001if she could. I can do it. All right. Well, we will go ahead and call the meeting to order. Um, if you can stand with us, we'll do the pledge of allegiance real quick and then we'll do the roll call and kick us off. Mr. Jones to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. All right, Bridget, we can go ahead and do roll call. Okay. Mrs. Heights here. Mr. Jones here. Miss Lima here. Mr. Levenson here. Dr. Schultz here. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda for this evening? Second. Okay. Mrs. Heights? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Miss Lima? Yes. Mr. Levenson? Yes. Dr. Schulties? Yes. All right. So, we
002have an update this evening on the proposed boundary changes. So, uh Dr. Hill, are we ready or is Mr. Bingham ready to or who I don't know who you all have bringing up. So, that's a good question. I'm looking at Clint. Yeah, Shannon will come up. Would you just like me to launch into it? So, we had a meeting this evening over at Appleton Elementary School uh that had been advertised to about 28 children's parents who reside inside of a box that we've defined for a potential redistricting into Redlands Middle School that lies between 21 Road, 25 Road on the west and east and north of G- Road all the way to the book cliffs. Um the meeting was also advertised by the principal among the entire um clientele of uh Appleton Elementary. Um from
003the look of the room, it looked like we had about 45 maybe 50 folks there. Really constructive conversation. Um I would say half of the room was in favor of what we were proposing. Uh there are some geographic differences. So between 21 road and 22 road is kind of the transition from the Appleton neighborhood to the Fruda neighborhood. And there were two residents that thought that the line should be at 22 road instead of 21 road from a community identity standpoint. And then there were 10 families in the room and I have uh seven of their cards right here that wanted us to expand the scope of the proposed boundary change to include the area between 25 road and 26 road which is currently districted into west. Um I have not had time to do
004analytics on exactly what that would look like. I was in a do no harm state of mind when I identified the change that was proposed for the Appleton community. Um, so I didn't really want to expand into any further tampering with the west boundary, but I agreed at the meeting that I would explore that on your behalf and report those results to you as quickly as I could regarding the percentage of people who already attend Redlands Middle School from the area between 25 Road and 26 Road and then identify what the impacts of admitting or including the sixth grade students that live in that area in the boundary proposed boundary change group. Um the proposal was for next year's sixth grade students only. We would duel bus that area and transition it into Redlands. um
005as you cons continue to consider the fruit of grade reconfiguration um as a board and as a committee and think about what you want to do with that. Um and then um there were some questions about what our ultimate intent was and um so I answered those as transparently as I possibly could. Um, there is also another group of folks that live north of about L Road that feel that from a proximity standpoint, given how far out they are, that they might be best served long time term by consider continuing to attend Fra just because of the distance they have to cover. There was a little bit of a rural versus urban conversation in the room about how people feel about their identity and I would say there was a significant group of people in
006the room that were excited about the new Grand Junction High School even though it is a more urban setting for schooling than where they reside. Um, so I would say in general the consensus of the room was to take the box that I drew and slide it southeast by one mile. Um, everyone in the room seemed to think that um, Redlands Parkway bridge and the 24 road feed into Redlands Parkway was not a significant problem excepting the people that lived north of about Lro for whom that would be a significant distance to come south. Um, so there were those three groups. People who would like us to go farther east, people who think that 21 road is more of a Fruda identity than an Appleton identity, and the people that are on the north edge
007of the thing that felt more approximate to Fruda. Nevertheless, there was another family that stepped forward and said, "We live up there almost at the book cliffs as well, and we feel we would prefer to go to Redlands Middle School, even though it is a considerable distance." And another family that stepped forward and said, "We already go to Redlands Middle School from there, and would um prefer that to continue." I didn't clarify whether or not transportation would change or whether or not their circumstances would change because they got a bus ride. Um but that was essentially the gist of the meeting. We were in the room for about an hour and five minutes. Um everybody was extremely constructive. I don't did not see any tears shed. Um so I think it was a good meeting
008and that's the status of it. I would be delighted to run some more analytics on these three factional areas that might slightly change your decision makingaking ahead of your meeting on the 18th. I will be here in person to represent the material formally for you and would be delighted to respond to any other direction that you would offer. I I would just um add if you don't mind just from the meeting um the takeway and Clint Clint was there you were there the whole time so I'd like to hear their perspective on what what they heard as well. I I think the takeaway I had made sense um was I think the sense was keeping the Appleton kids together instead of having the kids splinter off to two middle schools to have them stay together
009because that's their friends and that seemed very reasonable. um which would be it sounds like a I mean a fair percentage already go to Appleton some via school of choice because that's where they feed I guess but um so that was a takeaway the other thing that struck me was and maybe this is for our board to do is I think Shannon was right as much of the conversation had to do not so much about the middle school but about high school and future future plans, you know, where are we going? And um the word vision came up a number of times. You know, what what is what's the end goal here? And it may be something we collectively give a mission or with our administration and say here's here's where the end goal is
010going to be. Now, when that is, we are not sure. And Shannon did point it out, you know, uh from his perspective about and we've talked about this at length over time about Fra High School being 912, right? and then the 89 school being a regular middle school and so forth. But um there I think there's still some questions about that, you know, so that might be something we give a definitive this is where we're heading with this if that's where we are. Um the other takeaway on on a continuum of options you know because people were talking about being grandfathered in and all those kinds of things and there were some people very adamant about they they they're Fruda people that's where they want to be and then people who lived out I didn't
011even know there was an area way out north by the book cliffs that people live out there about you know some options and I think I was talking to Clint about it that that there are you know Historically from from the perspective I've had in the district, we've we've offered anything from sometimes you just pull the band-aid and that's it. The boundaries made and that's where you're going to go, which has always been pretty harsh and and I think that's if it's been used, it's been very sparingly a lot. Shannon suggested or alluded to this at the district historically the boards historically have really bent over backwards not to disrupt families and and all those kinds of things. If it's grandfathering families in uh to the point where maybe up till if you have a
012middle schooler going to Fra to high school and you have sibling there, we're going to keep that going. But if you have a preschooler, right, that has no connection that that that's maybe where the line's drawn. So that's something again there's lots of options on that continuum of how do you grandfather somebody in or not. One thing we just point of information one because I was part of this at the school that we did do boundary changes and we offered I remembered and it seemed to be very successful you know busing for a year then after that you could still go to your school of choice but we you know as a district we just can't afford to keep busing but families what what you found was initially they would keep going to that school
013but over time they would go to where Sham was suggesting you we really want to have people go to Junction High, right, if you're in that area. But and so over time that happens, but we can, you know, again, those are step 16 and 17. We're not there yet, but um to really look at there there are a number of options on how to accommodate people so we're not disruptive and still get to the end goal of where I think we all think we should be at. Some of that is just grandfathering or having spaces available at school, but we just can't always provide busing. And I think people will there's a lot of things we can look at there. But in general, I think it was keeping kids together, having us give a a
014long-term vision. When I say long term, maybe the next two years where we where we see fruit of high school being, where we see the 89 school being, where we see um you know, breadlands being those kinds of things, which uh I think we've over over the many months and maybe even longer than that have pretty much articulated where the end goal would would like to be. So, I don't know. Clint Mel, did you pick up anything different or an addition to or because I know you were gathering cards from people? Yeah, just just a couple thoughts for me. I I thought that in general um we had I think in general everybody was uh very accepting of the idea to to do the boundary change. There were a few outliers that were concerned about
015their their location and how it would would affect them, but in general, I think everybody was pretty accepting. Um, my only concern, I expressed this to to Shannon and to Doug as well, is um those folks that want us to make the adjustments to the boundaries um inside the Fruda or the Grand Junction address area. Um, if we if we don't stay consistent with addresses in Grand Junction and Fruda, in my mind, we're we're still doing the same thing that we did in the past, and that is not stay consistent um with where students are going. If you're in Grand Junction, you're going to Grand Junction. And if you're going if you're in the Fruda boundary, you're going to Fruda. Um, for me, the consistency is important if we're if we're going to move forward
016with it. I understand the concerns of those that live in towards the book cliffs and um I get where they're coming from. Um I just think we have a a tough choice to make there but in my mind we stay consistent. They can still school of choice and they can still they can still apply for absolutely if we have just I'm guessing there aren't that many 12 to 20 kids there. Okay. north of Hill Road and every every mile farther you go north it winnows away to less than a dozen. So it's a it's not a handful, it's not 50, it's you know it's depending upon where we would draw that line, it's 12 to 20. And then the kind of the rural transition where you get away from estate residential housing into more farmland
017in that corridor north south between 21 road and 22 road. I think there are probably 25 children in that corridor as well. Uh it's the 25 road the 26 road corridor that I haven't parsed all of the parent the student behaviors yet to say who's at west, who's already at Redlands, who's driving into Fruda. And I'm gonna try to do that tonight and report that back to Dr. Hill tomorrow. Great. Um, I think my question would be if we're still going through the analysis and if we don't hear um, you know, if we hear the recommendation on Tuesday without folks having a chance to if we change something from now, um, I feel like we're not giving folks due time to give us feedback. So that I don't love that. And I think that's fair.
018I was thinking the same thing at the meeting. If we've got a whole lot of smiles we could put on faces by making a few adjustments, it would probably be in our best interest to offer the due process to go along with it. But I don't know what sort of schedule the district is on on trying to accomplish this. It's my understanding that we've already fully staffed both FMS F89 and Redlands Middle School. So there's not really a staffing implication, but there might be some SOC implications on be needing to reopen the window. I don't know exact uh I don't think we want to reopen any windows and I you're right, we we are staffed and we talked about that as a senior leadership. Um I think it was more about just giving folks enough
019time like we didn't want to make a decision after school was already out. Um, so if the board needs more time or if we need more time for that um to happen, then I guess we could bring it back potentially the first meeting in May. Um, that was why we that's why we added it to tonight's agenda because we thought, well, maybe we can get it in on next Tuesday and then start letting families know right away. But if that's too fast, then we can um you maybe you can report back um still on Tuesday. Uh but then maybe not voting until the May meeting unless we need to call a meeting in between there. It's more it's for us it's just more about letting families know with enough advance before they go into the
020summer break. I would say a very high percentage and and I would be amendable to that plan and I as from a scheduling standpoint and uh I think a high percentage of the families that would be affected were in the room. Would you agree with that? I would agree. So I think that they we did a pretty good job of informing them even on short notice. We were very intentional with with email communication and direct phone calls to them to each of the affected families. But do I understand if we're saying to just like move it by a mile and chunk off this area? Those are additional changes and those families were not explicitly solicited. Correct. Yes. So we talking about maybe instead of voting on this next Tuesday is push it out a little
021bit, get this new information out to people and maybe You know, personally, I don't think it you may not get many people showing up that even call another meeting at Appleton and you shows up. It shows a good faith that we, you know, have tweaked some things and maybe you may draw more people in or do a virtual type meeting like we we've done in the past. But, but to have that another opportunity, I think would bode well. And yeah, one more opportunity as long as we can do it really timely so that we have time to let people know. Well, I think you're right to to get it by early May would be these folks all wrote their names on their cards so I could actually phone them. So, um yeah, and I'm looking
022over at Nikki and then like I I'm making sure I'm not saying the wrong thing here. The reason why we were want to do it quicker was just about families knowing, right? It didn't impact staffing or anything for us. Okay. Yeah. I would say um for me it's not so much about the people who already we were in contact with, it's about the other people. Yeah. Yep. So, another email blast out and to those Apple families next. Okay. We need we need another meeting. Okay. We're going to start missing each other. Yep. Just kidding. Got it. It's true. Actually, you guys aren't hanging out enough. I think everybody's around now, so it shouldn't be a big deal to add another one. Are we Are we saying another meeting with the community or another meeting for
023the board to discuss it? I thought another meeting with the community and then follow up maybe even that same night or yeah, something like that. be delighted to go back to Appleton Wednesday night and uh we could push this back out through the email trail to the folks that are between 25 road and 26 road who are have not been in the loop and um give them an opportunity to be heard and then at your next meeting then you could you would have all the info. So when you push out the meeting would you push out ahead of time let people see the changes or the proposed changes before they come to the meeting or just give it to them that night? Um, we could redraw the box and send that as part of the
024correspondence if the board and the superintendent directed me to do that. We could call it like a study, you know, because it's not I mean, we're just studying it, right? And then we're talking about it and we're getting more information. So, maybe just the two things that we're looking at that are being considered. Yeah. Not presented as the option to do that. Yeah. Quickly. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm wondering if we're maybe I'm way off. I think it is good that we purposefully contact those families. I wonder if some of them may have even been there tonight because my understanding is that the principal sent out a communication to the whole school and there were no maps. So people I think a lot of people probably showed up just because they're in the Apple zone. But
025if so, if we can at least target the messaging to any of the families that maybe weren't targeted with our messaging and try to see if they can show up, then that would be good. I and then however you want to send it out. I don't know if we send them maps does that is it more confusing to have it but you also have it come in with it could be more confusing you send without explanation behind it but I think I I think you could do you know this is what it is now this is what we're proposing to do this is how you would be affected and they would understand that take time to look at it then when we come to Shannon comes to this meeting it's you know it's it's more
026conversation in big letters that it's just proposed that nothing has been done. Well, Shannon, he was very good about that. He he mentioned half a dozen times, if not more, you know, the board's considering this and these are proposals. So, he did a real nice job. No decisions had been made at this point. So, good. Good job, Shannon. Thank you. And thank you for attending, Doug, and everybody who showed up. All right. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks. All right. Do I can I I'm so sorry Clint really quickly the current boundaries as they are so when you were urging caution about the Fruda and Junction division right now the proposed I'm calling it option one the option as presented tonight as opposed to option two which shifts the square down and over a mile is option
027one does that honor those boundaries yes okay so you feel comfort But but there's clarification. What we're talking about tonight is a middle school boundary change, not a high school boundary change, but is is consistent with the trajectory of our prior conversations regarding what we want to do to facilitate grade reconfiguration in Fruda. It is consistent with that effort. Okay. But this is a middle school boundary change, not a high school boundary change. Got it. Right. But our middle school So do we split our middle schools in as feeders into the high schools? We were talking about splitting Redlands, right? Well, if we addressed the 25 road to 26 road area that the parents that came tonight wanted to be in Redlands anyway, we would unify Appleton as an all Redlands attendance school being asked,
028which they were requesting. Um, but again, this is a middle school boundary change. It doesn't have no decisions have been made on anything else we're doing here. Um, but this does put um four elementary schools feeding um Redlands Middle School, which is good. Um, it gets us to where we want to be from a student body size standpoint in the Redlands. Um, and so it's consistent with our long-term goals in that regard. Yeah. It sets up the trajectory for everything else. Okay. So when Clint, when you're talking about Fuda Injunction like addresses, is that to feed into FRA injunction high schools? Is that what you're talking about with the consistency piece? Yeah. Well, so that's what we talked about tonight was if we don't if we make these lops off of of those boundaries that
029we have right now, we may have some families that have Grand Junction addresses going to Pruda. And I I think that's what we wanted to get away from. Gotcha. That's again those are things that I think we should keep in mind. If we stay consistent now then we don't have to go back and do this again later or somebody else has to go back again later make those changes. Will that have a positive impact on transportation as well? Um making that delineation between who's really addressed in Grand Junction. What's your basis? What Yeah, I I understand your point. What's your basis? Why does it matter? Tell us why it matters. Yeah. Why does what matters? Um why does that distinction matter so much? Well, for me it matters because of the consistency of what we're
030saying we're saying we're going to do with our Grand Junction addresses and fruit addresses. Now, the from the busing standpoint, we're going to end up probably doing more busing because we have students further out. So, you know, that's going to change a little bit for us. But long term, I think we're doing the right thing by staying consistent with with keeping our boundaries. Um, again, Grand Junction addresses, food addresses. We're separating the two. Does that make sense? Kind of does. I'm going to be obtuse here because I'm feel my brain is not processing it quickly. Why does it matter? Walk us through why it m So that's some it makes sense. How about what's the consistency that it gives us? Yeah. Are are you and yeah, I'm trying to understand. So, are you saying that
031if we don't do that then we get ourselves in a situation where we're doing these little carveouts to try and so if there's a way to have if you're I don't know if you're trying to have some sort of criteria like we're trying to get junction families to go to junction schools but I don't know if that's actually going to end up happening because I don't know where the line is between Fra and Junction. The lines are not clear. there. I mean, our Grand Junction city limits are there's carveouts everywhere. So, I mean, I guess I'd like to shract if we if I could show you the the map, the county map, right? You can see the the the boundary lines that have been drawn and they very clearly delineate um the Grand Junction boundary
032or or Appleton boundaries moving into Redlands and then into Grand Junction. Uh that's clear. If we start to lop off the top or carve out pieces, we're then, you know, so we're not talking about the little things. We're talking about bigger carveouts. Is that th those families or those boundaries to the north, some of those families that were asked to be moved out from the north probably have Grand Junction addresses? They absolutely have Grand Junction addresses more than likely. And then that that came up where people we moved here to go to Fruity yet they have a Grand Junction address and that's because we haven't been in sync with what you're talking about and if we're in sync with that and someone moves in the Grand Junction they can't they can't claim well I'm in
033Fruit of No, you're not. You're in junction which is what they're doing now because people have a junction address but they're they're blue. So to them it doesn't make sense. No, because our school boundaries don't coincide with the city boundaries, right? What you're saying? Yeah. And I I guess I would also just to articulate it maybe even clearer is I think that um we have a great opportunity right now to write it. This is the this this is the opportunity to make it right. If if we if we hold off and make some other choices for for a handful of families. I'm not saying those they're not important. I I'm I'm simply saying that this is the opportunity for us to do the change and to to make the separation to to make Frutoa whole
034and to make Grand Junction whole. Well, I like the point that that Doug made about, you know, when you move to an area, that assumption would be very easy to make with it before you would maybe look at a detailed map of of the school district boundaries because why would you live in Grand Junction and go to Fruda? Y um I like I like the consistency that it would make it clear and remember they can always school of choice absolutely somewhere else if that's Well that makes that makes sense. We we used to live up north off of like 24 and a/4 road and I was always perplexed why when my kids would hit high school at that point that they would go out to Fra Monument when junction was just literally I few yeah
035few miles south instead of going all the way out to Fruda and so and that was a Grand Junction address. So, I I do think that makes sense in that um kind of keeping that consistency I I think helps cuz I think there's a lot of gray area up in that north area where it's like you have a junction address and you're going to Fruda and it to me it never made sense. So, I see what you're saying now as far as right just correcting it. If you're in Fruda, you go to Fruda. If you're in Junction, you go to Junction. Yeah, makes sense. What what I'll except for Redlins I guess you say at the end I said one other option is we just let everybody do exactly what they want to do just
036a freefor-all win for everybody make everybody happy lottery schools all around no conflict wherever you want to go you you're joking but also I was but I was but I was thinking about when we did the last round of boundary changes for the Redlands area I mean I'm sure there were families that were like well I would but you know we the board made a decision and And well what what has really helped over the years in these boundary things because they are emotional with people and they've have you have families that have generational where they've gone to Frera Junction but we've the boards in the past before the prior board have always been good about trying to work with families and gr whatever you want to go grandfather them in school of choice them
037in but they they knew they had a place in there and and there was a a cut off at some point like I said if you have a and and I have parents who had senior you a senior at at Fruda and they had a first grader at a school. Well, that's that's a big gap. You can't always make that family connection, but within reason, and I think Shannon brought that up, if we have a a a fifth grader, they don't have that connection necessarily to the high school. Now, a middle schooler might and certainly the kids at the 89 school, but so there's strategic decisions we can make that that can make everybody happy and over time they're going to get used to everyone else is going to junction, everyone else is going to
038Fruit and they're going to be happy with it. And I think Shannon said that well tonight as well with with regard to once this is settled and we're right, then the school of choice option is is it'll reemerge. It will reemerge. flexibility will reemerge once all the dust settles. And I think the point that's trying to be made here is that after we get a 1600 seat Grand Junction High School on board, we will have enough seats in Grand Junction to accommodate the student body with Grand Junction addresses. And we will have enough seats in Fruda Monument High School to accommodate high school students with Fruda addresses. And I'll heatmap that for you. I don't want to be the person that makes that decision so that you can see who has a Grand Junction address,
039who has a Fra address, but I I think it's relevant because it has to do with whether or not we tack a big chunk of additional space onto Fra Monument to continue to serve students with Grand Junction addresses in that facility and we will probably have a chunk of empty seats in Grand Junction High School if we fail to do so. Well, does that feed into our larger discussion about what's going to happen with Fruda? So, yeah, it seems like we need to address all of that. Yeah. And just I know I sent email to the board, but just to be clear for if there is anybody watching the um you know, there's other changes that we're going to have to talk about for next school year um with we were talking about looking at
040the Windgate area, but just it was a timing thing with that one because of the kids going to high school. So, um, there will be more discussions around that and then more discussions around looking at the numbers again to figure out when can we cuz we're trying to figure out how to get the right amount of students in that Fruda area so that we can fit the students in those buildings. And so, yeah, which building is it going to be and and all that. We have a little bit of time because of the fact that all these changes aren't happening for next school year to even be able to pull all the students out um to make those numbers work. So, that's some of the work that we'll we'll need to do to figure out
041and work with the the faculty out there and talk about which buildings make sense and all that and what would that look like um when we make that transition for the staff. But I want to be clear that this decision right now just this um Redlands versus West decision does feed into those decisions. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Great. tough decision but uh if it was easy it would have been done 25 years ago. Yeahities grow and change and things so yeah thank you guys for your work. So I also want to make sure that we're being so if if I we haven't made any decisions obviously but it sounds like it makes sense to most of us that sticking with the junction and Fra boundaries might be a thing that we want to drive
042toward. So, I definitely understand honoring those parents requests, but if it's outside of that, you know, I'm not sure how much that would could be considered. Um, so I just want to approach option two with the seriousness that, you know, if we if it seems unlikely we would even do that, then then maybe we don't move forward with that. I'm going to present it to you in scenarios one scenario one scenario two scenario three and show the numbers to you and that way you'll have comfort that this would be the result of this scenario this is the result of that here's how the address is laid out I'll try to lay all that out for you so that you can make a decision and have the data in front of you as you make it
043well and then I think with uh it would be nice to hear from senior leadership out of those scenarios knows kind of what their thoughts are on that because you're going to see things that we that we may not see from a transportation level or like you said from that that B. So even with the scenarios it would just like we do with a lot of our other things is kind of like here's the rubric sort of and this is what we think would be best. So yeah, I'd like that input as well. All right, any other questions or comments? No. All right, thank you. Thank you. All right. So, next on our agenda, we have um personnel actions um licensed and administrative personnel actions and then administrative new hires. Do I have a motion
044to approve this agenda item? So, moved. Second. Any discussion? All right. Seeing none, we can take the vote. Okay. Mrs. Heis, yes. Mr. Jones, yes. Miss Lima, yes. Mr. Levenson. Dr. Schulties? Yes. All right. So, next on our agenda is um executive session. So, I will read what the executive session is for and then we can have a motion uh to move into executive session. Uh we have executive session for the purpose of determining positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations, developing strategy for negotiations andor instructing negotiators under CRS section 24-6-424E regarding negotiations with Mesa Valley Education Association. Those in attendance in executive session would be David Price, Dr. Brian Hill, Tammy Erit, Nikki Jo, Melanie Trillo, and board members Mr. Jones, Miss Lima, Mr. Levenson, Dr. Schulties, and myself. Do I
045have a motion to move into executive session? So moved. Second. Okay. Mrs. Heights? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Miss Lima? Yes. Mr. Levenson? Yes. Dr. Schulties? Yes. So, and then we'll adjourn from there. Actually, we're going to stay in here. We'll stay here these off and then that way we'll just So, all right.