but these are we get a lot of emails um and you know, we appreciate the the questions and this comes up these items come up a lot in the emails we got. So, we wanted to make sure that we um could clarify that with the community. Um so, the next slide, y'all have seen this data the board has, but it's just um an overview again of the um year 1, 2, and three um number of users, number of visits um for the different types of services that are offered. Um and then at the bottom, you can see the um less than 1% of the
063visits are around um reproductive health or contraceptive um visits. And I think I remember when we were chatting, you said even of that really small percentage, a lot of them end up involving their families. Uh anyways, in that Yeah. I of the students that I do contraceptive stuff with, I would say about between 50 and 60% of the parents are aware. It's just easier for them to get it at school um because they can see me faster. Um so that's that's just data on usage. Um, and then the next slide, um, again, I'll I'll turn it over to Katie to share a little bit about, um, the benefits for, um, for staff at Central. So, from the nurses to the counselors, and I think the next slide we have is as a quote from one
064of the nurses. So, I'll turn it over to Katie. So, this is from uh, the registered nurse school nurse at Central. Um, and the benefit that the having a school-based health center right there has been to um to her in her in providing care for students and to the health assistant. Um, when students come in with sore throats, earachches, headaches, um, that sort of thing. At every other school, our choice of say they have a sore throat and they feel like they can't stay at school. We have to call a parent, they have to either leave work and come pick up their student or if if leaving work is a barrier, then if the student doesn't have, you know, a fever of over 100, they stay at school, but they feel terrible. The parent may
065or may not get them a doctor's appointment. it might take 48 hours if they took them home and that student stays out till they get to the doctor. But at Central in that scenario, they can go to the schoolbased health center. Um, find out if they have strep right away, find out if they're contagious and need to go home or can go back to class. Um, same with, say, they cut themselves in shop class um at another school, they're going to have to leave. they're going to have to go to urgent care, parent is going to have to leave work or or not if they don't have transportation. So, going back to an earlier slide, the school-based health center is providing access um to a lot of families who have barriers. They can't leave work
066because they might lose their job. They maybe only have one car and dad took it um over the mountain that day. Um, so it just really helps in those acute situations, um, to to get access sooner, um, to treat things sooner, which is best in healthcare. Um, and if it's not serious, say they cut their hand, they needed a couple stitches and then they could probably go back to class, I would guess, Rosa. Um, so they don't miss a day of school at high school, which is a lot. Um, and then another one that uh the nurse wrote is when new kids move into the area and they are having a hard time finding a primary care provider, which is hard. Sometimes it takes 3 months to get um established with a doctor or they
067have a wait list. um they can have the students start at the Warrior Wellness Clinic. Maybe that's not going to be their ultimate primary care provider, but it gets them started with health care. Um so it it really is um it provides it decreases barriers to health care for a lot of the students um and families in these situations. This these are quotes from um some of the counselors at Central and I can speak to this a little bit and maybe Stephen can. It's it's somewhat similar um on the behavioral health side as the medical side. So, there's only so much a school nurse can do. And then students need a higher level of care and there's only so much a school counselor can do um based on their role. They're not there to provide
068therapy. And so, when they come upon students who need a higher level of care, they can send them to the school-based health center. Yeah. And it's just a walk across the hall. And there's many times where students are actually actively or families are actively looking for mental health services and can't access them either. They're not getting calls back and we're we're experiencing that just in our own referral sources. Um and so having somebody on site that they can honestly tell you right there in the session I've been looking for somebody for years um is is really refreshing. And so to have us have a counselor from the school come over and it's just a brief introduction. It's not like we're doing therapy that day. it's this is what the services are offered and we really
069leave it to the student to decide if they want to be there or not. It's not they have to be there. Um and we make that very clear. So it's a very voluntary based system. Um and so those counselors just as as a point of reference or a warm handoff and if again if I am not the right fit for them, let me get you some referrals out into the community that we know are taking new patients and let's get you plugged in. I can talk about this a little bit. So, we do have um an advisory committee that meets um three times a year and this is made up of um obviously wellness center staff but also district staff. Um we have students, parents, and then representatives from the health department. We have representatives
070from um we have physicians in town. It's, you know, there have been people that have come and gone on that advisory committee over the past several years, but we meet um quarterly during the school year and then take the summer quarter off. And in these meetings, we review the data. So, we look at, you know, what services are we providing? What are we seeing kids for? What are the needs this year? So, an example of that would be like in 2021 when um you couldn't be at school if you had one COVID symptom, we realized we need to be doing more COVID testing. So we got in a ton of COVID tests so that we could provide COVID tests for all the students at Central High School. And then we were also CO testing for
071any teacher in the district that needed a COVID test, you know. So we really try to be um accommodating for the needs that are identified in the district while also knowing that um we have really specific directives for what we're trying to um achieve on an overall student health standpoint. Um, but we we use that forum to to get feedback and make sure that we're we're on the right track. Okay. So, the um the last section um and so we after the last work session um you know, we met with um some of the staff at Junction and just wanted to get a better understanding of um kind of what are they hearing from their community um if this was to go into the the school building or be at the school. And so on
072the next slide, um I just want to remind I I I skipped a spot, but um from the conceptual design through DD on the new junction site, um the design advisory committee had talked about having a space within the building for the new high school. Um and I know there's been some questions around that. Um the results of the previously mentioned assessment helped drive the committee to move forward with um that decision um to our current construction documents and the district was working under the direction of that previously previous previously passed um board resolution in support of the schoolbased health centers. Um on the next slide, y'all already saw this last week, but just a reminder, you know, we still have um some of those needs that were identified in 2017 2018 um still exist.
073We had our um priority area um present last week around um student wellness and also our um the folks from um Healthy Kids Colorado came and presented and I know it's really small on the screen but just the data on uh middle school and high school students who are um experiencing um mental health needs and also um you know thinking about things like suicide um and whether or not they're attempting suicide. So the the needs are still real in our community and in our district. Um and so this is just some of the data that was presented last um board meeting. Um so the next slide. So when we met with this the folks from some of the folks from Junction, we thought before we even move forward with exploring this any further like is
074there actual desire um within that school building um from families and staff for something like a schoolbased health center at the school. So we sent a pretty simple survey um to um any families and staff who had a email address on file for us um asking the question around do you support having a schoolbased health center at Grand Junction High School and so this was the um the results of that. So around 70% answered yes around 24% answered no and then a little over 6% said they weren't sure. Um I think this is important because you know you can with any data you can fixate on which part of the data you want to focus on. Um obviously there are um almost 70% of the folks that said yes but also you know being uh
075recognizing that there are around 24% of the folks that at junction who are not in support of this and so how do we navigate that with whatever direction we're going to head um next I think is important. So um but that was data that we collected. Um and so you know the the recommendation so the next slide um really is one I want to pause here actually before we go into anything about next steps and just see um because the request was from the board last time was to have uh folks here to be able to present answer any questions that the board have. Like I said, hopefully to clarify um you know, we get a lot of emails. We we've gotten a lot of emails about this topic, right? And so um trying to
076clarify um some of the misconceptions maybe they're out there or answer any questions that folks had about the current services at um at Central High School. Um but also, like I said, I wanted to make sure that board members have an opportunity to ask any questions they might have. So before we let them loose and leave um the meetings, does anybody have any questions for uh Rosa, Stephen, or or Katie? That's amazing. There's no questions. I'm looking at Doug because he's looking at me. You did a good job, I think, expressing. No, I I I think I I I suspect I speak for a lot of people here. I appreciate all your efforts on behalf of the staff at Central and the kids and the families because I know you're that's what you're what you're
077after, right? good outcomes for our kids and so forth. And obviously there's a lot of strong data support you've been successful and I know it's not perfect, but it's it's it's um you're doing what was intended to have happen. So thank and thanks for the information. It's terrific all of you. Thanks. I I just I think you did a good job, Dr. Hill, of um assessing the concerns that the board has heard from our community, and thank you all for answering those. Um, I think that's been a lot of what has been heavy on people's hearts, just knowing what what does happen and what doesn't happen inside the clinic. So, I appreciate um that clarity. So, um, you know, I'll just say this, the I think from looking at the data, I think we can
078all agree this the need the need for more, you know, mental health, um, physical health for our students and even staff because I know staff come and utilize the the schoolbased health center, but just in general for our community and our district still exists. Um, like our schoolbased health center is the end all beall and they're going to solve all our problems. No. um it's an avenue uh to be able to address um needs at a specific uh campus, but even if we were to put one at, you know, all of our high schools, we still have need at middle schools and elementary. So, that I just want to um clarify like this isn't going to solve all of our problems, but it's an avenue to try to address some of those needs that we've
079identified. I mentioned last board meeting um that you know having conversations with the five board members like I I still don't I don't think anybody on this board um would say that there isn't a need. Um I think all five of you all agree that um that there's definitely a need in our community for um support for our students and staff. Again, it's around that um the mechanism for delivery. And so um there's a resolution for y'all to take action on later. Um I think the next slide maybe has the language in it, but you know recommendation to u move forward with a a health center at um Grand Junction High School and outside of that um leaving the logistics and everything up to um the school district to work out all the other um
080logistical things that we need to work out. So can I ask one question real quick? Was there is there anything that a school-based health center does? So schoolbased health center the concept the services provided are regulated by the state from my understanding. Is there anything that we provide that um or that a school-based health center is designed to provide that that we don't feel the need to provide that? Like is are there any types of appointments that are detailed as a school-based health center that aren't needed in your experience? They're all needed. Yeah. I mean, I've been really surprised at the variety of things that walk in the door. I think there's just a lot of needs that go unressed for all different kinds of reasons. Um, but I think that's the lovely thing about
081having this sort of integrated care model is that, you know, somebody walks in the door and they're tired and they've been having headaches and they don't feel well. Well, we do a depression screening and oh wait, maybe it's depression. you know, there's like there are a lot of ways that these different things present and so having different kinds of providers there to address those needs um and to and to know what to look for and to get them into the right hands is a really helpful thing. So, I I can't think of anything that hasn't been needed at some point. I mean, it's hard to know what you don't know, but at this point, I I can't think of anything. And and I think that just to just to add to that, just to reiterate,
082we're just building bridges. If it's not us, it's our our community. And we're not even if it's just a stop in, hey, I have a quick question. Not all of it is is an appointment-based thing. It's a question, we're referring, they're out. So, no, I don't I haven't seen anything that we haven't had an answer or some type of productivity productiveness to a student or something. Thank you. Okay. And I think is there any more SL? Oh, that's again. Okay. Sorry. Unless there's more. How many responses total you got back from the survey? I know you just presented percentages, but I'm just kind of curious like Yeah, I don't remember the exact number, but I think we looked at the percentage and it was somewhere just under 20%. Which for a survey is actually a
083pretty good response rate. I looked I went to Cali and said, "Who respond what's our response rate to other surveys?" And they're usually pretty low. So, I want to say it was a little under 20%. Um, was a response rate. So, huge. Okay. Any other questions? Uh, no questions. So, um, I just have a So, on June 6, I raised the issue that the board renew the motion regarding resolution 222369. The resolution addressed the need for uh student-based health clinic. The motion is now in front of the board. I'm just getting my notes. Sorry. Um I would like to renew that motion but wish to amend it using uh amend the previous language using the language is outlined in resolution 2223140. So I move to amend the language on that. Amen. I move to amend
084that language and vote on 222314. Second. All right. Is so you're moving the business item up to make the motion for the for the vote now? Yes. Is there Well, put your turn your microphone on. We're in discussion now. We've had a motion in a second. So, now there's discussion. Yeah. I'm just curious why we would not stay with the agenda and do that after public comment. Why? Well, either it doesn't matter to me. I mean, I'm still I'm still moving to change the, you know, the language to change the language on it. So, we can do either or. Yeah, I I totally get that. I'm just saying why wouldn't we keep it in the order of the agenda on the meeting? We can do that. Do all of that at at the end of
085the meeting after we hear public. We can do that. Can we pull the resolution back up? And I will we did notice a typo on the second paragraph. The it says SBHS. It should be SBHC. So, we'll we'll fix that. Yeah. I'm curious why it says a health center instead of a school-based health center. If nobody knows, then I propose it says schoolbased health center. I think that was to encompass the board wanting to be able to look at all options. So, not locking ourselves into one option. What are the What does that mean? I don't know what that means. It gives the district the um latitude and longitude to be able to look at every single option out there. I'm still I'm not sure. Are there other um alternative models other than school-based health
086centers? We don't we don't know. So, I think that's what the community is asking is if we could just exhaust and look at all of those things. I'm not I'm I'm I don't understand I don't understand what um what we're driving at there. So, we've all had this resolution now for a couple of days. So, I don't either we can table it and wait if we need to. You know, I did not see that language. That language was added in my understanding last night. The health center. I've not had that for days. But I'm not I'm not proposing that we table it at all. I think we need to vote on this tonight. I just want to understand what is a health center if not a school-based health center. What is the difference? For me,
087it would just leave it open for them to for them to look at all options instead of just relegating it to be what is outlined as a school-based health center only. It just makes it a little it just allows the district to do the work that we've asked them to do and it just gives them more options to look at instead of just singularly. that may that may be the only thing that they find is best to do, but it may be also that there are some other things that they can add in not just that. If they put it just that in the resolution, then that's all they can look at. They can't look at anything else. It would be the way I would read that. But if we're assured that there will be
088a health center that will include all of the things that the district does the work to find that is what the community wants, then it may be an HBA. It may be that plus something else. It may be, I don't know, it could be any variety of things. But if we say in in the resolution that it has to be an SBHC, then it narrows what the district can even look at and consider. I have two questions about that. One, so we're saying a school-based health center or more is what we're saying. Um, but the second thing is you said that if they find that the needs of the community, we've already done the needs assessment. A needs assessment is not part of this. Correct. It's not. So are so we're saying a school-based health
089center and more and or I mean I I the whole idea is just to not box the district in as they're looking at all of the things that they could do to serve the student population if we make it specifically an HB. Sorry. Yes. You know what I'm talking about. uh SBHC then that's all they can look at. They can't add anything to that. So just by saying that we're going to have a health center. I mean somebody else is going to probably be doing it. I don't know how they'll go at that. If if I could throw it sounds like see if I've got this right. Maybe Tammy might be able to help us with this. It it sounds like Dr. Director Lima, you're suggesting that the semantics there could be limiting to what
090our district does, correct? But you're speculating. We don't know that for sure. So, I guess Tammy, is there anything that you know is is if you call it school-based health clinic or health center or whatever we call it, is is there uh is that going to limit us or or Dr. Dr. uh Hill and his group to to follow this resolution. Do you see that being limiting? It can be. And so some of the concerns that we talked Get a little closer, Tammy. Those just are some of the sensitive I don't know if this is on. You just have to get super close to it. Yeah. Okay, it is on. All right. It can be. And some of the things that we've been talking about are you know obviously we have a big portion of
091people who said yes on the limited survey we did which was limited but there is a portion of people that said no. So some of the things that we want to talk about are what are all of our options? Um we all agree that people need the medical the mental the dental health. Does it have to be necessarily a schoolbased health center in that exact wording that requires um certain terms and conditions? Could it be um other physicians? Could it be other dental offices still providing the services without locking into it? The language was simply to allow us, Dr. Hill, to look into everything without necessarily naming it that way, but defining it as a health center that provides medical, mental, and dental services. So it sounds like we're actually debating two different things. So
092what I heard from the team is that the integrated health model is part of where the power is. The access, the proximity, and the integrated health model are what produce the outcomes of better student outcomes. Um so if we're saying, okay, we're going to try to find a dentist office who will come in and a medical provider who can provide some of these services. that you're we're not saying we're peacemealing it out, but we're saying we haven't actually taken a look at everything. And so part of the concern was listening to everybody and taking a look at well aside from doing the one grant with one provider, is that the only option that we have? I don't know. I haven't looked at that. We haven't taken the time to look at. But we do know
093that integrated services, medical, mental, and dental are important. How do we provide that? But we were going to look at the different options to get to that point which is why it says a health center that does provide those three various things knowing that integrated health is important just as what they've discussed. Now how are we going to about go about establishing it? It may be very much this exact same way just not taking a look at it. It feels like we're trying to reinvent the wheel a little bit. But my concern here is that we're washing down the language so that we can so that there's the potential to not provide this these services. That is my concern. My concern I would disagree. That's not what's going on. That's not the conversations that have
094been had. Um it's very important that these services are provided. I'm It's my understanding from all five of you that it is important. It has been important. Now, how do we get there? Taking into account everybody's position and opinion, including community members as well. And so, one of that is to pass this resolution and then direct Brian and whoever he charges to move forward with looking into all options, one of them being the same thing that we have at Central. What did you just say? A traditional What did you just the specific school school-based health center. I just I guess that um yeah, I'm just left really [Music] wondering what are the possible impacts of this and how to best create the support that our students need. And I'm I'm just left wondering, you know,
095again, so you know, we have this entire state regulatory framework. We have 70 of these across the state. Um I'm not hearing a lot of evidence and information that those are inadequate and need to be improved upon. I'm sure everything always needs to be improved upon, but I'm just left wondering. Um why I'm just concerned that we are not going to I I believed that we were voting for a school-based health center and it sounds like there's the potential that we could come out of this and not have a school-based health center. Well, I don't necessarily think Well, I mean, I personally have talked to you today and went over this language and this and I voiced all of these concerns. Yeah. And I and and I explained it um what we discussed. You're going
096to have to be trusting that Brian is going to do what's best for the district, keeping in mind all of your concerns that have been raised as well as what we've heard from the community and then move forward um in that area. I feel like we're either lacking transparency here and saying like, well, no, no, we're going to do a school-based health center. Um we're just not calling it that or that we're not going to end up with that. I just I'm concerned about I mean words matter and I think I think the distinction is is it semantics does it not matter or does it matter and I am again this I understand that this was changed last night and um and and again if if if the if the rationale is at least a
097school-based health center or better that makes sense to me if we're saying like we're actually going to change the model of a school-based health center we don't think that it's working even though our teams are saying that it's working, then I'm just concerned about what we're going to end up with. Well, I think it just doesn't, again, it just doesn't pigeon hole everybody into one specific definition. It makes it more broad and it allows the district to add to it to to make possible changes in that specific model as outlined by I think CDPHE has a very specific outline of what what that means. And then it it it goes into the business side of it as well. This just allows the district a little more flexibility to look at to look at it from
098different directions. It's just leaves it more open while still saying we believe that these services are important. Now, how do we get there to best serve our community? Do we think that something isn't working at So if we if we do something different, does that mean that we're going to do the same different thing at Central? We don't know. That's why we're charging the district to take it and do that work. Yeah. I think I I think what because this has been a touchy topic, we're we really tried to take a step back to find a way to bring everybody together on this and leaving this up to the district to look at this information and bring it back and show the community that we did the leg work on it and that this model
099may be exactly what we end up with. I think if we don't do that, I think the community is going to feel that we didn't do the job of looking into what we feel is best, absolutely best. And so again, it doesn't pigeon hole us into one particular thing. So what is our process for deciding what model? Well, that is going to be up to Dr. Hill the board asking him the question. So um we will definitely pull together um a group of folks. I I mean Katie will be in involved in that. Um folks at the campus as well um to have that discussion. You know I think it could look a lot of different ways. The the resolution in front of you it specifies what services have to be provided there. So then
100I think we need to have a discussion with that group around um how can we make sure that those services are provided within the school. If through that discussion um we decide that um a schoolbased health center model is the right route to go then that's the the route we would move towards. Um but yeah, I honestly I have we have not been through this process um outside of what we established at central already. So um I would need to pull folks together ideally tomorrow um and start having that conversation around how do we explore this. But what exactly I I don't understand what exactly you're exploring. That's what I just don't understand. Yeah, I the way I'm reading this is that we would look at all the ways that we could possibly offer um
101where's the line in there? Uh medical, mental, health, and dental services at Grand Junction High School through a health center. Um you know, I'm I'm not an expert in this area, so I don't know if there are other um models out there that could be um explored. So, and then they were going to look at one one big concern has been the location of the clinic. So, it would be established on the campus somewhere. So they were going to put the committee together to look at whether inside the school was best or out or or outside on somewhere on the campus. So the committee with at Dr. Hill's discretion is going to look at all of those options and then and and move forward with that. So I think the board can express our concerns
102and what we'd like for them to look at and then we need to just hand it over to the district to do the work. Um, so two things there. Definitely dig into the location in a second, but so are we saying establish an integrated health center or are we not saying an integrated health center? I'm I don't want to. If you want to if the board wants to change language in this resolution, we can we can change that lang. It doesn't say that now. Okay. I definitely propose that we change it to say establishing an integrated health center. But what are medical services? What does that mean? It's what they preferred now. It's what we pretty much do now. Well, but that's specifically for a school-based health center. That's what defines those medical services. So,
103if we're just saying general medical services, what does that mean? And how would we um that's a universe of um care that again we would be duplicating what the state has done in deciding what care students need in these schools and then the you know decades of data for what that care looks like. So if we're just saying general medical services that's different. If we're saying school-based health center medical services then we then that's what we're saying. But it I if we're not saying schoolbased health center medical services, then what are the medical services that this board is directing this district to pursue? There's only two MRI machines in town. Do we need another MRI? Like what does that mean? How can how do we vote on something where like there's no diff what is
104a medical service? If it's if it's limited to the bounds of a school-based health center, then we all know what that means. If if I could interject, I I think, and forgive me if I'm wrong, or misrepresenting our group, I I think the five of us have been going around in circles on this for quite some time. And I I think there's been a recognition that that not only is not our job to get into the the the details, right? I think we've been misguided, all of us, to get into parts that we never do for anything else in our district. We when we contracted out for Grand Junction High School, we did not get into the details about what everything that was going to be done along with other things we've done. I think
105what we have done over these many months is convey concerns and questions uh that that we all have collectively and and I think there's been a sense with this resolution that let's pass this on to Dr. Hill and his team as our superintendent, our leader to address the issues, not only what he's hearing in the community at Grand Junction High School and from the five of us. And what I want to make sure more than the the the exact wording is do you feel limited, Dr. Hill, in what your task is if it's called whatever we call it? Do you feel limited in you know my my sense is right we're not putting you on spot you have a pretty good idea what this board is asking for what the community is asking for what's
106been successful at central what the junction community wants do do you feel limited by whatever we put up there if it's integrated or not integrated or school-based or not schoolbased do you feel you can do your job with whatever we put up there so I I don't I wouldn't say feel limited, but like I said, if there's I interpreted the second to last paragraph those services being integrated, but if it helps to clarify um we we can always add language in there to say integrated services including um yeah, I'm I'm trying to think of how to word it in a way that brings it all together. Um so I don't feel it limits, but I also want to make sure we're addressing well and and Dr. Shulties, if I'm misrepresenting you, please correct me. I
107I I think and and I have apprehensions as well that that I don't want to through some channel divert what we're what I believe we're all trying to get and that is services for our kids and our staff and our families at Grand Junction High School. As simple as that. And not try to make it more complicated than it is because there's a lot of work to find out what's what's going to be best. what's we have a model. Thank goodness it's working. We'd be negligent not not to to look at that as a template for success. Um and so so I I think what if I'm hearing you right, you don't want us to go down the path where you're going to you and your team come up with something that is so contrary
108to what we are are envisioning happening. You see I'm is am I right Dr. Schulty? Is that kind of the concern? I'm going to I'm just going to say this more clearly. What I'm concerned about is that we're using the term medical services to indicate to mean one thing to half of us and another thing to the other half of us. And so if we don't define that, I am concerned that we are using language to hide our intent. So, so if we were just to change sorry if we were just to change medical services to include behavioral medical and dental so but I think if if I was tasked with finding medical services um I would either look to a school-based health center model to understand what that is or I wouldn't and so
109again my question is what does medical mean to us to me it means the medical ser services provided by a schoolbased health center. And if it does not if we're if we are using that language to not provide some of those services, we need to be clear about what that means to us. Couldn't we just call it primary care medical services? I mean, I think that's exactly what you're doing is you're kind of that first point of entry like you would going to a primary care doctor and if there is another specialist or something needed, you guys are referring them. So, I think primary care defines what those medical services would be. We are really wrapping ourselves in knots to avoid saying a school-based health center. And I and it's confusing to me. Why don't
110Why don't you just call it a wellness center? Like it's a wellness center. So just call it what that's what central is. Central doesn't say students base. It just says student warrior wellness center. So we just call it tiger wellness center or call whatever you want to call it. But it's a wellness center, right? Or establish a health wellness center. I mean, I don't So I again I it's doctor but it's not medical doctor uh Hill. So um so I'm just trying to I'm trying to wrap my head around what even when y'all put medical on the stats the data we got um was around so the the number one requested service at um central was around nutrition and physical activity counseling BMI common cold and virus issues. And then there's um uh blood pressure
111management, sports physicals, STI testing, reproductive health education, immunization counseling, injuries, gastrointestinal issues, concussion, asthma, vision changes, disturbances, abnormal management of infections. Those were the items that were provided to us from the um the work that's been done at the Warrior Wellness Center. So, I'm just trying to figure out a way to like I hear what you're saying. So um it's I are you I feel like what you're saying is like medical services could mean a million things also in addition to this. So is the concern that we would some of those okay yeah but yeah I mean all of the above right it means nothing. It's a universe of services and it would be okay to say primary care because that's exactly what it is because when you go to a primary care doctor they
112don't have a list of services. You just know what you're going to a primary care physician for. So if you change the language to say establishes a health center that provides primary care services, mental and you know dental primary care medical mental and dental services, you are getting the litany of medical services that are included in a school-based health center if not maybe even more. Okay. So um I mean so there you there you have your definition because who's going to argue with primary care? Okay. Right. Okay. So an integrated integrated health center that provides primary care based medical services. So an integrated establishing an integrated health center that provides primary care medical primary you can put medical parenthesy primary care parenthesy mental and dental services that and so there is your definition that we
113intended to be integrated services and when we're talking about medical we're talking about that you walk into a doctor's office. I I also not, you know, looking at this and I'm looking at Stephen, um I wonder if a better term besides mental would be um behavioral health because that's the term that's being used. Okay. You may speak. Well, since we're modifying which is fine and it would we came up with mental because I think it was pulled from the last one but behavior services behavioral health behavioral health services are probably even more in you know identifying rather than just mental health services. So I agree with Doug. I think at a certain point um this just outlines the district with how to move forward and I think individually you know we all meet with Dr.
114Hill, we can express maybe some different things that we would we want them to um explore, but I I mean I think this is a resolution that gets this board all on the same page. And so I just think that, you know, we we should avoid getting into the weeds too much on this and then we've hired Dr. Hill, he's the CEO of the district and we just charge him with this and then he goes and does the work. And I think then you need to move to amend the language to the way you want this resolution and then we need a second and then you need to vote at least to amend that language. So would it say therefore be it resolved the board of education hereby wishes to proceed with establishing a health
115center an integrated health center that provides primary care medical services behavioral health and dental services? I think we could say Yeah, you could say an integrated health center or a health center that provides integrated health services. Yeah. Um Okay. So, I move to amend the link against Bridget can get that. Okay. Um so I move to amend this resolution to say um uh in the first therefore paragraph um to proceed with a with establishing an integrated health center that provides primary medical primary care medical services behavioral health and dental services. Okay. Okay. I have that. So, what we'll do at the time that you go to vote on the resolution if I have a second a second. Well, we're not to the We're not doing that yet. We can't even get that part done. Okay.
116Motion to We're ready to get that part done. Well, no. The problem is is we have a motion and second on the floor. So, you can table it to be voted on later in the agenda and there's no discussion with the tableling. So we can move to table it to vote per the um agenda and then we can we can get the revised agenda and we can move with that if if I do show will motion and carry seconded. Yeah. Okay. Um I think that the other thing we haven't discussed is just um putting it on the campus and I think I just want to understand how that is going to be determined the location. Um yeah, so I talked to um to Clint actually today um and similar to what I mentioned earlier, we
117want to pull together um uh Clint um administration from the school um and then anybody that's currently working on um the construction project at Junction to just look at all the options that are available. I don't even know what all those are uh anymore, but what are the options that are available to have it on campus? um and then weigh pros and cons and figure out what's the best location for it. So, we do know that we have a space in the design um of the new Grand Junction High School to to place it there. Um there's also been um ideas thrown out around um there's a 700 building that we're saving. Right now, it's being the design work has gone into my understanding um to have it be a like a fieldhouse kind of
118space. Um but is that a is what are the pros and cons of that? Um, you know, there was a a time when we were talking about a building that was across the street that's still technically part of the school campus. Um, but I know I've heard concerns um uh about that as well. And so I just think some due diligence would just be so we sit down and and weigh all the pros and cons of that and then just make a decision on where we think the best location would be for school um a health center um at Grand Junction High School um that takes into account access, safety, all those things. So yeah. And would that be that would be you and Clint or would that go back to the committee the Grand
119Junction High School? So I I it's a good question. I'm envisioning at least for the discussion around the location I want to involve um admin at the building as well because they're going to be the ones um living with it every day. And like I said, I I need somebody I need Clint's help on that, but somebody from um either um our owners rep or somebody that's currently working on the project um to just kind of talk about what that's going to look like um once the actual project's done or even during the construction of the project. So, we have to remember that we have a whole year where um we're still going to be tearing down another building. So, I just think having an opportunity to have those conversations. I haven't had those conversations,
120but um and look at all the options and and and and just make a decision on where we think it's best. So, can I request that um either the city, the county, or RTPO be um consulted about all of the pedestrian wrecks on Fifth Street if you're considering putting it in that out building? And I think um you know, in the spirit of also this collaboration, um you know, we have about 24% that absolutely said no to the clinic and then there was about six or 7% that said they were uncertain. So I would just like to ask that there's um some balanced voice when we're we're going to this just so that everybody feels that they've been heard um you know through the process I mean from staff and parents um at junction. All
121right. So so there's a motion and second on the floor. We're still in discussion. So there can be further discussion or if you want to wait then this needs to be tabled. So I motion to table table the uh the motion I made table the vote till later in the agenda. Yes. Okay. So we have is there a second? Second. Okay. All right. We'll take the vote. Okay. Mrs. Heis. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Miss LMA. Yes, Mr. Levenson. Yes, Dr. Sultties. Yes. All right, Dr. Hill, were there was there anything else? No, I just again, thanks to Rosa and Stephen and Katie uh and and Tammy for um all you are doing at the Warrior Wellness Center and thanks for being here tonight. Um I I told you before I was trying to keep y'all
122out of it, but um but I thank y'all for being here. So, thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Um, does the board need a quick break? I don't know how many we have um to speak. Okay, we'll take a quick So, and I and I just want to mention something too because we've we've had this conversation. So, um we we value public comment. We value public um input. Um, but we also value um safety of our board members and and um and so I'm just I'm requesting uh we don't really have like a normal in a normal boardroom you have kind of a dis and um there's a there's a clear for lack of a better term separation. I'm trying to be tactful in the way I say this but um for the
123the interest of everybody in the room I'm asking that folks don't come beyond uh these tables over here. We have sometimes folks that want to go up and talk to Bridget. want to go up talk to individual board members and um I think it's just probably best uh interest of everybody if we just establish that we're not going to have people coming beyond these tables that this board has been more open to hearing feedback than than anybody and so you have multiple ways you can get a hold of board members um but I'm just asking that we respect um their space and safety. So is that all good? All right. Thank you'all. All right, we are going to get started back up here. If you can find your seats, please. This is where I need
124my gavl. Will everybody please take your seats, please? Everybody take your seats so we can get going. Thank you. All right, we are now going to move into the audience comments portion of our meeting. So um please just be mindful um of your neighbors if they're trying to listen to the board meeting. So, if you want to have a conversation with your neighbor next to you, we ask that you just step out into the lobby um because a lot of people come to listen to um everything happening at the board meeting. Also, um we know there's a lot of people who want to comment on the clinic this evening. We just ask um to try to get through everybody on the list. If somebody's come up and said something that you already agree to, um
125please just try to avoid duplicatus comment. So, you can say, "I agree with what's been previously said." and then you can add your flavor to it. Um but that'll just help um expedite things because we would like to get through everybody on the list. So um Director Jones will take it away. You have the timer here um for the 3 minutes. And is the sound working this time? Okay. So you'll also get a little warning um ding uh when you have 30 seconds left. So then you know to wrap up and then there'll be one long tone um when your time is up and you will be cut off just because we want to try to get through everybody this evening. So and as as we're speaking um we are okay with you know you
126you're clapping if you agree with something somebody says but make sure no derogatory comments, no booing, no things like that and just be like you know be mindful. Um so I'm going to give up first up and uh on deck. So first up we have Tom Aker and on deck we have Miss Ricky Howie. Okay. Thank you, members of the board. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. I'm speaking in favor of the school H uh the the school-based health center. Uh I'm a professor ameritus of Spanish from uh Grand Junction, excuse me, from Mesa, uh Colorado Mesa University. And I'm also one of the founding members of the dual immersion academy. and I also am president of Hispanic Affairs Project Board. Um, in the census reporter, the district has um a a population of 9.6%
127that live below poverty and also 9% mobility rate, which means 9% of our community members and that those are the students are moving uh every year. They've moved in the last year. So this uh 12% children in poverty is um a demographic that the this clinic would definitely be serving where they will likely not have access to services otherwise. Um we should also mention that 4% of the span of the students speak Spanish at home. um in working with Spanish-sp speakaking students at Colorado Mesa University, there's mention of um of uh intergenerational trauma um that has occurred as a result of their lived experiences. And so I think the behavioral component in this center would be really important for that demographic and as your speakers already mentioned for um other demographics as well. So thank
128you for the time to give you my perspective. Thank you. Up next we have Ricky Howy and on deck Miss Jennifer Reyes. Good evening. Um the materials list did not go up on the website until sometime between 3:30 and 4:00 this afternoon. What that means is that anyone who's interested in talking about any of the items on the agenda below the cons uh below the consent agenda. Didn't have enough time to read that material. The doors didn't open till quarter to 5 and the materials were laid out along the back. But again, for anyone who wanted to speak on any of those items, we did not have enough time to digest the budget or any of the policy changes. I am suggesting that you do not vote on any of those items and plan them
129for another meeting. The second item I'd like to mention is a library policy. Your library material selection has four legal references at the bottom. One of those references has been deleted from the statutes. Not just that, but the whole category. Um, one of the other references has to do with expulsion and bullying. Uh, has nothing to do with the library. The first reference is as I say night follows day two follows one we get the statute for number two 22-1-104 parents two but the previous section talks about the requirement for a high school graduate to include clude uh sections on LGBTQ, lesbian, uh African-American studies, uh African Asia, I mean American Asian studies and those are things while I might agree with the study of them, a lot of people don't. So by ignoring the
130basic idea of that reference um I think it was deceitful and I'd also like to uh mention that the necessity to have a legal reference is emphasized by the use of the beginning fund balance where at the very beginning. It states the Colorado uh state regul statute. Thank you very much. Thank you, Miss Howie. [Applause] Up now we have Miss Jennifer Reyes and on deck, Jose Chavez. Good afternoon, distinguished board. It's an honor to be here today. My name is Jennifer Reyes and I am a single mother. I'm a daughter of immigrants and I'm raising my children here in Grand Junction. a school-based health center would absolutely bene benefit my children. I live in the 81506 area code and I will have children going to that high school. The reason that I think that you
131should call it a school-based health center is because there are 70 others in the state. It's already proven. We're not here to create ideas. It's already done. And additionally, there's special funding that goes limited to the school-based um health clinics. So, I do believe that that's something you should look at. Why is that important? I grew up in poverty. I grew up in a single apartment up until I was 18. And now I don't live that way, but I absolutely understand both sides. I am a Latino single woman. I represent 12% of the students in your district. We have a really hard time. Now, I'm a business owner and I carry a P&L and a balance sheet, but that's not the case when I lived with my parents. Even though they gave me all the
132love that they could, poverty is not something that you can fix away with a label and it's not something that you can give transportation to. If a person needs to go to a health center, you just can't do that. When you've lived in poverty, you understand you don't have access. Schoolbased health centers give access. Please, please consider that. I represent a large silent majority that you don't see here and that will change by 2042. Thank you all for your [Applause] attention. Up next we have Jose Chavez and on deck uh Mila Steven. Hello all. Um, I'm here to support Marillac having a school-based healthc care center at Junction High School. And this is why one, Marilac was willing to pay rent for having a space at Grand High School so they can assist our youth
133with their health needs. School-based health centers are positive resource for students because regular doctor visits tend to be open mostly during school hours when the parents are at work. Parents tend to miss work and their child have to miss school when they are needing to needing to see a doctor. School-based clinics help parents provide their child with quality health health care. Their child does not need to miss a large portion of their school day, which helps the student to stay focused on their on their schoolwork, and their parent does not have to miss a day of work. School-based clinics are able to offer prevention and screening services for students. They're able to spot and treat mental health concerns. They're able to assist students with diabetes, ADHD, and anxiety. They are able to care for students
134often with input from teachers who know the students well. School-based health clinics goal is to keep students healthy and in school so they will be able to achieve their full potential. They are also able to assist students to achieve health uh the equity. They are able to work with school administrators, school nurses, teachers and support staff to ensure the school health partnership will meet the students needs. If we are to have a shared vision to improve all student success, then we must support school-based health centers at our schools. If we look at location, which you were speaking about, I am a retired probation officer and parole officer. Most of my most of my kids that I work with had trauma and they had anxiety and they were and had had substance abuse issues. If you
135do not have your center that is in the school, you have it a block away. you'll never see that child again. They will just walk and continue walking away. If you care for them, you're going to keep them in the school. And if you care about kids, you're going to have school-based mental health care. But I believe that a lot of my youth that I was treating as a pole officer may not have been there if they were able to receive some type of mental health care within the school district, which they did not receive. Thank you. Up now we have Miss Mila Steven and on deck Charlotte Allen. Hello. Uh my name is Mila Steon. I'm from Grand Junction and I go to Palisate High School. I'm also a West Slope Youth Voice intern
136which is a nonpartisan studentledd organization for student issues and advocating to them to our elected officials. And I would like to start by first thanking Director Jones for his initiative in reintroducing this extremely important issue of school-based health centers to the board. We appreciate what you are doing for our students. I would also like to thank Dr. Dr. Schulty's for her pride month statement. Now, I would like to look at some of the data behind why we believe that supporting school-based health centers is the best option for our students. First, I would like to look at the national benefits that we see from the 2584 current school-based health centers in the United States. Now, according to county health ratings in data from 2023, school-based health centers provide a medical home for students who are not
137otherwise have access to care. And according to the National Health Institution, student school-based health centers have been associated with improved academic outcomes including improved GPA and improved attendance in students. However, it is also important to look at our district specifically and for this I look to uh Central High School's Warrior Wellness Center. Specifically, data provided directly from this health center. It was found that school-based health health centers have been shown to reduce suicide rates in student populations by 30%. And Central High School is proud to report that they have not reported a single student suicide since the introduction of the program in August of 2020. Other schools in the valley cannot say the same thing. Also looking at some data from Central's warrior wellness program, we can see that has seen over 2,000 stu students,
138nearly 5,000 visits with 3,000 visits for physical health problems and nearly 2,000 for mental and behavioral health reasons. The these are services that are performed and benefit directly to our students. Now, if this is not enough to convince you why a school-based health center is an integral part of our community and our school, I would also like to look at some institutes that support school-based health centers. Most namely, the American Academy of Pediatrics, which recommends them as a safety net health care, and the American Public Health Association, which endorses student-based health center as a key mechanism through which gun violence prevention can take place. For all these reasons, we as a group, West Slope Youth Voice, stand in support of placing a school-based health center in Grand Junction High School and hope that you too
139can see the clear direct student health benefits of these centers. Thank you. Okay, up next we have Miss Charlotte Allen. And on deck we have Chris Oak. Hello, I'm Charlotte Allen. I'm also a student in your district. I am going to be a senior at Paliside High School. And as a high school student, I've seen so many issues with student health centers. They are so important for students to be able to receive physical, mental, and dental healthcare. So many students that I see and personally know don't have the ability to get health care when they need it. A school-based health center on campus allows students to be able to receive the treatment that they need when they need it, where they need it. I would also like to thank director Jones for reintroducing this as
140an issue for the school board. I would also like to thank Dr. Schulties and director Levenson for continual support of the schoolbased health clinic. These these health clinics are so important for students and one of the main things that's important for them is the location. An off-campus school-based health clinic is not useful to students. It's hard enough for me most days to get a pass to go to the bathroom which is down the hall from my class or even across the hallway from my class. There's a lot of days where it's even difficult just to do that. So, getting a pass to go off-campus across a major road to a health clinic may be impossible for some students. It's also difficult for students to address that they need to go to a health clinic specifically
141for mental health care. Sometimes it's difficult for a student to admit that they're in crisis and that they need to go seek help. And it's even harder for a student to do that when they have to cross a major roadway to receive necessary care for them. Another thing that's been an issue for me with the discussions around the health clinic are student involvement. Multiple different times, concerns about the health clinic have been brought up and need to be discussed with parents and staff members. Yet, students are the ones who this most directly affects. This affects a student's access to health care and behavioral healthcare and dental dental care. Students need to be included in these conversations about why health clinics are important and you need to hear from students directly about why these are important
142and how much of an impact they have for students. It's important for me as a student to feel supported by my district and it's hard to do that when I see push back for an onampus school-based health center. Another issue I've had is with the bill language of this resolution. The bill language makes it seem as if this is not as pre as much of a pressing issue as it is. And it also makes it seem that the school board does not want to continue working on having this health clinic on campus and paid for by Mirac has already funded this clinic for students and students have expressed their interest in having a clinic and how important it is for them to get healthcare. It's important to me that I recognize that the school board
143is supporting student issues and listening to them about what they want and why it's important to them. Thank you. Up next we have Chris Hul and on deck Ruth Kenn. Thank you. Um, thank you all for your the presentation today because I have learned a lot and some of my concerns were addressed. So, I'm happy about that. The one thing that I think I just want to bring up is um I was glad for the discussion about semantics, I guess, but also I just it's my opinion that we never really had a choice with this. there was only the one option and I think did voters get a chance to you know express their opinion in this too because that's what it's all about. We all need to have choices and to make our own
144decisions on this and give our input on that. I'm not opposed to health care for students at all. I think it's greatly needed and I know everybody's heart is in the same place with this here. um as is mine. I think everybody here feels that way too. It's just the form of it, but or what the the semantics of it, the the definition of it. How does it, you know, what are the processes that would entail with this? And I just think that it would be a good thing if there was more discussion on that, more time to because I would like I would like I mean I like to have make my own decisions, but I would like to have options. If I go to a doctor and I have concerns, I say, "What
145can I do? What are my options?" And my doctor will give me the options, but he's not going to make the decision for me. I have to make it myself. And so, I would just encourage and hope that you would give it some time to present the other options. So, I'm kind of in agreement with, you know, that discussion that you all had. So, thanks [Applause] Hey, up now we have Miss Ruth Kennet and on deck Shellini Sharan. Hello fellow board members and superintendent Hill. Uh, I am here not to condemn or condone, but I have some questions that I realize um nothing will be settled answered here tonight, but I still want to present them for food for thought. Um, we were to have a meeting with Mr. Jones uh through Mesa Valley Compass.
146We tried to get things together. Somehow or another, it never did work. So, I'm going to ask these questions to you just for food of thought. Recently, the new members of the school board have come under fire. One of the accusations is that you've turned over the biggest decisions on the board to outside interests and fringe extremists who don't represent Mesa County families. What is your opinion? The Daily Sentinel recently ran an article outlining a complaint that had been filed with the Colorado State Attorney General's Office, naming you, uh, Will Jones, Andrea Hutz, Angela Lima, and Superintendent Brian Hill, citing a breach of contract and abuse of board funds, particularly relating to the 3-2 vote on the board in March to reject the Marillac Schoolb-based health center as part of the new Grand Junction High
147School building. What is your reaction to the complaint that was filed? Do you believe that the board issue was as presented to voters specifically included the Marilac Clinic Health Center? Yes or no? Was there a bidding process for the health clinic? If so, who were the competing companies and how was the bid awarded? Is there also a question there is is there also a question regarding a violation of the Taber Act if the health clinic is now added inside the school? Initially, you opposed the clinic to being added to Grand Junction High School. Why did you oppose it? And how do you feel at this point? And why? And do you see any alternatives that may be at least partially satisfactory to both sides? Is it true that the Marillet Clinic would lose the grant
148money they were awarded if the clinic on the property owned by the district, such as the 800 building, but not within the new school? These questions to me are quite important. It's not that I'm against any health clinic. I'm not. I think that it is needed. I do believe that we have health issues. I do believe we have mental health issues not just for the students but for the adults. And the final thing I wanted to ask is um lost my train of thought. Sorry about that. Um if that school or that clinic is based within the high school, what happens the other three months out of the year to these people when that school is closed? We've got a a gap here. So, you know, I'm just interested in that. Thank you, folks. [Applause]
149All righty. Up next, we have Shelini Sharon and on deck, Tom Sharon. I sent you guys all information on the Maril clinic and the school books. So, I hope you guys read it. And um I'm focused on the the lies that have been given to the public. First of all, when we voted for the um school to be built, it Maril Clinic was not included in that voting. And I don't appreciate being lied to. Will, I really appreciate you being honest and your feelings about um of having a clinic and all that. And we do need health care for the kids. But my concern is why are you just focusing on one child? Why aren't you focusing on the entire family? You can't fix that child unless the whole family is fixed. That's why I
150would rather have the clinic on not inside the school building, but across the street so the entire family can use it and benefit the whole community, not just one child. And um so the other issue I have is another lie by the CEO of Marilac Clinic. I she personally lied to me when she said that um they couldn't have it across the street because they wouldn't get the grant money that uh Nora who is has a lawsuit against Marilac Clinic stated that yes they could have it um there. So, please focus on the kids and the entire family, not just on one child. Okay. Thank you. Up next, we have Tom Sharon. And on deck, Pete Hosberg. Okay. Uh there's an old quote, when you see a situation you don't understand, look for the financial
151interest. In March, the school board voted against putting the clinic inside the new high school. At that time, the board offered Marilac the alternative to locate across the street on school property. This was a valid offer because according to Colorado Revised Statutes 25-20.5-502, school-based health center means a clinic established and operated within a public school building or on public school property by the school district. There was a lot of misunderstanding at that time. I heard Marilac claimed they couldn't get the grant money if the clinic was outside the school, but that was not correct. So, I looked online and on Marilac's own website was a quote from their CEO, K. Ramachandran. Due to the fact that privacy, safety, and walk-in accessibility are so important for students as best practices for any school-based health center, that
152option was unfortunately ruled out. So, Merillac refused to cross the street because it wasn't the best practice. So, let me see. D-51 requires any kids living within three miles of a school to walk, but a high schooler can't walk across the street. Are you kidding me? And there's another saying, the perfect is the enemy of the good. Marilac walked away from a good solution from the community so that they could hold out for their best practice. And I wondered why was that? And I went back to my first saying, when you see a situation you don't understand, look for the financial interest. So I looked at the originalou sign between 50 D51 and Marilact and it says it'd be a district's responsibility to renovate and provide a clinic space rentree. So no rent. The district
153would be responsible for all utilities, free telephones, internet access, janitorial services, routine maintenance, security and IT support. And the school principal would be a liaison between the school and the school-based health clinic and planning and problem solving issues concerning the schoolbased health clinic. So there's a huge financial incentive for Marilac to insist on being inside the school. It isn't for the welfare of the students. It's for the welfare of Marilax's profits. This whole effort to put the clinic inside the school is a deception. The district offered a viable solution to locate across the street, which in addition to being accessible for students, could also be accessible to the community. A compromise which could be a win-win for all. It's also highly suspicious that pouring of the concrete of the clinic site has been delayed and
154that the CFO for CFI construction, Mr. Clay Marshall, just happens to sit on a Marillac board. These financial entanglements and conflicts of interest don't look good. Community access and support favor putting the clinic across the street just as D51 offered. But if the board goes ahead and votes to put the clinic inside the high school, voters will remember that the next time you present a school bond issue looking for money. I'll just point out also the survey that you all referenced about the 70% support for the clinic from D51 families. Well, that school bond went out to the whole community, not just school families. So, it got voted for the clinic only, but that was the whole community. You're just surveying D51. So, any sir, hey, up now we have Peter Hosberg and on deck
155Sarah Fletcher. So, thank you board. Nice to see you all. So, this to me seems like deja vu all over again. Um, a year ago, last March, we reviewed a lot of these surveys. Um, and we reviewed the we knocked down the data and a lot of what we were told was true turned out not to be. So, it seems to me there's more questions than answers even after we've been through all of this. To shine some sunshine on the questions will hopefully provide solid answers. And with that said, I hopefully would ask the board to do as they've done with the school closure debate and that's to form a research committee including citizens with students and non- students. Here are some questions that I have. When and why has D-51 decided it's a good
156idea to be in the medical clinic business? If you look at the heading of your resolution, it said D-51 school board. It didn't say D-51 medical board. I think you should stay in your lane. Why does a clinic need to be in the high school? Well, we just heard why. And it um and and we also heard earlier that at some point it's the plan for these clinics to be in all of D51 schools. And will family members of the student have access to those clinics? If the family members are allowed to use the clinics, will that create additional security issues in the schools? And will D-51 be liable for medical decisions gone wrong? Other issues needing to be addressed, and some people have already touched on it, is one, the responsibility that you have
157to the voters. when we passed the bond issue and revoting on a previously approved item. I believe you guys work under Robert's rules of order and that procedure needs to be followed. Conflicts of interest which we just heard about and how is this going to be affected by TABER which we also just heard about. And the other issue that you guys addressed quite frequently is the declining enrollment in D-51 schools. And a lot of that is based on parents that don't trust the school district anymore and the decisions that are being made. Thank you for your time. [Applause] All right, up next we have Miss Sarah Fletcher and on deck Christy Anderson. Good evening. Um, I'd like to start things out with something positive. I just I saw the talk about the summer school and
158my son is in the summer school program and it's been a very positive program for him and I appreciate the district getting him over the hump because he has a little issue with reading. So, thank you for that. Um so I have a prepared statement and um because I do feel that transparency matters, data matters, and ethics matter. So I'm going to read what I have written here. At a at a meeting earlier this year, an FCI representative told the board there was a construction deadline. Then after the board voted not to include the clinic in the school, I was under the impression that the concrete would then be poured and that part of the building would then be worked on to prepare for other purposes yet to be determined because of that deadline. If
159construction would have been performed after the last resolution as FCI had said, then that portion of the building would already be part partly finished. At the last meeting, the board was told there was no deadline on construction, which is a question in my mind. When the re when researching the schoolboard health center at Central High School ran by um ran by Marilac Health earlier this year, I actually found that the CFO of FCI Construction is on the board of Marilac Health, which was also me mentioned. Um my my concern is is the the fact that FCI could have possibly purposely delayed the construction and and what kind of conflict of interest that is, what kind of implication that that would be on the board um to have this this relationship um especially because Marilac is
160a nonprofit and and what kind of [Music] um what kind of recourse would there be with their nonprofit status. Um, and and as as a taxpaying citizen, I'm asking the board to look into this conflict of interest and the potential manipulation of this process by one of the Marilac board members. Thank you. [Applause] Righty. Up next, we have Miss Christy Anderson. And on deck, I'm butcher this like crazy. Mia Del Vegas Decker. First, I just want to thank you for listening to everybody. Um, I had this great narrative, but a lot of people have already talked about it. I want to go back to the voters. A lot of voters feel hoodwinkedked by this. Um, it was not transparent in the ballot. And I've been in this district for a long time. We've been through
161a lot. We've had to build trust. And we will continue to have to build trust. And it could be harder. Um, isn't it a little puzzling and interesting to note that Marilac gave an ultimatum? They were not at all in the business of working together or compromising. I want to go back to that kids walking across the street. We have children walking across the street on Fifth every day at Grand Junction High School for school. So, I don't I don't understand that part of it. Don't we call that bullying? Um, some of the conversations by some could be considered bullying. not willing to negotiate or even have discussions. Why not community? St. Mary's, Cedar Point. Um, we have few districts, 70 out of I don't know what the total districts are in the state of
162Colorado, but that's pretty small. Um, to those that call myself and others with the same thinking fear-mongerers or fringe voices, we are anything but. We are competent principled parents. I'm a teacher community that have we understand and we are voters and we are very aware of data and how crucial it is in making decisions that will have a lasting effect. Do your research. Things are happening around us. People are done with government overreach. They're our kids. It is a myopic view to only focus on high school students. I sit here as an elementary school teacher and I think we continually say early intervention, but we're not putting any extra resources at our elementary or middle school levels, but we will have two clinics at the high school level that cut families out in a lot
163of cases. Do your research. We can all agree that our students need mental help. I see it every day. Why not have therapists within every single school in our district? In conclusion, unfortunately, it looks like the clinic will be moving ahead. First, I want to commend you, Dr. Hill, and your district team on the committee work surrounding the consolidation. We appreciate the in-depth and step-by-step communication as you went along. And our ask is the same. So, I'm one person, but I'm speaking for many. I can tell you that. Um, we ask and we implore you to create a committee that will have equitable voices. Doctors that are for the clinic and against the clinic, students that are for the clinic and against the clinic, community members that are for the clinic and against the clinic,
164staff members that are for the clinic and against the clinic. We need all voices heard, and our hope is for equitable voices so that everyone will feel like what District 51 is doing is best for kids. [Applause] All righty. Up next we have Maya. I'm just going to say Decker. And on deck is Justin Wford. Good evening members of School District 51 Board of Education. I would like to open with a show of gratitude for letting me speak to you tonight and to director Jones for reintroducing this topic. My name is Mia Devie Decker, a student a senior at Palisade High School and an intern at West Beeth voice and I will be speaking on behalf of Nathaniel Jones, a student at Central. Having only attended Central High School, I am very aware of the
165services provided there and have a good sense of the ones that excel in their mission. Out of the many services provided, the one me and many other students feel is the most beneficial to the students and staff at Central High School is the Warrior Wellness Center. As you are all aware, the be Warrior Wellness Center offers medical, dental, and behavioral health services to the students and personnel at Central High School. Having the Warrior Wellness Center is a massive benefit to the well-being of staff and students. The Warrior Wellness Center is good and all, however, the reason I'm here tonight is to advocate for the Grand Junction High School equivalent. While you all bicker and argue on whether you should implement a wellness center in Grand Junction High School, hundreds of kids at Junction go without
166healthcare. Hundreds of kids go without dental care. Hundreds of kids battle with mental health. My generation, the generation in your schools right now, is at the forefront of one of the largest mental health crises in the nation. 42% of my generation is diagnosed with some sort of mental health condition affecting them in their day-to-day lives. At Central, the wellness center has a licensed behavioral health prof professional and have and I have no doubt in my mind that the service being free and accessible has helped people cope and work through some of their issues. I've talked to multiple students at Central who have utilized a mental health services provided and the majority of them have told me how much of a help it is having such an accessible resource right in their school. Grand Junction High
167School would benefit from the mental health resource and the healthc care services. At central, the medical service is the most used. Over the years, there have been thousands of visits to the medical sector of the warrior warrior wellness center. There have also been people who have received higher quality and more informed medical care at the wellness center than at traditional doctor's office. I have a friend who got mono last year who was told at a traditional doctor's office that she just had a common cold. However, when she went to the wellness center after her symptoms worsened, they tested her for mono and were able to confirm she had it, which allowed her to treat it properly. All of it was free for her, by the way. Um, which is an incredibly important point as 66%
168of all individuals who went to the wellness center either had a Medicaid or CHP health insurance. While Central may have higher percentage of students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch, it's not by much. With Central having 49% of students eligible and Junction having 41% eligible. With free and reduced health lunch numbers this close to each other, it is incredibly likely that the amount of students with Medicaid or CHP health insurance is within a similar margin. A wellness center in Grand Junction High School would give these children easier and higher quality access to Medicare. Um, I understand some board members want a slow and in-depth review, but it's important. Thank you. Okay, up next we have Justin Whiteford. And on deck, Miss Diane Becker. Hello. My name is Justin Whiteford, school teacher at Grand
169Junction High School. I'm here with roughly 40 parents, students, and staff. And we want to say thank you. First of all, these students tonight as both a teacher and as a parent, they're stunning. I think uh they're they're amazing. So, thank you. Thank you. We also want to thank you. I know it's been a couple weeks. It's been tough. We appreciate your dedication, your commitment to us. We just want everyone to know that Junction appreciates this. We do. We value that this room is fighting for us. You know, we value that you're fighting for our kids and and we want you to know that. So before the night ends, the Tigers are saying, you know, you your strength is not your differences, it's your similarities. And I know in my heart something's going to pass
170tonight. And so I would say in a little over a year and a little over a year, we're going to be going to a brand new building. Well, if you couple that with a health clinic, I mean, it is proud. It's exciting to be a Tiger. And and I'll say this, when you're a teacher and you know that your building is in good health and you know that your students are getting good health, that's all you need. You can do your job. And so to eliminate those stresses, to eliminate those factors allows us to do an exceptional job. And we value that. We appreciate that. And we know that in the end, everyone in this room is for kids. Both sides. I'm hearing everyone's for kids in a clinic. It's how it works and how
171it operates. And I think that that proposal is perfect. It addresses a win-win to have hopefully in a minute here a 50- vote. And my god, it is a role model for our kids that no matter our differences, again, our strengths can get us through this. So, as Tigers, we thank you. Okay, up next we have Miss Diane Baker and on deck, Miss Janet Drummond. Hello. I just want to thank all of you guys for all the work you do and I know it's a lot. I can't even imagine. I'm changing subjects. I'm I want to say that I agree with Shelini and Tom and um Christy and some of the others. So, pretty much I don't want to reiterate all what they said. Um, the other thing I want to say is don't give
172up on the progress made in school district 51. The recall effort underway in school district 51 is an attempt to by far to of by the far left to regain control. For too long, the far-left and reunions have dominated our schoolboard elections and wielded disproportionate influence. However, balance was partially restored in the last election when some sensible parents stepped up and voted for change. These parents were tired of the fear-mongering tactics employed by unions, particularly regarding CO 19 and school closures. Unfortunately, seeking to regain this hold on the district, those on the far left are now taking advantage of difficult decisions that had to be made during the pandemic. This is a classic David versus Goliath battle pitted pitting s um concerned parents against a powerful special interest. As someone who cares deeply about the
173well-being of students, teachers, and academic achievement, I stand firmly behind our current school board and oppose the recall effort. And this was written by Judy Miller. Thank you so much. [Applause] Up next we have Miss Janet Drummond and on deck we have Josh Hardy. I want to thank the board for the discussion that went on tonight. It was very interesting. Um I'm here to talk about the Marilac Clinic too and I agree with a lot of the things that have been said. I realize that we do need health care in this in this city in our schools. It is very important. But it needs to be a health center. It does not need to be a schoolbased health center. The reason I'm against that is because it is inside the school. We can have a
174health center that is a block away, whatever. You know, you you talk about the distance that the kids are going to have to go. If you go on North Avenue about 10:30 in the morning, 11:00 in the morning, you will see students going all along North Avenue, going to all the different restaurants. They have absolutely no trouble leaving that campus to go get whatever they want for their lunches. So, I don't think that that's a problem for those kids. So, that is that to me is a stupid excuse to not have um that health center within the school. It's just silly. I also don't believe uh that the principal needs to be responsible for having that clinic within the school. That's not his job. he is involved with the school, not with medical. I'm also
175um concerned about the security issue there. Again, you've got people going in and out, in and out of the school, and that's something that we've had to really look at throughout the nation, all the different things that are happening within our schools. We don't need to have people moving in and out of those schools. Um, also the same thing, the CFO of the construction company with the board on the Marillac. Um, there's just there's so many concerns there, you know, get get the health care for the community that we need. And I also like the idea that it's not just for the one student, it is for the family. So, make it available to the family. You could have that clinic a block away and it's available to everybody, but it's not involved with the
176school itself. So, I really hope that you consider not having it within the schools. Thank you. [Applause] All right. Up next, we have Mr. Josh Hardy. And on deck, Mr. Bruce Liller. Hello, my name is Josh Hardy. Uh, and my wife and I are the owners of Monument Physical Therapy here in downtown Grand Junction. Um, I'm speaking in favor of a school-based healthcare center at Grand Junction High School. Uh, some of the points I'm going to bring up may seem trivial based on how important a lot of what you guys have been talking about is. Uh, but they are important to me as a small business owner and other small business owners like myself. Uh, we're a growing business. Currently have 10 employees and a number of our employees have multiple children. It's not uncommon
177for kids to get sick. And when a kid gets sick, the parent has to take a day off. Overall, having healthier kids means having a healthier community and decreases likelihood that I'll be short staffed at the last minute. The biggest single threat to the success of my small business is the last minute cancellations from patients. If a patient cancels their appointment with little to no notice, I can't fill that spot with another patient. So, for that 30 to 60 minute block, I've paid my landlord, I've paid my employees, but did not have any money coming into my small business. A lot of our patients have kids. If they cancel because of their kids' need to go to urgent care or to their primary care physician, ultimately it hits our bottom line. The impact on my
178business is easy for me to see, but I can imagine the impact of missed days at work and missed appointments is much more farreaching in our community. My wife and I want to have kids and a family someday. Many of our friends have kids already. No one I've spoken to is against this school-based health center. I see 16 to 18 patients per day, and our conversations cover all sorts of topics. Every single patient I have spoken to regarding this issue is in support of another school-based health center in our community. A community that is overall more healthy allows me to continue to serve this valley the best way I know how. Thank you for your time. [Applause] All righty. Up next we have Bruce Liller and on deck looks like Janna Little. Good evening. I
179am amazed at the way you did that that re listing. Apparently, I walked in first and signed in and I am was the 30 or 40th individual. I I hope you understand that you I wish that you would resolve what issues you are having with your health care. If this is a problem, please get at the specifics of the problem. Find out what they are. find out if you can get them actually adjusted to the point where people can get some either if they can't get access at their high schools, they can get access at another location that is aligned with their high school. So, it makes them feel as if they are associated with the grouping they should be associated with. Okay. Now, I've got other things to talk about. This is your sex
180education class. You have an attorney here and I have Mr. Shaver from the city attorney's office. They're both looking at a state law about cruelty. Now, what they are to do is to look at the state law and see if the inputs I gave them into the comprehensive sex education class matches the state law. And if it does, I will have uh Representative Tagert go ahead and introduce it into the actual House resolution. So, maybe the addition to the actual House resolution comprehensive sex education class. It's a House resolution for you. Okay. Another thing is we've been having some fun with the press again. Uh, I just talked to KREX back there and I asked them nicely to cover there's a reasoning for covering this. It's because you're getting involved in things that are not
181lawful and if you do that, you're taking a chance on getting yourselves hurt or other people hurt for no good reason. Okay. I sent a u an inquiry into the FCC about personal attack and ask them nicely take a look at what was going on here in the area and see if they can get that resolved if they are actually being awful. Okay. Hey, now we have such a thing as a lost report of day reporting. I have never heard of such a thing on earth. Lost report a day reporting. And there's a VA medical center record. The young lady's name is Jill Enerish. And that was Dr. Taft Moore. Uh they said she should get anger management classes. This young lady thought it was appropriate to go out and tell people to die. And
182apparently Dr. Morris thought that was inappropriate that they should get anger management classes. Gosh, I'm hope I'm done. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Bruce. All righty. Up next we have is it Joanna? It's Joanna. Okay, Miss Joanna Little. And on deck we have Miss Anna Elliot. Good evening to all of you. Thank you for um hearing us out here. Um, I just want to start by saying this all makes me really sad to hear that there's a us and a them. All we want to do is provide access for health care to the students in our valley and that's the mission of Marilac. Actually, our mission is to provide affordable access to health care in the county. Um, and you know, we've been in discussions with a lot of you on and off for maybe
183a year and a lot of things have been said and thrown around and I feel that there has been a lot of misunderstanding in what's been said. A he said, she said, they said, and we have provided a proposal to you all that says that we'll pay for the the tenant build out, we'll pay the rent, we'll pay to furnish it, we'll pay to staff it. And to me, I think that's a very uh fair thing for the taxpayer. They are not paying any of that. Um, but I really think we it's time to move past all of this past conversation and and get back to thinking about the kids. Um, and you know, when you voted against this in March, I felt like maybe your younger constituents were totally ignored. They came up here
184by the droves to tell you they wanted one. and that was that was real disheartening to me. Um, and now I hope that I'm glad that you're back on track and listening to them. Um, I will say FCI, we do have we have had two board members on our board. We all sign a conflict of interest form. If there's something that we're voting on that I have an interest in, I have to recuse myself. I don't vote on that. And that's how our FCI board members are. We all do that. Um, again, I'm just so sad that this has become so polarizing and I am sad that Marillech has been vilified. I think we do a fine job given our success at Central and that's an easy model to replicate. Thank you. [Applause] All righty.
185Up next we have Miss Anna Elliot and on deck Carol Wthbun. Just a little history. This has been going on for some time since 2017 2018 when central came into the picture and then Grand Junction High School was being talked about. So 181 19 2019 an election came up with ballot language that was very vague on the amount of money that would be spent to build Grand Junction High School and to embellish uh the three other high schools. It was defeated. I voted against that particular ballot item because it was so vague and wasn't specific. So in 2021 there was another election. There was a ballot election for bond bond money for the Grand Junction High School and there was also an election for three new board members for school district 51. That bond measure
186for 2021 was written and the very first bond um point was for the sole purpose of replacing Grand Junction High School constructed in 56 with a new high school on the same site and renovating the existing gym and art building on the high school campus or the site. It was very important within this bond language to be specific. As Dr. Schulty said, words have meaning. the words here, the project, the site. It grossly omitted any mention of a health-based clinic on the campus. And because of the audience here and the contentious um discussion that's gone on, we can see why the health-based clinic was left out of the ballot language in 2021 and received overwhelming support. Um, it was so important that 2021 bond passed that over, I believe $800,000 had already been spent in
187the design of the high school with geo work and design building for it. If 21 had failed the we would have been screwed. It was important that this bomb pass. It was important that no mention of the clinic was in it because you knew the public would not approve it. There was not even a argument against it. Taber has been mentioned. It's part of our Colorado state law. It says Colorado law and president first requires that any bill ballot initiative or referred message comply with single subject requirement so that voters can make an informed choice. The very first B bullet point in this ballot language said the sole purpose to replace replace the high school, the gym, the art building. No mention of the clinic. Again, I say the public was deceived, the voters were
188deceived, the whole the whole county by not including description of a clinic going in. If it was so important, as it is tonight, with everyone showing up, it should have been taking place before the ballot was ever brought on to the voters. And as a red flag warning, everyone who goes and admits that they're thinking of suicide, they're going to hurt themselves. Red flag. Thank you, Miss [Applause] Elliot. Up next, we have Miss Carol. Is it Ratbun? Ratbun. Yes. And on deck, we have Lena Thompson. First of all, I see nowhere that the voters voted on this. Therefore, this is an act of robbery of the taxpayers as well as future tax burden on the children of today. Secondly, why would you approve of a 12-year-old receiving puberty blockers, hormones, and body mutilation without the
189consent of their parents? The ramifications of mutilation and hormones will have lifelong health consequences such as cancer, infections, and sterility. Not to mention that many young and old people who have m mutilated their bodies now strongly regret it. Many have chosen to try to dransition. The damage has already happened. Many have shared, "I will not be able to breastfeed or have children." At 12 years old, the children, they don't have Please, please reframe doing that. They don't have life experience and it's a many of these people are regretting it. Many and they have many health consequences from it. I'm not saying that as you said that the clinic is doing this, but at what point if the state is funding it will it will be forced and that it will happen anyways. It's on the
190behalf of the children. And that's all I have. Thank you. [Applause] I'm next. We have I'm going to call to order. We We specifically said the rules ahead of time. When someone's up here speaking, you need to provide the same courtesy as they did to you by holding comments while they're talking. And we said no booing. So, if you would like to be escorted out, you can continue doing that. Please be respectful of the people up here taking time to speak. Up next, we have Miss Lorena Thompson. On deck, we have Doug Bryant. Hi. Um, I prepared comments ahead of time. I don't have a bunch of statistics to give you tonight. I have only words, but I think words are really powerful. And I think that if you listen to them, they can change
191lives. My name is Lorena Thompson. I taught at Grand Junction High School for 28 years, quite infamously at times. Um, one of the most important things that I've done with my life was to help create and then to administer the RISE program for the last eight years of my tenure at Junction. This program was important because it offered kids who otherwise would have little opportunity for college the opportunity to work toward that. It took away barriers that they otherwise couldn't get past. These kids lived in homes that did not lack love, but often did not have the luxury of being able to afford insurance and medical care. I more than once personally took them to the Marillac clinic for strep cultures or whatever because their parents couldn't miss work. It would mean less money for
192their families. We once had a young man diagnosed with diabetes who missed many days of school because he was taken to the emergency room. They had taken they hadn't taken him to a doctor because they had no doctor. They had no money and they had no insurance. It was cost prohibitive to whine about frequent urination and unusual thirst and they didn't understand what was happening with him. They didn't understand how important that was. By the time they took him to the ER, he was in critical condition. These are kids. These are the kids who will most benefit from a medical clinic that's attached directly to the school where they can just walk in and say, "I'm thirsty all the time. Is something wrong?" As a rather infamous AP teacher and academic competition coach, I could
193have stayed in my lane. But I found that helping kids who were not blessed with all of the benefits that most of the students I typically dealt with were blessed with, that was life-changing for me and it was life-changing for them. And sometimes it's hard to see past our own fears to what others might need because we don't personally need those things. That's not a reason to allow those without a voice to be ignored. Thank you. Okay, up next we have Doug Bryant. And on deck, Michael Penco. Pranco. Oh, Perco. Yeah, my name is Doug Bryant. I've got two great grandchildren in me in district 51 schools. No kids, no grandkids. They've all graduated. But I still feel that I should, you know, put my two cents in. The problems not being addressed is that
194there's been a loss of trust of many of us of the whole health care system. The information that I base my decisions on is no longer coming from any of the normal media sources because they all tell the same story. Uh some of us feel that there's a hidden agenda in this whole thing. We don't have any problem with a health clinic off campus, but some some seem to think it needs to be on campus. Why is that? Some of us see that as a an attempt to get the parents out of the decision m making process. The same people pushing this agenda where for the lockdowns, the masking and the mandatory COVID vaccines. Lock lockdowns and masking set our students back two years for absolutely no purpose. CO was not a threat to young
195people. There has been an epidemic of young people, young healthy people dying, dying in their sleep, dying on the athletic field. This isn't talked about too much, but the statistics has been reported in a book called Cause Unknown by Edward Dow. The statistics have been backed up by in insurance data. It's not not something I'm dreaming up. He just puts out the facts. He doesn't say it's caused by the co vaccines, but it's kind of coincidental that they it all started in about April of 2021. A lot of us think that the large drug companies have too much influence over agencies like the CDC. For all these reasons, I don't think that there's any reason why District 51 should be getting in the healthc care business. I think I think it needs to be off
196campus at some point. If I'm right, all these children that the truth will come out. I mean, Fizer and Madna can't suppress this forever. And another thing, one other thing about changing any of this, be very aware that construction companies can make all kinds of monies off of change orders and some of them are very good at it. Thank you very much for what you've done. [Applause] But before we go to Mr. Promeo, um we are at an hour and we have 10 left. All right, board. We're at an hour and there's 10 people left. So, are we good to let the rest of the 10 speak? We would just ask that again if if it's duplicatus comment, please just state that you agree with something that's been said before and then please add your
197specific comments to it. Thank you. Okay, so up next we have Michael Perco and on deck looks like Mike Star or Stall. Good evening. Uh thanks for the opportunity to come before the board again and appreciate the opportunity to spend another Tuesday evening with you all. Um I'm a uh my name is Michael Pomeco. I'm a family physician here in Grand Junction. Have been here for 25 years. Um and also serve as chief medical officer for Monument Health and chief medical officer for primary care partners which is the largest primary care office in the western on the western slope. I speak on behalf of the boards for Monument Health as well as primary care partners. They support school-based health clinics. They would also support the language that you've drawn up here tonight as far as
198a health clinic that's integrated that provides primary care services, behavioral health care services, and dental services. I'm not going to repeat data that you've all heard this evening. I'm not going to repeat data that you spent hours on a couple weeks ago about the need. Uh the question remains is we know the data. What are we going to do about it? Are we going to let politics get in the way of taking care of our children? We are all in the business of health care. It's 20% of the gross domestic product of the United States of America. We spend more money on health care in the United States by far than anywhere else in the world. And we do that because we focus on sick care more than health care. Because we in the United
199States, we wait until things get really bad and then we give full access to the emergency room. We do that as a country. We do that as employers. We've done that as a district 51. And most organizations and businesses have made the same mistake. Getting to medical issues before they get bigger is essential for driving costs down and creating better health care for our kids, our students, ourselves, and to making this a sustainable health care system for the future. That can't be done with politics. It's done by reaching out and creating health care access and equity where it is needed, where the data shows it's needed. So I implore you to make decisions based on what the data is showing. I implore you to be in the business of health care and to consider what
200we need to do so the next generation of of adults doesn't have the same healthcare issues that we are dealing with now. Finally, I will say there's only so many ways to pull this off. as a as an prior executive director for our my practice and in CMO, I will tell you we can't go into that school and be the school-based health clinic. It requires an entity like Marillac that gets the grant funding that knows how to do primary care to do that. There's only very few options that can pull this off. Thank you for your consideration and thank you for reconsidering this issue. All righty. Up next we have Mike Stall and on deck Miss Wendy Wood. Great. Thank you all very much. Uh my name is Mike Stall. I'm the CEO for Hilltop
201Community Resources as well as a board member at Marillac. I'm also the chair for the Mesa County Healthcare Leadership Consortium uh that uh has taken a position on on this uh this school-based health center. Um, I think a couple different things that I want to bring up and and uh not uh repeat other things. One, it's nice to hear pretty much universally in the room the need for some kind of health care clinic for our kids um in the schools. I would implore you to look at the model that is working perfectly right now in the school district at Central High School. um sitting through 5 hours of testimony hearing about the school-based health clinics, I have not heard one person speak ill of Central High School school-based health clinic. The kids speak so strongly
202of it and so do the faculty. Um that we have a model that is working that I'm not sure why we would ever change. Um another point is there's been some comments being made that schools should stay in their lane. Um I think that's why you hire a third party to administrate your school-based health center. so you can stay in your lane. Let the health care professionals run the health care side. Let the school administrators run the school and together they can support students with a whole another tool chest that a lot of schools do not have. Um, another point I want to bring up, we make it sound like this is mandatory for kids to go to the school-based health. It is optional. Nobody is forcing any kid to go in there uh to
203to receive services. It is completely optional. parents don't abdicate their rights to be a parent. Um they can talk to their kid and and tell them we don't use this school-based health clinic. We're not going to use it. There is no mandatory part of this. Um it's for the kids who really don't have other options and for parents that want the convenience of a school-based health center. Um so those are the main points I wanted to point out. I also thought it was pretty uh interesting when I came in and and knowing I was coming into the Harry Butler boardroom. I served on committees with Harry Butler for years and the number one thing he asked before any final decision we were making about kids is is it good for kids? He just would lead
204with iss. I believe this is good for kids and I hope that you do as well. Thank you all very much. All righty. Up next we have Miss Wendy Wood and on deck Jerry Wood. Hi, good evening. My name is Wendy Wood. I'm here more just to speak to parents in the room. I see this as sort of a camel in the um in the tent, the no a camel's nose in the tent that it's I have not heard one person here speak against having a health care clinic at all. In fact, everyone here I could would say truly does care about our kids and that touches my heart deeply because I know that's that's the thing that unites us. It's divisive to say that it is us versus them. It's not. No one here
205is suggesting we don't have one. But parents, you you are the number one caregivers to your children. They are the number one. They are the ones that will love their kids and train their kids. And that's who is God has given them the authority to grant or has granted that authority to parents to do that. So by having the school district come in and be a middle ground there or someone who is in the middle of parents and children one more time or to a deeper degree. It removes parental authority and yes there are a lot of things that minors can consent to here without parents knowing about it. Um, from what you showed tonight, your statistics showed that there was 10% that were uninsured. Um, I'm that's I wrote it down as soon as
206I saw it. That seems like a very low number. So, it does seem that there are plenty that do have access. I am for um the idea of having it across the campus or across the street because then it does give it a give access to whole families, not just 14 to 18 year olds that happen to go to Junction High School. And we say we care for kids, then do we care for kids that are zero to 13 that aren't at Junction High? Let me see. I would want to just say ditto to what Christy Anderson said because I've thought deeply about this for a while, but she brought up points I hadn't even considered. I've been praying about this issue for a long time. And truly, I just I think of the there's
207a lot of good points made tonight, but the whole overarching picture is that D51 is to educate, not to medicate or not to be in the the business of behavioral health or dental. That's something that they can advocate for, but it is not their job. I think this is a big reason why enrollment is down in schools because because we haven't stayed in our lane. We're here to educate. That's what it should be. And I am a teacher. I speak on behalf of of um my mandate as a teacher is to educate first. So, thank you. [Applause] Righty. Up next we have Jerry Wood and on deck looks like Cole Chambers. Hi, good evening. Um going to try and bring some thoughts together here um in a coherent way, but I am not against health
208care for the kids of any kind. I I do have a very grave concern about putting it on campus. I think it creates a liability for the school, but I also believe that the reason it was just so unacceptable to place it across the street is because there is a desire to get between the parents and the kids. And I want you to take that very seriously because across the street is great. Parents can visit, whole families can visit, people of all ages can visit. Some people there are some people who don't have access to a school because they are they are limited. They they can't that some people have um legal restrictions. They can't go against to a school um because of crimes committed because of other things of suspicion on them. But the
209main thing that I wanted to bring up right now is it may not be occurring here, but it is occurring across the nation with these clinics in schools where they do get between parents and students and things are abused. We know that students who start questioning their gender, this has been touched on, but the students who start questioning their gender, it has been shown that about 80% of them by the time they're 20 and their brain is starting to fully develop, they resolve that and they are they are at peace with their birth gender. However, what's happening across the nation in these clinics is they start counseling these kids and they start telling them that you really are the opposite gender than what you were born with. And they start telling these kids that they
210need to transition. And by the time they've convinced the kids that they need to be they need to transition, then they bring this parents in. And then they tell the parents with a strong arm that they can either have a live a live child of the other gender or a dead child who's going to commit suicide. And then the parents are forced to go along with it. And then we have we have a number of lawsuits that are rising across this country from students that children who are now adults who are trying to dransition. They have been mutilated. I want I just point out when they take a a young woman and transition her to a to be a a man, they take flesh, meat and skin off of her forearm or off of her
211thigh, it's permanently disfiguring. And the part that they create does not have the right sensations. It never really functions. And with a boy, they cut things off that can't be replaced. So when people regret this decision that has been pushed on them and they try to go back, they are left being neither. Mr. Thank you. Up next we have Cole Chambers and on deck Mike Reker. Hi there board. Um I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you tonight. I My name is Cole Chambers and I am a dad of four. Um and I live here in Junction. and I work here in Junction and um my kids all go to D-51 schools. Uh I have a one kiddo in uh Grand Junction High School. I have a kiddo in uh Chapida and two in East.
212So I come uh in strong as strong support as I can I can vocalize um in support of uh of these clinics in the school inside the school premises. And I just want to and I I won't reiterate too much why, but I just want to throw my my support my what for what it's worth behind what the students who have spoken said, I think they are the voices we should be listening to um because it's directly impacting them. So what they've talked about as uh when it comes to access uh and the barriers to access and I think it's very insulting and I think it's really um quite frankly unbelievable that some uh adults have come come up here and demean them and demean students um by saying that they are walking on north
213and they can walk to school and not understanding the barriers that it takes to um to address mental health issues and yes absolutely Absolutely. A street can be a barrier. Another building can be a barrier. And for us to sit here and belittle the children for who speak up and say that that that that is the case is just it's it's quite frankly ridiculous. Um so I'm I'm very very disappointed in some of the adults in this room for that. Um I want to uh apprec I just want to commend uh Dr. Schulty for um for the uh uh pride acknowledgement um for June. I really appreciate that as um as a parent of of queer children. Um thank you for doing that. Uh I don't think D-51 is quite there. Um I don't think
214it's a very welcoming place um for um for folks in the queer community. I hope it gets there. Um and I really uh I just want to throw my support behind this uh this effort. I think it's it's it's very much needed uh in in our schools. I I I look forward to it. um really uh coming to fruition and I I just I hope it doesn't get sidetracked. I hope it doesn't get um uh hijacked. I hope uh it doesn't get uh you know I just I really hope that that it moves forward with the with the vision that was done at Central. I think we should follow that model, do what works uh and move forward. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. All righty. Up next we have Michael Reker and
215on deck Bailey Warner. Hi Mike Redker. Thank you very much for letting me speak and thank you each one of you for um the work that you do. I know uh a lot of times it becomes an us versus them, but I know you're not evil people. You don't wake up saying I can't wait to do some evil. I know you're all good people and you all have everything you know looking at the same goal. One of the things that uh you know I a lot of my uh items were uh you know already expressed with the taxpayer issues things like that. Uh I'm not against a health clinic you know for right purposes. Moses and I, we were classmates. And when I went back to uh, you know, uh, about 50 years ago, there's,
216you know, we had the nurse's station. She was dressed in white, white shoes, white tights, and the white hat. They give you aspirin. I don't think you can get aspirin anymore without parents permission. But there were some objective things that were done. And I think with the resolution, one of the things that you need to consider, especially as leaders, because leaders lead, which means you're out further and you're taking a look at a different horizon. And I think in a lot of these issues, you got to even go further out than that horizon and take a look at what might be the unintended consequences for good or for ill. Um, taking a look at what are some of the objective things. So objective things would be like the primary healthc care. You either got a
217cavity or you don't. You either got a cut or you don't. You either have a broken arm or you don't. When you start getting into the mental health care and the behavioral issues, now you're moving into a different sort of a category that might be a little bit more objective. And I think that's where a lot of parents are coming from uh that are concerned about this. So, I just want to have you think about that. thought one of the great suggestions uh tonight was having a committee and having equal voices heard because you know it feels like what I sense is there's not a lot of all the voices being heard and I think having that committee like what was put together for the consolidation of schools is a good thing. So I would
218just commend you all for your leadership. I do thank you. I don't take it for granted and um that's my two cents worth. Thank you. All righty. Up next we have Bailey Warner. And on deck we have Rayen Hilenfold. Thanks. I'm not as good at reading or speaking off note. So I'm going to read from my phone. But I really want to thank you guys as a board for reconsidering this really important issue for our kids of the student based health center at Grand Junction High School. It's such a critical need for students in Mesa County to have easy access to medical, dental, and behavioral health care. Accessible health care will not only enable them to be the best students they can be, but also has far-reaching implications for their future health and well-being as
219they prepare to enter adulthood. Having a clinic within the walls of the school building allows them the safety of ac of accessing health care without leaving the school. One of the best design features of our new Grand Junction High School is the safety net that it provides our students by consolidating multiple school buildings into one space with secured entrances and exits. ADA access is also something that we kind of mentioned earlier in other discussions and I think that that's also not really being considered when we think about moving a clinic away from the walls of the school um and having the clinic within the school. It enables kids to spend more time in their classes while still having their health needs addressed. Previous discussions of the proximity of other Marillac clinics to Grand Junction High
220School, the main clinic being, you know, less than a mile away from the high school, really leaves out how jam-packed our kids' schedules are, how busy all of our primary care provider offices are in this valley. To get a same day appointment for a provider is not a thing of reality in most cases, um, let alone within easy access in between your classes. Um, and that I really think that the ease of accessibility is key to good primary health care. In the same way that having a trainer courtside can help athletes stay in the game, having easy access to health care can help our students stay in the classroom. I also want to say that I agree with our some of the previous speakers as well as Dr. Schulty's. our language does matter and attempting
221to reinvent the wheel of a school-based health center and and potentially dilute that opens the door to a whole range of medical care. Using an established regulated model means that everyone knows the range of care that will be provided or not provided. And I urge you, Dr. Hill, to define the school-based health center as the choice for Grand Junction High School. Thanks. All righty. Up next we have Raylin. Is it Hilenfold? Close enough. All right. And then on deck we have Johanna Leoo. Cool. Thank you guys so much. I uh had a whole bunch of written down and I'm already over time. So thank you. Um, I I first want to start off by saying that all of my notes are hogwashed because everybody's already covered most of it, but new thoughts have presented themselves.
222Um, I am a mother of four children. I've been a single mom. I was raised by a single mom. I went to Central High School. I've been a teacher. I have a kid with cancer. I've got a kid with Hashimoto's. I know what it I know the difficulties that arise from trying to access health care for my children while trying to decide if I take off work today, can I pay my rent next week? And I I I don't hear a lot about access to health care. And I think we have a two-part issue that I'm going to get to hopefully in 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Um the first being we need to provide access to health care for children. Uh I told tell all of my children this. I give you my permission
223and by the state of Colorado, you have permission to access mental health care for yourself. You don't have to tell me that you're going. And my daughter, who's 15 said, "How how do I get there? Who do I call? How do I make an appointment?" And my answer was, "I don't know. I guess you have to tell me." But having access to a a school-based health center where she can go without me knowing, I am okay with my children going and getting the help that they need if they're not comfortable coming to me. I hope we provide a home where they feel comfortable for that, but I wasn't comfortable with that. I would have benefited greatly from having a school-based health center. Secondly, I don't think we should have it open to the public. I
224was not spoken for as a child. We didn't consider children as being a priority when I was growing up. It's time that we as adults and as a school board and as a district speak for our children and say they need to have access to health care. They need to have access to mental health care. The second part of this, which is kind of on a different note, I feel like we need to have two votes. one tonight to decide if we're gonna have a school-based health care center or whatever we're deciding to call it and also how we are going to delegate that service. I don't feel like it is appropriate for us to delegate that service without having it bid out to different medical offices. I disagree that Marilac is the only entity
225that can handle this. I do believe that they've done a good job at at Warrior Wellness. However, I feel like there are multiple organizations in this valley, Family Health West, Community Hospital, St. Mary's Hospital, who all have primary care, who have mastered primary care, who should be allowed to bid. Maybe they did already. I don't know. So, those are my two cents. I do believe that a school-based health center, having children in high schools and middle school and elementary school and preschool, I do feel like this is a huge, huge benefit to my children as well as others. Thank you. Thank you. All righty. Up next, we have Johanna. Johanna. Johanna Leoo. Yeah. Sweet. Yeah. And then on deck we have Phyllis Flower. Everyone's know me. Okay. All right. Hello. My name is Johanna Luke.
226I'm a graduate from Grand Junction High School. Now, I know this won't affect me, but this clinic will help my friends that are still going to Grand Junction High School and their f friends. Also, kids on their way through elementary and middle school who are also going to Grand Junction High School. You had an amazing lady in front of you crying a couple weeks ago about this, how what lines up perfectly with this clinic, but you're still denying it. Now, please take a step back and get in a kid's shoes, who has a hard family life, who is too afraid to go to their family, but needs medical or mental health care. Now, as that kid, your higher-ups are taking that safe place and healthy place away. You say that you want to help your
227kids and your community, but here you are taking away a way to help your kids and to make them feel safe. Every year you have kids committing suicide because they aren't getting some of the medical care and mental health care they need. But now you have a chance to help these kids who oh sorry should be what this is about. But you are saying no to helping another kid. on substance abuse and mental health service administration studies uh shows that teens who might resist going to a doctor are more willing to get help problems like depression, anxiety, and weight issues at a school-based or getting help at a school-based health center. All of these are in this clinic and will help support all the kids at Grand Junction High School. I understand that students can
228walk across the street and get lunch, but this isn't the same as doing something with friends. This is doing something for your students. It can be hard to leave a classroom and even going outside to the clinic now you're going to see that that student is getting help and students will say that students is that student is getting help. You might think that this isn't going to happen but I am a student still and I know that it is going to happen. So please keep this inside the school. Now let's talk about the new high school. It is already being built in the new high school supposedly. Now, a student will walk by and think, "Oh, this is where I could have been helped, but now I'm going to get worse and worse every day."
229On CPR, they say that this clinic will offer students wellness checks, sports exams, strep tests, care for clinic conditions like diabetes and mental health, and some of and some offer dental scannings or screenings. They often serve under underserved children and youth who are limited who has limited access to health care. Now, some of you may have money and insurance or maybe or have many of these listed in a ginormous amount of kids everywhere do not have money or insurance. In in physical and national health programs say that 20 million children in the US lack significant access to health care. All we need is this clinic there. And there's no if ands or buts. So, think about the kids. Think about what you can do now before you regret what you do. And now because this
230is happening, this disappointment of the health and mental care loss will be on you. So please bless me. Thank you. [Applause] All righty. Up next we have Miss Phyllis Flower and our final will be Steve Moes. This is this is going to be short because several others have already addressed the things that I was going to say, but I'll just reiterate that I'm not opposed to a healthcare clinic, but not within the school. Um, not a school-based clinic. Um, the issues that I have are it was not clear on the ballot at all that that was any part of the new high school to be built. Um, I have I'm it's very suspicious and I just wonder about hidden agendas and other motives because there was the the rush to get this uh passed in
231March so that they could know what to do with that space and nothing ever happened with the space and we found out about the CFO of um FCI being on the Marillac board and whether that person gets to vote or not doesn't matter. There's still the influence. Um, I just wonder what is what is really behind all this. And I would like to see a clinic that's available for families and across the street from the high school. Sounds like a good idea to me. Thank you. All righty. And our last one is Steven Moes. So, we're spending trillions right now on Obama welfare that was supposed to fix all of this stuff. Access, access, access. That's what all these people were saying. That was supposed to fix it. One of you young ladies said something
232about uh Denver having programs, spending tons of money on programs. Apparently, that's failing as well. And now you're going to take your hand at at being doctors for our children. It won't work. It won't help one iota on the education of our children. You are not a hospital. You are not doctors. You are not psychotherapists. None of that stuff that's been brought up in this stuff. You are educators. Now, may the the school district 51 may have a little bit higher graduation rates and and better scores than some of the third world crud holes over in Denver and LA and New York. But it's not stellar. Your job is to turn out stellar students, not athletes or health or focus on what your job is is education and educate our children. It's not stellar. We're
233spending you're going to spend all this money and just throw it down the tubes just like all the other welfare programs. These people can get access. They all have access. No matter where you go in this town, there's clinics everywhere. Everywhere. Has anybody else seen that? Everywhere. Clinics. They have access. Now you're going to get it. You're going to try to get into the school. What's going to happen is that once you get entrenched into the schools with these clinics, you are going to like these three people that were here. I'm sure they're wonderful people. They told us, "Oh, we're not going to do the transgender thing. They're not going to mutilate our teenagers because they're confused." I guarantee you, the first time someone complains about it, those three people are gone. And they're going
234to put someone in here who will mutilate our children, who will talk them into aborting babies. It's not your place. Your educators, not health care professionals. Please educate our children. By the way, why did the chicken cross the road? To get medical attention. Okay. It's everywhere. It's everywhere. All right. Thank you everyone for your public comments this evening. Uh we will go ahead and move on to sorry our consent agenda. The consent agenda contains personnel actions and acceptance of gifts 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. I will state that the total of our gifts um is 19,767. Is anyone requesting any items to be removed from the consent
235agenda? Okay, seeing none, do I have a motion to approve this evening's consent agenda? So moved. Second. Right. We can take the vote. Mrs. Heis, yes. Mr. Jones, yes. Miss Lima, yes. Mr. Levenson, yes. Dr. Schulty. Yes. Okay. Um and so we did have some admin ones on there. So I'll just mention Sure. those admin hires. I didn't bug them on their summer break to ask them what they're most excited about. But um we do want to recognize our um leaders who are going to be taking on the principal ship position. So for uh Mount Garfield Middle School, um Danielle Bagwell um who has been um serving in education for um I believe 19 years. uh she's was uh worked at Palisade High School as a teacher and also as a counselor um and then
236most recently has been the assistant principal um at Mount Garfield Middle School. And so we're excited um for Miss Bagwell to be taking over as the principal at Mount Garfield Middle School. So we can give her a round of applause. Um we also have uh Dr. Huddle. Uh she is uh most recently has been serving as the assistant principal um at Mount Garfield um middle school, but also um before that has worked um as a special education coordinator um as a teacher um and and also director of program evaluation and uh she will be taking over and serving uh as the next principal for uh Rimrock Elementary School. So we're excited for Dr. Huddle. Can we give Dr. Huddle a big round of applause for her new role? [Applause] Um and then we also have
237um Miss Williams will be taking over as the principal at Thunder Mountain Elementary School. Uh she has been in education as well for well over 15 years um serving as a teacher and all and all of her time serving the D51 community, but as a teacher um assistant principal and most recently she was assistant principal um at Clifton Elementary. And so we're excited for Miss Williams to be um taking over as the Thunder Mountain Elementary School principal. Give her a round of applause. And I should have mentioned she was actually she was previously assistant principal there so it's kind of coming home for her. Um and then last but not least um Cam, we love Cam um at Career Center. Um he has to take a leave for um for his own reasons and so
238um we are really thankful to uh Principal McCcl uh who just retired and was going to sail off into the sunset and then we brought him right back in. uh he was most recently uh the the amazing principal at Fr Monument High School and so he's going to be serving as an interim and that's mainly due to the time of things timing of things to put a committee together and everything to try to find um somebody for career would would be a lot. So we're going to have uh Todd McClaskkkey principal mccleskey to take over as the interim at career as well so we can give Todd a big round of applause for coming back to us. Thank you. That was shortlived. I don't know if we're going to get anybody retire because they are
239just going to we'll somehow wrap them back up. So, we No, we appreciate the uh the help especially with the last minute change. So, all right. Um All right. We have a few business items. I think before I move into that, um our attorney is still working on item J5. So, um do I have a motion to table that for our next meeting? So, moved. Second. And we can vote to table that. I'm sorry. We're going to table that. We're going to table J5. Who motioned to who second? Motion. Will motioned. Carrie seconded. So the vote. Yes. Sorry. There's no discussion on the tableing of an item. So we can go right to vote. So motion to table uh policy second readings J5. Yes. A B and C. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Miss Lima. Yes.
240Mr. Levenson. Yes. Dr. Schulties. Yes. Thank you board for that. All right. So now we're going to move into our um budget items. So, do I have a motion to approve um J1 for the budget, which would be the 2023 2024 budget adoption, the use of beginning fund balance, and the borrow of unencumbered money. So, moved. Second. Any discussion? Yeah, I just wanted to note that we've had um I I don't know when all of the budget meetings are, but we could say them, but but I did find I just Googled and I found that the budget is presented in full um online and it was posted on May 25th. So, um I'm sorry about um not having access to this room or the these specific materials before um the meeting, but that has been
241posted online for a month, if not more. Yes. And we had a previous budget hearing two weeks ago and we had the second one tonight. So yes. All right. Any other discussion? All right. We can call for the vote. Okay. Mrs. Heights? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Miss Lima? Yes. Mr. Levenson? Yes. Dr. Schulties? Yes. All right. Moving on. Um, for J2, we need to move to have a resolution to delegate an election official because we do have a election um, excuse me, an election this fall for school board. Um, do I have a motion for that resolution? So moved. Second. Any discussion? And that is Amy, correct? Okay. Just so it'll Okay, Mrs. Height. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Miss Lima. Yes, Mr. Levenson. Yes, Dr. Schulty. Yes. All right. And then moving on, I know
242our um budget committee or Melanie, excuse me, our CFO has been working to approve a fiscal oversight committee. So, we have some new people that they have recommended for that. Do I have a motion to approve that resolution? So, moved. Second. Any discussion? Okay. Seeing none, we can take the vote. Okay. Mrs. Heis. Yes, Mr. Jones. Yes, Miss Lima. Yes, Mr. Levenson. Yes, Dr. Schulties. Yes. All right. Uh J4, the resolution to direct the district to establish a health center at the Grand Junction High School campus. Do I have Okay. Is this a motion with the change to the language? We Yeah. Can we do Do you have that one? We can put Are we able to Can you put that up? Put it up or No. If not, it's even if you just say
243if you can put it up and we can see what it says. You wrote it down or I I do have it. I don't I can't get it up on the screen, but I do have it. So the seventh paragraph of the resolution would read, therefore be it resolved, the board of education hereby wishes to proceed with establishing an integrated health center that provides primary care medical services, behavioral health, and dental services on the Grand Junction High School campus. Okay. So we'll make the motion with the revised language. Do you have a motion for that resolution? So moved. Second. Okay. And discussion. Okay. Well, I put together some thoughts. I just didn't feel like sharing them earlier. So, I appreciate everybody um uh sharing their thoughts this evening. I do think there's been some misunderstandings
244around the vote that the board gave what a few months ago around no. We voted no for that particular resolution. Um I think Dr. Hill has spent enough time with the five of us that and the consensus in this room is that everybody understands and knows that these services are needed. A lot of times we vote no on ballot measures because we don't always agree with the language. So I think that pigeon holing those of us who voted no to say that we don't value those things was very much misconstrued because some of us worked very hard on trying to find alternatives. So I just want to I thank you for those who acknowledge that. So I'm going to I too just like speaking at the public I have to read my thoughts as well.
245I spent a great t deal of time reflecting on the discussion by the board regarding the health center. It is clear that all individuals agree students can benefit from behavioral health and medical services. However, what has been clear is that this issue tends to raise various other issues. In order to come to my decision today, I thought about the role of the board of education. The board of education has always encouraged input and has actively listened to the various stakeholders including students, parents, employees and the community. With regard to the matter, we have heard from all of these stakeholder stakeholders. We heard many individuals during public comment and we all have received many emails. With that being said, members on the board and our stakeholders do not necessarily agree as to how these services could
246be offered. There has been discussion and disagreement regarding the location of the center, the services offered, parental involvement, etc. They've been raised in our discussions and during public comment. It is clear given a diverse opinions, our decisions may result in some individuals being unhappy. As I discussed during when we were talking about our teacher negotiations as of late, the board of education assigns the what and the why, and the district should be charged with the how. We are not the negotiators, but we are the directors taking into account all opinions. Once the board of education has made a decision, it is Dr. Hill's responsibility to implement and execute the decision. Dr. Dr. Hill works closely with the board to provide expert advice, insights, and recommendations based on his knowledge of the educational system that aligns
247with the board of education's directive. We have trust in him to carry out our directives efficiently and effectively. In our hope of finding or I'd say in my hope of finding a mutually satisfactory solution, we are now assigning the task of establishing a wellness center to Dr. Hill. Dr. Hill along with others will ascertain the most effective approach for students wellness at Grand Junction High School considering the unique context of D51 and the opinions of all. The results may align with the hopes of some of us or it may not. However, we have charged Dr. Hill with the responsibility of ensuring that he conscientiously considers the concerns raised. Any other discussion? All right. And with that, we will take a vote on this resolution. Mrs. Heights? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Miss Lima? Yes. Mr. Levenson?
248Yes. Dr. Schulties? Yes. All right. We will now move on to open board discussion. So, for me, um, I just want to take a a second just to, uh, really recognize, um, Miss Miss Bridget, who's, uh, since day one made me feel pretty comfortable since I was a little snot-nosed kid coming in our office with looking for our little petition signs and things like that. And she's always willing to help me out. And I always have a problem. Miss Bridget, Miss Bridget, Miss Bridget, she's always been there to help us out. And so, for the past two years, it's been amazing. So, we're definitely going to miss you. I know I am. And uh the things that you do for us and and uh really really hope that you uh enjoy your endeavors of retirement.
249And if you ever get bored and want to come back, you know, I'm sure we can find something for you to do. But uh I just want to thank you for all your service and thank you for everything you did for me personally. So, all right. Any other open board discussion? Can I ask a um I don't think we ever got to follow up on so we were awarded my loose understanding of the situation is we were awarded um from the state a person to help with housing some time to provide housing support for staff and um I was under the understanding that we needed to like sign that and get it back. What is our what's this what's going on? So great. So yeah so Tam is working on it. There was a memorandum
250of understanding that came with that. So for those of you that don't recall, um we had pre uh previous board president Tom Parish along with George Ralph um some community members that wanted to work look at working on affordable housing. um the committee kind of disbanded but in the midst of that they had submitted um I think to the state again it's it's more of like a planning help um to kind of assess and um won't cost the district any money and so that was awarded to this area they are willing to pick that back up and um work through that and I think garner some good information for our area um because it had anou with it we did want our attorney to take a look at it so as soon as she's good
251with all of that, then I think we can go ahead and sign off on it. And there were some questions on it. Okay. Yeah, it sounds like we're getting that cleared up. Okay. Okay. And then just to be very clear, so if you have to sign it, we're all This isn't a decision that we've made. We're not committing anything as a district. There's no money being spent on it. So if you as the president of the board have to sign it that um that the district's interested. Yes. Yes. Is not um out of standard. Right. Right. It can't the committee can't work outside what the district wants. So they need the district signature on it. So that's another thing I wanted Tammy to check on as well before signing anything. But it doesn't require a
252vote. No. And so we're good. Yeah. If they end up coming back with information um that could lead to something, then yes, we would provide a presentation and move forward if there was something that we the board had to make like a fiscal or some kind of procedural decision on. Correct. Just want to make sure it gets signed as long as it's in our interest and it works out. Yeah. Okay, great. Thanks for being on it. Any other open board discussion? All right. Um actually I I will add one more thing. Um looking at the month of June, it is um mental health awareness month for men particularly. I know. So well, you've been you've been here eight years, Doug. I'm just saying you're a glutton for punishment. So I'm actually It was funny. My
253daughter is actually the one that brought it up before I left the house um that she's very passionate about mental health. And so um it's and obviously we talked a lot about it this evening. So I think we need to recognize that everyone in our community, moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, sons, daughters, you know, everybody has been having a rough go of it. So let's support each other. Let's be kind to each other. And even when we don't agree, let's still give a smile and just we don't know what someone else has walked in their shoes and give each other a little bit of grace. So, um just want to acknowledge that. There's one other thing I forgot that um so there is a superintendent evaluation that I think we intended to be done um by
254the contract. I think y'all should do that after I decide what I'm doing with this. No, no, listen. Okay. Listen up here. This is important. So, we we are we're committed to evaluating our superintendent. I sent out the latest version of the evaluation to everybody. It's the first time that we've done this. If you Angela and I have worked closely together on it, um you've all seen that most of the content um if there's a question on there that you don't like, no problem. Just flag it. And then we need to have an executive session. So, we need to find a time for an executive session to go over that together. So, your calendars out because we're gonna Okay, we're doing it right now. Okay. Yes. Before we adjourn. Okay. I did have one question
255on that. Yes. Are we going to require two executive sessions? One for the board to decide on a final evaluation and then a second to present to Dr. Yel. I don't think so. You want to do it all at once? I think we can do it all at once. I think we can adjust anything prior to just in um 221 or one-on-one conversations within the board because really we've just taken the language straight out of the evaluation goals and put it right onto the evaluation form. So, we did make some adjustments on that and you'll see that that will read absolutely the same whether it's on the form or the goals that we set out. So, that that work has all been done. And I think you just go down and it's going to be
256really simple to do that. If you guys have questions about it as you're going through it, then just reach out to one of us and and we can clean that up or we can make any adjustment. I think we can work through that really quickly and just do one executive session. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I I think what Bridget's asking too, I I hear what you're saying. Um, you want you want to be able to have time as a board to discuss it without me there so you can talk about me behind my back. And then um and then you want to have an opportunity for me to come in and hear the feedback. So I think the question is do you want two separate meetings or do you want one meeting and I don't
257attend the first part of it and then I it's up to y'all on that. But I think you're going to need that. Do we want two separate meetings or we can do one? Yeah. Yeah. That's we could meet for Yes. Yep. you can just come in after we're done talking behind your back. And it's to not talk about you behind your back. It's to have a un to develop a unified. We we speak only as a board. Um Okay. So, we want to do it this month. We might. Do we want to do it next week? I I think we have to give everybody a few days, but we could do it next week. I am. Oh, you're out until Thursday. Yeah. I'm gone this Thursday to next Thursday. Okay. What about next Friday? They
258could do Friday. Could you do Friday the 30th? Everybody. Friday the 30th. It is. Okay. We can figure out a time need to be any specific time. It doesn't It's all executive sessions. Yeah, we can figure out the time later. I'm open. Okay, you're good. I'm open. We'll set it. We'll send out a I have one thing that morning and then but the rest of the day should be pretty open. Maybe after. I don't. Yeah. So, do we need a specific location? Do we since we're just going to go into executive session? It's just going to be the five of us and then Dr. Hill will join us for the end of it. We'll have to post it publicly and then obviously go into business session first and then go into executive session. So, what
259whatever's easy for staff. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Oh, yeah. Because you guys aren't working on Fridays. No, I'm joking. All right, we'll figure out the time on Friday. All right, future business meetings. Um, I guess I should qualify that so people don't think that you guys aren't working. So, the district, if you all haven't gotten the email, is we're conserving energy by not having buildings open during the summer when it's super hot. So, are they're likely still working on Fridays like they always they they work so hard. um but we just don't have the buildings open um to help save some money during the summer summer months. So I don't want anybody to take that out of context that that nobody's not working. So all right we have future meetings July 24th we do have a
260special board meeting for the board to approve any last hires. Normally we don't meet during July and then we will resume the new school year um with our first board meeting August 1st and then a business meeting August 15th. So, anybody have any future agenda items they can think of? All right. Well, they can always send those to Director Jones or myself for future. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So, moved. All right. Thank you everybody and have a good evening. I think I would